Showing posts with label Islam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Islam. Show all posts

19 July 2016

The West should end its own terrorism

The Blog


Rejecting the notion that the West is simply a helpless victim of murder and mayhem committed by radical (and usually Muslim) groups, Garrison Center director Thomas Knapp gives a useful reminder.


From his article, posted on 15 July in the aftermath of the terrorist attack in Nice, France:

 Western (including American and French)  troops have killed hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, in the Middle East and Central Asia just since 1991.  Many (maybe most) have been innocent civilians. Their families, friends, countrymen and co-religionists have, unsurprisingly, responded in kind. We should stop supporting military adventurism not just because it inevitably results in “blowback” and dead bodies back home, but because it’s as wrong when “we” do it as it is when “they” do it.

 It is indeed a hard heart that kills. Tools are mere distraction. Hearts — and minds — are where change begins."

 With yet another atrocity occurring in the defenseless and open EU (many people forget the dates of individual terrorists acts now, as terrorism becomes a fact of life within the failing EU), Knapp expects more ridiculous measures by states. They may include "no drive lists" to prevent anyone with possibly radical views from driving heavy trucks, the Garrison Center director wrote on Friday.

Indeed, one consistent behavior of Western states seems to be increased monitoring and bans aimed at previously innocuous devices.

Pressure cookers, vehicles, and possibly even metal bars can expect to be deemed "weapons of mass destruction" in future, as politicians want the whole population in padded cells to enjoy "freedom and democracy".


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24 June 2016

Islamic faith irrelevant to Omar Mateen

The Blog


Commenting on the work of investigators looking at the attack by US citizen Omar Mateen that took the lives of a high number of LGBT people in Orlando, Florida, Beliefnet's Hesham Hassaballa argued it was nothing to do with Islam.


Investigators currently believe even the connection between the gunman and the ISIS terrorist group was nothing more than posing for publicity at best. The shooter had his own reasons for committing his crime. With extremist ideology not an important motivation for Mateen, his Islamic faith was even more irrelevant.

Nevertheless, many other commentators in the media are convinced the attack is just additional evidence to claim all Muslims are terrorists in waiting. The rhetoric of politicians such as Donald Trump is therefore likely to take a boost in popularity, as a result of the shooting.

In conclusion, Hassaballa writes, "it is becoming increasingly clear that this crime had nothing to do with terrorism and ISIS. Omar Mateen fit the typical profile of a mass shooter, and this time, he happened to be Muslim."

Many critics of western media and legal responses to mass murder sprees focus on how Middle Eastern attackers are quickly judged to be religious terrorists even if they were mentally ill, whereas white attackers are only ever judged to be mentally ill or incorrectly medicated.


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7 June 2016

Muhammad Ali's sacred communication

The Blog


Following the iconic African American sportsman's recent passing on 3 June, Garrison Center director Thomas Knapp draws our attention to Muhammad Ali's days as a conscientious objector and anti-war campaigner.


Heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali refused the draft three times in 1967, and is known to have declared his sympathy with the victims of the US state's war crimes in Vietnam, saying "I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong — no Viet Cong ever called me nigger".

Without the stand Ali took against the Vietnam War, Martin Luther King Jr. would probably not have come out with the same view, inspired by the former's courage. And without that, the superpower might not have been so pressured to withdraw from its misguided wars.

Ali's legacy has already reached far beyond his own time and beyond America itself. Admired by many people across the globe, Ali's international popularity will still symbolize what Frantz Fanon meant when he mentioned an "illuminating and sacred communication" between all oppressed and colonized people. Here we see how virtue can transcend one's time and one's country. Ali's life offers a certain story of resistance and victory that will continue to inspire all people - but perhaps Muslims most of all - against imperialism, hegemony and injustice.


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10 May 2016

Labour's anti-State of Israel scandal

The Blog


The L'Ordre blog based at Beliefnet comments on the recent so-called anti-Semitism scandal creating controversy in British politics.


This anti-Semitism scandal relates to comments by Labour Party members about Israel, and the view that Israel is responsible for conflict in the Middle East. Not tolerating this view, some MPs within the Opposition are responding with vicious rhetoric against anyone - including all British Muslims - who consider Israel guilty of war crimes in the Middle East.

