What Do You Think?

Can a good Muslim be a good American? This question was sent to a friend who worked in Saudi Arabia for 20 years. The following is his reply:

Theologically - no. Because his allegiance is to Allah, the moon god of Arabia.

Religiously - no. Because no other religion is accepted by his Allah except Islam (Koran, 2:256)

Scripturally - no. Because his allegiance is to the
five pillars of Islam and the Quran (Koran).

Geographically - no. Because his allegiance is to Mecca, to which he turns in prayer five times a day.

Socially - no. Because his allegiance to Islam forbids him to make friends with Christians orJews.

Politically - no. Because he must submit to the mullah (spiritual leaders), who teach annihilation of Israel and Destruction of America, the great Satan.

Domestically - no. Because he is instructed to marry four women and beat and scourge his wife when she disobeys him (Quran 4:34).

Intellectually - no. Because he cannot accept the American Constitution since it is based on Biblical principles and he believes the Bible to be corrupt.

Philosophically - no. Because Islam, Muhammad,and the Quran do not allow freedom of religion and expression. Democracy and Islam cannot co-exist. Every Muslim government is either dictatorial or autocratic.

Spiritually - no. Because when we declare "one nation under God," the Christian's God is loving and kind, while Allah is never referred to as heavenly father, nor is he ever called love in The Quran's 99 excellent names.

*Many people assume that the God of the Bible and the God of the Koran are the same God—just with different names. However, up until the seventh century when Mohammed announced Allah as the only one true God, "Allah" was the name of the widely worshipped moon god throughout ancient Mesopotamia.

Allah is not a further revelation of the God of the Bible, but declared as the one and only greatest of the celestial pre-Islam gods of Arabia.

Islam is not only Arabia's major religion, but also the fastest growing religion in the world. In the United States there are now over 6 million Muslims, more than thirty times the number of a decade ago.

‘‘In Arabia, the sun god was viewed as a female goddess and the moon as the male god. The moon god was Allah! The crescent or half moon is in Arabic 'hilal' which is a perfect anagram of Allah." [Alfred Buillaume, Islam (london: penguinbooks,1954)]

According to the Quran, the Holy War, called Jihad, is in reality a holy campaign which uses the help of the Quran to bring about a spiritual revolution in the world, so I think it would be fair in saying that, in recognizing the Muslims' allegiance to their faith and to their Quran, that they, indeed, cannot be good Muslims and good Americans at the same time.

I think that most do not realize that whether we want to believe it or not, as circumstances now stand we are in a holy war, and it is going to be allowed to escalate as we stand around being politically correct.

My Favorite Things

Remember the movie, "The Sound of Music"? Remember the tune of "My Favorite Things," which Julie Andrews sang in the movie? If you do, hum the tune as you read the following lyrics.

Maalox and nose drops and needles for knitting,
Walkers and handrails and new dental fittings,

Bundles of magazines tied up in string,
These are a few of my favorite things.

Cadillacs and cataracts and hearing aids and glasses,
Polident and Fixodent and false teeth in glasses,

Pacemakers, golf carts and porches with swings,
These are a few of my favorite things.

When the pipes leak,
When the bones creak,
When the knees go bad,
I simply remember my favorite things,
And then I don't feel so bad.

Hot tea and crumpets, and corn pads for bunions,
No spicy hot food or food cooked with onions,

Bathrobes and heat pads and hot meals they bring,
These are a few of my favorite things.

Back pains, confused brains, and no fear of sinnin',
Thin bones and fractures and hair that is thinnin',

And we won't mention our short shrunken frames,
When we remember our favorite things.

When the joints ache,when the hips break,
When the eyes grow dim,
Then I remember the great life I've had,
And then I don't feel so bad.

* Several years ago, a story circulated saying that Julie Andrews, to commemorate her sixty-ninth birthday, sang these lyrics at Manhattan's Radio City Music Hall for the benefit of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) and the story is still making the rounds today, but it is not true. Unfortunately, she lost her ability to sing due to a mishap which occurred while having a polyp removed from her vocal cords. She sued the doctors, and Mount Sinai Hospital for malpractice, and settled out of court for an undisclosed amount of money, which was, reportedly, in the millions.

"Will I ever come to terms with not singing? I don't know. I miss it very much, indeed."

Julie Andrews

Baby Grace

The news of the two year old girl, whose body washed up on shore in a blue plastic box, in Galveston Bay last month, is sad. Her body has been identified, now, and she was from here, in Ohio. It seems that her mother met a man on the Internet, and moved to Texas to be with him. I started to say, "sad and shocking," when I began to write, but I have to be honest and admit that I was not shocked, and that is really sad. Such things have become such a common occurence, that when a child is missing, we expect the worst because that is usually the outcome...the worst.

I don't know what has happened to society. I don't know what has become of the respect for human life. I don't know what has caused people to look upon their children as nothing more than a hindrance, and something to be gotten rid of--for what? Convenience?

I don't understand how anyone could intentionally, physically, hurt another, much less, a helpless child. For every single one that we hear of being harmed, or killed, how many others are there, that no one knows about? When I think about the horror that these helpless innocents must have endured, it becomes almost too much to think about.

I remember when I was about fourteen years old, there was a couple who lived next door. They had a couple of children, one of them being a little girl, about two or three years old. I'm not sure, but I think she had been married before, and the children were from that marriage. I could hear the two of them arguing, and the thing that I remember most, was how she would scream and curse him, and the children. The little girl was like a scared little mouse, and whenever she would see me outside, she would hold her arms out to me, and say, "Take me," and I would pick her up, and hold her, of course.

One morning, very early, I heard the mother fussing, and yelling. I looked out, and saw the little girl standing at the edge of the stone wall which edged their yard, which was a level up from ours. It was very cold out, and she was standing there in her little nightie, holding her arms out, in the direction of our house, saying, "Take me! Baby, take me!" I went out, and she jumped down, into my arms. Her little body was shivering, and her skin was blue-mottled from the cold. I sat on my porch with her, wrapped her up in something,( I have forgotten what by now) and she snuggled as close as possible to me, as the yelling and cursing continued. In a few minutes, the door slams, and he is leaving, going fishing, and as he walks across the yard to his car, she screams at him, calling him a name, saying, "I hope you never come back! I hope I never see you again!" Unfortunately, that is exactly what happened. He never came back, and she never saw him, alive, again. He was fishing at a dam, and fell into the rough waters, and drowned.

I'm sure you must be wondering what any of this has to do with what I started out writing about..the little girl from Ohio, and how anyone can mistreat a child, but I guess in my mind, somehow, it is all connected. I know that the little neighbor girl must have been abused, because I saw the marks and bruises on her body, and besides that, she certainly was verbally abused. But why? Did the mother take the frustration with her husband out on the little girl? I'm sure that she never went to the extreme of inflicting deadly harm on her child, but I do wonder if it had been in today's society, if it would have been different, because it seems that there are less boundaries set today, on a personal level, despite all the laws in effect to prevent, and to punish such behavior.

I don't know the reasons why Baby Grace (as the Texas authorities named her) was murdered and disposed of like so much refuse, but from what I see on the news here, she did have a daddy and a grandmother who loved her, and their hearts are broken. There is never a good reason for a heart that is broken.