New College Teaches Young American Muslims

npr (title link to audio)

"1/3 of all American Muslims were born here."

There is a reason that this post doesn't have a "religion sucks" title.

Religion sucks #23

How to Kill Goyim and Influence People: Israeli Rabbis Defend Book's Shocking Religious Defense of Killing Non-Jews (with Video)

AlterNet / By Max Blumenthal A rabbinical guidebook for killing non-Jews has sparked an uproar in Israel and exposed the power a bunch of genocidal theocrats wield over the government.
August 30, 2010 |

religion sucks #22

Well, Ann Rice thinks so, and here is why

When heroes get religion
Jessica Reed
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 4 August 2010 12.06 BST


"... but last week's announcement that Anne Rice was to "quit being a Christian" while remaining committed to Christ made me smile. Rice made the annoucement on Facebook:

"In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen"...

Good on you Ann :)

Religion sucks #21

UPDATED ON:
Sunday, January 03, 2010
20:57 Mecca time, 17:57 GMT
Egypt court upholds exam veil ban

"The government said it banned the niqab in part because students, male and female, were attending exams disguised as other candidates by wearing a face veil."

Why don't religious zealots have any common sense?

Religion sucks #20

A hostile takeover of Zionism hat tip to Danny.

An armed ultra-orthodox Jewish settler walks in the mountains overlooking the Palestinian village of Burin in the West Bank. AFP

Israel is teetering toward theocracy, with the rise of the Haredim

...One Haredi leader who almost won Jerusalem's mayoralty race last fall, boasts that, within 20 years, the ultra-Orthodox will control the municipal government of every city in the country. And why not? Of the Jewish Israeli children entering primary school for the first time this month, more than 25 per cent are Haredi, and that proportion will keep growing. There are between 600,000 and 700,000 Haredim in Israel, and they average 8.8 children a family...

Nifty. Just what the world needs, more armed religious fanatics, breeding like rats, and seeking theocratic rule. *sigh*

Religion sucks #19

Indonesia Steps Up Probe Against Jemaah Islamiyah After Blast
By Berni Moestafa
July 20 (Bloomberg) --

Jemaah Islamiya

Funding.

Busy little buggers these guys

Religion sucks #18

Paraguay's president caught in triple paternity row
Former Roman Catholic bishop Fernando Lugo has admitted fathering one child and hasn't denied the other claims

* Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent
* guardian.co.uk, Thursday 23 April 2009 17.54 BST
* Article history

Bonus: Muslim stupidity in the UK

I want to know why "religious" Muslims in Western countries only raise a stink about civil rights and scream racism and religious discrimination when it's convenient for them? If observing their religious traditions is that important maybe they should quit trying to make business harder to conduct in the Western country that they're living in and go live in a Muslim countries? Oh yeah, that's right, there are no jobs in Muslim countries .

I wore some really ugly uniforms that I didn't like wearing, but I needed a job. Helloooooo?

Ummmm, yeah. I have questions. Why isn't the Vatican irrelevant by now? Why isn't Mecca irrelevant? I could go on, but I think you got my point, and obviously there are some wealthy people who still find some use in the structure of these silly organizations and their middle class enforcers.

Religion sucks #17

The Vatican and teh stupid

Spain abortion reform sparks anger
Tens of thousands of people have protested in Madrid, the Spanish capital, against government plans to liberalise the country's abortion laws

...Spain decriminalised abortion in 1985, but only in particular circumstances - up to 12 weeks of pregnancy after a rape; up to 22 weeks should the foetus be found to be malformed; and at any point if the pregnancy posed a threat to the physical or mental health of the woman....

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo has become the first American cardinal to denounce the University of Notre Dame for inviting Democratic President Barack Obama as its commencement speaker in May and to receive an honorary degree.
Four Catholic bishops have now criticized the school for its decision to invite a pro-choice president to address its university body...

African Catholics March in Support of Vatican AIDS Policy
By Sabina Castelfranco
Rome
29 March 2009
A group of African Catholics gathered Sunday in Saint Peter's Square in support of Pope Benedict XVI's opposition to using condoms to combat AIDS.



I wonder if these brainiacs ever think about what it really takes to feed close to 7 billion people with that number growing exponentially?

Do they ever ponder peak oil and the problems of feeding all those precious babies that that might have?

Do they even see the AIDS problem in Africa?

I just discovered this article (6:31 PM 3/29/2009z0 and I like it.

