How do you spell irony?

[XenoWang]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe...cnn_topstories

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- An al Qaeda-linked extremist group warned Pope Benedict XVI on Monday that he and the West were "doomed," as protesters raged across the Muslim world to demand more of an apology from the pontiff for his remarks about Islam and violence.

The Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization of Sunni Arab extremist groups that includes al Qaeda in Iraq, issued a statement on a Web forum vowing to continue its holy war against the West. The authenticity of the statement could not be independently verified.

The group said Muslims would be victorious and addressed the pope as "the worshipper of the cross" saying "you and the West are doomed as you can see from the defeat in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and elsewhere. ... We will break up the cross, spill the liquor and impose head tax, then the only thing acceptable is a conversion (to Islam) or (killed by) the sword."

Islam forbids drinking alcohol and requires non-Muslims to pay a head tax to safeguard their lives if conquered by Muslims. They are exempt if they convert to Islam.

In Indian-controlled Kashmir, meanwhile, shops, businesses and schools shut down in response to a strike call by the head of a hard-line Muslim separatist leader to denounce Benedict. For the third day running, people burned tires and shouted "Down with the pope."

Protests also broke out in Iraq, where angry demonstrators burned an effigy of the pope in Basra, and in Indonesia, where more than 100 people rallied in front of the heavily guarded Vatican Embassy in Jakarta, waving banners that said the "Pope is building religion on hatred."

The pope on Sunday said he was "deeply sorry" about the angry reaction to his speech last week in which he cited the words of a Byzantine emperor who characterized some of the teachings of Islam's Prophet Muhammad as "evil and inhuman" and referred to spreading Islam "by the sword."

Benedict said the remarks came from a text that didn't reflect his own opinion.

"I hope that this serves to appease hearts and to clarify the true meaning of my address, which in its totality was and is an invitation to frank and sincere dialogue, with great mutual respect," he said during his weekly appearance before pilgrims in Italy.

The statement of regret -- the pope's second in two days -- helped ease some tensions.

In Turkey, where outrage against Benedict's remarks had been swift, Catholic bishops decided Monday that no changes were necessary in his upcoming visit in November -- his first to a Muslim country, Vatican spokesman George Marovic said.

Marovic said the trip was expected to go on as planned, and the bishops had discussed the details of a religious ceremony the pontiff is to lead in Istanbul.

However, State Minister Mehmet Aydin, who oversees the religious affairs in Turkey, said he expected Turkish authorities to cancel the visit if Benedict does not offer a full apology.

"We are expecting the authorities to unilaterally cancel this visit. The pope's coming to Turkey isn't going to foment the uniting of civilizations, but a clash of civilizations," he said.

The secretary-general of the Turkish HUKUK-DER law association submitted a request to the Justice Ministry asking that the pope be arrested upon entering Turkey.

The appeal by Fikret Karabekmez, a former legislator for the banned pro-Islamic Welfare Party, called for Benedict to be tried under several Turkish laws, among them obstruction of freedom of belief, encouraging discrimination based on religion, and inciting religious hatred.

A prosecutor in the ministry will evaluate the request and decide whether to open a case.

Angry reactions also persisted in other corners of the Muslim world, where many demanded more of an apology by the pope than Sunday's statement of regret.

"Muslims have all this while felt oppressed, and the statement by the pope saying he is sorry about the angry reaction is inadequate to calm the anger -- more so because he is the highest leader of the Vatican," Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said.


lolz

[l0stsheep]

Is this a trap?

[TForce]

I sure would like to see an actual transcript. I can fully understand the Pope telling it like it is, as well as I can understand how some people will jump on any bandwagon just out of pure anger and dissatisfaction with what they perceive and don't really know. I think it would be interesting to see the actual context that it was used in.

[Buffysboy]

Those are very angry people, they are not living a easy life and burning things, shouting are a few means for them to let out their rage.

Sometimes I wonder, what if the world were actually split in two, one being the so-called "free" world and the other being Africa, muslim dominated countries, and there is absolutely no interference between the two, ie no contact, no exploitations, no trade etc etc. Would the world be a better place? If you do not understand each other then why not leave each other alone and live your own life and mind your own business?

I know why this won't happen, people like us in the western world are very greedy, and the ones in the middle east are too pissed off. Amen, may God save us all.

[jeffrobodean]

Hmmm. "Islam is a nation of violence"
Islam: "How can you say that? I'll kill you! Islam nations arise and bring death to the Pope!"

Yeah, that is ironic. Dumb and dumber.

[LeoDeSol]

Well, from what I understand, the pope was quoting a 14th century emporer, it was not his own words, nor was the pope agreeing with the emporers views.

But I have a feeling that when the media outlets in the muslum coutries is not reporting the exact statements or the corect context in which it was said. They just say that the pope said it.

[TForce]

Be prepared. Say, "No more taxes." Check this one out.


http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr...jd2cWVlRUV5eTI=

Al-Qaida in Iraq vows Islam will take over world
e-mail print

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

By LEE KEATH
ASSOCIATED PRESS

Bush tries to defuse furor over comments

CAIRO, Egypt -- Al-Qaida in Iraq warned Pope Benedict XVI on Monday that its war against Christianity and the West will go on until Islam takes over the world, and Iran's supreme leader called for more protests over the pontiff's remarks on Islam.

