Odds And Ends From AOL News

Flooding in Southeastern USA:

Toddler Among 6 Killed in StormsBy GREG BLUESTEIN, AP
posted: 44 MINUTES AGOcomments: 86filed under: National News
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ATLANTA (Sept. 21) – A two-year-old Georgia boy swept from his father's arms Monday was among six people killed by storms pounding the Southeast, and forecasters were calling for more rain after the historic dumping that submerged major Atlanta-area highways.
The boy, Slade Crawford, was found downstream of his family's ruined mobile home, which was split apart around 2 a.m. by a surging creek, said Ed Baskin, deputy coroner in Carroll County. The parents had been rescued as their one-year-old son clung to his mother's arms in the county southwest of Atlanta.

(Read full story: Here).

Pray for those who have lost loved ones and the safety of others.

Rapper Accused of Killing Pastor, 3 OthersBy DENA POTTER, AP
posted: 6 HOURS 28 MINUTES AGOcomments: 566filed under: Crime News, National News
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FARMVILLE, Va. (Sept. 21) - Prosecutors said Monday they had to investigate hundreds of pieces of forensic evidence in their case against an aspiring 20-year-old rapper from California suspected of killing a Virginia pastor and three other people.
Richard Alden Samuel McCroskey III made his first court appearance by video in Prince Edward County and was appointed attorney Cary Bowen, who was not present and said he had not talked to the suspect. A preliminary hearing was set for Jan. 11 because of the amount of evidence discovered.

(Read the rest of the story: Here).

A clear case of bigotry and prejudice:

Muslim teen sues Abercrombie over its 'Look Policy'
Posted Sep 20th 2009 3:10PM by Tom Johansmeyer
Filed under: Law, Abercrombie and Fitch (ANF)

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Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF) is being sued by a Muslim teenager who wanted to work at an Abercrombie Kids store in Oklahoma's Woodland Hills Mall. When she applied in June 2008, Samantha Elauf was told that the hijab she wears is inconsistent with Abercrombie's "Look Policy." So, the 17-year-old took her concerns to U.S. District Court on Wednesday, where a lawsuit was filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

(Read whole article: Here).

Grace Truly Wins Out

Here's an interesting article:

Pope Gunman Wants to Convert
AP
posted: 5 DAYS 12 HOURS AGOcomments: 226filed under: World NewsPrintShareText SizeAAA

ANKARA, Turkey (May 13) -- The gunman who shot Pope John Paul II says he would like to convert to Christianity at a baptism ceremony at the Vatican after his release from prison in January.
In comments relayed by his lawyer on Wednesday, Mehmet Ali Agca also says he wants to visit the grave of Pope John Paul II, meet with Pope Benedict XVI and produce a television documentary on the Vatican.

Agca shot and seriously wounded John Paul on May 13, 1981. The late pope met with Agca in an Italian prison in 1983 and forgave him for the shooting.
Agca served 19 years in an Italian prison for the attack and is currently serving a prison term in Turkey for killing journalist Abdi Ipekci.
He is due to be released from Sincan Prison, near Ankara, on Jan. 18, 2010.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2009-05-13 06:00:35

Regardless of one's stance on the Papacy, Grace truly wins out in the end and God used Pope John Paul II's relationship with Mehmet Ali Agca as part of Agca's conversion process rather than the Pope force-feeding Agca a list of manmade propositions and telling him to believe these things or go to hell like Fundamentalist Pharisees do.

Malaysian Council Bans Yoga for Muslims

John MacArthur surely would agree with this---after all he said that 'all Christians need for meditation is the bible,' so why not the Koran for Muslims. Here is a clip of John MacArthur telling Doug Pagitt that some aspects are dangerous for Christians as they may welcome demons into their life:

John also said why borrow a term from a false pagan religion. Well there goes the idol and false god of John MacArthur, the manmade pages of the bible---after all, the Greek word "biblos" from which the word bible derives was invented by Zeus-worshiping Greeks. The pagan Egyptians invented paper and not to mention the pagan and imperialistic terms which the Gospels themselves are comprised of. What do you expect from people who worship manmade paper and 'golden' calfskin leather instead of the One True Risen and Living God, Jesus Christ. Anyways, sorry for getting sidetracked---here is the full article on the Muslim ban on Yoga:

Malaysian Council Bans Yoga for MuslimsBy VIJAY JOSHI, AP
posted: 1 DAY 22 HOURS AGOcomments: 169filed under: World News

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (Nov. 22) — Malaysia's top Islamic body, fresh from banning tomboys, issued an edict Saturday that prohibits Muslims from practicing yoga, saying that elements of Hinduism in the ancient Indian exercise could corrupt them.
The National Fatwa Council's chairman, Abdul Shukor Husin, said many Muslims fail to understand that yoga's ultimate aim is to be one with a god of a different religion — an explanation disputed by many practitioners who say yoga need not have a religious element.

