Category Archive

Somali Man Pleads Guilty in Terrorism Case

Back in October 2007, while he was living in Minnesota, he said he met “some guys,” as he put it, who were talking about going back to Somalia to fight the Ethiopian soldiers who invaded Somalia. From October to December, they met secretly in Minneapolis.

Ahmed said he knew he would be fighting with Al-Shabaab. That’s the hard-line Islamic group that is creating much of the violence we’re seeing in Somalia today. But back in 2007, the group had some popular support because the fighters were taking on the Ethiopian occupation, and some people saw their cause as nationalistic.

…

After the hearing, Ostgard told me Ahmed stayed in Somalia from December 2007 until April 2008, but Ahmed left the camp before the U.S. officially declared Al-Shabaab a terrorist group in March of 2008. Ostgard said the fact that Ahmed left Al-Shabaab before the designation helped Ostgard negotiate the deal with prosecutors. “He would have faced more serious charges” if Ahmed left after March 2008, Ostgard said.

This next story just makes me shake my head.  People are looking for insediousness everywhere.  To me, it just looks like they’re making a mountain out of a mole hill.   The right wing blogs I read are like oooo, let’s play 6 degrees of seperation, Ellison to TIZA to MAS to the Muslim Brotherhood, zmog, terrorism! 

Rep. Ellison’s trip under increasing scrutiny

Islamic nonprofit paid for Rep. Ellison’s pilgrimage to Mecca

Ellison fires back over Strib story on Mecca trip

For those not from around these parts, TIZA has been the target of much scrutiny over the years, which has crested now with lawsuits and countersuits.

Inver Grove Heights charter school sues Education Department

Charter school countersues over ACLU religion claims

Let’s go post pork recipes and pictures of male genitalia on muslim message boards until 50 dozen new accounts *snork snork, haha*

Why are people so dumb?

On the authority of Ibn ‘Umar (ra), who said: The Messenger of Allah (saws)took me by the shoulder and said:

“Be in this world as though you were a stranger or a traveler.”
[Al-Bukhari]

What does this mean to me? That this dunya is not our ultimate destination. A traveler does not make himself at home for too long at any one place along his journey. A stranger is always strange to his surroundings. If he becomes too familiar with them, he is no longer a stranger.

We are not to become too friendly with this dunya.  Doing so will distract us from our ultimate destination – Allah (swt) and Jannah, inshaAllah.

So what is my goal in this life?  To make the people around me happy?  Not if it is at the expense of my deen.  That’s my ticket to my ticket to my final destination, thank you very much.  Certainly, we are kind to those around us, but if they want us to shed aspects of our religion that displease them, be it clothing, jihad, daily prayer, eating zabiha, we can do without them.

They would love to see you deny the truth even as they have denied it, so that you should be like them. (4:89)

Allah (swt) tells us that they will never be happy with us until we are like them. So if we give up a piece of the deen here, a piece of the deen here to appease them, eventually we’ll have nothing left.

Islam is our path and reaching Allah (swt) is our goal. Is every action you take for Allah (swt)? If your actions aren’t helping you along that path, then why are you doing them?

I’m continuously flabbergasted every time I see this claim in assorted forms:

My priest made a good point that in Islam they say their god is merciful and just, but never loving. The do not have any concept of God being love, as we do. Love is the highest good. It is the reason that our God is merciful and just. These latter two virtues are secondary virtues, that only exist because of the reality that God is love. Allah is lacking that fundamental characteristic of the true living God–only copying mercy and justice to some degree, but not existing as love itself.

I mean, how hard is it to read through the 99 names of Allah (swt) and come upon this:

And He alone is truly forgiving, all-embracing in his love. (85:14)

And in case they need to read further:

• Allah’s Love
• God and Love
• Feeling Allah’s Love

Now I’ll also often have christians say, “ah ha, but God loves everyone, no matter what they do!  In Islam, your God does not necessarily love everyone all the time.

