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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
 Posted - 03/01/2008 : 10:42:13 [Permalink]
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I'm sure there are Christian arbitration firms, as well (yup, took all of 30 seconds to find one). What you're trying to imply is that the "Texas Islamic Court" is a state organization, when it's clearly not (no more than a restaruant called "The Texas Barbeque Hut" is a state-run eatery). Or is it just that you don't get why arbitration is preferrable to trial, and since all parties signed a legal contract to arbitrate instead of litigate, the appeals court found no reason to deny the arbitration?
I've signed an arbitration agreement with my employer. Does that mean my employer is trying to set up a second legal system? Of course not. You can become an arbiter, too, if you want, Pelayo. Just get some people to sign legal contracts saying that if they have a dispute amongst themselves, they'll take their problem to you to decide instead of to court. And then you can judge the issues any way you want. Religiously, coin flip, whatever. So long as the parties agreed on whatever form of arbitration you use, they're bound to it.
Hehehehe. The Texas Islamic Court has the same phone number as the Texas Muslim Yellow Pages. They're a rinky-dink operation (without a Web site, even) with only the power that legal contracts under US secular law give them.
I see many paranoid blog postings about that court decision, claiming that the courts recognized Sharia law in Texas. What a joke. All the Appeals Court recognized was that a legal contract was, indeed, legally binding. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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Pelayo
Skeptic Friend
USA
70 Posts |
Posted - 03/02/2008 : 09:39:13 [Permalink]
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I had a long internal self-debate about posting the Sharia courts item; I'll retract it. However there is still a serious effort to force taxpayers to pay for foot washing basins, prayer rooms, and halal food. I haven't heard of any jews demanding that public schools and colleges provide kosher food. There is a problem with cab drivers in Minneaplois refusing to transport passengers who are carrying alcohol and with guide dogs. http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=2827800
Coming sooner or later to a college or university near you:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23270251-421,00.html |
I have a habit of posting without reading all previous comments, if I am repeating someone, well, excuse me, please.
"No tendency is quite so strong in human nature as the desire to lay down rules of conduct for other people." - William Howard Taft
"God ran out of new souls a long time ago and has been recycling jackasses." - Anon |
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bngbuck
SFN Addict
USA
2437 Posts |
Posted - 03/02/2008 : 10:51:50 [Permalink]
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Dude.....
I don't think radical Muslim fudamentalists pose any great threat to [u]civilization]/u], or even to our country as a whole, because of their lack of political cohesion, which is necessary to threaten a huge, powerful country like the US.
But no one can doubt that this group of crazies has the very real potential of inflicting hideous damage on the US if they manage to buy, borrow, steal, or build a nuclear device of enough sophistication to smuggle into the US.
I have no doubt that Russia, for instance, possesses such devices today, as of course, we also must. It would only take one such device and one sucessful smuggling (in any number of ways - there are dozens) to inflict catastrophic damage on DC and the operation of the US Government.
Such an attack would no more "destroy America" than 9/11 did, but it would certainly inflict serious damage upon this country!
This possible scenario is the only thing that the Republicans talk about that makes any sense. If McCain plays this card really cleverly (with assistance from Karl Rove), he just might appear persuasive to a sizeable number of Americans this fall. I think that would be his strongest chance to get close to the presidency! |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 03/02/2008 : 11:29:35 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Pelayo
I had a long internal self-debate about posting the Sharia courts item; I'll retract it. |
Good for you! It was fairly absurd.| However there is still a serious effort to force taxpayers to pay for foot washing basins, prayer rooms, and halal food. |
Yes, and Christians are trying to force taxpayers to pay of religious eduction, prayer rooms, and Christian-favorable Federal legislation. And they're meeting with some success. Your examples, on the other hand...And so far the only proposed solution to that problem is to suspend and/or revoke those cabbies' licenses.And there is no sign in that article that any college or university is actually changing its schedule.
In both examples, Muslim experts offer solutions. With the cab drivers, there's a notion in Islamic Law that says if the country you're in doesn't abide by Islamic Law, then you should follow the country's laws. With the colleges, Muslim experts say that prayer time should be subordinate to class time.
The thing is, Muslims can break the law or ask for special treatment, but as is shown, they can't expect to avoid the consequences or be pandered to.
