It is not irrelevant that Venezuela is Iran's staunchest ally. The Marxist-Islamic Alliance is alive and well. Why is LPC in jail? Because Venezuela hates Israel. This makes no sense whatever, of course, but the most dangerous hatreds are those that have no motive.
Conservative and Reform Judaism have ordained women as rabbis for some time. Now Orthodox Judaism seems to be moving as well.
http://www.forward.com/articles/129234/
@ strangelet:
It wasn't Nixon but Eisenhower, America's most anti-Israel president, who overthrew Mossadegh.
http://www.jochnowitz.net/Essays/Eisenhower.html
@ CK MacLeod:
If being concerned about Israel is the only factor that can make one sensitive to the plight of women under Islam, then it's too bad more people aren't concerned about Israel.
Was it concern about Israel that led Hirsi Ali to write her books?
@ strangelet:
It's you who should be responding to save this woman.
A woman in Iran is under sentence of death by stoning.
http://apexnewsnetwork.com/24139/iranian-mother-sakineh-mohammadie-ashtiani-to-be-stoned-to-death-for-adultery/
Rex,
America managed to avoid war with the USSR. World War II was something we entered late and after provocation.
Jews, at the seder, symbolically spill a drop of wine for each of the plagues inflicted on the Egyptians, thus acknowledging their unwarranted suffering. Israel had the power to level Gaza, just as the Allies did to Hamburg and Dresden, but refrained from doing so.
Faith is always dangerous. The First Amendment introduced freedom of religion as part of our legal tradition. Nothing could have been more anti-religious (in theory) and pro-religious (in practice).
Religion is beautiful as long as you take it with a grain of salt.
@ CK MacLeod:
I am quite aware of the fact that for several centuries, Islam was tolerant and productive, and the leading center of research on astronomy. I am equally aware of the fact that most Muslims are civilized and productive people. None of this negates the fact that Hirsi Ali was a victim of zzlam. None of it negates the existence of the believers who bombed the London subway, the Madrid railway, carried out 9/11, etc. These people read their holy texts carefully and literally. So did the Inquisitors who knew that Jesus had said that "no man cometh unto the Father but by me" (John 14:6). Today, no Christian will cite those words as a reason to kill heretics. Today, we can even state that none of the words attributed to Jesus can be independently verified as having been said by him (which proves conclusively that he was more merciful than anybody else who ever lived). I trust the day will come when there will be no more Muslims who are eager to kill themselves in order to kill others. In the meantime, those who have faith in the eternal truth of zzlam are numerous and acutely dangerous. Hirsi Ali is doing the world a service by reminding us of this fact.
@ CK MacLeod:
I've looked at the context. The Surah means what it means. As for the historical context, such sentences have been carried out in our own time. Stoning for adultery still happens even more frequently.
Kristof suggests things might have been easier if only Hirsi Ali's relatives had known how to say, "I love you." Context, context. zzlamic parents have killed their daughters in honor murders in the United States and Canada.
When I lived in China, I heard first-person accounts of wives who had denounced their husbands and children who had denounced their parents for being rightists or counter-revolutionaries. They too had faith. Kristof and I were in China at the same time. He certainly must have heard such stories, but few people realize that Marxism is a faith.
China is losing its faith, but orthodox Marxism is still the unquestioned dogma in North Korea. Venezuela is trying to create such a situation as well, but they will fail--I hope.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a brilliant writer whose life was made miserable by zzlam (You taught me this spelling, Strangelet) until she escaped. She understands that blind faith is a force that makes smart people stupid and good people bad.
How many ways are there to interpret the commandment about cutting off hands and feet on opposite sides?
005.033 The punishment of those who wage war against God and His Apostle, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter;
It is not irrelevant that Venezuela is Iran's staunchest ally. The Marxist-Islamic Alliance is alive and well. Why is LPC in jail? Because Venezuela hates Israel. This makes no sense whatever, of course, but the most dangerous hatreds are those that have no motive.
Conservative and Reform Judaism have ordained women as rabbis for some time. Now Orthodox Judaism seems to be moving as well.
http://www.forward.com/articles/129234/
@ strangelet:
It wasn't Nixon but Eisenhower, America's most anti-Israel president, who overthrew Mossadegh.
http://www.jochnowitz.net/Essays/Eisenhower.html
Are your sister and brother Muslims?
Thank you, my amphibian friend.
@ CK MacLeod:
If being concerned about Israel is the only factor that can make one sensitive to the plight of women under Islam, then it's too bad more people aren't concerned about Israel.
Was it concern about Israel that led Hirsi Ali to write her books?
@ strangelet:
It's you who should be responding to save this woman.
Oh well. A woman will be stoned in Iran. Yawn.
If anyone wishes to try to help the woman awaiting stoning in Iran, here is a possible link:
http://www.gianniverdoliva.it/
A woman in Iran is under sentence of death by stoning.
http://apexnewsnetwork.com/24139/iranian-mother-sakineh-mohammadie-ashtiani-to-be-stoned-to-death-for-adultery/
Rex,
America managed to avoid war with the USSR. World War II was something we entered late and after provocation.
Jews, at the seder, symbolically spill a drop of wine for each of the plagues inflicted on the Egyptians, thus acknowledging their unwarranted suffering. Israel had the power to level Gaza, just as the Allies did to Hamburg and Dresden, but refrained from doing so.
Faith is always dangerous. The First Amendment introduced freedom of religion as part of our legal tradition. Nothing could have been more anti-religious (in theory) and pro-religious (in practice).
Religion is beautiful as long as you take it with a grain of salt.
@ CK MacLeod:
I am quite aware of the fact that for several centuries, Islam was tolerant and productive, and the leading center of research on astronomy. I am equally aware of the fact that most Muslims are civilized and productive people. None of this negates the fact that Hirsi Ali was a victim of zzlam. None of it negates the existence of the believers who bombed the London subway, the Madrid railway, carried out 9/11, etc. These people read their holy texts carefully and literally. So did the Inquisitors who knew that Jesus had said that "no man cometh unto the Father but by me" (John 14:6). Today, no Christian will cite those words as a reason to kill heretics. Today, we can even state that none of the words attributed to Jesus can be independently verified as having been said by him (which proves conclusively that he was more merciful than anybody else who ever lived). I trust the day will come when there will be no more Muslims who are eager to kill themselves in order to kill others. In the meantime, those who have faith in the eternal truth of zzlam are numerous and acutely dangerous. Hirsi Ali is doing the world a service by reminding us of this fact.
@ CK MacLeod:
I've looked at the context. The Surah means what it means. As for the historical context, such sentences have been carried out in our own time. Stoning for adultery still happens even more frequently.
Kristof suggests things might have been easier if only Hirsi Ali's relatives had known how to say, "I love you." Context, context. zzlamic parents have killed their daughters in honor murders in the United States and Canada.
When I lived in China, I heard first-person accounts of wives who had denounced their husbands and children who had denounced their parents for being rightists or counter-revolutionaries. They too had faith. Kristof and I were in China at the same time. He certainly must have heard such stories, but few people realize that Marxism is a faith.
China is losing its faith, but orthodox Marxism is still the unquestioned dogma in North Korea. Venezuela is trying to create such a situation as well, but they will fail--I hope.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a brilliant writer whose life was made miserable by zzlam (You taught me this spelling, Strangelet) until she escaped. She understands that blind faith is a force that makes smart people stupid and good people bad.
How many ways are there to interpret the commandment about cutting off hands and feet on opposite sides?
005.033 The punishment of those who wage war against God and His Apostle, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter;