Arrgh!!

OK, for some reason, someone does not want me to do this series.  Most of you know who that is .  But I will not be stopped!! 

On Saturday I lost my stuff twice, so I shut down my computer and decided to work on it on Sunday.  I lost it again, but only a little bit, as I had not been working on it that long.  Then after completeing almost the entire first bit that was going up on Monday, my page shut without warning.  I composed my entry on a different blog site that doesn’t have a way to save your stuff, so I lost it. 

I had hoped that by now I would have enough done for at least 2-3 posts.  I write them on my other blog site because it has the font I like, then I save them here.  I have found that if I write them on here first, I have to rewrite them on there, in order to get them the look I want.

So this is it for now, hopefully I will get things together tomorrow and will get a post up before the end of the day.  I know some of you are waiting for this series to start, and I promise I will work on nothing else until it is done.  I just wanted you to understand why, my first post is not up yet.  Bare with me and I will get it up, even if I pull all my hair out in the process.

I hate it when my computer messes up.  Some of you know that I have that problem with IM.  I normally don’t have the same problem when I log in under Internet Explorer, so I was really surprised over the last couple of days when my stuff just shut down w/o notice.  Obviously I need to take the time to get a hold of Yahell and find out what the problem is.  In the mean time, those of you who are believers in God…you know what to do .

Many thanks for your patience and God Bless you and yours.

Politically Correct???

This isn’t part of the new series, but I had to put it up. This article was brought to my attention. I will comment on it below.

First Jell-O, now Santa

OAK LAWN | School district considers banning traditions seen as offensive to Muslims

September 28, 2007

BY ANGELA CAPUTO Daily Southtown

So long, Halloween parade. Farewell, Santa’s gift shop.

The holiday traditions are facing elimination in some Oak Lawn schools this year after complaints that the activities are offensive, particularly to Muslim students.

Final decisions on which of the festivities will be axed will fall to the principals at each of Ridgeland School District 122’s five schools, Supt. Tom Smyth said.

Parents expect that the announcement is going to add to the tension that has been building since officials agreed earlier this month to change the lunch menu to exclude items containing pork to accommodate Muslim students. News that Jell-O was struck from the menu caused such a stir that officials have agreed to bring it back. Gelatin is often made with tissue or bones of pigs or other animals.

That controversy now appears to have been been dwarfed by the holiday debate, which became so acrimonious Wednesday that police were called to Columbus Manor School to intervene in a shouting match among parents.

“It’s difficult when you change the school’s culture,” said Columbus Manor Principal Sandy Robertson.

Elizabeth Zahdan, a mother of three District 122 students, says she took her concerns to the school board this month, not because she wanted to do away with the traditions, but rather to make them more inclusive. “I only wanted them modified to represent everyone,” she said.

Nixing them isn’t the response she was looking for. “Now the kids are not being educated about other people,” she said.

There’s just not time in the six-hour school day to celebrate every holiday, said Smyth, who sent the message to principals that they need to “tone down” the activities that he sees as eating too much into instructional time. “We have to think about our purpose,” Smyth said. “Are we about teaching reading, writing and math or for parties or fund-raising during the day?”

Robertson is hoping to strike compromises that will keep traditions alive and be culturally acceptable to all students — nearly half of whom are of Arab descent at Columbus Manor, she says. Fewer than a third of students district wide are of Arab descent, according to Smyth.

Following the example of Lieb Elementary School, Columbus Manor School will exchange the annual Halloween parade for a fall festival next month. The holiday gift bazaars at both schools also will remain, but they’ll likely be moved to the PTA-sponsored after-school winter festival. And Santa’s annual visit probably will be on a Saturday.

I have seen some really stupid things going on in our public schools of late, and I am getting really sick of it. For instance, doing away with kick ball, we can’t have any of our kids getting hurt now can we.

