‘Peace Will Reign After the Darkness’  (Interview with Cat Stevens)

Question: Is there any chance of going back on your decision to become Muslim?

Answer: No. It would be like reversing. I do not believe that another prophet would come to Earth. But some anti-Christ will emerge toward the end, who would have to be destroyed.

Question: Yes, but the price will be high….

Answer: The Qur’an says that, when the angels witnessed the making of man, they realized that he was violent by nature. And God told them: ‘I know something that you don’t know. Men have also goodness inside them.’

Question: Are you disappointed with what is happening?

Answer: I don’t think that perfection exists. I have recently come across people who think that they are right and everyone else is wrong. We must admit our mistakes and our failures if justice were to return.

Question: You are talking about people while I’m talking about countries.

Answer: I do not believe in collective responsibility. If you do something, you must bear responsibility for your actions. You cannot put one billion people on trial.

Question: But you can make them commit atrocities on your behalf.

Answer: In war there are leaders who drive others to violence. The people who obey are victims.

Question: What about the Muslim suicide bombers?

Answer: M-m-h. This is not acceptable, either. Suicide is prohibited by the Qur’an.

Question: Why do they do it, then?

Answer: Man breaks at a moment of madness and under pressure. And he forgets the rules according to which he lives. If this madness lasts a long time, the result is an imbalance which could affect whole nations.

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September 9th, 2004
YUSUF ISLAM SPEAKS OUT AGAINST THE HORRIFIC BESLAN SCHOOL SIEGE AND ITS BRUTAL ENDING
“Nothing is more precious to a parent than the love of their offspring, but for the parents of Beslan we can only share the tears and convey our deepest sympathies, though no words or effort could ever bring those children back into the violent world they so tragically left behind. There is no vocabulary fit to describe the gruesome cruelty of this event; watching helplessly as hundreds of children were mercilessly utilized as negotiating tokens in a political game, which they had absolutely nothing to do with, makes us ponder what kind of inhumane mentality the perpetrators had.” Peac

 

54 YEARS AGO TODAY

Sep 23 1950

Congress passes the McCarran Act, also known as The Internal Security Act of 1950. The act provides for severe restrictions on civil liberties, suspension of free speech, and placing of undesirable Americans in concentration camps. 

The Internal Security Act, popularly named for Nevada’s Senator Pat McCarran, who, in fact, commandeered the legislation from an earlier version by congressmen Karl Mundt and Richard Nixon, argued for the fingerprinting and registration of all “subversives” at large in the United States.

Pat McCarran 

Section  2. (9)  “In the United States those individuals who knowingly and willfully participate in the world Communist movement, when they so participate, in effect repudiate their allegiance to the United States, and in effect transfer their allegiance to the foreign country in which is vested the direction and control of the world Communist movement.”

The act’s passage by House and Senate was quite controversial. President Truman, who had himself imposed the Loyalty Order for federal government employees in 1947, immediately vetoed it, on the grounds that it “would make a mockery of our Bill of Rights [and] would actually weaken our internal security measures.” But his veto was overridden by a humbling 89 percent majority vote, and McCarran’s newly formed Senate Internal Security Subcommittee working closely with Hoover’s FBI set up shop and conducted hearings for the next twenty-seven years.

 One of the more bucolic provisions of the McCarran Act was its authorization of concentration camps “for emergency situations.”

“Section 102. (a) In the event of any one of the following:

(1) Invasion of the territory of the United States or its possessions, 

(2) Declaration of war by Congress, or

(3) Insurrection within the United States in aid of a foreign enemy, and if, upon the occurrence of one or more of the above, the President shall find that the proclamation of an emergency pursuant to this section is essential to the preservation, protection and defense of the Constitution, and to the common defense and safety of the territory and people of the United States, the President is authorized to make public proclamation of the existence of an ‘Internal Security Emergency.’

Section 103. (a) Whenever there shall be in existence such an emergency, the President, acting through the Attorney General, is hereby authorized to apprehend and by order detain, pursuant to the provisions of this title, each person as to whom there is reasonable ground to believe that such person probably will engage in, or probably will conspire with others to engage in, acts of espionage or of sabotage.”

The act has never been repealed.

from: Better Red Than Dead: A Nostalgic Look at the Golden Years of Russia Phobia, Red-baiting, and Other Commie Madness, by Michael Barson (New York: Hyperion, 1992).

 

 

ROME (AP) – A woman was killed Wednesday when a two-metre-tall metal crucifix fell on her head in a small town in southern Italy, police said.

Maddalena Camillo, 72, was walking in the main square in the village of Sant’Onofrio when the crucifix toppled from a monument being restored for a religious celebration, police said.

 

 

Wed Sep 22, 7:23 PM ET
An Islamist group in Iraq has said it killed Italian hostages Simona Pari (L) and Simona Torretta in a statement posted on an Internet site not often used by Iraqi militants. The group, calling itself the Jihad Organization, said it had killed the women after Italy did not heed its call to withdraw its forces from Iraq. The women are volunteers for the Italian aid organization ‘Un Ponte Per Baghdad’ (A Bridge for Baghdad).

Thu Sep 23, 2:02 AM ET
British hostage Kenneth Bigley is seen in this video posted on the Internet September 18, 2004. With time running out to save a British hostage in Iraq U.S. officials said they were not about to free Iraqi women prisoners as demanded by an al Qaeda ally whose group has already beheaded two Americans.

