After todays ( Wednesday 10/22/14 ) events in Canada, anti-Islamic sentiments are running at a fevers pitch. Let us all strive to keep in mind we are not engaging in a Holy Crusade against Islam. We have no problem with them practicing their faith; it is their radical extremists that we vow to root out and utterly destroy. Muslims have an age old saying, “ Allah swears an oath of great consequence. “ In deed, the Book of Al Asr in the Islamic Quran instructs the reader, Every soul shall taste death. The book goes on to read, By the passage of time, all of the humankind are in a state of great loss, except for those who come to the correct belief and do the deeds of righteousness; and encourage and exhort one another to Truth. This means to encourage and exhort one another to steadfast patience. In other words, this means anyone who comes to the understanding there is only One True God who is the only Creator, Sustainer and God of all that exists, has not wasted their physical life on earth. The Christian Bible compares death to sleep more than fifty times. When we are asleep, we are unconscious; we are not aware of the passing of time or of what is going on around us. That is what death is like as well. The Book of Ecclesiastes at Chapter 9, Verse 5, as well as the Book of Psalms Chapter 146, Verse 4, and Chapter 115, Verse 17 instructs the reader, “ For the living know that they will die; but the dead know nothing: their love, their hatred, and their envy have now perished. ” According to scripture, God did not put a soul into man!!! He formed the body from the dust of the ground, and then He breathed His life-giving spirit into the lifeless body. And the result was a soul, or a living being. When a person dies, the reverse takes place. The breath of life departs from the body, and the soul no longer exists. This is what the Christian Bible actually instructs in the Book of Ecclesiastes Chapter 12, Verse 7… “ The dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. ” So I suggest before you take that final dirt nap, you get to the business of living and enjoying this precious life to the fullest. The earth is for the living!!! Be considerate, but avoid those who are already dead and void without any measure of earthly ambition or pursuits!!! wisegeek/how-can-i-learn-about-different-cultures.htm#didyouknowout With all the recent media coverage of the most recent ongoing struggle between the Palestinians and Israel, there are a few key fundamentals the general public should understand. First and foremost, Zionism is a concept that supports European Jews upholding their Jewish identity, opposes the assimilation of European Jews into other societies where they have not been wanted and rejected while simultaneously advocating the placing of the European Jews to what is modern Israel as a means for these Jews to be a majority in their own nation, and to be liberated from centuries old anti-semitic discrimination, exclusion, and persecution that has historically occurred in the diaspora. Zionism, later championed by British interests, emerged in the late 19th century in Central and Eastern Europe as a national revival movement, and soon after this most leaders of the movement associated the main goal with creating the desired State in Palestine, then an area controlled by the Islamic Ottoman Empire. Although the United States supported the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which favored the establishment of a European Jewish national home in Palestine, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had assured the Arabs in 1945 that the United States would not intervene without consulting both the Jews and the Arabs in that region. The British, who held a colonial mandate for Palestine until May 1948, opposed both the creation of a Jewish state and an Arab state in Palestine at the time, as well as unlimited immigration of Jewish refugees to the region. This is because Great Britain wanted to preserve good relations with the Arabs to protect its vital political and economic interests in Palestine. President Harry S. Truman backed Resolution 181 from the very moment he entered office on the untimely death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt; never the less, his very own administrations U.S. Department of State recommended the creation of a United Nations trusteeship with limits on Jewish immigration and a division of Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab provinces but not states. The State Department, concerned about the possibility of an increasing Soviet role in the Arab world and the potential for restriction by Arab oil producing nations of oil supplies to the United States, advised against U.S. intervention on behalf of the Jews. Later, as the date for British departure from Palestine drew near, the Department of State grew concerned about the possibility of an all-out war in Palestine as Arab states threatened to attack any creation of a European Jewish State almost as soon as the UN passed any partition resolution. Despite grumbling among the American population and growing conflict between Palestinian Arabs and Palestinian Jews, and despite the Department of State’s endorsement of a trusteeship, President Truman ultimately decided to recognize the State of Israel in 1948 with full British backing, who wanted to deport as many Jews as possible. Ironically, while Westerners grow increasingly anti-semitic, doing all in their power to reduce their Jewish numbers, Europe, which includes a little over 50 countries and territories, has a rapidly growing population of about 38 million Muslims, constituting about 5% of its population. European Muslims make up slightly more than 2% of the world’s Muslim population. Most European Muslims live in Eastern and Central Europe. The country with the largest Muslim population in Europe is Russia, with more than 16 million Muslims, meaning that more than four-in-ten European Muslims live in Russia. While most Muslims in Western Europe are relatively recent immigrants, or children of immigrants, from Turkey, North Africa, and South Asia, most of those in Russia, Albania, Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Bulgaria belong to populations that are of centuries old blood lines, meaning that more than six-in-ten European Muslims are indigenous. Germany is home to more than 4 million Muslims, almost as many as North and South America combined. This means that Germany has more Muslims than Lebanon, between 2 million and 3 million, and more than any other country in Western Europe. This also puts Germany among the top-10 countries with the largest number of Muslims living as a minority population. While France has a slightly higher percentage of Muslims than Germany, a study that I have taken the liberty to attach the link in this post finds that it has slightly fewer Muslims overall. The United Kingdom is home to fewer than 2 million Muslims, about 3% of its total population. futureagenda.org/pg/cx/view#382 muslimpopulation/Europe/ theguardian/news/datablog/2011/jan/28/muslim-population-country-projection-2030 On a positive note, September 21st marks the annual International Day of Peace. The day is dedicated to strengthening peace among all nations and people and was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1981. The United National Federation of the Blinds invites all nations and people to commemorate the day by ceasing hostilities, and raising public awareness on issues related to peace. un.org/en/events/peaceday/ Everyone’s life, wherever lived, is now lived in a global context. Societies which once felt able to stand alone now see themselves interlocked with others. The great human goals of peace, justice and prosperity are now understood to require ever-widening cooperative efforts for their achievement. Direct quote from Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the former Secretary-General of the United Nations. Boutros Boutros-Ghali was born in Cairo on the 14th of November 1922 into a Coptic Christian family. His grandfather Boutros Ghali had been Prime Minister of Egypt from 1908 until he was assassinated in 1910.
Posted on: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 03:04:50 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015