Via Pharyngula:
“Miracle Baby” story on AOL:
Thousands of Muslims have been traveling to a remote town in a war-torn region of southern Russian hoping to see verses from Islam’s holy book appear on the skin of a “miracle baby.”
The parents of 9-month-old Ali Yakubov said the word “Allah” appeared on his chin soon after his birth, The Sun reported.
Let me say it again, people: There is no god, not even Allah, and Mohammad was nobody’s prophet, but a child-raping mass murderer.
Who even today persuades his followers to torture their own children in his evil name.
Tags: Ali Yakubov, Allah, Mohammad
Look, I respect your right to your own religion or lack thereof. But is it all right to accuse a man of such horrible things just because he is long dead? If you have the time (which I’m sure you do), I wouldn’t mind seeing some evidence (apocryphal is fine, considering it’s all almost 1400 years old) about the mass murder and pedophilia accusations.
This is just like your previous rant about “Islamic water”; it’s obviously a misinterpretation of a blurry mark, just like all the Jesus and Mary sightings in woodgrain, etc., but you end up, in essence, feeding a troll by flying off the handle about this.
May you grow like an onion with your head in the earth (one of my favorite Yiddishisms),
venomlash
P.S. If you read a few passages from the Koran and the Hadith (not treat as divine truth, but just look over) you’ll see that Islam actually promotes tolerance of other faiths (especially Judaism and Christianity) and was moralistically very advanced for its day, espousing both justice and compassion. The trouble with any religion starts when religious hardliners insist on applying medieval practices to a modern world (e.g., the use of amputation as a punishment in Saudi Arabia). I’m not asking you to convert, I’m just asking you to sit down, think rationally, and stop feeding those pesky trolls.
“But is it all right to accuse a man of such horrible things just because he is long dead? ”
Why…yes, yes it is. Particularly since the accusations are backed up by the “scriptures” he wrote, as evidenced by the actions taken by those who follow him.
You really, really, need to start doing your homework, wetnoodle.
And you can start here.
And until you do, you are the only pesky troll around here, and I’m ashamed to be feeding you.
As you have said to me, (though I’m paraphrasing), “Don’t just link, show me the statistics in your post.”
Where in the Koran, the Hadith, or the Sharia does it condone anything about raping children or murdering people in droves? Quote it to me. Just because people claim to follow the teachings of Mohammed (I doubt that that many actually claim to follow Mohammed himself) doesn’t mean that they actually do anything that he would actually have suggested. This is really true of all large religions to some extent; there are people who pervert the intent of their religious documents in order to fit their own agenda. Examples:
Would Jesus have wanted the Crusaders to ransack Palestine, killing indiscriminately and getting nothing accomplished but the murder of many, many Christians, Muslims, and Jews? Unlikely. Did they claim to do so in his name? Absolutely!
Would Jesus have asked Ferdinand and Isabella to oppress and ultimately force conversion upon or expel the Jews and Muslims? Similarly improbable. Did they claim divine justice in doing so? Sure.
Would the God of the Israelites have wanted the modern State of Israel to rain down death on civilians in Lebanon and in Gaza? No! Has the issue of the “Promised Land” always been at the heart of such dogmatic foreign policy on the part of Israel and its backers? Sure it has.
Would Mohammed or the God he served (which to those who believe in any of the three Scriptures [and I respect your right not to] is the God of Judaism and Christianity as well) wanted Bin Laden to massacre 3000 with a single act of his minions. Absolutely not! Did they claim His (God’s) name in doing so? Unless you believe it was a conspiracy by the CIA, they sure as hell did.
See, there are good, honest, kind-hearted people who practice their religion through prayer, study of their scripture, and good deeds to others. Then there are those who make a weapon of their faith and in doing so go against everything that that faith ever stood for. Do not mistake terrorists and thugs (and “IT’S A SIGN!!!” trolls) for the vast majority of peaceful practitioners of a faith. As I respect your choice to follow no religion, I ask that you allow others to follow their own religion so long as they are not hurting innocents by doing so.
