Islamism & Islamophobia Abroad - News & Analysis

[member_22872]

^^^In Islamists case, it is intolerance, "La Illah Illallah" disease compounded with "My di(k is bigger than yours" syndrome. This translates to anger when others give a damn about their ego.

[harbans]

Venug please read/ understand what i wrote. Intolerance is nothing but a manifestation of anger. I can tolerate differences as a Dharmic. But as an Islamist i get angry and am exhorted to be angry when during Ramzan i hear a Kirtan at a temple, or i see Shiias or Ahmedi's doing rituals that are unislamic etc. It is not for no reason that BG underlines the danger of anger to a Dharmic..even Arjuna at the midst of the battlefield. This is a very important point to be internalized to understand Islamists or Islam.

[member_22872]

harbans ji, I am not disagreeing with you at all. I am just restating it. I am not arguing about what leads to what. Both feed on one another. Anger makes you loose patience, hence intolerant about others. If you are intolerant, you find that reason enough to be angry and not accommodate others.

[arun]

X Posted from the Oppression of Minorities in Pakistan thread.

In the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, a country claimed to have been formed to provide a safe haven for the Mohammaddens of the Indian Sub-Continent, members of the minority Shia aka Shiite sect of Mohammaddenism find out that they have no immunity from the religion inspired predatory actions of their Sunni sect co-religionists. The Green on Green Intra Mohammadden religion inspired predatory action being the killing of a two Shias during the Mohammadden holy month of Ramadan aka Ramazan aka Ramzan:

Shia leader, son killed in Rahim Yar Khan

[Murugan]

This is little different, but still...(could not find appropriate thread, but may be relevant)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl1RnTjW7eU

[jamwal]

Undercover Mosque

Undercover Mosque is a documentary programme produced by the independent television company hardcash productions[1] for the Channel 4 series Dispatches which first aired on 15 January 2007 in the UK. The documentary presents film footage gathered from 12 months of secret investigation into mosques throughout Britain. The film caused a furore in Britain and the world press due to the extremist content of the released footage. West Midlands Police investigated whether criminal offences had been committed by those teaching or preaching at the Mosques and other establishments

Content

Undercover Mosque generated controversy because it contained footage of British imams making the following statements:
Dr. Ijaz Mian on the subject of non-Muslim laws: “You cannot accept the rule of the kaffir…[w]e have to rule ourselves and we have to rule the others.”[3]
Abu Usamah saying of apostates: “If the imam wants to crucify him he should crucify him. The person is put up on the wood and he's left there to bleed to death for three days.”[4]
Abu Usamah speaking on the deficiency of women's minds: “Allah has created the woman, even if she gets a PhD, deficient. Her intellect is incomplete, deficient. She may be suffering from hormones that will make her emotional. It takes two witnesses of a woman to equal the one witness of the man.”[4]
Praises the killer of a British soldier serving in Afghanistan, stating "The hero of Islam is the one who separated his head from his shoulders.”[5]
Abdullah el-Faisal: “You have to bomb the Indian businesses, and as for the Jews you kill them physically.”[6]
Advocates violent Jihad against the non-Muslims and predicting that an army of Muslims will arise against the non-Muslims in England.[3]
Dr Bilal Philips on marriage with girls before puberty: “The prophet Muhammad practically outlined the rules regarding marriage prior to puberty. With his practice, he clarified what is permissible, and that is why we shouldn't have any issues about an older man marrying a younger woman, which is looked down upon by this society today, but we know that Prophet Mohammed practised it, it wasn’t abuse or exploitation, it was marriage.”[4]
Condemns Muslim integration into British society.[3]
Calls for the overthrow of the British government and democracy.[7] “[T]hey will fight in the cause of Allah. I encourage all of you to be from amongst them, to begin to cultivate ourselves for the time that is fast approaching where the tables are going to turn and the Muslims are going to be in the position of being uppermost in strength, and when that happens, people won’t get killed – unjustly.”[6]
Dr. Mian: “You are in a situation in which you have to live like a state within a state, until you take over.”[8]
Al Jibali: “By the age of ten, it becomes an obligation on us to force her to wear hijab, and if she doesn’t wear hijab, we hit her.”[6]
Dr. Mian praised the Saudi religious police practice of imprisoning people who do not pray: “They send the police, and they say, well, if you don’t come for prayer, close your shop, we will arrest you But if you don’t, then we have to bring the punishment on you, you will be killed, and nobody will pray on you.”[6]
Abu Usamah saying that homosexuals should be killed by throwing them off a cliff, stating “throw [the homosexual] off the mountain

