Bhutto killed because she was a woman

I was accused of simplistic analysis when I stated that I expected Bhutto to be killed because she was a woman. Well, it appears I'm not the only one who understands this:

ARE women across the world mourning Benazir Bhutto? They should be. Not because she was a saint; she wasn’t. She was at least a beneficiary of the billions stolen by her husband from the people of Pakistan. Nor did she do anything much for Pakistani women during her two periods of leadership, declining even to try to repeal the infamous Hudood laws whereby rape victims can be punished for adultery.

She should be mourned not because of what she was but because of what she symbolised. Her death was a political assassination, not an honour killing, as some have said.

Nevertheless it was a reminder of what we face. Bhutto was murdered because to her enemies she was Westernised, a traitor to her culture and an American stooge. She was murdered because she had vowed to bring secularism and democracy to Pakistan. She was murdered because she was all these things, and a woman.

“I know I am a symbol of what the so-called jihadists, Taliban and al-Qa’ida, most fear,” she wrote in her autobiography, Daughter of the East. “I am a female political leader fighting to bring modernity, communication, education and technology to Pakistan.”

Yes, fear is the right word. The fear of women, of women’s freedom, and most of all, of women’s sexuality, runs through Islamism. It is a large part of Islamist hatred of the West. “The issue of women is not marginal,” writes the Dutch scholar Ian Buruma. “It lies at the heart of Islamic occidentalism (anti-Westernism).”

It is the “deep, ignored issue”, writes Paul Berman, author of Terror and Liberalism. Why, I wonder, is it mainly men who are making these points?

[...]

Could the murder of Bhutto be enough to wake up Western women to the fact that the war being waged by the Islamists is very much about them? Could the modern Left be persuaded that the people who killed Bhutto are the ones we are fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq and other places across the world? Can we, in our niceness, stop telling ourselves they are justified in their hatred of us?

I think there are some women who understand the threat that's facing the world right now. They understand the caliphate and what that would mean but there are many women who haven't a clue why this fight is so important. Does anyone know what NOW has said about the assassination? Or are they too focused on "stereotyping toys" and "non-sexist car insurance?"

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France to send more troops to Afghanistan

Umm....what's that you say about us going it alone? If any presidential candidate says that we have a "bunker mentality" and have lost the support of the world for our war on terror, it's safe to say that they don't know what's going on in the world and aren't prepared to lead:

Said Nicolas Sarkozy: “There is a war going on here, a war against terrorism, against fanaticism that we cannot and will not lose.”

[...]

By the way, both the Dutch and the Canadians (who finally elected a conservative as prime minister) have re-upped for tours of Afghanistan through 2010.

Oh and one more thing about timelines. Sarkozy said: “What is certain is that we have not wanted to give the signal of departure, that would have been a despicable signal at a time when one sees the ravages inflicted by terrorism in the world.”

Australia is also committed to sending more troops.

The jihad's been called off, guys

I guess the Great Satan has won:

One of Al Qaeda's senior theologians is calling on his followers to end their military jihad and saying the attacks of September 11, 2001, were a "catastrophe for all Muslims."

In a serialized manifesto written from prison in Egypt, Sayyed Imam al-Sharif is blasting Osama bin Laden for deceiving the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, and for insulting the Prophet Muhammad by comparing the September 11 attacks to the early raids of the Ansar warriors. The lapsed jihadist even calls for the formation of a special Islamic court to try Osama bin Laden and his old comrade Ayman al-Zawahri.

The disclosures from Mr. Sharif, also known as Dr. Fadl and Abd al-Qadir ibn Abd al-Aziz, have already opened a rift at the highest levels of Al Qaeda. The group's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, a former associate of the defecting theologian in Egypt, personally mocked him last month in a video, remarking that he was unaware Egyptian prisons had fax machines. Meanwhile, leading Western analysts are saying the defection of Mr. Sharif indicates the beginning of the end for Al Qaeda.

[...]

The director of the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University, Frank Cilluffo, said, "Here you have someone with the stature and credibility, who more or less wrote the book on jihadism and is oft cited by other jihadists, making the case against it. This is someone with the heft on legal and religious grounds to make the counter argument that we can't."

[...]

His latest texts are a renunciation of his earlier work, saying the military jihad or war against apostate states and America is futile. But the ex-jihadist also calls into question the virtue of Mr. bin Laden and Mr. Zawahri. In some ways the manifesto reads in parts like a spicy Washington memoir by an embittered former official.

