What can I say. I will quote the whole article, I hope Al-Jazeera doesn’t mind:
“ Churches firebombed in Malaysia
January 10, 2010
Two more churches and a Catholic convent school in Malaysia have been targeted by arsonists, amid a row over the use of the word “Allah” by non-Muslims.
Police said there were no reports of injuries in Sunday’s incidents, which brought the total number of churches attacked since Friday to six.
Molotov cocktails were hurled at the All Saints church and the school in Taiping in Perak state.
“There were black marks on the wall [of All Saints]. We believed there was a small fire earlier but there was no damage as the wall was intact,” Zulkifli Abdullah, the state police chief, said.
He said a broken bottle filled with the inflammable liquid paraffin was found inside the compound of St Louis Catholic Church.
Muslims protesting
Muslim groups have staged protests in response to a court ruling last week that gave a Catholic newspaper the Herald the right to print the Arabic word for God, Allah, following a long-running dispute with the government over the issue.
Thousands of Malaysian Christians turned up to Sunday services, despite the recent tensions.
Four churches in the Kuala Lumpur area have been hit by firebombs since Friday, leaving one badly damaged with its ground floor gutted, and prompting Najib Razak, the prime minister, to promise to crack down on race crime.
Hermen Shastri, secretary-general of the Council of Churches, said officials had stepped up security in the wake of the attacks.
“The attacks show they are more just a prank as it does not appear to be a major [attack], someone is trying to send a signal that they are unhappy,” he said.
The word Allah has been used by Malay-speaking Christians for centuries, as well as by Christians in Arabic-speaking countries and in Indonesia.
Rev Lawrence Andrew, editor of the Herald, has said there is no other appropriate term for God in Malay.
About 10 per cent of Malaysians are Christians, including about 850,000 Catholics. Around 60 per cent of the population are Muslims.”
Allah is the word Jesus used to address God in his mother tongue Aramaic and there is still a small community speaking that language in today’s Syria. They were also engaged as actors for the well known 2004 Movie “The Passion of the Christ”.
Arabic speaking Christians do not have another name for God, either. Aramaic, Arabic and Hebrew are all Semitic languages and very close to eachother.
There is only One God, The Almighty, The Merciful no matter with what names we call and pray to Him.
Hoping this drop of information in the ocean of Ignorance could do some good.
May God, the Merciful, accept our fasting and show us all the right path!
While searching what to write about today I read an article saved for times like this. I’ve been quite busy lately and still am. So I just recommend you, my dear visitors, to go and read for yourself.
A year-and-a-half after the critically acclaimed film Undercover Mosque was first screened, Dispatches goes undercover again to see whether extremist beliefs continue to be promoted in certain key British Muslim institutions.
They are right. In my opinion things are just like they are described in this article and there is nothing for me to add to it.
Quote:
The film also features interviews with Islamic academics who condemn these messages of intolerance and segregation and warn of the impact this version of Islam is having on British society. One imam at a leading university accuses the Saudi religious establishment of the: “distortion of Islam itself, the abuse and misuse of this great faith of mine and not only mine but of my children as well.”
Islam is an easy religion!
“Say: ‘We believe in God, and the revelation given to us, and to Abraham, Ismael, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and that given to Moses and Jesus, and that given to (all) prophets from their Lord; We make no difference between one and another of them, And we submit to God.” (Qur’an 2:136)
“… (God) has not laid upon you in religion any hardship.” (Qur’an 22:78)
All these years since The Satanic Verses controversy and the death sentence by Iranian Mullah’s I am wondering how it came exactly like Rushdie had planned. He wanted controversy and he knew that conservative Muslims would be infuriated. The news would go around the globe like a forest fire and he would be famous.
Why are Muslims so easy to trick to do exactly what is the aim of these provocateurs?The same phenomenon was with the infamous Danish Islam caricatures. They were publishes i.e. in Egypt half a year earlier and nobody bothered to protest. Only after it came international news, when radical Muslims started burning Danish flags and puppets. Governments were forced to give statements that they are powerless, because there is a law for freedom of speech. Again and again provocateurs are trying the same trick. These days, so I read, in Holland is a new cartoon movie in the making about Islam.
