VIRGINITY AND SOCIETY

Forward, family!  Do not fear!

"All mammals, including ourselves, share a set of winning characteristics. Warm bodies, extraordinary senses and highly developed intelligence. And those qualities have contributed to their and our success. But perhaps the most important characteristic of all lies in the strength of our family ties. It is the mammal family that has conquered the Earth." Sir David Frederick Attenborough in BBC - Life (2009), Ep. 3 – Mammals

Values form soul and flesh.

We are all neighbours in our global village. Respectful distance between neighbours is the recipe for harmonious relationships. An American philosopher and logician Willard Van Orman Quine once said: no entity without identity. From the history of my nation and my own professional experience I dare to add:  identity integrity determines survival. The genuine respect for moral, psychological, and physical integrity of each human person is a prerequisite for the fair integration of humanity. dr Halat, noxologist

The culture of life and love makes globalization genuinely progressive.
The culture of death and hatred, fraudulently labelled as progressive,
in fact, brings us to Dark Ages of the Third Millennium.
Virgin Wars
Virginity Myths and Facts

Progressive versus regressive
Forward versus backward
New man versus old man

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; Ephesians 4:22

"... Ein jeglicher Christenmensch ist zweierlei Natur, geistlicher und leiblicher. Nach der Seele wird er ein geistlicher, neuer, innerlicher Mensch genannt, nach dem Fleisch und Blut wird er ein leiblicher, alter und äußerlicher Mensch genannt..." Martin Luther:  Von der Freiheit eines Christenmenschen "...Man is composed of a twofold nature, a spiritual and a bodily. As regards the spiritual nature, which they name the soul, he is called the spiritual, inward, new man; as regards the bodily nature, which they name the flesh, he is called the fleshly, outward, old man..." Martin Luther:  Von der Freiheit eines Christenmenschen

Control of Sexuality

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وَمَا يَفْعَلُوا مِنْ خَيْرٍ فَلَنْ يُكْفَرُوهُ ۗ وَاللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ بِالْمُتَّقِينَ wa- maa yafcalo min khayr fa- lan yukfaro -hu wa- 'allaah calem bi- al- muttaqen Recitation سورة 3. آل عمران، آية 115 Аларның кылган изге гамәлләренең әҗере Аллаһ хозурында инкяр ителмәс. Аллаһудан куркып, гөнаһлардан сакланучы тәкъва кешеләрне, әлбәттә, Аллаһ белә. Tatar And whatever good they do, they shall not be denied it, and God knows the God-fearing. Surah 3. Al-i'Imran, Ayah 115 out of H.R.H. Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal's Address to H.H. Pope Benedict XVI at the King Hussein Mosque, Amman, Jordan  May 9th, 2009 CE 14th Jamada Al-Uwla, 1430 AH here

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The importance of virginity before marriage:
Noxological clues.

There is a large time gap between puberty and maturity.
Immature virgins easily fall prey to sexual predators.
As a result, devirginized victims of sex obsessed maniacs and/or of their own foolish curiosity
no longer can offer their virginity to future spouses.
Instead, they bring into their new family's marital life the following disadvantages:
- lack of virginal shame which is an effective barrier against sexual exploitation,
- worn out sexual intimacy which is man's and woman's personal property
and should be shared exclusively within their marriage,
 inasmuch as the more intimacy a married couple has to share exclusively between themselves,
the more special and unique the sexual relationship in that marriage becomes,
(all legal, economic benefits of marriage are based on conjugal sexual exclusiveness,
encompassing respect for the most fundamental and uniquely human right from the start
which is a personal property right that can be found in nakedness
 by those who gained knowledge of good and evil: Genesis 3:7. ,
therefore nudity which is one's personal property
 should be shared within one's marriage exclusively
because marital property exists to protect spousal rights.)
-  sex maniacs' sexual footprints imprinting virgin minds,
- impaired concupiscense which should be "remedied" by marriage only,
- own returning memories which can be mirrored vividly by ex-lovers, even forgotten ones,
- indisputable evidence of the past behaviour in the form
of pornograhic data and records obtained from digital media (text, photo, video, audio) and Internet usage
- unwanted sexual experiences and/or comparisons, unacceptable for a spouse
- sexually transmitted infections (STIs), usually asymptomatic but still contagious and sooner or later
showing signs and symptoms of  sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)
also know as venereal diseases.

The Sexually Transmitted Diseases Rainbow - Venereal Rainbow

Sexually Transmitted Disease Prevention
according to mainstream science of medical epidemiology

Non-virginal marriages much more often than virginal ones
become overburdened with problems of retrospective jealousy, infidelity,
and well as with physical and psychological sequelae of venereal diseases,
 including inferiltity, cancer, mother-to-child transmitted diseases
passed before, during and after birth.

Such adversities fuel numerous social pathologies
and marriages affected by them are more likely to be dissolved.
This undermines prosperity of the victims' old and new families.
 Children, parents, grandchildren, grandparents, and members of extended family,
all those who have some expectations and hopes concerning
 good fruits of their relatives' marital stability,
all of them become badly harmed by
an act of illicit devirginization far back in the past.

This is why normal societies set rules on preserving virginity until marriage.

