Islam On the March at USC

I was doing some research today and ran across something interesting.
The University of Southern California is hosting a webpage run by the "Muslim Students Association", here.

The webpage address is under "dept/MSA" which I can only assume is short for "Departments."
The "texts" here are nothing short of an Apologetic compendium for Islam. They are not objective, but highly positive. This is the opening paragraph:
"In 610 CE, Allah ordained the final Prophet He would send to earth. Over five centuries had passed since the previous Prophet He sent, Jesus the son of Mary. This final Prophet was Muhammad ibn Abdillah (saas). Though Muhammad (saas) was born in the Arabian peninsula, he was sent to all of humanity. He was commissioned to deliver a message from Allah to Arabs and non-Arabs alike."

It gets better.

There are several articles taken from something called Perspectives. Here is what the USC WEBSITE says about it:
"Perspectives has kindly agreed to give MSA-USC permission to place literature under their copyright on our site. We would like to acknowledge the service they are providing for the sake of Islam by informing the public of how to subscribe to this excellent newsletter. It is published on a bimonthly basis by the Foundation for Islamic Knowledge. In order to subscribe, please send $20 (if you can afford it) to:
PerspectivesP.O. Box 65250Hampton, VA 23665
Along with the newsletter, you will also receive a prayer schedule for your particular residence insha-Allah." (emphasis mine)

Incredible.

Then I found this.

The "Muslim Students Association" is not listed as a student group at USC. There is a Muslim Student Union, but their site is like all the others - sepatate from the official USC websites.
Further, there are no other religious texts actually hosted by the official USC website (at least not that I could find searching thier site for 45min.). In fact, on the site dedicated to "Muslim-Jewish Engagement" links to the site hosting these decidedly pro-Muslim texts, while the Jewish texts are hosted on outside websites.

To be fair, the website does say that USC is not responsible for the content of the site. I wonder, though, why this is the only website of its kind on the entire USC system (if it isn't, they've hidden the others so well that a seasoned researcher could not find them).

If I had more time, I might think about charging USC with a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. USC, a public institution, is hosting a website containing pro-Islamic materials to the exclusion of all other religions (as far as I could find).

We are losing our country, increment by increment. Imagine the furor if USC hosted a site that began,
"In 1-2 BCE, The Lord God sent the final sacrifice for sin. This final sacrifice was Jesus Christ, born of the virgin Mary, lived a sinless life, was crucified, and rose from the dead. Though Jesus was born in Israel, he was sent to all of humanity. He was commissioned to provide a message of salvation from the Lord God to Israel and Gentiles alike."
Ironically, that kind of language would not be tolerated at USC here in America, nor at the University of Damascus in Syria. Apparenly, though, pro-Islamic literature is not only tolerated, but sponsored at both.

The latest biography from Random House...

The Fluffy Cuddlekins Story

Yay! We avoided Fascism for one more day:
http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/senators-push-lawmakers-pass-bailout/

Evolutionists Flock To Darwin-Shaped Wall Stain

September 5, 2008

Darwinic pilgrims claim the image fills them with an overwhelming feeling of logic.

DAYTON, TN—A steady stream of devoted evolutionists continued to gather in this small Tennessee town today to witness what many believe is an image of Charles Darwin—author of The Origin Of Species and founder of the modern evolutionary movement—made manifest on a concrete wall in downtown Dayton.

"I brought my baby to touch the wall, so that the power of Darwin can purify her genetic makeup of undesirable inherited traits," said Darlene Freiberg, one among a growing crowd assembled here to see the mysterious stain, which appeared last Monday on one side of the Rhea County Courthouse. The building was also the location of the famed "Scopes Monkey Trial" and is widely considered one of Darwinism's holiest sites. "Forgive me, O Charles, for ever doubting your Divine Evolution. After seeing this miracle of limestone pigmentation with my own eyes, my faith in empirical reasoning will never again be tested."

Added Freiberg, "Behold the power and glory of the scientific method!"

Since witnesses first reported the unexplained marking—which appears to resemble a 19th-century male figure with a high forehead and large beard—this normally quiet town has become a hotbed of biological zealotry. Thousands of pilgrims from as far away as Berkeley's paleoanthropology department have flocked to the site to lay wreaths of flowers, light devotional candles, read aloud from Darwin's works, and otherwise pay homage to the mysterious blue-green stain.

Capitalizing on the influx of empirical believers, street vendors have sprung up across Dayton, selling evolutionary relics and artwork to the thousands of pilgrims waiting to catch a glimpse of the image. Available for sale are everything from small wooden shards alleged to be fragments of the "One True Beagle"—the research vessel on which Darwin made his legendary voyage to the Galapagos Islands—to lecture notes purportedly touched by English evolutionist Alfred Russel Wallace.

"I have never felt closer to Darwin's ideas," said zoologist Fred Granger, who waited in line for 16 hours to view the stain. "May his name be praised and his theories on natural selection echo in all the halls of naturalistic observation forever."

