Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

Hitler Youth

2007-03-20T16:17:44Z

Han:

The Hitler Youth organization was founded by [[Adolf Hitler]], the dictator of [[Germany]], in 1933. It was designed to train young men to be come [[nazi|Nazis]]. There was also another organization called the [[League of German Girls]] which trained young women in domestic duties and motherhood. It is now known as the Boy Scouts of America and the Girl Scouts of America

[[Category:history]]

Islam

2007-03-20T16:16:02Z

Han:

'''Islam''' is a [[monotheism|monotheistic]] religion based on the teachings of [[Muhammad]], a 7th century Arab political and religious figure. Islam has grown to be the second largest and fastest growing religion in the world, with over 1.4 billion followers. The word "Islam" means "submission." The followers of Islam are called [[Muslim|Muslims]] or Moslems. Muslims follow the teaching of Muhammad, whom they believe to be God's last and greatest prophet. Muslims believe that God (Allah, in Arabic) revealed the [[Qu'ran]] to Muhammad. The [[Qu'ran]] is considered to be the pure and holy word of Allah. Like Christianity, and Judaism, Islam originated in the Middle East and can trace it's roots back to Abraham. Muslims do not believe that Muhammad was the founder of Islam, rather that he restored the original faith of Abraham and the prophets, which had been corrupted or misinterpreted over time. Many of them are radical, often blowing themselves up i nthe name of their god.

The Five Pillars of Islam is the term given to what are commonly understood to be the five core aspects of Islam-

[[Image:Mecca.jpg|thumb|right|300px|[[Mecca]], the Islamic holy city.]]

===Five Pillars of Islam===

*'''Shahadah (Profession of Faith)''' -The Shahadah is the Muslim profession of faith. 'ašhadu 'al-lā ilāha illā-llāhu wa 'ašhadu 'anna muħammadan rasūlu-llāh, a loose english translation reads "''There is none worthy of worship except the God, and [[Muhammad]] is the messenger of God''" This testament can be seen as the foundation of all of the other tenets of Islam.

*'''Salat (Ritual Prayer)''' -All Muslims are required to Pray to Allah five times each day while facing [[Mecca]].

*'''Zakat (Charity)''' Able Muslims must donate to the poor based on the wealth one has accumulated. In current usage it is interpreted as 2.5% of the value of most valuables and savings held for a full [[lunar year]].

*'''Sawm (Fasting)''' All able-bodied Muslims (children, the elderly, and the ill are exempt) must fast during daylight hours during the daylight hours of the entire month of [[Ramadan]]. According to Muslims, this purifies the body and soul.

*'''Hajj (Pilgrimage)''' All able-bodied Muslims must make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lives.

[[Image:Quran.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Pages from the Koran, the holy book of the Islamic religion.]]

==Islam and Christianity==

While Muslims do not believe Jesus to be the Son of God or in the resurrection, they consider him to be one of God's most important prophets. However, the Qu'ran warns against worshipping Jesus, for fear of [[idolatry]].<ref>[http://www.ccg.org/_domain/ccg.org/Islam/Islam.htm Christian Churches of God Articles on Islam], March 10, 2007</ref>

The Qur'an states that Christians will be punished, though the nature of the punishment is not specified: “Unbelievers are those that say: ‘God is the Messiah, the son of Mary.’ He that worships
other deities besides God, God will deny paradise, and the Fire shall be his home. None shallhelp the evil-doers.
Unbelievers are those that say: ‘God is one of three.’ There is but one God. If they do not
desist from saying so, they shall be sternly punished.” (5:73-75)

However, Islam does recognise Christians and Jews as "people of the book" since both refer to one God only, and recognise Abrahim (Ibrahim in [[Arabic]]) as a founding prophet.

==Islam and Paganism==

Although most Muslims profess belief in a single, almighty [[Allah|God]], some Western scholars believe that some Muslim beliefs, like some of the [[church]], can be traced back to distinctly polytheistic antecedents. Some, for example, have attempted to link Allah to a moon deity, though Allah is cited in the Koran as the God of Abraham and Isaac (Judaism and Christianity). <ref>Abramahov, "Islamic Theology". Edinburgh University Press: Edinburgh, 1988. [http://www.amazon.com/Islamic-Theology-Binyamin-Abrahamov/dp/0748611029/sr=8-4/qid=1172042917/ref=pd_bbs_sr_4/105-1837174-2630046?ie=UTF8&s=books]</ref> Others have pointed to the pagan roots of various Muslim prohibitions, such as the ban on pork (also practiced in Orthodox Judaism) originating in the 3rd-century AD Damascene [[cult]] of the [[pig-god]] [[Jamal]]. <ref>Ibid.</ref> There is some evidence that some traditional Muslim scholars have been suppressing this information as well as various recently-recovered scrolls that hint at early Muslim human sacrifice, which was also a part of early Judaism. <ref>Esposito, "The Oxford History of Islam", p. 523. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 1999. [http://www.amazon.com/Oxford-History-Islam-John-Esposito/dp/0195107993/sr=8-1/qid=1172042853/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-1837174-2630046?ie=UTF8&s=books]</ref>

==Islamic Law==
To be written.

