Friday, May 04, 2007
BE THE BEST YOU CAN BE
Having rebuilt Mr Meat’s reputation - more on that from Brendan Shanahan - the Sydney Morning Herald continues its Islam outreach program:
For Sydney’s Muslims, there have been six years of relentless bad press that started even before the seminal events of September 11, 2001.
Six years of bad press, eh? And why might that be?
The saturation coverage of the gang rapes by Sydney men of Middle Eastern heritage followed shortly afterwards by the waves of mostly Muslim asylum seekers “jumping the queue” preceded the terrorist attacks on September 11. The prosecution of the “war on terrorism”, the Cronulla riots and subsequent reprisals and the antics of Sheik Taj el-Din al Hilaly have all garnered acres of coverage.
While many of the issues merit reporting ...
No, stop right there; let’s not turn this into a redneck hate fest. Besides, the SMH has further happy news:
Conversion among indigenous Australians is growing, driven by the higher visibility of Islam, a rejection of Christianity as a post-colonial religion, identification with Islamic principles, and conversions in prisons where Aborigines dominate the population.
I doubt that. So, it turns out, does the writer:
Their first contact with Islam sometimes, but not always, comes in jail, where as many as 22 per cent of inmates are indigenous Australians.
Twenty-two per cent is a dominant amount? Lancet must’ve done the math here.
Rocky Davis, known as Shaheed Malik, converted while serving 14 years for armed robberies and other offences. It was the story of Malcolm X, the gangster and black American nationalist leader who became a convert to Islam, that first inspired Davis.
How touching.
“What does Islam stand for? Islam offers a faith untainted by colonialism and racism. It is a liberating religion,” says Davis. “Though the Bible said you shalt not kill, they killed, thou shall not rape, they raped our women, thou shalt not steal, they stole our land. Islam at its essence is pure. My forefathers had no army and no guns and lived in Aboriginal townships and camps. That’s the difference between the Muslim and Christian faiths: one is for the oppressed and one’s for the oppressor, one’s for the coloniser and one for the colonised.”
And one’s for armed robbers serving 14 years.
Peta Stephenson, a doctoral fellow at the University of Melbourne’s Asia Institute, says Islam doesn’t share the baggage of missionary Christianity, and has become one path by which Aborigines can affirm their pre-colonial identity.
“Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X are role models,” she says. “A lot of people see Islam as an answer to the ills of Western society. For communities suffering chronic levels of unemployment or underemployment and substance abuse it might have special appeal for those wanting to break away from the statistics.”
Andrew Bolt: “So to reject British colonialism and affirm a ‘pre-colonial identity’, Aborigines adopt a Middle Eastern faith with American role models. Er, OK. And to revolt against the statistics of unemployment, they take on the faith of that part of the world that suffers worst from poverty.”
Islam, says Stephenson, has proved a positive experience for males. “I’ve consistently found men who say they were once angry but having identified with Islam they come away with a sense of peace and a real need to do good in the community. Islam teaches you to be the best person you can.”
It’s sure working out for these guys.
(Via ann j)
THEY DO TEND TO BE A LITTLE FIXATED
Jack Marx mocks the indivertible left.
Thursday, May 03, 2007
TRUTHERS GROUNDED
Virgin Atlantic comes to its senses:
We will not be showing Loose Change 2 on our aircraft. We don’t show movies or documentaries that cause mass offence and there is a danger with this movie that viewers, although they have the choice over what to watch and when on our flights, may be offended.
Just to make sure, let’s check Virgin’s onboard entertainment guide; all truther nonsense has been removed. Good.
HOLY DOCUMENT VIOLATED
A young Canadian Gore disciple – he’s seen An Inconvenient Truth three times - attends a Gore lecture, only to discover something terrible:
I had read blog comments before which indicated that Al Gore is a religious man, which intrigued me, because from his movie, he comes across as a man who is ready to accept science as the proper methodology (versus evangelical faith in biblical literalism). He did not mention any kind of religious beliefs in the movie …
During his live slideshow today, however, he showed his true colors. One of his slides was a quote from Genesis, which he used to show that humans are the stewards of biodiversity.
The blasphemer quotes rival scripture!
The slide I found particularly interesting/shocking/sad, was his new(?) slide containing a graph of human population growth over the past couple hundred-thousand years. It started off good. He pointed at the beginning of the graph, showing the population of humans on Earth from 200,000 years ago, and referred to the “rise of humans.”