Fortunately Muslims are awakening and do not react as they wish anymore. There is a sura in the Quran that advice believers to answer to provocateurs with words of peace:
“And the servants of the Beneficent God are they who walk on the earth in humbleness, and when the ignorant address them, they say: Peace.”Quran [25.63]
I am not a literature critic but at the beginning of this all I read several critics which suggested that Salman Rushdie is a mediocre writer at best. Now there are even rumors, that the Swedes would give him a Nobel literature prize soon.
“zeppelinsteenIn Malaysia where I come from, there is approx. 60% Muslims. We have a lot of Christians as well. But the Muslims here are totally different from theMiddle East. For example we don’t have any problem with women rights or whatsoever. Yet, other religions are going well with Islam. I think it’s not about challenging stereotypes, it is changing attitudes of the ARABS! “
Yes, he or she is right:the Problem is not Islam.
The problem is, that some Muslims do not realize that what they believe to be Islamic teaching is in fact tradition.The Hadith’s (traditions) sometimes clearly contradict the Holy Quran. The best example is the stoning of adulterous women as it still happens in some areas in theMiddle East. It was common practice before Christianity, which Jesus abolished (pls. read the article below“Stoning of a child”).
In the Quran there is NO mentioning of it but a sura, that cannot be misinterpreted:
“And as for those who are guilty of an indecency from among your women, call to witnesses against them four (witnesses) from among you; then if they bear witness confine them to the houses until death comes close to them or God opens some way for them.”(Quran 4:15)
They somehow manage to distort the Original Message of Righteousness, Tolerance and Humanity. It was Islam, that introduced 1400 years ago all these virtues to then pagan Bedouins, who were warring each other in bloody tribal conflicts. And it is not solely the problem of the Arabs, who count only around 15 % of the Muslims worldwide.
The reason is that many preachers still prefer the Hadith’s, even if there are clear instructions of tolerance, forgiveness, human rights, even animal rights and “do not kill” in the Quran.
While watching World News and Mayhem on my TV screen I have long been intending to write about Democracy because the common assumption is that Islam and Democracy do not go well together.
We should not confuse tradition with religion. In older democracies the path to this day was long and slow. Some reached it earlier, like in Britain the first step was as early as in 1215 known as the Magna Carta. Other countries have followed. Although one must sometimes wonder if democracy is the best way to govern. It is always a compromise which naturally is not the best solution to problems. And voters do not always choose the best candidate simply because of lack of knowledge and experience and they can be easily manipulated. But there is no better way available and the rights and safety of individuals must be guaranteed.
In my opinion in the Quran we have clear instructions for the early Muslim community to practice democracy: “O you who believe! obey Allah and obey the Apostle and those in authority from among you; then if you quarrel about anything, refer it to God and the Apostle, if you believe in God and the last day; this is better and very good in the end.” (Q. 4:59)
“And their business is (conducted) through consultation among themselves.” (Q.42:38)
“God does not love the public utterance of hurtful speech unless (it be) by one to whom injustice has been done; and God is Hearing, Knowing.” (Q.4:148)
Traditionally, before Islam matters in the pagan Arabian Bedouin communities where already handled democratically. Clan elders discussed problems, set rules and practiced justice as they are still doing it among themselves in a smaller scale, because today we have governments and state laws. Like in almost all early human communities regardless of location worldwide.
It was much later than dictators have taken over motivated mostly by power and material gain. It is still a long way for many, but I am hopeful that matters will improve. In my opinion the key to success is education, education, education and especially that of the women. They are the ones who educate the children and their influence on the society is tremendous.
As I already wrote, we should not confuse religion with tradition. I am quite critical about the Hadiths. They are orally narrated reports from the time of early Muslim community and were collected as late as 250-300 years after the death of the Prophet (p.b.u.h.). Bukhari, for example, examined 600,000 traditions of which he accepted only 7,397!
I have never forgotten an experiment we did in school, I was 11 years old (the last year before changing schools). At the beginning of class the teacher gave us a sentence or perhaps it was two sentences - a short story. We whispered it to each other and by the time bell was ringing for break the teacher asked the last pupil to tell what he had heard. We could not believe what from the story had become, it was unrecognizable!
I am not asserting, that this is the case with Hadith’s, but taken in account the time which passed (200-300 years) even the best-meaning and devoted believer can err. It is human, we are not computers that can record every word forever.
In my opinion we should put less importance on the Hadith’s (put them in perspective) and more on the Quran, which gives us clear instructions and in this particular case we understand that Islam favors Democracy!
