It’s worth setting aside a half hour to see this:
It’s also worth noting that she refused to sign the “St. Petersburg Declaration” issued at that summit, and objected strenuously when they tried putting her name on it anyway. Her reasons for objecting to it are just about the same as our friend Aziz’s reasons.
She also explains why she attended the summit at all.
In news that seems somehow related to me, I see that Dinesh D’Souza is becoming more and more aware of the problem a lot of us have seen for some time now.
I’m closing comments on this. I’m not interested in any more debates. Go leave comments at Eteraz or City of Brass
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I’m starting to understand this kind of reasoning batter. And the way that’s taking me is this.
Asking any real Moslem to reject so important an aspect of his or her religion such as Shari’a probably would be the equivalent of asking a Jew like Ron Coleman to reject some specific part of Tora, or any number of real Christians who inhabit Dean’s World to reject their faith in the matter of how Jeshua the carpenter became Jesus Christ, the risen.
Nor can I see what the rest of us Americans and Westerners would even gain from such forced behavior, which sounded to me like a return to some of the herings of the US House of Representatives Committee on Un-American Activities. Maybe some of that inquisitorial crap sounded reasonable at the height of the anti-communism scare. But a lot of it sounded both silly and degrading some years later.
For me, the equivalent issue could well be for me to start blabbing about how I want to protect the rights of hunters, but then denounce the National Rifle Association for supporting the right of Americans to carry firearms for purposes of personal protection. And I surely would wish myself dead before ever making any such comment, even if the rest of the human should want to clap me on the back for it.
Bearing all that in mind, I surely don’t blame folks like Aziz Poonawalla and Ali Eteraz for declining to take in the fingers somebody else’s symbolic incense and toss it onto a fire. The fact is, I probably would have respoected them less had they chosen that route.
Becase a man or woman who purposely loses his or her own sense of honor, as each person must define for his or her self, knows self-disgrace.
And the better side of that would not want that either for friend or enemy.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
Huh. I thought I’d closed comments.
But that’s okay.
My reading is identical to yours, Arnold.
What’s needed is to talk about people who are serious about Sharia reform, and separation of Sharia law (which is personally chosen) and state-enforced Sharia law. Both are entirely possible. Constant demonization of Sharia by itself is a non-starter. Reform, and seperation from direct state power, are the real issues.
That’s another thing.
Exactly why do you feel it necessary to close comments at all?
On the forum of Madison.com, posts and comments remain open for years, with people visiting them and revisiting them long after other posts have come and gone.
Also. Why in hell don’t you put up a spelling corrector so that your commenters can edit out or simplify our frequently idiotic grammar, misspellings, and other stuff that editors and good writers live by?
And yes, I am certain SMA will signify his approval of this from Valhalla, if he gets around to reading it.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
I have no ability to add a spelling checker unless we find some other platform. Which I’m hoping to do this year but that takes time and money.
As for closing comments: I get sick of the snarkiness and abuse on this topic. Of course, most of those folks got the message and hightailed it, so that’s fine. Maybe I needn’t have bothered. But I’m tired of dealing with people who think they already know all they need to know (or worse, think they can make up whatever they want just becuz the Bible tells them so) and thus casually dismiss any inconvenient information on this topic as irrelevant or stupid or lies–and then act like wounded doves when I’m rude to them about their prejudices. It’s ridiculously tiresome.
If everyone uses the latest version of FireFox it has a built-in spell checker. Yet another reason to ditch IE.
I certainly can’t disagree with that. Switch to Firefox, Arnold. Its spelling checker is seamless. I use it every day.
Okay, Dean. I just downloaded Firefox on your link above. The bottom line is I have to reset all my passwords, even with Dean’s World, if I want to use that browser.
It no doubt has some good features, such as a red line that comes on under something you write that the program thinks is misspelled. But other than that, it may well prove just to be Firefucks.
So here I am back to good old cranky but otherwise reliable MS shitware.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
I found it worth the minor inconvenience Arnold, as its other merits eclipse the inconvenience for me. But you live in your world, as do I. :-)
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