“Muslim Threat? What Muslim Threat?” The Denial of a Professional Muslim Apologist.

“Omid Safi is a Professor of Islamic Studies at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, specializing in contemporary Islamic thought and classical Islam. An award-winning teacher and speaker, his most recent book, "Memories of Muhammad," looks at the biography and legacy of the Prophet Muhammad.”

The above is the profile of a blogger who writes for the Religion News Service, a website where I often pick up recent religious news and general craziness from around the nation and the world. That’s his photo above.

My description of him is a little less glowing: He’s an American Muslim apologist, a denier of Muslim inspired unrest; an apologist for Iran, terrorism, anti-Jewish/ anti-Israel sentiment, and anything else that makes Islam look bad to civilized and thinking people.

Recently he posted an article explaining how very few deaths Muslim terrorism causes in the US compared to total murders. The FBI stats are 33 Muslim terrorist caused deaths per year on US soil post 911, compared to approx 20,000 murders a year country wide. A tiny proportion that the Professor says doesn’t warrant the hysteria and disproportionate expenditures of resources we are spending to thwart Islamic murder of US citizens. Here’s the article: http://www.religionnews.com/blogs/omid-safi/a-sense-of-proportion

His stats are all true. Good solid objective reporting one might think, if one was in a coma or is a Muslim. Just a minor point to consider, however:

The “underwear bomber” is Muslim. He was the guy who tried to blow up an entire plane over US soil. Just sentenced to life in prison, he proclaimed Allah’s greatness a number of times during the sentencing.

Naturally, no sense in bringing up the Times Square Muslim bomber, and his van full of explosive tanks ,since it failed to ignite in midtown Manhattan.

Or the bearded Massachusetts Muslim who was in contact with Al Qaida and wanted to acquire weapons and kill Americans, intercepted by the FBI and now in custody.

So what could we estimate might have been the result of these attacks? Well, an entire plane full of people... perhaps 250 dead had his crotch bomb ignited as planned? Times Square during rush hour? Hard to say, maybe 50 dead if the perp had better technical skills?

Those two evens alone would have increased the body count of “religion of peace” devotees ten (10) fold., bringing Muslim terrorist’s body count on US soil post 911 from 0.17% of all US murders, to 1.7% Still not that bad a rate., that is until you realize that Muslims represent only approximately 0.6% of the US population. How many more terrorist events were averted or failed in execution to keep the number to “only” 33? We likely won’t know.

But for good luck and bad planning by the terrorists the rate of deaths caused by Muslims on US soil would be over double the proportion of Muslim representation in the US. Sounds like the FBI resources are being spent wisely.

But hey, the Muslim terrorist plans that are thwarted or go awry just don’t mean anything when calling for a responsible sense of proportion. Muslims prefer not to think about them, or even take ownership of it. After all, the lack of terrorist competency and success shouldn’t be taken as a threat.

I imagine this uncomfortable set of facts will be dismissed as racist, by the good professor. The denial shall begin that would be terrorists aren’t “true” Muslims. Or it’s a Zionist inspired lie. Or mass murder failed attempts just don’t count.

Apologists for religion, be they Jewish, Christian or Muslim are full of shit

Ask the Hump: "So what’s up with this Xtian love for Israel?"

Jim from Washington state asks on facebook:

“Hump- something has bothered me for a while, so of course, I turn to you. What's the damn deal with fundamentalists, especially those who are end-times prophecy-afflicted with their adoration of Israel?

Has it something to do with the book of Revelation? Something about all Jews being returned to Israel? Something to do with all Jews being converted to Xtianity? Isn't there a hint of anti-Semitism in some of this?

Any light you can shed will be greatly appreciated.”

Jim, fasten your seat belt. This is going to be a scary ride.

The fundies interpret Ezekiel and the book of Daniel to mean that the third rebuilding of the original Temple in Jerusalem is necessary before the End Times, the Apocalypse, the 2nd coming of Jesus can occur. This is why they want the Jews to build, why they support Israel so fanatically and why they say that anyone who proposes bringing peace to the Middle East is the Antichrist.

They are called “Christian Zionists.” This is a relatively new phenomenon with the Xtian right, only coming to the forefront of American politics since the 1980’s. Pat Robinson, Jerry Falwell(d.), John Hagee, many GOP congressmen and senators, Sean Hannity, “The Family” on Washington’s K Street, among many "civilian" fundie Xtians are Christian Zionists.

