Buy This Book.

Note: Another good book to buy for yourself and give as a present to others.



Understanding ISLAM and the Muslim Mind
By
ALI SINA



SYNOPSIS

Understanding Islam is an honest look at Islam – free from prejudices and political correctness. It starts by analyzing the life of Muhammad the founder of Islam. Islam is the brainchild of Muhammad. To understand Islam, one must know its author. However, facts about Islam and its author are not easily available. Stating the truth about Muhammad and his religion is not politically correct. Thousands of books have been written by the apologists of Islam and yet none tells the truth. The truth about Muhammad can only be found in the early books of history written in the first three centuries of Islam. From there we learn that Muhammad was a marauding chieftain who rose to power through raids and robbery and who did not hesitate to commit assassination, rape, torture and even genocide in order to reach his goal.

The history of Islam is fraught with violence and bloodshed. The source of all this violence is the Quran and, the examples set by Muhammad. To know Islam and to understand Muslims, it’s important to learn the truth about its founder. The first chapter of this book is therefore about Muhammad. Who he was? How he came to power? What fired him?

Is Islam a religion? Does it fit into the definition of religion or is it an overgrown cult? Did Muhammad receive revelations or was he a mentally disturbed man who, like Hitler and other great megalomaniacs of history, suffered from narcissistic personality disorder? What drove him? Did he teach goodly manners or was he only interested to dominate and build his empire using religion as a pretext and people as disposable commodities?

Why Islam cannot be separated from politics? Why Muslims want to dominate the world? What kind of government Islam proposes? Would this government be fair and just? Islam does not recognize equality. Men and women are not equal; Muslims and non-Muslims are not equal; slaves and free people are not equal. How can such a doctrine of inequality be compatible with democracy? Islam is indeed a fascistic doctrine that glorifies the state, disdains reason, scorns art, promotes vigilantism, is misogynist, and practices censorship of thoughts. Islam is the only major religion that does not adhere to the concept of fairness and teaches its followers to do to non-Muslims what they themselves find objectionable if done to them. Islam is the only major religion that encourages its follower to lie and deceive others and regards this as “holy deception”. Islam is the only major religion that openly preaches hate and incites its follower to rouse against the non-believers, slay them, crucify them, chop their fingertips and be harsh with them.

Josef Goebbel, Hitler's minister for propaganda said: "If you tell a big enough lie, frequently enough, it becomes the truth." Muhammad based his entire religion on this philosophy. But because of his mental disorder he was the first to believe in his own big lies and acted so convincingly that left others spellbound and believers. This is an ability shared by all psychopaths and cult leaders.

After analyzing the cultic nature of Islam the book then discounts any possibility that it can be reformed. It explains how every attempt to reform Islam throughout its history has met with failure. The ills affecting the Islamic world are rooted in Islam itself. This tree will not bring forth sweet fruits by pruning. It has to be uprooted. The fruits of Islam are all poisonous. Muslims are dangerous to the degree that they practice Islam and follow the examples of Muhammad. Even the Westerners, once convert to Islam, become dangerous. Americans, plot terrorism against America; Jews start hating Israel and celebrate each time there is a suicide bombing in that country; and the British despise Britain and call it “the third most hated country of the world” (after Israel and America). They become terrorists and cheerfully, not only kill their own countrymen, but would not hesitate to kill their own non-Muslim parents.

By following a psychopath and emulating him, Muslims as a whole, have entered in Muhammad’s narcissistic bubble universe. They feel entitled to privileges without commensurate achievements. They are supremacists by virtue of their belief and demand submission and servitude from their non-Muslim hosts, even when they are still the minority.

In the West, they live a parasitic life, feeding off the welfare, adding to the index of crime, and breeding rapidly to take over their host countries in the name of Allah.

Thanks to this mindset and intransigent teachings of the Quran, Islam cannot be reformed. Any reformation of Islam is considered “innovation” and that is deemed to be a sin graver than heresy. All the doors of reformation in Islam were closed by Muhammad himself. No one can change a single verse of the Quran and this book is a manual of terror and a prescription for backwardness.

Muslims are trapped in a web of lies and shackled by fear. The fear of hell has paralysed their minds and as the result they are incapable of rational thoughts. They dismiss any doubt about Islam at once because the fear of hell and the fear of the “punishment in grave” have crippled their ability to think rationally. Islam is a doctrine of fear. It thrives with the fear that it instils in the minds of its followers and with the terror that it casts in the hearts of others.

Islam destroys the identity and the selfhood of its believers and in their lieu; it imposes itself on them as their new identity. That is why Muslims cling to Islam and defend it with their lives. For a Muslim, Islam is everything. Without it he is simply nothing. Muslims can’t get rid of Islam, until their selfhood is restored. Therefore fundamental changes must take place in the psyche of Muslims until they can find their lost identity and be able to wean themselves from Islam. But this won’t happen unless Islam is discredited completely so they start looking for their lost identity and recover their selfhood and humanity.

This book unmasks the unholy alliances between Islam and the extreme Left on one hand and the extreme Right on the other, and reveals how all these strangest bedfellows have formed an axis of evil, united only in their common hatred of democracy, America and Israel .

We must not however overlook the danger of a backlash. The inability of the politicians to deal with the threat of Islamofascism is making inevitable the rise of Eurofascism. If governments fail to protect people, people will rise to take the matter in their own hands. This could give rise to a bloody civil war in Europe and in Australia . Unless Islam is discredited and Muslims are weaned from it, that civil war is a cinch. The riots in France was only a prelude.

Finally, the book discusses how to deal with Muslim hooliganism, how to confront their bullying, their riots and their conniption fits and how to realistically repel their aggression with strength and yet with least violence.

This book does not provide all the answers to the problem of Islamic terrorism, but it removes the mist surrounding Islam and opens a window into the mind of the Muslims. We must know the nature of the beast we are dealing with, if we want to stay safe from it.

Islamic terrorism affects everyone. Although it appears to be senseless, it actually is not. It is methodic and doctrinal. This book, sheds light on Islam and the Muslim mind and helps one make sense out of the senseless.


Comment: It will be quite difficult to buy this book in Australia due to the weakness and venality of booksellers, who are always happy to succumb to threats. Make the effort. Give it to your school age kids.

Where Is The Murderous Imam Behind this Crazy Muslim Woman?

Note: This craziness is pandemic in Islam. Why?




German Women Vowed to Mount Suicide Attacks in Iraq
They have "close contacts to the Islamist scene in Germany and at least one...has converted to Islam." The phenomenon of white European converts to Islam, and like-minded fellow travelers, underscores that this is not a problem of race, but of ideology. Even if Europe's immigration crisis were solved tomorrow, the jihad ideology would not be eradicated from the continent -- particularly in view of the close ties between the Left and the jihad. From Spiegel Online, with thanks to all who sent this in:

SPIEGEL ONLINE has learned that German intelligence agencies have prevented three German women from travelling to Iraq in recent weeks. The women, who have close contacts to the Islamist scene in Germany and at least one whom has converted to Islam, came to the attention of intelligence agencies after one of them had announced on an Internet site that she intended to blow herself and her child up in Iraq.
After the Web posting were spotted, Germany's domestic and foreign intelligence agencies mounted an intense search for the three women. One of them was located in Berlin, the other two are believed to come from southern Germany. The Berlin woman's child was taken away from her and she has been put in a psychiatric clinic. The two other women were also prevented from leaving Germany. One of them is also believed to have a child....

There have been several such cases in the past and German security officials have long been worried that Islamic militants are increasingly recruiting young Muslims with German passports for suicide attacks....



Comment: Presumably the day will come when Wahhabi imams in Australia will succeed in getting some idiotic Australian convert to carry out some murderous attack, either here or abroad. You wont be able to move for all the running and hiding that stupid Australian government officials will be doing.

The situation will not be safe until these murderous Wahhabi imams are kicked out of Australia and no replacements allowed.

Is anyone awake in Canberra?

Real Islam #29,457,453,844.

Note: A small case, but it shows what real Islam is actually about.


• The Palestinian Bible Society closed its bookshop in Gaza City after receiving a bomb threat in February 2006, Compass Direct reported. Unknown masked gunmen distributed pamphlets on Palestine Square threatening to blow up the building housing the bookshop if it did not close down before February 28.

Two small pipe bombs exploded at the entrance of the building housing the bookshop on February 3, causing damage but no injuries. The Bible Society's bookshop, opened in 1999, was the first place in Gaza where people could freely buy Bibles and Christian books.


Comment: What does this ideology bring to Australia?

Is Islam Actually A Religion?

Note: The following post raises the question of whether Islam can be considered, by educated people, as a religion. Readers should note that the quotes here are from imams who are at major and important mosques in Saudi Arabia. These are not quotes from outlander crazies, barking and screaming in provincial centres.

Read and learn about REAL ISLAM today.


Jews Aren't Even Human – They're Apes and Pigs

An extremely common insult directed at Jews (not only by Islamists) is that they are apes and pigs, or are descended from apes and pigs. This dehumanizing slur is based on three Koranic verses [14] which state that some Jews were turned into apes and pigs by Allah as punishment for violating the Sabbath. [15]

The Imam of the Al-Haram mosque in Mecca, Sheikh Abd Al-Rahman Al-Sudayis, explained in one of his sermons: "Brothers in faith, what do our Qur'an and our Sunna say? What does our belief say? What does our history prove…? They show clearly that the conflict between us and the Jews is one of belief, identity, and existence…

"Read history and you will understand that the Jews of yesterday are the evil forefathers of the even more evil Jews of today: infidels, falsifiers of words, calf worshippers, prophet murderers, deniers of prophecies … the scum of the human race, accursed by Allah, who turned them into apes and pigs… These are the Jews – an ongoing continuum of deceit, obstinacy, licentiousness, evil, and corruption…

"Oh nation of Islam, today our nation is at the height of conflict with the enemies of yesterday, today, and tomorrow - the offspring of [the three Jewish tribes of Al-Madina] Banu Qurayza, Banu Nadhir, and Banu Qaynuqa, upon whom Allah's curse rests until Judgment Day. Do the sons of our people realize the truth about the nation of wrath and deceit…? The insult to and contempt of Arabs, Muslims, and their holy places reaches its height at the hands of the rats of the world, the violators of agreements, in whose minds abide treachery, destruction, and deceit and in whose veins flow occupation and tyranny… They are indeed worthy of the curse of Allah, of the angels, and of all people…" [16]

"When will the sleepers awake?" asked Sheikh Bandar bin Khalaf Al-'Utaibi, in a sermon at the Abu Bakr Al-Siddiq mosque in Al-Damam. "Is there any kind of humiliation we have not tasted from the brothers of apes and pigs?!" [17]

Sheikh Muhammad Al-Saleh Al-'Athimein said in a sermon at the Great Mosque in Al-'Unayza: "Oh Muslims, the Jews are treacherous and deceitful people over whom lies the curse and anger of Allah. They permitted what Allah forbade, with the lamest of excuses; therefore, He cursed them and turned them into apes and pigs. Allah sentenced them to humiliation anywhere they might be…" [18]

"Oh Muslims, see the state of the nation today, after it deviated from the path set out by the clerics," said Sheikh Mustafa Bin Said Aytim in a sermon given at a mosque in Mecca. "[The nation] has made the offspring of apes and pigs its stars; the hangers-on of the apes and pigs have become the centers of influence and power… The Jews, Christians, and the hypocrites gnaw away at the body of the nation and then carry out raids on it with the knights of the destructive media and with the deadly weapon of globalization…" [19]

In a sermon at the Sa'id Al-Jandoul mosque in Al-Taif, Sheikh Sa'd bin Abdallah Al-'Ajameh Al-Ghamdi stated, "The current behavior of the brothers of apes and pigs, their treachery, their violation of agreements, and their defilement of places of worship … are connected to their forefathers' deeds in the early time of Islam. This proves the great similarity between every Jew living today and the Jew living during the dawn of Islam." [20]



Comment: These imams in Saudi Arabia are the masters of the sunni muslim imams who come to Australia to poison the minds of the young muslims in this country. The Howard government happily gives them visas. Why?

Is there any pressing reason why Australia should waste any time or effort on muslims? What does Australia actually get from muslims or islam here in Australia? Wouldn't it be better to stop religious muslim migration completely, and free ourselves from this endless waste of time and resources?

Is anyone awake in Canberra?

A Slice Of Muslim Life.

Note: Necla Kelek is a muslim woman of Turkish background who was raised in Germany. This article gives some interesting information on her personal struggle growing up oppressed by Islam in Germany. These stories would be '2 a penny' in Australia.







Necla Kelek has shaken up Germany with her unmitigated critique of its immigrant Turkish community. She writes of forced marriages, imported brides and widespread domestic violence. Accused of exaggeration and betraying her own, Kelek insists on her right to tell things as they are.Happier without father
In an interview with Michaela Schlagenwerth, Necla Kelek defends her critical depiction of the Turkish community in Germany


Berliner Zeitung: Frau Kelek, you have been accused of distorting and sensationalising Turkish immigrants in your books. What do you say to that?

Necla Kelek: I try to convey what I see every day in the immigrant community in Germany. What's happening there is a scandal, not the fact that someone is making it public. I don't deny that there is an open-minded Turkish middle class. But I'm interested in the losers, those who haven't made it. I've been accused of only talking about the exceptions. But you only have to look at the statistics to know that's not the case. The majority has not truly arrived here. Only a third of the Muslims born here even speak German. Every other mother who sends her kid to school here, is an imported bride.

You describe the swimming pool at Prinzen Strasse in Kreuzberg district in Berlin as being full of Turkish rowdies. But there are also bikini beauties there, and among them, pious Muslims who pray five times a day.

Pious Muslim women in bikinis? Who told you that?

The girls themselves.

Then they're leading double lives. Of course there are Turks who combine modernity and religion, who shape their own lives. But I believe that the majority has not achieved this. And I accuse those who have achieved it of taking no interest in this problem, of feeling no sense of social responsibility.

There's much talk of the fact that many Muslim girls are subject to very strict rules. Less attention is paid to their brothers who seem to be allowed to live quite freely. In your book "Die verlorenen Söhne" (The lost sons, more here), you paint a very different picture.

Yes, and there has to be more public discussion about what these children have to endure, how much violence they're exposed to, how much responsibility they have to bear, how lost they are. They have to take care of the honour of their sisters, their mothers, their step-sisters. A 21 year old who got a 10 year prison sentence for murder told me that he killed the man because he'd been harassing his sister. His father came to him one night, gave him a gun and said, "You know what you have to do." When I asked him, "Why didn't you think about your own life for a second?" he said, "What, should I have sent my father to do it?" He didn't understand the question. This is a nice, likeable person who was unable to take personal responsibility for his own action. His life doesn't belong to him but to his family. This was the case with all but one of the prisoners I talked to. They are extreme cases but they reflect the fatal structure that is constantly being reproduced in the Turkish immigrant community. These children are not allowed to learn independence, to develop responsibility for themselves. Even in prison, they're not capable of asking: did I do something wrong?

But at the same time, the family provides safety and security, a stable social network.

It's not social, it's the obligation of blood. If something is going wrong in a family, the neighbours look the other way. As I describe in my book, if a father pours hot oil on his son's hand to punish him for stealing, thus crippling him, the neighbours think, what a horrible father, how dreadful. But they don't report it, they won't even criticise the man in public. He is the father, it's his right.

Immigration researchers have accused you reusing interviews carried out for your dissertation, and of drawing conclusions wholly contrary to your original findings.

When I first evaluated my interviews with young Muslims from 1997 and spoke of neo-Nazi developments, my professor made it clear to me that I should never say that in public. There are critical tones in my dissertation but I adjusted my results in accordance with the institute's wishes. I didn't think that anything else would be possible. Of course I was unsure and allowed myself to be convinced, by Werner Schiffauer in particular, whose writings I was devouring. I still find much of it right.

You decided to take the confrontation course. Why?

I needed distance. The position of many immigration researchers is: don't encourage stereotypes, we don't want to condemn, we don't want to discriminate. They try to see things in a positive light in order not to stigmatise. The price paid is a tolerance of suffering. Forced marriage, violence, family structures that prevent children from becoming independent people; these are all accepted as par for the course.

When you were seen in a disco with a female cousin of yours, she was forced to marry in Turkey. Did you also feel threatened in your youth?

There's the story with my father. I refused to obey him at 17 and after that, he left us. In leaving, he gave me freedom. He knew he could no longer steer the family and instead of stepping down from his throne, adapting and learning to live with us, he went away and I never saw him again. When he went, my brother and I left the lights on all through the house, even in the bathroom, to celebrate the fact that our father was gone. How sad that a father has to leave for the children to be happy. That's what this is all about: the fathers have to change.

Is this the conflict that most youth can't handle? They want more freedom but in the end they give in because they don't want to lose their families?

Yes. I wouldn't have been able to live as I do, had the rest of the family not stuck together. My mother really supported my brother and me. I would never have been able to break with her. Where would I have found the strength, the self confidence? I hope very much that mothers take sides with their children, that they refuse to obey the father, that they make him understand that he is not the ruler but rather a member of the family.

*

The interview originally appeared in the Berliner Zeitung on March 25, 2006.

Michaela Schlagenwerth is a journalist with the Berliner Zeitung.



Comment: I am glad to read from Ms. Kelek that she and I agree: muslim men have to change if they are ever going to fit in the West. Their failure to change is the root cause of the drama associated with Islam today.

A practical set of steps can be introduced in a Australia; principally, strip community power from all members who were not born here in Australia. To try and 'reform' Islam in Australia by using the old businessmen networks and the snake like imams is like trying to mop up the water on the floor without turning off the overflowing tap.

Is anyone awake in Canberra?

Quote From 'Ibn Warraq'

'There are moderate Muslims, but there is no moderate Islam'.

Ibn Warraq.

More Problems With Muslims And Islam.

Note: Readers will be aware that the Vatican is increasingly commenting on Islamic opposition to reciprocity with regard to Christians in Islam. Muslims want everything (and more) in the West, but don't want to give anything to Christians in the muslim lands. Something will soon have to give; this situation will not last forever.





ZENIT - The World Seen From Rome

Code: ZE06052701

Date: 2006-05-27

Vatican Unease Over Islamic Countries

Clear Talk About Problems Facing Christians

VATICAN CITY, MAY 27, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Persecution of Christians in Islamic countries makes the news almost daily, and the Vatican is concerned. On May 17 Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, secretary for relations with states in the Vatican's Secretariat of State, spoke to participants in the plenary session of Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers. The May 15-17 meeting focused on the theme of migration and Islamic countries.

After dealing with issues related to migration, Archbishop Lajolo, the equivalent of the Holy See's foreign minister, turned to Islam. The faith factor, he noted, is becoming more and more important in the debate over migration.

He first addressed the issue of migration from Islamic countries. The Holy See, he noted, has often defended the need for migrants to be able to freely follow their religious beliefs. This freedom includes the possibility to practice their religion, or even to change their faith. For their part, migrants should respect the laws and values of the society in which they now live, including the local religious values.

Turning to the conduct of Islamic countries themselves, Archbishop Lajolo warned that we are not faced with a homogeneous situation, but with a religion composed of many different facets. There is, nevertheless, a recent tendency for these governments to promote radical Islamic norms and lifestyles in other nations. He named, in particular, pressures from groups in Saudi Arabia and Iran.

In Asia, until recently, Muslims and non-Muslims lived largely in peace. In the last few years, however, extremist groups have grown and religious minorities are the target of violence. The archbishop also expressed concern over Islamic expansion in Africa, and, to a lesser extent, in Europe.

The problems posed by the radicalization of Islam range from Christians being unjustly subjected to trials by Islamic tribunals, to a lack of freedom in constructing places of worship and obstacles for the practice of faith.

The Vatican representative criticized Islamic countries for ignoring the concept of reciprocity, common in relations among states, when it comes to matters of faith. Islamic countries, he noted, demand religious rights for their citizens who migrate to other countries, but ignore this principle for non-Muslim immigrants present in their own lands.

Strategy detailed

What should the Church do in the face of these difficulties? Archbishop Lajolo outlined recommendations:

-- Faced with Islam the Church is called to live its own identity to the full, without backing down and by taking clear and courageous positions to affirm Christian identity. Radical Islamists, the prelate warned, take advantage of every sign they interpret as weakness.

-- We should also be open to dialogue, whether with individual nations or within the United Nations or other organizations.

-- An underlying problem in dealing with Islamic nations is the lack of separation between religion and the state. Part of the dialogue with Islamic religious and political authorities should be aimed at helping to develop a separation between these two spheres.

-- A particularly sensitive point is that of respect for minorities and for human rights, especially religious rights. The Holy See will continue to speak out at international meetings for the human rights of migrants. For its part the international community should ensure that humanitarian organizations do not unduly pressure recipients of aid to change religion.

-- The Holy See will continue to declare its firm opposition to all attempts to exploit religion by using it to justify terrorism and violence.

-- The protection of Christians in Islamic countries is particularly difficult in the area ranging from Turkey to the Middle East. Solutions must be found for the many Christians who flee their country of residence in search of safety.

-- Muslims who live in predominantly Christian countries should be integrated into the nation.

-- The Catholic media can play an important role in educating Christians, including those living in Islamic countries.

-- The Roman Curia together with bishops' conferences and local churches need to work closely together in these matters, including looking at the way to spread the Gospel in the Islamic world. This is our duty and our right, concluded Archbishop Lajolo.

British view

Muslim-Catholic relations were also examined recently by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor. In a speech May 16 at the Oxford Center for Islamic Studies, the archbishop of Westminster said: "Our mutual understanding is crucial for world peace and human progress, not least in this era when globalization and mass migration have placed Christians and Muslims ever closer to each others, as neighbors in the same European towns and cities."

Dialogue between the two religions must combine both an awareness of what they have in common -- and what profoundly distinguishes them. "Catholics, in order to be good dialogue-partners, must first be firmly rooted in their understanding and love of Catholicism," the cardinal stated, "and I suspect that this is true for Muslims too."

But the main obstacle to this dialogue "is the failure, in a number of Muslim countries, to uphold the principle of religious freedom," he added. "It is essential that Muslims can freely worship in Oxford or London, just as it is essential that Christians can freely worship in Riyadh or Kabul."

Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor also called upon Muslims living in Britain to speak out when Christians are denied their rights in Islamic countries. "Where religious rights of minorities are disrespected in the name of Islam, the face of Islam is tarnished elsewhere in the world," he argued.

The cardinal furthermore distinguished between a "twisted religion" that is used to justify hatred and violence, and true religion. True religion, he explained, points us to healing, honor and purity.

Another prominent cardinal also recently expressed some concerns over Islam. Cardinal George Pell of Sydney, Australia, spoke on the theme of "Islam and Western Democracies" at a meeting of the organization Legatus in Naples, Florida.

His speech was given on Feb. 2, but only recently posted on the Web site of the Sydney Archdiocese. On the positive side, Cardinal Pell noted the points in common between Christians and Muslims, and he noted the great diversity in how Muslim beliefs are interpreted and lived.

Reciprocity

On the negative side, he observed that the Koran contains many invocations to violence. Moreover, Muslims believe that the Koran comes directly from God, unmediated. This makes it difficult for the Koran to be subjected to the same sort of critical analysis and reflection that has taken place among Christians over the Bible, according to Cardinal Pell. What is needed, the archbishop of Sydney stressed, is dialogue between Christians and Muslims.

The Pope spoke May 15 to the participants gathered in Rome for the plenary session of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers. Regarding Islam, Benedict XVI observed that in these times Christians are called upon to practice dialogue, but without losing their identity.

This process, the Pontiff clarified, requires reciprocity. The Christian community, for its part, must live the commandment of love taught by Christ, embracing with charity all immigrants. In turn, it is hoped that Christians living in Islamic countries will also be received well, and with respect for their religious identity. Reciprocity, it seems, is increasingly on the Vatican's mind when it comes to relations with the Islamic world.