"We are of the view that yoga, which originates from Hinduism, combines physical exercise, religious elements, chanting and worshipping for the purpose of achieving inner peace and ultimately to be one with god," Abdul Shukor said.
News of the yoga ban prompted activist Marina Mahathir to wonder what the council will ban next: "What next? Gyms? Most gyms have men and women together. Will that not be allowed any more?"
The edict reflects the growing influence of conservative Islam in Malaysia, a multi-ethnic country of 27 million people where the majority Muslim Malays lost seats in March elections and where minority ethnic Chinese and mostly Hindu ethnic Indians have been clamoring for more rights.
Recently, the council said girls who act like boys violate Islam's tenets. The government has also occasionally made similar conservative moves, banning the use of the word "Allah" by non-Muslims earlier this year, saying it would confuse Muslims.
Analysts say the fatwa could be the result of insecurity among Malay Muslims after their party — in power since 1957 — saw its parliamentary majority greatly reduced in elections because of gains by multiracial opposition parties.
Malay Muslims make up about two-thirds of the country's 27 million people. About 25 percent of the population is ethnic Chinese and 8 percent is ethnic Indian, most of whom are Hindu.

"They are making a stand. They are saying 'we will not give way,'" said Ooi Kee Beng, a fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.
Decisions by Malaysia's Fatwa Council are not legally binding on the country's Muslims, however, unless they also become enshrined in national or Shariah laws. But many Muslims abide by the edicts out of deference, but some, like Putri Rahim, plan not to follow the latest fatwa.
"I am mad! Maybe they have it in mind that Islam is under threat. To come out with a fatwa is an insult to intelligent Muslims. It's an insult to my belief," said Putri, a Muslim who has practiced yoga for 10 years.
In recent years, yoga — a collection of spiritual and physical practices, aimed at integrating mind, body and spirit — has been increasingly practiced in gyms and dedicated yoga centers around the world.
There are no figures for how many Muslims practice yoga in Malaysia, but many yoga classes have Muslims attending.
In the United States, where it has become so popular that many public schools began offering it in gym classes, yoga has also come under fire.
Some Christian fundamentalists and even secular parents have argued that yoga's Hindu roots conflict with Christian teachings and that using it in school might violate the separation of church and state. Egypt's highest theological body also banned yoga for Muslims in 2004.

Yoga drew the attention of the Fatwa Council last month when an Islamic scholar said that it was un-Islamic.
A top yoga practitioner in India, Mani Chaitanya, said the Malaysian clerics seem to have "misunderstood the whole thing." Chanting during yoga is to calm the mind and "elevate our consciousness," said Chaitanya, the director of the Sivananda Ashram in New Delhi.
"It is not worship. It's not religious at all. Yoga is universal. All religions can practice yoga. You can practice yoga and still be a good Christian or a good Muslim," he said.
Malaysian yoga teacher Suleiha Merican, 56, who has been practicing yoga for 40 years, also denied there is any Hindu spiritual element to it. "It's a great health science that is scientifically proven and many countries have accepted it" as alternative therapy, said Merican, a Muslim.
Associated Press writer Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur and Muneeza Naqvi in New Delhi contributed to this report.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2008-11-22 14:33:54

Israel Considering Saudi Peace Deal

Israel Considering Saudi Peace Deal
By ARON HELLER, AP
posted: 23 HOURS 28 MINUTES AGOcomments: 252filed under: World News(Oct. 19) -

Israeli leaders are seriously considering a dormant Saudi plan offering a comprehensive peace between Israel and the Arab world in exchange for lands captured during the 1967 war, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Sunday.
Barak said it may be time to pursue an overall peace deal for the region because individual negotiations with Syria and the Palestinians have made little progress.

Barak said he has discussed the Saudi plan with Prime Minister-designate Tzipi Livni, who is in the process of forming a new government, and that Israel is considering a response. Barak, who leads the Labor party, is expected to play a senior role in the next government.
Livni's office refused to comment on her talks with Barak.
Saudi Arabia first proposed the peace initiative in 2002, offering pan-Arab recognition of Israel in exchange for Israel's withdrawal from Arab lands captured in 1967 — the West Bank, Gaza Strip, east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. The 22-member Arab League endorsed the plan last year.
Israel has said the plan is a good basis for discussion, but expressed some reservations.
"There is definitely room to introduce a comprehensive Israeli plan to counter the Saudi plan that would be the basis for a discussion on overall regional peace," Barak told Israel's Army Radio.
He noted the "deep, joint interest" with moderate Arab leaders in containing Iran's nuclear ambitions and limiting the influence of the radical Islamic Hezbollah movement in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.
Analyst Ghassan Khatib, a former minister in the Palestinian Cabinet, said interest in the plan was "a little bit late" but welcome.

