Prof. Azharul Islam plays the same game in reverse, placing the blame on Christians. The game of blaming and counterblaming might satisfy a few Muslim Neocons, but will not bring lasting solutions to any.
When we finally learn that the crimes are committed by men, insecure men, and not their religion, then we have a target to hit and punish. As long as we blame religions, we do not have a target, religion is intangible and you simply cannot punish it.
The war on Terra by Bush has failed simply because he is aiming the gun at Islamic Terrorism, an intangible item, it is not a target Mr. Bush. Go after the individuals, follow Bin Laden and his gang to the gates of hell and get them, then you are a gutsy man.
The pack of Neocons are chickens, they are afraid to do the right thing and instead scheme and aimlessly blaze their guns in darkness hoping some one will come in the way of fire and get killed, and claim a major victory on the war on terra.
Every policy recommendation by the schemey Neocons like Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Daniel Pipes, Alan Dershowitz, Dick Cheney has failed and will continue to do so. Why would any one in the admin listen to them beats me.
If we want to make peace, we need to work on justice. Punish the wrong doer, as simple as it sounds will actually work. All else will fall in place.
As a member of community of nations, our efforts ought to be directed towards justice and equity to attain peace for the humankind with a firm grounding in commonly held values. We cannot have advantages at the cost of others. Such benefits are temporary and deleterious to lasting peace. We believe what is good for America has got to be good for the world, and vice versa, to sustain it.
Let the Neocons go.
Mike Ghouse
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name of the Book: Bedevilled World
By Azharul Islam,
Published by : Global Media Publications
http://www.gmpublications.com/product_info.php?products_id=25640
About the Book:
Islam has been accused for every evil, every incident of terrorism, every action of some splinter groups in remote corners of the world. Islam has been portrayed as a savage religion, bent upon destroying world. This unjust portrayal of Islam (a Divine Religion) is in sharp contrast to Christian groups responsible for atrocities or terrorist attacks throughout the century up to the present time. For these Christianity is hardly named or blamed in world media. Basque separatists, IRA, Ku Klux Klan, other terrorists groups or individuals including Oklahoma city bomber 27-year old Timothy James McVeigh (168 were killed on 19 April, 1995) in countries like Britain, Germany, Lebanaon, North or South America or elsewhere in the world are never called Christian terrorists and Christianity is never blamed for their actions.
President Bush's so-called multi-billion dollar 'war on terror' in the last few years has failed to contain terrorism. The so-called 'war on terror' should have been fought alongside the 'war on global injustice'. Something about redressing global injustice, Muslim plight, bigotry, attack on Islam should be addressed genuinely. One should clearly understand that 'fault' does not entirely rest on a group or a smaller country but on the most powerful nation and the colonial powers for their imperialistic behaviour. A manifesto that seeks to enforce 'Western hegemony and cultural imperialism' through an archaic policy of 'divide and rule' is probably hard to win friends, though it is sure to create more enemies. This book discusses all the above issues and tries to find out as to how the world can be made more secure, how terrorism can be contained and how the injustice can be removed from the face of the earth. Bangladesh is a good example where the Bangladeshi government destroyed the terrorist infrastructure in the country. It can be a good example to follow elsewhere too.
About the author
Born in Bogra (Bangladesh) in 1946, Professor Islam earned his Ph.D. from London University in 1972. For 39 years he has been engaged in university teaching and research.
Dr Azharul Islam is a former vice chancellor of International Islamic University, Rajshahi, Bangladesh. He is the recipient of several national and international awards. He has authored 17 books. Two International Conference proceedings edited by the author are catalogued in the Library of Congress, and several other libraries of UK, Italy, Japan, China, India, Pakistan, Singapore etc.
Professor Islam regularly writes about culture, social issues, current affairs, issues involving Middle East and scientific issues including nuclear proliferation in several national and international dailies and weeklies. He has published more than 100 research articles in his field of research and around 75 review and general articles. He has also translated books from English to Bengali and edited several books and conference proceedings in English. The Arabic version of one of his recent books is being published from Jordan. He has recently completed a 50-page chapter of a big volume on invitation by Nova science publishers in New York.
Table of Contents
Preface
Chapter - 1 Wild World - Global Injustice
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Mapping some basic issues
1.3 US Middle East policy
1.4 From Hiroshima to Iraq
Chapter - 2 Global Violence and Terrorism
2.1 Violence and terrorism
2.2 Face of terrorism – few examples
2.3 From 'favoured' Mujahideen to 'Al-Qaeda'
2.4 US 'War on Terror'
2.5 Violence and terrorism – other aspects
2.6 Root causes of terrorism and why it is on the rise
Chapter - 3 Vilification and Demonization of Islam
3.1 The clash of ignorance
3.2 Neo-Crusaders – reviving ancient hatred of Islam
3.3 Religious intolerance and Qur'an abuse
3.4 Pretext of freedom of expression
3.5 'Militant Islam' – a fashionable label
3.6 Experiencing the fight against terror
Chapter - 4 From Nation-building to Religion-building
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Pretext to 'fix' Islam
4.3 Blueprint for nation to religion-building
4.4 Muslim revival
Chapter - 5 Unlearning Negative Image of Islam
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Abrahamic faiths of the world
5.3 Islam and Islamic world
5.4 West's ignorance of Islam
5.5 Fundamentalism and Jihad
5.6 Democracy in the context of Qur'an
5.7 Women's Issues
Chapter - 6 Tragedy of Muslim Nations and Possible Strategies
6.1 Current tragedy of Muslim nations
6.2 Unions of divided Muslims
6.3 Rising to the occasion
Countering terrorism – example of a Muslim nation
Chapter - 7 Road to a Better World
7.1 Odyssey of a safer world
7.2 Global peace – its chances of success
7.3 Reviving global justice
7.4 Deterrence of global violence and conflict resolutions
7.5 New Global Order – Road to end the evil
Index
Please contact
Global Media Publications
J-51-A, 1st Floor, AFE,
Jamia Nagar, Okhla,
New Delhi-110025
India
Tel: 91-11-55666830, 9818327757
E-mail: info@...
Or shop online at our secure online bookshop www.gmpublications.com
Showing posts with label Chistians. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chistians. Show all posts
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Jews 'Uneasy' With Christians
Some Jews 'Uneasy' With High-Profile Christian Allies
by Omar Sacirbey
Religion News Service
Mike Ghouse ; Rabbi Yoffie should stick to his words, associating with extremists of any kind will cause injustice and injustice will ruin sustainability of peace and will constantly prick the peace. His call to McCain to disassociate from Hagee must be heeded. The neocons of Fox and CNN banged Obama for Jeremiah Wright's comments while letting McCain go scot free.
In recent years, conservative Christians have emerged as some of the most vocal supporters of the state of Israel -- support that many Jewish groups have welcomed at a time when they feel Israel is under siege.
One of the loudest voices has been John Hagee, the San Antonio megachurch pastor who recently endorsed John McCain's White House bid and raised the ire of Catholic groups with statements that even some Jews called vicious and inflammatory.
The Catholic flap has sparked a new round of questions among Jewish groups over the support from Christian Zionists like Hagee and the Rev. Pat Robertson. Where is the line between embracing their support and keeping their politics at arm's length?
"On the one hand, there's a desire to have as strong a support for Israel as possible," said Rabbi Joel Meyers, who heads the Rabbinical Assembly, an umbrella group of Conservative rabbis. "On the other hand, there's concern that no one wants to back any religious extremist. And some of the comments coming from some of the leaders of the evangelical movement are certainly extreme when they talk about other faiths.
"That makes a lot of people, including myself, very uneasy."
Christian Zionism has various interpretations, but the central belief is that ancient Israel must be restored to bring about Armageddon and the Second Coming of Christ. Most Christian Zionists believe that during the Second Coming, Jews will ether convert to Christianity or perish.
That theology alone is enough to give many Jews pause.
While Israel's birth in 1948 seemed to fulfill biblical prophecy, Christian Zionists believe an intact Israel must also include Judea and Samaria -- the predominantly Palestinian West Bank captured by Israel in 1967. As such, they have resisted returning any land to the Palestinians as part of a peace deal. And a war with Iran, some say, could usher in Armageddon.
Estimates on the number of Christian Zionists in the U.S. range from 20 million to 40 million. The movement is mostly evangelical, and its most potent force is Christians United For Israel, established two years ago by Hagee, the pastor of the 18,000-member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio. The group's executive board includes Gary Bauer, Jonathan Falwell and other evangelical leaders.
Hagee, in an interview, said he can "understand" why some Jews would "shy away from Christian support," but blamed that reluctance on 2,000 years of anti-Semitism, not political or social differences.
"We have made a clean break with the past replacement theology and have embraced the Jewish people for whom the Bible says they are -- the apple of God's eye," Hagee said. "And we would say to our critics you need to take a closer look at 26 years of unconditional support of the Jewish people."
