The Swiss don't like minarets

Which, funnily enough, was being already used in Switzerland to stop minarets being built - only four existed, and every other one since then had not been given planning permission.

Which makes you wonder why a referendum was needed to stop something that wasn't happening.....

[Arthurgray50@blu]

I think this debate is starting to hot up, too me there is only ONE god, and none of the other stuff, l brought up as a christian and prayed to god each Sunday.

On the other thing, The big problem we have in this country, is that our government and local councils give into certain groups to allow building, of such buildings that will cause problems to the local community, they will knock down places like community centres or shops, schools to allow permission to build this premises, an yet won't fund for more schools etc. We the people are not consulted when there are important issues to be dealt with, whereas in other countries, they are allow to say what they think.

Originally Posted by BBKing

Maybe Europe should try and make the effort to be, y'know, enlightened and civilised and tolerant? We tried religious intolerance a few times and quite a lot of people were violently killed, if you recall your history.

It's noteworthy how many Jewish groups know exactly what they're looking at here and find it all rather familiar. Begins with an 'f', ends in 'ascism'.



Arthur, lest we forget, believes what he reads in tabloids. What's soft in this country is between his ears, in general.

by it's very nature religion isn't tolerant
it doesn't matter how tolerant europe(the christian part)is ,Islam by it's very nature won't be tolerant of other religions,it just so happens that in modern times Christianity is more tolerant of other religions while Islam seems to be stuck in the dark ages allowing hard line muslims to vitually run countries that's what people are scared of .We have seen it in this country over the last ten years with british born muslims becoming hard line activists .The Swiss people are probably looking at us and realising what will happen if they let things get out of hand

Originally Posted by Arthurgray50@blu

I think this debate is starting to hot up, too me there is only ONE god, and none of the other stuff, l brought up as a christian and prayed to god each Sunday.

On the other thing, The big problem we have in this country, is that our government and local councils give into certain groups to allow building, of such buildings that will cause problems to the local community, they will knock down places like community centres or shops, schools to allow permission to build this premises, an yet won't fund for more schools etc. We the people are not consulted when there are important issues to be dealt with, whereas in other countries, they are allow to say what they think.

Funnily enough, Arthur, that's what Muslims think as well - they worship the same god/God as we do, and believe that Jesus, as well as lots of other famous biblical characters, were prophets - they just happen to call the deity we call "God", Allah.

[QUOTE=Arthurgray50@blu;34919244] too me there is only ONE god, and none of the other stuff, l brought up as a christian and prayed to god each Sunday.QUOTE]






only one god in Islam aswell Arthur it's just that they pray on friday(mostly)

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Earl of Bronze

Chris, a symbol holds as much power as the people invest in it.

Indeed... Look at the Christian Symbol. Looked at logically, it's a man attached to two bits of wood. Nothing more. What it *represents* however, is a whole other matter..

[Gary L]

Originally Posted by Stuart C

Indeed... Look at the Christian Symbol. Looked at logically, it's a man attached to two bits of wood. Nothing more. What it *represents* however, is a whole other matter..

And the man looks nothing like a muslim

[Peter_]

Originally Posted by Gary L

And the man looks nothing like a muslim

Considering where this metaphorical character is supposed to be from then he should look just like any other Arab and therefore would look like the default Muslim everyone thinks about when they are mentioned.

Originally Posted by Stuart C

Indeed... Look at the Christian Symbol. Looked at logically, it's a man attached to two bits of wood. Nothing more. What it *represents* however, is a whole other matter..

Yep, it represents a death-cult and scapegoating.... Nasty....

Originally Posted by Earl of Bronze

scapegoating....

You have absolutely no idea of the irony, have you?

---------- Post added at 22:51 ---------- Previous post was at 22:49 ----------

Originally Posted by foreverwar

Funnily enough, Arthur, that's what Muslims think as well - they worship the same god/God as we do, and believe that Jesus, as well as lots of other famous biblical characters, were prophets - they just happen to call the deity we call "God", Allah.

On the contrary, Allah is not a name, it is simply "God" in Arabic. Literally, "The God", as in "The Only God". Christians whose first language is Arabic pray to Allah.

Originally Posted by Chris

You have absolutely no idea of the irony, have you?

On the contrary, Allah is not a name, it is simply "God" in Arabic. Literally, "The God", as in "The Only God". Christians whose first language is Arabic pray to Allah.

Thanks for the clarification, Chris.

I wondered why, when I read some things related to this, sometimes it said Allah (PBUH), and some times it said God.

Originally Posted by Chris

You have absolutely no idea of the irony, have you?

---------- Post added at 22:51 ---------- Previous post was at 22:49 ----------



On the contrary, Allah is not a name, it is simply "God" in Arabic. Literally, "The God", as in "The Only God". Christians whose first language is Arabic pray to Allah.

indeed ,i think giving god a name means that you will very shortly have a fatwa on your head ...so be careful

In the Old Testament of the Bible, God does have a name. The problem is, it is represented in ancient Hebrew by the letters YHWH. It was usual practice at the time to omit vowels, but it does present us with a problem in the modern age; namely, that we don't know exactly how to pronounce the name in spoken language. It is usually vocalised these days as "Yahweh", although "Jehovah" is an alternative that was more popular in earlier times. However, "Yahweh" is a sort of best-guess. There's no guarantee that it's not meant to be "Yohwoh" or maybe "Yihwah".

The translators of the King James Bible in 1611 didn't know how to render it in English and so as not to cause offence by getting it wrong, they simply rendered every occurance of it in the Old Testament text as "the LORD". Islam also considers the Old Testament to be holy scripture. I assume the hard line some Muslims take with anyone who tries to ascribe a vocalised name to God is a result of the very same uncertainty about exactly how to vocalise it and an assumption that it's better not to try.

Incidentally, the Jews at one time were equally forthright in their insistence that nobody should try to say "Jehovah", little knowing that one day it would prove a comedy goldmine for John Cleese et al.

Halibot anyone?

Originally Posted by Earl of Bronze

Halibot anyone?

oooh i like a nice piece of fish