Magic Statistics

Cal Thomas says the current controversy has import that goes far beyond a few cartoons.

Occasionally moral clarity comes with something quite simple, like political cartoons. These riots impress upon us an objective truth: the "clash of civilizations" is more than a conflict between peoples; it is between the 21st and the 7th centuries; between a God who has "commissioned" his followers to exact judgment on the world, according to their narrow interpretation, and a God who offers man grace, along with the freedom to choose or reject it, reserving judgment for Himself on another day.

Ranan Lurie had a brief and unsettling experience as a political cartoonist in Egypt, and spoke with Mr Thomas about it.

The Danish cartoons and the violent reaction to them is not the first attempt by "Islamofascists" to censor free speech in their pursuit of subjugating us all to their intolerant way of thinking
. . .
Lurie says it won't stop with cartoon censorship, but will advance to "telling us what to wear and Islam will be insulted if your wife or girlfriend doesn't wear a head scarf."

The clash of civilisations isn't going to go away anytime soon.

Two good friends from BC sent me this photo last week with a cryptic message:

Here is a picture of a mystery Anglican Church. We came across it recently in our travels, built around the mid 1800's, it serves a congregation which has seen war on its doorstep.

Any guesses?

I had no idea and took a wild guess that it was somewhere in the American southern states. Way off! It’s Christ Church Cathedral in Stanley (formerly Port Stanley), Falkland Islands–the southernmost cathedral in the world. The church’s full name is the Church of England Parish Church of the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, and the British Antarctic Territories. The extra-provincial Anglican parish is under the direct jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The cathedral was built in the early 1890s following the destruction of the former church in a heavy rain storm. The archway in the front of the church is made from whale bones and stands almost 20 feet tall. It was erected in 1933 to celebrate a century of British rule.

A census in 2001 showed that Stanley had 1989 residents, while the Falkland Islands had 2379 residents.

The Falkland Islands Information Web Portal is located here. A map showing how close the Falkland Islands are to Antarctica is on this page.

Excerpt from speeches by Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasralla, broadcast on Al-Manar TV and on Al-Jazeera TV on February 2 and 3, 2006.

If any Muslim had carried out the fatwa of Imam Khomeini against the apostate Salman Rushdie, those despicable people would not have dared to insult the Prophet Muhammad – not in Denmark, not in Norway, and not in France.

What is this solidarity campaign all about? We are supposed to summon the ambassador, and that's it? We are supposed to boycott Danish goods, and that's it? No. I call upon the Muslim jurisprudents, the Muslim religious scholars, the leaders of the Islamic movements, the leaders of the Islamic countries, and all the Muslims to take a decisive stand. If we tolerate this now, only God knows what they will do later - just like the tolerance practiced with Salman Rushdie, and the carrying out of the fatwa.

via Deja Vu, Judith Apter Klinghoffer's blog at History News Network.