One nation under God

I received the following email in my Inbox today. It's not the first inflammatory forwarded message I have received. Though it is the first one I have posted here, which I must say demonstrates notable restraint on my part.

Subject: FW: FW: Muslims

Subject: Scary but real

Scary, and too real!!!

This is very interesting and just a bit scary

... But is it scary enough to generate something

besides talk? I'm afraid far too many Catholics,

Protestants, and Jews will wait until it hits them

upside the head on a very personal level before they

will do something besides talk about it. But by then

it will be too late.

The Muslim religion is the fastest growing

religion per capita in the United States, especially

in the minority races!!!

Allah or The Lord Jesus Christ? .. By Rick

Mathes

Last month I attended my annual training

session that's required for maintaining my state

prison security clearance. During the training

session there was a presentation by three speakers

representing the Roman Catholic, Protestant and

Muslim faiths, who explained each of their beliefs

I was particularly interested in what the

Islamic Im am had to say. The Imam gave a great

presentation of the basics of Islam, complete with a

video. After the presentations, time was provided

for questions and answers.

When it was my turn, I directed my question to

the Imam and asked: 'Please, correct me if I'm

wrong, but I understand that most Imams and clerics

of Islam have declared a holy jihad [Holy war]

against the infidels of the world and, that by

killing an infidel, (which is a command to all

Muslims) they are assured of a place in heaven. If

that's the case, can you give me the definition of

an infidel?'

There was no disagreement with my statements

and, without hesitation, he replied,

'Non-believers!'

I responded, 'So, let me make sure I have this

straight. All followers of Allah have been commanded

to kill everyone who is not of your faith so they

can have a place in heaven. Is that correct?'

The expression on his face changed from one of

au thority and command to that of 'a little boy who

had just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.'

He sheepishly replied, 'Yes.'

I then stated, 'Well sir, I have a real

problem trying to imagine Pope Benedict commanding

all Catholics to kill those of your faith or Dr.

Charles Stanley ordering all Protestants to do the

same in order to guarantee them a place in heaven!'

The Imam was speechless!

I continued, 'I also have problem with being

your 'friend' when you and your brother clerics are

telling your followers to kill me! Let me ask you a

question. Would you rather have your Allah, who

tells you to kill me in order for you to go to

heaven, or my Jesus who tells me to love you because

I am going to heaven and He wants you to be there

with me?'

You could have heard a pin drop as the Imam

hung his head in shame. Needless to say, the

organizers and/or promoters of the 'Diversification'

training sem inar were not happy with Rick's way of

dealing with the Islamic Imam and exposing the truth

about the Muslims' beliefs.

In twenty years there will be enough Muslim

voters in the U.S. To elect the President! I think

everyone in the U.S. . Should be required to read

this, but with our liberal justice system, liberal

media and the ACLU, there is no way this will be

widely publicized. The most puzzling thing to me

is.. Once Islam takes over, there will no longer be

a liberal media or an ACLU, or a liberal justice

system. So in effect, they are slitting their own

throats by not publicizing this.

If you will, please pass this on to your

e-mail contacts. At least that is one thing we can

all do Then no one can say they were not warned in

time.

This is a true story and the author, Rick

Mathes, is a well-known leader in prison ministry

I replied to the sender with the following paragraph:

Muslims are not taking over. Also, Jewish people and people of other religions have more choices than "Allah or The Lord Jesus Christ?" Furthermore, Islam is a religion of peace, just as Christianity is supposed to be a religion of loving your neighbors.

What I really wanted to say was "you bleepity-bleep willfully ignorant hypocrites spouting this hate-mongering garbage, talking about Islam taking over the 'minority races'. How dare you. You should be ashamed of yourselves." But I didn't. I just wrote it behind their backs on my blog. If you're reading, hello!

This is same kind of nonsense that has permeated Senator Barack Obama's Presidential campaign. I'm all for people being proud of their Christianity and proud of their Presidential candidate. What I resent is propogandizing zealots who choose to tear down any opposing candidates or points of view, or in both cases, other religions.

To catch everyone up, over the past few weeks and month and possibly years, there have been repeated accusations that Senator Obama is a Muslim. Instead of saying, "I'm not a Muslim. So what if I were?", Senator Obama decided to adamantly state his allegiance to his Christian church, which has also come under some scrutiny lately. I couldn't find suitable links for everything, so do that Googling yourselves. Ooh, I did find the supposedly incriminating photo. Shocking!

