Peace Center For The Blind

Mansour, a remarkable woman who was struck blind by measles at the age of two and went on to found the Peace Center for the Blind in Jerusalem. At ...

<>http://www.kinghussein.gov.jo/kabd_eng.h ...

This fascinating essay, written by King Hussein's grandfather King Abdullah, appeared in the United States six months before the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
**************************************...

"As the Arabs see the Jews"
His Majesty King Abdullah,
The American Magazine
November, 1947

I am especially delighted to address an American audience, for the tragic problem of Palestine will never be solved without American understanding, American sympathy, American support.
So many billions of words have been written about Palestine—perhaps more than on any other subject in history—that I hesitate to add to them. Yet I am compelled to do so, for I am reluctantly convinced that the world in general, and America in particular, knows almost nothing of the true case for the Arabs.
We Arabs follow, perhaps far more than you think, the press of America. We are frankly disturbed to find that for every word printed on the Arab side, a thousand are printed on the Zionist side.
There are many reasons for this. You have many millions of Jewish citizens interested in this question. They are highly vocal and wise in the ways of publicity. There are few Arab citizens in America, and we are as yet unskilled in the technique of modern propaganda.
The results have been alarming for us. In your press we see a horrible caricature and are told it is our true portrait. In all justice, we cannot let this pass by default.
Our case is quite simple: For nearly 2,000 years Palestine has been almost 100 per cent Arab. It is still preponderantly Arab today, in spite of enormous Jewish immigration. But if this immigration continues we shall soon be outnumbered—a minority in our home.
Palestine is a small and very poor country, about the size of your state of Vermont. Its Arab population is only about 1,200,000. Already we have had forced on us, against our will, some 600,000 Zionist Jews. We are threatened with many hundreds of thousands more.
Our position is so simple and natural that we are amazed it should even be questioned. It is exactly the same position you in America take in regard to the unhappy European Jews. You are sorry for them, but you do not want them in your country.
We do not want them in ours, either. Not because they are Jews, but because they are foreigners. We would not want hundreds of thousands of foreigners in our country, be they Englishmen or Norwegians or Brazilians or whatever.
Think for a moment: In the last 25 years we have had one third of our entire population forced upon us. In America that would be the equivalent of 45,000,000 complete strangers admitted to your country, over your violent protest, since 1921. How would you have reacted to that?
Because of our perfectly natural dislike of being overwhelmed in our own homeland, we are called blind nationalists and heartless anti-Semites. This charge would be ludicrous were it not so dangerous.
No people on earth have been less "anti-Semitic" than the Arabs. The persecution of the Jews has been confined almost entirely to the Christian nations of the West. Jews, themselves, will admit that never since the Great Dispersion did Jews develop so freely and reach such importance as in Spain when it was an Arab possession. With very minor exceptions, Jews have lived for many centuries in the Middle East, in complete peace and friendliness with their Arab neighbours.
Damascus, Baghdad, Beirut and other Arab centres have always contained large and prosperous Jewish colonies. Until the Zionist invasion of Palestine began, these Jews received the most generous treatment—far, far better than in Christian Europe. Now, unhappily, for the first time in history, these Jews are beginning to feel the effects of Arab resistance to the Zionist assault.. Most of them are as anxious as Arabs to stop it. Most of these Jews who have found happy homes among us resent, as we do, the coming of these strangers.
I was puzzled for a long time about the odd belief which apparently persists in America that Palestine has somehow "always been a Jewish land." Recently an American I talked to cleared up this mystery. He pointed out that the only things most Americans know about Palestine are what they read in the Bible. It was a Jewish land in those days, they reason, and they assume it has always remained so.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. It is absurd to reach so far back into the mists of history to argue about who should have Palestine today, and I apologise for it. Yet the Jews do this, and I must reply to their "historic claim." I wonder if the world has ever seen a stranger sight than a group of people seriously pretending to claim a land because their ancestors lived there some 2,000 years ago!
If you suggest that I am biased, I invite you to read any sound history of the period and verify the facts.
Such fragmentary records as we have indicate that the Jews were wandering nomads from Iraq who moved to

An awareness of history would help, but I think one of the biggest problems is that we tend evaluate complex situations with an overly simplistic 'good guys' v 'bad guys' mentality. It's a dangerous way to form alliances and the alliance we have with Israel is a strange one indeed! As you point out, the US has consistently turned a blind eye to Israel's actions and infractions. It's no wonder that we are seen as hypocrites throughout the Middle East and the rest of the world. For example...

