Technorati Tag: Robert Spencer.
the Qur'an is in difficult, classical Arabic, and must be read and recited during Muslim prayers in that language only, a surprisingly large number of those who identify themselves as Muslims have scant acquaintance with what it actually says. (p. 43)According to Spencer, for Muslims this applies not only to the classical Arabic of the Qur'an, but to modern Arabic as well--and the Qur'an is often memorized by rote without having any clear idea of what it actually says.
Making the work even more difficult, the students, for the most part, do not understand what they are reciting. Muslims believe the Koran was spoken to the prophet Muhammad by the angel Gabriel in Arabic. Because it is seen as the literal word of God, the use of translations is frowned upon. Students know how to pronounce the words but mostly do not know what they mean.Going one step further, Raphael Patai, in The Arab Mind, writes that the difficulty in understanding the Qur'an extends not only to the non-Arab Muslims, but to Arabs themselves:
The unschooled, who form the majority in most Arab countries, speak a local, colloquial dialect which is so different from literary Arabic as to make it appear almost a foreign language...They have their own language, which is adequate for all their needs and which is the only tongue they know, apart from a few verses from the Koran which are in literary Arabic, and which make them aware of the existence of a literary language that is greatly different from their own idiom (p.196)As far as the educated Arabs who can understand the classical Arabic of the Qur'an:
Even among the educated Arabs, the knowledge of the literary language is primarily a passive one. they know it well enough to understand it, enjoy it, come under its magnetic influence; but they do not know it well enough to speak it with any degree of fluency.Keep in mind that according to Patai, the uneducated Arabs who do not understand the Qur'an make up 90% of the Arab population. (p. 198)
There are only two clear-cut solutions to this problem: either the believers have to learn Arabic, or the Koran has to be translated...mass literacy in a foreign language is not a very realistic educational project...[and] the non-Arab Muslim world shows little sign of adopting the idea of a vernacular scripture in the manner of sixteenth-century Protestantism or twentieth-century Catholicism. (p. 26-7)That is not to say that the Qur'an has not been translated.
The majority of Muslims have to read the Koran in translation in order to understand it. Contrary to what one might think, there have been translations of the Koran into, for instance, Persian, since the tenth or eleventh century, and there are translations into Turkish and Urdu. The Koran has now been translated into over a hundred languages, many of them by Muslims themselves, despite some sort of disapproval from the religious authorities.So, bottom line is--so what? What does it matter whether Muslims can read the Qur'an in the original Arabic or have to read it in translation?
The Koran is now available in translation to local languages on an unprecedented scale in history...This, in my humble opinion, fuels Islamic fundamentalism...
Technorati Tag: Islam and Koran and Quran and Arabic.
An Al-Qaeda video released on Saturday called on Americans and the rest of the Christian world to "repent" and convert to Islam. Expert: "This is the invitation that precedes the attack."
The newly released video, posted on an extremist Islamic website, contained footage of Al-Qaeda's deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri and a man identified as Adam Yehiye Gadahn. Gadahn is an American convert to Islam, wanted by the FBI for his alleged role in developing Al-Qaeda propaganda in Pakistan.If Spencer is correct, then this call to 'accept Islam or face attack':
“To Americans and the rest of Christendom we say, either repent [your] misguided ways and enter into the light of truth," Gadahn threatened, "or keep your poison to yourselves and suffer the consequences in this world and the next... But whatever you do don’t attempt to spread your misery and misguidance to our lands.”
“Muslims don’t need democracy to rid themselves of their homegrown despots and tyrants. What they do need is their Islamic faith, the sprit of jihad and the lifting of foreign troops and interference from their necks,” Gadahn stated. He read verses from the Koran in Arabic, and then translated them into English, calling on Muslims to strengthen their faith and expel their rulers.
Robert Spencer, director of JihadWatch and author of several popular books on Islam, explained to Arutz-7's Nissan Ratzlav-Katz that the tape "appears to be the call to Islam that the Muslim Prophet Muhammed requires to be extended to infidels before they can be lawfully attacked by Muslims."
