Salmaan Taseer was killed, as confessed by his murderous bodyguard, for being a staunch opponent of the blasphemy law of Pakistan and seeking Presidential pardon for Aasia Bibi.It is a fact that the…
IN A LONG email conversation with an intelligent, educated, successful man, he went from being totally against my criticisms of Islam to deciding to read the Koran to find out for himself. He told me he ordered a Koran. That was a big victory. But I thought, “If he gets one of those standard Korans, it is going to be difficult to decipher.” So I asked him, “Which version of the Koran did you order?”
He said he signed up for a free Koran from a website, and he didn’t know what version it was.
I told him, “There are a lot of Korans available to read online, but one of the problems with the Koran is its message is somewhat scrambled.” And I explained in detail what I said in the article, Why the Standard Versions of the Quran are so Difficult to Decipher.
I made a classic mistake here: I gave too much information. I kept selling past the close. I wanted to prove to him I knew what I was talking about, but I went too far. He had already decided to read the Koran. I could simply have told him, “Well, this version is the easiest to read: A Simple Koran.” But no. I said too much. This was his response:
Wow, thanks for the rundown. I can see that there are no answers on the behavior of the average Muslim in the Quran so I wouldn’t gain much by wading through it.You know, what I take away from this is that whatever is happening it is not fueled by the Quran anymore than what happens with our various Christian sects has anything to do with the Bible. The books are just props for the Imams, priests, ministers and miscellaneous zealots trying to make people live and act the way they want them to. It always blows me away that every religious leader tells his flock what God thinks, what God intends, what God likes, what God doesn’t like, and what God is going to do to you or me or the heretics or the unbelievers or whoever the opponent is. They never say “I think this may be his/her motivation” instead they use simple declarative statements indicating that they have it straight from the Big Guy.
It’s the religious leaders who control the people there for the most part just as in the religious communities here the people’s thoughts and mores are pretty much set by the priests, preachers, ministers, politicians, Fox News comedians, etc.
We’re fortunate here that we have a smaller group of fundamentalist religious leaders and they have less political power than in most Muslim countries. Imagine if the government was really run by the religious right, say, with fundamentalist Baptist ministers or Catholic priests in control. Fortunately, our supply of zealots is a minority. We can hope that witch hunts, inquisitions, ideologically-motivated murders (abortion doctors), persecution of minorities (homosexuals, women, Mexicans, etc) is nominally against our secular law which is supposed to trump religious law.
We seem to be moving in the right direction although we seem to be much more theocratic than many other countries — theocracy with a liberal dose of oligarchy to my way of thinking.
It would be wonderful if we really had total separation of church and state like some other countries. But that’s not our tradition.
I was interested in seeing an article in the paper a couple of days ago citing a study that showed that on the average atheists had a better knowledge of the Bible and Christian dogma than Catholics, Jews, or the various Christian sects. That seems to indicate that people do just take what is fed them by the leaders and don’t really study it for themselves. It also suggest that a lot of people who do study religion end up atheists.
What do you think?
This is how I replied:
I’m not a Christian, but Islam is significantly different than Christianity. Mohammad really did learn a thing or two from observing the Christians. The Quran, once it is unscrambled (and that really doesn’t take that much trouble, once you know how it’s laid out) is a much more straightforward document than the Bible, and it even gives instructions on how to deal with its own contradictions.
I think it’s worth wading through the Quran, but just get an unscrambled version. The reason I think it’s worth doing is that you’ll be able to get the feel of the religion. It’s not like Christianity. Muslims often make it a point to say it is similar to Christianity, but it’s very different, and you’ll get that by reading it.
You said what’s happening is not fueled by the Quran, but that’s completely mistaken. It is fueled by the Quran. You can predict what orthodox Muslims will do and how they do it by just reading the Quran. Osama bin Laden and the other Islamic terrorists of the world often quote the Quran, and they quote it accurately. The people who run the OIC — the largest voting block in the UN — quote it. They are running its “program.” They use it for their guidebook (as it says they should). Islamic countries around the world either use it as their guidebook or they are constantly suppressing rebellious forces who are pressing to make them use it as a guidebook.
