So basically, not white people?
I’m not talking about freedom of speech here - people can say whatever they want - but how the fuck is Virginia Representative Virgil Goode not a bigot? That shouldn’t even be a point of argument. What people should be more worried about is how a guy on the level of WWII ‘Yellow Peril’ mentality is somehow in office …
This entry was posted on Friday, December 22nd, 2006 at 7:20 am and is filed under Rant. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Eh, sounds a lot like McCarthy did back in the 50s.
Jeez, racist politicians….can’t say I’m not surprised…or appalled.
Hopefully he’ll be fired or something…if that’s your opinion, best to just keep it to yourself, dumbass =P
I hear ya. It’s another case of someone trying to use 9/11 as an excuse to hate others for stupid reasons. It’s funny though, no one wanted to hunt white folks after Oklahoma City…
That’s because white folk have only 20% of the population in the states but 80% of the wealth - they will always view themselves as the majority, no matter what happens.
Actually, according to recent surveying, the richest ethnic division is the ‘Person of South Asian origin’ division. Maily Indians…
Hmm, I could’ve sworn that 20% of the total population of the U.S. had possession of 85% of the wealth, and the other 80% of the population had a hold of 15% of the wealth. I didn’t think that it was split based upon racial/ethnic origin, especially since more than 20% of the U.S. population is white.
yeah. that comment is just flat wrong. whitey makes up over half of america’s population.
the wealth, on the other hand, is incredibly concentrated within the top quartile. which is an issue. but that just means there’s plenty of us poor white folk to go along with the poor minorities.
Man, it always has to be about race, doesn’t it? There can’t just be plain assholes anymore? Whatever happened to people being jerkwads?
I’m white. I don’t have a beef with any particular ethnic group, but I DO have a beef with people who are absolute cockbags about race (I mean people who hate other races using prejudice).
I also have a beef with people who always go “Yeah, it’s always white people. They’re always dissin’ us and whatnot”. BULLSHIT. Just because SOME people who happen to be white are total pricks doesn’t mean ALL white people are like that. That’s how you start to make the fundamental attribution error of thinking EVERYTHING we do is motivated by race. This guy would hold anyone down if he had the chance, using any technique at hand. I would wager good money that he would try to use the abstract concept of “communism” to spread hate if the Cold War was on. He’s just a hateful person; He’ll ALWAYS try to hate SOMETHING.
Don’t hate white people, hate racist fuckheads.
Couldn’t agree more.
Hear Hear!
Interesting thing is, There’s cockbags of every nationality, and it always seems to be presented in a manner of racial inequity. This guy’s a moron. There are morons in office, it happens all too frequently. There’s got to be a solution, and I’ll let you all know when I figure it out…
You’re right about the cockbags of every nationality deal: I remember once where this Asian dude was gushing to me about how white people were fat, lazy, ugly, and kept him down. (Though he shut up after a couple of minutes when I mentioned to him that I’m a mixed mutt, that’s my father he’s talking about, and implied that if he didn’t shut up I was going to crack a textbook over his head.)
The solution is simple enough: Don’t vote for morons! Find out what a candidate’s positions are *before* voting for him/her. And a candidate’s positions on certain topics/policies can often be used to clue yourself into his/her positions on seemingly unrelated topics/policies. I doubt that Goode was stupid enough to explicitly state “We have to keep those dirty, Jesus-hating Brown People outta our Pure, Jesus-loving White Nation!”; but I’m sure that he made stump speeches supporting things like the war in Iraq, stricter anti-Immigration policies (and not just against illegal alien workers), and renditions of “enemy combatants” to secret prisons. None of these by themselves might set off alarm bells; but, taken as a whole, they should give any reasonably smart/competent voter a clue as to Rep. Goode’s (or, indeed, *any* candidate’s) future stance and probable behavior while in office. (Of course, this particular tactic *won’t* work if said candidate is lying through his/her teeth…)
It makes me wonder of all the incumbents that got voted out last election, how’d this one manage to slip through. Though reading from his wikipedia entry, he’s at least consistent. He appears to just be a total isolationist. He wants to deploy military on the US-Mexico border…
Of course, none of this actually relates to Ellison as he isn’t an immigrant. Ellison converted to Islam in college.
Reading through the entire recap of the Quran “issue” (also on wikipedia), it seems a lot like misguided people basing decisions on bad information. So in their mind, they aren’t “wrong” because they arrived at their conclusion through a logical progression.. Problem being that that progression started with a fallacy.
There are many times I am glad I’m on the other side of the Potomac. This is one of them.
He also talked about how Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to the United States Congress, made a mistake in using a Koran for his swearing-in ceremony. The man’s pandering to a racist base.
“In his letter, which was dated Dec. 5, Mr. Goode said that Americans needed to ‘wake up’ or else there would ‘likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran.’”
Okay, and reflecting the way the US works now is bad? Tell that to the Muslims who enlisted in the United States Armed Forces, and are in Iraq now, being shot at. Tell it to the Muslims who live peaceful, productive lives, doing things to keep the country going. Tell it to the Muslims who are part and parcel of America. They’re the ones going to get angry and work to keep him from re-election.
Remember, also, that this guy is from the same state as George Allen, who was running a fairly strong, if not overwhelming, campaign for re-election this year, when he referred to a dark-skinned person in the audience as ‘Macaca’, which is in some places a slang term for ‘monkey’. That young gentleman was a Muslim working for the opposition, and Allen doing that ended up losing the election… but not by a lot. That last is the sobering fact: that there’s people who think that calling someone with dark skin, from whatever region of the world they’re from, a ‘monkey’ is acceptable.
Agreed. Now I’m all fired up.
I was just wondering though: As a Taoist, I wonder what I’d have to put my hand on for a swearing in ceremony… Perhaps I’d just put my hand on the ground?
you wouldn’t have to put your hand on anything, actually. you’d have to take an oath of affirmation to uphold the constitution, but the constitution dictates that there’s to be no religious test in order to hold office. which is what makes this whole kerfuffle so much more inane. i’m happy he’s my new congressman, though.
I was going to say the Tao Te Ching, but Scott’s answer is better than mine.
(I was a Taoist, but I decided not to be when I read about Taoism and decided that once you got past the Tao of Pooh actual traditional Taoism is as silly as any other religion.
Cherry Picking FTW!
Ha! The Tao of Pooh! Some good stuff in there! Much of the traditional stuff is crap indeed. What it boils down to is something that is a path for you, and can’t really be stated in words. I should say I’m a divergent Taoist? Untraditional? In reality it should go with any other religion, you could be a Jewish Taoist. Whatever. I guess it’s just a tag. I do what I do, and don’t really care about the tag…
I’m up at my dad’s in VA for the break, and when I saw that in the news I nearly threw up. How dare he? My dad had the audacity to defend him saying “what’ll you say when eveyone has to go around wearing burkas.” Trust me, not only did I lay in to him for the bigotry of that comment, but also the illogic. I’ve grown up in Texas, and my parents are both from VA. Those are two of the most conservative states in the country, but that doesn’t mean that we’re all sanctimonious bastards. I hope Goode is publicly lynched, let’s see how he likes it. He casts the worst image on all of us sane people.
Good for you … glad to hear you stood up for what’s right.
A lot of people seem to defending or bashing on states - this doesn’t have anything to do with states, so we can really just leave that out of it …
Well done. It’s hard to defend against someone who believes wholeheartedly that the burkas will descend from the sky the minute we say “hi” to a person with a tan to wrap us all in a scary different culture. Fear is the largest cause of hate, and as stupid as it it, it holds a vice grip on many hearts. Unfortunately you can’t force people to introspectively look at a situation or open their minds.
Damn Da MAN! Live free and party with the world!
Maaku - LAW #4
What’s sad to me that even if he continues to say stuff like this he will probably still be reelected and there won’t be any real outrage from rest of the nation. Meanwhile, those same Americans will be appaled at Muslims for not being completely outraged and un in arms at statements made by “extremist” clerics.
Segregation in all its forms is sick. Personally, I hope this guy ‘accidentally’ burns to death, or something painful like that…
I’m actually more surprised he isn’t running for president. America isn’t exactly an openminded country, I mean states did vote to take away people’s civil liberties based on their sexual preference. I’m sort of confused, is he against Australia too? Cause most of the world isn’t Europe. I guess no more Canadians coming into the US either. And here I thought we were getting on well with Japan too. They make the best cartoons.
