No never give in to racism, the racist `s hated when the Muslims got the go a head with their prayers over the speakers. There aint a really big active racist movement in Norway.
The common Norwegian are a little "afraid" of foreign and different cultures and beliefs, much of this is based on ignorance. They are afraid of loosing their own cultural inheritance, kind of insecure on the strength of our own culture. Thing is on our independence day (17th of May) more and more of the younger generation are wearing the national costumes, even the second generations of immigrants starts to wear the national costumes. Of course the racist dont like it, but hey who cares about what they mean. We just need to keep track of them so we know were we have them. Back to the immigrants: I think it is fine they wear our national costumes, it is a way of integrate into the Norwegian society. And a second generation immigrant was this election voted into the parliament. Who better to teach our politicians about the cultural differences and how we can work together to narrow the gap
It really bothers me how we all have this Us and Them mentality.. it makes people scrutinize every little thing about other people like there's something weird or sinister about it. I'm sorry but that land under the mosque deal really kind of irritated me.. nobody thinks it's weird that Christian churches are pretty much the same way with their consecrated ground even though I think it's pretty much the same concept.
Raz, someone, so I don't hafta look it up, would you please explain the differences between a Moslem and a Muslim. I believe it was mentioned before elsewhere on another board awhile ago, but can't remember where now. thank you.
Islam does mean "Peace". It always struck me as kind of odd that Islam has such a concept of Jihad though: Holy War!!!
And not all muslims are bad, it's just the fundamentalists who use the Quran on their behalf. And the fundamentalists is NOT a small group mind you. It's huge, maybe not the majority of all muslims, but big nonetheless.
Ah yes, Al-Aqsa, Raz, very funny that. Muhammed rose to heaven, but he is buried in Medina, where his bones reside in their grave until today. Besides, that post-Quran anyway, the Quran litterally fell out of heaven into Muhammed's hands after all.
Jihad does NOT directly mean Holy war. It means 'to struggle', usually against an opresser or non-believer.
Although Islam means Peace it does allow you to fight for whats right, including a "Holy War".
Fundamentalists who want to kill themselves to kill others are a VERY many few! If you compare the amount of Islamic believers and the amount of extremists you will find that they are an *extremly* small percentage.
*I can't believe I'm justifying a religion on these forums*
Anyway, Mohammad DID go to heaven through the Al-Aqsa mosque, and that night is celebrated every year by Muslims. He also returned, and yes you are right he is buried in Medina.
The Koran did NOT fall out of the sky. The words were spoken to Mohammad through one of the Angels. Mohammad went to a place in the mountains for MANY years, before he finished writing all the revelations down, into what is now called the Koran. Thats why he is called a "Messenger of God".
If you want to know more about Islam, then I suggest you buy a book, 'cos my knowledge kinda ends here.
assumed when queeq said 'fell out of heaven' he was talking about Gabriel coming to recite ther Koran.
About Jihad; yeah, Raz, that's something a lot of peole don;t appreciate, it;s true meaning. I was reading interviews with some Muslims down in Saudi Arabia who were saying that Jihad for them meant living dutiful lives and trying to live good lives.
Again, it's a thing of perception. All the West ever SEES of Jihad is people invoking it in the name of war and it's another very unfortunate situation.
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"We've got maybe seconds before Darth Rosenberg grinds everybody into Jawa burgers and not one of you buds has the midi-chlorians to stop her!"
Some suspicious stock trading in Europe prior to the terrorist attacks gonna be investigated. To see if their are any leads about people knowing about the disaster and trading stocks in companies that got involved. Like the plane companies.
Indeedy, and as it happend Khomeni's fatwa against Salmon Rushdie was that he must die, but it could just as well have been that he needed to be yelled at, poked or even patted on the back; or it needn't have had to have been about people at all and could have been a fatwa saying people should eat more bread or go jogging more or eat less.
But all people do now is associate fatwa's with a death sentence, which is understandable considering the breathtaking awfulness of Khomeni's decree Inot to mention the absurd circumstances that made him do it), but it is highly inaccurate.
This is also the reason why it cannot be 'reversed'. People ask Iran, why not reverse the fatwa against Salmon Rushdie?
And their answer is: it's an OPINION. We can't change someone else's opinion on their behalf, only the person himself can do that. And as he is dead that is unlikely to happen.
But when people hear them say it can't be done they think the Iranians are just being obstructive, and this is because they don't understand what a fatwa is.
What the Iranians HAVE done is disavow Khomeni's edict and said they do not support it, which is about all they CAN do, really.
Sadly, there are always a few nutters who think that Khomeni's opinion should still be carried out.
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"We've got maybe seconds before Darth Rosenberg grinds everybody into Jawa burgers and not one of you buds has the midi-chlorians to stop her!"
So the same MIGHT happen when the Taliban declares war on the US or even the West by way of fatwa. Let's hope that doesn't happen. It only takes a handful of weirdos to blow something up.