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religion-is-a-mental-illness · 7 months

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By: Metta World Peace

Published: Oct 30, 2023

Lately, a lot of people have been asking me, “How do you feel about this situation with Israel and Gaza? I’m sure you know people on both sides.”

And I tell them, “I know Israeli Jews, and I know American Jews. And both have relatives, friends and loved ones who were raped, tortured and killed Oct. 7.”

Hamas has inflicted terror on innocent Israelis — more than 1,400 of whom were murdered in a single day of savagery not seen since ISIS’s horrific attacks in the 2010s.

Yet every day, new painful details of rape, mutilation and torture continue to emerge.

Hamas’ terrorist attack on the Tribe of Nova music festival was heartbreaking.

It was something straight out of a movie and would have been America’s worst mass-shooting event of all time had it happened on US soil.

At least 260 young people were butchered (60 were killed in the worst such shooting in American history, at a 2016 Las Vegas festival).

Having grown up in Queens’ Queensbridge projects, I’ve lived through many traumatic events, but I’ve never seen anything like this: 80% of bodies were tortured, including electrocuted, burned alive, limbs cut off, eyes gouged out and, again and again, the targeted rape of women and girls.

Captors referred to very young girls they kidnapped as “concubines.”

Hamas took at least 222 hostages from many nations, including America, into Gaza, where evidence has already emerged of continuing sexual abuse.

As someone who has dedicated my post-NBA career to ensuring people get the mental-health support they need, I cannot fathom the mental-health crisis this terrorist attack has inflicted on Israelis.

What’s happened in Israel isn’t war; it is inhumanity.

There were mass rapes so brutal they broke their victim’s pelvises — women, grandmothers, children.

A baby was cut out of a pregnant woman and beheaded; then the mother was beheaded.

This must be unequivocally condemned.

Let’s now talk about what’s happening on the other side of the border, where I also know people who are living in fear after Hamas decided to put its own brutal agenda ahead of the interest of the Palestinian people. Gazans too are being terrorized by Hamas’ barbaric actions.

I know Palestinians who live in fear of those same terrorists, and we must have empathy for the children in Palestine who have been hurt.

We are all human, and empathy is an essential value of the human experience.

We must also recognize there is no moral equivalence between terrorist killers and the innocents they destroy so brutally.

Everyone must have the courage to say this when mobs of antisemites are marching through America’s college campuses and the streets of cities around the world, chanting “gas the Jews” and tearing down pictures of kidnapped Israeli children.

As an activist myself, I know firsthand there is a better path: a path toward peace and love that does not start with justifying terrorizing innocent civilians.

Pro-Hamas rallies have taken place in my hometown of New York under the guise of promoting peace.

These rallies, unfortunately, have done nothing to promote peace; instead, they justify terror against innocent civilians.

The participants displayed a concerning lack of condemnation for Hamas.

While freedom of expression is crucial, it’s essential to distinguish between advocating for peace and supporting groups that refuse to condemn atrocities against innocent civilians.

Responsible activism should unequivocally denounce all forms of terrorism.

These rallies failed to live up to this basic standard.

If you can’t condemn harming innocents amidst horrific images of Jewish babies in cages, then you need to check yourself.

If you want to help Palestinians, the best way to support them is by first supporting tangible steps toward peace by freeing Gaza from Hamas and letting the Palestinian people decide their own future without being controlled by a repressive terrorist organization.

Free Gaza from Hamas and its injustice once and for all.

Only then will we have a chance at peace.

Metta World Peace, born Ronald William Artest Jr., is a former NBA player who played for 19 seasons and won an NBA championship with the Los Angeles Lakers. He is a staunch advocate for mental health, even auctioning his championship ring to benefit mental-health charities.

Reminder that concubines are sex-slaves, referred to euphemistically as "those whom your right hand possess."

https://quranx.com/Hadith/Muslim/USC-MSA/Book-8/Hadith-3432/

Abu Sa'id al-Khudri (Allah her pleased with him) reported that at the Battle of Hanain Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) sent an army to Autas and encountered the enemy and fought with them. Having overcome them and taken them captives, the Companions of Allah's Messenger (may peace te upon him) seemed to refrain from having intercourse with captive women because of their husbands being polytheists. Then Allah, Most High, sent down regarding that: " And women already married, except those whom your right hands possess (iv. 24)" (i. e. they were lawful for them when their 'Idda period came to an end).

https://quranx.com/4.24

And [also prohibited to you are all] married women except those your right hands possess. [This is] the decree of Allah upon you. And lawful to you are [all others] beyond these, [provided] that you seek them [in marriage] with [gifts from] your property, desiring chastity, not unlawful sexual intercourse. So for whatever you enjoy [of marriage] from them, give them their due compensation as an obligation. And there is no blame upon you for what you mutually agree to beyond the obligation. Indeed, Allah is ever Knowing and Wise.

