Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Fashion victims
A letter to the Times.
Sir, While I oppose Nicolas Sarkozy’s right-wing and pro-American agenda, I commend the French leader for questioning the validity of full-face veiling for Muslim women (report, June 23). The Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford (Meco) has championed the unequivocal right of Muslim women not to wear either the hijab (headscarf) or face covering (niqab/burka) in the light of pristine Koranic teachings.
For too long a foreign-inspired Muslim clergy that defends female inferiority and gender discrimination has subjected Muslims in the West to virulent indoctrination. This brainwashing stems from the Middle East and South Asia but has no Koranic foundation. It is propagated by nefarious factions, including the hardline Wahhabi-Ikwani-Salafi-
Deobandi sects. These currently ascendant sexist groups in Europe peddle the myth that full body covering and face concealment for women is a religious requirement. On the contrary, it is nothing more than a cultural choice, a personal preference. The mullahs fail to tell their flocks that nowhere in Islam’s transcendent text is there any mention of the word burka or niqab. Since the Koran declares itself to be immutable and that nothing has been omitted from the scripture (vi, 38), why is there a need for latterday misogynists to impose a draconian dress code that is not specifically sanctioned by the holy book? Other than calling for public modesty of both sexes, Islam’s sacred scripture does not prescribe any specific sartorial code.
As with everything else that brings Islam into disrepute today, the Muslim clergy relies on secondary sources, particularly the hadith (sayings of the Prophet Muhammad) to support their questionable theological views, including the need for women to hide their faces. But it is a historical fact that the hadith, many of which are suspect or spurious, were compiled about 250 years after the death of the Prophet. Clearly, where these human statements conflict with the divine text, they have no legitimacy.
While Muslim women should be at liberty to decide what to wear, they have to be truthful and say that they are upholding cultural mores and tribal traditions when they veil their faces. They cannot honestly claim that this trendy fad, which evokes understandable fear and negativity in European society, is a koranic imperative or a religious duty.
Only with the emergence of an indigenous British Islam that is faithful to the uplifting tenets of the faith in restoring the Koran’s total primacy will there be advances in the status of Muslim women in Britain. This naturalised Islam firmly rejects the fabrications and fallacies of a Saudi-funded clergy and will expedite effective Muslim integration into the British mainstream.
In the meantime, the French President should be applauded for initiating an essential public debate about the non-koranic burka and niqab.
Dr T. Hargey
Chairman, Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford
Sir, While I oppose Nicolas Sarkozy’s right-wing and pro-American agenda, I commend the French leader for questioning the validity of full-face veiling for Muslim women (report, June 23). The Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford (Meco) has championed the unequivocal right of Muslim women not to wear either the hijab (headscarf) or face covering (niqab/burka) in the light of pristine Koranic teachings.
For too long a foreign-inspired Muslim clergy that defends female inferiority and gender discrimination has subjected Muslims in the West to virulent indoctrination. This brainwashing stems from the Middle East and South Asia but has no Koranic foundation. It is propagated by nefarious factions, including the hardline Wahhabi-Ikwani-Salafi-
Deobandi sects. These currently ascendant sexist groups in Europe peddle the myth that full body covering and face concealment for women is a religious requirement. On the contrary, it is nothing more than a cultural choice, a personal preference. The mullahs fail to tell their flocks that nowhere in Islam’s transcendent text is there any mention of the word burka or niqab. Since the Koran declares itself to be immutable and that nothing has been omitted from the scripture (vi, 38), why is there a need for latterday misogynists to impose a draconian dress code that is not specifically sanctioned by the holy book? Other than calling for public modesty of both sexes, Islam’s sacred scripture does not prescribe any specific sartorial code.
As with everything else that brings Islam into disrepute today, the Muslim clergy relies on secondary sources, particularly the hadith (sayings of the Prophet Muhammad) to support their questionable theological views, including the need for women to hide their faces. But it is a historical fact that the hadith, many of which are suspect or spurious, were compiled about 250 years after the death of the Prophet. Clearly, where these human statements conflict with the divine text, they have no legitimacy.
While Muslim women should be at liberty to decide what to wear, they have to be truthful and say that they are upholding cultural mores and tribal traditions when they veil their faces. They cannot honestly claim that this trendy fad, which evokes understandable fear and negativity in European society, is a koranic imperative or a religious duty.
Only with the emergence of an indigenous British Islam that is faithful to the uplifting tenets of the faith in restoring the Koran’s total primacy will there be advances in the status of Muslim women in Britain. This naturalised Islam firmly rejects the fabrications and fallacies of a Saudi-funded clergy and will expedite effective Muslim integration into the British mainstream.
In the meantime, the French President should be applauded for initiating an essential public debate about the non-koranic burka and niqab.
Dr T. Hargey
Chairman, Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Tiananmen Two? What should Unitarians do?
In Iran Awakening, Nobel Prize-winner Shirin Ebadi described the draining-away of democracy after the revolution.
