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Islamism - 4 - Guest - 03-04-2006
Kaleem Kawaja of AIM will claim Hindus were singing bhajan and were teasing peaceful muslims out Mosque. Blame Hindus only.
Islamism - 4 - Guest - 03-05-2006
Is it just me or that all these riots start only after Friday prayer sessions? Would be a great help if we know how the imam gets the believers to take to the streets and riot. Someone should bug the imam speach.
Islamism - 4 - Sunder - 03-05-2006
<!--QuoteBegin-LSrini+Mar 5 2006, 12:11 AM-->QUOTE(LSrini @ Mar 5 2006, 12:11 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Is it just me or that all these riots start only after Friday prayer sessions? Would be a great help if we know how the imam gets the believers to take to the streets and riot. Someone should bug the imam speach.
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http://voiceofdharma.org/books/uith/ch3.htm
ATTACKS ON NON-MUSLIMS
AzAn became a great indicator. Where it was heard, it meant that everything was not kufr (infidelity). <b>âThe Messenger of Allah used to attack the enemy when it was dawn.</b> He would listen to the AzAn; so if he heard an AzAn, he stoppedâ (745). This the commentator finds greatly virtuous in Muhammad. âThe greatest contribution made by the Holy Prophet in the sphere of warfare is that he elevated it from - the surface of reckless murder or slaughter to the level of humanized struggle for the uprooting of evil in society. The Holy Prophet, therefore, did not allow his Companions to take the enemy unawares under the cover of darkness of nightâ (note 600).
3
Prayer (SalAt)
The fourth book is the âBook of Prayerâ (SalAt). It is the longest, with 1,398 ahAdIs divided into 203 chapters. But in all these pages, one looks in vain for any reference to such problems as self-exploration and self-knowledge, problems of enduring concern for the spirituality of the Indian tradition. There is not even a remote hint of different men endowed with different natures taking different paths toward a divinity differently figured. As there is one Allah, one Guide, one Book, there is also one Prayer, caught and fixed in a single formula.
From the titles of the 203 chapters this book contains, one can see that they all relate to the externals: azAn (the call to prayer), postures like bowing, prostrating and rising, the number and times of the different prayers, the place of imAm in the system of prayers, the merits of prayers at different times, the prayer for rain, the prayer for protection against windstorms and other calamities, the prayer relating to the dead, and so on.
AZAN
We are told how the institution of azAn began. In the beginning, in Medina, people forgathered in the mosque without knowing when they were to pray. As a means of calling people to prayer at fixed times, some suggested using a bell, as the Christians did; others a horn, as the Jews did. Some even suggested that a fire should be lighted. All these methods were ruled out. To make the Muslim practice different from that of the Jews, the Christians, and the Fireworshippers, the system of the human voice was introduced. BilAl, who was very loud-throated, and âAbdullah b. Umm MaktUm, who later became blind, were the first muâazzin (callers) (735, 737, 741).
AzAn is very effective. âWhen Satan hears the call to prayer, he runs away to a distance like that of RauhA,â a distance of 36 miles from Medina (751).
ATTACKS ON NON-MUSLIMS
AzAn became a great indicator. Where it was heard, it meant that everything was not kufr (infidelity). âThe Messenger of Allah used to attack the enemy when it was dawn. He would listen to the AzAn; so if he heard an AzAn, he stoppedâ (745). This the commentator finds greatly virtuous in Muhammad. âThe greatest contribution made by the Holy Prophet in the sphere of warfare is that he elevated it from - the surface of reckless murder or slaughter to the level of humanized struggle for the uprooting of evil in society. The Holy Prophet, therefore, did not allow his Companions to take the enemy unawares under the cover of darkness of nightâ (note 600).
BLESSINGS FOR MUHAMMAD
When men hear the muâazzin, they should repeat what he says and invoke blessings on Muhammad. They should âbeg from Allah al-WasIla for me, which is a rank in Paradise fitting for only one of Allahâs servants. If any one who asks that I be given the WasIla, he will be assured of my intercession,â says Muhammad (747).
In a variation on this theme, if a man who hears a caller responds by testifying that he is âsatisfied with Allah as my Lord, with Muhammad as Messenger, and with Islam as dIn [religion] his sins would be forgivenâ (749).
In seeking blessings for himself, Muhammad does not forget his wives and progeny. âApostle of Allah, how should we bless you?â Muhammad is asked. He replies: âO Allah! bless Muhammad, and his wives and his offspring. . . . He who blesses me once, Allah would bless him ten timesâ (807. 808).
POSTURE DURING PRAYER
Muslim prayer is not carried on in one tranquil posture, sitting or standing; it is accompanied by many bodily movements. These have been codified on the basis of the practice and precepts of Muhammad. There are many ahAdIs on the subject. One narrator saw Muhammad âraising his hands opposite the shoulders at the time of beginning the prayer and before bowing down and after coming back to the erect position after bowing, but he did not raise them between two prostrationsâ (758). Another saw his âhands lifted opposite to ears.â He also saw that the Prophet âthen wrapped his hands in his cloth and placed his right hand over his left hand. And when he was about to bow down, he brought out his hands from the cloth, and then lifted them. . . . And when prostrated, he prostrated between the two palmsâ (792).
Muhammad was commanded by Allah that âhe should prostrate on the seven bones and he was forbidden to fold back the hair and clothing.â The seven bones are: âThe hands, the knees, and the extremities of the feet and the foreheadâ (991). But he asked his followers to âobserve moderation in prostrationâ and not to stretch out [their] forearms on the ground like a dogâ (997).
Originally the practice had been to put oneâs hands together, palm to palm, and then to put them between oneâs thighs. But later on this practice was abrogated and the followers were âcommanded to place them [hands] on the kneesâ (1086-1092).
Another precaution: âPeople should avoid lifting their eyes towards the sky while supplicating in prayer, otherwise their eyes would be snatched awayâ (863).
THE IMAM
Muslim prayer is mostly group prayer. It should be led by an imAm. Muhammad enjoins that âwhen there are three persons, one of them should lead themâ (1417).
Muhammad exhorts his followers to follow their imAm. âWhen he prostrates, you should also prostrate; when-he rises up, you should also rise up,â he tells them (817). He also forbids them to bow and prostrate themselves ahead of the imAm: âDoes the man who lifts his head before the imAm not fear that Allah may change his face into that of an ass?â (860). Also, those who are being led in prayer are required to keep pace with the imAm and are forbidden to recite so loudly as to compete with him. When someone once did this, Muhammad told him: âI felt as if [you were] disputing with me . . . and taking out from my tongue what I was recitingâ (783). The imAm is authorized to appoint anyone as his deputy, when there is a valid reason for doing so, just as Muhammad appointed AbU Bakr during his last illness (832-844).
THE FIRST MOSQUE: FACING THE QIBLA
Somebody asked Muhammad which was the mosque âfirst set up on the earth.â He answered that it was the Kaâba. The second one was the great mosque in Jerusalem (1056, 1057).
In the beginning, when Muhammad was trying to cultivate the Jews, he prayed facing their temple in Jerusalem. But later on, the direction (qibla) was changed to Mecca. One tradition says: âWe prayed with the Messenger of Allah towards Bait-ul-Maqdis for sixteen months or seventeen months. Then we were made to change our direction towards the Kaâbaâ (1072). The followers had no difficulty and adjusted to the new change with alacrity. Some people were praying their dawn prayer and had recited one rakâah. Someone told them that the qibla had been changed. âThey turned towards the new qibla in that very stateâ (1075).
The translator assures us that âthis was a change of far-reaching importance. . . . It strengthened the loyalty of the Muslims to Islam and the Prophetâ (note 732). It must have made a strong appeal to Arab nationalism.
ALLAH ALLOWS MUHAMMAD TERROR AND WAR BOOTY
While giving his opinion of the first mosques, Muhammad makes some interesting disclosures. He does not deny that the Jews and the Christians also had their prophets but adds: â<b>I have been given superiority over the other prophets</b> in six respects: I have been given words which are concise but comprehensive in meaning; <b>I have been helped by terror (in the hearts of the enemies); spoils have been made lawful to me</b> . . . ; I have been sent to all mankind; and the line of prophets is closed with meâ (1062). The whole earth is also made a âmosqueâ for him and given to him as a legitimate place of prayer for him and his (1058). This is the idea of the world as a âmandated territoryâ bestowed on the believers by Allah.
More here:
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/uith/
Islamism - 4 - Hauma Hamiddha - 03-05-2006
Su-lu Khan's heroic struggle against the army of Islam
When one glances at the map of central Asia one sees Samarqand, Khorezm, Khorasan, Khotan and Bokhara, all once great centers of Indo-Iranian culture, now civilizational tragedies under the mushroom cloud of the Islamic terror. The Turkic struggle against Islam is one of the forgotten chapters of history that needs to be repeatedly brought home. We had earlier seen how the Kha'khans of the Turkic tribes like the Uighur and Blue Turks had fought various Islamic Ghazis. But one of the most heroic struggles of the Central Asian Turks against the terrifying atrocities of Islam was due the Tuergish Turks under their great Khan Su-lu.
In 715 CE the armies of the fierce Chinese general Liu Hsiu-Ching attacked the city of Ferghana and Khujanda and exterminated the population of the city by systematically decapitating them. This was the opening of the war between the Chinese, Arabs and Tibetans, in which the Chinese had asserted their aggressive expansionist intensions in Central Asia. But just then an unexpected factor enter the picture. The Tuergish Turks who had been feudatories of the great Blue Turk Khans like Qapaghan Kha'khan and Kuel-tegin were unified and reorganized militarily under Khan Su-lu. He had unified two divisions known as the Yellow Bone and Black Bone clans. The Arabs called him the "Father of the strife" as he stood in the path of their great expansion. He sent an embassy to the Chinese emperor stating that the was a free ruler now who no longer acknowledged Chinese or Blue Turk rule and that he had organized an army of 200,000 horsemen to challenge their power if required. The Chinese emperor to avoid a sending a new army westwards, accepted their independence. In 717 CE Su-lu declared himself Kha'Khan of the Turks and began espionage operations in Chinese territory.