From the blog on Saturday:
To ban boycotts and stifle criticism of Israel in Britain’s democracy... would be against diversity... and will destabilize British society, even creating escalating violence in coming decades. It is also likely that the Muslim population will then grow in even greater isolation from politics, while believers in “democracy” shrink, during such a period. Faith in democracy will be lost, and, once censored and prohibited from the democratic Opposition, youths will be more likely to choose the path of violence rather than debate.
Read more at http://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/lordre/2016/05/cracks-in-british-society-due-to-israel-or-muslims.html#Gca07CAUijpLO2PE.99
The post notes the views of Security Studies scholars that countering extremism depends more on making people feel included and making the political process work rather than excluding, ostracizing and banning minorities for their feelings about political issues. In view of this, the idea that extremism is to be countered by suspensions, bans and other crackdowns on anti-Israel views in the Labour Party is "the worst move ever".

In fact, the post argues for opposite measures to be taken, compared with what the Labour Party seems to be doing now. "Allow the minorities to find expression, give them a greater platform in Britain and a role in governing the country", the blog says.


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29 March 2016

Islamophobic ideology gets countered

The Blog


While others take to the internet to express their idea that all Muslims are suicide bombers, Beliefnet contributor Hesham Hassaballa points out the lack of understanding ISIS terrorists actually have about Islam in a recent post.


Citing The Nation and other sources, the blogger noted that many people are obsessed saying ISIS followers are Muslims, as if this is important. They refer to Islam as the reason for ISIS atrocities such as the recent attack in Brussels. These obsessives use such facts to support their claims that Muslims are inherently violent and Islam is a problematic, uncivilized belief.

However, as Hassaballa points out to us, we must remember the reality of the relationship between ISIS and Islam:

  • ISIS does not care if its followers know nothing about Islam
  • They do not know or care what Sharia law, violent jihad or the "caliphate" are
  • Most suicide bombers are politically motivated and have often been non-religious (e.g. the LTTE)
  • They have actually been found buying Islam for Dummies even as they joined the group

The Islamophobia being countered by Hassaballa - which is gaining apparent support among conservative politicians and voters in the United States and Europe - is actually on par with claiming that the source of Nazism or the Ku Klux Klan is being white or Christian.

Proponents of the "Muslims are violent" hypothesis find their connection between Islam and terrorism to be logical, and fail to understand any argument presented against it. If faced with the above argument, they will just assume they are being called a racist or that you really are saying all white people are evil.


One way of looking at this would be to consider, why is "Islamic" important in labeling terrorists in media and political rhetoric? Why not point out if they are a Jew, Christian or Hindu? Why only connect Islam with murder? We also never see victims of terror labelled as Islamic. Only terrorists are ever labelled as Islamic.

While the belief among some westerners that Muslims are violent is disturbing in itself, there are even more ignorant views being carried through social media. Some of them portray the problems of terrorism in the Middle East itself as coming from "Muslims" and proving how dangerous Muslims are, despite the fact that Muslims typically make up 100% of the victims and have inhabited the area peacefully for hundreds of years.

In other words, these bigots only use the word "Muslim" for anyone who commits murder, and fail to use it for the 1.3 million people murdered by US forces in the Middle East during the "war on terror" or the vast majority of victims of terrorism every day.


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8 March 2016

Charlie Hebdo 'should be called idiots'

The Blog


What happened to Charlie Hebdo when their artists were attacked and killed by terrorists for publishing offensive images was a result of "stupidity and lack of vision" on the part of the artists, who provoked their own deaths.


A blog published via the multi-faith Beliefnet website advances, "If artists are killed for offending people, you should call them idiots, just as you would call any prankster an idiot for insulting the wrong person and getting beaten up or killed as a result."

The blog writes that the idea of expanding the mandates of free speech to protect any offensive publisher from reprisals by the general public is actually "anti-freedom". It would require security cameras and armed guards everywhere, and for people's opinions to be monitored and suppressed brutally. For example, eight-year-old children were detained and interrogated by police for not supporting Charlie Hebdo in France, yet Charlie Hebdo still pretends to be advancing the frontiers of freedom of speech.