As the population became better educated thanks, to be fair, to Islamist doctrine, it increasingly voted for reform: to such an extent that the Mullahs created the Guardian Council to vet potential candidates and "safeguard the revolution". Only four of the hundreds of applicants for President at the recent elections got through the process, and even then the regime apparently had to stuff the boxes to ensure "their" man won. In at least 50 cities more votes were reported than were actually voters registered to vote.
Now protests are being violently repressed, the regime seemingly discardjng its final fig leaf of democracy and following the Chinese example - "safeguarding" their revolution in blood. Because there is a precedent - how many of us remember that China still suppresses dissent? Yet we buy everything from its toys to computers to cars, participate in its Olympics, and borrow its money: it is in fact America's banker, the world's economic engine. Our hope now looks east - keep building China, keep us rich.
Would anyone be surprised if Moscow went the same way? What am I saying... to be a journalist in Russia is suicide.
Our Politicians do nothing. Why should they - they are a reflection of our self-interest. Their voters did not want the repression of Cold War communism, so they held firm, but none of the above appear yet to threaten our freedom. Indeed our Faustian bargain buys it at the expense of others.
So what can we UUs, as a relatively tiny, if also relatively well-heeled, religious sect do?
Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki considers the possibility of ballot irregularities in the presidential elections as almost nonexistant.
"The possibility of organized and comprehensive disruption and irregularities in this election is almost close to zero given the composition of the people who are holding the election," he told foreign diplomats on Sunday.
Mottaki blamed Britain for interfering in the elections, saying it had been planning against the vote for more than a year.
"We witnessed an influx of people from the U.K. ahead of the election," he said, without offering specifics.
Mottaki accused Britain of supporting followers of the Baha'i faith, a religion that originated in 19th-century Persia but which Iran does not recognize.
Britain can of course look after itself, but the Baha'i is another matter. There are around 300,000 of them in Iran - about the same number of UUs in the US - and they are frequently persecuted by a regime always hungry for scapegoats. In February the Washington Post reported:
TEHRAN, Feb. 17 -- Seven leaders of the Bahai faith who have been detained for more than eight months in Iran have been officially accused of espionage, a spokesman for the Iranian judiciary said Tuesday.
The prosecutor general, Ayatollah Ghorbanali Dorri-Najafabadi, wrote in a letter made public Sunday that there are "strong and long-term relations between the Bahais and the Zionists," as Iranian officials often refer to Israelis. The Bahai headquarters is in Haifa, Israel, but the denomination says it has adherents in virtually every country.
"All evidence points to the fact that the Bahai organization is in direct contact with the foreign enemies of Iran," Dorri-Najafabadi wrote in the letter, which was addressed to Intelligence Minister Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei. The letter appeared in the Kayhan newspaper, which has strong ties to the government.
"The ghastly Bahai organization is illegal on all levels, their dependence on Israel has been documented, their antagonism with Islam and the Islamic System is obvious, their danger for national security is proven and any replacement organization must also be dealt with according to the law," Dorri-Najafabadi wrote.
Abdolfattah Soltani, one of the lawyers for the Bahai leaders, said he had not been permitted to meet with his clients. "How can I make my case ready? I'm only their lawyer in name," he said in an interview. The Bahais are also being represented by Soltani's colleague Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian lawyer and Nobel peace laureate.
There Shirin pops up again - what a brave woman. Anyway, if there is one thing UUs can do, we can announce our solidarity with the Bahai, a faith that bears many similarities to our own, and do all we can to aid them.
As UUs, solidarity with the Bahai is surely an act of our faith - power politics may shape our times, but the unity of the human spirit is universal.
As the population became better educated thanks, to be fair, to Islamist doctrine, it increasingly voted for reform: to such an extent that the Mullahs created the Guardian Council to vet potential candidates and "safeguard the revolution". Only four of the hundreds of applicants for President at the recent elections got through the process, and even then the regime apparently had to stuff the boxes to ensure "their" man won. In at least 50 cities more votes were reported than were actually voters registered to vote.
Now protests are being violently repressed, the regime seemingly discardjng its final fig leaf of democracy and following the Chinese example - "safeguarding" their revolution in blood. Because there is a precedent - how many of us remember that China still suppresses dissent? Yet we buy everything from its toys to computers to cars, participate in its Olympics, and borrow its money: it is in fact America's banker, the world's economic engine. Our hope now looks east - keep building China, keep us rich.
Would anyone be surprised if Moscow went the same way? What am I saying... to be a journalist in Russia is suicide.
Our Politicians do nothing. Why should they - they are a reflection of our self-interest. Their voters did not want the repression of Cold War communism, so they held firm, but none of the above appear yet to threaten our freedom. Indeed our Faustian bargain buys it at the expense of others.
So what can we UUs, as a relatively tiny, if also relatively well-heeled, religious sect do?
Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki considers the possibility of ballot irregularities in the presidential elections as almost nonexistant.
"The possibility of organized and comprehensive disruption and irregularities in this election is almost close to zero given the composition of the people who are holding the election," he told foreign diplomats on Sunday.
Mottaki blamed Britain for interfering in the elections, saying it had been planning against the vote for more than a year.
"We witnessed an influx of people from the U.K. ahead of the election," he said, without offering specifics.
