Muslim Empires
In 635 Damascus surrendered to the great Muslim general, Khalid ibn al Walid. Undermined by Persian incursions, religious schisms, and rebellions in the provinces caused by harsh rule, Byzantium could offer little resistance to Islam.

Umayyad Caliphate
After Ali’s murder in 661, Muawiyah – the governor of Syria during the early Arab conquests, a kinsman of Uthman, and a member of the Quraysh lineage of the Prophet – proclaimed himself caliph and established his capital in Damascus. From there he conquered Muslim enemies to the east, south, and west and fought the Byzantines to the north. Muawiyah is considered the architect of the Islamic empire and a political genius. Under his governorship Syria became the most prosperous province of the caliphate. Muawiyah created a professional army and, although rigorous in training them, won the undying loyalty of his troops for his generous and regularly paid salaries. Heir to Syrian shipyards built by the Byzantines, he established the caliphate’s first navy. He also conceived and established an efficient government, including a comptroller of finance and a postal system.

Post-Umayyad Caliphates
Under later dissolute caliphs, the Umayyad dynasty began to decline at a time when both Sunni and Shia Muslims in Iran began to press against Umayyad borders. By 750 the Abbasids, whose forces originated in Khorasan (in northeast Iran), had conquered the Umayyads and established the caliphate in Baghdad. As a result, Syria became a province of an empire.

Ottoman Empire
The Ottomans were nomadic Muslim Turks from central Asia who had been converted to Islam by Umayyad conquerors in the eighth century. Led by Uthman (whence the Western term Ottoman), they founded a principality in 1300 amid the ruins of the Mongolwrecked Seljuk Empire in northwest Turkey. Fifty years later Uthman’s successors invaded Europe. They conquered Constantinople in 1453 and in the sixteenth century conquered all of the Middle East. From 1300 to 1916, when the empire fell, 36 sultans, all descendants of Uthman, ruled most of the Muslim world. Europeans referred to the Ottoman throne as the Sublime Porte, a name derived from a gate of the sultan’s palace in Istanbul.

Religious Life in Syria
Islam, in addition to being a system of religious beliefs and practices, is an all-encompassing way of life. Muslims believe that Allah revealed to the Prophet Muhammad the rules governing proper life of man and society; therefore, it is incumbent upon the individual to live in the manner prescribed by the revealed law and upon the community to build the perfect human society on earth according to holy injunctions. Ideally, life for a Muslim should take place within a religious community. As a consequence, in Muslim countries religion has an importance in daily life far greater than it has in the West.

Shia Islam in Syria
Shia play only a minor role in Syrian politics. They are among the least educated religious groups, and their members are more resistant to change. In religious affairs, they look to Shia centers in Iraq, especially Karbala and An Najaf, and to Iran. However, Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, and Syria’s alliance with Iran in its war with Iraq, have elevated the prestige of Syria’s Shia minority.

Ismailis in Syria
Originally clustered in Al Ladhiqiyah Province, most of the Syrian Ismailis have resettled south of Salamiyah on land granted to the Ismaili community by Abdul Hamid II, sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1876 to 1909. A few thousand Ismailis live in the mountains west of Hamah, and about 5,000 are in Al Ladhiqiyah.

Sunni Islam in Syria
The largest religious group in Syria is the Sunni Muslims, of whom about 80 percent are native Syrian Arabs, with the remainder being Kurds, Turkomans, Circassians, and Palestinians. Sunni Islam sets the religious tone for Syria and provides the country’s basic values.

Druze in Syria
In 1987 the Druze community, at 3 percent of the population the country’s third largest religious minority, continued to be the overwhelming majority in the Jabal al Arab, a rugged and mountainous region in southwestern Syria.

Yazidis in Syria
During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the Yazidis, whose religion dates back to the time of the Umayyad caliphate (A.D. 661-750), migrated from southern Iraq and settled in their present mountainous stronghold – Jabal Sinjar in northern Iraq. Although some are scattered in Iran, Turkey, and the Caucasus, Iraq is the center of their religious life, the home of their amir, and the site (north of Al Mawsil) of the tomb of their most revered saint, Shaykh Adi.

Alawis in Syria
The Alawis, or Nusayris, who number about 1,350,000, constitute Syria’s largest religious minority. They live chiefly along the coast in Al Ladhiqiyah Province, where they form over 60 percent of the rural population; the city of Latakia itself is largely Sunni. The Alawis appear to be descendants of people who lived in this region at the time of Alexander the Great.

