The CharmingBurka breaks no laws of the Koran, only taste
By Thomas Ricker 
posted February 7th 2008 6:40AM
posted February 7th 2008 6:40AM
posted February 7th 2008 6:40AM
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Good proportion? I very much doubt it.
Lets look at what Nazis/fascists generally have actually done, and who was the perpetrator; in 99% of cases, white men of no religion/professing to be christians.
And has every single Christian renounced the IRA? The KKK?
There's no such thing as "group responsibility" in a fair society - there are bad apples in every bunch. Don't tar the majority because of the minority, otherwise every American could be accused of the stupidity associated with their Supreme Leader. And we all know how disasterous and unjust that would be.
yah and its ironic that muhammed, along with all of arabs, are semites...
dude, there may be muslims who hate jews, just like jews who hate muslims, but the thing is, muslims simply can't be anti-semitic, coz they them selves are semites...
"And BTW Islam has nothing such as killing of the Non-Beleivers"--Ameen
Then please explain the Verse of the Sword; Sura 9 Verse 5.
http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/009.qmt.html#009.005
And the bit in the koran between the front and rear cover.
In regards to the most often ayah (verse) of the Qur'an that is taken out of context:
http://www.whyislam.org/877/FAQ/q12.asp
And attacking Islam is rather unfair. I am currently enrolled in a class: Understanding the Bible, taught by a Christian scholar. Reading the textbook and from the Bible, the Old Testament is itself full of bloodshed.
"One of the greatest examples of this bloodshed is found in the story of the Israelites conquest of Jericho. Their leader, Joshua, commands that they completely exterminate the inhabitants of the city (Joshua 6:17). The Israelite warriors do just that (Joshua 6:21). How can we explain this type of genocide of a whole population? Should we even try to?"
- http://www.new-life.net/joshua.htm
- Parts of the above taken from On the Way to Jesus by Albert H. Baylis, Multnomah Press, 1986.
Food for thought...
Here's a little help with your study: the word christianity comes from the word christ which by the christians is believed to be the jesus characterin the new testament, and he redefined the religion and laid down some new rules, hence according to that system the old testament is superseded more or less.
Not that I don't agree about the violence.
@NG again
What??? "It's their thing". That's a ridiculus argument.
What if it was "my thing" to kick pregnant women in the stomach? What even, if it was part of my religion? Does it make it any less insane?
"It's their thing" is simply not good enough!
I think there are more than 50 countries with islam as predominant religion, they have their pick and go to any of those I'd say.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-745442020139914838&hl=en
Yvonne Ridley may be able to clear up the hubbub of misconceptions/rumors afloat.
Muslims do not have the right to judge others in regards to their fate (Heaven/Hell) for that is the sole right of the Supreme Creator, and God Almighty knows what is in the hearts, minds and the intentions of every individual. May God Almighty, the One & True God worthy of worship, grant us true guidance and true wisdom.
What is being accomplished by degrading others' religions?
Islam cannot be judged by the followers. In order to uncover the truth, it may necessitate pushing the followers aside. This not only applies to Islam but to all religions, for the majority of Christians are not even following their own Bibles. Of course Muslims or any other religious followers are not perfect in that respect either, but the point is to look at oneself before pointing any fingers: You're pointing a finger at someone, yet three fingers are pointing back at yourself.
I do not intend to offend anyone for I respect others' religions/beliefs, though I may not agree with them. I'm sure there are many who do the same. Also, it wouldn't hurt to be open-minded. If you were to tell a practicing, veiled woman in the Middle Eastern countries to take off her veil, you might not like the response: probably a smack in the face :)
TESTING : engadget won't let me post my retort?
It's really sad how the population turns into a bunch of ignorant flamers when it comes to religion. Looks like engadget can't post ANYthing religion related because the children who read it can't respect other people's cultures.
It makes me wonder if you all are that ignorant in person too? Or if you're just walking tall because you don't have to look anyone in the eyes when you spout your ignorance on a blog comment system.
Wow, quite a lot of talking going on...none of it having to do with the subject. I can just see some unattractive woman under the Burka sending out images of some attractive, digitally altered woman to phones.
In regards to the most often ayah (verse) of the Qur'an that is taken
out of context:
http://www.whyislam.org/877/FAQ/q12.asp
And attacking Islam is rather unfair. I am currently enrolled in a
class: Understanding the Bible, taught by a Christian scholar.
Reading the textbook and from the Bible, the Old Testament is itself
full of bloodshed.
"One of the greatest examples of this bloodshed is found in the story
of the Israelites conquest of Jericho. Their leader, Joshua, commands
that they completely exterminate the inhabitants of the city (Joshua
6:17). The Israelite warriors do just that (Joshua 6:21). How can we
explain this type of genocide of a whole population? Should we even
try to?"
