Saturday, September 02, 2006

Muslims must come forward

M. Osman Siddique wrote in Washington Times My proudest day as an American Muslim came in 1999 when I was sworn in at the State Department to be this nation's ambassador to Fiji and its Pacific island neighbors Tonga, Tuvalu and Nauru. Almost 30 years earlier I had come to the United States as a student from my native Bangladesh. Now, I was the first Muslim U.S. ambassador to serve as chief of mission. I swore to uphold and defend the U.S. Constitution with my hand on a copy of the Koran. My pride in faith and country remain rock solid. But my real life American dream often feels more like a nightmare these days. Renegade members of my faith are committing horrendous acts of global terrorism, and I am left embarrassed and angry. I am embarrassed when I read the names of the terrorists in the newspaper. What must non-Muslims think when some criminal claiming to act in the name of Islam and bearing the same name as the Prophet Muhammad is arrested? I am also embarrassed that not all American Muslims do all they can to expose those in our community who would commit mayhem or would give succor in any way to those who would cause harm.

I agree they should.
Too many American Muslims hold back from publicly speaking out against extremist ideologies that threaten us all because they fear being stigmatized by their coreligionists for cooperating with security agencies. Why is this?
Because their coreligionists are planning Jihad.
In part it is because some Muslim immigrants are relatively recent arrivals from nations in which security forces were corrupt and could not be trusted. Some shy from cooperation because of their immigration status or the status of those around them. Still others hold back because they disagree strongly with American foreign policy. They truly believe that the current administration is fighting a war against Islam under the guise of fighting terrorism.
That is because the Jihadists tell them that an attack on them is an attack on Islam.
Regrettably, this sentiment is widespread among Muslims, more so abroad but to a substantial degree in America as well. Our government may act incompetently and unwisely. But I'm confident that it holds no animosity toward Muslims simply because they are Muslims. Sadly, it is Muslims who perpetrate most of the worst terrorist attacks today. As we approach the fifth anniversary of September 11, this reality must be acknowledged by all Muslims.
From your lips, to God's ear.
American officials are beside themselves trying to prevent a reoccurrence of September 11. Profiling of Muslims at airports, however, is not the way to go about this.
I disagree. Young Muslim Men have committed almost all of the attacks, and therefore they should be the ones most carefully examined. Persuade them to stop the attacks, and the need for increased security will vanish.
I am a middle-aged man who travels with all the credentials of a former American ambassador. Yet because I possess dark skin and have a Muslim name even I am sometimes singled out for special attention by airport security. I understand why this happens, so I put up with it. But imagine how such treatment feels to Muslims less sophisticated than I am in the needs of government? Is it any wonder that law-abiding Muslims are offended and recoil from cooperating in any manner? Instead of profiling, airport security officials should concentrate on behavioral patterns. Does a passenger seem unduly tense? Is their body language awkward? Do they sweat in an air conditioned airport? Intelligence combined with technology would be more efficient.
They should do both.
Yes, American officials sometimes act as if they are going out of their way to upset ordinary Muslims just going about their business. However, that is no excuse for not fully cooperating with the authorities. If Muslims are to gain the full confidence of non-Muslim Americans they must come forward whenever they sense an extremist presence in their midst. If anything, we must go the extra mile in these suspicious times.
I agree

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Bombs were meant for World Cup

| NEWS.com.au reported Two failed attempts to bomb trains in western Germany in July had originally been planned for the football World Cup, a newspaper reported overnight. The Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung cited security sources as saying interrogation of the suspects had established that the would-be bombers had abandoned the original plan as they had considered the implications of such an attack.

