Tuesday - September 19, 2006

In Harm’s Way

If Pope Benedict XVI goes ahead with the trip to Turkey, he will be surrounded by millions of angry, easily offended Muslims who are already boiling mad at him and the rest of the world in general. If anything at all happens to the Pope during this visit, there will be hell to pay ... literally. If he even so much as gets a scatch on his head, it will be time to rain fire and brimstone down on the sorry bastards. They have been begging for a fight for decades now. This could be the match that lights the fuse that blows it all up. Stay tuned ...

_{Steve Breen — The San Diego Union-Tribune}

Pope’s Turkey Visit Still On Despite Muslim Anger
_{(IRISH EXAMINER) - September 18, 2006 7:39 PM}

Catholic bishops met in Istanbul today and decided the Pope’s visit to Turkey in November should go ahead despite anger in the Islamic world over his comments about Islam and holy war, Vatican spokesman George Marovic said.

Marovic, spokesman for the Vatican in Turkey, said the trip was expected to be held as planned and the bishops had discussed details of a religious ceremony the pontiff is to lead in Istanbul.

A chorus of voices in Turkey has been calling for Pope Benedict XVI to cancel his visit – his first to a Muslim country as pontiff – if he does not apologise for his remarks, which have been interpreted as derogatory to Islam.

Also today, police detained a pro-Islamic protester who forced his way into the International Protestant Church in Ankara with the threat of a fake gun and locked himself in a room, threatening to blow up the church if the pope visited Turkey, private CNN-Turk television reported.

Police captured and detained the man. The man reportedly did not possess any explosives and it was not clear if he was mentally unstable. State Minister Mehmet Aydin, who oversees religious affairs in Turkey, said that he expected Turkish authorities to cancel the pope’s visit if Benedict did not offer a full apology.

“We are expecting the authorities to unilaterally cancel this visit. The pope’s coming to Turkey isn’t going to foment the uniting of civilisations, but a clash of civilisations,” Aydin said.

The bishops’ meeting in Istanbul was scheduled long ago and was closed to the press, Vatican officials said. There was no official announcement after the meeting.

The pope’s comments – in which he quoted a 14th century Byzantine emperor who linked Islam and violence and characterised some of the teachings of Islam’s founder as “evil and inhuman” – have dominated news coverage for several days in Turkey and across much of the Muslim world.

_{Jeff Koterba — Omaha World Herald}

Posted by The Skipper     on 09/19/2006 at 08:35 AM   
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   Saturday - September 16, 2006

Here We Go Again

I was reminded of all this recently, when I read… of part of the dialogue carried on - perhaps in 1391 in the winter barracks near Ankara - by the erudite Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Paleologus and an educated Persian on the subject of Christianity and Islam, and the truth of both.

In the seventh conversation...the emperor touches on the theme of the holy war. Without descending to details, such as the difference in treatment accorded to those who have the “Book” and the “infidels”, he addresses his interlocutor with a startling brusqueness on the central question about the relationship between religion and violence in general, saying: “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”

The emperor, after having expressed himself so forcefully, goes on to explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable. Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul. “God,” he says, “is not pleased by blood - and not acting reasonably is contrary to God’s nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats.”

-- Pope Benedict XVI
“Faith, Reason and the University: Memories and Reflections”
University Of Regensberg, Germany
September 15, 2006

 

 

Fresh Criticism Of Pope’s Remarks
_{(BBC) - September 16, 2006 07:45 GMT 08:45 UK}

Criticism is continuing to pour in from religious and political leaders in the Muslim world following remarks by Pope Benedict XVI about Islam. Pakistan’s president, Pervez Musharraf, spoke of sinister tendencies to link terror with Islam which gave rise to an ominous alienation with the West.

Pope Benedict, who is back in Italy, is said to be upset at the way in which his remarks have been interpreted. At the same meeting, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the Pope had to do more to calm Muslim emotions.

“The Pope must not take lightly the spread of outrage that has been created,” he said, quoted by Malaysia’s Bernama news agency. “The Vatican must now take full responsibility over the matter and carry out the necessary steps to rectify the mistake.”

