Yahoo! Bans "Allah" in Screen Names 1072
szembek writes "According to The Register it seems that Yahoo! is banning the use of the string "Allah" in all screen names. The issue apparently became apparent when Linda Callahan attempted to use her surname in her screen name. The following link has an interesting list of terms that Yahoo does allow, and ones they don't."
Jesus Christ! (Score:5, Insightful)
This is sad. (Score:3, Insightful)
Dumb filters are annoying (Score:5, Insightful)
It's still not as bad as Blizzard's, filtering out words like "basement".
Ignoring the whole political issue of it, if they are going to filter a string, they should at least allow common legit strings that it is a substring of.
Sheesh (Score:2, Insightful)
I think the entire world should start plastering images of Mohammad everywhere. Drown them in it until they realize they need to practice their religion however they want and leave the rest of the world out of it.
Not that Europe is much better, as my current sig shows. People bitch about the US and Bush, but at least Yahoo is a private corporation making this decision.
Allah's not ok, but turning in journalists is (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Jesus Christ! (Score:5, Insightful)
Make no mistake -- Yahoo is behaving cowardly in this instance. This has nothing to do with respecting other cultures, and all about avoiding undue attention to the corporate entity. Clearly in this case, terrorism has be effective.
Re:So? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Jesus Christ! (Score:3, Insightful)
Sad, really (Score:5, Insightful)
Terorrism works... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:More nonsense from Yahoo (Score:3, Insightful)
Much as I might think the original post was logically flawed and offensive (and it was), your rebuttal isn't much better on the logic front. How does being married prevent someone from being bisexual? I could see the logic if he were being accused of homosexuality, but there's nothing to stop a bisexual getting half their fun within wedlock. :)
Re:It's a good thing... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Jesus Christ! (Score:3, Insightful)
Terrorism is effective- and market-based economics IS HIGHLY COWARDLY. The proper response to terrorism isn't self-censorship- it's more and bigger terrorism. You find out what the terrorists care about and you take that away as spectacularly and explosively as possible. Then it's up to them to decide whether they want more terrorism or to take the cowardly stance.
Secondary filters? (Score:2, Insightful)
if(strstr("allah", screenName)) {
if(strcmp("Callahan", screenName) == NULL ||
return true;
return false;
}
else if(...) {
}
Re:Jesus Christ! (Score:3, Insightful)
I am a christian and go to church every Sunday. So I will set the record straight. There are at least a few "Christians" that would threaten the same kind of violence as these Islamic extremists. Thankfully the seem to be a lot fewer of them.
Re:Sheesh (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm all against trials of writers and so-called revisionnists, because I don't believe in state imposed truth : a truth you can't debate is a myth in the full, dictionary, sense of the word. Those morons desserve to be laughed at, not sent to jail.
This said, your comparison is fallacious, because you're mixing two completely different things :
Therefore, by siding religious feelings and historical facts, you're fuelling the arguments or religious zealots willing to enforce their own myth as a state-held truth, and / or justifying racism toward those holding beliefs we don't share because they're holding a supposed "truth" we don't believe in. Both moves being equally dangerous.
Let's change the entire way we live for Muslims.. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Jesus Christ! (Score:2, Insightful)
This is very broad statemnet, knowing what happened in Srebrenica or Sabra & Chatila. They have Ladin, we have Karadzic, Thay have Zarkawi, we have Elie Hobeika. Don't blame groupes for what individuals are responisble for, otherwise you are to blame for really awful stuff around the globe.
Re:Jesus Christ! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Jesus Christ! (Score:5, Insightful)
On the whole, muslims don't, either.
Some fanatics, yes. But right-wing born-again christians also not only threaten but on a few occasions have actually killed abortion doctors or activists and others they dislike.
Jews, Christains, Atheists...there's lots of wackos amongst those groups, but in the last few decades radical islam wins hands down for self-righteous violence and terror.
Depends on
a) how much you believe the mainstream press is reporting truth and how much you think they report whatever will make more sales
b) how many of the people who use religion as their cover you actually consider to be religious fanatics
c) Whether or not you take into account the prejudice and hatred against all muslims, because prejudice doesn't run through a "are you a radical?" checklist first.
Re:Jesus Christ! (Score:4, Insightful)
-nB
As a gay atheist, it's reasonable to fear Islam (Score:3, Insightful)
And so will all the dhimmis [wikipedia.org].
I am a gay man and an atheist who has no intention of following any superstitious belief, Islam included.
The penalty for homosexuality under Shari'a (Islamic law) is death. I learned this from a discussion I had with a muslim from whyislam.org.
I am also an adoptive parent. Shari'a does not recognize adoptive parents. I learned this from the same discussion.
It is permittable for a Muslim to lie to a Kuffar (unbeliever). This is called taqiyya.
The belief that "Islam will dominate the world" is a mainstream belief in Islam. Not an extremist belief, a mainstream belief.
When the editor of Southern Voice (a gay newspaper in the Southeast USA) traveled to Amsterdam, supposedly a "liberal" city, he was gay-bashed [americanchronicle.com] and suffered injuries. The perpetrators? Muslims who were following their religious beliefs.
So when you start accusing people like me of having "islamophobic" sentiments, I have to agree and indicate to you that your accusation sounds a lot like, "She deserved to be raped. Didn't you see the skirt she was wearing?"
