and our Prophet has informed us that our Lord says:-- Whoever amongst us is killed (i.e. martyred), shall go to Paradise to lead such a luxurious life as he has never seen, ....Volume 4, Book 53, Number 386

It is in the Islamic Traditions that we find the 72 virgins in heaven specified: in a Hadith (Islamic Tradition) collected by Al-Tirmidhi (died 892 CE [common era

Dark-eyed virgins sheltered in their tents (which of your Lord's blessings would you deny?) whom neither man nor jinnee will have touched before." The word hur occurs four times in the Koran and is usually translated as a "maiden with dark eyes".

Modern apologists of Islam try to downplay the evident materialism and sexual implications of such descriptions

A Palestinian Authority religious leader encourages the striving to achieve Shahada by promising numerous rewards for those dying as shahids, including "72 dark eyed" - the 72 virgins.

PA social and religious teaching promises great heavenly rewards for shahids, those who die for Allah. One of the rewards promised in PA Islam, is "72 dark eyed," - the Maidens of Paradise

Q: Mr. President, you spoke about missteps and mistakes in Iraq. Could I ask both of you which missteps and mistakes of your own you most regret? PRESIDENT BUSH: It sounds like kind of a familiar refrain here. (Scattered laughter.) Saying "Bring it on." Kind of tough talk, you know, that sent the wrong signal to people. That I learned some lessons about expressing myself maybe in a little more sophisticated manner. You know, "Wanted dead or alive," that kind of talk. I think in certain parts of the world it was misinterpreted. And so I learned -- I learned from that. And, you know, I think the biggest mistake that's happened so far, at least from our country's involvement in Iraq, is Abu Ghraib. We've been paying for that for a long period of time. And it's -- unlike Iraq, however, under Saddam, the people who committed those acts were brought to justice; they've been given a fair trial and tried and convicted.

The boy's father, 54-year-old Hassan Hotari, reports Kelley, says he is "very happy and proud of what my son did and, frankly, am a bit jealous." Hotari's son was responsible for the June 1 terrorist bombing outside a disco in Tel Aviv - the worst such incident in four years. "I wish I had done it. My son has fulfilled the Prophet's (Mohammed's) wishes. He has become a hero! Tell me, what more could a father ask?"

"Every time the president is criticized, he insists that the nation is in his prayers," said the Family Research Council's Bob Jensen. "That may be, but it's becoming more and more clear that these prayers are either too infrequent, too brief, or not strongly worded enough to be effective." Jensen added: "This nation deserves more than a president who just pays lip service to prayer. It deserves a president who demands that his prayers get real-world results." ... The White House Office of Communications, which has denied any wrongpraying, released transcripts of Bush's inner dialogues with God from May 12 through Oct. 22, 2005 and tried to paint the president as "very close" to the Almighty, saying he speaks with Him "regularly."

Peaches - So, in your world only those who do unpopular things have "moral courage?"

In my experience it takes moral courage to put yourself at risk, especially if by doing so you will also put your loved ones at risk. The citizen who leaves his wife and family to fight for country must have a high belief in the morality of his actions and from that he draws his moral and physical courage.

They filled up Blackburn Lancashire (sp?)

SD - And you just sound so happy that the economy might turn bad. Oh well, that is just so you.

The Catholic church was reformed. Islam has not been. It remains a religion of conquest and war.

2004 Total attacks: 26,496 Improvised bombs: 5,607 Car bombings: 420 Suicide car bombings: 133 Suicide bombers wearing explosive vests: 7 2005 Total attacks: 34,131 Improvised bombs: 10,593 Car bombings: 873 Suicide car bombings: 411 Suicide bombers wearing explosive vests: 67

The use of the term "martyr" for a suicide bomber is a very recent innovation by Islamist radicals. Traditional Islam forbids suicide and a suicide would never have been considered a "martyr" in classical Islam. You can't interpret a religion with 1.3 billion members that has dominated much of the Old World for 1400 years through the lens of the last 20 years in Gaza-Israeli relations. If you do, it leads you to look like a total idiot and frankly, a fascist.]

ppj paints with a very wide and ahistorical brush.

As far as suicide bombers and the 72 virgings go, it really doesn't matter. Heaven is what we make of it. Christains have their pearly gates and everlasting happiness and the bombers are promised virgins for their everlasting happiness.

The Prophet said, 'Nobodbe killed 10 times for the sake of the great honour that has been bestowed upon himy who enters Paradise will ever like to return to this world even if he were offered everything, except the martyr who will desire to return to this world and '." [Sahih Muslim, chapters 781, 782, The Merit of Jihad and the Merit of Martyrdom.]

The difference is vast. Christians aren't "suciders" and their religion doesn't urge it. Go back and read some of the links:

Juan Cole? Really? You regard him as a source that is accurate?

Two years ago, White House budget documents showed that the FBI in 2003 had 23,785 open terror investigations. For a country that hadn't seen a terrorist attack in two years, that was a lot of terrorist investigations! The previous year, 2002, they had something like 12,000 open terror probes; the stat was around 9,000 in 2001. That's odd, isn't it? Despite the absence of terrorism, the FBI was continuing to open thousands of new terrorism investigations every year. What to make of it?

it was my understanding that having Hayden as head of the CIA was unconstitutional.

