How Sharia Law Differs in Different Locals Between Sunni and Shi'a

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                      

IRAQ:  Let's look at Iraq first since IS is there fighting against Sunni Rebels who have a Shi'a President.  This hasn't been working out very well since Iran is backing the President against his own subjects.   Iraq had at least a few years ago a population of about 31,234,000.  97% were Muslims.with the Shi'a following Jafari Law and the Sunnis following Hanafi Law. It was a Secular state. Now, since IS is taking over and the President is incapable to preside, it's turning into the Caliphate of IS.  If they succeed, all that will be left will be people accepting the Salafist way of believing.  

The Shi'a minority's Ja'fari School is also known as the Imami school.  It is the most important Shi'a system of jurisprudence.  
1. It rejects analogy, consensus, and private judgment.
2. It believes that the hidden Imam is the true head of the state.  In his absence he rules through his spokesmen who are called mujtahids and ayatollahs---interpreters of the will of the Imam.  There are usually several of these mujtahids at a time.  They are not chosen but simply acknowledged by the consensus of the community to be learned, pious, and qualified to issue opinion, fatwa, which is as binding to the faithful as a papal bull is to Roman Catholics.  All the Shi'i Twelvers follow this school.  

Hidden Imam:=  Muhammad al-Mahdi, "The Guided One; the history of the twelfth Imam is mystical and miraculous. Born in 868 AD / 255 AH, Abu'l-Kasim Muhammad (which is the name of the Prophet himself), and when Hasan al-Askari, the Eleventh Imam, died in 874 AD / 260 AH, the seven year old boy declared himself to be the Twelfth Imam and went into hiding. The Shi'ites believed that he hid himself in a cave below a mosque in Samarra; this cave is blocked by a gate which the Shi'ites call Bab-al Ghayba , or the "Gate of Occultation." This is one of the most sacred sites in Shi'a Islam, and the faithful gather here to pray for the return of the Twelfth Imam.

Shi'i Twelvers: Successors of Muhammad, " the Twelve Imams are exemplary human individuals who not only rule over the community with justice, but also are able to keep and interpret sharia and the esoteric meaning of the Quran. Muhammad and Imams' words and deeds are a guide and model for the community to follow; as a result, they must be free from error and sin, known as Ismah or infallibility and must be chosen by divine decree, or nass, through the Prophet." 

The Sunni Hanafi School:  It emphasizes analogy and the principle of equity, which is based on natural law.  It is the most tolerant of the legal schools of Islam.  It is said that the founder believed that the Koran should be translated into the vernacular and that prayers should be conducted in languages other than Arabic.  The Hanafite system was used by the Ottoman Turks and is prevalent in India, Afghanistan and Central Asia.  

Salafists are not even mentioned in the textbook of which IS follows. "Jihadist-Salafism is a transnational religious-political ideology based on a belief in violent jihad and the Salafist religious movement of returning to (what adherents believe is) "true" Islam."   They are not a part of any accepted school of Law in Islam.  They are extremists.  Another definition of Salafi jihadism, offered by Mohammed M. Hafez, is an "extreme form of Sunni Islamism that rejects democracy and Shia rule.  Salafism or Salafi sect  or movement follows a literal interpretation of the Qur'an and Sunnah (practise of the Prophet Muhammad). They are an offshoot of the Ahl al-Sunnah wa’l-Jamaa’ah group. 

Afghanistan: A country with about 28,395,716 population of which 99% are Sunni of the Hanafi School and Shi'a of the Jafari School.  It is an Islamic state. In Afghanistan the Taliban were of the Deobandi,  not Salafi school of Islam but "cross-fertilized" with bin Laden and other Salafist-Jihadis.  "(Pashto and Persian: دیو بندی‎, Urdu: دیو بندی‎, Bengali: দেওবন্দ, Hindi:देवबन्दी) is a term used for a revivalist movement within Hanafi Islam.  It is centered primarily in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, has recently spread to the United Kingdom, and has a presence in South Africa."