Yay! Since I am from Australia (does that make me non-European or terrorist? Or both? We have all nationalities and religions here. Eek! Diversity!) I will no longer be eligible for a ‘diversity visa’ to the US. I am still trying to figure out why I would want one to tell you the truth..
I think you squeak in under his definition, unless you’re an aboriginee. Then, well, you’re just some hick from some little South Pacific Island who doesn’t deserve Western culture. This sounds an awful lot like someone’s trying to resurrect the old immigration laws from the post-WWI era. You know, the ones that created massive poverty and, along with Prohibition, fueled the rise of ethnic gangs?
Yeah, I love having morons in Congress. I really, really do. I’m just glad this one didn’t come out of Georgia’s congressional delegation.
How about this cherry from Rep. Goode:
“I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America and to prevent our resources from being swamped.”
Being from the North and living in the South (temporarily and not by choice) has really opened my eyes as to how people like him stay in power. Because, well, they really do represent their constituents, as sad as that is.
We never really used that whole “freedom of religion” thing anyway. We won’t let Wiccans display their religion on tombstones now. Lets just trashcan it. We’ve already got rid of free speech. What’s one more? So a mandatory Christian fundamentalist America it is! Thank goodness! We won’t have to worry about the pagans and those wacko’s with goofy ideas of an unchristian God!
Wouldn’t that be horrible? To be overrun by Muslims? 2% of the Muslim population are volatile so we should probably get rid of the whole lot, right? Isn’t the Jewish community about the same? Aren’t there outrages being committed by Christian extremists in the middle east too? WTF? What the F is going on on my Fing PLANET!?!?!
I told you guys I was getting fired up now…
I’m SO going on a damn government list for this.
Kinda makes you laugh and pissed when you go back to some 19th Century writings where America is described as a nation of enlightenment where science will rise up beyond religion and then at some point we take a 180 and run back the other way. I mean, granted this nation was founded in part on a premise of ‘Freedom of Religion’ but some people take some things into a different context than history provides.
Such as “We need to celebrate Christmas like the founding fathers would have.” Ahem, the Founding Fathers did not believe in Christmas. In fact, the United States didn’t recognize the holiday of Christmas for over two decades because it was viewed as an extremely British holiday and they would have nothing of it.
Yes, but to them, historical accuracy is a minor, piddling little detail that really doesn’t matter.
Well I feel like I have to stand up for the south here. I’m a born and raised Arkansan. Granted there are plenty of small town backward racist fucks that live in my fair state. The capitol of my state is not a large city but weighs in at a hefty half million people and i would wager that most are not racists. Just as I myself am not racist. Nor my parents who are both from Penn. The idea that the south is a hotbed of racism is bothersome. Look anywhere in the US at small isolated communities. Montana, Idaho, Penn., etc… You will find plenty of people who fear and hate and can’t think for themselves. :( I also hate to say it because its a slap in the face of freedom, but officials elected to national office who act openly racist ought to be removed from office and replaced by moderates or at least someone who can keep their thoughts to themselves.
I respectfully disagree, I think we should not interfere with democratically elected fuckwads, unless they do something specifically illegal. instead we should ridicule, mock, and belittle their bigoted opinions until they lose so much credibility that their own constituency loses faith in them. google “Santorum” to get an idea what I’m talking about.
I live in this guy’’s district. I wasn’t old enough to vote when he got elected, but guess what, I am now- and I am going to let everyone in earshot know what a racist person he is. Unfortunately, central and southern Virginia is rampant with racism, particularly in the smaller towns; at school I heard on all fronts, from teachers to students, that the only solution to the Middle East problem is to just nuke them all and be done with it. (Northern Virginia is very different, as it is a huge mix of international people drawn by Washington DC.) I am particularly enraged that he thinks we should limit most of our visas to Europe. I’m actually originally from Europe myself, but there are good people in every country on Earth, including “terrorist countries.”
I can vouch for this…@@ I live in a little bed of idiotic racist hate. It’s not well known, but the town I live in was actually broke away from a county to form a city so they would not have to integrate their schools. -.-; I think that counts as “rampant racism”
I had a nice long rant about that last night. I had to force myself to stop.
…ugh…I feel sick to live in this state sometimes
Generally i consider myself to be kinda conservative…
but the more ive been thinking about it lately, the more i realize that these
bigoted comments more often than not come from the ignorant conservative types.
now, being raised in a conservative, religious family, im not gunna place blame on any organization, and i still think the USA is the most bitchin country in the world…but stupid people like this deserve to be made an example of…we need more moderate leaders who think things through before besmirching the USAs good name with shit like this…
Anyone up for an angry mob?