Just so you know: “as evidenced by the ‘scriptures’ he wrote.” If the writings are to be believed to this extent, Mohammed didn’t write them himself? Why? He didn’t know how to write because this was the 600s CE and he was just a merchant. He dictated instead. See, I know the basic things about Mohammed’s life and about the birth of Islam, even though I have never in my life followed the faith. Why? Because unlike you, I do my homework. When I point out your sadly common misconception about Islam (that it advocates violence and cruelty), you refer me to an argument we’ve had about gun legislation.
Face it; we’re not going to be convinced of each other’s viewpoints. The statistics are in about child deaths. Sure, they’re small. But they are existent. The difference is that I believe it’s enough to warrant tighter gun safety rules and longer waiting periods and that you don’t. We agree that the statistics are valid, we just interpret them differently, and opinions change slowly. If you want to start that discussion again, start a new thread on it please. Don’t bring guns into a discussion about Islam’s ideals, because it’s a little irrelevant (unless you’re discussing what Mohammed would say about guns if the man was alive today).
Bluz in tochus!
venomlash
P.S. “wetnoodle” I have told you that “noodle” is slang for “brain” in my book, so it astounds me that you keep trying to hurt my feelings with it. And thus, my noodle is indeed wet; cerebrospinal fluid is kind of necessary for a properly functioning brain. With you, though, I don’t know if we’d see a difference without it.
P.P.S. You should be ashamed of feeding me; feeding me such deliciously low-hanging fruit as this, that is. Seriously? You condemn Islam (since its inception it’s been more humane than Christianity all in all) off the bat and slander a guy who actually a pretty decent guy (especially for the 600s) and then back it up by saying “well, people do nasty things and say he wants them to do it…” Wow. Your standards have dropped. With the gun legislation, I will say, you are a worthy opponent; you cite evidence and, ranting aside, most of your logic is possible to follow and even makes a little bit of sense. But here you are way out of your depth. Pah.
No comeback to that? Or are you still thinking?
I should mention that I am not being a troll. A troll is someone who posts useless/spammy, controversial, or inflammatory comments for the sake of getting attention. The story you picked up on is an example of trolling because it is obviously just some ink pen on the poor kid (I mean, you have to be a real religious wacko to think that God tinkers with the world day-to-day…sadly, many Americans do) and the parents are trying to get attention.
When I post on your Vast Pile O’ Inanities, it may be controversial and/or inflammatory, but I’m not looking for attention. I instead am looking for a little debate, a warm-up for my brain before I move on to more cerebrally challenging things like my college work. Arguing with you is always good exercise. If I were a troll, I’d say something ridiculous on a widely read blog and then let everyone else waste time refuting the shit I posted (a.k.a., feeding the troll). But I’m not. It’s just little ol’ you and little ol’ me in a good old-fashioned ideological shitstorm. Plus the occasional viewer who stumbles by your site, though it’s been a while since I’ve seen anyone besides the two of us post a comment.
Vete a la mierda,
venomlash
P.S. Do you live near/know any actual Muslims? Because if you did you should get to know them better and get rid of those Islamophobic misconceptions of yours.
Noodle, I answered you once, at length, and got no response, not so much as an acknowledgment.
That makes you a troll, and I’m not wasting any more time on trolls.
At length means a whole lot, huh? You systematically picked apart my statements and provided clear evidence to support your viewpoint.
NOT.
Instead, you ranted a little about how my ideas could be construed as that we should trust our every right over to the government, that I needed to open my eyes and see how I’m being deceived, and that I should do some homework that you assigned. That may be at length but it’s certainly not worthy of a counterargument. I took that as a sign that you were exasperated with logical argument and wanted me out of your hair on the topic. Since conflict without anything approaching logic is pointless in an online forum, I, for the sake of my own amusement, decided to drop the gun argument until such time as you should bring it up again. Just so you know, you saying something does not obligate me to respond. I’ll say it again in big noticeable letters that even your ignorant self will notice:
YOU SAYING SOMETHING DOES NOT OBLIGATE ME TO RESPOND.
If I were a troll, I would not make the pretense to a logical argument, I would simply “raise issues” or “take positions”. You obviously are disconnected enough from reality to not know what a troll is. I’m no more a troll than “pounding it” is a “terrorist fist jab”.
