#1
Funny! But you skipped over the part where Chimpy McHilterBurton picks up a corner of the Middle East like a carpet and gives it a shake. The result is a great disturbance in The Force.
About the race riots/aussies fighting back from december.
YESTERDAY a colleague emailed me from New York. The young lawyer - her family lives in Brighton-Le-Sands, a bayside suburb north of Cronulla in Sydney - wrote: "While I agree there is no justifying excuse for the violence and breakdown in order that occurred at Cronulla, it needs to be put in context. Unless you live in an area like Cronulla, Brighton-Le-Sands or Bondi, you have no idea what it is like to have one's suburb regularly inundated with large groups of young Muslim men from the western suburbs who proceed to shoot people [as has happened in Brighton], intimidate people, regularly threaten people within their vicinity with violence, drive around in large groups screaming abuse at people from cars with their music blaring, regularly brawling, etc."
This young woman recounted that all of the girls in her family (except the youngest) have been "subject to harassment inflicted by groups of these men - comments on our appearances, racist comments on our Australian background, unwanted touching, being followed while walking home by groups of men in cars (I was once followed all the way home - have never been so scared in my life), sexually explicit remarks while alone, with friends or with boyfriends, unwanted called-out invitations to have sex with groups of them, etc".
Someone please tell Bob Brown. If ever you needed confirmation that the Greens senator is a disconnected, fringe politician who needs to spend time in Cronulla, it came yesterday when he blamed the appalling violence in Sydney's southern shire on John Howard for having "mired the issue of racism in Australia".
Suggesting that the nation is swamped by racists, that ordinary Australians need some fine moral instruction from the likes of Brown, is just the latest adaptation of the David Williamson school of thought that treats ordinary Australians with disdain. It's a form of elitist self-loathing that gets us nowhere in explaining why thousands of people descended on to the streets of Cronulla in apparent retaliation against the attack on two surf lifesavers by men of Middle Eastern descent.
But as far as digging for root causes goes, this genre of reaction has been entirely predictable. Starting at the downright dumb end of the digging spectrum, sniffy journalists such as The Sydney Morning Herald's David Marr pointed the finger at talkback radio host Alan Jones for stoking the vigilante violence at Cronulla. Never mind that the majority of Jones's audience is older than 40 and the thugs at Cronulla were half that age.
Academic Amanda Wise from Macquarie University's Centre for Research on Social Inclusion blamed it on "John Howard dog-whistling on immigration" and "Bob Carr singling out the ethnicity of rapists". And forgetting the old adage that if you find yourself in a hole, your best bet is to stop digging, Phil Glendenning of the Catholic Edmund Rice Centre went for the Howard quintet of apparent policy neglect: "Through Hansonism, the Tampa incident, children overboard, weapons of mass destruction and the unfair targeting of people of Islamic background over issues like terrorism and Iraq, Australia's young people are growing up in a culture of fear of the other."
Racism was on the streets last weekend. No doubt about it. White supremacists alleged to have links to neo-Nazis admitted they brought in more than 100 people to join the rampage at Cronulla. Young men used their bodies as billboards to read: "We grew here, you flew here". This is racist and it's wrong. Vigilantes bashing young men and women is criminal. But grabbing hold of Hansonism every time racism rears its ugly head and tarring the whole crowd with the same racist brush gets us nowhere.
There is so much more to this than racism. And we're fooling ourselves if we pretend otherwise. Britain has a much deeper experience of cultural tension. And that experience has thrown up some thoughtful debate missing in Australia right now. Last year, David Goodhart, editor of the progressive Prospect, wrote a controversial piece called "Discomfort of strangers". It explored the tenuous fabric that binds us as a society. He pointed to the "progressive dilemma": the conflict between solidarity and diversity. He compared the homogenous nature of British society in the 1950s with the present one, where individualism and diversity have produced a very different society.
He talks about us not just living among strangers but having to share with them. "We share public services and parts of our income in the welfare state, we share public spaces in towns and cities where we are squashed together on buses, trains and tubes, and we share in a democratic conversation about the collective choices we make. All such acts of sharing are more smoothly and generously negotiated if we can take for granted a limited set of common values and assumptions."
Goodhart was hounded for suggesting that throwing people of different cultures together can cause friction. Not because of any latent racism, but because "we feel more comfortable with, and are readier to share with and sacrifice for, those with whom we have shared histories and similar values." That friction is most evident in The Netherlands and Scandinavian countries, societies that were once homogenous but recently have been confronted with immigrants from very different cultures.
As Goodhart says: "To put it bluntly - most of us prefer our own kind." Even to raise such a notion will have the less thoughtful leftists crying racism. But the sooner we recognise human nature, the sooner we can work out where to go from that starting point.
Recognising human nature means that multiculturalism, though a fine sentiment, can only work if we unite behind a core set of values. Unfortunately though, that policy has become a licence for rampant cultural relativism. We are loath to criticise any aspects of cultures (except our own) for fear of sounding terribly judgmental and unfashionably un-multicultural.
