Category Archives: Islam

Fatwa 40378

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This particular Fatwa saw the light of day – in a manner of speaking – in 2003, so it isn’t exactly news. What makes it interesting is to view its description of Islamic contempt for the Bible in the light of Islam’s maniacal protectiveness of the Koran.

Here are the Rabelaisian ruminations on new uses for the Bible, courtesy of Fatwa 40378. Emphasis mine:

Judgment: Despising the Torah or the New Testament

Question: “Does someone who insults the Torah or the New Testament engage in apostasy, given that these include some words of God?”

Answer: “It would be impermissible to disdain the Torah and New Testament if they contained the truth and the name of the exalted, such as the name of God the Most High. Whoever does this [i.e., disrespect the books] knowingly and by choice would be considered an apostate and would be despised by God. But [in fact] the Torah and New Testament do not have anything exalted in them. They are known to have been corrupted, so there is no problem disdaining them.

Ash-Shams[ad-Din] Ar-Ramli [d.1004 A.D.] said in [his book of fiqh] Nihayat al-Muhtaj: “It is impermissible to use respected books like those of hadith and fiqh for anal cleansing after defecation (al-istinja’,الأستنجاء ), but non-respected books like philosophy, Torah and the New Testament, which are known as corrupt and which do not contain exalted names, can be used for anal cleansing after defecation.”

 

Muslims kill U.N. staff because of Koran Flambé

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The difference between a nutty Christian and a nutty Muslim is that when the nutty Christian loses his head, everyone else gets to keep theirs; with Muslims it’s the reverse.

From here:

MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan — Stirred up by a trio of angry mullahs who urged them to avenge the burning of a Koran at a Florida church, thousands of protesters overran the compound of the United Nations in this northern Afghan city, killing at least 12 people, Afghan and United Nations officials said.

The dead included at least seven United Nations workers — five Nepalese guards and two Europeans, one of them a woman. None were Americans. Early reports, later denied by Afghan officials, said that at least two of the dead had been beheaded.

The attack was the deadliest for the United Nations in Afghanistan since 11 people were killed in 2009, when Taliban suicide bombers invaded a guesthouse in Kabul. It also underscored the latent hostility toward the nine-year foreign presence here, even in a city long considered to be among the safest in Afghanistan — so safe that American troops no longer patrol here in any numbers.

Unable to find Americans on whom to vent their anger, the mob turned instead on the next-best symbol of Western intrusion — the nearby United Nations headquarters. “Some of our colleagues were just hunted down,” said a spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, Kieran Dwyer, confirming the attack.

Montreal parish does Lenten study on Islam

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The Parish of St. Andrew and St. Mark studied Islam during Lent:

Understanding Islam:

Conversations with our Muslim Brothers and Sisters

Everyone who is interested in learning about another faith is invited to come and share in our Tuesday Lenten Series on Islam, The evening will begin with a talk given by our local Imam, Dr. Ahmad Shafaat,  on the basics of the Islam faith.  It will be followed by a question period, and opportunities for more conversation in small groups, with invited visitors from our local mosque.

Three Tuesdays in Lent

February 23, March 2, March 9.

7:30  PM

St Andrew and St. Mark’s Anglican Church

To make sure they had the hang of Islam, 23 parishioners attended prayers at the Dorval Mosque:

 

There is no word on whether the 23 Anglicans converted to Islam or not. Either way, it probably wouldn’t make much difference.

Thousands of Christians displaced in Ethiopia after Islamists set fire to churches and homes

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From here:

Thousands of Christians have been forced to flee their homes in Western Ethiopia after Muslim extremists set fire to roughly 50 churches and dozens of Christian homes.

At least one Christian has been killed, many more have been injured and anywhere from 3,000 to 10,000 have been displaced in the attacks that began March 2 after a Christian in the community of Asendabo was accused of desecrating the Koran.

In the midst of all this terrorising of Christians by Muslims, there is at least some good news: only one Koran has been damaged – and even that appears inconclusive.

World leaders won’t have to write notes imploring copy-cat desecrators to show more sensitivity to Koran lovers, the heads of bishops and archbishops won’t implode as they contemplate the enormity of possible hate crimes against the Koran and, something we can all be thankful for, Obama won’t make another speech about how, in this teachable moment, Christians should show restraint so as not to inflame worldwide Islamophobia.

