Palestine & Palestinians

"All who affirm the use of violence admit it is only a means to achieve justice and peace. But peace and justice are nonviolence...the final end of history. Those who abandon nonviolence have no sense of history. Rather they are bypassing history, freezing history, betraying history."
~Andre Trocme

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(Cross-posted at SnappedShot.com)

The History of Religion In Under 2 Minutes

Holocaust Memorial Day

"Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
~George Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1905

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day. Today is a day in which we should reflect on the past and remember those who succumbed to the cruelty mankind inflicts upon itself.

It is also a day of learning. History provides us a glimpse of truth and an opportunity to better ourselves. Whether we embrace that opportunity or ignore it is up to each of us.

Wikipedia - Learn more about the Holocaust

Holocaust Memorial Day Trust

Simon Wiesenthal Center

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

The Holocaust: Crimes, Heroes, and Villains

A Letter To God

"For the survivor who chooses to testify, it is clear: his duty is to bear witness for the dead and the living. He has no right to deprive future generations of a past that belongs to our collective memory. To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time. The witness has forced himself to testify. For the youth of today, for the children who will be born tomorrow. He does not want his past to become their future."
~Elie Wiesel

Google Mohammed

Fun things to do when bored - Google "Mohammed" for images. These depictions are extremely rare, given drawings and caricature are forbidden. There are only a million or so images of the prophet-who-should-not-be-named. And that's using only one spelling variation.

My search turned up this gem on the very first page:

These two photographs were taken in the Church of Our Lady in Dendermonde, Flanders (Belgium). They show the late 17th century pulpit, sculpted in wood by Mattheus van Beveren. The person subdued by the angels and having a Koran in his hands is generally thought to be Mohammed. The sculpture represents the triumph of christianity over islam.

Brussels Journal

Enjoy it while you can. For soon, this statue will be removed to avoid offense, or destroyed by the religion of perpetual indignation.

Israeli Ingenuity

While Muslims seek to destroy life, Israel seeks to improve it:

JERUSALEM — Israeli scientists have inscribed the entire Hebrew text of the Jewish Bible onto a space less than half the size of grain of sugar.

The nanotechnology experts at the Technion institute in Haifa say the text measures less than 0.5 square millimeter (0.01 square inch) surface. They chose the Jewish Bible to highlight how vast quantities of information can be stored in minimum amounts of space.

"It took us about an hour to etch the 300,000 words of the Bible onto a tiny silicon surface," Ohad Zohar, the university's scientific adviser for educational programs, told the Associated Press.

FoxNews

Berlin Police Head Announces 'Disarming' of Jews

(Hat Tip: Ron)

No, the title of this post isn't a current event. That was the New York Times headline on November 8th, 1938. What followed was Kristallnacht - The Night of the Broken Glass.

Sadly, below is a current event:

The IDF is conducting a large scale operation to confiscate weapons from the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria, according to Channel 10 TV. The purpose of the operation is described as "putting the settlers' gun permits in order."

The security coordinators of the communities in Samaria have been summoned to a meeting with IDF officers Thursday, and community leaders are convinced that the IDF intends to collect many of the weapons in the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.

Hillel Reinus of Yitzhar said: "I have no idea who is giving the order, it seems to be coming from up high, but they've decided to take the weapons away from everyone." Another resident of the community, Yigal Amitai, added, "They are abandoning citizens, it is an irresponsibile act, but everything pales compared to reality."

Israel National News

"To disarm the people... was the best and most effectual way to enslave them."
~George Mason, speech of June 14, 1788

Quick Facts About The Crusades

From Games Muslims Play, presented by TROP:

The first Crusade began in 1095… 460 years after the first Christian city was overrun by Muslim armies, 457 years after Jerusalem was conquered by Muslim armies, 453 years after Egypt was taken by Muslim armies, 443 after Muslims first plundered Italy, 427 years after Muslim armies first laid siege to the Christian capital of Constantinople, 380 years after Spain was conquered by Muslim armies, 363 years after France was first attacked by Muslim armies, 249 years after Rome itself was sacked by a Muslim army, and only after centuries of church burnings, killings, enslavement and forced conversions of Christians.

By the time the Crusades finally began, Muslim armies had conquered two-thirds of the Christian world.

Europe had been harassed by Muslims since the first few years following Muhammad’s death. As early as 652, Muhammad’s followers launched raids on the island of Sicily, waging a full-scale occupation 200 years later that lasted almost a century and was punctuated by massacres, such as that at the town of Castrogiovanni, in which 8,000 Christians were put to death. In 1084, ten years before the first crusade, Muslims staged another devastating Sicilian raid, burning churches in Reggio, enslaving monks and raping an abbey of nuns before carrying them into captivity.