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Debate launces because of latest Medal of Honor video game

The video game series "Medal of Honor" has been in need of a reboot after a successful run. Nevertheless, the newest video game in the series has ignited some fiery debate. The games are set in World War II, as a first person shooter. This could be the first not set in that war. Though not new to video games as a whole, the new "Medal of Honor" is set in Afghanistan. In multi-player mode, gamers can be either coalition forces (United States of America, U.K., etc.) or the Taliban in "Medal of Honor 2010." The video game is opposed through numerous. One of its most vocal opponents is Liam Fox, the Secretary of Defense for the United Kingdom. Source of article - Latest installment of Medal of Honor stirs controversy .

Game selling opposed by Fox

Salams and Ramadan Mubarak Everyone!

Last night was the Salaam Iftar here in Toronto. More than 300 people showed up to share love, faith, and community spirit in support of Salaam, Canada's Queer Muslim Fellowship (founded by El-Farouk Khaki). Here is their website if you want to check it out http://www.salaamcanada.org/intro.html. El-Tawhid Juma Circle (founded by El-Farouk Khaki, Troy Jackson, and I) organized a woman-led prayer for the event. I brought the rest of the left-over Prog Islam t-shirts and gave them out. I wonder if folks will be visiting the website who came last night! If so, welcome! We hope all of you will make accounts and take advantage of the community blogging feature. You make a blog and we all read it. Blog entries that strike a nerve or inspire are promoted to the front page. Bloggers who get committed are promoted to authors who can post on the front page whenever they like. A new author and content editor is joining the Fashion Mujahid in running this show: Fatima Thompson! For those of you who do not know her, she is the organizer behind the "pray-ins" in which women go and pray in the main section of the mosque which men have taken as their own. Women refusing to pray in the closet or the back room or behind a wall. They don't make a fuss. They just pray in the main hall, all the way in the back. Such a simple thing has been causing a lot of distress among some men. And good. They'll get used to sharing huge spaces with women, little by little. Women will get used to knowing that the space belongs to them, little by little. Its a slow and powerful movement, the trickling stream that carves out whole valleys. Peace and Ramadan Mubarak!.

Shah Mehmood Qureshi just appeared on Charlie Rose Show to discuss international aid for flood victims as well as updates on the conflict with the Taliban. I was very impressed by his articulate and detailed responses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shah_Mehmood_Qureshi

Excerpt:
On March 31, 2008, Qureshi became the Foreign Minister in the cabinet of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani.

After taking charge of the office, Qureshi immediately made clear that he was committed to establishing peace in the region and that maintaining friendly ties with neighboring India were amongst his top priorities. Qureshi recently went on his first visit as foreign minister to China with Ahmad Mukhtar and President Asif Ali Zardari. On his arrival back, he was given praise for his work. Qureshi has visited many states as Foreign Minister and has been very busy explaining Pakistan's stance on the war on terror to the foreign world.

Muslims have fought in the US armed forces, and with the US armed forces. The 2nd biggest army in NATO is Turkey. No ally of the US and South Korea had as many casualties in the Korean War than Turkey.

And Muslims have been part of the US military. American Muslims have fought and died for our freedoms, as Colin Powell has pointed out. And more Muslims died on 9-11 than perpetrated it.

So, we American Muslims have the same right to religious freedom as anyone else. Because of the Constitution, and because we have fought for the Constitution. Like all other American communities.

1) There would be some grounds for that comparison if Park51 were being built at Ground Zero.

But it's not at Ground Zero. It's as close to NYC City Hall as Ground Zero. (I've checked on the map). ...In fact, you can't see Park51 from Ground Zero, but you can see it from City Hall Park.

http://article.nationalreview.com/438941/ban-the-burqa/claire-berlinski?...

Excerpts:

I spoke to many women who described veiling themselves as an uncoerced act of faith. One businesswoman in her mid-30s told me that she began veiling in high school, defying her secular family. Her schoolteacher gasped when she saw her: “If Atatürk could see you now, he would weep!” Her pain at the memory of the opprobrium she had suffered was clearly real.

Why had she decided to cover herself? I asked. As a teenager, she told me, she had experienced a religious revelation. She described this in terms anyone familiar with William James would recognize. She began veiling to affirm her connection with the Ineffable. “Every time I look in the mirror,” she said, “I see a religious woman looking back. It reminds me that I’ve chosen to have a particular kind of relationship with God.”

I have spent the last two weeks recovering from stomach surgery and have been talking with a lot of friends on this subject and came to this conclusion.
The rumbles and drumbeats of war are slowly starting to grow the road to Iran seems clear.
The truth is Iran wants a nuclear bomb and there is nothing from what I can see will persuade them to change curse. The fourth round sanctions passed last month won't truly hurt Tehran even the far-reaching sanctions adopted by the U.S. and its allies against Iran are likely to change Iran's behavior As is expected World power and Iran are to resume talks in September but assuming Iran remained defiant in the face of sanctions, there won't be any deals made only stalling so they can secretly continue constructing a bomb.

I just completed reading the graveyard of empires and have came to the conclusion that we can't win in Afghanistan; we have two choices stay there for the long haul or make a deal with the Taliban. So the only way for us to exit the war are two hard choices. Make peace with the enemy or stay until the Afghan security forces are capable of holding their on. I don't honestly believe in the next thirty years the Afghan security forces will be able to take control and protect their people from the Taliban and their allies. Speaking to my dear friend who is there fighting, I can only repeat what he told me about the AGSF which is that they are either high on drugs or can't shoot straight nor does the Kabul government have the funds to pay for a large enough Army/police force which can operate on their own.

Here is an interesting read

The Crucifixion and
the Qur’an
A Study in the History of
Muslim Thought
by TODD LAWSON

http://www.oneworld-publications.com/pdfs/Crucifixionandthe%20Quran_text...

THEY DID NOT KILL HIM AND THEY DID NOT CRUCIFY HIM, RATHER,
IT ONLY APPEARED SO TO THEM. (Qur’an 4:157)
wa-mā qatalūhu wa-mā s.alabūhu wa-lākin shubbiha lahum

Various Excerpts:

‘Docetism’ is a word that comes from the Greek verb dokeō (‘to
seem’) or noun dokesis (‘appearance’).

The second way in which the term ‘Docetic’
may be used is as ‘figurative Docetism’. Here the ‘appearance’
refers to the body of Jesus, which was certainly crucified, as distinct
from his spiritual and eternal reality that, by its very nature, is
invulnerable to suffering and death. It is this figurative Docetism
that is evident in the story of the mystic/martyr hero Mans.ūr ibn
al-H. allāj (d. 309/922). According to none other than Abū H. āmid

There is a bus (I think the B38) that runs from the north to the south of Brooklyn along Dekalb Avenue. Each and every block has at least ONE store front church but several blocks have two and even three little churches. The signs will say things like Bishop Barb Smith, Pastor (I am making up the name.) My point is, what difference does it really make in the long run who builds a Mosque and where. If one is bad then they all are bad but if one is ok then they all are ok. We love to toot our horns about religious freedom and equality as long as we are not called upon to tolerate something that we find intolerable. Muslims come in all colors, sizes and flavors, good and bad, friendly and nasty, wealthy and poor, just like the Jews, Christians, Hindus etc. The extremists who become suicide bombers are about as representative of Islam as those Christians who handle poisonous snakes are representative of Christianity.

http://english.aljazeera.net/

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