#39639: QrazyQat — 09/12  at  11:27 AM
They do have a point -- where, for instance, has a tsunami hit the west coast, no doubt at God's insistence? Crescent City, that's where. Best to err on the "no crescents allowed" side fer sher.

#39643: — 09/12  at  11:58 AM
I'm going to have to throw out that package of Pillsbury rolls when I get home. Evil crescents are everywhere.

#39646: Chris Clarke — 09/12  at  12:01 PM
Not to mention, Qrazy, the nickname of the city where the recent watery unpleasantness took place.

#39647: — 09/12  at  12:02 PM
FYI,

The Islamic star and crescent was a Christian symbol adopted by the Ottoman Turks after Mehmet II conquered Constantinople in 1453. As the Ottomans carried their adopted Byzantine banner to more and more conquered lands in the name of the prophet, the star and crescent grew into the symbol of Islam. The Byzantine Christians in turn adopted this symbol from the pagans. More history at about.islam.

No traveler or student of world history should fail to visit the Topkapi Palace at the Sublime Porte in Istanbul and see the site at the palace entrance where the Sultan would emerge with the standard of the prophet (not the star and crescent—it was green with white standard) and command his Janissaries to go and conquer new lands in the name of the prophet.

Today, the star and crescent is proudly displayed on the flags of several important friends and allies, Turkey not the least of these.

#39648: — 09/12  at  12:14 PM
For someone who supposedly cares for someone else’s feelings (political correctness) you sure are insensitive. It's the red crescent that is the controversy. That's the symbol of Islam you dope. Allah was originally the moon God. What if these were soviet terrorist on that plane and the memorial was a red hammer and sickle? Or if they used a statue of George W. Bush for the New Orleans Katrina memorial?

#39651: — 09/12  at  12:19 PM

The Islamic star and crescent was a Christian symbol

Do you know the history of the swastika too?

#39652: — 09/12  at  12:23 PM
I think it's time to start bombing South Carolina.

#39653: donna — 09/12  at  12:25 PM
I'm so lucky I had a class in high school that taught me the word is not the thing and that symbols are just that - symbols.

I wish everyone had taken it. We used wonderful books like Hayakawa's "Language in Thought and Action". Ah, for the good old days when high school taught Critical Thinknig!

#39654: — 09/12  at  12:28 PM
Damnit, now the terrorists have won.

Truth be told, the mockup of the memorial didn't bring up any thoughts of Islam. I thought that the trees were pretty.

But, of course, I'm not a reactionary idiot looking for conspiracies everywhere, so YMMV.

And, I can't be the only one who cringed when looking at Michelle's photo at the top of the page... she's scary looking.

#39655: Chris Clarke — 09/12  at  12:44 PM
donna, I'm just feeling lucky that I had a class in high school that taught me the difference between a crescent and a fucking semi-circle.

#39657: dread pirate roberts — 09/12  at  12:54 PM
yes. stay away from the olympic peninsula. in fact, don't ever mention it. really, most of it is closed for, uh, renovation or something. you wouldn't ;
like it.

and stay away form those french pastry things called crescents. the french even have their own special name for them. how like the french.

#39658: PZ Myers — 09/12  at  01:06 PM
No, no...haven't you seen this site? They've got an animated gif of a crescent and the memorial and you can see that they're identical. Almost. Except for the pointy bits and some little differences in oblateness.

Next up: did you know the American flag has these on it?

#39660: Chris Clarke — 09/12  at  01:15 PM
Apparently, accoording to that site, you can also draw a great-circle line between the center of the memorial and Mecca.

Incidentally, PZ, based on this and other new startling info, I've updated the page you linked to in this post. It's now officially a must-read.

#39662: — 09/12  at  01:23 PM

There are swarms of scary diatoms like Pyrocystis lunula floating around and glowing.

Oh yes, what lovely little Klingon batleths they are. Must be intelligent alien design of life on Earth after all. :-D

#39665: — 09/12  at  01:51 PM

Allah was originally the moon God.

Oh my, yes. And the Masons are tools of Baphomet, Mormons worship the Devil, Catholics are in thrall to an Evil Cookie (which, if you take a bite out of it, looks like an Islamofascist crescent, as St. Cookie Monster taught us in his epistle to the Grouches), and Jesus holds the atomic nucleus together using his mighty super powers.