Pakistan, 2nd largest Muslim majority country with 172,800,000 people are 97% Muslims with Sunni and Shi'a following the Hanafi school.  It is an Islamic state.  
                                                                        

Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria-Islam expanded under the Umayyads from 661 to 750.

Syria:  A country ruined by Civil War and IS invading.  Their population used to be 22,505,000 but thousands are now residing in refugee camps or have fled elsewhere.  90% were Muslims with Sunni's following Hanafi school  and Shi'a following Alevi school.  President Assad is an Alawite.  "The Alawites, also known as Alawis (ʿAlawīyyah Arabic: علوية‎), are a religious group, centred in Syria, who follow a branch of the Twelver school of Shia Islambut with syncretistic elements." The Muslim Brotherhood first attacked Assad because of his minority status and the Brotherhood pushing for their form of Islam.  

Alevi Law:  Predominent in Turkey, Alevi – Alevis are sometimes categorized as part of Twelver Shia Islam, and sometimes as its own religious tradition, as it has markedly different philosophy, customs, and rituals. They have many Tasawwufī characteristics and express belief in the Qur'an and The Twelve Imams, but reject polygamy and accept religious traditions predating Islam, like Turkish shamanism.

Egypt: Always a leader of the Middle East, with a civilization going back 32 centuries, Egypt has a population of about 79,089,650 people with 90% Muslim Sunni following the Shafi'i School.  Between the conservatism of the Malikites and the liberalism of the Hanafites, came the Shafi'i school.  As a mean between the two extremes, it is believed to have influenced all schools.  This school is followed in Indonesia, Egypt, East Africa and Lebanon.  
                                                                        

Abdullah I Mosque in Jordan in which 3,000 people may pray

Jordan's Hashemite Kingdom originating in Saudi Arabia has about  5,568,565 people who are 95% Muslim Sunnis of the Shafi'i School.  Islam is a state religion.  

Saudi Arabia,  a state with 27,601,038 people is 100% Sunni of the Hanbali school.  It is the champion of Islamic fundamentalism.  It rejects consensus, analogy, private judgment, and in fact anything that is outside the letter of the Koran and the hadith.  Too conservative to be popular, this rite has only about 3,000,000 followers.  They are among the Wahhabis of Arabia. In other words, they are very Orthodox in their belief and do not allow any Jews into their state.  

Lebanon: Quite the opposite religiously from Saudi Arabia, had only 60% Muslims and 40% Christians at one time with Muslims divided between Sunnis following Hanafi School and Shi'as following Jafari School.  

Yemen: In disarray today, had 23,580,000 people who were 99% Muslims with Sunnis following Shafi'i school and Shi'as following Zaidi school.  The Zaidi school is named after Zayd, the son of the 4th Imam.  They don't believe in the hidden Imam.  They are dominant in Yemen.  It is an Islamic state.  
                                                                      

Ayatollah Khamenei Rules Iran. 

Iran has 76,923,300 people who are 98% Shi'a of the Jafari school.  it is an Islamic state. They have called Israel all sorts of vulgar names and have made it plain that Israel should be wiped out, saying that as they work 24/7 on their nuclear development. It is an Islamic state.  

Libya has 6,173,579 people of which 97% are Muslim Sunnis of the Maliki school. The Malikite school introduced the formula of consensus of the community for the first time.  It is more conservative than the Hanafi school and is followed by the Muslims of North Africa, exclusive of Egypt.  It is a state religion.   

United Arab Emirates with 5,432,746 people of which 76% are Muslims that are Sunni of the Maliki school, also.  It is a state religion.  

Kuwait with only 3,399,637 people who are 85% Muslim of both Sunni and Shi'a follow the Maliki school.  It is a state religion.  

Turkey with 73,722,988 people of which 99% are Muslims with Sunni's following the Hanafi school and Shi'a following the Alevi School, yet it is a secular state.  