Don't misinterpret their support for Israel to be the elimination of the traditional Xtian rabid anti-Semitism - it's all about the prophecy of the rebuilding. They still hate “Christ Killer” Jews as much as they always have they just aren’t as open about their disdain as they used to be when they blocked them from medical schools, and “restricted” them from their country clubs, and burned crosses on their lawns.

But here’s the rub: the ruins of the old temple, destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD during the suppression of the Jewish Revolt, has one of Islam's most holy sites on top of it -the Dome of the Rock- where Muhammad is believed to have beamed up to heaven hand in hand with archangel Gabriel. It’s been there since 691 AD.

So for Israel to rebuild the temple would require the destruction of the Muslim shrine provoking the worst religious war the planet has ever known, pitting all 2.2 billion Muslims on earth against Israel’s 5.7 million Jews (what is that, like 400 to 1?); potentially inciting a nuclear exchange. There’s the Apocalypse, and that’s the end game.

The Christian Zionists wouldn’t shed a tear if 90% of the population of Israel (not to mention a few million Muslims and X number of Christian bystanders) where to be exterminated as long as the temple is rebuilt. One has to be in awe of how these people can reconcile this utter madness with their religion’s founder’s supposed “Prince of Peace” persona.

How does Israel perceive all this? Israel is nothing if not pragmatic. They will take fanatical support for their nation from whomever will give it. It's a matter of survival in a region that considers them illegitimate, and a world that has historically abandoned the Jews. They have no intention of helping bring about their own destruction by fulfilling this crazy Xtian concept of prophecy.

Israel has no illusions as to what the true feelings of the Xtian fundamentalists are toward the Jewish people. But they will play along, welcome their unswerving support in Washington, and play host to Xtian congressmen and their insanity to ensure Xtian lobbying for Israel is not weakened and a 2nd Holocaust at the hands of their Muslim neighbors is not realized. It comes down to a matter of survival.

Religion infects everything: the mind, the body, the health of the planet and potentially it's very existence.

Hump’s Advice to the Non-Religiously Afflicted: Responding to “God’s Plan”

From time to time I am asked for my opinion by freethinkers on how to handle debate questions or deal with personal issues related to religion. The following was posed to me by a Facebook friend who finds herself under siege by platitude spouting God Virus infected Bible belt denizens.Kelly from Tennessee writes:

“Dear Hump,
99.9999% of my fb friends are xtians. What is the best response to people who claim ‘I must trust in God no matter how much I suffer, he has a plan for my life.’
Thanks,

Kelly”

Dear Kelly,

Naturally there are a number of responses, but I assume you want to keep these religious nutters as your fb friends, so that narrows the options. The simplest and most direct reply is this:

"Trusting in an imaginary friend is something thinking people gave up once they outgrew toddlerhood. If one finds comfort in believing their life is guided by the imaginary friend they have opted to retain in adulthood, that's fine for them. Suffering, sadness, death, happiness, success, failure, comfort...they are part of the facts of life, part and parcel to man's existence - no spirit thing is involved, nor need be invoked.”

“I prefer to take control of my life; do my own planning, set my goals and objectives, and work toward them with education, self reliance, and with eyes opened to the reality of the world...the only reality and the only world there is. It works for me, thank you."

See how that goes over. If they are unable to comprehend this, which many won't; or if that doesn't end the proselytizing, and it probably won't, may I suggest as a last resort my alternate approach to wit: "Well go screw yourself and the man-god you rode in on."

Hope that helped.

This Xtian need for their lives to have a plan managed for them by their god thing must be very comforting. It absolves them of any responsibility for their lot in life, and sets a low expectation for the effort they put into controlling their own destiny.

If their child dies from an untreated disease; if an infant is born with an alcohol induced birth defect; if their double wide is destroyed in a hurricane; if they lose their job; if they get kicked off of public assistance; if they roll their pickup and break their neck; if their club foot isn’t cured by the faith healer; if they drop their long neck beer bottle during a bar fight; if the road kill they scrapped off the interstate for dinner has mange rendering it unfit to serve to the visiting Pastor - somehow, some way, it's all part of a complex plan that their Sky Buddy has laid out for them.

Of course, when Cousin Mary Ellen came out of the closet and declared her full blown lesbianism, that wasn't part of God’s plan at all, nuh uh! That was Satan at work.

It's not for them to understand God’s plan, it never is. After all, who but their omniscient God could conceive of the plan behind why Aunt Mildred couldn't find her way out of her darkened house crammed with 60 years of accumulated bibles, paper church fans, pictures of Jesus, unpaid electric bills, magazines, newspapers, fried chicken bones, assorted trash, seventy-two cats (living and deceased) and their associated waste when she dropped a lit Pall Mall onto her bed bug infested urine stained mattress and burned her and her house into oblivion in twenty-five minutes?