Quoting the late Dr. Lila Fahlman Founding President of the World Council of Muslim Women Foundation:“Man-written Hadith’s have ruined Islam and do not speak to human rights or to equality for men and women, but rather favour the enslavement of women.”… “Any Muslim who finds the Qur’an difficult to understand would do best to spend his time on the Qur’an rather then on the Hadith’s, which can never surpass the Qur’an as the Hadith is man written.”
It is the time of the year again - Ramadan is approaching, every year 11 days earlier. Islamic calendar is a Lunar Calendar having 12 lunar months in a year of about 354 days. The Month of Ramadan is the month of fasting and reflection.
I wish to my readers a peaceful and spiritually rewarding Ramadan, may God accept our fasting and bestow His grace upon us.
Greetings to all my readers, regardless of faith or ethnicity!
A Joke
(everybody gets those, a.k.a. spam): A little girl asked her mother: “How did the human race appear?”The mother answered: “God made Adam and Eve and they had children and so was all mankind made.”Two days later she asks her father the same question. The father answered: “Many years ago there were monkeys from which the human race was developed.“The confused girl returns to her mother and says: “Mom, how is it possible that you told me that the human race was created by God and Papa says they were developed from monkeys.”The mother answers: “Well dear, it is very simple. I told you about the origin of my side. ”
“Garden Eden” by Jacob Savery, 1601, on Copper panel
A peaceful paradise as we love to imagine it. According to Judaism and Christianity after creation God drove Adam and Eve out of Garden Eden for disobedience.Islam, although it has common ground with them, does not mention this incident. Muslims believe in all prophets of the Bible and in Jesus, who was to them a teacher and a prophet and accuse early Christians of making him the Son of God. Jews and Christians are mentioned in the Quran several times and referred to as “The People of Book” (meaning believers in the same God/Allah). Allah is the name of God in Arabic and in Aramaic and Jesus called God (=English word!) Allah, after all Aramaic was his mother tongue.
The origins of humankind has always been surrounded by mystery, faith and superstition and since Charles Darwin by controversy.
In my opinion there is no contradiction between the story of creation in the Bible or the Quran and the modern science. The origins of the faith were in Palestine and the race and language of the people were Semitic. First parts of the Old Testament were written down between the 12th and 9th century BC and in course of time then translated several times.
From about 3rd century BCJews in Palestine came to use Aramaic in both speech and secular writings. Aramaic is a Semitic language and was also the mother tongue of Jesus asArabic is a Semitic language, in which the Quran was revealed.
The creation of the universe is told to have happened in seven days. In Arabic (a Semitic language) the word day can also mean a long period of time. Thus we could say that the creation of the Universe took place in seven very long periods of time.
Lets imagine the superstitious people of Palestine 10000 years ago. The existence of One almighty God had to be told them in a language they could understand and thus events in the Bible are told like stories. And generations after generations told them their offspring until in the 9th century BC first scriptureswere written, known as the Pentateuch.
So, there ins no problem with the stories of Creation.
The Darwinist theory of creation ist still not complete when it comes to humans. You may have heard the term Missing Link, a link that would connect today’s man Homo Sapiens with its primate relatives, the apes. There is a real possibility that this missing link will be discovered, but wouldn’t it be one more prove of the power of God Almighty, who “created Man from a single cell” (Quran) ??
“O mankind! We created you from a single soul, male and female, and made you into nations and tribes, so that you may come to know one another. Truly, the most honored of you in God’s sight is the greatest of you in piety. God is All-Knowing, All-Aware.” (Quran 49:13)
“Do nit the unbelievers see, that the heavens and the earth were joined together, then we clove them asunder and, We got every living thing out of water. Will they not then believe?” In another translation of the same verse: “Are then, they who are bent on denying the truth not aware that the heavens and the earth were (once) one single entity, which We then parted asunder?” (Quran 21:30)
“Moreover (God) turned to the heaven, when it was smoke and said to it and to the earth…. ” (Quran 41:11)
“And it is We who have built the universe with power, and verily, it is We who are expanding it.” (Quran 51:47)(The Theory of the expansion of the universe was developed by Albert Einstein in his Theory of Relativity and is widely accepted today.)
“And God has created from water every living creature: so of them is that which walks upon its belly, and of them is that which walks upon two feet, and of them is that which walks upon four; God creates what He pleases; surely God has power over all things.” (Guran 24:45)
Charles Darwin’s theory is strongly backed by these verses:
at the beginning there was smoke, Big Bang, out of which God created earth and heaven and that every living thing came out of water!
