The Koran to Replace the Bible?

Thanks to the American Family Association and Townhall for this story.

America, Not Keith Ellison, decides what book a congressman takes his oath on
By Dennis Prager
Tuesday, November 28, 2006


Keith Ellison, D-Minn., the first Muslim elected to the United States Congress, has announced that he will not take his oath of office on the Bible, but on the bible of Islam, the Koran.

He should not be allowed to do so -- not because of any American hostility to the Koran, but because the act undermines American civilization.


A Palestinian woman holds the Koran during a Hamas rally against Israeli troops operation in northern Gaza strip November 3, 2006. Israeli troops shot and killed two Palestinian women acting as human shields between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen during a clash at a Gaza mosque on Friday, witnesses said, before the gunmen escaped. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA)

First, it is an act of hubris that perfectly exemplifies multiculturalist activism -- my culture trumps America's culture. What Ellison and his Muslim and leftist supporters are saying is that it is of no consequence what America holds as its holiest book; all that matters is what any individual holds to be his holiest book.

Forgive me, but America should not give a hoot what Keith Ellison's favorite book is. Insofar as a member of Congress taking an oath to serve America and uphold its values is concerned, America is interested in only one book, the Bible. If you are incapable of taking an oath on that book, don't serve in Congress. In your personal life, we will fight for your right to prefer any other book. We will even fight for your right to publish cartoons mocking our Bible. But, Mr. Ellison, America, not you, decides on what book its public servants take their oath.

Devotees of multiculturalism and political correctness who do not see how damaging to the fabric of American civilization it is to allow Ellison to choose his own book need only imagine a racist elected to Congress. Would they allow him to choose Hitler's "Mein Kampf," the Nazis' bible, for his oath? And if not, why not? On what grounds will those defending Ellison's right to choose his favorite book deny that same right to a racist who is elected to public office?

Of course, Ellison's defenders argue that Ellison is merely being honest; since he believes in the Koran and not in the Bible, he should be allowed, even encouraged, to put his hand on the book he believes in. But for all of American history, Jews elected to public office have taken their oath on the Bible, even though they do not believe in the New Testament, and the many secular elected officials have not believed in the Old Testament either. Yet those secular officials did not demand to take their oaths of office on, say, the collected works of Voltaire or on a volume of New York Times editorials, writings far more significant to some liberal members of Congress than the Bible. Nor has one Mormon official demanded to put his hand on the Book of Mormon. And it is hard to imagine a scientologist being allowed to take his oath of office on a copy of "Dianetics" by L. Ron Hubbard.

So why are we allowing Keith Ellison to do what no other member of Congress has ever done -- choose his own most revered book for his oath?

The answer is obvious -- Ellison is a Muslim. And whoever decides these matters, not to mention virtually every editorial page in America, is not going to offend a Muslim. In fact, many of these people argue it will be a good thing because Muslims around the world will see what an open society America is and how much Americans honor Muslims and the Koran.

This argument appeals to all those who believe that one of the greatest goals of America is to be loved by the world, and especially by Muslims because then fewer Muslims will hate us (and therefore fewer will bomb us).

But these naive people do not appreciate that America will not change the attitude of a single American-hating Muslim by allowing Ellison to substitute the Koran for the Bible. In fact, the opposite is more likely: Ellison's doing so will embolden Islamic extremists and make new ones, as Islamists, rightly or wrongly, see the first sign of the realization of their greatest goal -- the Islamicization of America.

When all elected officials take their oaths of office with their hands on the very same book, they all affirm that some unifying value system underlies American civilization. If Keith Ellison is allowed to change that, he will be doing more damage to the unity of America and to the value system that has formed this country than the terrorists of 9-11. It is hard to believe that this is the legacy most Muslim Americans want to bequeath to America. But if it is, it is not only Europe that is in trouble.

The Letter From Little Hitler

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has written a letter to the American people. He is using our own media to undermine our government and try to spread his own absurd views by causing division within ourselves. As if we don't have enough problems or differences to worry about we have to put up with this crap! Enough I say!
Fox News has put up a forum for Americans to write letters to this little Hitler and they will post them on their website. Email letters here.

