Us And Them, Ignorance or Enlightenment

Neither us nor them having the monopoly on either, other than the chosen ignorance that both east and west share when jointly embracing the ignorance of religion.

Once having chosen one's deity, or more accurately had it chosen for them, (Dawkins) this then becomes a passport for pursuing seemingly any form of cruelty, acts of barbarism, mutilation, and yes even murder.

Then having invoked the name of their own chosen man in the sky mythological super being this then seems to be taken as an endorsement of the said passport, giving the bearer carte blanche to adopt the most bizarre theories and practices, that to us, the non afflicted, could only describe as totally irrational if not quite insane.

And I employ the word rational or irrational if you will for a purpose. Is there not some passage in the good book that makes reference to the wise spending or using of talents or that the squandering of such talents is a sin? I'm sure there must be.

Now whether we consider the sin above great or small depends much if one has embraced the religion of the good book, one path leading to sin and the other to righteousness, but not quite as you might think.
For one such as I, the ungodly, there can be no greater sin than the wasting of talents, and not least the wasting of the greatest talent that is "gifted" to us, that talent which sets us apart from the beasts of the field, sets us apart and sets us above all the beasts and other creatures on the planet for that matter, and this great talent is rational thought, the very basis of our success as a species.

Perhaps not an oxymoron and maybe not even a contradiction, shall we call it an invitation, an invitation to take up this religion and in doing so automatically commit the gravest of sins, not the sin of misusing or even squandering our greatest talent, worse, to cast it upon stony ground to go unused, to suffer the fate like that of an unused limb, to simply wither away and die. My little thought for today.

So let us then address the task to hand. I had already planned to review and bring you these short clips, but as is the way of the web, distraction, like sin, is all around. It was a middle of the night browse of a friends site that jogged this old memory and as such here we are, but of that later.

The first clip is a Hamas TV interview of the pre-school age children left motherless when the children's mother, Palestinian Suicide Bomber Rim Al-Riyashi, blew herself up and killed five Jews.
I do find it hard to describe all that is wrong with this clip, it offends everything that is decent from start to finish, I leave it to you.
Children of Palestinian Suicide Bomber Rim Al-Riyashi on Hamas TV: Mama Killed Five Jews and She Is in Paradise


Who else but an Islamic cleric could make statements such?

The objections to female circumcision are illogical and unnatural.....
......while others see it as a noble act......
But throughout the history of Islam, nobody has ever said performing female circumcision is a crime.

Al-Azhar University Scholars Argue over the Legitimacy of Female Circumcision Practiced in Egypt

The title says it all really, and yes "it is all about culture."
Egyptian First Lady Suzanne Mubarak: Polygamy and Female Circumcision Can Only Be Abolished Through Education, Not by Force. A Female Egyptian President - Not in the Near Future

I loved this old girl, you can see the weariness in her that overcomes the true academic when facing ignorance one more time, I'll wager she has had a lifetime of such experiences. She reminded me of Wafa Sultan only not quite as voluble. Egyptian Women's Rights Activist Nawal Al-Sa'dawi Talks about Her Beliefs and Explains Her Decision to Leave Egypt: I Am Nauseated by Accusations against Me

When I first watched this fellow have his little rant I had to admit he wasn't a long way off the mark on a number of issues, he mentioned something in relation to Italy, and it was only through watching a clip in the early hours via the Barefoot bum that I twigged the reference. (clip. Last link.)
Al-Jazeera TV Host Faysal Al-Qassem: Western Media -Neo-Goebbelism

This is the clip referred to in the programme, it doesn't throw a very good light on the man/woman in the (US) street.