Clearing the FOG of Shariah

As an American Muslim woman activist, I’m letting out a resounding, “Let’s chill out!”

The Archbishop of Canterbury’s statement that Great Britain should consider accommodating aspects of Islamic law (or Shari’ah ) into its civil law was not a declaration against women or liberty. Rather, he merely proposed his own solution to the ongoing processes of reconciling the integrity of a secular state with the widely-held religious beliefs of people within that state, which may include certain legal provisions. This is, by definition, complicated, and different nations have offered different solutions. While we can disagree with the Archbishop’s conclusions, by simply (and without sufficient knowledge) disparaging Islam and Islamic law, we frankly miss the point of this larger debate.

It seems to me that people frequently conflate the genuine hardship of some Muslim women with Islam (and Islamic law) itself, hence the assumption that Shari’ah law equals oppression of women. This is unfortunate and frankly, intellectually irresponsible. Numerous factors contribute to the positive and negative conditions of Muslim women– cultural, historical, economic and political. Of course, Islam wields enormous influence at all levels, but it is drawn upon by contesting parties to both empower and oppress women.

In terms of the law in particular, we must recognize that Islamic law is not timeless, devoid of context, and without nuance. When we make these assumptions, we actually fall into the same trap as fundamentalists and affirm their ideas. While it is true that distorted religious interpretations of scripture promote damaging attitudes towards women in some societies, the understanding of Islamic law is much more complicated than this. Shari’ah law has been interpreted and re-interpreted. Traditionally, factors such as social conservatism within particular societies, the Talibanization of Islamic legal interpretation (or its narrow interpretation), the predominance of local custom over Islamic law, and the widespread feeling of embattlement amongst many Muslims, continue to hinder these interpretations.

But I ask: why can’t the most positive aspects of the Shar’iah be applied to our contemporary contexts, starting here in the West? Wouldn’t we be finally lifting up the truth of Islam, a truth that has inspired positive social change for more than fourteen hundred years? Within Islam, women are granted innumerable rights and responsibilities, and they are regarded as responsible agents, social and spiritual beings, and legal persons.

In 2006 I launched an initiative to empower Muslim women to fully participate in their communities and nations, and to amplify their voices at all levels of political, economic, religious, and social discourse. The Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equity (WISE) will speak with a humane and equitable voice – the Islamic voice! – and it will challenge the religious legitimacy of those who use Islam to encourage negative attitudes toward women.

As a Muslim woman living in America, my faith fuels my activism. I do not work in spite of Islam but because of it.

Comments

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thank you Ms. Khan, for the link to your organization. as a new yorker, i hope to be able to see in person some of these forward thinking mosques and dialogue with the sisters who frequent them

peace

Posted by: VICTORIA | March 1, 2008 11:17 PM
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Arif Siddiqui:

"Sooner or later, Sharia Law will be ubiquitous."

So much for coexistence. You speak about living in peace, but then completely turn around and start declaring the inevitability of Sharia law, and you want to complain about intolerance shown towards Islam? Oh, please.

Posted by: Alex | February 27, 2008 3:50 PM
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Arif Siddiqui writes: "Prophet of Islam in his last sermon reminded us, as he raised the question: Who is superior among us? He answered: The one who is most pious among you. Clear! No ambiguity, simply do the best deeds and actions as you can bear to perform"

Now let us see what the "sermon" actuall says:

"O people, the Unbelievers indulge in tampering with the calendar in order to make permissible that which God forbade, and to forbid that which God has made permissible. With God the months are twelve in number."

Clearly the "O people" being addressed are the believers, the Muslim, and not the non-muslims, the Kafirs. They had been banished from their own land and homes a long time ago. Centuries of thriving communities had been enslaved, uprooted and banished from the land of Muhammad. So the last sermon is to muslims and muslim only ... not to mankind.

"O people, believers are but brothers. No one may take his brother’s property without his full consent. Have I given the message? -- O Allah, be my witness. Never go back to being unbelievers, smiting each other’s necks,"

Again only muslims are but brothers. Not humanity, not mankind. Kafirs are not included in the brotherhood.

"O people, your Lord is One, and your father is one: all of you are from Adam, and Adam was from the ground. The noblest of you in Allah’s sight is the most godfearing: Arab has no merit over non-Arab other than godfearingness. Have I given the message? -- O Allah, be my witness."

Muhammad is addressing muslims. The most godfearing kafir will go to hell. That is why the Mahatama of the Kafirs, Gandhi, was told to his face that a muslim theif is better than Gandhi. Allah forgives all sins except of shirk. Rejecting Muhammad or Islam is a sin that God will not forgive. In the east there is a saying that Kafir children have to live with: the feet of the lowliest muslim are better than the head of the best of the best of Kafirs.

Go ahead Arif Siddiqui, tell the Kafirs whether what I write is true or not. Do you think your lies will not be shown for what they are: pathetic lies?

Posted by: A. Kafir | February 25, 2008 6:05 PM
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TO ARIF SIDDIQUE:

You wrote, "In Islam: “Fear” has been derived from the word “TAQWA”. Taqwa is “Fearing Allah as He should be feared. It is a major sign of being a faithful Muslim. See Qur'an, Aali 'Imran (3:102-103), Al-Hashr (59:18-19)", is this what the Qur'an really says?

That says nothing!

In the bible it says, "The FEAR OF THE LORD is reverence and awe, awe as in WOW, this is a nice planet and the rest of creation that You made and the diversity of life that you created is really something.

Reverence in that if you meet God you find that there is nothing to fear about God as in being afraid of Him but that He really cares about His People and His Creation.

I also posted something on 2-25-2008 at 11:06 AM to you but as of yet, you haven't replied, would you care too?

God's Plan is unfolding as we speak.

Take care, see you and the rest of humanity in the Kingdom.

Sincerely, Thomas Paul Moses Baum.

Posted by: Thomas Baum | February 25, 2008 4:54 PM
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Continuing the last post, those interested in reading a background on Bani An-Nadir take a look at:

http://www.peacewithrealism.org/jihad/jihad06.htm

Posted by: A. Kafir | February 25, 2008 2:53 PM
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59:18 and 19 of the Quran that Arif Siddiqui quotes is the gloating of Allah after the destruction of Bani An-Nadir.

The verses around the ones Siddiqui brings forth puts his allah in context:
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YUSUFALI: They will not fight you (even) together, except in fortified townships, or from behind walls. Strong is their fighting (spirit) amongst themselves: thou wouldst think they were united, but their hearts are divided: that is because they are a people devoid of wisdom.
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YUSUFALI: Like those who lately preceded them, they have tasted the evil result of their conduct; and (in the Hereafter there is) for them a grievous Penalty;-
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YUSUFALI: (Their allies deceived them), like the Evil One, when he says to man, "Deny Allah": but when (man) denies Allah, (the Evil One) says, "I am free of thee: I do fear Allah, the Lord of the Worlds!"
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YUSUFALI: The end of both will be that they will go into the Fire, dwelling therein for ever. Such is the reward of the wrong-doers.

It is only when actually sits down to read the story of Bani An-Nadir that one realises the horrendous evil that the above verses represent!! The destruction of a community that had been living for centuries side by side with others and in less than 15 years all the non-muslims excluded and declared as filthy as dog feces and urine and to this day the filthy Kafirs are not to step in the entire cities of Mecca and Medina. This is the tolerance of Allah and Muhammad. Now in context what is that Arif quotes:

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YUSUFALI: O ye who believe! Fear Allah, and let every soul look to what (provision) He has sent forth for the morrow. Yea, fear Allah: for Allah is well-acquainted with (all) that ye do.
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YUSUFALI: And be ye not like those who forgot Allah; and He made them forget their own souls! Such are the rebellious transgressors!
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YUSUFALI: Not equal are the Companions of the Fire and the Companions of the Garden: it is the Companions of the Garden, that will achieve Felicity.
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YUSUFALI: Had We sent down this Qur'an on a mountain, verily, thou wouldst have seen it humble itself and cleave asunder for fear of Allah. Such are the similitudes which We propound to men, that they may reflect

Is there a better example of Brainwashing anywhere? Fear Allah is the only sound that a muslim can hear. Logic and reason cannot function when every other verse of what you conside the core "Moral guide" screams at you to Fear Allah or you will burn in Hell. It is that fear that drives them into the utter stupidity of believing in nonsense.

Arif, answer the question asked of you? Can you answer? How come your allah does not know simple biology and human physiology?

Posted by: A. Kafir | February 25, 2008 2:38 PM
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Arif Siddiqui,

Notice Arif Siddiqui does not answer any of the simple questions put to him, but he brings forth the lies and deception taught to him. He does not even understand what he writes but merely repeats the nonsense that the Kafirs in India mired in dhimmitude have bought in the past.

The first sign that A muslim is going to hide Islam and is now going to resort to lies is to start quoting Rumi. Rumi was a liar. He was called a Kafir and they wanted to behead him the same way they beheaded and crucified Mansur Al Hallaj on the gate of Baghdad.
So Rumi lied to save his neck and his ass. Rumi Sufi to this day will sing paeans to muhammad before they try to preach sufism. Net result is that sufism is total and utter hypocrisy. They wink and nod at Islam so they can live without the Mullahs killing them.

Siddiqui why quote Rumi. Where does Allah or Mohammad ever say any of the lies of Rumi? See how the sufis helped Auranzeb to butcher the non-muslims in your country.

So let us take a look at what Arif Siddiqui is trying to sell and learn to always always put the Quran in context so the followers of Muhammad cannot whine "out of context". Arif quotes 3-102,103

Here is what the Quran says just before:
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YUSUFALI: Say: "O ye People of the Book! Why obstruct ye those who believe, from the path of Allah, Seeking to make it crooked, while ye were yourselves witnesses (to Allah's Covenant)? but Allah is not unmindful of all that ye do."
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YUSUFALI: O ye who believe! If ye listen to a faction among the People of the Book, they would (indeed) render you apostates after ye have believed!
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YUSUFALI: And how would ye deny Faith while unto you are rehearsed the Signs of Allah, and among you Lives the Messenger? Whoever holds firmly to Allah will be shown a way that is straight.

So Allah is warning the christians and the jews as to why are they putting up arguments against the nonsense being mouthed by Muhammad. Those arguments exist to this day, and the result is that where ever Islam dominated the questioners were silenced and the Pact of Umar imposed!! Now with that context in mind see what the verses Arif quotes read:
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YUSUFALI: O ye who believe! Fear Allah as He should be feared, and die not except in a state of Islam.
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YUSUFALI: And hold fast, all together, by the rope which Allah (stretches out for you), and be not divided among yourselves; and remember with gratitude Allah's favour on you; for ye were enemies and He joined your hearts in love, so that by His Grace, ye became brethren; and ye were on the brink of the pit of Fire, and He saved you from it. Thus doth Allah make His Signs clear to you: That ye may be guided.

You see if you do not become Muslim you will roast in Hell. And die not except as a muslim!!! Ibn Kathir explains it as: means, preserve your Islam while you are well and safe, so that you die as a Muslim. The Most Generous Allah has made it His decision that whatever state one lives in, that is what he dies upon and is resurrected upon. We seek refuge from dying on other than Islam. And 103 "was revealed about the Aws and Khazraj. During the time of Jahiliyyah, the Aws and Khazraj were at war and had great hatred, enmity and ill feelings towards each other, causing long conflicts and battles to occur between them. When Allah brought Islam, those among them who embraced it became brothers who loved each other by Allah's grace". The love and unity of the tribes led to the elimination of the non-muslims from the land of Muhammad and total and utter humiliation of the non-muslims where ever Islam went.
As the wolf said to red riding hood, these sharp teeth are to all the better eat you with my dear, and that is the message that the Sufi deliver that the Mullahs implement.

Similarly the other verses that Arif Siddiqui quotes have a meaning that is different for the muslims than the lies told to the kafirs. This is exactly the policy of saying one thing in arabic, or persian and a totally different thing in english. A tactic well employed by Islam through its history. Kafirs should learn to read and understand the Quran well.

Arif Siddiqui, I asked you questions. Why can you not even answer one, instead of cheaply lying? Only fools and morons will buy the lies in this day and age.

Your Allah is a fake. Why don't you tell us which drop of liquid is he talking about that proceeds from between the ribs and the backbone? Why don't you tell us why does Science totally and completely reject the idiocy of all mankind coming from a single man and a woman? Why should anyone accept anything from the Quran if your all knowing Allah is as ignorant and as wrong on these two simple facts?

Posted by: A. Kafir | February 25, 2008 2:22 PM
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1. Fear of Allah :

As per discourse we are indulge into some of the venomous arguments among readers, such as A. Kaffir commented that Muslims do not cogitate with rationale way rather they live in the environment of “Fear of Allah”, means their mind is full of fear.
According to A. Kaffir! Muslims set of mind is built upon fear.

Let us try to explain his accusations: A. Kaffir is mistaken in his accusations and allegations, not only every human being has this “FEAR”, even animals have this instincts of FEAR. A. Kaffir ‘s malice and hatred is: simply trying to project on the audience that Muslims do not have intellect because they always have fear in mind. May Allah (SWT) forgive me but in defense of HIS HONOR and DIGNITY, as a Muslim, I am trying to clearly and explicitly explain to A. Kaffir.
In A. Kaffir words: Muslim’s god is a “Bogey Man”. It is totally nonsense, baseless, and stupidity. Every human being has instinct to love and obey his chosen “Deity”. But it is A. Kaffir’s conjecture, is just simply to Muslim and Islam, in particular, Prophet of Islam (peace be upon him) to show his hated, disrespect, and dishonor him. It is a shame on this disgruntled, unjust, uncivilized person like A. Kaffir Let us try to correct A. Kaffir’s view, it is his attitude, very hard to change anybody’s attitude.
Let us define: What is ‘FEAR of ALLAH (SWT) in Islam?
In Islam: “Fear” has been derived from the word “TAQWA”. Taqwa is “Fearing Allah as He should be feared. It is a major sign of being a faithful Muslim. See Qur'an, Aali 'Imran (3:102-103), Al-Hashr (59:18-19)
Prophet of Islam in his last sermon reminded us, as he raised the question: Who is superior among us? He answered: The one who is most pious among you. Clear! No ambiguity, simply do the best deeds and actions as you can bear toperform. I am sorry if the fog has been cleared from the mindset of A. Kaffir or not ! For example
Consider you are driving a car on the road. You constantly vigilant so that you cannot exceed the speed limit, otherwise you are going to get a ticket from the cop. No matter what plea you make, cop is not going to change the rule, he has to do it because he has the responsibility to enforce the laws and regulations. Moreover, if you are speeding does not have control over the brake, you are going to have severe consequences either your car will crash or get ticketed by the cop.

Hence, answer is explicitly clear! Yes we do live in ‘Fear of Allah’. We fear Our Lord the creator of the universe. We believe and testify in His Oneness and Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him (PBH)) as the ‘Last Messenger of Allah’. We do this, as we want to acquire highest virtues, piety, and righteousness. Only we fear Allah. Let us constantly all of us. A meritorious student is always fearful and vigilant for his academic performance, he is working hard to achieve highest ranking among his peers. I hope that A. Kaffir has to cogitate before indulging on defying, maligning, and insulting out of hatred as he acknowledge on his bogus comments to Muslim and Islam.
Another accusation that Islam is bankrupt intellectually! It is totally a simple “Ignorance of A. Kaffir”. I already mentioned numerous names, just few more names: Ahmad Hasan Zewail, the winner of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on femtochemistry, Fazlur Khan, from Bengladesh: regarded as the "Einstein of structural engineering" and considered "the greatest architectural engineer of the second half of the 20th century" for his constructions of the Sears Tower and John Hancock Center, and for his designs of structural systems that remain fundamental to all high-rise skyscrapers, and too many others, as already mentioned.

Posted by: Arif Siddiquie | February 25, 2008 12:53 PM
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Kudos to Who Strive for Coexistence & Tolerance

Allah(SWT)’s message to his creatures is clear, unequivocal. It has been put in a beautiful couplet by Maulana Rumi, the greatest Sufi that Islam produced:
Too baraaye wasl kardan aamadi
Na baraaya fasl kardan aamadi
(You’ve been sent to unite people
You’ve not been sent to divide people)
Maulana Rumi’s poems have been widely translated into many different languages. His poems are: ‘Most popular poet of America’.

1.Fear of Allah :

Posted by: Arif Siddique | February 25, 2008 12:33 PM
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TO ARIF SIDDIQUE:

You wrote, "Sooner or later, Sharia Law will be ubiquitous.", this is a very telling statement.

This, in very simple language, shows what sharia law is, to the true believing muslim, and that is the imposition of islam, by whatever means, on the whole planet.

I have met God and God is a Trinity, a Trinity of One, Jesus is Who He said that He is and that is God-Incarnate, and God is a Being of Pure Love.

Jesus is God-Incarnate not some second-rate prophet.

Isn't it just like satan to twist what God said and then to call Him a prophet, second-rate at that?

You may or may not know, but in the bible it says that it is God's Will that all be saved.

Seems to me from what you say, the god of islam sure is one hate-filled being that despises the people that he supposedly created, is that what you think or is that just the way that you come across?

The True, Living, Triune, Triumphant God is a searcher of hearts and minds not of religious affiliations or lack thereof.

It is important what you do and why you do it and what you know.

It sounds like you are looking forward to so many of your fellow human beings going to hell, but you know what, you don't seem to know anything about hell.

Do you know what is amazing?

The fact that so many muslims are good, loving people in spite of the fact that satan is the god of islam, do you not also find that amazing?

God has a Plan and has had His Plan since before creation and His Plan is for ALL OF HUMANITY to be with Him in His Kingdom.

By the way God is not a He, a She or an It even tho God-Incarnate was a Man, a Jewish Man.

Take care, see you and the rest of humanity in the Kingdom.

Sincerely, Thomas Paul Moses Baum.

Posted by: Thomas Baum | February 25, 2008 11:06 AM
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Arif Siddiqui,

Are you in Germany or are you in Bombay? You are two bit liar, and when you are caught lying and shown to be a liar, what do you do? Instead of owning up, you try telling you run a spiritual clinic!! Do you know the first thing about spirituality?

Why don't you ask the Libyan Imam who actually works in Africa why 6 million leave every year. Here is the link: http://www.formermuslims.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=972

Then if you want more names of people who have rejected Islam take a look at
http://www.wikiislam.com/wiki/Muslims_who_left_Islam

And so for true to form, you have not answered a single question posed to you. Not one. Why?