In other news...Al-Qaida has denounced the Pope's visit to Turkey, calling it a "crusader campaign" against Islam. Now who would have expected this, radical terrorist muslims denouncing the holiest man alive?

Now the Christians Want to Forsake Christianity

Lee Camp, a theologian from David Lipscomb University in Nashville says that Christians must 'let go' of some beliefs for the sake of peace by forsaking the Christian model. Read the entire article here. A historically conservative Church of Christ university, Lipscomb appears to be falling into the politically correct trap of muslim appeasement.

I Always Knew There Were Huge Differences

Most people know from basic observation that there is a substantial difference between men and women, well, this study proves it. Apparently, women talk three times as much as men do, engage more brain power during mundane chit-chat, and get a rush from hearing their own voices that compares to heroin addicts when they get high.
The study also said that the brain's "sex processor" is twice as large in men as in women.
So I guess you could say that for women talking is like having sex?

Down Your Throat and in Your Face?

Down Your Throat and In Your Face?

The debate about same-sex “marriage” is often reduced to outrage toward those who dare offer opposition. Rarely is there a calm debate over the real issues involved.

Instead, pro-family promoters are brutally stereotyped as hate-filled Bible-thumping conservatives who are attempting to push their narrow-minded beliefs down the throats of all in society. Their in-your-face attitude is labeled dangerous and irrational.

It is ironic that those liberals who rail against stereotyping should be so ardent in practicing it. Even a most elementary reading of most serious pro-family materials would be enough to dismiss such stereotypes. Even worse is the fact that the use of this stereotype has become a battering ram against those who would dare oppose any aspect of the homosexual agenda.

In face of such irrational attacks, perhaps it would be helpful to analyze not the pro-family arguments but the stereotype. Are all those opposed to same-sex “marriage” really hate-filled Bible-thumping conservatives attempting to push their narrow-minded beliefs down the throats of all in society?

Down Your Throat
Perhaps the most blatantly false part of the portrayal is the idea that social conservatives are forcing their agenda down the throats of Americans. Nothing could be farther from the truth. It is a technical impossibility since one cannot impose something that is already in place.

In the case of same-sex “marriage,” all conservative Americans are doing is reaffirming the status quo. They are affirming something that is the norm. In the case of Catholic Americans, they are affirming a position that has been consistently taught by Church fathers and saints for 2,000 years.

Exclusive traditional marriage is the law of the land. This law has been further enshrined by popular acclamation in a Federal Defense of Marriage Act signed by President Bill Clinton defining marriage as between a man and a woman. State versions of this act were later adopted by forty states. Taking the law of the land yet further, traditional marriage constitutional amendments have been overwhelmingly approved in 27 American states. Family advocates merely affirm what is already in place. In other words, nothing is being imposed.

That is not the case on the side of same-sex “marriage” advocates. They are in fact proposing something completely new. A tiny minority is claiming as a right something that has never been accepted or established in history. Since it is not the law of the land, they are seeking to change the laws to fit their agenda. They avoid at all cost bringing the issue to a popular vote. More often than not, it is the activism of judges that force acceptance. In other words, same-sex “marriage” is being imposed on society by the homosexual movement and its allies.

Regardless of one’s stand, one has to admit that if anyone is forcing something down the throat of America, it is the same-sex “marriage” promoters.

To extend the argument yet further, it is worthwhile to note that social conservatives are also affirming the scientific status quo. There is no scientific evidence to support the thesis that homosexuality is genetic. Scientists have searched in vain for a homosexual gene. When family promoters point this out, they are simply presenting the evidence not their own opinions.

Again, the other side does the exact opposite. Many pro-homosexual individuals simply deny the scientific record and gratuitously affirm that homosexuality is genetic because they feel it is that way. In other words, their down-your-throat approach is to present their own opinions as scientific fact.

Bible-thumping
Another common misconception by those who do the stereotyping is that pro-family promoters based their position solely on the Bible. Pro-homosexual activists contend that since some Americans do not believe in the Bible, all such arguments are invalid.

Again, the reasoning is flawed. Indeed, the Bible is full of quotes that unequivocally oppose homosexual relations, revisionist exegeses notwithstanding. Pro-family promoters undeniably find these citations helpful in countering same-sex marriage. Religious and moral arguments are very important in the debate but they are far from being the only resource.

