tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2601639312234106733.post5255127539385672375..comments2023-11-10T22:27:47.359-05:00Comments on Eye on a Crazy Planet: My night with Pam GellerRichard Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10239826441964023625noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2601639312234106733.post-74426447288343548552013-06-11T21:13:34.993-04:002013-06-11T21:13:34.993-04:00"...presumption of guilt or sympathy for terr..."...presumption of guilt or sympathy for terror simply because of someone's ethnic or cultural background."<br /><br />Just read the Koran and Haddiths and you will understand that it has nothing to do with guilt or innocence of individual Muslims, it is about a religion whose content is antisemitic and anti-Christian and anti-anyone who is a non-Muslim or woman. <br /><br />The books form the basis of jihad and sharia which are a threat to Jews and everyone else despite what bleeding heart leftists will tell you. <br /><br />Ignorance is no excuse for accepting the unacceptable. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2601639312234106733.post-86987232922091152002013-05-16T19:05:29.931-04:002013-05-16T19:05:29.931-04:00Very glad to hear that you decided to listen for y...Very glad to hear that you decided to listen for yourself Pamela Geller's message, rather than only adhere to the media's version of events. It's something I've also learnt over the past years - on controversial issues, the media is not to be trusted. One way or the other, newspapers, TV, blogs and other media will always be biased. That, of course, goes for Pamela Geller too... as it does for every other reporter, journalist or blogger, including myself. I'll adress one sentence though: <br /><br />"By some, the verses in the Quran are taken literally, but by most they are considered antiquated and immaterial."<br /><br />By most Germans, the quotes of Adolf Hitler and other Nazis about the Jews may have been considered irrelevant and immaterial (especially with economic crisis probably being foremost on many Germans' minds). By some, however, they were taken literally. As a result, a small proportion of SS-men, itself a small proportion of the German army and the German people, managed to wipe out almost all of Europe's many millions of Jews...<br /><br />Moral of the story: Can we afford to ignore "tiny minorities"?<br /><br />I do not doubt that, even at the height of Muslim expansion in the 7th-11th centuries, front-line Jihadis were only a small proportion of the whole Muslim population. The others being doctors, traders, workmen, etc. Yet the frontline Jihadis, willing to die in order to attain a place straight in paradise, were the reason why Islam spread so far, so fast...<br /><br />The Bible is a collection of texts by various authors ("Book of Job", "Songs of Solomon", "Letter of St Paul" etc). And even in the most violent parts of the Old Testament, I've yet to see any text that could be interpreted as a command to wage holy war in anything outside of the timeframe of the passage. Meanwhile, the Quran is regarded as the literal word of Allah (God). A "literal word of Allah" that commands Muslims to:<br /><br />"Fight those from among the People of the Book who believe not in Allah, nor in the Last Day, nor hold as unlawful what Allah and His Messenger have declared to be unlawful, nor follow the true religion, until they pay the tax with their own hand and acknowledge their subjection."<br /><br />(<a href="http://www.alislam.org/quran/search2/showChapter.php?ch=9&verse=21" rel="nofollow">Quran 9:29</a>)<br /><br />With verses such as this in mind, does the "rapid expansion" of Islam right from the start, the slave raiding, the piracy (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_pirates" rel="nofollow">leading directly</a> to the creation of the US Navy) and, in the modern era, the terrorism, suicide bombings and honour killings begin to make some sense??Green Infidelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03148703923423539124noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2601639312234106733.post-80032361423819433302013-05-16T15:06:47.790-04:002013-05-16T15:06:47.790-04:00Well, David, it was also practiced by the ancient ...Well, David, it was also practiced by the ancient Greeks and Hebrews and was not a widespread practice among North American native tribes until the Europeans introduced it to them. The Mexican gov't paid a bounty for native scalps.<br /><br />And as to whether the Bible is meant to be interpreted literally or not, the extent really depends on which branch of which denomination you talk to, doesn't it? And for that matter, there are Muslims, perhaps not the majority of religious ones, but nonetheless many who feel the same about the Koran.Richard Khttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10239826441964023625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2601639312234106733.post-24032398219410974922013-05-16T14:11:37.214-04:002013-05-16T14:11:37.214-04:00Archaeologists have found numerous skulls in Ameri...Archaeologists have found numerous skulls in America showing scalping centuries before whites arrived. Get you facts right, do your homework. Geller doesn't cherry pick quotes or take them out context. I studied Islam at an Islamic Missionary School, have lived with them. Have studied the Koran at length. Read it yourself. Islam is submission. It is said to be the word of Allah. One submits to it - one does not reinterpret it for one's present convenience. The Bible is written down by humans. There is a big difference. The Koran is to be followed literally, the Bible is to be interpreted. David Howardhttp://howlandflat.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2601639312234106733.post-26066609492293328342013-05-16T13:33:31.747-04:002013-05-16T13:33:31.747-04:00"other than to observe that both have verses ..."other than to observe that both have verses that can be interpreted, if done so literally, as incitement to murder"<br /><br /> The violent passages in the Bible certainly do not amount to a standing order to commit violence against the rest of the world. Unlike the Quran, the Bible is a huge collection of documents written by different people at different times in different contexts, which allows for much greater interpretative freedom. The Quran, on the other hand, comes exclusively from one source: Muhammad. It is through the life of Muhammad that the Quran must be understood, as the Quran itself says. His wars and killings both reflect and inform the meaning of the Quran. Furthermore, the strict literalism of the Quran means that there is no room for interpretation when it comes to its violent injunctions. As it is through the example of Christ, the "Prince of Peace," that Christianity interprets its scriptures, so it is through the example of the warlord and despot Muhammad that Muslims understand the Quran.<br /><br />www.jihadwatch.org/islam-101.htmlVan Grungyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09518338955362654875noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2601639312234106733.post-42605288282348157482013-05-14T18:33:03.004-04:002013-05-14T18:33:03.004-04:00I wasn't drawing a comprehensive, direct analo...I wasn't drawing a comprehensive, direct analogy of the Koran with the Old Testament other than to observe that both have verses that can be interpreted, if done so literally, as incitement to murder.<br /><br />Of course Judaism is based on not just the literal interpretation of the Old Testament, but on the Talmud, e.g. "an eye for an eye" is not an endorsement to pluck out the eye of someone who took out yours, but means that compensation must be paid based on set criteria. Richard Khttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10239826441964023625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2601639312234106733.post-39326451758186125612013-05-14T15:35:00.315-04:002013-05-14T15:35:00.315-04:00I have never thought of The Spanish conquistadors ...I have never thought of The Spanish conquistadors as particularly civilized. Potosi anyone? Might have something to do with pre-Columbian Spanish history...<br /><br />Anyway, what I really want to say is that to compare the Tanach to the Koran is misleading. The unbeliever is cursed on just about any random page in the Koran, something that is ritually repeated in Islamic prayer. It is clearly an expansionary and supremacist document make of it what you will. Any Jewish supremacism is limited to the tiny land of Israel, and even there and anywhere Jews are taught to live in peace with any non-Jew upholding only the basic laws of Noah. Which is why you write like you do here while still uncomfortable with Geller's style. But Geller's style can only be turned on Jews only by people much more intellectually dishonest than Geller, not that i think much of her Ayn Rand worship and dubious belief that we westerners put reason first in public discourse. No, we are fundamentally religious beings too, but there is a fundamental difference in religions: http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/4953truepeershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16401984575637492845noreply@blogger.com