Episcopal Church does Lenten series on Islam

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From here:

Islam is the second largest religion in the world — and the fastest growing — yet few Americans know anything about it.

That, according to the Rev. Peter Whalen of Episcopal Church of the Redeemer and pastor Kent Lewis of Christ Lutheran Church, could be a grave error, and the root of future misunderstanding.

Together, the two churches will be hosting a five-week class about the religion every Wednesday night during Lent except Ash Wednesday. The first class will be March 16, beginning at 7 p.m. at Church of the Redeemer.

And why not? The Episcopal Church has misrepresented Christianity long enough; it’s time for Islam to have a turn.

 

Teacher attacked for teaching other religions to Muslim girls

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From here:

Four men launched a horrific attack on a teacher in which they slashed his face and left him with a fractured skull because they did not approve of him teaching religion to Muslim girls.

Akmol Hussein, 26, Sheikh Rashid, 27, Azad Hussain, 25, and Simon Alam, 19, attacked Gary Smith with a Stanley knife, an iron rod and a block of cement.

Mr Smith, who is head of religious education at Central Foundation Girls’ School in Bow, east London, also suffered a fractured skull.

The four now face a jail sentence.

Detectives made secret recordings of the gang’s plot to attack Mr Smith prior to the brutal assault.

The covert audio probe captured the gang condemning Mr Smith for ‘teaching other religions to our sisters’, the court heard.

The RE teacher was targeted as he made his way on foot along Burdett Road in nearby Mile End on July 12 last year, Snaresbrook Crown Court was told.

Prosecutor Sarah Whitehouse told the court: ‘The evidence from what was said on the probe points overwhelmingly to a religious motive for this attack.’

We have a cornucopia of assorted crimes that have been deemed “hate crimes” because the victim falls into a select category : there are, among others, hate crimes against Muslims, hate crimes against homosexuals, racial hate crimes and hate crimes against women. I notice that this particular thoroughly hate filled incident against a member of that most ridiculed minority – school Religious Education instructors – is not described as a hate crime. Does anyone doubt that if the teacher had been a Muslim and the criminals Christians or, even worse, Jews, we would have seen “Hate Crime” blaring from every headline?

A church shares its building with Muslims

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Heartsong Church in Cordova, Tennessee has invited local Muslims to share its building.

From here:

One of the most troubling components in the current dialogue about relationships between Jesus followers and Muslims is the charge that Muslims do not worship the one true God, indeed that they are idolaters. I wonder if people who say that would make the same charge against Jews who also do not accept Jesus as the Messiah. The Muslims with whom I share relationships of love and trust tell me they worship the same God I do and the Jews do. According to my faith, they cannot do it to the fullest because Jesus is the full revelation of God—God in flesh and blood. But who am I to say that they do not worship the one true God according to their understanding? Jesus reserved his sternest warnings for those who would dare take the place of God and pass judgment on the heart of another. Heartsong and I do not dare do this. Be careful, sisters and brothers, that you also do not.

The problem with arguing that Muslims worship the same God as Christians simply because they say they do, is that it can be said by anyone who worships anything that falls roughly into the category of “a god” – Gaia, Anuflac and Gorgastriaum included.

As the author of the above article acknowledges, if Christians are right, Jesus is the highest revelation of God to humanity and insofar as a religion doesn’t acknowledge that, it has things wrong and is worshipping, at best, something less than God, and, at worst, something opposed to God.

So should a church share its building with Muslms? Only if it’s to encourage them to convert to Christianity.

Some Muslim families coming to Canada don’t want to be Canadian

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From here:

WINNIPEG — A dozen Muslim families who recently arrived in Canada have told Winnipeg’s Louis Riel School Division that they want their children excused from compulsory elementary school music and coed physical education programs for religious and cultural reasons.

“This is one of our realities in Manitoba now, as a result of immigration,” said superintendent Terry Borys. “We were faced with some families who were really adamant about this. Music was not part of the cultural reality.”

Britain is finally waking up to the fact that living in Britain entails becoming British:

The Prime Minister also hit out at Labour’s experiment with multiculturalism – calling it a failure. He says society has failed to provide a strong sense of what it means to be British, making it easier for extremists to prey on youngsters seeking something to identify with.

He added: ‘We have even tolerated these segregated communities behaving in ways that run counter to our values.

Canada should do the same.