I agree with ck's points in his post Obama: "I am a Christian." on Jewlicious:

Look, I know everyone means well. Obama wanted to correct inaccurate biographical information . . . But seriously though… what the fuck? For starters, the United States is supposed to be a country wherein there is a separation of Church and State. A candidate’s religion ought to be irrelevant. More pernicious though is the implication that Islam in the US in 2008 is a stain, like Judaism was in Poland in 1990, that will automatically render a candidate unfit for office . . .

. . . A candidate for political office’s religious orientation ought to be irrelevant in and of itself unless said candidate was running on a religious platform. Obama should have bravely declared that his religious beliefs are irrelevant and that even if he were a Muslim, this ought not impact on people’s decisions. Whatever. I’m not voting for him anyway.

What about the zealots and the tearing down I mentioned earlier? Here you go. Emphases and parentheses mine:

Black Hillary Supporters May Be Receiving Death Threats, by Marc Sheppard, at American Thinker.

Earlier this month, popular black author and talk-show host Tavis Smiley disclosed death threats he'd received from those accusing him of blasphemy against their black prophet. Then, at Saturday's Smiley-hosted State of the Black Union forum [which I taped and enjoyed], Congressional Black Caucus member Stephanie Tubbs Jones lent credence to Smiley's claim by suggesting that many black elected officials not swearing allegiance to Obama have also been the target of violent threats.

While widely ignored by the mainstream media, the implications here are nothing short of momentous . . .

For nine years running, Smiley has hosted the annual symposium of black college professors, politicians, activists, and entertainers during Black History Month discussing matters of concern to those whose heritage the month honors. This year [and last year, too!], Barack Obama declined an invitation -- accepted by Clinton -- to address the panel of black dignitaries in New Orleans. The Illinois senator and presidential hopeful's unexpected rejection prompted a disappointed Smiley to blast the decision as a "major mistake," and that's when the trouble allegedly began.

The perceived racial apostasy apparently sparked not only thousands of angry emails labeling Smiley as a "hater, sellout and traitor," but also the relentless harassment of his entire family. And, while he has yet to elaborate, Smiley has also mentioned the matter of death threats - levied for the mere suggestion that the mighty Obama had somehow erred.

That's all I have to say for now.
.

I liked these two posts:

Pink or blue? by Dr. Confused on Feministe.

I’ve been known to hang out on certain bulletin boards where people use abbreviations like “DH” (dear husband) and slightly-nauseating terms like “baby dust” (a magical substance that can get you pregnant, but which is presumably less damp than semen.) In the first trimester, there was a thread on the topic of whether or not to find out the sex of the fetus during pregnancy. (Actually, most posters write "gender of the baby," but let’s go with the correct "sex of the fetus.") Some excerpts of the thread:

"The minute I can. I hate calling the baby “it”, and I don’t like green/white/yellow clothes… I want to know! :D

One point as to why we want to wait… when pregnant with DS we had friends that were also PG. They had 2 u/s and both times were told they were having a girl. So they bought a wardrobe, designed the nursery, etc… all in pink and purple. And they had a boy. Talk about being shocked! DH and I also have a plan to avoid the neutral stuff for a long time. First, we will buy one girl outfit and one boy outfit for hopital pictures and taking the baby home. Grandma will go crazy once she knows the gender and the baby will have several outfits… probably in a matter of a couple hours! Shortly after DS was born, they went to dinner and came back with 3 or 4 boy outfits! Of course we will have some neutral gender stuff, but I am a shopper and it won’t be long before baby has a full gender specific wardrobe!

I have to know. I like to be prepared. I’ve only had boys so far and everything I have is for boys. I don’t have any unisex stuff, even the newborn onesies are blue with trains, planes and cars."

That last one is interesting to me. I design airplanes for a living, and I have a vagina. Nevertheless, if I were to put any daughter I should have into a onesie with an airplane on it, some of these writers would consider it borderline child abuse. But how will people know she’s a girl?

8th Century Scholars by Jill on Feministe.

This professor is fantastic. He was fired from his job for telling students that the story of Adam and Eve should not be taken literally — students apparently felt the professor was "denigrating their religion." But his responses to the situation are hilarious and spot-on:

"I’m just a little bit shocked myself that a college in good standing would back up students who insist that people who have been through college and have a master’s degree, a couple actually, have to teach that there were such things as talking snakes or lose their job," Bitterman said.

Well, if the Bible says to teach it…

"I just thought there was such a thing as academic freedom here,” he said. “From my point of view, what they’re doing is essentially teaching their students very well to function in the eighth century."

Regarding the latter post about religion, i.e. Christianity, I like this clip of The West Wing better than the one featured on Feministe: