Bismillah,

Dear All,

Assalamualaikum,

All praises are for Allah swt the most beneficent the most merciful.

This is a good lecture given by Hamza Yousaf, it was lying in one of my files so i thought better post it here as i find it very interesting.

Take time n reading this, please.


Note: The lecture is written after listening to the CD of Sheikh Hamza Yousaf and therefore might contain some errors and is written without his prior permission. Kindly refer to the original source


*-*-*-*-*

Bismillah, in the name of God, the most merciful the Most compassionate…I want to welcome everybody and I also want to welcome one of the eminent scholar from Yemen Habib Ali al-Jufri, traditionally, they stayed within the lands of the Muslim and in East Africa and Indonesia, Malaysia, the reason that those countries are now Muslims are because of their ancestors who are the clan from Hazr Maut Saba Alavi and they are the direct descendents of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), they trace their lineage back to the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and usually on the both side—the father and the mother side. And they have a tradition of scholarship and the tradition of preaching Islamic traditions and inviting others to it and probably most of the Indian coast line and also in East Africa and Indonesia, Malaysia, these places became Muslims at their hands.

One of the interesting things about the spread of Islam is that it tended to spread by two methods. One was by conquest and to deny that will be disingenuous and to deny something which is historically documented, the Muslims did indeed go and conquer lands. There is not history of forcing people into Islam. In fact, in Islamic tradition if a person is forced into Islam by sword, the person has the right to revert back to his previous tradition. It is prohibited for him to be forced to accept the religion of Islam. That is something which is evident by the fact that temples, churches and synagogues exist all over the Muslim World. In fact, the Ottoman Empire during the time of Jews when persecuted, not only invited the Jews of Spain being persecuted in the hands of the Catholics but also built for them synagogues, and there are to this day synagogues, in fact there are some in Seriago built by the government as a way of helping these people to reestablish their religious roots.

Omar Ibn Al-Khattab who is known as the Conqueror of Jerusalem, when he entered it, the Christians prior to that had prohibited the Jews to enter the Holy City of Jerusalem because the Christians at that time considered the Jews to be the killers of the Christ which the Muslims do not believe. I don’t think (the sheikh) if most Christians believe it or not. That is why Jews were often persecuted by them, but there were times when they were not persecuted. During that time they were not allowed into the Jerusalem they had been removed from it. Omar Ibn Al-Khattab on the conquest of Jerusalem did two important things. The first thing he did was he cleaned the Temple Mount, which was used by the Christians as a garbage dump, which is now where the famous Golden Dome and the Rock and what is known as the Farthest Mosque the third most sacred site in Islam and considered by most of the Jewish scholars and rabbis believed as the site of Solomon’s Temple. Omar (RA) had it cleaned, purified and one of the great architectural structures in the history of Islam was built there by a later caliph which is the famous Gold Dome. Omar (RA) initially reinstituted the visitation rights of the Jews into Jerusalem but he did not permit them to live inside the city. The reason that he did that he did not feel that the Christians were not ready for the integration. It was a strategic move by Caliph Omar (RA) to prevent any violence. And the proof of this is one of his descendents Omar bin Abdul Aziz, who is considered the fifth Caliph, about sixty years later who become the caliph of the Muslims he not only allowed the visitation rights for the Jews but also allowed to enter Jerusalem and purchase land in it. This is well documented history that a person can look it up in the Western and Muslim sources. In any case my point was that Islam did indeed spread by conquest, Muslims conquered the countries, and they did not force people to become Muslims by sword but in fact they made treaties with them and then Islam will naturally spread simply through their example amongst them. One of the interesting things was that the five great cities of the ancient Christianity all eventually became Muslims, none by coercion.

Bismillah,

Dear All,

Assalamualaikum,

All praises are for Allah swt the most beneficent the most merciful.

This is a good lecture given by Hamza Yousaf, it was lying in one of my files so i thought better post it here as i find it very interesting.

Take time n reading this, please.


Note: The lecture is written after listening to the CD of Sheikh Hamza Yousaf and therefore might contain some errors and is written without his prior permission. Kindly refer to the original source


*-*-*-*-*

Bismillah, in the name of God, the most merciful the Most compassionate…I want to welcome everybody and I also want to welcome one of the eminent scholar from Yemen Habib Ali al-Jufri, traditionally, they stayed within the lands of the Muslim and in East Africa and Indonesia, Malaysia, the reason that those countries are now Muslims are because of their ancestors who are the clan from Hazr Maut Saba Alavi and they are the direct descendents of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), they trace their lineage back to the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and usually on the both side—the father and the mother side. And they have a tradition of scholarship and the tradition of preaching Islamic traditions and inviting others to it and probably most of the Indian coast line and also in East Africa and Indonesia, Malaysia, these places became Muslims at their hands.

One of the interesting things about the spread of Islam is that it tended to spread by two methods. One was by conquest and to deny that will be disingenuous and to deny something which is historically documented, the Muslims did indeed go and conquer lands. There is not history of forcing people into Islam. In fact, in Islamic tradition if a person is forced into Islam by sword, the person has the right to revert back to his previous tradition. It is prohibited for him to be forced to accept the religion of Islam. That is something which is evident by the fact that temples, churches and synagogues exist all over the Muslim World. In fact, the Ottoman Empire during the time of Jews when persecuted, not only invited the Jews of Spain being persecuted in the hands of the Catholics but also built for them synagogues, and there are to this day synagogues, in fact there are some in Seriago built by the government as a way of helping these people to reestablish their religious roots.