There may be a higher percentage of “Muslims in name only” in America than other places, but America has a lower percentage of Muslims than almost any other country in the world. And in other countries, Muslims are much more openly and strictly Islamic. And we don’t really know how Islamic they are here because they keep it to themselves if they are devout (as it says they should in the Quran). But we do know that in America, 75 percent of the mosques preach jihad. In Canada it is 80 percent.
It’s worth knowing what’s in the Quran because there is a whole PR arm of the Muslim Brotherhood that is actively producing disinformation about Islam, and they are getting their message across through all major media sources; it is being bought hook, line, and sinker by everyone from George Bush to Diane Sawyer. If you’ve read the Quran, you’ll know better about the “true nature” of Islam.
He responded:
I do appreciate what you’re saying and you have a very logical approach to learning about the religion.I can see that a thorough understanding of motivation and custom and tradition can help us in negotiating with people. It can help us decide how to modify our behaviour to affect our relationship with them and we certainly could use more understanding like that.
I get the impression that a lot of people who go to so much trouble to produce statistical arguments that Islam is x% different, worse, or ?? than Christianity are trying to say that the people are evil or motivated by evil desires. Like the proposition that Imam Rush puts out that (paraphrase) “These people want to kill us because they hate our freedom” That’s a preposterous proposition.
Anyway, it seems like all this dissecting of the Qu’ran is a lot like looking at weather maps to see if it’s raining instead of looking out the window. The best weather prediction in the world doesn’t touch the accuracy of walking out of doors and observing.
What is happening in the world is a function of myriad traditions, emotions like greed, hate, as well as ignorance, religious and political manipulation and other unsavory forces. There are no simple answers like “We’re good and they’re evil” or “We’re generous and altruistic and they’re greedy and flawed” or “We’re moral and they’re without mores”.
So I repeat — What is the point that you are making by all this analysis of Islam? It seems after a long explanation there should be a statement that sums up the speaker’s point.
For instance I see the following possibilities.
- So therefore our best course of action is a pre-emptive strike to wipe out any Muslims that might threaten us. - So therefore we should get out of Afghanistan and let them work out their own destiny. - So therefore we ought to forbid the construction of mosques entirely and outlaw books that espouse jihad. - So therefore we should terminate our dependence on their resources (oil) and leave them alone. - So therefore the only sensible course of action is to learn to live with them and let them follow their own traditions as long as they don’t break our laws.Well, you get the picture. What is your point in all this analysis? What are you trying to convince people of?
My response to him was the best thing I did in this whole exchange. I backed off. I pulled back. I said:
That is a fair question. The short answer is, I want you to learn enough about Islam that you are no longer fooled by their PR machine because of where that will lead. But I just don’t have the energy or time to explain that all to you.
My experience in learning about this is that there are people who have an intuition about Islam, and are self-motivated to learn more. And what they learn shocks and amazes them and they want to share what they’ve discovered with others. But nobody wants to hear it. Most other people have an entirely different motivation: They want to find out some information or adopt a point of view that will allow them to just forget about it and go on about their lives. They are not motivated to learn more on their own.
The topic is a big one, and there is a lot to learn. And maybe when you have seen enough, you will dig into it yourself. You gave me five options (the bullet points). I don’t like any of them. I want you to know more about Islam so you are no longer fooled by the orthodox Muslims deliberately trying to fool you so they can accomplish their agenda.
He wrote back to tell me that was a good answer and it made sense. This is something I see very clearly now: There are those who want to learn more about it and who have an open mind. And there are those who have already decided what they want to believe, and they are merely looking for a way to confirm what they already have already decided must be true. Bertrand Russell wrote, “What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the wish to find out, which is the exact opposite.”
It is very easy and enjoyable to share what you know with the first group. And it is difficult and frustrating to share what you know with the second group.
However, I think it is possible to influence the second group by talking about these differences between the two groups. If you’re talking about someone who just wants enough information to be able to dismiss his intuitive fears, just point out the difference between the two people and then back off. You don’t have enough time to waste talking to people like that, anyway. Find someone who is curious, and talk to them. Focus on the undecided.
Not only that, but backing off can help you change someone’s mind. You have a greater ability to influence when you have “walk-away power,” as it is known to salespeople and negotiators. Read more about that here.
Coalition Action Alert: Please call or write to Congressman King to let him know that you support his efforts and appreciate his leadership.
