gay :Þ

Should I have drawn lesbians instead? *drools at the thought* Murrr, lesbians...

Anyway that is not what I intended, but I knew somebody would get that idea sooner or later...

turned out to be much sooner than you thought huh? xÐ

it is really pointless why the two factions fight so hard over such crappy land. if it wasn't for the extremist on both sides then peace would be possible.

Yeah, when you think about it, they're fighting over a scrap of land 1/2 the size of lake Michigan with no natural resources whatsoever and is a desert! You're right, right-wing Israeli politics and Palestinian extremists really are to blame

They are not fighting for land, religion, power or money... Just vegence... Vegence upon vegence... Hated for the other side... A hated that we must end...

Its just like the story of romeo and julliet... The two famillies were enemis for so long time that nobody else knew what they were fighting for... other than vegence...

If I was a beatnik, I would've tapped a bongo drum and started clicking my fingers after that statement

Dont you agree, that the hate, fear, vegence is what is moving this?

More like idiocy and "honour before reason"

If i were a famous and charismatic priest, i would like to go there, i would teach then that our God as writen in all our three holy books dont like violence...

I would teach then to forgive and forget...

I would be the best priest ever...

But im only a nobody... And nobody listem to nobody...

Even if a "somebody" went down there and tried that they'd have either be staring down a Merkava barrel or a Qassam rocket. The Middle East has historically been the most violent region of the world for the last few hundred years and nothing anytime soon's gonna change it. So don't beat yourself up for that.

ok...

It's a great message, Big Z! Is the Israeli a red fox and the Palestinian a Ruepell's fox?

Ruepell's fox? There's such a thing? It's supposed to be a coyote...*starts to cry*

Thanks buck, I really wanted the message to get out with this one

What would a coyote be doing in Palestine?

A Ruepell's fox is the same as a red fox, it's just the kind of fox that lives in the Middle East. Foxes in Europe are very red in color, which is why they're called red foxes. The same animal lives in the Middle East but is a much browner color and is called a Ruepell's fox.

Coyotes, on the other hand, just live in North America!

Ohhhhhh, then it's a Ruepell's fox then. I had absolutely no idea such a subspecies of fox existed. I've recently learned of Ethiopian Wolves on Animal planet (The endangered subspecies of wolf). Wow, I've gotta research my subspecieses more.

The red fox is understandable because since it's a European animal it makes sense because most Israelis are European Jews, right?

I've actually never practised the idea of 'zoning' the specieses I use to be appropriate to where they come from, but you've intrigued me and I'll start doing that. It'll give me a chance to research more!

I've just done some research and it's actually the Rüppell's fox. Quite interesting because they're a fairly small breed of canid with quite large ears. I'm quite intrigued by these lesser-known subspecies

Yes, I know. Whenever a word has a vowel with an "umlaut" over it-- that's the two dots-- it can also be represented by adding an 'e' after the vowel. So ü because ue, ö becomes oe and ä becomes ae. That's how we typically write things in English, since English normally never uses the umlaut.

HERE, HERE!! The tyranny and intolerance has gone on in the Holy Land for too long.

Hm? Please enlighten me as to what you mean

I mean it's a good message and i support it. With the formation ofthe nation of Isreal after world war 2, neither Isrealite settler not Palestinian national could co-exist. Hell, it even led to a conflict where Isreal tried to annex Syria (until the United Nations stepped in that is) and that lead toeven more tension. Personally I feel if the second coming happened today and he saw what God's chosen people and the followers of the prophet (peace be upon him) saw what they had done to the land of milk and honey, he would break down and cry. I could go on for hours on the subject.

Wait, wait, wait. Hold on a second. Peace be upon him? Are you a Muslim?

Yeah, you're right. I could go on endlessly about the subject too and have heated debates about it, but the Jews, after the holocaust, realized they needed a country for themselves. I won't press furthur cuz it'll go on forever...

No, I'm just being respectful to the prophet.

Oh, ok. I normally only hear Muslims say that. Thanks for respecting my religion

Well I like to consider myself a buddhist and buddhism teaches you to respect all other faiths as long as their principles are founded on peace and love.