There are legitimate reasons for both fearing and resisting Islam. The hatred of freedom of expression, the denigration of gays and women, the 7th-century mindset, the second-class status imposed on non-Muslims (dhimmis), and the punitive justice system are all elements of mainstream (NOT "extremist") Islam that need to be discussed, exposed, and resisted. Not apologized for and certainly not defended in the name of "multiculturalism" or anything else!
Re:Sheesh (Score:2, Insightful)
Yeah, the Christian Right in America is way too powerful.
Re:Jesus Christ! (Score:5, Insightful)
Im not suggesting that this is always the way to go. However I think it would be a more positive step to allow some other hope for people who firmly beleive that their only option to fight back is to wire exoplosives to themselves and walk into crowed cafes or crash airliners into large, occupied skyscrapers. There will always be nutter prepared to do this for their cause... but the nutters need a support network. A support network involves money and people. The IRA got into trouble when their US fundign started drying up. But there were still nutter to blow stuff up. Its because the animosity and hatred become an instituion. Its viewed as a good thing to hate the english/americans/whoever.
I should disclaim that I am half Irish and my mother was born in Belfast. She left when she was 6 but was raised in a firm republican family(my grandmother was buried with the flag of the Republic. Her sister was killed and her brother maimed by a pub bomb. My great grandmother ran a safe house and stored guns for the IRA against the blacks and tans during the civil war). For many years my mother would not become a citizen of Australia as it would involve swearing an oath to the queen. She had no rational reason to hate the english, and she is not a bad person, but she did. It was ingrained that deeply from a distance of thousands of miles from The Troubles. Later in life she realised this... and became a citizen. Ive witnessed levels ranging from dislike to hatred for the other side. Of course its a lot less these days. I wouldnt say that I understand where a young palistinian young is coming from... I obviously can not... but I know something about irrational disputes that get ingrained in people... and in families.
Re:Terorrism works... (Score:3, Insightful)
Brilliant point.
People do cry about the religious right, but if they had the power people claim, I wouldn't be seeing commercials about a gay cowboy movie which will likely clean up as the Oscars.
Christian nutters do death threats also... (Score:3, Insightful)
Christians don't threaten death to company executives or members of the press if they disagree with their opinions.
You don't know anything about US abortion clinics do you?
sigh (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Cue the Islamophobic comments and Allah-bashing (Score:1, Insightful)
How many people have to die in terrorist acts, how many women have to
be beaten or stoned according to Sharia law , how many authors and
cartoonists have to be threatened , how many countries flags have to
be burned , how many of all of these things have to happen before
right-on apologisers like you actually find the sorry remains of
your rational brain and admit that there is a problem with Islam?
Re:Jesus Christ! (Score:5, Insightful)
Clearly this is not true. You can buy T-Shirts with pictures of Jesus on them in all sorts of poses, there are millions of Jesus jokes. South Park (I just heard on the radio) has an episode called 'Bloody Mary' that appears to be parodying his mother. Where are these "Christian" extremists exactly, and whose embassies are they burning?
Re:Jesus Christ! (Score:5, Insightful)
I see it a bit differently. If a nut did something violent in the name of Christianity, the vast, vast majority of Christianity would denounce the act and the practitioner. That doesn't seem to be the case with Islam. I'm not sure of the reason. Maybe they agree with the sentiment. Maybe they're scared of being targeted themselves. I'd like to think it's the latter rather than the former.
What's the point of posts like yours (Score:1, Insightful)
While the Christian nuts are also, well nutty, WE KNOW THAT.
So what was your point? To demonstrate that you find equivalency between a group that violently protests what they percieve as murder (I disagree, and think they're nuts) and a group the violenty protests WOMEN'S RIGHTS, UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE, and fucking CARTOONS.
Get some fucking perspective.
So why doesn't the "silent" majority stand up? (Score:3, Insightful)
And as a whole Muslims don't threaten death either, its just a very voacal MINORITY of them that do.
But why doesn't the silent majority in Islam stand up and vocally reject the extremists? When Pat Robertson made comments about "taking out" Hugo Chavez, the White House publicly repudiated him. When he made comments about God having forsaken the people of Dover, PA for their ditching of Intelligent Design, other theologians went on TV and vocally announced that Pat Robertson does not speak for Christianity.
Where were the majority of Muslims when the mullahs of Iran announced a death sentence on Salman Rushdie? Where are the majority of Muslims when Osama bin Laden comes out with his fatwas saying that Western society is corrupt and should either be destroyed or converted?
Having a silent majority, in most cases, is about as good as having no majority at all.
Re:Jesus Christ! (Score:1, Insightful)
They are too busy killing doctors and burning clinics. Not to mention the amount of time you waste during an occasional Crusade or a Spanish Inquisition.
Re:Cue the Islamophobic comments and Allah-bashing (Score:5, Insightful)
Freedom of expression very often involves ideas which many may find "offensive". That's just part of the game. To try to filter out that which is "hate" is a pathetically useless exercise, and inherently against liberty.
Yahoo!, if not the entire Western world, must make a decision soon. Either they will have to fully support freedom of expression, or fully disregard it. Of course, disregarding it would basically mean an end to what has allowed Western civilization to progress over the past few centuries.
This mixing of some freedom of expression here and there, if you say the "right" things, but none for people saying the "wrong" things, will only lead to strife.