The Coalition to Honor Ground Zero wishes to express its gratitude to Congressman King, new chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, for initiating upcoming hearings on the well-documented rise of Islamic radicalization in America. Rep. King, a fair and serious man, has spoken out and taken action in Congress on anti-American terrorism and jihad for many years.
Contact Congressman King at:
Tel: 202- 225-7896
Fax: 202-226-2279
God is absent from a new spiritual guide the Russian Orthodox Church is drafting in tandem with Russia’s ruling party, a newspaper said on Thursday. Instead justice, patriotism and solidarity top the list of the guideline, dubbed “Eternal Values: The Foundation of Russian Identity,” which the Church is to publish with the dominant United Russia party, headed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
The moral guide lists the values in order of their importance in the eyes of the church and the party, as reported by the daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta:
1. justice
2. freedom
3. solidarity
4. unity
5. self-restraint and sacrifice
6. patriotism
7. welfare
8. love
Read the full story by Lidia Kelly here.
THE FOLLOWING is an article published on Jihad Watch by Ronald Shirk, entitled, When Islam is Just “Stuff White People Like.” I thought Shirk really nailed it when he said, “They wanted excuses not to become alarmed, and they wished above all to sound like the voices of reason against the ‘alarmism’ spread by ‘jingoists’ and ‘militarists’ like Winston Churchill.” That’s it! That’s exactly what we’re up against in one sentence! I think it really helps to understand what underlies the incomprehensible refusal to listen to simple facts when talking to some people. Here’s the article:
It’s hard for most of us who have already had our individual epiphanies on the subject of Islam to understand why so many of the very communities targeted for the worst abuse by sharia seem least willing to acknowledge the nature of the threat. Perhaps the comparison I’ve drawn with the phenomenon of anti-anti-Communism helps make today’s self-willed blindness less surprising.
Reading the historical record, it is shocking how slow one key community was to awaken to the Communist threat: Christian clergymen. As Paul Kengor documents in Dupes, elite, mainline Protestant clerics served as a particularly gullible audience and important transmission belt for Soviet propaganda in the West. A number of prominent ministers, led by Soviet friendly professors like Corliss Lamont, embarked on subsidized cruises to the new utopia, and returned to America or Britain to discredit the truthful reports of religious persecution in Russia. After carefully arranged visits to Potemkin villages and rigidly controlled tours of select districts in Leningrad or Moscow, these veal-calves in collars would disembark in New York to tell the respectable press to disregard all the (factual) reports that Soviet Russia was persecuting Christians.
To some degree, these clergymen’s attitudes may have reflected class, ethnic, and denominational bias; low-church, progressive ministers trained at Yale Divinity School or the Union Theological Seminary had little or no use anyway for bearded monks whose ceremonies were for them an embarrassing relic of Christianity’s superstitious past. Such ministers, whose theological uncertainties had been neatly replaced by Social Gospel dogmas, were much more sympathetic to secular progressives like the atheist John Dewey (for years the leading dupe in America) than to exiled clerics with wild tales of labor camps and NKVD killing squads. (To some degree, the current apathy of even conservative Christians in America must stem from a similar distaste for “foreign,” “archaic” forms of faith such as Assyrian Christianity in Iraq.)
More important (because it’s closer to the surface of consciousness) is the fact that many Western Christians today are deeply concerned about burnishing their credentials as good progressives, and distinguishing themselves from a) low-status, intellectually non-respectable Evangelical Christians, and b) low-status, ethnically intolerant working class Americans. In other words, their embrace of foreign clerics with alien religions is just a niche form of urban white snobbery. It’s akin to the behavior of an Upper West Side Manhattanite who preens about his cosmopolitanism by only seeing foreign films and overpronouncing words like Neek-a-ROU-gua.
Of course, this political form of social climbing extends beyond our poshest neighborhoods and out into the Heartland. My favorite recent example of it appears in a town I’d never heard of, Norman, Oklahoma. There, Margarita Banos-Milton of St. Stephen’s United Methodist Church is sponsoring a gabfest on “religious intolerance toward Muslims,” featuring such luminaries as
Muneer Awad, executive director of the [Hamas-linked] Council on American-Islamic Relations, Oklahoma City chapter; Malaka Elyazgi, a Muslim who serves on the University of Oklahoma’s Women’s and Gender Studies board of directors; Michael Korenblit, co-founder and president of the Respect Diversity Foundation of Oklahoma; and Nathaniel Batchelder, director of the Peace House in Oklahoma City. … [As Banos-Milton said,] “I personally am deeply concerned about the misinformation, the heated emotion and blanket rejection of the Muslim faith. We have such wonderful Muslim brothers and sisters.”
