|
|
ICEHOUSE
- YOUR GOD (NOT MINE)
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dogma isn't a substitute for cold, hard fact |
It comes as little surprise to me that people are so willing
to accept such rubbish as Creationism or
'intelligent design' as fact (Metro,
Tue). The increased exposure to religion in the media and the demise of critical
thinking allows people to feel justified in their beliefs that some higher
power rules their lives, and be less inclined to look at the 'difficult science'
reality of the universe. Creationism and ID are religious subjects and, if
taught, should be taught in religious studies lessons. It is simply incorrect
to suggest they are competing scientific theories. There is no science in
them, only religious dogma. |
My Letter: |
I was interested to read the piece on the origin of the
species.However, as I read in the subsequent pages about the latest ways
the human race has found to blow itself to smithereens, I was forced to conclude
there must be an alternative origin to those discussed as there is precious
little evidence for any form of creativity or intelligence. |
Your article about Scientology refers to it as a cult because
of 'abuse of members and harsh punishment for dissenters' and also brainwashing
[Metro Thu].How is this different from any other mainstream religion? They
all encourage beliefs in unproven doctrines and discourage members from
challenging these,often with serious repercussions for dissenters. Either
all religions are cults or all cults are religions,there really is no difference.
|
This tension is driving me out of the country |
|
I despise all extremism, including the arrogant rubbish spouted
out by C Furphy. I'm not particularly religious either but Mr Furphy uses
this phrase as a caveat to write some gibberish about minorities showing
courtesy to their hosts'. I could easily talk about how some minorities are
proportionally some of the most highly educated and law-abiding citizens
and of British imperialists sucking colonies dry during the days of the Empire,
but I choose to be positive. Let's look through barriers and not impose our
views on other people through harsh words or extremist violence. |
Many Muslims unwilling to inform |
| Almost one in ten British Muslims would not tell the police if they suspected someone of their faith was involved in a terror atack,a new poll shows.The figure was even higher among young Muslim ,with 15 per cent of 16 to 24 year olds saying they would keep quiet. One in 20 Muslims thought the July 7 bombings on London were justified,the study revealed. Also, 86 per cent said the prime Minister should shoulder some of the blame for the continued terror attacks in Britain. However,86 per cent of th 502 people questioned by pollsters ICM for a Sunday newspaper would call the police if they believed a Muslim was planning a terror attack. |
 |
Muslims need not grovel nor show respect |
|
Many Muslims have been born in Britain. They have been raised
here the same as Catholics, Protestants, atheists, vegetarians and any other
denoimination or lifestyle. And if white people are free to choose their
own lifestyle,to love the government or hate it,to speak English,Welsh or
Gaelic, then surely non-whites have the same rights? |
| |
Ads demean women,not Muslim veils
In response to Hemzah Ahmed (Metro, Mon), integration means
much more than simply working hard and owning businesses and other possessions.
I am English and Greek, I work extremely hard and have pride in my job, I
socialise anid study to learn and understand. I accept my neighbour and am
open about my beliefs and customs, wherever they come from and whatever they
are. This is what integration is about.
