The 700 Club. Its a great publicity stunt by Pat Robertson to get attention,to revive the flagging brand, albeit it caves in, craters to the path of least resistance which is Muslim bashing and the scenario of Sam Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations. To Christianity, Islam is a challenge; equally monotheistic yet absolving itself of any trapping of idolatry, but at the same time, being enigmatically an ideology with no distinction between church and state, something with mainstream non-Catholic denominations can’t seem to wrap their context of entrepreneurship and individulaism, the residue of the Reformation, with what is perceived as monolithic hostility from a homogenous people which is erroneous but ingrained, embedded, within the fabric of the culture; object lessons in sectarianism and the slippery slope of racism and tribalism. There is a valid concern of importing some very twisted ideologies into North America via immigration….
—We believe that everyone has a right to worship
according to his conscience, but-
Freedom of Religion is not a license to
abuse the faith of the people!
However, due to the highly controversial nature of this film,
we strongly urge you to prevent impressionable children from seeing it!”
This film was based on a novel of the same name, by Pulitzer-Prize winning novelist Upton Sinclair which at the time of its release in 1927 was hugely controversial. That’s why the film starts with a page from the novel-
Chapter 1
Elmer Gantry was drunk. He was eloquently drunk,
lovingly and pugnaciously drunk.—Read More:http://watcheveryfilmby.blogspot.ca/2010/07/elmer-gantry-1960.html
Going back to medieval times, Maimonides felt Islam was a heresy, something that could be judged to be patched together by the jews to get back at Christianity. Still, Maimonides expressing positive views about Islam, its monotheistic character, as well as Christianity, though he considered the latter to be idolatry he understood their recognition of Judaism and five books of Moses. Ultimately, Maimonides saw both faiths as being in error, with value only as a kind of warm up act that would prepare the world to accept the show in the big tent, judaism. In the final analysis, the ideal of bible thumpers like Robertson, worse than Elmer Gantry, he wants a pure Christian America, preferably white. To this end he funds messianic jews for jesus and conversion efforts….
(see link at end)…Past targets have included gays, feminists and pagans, atheists, people with Alzheimer’s, adoptive parents, Haitians and people who don’t pray enough. This time, the televangelist focused his ire on wives who fail to properly obey their husbands.
On Monday’s broadcast of Robertson’s television show “The 700 Club,” he answered a question from a viewer named Michael about how to repair his marriage to a woman who “has no respect for me as the head of the house.”…
—Mohammed, along with Buraq and Gabriel, visit Hell, and see a demon punishing “shameless women” who had exposed their hair to strangers. For this crime of inciting lust in men, the women are strung up by their hair and burned for eternity. Persian, 15th century—Read More:http://www.create-answer.com/muhamad%20ENG/1.htm
Robertson’s response: “Well, you could become a Muslim and you could beat her.”
Bizarrely, this comment elicited laughter from Robertson’s co-host, Terry Meeuwsen.
Unfortunately, Robertson didn’t stop there.
“I don’t think we condone wife-beating these days but something has got to be done to make her.” He also called the woman a “rebellious child” who doesn’t want to “submit to any authority.” However, since the Scripture doesn’t allow for divorce, Robertson urged the husband to “move to Saudi Arabia,” where, ostensibly, beating the woman would be permissible.
—Syrian female refugees aged 14 and 15 who fled their country to Jordan and Iraq are being forced into “pleasure marriages” [Nikah al-Mut’ah] — a pre-Islamic custom allowing men to marry for a limited period.
Apart from being a cover for legalized prostitution (the marriage can last for as little as 30 minutes), Nikah al-Mut’ah deprives the wife of many rights.
No divorce is necessary in “pleasure marriages,” for instance, and the husband may void the marriage earlier than agreed.
What is most disturbing about this practice is not even whether or not the wife has rights, so much as that Muslim scholars and preachers have given the green light to their followers to exploit the plight of the poor and helpless Syrian girls.
Muslim men from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries have in the past few weeks asked their embassies in Amman and Baghdad to help them find Syrian girls living in makeshift refugee camps in Jordan and Iraq.
This is happening at a time when the oil-rich Arab countries are doing almost nothing to help the tens of thousands of Syrian refugees who are living in extremely difficult conditions.
Some Arab human rights activists have condemned the phenomenon, but their voice has thus far fallen on deaf ears.
Muslim preachers in a number of Arab countries have been encouraging their followers to engage in “pleasure marriages” with Syrian girls as a way of ridding them and their families of their misery. Some of these preachers have even issued fatwas [Islamic decrees] permitting the sexual exploitation of minors.—Read More:http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3339/syrian-refugees image:http://www.sl
ADDENDUM:
Indeed, it was Maimonides’ son, Rabbi Abraham, who took his father’s view to its logical conclusion when he argued that, although Islamic religious practices should not be imitated, strictly speaking they do not fall under the biblical prohibition of following the ways of the Gentiles. This is so simply because “Muslims are monotheists who abhor idolatry.”
After all this has been said, one should not conclude that, with regard to Islam, Maimonides was expressing any real tolerance, in the modern sense of the term. All of his positive statements were intended simply to clarify the nature of the Islamic religion, statements which, in turn, will have numerous halakhic consequences. To show that Maimonides was anything but an adherent of religious tolerance, it is sufficient to note that, in his opinion, not only is it impossible for a Muslim to be a pious Gentile, but it is even forbidden for a Gentile to follow the dictates of Islam [Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings 8:11].
He unequivocally accepts the talmudic view that any Gentile religious system is illicit and the only alternatives for Gentiles are conversion or observance of the Seven Laws of Noah which, by definition, exclude any other religious system [Laws of Kings 10:9].Read More:http://www.myjewishlearning.com/beliefs/Issues/Jews_and_Non-Jews/Attitudes_Toward_Non-Jews/Islam.shtml
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