Sexual Jihad?!... Thought of the day 27.10.2013

On my  long periods of procrastination I stumbled upon and article on the BBC website about... Sexual Jihad! Don't laugh, this is a serious matter! Many of us know how far fundamentalist are willing to stretch the boundaries of reason, and how they are willing to develop concepts based on their special book or their special relationship with divinity. We are already used to direct crimes like infanticide, slavery, misogyny, but the crimes of thought are more subtle, the crimes against reason are the ones that gives them an edge by validating what in other reference system would be truly considered evil.

Here is an article published online by BBC:

"Tunisian authorities say they have arrested a number of girls and women for providing sexual services to Islamist militants in Tunisia and Syria.
The Interior Minister says the women, some as young as 17, are allegedly offering sex to battle-weary militants as part of a campaign to improve morale.
For months there have been rumors about what the media has dubbed a "sexual jihad", but the scope of the practice and its possible links to the conflict in Syria have been shrouded in mystery."

Ahmed Maher (BBC News, 27.10.2013)

Appalled by the the primary idea emanated by those two words, I tried to dig little bit into it. i started by trying to connect those two concepts: Sex and Jihad.

Sexual: (adj.) 

• relating to the instincts, physiological processes, and activities connected with physical attraction or intimate physical contact between individuals.

Jihad: (noun)

• a holy war undertaken as a sacred duty by Muslims.
• any vigorous, emotional crusade for an idea or principle.

I tried hard to connect them on my own, and I failed to put them together. What is it suppose to mean, have sex until your enemies drop dead?!...  And that is where I needed help to understand, and for that I needed help from special source, God's very own word relayed telepathically (but through the mediation of an angel) to his special prophet, the Qur'an. And even-though I did not find explicit information about it, I did realize that there are "loopholes" in the system that allows someone with a special interest to manipulate it in that direction. But i did find that the Qur'an regulates "adult breastfeeding" (?!?!), sexual relations with concubines (slaves), marriage that can be limited to couple of hours (nice loophole, isn't it?). Those marriage regulations are the escape door(Mut'a marriage). Couple that with the verse “Allah has purchased of the believers their persons and their goods; for theirs (in return) is the garden (of Paradise): they fight in His cause, and slay and are slain” (Yusuf Ali trans. 9:111), and you found the loophole for the sex. Now you only need to attach it to the jihad.

Many say, we misunderstand the word jihad, portraying it merely as a struggle, as a sacred duty of all muslims to spread the word of God. But those many fail to inform you that it never leaves out the physical struggle, the violent side of spreading the world. There is consensus among Islamic scholars that the concept of jihad will always include armed struggle against persecution and oppression, but do not exclude its use for expansion. And violence is carried out by men, and men need water, food, weapons, and sex to carry out its "sacred duty". Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Sexual Jihad, perfectly designed for your fighters, in perfect harmony with the teachings of Muhammad, with the will of God.

Yeap, you can actually build doctrinal validation for a stormy, crazy night of carnal love. Reports that this "incentives" have taken proportions may be exaggerated, but I am shaken more by its inception more than its very existence (prostitution existed long before islam or christianity), and successful attempts to validate it through what is supposed to be a moral code, the Qur'an and other islamic texts. And that begs the question: shouldn't they be revised as the grounding for morality?

Jesus: The First Secular Politician?

"Give back to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's."

Pretty powerful words, aren't they? And they are even more remarkable when coming from a Jew living in a rebellious province in Middle East, under Roman occupation, 2 millenniums before.
His existence (as recorded by the Bible) is arguable, his teachings subject to alterations, but his legacy permeates our times. And, although his legacy created a system of beliefs that continues to this day to dominate aspects of politics, I cannot help but ask myself: "Was he a philosopher, prophet or a politician? Or, was he all of that together?". It is a question that dated way back, (and in my opinion) even before the first gospel was written. The answer I found for myself was just as ambiguous as his (alleged) actions and statements were. Was that deliberate? No one knows!

And it is not the only sign that points to a separation of powers; driving out sellers and money changers from the temple only piles up on this, and its relevance lies in the anger towards such activities.
And we come to our days, when we have states that do not allow you to hold public office if you are not christian (or muslim). They say that they follow the word of their savior, Jesus Christ, and I say bullshit. I say that they are mixing Caesar with God. I say they are mixing money changing with religion, and sometimes confusing between the two of them: hoping for spiritual redemption from money, and buying their way with God.

What Muslims should actually be angry about - The Commentator

"There are many things that could legitimately offend people of the Islamic faith - YouTube videos, teddy bears, and cartoons are not included

Do people have their priorities straight?

In this age of riots, murders, and embassy lynchings over YouTube videos, teddy bears, and cartoons, it is worth highlighting the politicised, selective, and hypocritical nature of such Islamist-inspired fury. There are many things that should offend those who are seemingly shocked by benign and ignorable mockery of religion. These include:
- The systematic destruction of Islam's heritage in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Since the Saudi royal family conquered the Hijaz region, mausoleums, mosques, grave yards, and other significant buildings connected to the history of Islam and the Prophet Muhammad and his companions have been bulldozed to make way for motorways, shopping centres and five star hotels.
- The fact that the Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) in Pakistan continue to blow up girls’ schools and violently attack young teenage girls for wanting to attend them.
- The systematic persecution of Ahmedis, Shias, Christians, Hindus, and other minorities in Pakistan who, if not being accused of blasphemy, are being hunted down by thugs claiming to be inspired by Islam.
- The destruction and vandalism visited upon the ancient city of Timbukto. Since the al-Qaeda affiliated Ansar al Dine took over the city, mosques have been attacked, mausoleums raided, and other holy sites destroyed, including tombs of great saints.
- The systematic and widespread practise of female genital mutilation (FGM) that Muslim clerics in North and East Africa defend and promote. A practise that is vile, disgusting, inhumane, and recognised as such around the world.
- The hysterical anti-Semitism that emanates from pulpits all over the Middle East. A form of bigotry that is largely accepted and rarely goes challenged.
- The destruction of Buddist temples and Christian churches in Indonesia that has increased since Islamist parties have begun to make gains in South East Asia.
- The destruction of the Bamiyan statues in Afghanistan by the Taliban, statues that stood for hundreds of years and held great significance for Buddhists around the world.
These are the grievances that should inspire protests and anger but alas they are ignored in favour of ones that can be attributed to the evil West and Israel, however fictitious and spurious the linkages.
The selective nature of the outrage thus points to a much deeper malaise infecting the minds of the faithful. A political narrative is at the heart of this and it is a narrative that provides simple answers, deflection, and solace at a time when the faithful should be doing some long overdue soul-searching and confronting their own shortcomings.
Gravitation towards a grievance and victimhood culture is the easy option because it doesn't compel Muslims to ask the difficult questions such as why we preside over some of the most corrupt, unequal, sexist, dysfunctional, and authoritarian societies on earth.
Instead, Islamist parties, seeking to galvanise the masses behind their apocalyptic message, encourage Muslims to look west and seek answers in the foreign policies of the US and the UK. Unfortunately, many Western leftists also encourage this defeatist and self-deprecating trend in the vain hope that it supports their cause.
The primary victims of this phenomenon are Muslims themselves who are left dis-empowered and undermine their own agency by placing all responsibility elsewhere. The winners are Islamists and Jihadists who continue to wage war against art, culture, women, and vulnerable minorities, safe in the knowledge that most Muslims are distracted by their obsession with the next Danish cartoon or American YouTube clip.
It is not easy to initiate rational conversation in such a context – ask those who have tried.
Ghaffar Hussain is a counter terrorism expert and Contributing Editor to The Commentator. Follow him on Twitter @GhaffarH "

Full article can be seen here: What Muslims should actually be angry about - The Commentator:

America's nonreligious population on the rise — RT

Well, some are worried, some are not... Some would say it's a bad thing, some would say it was about time. 