· THE CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY IS AN UNCONSTITUTIONAL ENTITY. THIS AGENCY WAS NOT SET UP WITHIN THE BASIC FOUNDATION OF THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION, WHICH REQUIRES A SYSTEM OF CHECKS AND BALANCES. · THIS AGENCY IS THE ONLY AGENCY WHO'S BUDGET, PERSONEL, DOCUMENTS ETC. IS TOP SECRET AND UNAVAILABLE TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC AS WELL AS MOST GOVERNMENT LEADERS. · THIS AGENCY IN THE PAST AND MOST PROBABLY NOW TOO, CLOAKS THEIR CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR BEHIND THE SHEILD OF NATIONAL SECURITY, AND THEREFORE ARE IMMUNE FROM ANY POLICE AND SUBSEQUENTLY PROSECUTORIAL ACTION.

Cheney's secrecy violates an executive order.

The Office of the Vice President failed to report statistics regarding Cheney's classification and declassification activity in 2005, defying an executive order requirement that he do so. The Office of the Vice President has declined to report such data since 2002.

We don't know where an individuals faith is at during the moment of death or what he or she believes in

ppj - I'll decide who my enemies are.

According to the report, which was referred to the U.S. president George W. Bush, Mossad agents had been operating in Iraq with the aim of liquidating Iraqi nuclear and biology scientists, among other scientists, and prominent university professors.

The report also outlines a presentation by Dr Ismail Jalili titled "Plight of Iraqi Academics", in which he detailed Mossad crimes against the Iraqi scientists at at Madrid Cconference in late April of this year.

There has been to my knowledge virtually zero coverage or reprinting of this report by any western mainstream media, although USA Today did print a previous article datelined Baghdad January 25, 2005 stating that:

about 300 academics and university administrators have been assassinated in a mysterious wave of murders since the American occupation of Iraq began in 2003. About 2,000 others, he says, have fled the country in fear for their lives.

• The assassinations, kidnaps and threats to life forcing academics and doctors to leave Iraq do not follow any religious or sectarian pattern.
• The only dominant pattern is that the absolute majority of victims are ethnically Arabs.

Squeaky - Of course he will get appointed by Yale. What does that have to do with your question?

Yale has sunk so low that they have allowed a member of the Tailban to attend classes. This is truly a damning indictment of the collapse of our so-called "elite" schools

The stated mission of the Gamaliel Foundation (GF) is "to be a powerful network of grassroots, interfaith, interracial, multi-issue organizations working together to create a more just and more democratic society."

When the United Nations Security Council gave him one final chance to disclose and disarm, or face serious consequences, he refused to take that final opportunity. So coalition forces went into Iraq and removed his cruel regime. And today, Iraq's former dictator is on trial for his crimes _ and America and the world are better off because Saddam Hussein is no longer in power.

The only problem with that line of argument, of course, is that the UN didn't support going to war. The US flouted the will of the international community, fanning the flames of anti-Americanism. It thus is disingenuous, at best, for Bush to cite UN resolutions as a justification for the war.

After all the report was first published by Aljazeera. No credibility there

Squeaky - Nonsense. No one thinks that there is any way possible for Cole to NOT be appointed.

Posted by Jondee May 26, 2006 02:33 PM Its no accident that he likes to link to a Klansman-quoting "Jacksonian."

Despite historical experiences that would have completely alienated many ethnic minorities around the world, American black popular culture remains profoundly--and, in times of danger, fiercely--patriotic. From the Revolution onward, African Americans have sought more to participate in America's wars than to abstain from them, and the strength of personal and military honor codes in African-American culture today remains a critical factor in assuring the continued strength of American military forces into the twenty-first century.

As Hiram W. Evans, the surprisingly articulate Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, wrote in 1926, the old stock American of his time had become... a stranger in large parts of the land his fathers gave him. Moreover, he is a most unwelcome stranger, one much spit upon, and one to whom even the right to have his own opinions and to work for his own interests is now denied with jeers and revilings. 'We must Americanize the Americans,' a distinguished immigrant said recently

The old nativist spirit, anti-immigrant, anti-modern art and apparently anti-twentieth century, still had some bite--Ku Klux crosses flamed across the Midwest as well as the South during the 1920s-- but it all looked like the death throes of an outdated idea.

What came next surprised almost everyone. The tables turned, and Evans' Americans "americanized" the immigrants rather than the other way around. In what is still a largely unheralded triumph of the melting pot, Northern immigrants gradually assimilated the values of Jacksonian individualism. Each generation of new Americans was less "social" and more individualistic than the preceding one. American Catholics, once among the world's most orthodox, remained Catholic in religious allegiance but were increasingly individualistic in terms of psychology and behavior ("I respect the Pope, but I have to follow my own conscience"). Ties to the countries of emigration steadily weakened, and the tendency to marry outside the group strengthened.

ppj - So you're claiming those people arnt trying to thwart Coles appointment as your "nobody thinks he wont get the appointment" suggests?

The claims are all smears.

You..... are obviously part of the campaign to smear Juan Cole in order to derail an appointment at Yale. You are reprehensible. ....The smear is laughable and utterly transparent. He will get the appointment at Yale.

Squeaky - Of course he will get appointed by Yale. What does that have to do with your question?

• How does it feel to have arrived at a point where almost no one here has any respect for you, or even agrees with you on anything whether they respect you or not?
• You seem to purposely work towards producing such reaction from others... Why?
• You seem to believe that you somehow are the one man in a room full of the blind able to see truth. What is your basis for this belief?