To this I ask, “what good is the love of your God if at the end of the day, you burn in hell because you reject Jesus’ (as) supposed sacrifice?  Yes, God is our loving friend and buddy and He’s throwing us into hell, big woopdeedo.”

In Islam, the attributes of Allah (swt) are balanced.  He is Allah (swt) first and foremost, not “Love.”  He is the Loving, the Merciful, the Compassionate, the Just, the Forgiver, amongst dozens of other names.

We are encouraged to seek the pleasure and love of Allah (swt), and in every action increase our love for Him.  If there isn’t love in Islam, I don’t know what the heck I’m doing everyday.

define chutzpha.  To stand outside someone’s place of worship with a megaphone and slander their religion.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/nPZxsuRlvh4" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

[kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/-v1DtuYOEYc" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

I especially like the rant at minute 6 of the first video.  We don’t convert to christianity because we don’t want to give up our sin, that we’d rather have a few minutes of pleasure then all of eternity.  Srsly?  Aside from polygamy and not believing in the divinity of Jesus (as), I can’t think of anything muslims are allowed to do that is considered a sin for christians.

If they took down the signs, put away the megaphones, and just tried to engage in dialogue (a’la the Prophet Muhammad), I’d have no issue.  But dudes, a megaphone?

Ok, nothing to wake me out of my cold induced kitty high like a bs islamaphobic lawsuit:

AIG Bailout Promotes Shariah Law, Lawsuit Claims

The suit — brought with the support of the Thomas More Law Center, a non-profit law firm that promotes conservative Christian values — claims that making U.S. taxpayers comply with Shariah, the Islamic legal framework based on the Koran, is unconstitutional.

This month, AIG announced that it would offer Shariah-compliant homeowner insurance policies, known as takaful, to U.S. customers through one of its subsidiaries. To be Shariah compliant, companies cannot earn interest and must agree to send a percentage of their revenue to Islamic charitable groups.

The lawsuit — by Iraq war veteran Kevin Murray, on behalf of U.S. taxpayers, against Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and the Federal Reserve — claims that by subsidizing AIG, the federal government is conveying “…a message of endorsement and promotion of Shariah-based Islam … and [a] message of disfavor of and hostility toward Christianity and Judaism.

I hadn’t heard of a shariah compliant insurance policy.  We have renters insurance through state farm at present.  *makes mental note to investigate further*

ps – to the lawsuit filers I say bwahah!

Some republicans have warmed my cold, cold, cynical liberal heart:

McCain supporters defend Islam, shout down Obama attackers

But, lest I get too warm and fuzzy, McCain camp doesn’t allow Muslims for McCain to speak with CNN. 

Worried it will alienate your base?

Because college republicans across the country sponsor speakers like this.

Robert Spencer, who has written several books on the topic of Islamic extremism, discussed why certain sects of Islam are a threat to the West in an event sponsored by UW College Republicans.

From the other student paper:

The College Republicans of UW-Madison hosted Robert Spencer, head of Jihad Watch, to voice his views against Islamic extremism Wednesday at Memorial Union.

Spencer’s presentation, “Jihad: What Muslims Say it Means and Why it Matters,” instigated students to speak out in a question and answer session.

Spencer said he believes the Islamic religion is not a peaceful one and many Islamic groups in the United States have the potential to impose Islamic law on nonbelievers in a violent way.

Say what you will about assorted leftists, socialists and atheists, but when Daniel Pipes came to town in 2003, they rallied together with the MSA to provide a coherent response, and it looks like they did the same this time around as well.

 Also from the first article:

CR Chair Sara Mikolajczak said she thought the event went well overall but called the outbursts by MSA “absolutely ridiculous.”

“It’s one thing to ask a question. I mean, that’s perfectly legitimate — that’s why we open it up to Q-and-A,” Mikolajczak said. “But it’s a completely different thing to talk over a speaker and not to adhere to the rules.”

From the comments:

…isn’t that what the College Republicans did at the John Kerry event? Oh SNAP!

bwahaha, hypocracy at it’s finest!