Apparently I’m an attentive builder!

Interestingly enough only 18% of partipants (based on a 3200 survey) showed less trust in others than me. I wonder if that’s influenced by the current mood against Muslims at the moment. I have a great deal of trust in individuals but my trust in people generally is pretty low at the moment. Ya’z all out to get me!

Me and the Mosque looks reaaaaaaaally good. I hope they are planning on distributing it outside of North America.
–
Christian shari’a law in the United States.
–
I’m not quite sure how to react to this picture of little Johnny Howard. Speaking of which, WHO brought the old ‘let’s ban Muslim women’s clothes‘ debate up again (groan). They must be really desperate to take attention away from the AWB scandal. (Notice how the Hun article is almost word-for-word!) It’s enough to make me want to wear a burqa in protest. At least someone else in the Liberal (sic) party appears to have half a brain-cell, RU486 votes notwithstanding.
Read the rest of this entry »

I’m TTCing it tomorrow, giving a talk to ESL teachers this week and have two university lectures to give as part of a subject looking at Judaism, Christianity and Islam, in the near future.  It’s made me reflect on the various audiences. 

TTC is a course originally designed in Nigeria but has since spread around the world, that aims to educate young Muslims on how to present their faith to inquirers as well as promote unity in the diversity of the Muslim experience.  I’ve been doing it since oh gosh, around 2000 I think and think it’s wonderful particularly due to its emphasis on promoting unity.  TTC is big on ‘legitimate diversity’.  That audience will probably be made up of fairly educated young Australians, practising Muslims and who are the vanguards of integrating Islam and Muslims into the Australian experience.  The kind the Liberal (sic) government should be trying to encourage rather than alienate. Read the rest of this entry »

In a controversial speech to the Sydney Institute, Federal Treasurer Peter Costello warned that Jews should pledge allegience to Australia or go home.  Jews who value Halacha (Jewish law) over Australian law “should be refused citizenship if they apply for it.  Where they have it they should be stripped of it if they are dual citizens and have some other country that recognises them as citizens.” 

“Before entering a synagogue visitors are asked to put a yarmulke on their head,” Mr Costello said.  “This is a sign of respect.  If you have a strong objection to putting something on your head don’t enter the synagogue.” He warned Jews, “before becoming an Australian you will be asked to subscribe to certain values.  If you have strong objection to those values, don’t come to Australia.”

In a rebuke to “mushy multiculturalism” he said “there is one law we are all expected to abide by — it is the law enacted by Parliament under the Australian Constitution.”  If Jews, and for that matter Aboriginies, wish to live by a different cultural or religious law then they should move somewhere else.  The problem is what to do with the children of disloyal Jews and Aboriginies who were born here.

World Vision chief executive and prominent Christian Australian Tim Costello agreed with his brother’s sentiments, questioning whether those who practice male circumcision and say it is part of their cultural or religious beliefs should be allowed to do so in Australia.

(Article in The Age, the Hun)

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m not a Mac user. I have two brothers who are Mac fans, but I’ve never owned one and apart from using them occasionally at Uni, they’re not intuitive to me like the Windoze environment with which I am so familiar. I like the look of Macs but then that’s purely because of the aesthetic. (It’s also the reason I like those new VeeDubs!)

So, the question now is whether or not to convert. I’m going to spend some of my scholarship money buying a laptop because I’ll need one for visiting far away places, and if I want to jump into the world of the Apple Mac, now’s the time to do it.

The problem being, Apple just (and I mean this month) released it’s brand new Intel Core Duo chip MacBook Pro. From all accounts this thing ‘corners like it’s on rails’ (in joke with Abu Yasmin) but here’s the catch. It’s the first release, so you know how there are always bugs to iron out with the first release of anything and a lot of Mac software (written for the G4 chip) has to be run through an emulator. The Powerbooks are being phased out with the introduction of the MacBook, but presumably not the lower-end iBooks.

Anyway, maybe I have some Mac readers out there, your thoughts? To buy or not to buy? Or should I just go with plain, old, familiar PC?