Judaism in Syria
Most Jews now living in the Arab world belong to communities dating back to Old Testament times or originating as colonies of refugees fleeing the Spanish Inquisition. In Syria, Jews of both origins, numbering altogether fewer than 3,000 in 1987, are found. A Syrian Jew is Arabic-speaking and is barely distinguishable from the Arabs around him. In Syria, as elsewhere, the degree to which Jews submit to the disciplines of their religion varies.

Syrian Christianity
The Christian communities of Syria, which comprise about 8 percent of the population, spring from two great traditions. Because both Roman Catholicism and Protestantism were introduced by missionaries, a small number of Syrians are members of Western denominations. The vast majority, however, belong to the Eastern communions, which have existed in Syria since the earliest days of Christianity.

Religious Opposition

Rivalry among the country’s various religious and ethnic minorities has been a perennial source of instability in Syria. During the 1980s, the primary cause of conflict was domination of top-level political and military posts by the minority Alawi community to which Assad belongs.

First about your obsession with dancing Jews: one more time unless you have DOCUMENTAL PROVE of what you are saying ( not article in a mysterious newspapers and not people who are talking about other talking people) please restrain yourself from spreading lies on my blog .
I can tell that I know people who saw Randall Jones dancing 9/11 in his yard and I can prove it by refereeing you to the article by John Smith in the newspaper “ Behind”. You may be find this paper in library may be not but it is you who have to prove your alibi.
Could you prove me that you personally did not dance that day ?
All this above just an example of your own logic.
By the way, if the Forward, is a Jewish newspaper, and Marc Perelman is obviously not Irish either why you do not want stipulate that all this article by this Jew is a part of global Jewish conspiracy which you are paranoid about? ( you do not have to respond)

2.

“These are cases in which Christians won the right to do so: Bureau of Motor Vehicles v. Pentecostal House of Prayer (1978, Indiana), Quaring v. Peterson (1984, Nebraska), and Dennis v. Charnes (1984, Colorado)”

As it was already said in on of the related discussions:
“The case you referred to, Quaring v. Peterson, is a 2-1 decision of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals handed down in 1983. It is an aberration and has been criticized by other courts including a California Appeals Court in Valov v. Dept. of Motor Vehicles in 2005 where a court denied the argument of a bible-believing Christianish man who refused to have his picture taken for his drivers’ license. “
It is an isolated and wrong 26 year old decision that even the 8th Circuit has since limited. See United States v. Slabaugh, 852 F.2d 1081 (8th Cir. 1988)
Comment by M. Barrette
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1161294195.comments.shtml

In anyway Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 applies only to Federal laws, not state laws. (City of Boerne v. Flores, 521 U.S. 507 (1997)) Thus, in the Freeman, a Florida State case, the state wasn’t required to grant an exception to its general law.

Besides, at that time (70s and 80s) some states had no such a strict standards ion photo on ID . Tennessee for example issued licenses with no pictures up until the mid-eighties )were . However, things changed since then new lays and standards were accepted for example in Minnesota “Some commenters assert that the proposed rule also violates the federal constitutional protection of religious expression. Some relied on Quaring v. Peterson, in which the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit struck down a Nebraska law requiring a photograph of the driver’s license applicant. That decision, and others limiting states’ rights to require a driver’s license photo, did conclude that the state’s interests did not outweigh the burden placed on religious beliefs. However, they were decided prior to a more recent United States Supreme Court decision upholding state requirements that imposed facially neutral requirements, not intended to limit religious expression, even when the requirement could limit legitimately held religious beliefs.
(see :Employment Division, Dep’t of Motor Vehicles v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872, 110 S.Ct. 1595 (1990).”
Report of the administrative law judge. State of Minnesota
Office of administrative hearings for the department of public safety driver and vehicle services division http://www.oah.state.mn.us/aljBase/240015360.rr.html#_ftn167
I am not a layer all things above are results of 30 minutes internet research.
3.

“So there is no reason for you to get paranoid about Muslims.”
I am not paranoid about Muslims . I have nothing against those Muslims who are vocally against Juhad. Your friends of the left by the way are trying to shut those Muslims up.For example PBS banned the movie about Muslims against Jihad. I just know that too many Muslims want to kill me to ignore the problem. and I do not want them succeed in doing that . You call it paranoia if you wish but I strongly disagree with assumption that I deserve to be killed as part of jihad.
“Al Qaeda is a result of the United States collaborating with Muslim extremists.”
Let us for argument sake presume that Al Qaeda indeed is a result of the United States collaborating with Muslim extremists , and let us for argument sake presume that we were wrong. So what ?
Let me challenge you : Hitler had his reasons to be angry. Does it mean that our causes in WW2 were wrong causes and he was right ?
All this logic that we were wrong yesterday and therefore those who are going to kill us today are right is absurd. If because we were wrong yesterday you are going to surrender today it is your choice ,but do not impose this absurdity on others. Name me one country ( beyond the size of Monaco ) which did not do any political mistakes . All country were wrong does it mean that no country deserve to live?