The US insists that Iran comply with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, but it's OK that Israel has been secretive and opaque regarding it's own nuclear weapons program and refused to sign the treaty.
http://www.economicexpert.com/a/Nuclear: Non:Proliferation:Treaty.htm
http://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/Nu clearweaponswhohaswhat

During the 2006 conflict between Israel and Hezbollah:
-- UN: Israel Commits 70 Ceasefire Violations; Hezbollah Commits 4
http://www.democracynow.org/2006/9/1/hea dlines

During the period between 1967 and 2000, Iraq was the subject of 69 Security Council resolutions. By comparison, Israel, our closest "ally" in the Middle East, has been the subject of 138 resolutions.
http://www.mediamonitors.net/michaelslad ah&suleimaniajlouni1.html

2009-01-13 23:30:31 by Benjamin T

Does anybody agree that Islam needs some sort of reformation in its teachings?
Every day there's an increasing amount of evidence that Islamic violence is not due to tribal, land,or governmental disputes but is instead rooted in the idealogies and teachings of Islam.

Cases like these in which US citizens without any terrorist associations demonstrate that what harmlessly promotes itself as "The Religion of Peace" is an extremely volatile tool that can easily be harnassed into a theological weapon brainwashing followers into killing innocent people.

Just think about it, converts are expected to change their name to a muslim name, they're required to visit a stupid rock at least once in their lives, expected to learn Arabic because any other translation of the Quran is not the 'true word of Allah' and the list goes on. Its full of irrational rules and requirements. Not only that but questioning Islam is frowned upon : "O ye who believe! Ask not questions about things which if made plain to you, may cause you trouble. Some people before you did ask such questions, and on that account lost their faith." (Surah 5:101-102)." It doesn't sound like much of a religion to me. It sounds more like a brainwashed cult.

Afghanistan was once a center of Buddhism and peace, now it's an Islamic desert ruled by the Taliban. Sudan was a relatively peaceful country until radical Islamist officials took office and then proceeded to create mass genocide of non-muslims (Darfur). Somalia is now in ruins, again - due to radical Islamists. Nigeria is constantly suffering from Islamist warfare. Similar stories can be seen throughout countries that have had a large influx of muslim immigration. Seriously, when are politicians around the world finally going to wake up and put and end to this garbage? I'm tired of everyone turning a blind eye to the root of these problems because they don't want to offend anyone. Political correctness is going to be the death of Western Culture and civilization as we know it because Islam is not just a religion, it is a culture, a government, and a way of life; political correctness allows muslim activists to implement all their Islamic laws and get away with it .
There's already cases where some taxi cab drivers refuse to service customers with dogs because it not in compliance with their religion. Same goes for foot baths in public places, halal meat, etc. Before you know it they'll ask for sharia law and there's not a thing we can do about it because they'll just say "you're violating my right to practice my religion!"

There's seems to be no appeasing many of these muslim countries. They say they want equality, and no discrimination, freedom to practice their religion, etc. but the ironic thing is.. they're not doing the same for foreigners and christians living in muslim countries. Muslim countries are notorious for prosecuting, oppressing, discriminating, and killing Christians.

Isn't it clear that radical Islam and the West do not mix. Radical Islam will bring the West to its knees unless the West recognizes that Islam is the one religion that cannot be appeased or accommodated UNLESS it first makes changes in its teachings.