https://askimam.org/public/question_detail/17032

One question that still remains is whether slavery still legally prevails anywhere in the Islamic world and whether it can be successfully implemented in this age… Firstly, the prisoners have to be captured in 'Jihaad' in the true sense of the word… According to Islamic Law, captive female prisoners are also part and parcel of the booty. One fifth of the booty has to be first distributed to the needy, orphans, etc. The remaining four-fifths should then be distributed among the soldiers who participated in the war. The distribution can only take effect after the booty is brought into Islamic territory. The Ameerul-Mu'mineen (Head of the Islamic State) remains the guardian of the female prisoners until he allocates them to the soldiers. Only after a soldier has been allotted a slave girl, and made the owner of her, will she become his lawful possession. After she spends a period called 'Istibraa', which is the elapse of one menstrual period, it becomes permissible for her owner to have relations with her.

Islamically, they're fair game by the terrorists.

I'm not surprised by Hamas brutality. But I was surprised by the scale of their attack. Not to this degree. Wiping out entire communities, messing with nuclear power, the most powerful country in the region, a country with a trauma, great trauma from the past, with a memory of the Holocaust and all the Nazis did in the past century.

They opened the gates of hell on the Palestinian people. This is how irresponsible this group of people are. They are willing to actually sacrifice many Palestinian children, the entire Palestinian people and use them as fuel to just achieve their ideological agendas, their religious agendas. They are careless. They don't care for the human life.

We have to separate between what so-called Palestinian cause and Hamas cause. Hamas cause is a sick one. It's coming from the pit of hell. And they need to be removed from power.

This is my message. As an ex-Hamas member, as a son of one of Hamas founders, that enough of this. If we don't stop them now, the next war is going to be deadlier. And only god knows what will happen next if Hamas is not finished as soon as possible.

#Metta World Peace #Metta Sandiford Artest #Ron Artest #Hamas #Israel #Palestine #Gaza #Gaza Strip #islam #islamic violence #islamic terrorism #jihad #free palestine #free palestine from hamas #free gaza #free gaza from hamas #exterminate hamas #down with hamas #religion is a mental illness

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diarioelpepazo · 7 months

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El exjugador Metta Sandiford-Artest hace la arriesgada predicción Wembanyama asombra en la NBA. Va camino a grandes cosas. [caption id="attachment_91284" align="aligncenter" width="542"] Wembanyama. Foto Cortesía[/caption] MARCA BASKET Desde que Victor Wembanyama debutara en la NBA se ha escrito y se ha dicho de todo sobre él. Siempre en términos grandilocuentes, pues sus actuaciones han sido sobresalientes tanto en lo estadístico como en los detalles y se ha confirmado como difícilmente defendible. Sin embargo, nadie había ido tan lejos como Metta Sandiford-Artest. El exjugador antes conocido Ron Artest y Metta World Peace ha asegurado en las redes sociales que Wembanyama, con sus 2,24 metros y 2,44 de envergadura, meterá más puntos que nadie en un solo partido de la NBA. "Será el primer jugador en anotar más de 100 puntos en un partido. Superará a Wilt", escribió en una predicción arriesgadísima. Wilt Chamberlain consiguió anotar 100 puntos en un partido disputado el 2 de marzo de 1962 cuando militaba en los Philadelphia Warriors y ayudó a derrotar a los New York Knicks por 169-147. El registro está considerado como uno de los esos récords de la NBA que jamás de podrán batir. Kobe el que más se acercó... y se quedó a 19 Quien más se acercó fue Kobe Bryant, que el 22 de enero de 2006 le endosó 81 puntos a los Raptors. Ya fue todo una gesta, una actuación sobrenatural, y aún le restaron 19 para igualar la imposible marca de Chamberlain. Con Wembanyama, las expectativas están disparadas. Ningún novato había acaparado tanto interés desde la llegada de LeBron James en 2003. Dado su físico y sus condiciones, hay quien espera que tenga actuaciones nunca vistas hasta ahora en la NBA, aunque quizás sea demasiado pronosticar que vaya a arrebatar el récord de anotación a uno de los jugadores más dominantes que jamás hayan jugado. Mucha presión para el francés de 19 años, que por ahora la lleva bien. Para recibir en tu celular esta y otras informaciones, únete a nuestras redes sociales, síguenos en Instagram, Twitter y Facebook como @DiarioElPepazo El Pepazo/Marca

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aqsaa8685 · 1 year

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Denver Nuggets Role Players Get to Be Stars, Too