Comment: Western countries must proclaim and enforce a policy of 'integration and conformity' to local norms for all muslims who arrive. Religious muslims should not be allowed into Western countries. A country is not an international social welfare agency. Those in the country have a right to hold onto what they have by way of social norms and general culture, and therefore exclude that which would undermine these things. Muslim countries do this, and are perfectly entitled to do so.

I do not approve of forcing Western norms onto muslim countries. I do not approve of forcing muslim norms onto Western countries.

The Only Way Forward For Muslims?

Note: Apostacy will become an ever more sensible option for ever more muslims, unless Islam is dramatically reformed, especially in the West.




'Good news' from northern Iraq
By Julia Duin
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
May 23, 2006


Retired Iraqi Gen. Georges Sada, a former fighter pilot-turned-Christian evangelist, says Kurds are converting to Christianity "by the hundreds" in northern Iraq.
Gen. Sada earlier reported that he had been told that Iraqi pilots, flying private planes, took weapons of mass destruction to undisclosed locations in Syria in 2002.
The "good news" from Iraq's turbulent religious scene, consisting mainly of Sunni and Shi'ite Muslim militias battling each other, is from the Kurds, he said. Kurds are creating a constitution that does away with Shariah, or Islamic law, a move counter to trends in other Muslim countries such as Afghanistan and Iran, where leaving Islam is a capital offense and Christian converts are often killed.
"No Christians in the Kurdish territory are persecuted," he said yesterday in an interview.
Gen. Sada, 66, who lives in Baghdad, cited growing numbers of evangelical Christians in the Kurdish city of Irbil and a recent church conference of 854 Christians at the city's Salahaddin University as demonstrations of the Kurds' willingness to protect religious freedom.
He added that Nechervan Idris Barzani, prime minister of the Kurdish regional government in Irbil and nephew of former Iraqi Governing Council President Massoud Barzani, was extremely positive about evangelical Christians' efforts among Iraq's 4 million Kurds.
"He told me he'd rather see a Muslim become a Christian rather than a radical Muslim," the general said.
He spoke last night at McLean Bible Church, Northern Virginia's largest congregation, about his new vocation as director of the Iraqi Institute for Peace and president of the National Presbyterian Church in Baghdad.
"My foundation for peace is Christianity," said Gen. Sada, who was born an Assyrian Christian. "We must learn to love. Muslims will say they've got love and forgiveness, but I want to emphasize what Jesus Christ has said."
Gen. Sada has his work cut out for him. Outside the Kurdish areas, "Christians are in a very tough situation," he said. "Their children are kidnapped, and their money is taken by terrorists."
A fighter pilot like his father, Hormis Sada, Gen. Sada rose quickly in the Iraqi military in the 1960s and 1970s and was made a general in 1980. During the 1991 Persian Gulf War, he was responsible for interrogating U.S. and allied pilots shot down over Iraq.



Comment: Many actually religious muslims are now abandoning Islam as they see that it is now simply a vehicle for Arab imperialism. These imperialists, enthusiastically supported by atheist Leftists in the West, no longer have any pretense of religious devotion: Islam is now all politics, all the time.

This gathering tide of muslim apostacy will start here in Australia unless the local muslims do something serious to expel politics from Islam and return to a purely religious framework.

Religion or Politics? In the West you can't have both in the one guise. Local muslims have to grasp this fact and decide what they want.

Hint...if they choose politics, they will lose the struggle in Australia.

An Easy Problem For Muslims In Australia.

Note: The question of homosexuality in Australia is closed. It has been settled, legally and socially, with liberality. It is a private matter, protected by law. Homosexual and lesbian muslims in Australia benefit from this situation.

Sharia law is backward and murderous on this question, as on many others. Reform of Islam in Australia will require the supremacy of Australian law over the primitive blood letting that passes for 'law' in Islam.




May 24, 2006 No.1170

Tunisian Weekly Réalités Dedicates Series of Articles to Homosexuality

The independent French-language Tunisian weekly magazine Réalités [1] dedicated a series of articles to homosexuality - an uncommon initiative in the Arab press. The articles include the personal stories of homosexuals and lesbians, information on their legal status in Tunisia, and a medical assessment by Dr. Kamel Abdelhak, a psychologist specializing in sexual matters. In addition, renowned anthropologist Malek Chebel [2] is quoted as asserting that homosexuality is not illegitimate in Arab culture, and 10th-century bisexual Arab poet Abu Nawas is cited as an example.

The following is a review of the series:


Legal Status of Homosexuals in Tunisia
Lawyer Bochra Bel Haj Hmida argues that the legal status of male homosexuals and lesbians is very clear in Tunisia: "Article 230 of the penal code makes it clear that homosexuals and lesbians are sentenced to three years' imprisonment... Even if the law is not automatically implemented, it remains a threat and should be abrogated... We must stop confusing homosexuality - the free choice of two adults - with sexual assault or pedophilia." [3]


Homosexuality as Part of Arab Culture
Dr Kamel Abdelhak writes, "According to most psycho-sociological studies, homosexuality is not a culturally or socially related phenomenon. It exists in all social classes and cultures. Greek and Arabic civilizations tolerated it." [4]

Dr Malek Chebel [5] authored many books on love in Islam, including Myths and Sexual Practices in the Maghreb, which reports that "in Muslim society, where genders are separated, young people are often attracted to their playmates... In the Maghreb countries, homosexuality and heterosexuality are not as clearly distinct as in the West. This is partly due to the gradual introduction, in classical Arab culture, of the veneration of bisexuality among the elite. Great poets - such as Abu Nawas, Omar Khayam and a few Abbasid princes - praised it..."

In addition, Chebel notes that the Koran itself legitimizes homosexuality: "In Koranic verse 56:17, the ghilman (i.e. youth) [6] - a symbol of bisexuality in Muslim lands - appear together with pure virgins, called houris. From this we may infer that bisexuality is not always considered as a wrong." [7]

Réalités cites renowned 10th-century Arab poet Abu Nawas, who wrote: "Man is a continent, woman is the sea. I prefer the land [to the sea]." The article clarifies that Abu Nawas was condemned for his homosexual tendencies, but was protected by the rulers on account of his talent as a poet. The article reports, "As in ancient Greece, homosexual culture flourished in Persia, as is shown by poems praising the beauty of ephebes (usually Christian slaves of Persian origin.)" [8]


Testimony of Homosexuals Living in Tunisia
In an article describing the lives and feelings of gays in Tunisia, Réalités journalist Nadia Ayadi reports, "The education system, the traditions, and the religious and cultural myths present homosexuality as a perverted and abnormal attitude." She says it is "a painful problem," adding that "everybody remembers the collective lawsuits of homosexuals in Egypt, [9] or the stoning of homosexuals in Iran."

Regarding the policies of Arab and Muslim countries toward homosexuals, she says that Tunisia is more lenient than many other Arab countries, and tolerates homosexuality as long as it is not openly displayed: "In Islam, as in other religions, homosexuality is considered a sin against divine order. The Shari'a very harshly condemns homosexuality, and recidivism may lead to the death penalty. In some Gulf countries, homosexuals may be sentenced to death or lose their civil rights... In Iran, two teenagers aged 16 and 18 were hanged on July 19, 2005 in Mashhad, because they were homosexual... Tunisia, which is midway between liberalism and an oppressive implementation of the laws on homosexuality, more or less tolerates homosexuality as long as it is practiced in secret. In rural areas, however, homosexuality may result in shame and rejection - and even in human tragedies [killings] when the family feels dishonored."

However, "...in Muslim countries, homosexuals cannot quietly be themselves, since there is no way they can reveal [they are homosexual], not to mention claiming rights as homosexuals." Samir, 26, says: "One must be very strong to live as a homosexual in our country [Tunisia]. Today, if you discover at age 15 that you are more attracted to men, you are lost. There is no reference, no model." Therefore, most homosexuals in Tunisia prefer to hide the fact that they are homosexual.

Slimane, 22, says he has no problem being homosexual in Tunisia and has never thought of leaving his country, as many others have. He explains that in Hammamet, as in other large cities, there are meeting places for homosexuals: coffee shops, discos and hammans. In Tunis, there is one coffee shop where homosexuals meet at night; it has become their "headquarters," although homosexuals are not the only ones to frequent the place. Only one homosexual agreed to meet the Réalités journalist there. It is noteworthy that the journalist was careful not to mention the name of the coffee shop in the article.

Another Slimane says that a homosexual couple may even feel freer than a heterosexual couple in Tunisia: "It is easier for a homosexual couple than a heterosexual couple to enjoy a full sexual life, since men can live together, travel together, and even share the same room in a hotel. No law bans this, whereas a non-married heterosexual couple will face difficulties..."

Réalités also provides information on the socio-economic function of homosexuality in Tunisia. In homosexual circles, all social classes are mixed, says journalist Ayadi. Often an older man from a rich quarter has a young boyfriend from a poor neighborhood. Money plays an important part in many homosexual relationships: "In relationships between older men and younger men, money alleviates feelings of guilt. There are many such relationships based on money, not only with foreigners but also between Tunisians." [10]



Comment: Muslim fanatics and social terrorists in Australia are constrained from attacking and murdering people as dictated by Muslim law. This article on the situation in Tunisia is similar to the norm in muslim countries. How can such attitudes fit in with normal life in Australia?

The Laws Of Australia Are Above The Laws Of Islam.

Note: This muslim journalist speaks sensibly. The laws of the nation are above the laws of religion. This is true. Without this truth no nation can function properly; which explains the poverty and hopelessness of all muslim countries.




Last update - 09:58 23/05/2006


'Hamas' terror is not a reaction to the occupation

By Assaf Uni

"Israel's right to exist is today the international criterion for distinguishing between the terrorist camp and the camp of life," says Magdi Allam, the Egyptian-Italian journalist and writer who is now visiting Israel.

"On one side, there is the Hamas government, Iran, fundamentalist Islam and even parts of the extreme left and right in Europe." On the other side, he says, are Western countries and "supporters of the right to live." The West, he believes, has consistently failed to grasp its situation: It does not understand that it is under attack, and it is trying to conduct a dialogue with the Muslims attacking it.

Allam, 54 and a native of Egypt, immigrated to Italy some 30 years ago and studied sociology at La Sapienza University in Rome. Today he is the deputy editor of Corriere della Sera, Italy's largest newspaper, and is one of the country's leading journalists. In a series of books, articles and public appearances, Allam has not hesitated to criticize radical Islam openly. He even attacks the weakness he claims the West in general - and Europe in particular - show in the face of the growth of radical Islam.

"The West thinks the Islamic terrorism that struck New York, London and Madrid is a reaction, a kind of uprising of the poor against the wealthy," he says in an interview with Haaretz. According to Allam, the West does not understand that it is facing an organized attack that is gradually gaining supporters around the world. Following September 11, he says, a new and dangerous front has emerged of Muslim radicals and extreme left- and right-wing elements that must be dealt with forcefully.

"Denying the right to exist of Israel necessarily leads to approval of the use of violence and terrorism in order to erase Israel from the map," he notes. "This is the main characteristic of the 'culture of death' that advocates killing those who deny Islam."

Allam says there should be a law that stipulates that any statement against Israel's right to exist - whether made during an imam's sermon in a mosque or in a press statement - should be deemed a criminal offense.


"My goal is to free the West from the nihilism that has spread in its midst, from the lack of values that leads to the growth of radical Islam," says Allam. "In the face of the threat from radical Islam, the West must be united and formulate a shared value system that sanctifies life and denounces the right to kill."

Therefore, he says, there should be sharp criticism of those who argue that the terrorism in Israel and Iraq is legitimate because it is being committed against occupation and in the name of independence. "Whoever says that supports a culture of death," Allam argues. "It may perhaps start with a show of some understanding, but will quickly spread to granting permission to destroy anyone who is not Muslim."

Allam is against any attempt at dialogue with the Hamas government.