[arun]

Buddhist place of worship becomes a target of Mohammadden violence in Indonesia even as the followers of Mohammaddenism celebrate the month of ramadan aka ramazan aka ramzan which that religion holds holy:

Buddhist vihara in Jakarta bombed, 3 injured

[Prem]

Huckabee Goes Off On Islam’s ‘Murderous Mayhem’: Muslims Exit Mosques ‘Like Uncorked Animals’
http://www.mediaite.com/online/huckabee ... d-animals/

Conservative radio host Mike Huckabee condemned alleged Muslim violence following Ramadan as the actions of “uncorked animals” on his radio show recently, and wondered why the destruction followed their “holiest days,” unlike post-Christmas behavior.“I know we’re not supposed to say anything unkind about Islam,” Huckabee said. “It’s politically incorrect. I get that. But can someone explain to me why it is that we tiptoe around a religion that promotes the most murderous mayhem on the planet in their so-called ‘holiest days’?” “If you’ve kept up with the Middle East, you know that the most likely time to have an uprising of rock throwing and rioting comes on the day of prayer on Friday,” he said. “So the Muslims will go to the mosque, and they will have their day of prayer, and they come out of there like uncorked animals, throwing rocks and burning cars…I’m not saying all Muslims are radical and I am not saying that all Muslims are violent. But we as a government recognize that the most likely times for them to erupt in some type of terrorist activity, violent storming of an embassy, is on their holy days.”Huckabee also pointed out that Christianity’s primary holiday was attended by no such riots. “When Christians get out of their Christmas services, about the worst thing they do is commit the sin of gluttony when they go to some Christmas dinner,” Huckabee said. “For most of us, the holiest days that come in the Christian world, particularly Christmas and Easter, I don’t really recall that the government has to issue a warning and say ‘Look Out! It’s Easter! Those Christians are coming. They’ll be throwing eggs all over town.’

Man Huckabee hates both animals and ..

[Prem]

Richard Dawkins Ignites Nobel Prize Controversy AMAuthor and scientist Richard Dawkins published a controversial Twitter post this morning and found himself flooded by online critics.Dawkins wrote: “All the world’s Muslims have fewer Nobel Prizes than Trinity College, Cambridge. They did great things in the Middle Ages, though.”So far, his comment has generated 370 retweets and a stream of critical responses from readers

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/ri ... rsy_b75737

[arun]

Huckabee Goes Off On Islam’s ‘Murderous Mayhem’: Muslims Exit Mosques ‘Like Uncorked Animals’
http://www.mediaite.com/online/huckabee ... d-animals/

Conservative radio host Mike Huckabee condemned alleged Muslim violence following Ramadan as the actions of “uncorked animals” on his radio show recently, and wondered why the destruction followed their “holiest days,” unlike post-Christmas behavior.“I know we’re not supposed to say anything unkind about Islam,” Huckabee said. “It’s politically incorrect. I get that. But can someone explain to me why it is that we tiptoe around a religion that promotes the most murderous mayhem on the planet in their so-called ‘holiest days’?” “If you’ve kept up with the Middle East, you know that the most likely time to have an uprising of rock throwing and rioting comes on the day of prayer on Friday,” he said. “So the Muslims will go to the mosque, and they will have their day of prayer, and they come out of there like uncorked animals, throwing rocks and burning cars…I’m not saying all Muslims are radical and I am not saying that all Muslims are violent. But we as a government recognize that the most likely times for them to erupt in some type of terrorist activity, violent storming of an embassy, is on their holy days.”Huckabee also pointed out that Christianity’s primary holiday was attended by no such riots. “When Christians get out of their Christmas services, about the worst thing they do is commit the sin of gluttony when they go to some Christmas dinner,” Huckabee said. “For most of us, the holiest days that come in the Christian world, particularly Christmas and Easter, I don’t really recall that the government has to issue a warning and say ‘Look Out! It’s Easter! Those Christians are coming. They’ll be throwing eggs all over town.’

Man Huckabee hates both animals and ..

