Posted on 12/27/2006 8:19:34 PM PST by DogByte6RER
Blair on Islam: Standard-Bearer of Tolerance
From the desk of The Brussels Journal
Wed, 2006-12-27 08:43
A quote from Tony Blair in Foreign Affairs,
January/February 2007
To me, the most remarkable thing about the Koran is how progressive it is. I write with great humility as a member of another faith. As an outsider, the Koran strikes me as a reforming book, trying to return Judaism and Christianity to their origins, much as reformers attempted to do with the Christian church centuries later. The Koran is inclusive. It extols science and knowledge and abhors superstition. It is practical and far ahead of its time in attitudes toward marriage, women, and governance.
Under its guidance, the spread of Islam and its dominance over previously Christian or pagan lands were breathtaking. Over centuries, Islam founded an empire and led the world in discovery, art, and culture. The standard-bearers of tolerance in the early Middle Ages were far more likely to be found in Muslim lands than in Christian ones.
No! No! No!
You are backtracking!
Where are your words defending Western Civilization, the Magna Carta and the Rights of Man?
Quick! Somebody give that PM an emergency spinal transplant. Margaret Thatcher would be a suitable donor.
What a boot licking jackass! He's obviously never read the damned book so why would he open his stupid mouth to sing it's praises? Sheesh! Idiot.
I used to not believe them reports of UFOs abducting people and sending in duplicates of real people, but now . . . . .
!!!!!!!!!!!
Buy lots of guns and ammunition. You'll be be needing it.
yeeeeeech!
I think there might well be something more behind this nonsensical rhetoric, esp at this late date following the course of events in just Britain alone, nevermind everywhere else.
Exactly!
A good analogy would be PM Winston Churchill speaking glowingly about the tolerant and progressive values written in "Mein Kampf."
I am baffled. It's just ridiculous...
Praise be to Allah and peace be upon the one after whom there is no [further] prophet. After the permanent committee for the scientific research and fatwahs (religious decrees) reviewed the question presented to the grand Mufti Abu Abdullah Muhammad Al-Shemary, the question forwarded to the committee by the grand scholar of the committee with reference number 1809 issued on 3/8/1421 (Islamic calendar). The inquirer asked the following: It has become wide spread these days, and especially during weddings, the habit of mufa’khathat of the children (mufa’khathat literally translated means "placing between the thighs" which means placing the male member between the thighs of a child). What is the opinion of scholars knowing full well that the prophet, the peace and prayer of Allah be upon him, also practiced the "thighing" of Aisha - the mother of believers - may Allah be please with her. After the committee studied the issue, they gave the following reply: It has not been the practice of the Muslims throughout the centuries to resort to this unlawful practice that has come to our countries from pornographic movies that the kufar (infidels) and enemies of Islam send. As for the prophet, peace and prayer of Allah be upon him, thighing his fiancée Aisha. She was six years of age and he could not have intercourse with her due to her small age. That is why [the prophet] peace and prayer of Allah be upon him placed HIS [MALE] MEMBER BETWEEN HER THIGHS AND MASSAGED IT SOFTLY, as the apostle of Allah had control of his [male] member not like other believers..
So progressive :(
Genital mutilation, so progressive.....
That not being possible,as I live in not so snowy Canada, I could recommend a book for Tony. It is THE RIVER WAR(The reconquest of the Sudan). Published 1898. The author was one Winston S.Churchill. He was 24 years old. He was at the great charge at Omdurman and the defeat of Islamic forces. Churchill's homily on the nature of Islam has been often repeated. I can only repeat in my un-educated way, from Shakespeare.
This above all to thine own self be true. Then it must follow as night follows day, that thou canst not be false to any man.
Tony, dear chap, In 1938, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain complimented "Herr Hitler". Look where that got him.
While I couldn't stand Tony Blair during the Clinton years, (as someone said Blair was Bill Clinton in a better suit) I admired his support of President Bush in the war on terror. Based on this posting I guess it's time to go back to my original assessment of the Prime Minister !!!
Hold on......here is some more from the lengthy article in "Foreign Affairs", which picks up immediately following the bit you posted:
But by the early twentieth century, after the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Enlightenment had swept over the Western world, the Muslim and Arab world was uncertain, insecure, and on the defensive. Some Muslim countries, such as Turkey, made a muscular move toward secularism. Others found themselves caught up in colonization, nascent nationalism, political oppression, and religious radicalism. Muslims began to see the sorry state of Muslim countries as symptomatic of the sorry state of Islam. Political radicals became religious radicals and vice versa.
Those in power tried to accommodate this Islamic radicalism by incorporating some of its leaders and some of its ideology. The result was nearly always disastrous. Religious radicalism was made respectable and political radicalism suppressed, and so in the minds of many, the two came together to represent the need for change. They began to think that the way to restore the confidence and stability of Islam was through a combination of religious extremism and populist politics, with the enemies becoming "the West" and those Islamic leaders who cooperated with it.
This extremism may have started with religious doctrine and thought. But soon, in offshoots of the Muslim Brotherhood, supported by Wahhabi extremists and disseminated in some of the madrasahs of the Middle East and Asia, an ideology was born and exported around the world.
On 9/11, 3,000 people were murdered. But this terrorism did not begin on the streets of New York. Many more had already died, not just in acts of terrorism against Western interests but in political insurrection and turmoil around the world. Its victims are to be found in the recent history of many lands: India, Indonesia, Kenya, Libya, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and countless more. More than 100,000 died in Algeria. In Chechnya and Kashmir, political causes that could have been resolved became brutally incapable of resolution under the pressure of terrorism. Today, in 30 or 40 countries, terrorists are plotting action loosely linked with this ideology. Although the active cadres of terrorists are relatively small, they exploit a far wider sense of alienation in the Arab and Muslim world.
snip...
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20070101faessay86106/tony-blair/a-battle-for-global-values.html
(7 pages to this complete piece)
BTW....this is the actual title:
A Battle for Global Values
Tony Blair
From Foreign Affairs, January/February 2007
Print Email to Colleague
Summary: The war on terrorism is not just about security or military tactics. It is a battle of values, and one that can only be won by the triumph of tolerance and liberty. Afghanistan and Iraq have been the necessary starting points of this battle. Success there, however, must be coupled with a bolder, more consistent, and more thorough application of global values, with Washington leading the way.
Tony Blair is Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Okay...
Blair does recover a bit.
This text I posted was excerpted from Blair's rather long writing.
Just to be fair, here is a link to the entire document:
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20070101faessay86106/tony-blair/a-battle-for-global-values.html
Foreign Affairs - A Battle for Global Values - Tony Blair
However, Blair still should have left the Islamic boot-licking paragraphs out. It's like finding a single cockroach on your plate of spaghetti; the bug spoils the entire dish.
The Brussels Journal is not to be trusted!
Thanks for the link.
Sounds like the Saudis have put a nice sum into Blair's Swiss bank account.
Has he really read the thing? I did and I certainly didn't get the same message he got.
"a Jew will hide behind a rock or tree, and the rock and the tree will say: Oh Muslim, servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!
"Progressive", Mr Blair? Do you mean like how Hermann Goering was more progressive than Heinrich Himmler?
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