If hoodies we being banned from some public places, what's the
implication for those in niqab veils? |
| |
| Dear Ed,
Sammy Rashid displays exactly the kind of oppression which Muslim men use upon their women - they think they are supposed to cover up or get raped. In our country, women are entitled not to be raped no matter what they wear.Whilst some judges think women "ask for it" by being provacative - it is a woman's right to wear what she pleases,though one hopes they use common sense. If we hark back to the "thong debate" which the metro ran - we might say that displaying such things or cleavage means such women "deserve what they get" - I am afraid Sammy Rashid is a victim of her belief system,women should not be at the behest of men's desires,and it is exactly her repressive values that I do not want in this country - we live by freedom - but covering one's face is not using common sense when male terrorists can disguise themselves using religion as a cover. She is obviously not wearing a veil from choice but because she is worried she will enflame men's desires. They should look after their own desires and not expect women to do it for them. That is how it demeans women. Racy ads are women being free to do what they wish without fear of being raped. That is what our values stand for. |
Terror man used 'burka as disguise'BY DANIEL BATES 'We must not get hysterical' |
|
 |
A TERROR suspect allegedly used a burka to disguise himself
as a Muslim woman to avoid capture, it emerged yesterday. The man evaded arrest for several days despite a nationwide manhunt in which his description was circulated to ports and airports. The suspect, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was eventually caught and is now in custody awaiting trial. The news comes just days after House of Commons leader Jack Straw claimed Muslim women wearing veils harmed community relations. Security agencies have been worried about male Islamic militants wearing female clothing which, in the case of the niqab veil, shows only the eyes. However, this is the first time a male suspect has allegedly disguised himself as a Muslim woman in Britain. Shahid Malik, Labour MP for Dewsbury, said he hoped the reports would not add to the tension caused by Mr Straw's remarks. He added: 'If true, it is the first case of its kind in Britain. We must not get hysterical about it. 'The important thing is the police feel comfortable about stopping anyone who they have suspicions about, whatever they are wearing.' Yesterday, tabloid newspaper columnist Anila Baig claimed she she passed through Leeds-Bradford airport in a veil without being asked to lift it. This is despite Home Office rules stating eyes, nose and mouth must be visible in passports and travellers will be asked to lift veils. |
Women in veils 'are held back'
BY JO STEELE |
||||
MUSLIM veils are an obstacle to female participation in society, Constitutional
Affairs minister Harriet Harman has claimed. Wearing the veil could get in
the way of a woman standing for Parliament, she told New Statesman magazine.
Ms Harman, who is standing for Labour's deputy leadership, added: 'If you
want equality, you have to be in society, not hidden away from it. 'How can
you stand as an MP when nien's faces are on posters, and voters can't see
yours?' Britain's race watchdog yesterday said it was 'perfectly reasonable'
for Jack Straw to ask Muslim women to remove their veils Trevor Phillips.
head of the Com mission for Racial Equality, told MPs the Commons Leader
was 'unequivo cally' right to raise the issue. Speaking to the Commons Education
Select Committee, he added: 'I think it is perfectly reasonable for him to
say he feels uncomfortable about it. 'It is right for him to say 'would you
mind not making me feel uncomfortable" as long as it is clearly understood
the answer to that can be 'no'. Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly said Muslim
groups would get financial aid if they prove they are trying to outlaw extremism
in their ranks. But some Muslim groups condemned the move, saying the Government
was trying to create it's own 'state-sponsored Islam'. |
||||
Veils do not protect from rape |
||||
| I really do wish fellow Muslims such as Wafa Islam (Metro,
Wed) would not say: 'We wear veils to prevent ourselves from being ogled
by perverted men,' or statements along those lines. I have yet to see a skimpily
clad woman in Darfur and yet women there fall victim to rape, maiming and
even murder while doing the most mundane tasks, such as collecting firewood
to cook for their families (even during the holy month of Ramadan). And who
are their attackers? Their fellow Muslims. It is not the veil that protects
but a society that allows everyone to live freely regardless of race, creed,
colour or religion. And I do believe this is the society we have in Britain.