The Population Debate Is Screwed Up
By Laurie Mazur, AlterNet. Posted March 28, 2009.
Debaters on population usually take two sides: either they see it as a huge problem facing humanity, or that it's a non-issue. They're both wrong.

Sacred Rage by Robin Wright

I'm almost done with the original 1986 version. Click on the book for an article the author co-wrote in 1997. I hope Hillary Clinton has read it.

What I find so distressing is that the reasons for the pull to embrace Islamic fundamentalist militancy have not been ameliorated. The grinding poverty and low literacy rates, the high unemployment,the westernized leadership's disparity of wealth in majority Islamic countries are still there. The push for independence from the globalized world-wide economy is something that leaders in majority Muslim countries must deal with.

So the cheapest short-term strategies for the US and Saudi Arabia have not worked is what I'm trying to say. It didn't work in Iran in 1953, either, and guess what? It still ain't working.

And if you read any of the links so far, this is not some right-wing hate spew blaming the religion of Islam. Yeah, I personally believe that some of the problems lie in the way that fundamentalist whack-jobs interpret the Q'uran and the same goes for the Torah and the Bible. (See my religion sucks posts, they're some of my most popular.) Western countries histories of colonization are coming home to roost.

A great lady used to tell me "Nothing changes if nothing changes." Well duh.

Hassan al-Turabi in Sudan, is covered in the book.

Sheikh Abd al-Aziz ibn Abd Allah ibn Baaz is in the book.

And 30 years later here: "Though Bin Baz is now dead, his fanatical fatwas continue to be treated as authoritative by the Saudi government." (literally, here in San Diego mosques)

The Saudi hate spew disseminated in the US and UK has only been adressed in Saudi Arabia in the last month.

A woman appointed to the head of girls education, and some variety in your Sunni Islam indoctrination. Guess they exported enough hatred of non-Wahhabis that the birds came home to roost. They have, however had years to spread the Wahhabi love all over the world.

The Egyptian blind sheikh has been fomenting Islamic fundamentalist hatred since the 70's. He's in jail in S. Carolina after being convicted in the 1993 WTC bombing. He's in the book. So is Hosni Mubarak.

Jew hatred looks like it's still alive and well in Iran today as Kerry visits Gaza. That's a pretty good indication to me that support for (terrorists or) the oppressed Shia's is still strong in Iran. I don't see it written that leaders in the Muslim world use the suffering of the Palestinians to divert attention from their own failures, but I've wondered about it. It's a theory of mine.

We in America voted for hope and change. People are people. My guess is that people in the majority Muslim nations would too, if given the opportunity. How about we quit bombing the shit out of them, And listen to their greivances .

I didn't say self- flagellate, I said listen.

Israel and Palestine, quit sucking the whole world into your sandbox filled with quicksand

* Israel announces unilateral ceasefire

Nonetheless, rockets landed in Israel even minutes before he spoke and Hamas leaders said they would continue to fight for an end to Israel's closure of much of Gaza's trade and a withdrawal of the Israeli forces from their territory.


Religion Sucks.

Hmmm, just as I posted that, iTunes decided I needed to be listening to Rage Against The Machine: Settle For Nothing

"...a world of violent rage, but it's one that I can recognize..."

Religion sucks #16

and ties up the courts in stupid ways.

By LINDA COADY, ESQ., Andrews Publications Staff Writer

A federal appeals court has ruled that DNA sampling does not violate an evangelical Christian prisoner's religious rights under the U.S. Constitution or federal law...

...Kaemmerling was convicted of conspiring to commit wire fraud, a felony offense, and is serving time in a federal prison in Texas...

...Even if Kaemmerling had alleged a substantial burden on his exercise of religion, the panel said, his complaint still would fail to state a claim for relief because the burden is "in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest," that is, preventing and solving crimes...

This idiot is an evangelical Christian from Texas.

'nuff said.

Religion sucks #15

or

I don't care about Israel and Palestine any more.

Why?

Because it's a big fucking clusterfuck GAME that the whole fucking world plays and concentrates on because it's sooooooooooo tragic and it's a nice distraction from the clusterfuck mess in your own Godamned country. That's why. And it will never be resolved until people clean up their own houses and their own backyards and stay the fuck out of it. I had a Jewish friend say to me one time, yeesh, let them kill each other over a stupid piece of dirt, who cares?