Cool beans. So he believes that Homo sapiens evolved from other hominid ancestors, right? Nope.
In the very same breath, he then continued to explain that according to his religious beliefs, this “rise of humans” was God’s creation of mankind - apparently 200,000 years ago. His graph then changed to include the caption “Adam & Eve” above this starting point.
Apparently those words are a grave insult to the Sciencian faith.
He tarnishes his beautifully crafted presentation by not only stating his belief in creationism - but by placing the words “Adam and Eve” right on the slide (which is actually a scientific graph) as a caption explaining the beginnings of mankind.
He put the terrible words RIGHT ON A SCIENTIFIC GRAPH? Forget Korans down toilets, people. This is serious.
(Via Paul Wright)
PENGUINS GASPING
Broadcast last night on SBS:
Aaron Lewis joins two Antarctic veterans as they return to assess the dramatic changes that global warming has wrought. They find receding glaciers and penguins literally gasping for air as the temperature heats up. An international current affairs program, presented by George Negus.
Via Chris S., who writes: “How on earth do penguins survive in places like Taronga Zoo if they are ‘literally gasping for air as the temperature heats up’ in Antarctica?” Beats me, but surely it’s only a matter of time now before penguins begin stalking humans, just like their friends over in the Arctic.
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
FLY THE TRUTHY SKIES
The latest entertainment aboard Virgin Atlantic flights:
Was 9/11 a government set up? You decide.
Everyone’s talking about it so we thought you’d like to see the film that started out as a home movie and became one of the most downloaded documentaries of all time. Was 9/11 a government set up? Were the twin towers brought down in a controlled explosion for an insurance payday?
These questions and more are posed in this controversial film, seen by millions, derided by many. Now it’s your chance to make up your own mind.
Will Virgin allow its passengers to make up their own mind about global warming? Not likely. Email or phone Virgin here.
FIX THAT ADDRESS
Our colourful leftoid friend Bryan Law emails:
I’ve started a blog, Rise Up to End War. Tip: Userpics in the profile are occasionally hilarious.
My first post is the first draft of my opening address to the jury. I want to put it through a democratic polishing, and get acquitted. I’m sure your readers could help.
I’d be grateful if you could make a small announcement and maybe links between us.
I’ll be updating the blog every few days till the trial, and will give a blow by blow during the trial.
Cheers
Bryan
Happy to help, Bryan! Readers: get to work polishing his opening address.
NO BLOOD FOR WARMTH
Time magazine’s Alex Perry knows how to prevent the next Darfur:
As climate change shrinks the availability of arable land and natural resources, Africa will need the developed world to do its part to curb the carbon emissions that contribute to global warming.
In support of his theory, Perry quotes UK foreign secretary Margaret Beckett.
WRESTLERS AGAINST W
It’s May Day moonbat madness in Union Square, featuring Super Turnbuckle Justice Man:
And the Great Jebus W. Bushlerburton Smiter:
Via Little Green Footballs. Also via LGF: Truthers in Trucking Turmoil!:
HYPE NECESSARY
A Greenist admits:
Is Global Warming being over hyped? Probably. But the planet needs to get out of the hole it currently is in by a world dominated by the oil and coal industries! The hype is necessary to try and remove the dependency from these money hungry, egotistical, evil SOBs!
So the main problem isn’t global warming, but “egotistical, evil SOBs!” Interesting. Tim Flannery also believes in necessary hype.
FISK DENIED SCURRYING RIGHTS
“When did the sands run out for us journalists?” asks Robert Fisk, pondering the kidnapping of reporters by Middle Eastern goons. “When did the moment of immunity pass away?”
Robert wonders if immunity was lost when journalists wore flak jackets during the 1990 Gulf War, or due to “cancerous, repetitive use” of the word “terrorism” in news reports, or “when we grew used to what Martin Bell calls the ‘two palm trees’, the Monty Python-like shrubbery that stands as a back-lot to almost every BBC report from the roof of its Baghdad office”.
Familiarity with palm trees provokes abductions? Talk about your root causes. But Fisk is just biding time before his default blame-apportioner kicks in:
Neither the Americans nor the British want us scurrying around unsupervised in Iraq, nosing out the lies of our governments, uncovering the dirty deeds of the US air force in Iraq or, for that matter, in Afghanistan.