Pro-family supporters meet the opposition on every major field of argument. In the field of philosophy, they defend a long Western tradition of natural law, written on the hearts of all men, from which is built a morality of unchangeable laws. These laws are the same, always and everywhere and the basis of law in civilized society.

From the point of view of social science, social conservatives point out the factors of the homosexual lifestyle which disqualifies them for marriage. They cite, for example, the sterility of these relationships and the promiscuous lifestyles often adopted by those in so-called stable relationships who see no contradiction between monogamy and infidelity.

Across the board, the homosexual lifestyle presents greater risks in everything that makes for a healthy family. Pro-family scholars document high indexes of health problems, infectious social diseases, mental health problems, alcoholism, drug use, suicide rates, domestic abuse, and child abuse.

At the same time, thousands of studies have been produced in many disciplines that prove the overwhelming benefits of traditional marriage to child well-being. They prove that marriage is more than a private emotional relationship; it is an undeniable social good that best protects the interest of the child, family and society.

The fact is that the social conservatives base their positions on much more than just the Bible. In every major field and discipline, they have gathered material to support their position.

On the other side, the same quality of research is not often found. For example, studies seeking to prove that sexual orientation in family life is irrelevant have consistently suffered from design flaws, methodological problems and lack of long term evidence. The homosexual movement has often used misinformation, false premises and shoddy pop science like that of the late Alfred Kinsey. At times “evidence” consists of sentimental vignettes and emotionally charged prime time network reports.

Hateful Christians?
Finally there is the claim that social conservatives opposing same-sex marriage are hateful and uncharitable. Such accusations themselves are ironically often couched in passionate condemning diatribes.

Again, such characterizations are unjust. Those opposing same-sex marriage have no intention to defame or disparage anyone. No one is moved by personal hatred against any individual. In intellectually opposing individuals or organizations promoting the homosexual agenda, the sole intent of social conservatives is the defense of marriage, the family, and the precious remnants of Christian civilization in society.

In fact, far from being hateful, practicing Catholics are called to be filled with compassion and pray for those who struggle against unrelenting and violent temptation to sin, be it toward homosexual sin or otherwise. They pray for those who fall into homosexual sin out of human weakness, that God may assist them with His grace. They pray for the conversion of those radical activists pushing the homosexual agenda, even when doing everything permitted by law to block their efforts.

Down your throat and in your face? The evidence points to the other side.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Father, please accept our thanks today,
as round this table here we pause to pray;
Grateful hearts are warmed as we recall,
'tis from Thy bounty that our blessings fall.
This gladsome feast with loved ones now to share,
is but a measure of Thy tender care.




Bless us oh Lord, and these thy gifts which we are about to receive, from thy bounty, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Please Boycott, Nothing Would Make Americans Happier!

Normally I am not a huge fan of Ann Coulter as she can be a little over the top, but she wrote a great piece on her blog today about the 6 imams booted off a US Airways flight from Minneapolis to Phoenix.

WHAT CAN I DO TO MAKE YOUR FLIGHT MORE UNCOMFORTABLE?
November 22, 2006

Six imams removed from a US Airways flight from Minneapolis to Phoenix are calling on Muslims to boycott the airline. If only we could get Muslims to boycott all airlines, we could dispense with airport security altogether.

Witnesses said the imams stood to do their evening prayers in the terminal before boarding, chanting "Allah, Allah, Allah" — coincidentally, the last words heard by hundreds of airline passengers on 9/11 before they died.

Witnesses also said that the imams were talking about Saddam Hussein, and denouncing America and the war in Iraq. About the only scary preflight ritual the imams didn't perform was the signing of last wills and testaments.

After boarding, the imams did not sit together and some asked for seat belt extensions, although none were morbidly obese. Three of the men had one-way tickets and no checked baggage.

Also they were Muslims.

The idea that a Muslim boycott against US Airways would hurt the airline proves that Arabs are utterly tone-deaf. This is roughly the equivalent of Cindy Sheehan taking a vow of silence. How can we hope to deal with people with no sense of irony? The next thing you know, New York City cab drivers will be threatening to bathe.

