Sorry Ian, looks like I'd picked up the broad brush everyone else is using lol.
I find the tone of a number of comments on this thread to be repellant.
a very good friend of mine is in charge of plant maintenance at a local factory.
there are 300 people working in this factory and two of them are muslims.
the muslims have requested that they require special toilets just for themselves.
Sorry Ian, looks like I'd picked up the broad brush everyone else is using lol.
I find the tone of a number of comments on this thread to be repellant.
a very good friend of mine is in charge of plant maintenance at a local factory.
there are 300 people working in this factory and two of them are muslims.
the muslims have requested that they require special toilets just for themselves.
We (them and us!) will all pay. I agree that your local university shouldn't have to provide 'toilets a la turk' (thanks fokyc) but I find the response on this thread to be repellent.
I eat in the local mosque restaurant at least once a week and they accept my atheist(lite) homosexual presence without prejudice. The shop I live above is owned by a Muslim who is always generous to me and my partner. She does not represent all adherents Islam, nor do those who are breaking the precious toilets.
This thread reads like the Daily Mail. 'Nuff said.
Have a nice day, and watch out for the reds under the bed too!
a very good friend of mine is in charge of plant maintenance at a local factory.
there are 300 people working in this factory and two of them are muslims.
the muslims have requested that they require special toilets just for themselves.
I cannot believe the rhetoric on this thread. "backward", "them", "us" - you sound like a bunch of xenophobes.
Squat toilets are not a sign of a backward culture and they can be found all over the "backward" southern European culures and as they require no skin contact are percieved as more hygenic.
And to suggest that "we" have not made demands on other cultures is ludicrous - "we" willfully impose our victorian notions of right/wrong, good/bad wherever we go. But that's ok because "our" way is the right way.
would someone seriously consider arranging for an apostafest up in scotland next year?
i know i'm asking this early but i feel it would be good to put the feelers out now.. obviously, it would have to be a location easy to get to - so that means stornoway is out!
sorry, ross & xena.
Get the train, it's so much nicer trundling up out of the English plain through the Scottish Borders and arriving beneath the castle.
seems a 54 year old british school teacher who is teaching grammer school classes in the sudan has committed a despicable act by blastpheming and showing no respect for the prophet!
can you believe it; she actually allowed the children in her class to name a teddy bear being used in a class project muhammad!!
the sudanise government, carrying out its god given duty is putting her on trial.
As Gillian Gibbons has now been released I just thought I'd bring this bttt
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7124447.stm
Looks like some 'moderate' (whatever that means) Muslims have been instrumental in her release. Can I look forward to reading a few more sweeping generalistaions about Islam.
so here's a question: why do some people (and i include myself as a former member of the group) seem so preoccupied with "end-times" issues?.
as a starter, i submit that it's because we are inclined to fight against the inevitability of our own demonstrably limited human existence...and therefore we develop around ourselves "escape mechanisms" to alleviate the pain of termination.. we use numerical calculations, religious speculations, mysterious cosmic forces, evolutionary patterns, etc.
etc.. your thoughts?.
In light of the question you might enjoy John Gray's book, Black Mass.
seems a 54 year old british school teacher who is teaching grammer school classes in the sudan has committed a despicable act by blastpheming and showing no respect for the prophet!
can you believe it; she actually allowed the children in her class to name a teddy bear being used in a class project muhammad!!
the sudanise government, carrying out its god given duty is putting her on trial.
I notice that the BBC News now describe it as "crowds", hardly the masses that would reflect national sentiment. Having said that, even if it were thousands would they reflect the the nation's sensibilities? The marches of the Countryside Alliance here were large but didn't reflect the attitudes of anyone I knew, but then again, I'm not a toff.
KK, I doubt you or I will live to see the day that the UK is dominated by Islam but it sounds like you agree with Morrissey's recent comments....
seems a 54 year old british school teacher who is teaching grammer school classes in the sudan has committed a despicable act by blastpheming and showing no respect for the prophet!
can you believe it; she actually allowed the children in her class to name a teddy bear being used in a class project muhammad!!
the sudanise government, carrying out its god given duty is putting her on trial.
If she hadn't received a punishment, and if thousands of Muslims hadn't taken to the streets AFTER FRIDAY PRAYERS with knives and sticks calling for the teacher to be shot I probably wouldn't have said any of the following-
The BBC reported a couple of hundred people converging on the presidential palace with sticks and one person with a ceremonial sword - and that they looked like rent-a-mob.
While I deplore the Sudanese judiciary and governement I don't expect the UK governmnet to intervene with the judiciary of another country. If you live in another country you play by their rules. As a gay man, this makes some countries off limits to me. It's their loss!
report: court sentences rape victimfri nov 16, 12:27 am et .
a saudi court sentenced a woman who had been gang raped to six months in jail and 200 lashes more than doubling her initial penalty for being in the car of a man who was not a relative, a newspaper reported thursday.. the decision by the qatif general court came in a case that had sparked rare debate about the kingdom's justice system when it surfaced more than a year ago.. in its decision wednesday, the court also roughly doubled prison sentences for the seven men convicted of raping the 19-year-old woman, the arab news reported on its english-language web site.. according to arab news, the court said the woman's punishment was increased because of "her attempt to aggravate and influence the judiciary through the media.".
she had initially been sentenced to 90 lashes after being convicting her of violating saudi's rigid laws on segregation of the sexes.. under saudi arabia's interpretation of islamic sharia law, women are not allowed in public in the company of men other than their male relatives.. the initial sentences for the men convicted of the gang rape ranged from 10 months to five years in prison.
I'm not a bigot at all, but this kind of thing makes me really distrust Muslim men
Because you think they all want to rape you or because they are bad judges? Having just spent a fortnight in a Muslim country I found the Muslim men I met to be remarkably similar to American men.
report: court sentences rape victimfri nov 16, 12:27 am et .
a saudi court sentenced a woman who had been gang raped to six months in jail and 200 lashes more than doubling her initial penalty for being in the car of a man who was not a relative, a newspaper reported thursday.. the decision by the qatif general court came in a case that had sparked rare debate about the kingdom's justice system when it surfaced more than a year ago.. in its decision wednesday, the court also roughly doubled prison sentences for the seven men convicted of raping the 19-year-old woman, the arab news reported on its english-language web site.. according to arab news, the court said the woman's punishment was increased because of "her attempt to aggravate and influence the judiciary through the media.".
she had initially been sentenced to 90 lashes after being convicting her of violating saudi's rigid laws on segregation of the sexes.. under saudi arabia's interpretation of islamic sharia law, women are not allowed in public in the company of men other than their male relatives.. the initial sentences for the men convicted of the gang rape ranged from 10 months to five years in prison.
I wonder why so many liberals who've busted their asses for womens rights in this country (and they have, this is'nt so much a lib versus cons argument) are strangely silent when you bring up this subject?
Amnesty International have been involved in this since the initial sentencing 6 months ago http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE230132007?open&of=ENG-2D2 and were still speaking against it the weekend
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2212537,00.html and are now working on the appeal. Some liberal's continue to bust their asses for women's rights even in the most retrograde countries.