Anyone who truly supports such ideals as freedom of expression and freedom of speech must be willing to accept that there will be people who speak out against Islam. There will be people who speak out against Christianity. There will be people who speak out against fish and chips. And if you really do appreciate freedom, then you will not only accept the right of such people to make their points known, no matter how much you disagree with them, but you will actively encourage them to express themselves. That is true freedom, my friend. Self-sustaining freedom.
Re:Guantanamo (Score:3, Insightful)
Some of them are probably innocent, and some of them most likely aren't. The question is how to determine that, which is a difficult decision in a time of war. But they certainly weren't put in jail for thinking the wrong thoughts. They were believed, rightly or wrongly, to be involved in terrorism.
How about the protesters arrested in NYC during the Republican convention - held in jail and mostly released with no charges?
It's called "disturbing the peace". They weren't arrested for having the wrong thoughts, they were arrested for violating the rights of others. You have the right to free speech; you don't have the right to force your speech on others and create a public nuisance.
For example there is the well known Westboro Baptist Church, who are now said to be protesting funerals of American soldiers because those soldiers have been upholding a regime (the Bush Administration) that is soft on "fags" (one of their favorite words) and so on.
I don't see tens of thousands of those people rioting and killing people.
Very true (Score:2, Insightful)
I criticize Christianity with abplomb when sanctimonious Christians start using their religious beliefs as an excuse to attack me. I freely admit that Christianity is both a fear-based and a guilt-based religion.
Islam, on the other hand, is a violence-based religion. Notice the "sword of Allah" on Saudi Arabia's flag? Notice the AK-47 on Hezbollah's flag? I don't bother discussing with Muslims, because I don't know if they're lying or not. Christians can put up a good deal of resistance, but Muslims may very well murder me if I dared criticize Islam in the same way I did Christianity. This is one of several reasons why I think Islam should be resisted.
Re:Jesus Christ! (Score:2, Insightful)
You mean like the entire Catholic church did to Hitler in the 30's and 40's?
Re:Jesus Christ! (Score:3, Insightful)
In particular, the LRA abducted numerous children and, at clandestine bases, terrorized them into virtual slavery as guards, concubines, and soldiers. In addition to being beaten, raped, and forced to march until exhausted, abducted children were forced to participate in the killing of other children who had attempted to escape.
[---]
The LRA rebels say they are fighting for the establishment of a government based on the biblical Ten Commandments
Religious fanatism is always bad - and the name of the current popular god is of no importance. I always get a kick out of hearing Bush saying "God bless America" after having done a speech about those evil moslems (sorry, terrorists - they all are, right? sigh) and their god Allah
Re:My new handle should be "skeet skeet skeet" (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Jesus Christ! (Score:3, Insightful)
Of course it is. Haven't you noticed it's perfectly Ok to insult or discriminate against Christians it's muslims who seems to feel they have some right not to be made fun of and justify going on a killing spree over a cartoon or probably a screen name eventually.
Some Christians do talk about killing abortion doctors but very rarely actually do it. How many people were killed or injured by muslim fanatics in just the last few months? How many by christian fanataics? How many muslims denounced the violence compared to how many christians denounce bombing abortion clinics?
Re:Jesus Christ! (Score:4, Insightful)
I think you're exaggerating here. There is a handful of nut-jobs out there, not 'plenty'. "The Last Temptation" drew a good deal of protest but not *1* incident of violence. The South Parks that someone else mentioned were brutal but again no violence! The fact is 99.999999-% of Christians would not burn down the Saudi Embassy if they published cartoons making fun of Jesus.
missing the point... (Score:3, Insightful)
I think you are missing the point. Yahoo! is making a business decision based on a perceived risk that if they do not capitulate to the whims of fundamentalist Muslims, they will invite threats to their business and employees.
TheoCrapitocracy (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Jesus Christ! (Score:5, Insightful)
Fundamentalists of any religion are crazy, and poor, desperate fundamentalists of any religion are dangerous.
Re:Jesus Christ! (Score:3, Insightful)
Talks with the IRA were a lot more effective because of the sustained campaign. Bad cop/Good cop works, but you've got to do the Bad Cop routine first otherwise the Good Cop finds out nothing.
Also, the tactics Islamic terrorists use make the IRA (who routeinely warned the police to evacuate before the bomb went off) look like newborn kittens. Sorry to bust your Irish pride.
And the other problem is that the IRA had a clear goal governments could comprehend: Give Northern Ireland back! Compare this to Osama's original demands:
- get out of $occupied_territory (Jerusalem, Gaza strip, Chechnya, Kashmir, Andalucia (in Spain!))
- let Muslims everywhere live under the Shariat (there goes equality under law)
- no contact with the Middle East anymore (so they can grow beards and marry as many women as they like)
- a couple of others I forget
It's one thing to negotiate legitimate demands and another to humor a bunch of megalomaniacs with a death-cultish belief in virgins in paradise. Sorry, but I'm not willing to play along with their historical fantasies, let them isolate themselves and arm themselves to the teeth and then nuke us all one day.
Re:You're just wrong (Score:0, Insightful)
I also recognize that christianity is in the same boat. They are actually very similar religions.
Bullshit!
Christianity teaches to turn the other cheek, not burn down an embassy.