 

Christine Granville

 

Razor blades planted at volleyball courts

Last Updated Tue, 21 Sep 2004 08:54:25 EDT

Written by CBC News Online staff

 

 

Saturday, May 1, 2004

Selective Service eyes women’s draft
The proposal would also require registration of critical skills

By ERIC ROSENBERG
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON — The chief of the Selective Service System has proposed registering women for the military draft and requiring that young Americans regularly inform the government about whether they have training in niche specialties needed in the armed services.

The proposal also seeks to extend the age of draft registration to 34 years old, up from 25.

“In line with today’s needs, the Selective Service System’s structure, programs and activities should be re-engineered toward maintaining a national inventory of American men and, for the first time, women, ages 18 through 34, with an added focus on identifying individuals with critical skills.”

The agency has begun designing procedures for a targeted registration and draft of people with computer and language skills, in case military officials and Congress authorize it.

Americans would then be required to regularly update the agency on their skills until they reach age 35.

From HomerTheBrave

 

 

DALLAS (Reuters) - The North Fort Worth Historical Society will have a birthday party on Tuesday for its famous household fixture — a lightbulb that has burned continuously since Sept. 21, 1908. The bulb was first illuminated when a stagehand at a local opera house flicked a switch and posted a sign that the light over a stage entrance was not be turned off.

“We have no idea why it has lasted so long. That is the wonderful mystery of it,” said Sarah Biles, the administrator of the museum where the bulb burns, complete with its own independent power supply.

The Texas bulb is about 40 watts and made of thick glass that houses a sturdy carbon filament.

Despite having lasted 96 years so far, the Texas lightbulb does not hold the record for the longest continuously burning bulb in the world.

That honor goes to a some 4 watt bulb that has been burning at a firehouse in Livermore, California, since it was turned on in 1901.

 

 

Top Ten Signs that You’re a Christian:

10- You vigorously deny the existence of thousands of gods claimed by other religions, but feel outraged when someone denies the existence of your god.

9- You feel insulted and ‘dehumanized’ when scientists say that people evolved from lesser life forms, but you have no problem with the Biblical claim that we were created from dirt.

8- You laugh at polytheists, but you have no problem believing in a Trinity god.

7- Your face turns purple when you hear of the ‘atrocities’ attributed to Allah, but you don’t even flinch when hearing about how God/Jehovah slaughtered all the babies of Egypt in ‘Exodus’ and ordered the elimination of entire ethnic groups in ‘Joshua’ — including women, children, and animals!

6- You laugh at Hindu beliefs that deify humans, and Greek claims about gods sleeping with women, but you have no problem believing that the Holy Spirit impregnated Mary, who then gave birth to a man-god who got killed, came back to life and then ascended into the sky.

5- You are willing to spend your life looking for little loop-holes in the scientifically established age of the Earth (4.55 billion years), but you find nothing wrong with believing dates recorded by pre-historic tribesmen sitting in their tents and guessing that the Earth is a couple of generations old.

4- You believe that the entire population of this planet with the exception of those who share your beliefs — though excluding those in all rival sects — will spend Eternity in an infinite Hell of Suffering. And yet you consider your religion the most ‘tolerant’ and ‘loving’.

3- While modern science, history, geology, biology, and physics have failed to convince you otherwise, some idiot rolling around on the floor speaking in ‘tongues’ may be all the evidence you need.

2- You define 0.01% as a “high success rate” when it comes to answered prayers. You consider that to be evidence that prayer works. And you think that the remaining 99.99% FAILURE was simply the will of God.

1- You actually know a lot less than many Atheists and Agnostics do about the Bible, Christianity, and church history — but still call yourself a Christian.

From xianghong

 

 

THE RIGHT TO ROAM

Laws passed four years ago to allow walkers onto moors, downland, heath, mountain and common land designated as “access land”, come into force at the weekend in two areas of England – the South East and Lower North West.

The new laws do not give people a right to roam anywhere. Areas like gardens and cultivated land are not included and there are restrictions on some areas at certain parts of year.

A total of 105,253 hectares of new access land will be opened on Sunday – 13,853 in the South East and 91,400 in the Lower North West, including the Peak District.

Other regions will follow suit in the coming months.

The enclosures in the late 18th and early 19th century saw campaigns for the right to roam begin, with the levellers and early Labour movement in the vanguard.

The first attempt to get public access laws passed in Parliament came in 1884, was repeated every year until 1916.

The campaign continued through the 20th century, with one of the most famous episodes being when hundreds of people went on a mass trespass on Kinder Scout, Derbyshire.

Fifty years on, Terry Howard, 58, helped set up the Sheffield Campaign for Access to Moorlands (Scam) in 1982, organising a series of trespasses in the Peak District.

He says Sunday will allow people to discover new views and get away from life’s frustrations.

“It is gaining rights that people that people once had to enjoy their countryside and share in it, rather than just see it from afar,” Mr Howard told BBC News Online.

“Every footstep on new access land will be a celebration. What once were steps of political statement will be steps of political celebration.”

Nick Barrett, chief executive of the Ramblers’ Association, called Sunday a historic day: “These landscapes are as much a part of our national heritage as structures like Stonehenge.”

The preparations for the new laws have seen some landowners appeal against their land being designated for access – most famously over Madonna’s £9m country estate on the Wiltshire/Dorset border.

 

The new rights allow most open-air recreational activities, such as walking, birdwatching, climbing and running.

But they do not include horse riding or cycling or camping, except where they are already allowed.

-http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3663728.stm

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THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND
words and music by Woody Guthrie

Chorus:
This land is your land, this land is my land
From California, to the New York Island
From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me

As I was walkin’  -  I saw a sign there
And that sign said – no tress passin’
But on the other side  …. it didn’t say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!