"Nondenominational Muslims are Muslims who do not adhere to any specific branch of Islam. Such Muslims may visit any mosque regardless of its sectarian affiliation. Their beliefs may overlap with those of multiple Muslims."  

"Islamism is a term that refers to a set of political ideologies, derived from various fundamentalist views, which hold that Islam is not only a religion but a political system that should govern the legal, economic and social imperatives of the state. Many Islamists do not refer to themselves as such and it is not a single particular movement. Religious views and ideologies of its adherents vary, and they may be Sunni Islamists or Shia Islamists depending upon their beliefs. Islamist groups include groups such as Al-Qaeda, the organizer of the September 11, 2001 attacks and perhaps the most prominent; and the Muslim Brotherhood, the largest and perhaps the oldest. Although violence is often employed by some organizations, most Islamist movements are nonviolent."

Resource:  http://richard-hooker.com/sites/worldcultures/SHIA/HIDDEN.HTM
Textbook:  Middle East Past &I Present by Yahya Armajani and Thoas M. Ricks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Muslim-majority_countries
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twelve_Imams
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salafi_jihadism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deobandi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_schools_and_branches
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alawites

Does the Bible Contain Valid History?

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                         

Israel's Likud party, the party of Prime Minister Netanyahu,  has a young woman who has stated the validity of following history from the Torah. She's the government's new Deputy Foreign Minister.   She's causing a stir among the Conservative and Reform Jews in the USA and elsewhere, for not all believe it to be the word of G-d, or many even question the existence of a G-d, period!   Being Israel was created as a Jewish state, this is causing quite a stir.  Was there even a Moses (1391 BCE-1271 BCE)?  Will Jews believe in the rights of Israel's existence now?  After a speech, Hotovely told journalists that despite her personal political views, she was committed to pursuing a two-state solution in keeping with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s declared policy.
                                                                             

Tzipi Hotovely is not the only person in Israel who believes that Israel's right to exist comes from G-d's leading the Jews there by Moses on the Exodus with the command that this was their land.  There are many others.  Otherwise, they would not have the strength to fight off so many attacks from the Arabs.

1. The Jewish population in Israel is divided into two subcultures: an Orthodox minority, known in colloquial Hebrew simply as “religious” (dati), which includes about 15 percent of the population, and the secular (hiloni) majority -- some 85 percent of Jewish Israelis."
2. The leadership of the state has been totally secular. Orthodox parties participate in governing coalitions, but have always been excluded from discussions about peace, war or the economy. Nor do they aspire to be part of those fateful deliberations. Israel’s intellectual, literary, scientific, military and artistic elite is 99 percent secular.
3. Orthodox Zionists are a different matter. They are less marginal because they share the Zionist discourse and do not limit their existence to a cultural and social ghetto. Since 1967, they have been raising the banner of militant Zionism, and this role has pushed them closer to center stage. Still, their religious rhetoric only reinforces their marginality.

                                                                     

 The induction into the IDF, the army, is done at the Masada, the place high up where a thousand Jews died rather than be taken alive by the Romans in 73 and 74 CE who were were not known for their kindness;  more for their bestiality in taking lives. The 970 Jewish men  had women and children with them.  They could not allow that to happen.  "Because Judaism prohibits suicide, Josephus, the author of the information,  reported that the defenders had drawn lots and killed each other in turn, down to the last man, who would be the only one to actually take his own life."  The Romans also recorded what they found.  A woman and 5 children were left alive as they had hid.  
                                                                           

Tzipi's audacious fearlessness of stating her views and in what she will fight for reminds me of our ancient Judge, Deborah who lived c 1150 BCE.  Before we had King Saul, we had judges who decided things for the people.  Deborah, wife of Lapidoth,  roused the Israelite tribes to revolt under Barak, son of Abinoam, against the Canaanite king Jabin of Hazor and Sisera, his ally and commander.  She sings a song of victory in Judges 4 which is attributed to her as written in Judges 5 is regarded as one of the oldest compositions preserved in Hebrew.  Tzippi is stirring up the tribes for sure.
                                                                             

