An interesting article I found referenced on the ID blog, Uncommon Descent:
Atheism, not religion, is the real force behind the mass murders of history
By Dinesh DSouza
RANCHO SANTA FE, CALIF. – In recent months, a spate of atheist books have
argued that religion represents, as End of Faith author Sam Harris puts
it, the most potent source of human conflict, past and present.
Columnist Robert Kuttner gives the familiar litany. The Crusades
slaughtered millions in the name of Jesus. The Inquisition brought the
torture and murder of millions more. After Martin Luther, Christians did
bloody battle with other Christians for another three centuries.
In his bestseller The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins contends that most of
the worlds recent conflicts – in the Middle East, in the Balkans, in
Northern Ireland, in Kashmir, and in Sri Lanka – show the vitality
of religions murderous impulse.
The problem with this critique is that it exaggerates the crimes attributed
to religion, while ignoring the greater crimes of secular fanaticism. The
best example of religious persecution in America is the Salem witch trials.
How many people were killed in those trials? Thousands? Hundreds? Actually,
fewer than 25. Yet the event still haunts the liberal imagination.
It is strange to witness the passion with which some secular figures rail
against the misdeeds of the Crusaders and Inquisitors more than 500 years
ago. The number sentenced to death by the Spanish Inquisition appears to be
about 10,000. Some historians contend that an additional 100,000 died in
jail due to malnutrition or illness.
These figures are tragic, and of course population levels were much lower
at the time. But even so, they are minuscule compared with the death tolls
produced by the atheist despotisms of the 20th century. In the name of
creating their version of a religion-free utopia, Adolf Hitler, Joseph
Stalin, and Mao Zedong produced the kind of mass slaughter that no
Inquisitor could possibly match. Collectively these atheist tyrants
murdered more than 100 million people.
Moreover, many of the conflicts that are counted as religious wars were
not fought over religion. They were mainly fought over rival claims to
territory and power. Can the wars between England and France be called
religious wars because the English were Protestants and the French were
Catholics? Hardly.
The same is true today. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not, at its
core, a religious one. It arises out of a dispute over self-determination
and land. Hamas and the extreme orthodox parties in Israel may
advance theological claims – God gave us this land and so forth – but the
conflict would remain essentially the same even without these religious
motives. Ethnic rivalry, not religion, is the source of the tension in
Northern Ireland and the Balkans.
Yet todays atheists insist on making religion the culprit. Consider Mr.
Harriss analysis of the conflict in Sri Lanka. While the motivations of
the Tamil Tigers are not explicitly religious, he informs us, they are
Hindus who undoubtedly believe many improbable things about the nature of
life and death. In other words, while the Tigers see themselves as
combatants in a secular political struggle, Harris detects a religious
motive because these people happen to be Hindu and surely there must be
some underlying religious craziness that explains their fanaticism.
Harris can go on forever in this vein. Seeking to exonerate secularism and
atheism from the horrors perpetrated in their name, he argues that
Stalinism and Maoism were in reality little more than a political
religion. As for Nazism, while the hatred of Jews in Germany expressed
itself in a predominantly secular way, it was a direct inheritance from
medieval Christianity. Indeed, The holocaust marked the culmination of
two thousand years of Christian fulminating against the Jews.
One finds the same inanities in Mr. Dawkinss work. Dont be fooled by this
rhetorical legerdemain. Dawkins and Harris cannot explain why, if Nazism
was directly descended from medieval Christianity, medieval Christianity
did not produce a Hitler. How can a self-proclaimed atheist ideology,
advanced by Hitler as a repudiation of Christianity, be a culmination of
2,000 years of Christianity? Dawkins and Harris are employing a transparent
sleight of hand that holds Christianity responsible for the crimes
committed in its name, while exonerating secularism and atheism for the
greater crimes committed in their name.