How can either side work towards peace when the cycle of revenge and violence from outside appearances is in their DNA? Fuck 'em. Let 'em kill each other. Let the Israelis sink or swim on their own, no more US aid. Let the idiot Palestinians survive on their own, no more aid, maybe they'll quit breeding like rats. Not that the Jews who steal their land don't breed like rats, they do.


What it really boils down to is, nobody will win this because both sides believe that God/Allah/Whatever is on their side. How can anyone say that either side is wrong when Allah told them to send rockets into the oppressor's neighborhoods, and G_d told them to retaliate because the Land was given to them by G-D?

Update:

Yep, looks like I'm not the only one tired of this shit.

religion sucks #14

Mormon Church on Prop 8: We Oppose Civil Rights (But Don't Tell)
Rick Jacobs
Posted November 4, 2008 03:43 AM (EST)

"...The Mormon Church's members have contributed some $22 million into Prop 8, a vicious campaign here in California seeking to strip fundamental marriage rights from same-sex couples, making them permanent second-class citizens..."

Traditional Media: Missing the Mormon Ideology/Blackwater Connection to CA Prop 8

Look on the right of this pic--that's interstate 5, so whenever you travel this section of 5 you get to look at this huge Mormon temple.


How can people be smug and ignorant at the same time? That would be the Yes on h8ters, and most people who want to shove their religious beliefs down my throat.

I just talked to my neighbor that I encouraged to register for the first time. She got up early and voted. I know she voted NO on 8, so nyah nyah nyah, stupid Mormons, stupid Blackwater hypocrites.

Religion sucks #13 FLDS version

Larry King interviews some of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints mothers (FLDS Church)

(the wives are told to "keep sweet" and silent)

Yearning for Zion mother's letter to Preznit "Iz our childrens learning?" (pdf) (very dramatic)

Texas officials appeal FLDS ruling to state Supreme Court
By Brooke Adams
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 05/23/2008 12:19:06 PM MDT

Sect parents cheer court ruling, await next step
By MICHELLE ROBERTS Associated Press Writer
..."Evidence that children raised in this particular environment may someday have their physical health and safety threatened is not evidence that the danger is imminent enough to warrant invoking the extreme measure of immediate removal," the court said...

...Of the 31 people the state initially said were underage mothers, at least 15 were reclassified as adults before the hearings were suspended...

Texas Age of Consent Laws

April 10, 2008, 10:13AM
CPS challenge is to win trust, find truth, expert says
Sect youths conditioned to deceive outsiders

A brief history of the polygamists in Colorado City, Arizona and Hildale, Utah

Forbidden Fruit
Inbreeding among polygamists along the Arizona-Utah border is producing a caste of severely retarded and deformed children
By John Dougherty
Published on December 29, 2005

Texas Town Wary of Polygamist Sect's Arrival
by Wade Goodwyn
May 3, 2005
Polygamists on Utah-Arizona Border Under Scrutiny

Prophet of the FLDS
The FLDS WAS led by Warren Jeffs, who succeeded his father as prophet in 2002. Jeffs was said to keep a tight grip on the polygamous community, using wives as rewards for loyalty among followers.
Southern Poverty Law Center
Tempest in Texas
Racist cult 'prophet' Warren Jeffs is on the move, and a tiny West Texas town fears another Waco
By Susy Buchanan --Intelligence Report -- Spring 2005

CBC's "Bust up in Bountiful."

The lost boys of Colorado City
Jul. 06, 2006
Over the past five years, a fundamentalist Mormon "prophet" has banished as many as 400 boys from his Arizona town. Now the teens, once forbidden to even watch a movie, are adrift in a world of drugs, girls and depression.
By Kimberly Sevcik

(On average, Krakauer told Texas lawmakers, FLDS women have between eight and 15 children each. And celestial wives, whose marriages are not recognized by law, are encouraged to "bleed the beast" by applying for food stamps and other welfare subsidies.) "This is the kind of stuff that, as the chief law enforcement officer in the state of Utah, keeps me up at night," Shurtleff said.

Mon May 5, 4:00 AM ET "The FLDS was relying on a lot of state funds for sustenance – welfare funds as well as money from the school district, which they dominated," says Ira Ellman, an expert on family law at Arizona State University's Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law in Tempe. "The state took over the school system and, in effect, took a lot of their income away."

Oh no, you say they work? That's how they can afford to squirt out all those brats?


