They stole it. A few crazy fucks, bathed in twisted interpretations of millennia old text, marinated in hate, trained in violence.
Billions of times a day, a billion Muslims in the world say "Allahu Akbar" when they get married, have a baby, go to sleep, wake up, eat a meal. They say "Allahu Akbar" because "God is great" and once you've said that, how much more can you really say? But every now and again, some dipshit yells it when creating a random act of violence, and to our Western ears "Allahu Akbar" sounds ominous, it sounds like a threat.
We can't let them have it. If some random Christian dude yelled "God is great" while mowing down innocents, we would reclaim the phrase faster than you can say "The Lord is with thee". It would be trending on Google and the most popular hashtag on Twitter would be #GodIsGreat, billboards, full page ads in the New York Times. "Take back 'God is Great'" would be Time's Person of the Year.
God does not belong to the crazy fucks. He or She is all of ours. They must not have it. Any any language.
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Writing on the steering wheel of the Jeep, waiting to get into Melrose--chairing the 10:00. A great way to give back--and give thanks--on this Thanksgiving Day.
The Jeep sits at just over 170,000 miles, a symbol of longevity and forced thrift. I love it.
The weather is cool. It is sunny. A few leaves still cling to the trees, resisting hard that final push to the ground. (But global warming is just a Chinese hoax). It is all I could ask for, and more.
There is so much here, surrounding me, and there, off, far away, that words can't do it justice. That's why we invoke simple phrases evoking God in as many languages as I, as a sort-of-kind-of linguist, am aware of.
God, indeed, is great.
Dios, por cierto, es grande.
Deus, por certo, é ótimo.
Dumnezeu este minunat.
Бог велик.
Allahu Akbar, world. Allahu Akbar.
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