Baron Bodissey, Gates of Vienna, cross-posted on Moe’s Jihad Watch
Koran Armstrong rolls the Islamic turd in glitter, once again….
Most people who followed George W. Bush’s seven-year “war on terror” will remember Karen Armstrong, the special assistant to the president who was notable (or notorious) for visiting Saudi Arabia and other Muslim strongholds with a syrupy message of ecumenical peace ’n’ love. She could always be found on the front lines of American outreach to “our Muslim friends”.
The end of the Bush administration did not dampen Ms. Armstrong’s enthusiasm for all things Islamic. In fact, she says she considers Geert Wilders to be a “fascist”. How do you like them apples, Geert?
Our Flemish correspondent VH has translated an article from De Volkskrantabout Karen Armstrong and her latest compassionate initiative (some of the quotes were translated into Dutch and then back into English, so they may not be verbatim versions of the originals):
Islam and compassion?
By Amanda Kluveld
All religious and spiritual traditions have compassion as a its basis, says Karen Armstrong. Is that so? And what about Islam?
“The principle of compassion or empathy is the basis for all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, with this an appeal is perpetually made to us to treat others they way we want to be treated ourselves.”
Charter
Thus begins the Charter for Compassion,an initiative by the writer Karen Armstrong, which was presented on November 12 in different cities of the world. In Amsterdam the Charter was read by Awraham Soetendorp in the presence of among others [Amsterdam Mayor, PvdA, Socialist] Job Cohen and Tariq Ramadan. Soetendorp and Ramadan are members of the Council of Conscience, which consists of people of different ideological backgrounds who support the charter. These include, for example, Desmond Tutu and Ali Gomaa, the Mufti of Egypt.
The charter has a catchy beginning. But is what it says true? Take Islam. Is there any indication in the Koran or in practice that compassion is the foundation of Islam? No. The golden rule can only be applied if you base it on the equality of people, if you find that another person is similar to yourself. In Islam that principle does not exist. The testimony of a woman is worth less than that of a man.
Unbelievers are avoided, subdued, or must be slain. The words of Jesus, which can be found in Luke 6:31 “And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise” is in not any form to be found in the Koran, no matter what Armstrong and Wikipedia want to make us believe. Islam does not know the golden rule.Compassion
Even more so, the Koran explicitly rejects compassion in religion. In Sura 24:2, which is about the flogging of the adulteress and the adulterer with one hundred lashes, it is stated as follows: “and have in God’s religion no compassion for them, if you believe in God and the last day. With their punishment, a group of believers must be present.”
It is a totally different way of thinking than that of Jesus, who said, as can be found in John 8:3-11: “If one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” What possesses Armstrong to seek her salvation with the Mufti of Egypt and Tariq Ramadan to promote compassion in the world?
Well, she is afraid. at least I understand that from an interview with her I found on the website bruggenbouwers.com [bridge builders]. When asked why the golden rule and the Charter for Compassion are so badly needed, she replied: “I seriously believe that we have a very violent future ahead if we do not apply that golden rule, not only to persons around us, but also to peoples and nations.”
Dissatisfied
“We live in a century in which small unhappy groups possess a destructive power that was previously reserved for nation-states. 9-11 will retroactively seem a row during a Sunday-school picnic, compared to what is coming. Unless we act according to the golden rule. We will have to understand one another, worldwide. We need to perform an intellectual effort. And thus not just rely on a newspaper article or TV program and then immediately say: this is my view of Islam.”
Our fault
What does that actually say? That “we” must change our view of Islam, because otherwise even worse things will follow than 9-11? We just have to believe that compassion is the foundation of Islam, otherwise we will be destroyed.
By whom or what, she does not mention, but the reference to 9-11 suggests that she refers to Muslims. And if our destruction will occur, then that’s our fault. For we should have looked into Islam and seen how beautiful and good it is.
Now the disaster which is going to take place can still be reversed, if I understand Armstrong well. Thus it is intended that we knowingly, despite newspaper articles or television programs, accept from her that Islam is about compassion. And when we accept that, we have to meet the whole world, including the Islamic world, with compassion.
This, according to Armstrong, means in practice that “you should not speak no evil about each other in the public life, not about your ex-wife, but also not about a country with which we are at war. That must not be done; speaking evil is a denial of our humanity.”
Hanging
Now I do not know exactly what she means with speaking evil, but there are things like genocide, terrorist attacks or the hanging of homosexuals, where a reasonable person in any case should not speak any good word about. Must I have compassion with the regime of Iran? Do I deny my humanity when I say that I find perpetrators of honor killings reprehensible?
According to Armstrong I should. Although, from the interview it shows that the writer herself does speak without compassion for some people, and even speaks actual evil about them. About Geert Wilders for example. Who according to Armstrong is “some kind of a fascist.”
“[…] I find it frightening that he always portrays Islam as an evil religion. It makes clear that we have learned nothing from the Hitler years, from the horrors of the Nazi camps.”
Ominous
How compassionate. Everyone knows Wilders in the Muslim world, she ominously adds. With this she is suggesting that if a new 9-11 were to announce itself, it would be Wilders’ fault. And also the fault of the press, which according to Armstrong never pays any attention to liberal Muslims like the previously-mentioned Grand Mufti of Egypt. The guilt of the West.
What more does Armstrong wants with her Charter for Compassion? She hopes “that people will feel empowered and become sensitive to language that lacks compassion”. That has already failed, I can tell her. The presentation of the Charter for Compassion took place in the “Moses and Aaron Church” in Amsterdam. The program said it would be completed by the girls choir of the Muslim community school El Kadisia Amsterdam-Slotervaart. How sweet, how lovely, it seems almost to be Christmas already. You must be a real sourpuss if you do not find this an innocent event.
Battles
Arabist Simon Admiraal pointed out to me that it makes sense to try to find out what El Kadisia actually means. And he was right. El Kadisia is a battle in 637. And not just a battle. It was the decisive battle in the bloody conquest of Persia by Islam. A school in Amsterdam Slotervaart is named after that. “El Kadisia” language is without compassion. It is the language of Islam. And nobody who recognized that, and nobody on that day of great compassion bothered.
VH adds longer versions of a few Karen-Armstrong quotes from the interview:
Karen Armstrong: “The Charter bases itself on the golden rule that can be found in the heart of all morality and all religions: treat others like you want to be treated.”
Karen Armstrong: “You journalists always ask me: where are the liberal Muslims, why do they say anything? Sometimes I think I live on another planet, because there are plenty: every day I read their e-mails and websites.”
Interviewer: “You undoubtedly will blame Geert Wilders’ naïveté.” Karen Armstrong: “He is not the only one. But I find it frightening that he always portrays Islam as an evil religion. It makes clear that we have learned nothing from the Hitler years, from the horrors of the Nazi camps. Wilders is a kind of fascist, fascism is not dead.”
When asked why the golden rule and the Charter for Compassion are so badly needed, she replied: “I seriously believe that we have a very violent future ahead if we do not apply that golden rule, not only to persons around us, but also to peoples and nations.”.
Giving an avowed enemy the benefit of the doubt is a recipe for suicide. The Golden Rule works on an individual basis. It is not a wise wartime strategy when confronted with a foe that awards itself a sanctioned right to employ deception, falsehood and betrayal.
“[…] I find it frightening that he always portrays Islam as an evil religion. It makes clear that we have learned nothing from the Hitler years, from the horrors of the Nazi camps.”
And I find it totally irrational that people continue to miscontrue Counter-Jihad with the Nazis when Islam and the Nazis have more in common by far. This sort of willful blindness, carried out at such a high level, becomes a sort of treason against humanity. If there is one force in this modern age that embodies Nazism, it is Islam.
She hopes “that people will feel empowered and become sensitive to language that lacks compassion”.
This is a naked appeal for the enactment of “hate speech” laws. In doing so, Armstrong makes herself into the enemy of freedom and some of the most basic human rights.
Small wonder that the Republican party is so rudderless at this time. With this sort of poison drip fed into its body politic, there can be little hope.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
What is it that so attracts Western women to mohammedanism? It can be seen in all walks of our Western lives, I personally know a few “liberal” females who, whilst literally foaming at the mouth, object to my critical barbs aimed at iran or just islam in general. All just a good night down the pub, you understand. I doubt that if their wish came to pass, we’ll be debating the so called “merits” of islam any further in bars or any drinking establishment whatsoever!
