The road to religious states

Religion and feminism

How can any society rise above a primitive state when half of the population is subjugated to near slave status? It just makes no damn sense.

All religion is wacky

They say Islam is a religion of peace, but more mainstream Muslims must speak out to quell the public image they are presenting if that is the case.

Appeasing the tea party

From Acerbic Politics

Our Need For Crude Oil Makes Strange Friends

Our government is good friends with Saudi Arabia. Our private sector businesses do a lot of trading with the Saudis. We sell them some of our most advanced weapons so that they can defend themselves. We need the oil buried under their deserts. It is a strange relationship because this is how they treat their own citizens (from the Associated Press - click the link to read more)...

The sentencing of a 75-year-old widow to 40 lashes and four months in prison for mingling with two young men who were reportedly bringing her bread has sparked new criticism of Saudi Arabia's ultraconservative religious police and judiciary.

Khamisa Sawadi, who is Syrian but was married to a Saudi, was convicted and sentenced last week for meeting with men who were not her immediate relatives. The two men, including one who was Sawadi's late husband's nephew, were also found guilty and sentenced to prison terms and lashes.

The woman's lawyer, Abdel Rahman al-Lahem, told The Associated Press on Monday that he plans to appeal the verdict, which also demands that Sawadi be deported after serving her prison term. He declined to provide more details and said his client, who is not serving her sentence yet, was not speaking with the media.

If the God of their religion is the true God - most Americans are in for a rough time of it in the after life because he's a real prick.

Islam - Religion of Peace?

I try to be accepting of folks who are different, but sometimes it is difficult. Muslim's often speak of being involved in a religion of peace, and yet I don't seem to read about any of them who are publicly working toward that peace. Bill Mahar of Real Time (HBO) last Friday night had an Arab correspondent on who spoke about the violent nature of the religion and the region and cautioned the viewers not to trust them - ever.

And then you see stories like this, posted on CNN...

The founder of an upstate New York TV station aimed at countering Muslim stereotypes has been arrested on suspicion of killing his wife, who was beheaded, authorities said.

Muzzammil Hassan has been charged with murder in the death of his wife, Aasiya Hassan.

Muzzammil Hassan was charged with second-degree murder after police found the decapitated body of his wife, Aasiya Hassan, at the Bridges TV station in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, said Andrew Benz, Orchard Park's police chief.

This Should be Interesting

As a former local union leader I've represented individuals with specific religious requests. But how far should it go? Five or six breaks a day (is it that many)? I don't have a firm grip on the answer, but I guess I see both sides of this issue. Maybe it will wind up in the Supreme Court.

From the Los Angeles Times...

GREELEY, COLO. -- A meatpacking company Wednesday laid off about 100 Muslim immigrant workers who walked off the job last week in protest of the firm's refusal to give them time to pray during the holy month of Ramadan.

...

Non-Muslim workers complained they had to do additional work when Muslims went to pray, which devout followers do five times a day.

Ready For More Internment Camps

Yep, it looks like some of the Republicans are looking to set up internment camps, much as we had for the Japanese during WW II. I think they forget what we fight wars for - to protect our liberties, not to deny them.

New York Rep. Peter King, a prominent House Republican, said there are “too many mosques in this country” in a recent interview with Politico. “There are too many people sympathetic to radical Islam,” King said. “We should be looking at them more carefully and finding out how we can infiltrate them.”

From Politico.com

Muslims

In the News

I have long marveled at the polls that show that thirty-something percent of the American population still support President Bush. He's obviously, to anyone with any education and knowledge of the issues in his policies, a simple-minded individual with a bit of a mean streak.

But it is becoming clearer by the day that we have a class of individuals in this country who either have no logical abilities or who allow themselves to be completely ruled by their emotions. They do not understand, or care about, our Bill of Rights nor do they care about human beings in general. These folks are evil and dangerous.

In a recent talk-radio incident, host Jerry Klein suggested that Muslims living in the U.S. should be tattooed with a crescent moon or an armband. His response was mixed, and many callers called him up short, telling him he was nuts. But many other callers told him he didn't go far enough - that the U.S. Muslims, many of them citizens, should be put in concentration camps or deported from the country.

Jerry's point was a hoax and even he was amazed at the hatred that spewed froth from some of his listeners. It just goes to show where that 30% support for George W. Bush comes from. It amazes me that that there is such a pervasive attitude in this country.

To read more of this hoax, go to Yahoo News...