Peace with Arabs? Peace with Muslims?

A blogging friend brought this to my attention. Thank you Carl B.

Golda Meir said it best decades ago. How true that is today for the whole world.

We will have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us.

South Asian??? Let's be Honest Now!

Big news today is the Burning SUV plowing into the airport at Glasglow.

The drivers of the car are described as "Asian" in the AP report.

"It raced across the central reservation and went straight into the building," said taxi driver Ian Crosby, who was waiting outside Glasgow's Terminal One.

Crosby said a stocky Asian man had got out of the car and was quickly tackled to the ground by angry bystanders.

What do you think of when you think "Asian"? I usually think of someone of Chinese or Japanese descent.

The AP cites a BBC report that was more explicit but not much more:

"The jeep is completely on fire and it exploded not long after. It exploded at the entrance to the terminal," witness Stephen Clarkson told the BBC. "It may have been an explosion of petrol in the tank because it was not a massive explosion."

Two men - one of them engulfed in flames - were in the SUV, witnesses told BBC News executive Helen Boaden, who was at the airport at time. She described the men as South Asian.

Clarkson described him as a large South Asian man. "His whole body was on fire.... He was just talking gibberish," he told the BBC.

So now the guy is "South Asian" Let's be honest. The men who were in the ill fated SUV "bombmobile" were not some vague south Asians, but rather some of the many many 'radicalized' Muslim men in Britain who are either from the Middle East or Pakistan. Is the media really so afraid to call the truth what it is??? What about reports of one of the 'flamers' punching and shouting out "Allah".

So, the fiery SUV drivers were indeed Muslims of Middle Eastern or Pakistani origin. They are Jihadi Loser Boys who don't get their virgins (or fat raisins, depending on your translation), and there are more in the wings who are so stupidly offended at the knighthood of Salman Rusdie, the Jews kicking Palestinian Butt, and the stubbornness of infidels everywhere who hate the violence and oppression of Islam (Moderate Muslims, please, PLEASE stand up and oppose the actions of your so called brothers!!!).

The enemy is in our midst. Let's be watchful, brave and never give in to their violent ways.

Radiant

A List We All Should Read

While I would not title this list "10 Questions for Muslims" but rather "10 Questions for Muslim Countries," This is still a list people need to consider. It is too bad that, according to question 3, half of Arab women cannot read this, and that only 1% of the population of these countries have computers - half of which have internet access (also according to question 3.)

Here is the list, and all credit goes to Jack Lacton aka Kerplunk in Australia. While I've quoted this list in it's entirety, please visit his blog. His entries are well thought out and documented.


10 Questions For Muslims

1. Why is it Oil or Nothing? The combined annual GDP of the world's Muslim majority countries is under $2 trillion. That's less than 20% of the USA even though Muslims outnumber Americans by about four to one. Their GDP is about the same as that of Germany. The GDP of the major oil rich nations of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait and Qatar combined is roughly equal to Thailand's $430 billion. Remove oil and gas from the Gulf states' exports and their export figure is below that well known exporting giant...Finland. What else do you do besides oil?

2. Why do you only account for 5% of the world's economy? How does it come about that 25% of the world's population is responsible for only 5% of the world's GDP? And that percentage is falling. Where is your industry? Where are your global companies? Where are your world-leading scientists? Heck, why are you not even any good at any sport?

3. Why are Arab nations so underdeveloped? According to the United Nations' Arab Development Report: Half of Arab women cannot read; one in five Arabs lives on less than $2 per day; only 1% of the population has a computer of which half use the Internet; 15% of the workforce is unemployed and that's expected to double by 2010; and the average growth rate per capita over the last 20 years was only 0.5% which is worse than anywhere but sub-Saharan Africa. How do you blame the rest of the world (or the Jews) for that?

4. Why don't you focus on education? The Muslim majority countries have less than 600 universities for 1.4 billion people. India has 8500 and the US 5800. In the history of the Nobel Prize, Muslim countries have produced only 8 Laureates from their billions of people. In the meantime, less than 12 million Jews have produced 167. That means it's more than 2000 times more likely for a Jew to be awarded a Nobel Prize than one of Allah's followers. In an age of increasing technological reliance how will most Muslim nations do anything other than fall even further behind?

5. Why do you do so poorly in prosperous nations? Essex University released the results of a study The incomes of ethnic minorities that showed the economic conditions of these groups in Britain. According to the report:

Pakistanis and Bangladeshis are easily the poorest groups in the country. High unemployment among men: low levels of economic activity among women: low pay: and large family sizes: these all contribute to a situation in which 60% of Pakistanis and Bangladeshis are poor. This is four times the poverty rate found among white people.

Indian and Chinese people have high levels of employment, and their earnings are on a par with white workers. On these measures they can be seen to be prospering.

The survey also concluded that Pakistanis and Bangladeshis would be poor regardless of where they lived. Given the fact that Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Indians are the same people who had the same advantages of colonial Britain from which they were separated at the same time, why are the Indians so much more successful than the others? Indians are Hindus not Muslims. Why do Muslims do so poorly when others do so well?

