Harold isn’t Muslim. He’s Catholic. I’m Methodist. Somehow we’ve managed to live peacefully married for 57 years. We didn’t get married in the church. As far as I am concerned that was no great loss. A short ceremony meant I got to eat cake sooner.
And just like Harold, Barack Hussein Obama isn’t a Muslim either… unless of course you attend a McCain rally where they think he’s either Muslim, a terrorist sympathizer, or not a United States citizen. Most recently they are calling him a socialist. They probably think that is some type of religion too. Smart ones those McCain supporters. One week they want to beat him up for something Rev. Wright said and the next week they want to hate him for being Muslim. For crying out loud people, he’s Christian. But exactly what would be the issue if he were a Muslim?
There are 2.1 billion Christians in the world today, and almost half of those are Catholic. There are also 1.5 billion who practice Islam. And there are almost 3 billion people in the world who don’t belong to either of the aforementioned groups, including about 1.1billion (that’s billion with a B) who consider themselves to be secular or nonreligious. And guess what folks? There are good and bad in each group. Let’s take the Republican base for example…
Just because you go to church doesn’t mean your shit doesn’t stink. Just ask Joe the Plumber. Pray when you want, to whomever you want, wherever you want. That is what is so great about our country. But remember, freedom of religion is a double edged plunger. When you start attacking people from a different religion, you open the door to people who attack you because they think their religion is better than your religion. And while we are on the subject of people who think their religion is better than your religion have you paid attention to what Governor Palin believes?
Palin has called on people to pray for the cooperation necessary to build a natural gas pipeline across Alaska, referred to the U.S. mission in Iraq a “task that is from God” and argued that students should be taught creationism in public schools. She would rather do away with sex education all together. As an evangelical of the Pentecostal persuasion, she supports a strict adherence to moral codes- no tobacco, no alcohol, no sex outside of marriage… well two out of three ain’t bad anyway. Oh gosh, there I go throwing stones while living in a glass house.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t have an issue with her being a religious woman. I just have concerns with her ability to understand the diversity of the world today. Imagine what decisions you might make if you believe the end of days is on tomorrow’s menu. You’d probably still order breakfast, but you just might consider things like conserving natural resources to be irrelevant. Drill, drill, drill. After all, what would be the point in saving the earth?
I can’t say I know when the end of days will be, but one thing I know for sure: When religion gets in bed with politics, we all wake up with regrets. Well, except of course for Sarah Palin.
Thanks for stopping by everyone. I mean it. Really.
I love you! You are a great, wise woman. My new mantra is “Sarah, keep your religion away from my rights and my daughters’ rights.” America would be wise to demand the same or we will turn into one of those countries (Iraq, Iran, etc.) where Relgion is forced down your throat and if you choke on it, they behead you all in the name of God, no less. I truly believe, if there is a God, that he wants no part of any of the man-made religions on this earth nor does he want to be the center of our politcal games. Keep HIM the hell out of politics and he will keep YOU out of hell.
By: Stephanie on October 31, 2008
at 3:35 PM
Thanks again, Helen. So many people try to “defend” Obama by saying “He’s not a Muslim! He’s a good man and a Christian!” When really they should be saying, “He’s not a Muslim, but there’s nothing wrong with it either way.”
People are so ignorant of Islam, they don’t even realize how close it is to Christianity. Which is also very similar to Judaism. They all started in the same place, teach the same basic morals and even tell some of the same stories. They just present through different “prophets”. Why does one religion have to be “right”? Why can’t these 3 just be 3 versions of the same perception of truth?
Me, I am agnostic. But I give no disrespect to the religious, just as I would hope they treat me. We all need to find our own answers and some things make more sense to some people. Someone’s religion doesn’t really tell much about who they are as a person. Religious people have done wicked things and non-religious have done good & “saint-like” things. I know that bringing Nazis into the mix will usually negate an argument- but they are Christians too. Religion is only what you make of it. And besides, an intolerant Christian is hardly in-keeping with the word of Christ, are they?
