Category Archives: opinion

EXCELLENT BOOK: “WHY WE LEFT ISLAM: FORMER MUSLIMS SPEAK OUT”

 Why We Left Islam: Former Muslims Speak Out is a terrific book about the ordeals and the threats endured by people who left the religion of the title.  I’m a non-believer in all of the world’s religions and I often find myself in conversations where people who are fine with me discussing Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism or any other belief system with clinical detachment  turn gutless and groveling if I refuse to speak of Islam with reverence. 

I like to mention terrific books like this one because they deserve a wider audience. The American Left is far too spineless to treat Islam with the  same critical  approach they use with Christianity and the American Right lacks credibility because of the Christian fanatics in their ranks. This book allows you to hear the kind of horrific first-hand accounts the left would be featuring on every news program if they involved Christian abuses. 

And as for Liberal apologists for Islam don’t waste my time asking me why it’s the business of the rest of the world to care about these issues, especially regarding Islam’s treatment of women. It’s for the same reason it was the rest of the world’s business to pressure South Africa to end Apartheid. The American Left was vocal about that issue, but hey, that’s because the pro-Apartheid forces in South Africa didn’t roam the globe blowing up people, derailing trains or piloting planes into the sides of buildings. If they had you can bet the American Left’s reaction would have been to drop to their bellies and crawl like they do for Islam, all the while pretending they are Continue reading

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Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, opinion

A TERRIFIC BOOK EXAMINING RELIGION VS REASON: THE CLOSING OF THE MUSLIM MIND

 Regular readers of Balladeer’s Blog know that I consider all religion to be mythology and that none of the world’s “holy books” should be taken literally. Most religions are civilized enough that their practicioners can deal with that viewpoint, no matter how angry it makes them. We all know which religion would be the one exception and the book The Closing of the Muslim Mind by Robert R Reilly provides a great deal of insight about that religion.

Reilly’s book covers the conflict between religious literalists and rationalists in the Muslim word from the 9th century C.E. to the 11th century C.E. Obviously, the Continue reading

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A SHOUT-OUT OF SUPPORT TO MUSLIMS PRESSING FOR REFORM OF THEIR RELIGION

Irshad Manji

 On December 26th, in Amsterdam, two Muslim speakers who favor reforming and modernizing Islam were addressing a public roundtable on the subject when the meeting was disrupted by a gang of members of the Muslim fundamentalist group called Sharia4Holland. They attempted to shout down the speakers, demanded the event be stopped, threatened and spat at the speakers  and accused them of apostasy, an offense punishable by death under Islamic law. Police were needed to deal with the assault. 

The intruders were so proud of all this that they even posted a video of it at their group’s Youtube site. The name Sharia4Holland may sound like satire, but there’s also a group called Sharia4Belgium, and I can’t help wondering if the pro-Sharia groups also have organizations called “Death2TheInfidels” and “WeH8Apostates”. 

The two Muslim speakers were Dutch parliamentarian Tofik Dibi, 31, and NYU Professor Irshad Manji. Manji was born in Uganda in 1968 and is lesbian. She is also the best-selling author of The Trouble With Islam Today: A Muslim’s Call For Reform In Her Faith.    

Speaking about the experience with the intruders from Sharia4Holland, Manji had this to Continue reading

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IF TIM TEBOW WAS A MUSLIM, WOULD PEOPLE STILL CONSIDER IT “OKAY” TO MOCK HIS RELIGION?

Pictured: An act you won’t get beheaded over.

Regular readers of Balladeer’s Blog know that I consider all religions to be mythology and I often make jokes that demonstrate my lack of reverence for people who appoint themselves to lecture the rest of us about what they personally think their “God” wants us to do. That being said, it may shock a few people to see me mentioning this incident from the Lions vs Broncos game this past Sunday.

Stephen Tulloch, one of the Lions, dropped to this mock prayer pose to taunt the freshly- sacked quarterback Tim Tebow (seen in the orange jersey # 15) because Tebow is Continue reading

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Filed under Milestones In Stupidity, opinion