Meanwhile in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan which is not located in the Middle East but whose citizens would love to be so located, a mosque compound is suicide bombed during Ramadan:

DIG Operations Quetta among 38 killed in blast during funeral prayer

[arun]

Yet more Ramadan aka Ramazan aka Ramzan eve violence from a country whose population almost exclusively follows Mohammaddenism . This time in Afghanistan:

Bomb planted in Afghanistan graveyard kills 14

[arun]

Mohammadden Terrorist of Bangladeshi origin Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis says his stammer and cheating girlfriend influenced him to plot blowing up a building:

Terrorist blames murderous NY plot at Federal Reserve Building on childhood stammer and unfaithful girlfriend

[dada]

# arun

"The would-be bomber, busted Oct. 17, 2012, the day of the planned blast, said he re-examined his religion in jail and has rejected radical Islam."

Can we analyse the conditions under which muslims can be driven to reexamine their religion(of peace?) . A dead jihadi/ suicide bomber cannot reexamine his religion, as he is already dead. Growing internet access to different POVs on radical islam has not exactly helped. Cultural / Social Reengineering of muslim majority societies is a multi generational exercise & hence will not help much in the short term management of this mayhem. Even the experiment of multiculturalism practiced in the EU countries has backfired.

[Singha]

Whenever any hindu festival comes the media starts howling about idols causing pollution in lakes and loudspeakers disturbing everyone. Diwali will have one page devoted to the effects of the smoke relesed in the air.

I havent seen any article on the health effects of the overdose of meat, lard, sugar that is iftar meals during ramzan or overall problems with the indian muslim diet which from observations seems to be too heavy in meat incl red meat...esp among the rich ashraf. Amjad khans family apparently had laccha paratha and meat on every meal..poor guy had become a balloon before his death.
Nor do we hear a peep on cruel practices and pollution when muslims kills goats in their own houses on bakr id and camels in the mohalla streets. Nor when kids are exposed to such disturbing scenes of slaughter nay encouraged to revel in them as tradition.

Clear case of double standards.

[arun]

Huckabee Goes Off On Islam’s ‘Murderous Mayhem’: Muslims Exit Mosques ‘Like Uncorked Animals’

http://www.mediaite.com/online/huckabee ... d-animals/

{......... Snipped ...........}

Meanwhile in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan which is not located in the Middle East but whose citizens would love to be so located, a mosque compound is suicide bombed during Ramadan:

DIG Operations Quetta among 38 killed in blast during funeral prayer

Reuters confirms that the Ramadan aka Ramazan aka Ramzan eve demonstration of the IED Mubarak variant of the IEDology of Pakistan was indeed a case of Green on Green Intra-Mohammadden violence by quoting Shahidullah Shahid the spokeSman of Mohammadden Terrorist group, the Taliban , as saying "We killed the station-house officer and then we targeted the funeral to kill the other officers,"

Suicide bomber kills 30 at policeman's funeral in Pakistan

[arun]

The Mohammadden Sabbath of Friday, notwithstanding it being the Mohammadden festival of Eid Ul Fitr which marks the end of the month of ramadan aka ramazan aka ramzan, sees no let up in Green on Green Intra-Mohammadden violence as worshippers exiting a mosque are gunned down :

Gunmen in Pakistan kill 9 in attack at mosque on Muslim holiday

[arun]

X Posted from the Oppression of Minorities in Pakistan thread.

In the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, a country claimed to have been formed to provide a safe haven for the Mohammaddens of the Indian Sub-Continent, members of the minority Shia aka Shiite sect of Mohammaddenism find out that they have no immunity from being targeted by the religion inspired predatory actions of their Sunni sect co-religionists. The Green on Green Intra Mohammadden religion inspired predatory action being an abortive demonstration in Islamabad of the IED Mubarak variant of the IEDology of Pakistan on the Mohammadden Sabbath of Friday which coincidentally also happens to be the festival of Eid Ul Fitr :

Suicide attack at Islamabad mosque foiled; bomber gunned down

[member_22872]

‘An Old White Racist’: Famed Atheist Richard Dawkins Spawns Furor Over Islam Tweet

Why mention Muslim Nobels rather than any other group? Because we so often hear boasts about (a) their total numbers and (b) their science.

And it is anyone's guess how they accomplished those scientific achievements.

[Philip]

NO problem about OZ politicos and Islam,read this and watch the clip too!

'I don’t oppose Islam as a country' - Australian politician withdraws from election after TV immigration gaffe interview goes viral

Related articles
Owen Jones: Islamophobia - for Muslims, read Jews. And be shocked

An ultra-nationalist Australian politician, who was widely lampooned after footage of a car crash immigration interview went viral online, has withdrawn her candidacy.

Stephanie Banister, 27, was widely ridiculed after the interview with the Channel Seven network during which she referred to Islam as a country, confused the term "haram" (forbidden) with the Qur'an and said that Jews follow Jesus.

"I don't oppose Islam as a country, umm, but I do feel that their laws should not be welcome here in Australia," Ms Banister told Seven News reporter Erin Edwards.

Banister, who is due to face court charges for her alleged part in an anti-Muslim vandalism campaign, in which it is claimed she stuck a sticker reading "Beware! Halal food funds terrorism" on Nestle products at her local Woolworths, admitted she didn't know the names of the other candidates she was running against in the elections.

She compounded her gaffes by continuing to confuse the term "haram" with the Qur'an.

When further questioned by the interviewer on Islam she said: “Less than 2% of Australians follow haram” – which the interviewer understood to mean the Qur'an.

"Jews aren’t under haram. They have their own religion which follows Jesus Christ," Banister said.

The interview subsequently went viral, largely driven by social media, earlier this week and today Ms Banister announced she would no longer be contesting a seat in Queensland for the anti-immigration One Nation Party.

She also attacked the way the interview was edited by Channel Seven and apologised to her friends and family for any embarrassment.

"With the way Channel Seven edited my interview, I was left quite the fool," Ms Banister said in a brief statement.

"I'd like to apologise to One Nation, to my friends and family, for any embarrassment this has brought to them."

The leader of the One Nation party, Jim Savage, said Ms Banister had the "full support" of the party executive.

He went on to say that Ms Banister had been under "enormous pressure", including threats to her and her family. Mr Savage said it was unclear whether the party would nominate a replacement candidate for the 7 September election.

[sanjaykumar]

This is not surprising at all given Australia's education levels.

[arun]

As with the “holy” Ramadan month, the end of Ramadan is marked with a flurry of Green on Green Intra Mohammadden religion inspired sectarian violence pitting Shia’s and Sunni’s. Wave of car bombings in Iraq kill 80:

Nearly 80 dead in Iraq wave of car bombings

[arun]

Jihad is met with the inevitable counter-jihad as reaction to violent Mohammadden supremacist behaviour is challenged in Myanmar, Sri Lanka and India :

Sittwe, Myanmar:

At least five dead following flare-up in Sittwe

Colombo, Sri Lanka:

Sri Lanka Buddhists attack Colombo mosque

And from Jammu & Kashmir in our own India:

Communal clashes: 10 injured in Kishtwar, Jammu

[Prem]

‘No Muslim Parking’ Signs At Texas Mall

http://www.alan.com/2013/08/11/no-musli ... exas-mall/

Can you imagine the uproar had it been “No Christian Parking”?
Signs posted at a Spring Branch, Tx., shopping center earlier this week that called for “No Muslim parking” shocked worshippers on their way to services at a nearby mosque. Though the signs were taken down within hours of appearing — during Ramadan, no less– it’s still unclear who put them up in the first place, KPRC-TV in Houston is reporting.The signs at the Westview Shopping Center were reportedly in close proximity to the El Farouq Mosque. Shopping mall employees told the news outlet that there had been a problem with worshipers parking in the mall’s lot.Those employees went on to point the finger at the mall’s owner, Steve Kwon, but Kwon denied any responsibility for the signs. After being approached by the camera crews, he did however promptly start taking them down.

[Prem]

Jo Lahore Mey G,,u Woh Amreeka Mai Bhi G..Du

Planned ‘Million Muslim March’ Set for Sept. 11, 2013
-By Warner Todd Huston

In an effort to stick their finger in America’s eye, a Muslim group is planning a “million Muslim march” on the very day their cohorts murdered over 3,000 Americans in 2001. This is called gall.The march is being planned by the American Muslim Political Action Committee (AMPAC) and is to be held on September 11, 2013 in Washington D.C. The march is meant to “demand that our civil rights be protected by our government.”To say their rights haven’t been protected is, of course, an absurd claim. Muslims in the USA are not being systematically denied their “civil rights.” Any claims that Muslims are being oppressed in the U.S. is a laughable fiction.On its website, the group is “demanding” that Obama bow to their wishes.“We are demanding that laws be enacted protecting our 1st amendment,” AMPAC says. “We are asking President Obama to fulfill his promise from his first campaign for Presidency of a transparent government. Lastly we are asking for the release of the 9/11 commission report to the American people.”