Kay Antinoro, St. Stephen’s director of educational ministries, said the interfaith gatherings are designed for people seeking a better understanding of other faiths and their own faith.
“This round table is an important affirmation of our church’s respect for religious difference and an opportunity to offer another voice in a culture of misunderstanding, fear and hatred,” Antinoro said.
You have it all right there: Ms. Banos-Milton is keen to display her post-Christian virtues of “deep concern,” and the “wonderful Muslim brothers and sisters” whom she parades like adopted pets. Her colleague, Kay Antinoro is fluffing her church’s peacock tail of “respect for religious difference.” Could there be a religion on earth with less respect for “religious difference” than Islam? Not since Jim Jones handed out the Kool-Aid in the (leftist Christian) People’s Temple. But what we need to remember is that appeasement of Islam really isn’t about the Muslims, any more than it is about the victims of Islam around the world. Religious dupes of the Communists weren’t really concerned what was going on in Russia, either — or else they would have displayed more intellectual honesty than to accept without question the bromides dispensed by their hosts on foreign junkets. In much the same way, war-weary Englishmen in the 1930s weren’t interested in what was really happening in the Sudetenland or Poland. They wanted excuses not to become alarmed, and they wished above all to sound like the voices of reason against the “alarmism” spread by “jingoists” and “militarists” like Winston Churchill.
When people swallow blatant lies, when they shut their eyes to so much evidence, only to maintain an intellectual position that raises their social status and makes them feel better about themselves, we don’t need to wonder hard or wonder long why they prove immune to fresh evidence and solid arguments. Indeed, the more alarming facts an “Islamophobe” presents to such a person, the more violence you adduce and ugly connections you present, the crasser and more unpleasant you’ll seem to him. You represent all the realities he doesn’t wish to face. You’re the oncologist who has spotted him smoking, the rehabilitated junkie who saw the needle fall out of his knapsack. You represent narrow, ugly, frightening thoughts; in effect, you become (in Freudian terms) the Id he’d rather pretend does not exist. So he’ll repress all the information you try to pass on to him, the better to convince himself of his own high-mindedness. In fact, you’ll become the scapegoat for whatever anxieties you’ve provoked — which explains why Oklahoma Methodists like these really do believe that the threat to religious tolerance in the West arises from…Christians.
Some people can’t be reached. But many can if you do it skillfully. Here are some resources to help you:
Focus on the Undecided
How to Approach a Conversation About Islam
How to Think Outside the Persuasion Box
Talk About Islam Among Non-Muslims
WE ARE IN the business of promoting an idea: The currently prevailing notion that “Islam is a religion” of peace is false. With some people, it is only a matter of education. Those are the fun ones. They are undecided on the issue because they don’t know much about it. We provide the information they have been missing, and they are become a new member of the counterjihad.
But with the rest of them, it is not a matter of education; it is a matter of salesmanship. To succeed requires more than simply knowing about Islam. It requires skillfulness in dealing with people. And one big mistake I’ve made myself and seen others make is “selling past the close” as it is known to salespeople. The term refers to the phenomenon of a salesperson convincing a client to buy a product, but after that point, instead of writing up the sale, the salesperson keeps persuading, keeps selling, which produces growing doubts in the client (“why is the salesperson still trying to convince me?”), so much so, the client changes her mind and decides not to buy. The salesperson sold past the close.
I want us all to remember this. All we need to do is open eyes. All we need to do is dispell a few myths. Reality will then do the work of presenting confirming evidence for their new understanding.
If you go too far, if you push too hard, if you reach too far, trying to convert them to being a committed member of the counterjihad, you will cause a backlash, a recoil, and they will become more firmly entrenched in their old way of thinking.
Aim for something small and specific: Get them to accept as true that intolerance toward non-Muslims and the command to push for Islamic law are central and clear in basic, mainstream Islamic doctrine. It isn’t a matter of interpretation. The doctrine is as clear as day. You don’t even have to convince them this is true! All you have to do is get them to wonder if it is true, and invite them to find out for themselves.
This makes our job easier in some ways. The only difficulty is restraining our passion enough to resist “selling past the close.”
Read more about this principle:
Selling Past the Close on Heavy Hitter Sales
Selling Past the Close by Chris Conrey
The following is a guest contribution. Reuters is not responsible for the content and the views expressed are the authors’ alone. Peter Kenny is the former editor-in-chief of ENInews.
By Peter Kenny
Maintaining editorial integrity at ENInews, a Geneva-based world-wide news agency run by Ecumenical News International that covers global Christianity and other religions, is hard work. Although church groupings and their partner organizations founded ENInews, editorial independence is often linked to that which is the root of all evil — money.
And that was one of the root causes of ENInews being forced to suspend production for a time at the beginning of the year. It has resumed services and now has an interim editor and is looking for an editor/manager for a one-year term, who will have no office. In 2011 it will also likely face another big cut from its biggest sponsor.
When in May 2010 the biggest founding member of ENInews, the World Council of Churches, suddenly said it would drastically cut funding due to a budget deficit of millions of dollars it was trying to fend off, the news agency was already running with little room to manoeuver.
The new management and editorial team is operating with vastly reduced resources and there is talk that the WCC’s financial predicament will force it to deliver another big cut next year, or even to cease support totally.
In every part of the planet, news subscribers have in recent years bought in a new media trading philosophy — news should be provided free. This may be good for consumers, in the very short term, but makes forging business models for news providers’ challenging. Dwindling paid-for subscriptions can’t pay all the bills, so the modern smaller agency that covers specialised news needs benefactors or sponsors. Yet, if a sponsor is hit with its own financial big hole, as happened to ENInews, it can destabilise the news flow.
Over the Christmas and New Year period, ENInews took the unprecedented step of suspending its news service for longer than the normal holiday break. After a struggle in its governing body, a new management and a temporary editor began operating a reduced service that relies less on news and more on straight press releases. Insiders say the WCC’s financial predicament and a new policy on programmes will force it to deliver another big cut next year, or even to cease support totally. A part time new editor is being sought, who will have no office or agency HQ.
Getting in the way was a messy restructuring that led to divisions in the governance structure. It culminated when an ENInews advisory body insisted that an individual publisher be appointed from within, something unusual for independent news agencies. The powers of the chief editor have been diminished and that person now doing that job has not only a president but a publisher to report to.
The WCC announcement about its cut was made in May only two days before ENInews clinched the 2010 North American Associated Church Press award for best news agency covering religion. It also won the top award for courageous reporting for its coverage of the WCC. Some readers saw an irony in that.
Four global church groupings — the WCC, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Communion of Reformed Churches and the Conference of European Churches — all bodies with the ecumenical aim of seeking Christian unity, — put their money behind the agency at its founding in 1994, and have continued to do so. These groupings are mainly Protestant while the WCC and the CEC include Orthodox churches as members, but not the Roman Catholic Church. All four work with Catholics on different levels.
ENInews was able to provide reliable and independent coverage of events that might get skimmed over by the more mainstream media. It had covered matters that the church bodies’ own releases often ignore, seeing them as too thorny. It covered the good news and the bad news in churches, sometimes exposing cover-ups.
That said readers might ask, can a news agency backed by church organizations be independent in the way of a news agency such as Reuters? It can, although this can be stressful for chief editors, and it needs editorial charters to be put to the fore. Editors must be chosen for professional expertise and then left to run the news agency.
In four years as president of ENInews, the Rev. Anders Gadegaard, the Lutheran dean of Copenhagen cathedral, who is also on governing bodies of the WCC, never tried to sway editorial input and neither did other executive committee members. This was despite publishing stories which their leaders might not have liked. The highest ranking officers of the WCC did try to step in once, but the editorial staff held firm.
Specialised news agencies such as ENInews need financial empowerment to sustain editorial independence. They need more support from churches and religious-backed organizations. More importantly, they need backing from the mainstream secular community as well.
Some comments from ENInews stakeholders as they see the end of ENInews as it has been, link to sentiment that sizzled on the agency’s wires after its Geneva headquarters was forced to shut down.
Munya Makoni, a Zimbabwean writer for ENInews wrote, “A publication that carried voices from all the corners of the world, giving space to some places get a chance to be heard, is likely not to be not there in future.”