In its conclusions, the post asserts that rather than a war on Muslims and further insults against people's religious sensibilities, "People should not be offensive. They should censor themselves for their own safety from everybody else, as the vast majority of people wisely do." The blog notes that "even in the “freest” society imaginable" certain images or statements can go too far and incite members of the public to violence.

Much of the media portrays Muslims as exceptionally easy to provoke and prone to violence, while ignoring the violence and oversensitive behavior of other social groups and the fact that anyone else can also be provoked to violence if their feelings are constantly and deliberately being hurt.


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4 March 2016

West-Islam dialogue on values needed

The Blog


A dialogue on values between the west and Islam is needed as an alternative to the "clash of civilizations" and "imposition of western culture by force" on Muslims and others.


This is the advice given by Sonia Mansour Robaey at her own blog Les Politiques as well as at the publication Iran's View.

  • Read the version at Les Politiques here
  • Read the version at Iran's View here
  • Read one response at Beliefnet here

From the author's conclusions:
As I wrote in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo tragedy, a dialogue on values is urgently needed to silence the voices of confrontation.  The clash of civilizations is an idea as backward as the barbaric terrorism it sets out to explain... and fight... by curtailing our civil liberties and creating an artificial wedge between civilizations destined to increase their common ground in an era of rapid communications where societies are becoming more open and more welcoming. 
The promoters of the clash of civilizations are the new enemies of the Open Society.
Open society can mean different things. In its use in Robaey's analysis, it seems to refer to social globalization creating the borderless world, whereas in its original pre-globalization usage by Karl Popper it referred to the liberal democratic state model that only exists in western countries.

 Les Politiques was recently added to the blog listings of the Mont Order society. The Mont Order has itself managed to host an element of dialogue on values between the Muslim and western blogospheres by inviting the Pakistan-based Voice of East magazine to add views to online conferences otherwise only seating western bloggers.


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1 March 2016

Muslims should look at technopolitics

The Blog


In a lengthy Facebook post republished to the Pakistan-based online magazine Voice of East, Moeed Pirzada asks politicians and intellectuals in the Islamic world to look at the "relationship between technology and politics".


This relationship between new technologies and politics gives rise to the term technopolitics, which is known quite widely among transhumanists and futurists in the west.

In his post, Pirzada appeals to Muslims to see the ways technology can be abused to reduce freedom (or conversely, protections built in to ensure freedom is protected on an even greater scale than before):
Western society and intellectuals understood the messages conveyed by the visionaries like Adlous Huxley and George Orwell and they built firewalls against authoritarianism... but there were no Huxleys and Orwells in Muslim world, perhaps there could not have been because of colonialism... that ‘battle of ideas in the world of technology’ and its relationship, its impact on the future of democracy, is not understood. Technologically empowered elites can endlessly market illusions as reality.
While these claims largely ring true, and are similar to the claims of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, Assange has also written of a type of "rebel elite" emerging through the same technologies to challenge the ruling elite in technopolitics. The book in which Assange makes such claims is Cypherpunks (2012).

We may be faced with numerous types of control or oppression enforced by technology, but the history of revolution proves that no solution can be obtained except by different conquests and uses of the very same technology. Hence, today, we have rebels within the global technopolitics space who include hackers, dissident bloggers and encyption experts at the frontline of the battle for online freedom and privacy.


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5 February 2016

Topple: deport all bigots, not refugees

The Blog


Op-ed writer Steve Topple has appealed to Europeans to learn their history lessons again before calling for Nazi-like collective measures against refugees fleeing conflict zones such as Syria.


Topple does not hesitate to point out the west is to blame for the war in Syria. The west must make space for refugees, as it must face the consequences of its actions and atone for what it has done.

The post accuses Western societies of ignoring their own hand in creating a crisis for themselves, which they now try to shirk responsibility for by wanting to turn refugees away:
The anti-refugee rhetoric appeared to be systematically ratcheted up in nearly every country across the continent, without the smallest whiff of hypocrisy that the West’s agenda had largely contributed to this man-made crisis.
Elaborating on this responsibility, Topple writes that "Western foreign policy is partly to blame for the situation in the Middle East, which is rapidly spiralling out of control. Decade after decade we have geopolitically been led by our unquenchable thirst for oil and gas, regardless of the consequences." Amidst the hysteria spreading through Europe at the inevitable globalization of displacement and misery caused by western military aggression, many have called for all refugees (with particular emphasis on Muslims) to be deported.