What the group says next is as if something from the Onion:

On 9.11.01 our country was forever changed by the horrific events in New York. The entire country was victimized by the acts done on that day. Muslim and Non Muslim alike were traumatized but we as Muslims continue 12 years later to be victimized by being made the villains. To this day every media outlet and anti Islamic organization has committed slanderous and libel statements against us as Muslims and our religion of Islam.

Yet our Government either sits idly by and does nothing to protect our freedoms or it exacerbates the problem with its constant war on terrorism in Islamic countries, congressional hearings on Islam in America, and its changes to the NDAA law. This is like the criminal who after being arrested for murder is upset at being called a murderer.First of all, the U.S. media has bent over backwards not to do what Muslims abroad do and treat them as an evil that needs to be eliminated from the face of the earth. Most U.S. media outlets won’t use the word “terrorism,” refuse to call Islamists what they are, and won’t characterize their terrorism as evil in any way. So, for this group to claim that the media has “libeled” them is simply a false statement.Muslims have not been victimized in the USA nor were they “traumatized” by the terror created on 9/11/01. In fact, around the world Muslims are quite supportive of Islamic terror and the goals terrorists want to achieve if not the means they use to achieve them./b]
Further, FBI hate crime stats reveal that very few Muslims have been hit with crime or abuse in this country in the years after 9/11/01. As a point of truth, it is Jews that still face a much, much higher rate of racist/anti-religious crimes.Now, are there some Americans who hate Muslims? In a nation of over 300 million, of course you can find a few. But is there systematic oppression of Muslims and are they being denied civil rights? Not in the least. They are as free as anyone. Maybe more so.

[Peregrine]

Zanzibar Acid Attack: Suspect Preacher On Run

Police are hunting a radical Muslim preacher wanted in connection with an acid attack on two British teenagers in Zanzibar.

Sheikh Issa Ponda Issa was cornered by officers near Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, but managed to escape and is now on the run.

Cheers

[habal]

But she heard a different Islam from her husband, one that was alien, dark and perverted. The sheikh, who lived in Ain Tarma had urged everyone to Jihad, her husband told her, but Jihad apparently took on many faces. One could take arms and fight or one could help finance the fight and if neither were possible, then one could still do Jihad –”Jihad Al Nikah,” which translates roughly into English as sexual Jihad. One could and indeed should (for it was a God-ordained duty) marry the young widows of all the men who had lost their lives in the fight. In “Jihad Al Nikah” a man must marry up to four women. He could then divorce them in a short time, only to marry others! The divorced women , would also in turn, marry different men and so on and so on…

Sex & Syrian revolution
http://newamericamedia.org/2013/08/sex- ... lution.php

[arun]

Green on Green Intra-Mohammadden violence in Nigeria sees Mohammadden terrorists attack place of worship used by their own co-religionists and kill 44 of their own:

Suspected Islamic militants kill 44 in Nigerian mosque; another 12 slain in separate attack

[harbans]

Will the killing of 600 plus Islamists in 1 day in Egypt by a secular Egyptian coup assisted Govt be appropriate for this thread? Is not El Baderei the deputy PM of this undemocratic setup? Are religious freedoms not being trampled..? And NM who curtailed riots in 3 days flat at a cost of less than 1K muslim lives and 400 Hindu lives is villified? IIRC Police firing killed almost equal HIndu's and Muslims..

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013 ... pt/100574/

[Anindya]

From Why Muslims Rape

In Bangladesh in 2011, a 14 year-old girl, who was sexually assaulted by her 40 year-old cousin, received 100 lashes for her “adulterous” behavior. She did not survive her punishment for being a victim. Over the past decade, several hundred women have been flogged in Bangladesh under similar circumstances....

With such laws, it’s no surprise that rapes have become a part of Muslim culture. During the “Arab Spring” in Egypt, hundreds of women were raped in Tahrir Square by those Egyptians who were glorified in the West as “fighters against the cruel dictatorship of Mubarak” and who then voted for the Islamist Muhammad Mursi and made him the President of Egypt. Then, just 13 months later, those same Egyptians again crowded into Tahrir Square and enthusiastically supported the military coup against Mursi “for democracy”– and in just four days raped 130 more women on the way to that democracy.

