My faith is being overtaken by beheaders

[LibCampFireClub 635]

Most of us would see no glamour in surrendering our American citizenship and denouncing the USA all to accompany the massive Jihadi movements overseas. There are however thousands who make this delirious choice every single day. Qanta Ahmed is an educated and outspoken Muslim woman who has an opinion on why this may be happening.

My faith is being overtaken by beheaders

Qanta Ahmed 1:40 p.m. EDT September 6, 2014

I was first invited to a beheading in Saudi Arabia while working as a physician in Riyadh. It was 1999, and I was an attending intensive care specialist in an advanced medical system that valued my U.S. training. As we finished resuscitating a patient, a colleague casually said: “We’re going to Chop-Chop Square tomorrow. Do you want to see a beheading?”

He was referring to Deera, the Riyadh district surrounding its major seminary and mosque. During the week, Deera bustled with commerce, home to the finest jewelers. But on Fridays, with shops closed for Islam’s holy day, people convicted of capital crimes such as murder, rape and incest were beheaded by the sword-wielding state executioner in full public view.

The horrific irony – saving a life while my colleagues discussed the entertainment of taking one – was too much for me. I politely declined the invitation, and in the days that followed, I did my best to push the incident out of my mind as I grappled with the country’s tension between modern and medieval.

Avoiding the medieval wasn’t always easy. Beheadings were announced each week in local papers, with as little fanfare as a weather forecast. A clause in my own contract reminded me, a British citizen, that while living in Saudi Arabia, I too was subject to death by decapitation. Raised Muslim from birth and a lifelong practitioner of Islam, this was my first introduction to the dark side of Sharia law.

A decade on, everything had changed. I had witnessed 9/11 from Riyadh. I had written a book about my time in Saudi Arabia, “In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor’s Journey in the Saudi Kingdom,” and I was confronting radical Islamism through my journalism. In 2010, having moved to New York to continue my medical career, I received a familiar-sounding invitation. Attorney Richard Horowitz, an internationally recognized authority on terrorism who shared my concern about radical Islamist terrorism, wanted to know if I’d join him in his midtown office to view some homemade jihadist recruitment videos. This time I didn’t refuse.

http://www.delawareonline.com/story/opinion/contributors/2014/09/06/faith-overtaken-beheaders/15196127/

http://www.wacotrib.com/opinion/columns/guest_columns/qanta-ahmed-washington-post-my-beautiful-faith-is-being-overtaken/article_d6ea94bd-000f-59cc-876f-187749772621.html

Edited September 13, 2014 by ExExpat

[Karee 4,190]

It brings up the question, is organized religion a good thing? My answer is an unequivocal NO. It seems to do more harm than good IMO.

[LibCampFireClub 635]

In a world gone mad, it has become difficult to differentiate evil from good, black from white, and even peace from war. Fortunately there are a few voices who stand up and speak clear messages. Qanta Ahmed uses clear language to stand up and boldly speak out about the evils taking place on earth all in the name of her hijacked religion of peace.

As a devout Muslim, the tragedies of recent days have packed an added blow for me. Along with the senseless loss of two promising young lives, I have been forced to confront the fact that the beautiful religion that continues to sustain me – that supports me in my life-giving work as a physician – is increasingly the domain of those who would use it to destroy everything I hold dear.
Recent events have left me able to draw only one conclusion: Islamism – the radical impostor form of my religion – has declared war on Islam.

--Qanta Ahmed

http://www.theage.com.au/comment/the-betrayal-of-my-beautiful-religion-islam-20140911-10f1h6.html

[Curmudgeon 227]

It brings up the question, is organized religion a good thing? My answer is an unequivocal NO. It seems to do more harm than good IMO.

I don't think it's a question of organized religion being a good or a bad thing. What I think the problem is is that Americans have a distorted notion of what being religious is as a by product of their faith in the constitution rather than having faith in the concepts that brought about the constitution. It plays out in discourse on freedom of speech, the right to bear arms and religious freedom. In this case, the concept that the constitution is supposed to enshrine is the idea that no one should be discriminated against because they want to practice their faith, but what it has become is a vehicle for people to ram christianity down the throats of others while paying lip service to the idea that others can practice their own religion because in practice that is only ok so long as the practice of other religions doesn't interfere with the US being a 'good christian country'. This is in fact the antithesis of what the constitution is meant to have created

As a result, many Americans have a very skewed view of what it is to be religious and what are proper articles of faith that should be constitutionally protected and what are in fact selfish interpretations of faith which are used to force others who do not share their religious convictions to still practice a 'christian' version of morality. This leads to these ideas that other faiths are inferior and contain tenets which are basically evil. A written constitution is an unwieldy thing because the very concepts it is supposed to enshrine are being bashed by a specific interpretation of those same concepts.

[Darnell 8,478]

It's a shame she could not marry an American Citizen after finishing up her medical residency in the USA. If she had done that, then she'd never have to seek employment elsewhere in the world.

[Jacque67 7,328]

It's a shame she could not marry an American Citizen after finishing up her medical residency in the USA. If she had done that, then she'd never have to seek employment elsewhere in the world.

Interested?

[GBCW 397]

Too bad this country outlawed polygamy way back when or he'd probably consider her for a position in his harem.

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

It brings up the question, is organized religion a good thing? My answer is an unequivocal NO. It seems to do more harm than good IMO.