"I oppose any middle way," he says. "I oppose any type of dialogue just for the sake of dialogue. Hamas is part of the global Islamic front. It is an organization that prefers to worsen the conditions of its citizens rather than recognize Israel. The terrorism it wages against Israel is ideological terrorism. It would be a big mistake to think that it is resistance, because they are not trying to promote a Palestinian state. They have simply been trying, ever since the signing of the Oslo Accords, to destroy every effort to achieve peace."

Failed integration

Allam's remarks against Hamas in recent years have brought death threats from the organization and require Allam to have bodyguards at all times. But the Palestinian organization is not the only one threatening his life - his criticism of imams and Muslim preachers in Europe has sparked rage in Muslim communities there as well.

"The integration of Muslim immigrants in Europe has failed," Allam says. "The multicultural model that was tried in Britain and Holland led to the creation of Islamic ghettos; the governments that thought granting freedom to their citizens would turn it into a shared value were mistaken. Many Muslims saw freedom as a green light to enforce Islamic law and create their own society within a society."

The French model of assimilation also failed, he says, and the Muslims in the suburbs of the large French cities do not see themselves as citizens of the Republic.

One of the events that illustrated integration's failure, Allam believes, is the Mohammed cartoon affair. This made it possible "to draw the battle lines" between those who advocate Islamic law and citizens of the West - and the picture that emerged, he says, is not encouraging. "Most European governments chose to denounce the publication of the drawings," he says, "and this was a big mistake." This February, Allam published an open letter supporting the right of European newspapers to publish the drawings of the prophet in the name of freedom of expression.

Integration will have a chance only if the European countries change their approach, he says.

"There is an Italian saying, 'Every nation receives the government it deserves.' Along the same lines, it may be said, 'Every state in Europe receives the immigrant community it deserves.'" According to him, the governments must act forcefully against some immigrant groups to make it clear that the laws of the state are above the laws of religion.

"There is no one single way to be Muslim," he says, "there is also no 'right' or 'wrong' Islam. We have the freedom to interpret Islam any way we like. When I grew up in Egypt in the 1960s, Islam was completely different - girls walked around in miniskirts and guys were listening to the Beatles. It's a mistake to say that if you're a Muslim in Europe you have to grow a beard, go to the mosque and wear a galabiya. It's a stereotype that was imposed by Muslim extremists."

On the future of the integration of Muslim immigrants in Italy, Allam says he is disappointed by the election of Romano Prodi's new center-left government.

"They are promising to be 'softer' on the matter of immigration laws, to bring back the soldiers from Iraq and to consider negotiations with Hamas," he says. "This only proves that Italy is going in the opposite direction compared to the rest of the world in dealing with immigration, which will lead to a deterioration of the situation."


Comment: This journalist shows clearly why Australia needs to have a weekly magazine, published in english and arabic, owned by some government body and run by locally born and western educated muslims who promote this form of sensible approach to living in a Western country.

Any takers?

Australians Be Warned !

Note: This book review is from one of the best columnists writing today. He writes under the name of 'Spengler' and is published in Asia Times. Worth reading ahead of anyone else.

This book should be compulsory reading for those Australian politicians and leaders who are truely aware of the real problems moving toward us. Both of them.




May 23, 2006



BOOK REVIEW
This time the crocodile won't wait
Londonistan by Melanie Phillips Buy this book

Reviewed by Spengler

In retrospect, it seems oafish of Neville Chamberlain, Britain's prime minister in 1938, to have betrayed Czechoslovakia to Nazi rule in return for the empty promise of peace. Yet an overwhelming English majority looked with horror on the prospect of confrontation with Germany and a new world war, until Adolf Hitler forced England's hand by invading Poland. "The appeaser hopes the crocodile will eat him last," said Winston Churchill. Today's crocodiles may not be so patient.

Opposing voices in 1938 rang lonely and shrill, and just as shrill today sounds Daily Mail columnist Melanie Phillips in her portrayal of an emasculated Britain ashamed of its own national identity and anxious to appease the "clerical fascism" of the



jihadis. That will change, perhaps even before the print is quite dry on her new book. She warns that the West faces a religious war with Islam. I concur, and recommend Londonistan as indispensable background.

Britain, Phillips warns, is reaping what it has sown. A large minority of British Muslims are disaffected at best and seditious at worst. Phillips cites a 2004 Home Office survey finding that 26% of British Muslims felt no loyalty to Britain, 13% supported terrorism, and about 1% (up to 20,000 individuals) were "actively engaged" in terrorism or support for terrorism.

Another poll found that 32% of British Muslims agreed that "Western society is decadent and immoral and that Muslims should seek to bring it to an end". In the event of a violent collision between the West and Iran, for example, civil conflict might arise in Britain on a scale resembling that in Northern Ireland in the 1970s.

Phillips accuses British security services with complicity in the gestation of a terrorist apparatus in London. Her documentation of overt terrorist activity centered in London is exhaustive, and raises the question of why the open scandal was tolerated. Saudi, Algerian and Egyptian requests for extradition of suspected terrorists were refused, and Arab diplomats vented their frustration over British recalcitrance in public.

A cynically narrow concept of national interest guided this policy, she argues, charging that MI6 (Military Intelligence Section 6, now officially known as the Secret Intelligence Service) believed "that if the Islamists were being left undisturbed to conduct their activities on the assumption that they would not then attack Britain".

But that can explain only part of the story, and Phillips searches for deeper causes of Britain's cowardice. "Denial" is a recurrent theme. She cites an unnamed "foreign intelligence source" as follows:
During the 1990s, many attempts were made to enlighten the British about what was happening. But they refused to see this problem as having a religious character. If this was a religious problem, it became a religious confrontation - and the specter of a religious war was too horrendous. A religious war is different from any other war because you are dealing with absolute beliefs and the room for compromise is very limited. Religious wars are very protracted and bloody, and often end up with a very high toll of lives.
That is not denial, though, but revulsion. The British establishment may have recoiled in horror from the prospect of religious war precisely because it has sufficient institutional memory to know just what such wars entail. Religious war, however, is precisely what it will have, on the worst possible terms, and with an extensive fifth column in place.

Successful manipulation of religious conflict is a lost art. Cardinal Richelieu and his successor Jules Mazarin kept the Thirty Years' War aflame in Germany by subsidizing new entrants into the fray, notably Sweden's Gustavus Adolphus (King Gustavus II), deploying French forces when proxies were not available.

The carnage claimed the lives of more than half of the German speakers and left France the dominant power in continental Europe until 1870. On a smaller scale, Britain played such divide-and-conquer games throughout its imperial history, most obviously by transplanting Scottish Protestants to Northern Ireland. Some in India read malice aforethought into the 1947 partition of the sub-continent. Britain no longer has malefactors with the iron stomach and broad culture of a T E Lawrence or a Sir Richard Burton to undertake such projects.

Phillips soft-pedals the imperial sins for which today's problems are part payment. As Phillips observes, the legacy of Britain's imperial past in the form of Northern Ireland distracted the security services' attention from the Islamist threat:
Instead of studying the Middle East as a cause for concern, they were staring across the Irish Sea at Northern Ireland, where a terrorist insurrection against the UK had been in progress since the 1970s. The mindset, on both sides of the Atlantic, was that terrorism was tied to discrete grievances against individual states. And with the end of the Cold War, the notion of a global threat rooted in ideology was assumed to be dead and buried.
But the Northern Ireland disaster was more than a distraction. Britain has a glorious past, and its role in defining individual rights and representative democracy is central to the success of the West. But real crimes can be laid at Britain's doorstep, including the mistreatment of the Irish over centuries. That does not excuse the thuggishness of the Irish Republicans, but it does help explain the moral palsy that afflicts today's British establishment.

Former US president Jimmy Carter's ability to see the better side of his country's worst enemies comes to mind. In this month's issue of The Atlantic Monthly, Mark Bowden reports that Carter forbade the Delta Force commandos to use deadly forces against the kidnappers of American hostages in Tehran in the ill-fated 1980 rescue attempt.

In his ignorance and provincialism, Carter could not see any conflict in terms other than the black-white confrontation during the US South in the 1960s. Palestinians, Iranians, or other self-defined victims of Western imperialism are the blacks of Selma in the diminutive mind of the former president. But the civil-rights movement in the United States brooks no comparison to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It was a Christian-led movement appealing to the conscience of other Christians under the law of the land, and succeeded with minimal loss of life.

Black and white Baptists made their peace in the US South a generation ago. Protestants and Catholics yet might make peace in Northern Ireland. But that is an entirely different matter, says Phillips: "True, the IRA [Irish Republican Army] were Catholics and their adversaries were Protestants. But their cause was not Catholicism. It was a united Ireland. They did not want to impose the authority of the pope upon Britain ... There is simply no comparison to the agenda of the Islamists who want to defeat the West in the name of Islam."

The institution that should understand this best, namely the Church of England, seems most eager to liquidate itself. Notes Phillips: "In America, the churches have been in the forefront of the defense of Western values. Some of the strongest support for Israel comes from evangelical Christians. In Britain, by contrast, the Church of England has been in the forefront of the retreat from the Judeo-Christian heritage."

The Archbishop of York, the black Ugandan Dr John Sentamu, praises the British Empire and the culture it spread around the world, whereas the present Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, apologizes for taking "cultural captives" through the export of English hymns and liturgy. Sadly, the "cultural captives", mainly black African converts, are all that is left of the C of E. Its evangelical wing, represented by former archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey - a vocal critic of Islam in the past two years - cannot compete with dissenting churches, and the High Anglican side barely breathes.

It is a bit late in time for a national church. The Roman Catholic Church can make a case that Benedict XVI has the right to head a universal church by virtue of his apostolic succession from St Peter, and thus can forgive sins in Jesus' own stead. But why should Queen Elizabeth II, much less the overtly Islamophile Prince Charles, enjoy this privilege? Perhaps the moment is ripe for the remnants of English Catholicism to join the Roman Church, and for British Protestants to find their way to more robust dissenting denominations.

In any case, Western liberalism, including the sexual habits of English curates, does not appeal to Muslims. On the contrary, Phillips says:
British Muslims are overwhelmingly horrified and disgusted by the louche and dissolute behavior of a Britain that has torn up the notion of respectability. They observe the alcoholism, drug abuse and pornography, the breakdown of family life and the encouragement of promiscuity, and find themselves there in opposition to their host society's guiding values. What they are recoiling from, of course, is the breakdown of Western values. After a visit to the United States in 1948, Sayed Qutb wrote: "Humanity today is living in a large brothel!"
Revulsion and contempt color Muslim attitudes toward the British leftists who most desire to appease them. That is not a recipe for co-existence but for escalation, as last year's subway bombings should have made clear. But the issue now is not terrorism but rather outright war.

The British authorities may have turned a blind eye to terrorism directed against others, and may even have dragged their feet at confronting the terrorist threat at home that erupted in the July 7, 2005, subway bombings. Terrorism is dreadful but, like many nasty things, one can develop a tolerance for it. Now it is not merely terrorism that the West confronts but a strategic debacle of intolerable proportions in the form of Iranian acquisition of nuclear weapons.

In that sense Melanie Phillips' book comes too late, for it reports a set of circumstances shortly to be overthrown by events. She is writing about 1938, and we are entering 1939, when the West will have to respond to an external challenge in a way that it never could to an internal threat. Britain will have the religious war it sought to dodge.

Londonistan by Melanie Phillips. Encounter Books: New York 2006. ISBN: 1594031444. Price: US$25.95, 213 pages.

(Copyright 2006 Asia Times Online Ltd.)

Comment: No comment needed.

Ban Wahhabi Islam And Wahhabi Muslims

Note: This posting should be a useful corrective to those dopey Australians who think that there is nothing wrong with Islam. This is a delusion. Religious Islam is incompatible with Western Life, unless muslims simply abandon the rubbish that they are taught in Islamic schools.

How many actually do that?





May 22, 2006
This is a Saudi textbook. (After the intolerance was removed.)
It is good to see this article about jihadist material in the textbooks of our Friend and Ally in the Bandar Beacon, aka the Washington Post. But like all Freedom House material, this piece shies away from pointing out the deep Islamic roots of the material, and leads the reader to the impression that this is all something cooked up by the wicked Saudi Wahhabis, instead of a much broader problem within the Islamic umma.