Arif, Islam is dead. Intellectually it is exposed and there is no defense for it. It is lies. As the children get educated and the modern science penetrates the minds of the young muslims, Islam will disappear into history. It was a barbaric arabian cult and it is well past its due date.

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YUSUFALI: Now let man but think from what he is created!
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YUSUFALI: He is created from a drop emitted-
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YUSUFALI: Proceeding from between the backbone and the ribs:

Arif, look at the verbs ... Allah says proceeding. So tell me which drop proceeds from between the backbone and the ribs? Your Zacker the Quacker of Bombaai says this means Allah is saying when the fetus was six weeks old!! Lol!! Your friend runs a clinic. Why don't you find a muslim friend and find which drop is Allah talking about? How come you Allah is so incredibly stupid? Come one answer, mumbai dweller. Defend your Allah, and tell the Kafirs which drop is the All knowing Allah talking about?

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YUSUFALI: O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes

Arif, find out what high school biology teaches about evolution and natural selection. Do you know why mankind could not have come from a single pair of a male and a female? And you sell this ignorance as the ultimate knowledge?

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YUSUFALI: As to the thief, Male or female, cut off his or her hands: a punishment by way of example, from Allah, for their crime: and Allah is Exalted in power.
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YUSUFALI: The woman and the man guilty of adultery or fornication,- flog each of them with a hundred stripes: Let not compassion move you in their case, in a matter prescribed by Allah, if ye believe in Allah and the Last Day: and let a party of the Believers witness their punishment.

Is this the Sharia you think is going to be ubiquitous?

Give a try at aswering any of the questions.

Posted by: A. Kafir | February 24, 2008 11:52 AM
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A. Kaffir!

You seems to having real mental problem. Shame on you claiming that 6 millions Afrcan Muslims rejected Islam. Shame on you, totally baseless, there is no such things. For example: one bsihop he spent 16 years in Mauritania, and he was not able to convert a single muslim into christianity! Shame on you again spreading wrong information MURTID/ALIM SHAITAN.
The TRUTH will prevail!
Islam is the fastest growing religion.
Stop lying! super liar.

Posted by: Arif | February 24, 2008 4:04 AM
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A. Kaffir!

Maurice Buccaile mmade good money. How much you got the money after becoming MURTID?
Learn manner, do not spread the lies. Definitely you know your destiny, your place will be in HELL!
You did not prove the corollary! Be shameful of your misdeed!
Let me know!
You are claiming that Maurice Buccaile did not become Muslim. But what about these great-great convert to Islam: Pickhtal, Mohammad Asad, Danish and Italian Ambassdors, Shiekh Hamza Yousuf, Yusuf Islam? Do you know how much they made?
You are simply a super liar!
But it is explicitly clear that You got huge amount of money to become MURTID: simply spread hatred and lies! You are very shy, timid, and, coward to disclose the TRUTH. It is true money make the person blind, and you are among them. Stop insulting!

Posted by: Arif | February 24, 2008 3:51 AM
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Arif Siddiqui,

I have answered your questions.

You write: "The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Wiiliams statement has profound impacts and implications, as he did it after careful study."
and
" Sooner or later, Sharia Law will be ubiquitous."

The Kafirs should know that these words are being written by a Muslim who is absolutely convinced that is extremely moderate and very very civilized. Now image the position of a Muslim who considers himself a religious zealot.

Siddiqui what you have written is far more illuminating to the kafirs who will read this page than anything I could have said. I know you do not understand what I have just written, but that is the indication of the gap in education and culture that exists between the kafirs and the muslims at present.

I have answered your questions, but you have not even attempted to answer a single one I asked.

Since Sharia will become ubiquitous. Will cutting of limbs, stoning of women, marrying of girl toddlers, triple talaaq, strict segregation of sexes, Covering of Women in proper Burkha or Chaddor (or perhaps the principle of Chaddor and Char dewari for women) etc. also become ubiquitous? All of that is part of Sharia, is it not?

Posted by: A. Kafir | February 24, 2008 3:31 AM
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Deb Chatterjee writes:

"I don't understand these statements. He never believed in the prophecy he claimed ? That means he knew he was not a prophet but was fooling/deceiving people ?
Any proof kafir ? BTW, looks like you are an ex-Muslim. So, Muslims might say that you are speaking out of hatred. BTW, Ibn Ishaq's SIRAT RASUL ALLAH depicts Muhammad in the most bestial manner. I would find it difficult to disagree with you, as I have read Ibn Ishaq's biography"

You find it difficult to disagree but you still do? One does not need to invoke Ibn Ishaq to see the problem with Muhammad, Sahih Hadeeth are enough. Without the Hadeeth, Ishaq, Waqqidi, and a couple of other books there is no Muhammad except a "ghost" in the Quran and Quran becomes gibberish.

Of course I write out of hatred. Which sane person would not, as you yourself write the earlies biographer "depicts Muhammad in the most bestial manner"!! And it is not only ibn Ishaq but the hadith by Bukhari, by Muslim, and other Imams that present the same. The thing to remember is that these depictions are not by Islam's enemies but by Islam's great Imams who wanted to be remembered as hagiographers and not mere biographers. The civilization and culture they present is so foreign to man at present that the praise comes across far worse than any damnation, and all it takes is a little bit of critical thinking ... not much, just a little. If Muhammad was like Chingez Khan, or Hannibal, a character consigned to the history books instead of influencing the morality of 20% of humanity in the present, the hate would be pathological and a dislike tempered with the excuse that humanity was barbarous back then more appropriate. However, those who want to destroy the kafirs in totality worship what you consider a bestial depiction. They do not consider it bestial at all. They make video of beheading, and not showing mercy to those they burn or torture to death and boast about it. All precisely because the early biographers of Muhammad say that Muhammad did all of that. They are merely emulating Muhammad, and that evil at present I do hate and I do write against it.

There are many reasons to doubt that Muhammad actually believed that he was a prophet. However, when power is as absolute as Muhammad had achieved it might have been easy for him to start believing his own lies. Here is one reason from Islam's history:

Abdullah ibn Abu Sarah was one of Muhammad's scribes who is said to have suggested alternative words for the verses of 'revelations' to which Muhammad agreed.

Apparently he thoug that if these 'revelations' were actually from God, then no one, not even Muhammad had the right to change a single iota of them. He apostasised upon pain of death by Muhammad and his followers. His life was saved by Uthman b Affan after Muhammad had conquered Mecca. He was Uthman's foster brother.

Sunan of Abu-Dawood Hadith 2677
Narrated bySa'd
On the day when Mecca was conquered, the Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him) gave protection to the People except four men and two women and he named them. Ibn AbuSarh was one of them. He then narrated the tradition. He said: Ibn AbuSarh hid himself with Uthman ibn Affan. When the Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him) called the people to take the oath of allegiance, he brought him and made him stand before the Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him). He said: Apostle of Allah, receive the oath of allegiance from him. He raised his head and looked at him thrice, denying him every time. After the third time he received his oath.

He [Muhammad] then turned to his Companions and said: Is not there any intelligent man among you who would stand to this (man) when he saw me desisting from receiving the oath of allegiance, and kill him? They replied: We do not know, Apostle of Allah, what lies in your heart; did you not give us an hint with your eye? He said: It is not proper for a Prophet to have a treacherous eye.

The alleged fabrication of the revelation centres on Surah 23.12-14.

In the {Tafsir-i-Husaini, Vol. 2, p. 80 (quoted in Sell, The Historical Development of the Qur'an, p. 150-151)} the description of the creation of man in these verses was ended, this same Abdullah, recording the verses as Muhammad's amanuensis, exclaimed

" Fatabaaraka^llahu-ahsanul-khaaliqeen" - "Blessed be Allah, the best of Creators".

Muhammad promptly told him to record that exclamation in the passage as part of the revelation.
Abdullah rejected Islam claiming Muhammad to be a fraud.
(The words are duly recorded at the end of Surah 23.14).

Any way the story of the two singing girls mentioned in the above Hadeeth also suggest that Muhammad knew he was not a genuine article. Then there are too many verses that Allah very conveniently comes up with whenever Muhammad wanted them. There is even an Hadith where Aiesha his child bride pouts about that very convenient facility of Muhammad.

Posted by: A. Kafir | February 24, 2008 3:18 AM
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A. Kaffir!

I did not get your response. You did not have answer to my question!
Have ever read the books well researched and well documented by Annemarie Schimmel, Karen Armstrong?
You did not prove the corolorry, now I assume that you are not the person with whom anybody can make arguments, because you only learned to insult and spread hatred and venom toward a peace loving society. See the remarkable works have been done by Indian Muslims, though there are innumerable injustices have been commited on them

I am sorry, I do not know how to address you! A. Kaffir or Murtid, or ALIM SHAITAN. I hope even RSS chief does not like to choose his name KAFFIR. Stop insulting!
You simply started insulting, and vaguely making stupid arguments. I am not only trained in mathematical sciences and engineering, but also I am good in spirtual teaching. Are you ready for spirtual cure?

Stop behaving in a nincompoop manner. Learn some ethics, then do arguments in a rationale manner.

Do you know ISLAMIC FINANCING is gaining currency globally? Why?
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Wiiliams statement has profound impacts and implications, as he did it after careful study. You act like you have very sound knowledge on Islam. But! Remember! "Empty vesells make much more noise". You are greedy guy, become MURTID just for money. Shame on you!
Sooner or later, Sharia Law will be ubiquitous.

Posted by: Arif Siddiquie | February 24, 2008 3:15 AM
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Dear Deb Chatterjee,

First of all, I want to apolgize you, as in my earlier comments I used a bad word.
I am humbly requesting you to forgive me if it hurts your feeling. I will soon make the clearfication of your doubts. I am debating only to A. Kaffir, who is indulging in a very unethical manner and simply "INSULTING ALL THE PROPHETS".
I again want to apologize you, and will answer your question very soon.

Sincerely,

-Arif

Posted by: Arif Siddiquie | February 24, 2008 2:38 AM
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A. Kaffir wrote:

"It is entirely unclear whether he did what he thought was the right thing to do. It is also entire unclear whether he actually beleived in the prophecy he claimed."

I don't understand these statements. He never believed in the prophecy he claimed ? That means he knew he was not a prophet but was fooling/deceiving people ?

Any proof kafir ? BTW, looks like you are an ex-Muslim. So, Muslims might say that you are speaking out of hatred. Can you convince us that you have facts to prove your position ?

BTW, Ibn Ishaq's SIRAT RASUL ALLAH depicts Muhammad in the most bestial manner. I would find it difficult to disagree with you, as I have read Ibn Ishaq's biography. But, did Muhammad know that he was all the time fooling his people ? How can you make such speculations ? Surely you must have some basis ? What's it ?

Posted by: Deb Chatterjee | February 24, 2008 2:21 AM
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Deb Chatterji writes: "I think Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) was a genuine person who was honest with what he thought was the right thing to do. And he was successful in establishing his hview, which he claimed to come from God. So, because history respects those who have been successful I would not disrespcet him personally."

I suspect you do not know very much about the Sunnah of Muhammad. The more you learn the less likely you are to make the statement you have made. History respects those who have been successful? History is never a closed subject. Chingez Khan was a very successful Warlord. He fathered some of the worlds greatest empires, but that does not mean he is above criticism when it comes to his actions in terms of present humanity. I think it is established his is the most dominant DNA in the present world because he loved to rape. He was certainly an influential person but I would not compare him to people like Mahatama Gandhi, Abdul Ghaffar Khan (The frontier Gandhi), Tagore, Mother Terresa, etc.

It is entirely unclear whether he did what he thought was the right thing to do. It is also entire unclear whether he actually beleived in the prophecy he claimed. Even if he did, his actions were extremely violent. When he obtained the power he sought, he made an example of that absolute power corrupts absolutely. He enslaved thousands of women and children, he traded these humans, he gifted them to his followers, friends, etc. He killed thousands. He raped. He looted. He had people assassinated. In short, the more you learn about him, the more you realize that the central problem of Islam is the character of muhammad because muslims are taught to want to be like him. No society can function if most people in a society are like muhammad. That is the reason why most muslims never really know the life of Muhammad. They are taught lies, and that is why most muslims will quote you fictional events of Muhammad's life that were invented by muslims in later societies. Allow me to give you couple of examples:

Muslims will tell you that Muhammad said go to china to get knowledge. He never did. There is absolutely no record in any original historian of Islam. This was invented by persians something like 600 years after muhammad. Then muslims will tell you the story of a jewess throwing garbage on muhammad and how she got sick and did not throw garbage on him one day, and he went to her house to enquire about her, and she converted to Islam because of his kindness. Guess what? There is no record of that in any islamic book of the early days of islam. This is a story taken from the Bahahis about Bahaullah and a muslim woman in persian. There are many many examples of total fabrication being put forth by muslims to their chidren because they are unable to tell the earliest stories about Muhammad because they are so violent and so bloodthirsty.

Personally I do not consider the overwhelming majority of muslims to be a problem at all. The problem is the Sudden Jihad Syndrome and not know exactly which muslim will suddenly start reading the hadith and the books on Islam and wanting to emulate the Sunnah of Muhammad. The problem the world has is the Sunnah of Muhammad and his war manual, and not muslims. Think what would it be like if you start considering the actions and deeds of Chingez Khan worth emulating and building a society based on that. It is absolutely critical to disabuse everyone of the notion that the life of Muhammad and his actions can be used by anyone in the modern world to build a society that can live peacefully in a global village with multiculture, multi religious environment.

Posted by: A. Kafir | February 23, 2008 11:28 PM
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A. Kaffir,

Your comments are good. Let me put my position very explicitly. I think Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) was a genuine person who was honest with what he thought was the right thing to do. And he was successful in establishing his view, which he claimed to come from God. So, because history respects those who have been successful I would not disrespcet him personally. His personal life, which has been the source of debate - is his life. Afer all, what do I gain in the 21st century by criticizing a person who died in 632 A.D. ?? Would Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) come down and refute my allegations ??

I would criticize Islam. That is the legacy of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). I have a right to challenge (or criticize) the message (Islam); but I do not think I have the moral right to criticize the messenger (Prophet Muhammad [PBUH]).

This Arif Siddiqui did not answer my positions regarding Quran [004:095] and [005:033]. Instead he chose to shower insults. How can one argue with Islam or religion ? Its a choice. That choice is NOT unique. Its like saying that a red shirt is better than a gree shirt. To me it does not make any sense. Does it to you ?

Posted by: Deb Chatterjee | February 23, 2008 9:00 PM
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Arif Siddiqui,

LoL! Are you in Germany or are you running a "spiritual Heart clinic" in Bombay? Spiritiual Heart Clinic? Is that a new fangled name for you masjid?

You do know that Greatest means "singular". So how can you apply "Greatest Fool" to Deb Chatterjee and to A. Kafir? I think you are wrong on both accounts because you had already proven that you were the Greatest of fools. LoL!! Did the mirror confirm that for you?

You can address me as you wish. It matters nada to me.

You should calm down a little and stop spluttering all over the place. You are taxing your brain as it is. It is sad to see you so distressed. You really should learn to relax and learn to accept that with the modern technologies the expose of Islam will go on regardless of all the impotent threats by the followers of muhammad. In actual life your anger would be generate a mob and some poor guy trying to question Islam would have been killed, his family ruined, and the kafirs around taught a lesson to keep their mouths shut. It still happens in India where you live. But you cannot do that over the net, can you? Islam is being exposed over a thousand sites and pretty soon it will be over a million sites. So get used to it. Your lies will not work, and your threats are meaningless.

I asked you to show where and when did I ever say that I rejected Islam because of Islam? Why do you lie so much? Your credibility is zero and it is difficult to take anything seriously because you lie so much.

Here are your answers point wise:

1. Maurice Buccaile wrote a book to make money and he did, but he never became a muslim. Your information is incorrect. Even if the people you name did become muslims, so what? People are free to decide and make their own choices. For reasons of their own, people choose a religion, and then they should be free to leave it as well. In muslim countries that freedom does not exist. In the free countries, most people who convert tend to leave Islam within the first year or so. About 6 million muslims are rejecting Islam just in Africa. There are many many very smart people who have reject your Islam. Salman Rushdie from Bombay whose books are banned in India left Islam ... why? Ibn Warraq, also an indian, has rejected Islam. Taslim Nasreen from Bengal. Irfan Khawja from Bombay, and the list is long. Look it up. Islam is intellectually bankrupt, and is now being exposed for it truly is: arab imperialism masquerading as a religion and often implemented as a death cult.

2. What you are trying to use is often referred to as Pascal's wager and has been thouroughly refuted over the years. Look it up. Whose judgment day? You are going to be in severe trouble if it is jewish, christian, hindu, zorastrian, magian, pagan, etc. and not muslim. You are putting all your bets on a single notion from the muslim mythology. Your Quran says that if there is a single error in the Quran then it cannot be word of God. Now your Quran is filled with errors. How can you believe in nonsense from a book that is so wrong and its Allah who is so stupid. Here are two errors for you to think about: Your allah says all of mankind was created from a single pair of man and woman. Man now knows that is just plain wrong. Allah says man was created from a drop of liquid gushing forth from between the spine and the ribs, and that is just plain wrong. Two simple scientific facts and Allah has them wrong. There are other absurdities in the quran as well. Now you can go to Zakirs web site in Bombay to look up the answer and see the silly twisting and turning he makes. The fact is that Allah get simple science just plain wrong.

3. I do not understand what you are asking there except you seem to be close to having an apoplectic fit. I told you that Jesus is not Isa of the Quran. What difference does it make what my religion is? That is my business and no one elses. I do not ask anyone to convert in or out of any religion. You want to keep worshiping a dead 7th century barbarian warlord, go right ahead. That is your choice.

Follow the ethical manner? First learn to not lie before you talk about ethics. Okay.

Anything else?

Posted by: A. Kafir | February 23, 2008 4:19 PM
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A. Kaffir: GREATEST FOOL on the planet!
DEB CHATERJEE: GREATESTFOOL on the earth.

STOP! wrtiting,illogical , irrationale way, you silly stupids NINCOMPOOPs, greedy guys become MURTIDs for the sake of MONEY.

It is not clear, how I have to address you guys? Let me know: Kaffir, Murtid, ALIM Shaitan!

Open questions: If you guys can answer otherwise I am assuming that you lost the debate/dialogue.

