Some Points About the Koran…

….	Date: September 20, 2011 Before beginning any serious examination of the koran, it would be good to understand a few things… The word “koran” means “recitation”. According to islamic mythology, the koran is the absolute word of allah [the islamic “god”], as dictated to mohammed by the angel gabriel… It is alleged to be perfect, in every regard…and unlike the bible, it is not merely “inspired” by the word of “god”… It’s considered to be absolutely authoritative, above all else except, perhaps, the hadith…which is a companion text, and often considered to be an example, of the koran in action [in the life of mohammed, “the perfect muslim”]. Many [all?] muslims believe, that the authority of it’s words supersede that of all others, and all else [for example, all personal writings, all national constitutions, all judicial and secular laws not following sharia, the bible, etc, etc, etc]. In short, “anything in conflict with the koran, yields to the koran”… Many muslims consider only the original Koran in Arabic, to be “the” koran…and they dismiss all other translations as “invalid”. There is, however, some dispute as to whether or not even that version, represents the complete collection of mohammed’s mystical revelations…It has been suggested, that some such writings may have been lost. As a piece of literature, the koran is a collection of writings, each intended to communicate a sort of idea or concept…These writings [surahs] were, seemingly, meant to stand on their own, with regards to context…Or, in other words, there is no surah, which depends on the content of another surah… As such, the koran is not one long narrative, that flows seamlessly from chapter to chapter…In fact, it is quite disjointed. This has prompted some to observe, that reading the koran is burdensome…and much of what you read, seems unrelated…or jumbled… In part, because of this…many people frown on referring to surahs as “chapters”…because “chapter” implies, that each section is more intimately intertwined with other sections, and that they are reliant on each other…Such is not really the case, when taking koranic surahs into account. Lastly…it is accepted that the koran’s writings are separated into, generally, two different time periods. The first period is referred to as “Mecca”…The second period is referred to as “Medina”…This earmarks where mohammed was at, in his own life and journeys, when he wrote down these “revelations”. A few personal notes: Because Arabic and English are so different, and because the koran is native Arabic, there is no precisely accurate and correct spelling of it’s name, in English…We spell it in English, based upon phonetic sound…Hence, koran, qoran, quran, curran…any of these [and possibly other] options have been used. I chose “koran” for no particular reason…I just felt that it fit. I recognise that cultural nuances in language and customs, can lead to a lot of confusion…and a lot of lost context… The more extreme viewpoint, claims that anyone striving to understand the koran, needs to thoroughly learn the Arabic language, and then proceed to study the koran… …I find this course of action, to be patently ludicrous…and it falls well outside the scope of my study [I am not converting to islam, after all]…Further, English is the most complex human language, known to have ever existed…It is extremely wide in scope, flexible and encompusing…You wont find a more versatile language, on planet earth. The whole idea that “English language is not good enough, to accurately represent the content of the koran”, is an absurd notion. That being said, I still acknowledge that there may be social concepts noted in the koran, for which there are no literal translations in English. Even if things are not precisely the same in all regards…This should not seriously inhibit any enquiry, as to the general message and demeanor of the koran…Those themes, will still come to the surface, regardless of what language, we are reading the koran in. I’ve decided to loosely refer to surahs as “chapters”, because this is a format context I am better familiar with…and, I think, most of my readers will likely be, as well…But, I do understand, that surahs are not literal “chapters”. About surah presentation in the koran… Surahs of the koran, are not presented in accordance, with the order in which they were written. On the contrary…As far as any timeline is concerned, surahs of the koran jump around, all over the place. The only discernible pattern, is that surahs are generally placed in order, from longest in length to shortest. The reason behind this is unknown…but, it could be reasoned, that this choice was made in order to cause the koran, to be a bit more on the cryptic side…except for those who’ve studied it deeply, and “unlocked” it’s root meanings. Finally…What is the relevance of Mecca and Medina?