A Muslim's Prayer

"Please, God, let our husbands, our brothers, our sons be temperate in their faith."

From the Algerian writer Boualem Sansal's novel, Harraga. (Naturally, it's banned in Algeria.) Also from the novel:

"I keep asking myself: Does Islam produce true believers, craven cowards, or terrorists? There is no easy answer, as all are talented actors."

Don't Like What Someone's Saying? Do Not Sit With Them.

Mustafa Akyol had an interesting piece in the New York Times yesterday:

The only source in Islamic law that all Muslims accept indisputably is the Quran. And, conspicuously, the Quran decrees no earthly punishment for blasphemy . . . Nor, for that matter, does the Quran command stoning, female circumcision or a ban on fine arts. All these doctrinal innovations . . . were brought into the literature of Islam as medieval scholars interpreted it . . .

Tellingly, severe punishments for blasphemy . . . appeared when increasingly despotic Muslim empires needed to find a religious justification to eliminate political opponents...

Before all that politically motivated expansion . . . the Quran told early Muslims, who routinely faced the mockery of their faith by pagans: 

“God has told you in the Book that when you hear God’s revelations disbelieved in and mocked at, do not sit with them until they enter into some other discourse; surely then you would be like them.” 

 Just “do not sit with them” — that is the response the Quran suggests for mockery. Not violence. Not even censorship.

I was reminded of this when I read the comment of Rachid Kadmar, 33, a French citizen from Lyon. This individual said of the Charlie Hebdo magazine editors, “They deserved murder.”

No, Rachid. You deserve an education.

From the cover of "Charlie Hebdo"

The prophet Muhammad is on a Charlie Hebdo cover from last October, being beheaded by an ISIS executioner. 

“I am the prophet, asshole!” Muhammad says.
“Shut up, infidel,” replies the masked killer.

The issue that led to the 2011 bombing, “guest-edited” by the Prophet Muhammad, who says, “100 lashes if you are not dying of laughter.”

A 2011 cover after a firebombing of the magazine’s headquarters. Headline translated: “Love is stronger than hate.”

If Allah is great, why does he need Muslim fundamentalists to "defend" him?

I'm shocked—but not surprised—to hear of the attack on the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine by Muslim extremists. Gunning down unarmed cartoonists is so woefully pitiful...

Drawing by David Pope.

Atheists find amusing/horrifying the degree of passion others have over the comparative virtues of competing nonsensical theories.

— Gene Weingarten (@geneweingarten) January 7, 2015

If Mohammed used social media

Via.

prophet mohammed did not update his profile picture

Frank Zappa's shout-out to radical Islam

"Dumb All Over"

Whoever we are, wherever we're from, we shoulda noticed by now our behaviour is dumb
And if our chances expect to improve it's gonna take a lot more than tryin' to remove the other race or the other whatever from the face of the planet altogether
They call it "The Earth" which is a dumb kinda name but they named it right 'cause we behave the same
We are dumb all over
Dumb all over, yes we are, dumb all over, near and far, dumb all over, black 'n white, people, we is not wrapped tight
And nerds on the left, nerds on the right
Religious fanatics on the air every night, sayin' the bible tells the story and makes the details sound real gory about what to do if the geeks over there don't believe in the book we got over here
You can't run a race without no feet
And pretty soon there won't be no street for dummies to jog on or doggies to dog on
Religious fanatics can make it be all gone
I mean it won't blow up and disappear, it'll just look ugly for a thousand years
You can't run a country by a book of religion
Not by a heap or a lump or a smidgeon of foolish rules of ancient date, designed to make you all feel great while you fold, spindle and mutilate those unbelievers from a neighbouring state
To arms … two arms?
Hooray! That's great, two legs ain't bad
Unless there's a crate they ship the parts to mama in
For souvenirs: two ears (Get down)
Not his, not hers but what the hey
The good book says, "It's gotta be that way"
But their book says, "Revenge the crusades"
With whips 'n chains and hand grenades
Two arms, two arms
Have another and another
Our Cod says, "There ain't no other"
Our Cod says, "It's all ok"
Our god says "This is the way"
It says in the book, "Burn and destroy"
And repent and redeem and revenge and deploy and rumble thee forth to the land of the unbelieving scum on the other side
'Cause they don't go for what's in the book and that makes 'em bad
So verily we must choppeth them up and stompeth them down
Or rent a nice French bomb to poof them out of existence while leaving their real estate just where we need it to use again for temples in which to praise our god, 'cause he can really take care of business
And when his humble TV servant with humble white hair and humble glasses and a nice brown suit and maybe a blonde wife who takes phone calls, tells us our god says it's ok to do this stuff, then we gotta do it
'Cause if we don't do it we ain't "Gwine up to hebbin"
Depending on which book you're using at the time
Can't use theirs, it don't work, it's all lies, gotta use mine
Ain't that right?
That's what they say
Every night, everyday
Hey, we can't really be dumb if we're just following god's orders
Well let's get serious, god knows what he's doin'
He wrote this book here and the book says, "He made us all to be just like him"
So, if we're dumb, then god is dumb and maybe even a little ugly on the side
Dumb all over, a little ugly on the side
Dumb all over, a little ugly on the side
Dumb all over, a little ugly on the side
Dumb all over, a little ugly on the side