More on Quakers and Those Sinister Potlucks
Thorn Pricks quotes a letter to the editor of the Saugerties Times, written by Erica Freudenberger (who was immediately placed on a watch list). Here's an excerpt:
Now, it turns out, the government has been spying on and monitoring its citizens willy-nilly. The president says it’s to help fight terrorism, but look at some of the groups they’ve been monitoring.
Quakers. The F.B.I. had a group of five Quakers and one grandmother in Lake Worth, Florida under surveillance. Perhaps I take such umbrage because I am a Quaker. I can’t imagine how Quakers could possibly be construed as a terrorist threat. Quakers are pacifists, based on Jesus’s teaching to turn the other cheek and the belief that there is the “Light” in every person. Unless the government fears an outbreak of silent vigils or potluck suppers, I’m hard pressed to think of why Quakers need monitoring. Perhaps it’s to send a message to the Amish and Mennonites....
Watergate Summer wrote the following in letter form:
Dear Mr.Bush,
In the past month we have learned that American Citizens have been spied on by their Own Government....You have been spying on Citizens, secretly, under false pretenses and utilizing multiple agencies to carry out your demands. We learned two weeks ago that Pentagon has been keeping files and investigating Peace Activists and Anti-War Protestors, and others of" Concern". That means that you and Mr.Rumsfeld are afraid of Quaker Grandmothers that Bake cookies and hold "meetings" ? What makes them terrorists?...
Here are my views on the topic - the Federal Government has the right to investigate activities which could reasonably lead to the commission of a crime. The key word is reasonably. When looking at the Quaker group, you can reach one of two conclusions:
- The group really is a Quaker group, and as such would be pacifist and therefore by definition not dangerous.
- The group is a terrorist group masquerading as a Quaker group.
Now the latter is theoretically a possibility, but based upon the Al Qaeda operatives that we've seen so far, highly unlikely. Listen to how well this Al Qaeda operative covered his tracks:
Zacarias Moussaoui was later arrested after he raised suspicions at a Minnesota flight school by telling instructors he wanted to learn to fly a jetliner, but did not want to learn to land. He also asked about opening cabin doors while planes were in flight.
Even though most of us didn't realize that a plane could serve as the ultimate suicide bomb, you have to admit that Moussaoui's actions were bizarre. So I have significant doubts that Al Qaeda operatives masquerading as Quakers could pull it off. It would probably sound something like this:
Yes, we are members of the Quaker group that will be protesting at the Federal Building. We are not Muslims, in the Name of Allah. We are not warped Muslim terrorists, in the Name of Allah the Vengeful[1]. Yes, we believe Quaker things. We believe in the inner light. We lived in Philadelphia a long time. We are going to go to the Federal Building in a very large truck, then we will go inside the back of the truck so we can pray towards Mec- I mean Philadelphia.
[1] The actual phrase used by normal Muslims is "In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Munificent." Somehow I can't picture an Al Qaeda member speaking of mercy. But apparently they do, according to this translated text:
In The Name Of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
O Allah! Make our shots hit their intended targets and fasten our feet firmly to the ground. All praise be to Allah, The Cherisher and Sustainer of the worlds. Peace and prayer be upon our prophet, Muhammad, his family, and his companions.
Your brothers in Al-Qaeda organization in the Land of the Two Rivers fired on and hit two American choppers and downed a third one today, Saturday 2 Dhu’l-Qa’dah 1426, by the Grace of Allah.
Allahu Akbar…Allahu Akbar…Allahu Akbar! Glory is to Allah, His messenger, and to the Mujahideen.
Military Division
Al-Qaeda in the Land of the Two Rivers
2 Dhu’l-Qa’dah 1426
December 3, 2005
In The Name Of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
O Allah! Make our shots hit their intended targets and fasten our feet firmly to the ground. All praise be to Allah, The Cherisher and Sustainer of the worlds. Peace and prayer be upon our prophet, Muhammad, his family, and his companions.
Your brothers in Al-Qaeda organization in the Land of the Two Rivers have successfully attacked an American convoy in Al-Muthannah neighborhood using an explosive device. An armored vehicle was destroyed and an unknown number of American soldiers were killed.
Allahu Akbar…Allahu Akbar…Allahu Akbar. Glory is to Allah, His messenger, and to the Mujahideen.
Military Division
Al-Qaeda in the Land of the Two Rivers
3 Dhu’l-Qa’dah 1426
December 4, 2005
In The Name Of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
O Allah! Make our shots hit their intended targets and fasten our feet firmly to the ground. All praise be to Allah, The Cherisher and Sustainer of the worlds. Peace and prayer be upon our prophet, Muhammad, his family, and his companions.
Your Mujahideen brothers in Al-Qaeda organization in the land of the Two Rivers have detonated an explosive device as an armored vehicle went by in the “Girl’s Grave” area, the right side of Mosul. The vehicle was completely destroyed and all those on board were killed, by the Grace of Allah.
Allahu Akbar…Allahu Akbar…Allahu Akbar. Glory is to Allah, His messenger, and to the Mujahideen.
Military Division
Al-Qaeda in the Land of the Two Rivers
3 Dhu’l-Qa’dah 1426
December 4, 2005
In The Name Of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
O Allah! Make our shots hit their intended targets and fasten our feet firmly to the ground. All praise be to Allah, The Cherisher and Sustainer of the worlds. Peace and prayer be upon our prophet, Muhammad, his family, and his companions.
Your Mujahideen brothers in the Al-Qaeda organization in the Land of the Two Rivers carried out an attack on an armored vehicle belonging to the cross worshipers in Tal Al-Rumman area in the south eastern part of the city of Mosul. Their vehicle was destroyed and all of the American cross worshipper’s on board were killed, by the Grace of Allah.