The Arabs under the Kalif Umar bin Abd al-Aziz sent a message to all central Asian territories under the Arab control or their neighbors that all Kafirs should forthwith forfeit their foreskins or else they will be killed. Those who had accepted Dhimmi status by paying up Jaziya will be further tormented unless they accepted Islam when they would freed of all these disadvantages. The neighbors who would not submit to Islam were threatened with immediate Jihad. This clearly shows that the Moslems were primarily aiming to force Islam on the people, not just raid them for monetary gains. The Arabs sent bands of Islamists under Abdullah al Hanafi to subvert the Tibetans an spread Islam in their midst and another Arab army attacked the Uch-Turfan. This latter army was beaten back by the Qarluq Turks and forced to retreat. At the same time Su-lu led his hordes to seize the major central Asian outpost of the Chinese, Suyab. The pagan Indianized inhabitants of Central Asia- Turks and Iranians, as well as surviving Zoroasterians and Sogdhians were alarmed at the Arab call for conversion to Islam and the threat of Jihad and turned to China for help. But typical to the Chinese attitude no help was forth coming. Instead Su-lu came to their aid. In 719 the Arab raiders entered Sogdiana and forcibly converted several Bauddha Turkic chiefs of the province to Islam under swordpoint. When the Kalif died in Arabia, the Turkic chiefs and a local Hindu chief named Devasti renounced Islam and drove out all Mullahs and Fuckihs operating in their territory. They soon spread the word that people who had been forced into the terrible delusion of the Arabs should forsake it an return to the dharma. The Mullahs declared that the apostates must be brutally done to death and incited a huge ghazi army to attack Sogdiana. Su-lu the lord of the Tuergish Turks came to the aid of the dharma and the sangha, he collected a major army of Turks under his general Kuel Chur and dispatched him to support the Kafirs against the Army of Islam, in spring 721 AD. Kuel Chur cut down an advancing Jihadi division at Qasr al-Bahili and cut off the supply routes for the Arabs from Samarqand. The Tuergish general then laid the classical Turk-Mongol trap for the main Arab army using the feigned retreat. The Arabs fell in to ambush when from the side suddenly a hail of arrows rained on them destroying the army of Islam. Thus the Moslems faced their first major defeat against the pagan Turks and the Moslem Dayis were rounded up and put to death.
The territory upto the fortified Samarqand was liberated of Moslem terror by the action of Khan Su-lu by the end of 721 CE. The Kalif dispatched the Ghazi Amr al-Harashi and an army of Mujahidins to kill the Bauddha and Hindu chiefs in the regions and destroy Khan Su-lu. Seeing the Moslem storm on the horizon the Zoroastrian chiefs Kaarzang and Jalang, the Bauddha Turk Kasshin and the Hindu chief Devasti decided to defend from the fort of Khujanda. Al-Harashi's Jihadis swarmed the region in Middle of 722 CE. Another local chief aluTAr who was defending the region betrayed the other chiefs to the Moslems. Knowning that there was not much of a chance the they entered battle with the Jihadis in 722AD. The Moslem general immediately opened negotiations to reach a settlement. The unsupecting chiefs came down for the negotiations and as they were taking place, al-Harashi gave the signal to his Mujahids to kill the Kafirs. The Moslems pounced on them right away, brutally murdered them and then of the 7000 of their followers. The merchants with them were captured and tortured till they gave up all their possessions. The savgery of the slaughter in this treacherous assault sent a terrifying message to the non-Moslems of the region. They learnt that they were dealing with an enemy like none before-- one whose word coould not trusted and who was exceedingly cruel. The Islamic records gloat over the killing of he Kafirs in Khujanda (see TabarI 2.1446 for a poetic account for the massacres).
Several survivors among Devasti's, Kasshin's and Kaarzang's people fled to Khan Su-lu with the news of the new Moslem invasion. Su-lu organized them into a special corps, which greatly distinguished itself in the subsequent battles against the Moslems. He immediately decided to take retaliatory steps to stop the Jihad from blowing over the entire area. In 723 CE, Khan Su-lu was sent an ambassador by the Moslems with the message: convert to Islam, hand over the idols of deities and the survivors of the Khujanda massacre or face war. He did not reply anything to the ambassador and asked him to retire to his tent. Next day at dawn the Moslem ambassador was woken up and asked to ride with the Khan to a mountain top in a forested zone in his territory. There Khan Su-lu signaled to one of his body guard. He immediately unfurled a flag and immediately 10,000 men fully armed cased in armor came out assembled with their horses. They then unfurled a flag each. For each flag that was unfurled 10 fully armed horsemen emerged and 100,000 horsemen assembled in the plains below and raised the Turkic war cries. Su-lu then asked his guards to dismiss the Arab ambassador. The message was clear, though the Khan had not opened his mouth.
In spring 723 with the first notice of the thaw in winter the Arabs initiated the Jihad. The Moslems were ambushed by the Tuergish Turk army under Su-lu close to the Oxus. The Turks soon surrounded them on three sides and pinned them against swelling river on fourth. The Moslems came under severe fire from the Turkic archers who harried them with fire-tipped arrows and used whistling arrows to signal their movements. In desperation the Jihadis tried to ford the river at wide point and many were drowned. The rest on the banks were mopped up by the Turkic cavalry charge ordered by Su-lu. The Kalif in fury over this defeat ordered a new army to conduct the Jihad of extermination against the Kafirs of Central Asia. For this he chose the notorious Ghazi Muslim bin Sayyid and sent him at the head of a huge army to devastate the region.
In 724 CE the Jihadis attacked the city of Akshikath in Ferghana and plundered it after slaughtering the inhabitants. They take considerable pleasure in narrating how they destroyed the idols and burnt down the temples ("Bhutkhanas"). The Moslems marched into the countryside and ransacked it by cutting down trees and burning everything on their path. Alarmed at their aggressive response, the Tuergish Kha'khan took immediate action. Su-lu personally lead a major division of his army while another army under his son constantly harried the Arabs by a series of hit and run raids. The objective of these attacks was to force the Army of Islam to march in the direction of the other Tuergish division waiting in ambush. This proved a successful move; Su-lu kept avoiding any direct encounter with Moslems till they were sufficiently harried by the division under his son to the point of exhasperation. At a well-timed moment he moved a branch of his army to cut off the water supply to the Moslems from the Arab-held stronghold of Khujanda. This set the resulted in the great defeat of the Arabs, remembered by the Moslem chronicles as the "Battle of the Day of Thirst". As they were desperate without water, Su-lu swooped in striking hard with his well armed cavalry. The Jihadis fought frantically, but a Turkic archer shot a well-aimed arrow to knock-down their general Muslim bin Sayyid. With that the Tuergish completely routed them and only a small number of survivors escaped to make it alive to the fort of Khujanda. This battle was a turning point in the control of Transoxiana ot the Tuergish had become the dominant force and the Arabs were clearly on the defensive. This halted the frenetic spread of Islam through central Asia an gave brief breathing space for the pagans of the land.
But the Tuergish faced a new danger from the East in the form of the aggressive Chinese imperialism, which was equal religiously intolerant. The wife of Khan Su-lu sent an ambassador to China to stop persecution of pagans and various streams of the Bauddha matas different from those of the Chinas. Hsuan-Tsung, the imperialist Chinese emperor asked his favorite general Tu to kill the envoy and destroy a Tuergish trading party and called the Tuergish Kha'Khan a bandit. This duly sparked of a conflict with between the Turks and the Chinas. The Chinas moved armies rapidly to the West to first attack Tibet and thereby outflank the Turks. The Tibetans suffered heavily at the hands of the Chinese and formed an alliance with the Tuergish. Su-lu hatched a plan to seek revenge for the Chinese actions and dispatched an army to raid the Chinese territory and draw the Chinese general I-chen into an ambush. He was also attacked simultaneous by the Tibetan army under their resourceful commander Chog-ro-Manporje. The Chinese were beaten back and at the same time one of their greatest generals, Wang Chun Cho was killed by the Uighur Turks. In 730 AD realizing that the war in the West was not favoring the Chinese, Hsuan Tsung diplomatically entered into peace negotiations with the Tuergish. However, this was only on the surface, because he was hatching a secret strategy to destroy them completely. Hsuan Tsung sent envoys to the Arabs, asking them to ally with the Chinas against the Tuergish. The Kalif had now sent Ashras al Sulami to strengthen the Moslem force and avenge the old defeats. Al Sulami was particularly violent on the people of Sogdhiana and persecuted non-Moslems and tortured them in numerous ways.
In the mean time a band of Parsis along with their last ruler in absentia, Kushraw, a descendent of the last Sassanian emperor Yazdigird III who were in Tukharistan also appealed to Khan Su-lu to help them against the eternal enemies the Arabs who were bent on destroying him. Su-lu acted decisively, by gathering his Turkic hordes as well as other pagan chiefs and the Parsis under Kushraw attacking al Sulami. The Moslems were worsted and driven out almost entirely from Sogdhiana. The Moslem armies were put to sword in various encounters and the temples broken by them were revived. Only the fortified city of Samarqand and the Kamarja fort remained in Moslem hands. However, Turko-Mongols were far from state they achieved under Chingiz Khan, to storm heavily fortified strongholds. Still Su-lu besieged Kamarja and during the siege the Moslems made many attempts to kill him using marksmen on the walls. Though most attempts failed as he was well-protected by strong armor except for his eyes, Su-lu was finally shot on his arm in course of he conflict and injured. Kushraw the Parsi prince was also killed by an arrow. Disheartened by these the Tuergish failed to take Kamarga. Despite these setbacks Su-lu still controlled practically all of Transoxiana and restored peace and religious freedom which had been shattered by the Moslems. The Tibetans and Tuergish sealed an alliance through the marriage of Su-lu with the Tibetan princess Dron ma lod. Tuergish then aided he Tibetans in inflict a series of defeats on Chinese armies harassing the Tibetan troops and conquered the Wakhan corridor. The Arabs and Chinese met in 735 to destory the Tuergish through a combined attack. The Chinese first invaded the Tibetans to block them from aiding the Tuergish, and inflicted heavy losses on them. Su-lu sent a division to aid the Tibetans but Chinas crushed that division, with the Moslems sending the Chinas reinforcements. But the Tibetan general Chog-ro-Manporje combined with Su-lu's second division to attack the Jihadis under Assad bin Abdullah the new Ghazi sent by the Kalif to destroy the Kafirs. The Arabs were defeated and the Chinese without aid from the Western front ceased operations after devastating northern Tibetan territories.
Bin Abdullah then waged a Jihad on the pagan city of Navakath and started slaying the inhabitants. Su-lu in a hasty march from Suyab arrived. He at first deftly cut the Arab supply line from Navakath. Without supplies for a while they started crossing the Oxus, to replenish their stores and forces. Su-lu set a trap for them and the second time attacked them while crossing the river and destroyed the flotillas and pontoon bridges used by the Moslems. The Arabs sustained heavy losses and fled in disarray. Su-lu then attacked bin Abdullah's camp and plundered it, even as the Ghazi barely escaped with life. Bin Abdullah sent another army force against the Turks, but Khan Su-lu ambushed it and wiped it out. bin Abdullah retreated to Balkh and left Khorasan undefended. Su-lu fiercely attacked Khorasan with the aim of driving out the Arabs for good. However, they again proved pretty ineffective in taking the highly fortified citadel of Khulm from where the Moslems were defending. Su-lu with a small mobile force of just 4000 men tried to launch a surprise attack on Balkh and take it in the height of winter, when the Arabs rarely fought. However, sadly for him the Chinese agents figured out his plan and informed the Moslems well in advance. The Moslems were ready for the small mobile force of Su-lu as it by-passed Balkh and try to take it in the rear. bin Abdullah kept a large army waiting for the Turks at Kharistan. With the element of surprise gone, Su-lu was totally out of wind and had to fight desperately for survival against the numerically superior motivated Jihadi army. He barely cut his way out of their cordon and retreated with heavy losses to Tukharistan. There he started regrouping his hordes for a renewed campaign when unexpected events transpired.
