Mario Philip Azzopardi apologises for Islam rant after Justice Minister says comment 'unwarranted'

Azzorardi gets pounded by telling the truth about Islam (his "rant" below).
Note his first two sentences:
Islam itself does say that it is a theocracy (1).
Islam itself does say that its aim is to bring Sharia to the world (2).
Sharia is indeed a "collection of anti-human rights laws" (see "Reliance of the Traveller" link at left, the authorised version of Islamic jurisprudence, and "Sharia: what does it say about..." in the tab above).

"Islam is a theocracy. Islam is Sharia law. Sharia law is the biggest collection of anti-human rights laws under one religious cap: islam. It goes round and round. How long are we ready to blind ourselves because of some kind of convoluted self-destructive political correctness? We in the west, our poets and writers, our philosophers and thinkers have waged war against the catholic and Christian theocracies AND WON, and our theologies CHANGED and reformed. These idiots (insults intended to the full sense of the word) are tied to a set of rules written 1500 years ago and have stuck to them. Ask any muslim if he believes in Sharia law. If he says no then he is not a muslim and can join our club, with full perks, rights and liberties. If one says he believes in Sharia law then there is where our conversation ends with me making sure that the idiot does not attain any political power whatsoever, at the risk of using violence against him. The same thing I would do to a Nazi, klux klux klan member and slave trader. These individuals have reneged on the values we cherish because their intent is to use our system to destroy it. What' so difficult to get about this. When are we going to wake up. This is a call to cultural arms".

*****************

(1) "Islam is a complete package – a complete message and way of life." [ref]
(2) "The demand for and the spread of Shariah is obligatory for Muslims." [ref]

Moderate Muslim Malaysia...

KUALA LUMPUR: The 2014 Umno General Assembly ended Saturday with a firm and clear message from the party president that the special rights and privileges of the Malays, rulers and Islam, as enshrined in the Federal Constitution, should no longer be questioned.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said Malaysians should stop fighting over the matter and to focus on efforts to further develop the country.

"There is a limit to freedom. Freedom is not absolute. (One) cannot insult Islam, cannot challenge the special rights and privileges of the Malays, cannot question the monarchy system, the Royal Malay Regiment and we safeguard the interests of other races."

["insulting" Islam, would not doubt include noting the 109 verses in the Koran that encourage terrorism]

Read more at: http://english.astroawani.com/news/show/do-not-dispute-anymore-rights-malays-rulers-and-islam-najib-49426?cp

strandbeest evolution - YouTube

Self-propelled! Made by Theo Jansen. Curiously attractive...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MYGJ9jrbpvg


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Francis Fraser, Who Cashed In on His Cruelty, Dies at 90 - NYTimes.com

Reminds me of the Piranha Brothers...
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/11/27/world/europe/francis-fraser-dies-at-91-cashed-in-on-his-cruelty-.html?referrer=
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Ferguson farrago: are Black Americans more in danger from other blacks than white police?

I wrote about this before.
Now read this and make your own judgement.
Figures on black on black homicide, white on white homicide and the obverse of each.

Women’s rights campaigners welcome withdrawal of the Law Society’s sharia wills practice note

One Law for All, Southall Black Sisters, the Centre for Secular Space, Nari Diganta and the Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation have welcomed the Law Society’s withdrawal of their sharia wills practice note.
The practice note advised solicitors on how to draw up ‘Sharia-compliant’ wills, stating that
“… illegitimate and adopted children are not Sharia heirs … The male heirs in most cases receive double the amount inherited by a female heir … Non-Muslims may not inherit at all … a divorced spouse is no longer a Sharia heir…” 

A small step in the right direction, to ensure One Law for All, and maintaining the rights that women have fought so hard for.