Pentagon funds aid polygamous sect
Posted on Sunday, April 13, 2008 9:34 PM PT
By Tim Sandler, NBC News Investigative Unit


The company was awarded $1.2 million in no-bid defense contracts, U.S. Rep. Kay Granger said in a recent letter to HASC leaders.


Texas hearings: Few answers for FLDS parents
By Brooke Adams
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 05/20/2008 07:06:21 AM MDT
...The plans require parents to complete counseling, psychological evaluations, parenting classes and educational assessments; to document their marriages, children's births, living arrangements and income; and to obtain vocational training or education to become financially self-sufficient by next April...

Why Texas Authorities Deserve Credit for Good Judgment—and the ACLU for Bad

You have to give the Texas authorities credit for putting the interests of the children first. In contrast, Utah and the FBI have focused on one man at a time, an approach that appears to have done next to nothing to stop the entrenched cycle of abuse within the system. In contrast, the authorities in Arizona, Utah, and South Dakota, where other FLDS compounds are situated, have made it very clear that they would never follow the Texas authorities' lead of taking all of the children away from obvious danger.

And yes, I am aware of the fact that the taxpayers could support a half-dozen of these compounds, with seriously disabled children and not come close to what we are borrowing for this stupid war. For me, this post was about the kid's rights. If nothing else good comes from this raid, hopefully those kids will get a glimpse of life outside their compound and hopefully they will know that not everyone outside their ranch is evil.

Carolyn Jessop - Escaping from the FLDS

May 20, 2008, 5:08PM
State starts digging for money needed for costs of FLDS raid
By APRIL CASTRO Associated Press Writer
© 2008 The Associated Pres

...The initial raid cost an estimated $5.3 million, mostly in travel to the isolated Schleicher County ranch and employee overtime during the weeklong raid and search of the Yearning For Zion ranch last month. The state also paid for buses, building and equipment rental and fuel...

An incredibly expensive lesson.

Two assholes in a farting contest and as a bonus -- Religion sucks #12

Bush lectures Arab world on political reform
..."Too often in the Middle East, politics has consisted of one leader in power and the opposition in jail," Bush said in a speech to 1,500 global policymakers and business leaders at this Red Sea beach resort. That was a clear reference to host Egypt, where main secular opposition figure Ayman Nour has been jailed and President Hosni Mubarak has led an authoritarian government since 1981....

Kidnapped by the CIA - Tortured in Egypt
By Cècile Hennion
Le Monde
Thursday 07 June 2007
... Abu Omar proclaims he has been a "Salafist," a very rigorous practicant of Islam,...He adhered to Wafd, a liberal party, where he frequented a certain Ayman Nour, the sole and unfortunate competitor to Hosni Mubarak during the last presidential election in 2005, who was thrown into prison shortly after his defeat, and whose friends and family still await his liberation.

Bin Laden lashes out at Arab leaders in new msg.
..."Those (Arab) kings and leaders sacrificed Palestine and Al-Aqsa to keep their crowns. ... But we will not be relieved of this responsibility," bin Laden said.

Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem's Old City is one of the holiest sites for Muslims...

The Al-Aqsa is the Third Holiest site for Muslims.

Different types of Christians duke it out in one of the holiest sites in Christianity .

The Jews gotta fight the Muslims for the Holiest Jewish site.

And how do the Muslims deal with their top two holiest sites?

"non-Muslims are strictly prohibited from entering Mecca and Medina. Roadblocks are stationed along roads leading to the city"

Religion sucks #11

Documents: Sect Married Girls at Puberty
By MICHELLE ROBERTS Associated Press Writer
ELDORADO, Texas (AP) - A polygamist compound with hundreds of children was rife with sexual abuse, child welfare officials allege in court documents, with girls spiritually married to much older men as soon as they reached puberty and boys groomed to perpetuate the cycle.

Our British laws are there to protect Muslim women
From The Times
February 14, 2008
Mary Ann Sieghart




Canada: Polygamous Ontario Muslims collecting multiple benefit cheques
12/02/2008: Polygamous Muslims in Ontario receive benefits, although polygamy is officially illegal in Canada. (Toronto Sun)

An abuse of the welfare system by GTA [Greater Toronto Area, ed.] Muslim men allowed to live in polygamous marriages under a controversial Ontario law was met with shock and outrage yesterday.

