islam

Thursday, August 26, 2010
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FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
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Our body language is a medium that is more accessible to others than to ourselves.
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Bolivar: “We have seen the light and it is not our desire to be thrust back into darkness.”
That's what I think when I think of my homeland. And my guess is there are millions out there who think and feel as I do.
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Brazilian saying: “We progress at night when the politicians sleep.”
Judging by the amount of progress we have made, our politicians MUST suffer from chronic insomnia.
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It took me a long time to realize that the -ian ending was not a guarantee of nobility.
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Perhaps what I am trying to say is that it is possible to think about Turks without turning into one.
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Jeannette Rankin (1880-1973), American politician: "You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake."
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The truth is, no one likes to be told he is morally inferior to anyone; and to brag about moral superiority is the surest way of provoking universal contempt, and what's even worse, of forfeiting all credibility.
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Some readers approach my writings as lovingly as a starving cannibal marinating a fat missionary.
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Our knowledge is limited and our ignorance infinite. Only fools and fanatics forget this.
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Friday, August 27, 2010
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ISLAMOPHOBIA?
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Irrational fear of Islam?
A complex? A prejudice?
Both?
Not so fast, my Muslim friends.
It seems to me Muslims have as many reasons to fear Islam
as the rest of us in the West.
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Embedded gangs of terrorists among us plotting to destroy and kill indiscriminately.
Sharia law and its treatment of women.
Endless fratricidal Sunni-Shiah confrontations.
Deranged imams issuing fatwas and declaring jihads.
Bloodsucking multi-billionaire desert kings.
Sex-starved suicidal fanatics.
The destruction of ancient religious monuments.
Fascist regimes.
Contempt for democracy and fundamental human rights.
Honor killings.
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Accusing the West of Islamophobia makes as much sense as accusing a sardine swimming in a pool of sharks of sharkophobia.
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Saturday, August 28, 2010
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DECLINE AND FALL
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Men of vision show the way,
their followers make signs that say “Dead End.”
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Jesus and Marx were dissenters.
Their followers see no contradiction in being yes-men.
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An organization can never live up to the original aim of its founder.
From Marx to Stalin, from Jesus to televangelists and child molesters:
all great movements begin as visions and end as bureaucracies,
and bureaucracies are mechanisms
that promote yes-men and unprincipled mediocrities.
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The history of all movements
is one of gradual decline and disintegration.
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In all organizations conformism is in, dissent out.
Where there is no dialogue there can be no progress.
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All men of power pretend to be better than they are,
and eventually the worst end up parading as the best.
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Bureaucrats are like dogs who know their master
but not their master's master.
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Who governs Armenia today?
Clearly not the government.
Armenia's capital is not Yerevan but Moscow.
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