The real history of violence!

These days, spin doctors can manipulate anything to prove anything they want. It's gotten so bad that not even professionals can tell anymore "what is real and what isn't!"

Someone from a publication called "Wired" (a tech publication)wrote an article justifying violence on video games and threw us the old argument that video's are not responsible for violence in society, just as T.V. violence is not responsible for your next door neighbors kid hacking up his grandmother with an axe!

Here is his argument!

There are plenty of folks who like to blame violent video games for crime despite a lack of any real proof. (Saying so doesn't make it so - Ed.)

As has been pointed out time and time again, just as violent video games have become more popular, incidents of violent crime keep dropping. (Prove it! - Ed.)

Obviously, there may be other factors involved, but if it were true that violent video games resulted in more violent crimes, then it at least suggests there's one heck of an additional variable that not only compensates for this increased desire for violence, but pushes the stats even further in the other direction.

And, certainly, while there are some researchers who insist that studies have shown that violent video games lead to violence, every time you look at the details of those studies, you realize that the data doesn't support the claims. (These are all just statements plucked out of the air! - Ed.)

Still, some people react to the issue from an emotional, rather than logical, point of view. This is human nature, so it's not that surprising.

However, when someones job is a gov't prosecutor, you might think she would recognize the importance of real evidence before making statements.

Not so for Wayne County, Michigan (which covers Detroit) prosecutor, Kym Worthy.

In an interview with Wired, Worthy notes that evidence is meaningless to her on this issue: "No one can convince me that there isn't a link between some of the gory, gritty, horrendous crime that we've been seeing in the past few years, particularly in the 18-25 year old group, [and] these games."

Apparently any evidence to the contrary are just "'silly' arguments made to justify a 'billion-dollar industry based on the most violent of scenarios.'"

Even better, Worthy wonders why kids can't just go play football instead of playing video games. So why is it that virtual violence encourages more violence, but actual violence in the form of football doesn't?

O.K. That's the statement by the apologists for the Gaming Industry.

NOW, I will only bring up one thing to let you see how full of shit they are!

Ready? OK............... here goes!

"These people claim that violence does not affect gamers or people who watch T.V."

"They claim that the 22 minutes of programming in a half hour T.V. show has no influence on the increase in the rate of violence (especially among the dip shit teenagers who are the main practitioners) yet can't explain why a 30 second commercial on that same program can get $100,000- bucks to influence people................ while they say that their 22 minutes of programing doesn't have any affect!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Someone is out to lunch here, and I don't think it's me!"

As proof, look at the movie "Jackass" (If you can!) and then read about all the copy-cat stunts and injuries and deaths this movie has caused!)

Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God at www.God-101.com and the blog "Perspective" at http://God-101.blogspot.com

Why We Rarely Hear from Moderate Muslims!

Jamal Miftah, a Muslim who lives in Tulsa, wrote a column for the newspaper Tulsa World, condemning Al Qaeda and calling on Muslims to reject terrorism.

In return, until he apologizes for his article, he was kicked out of the local mosque by leaders and threatened with violence by other members of the peaceful Islamic community of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Oh, while we are on the subject of "peaceful" versus "non-peaceful."
Here is a quick lesson for Air travellers from Dennis Miller!
(Ever wonder why we have "racial profiling" for airline passengers?)


Your "just the facts ma'am" scribe;
Allan W Janssen

Islam, Religion of Violence?

(From my book: "The Plain Truth About God-101" (what the church doesn't want you to know!)

Islam is not only the religion of Muhammad. Islam means devotion to God, and is a newer version of the religion of Abraham.

After Muhammad’s death, Islam got off to a rocky start when warfare was used to spread the faith and three of the first four Caliphs died by violence.

The fourth Caliph, Ali, was a cousin of Muhammad and his followers then tore the community apart by claiming that Ali should have been the first caliph by virtue of his blood ties to Muhammad.

These people came to be known as the Shi’a or Shiite sect while the great majority of the followers of Muhammad, (who claim that succession does not rely on blood ties) are known today as the Sunni.

A great many differences exist to this day between these two main sects of Islam, and the distinctions go far deeper than just who should have succeeded Muhammad.

In fact, in the interpretation of the Koran itself, there are quite a few differences between the sects. There are passages that summarize the things a Muslim should believe. However, these were too brief to be sufficient. In addition, they were also too bare to be satisfying.

