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The former Argana Restaurant
Photo Credit: Reuters

It was only last week that I warned my readers that travel to Muslim countries is too dangerous.

So it was no surprise to me when I read this morning that a bomb went off in the main square in Marrakesh, Morocco killing 15 people, at least 10 of whom were foreigners. ¹

A surprise would be if Muslims could go a whole day in the entire world without actually killing someone – now that would surprise me.

Had those poor souls read my blog article and followed my advice they’d be alive today.

Notes

(1):

BBC, Morocco: Marrakesh bomb strikes Djemaa el-Fna square

A bomb attack in the main square of the Moroccan city of Marrakesh has killed 15 people, at least 10 of them foreigners, officials say.

The blast wrecked the Argana cafe in Djemaa el-Fna square, a popular tourist spot. At least 20 people were injured.

The nationalities of those killed were unclear but French news agency AFP said six were French and three Moroccan.

Planck’s Constant

ON THE ARTICLE, The Ground Zero Mosque, someone asked some questions and I answered them like this:

Question: You sure about this? If Islam is really about world domination and the article is true, why is it that we have always killed a lot more of them than they have of us?

Answer: So far, Muslim warriors have killed 270 million people. That is more than any person, country, group, or empire has killed at any time in history. By a long shot. In second place is communist China, which has killed 77 million people.

Question: And again, how can the work of a few individuals at 9-11 be construed to be the work of the entire congregration of Islam?

Answer: You missed the point of the article. My point is that mainstream, established Islamic doctrine is supremacist, aggressive, intolerant toward non-Muslims, and imperialistic, and the orthodox Muslims who flew the planes into the Towers share that same ideology with orthodox Muslims all over the world. The heterodox Muslims do not agree with those core Islamic doctrines. They are essentially Muslims in name only, apatheists, or heterodox (follow only select parts of Islamic doctrine, which is against the dictates of Islamic doctrine), and these make up a significant proportion of “the entire congregation of Islam.”

Question: Why is it the Islam nations like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Iraq have never attacked us?

Answer: We provide them with huge sums of money, and they are not powerful enough to win.

Question: No Muslim country has ever invaded a Western country, when we have invaded theirs?

Answer: Please read more about Muslim countries invading non-Muslim countries, including Western countries here and here and here and here.

Question: Islam followers are in all walks of life in the USA from politicians to judges and military personnel. As such, is the article really saying that all were complicit in 9-11?

Answer: Anyone who shares the same ideology and goals are part of the problem. If they want to be part of the solution, they will overtly reject those aspects of Islam that endanger women’s rights, freedom of religion (including the right to apostasy), and freedom of expression (including the right to criticize Islam).

Question: A history lesson for the writer — the US has no greater friend that the Islamic Republic of Kosovo … a country that we in the west liberated a short while ago? So the point of the article?

Answer: The point of the article is to explain why allowing the Ground Zero mosque is a bad idea for the free world.

Citizen Warrior

(The Last Supper, Leonardo da Vinci, 1498)

The Last Supper took place on a Wednesday — a day earlier than thought — and a date for Easter can now be fixed, according to a Cambridge University scientist aiming to solve one of the Bible’s most enduring contradictions.

Christians have marked Jesus’ final meal on Maundy Thursday for centuries but thanks to the rediscovery of an ancient Jewish calendar, Professor Colin Humphreys suggests another interpretation.

“I was intrigued by Biblical stories of the final week of Jesus in which no one can find any mention of Wednesday. It’s called the missing day,” Humphreys told Reuters. “But that seemed so unlikely: after all Jesus was a very busy man.”

His findings help explain a puzzling inconsistency between the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, who said the Last Supper coincided with Passover and John, who said the meal took place before the Jewish holy day commemorating the Exodus from Egypt.

Read the full story here.

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The Motor Vehicle Services Regional Service Center in Wayne
Photo Credit: NJ.com

So I went online today to renew my vehicle registration. It took only 2 or 3 minutes to fill out the requested info and pay the .50 registration fee plus a convenience fee of .00 for paying with a credit card.

Before 2003, the former New Jersey Division of Motor Vehicles was perhaps the worst run service in the country. After it was reorganized as the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission, customer service improved greatly.

However, I do have one complaint: the convenience fee of .00 for paying with a credit card. Are the Commissioners complete idiots? Why would any business want to penalize and throttle online activity? The cost to the agency for processing vehicle registration renewals online is practically nil. The cost for a customer service employee to process such a renewal is more than .00.