Spare us a Bob? » The Spectator

I remember reading some years ago -- though I don't have the link before me -- an article that claimed most of the money raised in Bob Geldorf's first Band Aid act in '84, had been wasted or looted by crooked politicians.
A bit later I read a number of articles from African thought leaders who said "enough already" to aid. What they wanted was investment and decent trade deals.
I saw with my own eyes, in 2011, when I did a car trip from Cape Town to Cairo, the enormous waste of international aid. Especially the reps from the UN, each of which costs $US500,000 to keep in Africa for one year. Imagine if you just gave that money to African women. They would do so more with it than the aid officials driving around in their white, black-windowed Land Cruisers.
That's why I'm inclined to agree with the editorial below.
We could do much more for Africa by opening up western markets for their goods, and going there to invest, as the Chinese are doing.
All else aside, it's what Africans want... And it's what Bob and his acolytes would better off doing.
Just not so much PR in that, I guess.

http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-week/leading-article/9375992/spare-us-a-bob/

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The Islamic State and the left’s secret love affair with misogyny » The Spectator

"... there are still a considerable number of people on the left making excuses for them [Isis] — mostly at the Guardian, the house magazine of 'the silly led by the sinister', as the sainted Christopher Hitchens called the Not In My Name marchers. And with Isis so frank about its own foulness, I've come to the conclusion that certain strange types are so sympathetic to Islamism not despite the way it treats women — but, at least partly, because of it."

The rest.
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Free speech is so last century. Today’s students want the ‘right to be comfortable’ » The Spectator

http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/9376232/free-speech-is-so-last-century-todays-students-want-the-right-to-be-comfortable/

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Committed to Carbon Goals - NYTimes.com

/snip
So, instead, [of a carbon tax] the carbon will need to be captured and then put to some good use. At one of its Texas power plants, NRG is teaming up with JX Nippon of Japan in a $1 billion joint venture to build a carbon-capturing capacity, which it expects will capture 1.6 million tons of carbon each year — some 90 percent of the plant's emissions. He is also convinced that that carbon will eventually be used to create liquid fuel or get embedded in cement. "We could rebuild America's roadways with embedded carbon from coal."
/ end quote
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/11/25/opinion/joe-nocera-committed-to-carbon-goals.html?referrer=

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Is Harvard Unfair to Asian-Americans? - NYTimes.com

Interesting article in today's International New York Times.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/11/25/opinion/is-harvard-unfair-to-asian-americans.html?referrer=&_r=0

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"Obama decides to chuck Hagel"

That was surely the best of the headlines, in our very own South China Morning Post, reporting the "resignation" of US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel.

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Islamist in video 'grew up in a French village' | South China Morning Post

/snip:

The bearded, blue-eyed man seen in the footage urging Muslims to stage attacks in France was reported to have gone to school in the village and have converted to Islam, studying the Koran in a Muslim centre in a private home.

/end quote.
Those --like Obama, Kerry, Cameron and others -- who claim ISIS (IS) has nothing to do with Islam cannot explain why it is that a young man would study the Koran, in a Muslim centre, and then be inspired to join a brutal outfit like ISIS.
What could it be, in that book, I wonder?
http://m.scmp.com/news/world/article/1647462/islamist-video-grew-french-village

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China Climate Pledge Needs 1,000 Nuclear Plant Effort - Bloomberg

1000 new nuclear plants in China! 500,000 more wind turbines. 30 times more solar than today...

Big aims to cut down CO₂ and pollution.

All up $US 2 Trillion to be spent...
As the article says, China does nothing in small doses.
From Bloomberg in Beijing >>
http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-21/latest-china-revolution-seeks-great-leap-for-clean-energy.html
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An utterly shattering video about the moral depravity of students at UC Berkeley

Tough.... But true.
Shocking footage of the inanity of students Berkley, who prefer ISIS to Israel...
http://www.bookwormroom.com/2014/11/20/an-utterly-shattering-video-about-the-moral-depravity-of-students-at-uc-berkeley/
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A Dam Revival, Despite Risks - NYTimes.com

Having been brought up to admire Australia's Snowy Mountains Hydropower Scheme, historically and heroically commissioned in the 1950s -- and there is much to admire, to this day -- I always thought Hydro was clean and green. Seems that's not always so.
The article below notes the displacement of indigenous tribes along new hydropower projects. And think of the literally millions of poor displaced by China's Three Gorges Dam Project.
But more: their carbon footprint. The journal "Nature Climate Change" says that "emissions from tropical hydropower are often underestimated and can exceed those of fossil fuel for decades". (Quotes with link in the article below). It has to do with the methane released by rotting vegetation in areas flooded by the hydro projects.
That I did not know.
It's an Interesting article in the International New York Times >>
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/11/20/business/energy-environment/private-funding-brings-a-boom-in-hydropower-with-high-costs.html?referrer=
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Why do seals keep trying to have sex with penguins? - The Washington Post

Don't worry baby, I'll respect you in the morning.