IS-Islamic State turning Syria and Iraq into their own Caliphate, something Osama Bin Laden was not ready to do.  According to " Michael Scheuer, 63 year old former CIA  intelligence officer, American blogger, author, historian, foreign policy critic, and political analyst. He is currently an adjunct professor at Georgetown University's Center for Peace and Security Studies.  Osama  wanted to get all Jews out of Israel first."  Osama was not following the precepts set by Mohammad.  Scheuer criticized the USA for their closeness to Israel and was fired for that from the Jamestown Foundation.  He resigned from the CIA.  He wrote "Imperial Hubris."   I suppose he would have thrown us to the wolves. 

 Is this why Obama is distancing himself from Israel?  He's following Scheuer's advice.  He just spoke Friday night to  Adas Israel congregation, Washington’s prime Conservative synagogue.  Barack Obama Says Israel Criticism Is Tough Love.  Nate Guttman, writer from the Forward, thought the congregation approved and Obama passed with flying colors.  

From the opposite quarter in the Middle East is Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement, who believe that the land of "Palestine"  is an Islamic Waqf ( a religious endowment (a trust) and refers to preserving of certain land and buildings.  

1. They believe it is consecrated for future Muslim generations until Judgment Day.  These Arabs, who follow Mohammad (570 CE-632 CE), also feel, like everyone else of their religion viewed as Orthodoxy or extremism, that Judgement Day  is at hand right now.  They are not willing to give up any part of the land. to Jews. Obama could not change them, even if he tried.
2. I find that so many things Jews do are copied by the Muslims.  Now  the land is their religious land given to them, but by who?  At least we can say G-d gave it to us and have the book to prove it.  They don't.  Jews not only have G-d's word, but the UN's okay.  They also bought the land legally from the Arabs who did have ownership on parcels.  As a people of the book with 613 laws from Moses, we people are a people of law.  That's our thing.  Our ancestors saw to it that after waiting for this important date for 2,000 years, they were going to make sure it was all legal.  No one in their right minds could argue with our rights.  They didn't know today's world.  
3.                                                                        

Israelites entering the land of Egypt. 

Whereas Moses was the Prince of Egypt, son of the daughter of the Pharaoh, he was well educated.  He could read and write.  History had been going on for centuries in a written form and writing was an important skill.                                                                      

They wrote in heiroglyphics and used pictures to depict their life along with their writing.
                                                                             

Circumcision, an operation started in Egypt. 

Their artists were very skillful.  The walls of their tombs can be viewed today, about 4,000  years later.   Their historical practice was to always show the righteousness of the Egyptian.  They never showed their errors or losses.  If something was out of favor, they covered up that chapter with more cement and just painted over it with the new prevailing history.

Not so with Moses.  When he started writing, he wrote the good and the bad about the Israelites. Look how King David's history was told.   This is one reason it is so believable.

 He heard G-d speak to him and he wrote it all down.  Some psychologists have said he may have had some condition-some psychosis, but when you read what it was that was said, most of us just cry out, "Brilliant!"  Our greatest minds have been studying the 5 Books of Moses since then to this very day and still are in awe at the genius of it all.

Mohammad was aroused by the Jewish storytellers in Medina, also.  A man who could neither read nor write, he was awestruck with the story from the Torah he heard read in the streets by these different people, the Jews.  He hadn't heard any such thoughts before, and so he felt he must take this to his people.  He was a general that was unappreciated in his home town of Mecca.  This should also dazzle them, too, and he would have a book written and would place his own thoughts in it besides these Jewish ones he would use.
                                                                           

When the time came that Mohammad had become a leader and was out converting Arabs to his belief, he allowed the Jews to live among them without being converted as they were now the respected "People of the Book."  Christians were included in that too, but they both had to pay a Poll Tax for the honor.  They were held down and many rights the Arabs had were not theirs, but they were able to exist among them.. That was more than Hitler would allow in the future, or Haman would have allowed in the past in Persia.
                                     
