“Sorceress” Tortured and Burned to Death

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/09/world/asia/un-calls-on-papua-new-guinea-to-curb-violence-after-burning-death-of-woman.html

No articles seem to mention it, but Papua New Guinea is reportedly 96% Christian.

In our media, even torturing and burning a “sorceress” to death can’t possibly be related to Christianity. But if you’re Muslim, that’s naturally the number one reason for anything bad that you do. Ipso facto.

Exodus 22:18 – Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.

Leviticus 20:27 – A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood [shall be] upon them.

On Jihad, Ignorance Stands Still

The Washington Post had an article the other day about an ad campaign in DC to inform the public on what ‘jihad’ actually means.

With a four-week ad buy in the Shaw, Waterfront, Rockville and Dunn Loring Metro stations, organizer Ahmed Rehab, who is also executive director of the Chicago branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, says that he is hoping to change the narrative around the word jihad.

“We kind of got tired sitting there watching people tell us what we believe or what we don’t believe.”

The posters feature photos of Muslims sharing their religious struggles, and uses lines like “my jihad is to build bridges through friendship” and “my jihad: modesty is not a weakness.”

Twelve years after 9/11 and the initial bout of screaming American ignorance, the country’s morons are still as ignorant and still as vocal as ever. Some comments from the WaPo:

You can try to give a newer softer meaning to the word “jihad” but it is too late.
For too many non muslims, the word jihad is associated with terrorism.

This is not a newer, softer meaning. This is the meaning.

Painting Jihad in any other way than getting rid of whoever believes differently is like sprinkling sugar on blood or painting lipstick on a pig’s snout.

“Lipstick on a pig” will always remind me of Sarah Palin.

Jihad means islamic holy war and it has no any other meaning.Jihad in german language is Mein Kampf.
Jihad does not mean to build bridge through friendship.
Jihad is war,jihad means killing infidels/non-muslims.
Jihad is an obligation in House of War/Infidel Country(America,Europe)
Jihad ads at metro stations are Lie Propaganda and Deception

Congratulations, you’re exactly wrong.

But I’m happy to say that the really awful comments I saw the other day have largely been addressed by thoughtful, patient people, and there’s real discussion going on in the comments today.

And people can still see the humor:

My jihad is to get laid this weekend

That’s not quite the meaning, but good luck to you, ma’am.

Guess the Benighted Wasteland V

This is almost too ridiculous to believe. Today’s wasteland features a ruler so unequipped to deal with the problems facing his land that he is publicly calling on his countrymen to pray(!) for divine help.

From the website on which he is asking his coreligionists to pray for him:

we have been besieged by financial debt, terrorism, and a multitude of natural disasters…

Haha! Notice how he fails to mention “my own incompetence” or “my failure to plan effectively, hire the educated, or play well with others.”

And by the way, this is no feel-good multi-denominational prayer he’s asking for. Nope, if you don’t believe in the right god the right way, you can keep your prayers to yourself.

we must come together and call upon Jesus to guide us through unprecedented struggles, and thank Him for the blessings of freedom we so richly enjoy

May their prayers be answered with a competent, educated governor who deals with problems here on earth instead of imploring the gods.

Go here to laugh and jeer at his web site. http://theresponseusa.com/

Oh yeah, the benighted wasteland this time is Texas! Congrats to everyone who guessed Texas.

Christian Arrested for Planning Mass Murder

Here’s just another story of a violent Christian, and of course the American media downplays the role of Christianity in the planned violence. Because he’s Christian, duh, not Muslim.

Employees at a Motel 6 in Madison called police after Ralph Lang, 63, told them he had accidentally discharged a firearm in his room, according to a criminal complaint provided to The Wisconsin State Journal.

Lang told Madison Police Department Officer Angie Dyer that he had purchased the gun in 2009 to “lay out abortionists because they are killing babies.”

The criminal complaint (PDF) explains that he told the officer he intended to find the abortion doctor at the local Planned Parenthood clinic and “shoot him in the head.”

Asked if he intended to shoot only the doctor or the nurses too, he replied that he wished he “could line them up all in a row, get a machine gun, and mow them all down.”

Lang recalled that he was in Madison the prior week but did not murder anyone because he “was not 100% in sync with God.”

Officers found a map in the suspect’s room with dots in each state and the words “some abortion providers.” The phrase “Blessed Virgin Mary says Hell awaits any woman having an abortion” was also written on the map.