Come to think of it, the whole affair may have been a madcap advertising scheme cooked up by US Airways.

It worked with me. US Airways is my official airline now. Northwest, which eventually flew the Allah-spouting Muslims to their destinations, is off my list. You want to really hurt a U.S. air carrier's business? Have Muslims announce that it's their favorite airline.

The clerics had been attending an imam conference in Minneapolis (imam conference slogan: "What Happens in Minneapolis — Actually, Nothing Happened in Minneapolis"). But instead of investigating the conference, the government is now investigating my favorite airline.

What threat could Muslims flying from Minnesota to Arizona be?

Three of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 received their flight training in Arizona. Long before the attacks, an FBI agent in Phoenix found it curious that so many Arabs were enrolled in flight school. But the FBI rebuffed his request for an investigation on the grounds that his suspicions were based on the same invidious racial profiling that has brought US Airways under investigation and into my good graces.

Lynne Stewart's client, the Blind Sheik, Omar Abdel-Rahman, is serving life in prison in a maximum security lock-up in Minnesota. One of the six imams removed from the US Airways plane was blind, so Lynne Stewart was the one missing clue that would have sent all the passengers screaming from the plane.

Wholly apart from the issue of terrorism, don't we have a seller's market for new immigrants? How does a blind Muslim get to the top of the visa list? Is there a shortage of blind, fanatical clerics in this country that I haven't noticed? Couldn't we get some Burmese with leprosy instead? A 4-year-old could do a better job choosing visa applicants than the U.S. Department of Immigration.

One of the stunt-imams in US Airways' advertising scheme, Omar Shahin, complained about being removed from the plane, saying: "Six scholars in handcuffs. It's terrible."

Yes, especially when there was a whole conference of them! Six out of 150 is called "poor law enforcement." How did the other 144 "scholars" get off so easy?

Shahin's own "scholarship" consisted of continuing to deny Muslims were behind 9/11 nearly two months after the attacks. On Nov. 4, 2001, The Arizona Republic cited Shahin's "skepticism that Muslims or bin Laden carried out attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon." Shahin complained that the government was "focusing on the Arabs, the Muslims. And all the evidence shows that the Muslims are not involved in this terrorist act."

In case your memory of that time is hazy, within three days of the attack, the Justice Department had released the names of all 19 hijackers — names like Majed Moqed, Ahmed Alghamdi, Mohand Alshehri, Ahmed Ibrahim A. Al Haznawi and Ahmed Alnami. The government had excluded all but 19 passengers as possible hijackers based on extensive interviews with friends and family of nearly every passenger on all four flights. Some of the hijackers' seat numbers had been called in by flight attendants on the planes.

By early October, bin Laden had produced a videotape claiming credit for the attacks. And by Nov. 4, 2001, The New York Times had run well over 100 articles on the connections between bin Laden and the hijackers — even more detailed and sinister than the Times' flowcharts on neoconservatives!

Also, if I remember correctly, al-Qaida had taken out full-page ads in Variety and the Hollywood Reporter thanking their agents for the attacks.

But now, on the eve of the busiest travel day in America, these "scholars" have ginned up America's PC victim machinery to intimidate airlines and passengers from noticing six imams chanting "Allah" before boarding a commercial jet.

A Legend has Died

The Cato Institute reports that Economic Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman has died, he was 94.

While in college studying economics, my professors regarded Friedman as a living legend, someone who had revolutionized economic thought, impacting both the Reagan administration and the Thatcher government. The world has lost a true genius today.

The Kurdish Key to the Middle East

THE KURDISH KEY TO THE MIDDLE EAST

Dr. Jack Wheeler

Among the most fascinating folks in the world are people known as the Kurds. They are older than history. The Land of Kurda is mentioned in Sumerian clay tablets - the world's oldest writing - over 5,000 years ago. The Land of Kurda - Kurdistan - was ancient five millennia ago.

The Kurds had been living there for thousands of years before 3,000 BC - and they are still living there today, in the mountains of what is now northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, northeastern Syria, and southeastern Turkey.

They number in the tens of millions - five million in Iraq, ten million in Iran, three million in Syria, between twenty and thirty million in Turkey. They are by far the largest ethnic group on earth without their own country.