Well, it would be very nice if that were true. But it isn't. And the folks at Freedom House, if they succeed in getting the Saudis to stop teaching this sort of thing in Saudi Arabia and around the world (and I hope they do succeed) will be surprised to find that the problem hasn't thereby disappeared.

Saudi Arabia's public schools have long been cited for demonizing the West as well as Christians, Jews and other "unbelievers." But after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 -- in which 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis -- that was all supposed to change.
A 2004 Saudi royal study group recognized the need for reform after finding that the kingdom's religious studies curriculum "encourages violence toward others, and misguides the pupils into believing that in order to safeguard their own religion, they must violently repress and even physically eliminate the 'other.' " Since then, the Saudi government has claimed repeatedly that it has revised its educational texts.

[...]

The problem is: These claims are not true.

A review of a sample of official Saudi textbooks for Islamic studies used during the current academic year reveals that, despite the Saudi government's statements to the contrary, an ideology of hatred toward Christians and Jews and Muslims who do not follow Wahhabi doctrine remains in this area of the public school system. The texts teach a dualistic vision, dividing the world into true believers of Islam (the "monotheists") and unbelievers (the "polytheists" and "infidels").

[...]

FIRST GRADE

"Every religion other than Islam is false."

"Fill in the blanks with the appropriate words (Islam, hellfire): Every religion other than ______________ is false. Whoever dies outside of Islam enters ____________."


This is straight from the Qur'an: "If anyone desires a religion other than Islam (submission to Allah), never will it be accepted of him; and in the Hereafter He will be in the ranks of those who have lost (All spiritual good)" (3:85).

FOURTH GRADE
"True belief means . . . that you hate the polytheists and infidels but do not treat them unjustly."


Again, straight from the Qur'an: "Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. And those with him are hard against the disbelievers and merciful among themselves" (48:29). "Those who reject (Truth), among the People of the Book and among the Polytheists, will be in Hell-Fire, to dwell therein (for aye). They are the worst of creatures" (98:6).

FIFTH GRADE
"Whoever obeys the Prophet and accepts the oneness of God cannot maintain a loyal friendship with those who oppose God and His Prophet, even if they are his closest relatives."

"It is forbidden for a Muslim to be a loyal friend to someone who does not believe in God and His Prophet, or someone who fights the religion of Islam."

"A Muslim, even if he lives far away, is your brother in religion. Someone who opposes God, even if he is your brother by family tie, is your enemy in religion."


"Let not the believers Take for friends or helpers Unbelievers rather than believers: if any do that, in nothing will there be help from Allah: except by way of precaution, that ye may Guard yourselves from them. But Allah cautions you (To remember) Himself; for the final goal is to Allah." (Qur'an 3:28)

"O ye who believe! take not the Jews and the Christians for your friends and protectors: They are but friends and protectors to each other. And he amongst you that turns to them (for friendship) is of them. Verily Allah guideth not a people unjust." (Qur'an 5:51)

"It is never the wish of those without Faith among the People of the Book, nor of the Pagans, that anything good should come down to you from your Lord." (Qur'an 2:105)

SIXTH GRADE
"Just as Muslims were successful in the past when they came together in a sincere endeavor to evict the Christian crusaders from Palestine, so will the Arabs and Muslims emerge victorious, God willing, against the Jews and their allies if they stand together and fight a true jihad for God, for this is within God's power."


"Verily Allah will defend (from ill) those who believe: verily, Allah loveth not any that is a traitor to faith, or show ingratitude." (Qur'an 22:38)

"There has already been for you a Sign in the two armies that met (in combat): One was fighting in the cause of Allah, the other resisting Allah; these saw with their own eyes Twice their number. But Allah doth support with His aid whom He pleaseth. In this is a warning for such as have eyes to see." (Qur'an 3:13)

EIGHTH GRADE
"As cited in Ibn Abbas: The apes are Jews, the people of the Sabbath; while the swine are the Christians, the infidels of the communion of Jesus."


"Those who believe (in the Qur'an), and those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Christians and the Sabians -- any who believe in Allah and the Last Day, and work righteousness -- shall have their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve. And remember We took your covenant and We raised above you (the towering height) of Mount (Sinai),: (saying): "Hold firmly to what We have given you and bring (ever) to remembrance what is therein: Perchance ye may fear Allah." But ye turned back thereafter: Had it not been for the Grace and Mercy of Allah to you, ye had surely been among the lost. And well ye knew those amongst you who transgressed in the matter of the Sabbath. We said to them: "Be ye apes, despised and rejected." (Qur'an 2:62-65)

This verse makes it clear that the apes and swine are Jews and Christians, the "People of the Book":

"Say: 'O people of the Book! Do ye disapprove of us for no other reason than that we believe in Allah, and the revelation that hath come to us and that which came before (us), and (perhaps) that most of you are rebellious and disobedient?'Say: 'Shall I point out to you something much worse than this, (as judged) by the treatment it received from Allah? those who incurred the curse of Allah and His wrath, those of whom some He transformed into apes and swine, those who worshipped evil -- these are (many times) worse in rank, and far more astray from the even path!'" (Qur'an 5:59-60)

"God told His Prophet, Muhammad, about the Jews, who learned from parts of God's book [the Torah and the Gospels] that God alone is worthy of worship. Despite this, they espouse falsehood through idol-worship, soothsaying, and sorcery. In doing so, they obey the devil. They prefer the people of falsehood to the people of the truth out of envy and hostility. This earns them condemnation and is a warning to us not to do as they did."
"The Jews say: Allah's hand is fettered. Their hands are fettered and they are accursed for saying so." (Qur'an 5:64)

"They are the Jews, whom God has cursed and with whom He is so angry that He will never again be satisfied [with them]."
"The Jews call 'Uzair a son of Allah, and the Christians call Christ the son of Allah. That is a saying from their mouth; (in this) they but imitate what the unbelievers of old used to say. Allah's curse be on them: how they are deluded away from the Truth!" (Qur'an 9:30)

"Some of the people of the Sabbath were punished by being turned into apes and swine. Some of them were made to worship the devil, and not God, through consecration, sacrifice, prayer, appeals for help, and other types of worship. Some of the Jews worship the devil. Likewise, some members of this nation worship the devil, and not God."
See the verses quoted above, which establish the apes and pigs reference and show that Allah's curse is on Jews and Christians.

"Activity: The student writes a composition on the danger of imitating the infidels."
Clearly if one is not to take them as friends and protectors (3:28, 5:51), and if they are the worst of creatures (98:6), and are under Allah's curse (9:30), they should not be imitated.

NINTH GRADE
"The clash between this [Muslim] community (umma) and the Jews and Christians has endured, and it will continue as long as God wills."


"And fight them until persecution is no more, and religion is for Allah." (2:193)

"It is reported on the authority of Abu Huraira that the Messenger of Allah said: I have been commanded to fight against people so long as they do not declare that there is no god but Allah, and he who professed it was guaranteed the protection of his property and life on my behalf except for the right affairs rest with Allah." (Sahih Muslim book 1, no. 30; there are many similar ahadith)

"It is part of God's wisdom that the struggle between the Muslim and the Jews should continue until the hour [of judgment]."
"Allah's Apostle said, 'The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say. "O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him."'" (Sahih Bukhari, vol. 4, bk. 52, no. 177; there are many similar ahadith)

"Muslims will triumph because they are right. He who is right is always victorious, even if most people are against him."
That one sounds reasonable to me; I believe that ultimately those who are right will triumph also. I don't see that as hate speech.

TENTH GRADE
The 10th-grade text on jurisprudence teaches that life for non-Muslims (as well as women, and, by implication, slaves) is worth a fraction of that of a "free Muslim male." Blood money is retribution paid to the victim or the victim's heirs for murder or injury:

"Blood money for a free infidel. [Its quantity] is half of the blood money for a male Muslim, whether or not he is 'of the book' or not 'of the book' (such as a pagan, Zoroastrian, etc.).

"Blood money for a woman: Half of the blood money for a man, in accordance with his religion. The blood money for a Muslim woman is half of the blood money for a male Muslim, and the blood money for an infidel woman is half of the blood money for a male infidel."


"Since Islam regards non-Muslims as on a lower level of belief and conviction, if a Muslim kills a non-Muslim...then his punishment must not be the retaliatory death, since the faith and conviction he possesses is loftier than that of the man slain." -- The Iranian Sufi Sheikh Sultanhussein Tabandeh, A Muslim Commentary on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, London, 1970, p. 18; Iranian Sufis are not Wahhabis.)

ELEVENTH GRADE
"The greeting 'Peace be upon you' is specifically for believers. It cannot be said to others."

"If one comes to a place where there is a mixture of Muslims and infidels, one should offer a greeting intended for the Muslims."

"Do not yield to them [Christians and Jews] on a narrow road out of honor and respect."


"Such non-Muslim subjects are obliged to compy with Islamic rules...In addition, they...are not greeted with 'as-Salamu 'alaykum'; ...must keep to the side of the street..." ('Umdat al-Salik, o11.5 (3-4); this manual of Shafi'i law was endorsed in 1991 by Al-Azhar University in Cairo, which is not a Wahhabi institution, as conforming "to the practice and faith of the orthodox Sunni community.")

TWELFTH GRADE
"Jihad in the path of God -- which consists of battling against unbelief, oppression, injustice, and those who perpetrate it -- is the summit of Islam. This religion arose through jihad and through jihad was its banner raised high. It is one of the noblest acts, which brings one closer to God, and one of the most magnificent acts of obedience to God."


"A man came to Allah's Apostle and said, "Instruct me as to such a deed as equals Jihad (in reward)." He replied, "I do not find such a deed." (Sahih Bukhari, vol. 4, bk. 52, no. 44)

The implications of this will sooner or later have to be faced.



Comment: The Islamic schools in Australia, about 23 of them, should be absorbed into the state education system. All these schools are, to greater or lesser degree, in the thrall, ideologically or financially, of the Wahhabi fascist muslims from Saudi Arabia. They have nothing to offer Australia. The type of muslim they produce is not needed here, and brings us no benefit.

These schools are 'well poisoners'...they make it impossible for their graduates to actually integrate and conform to life in Australia. Which is the intention of the school.

Action needs to be taken now, not wait until the inevitable disaster occurs.

Is anyone awake in Canberra?

Apostasy From Islam.

a·pos·tate: n.
One who has abandoned one's religious faith, a political party, one's principles, or a cause.



Did you know - Quran (4:34) orders a man to beat his wife if she doesn't obey him?
Quran 4:34: Men are the maintainers of women because Allah has made some of them to excel others and because they spend out of their property; the good women are therefore obedient, guarding the unseen as Allah has guarded; and (as to) those on whose part you fear desertion, admonish them, and leave them alone in their sleeping places and beat them; then if they obey you, do not seek a way against them; surely Allah is High, Great.




We left Islam

Who we are:

We are ex-Muslims. Some of us were born and raised in Islam and some of us had converted to Islam at some moment in our lives. We were taught never to question the truth of Islam and to believe in Allah and his messenger with blind faith. We were told that Allah would forgive all sins but the sin of disbelief (Quran 4:48 and 4:116). But we committed the ultimate sin of thinking and questioned the belief that was imposed on us and we came to realize that far from being a religion of truth, Islam is a hoax, it is hallucination of a sick mind and nothing but lies and deceits.

What we believe:

Some of us have embraced other religions but most of us have simply left Islam without believing in any other religion. We believe in humanity. We believe that humans do not need to follow a religion to be good. All we need to follow is the Golden Rule. All we have to do is to treat others they way we expect to be treated. This is the essence of all the goodness. All good religious teachings stem from this eternal principle. This is the ultimate guidance humanity need. This is the Golden Rule.

