Islam is the Solution. --Not!

Good material here on the poor record of the Islamists in relation to governing:

In Egypt, as well as in Tunis and Morocco, Islamists haven't fulfilled their longstanding pledge of prosperity and renaissance (Nahda). They, so far, have failed in fighting corruption, fixing the ailing economies, respecting human and minorities' rights, and advancing democratic agendas. And the more they fail, the less their credibility and image can be restored. Not surprisingly, many Arab people still take to the streets to express their frustration and disenchantment with Islamists' policies. For many of them, Islamists' ideology can't resolve their problems. Nor can it provide the salvation they aspired to after the many cases of immorality and incompetency. 

Love it. Islam is the solution! We heard for decades. Thank you Brother Morsi, but now we need solutions that are solutions. But yeah, dig out your Sahiih Bukhari and Muslim and Tirmidi and so on and tell us what Allah says about moving from a subsidy economy with a nepotistic, corrupt, intolerant government to a prosperous, just state. Oh yeah, and what does Allah have to say about feeding an overpopulated country with a tanking economy that is completely unable to produce enough food for its population?

Islam is the solution indeed. 

5 Broken Cameras

I really want to see this movie.

Pakistan population may touch 292m mark by 2050

Pak population may touch 292m mark by 2050: seminar told - PakTribune

While the population of much of the world will start to decline soon because of low TFR, there are exceptions. One of them is Pakistan, which will continue to (naturally) grow. The USA will grow as well, but from immigration. Same for some countries in Europe. The UK is one of those countries. Its population will continue to grow in the long run, not because women there have children (TFR of 1.9), but because of immigration.

Guess where a great deal of that immigration comes from...Yep. Pakistan. So while British women are having children at below-replacement levels, the fertile women of Pakistan will continue to procreate quite well, thank you. And rest assured, the UK will continue to welcome them in.

And that is how London will become Londonistan indeed.

T. S. Eliot on religion and history

T. S. Eliot is one of my great heroes and has deeply influenced my own understanding of religion, civilization, history and more.

I really liked this passage from an essay by Roger Scruton titled 'T S Eliot as Conservative Mentor':

For Eliot, however, religion in general, and the Christian religion in particular, should not be seen merely in Platonic terms as an attitude towards what is eternal and unchanging. The truth of our condition is that we are historical beings who find whatever consolation and knowledge is vouchsafed to us in time. The consolations of religion come to us in temporal costume, through institutions that are alive with the spirit of history. To rediscover our religion is not to rise free from the temporal order; it is not to deny history and corruption, in order to contemplate the timeless truths. On the contrary, it is to enter more deeply into history, so as to find in the merely transitory the mark and the sign of that which never passes: it is to discover the "point of intersection of the timeless with time," which is, according to Four Quartets, the occupation of the saint.

Read it all here.

Anglican Curmudgeon: Putting the Pope into Perspective

Anglican Curmudgeon: Putting the Pope into Perspective: If there is one person within or without the Catholic Church who is qualified to place Pope Benedict XVI into a long-term perspective, it is...

Messianic Jews and Insider Movements

It is often said that Muslims who belong to insider movements are much like Messianic Jews. Messianic Jews are Jews who believe that Jesus was the Messiah, yet claim to remain Jewish, and do not normally call themselves Christians. In the same way, IM Muslims are following Jesus but within Islam.

So they say.

Little problem though: Most Jews don't believe that Messianic Jews are Jews at all. They are converts from Judaism to Christianity. Pure and simple--even if they are, ethnically, Jewish. Evangelical Christians are the only ones who, without reservation, accept that Messianic Jews are real, true Jews.

There is a good article on this topic by David Novak at First Things for anyone who would like to learn more. I suspect that we will find the same thing with IM Muslims--that eventually, their own claims to be real Muslims notwithstanding, the Umma will decide they are just misguided or deceitful Christians.

In other words, if insider Muslims are like Messianic Jews, it means the only people who really think they are Muslims are evangelical Christians, not fellow Muslims.

Britanistan...coming soon

Sad to see Great Britain go this way...But maybe you are British. What do you think? Is this wrong? I mean, incorrect.

--Abu Daoud

Pope Benedict XVI: a ground-breaking bishop and pioneer

The bishop of Rome and successor of Peter has, for all his conservatism, has broken new ground once again.

The first time was with his ability and willingness to confront Islam at Regensburg, as I wrote in Islam, the Pope, and History.

The second time was when he allowed for the establishment of ordinariates for marginalized and abused anglo-catholics in the Anglican Communion.

This third time is in resigning his episcopate, as most bishops do sooner or later. But he has done it with class, after much prayer I'm sure, and according to the laws of his Church.

I have said before, and will say again, that in my opinion Pope Benedict XVI was the only European leader head of state or head of church who actually understood Islam and had the balls to confront it.

My only beef with him is that he never responded to my open letter to him regarding Catholic witness to Muslims. But then again, he is and was a busy guy...

May God bless him and keep him, and provide another excellent pastor for the Church of Rome.

How to write a praise song

I thought this was quite funny. Enjoy...

Murre-van den Berg, on Protestant mission and Christian decline in the Middle East

--Heleen Murre-van den Berg. Explaining how Protestant missions helped to lead to the eventual decline of Christianity in the Middle East. Cambridge History of Christianity, Volume 8, p 470..