Mohamed wrote,

Surah 3:118 - O ye who believe! Take not for intimates others than your own folk.

You mention this part of the verse but you make no effort to continue the verse. We all know that we can cut anything out of context and make it mean what we want. Here is the full verse: Surah 3:118: you who believe, do not take for your intimates such outsiders who spare no effort to ruin you and want to see you suffer, their hatred is evident from their mouth, but what their hearts conceal is far worse.

I would like to add that Muslims can leave everything in context and still have it mean what they want. The translation that Mohamed uses would have us believe that the instruction warns Muslims not to make friends with those who want to see them ruined and destroyed. What moron would purposely make friends with someone they know wants to kill them? Why give a warning that is so obvious? Can you imagine a warning label that says, "Do not forcibly stick the screwdriver in your eye, it may injure you?"

Let's change the subject from Muslim to Jews and the object from infidels to Nazis and see how it scans: "Oh Jews! Do not make friends with Nazis who will only destroy you."

Those who recall modern history and understand English grammar will understand that the warning is not instructing Jews to avoid only some particular subset of Nazis who want to destroy them, but to avoid all Nazis because all Nazis want to destroy them.

Surah 3:118 is worthless unless it is warning Muslims against making friends with any infidel. Here is the true translation: 3:118 - Muslims! Make not friends with infidels: for they will corrupt you. Their desire is to ruin you.

Here are a few Islamic sources whose English translations confirm my version of Surah 3:118 rather than the innocuous one given by my reader.

Interpretation of Koran, Surah 3: Ale-Imran

3: 118 – O Momenin! Do not take in confidence those who are outside your circle. Because they will not miss any chance to inflict harm upon you. They gloat over your distress. Some of their enmity is articulated. But what they conceal in their hearts is even more harmful. We have told you all this very clearly only if you would reflect upon it.

Islamicity.com, Surah 3. The Family Of 'Imran, The House Of 'Imran

118. O ye who believe! Take not into your intimacy those outside your ranks: They will not fail to corrupt you. They only desire your ruin: Rank hatred has already appeared from their mouths: What their hearts conceal is far worse. We have made plain to you the Signs, if ye have wisdom.

MuslimAccess, Âl 'Imrân Surah 3. The Family Of 'Imran

3:118 O ye who believe! Take not into your intimacy those outside your ranks: They will not fail to corrupt you. They only desire your ruin: Rank hatred has already appeared from their mouths: What their hearts conceal is far worse. We have made plain to you the Signs, if ye have wisdom.

American Muslim converts who read the kinder, gentler 'Meccan Verses' of the Qur’an and who we would describe as moderate Muslims are carriers of a disease that will eventually infect the entire country. They will breed children who, because they were born Muslim, can never abandon their faith. One day some of those children will read or hear the savage and brutal 'Medina verses' of the Quran and become Jihadists. It is because of this potentiality that I call them carriers. Moderate Muslims are more dangerous than blatant extremists precisely because they can infect more people. Who is more dangerous: the carrier with obvious physical symptoms who everyone knows has Typhoid fever or the seemingly asymptomatic, silent killer who unknowingly has Typhoid but spreads the disease among the populace? See Typhoid Mary.

In my post How to differentiate Moderate Muslims from Extremists, I wrote, "Of course, not all 1.5 billion Muslims are terrorists. But so what? The problem with allowing Muslims into our country is not that there might be one terrorist out of a thousand; the problem is that the other 999 make a fertile media in which the terrorist may thrive."

Reader Mohamed Shedou is either

• An innocent Muslim dupe who has limited knowledge about the Quran.

or
• Someone who knows precisely how to hide from non-Muslims the barbaric portions of the Quran - those portions as practiced in real Islamic nations such as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
  or
  
• A well-meaning, knowledgeable Muslim who cannot bear to see the true face of Islam and mistranslates the Quran in the most favorable light possible because he cannot believe his religion to be evil.

Misguided former infidels who now embrace Islam as practiced in Western, civilized, non-savage, non-primitive countries will be surprised one day when Muslims become so numerous that their nation adopts Shariah Law and their once-benign practice of Islam turns ugly and deadly. Wearing the veil will no longer be voluntary, even for Christian women.

For an insightful and revealing analysis of the Pinocchio story read:

Mayerson on Animation, 17 May 2007, Right & Wrong: Morality and the Story Structure of Pinocchio

In Pinocchio, the characters Pinocchio, Jiminy Cricket and Geppetto are faced with dilemmas, and their own actions result in them becoming victims of evil. Only by behaving in a moral fashion can they avoid or escape evil. While they eventually learn to act correctly, the triumph over evil is never final. Each decision exposes them again to the possibility of victimization, so each decision must be morally based.