Posts from ‘Religion’
Rest for the weary
With all the craziness that has descended upon our country since Obama’s election, I find it is easy for me to sink into a feeling of despair sometimes because I see that our wonderful, once-in- human-history country is sinking and disappearing into an abyss of unrecognizable government controlled collectivism.
When I feel myself beginning to feeling this way, I know I can always count on The Anchoress to offer a post that helps me find my way back to a feeling of faith and optimism and today is no different. She has a beautiful post that she calls Advent pause for weary minds. If you are also feeling a sense of sadness filling your heart, please stop by her place and get centered again.
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or subcribe via email. Thanks for stopping by!
Women in America live a life that is about as diametrically opposed as can be from the life that Saudi women live. I lose patients when I hear American women, who have the right to do about anything they want, including kill their own unborn babies, complain about whatever issue has their panties in a bunch when I know how women in Saudi Arabia are forced to live. See, women in the House of Saud are treated like chattel. They can’t go anywhere alone. They must have a male chaperon with them at all times when they are in public. I remember when Katie Couric reported from Saudi Arabia several years ago. There she was on live television doing interviews with a male chaperon at her side the entire time. It was shocking and offensive that the government and culture thought she was so inferior that she could not be allowed to do her job independently.
As a result, one Saudi feminist is trying to draw international attention to how oppressive the Saudi rules are toward women. From CNN (Link via Hot Air):
Wajeha al-Huwaider picked up her passport, got in a taxi, and headed from her home in eastern Saudi Arabia to the nearby island kingdom of Bahrain — a 45-minute drive that many Saudis take to get away for the weekend.
Despite having a valid passport, Saudi authorities at the border sent al-Huwaider home. That’s because in Saudi Arabia, a woman needs permission from her male guardian before she can leave the country.
Al-Huwaider — a vocal women’s rights activist in Saudi Arabia — knew before she left that she would be turned away at the border. Her attempted trip was simply to make a point about the Saudi guardianship system that she says “controls all aspects of women’s lives.”
“Either you treat us like mature citizens or let us leave the country (permanently),” she told CNN.
She’s urging all Saudi women who are tired of “being oppressed” to go “to any border and try to cross it without permission from their male relative.”
She wants to end Saudi Arabia’s strict guardianship laws in which women must get permission from their husband, father, or closest male relative before doing the most mundane of tasks — including working outside the home, going to school, maintaining a bank account, or leaving the country for a weekend getaway.
As expected, the Saudi government is telling Human Rights watch that it is reforming rights for women while it continues to enforce its draconian, hateful rules toward women.
I can’t imagine living in a country where I had absolutely no rights and the men viewed me as a piece of property. The men clearly hate women so much they don’t want to so much as look at them in public, which is why women must be fully covered. Take a look at Saudi Arabia’s “Miss Beautiful Morals.” She’s praised because she submits to being reduced to nothing but a shadow with no identity whatsoever. Then again, she doesn’t have a choice really. If she wants to have any kind of life at all, she has to submit to the rules the men have made for her.
Men blame women if they are raped. Women are killed if they do anything that the men think have brought shame on them. I am convinced that if the men in these cultures could manage to propagate the male population without the assistance of women, they would get rid of the girls and women all together.
I saw this at Gateway Pundit. Marzieh Amirizadeh, 30, and Maryam Rustampoor, 27, are facing execution for converting to Christianity. Currently they are being held in an Iranian prison, which is probably worse than anything we could possibly imagine. Here’s their picture:
We get the story from the Bos News Life:
As the world focuses on the political turmoil in Iran, two detained Christian women are “in danger of being forgotten” amid concerns they may face execution, Iranian Christians said Tuesday, July 7.
Marzieh Amirizadeh, 30, and Maryam Rustampoor, 27, have been held for over four months in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison apparently for converting to Christianity from Islam.
Iranian Christians and rights investigators said the two young women, who were arrested March 5, suffered sleep deprivation as part of police interrogations and were held in solitary confinement for three weeks in May and early June.
Later, they were put together in one small cell for about two weeks before being moved to a larger area to make place for other inmates, including many protesters who were detained following last month’s disputed presidential elections, said Christians with close knowledge about the situation.
These two women are facing execution even though the Iranian Parliamentary Committee supposedly removed execution for apostasy from its Islamic Penal Code, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be executed anyway.
I saw this video first at Bookworm Room and then at Mommy Life. It’s a frightening glimpse at what the world will look like in about 50 years from now based upon current birth rates around the world. Right now, Muslims out breed everyone else on the planet and as their numbers grow, so does the power of Islam.
Matthew 28:1-10
After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.