In another comment, Simon Barrow, co-director of the religion and society think-tank Ekklesia, said, “the sudden drastic cut in funding and the failure to realise a more consensual and effective transition process towards a viable future for ENInews is extremely disappointing. It also occurs at a time when the need for independent, quality reporting of religion has never been greater.”
Kerry Swift, a contributor to ENInews from South Africa, and a reader wrote, “While we admire your attempts to spin the closure in a positive light, it is clear that the WCC has turned its back on a great news service. All the brand equity and past investment is lost ….It is quite clear that the sponsors are more concerned with the bottom line than with the bigger picture. How short-sighted and reactionary in a world increasingly hungry for authoritative news.”
The Rev. Eduard Wildbolz, a Swiss reader, noted that the Catholic Church seems to be in much better shape when it comes to supporting news agencies. “Is there nobody who can make it clear to the leadership of WCC that without a voice in to the outside world, it is doomed to get simply forgotten?”
If there is one bit of financial advice that I want my readers to get from my blog it is this: Do not buy 24 kt gold-plated coins from anyone. I have been buying coins from the public for more than 33 years and I have never once come across anyone who has ever gotten more for their gold-plated coins than they had paid.
This is how these scams are usually hawked (fill in the blanks with whatever sport or invention or event that is appropriate):
This coin commemorating _____ is a minted memory that will last a lifetime, quadruple-struck with platinum hammers fashioned by award-winning Italian designers especially commissioned by the ______ Mint.
Each medallion is richly layered in 24 Karat Pure Gold. It is 1-5/16 inches in diameter and has a remarkable three-dimensional appearance.
The front of the coin features ______ , the reverse features ______ as well as the date, and the serial number. Each coin is presented in a protective case to keep it free from dust and fingerprints and delivered in a velour jewelry box as well as accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity signed by the President of our company who once sold diamond watches to celebrities.
These medallions are officially licensed and limited to only 5000000 pieces!
Hurry, the regular price of .95 is specially reduced for this TV offer for as little as .95 each and can only be held for another 1400 days. Please – Only 55 coins to a family.
This item ships for .95 to the Continental U.S. and is insured up to 0.00 which is what you expect to pay anywhere else.
This is a memento you will treasure for a lifetime but act now!
When people come in with these nearly worthless pieces of garbage many years later I usually buy them for about 25 cents each and put them into a basket until I have a hundred or so; I then sell them by the pound to flea market entrepreneurs.
I don’t try to melt them down because there is not enough gold on them to pay for the refining costs.
If you look on ebay, search for 24 kt gold overlay coin or 24 kt gold plate coin and you will see the paltry selection of offers, most of them “buy it now,” and those that are up for auction, unless they have some silver content, all have zero bidders – there is no real after-market for these things. Now type in Krugerrand and see healthy and vibrant auctions for the coin. The sad fact is that more Americans own gold-plated coins than own Krugerrands.
If you want a hedge against runaway inflation and out-of-control government spending, then invest in gold coins such as the Krugerrand. But caution, there are companies out there selling gold coins with outrageous premiums, some as high as 6% or 7% or more. You should not pay more than 4% over the price of gold for Krugerrands. At today’s price of gold of 1334 dollars per ounce, you should not pay more than 88 per coin plus a few dollars for shipping and handling.
The article above is provided for informational purposes only, and is not to suggest that our economy will 100% go into the shitter. I shall not be liable for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Planck’s Constant may provide links to selected precious metal dealers for your convenience only. I do not recommend the services of any bullion trading company. The company you select is solely responsible for its services to you, my reader. I shall not be liable for any damages or costs of any type arising out of or in any way connected with your use of the services of the precious metal dealer or my opinions on any company.
Is it possible to buy a 24 kt gold-plated item and sell it for more than the original cost? Is it possible that Scarlett Johansson will one day read the 17 articles I wrote about her and fall in love with me? The answer to both is yes.
A prison where Soviet-era writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn was jailed and a third of inmates are Muslims from the North Caucasus and Central Asia, has become the first in Moscow to open a Muslim prayer room.
Nineteenth century Butyrka prison in central Moscow, which also held Adolf Hitler’s nephew Heinrich among other high-profile prisoners, held its first prayers on Friday, in a hall near a Christian church that has operated since 1989.
“Religion is the best way for one to improve and heal, and we wanted Muslims to also benefit from this,” Kamil Mannatov from the Russian Council of Muftis told Reuters on Monday.
Mannatov, who heads the Muftis’ department on military and prisoner affairs, said the Council signed an agreement with Russia’s Federal Prison Service in May 2010 to build Muslim prayer halls across the country.
Tensions between ethnic Russians and the country’s 20 million Muslims, a seventh of the population, flared dramatically last month in a string of large-scale ethnic clashes, shocking politicians and ordinary Russians.
Russia’s crowded, poorly managed prison system, where almost half of the inmates are ill, many infected with HIV or tuberculosis, has come under increased scrutiny since the 2009 death of jailed lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
In a rare admission, the Federal Prison Service said it was partly responsible for Magnitsky’s death, who spent much of his last months in Butyrka, where he was denied medical services.
In what analysts say are attempts to save face, sunbeds have been installed at Butyrka and earlier this month an Internet shop opened for all Moscow prisons, where inmates could order food as well as the Bible and the Koran.
Blogger From The Pews wants to share the following email because of its powerful, uplifting and inspirational message. After careful consideration I hope you will agree with me that this plan is the best thing that can happen for the old folks stuck in retirement homes.
Jails and Nursing Homes
Here’s the way it should be:
Let’s put the seniors in jail and the criminals in nursing homes.
This would correct two things in one motion:
Seniors would have access to showers, hobbies and walks.
They would receive unlimited free prescriptions, dental and medical
Treatment, wheel chairs, etc.
They would receive money instead of having to pay it out.
They would have constant video monitoring, so they would be helped instantly… If they fell or needed assistance.
Bedding would be washed twice a week and all clothing would be ironed and returned to them.
A guard would check on them every 20 minutes.
All meals and snacks would be brought to them.
They would have family visits in a suite built for that purpose.
They would have access to a library, weight/fitness room, spiritual counseling, a pool and education…and free admission to in-house concerts by nationally recognized entertainment artists.
Simple clothing – i.e.. Shoes, slippers, pj’s – and legal aid would be free, upon request.
There would be private, secure rooms provided for all with an outdoor exercise yard complete with gardens.
Each senior would have a P.C., T.V., phone and radio in their room at no cost.
They would receive daily phone calls.
There would be a board of directors to hear any complaints and the ACLU would fight for their rights and protection.
The guards would have a code of conduct to be strictly adhered to, with attorneys available, at no charge to protect the seniors
And their families from abuse or neglect.
As for the criminals:
They would receive cold food.
They would be left alone and unsupervised.
They would receive showers once a week.
They would live in tiny rooms, for which they would have to pay ,000 per month.
They would have no hope of ever getting out.
“Sounds like justice to me!”
Of course, what we have in mind is a romantic version of prison, not anything like the real one shown here:
The truth is, we have more people in prison than any country in the world, even China which has more than 4 times as many people comes in at a faraway second. Our draconian, senseless, wasteful, ineffective, counter-productive War on Drugs has much to do with this. Our drug laws have created more criminals and fostered more crime than all the other offenses combined. 1
Our drug laws have made drug dealing so lucrative, that Mexican drug gangs are now more powerful than the Mexican government itself. Unless we legalize drugs, we will see chaos and destruction along our Southern Border that will make Osama Bin Laden look like Pee-wee Herman.
(1):
Drug War Facts, Prisons, Jails & Probation – Overview
Number of sentenced prisoners in federal prison by most serious offense Offense 2000 2008 2009 Share 2009 % Chg 2000-09 TOTAL 131,739 182,333 187,886 100.0% +42.6% Violent 13,740 15,483 14,773 7.9% +7.5% Property 10,135 11,080 10,913 5.8% +7.7% Drug 74,276 95,079 95,205 50.7% +28.2% Public-order 32,325 59,298 65,678 35.0% +103.2% Other 1,263 1,394 1,317 0.7% +4.3% - Violent = homicide, robbery, murder, and manslaughter (negligent and non-negligent).
- Property = burglary, fraud, etc.
- Public Order = immigration, weapons, etc.Source:
West, Heather C.; Sabol, William J.; and Greenman, Sarah J., “Prisoners in 2009,” Bureau of Justice Statistics, (Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, December 2010), NCJ 231675, Appendix Table 18, p. 33. http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/p09.pdf
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