Quote:
Originally Posted by Marlin T
five pillars of Islam? He talks like that is a good thing, ha!
Make sure to read the Koran and what it says about it’s “pillars” (Make to read the footnote at the bottom of the page)
Maybe you could send him this, Jihad, Islamism, and the Challenge of Anti-Freedom Ideologies
Constitutional lawyer he said? It seems to me that he must have bribed his teachers to give him a passing grade, because his actions show that he knows very little about the Constitution.
This is just plain false as proved by the simplest of facts, his name change from Barry to Barak. Not to mention other documents that have stated that he IS muslim, at least at the time the documents were written.
Happened upon? No, his involvement with those of the radical view points are just now coming to light. If you could get this guy to listen to this one hour interview with Mr. Kurtz he might raise an eyebrow. The interview can he heard >>>here<<<.
I also heard Bill O Reilly say that he was going to do a 25 part (or something like that.) investigative series on the same thing Kurtz is doing. Obama IS a radical but has not had his beliefs exposed, YET.
DCD, if somebody doesn’t say that the RAND organization is a liberal think tank, they are either so liberal that they can’t see it, or just as dishonest as the RAND org, or ignorant. And this guy doesn’t seem like a stupid man.
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Marlin T,
I sent him most of your reply there. His response:
Daniel,
Thank you for at least suggesting that I'm not stupid. I do take issue with being labeled as dishonest. The point of my email was to try to get past the labels and ill-conceived attacks by misinformed agenda-driven bloggers. All viewpoints are biased by definition, but there is a difference between the commentary of Keith Olberman (Liberal)/Bill O'Reilly (Conservative) and news.
Thirty contributors to The RAND Corporation have been awarded a Nobel Prize over the course of their careers, including Henry Kissinger, the 56th Secretary of State. Say what you will about their policies, but you should not discount the intelligence and the hard work of the people who contribute their energy to giving their best advice to the country's future. The contributors to the counter terrorism blog you reference do have some impressive credentials, but I have to say author Jeffrey Imm's reference of Wikipedia as a source for his Islam definition left me disappointed.
Many denominations of religions refer to their way as the one true path, condemning others to a horrible fate. Many of these faiths have been used to justify horrible things: crusades, inquisitions, slavery, appeasement, and genocide. Christians are certainly not excluded from this tragic history. As you correctly clarified, we can not blame all Muslims for the work of extremists.
The footnote you presented about jihad does use the word pillar, but it is not one of the pillars of Islam, the basic beliefs. If you read book 2, verse 190 it states, "fight in the Way of Allah [God] those who fight you, but transgress not the limits". That is the translated Quran text and an overwhelming number of Islamic scholars stated that the acts of 9/11 were an abomination of the Islamic faith. The taking of innocent lives is forbidden. As far as the footnote is concerned, footnotes are interpretations and clarifications provided by editors. Depending on the denomination, you will find markedly different interpretations of sections of the Biblical texts. I can not identify which Quran text that site is using, but I can say jihad is not a term solely reserved for external conflicts, but for battling inner turmoil also. If people are are using their faith to help themselves and their community/world, I applaud it; if people are are using their faith to cause fear and destroy others, I renounce it. I don't care what symbol is in the doorway.
Sen. Obama academically earned his way into the Princeton undergraduate program, then the Harvard Law Program. He went through these programs with the help of student loans and scholarships. Princeton and Harvard are among the finest academic institutions in the country, educating eight presidents in their history. Sen. Obama taught Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago. University of Chicago graduates have earned 26 Nobel Prizes, and served in numerous government positions. It does not distribute it's teaching positions lightly. Intelligently disagreeing with someone's political position and making libelous claims are extremely different things. I would hope for more of the former in this election season.
As a teacher, I have seen many students "change their names" with no nefarious plots behind the switch: Esteban becomes "Steve", Jastrzebski becomes "Jub", Wojciechowski becomes "Woj". Sometimes it's because it's easier for others to say, sometimes it's because it's easier for others to spell, sometimes students tire of explaining it, sometimes students get a nickname that sticks, and sometimes students get picked on because their names are different from what their classmates are used to hearing. I don't pretend to know what generated the name Barry in Barack's youth, but I do know the name on his birth certificate is Barack Hussein Obama, after his father. Here's a link to a copy of it:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/wash...ama-birth.html. Some people called me "Timmy" when I was little. When I correspond with people now, I use my legal name Timothy. I have had at least a dozen nicknames in my life, but I have always been Tim at my core. It's one thing to disagree with a candidate's stances, but conflating a nickname with a terror plot seems to stretch the bounds of decency.
