Much like Cat Stevens, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar fell down a rabbit hole, and even today he still doesn’t quite understand the religion he consistently tries to protect. As for his mentor, five of his children were murdered, a grandchild, and a man unrelated to him. Khaalis blamed it on tricksters, murderers and gangsters that deviate on Islam.”
At the trial of his family’s killers, Khaalis dismissed them as “tricksters and murderers and gangsters that deviate on Islam.” When Khaalis and his followers took over three District of Columbia buildings four years after the murders, he blamed “Jewish judges” for letting the killers go despite the fact that a trial sent four of the assailants to the penitentiary for lengthy sentences. Khaalis reasoned, “The Jews control the courts and the press.”
That 1977 Hanafi Siege resulted in the non sequitur kidnappings of 100 people at the headquarters of B’nai B’rith, the killing of a journalist at a DC government building, and the wounding of future Washington, D.C. mayor Marion Barry. Khaalis demanded the government hand over his family’s murderers to him so he could personally mete out justice, censor a film called Mohammad: Messenger of God, waive a $750 contempt of court fine, and facilitate a visit from Muhammad Ali.
Khaalis spent the rest of his days imprisoned. Kareem spent his liberated from Khaalis.
He performed marvelously in Airplane!, writes beautifully for Time, and retired with more points than any player in NBA history. He proves that mainstream and Muslim are not mutually exclusive. But the basketball Hall of Famer, even if practicing a more tolerant brand of Islam, still wears blinders when it comes to religion.
Kareem wrote in his response to the Charlie Hedbo attacks that terrorist attacks aren’t about religion, and that people need to reach a point where Islam keeps getting brought into discussions about terrorism. Well, what else do you call attacks by people who practice Islam? Maybe more Muslims would admit this kind of thing . . . if other Muslims didn’t kill them first.
Source: breitbart.com
Some Americans are now so afraid that they are willing to trade in the sacred beliefs that define America for some vague promises of security from the very people who are spreading the terror. “Go ahead and burn the Constitution — just don’t hurt me at the mall.” That’s how effective this terrorism is.
I’m not talking about ISIS. I’m talking about Donald Trump.
This is not hyperbole. Not a metaphor. Webster defines terrorism as “the use of violent acts to frighten the people in an area as a way of trying to achieve a political goal; the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion.”
If violence can be an abstraction — and it can; that’s what a threat is — the Trump campaign meets this definition. Thus, Trump is ISIS’s greatest triumph: the perfect Manchurian Candidate who, instead of offering specific and realistic policies, preys on the fears of the public, doing ISIS’s job for them. Even fellow Republican Jeb Bush acknowledged Trump’s goal is “to manipulate people’s angst and fears.”
Source: Time
Who cares. He was a basketball player. That’s not some triumphant feat. He was good at entertaining us. Great player for sure. But a game non the less.