What would he think of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) or IS who are pledged to drive out the Jews and take over their land?  Iran wants to do the same thing.  This was not Mohammad's view at first, even though he had been angry with Jews who were no good as co-fighters against other Arabs.

The facts are that Mohammad became angry with the Jews who he felt went against him in a battle.  Mohammad, in his zeal to convert people, had gone on a binge and forced most Jewish tribes in and around Medina  to convert with the threat of death, so a few cow-towed and converted quickly, actually not understanding the danger of it.  They saw that Arabs were mono-theistic like they were, so they gave in, at least outwardly.   Some must have realized that Mohammad had learned from them.   These people had been stranded from the main hub of Judaism since Jerusalem had fallen to the Romans in 70 CE and they had been away from stimulating intellectual thought for a good 500 years.  They were being good to hold on to their Jewish beliefs this long, having it transferred from generation to generation.  Almost 500 years later after 70 CE they allowed the Jews to live in their land after paying their Poll tax.  Then the Jews were 2nd class citizens or Dhimmis.
                                                                         

Esau and Jacob, twins of Isaac and Rebecca,  with Esau becoming an Arab with his Uncle Ishmael and Jacob being father of the Jews.

There are Arabs, being from Ishmael, Isaac's half brother, who are carrying the J1c3d gene, or Cohen gene.  How else can you explain that Jews from Europe and Arabs from the Middle East carry a gene so similar that one carries a little tag showing the split between them and the split can be traced to the actual time period?   The story found in the Torah is being proved to be right by science!
                                                                             

IDF in Six Day War of 1967 standing at the wall in Jerusalem for the first time since 1947.  

How can you explain today's Israeli soldiers who have lost their way in Israel somehow being able to pick up the Bible they carry and thumb through, finding the description of the land and how his ancestor managed to find his way.  Using that page, the soldier can get back to base.
                                                                           

Mt. Hermon in the Galilee

 I've heard this story.  It's a fact.  Archaeology is opening the doors to show that the bible is not a lot of hooey.   The fact that it is as old as it is, is not in any way  full of incorrect information.  It's up to us to understand that the years that have gone by have changed some of the landscape but not that much.  It's all there.   Here are some Egyptian Pharoahs and their dates.

 The Date of the Exodus: 1446 BC
Pharaoh who killed Hebrew children: Amuntotep I: 1532-1511 BC
Pharaoh's Daughter who adopted Moses: Hatshepsut: 1526 BC
Pharaoh of Moses' flight to Midian: Thutmoses II/Hatshepsut: 1498-1485 BC
Pharaoh of the Exodus: Thutmoses III: 1485/1464 - 1431 BC

My Jewish Encyclopedia has Moses living from 1391 to 1271 BCE.  He was 80 years old when he went back to Egypt to talk to the Pharoah, his adopted relative, so that would have been in 1311 BCE,   and after walking on the Exodus for 40 years, he died outside of Canaan at age 120.  There are people today who have lived to 120, so it's not a wild idea, rare but possible.  The Torah doesn't tell us the name of the Pharoah, so we're still examining Egyptian history.  

Bob O'Dell gives us the new date for the Exodus to have started as 1579-1578 BCE.  He uses the science of astronomy to figure it out, zeroing in on the phases of the moon.    So we all may have come up with dates a little off from each other, but the history has not changed since it was written down.  The writing in the Torah is sacrosanct.  Not one iota, not one letter has been altered.  

One of the many archaological finds in Israel that proves the Bible to be correct is 

 Tel Dan (“David”) Stela

Few Biblical archaeology discoveries have attracted as much attention as the Tel Dan Stela—the ninth-century B.C.E. inscription that furnished the first historical evidence of King David outside the Bible.  An excavation assistant stumbled upon the stela bearing the inscription in a newly excavated wall.