… Both of these are ancient, Arabic cities. Mecca is said to have been the home city of mohammed. Over his lifetime, mohammed migrated to Medina…which is where he exerted his strongest, most fierce and harsh, of “revelation inspired” power. By many [most?] accounts, by the time mohammed reached his pinnacle in Medina, he was an outright warlord…with a massive following, and the power to ruthlessly crush most who stood in his way…and, according to history, it appears that mohammed was of the mind, to do just that. As such, the tone of his Medina writings are often said to reflect just such an attitude…an attitude of dominance and aggression, towards anyone who did not follow mohammed [or islam]. Mecca, on the other hand, was a time in mohammed’s life, where he was just starting out…and he was essentially, a nobody…He was politically insignificant…He could not get away, with being a public menace…or abusing others, who had different viewpoints and pursuits. To have done such, would have gotten him into a lot of trouble. As such, he understood that he had to tolerate the differences of others, at least until he had secured the upper hand…after which… …well, after which came Medina… It has been pointed out by some, that most [if not all] of the more tolerant surahs of the koran, fall squarely into the Mecca period…Where as, the more ruthless, cruel and violent surahs bent on crushing non-muslims, tend to be from the Medina period. Put another way…According to some, mohammed behaved in a non-threatening way for his own survival and advancement, when he did not have the ability to dominate and rule over others…But, when that power dynamic shifted, mohammed changed his behavior towards others [especially non-muslims], in extreme and cruel ways. I intend on observing the Mecca and Medina factor, in order to discover if this accusation actually holds true. There is an additional relevance in this…in that, any case where earlier surahs of the koran contradict later surahs of the koran…the later surahs are considered to have nullified earlier surahs, at least to the extent of any explicit contradiction. In other words…if Mecca surahs somehow conflict with Medina surahs…it is the Medina surahs, which amend, “allah’s absolute word”…Mohammed’s pauper [Mecca] days, are eclipsed by his warlord [Medina] days, in this regard… This is one way muslims are able to generally dismiss inconsistencies, in the koran. Despite being characterised as “allah’s absolute word”…the koran has, quite literally, evolved and changed, within the borders of it’s very own book cover… …This might make for confusing reading, but…hopefully, understanding everything previously stated here, will give us a better handle on spotting and understanding, both these inconsistencies…and what is supposed to be most relevant. P.S. – I’d like to say one last thing, regarding my choice in focusing on the M.M. Pickthall translation of the koran… I will likely also include corresponding passages, from the Palmer and the Rodwell translations, to provide greater variety of perspective…but, I’ll mostly focus on what Pickthall’s version has to say. Upon doing a bit of reading, I’ve discovered that all three versions [Pickthall, Palmer, and Rodwell], have both pros and cons about them. Pickthall very well orders the verses, making it easier to pick beginning and end points, for passages one wishes to look at [it’s also been recommended, for ease of reading, citation and quotability]. Palmer groups verses together, as [presumably] coherent phrases…Yet, very poorly outlines where one verse ends, and another starts…It does have nice, interesting footnotes, to help add a deeper understanding of the context, however. Rodwell is even worse, with clarifying verse numbers [seemingly, it does not at all], but it also groups them together as phrases…making them fairly more readable…It has many, many, interesting footnotes, also. I don’t know how deeply I am going to get, into the Palmer or Rodwell translations, but…the footnotes seem like they might add a lot, to any study of these texts…I may quote these footnotes, as both Palmer and Rodwell are entirely in the public domain…but, I make no promises. I just wanted to point these footnotes out, to anyone wanting to take a closer look. In addition, the Yusuf Ali English translation, also seems to be about as straight forward, as these other versions…No footnotes, though…You might want to take a peek at it. I just thought, the idea of including yet another version, is overkill…and I chose the three that I did, because of their copyright status…The legal status of Pickthall is a bit more murky…but it’s still very old [and in the public domain, in many countries], M.M. Pickthall is still very long dead, and it’s still legal to make quotations, for comment and education purposes…The copyright has ran out, for both Palmer and Rodwell, so…no worries there.	….