Give me clear explicit answer:
1. Why great people like: Mohammad Asad, Dr. Mauirice Buccaile, Shiekh Hamza Yousuf, Maryam Jameelah, Murad Hoffman, Professor Krishna Rao and too many others chosen the path of "TRUE RELIGION" after doing in depth methodoligical rsearch? Clear stupid MURTIDS!
But you "Father of Ignorance" deflected the question to answer, because you chosen the path of darkness(HELL) after getting handsome money paid by RSS/LTTE, or Narendra Modi.
2. You also did not able to prove the mathematical corollary:
What will happen to guys if there will be "Day of Judgement"?
You piggy piglet! you know that your destination is HELL-FIRE full of pus, snakes wonderful drinks made of urine. Come on! prove it otherwise you are looser who was paid huge amount of money!

3. Tel me what's your religion now rodent rat, as you are claiming that you become MURTID! greedy guy. You did not answer about Prophet Jesus ( peace be upon him). Whats your DEEN now, you understand sulky rotten, austic , no where to go dirt. I will keep replying you, till you admit your ignorance. You have been poisned by RSS oufit just to write garbage, irrationale way!
Follow the ethical manner, stop unethical manner. Foolish you do not have enough knowledge.

Posted by: Arif | February 23, 2008 3:30 PM
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A. Kaffir: GREATEST FOOL on the planet!
DEB CHATERJEE: GREATESTFOOL on the earth.
It is not clear, how I have to address you guys? Let me know: Kaffir, Murtid, ALIM Shaitan!

Open questions: If you guys can answer otherwise I am assuming that you lost the debate/dialogue.

Posted by: Arif | February 23, 2008 3:18 PM
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A. Kaffir: GREATEST FOOL on the planet!
DEB CHATERJEE: GREATESTFOOL on the earth.
It is not clear, how I have to address you guys? Let me know: Kaffir, Murtid, ALIM Shaitan!

Open questions: If you guys can answer otherwise I am assuming that you lost the debate/dialogue.

Posted by: Arif | February 23, 2008 3:16 PM
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TO DAISY KHAN AND THE REST OF HUMANITY:

There is no room for sharia law or any other religious laws in America.

The fact that it is totally against the law of the land should make it a moot point.

Of course as can easily be seen, it is not a moot point.

Laws should be to keep some resemblance of civility among people, if they are to try to impose or enforce a belief then by simple definition, it is not a belief.

Since "laws of belief" should come from inside a person whereas laws are imposed upon a person from the outside, sharia law [from the outside] forcing others to live what you believe as opposed to laws of beliefs [from the inside] living these beliefs or at least trying to live them.

If the god of islam wants for people to force others to believe in him or be treated shall we say "shabbily", doesn't sound like much of a god to me or for a god to take seriously "free will" or doesn't the muslim religion believe in free will?

The True, Living, Triune, Triumphant God is a searcher of hearts and minds, not of religious affiliations or lack thereof.

It is important what you do and why you do it and what you know.

Take care, be ready, see you and the rest of humanity in the Kingdom.

Sincerely, Thomas Paul Moses Baum.

Posted by: Thomas Baum | February 23, 2008 11:25 AM
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Arif Siddique wrote:

""Suicide Bombing" is completely an evil act. Read Chapter 5 (Surah Al-Maidah) its totally denounced to kill innocent people."

This is a misleading statement. Quran (004:095) encourages Muslims to receive "hurt" in fighting for the cause of Allah. This is the motivation for suicide bombings. That is Quran exalts those Muslims who are active in a physical fight and receive wounds etc. (hurt), and compares them superior to those Muslims who remain passive or are leading peaceful lives. Osama bin Laden and his brand of Jihadis have often quoted this specific verse from the Quran to justify "fighting the West". The specific verse is as follows:

YUSUFALI: "Not equal are those believers who sit (at home) and receive no hurt, and those who strive and fight in the cause of Allah with their goods and their persons. Allah hath granted a grade higher to those who strive and fight with their goods and persons than to those who sit (at home). Unto all (in Faith) Hath Allah promised good: But those who strive and fight Hath He distinguished above those who sit (at home) by a special reward,-" [Quran(004:095)]

See the link:

http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/004.qmt.html

The question is what if Sharia was implemented in USA ? This garbage, which naive Americans seem to be getting into, that "(positive) parts of Sharia be implemented" is a baloney. Either one implements the entire Shariah or rejects it fully. If Sharia is implemented, then the US Constitution is *obligated* to uphold Islam as a virtuous way of life than the western secularism we know. This means that non-Muslims in USA are to accept that Islam is superior. So, as a first example, no newspaper/TV/movie/cartoon etc. can ever say anything critical/insulting/blasphemous of Islam, Allah or Muhammad. And, films like THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST or THE DAVINCI CODE cannot be made, because it shows Jesus Christ in a very negative light. Muslims revere Jesus, and Quran has surahs about Him. So, that's Allah's message. Now let's see what Quran says if some liberal intellectual would express the right to Free Speech (1st Amendment) and ends up insulting Allah's message (Islam/Quran) or Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). This is what "should" happen, per Quran and hence approved by Shariah too:

YUSUFALI: "The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter;" [Quran(005:033)].

see the link:

http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/005.qmt.html

So, is this what we want after "parts" of Shariah is implemented into US Constitution ? We want the 1st Amendment to die ?

Another question is quite intriguing: why would we even bother to discuss Shariah into US laws ? Why ? Do Islamic countries discuss any westernization of their societies ? All I see is more roll back of the secularist norms that these Islamic countries might once have adopted. Turkey just lifted the ban on headscarfs. Well, that's their prerogative. Why US would have to get into a discussion whether to legalize the barbaric Shariah ? If Muslims demand Shariah, kick them out of USA. Australians are already fed up with this garbage. Why would we want to hypocrites like Daisy Khan to mislead us on Shariah, when it is totally evil by western standards ? If Muslims in the West are unhappy with the secular laws, let them get out of USA and go back to those Islamic lands. Why come here and be a pain the a--of others ? Whereever Islam has spread, that is Muslims have become numerical majority, this problem has surfaced - overturning the secular laws of that place. KICK MUSLIMS OUT OF USA !

Posted by: Deb Chatterjee | February 22, 2008 5:45 PM
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Arif Siddiqui,

There is no cure for stupidity. Take a look at the time of your last few posts, and calculate the time that implies it is in Germany and then calculate the time it implies is in Bombay. Anyone can do the math. Can you? LoL!! Your allah obviously does not mind pathetic little liars in his boat ... never has and never will. Fortunately, the Internet is helping expose Allah for who he is. Check yourself in the mirror and see what a fool looks like. LoL!

You think people will not be able to see that you are unable to answer a single question posed to you? Why is so difficult for you?

The difference is that Kafirs believe in freedom of choice and freedom to believe. Muslims who leave Islam cannot publicize because muslims love to kill Murtids. Why? Why is there a death penalty for apostates in islam? Why is Islam incapable of living with free will?

And your last lemma is silly beyond belief. Only a fool would sell himself so short. But you have already demonstrated that you are a pathetic liar and a fool to boot. So live your life terrified of hell fire, and keep dreaming of fictional prophets. The only enjoyment you seem to get is thinking and wishing real pain and misery on some other human. Again, Muhammad used to do that as well. He beheaded three and put the severed heads on spears and stuck them in the blazing desert sun. Then he railed and cursed them and taunted them for three whole days. What a prophet you will have in your boat!! You are most welcome to him and your boat.

Posted by: A. Kafir | February 22, 2008 2:03 AM
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Kudos to peace loving people who are fighting for the coexistence of the followers ALL FAITHS (AMEN).

Hey KAFIR, I am in Germany still I oversee with the help of my brothers in Bombay. You are real liar, as well as "Father of Ignorance"
Hey KAFIR/MURTID, you got enough money after reverting from the TRUE religion.
Enjoy it sooner or later you will be accountable for your misdeed. I am doubting your acknowledgement that you become MURTID. I think you are working on the behalf of RSS, good for you.
Listen KAFIR/MURTID: the famous converts from WEST are:
ASAD, Murad Hoffman, Pickthal, Maryam Jameelah, Shiekh Hamza Yousuf, Yousuf Islam, Maurice Buccaile, Danish, and Itlain Ambassdors, Mohammad Ali Clay, there are innumerable peronalities.

In mathematics there are: lemmas, theorems, and corollary, as your rotten head ever heard of.

Corollary:
Assume there will be no Day of Judgement, then either of us are on the same boat. But!
According to my faith and believe there will be Day of Judgement, I will enjoy the company of GREAT PROPHETS. Sorry! you will be the looser. Your place will be in the HELL-FIRE full of snakes,and you will be having very enriched drink made of urine.

Posted by: Arif | February 22, 2008 1:45 AM
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Kudos to peace loving people who are fighting for the coexistence of ALL FAITHS (AMEN).

Hey KAFIR/MURTID, you got enough money after reverting from the TRUE religion. Enjoy it sooner or later you will be accountable for your misdeed. I am doubting your acknowledgement that you become MURTID. I think you are working on the behalf of RSS, good for you.
Listen KAFIR/MURTID: the famous converts from WEST:
ASAD, Murad Hoffman, Pickthal, Maryam Jameelah, Shiekh Hamza Yousuf, Yousuf Islam, Maurice Buccaile, Danish, and Itlain Ambassdors, Mohammad Ali Clay, there are innumerable peronalities.

In mathematics there are: lemmas, theorems, and corollary, as your rotten head ever heard of.

Posted by: Arif | February 22, 2008 1:36 AM
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Arif Siddiqui,

All you have shown is that one of you is a liar. But that is okay since taqqiyah is a given among muhammad followers.

Arif writes ( Feb. 21 11:43PM) "I am in Germany, making more money than this rodent rotten rat, who gave up his DEEN for the sake of financial gain, as he ultimatley acknowledged."

A. Rao writes (Feb. 21, 6:55 PM )"My friend Arif runs a Spritual Heart Clinic in Bombay,".

Ofcourse the Arif that Rao is talking about is not Siddiqui!!! LoL!! You pathetic liars do not even know how to lie.

Now show where have I acknowledged that I gave up my "DEEN" for money. And oo La La, "you are making more money than this rodent rat" ... as a taxi driver? LoL! I am happy you are making more money than I am and I hope you always make more money than I. Happy? Now show where did I say that I gave up your death cult for money. That is a lie and you are just a good little true follower of Muhammad. He was a liar as well. He had no problems authorizing his followers to lie to assassinate those who he did not like.

See if you can bring your self to answer any questions posed to you? Why does you Allah want humans to torture other humans to death? Why is simply killing not good enough for him? Why does he condemn humans to being savages going around cutting off limbs of others? Why does he want humans to stone others to death?

Have you ever seen another human being stoned to death, Siddiqui in Germany? I have. Try it sometime and then ask why is your Allah so blood thirsty? Why does he enjoy torturing his own creation so much? Why so much sadism? He will torture for eternity? Why, Siddiqui, why?

Why do muslims feel the need to lie to defend their death cult?

Posted by: A. Kafir | February 22, 2008 12:18 AM
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How I have to call your name, either as Kaffir or as a MURTID? No need to shy, both words seem to be very suitable as per your deed.
Dear A. Rao, do not argue with such a braggart guy, just for the sake of monetary gain, he became Murtid. I am in Germany, making more money than this rodent rotten rat, who gave up his DEEN for the sake of financial gain, as he ultimatley acknowledged.

From all of your quotes and references, it confirms I belief that your heart is realy been sealed with darkness. No cure for cancer, you silly guy.

Either you are MURTID or KAFFIR, I do not care. Just feel sorry that ultimatley your destination will be in HELL-FIRE.

Posted by: Arif | February 21, 2008 11:43 PM
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A. Rao writes: " O Kaffir!
You are a MURTID really, I was not guessing but I was sure that such a dirty work only MURTID can have in his mind. Shaytan was also an ALIM but he was arrogant like you.
There is no need to get indulge with a MURTID whose heart has already been sealed with DARKNESS. Sorry to say its useless make rationale arguments with an irrationale guy"

And yet one more time, no answer to questions asked but instead the mindless and silly ranting of those whose brains have been shut down by irrational fear. Why cannot you answer simple questions?
Now let us examine the stupidity of what you quote from the Quran to see what it really says about your savage allah.

Allah is all knowing. When he creates a kafir, a murtid, he knows that he is creating someone who will reject Islam, does he not? Of course he does. Can he change what he creates? Of course he can, but he chooses not to. Then does his creation have any real choice to not reject Islam? No. For he did then Allah would be wrong but allah can never be wrong. And before you go into your silly free will in Islam nonsense make sure you read what your Imams have written about it. And then your Allah is going to turn around and burn his own creation for eternity? Burn after creating and making sure that his creation cannot do anything what Allah does not will? What kind of a monster do you worship?

2:007 SHAKIR: Allah has set a seal upon their hearts and upon their hearing and there is a covering over their eyes, and there is a great punishment for them.

Allah set the seal, no one else. It is not the deeds of the human that cause it, but Allah wills it.

006.046
YUSUFALI: Say: "Think ye, if Allah took away your hearing and your sight, and sealed up your hearts, who - a god other than Allah - could restore them to you?" See how We explain the signs by various (symbols); yet they turn aside.

And then Allah boasts that he is the only one who can fix it!! No one else.

016.107
YUSUFALI: This because they love the life of this world better than the Hereafter: and Allah will not guide those who reject Faith.

Here is Allah explicitly tells that he will not guide those who reject faith!! First he creats knowing that they they will reject faith. Then he actually seals their hearing and their hearts to guarantee that they could not come back even if they could, and then to make sure he says he will not guide them? He actually misleads them?

Mankind is starting to learn about what those who love death and the hereafter more than they love life are doing around the world. All the jihadis who are blowing themselves up never tire of telling the kafirs that. So we know.

016.108
YUSUFALI: Those are they whose hearts, ears, and eyes Allah has sealed up, and they take no heed.
016.109
YUSUFALI: Without doubt, in the Hereafter they will perish.

He seals up the hearts, ears and eyes of those he created knowing fully well they would reject and then he will not even guide them? And you want humanity to believe in this Allah? And for this he will burn them in Fire for eternity? You really believe in this crap and expect humanity in the 21st century to take you seriously?

030.059
YUSUFALI: Thus does Allah seal up the hearts of those who understand not.
063.003
YUSUFALI: That is because they believed, then they rejected Faith: So a seal was set on their hearts: therefore they understand not.

And do you know what good people call some one who intentionally prevents people from learning and finding truth? How many times does your Allah have to say that He is the one who seals the hearts of the Kaffir, and will not guide them, and will not allow them to hear or see?

Is this a deity that one should worship? You have to be kidding, but unfortunately I know you are not. You are trapped in your death cult out of sheer fear of the fire of Hell. Little childre grow out of scary tales but you two are trapped in your cult and will condemn your next generation to it as well.

Posted by: A. Kafir | February 21, 2008 10:27 PM
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Arif Siddiqui,

Instead of answering any question at all, you want to start quoting Kafirs of old that the muslims trot out every now and then to lie to the ignorants. Tell me did George Bernard Shaw become a muslim? He did not and why not? Since when is George the know all of all knowledge. He did not know Islam. And why is Malcolm X any authority on Islam? Have you ever read his doubts and questions on islam just before he was assasinated. Ofcourse not.

Whether I am more knowledgable than them or not, I have asked couple of questions and the two of you are tying yourself in pretzels trying to avoid answering them. Why? Did Einstein know how to cook an upside down cake? Geez, the great genius did not even know how to cook? What kind of logic is that? Answer the questions and stop trying to bring in totally irrelevant issues about long dead people and their opinions on issues without any context at all. So you think good ole George was never wrong? Lol!!

And I guess you sitting in india would naturally think that someone rejects Islam because of money. Are you that poor?

Here is a small question for you: Why does your Allah order people to torture other humans to death? Why does he order people to cut limbs off? Do you think these punishments are humane or cruel? Why such barbaric and savage punishments? Your prophet burned the eyes of the Ukl tribesmen. He burned their eyes, he cut off their limbs, he bled them to death under a hot sun, and he denied those bleed to death water when they begged for it. Simple death for the crime of murder was not enough, your prophet had to torture the men to death. Is this the Sharia you want humanity to adopt? Is this the religion you lie to the ignorant kafirs? Go ahead let the kafirs hear your answer, or turn tail and run as most muhammadans are wont to do when asked to really defend their cult of death.

Posted by: A. Kafir | February 21, 2008 9:56 PM
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O Kaffir!

You are a MURTID really, I was not guessing but I was sure that such a dirty work only MURTID can have in his mind. Shaytan was also an ALIM but he was arrogant like you.

There is no need to get indulge with a MURTID whose heart has already been sealed with DARKNESS. Sorry to say its useless make rationale arguments with an irrationale guy

Posted by: A. Rao | February 21, 2008 9:11 PM
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Kaffir!

You are really "Father of Ignorance", and braging that you have full knowledge of Islam. Look silly guy, I was approaching and expressing my ideas in an ethical manner. You are adopting the path of irranationale, a kind of fanatism, and hatred toward Islam. Look at this quote from Goethe: “You see, this teaching never fails; with all our systems, we cannot go, and generally speaking no man can go, further”.
Also open your bilnded heart and eyes:
Malcolm X : “America needs to understand Islam,” he wrote, “because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem”.

Look silly guy covered with ignorance:

Sir George Bernard Shaw in 'The Genuine Islam,' Vol. 1, No. 8, 1936.

"If any religion had the chance of ruling over England, nay Europe within the next hundred years, it could be Islam."
“I have always held the religion of Muhammad in high estimation because of its wonderful vitality. It is the only religion which appears to me to possess that assimilating capacity to the changing phase of existence which can make itself appeal to every age. I have studied him - the wonderful man and in my opinion for from being an anti-Christ, he must be called the Savior of Humanity."

"I believe that if a man like him were to assume the dictatorship of the modern world he would succeed in solving its problems in a way that would bring it the much needed peace and happiness: I have prophesied about the faith of Muhammad that it would be acceptable to the Europe of tomorrow as it is beginning to be acceptable to the Europe of today.”

Open question: Are you more knowledgeable than the above wonderfull people quote have been taken?

Kaffir!, I think you change your original religion for the sake of monetry gain, and spilling out your cobra venom agaist "The Relgion of Peace"
Do not shy! God is Merciful and Compassionate. Revert back to your earlier Deen whatever you were. I wish that your heart can repent for yor sinful acts, whatever you made mistakes!

