They got their 15 minutes of fame by publicly opposing gay marriage on the grounds that it wasn’t ‘Biblical’ (and funding – second-hand – some nasty homophobic groups) in the name of ‘family values’.
Aside: Don’t get me wrong, they are a private company and they are free to present any image they like and spend their profits in any way they choose. All I am doing is pointing out how they live up to the values they themselves profess to live according to.
Well, now they are revealing more about exactly what constitutes these ‘Biblical family values’ that Chick-fil-A promotes: Mother-Son Medieval Date Night!!!
They even promote it on their own website! Here is a screenshot:
We learn from ‘Biblically Correct Family Values’ that Deuteronomy 21:18-21 gives instructions to parents how to go about having a disobedient son stoned to death, Judges 11:30-39 gives instructions how to sacrifice your daughter to God (and no, this time there is no last-moment intervention to stop the sacrifice), and, among other things, tosses in the New Testament Biblical family values as instructed by both Matthew (10:34-36) and Luke (14:26).
From ‘Keeping Marriage Biblically Correct’, we learn from Genesis (16:3) all about Abram and Sarai and how she gave him her maidservant Hagar for a wife and we also learn (32:22) about Jacob and his two wives and his two concubines. The booklet also gives useful tips on rape-crisis counseling (from both Deuteronomy and Leviticus) and how to find a wife (Deuteronomy and Exodus) and other useful bits of advice on how to live according to Biblical values.
However, unless one goes all the way back to wondering whom exactly did the sons of Adam procreate with if the only female in existence was their mother, Eve, there is nothing there about mothers dating their sons (though there is plenty about fathers impregnating their daughters…).
One of the brothers is indeed an American citizen and both are about as Caucasian as you can get, in fact… They are both devout Muslims, too!
Which just goes to unmask the ‘soft racism’ inherent in the ‘leftists’ own claim that to criticize the actions of some Muslims is a form of racism… The colour of one’s skin does not determine a person’s belief system.
While in our society, each one of us is free to determine their own path in life, in tribal cultures like Saudi Arabia, the clan one is born into have a huge influence (and place limitations) on their life choices. And the Al-Harbi clan has close ties to Al-Qaida – and many of his clansmen are currently being held in Gitmo… He may indeed be quickly and quietly disappeared into Saudi Arabia, or, following protests over letting a suspected terrorist slip from US jurisdiction, he may remain. We shall see…
This has left many people in the US and worldwide wondering what is happening to the young people, living in comfortable middle-class families, to radicalize them?
And it is not just in the US that this is happening. Here, in Canada, we have just found out that 4 young men have been radicalized (some of them converting to Islam from other religious faiths) and taking up arms as jihadis.
Perhaps our life is too comfortable!
Young people – especially intelligent and ambitious young men – strive to achieve, to overcome real challenges. And, if they don’t think the society permits them to do just that, some of them just may search out a challenge outside the bounds they perceive as being set out by society. Perhaps…
Being an immigrant to Canada myself, my family was helped by older immigrants from our ‘neck of the woods’ (the other side of the iron curtain – the nationality seemed less important than the shared experience of having been oppressed by socialist totalitarianism). Many of these people had kids who were born in Canada – my age, plus a bit or minus a bit. As I watched these 2nd generation immigrants grow through their teens and early twenties, I was struck by just how many of them followed a somewhat predictable pattern: those who were very self-conscious, perhaps somewhat insecure, and did not quite know how to integrate their parents’ ‘differentness’ with their new country’s identity – the very people who, in the larger society would be most likely to ‘rebel against their parents’ in a self-destructive manner, in order to define their own identity – these kids were the most likely to embrace the most extreme Marxist views.
Looking at immigrants who tried to escape the oppression of Sharia, their kids who would be following the same pattern I had observed would be the ones most likely to be radicalized into Islamist jihad…
Of course, my observation is anecdotal, and I am not offering it as anything more than just one hypothesis.
Other hypothesies – and probably more likely ones – are being proposed by the moderate Muslims living in North America, like Salim Mansur and Tarek Fatah, who warn us of certain mosques whose members (perhaps even imams) seek out the vulnerable youths and radicalize them. And, yes – these mosques are funded largely from Saudi Arabia or Iran and supplied with radicalized imams/ayatollahs from abroad. If it were not for the vigilance of our moderate Muslims sounding the alarm bells, we would not know how to look for such subversive activity.
But, this subversive activity does occur!
Here is an example from Massachusetts itself:
In Canada, this also occurs…one does not have to look further than the virulent anti-Semitism in a Calgary Mosque, as documented by BlazingCatFur:
‘TORONTO, April 17, 2013 – B’nai Brith Canada is questioning why the investigation of its complaint to the Calgary Police about a Muslim website www.muslimsofcalgary.ca has been shut down. The Jewish human rights organization brought the complaint earlier this week after anti-Jewish postings were brought to its attention. One posting, for example, relied on the notorious antisemitic forgery “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” to allege a global conspiracy by the Jews to dominate the world. Another article posted stated that “Jews have deviated from the path of their religion as seen in their manners, debauchery and immorality.” Further postings have been brought to light that are equally offensive.