Of his old associates he writes, "Bin Laden, al-Zawahri, and others fled at the beginning of the American bombing [in Afghanistan], to the point of abandoning their wives and families to be killed along with other innocent people," according to a translation provided by the Middle East Media Research Institute. It goes on, "I think that a sharia court should be established, composed of reliable scholars, to hold these people accountable for their crimes — even if in absentia — so that those who are ignorant in their religion do not repeat this futility."

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“Long Live the Islamic State”

An al Qaeda torture chamber uncovered in Iraq.

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"Women who do not respect the hijab and their husbands deserve to die"

More evidence of the suppression of women under Islam:

A top Muslim cleric in Iran, Hojatolislam Gholam Reza Hassani said on Wednesday that women in Iran who do not wear the hijab or Muslim headscarf, should die.

"Women who do not respect the hijab and their husbands deserve to die," said Hassani, who leads Friday prayers in the city of Urumieh, in Iranian Azerbaijan.

"I do not understand how these women who do not respect the hijab, 28 years after the birth of the Islamic Republic, are still alive," he said.

"These women and their husbands and their fathers must die," said Hassani, who is the representative of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei in eastern Azerbaijan.

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King Abdullah pardons female rape victim sentenced to receive 200 lashes

It's good to see that the Saudis will respond to world-wide public outrage.

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Father strangles daughter for not wear hijab

Shouldn't wearing the hijab be something a woman does instead of having it forced on her? Islam does not appear to be the religion of peace for women, it appears to be the religion of oppression.

A Mississauga, Ont. cab driver has been charged with the murder of his 16-year-old daughter, who was attacked in the family home after clashing with her strict Muslim family over whether or not to wear the hijab, the traditional Islamic head scarf for women.

Muhammad Parvez, 57, was charged after his daughter Aqsa Parvez died in hospital late Monday.

The victim's older brother Waqas Parvez, was charged with obstructing police in connection with the girl's death.

Police were called to a home in Mississauga early Monday morning by a man who told 911 operators that he had killed his daughter.

They found Aqsa Parvez lying motionless on the floor of her bedroom, to all appearances dead, but paramedics found a faint pulse and rushed her to hospital. The teenager succumbed to her injuries several hours later, police said Tuesday.

[...]

"She was scared of her father: He was always controlling her," said Dominiquia Holmes-Thompson, a friend and classmate at Applewood Heights Secondary School, where both were Grade 11 students. "She wasn't allowed to go out or do anything: That's why she left."

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Mohammed Teddy Bears

Michelle Malkin is selling Mohammed Teddy Bears. It's a stuffed bear with a tee-shirt that says "Mohammed" pretty simple. I wish I'd thought of it, I could have made some extra cash for Christmas. Maybe you can get one to send to the Sudanese ambassador in protest over the treatment of the English teacher.

Related Posts;
Teacher convicted of inciting religions hatred for naming teddy bear Muhammad
Sudan President Pardons British Teacher

Sudan President Pardons British Teacher

I bet she can't wait to get out of that country:

Sudan's president on Monday agreed to pardon a British teacher jailed after letting her students name a teddy bear Muhammad, and officials said she would be released and would fly back to England later in the day.

Lord Nazir Ahmed and another Muslim representative from Britain's House of Lords, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, met with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir Monday at his presidential palace to plead for Gillian Gibbons' pardon.

"The president has told us he has already signed the papers for her pardon," Ahmed told reporters afterward.

Sudanese presidential spokesman Mahzoub Faidul told The Associated Press that Gibbons would "be released today and will fly back to England today."

Teacher convicted of inciting religions hatred for naming teddy bear Muhammad

Pretty unbelievable that you get jail time for allowing children to name a teddy bear Muhammad:

British teacher Gillian Gibbons has been convicted of inciting religious hatred for letting her pupils name a teddy bear Muhammad and sentenced to 15 days in prison and deportation from Sudan, one of her defense lawyers said Thursday.

“The judge found Gillian Gibbons guilty and sentenced her to 15 days jail and deportation,” said Ali Mohammed Hajab, a member of her defense team.

The director of the school employing Gibbons, however, noted that since she had already spent five days in prison, she would serve only 10 days.

“It’s a very fair verdict, she could have had six months and lashes and a fine, and she only got 15 days and deportation,” said Robert Boulos of the Unity High School, adding they would not appeal the decision.

