The Religion of Peace

[Perknose]

http://slatest.slate.com/id/2280510/entry/3/

Egyptian Muslims Attend Christmas Eve Services as "Human Shields"



Many Egyptian Muslims did something Thursday they'd never done before: celebrated Christmas. A week after a terrorist bombing killed 21 Christians in Alexandria, thousands of Muslims attended Coptic Christmas Eve services or stood at candlelight vigils outside churches in a (successful) effort to prevent further attacks on Christians. According to Ahram Online, at least two Muslim movie stars, a popular preacher, and two sons of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak were among those who acted as human shields, saying they considered last week's bombing an attack "on Egypt as a whole." The effort was the brainchild of Mohamed El-Sawy, described as a "Muslim arts tycoon" who distributed information about the project from his cultural center in Cairo. "We either live together, or we die together," El-Sawy said. Ahram says "solidarity between Muslims and Copts has seen an unprecedented peak" since the bombing. "Millions of Egyptians changed their Facebook profile pictures to the image of a cross within a crescent – the symbol of an 'Egypt for All.' Around the city, banners went up calling for unity, and depicting mosques and churches, crosses and crescents, together as one."

Nice to see. Gives me hope. :thumbsup:

 

[boomerang]

You bet. We might just all learn to live together yet. :thumbsup:

 

[spacejamz]

Non-radicals make the news for a change....Awesome!!!

 

[William Gaatjes]

Tears in my eyes of happiness...
It strengthens as before my believes.
:thumbsup:








To stir things up :
Might 2012 just be another start ?

 

[kage69]

Good to see, and I'm not surprised. This behavior is far more indicative of the Middle Easterners that I've worked with and lived around.

I'm sure jediyoda or some other reactionary moron will be along shortly to tell us the real story, that these masses of people are actually suicide bombers themselves, only there to lower suspicions until a heavy blow can be dealt for the Holy War! Can they do it without plagiarizing from Google though? Guess we'll see.

Non-radicals make the news for a change....Awesome!!!

It happens more often than Americans are aware of. Problem is bombings and hijackings produce better ratings that million man marches supporting secular rule, or an opposition leader of a muslim country denouncing their theocratic rulers as "tea leaf readers and fortune tellers."
Islam never had a Reformation, and doesn't have the culture of debate the West has in regard to it's religion. I think this exacerbates the tendency for people to not denounce "old fashioned" members of their culture to outsiders. Its behavior that shouldn't perplex any American, because American christians do the exact same thing wrt to their own fundies.


Edit: wow, I read about this earlier but didn't see the part about facebook. Awesome. Yep, quite a holy war eh?

-----------------------------
Any other useful purpose for the second paragraph other than trying to troll?

Common Courtesy
At Admin

 

[Londo_Jowo]

http://slatest.slate.com/id/2280510/entry/3/



Nice to see. Gives me hope. :thumbsup:

Indonesian Muslims have been doing this for years.

http://www.onislam.net/english/news...onesian-muslims-protect-churches-on-xmas.html

JAKARTA – The world’s biggest Muslim organization is deploying thousands of volunteers to protect Christians and churches across Indonesia while celebrating Christmas in the world’s most populous Muslim state.
“We protect Christmas from possible assaults,” Syaiful Amin Solihin, deputy head of Youth wing of Nahdlatul Ulama (Ansor), told OnIslam.net on Friday, December 24.
“This is carried out as an expression of our religious mindset by upholding peace and implementing Islam in a real action.”
Nahdlatul Ulama is the biggest Muslim organization in Indonesia, with estimated members of 30 millions.

 

[Freshgeardude]

:thumbsup::thumbsup:

this is what should be happening every time.

 

[epidemis]

Nice, they have found out they can be religinuts together!

 

[sandorski]

Nice.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

This is a good thing.

 

[lothar]

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[Moonbeam]

There is one truth and it applies to us all and that truth is that at root there is only love.

Every soul seeks that truth. Those who have been encouraged in their journey in life are life affirming, and those who have been fed a crippled by a diet of hate reply in kind.

 

[JEDIYoda]

http://slatest.slate.com/id/2280510/entry/3/



Nice to see. Gives me hope. :thumbsup:

YES!! very nice to see!!

 

[dali71]

Thanks for the post, that made my day.

 

[JEDIYoda]

I'm sure jediyoda or some other reactionary moron will be along shortly to tell us the real story, that these masses of people are actually suicide bombers themselves, only there to lower suspicions until a heavy blow can be dealt for the Holy War! Can they do it without plagiarizing from Google though? Guess we'll see.

I`m sure you need to get your head out of your ass and understand that I also believe this is nice to see!!

Good things happen in tiny steps!!

 

[SandEagle]

I can't think.....of anything.......retarded.....to....say

so I'll just leave it at: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

 

[Jaskalas]

http://slatest.slate.com/id/2280510/entry/3/

Nice to see. Gives me hope. :thumbsup:

May Egypt show them the way.

 

[DanDaManJC]

Man, great story

 

[kage69]

I`m sure you need to get your head out of your ass and understand that I also believe this is nice to see!!

Good things happen in tiny steps!!

Speaking of tiny steps, how about you form a consistent point of view before criticizing others over what you believe?
Remember this thread ? http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2131762

I remember your original post in that thread to the Indonesia story, where you immediately went on to dismiss it as confusion on the part of everyone else, then continued to indite the entire Muslim world over the violence committed by radicals. Can't provide it though, as I see you went back and edited your posts, after "re-reading" the story. Classy, but odd that you didn't touch the portions that contradict your new found approval, portions like: "In Islam 99% of the people fall ionto the crazy catagory! That includes the people who are not involved in the violence.(sic)"

So how about YOU get your head of out YOUR ass? Either you believe the entire muslim world is composed of terrorist sympathizers, or you acknowledge that there are plenty of good muslims out there that strongly condemn the actions of religious extremists - you simply can't have it both ways. Even an ideologue like you should be able to see that, but having read far too many of your posts lately that might be wishful thinking on my part.

 

[DesiPower]

:thumbsup: more thumbs up from me :thumbsup:

but I hope they don't get targeted by extremists themselves...

 

[werepossum]

Both of these stories are very good to see. These people aren't just denouncing terrorism, they are literally putting their lives on the line. Very brave! (Now if they just don't start telling us they are protecting the Christians from the Jews . . .)

Incidentally Islam did have a Reformation of sorts. From the seventh century to the fourteenth century, Muslim clerics were free to interpret the Koran and Sharia as guidelines, to be adapted to current situations, to grow. Islam was arguably as progressive and enlightened as Christianity or Judaism, certainly so in some places. Then in the fourteenth century regressionism swept the Muslim world. The Koran and Sharia had to not only be interpreted literally, but could be the only valid law. Secular law was no longer to be allowed, kalam and bid'ah banned, and salafism (albeit usually within existing sects rather than pure) swept the Islamic world. Perhaps these sorts of stories indicate a coming second Reformation of Islam, this one more similar to that of Christianity.

In any case, these particular Muslims are to be greatly admired. It's always harder to risk one's life for those outside one's own identifying groups.

 

[routan]

Perknose, thank you for this thread!

 

[bfdd]

weren't there posts about this before Christmas?

 

[woodie1]

Nice to see something like this. Thanks OP.

 

[Kadarin]

:thumbsup::thumbsup:

this is what should be happening every time.

While it is good to see, what should be happening is a situation where there is no need for it. Islam should be universally tolerant of that which is not Islam.