LOS ANGELES — To win a championship in the N.B.A., a team almost always needs at least one transcendent player. But the championship journey will also depend on how well a team’s role players do their jobs. The Lakers, with 17 titles, know this well. Would they have won in 2010 without Metta Sandiford-Artest, or in 2002 without Robert Horry? Shaquille O’Neal, who won three championships for the…

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ansraali · 1 year

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Denver Nuggets Role Players Get to Be Stars, Too

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amdia80 · 1 year

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Denver Nuggets Role Players Get to Be Stars, Too

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iqrakanjri7878 · 1 year

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Denver Nuggets Role Players Get to Be Stars, Too

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iqra8482 · 1 year

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Denver Nuggets Role Players Get to Be Stars, Too

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namt · 1 year

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Ring Chaser: Ron Artest, the Indiana Pacers, and the Los Angeles Lakers

Despite having an unconventional career, Metta World Peace achieved a lot of things that many players have only dreamed of. Metta Sandiford-Artest did not have an ideal NBA career. He was drafted in 1999 by the Chicago Bulls –a year after Michael Jordan retired- but didn’t get any recognition until he was traded to the Indiana Pacers in 2001. There, he was on track to have a Hall of Fame…

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#NBA #NBA history

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bookwormlily · 3 years

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Untold: Malice at the Palace (2021)

#untold malice at the palace #floyd russ #metta world peace #metta sandiford artest #ron artest

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xtruss · 3 years

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The Skirvin: The US' Most Haunted Hotel?

— By Ross Kenneth Urken | 29th October 2021

(Image credit: Betty LaRue/Alamy)

The century-old hotel is rumoured to be haunted by an amorous Prohibition-era chambermaid.

In perhaps an ill-advised move, I booked a stay with my family at what may be the US' most haunted hotel – and one of its most notorious.

The Skirvin Hilton, the grande dame of Oklahoma City – a sort of Waldorf Astoria in America's Heartland – is an imposing 14-storey, Art Deco property from 1911 that's said to be haunted by Effie, a Prohibition-era chambermaid who jumped to her death with a love child fathered by hotel founder WB Skirvin. Such stories, like the tornadoes that plague the region, have swept through the hotel's English Gothic lobby into the city and beyond, most notably among visiting NBA basketball teams who have overnighted here before playing the Oklahoma City Thunder, only to experience inexplicable creaks, groans, cries and ghostly molestations.

"There's the spooky, sad Effie, and then there's the Effie that wants to get it on to Barry White music," said Steve Lackmeyer, co-author of the book Skirvin, as we sat at the hotel's Red Piano Bar. "And with the NBA it tends to be the latter. This is the most legendary ghost story in Oklahoma City, if not the entire state. You have even these famous people claiming they've had encounters with a horny Effie."

The Skirvin has spooked NBA athletes and regular guests for years (Credit: Betty LaRue/Alamy)

Lakers forward Metta Sandiford-Artest, formerly known as Ron Artest, claimed he was assaulted by an amorous ghost at the Skirvin in 2016. In 2010, Ed Curry, a seven foot, 295-pound centre for the New York Knicks, slinked off to spend most of his Skirvin stay in the room of 5'9, 180-pound teammate Nate Robinson for protection. Kyrie Irving, now with the Brooklyn Nets, has plans to star in a film about the Skirvin's hauntings.

"I don't think it's haunted," said Petra Germany, the hotel's current artist-in-residence who makes cosplay weapons and armour. "I think NBA players are just a bunch of sissies."

The words "HELP ME" have been known to appear on foggy bathroom mirrors

"People will tell us their lights will flicker at night or a closet door will slam unexpectedly or there will be a creaking door," said Don Jackson, the Skirvin's director of sales and marketing. "There are some haunted stories floating around out there about the hotel, but we prefer to stay away from them since they have never been proven to have happened."

I mentioned to Jackson that a guest I met who was attending a conference at the hotel claimed her colleague discovered the words "HELP ME" written in the post-shower mirror fog. He responded: "We've had recent reports that that verbiage may appear in the mirror."

Look closely and even some of the hotel's small details can seem rather creepy (Credit: Ross Kenneth Urken)

Effie aside, the hotel has a colourful past. Its first manager is said to have shot himself in 1913 – a suicide that was later investigated as a murder. A rigged roulette wheel and Prohibition hijinks fomented Wild West-style gun fights inside the place. But for hotel management, the legendary visitors of yesteryear – past guests include US presidents Dwight Eisenhower, Harry Truman and Ronald Reagan, as well as Paul McCartney and Elvis Presley – is the true ghostly inheritance the property bears.

"The history and grandeur of The Skirvin are palpable," said general manager Skip Harless. "It feels almost haunted by or heavy with the DNA of all those who have visited here and all that has happened in this special, majestic place."