If you are going to argue to wear your veil, it should be because it is our
basic human right to do so. ZB,London NW6 Are women such as Wafa Islam who wear veils to protect themselves from 'being ogled' and from sexual assault aware that there is such a thing as veil fetishism? Jason Dilplock, Sheffield [Metro Oct12.2006]
|
1999 Hamza file rejected by cps |
BY SARAH GETTY
POLICE tried to charge race-hate cleric
Abu Hamza as far
back as 1999 but their evidence was rejected as insufficient, it emerged
yesterday. Scotland Yard submitted a file to the Crown Prosecution Service
in March 1999 and a second in June 2003. On both occasions, prosecutors said
there was not enough proof to convict him. It was also claimed yesterday
that three of the four London sucide bombers heard Hamza's inflammatory speeches
at Finsbury Park mosque in North London. That prompted some critics to claim
the attacks on July 7 last year could have been avoided had Hamza been prosecuted
earlier. Tory security spokesman Patrick Mercer said: 'If these young men
were inspired by Abu Hamza, surely this suggests this man should have been
put away several years before.' The first two files related to claims that
Hamza was linked to the kid-apping of 16 tourists in the Yemen in 1998, in
which three Britons died. It was not until a third file was submitted in
2004- about his speeches and material found at his house - that the CPS decided
to prosecute. The 47-year-old was subsequently tried at the Old Bailey and
jailed for seven years for inciting racial hatred and terror offences on
Tuesday. Scotland Yard yesterday said it had 'no evidence' to suggest any
of the July 7 London bombers had been preached to by the cleric. And in a
joint statement with the CPS, the Yard said the earlier two files had been
'thoroughly reviewed'. |
Cleric likens women to meat |
A senior Australian Muslim cleric has triggered national outrage for likening women who dress 'immodestly' to meat that is left out for animals to eat. Sheik Taj Aldin al Hilali's spokesman said the cleric's comments in a sermon last month to mark the Islamic holy month of Ramadan had been taken out of context in a report in The Australian newspaper. But the spokesman, Keysar Trad, did not challenge the accuracy of the paper's translation. "If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden, or in the park, or in the backyard without cover, and the cats come to eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats' or the uncovered meat's?'' The Australian quoted al Hilali as saying. "The uncovered meat is the problem.'' "If she [a woman] was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred,'' he said, referring to the headdress worn by some Muslim women.
Australia's Sex Discrimination Commissioner Pru Goward said al Hilali, a
high-profile cleric who has advised the government on Muslim issues, should
now be rejected by the country's Islamic community. |
Church schools quotas dropped BY AIDAN RADNEDGE LAWS forcing faith schools to accept pupils from non-religious backgrounds were abruptly scrapped last night. Education Secretary Alan Johnson said Catholic and C of E schools had voluntarily agreed to take a quarter of students from non-Christian homes. But his department refused to say if a similar deal had been struck with Muslim or Jewish schools. The move came just a week after Mr Johnson threatened to enforce the 25 per cent quotas to prevent faith schools being 'divisive'. Critics claimed members of different religions would be unlikely to go to 'rival' faith schools and the Government faced a damaging backbench rebellion. Last night Mr Johnson accepted the opposition was too great and backed down. He said: 'I don't feel the legislative route is necessary or appropriate. 'Consensus was reached with all faith groups to place a new duty on all school governing bodies to promote community cohesion and to ensure that Ofsted inspect all schools on this element of what they do.' There are around 600 secondary and 6,400 primary schools in England designated as faith schools - including 4,744 Church of England, 2,000 Catholic, 36 Jewish, seven Muslim and two Sikh. The U-turn was welcomed by UK Muslim Parliament leader Dr Ghaya- suddin Siddiqui. He said: 'The best way to move forward is not to force changes on schools, but just encourage them to co-operate more often.' Canon John Hall, the C of E chief education officer, said: 'The Government promised all along to listen to the views of faith groups and this is a result of their having done so.
|
||
'Racist GP drove her 4x4 at mother-to-be' BY SUZY AUSTIN
'[Arnaot] was really angry and the only way I can describe her outburst is violent and abusive,' said Ms Chambers, whose statement had to be read because she was too ill to attend court. 'As I went to turn back I suddenly felt this almighty pain in my back. The four-wheel drive had moved forward into me and squashed my stomach into the post. 'I was trying to scream, but I couldn't and I had pins and needles. 'The pain was so unbearable. I was so frightened I wet myself.' Fortunately, a paramedic was at the scene and Ms Chambers has since given birth to a healthy baby. Arnaot, of Erith, Kent, denies six charges including dangerous driving, damaging property and assault in August last year. The trial at London's Blackfriars Crown Court continues. |
||
Unveiled women 'are inviting rape' BY ANNE CAMPBELL
A LEADING Muslim preacher has caused outrage by saying some women attract
rape by the way they dress. Sheikh Taj el-Din al-Hilali told followers that
women who did not wear a head-dress, or hijab, were like uncovered meat'.
His comments, reportedly made at a meeting in Sydney, were condemned as
'appalling and reprehensible'. 'The idea that women are to blame for rapes
is preposterous,' said Australian prime minister John Howard. Sheikh Hilali
is the senior cleric at Sydney's largest mosque and once served as an adviser
to the Australian government on Muslim issues. He was quoted as saying: 'If
you take out uncovered meat and place it outside without cover, and the cats
come to eat it, whose fault is it, the cats' or the uncovered meat? The uncovered
meat is the problem.' Australia's sex discrimination commissioner, Pru Goward,
said the comments were an incitement to rape and called for Sheikh Hilali
to be sacked. 'Young Muslim men who now rape women can cite this in court,
can quote their leader in court,' she said. Waleed Ali, a spokesman for the
Islamic Council of Victoria, added: 'Anyone foolish enough to believe there
is a relationship between rape and the failure to wear a hijab clearly has
no understanding of the nature of sexual crime.' The controversy comes at
a time of heightened tensions between white and Arab communities in Sydney.
Sheikh Hilali also triggered a row in 2004 when he said the September
11 attacks were 'God's work against the oppressors'. Last night, he denied
he condoned rape when he made the comments last month. He also apologised,
saying Muslim women were free to dress as they wished. |
||
Remain calm, says Islamic scholar
MUSLIMS must not react 'emotionally' to politicians making
controversial statements about wearing the veil, a leading Islamic scholar
said yesterday. 'Some politicians are using this issue because they have
an agenda to push,' said Prof Tariq Ramadan. He was responding to Commons
leader Jack Straw's controversial call for women to ditch the veil, saying
it was a 'visible statement of separation'. Prof Ramadan, a visiting professor
at Oxford University, told an inter-faith summit in Tower Hamlets, East London,
that instead of hitting back at politicians, Muslims should 'say thank you
for the question and discuss it within our communities'. He added: 'This
may be the way to a critical and intellectual approach, with wisdom that
is profound, about the questions Muslims are facing.' |
||
Poor white people 'at most disadvantage'
POOR white people are 'at the bottom of the social heap' and are rapidly
being overtaken by those from ethnic minorities, a study revealed yesterday.
Working-class whites do less well at school than people from other backgrounds
and go on to lower- skilled jobs, an investigation by The Economist
magazine found. 'The nation's most troubled group is poor, white and
British-born,' it reported yesterday. The investigation focused on Dagenham
and Leicester, where fewer than a third of white children attained five A
to C grades in their GCSE exams last summer. Many of the white pupils ended
up unemployed and those who did manage to find work got jobs in manufacturing
- an industry in long-term decline. By contrast, the children of immigrants
found jobs in expanding sectors, such as the public sector. They were also
well-represented in health and social work, finance and the hotel and restaurant
trade. |
||
Veil teacher loses bias claim but wins £1,000 |
||
'I fear consequences for Muslim women'
A MUSLIM teaching assistant who refused to remove her veil during lessons
yesterday lost her claims for discrimination and harassment. Afterwards,
Aishah Azmi, 24, criticised Tony Blair for intervening in the row as part
of the debate about the ways Muslims integrate into British society. Mrs
Azmi said she was 'fearful of the consequences for Muslim women in this country
who want. to work' - An employment tribunal dismissed three of her claims
of discrimination and harassment but found she was victimised by Headfield
Church of England Junior School in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, and awarded
her £1,000 for injury to feelings'. Kirklees Council suspended her after
she refused to remove her veil while teaching. The school said face-to-face
Communication was essential for Ms Azmi's job as a bilingual support worker.