… Highlights Of Muslims Of Calgary Hate Screeds Collection
Muslims Of Calgary: Quote Protocols Of Elders Of Zion To Prove Freemasonry A Jewish Plot
Muslims Of Calgary: Jewish Pornographers Destroy Nations By Seducing & Degrading Women
Muslims Of Calgary: Call to Jihad – The Jews Have Been The Enemies Of The Ummah Since Allah Began His Call
Muslims Of Calgary: Jews Corrupt Muslims To Steal Their Land
Calgary police are exercising ‘asymmetric’ application of justice in rejecting hate-speech claims against these rants, while non-Muslim critics of Islamic supremacism are dragged in front of the Human Rights Commissions/Tribunals. And, it is not any better in Edmonton… So much for Canada’s free-ist province. The pattern is being repeater over and over again.
It is time we, the non-Muslims of the Western world, started to listen to Muslims like Salim Mansur and stopped giving audience to Islamists and their puppet organizations! Perhaps then we could shut down the Mosques which DO preach hate and violence and radicalize our youth and replace them with Mosques which do not owe an allegiance to a foreign islamist regime. This would go a long way to making not just our society safer, but to improving the rights of ALL Muslims to be as moderate as they wish in their practice of their faith!
Remember: standing with the moderate Muslims against the Islamists is not racism, it is a positive application of freedom of religion!!!
‘The Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain and others have called for 25 April to be an international day to defend Bangladesh’s bloggers and activists. Please spread the word, sign this petition today, and stand with and for Bangladeshi freethinkers.
As you may know, in January, 29 year old blogger Asif Mohiuddin was stabbed. In February, 35 year old atheist blogger involved in the Shahbag protests, Ahmed Rajib, was brutally killed. Islamists continue to threaten prominent bloggers and have called for the “execution of 84 atheist bloggers for insulting religion”. Rather than prosecute the Islamists, the government has arrested some bloggers and shut down blogs and sites.
We unequivocally condemn the attacks on and threats against atheist, secularist and freethinking bloggers and call on the Bangladeshi government to guarantee their safety, respect free expression and prosecute Islamists who threaten, attack and harm critics.
On 25 April, we urge groups and individuals to rally at Bangladeshi embassies, contact members of parliament in their countries of residence, highlight the situation, write protest letters, carry out acts of solidarity, Tweet #Bangladesh #Bloggers and more.
We must fight this trend of normalizing penalties for blasphemy – an integral part of free speech. Supporting the Bangladeshi bloggers is a small step in the right direction!
We have been told, over and over, that ‘Halal meat’ is the ‘lowest common denominator’ for all peoples: that is, that serving ‘Halal meat’ does not infringe the sensibilities (religious or otherwise) of non-Muslims while serving non-Halal food does….the logical conclusion being that serving Halal meat is the best course of action.
However, serving/selling Halal meat is not as ‘universally acceptable’ as many Islamist lobbyists would like us to believe…even if we were to leave out the implications of the rules required for ‘Halal certification’, which violate our hiring/labour laws based on not discriminating on the grounds of relgion when hirin workers, as in order to maintain ‘Halal’ certification, only Muslims and/or Muslim supervisors are permitted.
When I was doing a little bit of research on this, I discovered that ‘Halal-certified meat’ could, indeed, be problematic.
The first group to be strictly forbidden to consume ‘Halal meat’ my research encountered were the Sikhs….who are very strictly forbidden from consuming ‘Halal meat,’ indeed.
It would appear that there are two distinct, both important, doctrinal reasons for the prohibition.
Sikhism requires that an animal is to be killed in as swift and painless manner as possible in order for them to be able to eat it. The Islamic method of ‘Halal slaughter’ violates this by requiring animals to be slowly and painfully bled to death. When India was conquered by Muslims and the Koranic method of slowly bleeding the animal to death was imposed, Sikh religious leaders forbade all Sikhs the consumption of meat slaughtered in such a cruel manner. Most Sikhs will prefer to become vegetarians rather than eat meat that was slaughtered by either the Halal or Kosher method.
Sikhism forbids the eating of food that was ‘prayed over’ or that was ‘sacrificial’. This, of course, would apply to all ‘Halal meat’, which is prayed over and dedicated as a sacrifice to ‘Allah’ as it is slaughtered.
even Wikipedia has some info on it: Prohibitions in Sikhism (Not that I consider Wikipedia to be an authoritative source – I included it to demonstrate that this is a well known principle of mainstream Sikhism and does not just represent the position of some obscure fringe sect.)
The Sikh method of animal slaughter is called ‘Jhatka‘. It is very clear that Halal meat cannot be Jhatka meat and Jhatka meat cannot be Halal meat, as described in one of the references cited already above (first bullet). They are, by definition, mutually exclusive.