"The number of religiously unaffiliated Americans has risen, while Protestants are for the first time ever no longer a majority, a study reveals. The so-called “nones” vote primarily Democratic, giving Obama a boost in the upcoming election.
The survey, conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and released on Tuesday, says one in five Americans describe themselves as atheists and agnostics, or choose not to identify themselves as religiously affiliated when it comes to their faith. The figure is an increase from the 15 per cent reported five years ago.
The number of Protestant adults in America has reached a low of 48 per cent — the first time Pew has reported the share to be under at least one half of the nation. Catholics account for 22 per cent of the adult American population, with the remaining 10 per cent divided between other faiths and those who replied that they were unsure.
Senior Pew researcher Greg Smith says the change comes at a time when older, traditionally more religious generations are being gradually replaced with younger people who are less religious and more likely to question religious institutions. While most of the "nones" believe the church can do good to society by bringing communities together and helping the poor, they also say it is too focused on money, power and politics.
The change may also be attributed to the way people discuss religion, especially those who seldom or never attend religious services. While in a 2007 Pew report some of them still identified with a religious group, the latest findings show people more often speak about their spiritual connection with nature and the Earth – and even pray daily – but still say they are "not religious.” The report says the increase has occurred across all income and education levels and both genders. When it comes to ethnicity, though, the growth is more significant among the country's white population.
The trend has clear political implications. Americans with no religion tend to vote for Democrats, support reproductive rights and marriage equality, while Republicans traditionally rely on more religious voters, according to the survey. John Green, a political science professor at the University of Akron in Ohio, says the rise of the "nones" could reshape the political landscape in the US, with unaffiliated Americans becoming "the single largest faith-based or religious group.”“It may be in the near future that the unaffiliated vote will be as important to the Democratic Party coalition as the traditionally religious are to the Republican Party coalition,” he adds.
The growth in the number of "nones" is not expected to stop, or even slow down. Pew researchers say unaffiliated young adults are not expected to become more religiously active as they age.
Even so, the US remains one of the most religious developed nations. Fifty-eight percent of Americans say religion is very important in their lives – twice as much as in many European states."

For original article, follow the link: America's nonreligious population on the rise — RT

On the Way to Damascus | Seriously, I'm joking!...

On the Way to Damascus | Seriously, I'm joking!...

"Revolution! Revolution! Revolution!... What a wonderful way to gain freedom!

Hiding in the mountains, harassing the government troops, destroying checkpoints, just like Che Guevara himself would have done it! Confronting tanks without weapons, avoiding capture so many times, what a romantic way to live a revolution! Apart from the thousands of dead, it is the best thing that has happened in Middle East, apart from Israel! And religious extremists... and suicide bombers... and Saddam Hussein... and Iranian revolution... and oil.

We all know what is brewing in Syria, but somehow, one dickhead thinks he can fool anyone. Defending Syrians from a band of saboteurs?!... All revolutionaries are saboteurs until the revolution succeeds, and than, they become heroes. No revolution was legal, until it succeeded.

The voice of the world shouts: Stop the violence! Well, it's a bit late now, isn't it? People died already, and voicing your condemnation is not going to change anything. You can try shaking hands again with Al Assad, giving him praise and support (well, not directly - what is the rest of the world going to say about it?). Just like the world did with Libya, and Egypt. Gaddafi was thought to have converted to western way of thinking when he fell of his horse...pardon, his throne! Mubarak was the great defender from the dangers of extremism (the religious one, of course; policing his great country was never seen by the west) to the last day of his rule.

Yes, the opposition won in both cases, but what part of the opposition? That is the million dollar question! And at what cost for the rest of the world? I know the answer, you know the answer, and I am dead sure Obama knows the answer too. Must be embarrassing to see former allies, regimes you shook hands with, kiss their asses at times, falling like flies, leaving behind them corpses and terror. Terror to see that behind them emerges the very similar kind of idiots, but of different colour (political.... or religious, or... better said, political. Shit, I can't tell the difference anymore between them two!). All that, while holding those many, really wanting freedom, hostages through threat and kidnapping and murder. All that while claiming the heroes to be from their ranks. And they will tell you in your face that you have to obey the rule of God, or your beautiful head will be carefully separated from your body, being filmed in the process. If you're naughty, you might get the massage therapy with stones. Not any stone, only holy stones. Live, on national television! You'll be a star in an educational clip. The education they will want to teach us all."

