I agree with Mr. Hitchens - but with a big BUT. I am an athiest as well and I applaud his writings on same, but, I disagree about purposefully insulting any religion because it only gives them ammunition. Most deeply religious people are simple, naive, or paranoid. There was a post on Slate recently that explained this very well. The more you insult them, the more they are convinced that you are the devil's handchildren. That encites violence.

As much as Mr. Hitchens would like to believe, we are not living in an age of Enlightenment. He alone cannot recreate it. With his help, we might get there again, but we must go softly for now. Be moral, but don't be naive.

In a sense, I agree with Mr. Hitchens....I'm a Shia and often quite amused to find that people do not know about actual moderate Islam (Shi'ism). It is the case however that the English speaking world has been awarded the dubious obligation (for lack of a better word)of assigning "words" their value i.e. terrorism, Islamists, jihadists, moderate Islam.

The true arrogance of that is not missed by a poet like me who specializes in linguistics and the power of the same.

What the arrogant (in the sense that Mr. Hitchens cannot ever hope to understand something he does not believe in and hence he is the epitome of the arrogant) do not realize is that Islam is a LITERALIST tradition which came to us in the language of the actual prophet and in that it is the only remaining link to the prophets and what they said. This has become confused with fundamentalism ala Puritanism. Shi'i Islam is literally concerned with the way the Quran is used OVER TIME and THROUGHOUT THE AGES. As opposed to Sunni Islam which stopped its clock over fourteen hundred lunar years ago and did so to protect the Sunni rulers. Islam is chock full of the history of Sunni propoganda.

I assure Mr. Hitchens, Jesus (Isa, peace upon him) did not speak Greek, Latin or English and I also assure him that the prophet never preached or practiced in Rome. Mohamed (peace upon him) however did speak Arabic and did practice and preach in Mecca.

Mr. Hitchens can never get to that point because he suffers the first bias...a complete inability to believe in the Creator. No one who has this bias can enter the wonderful world of Islam and its logical system of establishing the existence of the Creator.

What Mr. Hitchens MIGHT be able to understand however is the numerical miracle of the text. Arabic is a gematric language and the proof of it is found in the Sura called The Hidden or sometimes translated to the Cloaked One. That Sura is fully intended for people with the first bias (athiests) and for other non muslims (believers in some type of God in the form of the trinity, science, a stone, etc). It is numerical and the language of math is universal.

And the person who discovered that miracle was murdered in his own mosque in Tucson, Arizona over ten years ago.

It is sad that Mr. Hitchens is totally missing out on the fabulous tale of humanity due to his arrogance towards that which created him as a despicable drop of semen (as it is cited about all humans in the Quran). And no offense to him for being such a thing.

:)

Salaams and peace to Mr. Hitchens as well.

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Have you ever seen someone in the midst of taken there last breath? and being unsure of ther salvation, well let me tell you its a scary sight. It also make you think especially when that person once knew god in there heart. But broke away!!! How sad. I believe god is in our DNA or else we wouldnt bother to think about what is right what is wrong. what we should or not follow as far as religion is concerned. All my life I said I would not follow a certain religion because there are way too many too count of what is right or what is wrong to follow. But what I do know is that there is a God. I have come to the realization that what ever I was practicing. Whether it be christian, baptist, non denomination or islam. I say this because when I prayed I prayed sincerly and my prayers were answerd. Hmmm now that I have realized this I have come too see 1st hand with my own eyes that we all interpret what we want to fit our life. I was born in the USA I didnt choose to be born here. But because the majority of my family was either catholic or prodestant I had no choice but to follow their beliefs. I have also learned that every religion has ther own rules and regulations. Why must we fight and argue of what is right and what is wrong in folowing a certain religion, to only manipulate and be hypacritical of the religion we assume is the only religion to follow anyway. STOP using religon WORLD to manipulate and define a just reason of what we are doing is right or wrong. I have seen and heard with my own eyes that the USA is bad because of our morals and practices to only turn around and see that they are doing what they hate in us OUCH to all of them. Lets put religion aside for a moment and take a look at who we are! We just might come to find out that its not about religion at all. Its about who we really are inside. I say this because all you men and women who use religion only to manipulate your highly just feelings to do as you please and say of what you defined as the right way. And then turn around and be hypacrites to yourself. I think we have the right to follow what we believe. So lets just keep it that way. But then again as I would always say that would be just a little to inconvienant to do. Because of greed, selfishness and the wanting of power.....It is what it is people think about it!. Someone or someones controlling ways to manipulate our beliefs to get their desires fullfilled. WAKE UP WORLD!!!!!!!!!

Point taken. But I consider many nazis, rednecks, bigots, entertainment personalities and politicians to be simple, naive and/or paranoid. I am sure that when I dispose of a copy of Mein Kampf, the latest Nascar book, hate mail, Rosie ODonnel's latest diatribe or mail from my local democrats, republicans or libertarians I have made *someone* unhappy. This fact does not make me a criminal and should not infringe on my right to dispose of whatever book or paper I may have on my bookshelf or in my mail. I have a constitutional right to my opinion and to reject those views with which I do not agree, just as the simple and naive have that right. It is odd that we live in a society that defends the right of nazis to march through Jewish neighborhoods in IL, while charging individuals with crimes when they dispose of their own books.

You have absolutley no argument there from me! But then again did you actually think that in the land of freedom you were actually free to do something like that. C'mon if we stop and think about it we all know. "Never believe anything you hear and only half of what you see" remember that so when one day we look back we can either laugh at our stupidity for not seeing what or who was behind the mask of taking away our rights little by little and be able to do absolutley nothing about it because by then we will have the right to feel helpless for sure, and by that time we wil be sol. I am a nobody I just take up space as many do, as long I do what I am told .....I am just a # and thats all. Sad thing to know and feel HUH!