Omar Ibn Al-Khattab who is known as the Conqueror of Jerusalem, when he entered it, the Christians prior to that had prohibited the Jews to enter the Holy City of Jerusalem because the Christians at that time considered the Jews to be the killers of the Christ which the Muslims do not believe. I don’t think (the sheikh) if most Christians believe it or not. That is why Jews were often persecuted by them, but there were times when they were not persecuted. During that time they were not allowed into the Jerusalem they had been removed from it. Omar Ibn Al-Khattab on the conquest of Jerusalem did two important things. The first thing he did was he cleaned the Temple Mount, which was used by the Christians as a garbage dump, which is now where the famous Golden Dome and the Rock and what is known as the Farthest Mosque the third most sacred site in Islam and considered by most of the Jewish scholars and rabbis believed as the site of Solomon’s Temple. Omar (RA) had it cleaned, purified and one of the great architectural structures in the history of Islam was built there by a later caliph which is the famous Gold Dome. Omar (RA) initially reinstituted the visitation rights of the Jews into Jerusalem but he did not permit them to live inside the city. The reason that he did that he did not feel that the Christians were not ready for the integration. It was a strategic move by Caliph Omar (RA) to prevent any violence. And the proof of this is one of his descendents Omar bin Abdul Aziz, who is considered the fifth Caliph, about sixty years later who become the caliph of the Muslims he not only allowed the visitation rights for the Jews but also allowed to enter Jerusalem and purchase land in it. This is well documented history that a person can look it up in the Western and Muslim sources. In any case my point was that Islam did indeed spread by conquest, Muslims conquered the countries, and they did not force people to become Muslims by sword but in fact they made treaties with them and then Islam will naturally spread simply through their example amongst them. One of the interesting things was that the five great cities of the ancient Christianity all eventually became Muslims, none by coercion.

Note: To add an image or link in your message,
use <img src="image URL"> or <a href="link URL">Text </a>

 Quote Original

 Watch this Topic

  

So, Eastern Christianity, both the Arian and what is called the Monophysites traditions which were considered some what heretical by the Orthodox and the Catholic traditions, most of their followers became Muslim. Although there is a Monophyist tradition still which is the Meronite who are Monophysites and this has got to do with a very obscure argument over the nature of the substance of Jesus, was he divine in substance or was he human in his flesh form infused with the divine? It is something the theologians argued about for a long time. But the monophysites who still exist in Lebanon eventually were reincorporated into Catholicism. So the Meronites even though they are a sect they are still considered within the Catholic tradition. The Aryans who were in North Africa and from the Aryan tradition it was basically a Unitarian tradition and probably a phenomenon in this country which has its roots in Aryanism is known as the Jehovah’s Witness movement they have their roots in Aryanism, their theology is very similar to the Aryan theology. Bishop Aryan was a famous bishop from Alexandria and was antagonistic to another bishop whose creed with become the dominant creed of the Orthodox tradition. These Aryans largely became Muslims that is why Libya today has Muslim population although it was originally Christian and Morocco also adopted Islam as there religion. The Muslim in Spain were not Arabs who invaded Spain, but they were made of different ethnical groups.

One of the things about the Islamic tradition if you look at it historically is the Muslims were really in the sense the first Globalists. We like to think and pride ourselves in being these globalist people we have: global economy, global concerns and we think that it is a very modern idea. The fact is that there was very sophisticated trading system all through ancient world. Although Muslims were central to that, there were other groups that were quite significant like the Chinese who has the immense tradition of Global Commerce. And the silk route, which went through Afghanistan, Tibet and into China, this route was a source of massive commerce and trade and much of the goods made in China will end up actually in Europe through his route.

People forget that the ancient world was not only extraordinarily floristic but it was also multi ethnic, multi lingual, it had many religions. Muslims for many centuries were not only the care-takers of that world but also help to shape it and facilitate its growth. Obviously, the decline of Muslims was another matter.

The second way that the Islam spread was not through conquest but through commerce. It was the Merchants who would go into the non Muslim lands and trade with them and this is the way that the Habib Ali’s ancestors spread Islam Indonesia and places like this. Indonesians has a hundred and twenty million Muslims, which is the highest number of Muslim population and Indonesia was never conquered by a Muslim army, no body went there with a sword and never with an invading army.

So, Eastern Christianity, both the Arian and what is called the Monophysites traditions which were considered some what heretical by the Orthodox and the Catholic traditions, most of their followers became Muslim. Although there is a Monophyist tradition still which is the Meronite who are Monophysites and this has got to do with a very obscure argument over the nature of the substance of Jesus, was he divine in substance or was he human in his flesh form infused with the divine? It is something the theologians argued about for a long time. But the monophysites who still exist in Lebanon eventually were reincorporated into Catholicism. So the Meronites even though they are a sect they are still considered within the Catholic tradition. The Aryans who were in North Africa and from the Aryan tradition it was basically a Unitarian tradition and probably a phenomenon in this country which has its roots in Aryanism is known as the Jehovah’s Witness movement they have their roots in Aryanism, their theology is very similar to the Aryan theology. Bishop Aryan was a famous bishop from Alexandria and was antagonistic to another bishop whose creed with become the dominant creed of the Orthodox tradition. These Aryans largely became Muslims that is why Libya today has Muslim population although it was originally Christian and Morocco also adopted Islam as there religion. The Muslim in Spain were not Arabs who invaded Spain, but they were made of different ethnical groups.