In Germany, the Pope’s homeland, Chancellor Merkel said the Pope had spoken in favour of dialogue between religions, “which is something I also support and consider urgent and necessary. “What Benedict XVI emphasised was a decisive and uncompromising renunciation of all forms of violence in the name of religion,” she said. The Vatican has also rejected the interpretation of the pontiff’s remarks as an attack on Islam, and has said he intended no offence.

Posted by The Skipper     on 09/16/2006 at 03:06 AM   
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   Thursday - September 14, 2006

As The World Turns

A jealous nun. Having a four-year-long affair with a priest. Catches him in bed with another woman. A married woman. Nun attacks priest with machete and sets fire to his house. Nun has had two abortions during four-year affair with priest. Nun is 39, priest is 70. Did I miss anything?

You just can’t make this s**t up ....

Nun Tried To Kill Priest After
Finding Him In Bed With Another Woman
_{(DAILY MAIL-UK) - 13th September 2006 3:55PM GMT}

A jealous nun appeared in court charged with threats to kill and an arson attack on a priest’s house - after she caught him in bed with a married woman. Sister Silvia Gomes De Sousa, 39, saw red and set fire to Father Carmelo Mantarro’s house after she nabbed him ‘in flagrante.’

The furious nun - who was also Father Carmelo’s cleaner - was also armed with a machete and threatened to kill the priest before being restrained by passers by. Police and fire officials were quickly on the scene and managed to put out the flames which had been started by sister De Sousa using matches and candles on curtains and furniture.

The drama happened in the sleepy Italian village of Roccalumera near Messina on the island of Sicily and was the talk of the nation as it dominated TV and radio news programmes.

The saucy goings on were made even more interesting by father Carmelo’s age - he is 70 years old - and is said to have been sleeping with both sister De Sousa and the other woman for several months.

At the court hearing Sister De Sousa also claimed to have had two abortions as a result of having unprotected sex with Father Carmelo and also showed several love letters from him. She told the hearing: “I just flipped when I came to the house and caught him in bed with another woman who is married.

“We had been together four years and I had even had two abortions because of him.” Judge Antonino Giacobello freed sister De Sousa - who is accused of threats to kill and arson - on bail and adjourned the case until next month.

Posted by The Skipper     on 09/14/2006 at 10:11 AM   
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   Thursday - July 13, 2006

The Crocodile Samaritan

Oh dear! What shall we do? Issue a fatwah against the Aussies or just throw another shrimp on the barbie and hope God understands? Either way, you can order a copy of the Aussie Bible ($6.95) today and read about Ramses telling Moses to shove off before the Jews did a walkabout in the desert. Good onya, mate!

And God Said: Let’s Have Some Light, Mate
_{—(SYDNEY MORNING HERALD) - July 13, 2006}

“There was this sheila who came across a snake-in-the-grass with all the cunning of a con man. The snake asked her why she didn’t just grab lunch off the tree in her garden.

God, she said, had told her she’d be dead meat if her fruit salad came from that tree, but the snake told her she wouldn’t die.

So she took a good squiz and then a bite and passed the fruit on to her bloke. Right then and there, they’d realised what they’d done and felt starkers.”

So begins the Biblical account of the fall of mankind retold using “strine”, or Australian vernacular.

The first instalment of Kel Richards’s Aussie Bible was a runaway bestseller, selling 100,000 copies since its August 2003 release.The second instalment gives the “Aussie” treatment to the Book of Genesis, Proverbs, the Gospel of John and John’s first letter, translating the stories of Adam and Eve and the beginning of time using well-worn, laconic Australian vernacular.

As Richards, wordsmith, journalist and committed Christian, puts it, God was tinkering around in his workshop when “out of the blue, God knocked up the whole bang lot”.

Then there was Joseph, the stockman, who got from his dad this “lairy coat - lots of colour and no taste” - that made his brothers “dead jealous”. Richards said the Bible was written in the language of the marketplace and it was appropriate to use “conversational barbecue English”.

He takes fewer liberties with the retelling of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, because the “jokes are not there”. But “strine” does enable him to tell the serious story at the heart of Christian faith in an informal and accessible way. “The Aussie language is a rich dialect; it’s not just an informal language, it’s a language of the heart,” he said.

Daniel Willis, chief executive officer of the Bible Society of NSW, said the Australian version had introduced the Bible to a wider audience and had proven popular with hospital and prison chaplains who offered it as an introduction to the original text.