Differences between males and females rooted in their anatomy and physiology
should be blamed for the backward and oppressive misconception that
'only women should be virgins until married'.
The culture of life and love that makes globalization genuinely progressive
takes a stand on equal rights for women,
sets a high standard for ethics and integrity,
and makes it clear that
  'men and women should be virgins until married',
rejects gender inequality and any ot its  manifestations,
particularly such outrageous like clitoridectomy and infibulation:

Where female virginity at marriage is considered vitally important, even rumors that question a girl's morality may be sufficient to harm a family's honor and effectiveness in a community and bar her from marriage. In this context, clitoridectomy and infibulation serve a clear and compelling purpose: they guarantee virginity, morality, marriage- ability and the hope of old age security,  all in one decisive action taken when she is too young to object. Any girl known to have been properly circumcised in the pharaonic manner can be assumed to be a virgin and marriageable, since there are usually a number of older women to bear witness to the thoroughness of the infibulation. People can therefore assume that there is both an attenuation of the girl's sexuality (because of the clitoridectomy) and a barrier to penetration (because of the infibulation), so even if she had had the opportunity, they can assume she will not have engaged in premarital sex. But for a girl who has not been properly infibulated, as in the case in which her parents might have chosen to follow contemporary ideas about having only a milder form such as sunna circumcision, doubts can be raised about her virginity and her morality leaving her vulnerable to being passed over in marriage. Ellen Gruenbaum, The female circumcisión controversy: an anthropological perspective, 2001

Genital mutilation

Per aspera ad astra

고통이 없으면 얻는 것도 없다

No pain, no gain

童贞直到结婚是男人的荣誉
Virginity until marriage is a man's honour
 童 贞直到结婚是女人的骄傲
Virginity until marriage is a woman's pride

In the year 1000, the Holy Roman Emperor Otto III (980-1002) visited Poland to renew the Holy Roman Empire based on a federal concept he called "Renovatio Imperii Romanorum". Among other gifts the Polish ruler presented to Otto III were 300 armored knights, while the Emperor responded with a gift of a copy of the lance of Saint Maurice. Evidently Otto III was impressed with what he saw and he decided that Poland should be treated as a kingdom on par with Germany and Italy, not merely as a tributary duchy like Bohemia. The Emperor placed his Imperial crown on Bolesław I's brow and invested him with the titles frater et cooperator Imperii ("Brother and Partner of the Empire") and populi Romani amicus et socius. He also raised Bolesław I to the dignity of patricius or "elder of the Roman nation". Afterwards Bolesław I traveled with the Emperor to Aix-la-Chapelle where Otto III had the tomb of Charlemagne opened. From there Otto III is reputed to have removed the Imperial throne itself and presented it to the Polish Duke.

During the Mongol invasion of Europe, the grandson of Genghis Khan, Kadan, (also Qadan) led the Mongol diversionary force that attacked Poland. In early 1241, Kadan's forces sacked the Polish towns of Lublin, Zawichost and Sandomierz. Kadan then attacked Masovia, while Baidar burned the evacuated Polish capital, Kraków and then Bytom, and Orda Khan ravaged the southwestern border of Lithuania and the Polish Baltic coast.

The memories of the Mongol invasion are still vivid in Poland. The Heynal (Polish: Hejnał Mariacki, "St. Mary's dawn", pronounced hey-now mah-ryah-tskee), also known as the Cracovian Hymn, is a traditional five-note Polish tune closely tied to the history and traditions of the city of Krakow. It is played by a trumpeter four times consecutively each hour from the highest tower of St. Mary's Church (in Polish, Kościół Mariacki) in Krakow. When Krakow was attacked by Tatars in 1241, the guard watching from the top of Mariacki church saw the enemy and started playing to warn the inhabitants. Then he was shot through his throat by a Tatar archer, and that's why the trumpet tone stops so abruptly.

The three Mongolian leaders were then to attack the Silesian capital Wroclaw. Baidar began to besiege the town, but marched north with Kadan and Orda to Legnica to defeat the forces of the direct descendant of Bolesław I Chrobry (the first King of Poland, see above) - Henry II the Pious, Duke of Silesia. The Christian army was crushed in the ensuing Battle of Legnica at Legnickie Pole of April 9, 1241. Then Baidar and Kadan turned away from Bohemia and Poland and went southward. The Germans who had colonized till that time the primordial West Slavic territories between Elbe and Odra rivers, were saved from devastation. The Mongols never again seriously looked westward for conquest, only raiding for loot. The Mongols successfully raided Poland in 1259 and 1286 and unsuccessfully in 1287. Because these raids were not aimed at conquest, Poland and Hungary were not seriously threatened again after 1241, although the Russian lands to their east remained under the rule of the Golden Horde for the following two centuries.