One of the things about the Islamic tradition if you look at it historically is the Muslims were really in the sense the first Globalists. We like to think and pride ourselves in being these globalist people we have: global economy, global concerns and we think that it is a very modern idea. The fact is that there was very sophisticated trading system all through ancient world. Although Muslims were central to that, there were other groups that were quite significant like the Chinese who has the immense tradition of Global Commerce. And the silk route, which went through Afghanistan, Tibet and into China, this route was a source of massive commerce and trade and much of the goods made in China will end up actually in Europe through his route.

People forget that the ancient world was not only extraordinarily floristic but it was also multi ethnic, multi lingual, it had many religions. Muslims for many centuries were not only the care-takers of that world but also help to shape it and facilitate its growth. Obviously, the decline of Muslims was another matter.

The second way that the Islam spread was not through conquest but through commerce. It was the Merchants who would go into the non Muslim lands and trade with them and this is the way that the Habib Ali’s ancestors spread Islam Indonesia and places like this. Indonesians has a hundred and twenty million Muslims, which is the highest number of Muslim population and Indonesia was never conquered by a Muslim army, no body went there with a sword and never with an invading army.

Note: To add an image or link in your message,
use <img src="image URL"> or <a href="link URL">Text </a>

 Quote Original

 Watch this Topic

  

Now, looking into Jihad, the word Jihad is an emotive word and when we say the word Jihad an effect happens in many people largely in the West in negative term and which is tragic because like Crusade in English language is a very similar word. The reason it is similar is that the Crusade is a very emotive term to Muslims. They are very troubled when they hear the word Crusade and that is why when the Western people use it, they are using it in a positive light, for example, we need a crusade against crime, crusade against drugs. In the same way Jihad is a very positive term for Muslims. But if you look at the history of Crusades and history Islam, you will find very different stories and that’s another matter. Both are similar words but Crusade has a horrific history like many words.


What I would like to talk about are two things that:
Violence
The present condition that we are in.
Violence is a very human event in the world. Human nature is violent in many ways. We may be verbally violent or physically violent. Verbal abuse can be more harmful or more so than physical abuse. One of the Arab poets says:
“A Sword can only cut a flesh but the word can cut the heart”
And what he is talking about is not the physical heart but the spiritual heart, that words can be devastating for people. I personally believe that much of the human condition and the troubles that we see in the world are directly resulted to verbal abuse that occurs in houses, in actually domestic situations and I think that the domestic violence on the planet against children and also against women is largely because of what we’re witnessing the type of disturbances that we see in our world. I think some of our greatest Western geniuses actually focused on this. One of them was obviously Shakespeare, King Lear is I think about the domestic abuse, even though it is about the King but I think at the root of it is the abuse towards his children and what happens to him as a result of that abuse. And one of the interesting things remarks the King Lear’
“I am a man that is more sindigance than the sinning” (please check)
And the perfect traders of violence make that remark. In other words it is not me who is harming others; it is other people that are harming me. I think this is a very common psychological position that the perfect traders of violence on others take, that they are doing it with justification. Another literary Charles Dickens deals with the problem of domestic abuse and writes in one of his Books which is probably the greatest is “David Copperfield”. He mentions in there that “you have to be aware of mistreating children because in child’s world, a slight injustice is a large injustice, just as a wooden horse in a child’s world is a great thing to an adult and when you abuse children it might be very insignificant to you but in the child’s world it is actually very significant and devastating because everything in the world of the child is magnified in experiance.” And one of another greatest Western writers is DustyAsky (please check) and his great book “Brother chemofaza” (please check) in the root of which I think he is really talking about the domestic violence and about the result of children that are deeply abused by their parents. It’s very interesting that the murderer if you have ever read the book, I don’t want to tell who killed him because it is one of the wonderful things about it. You don’t find it out in almost the end of the book but the one that killed him was the one who was most abused by his father, so he killed his father. And we can kill our father in many ways in the world often our attack against the authority or nothing there than pathological statements that are made by people abused by parents. There is a lot of abuse going on in this world. And at the end it is often this domestic violence magnified to extreme scale on same basic issues.

Now, looking into Jihad, the word Jihad is an emotive word and when we say the word Jihad an effect happens in many people largely in the West in negative term and which is tragic because like Crusade in English language is a very similar word. The reason it is similar is that the Crusade is a very emotive term to Muslims. They are very troubled when they hear the word Crusade and that is why when the Western people use it, they are using it in a positive light, for example, we need a crusade against crime, crusade against drugs. In the same way Jihad is a very positive term for Muslims. But if you look at the history of Crusades and history Islam, you will find very different stories and that’s another matter. Both are similar words but Crusade has a horrific history like many words.