She said last night: 'Muslim women who wear the veil are not aliens, and
politicians need to recognise that what they say can have a dangerous impact
on the lives of minorities they treat as outcasts. Integration requires people
like me - to be in the workplace so that people can see that we are not to
be feared or mistrusted. 'Sadly the intervention of ministers in my case
- against the ministerial code - makes me fearful of the consequences for
Muslim women in this country who want to work. 'I will continue to uphold
my religious beliefs and urge Muslims to engage in dialogue with the wider
community, despite the attacks that are being made upon them.' Mrs Azmi,
of Thornhill Lees, Dewsbury, remains suspended on full pay from the school.
She said she was willing to remove her veil in front of children - but
not when male colleagues were present. The Prime Minister said the veil
row was part of a debate about the way the Muslim community integrates into
British society. He added that the veil was a 'mark of separation' which
makes people of other ethnic backgrounds uncomfortable. The tribunal said
it was 'most unfortunate' that politicians made comments on the case while
it was sub judice. |
||
Muslims 'believe they are victims'
|
Justice for race victim
BY SARAH HILLS |
||
THREE Asian men who burned a school-boy alive just because he was white
were jailed for life yesterday. The group killed Kriss Donald, 15, because
he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, stabbing him 13 times before
setting him on fire. As he was attacked, the defenceless teenager pleaded:
'I'm only 15, what did I do?' Yesterday, his family spoke of their relief
after gang ringleader Imran Shahid, 29, his brother Zeeshan Shahid, 28, and
27-year-old Mohammed Faisal Mushtaq were locked up for a total of 70 years
for the murder. Kriss was abducted in a random act of racially motivated
revenge while walking with a friend near his Glasgow home in March 2004.
He was taken on a terrifying 320km (200-mile) journey in a stolen
 Mercedes across Scotland. His body was found semi-naked at
a secluded spot on the banks of the River Clyde the next moming. Yesterday,
the three men, who fled to Pakistan after the killing, were convicted at
the end of a six-week trial. Sentencing them, Judge Lord Uist called it a
'savage and barbaric' crime which 'shocked and appalled the public'. He added:
'None of you has shown any remorse for what you have done. 'The agony which
he must have suffered during the period between being stabbed and set alight
and his death is just beyond imagination.' Outside court Kriss's mother,
Angela. praised those who helped the inquiry 'into the hellish murder', adding:
'Justice has been done.
Asian gang which murdered schoolboy was thirsty for revenge Killed for being white
City in fear of the Shielders
|
||
|
||
|
||
Muslim woman 'told husband to be martyr' BY STEPHEN DEAL
|
||
|
||
BY ANNE CAMPBELL
THE world's heaviest pig has been sacrificed as part of a religious ceremony, sparking fury among animal welfare groups. The animal, which was force fed sand and metal to reach its record breaking weight of 908kg (143 stone), could not even stand as it had its throat slit at the ritual in Taiwan. Activists filmed the animal squealing in tenor before it was bled to death and paraded before a crowd on Saturday - even though officials have banned the event. The annual Pig of God festival involves a heaviest pig contest, with the winner sacrificing their animal in honour of the president. A World Society for the Protection of Animals spokesman said: 'We want to bring a complete end to this grotesque freak show.' Police in the town of Hsin Chu are reluctant to enforce a ban on the contest. |
If we were all atheists and didn't believe in silly things no one can prove - we would have none of the above problems:Let's try to remember there is no such person as "Allah" or "God".It is muslims who incite race and religious hatred and do not accept that they live in a country which does not have their rules. They are intolerant and belligerent,and want everything their own way. Imran Kahn said on Channel Four that the law should stop people being offended. He offends me - but I don't want a law that forbids him doing so.