                                                                                                                                                 

The Arab, Haj Amin al-Husseini, was the first who fought against the Jews' return to their land.  He had been appointed by a British Jew, no less, to be the master over Jerusalem while the Brits held the mandate after WWI.
He was so against their coming and usurping his own position that he went to Germany to speak with Hitler. Hitler had his own reasons to want to kill off all the about 14 million Jews in the world.  He dared to verbalize it as justification for his plan for genocide of the Jewish people:
"Conscience is a Jewish invention like circumcision.  My task is to free men from the dirty and degrading ideas of conscience and morality."  Adolf Hitler 
                                                                                                    

Our Torah and other books from the Prophets are an amalgamated group of history, geography, genealogy and laws of conscience and morality.  Jews read the whole Bible,  which Christians call the Old Testament, every year.  They read from the Torah and then from the other correlating parts.  
                                                                           

Mt. Sinai where Moses received the 10 Commandments

For instance,  on (Sivan 6-7) May 23rd is the holiday of Shavuot, celebrating Moses giving us the 10 Commandments.  We will read Genesis  and then get into the Haftorah and read Isaiah XLII, 5-XLIII,10  which correlates with Genesis.  On Shavuot we will also read The Book of Ruth as it mentions the barley and wheat harvests.  That's how we cover both parts.  

Are people a thousand years from now going to look at our history books and say it's just science fiction?  Will we even exist a thousand years from now or is this the end or about to be the end?  

Resource: http://www.merip.org/mer/mer179/israels-ultra-orthodox
 http://www.bible.ca/archeology/bible-archeology-exodus-date-1440bc.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Masada
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Scheuer
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2015/04/date-of-exodus-discovered.html
http://www.bible.ca/archeology/bible-archeology-exodus-date-1440bc.htm
http://forward.com/news/308765/barack-obama-frames-israel-criticism-as-tough-love-in-washington-synagogue/?utm_content=daily_Newsletter_TopSpot_Title_Position-1&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=The%20Forward%20Today%20%28Monday-Friday%29&utm_campaign=New%20Daily%202015-05-23
http://www.timesofisrael.com/deputy-fm-tells-diplomats-the-whole-land-is-ours/
Politicide, Volume 3 by Victor Sharpe p. 1-13.
CNN news about Michael Scheuer
http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/free-ebooks/ten-top-biblical-archaeology-discoveries/
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2013/06/archaeology-proves-israels-past-history.html

Putting Down Mohammad in Texas, Really?

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                      

Torah, the Mosaic Law teaching one G-d, first taught by Abraham in 2nd millennium BCE

We have a conundrum here.  Jews, Christians and Muslims agree that there is only one G-d.  The riddle is that G-d's messages are being interpreted in many of the same ways, but with additional interpretations not agreed on by the others.  How can this all emanate from one G-d?  How does G-d manage to change his views in another generation?  He is G-d.  He knows what will happen before it happens.  Is it that the teachers who receive his message, Moses, Jesus and Mohammad have different radio signals and each translation ability is different in different centuries and through different people?  Then there are the commentators whose reading ability doesn't match the thinking originally found on paper, especially when it was written in a different time.
                                                                     

Qaradowi of Qatar, Islamic interpreter

Today we are facing Islam's Koranic  interpreters  and commentators such as Qaradawi of Qatar and Bagdadi of Iraq with messages to kill others.  This goes against Moses's teaching of one of the 10 Commandments;  #6 thou shalt not kill.  This is believed by Judaism and many of Christians and Muslims  on this earth who are not extremists following extreme messages.
                                                                           

Baghdadi, leader of ISIS

One of the tests of our actions is to follow the Golden Rule from Hillel which tells us:  Don't do something to people you wouldn't want done to you. or "What is hateful to you, do not do to others."  Jesus phrased the rule positively "Do unto thy neighbor as thou wouldst be done by  --- from Matt.7:12.  or Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."  This comes from Lev. 19:18