Aren't you so happy that you live in a country where you can sell Muhammad teddy bears on ebay? Evidently, you can't :-)

Saudi Rape Victim's Husband Speaks Out

The husband of the wife speaks out in her defense because he is her voice in this society:

"From the outset, my wife was dealt with as a guilty person who committed a crime," he said. "She was not given any chance to prove her innocence or describe how she was a victim of multiple brutal rapes."

He said his wife is "a quiet, simple person who does not bother anyone," and too fragile to speak about the case. As her guardian, under Saudi law, he is standing up for her publicly.

[...]

"Since the attack, she's been suffering from severe depression."

The events ended her pursuit of an education beyond high school, he said. "Her situation keeps changing from bad to worse. You could say she's a crushed human being.
[...]

"We were shocked when the judgment changed and her sentence was doubled," the husband said, blaming the decision on a judge pursuing "a personal vendetta."

"We were looking for pardon; instead she got double the whipping and more jail time.

"If this sentence is based on the law then I would've welcomed it," he said. "But it is harsh and the Saudi society I know and belong to is more sympathetic than that. I do not expect such harshness from Saudis, but rather compassion and support of the victim and her rights.

[...]

Despite the treatment given his wife by the Saudi judicial system, he believes his society respects human rights and he is optimistic about the future.

"Through this case, as a citizen and stemming from my sense of security and patriotism, I believe in the future... And I have faith and trust in the system," he said.

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I don't know why he would think the society respected human rights since it has given out lashes for dancing and drinking, to an Indonesian maid who was tortured by her sponsors, and a restaurant owner who hired women.

Saudi Arabia: Rape victim is sentenced to 200 lashes

Because she was alone with a man before she was raped and her lawyer was discipled for talking to the press about the case. Unbelievable! This is what life is like under Sharia law. This is why I'm praying that we will never have to experience it here. If we did, our daughters would never know a day of freedom and would always live in fear.

Saudi Arabia defended on Tuesday a court's decision to sentence a woman who was gang-raped to 200 lashes of the whip, after the United States described the verdict as "astonishing".

The 19-year-old Shi'ite woman from the town of Qatif in the Eastern Province and an unrelated male companion were abducted and raped by seven men in 2006.

Ruling according to Saudi Arabia's strict reading of Islamic law, a court had originally sentenced the woman to 90 lashes and the rapists to jail terms of between 10 months and five years. It blamed the woman for being alone with an unrelated man.

Last week the Supreme Judicial Council increased the sentence to 200 lashes and six months in prison and ordered the rapists to serve between two and nine years in jail.

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Ron Paul attracts the attention of Muslim voters

They're attracted to his isolationism and his willingness to cede the Middle East to the jihadists:

After the Republican debate on Tuesday evening in Dearborn, Mich., a reporter from the Arab-American News asked Ron Paul what he thought of the term “Islamic fascism.”

“It’s a false term to make people think we’re fighting Hitler,” Paul responded. “It’s war propaganda designed to generate fear so that the war has to be spread.”

The call has gone out to all the Muslim Americans to hurry up and register to vote Republican so that they can vote in the Republican Primary to support Ron Paul, the anti-interventionist, non-isolationist candidate for President of the United States. Muslims are opening their wallets and joining teaparty07.com as well.

An anonymous Ron Paul supporter posted the following message on the internet: “Muslims and Americans have an unique window of opportunity for the 2008 election. There is a candidate running as a Republican that would work to completely cut off the funding to Israel, remove ALL US troops from Arab lands, and repeal the Patriot Act. He’s a Republican with Libertarian views named Ron Paul. Ron Paul’s policies ranging from monetary to foreign are top notch. Till now Muslims and Americans have not had an American Presidential candidate that really suited their best interests. This election is unique in that we have a man running as a Republican that speaks the truth…We know the current policies in the Middle East are failing, not only making it less safe in the world but hurting and killing innocent Muslims, which our media callously calls collateral damage. It is our duty as Muslims to follow the truth regardless of how futile it may seem. Ron Paul is the only candidate that does not seem to be swayed by the influential lobbies that the other candidates are catering to.”

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Muslim want their Christians neighbors to return

If you haven't seen the pictures on Michael Yon's website of the mass at St John’s Church in Baghdad, you really should go see it. It's wonderful to see that Christians are welcomed back into these neighborhoods.