I wish I could reverse time to whenever the rot set in, and the marxists set up camp in parliament, and that I could end the utterly destructive brainwashing that has so destroyed the capacity for free-thinking amongst much of the Western world before it even began!
It is an uphill struggle for those of us that have righteousness on our side, and the battle for common sense will be hard fought!
Until then the womens rights movement, along with the equivalent gay rights and equality commission will be standing in the corner of islam, feverishly battling away to install sharia-compliant laws in our societies while naively believing that when the time comes they’ll be well looked after.
I hope they get their wish, they deserve it! They deserve the full force of the islamic “justice” coming their way!
Twats!
Said:-
‘Davey Crockett November 27, 2009 at 12:08 am
What is it that so attracts Western women to mohammedanism?’
Not many, you would have to admit. Definitely a screw loose somewhere. Time always tells that. I consider all the guys who follow Mohammed in the same light. Why?
We just keep on publishing the truth.
‘You can fool some of the people all of the time, you can fool all of the people some of the time, but…. you can never fool all of the people all of the time.’
In a sane world nobody would give this twat the light of day.
In our multiculturally befuddled state of stoopid we give her a soapbox and TV time.
I guess we need more shrinks like Hasan Malik…
Fortunately, I am a Western woman, and I DETEST Islam with every fiber of my being. I find absolutely NOTHING redeemable about this hideous cult of death that enslaves and abuses women.
The women who are “reverting” (becoming retarded) are either completely demented because of abuse or have some sick sexual fantasy about dirty, smelly and hairy men of a certain complexion. I am definitely not one of them.
“Koran” Armstrong blathered:
“I seriously believe that we have a very violent future ahead if we do not apply that golden rule, not only to persons around us, but also to peoples and nations.”
So, is that basically saying that unless we pay the bully our lunch money he will beat us up? He who holds the gold, rules!
And the Saudi bullies hold way too much of the gold, thanks to our oil addiction. They are spreading physical and spiritual pollution the world over, because we have given them trillion$. What else were they going to do with their money, hide it under their mattresses? Of course, they were going to build uber-mosques all over the place to Islamize the whole planet. That was no doubt the plot from the very beginning when they realized the value of the black gold beneath their sands.
I need not say that Karen Armstrong is a completely and utter idiot for defending this hideous cult in any way, shape or form. In fact, in this instance, she is a craven reprobate. She is also a traitor to true human civilization by enabling these heinous savages. If we Western women become enslaved under this sick cult, Karen Armstrong will be one of the major forces to blame.
Yep Gays and Lesbians and Wimmins Rites advocates and anyone in the Brewing Industry supporting Islam is like just like TURKEYS wishing for Thanksgiving and Christmas to come sooner.
Lincoln said, “you can fool some of the people some of the time,etc”
Will Durant, an American historian, said, ” You can fool enough of the people enough of the time to run a good sized country!”
robert a November 27, 2009 at 7:04 am, please don’t be cynical. I am trying to bolster the troops here.
And it is true.
I have seen our political cycle go around twice now.
Oh! But we live in a free democracy, don’t we?
Karen Armstrong: Islam came to spread compassion among the nations of the world
Jihad Watch
Let’s have a look at one example of how Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, spread compassion among the nations. As I explain in my book The Truth About Muhammad, Muhammad led a Muslim force against the Khaybar oasis, which was inhabited by Jews — many of whom he had previously exiled from Medina. When he did so, he was not responding to any provocation; he encountered the men of Khaybar going out to work their farms, with no idea that they were about to be attacked. One of the Muslims later remembered: “When the apostle raided a people he waited until the morning. If he heard a call to prayer he held back; if he did not hear it he attacked. We came to Khaybar by night, and the apostle passed the night there; and when morning came he did not hear the call to prayer, so he rode and we rode with him….We met the workers of Khaybar coming out in the morning with their spades and baskets. When they saw the apostle and the army they cried, ‘Muhammad with his force,’ and turned tail and fled. The apostle said, ‘Allah Akbar! Khaybar is destroyed. When we arrive in a people’s square it is a bad morning for those who have been warned.’”
