> There are more than enough passages in the Koran to justify the > killing of non-Mulsims
False
> 4:76 Those who believe do battle for the cause of Allah; and those who > disbelieve do battle for the cause of idols (unbelief). > So fight the minions of the devil. Lo! the devil's strategy is ever weak.
The words translated as "believe" (iman) and "disbelieve" (kufr) don't refer to the state of being a Muslim or not. They refer to
1. "putting belief into practice" (iman) through good and righteous works; and
2. "covering the truth and fighting it" (kufr), ie, persecution on account of believing and practising Islam. In the second case there is not a hint of fighting, let alone, killing, someone because of their belief.
Also, the word is "fight", not "do battle". Fighting is not necessarily something physical.
> 2:193 And fight them until persecution is no more, and religion is for > Allah. But if they desist, then let there be no hostility except against > wrong-doers.
Again, the context is defense from persecution. The word mis-translated above as "wrong-doers" (zaalimiin) actually means "oppressors". That is, oppression must be fought and defended against, not someone else's belief.
> The second one sounds good - except that the Koran defines a wrong-doer > very broadly. It is a class that includes freethinkers, polytheists, > atheists and non-Muslims that preach their own religion.
Who on earth told you this?!? Islam, as exemplified by the Prophet, is more interested in actions than belief. There are many cases of people in the early generations of Islam who were openly atheist etc and left alone to themselves. Again, the context is persecution and oppression.
> 4:89 They long that ye should disbelieve even as they disbelieve, that ye > may be upon a level (with them). So choose not friends from them till > they forsake their homes in the way of Allah; if they turn back then take > them and kill them wherever ye find them, and choose no friend nor helper > from among them.
Again, very bad translation. Better:
4:89 They long that ye should cover the facts even as they cover the facts, that ye may be upon a level (with them). So choose not comforters from them till they migrate in the way of Allah; if they betray you for another allegiance then take them and kill them according to the manner in which ye find them; choose no comforter nor helper from among them.
This refers to hypocrites who claim outward allegiance to your community but who would betray you to your enemies given half a chance. The test for this particular hypocrisy is that they "migrate" with you and share in your hardships and difficulties -- assuming they are really sincere. But if they betray you then the penalty for treason is death.
Death penalty for treason is a well-established norm in law throughout the ages. Nobody likes a traitor.
Note also the "according to the manner in which ye find them" as opposed to "wherever ye find them". The second is a very bad translation. The point is that if you find them red-handed in the act of treason then their punishment will be death. Otherwise they may be forgiven or given another punishment. Again, there are many cases of this in the Prophet's life, where he forgave or commuted.
> 4:101 And when ye go forth in the land, it is no sin for you to curtail > (your) worship if ye fear that those who disbelieve may attack you. In > truth the disbelievers are an open enemy to you.
Those who oppress you, steal your property, and otherwise persecute you on account of your belief and practice are certainly an enemy to you. Who could possibly disagree with that? ==========
When these verses are put into historical, logical, and linguistic context they make perfect sense and are quite reasonable, even by 21st century standards.
The equation of salvation as a function of faith in a dogmatic set of
I think Opera has long ago passed the Slashdot threshhold so as to deserve its own category or icon! IE, Netscape, Mozilla, AND FireFox each have one, even though the latter three are all branches of one entity; Is there some deep-seated reason why, despite all the Opera news, there is not even one Opera category?
The number of Opera stories on Slashdot has now gone way beyond the point where a dedicated Opera category/icon for Slashdot is needed. Even Mozilla and Netscape each form a subcategory on Slashdot, and they could arguably go under a single one.
The same goes for Qt, which always ends up under the KDE category, even when the story has nothing to do with KDE...
I have noticed that there is no icon for Opera, but there is for Mozilla, Firefox, even IE, etc. This seems a bit inconsistent.
Also, stories about Qt/TrollTech often are put under the KDE icon, which is also somewhat misleading...
Both Opera and TrollTech deserve their own icon on Slashdot. I often look just at the icon row at the top of the page to see what stories are of interest to me so the icons are very important.