First let me say, I think that different religions should be accommodated to a certain degree. There should be options in food choice for Jewish and Muslim students. The same way that peanuts have been removed in order to keep allergic students safe. But, you can’t discriminate against other students either. If the school in question can’t provide different food choices, then students with special food requirements can bring a bag lunch.

We have seen all kinds of things REMOVED, from the public square because of the ACLU’s war on Christmas. God forbid we have a nativity scene ANYWHERE. But it’s alright to have Muslim stuff or Jewish stuff. How is that any different than Christian stuff??

In my humble opinion, it should be all inclusive or nothing. It seems we have gone with a knee-jerk reaction. We are so concerned with showing understanding to one religion that we have omitted every other religion and I don’t think its right.

And to my Muslim readers, before you jump down my throat, you know I have done my best to be inclusive here. And to show that all Muslims do not believe in the terrorist ideology.

We, or they, (the schools amongst others), have gone so politically correct, that it has become ridiculous. A lot of Christian parents don’t like Halloween, but never tried to change the schools decoration or celebration. Same with the Easter bunny, which has absolutely nothing to do with Easter, I have no clue where it even came from.

I can tell you this…Many Christian parents have decided to either home school or place their kids in private Christian schools. INSTEAD, of calling on every school to meet their needs in regards to their religion. Some are trying to revisit prayer in school. Many see the failure of our kids, to be directly associated with removing prayer from school. And as far as what I believe, I have to agree.

There are many other things that have been removed from school which I find beyond explanation. When I was a kid we said the pledge of allegiance everyday. We were taught many patriotic songs that we sang on a daily basis. Patriotism was a big thing. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think that is something that is being taught in our schools anymore.

What is wrong with teaching our kids to be proud of their country?? What is wrong with teaching our children the 10 Commandments?? What is wrong with teaching our children the reason for the season??

We should be sensitive to other people’s religion and needs, but not at the cost of everyone else. If we can’t include every religion, we shouldn’t be including any. It’s the basic principle of fair play.

I’m sure that there will be people who are not understanding what I am trying to say here. It has been my experience so far, that everyone reads with their own personal beliefs in mind, then they see something different than what I am saying.

This country was founded and developed under Judeo/Christian beliefs. I’m sure you have heard that plenty, especially around Christmas. If you pay attention to the news, you can plainly see that there IS a war on Christmas. Based on the fact that we were/are a Christian/Judeo nation…that should be consideration when it comes to Christmas. I for one, am really sick of ‘politically correct’.

It is things like the article above that makes people prejudiced against Islam in general. And you can see what I think of it. When you look at nations that were/are based on being founded and developed under Islam, its plain to see how they base their schools and holidays. Even though we are America and based on freedom and freedom of religion. Why do we need to change what our country was based on, when Muslim country’s don’t??

I would like to ask our Muslim Americans their opinion on this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Start of New Series….

OK, since I seem to be a glutton for abuse, I am going to start on my next series of posts. There is so much to say on the matter, I don’t even know where to begin. Hopefully I will do this in a concise manner so it flows and you understand what I am saying. But who knows, so far that hasn’t always been the case. 

I have had some people on my other blog who thinks I should write this way or that way and even what topics I should write about. Sounds weird doesn’t it, who would have the gall to tell a blogger how to write their own blog. Unless it was a English teacher, which I will admit, I could use some guidance …no? Not doing it for you?? Well pardon me for trying to be funny. You know you’ve lost it when you start having imaginary joke critics.

First, let me tell you WHAT I am going to be writing about and HOW I plan on doing it. OK here goes nothing, the topic for the next series of posts will be “The End Times”. All Abrahamic faiths have some belief in the ‘End Times’.  There are differences however. 

Now the HOW, what I will be doing is showing what each text says. I will also show what different people say. At the very end, I may give my personal two cents worth, or maybe not. I haven’t decided yet. I would like you to read them even if you, yourself don’t believe in scripture. If you really don’t want to, and would like for me to email you when I am done with the topic, let me know. I don’t have a problem with doing that for you.  But personally I think you would be missing out.  