In Darfur, rapes had become the true Weapon of War, and the number of raped women and girls was in the thousands. The same happened in Bangladesh. Author Ibn Warraq’s book, Leaving Islam: Apostates Speak Out, provides the testimony of Muhammad ben Abdullah whose reflections on the massacres committed in Bangladesh in 1971 give a glimpse into this Muslim world of rape. ...

He writes: “I saw a well-equipped invading army indiscriminately killing millions of civilians and raping 200,000 women. Eight million uprooted people walked barefoot to take refuge in a neighboring country. The institution of Islamic leadership supported the invading army actively in capturing and killing freedom fighters and non-Muslims and raping women on a massive scale. Each of 4,000 mosques became the ideological powerhouses of the mass-killers and mass-rapists. And these killers and rapists, these Islamists, were the same people of the same land as the freedom fighters and raped women. That was the civilians of Bangladesh and the killer army of Pakistan in 1971. All the Muslim countries and communities of the world either stood idle or actively sided with the killers and rapists in the name of Islam. The message was clear. Something was very wrong, either with all the Islamic leaders or with Islam itself.” (page 294) ...

In Syria, women were raped by both governmental troops and by “fighters for democracy” from Al Qaeda and other Islamist groups.

The truth is that raping the enemy’s women has become a part of Muslim warfare since Muhammad started his conquests....

[Jarita]

My post from another thread
I really believe that point two has a lot to do with sexual violence

All those Delhi people who like to say that Pakistanis are the same people as Indians need to know that the Pakistani has actually evolved into a different race (species will come later) due to two simple factors
- severe brainwashing that has caused cognitive dissonance
- intermarrying over the last 100's of years ( not just after independence) that has truly affected the genes. In fact this might be at play prior to independence as well which is what prompted the vicious attacks on their Hindu and Sikh neighbors during partition). If you study the behavior and mannerisms of highly inbred societies in the US, they are very similar but those societies are microscopic and hence contained. People stay out of these communities which have their own ghettos. For some extreme renditions watch the movie Deliverance and the X-file episode Home.

[devesh]

http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/w ... 40949.html

Why a Former Model Is Covering Up for Love

A British model and mom is ditching her life of posing in lingerie for one of modesty and obedience as a Muslim wife, said U.K. reports on Monday.


what do the feminists have to say about this? and the broader "liberal" crowd?

[KJo]

http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/w ... 40949.html

Why a Former Model Is Covering Up for Love

A British model and mom is ditching her life of posing in lingerie for one of modesty and obedience as a Muslim wife, said U.K. reports on Monday.


what do the feminists have to say about this? and the broader "liberal" crowd?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/artic ... guard.html

[devesh]

^^^^
not a laughing matter. if it was a Hindu case, there would be streams of psychoanalysis by now!!
and Wendy and her children would be out wondering if it was the Indian male's fantasizing of his mother that leads to such behavior?!
and then link it to Ganesha and his supposed "heteroerotic incest fantasy" for his mother as "precedent" in Hindu "scriptures"!!!

[vishvak]

what happened to racial and religion profiling which is expertise of educated to pass value judgements and deride generally other beliefs and cultures by arbitrary BS.

[Prem]

Abbey O PeeBeeAss, Kitta Paisa Milla Re?

Review: PBS' 'Life of Muhammad' an earnest effort to enlighten
PBS takes on Islam's most revered prophet in an attempt to separate his beliefs from today's extremists.