Do not feel ashamed of to acknowledge the "TRUTH".
There is always hope for Nirvana/Salvation. Do not be embarrassed to get hold of back your orginal faith? Study more to find your own mistakes rather than the others. Your shallow empty knowledge is really very dangerous, and misguiding to the people who are tring to seek guidance and peace. TRUTH seekers can always find the TRUTH but not the ignorant guy.
We firmly believe to accomodate all walks of life, even somebody's heart is covered with darkness, hatred and venom. We assist in provding spirtual healing who has some sort of mental disorder, as well as plagued with hallucination with full of hatred against Islam.
Good luck! ultimately one day you will get Salvation from the Lord of the Lords though you rebelled. He is Merciful and there always a chance to revert to the "TRUTH", He is FORGIVING.

Posted by: Arif Siddiquie | February 21, 2008 8:39 PM
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Kaffir!

Look silly guy covered with ignorance:

Sir George Bernard Shaw in 'The Genuine Islam,' Vol. 1, No. 8, 1936.

Open question: Are you more knowledgeable than the above wonderfull people quote have been taken?

Posted by: Arif Siddiquie | February 21, 2008 8:39 PM
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Kaffir!

Look silly guy covered with ignorance:

Sir George Bernard Shaw in 'The Genuine Islam,' Vol. 1, No. 8, 1936.

Open question: Are you more knowledgeable than the above wonderfull people quote have been taken?

Posted by: Arif Siddiquie | February 21, 2008 8:31 PM
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Kaffir!

Look silly guy covered with ignorance:

Sir George Bernard Shaw in 'The Genuine Islam,' Vol. 1, No. 8, 1936.

Open question: Are you more knowledgeable than the above wonderfull people quote have been taken?

Posted by: Arif Siddiquie | February 21, 2008 7:48 PM
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A. Rao writes: "A. Kaffir! Are you a Paki?"

Not surprising that someone who wraps himself in Gandhian non-violence would try to insult a pakistani. Insulting RSS did not work, so now try Pakistani?

"You do not disclose what you are! Are you an atheist?"
Strange Logic! Why do I need to disclose who I am? Do my words change with my identity? I am an ex-muslim, if you need to know. I finally learned enough Islam to know that your Allah is a savage deity and Muhammad was a vile, violent, and barbaric warlord of 7th century Arabia. He is not someone that humans with any sense and knowledge can possibly hold in even high regard. When some one defends Muhammd they are defending someone about whom it is known that he was a pedophile, he raped sixteen year old girls after torturing to death their husbands or fathers, that he was looter, that he was killer, that he enslaved thousands of women and children, etc. How can anyone with even half a brain possibly hold such a vile human in high regard?

"I think, Kaffir means an Idolator."
Now you think? You knew, and now you think?

"You seems to be an austistic guy, does not have enough neurons in the brain. Again your name implies that you are blinded, acting like Nimrod, and Pharaoh, boasting that you are a scholar."

Where have I ever said that I am a scholar? So you judge people by their names .. why is that not surprising? You want to judge me with fictional characters from silly stories, go right ahead, that is your choice.

Instead of trying to insult, why can you not answer simple questions. You like Gandhian non-violence. How come no muslim ever agreed with Gandhi about Ishwar Allah tero naam? You are the one who brought up the topic, no tell the kafir here why is it that not one muslim ever agreed to sit down with Gandhi and state that Ishwar and Allah are the same? Why could your Gandhi not even say to the Ali Brother that there was no need to insult all Indian non-muslims when he stated publicly that a muslim thief was better than a non-muslim "Mahaataman"? Why did not a single muslim friend of Gandhi ever object to that insult? Not Azaad, not Ghaffar, not one muslim leader ever stood up and said that the Ali brothers were wrong. Why?

You do not want to reply, then don't. Do you think the facts about Islam that I am telling are going to disappear from the net? Islam will have to deal with the internet, and answer the questions. The murtads cannot be killed and silenced anymore. Why is it that Indian Muslims want to silence Taslima Nasrin? Why is it that the books by Salman Rushdie banned in India? Why is it that books by ibn Warraq are banned in India?

Posted by: A. Kafir | February 21, 2008 7:40 PM
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A. Kaffir!

A. Kaffir! Are you a Paki? Kaffir, you are like a Braggadocio,who merely brags. You do not disclose what you are! Are you an atheist? I think, Kaffir means an Idolator. You are really "Father of Ignorance". You seems to be an austistic guy, does not have enough neurons in the brain. Again your name implies that you are blinded, acting like Nimrod, and Pharaoh, boasting that you are a scholar. I have a Mental Clinic in Andhra and I feel sorry about your mental illness, I can render my kind services to you for free, do not hesitate, and be shy. My friend Arif runs a Spritual Heart Clinic in Bombay, I can request him to remove the darkness from "Heart Of the Kaffir". I still wish you "Good Luck", hope you will find solace from your earlier faith if you revert(religion), you rebelled like Nimrod.
No more response I want to do unless you change your ATTITUDE, only animal's tail does not change . You are a human being, at last you can find comfort from the remembrance of God. Wish you again good-luck, A. Kaffir. I never heard such a name of person who arrogantly say, his name is Kaffir.

Posted by: A. Rao | February 21, 2008 6:55 PM
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A. Rao writes: "On the resurrection of Jesus, I feel sorry what you are going to do. Either you have to surrender yourself on His feet or go somewhere where nobody exist"

At least get your silly Islamic mythology correct. Look up the meaning of the word "resurrect" before you start claiming Jesus is resurrected!! Care to show where in Islam does it say that Jesus died so that he will be resurrected? Sheesh you do not even know your children's tale correctly!!

Surrender on his feet? LoL! What a butt (idol) parast thing to say!! When did you sell yourself to the long dead barbaric arabian warlord?

Posted by: A. Kafir | February 21, 2008 12:44 AM
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Ummm,

RAO,

Excuse me, Joe lost some debate? He asked siddique, the local Jihadi du jour to go into exactly what he meant when he said murdering innocents was forbidden. Then, you but buddy decided not to go into it.

That would indicate that he was trying to play a word game.

Now you are trying to claim some victory. Dude, you get your @sses in a bind and you claim victory?

How Arabic.

LOL

Posted by: LMAO | February 20, 2008 10:44 PM
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Siddiqui writes:

"Kaffir are you from RSS cadre: one of the ultra right wing in India, not only responsible for assassination of Mahatma Ghandhi as well as too many innocent missionaries. Are you not ashamed of your name, according to A. Rao, the one who conceals the TRUTH. A. Kaffir, you really need to get a Holy Dip from a holy river to shun of your ignorance, sins commiting from your dirty tongue, as well as guilt as A. Rao made the wonderful remark."

I would not waste my spit on RSS or LTTE. Rao is a fool who hardly knows anything. He has latched onto kafir from kufr etymology and has no clue on where and how the word has been and can be used. I wonder if the pathetic dhimmi even knows what the word means for the South Africans. Why don't you try answering the questions I asked? Do you have any idea how many muslims in Pakistan have rejected Islam? I bet not.

Posted by: A. Kafir | February 20, 2008 10:20 PM
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A. Rao writes: "A. Kaffir!, now you have shown your true color. You seem to be a kind of LTTE cadre guy, killing innocents monks, and civilians in Sri Lanka. How come you are here!, join your cadre. A. Kaffir, I firmly value and trust in Ghandhian's non-violence philosophy. Kaffir means to conceal the TRUTH. From your expressions and thoughts, it clearly exhibits that you are really a Kaffir. On the resurrection of Jesus, I feel sorry what you are going to do. Either you have to surrender yourself on His feet or go somewhere where nobody exist. Also, it seems that you are acting like Nimrod, and Pharaoh, do you know what happened to them. Your arguments are totally off the track. I wish you acknowledge your ignorance and be humble, otherwise you should change your name from A. Kaffir to "Father of Ignorance", it may be more suitable for you"

Rao, not only are you a pathetic dhimmi but you show yourself to be a fool. You did not show that anything I said or wrote is wrong or lies but you want to flaunt your moral superiority by wrapping yourself in Gandhian non-violence. That is entirely irrelevant. Did you address why did not a single muslim leader of India participate in Gandhi's attempt at equality with Ishwar Allah prayer? No not a word from you. Did you even attempt to address why was Gandhi called worse than a muslim thief by a muslim to his face and Gandhi accepted the insult to his entire people and then the riots broke out in 1920 where Muhammad followers butchered the hindus and was a precursor to what would happen in 1947? No, not one word. Instead you crow like a petty knobbly kneed self righteous fool. Then you are not even ashamed to show your ignorance and total parochial mindset. So you have learnd the stupid propaganda of kaffir comes from kufr nonsense and being totally unaware of what critical thinking means you have never bothered to look up the various usages of the word Kafir as used in the Quran and since then around the world. And your comment about LTTE places you from south india? I thought education was good in southern india but then there are fools everywhere.

Atleast try to learn to distinguish between what is real and what is fictional. The children tale about the Pharaoh is just that ... a silly tale. And try to see if you can find a single piece of real evidence for Nimrod other than what you find in the old jewish stories. But that may be too much for someone with your abilities.

Posted by: A. Kafir | February 20, 2008 10:12 PM
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Thanks, Alex. Its nice to be careful who is who. I also support and encourage in the philosophy of coexistence with tolerance and compassion. Definitely, we are all son of Prophet Adam, only our colors and languages are different. We appreciate whoever making efforts to live peacefully without preaching hatred, and abomination. Make your commnets in civilized manner, Joe and A. Kaffir. Kaffir are you from RSS cadre: one of the ultra right wing in India, not only responsible for assassination of Mahatma Ghandhi as well as too many innocent missionaries. Are you not ashamed of your name, according to A. Rao, the one who conceals the TRUTH. A. Kaffir, you really need to get a Holy Dip from a holy river to shun of your ignorance, sins commiting from your dirty tongue, as well as guilt as A. Rao made the wonderful remark.

Posted by: Arif | February 20, 2008 9:15 PM
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Posted by: Arif | February 20, 2008 9:14 PM
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Joe and A. Kaffir,

Be on the track Joe, you lost the debate from Arif. According to Arif's believe you do not have trust in Jesus Christ, on his resurrection definitely either you have to trust in him, or leave this planet where you can go. Your arguments are totally irrationale, your wrting clealy shows that you have been groomed in such an environment where you learned only hatred and nothing else. I thought you are civilized person and have rationale approach to debate. Take a holy bath in some river!, so that you can get rid off your sins committed on prophets.
A. Kaffir!, now you have shown your true color. You seem to be a kind of LTTE cadre guy, killing innocents monks, and civilians in Sri Lanka. How come you are here!, join your cadre. A. Kaffir, I firmly value and trust in Ghandhian's non-violence philosophy. Kaffir means to conceal the TRUTH. From your expressions and thoughts, it clearly exhibits that you are really a Kaffir. On the resurrection of Jesus, I feel sorry what you are going to do. Either you have to surrender yourself on His feet or go somewhere where nobody exist. Also, it seems that you are acting like Nimrod, and Pharaoh, do you know what happened to them. Your arguments are totally off the track. I wish you acknowledge your ignorance and be humble, otherwise you should change your name from A. Kaffir to "Father of Ignorance", it may be more suitable for you.

Posted by: A. Rao | February 20, 2008 8:29 PM
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Joe and A. Kaffir,

Posted by: A. Rao | February 20, 2008 8:27 PM
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Arif Siddiquie:

"Look the outcome of the Election in Pakistan: Dictator and jehadist lost the ground. "

I am glad to hear it.

"We are living on the same planet, as any others are. We are also peace loving guys as you guys. "

That is what I have always wanted to believe and what I took for granted for most of my life. Times change though. I can't afford to be naive. Before I got wind of Wahabbism being preached in western Mosques and before I became more aware of the terrorism that was being perpetrated, I had a live and let live attitude. Now I am more inclined to check it out first. I would rather not have to be, but it is what it is.

If, as a Muslim, there is some aspect of Sharia law that you would like to incorporate in the west, it helps if you explain specifically what that addition is, so that we can discuss it based on the merits. Religion can inform our views in the west, but you have to sell your ideas to others for those ideas to become their's as well. You have to find the common ground. Westerners can be persuaded, but we will not be compelled.

I just want to add that I had Palestinian Muslim friends as guests at my wedding reception. I had some Algerian Muslim friends that I used to visit with when I spent some time in Germany. I bring this up so you will know that I am not fearful of Islam. I am cautious, though.

Posted by: Alex | February 20, 2008 6:37 PM
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Arif Siddiqui,

Tell that the elections in Pakistan have thrown up moderates who do not know Pakistan. You are calling Zardari and Nawaz Sharif moderates? BB and her General Babbar started the Taliban. Nawaz wanted to become the Amir ul momineen. And now the same are to be taken as moderates? Arif the pakistani establishment is corrupt and liars from top to bottom. Do what you have to do, but the kafirs will be well advised to keep you under the microscope. Pakistan incubated the Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Pakistanis wanted to have Afghanistan as a client state with your strategic depth nonsense. Pakistan has been funding terror in India, Iran, Afghanistan and that is where Bin Laden and Zawahiri are living. And now the Kafirs should suddenly start thinking of the crooks and gangsters as moderates? Who are you kidding?

This is what the old fire worshiping Kafir at Dawn has to write about your moderates:
****************************
What we can be certain of is that we are looking at nothing new, those old, tried and tired faces will be back with us, bolstered by brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, nephews-in-law, second cousins, mothers-in-law and bounty hunters. The old lot is highly adept at ridding the Republic of its surplus assets and no doubt the bounty hunters will soon latch on to the various known ways and means of supplementing their already hefty incomes
**********************************

Please stop telling lies to these Kafirs here.

Posted by: A. Kafir | February 20, 2008 5:57 PM
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A. Rao writes:
"Mr. A. Kaffir:
Do you know the meaning of Kaffir? Its truly exhibits and your name implied that you are covered with malice, hatred and venom. It seems that your whole body is suffering from incurable cancerous disease of hatred, and ultimately no cure for white lies."

Rao you are a dhimmi. Do you really know what that means? Your Gandhi used to sing "Ishwar Allah tero Naam" and not one of his muslim friends including Abdul Ghaffar Khan could or would participate in that prayer that he would lead. Why? Do you know? Gandhi stood there with an idiots smile support Khilafat movement while one of the Ali Brothers answered to a question that a muslim theif was better than the Kafir Great Soul Gandhi. Do you know what a Kafir is? I doubt it. You will recite the propaganda you have learnt. Do you know what was the reason for the south Indian muslims to butcher some Kafir in the 1920's as a reaction to the Khilafat movement? When you have acquired a bit of spine and a bit of independent thinking then come back and we can talk.

Posted by: A. Kafir | February 20, 2008 5:47 PM
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Rao,

You are right, we should stick to the horrors of the perversion of Sharia. I would rather not listen to you loosers rant propaganda about our ally Israel - who has to ace daily attacks from your drooling co-religionists. You are really lucky you are dealing with them and not us by the way. I promise that if America saw even one day of what the Isaelis see from you, there would be no issues.

Arif,

So if you are so Peace loving, why is it that Muslims get Fatwahs all the time from Sharia courts to murder innocents.

I had asked if you found suicide bombing evil. The I noticed the quotes and your failure to clairify. What we are seeing is the Sharia approved practice of lying to infidels in order to obfuscate.

You really should remember that this is America.

We like separation of church and state. It is a pillar of this nation and a good thing.

Did you notice how little support you fanatics got on this board?

Why do you think that is? And please do not go off on the stock Islamopobia nonsense. It has much more to do with the fact that we have no place for medieval barbarity in a civilzed nation.

Posted by: Joe | February 20, 2008 5:28 PM
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Hi Alex,
You seems to be a reasonable guy. Look the outcome of the Election in Pakistan: Dictator and jehadist lost the ground. We are living on the same planet, as any others are. We are also peace loving guys as you guys. In every religion, you will find an outfit, radical, and mass murderer. Read about Dr. George Habbash ( by profession a physician, and an Orthodox Greek Christian) lately published in Time Magzines. Why did he adopt the wrong direction? We have the answer: crime committed by IDF.

Posted by: Arif Siddiquie | February 20, 2008 4:40 PM
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Arif Siddique:

Fine. Why is there no penalty for complicity and conspiracy under Sharia? Why are not the heads of terrorists and/or terrorist enablers lopped off for their acts? Is there any indignation?

You see, it really doesn't matter what the Koran says. It only matters what Muslims think it says. If the average Muslim turns a blind eye to jihadism, I don't know how I can be anything but justified in being suspicious about Muslims in general.

Posted by: Alex | February 20, 2008 3:00 PM
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A. Rao,

What are the criteria for being a Kaffir?

Posted by: Alex | February 20, 2008 12:35 PM
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Hi Arif,

Do not make arguments with these guys like Joe and A. Kaffir as they do not have enough neurons of coexistence in their brains, they are covered with malice and hatred?
My question to Joe is:
Did you read the book written by Ex-President of USA, Jimmy Carter? Joe read president's book, you will be surprised that the only democratic country in the Middle East! is commiting heinous crime, a total apartheid, and a naked aggravation done by State of Israel on the innocent civilians. Joe read the great works done by peace living people like: Jimmy Carter, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Ghandhi and his grandson Arun Ghandhi, Khan abdul Ghaffar Khan,and others. Educate yourself then indulge into some ethical debate.
Mr. A. Kaffir:
Do you know the meaning of Kaffir? Its truly exhibits and your name implied that you are covered with malice, hatred and venom. It seems that your whole body is suffering from incurable cancerous disease of hatred, and ultimately no cure for white lies.

Posted by: A. Rao | February 20, 2008 12:30 PM
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Hey, Joe and A. Kaffir!
In response to you guys as well Arif Siddiqie:
How did you guys deviate from debate of Sharia Law to something else which is not source of arguments?

Joe! let me ask this question: Have you read the book written by USA's Ex-President Jimmy Carter,as he depicted a grim picture of only democratic country in Middle East: a naked unjust apartheid, cruel aggravation by the State of Israel on innocent civilians? You were completed off the track!, as the topic was about Sharia law, but it seems that you lost the debate. Go home,do some home work, and study some of the great works done by peace loving people like Arun Ghandhi, Jimmy Carter, Nelson Mondela, Ghaffar Khan and so on.
Also, I have very humble request to my fellow friend A. Kaffir: it seems that you do not have any cure for your cancerous's disease as cancer have spread in your whole body. Clearly your name implied that you are covered with lies and hatred.
Moreover, Arif's exaplanation and vital question's response seems to be very logical and genuine. I believe in healthy debate and logical arguments. I am requesting to Arif that please stop debating with the guys who has little knowledge on the topic, as little knowledge is dangerous.

Posted by: A. Rao | February 20, 2008 11:44 AM
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"You are right that a lot of western countries right now are more diverse. How come they are migrating to western countries? Is it because they are trying to escape that kind of law."