According to Islaam, it's OK to enslave those who are not Muslims (see http://www.dhimmitude.org/ [dhimmitude.org])
I've seen pictures of the Virgin Mary made from Elephant dung, right here in America. How long do you think such a picture of Mohammed would last anywhere, especially in the Arab world? How long do you think the artist would live, or the museum director, or the mayor of that town?
And yes, there have been a few murders committed by those who call themselves Christian, but those are prosecuted to the full extent of the law, and Christains agree with this prosecution. Besides, how many gays and abortion doctors have been murdered this week? Can you point to one story? I can tell you about at least 18 Christians who were murdered in Nigeria this weekend. A Jewish man in France was tortured for three weeks and killed in France by several muslims. How many gays died again?
How many riots have there been because muslims are burning red banners with crosses on them (the Danish flag). How would muslims respond if we were burning flags with a koran on it?
Need I go on? Now, stop being ignorant. Stop comparing the true religion of peace with that of murderous thugs.
Re:Guantanamo (Score:4, Insightful)
4 words: Innocent until proven guilty.
Peaceful assembly and demonstration is a key and integral part of a democracy. When the guv removes people who oppose their views we have arrived at a police state.
Regardless of what you think of Bush and regardless of what you think of them protestors we must all protect the rights of the protestors to have their say: The famous quote often attributed to Voltaire, that "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" seems as relevant now as it ever did.
Re:Jesus Christ! (Score:3, Insightful)
Both of this ultimately has little or nothing to do with Islam and everything with frustration and a situation of occupation and civil war.
Re:Jesus Christ! (Score:3, Insightful)
Nah muslims are poor. They can afford petrol bombs and IED's. Christians on the otherhand, fund companies like lockheed martin and then bomb whole countries into submission with their weapons. Who needs to raze an embassy when you can bomb whole regions and torture the ones that survive?
Re:Jesus Christ! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Jesus Christ! (Score:3, Insightful)
Hope of what? The current wish is for a world-wide caliphate under Islamic law providing the Justice of Allah. Are you willing to give up democracy to end terrorism? It's certainly a way to go.
The IRA merely wanted Ireland- and since the war with Spain ended, Ireland's usefullness as strategic property has been gone, it was easy to give the IRA what they wanted. Are you really willing to give Allah your support to the extent of censoring anything that isn't in the Koran?
Re:What's the point of posts like yours (Score:2, Insightful)
> The proscription against images of the prophet is one of the fundamental tenets of islamic religion.
It is not. The basic five tenets of Islam are: the profession of faith in Allah, regular prayer (5 times a day), fasting (at the prescribed times), paying alms to charity and the Hajj to Mecca. Everything else is gravy. Not depicting Mohammed is mentioned in a Hadith, but there are lots of Hadiths and not all of them are followed. And non-Arab Muslim cultures have traditionally ignored these hadiths, hence you get Turkish, Persian and Indian Mughal miniatures depicting Mohammed all the time.
Here's a hint: next time someone tells you cows are holy to Hindus, take that with a pinch of salt. That too is established practice (and one piously obeyed by 99.9% of all Hindus) but not a central tenet of Hinduism (which, incidentally, is "There are many paths to the truth, none more valid than the other."). And you don't see Hindus torching steakhouses in the US and Europe, do you?
> Or have you forgotten the great public outrage in the USA over The Last Temptation of Christ"?
Another fine characteristic of the multi-culti brigade. Moral relativism. Yeah, Outrage. Outrage as in, lots of demonstrations (at which no embassies were burnt (bar a molotov bombing in (of all places) Paris)) and fiery sermons. No artists were threatened with death. (Willem Dafoe still has a good career going.) Obviously to you that's the same thing as what Salman Rushdie and now these poor Danish cartoonists were put through -- state sponsored death threats and media manipulation. (People don't have the freedom to gather peacefully in the Mid-East, and yet suddenly the cartoons inspire them to burn embassies? Hah! If you really believe these demonstrations were not government encouraged, you're a tool.)
> So hold off on casting that first stone
I'm not interested in casting stones. I am interested in collecting evidence based on which future action can be decided. And the evidence is increasingly pointing to the fact that we have dangerous tinpot governments in a volatile part of the world, feeding their citizens propaganda and claiming it's the 'Arab Street' at work.
I don't care about military actions we may or may not pursue against the Mid-East. What is clear is that we cannot export our liberal (and that is not a dirty word, despite what the GOP says) and secular values directly to the people in the Mid-East, we'll be in deep shit one day.
Re:More nonsense from Yahoo (Score:2, Insightful)
- Moses, by command of god, to his "chosen" people. Numbers 31:17-18, KJV
Yes, xianity is so superior. Not only keep the underage virgins for yourselves, but kill everyone else.
Discussions such as this have nothing to do with the topic at hand, and are completely idiotic in this context. Any culture, religion or nation has something like this, so pointing such a thing out to "prove" some racist or stereotypical point is not only flawed, but highly telling of the intelligence level of the one who brings it up.
And BTW, Mary was an unwed teenage mother. Cast her out!
It occurs to me, however... (Score:3, Insightful)
Just FFT.
Re:War on Terror (Score:4, Insightful)
Well put it this way...
WWII: 1941-1945
War On Terror: 2001-2006(+)
If we can defeat two of the most powerful nations on earth in 4 years, but can't beat a handful of men in 5 years, then we are doing pretty badly as a nation.
If I hear the words "War On Terror" in 2011 out of a politicians mouth, I'm going to very pissed.