If I were running the Commission, I would give online people a two buck discount while charging all other non-online activities a penalty fee of two bucks. Why?

Consider the following: The New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission has 2,400 employees and an annual budget of 9.4 million.

Online processing could greatly and with almost no effort both reduce the number of employees and the annual expenses.

Who appoints these idiots?

In a related matter, I heard recently about a municipal parking authority that is considering not offering the option to pay for parking with a credit card because the parking commissioners do not want to pay the credit card processor a 19 cent fee per transaction.

The evidence is more than overwhelming that parking meters that accept credit cards generate more revenues than cash only meters even after processing fees are taken into account.

Who appoints these idiots?

Planck’s Constant

A FRIEND of mine has been lobbying in Tennessee (see an article about what Tennessee has been doing), and the lobbying process involves a lot of one-on-one conversations with politicians, and he said most politicians are almost entirely ignorant about Islam. They tend to make the assumption that it’s a religion similar to any other religion and a few crazy people have committed terrorist crimes for political reasons and justified them with religious doctrines they cherry-picked for the purpose, taking passages out of context to make them mean what they want.

And since they make that assumption, they don’t bother learning any more about it. They have plenty of other pressing issues competing for their attention.

That’s the case in North America and Australia. In Europe, it is partly the same, and partly the fact that Muslims now make up a significant voting block, and since politicians do whatever they can to win elections, they feel they must pander to Muslims to get into office. Right now enough of the general population of non-Muslims in Europe are ignorant enough about Islam that the politicians are getting away with pandering to Muslims, but as the educational level rises, they will be voted out. They are already being voted out.

So when you feel despair about what seems to be an overwhelming preponderance of traitorous politicians, remember that this is a temporary situation. And remember that they are as likely to be as ignorant of Islam’s prime directive as anybody else. They can also be educated like anyone else. My friend in Tennessee has had great success with his lobbying efforts, which he says is simply education. He is putting CSPI‘s excellent little booklet, Sharia Law for Non-Muslims, into the hands of politicians with great success.

So regardless of what you see politicians doing now, the situation is far from hopeless. And if politicians seem too committed to their uneducated position, we will vote them out of office.

Citizen Warrior

(The "Piss Christ" photograph damaged by Catholic activists at the Lambert Gallery in Avignon April 18, 2011/Jean-Paul Pelissier)

A controversial photograph of a crucifix submerged in the urine of New York artist Andres Serrano has been vandalized during an exhibit in Avignon and the museum’s employees have received death threats.

“Piss Christ” — a photograph that sparked an uproar when first exhibited in the United States in 1989 — was damaged Sunday “with the help of a hammer and an object like a screwdriver or pickaxe,” said the Collection Lambert, a contemporary art museum in France’s southwestern city known for its theater festival.

Moreover, the three vandals physically threatened three museum guards before fleeing, the museum said in a statement. A second photograph, “The Church,” which depicts the torso of a nun with her hands in her lap, was similarly vandalized. The museum, which shut its doors immediately after the incident, said it would reopen on Tuesday and display the damaged works “so the public can appreciate for themselves the violence of the acts.”

“Several people have called saying, ‘If you open, you’re dead,’” one museum worker told Reuters. “We’re nervous and we have asked for protection from the police.”

On Saturday, the museum was forced to close after a demonstration against the artist’s work drew some 800 protesters . The bishop of Avignon had earlier demanded that the museum remove the controversial photograph.

Most recently, several of Serrano’s works were vandalized in 2007 during an exhibit at a Swedish art gallery. In 1997, an Australian art gallery in Melbourne closed the exhibition after the photograph “Piss Christ” was attacked by a youth wielding a hammer.

What do you think about this? Are there parallels to the issue of blasphemy in Islam? What should civilian authorities do in such cases?

via Vandalism and threats greet Piss Christ in France | Reuters.

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FaithWorld

(A Tibetan in Nepal on a 24-hour hunger strike in Kathmandu April 18, 2011, to express solidarity with victims of a Chinese crackdown last month/Navesh Chitrakar)

China has said everything was “normal” at a Tibetan Buddhist monastery after the Dalai Lama urged restraint in a stand-off between security forces and Tibetans at the temple in southwest China. “According to what we understand, over the past few days the life and Buddhist activities of the monks at the Kirti monastery are all normal. Social order there is also normal. Material supplies in the temple are totally sufficient,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a regular news briefing.

“The Kirti temple’s administration and local police a long time ago set up a police-temple joint patrol team. The aim was to prevent people of uncertain identity from entering the temple. Relations between the police and the temple have always been harmonious,” Hong added on Tuesday without elaborating.

Hundreds of ethnic Tibetans had gathered at the Kirti monastery in Aba in Sichuan province last week trying to stop authorities moving out monks for government-mandated “re-education,” according to exiled Tibetans and activists. That prompted police to lock down the monastery with as many as 2,500 monks inside.

A 21-year-old Tibetan monk burned himself to death on March 16 in Aba, an overwhelmingly ethnic Tibetan part of Sichuan province that erupted in defiance against Chinese Communist Party control three years ago. Instead of putting out the flames, Chinese police beat the young monk, creating huge resentment in the monastery, the Dalai Lama said in his statement last week.

Read the full story here. For more on the unrest among Buddhist monks in Tibet, see:

Dalai Lama urges restraint in Tibet monastery standoff – April 16

Chinese police clash with civilians at Tibetan monastery – April 14

Tibetan monk burns to death in China protest – group – March 16

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FaithWorld

Sadly in this world there are people who believe that following the letter of religious law is more important than safety or even life itself, see my article The Chassid Shoteh – the Pious Fools of the World.

Jewish Law allows exceptions when the life and safety of the individual is concerned. For example, the Jewish Kashrut Laws regarding the prohibition on eating pork and shellfish certainly would not apply to a Jew on a deserted island filled only with wild boar and lined with crabs.

Unfortunately, the selfish, uncaring, foolishly-pious Muslim parents of Mona Ramouni would not permit her to have a seeing-eye dog her whole life because they considered the animal unclean. Instead the poor blind girl had to get a seeing-eye horse. That’s right – a seeing-eye horse, no joke. ¹ Some of my readers will offer the excuse that these parents are no doubt from a very backward country with primitive superstitions and unbearable peer pressure from the culture in which they live. Surprise: these morons live in Dearborn, Michigan here in the enlightened US of A. Only shows: even Muslims in America are blind – and I’m not talking about Mona.

However, not all Muslims are morons and idiots: The Muslim Law Council (Shariah) UK issued a fatwa allowing an 18-year-old young man to take his dog with him to a local mosque. ² The dog however cannot enter the prayer hall but must be kept in a gated area near the entrance where other filthy things like shoes are kept. What is not known is whether this blind Muslim keeps his dog inside his home or if he lives with his parents.

A blind Muslim woman in Australia had to overcome hostility to the idea of a seeing-eye dog but finally got one. ³ Sadly, the dog sleeps in a shed outside the home so the woman has to go outside the house to get to her dog.

The example of the UK fatwa should give blind Muslims hope that sanity and common sense will over-rule ancient and barbaric traditions and laws. We live in a modern world and the customs of desert-dwelling, caravan-looting, goat-shagging, slave-keeping marauders and thugs must be abandoned.

Notes

(1):

The Freethinker, 14 Nov 2010, Denied a guide dog by devout parents, Muslim woman buys seeing-eye horse

A blind Muslim woman had to make do without a guide dog her whole life because her devout parents would not allow a dog in the house, considering the animal unclean.

But then, according to this report ⁴, Mona Ramouni learned about miniature guide horses.

The psychology student, from Dearborn in Michigan, used three years of savings from her job at a Braille proofreading company to pay for a horse to be trained to act as her guide.

(2):

Religion News Blog, 25 Sep 2008, British Muslim body OKs taking guide dog to mosque

The Muslim Law Council (Shariah) UK issued a fatwa allowing 18-year-old Mahomed-Abraar Khatri to take his dog with him to the Bilal Jamia Mosque in the English city of Leicester, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of London.

“I hope it will should open up some doors and let other people to get a dog and not be worried of any religious aspects behind it,” Khatri told British Broadcasting Corp. television in an interview broadcast Wednesday.

(3):

The Age, 7 Apr 2011, Fresh thinking helps blind Muslims tackle dog taboo

FOR blind Muslims Neslihan Sari and Karima Shirzad, fulfilling their wish for a guide dog meant navigating a cultural minefield.

They longed for greater independence but felt trapped by the Islamic prohibition on pet dogs, described in the teachings as ”unclean”. This led each on a critical journey through Koranic scripture – and into sometimes painful conflict with family members reluctant to welcome a dog into the fold.

