Reality Check

Poll: 93% of Muslims Worldwide Condemn 9/11 Attacks - 0% Approve of Attacks on Religious Grounds

Jon Ponder | Feb. 27, 2008

This poll from Gallup is based on a huge worldwide sample:

One of the largest-ever opinion polls conducted in the Islamic world found that seven percent of Muslims condoned the Sep 11, 2001, attacks on the US, but none of them gave religious justification for their beliefs, according to the figures released Tuesday.

The Gallup organisation’s poll of some 50,000 people in over 35 predominantly Muslim countries found that what motivated those considered “politically radicalised” was their fear of occupation by the West and the US, though most even admired and hoped for democratic principles.

“Politics, not piety, differentiate moderates from radicals” in the Islamic world, said Dalia Mogahed, executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim studies. “Terrorism sympathisers don’t hate our freedom, they want our freedom.”

The overwhelming majority of Muslims - 93 percent - condemned the Sep 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, and most said the biggest obstacle to better relations with the West was the latter’s lack of respect for Islam.

I think that the numbers pretty much speak for themselves here. I believe that maybe it's time for a new Confederacy. Those in this country that decide that they should fight against Islam tooth and nail can do so, while the rest of us will sovereignly decline participation and let the circle of hate continue unabated without our interference. Of course, I say all of this in jest, but my point I'm sure is well taken.

There is no great war to fight, there is only a terrible war to avoid.

You Are Not a Special Flower

.... You are the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.

People today seem to be bamboozled into believing that they are somehow special. I'm not sure where it has come from but everyone seems to believe that we are seeing extraordinary events in "times like these" and that somehow this moment in time is different than anything the planet has ever experienced.

It's not.

The world really is just the same play being acted out with different actors over and over again. The systemic reason for why we don't learn from our past, I'm not really sure of, but I can tell you that the answer includes ignorance of the masses, manipulation of the masses by the few and precipitated apathy of the masses.

Literally, we are able to do anything that we want to do. Men far more intelligent than I set up a system to ensure that we are able to do so. However, we don't take advantage of it. We allow our own egos and manipulative leaders to lead us to believe that due to extenuating circumstances we must postpone our greatness. This is bullshit. It's time to stop making excuses and it's time to stop allowing appointed leaders dictate our quality of life and overall life experience.

Take your life back.

There is a point in there somewhere, I hope you can find it.

Antonin Scalia - A Cowardly Piece of Garbage

A United States Supreme Court judge says it is not clear that the American constitution protects people from torture.

Justice Antonin Scalia says the constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishments.

But he says it would be absurd not to inflict pain on someone when they had key knowledge of an imminent attack.

"Once you acknowledge that we're into a different game, how close does the threat have to be and how severe can the infliction of pain be?" he asked.

"I don't think these are easy questions at all, in either direction, but I certainly know you can't come in smugly and with great self-satisfaction and say, 'oh it's torture and therefore it's no good'," he said.

"You would not apply that in some real life situations."

How about instead of ejecting Scalia from his seat for not fulfilling his duties to uphold the Constitution we torture him? Because in my opinion a judiciary that puts politics and fear above the Constitution is the greatest threat we face.

Disgusting.

*edit - 2/14/2008*

Maybe it's the fact that it is Valentine's Day, but I thought that I would revisit this today. After reading over the article again, I realized that the comments that I disagreed with most about Scalia's remarks were not direct quotes. Now, that does not necessarily mean that he was not conveying the general idea as depicted in the above article, but from the direct quotes I can agree with some things he says.

It most certainly is not an easy question as far as where to draw the line. However, if his argument is either that of *some* torture being ok or of waterboarding not being torture, I believe that he is simply not being objective in the least. Personally I believe that the preservation of individual's rights in this country stands far above any other concern the country has to face. I believe this simply because if we do not have those rights, what else is worth anything at all?

I too am susceptible to following pathos at times. But hopefully I can always come back and right my wrongs.

Danes to Re-Run Muhammed Cartoon

After a failed attempt on a journalist's life last week in Denmark, 3 major newspapers in the country have decided to re-run the Muhammed bomb turban cartoon that appeared over well over a year ago in a Danish newspaper. At the time, the depiction incited riots among millions of Muslims across international borders. You can read the brief AP article here.

It's about goddamn time! I, as I'm sure many others in this country feel that I have been trapped between two extreme agendas being pushed in this country. On the one hand you have the people that remove the humanity from Muslims entirely, purport them to be the biggest threat freedom has ever faced and advocate bombing or dismembering and killing them in some other way in an effort to preserve "freedom" (nigga, please.)

On the other hand, you have the people that cower in fear of Muslims (these are often the same people as before) but contradictory to the previous idea that we should face them "head on", they seem unwilling to stand up, put their middle finger up and say loudly "You're not going to tell us what we can and can't say and print".

The Danes are doing us a huge favor here America. They are doing what we should have done a long time ago. It's time to get out of this mentality that they can terrorize us all they want and accept that fact then retaliate physically. The damage from terrorism is not counted in bodies or attacks; but rather from the results of those attacks. It is counted in the number of losses in liberty, the number of innocent individuals tortured in the name of freedom, the taxpayer dollars that get shuffled into obscurity in government programs created as a front to "stop terrorism".

The bodies matter, and they should be mourned. But a circle of violence has no beginning and has no end.

That's the funny thing about circles.

Laws Without Enforcement, are Irrelevant

The man is a war criminal. He has led us into an unprovoked "aggressive" war and he should face the punishment of a war criminal. The gallows.

Anyone who believes themselves to be a patriot, and has an ounce of common sense and objectivity can see that.

If you are a republican, I certainly hope that you don't adhere to the same perverted values as this man; At least no republican that I would ever find common grund with could. If you are a democrat, you should take this opportunity to quell any suspicion that the two parties in this country are in fact, in league with each other and one and the same.

Do not confuse the issue. This is not democrats versus Republicans or liberals versus conservatives. This is the people of a democratic country (the greatest country in the world) against a power-hungry elite who snubs the law and believes that they can act with impugnity because there is nothing that us "little people" will do about it.

Fuck that.

And I know that the common argument is that "well, there is only 11 more months, then he's gone and not our problem anymore. Bullshit. If we allow this man to get away with this, it sets a precedent for any future president to subvert the law, garner power unchecked and lead us further down a path to slavery.

This is a black and white scenario people. We are not so special that we are currently facing a greater threat than ever in this country. In fact, it is indisputable that during the cold war we were at far far greater personal risk of at any moment in time finding ourselves in a nuclear holocaust.

Under this illusion of a great threat we have allowed our liberties and identity to be eroded away. It is time to wake up.