By: Danyell on October 31, 2008
at 9:41 AM
I’m not a religious person, but you, my dear, are a gift from God. I have no doubt about that. I have added your blog to my “favorites” and will be checking in daily. You are witty, wise, and wonderful.
By: Cootermarie on October 30, 2008
at 8:33 PM
One of my friends has a saying “Going to church makes you no more of a Christian than sitting in my garage makes me a car.” While I won’t fall into the trap of saying that Palin is or isn’t a Christian (because I don’t know her personally and I actually put stock in the whole “Judge not” spiel), I *will* say that her god and my god probably don’t see eye to eye very often.
While I’m too young to have lived through the Red Scare, I’ve got to say that the attempts to smear Obama using the Muslim label really reek of McCarthy’s methods. I, for one, am tired of that particular smell.
By: Burning River on October 30, 2008
at 10:35 AM
“She would rather do away with sex education all together.”
Which is apart of an awful compromise keeping many confused by sexual signaling, victims of preventable violence resulting from maladaptations that result from misinformation or the lack of access to good sources, and pawns to abortion issues kept alive to promote financial interests and exigetic command/ control (both sides require social class stratification so supporters can provide real world examples “of need” for issue support).
By: andy adkins on October 30, 2008
at 2:13 AM
[...] Harold Isn’t a Muslim Either [...]
By: Not Moderate, but Very Funny on October 29, 2008
at 5:38 PM
Let’s try a thought experiment. Say John McCain attended a party at which known racists and terror mongers were in attendance. Say testimonials were given, including a glowing one by McCain for the benefit of the guest of honor … who happened to be a top apologist for terrorists. Say McCain not only gave a speech but stood by, in tacit approval and solidarity, while other racists and terror mongers gave speeches that reeked of hatred for an American ally and rationalizations of terror attacks.
Now let’s say the Los Angeles Times obtained a videotape of the party.
Question: Is there any chance — any chance — the Times would not release the tape and publish front-page story after story about the gory details, with the usual accompanying chorus of sanctimony from the oped commentariat? Is there any chance, if the Times was the least bit reluctant about publishing (remember, we’re pretending here), that the rest of the mainstream media (y’know, the guys who drove Trent Lott out of his leadership position over a birthday-party toast) would not be screaming for the release of the tape?
Do we really have to ask?
So now, let’s leave thought experiments and return to reality: Why is the Los Angeles Times sitting on a videotape of the 2003 farewell bash in Chicago at which Barack Obama lavished praise on the guest of honor, Rashid Khalidi — former mouthpiece for master terrorist Yasser Arafat?
At the time Khalidi, a PLO adviser turned University of Chicago professor, was headed east to Columbia. There he would take over the University’s Middle East-studies program (which he has since maintained as a bubbling cauldron of anti-Semitism) and assume the professorship endowed in honor of Edward Sayyid, another notorious terror apologist.
The party featured encomiums by many of Khalidi’s allies, colleagues, and friends, including Barack Obama, then an Illinois state senator, and Bill Ayers, the terrorist turned education professor. It was sponsored by the Arab American Action Network (AAAN), which had been founded by Khalidi and his wife, Mona, formerly a top English translator for Arafat’s press agency.
Is there just a teeny-weenie chance that this was an evening of Israel-bashing Obama would find very difficult to explain? Could it be that the Times, a pillar of the Obamedia, is covering for its guy?
Gateway Pundit reports that the Times has the videotape but is suppressing it.
Back in April, the Times published a gentle story about the fete. Reporter Peter Wallsten avoided, for example, any mention of the inconvenient fact that the revelers included Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, Ayers’s wife and fellow Weatherman terrorist. These self-professed revolutionary Leftists are friendly with both Obama and Khalidi — indeed, researcher Stanley Kurtz has noted that Ayers and Khalidi were “best friends.” (And — small world! — it turns out that the Obamas are extremely close to the Khalidis, who have reportedly babysat the Obama children.)