Instead, culture is talked about only as an excuse for abhorrent behaviour so that the offender becomes the victim. Last week, a convicted gang rapist claimed he assaulted a 14-year-old girl because she was not wearing traditional Muslim dress and he thought she was promiscuous. Pointing to cultural differences, the 27-year-old Pakistani-born man said: "I believed at the time I committed this offence that she had no right to say no. I believed I'm not doing anything wrong." A month ago his lawyer told the court his client was a "cultural time bomb".
If this view, that culture can be used as an excuse, represents the views of even a subset of Muslim youth, then we have a problem. If we are not talking openly about egregious aspects of some cultures (except as an excuse), we have only ended up with a bigger problem. And, to date, we have not been talking. Multiculturalism has been synonymous with a rights agenda - addressing minority grievances - rather than a framework for talking about responsibilities. The violence that has been brewing in Cronulla, culminating in the disgraceful rampages in recent days, is a pointer that if we're serious about social cohesion, it's time we all demonstrated social responsibility.
#1
Multiculturalism has been synonymous with a rights agenda - addressing minority grievances - rather than a framework for talking about responsibilities.
Remember when word came down from the Vatican that Pope John Paul II had watched Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" and liked it? The anonymously sourced story sparked a media firestorm around the globe as reporters sought confirmation of the papal equivalent of two thumbs up. "It is as it was," we later learned the pope supposedly said. Which sounded like the perfect biblical movie blurb; but did the pontiff actually utter the words?
After some non-clarifying retractions from the Vatican, it was ultimately hard to say for sure -- although not for journalistic want of trying. This natural curiosity stands in striking contrast to the media silence that has met a far more sensational, far more significant report of papal opinion: namely, that Pope Benedict XVI is said to believe that Islam is incapable of reform.
This bombshell dropped out of an early January interview conducted by radio host Hugh Hewitt with the Rev. Joseph D. Fessio, SJ, a friend and former student of the pope. The Rev. Fessio recounted the pope's words on the key problem facing Islamic reform this way: "In the Islamic tradition, God has given His word to Muhammad, but it's an eternal word. It's not Muhammad's word. It's there for eternity the way it is. There's no possibility of adapting it or interpreting it." Fessio continued, elaborating not on how many ratings stars the pope thinks some biopic should get, but rather on the pope's theological assessment of a historically warring religion with a billion-plus followers, some notorious number of whom are now at war with the West. According to his friend, the pope believes there's no way to change Islam because there's no way to reinterpret the Koran -- i.e., change Koranic teachings on infidels, women, polygamy, penal codes and other markers of Islamic law -- in such a way as to propel Islam into happy coexistence with modernity. Rest at link.
Posted by: ed ||
01/24/2006 00:50 ||
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#1
Within the narrow context of Islam as a religion "worthy of belief", the Pope is gener correct as the word died with Mohammed himself. i.e. no way to prove or disprove, except by the study and close analysis of supra-normal or extra-normal events, prophecies and phenomenon. plus of course the quality of Muslim life and civilization. To use MARIAN APPARITIONS as example, "Mary" has appeared, in clearly anatatomically-corect "human" apparition, before massed crowds consisting of both believer, non-believer, secularist and athiest, etc. alike, so has "Jesus", Prophets and Saints. No such characteristic can be claimed, however, to my knowledge for "Mohammedan" apparitions or visions per se, iff any, MadMoud notwithstanding.
#3
Doesn't seem to much of a denial: The meeting was an informal one of the Holy Father and his former students. The presentation and the discussion were in German, and the Holy Father was not speaking from a prepared text. My German is passable but not entirely reliable. My later remarks in a live radio interview were extemporaneous. I think I paraphrased the Holy Father with general accuracy, but it was an indiscretion for me to mention what he said at all, and my impromptu paraphrase in another language should not be used for a careful exegesis of the mind of the Holy Father.
The gist: The pope said it, but he may not have used those exact words. And if you try to pin me down to exactly the words used, I claim ignorance of German. Please don't fatwa my ass.
Posted by: ed ||
01/24/2006 14:14 Comments ||
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Again, and again, and again... and no international outcry for them, funny... but then again, it's their fault : couldn't they be gang leaders, and write some kiddie book?
She's an Iranian teen used by her mother as a prostitute during pre-teen years.
Today, she is a teen-ager with a mental age of eight, and will be killed by the government unless a miracle happens. She faces the death penalty on charges of prostitution.
(Four months ago, another mentally ill female was accused of having sex outside marriage. She was hung.)
Leyla M, a name given the teen, sits in a prison cell. The Iranian Supreme Court mulls over the charges against her: "acts contrary to chastity." Females who are nine years old can be executed for such a crime. Males cannot be executed for such unless they are 15 or older.