I don't think he has read 1984 or understands the history of the Western
World. By comparison,the West is tolerant and has accepted muslims and they
find every opportunity to BE offended - in this country the law protects
the right of people to offend other's sensibilities - we do not gag
people just because we do not like what they say,if muslims do not like our
rules - they are free to live in their own oppressive regimes - oddly
they choose to live here,where we have free speech. They seem to want to
tell others to live like they do - whilst saying that no one should
tell them how to live - they are supremely arrogant - believing that their
values are the best ones.
The Channel 4 programme indicated that 2/3 of the studio audience including
muslims believed that free speech should be curtailed when it came to religion
- I am here to say that free speech should include the right to criticise
beliefs held by other people - especially if those beliefs preach intolerance
and criminal intent - ie beheading those who "insult Islam"-Muslims may believe
there is a God,but I do not - and I do not accept the morality imposed by
their made-up superstitious rubbish
I would like to point out to Ms Azmi that men are not aliens either and wearing a veil is offensive to me. If you think that by covering your face you are saving yourself from being accosted -you are making offensive assumptions about men.-LB
![Researchers in scuba gear study the four-finned bottlenose dolphin found off the coast of western Japan. Inset, a close-up of one of the extra fins [Pictures:AP]](graphics/metro/FINS.gif)
A
DOLPHIN with an extra pair of fins provides new
proof that Darwin was
right, scientists said yesterday. The animal was captured just over
a week ago off western Japan. The extra fins are evidence that dolphins once
had four legs and lived on land, researchers claim.
Fishermen netted the animal off the coast of Wakayama on October28. The second
set of fins - much smaller than the front pair - are about the size of human
hands and protrude from near the tail on the dolphin's underside.
The dolphin, which is being kept at the Taiji Whaling Museum for X-ray and
DNA tests, is 2.7m (9ft) long and about five years old. It is the first time
a dolphin or whale has been caught with a well-developed symmetrical pair
of extra fins.'This is an unprecedented discovery,' said Seiji Osumi, an
adviser at Tokyo's Institute of Cetacean Research, 'I believe the fins may
be remains from the time when dolphins' ancient ancestors lived on land.'
Fossils indicate that dolphins and whales were once four-footed land animals,
and share common ancestors with the hippopotamus and deer. [Metro 6/11/06]
I'd like to point out that there are species of flatfish whose eye has "migrated" around the other side of it's head - because it lays on it's side - proof again of evolution and not of creationism - contrary to the fact that some people suggest that there is an alternative scheme called "Intelligent Design" - this is NOT a proper theory and is a means by which Creationists are trying to render their ignorant views acceptable.
 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Dear Ed, Your interview with Andrew Parker highlights just what lengths people will go to to try and push God into a picture where he just does not belong. I would like Dr Parker to explain where the evidence is that the sun has been stopped in the sky.As the late great Isaac Asimov explained - we would have all been thrown off into space. Dr Parker doesn't seem to know what the evidence is,and as such is why he says it points neither one way or the other,when in fact it falls clearly in favour of atheism. Considering he was educated at Oxford,he might do better keeping his nose out of other people's business as clearly his education in science is completely lacking. |
|
|
|
  |
  |
| Frank Hung has fell foul of one of the cliche arguments of
those of faith - that atheism is just as much a matter of faith. He is quite
wrong. Occam's razor and proof beyond a reasonable doubt mean that one should
presume the negative by default and ask for proof - which is what an atheist
does. Someone of faith presumes the positive and asks for evidence of refutation,
inverting the process of proof and as anyone will tell you - you cannot prove
a negative,so those of faith are in an untenable close minded position. These issues are covered in: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