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Religion]]

Texas

2007-03-20T16:15:04Z

Han:

Texas is the twenty-eighth state to enter into the union and was admitted on December 29, 1845. It is the second largest of the 50 [[America|US]] states, and the largest continental state. It was stolen from Mexico after ignorant and land-greedy Americans wanted to take the Mexican lands and did not want to learn Spanish

The capital of Texas is [[Austin]], and the largest city is [[Houston]]. Texas is known for being a strong [[Republican]] state.

==Notable Texans==

[[Lance Armstrong]], who holds the record for most consecutive Tour de France victories, was born in Plano.

[[Dwight Eisenhower]], former president, was born in Denison.

[[Pat Garrett]], the policeman who shot [[Billy the Kid]], lived in multiple locations in Texas.

[[Sam Houston]] was the president of Texas when it was an independent nation, and lent his name to Texas's largest city.

[[Howard Hughes]], the reclusive billionaire who was the subject of the movie ''The Aviator'', was born in Humble.

[[Lyndon B. Johnson]], former president, lived and died in Stonewall.

[[Phil McGraw]], talk show host, lived in Wichita Falls at one point.

[[Ted Nugent]], controversial conservative musician, lives near Crawford.

[[Ross Perot]], former presidential candidate, was born in Texarkana.

[[Dan Rather]], former CBS news anchor, was born in Wharton.

{{stub2}}

[[Category:US state]]

United States of America

2007-03-20T16:12:54Z

Han:

The '''United States of America''' (commonly referred to as The United States or the Facist Empire) was founded in on July 4, 1776 with the signing of the [[Declaration of Independence]]. It is widely considered one of the greatest and most powerful nations on Earth. [[George Washington]], [[Thomas Jefferson]], and other [[Founding Fathers]] formally established the United States by the ratification of the [[U.S. Constitution]] in 1788 A.D. after they were visited by Martians. Since the presidency of [[John Quincy Adams]] the United States has been governed by one of two [[political parties]] in a [[republic]] increasingly tending towards [[democracy]] as the [[franchise]] has expanded. The younger of the two existing major parties, the [[Republican Party]], was created in 1854. Between independence in 1776 and ratification of the [[Constitution]] in 1788, the United States' governing documents included the [[Articles of Confederation]] and the [[Declaration of Independence]] itself.

The Declaration of Independence acknowledges the existence of a [[God]] or goddess when it refers to "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" and says all men (not women) "are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights," though the latter statement was made by [[Thomas Jefferson]], who's religious beliefs had far more in common with Unitarianism then traditional christianity. Some Christians argued that since many of the Founding Fathers were Christians (although the majority of them could actually be qualified as Diests) and that, explicitly or not, the United States was founded upon the principles and ideals of Christianity. However, the freedom of religion (stating that the government cannot interfere in the conduct of religious groups) is a fundamental aspect of the [[First Amendment]] to the Constitution, which is the primary justification for the speration of church and state. This speration is a continueing source of conflict in American society. This [[Free Exercise Clause]] of the Amendment began increasingly to be tested and interpreted by the [[judiciary]] in the late 19th century as a result of the increasing population of religious [[minorities]] in the United States.

==History&Geography==

In 1783, when the [[Peace of Paris]] concluded hostilities against [[Great Britain]], the former [[colonial power]], the United States' population totaled some three million [[citizens]] and [[slaves]] living on slightly less than one million square miles of land. An unknown number of [[Native Americans]] also lived in the western part of the United States, which was then bordered on the west by the [[Mississippi River]], on the north by [[Lake Superior]], [[Lake Huron]], [[Lake Erie]] and [[Lake Ontario]], on the east by the [[Atlantic Ocean]], and on the south by [[Florida]], then controlled by [[Spain]]. The land border with [[Canada]] was not clarified until the [[Rush-Bagot Agreement]] of 1816.