But God must have had an ulterior motive. Clearly, Aunt Mildred (aka Crispy Milly) was just a small wheel in the big cog of the inner workings of God's ultimate game plan for her and the universe. Even Mildred knew this.

I, however, prefer to think it was nature's way of thinning the herd, natural selection at work - and at its best.

Seems I’m “Threatened by Christians and our God!” Well, she is half right.

My review of the NIV Bible on amazon now has over 200 comments. It never seems to stop, attracting religious fanatics and proselytizing nutters seeking to bring me to Jesus. Some of my readers here have commented effectively with reasoned retorts, which I appreciate

One of the latest comments in particular caught my attention and inflamed my ire. Not sure why, perhaps it is because the writer has zero understanding of, or exposure to, atheists and why many of us condemn religious teaching and thought. This was her comment:

Such hateful, evil responses to people you personally know nothing about. If ever there is an example of someone who is so miserable in this life, it would be you. Spending so much time responding so hatefully, I would say you are truly threatened by Christians and our God! Amy L. Wright, 1/28/12 amazon.com

And my reply:

Amy,

I don't have to know someone personally to be disgusted by their knee jerk proselytizing, or the investment of their lives in nonsensical superstition. I'll venture there's a whole lot of people, historical and modern day, who you dislike. That said...

Yes, indeed, threatened is a good word: America is threatened by religious fanatics claiming to all have been called by their Sky Daddy to be president; threatened by rejection of intellect, science and learning preferring myth and blind rejection of objective evidence; threatened by attempts to make this a theocracy at worst, or giving preferential treatment to the majority religion at best. Threatened by fanatical religious intrusion into peoples lives, what they do with their genitalia, wombs, and pursuits of happiness...if that happiness isn't in step with what their imaginary god likes; threatened by Christian ideals which obstruct scientific advancement, or condemns women to bear the children of their rapist or their own relative.

Yes, we are threatened by Christian rejection of global warming; threatened by evangelical fundies' desire to see Israel rebuild the temple on top of an existing Mosque to see the End Times prophesy fulfilled; threatened by their trying to collapse the Wall of Separation between Church and State; threatened by the "true Christians" of Cranston, RI whose harassment and threats of violence toward a 16 year old girl and her family who sued a School for a constitutional violation and won the case requires them to have police protection; threatened by that state’s Representative who promoted hate toward her by declaring this girl "an evil little thing", much like the words uttered before a witch burning by his 17^th century good Christian predecessors.

I'm threatened by religionists’ attempts to dumb down our schools by trying to equate religious myth with science; threatened by religious fervor to go to war at the drop of a hat to fend off "Gog and Magog" as your born again president Bush, Jr. so brilliantly espoused. I am threatened by president GHW Bush's comment that “atheists aren't patriots or maybe not even Americans,” while I and thousands of other "atheists in foxholes" put their lives on the line, or lost them in the service of this nation.

Indeed Amy, I and millions of freethinkers and progressive Christians, feel threatened. And now you have only a very small inkling as to why.

As for your god: I am as threatened by your god myth as you are by Wolfman or Isis or Athena ...probably less so, seeing as how your credulity may well permit you to accept the Wolfman myth as real.

Amy, I'm sure much of this is way beyond your meager ability to comprehend. I doubt you have the reasoning capacity to even understand what half of these things mean. But I'll be happy if you just possess the intellectual curiosity to get to the end of this sentence.

"Christian America”: Where ignorance is a virtue, and intellect a vice

It takes more faith to be an atheist than a believer in Jesus Christ the Son of God the Father. Especially if you look at science!

Check out answersingenesis.com Wake up and use your brain instead of relying on All this garbage the world has fed you about evolution and self-worship.... Our society has indoctrinated us for so long through the lies fed us from school and gov't, we just swallow it cause it is in our textbooks, do some research and try to not assume what you "know" is truth. Revelation!! Peggy N Oceanside , facebook 1/26/12

The above quote was extracted from a facebook discussion thread. Initially I thought it was a “poe,” an atheist posing as a fundie Xtian to make a point and make them look even more foolish than there were up to that point. It was so classically Xtian insipid that it could be nothing else.

I was wrong. Peggy is a true believer. She has two favorite books: “Bible” and “The Bible”

But why should I have been taken by surprise by this quintessential example of Christian self imposed stupidity? After all we live in a country where willful delusion is a virtue while intellect, science and reason are suspect.