Your brothers in Al-Qaeda organization will continue battling the cross worshipers until the religion becomes Allah’s in its entirety.
Allahu Akbar…Allahu Akbar…Allahu Akbar! Glory is to Allah, His messenger, and to the Mujahideen.
Military Division
Al-Qaeda in the Land of the Two Rivers
3 Dhu’l-Qa’dah 1426
December 4, 2005
Sick. And it gets sicker, as shown here and here and here:
The leader of Egypt's main Islamic opposition group said the Holocaust was a myth, and he slammed Western governments for criticizing those who deny that the mass extinction of Jews occurred.
Muslim Brotherhood chief Mohammed Mahdi Akef's comments echoed recent remarks by Iran's hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which sparked international outrage.
In his article, Akef lashed out at the United States and other Western powers for what he described as a campaign against Islam.
«These words are meant to expose the false American rule which has become a nightmare of a new world order,» Akef said.
«I am making these comments to all free people in the world, aiming to wake up the conscience in humanity,» he wrote. «The sword of democracy is only unsheathed against those who raise the flag of Islam.»
Similar comments by Ahmadinejad earlier this month sparked an international outcry. The Iranian president called the Holocaust _ in which an estimated 6 million Jews were killed _ a «myth» and said Europeans have used it to create a Jewish state in the heart of the Islamic world.
Arab governments and media did not condemn Ahmadinejad's remarks.
Ahmad Thomson, deputy chairman of Britain's Association of Muslim Lawyers and occasional adviser to the prime minister, recently claimed that Blair had been pressured into entering the Iraq war by a sinister conspiracy of Jews and Freemasons. In his 1994 book, ''The Next World Order," Thomson (a convert to Islam) claimed that the Holocaust is a ''big lie" and that the presence of US soldiers in Saudi Arabia is especially outrageous because many of them are Jewish.
These two stories illustrate an uncomfortable truth: The infection of anti-Jewish bigotry is alarmingly widespread in the Muslim community today, not only in predominantly Muslim and Arab countries -- where the media routinely circulate anti-Semitic libels and conspiracy theories while preachers and editorialists compare Jews to pigs and monkeys -- but in Western democracies as well. Some apologists on the left blame this virulent hatred on the Israeli occupation of the territories. But is it plausible to believe that a state of Israel within its 1948 borders would be less hated by those who believe all of its land rightfully belongs to Muslims?
This is not to tar all or most Muslims with the same brush, or to deny that anti-Muslim bias and paranoia exists, too....Nor is it to say that Islam is inherently intolerant: All religions and ethnic groups have their bigots and haters. For a variety of reasons, the bigotry and hate in Islam are perilously close to the mainstream.
Bringing it all back home (that Wallflowers stuff again), what do Quakers say about Muslims?
The first Quaker contact with Muslims occurred during the 17th century when Quaker missionaries went out over the whole world, including Islamic nations, to share their vision of the Inward Light and Universal Truth. Some of the these valiant missionaries were women like Mary Fisher who voyaged to Turkey to tell the Sultan and his Court about "the Truth." When she was asked what she thought of Mohammed, she replied "that she knew him not, but Christ enlightened every man who came into the world. Him she knew...And concerning Mahomet,' she said, 'they might judge him false or true according to the words and prophecies he spoke."8 The Turks acknowledged this to be a reasonable response, and she was well treated. In fact, she was treated far better in Turkey than she would have been treated in New England during this same period, where being a Quaker was punishable by imprisonment, flogging, or death.
Throughout the 17th century, Muslims and Christians engaged what today would be called "low intensity warfare." They sometimes captured each other's ships and made slaves of their captives, subjecting them to cruel treatment. It therefore seems remarkable-indeed almost miraculous-that a Quaker named Thomas Lurting successfully used non-violent means to avoid being sold into slavery when he and his crew were captured by Turks in the year 1663. Since this extraordinary story is not widely known, even among Quakers, it is worth retelling in some detail.9
Instead of resisting his Turkish captors, Lurting responded with friendliness and cooperation. He was so courteous, and so fearless, that the Turks were lulled into a false sense of security. When an opportunity presented itself, Lurting's men wanted to attack and kill the Turks, but Lurting replied, "If I knew any one of them that offered to touch a Turk, I would tell the Turk myself." A convinced Quaker, Lurting resolved to overcome the Turks without shedding one drop of blood.
On the second night, after the Turkish captain had retired, it began to rain. Lurting persuaded each of the Turkish guards to go to sleep. When they were all asleep, he took their weapons. At this point, the Christian crew again wanted to butcher the Turks, but Lurting insisted that no blood be spilled. They then sailed to Majorca in Spain. When the Turks realized what had happened, they were afraid that they would be sold into slavery and begged for mercy. Lurting assured the Turks that he would hide them so they would not be found by the Spaniards.
When the Turks realized that these peculiar English Christians would not hurt or enslave them, they became willing to help. Lurting gave them free run of the ship, which caused some of the English sailors to grumble. The Quaker replied, "They are strangers. I must treat them well."
When the ship reached a place near a Muslim town about fifty miles from Algiers, Lurting let the Turks loose on shore and even provided them with bread and other necessities. On shore, Lurting wrote, "the Turks all embraced me very kindly."
This story was published and became widely known in England. Perhaps this is what the William Penn (Quaker leader and son of a well-known English admiral) had in mind when he wrote: "Let us try what love can do, for if people see that we do love, they would not harm us." This non-violent approach is one that Quakers have used-and have tried to teach-for the past three hundred years in various situations of conflict.
And of course the Quakers would have been smart enough not to serve pork at the on-ship potlucks.
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keep bloggin'it....