They immigrate to the free nation with a purpose.

A british reporter spent several months going into his local mosques with a hidden camera and filming what he saw and heard. So take a look, hear it from the imams mouth and decide for yourself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Bsgnjfgvi8

"espcially A. Kaffir's heart is covered with venom."

They believe this of ALL kafir. Just listen to the muslims in this youtube. Take about "covered with VENOM" Their HATE is very apparent. So all kafirs (non-muslims) listen carefully.

Posted by: Anonymous | February 20, 2008 10:57 AM
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Arif Siddiqui writes:
"espcially A. Kaffir's heart is covered with venom."

Is it because I know the quran and the Sunnah of Muhammad? Is it because I was able to show your lies and show the ayah of the Quran that states categorically that Isa of the Quran is not Jesus of the bible? What venom are you referring to? Asking questions about Islam is venom? Showing that the Quran hates the non-muslim with a passion is venom?

Siddiqui, the questions on Islam are not going away now. The muslims cannot kill everyone who will ask on the internet questions about Islam. Muhammad was a violent vicious warlord of 7th century arabia. His Sunnah reflects his savagery and barbarity. Those who follow him will have to answer why they choose to follow such an evil man and his savage deity. Do not expect these questions to go away.

Posted by: A. Kafir | February 20, 2008 10:04 AM
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"While it is true that distorted religious interpretations of scripture promote damaging attitudes towards women in some societies, the understanding of Islamic law is much more complicated than this. Shari’ah law has been interpreted and re-interpreted. "

Why must I take Sharia seriously if there is not a general agreement on the principles of Sharia law, by those who actually believe it in the first place? Since when did proper interpretation of the Koran matter to Muslims anyway. Look, some Muslim theologian may be spot on right in saying that the terrorists are interpreting Sharia law wrong, but if the meaning of Sharia on the street is the opposite, I'll put my money on the street interpretation. For practical purposes, how Sharia is practiced by believers IS Sharia, regardless of theory.
I want to be clear, if something is right and good, I don't care where on earth it comes from--even if not from my religion. That said, we need a track record of success and we don't have it. As they say, show me the money.

Posted by: Alex | February 20, 2008 9:57 AM
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Muslim Motto for dealing with pesky western questions:

"Dissemble Prevaricate Obfuscate"

Posted by: Anonymous | February 20, 2008 6:53 AM
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I'll tell you what...

Stay in your pathetic backwards little nations and live like cave men. I don't care. But when you come here and try to tell me how to live in America... then you have to face me for keeps.

Posted by: Uh-huh | February 20, 2008 4:43 AM
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ARIF,

You ask about scandals? You want to talk smack about our ally Israel?

Who was it who did 9-11 again? Who was it who killed our Marines in Lebanon? Who blew up the flight over Lockerby? Who blew up the tubes in London? (England is our ally too)

Was it the Buhddists? Was it the Jews?
Was it the Hindus? Was it the Mormons?

Don't bring that crap boy. We know who is attacking us.

Posted by: An American | February 20, 2008 4:33 AM
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ARIF

Also, if you want unity of the faiths, you would see that the only way to do promote that is to maintain a secular democratic government. This insures that no faith dictates to the others. In other words, adopting Sharia into American Law is contrary to the founding principles of America.

Does Sharia have room for that?

Truly, do any other faiths have *equal* status in the eyes of an Islamic State?

Posted by: Joe | February 20, 2008 4:25 AM
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ARIF

You surprised me twice... You actually say that suicide bombing is evil. Good for you. Too bad most of the ME disagrees with you.

So just to be clear then:

"(Surah Al-Maidah) its totally denounced to kill innocent people."

So suicide bombings in Israel are evil too? Right?

So the head chop videos are evil too? Right?

Rocketing Sderot every day, over 2600 rockets is evil too? Right?

Hezbullah's kidnappings and murders are evil too?
Right?

What is going on in Darfur, a genocide committed by Muslims against innocents is evil too? Right?

Just want to be clear on that...

The second surprise is how long it took you to try to blame Israel for something. It is not the fault of the Israelis that Islam is so violent and brutal.

As to spy scandals, the largest one in the US right now seems to be large numbers of the heads of Muslim charities going to prison for funneling American Money to terrorists. It looks like CAIR is in legal trouble again too...

Posted by: Joe | February 20, 2008 4:18 AM
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Joe, and A. Kaffir

"Suicide Bombing" is completely an evil act. Read Chapter 5 (Surah Al-Maidah) its totally denounced to kill innocent people. You guys can have very explicit answer (Listen Shiekh Hamza Yousuf's lectures from Zaituna Institute at California).Let me ask this question, as you are boasting Jews and Christians amiacable reunion, and Muslims are trying to divide them:
1. Who have bombed the USS Liberty Ship in Arab and Israeli conflict?
2. Who is invloved in the biggest spying scandal in the US history and passed on very important information to Isreal? The guy is still held in prison, even President Bush refused to release him when he visisted the Holy City.
We are in this country merely fostering unity among all faiths. But you guys responses seem to be full of venom with hatred and a kind of extreme proponent of radicals, espcially A. Kaffir's heart is covered with venom.

Posted by: Arif Siddique | February 20, 2008 2:46 AM
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Arif Siddiqui:

The standard response of someone who has not even mastered the technique of Dua!!! Instead of answering straight the questions put to you, what do you do? Start showing who has converted to islam? Why such insecurity? Why don't you ask Michael Wolf to come here and answer on your behalf if you are unable to answer? Are you a muslim because others are muslim? Is that the only reason? What does that prove? That you have no brain of your own. Can you think for yourself? If you cannot then why do you pretend?

Truth is never measured by HOW MANY say it is true. Everyone used to believe and say that the earth is flat. That did not make the Earth flat, did it? Do you want to see how many muslims convert out of islam? Do you want to see a list of people better read and educated that michael wolf who have left Islam? Is that all the proof you seek? So don't show what some michael wolf thinks, why don't you answer for yourself.

Why are you so terrified of your boogey man Allah?

Posted by: A. Kafir | February 20, 2008 1:41 AM
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Why do you have to ask if suicide bombing is evil?

That is such a mean Zionist thing to do!

Don't you know we can't look all peaceful if people realize that we *revere* suicide bombers! They are Martyrs to us and we masturbate to head chop videos!

But if you mean Zionist agents point this out, the stupid kaffirs will wake up!

You are soooo mean! It's no fair!

Posted by: Whiny Jihadist.... | February 20, 2008 1:24 AM
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Why do you have to ask if suicide bombing is evil?

That is such a mean Zionist thing to do!

Don't you know we can't look all peaceful if people realize that we *revere* suicide bombers! They are Martyrs to us and we masturbate to head chop videos!

But if you mean Zionist agents point this out, the stupid kaffirs will wake up!

You are soooo mean! It's no fair!

Posted by: Whiny Jihadist.... | February 20, 2008 1:18 AM
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ARIF

I am still waiting for your answer.

You do realize that every time one of you fails this test, America wakes up just a little more.

IS SUICIDE BOMBING EVIL?

You can not say it is. Why is that? Since you don't think it is, what do you think Americans see in you? You mark yourself as an enemy. We know barbarians when we see them.

Posted by: Joe | February 20, 2008 1:10 AM
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Talk about being brainwashed by Islam!!! Mike Wolf needs some real help and help is here with the Five Step Method to Deprogram/"Deflaw" 1400 years of Islamic mumbo jumbo.

Are you ready?

Using "The 77 Branches of Islamic "faith" a collection compiled by Imam Bayhaqi as a starting point. In it, he explains the essential virtues that reflect true "faith" (iman) through related Qur’anic verses and Prophetic sayings." i.e. a nice summary of the Koran and Islamic beliefs.

"1. Belief in Allah"

"aka as God, Yahweh, Zeus, Jehovah, Mother Nature, etc." should be added to your cleansing neurons.

"2. To believe that everything other than Allah was non-existent. Thereafter, Allah Most High created these things and subsequently they came into existence."

Evolution and the Big Bang or the "Gib Gnab" (when the universe starts to recycle) are more plausible and the "akas" for Allah should be included if you continue to be a "creationist".

"3. To believe in the existence of angels."

A major item for neuron cleansing. Angels/devils are the mythical creations of ancient civilizations, e.g. Hittites, to explain/define natural events, contacts with their gods, big birds, sudden winds, protectors during the dark nights, etc. No "pretty/ugly wingy thingies" ever visited or talked to Mohammed, Jesus, Mary or Joseph or Joe Smith. Today we would classify angels as fairies and "tinker bells". Modern devils are classified as the demons of the demented.

"4. To believe that all the heavenly books that were sent to the different prophets are true. However, apart from the Quran, all other books are not valid anymore."

Another major item to delete. There are no books written in the spirit state of Heaven (if there is one) just as there are no angels/"pwtfft"s to write/publish/distribute them. The Koran, OT, NT etc. are simply books written by humans for humans.

Prophets were invented by ancient scribes typically to keep the uneducated masses in line. Today we call them fortune tellers.

Prophecies are also invalidated by the natural/God/Allah gifts of Free Will and Future.

"5. To believe that all the prophets are true. However, we are commanded to follow the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) alone."

Mohammed spent thirty days fasting in a hot cave before his first contact with Allah aka God etc. via a "pretty wingy thingy". Common sense demands a neuron deletion of #5. #5 is also the major source of Islamic violence i.e. turning Mohammed's "fast, hunger-driven" hallucinations into horrible reality for unbelievers.

Accept these five "cleansers" and we guarantee a complete recovery from your Islamic ways!!!!

Posted by: Concerned The Christian Now Liberated | February 20, 2008 1:01 AM
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ARIF

Answer the question...

If you can not say that suicide bombing is evil, we must conclude that you approve of it.

That makes you vile, evil and an enemy of America and the West.

IS SUICIDE BOMBING EVIL?

As to your screed, I like my own religion already. In America, we are free to do that. We know that is not so in a Muslim country. We know what our fathers fought for when they risked their lives, and some died, to grant us liberties like that.

Now ANSWER THE QUESTION...

Don't give me any other nonsense just answer the question.

Posted by: Joe | February 20, 2008 12:48 AM
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A. Kafir,and Joe:

Read this piece of information taken (borrowed) from Micahel Wolf:

"I did not want to 'trade in' my culture. I wanted access to new meanings." - How an American writer born of a Jewish father and a Christian mother found spiritual fulfillment in Islam.

After twenty-five years a writer in America, I wanted something to soften my cynicism. I was searching for new terms by which to see. The way one is raised establishes certain needs in this department. From a pluralist background, I naturally placed great stress on the matters of racism and freedom.

Then, in my early twenties, I had gone to live in Africa for three years. During this time, which was formative for me, I did rubbed shoulders with blacks of many different tribes, with Arabs, Berbers, and even Europeans, who were Muslims. By and large these people did not share the Western obsession with race as a social category. In our encounters being oddly colored rarely mattered. I was welcomed first and judged on merit later. By contrast, Europeans and Americans, including many who are free of racist notions, automatically class people racially. Muslims classified people by their faith and their actions. I found this transcendent and refreshing. Malcolm X saw his nation’s salvation in it. “America needs to understand Islam,” he wrote, “because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem”.

I was looking for an escape route, too, from the isolating terms of a materialistic culture. I wanted access to a spiritual dimension, but the conventional paths I had known as a boy were closed. My father had been a Jew; my mother Christian. Because of my mongrel background, I had a foot in two religious camps. Both faiths were undoubtedly profound. Yet the one that emphasizes a chosen people I found insupportable; while the other, based in a mystery, repelled me. A century before, my maternal great-great-grandmother’s name had been set in stained glass at the high street Church of Christ in Hamilton, Ohio. By the time I was twenty, this meant nothing to me.

These were the terms my early life provided. The more I thought about it now, the more I returned to my experiences in Muslim Africa. After two return trips to Morocco, in 1981 and 1985, I came to feel that Africa, the continent, had little to do with the balanced life I found there. It was not, that is, a continent I was after, nor an institution, either. I was looking for a framework I could live with, a vocabulary of spiritual concepts applicable to the life I was living now. I did not want to “trade in” my culture. I wanted access to new meanings.

After a mid-Atlantic dinner I went to wash up in the bathroom. During my absence a quorum of Hasidim lined up to pray outside the door. By the time I had finished, they were too immersed to notice me. Emerging from the bathroom, I could barely work the handle. Stepping into the aisle was out of the question.

I could only stand with my head thrust into the hallway, staring at the congregation’s backs. Holding palm-size prayer books, they cut an impressive figure, tapping the texts on their breastbones as they divined. Little by little the movements grew erratic, like a mild, bobbing form of rock and roll. I watched from the bathroom door until they were finished, then slipped back down the aisle to my seat.

We landed together later that night in Brussels. Reboarding, I found a discarded Yiddish newspaper on a food tray. When the plane took off for Morocco, they were gone.

I do not mean to imply here that my life during this period conformed to any grand design. In the beginning, around 1981, I was driven by curiosity and an appetite for travel. My favorite place to go, when I had the money, was Morocco. When I could not travel, there were books. This fascination brought me into contact with a handful of writers driven to the exotic, authors capable of sentences like this, by Freya Stark:

The perpetual charm of Arabia is that the traveller finds his level there simply as a human being; the people’s directness, deadly to the sentimental or the pedantic, like the less complicated virtues; and the pleasantness of being liked for oneself might, I think, be added to the five reasons for travel given me by Sayyid Abdulla, the watchmaker; “to leave one’s troubles behind one; to earn a living; to acquire learning; to practice good manners; and to meet honorable men”.

I could not have drawn up a list of demands, but I had a fair idea of what I was after. The religion I wanted should be to metaphysics as metaphysics is to science. It would not be confined by a narrow rationalism or traffic in mystery to please its priests. There would be no priests, no separation between nature and things sacred. There would be no war with the flesh, if I could help it. Sex would be natural, not the seat of a curse upon the species. Finally, I did want a ritual component, daily routine to sharpen the senses and discipline my mind. Above all, I wanted clarity and freedom. I did not want to trade away reason simply to be saddled with a dogma.

The more I learned about Islam, the more it appeared to conform to what I was after.

Most of the educated Westerners I knew around this time regarded any strong religious climate with suspicion. They classified religion as political manipulation, or they dismissed it as a medieval concept, projecting upon it notions from their European past.

It was not hard to find a source for their opinions. A thousand years of Western history had left us plenty of fine reasons to regret a path that led through so much ignorance and slaughter. From the Children’s Crusade and the Inquisition to the transmogrified faiths of nazism and communism during our century, whole countries have been exhausted by belief. Nietzsche’s fear, that the modern nation-state would become a substitute religion, have proved tragically accurate. Our century, it seemed to me, was ending in an age beyond belief, which believers inhabited as much as agnostics.

Regardless of church affiliation, secular humanism is the air westerners breathe, the lens we gaze through. Like any world view, this outlook is pervasive and transparent. It forms the basis of our broad identification with democracy and with the pursuit of freedom in all its countless and beguiling forms. Immersed in our shared preoccupations, one may easily forget that other ways of life exist on the same planet.

At the time of my trip, for instance, 650 million Muslims with a majority representation in forty-four countries adhered to the formal teachings of Islam. In addition, about 400 million more were living as minorities in Europe, Asia and the Americas. Assisted by postcolonial economics, Islam has become in a matter of thirty years a major faith in Western Europe. Of the world’s great religions, Islam alone was adding to its fold.

My politicized friends were dismayed by my new interest. They all but universally confused Islam with the machinations of half a dozen middle eastern tyrants. The books they read, the new broadcasts they viewed depicted the faith as a set of political functions. Almost nothing was said of its spiritual practice. I liked to quote Mae West to them: “Anytime you take religion for a joke, the laugh’s on you”.

Historically a Muslim sees Islam as the final, matured expression of an original religion reaching back to Adam. It is as resolutely monotheistic as Judaism, whose major Prophets Islam reveres as links in a progressive chain, culminating in Jesus and Muhammad. Essentially a message of renewal, Islam has done its part on the world stage to return the forgotten taste of life’s lost sweetness to millions of people. Its book, the Qur’an, caused Goethe to remark, “You see, this teaching never fails; with all our systems, we cannot go, and generally speaking no man can go, further”.

Traditional Islam is expressed through the practice of five pillars. Declaring one’s faith, prayer, charity, and fasting are activities pursued repeatedly throughout one’s life. Conditions permitting, each Muslim is additionally charged with undertaking a pilgrimage to Mecca once in a lifetime. The Arabic term for this fifth rite is Hadj. Scholars relate the word to the concept of kasd, “aspiration,” and to the notion of men and women as travelers on earth. In Western religions pilgrimage is a vestigial tradition, a quaint, folkloric concept commonly reduced to metaphor. Among Muslims, on the other hand, the hadj embodies a vital experience for millions of new pilgrims every year. In spite of the modern content of their lives, it remains an act of obedience, a profession of belief, and the visible expression of a spiritual community. For a majority of Muslims the hadj is an ultimate goal, the trip of a lifetime.

Posted by: Arif Siddiquie | February 20, 2008 12:37 AM
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Arif Siddiqui:

The hate manual by Muhammad says:

004.157
YUSUFALI: That they said (in boast), "We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah";- but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not:-
PICKTHAL: And because of their saying: We slew the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, Allah's messenger - they slew him not nor crucified him, but it appeared so unto them; and lo! those who disagree concerning it are in doubt thereof; they have no knowledge thereof save pursuit of a conjecture; they slew him not for certain.

I do not believe in pixies in the sky, or boogey man with endless fire. I am not a hypocrite like many followers of Muhammad. I have never cared to drink or gamble. Never have and see no reason to begin now.

You live in terror for your Allah the boogey man will get you for sure so be very very very afraid of him and if you are not you will be very very very sorry. Is that your Islam Arif Siddiqui? Is that what all morality and ethics and good and humanity boils down for you? Fear? Do you know how pathetic that is?

Posted by: A. Kafir | February 20, 2008 12:34 AM
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And ARIF,

Like your co-jihadist Mohammed Malleck, let me ask again,

IS SUICIDE BOMBING EVIL?

will you answer or be yet another jihad looser who tries to insult his way out of a simple question before retreating in a snit.

This is a test of your humanity. This is a test of your morality.

Answer the question...

IS SUICIDE BOMBING EVIL?

Posted by: Joe | February 20, 2008 12:22 AM
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Arif Siddiquie

Muslims like you seem to think that you can divide and conquer in America. I shall remind you of a few things...