Richards believes the book has been useful in introducing Christianity to the unchurched. “Conversion is a process and probably [the Aussie Bible] plays a raising-awareness role rather than a closing-the-deal role.”

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/13/2006 at 10:00 AM   
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   Friday - July 07, 2006

Protestant Islam?

A Syrian-born French professor of Arabic literature advocates Protestant Islam. I know what you’re thinking, isn’t Islam protesting Western civilization? That’s not what he means. In an interview he says:

Telquel: “You characterize yourself as one who interprets the Koran rationally. What do you mean by that?”

Tahhan: “To read the Koran rationally is to accept that the Koran is open [to interpretation] and has many meanings. The tradition regards the Koran as one-dimensional and fixed. This approach is not rationalist. To be a rationalist is to accept that each era, with its [particular] methods and discoveries, presents its own reading of the Koran, and this is the way it will be until the end of days. To be a rationalist is to acknowledge that the orthodox approach is fundamentally wrong since it does not accept the multiplicity of readings.”

Telquel: “You are one of a handful of experts around the world on the different versions of the Koran. How did you come to have a passion for this topic?”

Tahhan: “Let me remind you of a historical fact that is accepted by all. In the year 901 - an unfortunate year for Muslims - a Muslim qadi named Ibn Mujahid canonized [one version of] the Koran. Before that, there were many different versions of the Koran, and this did not upset the good Muslims!”

This guy is a real radical Muslim. He goes to the Word of Allah, not the Shari’a.

Tahhan: “Today, Muslim thought evolves within a very rigid framework, namely the framework of the Shari’a. I, on the other hand, refer to the sacred scriptures.

And then:

“As a Protestant Muslim, I… Challenge the Over-Application of the Shari’a”

Pretty radical. I expect a fatwah will be issued against him soon. You can read the rest of the interview at Memri.org

Posted by Christopher     on 07/07/2006 at 07:59 PM   
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   Tuesday - June 13, 2006

Godless

Michael Newdow is a dickhead - and he’s getting on my nerves. In fact, he is just about to really piss me off with his continued attacks on God. If he wants to be an atheist, so be it - just leave the rest of us alone. What I would really like to do is stick him on a deserted island with Shirley Phelps-Roper and let the two of them go at it. I think God himself would be pleased with that resolution to the problem. The “anti-Christ” versus the “un-Christ”. The winner gets a free trip to hell ...

Judge Rejects Atheist’s Lawsuit
_{June 12, 2006, 9:08 PM EDT}

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP)—A federal judge on Monday rejected a lawsuit from an atheist who said having the phrase “In God We Trust” on U.S. coins and dollar bills violated his First Amendment rights. U.S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. said the minted words amounted to a secular national slogan that did not trample on Michael Newdow’s avowed religious views.

Newdow, a Sacramento doctor and lawyer, also is engaged in an ongoing effort to have the Pledge of Allegiance banned from public schools because it contains the words “under God.” Two years ago, the pledge fight reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which said Newdow lacked standing to bring the case because he didn’t have custody of the daughter on whose behalf he brought the case.

But a Sacramento federal judge sided with Newdow in September after he filed an identical lawsuit on behalf of parents with children in three Sacramento-area school districts. The case is pending before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Newdow’s “In God We Trust” lawsuit targeted Congress and several federal officials, claiming that by making money with the phrase on it the government was establishing a religion in violation of the First Amendment clause requiring separation of church and state.

The phrase “excludes people who don’t believe in God,” he claimed. Damrell disagreed, citing a 9th Circuit decision from 1970 that concluded the four words were a national motto that had “nothing whatsoever to do with the establishment of religion.” Newdow said Monday he would appeal.

Congress first authorized a reference to God on a two-cent piece in 1864. In 1955, the year after lawmakers had the words “under God” put into the Pledge of Allegiance, Congress passed a law requiring all U.S. currency to carry the motto “In God We Trust.” Newdow filed the lawsuit five days after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected, without comment, a challenge to an inscription of “In God We Trust” on a North Carolina county government building.

