Sunday Globe Special: Islamic Sermon

0123456789I love a war-promoting and, let's be honest, Muslim-hating (they pretend otherwise, but even the compliments are delivered in backhanded fashion) Zionist War Daily taking up the torch of Islam0123456789:

"Muslims celebrate Eid as hajj pilgrimage nears end" by Mokhtar Shehata | Associated Press   October 05, 2014

MINA, Saudi Arabia — Muslims around the world 0123456789celebrate0123456789d the start of 0123456789Islam’s biggest holiday0123456789 Saturday as more than 2 million pilgrims took part in one of the final rites of the annual hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.

Eid al-Adha, or Feast of Sacrifice, commemorates what Muslims believe was Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son Ismail — the biblical Ishmael, though Christians and Jews believe his other son Isaac was the near-sacrifice — as a test of his faith from God. In the end, he is provided with a sheep to sacrifice instead.

In remembrance, Muslims around the world slaughtered sheep and other livestock on Saturday, giving some of the meat to the poor.

Major holidays for both Muslims and Jews were both marked Saturday across the Middle East, the first time this has occurred since 1981. Eid al-Adha and the 0123456789Jewish holiday0123456789 of Yom Kippur coincide once every 33 years, because Judaism and Islam rely on lunar calendars.

Yom Kippur is Judaism’s Day of Atonement, when devout Jews ask God to forgive them for their transgressions and refrain from eating and drinking, attending intense prayer services in synagogues.

Businesses and airports in Israel shut down as television and radio stations go silent and highways stand empty. That holiday began at sunset Friday and ends Saturday night.

Because Eid follows the Muslim lunar calendar that depends on sightings of the moon, some Muslims will be celebrating the first day of Eid on Sunday, including Iraqi Shi’ites and the majority of Indonesians in the world’s most populous Muslim nation of 240 million. Pakistan will celebrate on Monday.

In Mina, a desert tent city just outside the Saudi holy city of Mecca, pilgrims cast pebbles in a symbolic stoning of the devil. Male pilgrims changed out of their white pilgrim robes and shaved their heads as a sign of renewal. Women clipped a lock of hair.

Though pilgrims will repeat the stoning ritual for two more days, they can now be referred to as ‘‘hajjis,’’ a term of honor for completing the pilgrimage. The roughly five-day hajj is meant to cleanse the faithful of sin and required of all able-bodied Muslims to perform once in their lives.

‘‘I feel good and satisfied with who I am and for the chance to come to the hajj this year,’’ said Palestinian pilgrim Mona Abu-Raya. ‘‘I am so happy that I am here.’’
0123456789
01234567890123456789I'm glad you are because I'm not happy where I am every morning.0123456789

--more--"
0123456789
01234567890123456789Years ago I used to look forward to and devour Jewish propaganda regarding Muslims and their customs thinking I was learning something. Not anymore.0123456789
0123456789
01234567890123456789Related: Was Ebola Meant For Muslims? 0123456789
0123456789
01234567890123456789At least Saudi Arabia has been rehabilitated.0123456789

"A reverend, a rabbi and an imam join faiths for the House of One" by Anthony Faiola September 27

What once seemed like a pipe dream is now gathering steam.

Why not transform a city stained by the 0123456789Nazi era 0123456789into a place of spiritual healing by building a church, a mosque and a synagogue all under one roof?
0123456789
01234567890123456789Not only am I tired of religion and its blind faith, I'm sick of seeing the word Nazi in my paper damn near every day. Sorry. 0123456789
0123456789
01234567890123456789I mean, I understand the agenda-pushing, mind-manipulating aspect critical to the select chosen that reign supreme in the AmeriKan media and why they drag religion in all over the place. 0123456789

During a time of global religious strife, a unifying project involving Christians, Muslims and Jews, the Protestant pastor reasoned, would reverberate beyond Berlin’s borders. They would call it the House of One.

“You can live your faith, but also tear down walls,” said Rev. Gregor Hohberg, 46, who took inspiration for the idea from the teachings of Martin Luther King Jr.0123456789 0123456789
0123456789
01234567890123456789That's another thing I'm tired of: the lying, war-promoting media promoting peace.0123456789

**************

The plan is part of a nascent movement to build innovative religious bridges, including the Tri-Faith Initiative in Omaha that is seeking to put a church and a mosque on the same site as a recently built synagogue.

But even as prospects advance for Berlin’s House of One, the pioneering project has become an example of the still formidable hurdles facing those trying to promote religious unity.

Among all faiths, the project has garnered substantial moral support. But it also 0123456789has its detractors0123456789. Some in Berlin’s largely Turkish 0123456789Muslim population, for instance0123456789, have 0123456789angrily0123456789 charged the progressive imam now involved in the project with violating the Koran by joining hands with other faiths. Other Muslims in the city, meanwhile, remain skeptical of the Islamic association he belongs to — the Forum for Intercultural Dialogue — because its honorary chairman is Fethullah Gülen, a contentious Turkish religious leader living in the United States.0123456789 0123456789
0123456789
01234567890123456789Gulen is a U.S. tool.0123456789

There are reservations within Berlin’s Christian and 0123456789resurgent Jewish population0123456789s as well, including from some who claim the chosen design makes the structure look too much like a mosque. Yet perhaps the 0123456789single biggest challenge0123456789 is 0123456789overcoming apathy0123456789 in a highly secular city that has become Europe’s hub of 0123456789underground youth culture0123456789, and where the 0123456789majority0123456789 of residents these days 0123456789have no religion0123456789 at all.
0123456789
01234567890123456789I'm starting to not like religion much at all, and certainly have rejected my faith. I no longer practice. My place is here.0123456789