Jew or Christian, we are Americans. The same can not be said by you. We see through you garbage. We see through your attempts to damage our nation. We see through your lies. We know the enemy when we see it. You shall not pass.

As to quoting the verses of prophets, Do you remember that G-d Himself told Abraham to listen to Sarah?

She was right about banishing Ishmael.

Posted by: Joe | February 20, 2008 12:18 AM
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Let no one be deceived.

Jesus said:

"No one takes my life from me. I give my life of my own free will. I have the authority to give my life, and I have the authority to take my life back again. This is what my Father ordered me to do."

John 10:18

Read the cross references:

Matthew 26:53 "Or do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?

John 2:19 Jesus answered them, "Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up."

John 5:26 "For just as the Father has Life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have Life in Himself;

John 10:11 "I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.

John 10:15 even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.

John 14:31 but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. Get up, let us go from here.

John 15:10 "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.

Philippians 2:8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Hebrews 5:8 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.

Posted by: jon | February 20, 2008 12:10 AM
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A. Kafir,

It seems that you are cheating yourself and covering the TRUTH. On the resurrection of Jesus Christ (Son of Mary), there will be no place on the Earth for you to hide your face. Do you believe in His prophethood? If you believe in His prophethood, then why do you indulge in alcoholism, gambling, etc.?

Posted by: Arif Siddiquie | February 19, 2008 11:50 PM
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Islam denies that Jesus is the Son. The Bible says:

"Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also" (1 John 2:22-23).

Posted by: The Holy Bible | February 19, 2008 11:31 PM
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Arif Siddiqui,

Stop lying. The Isa of the Quran is not the jesus of the bible. That is a lie that muhammadans tell to stupid kafirs. Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead. Isa was never on the cross. Allah cheated and took him and put someone else on the cross .. Allah is so just. The poor sucker who got substituted on the cross was probably a kafir who was getting time off from the Fire of Hell to suffer the pain of crucifixion. If you think those two events are the same then tell the kafirs directly. Then there are other differences between jesus and isa. So, please stop lying for it does not work anymore.

Your Allah curses the jews and christians in the Quran. Your allah tells you not to take the christians and the jews for friends. They have distorted Allahs words and Allah never forgives Shirk and so they all are destined for hell.

learn to speak the truth sometime Arif Siddiqui.

Posted by: A. Kafir | February 19, 2008 11:16 PM
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Joe,

Sooner or later, you will understand what is darkness. Sharia Law will be implemented after Jesus Christ (peace be upon him) resurrection on the Earth. But jews already denigrated and denounced his prophethood. Let us understand whose heart is fully covered with darkness, the one who declines the Jesus (Son of Mary), as a prophet or the one who believes in his prophethood.

Posted by: Arif Siddiquie | February 19, 2008 10:37 PM
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Joe,

Posted by: Arif Siddiquie | February 19, 2008 10:36 PM
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Joe,

Posted by: Arif Siddiquie | February 19, 2008 10:36 PM
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Arif Siddiquie

No, you are sadly mistaken. I know full well what the horrors of Sharia are in any country that implements that brutal system.

Let me ask you a question...

Is suicide bombing evil?

If you don't think it is, I know full well who is in darkness.

Posted by: Joe | February 19, 2008 9:46 PM
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Victoria,

It offends me that you would even mention a beit din.

Do not dishonor another faith by comparing a Beit Din to an Islamic court. Do not dishonor Jewish Law by comparing it to the barbarity of Sharia.

Let me point out some differences.

ONE: The law rulings of a Beit Din are voluntarily submitted to by both parties. There is no special anything in American law that enforces the rulings of a Beit Din other than people can agree to binding arbitration. If that is all you want, you already have it. There is no need for any "incorporation of the best parts of Sharia" into American Law.

TWO: Beit Dins do not permit honor killings. In fact, if G-d forbid such a case arose, it would be turned over to the criminal authorities.

THREE: Beit Dins do not cut off heads or other body parts for the delectation of drooling crowds.

FOUR: Jewish Law respects the rights of women. And please don't hand us your crap about Sharia respecting women. In a Beit Din a woman's testimony has equal weight to a man's. Women are not property. Women have the right to say "no" to their husbands. Heck, Jewish women can read - not something to be assumed in the Muslim world even today.

FIVE: Beit Dins do not issue fatwahs calling for the destruction of America, the West or Democracy.

SIX: A Beit Din knows that suicide bombing is evil.

SEVEN: A Beit Din does not try people for witchcraft, or call questioning Judaism apostacy (with an implied capitol punishment). A Beit Din does not try people for being gay.

So again, just don't even dare mention a Beit Din. There is no comparison.

Posted by: Joe | February 19, 2008 9:43 PM
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Dear Victoria,

You never answered my question about the Darfur genocide. Do you think Allah smiles upon the systematic rape, murder, and starvation of innocent African women and children? What do you think of it?

Posted by: The Moderate | February 19, 2008 9:08 PM
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Joe, and the fellow liberated christian (responded to Khan's article), read the wonderful book written by Dr. Maurice Bucaille:
"The Bible, The Quran and Science"
I hope that the darkness from your hearts will be removed, as you are still living in the darkness. Some of you guys responses seem to be as you guys belong to the same coterie as Al-Qaeda and Talaban are! I wish you guys 'Good-Luck' to find the TRUTH.

Posted by: Arif Siddiquie | February 19, 2008 8:25 PM
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Daisy,

I suppose you will next comoe out and defend the practise of polygamy and concubinage as both are sanctioned as acts of worship under the sharia that you desire in the US.

Tarek

Posted by: Tarek Fatah | February 19, 2008 8:14 PM
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One Dead, 60 Injured in Muslim Attacks on Christians – VOM Sources
On February 2, one Christian was killed, 60 others injured, and churches, businesses and homes set on fire, in the latest Muslim attacks on Christians in Bauchi state, Nigeria. According to The Voice of the Martyrs contacts in Nigeria, "One Christian man was killed, over 60 people were seriously injured and five churches were damaged." This latest attack took place after two friends, a Christian lady and a Muslim man, had a disagreement. VOM contacts report, "These two were said to be friends of some sort until they had a disagreement on February 1. The Muslim man claimed that the Christian lady made some blasphemous utterances against the Prophet Muhammad. They were said to have parted ways that day without much trouble, but with a threat from the man that he would deal with the lady in his own way." VOM contacts added that the following day the Muslim man ganged up with Muslim extremists and started searching for the lady. "The lady was alerted of the attack and ran to the police station. The gang traced her to the police station and insisted the police release her. When the police did not release her, the attackers set the police station on fire. After the lady and the police escaped, the Muslim extremists attacked Christian homes, churches and shops," VOM contacts said. Believers who lived in the damaged and destroyed homes have not returned because of fear they might be attacked again.

Posted by: This is Islam | February 19, 2008 7:54 PM
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It is amazing how so many are ready to put themselves under some aspects of sharia law while at the same time bashing Christians has become acceptable. What on earth is being taught in our educational institutions?

Posted by: What is going on in our Universities? | February 19, 2008 6:08 PM
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Daisy,
Here is actual sharia from Muslim lands. Yara is an american born and raised in USA and used to sing praises of Sharia till she got a first hand experience. Are you abandoning half a billion women in the muslim lands because the Kafirs treat you like a human being?

*************************************

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,331254,00.html

Late Monday night, The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice publicly denounced her with a statement posted on the Internet, saying her actions violated the country's Shariah law.

"It's not allowed for any woman to travel alone and sit with a strange man and talk and laugh and drink coffee together like they are married," it said.

"All of these are against the law and it's clear it's against the law. First, for a woman to work with men is against the law and against religion. Second, the family sections at coffee shops and restaurants are meant for families and close relatives," it continued.

Posted by: A. Kafir | February 19, 2008 6:01 PM
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Victoria is a pathetic liar. She obviously will say anything and do anything to push her death cult.

Posted by: A. Kafir | February 19, 2008 5:55 PM
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Victoria, Victoria, Victoria,

Are you not the one who referenced an anti-koran publication as supporting the koran??

To wit:

http://www.biblestudymanuals.net/quran9tc.htm

"In conclusion, while we can concede that the Qur'an is a fascinating book to study, it simply cannot maintain its status as the final Word of God it claims to be. The declaration of textual perfection by the Muslims simply do not stand up to any critical analysis of their content."

Hmmm, and we are expected to believe anything you say???

Posted by: Concerned The Christian Now Liberated | February 19, 2008 4:52 PM
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A few of us are beating the idea of any religious law / rules becoming law of the land on the Susan Jacoby thread.

Here’s my short n’ sweet version.

We can not include religious doctrine in our laws. Because once God is the supreme law of the land there is no one to conscientiously object to anything. We will be giving the power of God to man and that is a very, very dangerous thing.

Posted by: Spiritual Mongrel | February 19, 2008 4:37 PM
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"Not since lions tore apart slaves for the prurient enjoyment of the Roman mob"

Point of fact, the general horrors of the Coliseum aside, (Something that Pagan clergy and statesmen of the time as well as philosphers and statesmen had words against) ...the romantic notion of Christians and random slaves being thrown to the lions is rather overstated: in fact this was usually a punishment for criminals: the operative metaphor being that someone had betrayed civilized life, thus should die by wild beasts.

Far more criminals than Christians were executed so, and most of the latter idea was based on what Nero did, ....and he was a dude everyone knew to be a nutter, they just couldn't do anything about it.

Maybe they declared those Christians 'Enemy Combatants,' who knows.

There's a real tendency for Jews, Christians, and Muslims, to project backwards onto Rome some idea that there was Pagan religious authority behind what the Empire did, ...as a matter of fact what you had was the Imperial government appointing the head clergy of certain deities and state functions.

It's part of why 'foreign' cults such as those of the Great Mother had such popular influence, even if state appointeeshad a way of geting a little weird about how to express it.

Much the same probably had to do with the shaping of modern Christianity. Different sort of balance, there.

Anyway, that's a sidebar, and, Victoria: :

" to allow people to use sharia arbitration would NOT make it the law of the land."

Unless of course the government was... going to institute a separate justice system for Sharia law, or something.

"it is a completely voluntary utilization of mediators."

Frankly, 'completely voluntary' is rarely the operative term when religious authoritarians are concerned. In terms of the Amish, America may have the promise of freedom for anyone who dares to leave... without any property or legal status or modern-world skills, but it's not necessarily 'voluntary' for a woman to choose to stay.

(And, no flies on the Amish, as Christians, I think, if I wanted to be Christian I'd consider living on the land like that, if I couldn't hang with similar Quakers, ...though that's all in the abstract, I suppose, cause this is a Pagan talking. :) Just that leaving isn't so easy.)

Same goes with leaving Mormon territories, especially in polygamist areas where your marriage and rights don't translate to anything legal, meaning women have severe disincentive to prep the ol' bugout bag)

"as long as the decision is not considered unreasonable, by the american court systems-
and if the people utilizing this arbitration CHOOSE to abide by the decision rendered-"

American law provides for independent arbitration, religious or not, there's no need to recognize Sharia for that. There are, however, particular realities in insular communities which mean I don't think the government needs to impose religious contracts on people who may in fact have enough time leaving potentially-abusive situations as it is.

Frankly, with things like the marriage laws of Sharia, then the government should have religiously-neutral standards of secular marriage, and get out of the business of telling people who and how many people I can marry with full-faith and credit under the appropriate civil contracts.

Then we wouldn't need any Sharia law or Christian law, and we could all tend to our own affairs in our own ways. And if people want to have a legal oath about it, you follow procedure, you file it as a contract, and everyone's happy.

Till something goes wrong, I suppose.

The government here guarantees individual rights.

If a religion makes that a bad deal, I don't see why the government should do any more to enforce these ways than religious people already do.

We are supposed to have a secular government here in America. If your religion can't enforce its edicts among its believers on its own, then that's your problem.

Generally, trying to 'put more religion' in secular government means someone's trying to enforce their ways on others, not to guarantee their own freedoms among themselves, which free exercise our Republic is not intended to impede. Unless it violates the basic rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, I say.

While I resent the imposition of other people's religious laws on my co-religionists: if I marry a same-sex couple, they're taking the same oaths and responsibilities as do straight people, and they deserve equal protection under the law, but inasmuch as I function as clergy these days, if someone swears another sort of oath before the Gods, what's the state gonna do, issue me a notary stamp?

Not sure I'm comfortable with that.

I don't see why Muslims need it any different.

Posted by: Paganplace | February 19, 2008 4:30 PM
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A good salesperson will explain the features of a product and then demonstrate how the benefits that those features provide solves some problem or need that I have.

Daisy Khan, you haven't sold your product.

Posted by: TJ | February 19, 2008 4:26 PM
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"Amish law isn't the law of the land in America, Victoria, and Amish women can drive: they can walk right into the DMV and get a license the same as anyone. Amish are free to live their ways, but the state does not enforce these ways."

PAGANPLACE- yes, that is exactly the point.

to allow people to use sharia arbitration would NOT make it the law of the land.

it is a completely voluntary utilization of mediators.

as long as the decision is not considered unreasonable, by the american court systems-
and if the people utilizing this arbitration CHOOSE to abide by the decision rendered-

which is how it works with orthodox jewish religious rulings here in america already.

the wording of the question itself is somewhat irresponsible and alarmist- as it lends one to believe that somehow sharia law will take precedence over- or replace existent law in america.

which is not at all the case.

but i guess sally and jon didnt believe a more accurately phrased question would be compelling enough, because, actually , it wouldn't.

Posted by: VICTORIA | February 19, 2008 3:05 PM
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Daisy read the article by Spengler in atimes.

Stop being a hypocrite and washing your hands of muslim women in muslim lands because you live under the protection of Kafirs in USA. You have a conscience ... don't kill it for the sake of a savage and barbaric Allah and an evil prophet.

***************************
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JB20Dj08.html

Not since lions tore apart slaves for the prurient enjoyment of the Roman mob has Europe witnessed a spectacle as revolting as Hirsi Ali’s appearance last week before the European Parliament. She has lived under guard since Theo van Gogh’s murder in 2004. To its shame, the Dutch government has stopped paying for her security. On February 14 she asked the European Parliament to fund her security, saying: "The threats to my life have not subsided and the cost is beyond anything I can pay ... I find myself in a very desperate position. I don't want to die. I want to live and I love life. I'm going to do anything legal to get help."

Before the eyes of the world, a leading citizen of the Netherlands begs the legislature of Europe to protect her against assassins whose declared goal is the destruction of Europe’s liberties as well as its civilization. The Dutch government turns its back. Europe’s Parliament listens politely and refers the matter to committee. A group of French members of parliament has invited her to apply for French citizenship so that the French government might offer her protection.

Thus far, the authorities of Europe have made clear that they will do nothing to prevent the murder of a prominent citizen. If Ayaan Hirsi Ali, whose plea to the European Parliament made headlines, can expect no help from the authorities when her life is at imminent risk, what succor can the anonymous victims of Islamist violence expect?

I am ashamed to say that it did not become clear to me that Wilders has taken the only appropriate course of action until I read carefully the Archbishop of Canterbury’s now-infamous "sharia" speech. Stripped of casuistry, he proposed that Muslim women subject to forced marriages, genital mutilation, or domestic violence should be handed over to Muslim religious courts, rather than be offered the protection of English Common Law. To my knowledge, this is the first time that one of Europe’s spiritual leaders has proposed to abandon innocent victims to their fate.

Archbishop Dr Rowan Williams, to be sure, has a point. But he should have stated plainly what he really thinks. What he wanted to say is more or less: "To protect a few hundred or a few thousand colored ladies, the English state will have to put its big boots on, kick down the doors of Muslim homes, trample through Muslim living rooms, tear up the fabric of Muslim communities, and disrupt the social order. Why not turn such cases over to religious courts and wash our hands of them?" I reiterate: this is satanic hypocrisy.

Posted by: A. Kafir | February 19, 2008 2:41 PM
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Hi, Victoria: A bit of a quibble:

"Q- "The right to prohibit women from driving in Saudi?"
"A- (can amish women drive? or amish men for that matter?)

every anecdotal incident you've listed has its corollary, even in america."

Amish law isn't the law of the land in America, Victoria, and Amish women can drive: they can walk right into the DMV and get a license the same as anyone. Amish are free to live their ways, but the state does not enforce these ways.

A problem with Sharia courts in Muslim countries is that those courts always have problems in that a lot of Sharia does *not* give people the right to freely reinterpret or leave Islam: ie, if you're born Muslim, you often have few rights if you leave it.

We don't need that kind of thing, which is bad enough in America as it *is...*

There have been some pretty darn alarming cases in America where Christian judges will use the state to prevent Pagans from seeing their kids, mentioning their religion even if they win custody, or getting property in divorces and such.

I definitely think we need no such thing here: idealism aside, a system like that is *bound* to be abused.

Posted by: Paganplace | February 19, 2008 1:31 PM
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Joseph Goebbels said: "If you tell a lie often and furiously enough, people will wind up believing you." And that was the case with "educated" Germans! So, good luck with your networks, Daisy!

Daisy's glorification of sharia borders to infantilism. When in Khartoum a few years ago, I got acquainted with a social worker who took care of the people with the chopped-off hands and feet, many of whom I saw and spoke to.

That is what Islam - or any other religion, as for that matter - can do with human neurons when raped early enough and massively enough.

21st century: A girl confessing under torture to be a witch! Islam is stuck in the darkest of dark ages. And we don't have to make the lenient differentiation between fundamentalists and "enlightened" Moslems like J and Daisy or Victoria: They are the ground on which all these atrocities grow.

1400 years of social progress!

Posted by: Gerry | February 19, 2008 1:07 PM
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Re: Sharia in the West
I can, maybe, understand why Muslim men wish to apply the Sharia to Muslim women living in the West. They want to nullify the human rights acquired by them (women) when they had settled in the West. Those men can’t bear to see their women gain a semblence of equality with them and wish to reassert the subjugation of women and then maintain their predatory grip on their lives. But why would a supposedly sane woman as Ms. Khan lobby for such a woman unfriendly and barbarous “law” is beyond me.

Posted by: Ibrahim Mahfouz | February 19, 2008 12:55 PM
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"As a Muslim woman, living in America my faith fuels my activism. I do not work in spite of Islam but because of it."

Ms. Kahn,

In America, you have the utmost freedom to live by your faith because of our complete and absolute separation of church and state. You are free to voluntarily adhere to Sharia law or any other religious code you desire. With complete religious liberty, religious rules can be followed devoutly by anyone who chooses while others are free to obstain without penalty. This is exactly the point of the "larger debate". The brilliance of church/state separation allows each and every citizen to freely follow their own religious faith (or lack thereof) without interference from government, clergy, family, or anyone else.

