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watchmanis216 · 4 years

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Examining America’s Peril in the last Days

The rule of Islam will never take over America and make it greater than what the Lord our God has already blessed this nation with. Unfortunately this country has left off from our Christian roots and foundational Judeo-Christian roots.

Examining America’s Peril in the last Days

While America will fall one day, it will never again rise under any power or group to the extent that is already had risen. The perilousness of the last days comes into focus, even for us who live in America. Things are different, you know it, and I know it. Websites that cover the news know that something has changed in this country.

We all remember 9-11 do we not? Well yesterday’s explosion in New York from an explosive device placed in a trash can on 23rd street certainly make it all come back. Was it just some person or persons who decided to just test out his bomb making skills. Maybe it was a mistake and he dropped it into the trash by accident and caused it to trigger. Yea, maybe; maybe it was all a mistake, a fluke. Well, we know it was not such an unlikely mistake here. We have enemies. They are among us!

Continue in post for the Watchman’s podcast on the Takeover of Washington almost complete, plus other relevant articles on this:

Now be sure there are Muslims who believe in our constitution and frankly are opposed to radicalized Islam and their attack to destroy America or make it into a Sharia state. As in the Case of Doctor Zuhdi Jasser of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, we have an article titled: Islam Du Jour “Which Islam do you prefer” which also has Dr. Jasser and his group mentioned. There are many forms of Islam including Dr. Jasser’s which put’s him first and foremost as an American. He says of himself:

“I’m an American,” Jasser said, introducing himself at the D.C. press conference. “I’m a former Naval officer. I love my family, and I want to ensure that the legacy that I leave for my children is one in which the faith that I love and the country that I love are compatible.”

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Years ago, before 9-11 I remember a group of radical Muslims who were burning flags and preaching the destruction of America. They said in their video at the time that the FBI were in the crowd and were tracking their movements then. They went on preaching, gathering a New York crowd who listened as they declared that one day the ‘black flag’ of Islam would fly over the White House. Well it is not flying over the White House yet, but we do have a Muslim sympathizer who has placed Muslims in high positions of authority in our government. No one listened and really believed what these radicalized Muslims were saying. Burning the American flags and also stomping on other American flags they made their case. No one stopped them. This was America. So these Muslim Americans used the US constitution’s guarantee of free speech to denigrate and castigate the nation they live in. But this same group and others like them continue their hatred for and goal to overthrow this nation. If those listening to their vile preaching on that day and had of believed them, then they would have arrested them, and sent them packing.

Islam in America, Farrakan on America, Black power, Radical Islam: Find the relevant articles to this one!

Obama pushes to protect Islam in America

Farrakhan on America ‘we need to put America down’

Black Power at War with White America

Radical Islam by the Numbers

America “I am your flag”

Takeover of Washington by the Beast Almost complete

Podcast from WIBR/WARN Archives:

[powerpress]

Moreover, as for Islamic influence, you can start with Valarie Jarrett an Obama longtime pal and advisor. She is Iranian descent, a Muslim, and one who wants openly to make America more Muslim. Then we had Hillary Clinton who has Huma Abedin, a Muslim that is a personal friend and aid to the former Secretary of state. You can find a story on Obama’s Islamic connections on Shoebat. We also know that Obama has had close ties to the Muslim brotherhood. Here we see that we have a Muslim sympathizer in the White House. Yet, this Muslim is our President and so called Chief. He is also the purveyor of laws and doctrines that if he were in a Muslim nation like Iran, he would be hanged for pushing Sodomy and laws like it. Under Obama, we have two sides; one is a Muslim and the other is a lawless leader who has created a new openness that makes the USA worse than Sodom.

So is it any wonder that in this country we face an overthrow of all things American? America has changed. Not for the better!

“The recent discovery of an Obama administration document evidencing support for the Muslim Brotherhood is unsurprising,” she said. “It merely confirms the consistent position of the White House’s support of the Muslim Brotherhood since Obama’s election.” Source ‘Smoking Gun’ evidence

But the enemies of America and its peril we all face today is not just the fault of radicalized Muslims. We have radicals of all stripes. We also have many enemies in our midst. The biggest enemy could be pointed out to be our own politicians and the government itself that does not see the danger of the Islamic sword to this nation. While many cannot see an Islamic invasion by sword, rider, and horse; neither can they see a perceived threat of an invasion or attack on America. At the same time, we are undergoing massive change in America with more and more Muslims being brought in to add to the numbers already here.

The problem is, Muslims want a sharia America; or many do. The radicalized Muslims also want an America that is the most powerful Muslim nation on earth. In fact, Obama said this in his Cairo speech in 2009. He said that America is ‘one of the largest Muslim countries in the world’. In fact when doing the story on this, one commenter [see comment section, only 1 comment] saw the situation as this “Under President Barack Hussein (peace be upon him) the United States is now the premier Islamic military power on earth.” Now one comment doesn’t make the case here, but the true objective is to make America a ‘sharia power and an Islamic state’. The change in America has been pushed for decades by one of our allies, yep; Saudi Arabia. But today the jihad is taking place on college campuses.

There is a Jihad occurring on college campuses in America. A Jihad led by the Muslim Student Association’s national “Muslim Accommodations Task Force.” The objective of this Saudi funded task force is to acclimatize non-Islamic students to accept and incorporate Muslim students’ mandatory cultural duties and obligations into campus culture. That includes—and specifically targets—historical Christian and Roman Catholic Universities.

Furthermore, we continue to see Islamic influence in the White House. This push has been led by American Presidents. President Obama had held Eid al-Fitr dinners at the White House to celebrate the end of Ramadan. But also George Bush held an Iftar every year of his two terms. It was Hillary Clinton, then first lady who hosted a dinner in 1996.

In 1996, Bill Clinton became the first US president to hold an Eid al-Fitr dinner at the White House to celebrate the end of Ramadan, the Muslim month-long dawn-to-dusk fast. Eid al-Fitr includes six “Takbirs,” the raising of hands and shouting, “Allahu Akbar!” to declare that Allah, the moon god, is “Greater” (than the God of all other religions, including Christianity – see Halal Meat).

The push of this nation towards other gods and away from traditional Judeo-Christian roots has been at the forefront of this nation for many years. In its wake we have seen the lawlessness grow in this nation. From the first push to rid the schools of any Christian influence, Christian Prayers, Pledge of Allegiance, and Christian bibles to the current GTBLQ agendas of the Obama administration. We have seen more and more Islamic attacks in this country and more globalism being entrenched in American policies.

We have seen the ongoing push of Islam, Sharia, and the fall of the American system based on the US constitution. In Ohio a young Muslim was caught when he wanted to “behead Christians, Jews, and his own son.” Rahman Al-Ghazi aka Robert C. McCollum wanted to really fulfill the Islamic Jihad in Ohio saying to a an informant that he “had no qualms with killing kuffar (non-Muslims”) and declared, “If I kill one of these mother f___ I go to heaven.”

Indeed, today we see the Perilousness of these last days in America. It behooves Christians to wake up and seek the Lord. Forget that this jihad will not come to the USA, it already has. They will either get their way for a Sharia America or fight to get one. Either way it will be violent. In the meantime, those peace loving Muslims will continue to expand and grow their influence until over the decades they will outnumber anyone else.

We have covered Christian persecution in the world extensively and there is one truth; Christians in Muslim nations are killed, imprisoned, and face extreme injustice. There is no truth to the Muslim credo that says Christians can live as Kafir’s [non-believers] and under the burden of sharia law and say they won’t be targeted. This is a lie; we have published the proof for years. Christians die, get put in prison, and many times they face Muslims who bear false witness to remove Christians who won’t convert to Islam.

Examining America’s Peril in the last Days

The words Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Israel are appropriate for America as well!

Jer 5:23-29

(23) But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone.

(24) Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.

(25) Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good things from you.

(26) For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men.

(27) As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxen rich.

(28) They are waxen fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge.