This has always made them a threat to the countries that divide up their homeland of Kurdistan. Always. The Kurds have been fighting the Persians for 2,500 years, the Arabs for 1,300 years, the Turks for 500 years. Western governments look upon the Kurds as a problem which threatens to break apart the fragile map of the Middle East into chaotic pieces:

Now at last, the time has arrived to look upon the Kurds as an opportunity rather than a threat, not as a problem but a solution. The emerging reality is that the Kurds are the key to peace, freedom, and democracy throughout the entire Middle East.

I am writing this in the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world - Arbil in northern Iraq. Unlike other claimants to that title such as Damascus and Jericho, Arbil has been continuously inhabited for millennia by the same people, the Kurds. ("Arbil" or "Irbil" is the name on the map, it's Saddam-era Arabic name. The original Kurdish name is Hewlar, pronounced how-lair.)

Every day in the newspapers there are headlines about "the civil war in Iraq." There is no civil war here, in Iraqi Kurdistan. There is no terrorism, no IED attacks, no car bombings, no suicide bombers, no gangs of Shia murderers slitting the throats of Sunnis and vice versa.

In their place is a construction boom. Everywhere you look in Arbil ( a city of close to two million) and Iraqi Kurdistan's second largest city, Sulaymanieh (over one million), you see built or being built beautiful new homes, office buildings, hotels, car dealerships, and shopping malls.

The "civil war" is taking place in the Sunni and Shia regions of tripartite Iraq. It is the third part, Kurdish Iraq, that is holding Iraq together. The Kurds are already the key to keeping Iraq intact. When is it going to dawn on Washington that they are the key to solving the Middle East's other intractable problems?

It won't until it somehow acquires the wisdom to support Kurds in Iran - there are twice as many Kurds in Iran as in Iraq - struggling to liberate Eastern (Iranian) Kurdistan from the nightmare tyranny of the Mullacracy in Tehran. Kurds like Hussein Yazdanpanah, leader of the Revolutionary Union of Kurdistan (RUK) whose guerrilla fighters have been conducting anti-mullacracy activities for a generation.

I am writing this in his home. I am looking at a photograph on the wall of his dining room. It was taken in 1980, after Ayatollah Khomeini declared a Holy War on the Kurds for not accepting his dictatorship.

An execution squad of Khomeini soldiers are kneeling and firing their rifles point blank at a line of Kurdish captives. Several of the Kurds have just been hit, and you see their knees buckling and their bodies thrown back with the shock of the bullets. They are Hussein Yazdanpanah's relatives.

His family has been fighting the Mullacracy since its inception in 1979. But actually, his family has been fighting for Kurdish freedom for the last 500 years.

Note what they and Kurds in general have not been fighting for: Islam.

Kurds are reluctant Moslems, who recite to their children stories of how Islam was forced upon their ancestors by Arab conquerors in the 7th century. They pay literal lip service to Allah, mouthing prayers in Koranic Arabic they don't understand. The ancient Kurdish language is far, far different from Arabic - thus while many Kurds also speak colloquial Arabic, very few of them read the classical Arabic of the Koran.

It is the month of Ramadan right now, a time of fasting and religious observance, but many young Kurds are ignoring it. That's here, in Iraqi or "South" Kurdistan (southwestern Turkey is North Kurdistan, while eastern Syria is West Kurdistan).

In Iranian or East Kurdistan, belief in Islam is collapsing. The mullacracy has disgraced Islam in the eyes of young eastern Kurds and are thus rejecting it en masse.

More and more, they are returning to their original religion of Zoroastrianism. "Zoroaster" is the Anglicized pronunciation of Zardasht, a religious teacher from the Urumia area (now in Eastern Kurdistan near where Turkey, Iraq, and Iran come together) who lived around 1200 BC.

He taught that the earth was the battleground between the forces of good, represented by the god Yazdan (also named Ahura-Mazda), and the forces of evil, represented by the god Ahriman. The way to overcome evil and to take the path to heaven, he counseled was Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds.

Cyrus I (590-529 BC), founder of the Persian Empire, adopted the worship of Zardasht or Zoroaster and declared it to be the state religion of Persia. The Three Magi who visit the infant Jesus in the manger at Bethlehem in the Book of Matthew were Zoroastrians.

