[Rhodes22-list] Religion: - Is Christianity inherently hostile?

[Brad Haslett]

Bill,

On the lighter side, when I moved to Little Rock, Arkansas in 1978 they
still had 'blue laws'.  I was at a Target store on a Sunday and one of the
items in the cart was thread.  The clerk removed the item and said, "you
can't buy thread on Sunday."

"What?"

"You can't buy thread on Sunday, you can't buy tools or things that can be
used for work."

"OK, can I buy condoms?"

"Yes."

"Good, mine broke and I need to sew together."

Thank Allah, the law was changed and now you can even get a scotch-and-water
in LIT on Sunday.  Trust me!

Brad


On 10/26/06, Bill Effros <bill at effros.com> wrote:
>
> Robert,
>
> Please.
>
> This piece casts little light.
>
> Is Christianity inherently hostile?
>
> Christian groups passed a constitutional amendment in this country
> outlawing alcohol.
>
> Some pharmacies refuse to sell birth control pills.
>
> Let's not talk religion.
>
> You want to talk politics?
>
> The cops can confiscate a taxi that contains marijuana.  Taxi drivers
> can refuse to take passengers who are transporting marijuana.  Is that OK?
>
> Is it OK to refuse to take 17 year old passengers with alcohol?
>
> How about drunk 18 year olds?
>
> How about a guy carrying a gun?
>
> Why can mothers take milk on airplanes but not anyone else?
>
> That's politics.
>
> But suggesting that somebody else's religion is inherently
> hostile...mixing religion with politics...boy has that led to a lot of
> trouble.
>
> Bill Effros
>
>
>
> Robert Skinner wrote:
> > Brad,
> >
> > Very interesting.  As I was contemplating the day, dozing off
> > last night, I was wondering whether the core tenets of Islam
> > required continual war on other beliefs, and/or whether sharia
> > (sp?) law was directly derived fron the quoran, or the result
> > of "interpretation".
> >
> > This piece casts a litle light.  I need more.  Any experts here?
> >
> > /Robert
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------
> > Brad Haslett wrote:
> >
> >> OK, folks, we may disagree on Iraq and most other issues but this
> should be
> >> a no-brainer.  This article is from Slim's newspaper published this
> >> morning.  Despite Slim's bias against the author, she's been all over
> this
> >> story. How can we stem the growth of Islamic radicalism outside our
> country
> >> if we don't have the balls to stop it domestically? This is PC  gone
> wild.
> >> As Paul Harvey would say, "and now for the rest of the story."
> >>
> >> Brad
> >>
> >> --------------------
> >>
> >>  [image: StarTribune.com] <http://www.startribune.com/> KERSTEN102606
> >>
> >> Last update: October 25, 2006 -- 9:50 PM
> >> Airport taxi flap about alcohol has deeper significance The airport
> taxi
> >> controversy may go deeper than the quandary over whether to accommodate
> >> Somali Muslim cabdrivers who refuse to carry passengers carrying
> alcohol.
> >> Behind the scenes, a struggle for power and religious authority is
> >> apparently playing out.
> >>
> >> *Katherine Kersten,* Star Tribune
> >> The taxi controversy at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport
> has
> >> caught the nation's attention. But the dispute may go deeper than the
> >> quandary over whether to accommodate Somali Muslim cabdrivers who
> refuse to
> >> carry passengers carrying alcohol. Behind the scenes, a struggle for
> power
> >> and religious authority is apparently playing out.
> >>
> >> At the Starbucks coffee shop in Minneapolis' Cedar-Riverside
> neighborhood, a
> >> favorite Somali gathering spot, holidaymakers celebrating Eid, the end
> of
> >> Ramadan, filled the tables on Monday. Several taxis were parked
> outside.
> >>
> >> An animated circle of Somalis gathered when the question of the airport
> >> controversy was raised.
> >>
> >> "I was surprised and shocked when I heard it was an issue at the
> airport,"
> >> said Faysal Omar. "Back in Somalia, there was never any problem with
> taking
> >> alcohol in a taxi."
> >>
> >> Jama Dirie said, "If a driver doesn't pick up everyone, he should get
> his
> >> license canceled and get kicked out of the airport."
> >>
> >> Two of the Somalis present defended the idea that Islam prohibits
> cabdrivers
> >> from transporting passengers with alcohol. An argument erupted. The
> >> consensus seemed to be that only a small number of Somalis object to
> >> transporting alcohol. It's a matter of personal opinion, not Islamic
> law,
> >> several men said.
> >>
> >> Ahmed Samatar, a nationally recognized expert on Somali society at
> >> Macalester College, confirmed that view. "There is a general Islamic
> >> prohibition against drinking," he said, "but carrying alcohol for
> people in
> >> commercial enterprise has never been forbidden. There is no basis in
> Somali
> >> cultural practice or legal tradition for that.
> >>
> >> "This is one of those new concoctions."It is being foisted on the
> Somali
> >> community by an inside or outside group," he added. "I do not know
> who."
> >>
> >> But many Somali drivers at the airport are refusing to carry passengers
> with
> >> alcohol. When I asked Patrick Hogan, Metropolitan Airports Commission
> >> spokesman, for his explanation, he forwarded a fatwa, or religious
> edict,
> >> that the MAC had received. The fatwa proclaims that "Islamic
> jurisprudence"
> >> prohibits taxi drivers from carrying passengers with alcohol, "because
> it
> >> involves cooperating in sin according to the Islam."
> >>
> >> The fatwa, dated June 6, 2006, was issued by the "fatwa department" of
> the
> >> Muslim American Society, Minnesota chapter, and signed by society
> officials.
> >>
> >> The society is mediating the conflict between the cab drivers and the
> MAC.
> >> That seems odd, since the society itself clearly has a stake in the
> >> controversy's outcome.
> >>
> >> How did the MAC connect with the society? "The Minnesota Department of
> Human
> >> Rights recommended them to us to help us figure out how to handle this
> >> problem," Hogan said.
> >>
> >> Omar Jamal, director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center, thinks he
> knows
> >> why the society is promoting a "no-alcohol-carry" agenda with no basis
> in
> >> Somali culture. "MAS is an Arab group; we Somalis are African, not
> Arabs,"
> >> he said. "MAS wants to polarize the world, create two camps. I think
> they
> >> are trying to hijack the Somali community for their Middle East agenda.
> They
> >> look for issues they can capitalize on, like religion, to rally the
> >> community around. The majority of Somalis oppose this, but they are
> >> vulnerable because of their social and economic situation."
> >>
> >> *The society*
> >>
> >> What is the Muslim American Society? In September 2004 the Chicago
> Tribune
> >> published an investigative article. The society was incorporated in
> 1993,
> >> the paper reported, and is the name under which the U.S. branch of the
> >> Muslim Brotherhood operates.
> >>
> >> The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna.
> The
> >> Tribune described the Brotherhood as "the world's most influential
> Islamic
> >> fundamentalist group."Because of its hard-line beliefs, the U.S.
> Brotherhood
> >> has been an increasingly divisive force within Islam in America,
> fueling the
> >> often bitter struggle between moderate and conservative Muslims," the
> paper
> >> reported.
> >>
> >> The international Muslim Brotherhood "preaches that religion and
> politics
> >> cannot be separated and that governments eventually should be Islamic,"
> >> according to the Tribune. U.S. members emphasize that they follow
> American
> >> laws, but want people here to convert to Islam so that one day a
> majority
> >> will support a society governed by Islamic law.
> >>
> >> How are society members to respond when questioned about a Muslim
> >> Brotherhood connection? The Tribune cites an undated internal memo: "If
> >> asked, 'Are you the Muslim Brothers?' leaders should respond that they
> are
> >> an independent group called the Muslim American Society."
> >>
> >> The April 2001 issue of the society's magazine, the American Muslim,
> lists
> >> "essential books" for understanding Islam. They include works by Hassan
> >> al-Banna, the Brotherhood's founder, and Sayyid Qutb, one of its most
> >> violent theoreticians.
> >>
> >> Here's the flavor of these authors' writings:
> >>
> >> "Always cherish the intention of jihad and the desire for martyrdom in
> the
> >> Way of Allah, and actually prepare yourself for that," wrote Al-Banna.
> >>
> >> Osama bin Laden relied heavily on Qutb in formulating his world view,
> >> according to the 9/11 Commission. Qutb had "an enormous loathing of
> Western
> >> society and history," states the commission's report. He taught that
> "no
> >> middle ground exists" in the "struggle between God and Satan." All
> Muslims
> >> must therefore take up arms in this fight, he said.
> >>
> >> Hassan Mohamud is vice president of the society's Minnesota chapter.
> The
> >> society is independent and has no connection with the Muslim
> Brotherhood, he
> >> said.
> >>
> >> The Minnesota chapter's website, however, states that the
> organization's
> >> roots lie in the Islamic revival movement that "brought the call of
> Islam to
> >> Muslim masses ... to reestablish Islam as a total way of life."
> >>
> >> Mohamud says the society has three goals: to present the "real image"
> of
> >> Islam in American society, to preserve the identity of Muslims here and
> to
> >> "make that identity fit without having clashes between cultures and
> laws."
> >>
> >> He emphasizes, however, that Muslims must follow shari'a, or Islamic
> law, in
> >> every aspect of their lives. "There are two conflicting systems here --
> two
> >> ways of life -- that want to live in the same place and respect each
> other,"
> >> he says. The society aims to facilitate conciliation between the two.
> >>
> >> Mohamud adds that Americans need to learn about Islamic law because the
> >> Muslim population here is growing. That's why the proposed two-tier
> system
> >> for airport cabdrivers is important, he says. It could become a
> national
> >> model for accommodating Islam in areas ranging from housing to
> contractual
> >> arrangements to the workplace.
> >>
> >> MAC officials will hold another meeting today about the airport
> controversy,
> >> and Mohamud says he will try to revive the two-tiered pilot project for
> >> taxis. Whatever the meeting's outcome, we now have reason to believe
> that
> >> the issue is only a prologue to a larger drama playing out in Minnesota
> and
> >> the United States.
> >>
> >> Katherine Kersten . kkersten at startribune.com
> >>
> >> (c)2006 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.
> >>
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