Re:Jesus Christ! (Score:2, Insightful)
Also, Islam's Allah is a singular being while the Christian idea of God involves three distinct beings, Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit known as the Triune God--God in three persons, Blessed Trinity. Not the same God at all.
There is no middle ground between freedom and life (Score:5, Insightful)
If you think there is a continuum then you do not understand the question. It is wrong to kill babies. It is wrong to deprive women of freedom of choice over their own bodies and subject them to a painful pregnancy for any reason but the welfare of others. Thus, taking the middle ground is to acknowledge that one or both of these injustices are happening.
There are people who are willing to stand by to see these injustices happen, but those are cynical, apathetic people who are of a lower moral character than abortion doctors and those who murder abortion doctors because both these groups are doing what is right in their own reasoning. Don't you see? abortion is the greatest debate in history because to a religious person, or a secular humanist or anyone else, life is sacred. You cannot say that there is part of a life in a woman's womb, you cannot redefine life though existential debate for that is denying your own existence and your own right to life.
To allow abortion in certain cases and deny it in others is to acknowledge abortion as the slaughter of the innocent and as a woman's right. Thus in the cases where it is denied, you are forcing a woman into having her life changed by an unwanted child for no reason but your bossy authoritarian and when abortion is granted you are killing a human that has done nothing to deserve it.
In the US today, abortion is legal, yet when you accidentally terminate a wanted pregnancy through negligent driving it is considered manslaughter. This inconsistency leads to only one conclusion: a fetus is human if and only if its mother wants it. If this is about the beginnings of humanity, how can we not extrapolate this nihilist world view into our own lives? Am I only human because my mother and others continue to love me?
There is no middle ground when talking about what is life, it didn't work for Plato, Descartes or Wittgenstein who are all people smarter than you that have tried to define humanity and it won't work for me. The abortion debate should be thought through by each one of us, because it goes beyond choice or killing babies, it cuts to the very core of each one of our existences. The politically correct middle ground might be the safest option, but most great questions, the middle ground between two extremes is the only one that can be conclusively proved to be wrong.
We're not talking about the majority (Score:2, Insightful)
DID YOU GET THAT? WE'RE NOT TALKING ABOUT THE MAJORITY.
Why is that SO difficult for you to get? That people can criticize some people without lumping them together? Is it becuase you're incapable of such sophisticated thinking, so you assume everyone else is as unsophisticated as you?
We're talking about the ones who are actually doing what we're denouncing.
So in the future, when you feel the urge to defend the majority, make sure we're denouncing the majority before you waste your time.
"No - yet "we" seem to group them, as a whole, into the "potential terrorist" category."
NO, as I said to you before, that's a made up stupid ass argument that detracts from the discussion. YOU group them into that category, at or at least it appears you do by your constant assertions that "we" do. WE don't.
"And while we're at it, maybe we should stop invading countries in the ME, killing their friends and families and lying about the reasons?"
And finally the truth, you think "we" deserve their enmity.
Perhaps if you weren't so busy assuming everyone is as closed-minded and reactionary as you, you'd realize that
A) these problems existed before there were any western powers in the Middle East.
B) executing little girls for being raped isn't the fault of the West. Nor are any of the anti-human rights stances taken by devout beleivers of islam. That's JUST islam. JUST the religion and its followers.
Maybe you should get your face out of muslim ass and honestly criticise them instead of making up arguments to detract from the issues.
Re:Jesus Christ! (Score:3, Insightful)
Um, it's not. Depending on which part of the koran you read, Islam can be sightly polytheistic, and "Allah" came from the name of the "moon god". My first google search yields: this link [biblebelievers.org.au]
Christianity and Islam are not at all compatible.
Re:Jesus Christ! (Score:1, Insightful)
More accurate and useful quotes from Hitler, far too many of which sound like the words of our political "leaders" today...
"Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord."
- Mein Kampf
"We were convinced that the people need and require this faith. We have therefore undertaken the fight against the atheistic movement, and that not merely with a few theoretical declarations: we have stamped it out."
- Speech in Berlin, 24 Oct 1933
""My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them and who, God's truth! was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter. In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders. How terrific was His fight for the world against the Jewish poison. To-day, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before the fact that it was for this that He had to shed His blood upon the Cross. As a Christian I have no duty to allow myself to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice... And if there is anything which could demonstrate that we are acting rightly it is the distress that daily grows. For as a Christian I have also a duty to my own people."
- Adolf Hitler, in a speech on 12 April 1922 (Norman H. Baynes, ed. The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, April 1922-August 1939, Vol. 1 of 2, pp. 19-20, Oxford University Press, 1942)"
"And now Staatspräsident Bolz says that Christianity and the Catholic faith are threatened by us. And to that charge I can answer: in the first place it is Christians and not international atheists who now stand at the head of Germany. I do not merely talk of Christianity, no, I also profess that I will never ally myself with the parties which destroy Christianity. If many wish today to take threatened Christianity under their protection, where, I would ask, was Christianity for them in these fourteen years when they went arm and arm in atheism? No, never and at no time was greater internal damage done to Christianity than in these fourteen years when a party, theoretically Christian, sat with those who denied God in one and the same government"
- Speech at Stüttgart, February 15, 1933
"In 1920 in this same hall I announced as the most important point in our program the demand for the unity of all Germans. That goal has now been reached. Tremendous, unbelievable events have taken pla
Re:Jesus Christ! (Score:4, Insightful)
Like not being allowed to see or hear ossama's messages, we know they're out there but no where can you find them subtitled or dubbed or directly translated in any way.