Because of this, we find different “creedal statements” circulating amongst the communities of both the Shiite and Sunni’s, as well as amongst the Sufi. (Who are mystical branches of Islam.)

On top of the differences between the sects of Islam, we have to remember that while Christianity was founded on the principal of “love” for on another, the main driving force behind Islam is that it was bound up in war, expansion and aggression from its very inception.

History has now given us an almost unbroken string of militant Islamic movements such as the "Assassins" of the 11th-12th century, the Wahhabis, (1715) and then the Ayatollah Khomeini and his followers. (Even if he is technically a Persian and not Arab)

As a result, no matter how close or far from the intended message of the Koran it was, portions of it were always used to justify Arab extremist and expansionist views.

In spite of this, religion is not the only factor to be considered here, and Islam can’t be blamed for all that is happening in the Middle East and elsewhere.

About the only places where religion has not played a great role in that part of the world is in Darfur, Uganda and Rawanda.

Some of the major hot spots in the last while are in Iraq, Lebanon,(Hamas and Fatah) Gaza, Somalia, Sudan and the Yugoslav wars.

These areas are not only wracked by religious tensions but are also the result of political, cultural, and nationalist factors that all contribute to the general instability of their particular area.

So, in the long run it would be unfair to say that Islam is a religion of violence by itself, but would rather be more accurate to say that because of outside forces such as politics and tribal or cultural differences, religion has been used in this area to further the agenda of different groups and ideologies!

Your Philosophical Scribe;
Allan

Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God-101 (what the church doesn't want you to know!) at; www.God-101.com
And the petition to have people mind their own business instead of yours at; http://www.petitiononline.com/moses/petition.html

Pope

The visit to Turkey by the Pope is drawing closer and as it does more and more outrage is being voiced by Muslims in that land. They are still upset about the Popes comments that Islam is a religion of violence and have been demonstrating against the visit.

Expect the death threats to start any day now!!!!!!!!!

Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God-101 (what the church doesn't want you to know!) at; www.God-101.com
And the petition to have people mind their own business instead of yours at; http://www.petitiononline.com/moses/petition.html

Guest Post - Michael Coren

Note: Michael Coren is a broadcaster with CFRB in Toronto and a writer for the National Post amongst other media endeavours.

I have a lot of respect for the guy and this is one of the reasons why.

Michael Coren, National Post
Published: Friday, November 03, 2006

Dr. Tawfik Hamid doesn't tell people where he lives. Not the street, not the city, not even the country. It's safer that way. It's only the letters of testimony from some of the highest intelligence officers in the Western world that enable him to move freely.

This medical doctor, author and activist once was a member of Egypt's Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya (Arabic for "the Islamic Group"), a banned terrorist organization. He was trained under Ayman al-Zawahiri, the bearded jihadi who appears in Bin Laden's videos, telling the world that Islamic violence will stop only once we all become Muslims.

He's a disarmingly gentle and courteous man. But he's determined to tell a complacent North America what he knows about fundamentalist Muslim imperialism.

"Yes, 'imperialism,' " he tells me. "The deliberate and determined expansion of militant Islam and its attempt to triumph not only in the Islamic world but in Europe and North America. Pure ideology.

Muslim terrorists kill and slaughter not because of what they experience but because of what they believe."

Hamid drank in the message of Jihadism while at medical school in Cairo, and devoted himself to the cause. His group began meeting in a small room. Then a larger one. Then a Mosque reserved for followers of al-Zawahiri. By the time Hamid left the movement, its members were intimidating other students who were unsympathetic.

He is now 45 years old, and has had many years to reflect on why he was willing to die and kill for his religion. "The first thing you have to understand is that it has nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with poverty or lack of education," he says. "I was from a middle-class family and my parents were not religious. Hardly anyone in the movement at university came from a background that was different from mine.

"I've heard this poverty nonsense time and time again from Western apologists for Islam, most of them not Muslim by the way. There are millions of passive supporters of terror who may be poor and needy but most of those who do the killing are wealthy, privileged, educated and free.

If it were about poverty, ask yourself why it is middle-class Muslims -- and never poor Christians -- who become suicide bombers in Palestine."

His analysis is fascinating. Muslim fundamentalists believe, he insists, that Saudi Arabia's petroleum-based wealth is a divine gift, and that Saudi influence is sanctioned by Allah. Thus the extreme brand of Sunni Islam that spread from the Kingdom to the rest of the Islamic world is regarded not merely as one interpretation of the religion but the only genuine interpretation.