"Once that call is rejected," Spencer feels, "Muslims are required to begin hostilities in order to subjugate the infidel population in question and bring it into the Islamic social order. Thus it seems likely that terror attacks and/or attempted terror attacks will follow Gadahn's 'invitation' - although there is no certainty that they will follow within a certain time frame."
Al-Zawahri, also speaking on the tape, urged viewers to heed Gadahn's “Invitation to Islam. He stated ominously, "To the American people and the people of the West in general ... Allah sent his Prophet Muhammad with guidance and the religion of truth ... and sent him as a herald."
S. A. Rahman makes the distinct claim:Compare that with what Raphael Patai writes in The Arab Mind about
This verse is one of the most important verses in the Qur'an, containing a charter of freedom of conscience unparalleled in the religious annals of mankind.... [1]
the doctrine of Din Muhammad bi'l-sayf (literally, "The religion of Muhammad with the sword"), which required all Mulsims to spread Islam by the force of arms. [p.155]After all, Islam's massive occupation during its heyday reached as far as Russia.
Such an interpretation can perhaps be attributed to the unconscious pressure of orthodox tradition. [emphasis added]Have Rahman and his fellow apologists ever heard of Al Qaeda?
Technorati Tag: Al Qaeda and Terrorism and US and Islam.
An Al-Qaeda video released on Saturday called on Americans and the rest of the Christian world to "repent" and convert to Islam. Expert: "This is the invitation that precedes the attack."
The newly released video, posted on an extremist Islamic website, contained footage of Al-Qaeda's deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri and a man identified as Adam Yehiye Gadahn. Gadahn is an American convert to Islam, wanted by the FBI for his alleged role in developing Al-Qaeda propaganda in Pakistan.If Spencer is correct, then this call to 'accept Islam or face attack':
“To Americans and the rest of Christendom we say, either repent [your] misguided ways and enter into the light of truth," Gadahn threatened, "or keep your poison to yourselves and suffer the consequences in this world and the next... But whatever you do don’t attempt to spread your misery and misguidance to our lands.”
“Muslims don’t need democracy to rid themselves of their homegrown despots and tyrants. What they do need is their Islamic faith, the sprit of jihad and the lifting of foreign troops and interference from their necks,” Gadahn stated. He read verses from the Koran in Arabic, and then translated them into English, calling on Muslims to strengthen their faith and expel their rulers.
Robert Spencer, director of JihadWatch and author of several popular books on Islam, explained to Arutz-7's Nissan Ratzlav-Katz that the tape "appears to be the call to Islam that the Muslim Prophet Muhammed requires to be extended to infidels before they can be lawfully attacked by Muslims."
"Once that call is rejected," Spencer feels, "Muslims are required to begin hostilities in order to subjugate the infidel population in question and bring it into the Islamic social order. Thus it seems likely that terror attacks and/or attempted terror attacks will follow Gadahn's 'invitation' - although there is no certainty that they will follow within a certain time frame."
Al-Zawahri, also speaking on the tape, urged viewers to heed Gadahn's “Invitation to Islam. He stated ominously, "To the American people and the people of the West in general ... Allah sent his Prophet Muhammad with guidance and the religion of truth ... and sent him as a herald."
S. A. Rahman makes the distinct claim:Compare that with what Raphael Patai writes in The Arab Mind about
This verse is one of the most important verses in the Qur'an, containing a charter of freedom of conscience unparalleled in the religious annals of mankind.... [1]
the doctrine of Din Muhammad bi'l-sayf (literally, "The religion of Muhammad with the sword"), which required all Mulsims to spread Islam by the force of arms. [p.155]After all, Islam's massive occupation during its heyday reached as far as Russia.
Such an interpretation can perhaps be attributed to the unconscious pressure of orthodox tradition. [emphasis added]Have Rahman and his fellow apologists ever heard of Al Qaeda?