Whether a case of divine intervention or just fortuitous programming, PBS begins airing "The Life of Muhammad," a three-part explanation of the history of Islam, on Tuesday, the same day Al Jazeera America makes its debut on the channel formerly known as Current TV. It's a coincidence that only intensifies the PBS series' air of demystification.As any fifth grader knows, the history of all the great religions includes the battle of opposing forces: humanity and divinity, spirituality and economics, humility and power. That unsettling see-saw of righteousness and ruthlessness is very much evident in "The Life of Muhammad," which walks us through the prophet's life (and far too many deserts) as he grows from impoverished orphan to a man who changed the world.As with documentaries seeking the historical Jesus or Buddha, "The Life of Muhammad" attempts to separate the "facts" from the countless, and often crazily diverse, interpretations — a task inevitably made more difficult by the lack of primary sources. There is no recently unearthed scroll, no "Da Vinci Code" reveal at the heart of this series. There's only the history of the region and the Koran, Islam's holiest text.Fortunately that is more than enough to achieve journalist-narrator Rageh Omaar's primary goal: to separate the beliefs and practices of Islam from those of its more bloody-minded zealots. "If Jesus came back today and saw what was being done in his name," Woody Allen wrote in "Hannah and Her Sisters," "he'd never stop throwing up." Muhammad too, this series suggests, might experience some nausea.Born poor in Mecca and orphaned as a young boy, Muhammad's fate took a turn for the better when he was adopted by his tradesman uncle who showed him both the art of business and the existence of a wider world.With an open-mindedness unheard of at the time (and rare in much of the modern Middle East), Muhammad accepted the marriage proposal of an older businesswoman. Khadija, who continued to work after the marriage, would become, technically, the first member of Islam: When Muhammad began experiencing the physical pain and psychological mayhem of his divine revelations, it was Khadija who comforted him and, more important, convinced him that the visions of a one and true god who demanded a life of prayer and community service were real.
Interlaced with modern topics, each of the hour-long episodes deals with a portion of the prophet's life — his early days, his departure from Mecca to Medina, and the later years in which he made peace with Mecca, and established a moral code that became known as Sharia law.Beginning from a point of essential reverence — there is no questioning of Muhammad's direct relationship with Allah — "The Life of Muhammad" directly addresses high-stakes issues including the divide between Muslims and Jews, and the medieval nature of Sharia law in a way that is almost painfully balanced.The message of Muhammad, according to the religious experts in the series, was one of tolerance, humility and, in most cases, non-violence. Yes, he fought to defend Medina from the Meccan forces and yes, he ordered the slaughter of a Jewish tribe he believed had betrayed him.But the series contends that these acts must be weighed in the context of their time and balanced by Muhammad's calls for inclusion, forgiveness and compromise. Those who concentrate on the few verses of the Koran that espouse violence, we are told by the series, or who take the description of Muhammad's wives being covered as a universal directive, are twisting the prophet's original intent.

Imagery on the whole is a problem for the series; no visual depictions of Muhammad are shown, which is in keeping with Islamic tradition. (Even when using non-Islamic art, the face of Muhammad is blanked out.) As a consequence there is not too much to look at during the series. Shifting sand and shots of Omaar walking through the rocky hills or the markets of Medina take up so much screen time that the talking head-static of the experts is actually a relief.
Muhammad never comes alive as a man, but then, that is not the point here. "The Life of Muhammad" is an earnest, at times anxious, attempt to set the record straight on Islam, to remind Americans that this religion should not be judged by the actions of extremists any more than Christianity should be defined by the Inquisition.

[KJo]

^^^^
not a laughing matter. if it was a Hindu case, there would be streams of psychoanalysis by now!!
and Wendy and her children would be out wondering if it was the Indian male's fantasizing of his mother that leads to such behavior?!
and then link it to Ganesha and his supposed "heteroerotic incest fantasy" for his mother as "precedent" in Hindu "scriptures"!!!

It is a laughing matter and anyone who willingly wants to become a sex slave needs to be laughed at. No sympathy for her, she isn't a victim. Same case if a Hindu marries a Muslim and gets all burqish.

[kmkraoind]

Sex and sexuality in Islam - By Abul Kasem

Apologies if the article has been posted already. Its a lengthy and well researched article with good reference points.

[Lilo]

The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami - A popular theory in the Muslim world is that the tsunami could have been caused by an Indian nuclear experiment in which Israeli and American nuclear experts participated. Several newspapers in Egypt and the Middle East alleged that India, in its heated nuclear race with Pakistan, has acquired sophisticated nuclear technology from the US and Israel, both of which "showed readiness to co-operate with India in experiments to exterminate humankind," beginning with the heavily populated Muslim regions of southeast Asia, where the bulk of casualties took place

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picture ... ml?image=5

[arun]

In the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, a Mohammadden Cleric chops up his wife into ten pieces for “rebelling against Allah’s orders”. The orders of Allah that were reportedly transgressed by the murdered wife was her act of wearing an abaya but not covering her face and sending the couple’s children to an English medium school rather than a Madrassah :


Cut into pieces: ‘She challenged God’s orders’

[arun]

The allegation within Mohammadden circles that the religious chauvinism of Hindu’s is somehow the cause of the economic backwardness of Mohammadden’s in India is debunked by income statistics that show that this alleged Hindu religious chauvinism has not prevented other religious groups such as Sikhs and followers of Christism having higher incomes than Hindu’s:

Muslims have lowest living standards, way behind Sikhs, Christians and Hindus