What was the implication? That people would be killed? What did they think when they built the bombs?
One of the bombs was found in July on a train in Dortmund, which hosted some of June and July's World Cup matches. The other was found on a train in Koblenz. Extracts of the article, released in advance of today's publication, also said the suspects belonged to a "new generation of terrorists" who worked together in cells for a short time. German police have said the bombs, crude devices made of propane gas, could have killed many people had they gone off. A series of arrests have been made in Germany and Lebanon but Focus magazine reported in its online edition that two men being held in Beirut would not be delivered to Germany. "They are Lebanese citizens, they must be tried here and be punished here," Focus quoted Lebanese Attorney General Said Mirza as saying.
Did they commit a crime in Lebanon? Does Lebanon want Germany's support the next time Iran tells Hezbollah to attack Israel, and Israel responds against Lebanon?

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Terror police swoop on restaurant

BBC News reported Armed police have arrested 14 men following anti-terror raids in London, including 12 arrests at a restaurant in the Borough area. Two people were held elsewhere in the city in what police said was an intelligence-led operation. Police said the arrests were not connected to the alleged transatlantic jet bomb plot or the 7 July attacks.

I am happy to see the British following up on all leads.
An Islamic school near Tunbridge Wells has also been searched as part of the same operation. The Jameah Islameah property, on Catt's Hill near Crowborough, East Sussex, is an Islamic teaching facility for boys aged between 11 and 16.
Train them young, and when they get of age they know nothing but hatred.
According to its website the 54-acre premises also encourages Islamic groups to "appoint a person from your centre who wishes to serve the community and send them to us to be trained". It also says these individuals will then become "qualified enough to teach in local Masajeds and Madares".
What about training them so they can get a real job, and not just one brainwashing other children.
At the time of its last inspection the school only had nine pupils.
A 54 acre premises to teach nine pupils. There must be something more there than just classrooms.
Confederate Yankee blogged Sadly, you'll note that the BBC is so cowed by the "moderates" among them that they can't even directly mention the fact that these men were British-born Pakistani Muslims, preferring to let you infer the facts for the locational data provided. Great Britain may yet be saved, but the BBC has already been lost to enemy action.

AllahPundit blogged Unrelated to the airplane plot, say authorities. 14 down, several thousand to go.

jwookie blogged What is a scary thought is the theory that militants terrorists are getting together for training type exercises in Western countries. I would think the likelihood of this type of training would be more prevalent in the US, simply because we've got more room, from a geographic view, than Britain. Who's to say what's going on up in the Sierras, Rockies, deserts, or other extreme corners of our country...

Michael van der Galien blogged Anyway: it seems more and more that the British government finally understands the problems it faces regarding Muslim extremism in Britain herself and that its doing something against it. Better late than sorry, I suppose.

CQ blogged The British have scored a number of recent successes in fighting the Islamists, if this proves to be correct. They appear to have made significant intelligence inroads into the radical Muslim community. It would be enlightening to know their methods.

Mary Katharine Ham blogged They must have some serious evidence on these guys to raid a restaurant with more than 50 officers (Update: 50 officers in riot gear), it would seem. Two more suspects were arrested in their homes during simultaneous raids of south, east, and north London addresses. All are being held for the "alleged recruitment, training and encouraging of people to take part in terrorist acts."

Marc blogged UK - 14 held in terror police swoop
14 held?? 14 What? Goats, horses, cats, dogs, people, what? Men.

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Friday, September 01, 2006

Broken Foster Care System

Hooah Wife has a very good post on Broken Foster Care System

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Saudi gets long sentence

Rocky Mountain News reported Sniffles and sobs resonated in a packed courtroom Thursday as a Saudi man convicted of sexually assaulting his Indonesian housekeeper was sentenced Thursday to 20 years to life in prison. Homaidan Al-Turki, 37, was also ordered to serve eight additional years for theft charges. He denied in Arapahoe County District Court that he enslaved the woman and said authorities targeted him because of his religion. "Your honor, I am not here to apologize, for I cannot apologize for things I did not do and for crimes I did not commit," he told Judge Mark Hannen. "The state has criminalized these basic Muslim behaviors.

