The Culture War has given me a thousand yard stare.
Made In America
From Scottish Parts
Too Many Bullet Points
10:45 am, 11/10/09
No matter how bad the meetings at your office are, new details about Hasan's early fascination with Islamic extremism should remind you that it could be much worse.
Meanwhile, CNN is caught "retouching" the news.
I suppose you can't really call it the telephone game, since they're repeating the inaccuracies perfectly.
The title of Hasan's PowerPoint presentation was "The Koranic World View As It Relates to Muslims in the U.S. Military."...Hasan's presentation lasted about an hour. It is unclear whether he read out loud every point on each slide.Ah, that old chestnut.
Under a slide titled "Comments," he wrote: "If Muslim groups can convince Muslims that they are fighting for God against injustices of the 'infidels'; ie: enemies of Islam, then Muslims can become a potent adversary ie: suicide bombing, etc." [sic] The last bullet point on that page reads simply: "We love death more then [sic] you love life!"
Meanwhile, CNN is caught "retouching" the news.
He said he "was sitting in about the second row back when the assailant stood up and yelled 'Allahu akbar' in Arabic and he opened fire," Foster said Monday on CNN's "American Morning."Actually, Foster wasn't referring to that at all, and it's plainly obvious from the video. At the link, Mudville Gazette has the video and misleading story. As Greyhawk explains:
Foster, 21, said he wasn't clear about whether the gunman said those exact words, noting that "with that much adrenaline, you tend to forget things."
From the day this story broke, CNN has run with a storyline that the killer's actions are typical of all military members - that he's a typical soldier - which means his victims were just like him. As evidence to the contrary mounted they ignored it, but here they willfully and intentionally re-wrote an eyewitness account to make it fit their narrative - something altogether different.As is too often the case, other media outlets (here, San Antonio's Express News) are now citing CNN's misrepresentation as a source.
I suppose you can't really call it the telephone game, since they're repeating the inaccuracies perfectly.
at 12:16 PM, 11/10/09
"...injustices of the 'infidels'; ie: enemies of Islam [...]."
My favorite topic is opened. How often have we heard Muslims state their favorite Qur'anic verse, "There is no compulsion in religion." But for Salafist Muslims, (millions of them), that is only a dogmatic technicality. "The Ma'ariful Qur'an," a commentary by Maulana Mufti Muhammad Shafi', clearly makes the case that all non-Muslims, including Jews and Christians, are essentially disbelievers and, thus, kuffar. From page 46 of Volume 2: "Since no other religion is acceptable to Allah, it cannot become a source of salvation."
In Volume 1, page 638, Shafi' teaches that the purpose of jihad and qital is to "remove disorder, strife or fasad, for Allah Almighty dislikes fasad, which is what the kuffar are after." And the pinnacle of Shafi's argument: "It is for this reason that Allah Almighty has ordained that the fasad created by these people should be removed by jihad and qital. So, killing such people is like the killing of serpents, scorpions and their harmful likes. (emphasis mine).
Sure, there may be Muslims who are liberal in their interpretations of the Qur'an and the Ahadith, just as there are liberal Christians and Reform and Reconstructionist Jews. But there are more than a few sheiks and muftis in the Middle East and South Asia who teach supremacist theology and have millions of followers.
"...injustices of the 'infidels'; ie: enemies of Islam [...]."
My favorite topic is opened. How often have we heard Muslims state their favorite Qur'anic verse, "There is no compulsion in religion." But for Salafist Muslims, (millions of them), that is only a dogmatic technicality. "The Ma'ariful Qur'an," a commentary by Maulana Mufti Muhammad Shafi', clearly makes the case that all non-Muslims, including Jews and Christians, are essentially disbelievers and, thus, kuffar. From page 46 of Volume 2: "Since no other religion is acceptable to Allah, it cannot become a source of salvation."