"I strongly believe that the Arab initiative is the best approach to peace between the Arabs and the Israelis," he said. "It fulfills all the legitimate objectives of Israel and those of the Palestinians and at the same time it has this regional dimension and it reflects one of the rare issues on which Arabs have consensus."
While Israel's outgoing prime minister, Ehud Olmert, has welcomed the Saudi plan, he and other leaders want to keep small parts of the territories captured in 1967. Israel also objects to language that appears to endorse a large-scale return of Palestinian refugees to lands inside Israel. Israel says a massive influx of Palestinians would destroy the country's Jewish character.
Yuval Steinitz, an Israeli lawmaker from the conservative opposition Likud Party and a member of parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said that for Israel, the Saudi plan is a nonstarter and called Barak's remarks "an empty political gesture."
"It doesn't recognize Israel's right to defensible borders ... (and) demands Palestinian refugees settle in the Jewish state as well as the Palestinian state, which is totally unacceptable," he said.
Israel's ceremonial president, Shimon Peres, proposed putting Israel's various peace talks on one track last month at the United Nations, calling on Saudi King Abdullah to "further his initiative." He has since been pushing the idea in meetings with Israeli, Arab and Western officials, his office said.
While Peres has no formal role in Israeli foreign policy, he is a Nobel peace laureate and well respected in the international community.

In Sunday's interview, Barak said he was in full agreement with Peres.
"I had the impression that there is indeed an openness to explore any path, including this one," he said of his talks with Livni.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat noted that pursuing the Saudi peace initiative did not necessarily undermine the direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians and he encouraged Israel to pursue this track.
"I think Israel should have done this since 2002. It is the most strategic initiative that came from the Arab world since 1948," he said. "I urge them to revisit this initiative and to go with it because it will shorten the way to peace."
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday that he would meet with Olmert on Oct. 27. The two leaders have been meeting regularly this year, to assess progress in peace talks.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2008-10-19 13:38:29

Perhaps this will be a step forward for progress in the Middle East. Peace is achievable if both parties are willing to set aside their differences and start pursuing commonalities. I can already hear Fungelical Zionists like Tim LaHaye impede this progress with conspiracy theories about a One World Government/Religion and a literal Anti-Christ figure (instead of figurative anti-christs as the only references to any type of anti-Christ are in I and II John, one of which is in a plural case) though.

See also: Obsession "Stars" Have Lectured at U.S. Military Colleges; U.S. Navy Uses Film, Tim LaHaye says Allah is not God, Fundaresentalism, Did Tim LaHaye Just Call Israelis "Not-To-Be-Trusted Yids?", http://www.cc-vw.org/articles/ivp.html, Christian Zionism---an even handed overview, Professor Mark Chmiel on Christian Zionism and Allies for Armageddon: The Rise of Christian Zionism.

Fundamentalists want to turn back time

By Marv Knox
Associated Baptist Press

Despite all their theological and cultural differences,fundamentalists of every faith share at least one common characteristic: resistance to modernity. That’s the assessment of scholars and firsthand observers who have evaluated the
varieties of religious expression. “Fundamentalism worldwide is religious
anti-modernism,” noted Roger Olson, professor of theology at Baylor University’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary. “Fundamentalism reacts against various types of modernity,” echoed Bill Leonard, a church historian and dean of the Wake Forest
University Divinity School. Whether it’s Baptist preachers J. Frank Norris and Jerry Falwell calling America to return to pre-scientific Christianity or Ayatollah Khomeini and Muqtada al-Sadr calling Muslims to resist the intrusion of Western ecadence, fundamentalism finds a home in most major faith groups.
“In Christianity and Judaism, the battle with modernity in terms of elaborate militancy is the battle against pluralism — the idea there
are multiple ways to come to faith and that a given religion must come to terms with, and indeed conform to, society,” Leonard explained. The battle extends all the way back to 17th-century England and “a very painful process in the struggle between religious establishments and religious dissenters,” he said, an observation affirmed by Olson. The battle raged on American soil about a century ago, when Protestant fundamentalism resisted “the liberal modernist effort to
change theology in light of new scientific and rationalist theses,” Leonard added.
So, the more recent rise of Islamic fundamentalism is neither unique nor surprising in the relatively younger faith, he added. “Militant action against dissent and pluralism and certainly modernity has worked itself through major elements of Christianity worldwide.… The Muslims are just now confronting that.”...

Read More Of This Insightful Article: Here.

Muslims Outnumber World's Catholics - AOL News

This is old news, but it's interesting nonetheless.