Topple has an alternative suggestion of who deport:
Expatriate all the loathsome, lobotomised right-wing bigots and replace them with refugees. 
Because I, for one, would rather we have a diverse, socially-rich, colourful society where the quality of life for everyone was far greater, than an insular, closeted, angry and scared country where the opinions of loathsome, vile bigots whose views belong in a 1970’s sitcom were the norm.
Tackling the specific hysteria of many right wing groups and commentators, Topple strikes back at their assertions:
Oh – and the individuals screaming “Rapefugees!” and “Women and girls aren’t safe!” when discussing refugees after we have just observed Holocaust Memorial Day, may wish to Google “Collective Responsibility” – although I doubt their myopic brains would be able to cope with the resonance.
Although many right-wing figures in the west are obsessed with World War II and the idea of supporting the Israeli apartheid regime to atone for the Holocaust, they are just as interested in committing a new genocide against Muslims. The additional inability to condemn Israeli expansion and ethnic cleansing and to support it, no matter how untenable, shows nothing was really learned from the Holocaust.


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12 January 2016

'Libertarian President' vs the burqa?

The Blog


US Libertarian Party Presidential candidate Gary Johnson withdrew his statements that he would ban the burqa. He earlier justified his argument by saying this type of Islam-associated attire exists to cover up injuries to support violence against women.


According to Johnson, his comments were a "kneejerk response" given to Reason. However, he also gave the same response to two other publications, Politico and the New Mexico Journal. Given his consistency on the position earlier, his dishonesty is clear and there can be little doubt about his Islamophobia.

Antistatist writer Thomas L. Knapp commented on Johnson's dishonesty in a recent blog post, remarking "He wanted to dog whistle to Donald Trump's supporters." Knapp added that Johnson "thought that libertarians (and Libertarians) either wouldn't notice or wouldn't care", alluding to the obvious clash between banning the burqa and the US Constitution as well as libertarian values, establishing that freedom of religion and conscience must not be violated by the state.

Petition: Google must end its censorship

The right-wing publication Daily Beast held an op-ed by Andrew Kirell, concurring that "For 24 hours, the leading Libertarian Party presidential candidate seemed like he was to the right of Donald Trump when it comes to Muslims". Trump himself has sparked significant controversy by saying he wants to ban Muslims completely from migrating to the United States.

Catalyst: A Techno-Liberation Thesis (book)

Banning items of attire associated with Islam in the West, including the hijab and also the burqa (which are often confused by many Westerners who do not know the difference) is a common demand used by known racist organizations and political movements in the US and Europe.


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8 January 2016

Oregon militiamen vs the 'worse guys'

The Blog


Antistatist writer Thomas L. Knapp, also a Mont Order society member, wrote on 4 January on the stand-off between militia members and Federal authorities at a facility in the US state of Oregon.


Knapp sympathized with the militia members in his short commentary, but stopped short of declaring any support for their actions. He contrasted them with law enforcers, seeing Federal officers as somewhat more arbitrary and dangerous than the militiamen themselves.

 Stating that there is nothing especially different from the Occupy movement or the Black Panthers about these members of the public who choose to defend themselves at occupation-type protests using firearms, Knapp offered the following commentary:
any time any group puts itself in opposition to the existing state, I have to root for them at least a little. And I certainly don't favor the feds moving in and murdering them over possession of a building that the feds built with stolen money on stolen land. If there are no good guys here, there can certainly be better and worse guys. 
Read more at http://knappster.blogspot.com/2016/01/concerning-oregon.html#BVEOpTICZASWGSi4.99
Overall Knapp backed the view of Kent McManigal in a post an another blog. However, he did object to the characterization of these militiamen as "terrorists" by some left-wing commentators, arguing "Some state leftists are making a big deal about these protesters being armed (and, for that reason, are calling them "terrorists")". Knapp pointed out that left-wing groups have also protected themselves with firearms, and it is worth remembering that "terrorist" is more commonly a right-wing slur in US politics rather than a left-wing one.

Petition: Google must end its censorship

A post at Beliefnet's Mont Order-linked L'Ordre blog also responds to the militiamen's protest actions, but focuses more on the aspect of social media commentary saying the gunmen escaped being called "terrorists" because they were white (despite an overwhelming outcry against them over social media that indeed called them terrorists). The post tried to refute this theory, saying ignorance about Islamic clothing and writing has a greater role than skin color in the public image of what a "terrorist" is in America.

Catalyst: A Techno-Liberation Thesis (book)

Other Mont Order-affiliated writers are much more critical of the militiamen, regarding them as "nut jobs" and questioning how they hoped to accomplish anything at a deserted facility in a forest.


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5 January 2016

US incites global chaos: friend of Mont

The Blog


The anticipated fourth commentary from Mont friend and writer L'Ordre, is now online and addresses the corresponding point in the Mont Order code.


Like the other two articles, the L'Ordre commentary has been published to the widely circulated progressive newsletter Dissident Voice, where previous commentaries already address their points of the Order's code.



Our earlier reports on the Mont Order code commentaries by L'Ordre:

On the first point
On the second point
On the third point

You can read the fourth commentary itself at the unofficial Mont Order website lordre.net, which is sometimes used by Mont members to post content. However, if you are low on time, the best items from the commentary offering unique judgments are recorded below.

  • "This so-called new world order, for all the enemies it has attracted, could have been a good thing. The concept of uniting the whole world in a single global society, however it may be accomplished, is not a bad thing."
  • "The US saw only its own bloated image when it thought about the future of the world, and set about imposing its own will on others without asking their consent."
  • "If actions speak louder than words, then the US is not taking humanity forward to a united global polity."
  • "In the Middle East, the US strategy is even more divisive, attempting to co-opt and bribe even the smallest tribes and sects to attack the cohesion of stable governments."
  • "The worst offense of all is the devotion to the myth, as rejected in the Mont Order code, that Islam is inherently plagued with extremism and sectarianism."
  • "The claim that Syria, Lebanon and other states are experiencing mutual warfare between Shias and Sunnis is untrue."
  • "From Syria to Ukraine, the US policy consists of incitement to civil war, thereby retarding human development, subverting the goals of the United Nations and disrupting projects to unite the world in peace."

L'Ordre, "On the Fourth Point of the Mont Order", Dissident Voice, 30 December 2015


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15 December 2015

Response to the San Bernardino attack

D. Helene


A Spiritual Response to the San Bernardino Terrorist Attack

Where is the Muslim Gandhi?


The terrorist attack in San Bernardino hit very close to home for me. San Bernardino is 55.5 miles from where I live.


In my humble opinion, before we start to point fingers, engage in conspiracy theories and chastise those who would use this tragedy for any political agenda, we need to view the entire incident through a spiritual lens, focusing on compassion.

So, let’s take a look at each of the parties involved.

Obviously, the victims and their families deserve our compassion. They were innocent victims, going to a holiday work party to celebrate the holiday season. So, let’s shine compassion on the souls of the victims and on their families.

Secondly, the neighbors who saw “suspicious” activities by the alleged perpetrators. They deserve our compassion as well. Those that saw what they believed to be suspicious activity and did not report it to the proper authorities need our compassion – they are suffering severe emotional turmoil right now after 14 people were killed and many more injured. They deserve our compassion because they did not trust their intuition. If you observe anyone doing anything suspicious, it doesn’t matter if they’re black or white, Muslim or Jewish or Christian. All that matters is what they are doing and what your gut feeling is. We here in the West have been so discouraged from trusting our intuition. In the spiritual realm, intuition is honed and honored. So, this must be one of the take-aways from this incident.

Third, we need to have compassion for the perpetrators. They are acting out an agenda that must be examined from the root cause. What Muslim terrorists (and this is a very small portion of the Muslim population, as the religion itself is based on peace) are doing is based on a century or more of oppression and colonialism. They are choosing violence to protest this. I am by no means condoning their action. What they did in San Bernardino - as in Paris, as anywhere where violence is used - was reprehensible. I am trying to widen the lens and look at this from the root cause. The root causes are manifold including:


All of this is now coming to roost as Muslims demand freedom, autonomy and integrity of their land, all of which they deserve.