(29) Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

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Examining America’s Peril in the last Days Examining America’s Peril in the last Days The rule of Islam will never take over America and make it greater than what the Lord our God has already blessed this nation with.

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republicstandard · 6 years

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Top Ten Movies You Couldn’t Make Today: 1990's Edition

As John Q's exploration of movies from the 1980s which deserve the Fahrenheit 451 treatment was so popular, we locked him in a dark room with a Netflix account and his weekly allowance of absinthe until he made another glorious slice of borderline-illegal viral content. The kids love lists, and we need the clicks! Thanks John, hope your time in rehab goes well. Here are 10 movies from the 90's that would never be made in our modern, progressive utopia.

10. The Lion King (1994)

As an allegory for mass Third World immigration and the consequent environmental degradation, cultural subversion, tyrannical Marxism, and ultimately population replacement, the film hits way too close to home. It also reinforces gender expectations via the patriarchal right of succession and is, in its portrayal of both the hyenas and Rafiki the mandrill, undoubtedly racist. Despite the setting in Africa, the source material is Shakespearean, and as a Dead White Male, this is strictly forbidden. What, Alice Walker isn’t good enough for you bigots?

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9. Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)

An all-(white) male ensemble cast? Oh honey, you’re dreaming! Not today, not ever again (unless it’s gay porn, to borrow the joke from Zack and Miri). As an added “bonus,” the film is decidedly anti-egalitarian in orientation, and is replete with a number of homophobic slurs. Deeply troubling stuff, here, folks.

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8. Man of the House (1995)

Easily one of the most culturally appropriative scenes of all time takes place about mid-way through the film in the Boy Scouts-equivalent meeting where the entirely white (possibly minus one ethnically-ambiguous pair) male cast is wearing all manner of headdresses and war paint imitating Amerindians. To add insult to injury, the father-son duos are in a circle and are practicing a kind of “Native American” initiation rite by way of introduction, called the “Naming Ceremony.” I want to unpack how problematic this scene is further, but “I can’t even.”

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7. Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)

The entire premise of the film is built on the decision of a man so desperate to spend time with his children that he enlists his fabulous brother to turn him into a nanny named Mrs. Doubtfire. The problem is that the humor of the film derives almost exclusively from the Robin Williams’s gender-bending and the absurdity of it all, thus, the humor must come at the expense of the Other; Williams’s character’s son completely freaks out after seeing Doubtfire/his dad urinating while standing: “He’s a she, she’s a he, she’s a he-she!” The children quickly turn against Doubtfire. Not very open-minded if you ask me. As Nico Lang wrote for The Daily Dot:

If Mrs. Doubtfire’s casual transphobia is a product of its era, so is its comedy… Mrs. Doubtfire also debuted the exact same month as The Crying Game, another AMPAS favorite that relied on the inherent titillation of transgender bodies…A culture that continues to laugh at “men in dresses” will continue to invalidate the struggles that actual transgender people go through every day, both in and out of the workplace. If our comedy is stuck in the ’90s, our treatment of LGBT people will be, too…What plays well in 1992 reads very differently today. Mrs. Doubtfire was a product of the gender politics of its era, a cultural panic about divorce and men’s declining roles in the home, as well as a deep insecurity about masculinity…Sally Field’s “Mean Mom” is the real threat. Because she wears the pants in the family, Williams’ character has to prove his worth by wearing a dress.

Commenter Gegenny on Reddit’s “r/asktransgender” forum doesn’t necessarily see the film as transphobic so much as nakedly misogynistic, declaring:

It is less transphobic so much as misogynistic. Man is willing to endure the most humiliating thing possible to see his kids, so naturally that means posing as a woman. The aspects of that humiliation are then played for laughs.

The reactions to the film are mixed; some consider it to be transphobic, others, as the quote above exemplifies, consider it “just” misogynistic, and still others say that it is transvestite-phobic. Whichever (or all of the above) the film is, it is definitely hurtful and hateful and should never have been made. As a final note, one could definitely read the “drive-by fruiting” as having homophobic undertones. A very problematic film any way you slice it.

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6. Kindergarten Cop (1990)

More transphobia here. One of the most appalling scenes in all of cinema is when young Joseph, at only 27 months old says, seemingly innocently enough, “Boys have a penis and girls have a vagina!” After being triggered by this shocking ignorance of gender as a social construct when I re-watched the film for the purposes of this article, I was literally shaking. What were they teaching kids in school back then?

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5. Aladdin (1992)

According to The Washington Post, 90% of the lines in the movie go to male characters. For Christine-Marie Liwag Dixon: Nearly a decade after slave Leia appeared in Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi, Princess Jasmine faced similar circumstances in Aladdin. The depiction was no less creepy and no less sexualized, but is made worse by the fact that Aladdin is supposed to be a kid’s movie…To see Jasmine forced into subservience by the evil Jafar is nauseating. It’s not really surprising that Jafar treats women badly, but this scene goes a little too far for comfort in a children’s film, especially after Jasmine uses her feminine wiles to distract Jafar before Aladdin saves the day. Watching the sham seduction take place is gross, but is even more disturbing when you remember how many kids watched this scene without understanding just how messed up it is.

Furthermore, the film shows Arabic society (and Islam by extension given the source material) in a bad light as intractably patriarchal—this is extremely problematic as we all know that anything less than the deification of brown folks is racism, and anything less than hosannas to the heavens for Islam is “Islamophobic,” for it is well-established that Islam is enriching, empowering, peaceful, and tolerant.

(Let us not even get into how even the lyrics to the intro song were considered too racist, and were changed. Tsch, maybe we had 9/11 coming after all -Ed.)

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4. Starship Troopers (1997)

Despite director Paul Verhoeven’s attempt to satirize the source material, Robert Heinlein’s novel is just too strong and the satire falls flat, instead making fascism look way too appealing. In fact, the entire future society was only made possible by the reclamation of Western civilization from the near-abyss of “democracy”; one may choose to remain a civilian with all attendant rights and privileges, but no vote and no ability to stand for public office and certain other professions, or one may earn the franchise through military service for the Federation at the potential cost of their lives. Furthermore, the protagonist of the novel, Juan Rico, is Filipino, whereas Verhoeven intentionally “white-washed” Rico and his friends and family for the film to highlight the overt “Nazism” of Heinlein’s creation. The problem is that, beyond betraying Heinlein’s point that race was largely irrelevant in the Federation (its military predicated exclusively on merit), the actors are all extremely good-looking, and their attractiveness only makes saving humanity from the Bugs while exercising their civic duty that much more, well, attractive.

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3. Hocus Pocus (1993)

From the hook noses to the child sacrifices, the anti-Semitic overtones in this film are extremely problematic. In the opening scene, the local white populace comes with pitchforks to execute the three witches for stealing their children and using them in their rituals, which evokes uncomfortable images of an Eastern European pogrom. For context, Ron Unz explains:

It appears that a considerable number of Ashkenazi Jews traditionally regarded Christian blood as having powerful magical properties and considered it a very valuable component of certain important ritual observances at particular religious holidays. Obviously, obtaining such blood in large amounts was fraught with considerable risk, which greatly enhanced its monetary value, and the trade in the vials of this commodity seems to have been widely practiced.

Additionally, according to Sheikh Khaled Al-Mughrabi, the Jews were killed by the Nazis because they were kidnapping Christian children to use their blood to make matzah.

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2. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)

The 90s were probably our most transphobic decade. Elena Nicolaou writes:

Trans women in ‘90s comedies like Ace Ventura were often law-breakers who deliberately hid their trans identities, as Meredith Talusan points out in a Buzzfeed article. Consequently, “the exposure of these women becomes synonymous with ‘catching’ them; there’s no meaningful difference made between finding out a woman is trans and discovering that she’s a criminal.”