What I would like to talk about are two things that:
Violence
The present condition that we are in.
Violence is a very human event in the world. Human nature is violent in many ways. We may be verbally violent or physically violent. Verbal abuse can be more harmful or more so than physical abuse. One of the Arab poets says:
“A Sword can only cut a flesh but the word can cut the heart”
And what he is talking about is not the physical heart but the spiritual heart, that words can be devastating for people. I personally believe that much of the human condition and the troubles that we see in the world are directly resulted to verbal abuse that occurs in houses, in actually domestic situations and I think that the domestic violence on the planet against children and also against women is largely because of what we’re witnessing the type of disturbances that we see in our world. I think some of our greatest Western geniuses actually focused on this. One of them was obviously Shakespeare, King Lear is I think about the domestic abuse, even though it is about the King but I think at the root of it is the abuse towards his children and what happens to him as a result of that abuse. And one of the interesting things remarks the King Lear’
“I am a man that is more sindigance than the sinning” (please check)
And the perfect traders of violence make that remark. In other words it is not me who is harming others; it is other people that are harming me. I think this is a very common psychological position that the perfect traders of violence on others take, that they are doing it with justification. Another literary Charles Dickens deals with the problem of domestic abuse and writes in one of his Books which is probably the greatest is “David Copperfield”. He mentions in there that “you have to be aware of mistreating children because in child’s world, a slight injustice is a large injustice, just as a wooden horse in a child’s world is a great thing to an adult and when you abuse children it might be very insignificant to you but in the child’s world it is actually very significant and devastating because everything in the world of the child is magnified in experiance.” And one of another greatest Western writers is DustyAsky (please check) and his great book “Brother chemofaza” (please check) in the root of which I think he is really talking about the domestic violence and about the result of children that are deeply abused by their parents. It’s very interesting that the murderer if you have ever read the book, I don’t want to tell who killed him because it is one of the wonderful things about it. You don’t find it out in almost the end of the book but the one that killed him was the one who was most abused by his father, so he killed his father. And we can kill our father in many ways in the world often our attack against the authority or nothing there than pathological statements that are made by people abused by parents. There is a lot of abuse going on in this world. And at the end it is often this domestic violence magnified to extreme scale on same basic issues.

Note: To add an image or link in your message,
use <img src="image URL"> or <a href="link URL">Text </a>

 Quote Original

 Watch this Topic

  

Napoleon was basically just as infant allowed to manifest his rage on a very large scale and Hitler, there is an interesting book written by a Jewish scholar tells how the Nazi generation of Germany has its roots in the domestic violence of seventies, eighties and nineties and Dr. Spake of that period was a complete fascist in his views and opinions and felt that the best way to deal with children was to “beat them to obedience”. Which is very interesting, and one of the things noted about Saddam Hussein was also somebody who was domestically abused considerably as a child. Now, on one hand this does not justify the adult behavior because and once you become an adult you are responsible in ways you are not as a child. When people get in rage I often feel that I want to say that because if a two year old does this you can make an excuse, but if you are thirty or forty then what’s your excuse? Unfortunately we tend to suffer the consequences of people’s behavior. Like one of the things Paul, the Christian said:
“When we were children we did what children does and now that we are men let us do what men do.”
In other words there should be a difference as what is allowable as a child and what is allowable as a man. Ultimately responsibility is something when we enter the adulthood according to Islamic tradition two angels begin to write everything what we say and we are held into account.
But we are in a violent world, where wars are going on domestic level, national level and international level. And there are many many wars going on right now at various places. Unfortunatly one of the things that we day in the West like to do is “we are more sindigents than sinning”. One of the interesting things that we have through pictures from the war correspondents that the weapons are used from people belonging to developing countries. They are always “made” in America or Britain or France or China, none of them is “made” locally. They are all made somewhere else and I’m interested in who are bringing them in those countries, and spreading them, giving them in the hands of somebody who are not prepared to deal with its power. Just like we do not allow children to drive cars because a car can be a deadly weapon in the hands of those who do not know how to drive it.

Napoleon was basically just as infant allowed to manifest his rage on a very large scale and Hitler, there is an interesting book written by a Jewish scholar tells how the Nazi generation of Germany has its roots in the domestic violence of seventies, eighties and nineties and Dr. Spake of that period was a complete fascist in his views and opinions and felt that the best way to deal with children was to “beat them to obedience”. Which is very interesting, and one of the things noted about Saddam Hussein was also somebody who was domestically abused considerably as a child. Now, on one hand this does not justify the adult behavior because and once you become an adult you are responsible in ways you are not as a child. When people get in rage I often feel that I want to say that because if a two year old does this you can make an excuse, but if you are thirty or forty then what’s your excuse? Unfortunately we tend to suffer the consequences of people’s behavior. Like one of the things Paul, the Christian said:
“When we were children we did what children does and now that we are men let us do what men do.”
In other words there should be a difference as what is allowable as a child and what is allowable as a man. Ultimately responsibility is something when we enter the adulthood according to Islamic tradition two angels begin to write everything what we say and we are held into account.
But we are in a violent world, where wars are going on domestic level, national level and international level. And there are many many wars going on right now at various places. Unfortunatly one of the things that we day in the West like to do is “we are more sindigents than sinning”. One of the interesting things that we have through pictures from the war correspondents that the weapons are used from people belonging to developing countries. They are always “made” in America or Britain or France or China, none of them is “made” locally. They are all made somewhere else and I’m interested in who are bringing them in those countries, and spreading them, giving them in the hands of somebody who are not prepared to deal with its power. Just like we do not allow children to drive cars because a car can be a deadly weapon in the hands of those who do not know how to drive it.