Technorati Tag: Al Qaeda and Terrorism and US and Islam.
 |
| "The Islamic Republic of Iran has made up its mind, and on the nuclear program and other issues it is up against it will continue powerfully on its path, putting its faith in God and with patience and perseverance, and it will obtain its sweet fruit". |
| Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, state television, 21 August 2006 |
The date is significant not only to Islam followers, but also to Crusading Christians: “On August 22, 725 AD, the Bishop of Nantes became the martyred St. Emilian while leading the French against the invading muslims.”Since Ahmadinejad denies the Holocaust, it is doubtful he will own up to the history of Moslems as one of the great occupying armies of all time.
Technorati Tag: Israel and Ahmadinejad and August 22.
A Muslim group is demanding that the Baltimore County school system remove Jewish holidays from the 2006-07 school calendar.
The demand comes after a nearly three-year battle between the Baltimore Muslim Council and the school system over adding two Islamic holy days, Id al-Fitre and Id al-Adha, to the school calendar.
Next school year's calendar, proposed May 10 and due to be voted on by the school board June 13, does not include the two holy days. But the calendar does list the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, meaning schools are closed those days.Apparently there are 2 ways of looking at Pharoan's statements--as a threat or a request for equal treatment.
Dr. Bash Pharoan, president of the Muslim council, said it is not fair for the county to recognize one religion while ignoring others. He said if the school board does not vote to allow the two Muslim holidays, then the Jewish holidays should be dropped.
"This issue is about equality, about equity," he said.
This is not an issue of equality. This is an issue of the dominant culture being made to submit to the demands of a tiny minority. The Jewish presence in America has always been significant; Muslim presence has been nil until recently, despite fantasies about Columbus' crew seeing minarets as they approached the New World. This is an attempt at cultural strong-arming and intimidation, and should be resisted as such.On the other side is Jewish Times in an article from June 2005:
Rabbi Mark G. Loeb, of Pikesville's Beth El Congregation, agreed. The number of Muslims - comparable to that of Jews in America, if not exceeding it - deserve recognition of their holidays.So what is the reason for not adding two Islamic holidays to the school calendar? The Jewish Times quotes Rabbi Rex D. Perlmeter, of Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, who claims the issue is one of practicality:
"I think if we are a pluralistic community, we ought to honor everybody," Rabbi Loeb said. "It's a matter of showing respect. They're asking for two days. It wouldn't be so hard to [give] two days out of the calendar."
"If Baltimore County schools didn't close on the Jewish holidays, there would be a substantial impact on classroom attendance and disruption of academic flow," he said. "But I don't know whether the statistics [of Muslims in Baltimore County] would bear out the closing of schools. That's the critical question."But North County News, quotes Arthur Abramson, executive director of the Baltimore Jewish Council, who says the issue is money: the reason for adding the Jewish holidays to the schedule is that it was too costly to hire the substitutes to fill in for the observant Jewish teachers-- and the school would add the Muslim holidays when the county had more Muslim teachers and students.
Blogs dedicated to protecting America against terrorism are troubling the Muslim community.That's the theme that runs through the article: the pomposity of the blogs and the persecution of the Moslem community.
It's 4 a.m. Somewhere near Coral Springs, Joe Kaufman is still at his computer.The opening paragraphs are more like something in a novel than a newspaper. S. I. Rosenbaum doesn't address the threat of Islamist terrorism in the US, neither does she at any point in her article address whether any of Kaufman's claims are true--what little she mentions of them.
Blurry with fatigue, he types:
It has been said that 80 percent of all the mosques ... inside the United States are ... tied to a radical form of Islam. ...
One of the American locations that ... influence has been prevalent is the Tampa-St. Pete area of Southwest Florida.
Kaufman is 35, clean-shaven, a lawyer's assistant. He goes inline skating and writes love songs on guitar. But his passion is his Web site, AmericansAgainstHate.com, where he monitors the activities of Florida's Muslim community, looking for terrorist links.
