Month: August 2010
Seems Turkey’s re-Islamification was documented in the 60s
Thanks to Andrew Bostom for sending me this.
Uriel Heyd on Turkey’s Re-Islamization, Circa 1968: Over Four Decades Ahead of Today’s Vacuous “Analysts”
August 16th, 2010 (59 minutes ago) by Andrew Bostom |
Professor Uriel Heyd (d. 1968) described Turkey’s tenuous secularization and aggressive re-Islamization fully 42 years before todays “learned analysts” have finally come to the same pathetically belated realization…
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Since the recent Mavi Marmara flotilla affair—facilitated, and perhaps even orchestrated by the Turkish government—we have been inundated with excruciatingly belated, if not downright delinquent hand-wringing assessments by so-called “expert analysts” of Turkey. These “experts” lament what they view as Turkey’s “precipitous” return to Islamic fundamentalism under the current Erdogan-led AKP regime—as if this dangerous phenomenon emerged suddenly and fully formed from the head of Zeus al-Zawahiri.
A sobering, highly informed corrective to this cacophony of ill-informed Johnny and Janey-Come –Lately “learned analyst” voices was provided by the Israeli scholar of Ottoman and Republican Turkey, Professor Uriel Heyd (1913-1968)—just over forty-two years ago!
First, a brief biography of Heyd, derived from Professor Gabriel Baer’s opening tribute and Preface (pp. 5-6) to Heyd’s “Revival of Islam in Modern Turkey,” The Magnes Press, Jerusalem, 1968, pp. 5-27, and Professor Aharon Layish’s, “Uriel Heyd’s Contribution to the Study of the Legal, Religious, Cultural, and Political History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey,” Bulletin of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 9, No. 1, 1982, pp. 35-54.
Born Uriel Heydt on July 26, 1913, in Cologne, Germany, Heyd learned Hebrew in secondary school, and subsequently Arabic, Turkish, and Persian. He also studied law and economics, before ultimately focusing on oriental studies. Immigrating to Palestine in 1934, Heyd studied Islamic culture, Arabic language and literature, as well as the history of Palestine at Hebrew University under the tutelage of Professors G. Weil, L.A. Meyer, and the great scholar of Muslim-Jewish relations, S.D. Goitein. Upon graduation, Heyd continued his studies by learning Turkish in Istanbul (1939/40), subsequently joining the Middle East Department of the Jewish Agency for Palestine in 1943. Transferred to the Agency’s London office, Heyd completed a seminal analysis of the influential Turkish nationalist Ziya Gokalp (which was accepted as a PhD thesis by Hebrew University), while also studying Old and Middle Persian, Old Turkish, and Urdu at The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in the University of London. At SOAS, in addition, Heyd researched Ottoman diplomatic institutions and history under the renowned Ottomanist Professor Paul Wittek. Before joining the Hebrew University faculty in 1951, Heyd, between 1948 and 1950 served as a diplomat at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC, and the Israeli Legation in Akara, Turkey. At Hebrew University, Heyd ascended rapidly within the Department of the History of the Muslim Countries, which he would direct for some years, becoming the Eliyahu Elath Chair of the History of the Muslim Peoples in 1968, shortly before his sudden death May 13, 1968.
New information on the Dr’s of the Lockerbie Bomber.
Rumours of his death seem to have been greatly exaggerated.
Anyone who opposes destroying Canada with unlimited immigration must be mentally ill
A game theory look at Islam. Quite excellent overall.
Thanks Don for sending me this.
From Citizen Warrior
HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED why millions of Muslim men are dedicated to killing Americans? Or why so many are willing to blow themselves up to kill Israelis? Or why they are so committed to blowing up random people in Bali, London, Madrid, etc.?
Islamic supremacists are doing this all over the world, attacking Westerners and their own fellow Muslims alike. Why?
Because of a doctrine. A doctrine is a collection of ideas. These could be customs, words, beliefs, etc. A religion is not a single idea; it is a collection of ideas. The collection of ideas that make up the religion of Islam makes Muslims behave and feel as they do.
Collections of ideas compete with each other in the same way that collections of cells (organisms) compete with each other. And because idea-collections compete, and because new ideas can often be added or subtracted from the collection, and because some collections gain more believers than others, collections of ideas can actually evolve.
