Islamic countries push a global 'blasphemy' law

clipped from www.csmonitor.com As a new member of the UN Human Rights Council, the US must persuade other countries not to go along. Remember the Danish "Muhammad cartoons" that set off riots by offended Muslims more than three years ago? The debate pitted freedom of press and speech against notions of freedom from insult of one's religion. It rages still – but now in a forum with international legal implications. For years, Islamic nations have succeeded in passing "blasphemy" resolutions at the United Nations (in the General Assembly and in its human rights body). The measures call on states to limit religiously offensive language or speech. No one wants their beliefs ridiculed, but the freedom to disagree over faith is what allows for the free practice of religion. The resolutions are misguided, but also only symbolic, because they're nonbinding. Symbolism no longer satisfies the sponsor of these resolutions

Am Landeplatz der Arche – mit Google Earth

clipped from www.bible-earth.net »Falls Google Earth eines Tages hochauflösende Bilder des Berges Ararat ins Netz stellen sollte, kann man vielleicht selbst die Arche entdecken!« – Es gibt noch keine besseren Bilder des Ararat, aber wahrscheinlich ist dort auch nicht die Arche zu finden. Sie ist nämlich ganz woanders gelandet: Auf dem Berg Cudi Der Koran nennt als Landeplatz der Arche den Berg Cudi. Auch die Bibel lässt diese Möglichkeit offen: Sie spricht von einem Gebirge mit dem Namen Ararat, diese Bezeichnung scheint jedoch identisch zu sein mit dem assyrischen Urartu, einem Gebiet nördlich von Mesopotamien. Auch der Berg Nisir aus dem Gilgamesch-Epos scheint eher nicht auf den sehr weit nördlich Babyloniens liegenden Berg Ararat hinzuweisen Geological and historical reasons why Noah’s ark did not land on Mt. Ararat in Turkey (engl.) Der Berg Cudi liegt etwa 320 Kilometer südwestlich des Ararat, an den Koordinaten 37.3670N, 42.4951E Landeplatz der Arche!

Dünste aus der Religionsküche

In treuer Gefolgschaft meiner Mutter selig, der es just an stickigen Tagen einfiel, Kohl zu kochen, setze ich hier folgenden Hyperlink auf: Jesus Will Return - by Harun Yahya und lade alle, die Lust haben, zum Topfschlagen ein. Oder zum Fensteröffnen.

Niqab Debate in Egypt: Divided Scholars

clipped from en.qantara.de the Grand Imam of Cairo University and the Al-Azhar Mosque. Mohammed Sayed al-Tantawi, one of the most senior legal scholars in Sunni Islam, declared that a veil that covers a woman's face leaving only a slit for the eyes is not religiously permissible. "A woman's face is nothing to be ashamed of!" "These are traditions that have nothing to do with religion," There are two sections of the Koran (Sura 24, verse 31 and Sura 33, verse 59) that make references to the covering of the female body. Neither passage can be unequivocally interpreted as an instruction that a woman must wear a head covering, or exactly defines the parts of the body that have to be concealed. al-Tantawi describes the niqab as a tradition from a pre-Islamic era. But this view has not made the theologian The Saudi Arabian Sheikh Mohammed al-Nojaimi from the Institute of Islamic Law contradicted his Egyptian counterpart Tantawi's claim that the face veil has nothing to do with Islam

Hijab, chador, burqa or niqab? The veiling of Muslim women continues to provoke controversy. This time it is the niqab, or face veil, at the center of the conflict-charged fundamental debate within the Islamic world.

R. Crumb draws The Book of Genesis

clipped from www.nytimes.com clipped from www.nytimes.com CONSIDERING that barely a word has been changed from the original, the warning on the cover of a new, illustrated version of the Book of Genesis — “Adult Supervision Recommended for Minors” — might seem surprising. Until, that is, one reads the name of the illustrator: R. Crumb. clipped from www.nytimes.com ABRAHAM AND ISAAC clipped from www.nytimes.com NOAH NOAH clipped from www.nytimes.com GATES OF SODOM clipped from www.nytimes.com ABRAM (later renamed Abraham by God) It was my crude attempt to capture his vision of all this future suffering that is supposed to take place with all his people. In the background are all the suffering faces of his people. I made them dark and murky because it's a vision of the future. It's not a clear photograph of the future clipped from www.nytimes.com JACOB AND RACHEL

Testing Ireland's new blasphemy law

clipped from blog.newhumanist.org.uk Atheist Ireland, which is leading the fight against Ireland's new blashemy law, held its first AGM on Saturday, and those in attendance voted to put out a blasphemous statement to test the law within days. a message of support was read out from Richard Dawkins “One of the world’s most beautiful and best-loved countries, Ireland has recently become one of the most respected as well: dynamic, go-ahead, modern, civilised – a green and pleasant silicon valley. This preposterous blasphemy law puts all that respect at risk. It is a wretched, backward, uncivilised regression to the middle ages. Who was the bright spark who thought to besmirch the revered name of Ireland by proposing anything so stupid?” Update: In the meantime, Irish Independent columnist Ian O'Doherty does a nice job testing the new law with a blasphemous statement of his own - Catholics, Jews, Muslims and Scientologists all included.

