Belfast Beyond Catholic and Protestant
There is an old joke about a Muslim in Northern Ireland who, at a restaurant one Saturday night, is asked what church he is going to the next morning.
He says that he’s a Muslim, and that his practice is not to attend church on Sunday but to pray at mosque on Friday.
The questioner looks confused for a moment, but finally manages to put the issue back in a framework he can understand. He asks the man, “Are you a Protestant Muslim or a Catholic Muslim?”
I wonder how many times the two Muslims who came to my talk in Belfast last week have been told some permutation of that joke, or asked some version of that question.
They were just one sign of the change that I saw in this town.
Drive down the streets of Belfast today and check out the Indian, Japanese, Chinese and Thai restaurants – all run, my friend Peter told me, by people from their native countries. It’s not uncommon to see a person of ethnic origin scurrying down the street in the city center. On the flight over from London, I did a double take when I noticed a little Indian girl ask the stewardess for water in a proper Northern Irish accent.
The ultimate sectarian city is slowly moving from bi- to multi-.
I first came here eight years ago for a conference called Minorities of Europe, held at the remarkable Corrymeela Community in Ballycastle, an ecumenical Christian community founded in 1965 that has kept alive the possibility of a shared common future between Catholic and Protestant even through the darkest days of the troubles.
There were maybe sixty of us at this conference – South Asian and African ethnic minorities from countries like Britain, and representatives of Eastern European nations relatively new to the European Union. The woman who organized the event had noticed, even then, that a handful of ethnic and religious minorities were starting to settle in Belfast. She thought that these groups offered a unique opportunity to expand the imagination in her city. Perhaps the presence of many would serve to diffuse a conflict dominated by two.
There is a thriving community of Chinese in Northern Ireland (some of them Christian, I imagine, and probably none particularly interested in taking sides in the conflict). One of Belfast’s most successful hoteliers is Indian. There is enough of a Muslim presence to support two separate Muslim organizations. And there is a steady trickle of migrants from Portugal, Poland and Lithuania.
Some folks in Belfast see these groups as targets, not opportunities. I heard from several sources that hate crimes are a major problem.
“We don’t know what to do with people who are different,” my friend Ronnie explained to me, shaking his head.
Ronnie grew up in Northern Ireland, moved to Boston when he was thirty, and drank in the diversity of the North Cambridge neighborhood where he lived. “I just loved it,” he said. “It gave me a whole new perspective on life.”
And when he moved back to Northern Ireland two years ago, to take up a Director’s position at Corrymeela, he brought some of that perspective with him. He runs the Interfaith Youth Core’s global program, the Days of Interfaith Youth Service, out of Corrymeela, precisely because it respects the uniqueness of different faiths, while also highlighting the universals.
Hanging out at a bookstore near Queen’s University, Ronnie told me that the public violence had dramatically eased. “Bombs used to go off so often in this city, that it got to the point where you wouldn’t even raise your head when you heard the blast.”
No doubt the Good Friday Agreement has improved things, but the sectarian tensions still run thick. “Peace walls” – the tallest barbed wire fences I’ve ever seen in my life – separate Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods. Ninety-five percent of the schools are segregated – and teachers from different sects are still trained in separate colleges.
“Now the world doesn’t care anymore because there are bigger wars and better terrors …” writes David Park in his luminous new novel about Northern Ireland, The Truth Commissioner.
But we should care. Because little bits of the world are starting to make their way to Belfast. And if this city gets it right, it will be a powerful message to other sectarian conflict zones like the Middle East, South Asia and East Africa.
I imagine it was for that reason that the Dalai Lama visited Northern Ireland a few years ago. And when he did, he came to Corrymeela and spoke the following words of hope and prayer: “My spirit is with you, and please carry on your work tirelessly. You can consider me as a member of your Community.”
By
Eboo Patel
|
April 6, 2008; 10:18 PM ET
| Category:
The Faith Divide
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Posted by: Ibrahim Mahfouz | April 11, 2008 9:37 PM
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Anyway, Mr. Patel: now that I've again spent time I'm not getting back to try and help out our friend Mr. Concerned:
Don't make a liar of me. You want this, you do this. This is America. I don't doubt you're a fellow of good intentions, but I really don't actually trust your dogma any more than Concerned does.
Maybe cause I'm Irish.