A land where the majority belief system is corrupted by people who see education and “book larnin” as elitist; learned experts as liars or fools; and who have never cracked the cover of the source materials they reject, even if they were literate enough to absorb it.

A nation where speculation and superstition is accepted as fact, and its degree of truth or falsehood determined not by investigative analysis but by the number of people willing to blindly accept it as fact.

A society that puts its faith in religious apologetics sites whose mission is to confuse their sheeple with religious doctrine disguised as science; to dismiss objective evidence for reality; turn fiction into fact; endlessly repeat patently silly and discredited suppositions (i.e. "Why are there still monkeys if..." , "How come there is no crocoduck if... ?"); and to massage scripture to suit their agenda of preserving the spell of a discredited book of nonsense.

A union that gives millions of dollars in tax breaks to build a creationist theme park as a veritable governmental endorsement of backwardness and Medieval Think, spitting in the face of modernity and reason. [Google: “Kentucky creationist theme park tax break”]

There wasn’t much to say after reading Peggy’s post. All I could do was thank her for her testimony. Peggy unwittingly did more in that one paragraph to demonstrate the fruits of the religious virus and give credence to my years of rants, blogs and books than anyone ever has or ever will.

Once again, thank you Peggy. If I could I would put you in a glass dome on a pedestal for the entire thinking world to point to and laugh at, eventually having you stuffed and preserved as a reminder to future generations of Americans just how far they have advanced.

The Week I Wish Wasn’t / the Article I Wish I Didn't Have to Write

Long time readers will know that as a rule I don’t dedicate this blog to news stories per se, religious or secular. I’ll sometimes draw on current events and and use them as a catalyst for my commentaries, but typically I steer clear of playing religious news blog as there are many hundreds of such atheist blogs. I prefer to share my stream of [un?] consciousness and observations on the human condition as driven by religiosity as personal observations and the mood moves me.

Fact is, I don’t want to write this article; I've been putting it off for days. But there is no turning my back on what has been for me one of the most grotesque weeks of American religious idiocy in memory. Camel's have very good memories.

You’d have to have been in a virtual coma not have heard about the inspiring fight waged by sixteen year old Jessica Ahlquist. A Rhode Island high school student who sued to have her school's Judeo-Christian prayer banner removed, she was victorious. The courts found it violated the school prayer prohibition. A reason to celebrate.

In the wake of that decision, Jessica has been threatened with physical harm and death, harassed, bullied and abused in school, in the press, on the radio, and in front of the family’s home by the good Christian folk of Cranston, RI. She has police protection. How dare she work within the legal system to call out a constitutional violation? Apparently lynching, burning, rioting and setting crosses on fire is the preferred Xtian method of letting one’s concerns be heard, not using her right to petition the courts.

Nothing surprising there, it’s the Christian thing to do. Even the florists of that town conspired to refuse deliveries to her from supporters. The Freedom from Religion Foundation is pursuing legal action against them under the Federal Civil Rights Act. The FfRF also awarded her $12,000 in scholarship money, $10,000 of which came from their new “Atheist in a Foxhole Fund” which awards those who put themselves on the line to oppose religious intrusion into government. Learn more contributing to that fund, and about Jessica’s story here: http://www.ffrf.org/

But here’s the worst part. Peter G. Palumbo (D-Xtian) a RI State representative went on local radio to discredit Jessica calling her “an evil little thing.” Needless to say to the sheeple of Cranston this was perceived as confirmation that making life miserable for Jessica and her family was sanctioned by their elected officials. Their comments on radio station pages and news blogs are hysteria filled hateful rants, religious gibberish, pseudo-patriotic outrage, and absurdly stupid misunderstandings of the law.

Rep. Palumbo has refused to apologize or retract his statement. Google him and you’ll find some half-million hits, mostly from outraged freethinking voices. You’ll also easily find his phone number and email address. I encourage you to use them.

If that was the only disgusting example of Christian inhumanity for the week it would be more than enough. But no, this was a banner week. The Kansas State Speaker of the House, Mike O’Neal (R-Xtian), emailed his endorsement of praying for Obama’s death, invoking Psalm 109. Part of the Psalm reads: ”Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.” O’Neal also defends his actions, and refuses to apologize or rescind his email.

How we doing so far, had enough? Wait ... not done yet.

Simultaneous with these events it came to my attention that some years ago Rick Santorum’s wife had a spontaneous abortion due to a massive infection of her uterus. The fetus would have died with or without the antibiotics she was given, and whether or not she had gone into spontaneous labor – which she did. The fetus died a couple of hours later. They brought it home for show and tell with their kids.

Santorum opposes abortion for any reason, even to save the life of the mother. Yet, when confronted with false reports of his wife submitting to induced labor to expel the fetus and save her life, he let this slip: “if that had to be the call, we would have induced labor if we had to,” under the understanding that the fetus was going to die anyway and intervening would save his wife’s life. http://www.salon.com/2012/01/06/karen_santorum_did_not_have_an_abortion/

Of course Rick Santorum doesn’t in any way perceive that as an abortion. And in the classic use of the word, it isn’t. It would be, shall we say, agreed-upon-medical-intervention-to- provoke-early-termination-of- the-fetus-in-order-to-save-his-wife’s-life. Never mind that the intervention’s end result would be the same as the common method of abortion as far as that fetus would be concerned and if the fetus could think; to the Santorums this would have been a whole different thing. In fact, at a Catholic hospital in Arizona last year a nun administrator permitted doctors to do exactly what Santorum said they would have done under the virtually same circumstances. The nun was excommunicated for saving the life of the mother of three and not letting God and nature run its course. Santorum is a devout Catholic.

I wasn't my usual self this past week. This religiously induced stupidity, hatred, bigotry, distortion, and hypocrisy by good and true loving Christian politicians took its toll on me. I wanted it to just go away. I hasn't, it won’t. It weighs on me.

Tomorrow starts a new week in Idiot America and with it the promise of more uniquely American crazy religious shit. Maybe I need a drink to prepare myself. Maybe I need a vacation in freethinking and sane Scandinavia.

{Invitation to my loyal readership: while I love getting your emails of encouragement, or just to chat, if you have pertinent comments to share on my articles, things other readers would find interesting, or that adds to the story, I encourage you to read my articles on the actual blog site and posting your comments there. Just click on the subject title in the body of the email you receive and it will take you to the blog. I approve all comments before they are visible on-line. Thanks!- Hump}

“Touched by a ghost!” the Hump metes out a sound “Hitchslapping.”

“I have been touched by a ghost, in the small of my back at an install [in a house where a boy died in the late 1890's and has never left]. I never believed any of the ghost crap before that moment. Since then I have had to rethink a lot of things. That’s what "What if's" are in us for. If you are not open to believing every thing you know is wrong than you are not a free thinker.”

The above comment was posted by someone to a facebook friend’s article dedicated to Christopher Hitchens. Off topic, and completely out of context with the discussion, besides his obvious foolishness this person exposed himself to be another one of those self appointed editors of Webster’s Dictionary - compelled, it seems, to redefine words to better suit his perspective and agenda.

I decided there can be no greater tribute to Christopher Hitchens than to administer to this buffoon the educational “Hitchslapping” he so clearly deserved. Here it is, slightly revised and extended:

Freethinker does not imply entertaining the paranormal because a natural explanation for an event, real or perceived, cannot immediately be ascertained. A freethinker doesn't hear hoof beats in the night and think "Ah ha! Unicorn!" We begin by examining the most reasonable and likely explanation for cause, not with the premise that something for which there has never been any objective evidence is the likely cause. That's quite the opposite from how credulous, unscientific superstitionalists like you think.

To paraphrase Hitchens - as atheists / freethinkers we respect free inquiry, open mindedness, and the pursuit of ideas, but we distrust anything that contradicts science or outrages reason. No where does being a freethinker imply throwing reason out the window and “being open to believing everything” predicated on anecdote and stories. That’s not being open minded, that’s surrendering your intellect to myth, which is a reasonably good definition for “faith.”

Occam's Razor states that the simplest explanation is better than a more complex one, thus more likely to be the correct one. The complexity associated with ghosts, spirits, god/gods, et al, is vast. It is so absurdly intricate / complex that on the list of one-thousand possible explanations it would fall at the bottom, just below invisible aliens. Selecting ghostly encounter as your preferred explanation for this so called event is patently irrational.

You want to believe you were prodded by a ghost? Fine. But this thread is dedicated to someone who was the antithesis of mindless superstionalism. You add nothing to the conversation here except to exemplify the kind of stunted, backward, and archaic non-think that Hitchens fought against his whole life.

Finally (and I mean that literally since I have zero interest in prolonging discourse with those of limited intellect), if you are insulted by your dismissal and the ridicule heaped upon you by the thinking folks here, no one will shed a tear. You're entitled to the same respect as any other insipid religionist who places myth, faith and unsubstantiated belief before reason, reality, and the scientific method - which is to say no respect at all.