To avoid printing the cartoons – or to avoid any public suggestion that Islam is anything other than a Religion of Peaceâ„¢ – would not only show that death threats and violent thuggery work it would also imply that such thuggery is a morally legitimate response. It is not. Burning down schools and destroying libraries is simply not a sane reaction to the publication of a cartoon. Likewise, threatening to “take to the streets†because an author critical of Islam has her visa extended is a display of ludicrous vanity and moral incontinence.Urges to outlaw and punish such satire and dissent ignore the realities of the history and founder of Islam. Censorship not only blunts critical judgment and perpetuates unrealism; it also extends Islamic ticks and neuroses to non-believers and the broader population. Outlawing such mockery (even if it’s truthful), or discouraging it out of fear or pretentious “sensitivityâ€Â, makes the taboos of Islameveryone’s taboos. It obliges everyone to pretend that they respect a religious figure who is by any rational standard undeserving of respect, and whose religion is intellectually trivial and philosophically absurd.ÂÂ
Also, Hague Speech with the remarkable Geert Wilders.
“Allah taught the bees to do what the bees do.” Birds do it. (Robert Spencer’s Blogging the Qu’ran, Sura 16, as he begins some very interesting portions. It’s been great work. If you haven’t been following, you should. I have some catching up to do.)
Comment by guinsPen on 2/17 @ 10:07 am #
“Even educated fleas and ticks do it.”
Comment by serr8d on 2/17 @ 10:35 am #
Firebrand, and a marked man. But he’s telling much truth. We don’t see his kind often enough. And there’s an edge he’s fine lining as well.
Live long and prosper, Geert Wilders. But, got Insurance?
Comment by nishizonoshinji on 2/17 @ 11:24 am #
pimping for spencer, dan?
he needs it, his comments are sparser than bilary’s black voters lately.
i think OUTRAGE! is a weak meme anymore.
ppl are gettin tired of it.
the Qur’an is a brilliant neurolinguistic hack. 1.5 billion served.
it sounds better than it reads.
btw the torah is also a brilliant neurolinguistic hack….thus hebrew for israelites.
the problem with the bible is translation…..it kinda lost a lot of its power.
Comment by daleyrocks on 2/17 @ 11:31 am #
nishi – Religion is the root of all evil in your view is it not?
Comment by ushie on 2/17 @ 11:40 am #
nishi, does the Torah state that Moses taught the bees how to “do it?”
Comment by ushie on 2/17 @ 11:40 am #
Stupid bees.
Comment by nishizonoshinji on 2/17 @ 11:41 am #
oh no..im not dawkins in drag
like when it is used to validate the underlying socioeconomic motivations.
like this
these teenage thugs are just using islam as an excuse.
the 911 jihaadis were radicalized by exposure to the west.
the collective attitude of these young muslim men to the west is….like….alright bitch! u wont date me? ima cap ur ass and 50 of ur closest friends.
tryin to retrofit this onto islam is like dawkins callin all religions the root of all evil.
religions are exploitable vectors for evil….evil exists in men.
Comment by nishizonoshinji on 2/17 @ 11:43 am #
do u think that instant conversion to xianity wud solve all the danish ghetto immigrants problems?
nah, theyd just riot for some other cause.
like columbine, dig? it is really bullied syndrome. it is revenge.
Comment by nishizonoshinji on 2/17 @ 11:49 am #
look…i dont care if u wanna bash on al-Islam…..but its not productive.
but blaming the words of the Qur’an? useless.
hunt and peck where Muhammed said this or that, useless.
Hirsii Ali, useless.
robertspencer, useless.
it isnt cause and effect.
it is bullied syndrome revengers exploitin somethin a guy said 1400 years ago to justify their actions.
Comment by B Moe on 2/17 @ 11:50 am #
tryin to retrofit this onto islam is like dawkins callin all religions the root of all evil.
religions are exploitable vectors for evil…
Because all religions are exactly the same.
the collective attitude of these young muslim men to the west is….like….alright bitch! u wont date me? ima cap ur ass and 50 of ur closest friends.
If by “date”, you mean “submit to”, then yeah, that is about it.
