Saw this a couple of nights ago - great post!

Great post!

*discard now, save later!

Will *discard now and get someone to save later

*promote

*Congrats on the quality sifting!!!

btw - I was at London Central Mosque today for the Jumu'ah Khutbah (Friday sermon). In the past the khutbah used to be only in Arabic. The majority of the congregation - particularly the younger members - cannot speak Arabic and so they could not understand what was being said. Many of the younger members of the congregation were originally attracted to extremist imams because they delivered their khutbah's in English or Urdu. Thankfully this has changed and the khutbah at London Central Mosque is now given in English and Arabic. Today's Khutbah was on the importance of Peace (as-Salaam) and justice (al-'Adl).

However, while the extremists elements have been removed from the mosque they are still there. When we left the mosque there was a small group of Hizb ut-Tahrir supporters with a microphone handing out leaflets and screaming about British oppression, General Musharraf, and the need to establish a global Islamic caliphate. Thankfully, they were largely ignored or ridiculed by the majority of the congregation.

This should make it through - if it doesn't I will save it.

*Special thanks to the whole Sift team - Dag, James, Lucky - for making all of this possible!!!

"And don't ever lie about something I said or put words into my mouth again, you little shit."

Again Fletch you just resort to abuse. Everything that I accuse you of saying you have said. Abuse is the last resort of a desperate man. Grow up, and learn to be civil.

"You only seem to be interested in dealing dogma, and are dismissive and condescending to any view or comment or video which criticizes Islam." - Fletch

"None of those videos have anything to do with Islam." - Silvercord

The following videos, are all critical of Islamic fundamentalism, and have all been published on this site – in my own Islamica collective:

http://www.videosift.com/video/Muslim-Women-Fight-for-Equal-Access-to-Canadas-Mosques
http://www.videosift.com/video/Riz-Khan-The-Fight-Against-Honour-Killings-in-Jordan
http://www.videosift.com/video/Panorama-White-Fright-Britains-Growing-Ethnic-Division
http://www.videosift.com/video/Divorced-Women-in-Yemen-Struggle-to-Find-Social-Acceptance
http://www.videosift.com/video/Pakistan-Between-The-Mullahs-And-The-Military
http://www.videosift.com/video/Al-Jazeera-The-Plight-of-Womens-Rights-Activists-in-Iran
http://www.videosift.com/video/Female-Author-Talks-About-Women-Sex-and-Taboos-in-Saudi
http://www.videosift.com/video/Muslim-Women-Fight-For-Equal-Access-To-British-Mosques
http://www.videosift.com/video/A-Stranger-In-Her-Own-City-A-Tomboy-in-Yemen
http://www.videosift.com/video/The-Doha-Debates-Tackling-Extremism-Must-See-Debate
http://www.videosift.com/video/The-Women-of-Islam-Veiling-Seclusion-Great-Documentary

Hey - but I guess they don't count???

*Congrats Choggs!

The Sift would be a hell of a lot duller and less colourful without you!!!

"Respect the person, not necessarily his ideas"

If just finished watching that Christopher Hitchens video that jwray recommended above. The first part is very good - an erudite and lucid defence of free speech which I highly support. Hitchens argues that some religious people use freedom of speech to spread an intolerant message of hate, but then call for censorship when people start criticising their beliefs. This is entirely true, and is precisely why we should not have censorship. But then Hitchens descends into a venomous rant aimed at all religions - but of course, he reserves particular contempt for Islam. I have two points to make regarding the rest of the video:

(1) What is so ridiculous is that his comments about the Qur'an show that he has never ever read it. For example, he claims that the vast majority of the Qur'an is a bad copy of previous religious texts. This is just factually untrue - from an Islamic and an objective sceptical perspective. While there are indeed some references to the Bible - New and Old Testaments - in the Qur'an, it is an original work of a very different nature - structurally, poetically, theologically, etc. Furthermore, he never talks about the historical and political factors contributing to the rise of modern Islamic extremism - seeking instead to portray it as an inevitable manifestation of the Islamic faith.

(2) I don't see how someone like Hitchens can claim to be anti-hatred when he himself preaches hatred. He does not simply urge people to be wary, or sceptical, or critical of religion - but to hate religion. Now he could argue that he is urging hatred of ideas not of people - respect the people, not the ideas. But religion is such an important part of many people's personal identity that it is very difficult to disentangle the people from their beliefs.

Hatred should never be advocated - it is no substitute for objective criticism.

Great post!

The soundtrack is Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade - one of my favourite pieces of *music!!!

"Separatists motivated only by ethnic differences are indefensible."

I'm no expert on the ULFA, but I believe that their ideology is communist. They are opposed to the capitalist mentality of modern India. They claim to represent "independent minded struggling peoples" irrespective of race, tribe, caste, religion and nationality.