Note: To add an image or link in your message,
use <img src="image URL"> or <a href="link URL">Text </a>

 Quote Original

 Watch this Topic

  

It is very tragic, that the No. 1 industry in the west is the manufacturing and developing of the weapon of mass destruction. I find it very interesting and I find it very interesting that it is the West who enables people like Saddam Hussein, very well documented in a book “the Web of Deceit” someone who was empowered by the West given all these weapon of mass destruction to run a war by proxy against the Iranian and now I’m hearing the same people who enabled him to do that say “and he fought a war against Iranians and he used weapons of mass destruction!”

And I start feeling that I’m in a world that I have gone through the looking glass I mean one of the things that happen with Alice (Alice in the wonderland) when she was confronted with the Queen’s court when she said, “off with her head”, and Alice said “but there had been no trail!” and the Queen looked at her and said, “here we enact the punishment first and then we have the trail”. And this is the kind of logic of going through the looking glass and I feel that I’m in a world where everything has literally been turned upside down.

It is very tragic, that the No. 1 industry in the west is the manufacturing and developing of the weapon of mass destruction. I find it very interesting and I find it very interesting that it is the West who enables people like Saddam Hussein, very well documented in a book “the Web of Deceit” someone who was empowered by the West given all these weapon of mass destruction to run a war by proxy against the Iranian and now I’m hearing the same people who enabled him to do that say “and he fought a war against Iranians and he used weapons of mass destruction!”

And I start feeling that I’m in a world that I have gone through the looking glass I mean one of the things that happen with Alice (Alice in the wonderland) when she was confronted with the Queen’s court when she said, “off with her head”, and Alice said “but there had been no trail!” and the Queen looked at her and said, “here we enact the punishment first and then we have the trail”. And this is the kind of logic of going through the looking glass and I feel that I’m in a world where everything has literally been turned upside down.

Note: To add an image or link in your message,
use <img src="image URL"> or <a href="link URL">Text </a>

 Quote Original

 Watch this Topic

  

And unfortunately Sophistry is effective in people that have not been trained in logical analysis. If you never had any training in sophistical reasoning because there are two types of logic; formal and informal logic. One of them deals with the validity of the reasoning of the statements itself and the other deals with the conclusion because you can have a valid system of reasoning but arrive at a false conclusion so the conclusion is unsound. If you are not trained in analyzing arguments and yet you are being given arguments by very sophisticated people we have been trained in those arguments because what the people learn in the law school is how to argue and learn how to reason. They also learn to reason fallaciously. The lawyers are made to reason with sophistry they are trained sophists and what they do is the one who sell their soul to the corporation or to what ever cause happens to be paying the most amount of money, n some people will turn scholars for dollars, that these people are able to use the same tools that they were trained to fight against and identify because Aristotle called the rhetoric the “art of telling the truth”. And what Socretes was most concerned about in the “Dialogues” was exposing false reasoning. This is at the root of Socratic Method that is to show people, how can they be completely deluded and how they can delude others. Because you need that person in the society and the state in the time of Athens killed Socrates for doing nothing more and this is what he clearly says in the “Apology” “the only reason that you are killing me is because I just go around showing you all filled up with lies!” and when he was asked what his punishment should be (because Athenians were very civilized people, they would condemn someone and allow him to suggest a punishment) so the punishment that he suggested was that he should be given free meals for the rest of his life because he felt that he was doing such an extraordinary service to the state by pointing out. How dangerous it is to have people out there using fallacious reasoning and causing people to get astray. This traditionally is the role of the people of God.

And unfortunately Sophistry is effective in people that have not been trained in logical analysis. If you never had any training in sophistical reasoning because there are two types of logic; formal and informal logic. One of them deals with the validity of the reasoning of the statements itself and the other deals with the conclusion because you can have a valid system of reasoning but arrive at a false conclusion so the conclusion is unsound. If you are not trained in analyzing arguments and yet you are being given arguments by very sophisticated people we have been trained in those arguments because what the people learn in the law school is how to argue and learn how to reason. They also learn to reason fallaciously. The lawyers are made to reason with sophistry they are trained sophists and what they do is the one who sell their soul to the corporation or to what ever cause happens to be paying the most amount of money, n some people will turn scholars for dollars, that these people are able to use the same tools that they were trained to fight against and identify because Aristotle called the rhetoric the “art of telling the truth”. And what Socretes was most concerned about in the “Dialogues” was exposing false reasoning. This is at the root of Socratic Method that is to show people, how can they be completely deluded and how they can delude others. Because you need that person in the society and the state in the time of Athens killed Socrates for doing nothing more and this is what he clearly says in the “Apology” “the only reason that you are killing me is because I just go around showing you all filled up with lies!” and when he was asked what his punishment should be (because Athenians were very civilized people, they would condemn someone and allow him to suggest a punishment) so the punishment that he suggested was that he should be given free meals for the rest of his life because he felt that he was doing such an extraordinary service to the state by pointing out. How dangerous it is to have people out there using fallacious reasoning and causing people to get astray. This traditionally is the role of the people of God.

Note: To add an image or link in your message,
use <img src="image URL"> or <a href="link URL">Text </a>

 Quote Original

 Watch this Topic

  

Martin Luther King was not only fighting state power through civil disobedience but if you read the letter he wrote from the Birmingham jail he was also fighting the Christian leaders. They were very upset with him as Christians leaders for rocking the boat, to be upsetting the sensibilities of the population that did not want to hear the truth that he happen to be saying. Then he was assassinated but the point is that voice was removed from the society.