Mongols were called Tatars in Europe.The name Tatar initially appeared amongst the nomadic Turkic peoples of northeastern Mongolia in the region around Lake Baikal in the beginning of the 5th century. The Chinese term is Dada (韃靼) and is a comparatively specific term for nomads to the north, emerging in the late Tang. Other names include Dadan and Tatan. As various of these nomadic groups became part of Genghis Khan's army in the early 13th century, a fusion of Mongol and Turkic elements took place, and the invaders of Rus and the Pannonian Basin became known to Europeans as Tatars (or Tartars).  The original Tatars (Tatarlar/Татарлар) inhabited the north-eastern Gobi in the 5th century and, after subjugation in the 9th century by the Khitans, migrated southward. In the 13th century, they were subjugated by the Mongol Empire under Genghis Khan. Under the leadership of his grandson Batu Khan, they moved westwards, driving with them many stems of the Turkic Ural-Altayans towards the plains of Russia. After the break up of the Mongol Empire, the Tatars became especially identified with the western part of the empire, which included most of European Russia and was known as the Golden Horde. The Mongol subjugation of Russia was brutal and humiliating and contributed greatly to that sense of tragedy that so deeply imbues Russian culture and art.

After Uzbeg (Öz-Beg) mounted the throne in 1313, he adopted Islam as the state religion. He allowed the Genoese to settle in Crimea after his accession. But the Mongols sacked Sudak under the Khan in 1322 when the Christians defied the Muslims in the city. The Genoese merchants in the other towns were not molested. Pope John XXII requested Uzbeg to restore Roman Catholic churches destroyed in the region. Thus, the Khan signed a new trade treaty with the Genoese in 1339 and allowed them to rebuild the walls of Kaffa. In 1332 he had allowed the Venetians to establish a colony at Tanais on the Don. A decree, issued probably by Mengu-Timur, allowing the Franciscans to proselytize, was renewed by Uzbeg in 1314. Under Uzbeg and his successor Janibeg, Islam, which among some of the Turks in Eurasia had deep roots going back into pre-Mongol times, gained general acceptance, though its adherents remained tolerant of other beliefs. In order to successfully expand Islam, he built a mosque and other "elaborate places;" requiring baths—an important element of Muslim culture. The slave trade flourished due to strengthening ties with the Mamluk Sultanate. The Black Death of the 1340s was a major factor contributing to the Golden Horde's economic downfall. Janibeg abandoned his father's Balkan ambitions, and backed Moscow against Lithuania and Poland. The Polish King, Casimir III the Great, submitted to the Horde and undertook to pay tribute in order to avoid more conflicts. The seven Mongol princes were sent by Janibeg to assist Poland. In the summer of 1470, the last prominent Khan, Ahmed, organized an attack against Moldavia, the Kingdom of Poland, and Lithuania. By August 20, the Moldavian forces under Stephen the Great defeated the Tatars at the battle of Lipnic.The Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (which possessed much of the Ukraine at the time) were attacked in 1487-1491 by the remains of the Golden Horde. They reached as far as Lublin in eastern Poland before being decisively beaten at Zaslavl. The Crimean Khanate became a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire in 1475 and subjugated what remained of the Great Horde. The Crimean Tatars wreaked havoc in southern Russia, Ukraine and even Poland in the course of the 16th and early 17th centuries, but they were not able to defeat Russia or take Moscow. Under Ottoman protection, the Khanate of Crimea continued its precarious existence until Catherine the Great annexed it on April 8, 1783. It was by far the longest-lived of the successor states to the Golden Horde.

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TRANS-BLACK SEA SLAVE TRADE
SAQALIBA SLAVE HUNTING
 ONE OF THE GREATEST ATROCITIES IN HISTORY

Central and Eastern European slaves were generally known as Saqaliba (صقالبة Siqlabi i.e. Slavs). The slaves were captured in southern Russia, Poland-Lithuania, Moldavia, Wallachia, and Circassia by Tatar horsemen in a trade known as the "harvesting of the steppe". In Polish Podole alone, about one-third of all the villages were destroyed or abandoned between 1578 and 1583. Some researchers estimate that altogether more than 3 millions people were captured and enslaved during the time of the Crimean Khanate. Cf.  All Polish-Lithuanian territory in 1580 - 865 000 sq. kms (the most Tatars invaded lands: Podole - 19.9 sq. kms, Braclaw - 59.5 sq. kms, Kiev  - 200.0 sq. kms, Wolyn - 40.8 sq. kms, Ruskie - 55.2 sq. kms). All Polish-Lithuanian territory in 1634 - 990 000 sq. kms.  All Polish-Lithuanian population in 1680 - 11 millions. All Polish-Lithuanian population  in 1790 - after the first partition, estimated 8.6 millions (the most Tatars invaded lands: Podole - 574 000, Braclaw - 945 000, Kiev - 647 000, Wolyn - 838 000, Ruskie - 131 000).
The Central and Eastern European Slavic slaves were cruelly treated: tortured, mutilated, forced to work in inhuman conditions, sadistically killed when found useless. The abducted Slavic children, adolescents and women were condemned to be brutally and systematically raped to satisfy lust of their owners.