LTC Stephen Michael at St John’s. LTC Michael told me today that when al Qaeda came to Dora, they began harassing Christians first, charging them “rent.” It was the local Muslims, according to LTC Michael, who first came to him for help to protect the Christians in his area. That’s right. LTC Michael told me more than once that the Muslims reached out to him to protect the Christians from al Qaeda. Real Muslims here are quick to say that al Qaeda members are not true Muslims. From charging “rent,” al Qaeda’s harassment escalated to killing Christians, and also Muslims. Untold thousands of Christians and Muslims fled Baghdad in the wake of the darkness of civil war. Most of the Christians are gone now; having fled to Syria, Jordan or Northern Iraq.

[...]

Today, Muslims mostly filled the front pews of St John’s. Muslims who want their Christian friends and neighbors to come home. The Christians who might see these photos likely will recognize their friends here. The Muslims in this neighborhood worry that other people will take the homes of their Christian neighbors, and that the Christians will never come back. And so they came to St John’s today in force, and they showed their faces, and they said, “Come back to Iraq. Come home.” They wanted the cameras to catch it. They wanted to spread the word: Come home. Muslims keep telling me to get it on the news. “Tell the Christians to come home to their country Iraq.”

Fuller conducts study of why Muslims convert to Christianity

I was not surprised that Muslims would be attracted to a gentler religion when their's can be so oppressive (the subjugation of women and the control of behavior in some countries governed by Sharia law).

The survey, conducted by Fuller Theological Seminary’s School of Intercultural Studies between 1991 to 2007 among 750 Muslims that had decided to follow Christ, was able to track some influences that helped the converts make their decision. The respondents were from 30 countries and 50 ethnic groups – representing every major region of the Muslim world.

According to the survey, some participants said that they saw no discrepancy between what Christians preached and what they practiced in their lives.

An Egyptian said he recognized the contrast between the love of a Christian group at an American university and the unloving ways of Muslim students and faculty at a university in Medina, according to an article on the survey featured in Christianity Today magazine.

Others noted that Christians treat women as equals and Christians have loving marriages.

“Many Muslims who faced violence at the hands of other Muslims did not see it in the Christians they knew…,” wrote the survey’s authors – Dr. J. Dudley Woodberry, Russell G. Shubin, and G. Marks – in Christianity Today. “Muslim-on-Muslim violence has led to considerable disillusionment for many Muslims….”

Can Christians, Kurds, Sunni and Shia co-exist peacefully in Iraq?

Well, here's a neighborhood that has been doing it for generations. Why haven't we heard about it before?

At its oldest spot, a small dusty strip of dirt road near a mosque, the neighborhood of Bab al Sheik — a maze of snaking streets too narrow for cars — dates from a time, more than a thousand years ago, when Baghdad ruled the Islamic world.

At that time, orchards and palaces of Abbasid princes unfolded in stately splendor not far away.

Ten centuries later, Bab al Sheik is less grand, but still extraordinary: it has been spared the sectarian killing that has gutted other neighborhoods, and Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds and Christians live together here with unusual ease. It has been battered by bombings around its edges, but the war has been kept from its heart, largely because of its ancient, shared past, bound by trust and generations of intermarriage.

“All of these people grew up here together,” said Monther, a suitcase seller here. “From the time of our grandfathers, same place, same food, same everything.”

Much of today’s Baghdad sprang into existence in the 1970s, when oil nationalization drew Iraqis from all over the country to work. The city’s population more than tripled over the course of 20 years, and new neighborhoods sprawled east and west. The war and civil conflict have seemed to take a heavier toll in those areas than in some of the older neighborhoods.

[...]

Abu Nawal, the father, recounted how a group of men from the office of the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr came to a local cafe, proposing to set up shop in the area. The cafe owner pointed to a sign, which stated in dark script that all discussions of politics and religion were prohibited. The men were then asked to leave.

“The guys in the neighborhood said, ‘If you try to make an office here, we will explode it,’” said Abu Nawal, a shoemaker, whose family has lived in the neighborhood for four generations.

Some time later, Sunni Arab political party members came and were similarly rebuffed.

And this is where you find the moderate Muslims:

He said he despised the poisonous mix of religion and politics that was strangling Iraqi society, and he enjoyed cracking wry jokes at politicians’ expense. Playing off the names for extremist militias, which in Iraq call themselves things like the Islamic Army, he refers to his group of friends as the Arak Army, righteous defenders of an anise-flavored alcoholic drink.

The neighborhood has another rare asset: moderate religious men.

[...]

