Was there an outrage when they (Taliban - Muslim) desturct an an historic buddist temple or statue in Afganistan? I don't see buddist people calling for death or banning of goods from muslim countries.

I don't see why this outrage is over cartoons. It's a cartoon, need we say more.

The Muslims burn our flags urinate on it drag it through their streets, curse our religions cut our heads off etc. and we are suppose to like it and do nothing about it!! I for one am tired of it. The foreign news papers say their countries are tired of being intimidated by these Muslims. Good. Our country should be the same and really give the something to protest about. If the Muslims of this country do not like our freedom of speech and freedom of religion, that they need to leave our country and go back to where and what they came from. I will respect their rights as long as they respect mine. Those cartoons should be plastered on every news paper in the nation. the ones that don't are wimps. A few papers have posted them. Good for them. One of the papers is a conservative news paper and I'm not a conservative, but I applaud them for their effects.

I wake up, turn the TV on, and then watch violence and death because of some cartoons. Next, I look for the cartoons and what do I find? Almost all Western media outlets refusing to show them. Do we have free speech, or was that just a dream? Check out the cartoons at http://www.obber.com, and also check out the documentary I put together.

Put Holy Books on Trial...

Is it not time to open the scriptures and history of the religions of the descendants of Abraham, Judaism, and their offshoots, the so-called "Christian Religions" and Islam...., Historically, I believe the shisms between the immediate sons of Abraham is recorded in the sciptures of Judaism,Christianity and Islam and the battles have raged on since.

The change of the "Jesus movement" from a "non-violent" to the "Holy Roman Church" happened in the 2nd century, with Emperor Constantine, and although the Christian Churches all preach "turn the other cheek" according to historical records, they have been the perpetrators and instigators of countless massacres, wars, oppressions, torture, and general "uncivilized" practices"...

Is it not time to open the Holy Books and take the references to God asking people to kill as in Abraham with Isaac, Josua at Jericho and many other references that depict God as testing or favouring one individual or tribe of "his people" against another.

Should the words like "chosen" not be re-defined and/or explained if God is to be called upon in defense of crimes against individuals or humanity as a whole? All of the followers of the various sects of Judaims, Christianity and Islam claim to be "God's Favorite's" or as we would say in the schoolyard, the "teacher's pet". Does this attitude not bring about intolerance, jealousy, bullying, crime, war and all around anti-social and "uncivilized behaviour?

Don't we have the right to question, if not the ONE God or the UNITY, then the interpretors of that ONE God, who are after all, human? That is the right the Christians gave themselves in the middle ages with the Reformation. The Quakers the have taken the freedom of religion to a "conscientious objector" height and can claim to be a peaceful religion but most Christians still serve in war with "God on their side". It seems that for the fundamentalist Christians, the teachings of Christ are secondary to "making the apocalyptic prophecies come true" And that can be said of the fundamentalists of Judaism and Islam also. So we do not have "peaceful religions" here. Let us put their Holy Books on Trial.

Still, as Buffy Ste Marie (a Canadian Folk singer) said in her song "The Universal Soldier", in the end, in front of one's God or in the HIghest, it is the person doing the action who is ultimately responsible for the action not the one ordering or instigating. It is not enough to claim that "the devil made me do it" or worse that "I did it for God" or " I was told or ordered by my authorities to do it". The Neurenberg defense was not accepted for Nazism, it should not be accepted for all the other "isms" such as religion -ism. We tell our kids: "If your friends jumps of the cliff, will you jump off the cliff too?" And....if your leader is behind you and pushing you, then don't follow, push the leaders out front. They will soon change their minds.

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

Voltaire (notice he says, "disapprove", not "disagree"!

Give Peace a Chance..Come-on Religious Folks! Put your Holy Books on Trial and become truly "peaceful religions".

4d-Don

Two Short songs....

HEY YOU
By Don Mallais (SOCAN)
Key of B (Capo 4....Play G) in 4/4 Time-Folk

Hey You! with a double face
Who pray for peace, then serve the gods of war
What's that you speak? Turn the other cheek?
You gotta think the world is deaf and blind

CHORUS

Get out of here, not in my space
Join the human race, and become civilized
I was at ONE, my one in ONE
Then you came along, with your master song

Hey You! Of the Holy Book
In your Holy Nook, with the words you bastardize
You sow the war, then you reap the war
You gotta think the world is deaf and blind

Hey You! Of the master clan
With your master plan, and the words you idolize
What about the child, who is brutalized
You gotta think the world is deaf and blind

Hey You! Who theorize
Proselytize, and then you criticize
You victimize, and you terrorize
You gotta think the world is deaf and blind

or this one for a little more hopeful...