'via Blog this'

Follow Your Faith But Don't Push It Down My Throat

    I'm fairly sure many of us have every once in a while encountered the kind of people that take religion a bit too far. The kind that knock on doors too early in the morning, that jump in during a conversation because they heard that someone doesn't share their beliefs, that no matter what you believe in, they still strive to imprint in your mind the beliefs that they "know" are the best. Be it Mormons, Jehovah's witnesses, protestants or just over zealous Catholics, they all have the same thing in common: The belief that their part of Christianity is the correct one and if you follow THEIR beliefs, you will get a big present at the end of your meaningless and pathetic life.
    Why do people that have faith are ever so eager to pile on any atheist that crosses their path? Don't they have something better to do? Something more meaningful than to convert my pathetic life from atheism to believing in magic?
     They do their job very well. I'll give them that. What they don't understand is the fact that they can quote any verse from the bible and explain the bible's inner meanings is as useless to me as being able to burp the alphabet. Sure, it's quite impressive, but it won't really get you anywhere in life. And the fact that you know A book, doesn't really amount to anything when you think about how many books are in the whole world. I could  also recommend a few to these people that seem to enjoy fiction so much that they decide to make it into a religion. It would surely be funny to see some religions based on Tolkien's work. Some 80's hippies knocking at my door wanting to ask me if I accepted the Dark Lord Sauron into my life. I would enjoy a discussion about that, it's more entertaining than a talk about the bible. Plus, maybe you'd get some sweet replica of the One ring with glowing fiery symbols (batteries not included).
       I am well aware that this rant will not change anything about the number of "believers" that will stick their religion in my face, but hey! I can sleep well thinking that all this religious fairytale magic voodoo will probably die out on it's own in about (input obscene amount of) years, when humanity will finally UNDERSTAND there is no proof that there is a god.

Building Faith

Faith. Religion.

Where do they come from? Why do they exist? Some might say they come from the sick but intelligent mind of one individual (or group) that had the insight and charisma to gather more weak minds to follow their beliefs, that religion exists mainly because humans, when faced with their own mortality, can’t admit to themselves that death is absolutely the end of everything the individual stands for; others say that religion is just the book of prejudice, where everything affecting us is the result of a pre-determined set of rules. Some, like me, tend to believe that religion is the first state, the basic form of social organization, the first lawmaker. To have a state you need two important things: Kings and laws. Whether we have a finite number of kings (gods), or just one, in all cases we talk about set of rules by which, one should live his life.  And to ensure this, we have the reward, thus the afterlife was created. Be it the Elysian Fields, the Christian Heavens , Valhalla etc. And to ensure continuity, here comes the institution. Call it Christianity, Judaism, Islam or Buddhism, they all are an organized monopoly of the spiritual identity, and faith is their engine, and as part of an apparatus, it needs building, with all its processes, from idea to design, implementation and commissioning, and from then on, evolution and adaptation that continue to this day. The worst adaptation, I believe, is the need for money (cause, boy, do they make the world go around!). The idea of using money to build instruments of faith (among other non spiritual assets) is the very sign of hypocrisy in the basis of a religious organisation.

Lets take the Christian example... preaching humility, love for thy neighbour... I dare you to go in Europe and find humility in any cathedral...among golden artifacts. I have to mention the Inquisition, and the control the church had over every aspect of life, and the toxic effect over the development of humanity (I wonder where would humanity be if people like Galileo would have been helped, and not persecuted). A similar phenomenon takes place in the Muslim world at present time. How did they grow so much to justify murder, forgiveness, love or hate, cry and laughter?

How come they still have power over us? Well, they do... many countries have a cut of the budget going to religious organization in one way or another. There are many countries where the number of religious assets far outnumbers the number of hospitals, or that of schools (sad, isn’t it?). In many countries religion plays a role in elections. The established religious institutions managed to take advantage of the political system, while being taken advantage of. In some, it identifies itself with the political system, and this is where the horror begins to unfold to its maximum intensity, and gives the worst example of religious establishments given free hand, starting with the Inquisition, persecution of Jews, systematic persecution or condemnation of great minds,etc and ending with the horrors that took place in Afghanistan, or the inquisition styled regime in Iran.

The worst crime is hypocrisy. Islam’s adepts claim it is a religion of peace, but its been brought to us in violence, and has violence and terror as instruments of control. Christians claim theirs is a religion of love, forgiveness and compassion, yet has a history of wars, conquering, oppression and ruthlessness. And it all comes from institutionalizing it, and by that, having  the power of organizing it went beyond the boundary of helping humanity deal with life to making policies.

I end this now, with the firm belief i haven’t said it all, that there are still issues I didn’t cover. I encourage dialog, and the comments will not be moderated. Feel free to add your thoughts, suggestions...

Live free and prosper!