Religious fanatics have done things that are impossible to defend, and some
of them, mostly in the Muslim world, are still performing horrors in the
name of their creed. But if religion sometimes disposes people to
self-righteousness and absolutism, it also provides a moral code that
condemns the slaughter of innocents. In particular, the moral teachings of
Jesus provide no support for – indeed they stand as a stern rebuke to – the
historical injustices perpetrated in the name of Christianity.
Atheist hubris
The crimes of atheism have generally been perpetrated through a hubristic
ideology that sees man, not God, as the creator of values. Using the latest
techniques of science and technology, man seeks to displace God and create
a secular utopia here on earth. Of course if some people – the Jews, the
landowners, the unfit, or the handicapped – have to be eliminated in order
to achieve this utopia, this is a price the atheist tyrants and their
apologists have shown themselves quite willing to pay. Thus they confirm
the truth of Fyodor Dostoyevskys dictum, If God is not, everything is
permitted.
Whatever the motives for atheist bloodthirstiness, the indisputable fact is
that all the religions of the world put together have in 2,000 years not
managed to kill as many people as have been killed in the name of atheism
in the past few decades.
Its time to abandon the mindlessly repeated mantra that religious belief
has been the greatest source of human conflict and violence. Atheism, not
religion, is the real force behind the mass murders of history.
* Dinesh DSouza is the Rishwain Fellow at the Hoover Institution. His new
book, The Enemy at Home: The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for
9/11, will be published in January.
SOURCE: http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1121/p09s01-coop.html
Bismimg2
Brought to you by the Osmanli Naksibendi-Hakkani Tariqat
under the direction of Sheykh Abdul Kerim al-Kibrisi
with ijazaat and instruction from Maulana Sheykh Nazim al-Haqqani
Zikr ul Allah – Recorded at the West 39th Street Dergah in Manhattan.
For outsiders each zikr that occurs may sound similar in certain ways. Those experiencing it for themselves and who are seeing with the heart realize the different spiritual messages occurring within each.
On some occasions, however, Sheykh changes everything about the zikr and the mureeds are left in astonishment of what is capable.
The subtleties of this, though impossible to truly capture with technology, are made more apparant by listening with good headphones.
AllahAllah081606.mp3 -12.6 MB MP3
Investing is a tricky business, it is one of those things of life which can be considered very intimidating when you first begin.
I’ve been investing for only two years now, so I would not call myself an expert by any means, but I have spent a considerable amount of time and energy in learning how to invest properly. As someone who has recently overcome most of the hurdles and ‘barriers-to-entry’ of investing, I think I may be able to provide some unique insight for those who are where I was two years ago.
Investing does require some attention and learning to be successful, but it is really quite simple of a concept.
Investing is, in its most simple form, defined as:
laying out money or capital in an enterprise with the expectation of profit
For the purpose of this discussion, I would broaden that definition to not only include enterprises (businesses) but also commodities (gold, silver, oil).
Most things we own today lose value the instant it reaches our hands, our car, our furnishings, our gadgets. Here’s the rub, even today’s money loses value… anywhere from 1% to 4% per year! Investing is the beautiful idea of putting your money in places where it can grow in value, rather than slowly (or quickly) drift away.
Investing Possibilities
What are some of the choices to invest in (I’ll filter out bonds since they are riba based)?
- Stocks – A stock is essentially a piece of paper representing a piece of a company. Stocks are the most intimidating to invest in, but they are also where the most ‘fun’ is at.
- Mutual Funds – If you think stocks are too intimidating you should find comfort in mutual funds. These are essentially the stock of stocks. One share of a mutual fund buys you a part of a whole wide number of companies. Which ones the mutual fund holds are managed by the ‘fund manager’. Part of the price of the fund includes percentages that need to be paid to the fund manager. It is his/her job to make the right choices on all of the fund-owner’s behalf. Mutual funds usually represent certain segments of the entire economy/market. So one fund may specialize in technology companies, another in car manufacturing, etc.
- Commodities – For the Muslim, this is limited to buying actual physical ‘things’, such as precious metals (gold, silver, platinum). I won’t discuss buying these outside of the plain fact that you can go and buy a gold/silver coin or bar and feel confident that you are making a relatively safe investment decision. An ounce of gold would buy you a nice suit in the 1800′s and it will do the same today.
How do you buy stocks and mutual funds?
Most of us who work have a few investing options provided to us by our employer’s (401k’s, IRA’s, etc). These investment vehicles are the first ones that most of us are exposed to, and for good reason. They are generally painless to get started and often have great incentives to promote them such as “employer matches”, which essentially translates to “free money”.
Unfortunately, investment choices are often limited in such 401k’s and IRA’s to a subset of the investing world. You are only given a choice of a handful of mutual funds, pre-selected by a combination of the employer and the brokerage firm running the show.
To truly invest you need to have a broker of your own, or, preferably a discount broker (Ameritrade, MB Trading, etc). This is the company or person that gives you your account, account number, and either the person or web interface for you to carry out purchases (called ‘trades’). The first thing to be aware of is that ‘people’ brokers generally involve higher commission rates and come with the usual pitfalls of dealing with a person. Sure you may get some much needed expertise in helping make a decision, but at the same time you are also inheriting their own self-interest.
I, therefore, recommend low-commission discount brokers that have a do-it-yourself mentality.
The interface on these websites is very simple, you can either Buy or Sell. You choose the ‘symbol’ of the company you wish to purchase. You enter how much you want to purchase. Finally you enter the amount you are willing to pay for it.
As long as your willing to pay the price it is currently at, your order will get ‘filled’ and walaa’ you are the proud part-owner of XYZ company or ABC fund.
Remember, this is called ‘trading’ for a reason. It is often said, “There is a loser on every end of every trade”. You bought those shares because someone was willing to sell you those shares, and that means he/she thought it was worth their while to sell it then. Various factors will eventually prove them right or wrong.
What drives a stock price?
Money. Specifically, how much money the company is making/losing, and what the potential is for them to make money and grow.
This is how the famous bubble of the 90′s was created. People began buying stocks on more and more speculation of potential. Eventually stocks need to meet those expectations and if they fail, people sell. Different industries have different drivers for those expectations, for example bio-technology companies are highly dependant on the success of their drugs in patient trials. Retail companies are dependant on how many people come into their stores. Most companies are highly dependant on sales and keeping their own costs low.
Market Capitalization
A big word, but not that complicated. The market cap is essentially the count of all the stocks issued by the company multiplied by its current value. We say Google is a “billion” dollar company because it’s market cap is 120 billion dollars.
Market capitalization is important because it affects the volatility of the stock you are purchasing. Larger companies have less room to grow (but also less probability they will collapse entirely). Most people define the following three categories slightly differently but it boils down to large ($5 billion+), mid (500 million+), and small cap (everything else) companies.
Dividends
Eventually stocks reach a point where they can’t grow anymore, or at least, not fast enough to justify further price growth of the stock. This is when the company becomes a cash printing machine. The profits it makes become eligible for ‘dividends’. A dividend is essentially a cash distribution of the companies profits to shareholders.
Ethics / Fiqh
There are a number of concerns for Muslims who are investing, some are fiqhi and some are personal.
Some issues include avoiding companies which make money primarily off of unislamic things, engage primarily in unislamic activities, or those that support problematic causes.
In the case of fiqh concerns, Sunnipath answers becomes a vital service. There are many answers regarding trading and I’ve compiled a list for the next post. I’ll write more about investing in the future and I’m available for any questions in the comments area.
the truth on 
m.a.kidwai,CME/IND.RLY.(retd.) on 
Contentions 1 (19)
Continuation of my Contentions Series
19. Followers of Antichrist see with only one eye, whose name is Zahir or Batin.
Keywords:
Zahir – Outer
Batin – Inner
Interpretation:
Unneeded. Sheykh speaks of the Dajjal (Anti-christ) and Zahir and Batin in his document, “Seeing with Both Eyes“.
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