Hooray for Jack Chick and the Truth he brings us!

#39669: — 09/12  at  02:48 PM
I'm sorry; I meant the name 'Allah' comes from the Moon God of ancient Mecca. The people Mohammad converted to Islam. Just the name, nothing beyond that.

#39670: — 09/12  at  03:11 PM
The OED entry for "Allah" gives its derivation as a contraction of "al-ilah," literally "the god". "Ilah" shares the same root as the Hebrew word "Elohim". Christian Arabic literature uses "Allah" for the Old and New Testament God. I am unaware of any credible evidence linking Allah to any lunar cult.

#39671: — 09/12  at  03:17 PM

> Allah was originally the moon God.

Hooray for Jack Chick and the Truth he brings us!

The Allah-is-the-moon-god myth was invented and propagated by one "Dr." Robert Morey, as credited in the Chick cartoon. According to this article (where he his mentioned in the same breath as fake degree holder "Dr." Kent Hovind), Morey received one of his claimed credentials from the prestigious venue of a house in Philly. He has been harshly criticized and denounced by a Christian organization in Pakistan for his fake degree and disinformation. See here for a discussion of Morey, as well as pictures of the claimed fake degree and its official repudiation.

#39677: Geoffrey Brent — 09/12  at  04:02 PM
NatureSelectedMe, have you looked at the Christian Coalition's logo lately? Red crescent containing a five-pointed star - I'm not making this up.

http://www.cc.org/

And no, Tiskel, you're not the only one who thinks Malkin looks like Botox Barbie.

#39688: — 09/12  at  04:55 PM

#39677: Geoffrey Brent — 09/12 at 04:02 PM
NatureSelectedMe, have you looked at the Christian Coalition's logo lately? Red crescent containing a five-pointed star - I'm not making this up.

But that isn't in the middle of a field without the word 'Christian' next to it. Again, you people show your ignorance of other people feelings. You cry a river because Barbara Bush said "were underprivileged anyway". You talk, but you don't walk. uhn-huh.

#39689: — 09/12  at  04:56 PM
"It's the red crescent that is the controversy. That's the symbol of Islam you dope."

Sorry, the red crescent is the relief organization. Colors of the crescent is white (minority) on green (majority). It always helps to talk to a muslim, practicing or otherwise.

#39692: Chris Clarke — 09/12  at  05:10 PM
Obviously, Nature did not select "NatureSelectedMe" on the basis of reading comprehension.

Ahem. The memorial design is not a fucking crescent, you incredible honking moron.

I hope that clears things up. If I can be of any other service in explaining the fundamentals of second-grade geometry, you just let me know. for instance, I have a short discoourse ready to go entitled "Triangle, or Trapezoid? An easy way to tell the difference."

#39695: — 09/12  at  05:19 PM

Catholics are in thrall to an Evil Cookie...

or as I like to call it, "Soylent Jesus."

#39697: Geoffrey Brent — 09/12  at  05:27 PM
Let me get this straight...

- The 'crescent' in the Christian Coalition's logo is OK because (a) we know it's a fundie Christian site, (b) we know it would be inappropriate for such a site's logo to based on Islamic symbolism, and (c) we can conclude from (a) and (b) that therefore, they're *not* using it to symbolise Islam.

- The 'crescent' in the memorial is not OK, because (a) we know it's a memorial set up for the victims of Islamic terrorism, (b) we know it would be inappropriate for such a memorial to be based on Islamic symbolism, and (c) we can conclude from (a) and (b) that therefore, the design is inappropriate.

It seems to me that the difference between these two is not so much in the circumstances as in who we're willing to grant the benefit of the doubt.

And FWIW, Barbara Bush wasn't hammered merely for commenting that the people she was talking about were 'underprivileged anyway'; she was hammered for trying to turn that into a statement that Katrina had been a *good thing* for them.

#39698: — 09/12  at  05:28 PM
"Ahem. The memorial design is not a fucking crescent, you incredible honking moron."

No, it appears to be more the shape of a barchan.

I don't know many cults that worship sand dunes, so I suspect it's an appropriate secular symbol, for whatever that is worth. But I don't see it as inappropriate to represent a place of death with symbols associated with the dead's religious convictions, since this is comfort to the family and friends; and I can't see it giving much offense to the deceased atheists.