Burning Books

The Dove World Outreach Center, based in Gainesville, Fla., announced plans to burn copies of the Qur’an on church grounds to mark the ninth anniversary of the 9-11 terrorist attacks. Obviously, this triggered protests and hundreds of Afghans rallied against the United States and called for President Obama’s death. Although the church was denied a permit to host a bonfire, they’ve vowed to proceed with the burning, and are distributing shirts around with the caption: ‘Islam is of the Devil’

I almost feel like I can leave it at that; I don’t even need to comment on the absolute stupidity of these people. One point I want to make is that it is completely idiotic and arrogant to believe that the terrorist attacks were due to religious beliefs, but it’s a whole other level of stupidity to think that everyone associated with the Qur’an are associated with terrorism.
Like the group of teachers who burned Harry Potter books and later admitted to never reading any of the books, these ‘God-fearing’ believers are just embarrassing themselves with rash actions due to lack of knowledge. How about we look at Christianity the way they are looking at the Muslim religion. How many serial killers claim to be doing the work of God? How many lunatics are adamant on their ability to talk to God? In that way, how many irreversible crimes have been committed in the name of God? How many wars throughout history started over religious clashes? If you took a tally of how many crimes were in the name of God in America, and how many crimes were in the name of Allah in America, than for every one Qur’an burnt, one million Bibles should be set ablaze as well.
The fact is, after the terrorist attacks, guess who was doing a lot more terrorising in supposed “revenge”? CHRISTIANS. There were more terrorist attacks than ever, and the victims were always Muslim. What kind of idiot thinks that way? Well, they read this book and believed it and so do you, therefore you should be held accountable for their crimes. Not only that, we will forever suspect you of terrorising us, so just to be sure, we’ll keep terrorising you before that can happen. Not only does this solve nothing, it prolongs the issue and angers people into going against you when they otherwise wouldn’t have. If this is supposed to be a statement, what kind of statement is it? I’m pretty sure the Bible says that only God can judge, and I think that applies when you openly claim an entire religion to be of the Devil. Does it mean those who seek a higher power are evil if that higher power isn’t the same as yours? Does it make everyone look at your religion and see you are just as capable of hate and prejudice, but even worse since you stoop to that level after claiming it happened to you? When was the last time ‘an eye for an eye’ was ever appropriate to use, especially when you bring in members of the community to participate? Honestly, I don’t agree with the Qur’an, and I don’t agree with what some people do in the name of Allah. But I also don’t agree with the Bible, that tells us to have slaves and to stone our disobedient children, and I don’t even need examples when I say I don’t agree with the crimes committed in the name of God. I don’t believe that the solution is simply a matter of switching to the right religion as much as I believe that religion itself is probably the most destructive thing that has ever happened to mankind. And after they burn those Qur’ans, do they think it isn’t just adding fuel to the fire? Do they think that they aren’t advertising a war to go on some more, instead of using their brains and being the bigger person? It’s thinking like this that keeps wars going, that keeps people dying, promotes segregation, and keeps intelligent people like me angry everyday they read the news.