Really? I think you just know that you don’t know Jack Diddly about Islam and don’t want to admit it. You can concede that maybe not all Muslims are evil and maybe Islam is okay for some people to practice and I won’t think any less of you as pertains to steadfastness. If that’s the case, you can say so, or you can do your research and try to prove me wrong.
Or you can sit in stony silence and call me a troll. I don’t mind. It just proves me right about you; deep down, I think you’re a coward. COWARD.
You’re dumber than a Chelmite,
venomlash
“YOU SAYING SOMETHING DOES NOT OBLIGATE ME TO RESPOND.”
And yet, somehow, you saying something apparently obligates me to respond to you. Otherwise, I’m “sitting in stony silence”.
I did a fair amount of ranting, wetNOODLE, but I also presented facts in greater detail and wider context than you did. I pointed out why I did not accept your source, even though fundamentally, the numbers given there were in agreement with my own. And I stated the principles I was adhering to, even if those principles have a significant and painful cost.
Even now, you are avoiding responding to the arguments I did make, buried in a rant though they may be, preferring instead to make ad hominem attacks.
You’ve also missed a bit of my history: that I used to agree with you, but then examined the opposing arguments as presented by their honest advocates, and had the courage to, yes, admit I was wrong, and change my mind.
Coward? Really? Which one of us posts under his real name, on a venue traceable to a real person, and which one of us posts under the name of a fantasy attack animal, the mindless arthropod pet of a real player?
Whose pet are you, noodle?
I know, if you google “venomlash” you get a bunch of stuff about “venomlash scorpid” on WoW or some shit. My name has nothing to do with that. Wanna track me at the risk of seeming like a creeper? Try googling ” venomlash -scorpid -scorpashi “. Most (but by no means all) of what comes up is my activities.
First, I’ll address the seeming double standard about responses. My bad for not making this clear earlier, but the reason I didn’t say ANYthing for so long was because I had better things to do than visit your site. When I came back (lacking better things to do due to a light homework load and a case of the flu) I read your post but did not deign to respond to it for the above reasons (above meaning previous post). You, however, have been not only posting on your blog BUT ALSO IN THIS VERY THREAD. The stony silence I refer to is that on this thread, where you insist that Islam is evil without giving reasoning or evidence and just call me a troll. If you’re going to keep talking in this thread, it would be nice to hear some supporting evidence about Islam, seeing as that was the original topic.
Like I said before, if you want to talk gun laws, then start a thread on gun laws so we can avoid the faux pas of bumping a lot of old threads, and call me out. Here is not the place for that and you know it.
And criticizing my use of ad hominem attacks doesn’t sound very sincere while you keep calling me “troll” and those ever-so-creative variants of “wet noodle”. I at least do not make ad hominem attacks without also posting some useful point; there are sadly a lot of bona fide trolls out there who do.
About me calling you coward: I feel that you fear being wrong. You seem to so much fear being wrong about one little thing (the worth or morality of Islam) that you continue to, when asked questions about it, try to change the subject. If you want to change the subject to gun laws, fine; just do it in a thread dedicated to the subject. I feel that you are afraid to face the truth and instead shrink back to familiar ground where you are confident in your facts and your knowledge. Be a man; stand up, face the music, and put forth your best effort to prove yourself right on the subject. Or you can be a man by graciously and shamelessly accepting defeat on this one topic. Somebody who is less than a man (man meaning mensch, a gender-neutral term equating basically to a mature and capable citizen) is somebody who does not have the mettle to face up to what he or she has been wrong about. Naturally, I was once less than a man; all children are. What I’m wondering is if you by now have the guts to stand and deliver rather than scurry away like a frightened salamander, to face the question rather than shy away. You say you have been able to admit your “wrongness” about agreeing with my general viewpoint, which would imply you do. Do you? Or are you a coward, despite the first name displayed on your posts?
Que tengas sal en tus ojos,
venomlash
P.S. Also, your obsession with owning guns makes me wonder if you think that people are trying to kill you, or that you feel that you cannot defend yourself adequately without one. All that fear (if it does exist in you) is crippling to the mind. Let go of your needless fear and you’ll be a better person for it.