From my perspective as an end-user, Unicode and bidirectionality support are the most glaring omissions of both Emacs and XEmacs. Mule development has moved slower than a mule's pace and, frankly, I'm tired of waiting. I think that, by the eve of 2006, there is little excuse for not getting these things done or putting them high on the priority list. Along with CJK and LGC (latin, greek, and cyrillic, Arabic script is one of the three most important script systems in use and in importance.
To be fair, there is only one product at all of which I am aware that gets these three issues right, SCUnipad
In particular, its Arabic-script handling (including diacritics) is second to none. But it's not open source, development seems to have stalled (sigh), and it has few basic and no advanced features for coders aside from excellent unicode utilities. If any (X)Emacs developers are reading, I hope they will take a look at Unipad and consider implementing some of its features. I will be happy to consult on Arabic-script issues.
The real issue is not the equator per se but traversing something close to a great cirlce. Is there some recognized standard of deviation from a great circle that would be recognized as circling the globe? There must have been some standard or else he could have taken off from northern tip of Greenland or the south tip of Chile. What are the rules of the game?
There's a good KDE Minesweeper game, but it requires thought that detracts from phone calls
Well, anyone that can't beat Minesweeper and carry on a conversation at the same time should have his geek card revoked and banned from writing about Linux!
Can someone in the know please give an honest feature comparison/contrast of the latest Gnu Emacs with respect to the latest XEmacs (21.4 I believe)? Has Gnu Emacs 21 "caught up" with XEmacs or surpassed it? Are there serious reasons to prefer one over the other?
Sorry. By `Qt' I meant the company Troll Tech. My point was that Troll Tech, the makers of Qt, should have their own category and that stories about Qt should come under that label instead of under the KDE label.
And Troll Tech does have its own logo that/. can use.
Samawi
Slashdot Mirror
> There are more than enough passages in the Koran to justify the
> killing of non-Mulsims
False
> 4:76 Those who believe do battle for the cause of Allah; and those who
> disbelieve do battle for the cause of idols (unbelief).
> So fight the minions of the devil. Lo! the devil's strategy is ever weak.
The words translated as "believe" (iman) and "disbelieve" (kufr) don't refer to the state of being a Muslim or not. They refer to
1. "putting belief into practice" (iman) through good and righteous works; and
2. "covering the truth and fighting it" (kufr), ie, persecution on account of believing and practising Islam. In the second case there is not a hint of fighting, let alone, killing, someone because of their belief.
Also, the word is "fight", not "do battle". Fighting is not necessarily something physical.
> 2:193 And fight them until persecution is no more, and religion is for
> Allah. But if they desist, then let there be no hostility except against > wrong-doers.
Again, the context is defense from persecution. The word mis-translated above as "wrong-doers" (zaalimiin) actually means "oppressors". That is, oppression must be fought and defended against, not someone else's belief.
> The second one sounds good - except that the Koran defines a wrong-doer
> very broadly. It is a class that includes freethinkers, polytheists,
> atheists and non-Muslims that preach their own religion.
Who on earth told you this?!? Islam, as exemplified by the Prophet, is more interested in actions than belief. There are many cases of people in the early generations of Islam who were openly atheist etc and left alone to themselves. Again, the context is persecution and oppression.
> 4:89 They long that ye should disbelieve even as they disbelieve, that ye > may be upon a level (with them). So choose not friends from them till
> they forsake their homes in the way of Allah; if they turn back then take > them and kill them wherever ye find them, and choose no friend nor helper > from among them.
Again, very bad translation. Better:
4:89 They long that ye should cover the facts even as they cover the facts, that ye may be upon a level (with them). So choose not comforters from them till they migrate in the way of Allah; if they betray you for another allegiance then take them and kill them according to the manner in which ye find them; choose no comforter nor helper from among them.
This refers to hypocrites who claim outward allegiance to your community but who would betray you to your enemies given half a chance. The test for this particular hypocrisy is that they "migrate" with you and share in your hardships and difficulties -- assuming they are really sincere. But if they betray you then the penalty for treason is death.
Death penalty for treason is a well-established norm in law throughout the ages. Nobody likes a traitor.
