I keep telling people that there is no better way to understand Islam than reading the original sources and through listening to their opinion leaders, yet I have the feeling that not many do. I will try to make it a little easier for them with a collection of quotes.
War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength.
(George Orwell, 1984)
I grew up as an abused child. My step-father was an alcoholic sadist. I learned very early in my life the meaning of ‘peace’: continuous appeasement and unquestioning submission to the capricious will of those with power over us just so that they let us be.
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This post was prompted by comments made to one of my previous ones:
“Dude if you make a title that includes the words “the Muslims” as a group, you immediately set off the asshole detector.
Are you a libertarian?
Try thinking about people as individuals.”
I am not going to argue his assessment here, but I will try to answer the question that is lurking behind it: what does it mean to be a Muslim in the Western world? Continue reading →
Someone commenting on my post about the Jews said:
“But maybe we don’t have enough personal contact with any Muslims”
Clearly, I did not make myself clear in that post, so let me continue:
I read Leo Taxil when I was fourteen years old. “The Amusing Bible” is the classic and definitive ‘attack’ on the bible (I read it in Hungarian; I cannot find a link to an English translation, it may not exist).
Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Michael Shermer are old news for me. Continue reading →
Marshall Rothstein wrote the majority opinion of the SCC in the William Whatcott case. Read the opinion here or about it here – here and here.
I say:
!@# ahdkry %$!$!* @#$ :;”’# Marshall Rothstein !#%& bdfg &^ 18$% E8di.
Is this hate speech? How do you know?
Timeout
I got censored. When my personal editor saw what I wrote, she flipped. She does not like me being offensive which I clearly was as I wanted to make a point. What you see is the coded version.
I have to ask for your indulgence. Think of the most offensive way to address a supreme court judge including his ethnic background possibly his political orientation, his mental capacity and since this case was about protecting the feelings of homosexuals; a suggestion for him to perform a particular homosexual act. Think rude and insulting.
And now, let’s talk about it!
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What makes a good question? It is said that a good lawyer will never ask a question in a courtroom to which he does not already know the answer. To them, a good question is the one that can have only one answer, the one they want to hear.
For some, the good questions are the gotcha questions. The ones that stomp the opponent. The ones they cannot immediately answer. The ones that make them winners by default.
For some, it is the loaded question, the one that is so heavy with assumptions that the opponent cannot answer it in any way without making himself look bad or stupid.
To me, a good question is the least obvious one. The one with the lowest level of assumptions. The one that forces the other side to think about his assumptions, his premises. A good question is a question on the margin. The one your opponent has not thought of before.
All too often debates happen around core ideas colliding head on, both parties reinforcing their own beliefs, walking away in the end more convinced that the other side is wrong.
Believe it or not, I do not want to be an anti-Muslim crusader. I consider Islam to be a serious threat to the survival of our civilization which I fear is on the verge of collapse and Muslims are the new barbarians to bring it about but I would love to think and talk about other things (and this you should believe).
I saw a documentary the other day “My brother, the islamist” raising questions without offering answers.
It is not a remarkable documentary, but it is worth watching. It starts as a puzzle and ends as one. We can see what is happening, but we are not given much help to understand why.
I saw several short Youtube videos about Sweden, also recalling a Pat Condell commentary on it. I will not pick any video; just search Youtube for Islam in Sweden to get an idea what Muslims are doing to it.
Then I watched parts of Barack Hussein Obama’s and Mohamed Morsi’s UN speeches.
All of this (especially the documentary) left me with a number of questions:
I am an immigrant to Canada. I escaped communist Hungary because I did not want to live in a Communist country. I detested the religion-like ideology. I DID NOT come to Canada for a larger slice of bread, I came here for freedom. Definitely not to export communism.
Coming home from our vacation we were driving the 401 from Montreal to Toronto. We ran into a bunch of Muslims twice. The forward pointing bearded types who always look angry.
At the time of the second encounter the sun was about to set. The En-Route place was not too busy, but it wasn’t exactly empty either. The weather was nice, there was even a grassy area outside but these Muslims were looking for a place inside for their praying. They found a corner with a view, pushed some chairs around to make room for their carpets and started their praying.
I found the whole circus deeply offensive.
The Wikipedia article about the Golden rule gives a fair description of the subject as does this encyclopedia entry. The golden rule seems to be a truly universal principle. Except for what it misses, of course. Consideration for cultural goals and individual intent. The golden rule is so foundational to our culture that we do not question its basic assumptions of benevolence and positive self-gratification. The notion that we all want to feel good and want only good things happen to us. The notion that we know what a good thing is, while the Golden Rule is actually nothing more than an expressed preference for reciprocity. All the rest we read into it is just a bunch of cultural assumptions.
I spent the Canada day long weekend on the Bruce peninsula. Some friends have a trailer there in a park next to a nice inner lake. It advertises itself as a ‘family’ camp, a place where you can go with small children. It is indeed a very quiet, very friendly place. Since we were around, we stopped there to see them.