This is America, though. Right? :)
Posted by: Paganplace | April 10, 2008 1:53 AM
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*pointing*
That also means you don't call our columnist 'Eboo' or 'Boo boy,' like it makes *you* anything but small. He is a human being and an American. Even if he *were* an avowed enemy, it would do this nation no honor to be *petty.*
He's not, though. He's doing exactly what you keep screaming 'Islam' should do. But won't look at, cause you seem to come from a tradition where there can't possibly be anything good about anyone ever once called an 'enemy.'
You call yourself 'Liberated,' 'Concerned Christian,' but you are not.
You obsessively demand that this panelist can't possibly exist or be for real, cause of what's in your head.
Cause you're *scared.*
It's in near everything you say, 'The World Can't Be Safe Unless Everything Not Me is Obliterated!"
Sucker.
The world is not safe, and it's not gonna *be* safe, just now. Sorry. We don't get that. But we treat it with all the honor, acuity, passion, and compassion, we can.
You, Concerned, spoke of some of your ancestors, how you felt deceived by them, too.
What I know is, they saw a bad situation and said, 'Maybe these strangers have ancestors who know better, too, let's pray they hear them.
Message received. Gods forbid Concerned doesn't get instant gratification. ;)
Right now it's you who can have a one man 'holy war' against the real world, or you can look around and see what we can do.
Maybe then you'll get the bit with the ribbons, but if you wanna play hard rationalist, get your terms straight.
Posted by: Paganplace | April 10, 2008 1:45 AM
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Also, *again,* till you let go of your compulsive repetition of it, 'Voodoo' and 'Hoodoo' are two different things with nothing in particular to do with Western Paganism.
As for Maypoles, they're actually by definition 'central,' in our belief and view.
Great thing about em is someone like you would still be a dude holding a ribbon next to a big stick and not daring to dance, if that's really what you want to be.
No one said you had to.
You fear 'religion' so much that I bet you never even *saw* a Maypole danced.
There's little solemnity about it, as befits the day, and, well, not even the most devout of Pagans are in any proportion professional Morris dancers, ...you try weaving a dance among any combination of the arthritic and the young begarlanded ...kids.
There never fails to be a laugh about it, but, that's kind of the *point.*
What, in your little frightened world, Concerned, do you think *happens?* Gods, what mystic powers do you feel we have that you fear our 'voodoo' on you, just of celebrating the seasons?
If I had every magi power in an Inquisitor's *book,* why should I care about *you* even if I had the sinister motives you seem to believe I "must" have, along with all things in the world you don't happen to think are sufficiently 'Deflawed?'
'Flawed' bothers me not a bit. And I'll swear that by the most irregularly-woven maypole joy can produce through dance.
Denial. That's different.
You, Concerned, have been hostile, compulsively, toward Pagans, since we took the time to tell you, over and over again, that, yes, the books of Islam say they 'ought' to kill us, just like the holy books of the Christians and Jews and Muslims we live among every day do, at no small inconvenience and hardship, I might add.
Since you couldn't scare us into a monotheist/monotheist-atheist kind of 'war.'
You, sir. Need to be free. Sometimes it may be easier for you to blame all the woes in your mind on some idea that, well, maybe PP is the worst 'witch' ever, 'hoodooing the voodoo.'
Does that make it easy for you?
This is not to say that if you got up in my face in person, I couldn't probably scare your bladder wide open. But that's cause you just don't accept your own life. As yours. You look for mystic powers to blame. Gods know people abuse them. But my faith community is commited to *not* doing that. Despite your fears and the fears of people who can do a lot worse to us, and do.
But, yes, Concerned, you come off OCD cause that's what you *do.* You don't learn, you don't listen, you don't retain, ...you spam. Over and over again.
Then figure the whole world has to be 'deflawed' before you maybe have something to offer.
You want the 'Pagan Voodoo?'
You don't get to argue like the whole universe has to hold up for your idea 'flaws.'
You live. You put up, or shut up.
Kind of like some of the ancestors you've claimed say, in their own way.
;)
Posted by: Paganplace | April 10, 2008 12:59 AM
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" Concerned The Christian Now Liberated:
"Rebuttal,
No, I do not suffer from
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.
"What I and most of the other hominids suffer from is the Three B Syndrome i.e being Bred, Born and Brainwashed in religions to include Paganism aka "voodooers of the hoodoo" that are based on hallucinations, myths, embellishments and lies. "
Ok, Concerned.
As for brainwashing:
a) Don't look at us, you've clearly demonstrated you don't even *get* it, never mind being brainwashed to it,
and
b) Your brain. You clean it up. Eww.
Posted by: Paganplace | April 10, 2008 12:26 AM
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Rebuttal,
No, I do not suffer from
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.