| Paul Hildreth is one of those people who say they are open-minded for not dismissing God and yet accepts scientific methodology. The accepted process in science is to assume the negative until there is proof beyond a reasonable doubt as we do in court,and to use Occam's razor which dismisses needless complexity. Under these rules the notion of God becomes a falsity,and thence should not be believed in. If you accept science you should not believe in God.Anyone who does science and believes in God is a bad scientist. | |
|
|
|
|
| Dear Ed,
I challenge Phil Granger to name one thing science cannot explain,and if he can,this does not mean it falls under the headings "religion" or "supernature". It merely means science hasn't explained it yet. Ben Niblett seems to think because scientists who have faith exist it means the two concepts can co-exist,it doesn't,it merely means those people are not good enough to realise why the concepts are mutually exclusive. In John Polkinghorne's case, I have a paper taking apart one of his own dissertations as to why religion and science can co-exist. Mr Polkinghorne is just plain wrong, like all those who think religion has anything to contribute to what is true about the universe. |
|
![New SCientist FEEDBACK [30Aug,2003]](graphics/newsci/JAR.gif) CREATION science
is the creationists' slap in the face to orthodox science. It's their
way of proving the silly old orthodox scientists have got it all wrong: life
didn't evolve over millions of years, God created it 6000 years ago. But
browsing reports of a recent Creation Science Fair, Feedback was glad to
see that young creationists set the same store by observation as their orthodox
counterparts. At the elementary level, for instance, young Cassidy Turnbull
carried off first prize for noting the differences between her uncle Steve
and a monkey. She couldn't bring a monkey to the fair, but she brought her
uncle Steve, and showed that not only was he less hairy than the monkeys
in her photographs, he also didn't like bananas. First prize in the middle
school category went to Patricia Lewis, who showed that living things could
not evolve from non-living things by sealing a charcoal briquette, purified
water and a multivitamin tablet in a jar and leaving it in the sun for three
weeks. The high school projects were, predictably, more ambitious. Two girls
compared the antibiotic resistance of two cultures of E. coli bacteria, and
found that the one they prayed would evolve antibiotic resistance, did. Other
notable entries are mentioned at
http://objectivejesussave.us/creationsciencefair.html.
Exercise those powers of observation, however, and you might notice that
the author is a professor at Fellowship University, which doesn't seem to
exist. Evidently the site has not evolved but was created - and not by God. |
| Youtube-10 questions any 'rational' Christian should answer |
Youtube-Why the Bible is Repulsive BBC Religious Limerick Contest
|
See also: Can science oust
religion?,Darwin on the
right,Intelligent Design,
Missing
link found
| Maths | Physics | Biology | Chemistry | Computing | Science | Electronics | Belief | Art | Philosophy |
As a scientist who sees a divine design and order
to the universe, especially the Earth, I was delighted to read the article
highlighting what our existence is all about. However, what saddens me are
ill- informed comments by people such as David Ward, who states that 'the
Bible says the world is 6,000 years old'. That is inaccurate - he ought to
read it. The Bible says that 'in the beginning God created..', there is no
timescale as to when. Why is it that so many honest scientists run away from
the evidence of intelligent design out of fear?
In response to Sarah Fowkes's
comments about Muslims showing a lack of respect for Britain (Metro. Mon),
for a start most Muslims and their parents were born here and raised as British
citizens. So the idea that they should show grovelling respect to their hosts
is not relevant. Focusing on the so-called 'Muslim community' is a red herring;
there is no single Muslim community. In terms of descent there are distinct
Indian, Pakistani. Bangladeshi, Caribbean, Nigerian, Arab, Albanian, Turkish
and other communities, each with their own set of socio-economic conditions.
Muslims are not an ethnicity or a race; it is a religion. There
a few hundred thousand white Muslims in Biritain too. Furthermore,Barry Leonard
claims that Moslem parents would sympathise with children becoming tenorists.
This implies that there is widespread support, among Muslim
parents,for young people killing civilians. This has absolutely no basis
in fact. 
Sue Hudson says that wearing a veil demeans women
(Metro, Mon). Has she ever asked a Muslim woman how she feels to wear it?