- http://www.new-life.net/joshua.htm
- Parts of the above taken from On the Way to Jesus by Albert H.
Baylis, Multnomah Press, 1986.
Food for thought...
Personally I think it's very decent of Muslim men to hide their uglier women from us. Who could trust the photos anyway? Imagine you're gagging to get your beburka'ed babe home, you whip it off and it's a ninety year old toothless hag? Mind you, no teeth could mean a whole lotta pleasure if you close your eyes;).
So I guess I was the only one who thought it looked like she had a nice ass under that thing.
Student,
Food for thought? I thought about it for a whole microsecond which was probably overdoing it. The Bible may well have its gory passages but how many Christian terrorist groups do you know that are roaming the Middle East sawing innocent people's heads off and sending the videos to Catholic TV channels?
What? None I hear you say? Right. That's because Christianity has progressed towards a much more tolerant and properly Christian outlook today whereas in many countries Islam is practiced by what amount to ignorant savages who want to murder anyone who isn't a believer, convert everyone else and take over the world.
It's great that you're studying Islam but don't be fooled by simplistic comparisons between the two religions. They may have common roots but they're practiced in completely different ways in the 21st century and have very different moral standards IMHO.
BTW, I'm not religious at all so I have no axe to grind.
We see sanitised stuff about what christians pull, and even so we can see plenty of awfulness after a lot of effort to not show the real deal. Religion is just nasty a lot of the time, not just 1 religion.
It should be my endowed right to cover my entire body in garb, then send a picture of me (or goatse) to any bluetooth device in the area.
Are women even allowed to use cameras to take non burka covered pictures of themselves? If a man takes the picture and he isn't her husband, can she get stoned?
Yes she can make pictures, and no she can't have a strange man do it, and yes if she would she'd get in deep shit in many islamic countries.
And no she can't release sexy pictures of herself without getting in trouble with relatives and/or law in (strict) islamic countries.
I'm seeing the future.
@dorf
I don't think Muslims are allowed to get stoned. They're not even allowed to touch alcohol so I think weed would definitely be beyond the pale.
what an ignorant comment. Covering up isn't the law in Islam. It's cultural in some countries. Look at the Emirates or Qatar. Modern countries where women (who are Muslims) dress however they please (which is usually American style with tight jeans and tight shirts).
One man's technology fighting against the masses of insecure Islamic men. Fight the good fight!
@ St. Stephen:
"so all you muslims out there go fuck yourself."
Am a muslim and am not going to "fuck myself". as all muslims, it’s part of our belief to respect and honor those with other beliefs, religions and prophets. But since this is not a religion blog, let me get to the point.
I can see what kind of hatred you have against anything muslim as most of those viewing this post, a quick look at the ranking system show’s how they all agree to your Highly Rated comment offending every single individual of the second largest population in the world just for being muslims.
The problem with you in west is that that you have a very short memory, you remember a terrorist Muslim group that attacked you (for no reason) a week ago, and forgets what your governments have done to the muslim world during this and the previous century. and this is not off-topic if you ask, just ask your self why you hate muslims in the first place.
So engadget had managed to bring a post that will result its majority of its viewers to offend the minority of 1.1 billion muslims, as it did to the Asians as you mentioned in your post. I hope that you have practiced offending them for being F* Asians as well. That will make you just another proud American you leveraged his free speech skills in insulting nations.
Again am not here to defend us (Muslims) nor to justify our believes to your St.ness, am here to use my free of speech as well:
[You are a sick ignorant moran that survive in the dark of an ass-hole]
You know you can repeat what the confused overly leftwing idiots wrote for the muslims to say, but anybody that has experience with muslims can't but notice the truth.
"it’s part of our belief to respect and honor those with other beliefs, religions and prophets." is such utter bullshit and you probably don't even know the meaning of the pivotal words in that sentence, which is made extra clear from the bulk of your post, you just repeat it as taught to you by western idiots and people with a shady agenda because you learned that that is what dumb people who can't stand the truth want to hear.
@Wwhat:
what garbage are you talk, have you experienced muslims as a soldier fighting al-qaeda in afganestan?
I have so many western friends that would just be so shamed by just reading what you have wrote. Its enough for me to enjoy watching idiots such as your self whose bashing the whole population of muslims, and pretend they know what others don't. you just can't imagen how silly you look to many others.
Haha.
Ok, am I the only one that thinks she looks like Plava Laguna...or is it just me?
What ever happened freedom of speech, reading the comments here, it looks like the freedom of speech rule applies only if you are not a muslim. I mean whats wrong with covering yourself? specially when its done by choice. Why should women only be wearing tight jeans and/or bikinis at the beach, what wrong with women trying to cover your breasts rather then making em prominent for the pleasure of others? I mean there is no problem with that if its out of free will right.
We need to respect each other. Obviously if Burqa is forced on a person then thats wrong, but then by the same token its also wrong to force women to wear tight jeans and what else.