In 2007, Lang was arrested at the same Planned Parenthood clinic after he told an officer that the “Bible states that anyone involved in abortion should be executed.”

“God, Bible, virgin Mary.” Something tells me this story would be handled differently if he’d mentioned the qur’an and the sahaba, and called God “Allah.”

The Arab World Is On Fire Lately

Figuratively, in the media, I mean it’s almost as news-worthy as Lindsay Lohan or Charlie Sheen nowadays. I mean, eight years of war in Iraq had to fight for a few minutes on the news here and there, but now it’s all about the people’s uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Libya, and so on.

Even on the subject of Islam and Muslims the good blogs are trouncing me at my own game. Here’s Wonkette a couple days ago with three posts about Muslims in America: one on jackasses hired by the govt to give misinformation about Islam, one about Christians throwing crosses at a Muslim man praying, and one about a crowd of good Americans chanting insults and curses at a Muslims attending a charity fundraiser.

I think you can see how full of God’s love these Christians are in the videos posted on Gawker.

And here’s a CNN article from late last year about how some whites in the US now perceive themselves as a minority. Yes, the group that is extremely well represented in both houses of Congress, all the nation’s CEOs, and who fielded 43 of 44 US presidents, feels oppressed.

A recent Public Religion Research Institute poll found 44% of Americans surveyed identify discrimination against whites as being just as big as bigotry aimed at blacks and other minorities. The poll found 61% of those identifying with the Tea Party held that view, as did 56% of Republicans and 57% of white evangelicals.

Conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh argued in a radio show that Republicans are an “oppressed minority” in need of a “civil rights movement” because its members willingly sit in the “back of the bus” and “are afraid of the fire hoses and the dogs.”

Conservative news outlets ran a number of stories last summer highlighting an incident from the 2008 elections, in which activists from the New Black Panther Party appeared to be intimidating voters at a polling place. Those claims were never proven.

Peter Brimelow, author of “Alien Nation: Common Sense About America’s Immigration Disaster,” asserts that much of white America’s anxiety derives from living under a black president and changing demographics.

Diversity, he says, “is not strength.”

James Edwards, host of the “Political Cesspool” radio show, isn’t shy about naming those interests. He says white Americans have become the “dispossessed majority” and that coming demographic changes may turn the United States into a “Third-World flop-house.”

You know what would turn the US into a third-world flop-house? Continuing its course of anti-intellectualism, believing that Fox News presents news, putting faith before reason, weakening public education, closing libraries, ending integration programs, downplaying and undermining scientific data, failing to keep church and state separate, and a host of other actions that large segments of the white, Christian population are embracing with open arms.

Now whites are victims of pervasive racism, Edwards says.

“They’re the victims of it every day. Anything a white conservative does that a liberal doesn’t like is called racism.”

Gay Man Beaten to Death by Religious Zealots

The New York Times has the story.

NAIROBI, Kenya — An outspoken Ugandan gay activist whose picture recently appeared in an anti-gay newspaper under the headline “Hang Them” was beaten to death in his home, Ugandan police said on Thursday.

David Kato, the activist, was one of the most visible defenders of gay rights in a country so homophobic that government leaders have proposed to execute gay people. Mr. Kato and other gay people in Uganda had recently warned that their lives were endangered, and four months ago a local paper called Rolling Stone published a list of gay people, and Mr. Kato’s face was on the front page.

He was attacked in his home Wednesday afternoon and beaten in the head with a hammer, said Judith Nabakooba, a police spokeswoman. But police officials said they don’t believe this was a hate crime.

“It looks like theft, as some things were stolen,” Mrs. Nabakooba said.

Gay activists disagreed and said Mr. Kato was singled out for his outspoken defense of gay rights. “David’s death is a result of the hatred planted in Uganda by U.S. Evangelicals in 2009,” said Val Kalende, the chairperson of one of Uganda’s gay rights groups, in a statement. “The Ugandan government and the so-called U.S. evangelicals must take responsibility for David’s blood!”

Mrs. Kalende was referring to visits in March 2009 by a group of American evangelicals who held anti-gay rallies and church leaders who authored the anti-gay bill, which is still pending, attended those meetings and said that they had worked with the Americans on their bill.

Don’t you hate the way Muslims Christians are always resorting to violence? You’d almost think that Jesus ever said anything about homosexuality.

