Rus,
Agree with you also, there’s a famous case in Canada – but, also, it must be noted that sometimes people end up with crops they don’t want.

SPLC begins to get very controversial and shows a biased trotskyite view .

Technology is great and has indeed contributed to the advancement of human society. Like anything it must be evaluated critically and judged by some standard other than just how much money can be made from it.

1)GM foods may eliminate the need for pesticides until insects develop resistance to the gene products that initially kill them. I believe if you do a little research you will find that there is substantial evidence that this is beginning to happen just as weeds are beginning to develop resistance to Round-Up due to its excessive use on “Round-Up ready” crops.

2)Antibiotics prevent the spread of disease only until disease causing organisms become resistant to them. The development of resistance is dramatically accelerated by the prophylactic use of antibiotics especially in livestock raised under conditions that promote the spread of disease.

3)I would love to see citations that support your claim that genetically engineered crops are the only way to feed a rapidly growing population. I am under the impression that inequitable distribution of food and wealth is largely responsible for hunger. It seems to me that the extremely high overhead costs associated with the production of GM crops can only make this worse. I do think there is a future for genetic engineering in agriculture but only to the extent that it can be harnessed to produce better, stronger, more diverse crops instead of simply maximizing profits for Monsanto.

I’m not Muslim, nor am I vegetarian, but, I do watch what I eat. Personally, I think Kosher and Halal is as close to organic as you can get. I do shy away from farm-raised seafood. I do not eat pork and I do not eat beef.

I truly think that is the problem, people like to lump everyone into one group/basket. Each country is different, as well as the populations, and language/dialect, in some cases religious practices/beliefs.

“Will women be treated equally in this Islamic Center/mosque?

Women have equal rights under our constitution. Will their rights be upheld?

Does the SPLC or anyone really care? I never hear this issue come up…why not???”

Randy T: No person in America — and that includes women — loses any of his or her rights simply by entering a house of faith. What is illegal under U.S. law outside a mosque is every bit as illegal inside it. A crime committed against someone remains a crime no matter where it is committed or who commits it. Muslims do not, and never will, have a special exemption from the U.S. criminal code. It is no different from the recent situation with some Catholic churches — a priest molesting a child inside a church is just as illegal as anyone else molesting a child outside one.

Shariah law cannot, under any circumstance, supplant U.S. law without first ripping up the Constitution, and there is zero danger of that. No judge in America has the power to ignore U.S. law in favor of shariah or any other legal or quasi-legal standard. Fears about the advent of shariah law in the United States are manufactured out of whole cloth – there is no threat now or on the horizon that American jurisprudence is in any way endangered by it.

Robert Steinback
Deputy Editor, Intelligence Report and Hatewatch blog
Southern Poverty Law Center

What is certain though, is that female circumcision has nothing to do with Islam.

“What Ruslan said in his last 2 posts.” Plus if you’re looking for a religion that condones genital mutilation take a look at Judaism. In spite of the long history of male circumcision in and out of the USA I don’t think there has ever been a question of requiring it for all Americans. I did hear recently that there was a period when prison inmates in some states were circumcised regardless of their wishes. As far as I know Islam had nothing to do with it.

Will women be treated equally in this Islamic Center/mosque?

Women have equal rights under our constitution. Will their rights be upheld?”

First of all it’s not a mosque, so I figure women would be treated the same way they would in any cultural center. Second, the constitution guarantees equality but it also guarantees the equality of religions(or no religion), which is why you don’t see women ordained as priests in Catholicism, or as pastors in other religions.

I’m a strong advocate of women’s rights but I’m sick of seeing the same bunch who demonize abortion suddenly becoming Crusaders for women’s rights and even gay rights PRECISELY and only when it concerns Islam.

@Deep Ecology. I do not disclose much about my background on here. I realize my pseudonym may throw some people off, so I repeatedly emphasize that I am not Muslim, nor have I ever been. My academic background is not relevant. That being said, respond away.

For example: A world economic crisis, not enough food and water for people in the developing and industrialized worlds; climate change; a dwindling shortage of non-renewable fossil fuels and hydrocarbons. The human family is still fighting illiteracy and violence against women and girls, and a growing list of natural disasters that have altered the live of its survivors and taken the lives of its victims. The spiraling and out of control drug trade, domestic prostitution and its business as a global export, the human war on discovering a cure for cancer; and nuclear proliferation; all seem to be the overwhelming focus of intelligent human beings like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Kennedy Foundation, Mark Zuckerberg, New York’s Mayor Bloomberg, Warren Buffett and a long list of noble people who have leveraged their skills to improve the condition of the human family and who are not plotting its destruction. Although we are not God we never-the-less have God like qualities.

Idiots like Pamela Geller simply don’t have the Christ like qualities of understanding how to resolve conflicts and bring stability when and where its needed, and would rather play with human’s hearts and minds; she would rather see humans continue demeaning and torturing one another. Pamela Geller will be remembered as the woman who decapitated hope for the human family’s survival rather than use her intellect to appeal to human dignity and man’s humanity to their brothers and sisters.

Luqman Abdel Magied

But, I’d like to say, I have been listening to music from the 60s and 70s, and it seems some of the singers/groups were spot on – all we are doing is repeating history, i.e., the Temptations song, Ball of Confusion, here’s some excerpts, ‘people moving out, people moving in, why, because of the color of the skin, run, run, run, but you sure can’t hide…vote for me and I’ll set you free…tax deductions, fear is in the air tensions everywhere, people all over the world saying end the war, aggravating the middle east…’
then I listened to Edwin Starr’s song, War, and in the lyrics it said that the people said we needed to go to war for our freedoms…
So, again, we need to start paying attention to what is happening. If these songs were written and sung in the 60s and 70s then why are we back at it again? Even Marvin Gaye songs like What’s Going On and Inner-city Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler) talks about the social ills that we are facing today, which is repeating what have been done in the past. Maybe you too, should listen to these songs to find out why “East is East…

Will women be treated equally in this Islamic Center/mosque?