Fisk knows they’re lying even before he’s found the evidence. According to Fisk, he enjoyed easy travel throughout the Middle East before 1983, after which negotiations with local gunmen became fraught (“America kills Muslims. Why you want to kill Muslims? Are you a spy?”). Now the poor fellow can’t go anywhere:
We cannot move in most of Iraq for fear of being butchered by our countries’ enemies. We cannot move in southern Afghanistan. Italian journalists might be ransomed by their governments. Afghan journalists - I am thinking of the reporter/translator of the Italian who was kidnapped - simply have their heads chopped off.
Note: by Fisk’s formulation, this is the fault of the West, not of the people actually killing journalists. They’re mere reactive lifeforms, like territorial insects.
Never has reporting been so circumscribed by these terrors. Never have we been so poorly informed.
Well, not since Fisk’s previous column, anyway. Fisk asked at the top of this piece: “When did the moment of immunity pass away?” Now he supplies an answer - during World War II:
When an AP correspondent was dropped with American troops behind enemy lines, the Germans executed him along with their other prisoners.
But that doesn’t count:
This is not the Second World War. Nor is it - Lord Blair of Kut al-Amara, please note - World War Three. We are illegally fighting wars across the Middle East, supporting occupation and - by our frivolous support for the most objectionable governments - killing tens of thousands of innocents.
Fisk doesn’t identify these “most objectionable governments”. Hmmm.
As journalists we can oppose this. We can raise our voices against these great injustices. But only if we are free. Yes, of course, I add my voice to those demanding the release of Alan Johnston. His imprisonment is a disaster for the Palestinians and for all the Arabs of the Middle East.
It’s more of a disaster for Alan Johnston, but Fisk is looking at the big picture:
As long as he is held, how can we cover the atrocities of Iraq and Afghanistan as well as Gaza?
(Via Chris T., who observes that Fisk doesn’t mention Daniel Pearl.)
MIND DANCED IN
Labor recruit Mia Handshin - an impressive and competent candidate whom we’ve met before - thanks her hosts following some sort of Molokai retreat:
Hi all you magnificent souls,
Just want to send a twinkling smile your way in appreciation of the special part you play in my almost daily memory of our time on Molokai. You all dance in my mind each time I sit in my meditation space and see the photo I have there of my favourite spot at the Hui. It offers a beautiful reminder to keep my heart as open as it was during that week we shared.
I am moving closer to my wedding now and I want you to know that you have been magnificent, vibrant threads in the tapestry of blessings that I will take with me into my marriage and next stage of my life. I will be sure to send you all a photo of my special day.
In the meantime if you want to catch a glimpse of some of my work, you could log onto http://www.adelaidenow.com.au. This is the official website of the daily newspaper in South Australia that I have written for for over 9 years. I am now doing freelance work online including writing a blog and compiling pod casts. My latest creation is called a Chain of Pods- an ongoing series of six interviews in which each interviewee recommends the next in the chain.
Lots of love and many blessings to you all,
Mia
Her maiden speech to Parliament will be sensational.
BILL’S BIG MOUTH
Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan has apologised to Julia Gillard. As he should, the big idiot.
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
RESISTANCE SYMBOLISED
The SMH’s Ben Cubby kisses up to our Cat-Meat Sheik:
Wry, charismatic and otherworldly, Hilaly has managed to mould himself into a symbol of resistance to the more materialistic elements in Australian culture, a stand that apparently appeals to many who follow Islam here.
Something that also might appeal: the article describes Hilaly as a “former sharia court judge”. It’d be interesting to know the sentences he imposed.
“I condemn and deplore the Holocaust and all the massacres that the Jews faced at the hands of the Nazis,” Hilaly says. “However, I, like many researchers in the world, shy off the number of innocent victims that had been estimated at 6 million.”
Key word: “innocent”.
Devotees tell an anecdote they believe shows the mufti’s character: Hilaly took a troubled young man into his home to offer him guidance, only to have his wallet stolen by the youth. “When I saw him and saw the wallet with him and the police came and placed him on the ground, I began to feel sorry for him and wept in sadness,” Hilaly says.
“I decided to divide my money with him and gave him $400. I asked the police to let him go and I agreed to forgo my rights against him.”
A measly $400 is nothing to Mr Meat, who is accustomed to carrying much larger sums.