“I don’t blame those guys who drew the cartoons,” he said, referring to the Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad that set off riots and protests across the Islamic world last year.

“Muslims are the ones to be blamed,” he said, sitting in an armchair in his quiet living room. “They have given them this picture.” An ice cream seller walked past his window, hawking in a loud voice.

Wow! Didn't know there were people like this in the Middle East, did you? Amazing! I guess there's hope for Iraq after all.

Indonesia Sentences 41 Christian To Five Years Imprisonment

For praying that Muslims come to know Jesus. It's amazing to me that Muslims wouldn't understand that the Christians are demonstrating great love for them by praying that their persecutors would not face the justice that they deserve but be given mercy by the Almighty God. What will be even more amazing is the next group who attempt to pray for the salvation of the Muslims knowing that they could be imprisoned for doing it.

We are so blessed to live in a country where we can freely pray for our enemies and not be persecuted by the state. I pray that remains the case for my lifetime and that of my kids and many more lifetimes until Jesus returns.

Join my in praying for the Muslims in Indonesian that the Lord will open their eyes and lead them from darkness into the light of truth that they may understand that Jesus is Lord and the Son of God and is God.

An Indonesian court has sentenced 41 Christian leaders to five years imprisonment on charges of blasphemy because they openly prayed that Muslims "come to know Christ," local Christians and a well-informed human rights group told BosNewsLife Thursday, November 1.

Voice Of the Martyrs (VOM) Australia said the Christians, who are linked to the international mission group Campus Crusade for Christ, participated in a December, 2006, prayer gathering in the Indonesian province of East Java.

"During this time they prayed for their nation asking that all Muslim leaders come to know Christ. Video footage of this prayer meeting was filmed and was leaked to a Muslim organization," VOM Australia said.

The organization quoted local sources as saying that the 41 believers "have been found guilty of abusing the Koran," seen as a holy book by Muslims. "The judge sentenced them to five years in prison". Their lawyers are planning to appeal the sentence in East Java High Court in Surabaya, VOM Australia added.

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What our military has wrought in Iraq

Go check out Michael Yon's photo:

Thanks and Praise. I photographed men and women, both Christians and Muslims, placing a cross atop the St. John's Church in Baghdad. They had taken the cross from storage and a man washed it before carrying it up to the dome. A Muslim man had invited the American soldiers from "Chosen" Company 2-12 Cavalry to the church, where I videotaped as Muslims and Christians worked and rejoiced at the reopening of St John's, an occasion all viewed as a sign of hope. The Iraqis asked me to convey a message of thanks to the American people. "Thank you, thank you," the people were saying. One man said, "Thank you for peace." Another man, a Muslim, said "All the people, all the people in Iraq, Muslim and Christian, is brother." The men and women were holding bells, and for the first time in memory freedom rang over the ravaged land between two rivers.

Amazing!

Muslims call for peace with Christians?

According to more than 130 Muslims scholars the basis for peace between Muslims and Christians is for Christians to renounce the Trinity:

Muslims and Christians together make up well over half of the world’s population.
Without peace and justice between these two religious communities, there can be no
meaningful peace in the world. The future of the world depends on peace between
Muslims and Christians.

The basis for this peace and understanding already exists. It is part of the very
foundational principles of both faiths: love of the One God, and love of the neighbour.
These principles are found over and over again in the sacred texts of Islam and
Christianity. The Unity of God, the necessity of love for Him, and the necessity of love of the neighbour is thus the common ground between Islam and Christianity. The following are only a few examples:

Of God’s Unity, God says in the Holy Qur’an: Say: He is God, the One! / God, the Self-Sufficient Besought of all! (Al-Ikhlas, 112:1-2). Of the necessity of love for God, God says in the Holy Qur’an: So invoke the Name of thy Lord and devote thyself to Him with a complete devotion (Al-Muzzammil, 73:8). Of the necessity of love for the neighbour, the Prophet Muhammad  said: “None of you has faith until you love for your neighbour what you love for yourself.”