Now one of the thing that the society does and it is very interesting is that they say “only the dead Indian is the good Indian”. In other words once Geronimo was removed as force of resistance for his people, we can honor him the Hollywood film, where he is the hero. But during the time of Geronimo is a terrorist. Hannibal who fought in the Punic War, he was considered a terrorist by the Roman State. He was the first person who to actually bring the war into the actual Roman State. He was brutal character but now he is seen as a freedom fighter for his own people. William Wallace: Brave Heart, Mel Gibson! When he was fighting he was seen as an evil threat to the power of Britain inside Scotland and Scotland was simply seen as British colony. I wish I was present 500 years before to see how historians will look to this period and who they will see as the good people and who they will see as the bad people. It is a very interesting thing to reflect on the nature of history.

Paul also said in the Gospels: “Do not conform to this world because conformers are very dangerous people”. It is very easy to go along with the popular/dominant opinion, you see but to speak the truth when no one else is speaking it that is the real daunting challenge and a frightening task. The only people who can really do it are the comedians and the poets. Have you speak the same thing in the prose they would torn and feather you.

Martin Luther King was not only fighting state power through civil disobedience but if you read the letter he wrote from the Birmingham jail he was also fighting the Christian leaders. They were very upset with him as Christians leaders for rocking the boat, to be upsetting the sensibilities of the population that did not want to hear the truth that he happen to be saying. Then he was assassinated but the point is that voice was removed from the society.

Now one of the thing that the society does and it is very interesting is that they say “only the dead Indian is the good Indian”. In other words once Geronimo was removed as force of resistance for his people, we can honor him the Hollywood film, where he is the hero. But during the time of Geronimo is a terrorist. Hannibal who fought in the Punic War, he was considered a terrorist by the Roman State. He was the first person who to actually bring the war into the actual Roman State. He was brutal character but now he is seen as a freedom fighter for his own people. William Wallace: Brave Heart, Mel Gibson! When he was fighting he was seen as an evil threat to the power of Britain inside Scotland and Scotland was simply seen as British colony. I wish I was present 500 years before to see how historians will look to this period and who they will see as the good people and who they will see as the bad people. It is a very interesting thing to reflect on the nature of history.

Paul also said in the Gospels: “Do not conform to this world because conformers are very dangerous people”. It is very easy to go along with the popular/dominant opinion, you see but to speak the truth when no one else is speaking it that is the real daunting challenge and a frightening task. The only people who can really do it are the comedians and the poets. Have you speak the same thing in the prose they would torn and feather you.

Note: To add an image or link in your message,
use <img src="image URL"> or <a href="link URL">Text </a>

 Quote Original

 Watch this Topic

  

I personally believe that one of the greatest myths about Islam is Islam is a violent religion; I think it is an insidious myth. When the historians look back to this age they will see that Muslims were probably the most non-violent people during this time. It is not an opinion that I have arrived at because I would like it to be true but we are talking about very real facts.

American and British like to pride themselves about their democratic republicanism; we like to pride ourselves that we can elect our representatives. We forget the reign of terror in France. We forget about all those people who were taken to the Gallatin, we forget about the Britain War in order to achieve the Parliamentarian Government, what Cromwell did to the Irish let alone to the Catholics, , we forget about the Mexican Revolution, you cannot understand modern Mexico without the names like Pancho Villa or Emiliano Zapata. Look at what Pancho Villa did. He is not lionized but if you study the actual history he was a terrorist, what he did to the American merchants and the civilians, eventually assassinated, after he already retired and given a villa from the Mexican Government. So, if we look at the West we have been through massive violence of evil in order to bring about what we are enjoying. . We forget about the dead people, we forget about the American Revolution, we forget about the Civil War which was really in extension to the American Revolution’s unfinished business; and read Lincoln Second Inaugural Address. The Muslims have never been through such type of events the violence in the Muslim world is much less. If you look at the twentieth century alone. In 1958-1962 twenty million Chinese are killed, Stalin’s reign in Russia. We are talking about liberal estimates, conservative estimates say it is atleast twenty million, more liberal estimates go up to fifty million, they were killed at the hands of the Stalin. Look at Nazi Germany we tend to forget that Nazi Germany is a Western Country, they are Protestants, and they are Christians. Alford Hitler and all of his people went to Protestant Churches. There is a debate in history how much tells about how Protestant Anti-Semitism in Germany to do with the rise and creation of the Nazis, all you have to do is to read Martin Luther what he says about the Jews and the deep Anti-Semitism that existed. Look at the history of violence against the Jewish community in Europe. People forget how many violence is done to the Jews. This is all interesting horrific history of West but if you move to the Muslims World, they have no tradition of genocide.

I personally believe that one of the greatest myths about Islam is Islam is a violent religion; I think it is an insidious myth. When the historians look back to this age they will see that Muslims were probably the most non-violent people during this time. It is not an opinion that I have arrived at because I would like it to be true but we are talking about very real facts.

