we have to take some matters inot consideration:
1. We have to keep in mind that the media steers the public to the direction that its owners desire. Today, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the only remaining enemy of the West is Islam, because it is the only religion that the West could not, and will not be able to, distort its teachings, suppress its voice, and stop its spread throughout the world. People of knowledge should not become victims of the media that tries to make the general public think that Muslims are terrorists and fundamentalists who exploit the name of jihad in their terrorism and fundamentalism.

2. We need to ask: Who does describe Islamists as terrorists? The enemies of Islam who live inside and outside Islamic countries, and who are afraid of Islam, are the ones who invented this label to Muslims with the aim of degrading Islam and Muslims, alienating people from it, and to put Muslims in the position of the accused in the eyes of international community that is dominated by the USA. In his book The Arab World Today Murd Burger says:
The fear of the Arabs and our interest in the Arab nation does not stem from the existence of oil in huge quantities in their area, but because of Islam! Islam has to be fought to prevent the unification of the Arabs, because this unification could strengthen them. The strength of the Arabs has always coincided with the strength and spread of Islam” .

Dan Quail, the former American vice president said: “The only remaining enemy of the West is Islam” . Quail classified Islam in the same category as Communism and Nazism, and the Western media coined a new word to describe Islam “fundamentalism.” The Times magazine once published on its cover a picture that combines a mosque minaret with a machine gun under the headline: “Islamic Danger.” Our natural response to such a description cannot be taken seriously because it comes from an enemy, and enemies have never been fair. Moreover, those who follow the biased Western media that invented these descriptions of Muslims, and those who follow the writings and declarations of Western thinkers and politicians realize that using these descriptions of Muslims when Muslims defend their religion, usurped Holy places, occupied lands, stolen rights and their dignity. This was the case when Afghanis and their Muslim bretherns fought the occupying forces of Communism, which violated international law by occupying other people’s land and killing the people of this land. The West, represented in its media and politics, did not describe then such actions as terrorism or violence, but when the Afghani people rose to defend themselves, their land and religion, their enemies condemned that and described them as terrorists and fundamentalists, and the lying Jewish media promoted these accusations that spread very quickly throughout the international community. This is quite natural given the fact that almost the whole world listens to the West and its media, thinkers, and politicians. They want Muslims to surrender to their enemy, give up their religion and abandon their rights without any resistance; when they do so they resist they will be called terrorists, and what was said about the Afghani people is being said now about the Palestinians in their struggle against Israel. The struggle of the Palestinians is being called terrorism and violence, because they are defending themselves, their Holy places and their land.

On the other hand, what the Jews did in Qubayyah, Deir Yaseen, Sabra and Shatilla, Qana, and other ugly massacres that were carried out against the Palestinian people were not in the eyes of the West and its media terrorism nor violence, but self defense.!!

The most obvious example in our modern day are the fabrications surrounding the Bosnian war that was witnessed by the whole world, and the international tribunal in The Hague prosecuted its war criminals. We pose the question: has the West found one Muslim war criminal? Weren’t all the criminals either from the Serbs or the Croats? So who should be called terrorists: Muslims or the others?

The same can be said about what is happening to Muslims in Germany, where extremists are killing Muslims and burning their houses, and in France, where Muslim women have been prevented from wearing the Islamic veil. So who should be called terrorists, those who simply want to practice their religion, or those who massacre innocents, burn houses, and deprive others from their basic personal freedom and religious rights? Many events like these are taking place all over the world, where Muslims are being persecuted and deprived from their personal human rights that should be respected by all international laws, yet the international media promotes the idea of Muslims being terrorists and extremists!

This is the twisted logic and reckless judgment of the international community today, a community that turns away from the message of God, suffers from ignorance, and does not follow the right path of God. God says in the Holy Qur’an:
“But whosoever turns away from My Message, verily for him is a life narrowed down, and We shall raise him up blind on the Day of Judgment” (Holy Qur’an: 20: 121).

Muslims are, now more than ever, required to be strong in order to raise the Islamic nation above, and feared by all other nations, so that no side will ever think of hurting Muslims or attacking their beliefs, God says:
“Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into (the hearts of) the enemies of God, and your enemies, and others besides, whom ye may not know” (Holy Qur’an: 8: 60).

Concerning this Qur’anic verse Sayyed Qutb says gives the following commentary:
Islam has to have the sort of power that enables it to advance throughout the world to free Man, and the first domain where this power should be used is the domain of Da’wa (preaching Islam): to make sure that those who chose to be Muslims are free to do so, and are not afraid of getting persecuted for becoming Muslims. Secondly, this power should be used to intimidate the enemies of Islam, so that they do not contemplate attacking the Muslim nation that is protected by this power.”

Thus, Muslims are requested to frighten the enemies of God and His messenger who defend His religion, because such enemies should live in humiliation and disgrace, for this is the way of God with His creatures, and not the laws of Darwen who says:
It is natural disposition that only those who prove to be fit should survive, and those who perish do so because they are too weak that they deserve to perish, and those who survive deserve to survive.

What “natural disposition” is he talking about? This is certainly not the way God has meant humans to be.

However, when Muslims deal with each others they are requested to show humbleness, sympathy and and provide each other with valuable advice. This is how our forefathers were “…Lowly with the Believers, mighty against the Rejecters…”(Holy Qur’an: 5: 54).

The West, which promotes the image of Muslims as terrorists, aims at keeping Muslims busy defending themselves to exhaust their resources while they try to clear themselves of the accusations that have been wrongly thrown at them, and thus they do not find the time to unveil the bad face of the Western culture which talks carries the banners of Human Rights and other colorful slogans, while dominating other peoples’ fortunes, and to keep silent while massacres take place here and there to achieve their goals.

other: (Do they accuse all Islamists of being terrorists?), we can say that it is noted that enemies of Islam target their accusations mainly on ardent and committed Muslims, who seek the application of the Islamic Law, refuse to make alliances with anyone but God and His messenger and call for the unity of Muslims, of being terrorists because they do not yield to the wishes and commands of enemies of Islam, and decline to facilitate the theft of the fortunes of the Islamic nation by these enemies. But so-called Muslims who ally themselves with the West and its civilization, and accept to be lead by the West in obvious contradiction with Islamic teaching, are called “moderates” by the West.

However, there are some individuals who commit acts of aggression against innocent civilians in different parts of the world in the name of jihad, and some of these acts are attributed to Islam although they are committed by non-Islamic organizations. To this we say: jihad has its rules and means, and killing innocent civilians is not part of it. Prophet Mohammad (pbuh) forbid the killing of women, children and covenanters. He says:”He who kills a covenanter will not (even) smell paradise, (although) it can be smelled from a forty year walking distance” . There are many proofs and a lot of evidence in the Holy Qur’an and the tradition of the Prophet that prohibit killing innocent civilians and destroying towns. If someone goes against these teachings of Islam, blame should no be put on Islam, but on the person himself.

Originally Posted by TannyD There Is No God. There Is No God. There Is No God. There Is No God.

Originally Posted by SilverFalcon I agree I agree I agree I agree There isn't even a Godot. Or, if there is, he too didn't turn up when he was needed by a couple of clowns.

Originally Posted by SilverFalcon If you were one of the clowns who'd been lucky enough to see the light, would you?

Originally Posted by TannyD I think I would be one of those who see the light, but letting everyone else know that would be a different matter... Would they even believe me? Would they care? Or would they believe me and hi-jack the whole thing? How many people on here do you think know what you are even talking about?