Let’s look at how religious idea-collections evolve and compete. To begin with, let’s assume we already have a religion established. It already has a holy book and millions of people are already believers.
And then there is a slight variation.
The original version had a “live and let live” attitude, and never tried to encourage its followers to get converts. But then someone comes up with the idea that if you can persuade a non-believer to become a believer, you earn some sort of spiritual merit. You are saving souls, and your chances of getting into heaven are better.
Okay, now you have two variations on the same religion: One contains the idea that it doesn’t really matter if you get anyone else to join the religion. The other motivates its believers to persuade others to join.
After a thousand years, which of the two variations will have more believers? I’m betting on the motivated-to-spread-it version.
Let’s assume, for the moment, that the motivated version gets far more followers. Does that mean it makes people happier? Or more successful in life? Or have healthier children? No. Just because a collection of ideas successfully gains followers does not mean it benefits any of the people believing those ideas.
The same is true in genetics. Contrary to common sense, a successful gene doesn’t necessarily benefit the organism. It is “successful” in the sense that it has made lots of copies of itself and is found in many organisms. But it may actually be harmful for the organism.
For example, if there is a gene for alcoholism, and if drinking causes someone to start having children younger than someone who doesn’t drink, over thousands of years, the alcoholism gene might be more successful (the gene makes its way into more offspring) than the non-alcoholism gene, even though it is bad for each individual person carrying the gene.
In the same way, the success of an idea-collection doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good for the people who believe it or follow it.
If an idea-collection says it is wrong to use contraception and wrong to masturbate, over time, that idea-collection would probably be followed by more people than the version that says these things are just fine (assuming people normally teach their children to believe as they do). Continue Reading →
‘Thank God for Gordon’: Gaddafi orders Libyans to pray for Brown – to thank him for releasing the Lockerbie bomber
Might make one imagine that the Lockerbie bombing was a state sponsored act one might think from this.
From the Daily Mail:
By Nabila Ramdani
Last updated at 10:01 PM on 14th August 2010
Libya will mark the first anniversary of the release of the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Al Megrahi by thanking God for Gordon Brown and Kenny MacAskill, the two men who let him go.
Colonel Gaddafi, the country’s dictator, has ordered prayers to mark Friday’s anniversary of the decision to free Al Megrahi from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds.
The Libyan leader is keen to avoid a repeat of the international condemnation sparked by the decision to give the convicted terrorist a hero’s welcome when he returned to Libya on August 20, 2009, allegedly with just three months to live.
Grateful: Gordon Brown with Colonel Gaddafi last July, a month before the release of Al Megrahi
The families of the 270 people who died in the 1988 bombing of Pam Am Flight 103 were furious at what they saw as scenes of triumphalism at Tripoli airport, with large crowds cheering and shouting.
A spokesman for the Libyan leader said: ‘The celebrations this year will involve people giving thanks to God for Brother Al Megrahi’s release, and marking the event with their own quiet celebrations.’
He added: ‘People will pray for Al Megrahi and give thanks to those who helped free him, including former Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Scottish Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill.
Muslim Cleric Calls for Jihad, Coptic Christians Attacked in Egypt
Assyrian National News Agency:
AINA) — On August 13 Sheikh Tobah, Imam of the village of Shimi 170 KM south of Giza, called during Muslim Friday prayers for Jihad against Christians living there. As a result the Christian Copts living in the village were assaulted over two consecutive days. Eleven Copts were hospitalized and many Coptic youths were arrested.
The assaults begain a couple of hours after the Sheikhs incitement. An argument between Copt Maher Amin, who was washing his taxi, and Mohamed Ali Almstaui, a Muslim extremist from the village, escalated into violence as Mohamad assaulted Maher. The altercation was stopped by bystanders. However, after the evening break of Ramadan fast, Ahmad, the brother of the perpetrator Mohamad, who is reported to belong to an extremist organization, together with twenty other men, went to Maher’s family home, breaking down the door and assaulting him and his family with batons, including his old mother and his paralyzed sister, injuring them and breaking their furniture.
Canada Free Press:
Islam Means the End of Religious Freedom
By Daniel Greenfield Sunday, August 15, 2010
At an Iftar dinner in the White House, Barack Hussein Obama proclaimed that he supports the building of the Ground Zero mosque as part of his “unshakable commitment to religious freedom”. Which of course sounds very noble and good, until you ask a single question, Where is the religious freedom in the Muslim world?