The headline asks "why". Why do seals try to poke penguins? And my favourite bird, btw.
I think the clue is in the article: that after having it off with a penguin -- which, let's face it, is pretty sealish -- the seal kills and eats it. There you have it. A chance for a bit of a knees up (if seals have knees, which I suspect they don't...) followed by satisfying one's post coital peckishness...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2014/11/18/why-do-seals-keep-trying-to-have-sex-with-penguins/

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There just aren't enough Brits getting killed in Syria

.... Then there’s the half-witted radical preacher and Islamist Anjem Choudary, who has just expressed a fervent wish to go and live in the Islamic State. I think that’s an excellent idea. He’s even offered to host a final press conference at Heathrow airport, where he would urge like-minded British Muslims to follow in his footsteps. This would be an enormous service to the British public, worthy of an MBE at the very least. Hell, we’ve knighted Muslim community leaders who supported the execution of Salman Rushdie and believe that Jews made up all that stuff about the Holocaust: here, at last, is one Muslim community leader attempting to make the country a better place for all of us to live in. But Anjem is unable to realise his dream because the Home Secretary will not give him back his passport.
Listen Theresa: you have got things the wrong way around. When these maniacs actually want to leave the country, do everything you possibly can to assist them in their endeavours.... 

Spot on, Rod!  Read Liddle's article here.

Islam or Islamophobia

I have to repost this year-old post by Sam Harris.
As Sam says, when you read the description of this Muslim "peace conference" you pass through the looking glass:

.... The organizers of this conference believe (with good reason) that “extremist” views are not rare among Muslims, even in the West. And they consider the media’s denial of this fact to be a symptom of… Islamophobia. The serpent of obscurantism has finally begun to devour its own tail. Apparently, it is a sign of racism to imagine that only a tiny minority of Muslims could actually condone the subjugation of women and the murder of apostates. How dare you call us “extremists” when we represent so many? We are not extreme. This is Islam. They have a point. And it is time for secular liberals and (truly) moderate Muslims to stop denying it.

The Roots of the Islamic State's Appeal

In a long, rambling statement in September, ISIS spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani expounded on his group’s inherent advantage: “Being killed … is a victory,” he said. “You fight a people who can never be defeated. They either gain victory or are killed.” In this most basic sense, religion—rather than what one might call ideology—matters. ISIS fighters are not only willing to die in a blaze of religious ecstasy; they welcome it, believing that they will be granted direct entry into heaven. It doesn’t particularly matter if this sounds absurd to most people. It’s what they believe.

Too true. Confirmation bias plays its part.  And the unwillingness to believe something that's uncomfortable.  The great Sam Harris has written elsewhere of a discussion with a professor (Scott Atran) who simply refused to believe that jihadis could be motivated by what they said they were motivated by, simply because that's not the way he felt (here).

The above is from left-of-centre The Atlantic.

Deaths Linked to Terrorism Are Up 60 Percent, Study Finds

LONDON — As Western governments grapple with heightened apprehension about the spread of Islamic militancy, an independent study on Tuesday offered little solace, saying the number of fatalities related to terrorism soared 60 percent last year.

And 95% of them in Islamic-majority countries.  

What do you mean "we" White Man? Cameron nearly gets it on Islam...

PM David Cameron with Moderate Muslim

Last Friday, British PM, David Cameron made a speech to Australian Parliament, a speech that was gracious and at times witty.
But what took the world's attention was his take on ISIS, or the "threat of terrorism and extremism" (it's about half-way through the speech).
He gets it right for about half of his analysis.  It's not poverty, it's not exclusion and it's not foreign policy.  The root cause is the "extremist narrative".
So far so good.
Then he breaks bad.  He says that it's a "twisted narrative" that misrepresents "Islam as a great world religion of peace". And "we" must counter it.
Now, I understand that, as PM, Cameron cannot openly say that the "narrative" is core Islam (even if it is).  But does he have to completely exonerate Islam (the "religion of peace")?
Surely he could have found some formulation that would sheet home responsibility, not to "we" -- politicians and public at large -- but to those "overwhelming majority of Muslims who abhor [do they?] the twisted narrative". And to call on them to take on that "twisted narrative" at its core?  The tenets of Islam, the trinity of Islam, are indeed the problem and until they are taken on by moderate imams, there cannot be a defeat of the likes of ISIS. After all, the head of ISIS is a PhD in Islamic studies.  He knows whereof he speaks, and none of what he or his acolytes have said contradicts the Islamic Trinity.  So, it's a tough job for the moderate imams.
But just because it's tough does not mean it must be ignored.
Why, even the leftie Huffington post has recognised what we're up against!

Fundamentalist Islam and the Roots of Terrorism

I'm posting this article by Janet TAvakoli in full because I don't want to lose it.  It's worth preserving for one main reason: that it appears in the left-wing Huffington Post. It reads rather like something one would normally see on right-of-centre blogs like Jihadwatch.  Perhaps the fact that it's on Huffpo might be the beginning of a recognition on the left that there really is a problem with the core doctrines of Islam and that the terrorists are not a "tiny minority" who are "hijacking" or "warping" the "Religion of Peace".  One can only hope. For that recognition, the reality of the situation, is the first step in addressing and trying to solve it: an effort that must also have the buy-in of the majority (we are told) of moderate Muslims in the world.

Anyway, article in full below the fold.

Why we need to end the war on drugs

The evidence for the end to prohibition and to take a medical/regulatory approach seem, to me, inarguable.  Of course they are argued about, but as Ethan Nadelmann says, the evidence is in.
In places like Portugal, where they have taken the medical/regulatory approach, instead of jailing people for taking non-approved drugs (vs approved drugs like alcohol) there has been a decrease in drug abuse, a decrease in disease, a decrease in crime, a decrease in arrests, a decrease in addiction.  At the same time as an increase in health.
The video is here.

Why Does Malala Yusufzai’s Nobel Bother So Many On The Left? | Pervez Hoodbhoy

Striking in the article below is the quotation from the Talibanis who shot Malala.  They refer at every step to Islamic Scripture. And note in particular the warm references to the prophet Muhammad who had women stoned to death, used as justification for the killing of Malala. For of course, Muhammad is "the perfect man" according to Islam, and a role model to be emulated.
Quote:

In the following, I have translated and condensed a 9-page pamphlet entitled Aqeedon ka Tasadum explaining why Malala had to be killed. Written in Urdu and signed by the Pakistani Taliban and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, it was circulated shortly after the shooting:

Preamble: This is a war of two faiths, Islam versus kufr (unbelief). On the one side there is true education and modesty; on the other is nudity, music, dancing, and disgraceful gyrations. On the one side there is respect for the veil; on the other are those females who appear on TV and give interviews to men who are not relatives. In fact they dare to mock the Taliban and mujahideen who seek to prevent nudity, lewdness, and Westernization. So here is why this so-called Malala, a pawn of Western interests and secular forces, had to be brought to justice:
First, is Malala a child? No! She was born on 18 July 1998, which makes her 15 years and 4 months old. She had crossed puberty and shown the signs. Thus she had to be treated as an adult woman responsible for her deeds.
Second, is the killing of women allowed in Islam? Yes! After the conquest of Mecca, the Holy Prophet (PBUH) had personally ordered several women to be killed, including by stoning to death. Hazrat Ali too had declared as correct and justified the strangling of a Jewish woman who had verbally abused the Holy Prophet (PBUH).
Third, what does Pakhtun culture say? Although some media commentators claim that killing girls is against our culture, this is nonsense. If a boy and girl are even suspected of doing something together, it is common to kill both.
Fourth, was Malala guilty? Yes! This so-called innocent “child” actually wrote a diary under the false name of Gul Makai, and daily criticized us in it. She called Obama her ideal, and preferred the secular education of Lord Macaulay to Islamic education.
Fifth, was Malala unarmed? No! She was armed with the pen, a weapon sharper than the sword, with which she daily defamed Islam and Muslims. She portrayed the Taliban as beastly savages. This is why we rightly punished her.
Conclusion: By focusing on Malala this filthy (Pakistani) media shows it is prostituted to the Americans. It says no words of protest against the strip-searching and incarceration of the daughter of Islam (Dr Aafia Siddiqui). It makes a false hero out of one who deserved what she got.