Kuel Chur, the general of the Tuergish army and Khan Su-lu were playing a game of back-gammon with the stake being a pheasant. Su-lu won the stake but Kuel Chur refused to give him the bird. A fight broke out between them in which Kuel Chur and his men killed Su-lu.
This was not just the death of one man but the death-blow to the Tuergish nation, and any possibility of a defense against Islam's oppressive spread into central Asia. With that the Tuergish nation and the many pagan states of Transoxiana and Sogdiana were open to the imperialist China and Moslem troops that poured in for the final contest.
Islamism - 4 - Guest - 03-06-2006
<b>Iran native charged with attempted murder at UNC</b>
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Derek Poarch, chief of the university police department, confirmed Saturday that Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar, a 22-year-old Iran native, told investigators <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>he wanted to "avenge the deaths or murders of Muslims around the world." </span>Poarch would not provide any other details on the motive.
Taheri-azar also is charged with nine counts of assault.
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Islamism - 4 - Bharatvarsh - 03-06-2006
For fools who still count on family planning being imposed on Muslims this article is a warning, it is above all a warning to Hindus about the fate that will await us if we don't counterbreed, as G.sub says "life is nasty, brutish and short", it is a struggle for survival, nothing more or nothing less and Hindus who know about the problem but still refuse to implement the solution in their individual lives are collectively responsible if India and Hindus go down and they and their descendants deserve everything they get at the hands of the followers of the religion of peace.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Itâs the demography, stupid
The New Criterion ^ | Jan 2, 2006 | Mark Steyn
Most people reading this have strong stomachs, so let me lay it out as baldly as I can: Much of what we loosely call the western world will survive this century, and much of it will effectively disappear within our lifetimes, including many if not most western European countries. Thereâll probably still be a geographical area on the map marked as Italy or the Netherlandsâ probablyâjust as in Istanbul thereâs still a building called St. Sophiaâs Cathedral. But itâs not a cathedral; itâs merely a designation for a piece of real estate. Likewise, Italy and the Netherlands will merely be designations for real estate. The challenge for those who reckon western civilization is on balance better than the alternatives is to figure out a way to save at least some parts of the west.
One obstacle to doing that is the fact that, in the typical election campaign in your advanced industrial democracy, the political platforms of at least one party in the United States and pretty much all parties in the rest of the west are largely about what one would call the secondary impulses of societyâgovernment health care, government day care (which Canadaâs thinking of introducing), government paternity leave (which Britainâs just introduced). Weâve prioritized the secondary impulse over the primary ones: national defense, family, faith, and, most basic of all, reproductive activityââGo forth and multiply,â because if you donât you wonât be able to afford all those secondary-impulse issues, like cradle-to-grave welfare. Americans sometimes donât understand how far gone most of the rest of the developed world is down this path: In the Canadian and most Continental cabinets, the defense ministry is somewhere an ambitious politician passes through on his way up to important jobs like the health department. I donât think Don Rumsfeld would regard it as a promotion if he were moved to Health & Human Services.
The design flaw of the secular social-democratic state is that it requires a religious-society birth rate to sustain it. Post-Christian hyper-rationalism is, in the objective sense, a lot less rational than Catholicism or Mormonism. Indeed, in its reliance on immigration to ensure its future, the European Union has adopted a twenty-first-century variation on the strategy of the Shakers, who were forbidden from reproducing and thus could only increase their numbers by conversion. The problem is that secondary- impulse societies mistake their weaknesses for strengthsâor, at any rate, virtuesâand thatâs why theyâre proving so feeble at dealing with a primal force like Islam.
Speaking of which, if we are at warâand half the American people and significantly higher percentages in Britain, Canada, and Europe donât accept that propositionâthan what exactly is the war about?
We know itâs not really a âwar on terror.â Nor is it, at heart, a war against Islam, or even âradical Islam.â The Muslim faith, whatever its merits for the believers, is a problematic business for the rest of us. There are many trouble spots around the world, but as a general rule, itâs easy to make an educated guess at one of the participants: Muslims vs. Jews in âPalestine,â Muslims vs. Hindus in Kashmir, Muslims vs. Christians in Africa, Muslims vs. Buddhists in Thailand, Muslims vs. Russians in the Caucasus, Muslims vs. backpacking tourists in Bali. Like the environmentalists, these guys think globally but act locally.
Yet while Islamism is the enemy, itâs not what this thingâs about. Radical Islam is an opportunist infection, like AIDS: itâs not the HIV that kills you, itâs the pneumonia you get when your bodyâs too weak to fight it off. When the jihadists engage with the U.S. military, they loseâas they did in Afghanistan and Iraq. If this were like World War I with those fellows in one trench and us in ours facing them over some boggy piece of terrain, it would be over very quickly. Which the smarter Islamists have figured out. They know they can never win on the battlefield, but they figure thereâs an excellent chance they can drag things out until western civilization collapses in on itself and Islam inherits by default.
Thatâs what the warâs about: our lack of civilizational confidence. As a famous Arnold Toynbee quote puts it: âCivilizations die from suicide, not murderââas can be seen throughout much of âthe western worldâ right now. The progressive agenda âlavish social welfare, abortion, secularism, multiculturalismâis collectively the real suicide bomb. Take multiculturalism: the great thing about multiculturalism is that it doesnât involve knowing anything about other culturesâthe capital of Bhutan, the principal exports of Malawi, who cares? All it requires is feeling good about other cultures. Itâs fundamentally a fraud, and I would argue was subliminally accepted on that basis. Most adherents to the idea that all cultures are equal donât want to live in anything but an advanced western society: Multiculturalism means your kid has to learn some wretched native dirge for the school holiday concert instead of getting to sing âRudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeerâ or that your holistic masseuse uses techniques developed from Native American spirituality, but not that you or anyone you care about should have to live in an African or Native-American society. Itâs a quintessential piece of progressive humbug.
Then September 11 happened. And bizarrely the reaction of just about every prominent western leader was to visit a mosque: President Bush did, the Prince of Wales did, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom did, the Prime Minister of Canada did⦠. The Premier of Ontario didnât, and so twenty Muslim community leaders had a big summit to denounce him for failing to visit a mosque. I donât know why he didnât. Maybe there was a big backlog, it was mosque drivetime, prime ministers in gridlock up and down the freeway trying to get to the Sword of the Infidel-Slayer Mosque on Elm Street. But for whatever reason he couldnât fit it into his hectic schedule. Ontarioâs Citizenship Minister did show up at a mosque, but the imams took that as a great insult, like the Queen sending Fergie to open the Commonwealth Games. So the Premier of Ontario had to hold a big meeting with the aggrieved imams to apologize for not going to a mosque and, as The Toronto Starâs reported it, âto provide them with reassurance that the provincial government does not see them as the enemy.â
Anyway, the get-me-to-the-mosque-on-time fever died down, but it set the tone for our general approach to these atrocities. The old definition of a nanosecond was the gap between the traffic light changing in New York and the first honk from a car behind. The new definition is the gap between a terrorist bombing and the press release from an Islamic lobby group warning of a backlash against Muslims. In most circumstances, it would be considered appallingly bad taste to deflect attention from an actual âhate crimeâ by scaremongering about a purely hypothetical one. Needless to say, there is no campaign of Islamophobic hate crimes. If anything, the west is awash in an epidemic of self-hate crimes. A commenter on Tim Blairâs website in Australia summed it up in a note-perfect parody of a Guardian headline: âMuslim Community Leaders Warn of Backlash from Tomorrow Morningâs Terrorist Attack.â Those community leaders have the measure of us.
Radical Islam is what multiculturalism has been waiting for all along. In The Survival of Culture, I quoted the eminent British barrister Helena Kennedy, QC. Shortly after September 11, Baroness Kennedy argued on a BBC show that it was too easy to disparage âIslamic fundamentalists.â âWe as western liberals too often are fundamentalist ourselves,â she complained. âWe donât look at our own fundamentalisms.â
Well, said the interviewer, what exactly would those western liberal fundamentalisms be? âOne of the things that we are too ready to insist upon is that we are the tolerant people and that the intolerance is something that belongs to other countries like Islam. And Iâm not sure thatâs true.â
Hmm. Lady Kennedy was arguing that our tolerance of our own tolerance is making us intolerant of other peopleâs intolerance, which is intolerable. And, unlikely as it sounds, this has now become the highest, most rarefied form of multiculturalism. So youâre nice to gays and the Inuit? Big deal. Anyone can be tolerant of fellows like that, but tolerance of intolerance gives an even more intense frisson of pleasure to the multiculti masochists. In other words, just as the AIDS pandemic greatly facilitated societal surrender to the gay agenda, so 9/11 is greatly facilitating our surrender to the most extreme aspects of the multicultural agenda.
For example, one day in 2004, a couple of Canadians returned home, to Lester B. Pearson International Airport in Toronto. They were the son and widow of a fellow called Ahmed Said Khadr, who back on the Pakistani-Afghan frontier was known as âal-Kanadi.â Why? Because he was the highest-ranking Canadian in al Qaedaâplenty of other Canucks in al Qaeda but he was the Numero Uno. In fact, one could argue that the Khadr family is Canadaâs principal contribution to the war on terror. Granted theyâre on the wrong side (if youâll forgive me being judgmental) but no can argue that they arenât in the thick of things. One of Mr. Khadrâs sons was captured in Afghanistan after killing a U.S. Special Forces medic. Another was captured and held at Guantanamo. A third blew himself up while killing a Canadian soldier in Kabul. Pa Khadr himself died in an al Qaeda shoot-out with Pakistani forces in early 2004. And they say we Canadians arenât doing our bit in this war!
In the course of the fatal shoot-out of al-Kanadi, his youngest son was paralyzed. And, not unreasonably, Junior didnât fancy a prison hospital in Peshawar. So Mrs. Khadr and her boy returned to Toronto so he could enjoy the benefits of Ontario government healthcare. âIâm Canadian, and Iâm not begging for my rights,â declared the widow Khadr. âIâm demanding my rights.â
As they always say, treasonâs hard to prove in court, but given the circumstances of Mr. Khadrâs death it seems clear that not only was he providing âaid and comfort to the Queenâs enemiesâ but that he was, in fact, the Queenâs enemy. The Princess Patriciaâs Canadian Light Infantry, the Royal 22nd Regiment, and other Canucks have been participating in Afghanistan, on one side of the conflict, and the Khadr family had been over there participating on the other side. Nonetheless, the Prime Minister of Canada thought Boy Khadrâs claims on the public health system was an excellent opportunity to demonstrate his own deep personal commitment to âdiversity.â Asked about the Khadrsâ return to Toronto, he said, âI believe that once you are a Canadian citizen, you have the right to your own views and to disagree.â
Thatâs the wonderful thing about multiculturalism: you can choose which side of the war you want to fight on. When the draft card arrives, just tick âhome teamâ or âenemy,â according to taste. The Canadian Prime Minister is a typical late-stage western politician: He could have said, well, these are contemptible people and I know many of us are disgusted at the idea of our tax dollars being used to provide health care for a man whose Canadian citizenship is no more than a flag of convenience, but unfortunately thatâs the law and, while we can try to tighten it, it looks like this lowlifeâs got away with it. Instead, his reflex instinct was to proclaim this as a wholehearted demonstration of the virtues of the multicultural state. Like many enlightened western leaders, the Canadian Prime Minister will be congratulating himself on his boundless tolerance even as the forces of intolerance consume him.