I wish this kind of stuff even surprised me any more. It’s sickening that it doesn’t.
Not that I approve of his bigot rantings… why doesn’t anyone care that the Minnesotan senator has years of tickets and other minor legal offenses? Seriously, it isn’t even require to swear in on a Bible or Koran or whatever religious book you study, it shouldn’t have matter. But the fact that he’s a small time law-breaker about to be responsible for making laws? Hypocritical much?
Compared to too many in Congress now, he’s an angel.
I, for one, think Ellison should have to swear on the Bible. For centuries, we’ve made everyone else - including Christians, Jews, and Atheists swear on the Bible. If we are going to change it AT ALL, it should be to swear upon the Constitution. You are not swearing to the values you yourself hold dear - you are swearing to the values this country was founded upon. So, unless you want to open the door for a future Fascist to swear himself in on “Mein Kampf,” we need to draw the line.
Goode’s comments may be out of line - but I think his heart is in the right place. He was responding to criticism from his constituents, the people he represents. Those are the people he has to answer to first and foremost. And yes, illegal immigration is a problem. I don’t think illegal immigration necessarily means we’re all going to be bowing to Sharia Law in the next ten years, however it IS killing this country. Celebrating diversity is one thing, but insisting upon it, or having it forced upon us is quite another.
But then, swearing on a Bible is a bit much, don’t you think? I’m not a Christian, and I disagree with a lot of Christian values. I was raised Catholic and converted to Taoism a few years ago, and to take public office and have to swear an oath on a Bible, well, it wouldn’t ‘offend’ me, but I wouldn’t consider it valid, any more than swearing on, say, “War & Peace” would be considerd valid by you. I’d be happy to swear by the Constitution; much as I dislike the American government, I love America.
As to ‘enforcing’ diversity; well, it’s silly, but on the other hand, we shouldn’t restrict it either. If everyone in America was the same, democracy would be pointless.
Freedom of Religion is a concept whereby not only is one allowed to believe in whatever religion one wants to, but one is treated EQUALLY to all others who may or may not believe in other religions. It is more an extention of equality, not freedom (at least technically speaking).
Our Goode friend Goode (sorry about the pun…) is going against that. So is he saying that Christianity is superior to Islam? Even if only in America? I am not American, nor am I Muslim, but I can tell that something is fundamentally wrong here. How can America be a country with Freedom of Religion if one religion can be seen as superior to the other.
Let the Muslims swear upon the Koran. Let the Christians swear upon the Bible. Let the Hindus swear upon the Vedas or Bhagwat Gita. Let the Atheists swear - loudly. Heck, even let the ‘facists’ swear upon Mein Kampf. If I remember correctly, anyone is allowed to say or do anything that does not mentally or physically harm themselves or others in a ‘Free Country’, which America is supposed to be (So only us atheists will suffer, if we swear loudly…). If no one hurts anyone else, then all is good (not Goode…).
AND: Goode is just being a conservative ***********. His heart may be in the right place unless he sufferes from a congenital or genetic defect. However, he is still being a conservative ***********.
You get to the heart of the issue, though. Are you swearing to uphold your own beliefs when you take the oath of office, or the values this country was founded on? Those values, according to most of our founding fathers, were represented by the Bible. Theism and Deism aside, those values are still in the Bible, in stark black and white. And in all honesty, if more of our representatives adhered to something as simple as the Ten Commandments, I think our government would be a little healthier… But I don’t believe it should be open to a free-for-all expression of beliefs.
Admittedly, I think Ellison is trying to make ripples, more than doing this for any real personal conviction. To broadcast his intent so widely serves only to stir things up, more than likely to draw attention to himself, and to highlight anti-Islamic sentiment festering in the United States. And he’s not promoting understanding in his subsequent silence on the issue, particularly in the wake of Goode’s comments.
Ultimately, our government comes back to the Constitution. Those are the unilateral values our America operates from. The values of many different religions don’t agree with many of the values set forth in the Constitution. I think swearing on the Constitution is a compromise that few would argue with.
1.) You’re assuming, incorrectly, that those values are not represented in the Koran
2.) Tradition in and of itself is not a rational justification for any practice.