Many people who disagree that Islam doesn't need reformation have worldview that allows (and predisposes them) to reconcile all of the dissonance for the sake of similitude and symmetry.

The very fact that Islam has a multitude of hadith, several schools of thought, and three major denominational factions (yes, I count Sufism) is indicative of the fact that people have tried to and have found need to make sense out of the contradictions and inconclusiveness of the religion. Certainly, all has been done in an effort to follow the straight path, but clearly efforts to "reform", whether major or minor, have been made.

This is not an indictment of Islam (or Christianity or of any religion). But it is an indication that when religion meets humanity, whether from the hand of a prophet like Muhammad, or a God-made-flesh deity like Christ Jesus, or on stone tablets to Moses, humanity's imperfections always produce contradictions and followers, once they are the recipients of a canon (like the Torah, or the Christian Bible, or the Qur'an) must find ways to make sense out of it all, or risk losing their worldviews.


And before any of you start the whole 'ignorant, read the Quran, we're a religion of peace' crap .. Please know that I HAVE studied the Quran and Hadiths myself and it has done nothing but strengthen my belief that Islam is nothing but a bunch of incoherent lies created by a pedophile to suppress and govern nomadic people in the Arabian Penninsula. Seriously, I found so many contradictions within that I repeatedly asked myself how can so many people blindlessly follow it. I can provide you with all the Surah verses you want.
And yes, I do realize not all muslims are radical/extremists/terrorist, I have muslim friends myself, but until muslims

I can't believe I just read that entire rant lol. You seem to be very biased against Islam (obviously). Fine by me, I'm an atheist. Just as long as you don't discriminate against anyone in real life (the internet is not real life). Atheists are sick of the discrimination and tension caused by the clash of different religions. The world would be a lot more peaceful if everyone was an atheist, because then we could draw our moral code from within rather than "holy" books conceived of hundreds of years ago. Alas, I digress.

"...because Islam is not just a religion, it is a culture, a government, and a way of life; political correctness allows muslim activists to implement all their Islamic laws and get away with it."
I could say the same for Christianity or Judaism. Wanna see?
"Christianity is not just a religion, it is a culture, a government, and a way of life; political correctness allows Christian activists to implement all their Christian laws and get away with it."
Before you get your panties all in a bunch, just consider how right I really am for a quick second. Christianity IS a culture and a way of life (look at the music, books, lifestyle, "God, Guns, Guts, and Pick-up Trucks", etc.). I'm sick of Christian "morale" getting implemented into my countries laws. Secularism doesn't truly exist, at least not in the U.S. That's why I love France. They have a code and damnit, they're sticking to it.

I do SOMEWHAT agree with you, however. Being quite the feminist, Islam's oppression of women truly saddens me. Think it's getting better with the younger generations? It's not...it's getting worse. As an Atheist, I can truly have an unbiased view of this entire issue and I won't deny that there does seem to be a sort of, shall we say, "Muslim problem". It sounds really bad to describe it that way but there you go.

2010-03-18 10:48:47 by Raiji

This is here because Islam is in many sense also a culture. Anyways,Does anybody agree that Islam needs some sort of reformation in its teachings?
Every day there's an increasing amount of evidence that Islamic violence is not due to tribal, land,or governmental disputes but is instead rooted in the idealogies and teachings of Islam.

Cases like these in which US citizens without any terrorist associations demonstrate that what harmlessly promotes itself as "The Religion of Peace" is an extremely volatile tool that can easily be harnassed into a theological weapon brainwashing followers into killing innocent people.

Just think about it, converts are expected to change their name to a muslim name, they're required to visit a stupid rock at least once in their lives, expected to learn Arabic because any other translation of the Quran is not the 'true word of Allah' and the list goes on. Its full of irrational rules and requirements. Not only that but questioning Islam is frowned upon : "O ye who believe! Ask not questions about things which if made plain to you, may cause you trouble. Some people before you did ask such questions, and on that account lost their faith." (Surah 5:101-102)." It doesn't sound like much of a religion to me. It sounds more like a brainwashed cult.