Note also the "according to the manner in which ye find them" as opposed to "wherever ye find them". The second is a very bad translation. The point is that if you find them red-handed in the act of treason then their punishment will be death. Otherwise they may be forgiven or given another punishment. Again, there are many cases of this in the Prophet's life, where he forgave or commuted.
> 4:101 And when ye go forth in the land, it is no sin for you to curtail
> (your) worship if ye fear that those who disbelieve may attack you. In
> truth the disbelievers are an open enemy to you.
Those who oppress you, steal your property, and otherwise persecute you on account of your belief and practice are certainly an enemy to you. Who could possibly disagree with that?
==========
When these verses are put into historical, logical, and linguistic context they make perfect sense and are quite reasonable, even by 21st century standards.
The equation of salvation as a function of faith in a dogmatic set of
I think Opera has long ago passed the Slashdot threshhold so as to deserve its own category or icon! IE, Netscape, Mozilla, AND FireFox each have one, even though the latter three are all branches of one entity; Is there some deep-seated reason why, despite all the Opera news, there is not even one Opera category?
The number of Opera stories on Slashdot has now gone way beyond the point where a dedicated Opera category/icon for Slashdot is needed. Even Mozilla and Netscape each form a subcategory on Slashdot, and they could arguably go under a single one.
The same goes for Qt, which always ends up under the KDE category, even when the story has nothing to do with KDE...
I have noticed that there is no icon for Opera, but there is for Mozilla, Firefox, even IE, etc. This seems a bit inconsistent.
Also, stories about Qt/TrollTech often are put under the KDE icon, which is also somewhat misleading...
Both Opera and TrollTech deserve their own icon on Slashdot. I often look just at the icon row at the top of the page to see what stories are of interest to me so the icons are very important.
Happy Holidays, Slashdot!
From my perspective as an end-user, Unicode and bidirectionality support are the most glaring omissions of both Emacs and XEmacs. Mule development has moved slower than a mule's pace and, frankly, I'm tired of waiting. I think that, by the eve of 2006, there is little excuse for not getting these things done or putting them high on the priority list. Along with CJK and LGC (latin, greek, and cyrillic, Arabic script is one of the three most important script systems in use and in importance.
To be fair, there is only one product at all of which I am aware that gets these three issues right, SCUnipad
http://www.unipad.org/
In particular, its Arabic-script handling (including diacritics) is second to none. But it's not open source, development seems to have stalled (sigh), and it has few basic and no advanced features for coders aside from excellent unicode utilities. If any (X)Emacs developers are reading, I hope they will take a look at Unipad and consider implementing some of its features. I will be happy to consult on Arabic-script issues.
If I were Keanu I would be veeery leary of taking on this role:
George Reeves committed suicide (or was murdered);
Christopher Reeves became paralyzed;
Reeve(s)-Superman is statistically a cursed combination;->
Indeed, any actor should probably stay clear of this one...
Best
Samawi
The real issue is not the equator per se but traversing something close to a great cirlce. Is there some recognized standard of deviation from a great circle that would be recognized as circling the globe? There must have been some standard or else he could have taken off from northern tip of Greenland or the south tip of Chile. What are the rules of the game?
There's a good KDE Minesweeper game, but it requires thought that detracts from phone calls
Well, anyone that can't beat Minesweeper and carry on a conversation at the same time should have his geek card revoked and banned from writing about Linux!
:-)
QNiX is a new style that's been getting alot of attention lately:
http://apps.kde.com/nfinfo.php?vid=4234
For more themes and styles for KDE there is a new website as well:
http://www.kde-look.org/
Samawi I
Can someone in the know please give an honest feature comparison/contrast of the latest Gnu Emacs with respect to the latest XEmacs (21.4 I believe)? Has Gnu Emacs 21 "caught up" with XEmacs or surpassed it? Are there serious reasons to prefer one over the other?
Thank u
Samawi
Sorry. By `Qt' I meant the company Troll Tech. My point was that Troll Tech, the makers of Qt, should have their own category and that stories about Qt should come under that label instead of under the KDE label. And Troll Tech does have its own logo that /. can use.
Samawi