Only if there was better understanding of the different cultures and religions, and the opinions weren't gathered based on 15 minutes of news.
why are people so eager to protect their right to offend people? why would anybody other than a jerk want to offend anybody? there's a fine line between political correctness and just being a nice, decent human being.
Nice decent humans and islam don't mix that well I'm sorry to inform you, try as they might.
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/019651.php
Let's see. 10,380 violent attacks since 9/11 by Islamic jihadists who justify their actions on the basis of Islamic texts and teachings.
How many violent attacks since 9/11 by Christian zealots who justify their actions on the basis of Christian texts and teachings? Uh, none.
Major attacks: 9/11. 7/7 in London. March 11, 2004 in Spain. The Bali bombings. Several major attacks in India. Scores of thwarted plots. By Islamic jihadists.
Major attacks and thwarted plots by Christian supremacists? Zip.
okey i HATE bringing this up, but honestly, you believe that only muslims blow them selves up, right?
well, guess what, tamil separatist also regulary blow them selves up, and they are mostly hindus, against the sinhalese buddhist, but you don't go around calling them "hindu-terrorists", due you?
its not religion that makes the problems, its the terrorist groups own agendas, that mold their attack policies, for example the IRA used to blow up uk, but just because they themselves didn't die with it doesn't reduce the pain, does it?
and for the koran promising "houris", well guess what suiciders go DIRECT TO HELL, houris only go to those who died for the benefit of humanity
and just curious, do you really knwo what jihad means? it means to strieve, like i am to get good grades, if you make a goal and work day and night to achieve it, and the goal will help humanity, you are doing jihad
Hey, but doesn't Islamic law prohibit (or at least discourage) making images of people? I done know how many people follow this law, but still, if you're marketing to the hardcore, it might be an issue.
Then again, I guess a lot of the women under burkas are there because they have to, not because they want to...if you're also bluetoothing your picture around, I suppose modesty isn't really high on your personal agenda.
Thomas Ricker you really seriously need to go kill yourself right now for making this a topic.
islam bites.
i don't 'gotta respect' ANYTHING that's abusive and oppressive to other people for the sole 'misfortune' of their race or gender! would you avert your eyes if you saw someone beating their kid in the grocery store because it's 'their thing'? well, these women get beaten with sticks by the moral police for the slightest infractions, basically, they simply arent welcome in public, despite the fact that they have to do ALL the work in those parts of the world.
those places and those cultures stink.
Damn just reading the article I knew what the backlash was going to be in the comments section. I am a Muslim from Bangladesh (yup that country full of beggars and tormented by tornados and floods) and let me just tell you that the majority of women here dont wear the burka. Of those that do, it is by their own choice.
However some arab countries do force their women into wearing them. This is largely due to arab culture and has nothing to do with Islam.
We all get very emotional when it comes to religion. What most of us fails to see is that even though the majority of subject matter in all major religions are the same, there are some few differences that makes all religions fight between each other to the bitter end.
Come on people when are you all going to realize that its all just control systems designed to keep us fighting one another. All major issues of violence in this world is due to religion.
And by the way I think the bluetooth burka idea is plain dumb. If you want to coverup then there is no reason to send out your pics.
RE: the OP... alternately, you could just move out of the 12th century and stop draping half your population in burlap sacks.
As far as the original topic of a bluetooth enabled photo transmitting burqa goes, it's definitely a item without a market. If you are a woman in a country forcing you to wear a burqa, broadcasting your photos will get you stoned to death just as fast as not wearing the burqa. If you are a woman wearing a burqa in a place that doesn't force it's adoption, you are wearing it because you want to (or because your father or husband forces you to; if it's your father indulge him, if it's your husband... well, you married him (or your parent's forced you to marry him, tough break there being born into a family that won't let you make your own decisions)) and there is no purpose to broadcasting the photos. The technology is an interesting statement in itself, there are plenty of women in this world that resent being forced to wear the burqa because the men in their country cannot control their animalistic urges.
As far the the religious pot shots back and forth goes. Everyone needs to grow up. More people have been murdered in the name of religion than all the natural disasters in the history of man have taken. Christianity and Islam have been two of the largest offenders in this, throw in the Nazis and you've probably have covered the big three. Throwing modern day moderate Muslims under the same bus as jihad extremists is just wrong. The same goes for lumping all Christians in the same group as the right wing radical Christians. We are all haunted and judged by the worst of our 'kind'.
The basic covenants of Islam and Christianity are 90-95% the same. But all the hate, wars and distrust come from that last five to ten percent of difference. Take Christianity, some believe dancing is evil, others believe eating shellfish will corrupt you, some believe that women must obey their husbands in all things and not speak to other men, some believe you must be vegetarian to get to heaven, others believe if you are really, really sincere you can apologize your way into heaven. Every group believes they have it right, and everyone else is going to hell because they have it wrong. My guess is that no one has it all right, so everyone should just calm down and try to get along. Seek out the 90% you agree on and show tolerance for the 10% you don't.
