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These will continue to be in the news. This week it is the Arabic word KAFIR on the right arm of the US Secretary of Defense. Raymond Ibrahim explains the meaning.
"Translating the word to “non-Muslim” or “unbeliever” — as almost every modern, English-language Koran does — completely misses the all-important and decidedly negative connotations associated with the word and its definition. (This, incidentally, is why older English translations rendered the word kafir as infidel, as I often do; although still an imperfect translation, it sought to capture the pejorative sense of the Arabic in one English word.)
To Muslim ears, kafir (singular) and kuffar (plural) are virtually synonymous with “evildoers” and “enemies.” In fact, virtually every vile human characteristic — and several connected to animals — is associated with the word kafir.
As usual, let us turn to the Koran; it refers to kuffar as the “worst of beasts” (8:55, 98:6), similar to cattle and just as dumb (47:12, 8:65); they are inherently “guilty,” “unjust,” and “criminal” (10:17, 45:31, 68:35; 39:32); they are the “sworn enemies” of Muslims (4:101); and are “disliked” and “accursed” by Allah (2:89, 3:32, 33:64). The Islamic deity is himself their declared enemy (2:98) who requires that “terror be cast into their hearts” (3:151).
According to Koran 9:5, Muslims must “slay” those who reject Islam, “wherever you find them — seize them, besiege them, and make ready to ambush them!”
If that sounds familiar, perhaps it’s because the Muslim ambassador of Barbary (North Africa) paraphrased this verse when explaining to Thomas Jefferson and John Adams why his Muslim countrymen were raiding American vessels and killing and enslaving their kafir sailors. As Jefferson wrote in a letter to Congress in 1786,
The ambassador answered us that it was founded on the laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, … that it was their right and duty to make war upon them [non-Muslims, kuffar] wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners."
Serious numbers of migrants arrived in Massachusetts from 1630 - 1640. Roughly 21,000. By 1700 they had become 91,000. Their immediate priorities: having families, building farms, forming towns, and building institutions Old England never developed on local levels. But the new Americans didn’t just reproduce the country they left. They built institutions England didn’t yet have.
Year 1 — a seagoing vessel launched at Medford, 4 July 1631. The shipwrights had been sent out in 1629, ahead of the fleet.
Year 4 — representative government. Elected deputies sitting in the General Court.
Year 6 — Harvard. £400 voted for “a schoale or colledge.”
Year 8 — a printing press, the only one in British North America. Glover died on the voyage out; his widow Elizabeth moved the operation to Cambridge and got it running.
Year 10 — the Bay Psalm Book, the first book printed in America.
Year 11 — the Body of Liberties, read aloud at every General Court.
Year 12 — the 1642 law: every ...
Eph 3:20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,
Eph 3:21 to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
This is the cultural shift we were told would never happen. But 3D-printed fake meat and fish have officially hit American grocery stores. The U.S. retail launch of the PERFECTA brand introduces 3-D-printed meat and seafood to grocery stores across the Northeastern United States.
The packaging DOES NOT disclose that the company’s products are manufactured using 3D-printing technology. Instead, beautiful photos on the packaging make the five products look real and irresistible.
“Marbled Steak”
“Filet Mignon”
“Chicken Breast”
“Salmon Patties”
“White Fish Patties”
In small print: “premium plant-based meat.” Ingredients: soy flour, rapeseed oil, modified starch, methylcellulose, xanthan gum, locust bean gum, and artificial meat coloring designed to imitate the appearance of beef.
-Nicholas Hulscher