Fourth: Compassion for the baby the perpetrators left behind. It is unfathomable how a couple hell-bent on destruction would bring a baby into this world. This baby needs our infinite compassion as its parents are murderers. To start one’s life with that kind of blood on one’s soul will take a tremendous amount of unconditional love.

The spiritual question is: Who is the Muslim Gandhi who will choose peace over violence and lead Muslims to freedom and autonomy through peace?


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3 November 2015

Clash of the Titans? Technology vs God

The Blog


In a feature article popular at Beliefnet within the category of "Tech Gospel", the idea of an angry God who wants to smite engineers and scientists for their apparent hubris gets discredited.



Titled "Does God Endorse Tech", the op-ed is part of the same educational effort as the L'Ordre blog, also popular at Beliefnet. The article asked, "For those of us who believe in a personal God, how should we see the relationship between technology and the divine, if there is any at all?"

It went on to confess that the God portrayed in the Bible, as well as the deities of other religions such as the ancient Greco-Roman religion, do indeed attack engineers and seekers of knowledge. The religions do all too often portray engineers and seekers of knowledge as sinful. However, it only happens when there are other factors involved.

What offends God, or gods, in most religious traditions, tends to be the attitudes behind feats of engineering and science, rather than these accomplishments themselves. In other parts of religious lore, God actively commands technological accomplishments, such as Noah's construction of the ark in order to save animals from extinction.

The op-ed concluded:

"where one seeks technology for sharing, or to give it to others unconditionally to help them (a treatment for a disease, for example) no righteous God could do anything but endorse such efforts. The god of Christianity, Islam and Judaism appears to approve of sharing, and would not hesitate to endorse or even command the creation of technologies enabling sharing."


Read more at http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Tech-Gospel/Articles/Does-God-Endorse-Tech.aspx?p=3#OiKvtlFf3GMItb7f.99


In sum, the observation of the article was that technologies should pursue sharing, dignity and equality, rather than empowering a privileged few or usurping moral authority. Further, religious people should actually consider such technologies, e.g. personal computers and smartphones, to have even been endorsed by God.

As part of its effort to gain greater recognition, the L'Ordre blog has created a new Facebook page at facebook.com/lordrecolumn, and invites its readers to actively share and sign up to its posts.


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30 October 2015

Kashmir annexation remembered

The Blog


Kashmiris observed "Black Day" recently, on October 27. Black Day remembers when Indian troops began their military occupation of Jammu and Kashmir on October 27 1947, in order to suppress the national aspirations of the people in the area.


When the Subcontinent was partitioned, Jammu & Kashmir was predominantly a Muslim majority area with a 78.9% Muslim population. Because it was a Muslim majority state and contiguous to Pakistan, Kashmir was expected to accede to Pakistan or possibly gain its own independence. However, British colonial authorities did not respect the rights of the Kashmiri people. Rather than partitioning the Subcontinent more carefully, they promptly abandoned it to ethnic and religious conflict.

Since India illegally annexed parts of it in 1947, the area of Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed successive revolts, violent crackdowns and extrajudicial killings by Indian forces against peaceful demonstrators, and large-scale attempts at ethnic cleansing by the Indian regime. India repeatedly excuses such atrocities by claiming to target terrorists. Many Muslims have been displaced from their homes by the Indian policy of using violence to alter the facts on the ground in the area, so they can portray their claim to Kashmir as legitimate.

India has failed to comply with UN Security Council resolutions on Kashmir. The area was intended to be demilitarized and subject to a popular referendum to determine its status under international law, but India has still failed to observe these steps to resolve the conflict and refuses to withdraw its forces.


It is worth noting that India suppresses the self-determination of numerous other communities within its proclaimed borders, where there are still active rebellions by religious and cultural communities who do not accept the Indian regime's legitimacy. It is possible that the central government refuses to accept Kashmiri self-determination on the grounds that it might then have to offer similar independence to other territories seeking independence.