Afghanistan was once a center of Buddhism and peace, now it's an Islamic desert ruled by the Taliban. Sudan was a relatively peaceful country until radical Islamist officials took office and then proceeded to create mass genocide of non-muslims (Darfur). Somalia is now in ruins, again - due to radical Islamists. Nigeria is constantly suffering from Islamist warfare. Similar stories can be seen throughout countries that have had a large influx of muslim immigration. Seriously, when are politicians around the world finally going to wake up and put and end to this garbage? I'm tired of everyone turning a blind eye to the root of these problems because they don't want to offend anyone. Political correctness is going to be the death of Western Culture and civilization as we know it because Islam is not just a religion, it is a culture, a government, and a way of life; political correctness allows muslim activists to implement all their Islamic laws and get away with it .
There's already cases where some taxi cab drivers refuse to service customers with dogs because it not in compliance with their religion. Same goes for foot baths in public places, halal meat, etc. Before you know it they'll ask for sharia law and there's not a thing we can do about it because they'll just say "you're violating my right to practice my religion!"

There's no appeasing these muslim countries! They say they want equality, and no discrimination, freedom to practice their religion, etc. but the ironic thing is.. they're not doing the same for foreigners and christians living in muslim countries. Muslim countries are notorious for prosecuting, oppressing, discriminating, and killing Christians.

Isn't it clear that radical Islam and the West do not mix. Radical Islam will bring the West to its knees unless the West recognizes that Islam is the one religion that cannot be appeased or accommodated UNLESS it first makes changes in its teachings.


Many people who disagree that Islam doesn't need reformation have worldview that allows (and predisposes them) to reconcile all of the dissonance for the sake of similitude and symmetry.

The very fact that Islam has a multitude of hadith, several schools of thought, and three major denominational factions (yes, I count Sufism) is indicative of the fact that people have tried to and have found need to make sense out of the contradictions and inconclusiveness of the religion. Certainly, all has been done in an effort to follow the straight path, but clearly efforts to "reform", whether major or minor, have been made.

This is not an indictment of Islam (or Christianity or of any religion). But it is an indication that when religion meets humanity, whether from the hand of a prophet like Muhammad, or a God-made-flesh deity like Christ Jesus, or on stone tablets to Moses, humanity's imperfections always produce contradictions and followers, once they are the recipients of a canon (like the Torah, or the Christian Bible, or the Qur'an) must find ways to make sense out of it all, or risk losing their worldviews.


And before any of you start the whole 'ignorant, read the Quran, we're a religion of peace' crap .. Please know that I HAVE studied the Quran and Hadiths myself and it has done nothing but strengthen my belief that Islam is nothing but a bunch of incoherent lies created by a pedophile to suppress and govern nomadic people in the Arabian Penninsula. Seriously, I found so many contradictions within that I repeatedly asked myself how can so many people blindlessly follow it. I can provide you with all the Surah verses you want.
And yes, I do realize not all muslims are radical/extremists/terrorist,
@Khad
you just proved my point and I think I've made a much bigger effort to try to understand the Quran and Islam by actually studying it unlike many others who blindlessly criticisize, and what do i get despite those efforts? 'You'll never understand unless you're muslim' ... well there ya go.. I HAVE TO convert to understand you? Sorry there's a problem.

I'm only familiar with one small part of Islam but it pretty much sums up my feeling about the religion and it's followers. I don't know the exact wording but it basically said that if you don't believe in the teaching of Islam you should basically be put to death. Seems self explanatory to me...it's a violent religion...nothing peaceful about it. "Death to the Infidels" is how I interpret that particular teaching. I do not like Islam or it's followers.

2010-03-18 10:44:53 by Raiji

Does anybody agree that Islam needs some sort of reformation in its teachings?
Every day there's an increasing amount of evidence that Islamic violence is not due to tribal, land,or governmental disputes but is instead rooted in the idealogies and teachings of Islam.