That, by the way, is the one point of similarity between the jihad and conventional terrorist movements like the IRA or ETA. Terror groups persist because of a lack of confidence on the part of their targets: the IRA, for example, calculated correctly that the British had the capability to smash them totally but not the will. So they knew that while they could never win militarily, they also could never be defeated. The Islamists have figured similarly. The only difference is that most terrorist wars are highly localized. We now have the first truly global terrorist insurgency because the Islamists view the whole world the way the IRA view the bogs of Fermanagh: they want it and theyâve calculated that our entire civilization lacks the will to see them off.
We spend a lot of time at The New Criterion attacking the elites and weâre right to do so. The commanding heights of the culture have behaved disgracefully for the last several decades. But, if it were just a problem with the elites, it wouldnât be that serious: the mob could rise up and hang âem from lamppostsâa scenario thatâs not unlikely in certain Continental countries. But the problem now goes way beyond the ruling establishment. The annexation by government of most of the key responsibilities of lifeâchild-raising, taking care of your elderly parentsâhas profoundly changed the relationship between the citizen and the state. At some pointâI would say socialized health care is a good markerâyou cross a line, and itâs very hard then to persuade a citizenry enjoying that much government largesse to cross back. In National Review recently, I took issue with that line Gerald Ford always uses to ingratiate himself with conservative audiences: âA government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have.â Actually, you run into trouble long before that point: A government big enough to give you everything you want still isnât big enough to get you to give anything back. Thatâs what the French and German political classes are discovering.
Go back to that list of local conflicts I mentioned. The jihad has held out a long time against very tough enemies. If youâre not shy about taking on the Israelis, the Russians, the Indians, and the Nigerians, why wouldnât you fancy your chances against the Belgians and Danes and New Zealanders?
So the jihadists are for the most part doing no more than giving us a prod in the rear as we sleepwalk to the cliff. When I say âsleepwalk,â itâs not because weâre a blasé culture. On the contrary, one of the clearest signs of our decline is the way we expend so much energy worrying about the wrong things. If youâve read Jared Diamondâs bestselling book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, youâll know it goes into a lot of detail about Easter Island going belly up because they chopped down all their trees. Apparently thatâs why theyâre not a G8 member or on the UN Security Council. Same with the Greenlanders and the Mayans and Diamondâs other curious choices of âsocieties.â Indeed, as the author sees it, pretty much every society collapses because it chops down its trees.
Poor old Diamond canât see the forest because of his obsession with the trees. (Russiaâs collapsing even as itâs undergoing reforestation.) One way âsocieties choose to fail or succeedâ is by choosing what to worry about. The western world has delivered more wealth and more comfort to more of its citizens than any other civilization in history, and in return weâve developed a great cult of worrying. You know the classics of the genre: In 1968, in his bestselling book The Population Bomb, the eminent scientist Paul Ehrlich declared: âIn the 1970s the world will undergo faminesâhundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death.â In 1972, in their landmark study The Limits to Growth, the Club of Rome announced that the world would run out of gold by 1981, of mercury by 1985, tin by 1987, zinc by 1990, petroleum by 1992, and copper, lead, and gas by 1993.
None of these things happened. In fact, quite the opposite is happening. Weâre pretty much awash in resources, but weâre running out of peopleâthe one truly indispensable resource, without which none of the others matter. Russiaâs the most obvious example: itâs the largest country on earth, itâs full of natural resources, and yet itâs dyingâits population is falling calamitously.
The default mode of our elites is that anything that happensâfrom terrorism to tsunamisâcan be understood only as deriving from the perniciousness of western civilization. As Jean-François Revel wrote, âClearly, a civilization that feels guilty for everything it is and does will lack the energy and conviction to defend itself.â
And even though none of the prognostications of the eco-doom blockbusters of the 1970s came to pass, all that means is that thirty years on, the end of the world has to be rescheduled. The amended estimated time of arrival is now 2032. Thatâs to say, in 2002, the United Nations Global Environmental Outlook predicted âthe destruction of 70 percent of the natural world in thirty years, mass extinction of species⦠. More than half the world will be afflicted by water shortages, with 95 percent of people in the Middle East with severe problems ⦠25 percent of all species of mammals and 10 percent of birds will be extinct â¦â
Etc., etc., for 450 pages. Or to cut to the chase, as The Guardian headlined it, âUnless We Change Our Ways, The World Faces Disaster.â
Well, hereâs my prediction for 2032: unless we change our ways the world faces a future ⦠where the environment will look pretty darn good. If youâre a tree or a rock, youâll be living in clover. Itâs the Italians and the Swedes whoâll be facing extinction and the loss of their natural habitat.
There will be no environmental doomsday. Oil, carbon dioxide emissions, deforestation: none of these things is worth worrying about. Whatâs worrying is that we spend so much time worrying about things that arenât worth worrying about that we donât worry about the things we should be worrying about. For thirty years, weâve had endless wake-up calls for things that arenât worth waking up for. But for the very real, remorseless shifts in our societyâthe ones truly jeopardizing our futureâweâre sound asleep. The world is changing dramatically right now and hysterical experts twitter about a hypothetical decrease in the Antarctic krill that might conceivably possibly happen so far down the road thereâs unlikely to be any Italian or Japanese enviro-worriers left alive to be devastated by it.
In a globalized economy, the environmentalists want us to worry about First World capitalism imposing its ways on bucolic, pastoral, primitive Third World backwaters. Yet, insofar as âglobalizationâ is a threat, the real danger is precisely the oppositeâthat the peculiarities of the backwaters can leap instantly to the First World. Pigs are valued assets and sleep in the living room in rural Chinaâand next thing you know an unknown respiratory disease is killing people in Toronto, just because someone got on a plane. Thatâs the way to look at Islamism: we fret about McDonaldâs and Disney, but the big globalization success story is the way the Saudis have taken what was eighty years ago a severe but obscure and unimportant strain of Islam practiced by Bedouins of no fixed abode and successfully exported it to the heart of Copenhagen, Rotterdam, Manchester, Buffalo â¦
Whatâs the better bet? A globalization that exports cheeseburgers and pop songs or a globalization that exports the fiercest aspects of its culture? When it comes to forecasting the future, the birth rate is the nearest thing to hard numbers. If only a million babies are born in 2006, itâs hard to have two million adults enter the workforce in 2026 (or 2033, or 2037, or whenever they get around to finishing their Anger Management and Queer Studies degrees). And the hard data on babies around the western world is that theyâre running out a lot faster than the oil is. âReplacementâ fertility rateâi.e., the number you need for merely a stable population, not getting any bigger, not getting any smallerâis 2.1 babies per woman. Some countries are well above that: the global fertility leader, Somalia, is 6.91, Niger 6.83, Afghanistan 6.78, Yemen 6.75. Notice what those nations have in common?
Scroll way down to the bottom of the Hot One Hundred top breeders and youâll eventually find the United States, hovering just at replacement rate with 2.07 births per woman. Ireland is 1.87, New Zealand 1.79, Australia 1.76. But Canadaâs fertility rate is down to 1.5, well below replacement rate; Germany and Austria are at 1.3, the brink of the death spiral; Russia and Italy are at 1.2; Spain 1.1, about half replacement rate. Thatâs to say, Spainâs population is halving every generation. By 2050, Italyâs population will have fallen by 22 percent, Bulgariaâs by 36 percent, Estoniaâs by 52 percent. In America, demographic trends suggest that the blue states ought to apply for honorary membership of the EU: in the 2004 election, John Kerry won the sixteen with the lowest birth rates; George W. Bush took twenty-five of the twenty-six states with the highest. By 2050, there will be 100 million fewer Europeans, 100 million more Americansâand mostly red-state Americans.
As fertility shrivels, societies get olderâand Japan and much of Europe are set to get older than any functioning societies have ever been. And we know what comes after old age. These countries are going out of businessâunless they can find the will to change their ways. Is that likely? I donât think so. If you look at European election resultsâmost recently in Germanyâitâs hard not to conclude that, while voters are unhappy with their political establishments, theyâre unhappy mainly because they resent being asked to reconsider their government benefits and, no matter how unaffordable they may be a generation down the road, they have no intention of seriously reconsidering them. The Scottish executive recently backed down from a proposal to raise the retirement age of Scottish public workers. Itâs presently sixty, which is nice but unaffordable. But the reaction of the average Scots worker is that thatâs somebody elseâs problem. The average German worker now puts in 22 percent fewer hours per year than his American counterpart, and no politician who wishes to remain electorally viable will propose closing the gap in any meaningful way.
This isnât a deep-rooted cultural difference between the Old World and the New. It dates back all the way to, oh, the 1970s. If one wanted to allocate blame, one could argue that itâs a product of the U.S. military presence, the American security guarantee that liberated European budgets: instead of having to spend money on guns, they could concentrate on butter, and buttering up the voters. If Washingtonâs problem with Europe is that these are not serious allies, well, whose fault is that? Who, in the years after the Second World War, created NATO as a post-modern military alliance? The âfree world,â as the Americans called it, was a free ride for everyone else. And having been absolved from the primal responsibilities of nationhood, itâs hardly surprising that European nations have little wish to re-shoulder them. In essence, the lavish levels of public health care on the Continent are subsidized by the American taxpayer. And this long-term softening of large sections of the west makes them ill-suited to resisting a primal force like Islam.
There is no âpopulation bomb.â There never was. Birth rates are declining all over the worldâeventually every couple on the planet may decide to opt for the western yuppie model of one designer baby at the age of thirty-nine. But demographics is a game of last man standing. The groups that succumb to demographic apathy last will have a huge advantage. Even in 1968 Paul Ehrlich and his ilk should have understood that their so-called âpopulation explosionâ was really a massive population adjustment. Of the increase in global population between 1970 and 2000, the developed world accounted for under 9 percent of it, while the Muslim world accounted for 26 percent of the increase. Between 1970 and 2000, the developed world declined from just under 30 percent of the worldâs population to just over 20 percent, the Muslim nations increased from about 15 percent to 20 percent.
1970 doesnât seem that long ago. If youâre the age many of the chaps running the western world today are wont to be, your pants are narrower than they were back then and your hairâs less groovy, but the landscape of your lifeâthe look of your house, the lay-out of your car, the shape of your kitchen appliances, the brand names of the stuff in the fridgeâisnât significantly different. Aside from the Internet and the cellphone and the CD, everything in your world seems pretty much the same but slightly modified.
And yet the world is utterly altered. Just to recap those bald statistics: In 1970, the developed world had twice as big a share of the global population as the Muslim world: 30 percent to 15 percent. By 2000, they were the same: each had about 20 percent.
And by 2020?
So the worldâs people are a lot more Islamic than they were back then and a lot less âwestern.â Europe is significantly more Islamic, having taken in during that period some 20 million Muslims (officially)âor the equivalents of the populations of four European Union countries (Ireland, Belgium, Denmark, and Estonia). Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the west: in the UK, more Muslims than Christians attend religious services each week.