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/13/2006 at 02:03 AM   
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   Tuesday - June 06, 2006

DCLXVI

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/06/2006 at 01:15 AM   
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   Sunday - May 07, 2006

Religious Kerfuffle

Disclaimer: I have not seen the movie yet but I plan to when it debuts in a couple of weeks. I have however, read the book, which is a highly entertaining work of fiction. The story revolves around a fictional plot by the Catholic church to supress a fictional history of Jesus. Did I mention that the book and the movie are works of fiction? It seems that several groups have somehow missed that point.

I don’t mean to offend anyone but how is getting upset over a book or movie that revolves around a fictional history of Jesus and has no basis in fact supposed to be different from Muslims getting upset over Mohammed cartoons? Will the Christians storm the movie theatres and set fire to the popcorn machines? Will Dan Brown, Ron Howard and Tom Hanks have to go into hiding after a Christian “fatwah” is issued against them? I doubt it. Christians usually have better sense than that, with the exception of Pat Robertson.

I didn’t get around to reading the book until just recently when it came out in paperback (yeah, I’m cheap about some things). I had read all the negative reviews from churches but finally decided to see what the kerfuffle was all about. Now I’m not a Bible-thumping religious fanatic by any means but I am a Christian (Baptist) and I do believe in Jesus and the salvation he promised. Oddly enough, after reading the book I found that my convictions had not changed one iota. I did however, have a rip-snorting good time with a fun story.

To me the book was nothing more than an elaborate game of “Clue” with step after step of cryptic hints leading two people toward an unknown destination while the bad guys were on their tail the whole time. The only fault I had with the story is that Brown’s clues were kinda lame. I was usually about two pages ahead of the heros in the book and found myself snickering at their failure to see the obvious at almost every turn. Then again, my background is in mathematics and computers and I’ve always had an interest in cryptography. In addtion, the Fibonacci sequence, the Masons and the Knights Templar are really old set pieces in almost any conspiracy story. It’s time to get a new set of evil conspiracy characters. Those groups are worn out and have been since “The Maltese Falcon” started it all.

Bottom line: when the movie opens, I’ll be there with my jumbo popcorn and coke ($15 - which is the only outrageous thing about this), watching the plot unfold and silently screaming at Tom Hanks and the screen, “NO! You jerk! Rearrange the numbers! It’s the Fibonacci sequence!” And at the end of the movie, Jesus will still be the Son of God. Amen.

Churches Prepare To Rebut ‘DaVinci’
_{May 7, 2006}

Area churches are preparing to counter unorthodox claims about Jesus Christ in the movie “The Da Vinci Code,” which opens in theaters later this month. “‘The Da Vinci Code’ kind of gave a focus that there’s a lot [of misinformation] about Jesus Christ and Christianity out there, and perhaps it’s time to rebut it,” said Monsignor Francis J. Maniscalco, a spokesman for the District-based U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “If people see [the movie], they should go prepared.”

Dan Brown wrote the best-selling novel, “The Da Vinci Code,” published in 2003. Its film adaptation, directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks, will premiere in theaters May 19. The fast-paced, fictional novel reads like a giant Christian conspiracy theory, with a plot built on claims that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, that they had a daughter named Sarah and that their bloodline still exists.

The book also states early Christians never claimed Christ was divine and that the Catholic Church has covered up such information. Though the book is a work of fiction, those statements and Mr. Brown’s claim in the prologue that certain details in the book are authentic have alarmed area clergy.

“It poses certain questions to Orthodox Christian believers that the church needs to address,” said John Yates, rector of Falls Church Episcopal, where sermons on “The Da Vinci Code” will be featured May 21 and 28. “My hope would be that it would cause people to want to go back to the New Testament and read about Jesus more carefully than they ever have before.”

- More on this story at the Washington Times ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/07/2006 at 09:59 AM   
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   Sunday - April 16, 2006

Happy Easter

Mat 28:1    In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first [day] of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.

Mat 28:2    And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.

Mat 28:3    His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow:

Mat 28:4    And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead [men].

Mat 28:5    And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.

Mat 28:6    He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

Mat 28:7    And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you.

Posted by The Skipper     on 04/16/2006 at 06:46 AM   
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   Thursday - April 06, 2006

The Time Traveler

I saw this link on Misha’s site and followed it.  Wow.