Christians here in the US are being pandered to, by other Christians. Go figure that one. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 03/02/2008 : 16:33:27 [Permalink]
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bng said:
But no one can doubt that this group of crazies has the very real potential of inflicting hideous damage on the US if they manage to buy, borrow, steal, or build a nuclear device of enough sophistication to smuggle into the US.
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Yeah, well, to bad the republicans have effectively destroyed the only real mechanism that could stop such an event if one of those weapons became available to a well funded terrorist organization. Law enforcement with international cooperation. Its the only answer to that problem, and every political candidate who has suggested it gets beat down by the Rovian Spin Machine(RSM)tm. Hard. Makes you wonder why.
The threat of a nuclear attack on US soil is very remote though. They are difficult to make, and the people with the infrastructure and means to produce them tend to guard them closely. I'm much more likely to be killed by a drunk driver.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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Pelayo
Skeptic Friend
USA
70 Posts |
Posted - 03/02/2008 : 17:33:03 [Permalink]
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A quote from the article in Boston University's "Daily Free Press" which I have previously posted:
"Men have not been allowed to enter the Quadrangle Recreational Athletic Center during certain times since Jan. 28, after members of the Harvard Islamic Society and the Harvard Women's Center petitioned the university for a more comfortable environment for women."
Harvard is a private school, so I guess they can do whatever they want.
But not so the Michigan university system, but they are not stopped:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/07/education/07muslim.html
According to the "Wall Street Journal" the ACLU has bailed out of the issue.
http://opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110010492
NPR on Minnesota:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9724362
Muslims seem to be a bit more successful at getting accomodation than Christians.
Bngbuck, I have to disagree on the premise that Muslims lack political cohesion. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is an in-your-face organization with lots of money. I also believe that the possibility of a nuclear terrorist attack is overblown. Slow jihad seems to be more successful.
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I have a habit of posting without reading all previous comments, if I am repeating someone, well, excuse me, please.
"No tendency is quite so strong in human nature as the desire to lay down rules of conduct for other people." - William Howard Taft
"God ran out of new souls a long time ago and has been recycling jackasses." - Anon |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 03/02/2008 : 18:39:45 [Permalink]
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What's better? A $25,000 footbath which doesn't have any religious symbolism attached, or constant repair of the sinks, slip-and-fall lawsuits, and lawsuits over the Constitutionality of a ban on washing one's feet in the sinks?Yeah, and where are all the ACLU lawsuits over chapels on campuses around the country? What you've linked to there is an ACLU hit piece, and not good reporting. The author(s) even cite a bunch of similar things that the ACLU doesn't sue over, but seems to indicate that the ACLU should sue over the footbaths, showing that the inconsistency is not the ACLU's, but instead belongs to the author(s).| Muslims seem to be a bit more successful at getting accomodation than Christians. |
You can say that with a straight face as soon as Congress and the Military quit paying for predominantly Christian chaplains, and "under God" gets out of our Pledge. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 03/02/2008 : 22:40:30 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Pelayo
Slow jihad seems to be more successful. |
So now any accommodation of Islam is "slow jihad?" You're not a reasonable person. You're unthinking and reactionary. Good luck with that baseless paranoia. You must consider it precious enough that you refuse to part with it.
And yes, I'll say it again. The fact that you can tolerate religion exceptions when they're for Christians but not Muslims is classic xenophobia.
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
| Edited by - H. Humbert on 03/02/2008 22:43:40 |
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Pelayo
Skeptic Friend
USA
70 Posts |
Posted - 03/03/2008 : 04:06:13 [Permalink]
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Accommodation of Islam is not slow jihad; slow jihad is a tactic.
I didn't mean to imply that I tolerate extremism in other religions. I just believe that Islam is the greater problem. Here's the difference: Andres Serrano is still alive and Theo Van Gogh is very, very dead.
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I have a habit of posting without reading all previous comments, if I am repeating someone, well, excuse me, please.