Your essay proposes absolutely nothing that would improve on that.

Posted by: Freestinker | February 19, 2008 12:44 PM
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Lets just continue with forced repatriation- Then they can go home to live under shariah law with out having to change/conquer the west.

Posted by: Anonymous | February 19, 2008 12:20 PM
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Why not intern all Muslims until the war on terror is over. That way we can put off decisions like what part of Shariah law to implement. What with so many countries accommodating Shariah the war on terror will last forever so we'll never need to address the issue. Problem solved!

In the internment camps you will be able to implement whatever law you please regarding the prophecies of prophets for interns only, maybe.

Posted by: Anonymous | February 19, 2008 11:11 AM
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La La La La La

Posted by: ..... | February 19, 2008 10:50 AM
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The author asks, why can’t the most positive aspects of Shar’iah law be applied to our contemporary contexts- starting here in the West? I am baffled by the lack of specificity. What are these positive aspects of Shar'iah law that she suggests we incorporate into our laws? What rights or liberties exist in Islam that we do not enjoy here?

More importantly, what tenents of Shar'iah law futher advance liberty? And what about the First Amendment restriction that clearly states Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion?

Posted by: Bill Bainbridge | February 19, 2008 9:58 AM
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Oh there "reality challenged" and Obfuscating Jihadist,

Hopefully, you are also for coming to grips with the basic flaws of Islam and are going to do something about them like "pink slipping all the imams and clerics in Islam.

Your flaws go beyond Islamic laws, Bin Ladens, the Shiite Iranian crazies and the Sunni "Wannabees" of Saudi Arabia.

The problems are in the basic foundations of Islam itself as one can see from the following:

1. Belief in "pretty/ugly wingie thingies".

2. Belief that an hallucinating, illiterate Arab did actually talk to the "pretty Gabriel" in the hot "Gabe" cave and therein received the warmongering and anti-female words and resultant laws now listed in the koran.

3. That Sunnis are superior to Shiites in all aspects of life. And Shiites think the same way about Sunnis.

4. That Islam is perfect and the koran inherently condones no sin even though the 24/7, 800 year-old blood feud between Sunnis and Shiites gives significant credence that greed, hate, suicides, assassinations, maiming, and murder are condoned by the koran. Having multiple wives also gives significant credence to the sins of rape, adultery, lust and polygamy. The condoned treatment of these wives gives credence that the koran allows the sins of hatred, anger and greed.

These are tough issues.

Address them, correct them then ask again to be allowed into the civil world!!!!!

And accusing someone of spreading hate and lies , as does Moody on a daily basis, does not work when these "someones" are simply listing the facts. If you have counter points about your beliefs then list them. Hiding behind imams and clerics blinded by 1400 years of brainwashing serves no purpose other than to secure a dishonest living for said imams and clerics.

Posted by: Concerned The Christian Now Liberated | February 19, 2008 8:51 AM
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Ms. Daisy Khan,

You wrote as if you are addressing a purely Muslim, and specifically, just Muslim women.

You wrote your essay here as you would to reach Muslim women - to engage them, to fire them up, to get them going on their rights in all spheres and not leave it to Muslim men and non-Muslims to decide on what Muslim women want and what are our rights.

I appreciate your urgings to Muslim women to be self-reliant, to network, to mobilise, to act in concert for their rights and benefit; your call for Muslim women to reclaim their rights as in Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equity (WISE).

I know what you meant when you said, "it will challenge the religious legitimacy of those who use Islam to encourage negative attitudes toward women." - it is addressed to Muslim men who are regressive and sexist including and especially members of the ulema.

I understand when you said, ".. my faith fuels my activism. I do not work in spite of Islam but because of it.".

I'm all for what you are doing.

Salam.

"J"

Posted by: Jihadist | February 19, 2008 6:55 AM
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Moody-

Please take a moment from your posting:

Read the news and think. Muslims are at war with Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, and other Muslims all over the world.

All those varied groups find a commonality.

Posted by: Anonymous | February 19, 2008 6:34 AM
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Being offensive means,

some body is unjust, nuts and trying to hurt others.

And so the devil speaks for it self!!!

Posted by: Moody | February 19, 2008 5:54 AM
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Deb Chatterjee:

So what you believe is that being "extremely offensive" to some body MEANS NOTHING.

Go and see some psychiatrist empty nut shell!

Posted by: Moody | February 19, 2008 5:51 AM
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The only positive aspects are already encoded. To wit do not kill do not steal.

Posted by: Garyd | February 19, 2008 4:32 AM
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This lady Daisy Khan) is all confused, and wants to confuse the readers. First, the reinterpretation of Islam is forbidden in traditional schools of Islamic fiqh. Salafi sects reject any such reform. Also, reforms in Muslim societies have alwsays been rolled back. Latest example is Turkey. Headscarves and other outward symbols of Muslim identity were banned by the reformer Mustapha Kemal Ataturk. Now after about 75 years the reformed society is being rolled back. The Turkish parliament has annulled the ban on the headscarf.

Consequently, when Daisy opines the "positive aspects" of the Shariah, I am at a loss to find out what are the positive aspects ? The Shariah is founded on the fact of "us" (Believers - Muslims) vs. "them" (kafir/infidels Non-Muslims). Past Islamic scholars, Maulana Maudoodi, have made it very clear that Shariah must be established everywhere - to further the cause of Islam - a step towards global domination.

My point is that USA has chosen to be separate and by definition a secular, democratic Republic. In USA one can make extremely offensive films or write books about the Christian faith, and still not get killed. Islam does not allow such excesses of human freedom. Just recall the Denmark cartoons of Muhammad. That's what we shall get if the "most positive aspects of Shariah" is incorporated in the western societies. And, ladies like Daisy Khan would happily don the burkah as it would suit her to hide from the public view.

It is the likes of Daisy Khan, apparently moderate and likeable, who are slowly trying to Islamize America. Ms. Khan and Osama bin Laden do share a common goal: Islamize the world. Their approach is just different.

Posted by: Deb Chatterjee | February 19, 2008 2:59 AM
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Sorry, but it says what it says! I don't know any way to reinterpet women as property and the superority of men. While there may be some good parts, one must admit that the whole is not good at all.
I hope I'm not being too honest for you.

Posted by: steveballmer | February 19, 2008 1:59 AM
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Altaf Khan,

A short synopsis of the flaws in the founders and foundation of Islam:

Mohammed was an illiterate, womanizing, lust and greed-driven,warmongering, hallucinating Arab, who also had embellishing/ hallucinating/ plagiarizing scribal biographers who not only added "angels"/"pretty wingie thingies" and flying chariots to the koran but also a militaristic agenda to support the plundering and looting of the lands of non-believers.

This agenda continues as shown by the assassination of Bhutto, the conduct of the seven Muslim doctors in the UK, the 9/11 terrorists, the 24/7 Sunni suicide/roadside/market/mosque bombers, the 24/7 Shiite suicide/roadside/market/mosque bombers, the Islamic bombers of the trains in the UK and Spain, the Bali crazies, the Kenya crazies, the Pakistani “koranics”, the Palestine suicide bombers/rocketeers, the Lebanese nutcases, the Taliban nut jobs, and the Filipino “koranics”.

And who funds these acts of terror? The warmongering, Islamic, Shiite terror and torture theocracy of Iran aka the Third Axis of Evil and also the Sunni "Wannabees" of Saudi Arabia.

Posted by: Concerned The Christian Now Liberated | February 19, 2008 1:57 AM
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Mr. Khan

We understand all to well the cruelty, barbarity and violence of Sharia. You Muslims will never let us forget. Every time we look at a Middle Eastern country (with the exception of Israel) we see yet another atrocity committed by the perverted "justice" of Sharia.

Jut recently, Saudi Arabia tortured an illiterate woman to confess that she was a witch for crying out loud! Of course, they will execute her. Then what about Hodood laws? What about the Saudis sentencing a gang rape *victim* to 200 *lashes*. Lets not forget public stonings, decapitations and dismemberments. Fun for the whole family - just look at the drooling mobs! What about religious police? What about all of the sick, twisted things your "law" brings us?

Sharia is a perversion of all that is good. We all know it. Even the PC Post is running out of patience with your antics. From an American who values the age of rationalism and the values of the civilized West, I say frankly, go back to the darkness you came from.

Posted by: Joe | February 19, 2008 12:01 AM
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An excellent exposition by, Ms. Daisy Khan. In my response to some of the readers who made some nuisance comments on Islam is deplorable. They do not have stomach to digest the TRUTH. As a Muslim, we are required to believe in All PROPHETS. We love them as much as our beloved Prophet Muhammad ( peace be upon him). Sharia law is definitely mis-understood especially in the WEST. Thanks, Ms. Khan for writing such an article.

Posted by: Altaf Khan | February 18, 2008 11:42 PM
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Dear Victoria,

"that isn't a list of rights-

it's a list of abuses."

Precisely so. It is a list of abuses that certain reactionary/conservative elements of Islam practice in the name of Allah and view as "rights". And if Americans sin it does not justify Moslems doing it. All sinners are wrong, and must amend their ways.

What is going on in Darfur, anyway?

I mean no disrespect to you personally by this, but it looks like elements of "Islam" are now working at about the level of some "Christians" in the Postbellum South who abused and murdered former slaves to "keep them down". What is going on in Darfur is sinful. I do not believe that God smiles upon it. Do you?

Posted by: The Moderate | February 18, 2008 10:06 PM
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Fortunately, in America we have separation of Church and State.

Sharia is repugnant, backwards, vile and evil. I am very glad that at least in America, we will not surrender our constitution to the sick legalisms of a barbaric past.

Please do not whitewash it. Do you think we do not read the news? Rights of women? You must be kidding! Saudi Arabia sentenced a rape victim to lashes and is set to execute another woman (who was beaten and coerced in to signing a "confession")for WITCHCRAFT!

Take you PC "sharia is all sweet and pretty" propaganda elsewhere. We only have to look at the depravity of the Muslim world to see the truth!

Posted by: How about some truth | February 18, 2008 9:45 PM
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Ms Khan:
Below is a smmary of the part of the Sharia law that deals with women issues that you wish the civilized part of the world to adopt. Sharia is, as you know, derived from the Quran and the lifestyle of the Muslim prophet who is considered by Muslims to be the model of human behavior.

5. The Sharia allows Muslim men to marry up to four wives at any time (Quran 4:3), but could cohabit with as many concubines as they wish.

6 The Muslim Sharia allows Muslim men to marry non-Muslim wives without preconditioning that they convert, but off course, with the understanding that their children be raised in the Muslim faith. A Muslim woman, on the other hand, cannot marry a non-Muslim unless he converts first to Islam.

7. The Sharia allows Muslim men to engage in “Pleasure Marriage”. This is a short-term marriage of no more than few days and is exempted from the normal formalities of two witnesses, publicizing the union, dowry or any kind of compensation other than a symbolic piece of cloth.

8. The Prophet decreed that Hell have many more women than men.

9. The Sharia allows Muslims to scourge (beat) their women (Quran 4:34).

10. A woman convicted of lewd behavior, as evidenced by four (4) male witnesses ( Quran 24:13), is decreed by a revelation from Allah to be put under house arrest for the rest of her life (Quran 4:15). The male culprit, on the other hand, needs only ask Allah for forgiveness.

11. A woman convicted of adultery is to be stoned to death.
12. The Sharia's stiff guideline of four (4) male witnesses (Quran 24:13) makes it almost impossible to convict a rapist under that law. It further sets the victim wide open to the accusation of adultery and/or prostitution with the consonant consequences to the woman. At present 75% of women in Pakistani jails are of this category.

13. Women are considered by Muslim Tradition as "unclean", like dogs, swine and "unbelievers". The mere accidental touch of a woman would invalidate Allah's reward for the latest act of worship that the man had performed prior to the contact. Mohammed Atta, one of the (9-11) Jihadists, asked in his will that no woman be present at his funeral lest that might interfere with his earned "reward' to Paradise.

14. The Prophet declared that women are deficient in mind and religion. Bukhari quotes the Prophet saying "No people will ever succeed if they hand their affairs to a woman".

15. The Prophet encouraged female genital mutilation, which is labeled as "Sunna circumcision".

17. Islamic Sharia decrees that a man can divorce his wife for any or no reason by simply uttering in the presence of two male witnesses the well-known sentence "I divorce you by three”. A woman, on the other hand, cannot divorce her husband for any reason.
18. Sharia Law, prohibits Muslim women from traveling except in the company of the father or a brother if they are single or husband if married.
19. In sharia women inherit half as much as their brothers and their testimony, when accepted counts for half a man's testimony.

Posted by: Ibrahim Mahfouz | February 18, 2008 8:32 PM
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In Nevada, we are looking for a suspect described as bearded with a "shaved pubic region". ie: he does not shave his face, but does shave his nether regions..

People are posting that this is required of devout Muslim men.

Is this true?

Posted by: ??? | February 18, 2008 6:23 PM
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Victoria, Victoria, Victoria,

Your problems go beyond Islamic laws, Bin Ladens, the Shiite Iranian crazies and the Sunni "Wannabees" of Saudi Arabia.

The problems are in the basic foundations of Islam itself as one can see from the following:

1. Belief in "pretty/ugly wingie thingies".

3. That Sunnis are superior to Shiites in all aspects of life. And Shiites think the same way about Sunnis.

These are tough issues.

Address them, correct them then ask again to be allowed into the civil world!!!!!

Posted by: Concerned The Christian Now Liberated | February 18, 2008 2:33 PM
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cloudy meaning subject to questioning it's validity or invalidity-

any more thinly veiled accusations posing as "rhetorical questions"?

Posted by: VICTORIA | February 18, 2008 1:41 PM
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just for the record, the driving issue is cloudy-

what justification is used for such a law is certainly subject to question
there were no cars in the time of Muhammad(pbuh)

Posted by: VICTORIA | February 18, 2008 1:40 PM
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just for the record, the driving issue is cloudy-
there were no cars in the time of Muhammad(pbuh)

Posted by: VICTORIA | February 18, 2008 1:39 PM
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welcome to the monkey house ms khan-

MODERATE-

that isn't a list of rights-

it's a list of abuses.
Q- "The right to rape young women who venture out without male escorts from their clan?"

A- of course, rape is a violation of law

Q- "The right to enforce arranged marriages by threats of violence in England?"

A- women and men have to give their consent for any marriage- despite what their parents, or society want.

Q- "The right to sentence young Afghani college students to death for questioning hidebound conservative interpretations of Islam?

The right to kill innocent women and children with suicide bombs in the Levant?

The right to kill innocent people who convert to other religions in the EU?

Moslem mass murder of Africans in the Darfur?"

A- NO innocent can be killed for any reason whatsoever.

Q- "The right to prohibit women from driving in Saudi?"

A- (can amish women drive? or amish men for that matter?)

every anecdotal incident you've listed has its corollary, even in america.

GEORGIASON-

the same arrogance that you exhibit and the same rights of expression in a public forum that you enjoy-

ms khan is an american-
and im an american with roots back to the leaders of this country before the constitution was framed-

multiculturalism, and pluralism ARE america!

maybe you didn't get the memo

Posted by: VICTORIA | February 18, 2008 1:36 PM
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Sing to us Muse, begin where you will. Which rights do you mean?

The right to rape young women who venture out without male escorts from their clan?

The right to prohibit women from driving in Saudi?

The right to sentence young Afghani college students to death for questioning hidebound conservative interpretations of Islam?

The right to kill innocent women and children with suicide bombs in the Levant?

The right to enforce arranged marriages by threats of violence in England?

The right to kill innocent people who convert to other religions in the EU?

Moslem mass murder of Africans in the Darfur?

Tell me what positive aspects you have in mind.

Posted by: The Moderate | February 17, 2008 9:36 PM
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For Daisy Khan only,

Your problems go beyond Islamic laws, Bin Ladens, the Shiite Iranian crazies and the Sunni "Wannabees" of Saudi Arabia.

The problems are in the basic foundations of Islam itself as one can see from the following:

1. Belief in "pretty/ugly wingie thingies".

3. That Sunnis are superior to Shiites in all aspects of life. And Shiites think the same way about Sunnis.

These are tough issues.

Address them, correct them then ask again to be allowed into the civil world!!!!!

Posted by: Concerned The Christian Now Liberated | February 17, 2008 3:18 PM
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GEORGIASON:

I like the cut of your jib, Son.

Posted by: Johnny B. Goode | February 17, 2008 2:54 PM
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Important" PAKiSATAN, aka PAKISTAN(s) [west & East] are on STOLEN-LAND from Sweet iNDIA, the place where "i" left my Hat but not me Heart!

Please Do not DENY that giant PAKISTAN , un-like ancient tiny ISRAEL, was 'stolen' under Islamic [Religious, more than political] Pretext's via "AL TAQIYAH" aka 1st iSLAMIC SHARIA to conquer. And 2nd "AL TAQIYA" is to rule the Tribes therein & therefrom!

Posted by: Pakistan is on Stolen Land that belongs to Greater iNDIA, not Arabs like Israel | February 17, 2008 1:00 PM
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Note: in Hindu/Urdu/Poshtu "KHAN" = "KiNG."

!
>))))2)0)0)8))))) "NO-SHARIA!"
!
!
!
{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}}}{}}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}}
[ ?: +) http:///\ VOTE http://\Hillary )
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]
{}{}{}{}}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}}{}{}{}{}
[ ?: +) http:///\ VOTE http://\Hillary )
[][][][][]][][]][]][]]][]][][][][][][][][][][][][][]
PEACE, PAZ, SALAAM, SHOLOM:........______________
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillary_Clinton МИР,평화, 和平:

VOTE:
NO' Sharia!
NO Hallakha!
NO Caste System(s)!
NO Rule By BiBLE, GiTA, QURAN!
NO Putting Down Woman Anywhere!

THANK YOU!

SHOOKRIA!

KHUDA-HAFIZ!

Posted by: "MODERN-MORALITY IS 'Superior' (not King & Queen) to any BIBLICAL-MORALITY! | February 17, 2008 12:42 PM
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Nomostae Sistar KHAN (king) , Ki-a-Lay? Tee-kay?!

Note: This is recycled Material. Shookria!

Yakub Yozif On: Zion in Hebrew means Penis & Penis in Arabic means Zibee :
Hello Anonymous, et al;

ALL, EVERY & ANY so called MUSLiM/Moslum/Muslem, by the [un] holy or Glorious Quran/Koran, makes it clear that their Allegience is to the Heart-Of-Islam @ the-KABBA, Mecca,Saudi Arabia!!!!