My best friend's a buddhist and he told me about that. Islam is a religion that teaches peace, unfortunately These extremists who "kill in the name of Allah" have seriously misread the Quran.

The same can be said of the Christians. I mean look at all these weird churches that have sprung up in the bible-belt states. Personally I think what would piss off God (or Allah) is all this stuff that gets carried out in his name. War, biggotry and the worst of all TELE-VANGELISM!! I just say it's easier to have an idea, I mean you can change an idea. Changing a BELIEF is a completely different thing. People kill for it, people die for it.

For example, Christians who say, "Genesis is a historical fact!" And I say, "Stop taking it so literally. It's only the Bible, it's not gospel!" (joke)

There's one church in particular who've gone extremist: The Westboro Baptist Church! Man it sickens me how homophobic they are. They hate the whole country of Sweden for that reason. Christian, Jewish, Muslim, extremists from any religion can be bad, unfortunately the Islamic extremists have access to weapons so that's why you hear of them most in media. Give a Christian extremist a gun and he'll storm a synogouge. *sigh* sometimes it's true, organised religion is the cause of most the world's problems

Have you ever watched a film called "Dogma"? It goes on about all the loopholes in religous dogma (catholicism mainly). It'smore of a black comedy film, but if you ever get the chance to watch it, do so.

Nice work, i never seen arabic furry ;o .. olny me c:

Tq! And that's cool, as long as you're not from Saudi Ararbia that's awesome!

=D AAAHHHHH I HATE Saudi Ararbia!!!! O.o its sick

I agree with that. In fact, I believe their faiths and beliefs are in contrast with what we would believe

I've spoken with one UAE furry. Can't remember the name.

Not a bad idea, and not really something that'd fly well in my household, either.

Happy Yom Kippur, by the way.

Oh that's great man! That's the best solution, Muslims and Jews lived together in peace before 1948 and then the Zionists divided them, the Isreali-Palestinian issue is a political issue not a religious one, the extreme morons(hamas and the Isreali settlers) ruin things and divide people, I'm Muslim but I'm friendly with everyone and I dislike extremists of any kind.

Same here, I LOATHE extremists, which is why i hate Saudi Arabia, i hate PAS, I hate the Taliban, I hate Burqas, I hate all these Ustazes who spew a lot of bullshit (like all other religions they're automatically condemmed to hell, geese is haraam, dogs are satan's animal..)

I'm a liberal muslim with a strong advocation of secularism, and I get along with everyone too, except extremists.

Yeah they ned to live in their own separate nations, they really do. You know, if the arabs actually accepted the uN partition, which divided Palestine into 50/50 Israel and Palestine instead of declaring war and atempting to crush Israel, maybe they'd still have a Palestine...just pointing out a historical fact.

I do agree, Hamas and Zionists are the real culprits who made this mess. If Hamas were to stop the rocket launching and practically holding up a big sign reading "I'm gonna bomb ya to shit when I get my own country", and Israel were stp withthe settlements and insisting on keeping everything for the jewish state, there'd probably be a Palestine already

Yeah I'm actually planning to get a German Shepherd dog pretty soon, I've been saving my money and he's going to be my first dog, my parents are divorced and between my parents, I'll live with my mom, my dad is more traditional he doesn't like dogs and he would want me to keep the dog out, while my mom is totally okay with it so hey I'll move in with my mom and then I'll get the dog. Well its a big misconception in Islam that dogs are dirty and what not, actually looked into it the Koran says nothing bad about them in fact they are mentioned positively, and the hadith extremists use to say that dogs are dirty are false, this one scholar Khaled Abou El Fadl he has three dogs himself and he proved that there's nothing wrong with dogs, I can give you the article if you want to read it and rub it in those mullahs faces!

Thatis so awesome! I want a Husky! My mum and dad have no problem with dogs (though my grandfather does) and the reason we oppose it is mainly maintainence and the smell (my mum hates the smell of wet dogs). So it's more practicality than religion, which is why we got a cat

Naw, it's cool. Most of these mullahs are too fullof themselves to listen to anything else, anyway.