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4 August 2015

"Muslim" bikini attack story "selective"

The Blog


News headlines discussing the recent story in France of an attack by "Muslim" women against a girl wearing a bikini were "selective" and discriminatory.


As explained in a recent post at the L'Ordre blog on Beliefnet:
We are told stories such as the recent one in France, where a girl in a bikini was assaulted by apparent Muslim women attackers offended by her choice of dress. However, we are not told of the comparable stories of the Muslim women threatened and attacked by racists in France or Britain even though we know such attacks are equally real. 
Read more: http://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/lordre/2015/08/islam-is-part-of-the-west-now-live-with-it.html#ixzz3hfqrgobN 
Read more at http://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/lordre/2015/08/islam-is-part-of-the-west-now-live-with-it.html#6OdJZLIBPMT1UBHO.99
The blog further argued that Muslims are part of Europe, and that arguments for discrimination against Islam on the grounds that it is "not a race" forget that neither are Jews or homosexuals a race. In fact the very argument that Islam is not a race is consistent with arguments employed by racists throughout history and it only serves to prove that the people using it are racists.

Beliefnet's L'Ordre blog argued that proponents of the argument that "Islam is not a race" actually "know nothing about why racism is wrong in the first place and are likely to justify segregation or even killing for the same reasons applied by racists in the Twentieth Century". According to the blog's analysis, racism is wrong not for attacking races per se but for being a form of discrimination, much as discrimination against religious and sexual minorities is also wrong despite these not being races.


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14 July 2015

The state, not "terrorists", censors you

The Blog


Describing Islamist attacks on people who don't share their beliefs as if their actions represent a totalitarian suppression of free speech is an absurd analysis.


That is the view put forward at the L'Ordre blog based with Beliefnet. In an analysis from the weekend 11-12 July, the blog drew attention to the following problem with anti-Islamists' half-baked claims about a threat to the constitutional right of freedom of expression (highlighted part selected by The clubof.info Blog):
Anti-Islam campaigners try to argue that Islam threatens freedom of speech but in doing so they misunderstand what freedom of speech is. Freedom of speech doesn’t refer to a right granted by gunmen, soldiers and terrorists to the public, but to a right granted by the state to the public. 
Claiming that terrorists threaten our freedom of speech is bogus even if they kill cartoonists and people who mock Mohammed, because freedom of speech was never contingent on what terrorists do or don’t do anyway. Terrorists were always able to kill people for what they expressed in public, as were any other members of the public. Everyone is at risk of being killed for what they say at all times and freedom of speech has never been about providing any protection from that threat, but only from such threats that originate from the ruling power of the state.
Read more: http://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/lordre#ixzz3fbrAHU00
Read more at http://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/lordre#9ocB0WywIkvyHk8L.99
Shouting or ultimately assassination by members of the public cannot endanger constitutional rights because no such acts have any effect on the law and the laws guaranteeing free speech still hold even if people are killed for such expression. On the other hand, far-right figures who advocate the elimination of Islam and the rolling back of civil liberties in order to attack Muslims are indeed attempting to alter the law to curtail constitutional freedoms.

In this sense, anti-Islam activists such as Pamela Geller can be more accurately classified as enemies of free speech than ISIS terrorists such as those who killed cartoonists for depicting the Prophet Mohammed. Similarly censorship refers to state actions and not actions taken, however violent, by members of the public who feel offended by an image. Killings of cartoonists who depict Mohammed are neither a form of censorship, nor a threat to the right of free speech, and are simply acts of premeditated murder that have no relevance to at all to freedom of speech.

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22 May 2015

Mohammed left Assyria's ruins alone

The #LOrdre Blog


Islamic State militants, also known by their Arabic acronym Daesh, believe they are superior to Islam's Prophet Mohammed (PBUH).


This is the assessment of the L'Ordre blog based at the top world religious website Beliefnet. Attention is drawn to the way Islamic State militants are ironically "assaulting lifeless monuments" dating to the ancient Assyrian civilization as a way of seeking attention for themselves. Such acts are ironically Pagan and idolatrous in themselves, the analysis claims, as these Muslims are "obsessing over lifeless monuments and self-indulgent beliefs, by a further demonstration of their own such stupidity".