Here’s a taste:

The Time Traveler appeared suddenly in my study on New Year’s Eve, 2004. He was a stolid, grizzled man in a gray tunic and looked to be in his late-sixties or older. He also appeared to be the veteran of wars or of some terrible accident since he had livid scars on his face and neck and hands, some even visible in his scalp beneath a fuzz of gray hair cropped short in a military cut. One eye was covered by a black eyepatch. Before I could finish dialing 911 he announced in a husky voice that he was a Time Traveler come back to talk to me about the future.

If you read nothing else today but this, you will have read enough.

Posted by Drew458     on 04/06/2006 at 08:05 AM   
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   Tuesday - March 28, 2006

Religious Tolerance

“Keeping Up Appearances” by Cox & Forkum

- Stop The ACLU: “Abdul Rahman Seeks Asylum”

- Michelle Malkin: “Save Abdul Rahman”

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/28/2006 at 09:23 AM   
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   Monday - March 27, 2006

Culture Clash

I suppose if you’re going to take on the task of bringing morals and family values back to America you might as well start at Ground Zero: San Francisco. Only don’t be surprised if you are faced with an official condemnation from the city council and a protest by none other than .... the “Sisters Of Perpetual Indulgence”. 

“They’re loud, they’re obnoxious, they’re disgusting, and they should get out of San Francisco”, according to Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco. He was referring to the Christian youth of course ... not the ... uh ... “Sisters”.

_{Sister Mary Timothy of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence shouts at evangelical Christian youths rallying outside City Hall
Photo by Paul Chin, SF Chronicle}

---

Evangelical Teens Rally In San Francisco
_{Saturday, March 25, 2006}

More than 25,000 evangelical Christian youth landed Friday in San Francisco for a two-day rally at AT&T Park against “the virtue terrorism” of popular culture, and they were greeted by an official city condemnation and a clutch of protesters who said their event amounted to a “fascist mega-pep rally.”

“Battle Cry for a Generation” is led by a 44-year-old Concord native, Ron Luce, who wants “God’s instruction book” to guide young people away from the corrupting influence of popular culture. Luce, whose Teen Mania organization is based in Texas, kicked off a three-city “reverse rebellion” tour Friday night intended to counter a popular culture that he says glamorizes violence and sex. The $55 advance tickets for two days of musical performances and speeches were sold out, but walk-up admission was available for $199.

After stops in Detroit and Philadelphia in the next few weeks, Luce wants to unleash a “blitz” of youth pastors into the communities to do everything from work with the homeless to find new ways to bring others to Christ. He challenged youth leaders to double the size of their groups in the next year. And then he plans to return to San Francisco next year to chart their progress.

That’s bad news to Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, who told counterprotesters at City Hall on Friday that while such fundamentalists may be small in number, “they’re loud, they’re obnoxious, they’re disgusting, and they should get out of San Francisco.”

Luce didn’t flinch in the face of the counterprotest. The author, host of the “Acquire the Fire TV” cable television program and a President Bush appointee to a federal anti-drug-abuse commission, wants teens to find Bible-based solutions for the spread of sexually transmitted disease, teen pregnancy, drug abuse and suicide.

The villains, Luce said, range from the promiscuity and “sexualization” of young people on MTV and the popular online meeting hub MySpace.com to a corporate culture that spends millions trying to woo the under-21 crowd.

- More on this story in the San Francisco Chronicle ...

- On The Net: Battle Cry’s Official Web Site

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/27/2006 at 05:59 AM   
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   Thursday - February 23, 2006

Do Unto Others … As They Do Unto You

My first thought when reading this was, “no, this is not Christians fighting Muslims - this is one group of third-world savages fighting another group of third-world savages.” That didn’t seem to fit right so I decided to see what other bloggers on my blogroll had to say about it and if my first impression was right. Nearly every blogger I read on this subject seemed to feel the same way. Then I stumbled across Ace over at Ace Of Spades HQ who put into words exactly what I was thinking subconsciously but wouldn’t admit. Thanks Ace, for the reality check ...

I suppose I’m supposed to condemn the mob violence on both sides equally. But that’s a lot of bullshit. The Muslim mobs killed, beat, maimed, and burned because of some cartoons published in small country thousands of miles of way.

The Christian mobs are killing, beating, maiming, and burning because they were themselves killed, beaten, maimed, and burned last week.

Every group of human beings has the capacity for this kind of vicious, random, xenophobic violence. Some are, let us say, more easily set to murderous frenzy than others.