Nor did the Times report the party was thrown by AAAN. Wallsten does tell us that the AAAN received grants from the Leftist Woods Fund when Obama was on its board — but, besides understating the amount (it was $75,000, not $40,000), the Times mentions neither that Ayers was also on the Woods board at the time nor that AAAN is rabidly anti-Israel. (Though the organization regards Israel as illegitimate and has sought to justify Palestinian terrorism, Wallsten describes the AAAN as “a social service group.”)
Perhaps even more inconveniently, the Times also let slip that it had obtained a videotape of the party.
Wallsten’s story is worth excerpting at length (italics are mine):
It was a celebration of Palestinian culture — a night of music, dancing and a dash of politics. Local Arab Americans were bidding farewell to Rashid Khalidi, an internationally known scholar, critic of Israel and advocate for Palestinian rights, who was leaving town for a job in New York.
A special tribute came from Khalidi’s friend and frequent dinner companion, the young state Sen. Barack Obama. Speaking to the crowd, Obama reminisced about meals prepared by Khalidi’s wife, Mona, and conversations that had challenged his thinking.
His many talks with the Khalidis, Obama said, had been “consistent reminders to me of my own blind spots and my own biases. . . . It’s for that reason that I’m hoping that, for many years to come, we continue that conversation — a conversation that is necessary not just around Mona and Rashid’s dinner table,” but around “this entire world.”…
[T]he warm embrace Obama gave to Khalidi, and words like those at the professor’s going-away party, have left some Palestinian American leaders believing that Obama is more receptive to their viewpoint than he is willing to say.
Their belief is not drawn from Obama’s speeches or campaign literature, but from comments that some say Obama made in private and from his association with the Palestinian American community in his hometown of Chicago, including his presence at events where anger at Israeli and U.S. Middle East policy was freely expressed.
At Khalidi’s 2003 farewell party, for example, a young Palestinian American recited a poem accusing the Israeli government of terrorism in its treatment of Palestinians and sharply criticizing U.S. support of Israel. If Palestinians cannot secure their own land, she said, “then you will never see a day of peace.”
One speaker likened “Zionist settlers on the West Bank” to Osama bin Laden, saying both had been “blinded by ideology.”
Obama adopted a different tone in his comments and called for finding common ground. But his presence at such events, as he worked to build a political base in Chicago, has led some Palestinian leaders to believe that he might deal differently with the Middle East than … his opponents for the White House….
At Khalidi’s going-away party in 2003, the scholar lavished praise on Obama, telling the mostly Palestinian American crowd that the state senator deserved their help in winning a U.S. Senate seat. “You will not have a better senator under any circumstances,” Khalidi said.
The event was videotaped, and a copy of the tape was obtained by The Times.
Though Khalidi has seen little of Sen. Obama in recent years, Michelle Obama attended a party several months ago celebrating the marriage of the Khalidis’ daughter.
In interviews with The Times, Khalidi declined to discuss specifics of private talks over the years with Obama. He did not begrudge his friend for being out of touch, or for focusing more these days on his support for Israel — a stance that Khalidi calls a requirement to win a national election in the U.S., just as wooing Chicago’s large Arab American community was important for winning local elections.
So why is the Times sitting on the videotape of the Khalidi festivities? Given Obama’s (preposterous) claims that he didn’t know Ayers that well and was unfamiliar with Ayers’s views, why didn’t the Times report that Ayers and Dohrn were at the bash? Was it not worth mentioning the remarkable coincidence that both Obama and Ayers — the “education reform” allies who barely know each other … except to the extent they together doled out tens of millions of dollars to Leftist agitators, attacked the criminal justice system, and raved about each others books — just happen to be intimate friends of the same anti-American Israel-basher? (Despite having watched the videotape, Wallsten told Gateway Pundit he “did not know” whether Ayers was there.)