American and British like to pride themselves about their democratic republicanism; we like to pride ourselves that we can elect our representatives. We forget the reign of terror in France. We forget about all those people who were taken to the Gallatin, we forget about the Britain War in order to achieve the Parliamentarian Government, what Cromwell did to the Irish let alone to the Catholics, , we forget about the Mexican Revolution, you cannot understand modern Mexico without the names like Pancho Villa or Emiliano Zapata. Look at what Pancho Villa did. He is not lionized but if you study the actual history he was a terrorist, what he did to the American merchants and the civilians, eventually assassinated, after he already retired and given a villa from the Mexican Government. So, if we look at the West we have been through massive violence of evil in order to bring about what we are enjoying. . We forget about the dead people, we forget about the American Revolution, we forget about the Civil War which was really in extension to the American Revolution’s unfinished business; and read Lincoln Second Inaugural Address. The Muslims have never been through such type of events the violence in the Muslim world is much less. If you look at the twentieth century alone. In 1958-1962 twenty million Chinese are killed, Stalin’s reign in Russia. We are talking about liberal estimates, conservative estimates say it is atleast twenty million, more liberal estimates go up to fifty million, they were killed at the hands of the Stalin. Look at Nazi Germany we tend to forget that Nazi Germany is a Western Country, they are Protestants, and they are Christians. Alford Hitler and all of his people went to Protestant Churches. There is a debate in history how much tells about how Protestant Anti-Semitism in Germany to do with the rise and creation of the Nazis, all you have to do is to read Martin Luther what he says about the Jews and the deep Anti-Semitism that existed. Look at the history of violence against the Jewish community in Europe. People forget how many violence is done to the Jews. This is all interesting horrific history of West but if you move to the Muslims World, they have no tradition of genocide.

Note: To add an image or link in your message,
use <img src="image URL"> or <a href="link URL">Text </a>

 Quote Original

 Watch this Topic

  

The Sheikh talks about an Armenian Christian old lady, who was born on the turn of the 19th Century, and she lived in Ottoman Empire in Iraq and migrated in 1920 from that Empire, dies of the congested heart failure, the speaker asked her, “what was it like being a Christian in Iraq” she said, “We had no problem until the British came. We were Christians, we had Muslim neighbors, and Jews lived next to us. Muslims, Christians and Jews had been living like this for centuries. But when they came and said to us, you are different from them, you are like us, we believe in Jesus, they do not believe in Jesus, it was the time when my father said to us, it’s time to leave and we went to Canada.” It is very interesting because it is “Divide and Conquer” that is the ancient method of colonization. The Latin knew it very well and the British knew it very well also.
I know the Muslims will have to take responsibility for what happens to them and this is the Qur’anic word view that they have to take responsibility but it is also important for us to understand all of the facets of any proposition, any situation, any question. The people of logic in Arabic say’

“Before you can judge something accurately you must understand it and conceptualize it in all of its facets.”

So, I will recommend to read this book “A Peace to End all Peace” by David Fromkin, which tells how colonial system was designed to ensure continual war in the Middle East.

Now I will ask all you, how do you think the Scottish would feel if the Germans came in and they said we will back you in freeing yourself from the Britain, we will give you weapons, we will even help you with military advisors and once you are free we will help you set-up your state and the Scottish say ‘this sounds great’. All this happens and the Scottish actually wins and defeats the British. But un-be known to the Scottish, the Germans have already made a deal with the France that once Scottish did the job they would come in and they would divide up Scotland and Germany between them and to add insult to injury give Ireland to all the wandering gypsies of Europe and make it gypsy land! How do you think Irish will feel about that and then put Irish on little reservation and when the IRA get their act together and start blowing up the gypsies, they are told you are the evil ones. This really gets to some basic things; brown people are somehow much easier to look on with contempt in the West because you know nobody is dropping bombs on the Ireland, nobody is talking about stopping Irish terrorism what about the bask terrorism. What’s the difference? This is very interesting, the Arab say “You preposition can take an object but my preposition can’t take an object” meaning, rules of grammar apply to you but they do not apply to me. So, we are in a very strange situation and unfortunately what Gorin said when he refused to defend himself and said this isn’t about defense he said this is about power, he said, “We had power, we did what we want, now you have power, you do what you want.”

The Sheikh talks about an Armenian Christian old lady, who was born on the turn of the 19th Century, and she lived in Ottoman Empire in Iraq and migrated in 1920 from that Empire, dies of the congested heart failure, the speaker asked her, “what was it like being a Christian in Iraq” she said, “We had no problem until the British came. We were Christians, we had Muslim neighbors, and Jews lived next to us. Muslims, Christians and Jews had been living like this for centuries. But when they came and said to us, you are different from them, you are like us, we believe in Jesus, they do not believe in Jesus, it was the time when my father said to us, it’s time to leave and we went to Canada.” It is very interesting because it is “Divide and Conquer” that is the ancient method of colonization. The Latin knew it very well and the British knew it very well also.
I know the Muslims will have to take responsibility for what happens to them and this is the Qur’anic word view that they have to take responsibility but it is also important for us to understand all of the facets of any proposition, any situation, any question. The people of logic in Arabic say’

“Before you can judge something accurately you must understand it and conceptualize it in all of its facets.”

So, I will recommend to read this book “A Peace to End all Peace” by David Fromkin, which tells how colonial system was designed to ensure continual war in the Middle East.

