It must be hard raising Moslem children these days.

They blow up so fast.

Wilfred,

{loud groan}

Good trend, disturbing snapshot: 23% still think suicide bombing is often or sometimes justified.

Until I see action against the Islamists by “mainline” Muslims instead of just talk, then this survey has no meaning.

H

I say Muslim and you say Moslem. I say Q’uran and you say Koran.  Does anyone know who decides the spelling when one language is translated into another that does not share the same letters or characters?  One of the problems in tracking certain terror suspects is the difficulty in having several alternative spellings of common names.

I’m no expert on taste or humor, but perhaps it may be intended to shame the perpetrators of the evil, or to publicize facts that some parties are eager to conceal.

## 5, 6 : ‘moslem’ and ‘muslim’ are just romanizations of an Arabic word (which isn’t pronounced exactly the same throughout the Arabic, let alone non-Arabic speaking Islamic, world, as anyone who knows about linguistics will understand. Personally, I’d prefer to call them ‘Mohammadans’, just as the followers of Plato’s/Marx’s/Wesley’s/Darwin’s etc teachings are called Platonists/Marxists/Wesleyans/Darwinists etc, with no implication that they worship or pray to their teacher. Remember that Muhammad/Mohammed is esteemed by Muslims as ‘the perfect man’ and final and infallible revelation of Allah. I don’t know whether in folk Islam anyone invokes Muhammad as catholics invoke the Virgin Mary and the saints, but the practice of invoking Muslim holy men at their tombs (also the Virgin Mary in Syria) is very common. 
You may dislike jokes about suicide but you miss the subversvie point: the death cult has glorified the practice and the photos of young suicide-murderers are displayed with pride throughout the ME.

Matt, the only point I would quibble with is the “massively damaging colonial history” part.  I am reading Efraim Karsh’s “Islamic Imperialism,” a very interesting read.  Imperialism, with the taxation of the conquered populations, has defined the Islamic world throughout its history, from shortly after their prophet’s death right through the Ottomans.  The complaint they would have is that the British and French weren’t Islamic conquerors.  Otherwise, in terms of taxes and the other conditions, same old same old.

Matt, if some moslem kid blows himself up murdering innocent bystanders in order to receive his reward of 72 virgins, I see no harm in laughing at him and at his ridiculous ideology.  Save your faux outrage for jokes at the expense of the victims of these atrocities, not the perpetrators.

The joke that started this discussion (and I’ve heard it before, of course) is similar to, but less nuanced than, the Danish cartoons which started murderous riots worldwide.  The cartoon of Muhammad with a bomb in his turban was designed to show that the extremists are making Islam look like a foundationally violent religion.  This crack about Muslim children blowing up, like most stereotypes, has some basis in fact.  The Palestinian areas have become home to a bizarre and twisted death cult, in which parents do raise their children to be bombers, and celebrate their violent deaths.  Now the horror of the suicide bombings is coming to the imperial Islamic homeland, Iraq.  Only Muslims can excise this sickness from their cultures.  The evidence is that, at least outside of the Palestinian areas, Muslims are beginning to wake up to the danger.

As to whether Islam is, in fact, foundationally violent towards non-Muslims:  Modern Muslims are going to have to modify the traditional interpretations of the Koran and the hadiths to claim “the religion of peace” title.

Matt, there is no one Arabic pronunciation any more than there is one English pronunciation. ‘moslem’ was simply the standard way of romanizing the Arabic word until quite recently. There is nothing ‘offensive’ about it. The word is rendered ‘Moslem’ in German and ‘musulman’ in French. ‘Mohammadan’ wasn’t considered offensive until recently either.
Did you know that the Koran/Qu’ran says that Jesus/Isa and his disciples were muslimin? Now THAT’S offensive!
I guess your ‘outstanding sense of humor’ wouldn’t stretch to Charlie Chaplin’s ‘The Great Dictator’?

And, lest we begin feeling superior about the history of Christianity, see this piece about the disorder at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.  Saladin, of all people, initiated the uneasy truce by giving the keys to the church to Muslim families, who retain them today.

# 14: actually, a few monastic fisticuffs in that large and rather ugly church don’t bother me too much - they hardly compare with the Sunni/Shia practice of blowing up each other’s crowded mosques in Iraq’s plethora of ‘holy’ cities.

#16: I have to agree with Wikipedia here:
“This way of referring to religious communities or sects is not normally controversial, as evidenced by Lutheranism, a term used by adherents and non-adherents alike, which has as nothing to do with a deification or worship of Martin Luther, and involves rather less of a cult of personality or veneration for Luther than Islamic veneration for Muhammad.

Another source of objection is however the fact that muslims regard Islam as existing before Muhammad, which he only “restored,” therefore the term “Mohammedan” implies that Muhammad “made up” Islam. Critics of Islam by definition, imply that he did.”

‘Mohammedan’ was widely used up to c. 1960 without any implication that it meant worship of Muhammad (though, to be sure, he is practically worshipped as ‘the perfect man’ in Islam). Despite the ridiculous claims of Muslims about Moses, David and Jesus, Islam didn’t exist before Muhammad; he is the heresiarch most responsible for the aberrant version of Arabized messianic Judaism known as Islam.

Yes, Matt, we need to speak truth to Muslims, but if it is done in hatred, hatred is what will return to us.  It may anyhow, but we can hope.

I knew virtually nothing about Islam before 9/11, and have done a lot of reading since.  And beginning this fall I will have things to say from inside, as I will leave my residence in Hindu Maharashtra, India, for Cairo, Egypt.

“The corner of the roof” would be the only space left in an unhappy household.  Flat roofs in ancient Israel.

Katherine
Going to Cairo?  God bless you!  Are you Anglican?  Will you by any chance be in contact with Derek and Alice Eaton?

Well, I don’t know, Blueridge.  I am Anglican, and will hope to worship with the diocese of Egypt.

Katherine,  I have a faithful Christian daughter and a son-in-law currently living in Maadi and working for General Dynamics in Cairo.  Is there anyway we can get you two families together?  The are not Anglican but belong to a very large Evangelical congregation located in the area.

Harvey, I just sent you a personal message.  Did you know we can do that here?  Go to the top of the page and click on “Your Account.”

#24 Katherine,
There is so much I don’t know about communications on the blog.  I clicked on account and all I got was MY account record.  Please can you gently lead me step by step as to.  ??top of page - what page??

Harvey, when I click on “Your Account,”  I get a page that shows “Your Account Statistics”  (mine, that is) and a box on the lower left that says “Private Messages.”  There should be something from me in your “Inbox.”  I apologize for this difficulty.  My surname is my husband’s, and he is well-known in his industry, and I don’t like to have anything I say identified with him, since my opinions are mine, not his.