3.) Diversity defines a free state. I believe we fought no fewer than three wars to prove it. As long as there’s decent education (which unfortunately, there isn’t) I WILL insist on it.
Well, for starters, I’ve been researching the Koran ever since 9/11. I wanted to understand what could be in there that would justify to people like Osama Bin Laden the mass murder of innocents in their cause. Believe it or not, out of just over 6,000 verses, there are 109 that refer directly to killing for the cause of Islam. Not only does it appear to justify killing anyone who doesn’t follow Allah and Mohammed, but it also calls for the death of any apostate Muslim that turns their back on Islam. Those aren’t exactly congruent with freedom of religion, much less many of our other civil laws.
Those who defend Islam as a religion of peace probably haven’t read the whole Koran, or haven’t read it in context. I’m not saying all Muslims are bad - far from it. But I do think there is a lack of understanding there, both for Muslims and non-Muslims about the religion of Islam, just as many Christians haven’t read the Bible, and don’t have more than a basic understanding of what they really believe.
I’d love to discuss this more, but I doubt this is the place for it.
I have to disagree with you. Not that the koran doesnt have violent versus but that its any differant then any other holy book. I mean arent there portions of the bible and torah on people dying and killing for their religion. I’m not totally sure but i think that any religion that doesnt teach complete non violence has violent parts in their scriptures.
Wait a second, I think you’re misunderstanding something, or maybe a few somethings.
1) There is no Bible, holy object, or book of any kind at the actual swearing in ceremony. All the congressmen and women being sworn in are in a single room, they hold up their right hand and make their oath. That’s it. No Bible or Koran or anything.
2) The use of a Bible or Koran or Torah or whatever is used ONLY in the occasion that the congressman or woman wishes to have a photo-op session with the Secretary of State AFTER the swearing in. Meaning, you could “swear in” with your hand on a copy of Archie Comics if that’s what you wanted to do.
3) In regard to your comment that “we’ve made everyone else - including Christians, Jews, and Atheists swear on the Bible”: Do the names John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, William H. Harrison, John Tyler, James K Polk, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, James Buchanan, and Theodore Roosevelt mean anything to you? It is not known if most of them used ANYTHING, let alone a Bible, but it IS known that Teddy Roosevelt did NOT use a Bible at his swearing in. Also, John Quincy Adams swore in ON A BOOK OF LAW, not a holy book at all. So… can you explain how all of these examples qualify as us effectively forcing people to “swear in on the Bible” for all these centuries of our existance as a country? By the way… I’d say the majority of past Presidents and other politicians have been Christian anyway.
Thank you Virgil Goode!!!!!
Thank you for giving Keith Ellison lots of national exposure that freshman congressmen don’t normally get.
Thank you for giving Mr. Ellison the opportunity to show people exactly what a “normal American muslim” looks like (they look, act, and sound like Americans, duh!).
Thank you for letting Mr. Ellison smash the negative media stereotypes about muslims and Islam (hey, guess what? they’re not all Quran-thumping, America-hating, suicidal fanatics. Most of them are actually *SHOCK* articulate, gracious, confident, and civilized).
Thank you for allowing Keith Ellison the opportunity to take the high road and make you look like a bigoted old windbag.
Thank you for making muslims look so good in comparison to your hateful, ignorant schtick (does anyone else see the irony here? I mean, come on, just change a few nouns around and Goode sounds EXACTLY like a “jihadist”).
Thank you for highlighting the hidden racist agenda in the immigration debate.
Thank you for showing that the REAL reason many people oppose immigration isn’t about legitimate concerns about jobs and national security, but rather it’s because they want to prevent the “browning of America”.
Thank you for trying to use Mr. Ellison to make a point about immigration. Ellison’s ancestors immigrated back in the 1790’s (damn liberal founding fathers let ANYBODY in back then!!), so exactly how long does Ellison have to wait before you consider him a “real American”? 300 years? Never?
Thank you for so aptly demonstrating your ignorance of American history, civics, and our Constitution.
That you for revealing the gaping flaws in the “us-vs-them”, polarizing mentality that has gripped America for the last 25 years. Hopefully, Americans will finally tire of this ANTI-AMERICAN mentality (after all, THE only truly original American school of philosophy is Pragmatism, which endorses finding the good in ALL sides of an issue).