Ian O'Doherty's blasphemous statement:

So, here we go -- Catholicism is a cannibal cult which eats its leader, Jews who believe that God wants them to settle in the Holy Land are deranged lunatics, Muslims who wants to install Islamic law are nothing but fascist terrorists and Scientologists are nothing but a bunch of brainwashed weirdos who have been suckered by the malicious rantings of a failed science-fiction writer.

Alright lads, I'll see you in court.

This I Believe

clipped from www.npr.org About Modern Essays 1950s Essays Essay Database For Educators Contact Us Based on a 1950s radio program of the same name, Americans from all walks of life share the personal philosophies and core values that guide their daily lives. Hear previous features and read more from the archives below. Celebrating Four Years Of 'This I Believe' During its four-year run on NPR, This I Believe engaged listeners in a discussion of the core beliefs that guide their daily lives. We heard from people of all walks of life — the very young and the very old, the famous and the previously unknown.

Test Your Faith

clipped from www.beliefnet.com

Even if YOU don't know what faith you are, Belief-O-Matic^TM knows. Answer 20 questions about your concept of God, the afterlife, human nature, and more, and Belief-O-Matic™ will tell you what religion (if any) you practice...or ought to consider practicing.

Warning: Belief-O-Matic™ assumes no legal liability for the ultimate fate of your soul.

Egypt cleric 'to ban full veils' - custom has nothing to do with the Islamic faith

clipped from news.bbc.co.uk Egypt's highest Muslim authority has said he will issue a religious edict against the growing trend for full women's veils, known as the niqab. Sheikh Mohamed Tantawi, dean of al-Azhar university, called full-face veiling a custom that has nothing to do with the Islamic faith. Although most Muslim women in Egypt wear the Islamic headscarf, increasing numbers are adopting the niqab as well. The practice is widely associated with more radical trends of Islam. The niqab question reportedly arose when Sheikh Tantawi was visiting a girls' school in Cairo at the weekend and asked one of the students to remove her niqab. The Egyptian newspaper al-Masri al-Yom quoted him expressing surprise at the girl's attire and telling her it was merely a tradition, with no connection to religion or the Koran.

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Comment:

I don't want to disparage the relevance of the Sheikh's sentiment, in no way. But the fact of the matter is that a voice like his is only one in the polyphonic (and I say, cacophonous) score of multitudinous Islamic voices. Muslims don't believe in a catholic (universal), pope-like authority (nevertheless, many if not most of them follow the preachings of a picked set of sheikhs, imams or ayatollahs).

There are antithetic voices in the Islamic polyphony. No surprise - cloaking the entire female body (be it including the eyes or not) is an item of the Qur'an and of the sunnah:

The Noble Qur'an - Al-Ahzab 33:59

O Prophet! Tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to draw their cloaks (veils)* all over their bodies (i.e. screen themselves completely except the eyes or one eye to see the way). That will be better, that they should be known (as free respectable women) so as not to be annoyed. [...]

*the arabic word here is Jalabeeb (plural of Jalbaab), which is the loose outer garment that covers all a woman's body. It says here to use the Jalabeeb to cover all, and scholars say this means to use it to cover her head (agree upon by all scholars) and her face (agreed by many scholars, not all) and one or both eyes, in order for it to be known that she is a free woman and so not to be exposed to any harm.
[...]

Muslims and Muslimahs across the world have been in "hot debate" for centuries, over the issue of whether or not covering the face is obligatory upon a Muslimah. Those who argue that it is not required, point to the use of the word khimar in the Qur'an, and [...] argue that khimar has never referred to the covering of the face [...]. While one cannot deny the support of Hadith that indicate that the Prophet's wives wore khimar, one must realize that they also covered their faces at all times in the presence of non-mahram men.

[↗Muttaqun on Niqab (Affixed Face Veil): According to Quran and Sunnah]

Now - "face veiling a custom that has nothing to do with the Islamic faith"???

The sources - the Qur'an and the sunnah - the Sheikh refers to can evoke and justify views (and beliefs) that dissent from his opinion.

I am not trying to debate anything. I only advert to the problem the Islamic scholars have with the fact that in Islam, on the one hand, not only Muslim habits at the time of Mohammed but also pre-Islamic Arabic customs and, on the other hand, substantially Islamic matters are (in my humble opinion, inextricably) interwoven.

Simple Vereinnahmung

Für jeden Korangläubigen gilt:

Mohammed war Muslim.
Jesus (Isa) war Muslim.
Maria (Marjam) war Muslima.
Moses (Musa) war Muslim.
Abraham (Ibrahim) war Muslim.
Adam war Muslim.
Jeder Mensch ist von seinem Ursprung her Muslim.
Wer aber von dem ihm einbeschaffenen Islam abtrünnig wird, indem er sich zu keinem oder zu mehr als einem Gott bekennt, ist kein Muslim.

So einfach und umwerfend kann die Wahrheit einer Religion sein.
Umwerfend einfach.
Einfach umwerfend.

Daher:
Goethe war Muslim.
Einstein war Muslim.
Das ist doch jedem klar, wenn er sich muslimischen Verstandes ereifert beeifrigt.
So wie es jedem, der sich klerikalem Geist ergibt, klar ist, dass die von geistlichen Führern verwaltete Institution die von Jesus Christus gemeinte Gemeinschaft ist.