Leading Pakistani cleric chief Sufi Muhammad of Tehreek-e- Nifaz-e- Shariat-e- Muhammadi has declared democracy, communism, socialism, and fascism to be un-Islamic. Hmmm, that leaves what? Of yes, Islamic rule. He has also reaffirmed that it is unIslamic to be photographed.
Showing the depth of his thinking (or inability of thought), Sufi Muhammad declared democracy to be un-Islamic because it was invented by infidels, adding “I would not offer prayer behind anyone who would seek to justify democracy.”
Another problem with democracy appears to be that it insists on protecting democratic ideals and refuses to impose Sharia and Islamic law on citizens. “
The ideal system? Why it was the medieval Taliban regime: “Only the Taliban had enforced sharia when they were in power in Afghanistan.”
He also stressed that women in the perfect Taliban world were not allowed to come out of their homes for any reason other than to perform Haj.
here.For full story, click
Along with new problems arising in Afghanistan – it doesn’t look like Karzai can be defeated in the upcoming presidential elections; apparently he’s paid off the only other candidate who could have unseat him, as well as the newest poppy eradication push – this doesn’t bode well for Obama’s tripartate summit Wednesday with Karzi and Ali Zadari, President of Pakistan.
What a tar baby this Afghanistan/Pakistan mess has become for Obama. Another poisonous present from the previous administration.
“Leading Pakistani cleric chief Sufi Muhammad of Tehreek-e- Nifaz-e- Shariat-e- Muhammadi has declared democracy,… to be un-Islamic.”
**************
Like Homer Simpson indignantly said about the Flanders newsletter when confronted with the “news” that Bart smells, “I already knew that.”
Queen of Sheba,
My concern is that Obama will throw the tar baby into the very corrupt tar pit from whence it came and gave it life and then throw the Taliban crooks into the briar patch…oh, please, please Mr. O, don’t throw me in *that* briar patch, or please…
I loved ‘Song of the South’ as a little lad in the 1950s before it was banned for unreasonable political reasons.
FormerFed;
My uncle used to read the Uncle Remus stories to me from the original phonetic text back in the ’50s; I still have the book. I saw “Song of the South” in a Borders a few weeks ago – it had been “translated” and, I’m sure, cleaned up. So sad.
To address your concern about the tar baby throwback, things could be worse than either of us thinks:
“The desperation over political gridlock in Kabul is so great that the UN representative has called for the Taliban to contest the elections. Most of them say they oppose Western-style polls, but some may be enticed into running.”
http://www.juancole.com/
They don’t see us as so democratic they can’t take our $moulah$ evidently. Probably a good call in many ways, because we are more like a dying empire than a vibrant democracy in some very critical ways:
http://blogdredd.blogspot.com/2009/05/phases-of-empire-freezing-to-death.html
Think of the Predator Laugh “haw haw haww haww hawwww” as you read this:
Democrats drop funds to close Gitmo
AP Wire Services
WASHINGTON (AP) – House Democrats are refusing to pay for President Barack Obama’s plan to relocate prisoners from the Guantanamo detention facility where enemy combatants are being held.
Obama has signed an executive order to study closing the facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by early next year. Between 50-100 are likely to be sent to the United States.
No lawmaker wants the accused terrorists in their backyard.
House Democrats unveiled a $94.4 billion war funding bill Monday and it had no money for the relocation plan.
dREDD:
it is fixable, we just need to do away with bread and circuses and foreign entanglements.
I just found a wonderful Saudi intellectual, here is a random quote from an interview and the web address. There may actually be hope for the middle east and other Islamic countries after all.
“Buleihi: “There is no one reason, there are a thousand reasons, which all induce me to admire the West and emphasize its absolute excellence in all matters of life. Western civilization is the only civilization that liberated man from his illusions and shackles; it recognized his individuality and provided him with capabilities and opportunities to cultivate himself and realize his aspirations. [Western civilization] humanized political authority and established mechanisms to guarantee relative equality and relative justice and to prevent injustice and to alleviate aggression. This does not mean that this is a flawless civilization; indeed, it is full of deficiencies. Yet it is the greatest which man has achieved throughout history. [Before the advent of Western civilization,] humanity was in the shackles of tyranny, impotence, poverty, injustice, disease, and wretchedness.
“It is an extraordinary civilization, and it is not an extension of any ancient civilization, with the exception of Greek civilization, which is the source of contemporary civilization. I have completed a book on this great extraordinary civilizational leap, titled The Qualitative Changes in Human Civilization. Western civilization is its own product and it is not indebted to any previous civilization except for the Greek one … It has revived the Greek achievements in the fields of philosophy, science, literature, politics, society, human dignity, and veneration of reason, while recognizing its shortcomings and illusions and stressing its continuous need for criticism, review and correction.”
http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP233209
Souter is right up there with the worst Supreme Court Judge the United States has ever had!
He LIED to President George H. Bush about his political beliefs and he LIED that those beliefs would not impact his deciding the Constitionality or Unconstitutionality of the laws that work their way up to the Supreme Court.
He also has the knowledge that he could have stopped the murder of 25,000,000 infants to abortion YET HE did nothing.
I PRAY he mopes in his little rustic cabin and contemplates the damage he has done in his miserable little life.
What a small SMALL person he will be known as in the history books. Forever he will be the man who LIED to get a seat on the Bench of the US Supreme Court and then used that Court to push beliefs that our founding fathers would have called him a fool and traiter for.
Why do the same people continue to post completely unrelated comments over and over again…
Islamic fundamentalism (well, religious fundamentalism of all types) is so pervasive in certain parts of the world that it only makes me wonder if all attempts to impose a non-sharia based law are useless. Are such (relatively) backwards and primitive parts of the world truly capable of democratization? I often wonder whether the West is just farther along a kind of social evolution compared to the rest of the world. Our countries are obviously much more advanced economically, technologically, and in nearly every way imaginable. This kind of prosperity has produced a sort of moderating influence, which is reinforced by democracy. The advent of modernity has reduced (and watered down) the influence of fundamentalist religious groups. Should it be our goal to attempt to coerce or force change upon these nations which have been pretty much left behind, or should it be our goal to protect ourselves in every way possible while allowing these nations to develop on their own. We can certainly protecting ourselves using only military special forces and CIA-type interventions and we can stimulate development through international aid. As I am typing this, I am reminded of how terrible this type of philosophy has fared throughout post-colonial Africa. Taking all of this into account, I am still skeptical of our ability to effect real change upon Pakistan and Afghanistan (and Yemen, Somalia, Congo, etc). At some point, we are going to have to acknowledge the realpolitik approach we may need to take in order to truly move these less-developed countries further along their societal evolutionary path. I just wonder how many more dollars we have to spend or how many lives are lost until someone starts to ask these questions.
Former Dem,
Hum, now Republican? Trader or did you seek a place in your heart that makes you feel at home? So you were a Democrat formerly? Or were you a Dem-i-G-d formerly? Or were you a Dem-Wit formerly. (well that at present is debatable)? Exactly what were you Formerly? I doubt you were a Democrat, because then you would be happy that Souter developed a social conscience. So you, speak foolishly sir.
So, if you are saying that Souter changed his mind about his ism’s, then check your name. Then I would get a new Troll name and go from there. But then again, you are fun to speak at, kind of like talking to a mouse, you know in your heart that it can’t understand you but it just makes you feel better to get it off of your chest. So be weary of the cat……
Student Wins Suit After Teacher Says Creationism ‘Superstitious Nonsense’
Monday, May 04, 2009
SANTA ANA, Calif. — A federal judge ruled that a public high school history teacher violated the First Amendment when he called creationism “superstitious nonsense” during a classroom lecture.
I HOPE THEY AWARD THE BOY 10 MILLION DOLLARS AS A LESSON FOR THESE STUPID TEACHERS. THEY SHOULD DO THE SAME FOR BOY SCOUTS THAT ARE BEING FORCED TO ACCOMMODATE ATHEISTS IN THE NAME OF “NON-DESCRIMINATION”. EVERY BOY SCOUT THAT BELIEVES IN GOD SHOULD BE AWARDED $10,000 PAID BY THE ATHEISTS UNION OF AMERICA.
Justice Souter is a flake.
but we all know how democratic and just the taliban are
((
Former Dem.
Or is that Formerly Smart. Read my post on this thread at about 7:16 pm. I am sure you can.
Un-Islamic to be photographed? Quite right.
Especially if you happen to be flogging/stoning women…
Or torturing some guy who conned you out of $5K and you happen to be a wealthy sheik…
Any of you wack jobs that want to legalize drugs needs to go visit the Netherlands. Don’t stray off the beaten path, and watch out for the needles laying in the streets and don’t walk barefoot on the grass or you will end up with 3 or 4 contaminated needles sticking you in the feet.
But hey, it’s not all bad; so many people lay around all day stoned that it is pretty easy to find a job if you stay off the drugs. Also, prisons are filled with real criminals and not drug addicts. Well, maybe they are addicts, but they got put in prison for attacking OTHER Addicts over drugs.
Murtha’s Nephew Got Defense Contracts
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/04/AR2009050403743.html?hpid=topnews
IT APPEARS MY FORMER PARTY IS 10 TIMES MORE CROOKED THAN THE REPUBLICANS COULD EVER HOPE TO BE IN 20 YEARS!
