Sunday, October 24, 2004

Lord and Savior

[This post's tagline was inspired by a comment at LGF last summer from Arrr.]

So, did you hear about the evangelical Christians in Michigan? It seems a group of them have taken up residence in a small, mostly Polish Catholic town, and they decided to take their protestant proselytizing one step further than usual.

They've started blaring out of loudspeakers from their church into the town, several times a day,
JESUS IS YOUR LORD AND SAVIOR!
JESUS IS YOUR LORD AND SAVIOR!
JESUS IS YOUR LORD AND SAVIOR!
JESUS IS YOUR LORD AND SAVIOR!
JESUS IS YOUR LORD AND SAVIOR!
Over and over again.
JESUS IS YOUR LORD AND SAVIOR!
JESUS IS YOUR LORD AND SAVIOR!
JESUS IS YOUR LORD AND SAVIOR!
JESUS IS YOUR LORD AND SAVIOR!
JESUS IS YOUR LORD AND SAVIOR!
Man, that really gets annoying, doesn't it?
JESUS IS YOUR LORD AND SAVIOR!
JESUS IS YOUR LORD AND SAVIOR!
JESUS IS YOUR LORD AND SAVIOR!
JESUS IS YOUR LORD AND SAVIOR!
JESUS IS YOUR LORD AND SAVIOR!
It just doesn't stop.

Of course, many residents didn't like having to hear that message all the time. In fact, many non-Christians found it offensive and even threatening.

The evangelicals didn't care. And the town council wouldn't do anything to stop them, as it had sympathizers on the board.

But whew, at least the ACLU got on the case and put a stop to it.

Oh, wait a minute.

Scratch that.

I had that a little wrong.

The ACLU was nowhere to be found.

And it wasn't an evangelical church, it was a mosque.

And they weren't blaring a message about Jesus, they were amplifying this message 5 times a day, as early as 5:30 am and as late as 10:30 pm:

Allah is greater, Allah is greater
Allah is greater, Allah is greater

I bear witness there is no deity but Allah
I bear witness there is no deity but Allah

I bear witness that Muhammad (pbuh) is the Messenger of Allah
I bear witness that Muhammad (pbuh) is the Messenger of Allah

Hurry to the prayer
Hurry to the prayer

Hurry to the success
Hurry to the success

Allah is greater, Allah is greater

There is no deity but Allah
This is happening in Hamtramck, Michigan. The position of the mosque was it didn't matter what the secular authorities did anyway:
Masud Kahn, the associate imam of the mosque, said the mosque will begin the calls to prayer Friday, as planned, no matter what happens with the petition and the council.

Kahn and council President Karen Majewski say the mosque didn’t need the city’s permission to broadcast the calls to prayer in the first place.
The Detroit News patronizingly call this incident "a lesson in democracy, freedom of speech and freedom of religion."

I call it a lesson in dhimmitude, "the Islamic system of governing populations conquered by jihad wars."

The narrow legalistic and technical question of whether or not this violates a noise ordinance, or whether or not it is equivalent to the mere musical pealing of churchbells, is of no interest to me.

The real issue is what broadcasting this "call to prayer" means: it is an expression of in-your-face triumphalism, meant to put you in your place, kuffaar, pure and simple.

It's part of the standard playbook of subjugation.

As an aside, Kuffaar or Kaafir are what the Muslims call us non-Muslims, by the way. We translate it as "infidel", but the connotation is closer to "nigger."

For example,
Can we greet the kuffaar with a greeting other than salaam?

I would like to understand something about the greeting of the kouffar. I know that we don't have to give them sellem first but I have this question if we live in a kouffar country are we allow to greeting them first but no with sellem but with good morning like in the workplace...
Praise be to Allaah.

We appreciate your eagerness to learn; may Allaah increase us and you in knowledge and acceptable righteous deeds...

It was reported that the Messenger of Allaah [Mohammed] (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Do not initiate the greeting of salaam to the Jews and Christians, and if you encounter them in the street, push them to the narrowest part of the road.”

So we should not initiate the greeting of salaam to a kaafir at all; if he initiates the greeting of salaam, then we should say “wa ‘alaykum” in response, in obedience to the command of the Messenger (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him).

There is no reason why we cannot then say, How are you? Or, How are your children? – as has been permitted by some of the scholars, including Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah (may Allaah have mercy on him), especially when doing so serves an Islamic purpose such as encouraging him to take an interest in Islam so that he will be receptive to da’wah...
Do a little googling on terms like kafir, kaafir, kufr and kuffaar for a bit of an eye-opening. You will find the Muslim world lethally obsessed with loathing and disgust over how to have daily interpersonal dealings with such spiritually unclean and intrinsically sinful beings as ourselves.

Check out shirk, too, if you're really bored.

2 Comments:

Blogger Baron Bodissey said...

I assume you're reading Wretchard at the Belmont Club.

I think our dhimmitude has already begun, and you have given us a good example. The one I pointed out (via LGF) is here. Why are Muslims allowed to give presentations and proselytize in the public schools when no other religion may do so? It's all right to teach kids about Ramadan, but if you dare mention Christmas...

12:47 PM, October 25, 2004  
Blogger RDS said...

Yes indeed, Belmont Club is essential reading.

Keep banging the drum!

RDS

7:54 PM, October 25, 2004  

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