What I and most of the other hominids suffer from is the Three B Syndrome i.e being Bred, Born and Brainwashed in religions to include Paganism aka "voodooers of the hoodoo" that are based on hallucinations, myths, embellishments and lies.
And what is almost hilarious about the "Abrahamers" is how we have bought into this fictional "pretty wingie thingie" for so long.
The flaws to include the stupidity of the "angel" connections in all three Abrahamic religions are now known. We await the Muslim deflawing of Islam. The deflawing of Judaism and Christianity is well on its way. There are too many Pagan sects to determine if May Poles, voodoo etc are on their way to "superstition central".
Posted by: Concerned The Christian Now Liberated | April 8, 2008 6:44 PM
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Concerned The Christian Now Liberated:
Your postings and repetitions suggest you are crying for help. In your self interest, you should consult a psychiatrist.
Posted by: Rebuttal | April 8, 2008 12:15 PM
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The Final Authority on Truth,
Your "truth authority" does not reach very far as most contemporary NT exegetes have concluded that John 14:6 was not said by the historic Jesus but was added as an embellishment to raise Jesus to deity status just like the resurrection myth.
wiki.faithfutures.org/index.php/210_Place_of_Life
and earlychristianwritings.com/theories.html
Posted by: Concerned The Christian Now Liberated | April 8, 2008 1:29 AM
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Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Posted by: The Final Authority on Truth | April 7, 2008 10:30 PM
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Concerned The Christian Now Liberated:
O.k., if you don't suffer from EXCESSIVE, COMPULSIVE PERSONALITY DISORDER. How about schizophrenia?
What does repeating the same message again and again reflect about your personality disorder?
Posted by: Rebuttal | April 7, 2008 10:18 PM
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Paganplace :
Count your lucky stars which I'm sure you have. They could have been playing by horse shoes, hand grenades and nuclear weapons rules where almost is as good as the real thing. That was a close one. ;)
Posted by: BGone | April 7, 2008 9:30 PM
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Why, I know a Baptist minister who *almost* got 'disfellowshipped' just for being friends with me. Almostrisked their eternal soul and job prospects to almost not condemn me to Christian Hell in a haze of defamation.
It was almost very impressive. :)
Posted by: Paganplace | April 7, 2008 8:40 PM
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"
Andrew wrote "So he cries "Die Heretic!"
It has not happened yet in any baptists' history, stupid."
That's their story, and they're *sticking to it.*
Gov. Wallace and all aside. *koff*
Posted by: Paganplace | April 7, 2008 8:36 PM
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"What I and most of the other hominids suffer from is the Three B Syndrome i.e being Bred, Born and Brainwashed in religions to include Paganism "
Fraid they tried real hard to brainwash me otherwise, CCNL.
You'll just have to look to me.
But what about *you?*
Posted by: Paganplace | April 7, 2008 8:34 PM
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Andrew wrote "So he cries "Die Heretic!"
It has not happened yet in any baptists' history, stupid.
Posted by: Anonymous | April 7, 2008 6:37 PM
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No, I do not suffer from
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.
What I and most of the other hominids suffer from is the Three B Syndrome i.e being Bred, Born and Brainwashed in religions to include Paganism aka "voodooers of the hoodoo" that are based on hallucinations, myths, embellishments and lies.
And what is almost hilarious about the "Abrahamers" is how we have bought into this fictional "pretty wingie thingie" for so long.
The flaws to include the stupidity of the "angel" connections in all three Abrahamic religions are now known. We await the Muslim deflawing of Islam. The deflawing of Judaism and Christianity is well on its way. There are too many Pagan sects to determine if May Poles, voodoo etc are on their way to "superstition central".
Posted by: Concerned The Christian Now Liberated | April 7, 2008 6:05 PM
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This is an official complaint and should be treated as such.
Please screen all posts that constitute gay bashing and other offensive remarks. Many posts from the same blogger consist of deeply offensive gay bashing & anti-homosexual remarks that are better received on white supremicist blogs that share the same prison-inspired sentiments. This blog is dedicated to religion and related discussions.
This poster's offensive racist and anti-gay posts should be screened and eliminated from On Faith.
Please be advised that by holding this comment it will be necessary to call this blog directly to file a formal complaint.