The expansion of violent and regressive Islam, he continues, began in the late 1970s, and can be traced precisely to the growing financial clout of Saudi Arabia.

"We're not talking about a fringe cult here," he tells me. "Salafist [fundamentalist] Islam is the dominant version of the religion and is taught in almost every Islamic university in the world.

It is puritanical, extreme and does, yes, mean that women can be beaten, apostates killed and Jews called pigs and monkeys."

He leans back, takes a deep breath and moves to another area, one that he says is far too seldom discussed: "North Americans are too squeamish about discussing the obvious sexual dynamic behind suicide bombings.

If they understood contemporary Islamic society, they would understand the sheer sexual tension of Sunni Muslim men.

Look at the figures for suicide bombings and see how few are from the Shiite world. Terrorism and violence yes, but not suicide. The overwhelming majority are from Sunnis.

Now within the Shiite world there are at least what is known as temporary marriages, lasting anywhere from an hour to 95 years. It enables men to release their sexual frustrations.

"Islam condemns extra-marital sex as well as masturbation, which is also taught in the Christian tradition. But Islam also tells of unlimited sexual ecstasy in paradise with beautiful virgins for the martyr who gives his life for the faith."

Don't for a moment underestimate this blinding passion or its influence on those who accept fundamentalism."

A pause. "I know. I was one who accepted it."

This partial explanation is shocking more for its banality than its horror. Mass murder provoked partly by simple lust. But it cannot be denied that letters written by suicide bombers frequently dwell on waiting virgins and sexual gratification.

"The sexual aspect is, of course, just one part of this. But I can tell you what it is not about. Not about Israel, not about Iraq, not about Afghanistan. They are mere excuses.

Algerian Muslim fundamentalists murdered 150,000 other Algerian Muslims, sometimes slitting the throats of children in front of their parents. Are you seriously telling me that this was because of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians or American foreign policy?"

He's exasperated now, visibly angry at what he sees as a willful Western foolishness. "Stop asking what you have done wrong. Stop it! They're slaughtering you like sheep and you still look within. You criticize your history, your institutions, your churches. Why can't you realize that it has nothing to do with what you have done but with what they want."

Then he leaves -- for where, he cannot say. A voice that is silenced in its homeland and too often ignored by those who prefer convenient revision to disturbing truth. The tragedy is that Tawfik Hamid is almost used to it.

- Michael Coren is an author and broadcaster. www.michaelcoren.com

Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God-101 (what the church doesn't want you to know!) at; www.God-101.com
And the petition to have people mind their own business instead of yours at; http://www.petitiononline.com/moses/petition.html

"Oh Yea! Well so are you!"

A few words about what the Pope said about Islam this week and how it was recieved by the Muslim community.

Basically the Pope quoted from a fourteenth century document that said "Islam is a religion that is spread by the sword!" (Now this is nothing new since that is exactly how is was spread and as an example three of the first four caliphs to succeed Muhammed were murdered.)

Was it just a quote about a statement made six or seven hundred years ago or used as a springboard to address issues that are relevant today? Was it perhaps used as a statement to expose a flaw in Islam that needs to be addressed.

One of the factors to consider in this whole debate is what was the purpose behind the statement. (Look at the church burnings and murders because of it!) Has the Catholic Church changed its direction and started to address issues it sees in need of correction? Will this "change in direction" lead to further friction between the two great religions? How can the Catholic Church raise these issues with its own history of violence and subterfuge?

To "get things into perspective here," (God I love those words!) don't forget we are looking at two religions that are opposite sides of the same coin.

Muhammed and Islam was in an almost constant state of war from 622 c.e. to 661 c.e., had a civil-war between 656 c.e. and 661 c.e., serious episodes of violence in 680 c.e. and 692 c.e., another civil was between 744 c.e. and 75. c.e. and then further expansion by warfare until the Crusaders arrived.

Chrisianity, meanwhile, spread its influence through force and terror during most of its history. (Helped in no small part by the Hapsburgs)
Including that great party they called the "Inquisition."

So there you have it! Although it has not been declared for many, many years, (war) we have two great institutions vying for power by whatever means possible. For one to criticize the other is like the pot calling the kettle black!

Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God-101 (what the church doesn't want you to know!) at; www.God-101.com
And the petition to have people mind their own business instead of yours at; http://www.petitiononline.com/moses/petition.html