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To Catch A Predator investigated by 20/20 pt. 1 & 2…

….	Date: September 08, 2011 01) LINK “[Transcript – auto gen] tonight on 20 20 sep tember 7 2007 please on the ground millions watched it happen suspected pedophiles falling into a trap set by police and NBC’s Chris Hansen am i under arrest but now 20 20 turns the cameras around to investigate some explosive charges have police crossed the line to catch a predator and now john stossel and elizabeth vargas hello and welcome to 2020 it’s riveting television the site of alleged pedophiles being caught in the sting corner thrown to the ground and cuffed it’s all part of a popular NBC series but now there are serious questions about what goes on behind the scenes who sting was this the police departments or the vigilantes hired by date line chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross looks into that tonight as he takes you inside a highly publicized police operation where police after sexual predators or fame located on the rule outskirts of Dallas Murphy Texas is a quiet family place rarely in the news until last year until the town’s police chief announced he was declaring war on sexual predators he said this will put the city of Murphy on the map and it certainly did you ever watch Dateline NBC as the Murphy police agreed to work with Dateline NBC to set up a sting Hung’s aimed at catching alleged sexual predators for the latest installment NBC’s hugely popular series to catch a predator it all takes place in an upscale home in Murphy Texas that’s our guy that’s ready as six other police departments around the country had done before Murphy Texas police made a deal with Dateline not only to allow NBC cameras to record the stick but also to the astonishment of the local district attorney the Murphy police let people hired by date line actually set up and run the sting the police department the professionals weren’t in control of the entire operation they weren’t calling the shots somebody else was District Attorney John wrote says his office warm the Murphy police in advance in writing it was a bad idea we’re in the law enforcement business not show business reads the letter we considered that a shot over the bow a warning that this was not going to be a good idea did you think it was case closed then when you sent that letter I I hoped it was case closed right now but the Murphy police went ahead with NBC dateline anyway even ignoring the protest of local residents who didn’t want their town used as a place to lure sexual predators why did they have to bring him to our neighborhood by the time it was over twenty three men were arrested in the state all the tune from outside Murphy as seen in two dramatic primetime hours broadcast on NBC of course we at ABC News and 2020 often work closely ourselves with law enforcement authorities in the course of investigating a story developing leaders are following police action on the street and a number of stories I’ve done most recently a report on internet scams from Nigeria have led to criminal prosecutions of crooks we tracked down chief I thought from the phone but the dateline Murphy Texas project has come under fire from many in law enforcement and the media as a classic case of what can go wrong tragically wrong when the news media and the police get just too close condition is green one man is dead NBC is being sued for millions and charges have been dropped against every single person arrested in the Murphy sting the sting operation left a trail of destruction in the community of Murphy it shattered lives shattered careers as Murphy police detectives Sam love and Walt Weiss played a big role in the operation did you intend to have sex with her both men were seen on the program interrogating suspects at times they say following directions from the date line producers they said you know when you have a guy sitting there keep him facing you try to keep him from covering his face up love and Weiss have since quit the force in disgust and have come forward to reveal how they say Dateline’s production required exam including officers wearing hidden TV cameras to get shots like this became more important than proper police procedure at by God when they wanted a camera in place it was there when they wanted certain things carried out that made it easier for them to put the television show together by God that problem was addressed but the criminal cases were secondary two more days there was nothing wrong with having a sting operation in marvi there’s nothing wrong with putting a child sexual predator behind bars but you can’t do it sloppily you can’t do it recklessly so serious about coming over here the sting began with people called decoys trolling Texas chat rooms on the internet for Dateline hosing his young teens waiting to be hit on by an adult looking for sex with a minor decoys are provided by a self-styled citizen watchdog group called perverted justice which according to published reports is paid as much as 100 thousand dollars per episode by day long on its website for vertiginous claims responsibility for the convictions of more than 200 alleged sexual predators and it also sells its own line of perverted justice clothing including a thong with the words contents aged at least 18 years many in law enforcement say the police have no business working with such vigilante groups absolutely not that would never happen in the NYPD retired New York police detective James Doyle who helped to set up the NYPD Internet crime squad says he routinely turned down offers from similar citizen vigilante groups it was presented to me i said no sorry we will do our job as a law enforcement and develop our own probable cause for search warrants so you didn’t want to lose control of your case then right that is it exactly is who’s in control it’s my case it’s a law enforcement case I will dictate the the stages of the investigation how they proceed you can have her open the door with the cat and try and wave it man but in Murphy Texas the dateline