By the way, if you dont mind my asking. As a muslim, what's your opinion on homosexuality? Do you oppose it or see it as ok?

hmm thats a tough question, well to be honest with you, I'm conflicted on this issue, well I do oppose gay marriage, but gay relationships well I think its best to keep it behind closed doors,I have no problem with someone who loves another person of the same gender, whatever you do in private is none of my business unless a person,child or an animal is being harmed but if its something like a love relationship between two people(unless its cheating) well I'm not the kind of person who will condemn people, I don't like to condemn people because I don't speak for God, no one speaks for God and the Prophets only talk about God, God speaks for himself, I do a lot of reading, I do read the Koran, I do pray but in terms of piety I would say I'm between Liberal and Moderate, center-left if you will, I'm mean I have my share of bad habits that I would like to get off of someday(like furry porn), and I don't want to be a self-righteous or anything like that, well in my opinion its best for homosexuals to keep their relationships private for their own safety, to let you know even though I oppose gay marriage, I also oppose violence against gays, I don't think people should hurt them. Have you seen the documentary 'A Jihad for Love'? I think it was good documentary, I really feel sorry for them, they must torn between their faith and their sexuality, it must be a terrible feeling, well there's an article were they say that in Islamic history homosexual love is fine but sexual intercourse is not according to a number of scholars like Ibn Hazm, Ibn Daud, Al-Mu'tamid, Abu Nuwas and they all wrote on love between men. But I have no problem with you, I'm trying to be sincere here, I want make friends and I hope we can stay friends, I don't want to offend you in anyway my friend, well peace be upon you we can discuss this more if you want.

Oh yes, it is a very terrible feeling. I am quite literally torn and in the exact situation you described. It's caused me to become a very liberal muslim, I'd say I'm Far Left. I have sometimes been so disillusioned by how negatively islam views my bisexuality I was at one point on the knife-edge to declaring agnosticism. Then I realised "hang on, instead of turning my back on my religion and being all torn like this, why don't I just declare my own fatwa? A liberal fatwa? All those Taliban kooks come up with their own, but why does it have be violent and involve wife-beating?" I came to the conclusion that really besides the fact there's only one god, muhammad was his messenger, pray five times a day, don't drink or eat pork, hajj, donate to the poor and be an all-around nice person, the rest of all these rules, like "dogs are evil", "hate the jews", "being gay is a no-no" is actually never explicitly stated. A lot of it is really based on your interpretation, or what a bunch of Saudi scholars say. There are some muslims who beleive seafood is haraam due a supposed hadith, others say masturbation's a seriously bad thing and others still think that depictions of any kind is idol worship so apparently anyone wearing a Scooby Doo T-shirt is an infidel.

See what I mean? A lot of it is interpretation, well that's the conclusion I came to. And beleive me, I have done quite a lot of research from a number of scholars

hmm I can see you were your coming from, for me I'm independant in terms of interpreting the Koran for myself, I read a translation in English by Muhammad Asad he makes a very rational and progressive interpretation of the Koran, I don't speak or read Arabic so being born in America I read in English, Muhammad Asad has many interesting ideas he rejects Taqlid(blindly following the mullahs) and he promotes Ijtihad(independant interpretation) he says every individual Muslim is his own preist and he should think for himself and not just blindly follow mullahs without researching their findings, other progressive scholars I can recommend are Reza Aslan the author of the book "No god but God" he's a good guy, and they others out there. I have an Afghan friend named Farhan,he's not furry,but he's really smart and has a lot good ideas, he told me a lot of things like he prefers spirituality over doctrine and that dogma destroys religion while spirituality uplifts it, I totally agree with him, well if you need any help please let me know and we can talk. Salaam my friend.

Thank you for the recommendations, I'll look them up. Thank you also for understanding my position, a lot of people think "I"m losing my way" and want me to be more traditionalist, it's ood to finally hear a muslim who agrees.

If you want links I can give them to you, BTW do you have ICQ account? Maybe we can chat sometime or we can E-mail each other. Well I have to go to bed, its past midnight here in Southern California.

No I don't, what's ICQ, anyway?