When Ace Ventura (Jim Carrey) finds out that he’s kissed a man dressed as a woman, who also happens to be the villain, he has what Nicolaou describes as “an outrageously transphobic reaction.” He vomits in the shower and sets his clothes on fire. R. Kurt Osenlund recaps:

At the time of this movie’s release, Ace’s revelation was played entirely for laughs, but seen today, it’s basically horrifying. “Finkle is Einhorn!” Ace declares to himself. “Einhorn is a man!” With that, Ace, remembering that Einhorn pinned him on her desk and gave him sloppy kisses, goes into a violent burst of queer panic, purging in the toilet, loading his mouth with toothpaste, taking a plunger to his face, purging some more, burning his clothes, and finally crying naked in the shower, all to the tune of Boy George’s “The Crying Game.” Spying the pre-op trans woman the next day, Ace, still loading his mouth with chewing gum as a disinfectant, notes that “the gun” that was “digging into [his] hip” during the pair’s make-out session was in fact a penis, and he shudders madly at the thought.

The next day, as Nicolaou recaps, “He stages a big sex ‘reveal’ in which he pulls down the character’s pants.” In a thoroughly humiliating transphobic vaudeville show, returning to Osenlund:

Einhorn stands there on display, until, thanks to a tip-off from Marino, Ace grabs his culprit and spins her around, revealing the vivid bulge of a dick and balls that Einhorn had tucked back. Just then, “The Crying Game” picks back up on the soundtrack, and all the males on site begin spitting and cleaning out their mouths, as they too have all locked lips with a woman packing a cock. There is no redemption for Einhorn. She’s knocked into the water and left humiliated all over again—a pathetic loser who deserves to suffer not just for kidnapping, but for the gross crimes of mental instability, sexual deviance, and anatomical otherness.

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If one thing is certain, it is that trans people should be above any and all reproach, even if they are sociopathic criminals. Which leads me to my final film:

1. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

As perhaps the mother of all transphobic films, the portrayal of transgendereds in The Silence of the Lambs as lethality incarnate probably set the LGBTQI+’s agenda to invert heteronormativity-as-deviant back a good decade. As author Mey wrote for Autostraddle:

Perhaps the most famous instance of a trans woman being used to scare audiences is The Silence of the Lambs. When we see serial killer Buffalo Bill in their most famous scene, it is meant to be one of the most jarring and disturbing moments of the film. We see someone who is presented to us as a man tucking their penis between their legs, wearing a wig made from a woman’s scalp, swaying and dancing to music. Growing up, I remember many times hearing that this was one of the strangest and creepiest scenes in modern film. This action of putting on makeup and a wig, tucking and trying to look as beautiful and feminine as you can is something that a lot of us trans women can relate to. It’s something that a lot of us trans women have done. And here it is being presented as the epitome of horror.

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Mey is right—the perfectly benign activity of murdering women in order to skin and scalp them and literally “wear” them is presented here as deviant and horrific.

It’s something a lot of us trans-womyn have done.

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quranreadalong · 6 years

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#60, Surah 9

THE QURAN READ-ALONG: DAY 60

Warning: this section yet again requires a lot of context, so it’s gonna be long af. And the day after tomorrow I’m gonna start a five-part history lesson of military expeditions in Mohammed’s era. Y’all gonna be experts on Islamic history by the time this surah is done, sorry.

But let’s talk about this section itself. In the intro to this surah, I mentioned the Battle of Hunayn. Mohammed talks about it in 9:25-26:

Allah hath given you victory on many fields and on the day of Huneyn, when ye exulted in your multitude but it availed you naught, and the earth, vast as it is, was straitened for you; then ye turned back in flight; Then Allah sent His peace of reassurance down upon His messenger and upon the believers, and sent down hosts ye could not see, and punished those who disbelieved. Such is the reward of disbelievers.

The reward of disbelievers is death in battle, evidently. Bad. I guess 9:25 is neutral on its own, describing the Muslim soldiers almost fucking up the whole battle despite having a very large army.

This battle occurred shortly after Mecca was conquered and its surrounding areas were made to submit to Mohammed, though the details are extremely thin and shaky compared to the earlier battles we’ve seen. The enemies this time were members of a Hijazi tribe called the Banu Hawazin along with their various branch tribes, which included both Bedouin and settled peoples. The most prominent of the settled tribes was the Banu Thaqif, which led the southern city of Taif. Don’t feel bad if you don’t recognize the name--it’s because we haven’t seen them before! Nothing is said about Mohammed’s interactions with the Hawazin in Islamic history books until this battle.

Ibn Ishaq informs us that Mohammed learned about the leaders of the Hawazin assembling tens of thousands of people, mostly from Bedouin clans--men, women, and children--in a certain spot called Hunayn. They had all their animals and possessions with them, too. (This may sound like Mohammed’s people just attacked some place to steal shit, but Ibn Ishaq assures us that the evildoers just gathered all their women, children, and possessions in one place to motivate them. Sure!) Mo sent spies to this spot and they informed him that the Hawazin were planning on attacking Mecca. So Mohammed rounded up his troops, which included both the army he used to conquer Mecca and a couple thousand new additions following the submission of the Quraysh, and marched out to Hunayn. The area is about a three-days’ journey from Mecca.

So the Muslims had a large and united army, some motivated by faith and others by greed, as Mohammed had promised them war booty. But the Hawazin were defending their civilians and property, so they had their own motivations. The Hawazin sewed confusion and chaos with projectiles, ranging from arrows to rocks, then a group of men on horseback quickly blitzed the confused army. The troops scattered; Mohammed had to personally wrangle them back together and order them to press onwards, which they did, resulting in a Muslim victory. A total of five Muslim fighters are listed as killed in action during this battle.

This implausible series of events is all we get on what happened at Hunayn. Neither sahih sources nor other early sources tell us anything on the background of the battle, and instead focus on its outcome: the Muslim army getting a lot of spoils of war.

There are a couple of tragicomic ahadith about Hunayn. Here’s one wherein Mohammed states that one of his own followers is hellbound, and then feels vindicated when that guy is mortally wounded and kills himself to escape the pain (thus going to hell).

We participated in the Battle of Hunain along with the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ). He (the Holy Prophet) said about a man who claimed to be a Muslim that he was one of the denizens of the Fire (of Hell). When we were in the thick of the battle that man fought desperately and was wounded. It was said: Messenger of Allah, the person whom you at first called a denizen of Fire fought desperately and died. Upon this the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) remarked: He was doomed to the Fire (of Hell). Some men were on the verge of doubt (about his fate) when it was said that he was not dead but fatally wounded. When it was night he could not stand the (pain of his) wound and killed himself. The Apostle (ﷺ) was informed of that. He (the Holy Prophet) observed: Allah is Great, I bear testimony to the fact that I am the servant of Allah and His messenger.

One of Mohammed’s own soldiers risks his life for Islam, but Mohammed says he’s going to hell, and is then happy when he kills himself because it means he’s right. I..... okay?!

Back to the Booty Topic. As Mohammed had promised them, the conquest of Hunayn resulted in a lot of loot. 6,000 women and children were enslaved, tens of thousands of animals were taken, silver, currency, and household goods. Here’s a hadith where Mohammed’s troops complain that he’s not distributing the stuff stolen from the people of Hunayn fairly, and he basically says:

When it was the day of Hunain, Prophet favored some people over some others (in the distribution of the booty). He gave Al-Aqra' one-hundred camels and gave Uyaina the same, and also gave other people (of Quraish). A man said, "Allah's Pleasure was not the aim, in this distribution." I said, "I will inform the Prophet (about your statement)." The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "May Allah bestow Mercy on Moses, for he was troubled more this but he remained patient."

Anyway, the Muslim army fought a battle located a few days away from Mecca for vague reasons, the battle was a bit of a mess but they won and took lots of war spoils and captives, is the point. Hunayn is mostly notable because it was the first large battle after Mecca was conquered and it was Mohammed’s first chance to show off his huge-ass army and use it to crush the remaining non-Muslim holdouts in the area.

The Banu Hawazin surrendered and “embraced Islam” after losing the battle. Mohammed gave them the choice between getting their women and children back and getting their property back; they chose the women and children, and so their stolen property remained with the soldiers whom Mohammed had distributed it to.