"No tendency is quite so strong in human nature as the desire to lay down rules of conduct for other people." - William Howard Taft
"God ran out of new souls a long time ago and has been recycling jackasses." - Anon |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 03/03/2008 : 08:48:33 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Pelayo
Here's the difference: Andres Serrano is still alive and Theo Van Gogh is very, very dead. |
From Wikipedia:[After the murder], starting with four attempted arson attacks on mosques in the weekend of 5-7 November, a significant number of apparently retaliatory violent incidents and arson attacks took place. The Dutch Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia recorded a total of 106 violent incidents against Muslim targets in November. The National Dutch Police Services Agency (KLPD) recorded 31 occasions of violence against mosques and Islamic schools between 23 November and 13 March 2005. The case that drew most attention was an arson attack that led to the destruction of a Muslim primary school in Uden in December 2004.
By November 8, Christian churches were in turn targeted in vandalism and arson attacks. A report for the Anne Frank Foundation and the University of Leiden, which counted a total of 174 violent incidents in 2-30 November, specifies that mosques were the target of violence 47 times, and churches 13 times. Real stand-up people there, burning down school buildings in retaliation for the murder of a single guy. Yeah, that's a reasonable response, nothing like the religiously motivated attack that began it all.
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- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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Pelayo
Skeptic Friend
USA
70 Posts |
Posted - 03/03/2008 : 12:00:09 [Permalink]
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Ayaan Hirsi Ali's and Theo Van Gogh's only transgression was a truthful documentary about the plight of women in Islamic countries. Van Gogh is dead and Hirsi Ali is will live the rest of her life in hiding and under constant guard. The "artist" who displayed a crucifix un urine is left alone. All you can do deflect the obvious by pointing out the reaction to Van Gogh's murder.
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I have a habit of posting without reading all previous comments, if I am repeating someone, well, excuse me, please.
"No tendency is quite so strong in human nature as the desire to lay down rules of conduct for other people." - William Howard Taft
"God ran out of new souls a long time ago and has been recycling jackasses." - Anon |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 03/03/2008 : 12:52:59 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Pelayo
All you can do deflect the obvious by pointing out the reaction to Van Gogh's murder. |
No, I just don't have the time right now to go track down some individuals murdered by Christians for their criticism of Christianity. But it's clear that burning down schools and vandalizing mosques in no way gives anyone the moral high ground over Muslims in general.
The reaction is important, because it shows that non-Muslims can act just as badly, for all the same reasons.
All I've been saying is that Muslims aren't the number-one threat in my book. Pointing out the murder of someone in Europe really doesn't threaten me, here on this side of the pond, where we've got an over-abundance of radical Christians who are simply a few centuries ahead of the Muslims in their tactics and strategy for taking and holding political power.
You should expect radical Islam to also drift away from the bomb and sword as they learn the lessons their Christian brothers learned ages ago. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
Posted - 03/03/2008 : 13:01:53 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Pelayo
Ayaan Hirsi Ali's and Theo Van Gogh's only transgression was a truthful documentary about the plight of women in Islamic countries. Van Gogh is dead and Hirsi Ali is will live the rest of her life in hiding and under constant guard. The "artist" who displayed a crucifix un urine is left alone. All you can do deflect the obvious by pointing out the reaction to Van Gogh's murder.
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FYI: If Im not mistaken, I believe that the motive of the murder was not "a truthful documentary about the plight of women in Islamic countries" but in fact because there was a scene of muslim women giving interviews in sheer clothing revealing their nakedness. |
"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
Posted - 03/03/2008 : 13:03:33 [Permalink]
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| Not to mention that it was Christians who started the fight beck in the first crusade, The Muslim leaders at that time allowed all faiths to worship freely in Palestine. |
"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
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bngbuck
SFN Addict
USA
2437 Posts |
Posted - 03/03/2008 : 23:36:12 [Permalink]
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Pelayo.....
| The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is an in-your-face organization with lots of money. |
And CAIR possesses the ideological cohesion, the political structure and unity that can organize thousands or millions of anti-American Jihadists into a political unity that can effectively attack and destroy American cities and infrastructure with conventional explosives and weapons?
I cannot believe you mean that!| I also believe that the possibility of a nuclear terrorist attack is overblown. Slow jihad seems to be more successful. |
"Slow jihad" has the ability to annihilate most of Washington, D.C. in a single instant?
How? |
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"Muslim jihadists"