Kaufman's site is only one of a constellation of blogs with names like JihadWatch.com, MilitantIslamMonitor.org, and WesternResistance.com that are dedicated to the surveillance of American Muslims. The blogs link to one another, with more-traveled sites amplifying stories from more obscure ones, like Kaufman's.
He claims he has not found a single mosque in Florida that is not linked to terrorists.
Jennifer Valko opened her e-mail and saw a message of hate.By the time she is finished, Rosenbaum has pretty much discredited Kaufman and has painted the Moslem community as sympathetic victims.I will undress you paint your body with pig fat & light you. America is on to you! Watch your back!
It was the Thursday after Christmas. In two days, the Muslim spiritual retreat she had helped plan was scheduled to take place at Cedarkirk, a Presbyterian camp and conference center in eastern Hillsborough County.
That morning, Kaufman had appeared on Fox News to talk about the retreat.
On his Web site, he had posted articles about it. He posted computer-altered images of masked terrorists standing in front of the Lithia campsite.
He said these images were meant to be "tongue in cheek." But some readers took them seriously. Hate mail and death threats poured in to the Tampa Muslim American Society.
The conference center's director also got death threats and closed the center for the weekend, forcing the retreat elsewhere.
Kaufman called the threats "disgusting," saying he gets death threats because of his blog.
"I know what I went through growing up, and it was never my intention to cause any type of hatred against anyone."
But he added, "I can't let it stop me from what I'm doing. ... I'm assisting in the safety and security of the American people."
the Muslim American Society is the U.S. face of the Muslim Brotherhood – the single leading Islamist organization worldwide and, as I noted in "The Islamic States of America?" the MAS is not terribly subtle about its intention of "establishing an Islamic state" to replace the existing Constitutional order. Add to this the Muslim Brotherhood's six-decade history of resorting to violence...Kaufman writes also of another scheduled speaker, Mazen Mokhtar:
Mokhtar is the Youth Division Head of MAS-New Jersey and the Khateeb (sermon-giver) of Masjid Al-Huda and the Institute of Islamic Studies. Mokhtar is also associated with the terrorist group Al-Qaeda.Looks like powerful stuff--facts that Rosenbaum ignores. But in two previous articles, Rosenbaum does deal briefly with some of the issues. On December 31 she writes:
In August of 2004, shortly before he was to speak at a Young Muslims camp in Pennsylvania (‘A Few Good Men’), the U.S. government accused Mokhtar of assisting Al-Qaeda through the use of a web site he had created.
There goes Kaufman's case against Mokhtar. Instead of being "associated with the terrorist group Al-Qaeda," we have a man investigated and never formally accused. If there is more to the case against Mokhtar than that, Kaufman doesn't mention itIn fact, federal agents searched Mokhtar's New Jersey home in 2004, after a man in London was arrested for using a Web site to fund terrorist groups.
An identical Web site was registered under Mokhtar's name. But he was never arrested.
On Friday, Mokhtar, a computer programmer, said he ran a business selling server space to host Web sites. He never knew what was contained on the site in question, he said.
On his Fox News program, Cavuto also read what he said was a quote from Mokhtar: "Suicide bombing should be encouraged because it's an effective way of attacking the enemy."
Although Cavuto did not say where the quote was from, a 1996 post on the online discussion forum Usenet, signed with Mokhtar's name, contains the words "effective method of attacking the enemy" in a discussion of whether suicide bombing is prohibited by Islamic law.
Mokhtar said Friday that he did not remember writing those words.
Chantal Carnes didn't recognize herself.Clearly Rosenbaum does not demolish all of the details of all the points that the blogs have been raising, nor does she even address them all--for instance she cheats her readers by mentioning CAIR, but not informing them that 3 members have been found guilty of terrorist ties, as Robert Spencer at Jihad Watch, who is also quoted by Rosenbaum, points out. She does not mention that CAIR has been named as a defendant in a class-action lawsuit going back to 9-11 (see update at bottom of that page).
A friend had e-mailed her a blogger's article. It described Carnes as a supporter of terrorists, a fan of suicide bombing.
Technorati Tag: Terrorism.