It was my mistake to use the casual phrase, "happened upon" in describing Sen. Obama's decision to join Trinity United Church of Christ. Through the connections he made with the economically devastated families on the south side of Chicago, he found out about, visited and decided to join Trinity UCC. While I was concerned with the comments now-retired minister Rev. Jeremiah Wright made and were later renounced by Senator Obama; I applaud that churches overall work in serving a community with diverse challenges especially is the outreach areas of education, counseling, career development, medical access, human rights, and legal assistance; services that are frequently scare or out of reach of the less fortunate members of our society. While the member congregations of the United Church of Christ may vary in their leanings, the church's historic commitment to social justice is the thing of which I am most proud. Highlights include:
Human Rights for Women:
In 1853, Antoinette Brown was the first woman since New Testament times to be ordained as a Christian minister, and elected to serve a Christian congregation as pastor.
In 1889, Hartford Seminary in Connecticut is the first in the nation to admit women into regular classes, training them for work in education and missions.
http://www.hartsem.edu/about/history.htm
In 1995, The New Century Hymnal, the only hymnal released by a Christian church that honors in equal measure both male and female images of God; is published by The United Church of Christ.
Human Rights for Americans with Disabilities:
In 1817, Rev. Thomas Gallaudet opened the Connecticut Asylum for the Education of Deaf and Dumb Persons. In 1856, a national school for the deaf, later bearing Gallaudet’s name, opened in Washington, D.C. 1977: Born without arms, Harold H. Wilke became the first leader of national UCC disabilities ministries. He served as pastor, author, denominational executive, activist, and advocate for persons with disabilities. Wilke was present when President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act, and accepted a signing pen with his left foot.
Human Rights for African Americans:
By 1700, Congregationalist Samuel Sewell had already written the groundbreaking anti-slavery pamphlet, “The Selling of Joseph.”
In 1773, Phillis Wheatley, a member of the Old South congregation publishes “Poems on Various Subjects”; and becomes the first published African American author.
In 1785, Lemuel Haynes starts his career as the first African American ordained by a Protestant denomination.
In 1839, forefathers of the United Church of Christ were among those who organized to free the passengers of the slave ship Amistad. Eventually, The Supreme Court ruled the captives were not property, and the Africans regained their freedom.
“In 1846 Lewis Tappan, one of the Amistad organizers, organizes the American Missionary Association—the first anti-slavery society in the U.S. with multiracial leadership. It unites Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Methodists and other Christians.”
In 1858, twenty residents of the Oberlin, Ohio community including members of the First Congregational Church and students from the (Congregationalist founded) Oberlin College are jailed for violating the Fugitive Slave Law.
In 1959, Martin Luther King Jr. asked the United Church of Christ to intercede on behalf of the growing civil rights movement as southern television stations denied news broadcasts of protests. Legal action organized by the UCC lead to a Federal ruling declaring that the airwaves were public property.
In 1960; Albert Lutuli, a leader of United Congregational Church of South Africa; was honored by the Nobel Peace Prize Committee for his non-violent protest campaign. He opposed the apartheid policies until his death in 1967.
In 1976, Rev. Joseph H. Evans was elected president of the United Church of Christ, the first African American leader of a large, racially-integrated denomination in the United States.
It is a shame that after being browbeaten by the media and his opponents, that Sen. Obama felt compelled to leave his congregation based on what somebody else said. Based on a few sound bytes looped and played ad nauseam, the good works of a congregation, denomination, and all their members were maligned.
It is obvious that we gravitate to different regions of the political sphere, and it's perfectly acceptable to disagree. This is America, and a right to hold our beliefs is sacred. Informed debate makes the country strong; but if we perpetuate an atmosphere of attack politics based on conspiracy, speculation, and slanders, how can we come together as a nation and work on the problems that effect us? Is the system so irrevocably broken that we are reduced to taking pot shots at each side?
In this case, I would like to agree to disagree with positions you have forwarded, and thank you for at least reading my responses.
Peace,
Tim