There is a tragic story out of Scotland where Muslim shopkeeper Asad Shah was murdered after posting good wishes to his neighbors for Easter. Police say that the attack by another Muslim man was “religiously prejudiced.” Shah represents the best of Islam and humanity. He appears to have died for his desire to build social and religious bridges to his Christian neighbors. In the meantime, Imam Maulana Habib Ur Rehman of Scotland’s largest mosque has been calling out to the worst elements of the faith in praising an Islamic extremist who murdered as politician who opposed blasphemy laws. While the Imam insists that he was taken out of context, it is hard to see how the quoted responses can be given any moderate meaning. They are two opposing images of Islam: one of tolerance and one of extremism. In the meantime, thousands of Muslims have gone into the streets not to denounce the murderer but to demand the adoption of Sharia law and the punishment of blasphemy.
In the case of Shah, his last Facebook post read “Good Friday and a very Happy Easter, especially to my beloved Christian nation. Let’s follow the real footstep of beloved holy Jesus Christ and get the real success in both worlds.” Police are looking at whether the posting prompted the murder by the 32-year-old suspect. In media coverageShah is described as a devout Ahmadi Muslim who regularly posted videos from his shop with messages of peace and unity. He is not alone in the Muslim community. Indeed, we just celebrated Easter with our annual Easter egg hunt with Muslim friends who participate every year. It is important to keep in mind that ISIS kills more Muslims than non-Muslims and they have been denounced by Muslim clerics and countries around the world.
The steady stream of massacres and rapes by ISIS is precisely why most people are less than sympathetic to the American who recently left ISIS and said that he was confused about the group and found conditions too hard. It appears that the stories of beheadings and sexual slavery were not enough to clear the mind of Mohamad Jamal Khweis.
In the case of the imam, the controversy concerns his message to the faithful after the hanging of Mumtaz Qadri in Pakistan. Qadri of part of an elite commando unit of the police and assigned to guard the former Governor of Punjab Salmaan Taseer. Taser spoke out on the case of Asia Bibi who was convicted of blasphemy and spoke out against the blasphemy law. We previously discussed the Bibi case which was another example of the abusive Islamic laws against blasphemy and apostasy.
After Qadri was hanged for the murder, Imam Maulana Habib Ur Rehman said that he is “disturbed” and “upset” about the execution and extended a “rahmatullahi alai”, a religious blessing usually given to devout Muslims and meaning may God’s mercy be upon him, to the murderer. He also said “I cannot hide my pain today. A true Muslim was punished for doing which [sic] the collective will of the nation failed to carry out.”
If that is an accurate quote, it is hard to see any meaning than a deeply disturbing notion that Qadri was justified in committing this murder as well as support for blasphemy laws. The media has referenced multiple witnesses supporting the account of what the Imam said to the faithful.
And inother news:
“The deadly toll of terrorism around the globe has jumped nearly 800 percent in the past five years, according to an exhaustive new report that blames the alarming expansion of Islamist groups across the Middle East and Africa.
The nonprofit Investigative Project on Terrorism found that an average of nearly 30,000 people per year have been killed by terrorists since 2010, when terrorism’s death toll was 3,284. The authors of the study, which tabulated the numbers through the end of 2015, say that the exponential increase shows two troubling trends: More attacks are happening, and they tend to be deadlier than ever.”
I repeat, the report blames the alarming expansion of Islamist groups across the Middle East and Africa
I get rather tired of some on the left blaming all the ME woes on the Western powers. The imperial days are long gone, and all of the resources are in the hands of the nations of that region. The Muslim empire that existed was destroyed from within. The Ottoman Empire was mainly destroyed by its own flaws and corruption. Ataturk simply finished it off from within and had a nationalist revolution which succeeded despite Western help for the Sultan. We are not the ones who are responsible for the poverty of the region either.
Bin Laden was NOT some poor Muslim who was forced to revolt as a means of survival. He was a rich spoiled brat, like Trump. His beef was against western culture because so many Muslims like it and our ways. The western culture is the main threat in their eyes, NOT our oil companies. There is no possible way to end their terrorism short of converting to Islam. If that ever happened, the resulting Western Muslims would be apostates in the eyes of the terrorists, and they would STILL be blowing up themselves and US.
The frog endorses the scorpion.
KC writes, “In which Steve Groen defends and supports radical Islam killing innocent people in Scotlnd, and the rest of the West. Nice to know which side your on.”
There has to be an adjustment here at home. Our quality of life at others’ expense is unsustainable. Empires don’t last long for that very reason.
In which Steve Groen defends and supports radical Islam killing innocent people in Scotlnd, and the rest of the West.
Nice to know which side your on.
KC writes, “Steve, only one religion seems to be blowing people up on a regular basis. . . . Again, unable to discuss the topic at hand (violent Islam), you revert to nonresponsive obfuscatory snark and opprobrium aimed at nonviolent Westerners. . . . Well done, comrade!”
There are relatively few Muslims who are harming others. Banning all Muslims from entering the US is a bit like banning all Christians from entering because a relative few play with little boys’ periwinkles from which results a lifetime of emotional scars.
Furthermore, if you think killing innocent civilians is unique to radical Muslims, I’ve got news for you. Our Judeo-Christian horde capitalizing on Middle-Eastern oil is as competitive in that arena as any follower of Allah has ever been. How many innocent civilians were killed in Iraq by our military and private security? What’s more, it’s not radical Muslims who invaded the US over the last two decades (let alone securing that area since the end of WWI). I think that distinction belongs to us, and if the shoe were on the other foot, we’d be doing exactly what they’re doing to get us to leave them alone. They’re desperate enough to kill themselves, yet you think it’s they who are crazy for not submitting. They’re as red-blooded as you and me.
We need to get out of the Middle East while you and your ilk scratch your heads pondering why.
Nick
Absolutely. It’s astounding how some people manage to function on a daily basis with such twisted and bizarre logic. The only thing that’s missing from his delirious rant is some crap about the Crusades. The world is on fire because of the Crusades. How dare we condemn Islam!
We are talking about THE PRESENT, flyboy and barrister.
It is an outright lie that only Islam was blowing up people on a regular basis. Back in the post war WWII period, it was Zionists, and Jews who were the world wide terrorists. They invented the letter bomb, and were sending such bombs to British home offices to blowup the secretaries who worked there. If you read the Old Testament, it is pretty violent and advocates genocide and mass murder in the name of God. So therefore, Jews must be the enemy too. Then we have the war in Northern Ireland in which innocents were the victims of mass murder by both sides. So one must infer that Christianity is a violent religion. In fact, Christians have been the most genocidal people on Earth bar none. Of course, it is only because of the superior technology that they got those results. I am sure that Jews, and Muslims would have been just as happy to kill the Christian numbers had they had the ability. The Christians also used their religion as an excuse to commit all those mass murders. So Islam is not alone in having a violent history.
Steve, only one religion seems to be blowing people up on a regular basis.
Again, unable to discuss the topic at hand (violent Islam), you revert to nonresponsive obfuscatory snark and opprobrium aimed at nonviolent Westerners.
Well done, comrade!
Steve, I can always count on lefties to make devastating retorts to arguments no one has raised, imputing invented and impugnable motives to their opponents, and thus entirely avoid the actual situation confronting them.
Well done!
KC, thank you. Indeed, what other motives could you have had other than generalized and patent discrimination against a religion other than yours?
I am baffled by some fools who think that US has gotten “lost” or disappeared. We are not lost, nor was the past all that great since i remember when persons were arrested for bringing in a banned book such as Joyces Ullysses. I remember when you had to be of the white race to vote in much of the USA, until 1965. Then we had the good old practice of putting people in prison for their political views, mainly the CPUSA and the SWP even though they had done nothing more than speak their views and run for office. They were denied employment, and all other rights most of us take for granted. I got the chance to read a smuggled copy of IF Stone’s Hidden History of the Korean war that was banned in the US. For your info, I had to read it from top to bottom since it was Xeroxed and stapled together. Our own US version of the Soviet samizdat. It is no longer banned now so you can buy it and read. Then we have the fact of segregation which I got to see up close and personal since I was born in the south. Think we need to return to those good old days? I suggest that some parts of Eastern Europe now might be more to some folks liking since they are reverting back to their good old days of fascism and race hatred and purity. The Ukraine and Hungary would be good places to start with Poland coming up fast.
We must bring back the draft to fight wars against a country that does not agree with being a US puppet such as Vietnam. Think that was part of the good old days? You can have that kind of thing, since I much prefer a FAR freer country that we have today compared to the past. The real problem I think is that such nostalgia is for when white men were king, and others knew their place and kept quiet. Sorry folks, those BAD old days are long gone and will never return as long as the rest of us have breath to fight against such totalitarians.
Dave137 – Then call them all what they deserve being called. Don’t be afraid to call your enemies by their name. You know like Radical Is, Is, Bueller, Bueller, Dave, Dave,,,,,
Yeah, Steve, why worry about importing hundreds of thousands of low IQ unemployable young men who hate the West and all religions except their own, bent on raping women for Allah, murdering infidels, installing a Caliphate and upending the US Constitution?
What could possibly go wrong?
KC, I agree. I’m still trying to get over how our protestant forefathers could have even considered allowing women to engage in public discourse and own real property, knowing the result would be people like Girl Reporter endorsing a sociopolitical perspective. Again, what were they thinking?