But most of all, thank you for being old. Hopefully, you’ll hurry up and die soon so the world can be rid of one more xenophobic, jingoistic, bigoted zealot.
Amen… or rather, Salaam, Bhaisahib. 8D
This whole fiasco actualy got an “Oy Vey” outta me.
Can we go back to the 1960s again? UR A COMMUNIST! YOU WENT TO PARTY WITH COMMUNIST, THEREFORE ARE COMMUNIST!
COMMUNIST!
“One lady told me she thinks I’m doing the right thing on this,” he told Fox News. “I wish more people would take a stand and stand up for the principles on which this country was founded.”
So…we should all be Deists?
Ugh, I think I just threw up a little bit. It’s really REALLY depressing to think that someone like this could be in office, not only the fact that he’s unbelievably ignorant, about the country he’s taking a government office in, but that he can be so damned short sighted!
*start sarcasm*Hmm good thing I can’t think of anyone else like this in a higher seat of power…*end sarcasm*
It’s really too bad that most of us Americans don’t do our homework for elections, or that politicians would be honest about what they’re running for. Welcome to the future! (scared yet?)
*grumbles*stupid links not working*grumbles*
http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=118263
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
He’s worried about this part: “peaceably…assemble” not this part “religion”.
And although Islam is a religion, it is also a religion of hate, so I don’t blame him for wanting to set standards for immigration. However I do also subscribe to the “Let ‘em in” philosophy of “that’s how our country got started in the first place.” So what if most terrorists are Muslim? Most terrorists are also state supported. Something they won’t receive in the US.
And finally, no, I don’t think he should be reprimanded or fired because he possesses the guts to be honest about what most people are too ignorantly liberal about: Islam == Hate. I appreciate that there are people who are Muslim and aren’t terrorists. I appreciate their inability to do what their religion dictates they do. Because without their pacifist nature (or whatever it is that they use to cling to life rather than homicide), we’d have that many more Muslims trying to kill Jews (or practically everyone else) for the soul reason that they are trying to get into paradise where they are rewarded for their acts of murder.
I’m sure that Muslims in America are wonderful people, and moreover that some Muslims in other countries are as well. However I have yet to meet any on the street that are not waking up every day to a good read of the Protocols and a big cup of intolerance to go with their religiously-camoflaged-state-supported-and-gaining-worldwide-liberal-empathy genocide.
It’s not your fault for being so misinformed, it’s the liberal media’s.
Amen brother. Those damned liberals used to try and throw us off by telling us that our pureblooded Serbian Christian Brothers tried to cleanse Bosnia of those godless Muslim Bosniaks or that Ugandan Christians in the North are solely responsible for a two decade long civil war hellbent on setting up a state based on the 10 Commandments, and saying that these are bad things! What the fuck? At least they finally came off of it. They do get it right some of the time though. Hell would positively freeze over if a day went by that I didn’t hear or read a story about how a black kid is trying to get into school by affirmative action so he can rape his white classmate and shoot his black peer from a rival school for his sneakers and drugs. Continue to spread the truth, oh champion of New Testament love and forgiveness. Christ be with you, Brother.
Sarcasim is boring.
I know very well that Christians in Serbia and Uganda are responsible for decades of genocide. I also know that since its inception, Islam has been about ‘protecting’ itself from the rest of the world rather than peacefully joining with the rest. And one of its unofficial pillars is the concept of killing others to protect your belief. If we put the two facts together, Islam has been killing others to protect itself since its inception.
It’s not a religion when the message has a hateful subtext, it’s a way to shroud your real message of hate so you can make other people believe it and follow you on your Word.
Everyone seems to have a lot of sarcastic remarks about racism, yet you all fail to realize that Muhammad was a racist. Which is why he created his own religion that advocates hate and violence towards others so that he could ‘protect’ his homeland. Which, by the way, is common of most Muslims to respond to insult with threats of violence, however he just happened to be the first. And while he was at it, he also created a way to justify thousands of years of others doing it also.
Read. Read without being so narrow minded, and then you find what is really there.
How are you so sure that hate is the message of Islam? Are you basing it on a few examples that the “liberal” media is showing you? From your pastors? From primary sources? If it is from primary sources are you taking the corpus of the work or only select quotes? How are you so sure that these messages don’t exist, or more importantly, can not be and have not been interpreted to exist in Christianity or Judaism? If you’re aware of the atrocities in Bosnia and Uganda, how can you say that state funded murder is an impossibility for Christians and only a phenomenon unique to Muslims?