Despite the enthusiasm the so-called "Darwin Smudge" has generated among the evolutionary faithful, disagreement remains as to its origin. Some believe the image is actually closer to the visage of Stephen Jay Gould, longtime columnist for Natural History magazine and originator of the theory of punctuated equilibrium, and is therefore proof of rapid cladogenesis. A smaller minority contend it is the face of Carl Sagan, and should be viewed as a warning to those nonbelievers who have not yet seen his hit PBS series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage.

Still others have attempted to discredit the miracle entirely, claiming that there are several alternate explanations for the appearance of the unexplained discoloration.

"It's a stain on a wall, and nothing more," said the Rev. Clement McCoy, a professor at Oral Roberts University and prominent opponent of evolutionary theory. "Anything else is the delusional fantasy of a fanatical evolutionist mindset that sees only what it wishes to see in the hopes of validating a baseless, illogical belief system. I only hope these heretics see the error of their ways before our Most Powerful God smites them all in His vengeance."

But those who have made the long journey to Dayton remain steadfast in their belief that natural selection—a process by which certain genes are favored over others less conducive to survival—is the one and only creator of life as we know it. This stain, they claim, is the proof they have been waiting for.

"To those who would deny that genetic drift is responsible for a branching evolutionary tree of increasing biodiversity amid changing ecosystems, we say, 'Look upon the face of Darwin!'" said Jeanette Cosgrove, who, along with members of her microbiology class, has maintained a candlelight vigil at the site for the past 72 hours.

"Over millions of successive generations, a specific subvariant of one species of slime mold adapted to this particular concrete wall, in order to one day form this stain, and thus make manifest this vision of Darwin's glorious countenance," Cosgrove said, overcome with emotion.

"It's a miracle," she added.

This is obviously a fake article, from the Onion. However, all humor has the ring of truth...

I saw this famous picture on a site claiming "These websites will all generate income from the comfort of your home." The proprietors claim they set up the site as the "result of much prayer and fasting for God's knowledge, wisdom, understanding and discernment."

Really?

I wasn't aware that God was in the business consulting industry.

I'm not sure what they meant to convey by adding the picture of Jesus knocking on the door.

Speaking of the picture...

Just wondering,
If Jesus comes knocking at the "door" of your heart, and you don't answer, you don't "ask Jesus into your heart," is it becasuse you can refuse God's will (meaning you think God isn't all that powerful, or sovereign for that matter), or because there is something preventing you from answering (meaning you think man isn't all that free)?

More anti-global warming

I was looking for something else and ran into this:
Haifa University study: Local rainfall stats defy global warming fears
It is a headline from Haaretz news.
Basically it says that Israeli researchers have not found a significant change in rainfall levels in the last 60 years, despite the global warming crowd's contention that global warming is "already impacting precipitation quantities."
The lead researcher concludes, "The common belief that weather events are becoming more extreme can therefore be attributed to greater press coverage of weather events, in particular extreme events, and not to an increase in these events."
The article is here: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/943904.html

Global Climate Change and Fascism

I have been reading a facinating book by Jonah Goldberg, Liberal Fascism. In it I came across something that intrigued me.
He says,
"Crisis is routenely identified as a core mechanism of fascism because it short-circuits debate and democratic deliberation. Hence all fascistic movements commit considerable energy prolonging a heightened state of emergency." (pg. 43)
Sound familiar? I thought so too. At http://www.wecansolveit.org/ they state:
"The We Campaign is a project of The Alliance for Climate Protection -- a nonprofit, nonpartisan effort founded by Nobel laureate and former Vice President Al Gore. Our ultimate aim is to halt global warming. Specifically we are educating people in the US and around the world that the climate crisis is both urgent and solvable."
A headline from a 2005 USA Today article shouts,
"The debate's over: Globe is warming!"
On the website of the Socialist party of the European Parliment they say,
"GLOBAL EMERGENCY! Climate Change is the greatest challenge facing the world today. The weight of evidence that climate change is happening and that it is man-made is undeniable. It is a global challenge requiring a global solution. Reducing carbon output is not only an ecological but also an economic and social necessity. As Stern says, the cost of inaction far outstrips the cost of taking action. The cost of inaction is huge - that's why we have to act now. We already have or can develop the technological know-how to tackle climate change. By rising to the challenge we will all benefit."
Goldberg gives the definition of fascism as,
"a religion of the state. It assumes the organic unity of the body politic and longs for a national leader attuned to the will of the people. It is totalitarian in that it views everything as political and holds that any action by the state is justified to achieve the common good. It takes responsibility for all ascpects of life, including our health, and seeks to impose uniformity of thought and action, whether by force or through regulation and social pressure. Everything, including the economy and religion, must be aligned with its objectives. Any rival identity is part of "the problem" and therefore defined as the enemy."
(pg. 23)
The American Liberal movemenet has done a clever job of changing the definition of "fascism" to mean conservative or "right-wing" while in reality Liberalism is far more a reflection of fascism. The very name "liberal" has been redefined as just the opposite, forcing scholars to use "classical liberalism" when talking about the likes of the founding fathers, while using "liberalism" to mean left-wing, "progressive" socialist (and I would now argue fascist) philosophy. Perhaps conservatives should point this fact out more often. Unfortunately, most conservatives are too busy earning livings and paying taxes to support our modern wellfare state to take the time to scream and shout and march and protest.