ICQ is a chatting thing like yahoo messenger

Oh, I don't. Sorry. Never liked Yahoo

I wish this was possible. In my trip over there i was sickened and repeatedly... well its a long story.

You went to Palestine?

Yes but they kept telling me about this irsail place. I think its a lie.

What? Israel or what they told you about israel?

Its a lie just like the cake.

It's not going to work but it's worth the effort anyway. Happy May 14th by the way!

Uhh, what's so special of May the 14th?

It's the day Israel came into existence, back in ther year 1948.

Oh is it? Damn, I gotta brush up on my Israeli history >.< I know Yom Kippur, Oslo accords, the ink flag, operation "hand of god", butI forgot Israel's founding day?

I study Israeli history for the heck of it, same reason why I study soviet history. Are you an Israeli?

No. But I for one am interested in Israel.

Oh, same here. I find it to be a very interesting country to study, another one's North Korea

It seems strange to think that after centuries of wandering as the world's hated vagrants, the Twelve Tribes have returned to their ancestral homeland. I don't think it will be long before the Third Temple is built.

Marf? Rebuild Solomon's Temple?

What I never will understand is Islamic anti-Semitism. If the prophets who predated Mahomet (Moses, David, and Jesus Christ) were Jewish and he thought highly of them, then wouldn't it make sense that Mahomet's followers be more accomodating to Jews? Doesn't the Qu'ran call Jews "the People of the Book?"

Well, apparently they're repeatedly referred to as "the ones who have been led astray", because of the golden cow incident

But it shows God's mercy and grace that the man who "led them astray" by creating the golden cow- Aaron, the brother of Moses- was himself given the honor of serving as the high priest of Israel. And if what you're saying is true, then what was the point of God sending his prophets exclusively to Israel knowing full well they would rebel.

I dunno, I really wonder WHAT is islam's stance on the jews, I seriously think islam is antisemetic to a degree, and when it comes to that issue, it really is messed up. The golden cow incident was supposed to be one of the worst sins you could do in islam: Equate something as equal to god. But I personally dont think they should still be regarded as bad people a thousand years later

I really don't know sometimes

It was an awful situation when the Israelites sinned yet one thing God is known for is mercy and grace. We equate things equal to God on nearly a daily basis whenever we desire some earthly accomplishment over service to Him. It's seen in the acquisition of titles, money, land, fame, or fortune. The elevation of gifts over the Giver of those gifts happens to nearly everyone at some point in their lives.

I have to disagree on you with that one. By equate something with god what I mean is to say something has divine powers, oris god's equal and can basically do what god does, or say something is god's brother, son, or whatever. We actually say Jesus is just a prophet and not the son of god, not to offend you if you're a Christian, but that's just our belief.

Well then, how can you answer what Jesus himself said of his own nature, such as the parable of the bad husbandmen or his response to Mary at the age of 12 when he said he was attending to his Father's business? I take it that of all the titles in Islam for God, "Heavenly Father" is not one of them.

The Islamic concept of God is someone who controls everything, including when people sin and to what extent. If God is causing people to sin so he can punish them forever, then he's sadistic and cruel. An Entity so thoroughly repulsed by wickedness and sin is himself schizophrenically compelling people to do the things he hates.

May I ask, are you a christian or an atheist?

Well, I don't think I said anything about Jesus, and no, that's notone of the titles. There are 99 titles, though.

Well, the idea is that he's given us each free will, we're only creatures with sucha gift, and he'll judge us based on what we do, and from there he'll there he'll see who's faithful to him. Granted, sometimes he might seem a bit sadistic, like how he commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son and at the last minute told himit was just a test and gave him a ram to sacrifice instead, but he's just testing how loyal you are.

No, the Qu'ran and tradition itself gives a belief in predestination similar to Calvinism.

They are (men) whom Allah hath cursed: and those whom Allah hath cursed thou wilt find have no one to help. (Surah 4:52)

No soul can believe except by the Will of Allah and He will place Doubt (or obscurity) on those who will not understand. (Surah 10:100)

"There are people who consider predestination untrue. Then they consider the Qur'an untrue.... People merely carry out what is a foregone conclusion, decided by predestination and written down by the Pen." (Tabari I; 202)

There is a sharp contrast between the fatalism of Islam and what we find in the earlier revelations, first by Moses addressing the Israelite camp.