The blog argues that Mohammed would feel ashamed of the Islamic State's self-indulgence and idiocy, and that Islamic State followers are doomed to "die like flies" before they realize they have deviated from their religion:
The Islamic State’s followers claim to idolize the Prophet Mohammed. They are lucky he isn’t alive to say what he would think of them. To the man who actually brought Islam to the world, the so-called Islamic State would appear filthy and deserve nothing but contempt. For the “Islamic State” to presume that Mohammed’s work was incomplete, and parade itself around and claim to finish his work, as if they are truer Muslims than their own Prophet, is the gravest possible offense that can be perpetrated against the memory of Islam’s founder. 
Read more: http://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/lordre/2015/05/islamic-state-is-too-good-for-its-own-prophet.html#ixzz3aPE0xUfy 
Read more at http://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/lordre/2015/05/islamic-state-is-too-good-for-its-own-prophet.html#wQUgddfOCJykmVfY.99

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19 May 2015

The Christian fundamentalist bloodbath

The Blog


Islam does not stand out as having the worst problem of extremism, an op-ed at Counterpunch argues


Penned by Robert Fantina for the 15-17 May issue of the US-based investigative publication, the op-ed titled "Dueling Fundamentalisms: Christian and Islamic" argues that reactionary politics has created a bloodbath for which Christians have more responsibility than Muslims:
So it seems that both Christian fundamentalists and fundamentalist Muslims all operate on fear, encouraging their followers to flout law in the name of a god of their own creation. Both cause death and suffering, fundamentalist Muslims on a small scale, with Christian fundamentalists drowning in the blood of their millions of victims.
The op-ed defies a current at the heart of reactionary political movements currently trying to represent Islam as an exceptionally grave threat to civilization. Although Christians are not prone to go around using knives to kill the people they hate, many are still filled with hate and encourage state-sanctioned violence that has killed more innocent people than all the terrorism in the world:
1) Christian fundamentalists encourage war, and vote for government officials who will perpetuate it. The number of people killed in their name and by their actions far exceeds anything ISIL has done or could do if it operated for a century.
Bloodthirsty ramblings by the Christian reactionaries of the United States compare with the most violent sermons of Islamist terrorists. The only difference is that the former have a state at their disposal to legitimize their murderous crusade, whereas the latter only have their own bare hands. In reality, the Christian right of America is morally equivalent to the so-called Islamic State, even if it is more heavily equipped to pursue and justify its dreams of a medieval bloodbath.

This fits with the following video from TYT, which notes the clear parallels between Christian extremists and Islamist extremists, in particular ridiculing the way that both demand each other "convert or die".


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12 May 2015

Iran deal positives outweigh negatives

The Blog


"In the case of this potential [Iranian nuclear] accord, I hope an agreement is reached, since its positives far outweigh its negatives", comments American historical social scientist Immanuel Wallerstein.


This is the conclusion of a commentary authored by Wallerstein on 15 April and published at his widely syndicated column. The commentary was not referring to existing details of the agreement in question, but to the goal of achieving a deal. In the International Relations commentary, Wallerstein addressed a number of negotiations taking place between different states, and laid great emphasis on negotiations not taking place between some states experiencing continued forms of hostility.

The existing negotiations given significance in this analysis were:


  • United States - Cuba
  • United States - Iran
  • United States - Venezuela
  • Colombia - FARC rebels

"Pre-negotiations" taking place that may relieve violent conflict zones:


  • United States - China
  • Afghan central government - Taliban
  • Russian Federation - European Union
  • Ukrainian central government - Luhansk People's Republic
  • Ukrainian central government - Donetsk People's Republic

Negotiations NOT taking place that should take place:


  • Israel - Palestine
  • Saudi Arabia - Iran
  • Japan - China
While expressing the fact that innocent people perpetually suffer where peace deals fail to be inked between warring sides, Wallerstein blamed external forces for the inability of states to negotiate in the third category shown above. In all such cases, the United States is usually putting pressure on factions not to negotiate and to instead attack one another to further the US's own aims in a chessboard-like strategy. Saudi Arabia and Iran are the prime example of such a conflict as, despite their shared Islamic heritage, the US pressures the Saudi military to show off to Iran in a sectarian battle over war-torn Yemen.

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