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"The Black Sea and the Crimea occupied an important place as a major slave supplier for the Mediterranean World as is described in the earliest of recorded history until early modern times. In the Middle Ages, with the establishment of Italian trading colonies in the Crimea after the Fourth Crusade of 1204 and the incorporation of the northern shores of the Black Sea into the Mongol Empire (the Kipchak Khanate) by the mid-13th century, slave trade in this area became remarkably active. In the 14th and 15th centuries Kaffa (Caffa), a Genoese colony in the Crimea, and Tana, a Venetian one on the Azov Sea, were the most flourishing slave-markets, and the most active slave-export ports from the Black Sea. During these centuries, a massive number of the Tatars, Circassians, and Russians were transported as slaves to the Byzantine Empire, Italy, France, Spain, and Egypt by the Genoese, Venetian and Islamic slave-traders. Slave transportation from the Black Sea by Italians had a great influence on the history of the Mediterranean world in the Middle Ages. For example, without their activity the Mameluke Dynasty doubtlessly could neither have emerged nor existed in the history of Egypt at this period. (...) Only in the second half of 15th century, especially after the time when the Ottomans conquered the Byzantine Empire in 1453, expelling the Italians from the Black Sea and establishing their control over the Crimean Tatars in 1475, the traditional slave trade which had been held by the Italians was transferred to the hands of Islamic merchants. Although Muslim merchants replaced the Italians as the major slave traders in the Black Sea, slave trade itself in the area kept on flourishing after 1475 as well. Only the slave source noticeably changed after that time. While the Italians controlled the markets in the Black Sea, they were not slave hunters, but, as a rule, slave buyers from the surrounding lands, such as those of the Tatars, Circassians and the Russians and others. Since the time when the Ottomans and the Crimean Tatars had dominated the area, the latter’s military campaigns and raids for captives became a major source of slaves. Although the Crimean Tatars had been acquainted with agriculture and an urban way of life by the 16th century, they retained their traditional nomadic skills and abilities to move quickly and quietly across the steppe, had an open hostility toward the Christian population, and were inherently disdainful of peasants. From the beginning of the 16th century until the end of 17th century the Crimean Tatar raider bands made almost annual forays into agricultural Slavic lands searching for captives to sell as slaves. As many scholars recognize the slave trade was the most important basis for the Crimean Tatar economy in the 16th and 17th centuries. During these centuries, the Crimean Khanate remained the main supplier of Slavic slaves, almost all of which were captured in southern Poland or Muscovite Russia, and brought back to the Crimea by their raiders. (...) In the 220 years from 1468 to 1794, A. Fisher enumerates about sixty occasions where the Tatars raided either southern Poland or Muscovite Russia and returned to the Crimea with a large number of captives. (The largest was 400,000 captives in1676). However, as he himself suggests in the same paper, the most frequent and the most usual raider bands were small ones and captured less than 30 persons at a time. B. Baranowski, a Polish historian, states that Poland lost one million of its population in all the years combined from 1494 to 1694. On the other hand, A. A. Novosel’skii, a Soviet historian, estimates in his book that the Russian people captured by the Tatars in the 40 years in the first half of 17th century were about 200,000.
(...) The captured people usually were forced to make a long march on foot and in chains to the Crimea, and many of them died on the way. Fearing military attempts to get back the captives by the Russian army or by Cossack parties, the Tatar raiding bands hurried on their way to the Crimea, and ill or wounded captives were usually killed. S. Herberstein, an ambassador from the Emperor of Germany to Muscovy in the first half of 16th century, wrote that in 1521 “He [Mohammed Giray: Crimian Khan 1515-23] took with him from Muscovy so great a multitude of captives as would scarcely be considered credible; they say the number exceeded eight hundred thousand, part of whom he sold in Kaffa to the Turks, and part he slew. The old and infirmed men, who will not fetch much at a sale, are given up to the Tatar youths, either to be stoned, or to be thrown into the sea, or to be killed by any sort of death they might please.” The Crimean raiders have to hand over ten percent of their human booty to the government as a kind of custom tax at the frontier of the Crimean Khanate. Most captives were usually driven to Kaffa, the largest slave market of the Crimea under the direct administration of the Ottoman Empire, and were sold there to the slave merchants of Greek, Jewish, Armenian and Muslim origin.24 These merchants bought in bulk Slavic captives from the Crimean raiders, and classified them into many categories according to their sex, age, ability or skill, and then sold them individually to local buyers, or again in large numbers to slave-traders in order to export them to the Ottoman Empire or to Iran. In the 1570s close to 20,000 slaves a year were being sold in Kaffa, and according to Beauplan, a French officer who served in Poland and visited Kaffa in the mid-17th century, there were nearly 30,000 slaves to be sold in 1648. He described Kaffa as follows: “In the city there are not many Tatars, there live chiefly Christians who keep in their hands many slaves which have been purchased from the Tatars, who had plundered and seized them in Poland or in Muscovy. This city has twelve Greek churches, thirty-two Armenian churches, and a Catholic church; St. Peter’s. In the city there are probably five or six thousand households, but we find here over 30,000 slaves.” Nearly seventy percent of the slaves sold in Kaffa were driven onto ships and dispatched to Istanbul. A voyage of ten days brought them to the capital of the Ottoman Empire. When they arrived, the Ottoman officials first examined the new “cargos” and chose the best slaves: the most beautiful women for the sultan’s harem, the most handsome and the strongest men for his palace service. The remaining ones were purchased either by the government for navy, or by the slave merchants of Istanbul, all of whom were of Jewish origin and who were organized into a guild. Buyers of slaves came to here from all parts of the Empire, Egypt, Anatolia, Western Europe, Africa and Iran. Not only the government but also individual nobles and officials purchased Slavic slaves as their suite and for use in domestic tasks. Some Slavic slaves converted to Islam and rose to a high position within the Ottoman government, but they are few and the exception. As mentioned above, the largest number of the Russian slaves were purchased by the government and used as galley slaves. There was only one advantage for the galley slaves and that was a greater possibility for escape. A Cossack captured by the Tatars served on a galley of the Kaffa Bey for seven years, but was fortunately freed by a Cossack raid. He later testified that 260 Russian slaves were serving on his galley. The famous leader of a rebellion during the Time of Troubles, Ivan Bolotnikov, before being a rebel, was also taken prisoner by the Crimean Tatars and was sold into slavery in the Ottoman Empire, where he served as a galley slave for some years. But when a German ship captured his galley, Bolotnikov was freed and went to Venice. From Venice he made his way to Russia via Poland and later became the leader of the rebellion.  Vasilii Polozov, a lesser gentry (deti boiarskii) who served under Governor B. A. Repnin in the second half of 17th century, was also captured by the Crimean Tatars and given as a gift to the Ottoman sultan after one and a half year’s stay in the Crimea. In the Ottoman Empire he served sultan for twenty years, but against the sultan’s wish he would not give up his Christian faith. Lastly, the sultan ordered his death, but he was saved and sent instead to the galleys. He served as a galley slave for more than nine years. But when his galley was wrecked except he and his friend all crew were drowned. They clung to a beam and were washed ashore. In thanksgiving, Vasilii made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and other eastern Holy Places, and finally succeeded in getting back to Russia by way of the Circassian lands, Persia and Astrakhan. After arriving in Russia, he submitted a petition (Chelobitnaia) reporting his long hardship to Tsar Fedor Alekseevich and requested a post. These cases, however, are exceptionally lucky ones. Most of the Russians who had the misfortune to be galley slaves never returned home and ended their life on the warships of the Ottoman Empire. A number of the Russian captives of the Tatars were kept as slaves in the Crimea, without being sold abroad as merchandise or brought back home for ransom. The Crimean Khanate supplied not only the slaves for military forces but also important materials such as grains, meat and salt to the Ottoman Empire. The khan and many clan leaders received a certain percent of captives from raiders as a “gift” or “custom” and used the women in their harems, and the men in agriculture in their landed estates. Of course slaves also performed domestic work in the towns. Sometimes they were hired out from the Muslim owners to Christian employers. Mikhalon Litvin (Michael the Lithuanian), who left a vivid picture of the Crimean Tatar based on first-hand observation in the mid-16th century, demonstrates that Kaffa was a big slave-market port city, from where a large number of Slavic slaves were exported to the major slave-mart of Asia Minor, and that the slaves were used to carry out the most burdensome tasks also for the Crimean Tatars themselves. Mikhalon Litvin wrote: “The Crimean Tatars have much more slaves than livestock. Therefore they supply them also to other lands. Many ships loaded with arms, clothes and horses came to them one after another from beyond the Pontus and from Asia, and left always from them with slaves. ……. So these plunderers always are in possession not only of slaves for trade with other people but also have slaves for their own estates and to satisfy at home their cruelty and waywardness. In fact we often find among these unfortunate people very strong men, who, if not castrated, are branded on the forehead or on the cheek, and are tormented by day at work and by night in dungeons.” The fate of Slavic captive-slaves was not bright either in Turkey or in the Crimea." (Eizo Matsuki full article)