Why Mohammed was not a prophet:

One who claims to be a messenger of God is expected to live a saintly life. He must not be given to lust, he must not be a sexual pervert, and he must not be a rapist, a highway robber, a war criminal, a mass murderer or an assassin. One who claims to be a messenger of God must have a superior character. He must stand above the vices of the people of his time. Yet Muhammad’s life is that of a gangster godfather. He raided merchant caravans, looted innocent people, massacred entire male populations and enslaved the women and children. He raped the women captured in war after killing their husbands and told his followers that it is okay to have sex with their captives and their “right hand possessions” (Quran 33:50) He assassinated those who criticized him and executed them when he came to power and became de facto despot of Arabia. Muhammad was bereft of human compassion. He was an obsessed man with his dreams of grandiosity and could not forgive those who stood in his way. Muhammad was a narcissist like Hitler, Saddam or Stalin. He was astute and knew how to manipulate people, but his emotional intelligence was less evolved than that of a 6-year-old child. He simply could not feel the pain of others. He brutally massacred thousands of innocent people and pillaged their wealth. His ambitions were big and as a narcissist he honestly believed he is entitled to do as he pleased and commit all sorts of crimes and his evil deeds are justified.



Why Quran is not from God:

Muhammad produced no miracles and when pressed he claimed that his miracle is the Quran. Yet a cursory look at the Quran reveals that this book is full of errors. Quran is replete with scientific heresies, historic blunders, mathematical mistakes, logical absurdities, grammatical errors and ethical fallacies. It is badly compiled and it contradicts itself. There is nothing intelligent in this book let alone miraculous. Muhammad challenged people to produce a “Surah like it” or find an error therein, yet Muslims would kill anyone who dares to criticize it. In such a climate of hypocrisy and violence truth is the first casualty.

Islam Drives Iran Mad...War To Follow?

Note: The lunacy that defines Islam in the modern world is no better shown than by this latest psychiatric disturbance from the Parliament of Iran. Fortunately this delusionary stuff will very likely be sunk by, ironically, the Shi'ite clergy who run the country.

The decision is perfectly acceptable Islamically. If it is stopped it will be because of the 'inopportune' nature of the decision.

Should Australia let any more 'religious' muslims in?







May 19, 2006
Iran eyes badges for Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians
The dhimma is making a strong comeback in Iran. The idea that dhimmis must wear distinctive clothing so that they can be easily recognized as non-Muslims in Muslim societies goes back to the ninth-century caliph Al-Mutawwakil, and possibly earlier. Many Islamic apologists and politically correct historians would have us believe that such measures are a relic of history. They aren't.

"Iran eyes badges for Jews," from the National Post, with thanks to Tim:

Human rights groups are raising alarms over a new law passed by the Iranian parliament that would require the country's Jews and Christians to wear coloured badges to identify them and other religious minorities as non-Muslims.
"This is reminiscent of the Holocaust," said Rabbi Marvin Hier, the dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. "Iran is moving closer and closer to the ideology of the Nazis."


Hier is right, but as I explained above, this is not something that Iran is getting from the Nazis. This is part of the earliest Islamic laws of dhimmitude.

Iranian expatriates living in Canada yesterday confirmed reports that the Iranian parliament, called the Islamic Majlis, passed a law this week setting a dress code for all Iranians, requiring them to wear almost identical "standard Islamic garments."
The law, which must still be approved by Iran's "Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenehi before being put into effect, also establishes special insignia to be worn by non-Muslims.

Iran's roughly 25,000 Jews would have to sew a yellow strip of cloth on the front of their clothes, while Christians would wear red badges and Zoroastrians would be forced to wear blue cloth....


This color coding also has deep roots in Islamic tradition regarding the treatment of the dhimmis. Although the colors assigned to each group sometimes change, the idea of a distinctive badge worn by the dhimmis is virtually as old as the dhimma itself. You can find abundant confirmation of this in Bat Ye'or's books.

Ali Behroozian, an Iranian exile living in Toronto, said the law could come into force as early as next year.
It would make religious minorities immediately identifiable and allow Muslims to avoid contact with non-Muslims.

Mr. Behroozian said it will make life even more difficult for Iran's small pockets of Jewish, Christian and other religious minorities -- the country is overwhelmingly Shi'ite Muslim. "They have all been persecuted for a while, but these new dress rules are going to make things worse for them," he said.

The new law was drafted two years ago, but was stuck in the Iranian parliament until recently when it was revived at the behest of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.



Comment: This is very embarrassing for those Australian dopes who think Islam is a fine 'religion' with lots to offer Australia.

Clearly it is time for Australians to give serious consideration to excluding any more 'releigious' muslims from entry to our country.

Is anyone awake in Canberra?

Christianity And Civilization.

Note: This editorial is from the British catholic weekly 'The Tablet'. It is a succinct account of the cultural problem in the West...ignorance of the history and culture of Western Civilization. The politicians and 'educators' over the past 40 years are to blame. The problem can be solved.






Christianity and civilization
Editorial 20 May 2006.


The Da Vinci Code rebuttal unit, set up to refute the view that there is a grain of truth in the novel and film of that name, has come up with a public opinion survey that plumbs the depth of human ignorance about Christianity. At face value, the finding that three out of five British people think there is “some truth” in the Code’s theory that Jesus was married and had children by Mary Magdalene is a measure of the public’s sheer gullibility and lack of knowledge. It is a pity that the survey did not also ask, “Have you ever thought about this before in your life?” or even “Had you even heard of Mary Magdalene before The Da Vinci Code came along?” The fact is that for an increasing proportion of the population, the more so the younger they are, religion is a blank piece of paper on which anyone may write anything. And then tear it up again; for what also characterises such people is the opinion that organised religion is so irrelevant to ordinary life that whether it is true or not has nothing to do with them.

And that is the real problem exposed by the Da Vinci affair. Western civilisation does not stand or fall on the proposition that the Order of Sion was a genuine medieval Church institution (as the Code suggests) or a twentieth-century fraud. But it does stand or fall by the proposition that the infinite worth of each individual, being God-given, is non-negotiable; that the construction of civilisation cannot ignore God’s plan for humanity; and that the human race is invited into a unique relationship with God in and through the person of Jesus Christ. These are fundamentals. Had there never been a belief system like Christianity, there would never have been the flowering of European (now called Western) civilisation that has spread its profound influence to the four corners of the world.

It is the argument of a new book by Chris (now Lord) Smith, former cabinet minister in Tony Blair’s Government, that at least a minimal commitment to Christianity is a necessary condition for Western culture to survive. Lord Smith, a keen Christian Socialist, argues in Suicide of the West (which he co-authored with Richard Koch) that this is also the source of the belief in the possibility of progress that is one of the West’s most enduring ideological strengths. It follows that such a civilisation will eventually wither and die if it is cut off from its roots in the Christian religion.

Pope Benedict XVI has already made similar concerns one of the themes of his papacy. The danger revealed by the response of some of the Church’s hierarchy to The Da Vinci Code is that the big guns are facing the wrong way, shooting at small foes that do not really matter and neglecting the real enemy. It is time they took on the secularists, for whom ignorance of religion is bliss. A major public education effort to remedy the public’s lack of understanding of Christianity, without any evangelistic ulterior motives, would reap rich dividends in strengthening its place in British society and culture. And it would reap dividends for Britain as a whole, by renewing the foundations on which everything else rests.



Comment: Australian governments must correct this problem by introducing a proper 'Civics' curriculum to all schools, public and private. This would encompass a proper study, in primary and secondary school, of the last 2500 years of Western culture. This is based on the three key Western civilizational structures: Greek philosophical rationality and the history of ideas; Judeo-Christian spirituality and the history of Jewish and Christian religious ideas; Roman Law and the history of the growth of law, personal freedom and parliamentary government.

Leave comparative civics to University. The students in our schools should use their time in primary and secondary school to acquire a strong foundation in understanding the system in the country where they will be living all their lives and raising their children.

Learning about Arabia or Nepal or China is useful. Australians wont be living in those countries, they will be living here. Leave other civilizations to later study, for those particularly interested.

Is anyone awake in Canberra?

Good Muslim Teacher For Australian Muslims.

Note: It would be nice to know if this article, or ones like it, appear regularly in the arabic language press in Australia. Certainly one never hears any word of support for these views unless it is coerced from the muslim clergy during some particularly terrible islamic outrage.


May 19, 2006 No.1167

Arab Columnist: The Religious Establishment Must Issue Courageous Anti-Terror Fatwas

In a column in the UAE daily Al-Ittihad, titled "The Terrorists and the Final Smile of Death,"Muhammad Al-Hamadi called upon the religious establishment in the Arab world to issue resolute fatwas against terrorism and its supporters. His call came in the wake of the April 2006 terror attacks in the Sinai.

The following are excerpts from his column: [1]


Fatwas Must Be Issued Condemning Terrorism Against Innocent Civilians of Any Religion, Ethnicity, Color, or Origin

"'Can anybody dare to call the terrorist operation committed last Monday evening in the tourist town of Dahab... an act of self-sacrifice or martyrdom?! Can the three consecutive bombings near restaurants, hotels, and tourist resorts, teeming with people be considered an operation with a supreme cause?!

"This [terrorist] operation leads us to emphasize once again the importance of the 'ulama [Muslim religious scholars] acting with honesty, devotion, and conviction, and declaring their position regarding these terrorist acts. They must emphasize that [these operations] have no place whatsoever in Islam, and moreover, that the religion of Islam denounces them, because it is a religion of mercy and guidance for humanity, not a religion of killing innocent people.

"Not only do we need honest fatwas issued by the [Islamic] nation's 'ulama but we also need clear, unambiguous fatwas issued by the great religious institutions, whether Al-Azhar or [the institutions in] Mecca. Moreover, [these fatwas] must be courageous in calling openly upon Muslims to oppose these terrorist operations and to oppose the Islamic groups that support terrorism against innocent civilians, regardless of their religion, ethnicity, color, or origin...

"It is important that these fatwas be issued in a way that will make people relinquish [their] double standards and split personality, and [stop saying] with regard to the deeds of bin Laden and his terrorist followers: 'Thank you for doing to the West what we would like to do but cannot.' It is as if they are saying, through their silence and their unclear stance, 'The world deserves to be harmed by the terrorist operations you commit.' This stance, even if some do not state it publicly, is clear and does not need to be proven. This is why it is important for the religious institutions and the 'ulama, who are fervent in [their adherence to] Islam, to intervene and clarify matters to the public, so that their position will be clear. In the future, they will also play a role in drying up the sources of terrorism once and for all."


"This is a Culture of Killing and Perdition… a Culture of 'Smiling Death'"

"This is a culture of killing and perdition, or perhaps a culture of 'smiling death.' [Both] the suicide bomber and the person who carries out a remote [terrorist] operation go to the scene with full confidence, a smile smeared all over their faces, happy about what they are going to do. The suicide bomber views himself as going to Paradise, and the only thing separating him from [Paradise] is pressing the button - after which he and those around him will blow up, and he will be floating in Paradise, leaving behind this world and its evil.

"The person who carries out a remote [terrorist] operation also smiles, because he thinks he is carrying out Allah's will - just as his leaders misled him to believe. [He believes that] if he kills an infidel, he will be rewarded [in the world to come], and [that] this will enable him to enter Paradise. The killer and his victim cannot meet in the same place, since, after all, one must be in Paradise and the other in Hell. Since the killer is a Muslim, and the other an infidel and a sinner, the former will ensure his entry into Paradise following this operation…

"Another [type of] 'smile of death' is the kind that covers the faces of the leaders, who smile maliciously when they train these people to commit acts [of terrorism]. They sit and watch from a distance, out of harm's way, and make do with counting their walking ticking bombs!

"These are the smiles of death, at a time when there is no longer room for sense, logic, or justice [in the minds of those] who wear these smiles. Therefore, the intervention of the 'ulama has come to be of the utmost importance at this dangerous stage in the history of the [Islamic] nation -when many of its sons have begun to prefer [burial] in the earth to [life] on it because of the failure, the subjugation, and the oppression, and who become easy prey in the hands of those who hold terrorist views, who are willing to do anything to fulfill their destructive plans against humanity."