Cases like these in which US citizens without any terrorist associations demonstrate that what harmlessly promotes itself as "The Religion of Peace" is an extremely volatile tool that can easily be harnassed into a theological weapon brainwashing followers into killing innocent people.

Just think about it, converts are expected to change their name to a muslim name, they're required to visit a stupid rock at least once in their lives, expected to learn Arabic because any other translation of the Quran is not the 'true word of Allah' and the list goes on. Its full of irrational rules and requirements. Not only that but questioning Islam is frowned upon : "O ye who believe! Ask not questions about things which if made plain to you, may cause you trouble. Some people before you did ask such questions, and on that account lost their faith." (Surah 5:101-102)." It doesn't sound like much of a religion to me. It sounds more like a brainwashed cult.

Afghanistan was once a center of Buddhism and peace, now it's an Islamic desert ruled by the Taliban. Sudan was a relatively peaceful country until radical Islamist officials took office and then proceeded to create mass genocide of non-muslims (Darfur). Somalia is now in ruins, again - due to radical Islamists. Nigeria is constantly suffering from Islamist warfare. Similar stories can be seen throughout countries that have had a large influx of muslim immigration. Seriously, when are politicians around the world finally going to wake up and put and end to this garbage? I'm tired of everyone turning a blind eye to the root of these problems because they don't want to offend anyone. Political correctness is going to be the death of Western Culture and civilization as we know it because Islam is not just a religion, it is a culture, a government, and a way of life; political correctness allows muslim activists to implement all their Islamic laws and get away with it .
There's already cases where some taxi cab drivers refuse to service customers with dogs because it not in compliance with their religion. Same goes for foot baths in public places, halal meat, etc. Before you know it they'll ask for sharia law and there's not a thing we can do about it because they'll just say "you're violating my right to practice my religion!"

There's no appeasing these muslim countries! They say they want equality, and no discrimination, freedom to practice their religion, etc. but the ironic thing is.. they're not doing the same for foreigners and christians living in muslim countries. Muslim countries are notorious for prosecuting, oppressing, discriminating, and killing Christians.

Isn't it clear that radical Islam and the West do not mix. Radical Islam will bring the West to its knees unless the West recognizes that Islam is the one religion that cannot be appeased or accommodated UNLESS it first makes changes in its teachings.


Many people who disagree that Islam doesn't need reformation have worldview that allows (and predisposes them) to reconcile all of the dissonance for the sake of similitude and symmetry.

The very fact that Islam has a multitude of hadith, several schools of thought, and three major denominational factions (yes, I count Sufism) is indicative of the fact that people have tried to and have found need to make sense out of the contradictions and inconclusiveness of the religion. Certainly, all has been done in an effort to follow the straight path, but clearly efforts to "reform", whether major or minor, have been made.

This is not an indictment of Islam (or Christianity or of any religion). But it is an indication that when religion meets humanity, whether from the hand of a prophet like Muhammad, or a God-made-flesh deity like Christ Jesus, or on stone tablets to Moses, humanity's imperfections always produce contradictions and followers, once they are the recipients of a canon (like the Torah, or the Christian Bible, or the Qur'an) must find ways to make sense out of it all, or risk losing their worldviews.


And before any of you start the whole 'ignorant, read the Quran, we're a religion of peace' crap .. Please know that I HAVE studied the Quran and Hadiths myself and it has done nothing but strengthen my belief that Islam is nothing but a bunch of incoherent lies created by a pedophile to suppress and govern nomadic people in the Arabian Penninsula. Seriously, I found so many contradictions within that I repeatedly asked myself how can so many people blindlessly follow it. I can provide you with all the Surah verses you want.
And yes, I do realize not all muslims are radical/extremists/terrorist, I have muslim friends myself, but until muslims and muslim countrie

That's an interesting line of reasoning but it does rather collapse in light of the fact that the most militaristic, aggressive and destructive nation the planet has ever known is overwhelmingly Christian.

2010-03-18 10:50:27 by Raiji