Yes, its a long title but its important that we get this right. The majority of Western people still want to buy the narrative that this has nothing to do with Islam. I recognize that for many people, the truth is known but that this is a sort of ‘tactical position’ as one of our readers and commenters has explained quite lucidly.
I take the position that nothing can be done about this unless we are ready to deal with reality and reality dictates that race and culture are potentially independent of each other and that the foundations of Western law are built on that fact. It is also known as the concept of ‘free will’.
The second axiom of my reality is that an ideology motivates actions and that Islam as an ideology is well represented by the stories and news items posted here every day to such an alarming extent that the bar as to what is worth posting and what is not has gone up so high (or sunk so low) that what was horror 5 years ago is below the radar today. Iraq anyone? In that vein I would like to post that segment of the Sam Harris video I posted yesterday again. Even though I do not agree with every word and punctuation mark, much of what he says is so important it is worth hearing again.
1. Al-Qaeda gunmen storm Yemeni city; 27 killed
2. Deadly blast hits Nigerian city of Jos (again)
Police said the blast happened near an open-air TV viewing centre where people were watching the Champions League football final.
No group has said it carried out the attack.
However it comes days after a twin car bomb attack blamed on Boko Haram militants killed 118 people in Jos.
A spokesman for Plateau state governor Jonah Jang said the latest blast happened on Bauchi Road at about 21:30 local time (20:30 GMT).
3. Update on Brussels shooting. Still saying there are 2 suspects, 1 escaped on foot and one by car. The car suspect, possibly a classic 5′ tall Grey from Tau Ceti 5 based on the description given with a possible pathological hatred of tourists, is in custody. The update below is exactly the same as the updates given so far. About as informative as flatulence in a wind storm.
4. Another update. Now we have a description of the car. Apparently it was an Audi. So at least we know the driver was affluent enough to afford the repairs.
5. Whuptdue in his comment here mentions that the shooting in the face and neck may not be coincidence
via WinnipegFreePress: The three dead were two women and a man, and all were struck by bullets in the face or throat, said Ine Van Wymersch, spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office. No further details were given.
[Sura 8:12 Strike them at their necks]
May 24 2014 – Erdogan in Germany – 1 –
Thousands of Germany’s Turks protest ahead of Erdogan speech in Cologne
Tens of thousands of protesters have rallied against Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the German city of Cologne. His visit has sparked much controversy.
Some 40,000 people on Saturday protested in Cologne against Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party ahead of a planned speech by the Turkish premier to his conservative supporters.
Protesters waved banners accusing Erdogan of corruption and non-democratic behavior, as well as denouncing him over Turkey’s recent mining disaster and his government’s response to it.
Erdogan caused outrage among many Turks owing to seemingly indifferent remarks saying that mining accidents were in “the nature of the business.” Anger was further fueled by photos showing his advisor Yusuf Erkel kicking a protester in the town of Soma where the accident occurred, killing 301 people.
more on the page :
http://www.dw.de/thousands-of-germanys-turks-protest-ahead-of-erdogan-speech-in-cologne/a-17660263
video – Cologne – Germany Saturday – May 24 2014
May 24 2014 – Erdogan in Germany – 2 –
Turkey’s Erodgan slams critics in German speech
Turkey’s Tayyip Erdogan told a cheering arena of 16,000 diaspora supporters in Germany on Saturday to integrate but not assimilate and slammed German criticism of his response to a mining tragedy, in a defiant hour-long speech.
[…]Erdogan has often addressed mass audiences of expatriate Turks when visiting Germany in rousing patriotic affairs with thousands waving the Turkish flag.
He repeated remarks made in 2008 in which he warned Germany’s largest minority against assimilation. “Assimilation? No. I have said this before and I’m saying it again – we don’t compromise our language, religion and culture.”
“Turkey, with its mission, values and its people is now part of Europe and European politicians should see and accept this. The problems of European politics will be solved with Turkey, not by using Turkey,” Erodgan added.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/24/us-germany-turkey-erdogan-idUSBREA4N0CF20140524
video – Erdogan + his supporters – Cologne Germany May 24 2014 :
Saskatoon – City offers field house for Ramadan prayers
Rapid growth in Saskatoon’s Muslim community has prompted an unconventional solution to accommodate late-night Ramadan prayers.