"I'm a see-it-to-believe-it gal," said Kelsey Huber, the hotel's express meeting manager, during an elevator ride. Raised in a funeral home, she said she's seen no evidence of paranormal activity during her 10 years at the hotel beyond the costume-wearing Mary Kay conference attendees infiltrating the premises. "But never say never…" she added as the lift's bell chimed.

To get a more in-depth understanding of the hotel, I sought out Susan Riley, who, until recently, served as its in-house historian.

During Riley's six and a half years working at the hotel, she claimed she often heard a crying baby during her shifts, but later realised that when a side door was opened in blustery Oklahoma, it let in a banshee-like cry from the gust.

A woman in a red dress is said to lurk in the Skirvin's halls (Credit: Betty LaRue/Alamy)

Climbing up to the 10th floor, we searched, to no avail, for a bullet hole supposedly lodged near the elevator bank in one of the many Wild West-style shootouts; while up on the 11th floor, a "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door handle flapped strangely, perhaps from a draught beneath the door. Riley added that a woman in a red dress, not always detectable as a phantasm, is said to lurk in the halls.

"The acoustics are alive," she said, snapping her fingers, as we reached the Venetian Room, an ornate ballroom on the top floor. "This room has the most ghostly activity." She explained that she'd set up banquets here only to return the next morning to find tables and place settings inexplicably disorganised. She wondered whether it could be explained by a recent uptick in earthquakes instead.

Dr Bryan Farha, a professor and director of applied behavioural studies at Oklahoma City University and the author of Pseudoscience and Deception: The Smoke and Mirrors of Paranormal Claims, told me he surveyed the Skirvin in 2004 to search for ghosts.

My wife claimed she heard ghostly laughter some nights

"I walked every inch of every floor and found nothing of substance," he said. "And I did so under the creepiest of conditions – before the restoration, below freezing with the electricity shut off, so a flashlight was the only means of visibility most of the time. Still, nothing was found. Just an old, empty, cold hotel."

After my wife claimed she heard ghostly laughter some nights, Tanya McCoy, a ghost hunter who founded the Oklahoma Paranormal Association – which offers murder mystery dinners and ghost walks throughout the state – came by our room with her husband to investigate.

"You can just lay your hand on the wood downstairs and feel the energy," McCoy said. "It's crazy."

McCoy wielded her phone as she used the GhostTube SLS app to capture a green stick-figure outline sitting in the baby carriage, which was unoccupied to the naked eye. A spirit, she said, was sitting in our stroller. My daughter slept in the next room.

The author recruited a team of professional ghost hunters during his stay at the Skirvin (Credit: Ross Kenneth Urken)

McCoy scrolled through her various apps with care, as she'd recently popped a tendon in her right pinkie after falling in The Raven's Gate, her occultist shop. "Possibly the result of a push from a demon," she said.

She ran through tools to monitor electromagnetic fields (EMF) and record electronic voice phenomena (EVP): a parascope to track static electricity, a device used by fire departments to find hot spots and an REM Pod and a Geo Pod (to track disembodied footsteps).

Stepping into the hall, McCoy had her husband pull up his Ghost Hunting Tools app that, he claimed, allows a spirit to attach itself to different frequencies and communicate intelligently in slow drips of language through a text box. She used her phone to scan the hallway for visuals.

It's a ghost

"Get out," read the words on the Ghost Hunting Tools app. A shiver ran down my spine.

We walked through the hallway on the hunt and felt a temperature shift. Could it have been a draught?

"It's a ghost," McCoy said – an adult one. She noted that she felt a shiver from the top of her head down and showed me the goosebumps on her arm as we moved towards the elevator bank.

The outline of a tall figure seated on the hotel's chairs appeared on the Ghost Hunting Tools screen (Credit: Betty LaRue/Alamy)

"Seat", appeared on the Ghost Hunting Tools screen. McCoy, using GhostTube SLS, showed the stick-figure outline of a tall figure seated on the jade-green chairs in front of the lift. McCoy said it was a man in his late 20s named Charles who was a contractor downtown pre-1950. She told me she felt a pain at the back of her head – often, she explained, ghosts will want to indicate to the living how they died.

Back down the hallway, we passed another cold spot in a slightly different location. I felt a shiver, and goosebumps again appeared on McCoy's arm. "It's coming from 813," she said, pointing to the door in front of us.

"Pen" appeared on the app. Lowering my pen from my notebook, I then became sufficiently uneasy and decided I'd had enough.

McCoy handed me a small perfume sample-sized glass container of protection potion – an olive oil base with a hodgepodge of herbs.

"Your own shield in a vial," she said.

That night, I kept a watchful vigil over my wife and daughter – the neon glow of the nightstand alarm clock throwing eerie shadows around our room as I stayed alert for signs of Charles and, yes, Effie.

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