Obama has made the case for Islam in America, on the grounds that America’s religious diversity promotes the religious freedom of all. Islam no less than any other belief system. Yet if introducing Islam into America promotes religious freedom, then why is there no religious freedom in the Muslim world? Why are churches firebombed in Malaysia because Christians presumed to use the word Allah? Why are non-Muslims forbidden to enter the city of Mecca, from which Jews and Christians were ethnically cleansed by Mohammed? Why are Coptic Christians being oppressed and humiliated by the Egyptian government? Why are Muslims murdering Buddhist teachers in Thailand? There are a thousand examples, all of which add up to a single conclusion—Muslims demand religious freedom, yet are not willing to give it to others.
Jews are fleeing European cities in record numbers because of Muslim persecution
This has ominous implications for the prospects of religious freedom in America. Nor is this a theoretical issue. Jews are fleeing European cities in record numbers because of Muslim persecution. The recent case of Malmo, highlights the fact that Islam actually threatens religious diversity. Simply to protect themselves, Malmo’s 650 Jews were forced to spend half a million Kronor a year. The situation is much the same across Europe, as Jewish institutions are forced to become fortresses. What the Nazis did not succeed in accomplishing in Europe, the rise of Islam seems to be doing.
Nor are Christians safe, they are simply in the majority for now. But Christians and other religions were once in the majority in the Middle East. Until they were massacred and repressed by the tidal wave of Islam. Today the religions that were once a majority, whether it is Jews in Israel, Christians in Byzantium or Zoroastrians in Persia, have become oppressed minorities. Some may take comfort in the notion that “It can’t happen here.” But the fate of Europe’s Jews, shows that it can happen here. And that it is happening here.
Religious freedom requires that the religions which enjoy it, agree to tolerate each other. If they do not, instead of religious freedom, there is a religious war.
Looking at the religious map of the world today, Islam has grown in non-Muslim countries, while non-Muslims continue to dwindle in Muslim countries. And even the number of non-Muslim religious believers in non-Muslim countries dwindles, when Muslims are introduced into the equation. If Islam were a fish in a fish tank, it’s clear that it would be a piranha. If you put it into the fish tank, very soon you have a lot of Islamic piranhas and only a handful of other fish that survive, only because the piranhas need to keep some of them alive in order to feed on them. If you don’t like that picture, take an honest look at the Muslim world, with its dominant Muslim caste and inferior non-Muslims living in the cracks of their walls, and draw a better one.
Over and over again, the rise of Islam has meant the eradication of religious freedom Continue Reading →
Dispatches: Unholy war… in one video
Dispatches investigates the violence and intimidation facing Muslims who convert to Christianity in Britain today
Watch Dispatches: Unholy War Part 1 in Faith & Spirituality | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com
From Liberties Alliance:
The man from the MCB, who chimes in around 08:30 in the video, seems to be indulging in the the Islamic practice of taqqiya when he talks about ‘no compulsion in religion’ – he was quoting sura 2:256, but look at sura 3:85, and sura 8:39 – see Winds of Jihad for coverage of this issue. Furthermore, how does he explain the ‘Ridda Wars’ that were conducted, against people who did not want to continue to be Muslims, by Mohammed’s immediate successor Abu Bakr? Did Abu Bakr, the first of the ‘al-Khulaf?’u r-R?shid?n’ (Rightly Guided Caliphs) somehow misunderstand the religion that he was propagating? Pull the other one, it has bells on it! Perhaps these ‘rightly guided’ caliphs were not so rightly guided after all if they managed to get such basic things wrong, if so then the whole Islamic religion is built on very wobbly foundations indeed. It appears that the spokesmen for the Muslim Council of Britain take us for fools and idiots.
The Koran and the Psychopathology of the Prophet (Part II)
by Baron Bodissey
Two years ago in this space Sergei Bourachaga began his study of the psychopathy of Mohammed, as revealed by the Koran and the Sunna. Circumstances delayed the production of Part 2, but, as you will see, it has been well worth the wait.
Part 1 may be read here.
The Koran and the Psychopathology of the Prophet (Part II)
by Sergei Bourachaga
Considerable effort was made in Part I of this essay to refute the argument that the Koran is the infallible word of God who declared Islam as “The Perfect Deen (Arabic word for religion)” during the farewell pilgrimage of prophet Mohammad in 632.