After their victory at Hunayn, the Muslim army marched to Taif and began besieging the Banu Thaqif within the city. The siege lasted about three weeks, but it didn’t work. Those within Taif did not want to go down so easily. Mohammed stopped the siege, but promised that he’d be back to destroy the place. The Thaqif sent emissaries to negotiate terms of surrender that would allow them to retain their temple to the goddess Allat, but Mohammed said he would not rest until the city was made Muslim and its temple was destroyed. Following the conquests of northern Arabia (more on that in a moment), the Thaqif were forced to give in. The temple was destroyed and they “embraced Islam”. By this point nearly every polytheistic city in the region had fallen to the Spreaders of the True Faith.

We’re done with that subject for the time being. Back to the Quran. 9:27 is one of those vague “Allah will forgive those he will” verses, which... okay? Neutral. 9:28 calls the polytheists unclean and bars them from the mosque at Mecca again. Rude and bad.

Now I need you to forget everything we were just talking about because the next section is a completely different topic. Remember the other battle (well... “battle”, more like straight-up conquest) I talked about? Where Mohammed said “aight fam gather round, we’re gonna go fight the Byzantines now”, then they got to the spot where the Byzantines were supposed to be, and there... weren’t any Byzantines (are you noticing a trend with Mohammed claiming his followers need to fight because there’s an imminent attack that never materializes yet?), but there were some peaceful Jewish and Christian towns that he proceeded to conquer? Yeah, that one. The expedition to Tabouk. We’re talking about that now.

The following ayah explicitly commands Muslims to attack Christians and Jews until they pay Muslims money, a move meant to humble or humiliate them.

Fight against such of those who have been given the Scripture as believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, and forbid not that which Allah hath forbidden by His messenger, and follow not the Religion of Truth, until they pay the tribute readily, being brought low.

So. Pretty bad, huh? This verse was a justification for everything Muslims did after this point (which included, you know, conquering almost the entire Middle East and most of North Africa). Remember that ayah from surah 2, “no compulsion in religion”, and how the tafsir said that it was later abrogated? Surprise!, Allah says, there is compulsion in religion. You either convert to Islam or you pay Muslims money, if you’re one of the “people of the book”. Or you die. Those are your options. The people around Tabouk mostly chose the middle option, as they were not prepared to fight Mohammed’s large army nor were they interested in dying (though some were murdered for no apparent reason).

This was the first case of the jizya tax being extracted from a conquered people. The jizya, unlike the zakat (obligatory tax for Muslims, 2.5% of wealth), has no set rate in either the Quran or the ahadith. In general it has been used to financially pressure non-Muslims, from the early Arab conquests to the Mughal conquest of India straight through the Ottoman era. Mohammed told people that Jesus would abolish the jizya at the end of the world, and not before that. Despite many apologists claiming otherwise, the ayah above and the early history of Islam itself show that the jizya was meant to be a punitive measure designed to show non-Muslims their place.

Note here that Mohammed’s earlier excuses for conquering disbelievers (they persecute Muslims!!!) are gone. The disbelievers must be brought low for no reason other than the fact that they are disbelievers.

Mohammed has some other thoughts about the people of the Tabouk region in 9:30.

And the Jews say: Ezra is the son of Allah, and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah. That is their saying with their mouths. They imitate the saying of those who disbelieved of old. Allah (Himself) fighteth against them. How perverse are they!

Remember how I said that Mohammed had no earthy clue who Ezra was, possibly because of all those old fake “Ezra” Christian texts floating around at the time? Yeah, here’s another example of that. There are zero recorded instances of a single Jew believing that Ezra is Allah’s son, despite many centuries of Muslim scholars desperately trying to find one. Mohammed was just an idiot, a bad intolerant idiot who thinks Allah fights against people minding their own business.

There’s a funny story in Ibn Ishaq’s sira in which Sallam ibn Mishkam, the deeply skeptical rabbi, kept trying to troll Mohammed by getting him to say things that were blatantly false. On one occasion he said to Mohammed, according to Ibn Ishaq’s biography, “you have abandoned our qibla and do not acknowledge Ezra as the son of God”, without explicitly saying that he (or Jews in general) believed that. “Allah” responded to this with the blatantly false ayah above, confirming Sallam’s belief that Mohammed was making shit up and also had no idea what he was talking about.

There is more theological confusion in 9:31:

They have taken as lords beside Allah their rabbis and their monks and the Messiah son of Mary, when they were bidden to worship only One God.

There are no Jewish or Christian sects that consider rabbis or monks or priests to be gods. Most tafsir collections say this is in reference to Jews and Christians turning to their religious leaders to tell them what is or is not permissible, which Muslims also do. What the hell did Mohammed think was occurring when people asked him what was permissible--were they treating him like a god? (While unmentioned by the tafsirs, I’ve seen some scholars suggest that Mohammed interpreted the Jewish use of the word rabbi as them calling the rabbis gods, since rabbi in Arabic is a way of referring to Allah--literally meaning “my lord”. I dunno if that’s true, but it does sound like Classic Mo tbh.)

Regardless, this blatant misconstruction of other religious groups’ beliefs is bad. 9:32 says that the Christians and Jews want to extinguish Allah’s light, which is likewise bad. Hmm. Sure is convenient how Mohammed is going hard against the Christians all of a sudden right around the time he wants to threaten them in order to steal their shit, huh.

The next ayah is neutral bragging, saying that Mohammed is a prophet and Islam will prevail even though the “idolators” don’t want it to.

9:34-35 complains about the greed of monks and rabbis (reminder: this whole section is structured around Mohammed demanding money from Christian and Jewish communities he’s threatening and harassing for no justifiable reason): they “devour the wealth of mankind” and are going to hell, where “their foreheads and their flanks and their backs will be branded”. Mohammed himself was a greedy asshole, but that doesn’t count, of course, because Allah told him to take all the money owed to him. I looked at some tafsir to see if any particular incident triggered this rant, but it appears that it did not; he was just ranting against Jews (and Christians) again. Ibn Kathir says:

For instance, the Jews were respected by the people of Jahiliyyah [pre-Islamic Arabia] and collected gifts, taxes and presents from them. When Allah sent His Messenger, the Jews persisted in their misguidance, disbelief and rebellion, hoping to keep their status and position. However, Allah extinguished all this and took it away from them with the light of Prophethood and instead gave them disgrace and degradation, and they incurred the anger of Allah, the Exalted

Well, fuck them for being respected and getting gifts, I guess. Bad.

The Islamic calendar is described in 9:36, 12 months with 4 “sacred”/truce months, a holdover from pre-Islamic times. The ayah concludes with “wage war on all of the idolaters as they are waging war on all of you”. By “all of” them, he means collectively--it’s an us vs them thing. Which is bad, and also as we’ve seen and will continue to see, the whole waging-war thing was started by ur fav prophet. Not Ze Idolators.

The next ayah complains about the disbelievers altering the calendar and its sacred months (which was evidently just done to keep the hajj in a suitable season). People who do this are “evil” and Allah doesn’t like them. Bad, but as a side note, isn’t it kind of weird how the idolatrous, 100% wrong polytheists somehow magically knew which months were sacred to Allah? Hmmmmm! Another holdover from Abraham’s days like the hajj, clearly.

Last ayat for the day.

Go forth in the way of Allah, ye are bowed down to the ground with heaviness. Take ye pleasure in the life of the world rather than in the Hereafter? The comfort of the life of the world is but little in the Hereafter. If ye go not forth He will afflict you with a painful doom, and will choose instead of you a folk other than you.

The kuffar hell counter (1)!!! Well, it’s more a soldiers-who-don’t-fight hell counter, but they’re obviously implied to be disbelievers for their lack of enthusiasm. Mohammed’s been complaining so much about... everything, yet we haven’t pinged the counter in a while. Good to have you back, bud!