and perverted justice personnel are clearly deeply involved in the operation firm ative yeah we got a lot of guys do right around now reverted justice and so-called operations to records known as frag man the command center at the house at our boy javad aimie identifying suspects for both NBC and the police I I think this is hold on this could be Chrissy has hired this actors hired by date line posed as the underage teen standing in the doorway or Jean they often reluctant suspects to come in South Texas district attorney says this was all for show with no real law enforcement purpose the officers had already been committed under Texas law they didn’t have to come to the house under our law if you solicit a minor online it doesn’t make any difference whether you show up or not once inside the Actor’s excuse themselves and NBC News correspondent Chris Hansen emerges to question the suspect it’s happening a lot with off an amazing pathetic result where was this headed I’m out of my mind III just can’t believe it well explained to me let me to understand well there was no reason that I can give him the Texas district attorney says while it may have made for good television it raises serious legal questions if NBC is an agent of the police and we all know these fellows are not going to be allowed to walk away without being arrested are they already arrested and if they are and if NBC is acting as the agent for the police then those fellows are entitled their Miranda warnings and anything they say while they’re in custody without having those warnings aren’t admissible in evidence against in case after case Hanson waits until the very end of his interviews to identify himself as a reporter answering some of the suspects appear to think it might be a police officer am i under arrest not right now well can I leave well I have some more questions for your first I’m let you start saying that you can’t talk to 13 year olds wait a minute I’m good you talk about being a predator well there’s before you leave I want to tell you one thing sir I’m Chris Hansen with Dateline NBC and once the alleged predators left their encounter with Hanson Murphy Police Department team was waiting outside guns drawn another needlessly dramatic and potentially dangerous step according to the district attorney well it was certainly dangerous if you look at all the guns that were drawn and pointed in all kinds of different directions including at other officers just the takedown and throwing the fella to the ground and all of that you know most professionals don’t do that sort of thing that’s the kind of thing that’s done for the performance there’s been anything to do with the making the arrest it’s it’s all in the performance and I think that was really the thrust of the entire thing Murphy texas city manager who approved the sting has now resigned and the police chief Billy Myrick is facing heavy criticism everything is outside our recent city council meeting chief Myrick told 2020 he is proud of what he did and was not seeking Fame for himself or his city I don’t have any reason to put Murphy on the map because we’re here to protect this community we’re here to enforce the law he denied that NBC or perverted justice and control of his operation sir the television network did not take over the law enforcement operation in no shape form or fashion” Part 2: 01) LINK “Description: ABC’s 20/20 program (Brian Ross) investigates NBC’s Dateline “To Catch A Predator” series. [Transcript – auto gen] but the district attorney says they did hopelessly compromising the because the police were not involved in the early online chats they had to rely on perverted justice not their own detectives to know what really happened if the perverted justice decoys might have gone too far two more in the target I got those other pictures and let me tell you you don’t have my full transcripts I don’t know that’s exactly part of my problem the police department can’t tell me whether or not I have the full transcripts did your arresting officers did they see the chance before they made the arrest in some cases yes did they see the entire chance making it impossible says District Attorney Roach judge for 20 years before his current job to mount a successful prosecution are you doing Stanley that’s why months after millions of Dateline viewers watched the arrests of the 23 suspects in Murphy the district attorney dismissed criminal charges against all just because we hate what these guys do doesn’t mean I get it get to break the rules the rules are if the evidence can’t get this Civello convicted then I can’t bring a case against you on its website perverted justice caused District Attorney Roach and his office inept and incompetent for failing to go after the accused sexual predators Roach says he’s not happy about it either people who prey on children are people we would like to put in our penitentiary that’s one of the reasons why this kind of an operation is a bad thing because it can allow those kinds of people to escape for no other reason but for the fact that the cases can’t be proved against them but that’s far from the only problem that came up during the dateline station when 20/20 returns the predator pursuit is about to take a deadly turn with cameras rolling a SWAT team targets the home of a prominent man and I’m ashamed to have been a part of it next 2020 on EB 2020 continues with Brian Ross some 20 men showed up and were arrested as alleged sexual predators at a sting house set up by NBC Dateline in Murphy Texas but one man one very prominent man Dateline thought it had caught did not show up 56 year-old William Conrad an assistant district attorney in a neighboring County he was a prosecutor I mean how’d you see the story is that the Dateline report makes it clear they knew they had caught someone very special this is the first time we’ve come across an assistant district attorney Dateline track Conrad’s allegedly lewd behavior for several weeks whatever you’d like to do he’s been chatting on the phone with an actor hired by Dateline