What I found interesting while doing this research is that meat-eating Hindus are strictly prohibited from eating Halal meat. The references found are not deeply scriptual, but they do demonstrate this is a widely held belief: here and here.
Needles to say, secular humanists are very strongly opposed to the consumption of Halal meat because of the extreme cruelty of the method of slaughter. Here is just one example.
What is interesting is that when I was poking around on the internet, I have found a curious twist to things: in both the Old Testament and in the Apostolic Letters of the New Testament, there are clear and strict prohibitions for Christians on the consumption of all sacrificial meat. As all Halal meat is, indeed, sacrificial meat by the virtue of the prayer chanted over them as they are slaughtered (this is indeed the Sikh and Hindu interpretation, as well), some of the better-informed, or, perhaps, more doctrinally-adherent Christian sects are, in fact, interpreting this to mean that Christian scriptures strictly forbid the consumption of Halal meat.
In conclusion, Sikhs, Hindus, Buddhist and Christians are doctrinally forbidden from consuming Halal meat and secular humanists tend to avoid it on animal cruelty grounds.
Thus, any and all claims that ‘Halal meat’ ought to be the ‘default’ or ‘lowest common denominator’ for serving food in schools or other institutions, or that it is not necessary to label ‘Halal-slaughtered-meat’ as ‘Halal-compliant’ or ‘Sharia-compliant’ in our restaurants and retail stores is an obvious violation of the freedom of religion provision of our constitution – and, as such, cannot be permitted and/or tolerated.
After all, each and every one of us deserves the right to make a choice – an informed choice – about the food we consume.
It is our constitutional/common-law right – now let us make sure our governments require the proper labeling so that we can, indeed, make the informed choice our constitutional/common-law rights give us!!!
Thanks to CAIR-CAN’s protest against this event, Gavin Boby’s talk in Ottawa tonight was well advertised - so, together with some 60-80 other Ottawans, I decided to go check it out.
And, we were not disappointed.
Though I missed the protesters outside, I spoke to others who got to see them being interviewed by CBC. I guess that a February night in Ottawa with temperatures well below -20 degrees Celsius, most outdoor protests will tend to be brief and limited to the length of the interviews…
Mr. Boby spoke for an hour or so and then took questions from the audience. I will write it all up for tomorrow, when I hope Vlad Tepes will have a teaser video up.
Let me just say that it was a very positive message of reasoned restraint and the rule of law to maintain civil society. He unequivocally condemned anger and hate as motivators. If you happen to find yourself in Montreal on Tuesday, the 5th of February, 2013 or in Toronto on Wednesday, the 6th of February 2013, it is definitely worth it to go hear Mr. Boby speak.
UPDATE: Here is Brian Lilley interviewing Gavin Boby:
“The constitution defines Egyptians as Muslims and Christians. This alienates anyone else who does not fit into these categories,” a 24-year-old teacher who describes himself as a “secular humanist” says.
“The Egyptian people are religious by nature, and there are no atheists,” said Yusuf al-Qaradawi, one of the most prominent Islamic scholars, if not the most, a few days ago.
Indeed, the only place in the Middle East where one can openly say they subscribe to reason over mythology is in Israel.
Monday, January 21st, 2013, 7 PM
Reverend Majed El Shafie’s launch of his new book “Freedom Fighter”
Library & Archives Canada
395 Wellington, Ottawa
Main Auditorium
Admission: $15 (Reception to follow book launch and Q&A)
Tickets available at the door
“I am pleased to commend Freedom Fighter and the work of all who continue to fight for justice for the oppressed.”
The Honourable Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism
Majed El Shafie was arrested, tortured, and sentenced to die after he converted from Islam to Christianity. His dramatic story, and those of others worldwide who are suffering persecution, are told in shocking, yet sensitive detail. Especially startling is the true story of rescuing a very young Pakistani girl who experienced horrific sexual abuse – because her family would not convert to Islam.
Although hard to imagine and even harder to accept, this important truth about religious persecution is blatantly exposed. Millions of families are praying for help. They are suffering daily in China, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, and many other countries solely because of their beliefs.
Freedom Fighter is Reverend El Shafie’s outreach – it follows his heroic work over a four-year period as he traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan to investigate claims of abuse, persecution, and slavery and to speak truth to governments that neglect and violate the human rights of their citizens.
Please join us for this important book launch.
Cheers,
Fred Litwin
About Reverend Majed El Shafie
Majed El Shafie was born in Egypt to a prominent Muslim family of judges and lawyers. After his conversion to Christianity, he experienced torture and a death sentence, prompting him to establish One Free World International, a human rights organization committed to religious freedom. Reverend El Shafie lives in Canada and continually pressures governments and challenges spiritual leaders on behalf of persecuted people worldwide. Please visit www.onefreeworldinternational.org.