Can these trends continue for another thirty years without having consequences? Europe by the end of this century will be a continent after the neutron bomb: the grand buildings will still be standing but the people who built them will be gone. We are living through a remarkable period: the self-extinction of the races who, for good or ill, shaped the modern world.
What will Europe be like at the end of this process? Who knows? On the one hand, thereâs something to be said for the notion that America will find an Islamified Europe more straightforward to deal with than Monsieur Chirac, Herr Schröder, and Co. On the other hand, given Europeâs track record, getting there could be very bloody. But either way this is the real battlefield. The al Qaeda nutters can never find enough suicidal pilots to fly enough planes into enough skyscrapers to topple America. But, unlike us, the Islamists think long-term, and, given their demographic advantage in Europe and the tone of the emerging Muslim lobby groups there, much of what theyâre flying planes into buildings for theyâre likely to wind up with just by waiting a few more years. The skyscrapers will be theirs; why knock âem over?
The latter half of the decline and fall of great civilizations follows a familiar pattern: affluence, softness, decadence, extinction. You donât notice yourself slipping through those stages because usually thereâs a seductive pol on hand to provide the age with a sly, self-deluding sloganâlike Bill Clintonâs âItâs about the future of all our children.â We on the right spent the 1990s gleefully mocking Clintonâs tedious invocation, drizzled like syrup over everything from the Kosovo war to highway appropriations. But most of the rest of the west canât even steal his lame bromides: A society that has no children has no future.
Permanence is the illusion of every age. In 1913, no one thought the Russian, Austrian, German, and Turkish empires would be gone within half a decade. Seventy years on, all those fellows who dismissed Reagan as an âamiable dunceâ (in Clark Cliffordâs phrase) assured us the Soviet Union was likewise here to stay. The CIA analystsâ position was that East Germany was the ninth biggest economic power in the world. In 1987 there was no rash of experts predicting the imminent fall of the Berlin Wall, the Warsaw Pact, and the USSR itself.
Yet, even by the minimal standards of these wretched precedents, so-called âpost-Christianâ civilizationsâas a prominent EU official described his continent to meâare more prone than traditional societies to mistake the present tense for a permanent feature. Religious cultures have a much greater sense of both past and future, as we did a century ago, when we spoke of death as joining âthe great majorityâ in âthe unseen world.â But if secularismâs starting point is that this is all there is, itâs no surprise that, consciously or not, they invest the here and now with far greater powers of endurance than itâs ever had. The idea that progressive Euro-welfarism is the permanent resting place of human development was always foolish; we now know that itâs suicidally so.
To avoid collapse, European nations will need to take in immigrants at a rate no stable society has ever attempted. The CIA is predicting the EU will collapse by 2020. Given that the CIAâs got pretty much everything wrong for half a century, that would suggest the EU is a shoo-in to be the colossus of the new millennium. But even a flop spook is right twice a generation. If anything, the date of EU collapse is rather a cautious estimate. It seems more likely that within the next couple of European election cycles, the internal contradictions of the EU will manifest themselves in the usual way, and that by 2010 weâll be watching burning buildings, street riots, and assassinations on American network news every night. Even if they avoid that, the idea of a childless Europe ever rivaling America militarily or economically is laughable. Sometime this century there will be 500 million Americans, and whatâs left in Europe will either be very old or very Muslim. Japan faces the same problem: its population is already in absolute decline, the first gentle slope of a death spiral it will be unlikely ever to climb out of. Will Japan be an economic powerhouse if itâs populated by Koreans and Filipinos? Very possibly. Will Germany if itâs populated by Algerians? Thatâs a trickier proposition.
Best-case scenario? The Continent winds up as Vienna with Swedish tax rates.
Worst-case scenario: Sharia, circa 2040; semi-Sharia, a lot soonerâand weâre already seeing a drift in that direction.
In July 2003, speaking to the United States Congress, Tony Blair remarked: âAs Britain knows, all predominant power seems for a time invincible but, in fact, it is transient. The question is: What do you leave behind?â
Excellent question. Britannia will never again wield the unrivalled power she enjoyed at her imperial apogee, but the Britannic inheritance endures, to one degree or another, in many of the key regional players in the world todayâAustralia, India, South Africaâand in dozens of island statelets from the Caribbean to the Pacific. If China ever takes its place as an advanced nation, it will be because the Peopleâs Republic learns more from British Hong Kong than Hong Kong learns from the Little Red Book. And of course the dominant power of our time derives its political character from eighteenth-century British subjects who took English ideas a little further than the mother country was willing to go.
A decade and a half after victory in the Cold War and end-of-history triumphalism, the âwhat do you leave behind?â question is more urgent than most of us expected. âThe west,â as a concept, is dead, and the west, as a matter of demographic fact, is dying.
What will Londonâor Paris, or Amsterdamâbe like in the mid-Thirties? If European politicians make no serious attempt this decade to wean the populace off their unsustainable thirty-five-hour weeks, retirement at sixty, etc., then to keep the present level of pensions and health benefits the EU will need to import so many workers from North Africa and the Middle East that it will be well on its way to majority Muslim by 2035. As things stand, Muslims are already the primary source of population growth in English cities. Can a society become increasingly Islamic in its demographic character without becoming increasingly Islamic in its political character?
This ought to be the leftâs issue. Iâm a conservativeâIâm not entirely on board with the Islamist program when it comes to beheading sodomites and so on, but I agree Britney Spears dresses like a slut: Iâm with Mullah Omar on that one. Why then, if your big thing is feminism or abortion or gay marriage, are you so certain that the cult of tolerance will prevail once the biggest demographic in your society is cheerfully intolerant? Who, after all, are going to be the first victims of the westâs collapsed birth rates? Even if one were to take the optimistic view that Europe will be able to resist the creeping imposition of Sharia currently engulfing Nigeria, it remains the case that the Muslim world is not notable for setting much store by âa womanâs right to choose,â in any sense. I watched that big abortion rally in Washington last year, where Ashley Judd and Gloria Steinem were cheered by women waving âKeep your Bush off my bushâ placards, and I thought it was the equivalent of a White Russian tea party in 1917. By prioritizing a âwomanâs right to choose,â western women are delivering their societies into the hands of fellows far more patriarchal than a 1950s sitcom dad. If any of those women marching for their âreproductive rightsâ still have babies, they might like to ponder demographic realities: A little girl born today will be unlikely, at the age of forty, to be free to prance around demonstrations in Eurabian Paris or Amsterdam chanting âHands off my bush!â
Just before the 2004 election, that eminent political analyst Cameron Diaz appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show to explain what was at stake:
âWomen have so much to lose. I mean, we could lose the right to our bodies⦠. If you think that rape should be legal, then donât vote. But if you think that you have a right to your body,â she advised Oprahâs viewers, âthen you should vote.â
Poor Cameron. A couple of weeks later, the scary people won. She lost all rights to her body. Unlike Alec Baldwin, she couldnât even move to France. Her body was grounded in Terminal D.
But, after framing the 2004 Presidential election as a referendum on the right to rape, Miss Diaz might be interested to know that men enjoy that right under many Islamic legal codes around the world. In his book The Empty Cradle, Philip Longman asks: âSo where will the children of the future come from? Increasingly they will come from people who are at odds with the modern world. Such a trend, if sustained, could drive human culture off its current market-driven, individualistic, modernist course, gradually creating an anti-market culture dominated by fundamentalismâa new Dark Ages.â
Bottom line for Cameron Diaz: There are worse things than John Ashcroft out there.
Longmanâs point is well taken. The refined antennae of western liberals mean that, whenever one raises the question of whether there will be any Italians living in the geographical zone marked as Italy a generation or three hence, they cry, âRacism!â To fret about what proportion of the population is âwhiteâ is grotesque and inappropriate. But itâs not about race, itâs about culture. If 100 percent of your population believes in liberal pluralist democracy, it doesnât matter whether 70 percent of them are âwhiteâ or only 5 percent are. But, if one part of your population believes in liberal pluralist democracy and the other doesnât, then it becomes a matter of great importance whether the part that does is 9 percent of the population or only 60, 50, 45 percent.
Since the President unveiled the so-called Bush Doctrineâthe plan to promote liberty throughout the Arab worldâinnumerable âprogressivesâ have routinely asserted that thereâs no evidence Muslims want liberty and, indeed, Islam is incompatible with democracy. If thatâs true, itâs a problem not for the Middle East today but for Europe the day after tomorrow. According to a poll taken in 2004, over 60 percent of British Muslims want to live under shariaâin the United Kingdom. If a population âat odds with the modern worldâ is the fastest-breeding group on the planetâif there are more Muslim nations, more fundamentalist Muslims within those nations, more and more Muslims within non-Muslim nations, and more and more Muslims represented in more and more transnational institutionsâhow safe a bet is the survival of the âmodern worldâ?
Not good.
âWhat do you leave behind?â asked Tony Blair. There will only be very few and very old ethnic Germans and French and Italians by the midpoint of this century. What will they leave behind? Territories that happen to bear their names and keep up some of the old buildings? Or will the dying European races understand that the only legacy that matters is whether the peoples who will live in those lands after them are reconciled to pluralist, liberal democracy? Itâs the demography, stupid. And, if they canât muster the will to change course, then âwhat do you leave behind?â is the only question that matters.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1550345/posts<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Islamism - 4 - acharya - 03-06-2006
http://chromatism.net/bloodyborders/index.htm
Seeing the worldwide sweep of the Islamist enterprise makes it evident that the attacks on the United States, despite their unprecedented horror, were but a minuscule piece of the enormous mosaic of Salafist terror. The terror masters have established their first beachheads in the West â more so in Western Europe than the United States â but their murderous ideology had long since become a way of life in many other parts of the world.
Looking at the these maps helps to broaden the view of anyone accustomed only to mainstream media reports of terror attacks. The violence in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Israel is very clear â Iraq has the highest concentration of terror since late 2003 â but much of the rest of the world endures a quotidian brutality that is scarcely mentioned in the Western press.
Particularly notable are Algeria â in which the violence is Muslim-on-Muslim â the Caucasus, southern Thailand, the Philippines, and India, particularly the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Islamists were terrorizing these places before September 11th, and their killing of apostates and infidels will continue. Even if the Coalition withdraws completely from Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Jews are driven into the sea, the slaughter will not cease.
Hereâs how he did it: he used the more than 1,300 place names from TROP and matched them to various online maps and gazetteers, particularly Falling Rain. The locations in Iraq, Pakistan, and India were particularly difficult to match, due to wildly varying spellings. The results were collected in a database, and then he wrote hundreds of lines of program code to create the images, learning the rudiments of Macromedia Flash MX to build the animation. Meanwhile, having had the time to repent in leisure, I learned the hard wisdom of being careful about what you ask for.
Those endless hours hunched over the keyboard staring at the names of villages in Hindi and Urdu and Arabic and Tagalog has left the Baronâs eyesight a little worse for the wear. Never mind; his labors produced a wonder. You cannot watch the display representing the ongoing murderous intent of so many groups, all of them under the umbrella of a brutally insane worldview, without realizing with a sinking heart what we are up against. Every time a little flash goes off, lives wink out.