If that is true, and if enslaving and sexually assaulting his housekeeper is a basic Muslim behaviour, then he should stay in a Muslim country, because those behaviours certainly are not accepted here.
Attacking traditional Muslim behaviors was the focal point of the prosecution," he said. Prosecutor Natalie Decker said the trial had nothing to do with Al-Turki's Muslim beliefs. "It has to do with what he did to her for five years," she said outside the courtroom.

Kim Priestap blogged Where's the NOW gang? Why aren't Kim Gandy and Patricia Ireland on TV expressing their outrage? In the sixties and seventies, feminists got their panties in a bunch about what horrible lives American women had because they were homemakers and mothers. Now that they have the chance to do some good by speaking out on real abuse, humiliation, and discrimination by men engaging in "basic Muslim behavior," they suddenly have nothing to say.

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U.S. Muslims Warn of Threat From Within

APreported Now the faith's American leaders are starting to warn fellow Muslims about a threat from within.

It is about time.
The 2005 subway attacks in London that investigators say were committed by British-born and -raised Muslims, and the relentless Muslim-engineered sectarian assaults on Iraqi civilians, are among the events that have convinced some U.S. Muslims to change focus. "This sentiment of denial, that sort of came as a fever to the Muslim community after 9-11, is fading away," said Muqtedar Khan, a political scientist at the University of Delaware and author of "American Muslims." "They realize that there are Muslims who use terrorism, and the community is beginning to stand up to this."
This is good, because every incident is going to make people suspect them even more
Muslim leaders point to two stark examples of the new mind-set: _A Canadian-born Muslim man worked with police for months investigating a group of Islamic men and youths accused in June of plotting terrorist attacks in Ontario. Mubin Shaikh said he feared any violence would ultimately hurt Islam and Canadian Muslims. _In England, it's been widely reported that a tip from a British Muslim helped lead investigators to uncover what they said was a plan by homegrown extremists to use liquid explosives to destroy U.S.-bound planes. Cooperation isn't emotionally easy, as Western governments enact security policies that critics say have criminalized Islam itself. Safiyyah Ally, a graduate student in political science at the University of Toronto, wrote recently on altmuslim.com that Shaikh, the Canadian informer, went too far. She said the North American Muslim community "is fragile enough as is" without members "spying" on each other.
She is wrong. If she thinks their community is fragile now, just wait till another attempt is successful, and she will wish she was back to the way it is now.
Leaders should counsel Muslims against violence and report suspicious activity to police _ but nothing more, she argued. "We cannot have communities wherein individuals are paranoid of each other and turned against one another," Ally wrote. Yet some leaders say keeping watch for extremists protects all Muslims and their civil rights.
They are right. You can counsel fellow Muslims against violence, but if they have been brainwashed to the Jihadist philosophy they are going to ignore you. You need to do everything you can to stop the spread of talk about violence.
Salam al-Marayati, executive director of Muslim Public Affairs Council, an advocacy group based in Los Angeles, says working closely with authorities underscores that Muslims are not outsiders to be feared. It also gives Muslims a way to directly air their concerns about how they're treated by the government. "We're not on opposite teams," al-Marayati said. "We're all trying to protect our country from another terrorist attack." In 2004, his group started the "National Anti-Terrorism Campaign," urging Muslims to monitor their own communities, speak out more boldly against violence and work with law enforcement. Hundreds of U.S. mosques have signed on, al-Marayati said. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a civil rights group, ran a TV ad campaign and a petition-drive called "Not in the Name of Islam," which repudiates terrorism. Hundreds of thousands of people have endorsed it, according to Ibrahim Hooper, the group's spokesman. After the London subway bombings, the Fiqh Council of North America, which advises Muslims on Islamic law, issued a fatwa _ or edict _ declaring that nothing in Islam justifies terrorism. The council said Muslims were obligated to help law enforcement protect civilians from attacks. "I think everyone now agrees that silence isn't an option," Hooper said. "You have to speak out in defense of civil liberties, but you also have to speak out against any kind of extremism or violence that's carried out in the name of Islam." But many Muslims say they're being asked to look out for something that even the U.S. government struggles to define: What constitutes an imminent threat? Khan said he has heard of cases in American mosques where imams have expressed extreme views in sermons and worshippers have confronted the prayer leaders about it. "But beyond that what else can we do?" Khan said.
Tell the authorities and let them deport the imams preaching jihad.
"Do we need to hire a private detective to put on this guy? If five guys came to me and said, `Muqtedar, let's get together. Let's blow up this and that,' then I would call the police.
But what would you do if you overheard one guy talking about it. Why should it take five guys, and approaching you to join them.
But the community does not understand surveillance." Imam Muhammad Musri, head of the Islamic Society of Central Florida, said he has tried to address this problem in the eight mosques he oversees in the Orlando area. He regularly invites law enforcement officials to speak with local Muslims and encourages mosque members to come to him with any suspicions, even if they overhear something said in jest. Musri says he also speaks regularly with local FBI and police to establish a relationship in case a real threat emerges. "Here in Central Florida, talking to most people, they are literally upset by the actions of Muslims _ or so-called Muslims _ overseas in Europe and the Middle East, because they say, `We wish they would come and see how we're doing here,'" Musri said. "We know who the real enemy is _ someone who might come from the outside and try to infiltrate us. Everybody is on the lookout."