Readers who are interested in the findings of Western scholars who, after a meticulous analysis of the history and the content of the Koran, reached the conclusion that it was nothing but a series of plagiarized and distorted stories, borrowed from Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, etc.. .to fit the political agenda of a psychopath named Mohammad or Chairman Mo, should read the following academic publications:
Theodor Nöldeke: The Origins of the Koran: Classic Essays on Islam’s Holy Book. The German scholar highlights very interesting points about the confrontations involving Mohammad and his followers accusing him, on more than one occasion, of changing verses and conveying conflicting instructions. Chairman Mo was quick to point out to his detractors the notion of “Abrogation”. Basically Mo argued that “Divine Wisdom” can issue new instructions and cancel old ones, and since Islam is a faith advocating total surrender/submission to the will of God, the most recent instructions should be unquestionably obeyed, and no Muslim should pursue an explanation as to why Allah, the source of “The Perfect Deen”, failed to provide perfect laws and verses in the first place, and had to go back to the drawing board to design, adopt, and convey new laws to Chairman Mo.
Nöldeke addresses also in his writings the issues of arbitrary leaps in the Suras from one subject to another, with total incoherence and lack of chronological progress in the stories promoted by Chairman Mo, all of it complicated by a blatant misuse of non-Arabic names and expressions borrowed from other religions. The German scholar died in 1930 without any exposure to the book of Neuropsychologist Dr. Abbas Sadeghian entitled Sword and Seizure. He would have adopted a more benevolent approach in his analysis, had he known that epileptics, like Chairman Mo, do suffer from memory problems after a seizure. Even a minor seizure that does not lead to unconsciousness can seriously disrupt someone’s train of thought, that is why frequent recollection glitches created a heavy dose of incoherence in Islam’s Holy Book-the Koran.
Continue Reading →
Unions refuse to build Mosque at GZ
Vlad Tepes answers Burrak Obama on the Victory Mosque
Sweden: men with ‘a little additional interest in chemical products’ attempt to manufacture napalm
We have been informed by our Swedish correspondent that the neighbourhood where the ammunition cache has been found is home to a substantial ‘South Asian’ community.
Police discover stash of napalm material
Published: 13 Aug 10 07:01 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation
Swedish police have discovered a store of ammunition in rural Österlen in southern Sweden after a raid targeting two men, aged 20 and 23-years-old. Among the items seized was alunat, a material used to make napalm.
“They have tried to manufacture napalm, but have not succeeded,” said prosecutor Helena Lundström to the local Ystads Allehanda daily.
In a raid on the men’s homes police also found weapons magazines and thousands of bullets for, among other things, automatic weapons. Furthermore there were stores of nitroglycerine, gun powder, sulphur, fuse wire, detonators, and two complete bombs.
The two men have now been charged with offences ranging from theft, home distilling, aggravated drink driving, and contravention of the law on flammable and explosive materials.
The pair are accused of having broken into a store at the P 7 military area in Revingehed outside of Lund. Aside from a couple of cases of uniforms they stole seven wooden boxes with alunat, which is a core ingredient in napalm.
Each wooden box contained 16 cans of alunat, with one can being sufficient for 75 litres of napalm.
But according to the prosecutor there are other ingredients needed to make napalm and the men had no motive for developing the substance.
“This matter concerns two otherwise well-ordered boys who just have a little additioinal interest in chemical products,” the prosecutor said.
The men admit to having stolen the alunat but deny that they had intended to manufacture napalm.
A third man has been charged and has admitted to handling stolen goods, while a fourth denies any involvement.
Excellent graphic for the Victory Mosque
I have been dicking around making funny signs for the proposed Victory mosque at Ground Zero New York. Meanwhile, the Baron over at Gates of Vienna has done the graphic that really matters.
I hope that this becomes the symbol for this mocking tower of triumph for Islamic terror those bastards want to built in the former coat factory. By the way, Robert Spencer did a very good rebuttal to Mayor Bloomberg’s absurd non-reasoning for allowing, nay advocating, this project.
Chinese general warns govt. China must have US style democracy to survive
A Chinese General has warned his political masters that China will see a Soviet style collapse if it does not adopt US style democracy. Very interesting indeed.
Here is the link to the Stratfor analysis. I believe you have to be a member to see the video, but it’s worth a click to find out.