Myrtus

My religion test with A

Reader A. finally concludes the religious conversation we started here.  He sent me a questionnaire where I had to answer 19 questions with either YES or NO as the only options.  I had trouble answering them at first because my beliefs aren't as black and white as he's trying to make them out to be, but I decided to answer them anyway just to make him happy.  I had to cheat on one of the questions though, I answered yes AND no, not out of contempt but pure convictions.

So then he sent me the results and.........sighhh looks like I didn't quite pass the exam.

dear najia,

sorry for the delay. in fact i lost my internet connection. but i had seen the reply a few days back. i could not reply coz i did not know what to reply. you answer everything as i thought. it was crystal clear and  i am sure u answered selflessly.

  i am afraid to to conclude logically. but i have to. as it is seen, you are not a christian, muslim or a jew according to the present definitions. but a submitter to God alone. You are a women filled with wisdom. and you believe in self wisdom. after all why these religion comes in between... you believe in Quran, Torah and Bible, but not in whole since you feel they are corrupted through ages. there comes a slight difference between me and you, where I believe Quran is the least currupted of all, because of many many reasons. but i feel some chapters of it are not for this generation, especially chapter 9.

       when i went through Baghavad Geetha ( a holy scripture of Hinduism) it was said, scriptures are required when there is a draught of knowledge. otherwise self wisdom is enough. but, reciting Quran daily, will definitely increase once spiritual and practical morality.

   

Miss Slackistan and the Burka Beauties

How Miss Slackistan and the Burka Beauties fell foul of the racism zealots

It probably seemed like a good idea at the time. Stuck for inspiration about what to wear at their village carnival, one group made a last-minute decision to dress up in mock Muslim burkas.

Calling themselves the "Page Three Beauties from the Ramalama Ding-Dong Times", the 17 men and women carried placards with made-up names such as "Miss Hairyarmpitsbad", "Miss Slackistan", "Miss Notbadinbedabad" and "Miss Reallyamanistan".

See also Ramalama Ding Dong Burka Beauties | Ironic Surrealism II

Now before anyone rushes to judgement and accuse me of "pouring lemon juice on a paper cut" like in the previous post, here's a little bandaid to sooth the pain.....heheh don't shoot the messenger is all I'm saying.

Arabian Beauty (<~~click on "Older Posts" at the bottom of the page if you want to see more)

Imam convicted on attempted rape

Martijn leads us to a Dutch news article reporting on the recent conviction of an Imam in The Netherlands, who was accused of attempted rape on a young man.  The young man claims that he was given a drink with a sleep potion and only realized what had happened to him when he woke up shortly after that and found himself on the imam's bed, with his shorts down.  The imam was found guilty for attempted rape based on forensic evidence, but he was not present at the trial because he had already been deported to Morocco.

C L O S E R » AD.nl - Imam beticht van verkrachting

Gabriel Sawma on "dhimmitude" and "abrogation"

Gabriel Sawma's latest account on how to properly interpret the Koran, is yet another one of his brilliant attempts at tackling some of the most fundamental issues that made Islam as we know it today.  First he reports on the general status of Christians under Islam and explains the reasons behind their dwindling numbers in the Middle East.  Then Mr Sawma takes us through a step-by step process explaining how the ummah is living in a state of denial and deliberately hides the fact that the Koran does indeed allow for revision and that the holy book in fact does contain numerous chapters/verses that have been revised and/or canceled out centuries ago.

In order to get to the core of the problem with modern day Islam, Mr Sawma carefully lifts the veil on the terms "dhimmi" and "abrogation", perhaps two of the most obscure terms in Muslim history, by explaining their origins and their true meanings to help everyone see the light.   If anything, his masterful thesis makes prominent Muslim critics like Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Salman Rushdi look like mere fools for not doing their homework properly, but at the same time it will probably make Dutch politician Geert Wilders actually sound sane, if he decides to revert to his previous statement where he said that "Muslims should discard half the content of the Koran....."

Darfur is Not a Zionist Plot

It’s really sad that some people are so cynical and full of rivalry they give themselves permission to suspend critical thinking in order to entertain the notion that Darfur is some sort of plot for Jews and Israel to gain an advantage over their rivals. Come on. Think about it, people. How long did Sudan’s Arab/Muslim controlled government fight a civil war against the Christian/Animist Dinka and other tribes in the south? How long were there reports of slavery? And yet … no mega media campaigns. No organized structure.

If there were an insidious and illicit motive here, don’t you think it would make much more political and public relations sense to try and mobilize the international community by attempting to paint a picture of “poor, helpless, non-Muslim, minority victims” suffering at the hands of “brutal, oppressive, Arabs/Muslims,” rather than focus on a cause in which all the players are Muslim? If this were some sort of calculated strategy to demonize Arabs and Muslims, it would have been done back then when Israel could have worked with Christian and secular communities to act as a united front. But they didn’t because that’s not what’s going on here.

On the other hand, if this were about Israel trying to keep its hands clean, or to try to make inroads with non-Arab Muslim communities, they could have conducted big campaigns long ago on behalf of Muslims who agitate against Arab governments … for Algeria’s Kabylian Berbers, for example. Or the Baloch or Kurdish communities if they wanted to go after the government of Iran — non-Arab yet their biggest political foe (and p.s. both Algeria and Iran have lots of oil and gas, so there goes that motive down the drain). But they haven’t done any of that because this is not about using a socio-political crisis to demonize Israel’s adversaries or get a hand on their goods.

I could go on, but the point is that if this were really about having a cause celebre to try and make Arabs and/or Muslims look bad, or to get control over some resources, they would be far more strategic about it, and could have done it at a time when the players were much more advantageous to their cause. There have been much better opportunities to exploit, yet they have gone relatively unpublicized, unfunded, and unperpetuated. The reason for that is because there is no conspiracy here.

So, put your conspiracy theories away now cynics, and stop hating. The evidence just doesn’t work out your way.

Cross posted at Mideast Youth

I'm sooo tired

Yesterday I signed my divorce settlement papers and I was so relieved, I felt like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders after 5 years of court proceedings which were pure torture.  It felt really good to put an end to it finally, but I've been feeling soo tired since then, all I want to do is sleep.

The good news is...divorce will be finalized on August 27th, so mark your calendars and come celebrate with me. 

Now if you guys don't mind, I'm going to sleep....sorry.

toodles!(:

The Wicked Battle of Wikipedia

Biased BBC reports on the battle between BBC and the CIA accusing each other of biased edits on Wikipedia. 

Biased BBC's story about the BBC's own editing of Wikipedia has been online for 18 hours - and has been blogged on the BBC's internal blog system by Nick Reynolds, a senior advisor on editorial policy, and yet this article, by Jonathan Fildes (is that a typo for Fidler?), a BBC science and technology reporter no less, allegedly (maybe he's the same work experience kid that happened to edit George Bush's Wikipedia entry!), the third most important story the BBC can find, apparently, makes absolutely no mention of the BBC's own Wikipedia edits. Unbelievable.

This story caught my eye because a few months ago, when I suggested to my 7th grader to do a search on Wikipedia for the info she needed for her school paper, she told me her school's policy does not allow students to use Wikipedia because it's polluted with misinformation and biased rhetoric.

Buddhists cause bad karma in New Jersey

A bunch of Buddhist released hundreds of eels, frogs and turtles into a New Jersey river to save them from being served for dinner.  While I do applaud them for their noble effort to save the animals, I think how they went about it was really a dumb move.

Buddhist Ritual Upsets State Eco Agency

Members of a Buddhist sect bought hundreds of eels, frogs and turtles and set them free in the Passaic River, hoping they would survive in the once-polluted stream and realize their karmic potential.

The act did nothing for the karma of the state Department of Environmental Protection, which said the Amitabha Buddhists did not have a permit and may be subject to fines up to $1,000.

The Crescent of Embrace

Flight 93 Family Member Against Memorial (Flopping Aces)

Have you ever heard of  "The Crescent of Embrace"?  No?  Well neither have I.  This is probably going to sound like a conspiracy theory, but I have a strong hunch that it's not. 

A 9/11 memorial for the victims of Flight 93 is currently in the works and the father of one of the victims is campaigning against it and refuses to have his son's name added to it.  Why?

Because.....

1. The memorial is designed in the shape of a crescent.

2. The memorial is strategically positioned so that people standing in front of it will be facing Mecca.

3. The memorial also includes the terrorists that killed everyone on flight 93 among the victims.

Oh of course there is a lot more to it than meets the eye.  My conclusion is that based on the presented evidence by this blogger, there is just no way this memorial should be approved.  I think it's a huge insult and total disrespect to the victims and their families.

h/t Larwyn

Theological Landmine

I am sure he means well, but this is just adding petrol to the bonfire I fear.  Read the whole story.

The Bishop of Breda, Tiny Muskens, wants people to start calling God Allah. He says the Netherlands should look to Indonesia, where the Christian churches already pray to Allah. It is also common in the Arab world: Christian and Muslim Arabs use the words God and Allah interchangeably.