That's what TRUE "fair and balanced" is. You have to give equal consideration to ALL parties, whether they are reasonable or truly evil and illogical, whether they are of majority opinion or minority extremest.
That's also why TRUE "fair and balanced" has never actually been done before, and never will be. The ridiculous people and media in this country like to think that drowning out everyone else with their extreme views gives a fair and balanced picture... and all it really does is divide the reasonable, moderate majority into 2 extreme groups of "us vs. them" or "right vs. wrong" (both sides thinking they're right).
The whole burka thing seems to stem from the inability of guys to be able to keep their hormones under control. It's kinda funny lots of religions have issues of sexuality. They are so scared to talk about human sexuality that you have these extreme cases pop up in Christianity and Islam. I mean if Christians kept up some of their OLD traditions (like in Puritan times) women wouldn't be able to show their ankles....ankles!!!
And respecting someone's religion doesn't mean that you, or the whole world has to accommodate to it! In the U.S. government is not supposed to get involved with religions, yes I know we've done a bad job of that, but the Separation of Church and State is there so that a religion or someone else's religious beliefs cannot be forced upon you or cause you a restriction in you safety or rights by law.
Mmm, as a girl I say I found pretty interesting how Muslim women find a way to "be seen" without stripping off their traditional clothing. A way to be "religion complaint" but... well, not really. Anyway, why would them want be seen if you cannot date or go out with a man in public? I mean, it seems to me the most useless gadget for this kind of social intercourse.
I'm still trying to understand how the burqas serves as a benefit as to prevent perverts, abusers, etc.
For the little I know about psychology, when you prohibit something, the human being feel compelled to find a way to do the banned thing anyway. That means that it is not casuality that all that abuse of Muslim womans happens where there's this kind of restrictions exists, and not only about clotting but marriage and social relations as well.
I agree wholeheartedly with different posts that talk about the insecurity of women in every place of the world. No, I'm not American, either European. I live in South America, in a beautiful country called Argentina. We have problems with sexual abuse, yes, we do, but covering ourselves we don't believe we will find a solution to this issue. We try to educate our girls to prevent and fight this kind of behavior, by talking about it and report this to the authorities. The key thing is that, even when our security system is far from excellent our cops take care of us when something happen. The jury takes our side as individual whose rights were wronged. One of my best friends was raped and I had in my vicinity a rapist (have a quite close encounter with him but fought with my life to escape. Mission accomplished). I can tell how horrible is to feel vulnerable and trapped, but you always have to keep in mind that your body is yours and nobody have the right to do you something that you don't want to. I guess that because we stand in different beliefs we behave this way.
And as to provoke with the way you dress... a rapist is a human with mental problems that see women (or children, in the worst cases) as an opportunity to satisfy a desire to overpower you. You're not a human being to them, just a hole with tits to be filled. The day my friend was attacked, she was covered from head to toe (was winter) and he took advantage of that (lack of mobility, I suppose). For me, I just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I wasn't wearing anything revealing at all (if loose jeans and a big t-shirt are revealing to you... I find vague your definition of sexy, at least).
Oh, just that. Hope you all can understand me and get my point.
Cheers,
I agree - it's more basic than religion or politics, it's simply a power struggle. To me a burqa takes AWAY a woman's power to communicate with her eyes and face (only 15% of human communication is the words you use, think about that! and all these written posts here...), it makes her less human, more like an object, and therefore mysterious, an object of curiosity.
Headed by Afghanistan, Muslim countries have by FAR the highest rate of female suicides in the world. Protecting women? I don't think so. Look at the evidence, then make the theory.
I would even go as far as to say that even the women in the west who "choose" to cover up probably have issues with self identity, with how they think they are being perceived. They are more worried about what people think of them than about what they bring to the world - impressionism vs. expressionism.
The point of burqas is not, as I understand it, to stop abusers. It's to stop other men from seeing you and being tempted, because Islam is weak on the notion of withstanding temptation. "She was asking for it" is a remarkably successful defense. But the husband that she is ordered to submit to is free to be an abuser, so it doesn't stop them.
The point is a simple matter of jealosy; to protect your woman from others, in the same sense you would protect any piece of property. It's not for her benefit at all.
@ the guy who said
"...who went out into the desert an lost his wits"
and then you wonder why we go crazy! HELLO! the guy is like a father figure to us, sure you don't have to like him, but atleast don't insult!
and the denmark thing...no no country could by law ban them, since they part of WTO, so even saudi arabia didn't, actuall people them selves stopped buying danish products...it did effect, coz denmark does have a major dairy sector...of course every body forget the boycott after a month, so no harm done