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Monday, July 20, 2009

Freedom of Religion for Christians? Not! What About Islam?

This is truly amazing! This is more amazing because it's America!! If you are ready for a shock watch this clip where a couple Christians get in trouble for just asking questions at an Arab festival...truly amazing.

I'm telling you...we'd better start learning our Bibles and what Islam teaches. Have you looked at Great Britain lately- it's basically a Muslim nation and we're not far behind!

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> posted by Jim Leavenworth at

7 Comments:

Anonymous Mark S said...

I pointed this out to you on the phone earlier but take a hard look at the security guards shirts.
The font has an Arabic style to it.
no doubt who these guys were working for.
Is this what the founding fathers had in mind?????

July 20, 2009 at 6:24 PM  
Anonymous Christian Books said...

Great post!

<3 Lindsay

July 21, 2009 at 12:44 PM  
Blogger Mom of Six said...

One of them said let them tape, the others were telling them to shut off the camera. I thought it was odd and it is a bit scary.

July 21, 2009 at 9:14 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Come on you guys, you have to give them a little slack for responding the way they did. They way you guys approached things was totally provocative. How else would you have expected them to react when a group of "Christians" approaches them with cameras rolling? And then when they ask you to turn them off, you say no and start shouting "This is America and we have the right to do this!" It doesn't foster any kind of dialogue whatsoever. It seemed more that you wanted to prove a point rather than have a dialogue.

What you did do, however, was build/reinforce the negative stereotypes that people have of BOTH Christians (by being pushy) and Muslims (by reacting with agression), and not just between them and you but to everybody there and who have watched the clip on YouTube.

What happened to living out the second greatest commandment? I'm betting that if you had approached them with an attitude of love openness(without the cameras), they would have sensed that and likely would have responded likewise. You would have gotten answers and you would've gotten your dialogue...

August 2, 2009 at 4:37 PM  
Anonymous Jim Leavenworth said...

Anonymous,

Who is the "you" you're referring to? We didn't go to this event...we merely reported on it on the blog. I think you misunderstood.

I also think you missed the point. The booth said "You have questions...we have answers." When they were approached they told the Christians to go away...guess they really didn't want to answer the questions, right?


Now...is it illegal for the Christians to video? NO...but they were accosted, smacked, slapped, etc. That is NOT freedom sir. Now if a bunch of Muslims wanted to ask me questions and film I wouldn't be afraid and slap them, try to hit their camera, literally force them to leave and verbally threaten them.

Come on...if you don't see this you are really not thinking clearly.

Nobody was offensive from the Christian side...they merely asked a question and were not allowed to. If a Christian did that to a Muslim I guarantee that there would be huge flashback. Christians should not be afraid of the truth and of nonbelievers asking questions. Why were the Muslims so antagonistic when all the Christians did was ask a simple question. Why didn't they get a simple answer?

Think about it...

August 2, 2009 at 4:45 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Jim,

My apologies. I realized after I commented that you just, like you said, simply reported on it and was going to make another comment accordingly.

Anyway, in regards to your comment about the booth not wanting to answer questions, the people manning the booth didn't say that they didn't want to answer questions - they said they wanted the cameras turned off (something that was also clearly asked the second time the group approached the booth).

You are right in regards to it not being illegal to film video, but the whole approach/tone was very provocative and confrontational - can you not sense that? What if, instead, permission was asked to film? I'm sure that if a group of Muslims approached you with questions (and a camera), you wouldn't be afraid to answer them, but would you not be - even in the slightest bit - wondering why they're wanting to film your Q&A session? I'm betting the people at the booth were thinking that exact thought. Granted, they way the people manning the booth responded poorly, but again, you can't really blame them - the way the guy wanting to ask questions responded to their request (both the shutting off of the cameras and being asked to leave) wasn't exactly great either. What if, instead, their boundary of saying "no" was respected?

From an American perspective, sure, what the Christian side did was may not have seemed offensive, BUT it was definitely confrontational, and that's not the best foundation for open/healthy dialogue (what kind of feelings stir up inside you when you are confronted?)

You said that all the Christians wanted was to ask a simple question. Maybe it looked like a simple question on the surface, but underneath, it was definitely loaded with much more than that...

August 2, 2009 at 5:56 PM  
Anonymous Jim Leavenworth said...

Anonymous,
Thanks for the reply. Did it seem confrontational...yes, those kind of discussions are often seen that way.

My point is that it's one thing for a group to not want to be filmed...but in a public forum like that it can't be prevented legally. They didn't have to force them to leave, threaten them, slap at the camera, try to trip them, etc, etc, etc. Isn't that assault, just like they claimed? Does someone's tone or motive in questioning something warrant borderline assault? No...and if a Christian did that we'd be slammed in a heartbeat by the media...for sure!

You're right...if a muslim group wanted to film themselves asking me questions about Christianity's claims I would wholeheartedly welcome it with open arms...nothing to hide here.

You said "You can't blame them." I'll have to politely and totally disagree with you. I CAN blame them. They had no right to do what they did to those two, regardless of their "tone." Is threatening behaviour warranted because you don't like someone's tone/motive?

You also said "Maybe it looked like a simple question on the surface, but underneath, it was definitely loaded with much more than that..." No offense...but are you, or I for that matter, mind readers now? How do we know what was underneath and what their question had "loaded" beneath the surface.

Again, my whole point is this. They were treated badly and that kind of behavior would NOT have been tolerated if the sides were reversed. The Christian would have been in hot water in about 2 seconds. Tone or no tone...the behavior by the Muslims was not warranted or appropriate. It was actually illegal.

August 2, 2009 at 8:14 PM  

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