All you get are summaries from the news, holy crap the public doesn't know anything about why he's upset and no one has gotten upset?
They actually got the most recent one on the net and in it he was talking about being denyed the option of peace talks... super.
Re:Let's change the entire way we live for Muslims (Score:3, Insightful)
How many millions of people need to attack freedom of speech before you understand that it's not just a few bad apples but a fundamental conflict between their beliefs and the right to freedom of speech. They blame all of Denmark for the actions of one newspaper, and expect laws passed to restrict freedom of speech because they don't like dissent from their beliefs.
Re:Let's change the entire way we live for Muslims (Score:2, Insightful)
How many people does it have to be before people like you stop calling them "a few"? Okay, there are over a billion Muslims in the world. Does that mean if only 5 million of them riot it's a tiny, insignificant subculture within greater Islam? You can't say "the Muslim world" thinks or does something unless at least 50% of Muslims do it? That's ridiculous. You might as well say America did not bomb Iraq, only a small, insignificant, non-representative part of America bombed Iraq.
Your ignorance. When was the last time Christians murdered someone for being homosexual? I seem to recall a mass murder a few weeks ago. How many forums ban the word "gay" even though there is nothing wrong with it aside from Christian oppression?
According to your argument, Christians as a group have never murdered anybody, only "a few people" have. Obviously Christians have nothing against gay people since the vast majority have never actually gone around killing gay people. They must want to co-exist peacefully.
But seriously, you're joking right? If Christians were like Muslims, all those prominent gay marriage ceremonies a while ago would have been fire-bombed. Or do you think if someone tried to have a prominent, public gay marriage in, say, ANY Muslim country, they would be allowed?
The christians I know would act no better, and probably worse given a similar situation. After a united middle east had just finished conquering the US, the mexicans and the refugees from the US who escaped the bombs would be less then kindly disposed towards and muslims. When they start making excuses to invade mexico, who has little hope of defending itself, and after seeing on TV the sexual abuse of captive Americans, if some other muslim nation were to print sacrilegious pictures of Jesus being raped by a dog, while also including in these cartoons some of the lies used to justify the invasion of the US, well there would be plenty of riots and lynching of muslims in Mexico.
Eh, bad example. Of course if we were the ones taken over we'd be upset. But do you think Christians in America would be rioting in the streets if, say, the stuff you described happened in some remote part of Russia? It isn't the West's fault if Muslims have this dumb idea of "Pan Muslims Brotherhood" that links everybody's plights together.
It's like you're trying to argue the majority of Christians are as bad as the tiny, insignificant portion of Islam that captures media attention.
Re:Jesus Christ! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Jesus Christ! (Score:2, Insightful)
Same or different its all make believe.
Re:Jesus Christ! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Jesus Christ! (Score:1, Insightful)
All Christian sects? Or just the Catholics? Real question here...
The LRA is one of the worst horrors of the world. (Score:3, Insightful)
The LRA is truly one of the worst horrors of the modern world, and I think it's a real shame that no one with the military might to do something about them has. I think a large part of the reason for that is the horror and revulsion that most military leaders feel at the thought of having to send their soldiers out to fight against an army of traumatized child conscripts. A war like that could psychologically devastate an entire generation of soldiers, and there's little economic gain to be had for a country for stepping into this mess, so the world just closes its eyes and hopes it will go away on its own. It's an utterly disgusting tragedy that will take decades to end and decades more to heal.
Re:Sheesh (Score:3, Insightful)
You might find a few native Americans who disagree with you on that.
Mod Grandparent UP (Score:2, Insightful)
I had not heard about Christians burning down disco's in Bali or blowing themselves up in a teenage hangout in Israel.
I have not heard how Christian "youths" are raping and beheading Muslim school-girls on their way home from school.
When I saw Billy Graham, I must have been in the bathroom when he was screaming "Death to the Infadels, Death to Saudi Arabia, Death to Iran!"
I guess the jews really do own the media.
How many people have the US killed since invading Iraq? 100,000? 200,000?
Gee, that only puts us 800,000-900,000 behind their previous leader. I guess we need to start gassing some Kurdish children to catch up! Actually, your numbers are wildly inflated and the 10,000-20,000 numbers I've heard included active Iraqi military, terrorists, civilians killed by terrorist and the civilians the terrorist hide behind. However, I agree that war sux and any civilian death is a travesty. Everyone in America, including the leadership and military, agrees. Can you say the same about the Arab world? Besides, we are talking about the actions of a religion, not a government. How many Iraqi's voted in the last election and had the choice of more than one candidate?
How many people did the primarily christian US army kill when they invaded Iraq?
Again, the US Army is not a "Christian Army". Trust me, I was a soldier in the US Army and as a Christian, I was the minority.
You know the red cross on a white background was also the symbol of the crusades right?
Did you know that the crusades were in response to a 1000 years of Dhimmitude (read: slavery)? Still, that cross is a symbol of the Christian religion. I still don't see Christians burning down embassies.
But you still see plenty of christians killing others because they are gay or for numerous other reasons
No I don't. I see a few red-necks doing so, and they are strongly condemded by the Christian Church. Then they are tried for murder and imprisoned or put to death, in this country you call "Christian".
