The Virtual Gigolo

The BBC has published a wonderful story suggesting that at a barely referenced conference an unnamed collection of Muslim “scientists” and clerics have suggested that the world should adopt Mecca time instead of GMT, because GMT was forced upon the world by the British empire (let us ignore the fact that a prime meridian in Europe conveniently allows the international date line to run through the Pacific Ocean) and because Mecca is the centre of the world. One unnamed geologist apparently stated that:

…unlike other longitudes, Mecca’s was in perfect alignment to magnetic north.

Now, it isn’t entirely clear what that means. However, let us assume for a moment that it means the line of longitude that Mecca sits on, and therefore which goes through true North, also passes through magnetic North. Unfortunately, given the current position of magnetic North, this is not the case (once in a while it might be, given that the pole moves, but the same is true of anywhere…). However, Google Earth suggests to me that one city for which this IS true, is Las Vegas. So there you have it, Las Vegas is in perfect alignment (roughly…) to magnetic North. Now we know the true centre of the Earth.

Obviously, I don’t want to be seen as someone with Islam issues, but we have another article where a small number of individuals, who have been brought up in such a way to apparently associate everything with sex, are insisting on endangering the public in hospitals because they refuse to wash their hands properly. With other issues such as head scarves in schools, there was room for discussion. Can the right to practice your religion (which essentially comes down to the right to do what you believe you have to – whatever that might be) really ever be allowed to take precedence over the right of others to have you do your job properly when their safety is at risk? I find it hard to see a way that this can be open to question, they wash, if they don’t wash they are not doing their jobs properly.

If naming a cute little bear Muhammed is a dire insult to the name, then surely men such as the chap in this UNICEF prize winning photograph are, in marrying such young girls, even worse?

The news story of the day. I shouldn’t let myself be amused, really. But if you will leave your gun on the floor pointing in your direction…

It’s a horrible thing to realise you agree with Coulter on anything, and worse when it means you agree with O’Reilly as well. Last week Coulter claimed that “Jews need perfecting”. That phrase in itself I can’t say I agree with, but to claim it was an anti-semitic comment was, frankly, ridiculous. Coulter is (apparently) Christian, and what is Christianity but the belief that Jesus improved on the Jewish religion? Christians are by definition perfected Jews. This is particularly true from the point of view of the born-again Christian who claims, with no sense of modesty, that she has been “saved” by the very nature of her “personal relationship with Jesus” (the meaning of which still escapes me). By the same token, Christians and Jews both need perfecting, from the point of view of a Muslim (although for reasons of politeness they would tend to not make this explicit) given that the Koran was sent down to correct the drift of humanity.

So, unfortunately,  I have to agree with her, for a change her statements weren’t hateful, merely descriptive of her beliefs. If one is going to say that Christians are hateful for this belief, then that has to be applied to other religions as well, Judaism included.

We spot a news story from the glorious united states of America whereby people have been arrested for desecrating the country’s flag. <i>State law prohibits anyone from knowingly mutilating, defiling, defacing or trampling the U.S. or North Carolina flags. </i> What possible reason can a country (or in this case US state) have for banning the “desecration” of a flag? Currency makes sense as it has trade value and needs to be able to be identified, but the reasoning for a flag is far less clear…

And the drama continues…

Rushdie hurt the feelings of the Islamic world by writing a blasphemous book. Awarding the knighthood is an attempt to weaken the ongoing dialogue between religions,” Liaquat Baloch, parliamentary leader of the radical MMA alliance of religious parties, told the AFP news agency.

As parts of Pakistan’s government and a large chunk of its population puts up virtual banner adverts announcing to the world what a backward nation they want to live in. Maybe they should just produce a map where most of the world is marked “here be dragons”, the level of communication doesn’t appear to reach much higher levels. What a sad sad world we live in.

I really don’t understand why, however much we show our acceptance of Muslims, however much it should be obvious that we see Muslims as normal people, the “elite” in certain countries of the world appear to conspire to make their own religion look stupid. Is it necessary, for example, for the Iranian government to spend so many hours concentrating on nothing but Israel no religious grounds? The latest episode of course is poor Salman Rushdie. I say poor because the stigmatisation of the man by certain segments of the international community has been at ridiculously low levels for many years. The fatwa was a problem suggesting an extreme oversensitivity in Iran, and after ten years it was thought that they had grown up a little and let it slide.

Now the UK has offered Mr Rushdie a knighthood. An honour that, far from harking back to Imperial times (though in name I realise the honours do) is just that, a way to honour an individual for his work. Some honours appear frivolous, but that doesn’t mean that they are stepping back into bygone times.

The more serious level of stupidity in the situation of course comes from comments that Sir Salman’s honour shows signs of “islamophobia”. What a ridiculous statement. Yet again all that has happened is that the Pakistani and Iranian governments have made a concerted effort to make their religion look stupid. What they fail to realise is that British Muslims do not provide the same source of entertainment, they separate themselves from the intelligent western Muslim masses who are lucky that most westerners are also intelligent enough to see through the comments, and realise that idiocy from Muslim governments in no way means that all Muslims are at the same intellectual level.

I realise this is late, but I’m posting on request. The question brought up by the news that the government has launched a 1 million GBP project to train Imams on taxpayers money. The responses to this have been mixed, but largely negative. It seems to me that the negative arguments look at it entirely the wrong way.

The first question to ask is, does the state pay to train any other religious leaders? It’s not entirely clear to me whether it does or not, but if so (and would an Oxbridge theology course not count in many ways?) why should Islam by treated any differently? If the state funds Christian leader training, then why not Muslim leader training?

The second question is are Muslim leaders any different from other jobs? That is to say I have been trained as a software engineer, the state funded that, and I had a right to that funding given the situation in the UK that university is largely a state funded system. Assuming then that university is to be state funded, certain apprenticeships get state funding, many practical college courses get state funding, is training someone to do a religious job any different? It is my view that while religious education at school level is wrong, because children are not old enough to choose a religion at a young age, by the time the reach university it would be misguided to assume that they cannot have chosen a religious career path, and hence if we are funding other career paths, why not religious ones as well?

The third question refers to the benefits to society of Imam training regarding finance. Should we pay for any training that has no economic benefit? I point you in the direction of a Classics degree. What economic benefit does a Classics degree provide? Surely the benefit is not in the degree itself, but in the general education and cultural awareness the existence of such courses promotes? Given the questionable affordability of further and higher education funding at this time, it could be argued that state support should be adapted slightly by economic need, but in a perfectly funded education system economic benefits should not come into funding decisions.

The final question refers to the benefits to society of Imam training regarding religious tolerance. In the UK we have a low level of religious involvement. Many have argued that this is a result of the existence of a state religion. What more reason would people have for not going to church having had all their will to do so forced out of them at school? The lack of interest in Shakespeare among adults may well have a similar source. Surely then, training Imams in a British context, with British values mixed in with the necessarily Muslim training can only be a good thing?

“Give Falwell an enema and you can bury him in a matchbox” – Christopher Hitchens