The Islamic Association of Saskatchewan (IAS) has come to a tentative agreement with the city to use the Saskatoon Fieldhouse for nightly prayers, to avoid disturbing the mosque’s neighbours.
After years of building tension, the IAS and the mosque’s neighbours have spent months planning for this year’s Ramadan, which begins June 29.
While fasting from sunrise to sunset for 30 days, many Muslims gather for nightly prayers. But with Ramadan starting just eight days after the longest day of the year, at Saskatoon’s relatively high latitude, it means prayers won’t begin until around 11 p.m. each night, explained Omaer Jamil, president of the IAS.
The “exponential” growth in the number of worshippers could mean dozens of families coming and going from Copland Crescent late at night, creating noise from traffic and closing car doors, Jamil said.
Neighbours began complaining about the noise and parking problems as early as 2009,
The proposal now on the table is for Sunni Muslims to gather nightly at the field house for the first 20 nights of prayer, then return to the mosque for the final stretch, Jamil said. There’s plenty of parking at the field house, no neighbours to bother, kitchen facilities, and places for kids to play while their parents pray and socialize. No one is running the track at 11 p.m., and it’s a low-use time of year for the leisure facility.
What the city and IAS haven’t agreed upon is the price. Jamil said the organization should have access to the space either for free, or for a “nominal” fee.
“We don’t feel that it would be fair for us to pay for the facility when we don’t need to go. We’re doing this out of good neighbourliness,” Jamil said.
The mosque has plenty of space to accommodate the hundreds who come to pray, he said. Some members are upset at the idea of losing their spiritual : ) 🙂 🙂 connection to the mosque at this important time of year.
On Friday afternoon, when many Muslims gather to pray, the streets around the mosque were packed with cars.
The StarPhoenix contacted several people who live near the mosque, but none were willing to talk on the record.
http://www.thestarphoenix.com/life/City+offers+field+house+Ramadan+prayers/9872795/story.html
video – Saskatoon – Muslims at Soccer Centre ( 2010 )
Maybe it’s too obvious a point (a punctuation mark that doesn’t weaken Harris’s argument) but I see it said from time to time that it’s extremely unusual for Buddhists to have wars or be violent. That is not true. People in Burma and Thailand, for example, have been Buddhist for hundreds of years (with admixtures of animism and Indian cults) but have managed to be amply violent and have plenty of wars across those centuries, both within each country and with each other. One excuse historically has been that another group is in possession of a Buddha statue perceived to have powers or to confer legitimacy on its possessors, and a war is fought to get it or get it back. There is testimony to the nature of the fighting in the cruel assortment of ancient weapons on display in the National Museum in Bangkok. The fierceness of even the Tibetans in 19th century accounts can be startling.
Another option for Buddhists of course is simply to ignore Buddhist precepts and have at it.
That is merely to say that it’s best not to get trapped into arguing that all Buddhists are always as constrained to non-violence as Buddha suggested they be.
“possible pathological hatred of tourists” !!
You can’t trust those greys, they lie all the time.
I agree the Buddhists have a history of war that is second to none.
The Greys !!
#3 Eeyore is talking about the grey aliens who are reported to be abducting people for medical exams. If you read reports you need to suspend disbelief the same way you do with a comic book otherwise it sounds real stupid.
I might add that I can’t understand why people are so upset about it. In Canada you sometimes have to wait 12 hours for a medical exam if you go to the Hospital. The aliens not only do them right away but they don’t even ask to see your Medical insurance cards.
I do not know if they FEDEX your test results to the specialists but from what I hear, if your problem is something that needs to be dealt with by a proctologist they do all the work right there in the first visit.
Yes but their hospitals are so far away.
I still don’t get it.
You don’t read SciFi, we are making a joke about the entirely made up space aliens some people report seeing and being abducted by, sorry I can’t explain it any better.
Were they penis-snatchers too?
Not that I have heard of but they are suppose to put probes up all orifices in the human body, usual without anesthetic.
Yes but no waiting, and, they pay your way back home. I don’t know if they send your test results to your GP though.
They probably don’t, I don’t think they talk to witch doctors (their description)