In Volume 1, page 638, Shafi' teaches that the purpose of jihad and qital is to "remove disorder, strife or fasad, for Allah Almighty dislikes fasad, which is what the kuffar are after." And the pinnacle of Shafi's argument: "It is for this reason that Allah Almighty has ordained that the fasad created by these people should be removed by jihad and qital. So, killing such people is like the killing of serpents, scorpions and their harmful likes. (emphasis mine).
Sure, there may be Muslims who are liberal in their interpretations of the Qur'an and the Ahadith, just as there are liberal Christians and Reform and Reconstructionist Jews. But there are more than a few sheiks and muftis in the Middle East and South Asia who teach supremacist theology and have millions of followers.
at 12:44 PM, 11/10/09
I neglected the close quote after the word "likes" in my second full paragraph. Those two sentences most definitely belong to Shafi'. And I have much more archived. One of the perks of my job is having access to original Islamic publications from places like Riyadh, Lahore, and New Delhi. Too bad I don't have the talent or stamina to learn Arabic. I have heard that some of the most supremacist, Jihadist, literature is in Arabic and not easily found in English.
I neglected the close quote after the word "likes" in my second full paragraph. Those two sentences most definitely belong to Shafi'. And I have much more archived. One of the perks of my job is having access to original Islamic publications from places like Riyadh, Lahore, and New Delhi. Too bad I don't have the talent or stamina to learn Arabic. I have heard that some of the most supremacist, Jihadist, literature is in Arabic and not easily found in English.
Aaron at 12:59 PM, 11/10/09
...and that, Timbre, I think, is the fundamental distinction. Relativistic arguments compare Christian extremism to Islamic extremism, but ignore that violent Christian extremism holds little political power anywhere in the world. Cromwell and Torquemada aren't just relics of the past, they are uniformly remembered by history as maniacs. Public discourse has moved past them and their values, and nearly everyone agrees that whatever Christianity is, it isn't that.
That's a far cry from the situation in too much of the Islamic world, where rational, peaceful moderates, even where they constitute a majority, have to remain silent for fear of their lives and the question isn't over whether or not homosexuals should be able to legally marry, but over whether or not they should be executed.
...and that, Timbre, I think, is the fundamental distinction. Relativistic arguments compare Christian extremism to Islamic extremism, but ignore that violent Christian extremism holds little political power anywhere in the world. Cromwell and Torquemada aren't just relics of the past, they are uniformly remembered by history as maniacs. Public discourse has moved past them and their values, and nearly everyone agrees that whatever Christianity is, it isn't that.
That's a far cry from the situation in too much of the Islamic world, where rational, peaceful moderates, even where they constitute a majority, have to remain silent for fear of their lives and the question isn't over whether or not homosexuals should be able to legally marry, but over whether or not they should be executed.
Dairenn Lombard at 11:19 AM, 11/14/09
I have a Facebook friend who routinely points to examples of violence carried out in the name of Islam as just cause to somehow eradicate organized Religion anywhere in any form that it takes. Again, if you want to take Christianity as an example of Religious extremism turned Violent, you have to go back Hundreds of Years to find the next mass murder behind Islamic terror. And when have the Shinto from Japan or the Buddhists from India glorified death in the way that Muslim extremists have--right down to groups like Hamas and Hezbollah dressing up 2 year olds in Army Fatigues complete with a cardboard cutout shaped and painted to resemble an AK-47?
When your local Baptists start doing that, give me a call.
I have a Facebook friend who routinely points to examples of violence carried out in the name of Islam as just cause to somehow eradicate organized Religion anywhere in any form that it takes. Again, if you want to take Christianity as an example of Religious extremism turned Violent, you have to go back Hundreds of Years to find the next mass murder behind Islamic terror. And when have the Shinto from Japan or the Buddhists from India glorified death in the way that Muslim extremists have--right down to groups like Hamas and Hezbollah dressing up 2 year olds in Army Fatigues complete with a cardboard cutout shaped and painted to resemble an AK-47?
When your local Baptists start doing that, give me a call.
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