NEXT TIME: Lazy and unmotivated soldiers!!!!

The Quran Read-Along: Day 60

Ayat: 13

Good: 0

Neutral: 3 (9:25, 9:27, 9:33, 9:38)

Bad: 10 (9:26, 9:28-32, 9:34-37, 9:39)

Kuffar hell counter: 1 (9:39)

⇚ previous day | next day ⇛

#quranreadalong #surah 9 #at tawbah

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tragicbooks · 7 years

Text

When a terrorist attack happens, keep these 12 helpful points in mind.

Terrorists want to divide and conquer. Don't let them.

Terrorist attacks are horrifying.

In the wake of each one, we see the faces of victims on our screens. We hear interviews from witnesses breathlessly describing the terrors they endured. We feel a lot of conflicting, disorienting things — fear, sadness, anger, confusion, hopelessness, and despair — sometimes all at once.

We're often left wondering why?

It's easy to feel utterly helpless when terrorism takes lives. But there are ways you can defy the people and ideologies that inflict so much tragedy.

1. First, if you can, be the helper.

"When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers,'" Mr. Rogers once said. "You will always find people who are helping."

It's a quote that often circulates in the wake of terror attacks. But it's not just because it's reassuring; it also rings true. Anyone can be a helper if they're in a position to do so.

Helpers opened up their homes for victims and survivors in the wake of the May 22, 2017, bombing in Manchester, U.K.

#RoomForManchester 10 mins taxi from city centre, can provide a safe place to stay, a cup of tea, charge your phone, please message me

— #votelabour (@saveuglyanimals) May 22, 2017

Helpers also drove hundreds of miles to take home stranded travelers from the airport after the 2016 terrorist attack in Brussels. Small-business workers helped to protect their patrons in Paris last year after gunfire and blasts killed over 100 people.

Let compassion, not fear, inspire you to act in the hours and days following an attack. (Helping others doesn't just benefit victims; it helps us cope with tragedy, too.)

2. Then, remember terrorism seeks to divide, and don't let it.

Whether it's right-wing extremists targeting Planned Parenthood or jihadists targeting a French music venue, remember that terrorists are often hell-bent on creating the divisiveness that allows their message to thrive.

The vast, vast majority of Muslims, for instance, vehemently reject the messages behind groups like ISIS or al-Qaida. In fact, Muslims — not Christians or Jews — are by far the biggest victims of Islamic extremism. In the same way Westboro Baptist Church doesn't represent Christianity, radical Islamic groups don't represent Muslims.

3. Now, turn off the TV.

When tragedy strikes, we tend to stay glued to cable news for hours, hungry for more details, even when watching makes us more scared and more anxious. Our 24/7 news model is the perfect, sensationalized medium to disperse terror near and far, and extremists understand this well.

Vox's Carlos Maza breaks down how damaging this sort of news coverage is for our brains:

News outlets are already replaying footage of the Manchester incident. Be wary of what that's doing to your brain: http://pic.twitter.com/KWX9ns3W9j

— Carlos Maza (@gaywonk) May 23, 2017

Listen to the American Psychological Association: After a terrorist attack, it's best to watch cable news sparingly (if at all).

4. When you do watch or read about what happened, especially as the news is still breaking, don't fall for or share fake news.

Terrorism seeks to breed chaos. There's usually a rush of contradicting news reports in the hours following an attack (all the more reason to turn off cable TV). Your social media feeds will be inundated with images, requests for donations, questionable quotes from supposed eyewitnesses, and photos purporting to show the immediate and gory aftermath of the attack.

News outlets or pundits sometimes jump to conclusions about the attackers' race or religion — a knee-jerk reaction rooted in xenophobia — and irresponsibly spread false or unconfirmed information. And some people, incredibly, exploit the tragedy for clicks and attention.

Reporting can often be wrong in rush to report. Check out @onthemedia's Breaking News Consumer's Handbook. #ManchesterExplosion http://pic.twitter.com/IovZudYfVH

— Rick Trilsch (@ricktrilsch) May 23, 2017

Don't add to the chaos. Vet what you're reading and sharing to make sure it's accurate. If you're not sure, don't share it. If you see people spreading false news, let them know.

If you choose to donate to an organization, make sure it's a credible one — like the many doing lifesaving work in support of refugees.

5. Donate to the people and causes affected by terror.

No one better understands the destruction Islamist terrorism can bring like refugees in countries like Syria and Iraq. Whether they've been affected directly or were uprooted due to the political ramifications of terror groups, refugees desperately need our help. Learn more and support organizations like UNICEF, Save the Children, and Islamic Relief USA.

Photo by Kutluhan Cucel/Getty Images.

In the U.S., domestic terrorists often target groups based on factors like race, politics, or religion. A Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado, a black church in Charleston, South Carolina, the streets of Dallas, where five police officers were shot and killed, an LGBTQ nightclub in Florida — they've all been ground zero in recent atrocities. When terrorists attack these groups and causes, we can fight back by supporting the groups' missions, helping them rebuild and reopen, and building bridges to boost understanding.

6. Put the real threats of terrorism into perspective.

In the U.S., you're far more likely to die in a parachuting accident or be buried alive than to be killed by a radical jihadist. You're also more likely to die at the hands of right-wing American terrorists — which, of course, isn't a comforting thought, but it does say a lot about how differently we see and react to radical Islamic extremism and domestic threats.

Now that you know the facts...

7. Don't cancel your plans; go to a concert, the movies, or your favorite restaurants.

After all, the fears we typically experience after a terrorist attack are pretty irrational, as psychiatrist Richard Friedman expressed in The New York Times in 2015.

"[The president] has to help us all realize that when we are in the grip of so-called emergency emotion — extreme fear and anxiety — we privilege our feeling over our thinking," he wrote. "And our estimation of the danger we face is exaggerated by our fear."

Go live life as you normally would — free of fear. That's exactly what most terrorists don't want.

8. Support leaders who want to fight all forms of terrorism with facts and level-headedness — not with fear-mongering.

Banning Muslims from entering the U.S. won't make us any safer, according to national security experts. But it will help bolster recruitment for extremist groups.

Photo by Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images.

Many times, American right-wing extremists who carry out heinous acts of terror are excused as "lone wolfs," and their atrocities are overlooked or minimized by our politicians. If a terrorist's skin is white, reaction to their crimes will be much different than if they're from, say, Syria.

Support leaders who understand the nuances of both global and domestic terrorism and know how to fight it.

9. Talk about the damage of toxic masculinity.

Terrorists and extremists from all walks of life and religious beliefs usually have one thing in common: They're almost all men. Mass shooters, Christian extremists, jihadists, and others around the globe often find purpose in ideologies that give them a (false) sense of power and control.

We need to talk about how our collective inability to stomp out toxic masculinity — the attitudes that confine males to being violent, aggressive, and unemotional — is swaying men to find their purpose within extremist sects of all sorts.

10. Share news stories that help counter negative stereotypes about Muslims.

In the case of a terror attack that ISIS or another Islamist extremist group takes credit for, it's especially important we acknowledge how most Muslims are reacting after terror strikes.

They're as scared and horrified as anyone else.

"Oh Allah give us peace" the head Imam says in his prayers #ManchesterArena http://pic.twitter.com/an9CeB1L1S

— Aisha S Gani (@aishagani) May 23, 2017

After an attack near the U.K. Parliament building in March 2017, Muslims United for London raised thousands of dollars for victims and their families. Muslim groups in Florida rushed to get blood donations for victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando last year. In the wake of the Manchester, U.K., bombing, Muslim charity Human Appeal created a campaign to aid those affected by the atrocity.

These stories don't reflect the few. They reflect the feelings and attitudes of most Muslims.

11. Reach out to Muslims in your own community.

Needless to say, anti-white hate crimes don't spike in the U.S. after a right-wing extremist goes on a shooting rampage. Islamophobic hate crimes after a jihadist attack on the other hand? That's a different story.

This can leave American Muslims feeling isolated and targeted while fueling the type of division that acts as a recruiting tool for terrorist networks.

As an ally, this is when you're needed most.

Photo by Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images.

Leave a friendly note for the Muslim family nearby (or, better yet, knock on their door and say hello). Get lunch with the Muslim student who lives down the hall in your dorm building. Offer to walk with Muslims to and from mosques, like New Yorkers did last year, so they're more protected from violence on the street.

Do what you can to let our Muslim neighbors know they're welcome here.

12. Whatever you do, don't succumb to fear.

Do just the opposite.

As former Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said in 2011 after a horrific attack by a right wing extremist resulted in the deadliest incident in Norway since World War II (emphasis added): "We are still shocked by what has happened. But we will never give up our values. Our response is more democracy, more openness, and more humanity."

Remember: Compassion and empathy do far more in fighting terrorism than divisiveness and fear.

"Fight or flight" is real, and it makes sense that those instincts tell us to build walls or turn away from our neighbors in the face of senseless violence. It's in those moments especially that we have to remind ourselves that that's what extremists want us to do.

When terror strikes, turn off the TV, parse through the fake news, and do what you can to help those who need it most. Live your life exactly how terrorists hope you don't.

0 notes

socialviralnews · 7 years

Text

When a terrorist attack happens, keep these 12 helpful points in mind.

Terrorists want to divide and conquer. Don't let them.

Terrorist attacks are horrifying.

We're often left wondering why?

It's easy to feel utterly helpless when terrorism takes lives. But there are ways you can defy the people and ideologies that inflict so much tragedy.

1. First, if you can, be the helper.

"When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers,'" Mr. Rogers once said. "You will always find people who are helping."

It's a quote that often circulates in the wake of terror attacks. But it's not just because it's reassuring; it also rings true. Anyone can be a helper if they're in a position to do so.

Helpers opened up their homes for victims and survivors in the wake of the May 22, 2017, bombing in Manchester, U.K.

#RoomForManchester 10 mins taxi from city centre, can provide a safe place to stay, a cup of tea, charge your phone, please message me

— #votelabour (@saveuglyanimals) May 22, 2017

Let compassion, not fear, inspire you to act in the hours and days following an attack. (Helping others doesn't just benefit victims; it helps us cope with tragedy, too.)

2. Then, remember terrorism seeks to divide, and don't let it.

3. Now, turn off the TV.

Vox's Carlos Maza breaks down how damaging this sort of news coverage is for our brains:

News outlets are already replaying footage of the Manchester incident. Be wary of what that's doing to your brain: http://pic.twitter.com/KWX9ns3W9j

— Carlos Maza (@gaywonk) May 23, 2017

Listen to the American Psychological Association: After a terrorist attack, it's best to watch cable news sparingly (if at all).

4. When you do watch or read about what happened, especially as the news is still breaking, don't fall for or share fake news.

Reporting can often be wrong in rush to report. Check out @onthemedia's Breaking News Consumer's Handbook. #ManchesterExplosion http://pic.twitter.com/IovZudYfVH

— Rick Trilsch (@ricktrilsch) May 23, 2017

Don't add to the chaos. Vet what you're reading and sharing to make sure it's accurate. If you're not sure, don't share it. If you see people spreading false news, let them know.

If you choose to donate to an organization, make sure it's a credible one — like the many doing lifesaving work in support of refugees.

5. Donate to the people and causes affected by terror.

Photo by Kutluhan Cucel/Getty Images.

6. Put the real threats of terrorism into perspective.

Now that you know the facts...

7. Don't cancel your plans; go to a concert, the movies, or your favorite restaurants.

After all, the fears we typically experience after a terrorist attack are pretty irrational, as psychiatrist Richard Friedman expressed in The New York Times in 2015.

Go live life as you normally would — free of fear. That's exactly what most terrorists don't want.

8. Support leaders who want to fight all forms of terrorism with facts and level-headedness — not with fear-mongering.

Banning Muslims from entering the U.S. won't make us any safer, according to national security experts. But it will help bolster recruitment for extremist groups.

Photo by Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images.

Support leaders who understand the nuances of both global and domestic terrorism and know how to fight it.

9. Talk about the damage of toxic masculinity.

10. Share news stories that help counter negative stereotypes about Muslims.

In the case of a terror attack that ISIS or another Islamist extremist group takes credit for, it's especially important we acknowledge how most Muslims are reacting after terror strikes.

They're as scared and horrified as anyone else.

"Oh Allah give us peace" the head Imam says in his prayers #ManchesterArena http://pic.twitter.com/an9CeB1L1S

— Aisha S Gani (@aishagani) May 23, 2017

These stories don't reflect the few. They reflect the feelings and attitudes of most Muslims.

11. Reach out to Muslims in your own community.

This can leave American Muslims feeling isolated and targeted while fueling the type of division that acts as a recruiting tool for terrorist networks.

As an ally, this is when you're needed most.

Photo by Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images.

Do what you can to let our Muslim neighbors know they're welcome here.

12. Whatever you do, don't succumb to fear.

Do just the opposite.

Remember: Compassion and empathy do far more in fighting terrorism than divisiveness and fear.

When terror strikes, turn off the TV, parse through the fake news, and do what you can to help those who need it most. Live your life exactly how terrorists hope you don't.

from Upworthy http://ift.tt/2qkdzMT via cheap web hosting

#Upworthy

0 notes

quranreadalong · 6 years

Text

#45, Surah 6

THE QURAN READ-ALONG, DAY 45

We’re gonna power through all the way to the end of the surah today. It has not been the most enlightening surah of all time, I know. But we’re at the end of it. Let’s make fun of the polytheists some more.

Our first ayah today is a title-drop--yes, the cattle. What is wrong with the cattle? The polytheists say that some cattle belong to Allah, that some vegetation belongs to other gods, etc. Ibn Kathir explains:

When they, the enemies of Allah, would cultivate the land or collect produce, they would assign a part of it to Allah and another part to the idol. They would keep the share for the idol, whether land, produce or anything else, and preserve its division to such an extent that they would collect anything that accidentally falls from the share they assigned to Allah and add it to the share of the idol. If the water that they assigned for the idol irrigated something (a section of land, for instance) that they assigned for Allah, they would add whatever this water irrigated to the idol's share!

Allah is very upset by the idols stealing his land. “Evil is their ordinance,” he tells us. He also says that he will punish the idolators for saying some cattle are off-limits for holy reasons and that certain contents of the cows’ stomachs are reserved for certain people. Allah takes this whole cattle business very seriously. We’re off to a fantastic bad start.

In between those ayat is this one, 6:137.

Thus have their (so-called) partners (of Allah) made the killing of their children to seem fair unto many of the idolaters, that they may ruin them and make their faith obscure for them. Had Allah willed (it otherwise), they had not done so. So leave them alone with their devices.

Okay, yes, Mohammed is literally saying “don’t stop people from sacrificing their children because Allah wants them to do it so they won’t be believers” here, but that’s not the only problem. This ayah is just about child-killing in general for any reason, but I’m sure many of you have heard that infanticide and specifically female infanticide was a common practice in pre-Islamic Arabia. So I’m gonna put this in big-ass text so y’all won’t miss it.

🚨 THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO EVIDENCE THAT “CHILD SACRIFICE” OR INFANTICIDE WAS PRACTICED IN PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA ON A SCALE LARGER THAN IT WAS IN THE ISLAMIC ERA. THERE IS NOT A SINGLE PIECE OF ARCHEOLOGICAL OR HISTORICAL EVIDENCE SUGGESTING IT WAS A PARTICULARLY COMMON PRACTICE AT THE TIME. (IN FACT THERE IS NOT A SINGLE DOCUMENTED EXAMPLE OF THIS HAPPENING EVEN ONE TIME OUTSIDE OF ISLAMIC TEXTS WRITTEN A CENTURY OR MORE AFTER MOHAMMED’S DEATH. THERE ARE BARELY ANY DOCUMENTED EXAMPLES IN THOSE TEXTS, EITHER.)