and online with a decoy from perverted justice and there’s little doubt about what’s on his mind he sent penis pictures fragged from perverted justice alerts police he got pretty sexual on the phone is recorded were chatting with him right now but by the final day of taping at the sting house Conrad had still failed to show up hello and thank 9 had one of its actors using the name of Luke called Conrad three different times to get him to walk into the trailer yeah Connor pretended to be 19 years old talking to an actor who was pretending to be 13 years old what are you little lighter but Conrad did not take the bait and the decision was made to go get him at his home in the nearby town of terror the first time Dateline in its 11 catch a predator episodes had gone to a suspects home it was a decision that would lead to bill Conrad’s death and raised questions about why the rush to arrest him Sunday afternoon they could have arrested him result in his office the next day or on his way to work the next day I mean they know who he is former Murphy police officer Sam love says the decision was made at the suggestion of NBC’s Chris Hansen a suggestion he says that was relayed to the command center from someone at the Statehouse their hope was that the man would come out to go to the store for something or the church or whatever and Chris Hansen his crew could confront him and interviewing before the arrest is made and then they would say all right you know go ahead and arrest him and execute a search warrant on the house NBC’s own footage and unaired outtakes turned over to Texas authorities and provided to 20/20 Johansen and the NBC crew with the police as they were preparing for the arrest starting with the police staging area and a nearby gas station the police chief as well as NBC have since denied that Chris Hansen was involved in the decision to bake the arrest whoever is putting that information out is telling you or telling other sources an outright lie that is not the way we’ve done Chris Hansen never had direct control of anything in this aspect other than what he has crews did out there that was it despite the outtakes chief Myrick even denied that NBC was close by most of the time that we were down there Chris Hansen was down the street from was standing by a car but Dateline’s cameraman producer and Hansen can all be seen on the footage in front of the suspects house with the police and outtakes also showed police apparently relying on Dateline surveillance of the house and the suspect asking Hansen who is off camera if the suspect is still inside but no one’s lived through it but nobody’s left the residence police first knock at the door with cameras recording it all but there is no answer then the outtakes show Hansen and perverted justice operations director frag suggesting police call Conrad inside his home they call it the death number so I was following that trying to talk about the answer nine seven two five two four two eight four nine and how did you get his phone number probably from the local department you didn’t get us one number from Chris Hanson well I didn’t get his phone number from Chris Hanson but look again at NBC’s outtakes nine seven two five two four finally a SWAT team from the Terrell Police Department is sent in to break down the door of Conrad’s house the police later claiming they were concerned he might destroy evidence on his computer we hear a faint crack the officers forced their way in they either came this way or they came to Conrad sister Patricia showed 20/20 where police broke in and then headed down a hallway to the bedroom where her brother was waiting for police with a gun in his hand they come in they seemed he says guys I’m not gonna hurt anybody and then he put the gun to his head and shot police called in a helicopter for the critically injured suspect but William Conrad died shortly after the helicopter landed at a Dallas hospital I understand that he took his own life but I have a feeling that he took his own life when he looked out the door and saw there were a bunch television cameras outside the two former Murphy detectives say many in their department shrugged off Conrad’s death it didn’t matter that that person died because he was just in their opinion a child molester or a pervert if you will I mean it was pushed aside and shoved under the rug and I’m ashamed to have been a part of it I’m truly ashamed to have been a part of that Conrad’s sister is now suing NBC claiming the network’s actions led to her brother’s death why sue then why not sue the police departments they make the ultimate decision reporters can ask for a lot of things but it’s up to the police to say yes or no well but when you look at the outtakes I think you you look at who is in charge it did not seem to be the law enforcement people and my whole point in pursuing this is that these type of vigilante out of control reality and it’s not even reality yeah it is perverted justice it wasn’t justice we want to update you tonight no one from NBC News would agree to appear on our program but in an update broadcast by Dateline just a few days ago reporter Chris Hanson strongly defended Dateline’s actions and said there was no evidence that offered a different explanation of Conrad’s suicide something like possession of child pornography and Hanson showed a Texas police report they mean the dead man had child pornography on his computer the district attorney says none of that changes his position that the case was handled badly you want entertaining that’s go okay but you gotta get the police work done first that’s that’s what’s important the idea is to catch these guys who convict them under law fairly very mystical evidence and it’s the police department’s responsibility to bring us that evidence there the investigative agency so they really dropped the ball here yes they did by going into business essentially with the NBC and primitive judge exactly right by giving up their role as professional law enforcement officers for a few minutes of TV time we’ll be right back” ===	….