I’m guessing press coverage here would be slightly different if we had any reason to believe the murderers were Muslims. “Honor killing” springs to mind. But when it’s Christians, they don’t even mention it.

Take David Bahati, for instance, the Ugandan MP who introduced the “death-to-gays” bill. His Wikipedia entry makes no mention of his religion (Christian). Think it’d be the same if he were Muslim?

But What Religion is Loughner, Part 2

The AP had a long piece giving a little bit of background on America’s latest bigtime terrorist, Jared Loughner, who they refuse to label a terrorist although he was proud to declare himself one. All these paragraphs, yet neither the reporter nor the editor nor, apparently, the public thought to give a damn about his religion. This would be completely different if only one factor were different. It could be his name, say if there were a Muhammad or an Ahmad or even a Samir in there. It could be the appearance of being of African descent. A few tones darker, and the Malkins and Gellers would be making assumptions. It could be having taken a class in comparative religions or an attempt at learning a challenging foreign language. Or travel. All of those things would send the media machine shrikeing about “radicalization,” politicians bloviating, and reporters digging up Loughner’s and his family’s religious background like a pack of bloodhounds.

But Jared Loughner is named Jared Loughner and he’s blindingly white and apparently went through his life without being charmed by any other cultures. So although he very cleary carried out a premeditated act of multiple murder in a public place with the intend to change other people’s behavior, our media and politicians will not label him a terrorist.

Peter King, congressman and Irish terrorist sympathizer will continue with his plans to hassle the Muslim community in the US. The Jewish Anti-Defamation league will continue to be silent about anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bigotry. Geller, Malkin, Schlussel, Pipes, Spencer, and the rest of the “I’m a xenophobic ignoramus” choir will sing the same song they’ve been singing. “Muslims bad. Christian good.”

There is actually this one little bit about Christianity in the article. Notice how the reporter downplays it. This is the No True Scotsman fallacy: although Loughner is expressly talking about Christianity, the reporter (the supposedly impartial, unbiased reporter who is just giving us the facts, mind you) interjects his little disclaimer:

Loughner was arrested in October 2008 on a vandalism charge near Tucson after admitting he scrawled the letters “C” and “X” on a road sign in a reference to what he said was Christianity.

See? “In reference to what he said was Christianity.” I imagine the reporter or editor or both were expecting a firestorm of outrage if they left out “he said was.” Because the American public knows that if you leave out the ETA, the IRA, the Lord’s Resistance Army, the KKK, folks who assassinate doctors, and myriad others, Christianity is always peaceful today. Nevermind the Crusades and the Inquisition, which happened back in the mists of time.

Interestingly, to show how Christianity-soaked our country is, the Sheriff’s captain mentioned in the article is named Chris, the 9-year-old that Jared murdered is named Christina, and one of the reporters of this piece is named Christy. (Turns out there were five reporters involved, and although I used the male pronoun, most of them were women–good).

So as a friend of mine pointed out, there is no outcry that Loughner “lawyered up.” He remained silent and sought the legal help of a lawyer, just as we expect white Americans to do when they massacre. There were no calls to throw him into Guantanamo and let him moulder there. He was embraced by the US justice system, and the US public is perfectly happy with that. After all, he had mental problems and just needs help, the poor boy.

US citizens it's okay to shoot on sight

US citizen who just needs some help, poor boy

US citizen killed by Israeli commandos, no protest by US

But What Religion is Loughner?

Now, I’m not saying Sarah Palin ordered Jared Loughner to shoot a bunch of people. Sarah makes an easy target [ha!] because her team created a nice graphic that I can easily post to my own blog. Glenn Beck, on the other hand, has probably done a whole lot more to stir up people like Loughner than Sarah Palin has. Unfortunately, Beck’s ouevre is mostly video, and I can’t bring myself to post any of his work on my blog.

To concentrate on the point of this blog, did you notice that we haven’t heard yet what religion Loughner is? If his name had a Muhammad in it, of course, we’d have heard within the first hour. The usual islamophobes would be screeching and howling. What news outlets have even dealt with the issue of Loughner’s beliefs have said that he had strange ideas. They aren’t bothering to find out what they would have found out in the first day if his skin were dark: in which religion was he brought up? What a perfect example of white, Christian privilege. If you open fire in a crowd in the US, targeting political figures and also mowing down bystanders indiscriminately, and you’re white, you’re a disturbed individual who should have gotten the mental health care he deserved. Do all the same while Arab and you’re undoubtedly a Muslim terrorist acting on behalf of a terrorist organization.