The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”
So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.” (NIV)
In public, Saudi women are required to cover themselves from head to toe in burqas so that men aren’t forced to look at them. But that isn’t good enough. Now Saudi clerics want all Saudi women banned from television and media.
Hardline Saudi clerics have called on the government to ban women from appearing on television and to prohibit their images in print media, which they called a sign of growing “deviant thought.”In a letter to new Information Minister Abdul Aziz al-Khoja that appeared on websites this week, the 35 Islamic clerics also condemned the increase of music and dancing on television, as well as images of women in popular newspapers and magazines that they labelled “obscene.”
“Our faith in you is great to carry out media reform, for we have seen how perversity is rooted in the ministry of information and culture, on television, radio, in the press, literary clubs, and book fairs,” the letter said.
It cited an alleged plan to “westernise” Saudi women by “reducing their rights to a question of removing veils, wearing makeup and mixing with men.”
It added that the ministry had permitted the import of “obscene newspapers and magazines that are filled with deviant thought and pictures of beautiful women on its covers and inside.”
“There should be no Saudi woman on television, in any case,” they said.
“There is no doubt that this is religiously impermissible.”
I think Saudi clerics would get rid of Saudi women all together if they could find a way to create boy babies without them.
This is a story we don’t hear very often. A husband in Santiago, Chile, is just as committed to his wife who has been in a coma for 14 years as he was the day he married her. This gentleman doesn’t care how long his wife remains in her coma; he said he will remain by her side. It’s an amazing story, one I wish Terri Schiavo could have had:
From Mark’s most recent post at The Corner:
Hamas is a mental illness masquerading as a nationalist movement.
Bingo!
Read his entire post.
Now Britons must acquiesce to Muslims’ disdain for dogs? Unbelievable.
Alun Elder-Brown, a recruitment executive, said he was left feeling “like a piece of dirt” after being barred from bringing the animal into Kirthon Restaurant in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, on religious grounds.
The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association said the decision was illegal under the Disability Discrimination Act and Mr Elder-Brown, 51, is now considering suing the establishment in The Pantiles.
It follows a series of successful prosecutions of Muslim taxi drivers who refused to carry guide dogs in their cars because they considered them unclean on religious grounds.
I would not be surprised if at some point Muslims in the UK become so comfortable imposing their beliefs on others that Muslim men begin to demand that non-Muslim women wear hajibs in their presence so they don’t have to look at their hair. They may not succeed, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they try. Islamists’ goal is to gain control and power over others through Islam.
There’s a reason why London is called Londonistan. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, I suggest reading the book Londonistan by Melanie Phillips and America Alone by Mark Steyn.
Hat tip: RightWingSparkle
I have no idea why Muslim parents in England and Wales are sending their kids to Catholic schools, but for most parents who choose to do so, it is for one, if not both, of these reasons: 1) you want your child to learn about/practice the Catholic faith. 2) You want your child to have a better education in general. And when you send your kids to a Catholic school, you know that your child will be expected to participate in the Catholic activities such as Mass, Confession, and other practices
But not in England. The Catholic bishops there are calling for all Catholic schools to open Muslim prayer rooms and facilities for Muslim kids to go through their pre-prayer cleaning rituals.
I’m guessing the Muslim parents are sending their kids to the Catholic schools in the first place for a better education, but for the Catholic schools to subjugate their own faith for that of their Muslims students is really frustrating. The Catholic church in England must be hard up for money.
But this is not unprecedented, however, for Catholic leaders to acquiesce to Muslims. In August of last year, a Catholic bishop in the Netherlands recommended that we all refer to God as Allah for the purpose of getting along. And in September of last year, The University of Dayton, a Catholic university, opened Muslim prayer rooms.
All this deferential treatment of the Muslim faith is one more reason why Catholic churches are having a negative affect on the faith of its Catholic students. According to 2003 study, many Catholic students who graduated from Catholic universities left with an antagonistic view of their own faith.
It’s really a shame. I was baptized Catholic, attended catechism, received my first communion, and was confirmed. I don’t attend Mass or really practice the faith anymore because my husband is non-denominational Protestant and when we met he was much more involved in his church that I was in mine. But we talk a lot about Christianity and what he and I actually believe. After reading so much of CS Lewis, William F. Buckley and other Catholic writers, he respects and likes Catholicism. In fact, he said a while ago that if there were a Catholic church nearby us that suited us, he’d wouldn’t mind attending there. Personally, I’d love to go back to attending Mass. But that’s a topic for another day.
About me
I am a conservative. I believe in the greatness of America. I also believe that she is this world's last best hope for freedom, liberty, individualism, and self-reliance.
