Don’t fall for taqiyya

Greetings.

Jewish date:  23 ’Iyyar 5770 (Parashath BeHar-BeḤuqqothay).

Today’s holidays:  Day 38 of the ‘Omer (Judaism), Friday of the Fifth Week of Easter (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Peter Lorre (Church of the SubGenius).

Worthy causes of the day:  “Take Action: Support Faster FOIA”, “Take Action: Benchmarks Report Card | Save Darfur”, and “Save BioGems: Take Action: Say No to New Offshore Drilling”.

Topic 1:  “Jerusalem:  One Nation’s Capital Throughout History”.  This extensively end-noted document document discusses the strength of the Jewish connection to Jerusalem and the paucity of Islamic connections thereto—despite Islamic claims to the contrary.  (Major rule:  if one’s religion sanctions lying in order to advance it (taqiyya), then one has to expect the false claims to be debunked and disbelieved.)

Topic 2:  “Why Would Anyone Want to Blow Up Times Square?” and “Is the U.S. Diplomatic and Intelligence Community Being Brainwashed in Dealing with Islamism?”.  These articles deal with what one might consider the implicit acceptance of the claims of taqiyya:  refusal to accept that Islam has anything to do with terrorism.  This is despite the claims of terrorists themselves, who these days often are Muslims and claim that they commit acts of terror in the name of Islam.  Correctly noted is that refusing to define the enemy makes fighting him/her harder.  One cannot justify targeting militant Muslims unless one makes it clear that militant Muslims are the problem.  Yes, this is a tolerant democracy, and we hate to pick on people of any particular background.  However, there is nothing unfair or immoral (in most moral systems) about defending oneself or other.  Nor is accepting what one is well able to tell is false information ever (so far as your humble blogger can tell) considered by anyone a virtue.  We are stuck in an ugly war, and we might as well be honest with ourselves who we are fighting and what they are trying to accomplish.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor: “Ceiling Kitteh”:


Peace and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron