"They have done this to provoke the Muslims, like they have with their noisy banging and singing from their churches," said a local mullah, who would not give his name. "We are not upset the Christians have left and we will be pleased if they don't come back."
What a surprise! The Muslim community leaders have much the same to say about Christians' places of worship as the Christians have to say about mosques.
The only difference is, of course, that no Christian cleric would encourage his flock to demand the death penalty for an 11-year old (or, indeed, anyone) who touched the Bible with unwashed hands or disposed of the entire book or pages of it.
I always ask Muslims who defend such severe penalties for mistreating the Koran what they believe happens to Bibles that are confiscated from Christian travelers arriving in Saudi Arabia. To date, I have not received any constructive reply.
Perhaps we should use pages from the Koran more often to fire up the barbie, until the Saudis (who call themselves the Guardians of the Faith) stop destroying Bibles.
In a school RE lesson my 14 yr old son was told 'Islam is a religion of peace' The next day he took an English translation of the Qur’an to school and asked the teacher and students to open a page at random to see what it said? Result: Every page the students opened gave instructions on what to do with unbelievers ... including beheading, burning, enslavement, use of their own tools to kill them (9-11!), etc etc .... The RE teacher however thought that the test was a bit random & biased ... he rooted around a bit and found a page that suggested not killing children and allowing their parents to convert to Islam.
The next day he took an English translation of the Qur’an to school and asked the teacher and students to open a page at random to see what it said?
Bit of thread drift (I've been doing a fair bit of that recently) but when did the Koran become the Qu'ran? The ommission of which letter is indicated by the apostrophe? Is the word pronounced Koran or Quoran with the QU pronounced as in 'quail'. We need to be told!
(Just off to to rearrange my collection of netskies, the fung shway is all wrong as it stands )
The apostrophe, as used when transliterating Arabic, usually means that the Arabic has a glottal stop at that point. There are many conventions for transliteration, so there's no definite rule.
Most conventions would spell the word Quran, or Quraan, which is closest to the Arabic. Koran is just another form. But there is no glottal stop in the Arabic word, as far as I can remember, so the apostrophe is perhaps an affectation.
The letter 'q' in transliteration is pronounced like a 'k', at the back of the throat, and the 'u' like the 'u' in 'put'. There is no 'kw' sound in Arabic, although Kuwait, for example gets close if the three sounds 'k' 'u' and 'w' are slurred together as foreigners tend to do.
I suppose we're actually referring to Al Quran al Kareem here?
From what I read, it seems the police arrested the poor girl as much for her own protection as anything else. I'm rapidly approaching the opinion that many parts of Pakistan are totally beyond redemption. The word "savages" springs to mind.
Last edited by Blacksheep; 20th Aug 2012 at 12:28.
More thread drift ... BBC R4 in its 'Great Elizabethans' programme has just given a good account of the author Salman Rushdie (of satanic verses fame). James Knochtie was euphoric in his praise of Rushdie, which is astonishing for the normally left wing BBC. S Rushdie continues to write in spite of numerous assasination attempts. His latest book throws some light on the attitudes of Pakistani immigrants to the UK. Long may Rushdie survive, and I am sad that he has been forced to leave his recent safe-house in mid Wales.
If one wishes to live in the Dark Ages....why should one not be able to do so without criticism. Is it not the "Live off the Grid" taken to an extreme? So their values differ slightly to ours....why should that be a concern to us.
Either we build a big Fence around them....or around us....and let's leave them to get on with their lives and we can get on with ours.
OH...I forget....we must embrace their differences and allow them to live amongst us and maintain their own ways....what was I thinking!
How long before a majority of MPs are of a faith that does not believe in alcohol and they introduce prohibition?
A friend who lived in Libya some 20 + years ago took tins of malt extract with him for a long time when going back from the UK, as 'vitamins for the children'. Eventually customs caught on and then home made beer became a thing of the past.
How long before a majority of MPs are of a faith that does not believe in alcohol and they introduce prohibition?
Or segregated schools and medical treatment, or ritual slaughter of animals, or criminalising of homosexuals, oppression of women, introduction of religious police, capital punishment for adultery, maiming thieves, etc etc...
Location: A civilised little County..with a bit of eccentricity to boot
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As ever, the usual suspects who would never presume to be, and would probably be deeply offended to be described as having racist views ( however blatantly obvious these may be to an outside observer) duly appear whenever anything related to Muslims is reported.
Whilst you cannot condone the interpretation of applicable law ( as perceived by those who live under it ) as being anything other than barbaric, equally, the hystrionic rhetoric is wholly unjustified.
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