Comment by nishizonoshinji on 2/17 @ 12:04 pm #
well…all religions are the same to evolutionary biologists.
they have guilds, liturgies, clergy, etc.
i am not sayin they necessarily teach exactly the same things.
just that they incorporate the same basic structure and properties.
some of the memetics is the same.
cultural evolution is documentable in some religions.
for example, monotheistic religion in xianity and islam is evolutionary, not revolutionary.
but revolutionary in judaism.
and no…it is more like a date….young arabs and persians love America.
its columbine on a macroscale.
Pingback by Extraordinary Idiocy, Even by Gleen(s)'(s) Standards [Dan Collins] on 2/17 @ 12:11 pm #
[...] Nishi channels Gleen. Because with Barack, we can move on into the future of guided evolutionary biology revealing to us [...]
Comment by B Moe on 2/17 @ 12:11 pm #
….young arabs and persians love America.
All of them. Every single one. It is just a really tough love, in some cases.
Comment by Dan Collins on 2/17 @ 12:35 pm #
Nishi, it seems that some of their governments have gotten into this act.
Comment by Darleen on 2/17 @ 12:37 pm #
the 911 jihaadis were radicalized by exposure to the west
Nishi, that is teh stupid on so many levels it’s hard to figure out where to begin.
but if you remain convince that America Got What She Deserves because, you know, some misogynist authoritarian racist non-westerners were OFFENDED to eleven by the sight of American female hair, then just shut up and get out of the way of your moral betters to save your ass.
Comment by serr8d on 2/17 @ 12:57 pm #
What Islam needs is a good reform. Then, Nishi, if you’re correct, the poorly typologized misfits will then invent another vehicle for expressing their jealousy and hate. We would still be the targets, because we have and they don’t (good looking women vs. camels?) (and they can’t stand ‘em!)
It’s just the Koran is easy at hand. Ready made by a warrior as a tool for conquest and domination (when it’s not teaching bees to dance…).
Comment by commander0 on 2/17 @ 12:59 pm #
I think nishi is correct when he says
“religions are exploitable vectors for evil….evil exists in men.”
Some are much more easily exploited than others but, as far as I know, they have all been exploited similarly at one time or another. Different age different tool. They can also be exploited for good. Or ignored completely.
Comment by daleyrocks on 2/17 @ 1:12 pm #
Ah, but science is pure and we can find the real answers with science. I just have a few doubts about the purity of the scientists adhering to the religion of AGW and ESCR. Me, I think they’re in it for ideology and money as opposed to purity, but I’m funny that way.
Comment by JD on 2/17 @ 1:30 pm #
Scientists would never lie and exploit “settled science” like with the myth of global warming, or embryonic stem cells being necessary to make Christopher Reeve walk again. Science, anymore, is no less of a religion than a religion.
Comment by daleyrocks on 2/17 @ 1:40 pm #
JD – Sometimes I get the feeling that these “scientists” have the attitude of “fuck the science, show me the money.” That attitude can come in wailing for more and more government support for reasearch, which may lead to profitable private sector products, continued employment opportunities for the scientist on fruitless research projects unlikely to be funded by anyone but the government, and all other manner of arcana and chicanery.
Comment by PCachu on 2/17 @ 1:43 pm #
Well, people keep saying “Science” when they actually mean “Scientism,” the firm and unshakable belief that There Must Be A Rational Human-Origin Explanation For Everything. It’s really more akin to what you’d expect from Benton Quest and Velma Dinkley than anything in actual reality.
Comment by nishizonoshinji on 2/17 @ 1:56 pm #
u mistake me
global warming is perhaps verifiable thru the fossil record….global warming caused by carbon emissions is not
we dont have enough data.
ASCR is NOT the same as ESCR.
ASCR can never deliver the same results for disease modelling, for example.
u can decide wat u please, but dont lie and say they can deliver identical results.
it is not true.
Comment by nishizonoshinji on 2/17 @ 2:01 pm #
darleen, that is not wat i am saying.
we did not deserve that.
i am saying wat happened.
it is just profoundly sillie to think Muhammed is commanding potential jihaadis thru the Qur’an.
otherwise, why arent the jihaadis programmed to do the good things Muhammed commands?
bcuz, they pick and choose wat they want to believe.
like all religions.
Comment by McGehee on 2/17 @ 2:17 pm #
Anything that relies more on faith than on observable fact is an exploitable vector for evil — religion is only the most obvious subset, and in fact it’s the less obvious ones that are most dangerous.
Comment by daleyrocks on 2/17 @ 2:19 pm #
Then again, we can wrap ourselves in a snug blanket of unaccountable intellectual snobbery and pretend that no one else is smart enough to understand us.