Mottaki accused Britain of supporting followers of the Baha'i faith, a religion that originated in 19th-century Persia but which Iran does not recognize.
Britain can of course look after itself, but the Baha'i is another matter. There are around 300,000 of them in Iran - about the same number of UUs in the US - and they are frequently persecuted by a regime always hungry for scapegoats. In February the Washington Post reported:
TEHRAN, Feb. 17 -- Seven leaders of the Bahai faith who have been detained for more than eight months in Iran have been officially accused of espionage, a spokesman for the Iranian judiciary said Tuesday.
The prosecutor general, Ayatollah Ghorbanali Dorri-Najafabadi, wrote in a letter made public Sunday that there are "strong and long-term relations between the Bahais and the Zionists," as Iranian officials often refer to Israelis. The Bahai headquarters is in Haifa, Israel, but the denomination says it has adherents in virtually every country.
"All evidence points to the fact that the Bahai organization is in direct contact with the foreign enemies of Iran," Dorri-Najafabadi wrote in the letter, which was addressed to Intelligence Minister Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei. The letter appeared in the Kayhan newspaper, which has strong ties to the government.
"The ghastly Bahai organization is illegal on all levels, their dependence on Israel has been documented, their antagonism with Islam and the Islamic System is obvious, their danger for national security is proven and any replacement organization must also be dealt with according to the law," Dorri-Najafabadi wrote.
Abdolfattah Soltani, one of the lawyers for the Bahai leaders, said he had not been permitted to meet with his clients. "How can I make my case ready? I'm only their lawyer in name," he said in an interview. The Bahais are also being represented by Soltani's colleague Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian lawyer and Nobel peace laureate.
There Shirin pops up again - what a brave woman. Anyway, if there is one thing UUs can do, we can announce our solidarity with the Bahai, a faith that bears many similarities to our own, and do all we can to aid them.
As UUs, solidarity with the Bahai is surely an act of our faith - power politics may shape our times, but the unity of the human spirit is universal.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Whenever I am troubled by the difficult moral questions...
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
THE THE More like the music of now than the music of now
I've been asking myself: did Matt Johnson of Eighties group THE THE have some kind of second sight? Or is it just that nothing ever changes?
You may be worshipping the temples of mammon
Or lost in the prisons of religion
But can you still walk back to happiness
When you've nowhere left to run?
But if you think that Jesus Christ is coming
Honey you've got another thing coming
If he ever finds out who's hi-jacked his name
He'll cut out his heart and turn in his grave
Islam is rising
The Christians mobilising
The world is on its elbows and knees
It's forgotten the message and worships the creeds
6 o'clock in the morning & i'm the last person in this plane
still awake
Y'know I can almost smell the blood washing against the shores,
Of this land that can't forget its past.
Oh the wind that carries this plane, is the wind of change,
heaven sent and hell bent!
Well it ain't written in the papers, but its written on the walls
The way this country is divided to fall,
So the cranes are moving on the skyline--
Trying to knock down--this town
But the stains on the heartland, can never be removed,
from this country, that's sick, sad, and confused.
But this last one has always been my favourite.
The more I see
The less I know
About all the things I thought were wrong or right
& carved in stone
So, dont ask me about
War, religion, or god
Love, sex, or death
Because....
Everybody knows whats going wrong with the world
But I dont even know whats going on in myself.
You may be worshipping the temples of mammon
Or lost in the prisons of religion
But can you still walk back to happiness
When you've nowhere left to run?
But if you think that Jesus Christ is coming
Honey you've got another thing coming
If he ever finds out who's hi-jacked his name
He'll cut out his heart and turn in his grave
Islam is rising
The Christians mobilising
The world is on its elbows and knees
It's forgotten the message and worships the creeds
6 o'clock in the morning & i'm the last person in this plane
still awake
Y'know I can almost smell the blood washing against the shores,
Of this land that can't forget its past.
Oh the wind that carries this plane, is the wind of change,
heaven sent and hell bent!
Well it ain't written in the papers, but its written on the walls
The way this country is divided to fall,
So the cranes are moving on the skyline--
Trying to knock down--this town
But the stains on the heartland, can never be removed,
from this country, that's sick, sad, and confused.
But this last one has always been my favourite.
The more I see
The less I know
About all the things I thought were wrong or right
& carved in stone
So, dont ask me about
War, religion, or god
Love, sex, or death
Because....
Everybody knows whats going wrong with the world
But I dont even know whats going on in myself.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
He's listening, she's listening
While I await the broadband connection to be repaired, here's another musical intermission. I've recently discovered (only a decade too late) the Red House Painters, who will be accompanying me on forthcoming road trip across Europe. They don't have many videos, but I like this fan-rip of Kurosawa.
Meanwhile my girlfriend is listening to the San Remo hit, Come Foglie - "like leaves". Again, I prefer the fan-rip.
Which reminds me of a favourite Stina vid, "official" this time.
Meanwhile my girlfriend is listening to the San Remo hit, Come Foglie - "like leaves". Again, I prefer the fan-rip.
Which reminds me of a favourite Stina vid, "official" this time.
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