We see IS and all the terrorist organizations killing those they don't agree with or who have land they want.  They certainly are breaking this rule, and probably most of the other 9 Commandments on the slate as well.  I see that some Christians feel that they don't have to follow anything unless Jesus said it, and the same goes for Muslims.  They forget how one G-d is speaking through 3 people and they are trying to get HIS message right.
                                                                         
In Garland, Texas, there was a contest with a large purse for a prize of drawing cartoons of Mohammad.
Update: 5/6/15 7:14pm   I didn't know, but Pamela Geller organized this contest. Tonight I heard over Fox News that ISIS  has put a fatwa out on her.  Her life is now threatened.  Her point has been freedom of speech, and evidently freedom of drawing cartoons about Mohammad.     I couldn't believe people would actually invite such problems into their community, but they did after preparing for their security for months.  Now, is this something they wouldn't mind having Muslims do about Jesus?  Did they ask the question?  Evidently not. The problem shown through this is that Muslims such as this Imam, Anjem Choudury,  expect and want Sharia law throughout the whole world, and that includes the USA.  It is against the Muslim law to draw cartoons of Mohammad, so that they expect all Americans to obey this injunction, and Pam is not a Muslim.  She is an American and has the freedom of such expression. Talk about controlling!  Such Imams expect to control everyone, even those outside their own country.   This was on the Sean Hannity show.  

The reason they were so brazen about hurting the feelings of Muslims is that they have no respect for the teachings of Mohammad.  He's turned into a mob dictator in the eyes of other religions.  In this discussion aired on Fox News, the Imam talked over and above both Hannity  and Pam.  He ranted and no one could pay attention or hear anyone except at a rare pause.  However, Hannity did bring this ranting to a pause when Pamela was able to quietly and calmly make her point.   The reason for this is because the world is engrossed in fighting terrorism caused in the name of Mohammad.  President Sisi  of Egypt is right in that the Muslims have to internally change some of their values so that such things are not happening to their people.  Muslims have lost the respect of others through all these terror acts.
                                                                       
The two terrorists who reacted to this contest in Texas were killed immediately before they even got close to the building.  They did it in the name of ISIS.  That leads to wondering if ISIS has now landed in the USA or if these 2 men were just ISIS want to be's.  Police are working on this.  "The gunmen, Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi, wounded a security guard before police shot and killed them."

ISIS hit the Syrian Golan Heights which is close to Israel already.  They are trying to grow their tentacles and spread their message of death being the answer to living.  "The ISIS-linked Jaish al-Jihad has captured the border town of Qahtaniya in southern Quneitra province on the Syrian Golan, thereby taking up its closest position to Israel yet at a distance of just 2.5 to 3 kilometers (1.5-1.8 miles), according to Walla!."  Everything they do is in the name of Allah (G-d).  
                                                                                

Most terror organizations  against Israel are done in the name of Allah. Hamas is a follower of the Muslim Brotherhood and their charter is to kill Jews and wipe out Israel and take it over.  The PLO was secular to start with, but the two groups have melded several times, joining their ideology.  Fatah is just the PLO of the next generation.  The Palestinian Islamic Jihad speaks for itself in being a radical Islamist group of terrorists.  
                                                                           

Hezbollah or Party of God is a Shia Islamic fundamentalist terrorist group mainly in Lebanon.  If it's a communist group, they also join forces with the radicals such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.  

Al Qaeda                                                          

    

" is a global militant Islamist organization founded by Osama bin Laden."  ISIS-Islamic State working to create its own Caliphate  is also a militant Islamist group that grew out of al-Qaeda and is more extreme.  Cutting off heads seems to be the rule with them.  
In G-d's name we see many Islamist terrorists.  That's not good for G-d's reputation.  It's the only religion from where terrorist groups have originated today.  