According to reporter Angus McDowall in Tehran, the teen girl was coerced to be a prostitute by her mother, set out for sex when only eight. She was raped repeatedly. She had a child at age nine. She became the merchandise for numerous pimps, bearing several more children, according to Amnesty International.
"'The first time I was taken to a man's house by my mum, I was eight. It was a horrible night and I cried a lot, but then my mum came the next day and took me home. She bought me chocolate and cheese curls.'"
Iranian media informs that Leyla "was charged with controlling a brothel, having sex with blood relatives and bearing an illegitimate child."
This is common in Iran. For instance, another female, Atefeh Rajabi, was put to death in August. The judge tied the rope around her neck. She begged for life but to no avail.
One wonders why the feminists worldwide don't rise up in alarm to push these atrocities into past history once and for all. Instead, organizations such as the National Organization for Women continue to champion their own death causes: killing off the unborn, killing off the traditional family, killing off masculinity, killing off Christian morals, killing off one nation after another.
Why then would anyone expect NOW to defend Iranian females who are sent to the gallows because males have trumped up charges against them, after a host of men have mutilated their bodies? Instead, NOW continues its death march while females in that agency permit other females to be maligned globally, particularly by Muslim males.
Muslim males have little or no regard for females. Females are less than cattle. They must shield their bodies so that the world can never see them, can never know their identities. If their ankles show to the displeasure of a male he may beat her. How many female Muslims have been led to soccer stadiums for a male to pull a trigger, setting loose a bullet into the woman's head? Countless.
Therefore, Leyla is sadly only one example of the atrocities committed against Muslim females.
Islam is obviously the devil's religion, manufactured in hell and propagated by the demons' emissaries worldwide. If the nations of the planet don't wake up, all will be consumed by Muslim hatred and murdering males. The terrorists making the news are simply the tip of the Muslim iceberg.
#1
These goat-f*cking cretins don't even do hanging right. To make the "criminal" suffer even more, they hoist the victim by the noose. Slow strangulation. Fun for the mullahs to watch her kick. Did I mention that I despise Islmofascists? Do I need say that I will enjoy hearing it when the turbans are strung up on the light posts in Tehran?
#1
Only 15% of Iraq has been explored. And it can't be as long as terrorists operate. Production levels are about half of what they were at Iraq liberation. The Anglo-American oil fields need to be rapatriated, with concessions to Asian consumers. The locals can go to hell. And their foreign supporters can join the carpet-humpers back in their pig pen homelands.
#2
"Production levels are about half of what they were at Iraq liberation."
Have you got a source for that, Crazi?
My source says "2.093 million bbl/day (2004 est.); note - prewar production (in 2002) was 2.03 million bbl/day (2005 est.)"
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/fields/2173.html
The Koran, Islamic tradition and al Qaeda's leadership shed light on bin Laden's offer.
by Raymond Ibrahim
Osama bin Laden is apparently certain that the vast majority of Americans, including their policy-makers, are ignorant of al-Qaedas goals and strategies. His recent extended truce offer to the Americans suggests as much: after offering the truce, he qualifies its earnestness by asserting for we [Muslims] are a Nation whom Allah has forbidden from breaking pacts and lying. And this is definitely true the Koran and Tradition of the Prophet clearly censure acts of perfidy and deception.
However, there are various doctrines and exceptions also grounded in the Koran and Tradition that assert that lying and pact-breaking, if done for a just cause, such as empowering Islam or preserving ones life, are permitted. Such is the doctrine of Taqiyyah, which is well established in Muslim tradition (e.g., Koran 3:28). According to this doctrine, Believers may in certain circumstances openly deceive infidels by feigning friendship or goodwill even a show of apostasy so long as their heart is secure in its faith.
Also, there are several traditions of the Prophet that justify oath-breaking. For instance, Allahs Messenger [Muhammad] said, He who takes an oath but eventually finds a better way should do that which is better and break his oath [Sahih Muslim 15: 4057].
Even so, it would be unrealistic to assert that the majority of Muslims, assimilated in the world-body, either engage in or possibly even know about these somewhat obscure sayings. But ever-pious al Qaeda both knows and endorses these doctrines of deception, as evidenced by their writings.
For instance, bin Ladens right-hand man, Aymin al-Zawahri, himself the target of a U.S. attack in northern Pakistan just last week, quoting prominent Muslim scholars and imams throughout the ages, writes: We grin to the faces of some peoples, though our hearts curse them .Protection is not accomplished with deeds but with the tongue [i.e., dissembling] . [D]emonstrate friendship to the infidels with your tongues, while harboring hostility towards them .The Prophet, prayers and peace be upon him, said, War is deceit. . Now deception in warfare requires that the mujahid bide his time and wait for an opportunity against his enemy, while avoiding confrontation at all possible costs. For triumph, in almost every case, is [achieved] through deception. Rest at link.
Posted by: ed ||
01/24/2006 00:56 ||
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I thought it was only wrong if Muslims lie to Muslims.All others are fair game.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