Well if he’s worried about peaceful assembly then he should campaign against the bible as well. Everything you’ve said about Islam can be said about Christianity. Constantine with Rome, then you had all sorts of war and violence before the Crusades, then the Crusades, and the Reconquista. Of course I’m not trying to bash Christianity here, for all the bad it has just as much good, there’s Francis of Assisi for instance.
Saying Islam is inherently violent is the same as saying Christianity is inherently violent. Islam has its periods of violence and its periods of tolerance. The Ottomans gave refuge to the Jews expelled from Catholic Spain in 1492. Today the Arab world is the purveyor of the most vicious anti-Semitic propaganda since Nazi Germany. (I’d say the same about other religions but I can’t think of any wars caused by any other religion.)
Religions are not violent; it’s how people see the religion that makes violence.
I do agree with you though, Goode should not be punished what he thinks, he deserves a good smack of sense, but then again a lot of people do. He’s standing up for what he believes in and that’s a good thing.
well, obviously white people *can’t* be terrorists. Whenever you meet a white guy, you can look at him and say “yup, he’s not going to bomb us or anything.” Cos, y’know, the Unabomber and the whole IRA thing in Ireland and the UK wasn’t white people killing each other at all. Obviously.
Every time I see some (inevitably white) asshole in US politics make a statement like his, it makes me increasingly scared that the UK (where I live) seems to be inexorably headed down the same path. It sounds a little cliche, but I have friends that cover just about every race/religion combination you can think of, and none of them have tried to kill me yet. It’s the statements by guys like this Goode bloke that cause trouble in the first place.
I’m always confused at the bit about Islam being a religion of hate. I can’t see how it is, but even so, Christianity is definitely not a religion of hate. Furthermore, isn’t one of the major tenets of Christianity to do no harm? To “turn the other cheek”? I mean, what’s all this business about loving your neighbor mean if you back up what you claim to believe by bombing the shit out of him (or at least threatening to)? It’s kinda speaking with a forked tongue, don’cha think?
Ever since it’s inception, religion for at least thepeople in power has really been like the Pirates Code: more of a guideline than a hard and fast rule. Yes, I just took thousands of years of human spiritual development and compared it to a blockbuster movie catchphrase.
And a blockbuster movie with absolutely killer acting, that’s for sure.
And I’m all for deciding that all of Christendom is really only interested in a set of guidelines, but c’mon. The blowhards are all talking about how all of us who don’t toe the line are going to hell — in gangs.
Again, it seems like you can’t have it both ways.
Oh, and Merry Christmas, by the way. ;)
what I believe is happening is a war in spiritual terms. one belief versus another. one religion (e.g. Christianity) has said that another religion is evil or bad because of a misunderstanding in their opponents religion. an example is Islam/Muslim Qurans being misunderstood. they could mean that it is okay to defend your self, but it has been misinterpreted by Christianity. i am trying to look at the good in both sides here, but there is a darker side. some Islam/Muslim people might also misunderstand their holy text and become terrorists. but that would only be a small minority. and racism just escalates this problem. A white Cristian may fear a black/brown Muslim because they THINK they will kill them because the Cristian misunderstands the Quran and are afraid of the different, e.g. black/brown people.
I live in Australia and here we celebrate diversity in all its forms. in my class of 28 people, i have Japanese, Chinese, African, American, English, Italian (myself)and more. i think it is good i have such a multicultural class because it teaches all of us tolerance and friendship to everyone.
What Goode has said is an offence to me, even though i am not of the groups he has talked about, and i do not live in America, but he has insulted many friends of mine. how such a person, with a criminal record (small offences) and so obviously racist, can still be in office. to me it represents at least a significant percentage of america is racist, and racism is really just being afraid.
Well what I want to ask is what are you afraid of america? your country is founded on diversity, just like mine. why are a significant percentage of your people afraid?
And merry christmas everyone, have a good one.
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Programming a computer can be performed in one of numerous languages, ranging from a higher-level language to writing directly in low-level
[...] A little while ago, I posted about Virgil Goode’s comments regarding, among other things, the Koran being used to swear someone in (as opposed to the Bible). [...]
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