This week in Islam

eyeball · February 27, 2015

Exactly. Maybe the politicians who are paid to push an oil agenda in the West are doing us, and the world, a disservice.

It's the way they push it that's causing all the problems.

eyeball · February 27, 2015

Nope....oil matters. Oil matters more than hockey or the Queen of Canada or Tim Bits.

Blood is a renewable resource....oil isn't.

Real-politic meet Real-economic.

Same old shitty bucket.

Edited February 27, 2015 by eyeball

Bob Macadoo · February 28, 2015

Nope....oil matters. Oil matters more than hockey or the Queen of Canada or Tim Bits.

Blood is a renewable resource....oil isn't.

That is probably the most apt and universal statement I have seen you make.

Mighty AC · February 28, 2015

I suppose it's honest. Sure we have other energy solutions that improve our health, security, the local economy, foreign relations and the environment, but oil is worth killing for. Fossil fuels lead to 500 - 900 Billion in annual US health costs alone. I wonder how much of the US military budget is dedicated to securing oil. But yeah...oil is important and blood is renewable.

eyeball · February 28, 2015

That is probably the most apt and universal statement I have seen you make.

He's just trolling - rubbing your nose in it so to speak. You can wrest similar admissions from other posters i.e. 'the west had made a few mistakes' and maybe the odd 'but the Russkies forced us to do it...yadda yadda'. But few if any possess the pure pagan ethos of BC.

You will rarely if ever see such brutallly honest statements from politicians in public and especially in the context of the West's present entanglements in the ME region.

It's like some kind of perverted political incorrectness. Notice you never see the usual suspects around here correcting or calling him on it.

Edited February 28, 2015 by eyeball

WIP · February 28, 2015

Here's someone all believers in War On Terror should be listening to:

Writing About War

Think February 25, 2015

Elliot Ackerman served five tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan and earned a Purple Heart for his service. This hour, we’ll talk about how those years spent in a warzone informed his debut novel, Green on Blue (Scribner), which is set in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan.

Ackerman concluded his last tour of duty as an instructor and 'adviser' for the U.S.-funded Afghan brigades known as Special Lashkar. Ackerman wanted to tell a war story from the point of view of a typical Lashkar recruit, whom he spent time with fighting small skirmishes in hit-and-run missions against the Taliban. So, he decided that writing the story as a novel, and creating a composite of a young recruit - Aziz, would be the best way to tell the stories he found typical among these Afghan soldiers who's home is a battlefield, fighting is a job usually with no endpoint or objective, and vengeance is a moral obligation on those who've lost family members.

Of interest is Ackerman's assessment that soldiers (American, Iraqi, Afghani etc.) talk very little of politics or religion among fellow soldiers. It's just about the last mission, the next mission and what to do for fun in between. The only clear difference between the Americans and the Afghans, is that the American sees a finish line where he can go home if he survives, while the Afghan now sees the war as the permanent normal state of affairs, and chooses sides for financial reasons or revenge. And the commanders of brigades like Special Lashkar don't want an end! Their livelihood depends on the war, and an end to the war would leave them without employment in a land where there is no economic activity that is not related to the war. No wonder it's a war without end!

The KERA Radio program- THINK, is a good title for a basic brain function we are supposed to do, but is almost completely missing in discussions on most issues these days. So, the program might be a good one to bookmark for other episodes. I listen mostly to podcasts I have Itunes subscriptions for. If you use Itunes, Think is a good one to add to the list on a whole range of subjects.

bush_cheney2004 · February 28, 2015

...But few if any possess the pure pagan ethos of BC.

Lots of people possess exactly that in action(s) if not words. Take commercial fisher-persons for instance....they are engaged in one of the most destructive endeavors ever seen...on an industrial scale, destroying marine life and habitat without care. Now they are victims...their own doing.

eyeball · February 28, 2015

Of interest is Ackerman's assessment that soldiers (American, Iraqi, Afghani etc.) talk very little of politics or religion among fellow soldiers. It's just about the last mission, the next mission and what to do for fun in between.

You see the same disconnect throughout the discourse surrounding the Clash of Civilizations or GWOT or whatever you want to call it. Each galvanizing event, mission and war are like stand alone events with next to nothing to do with each other for which the same banal reasons are given, "duh...they hate our freedums" or they're " exporting ideologies of hatred"...

Until such time as the West's Cold War phobias and justifications that fertilized the root causes of the blow back we're dealing with are illuminated with a broad bright spotlight we'll be dealing with them for generations to come - in a thickening fog bank of wilful ignorance.

eyeball · February 28, 2015

Lots of people possess exactly that in action(s) if not words. Take commercial fisher-persons for instance....they are engaged in one of the most destructive endeavors ever seen...on an industrial scale, destroying marine life and habitat without care. Now they are victims...their own doing.