Comment by David Thompson on 2/17 @ 2:20 pm #
The fact that a range of ideological systems can be exploited for violence and atrocity doesn’t address the particulars of Islam, its history, or the influence of its founder. The issue remains whether Islam is uniquely prone to inspiring such behaviour. See here:
http://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2007/02/blunting_the_se.html
“Reverend Patrick Gaffney of the University of Notre Dame blamed associations of Islam with violence on a history of anti-Islamic prejudice, insisting ‘there are parallel behaviours in every tradition.’ Gaffney maintained there was little point looking for ‘distinct features’ within Islamic theology that might have bearing on the wave of cartoon-related violence. Attempts to deflect attention away from theological specifics are commonplace, though not entirely convincing. One cannot simply assume that all religious traditions are exactly equal in how they deal with various slights and taboos…
Guardian regular Karen Armstrong has echoed Reverend Gaffney and dutifully reminded us that all religions have a fundamentalist fringe, and thus, apparently, no further judgment needs to be made regarding theological factors. But the size of that ‘fringe’, its relationship to the mainstream, and its specific ideological features are not the same for all religions.
Jehovah’s Witnesses are extremist in certain respects, and they have some pretty bizarre ideas about blood transfusion. And the Amish might be thought of as fundamentalist, too. But where are the eighty or so groups of Amish suicide bombers? Where are the Methodist extremists who want to legally subordinate all non-Methodists as an act of religious observance? Where are the Buddhists who murdered the translators of a ‘blasphemous’ novel while chanting the words of the Buddha as absolute justification? If all religious ideologies are equal in their merits and shortcomings, and equally inclined to homicidal intolerance, shouldn’t we be seeing all of these things, or something like them, roughly in proportion to the size each religion’s following?
…Compassion and horror can be found among adherents of any religious ideology, but there is a difference between monstrous acts that ignore or invert the exhortations of a religion’s founder and monstrous acts that are entirely in accord with that founder’s stated vision… The founder of a religion, his example, and the particulars of his worldview are rather important to many believers. And the likelihood of a religion being associated with intolerance and violence will in part be determined by how violent and intolerant a religion’s founder was, and the means by which he enjoined others to propagate the faith. One can no more erase Muhammad from Islam than one could airbrush the Biblical Jesus from Christianity. When given a moment’s thought, all fundamentalisms are not in fact equivalent in their particulars, or the consequences thereof. Yet this is the default prejudice from which many commentators proceed.â€Â
Comment by daleyrocks on 2/17 @ 2:22 pm #
I wonder who is commanding the jihadis to murder in the name of Islam.
Then also, who is commanding the commanders.
If it is in the name of Islam, who says so?
Comment by nishizonoshinji on 2/17 @ 2:57 pm #
davidthompson….where to start?
telling the jihaadis muhammed said kill ‘em all is just reinforcing them, sillie guy.
telling them they shudnt follow muhammed cuz he was a headchopper and a pedophile/rapist just validates their world view which is! “i dont get no respect” (so im gonna bust a cap in ur ass and whack as many of ur closest friends and confidants as i can manage)
and it ticks off the other 1.4999 billion muslims btw who dont hear the call to chopping an homicide bombing.
when has someone EVER changed their religion/worldview from being told its a pile of crap (and btw why not try my infinitely superior and peaceable religion?) ???
lookzeez..i just want u guyz to try to a litttle wee bit smarter..and maybe…even….subversive? gasp!
Comment by daleyrocks on 2/17 @ 3:03 pm #
Circular reasoning – It’s what’s for dinner!
Comment by B Moe on 2/17 @ 3:07 pm #
…and it ticks off the other 1.4999 billion muslims btw who dont hear the call to chopping an homicide bombing.
You know what nishi, until the other 1.4999 billion muslems start getting ticked off at the bloodthirsty animals committing atrocities in their name I really don’t much give a fuck how they feel.
Comment by nishizonoshinji on 2/17 @ 3:14 pm #
well…we dont really feel they have much to do with us.
kinda like u xians and these guys
i mean…are u personally responsible for how some whackjob interprets YOUR religion?
Comment by B Moe on 2/17 @ 3:23 pm #
…well…we dont really feel they have much to do with us.
They think otherwise, they are saying otherwise, and it doesn’t speak well of you that you are more ticked off at nonbelievers saying wrong things about your religion than believers doing wrong things.
And I am the only known proponent of my religion, so no other interpretations are possible at the moment.
Comment by nishizonoshinji on 2/17 @ 3:32 pm #
im not more ticked.
i want ppl to be smarter, and not keep tryin things that dont work.
Comment by Jimmie on 2/17 @ 4:27 pm #
It’d help if you had a bit of experience with it yourself.
Comment by Pablo on 2/17 @ 4:38 pm #
Spencer and Hirsi Ali aren’t telling the jihadis a damned thing. That isn’t their goal or their purpose.
Hey, good idea.
Comment by nishizonoshinji on 2/17 @ 4:44 pm #
jimmie (i lurvs ur blog)
this goes back to the whole snakepoking thing.
i wrote about that at length.
the plain and simple thing is……is it costviable to poke snakes?
i think its fine if u get value from it.
but if ur only goal is the act of pokery……well……ill leave that to u.
it is likely a darwinian selection gradient.
heres an illustrative clip:
We have a very profound saying out here in the West.
Don’t poke the snake.
You see, the paramedics at our local fire department here on the front range of the rocky mountains treat a number of snake bite cases every summer. The story fronted by the cyclist/jogger is always that they were peaceably cycling/running past and said snake just jumped out and bit them.
However, the bite wound is always on the hand or arm, implying that the venom recipient had picked up a stick and was poking at the snake.
Comment by nishizonoshinji on 2/17 @ 4:46 pm #
pablo hunnie sweetie
wat is the goal of hirsiiali an spencer?
just curious.
Comment by Pablo on 2/17 @ 4:57 pm #
They’re explaining Islam and Islamism to the West. They’re teaching. Isn’t that rather obvious? Hirsi Ali is also reaching out to the more moderate elements with reformation in mind.
Comment by B Moe on 2/17 @ 4:59 pm #
i want ppl to be smarter, and not keep tryin things that dont work.
As far as I know, killing assholes who keep fucking up stops them from fucking up again.
Comment by nishizonoshinji on 2/17 @ 5:19 pm #
pablo hunnie sweetie darlin
bzzzzzzt!
false
HirsiiAli is not doin that…she is SPECTACTULARILY IRRELEVANT to moderate muslims.
spencer is hunt an peck for the bad stuff in the Qur’an soes he can proclaim the intrinsic superiority of xianity.
they are both floggin multiple books, dude.
cherchez l’argent
game over.
wud u like to play again?
Comment by MayBee on 2/17 @ 5:30 pm #
well…we dont really feel they have much to do with us.
kinda like u xians and these guys
i mean…are u personally responsible for how some whackjob interprets YOUR religion?
Nishi- are you muslim?
Comment by Pablo on 2/17 @ 5:31 pm #
You asked what the goal was nishi. Both have mainstreamed discussion of Islam and Islamism.
What game is it we’re playing? Find My Fucking Point?
Comment by nishizonoshinji on 2/17 @ 5:53 pm #
You asked what the goal was nishi. Both have mainstreamed discussion of Islam and Islamism.
pfft
the goal is sellin books
are u really that simple, Pablo?
Comment by nishizonoshinji on 2/17 @ 5:54 pm #
ima sufi an a mu’tazhili, both are sects of al-Islam.
u can called me a muslimah
i represent.
:)
Comment by Pablo on 2/17 @ 6:17 pm #
Ah, so if you do something and there’s renumeration involved, the renumeration is, as a matter of fact, the sole reason for doing it.
Twaddle. I’m not that simple, nishi, and neither are you.
Comment by daleyrocks on 2/17 @ 6:37 pm #
“i mean…are u personally responsible for how some whackjob interprets YOUR religion?”
nishi is really walking around in circles today. We may not be personally responsible for whackjobs’ interpretations of religions, but many religions have provisions for expulsion or excommunication for transgression. When the whackiness gets violent or criminal, Western nations rely on civil authorities to discipline the offenders, whereas in Islamic nations they seem to be venerated in many instances. How unclear is that to you.
All muslims are not terrorists, but most terrorists are muslim. It isn’t all due to some imagined past offenses related to colonialism. Why do educated muslims, such as doctors, turn into splodey dopes, if they don’t believe their religion tells them it is required? You are really not helping yourself with your explanations today nishi.
Comment by McGehee on 2/17 @ 7:40 pm #
Are you sure?
Comment by Pablo on 2/17 @ 7:45 pm #
Yeah, I’m sure. You’re watching an act.
Comment by daleyrocks on 2/17 @ 7:54 pm #
Pablo – Since she’s already argued on three sides of different issues I’m inclined to agree with you.
Comment by Education Guy on 2/17 @ 8:36 pm #
If, as nishi claims, the acts of violence perpetrated by the followers of Islam are merely a cover for some revenge fetish, then it is done with the blessing of those who are teaching them the faith. She can point to Robertson all day long, but his followers are not acting on the hate that they are learning in their schools, at their places of worship , and in their social circles. The current leaders of Islam are teaching the next generations to hate, and so long as that message is the loudest one in the faith, it will not change.
nishi, you can claim that the moderates ignore the darker elements in your midst, but if you do then you are giving your approval. Silence equals acquiescence in Islam just as it did when Christianity had its voice of hate acting as if it were the truth.
Comment by David Thompson on 2/18 @ 1:55 am #
Regarding Robert Spencer and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, this seems relevant:
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/018947.php
“The contention is that because I – and Hirsi Ali, and Ibn Warraq, and others – point out that there is a broad and deeply rooted tradition of violence and supremacism within Islam, therefore we are marginalising other Islamic traditions and legitimising bin Laden. In saying this, Husain implies that jihadism is a clear Islamic heresy, and that there is a broad tradition within Islam that rejects violence against non-Muslims and Islamic supremacism – and that Hirsi Ali, Ibn Warraq and I are ignoring or downplaying it out of some base motives. Bin Laden or someone like him invented jihadism and grafted it onto a religion that has otherwise peaceful teachings.
In reality, however, while there are a few courageous reformers out there, all – not just one, or a few, but all – the orthodox sects and schools of Islamic jurisprudence teach that it is part of the responsibility of the Islamic community to wage war against unbelievers and subjugate them under the rule of Islamic law. There is no sect or school recognised as orthodox that rejects this. It is not playing into bin Laden’s hands to point it out; in fact, it is playing into bin Laden’s hands to deny it and denigrate those who point out that it is so, for there can be no reform of what one will not admit needs reforming.â€Â
More on the same here:
http://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2007/11/act-casual-say.html
“There are, of course, countless degrees of religious affiliation and many believers will be remarkably ignorant of their supposed prophet’s life and less edifying deeds. Many will know only the sketchiest and most sanitised accounts of who and what Muhammad was. More to the point, there will among many be a strong emotional disinclination to look critically at the founder of their religion – and at what that might imply about their own credulity. The potential for dissonance and resentment – to say nothing of embarrassment – is pretty obvious.
Judging by his Guardian article, Ed Husain seems to have lurched from Islamist to ingénue without pausing to reflect on the question of whether his belief in Muhammad as a numinous figure is fundamentally misplaced. Perhaps this isn’t too surprising. If a believer were to look critically at the most reliable accounts of Muhammad’s life, it would, I think, be difficult to reconcile the man’s supposedly numinous status with his actual behaviour. Could such a questionable figure really be a timeless example and inspired by the divine? And doesn’t that kind of question risk undermining the entire, dubious, edifice?â€Â
[ Links in the original articles. ]
Comment by nishizonoshinji on 2/18 @ 7:36 am #
david, my objection to this is that it it is supremely stupid to expect any beneficial results to come out of criticiizing Muhammed.
To muslims Hirsi Ali is just another chick that got a bad deal from the men in her life (and her grandmother btw that ordered the FGM against her dad’s expressed wishes). Now she has switched tribes and gets paid handsomely by her new tribe to be hatin on al-Islam. Her audience is middle-aged white guyz an shes just tellin them wat they wanna hear. AEI pays her 6figures like shes some kinda secret weapon in the WoT, but she has no audience among mulsims, only apostates.
spencer plods thru a pedestrian translation of the Qur’an, an oh! shockah! finds exactly the same narrow interpretation that the jihaadis and radical clergy use, which he uses to proclaim the intrinsic superiority of western culture and xianity. hes useless too.
Comment by nishizonoshinji on 2/18 @ 7:39 am #
edu guy, its not a cover.
it is….an open channel that exists for disenfranchised youth.
Comment by B Moe on 2/18 @ 7:52 am #
…she has no audience among mulsims, only apostates.
That is the fucking point, nishi. You don’t want to hear it. So don’t be trying to talk all this shit about how the jihadi’s don’t represent all Islam, if you ain’t frontin’ them, they are representin’.
Comment by Pablo on 2/18 @ 8:13 am #
If Hirsi Ali is so meaningless, why do so many want her her dead? Why is Theo van Gogh no longer with us?
Hint – It isn’t because the jihadis pay them no mind.
Comment by nishizonoshinji on 2/18 @ 8:25 am #
my point is….even if it is true that Muhammend endorsed the cultural norms and mores OF THE TIME, and that these are bein taught by radical clergy…..so wat?
are u gonna wipe out al-Islam? 1.5 billion served.
like thats gonna happen.
are u gonna dictate what can be taught?
hahaha, good luck with that.
and this……
If a believer were to look critically at the most reliable accounts of Muhammad’s life, it would, I think, be difficult to reconcile the man’s supposedly numinous status with his actual behaviour. Could such a questionable figure really be a timeless example and inspired by the divine? And doesn’t that kind of question risk undermining the entire, dubious, edifice?â€Â
this is just breathtakingly dumb.
ur gonna convert muslims to xianity BY SCOLDING THEM?
look at wat xians believe against all probababilty of truth….virgin birth? resurection from the dead? walkin on water?
give me a break.
Comment by nishizonoshinji on 2/18 @ 8:26 am #
pablo, duh
its revenge…she dissed them
she offended their identity.
Comment by nishizonoshinji on 2/18 @ 8:27 am #
i didnt say shes meaningless TO YOU…..i said shes meaningless to muslims.
just another apostate floggin a book deal.
Comment by nishizonoshinji on 2/18 @ 8:30 am #
pimp her all u want
shes not in our tribe anymore
we aint buyin wat shez sellin.
Comment by nishizonoshinji on 2/18 @ 8:40 am #
look.
dawkins cant persuade ppl that jesus wasnt all that, hes Waaaaaaaay smarter than thompson and spencer.
so i think trying to persuade muslims that Muhammed wuz teh satan is just extemely futile.
BECAUSE OF TEH RELIGION!
we are hardwired for religion
and individual religions have evolved memetically over centuries to be successful.
that means powerful viral meme complexes.
thompson, spencer, and hirsii ali’s efforts are spectactularily doomed, unless their efforts are really to sell books to middleaged white guyz.
Comment by nishizonoshinji on 2/18 @ 8:55 am #
and besides, ur trying to persuade muslims IN ENGLISH.
at the very minimum u shud be publishing subversive pamphlets in arabic.
dont u know anything?
ignorant tools.
Comment by daleyrocks on 2/18 @ 9:39 am #
hehe….nishi u r sillie
u don’t understand… only Islam can reform Islam
Ali and Spencer cannot do it….. tak chill pill
Do u disagree wif Spencer Koran translation…..oh noes?
Is sweetness and light for light for women under Islam….oh noes Ali lying?
u r sillie ….. u want ppl stfu
Comment by Education Guy on 2/18 @ 9:42 am #
it is….an open channel that exists for disenfranchised youth.
Like the disenfranchised youth that tried to blow up Glasgow airport? I must admit, your getting close, but you just won’t let yourself go all the way. Start with who is creating that open channel, and why.
Comment by BJTexs on 2/18 @ 9:58 am #
This is a very old argument with nishi, whom I admire and respect but with whom I vehemently disagree.
What works best against tyranny, illiberal values, and rampant patriarchal attitudes is the bright light of publicity. Coddling jihadists by deliberately shying away from those things they decide are outrageous only empowers them and helps cow the very moderate to liberal muslim constituency you hope will “evolve.”
We’re not going to agree on this, grrl, but i stl luv U!
Comment by McGehee on 2/18 @ 10:33 am #
Nishi sounds increasingly like an empty burqa.
Comment by Education Guy on 2/18 @ 10:50 am #
I would hope that nishi doesn’t get too frustrated with being the only dissenting voice, because amongst the group of regulars commenting here, she is the only one talking about Islam from the inside. I disagree with some of her positions, but I suspect that if I knew her we could be friends.
Comment by Slartibartfast on 2/18 @ 10:56 am #
If only.
Comment by B Moe on 2/18 @ 11:33 am #
shes not in our tribe anymore
Says the Valley Girl who grew up taking lessons in fencing and dressage.
Comment by MayBee on 2/18 @ 11:47 am #
nishi-
Did you recently become muslim? IIRC, last time we all discussed this (it was about whether Mohammed’s writing of the Koran was a miracle) you said you were not a muslim, but several of your friends were. Am I misremembering?
Comment by nishizonoshinji on 2/18 @ 1:53 pm #
very observent MayBee
i converted about a year ago
there are basically 3 kinds of western converts to islam
grudge converts, those with a grudge against western civ, i include gadnan and john walker lind here, and prison converts.
celebrity converts, cat stevens is an exam
and intellectual converts, like me an micheal sells an leopold weiss.
please note both these men have written exquisite translations of the Qur’an, which incidentally are eschewed by spencer since they dont translate the Qur’an as jihaadist philosophy, which is all spencer is capable of.
i was actually converted by the Qur’an……in studying arabic i began to listen to quranic recitation to improve my oral arabic.
it is a neurolinguistic hack…..kinda like the Beatles.
;)
Comment by nishizonoshinji on 2/18 @ 1:56 pm #
haha….oh, B Moes are u holding my whitebread rethuglican background against me?
Comment by Pablo on 2/18 @ 1:59 pm #
They want to shut her up because she offends their identity, which is Islam.
You don’t want to kill people who mean nothing to you.
Ah, I see. nishi: The Voice of Islam. Since, well, yesterday or so. BECAUSE OF THE EDGINESS!!!!
Comment by Pablo on 2/18 @ 2:06 pm #
BTW, what’s this about Dawkins? That fucker has a book to sell. Clearly, he must be full of shit, eh nishi?
But wait! What’s that link at the top of his website?
Donate to the Ayaan Hirsi Ali Security Trust
Fucking bookselling bastards all stick together, don’t they? For the money only.
Comment by Slartibartfast on 2/18 @ 2:18 pm #
Wasn’t he that dude from Hogan’s Heroes?
Comment by nishizonoshinji on 2/18 @ 2:29 pm #
hehe
i agree with sir richard on the selfish genes and the biological basis of behavior.
and thats about it
he would be furious with me if he knew of my conversion
cuz in his opinion i (of all ppl) shud know better.
im well edcuated, high IQ an g, an ive read all his books.
he wud find me aborrhent in the extreme.
im the outlier that breaks his model.
but im really more a sort of Scott Atran kinda grrl.
he an dr. atran have had some huge battles.
Comment by nishizonoshinji on 2/18 @ 2:33 pm #
an sir richard sees poor hirsi ali as a victim of that root of all evil, religion.
they are all the same.
hirsi alis book is nowhere in the same class as sir richards, btw.
The Blind Watchmaker changed my life.
ali’s books are all about blamin Islam for her bad life choices and wat her grandma did to her.
she isnt even truthful.
Comment by nishizonoshinji on 2/18 @ 2:35 pm #
and i dont want to kill her….shes kind of a joke to muslimahs.
we see her as a sellout whos out to make a buck more than anything.
Comment by nishizonoshinji on 2/18 @ 2:35 pm #
sheesh i gtg
ttyl pablo hunnie
;)
Comment by Pablo on 2/18 @ 2:37 pm #
Ah, so we can now determine worth and motivation based on because you said so. Do you think a high IQ is a rarity here?
Well, then. Mission accomplished, eh?
Comment by Pablo on 2/18 @ 2:39 pm #
Why don’t you put in a decade in The Land of the Two Holy Places and get back to us, hmmmm? In the “we” form, natch.
Comment by nishizonoshinji on 2/18 @ 2:54 pm #
pablo i may go to work in qatar some day…my company has positions there.
but im not really judging between two cultures.
for sure im better off here–im bettter off than most ppl here too.
u said–ali was reaching out to moderate muslims, and that is false.
im tellin u why promoting thompson, spencer, hirsi ali…..err magaan i mean(she lied about her name and her reason for leaving the country, dontcha know?)
why promoting those ppl is useless.
Comment by Pablo on 2/18 @ 3:47 pm #
How about that Sufi dude Steve Emerson? Why don’t you give us a quick thumbs up/thumbs down review of his books so we can figure out whether he knows what he’s talking about or if he’s just in it for the crazy book money?
Comment by MayBee on 2/18 @ 8:11 pm #
Thanks, nish, I thought that’s what I remembered.
I saw it coming! :-)
Comment by Rusty on 2/19 @ 6:04 am #
Do they make a fetching burka?