Re:There is no middle ground between freedom and l (Score:4, Insightful)
I like most of your post.
But it seems to me that the extremes are easier to prove conclusively wrong.
i.e.
Abortion is illegal under ANY circumstances.
Okay the mother AND the child will die when she is about 7 months pregnant.
Abortion is legal under ANY circumstances.
Okay we are killing an 8 month old baby that could survive outside the womb.
So the middle ground must be where the correct answer lies or there may be -no- correct answer. Heads you lose, Tails you lose.
If you get down to it, even if you use birth control prevent the union of sperm and egg that would have occured- you just prevented a human life. Maybe not violently but just as surely as if you had aborted it at 8 months.
Re:There is no middle ground between freedom and l (Score:1, Insightful)
I assume you're vegan, because animals have life too, and therefore it is wrong to kill them.
But then plants are alive, so it's wrong to kill plants too.
Fungus? Alive.
Cultured bacteria? Plankton? Alive.
What do you eat without committing -- or relying on someone else to commit -- a wrong?
"They are not like us and are thus inferior." (Score:3, Insightful)
It's hard to say what the religious beliefs of the leaders of Germany and Italy were because they contradicted themselves so much in word and action. They were certainly Christian in name and used a lot of religious rhetoric, but it's hard to say that they were devout, practicing Christians. It is more likely that they were simply exploiting Christianity in the same manner as all other authoritarians.
Authoritarian and nationalist / xenophobic movements all rely on an ethos of the superiority of the group based on shared (and often inherited) values. Even atheistic movements in the Soviet Union and in China shared these characteristics in their revolutions. The real problem is not religion but the tribal, "pack animal" instincts that are the core of these movements in history. Religion just provides the excuse, but the real malaise is deeper and ultimately is universally human.
Re:Jesus Christ! (Score:2, Insightful)
Crusade. Do you even know what the crusades were about? What they were in response to?
Spanish Inquisition. Is that the best you can do?
Since some people have "killed in the name of" throughout history, Christianity must obviously be as evil as Islam I guess.
Look, the epitome of the good Christian is to live like Christ, yeah?
And the epitome of the good Muslim is to live like Mohammod, right?
Now go read up on what both of them did with their time on earth and get back to me for lesson #2.
Re:Jesus Christ! (Score:3, Insightful)
You seem to be moving the bar here, I never said there were not any Nut-Jobs who called themselves Christians, I said there were note 'plenty' of people calling themselves Christians and being violent.
I do like the appeal to emotion though, way to go on trying to side step the actual discussion by bringing Abortion into it. Sadly for you, however, the facts on abortion clinic bombings help, not hurt my case.
Number of suspected attacks on Abortion Clinics in the US in the past two years.
1/2004 Florida ARSON Remains open
7/2004 Florida ARSON Remain open
1/2005 Washington ARSON Remains open
7/2005 Florida ARSON Remains open
There have been a total of four cases of arson and no bombing in the last two years and only on bombing in the past five years. Contrast this with the fact that 10 baptist churches were torched in *one week* this year and things are in a better perspective no? To get ten attacks on abortion clinics I would have to go back to 2001!
Re:Jesus Christ! (Score:2, Insightful)
Well, not exactly. Regardless of what religion you subscribe to, your choice prophet is the ideal person to emulate: If you're Christian, you follow Jesus. If you're a Muslim, you follow Mohammad.
Jesus killed nobody. In fact, while possbily being considered a biggot by today's standards, he never even advocated violence. However, Mohammad was a warrior who killed a crapload of people and was even a robber for a period of good while [wikipedia.org].
Read the history of Islam in addition to a few of the supposedly 'peaceful' quotes of the Koran (IN CONTEXT) before you resort to the Western "I'm okay, you're okay" appologist attitude for Islam. Remember, educating yourself is only ever a good thing. And believe me, you'll be unpleasantly surprised by what you find inside of that book.
I didn't believe any of this, either, until this whole cartoon row occured, and I actually picked up a Koran and started reading it for myself. Scary stuff.
-Fatty
p.s.
I know someone will now point out violence in the Old Testament; however, keep in mind that this was before Jesus died (as Christians believe) for the sins of the world, which outdated the Old and paved the way for the New Testament.
Poverty is not the root of religiousfundamentalism (Score:4, Insightful)
The wealth of the US and Europe is handed over every day to the Middle East. At about $60 a barrel. Many of your top-brand islamic fundamentalists their pockets with your money. In fact, the GDP per capita of Saudi Arabia is $12900, that is 13 times that of Mali ($1000), a peaceful stable secular democracy. The Malinese are (mostly) moslem, but very nonfundamentalist. If you want a poor Christian country, there is Malawi ($700). Comparably quiet.
No, being the haves or have nots doesn't seem to be the explanation. Try again.
Re:Jesus Christ! (Score:3, Insightful)
No Allah is just the word for God - Islam is a very monotheistic religion. You could say extremely monotheistic.
That bit about the moon god is something Evangelical missionaries have been peddling for years - hence your link leading to a biblebelievers website.Fitting it into the Satanic Verses is what got Salman Rushdie into trouble.
So polytheistic? Just plain wrong.