Protests broke out in South Asia and Indonesia, with angry Muslims saying the pope's statement of regret a day earlier did not go far enough. In southern Iraq, demonstrators carrying black flags burned an effigy of the pope.

Islamic leaders around the world issued more condemnations of the pope's comments, but some moderates in the Middle East appeared to be trying to put a damper on the outrage, fearing it could spiral into attacks on Christians in the region.

On Sunday, Pope Benedict said he was "deeply sorry" over any hurt caused by his comments made in a speech last week, in which he quoted a medieval text characterizing some of the Prophet Muhammad's teachings as "evil and inhuman" and calling Islam a religion spread by the sword.

The pontiff said the remarks came from a text that didn't reflect his own opinion, but he did not retract what he said or say he was sorry he uttered what proved to be explosive words.

The Vatican on Monday sought to defuse the anger, ordering papal representatives around the world to meet with leaders of Muslim countries to explain the pope's point of view and full context of his speech.

Roman Catholic leaders stepped forward to defend the pontiff. At an Italian bishops' conference, Cardinal Camillo Ruini underlined the bishops' "total closeness and solidarity to the pope" and said they deplored interpretations of the pope's comments "which attribute to the Holy Father ... errors that he has not committed and aim at attacking his person and his ministry."

Few in the Islamic world were satisfied by Pope Benedict's statement of regret.

"The pope's words have caused a deep wound in the hearts of Muslims that won't heal for a long time, and then only after a clear apology to Muslims," Egypt's religious affairs minister, Mahmoud Hamdi Zaqzouq, wrote in a column in the government daily Al-Ahram on Monday.

An influential Egyptian cleric, Sheik Youssef al-Qaradawi, called for protests after weekly prayers on Friday, but maintained they should be peaceful.

Extremists said the pope's comments proved that the West was in a war against Islam.

'Break up the cross'

Al-Qaida in Iraq and its allies said Muslims would be victorious and addressed the pope as "the worshiper of the cross," saying "you and the West are doomed as you can see from the defeat in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and elsewhere. ... We will break up the cross, spill the liquor and impose the 'jizya' tax, then the only thing acceptable is a conversion [to Islam] or [being killed by] the sword."

Islam forbids drinking alcohol and requires non-Muslims to pay the "jizya" tax, though those who convert are exempt. The tax, sometimes called a head tax, has not been imposed in Muslim nations in about 100 years, though Islamic militant groups have tried to force non-Muslims to pay it on a local level in some countries.

"You infidels and despots, we will continue our jihad [holy war] and never stop until God avails us to chop your necks and raise the fluttering banner of monotheism, when God's rule is established governing all people and nations," said the statement by the Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization of Sunni Arab extremist groups in Iraq.

Another Iraqi extremist group, Ansar al-Sunna, challenged "sleeping Muslims" to prove their manhood by doing something other than "issuing statements or holding demonstrations."

"If the stupid pig is prancing with his blasphemies in his house," the group said in a Web statement, referring to the pope, "then let him wait for the day coming soon when the armies of the religion of right knock on the walls of Rome."

In Iran, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei used the comments to call for protests against the United States. He argued that although the pope may have been deceived into making his remarks, the words give the West an "excuse for suppressing Muslims" by depicting them as terrorists.

"Those who benefit from the pope's comments and drive their own arrogant policies should be targeted with attacks and protests," he said, referring to the United States.

The anger recalled the outrage this year over cartoons depicting the prophet published by a Danish paper. The caricatures, which Muslims saw as insulting Muhammad, set off large, violent protests across the Islamic world.

So far, protests over the pope's comments have been smaller. However, there has been some violence: Attackers hurled firebombs at seven churches in the West Bank and Gaza Strip over the weekend, and a nun was shot to death in Somalia.
* * *

Islamic world still seething

• In Damascus, Syria, about 200 loyalists of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, held a protest at an Islamic shrine. They dismissed the pope's apology. One banner read, "The pope's sorrow was equivocal."

• Dozens of Muslims protested outside the Vatican Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia.

• "His comments really hurt Muslims all over the world," Umar Nawawi of the radical Islamic Defenders' Front said in Jakarta. "We should remind him not to say such things which can only fuel a holy war."

• Schools and shops in the Indian-controlled section of Kashmir shut their doors in protest.

• Islamic countries asked the U.N. Human Rights Council to examine the question of religious tolerance.

• Malaysia Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said the pope's apology was "inadequate to calm the anger."

• Guards have been posted around some churches, and the head of Egypt's Orthodox Coptic Church, Pope Shenouda III, disassociated himself from Benedict's statements.

• The Dominican mission in Cairo said Benedict chose a text for his speech that "revived the polemics of the past." It said in a statement: "These comments, seen by many Muslims as hurtful, risk encouraging extremists on all sides, and put in danger all the advances in dialogue made in recent decades."