In the mid-7th century AD, the invading Arab hordes forced the Kurds and Persians to abandon their religion and accept Islam at the point of a sword. After 13 centuries, that sword has lost its edge for the Kurds as they return to their ancient faith.

One of them is Hussein Yazdanpanah, whose name means "Under the shadow (protection) of God."

Yes, there are mosques and minarets and muezzins calling people to prayer here in Iraqi Kurdistan. You see older women (although never the younger) wearing a nun-like black cloak called a hijab. But Kurds take their ethnic identity as primary. Their religion comes in second.

Thus the Kurds have a long, long history of religious tolerance. Adherents of a religious sect formed of a mix of paganism, Zoroastrianism, and Islam known as the Yezidis flourish among them. Their often-odd beliefs such as proscriptions against wearing the color blue and never eating lettuce are easily accepted.

The descendants of the Empire of Assyria that reached its peak in the 7th century BC adopted Christianity in 3rd and 4th centuries AD. The Christian Assyrian community has been a part of Kurdish culture ever since. There are a number of Christian churches of varying denominations here in Hewler (Arbil) and elsewhere in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Yet for all of this, just about no one in Washington seems able to apply it to Iran.

It's not just the invertebrates of the State Department allergic to regime change in principal - it's even astute folks like Charles Krauthammer and Fred Barnes who say on Fox News they don't know of an alternative to the only choices they see: militarily attack Iran or capitulate to the Mullacracy and make the best deal we can.

They, like most everyone else, are unaware of the potential of the Kurds to liberate Iran. It's not just that Eastern or Iranian Kurdistan is exploding with dissent, or even that liberation movements like the RUK and KDPI (Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran) are organizing that dissent.

It's that the Eastern Kurds are not demanding secession from Iran, but autonomy within a federated Iran - just like what the Southern or Iraqi Kurds have achieved in Iraq.

They realize that the dream of an independent, united Kurdistan - North (Turkey), South (Iraq), West (Syria), and East (Iran) Kurdistan all in one sovereign nation carved out of the map of the Middle East, is just that - a dream.

The reason is Turkey. The Kurds of Iran, Iraq, and Syria are grossly outnumbered by the Kurds of Turkey and have no wish to be dominated by them. In a fully united Kurdistan, they would be.

Worse, the Kurds of Turkey are plagued with a totalitarian Marxist terrorist organization called the PKK, the Kurdish Workers Party.

Everyone here in Iraqi Kurdistan, every liberation movement in Iranian Kurdistan, hates the PKK. Originally set up by KGB agent Yevgeni Primakov in the 1970s and sponsored by the Soviets to destabilize NATO-member Turkey, the PKK is now sponsored by the Mullacracy of Iran. The main base of the PKK with several thousand PKK guerrillas, is near Urumia in Iran near the Turkish Border.

A liberated Iran would end this support, and the Iraqi and Iranian Kurds could then help the Turkish Kurds eradicate the PKK and bring autonomy to a Turkish Kurdistan within a fully democratic Turkey. (Turkey doesn't even recognize the existence of their Kurds, calling them "Mountain Turks." All attempts to have Kurdish schools, newspapers, and other expressions of Kurdish identity are brutally suppressed.)

Even with that eventuality, Iranian Kurds have no intention of merging with Turkish Kurds who outnumber them so greatly. Thus support from the United States - money, military and political training, supplies - for them represents the third alternative, the way out of the dilemma to attacking or capitulating to the Mullacracy.

In an attempt to find out how viable this third alternative is, I am about to be taken inside Iran with a group of RUK guerrillas. Surreptitiously crossing a heavily-guarded border with armed guerrillas is not something to be undertaken lightly. But it is the only way to see for oneself.

Next week, I'll tell you what I experienced, and then we can discuss further how the Kurds are the key to achieving freedom in Iran and democracy in the Middle East. In the meantime.... Wish me luck.

The Artist Formally Known as Cat Stevens

Remember when Cat Stevens was denied entry into the United States in 2004 after his name appeared on the "no fly list"? Well, it appears he might be more deserving of that distinction then originally thought. View the article here. Thanks to the Mudville Gazette for the original link to the post.