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Thursday, August 31, 2006

The Sculptor

This is one of the email messages (three inspirational and one Christian message a week) that I send to people who request them (if you would like to be included, just ask

I woke up early today, excited over all I get to do before the clock strikes midnight.
I have responsibilities to fulfill today.
I am important.
My job is to choose what kind of day I am going to have.

Today I can complain because the weather is rainy, or . . .
I can be thankful that the grass is getting watered for free.

Today I can feel sad that I don't have more money, or . . .
I can be glad that my finances encourage me to plan my purchases wisely and guide me away from waste.

Today I can grumble about my health or . . .
I can rejoice that I am alive.

Today I can lament over all that my parents didn't give me when I was growing up, or . . .
I can feel grateful that they allowed me to be born.

Today, I can cry because roses have thorns, or . . .
I can celebrate that thorns have roses.

Today I can mourn my lack of friends, or . . .
I can excitedly embark upon a quest to discover new relationships.

Today, I can whine because I have to go to work, or . . .
I can shout for joy because I have a job to do.

Today, I can complain because I have to go to school, or . . .
Eagerly open my mind and fill it with rich new tidbits of knowledge.

Today, I can murmur dejectedly because I have to do housework, or . . .
I can feel honored that the Lord has provided shelter for my mind, body, and soul.

Today stretches ahead of me, waiting to be shaped.
And here I am, the sculptor who gets to do the shaping.

What today will be like is up to me.
I get to choose what kind of day I will have!

Have a GREAT DAY. . . . . unless you have other plans.

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California Pact Would Place Cap On Emissions

WSJ reported Leaders of the state legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced a deal yesterday under which California will mandate a reduction in the state's emissions of gases contributing to global warming to 1990 levels by 2020. The cut would target the state's biggest industrial emitters of greenhouse gases, such as power plants, oil refineries and cement factories.

This should be interesting. It will drive up costs, and hurt the California economy, and the interesting thing will be how much business will move to adjacent states before California says oops, we made a big mistake. They already are in danger of rolling blackouts because of the power plants that they did not allow to get built.
California already has passed a law requiring greenhouse-gas-emission cuts from cars and light trucks sold in the state. The cut's effect on individual industries, companies and consumers is unclear, because the state has yet to work out details of how it will implement the broad emissions mandate. But backers of the measure, including Gov. Schwarzenegger, said it won't unduly harm business in the state.