Yes, trawling vs trolling, but in fact some of the worst fish habitat destruction occurs hundreds if not thousands of miles from the nearest fisherman.

Je suis tous victimes.

LemonPureLeaf · February 28, 2015

Lots of people possess exactly that in action(s) if not words. Take commercial fisher-persons for instance....they are engaged in one of the most destructive endeavors ever seen...on an industrial scale, destroying marine life and habitat without care. Now they are victims...their own doing.

commercial fishermen rape our oceans every day. They and their machines of death must be removed from operation. We need to replenish our oceans fish and clean up the garbage island floating in the pacific. Edited February 28, 2015 by LemonPureLeaf

bush_cheney2004 · February 28, 2015

Yes, trawling vs trolling, but in fact some of the worst fish habitat destruction occurs hundreds if not thousands of miles from the nearest fisherman.

Of course...it's always the other guy engaged in pagan ethos.

eyeball · February 28, 2015

I knew you got it.

AngusThermopyle · February 28, 2015

So true about commercial fishing. It's disgusting to see the mass destruction inflicted upon the ocean with total disregard for the consequences. It makes the Alberta oil fields look like a child's sand box in comparison.

eyeball · February 28, 2015

Drillin' and diggin' for oil...it's like suckling on Gaia's milk compared to everything else isn't it?

bush_cheney2004 · February 28, 2015

Think of it as trolling and trawling for fish in the desert....they don't know what Islam is either.

msj · March 1, 2015

Back on topic:

some positives and some negatives found in this story about Muslims in Britain and their attitudes: https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2015/02/25/24-of-british-muslims-say-violence-against-cartoonists-who-draw-muhammad-is-justifiable/

msj · March 8, 2015

Looks like we have a little clash of culture down under: In the footsteps of the Prophet

Nothing like consummating a marriage between a 27 and 12 year old....

Who knows if there has been or will be any action taken against the ~~pimps~~ parents.

But, of course, religious tolerance and all that... :rolleyes:

Argus · June 14, 2015

Female slavery continues in the lands of the prophet, in case anyone has forgotten.

She says that IS soldiers regularly auction captured teenage girls for several hundreds or thousands of dollars. She mentioned teenaged girls from the Yazidi minority in Syria: “Some were taken, locked up in a room — over 100 of them in a small house — stripped naked and washed.” Before the bidding they were exhibited to a group of men who debated what they were worth.

Captured girls have become part of the way ISIL recruits foreign fighters, Bangura said. “This is how they attract young men — We have women waiting for you, virgins that you can marry.” In Syria and Iraq foreign fighters make up a large part of the IS armies.

http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/robert-fulford-fighting-the-insanely-misogynist-islamic-state-will-require-enormous-public-support

Freddy · June 21, 2015

If the roles were switched and they had the military power to control the world, based on the way they treat homosexual 's or anything that doesn't bow to their belief . If they had the power to wipe us off the planet, id bet anyone good money that we would all be dead right now.

Every last one of us none Islamic believer, ether converted, out of fear. Or slaughtered.

Edited June 22, 2015 by Freddy

Mighty AC · June 22, 2015

If the roles were switched and they had the military power to control the world, based on the way they treat homosexual 's or anything that doesn't bow to their belief . If they had the power to wipe us off the planet, id bet anyone good money that we would all be dead right now.

Every last one of us none Islamic believer, ether converted, out of fear. Or slaughtered.

Isn't that what all religions with enough power do?

Shady · June 22, 2015

Isn't that what all religions with enough power do?

Nope.

Freddy · June 22, 2015

Isn't that what all religions with enough power do?

. so are you saying it's ok for us to slaughter them?

Mighty AC · June 22, 2015

. so are you saying it's ok for us to slaughter them?

Us? Who belongs to this group you are calling us?

Freddy · June 22, 2015

Us? Who belongs to this group you are calling us?

North Americans

Mighty AC · June 22, 2015

North Americans

This isn't an us versus them problem, it's a reason versus religion problem. I am certain that many Islamic theocracies would kill and conquer in the name of their religion if they had the power. The same has been done forever in the name of many religions, including Christianity.

North America isn't a theocracy but many parts of the US certainly are getting close. We need to be strengthening walls between the church and state in North America so that we don't add religious fanaticism to the power of the government and military. Historically, religions attack their enemies when they have the power. It's unfortunate that these barriers are currently being eroded and outright attacked by the American right wing. It's even more unfortunate that a major party is encouraging such a dangerous practice for political gain.

So, no. We shouldn't slaughter anyone for religious reasons. We should first get our own shop in order, by continually reducing the power of religion over government and then continue to promote reason and the end of theocratic rule worldwide.