6. Why don't you denounce terrorism performed in your name? Thousands of violent attacks are undertaken in the name of Islam each year by Muslims against non-Muslims. Why do you not condemn terrorist groups like Hamas, Al Qaeda and Hezbollah? Why are there no senior Muslim figures denouncing these acts of barbarity against innocents? Instead, all that we hear is an excuse for violence and blame for the attacks placed on the victims. Why can't you tell right from wrong? When will Muslims develop societal values that don't belong in the 7th century?

7. Why are your countries not free? According to Freedom House of the world's majority Muslim nations only Mali is free. One country from around 50! 60% are not free and 38% are partly free. Why do Muslim nations account for the majority of 'not free' nations? Of the 10 worst of the worst, 7 are Islamic states. Why is this? Are you born to be in chains?

8. Why the nutty Fatwas every time someone criticises Islam? Salman Rushdie, a Muslim of Indian descent, writes The Satanic Verses in 1988 and, for his efforts, has a fatwa calling for his murder placed on him by Iranian nutjob Ayatollah Kohmeini. Why is it that all who criticise Islam get the same treatment? Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Robert Spencer, Kola Boof, Khalid Duran, Naguib Mafouz...it's a long list. Why was Hitoshi Igarashi stabbed to death in 1991? For the crime of translating The Satanic Verses into Japanese. Why can't you learn to deal with criticism like the rest of the world did about a thousand years ago?

9. Why is truth optional? What's the most popular book in Arab nations? The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Readers may know that the book is an anti-Semitic fiction created by Russian secret police in around 1900. However, in the Middle East it's presented as fact. Ridiculous, you say. Really? The Saudi newspaper Al Madina ran a series in 2005 confirming the truth of the 'Protocols', as the book is known. The series was broken down into separate articles such as Muslims must be familiar with the Protocols in order to know how to defend themselves and The Match between the Protocols and real events is the most convincing proof of their authenticity. Shortly after 9/11 a survey of Muslim countries reported that only 18% of people believed that Muslims were behind the attacks. These days they're blaming the Jews. Last month Egyptian researcher Muhammed Al-Buheiri appeared on Nile Culture TV to claim that the Jews are still kidnapping Christian children, murdering them and using their blood in their Passover matzos. It's as if the 9/11 Truthers were in charge of news. In an environment of such lies and denial how do Muslims expect society to advance?

10. What is it with the cartoons, anyway? Why did you go crazy in February 2006 over cartoons published in September 2005? Do you people have no sense of humour? Do you not understand the irony of violence for such a trivial matter? Do you not understand the concept of freedom of expression even if you aren't allowed to practice it in your own countries? Are you so brainwashed that you don't understand the self-harm you inflict by your over reaction?

In an Arab Country

This satirical poem was written by the reformist Saudi author and journalist Wajeha Al-Huwaider. I thought it was worth sharing. It was also on this site

"When you cannot find a single garden in your city, but there is a mosque on every corner - you know that you are in an Arab country…

"When you see people living in the past with all the trappings of modernity - do not be surprised, you are in an Arab country.

"When religion has control over science - you can be sure that you are in an Arab country.

"When clerics are referred to as 'scholars' - don't be astonished, you are in an Arab country.

"When you see the ruler transformed into a demigod who never dies or relinquishes his power, and whom nobody is permitted to criticize - do not be too upset, you are in an Arab country.

"When you find that the large majority of people oppose freedom and find joy in slavery - do not be too distressed, you are in an Arab country.

"When you hear the clerics saying that democracy is heresy, but [see them] seizing every opportunity provided by democracy to grab high positions [in the government] - do not be surprised, you are in an Arab country…

"When monarchies turn into theocracies, and republics into hybrids of monarchy and republic - do not be taken aback, you are in an Arab country.

"When you find that the members of parliament are nominated [by the ruler], or else that half of them are nominated and the other half have bought their seats through bribery… - you are in an Arab country…

"When you discover that a woman is worth half of what a man is worth, or less - do not be surprised, you are in an Arab country…

"When you see that the authorities chop off a man's hand for stealing a loaf of bread or a penny, but praise and glorify those who steal billions - do not be too surprised, you are in an Arab country…

"When you are forced to worship the Creator in school and your teachers grade you for it - you can be sure that you are in an Arab country…

"When young women students are publicly flogged merely for exposing their eyes - you are in an Arab country…

"When a boy learns about menstruation and childbirth but not about his own [body] and [the changes] it undergoes in puberty - roll out your prayer mat and beseech Allah to help you deal with your crisis, for you are in an Arab country…

"When land is more important than human beings - you are in an Arab country…

"When covering the woman's head is more important than financial and administrative corruption, embezzlement, and betrayal of the homeland - do not be astonished, you are in an Arab country…

"When minorities are persecuted and oppressed, and if they demand their rights, are accused of being a fifth column or a Trojan horse - be upset, you are in an Arab country…

"When women are [seen as] house ornaments which can be replaced at any time - bemoan your fate, you are in an Arab country.

"When birth control and family planning are perceived as a Western plot - place your trust in Allah, you are in an Arab country…

"When at any time, there can be a knock on your door and you will be dragged off and buried in a dark prison - you are in an Arab country…

"When fear constantly lives in the eyes of the people - you can be certain that you are in an Arab country."