I sat thru a service today in a foreign language. I think I enjoyed it more becuse I did not know what line of Bs they were pushing while collecting money from the poverty stricken to repair the church. #######

[GandD 5,966]

I sat thru a service today in a foreign language. I think I enjoyed it more becuse I did not know what line of Bs they were pushing while collecting money from the poverty stricken to repair the church. #######

Been there.

[Curmudgeon 227]

If the funds are used to benefit the church community, ie the buildings they all use, then where's the harm? If it is used to line the pockets of some cynical ####### who uses the weakness of others to line his/her pocket, then you should object, and vociferously.

[Darnell 8,478]

Interested?

No. She's gone through too much stuff already, no amount of tantric massage could cleanse her soul. No amount.

[Darnell 8,478]

Too bad this country outlawed polygamy way back when or he'd probably consider her for a position in his harem.

me? no way.

fun fact: I am a serial monogamist.

[rlogan 2,036]

If the funds are used to benefit the church community, ie the buildings they all use, then where's the harm? If it is used to line the pockets of some cynical ####### who uses the weakness of others to line his/her pocket, then you should object, and vociferously.

I've spent a couple decades running around the Philippines and decades more around the third world where the long arm of the Catholic Church is so incredible.

The most beautiful, spacious, grand, absolutely dominating building of the finest construction materials is the church, which sits EMPTY more than 90% of the time, whereas the people spend all their time in hovels cribbed together from scraps and tidal debris. The people sleeping on floors, with roofs insufficient to keep out the rains, - but that altar floor baby - dry as a bone. Expensive stone decoration, stained glass, heavy wooden doors that have nobody inside of them except God and the priest, in his adjacent quarters. Pews of imported wood - ghastly expense. Sending 'round the collection plate for his salary out of these poor people's pockets. It is shameful, and a tragedy.

Village after village the same thing. That's the harm: People without basic housing building this ornate, hyper-expensive castle for a ghost. Makes about as much sense as sleeping outside in the rain so that God can have your comfy bed.

If you converted the church into apartments for poor people, it would be revolutionary in terms of standard of living in those communities. Doing so would improve their productivity in so many other ways - better health, less struggle for subsistence, more time for education, etc.

The harm is that this is the very sort of thing making it the third world.

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

I've spent a couple decades running around the Philippines and decades more around the third world where the long arm of the Catholic Church is so incredible.

The most beautiful, spacious, grand, absolutely dominating building of the finest construction materials is the church, which sits EMPTY more than 90% of the time, whereas the people spend all their time in hovels cribbed together from scraps and tidal debris. The people sleeping on floors, with roofs insufficient to keep out the rains, - but that altar floor baby - dry as a bone. Expensive stone decoration, stained glass, heavy wooden doors that have nobody inside of them except God and the priest, in his adjacent quarters. Pews of imported wood - ghastly expense. Sending 'round the collection plate for his salary out of these poor people's pockets. It is shameful, and a tragedy.

Village after village the same thing. That's the harm: People without basic housing building this ornate, hyper-expensive castle for a ghost. Makes about as much sense as sleeping outside in the rain so that God can have your comfy bed.

If you converted the church into apartments for poor people, it would be revolutionary in terms of standard of living in those communities. Doing so would improve their productivity in so many other ways - better health, less struggle for subsistence, more time for education, etc.

The harm is that this is the very sort of thing making it the third world.

Very well said Sir Logan.

It also grates me to see such devastating over population and the poor with many kids, but the church fighting birth control.

The big sign at the Chruch--The hope of the people... NOT!

Of course they are not beheading kids and blowing up buses, so I guess it's something

Edited September 15, 2014 by The Nature Boy

[Curmudgeon 227]

I've spent a couple decades running around the Philippines and decades more around the third world where the long arm of the Catholic Church is so incredible.

The most beautiful, spacious, grand, absolutely dominating building of the finest construction materials is the church, which sits EMPTY more than 90% of the time, whereas the people spend all their time in hovels cribbed together from scraps and tidal debris. The people sleeping on floors, with roofs insufficient to keep out the rains, - but that altar floor baby - dry as a bone. Expensive stone decoration, stained glass, heavy wooden doors that have nobody inside of them except God and the priest, in his adjacent quarters. Pews of imported wood - ghastly expense. Sending 'round the collection plate for his salary out of these poor people's pockets. It is shameful, and a tragedy.

Village after village the same thing. That's the harm: People without basic housing building this ornate, hyper-expensive castle for a ghost. Makes about as much sense as sleeping outside in the rain so that God can have your comfy bed.

If you converted the church into apartments for poor people, it would be revolutionary in terms of standard of living in those communities. Doing so would improve their productivity in so many other ways - better health, less struggle for subsistence, more time for education, etc.

The harm is that this is the very sort of thing making it the third world.

All very interesting but it has nothing to do with that I posted in response to what the other poster posted. My response was to the idea that it is odd and possibly wrong that people in the congregation who are poor should contribute to that congregation to fix, in particular the church roof. That's not odd and it's not wrong, if the congregation contribute to things that the congregation want to contribute to, and for the most part, in churches, that's exactly what they do do, that's not wrong. It is wrong if a congregation is asked for funds for a specific purpose and those funds end up lining the pockets of some ####### who gives no damns for his congregation but thinks it's a great scheme to get rich.