As a child when the door-to-door Evangelicals would hear that our family was Muslim, they would bust out an offensive Jack Chick-style cartoon book that accused the Prophet of being a moon goddess idol worshipper. We would politely tell them to get lost.
The central theological incompatability of Islam and Christianity according to standard Islamic thought is that *Christianity* is slightly polytheistic through its deification of Jesus. In fact the effort to avoid this with Prophet Muhummad, to prevent him from being regarded as anything other than a great man with human frailties, is behind the taboo on his depiction.
That concludes todays lesson.
Re:Jesus Christ! (Score:3, Insightful)
So what's the difference? It's the social liberalism of the society. In the west, we've embraced free speech and had our beliefs and views challenged to various degrees in a long process. We've been working towards true freedom of speech in the west for a long time. The middle east hasn't gotten to this point yet, but that's a characteristic of the society, not the religion. Christians were very violent without much of a sense of humor hundreds of years ago (look at the Puritans, or the crusades, or the Spanish Inquisition - the current riots pale in comparison).
The solution is to help the societies learn to value freedom as much as we do. I'm not sure that's something that can be imposed by outside forces, though. In fact, I'm not sure how it can be achieved at all.
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:You really are a space cadet (Score:4, Insightful)
Yep, that's exactly right- there has been NO need for the UK to control Ireland since the 18th century. ALL of the rest has been human rights violations.
Ireland was never useful as a strategic property, unless you planned to invade the US or something.
Wrong. During the Reformation, when England went Protestant, a very real fear was that the Catholic Spanish Armada would use Catholic Ireland as a steping stone to attack England. To prevent that, Cornwall invaded Ireland, and used Scotish Presbyterian settlers to kick the Irish off their land. ALL of the "troubles" can be traced to that invasion.
And the IRA only fought over the north; the south, and vast majority, is completely free.
You don't think the IRA started in 1921 do you? No, they've been around since the 1700s.
And it still remains in UK hands, so the IRA didn't get what they wanted.
Actually, the UK is negotiating a date to hand it over- and the IRA already got an election out of the deal.
Re:Jesus Christ! (Score:3, Insightful)
I think that people are people wherever you go.
More true words have never been spoken
It doesn't matter whether you're a Christian or a Muslim, and both religions have had their ugly moments
Again, a seemingly reasonable statement - that will get you detained and most likely deported from Saudi Arabia. Something to think about.
Re:Jesus Christ! (Score:2, Insightful)
For the love of everything good in this world, how is this insightful? I haven't heard of any doctor being killed over abortion (or clinics being burned) for the longest time. On top of that any sane Christian congregation would ban such activity. Maybe it's just cause I read slashdot to much and not the real news, but I'm pretty certain if something like that happened, the media would make sure everyone and they're dog knew about it.
About the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition. They were almost an entire millennia ago! Since then there have been a paradigm shift in how we view freedom and such, I don't think people understand how much the renaissance did to change our world view. Not only did these events occur in a very different context than the one we live in today, they were very different from what you suggest — OMG, Christians are killing teh Jew and Muslims. In fact the Crusades were a response to the Muslim conquest. You'll notice that the Christian armies never crusaded to Mecca, they went to Jerusalem, which used to be Christian until the Muslim armies came and sacked the place. You'll also notice that the Christian armies gave up after a couple centuries, realizing that their conquest was misguided and retarded, the Islamic armies didn't. They continued until they finally got owned in Vienna in the 16th century. The conflict that still exits in Yugoslavia is largely a result of the Islamic conquest.
Another point that should be brought across is the the crusades were largely a political manuvure. In fact there were many people in the clergy who were adamantly against them. This became even more pronounced and they continued on. It became so bad that on the fourth Crusade they sacked Constantinople! There was certainly plenty of religious sentiment involved in the crusades, but it neither well thought out nor reflective of what Christianity is on a larger scale. That's why we say that doctrine must be decided by church counsels and not some yahoo who calls himself the pope (the church of Rome has been a bit confused on this issue, but I believe if you press them hard enough they will agree).
The other event, the Inquisition, was even more politically driven. Certainly, they used the masquerade of religion, but don't be fooled. They were, essentially, a trick to get rid of rival christian sects that could pose a threat to the political power of Rome. The pople most often persecuted were not heathens; but Calvinists, Lutherans, Hussites, Jacobian, or other kinds of Protestant and Anabaptist groups. It was certainly evil, but it was not a Christian vs. heathen thing, that's just what they wanted people to believe.
Re:So choose another name...? (Score:3, Insightful)
"So why not just choose another name that doesn't contain the word? Yahoo's systems are privately owned and operated. They choose their policies and proceedures."
1) If you read the article, you would know the most obvious answer (Linda Callahan *DID NOT* sign up with Yahoo, she signed up with Verizon, who has an agreement with Yahoo.)
2) You remind me of the person who says something like 'America is the greatest country in the world, and if you want to go around saying bad things about it you should move to another country' (in case you can't figure out what is wrong with that statement, America is (arguably) better than many other countries in large part because we have the first amendment, to wit, freedom of speech. It makes no sense to tell people who assert their constitutional rights that they should leave the country which guarantees them those rights for availing themselves of those rights.)
3) In America, we have laws against descrimination. While IANAL, their policy most likely violates those laws in the same way that opening a store that sells to everyone but blacks, or people with names that sound like they might believe in Buddha, would violate those laws.
Hope that makes it a little more clear for you