Do not worship that man's god

The clown of a clergy that goes by the name of Pat Robertson has uttered a lot of nonsense before. Idiocy comes naturally to him, and stupidity seems to be his hall mark. I have commented several time on some of that senile nonsense before (check these).

Yet, millions that falsely think they are really Christians follow the idiot and his nonsensical ramblings. Ramblings that if not about gay, it is about Presbyterians, Muslims, or poor black New Orleans Hurricane victims or whatever he wishes to hallucinate about.

He added another huge dirty feather to his hat made of piles of dirt that he uttered over the years.

With tens of thousands (if not over a hundred thousand) feared dead in Haiti earthquake, the little man, who has with no soul, found nothing today to say about the disaster other than to spew that it is a result of a 200-year-old pact Haiti made with the devil!

"And so the devil said, 'OK, it's a deal,'" Robertson said. "And they kicked the French out, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free.

"But ever since they have been cursed by one thing after the other, desperately poor."

Whatever that man believes in is not God. It is a vengeful idol that that seems thirsty for the blood of those that Pat the idiot personally hates, and the blood of their children and their children's children all the way for over 2 centuries.

Who would want to worship a god like that!

Whatever he believes in, is no different from the mythological gods (lowercase g) that Romans and ancient Greeks have invented for theatrical and story telling purposes - gods that fought over women, got drunk and messed up humans' life just for fun or to spite each other. These 'gods' had nothing divine or respectable about them.

Yet, what Pat the idiot believes in seems to me a lot worse that those mythical gods. It is just the personal idol of that senile idiot and his stupid followers - all millions of them.

And what a shame that a super idiot becomes a super-clergy for some; with hundreds of millions of dollars under his control, and millions of votes at his disposal.

No matter what you think Jesus is, peace be upon him, he would be ashamed that a monster like Pat Robertson, claims to belong to him.

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. ( John 4:16)

Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' (Matthew 22:37-39)

Khaled

Please support Muslim campaign for Relief effort in Haiti

Islamic Relief USA: Haiti Emergency Compaign

Do not insult Allah; He is your God too.

For the Post Dispatch Civil Religion Blog By Khaled Hamid

04/28/2008 6:38 pm

The icon of evangelical fundamentalist Christianity, Pat Robertson, would not waste a chance to restate that Muslims do not worship the same God that ‘Judeo-Christian’ believer’s do. I am not sure if most Jews agree with his Christian understanding of God, but that has never stopped him and others of the same mindset from making that claim.

To him, Allah is not God. It is just an Arab Muslim Idol. Not only that, but he comes up with whole Hollywood type story about the moon god who has three daughters that Muslims worship (see that and more equally ‘smart’ statements here http://www.cbn.com/700club/features/bringiton/falsereligions-index.aspx#3. This nonsense is ear-catching for his target audience, but is just - to put it mildly - stupid; plain and simple.

These statements prove that one may be famous, rich, and influential yet be totally ignorant and do not even know what they are talking about. That, unfortunately does not change the fact that many non-Muslims, especially in North America, that still think the same way, regardless of what they think of Pat Robertson.

Allah is the Arabic word for God (upper case ‘G’). It has its roots in Aramaic, one of the roots of Arabic Language, and has been used many centuries before Islam by Arab Jews and Christians. Not only that, it is the word used for God/Lord (upper case) in the Arabic translations of the Old and New Testament.

Take a look at this example from Genesis (http://www.ibs.org/) with the Arabic translation from http://www.biblegateway.com/. The words “God” and “Allah in Arabic, الله ” are highlighted:

¹ In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ² Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

³ And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. ⁴ God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. ⁵ God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning-the first.

And for an example from the Gospel of John:
¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
² The same was in the beginning with God.

Arab Christians use the word “Allah” (meaning God) in their prayers and worship. Many Arab Christians have the name “Abd-Allah”, meaning the “Servant-of-God”, the same name that many Muslims have. The image on the side is the Arabic script for ‘God is Love’, a common saying for Egyptian Christians. Notice the word on the right. It is Allah (for God).

The Arabic language has masculine and feminine forms. Like English, it also has single and plural forms, with a third form for a count of 2 of the same thing. The word Allah in Arabic has a very special status though. It is not defined as masculine or feminine, it exists only in the singular form, and it does not undergo any derivation. Grammatically it is treated as masculine, but it has no inherent gender.

The uniqueness of the word Allah in Arabic may be in part responsible for the occasional use of Allah by Muslims speaking in English, rather than the word God. The word god has multiple forms: upper case, lower case, plural and feminine forms (God, god, gods and goddess). It can be used to describe the absolute divine, but it can be used to describe a teen idol or a music diva. I personally prefer to use the word ‘God’, but I would always remind my listeners that it is the ‘upper case one’.