Comment: A well organised government would be able to see to it that articles like this filled the arabic language press in Australia.

Is anyone awake in Canberra?

Land Of The Free And Home Of The Brave

Note: Congratulations to the American government. a rare sensible approach to Islam.

I have a suggestion for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation below in the comment.



State Department official: Hirsi Ali welcome in USA
The Dutch publication Trouw (thanks to Ruben) reports that State Department official Robert Zoelick has declared in a press conference in The Hague that Ayaan Hirsi Ali will be welcome in the States whether or not she keeps her Dutch nationality.

I am glad to see the State Department standing up for Hirsi Ali while Holland rushes headlong into dhimmitude and appeasement.

UPDATE: And here is a Reuters story in English (thanks to Mackie):

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - A Somali-born lawmaker who may lose her Dutch citizenship because she lied on her asylum application is welcome to move to the United States, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick said on Thursday.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an outspoken critic of Islam, said earlier this week she was resigning and leaving the Netherlands after Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk, a member of her own VVD liberal party, told her she might lose her Dutch passport.

Hirsi Ali has been offered a job by the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington-based think tank, and according to media reports had been in negotiations with two other U.S. institutes.

Zoellick, on a visit to the Netherlands, told journalists Hirsi Ali would be admitted to his country.

"The government of the Netherlands is still discussing her ultimate status and that is ... for the Netherlands to determine along the way, but she is obviously welcome to the United States," Zoellick said.

He added that if she did move to the United States her status would depend on decisions taken by the Dutch government and that her special security needs would be attended to.

"I am not going to comment on specific security matters but obviously she needs to be taken care of," Zoellick said.


Comment: why not ask this lady to deliver the 2007 Boyer Lectures on ABC Radio. It doesn't always have to be given to some dead white male, surely!

For The Record.

Note: Islam and Christianity are in a struggle in the 21st century. The Christians (the bedrock of the West) are preparing well for this struggle. Leading Western centres of learning like Oxford University (and dozens of others all over the world)are studying Islam. It is always wise to get to know 'the enemy' accurately. This principle applies to war, business, sport,politics...and culture.

Islam is not studying Chriastianity.

In a struggle, Fortune favours the well prepared.

The article below is well worth the read.








"Where Christians are being denied their rights, or are subject to sharia law, that is not a matter on which Muslims in Britain should remain silent," the Archbishop of Westminster told an audience at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, last night. He added: "Where religious rights of minorities are disrespected in the name of Islam, the face of Islam is tarnished elsewhere in the world."

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor's remarks were made in a speech spelling out the need for a close, respectful dialogue between Christians and Muslims.

The full text follows:

CATHOLIC-MUSLIM DIALOGUE TODAY

1. Director of the Centre, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen: It is kind of you to invite me to take my place at the end of a long list of distinguished speakers who since 1985 have been invited by the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies to contribute to your mission of promoting understanding. The Centre provides a meeting point for the Western and Islamic worlds of learning and opens a window for western scholarship onto the Islamic world. How vital is that role; and how necessary it is at this time, when Muslims in Britain are increasingly present in our public and academic life. Here in this University, founded in the scholastic, monastic tradition, I cannot but think of some of the great dialogues that have taken place between scholars of our faiths, most notably the fraternal search for the great truths of shared monotheistic faith of the encounter between Thomas Aquinas, Ibn Sina and Maimonides.

2. I am afraid I cannot offer anything quite so lofty tonight. Indeed, the topic I have chosen this evening is a matter which is not strictly academic, although it has many implications for theological study. I want to reflect with you on the place of our two key faiths in the world and how we might grow in mutual respect and understanding of one another. I am sure you will understand that I am looking at this from the point of view of the Catholic world.

3. Dialogue is of course as old as Islam itself. Our two faiths have always eyed each other, sometimes with suspicion and rivalry but just as much, I am glad to say, with mutual respect, and at many periods in history, in a way that has been mutually influential. For we are nothing if not neighbours. Bethlehem and Jerusalem are only 800 miles from Mecca and Medina. Ours are faiths marked by teachers who taught under trees, shading from the sun; and whose prayers are characterised by the deep yearning for the God of our energetic, enterprising peoples.

4. Our two faiths are boldly universal. This is what we have in common; and that has been the source, sometimes, of our tension. But universality is what today makes our dialogue imperative. Ours are the two largest world religions. Christians make up about a third of the population; Catholics about half that number, slightly under the numbers of Muslims. Christians and Muslims, in other words, make up about half of the inhabitants of the world. It is not an exaggeration to say that on the peace and respect between us hang the peace and respect between all the religions. Our mutual understanding is crucial for world peace and human progress, not least in this era when globalisation and mass migration have placed Christians and Muslims ever closer to each others, as neighbours in the same European towns and cities.

5. It was just over a year ago that the funeral of that apostle of dialogue, Pope John Paul II, captured the attention of the world. It was for us cardinals a source of great gratitude and joy to see so many representatives of other faiths and Churches present at this funeral. Not least was the large presence of Muslims from so many different nations and traditions.

6. It was also a reminder of just how rapid have been the developments in Catholic-Muslim dialogue in the last decades. The presence of Muslims at the Day of Prayer for World Peace in 1986, when Pope John Paul II called together the world's faith leaders for the first summit of its kind, was still timid. But in 1999, when the Pope called together an Interreligious Assembly in Rome, more than 40 Muslims took part. Perhaps the most remarkable event in the modern history of Catholic-Muslim relations was when John Paul II visited Morocco after an invitation from King Hassan II in 1985. The Pope addressed a crowd of some 60,000 young Muslims in a sports stadium - a truly remarkable moment. "We believe in the same God," Pope John Paul II told them, "the one God, the living God, the God who creates the world and brings the world to perfection."

7. This is the foundation for our dialogue: our common ancestry in a single God, and the rejection by Abraham of idols. This opens the possibility ­ indeed the obligation ­ of a bond between human beings whatever their beliefs. I was very glad to be present at the meeting of world's religious leaders last year in Lyon, organised by the Community of Sant'Egidio each year since that first meeting in Assisi in 1986. The meetings have developed what the Community calls a "spiritual humanism of peace" which stresses that we are all divinely-created human beings, sons and daughters of a common Father. We need to keep returning to this common ancestry in the same father. More religion of the true sort means human beings becoming closer to God, and therefore to each other.

8. The challenge in our theological dialogue is to be able to conduct this dialogue without, of course, diminishing what are, in both our faiths, rather exclusive claims. We can stress what we hold in common as children of Abraham, and continue to remind ourselves of this. But nor can we deny the profound differences between Christian and Muslim beliefs. Monotheism divides us as well as unites us. Muslims cannot accept Christian monotheism as Trinitarian monotheism. For Christians, Jesus is the Way to the Father; and for Muslims, there is a similar claim made for the Prophet and the Qu'ran. I think a deeper awareness of our individual traditions is important. Catholics, in order to be good dialogue-partners, must first be firmly rooted in their understanding and love of Catholicism, and I suspect that this is true for Muslims too.

9. But a realistic confession of our deep differences does not exclude a respectful dialogue. Indeed, in both our Scriptures and in our traditions mutual witness and sharing of convictions are a duty commanded by God. In the New Testament, Christians need always to remember Peter's words to "always have your answer ready for people who ask you the reason for the hope that you all have. But give it with courtesy, and respect, and a clear conscience." In the Qu'ran is that remarkable instruction to "Dispute not with the People of the Book [that is, Jews and Christians] save in the fairer manner, except for those of them that do wrong, and say: 'We believe in what has been sent down to us and what has been sent down to you. Our God and your God is One, and to him we have surrendered." [29.46]. In such passages, there is no suggestion of watering-down passionately-held beliefs.

10. Both of our traditions, of course, have other texts, which can be, and are, used belligerently. Yet such texts as I have quoted provide a real basis for dialogue, one which has been developing rapidly.

11. In case there can be any doubt about the sincere respect of the Catholic Church for Islam, I need only quote from the document Nostra Aetate of the Second Vatican Council, in which the Catholic bishops of the world, gathered in Rome, declared:

12. "The Church has also a high regard for Muslims. They worship God, who is one, living and subsistent, merciful and almighty, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, who has also spoken to people. They strive to submit themselves without reserve to the hidden decrees of God, just as Abraham submitted himself to God's plan, to whose faith Muslims eagerly link their own. Although not acknowledging him as God, they venerate Jesus as a prophet, his virgin mother they also honour, and even at times devoutly invoke, Further, they await the day of judgement and the reward of God following the resurrection of the dead. For this reason, they highly esteem an upright life and worship God, especially by way of prayer, alms-deeds and fasting." [NA 3].

13. Since the Vatican Council, successive popes have sought to express this respect on many different occasions. Pope John Paul II, meeting Muslims in Paris in 1980, greeted them as "our brothers in faith in the one God". In the Philippines in the following year he said:

14. "I deliberately address you as brothers: that is certainly what we are, because we are members of the same human family but we are especially brothers in God, who created us and whom we are trying to reach, in our own ways, through faith, prayer and worship, through the keeping of his law and through submission to his designs."

15. John Paul II was an exemplar of dialogue. Who can forget how, during his pilgrimage in the footsteps of Moses, he visited Al-Azhar in Cairo, or how, during his pilgrimage in the footsteps of St Paul, he entered the mosque in Damascus. It was a gesture in the great tradition of those Christians throughout the ages who have shown, in words and gestures, the respect of Islam.

16. Dialogue will be impossible as long as minds are closed, as long as adherents of either faith believe that we have nothing to learn from the other, or that the Spirit of God is not active in the whole of God's Creation.

17. The delicate task of our contemporary societies is to forge this dialogue and cooperation, to overcome ignorance and to learn mutual respect. That is the task of this Centre, and it is a noble and necessary one.

18. The main obstacle to that dialogue is the failure, in a number of Muslim countries, to uphold the principle of religious freedom. If we do not enjoy the freedom to practise our religion openly and without fear, then we cannot be honest; a defensive mentality is created, in which people treat their different religions as clubs ­ the only places where they can relax and be themselves. Dialogue assumes the freedom to witness. It is essential that Muslims can freely worship in Oxford or London, just as it is essential that Christians can freely worship in Riyadh or Kabul.

19. When Pope John Paul II spoke at the opening of the mosque in Rome in 1995, he called it an "eloquent sign of the religious freedom recognised here for every believer." He said it was significant that in Rome, the centre of Christianity and the See of the successor of St Peter, that Muslims should have their own place to worship with full freedom for their freedom of conscience.

20. "It is unfortunately necessary to point out," he went on, "that in some Islamic countries similar signs of the recognition of religious freedom are lacking. And yet the world, on the threshold of the third millennium, is waiting for those signs While I am pleased that Muslims can gather in prayer at the new Roman mosque, I earnestly hope that the rights of Christians and of all believers freely to express their own faith will be recognised in every corner of the earth."

21. This is a vital principle of sacred hospitality, and it is vital for the relationship between Christians and Muslims. Where Christians are being denied their rights, or are subject to sharia law, that is not a matter on which Muslims in Britain should remain silent. Where religious rights of minorities are disrespected in the name of Islam, the face of Islam is tarnished elsewhere in the world.

22. Sacred hospitality demands that we speak up for each other. And it impels our communities to take common action together, especially in response to social issues or in response to disasters and emergencies. One of my happier moments this past year was during a New Year's visit to Sri Lanka. I went to commemorate the anniversary of the tsunami of Boxing Day 2004 in the company of the Catholic aid agency CAFOD, which has been rebuilding houses and communities there. I was on the east coast of the island, where there is a patchwork of villages of different beliefs: some Hindu, some Muslim, some Christian. It was a visit of great joy as well as witnessing great suffering. In one Hindu village they were not too sure how to explain what a Cardinal was and introduced me to the village as, "A member of the Roman Catholic High Command"! But what struck me very forcibly was the practical 'dialogue of life' between the different faiths, as they tried to rebuild their lives. In one Muslim village the leader told me that "many came and went, promising things. But only the Catholics stayed, and built us new houses." The Catholic aid workers who had helped those villagers did not engage in theological dialogue; they were not there as missionaries, to try to persuade anyone to convert. But by their actions, and by the villagers' welcome of them and of me, there was a moving example of the mutual solidarity ­ and dare I say it, love ­ which stirred in me the desire to see such love characterise Catholic-Muslim relations in the world.

