Odracirys

Abul ʿAla Al-Maʿarri is somebody whom I only learned of recently, but has definitely become one of my greatest heroes. According to his Wikipedia article: "[He] was a blind Arab philosopher, poet, and writer.  He was a controversial rationalist of his time, attacking the dogmas of religion and rejecting the claim that Islam or any other religion possessed the truths they claimed and considered the speech of prophets as a lie (literally, 'forgery') and 'impossible' to be true. He was equally sarcastic towards the religions of Muslims, Jews, and Christians. According to the poet Sa'di of Shiraz, he was a strict Vegetarian who argued for animal rights." "He rejected claims of any divine revelation. His creed was that of a philosopher and ascetic, for whom reason provides a moral guide, and virtue is its own reward." "Al-Maarri's fundamental pessimism is expressed in his anti-natalist recommendation that no children should be begotten, s...

Whenever a Muslim brings up the Crusades, I have to laugh to myself.  Christians have done horrible things, including in later crusades against Constantinople and the Cathars in particular.  However, get this.  The Islamic State militants said, "Safety for you crusaders is something you can only wish for" right before butchering Egyptian Christians. It seems that many Muslims haven't taken a single history class.  If they had, they would have known that Christians existed in Egypt for 400 years before Islam.  (Heck, they were even around to murder Hypatia, perhaps the last major ancient female philosopher.)  It was the Muslims who were the "Crusaders"...yet almost nobody will admit to this.  Muslims instigated a merciless war against Christian Egyptians until they were overcome and under Islamic domination.  They did this to people across the world, from Spain to India...massacring any who resisted.  They tried to destroy the Byzaintine Em...

You have probably already heard that Kayla Mueller, an American captive of the Islamic State, is dead.  I would just like to give some of my opinions about the matter. Firstly, it is not known how she died.  The Islamic State claims that she died in a Jordanian airstrike.  The US government denies this.  However, we must realize that it doesn't matter what killed her.  It was 100% the fault of the Islamic State. The Islamic State is of course attempting to breed hostility between Jordan and the United States in order to bring a reprieve from further airstrikes which are hurting the despicable militant group.  I say that we should support Jordan's strikes on ISIL, no matter if hostages die or not.  Why?  Besides trying to drive a wedge between the US and Jordan, we also know what the fate of hostages is under ISIL.  The Islamic State has shown us time after time.  They have shot themselves in the foot.  When you know that th...