I know some people may be now thinking: Well, even if it means God it still does not mean that Muslims worship the same God Christians and Jews worship. So here is a brief primer on divinity in Islam.

Islam is a monotheistic religion (defined by some as ‘rigidly’ monotheistic). God in Islam has no form or shape that is amenable to human senses, but his presence can be perceived. Therefore, humans can sense the existence of the Divine, and believe in it. Any attribute of His that may have a human equivalent, is made with no attempt to make analogy or simile to humans.

This is expressed in a very short chapter of the Quran (Ch. 112, 1-4): “SAY: He is the One God: God the Eternal, the Uncaused, Cause of All Being. He begets not, and neither is He begotten; and there is nothing that could be compared with Him”.

In Islam, God is the ultimate abstract idea of a Divine Entity. He has no beginning, and no end. He is the creator of the universe and the sustainer of all that exists. He is the Master of the Day of Judgment. He cares about us, knows what we do, and wants us to succeed in this life, and in the life after.

If someone does not think that this is the God they worship, then that is their concern. As for those who grasped my description of what God means to Muslims, the next time one feels like saying something nasty about “Allah”, they should hold back. It is their God too.

Can you read God’s mind? I know I can’t.

By Khaled Hamid

Posted in the St. Louis Post Dispatch Civil Religion Blog on 04/19/2008 2:47 am

I woke up early Friday morning to our house shaking. Realizing it was not in a tornado or something that required an immediate evacuation, I thanked God for the safety we were in and tried to go back to sleep. But this strange question popped up in my mind: Were there any gay parade scheduled in a near by city?
Of course, this is not my usual reaction to geological phenomena. It just happened that a couple of months ago I read something linking gays to earthquakes, and I wanted to write a posting about it. The latest realignment of tectonic plates in the Midwest seemed to be the right backdrop for that posting. Here it is.
Religious people feel a strong connection with God. A personal and warm sense of proximity to our creator gives many of us comfort, strength, and enough boost to carry on when the going gets tough. Some people, unfortunately, get a bit too close.

I, like many others, may occasionally feel tempted to gage how much God is happy (or unhappy) with me. If I have a good week at work, is it because God is smiling upon me? If my car breaks down in a very untimely fashion, is it because I did not focus enough on my duties to God? I think a tiny little bit of that is not bad. Being aware of God’s presence, and that He notices us, is not a bad thing as long as we do not jump to conclusions about Him immediately responding in a divine fashion to every thing we do - that is to say, as long as we do NOT claim we KNOW why God did, or did not do, something to us or to someone else (for example, neighbors’ car stolen because they do not go to church, or a boss deserving a serious heart attack for being mean to his/her employees).

Extremophobia: The hate that may save the world

Just in case anyone thinks that I am picking on Muslim extremists exclusively - in view of many of my previous posts - I want to assure everyone that I am an 'equal-opportunity' extremophobe (just remember that I am the first to coin that term).

Fundamentalists come in all religious (and secular) flavors. They all flavors have several common characteristics

• they have an unyielding belief that they - personally - are absolutely right all the time
  
• they believe 'the others' are always wrong all the time
• they are entitled to better treatment and more secure rights than anybody else, just because they are who they are
  
• they believe that their goals are always so legitimate and pure that any and all means are justified achieving them
• critical thinking for them only mean criticizing members and ideology of the 'other team'
  
• and of course their understanding of their own ideology is the only accepted gold standard for justice, truth and even humanity.

Over the years I have met, known, read about and listen to many extreme fundamentalists: Muslims, Jewish, Christians and secular. They always shared many if not all the characteristics I mentioned before.

When I read about or listen to Jewish extremists like Meier Kahane, Dov Lior or Avigdor Lieberman I am always amazed that I feel I am in the presence of one of their archenemies, the Muslim extremists. When I hear the words of John Hagee, Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell I go through a subconscious 'search and replace' mode - substituting Muslim Jargon for Christian Jargon - and right away the logic and conclusions sound like they could be part of a fundamentalist Muslim cleric anywhere in the world.

It does not take a lot of brains to see how racists, ultra-nationalists. and xenophobes also seem to fall very comfortably with the group that satisfies the above-mentioned criteria.

They, all, seem to have their brains frozen in time at a stage of late childhood and early teenage before the switch for concrete to abstract thinking takes place. Unfortunately, their means and influence on half-brained followers is usually more extensive than what their extremist infantile understanding of the world.