UNCLOUDY DAY
By Don Mallais (SOCAN)
Key of G in 4/4 Time-Bluegrassy/Gospel

Have you heard the songs of warning?
Heard the bells alarming?
Roaring guns a-warring in a dream landscape
Getting closer by the hour
Tearing up the flowers
Waking up the thunder, where the dark clouds stay.

Could be rainbows on the mountain
Waters from the fountains
Rolling down the hillside where the white clouds play
If we all pray by the hour
Sunrise on the flowers
Holding back the showers for that uncloudy day.

Oh! The land of the cloudless sky
Oh! The land of that un-cloudy day.
If we all pray by the hour
Sunrise on the flowers
Holding back the showers for that un-cloudy day

Hi I am so angry at these comment i understand that we all should be one not when people do not respect one another please cosider this god made us all no one should be fighting or giving opion you know why at the end of the day god made us not us please cosider this and maybe you christains should give us the same repect you want this fair is it not i sick of tired of peoeple fighing and killing for the united states i am not blaming anyone in piclticlr but i think you know whom i mean don't people get it see what we all doing we are all silly fighting for what its all the stupid governments they want us to fight don't you get it think about it or do you guys need to go back to school to learn some manners i mean the christains and by the way us muslims are not drug users or seller or single parent or get pregnant to get a man or nor do we cheat and we don't drink every chance or eat bacon or pork think about it this is how i feel thank you for your time please stop putting the blame on us muslims and think of yourself how would you like you guys would hate it too but i do agree that the burning of the flag was over the top and that we all should calm down be as one. Bye

Hi I am so angry at these comment i understand that we all should be one not when people do not respect one another please cosider this god made us all no one should be fighting or giving opion you know why at the end of the day god made us not us please cosider this and maybe you christains should give us the same repect you want this fair is it not i sick of tired of peoeple fighing and killing for the united states i am not blaming anyone in piclticlr but i think you know whom i mean don't people get it see what we all doing we are all silly fighting for what its all the stupid governments they want us to fight don't you get it think about it or do you guys need to go back to school to learn some manners i mean the christains and by the way us muslims are not drug users or seller or single parent or get pregnant to get a man or nor do we cheat and we don't drink every chance or eat bacon or pork think about it this is how i feel thank you for your time please stop putting the blame on us muslims and think of yourself how would you like you guys would hate it too but i do agree that the burning of the flag was over the top and that we all should calm down be as one. Bye

Just answer me this question why muslim been looked as blowing it out of control as we did not make up the cartoons think about we are all fighting for what got did not make us all to fight,but be as one i am so sadnned with the comment i have seen please think about its the governmnets that are doing this to make us all fight is this fair not it is not stop this hatered we all should be as one think about it. Bye Ps: By the way you christains need to stop be easy to make us look bad we all allowed to have feedom of speech isent this an american and commonwelth countries say i think this leader can't even look after themself or us citizen so stop think us muslims are but ok please thank you.

Stop Blaming us muslims we have same rightsto,to have an opion right sorry for if some people can't get it it is not nice to blame or hurt us same for us but we are more human sorry to say. Thank you bye bye.

Oscar u are never going to make any friend nor do u desverive any you semm very bitter how old are you did u come out of your mum the wrong way i think your brain has gone missing i wish you all the best not bye bye and mr jew or christain go and get help before it is to late bye.

All arguments about foreign ownership and
operation of US ports have been focused on
the wrong issues.

1) Even if the foreign owner does not
directly aid TERRORIST activities, nothing
precludes it from aiding COMMERCIAL
ACTIVITIES adverse to private commercial
interests in the US. If a port manager were
to collect data about US firms importing
and/or exporting to Israel through its ports
and share that data with other foreign
interests IN AID OF A REGIONAL BOYCOTT
effort, US firms and US trade could be
adversely affected.