The Muslim advance was inexorable. “The apostle,” according to Muhammad’s earliest biographer, Ibn Ishaq, “seized the property piece by piece and conquered the forts one by one as he came to them.” Another biographer of Muhammad, Ibn Sa’d, reports that the battle was fierce: the “polytheists…killed a large number of [Muhammad's] Companions and he also put to death a very large number of them….He killed ninety-three men of the Jews…” Muhammad and his men offered the fajr prayer, the Islamic dawn prayer, before it was light, and then entered Khaybar itself. The Muslims immediately set out to locate the inhabitants’ wealth. A Jewish leader of Khaybar, Kinana bin al-Rabi, was brought before Muhammad; Kinana was supposed to have been entrusted with the treasure of on of the Jewish tribes of Arabia, the Banu Nadir. Kinana denied knowing where this treasure was, but Muhammad pressed him: “Do you know that if we find you have it I shall kill you?” Kinana said yes, that he did know that.
Some of the treasure was found. To find the rest, Muhammad gave orders concerning Kinana: “Torture him until you extract what he has.” One of the Muslims built a fire on Kinana’s chest, but Kinana would not give up his secret. When he was at the point of death, one of the Muslims beheaded him. Kinana’s wife was taken as a war prize; Muhammad claimed her for himself and hastily arranged a wedding ceremony that night. He halted the Muslims’ caravan out of Khaybar later that night in order to consummate the marriage.
Muhammad agreed to let the people of Khaybar to go into exile, allowing them to keep as much of their property as they could carry. The Prophet of Islam, however, commanded them to leave behind all their gold and silver. He had intended to expel all of them, but some, who were farmers, begged him to allow them to let them stay if they gave him half their yield annually. Muhammad agreed: “I will allow you to continue here, so long as we would desire.” He warned them: “If we wish to expel you we will expel you.” They no longer had any rights that did not depend upon the good will and sufferance of Muhammad and the Muslims. And indeed, when the Muslims discovered some treasure that some of the Khaybar Jews had hidden, he ordered the women of the tribe enslaved and seized the perpetrators’ land. A hadith notes that “the Prophet had their warriors killed, their offspring and woman taken as captives.”
Compassion!
“Armstrong: Islam came to spread compassion among the nations of the world,” by Siddeek Tawfeek for Islam Online, March 17 (thanks to Jan):
As part of its cultural events, Georgetown University’s CIRS (Centre for International and Regional Studies), School of Foreign Services in Qatar, invited professor Karen Armstrong to deliver a lecture titled, The Core of Our Religious Traditions on 13th March 2011.
Professor Armstrong started her lecture by saying that religion has a main role in that it can provide a major contribution to build a global community where people can live in peace and harmony. She said that some believe that religion is the cause of violence and wars throughout history, refuting this concept by saying that wars and violence are motivated by greed and power. Each religion has its own particular and exclusive insights, but all religions have a thing in common, and that is the belief in the Supreme Being who is God. Words stop and fail when we begin to define God. Professor Armstrong summed up the situation by quoting in Arabic: “Allahu Akbar” (God is greater).
She pointed out that religion teaches us mainly to worship Allah and to do good, and the Qur’an calls for good actions. She quoted the Arabic word: (al-salihat) which includes doing whatever good to help people, be it kindness to orphans, and giving alms to the poor. In other words, The Qur’an calls for compassion, and compassion is the core of the Golden Rule which says: “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” This is the bond of suffering. Professor Armstrong quoted the hadith (prophetic saying) of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), where he says: “None of you will be a true believer until he desires for others what he desires for himself.”
Professor Armstrong said that after the September 11th event, the Muslim communities in the West have been exposed to a lot of suffering inflicted upon them. Such a treatment is too far from the Golden Rule of compassion. As a reaction to this injustice toward Muslims, cities in different parts of the world have developed campaigns to promote community compassion among its residents, where Muslim youths are significantly participating in these campaigns, especially in Amsterdam, Holland. The city of Seattle in north-western United States, leads the list of compassionate cities. On the other hand, Professor Armstrong cited Afghanistan and Iraq as examples of venues where compassion is non-existent.
It is doubtful that Professor Armstrong mentioned such inconveniently non-compassionate post-9/11 (and indeed, quite recent) Muslims as Khalid Aldawsari, the would-be jihad mass murderer in Lubbock, Texas; or Muhammad Hussain, the would-be jihad bomber in Baltimore; or Mohamed Mohamud, the would-be jihad bomber in Portland; or Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood jihad mass-murderer; or Faisal Shahzad, the would-be Times Square jihad mass-murderer; or Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, the Arkansas military recruiting station jihad murderer; or Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the would-be Christmas airplane jihad bomber. Mentioning them might have interfered with her narrative of Muslim persecution in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.