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Cicero (De Oratore): "Historia magistra vitae est" - History is life's teacher
- the study of the past should serve as a lesson to the future
Winston Churchill: "The further back you look the further ahead you will see."
but / at the same time
Unconditional love is the root of unconditional forgiveness
 John Paul II recites the Angelus at Gemelli hospital on Sunday May 17, 1981:
"Pray for the brother who shot me, whom I have sincerely forgiven".

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Mehmet-Ali-Agca 1983
Pope John Paul II forgave Mehmet Ali Agca for Agca's assassination attempt on him in 1981

 Pope John Paul II assassination attempt

On Wednesday, May 13, 1981, in St. Peter's Square at Vatican City. The Pope was shot and critically wounded by Mehmet Ali Ağca, a trained sniper from Turkey. The Pope was struck 4 times, and suffered severe blood loss. Ağca was sentenced to life in prison by an Italian court. The Pope later forgave Ağca for the assassination attempt, and  Ağca was pardoned by president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi in June 2000 at the Pope's request. Following the shooting, Pope John Paul II asked people to "pray for my brother [Ağca] ... whom I have sincerely forgiven." In 1983, he and Ağca met and spoke privately at the prison where Ağca was being held. The Pope was also in touch with Ağca's family over the years, meeting his mother in 1987 and his brother a decade later., Ağca developed a friendship with the pontiff. In early February 2005, during the Pope's illness, Ağca sent a letter to the Pope wishing him well (full text here)

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 His Holiness John Paul II Biography Pontificate
entries regarding Mehmet Alì Agca

1981 May 13  At 5:19 p.m. a young Turk Mehmet Alì Agca makes an attempt on the Pope's life while he was circling St. Peter's Square before his General Audience. Severly, wounded, the Pope was operated on for 6 hours at Gemelli hospital.
1983 December 27   Visit to the Rebibbia prison and meeting with Alì Agca , the Turk who made an attempt on the life of John Paul II on 13 May 1981.
 2000 June 13  John Paul II expresses his satisfaction for the clemency granted to Alì Agca by the President of Italy during this jubilee year. (full text here)

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The Time Magazine, January 19, 1984
Pope John Paul II Forgives His Would-Be Assassin
by Lance Morrow

It is difficult to imagine a more perfect economy of drama. The Pope's deed spoke, not his words, and it spoke with the full authority of his mortal life and the danger to which Agca had subjected it. The meaning of John Paul's forgiveness was profoundly Christian. He embraced his enemy and pardoned him.