http://www.outlookindia.com/article/Why-Does-Malala-Yusufzais-Nobel-Bother-So-Many-On-The-Left-/292542


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More cowardice about Islam in a UK university

This is deeply troubling.  The Academy in the UK has given in to Sharia law.
http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2014/11/13/more-cowardice-about-islam-in-a-uk-university/


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Brookings Institution’s Old New Ideas. Islam, Islamism and Jihad

/snip...
The real reason why the U.S. and the West in general haven't confronted the ideology of jihad groups is because they refuse to admit that it even exists. They insist that Islam is peaceful and that groups such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State have nothing to do with Islam. They don't have any curiosity about how this supposed misunderstanding of Islam came to be so widespread and powerful, and they have never pressed Muslim groups that ostensibly reject it to do anything to blunt its appeal for young Muslims.
>>>
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/11/robert-spencer-in-frontpage-brookings-institutions-old-new-ideas

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Mark Lynas » Time to call out the anti-GMO conspiracy theory

I came across Mark Lynas only today with an article of his in the South China Morning Post called "Seeds of Doubt".
It's behind a paywall so I found this link which is on his website. Lynas is an environmentalist who accepts the science of global warming and also the science of GM foods, which is that it's safe.
Eg, quoted by the American Academy for the Advancement of Science:

"The science is quite clear: crop improvement by the modern molecular techniques of biotechnology is safe… The World Health Organization, the American Medical Association, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the British Royal Society, and every other respected organization that has examined the evidence has come to the same conclusion: consuming foods containing ingredients derived from GM crops is no riskier than consuming the same foods containing ingredients from crop plants modified by conventional plant improvement techniques." 

Freud and the Middle East: Muslims support the Islamic State

Snip/

As Shadi Hamid, a fellow at the Brookings Center for Middle East Policy, put it in an Atlantic article entitled "The Roots of the Islamic State's Appeal": "ISIS draws on, and draws strength from, ideas that have broad resonance among Muslim-majority populations. They may not agree with ISIS's interpretation of the caliphate, but the notion of a caliphate — the historical political entity governed by Islamic law and tradition — is a powerful one."

End snip/

In other words it's consistent with all the polls of Muslims both in the west and in Muslim-majority countries (see "Islam in figures" above):  they may not all agree with killing and mayhem, but they agree with the main aims which are at the core of Islam:  the universal imposition of Sharia law and an Islamic caliphate (a theocracy) for the whole world. Many (most?) Muslims  may prefer for this to be done peacefully by the "religion of peace", but if necessary violence will do. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/12/opinion/freud-and-the-middle-east.html?_r=0

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A Tricky Transition From Fossil Fuel - NYTimes.com

Some interesting issues in going 100% renewable from the world leader, Denmark...
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/11/11/science/earth/denmark-aims-for-100-percent-renewable-energy.html

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The World's Most Persecuted Minority: Christians

The Turkish people don’t look favorably upon the U.S., or any other country, really | Pew Research Center

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/10/31/the-turkish-people-dont-look-favorably-upon-the-u-s-or-any-other-country-really/

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For Israel, Two-State Is No Solution - NYTimes.com

Naftali Bennett is often derided for being a right-winger. Still, the article below makes a strong argument.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/11/06/opinion/naftali-bennett-for-israel-two-state-is-no-solution.html?_r=0

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Pew poll: Muslims really do want to kill you for not believing Islam

.... A wide-ranging 2013 Pew Research Center poll, conducted between 2008 and 2012 in 39 countries, offered a deeply disturbing, unequivocal overview of the faith-based intolerance prevalent across much of the Muslim world.  Among other things, majorities of Muslims – varying somewhat according to region – favor putting to death apostates and adulterers, condemn homosexuality, abortion, and euthanasia as immoral, and believe that "a wife must obey her husband."  Large minorities condone "honor killings."  It should be noted that for practical reasons, the Pew Center could not survey Muslims in the repressive, highly conservative Gulf States (including Saudi Arabia, the homeland of Wahhabism), so, if anything, these numbers provide an excessively moderate summary of Muslim positions on issues progressives hold dear.

(And this in the exquisitely "progressive" Salon.com)

http://www.salon.com/2014/10/08/bill_mahers_atheist_values_why_progressives_must_defend_enlightenment_critique_religious_extremism/

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