Islamophobic Anti-Refugee Meme Debunked

a smaller version of the False meme about Muhammad

A conservative friend of mine posted an Islamophobic anti-refugee Meme on Facebook the other day. The text on the image claims that the Prophet Muhammad, the Jesus of Islam, was taken in by the Jewish city of Medina and within five years he had driven out, killed, or enslaved all the Jews. The accusation sounded so ridiculous I had to try and verify it. Of course the ‘facts’ in the meme were very wrong.

A copy of the meme is to the right of this article (and a full size version is at the end of this post) but if you can’t see the image below is the full quote used:

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Thinking That Religion Is Only A Bunch Of Pretty Words Is Naive

screencap of Reza Aslan, writer and scholar of religious studies, on the Daily Show for an interview on May 13th
Reza Aslan, writer and scholar of religious studies, was on the Daily Show for an interview on May 13th

Being a Humanist and an atheist, I get exposed to a range of views on religion. On the strict atheist side I hear about how religion should be left in the dustbin of history while on the Humanist side I tend to hear that religion is just pretty words that make people feel good. I’ve always found the idea that religion is just pretty words to be at best naive and ignores the reality in the world.

Last Wednesday, Reza Aslan, writer and scholar of religious studies, was on the Daily Show for an interview. 

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The Reality: Our Government Has Been Infiltrated By Radical Christians

photo of Rev. Franklin Graham, Christian Extremist
Rev. Franklin Graham, Christian Extremist

During a recent discussion about ISIS on Bill O’Reilly’s FOX ‘news’ show, Rev. Franklin Graham was brought on for really no other reason than to give his religious bigotry perspective. He actually said the government had been infiltrated by Muslims when in reality bigoted Christians, like himself, have infiltrated the government and they are actively passing their form of Sharia law on the rest of us.

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Supporting The Act Of Speaking, If Not The Content, Is Important

Charlie Hebdo cover

The massacre at the Charlie Hebdo magazine office in Paris this week showed the breadth and width of views and comments on ridiculing religion. A lot of Muslims think that killing someone who ridicules their religion is a good thing while other Muslims and non-muslims don’t think that is rational. Of course you have some people who want to blame the victims for their own deaths or complain that Charlie Hebdo was being racist. Ideas should be allowed to be expressed even if those ideas are stupid and need to be ridiculed.

Comedian and atheist Bill Maher said in a recent interview:

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Gaza: The Intractable Problem

image of a map showing Israel
Center of the Arab–Israeli conflict

The battle between Arabs and Jews flared up again this week with rockets being fired into Israel and Israel countering with air strikes and threats of invasion. I’m not a believer or a fan in either of the religions at the heart of the conflict but I can understand the arguments. I don’t agree with the US government official stance that Israel has the right to defend itself only because I reject the entire Israeli political and military policy to date. I agree with the need of the Palestinian people not to be treated as 2nd class citizens in the land their family has called home for centuries but I don’t approve of use of rocket attacks or terrorism. There will be a two state solution but the question is how many people have to die until that happens.

The land that is Israel is claimed by Jews and Arabs as a homeland. History gives both strong evidence in their claims. 

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