…

Both women ultimately prevailed. Ms Sari’s mother gave her blessing after ”a bit of tears and arguments” and after a trainer brought around two dogs that impressed as placid and obedient. And as Ms Shirzad’s suffering intensified, her sibling’s resolve melted.

…

Says Ms Shirzad: ”I live alone now, and after I moved in my father built Tashi a beautiful bedroom in a shed.”

(4):

Mail Online, Blind student saves for three years to buy a guide HORSE because her strict Muslim parents consider dogs unclean

Since welcoming three-year-old guide horse Cali into her Dearborn, Michigan, home last year, Miss Ramouni has seen her life turned around.

Cali measures about 2ft 6in tall and has been taught to stand still indoors. She also helps Miss Ramouni get out of vehicles and move through crowds.

Her proud mistress said: ‘She is an awesome little horse. What I really want is to be able to take her places neither of us would have been able to go without each other.

‘Before Cali, I had given up. I got to the point where I thought, ‘I’m going to get nothing out of my life’. Cali has given me the confidence back I used to have as a kid.’

Born three months premature, Miss Ramouni lost her sight shortly after birth.

Among the challenges she had to overcome in order for Cali to stay at her home were getting a permit to place a large shed in her family’s garden and to find a farrier to look after the horse’s hooves.

Planck’s Constant

(A victim of a suicide bomb attack at a mosque inside a police compound in Indonesia in the most serious incident in a recent spate of attacks by Islamist militants, April 15, 2011/Shan Shan)

A suicide bombing in Indonesia last week highlighted a trend of militants acting alone or in small groups to attack Indonesians rather than foreigners to push an Islamist agenda, the International Crisis Group (ICG) said in a report. This has raised concern about more low-level attacks in the world’s most populous Muslim country, which has been seen as having successfully combated militancy but is now seeing a spike in religious intolerance.

“Ideological shifts originating in the Middle East have combined with local circumstances to produce a trend that favours targeted killings over indiscriminate bombings, local over foreign targets and individual or small group action over operations by more hierarchical organisations,” the ICG said on Tuesday.

Militant attacks and incidents of religious intolerance have risen in recent weeks, with mobs lynching three followers of the minority Muslim Ahmadi sect and torching two churches on Java island.

Read the full story here.

FaithWorld

The Indian Premier League (IPL) has given chance to a whole lot of youngsters to exhibit their talent and burst on the national sporting scene.

This year IPL has already thrown up players like Paul Valthaty, Manoj Tiwari and Ambati Rayudu who would have otherwise hardly got the opportunity to emerge at the top level.

Iqbal Abdulla, who is playing for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) is another cricketer who has so far performed well in the ongoing season of the IPL [2011].

The orthodox spinner who can made handy contribution with the bat hails from Uttar Pradesh’s Azamgarh, a town which is known for producing litterateurs, leaders and countless other ‘Azmis’ who have earned a name across the world.

Iqbal Abdulla, who sports the purple jersey for KKR has finally been recognised as a cricketer. He is not a novice though. He was one of the heroes of the Indian Under-19 cricket team’s world cup victory in Malaysia. Fortunatel for him, the KKR is finally winning matches in IPL4.

In Azamgarh, Iqbal’s father ran a small kirana shop. Worse, he hated cricket. But it was his coach’s persuasive skills and the teenager’s hard work, who slept in go downs and lived off a paltry sum in Mumbai, that he finally managed to get selectors’ attention and was selected to play in the Ranji trophy.

The all-rounder who bowls left-arm orthodox spin had taken ten wickets at 13 apiece in the Under 19 world cup. Indian Express had then termed him ‘real Iqbal’ who scripted the young Indian team’s victory on lines of Nagesh Kuknoor’s critically acclaimed movie Iqbal, in which a Muslim boy overcomes disability to be part of the national squad.

With IPL, Abdullah is finally a recognizable face. Before him, Kamran Khan, another raw speedster, from Azamgarh, had earned name for himself. For a short while, a section of media had defamed Azamgarh, terming it a den of underworld shooters and nursery of terrorism.

Earlier it used to be poets, now its players like Khan and Abdulla who bring fame to the Uttar Pradesh town. They may not have got spectacular success as yet but the fact that players from humble backgrounds are making it to top teams and earning money, that is changing their families’ lives, is a positive trend. More importantly, for Azamgarh.

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