-- Ace

“In Nigeria, Christian Mobs Terrorize Back”

Nigerian Christians Mob Muslims
February 23, 2006, 11:37 AM EST

ONITSHA, Nigeria (AP)

Christians in this southern Nigerian city burned Muslim corpses and defaced wrecked mosques Thursday, showing little repentance after days of sectarian violence that has killed more than 120 people across the country. Onitsha has borne the brunt, with at least 80 of the deaths. The violence followed weekend protests over the publication of cartoons of Muhammad, the Islamic prophet.

“We don’t want these mosques here anymore. These people are causing all the problems all over the world because they don’t fear God,” said 34-year Ifeanyi Ese, standing amid the concrete rubble of an Onitsha mosque. With a crowd gathered, Ese angrily scrawled “Mohammed is a man, but Jesus is from above” on a shattered mosque wall with a burned stick.

Thousands of Nigerians have died in sectarian strife since 2000, when mostly Muslim northern states began implementing Islamic Shariah law in late 1999. Nigeria’s 130 million people are split between the two faiths, with Christians a majority in the south.

The latest violence was touched off Saturday in the northern city of Maiduguri, when Muslim protests against cartoons caricaturing the Prophet Muhammad. The cartoons, which first appeared in a Danish newspaper in September, have set off sometimes violent protests around the world. The Maiduguri protests turned violent, and 18 people, most of them Christian, were killed.

Twenty-five more died in similar violence in the northern city of Bauchi, sparking reprisals in Onitsha. “The Muslims started it when they attacked the Christians due to the cartoon of Muhammad in Denmark. If they cartooned their god, well, they must endure it and not fight,” said Christian Ike, a 35-year old motorcycle taxi driver. “We want to be one Nigeria.” Emeka Umeh, who heads leading human rights group Civil Liberties Organization in Anambra state, said at least 80 people were killed in Onitsha—60 Tuesday and 20 Wednesday.

One entire Muslim district—an area of about 100 homes—was burned to the ground. Crumpled corrugated tin roofs lay on top of the remains of smoldering houses. At least nine bodies, all charred, lay in dirt streets as passers-by hurried past, holding cloths to their noses against the stench. Three other bodies burned on a pyre of flaming tires.

About 5,000 Muslims fled the city and took refuge across the Niger River in the neighboring town of Asaba. Several hundred of them sat beneath trees at a police barracks there, asking for help to travel northward as babies wailed. Adam Mohamed, a 40-year-old Muslim motorcycle mechanic, said mobs attacked and robbed Muslims as they fled across a bridge connecting the two cities.

“Some were killed. Others were thrown from the bridge into the water,” Mohamed said. “These people attacked us, burnt our mosques and killed our people. But by God’s grace, I escaped.” Most seemed resigned to their fate. “The prophet told us to accept what happens to us because it is our destiny,” said Abdul Salaam Danbuzu, a 26-year-old sheep herder from neighboring Niger. “We’re a small community and now we must all leave. All we can do is run.”

Trucks that usually carry fruit and other goods to market were packed with Muslims heading north. It wasn’t known how many Muslims lived in Onitsha. Gov. Chris Ngige extended a curfew imposed on Onitsha to the nearby towns of Nnewi and Awka, the state capital, after Muslim northerners had been attacked and killed in those places Wednesday, the local government radio station reported.

Deaths have also been reported by residents in violence the same day against Muslims in Enugu, a mainly Christian and ethnic Igbo-dominated city, some 60 miles north of Onitsha. A spokeswoman for the Nigerian Red Cross, Umo Okon, said there were 925 victims of violence in Onitsha over the two days, including deaths, injuries and people displaced from their homes. She did not have an exact breakdown.

The latest outbreak of fighting is the worst to hit Nigeria since 2004, when Muslim-Christian skirmishes in northern Nigeria’s Plateau and Kano states killed more than 700 people. The cartoons that reignited Muslim-Christian tension in Nigeria were the object of protests around the world. One caricature shows Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban with an ignited fuse.