Oh yeah, about Sarah Palin, according to this The Telegraph story of Nov 2008,

The Secret Service warned the Obama family in mid October that they had seen a dramatic increase in the number of threats against the Democratic candidate, coinciding with Mrs Palin’s attacks.

Found at Monkey Muck blog.

——————–
UPDATE: I had to add this because it is awesome:

Oregon Terrorism Case; Religious Extremists Murder Two

You just don’t rate as a terrorist in the American media unless you’re Muslim and dark-skinned. Nevermind if you’re a religious fanatic who builds a bomb (even without FBI help!), sets it off in an occupied public place, and kills a couple of local police officers. You still won’t be called a terrorist.

Thanks to this site, Blue Oregon, and this site, Blogtown, I am just now learning about these two homegrown terrorists.

A CBS news article doesn’t even bother to mention their religious extremism. Not surprising, since Christianity is never blamed for violence in the United States. Statistics aren’t even kept. Wikipedia even deleted its “American terrorists” page.

From the Blogtown post:

Father and son Bruce and Joshua Turnidge are facing aggravated murder charges for allegedly building a bomb and planting it at a bank in Woodburn Oregon. The blast killed two police officers and took the leg of another who responded to a phone call warning employees to get out of the bank. When FBI agents stopped by his house, devout Christian Bruce Turnidge struck up conversation about the importance of the right to bear arms (saying, “Every ballot should come with a bullet.”) and called Obama a racial slur. His house was filled with weapons and friends testified as state witnesses at the trial that he had tried to organize an anti-government militia and cheered that the Oklahoma City bombings would “teach the government a lesson.”

…a family friend said the Turnridges had more than 50 conversations about how to blow up a bank.

Both blogs rightly point out that this case was handled completely differently because the perpetrators are white Christians.

Say, did you even hear about this guy? He’s a Serbian immigrant, very likely a Christian, although no media has bothered to tell us his so, who assembled the largest cache of home-made explosives in history. I say very likely a Christian because Serbia is known to have gone to some trouble to ethnically cleanse itself of Muslims.

An unemployed man was in police custody today after the discovery of the largest cache of homemade explosives ever found in the US.
Police were called to the home of George Jakubec after 49-year-old gardener Mario Garcia was seriously injured in an explosion.

He successfully injured somebody, too, but a brown man, and that’s no doubt part of why he didn’t get labeled SCARY TERRORIST. Seriously injure, apparently. Poor Mario.

In a little noticed report over the weekend, a gardener was in serious condition after triggering an explosion when he stepped in a powdery substance on the grounds.

Loonwatch addresses this here, in one of their “What if He Were a Muslim” posts.

On another note, I’m kind of wondering why the headline for the Mohamed Osman Mohamud story wasn’t “FBI Plots, Thwarts Bombing.”

I’m talking about this story.

But it may also just as easily be the case that the FBI — as they’ve done many times in the past — found some very young, impressionable, disaffected, hapless, aimless, inept loner; created a plot it then persuaded-manipulated-entrapped him to join, essentially turning him into a Terrorist; and then patted itself on the back once it arrested him for having thwarted a “Terrorist plot” which, from start to finish, was entirely the FBI’s own concoction.

Religious Weirdo Marries 10-Year-Old Niece

Story here.

Fall, now 58, saw nothing wrong with the fact that the bride was his niece or that she was 10 when they “married,” according to Mound police.

He told the girl that it was God’s will that they marry. He told police this justified their union, legally and morally.

“He absolutely believes what he’s saying,” said Jami Wittke, a detective with the Mound Police Department, who interviewed Fall. “He said the Bible tells him that it’s OK to have a relationship with your niece, to marry someone” that young.

“The Bible,” you say? We ought to look into that.

Part of the reason for Fall’s confidence in his own righteousness, say people who know him, is that he sees himself as being chosen by God.

“I’ve talked to family members and more than one has said Jim Fall believes he’s a prophet of God, of Christ,” Wittke said. “They were afraid of him.”

“Everything is permissible for me,” from First Corinthians 6:12, was one of Fall’s favorite passages, police said.

“The wife’s body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband,” from First Corinthians 7:4, was another.