23. Last year there were two memorable examples when I stood with Muslim leaders in a common witness. The first was at Edinburgh, during the Make Poverty History march which sought to put pressure on the G8 summit to fulfill the Millennium Development Goals; and shortly afterwards, in the wake of the 7 July bombings. On both occasions, Christian, Muslim, Jewish and other religious leaders appeared together, in a very public way, to demonstrate our friendship and to show that we shared a belief in a God of justice and of peace; and that any other versions of God were blasphemous.

24. I remember , in particular the witness and words of the mother of one of the victims of the 7 July bombings, Marie Fatayi-Williams. She is a devout Catholic and standing with her Muslim husband a few days after that tragedy she echoed both their sentiments:

"Throughout history, those people who have changed the world have done so without violence, they have [won] people to their cause through peaceful protest. What inspiration can senseless slaughter provide? Death and destruction of young people in their prime as well as old and helpless can never be the foundations for building society. My son Anthony is my first son, my only son, the head of my family..I will fight till I die to protect him. To protect his values and to protect his memory.Innocent blood will always cry to God Almighty for reparation. How much blood must be spilled? How many tears shall we cry? How many mothers' hearts must be maimed? .

It's time to stop and think. We cannot live in fear because we are surrounded by hatred. Look around us today. Anthony is a Nigerian, born in London, worked in London, he is a world citizen. Here today we have Christians, Muslims, Jews, Sikhs, Hindus, all of us united in love for Anthony. Hatred begets only hatred. It is time to stop this vicious cycle of killing. We must all stand together, for our common humanity."



25. I think this 'standing together' must be our answer to the pessimism of the Samuel Huntington 'clash of civilisations'. There are very real tensions in our world, tensions provoked by injustice, terrorism and war. Inevitably, there will be those who wish to see in these tensions the faultlines of faith, and will find in the history of our two faiths evidence of this. In the course of thirteen centuries of co-existence, it could hardly be otherwise. There have been hard and painful periods. But there have also been periods of frank and fruitful collaboration and sincere friendship, and these flames have not been suffocated by conflict.

26. That is why there cannot be an intrinsic conflict between our religions, even if there will at times be tensions between Muslims and Christians. As Pope John Paul II wrote: "interreligious dialogue is especially important in establishing a sure basis of peace and warding off the spectre of the wars of religion which have so often bloodied human history." [NMI].

27. Here in Europe, we have a particular challenge now, one made urgent by the rising tensions in the Muslim community which are spilling out on the edges of that community in an adherence to fundamentalist or nostalgic doctrines which approve violence.

28. The fear and hostility which such groups and doctrines have produced in wider society are behind the Islamophobia which so many Muslims detect in modern British society. There is much in our Catholic experience ­ when being Catholic and Irish in the 1970s was to be equated in the minds of some with terrorism ­ that must surely lead us to sympathise.

29. Catholics, too, are familiar with the jibe that we are newcomers with dubious allegiances. It was only in 1873 that The Times could thunder that "a statesman who becomes a convert to Roman Catholicism forfeits at once the confidence of the English people. To become a Roman Catholic and remain a thorough Englishman are, it cannot be disguised, ­incompatible conditions."

30. Such an opinion about being a Muslim would not, I hope, be found in the pages of The Times today; yet it is a sentiment not far below the surface of some of our newspaper reports, and more notorious political movements.

31. To listen to some of these, you would think Muslims were new to Europe! No one who has been to southern Spain or Portugal can fail to know how misguided that view is. The role of the Arabs in transmitting Greek science to the Western world is well known; it is hard, indeed, to imagine great medieval universities such as this one without the development of medicine, sciences, astronomy and medicine passed on by the Arabs and enriched by their pragmatic, empirical philosophy. The debt owed to the great scholastic theologians of the Catholic tradition to Muslim philosophers and theologians is also a matter of record.

32. So that while it is most commendable that the University of Oxford has made space for this Centre, it would be wrong to think of you as newcomers. When Catholics were once again admitted to this University in the nineteenth century, it seemed to those here that we were "new boys". But looking around these cloistered colleges, founded in most cases by monastic orders in communion with Rome, we were entitled to believe that "new boys" was not an entirely accurate term.

33. In many parts of central and eastern Europe, there are Muslim communities going back six centuries or more. But there is no question that the arrival of very large numbers of Muslims ­ there are perhaps 25 million now in the whole of Europe ­ is one of the great characteristics of this European moment.

34. Here in Britain, there is much that the Catholic community can do to assist Muslims in their journey towards feeling comfortable as fully British and fully Muslim. Catholics and Muslims are not guests in Britain, but homemakers. Both our communities have decades of experience as immigrant labourers building networks of solidarity around our mosques and churches and schools. We have both known discrimination and exploitation, and question marks about our allegiance.

35. In one of my last meetings with Dr Zaki Badawi before his death, he asked for our help in drawing on the Catholic experience in assisting Muslims to become comfortable British citizens, and of course I promised what assistance I could give. I want to say, at this point, how much I miss Dr Badawi. Not only did we exchange views honestly and with deep respect, but we laughed a lot. His was a voice which British Muslims were lucky to have, and I hope will soon find again.

36. One of the areas in which we have a shared experience is of a lack of respect for our beliefs in the media and in the Arts. Freedom of expression and artistic licence are cornerstones of our contemporary democracy; and yet too often these noble principles are invoked as a defence of advertisements or cartoons or films which are simply adolescent or iconoclastic in their desire to provoke.

37. It is important for Christians and Muslims to realise that, while we perceive ourselves to be powerless victims of all-powerful media corporations, that is not how secular public opinion often sees us. One of the consequences of secularism is ignorance, and ignorance is easily swayed by fear. This means that, while it is painful often to do so, we need to be restrained in how we manifest our disapproval at blasphemy and disrespect. When we protest too belligerently, we provoke a reaction in people who do not share our beliefs ­ a reaction of indignation. And we serve only the publicity machine. Indeed, the indignation of a cleric or a placard-waving crowd is sometimes all that a play or a television programme or an art work needs to secure a little free publicity, and that much sought-after tag of "controversial" or even better, "notorious".

38. This does not mean that we should stay silent. Witness to our beliefs demands that we defend them. Because we have religious belief we have a sensitivity to the religious symbols of other faiths and can, hopefully, help our secular culture be more sensitive to them too. Neither can we accept the argument that religious beliefs are merely ideas that can be treated as relative notions. There is sometimes a strange kind of logic operative in contemporary European society which suggests that it if you have a religious faith then your voice should somehow be marginalized, whereas if you have no faith that in itself gives you the credentials to have a voice to speak out on the Common Good, or the Family or on matters of life and death. The attempt to create a "neutral" public space is so often really an attempt to neutralise religion. But we need to remember also that in a free, secular society we cannot demand respect for our beliefs as of right: respect has to be earned. The market for parodies of faith would be smaller if people were less ignorant. When the spotlight turns on us, we need to do what we can to counter that ignorance.

39. This is, perhaps, one area where we can co-operate to help form a spiritual humanism of peace. Since September 11 and here since July 7, religious leaders have been demonstrating that when religion is linked to violence, violence is done to religion; and that religion in the name of God is blasphemy. In the same way, perhaps religious leaders need to respond together to the mockery of faith ­ whether their own or that of others - in the media and in the arts.

40. But it is in the "how" of that response that we witness to our faiths. There is a famous line of St Paul's, that "when we are weak, then we are strong". I am sure you could find a similar sentiment in the Qu'ran. It is a truth borne out by history. It was only since the Catholic Church lost the papal states that we have had a series of great and holy popes. It is not that there were none before; but temporal power never sits easily with the call to the desert which both our faiths make. God is heard in simplicity and in holy poverty. Catholics may sometimes be nostalgic for the Middle Ages, for the days when holy law and temporal law were at least allied, in the same way that there are Muslims today who dream of the recreation of the Caliphate of Cordoba. History offers inspiration and sustenance; but it also carries the warning that the Kingdom of God can never be the Kingdom of this World, and that those who confuse the two often place a barrier to God's self-revelation.

41. These are areas of common experience, shared wisdom. But mostly I believe that our journey together in contemporary Europe will experienced at a local level, in the places where Christian and Muslims families coexist in the same towns and boroughs. In London, there is an organisation called London Citizens, which works with churches and mosques to bring to bear their concerns to local authorities. At the meetings of London Citizens, it is very heartening to see Mass-going Catholics and Mosque-going Muslims share common experiences and common concerns, and decide to act together on issues such as housing or fair wages for migrants. From such encounters come friendships, and from friendships is born the curiosity to know each other better. When Lent comes around, the Catholics can explain what they do and why; and Muslims, at the time of Ramadan, can do the same. Catholics go on pilgrimages, to Rome and Jerusalem; Muslims make the haj to Mecca. Here is a wealth of common human experience grounded in shared spiritual knowledge.

42. I would like Catholics to know Muslims better: to know what makes them tick, why they believe what they believe. And to act together, as they do in London Citizens, to make our society a more human, more civilised place to be.

43. This is a task which falls particularly to the religious believers of modern Britain. You cannot solve the difficulties created by the existence of a multitude of visions for society by trying to create a society emptied of vision altogether. An utterly secular society, which turns its back on transcendent value, and governs itself by sheer pragmatism and the lowest common denominator, can never be a home for human beings worthy of that name. Wisdom is not private; morality is not private; the holiness of life is not private. We have to find ways to make the public fabric of our society, our laws, our civic institutions, the texture and quality of the life we live together, reflect more than just the values of the global market. They must reflect wisdom and love and justice. They must defend the God-given dignity of all. They must look out, above all, for the poorest and most vulnerable, lest the strong be left to walk on them. These are not pragmatic matters.

44. It is fashionable among some to talk as if religion was the source of all that is amiss in our world, to see it as bringing nothing but violence and hatred and conflict. Love and hate do indeed live close together in the human heart. Where people's deepest loyalties and deepest convictions are engaged, then there is always the danger of perversion. But a world without deep loves and deep loyalties would be a desert. Twisted religion may be used to justify hatred and violence. But true religion points us towards healing and wholeness, towards whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious.

45. This is what faith agrees on. This common witness is helping to build a spiritual humanism of peace, a framework for belonging recast for our diversified world. Here is a task for Catholics and Muslims, in collaboration with our brothers and sisters in the other faiths.

46. I say "spiritual" humanism, because society needs more than abstract ideals, it must embody and promote decency, dignity, respect for others. And as long as there have been human beings, they have looked to religion, to a sense of living in God's world under God's law, for light on what decency and dignity and respect for others might mean. The shrines are not redundant: we need holiness and wisdom and love and peace as much as ever we did, and the ancient wells from which holiness and wisdom and love and peace have been drawn have not run dry.

47. These are matters on which Catholics and Muslims share a common passion, born of a common father who is merciful, but who demands of us to conquer self-indulgence with love and service of others. Regular prayer and the disciplines of abstinence, as well as a regular admission of our failings, are the means to this. That is why we cannot expect to be always understood, or even to be liked.

48. But through these common experiences of rejection and misunderstanding, we can forge bonds of friendship between our faiths. We can work together, laugh together, seek justice together. We can learn from each other. And we can grow together, supportive of each other, giving a common witness to the God who made us and all the earth, and who desires that one day we all be one and united, in the image of God himself. It is an exciting task, and one we can all begin today.

© Independent Catholic News 2006



Comment: These are very nice words and sentiments from Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor. Whether it is practicable to devise a society where Muslims and Western Christians can live amicably is another question.

Whoses view on the place of women in the society prevail? The Islamic or the Western?

This basic, vital and unavoidable question can be asked in relation to a hundred important issues.

A common peaceful and co-operative society encompassing Christian Westerners and Muslims sounds lovely. Is it possible?