And so we come now to what I call The Bloody Borders Project. Or, on my bad days, âthat bloody Bloody Borders Project.â Perhaps, as you view it, you too will be changed by what you see. You are seeing it because of all those falling bodies in New York City on that September day in 2001. How ignorant we were not to know that bodies had been falling, falling for years, all along those bloody borders.
http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2006/03/...rs-project.html
<img src='http://chromatism.net/bloodyborders/maps/large.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
Islamism - 4 - Guest - 03-06-2006
Above two post are shocking. India is facing worst assualt by Islamist.
Islamism - 4 - Guest - 03-09-2006
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Darul Uloom Deoband was founded by Al Imam Mohammad Qasim Nanautavi in 1866 after the failed attempt of mutiny against the British colonialism.
Maulana Qari Mohammad Tayyib, the grand son of Imam Qasim, served Darul Uloom Deoband as the rector for more than 60 years from 1922 to 1982CE. Before his rectory, his father and the son of the founder, Maualana Mohammad Ahamad Qasimi served Darul Uloom as the rector about more than 35 years. Under the rectory of Qari Mohammad Tayyib, Darul Uloom Deoband reached at the zenith of its prestige and became the most leading Islamic institute in Asia. Maulana Qari Mohammad Tayyib, as a rector visited most of the countries and because of his strong dedication and being a versatile personality in the field of Islamic knowledge very soon he became the legendary Islamic scholar of the Islamic world and under his rectory and patronage Darul Uloom Deoband became worldâs second, just behind <b>Al Azhar of Egypt</b>, the most renowned institute.
In 1980, after the very significant and grand centenary celebration, celebrated to mark the hundredth anniversary of Darul Uloom Deoband, <b>Indian government tried to pull down the then administration because of its strong repute and prestige all over the world</b>. The centenary celebration could attract the distinguished dignitaries, head of the governments, honorable representatives of the several Islamic countries.
<b>Asad Madani revolted against the then rector Moualana Qari Mohammad Tayyib</b>, and finally in 1982 by using the blatant force his people could be successful to oust the then rector and the administration from the office. This is remembered as the <b>black day in the history of Darul Uloom Deoband</b>. After the forceful ousting of the administration under the rectory of Qari Mohammad Tayyib and the denial of Waqf status of Darul Uloom Deoband by the <b>new illegitimate administration, backed by the then Indian government, and declaration about Darul Uloom Deoband as a registered society under the government laws</b>, Qari Mohammad Tayyib has established Waqf Darul Uloom Deoband to keep alive the spirit and vision of the great founders of Darul Uloom Deoband, with the outstanding support of several prestigious Indian Islamic scholars (ulama). Since the imposition of the illegitimate administration Darul Uloom<b> Deoband has lost its international repute and prestige</b>, and now it is hardly unable to attract the international community towards it and has been pressurized continuously by the government of India to suspend its several causes towards Islamic ummah.
Currently Darul Uloom Deoband has become only a public business controlled by Asad Madani and his family. Since 1982 it is administrated by his brother in law, Marghubur Rahman, as the rector, and the second top post, The Registrar (Nazim E Talimi) is occupied by his brother, Arshad Madani. Asad Madani is the member of Darul Uloomâs administrative council. Waqf Darul Uloom Deoband which is a parallel institute to Darul Uloom Deoband is considered by the common Muslims of India who believe in the saga of its founder Al Imam Mohammad Qasim, the real bearer of his traditions.
In the very short span of time Darul Uloom Waqf Deoband has achieved the international fame and repute and is vastly expended on the lands in Deoband. It has been administrated by Maulana Mohammad Salim Qasimi, the eldest son of Maulana Qari Mohammad Tayyib, and the great grand son of Al Imam Mohammad Qasim Nanuatavi. The post of Sheikhul Hadith is served by Maulana Anzar Shah Kashmiri the noble scholar of Hadith and son of great Imam of Hadith, Allama Anwar Shah Kashmiri. Waqf Darul Uloom Deoband has produced several scholars in its short history of 20 years. Waqf Darul Uloom Deoband is providing the education in the field of Quran and Sunnah from the perspective of all faculties of Islamic education.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Islamism - 4 - Guest - 03-09-2006
Islamâs Other Victims: India
By Serge Trifkovic
FrontPageMagazine.com | November 18, 2002
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=4649
Islamism - 4 - Bharatvarsh - 03-10-2006
Bomb explodes at Hindu temple in Indonesia
The Times of India via AP ^ | Friday, March 10, 2006 10:46:40 am | The Times of India via AP
Posted on 03/09/2006 10:58:46 PM PST by CarrotAndStick
POSO (Indonesia): A homemade bomb exploded on Friday outside a Hindu temple on an Indonesian island that has been plagued by religious violence, wounding a man who was guarding the compound, police said.
The blast in the town of Poso in central Sulawesi island was caused by a low-intensity bomb, and caused the roof and walls of the temple's guard house to collapse, said Poso deputy police chief, Andreas Wayan.
"Whoever did this wanted to create panic and spread terror here in Poso," he said, adding that police investigating the attack found black powder, nails, shrapnel and a battery at the scene.
Hundreds of onlookers gathered around the temple after the blast, which seriously wounded the guard.
Some 3,000 security personnel have been deployed to safeguard Poso, a city 1,600 kilometres northeast of Jakarta, since last year, following a spate of attacks targetting Christians.
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1593668/posts
Islamism - 4 - Guest - 03-11-2006
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Censorship in Islam</b>
This refers to the article, âMuslims must ignore cartoonsâ (March 2), by Maulana Wahiduddin Khan. Mr Khan is not right when he says that the Prophet always overlooked his criticism in favour of maintaining peace. On the contrary, the Prophet never tolerated criticism and often punished his critics with death. There were at least three poets during his time who were eliminated on his command because they dared to criticise Islam. They were Asma, Abu Afak and Kab. Asma was a pagan poetess who was critical of the Prophetâs new faith and reproached her countrymen for joining him. Asmaâs verses were reported to the Prophet, who said aloud: âWill no one rid me of this daughter of Marwan?â one Umar Ibn Adi took charge, went to the poetessâ house and plunged his sword into her breast with such force that it transfixed her to the couch. (The Life of Mahomet by Sir William Muir; page 239) Another murder was committed by the express instructions of Prophet. Jewish poet Abu Afak had composed some poems which annoyed Muslims. âWho will rid me of this pestilent fellow?â said the Prophet. Salim Ibn Umayr, a new convert, out to prove his Islamic identity, beheaded Abu Afak when he was sleeping in his courtyard. (The Life of Mahomet by Sir William Muir; page 240) The poet Kab Ib al-Ashraf was assassinated in July, 624 AD. The Prophet asked, âWho will ease me of the son of Al-Ashraf?â âHere am I; I will slay him,â said son of Maslama and explained to the Prophet that it would be necessary to resort to cunning, trickery and lies. The Prophet saw no objection in deceit and treachery, if the objective could be achieved by these means. (The Life of Mahomet by Sir William Muir; page 248). Apart from poets, the Prophet had many other of his opponents eliminated in this style. This process has not stopped and is continuing till today. The current protests of Muslims across the world are a reflection of this Islamic intolerance. <b>Any work of art or literature which is critical of Muslims is targeted by fundamentalists. It is because Islam censors criticism and rational enquiry. The time has come for the Islamic society to become liberal in its outlook and be open to all views â positive or negative â about their religion, society and culture.</b>
Prabhat Varun <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Islamism - 4 - Guest - 03-12-2006
Article is based on Video interview of Sultana
<b>For Muslim Who Says Violence Destroys Islam, Violent Threats</b>-NY Times
By JOHN M. BRODER
Published: March 11, 2006
Islamism - 4 - acharya - 03-14-2006
The Arab Role in the Discovery of America
Were the Arabs responsible, or at least partly responsible, for the discovery of the Americas? According to this book review from Arab-language Al Khaleej, without the gift of Islamic science and scientists, the history of the Western enlightenment might be far dimmer than it is.
By Fatima al-Sayig
Translated By Aja Ishmael
February 27, 2006
Al Khaleej - U.A.E. - Original Article (Arabic)
Vasco de Gama, One of the Great Western Explorers.
Without the Scientific Genius of the Muslim World
and the Aid of Muslim Navigator Ibn Majid, His
Dicoveries Would Likely Have Been Impossible.
[RealVideoVasco De Gama]
[RealVideoIbn Majid]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Were the Arabs actually the first to discover America? If the answer is no, then did they participate in some way or another in that discovery? These questions are the axis of the book Arab Navigation in the Age of Prosperity by Tarik al-Hamdani, published by the [Abu Dhabi] Cultural Foundation - that lofty scientific institution that has a distinct role in preserving and spreading the Arab legacy.
Since Spain's discovery of the New World - or what came to be known by the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th centuries as America - questions surrounded possible Arab participation in that achievement. There is no doubt that the Arabs had managed to trigger a revolution in the fields of geography, astronomy and navigation, and that the Europeans benefited from this revolution, as they borrowed the roots of their renaissance from Arab science and learning, to lay the foundations of a new civilization and then spread it around the world.
When European scholars In the Middle Ages were still arguing about the shape of the earth, the earth's roundness had long been a settled fact for Muslim Scholars, who were in possession of various proofs and arguments. And when Europeans began their studies in geography, Muslim Arabs already had well-developed theories on the topic. When Europeans began developing in philosophy and the science of astronomy, their way of thinking was based upon the knowledge and theories of the Arabs and Muslims. Muslim-Arab scholars had left behind a great scientific legacy, for al-Qalqashandi's book Subh al-A'sha, al-Idrisi's book Nuzhat al-Mushtak and Ibn Fadl Allah al-Umari's book Masalik al-Absar were all lamps that lit the way for Europeans to reach America.
<img src='http://watchingamerica.com/images/vascoship_pic.jpeg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
Christopher Columbus, Another
Western Explorer That Owed
Much of His Success to Muslim
Scientists and Researchers.
<img src='http://watchingamerica.com/images/vascovoyage_pic.jpeg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
[RealVideoChristopher Columbus]
-----------------------------------
Arab scientific studies had a major impact on the West, so naturally these studies paved the way for the discovery of America by Columbus [RealVideo], who knew about the Arab theories from Latin translations. As cited in Arab writings, the Arabs had called the Atlantic Ocean "The Sea of Darkness," as an expression of the fear that they associated with this great ocean.
That is why Arab vessels had been content with following close to the African and European coastlines following landmarks. But this doesn't mean that none of them ventured into the Atlantic, finding its limits and arriving at one of the many islands it contains. There are some reports that author cites, as in al-Idrisi's book Nuzhat al-Mushtak, that points out that Muslim adventurers did tour some of the Atlantic islands, bringing back many riches. This tale was called the "Voyages of Sinbad [?];" and it was an adventure for young people in the Arabs of al-Andalus [Spain] about adventurers that crossed the ocean - and it is believed their feet had walked on American soil.
This adventure was known - indeed, it was well-known - in Europe. Whatever its degree of importance, Columbus himself pointed out in his memoirs that he had benefited from the views of Arab geographers about the roundness of the Earth, Arab maps and the sciences of astronomy and navigation. For Ibn Majid [one of the most famous Arab navigators [RealVideo] had appeared before Columbus, or during his time, and Westerners were completely aware of Ibn Majid's scientific research, just as Europeans in the 20th century became aware of the colossal legacy he left behind. So they set out to study him.
Vasco da Gama's Ship, the E. Casanova.
His Navigator Was Most Likely
Famed Muslim Geographer, Ibn Majid.
----------------------------------------------
Many European and Arab researchers in books and research have dealt with this question. And while some of them deny that Ibn Majid was the sailor that led the ships of Vasco de Gama [RealVideo] to India, others emphasize the likelihood of this, as the preponderance of scientific evidence contained in Ibn Majid's legacy bears this out.
Portuguese interest in navigation and astronomy had been growing throughout the 15th century, with the object of geographical discovery; Arab techniques in these fields - such as the use of the compass and the astrolabe [a very ancient astronomical computer RealVideo] aided them in this. The exploratory journey of Pero da Covilhao [RealVideo] to the East [Arab Lands] contributed to this period of geographical discovery, as did the journey of Bartholomew Diaz, long before Vasco da Gama was able to undertake his famous voyage in 1497, making two trips around the Cape of Good Hope and East Africa to arrive at the Indian coast.
The 1497 Voyage of Vasco De Gama
Around the Cape of Good Hope to India
Would Not Likely Have Occured
Without the Help of Islamic Science
and Mulsim Navigator, Ibn Majid.
--------------------------------------------
And while Vasco da Gama was looking east [for a passage to India], Columbus was looking west. In 1492, this Italian sailor was able to reach the islands that the "Voyages of Sinbad [?]" had spoken of, although all he was looking for was a route to India. European historians praised the fact that Ibn Rushd [Spanish Muslim Philosopher, 1128-1198 AD] was one of those who had predicted the existence of a new world beyond the Atlantic Ocean. Similarly, Columbus pointed out in his memoirs that he had benefited from the views of Arab geographers on the roundness of the earth.
The route to India opened, by way of the Cape of Good Hope, numerous opportunities for the Portuguese in the beginning of the 16th century, for colonization, trade and economic influence, and to the vast riches that they controlled due to their domination of the east. Similarly, Columbus blazed a trail for Spain, by means of his discovery of the New World, to control the new continent and its riches. Accordingly, Europe has controlled the entire world since the 16th century, dividing up its riches and controlling the destinies of its peoples.
<img src='http://www.harpercollege.edu/mhealy/geogres/maps/nwgif/muslmwor.gif' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
----------------------------------------------------------
At the same time, the Arab and Islamic powers began to lag behind because of a number of political problems. The matter was not limited to intrinsic Arab weakness and decline, but rather to the fact that the Arabs themselves submitted to European colonialism; indeed, in some regions colonialism lasted until the end of the 20th century, with Arabs denied full involvement in global civilization, as the torch of knowledge passed into the hands of the Europeans. And while European civilization was progressing by leaps and bounds both scientifically and technically, Arab participation in these fields dropped to today's dismal levels.
Indeed, this book plays an important role in describing the past achievements of Arabs and Muslims, and reminds a new generation of the achievements of their forebears. Perhaps this recollection will enable Arab and Muslim culture to remain intact and healthy in the face of the West's occasional organized attacks of skepticism against it, which are designed to create doubts about Arab participation in the world culture.
Islamism - 4 - Guest - 03-14-2006
<!--QuoteBegin-Hauma Hamiddha+Mar 5 2006, 02:44 AM-->QUOTE(Hauma Hamiddha @ Mar 5 2006, 02:44 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Su-lu Khan's heroic struggle against the army of Islam
When one glances at the map of central Asia one sees Samarqand, Khorezm, Khorasan, Khotan and Bokhara, <b>all once great centers of Indo-Iranian culture</b>, now civilizational tragedies under the mushroom cloud of the Islamic terror. The Turkic struggle against Islam is one of the forgotten chapters of history that needs to be repeatedly brought home. We had earlier seen how the Kha'khans of the Turkic tribes like the Uighur and Blue Turks had fought various Islamic Ghazis. But one of the most heroic struggles of the Central Asian Turks against the terrifying atrocities of Islam was due the Tuergish Turks under their great Khan Su-lu.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
can you substantiate the bit in bold??
not trying to be skeptical, but i have often heard/read about how arabs were an offshot of hindus, how kabaa was a shiv temple etc, but have seldom seen or heard these claims being irrevocably backed up. and unless thats done, its in fact dangerous and silly to make such claims cos we will get branded as hindu fundamentalists or some such.
So can we have the proof that samarkhand, bokhara etc were once indo-iranian if not fully indian/hindu (not much difference between indian and iranian in any case)
Islamism - 4 - Guest - 03-14-2006
<!--QuoteBegin-acharya+Mar 14 2006, 02:43 AM-->QUOTE(acharya @ Mar 14 2006, 02:43 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->The Arab Role in the Discovery of America
Were the Arabs responsible, or at least partly responsible, for the discovery of the Americas? According to this book review from Arab-language Al Khaleej, without the gift of Islamic science and scientists, the history of the Western enlightenment might be far dimmer than it is.
By Fatima al-Sayig
Translated By Aja Ishmael
February 27, 2006
Al Khaleej - U.A.E. - Original Article (Arabic)Â Â
Vasco de Gama, One of the Great Western Explorers.
Without the Scientific Genius of the Muslim World
and the Aid of Muslim Navigator Ibn Majid, His
Dicoveries Would Likely Have Been Impossible.
[RealVideoVasco De Gama]
[RealVideoIbn Majid]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Were the Arabs actually the first to discover America? If the answer is no, then did they participate in some way or another in that discovery? These questions are the axis of the book Arab Navigation in the Age of Prosperity by Tarik al-Hamdani, published by the [Abu Dhabi] Cultural Foundation - that lofty scientific institution that has a distinct role in preserving and spreading the Arab legacy.
Since Spain's discovery of the New World - or what came to be known by the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th centuries as America - questions surrounded possible Arab participation in that achievement. There is no doubt that the Arabs had managed to trigger a revolution in the fields of geography, astronomy and navigation, and that the Europeans benefited from this revolution, as they borrowed the roots of their renaissance from Arab science and learning, to lay the foundations of a new civilization and then spread it around the world.
When European scholars In the Middle Ages were still arguing about the shape of the earth, the earth's roundness had long been a settled fact for Muslim Scholars, who were in possession of various proofs and arguments. And when Europeans began their studies in geography, Muslim Arabs already had well-developed theories on the topic. When Europeans began developing in philosophy and the science of astronomy, their way of thinking was based upon the knowledge and theories of the Arabs and Muslims. Muslim-Arab scholars had left behind a great scientific legacy, for al-Qalqashandi's book Subh al-A'sha, al-Idrisi's book Nuzhat al-Mushtak and Ibn Fadl Allah al-Umari's book Masalik al-Absar were all lamps that lit the way for Europeans to reach America.
<img src='http://watchingamerica.com/images/vascoship_pic.jpeg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
Christopher Columbus, Another
Western Explorer That Owed
Much of His Success to Muslim
Scientists and Researchers.
<img src='http://watchingamerica.com/images/vascovoyage_pic.jpeg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
[RealVideoChristopher Columbus]
-----------------------------------
Arab scientific studies had a major impact on the West, so naturally these studies paved the way for the discovery of America by Columbus [RealVideo], who knew about the Arab theories from Latin translations. As cited in Arab writings, the Arabs had called the Atlantic Ocean "The Sea of Darkness," as an expression of the fear that they associated with this great ocean.
That is why Arab vessels had been content with following close to the African and European coastlines following landmarks. But this doesn't mean that none of them ventured into the Atlantic, finding its limits and arriving at one of the many islands it contains. There are some reports that author cites, as in al-Idrisi's book Nuzhat al-Mushtak, that points out that Muslim adventurers did tour some of the Atlantic islands, bringing back many riches. This tale was called the "Voyages of Sinbad [?];" and it was an adventure for young people in the Arabs of al-Andalus [Spain] about adventurers that crossed the ocean - and it is believed their feet had walked on American soil.
This adventure was known - indeed, it was well-known - in Europe. Whatever its degree of importance, Columbus himself pointed out in his memoirs that he had benefited from the views of Arab geographers about the roundness of the Earth, Arab maps and the sciences of astronomy and navigation. For Ibn Majid [one of the most famous Arab navigators [RealVideo] had appeared before Columbus, or during his time, and Westerners were completely aware of Ibn Majid's scientific research, just as Europeans in the 20th century became aware of the colossal legacy he left behind. So they set out to study him.
Vasco da Gama's Ship, the E. Casanova.
His Navigator Was Most Likely
Famed Muslim Geographer, Ibn Majid.
----------------------------------------------
Many European and Arab researchers in books and research have dealt with this question. And while some of them deny that Ibn Majid was the sailor that led the ships of Vasco de Gama [RealVideo] to India, others emphasize the likelihood of this, as the preponderance of scientific evidence contained in Ibn Majid's legacy bears this out.
Portuguese interest in navigation and astronomy had been growing throughout the 15th century, with the object of geographical discovery; Arab techniques in these fields - such as the use of the compass and the astrolabe [a very ancient astronomical computer RealVideo] aided them in this. The exploratory journey of Pero da Covilhao [RealVideo] to the East [Arab Lands] contributed to this period of geographical discovery, as did the journey of Bartholomew Diaz, long before Vasco da Gama was able to undertake his famous voyage in 1497, making two trips around the Cape of Good Hope and East Africa to arrive at the Indian coast.
The 1497 Voyage of Vasco De Gama
Around the Cape of Good Hope to India
Would Not Likely Have Occured
Without the Help of Islamic Science
and Mulsim Navigator, Ibn Majid.
--------------------------------------------
And while Vasco da Gama was looking east [for a passage to India], Columbus was looking west. In 1492, this Italian sailor was able to reach the islands that the "Voyages of Sinbad [?]" had spoken of, although all he was looking for was a route to India. European historians praised the fact that Ibn Rushd [Spanish Muslim Philosopher, 1128-1198 AD] was one of those who had predicted the existence of a new world beyond the Atlantic Ocean. Similarly, Columbus pointed out in his memoirs that he had benefited from the views of Arab geographers on the roundness of the earth.
The route to India opened, by way of the Cape of Good Hope, numerous opportunities for the Portuguese in the beginning of the 16th century, for colonization, trade and economic influence, and to the vast riches that they controlled due to their domination of the east. Similarly, Columbus blazed a trail for Spain, by means of his discovery of the New World, to control the new continent and its riches. Accordingly, Europe has controlled the entire world since the 16th century, dividing up its riches and controlling the destinies of its peoples.
<img src='http://www.harpercollege.edu/mhealy/geogres/maps/nwgif/muslmwor.gif' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
----------------------------------------------------------
At the same time, the Arab and Islamic powers began to lag behind because of a number of political problems. The matter was not limited to intrinsic Arab weakness and decline, but rather to the fact that the Arabs themselves submitted to European colonialism; indeed, in some regions colonialism lasted until the end of the 20th century, with Arabs denied full involvement in global civilization, as the torch of knowledge passed into the hands of the Europeans. And while European civilization was progressing by leaps and bounds both scientifically and technically, Arab participation in these fields dropped to today's dismal levels.