WHILE THIS AYAH IS JUST TALKING ABOUT IT IN A GENERAL SENSE, OTHER PARTS OF THE QURAN FOCUS ON GIRLS ONLY. THE IDEA THAT POLYTHEISTIC ARABS ROUTINELY KILLED THEIR CHILDREN, ESPECIALLY THEIR GIRLS, COMES SOLELY FROM LATE ISLAMIC TEXTS. PEOPLE STILL REPEAT THIS TODAY BECAUSE THEY DESPERATELY WANT TO BELIEVE THAT PRE-ISLAMIC ARABS WERE BACKWARDS AND EVIL AND THAT ISLAM FREED THEM FROM SUCH EVIL. IN REALITY INFANTICIDE WAS AN UNCOMMON BUT NOT UNHEARD-OF PRACTICE BOTH BEFORE AND AFTER ISLAM IN TIMES OF EXTREME FAMINE, WAR, OR HARDSHIP.

WE HAVE THE FAMILY TREES OF MOST PROMINENT CITIZENS OF PRE-ISLAMIC MECCA, INCLUDING BOTH MUSLIMS AND NON-MUSLIMS, AND BOTH ALMOST ALWAYS HAD DAUGHTERS (AND SOMETIMES MULTIPLE WIVES). NOTHING SUGGESTS THERE WAS AN UNUSUAL GENDER RATIO. AND THERE IS NOTHING, I REPEAT NOTHING, TO INDICATE THAT SPECIFICALLY FEMALE INFANTICIDE WAS EVEN SOMEWHAT COMMON IN MECCA OR ANYWHERE NEAR IT.

SOME WESTERN PEOPLE REPEAT THIS LIE WITHOUT EVEN TRYING TO VERIFY IF IT’S TRUE OR NOT. DON’T BE LIKE THAT. THANKS. 🚨

Ahem. Anyway, Mohammed says that people who kill their children because of their fake gods are going to hell... even though it is Allah’s will, as we just saw. But... uh, it’s good, ignoring the context, which honestly makes it kind of awful...

You know what... let’s move on.

Allah is god etc. Feel free to eat cows unless they’re being used for physical labor, regardless of their sex. People who say you can’t are lying about Allah. (This is about pre-Islamic beliefs, like we saw in the last surah. Ibn Kathir has the whole dumb backstory here.)

But you can’t eat pigs, etc. 6:146 relates this to kosher dietary laws and says (again) that Jews have to obey them because their ancestors were rebellious (the actual reason given in the Torah is that Jews can’t eat certain things because the animals are unclean/unholy, and since YWHH is their god, “you shall be holy, because I am holy”. As always, Mohammed’s version is of course the true version, and the Jews are just making things up.)

6:147 is one of my favorite ayat in the entire Quran. Behold:

Your Lord is a Lord of All-Embracing Mercy, and His wrath will never be withdrawn from guilty folk.

You genuinely can’t make this shit up.

Anyway, the Jews get out of it fairly easy this surah, as I said. Back to the idolators. On the Day of Judgement, they’ll try to say that Allah could have made them believe if he wanted to (which is true!). But Allah will simply reply: “ya that’s what your ancestors said before I destroyed their asses LOL!”. (Bad!) Then Mohammed challenges the polytheists to produce evidence of Allah requiring all their dietary rules (he does not ask the same of his own followers, of course).

Now... holy shit! It’s a genuine good ayah!!!!!!!! Two, actually!!!!!!!!!

6:151 tells Muslims to be nice to their parents and not kill anyone, except in the case of “justice” or legal punishment (and to not do lewd things or worship multiple gods). 6:152 tells them not to steal from orphans’ inheritance money and to be fair in legal matters even when a relative is involved. I was beginning to fear we’d only have, like, two good ayat in the entire surah. Mama, we made it.

Then Mohammed just tells people to do as he says as he is a prophet like Moses and the Quran is really from Allah. Allah sent Mohammed so the polytheists couldn’t get out of the whole disbelievers-are-doomed thing by saying “we’re not Christians or Jews so how would we know about these rules?” All neutral. Then Mohammed ruins the high I got from those two good ayat with this bad one:

who doeth greater wrong than he who denieth the revelations of Allah, and turneth away from them? We award unto those who turn away from Our revelations an evil doom because of their aversion.

Sigh. Kuffar hell counter: 1.

Then Mohammed chastises those waiting for a divine miracle again. 6:159 is neutral but it’s another interesting one (we’re almost done, I swear, don’t worry!):

As for those who sunder their religion and become schismatics, no concern at all hast thou with them. Their case will go to Allah, Who then will tell them what they used to do.

This is about Jews/Christians, who left the True Path of “Islam” as practiced by the prophets etc, but that’s not the interesting part. So the word Pickthall has as “schismatics” here means “sectarians” or “partisans” (shiyaan), which is also the root of the word “Shia” (short for “partisans of Ali”... we’ll get to that story later). This ayah is used by some Sunnis to argue that any sects that deviate from “the norm” are therefore against Islam, which should be one undivided community. Some Shia scholars point to this same verse and say the same thing--arguing that everyone should be Shia! Just a funny note.

Hey, another good one! Relatively!

Whoso bringeth a good deed will receive tenfold the like thereof, while whoso bringeth an ill-deed will be awarded but the like thereof

Then Mohammed again says that his religion is the real one and Allah is god etc and polytheism is wrong and everyone will be judged by Allah so remember that.

And we’re finally, FINALLY done. Let us never speak of this surah again.

The Quran Read-Along: Day 45

Ayat: 30

Good: 4 (6:140, 6:151-52, 6:160)

Neutral: 18 (6:141-45, 6:149-50, 6:153-56, 6:158-59, 6:161-65)

Bad: 8 (6:136-39, 6:146-48, 6:157)

Kuffar hell counter: 1 (6:157)

⇚ previous day | next day ⇛

#quranreadalong #surah 6 #al anam

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republicstandard · 6 years

Text

UK: Establishment Islamists Denounce Donald Trump

Ash Sharp Editor

For reasons best known to Betsy Reed and Glenn Greenwald, the Islamist Mehdi Hasan is still permitted to write for The Intercept.

I for one am glad that he has a job, as Mr. Hasan, who has in the past claimed that non-Muslims, unbelievers, and atheists live like cattle and animals, has now interviewed Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London. What follows is truly illuminating, but not for the reasons The Intercept or Mehdi Hasan would like to think.

Though this would in most cases be an opportunity for Americans to gain an insight into the character of the man with whom the President has frequently clashed, all that is provided is a hit-piece on Donald Trump and Islamist propaganda.

Hasan writes:

The contrast between the two men could not be starker: the son of an immigrant bus driver versus the son of a millionaire property developer; the brown-skinned Muslim versus the white nationalist Islamophobe.

As much as it would be easy to denounce rhetoric like this for being inflammatory, one must always be thankful for opportunities to witness your opponents speaking at ease.

Khan signed his name to a letter to Tony Blair in 2006, which stated that U.K. foreign policy, especially in relation to Iraq and Israel, risked “putting civilians at increased risk both in the U.K. and abroad” and provided “ammunition to extremists.”

Hasan quizzes the Mayor on if he still believes this to be so- Hasan is a staunch believer that Islamic terrorism would end immediately if only the dreaded Western Imperialists would stop blowing up people committing genocide.

To his credit, Mr. Khan appears to have matured in his views a little in the last 12 years.

“I don’t accept that it’s as simplistic as to say that if we change our foreign policy, it will lead to bad guys going away.”

We can be thankful for small mercies, I suppose- despite the fact that the peerless and sorely missed Christopher Hitchens destroyed the argument that foreign policy is a major factor in Islamic extremism 13 years ago.

...shudder if you ever said, or thought, that the bombs in London in July, or the bombs in Baghdad every day, or the bombs in Bali last Friday, are caused by any "policy" but that of the bombers themselves.

East Timor was for many years, and quite rightly, a signature cause of the Noam Chomsky "left." The near-genocide of its people is an eternal stain on Indonesia and on the Western states that were complicit or silent. Yet Bin Ladenism wants not less of this killing and repression but more. Its demand to re-establish the caliphate is a pro-imperialist demand, not an anti-imperialist one.

Random bombings are not a protest against poverty and unemployment. They are a cause of poverty and unemployment and of wider economic dislocation.

Hinduism is considered by Bin Ladenists to be a worse heresy even than Christianity or Judaism or Shiism, and its adherents, whether in Bali or Kashmir, are fit only for the edge of the sword. So, it is absurd to think of jihadism—which murders the poor and the brown without compunction—as a movement against the rich and the "white."

At Republic Standard, we will reiterate these points until they are accepted as reality by all- because this is reality. Instead of accepting that simple truth, the Islamists Hasan and Khan wish to accuse the President of the United States of that which he is perpetrating himself; sowing division and hatred.

In the interview, Khan says

“We are in danger of amplifying the narrative that Daesh/so-called ISIS have about a ‘clash of civilizations,’ ‘the West hates us,’ by some of the language that Donald Trump has used. He is, if you like, repeating what so-called ISIS/Daesh are saying: ‘The West and Islam are irreconcilable.’ ‘You can’t be a proud American and a proud Muslim.’”

Which Hasan wastes no time in hammering home the point:

Got that? The president of the United States talks like ISIS, according to the mayor of London.

As we have covered in these pages very recently, it is not Westerners who are faking hate-crimes against Muslims. It is not the West that hates Islam.

Skipping over the fact that Mr. Trump has never said that you cannot be a proud American and a proud Muslim, the idea of the clash of civilizations does not originate with ISIS. The Clash of Civilizations was a lecture and essay by The American political scientist Samuel P. Huntington argued that wars after the fall of Communism would be fought not between countries, but between cultures and that Islamic extremism would become the biggest threat to world peace. The lecture was given in 1992. I think by any measure, we can see that Mr. Huntington was absolutely correct in his assessment of the world we now live in.

What you are witnessing here is called Taqiyya. It is perfectly acceptable to the Islamist to say or print all manner of lies to deflect attention away from Islam.

I must, however, give some small credit to Mr. Khan for at least not being as rabid an extremist as Mehdi Hasan. Just.

“One of the things that so-called ISIS/Daesh want is for an increase of Islamophobic attacks; they want a backlash against proud Muslims, proud Westerners," Khan says.

One might suggest to these proud Muslims, these proud Westerners, that to defend the civilization they are so proud of they might consider joining the armed forces in representative numbers. In Britain, more Muslims joined ISIS than joined the British Armed Forces. Just saying, there is a saying in Western countries- put your money where your mouth is.

Khan goes on;

“They (ISIS) want Muslims to be the victims of Islamophobic attacks so they start believing the false narrative that ‘the West hates us’ and ‘it’s not possible to be a law-abiding Muslim and a law-abiding Brit or American.’” Trump’s rhetoric, is “very similar to the rhetoric used by so-called ISIS/Daesh.”

Yes, we've covered false narratives in these pages recently, so it's quite surprising and pleasingly meta to read the Mayor of London both complaining about one and posing one in the same sentence.

Perhaps it might be easier to defuse this false narrative about the West-hating Muslims if there was some reciprocity. Some sense of gratitude, perhaps. The West, by any measure you would like to adopt, does not hate Muslims- or anyone else for that matter. Europeans in particular, have shown themselves to arguably be the most tolerant people in the history of humankind, save for perhaps the Jains, who walk around looking at the floor to avoid stepping on ants.

In return the proud, Western Muslim population has remained silent in the face of gang rapes perpetrated by Pakistani Muslim men in the United Kingdom, produced the delightful Linda Sarsour in the United States who hopes Allah recognizes her Jihad against her own president, and done nothing on the European continent to promote Western values over Islamic practices. It is far too easy to claim that murdering french priests for Allah is not real Islam.

As Mr. Khan says himself in his interview with Mehdi Hasan:

We cannot escape the “statistical fact” that a significant number of the acts of terror committed around the world are committed by Muslims who are “using Islam, or using their interpretation of Islam, to justify those acts.”

He continues: “That’s not to say that Islam is responsible, but their interpretation of Islam is used as a motivation. I’m not saying that you and I are responsible because we’re Muslims or you and I should apologize for what’s going on. I do think, though, we can be more effective in explaining … what true Islam is.”

Well, Mr. Khan; if you cannot explain to us what true Islam is while being softballed by a Muslim interviewer for a website that can only be described as Islamophilic, I don't know what more we can do. Please tell us what true Islam is. On behalf of victims of all Islamic terrorism the world over, tell us! Tell us so we can find a way to remain infidels and not be murdered for being so.

Mehdi Hasan himself has said that Islam "must not bend" but has also recognized the deep Anti-Semitism among British Muslims. Will Islam bend to expunge hatred of the Jew from the faith? If not, why not?

Perhaps the Mayor of London can clarify what true Islam is, then. Is it the Islam of Hasan, which says that I and kuffar like me are "cattle of no intelligence” or is it something else? It clearly cannot be the Islam of ISIS, who are bad people. Could true Islam be the Islam of around a third of all Muslims, which demands the death penalty for apostates, like Ayaan Hirsi Ali?

Is true Islam the Islam which over a billion Muslims wish would enforce Sharia Law on the world? Is true Islam the Islam which over 700 million Muslims think endorses the death penalty for adultery- which in many cases includes being a victim of rape. Remember ladies, you have to scream while being defiled, or you want it.

She is not to be punished if it is proven that he forced her and overpowered her. That may be known from her having screamed and shouted for help.

Al-Istidhkaar, 7/146

If none of these examples are true Islam, what is it? What is Islam, if it is not these behaviors that are justified by the Holy Qu'ran?

Sadiq Khan, Mayor of the City of London which saw 13 dead and 106 injured in three separate attacks, does not take this golden opportunity as a Muslim leader to tell us what true Islam is. Instead, he rails against the President of a foreign nation for his tweeting habits.

“The president of the USA has retweeted a tweet from the deputy leader of Britain First, whose name was prayed in aid by the man who murdered my friend Jo Cox,” he says, leaning forward in his chair. “The president of the USA is amplifying that message of hate, intolerance, and division.”

Well then. It appears that the mention of certain words while committing a murder is sufficient to condemn people who had nothing to do with that murder and share no commonalities with the killer at all. This is the perspective of the Mayor of London- when people invoke Allah while stabbing Londoners to death, this is not true Islam. These victims are glossed over. When a far-right white person murders a socialist, the President of the United States of America is complicit.

Why is it, Mr. Khan, that you pose such an obvious double standard? I have no issue with you railing against Mr. Trump, he is a grown adult who has shown himself to be competent in dealing with you himself. What I do find insulting is that you openly demand special treatment for your own faith group at the expense of the nation in which your people are already a protected class.

After the Westminster Bridge attack, terror expert Frank Gaffney of the Washington-based Center for Security Policy said;

“My view is that we are no longer facing random acts of terrorism,” says “We have reached a tipping point. This is now an insurgency.”

“The Muslim terrorist population in Britain and Europe no longer feels constrained to live by stealth,” Gaffney says. “They have built an infrastructure, they have put it in place, and now they are moving up to the next level.”

The interview between the Islamists Hasan and Khan does nothing to countermand this assessment, and in fact proves Mr. Gaffney right. There are many fine and patriotic Muslim citizens in the United Kindom and the United States kept firmly in the back seats by self-interested and substanceless men like Mehdi Hasan and Sadiq Khan. Self-interest in these people includes the exploitation of their status as Muslims and the denigration of the kuffar, as we see in this Intercept piece.

Like I said at the top of this article, we should be thankful for the opportunity to observe conversations like this in public. Heaven only knows what happens when the tape is turned off.

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