Photos from trekearth.com
I thought I would write another Islam related post. Again I am not an Islamic scholar and I will remain true to my blog header while maintaining a distinction between this blog and the more theodicy, problem of evil, citation orientated thekingpin68.
In the news:
Take a pill, Jack.
Digital Journal: November 12, 2010
'London - As the clock struck 11:00 and people stood for Armistice Day’s two minutes of silence, Islamic protesters in London burned a model of a poppy and shouted out messages such as "British soldiers burn in hell."
About 35 protesters, many with their faces masked, gathered near Hyde Park. They set a model of a poppy on fire at the stroke of 11am, and then marched through the area carrying signs and chanting.
Messages on the signs included "Hands off Muslim lands," "Islam will dominate," "There is no God but Allah," “Our dead are in paradise, your dead are in hell” and "British soldiers burn in hell."
The protesters said they were members of a group called Muslims Against Crusades.'
Armistice Day-UK
Remembrance Day-Canada
Veterans Day-USA
Regardless of my theological and philosophical differences as a Christian theologian and philosopher of religion, with Islam, the radical Islamists hardly made a good case for their cause by their classless burning of a poppy and shouting during two minutes of silence.
As noted several times, I realize there are kind-hearted Muslims and I had a Muslim friend in the UK while I lived there. I am not against Muslim people or any people, period.
In a general terms, I am a supporter of NATO and the Armed Forces. This does not mean I blindly support every mission, however, I certainly respect in general terms the sacrifices of the Armed Forces past and present, both dead and alive.
So...
I think that all persons that live in the United Kingdom should at least minimally appreciate the freedom afforded to them by the Armed Forces past and present through sacrifices, this without a blanket endorsement of all missions past and present.
There was an official public ceremony taking place.
Therefore, I conclude, that these Muslim protesters should at least minimally respect the two minutes of silence and shut up and stand still.
The masked faces showed signs of cowardliness. If they are going to protest they should have the guts to show themselves, or go and look for a job, or go back to class, or the pub or mosque or whatever.
The Bible teaches that unless one is written in the book of life, one will reside in the lake of fire, forever. This is according to many scholars likely figurative literal language and literature in regard to hellfire, but the everlasting distance from God is certain as in Revelation 20, even if in the less probable case of annihilation over everlasting punishment, which has been discussed on thekingpin68 and satire and theology.
The Crusades...
New Advent: Catholic Encyclopedia
'It has been customary to describe the Crusades as eight in number:
the first, 1095-1101;
the second, headed by Louis VII, 1145-47;
the third, conducted by Philip Augustus and Richard Coeur-de-Lion, 1188-92;
the fourth, during which Constantinople was taken, 1204;
the fifth, which included the conquest of Damietta, 1217;
the sixth, in which Frederick II took part (1228-29); also Thibaud de Champagne and Richard of Cornwall (1239);
the seventh, led by St. Louis, 1249-52;
the eighth, also under St. Louis, 1270.
This division is arbitrary and excludes many important expeditions, among them those of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In reality the Crusades continued until the end of the seventeenth century, the crusade of Lepanto occurring in 1571, that of Hungary in 1664, and the crusade of the Duke of Burgundy to Candia, in 1669. A more scientific division is based on the history of the Christian settlements in the East; therefore the subject will be considered in the following order:
I. Origin of the Crusades;
II. Foundation of Christian states in the East;
III. First destruction of the Christian states (1144-87);
IV. Attempts to restore the Christian states and the crusade against Saint-Jean d'Acre (1192-98);
V. The crusade against Constantinople (1204);
VI. The thirteenth-century crusades (1217-52);
VII. Final loss of the Christian colonies of the East (1254-91);
VIII. The fourteenth-century crusade and the Ottoman invasion;
IX. The crusade in the fifteenth century;
X. Modifications and survival of the idea of the crusade.'
Knight, Kevin (ed.)(2010), Crusades, New York, New Advent.Org.
Now reasonably the Crusades ended several years ago prior to the establishment of the present United Kingdom in 1707.
Certainly for one, even politically, Europe is much more secularized and less Christianized than it was in the fifteenth century.
One does not have to be an expert in political science and history to realize that the British are in the Middle East for minimally significantly differently reasons than in the era of the Crusades.
Therefore the current British military missions are not Crusades.
Further:
At Bible School and 'semetary' I was taught that the Islamic world connected religion and state so tightly that it saw the West in the same light. The West was like in the Middle Ages, but it is a cop-out to state these London protesters in the 2010s do not know that Britain is primarily a secular democracy and not a Christian Western country.
Telegraph: Novemeber 11, 2010
'"Our aim is not violence but if people come to us with violence, Muslims will defend themselves."
He added: "We will do this again. Until the British people condemn the British Government for these illegal wars, we will not stop protesting."
Posters bore slogans including "Hands off Muslim lands" and "Islam will dominate", and flags bore Arabic writing with the words "There is no God but Allah"....'
'Of the three arrests made, two were for public order offences and one was for assaulting a police officer....'
'There are suspicions Muslims Against Crusades is a splinter group of Islam4UK, founded by Anjem Choudary, a British Muslim extremist formerly a senior figure in the now banned Al-Muhajiroun and Islam4UK groups.'
When I see them shouting, masked and acting disrespectfully, I have reason to doubt that violence is not a real possibility.