Posted by The Skipper     on 02/23/2006 at 01:00 PM   
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   Thursday - February 16, 2006

Baden-Powell: The Prophet

Alright, I confess. I was a Boy Scout. In fact I was a member of that nefarious religious cult for six years. We were brainwashed into believing in a power greater than ourselves. We indoctrinated Christians, Jews and Buddhists in our troop. We even taught Arnold Jenkins not to pick his nose in public. I myself, rose to be a high priest (Eagle Scout). We were shameless in our pursuit of the message laid down by the Prophet Baden-Powell (praise his name).

I cannot even begin to tell you of the secret rituals we participated in out in remote wooded areas under a full moon - although I’m pretty sure none of which involved drinking any blood ... I think. Thank goodness the ACLU is exposing this crackpot cult. Maybe now young boys will no longer be forced to be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent. It would be far better if they were homosexual atheists - at least, according to the ACLU, that is ...

Boy Scouts: A Religion?
February 16, 2006
(WORLDNET DAILY)

Arguments in a major Boy Scouts case argued in Pasadena, Calif., before a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals – a case that is certain to be headed for the Supreme Court—centered on the contention that the revered organization is actually a religion and should therefore not be given a lease of public land.

The case was brought by self-declared agnostics Lori and Lynn Barnes-Wallace and Michael and Valerie Breen, along with a son of each, in protest of a lease of parkland in Balboa Park and Fiesta Island by the city of San Diego to the Boy Scouts of America.

The agnostics sued the city on a claim that the lease to the Boy Scouts – out of more than 100 leases, including to the YMCA, a number of Jewish groups, one of which conducts Sabbath services on parkland, and the Girl Scouts – violates the Establishment of Religion Clause of the First Amendment, and that they are suffering “inferior usage” thereby because they don’t want to have to apply for permits, or pay usage fees, to the BSA. The case is Barnes-Wallace, et al. v. Boy Scouts of America, Nos. 04-55732, 04-56167.

A federal judge in San Diego granted the summary judgment to the agnostics, finding that the Boy Scouts are a “religion” because of the Boy Scout Oath, which includes doing one’s duty to “God and my country,” and the Boy Scout Law, which includes “reverence” as one of 12 precepts. Also, the Scouts require a belief in God as a condition of membership.

The city itself is not part of the appeal. It settled with the American Civil Liberties Union to avoid further expense, agreeing to terminate the lease and to give the ACLU $940,000 in attorney fees. The appeal continues since the Boy Scouts, if they prevail, want to be able to contract for a lease with the city again.

The case has drawn national attention because the federal judge’s finding that the BSA is “a religion” imperils the future work of not only the Boy Scouts, but all organizations that recognize a transcendent higher authority, including community service organizations like Rotary and Kiwanis, Alcoholics Anonymous, which works directly with the courts and government, and veterans organizations like the American Legion, whose constitutional preamble begins “For God and Country,” almost identical to the Boy Scouts Oath.

“If the Boy Scouts are ‘a religion,’ so are we in the American Legion. Is the ACLU going to sue our 2.7 million wartime veteran members next, claiming we, too, are ‘religion’? Are they going to sue to destroy the religious symbols at our veterans’ memorials on public property? The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier? Our work in Boys State, Boys Nation, with the government? Our Oratorical Contests with schools?” a Legionnaire asked after Tuesday’s court session.

The crucial cultural question of who or what “is a religion” was argued by lawyers for the parties and submitted for decision to three lawyers sitting as Ninth Circuit Justices: William C. Canby, Andrew J. Kleinfeld and Marsha Berzon. Mark Danis, lawyer for the agnostics, argued that the Boy Scouts are “a religion,” and the lease to the BSA therefore violates the Establishment Clause because the agreement “aids” religion. The Boy Scouts pay only $1 a year, as do, apparently, all the other nonprofit groups that have leases on parklands.

George P. Davidson, BSA lawyer, argued that the Scouts are “not a religion,” but an organization dedicated to helping youth build moral and ethical character, which mission the BSA believes needs a belief in God and reverence as a necessary component. He emphasized that the BSA is “not sectarian;” has no creed, in the sense of a systematic theology or religious doctrine; expressly directs Scouts that any religious instruction should be by their parents and self-chosen religious affiliations; and that the Scouts include boys of many religions, including Christians, Jews, Muslims and others.

- More on this “religion” here ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 02/16/2006 at 10:13 AM   
Filed Under: • Judges-Courts-Lawyers • Religion •  
• Comments (17) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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