[XenoWang]

As sick as I am of seeing people in the Middle East throwing a f**king overblown tantrum over s**t like cartoons of their prophet or this most recent incident, the media is largely to blame for this craziness. The Pope was delivering a theological and academic speech on the topic of faith and reason. Moreover, all this controversy is over an isolated and thus non-contextualized part of his speech which quoted a 14th century Byzantine emperor, whose words the Pope explicitly said he did not endorse, that was meant to prove a larger point in his lecture on faith and reason. Of course, front page media isn't gonna go tell you that- as long as they can latch on to these few words referring to a) Islam and b) violence coming from c) the frickin' POPE, then clearly they're going to use this to generate controversy.

F*ck them and they're irresponsible asses.

[slug]

"If you do not understand each other then why not leave each other alone and live your own life and mind your own business?"

Before I say anything, I know I picked one part of your quote and it may be out-of-context because I think I know where you're coming from but my reply is more to others around the world who really do think we should mind our own business.

But ...

The reason why we can't do that is because there are millions of people who would suffer at the hands of people who make themselves very wealthy by keeping the masses ignorant. Islamic terrorism is more of an organized crime-type ideology based on a warped view of religious extremism that has as it's main focus to line the pockets of the leaders and to force the rest of the world into their way of life. Al-Qaeda doesn't want to be left alone. Hamas doesn't want to be left alone. There is too much money coming in from other countries to make sure they keep killing Jews. The Hamas leadership lives lavish lifestyles while the everyday 'Palestinian' (there is no such country as Palestine) tries to scrape out a living either by trying to grow crops in rocky soil or by strapping on a bomb-vest. Those that choose the latter are because the leaders have gotten to those poor ones digging in the rocks and have convinced them that there are 72 virgins waiting for them in paradise.

The only thing these Islamofascists want is to kill non-believers and take their land. Remember in the movie "Independence Day" when the President (Bill Pullman) asks the captured alien (paraphrasing) "Surely we can live together. What can we do?" The alien's reply: "Die." They believe that there can be no peace until they have restored the caliphate by taking over the land from Spain all the way through the far east and putting it under Sharia law. Think they would stop there if they ever achieved it?

Now, the other reason we can't leave them alone is that whether or not the pro-socialists and pro-communists in Europe like it, the rest of the world looks to the US to be the world's police force all the while calling us warmongers for doing so. Of course, they only consider us the world's police force when they are the one's who need help.

Take a look at countries like France whose welcoming of extremists into their land is going to come back to bite them within the next 100 years. Also, since I see you are posting from Denmark (and I have to admit I don't know what the average person on the street there thinks) why not spread the word that "even though we're only in Iraq for the oil", it hasn't been reflected in our fuel bills yet. That argument might hold a bit more weight when we went to help out Kuwait but not now.

It's assinine to think that anyone in the US ever wants war but as much as our politicians are trying to say this isn't a war against Islam, it is. What else would you call it when their leaders want to convert all of the Christians and other non-believers of Islam to their warped view?

Having said that, I don't believe that all Muslims believe in this brand of Islam. I used to work with one of the nicest, most gentle people from Pakistan and he and I would talk religion over hundreds of lunch hours and I have no doubt that he was being honest but I also believe that we hear no condemnation because the everyday people like this are afraid to speak out.

So, to answer your question about leaving each other alone: one side doesn't want to be left alone and the other side believes in it's moral duty to protect it's own citizens as well as others who can't protect themselves. If we weren't spread so thin and had a little more help, we could also be doing things in Darfur, Somalia, Iran, N. Korea, ...

This won't happen until the rest of the world stops with all of the politicking and realizes that even though they don't think there is a war on Islam, Islam has been fighting a war with us for a long time.

Your idea sounds nice in a Utopian society but nothing is going to change the fact that one side sees it as a convert or die situation.

Again, not directed at you because I know I took one small part of your message out-of-context and went off on it.

[Dzoni]

got to understand that media controls everything [img]/forum/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] thats why you just let everything slide and don't let the media tell you how to think and how to live your life. people are sick of being misinformed about the information by the media, muslims are sick of being always in the media for doing the wrong thing, the whole world is sick of everyone because of the government and media, this is why there is a lot of crap in our world, not because what religion you are, what traditions you follow etc, its because of the government and the media. i mean take bush for example, he help train osama bin laden and now his their 'most wanted' why did he capture Saddam? (not saying its a bad thing) but he wasnt the most wanted? Osama is now what the US government trained him to be, and why were the Bin Laden family the first to leave the US when the terrorist attacks happened? when no one else could leave with planes FBI flew them out? Yet he still leaves his country in fear every now and then saying "US is not safe from terrorism" when nothing has happened from 5 years ago.. He wants to be in control of his people, simple!

why is it when non muslim shoots up a school its called a "massacre" tell me that if a muslim was to walk into a school and shoot up everyone it would be called a massacre, it would be known as "terrorist attack" of course, this is the reason everyone is so touchy with everything these days

im sick of all the violence happening and im pretty sure everyone else here is, so why let it bother us jsut because the media missinforms everyone, and the each government of the world wants to be "on top"

I'm fed up of hearing people getting killed over some bull crap the media decides to lie about, enough is enough how much blood must be spilt to make them understand?