Another woman among the 100 most powerful women in the world is
HM Queen Rania of Jordan (Number 80 on Forbes 100 Most powerful women of the world list and maybe not so significant but worth of mentioning - the third most beautiful woman in the world in the 2005 top 100 of Harpers & Queen magazine).
She is an outspoken advocate of women rights and well loved and respected in her home country. She is a new idol of an Arab woman, wise, family oriented and sympathetic.
And as so many of us she is frustrated over the ongoing misinformation and stereotyping of Muslims and especially Arabs and Arab women. She is introducing herself now on Youtube, where the youth of the world is communicating and is reaching out for dialog.
“I wrote ‘Universal Soldier’ in the basement of The Purple Onion coffee house in Toronto in the early sixties. It’s about individual responsibility for war and how the old feudal thinking kills us all.”
He’s five feet two and he’s six feet four He fights with missiles and with spears He’s all of 31 and he’s only 17 He’s been a soldier for a thousand years
He’s a Catholic, a Hindu, an atheist, a Jain, a Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew and he knows he shouldn’t kill and he knows he always will kill you for me my friend and me for you
And he’s fighting for Canada, he’s fighting for France, he’s fighting for the USA, and he’s fighting for the Russians and he’s fighting for Japan, and he thinks we’ll put an end to war this way
And he’s fighting for Democracy and fighting for the Reds He says it’s for the peace of all He’s the one who must decide who’s to live and who’s to die and he never sees the writing on the walls
But without him how would Hitler have condemned him at Dachau Without him Caesar would have stood alone He’s the one who gives his body as a weapon to a war and without him all this killing can’t go on
He’s the universal soldier and he really is to blame His orders come from far away no more
They come from him, and you, and me and brothers can’t you see this is not the way we put an end to war.
In need of information and Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s thoughts I contacted Hirsi Ali at the only address I found, her official website. A few days later I received an answer which I copy here partly, because this is our common interest:
“.. Unfortunately, Ms. Hirsi Ali’s schedule does not permit her to respond to every email personally, but please rest assured your message has been passed on to her.
I understand that you did not find what you were looking for on this website, which does not surprise me, as this is the very first incarnation of the site and was put together quite quickly. We are in the process of redoing the entire site, and will include much more extensive information, including interviews, speeches, blogs, and links to articles, etc. This new website should be up within the first week or two of April. Please feel free to be in touch at any time. Sincerely, Administrator”
As I suspected, she is not managing her website by herself. I invited her as guest writer to my blog, but obviously she is not interested.
Hirsi Ali came to stardom through the murder of her friend Theo Van Gogh (human life is sacred!).
She wrote the text and her voice is heard on the controversial movie he was making about Islam. A stereotyping and simplifying peace of work, “Submission”, a 10-minute film in English.
My theory is, without knowing Ayaan Hirsi Ali personally, that she is being used by these extremist for their agenda without her realizing it. She is outspoken, she is right by criticizing the hundred of years old customs she experienced in her childhood and youth. But what Muslims do is not necessarily Islamic. From the excerpts I have found on the internet she is not familiar at all what the Qur’an really says.
Her close friend Theo Van Gogh was a right wing radical, we could say a Nazi, read for yourself: Theo Van Gogh on Jews, on Women ( including MP Ayaan HIrsi Ali)Quote:” 5. Who killed him and why?
The arrested suspect wrote a rambling five page letter and left it at Van Gogh’s body.
Though his parents were from Morocco, he was raised in The Netherlands in Dutch and apparently did not know Arabic. The letter had nothing on Van Gogh. It was a long ramble on purported quotes from the Jewish Talmud. The suspect was said to be upset by his mother’s death and TV footage of US soldiers killing wounded Iraqi civilians. There is not any proof that he did not act alone. So, an INDIVIDUAL killed Van Gogh. Not “Islam”. Not even “political Islam.” Again: not, NEVER ANY excuse for this terrible murder. It seems murderer and victim had something in common: both fairly intelligent but mentally disturbed.“Quoting Wikipedia:“Controversial statements-
Although Van Gogh was known as a friendly, tolerant character in person, in the 1980s he became a newspaper columnist, and through the years he used his columns to vent his anger at politicians, actors, film directors, writers and other people he considered to be part of “the establishment”.He incurred the anger of leading members of the Jewish community by making comments about what he saw as the Jewish preoccupation with Auschwitz. This quote from a 1991 magazine interview is a typical example of such commentary. Van Gogh explained a “smell of caramel” by stating that “today they’re only burning diabetic Jews”. When he was criticized by the Jewish historian Evelien Gans, he wrote in Folia Civitatis magazine: “I suspect that Ms. Gans gets wet dreams about being fucked by Dr Mengele.” He also expressed the wish that she would sue him so that she would have to explain in court why his remarks were false.Van Gogh rejected every form of religion. In the late 1990s he started to focus on Islam. He caused widespread resentment in the Muslim community by consistently referring to them as geitenneukers (goat-fuckers). Although it is not clear whether Van Gogh actually coined the term geitenneukers, he certainly popularized it. He felt strongly that political Islam is an increasing threat to liberal western societies, and said that, if he’d been younger, he would have emigrated to the U.S.A., which he considered to be a beacon of light in a darkening world.
One of the few politicians who seemed to be exempt from Van Gogh’s criticisms was the conservative leader Pim Fortuyn, who was assassinated in 2002. Van Gogh usually referred to him as the divine baldhead. After the death of Fortuyn, Van Gogh continued attacking the remaining members of the Lijst Pim Fortuyn as he did other politicians. His political idol from then on was Ayaan Hirsi Ali.”
Another controversial movie“Fitna” from the same Dutch right wing corner, this time from from Geert Wilders. Unfortunately the rush to watch this peace of cinematic “peace of art” is so big that the video does not download completely. But I think I am not missing much.
From the very first pictures I realized that he is taking suras of the Qur’an out of context - suras from war situations (the Qur’an came in fractions in the course of 22 years, on different occasions, pls. read the topics 2, 3 and 4 on the right panel, too). Sadly enough, I must admit that the Islamic extremists are doing exactly the same while the Qur’an as a whole is an appeal for humanity, equality and righteousness.
As I suspected all along, this campaign against Islam has to be seen in a larger concept. In my opinion the main forces behind it isthe worldwide Jewish community(which by the way is very influential in the country which is their main ally, USA!)
Remember the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten and the Caricature contest with the theme “Islam”, the responsible editor Flemming Rose is from Jewish faith. By black-painting Islam they are trying provoce violent response from Muslim youth and “prove” that there is no peace making possible with Muslims. By now image of Muslims in the world is at its lowest point. And as the time goes by Israel is creating facts on the ground, there is not much terrirtory left for a Palestinian state.
Geert Wilders Wikipedia: “.. The Dutch newspaper Telegraaf reported in May 2007 that Geert Wilders had been shadowed by the Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service for years, when he was foreign affairs spokesman for the VVD. During that time, Wilders had been regularly meeting officials at the Israeli Embassy in The Hague.[8] Sources in the security service said that the agency was surveilling conversations between Wilders and Israeli personnel.[9] The security services denied the allegations, insisting it had never shadowed or eavesdropped on Wilders.[10]”
The State of Israel is delaying the Middle East process by ever enlargening the illegal settlements and by the enclosure of the remaining Palestinian lands. One could write volumes about this theme.
But people who have closely watched the peace process since the first Oslo peace agreement cannot oversee the systematic sabotage of this undertaking. Israelis see the whole West Bank and some more conservative circles even larger areas like South Lebanon and parts of syria and Sinai to be their Promised Land.
The latest attempt yesterday by the outgoing pres. Bush was sending Ms. Rice to Israel for negotiations, which went with the same routine as usual: the same day or the day after Israel officially announces building new settlements or enlargening older ones while these activity is prohibited in occupied territories by international law and especially a part of the Oslo Accords.
Quoting USA Today: “AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had barely left Israel on Monday following her latest peacekeeping mission when Israeli officials announced plans to build 1,400 new homes on land Palestinians claim for a future state.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed to keep building in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, dismissing Palestinian claims that construction on contested land is the greatest obstacle to peace.
The disclosure of the construction plans immediately after Rice’s visit demonstrated the intensity of the political pressures that Olmert faces, but it threatened to make it even harder for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to convince skeptical Palestinians that diplomacy, not violence, would win them a state….”
“And the servants of the Beneficent God are they who walk on the earth in humbleness, and when the ignorant address them, they say: Peace.” Quran 25.63
Founding President of the World Council of Muslim Women Foundation:
(Number 80 on 