Women have equal rights under our constitution. Will their rights be upheld?

Does the SPLC or anyone really care? I never hear this issue come up…why not???

Also: Is it possible to criticize others here without calling them misogynist names like “media whore” or other name calling such as “zealot??

Ok, on to some of the more hilarious arguments here:

“Islam is not a religion, but a dictatorial religious State, and as such, it severely contradicts any modern State’s Constitution. You can’t abide by a Constitution and at the same time be a Muslim, because the Koran is itself a Constitution. ”

Ummm no, Islam is a religion and the Koran is not a constitution, period. What exists in the Koran are rules that Muslims are expected to follow in their own states, and states ruled by non-Muslims.

“You can’t have people sworn upon two Constitutions in the same country. They ARE lying about one of them at least, because they can’t be true to both of them.”

Wait a second here, are you talking about Muslims, Jews, or Catholics? I can’t tell because this same thing has been said about all three groups at one time or another.

“Check it out: Saudi Arabia has the Koran for a Constitution. The Koran is a Constitution, not only a religious book. And Islam is a mobile invasive State, not just a belief about Moses.”

Calling the Koran the constitution of Saudi Arabia is a bit oversimplified, but since when was America supposed to act according to what Saudi Arabia does(well ok, one could make an argument about that)?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C.....udi_Arabia

Of course it is totally irrelevant what Saudi Arabia does, as the vast majority of Muslims aren’t even Arab, much less Saudi, and the wishes of the Saudi monarchy and the Wahhabists are not incumbent on most Muslims. In fact the people running Saudi Arabia today were once kicked out of Arabia by the Ottomans.

So no, Islam is not a “state”, so either you don’t know what state means or what religion means. For hundreds of years the Christian church acted as a form of the state, crowning kings and influencing law and economics via the works of St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine. Yet Christianity is not, nor has it ever been, a state rather than a religion.

Ok let’s see, next up we have phony left-wing progressive guy:

“That is the extent that we will extend tolerance to practices most westerners would consider simply abhorrent and intolerable. Sharia law, honor killings, female gentital mutilation, arranged/forced marraiges, persecution/intolerance towards alternative lifestyles and rabid anti-semitism have long been considered incompatible with liberal compassionate secular humanistic societies. ”

Ok where to begin with this nonsense. Well, I could ask you to provide some statistics on these practices in the US, but I’d much rather break your heart by pointing out that none of those practices are unique to Islam, nor are several of them backed up by Sharia law. Honor killings, genital mutilation, and forced marriage are not sanctioned by the Koran, and these are certainly not exclusive to Islam.

Honor killings and bride selling have appeared in Christian societies(like the Christians of Albania, who along with the Muslims were bound to follow the Code of Leke, which mandated all kinds of evil practices). Genital mutilation is a practice which has nothing to do with Islam.

When we look at societies with honor killings, we cannot say honestly that it is unique to Muslim societies. We see one common thread in all societies which practice this- weak rule of law(if any), feudal/tribal relations.

Here’s a REALLY crazy concept- why don’t you internet scholars actually find out what the term “honor” actually means, where it comes from, and then maybe you will understand why honor killings have nothing to do with Islam, even if tribal leaders use the Koran to justify such practices(people using creative interpretation of religious texts for ill purposes? ONLY IN ISLAM RIGHT?)

Then this gem…”Will our tolerance and acceptance lead us to sanction female genital mutilation of young girls?”

Please cite the Koranic verse or Hadith that sanctions female genital mutilation. I’ll wait.

Oh, you also made the mistake of writing this: “liberal compassionate secular humanistic societies”

Uh, what country are you talking about here, because it doesn’t exist on planet earth. Those societies which call themselves such are actually the most rapacious, hypocritical states on the planet. Hell, these morons were SUPPORTING ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALISTS for decades, DECADES, all to secure capitalism and private property.

Ok this was from James but I’ll put it here: “It would be helpful if you read the article “Islam 101? on the Jihadwatch site.”

Uh yeah, that would be REAL helpful. It’s like finding out about Judaism from the VNN forum. I’m sure we’ll get an honest, balanced interpretation of what the Talmud really means from those guys.

And now for Lon…”The indelible images of the 911 attacks need to be seen and the hatred that motivated them need to be understood. With each year that passes, the media diminish their coverage, and the horror and outrage diminish. ”

Yes, we need to keep up the horror and outrage, and less logic and thinking. BAD THING HAPPEN!!! US BOMB SOMEBODY NOW!!! WHO NOT MATTER!!! WE ANGRY!! There is something arrogant about Americans wanting to be outraged for ten years after the fact- the US killed more people in Serbia and Kosova with its bombing than Al Qaida killed in New York. Oh and by the way, since when did those guys represent all Muslims?

“East is East and West is West and never the two shall meet…Islam is east and everything else is west.”

Uh yeah, Japan,India, and China are “West”, Bosnia isn’t. Right.

Jesus…it’s like someone dropped an ignorance bomb in this comments section.

The only thing I might add is the question, “Who will be the first on the left to complain when the Muslims get their Sharia law and start beheading those who disagree with them?”
East is East and West is West and never the two shall meet…Islam is east and everything else is west.