In the New Testament, Jesus Christ  said: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. / And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. / And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31)

Which includes rejecting the deity of Christ:

In the Holy Qur’an, God Most High enjoins Muslims to issue the following call to
Christians (and Jews—the People of the Scripture):
Say: O People of the Scripture! Come to a common word between us and
you: that we shall worship none but God, and that we shall ascribe no partner unto Him, and that none of us shall take others for lords beside God. And if they turn away, then say: Bear witness that we are they who
have surrendered (unto Him). (Aal ‘Imran 3:64)

The words: we shall ascribe no partner unto Him relate to the Unity of God, and
the words: worship none but God, relate to being totally devoted to God. Hence they all relate to the First and Greatest Commandment. According to one of the oldest and most authoritative commentaries on the Holy Qur’an the words: that none of us shall take others for lords beside God, mean ‘that none of us should obey the other in disobedience to what God has commanded’. This relates to the Second Commandment because justice and freedom of religion are a crucial part of love of the neighbour. Thus in obedience to the Holy Qur’an, we as Muslims invite Christians to come together with us on the basis of what is common to us, which is also what is most essential to our faith and practice: the Two Commandments of love.

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So, if Christians want to be at peace with Muslims, we have to reject what it means to be a Christian by rejecting our Lord and Savior even though we know if we did we would not be at peace with God:

Mark 8:38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."

James 4:4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Though it's true that Jesus said that God is one, he also said that he is one with the Father:

John 10:30 "I and the Father are one."

Jesus is clearly saying that he is God here and the Pharisees understood him as saying that:

John 10:31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus answered them, "I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?" 33 The Jews answered him, "It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God." 34 Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your Law, 'I said, you are gods'? 35 If he called them gods to whom the word of God came- and Scripture cannot be broken- 36 do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, 'You are blaspheming,' because I said, 'I am the Son of God'? 37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; 38 but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father." 39 Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.

Other passages make Christ's deity clear as well:

Isaiah 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Matthew 1:23 "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel" (which means, God with us).

Luke 7:16 Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, "A great prophet has arisen among us!" and "God has visited his people!"

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 5:18 This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

John 20:28 Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!"

There are many other verses that I could quote that demonstrate quite clearly that Jesus is God, that's why we worship him. We do so because the word of God states it.

When we say that God is one it's with the understanding that the oneness includes God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Even though Muslims, Jews and Christians read the same verse we all have a different meaning and there can be no unity in the phrase.

My question to the Muslim scholars is this: instead of asking us to give up our faith and submit to your's, why not just tolerate our faith? Then we can be at peace with each other.

Updated: Listen, to those who read this and think I'm being harsh or I don't understand what they're saying or that I'm spinning what they're saying, I linked to the article and quoted so that you could read it for yourself. If I was trying to spin, then I wouldn't have done that. What I did was cut to the chase and explained why there can be no agreement between Muslims and Christians over this issue. The one word that we supposedly agree on, the Shema means something different to Muslims and Christians. To Muslims it means a unitary God but to Christians it means a triune God that includes the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. How can we come to an agreement? Go read their suggestions. I haven't represented them.

Ramzi Yousef claims to be a Christian

Unbelievable! How amazing would that be!

Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the first terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, claims he converted from Islam to Christianity, Scott Pelley reports in a story that brings viewers inside the secretive "Supermax" prison where he is being held. Pelley also reports that some 900 force feedings were performed on other al-Qaeda terrorists who went on repeated hunger strikes to protest conditions at the Colorado top-security federal prison. The 60 MINUTES segment will be broadcast Sunday Oct. 14 (7:30-9:00 PM, ET/7:00-9:00 PM, PT) on the CBS Television Network.

The prison in Florence, Colo., which the government calls ADX-Florence for Administrative Maximum, houses the nation's toughest and most infamous criminals, such as Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph, would-be 9/11 terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui, Oklahoma City bomber Terry Nichols and shoe bomber Richard Reid. 60 MINUTES obtained exclusive footage of prisoners inside the facility, where special-case prisoners are allowed only a phone call a month, spend 23 hours a day in their 12-by-7 cells and can get mail only from people approved by the prison.

Robert Hood, its warden from 2002 to 2005, says Yousef was a special case. He never left his cell because he did not want to face the indignity of a strip search required for recreation. "He has that Charlie Manson look," says Hood of Yousef. "He has some charisma about him. He's in [prison] uniform, but you know that there's a powerful person you're looking at," Hood says. Told that Yousef has begun leaving his cell and now claims to be a Christian, Hood says, "He's playing a game with someone. If he's doing that, he's doing it for the reaction....He is the real deal," he tells Pelley. As a Muslim, Yousef prayed almost every hour, remembers Hood.

OK, now I have another reason for watching 60 Minutes on Sunday night. (Mike Horton is scheduled to be on that night talking about Osteen. How perfect is it that Horton is scheduled on the same night that there will be breaking news like this report?)