All during the past year, the 1,950th anniversary of Christ's death and hence of the Christian redemption, John Paul has preached the theme of reconciliation. The visit to Agca was his culminating gesture on the theme. The sermon that he preached with his visit to Rebibbia was an elaboration of what he had said in a town near Northern Ireland's border with Eire in 1979: "Violence is evil. Violence is unacceptable as a solution to problems. Violence is unworthy of man. Violence is a lie, for it goes against the truth of our faith, the truth of our humanity."

John Paul meant, among other things, to demonstrate how the private and public dimensions of human activity may fuse in moral action. What he intended to show was a fundamental relationship between peace and the hearts of men and women, the crucial relevance of the turnings of the will and spirit. Seeing the largest possible meanings in the most intimate places of the soul, John Paul wanted to proclaim that great issues are determined, or at least informed, by the elemental impulses of the human breast—hatred or love. Wrote the Milan-based Catholic daily Avvenire last week: "In the midst of so many voices raised to ask for negotiations between the superpowers on the basis of pure equ ililibrium of strength, in the choir of pacifism which proclaims that only peace counts, all else is relative... a Pope has the courage to utter the ancient word—the responsibility for each evil rests in man as a sinner. There will be no escape from wars, from hunger, from misery, from racial discrimination, from denial of human rights, and not even from missiles, if our hearts are not changed." Said Italian Writer Carlo Bo: "The Pope intends to say, If we really want peace, we must make the first step, we must forget offenses and offer the bread of love and charity.' " The visit to Agca did not come as a surprise. It had been rumored for at least two weeks that John Paul intended to see his attacker during a Christmas-season visit to the more than 2,000 inmates of Rebibbia, on the northeastern outskirts of Rome.

Since his conviction on July 22,1981, Agca has been serving part of a life sentence in the prison's maximum-security wing. When the Pope arrived in his cell, Agca was dressed in a blue crew-neck sweater, jeans and blue-and-white running shoes from which the laces had been removed. He was unshaved. Agca kissed John Paul's hand. "Do you speak Italian?" the Pope asked. Agca nodded. The two men seated themselves, close together, on molded-plastic chairs in a corner of the cell, out of earshot. At times it looked almost as if the Pope were hearing the confession of Agca, a Turkish Muslim. At those moments, John Paul leaned forward from the waist in a priestly posture, his head bowed and forehead tightly clasped in his hand as the younger man spoke.

Agca laughed briefly a few times, but the smile would then quickly fade from his face. In the first months after the assassination attempt, there had been in Agca's eyes a zealot's burning glare. But now his face wore a confused, uncertain expression, never hostile. The Pope clasped Agca's hands in his own from time to time. At other times he grasped the man's arm, as if in a gesture of support.

John Paul's words were intended for Agca alone. "What we talked about will have to remain a secret between him and me," the Pope said as he emerged from the cell. "I spoke to him as a brother whom I have pardoned, and who has my complete trust." As John Paul rose to leave, the two men shook hands. The Pope gave Agca, who will turn 26 next week, a small gift in a white box, a rosary in silver and mother-of-pearl. The Pope walked out. Agca was left standing alone, and the camera recorded a sudden look of uncertainty on his face. Perhaps he was thinking about the prospect of spending the rest of his life in jail for attempting to kill a man he did not know, a man who now came to him as a friend.

Later, John Paul spoke to the women inmates of the prison about what had happened on this "historic day." Said the Pontiff: "In the context of Christmas and the Holy Year of Redemption, I was able to meet with the person that you all know by name, Ali Agca, who in the year 1981 on the 13th of May made an attempt on my life. But Providence took things in its own hands, in what I would call an extraordinary way, so that today after two years I was able to meet my assailant and repeat to him the pardon I gave him immediately ... The Lord gave us the grace to meet as men and brothers, because all the events of our lives must confirm that God is our father and all of us are His children in Jesus Christ, and thus we are all brothers." (full text here)

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  On my knees I beg you to turn away from violence
 Pope John Paul's homily at Killineer, near Drogheda, Co Louth
on Saturday, October 29th, 1979.
 