Polygamists are selfish, stupid, pig-dogs.
There are already enough people on the planet

Religion sucks #10 (or how to unsuccessfully mix politics and religion)

Lieberman forced to Correct McCain again


McCain referred to the Jewish holiday Purim as “their version of Halloween.”
Liebershrewd & McInsane were confused by the whole candy thing.
Mmmmmmmm. Makes me wonder if McInsane is tapping the old lady's stash, I mean, somebody's popping too much something.


In other recent news: Fucktardama bin Laden pipes up again. --- Alienating moderate Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

Oh, what's this? The Saudis say they will retrain 40,000 clerics? Hmmmmm. Color me skeptical. If it's true it must be the almighty €uro talking.

The Hasidim look like idiots to me:
Hasidic actor walks off Portman movie
(Abe Karpen, 25, a married father of three, was cast as Portman's husband...)
Yeesh, where would Israel be if the only two exports this country has left (Arms and Entertainment) were stopped?

You thought I wouldn't bash the Christian whack-jobs?
Oh boy, lookeee here, it's got three brands of religious whack-jobs in one article plus a bonus McCain bashing.

Religion sucks # 9

Top Saudi cleric calls for writers' deaths
REUTERS
Reuters US Online Report World News
Mar 15, 2008 09:35 EST

I read the above article and I started wondering about the Crusades, because I had heard that at least one or more of them involved pushing the Ottoman Turks (Muslims) out of Europe. So I go looking around for some basic information& I find...

How the Crusades Began:
For centuries, Jerusalem had been governed by Muslims, but they tolerated Christian pilgrims because they helped the economy. Then, in the 1070s, Turks (who were also Muslim) conquered these holy lands and mistreated Christians before realizing how useful their good will (and money) could be. The Turks also threatened the Byzantine Empire. Emperor Alexius asked the pope for assistance, and Urban II, seeing a way to harness the violent energy of Christian knights, made a speech calling for them to take back Jerusalem. Thousands responded, resulting in the First Crusade.


And the more I look, the more I realize that I know VERY little about the Crusades. So if I ever finish reading Collapse by Jared Diamond, I'll pick something shorter to read next time.

Maybe something like
The New Concise History of the Crusades (Hardcover)
by Thomas F. Madden (Author)

Religion sucks #8

Kidnapped Archbishop Found Dead in Iraq
BAGHDAD, March 13 -- The body of a senior Christian cleric was found Thursday in the northern city of Mosul, two weeks after gunmen abducted him there and killed three of his associates...

There are a lot of Iraqi Chaldeans in San Diego so this is probably a bummer for them. So, out of curiosity, I decided to do a Google search to see if any of the Muslim leadership had been treated this way in Iraq lately. Or anywhere.
Hmmmmmmmmmm.
No wait, here's one .Omigod, fool was preaching peace and non violence.

Iranians vote for new parliament
...Ahead of the vote, the Guardian Council, an unelected body of clerics and jurists, disqualified around 1,700 candidates, mostly reformists.

Those barred from running were judged "insufficiently loyal to Islam or the revolution"...

Finally, if you missed Scoobie Davis' priceless catch of a video of Sun Myung Moon's incoherent rant it's short, but stunning. Moon has power and influence in Washington and wow, just wow, you gotta see this guy to believe that someone would actually say what he said.

Oy.

religion sucks 7

Okee dokee, I waited till after Christmas to resume blogging the religion sucks thing, but I just couldn't resist this:

Hindus Launch Attacks on Indian Churches

Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2007
ASHOK SHARMA Associated Press Writer

(AP) - NEW DELHI-Hindu extremists attacked Christians celebrating Christmas in eastern India, ransacking and burning six churches after a dispute over a holiday cultural program that some Hindus believed encouraged conversion, officials said Wednesday...

...India is an overwhelmingly Hindu country where Christians account for a mere 2.4 percent of 1.1 billion people...

The surge is working, right?

Sunni and Shiite militants began blowing up salons roughly two years ago. They killed several stylists and bullied others into putting down their scissors and makeup brushes for good, all in an effort to stamp out what they view as the corrupting spread of Western culture.

Besides beauty salons, militants have also targeted liquor stores, barber shops and Christian churches.

We's winnin' that war over there, right?

You know, the one thing that my immigrant Muslim neighbor and I agree that we both really love about America is that you can choose to practice your religion or not. We don't proselytize , but we are both happy to experience the joy of giving when our different religions tell us it's the customary time to do that. The whole taarof thing is still a bit confusing to me, but I figure we can learn from each other.