"I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants," (Deut. 30:19)

Then by Jesus addressing St. John, while imprisoned in Patmos.

"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." (Rev. 3:20)

Ok, uh, I'm not so sure what to say about this. Well, I'm one of those reformist muslims. Basically I believe that the quran was written for the arabs of circa 650 AD, and because of this you need to take those passages in context. They need to be reinterpreted in a modern context as some of the passages are either out of date or no longer applicable in the modern world, just like laws, they need to be amended. Studying religious books is like studying literature: Depending on the person, you can interpret completely different meanings based on the passages.

Well, that's my view, unlike most mainstream muslims who follow the old sexist, antisemetic and generally backwards interpretation.

In truth, all religions are fucked up, islam included, butthere are some good merits in it, like responsibility for your parents, honesty, and charity.

I don't think the Bible itself is a problem but I do believe the hypocrisies and misrepresentation of Scripture, especially by the early church tainted the pure gospel of Jesus Christ. No matter the time or the place, His words about loving one another, repentance, self-sacrifice, and praying even for hurtful people could not possibly have been written by man. As a Protestant, I feel that the Church of Rome, in an effort to make the Gospel more palatable for the pagan majority in Europe, blended the faith with Roman paganism and superstition. These traditions proved so strong that the Reformation itself was not completely pure, either.

I learned about the history of how the church split, and about Martin Luther. I agree that that's what happened, the Catholic Church actually mixed Roman beliefs with christianity, and has historically been the most violent and destructive organisationin history. Hitler's got nothing on the crusades, oppression of medival Europe's people, influence over europe's royals, spanish inquisition, and the conquistadores to name a few. This is historical fact. They're better now, somewhat.

We actually consider the Protestants closest to Islam. You and me, we're both worshipping the same god in my opinion, and protestant beliefs are the closest to ours. And yes, we believe in those values, too

Which leads me to my next question what of the suffering and death of Jesus Christ as the sacrifice for the sins of humanity, which is at the core of Christian theology.

Supposedly our belief was that Jesus never was killed. God actually saw Judas' impending trechery and Gabriel or one of theother angles swoopeddown, picked up Jesus and took him up to heaven where is to this day, alive and well. What god did was he made Judas look like Jesus and so Judas was killed instead. Jesus will come back down during the time of his return, which I'm pretty sure is a concept also in Christianity, and then soon after his return, the end of the world will come.

Well, that's our belief. If Jesus really was killed then the suffering he endured for us was absolutely terrible. If he did sacrifice himself for our sins thenthat really is a valid central tenant of a religion, remembering what this man sacrificed and endured for us. We believe he was a special man, blessed with kindness and understanding. He was a rolemodel for humanity.

Well, I don't know which one's right so i can't say. It's 50/50 that either of us are correct, or maybe none of us are

there would be peace if israel stopped killing civilians then crying about the nazis, fucking hypocrites.

there would be peace if the arabs weren't such morons to begin with. They made first strike when they weren't satisfied with 50% of palestine while Israel got the other half when the jews were happy with this. Then of course they decided to declare war and crush Israel when it was only days old and lost 80% of Palestine. That was a very smart move, wasn't it?

If Israel's neighbours were a bit nicer and weren't such "tumour of the middle east"-declaring dicks then maybe Israel wouldn't have to be such an asshole to them. When all your neighbours are assholes, don't be the doormat hippie, you gotta be the biggest asshole to survive

you.you are one of the greatest credits to your race their is.

I sense sarcasm...

no i'm being serious i'm sorry if you misunderstood, it's my fault. there are only few people i know who will defend Isreal

Ohh, ok. Sorry I get shot down for my pro-israeli stance often, especially from the rest of my family and it's difficult to detect sarcasm in text form. Thanks for complimenting me ^_^

Well, the time has come. Now the only things we need is the will of making peace on both sides and the ending of Israels colonialistic settlement politics.

too bad that hamas wants all jews to die

Shalom, Salem, Peace!

im not from middle east but i would love this come true