2) If the United States should ever be
involved in a foreign conflict that the port
manager does not agree with, that port
manager could shut down the port to the
outflow of troops and/or material in
support of that conflict. Do we need to turn
over approval of part of our foreign policy and
military operations to A POSSIBLE VETO by
a foreign port owner/operator?

3) A potential terrorist threat is one of
the issues of concern over foreign
ownership of US port facilities. Even
that issue has not been fully developed.
Assuming that present management is
now fully reliable and dependably friendly,
nothing keeps the foreign owner from
CHANGING ITS VIEWS and/or its
management staff and policy concerning
undermining US security at a later date
and causing a domestic security problem
for the United States sometime in the
future. Do not assume that the situation
tommorow will always be what it is today.

Steven Morrison
13816 Vintage Lane
Silver Spring, MD 20906-2240
301 871 6452
n3yib@yahoo.com

Cartoons and a New Age of Reason
It is sad, alarming and enlightening to see people rioting and dying over political cartoons that raise legitimate issues about terrorism carried out by Islamic extremist. While we should be sensitive to people’s religious beliefs, we must also strive to keep religions evolving to be more tolerant of alternative views, and to embrace higher moral values. Much of the Muslim world is now at the stage Christianity was at a few hundred years ago, when heresy would bring the death penalty, women had few rights, and the Christian Holy Wars (Inquisitions) killed millions of innocent people in the name of God. Fortunately, Christianity has evolved and we no longer embrace Biblical guidelines, such as Deuteronomy 13 that advocate killing non-believers; and other outdated decrees such as Exodus 21:15 & 17, which are immoral by today’s standards. Unfortunately, the Koran has its share of intolerant guidelines that Muslims are suppose to embrace since only a literal interpretation is allowed by the Clerics. For examples of its intolerance to other religions see sections 3:86-91, 2:190-93, & 5:86. Regrettably, the rights of Muslim women are still at least a century behind the Western world because of this orthodox interpretation of the Koran.

It is telling that Muslim leaders are quiet with regard to how Islamic extremist are perverting their religion. Their muteness goes beyond their resentment of the West, as they must fear their own extremists who tout the death penalty for heresy. The question we need to now ask is: How do we get Muslim extremist to evolve and not embrace religious superstitions that suggest immoral ideas such as getting rewarded with a multitude of virgins in Heaven for suicide bombings. Muslim democracies that promote secular education may indeed be the best way to accelerate the evolution of Islam and to stop terrorism.

Fortunately, our founding fathers realized that religion should be separated from government, and made that division a key part of our Constitution. It was not simply freedom of religion that drove this separation of church and state; it was also driven by that fact that many of the architects of our constitution (e.g., Madison, Jefferson, and Adams) were Deist and believed that Christian dogma stifled man’s progress. Read Thomas Paine’s book Age of Reason, or visit the Deism.org website to understand these beliefs that helped shaped a secular America that leads the world morally today.

Besides worrying about Muslim extremist, we must also be on guard to protect our own society from religious zealots who want to reunite government and religion to promote and justify their own particular religious beliefs. Intelligent Design is the latest attempt to do so in this country. Despite the fact that fossil records and DNA mapping give direct proof of evolution, and that we can even see evolution occurring in real time, some of our top leaders support the teaching of ID. While this is hopefully only political pandering, it is absolutely the wrong direction for this country to be moving. It is, in fact, an example of regressing back to when religious superstitions ruled. This lack of reason is what we want Muslim extremist to evolve away from. One final point on ID, if a complex world requires an intelligent designer, doesn’t that criteria apply to the designer who is even more complex? It is hard for us to say we just don’t undertand it all.

While religion does not provide real answers to questions such as: where do we come from? It does provide comfort in a harsh world, and provides moral values that are strongly reinforced by the promise of Heaven and the fear of Hell. This carrot and stick approach to morality was of real value during the more barbaric stages of man’s evolution. And, still has value for those that do not have their own built-in moral compass. Religion is also an important social binding force in developing countries like much of the Muslim world. In addition, in developed nations like our own, where both the government and businesses are cutting back on social safety nets such as healthcare and pensions, where else can people turn but god for help? What the world really needs is for religions get past the dogma of their Holy books, and start a New Age of Reason where all that matters in God’s eye, is how well we treat each other.

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