"I join my voice today to the voice of Paul VI and my other predecessors, to the voices of your religious leaders, to the voices of all men and women of reason, and I proclaim, with the conviction of my faith in Christ and with an awareness of my mission, that violence is evil, that violence is unacceptable as a solution to problems, that violence is unworthy of man.
Violence is a lie, for it goes against the truth of our faith, the truth of our humanity. Violence destroys what it claims to defend: the dignity, the life, the freedom of human beings. Violence is a crime against humanity, for it destroys the very fabric of society. I pray with you that the moral sense and Christian conviction of Irish men and women may never become obscured and blunted by the lie of violence, that nobody may ever call murder by any other name than murder, that the spiral of violence may never be given the distinction of unavoidable logic or necessary retaliation. Let us remember that the word remains for ever; "All who take the sword will perish by the sword."" (full text here)

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 MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE JOHN PAUL II
FOR THE CELEBRATION OF THE WORLD DAY OF PEACE
1 JANUARY 2000
"PEACE ON EARTH TO THOSE WHOM GOD LOVES!"
(...)
War is a defeat for humanity

3. In the century we are leaving behind, humanity has been sorely tried by an endless and horrifying sequence of wars, conflicts, genocides and "ethnic cleansings" which have caused unspeakable suffering: millions and millions of victims, families and countries destroyed, an ocean of refugees, misery, hunger, disease, underdevelopment and the loss of immense resources. At the root of so much suffering there lies a logic of supremacy fuelled by the desire to dominate and exploit others, by ideologies of power or totalitarian utopias, by crazed nationalisms or ancient tribal hatreds. At times brutal and systematic violence, aimed at the very extermination or enslavement of entire peoples and regions, has had to be countered by armed resistance.
The twentieth century bequeaths to us above all else a warning: wars are often the cause of further wars because they fuel deep hatreds, create situations of injustice and trample upon people's dignity and rights. Wars generally do not resolve the problems for which they are fought and therefore, in addition to causing horrendous damage, they prove ultimately futile. War is a defeat for humanity. Only in peace and through peace can respect for human dignity and its inalienable rights be guaranteed." (full text here)

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE JOHN PAUL II
TO THE DIPLOMATIC CORPS
Monday, 13 January 2003
(...)

"2. I have been personally struck by the feeling of fear which often dwells in the hearts of our contemporaries. An insidious terrorism capable of striking at any time and anywhere; the unresolved problem of the Middle East, with the Holy Land and Iraq; the turmoil disrupting South America, particularly Argentina, Colombia and Venzuela; the conflicts preventing numerous African countries from focusing on their development; the diseases spreading contagion and death; the grave problem of famine, especially in Africa; the irresponsible behaviour contributing to the depletion of the planet’s resources: all these are so many plagues threatening the suvival of humanity, the peace of individuals and the security of societies.

3. Yet everything can change. It depends on each of us. Everyone can develop within himself his potential for faith, for honesty, for respect of others and for commitment to the service of others.

It also depends, quite obviously, on political leaders, who are called to serve the common good. You will not be surprised if before an assembly of diplomats I state in this regard certain requirements which I believe must be met if entire peoples, perhaps even humanity itself, are not to sink into the abyss.

First, a "YES TO LIFE"! Respect life itself and individual lives: everything starts here, for the most fundamental of human rights is certainly the right to life. Abortion, euthanasia, human cloning, for example, risk reducing the human person to a mere object: life and death to order, as it were! When all moral criteria are removed, scientific research involving the sources of life becomes a denial of the being and the dignity of the person. War itself is an attack on human life since it brings in its wake suffering and death. The battle for peace is always a battle for life!

Next, RESPECT FOR LAW. Life within society – particularly international life – presupposes common and inviolable principles whose goal is to guarantee the security and the freedom of individual citizens and of nations. These rules of conduct are the foundation of national and international stability. Today political leaders have at hand highly relevant texts and institutions. It is enough simply to put them into practice. The world would be totally different if people began to apply in a straightforward manner the agreements already signed!

Finally, the DUTY OF SOLIDARITY. In a world with a superabundance of information, but which paradoxically finds it so difficult to communicate and where living conditions are scandalously unequal, it is important to spare no effort to ensure that everyone feels responsible for the growth and happiness of all. Our future is at stake. An unemployed young person, a handicapped person who is marginalized, elderly people who are uncared for, countries which are captives of hunger and poverty: these situations all too often make people despair and fall prey to the temptation either of closing in on themselves or of resorting to violence.

4. This is why choices need to be made so that humanity can still have a future. Therefore, the peoples of the earth and their leaders must sometimes have the courage to say "No".

"NO TO DEATH"! That is to say, no to all that attacks the incomparable dignity of every human being, beginning with that of unborn children. If life is truly a treasure, we need to be able to preserve it and to make it bear fruit without distorting it. "No" to all that weakens the family, the basic cell of society. "No" to all that destroys in children the sense of striving, their respect for themselves and others, the sense of service.

"NO TO SELFISHNESS"! In other words, to all that impels man to protect himself inside the cocoon of a privileged social class or a cultural comfort which excludes others. The life-style of the prosperous, their patterns of consumption, must be reviewed in the light of their repercussions on other countries. Let us mention for example the problem of water resources, which the United Nations Organization has asked us all to consider during this year 2003. Selfishness is also the indifference of prosperous nations towards nations left out in the cold. All peoples are entitled to receive a fair share of the goods of this world and of the know-how of the more advanced countries. How can we fail to think here, for example, of the access of everyone to generic medicines, needed to continue the fight against current pandemics, an access — alas — often thwarted by short-term economic considerations?