Of course, if you watch History 2 on TV, you might be changing your mind and come to believe that aliens from outer space came to earth thousands of years ago and did everything from building the pyramids to whatever other things seem impossible for humans to accomplish.  They're very close to the Greek and Roman belief system of multiple gods, a veritable Olympic land somewhere in one of the galaxies who are watching earth in their experiment.  With the advent of us going to the moon and back, it's no longer a silly idea to many.  They seem to be trying to disprove Abraham and Moses's revelation of there being only one G-d.  Moses heard the message in the bushes because his mind was programmed to pick up such thoughts, or the aliens spoke to him through their hi fi system from their flying saucers.  
                                                                            

To me, the test of time has succeeded with the Mosaic law which includes 613 other laws of life besides the basic 10. We don't sweat these, because they are made up of most of the things we do anyway, as long as we are normal human beings.   Regardless if you were born in 1391 BCE like Moses was, his message fits our days just as well.  We're still around to prove it works, too.  That hasn't stopped Jews from also being commentators about his laws for mankind.  That's been going on ever since we received them to this very day.  We have differences of opinion about them as well, but only a few times have we experienced some way-out interpretations. 
                                                                                 

 My favorite interpreter of the Torah, the work of Moses,  is RASHI, born in 1040 and died in 1105 in France.                                                    

 He was a direct descendant of King David (1045 BCE to 973 BCE  and 
                                                                           

Hillel (70 BCE to 10 CE). 

 He would have cited the Golden Rule  if asked about having a contest to make fun of Mohammad.  Even though we don't agree with what is being said in Mohammad's name, we shouldn't make fun of him, for this opens the door for the same thing to happen to us.  Another way of saying it is, "What is good for the goose is good for the gander."

France started the whole cartoon epic, though.  A free spirited people like France, whose DNA directs their people to individualistic thinking and not mass obeying, who defied everyone by helping the fledgling country of America get on its feet, is not about to be told what they should or shouldn't do.  This spirit is to be admired.  

By the same token, Texans are just as brave and individualistic.  Their history of the Alamo and fighting against Mexico  in the creation of Texas and even in defying their own president occasionally shows they are their own man.  Who cannot but admire the Texas Rangers?  It was just the city to set the stage for defiance against Islamic oppression.  

A few years back another defiant person decided to burn a Koran or two.  Terry Jones, 60 years old  in 2011,  did just this in Florida.  "Jones believes Islam promotes violence and that Muslims want to impose sharia law in the United States  U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, "It's regrettable that a pastor in Gainesville, Florida with a church of no more than fifty people can make this outrageous and distressful, disgraceful plan and get, you know, the world's attention."   He's one of our American free thinkers, Hillary.  That's what has set us apart from Europeans.  He didn't need a mega-church to believe something was wrong and needed to be acted on.  Trouble is, he forgot the Golden Rule.  
                                                                    

Koran (Quran) harnessed by many extremists 

 Again, this is an example of not having respect for a religion that teaches beliefs not acceptable to their own beliefs.  It's going against the grain.  One can say its a religion of peace all they want, but when they start teaching hatred and killing, that goes out the window.  You can't have 2 opposing beliefs in one system.  

Resource: http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-ten-commandments-changing-world.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/judaism/history/moses_1.shtml
http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/05/us/garland-texas-prophet-mohammed-contest-shooting/
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/194748#.VUj6w45Viko
http://www.history.com/shows/h2
http://www.history.com/shows/ancient-aliens
http://www.history.com/shows/in-search-of-aliens
http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/04/us/garland-mohammed-drawing-contest-shooting/
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://www.religioustolerance.org/reciproc.htm  all relligions with a form of Golden Rule
http://pamelageller.com/
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/5705/mohammed-cartoon-wars
UPDATE 5/8/15 *** http://www.jewishjournal.com/world/article/that_the_world_may_not_end  AMUST TO READ