Many Jewish leaders have been turned off by some of the statements that leaders of the religious right have made about Catholics, Muslims, gays and lesbians and other minorities.
Hagee has stepped away from previous comments that called the Catholic Church "the whore of Babylon" and that seemed to blame Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans' willingness to host a gay parade.
"I am not now, nor have I ever been, an anti-Catholic," Hagee said, arguing the media have misconstrued his statements. "I have never called the (Catholic) church the Antichrist or a false cult system." And Katrina, he said, was either a blessing or a curse, and "it was not a blessing, I can tell you that."
One of the directors for Christians United for Israel, Ohio megachurch pastor Rod Parsley, has said "Islam must be destroyed" and issued a "lock and load" call against spiritual enemies. Hagee has been equally critical of Islam, but said that "my remarks about Islam are always ... about radical Islam."
Still, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, said such bombastic rhetoric is bound to raise eyebrows -- and concerns.
"I think we need to be very, very reluctant to partner with anyone who isn't fundamentally respectful towards other religious traditions," Yoffie said. "His comments on Islam are a legitimate and important factor here when Jewish groups consider whether they should join with him."
Some Jews have even compared Hagee with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, whose anti-Semitic rhetoric and recent campaign endorsement has caused headaches for Sen. Barack Obama.
"Jews and other people of good will should demand that John McCain renounce and reject the endorsement of Pastor John Hagee because of his vicious and inflammatory anti-Catholicism," Rabbi Irwin Kula, president of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, wrote in a statement last month.
Some Jewish groups have tried to draw a line between Hagee's views on Israel and his views on practically everything else. They've also distinguished between his political views on Israel and an End Times theology that some say uses Jews as pawns to usher in the Second Coming.
"Will I welcome Hagee's support? Absolutely," said Rabbi Jerome Epstein, executive vice president of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. "Would I want his endorsement, or would I appear with him? No, because I don't want to be associated with his positions."
Some Jewish leaders said they welcome the support of Christian Zionists -- but reserve the right to openly and publicly disagree.
"I don't have to agree with anybody 100 percent in order to welcome their support, as long as their support is not conditioned on my agreeing with them on everything or accepting them 100 percent," said Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League.
But Yoffie, who leads the nation's largest Jewish movement, worries that young American Jews' attachment to Israel has frayed because of an "increasingly right-wing and even reactionary tone" on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"The conclusion that our young people are most likely to draw from this arrangement," Yoffie wrote last year in The Forward, a Jewish newspaper, "is that we are simply selling our souls."
Foxman disagreed.
"The only way I would see selling my soul is accepting Christianity," he said. "It's nonsense. We're not selling our souls for anything. I will fight Hagee in court on issues of church-state. I will criticize Hagee on issues that we disagree on. I haven't sold anything."
by Omar Sacirbey
Religion News Service
Mike Ghouse ; Rabbi Yoffie should stick to his words, associating with extremists of any kind will cause injustice and injustice will ruin sustainability of peace and will constantly prick the peace. His call to McCain to disassociate from Hagee must be heeded. The neocons of Fox and CNN banged Obama for Jeremiah Wright's comments while letting McCain go scot free.
In recent years, conservative Christians have emerged as some of the most vocal supporters of the state of Israel -- support that many Jewish groups have welcomed at a time when they feel Israel is under siege.
One of the loudest voices has been John Hagee, the San Antonio megachurch pastor who recently endorsed John McCain's White House bid and raised the ire of Catholic groups with statements that even some Jews called vicious and inflammatory.
The Catholic flap has sparked a new round of questions among Jewish groups over the support from Christian Zionists like Hagee and the Rev. Pat Robertson. Where is the line between embracing their support and keeping their politics at arm's length?
"On the one hand, there's a desire to have as strong a support for Israel as possible," said Rabbi Joel Meyers, who heads the Rabbinical Assembly, an umbrella group of Conservative rabbis. "On the other hand, there's concern that no one wants to back any religious extremist. And some of the comments coming from some of the leaders of the evangelical movement are certainly extreme when they talk about other faiths.
"That makes a lot of people, including myself, very uneasy."
Christian Zionism has various interpretations, but the central belief is that ancient Israel must be restored to bring about Armageddon and the Second Coming of Christ. Most Christian Zionists believe that during the Second Coming, Jews will ether convert to Christianity or perish.
That theology alone is enough to give many Jews pause.