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Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Gunpoint Conversions and Martyrdom

La Shawn Barber’s Corner blogged Embrace Islam or die. That would be a simple choice for me, though not an easy one if I had a gun to my head. (Isn’t it strange that Centanni, who said he “converted” only because he had a gun to his head, felt the need to be apologetically politically correct by expressing the “highest respect for Islam”? Unbelievable on so many levels.)

Thanks to the blessing of living in a free and civilized country (for the time being), Christians in America likely won’t face deny-Christ-or-die scenarios. Aside from the usual attempts to shunt our beliefs from the public sphere at best, and the possibility of having Bible-based preaching labeled as hate speech at worst, Christians in America have it relatively easy compared to the rest of the world....

Christians, what would you do if some maniac held a gun to your head and asked you to deny Christ or die? Would you deny the Savior?... [Clarification: If I gave the impression that I thought I would “lose” my salvation if I denied Christ, I certainly didn’t intend to, though the previous sentence may read that way. The Bible teaches that once Christ forgives us, we’re always forgiven. Once saved, always saved. I don’t have to work to “keep” my salvation. Yes, even if I denied Christ, God forbid it, he’s still my Savior.]

Would I want to live with the shame of not trusting him and denying him for the sake of living in this fallen world?

Why does it have to come down to a decision to deny Christ, and live, or die as a martyr? There is a third alternative, lead your captors to Christ. These guys are not theological geniuses. If you have a little knowledge of the Koran, paraticularly the more peaceful verses in the early Suras, you can ask them to explain them to you. Then ask if they believe that everything in the Koran is the absolute truth. You know that they are going to say of course it is.

Do they believe Surat al-Baqara, 136 (Qur'an 2:136) which says Say ye: "We believe in Allah, and the revelation given to us, and to Abraham, Isma'il, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and that given to Moses and Jesus, and that given to (all) prophets from their Lord: We make no difference between one and another of them

Do they believe Surat aal-E-Imran, 3 (Qur'an 3:3) which says It is He Who sent down to thee (step by step), in truth, the Book, confirming what went before it; and He sent down the Law (of Moses) and the Gospel (of Jesus) before this, as a guide to mankind, and He sent down the criterion (of judgment between right and wrong).

Do they believe Surat aal-E-Imran, 45 (Qur'an 3:45) which says Behold! the angels said: "O Mary! Allah giveth thee glad tidings of a Word from Him: his name will be Christ Jesus, the son of Mary, held in honour in this world and the Hereafter and of (the company of) those nearest to Allah;

If they believe what the Koran says in these verses, then explain to them some of the other things that Christ said and did, and see if you can lead them to Christ. You may still get shot, but can you think of a better way to go?
Michelle Malkin blogged But remember: "There is no compulsion" in the Koran and Islam is a "Religion of Peace."

The Anchoress blogged LaShawn observes the weirdness of our time: that one might be forcibly converted and still say, “I learned a lot of good things about Islam…” from the very Islamofascists who taught it to him at gunpoint.

It is easy to say I would not be so confused were my head under the sword the terrorists would like to hold over me (and you). I think I would make the right choice, I believe I would de-capitate before I’d capitulate. But if they held the sword over my one of my son’s necks, then what?

This war is either going to be won, in a long hard slog, or it’s going to be lost. It’s as simple as that. I’m voting for winning it. The alternative is unappealing.


Steve Janke blogged Hey, guns were pointed, so what are you going to do? No one would hold it against them, not even Centanni's family priest, assuming he had one. But what if, for argument's sake, Steve Centanni or Olaf Wiig refused to convert? What if, like Saint Edmund, they defied their captors' demands? What if, like Saint Edmund, they were beheaded? In days past, such a person would be applauded for his dedication to his faith. What would happen today? Would they be ridiculed for suffering death rather than deny their faith? If this turns out not be an isolated incident, but the beginning of a new element in kidnappings by Islamic terrorists, we might yet find out. Kidnap enough Westerners, and eventually you'll find the guy who either has incredible devotion to his faith, or develops that devotion the moment the gun is pointed at his head. It'll be a test of faith for him, and for the rest of us, a test in understanding what faith means.