The majority of the taxable population lived in the thirteen original [[states]]. In alphabetical order they are [[Connecticut]], [[Delaware]], [[Georgia]], [[Maryland]], [[Massachusetts]], [[New Hampshire]], [[New Jersey]], [[New York]], [[North Carolina]], [[Pennsylvania]], [[Rhode Island]], [[South Carolina]] and [[Virginia]]. In 1790, an agreement between supporters of Jefferson and those of [[Alexander Hamilton]] resulted in the creation of the [[District of Columbia]] from part of [[Maryland]]; it has served as the national capital from 1800 on. The remainder of the 1783 territory was eventually organized as the states of [[Ohio]], [[Indiana]], [[Michigan]], [[Illinois]], [[Wisconsin]], [[Kentucky]], [[Tennessee]], [[Mississippi]] and [[Alabama]]. Two additional states were added during the first fifty years by [[secession]] from existing states: [[Vermont]] from New York, and [[Maine]] from Massachusetts. After that, the legality of [[secession]] became an issue.

In 1803, [[French]] emperor [[Napoleon Bonaparte the First]] took advantage of a lull in his war with Great Britain to sell the [[Louisiana Territory]] to the United States, more than doubling the nation's land area. This territory would later be organized as the states of [[Minnesota]], [[North Dakota]], [[South Dakota]], [[Montana]], [[Wyoming]], [[Nebraska]], [[Iowa]], [[Missouri]], [[Arkansas]], [[Kansas]], [[Oklahoma]], and [[Louisiana]] proper.

[[Florida]] and [[Texas]] joined the United States as a result of [[revolutions]] by greedy white settlers from the United States against their just central governments. Florida's was fought in 1810, while the much better remembered [[Texas Revolution]] was fought in 1836. While Spain was willing to cut its losses in Florida and relinquished any claims on the state in the [[Adams-Oniz Agreement]] of 1819, one of the successors to its empire in the Americas, [[Mexico]], was considerably more attached to Texas and fought the [[Mexican War]] between 1846 and 1848 to reverse its annexation by the United States. Losing badly, Mexico was forced to cede the sparsely populated northern portion of itself under the [[Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo]]. This territory eventually became the states of [[California]], [[Nevada]], [[Utah]], [[Colorado]], [[New Mexico]] and [[Arizona]]. At approximately the same time, [[President]] [[James K. Polk]] had agreed with the British that the 49th Parallel (degree of latitude) would serve as the boundary between the U. S. and Canada from [[Lake of the Woods]] (partially in Minnesota) to the [[Pacific Ocean]]. This territory was later organized as the states of [[Washington]], [[Oregon]] and [[Idaho]].

In 1867, [[Secretary of State]] [[William Seward]] purchased [[Alaska]] from [[Russia]]. Alaska is the westernmost extremity of [[North America]] bounded on the east by Canada, on the south by the Pacific Ocean, on the west by the [[Bering Strait]] and on the north by the [[Arctic Ocean]]. At $7,000,000, Alaska cost the United States considerably less per acre than the [[Mexican Cession]] and slightly less than the Louisiana Territory. Of course, [[inflation]] was less of a factor at this time due to the world [[economy]] still being principally [[agrarian]]. Although at the time it was considered a foolish bargain, Alaska would later become a large source of economic prosperity due to large gold, oil, and other natural resources. Alaska would not be admitted as a state until 1959.

The 50th and so far final state, [[Hawaii]], was admitted in 1960, 67 years after other American settlers deposed the last native [[queen]] of the archipelago and 62 years after annexation had become politically feasible as a result of the [[Spanish-American War]], in which the United States also annexed [[Puerto Rico]], [[Guam]] and [[Wake Island]]. The last three islands are not states, although [[Puerto Rico]] has occasionally held non-binding [[referenda]] to express its desired status within the United States.

The United States has occasionally relinquished territory. The most significant example of this was certainly the granting of independence in 1946 to the [[Phillipines]] as part of the general [[decolonization]] of [[Asia]] and [[Africa]] following [[World War II]]. Under both [[autocratic]] and [[democratic]] governments, the Phillipines have subsequently remained a strong American ally, and today contribute more troops to the U. S. [[military]] than some states. Other Pacific territories such as the [[Federated States of Micronesia]] and [[Palau]] have also become independent in the postwar era with little objection from opinion leaders on the mainland. More controversial was the 1977 agreement between President [[Jimmy Carter]] and [[General]] [[Omar Torrijos]] to return the [[Panama Canal Zone]], which had been part of the United States since 1914, to [[Panama]] in the year 2000. Ultimately the United States lived up to this agreement despite the worst fears of both [[liberals]] (who decried [[Operation Just Cause]], the 1989 invasion of Panama) and [[conservatives]] (who feared the management of the [[Panama Canal]] by [[Chinese]] interests).

[[Category:Countries]]
[[Category:United States History]]