While Israel's birth in 1948 seemed to fulfill biblical prophecy, Christian Zionists believe an intact Israel must also include Judea and Samaria -- the predominantly Palestinian West Bank captured by Israel in 1967. As such, they have resisted returning any land to the Palestinians as part of a peace deal. And a war with Iran, some say, could usher in Armageddon.
Estimates on the number of Christian Zionists in the U.S. range from 20 million to 40 million. The movement is mostly evangelical, and its most potent force is Christians United For Israel, established two years ago by Hagee, the pastor of the 18,000-member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio. The group's executive board includes Gary Bauer, Jonathan Falwell and other evangelical leaders.
Hagee, in an interview, said he can "understand" why some Jews would "shy away from Christian support," but blamed that reluctance on 2,000 years of anti-Semitism, not political or social differences.
"We have made a clean break with the past replacement theology and have embraced the Jewish people for whom the Bible says they are -- the apple of God's eye," Hagee said. "And we would say to our critics you need to take a closer look at 26 years of unconditional support of the Jewish people."
Many Jewish leaders have been turned off by some of the statements that leaders of the religious right have made about Catholics, Muslims, gays and lesbians and other minorities.
Hagee has stepped away from previous comments that called the Catholic Church "the whore of Babylon" and that seemed to blame Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans' willingness to host a gay parade.
"I am not now, nor have I ever been, an anti-Catholic," Hagee said, arguing the media have misconstrued his statements. "I have never called the (Catholic) church the Antichrist or a false cult system." And Katrina, he said, was either a blessing or a curse, and "it was not a blessing, I can tell you that."
One of the directors for Christians United for Israel, Ohio megachurch pastor Rod Parsley, has said "Islam must be destroyed" and issued a "lock and load" call against spiritual enemies. Hagee has been equally critical of Islam, but said that "my remarks about Islam are always ... about radical Islam."
Still, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, said such bombastic rhetoric is bound to raise eyebrows -- and concerns.
"I think we need to be very, very reluctant to partner with anyone who isn't fundamentally respectful towards other religious traditions," Yoffie said. "His comments on Islam are a legitimate and important factor here when Jewish groups consider whether they should join with him."
Some Jews have even compared Hagee with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, whose anti-Semitic rhetoric and recent campaign endorsement has caused headaches for Sen. Barack Obama.
"Jews and other people of good will should demand that John McCain renounce and reject the endorsement of Pastor John Hagee because of his vicious and inflammatory anti-Catholicism," Rabbi Irwin Kula, president of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, wrote in a statement last month.
Some Jewish groups have tried to draw a line between Hagee's views on Israel and his views on practically everything else. They've also distinguished between his political views on Israel and an End Times theology that some say uses Jews as pawns to usher in the Second Coming.
"Will I welcome Hagee's support? Absolutely," said Rabbi Jerome Epstein, executive vice president of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. "Would I want his endorsement, or would I appear with him? No, because I don't want to be associated with his positions."
Some Jewish leaders said they welcome the support of Christian Zionists -- but reserve the right to openly and publicly disagree.
"I don't have to agree with anybody 100 percent in order to welcome their support, as long as their support is not conditioned on my agreeing with them on everything or accepting them 100 percent," said Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League.
But Yoffie, who leads the nation's largest Jewish movement, worries that young American Jews' attachment to Israel has frayed because of an "increasingly right-wing and even reactionary tone" on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"The conclusion that our young people are most likely to draw from this arrangement," Yoffie wrote last year in The Forward, a Jewish newspaper, "is that we are simply selling our souls."
Foxman disagreed.
"The only way I would see selling my soul is accepting Christianity," he said. "It's nonsense. We're not selling our souls for anything. I will fight Hagee in court on issues of church-state. I will criticize Hagee on issues that we disagree on. I haven't sold anything."
Friday, March 14, 2008
John Hagee
Amazing support for his hate speeches. It is incredible
http://www.democrats.org/a/2008/02/john_mccain_sho.php
Hagee on Hurricane Katrina
"All hurricanes are acts of God because God controls the heavens. I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God and they were recipients of the judgment of God for that." [NPR Fresh Air, 9/18/06]
Hagee on Islamic Beliefs
Fresh Air host Terry Gross asked if Hagee believed that "all Muslims have a mandate to kill Christians and Jews," to which Hagee replied, "Well, the Quran teaches that. Yes, it teaches that very clearly." [NPR Fresh Air, 9/18/06]
Hagee on African-Americans
The San Antonio Express-News reported that Hagee was going to "meet with black religious leaders privately at an unspecified future date to discuss comments he made in his newsletter about a 'slave sale,' an East Side minister said Wednesday." The Express-News reported:
"Hagee, pastor of the 16,000-member Cornerstone Church, last week had announced a 'slave sale' to raise funds for high school seniors in his church bulletin, 'The Cluster.'
"The item was introduced with the sentence 'Slavery in America is returning to Cornerstone" and ended with "Make plans to come and go home with a slave." [San Antonio Express-News 3/7/96]
Hagee on Catholicism
"Most readers will be shocked by the clear record of history linking Adolf Hitler and the Roman Catholic Church in a conspiracy to exterminate the Jews." [Jerusalem Countdown by John Hagee]
Hagee on Women
"Do you know the difference between a woman with PMS and a snarling Doberman pinscher? The answer is lipstick. Do you know the difference between a terrorist and a woman with PMS? You can negotiate with a terrorist." [God's Profits: Faith, Fraud and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters, Sarah Posner]
"[T]he feminist movement today is throwing off authority in rebellion against God's pattern for the family." ["Bible Positions on Political Issues," John Hagee]
Hagee on LGBT Americans
"The newspaper carried the story in our local area that was not carried nationally that there was to be a homosexual parade there on the Monday that the Katrina came. And the promise of that parade was that it was going to reach a level of sexuality never demonstrated before in any of the other Gay Pride parades. So I believe that the judgment of God is a very real thing. I know that there are people who demur from that, but I believe that the Bible teaches that when you violate the law of God, that God brings punishment sometimes before the day of judgment." [NPR Fresh Air, 9/18/06]
Hagee on Iran
"The coming nuclear showdown with Iran is a certainty," Hagee wrote [in 2006] in the Pentecostal magazine Charisma. "Israel and America must confront Iran's nuclear ability and willingness to destroy Israel with nuclear weapons. For Israel to wait is to risk committing national suicide." [The Nation, 8/8/2006, http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060814/new_christian_zionism]
http://www.democrats.org/a/2008/02/john_mccain_sho.php
Hagee on Hurricane Katrina
"All hurricanes are acts of God because God controls the heavens. I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God and they were recipients of the judgment of God for that." [NPR Fresh Air, 9/18/06]
Hagee on Islamic Beliefs
Fresh Air host Terry Gross asked if Hagee believed that "all Muslims have a mandate to kill Christians and Jews," to which Hagee replied, "Well, the Quran teaches that. Yes, it teaches that very clearly." [NPR Fresh Air, 9/18/06]
Hagee on African-Americans
The San Antonio Express-News reported that Hagee was going to "meet with black religious leaders privately at an unspecified future date to discuss comments he made in his newsletter about a 'slave sale,' an East Side minister said Wednesday." The Express-News reported:
"Hagee, pastor of the 16,000-member Cornerstone Church, last week had announced a 'slave sale' to raise funds for high school seniors in his church bulletin, 'The Cluster.'
"The item was introduced with the sentence 'Slavery in America is returning to Cornerstone" and ended with "Make plans to come and go home with a slave." [San Antonio Express-News 3/7/96]
Hagee on Catholicism
"Most readers will be shocked by the clear record of history linking Adolf Hitler and the Roman Catholic Church in a conspiracy to exterminate the Jews." [Jerusalem Countdown by John Hagee]
Hagee on Women
"Do you know the difference between a woman with PMS and a snarling Doberman pinscher? The answer is lipstick. Do you know the difference between a terrorist and a woman with PMS? You can negotiate with a terrorist." [God's Profits: Faith, Fraud and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters, Sarah Posner]
"[T]he feminist movement today is throwing off authority in rebellion against God's pattern for the family." ["Bible Positions on Political Issues," John Hagee]
Hagee on LGBT Americans
"The newspaper carried the story in our local area that was not carried nationally that there was to be a homosexual parade there on the Monday that the Katrina came. And the promise of that parade was that it was going to reach a level of sexuality never demonstrated before in any of the other Gay Pride parades. So I believe that the judgment of God is a very real thing. I know that there are people who demur from that, but I believe that the Bible teaches that when you violate the law of God, that God brings punishment sometimes before the day of judgment." [NPR Fresh Air, 9/18/06]
Hagee on Iran
"The coming nuclear showdown with Iran is a certainty," Hagee wrote [in 2006] in the Pentecostal magazine Charisma. "Israel and America must confront Iran's nuclear ability and willingness to destroy Israel with nuclear weapons. For Israel to wait is to risk committing national suicide." [The Nation, 8/8/2006, http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060814/new_christian_zionism]
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