Daniel Freedman blogged The bad news is that Islam will soon be able to enforce submission-conversion at the point of a nuke. The good news is that any religion that needs to do that is, by definition, a weak one.

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Monday, August 28, 2006

Nasrallah did not expect war

Ynetnews reported In an interview granted to Lebanese news network New TV, Nasrallah said in an almost apologetic tone that "we did not believe, even by one percent, that the captive operation would result in such a wide-scale war, as such a war did not take place in the history of wars. Had we known that the captive operation would result in such a war we would not have carried it out at all."

We thought we could kidnap and kill Jews just for fun. We did not realize they would get ticked off about it. We saw how they responded when Palestinians in Gaza killed two and kidnapped one soldier, and fired rockets into Israel, but we did not think they would do it to us, even though we killed 8 and kidnapped two soldiers, and fired a lot more rockets.
"The open war with Israel ended on August 14, but Israel is continuing its acts of provocations to drag us into the confrontation," said Nasrallah. "If we respond to the provocations we'll be considered the party that violated the international agreement,
You bet your bippie you would.
something which might cause a meeting around a second decision, which president Bush is working for and which is tied to the disarmament of Hizbullah. We have been restrained and we will not be provoked, especially as Resolution 1701 gives Israel the right to defend itself – something we opposed."
Yes, we think we should be able to kill Jews without them defending themselves. It is the Arab way.
"There won't be public displays of weapons in the south , except of in cases of preparations or funerals of martyrs," stressed Nasrallah.
Then let us hope there will be plenty of funerals of martyrs, because Lebanon needs to disarm you if it expects to control its own country.
"This is our policy – to refrain from displaying weapons. If the Lebanese army notices any gunman – it is it's natural right to expropriate the weapons," said Nasrallah.
Glad you recognize that point.
Nasrallah's comments match Israeli beliefs that Hizbullah's political stance has been harmed following the war.
Really? Are people starting to look at the devestation and realize who started it?

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Sunday, August 27, 2006

Centanni, Wiig convert to Islam

This is the video where the kidnapped Fox journalists were forced to convert to Islam


According to the Koran: (Surah 2:256) – “There is no compulsion in religion…” Yet these men were forced to convert to Islam.

Surah 88:21-22 indicates God said “And so, (O Prophet!) exhort them, your task is only to exhort; you cannot compel them to believe.”

If even Muhammad was commanded not to carry out punishments on those who turned away from Islam, why does it it say in the Hadith Allah's Apostle said, "The blood of a Muslim who confesses that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that I am His Apostle, cannot be shed except in three cases: In Qisas for murder, a married person who commits illegal sexual intercourse and the one who reverts from Islam (apostate) and leaves the Muslims."

Death penalty for leaving Islam
Does this mean that Centanni and Wiig (or "Halec" and "Yaco") are now going to be sought out and killed for renouncing the religion they were forced at gunpoint to accept (even though there is no compulsion in Islam).

Dughmush, the nutcase that I understand kidnapped these two journalists, should be hunted down and boiled in a vat of boiling pig fat.

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Three-Part Ransom

DEBKAfile blogged On the face of it, conversion to Islam would appear to provide a painless escape device for any hostage who happens to fall into fundamentalist terrorist hands. After all, once free, the hostage can always revert to his real faith or non-faith

And then risk being killed by the Muslims for apostacy
.... Although the foreign intelligence agencies with a presence in Gaza knew where the Fox reporters were being held, neither the Americans, the Israelis nor the British – the senior US ally in the war on terror – were willing to go in and recover them by force, or even lay hands on Dughmush and his gunmen.
I can imagine how the Americans or the British might not be willing to go in, but I am shocked that the Israelis were not both willing and able.
Various Palestinian middlemen were used by British agents at the request of the US to bring the Fox journalists home. They worked out a convoluted deal which entailed their public conversion to Islam, an anti-American harangue on air and a six-figure cash ransom paid under the table to Dughmush to fund his terrorist militia’s operations in Gaza.
Paying the ransom just assures more kidnappings. They should have found Dughmush and thrown him into a pot of boiling pig fat.
lawhawk blogged While the release of Centanni and Wiig is something to be applauded, there are questions over their release, including the payment of ransoms and the culpability of Hamas as they may have had a hand in the kidnappings.