Why won’t the Times tell us what was said in the various Khalidi testimonials? On that score, Ayers and Dohrn have always had characteristically noxious views on the Israeli/Palestinian dispute. And, true to form, they have always been quite open about them. There is no reason to believe those views have ever changed. Here, for example, is what they had to say in Prairie Fire, the Weather Underground’s 1974 Communist manifesto (emphasis in original):
Palestinian independence is opposed with reactionary schemes by Jordan, completely opposed with military terror by Israel, and manipulated by the U.S. The U.S.-sponsored notion of stability and status-quo in the Mideast is an attempt to preserve U.S. imperialist control of oil, using zionist power as the cat’s paw. The Mideast has become a world focus of struggles over oil resources and control of strategic sea and air routes. Yet the Palestinian struggle is at the heart of other conflicts in the Mideast. Only the Palestinians can determine the solution which reflects the aspirations of the Palestinian people. No “settlements” in the Mideast which exclude the Palestinians will resolve the conflict. Palestinian liberation will not be suppressed.
The U.S. people have been seriously deceived about the Palestinians and Israel. This calls for a campaign to educate and focus attention on the true situation: teach-ins, debates, and open clear support for Palestinian liberation; reading about the Palestinian movement—The Disinherited by Fawaz Turki, Enemy of the Sun; opposing U.S. aid to Israel. Our silence or acceptance of pro-zionist policy is a form of complicity with U.S.-backed aggression and terror, and a betrayal of internationalism.
SELF-DETERMINATION FOR THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE!
U.S. OUT OF THE MIDEAST!
END AID TO ISRAEL!
Barack Obama wouldn’t possibly let something like that pass without a spirited defense of the Israel he tells us he so staunchly supports … would he? I guess to answer that question, we’d have to know what was on the tape.
But who has time for such trifles? After all, isn’t Diana Vreeland about to critique Sarah Palin’s sartorial splendor?
By: Anonymous on October 28, 2008
at 12:22 AM
I love you guys. I feel the same way you do and I too am a Catholic. You know what gets me, the religious right, the base of the Rpublican Party, must not have ever studied history.
How does it work for you when you try to cram your beliefs down someone elses throat? Does anyone remember the Crusades or the Inquisition?
By: Susan Gordon on October 26, 2008
at 10:24 AM
Margaret and Helen,
Just stumbled across your blog. Love it! How refreshing to hear your progressive views. My husband and I support Obama and pay attention to the issues. I was brought up Congregationalist and he’s a Jew. Our kids are a bit confused, but we teach them about being good people, first and foremost. We show them that two people – from completely different religious backgrounds – can find true love and peace together. I no longer can align myself with the Christian religion based on the intolerance of others that is often preached. I write a humor blog as well. Hope you’ll stop by and hopefully have a laugh.
By: Lisa Christiano Rose on October 25, 2008
at 11:02 PM
Oh, no Helen! Now I am hooked on your blog. It is so good that I wonder why we can’t get someone like you advising the president. Bet we would not be in this mess. They keep pointing out why we need Palin because she will get corruption out of Washington and stuff like that. Well, we need a woman who thinks, a woman who sees all sides of the issue, a woman with common sense, a woman who can write in full sentences. I could go on and on. Palin would have to live to be 500 to be half the woman you are!
By: Jeanne Rhea on October 24, 2008
at 6:32 PM
Hi Helen – Good points, as always. “Palin has …. argued that students should be taught creationism in public schools.”
And people wonder why we are not producing enough scientists …
By: emilypotter on October 24, 2008
at 2:06 AM
If you’re adopting people I’ll take you as my Mother………..love your blogs
By: blgmama on October 23, 2008
at 6:18 PM
You’re cracking me up. Keep up the great work – I will happily be linking to you from my blog
By: blabby on October 22, 2008
at 11:21 PM
Great posts! personally I think some good old-fashioned socialism — like the public school and library systems, and FDR’s New Deal — are just what we need right now.
By: mockstar on October 22, 2008
at 7:09 PM