Indeed, this book plays an important role in describing the past achievements of Arabs and Muslims, and reminds a new generation of the achievements of their forebears. Perhaps this recollection will enable Arab and Muslim culture to remain intact and healthy in the face of the West's occasional organized attacks of skepticism against it, which are designed to create doubts about Arab participation in the world culture.
[right][snapback]48464[/snapback][/right]
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
quite a nice fantasy, except that they forgot to mention that they learnt all the math and astronomy and navigation they did, from hindus and from persian translations of sanskrit texts - and then passed them on to the west like a disease. similarly they passed on the unani system of medicine of the greeks to india.
Islamism - 4 - acharya - 03-15-2006
Competing ideas of the sacred
Karen Armstrong
THE CRISIS occasioned by the Danish cartoons, which depicted the prophet Muhammad as a terrorist, has become a microcosm of the wider conflict between Islam and the Western world. It also represents a clash between two competing conceptions of the sacred. The sacred, of course, does not necessarily imply an external deity. Some faith traditions, especially those originating in the East, have no conception of the supernatural and are not theistic in the western sense. The sacred symbolises that which is inviolable, non-negotiable, and so central to our identity that, when it is injured in any way, it seems to vitiate the deepest self. For the Muslim protesters, the figure of the prophet is sacred in this way; for the supporters of the cartoons, free speech is the sacred value.
Freedom of expression is both a product and a prerequisite of modernity. In the pre-modern world, social order was regarded as more important than freedom of thought. It was not feasible to encourage people to have original ideas or to criticise established institutions in the hope of improving them, because agrarian-based society lacked the resources to implement many new notions. But independent thinking became essential to the modern economy; society could only become fully productive if inventors and scientists were able to pursue their ideas without the supervision of a controlling hierarchy. Our right to free speech and free thought has been hard won, and western civilisation could not function without it. It has become a sacred value, symbolising the inviolable sovereignty of the individual.
Nevertheless, we should not be surprised and affronted if people challenge it. Culture is always contested. Today all over the world religious conservatives and secularists feel deeply threatened by one another; they all fear the destruction of sacred, fundamental values. As a result, the modernisation process has been punctuated by such conflicts as the Scopes trial of 1925, when Christian fundamentalists in the U.S. tried to ban the teaching of evolution in the state schools, and the Salman Rushdie affair, when Muslims felt mortally wounded by his portrayal of their prophet.
These conflicts both began with what was perceived as an aggressive assault on religion by the proponents of free speech. But they ended by making the religious contenders more extreme. Before the Scopes trial, for example, Christian fundamentalists had often been on the left of the political spectrum, willing to work alongside socialists in the slums of the industrialising cities. But as a result of their media humiliation during the trial, fundamentalists swung to the far right, where they have remained. In other traditions too, the militant piety that we call "fundamentalism" has developed in a similarly symbiotic relationship with a liberalism or secularism experienced as hostile and invasive.
The cartoon crisis is simply the latest of these disputes, and as such could be seen as part of the bumpy process whereby societies at different stages of modernisation gradually learn to accommodate one another. But in the current political climate, we can ill afford this escalation of tension. On both sides, the conflict has been fuelled and exploited by radicals, who do not represent the majority.
At last week's meeting of the Alliance of Civilisations (AoC), a U.N. initiative with the mandate of drawing up a list of practical guidelines for member states to prevent the acceleration of hatred and misunderstanding, we were given the result of a recent poll of Muslim youth. This showed that 97 per cent of the young people surveyed deplored the violence and rhetoric of the Muslim protesters, even though they had been offended by the cartoons. Another delegate reported that while most Danish people vigorously defended free speech, they were distressed that the cartoons had so heedlessly trampled on Muslim sensibilities.
On both sides, the radicals have tried to eliminate the middle ground, and this is extremely dangerous. The Muslims who vandalised embassies and brandished placards vowing to execute the cartoonists have fulfilled the stereotypical view of "Islam" in the West: a religion seen as violent, fanatical, self-destructive, and opposed to freedom. At the same time, those who aggressively support the repeated publication of the cartoons embody the view many Muslims have of "the west": as arrogant, disdainful of religion, chronically Islamophobic, and guilty of double standards â proudly boasting of its tolerance, but not applying it to anything Islamic. When the dust has settled after the crisis, these negative stereotypes will be more entrenched, to the detriment of a final reconciliation.
Many have been alarmed by the increase of the Muslim population in Europe, which seems inimical to western values. They are naturally defensive and apprehensive; the cartoons can be seen as an expression of this anxiety and as a blow for freedom. But they also revealed the darker side of the culture they purported to defend, and have a grim precedent. Historically, Europe has found it extremely difficult to tolerate minorities; one member of the AoC group recalled that before the Shoah, in preparation for what was to come, Nazi propagandists encouraged the publication of anti-semitic cartoons in the German press.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, an indispensable member of our AoC group, spoke from personal experience of the abiding pain felt by people who see their traditions consistently scorned and ridiculed by an imperialist power. When people hurt in this way, he said, it only takes a little thing to push them over the edge. When Islam was a major world power and Muslims were confident, they could take insults about their religion in their stride. But today, fearful of the hostility in Europe and bombarded with images from Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, many experienced the gratuitous vilification of their prophet by the Danish cartoonists as the last straw.
Recent prejudice
Hatred of the West is a relatively recent prejudice in the Islamic world. A hundred years ago, every single leading Muslim intellectual, with the exception of the proto-fundamentalist Al-Afghani, saw Western modernity as deeply congenial and, even though they hated European colonialism, many wanted their countries to look just like Britain and France. <span style='color:red'>Relations soured not because of an inherent "clash of civilisations," but because of Western foreign policy, which continues to fuel the crisis.</span>
How do we move forward? Washington's threatening posture towards Iran can only lead to an increase in hostility between Islam and the West, and we must expect more conflicts like the cartoon crisis. Instead of allowing extremists on both sides to set the agenda, we should learn to see these disputes in historical perspective, recalling that in the past aggressive cultural chauvinism proved to be dangerously counterproductive. The emotions engendered by these crises are a gift to those, in both the Western and the Islamic worlds, who, for their own nefarious reasons, want the tension to escalate; we should not allow ourselves to play into their hands.
* * *
(Karen Armstrong is the author of The Great Transformation: The World in the Time of Buddha, Socrates, Confucius and Jeremiah.)
â © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
Islamism - 4 - Guest - 03-15-2006
western foreign policy remains as far as possible a colonial foreign policy.
Islamism - 4 - Guest - 03-16-2006
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Agence France Presse -- English
March 15, 2006 Wednesday 1:49 AM GMT
HEADLINE: Cash and a car for the blood of Danish cartoonists
DATELINE: PESHAWAR, Pakistan, March 15 2006
In his office in Peshawar's historic Mohabat Khan mosque, prayer leader Maulana Yousaf Qureshi smoothes his beard from the white roots to the henna-orange tips.
"There's no time limit. If someone kills the cartoonist in 50 years he will still get the million dollars," he says.
In a blazing sermon on February 17, Qureshi promised the money -- and a new car -- to whoever assassinates any of the 12 Danes whose drawings of the Prophet Mohammed ignited a firestorm of protest across the Muslim world.
On the same day, anti-cartoon protests in the conservative northwestern city turned into full-fledged anti-western riots that left foreign fast-food joints and businesses in flames.
The unrest has abated since then, but not the anger.
"We want them to spend the rest of their days like prisoners, under police protection," nods the imam, between two sips of sweetened green tea.
"We would like Denmark to sentence them to death, but since they don't do that there we would settle for life imprisonment."
Qureshi himself offered a 500,000 rupee (8,333 dollar) reward while the rest is being collected by the Peshawar Association of Goldsmiths. The group also offered the car.
In Peshawar, the narrow lanes of the gold market adjoin the massive white mosque. Many jewellers bear callouses on their foreheads, caused by years of bowing in prayer.
Ahmed, who would not give his first name, is one of them. In his tiny shop he hammers out a gold sheet. "I'm ready to donate my share. No one is refusing to pay, it's an honour. I'll give as much as possible, everything I have."
A little further off Haji Zarin Khan, the association's secretary general, sits in his office surrounded by gold and mirrors. "All contributions will be voluntary. The richer ones will naturally pay more," he says.
"When the Prophet was alive, one day someone insulted him. He ordered they should be put to death. So it's normal that the people behind these abominations should be killed. It's simple."
He lowers his voice. "Look, what we basically want to do is send a message to the rest of the world. No doubt it will be difficult for someone to actually go to Denmark and kill these people. But we want to express our anger. And to ensure this never happens again."
Some visitors in the room nod in agreement.
"The solution is for them to say they are sorry. The cartoonists or the Danish government. Islam says you must pardon those who repent," Khan adds.
Rehmat Khan, who runs a modest shop near the entrance to the mosque, said he had "not been told about this reward. The association has not made any official announcement.
"But if they ask me I will give them what I can. I am a small jeweller, I won't be able to give much... but I will give something."
Asked if he had seen the offending cartoons, he replied: "No, no, of course not. I'm too busy working every day. And anyway it would be a sin to look at them."
Sat cross-legged on a rug, behind his three telephones, his fax and his computer, Qureshi closes his eyes and smiles.
"These unfortunate drawings have had one positive effect: they have woken up the Muslim world, which is now more united."
<b>A ringing telephone interrupts him. "Inshallah (God willing), my son," he says.
"A mujahedin (holy warrior)," he explains. "He is asking if someone can sort out his trip to Denmark..." </b>
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Islamism - 4 - acharya - 03-16-2006
<b>Using credit cards is un-Islamic: Scholars</b>
March 14, 2006 16:13 IST
Coming down heavily on usage of credit cards and subscription to medical insurance policies, leading Islamic scholars have sought to discourage Muslims from using them, saying they were 'un-Islamic' practices.
The use of both entailed payment of interest, which is prohibited in Islam, the scholars, participating in the All India Conference of Islamic Jurisprudence in Mysore said.
Besides interest, these schemes also encouraged consumerism, causing people to lead a lifestyle that was beyond their means, according to All India Fiqh Akademi General Secretary, Khalid Siafullah Rehamani.
However, the scholars felt that there was no harm in using debit cards and ATM cards issued by the various banks. On the issue of medical insurance, the scholars compared it to being akin to gambling.
Though rendering help to the sick was laudable, these policies were based more on the pursuit of business ventures, devoid of any service motto. However, scholars were not opposed to medical insurance schemes per se as the ones in practice in certain Islamic countries (since they adhered to Islamic teachings) and cited Malaysia as an example.
The conference, which also deliberated on genetic sciences and paternity tests through DNA, said that conducting the tests to identify the gender of a foetus was not permissible under Islam. Abortion of foetus within 120 days of conception was only acceptable if the tests proved some physical and mental abnormalities.
Nearly 250 Islamic scholars participated in the meet, which concluded in Mysore on Monday night.