“Just like a mother has compassion for her child, Allah has compassion for man. There was a time when Allah’s revelation to the Prophet (PBUH) stopped and the Prophet (PBUH) felt desolate, abandoned, and depressed” she added. Later, revelation returned and the Prophet (PBUH), feeling that the grace of the Lord was proclaimed, he went public in his message. The first Sura (chapter) that was revealed to him from Allah was “Al Duha”, whose opening Ayas (verses), Professor Armstrong quoted from memory: “By the morning hours, and the night when it falls. Your Lord has neither forgotten nor forsaken you. And the hereafter is better for you than present life. And verily, your Lord will give you so that you will be pleased.”
Furthermore, Islam came to spread compassion among the tribes, and consequently among the nations of the world. Compassion is very well testified when Allah ordered the Prophet (PBUH) prayers five times a day and not fifty times. This also indicates another aspect of compassion and that is to be moderate in order to be tolerant. The Qur’an preaches compassion by avoiding the infliction of pain upon others; compassion makes us closely akin to God….
Professor Armstrong is well versed in The Qur’an and has intimate knowledge of Islamic discourse and the life of the Prophet. Whenever she mentioned his name, she followed it by the phrase: Peace Be Upon Him (PBUH)….
That’s interesting. Has Karen Armstrong finally converted to Islam? Does she believe Muhammad was a prophet?
In an interview with Bill Moyers published on March 2009 at Public Broadcasting Service site, Armstrong states that “Islam is a religion of success.… Mohammed was not an apparent failure. He was a dazzling success, politically as well as spiritually, and Islam went from strength to strength to strength.” Armstrong argued that “until the 20th century, Islam was a far more tolerant and peaceful faith than Christianity. The Qur’an strictly forbids any coercion in religion and regards all rightly guided religions as coming from God; and despite the Western belief to the contrary, Muslims did not impose their faith by the sword”.
Armstrong is referring to the dhimma, which was so much more tolerant and peaceful than anything Christianity offered that at the dawn of the twentieth century, there were sixteen to seventeen million Jews in Christian Europe, and one million Jews in Islamic lands. And yes, Islam did not spread by the sword; non-Muslims were subjugated as dhimmis, and made subject to so many deprivations and legalized hardships that they freely converted to Islam just to have a chance at a better life. But no, no one forced them!
In another interview, Armstrong states that “Muslims should try to use the media; they have got to have a Muslim lobby. This is a jihad, an effort, a struggle, that is very important. If you want to change the media, then you have got to make people see that Islam is a force to be reckoned with politically and culturally.”
They’re doing that quite well already.
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Poster Graven Image comments:
The Qur’an calls for compassion, and compassion is the core of the Golden Rule which says: “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” This is the bond of suffering.
In other religions perhaps, the Golden Rule applies. But how does one equate the Koran’s call to subjugate the unbelievers? (Q 9:29) Or how does ‘fighting is ordained for you’ (Q 2:216), or violently ‘force them’ into submission to Islam (Q 2:191), or ‘take care of your own’ but ‘kill the other’ (Q 47:4 & 48:29 etc) square with ideas of “compassion”? The common bond Islam has with other religions, if one can call it a bond, is that of “suffering”. But where humanity tries to alleviate suffering in their world belief systems, Ms. Armstrong’s socially maladjusted ‘religion’, by all evidence of 1400 years of jihad history of the Muslim world, worships suffering. In fact, they want to bring this ‘worshipped suffering’ to the rest of humanity, and make us all equally miserable in the eyes of their 7th century Arab pagan moon-god Allah. When ‘coercion and suffering’ for Allah become compassion, according to Islam, the world will know peace? … Sick!!!
Furthermore, Islam came to spread compassion among the tribes, and consequently among the nations of the world. Compassion is very well testified when Allah ordered the Prophet (PBUH) prayers five times a day and not fifty times.
Childish reasoning. Funny how when you stop banging your head on the floor the headaches go away. Compassion! Allah’s wisdom? We should all be so luck?… Sick….
How can religions which claim they alone have the truth be compassionate?