“I think there is some support for this project, but if you look at the present situation, 0123456789many people don’t care about religion anymore0123456789,” said Manfred Gailus, a professor of modern history at the Technical University of Berlin. “You might get some people who say, ‘Oh yes, it’s a good idea,’ and ‘I sympathize,’ but many others will say, ‘Is it really necessary?’ and ‘How much will it cost?’ ”
0123456789
01234567890123456789Because it is nothing but a dogmatic system of control, same as government.0123456789

That 0123456789uphill battle has been reflected0123456789 in 0123456789efforts to raise the $55 million0123456789 needed to construct what would be a monolith of blond bricks illumined on the inside by beams of diffused sunlight.
0123456789
01234567890123456789Go ask the 1%.0123456789

Though planners hope to raise the $12.7 million required to start construction within two years, the project organizers have 0123456789only managed to take in0123456789 about 0123456789$102,0000123456789 since their drive started in July. At that rate, it would take more than two decades before enough money comes in to lay the first bricks.

But the House of One’s advocates say it is 0123456789far more notable that the project has managed to come this far at all0123456789. It has a secured a historic site and the backing of the city. It has factions on board from all three faiths.

0123456789That's where the print ended, in victory. 0123456789

And particularly as they begin to 0123456789cast a wider net for funds0123456789 — including an effort to tap the 0123456789wallets of Jewish families0123456789 whose relatives 0123456789fled0123456789 Germany to the United States 0123456789during Adolf Hitler’s reign of terror0123456789 — advocates say they have faith that the project will overcome all hurdles, financial and spiritual.0123456789 0123456789
0123456789
01234567890123456789Oh, yeah, another thing I'm tired of: a certain distorted view of history provided by the same people benefiting immen$ely from that version.0123456789

The project is now pivoting around three clerics from each major monotheistic faith: A Christian reverend who lived the repression of East Germany and saw the power of unity after the fall of the Berlin Wall. A young, starry-eyed imam born in Frankfurt and eager to build cultural bridges between Muslims and non-Muslims. And a 0123456789rabbi of German Jewish stock who fought for Israel0123456789 in three wars and is now bent on healing old wounds.
0123456789
01234567890123456789Then he is a war criminal.0123456789

“This is the 0123456789city where the annihilation of the Jews was planned0123456789,” said Rabbi Tovia Ben-Chorin, 78, who is spearheading the synagogue portion of the House of One. “But we will now take Berlin from being the city of wounds to being the city of miracles. The city where we begin to change people’s minds.”
0123456789
01234567890123456789I wasn't even alive.0123456789

Some critics, however, are 0123456789questioning the decision to build0123456789 the House of One 0123456789on0123456789 a parcel of 0123456789land0123456789 at least somewhat 0123456789linked to0123456789 Berlin’s 0123456789Nazi0123456789 past.0123456789 0123456789
0123456789
01234567890123456789If you don't want the church, Israel would be glad to build a settlement.0123456789

They note that Walter Hoff, a Protestant cleric who died in 1977, was pastor of the church that once stood on the site during World War II. Hoff is 0123456789known to have taken up arms in the Nazi campaigns0123456789 on the Eastern Front, where he was 0123456789suspected of taking part in the rounding up of Jews0123456789.

0123456789There is more, but that is where ending this.0123456789

--more--"

0123456789Related0123456789:

"Mormon leader firm on marriage

SALT LAKE CITY — A high-ranking leader reiterated the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints opposition to gay marriage. Dallin H. Oaks spoke Saturday during the faith’s biannual conference (AP)."

0123456789Just get them to the church on time.0123456789
0123456789
01234567890123456789Also see0123456789:

Methodists to hear defrocked pastor case

0123456789I don't want to hear it.0123456789

Nun credited with curing boy’s eye disease is beatified
What the pope can do for Middle East Christians
0123456789
01234567890123456789I'm told "interdict for arms dealers, cajole the G-20, and bring Benedict off the bench." 0123456789
0123456789
01234567890123456789Better watch where you step, Pope.0123456789

Church’s ministry passes from father to son

"Ben Affleck gets heated on Maher show" October 06, 2014

“Gone Girl,” the thriller starring Ben Affleck as a man whose wife goes missing, was the No. 1 movie over the weekend, earning $38 million and overcoming the possessed-doll horror flick ‘‘Annabelle.”

But it was Affleck’s performance Friday on HBO’s “Real Time With Bill Maher” that had people talking. The Cambridge-bred actor got into an argument with Maher and “The End of Faith” author Sam Harris, who claimed liberals are reluctant to criticize Islam’s views on women’s rights because “every criticism gets confused with bigotry toward Muslims as people.” (Harris called Islam “the motherlode of bad ideas” and Maher said Islam is “the only religion that acts like the mafia — that will [expletive] kill you if you say the wrong thing, draw the wrong picture, or write the wrong book.”

Affleck called those claims “gross and racist,” arguing that Maher and Harris were blaming all of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims for the deeds of a relatively small number of radical jihadists.

“How about the more than a billion people who aren’t fanatical, who don’t punish women, who just want to go to school, have some sandwiches, and don’t do any of the things you say all Muslims do?” said Affleck, who appeared genuinely agitated.
0123456789
01234567890123456789Better watch it, Ben. You will hurt your career.0123456789

He was on the Maher show ostensibly to promote ‘‘Gone Girl,’’ which is based on the best-selling novel by Gillian Flynn and directed by David Fincher."
0123456789
01234567890123456789I must confess I never watch Bill Maher. He is only sitting in that seat because he's a controlled opposition mind-manipulator and propagandist, part of the false debate in this country. That and the fact that his guests are all cut from the same cloth.0123456789

0123456789As for Affleck's movie, you can say goodbye to that tax loot because it's gone. 01234567890123456789I'm glad us taxpayers had $80 million to throw at Hollywood while fellow citizens suffer.0123456789