Posted by: Anonymous | April 7, 2008 5:51 PM
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And before anyone says 'Kettle,' I personally type every word outside of a quotation. It just so happens it kinda hurts to walk around, sometimes. :)
Posted by: Paganplace | April 7, 2008 5:23 PM
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Well, the term is 'obsessive-compulsive disorder,' but our friend CCNL has clearly 'deflawed' all of known Creation that he can without resorting to cut-and-paste spam on the Internet. :)
Posted by: Paganplace | April 7, 2008 5:19 PM
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Concerned The Christian Now Liberated:
Were you ever diagnosed with schizophrenia or EXCESSIVE, COMPULSIVE PERSONALITY DISORDER?
Posted by: Rebuttal | April 7, 2008 4:50 PM
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"I haven't read Eboo's essay yet, but my conjecture is"
Why bother... it's not like that ever stopped anyone else.
Posted by: Paganplace | April 7, 2008 4:43 PM
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I haven't read Eboo's essay yet, but my conjecture is that it's a clumsy attempt at dissociating Islam from violence committed in the name of Islam, in the tradition of Islam, in accordance with Islamic doctrine, and for the purpose of futhering Islamic ends. I will read Eboo's essay later in the day and see if I'm right.
Posted by: The Eboo Conjecture | April 7, 2008 3:15 PM
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Eboo, Eboo, Eboo,
"Multi" is not the key term. "Flaw and error correction" is. One more time:
A synopsis of the flaws in the founders and foundations of the major religions for those that have not seen them before or did not take the time to look:
Abraham founder/father of three major religions was either the embellishment of the lives of three different men or a mythical character as was Moses, the "Tablet-Man" who talked to burning bushes and made much magic in Egypt.
1.5 million Conservative Jews and their rabbis have relegated Abraham to the myth pile along with most if not all the OT.
simpletoremember.com/vitals/ConservativeTorah.htm
2. Jesus, the illiterate Jewish peasant/carpenter possibly suffering from hallucinations, has been characterized anywhere from the Messiah from Nazareth to a mythical character from mythical Nazareth to a mamzer from Nazareth (Professor Bruce Chilton, in his book Rabbi Jesus). Analyses of Jesus’ life by many contemporary NT scholars (e.g. Professors Crossan, Borg and Fredriksen, On Faith panelists) via the NT and related documents have concluded that only about 30% of Jesus' sayings and ways noted in the NT were authentic. The rest being embellishments (e.g. miracles)/hallucinations made/had by the NT authors to impress various Christian, Jewish and Pagan sects.
The 30% of the NT that is "authentic Jesus" like everything in life was borrowed/plagiarized and/or improved from those who came before. In Jesus' case, it was the ways and sayings of the Babylonians, Greeks, Persians, Egyptians, Hittites, Canaanites, OT, John the Baptizer and possibly the ways and sayings of traveling Greek Cynics.
earlychristianwritings.com/theories.html
For added "pizzazz", Catholic/Christian theologians divided god the singularity into three persons and invented atonement as an added guilt trip for the "pew people" to go along with this trinity of overseers. By doing so, they made god the padre into god the "filicider".
3. Luther, Calvin, Smith, Henry VIII, Wesley et al, founders of Christian-based religions, also suffered from the belief in/hallucinations of "pretty wingie thingie" visits and "prophecies" for profits analogous to the myths of Catholicism (resurrections, apparitions, ascensions and immaculate conceptions).
4. Mohammed, an illiterate, womanizing, lust and greed-driven, warmongering, hallucinating Arab, also had embellishing/hallucinating/plagiarizing scribal biographers who not only added "angels" 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.
5. Hinduism (from an online Hindu site) - "Hinduism cannot be described as an organized religion. It is not founded by any individual. Hinduism is God centered and therefore one can call Hinduism as founded by God, because the answer to the question ‘Who is behind the eternal principles and who makes them work?’ will have to be ‘Cosmic power, Divine power, God’."
The caste/laborer system and cow worship are problems when saying a fair and rational God founded Hinduism."
6. Buddhism- "Buddhism began in India about 500 years before the birth of Christ. The people living at that time had become disillusioned with certain beliefs of Hinduism including the caste system, which had grown extremely complex. The number of outcasts (those who did not belong to any particular caste) was continuing to grow."
"However, in Buddhism, like so many other religions, fanciful stories arose concerning events in the life of the founder, Siddhartha Gautama (fifth century B.C.):"
Archaeological discoveries have proved, beyond a doubt, his historical character, but apart from the legends we know very little about the circumstances of his life. e.g. Buddha by one legend was supposedly talking when he came out of his mother's womb.
Bottom line: There are many good ways of living but be aware of the flaws, errors, hallucinations, embellishments, lies and myths surrounding the founders and foundations of said rules of life.