HEY TURLEY,
HOW ABOUT ASKING YOUR BUDDY OLBERDAMNN TO DO A SEGMENT ON CROOKED DEMOCRATS…..
T APPEARS HE COULD DO A 1 MONTH SPECIAL ON CROOKED DEMOCRATS.
AN HOUR A NIGHT FOR A MONTH AND HE STILL WOULDN’T GET TO IT ALL WOULD HE.
BUT TURLEY, YOU ARE SO STRANGELY SILENT ON THE CORRUPTNESS OF THE LIBERALS IN CONGRESS.
WHY IS THAT? HMMM? YOU DON’T GIVE A RIP ABOUT A CONGRESS PRACTICING GENERATIONAL THEFT FROM OUR KIDS?
City Council votes to deny public speaker
Steve McQueen, one of the organizers of the Quincy Tea Party effort, requested to speak on the recently approved budget and water and sewer rate increases.
When it came time to vote to open the floor to allow the speaker a roll call vote ensued.
Seven Democrats denied McQueen’s opportunity to speak while six Republicans voted to allow him to speak.
Long time residents said they had never seen anyone denied the right to speak and called the vote “outrageous.”
HEY TURLEY, HERE IS ONE FOR YOU; HOW ABOUT THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF WHAT THESE DEMOCRAT CLOWNS DID AT THIS CITY COUNCIL MEETING?
I DOUBT IF YOU CARE SINCE IT WAS DEMOCRATS DENYING A RIGHT TO SPEAK TO WHAT WAS APPARENTLY A PERSON FED UP WITH HIGH TAXES. AM I RIGHT? AM I RIGHT? AM I RIGHT?
Have you all noticed that Former Dem limits his comments to quotes from other people or organizations? Have you noticed that he’s never expressed a thought of his own? Have you noticed that he doesn’t appear to have any thoughts of his own and absolutely refuses to engage anyone in an exchange of ideas? Have you noticed that he attempts to emphasize the perceived importance of his statements by capitalizing them, much like seventh graders do when they pass really important notes? He has revealed enough about himself, however, to permit the following conclusions: 1. He is severely paranoid, and is therefore a firm believer in the right to possess firearms. 2. He fears what is happening in the country because he does not understand it. 3. He believes that any ideas that do not fit in with what he was taught in grammer school are somehow unAmerican and dangerous. 4. He is suspicious of those around him, particularly those of different ethnic and religious backgrounds. 5. He doesn’t socialize with people because their motives cannot be trusted and he pretty much keeps to himself. 6. He regards himself as a failure in life, and is concerned that others will discover that fact. 7. He limits his reading, if he reads at all, to short articles and propaganda pieces that reinforce his world view. 8. He declined to serve in the military because it would subject him to stressors that he was certain he could not handle. 9. He has been unable to sustain any stable personal relationships because other people always let you down in the end. 10. He professes a belief in God, but does not adhere to any particular theology because he thinks most churches are simply after his money. One hopes that he is not employed by the postal service.
Pakistan is so intent on protecting itself from the threat from India, whether real or imagined, that it is making concessions to the Taliban that it will soon regret. Afghanistan is a failed state, and we cannot salvage it regardless of how much men and money we throw at the problem. When are we going to learn that we do not have the capacity to convert medieval tribal societies to western democracies? Iraq is much better off, of course, than Afghanistan, but religious and ethnic differences remain more important than the solution to common problems in that country. That will remain the case for the foreseeable future. The overriding legacy of the Bush administration in that part of the world is instability, and it was completely foreseeable.
Mike Appleton
1, May 5, 2009 at 12:02 am: Snap!
Mike Appleton
1, May 5, 2009 at 12:15 am: “Afghanistan is a failed state” Yes. Scary doesn’t begin to cover it. It is problematic at best that we don’t know where exactly the nukes are or what happened to the $100 mil or so we have given them to secure their sites and weapons. President Obama seemed to indicate that the Afghan military would not let them fall into the hands of the Taaliban but they, the Afgan military sources and allies, are also the folks that won’t tell us where the weapons are or where the money went. This I have read in the last few days. I don’t know if it’s true or not. The money could well have been directed into the pockets of high ranking military officers in order to buy just these assurances. I hope they’re true.
Personally, I refuse to believe that we don’t know where Pakistan’s nukes are. We either know or have a pretty good idea, they just aren’t saying so publicly. I have no doubt in my mind that there are contingency plans in place for Marines/sailors in the Pacific to seize control of Pakistani nuclear facilities within a few hours should the need arise. Most people seem to believe that the only properly functioning part of the Pakistani government is the military, so I don’t know if their nukes will ever actually be in jeopardy.
Don’t worry Boys and Girls. The United States will back this guy in the next election/coup attempt.
HEY, GREAT BRITAIN!!!!
How’s that Sharia working out for you clowns?
Matthew N
Not a good sign:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090505/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan
Last I heard the technology was in place in at least one private imaging firm to take satellite picks with 1 meter resolution. If the government can’t beat that considering what we have been paying as taxpayers for imaging tech for the government I don’t know why we bother.
The problem may not be with the tech though. Finding facilities are probably the least of the problem. Facilities for refining nuclear material and fashioning something from it usually stay put. Knowing where they were last week generally means you know where they are next month.
Assembly into a weapon especially a small one is another matter, you can disperse the components and if they have mobile nuclear warheads and launching platforms the job becomes one of tracking their movement and if one loses track of them, being able to find them again knowing they have been disguised. That’s tough, labor intensive work. So is ‘sending in the marines’ to secure something. What a nightmare that could turn into.
lottakatz and Matthew N.
There was a really good discussion of this situation on NPR’s Here and Now today:
http://www.hereandnow.org/
Former Dem is paid by the word, or comment. He exists to disrupt and not engage. Just another whore, we just don’t know his price.
The pathetic thing about all of this is that the US has a long history stretching back to Eisenhower, of supporting corrupt Pakistani Governments. Because during the Cold War India insisted on remaining independent of the aegis of both the US and USSR, the “wise men” of the foreign policy establishment and the MI Complex leaned toward Pakistan to balance things out, thinking India a tool of the USSR. Like in many other areas our “wise men” of foreign policy left us a legacy that returns again and again to haunt us. Then too the mixture of Fundamentalism and governance always creates a poisonous result.
Matthew N:
“I often wonder whether the West is just farther along a kind of social evolution compared to the rest of the world. Our countries are obviously much more advanced economically, technologically, and in nearly every way imaginable. This kind of prosperity has produced a sort of moderating influence, which is reinforced by democracy.”
Individual rights are the cause of our success. Our minds are free, we do not need to spend any energy on the irrational. Democracy is not a good thing because the “mob” will not be concerned with the individual. I should think the mullahs would embrace democracy.
“Democracy is not a good thing because the “mob” will not be concerned with the individual.”
Bron,
Could you elaborate on that?
Thanks for the suggestion Jill. I am now up to 3 daily podcasts and 12 weekly podcasts. Not looking forward to when I actually start running out of time!
The more I think about Pakistan the more bleak the situation looks. The sad part is I think things would be drastically different if Benazir Bhutto was in charge rather than her husband. Ms. Bhutto was not afraid of the Islamists, while her husband doesn’t seem to mind kowtowing to their every demand. I’ve heard that the US is going to try to engage Sharif, but he is just as corrupt and incompetent as Ali Zardari. We should have just left Musharraf in place. The place sure seemed a whole hell of a lot more stable then.
MikeS:
A quote from Mr. Franklin:
“Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.”
We live in a republic not a democracy. There is supposed to be a check on the tyranny of the mob through our elected representatives. At least that is my understanding. Pure democracy would be mob rule or a parliamentary style government. Personally I like the checks and balances of our republic.
Bron,
I had a feeling you were going with the US is a republic route and that is true, or at least how we started out, what with limited suffrage and slavery. All governmental forms can be corrupted, as can all non-governmental forms. Humans have not risen far from the rule of the pack and from the toughest guy is the boss mentality. It is possibly genetic, but definitely has components of being socialized into us. What I mean by that is when you have Type A personalities and/or sociopaths among us, you will always have to deal with people trying to be in charge of other people.
The democratic concept is imperfect to be sure and the mob can at times be manipulated, but I’m more comfortable with a system where on some level I get to choose who leads me. As I
heard someone describe it years ago: Government, wealth and corporations are a gun aimed at my head and I’d rather have some say on whose finger is on the trigger.
MikeS:
we do have a say supposedly in our elected officials. They do respond to phone calls and emails on particular subjects. Part of the problem is that not enough people write their congressmen/women on a regular basis to really be effective.
I would be happy if I could vote on every issue before the congress but what would happen is that most people would eventually stop voting and we would be left with the hard right and hard left running the country. The types you don’t like, the zealots, they would be the ones left voting.
The entire system has become a farce and our founders are wondering why they even bothered.
Government, Wealth and Corporations are an unholy trinity for the purpose of crucifixion of the masses. We foot the bill for Government and Corporations and the idle Wealthy.
While addressing her district, she said tearfully that nobody should have to put up with the behind-the-back comments she took. ,
Bron,
Recently my father had an issue with purchasing a home. He is a veteran and the VA was giving him a hard time about using his VA loan. I encouraged him to write his congress men/women. He wrote a letter to both California Senators and to his representative. He was surprised that the issue got any attention and after only a week the VA had approved his use of his benefit.
I fully agree that not enough people use this remedy.