Atheists Aren't What You Think

I never considered myself a religion, but I also never considered myself an Atheist until just recently, basically because I thought being an Atheist meant you didn’t believe in a God. I always knew I didn’t believe in God, but I was not bold enough to say there is nothing like even a magnetic outside force or spirit - simply because I don’t know. That was the thing that always made me shun religion; I didn’t know, but what I did know, was that they didn’t know either. Being an Atheist, to me, just means that I recognize everything you tell me to believe in has no validity. Until you can prove to me something’s true, I won’t believe it. And if I can effectively find evidence to contradict your every claim, I’m not convinced.
As a child, I was baptised as a Protestant –Christian and I went to church on Sundays regularly for about five years. God and Jesus were basically never brought up in the house, so I only heard of them through church. This could be why I thought it was totally ridiculous, but now I think I was just a smart kid. I would always find it funny when adults spoke of Jesus like fact, such as “Jesus loves you”, and as a little kid I thought, why are these adults talking about a story character like he’s real? I found it to be almost lunacy, but I knew if I sang “This Land Is My Land” I’d get cupcakes at the end. So, I went along with it, just trying not to laugh at the stupidity of it all. I know now that my mom also doesn’t believe in the Bible, so we weren’t in church long. We stopped going before I started grade school, and religion never came up, really, until I talked my mom into letting me go to a Catholic high school, just so I could be with friends. What an eye-opener. I’ve heard of crazy-devotes, and I’d see the apparent “healers” on T.V., but I never knew how subtly but strongly this religion dictated everyone’s lives. I thought I was in the Twilight Zone when I heard them say during the morning announcements, “Remember, it’s a sin to have sex before marriage. You will go to hell.” And I thought it was a ridiculous waste of time when we had to spend our Religion classes filling out sheets with questions like, “I know Jesus loves me because…?” I mean, I was sixteen! To me, this wasn’t education at all; it was a joke. We had school masses that I efficiently skipped, so religion just stayed a vague joke to me, until I had to study the bible. That was when I got a real shock. The first thing I remember thinking was: people actually believe this? Maybe it was because I was forced into it, but I became a smart-mouth that bought up gaps in everything. And, it’s hard to respect your teacher when you know that on the subject she’s teaching, you are vastly more informed. So, I began to challenge everything. I don’t know the entire Bible word for word, scripture by scripture, but I know enough to know I will NEVER follow any religion, just because I have more common sense than that. I’m a happy, good person. I don’t hurt people or steal things, and guess what? I’ve learned nothing through the Bible and God other than being able to separate fact from fiction, and I can say confidently that the Bible is most definitely fiction. All you have to do is read it, which I’m surprised to say, not a lot of Christians or Catholics do, and just knowing certain phrases by heart doesn’t count. If you were even minimally educated, you would recognize that. I don’t disagree with going to church and having a sense of community, or even praying if you really believe in it, but to read the Bible and from that say its contents are true, you have to be one hell of an idiot.

A Question of Freedom

This is a letter submitted by Ms. Bell to a local paper:

A head scarf should pose no threat to anyone. Those who force women to wear it are those who should be punished, not the woman who wear the hijab as a part of their faith. I agree that everyone should have their face visible government ID and such, but when simply going for a walk, there should be no restrictions on what anyone can wear. If one law abolishes the viel, that is only the beginning of the invasion of human rights. This is not only a response to the new French law, but also a message to those who wish to see this law imposed in Canada. I am Canadian. I was born in Ottawa and was brought up in Canadian culture. I am a Muslim convert (me:!!!!!WHY!!!???) and, as such, I see both sides of the argument. I wear the hijab proudly as a symbol of my faith. Many people see the viel as a way to control women. They argue that we live in a modern society where women are free. That is true and for that I am grateful, but if we force woman to take off their hijab or niqab (me: or burka!), are we not as bad as those who force it upon them?

So that's the letter I came across this morning. Do you agree? Here are some reasons why I don't.
Okay, I understand her whole "freedom of choice" argument, and I agree that everyone should be allowed to wear what they want outside the workplace or government office, but I don't think it's the actual head scarf that is being examined; it's the message. Here's a scenario. A man is walking down the street in a gray T-shirt. Totally fine. But the T-shirt says, "All females are bitches." Then I don't really think it's okay. He's not breaking the law or anything, but a lot of people would be offended enough to want to make him take that shirt off and never wear it again.

Wearing scarfs on your head isn't only a Muslim thing, and has never been a problem. We don't give the old lady with a scarf to keep her curls in a stink eye because she's covering her hair. It is simply an issue of morals and equality. Maybe if we didn't know that if a Muslim woman is caught without her head dress on she can legally be stoned to death or shot, then we might not have such an opinion about it. The swastika was a very popular and used symbol, but put it up today and what is the first thing you'll think of?

Personally, I disagree with any kind of choice to follow any kind of religion at all, but I understand that others can't seem to live their own lives without a Karan or Bible, so it's impossible for someone like me to be like, "Forget about it, religion is stupid and hypocritical anyway!" and expect everyone to go along. The hijab is a symbol of their religion, and many Muslim woman would argue that they wear it for God, not their husbands! (But they do like to avoid the inevitable beating they'll get sans head gear.) But, and this was VERY recently, a teenage girl was MURDERED by her brother and father for not wanting to wear the hijab anymore in Toronto. So, no longer is this a question of choice, but of immense and dangerous pressure being put on the females of this religion. So, as much as we'd all love to think the woman in the burka walking down the street isn't living in constant fear from the men of her family, there's a much bigger chance that he is compared to a woman in a sundress. The burka and the hijab will never be seen to us as something harmless as long as we're educated on it's influence. And personally, I find it just as offense, if not more, than an "Every woman is a bitch" shirt.