Example: An Indonesian or a Malaysian (All Ex-Cannibals & Vampires & Vooddists ) has to uphold & Honor all ARABIA!!! Includes Arab Brethren(s) & Sistar(s) therein & therefrom!!!

So a 'MUSLiM' sais, "i" am Like Mu-Ham-Mad, a ARAB!

Yes Or NO 'ANONYMOUS'???

PS: Please see these 2-linko's on "ISLAMIC INTERNATIONAL "ZiONiSM" called "AL-TAQIYAH" for 'MUSLiM/Moslum/Muslem' Conquest of ALL Nations & undo their Faiths into Islam!!!!

AL TAQiYAH # 1:
http://www.fisiusa.org/fisi_News_items/news109.htm

AL TAQiYAh # 2: http://en .wikipedia.org/wiki/Taqiya

please see the [un] holy or [un] Glorious Koran/Quran that istructs all Moslems/Musloms/Moslums ANYWHERE, via S.H.A.R.i.A to"

"... SPY on them, infiltrate them, learn what thery do & Befriend the 'KAFFIRS' (Us Non believing Islamics. like JU's who also refer to non-Jews say 'Goyim' or Gentile , or Christian say 'Heretics' or Hindu/Buddhists say 'Avidya' or 'Non-Dharmists' and also islam/musloms call non-islamics INFIDELS) so Use them....until it is time.... (waite for signal)....

@ QURAN/KORAN; SURA; 3:28, 16:106, 8:12 [Cast fear in them..] And please also see

"GUiDE LINES , via "AL TAQIYA (Islamic Zionism) FOR CONDUCTING 'SHARIA" [Islamic ZIONISTIC 'WAR' Provoking/Pretext etc..]

@ SURAs; 2:194, 9:91, 47:4, 48:17 et seq!

Note: Your Pipe dreams of All things past and present & future is All credited to 'Islamic' or 'Muslom/Moslem/Moslum' then you are in DENiAL TO SELF & OTHERS & thus ye have "PRE-APOCALYPTIC SYNDROME" AND ye also have "RELIGEOUS JEALOUSY-PSYCHOSiS" too!

Important: iSLAM uses an ancient old 'tactic' refered too as "PSYCHIC DRiViNG" their Religious Business. meaning that , in every Islamic Community, that they Re-Play, out-Loud, via Minerettes, the 'Call To Prayer' via Loud Speakers to ALL Moslums/Arabs, Morning, Noon, & Evening!

Note: "Psychic Driving' also means 'forced' readings of the [un] holy or Glorious Koran/Quran! Same way like the 'Hassdic' Jews , aka in arabic/Islam as 'YAHUDDi'.

Interesting how "HALLAL" 'Kosher', an Arabic word, not Malaysian nor Indonesian word etc.., have the same meaning. aka in Hebrew as HALACHA, which in Hebrew also means SHARIA-LAW or Kosher-Law!

TRiViA: Did ye knowth that in HEBREW "ZiON" means to 'Screw' (like in Sex , someone or thing) and also a Ciscumcised Penis!??! Did ye also know that in ARABIC 'Zibee' also means Same thing!? Ya Ya!

---
...

Good G-D (ECLAT + "i") Hunting & Happy Every-Day!

SALAAM(Arabic, not Malaysian.indo) = SHOLOM(Hebrew) = PEACE(American/English) = PAZ(Spanglish) etc..!

QUESTION: What the Difference between a 'Lame-Duck' a Elephant, a Donkey & a Jack-Ass?

Answer: It's the same 'SHIA' & there is nuttin SUNNi about them either!!!!

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha ! Ya Ya a YO YOa! Eeee Haaaa HALLALEUjA!

VOTE: Sweet (not Crule-Oil) sweet AMERICA, becoming an APOCALYPTIC-NATION! And No more PRE-APOCALYPTIC NATION!

VOTE: "E*C*L*A*T*i-ON" Party 2012 YEA!

VOTE: Abolish ALL "iMPORTED" [Not-Made or Prophecied in Sweet Sweet U.S.A.) Pre-Apocalyptic 'Cottage-Religions" in U.S. of A., not Industry's!!

VOTE: DEPORT ALL, Not-Made-IN-A*M*E*R*i*C*A, iMPORTED Religions, Not MEXICANS!

INstead Unite MEXICO w/U.S.A for an Additional 10 States!!! As a Matter of fact, VOTE to Merge & Absorb All AMERICA upto & No Further than PANAMMA, ironically John McCAINS "Birth Place!

Trivia: Did ye knowth that Senator , wanabe Prez John McCain is a 'Dual Citizen of Panama & USA?

PS: Did you also know that John McCain & His Wife , are ALCOHOL Pushers & have lots of Blood on their hand for many Highway Car Crashes due to their Alchol Monopoly Biz in ARIZONA!?????

Please see these linko's on Cindy Lou Hensley the daughter of James W. Hensley, a wealthy Anheuser-Busch distributor from Phoenix, Arizona. McCain filed for and obtained an uncontested divorce from his wife in Florida on April 2, 1980 and promptly married Cindy on May 17, 1980.

http://www.usvetdsp.com/mcaindiv.htm

Shame Shame John & Cindy McCAIN!! Kennedy's too!

Ya Ya Yo Yo!

Khuda-Haffiz!

Posted by: Elders of Al TAQIYAH & Islam as the Vanguard Of iSLAM via A-iSLAMIC-BOMB | February 17, 2008 11:13 AM
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Why are people of 'faith' so self-deluded?

I have faith in many things but I don't let that faith blind me to the world and what happen's within it.

Good religion wouldn't need the power of law to enforce its teachings.

Posted by: JGreen | February 17, 2008 9:16 AM
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REPLY TO: J CLINE

Thank you for expressing with eloquence and conciseness the only rational approach to this phony debate over incorporating the Shariah into any Western legal system: judge the truth of the Shariah by observing the countries in which it is practiced, not by--as Ms. Khan would like--engaging in some abstract blather about reconciling cultures.

Posted by: GeorgiaSon | February 17, 2008 8:13 AM
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As expected, the Archbishop's proposal has triggered the predictable chorus of approval from multicultural mush-brains. Two simple questions:

1. If the Shariah is so wonderful, why are the countries in which it is the supreme law of the land such third world backwaters? Why would people like Ms. Khan continue to repeat the Big Lie that the Shariah is something of value, when all we need to do is to look at the countries where it is applied to see the magnitude of that Big Lie? Look at the empirical evidence of the condition and status of women in Shariah-dominated lands, not the irrational, ideological musings of the Daisy Khan's of the world, to know the truth of Shariah. Ms. Khan is the quintessential reincarnation of Western leftists of the 30s and 40s who, long after the reality of Communist totalitarianism had been made abundantly clear, continued to tout Communism and the Soviet Union as the progressive waves of the future.

2. By what supreme act of arrogance does Ms. Khan tell we Americans that the United States Congress, the President, and the 50 state legislatures and governors, drawing on the rich heritage of Western culture and law, cannot pass all the laws America needs without turning to the Shariah to fill some gap that only she and like-mined multicultural mush-brains have discovered? What is the nature of this gap, and by what exercise of intellectual prostitution does anyone tell us that only the Shariah can bridge it? The Shariah that condemns women to be stoned to death for adultery and declares that their testimony in a court of law counts for less than any male--just to mention two of the Shariah's more egregious requirements?

If Western women do not see the joker in the deck of this multicultural balderdash, may God have mercy on their souls.

Posted by: Georgiason | February 17, 2008 6:56 AM
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Dear Daisy Khan,

Welcome,welcome to On Faith.

**hence,the Assumption that Shariah law equals oppression of women**
It is not unfortunately assumption,but absolute and historical reality.Could you show any islamic country(in history and present time) where *women liberty* exist ?

**positive social change** Where and in which country and when ??

**women(muslim) are granted *innumerable* rights ** Would you write those rights.
As far as I understand from your first article,you are speaking superficially(such as many muslims)

Dear Kashmiri Lady,

The Civilization is based on Human Rights,Contemporary Values,Rationality and *Men-Women Equality*.Islam rejects all of them.Nothing can be corrected by Sophistry.
Besides,there is not FOG on Shariah,it is very clear and absolute.

Shariah is the Desert Rules which based on the Stone age mentality(from Headscarf/subjugation to *I divorce you*),nothing else.

Posted by: halozcel | February 17, 2008 2:54 AM
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We seem to get lots of claims about how Sharia is better than secular law, without giving a single example.

Secular, Western, law arises from the experience of the West in dealing with civil and criminal problems. It is pragmatic and experientially based. Its primary principle is what has been decided stays decided. Over the centuries since Roman and Greek civil law, and German ukase, and other tribal practice got thoroughly mixed in the first half millennium of the common era, religious rationals and religious lawgivers dicta have been replaced by the accumulated wisdom of an awful lot of legal administrators.

Sharia, man given law, exists to give Mohammed and his tribe preeminence in Arab legal affairs. Its base of opinions arise from Arab legal theory and practice, modified by Bedouin and North African legal history.

Now Sharia is whatever some Imam says it is. Any Imam who can get a following may issue a fatwa and it becomes part of Sharia. That means that Sharia is, defacto, dejure, and by custom religious law, the religion being Islam. Islam and Islamic law gives full rights and status only to those who practice the particular brand of Islam that is dominant in whatever place the law is being interpreted. Non Muslims have at best poor secondary status under Sharia and the more predominant Islam in any country, the less status any non Muslim has. Thus American troops in Saudi Arabia were severely circumscribed in practicing their various religions because the Wahabbis objected to Christians holding Christian services in Islamic Arabia.

Since there is no possible way that Sharia can be made secular, there is no way it can be accommodated in western jurisprudence except as a private agreement between free and consenting adults. Where Sharia permits such atrocities as female genital mutilation, honor killings, or the essential state of women as property, WHICH HAVE BEEN DECLARED TO BE IN ACCORDANCE WITH SHARIA by competent Islamic authority, they conflict with western law and cannot be accommodated.

It is Islam that must accommodate, not western law, because western law is the law that the west has agreed to obey. The inflicting of Sharia on non Muslims is legally offensive to western law, and since the accommodations contemplated by Muslims to get status for Sharia requires that inflicting of Sharia on non Muslims, it just isn't right.

Posted by: ceflynline@msn.com | February 16, 2008 10:13 PM
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"But I ask: why can’t the most positive aspects of
Ms. Khan, you ask: "...why can’t the most positive aspects of Shar’iah law be applied to our contemporary contexts- starting here in the West?"

Well, at least in the US, let's start with: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..."

The goal of the Founders was to eliminate the influence of any particular religion from government. They wisely foresaw the only way to do this was to, as far as possible, establish a government free of *any* religion.

Please continue your activism and, if some aspect of Sharia may defended as supporting a positive civic purpose, advocate for it in the political arena.

However, no aspect of any religion--neither Sharia nor the Ten Commandments--may be permitted to be enshrined in law.

Posted by: purplemartin | February 16, 2008 8:14 PM
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"Wouldn’t it be to finally lift up the truth of Islam, a truth that has inspired positive social change for more than fourteen hundred years?"

hey daisy-

you're kidding. right?

here's a gem of western truth for you-

You cannot legislate morality..

However..

Saying “you can’t legislate morality” is a double-edged sword. On the one edge we acknowledge that morality is central to Law. In fact, it’s whole purpose. On the other edge we understand that having a sense of a morality is not a license to enforce it upon others — that is tyranny.

"A Muslim women’s separatist group in Indian-held Kashmir has urged the population not to celebrate Valentine’s Day because it is un-Islamic and promotes “immorality.” The group, known as Dukhtaran-e-Millat or ‘Daughters of the Faith,’ issued a statement appealing to “Kashmiri Muslims to avoid celebrating such events which have been prohibited by Islam.”

In their statement the ‘Daughters’ singled out young people, telling them not to fall into the devil’s trap that tries to “spread immorality.”

The group, which has campaigned for years “to eradicate social evils from society,” has openly expressed its support for Kashmiri separatists.

Its statement also targeted shopkeepers and restaurant owners, warning them against making money from selling “Valentine cards and other gifts related to this un-Islamic event,” or organising any functions on Valentine’s Day.

In the past the ‘Daughters of the Faith’ have acted on their threats, attacking stores that sold Valentine’s Day cards.

Socially Kashmir’s 15 million people tend to be very conservative, but over the past few years even here habits have somewhat evolved.

In the backlash moderate and hard-line separatists have rallied around the group, saying it is doing a good job fighting immorality."

Posted by: tara | February 16, 2008 3:42 PM
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Daisy,
An excellent piece.

Sharia is not about chopping off hands!!!

Two categories of people in the west:those who know and understand Sharia as a great,coherent ,equitable,compehrensive and dynamic law, ultimately aiming at Justice,Peace,Prosperity and Stability in human soceities and that Sharia is to guard the intersts and well being of the Muslim community-Fiqah Al Masalh;unfortunately this category is delibertly mute. The second category is mostly loud but devoid of substance-such as grossly biased media,Islam bashers and haters-who get their info from "experts on Islam" such as Fox news and the Daniel Pipes-for example.

This second category delibertly recycles distortions and appallingly simple and ignorant stereotyping of any thing Islamic such as reducing Sharia's complexities to selected aspects of its penal law-such as cutting the hand of a thief and forgetting the rest of the Sharia-as if millions of Muslims walk around the world without hands!!! The US occupation of Iraq killed over one million Iraqis;the holocaust killed millions of jews.How many Muslims are walking around with chopped hands??

Ijtihd is a most dynamic and instituionalized process in Islam for the continued interpretation and reinterpretation under different circumstances and times of the four prime sources of Islamic Law-Sharia-,those are the Quran,the Sunnah,Analogy and consensus.

Two Examples:the great doctor of the law-jurist-Al Shafi established one of the four main Sunni schools of law while he was living in Iraq-8th century AD-but when he moved to Egypt he came up with a new set of laws and Fatwas because he found the circumstances in Egypt different;Umar,the great second Caliph,suspeneded the cutting a hand of a thief during a famine-a great inovoation-thou this was rare even in early Islam and is essentially non-existen presently;in this case cutting a hand is more of a deterent than a punishment if administered to all with absloute equality.This has never been an issue during 15 centuries of Islamic history and thou I have essentially toured the Muslim world I have never seen a person with a chopped hand!!!

Any objective obserevr would conclude that Sharia is much milder and yet more coherent, comprehensive,equitable and more dynamic than the Jewish Law-and obviouesly more modern.There is no xtian law-Jesus was a Jew and had come to fullfil and not change the law.Sharia is desgined to deal with all aspects of life and is one the most important aspects-in fact a pillar- of the infrastructure of Islam that unites Muslims.

Popular misconceptions in the west confuse with profound ignorance and simplicity between Islam and the prevailing local cultures in Muslim countries regarding Women. No faith tretas women better than Islam and no personality of histroical caliber of the Prophet has treated women better than The Prophet Muhammad,who was the example par excellence of kind and dignified treatement of women;he himself worked for a women as a business manger,Khadijha,who was 25 years older than him when SHE propsed to him in marraige.T

To the best of my knowledge no Muslim country presently implements Sharia fully-its confined to family laws and Islam is imprisioned in mosques;Saudi arabia and Talaban are not Islam.If for example saudi true to Islam,it would dsimantle its fuedal corrupt tribal regime where a whole country is ruled by one family-saud-and is even named after its family as a piece of real estate where there is no difference between public treasuery and personal bank accounts.The barbarities of the talban speak fortheselves-but not for Islam.

The Arichbishop of Canterbery is an enlightned ,coureageous and honorable man;the radicals xeneophobes are trying to silence his moderate inclusive voice thru manufactured campaigns of hate and propaganda.He will prevail because he knows that Christians in Muslim countries have their own laws in the areas of family,marraige,inhertince...etc and God is my witness many of them fall back on Sharia law esepcially when it comes to inheritnence disputes.

Posted by: Asim MA, San Antonio | February 16, 2008 2:12 PM
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"Wouldn’t it be to finally lift up the truth of Islam, a truth that has inspired positive social change for more than fourteen hundred years?"

Aye, there's the rub. The truth of Islam was spread by the sword as Arabs fought tribe against tribe and Muslims swept across northern Africa, southern Europe, and up into the Balkans.

There's a total impasse between Judeo-Christian beliefs and Islam. As long as the Koran calls Jews and Christians apes and swine, there's a lack of civility and a long overdue apology from Mohammed.

Look, it's nice that Muslims have A prophet, but Jews have dozens and dozens and some were women. As long as Mohammed insists that he is a greater prophet than Elijah and Jesus, he can't be taken seriously. Jewish prophets performed astounding miracles, including raising the dead. Mohammed couldn't even walk on water. As long as Jesus says love your enemies and Mohammed says kill the infidels, their teachings cannot be reconciled.

The fact is that the best we can hope for is a truce. You don't kill us, we won't kill you. We all need to seek ways to stop all the madness and the killings, and most everyone is culpable.

Posted by: Johnny B. Goode | February 16, 2008 1:35 PM
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Daisy, you ought to know that Shari'a -- as it is typically enforced around the Muslim world -- is not a tolerant way of life. Neither has Islam been much impacted in recent decades by the liberalizing influence of Ijtihad.

You are fortunate to live in a land where your human rights as a woman mean something. You have a position of activist leadership, you are able to express your opinions via an online column, you can vote, and in a court of law, your testimony is not routinely devalued below that of a man. Therefore, from such a privileged position, it's easy for you to promote an idealized vision of Islam. However, speaking as someone who's lived with the reality in Egypt and Kuwait for several years, I must respectfully point out the obvious dissonance between Islam as it should be, and Islam as it really is.

It is all very well to advocate, as the Archbishop has, for only the nice bits of Shari'a. But as the experience of African mixed-faith countries such as Nigeria has shown, where Shari'a takes root, no matter how benign its beginnings, its religion proponents inevitably demand a larger and more invasive place for Shari'a. Eventually this extends even to non-Muslims.

Moderate Muslims will have to demonstrate a better track record of successfully blunting and liberalizing the actual -- not theoretical -- expression of Shari'a and Islam in our world, before Islam's role in a Western society will no longer raise nervous hackles among non-Muslims.

Posted by: J Cline | February 16, 2008 11:52 AM
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Can you please outline what are "the most positive aspects of Shari'ah law" that you would see incorporating into contemporary law.

Thanks.

Posted by: Mike | February 16, 2008 11:16 AM
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Clearing the FOG of Shariah

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