Now I will ask all you, how do you think the Scottish would feel if the Germans came in and they said we will back you in freeing yourself from the Britain, we will give you weapons, we will even help you with military advisors and once you are free we will help you set-up your state and the Scottish say ‘this sounds great’. All this happens and the Scottish actually wins and defeats the British. But un-be known to the Scottish, the Germans have already made a deal with the France that once Scottish did the job they would come in and they would divide up Scotland and Germany between them and to add insult to injury give Ireland to all the wandering gypsies of Europe and make it gypsy land! How do you think Irish will feel about that and then put Irish on little reservation and when the IRA get their act together and start blowing up the gypsies, they are told you are the evil ones. This really gets to some basic things; brown people are somehow much easier to look on with contempt in the West because you know nobody is dropping bombs on the Ireland, nobody is talking about stopping Irish terrorism what about the bask terrorism. What’s the difference? This is very interesting, the Arab say “You preposition can take an object but my preposition can’t take an object” meaning, rules of grammar apply to you but they do not apply to me. So, we are in a very strange situation and unfortunately what Gorin said when he refused to defend himself and said this isn’t about defense he said this is about power, he said, “We had power, we did what we want, now you have power, you do what you want.”

Note: To add an image or link in your message,
use <img src="image URL"> or <a href="link URL">Text </a>

 Quote Original

 Watch this Topic

  

If you know the history there is a beautiful history in Peloponnesian war there is a great dialogue between the Athenians and the Melians. The Melians were like the Switzerland, they were very small no power. The Athenians won a brilliant victory against the Persians they were feeling very powerful and decided to take over the whole place, let’s take the whole Greece and then there was the Peloponnesian war. The Greek sent ambassadors to the Melians and said that you have to come with us and help us fight this war and the Melians said, “we want to stay neutral” the Greek ambassador said “Because we have power we do what we WILL and because you have no power you do what you MUST.” One of the things about the ancient people is that they were honest they did not have all this United Nation’s rubber stamp resolution and things like that, they did not have to be hypocrite, I know the people that are honest I know what I am dealing with like the Arab say,

“I’ll take a scorpion on the rock, over a scorpion under the rock any day!” and you know what you are doing, you know the danger that is right infront of you. So the Melians said a very interesting thing, “you should be ware because you might have power now but it might not always be like this” and they said “why is that?” and the Melians answered, “because the gods are just- the gods are just” and the Athenians say, “but we worship the same gods as you worship” and the Melians said, “but they are just” in other words the gods actually pick sides and the side they pick is the side of the righteous, is the side of truth . At the end the history tells coming in of the people over them and the massacre of the Athenians and they re-establish the Melians on their Island, after the Melinas were massacred by the Athenians. And this is we say in modern American vernacular, “What goes around comes around”, the beautiful law of Karma.

The Qur’an says the same thing, the Bible says the same thing, the Hindu says the same thing, Buddha say the same thing, everyone believes in that law. But there is a beautiful thing that one of the musician (who are the poets of our age) Bono at the World Economic Forum talked about Karma and said that, “what happens when the grace meets the Karma?” and I really liked that idea of grace intervening, in other words pre-empting what has come up to you because you make tauba, you make for tashuuba, you make for forgiveness and marinoya, these are the concepts in all of our religious traditions. We actually turn back, we actually ask forgiveness for what we have done.

If you know the history there is a beautiful history in Peloponnesian war there is a great dialogue between the Athenians and the Melians. The Melians were like the Switzerland, they were very small no power. The Athenians won a brilliant victory against the Persians they were feeling very powerful and decided to take over the whole place, let’s take the whole Greece and then there was the Peloponnesian war. The Greek sent ambassadors to the Melians and said that you have to come with us and help us fight this war and the Melians said, “we want to stay neutral” the Greek ambassador said “Because we have power we do what we WILL and because you have no power you do what you MUST.” One of the things about the ancient people is that they were honest they did not have all this United Nation’s rubber stamp resolution and things like that, they did not have to be hypocrite, I know the people that are honest I know what I am dealing with like the Arab say,

“I’ll take a scorpion on the rock, over a scorpion under the rock any day!” and you know what you are doing, you know the danger that is right infront of you. So the Melians said a very interesting thing, “you should be ware because you might have power now but it might not always be like this” and they said “why is that?” and the Melians answered, “because the gods are just- the gods are just” and the Athenians say, “but we worship the same gods as you worship” and the Melians said, “but they are just” in other words the gods actually pick sides and the side they pick is the side of the righteous, is the side of truth . At the end the history tells coming in of the people over them and the massacre of the Athenians and they re-establish the Melians on their Island, after the Melinas were massacred by the Athenians. And this is we say in modern American vernacular, “What goes around comes around”, the beautiful law of Karma.

The Qur’an says the same thing, the Bible says the same thing, the Hindu says the same thing, Buddha say the same thing, everyone believes in that law. But there is a beautiful thing that one of the musician (who are the poets of our age) Bono at the World Economic Forum talked about Karma and said that, “what happens when the grace meets the Karma?” and I really liked that idea of grace intervening, in other words pre-empting what has come up to you because you make tauba, you make for tashuuba, you make for forgiveness and marinoya, these are the concepts in all of our religious traditions. We actually turn back, we actually ask forgiveness for what we have done.

Note: To add an image or link in your message,
use <img src="image URL"> or <a href="link URL">Text </a>

 Quote Original

 Watch this Topic