Hating extremists, or more precisely hating their way of thinking and dirty means of achieving their goals, should unite the rest of us. It is a lot easier for us to hate 'the extremists of the others', but we will not rid the world of their influence until with equally hate the extremists of our own kind. They are equally dangerous and moreover, they are more in symbiosis with other extremist that with moderates of their own kind.

Moderates of the world unite - You will lose nothing but your extremists.

Khaled

"Why do Muslims vote Democrat?"

[This post is also published on the St. Louis Post Dispatch Civil Religion Blog]

A reader (Centrist) commented on my first posting asking 2 questions. I answered the first question last week. The second question was as follows:
"... why do Muslims vote Democrat. The Democrats support abortion on demand and gay marriage, two things that the Muslim religion is so opposed to."
I do not know how accurate it is to generalize in absolute terms that Muslims vote Democrat. But judging from my immediate circles, I would say a lot of them vote that way. I am aware of at least few Muslims that are hard-core republicans who are active in the party, and are fund raising for it. I admit, they are in the minority among the Muslims I know. As for those Muslims who vote Democrat, they do it for predominantly the same reasons that non-Muslim vote Democrat.
Social justice and collective social responsibility has been a pillar concept of the Muslim community since the birth of Islam. The Qur'an stresses that the wealth is a trust to some of us from God, but for the benefit of those who need help "... and spend on others out of that which He has made you trustees for, those of you who have attained to faith and who spend freely [in God's cause] shall have a great reward."(Chapter 57:7). The Qur'an does also repeatedly link true piety to generosity in spending of the most cherished of possessions: "... truly pious is he who believes in God, and the Last Day; and the angels, and revelation, and the prophets; and spends his substance - however much he himself may cherish it - upon his near of kin, and the orphans, and the needy, and the wayfarer, and the beggars, and for the freeing of human beings from bondage ..."(Chapter 2:177). Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, told the early Muslims that "the believers are like one body; if a part of it is sick or ailing, the rest of the body shall respond with aches and fever", and that "Not of us are those who sleep on a full stomach, knowing that their neighbors are hungry", bringing to the forefront of the believers' conscience the collective responsibility of the society towards its weakest and least fortunate elements. Omar, the second of the early civil leaders following the Prophet, established 'The house of treasury' where Alms (Zakat in Arabic), and charity (Sadaka in Arabic) revenues were distributed to the poor, the needy, for freeing men and women who were in bondage, and as pension for the elderly who are unable to to earn a living, Muslims or non-Muslim alike. My point is that social justice and essential elements of a welfare state where the underprivileged are entitled to basic services and care provided by the state was an early and central part of the Muslim conscience.
As for health care, as early as the first century after the Prophet's death, public hospitals were established and sponsored by the consecutive Islamic governments. From the very beginnings of Islam, commercial monopoly has been demonized and the the universal right of all community members to access natural resources (typify by water and grazing land - two major livelihood essentials in Bedouin desert life) were established.
Very few people in the US would dispute that these early practices of Muslim communities are closer to Democratic Party principles than to Republican Party principles. It is no wonder then that a significant portion of American Muslims, despite their relative affluence, would feel more aligned with the message of the Democratic party, thus they vote Democrat.
Islamic attitudes toward abortion are definitely more flexible than the strict 'pro-lifers'. In Islam, the physical and emotional welfare of the mother takes precedence over that of the fetus, even though I know of no Muslims who would give a blanket approval to the 'abortion on demand' mentioned by the reader Centrist. However, I personally think the 'abortion on demand' statement is an emotionally-loaded, and inaccurate way to describe the attitude of most Democrats, many of whom are practicing Christians.
As far as the gay marriage issue, I am opposed to it, and so are almost all my Muslim friends and acquaintances. But we are also opposed to many other issues such as unjust 'preemptive' wars, strengthening corporations at the expense of the individuals, attrition of civil right, unchecked executive powers, and last but not least, denying health care to several million American children because it costs a small fraction of what we spent in one day saving a failing big Wall Street firm.
Most of my Muslim friends are Democrats, and in addition to the economic and social justice causes, it was a lot more obvious to us that the Democratic party is more inclusive, more diverse and less elitist than the Republican Party. Most of us are not 'one-issue' voters, and we choose a party to run a country not to lead us to Heaven.
Despite all this, and as I mentioned early on, some Muslims still vote Republican albeit in minute numbers that are dwindling by the minute. But would that surprise any one seeing how Republican presidential candidates were after the likes of Pat Robertson and John Hagee?
Khaled

[I have put together in the past a more detailed Essay on Social Justice in Islam with more documentation of Quranic verses on the subject. It is available on line at: http://muslimdreamer.blogspot.com/2008/01/islam-and-social-justice.html]

Tags: American Muslims, elections, Islam, Politics, social justice