Until a few months back, I didn’t realize that Islam had its own belief of the End Times. So maybe some of you didn’t know either. I am hoping that we will all learn something new with this series of posts. If you have something to say about it, feel free, but please be respectful of other people’s beliefs. Do unto others what you would want done unto you.  Sound simple enough??   Regardless of which faith you have, or don’t have, try and be open minded. 

I really debated whether to do this now or not, I have been so busy, I haven’t been able to line everything up the way I want it yet.  But I finally decided that I might as well just do it.  I’ll line it out as I go along.  Just remember, if I don’t get everything in one post, there will be more.  Entire books have been written and rewritten on the subject of the End Times, I am going to attempt to show the differences but I’m sure I will miss something.  If you have anything you want me to add, please email me and let me know.  Do you think if I blither on a little bit more, I will have enough  script for one post??     OK, lets jump in.

First lets start with a word, isra’iliyyat.  I think it is Arabic, basically the principle is, when it comes to the Jewish or Christian faith, anything that doesn’t jive with the Quran, is wrong.  Actually I will copy what I read the word to mean. 

“This word, meaning ‘of Jewish origin’ refers to explanations derived from non-Muslim sources and especially from the Jewish tradition, but also including other ahl al-kitab (people of the Book) in general.  Such material was used very little by the sahaba, but more by the tabiun and even more by later generations.  There are many aspects of the Quran which can be explained by referring to such sources, when there is common ground between the Quran and the other traditions.  However, the information taken from such sources must be used with great caution and cannot be considered sound according to the standards of ilm al-hadith, unless traced back to the Prophet himself and his Companions.   Hence on distinguishes three kinds of the so-called isra’iliyat:  1) Those known to be true because the revelation to the Prophet Muhammad confirms them.   2) Those known to be false, because the revelation to the Prophet Muhammad rejects them.  3)  Those not known to be true or false, and we do not say they are true or false.”   

I will let my Muslim readers correct me if I am wrong on my first sentence regarding the meaning of the word.  Some how when you see that written out, it doesn’t look very nice.  I would hope that this will not keep Muslims from reading the posts on this subject.  I will want you to confirm if I get it right or not in regards to what Islam teaches about the End Times. 

For the purpose of this series I will be showing the difference’s between Christian and Islam in End Time beliefs. For the first post we will look at what each test says about the ‘signs’ that the End Time is near I was going to start it here, but it can be long so I will wait.

The bottom line is, if you are a Christian, a Muslim, a Jew, or a Hindu, all have beliefs about the End Times. Even the Mayans had something to say about it and went as far as giving a date. As it stands, just trying to compare Christian and Islam is going to be hard enough for me, so I will leave it at that. I would ask that not everyone jump down my throat at once, as some on my other blog have a tendency to do. You may want me to condemn this or that, but I am NOT going to do it. As I said, this is to compare, not to criticize, you can save the jumping till I put my two cents worth in. Primarily because I will be doing this as I go along. I don’t have everything pre-set.

It is my understanding that in Islam there in nothing in the Quran itself about the coming of the Islamic Messiah, known as, The 12th Imam, or The Mahdi. Rather it comes from supposed sayings of Mohammed and his followers soon after the Quran was complete. Thus, not all Muslims share the same beliefs. We will be going over what Ahmadnutjob thinks about the coming Mahdi, as he is one person who for sure wants to speed the process.

I know there are Pastor’s and Imam’s out there that can do a much better job at this than I can, but I don’t know if anybody has compared the two texts, or if the readers have had a chance to read them. When it comes to Christian stuff, then I will ask my Christian friends to let me know if I missed something. When it comes to Muslim stuff, all the more, from my Muslim friends.

I may not get a post out every day so bare with me, pray for me, and hopefully I will get it all right. Till the next post, thanks for reading and have a Blessed day!!