What Can't Be Funny? Muhammed, apparently.

A large group on Facebook proposed for people to participate in the "Draw Muhammad Day", around the same time South Park's recent two part episode (200-201) addressed the conservative and sacred view the Muslim people associate with the prophet. Because of this, both parties received a heavy amount of backlash from Muslim activists and just plain ol' angry Muslims, who are avid on keeping the great prophet unmentioned and faceless. It ended up effecting Muslim people the most with Pakistan banning Facebook all together from their residents. Although this is nowhere near the first time South Park has sparked people's displeasure from all over, this is one issue that seems to be never-ending. It's obviously a very different culture in places such as Pakistan compared to Western Europe and North America, so I can understand the kind of shock that these devotes must have felt. But, don't you think it's without merit? I know that you're not supposed to seek the image of Muhammad as a MUSLIM, but we also have a very different culture and a first amendment that grants us the right to speak our opinion on anything. OKay, I know it's crossing the line if your holding pro-Nazi meetings and maliciously belittling a certain group, but I still think a person should be able to say, "I don't think the Holocaust was such a bad thing" freely, even if the majority of us disagree. And there are some opinions a person can have that seem to be obviously wrong to us, but isn't that the start of something? Believe it or not, most people don't really consider things before they make an opinion, and even if they do they are not capable of fully looking at it from different perspectives because of a number of things. They could have a narrow view due to their upbringing, or they could simply just not be intelligent enough to process a clearer view, and who's to help them realize that if they are banned from even bringing it up? What I mean is, religions like the Muslim religions were established hundreds of years ago and definitely DO NOT apply to the modern ways of life, not matter how you spin it. Religions are always contradictory and all their messages are muddled. Some people look at the story of Abraham as a test of faith, some just see a very unreasonable and cruel God, and some see the entire Bible as a old age bedtime book to scare kids into obeying their parents in a world where the average person didn't even know where the sun went at night or that the world was not flat. We've all been to highschool and had to study Shakespeare, which is a perfect example of grotesque over-analysing. Who's to say that the Muslims aren't being too analytical and stubborn? And is it wrong for me to question that? These are the same people who come to our countries and tell us to build them purely Muslim schools and let them go to school with knifes on them. Religion is a huge part of nearly every country in the world, and I understand your country is very hardcore Muslim, but do you not remember that we were established as being just as hardcore CHRISTIANS? So, how is it not insulting to us that you're coming to our Christian country and telling people they can't wish you a Merry Christmas because it's against YOUR way. Yes, we should be accommodating and people shouldn't have to suffer to come and live here but....you are coming to live HERE. If you want your life to consist of all the same practices and traditions that are considered criminal here than, DON'T COME!! If it's a matter of safety or security that you must move to another country, you should recognize that you are now under different rule and you should accept that fact. You HAVE to accept that fact or you shoudn't be able to come at all. Never would I go to a country like Pakistan and start spitting on their shrines wearing a strapless Army print dress. You just DON'T do that! I dunno about most people but, I'd be studying my little ass off about the customs and shit before I went to a foreign country, so do we not deserve the same consideration? Just cause we won't shoot you on the spot, doesn't mean our laws should be less respected. And you know what, I AM offended when I see woman wearing head scarfs and Burkas, because it is a direct stab at every woman and every right that we CIVILIZED woman fought for. There is no other reason behind that garb other than the fact that their men use it to dominate them. No, we worked hard to be free, we went though many wars and we have many rebel hero's in our history and they are basically coming over with this 'fuck it' attitude. Alot of them come here and don't even learn English, and just live in neighborhoods where they are surrounded with only people from their country. Once again, why even come? So, you know what, we WILL address Muhammad, and if you haven't noticed, never do we discredit him, or mock him, but simply question him. And what a lot of the Muslims don't realize is, they are the ones making it so much of a bigger deal that now, because of their stupid reaction, EVERYONE is forced to address it EVEN MORE. Exactly the thing they're supposedly working against. So now, they've raised a huge interest in Muhammad and what you can and can't do, that now I think we will NEVER stop talking of him and drawing pictures of him until it's okay. Because you know how us humans deal with something banned from us; we work extra EXTRA hard at being able to do what we're constantly told we can't. So, for all you MEN who are using violent threats towards us free-thinkers for forming an opinion on you're over-exaggerated issue, good job, and GOOD LUCK! (not.)