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Captors Release Two FOX News Journalists

FOXNews reported Two FOX News journalists were released by their kidnappers Sunday, nearly two weeks after they were taken hostage in the Gaza Strip. Steve Centanni, 60, and Olaf Wiig, 36, left Gaza and have since crossed into Israel after their release. The men left Gaza through the Erez border crossing. "We were forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint,"

In their forced conversion to Islam, did they get to Surah 2:256 which says “There is no compulsion in religion…” or Surah 88:21-22 which says “And so, (O Prophet!) exhort them, your task is only to exhort; you cannot compel them to believe.”
Centanni told FOX News. "Don't get me wrong here. I have the highest respect for Islam, and I learned a lot of good things about it, but it was something we felt we had to do because they had the guns, and we didn't know what the hell was going on."

Betsy Newmark blogged Is taht what Islam is about - kidnapping and forcing people at gunpoint to convert? Are we going to hear widespread condemnations of using weapons to gain new converts to Islam or is everyone going to shrug their shoulders about that?

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Playing soccer while Christian

BBC News reported The Catholic Church has criticised Scottish prosecutors for cautioning a Celtic goalkeeper who crossed himself

In other words he made the sign of the cross, as Catholics are taught to do.

I bet if he had taken out a prayer rug, faced Mecca, and prayed to Allah, they would not have said anything about it.
during a match against Rangers. Artur Boruc was cautioned for a breach of the peace over the incident at an Old Firm match at Ibrox in February. The Catholic Church called it "worrying and alarming" as the sign of the cross was a "gesture of religious reverence". However, the Crown Office said the decision was based on the player's behaviour, rather than a single act. In addition to crossing himself, the player was alleged to have made gestures to the crowd
What sort of gestures. Did he bless them?
at the start of the second half of the game on 12 February. Strathclyde Police investigated complaints that Boruc, 26, had angered a section of the crowd with his behaviour and they submitted a report to the procurator fiscal. However, as an alternative to prosecution, Boruc was cautioned.
I wish he had been prosecuted, and faced a jury of his peers, rather than a cowardly government administrator
That does not leave him with a criminal record, although the information about the caution will be retained. The Crown Office said his actions "provoked alarm and crowd trouble and as such constituted a breach of the peace".

Cranmer blogged And what if, in some future World Cup, the USA’s ‘Great Satan’ happens to encounter Iran’s ‘Warriors of Allah’? Would an American Christian who crosses himself, potentially offending the Muslims, be arrested?

Iain Dale blogged I accept that Celtic v Rangers matches are highly charged affairs, but the sign of the cross is used by both Protestants and Catholics alike. It's used by all sorts of sportsmen just before they begin to perform or after they score. To be cautioned by the Police for making the sign before a game of football is nothing short of a disgrace. And I speak as a confirmed agnostic. We are after all a Christian country.

Let's imagine that in the Cricket World Cup, Pakistan plays India and one of the Pakistani Muslim players bows to Mecca. Do we really think the Police would even contemplate cautioning him because he may have offended the off Hindu India supporter? Of course not, and nor should they. All the Police have achieved by this ridiculous caution is a further accentuation of the religious divide.

Mr Eugenides has a different take on this HERE.


Iain Murray blogged The match in question, between Glasgow Celtic (the Catholic club) and Glasgow Rangers (the Protestant club), is a notoriously sectarian affair, but a criminal record for expressing your faith? God help Scotland!

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