4.
“As for the last two questions, they are just sweeping generalizations”
Why is that is it because you do not have any answer?
5. why Muslims demanding freedom for spreading Islam on the west , denying freedom of religion in their countries?
6. why Muslims trying to impose sharia law on the west?
Why you think that these questions are they are just sweeping generalizations?

“I could find you religious leaders of other faiths that make similarly controversial remarks, but do not get the same media attention that Muslims get.”

I am not talking about religious leaders they are tend to talk nonsense. I am talking about state laws of Muslim countries, in which system of education is built on anti-Semitism and anti-Christianity, and were gays are executed and not recognition of Israel is norm. So, it is not about religious teaching it is religious prejudices taken as foundation for political and state reality.
Please, do an effort read below the excerpt from the CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF IRAN
In the formation and equipping of the country’s defence forces, due attention must be paid to faith and ideology as the basic criteria. Accordingly, the Army of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps are to be organized in conformity with this goal, and they will be responsible not only for guarding and preserving the frontiers of the country, but also for fulfilling the ideological mission of jihad in God’s way; that is, extending the sovereignty of God’s law throughout the world (this is in accordance with the Koranic verse “Prepare against them whatever force you are able to muster, and strings of horses, striking fear into the enemy of God and your enemy, and others besides them” [8:60]).
So we are not talking about religious leaders talking to followers we are talking about state policies See the difference? So, could you get real ??? Or you indeed, as Ronin said ,one of them?
I will answer the rest of you posting after you will answer my questions.#5 and #6. So you still have to answer these questions. You cannot cherry pick questions you like.Not on my blog.

Want to change our minds as to your goal? Start a movement to rewrite the koran and change sharia. Until then you have no hope.

When the United States bombed Vietnam and Cambodia, it killed 3 to 5 million.

Regarding the dancing Israelis, the Forward, a Jewish newspaper, has an article written in March 2002 by Marc Perelman about them. You might be able to find this newspaper in a public library or college library. There were reports about it on ABC’s television program 20/20, Salon.com, and even FOX news channel.

Regarding your first questions, there are a small number Muslims who would like to change laws to coincide with their interpretation of Islam, but there are also many Muslims who are assimilating into Western society.

Are you aware that there have been Christians who have requested their faces not be shown on driver’s licenses due to religious reasons? These are cases in which Christians won the right to do so: Bureau of Motor Vehicles v. Pentecostal House of Prayer (1978, Indiana), Quaring v. Peterson (1984, Nebraska), and Dennis v. Charnes (1984, Colorado)

The Muslim woman convert who had tried to get the courts to allow her to cover her face was not allowed to do so. So there is no reason for you to get paranoid about Muslims.

Regarding your second question, “Why Islam is only religion in the world today which is in the state of holy war with non Muslims?”: Islam is not in a state of war with non-Muslim. Al Qaeda is a result of the United States collaborating with Muslim extremists. The average Muslim has nothing to do with them. It is not just Muslims who are resentful of the United States foreign policy. What about the President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, who called President Bush the devil and worse names. The United States foreign policies has not just affected Muslim countries, it has affected non-Muslim countries in Africa, Asia, and South America.

Regarding your third question “Why despite help to Muslims in Serbs, Albania, Kosovo, Afghanistan they claim that USA against ,Muslims?”: Are Iraqis supposed to not mind having bombs dropped on them because of what the U.S. did in Serbia? By the way, Clinton asked the help of Muslim militants in doing groundwork in the Balkans. Are Afghanis supposed to be grateful that the United States recruited and trained the most repressive Muslim extremists to fight its proxy war in Russia? The Muslim extremists that the U.S. worked with were known to throw acid into the face of women who did not dress “correctly.”

As for the last two questions, they are just sweeping generalizations and I could find you religious leaders of other faiths that make similarly controversial remarks, but do not get the same media attention that Muslims get.

–armilnov,

You gave me two words: Dan Rather, I give you two words: Judith Miller
You ask me for documents; once again you ask me for something you have not provided me.
You can check the Jewish newspaper the Forward for an article written by Marc Perelman in March 2002 regarding the cheering Israelis on 9/11.

Keep up the good work!

I read his posts on Doc’s site for a while. It is always the same.

Now he chooses to throw in Ms Sheehan and further my disdain for him. (If that is possible)

You have a good site!