"NO TO WAR"! War is not always inevitable. It is always a defeat for humanity. International law, honest dialogue, solidarity between States, the noble exercise of diplomacy: these are methods worthy of individuals and nations in resolving their differences. I say this as I think of those who still place their trust in nuclear weapons and of the all-too-numerous conflicts which continue to hold hostage our brothers and sisters in humanity. At Christmas, Bethlehem reminded us of the unresolved crisis in the Middle East, where two peoples, Israeli and Palestinian, are called to live side-by-side, equally free and sovereign, in mutual respect. Without needing to repeat what I said to you last year on this occasion, I will simply add today, faced with the constant degeneration of the crisis in the Middle East, that the solution will never be imposed by recourse to terrorism or armed conflict, as if military victories could be the solution. And what are we to say of the threat of a war which could strike the people of Iraq, the land of the Prophets, a people already sorely tried by more than twelve years of embargo? War is never just another means that one can choose to employ for settling differences between nations. As the Charter of the United Nations Organization and international law itself remind us, war cannot be decided upon, even when it is a matter of ensuring the common good, except as the very last option and in accordance with very strict conditions, without ignoring the consequences for the civilian population both during and after the military operations. (full text here)

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 Consistent Ethic of Life
Pope John Paul II calls War a Defeat for Humanity:
Neoconservative Iraq Just War Theories Rejected
by Mark and Louise Zwick

The most consistent and frequent promoter of peace and human rights for the last two decades has been Pope John Paul II.

From Iraqi War I to Iraqi War II, he has echoed the voice of Paul VI, crying out before the United Nations in 1965: War No More, War Never Again!

John Paul II stated before the 2003 war that this war would be a defeat for humanity which could not be morally or legally justified.

In the weeks and months before the U.S. attacked Iraq, not only the Holy Father, but also one Cardinal and Archbishop after another at the Vatican spoke out against a "preemptive" or "preventive" strike. They declared that the just war theory could not justify such a war. Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran said that such a "war of aggression" is a crime against peace. Archbishop Renato Martino, who used the same words in calling the possible military intervention a "crime against peace that cries out vengeance before God," also criticized the pressure that the most powerful nations exerted on the less powerful ones on the U.N. Security Council to support the war. The Pope spoke out almost every day against war and in support of diplomatic efforts for peace.

John Paul II sent his personal representative, Cardinal Pio Laghi, a friend of the Bush family, to remonstrate with the U.S. President before the war began. Pio Laghi said such a war would be illegal and unjust. The message was clear: God is not on your side if you invade Iraq.

After the United States began its attacks against Iraq, FOX News actually reported the immediate comments of the Holy Father, made in an address at the Vatican to members of an Italian religious television channel, Telespace: "When war, as in these days in Iraq, threatens the fate of humanity, it is ever more urgent to proclaim, with a strong and decisive voice, that only peace is the road to follow to construct a more just and united society," John Paul said. "Violence and arms can never resolve the problems of man."

Americans were largely unaware of the depth and importance of the opposition of Church leaders to an attack on Iraq, since for the most part the mainstream media did not carry the stories. In the same way, many Americans were unaware that Pope John Paul II spoke against the first Gulf War 56 times. Media in the United States omitted this from the commentaries on the war. (full text here)

Ten Years after 9/11

Colin Powell talks to Al Jazeera

Prostitution rife in US-occupied Iraq

Child Victims of War

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Sexual assault is regarded as the most widespread legacy of
the Genghis Khan's Value System.
Hatred and war mongering belong to the same system of values..

Sexual assault

Sexual assault is an assault of a sexual nature on another person, or any sexual act committed without consent. Although sexual assaults most frequently are by a man on a woman, it may be by a man on a man, woman on a man or woman on a woman, adult on a child, adult on an adult, child on a child or child on an adult.
 What constitutes a sexual assault is determined by the laws of the jurisdiction where the assault takes place. These vary considerably and are influenced by local social and cultural attitudes. Sexual assault may include rape (such as forced vaginal, anal or oral penetration), inappropriate touching, forced kissing, child sexual abuse, or the torture of the victim in a sexual manner. (Wikipedia)

Hate crimes

In crime and law, hate crimes (also known as bias-motivated crimes) occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her perceived membership in a certain social group, usually defined by racial group, religion, sexual orientation, disability, class, ethnicity, nationality, age, gender, gender identity, social status or political affiliation.
A hate crime is a legal category used to described bias-motivated violence: "assault, injury, and murder on the basis of certain personal characteristics: different appearance, different color, different nationality, different language, different religion."
"Hate crime" generally refers to criminal acts that are seen to have been motivated by bias against one or more of the types above, or of their derivatives. Incidents may involve physical assault, damage to property, bullying, harassment, verbal abuse or insults, or offensive graffiti or letters (hate mail). (Wikipedia)

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痴漢は卑怯。
痴漢は決して軽微な犯罪ではありませ ん。
Chikan is dirty.
Molestation is never a minor crime.

女子高 生「痴漢は卑怯 許さない、チカンを撲滅しましょう

Dr Halat’s endless list of reasons
to remain a virgin until marriage
<<<< Published Arguments Page

save the above as poster (bmp)

VIRGINITY MATTERS
Universal Sign Language
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Virgins until Marriage
Civil Society Organization
of the African Union and the European Union