Posted by: Concerned The Christian Now Liberated | April 7, 2008 2:57 PM
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"Eboo has to know (like billion of other Muslims) that Saudi Arabia is not following Muhammad's followings but I wonder why they do not write/critcize against it."
Maybe Mr. Patel is a bit too busy trying to improve relations here in the West to constantly qualify every statement by appeasing those who'd treat American Muslims in Unamerican ways by constantly talking about your diversions.
You won't get much progress on democratizing Saudi Arabia by shouting down those who are *trying* to harmoniously-interact as Muslims in the West... with, I'll point out, more Western values as a basis than you who can't see the difference between Mr. Patel, a 'boy' to be addressed as 'Eboo,' and the entire Arab world through history.
All this treatment shows... is that if some like you have their way, Muslims *won't* be treated well in a Western, pluralistic world. Or *my* America.
Freaking out about Islam as if they had a magic power to convert you is no different from being any other kind of sheep. In America, we treat people with honor, individual liberties, and our principles, or we have no America at all.
If you don't believe that, then I commend you to the example of Derry for what your kind of view always ends up coming down to.
Posted by: Paganplace | April 7, 2008 2:20 PM
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Muhammad; FYI, Eboo has called Muhammed (PBUH) a very tolerant and compassionate man and I am sure Eboo will write columns and do his best to make Saudi Arabia a less intolerant and less violent society.
Eboo has to know (like billion of other Muslims) that Saudi Arabia is not following Muhammad's followings but I wonder why they do not write/critcize against it.
Posted by: Inshaallah | April 7, 2008 1:36 PM
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The religion of the Egyptians evolved with civilization, including evolution to Judaism, the Christian-Judaic tradition, and into Islam, to Protestant sects, the Church of England and the Episcopal tradition. It is about time that religion continued evolution as opposed to sitting in the stagnant pool of civil war prone Muslims in the Middle East and civil war prone Christians in Ireland. I like seeing this Irish war die out, I would rather see these people live the wonderful life they all deserve.
Posted by: Jerry Spencer | April 7, 2008 11:45 AM
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Andrew wrote : "So he cries "Die Heretic!" "
It has not happened yet in the history of any baptist, stupid.
Posted by: Anonymous | April 7, 2008 11:10 AM
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This, "The ultimate sectarian city is slowly moving from bi- to multi-." is certainly the foundation for a multitude of jokes.
Let's see, the bi-fight is soon to become a donny brook, free-for-all. Now pick someone and hit him.
Posted by: BGone | April 7, 2008 11:04 AM
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Hee. Irish Pagans have the 'Are you a Catholic Pagan or a Protestant Pagan' joke, too, usually in the context of meeting relatives back in Ireland. :)
Posted by: Paganplace | April 7, 2008 10:41 AM
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Eboo
Many time a question has been asked of you by non-Muslims.
"Why do Muslims like you condone the Islamic apartheid practised in Makkah, Madina and other cities holy to Muslims?"
As a Muslim I was initially angered by the question but then realized that since we insist on building mosques even in Rome and having been allowed to do so, what right do we have to ban churches in Makkah and Madina!!!
I hope you will use your blog in the post to condemn the apartheid and urge all Muslims to boycott the holy pilgrimage of hajj until Mecca is opened to all faiths and churches etc are allowed to be built in the city.
Such a boycott will raise the image of Islam and Muslims and we do need to improve our image.
Posted by: Muhammad | April 7, 2008 10:22 AM
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From an Emo Phillips routine...
Two men meet.
"Christian or Jew?" asks the first man.
"Christian" says the second.
"Me too ! Protestant or Catholic?"
"Protestant."
"Me too," crows the first man.
And so the questioning continues, until the two men discover
they are both not only Baptists, but Northern, Conservative,
Fundamentalist Baptists of the the Great Lakes Region.
When the first man finally inquires, "Council of 1879 or Council of 1912?
the reply is "1912."
So he cries "Die Heretic!"
That's religion!
Posted by: andrew | April 7, 2008 9:40 AM
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Mohammad suggests to Eboo:
"I hope you will use your blog in the post to condemn the apartheid and urge all Muslims to boycott the holy pilgrimage of hajj until Mecca is opened to all faiths and churches are allowed to be built in the city(Mecca)."
Neither Eboo nor any other "believing" Muslim dares to make such a commitment. Why? Because he/ she will run counter to a clear and direct command by their prophet who, on his deathbed, ordered his followers to "cleanse" the Arabian peninsula of all non-Muslims.