I can tell you that most women who wear the veil wear it out of choice .The
headscarf is required for women and those who wear it, as well as the veil,
feel more comfortable when they do. If a Muslim woman wearing the veil is
demeaned, how about the naked women on billboards used to sell cars? How
about the fashion industry pumping out clothes to reveal women's busts? All
these things bring out men's desires and increase the likelihood of women
being abused. Why do you need to see a woman or man's face when you speak
to them? Many Muslim men would feel uncomfortable talking to women in this
country who reveal their cleavage or other parts of the body. Muslim women
cover for protection, to stop being gazed at, which is very important in
a society where sexual assaults are becoming more and more common. Should
we ensure all women cover up modestly? 
Dave Degen's comparison of the 655,000
Iraq dead with the Holocaust (Metro, Fri) is wrong. The 500 killed a day
in Iraq does not rival the rate of killings of the Jews under Nazi Germany
during World War II in two ways. First, roughly six times as many Jews were
killed per day in Germany and, second, the killings were carried out
indiscriminately by the Nazis, which is not the case with the Allied troops,
apart from the actions of a handful. It disgusts me that the initial response
of most people to the publication of this statistic is glee that the US is
being 'exposed' as a Holocaust perpetrator, rather than sadness at the state
of Iraq. It makes me question the true agenda of those liberal anti-Americans
who preach peace and point gladly to the number of dead in Iraq and Afghanistan.
These people may also do well to ask themselves whether it's thc Americans
or Iraqis who blow themselves up when surrounded by defenceless women and
children. 
A RACIST GP rammed her 4x4 car into a
mother-to-be and wedged her against a post, a court was told yesterday. Dr
May Arnaot, 50, left six months pregnant Sarah Chambers in 'unbearable pain'
on a petrol station forecourt, jurors heard. She allegedly yelled at the
terrified nursery nurse: 'You're Tony Blair's bitch, all you white people
are the same - you all vote for Tony Blair.' Ms Chambers was a passenger
in her fiance's Ford Fiesta when Arnaot, from the Middle East, drove at them
in her Nissan X-Trail, causing them to swerve. The two cars pulled over at
a nearby petrol station where the nurse went over to Arnaot to ask for her
insurance details. But the 25-year-old was instead met with the racially-fuelled
tirade, jurors were told.
BY MIKE TAIT
THE Church of England's only Asian bishop
has criticised some British Muslims for having a 'victim' mentality. The
Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, said some Muslims wanted
both 'victimhood and domination'. He added: 'Their complaint often boils
down to the position that it is always right to intervene when Muslims are
victims, as in Bosnia or Kosovo, and always wrong when the Muslims are the
oppressors or terrorists, as with the Taliban or in Iraq.' 
THE
ringleader of an Asian gang which stabbed and burned alive 15-year-old Kriss
Donald was 'thirsty for revenge on white boys', a court heard. Imran Shahid,
29, was angry at being attacked with a beer bottle outside a club by white
youths. He threatened to 'chop them up and take their eyes out'. Later that
day, Shahid and four accomplices, including his brother Zeeshan, 28, and
their friend Moharrimed Faisal Mushtaq, 27, packed tools in a bag and stole
a car to search the streets of Pollokshields for the culprits. Walking with
a friend and they happened to find Kriss pounced, launching a savage beating
on them both. As they threatened Kriss with a knife and 'a shooter', he pleaded:
'I'm only 15. 'What did I do?' Kriss's friend Jamie Wallace, 22, fought to
save him as the gang surrounded them. Kriss clamped his hands on the car
door frame to avoid being bundled in. Shahid's gang then took Kriss on ajourney
to Dundee and back as they phoned friends looking for a house to take him
to. Having no success, they returned to Glasgow and took him to a riverside
walkway near Celtic FC's training ground. There, they held his arms and stabbed
him 13 times before dousing him with petrol and setting him alight, probably
while he was still alive. He was found semi-naked the next morning, having
suffered what prosecutors said was 'a lonely, frightened death'. Shahid set
the Mercedes alight in the city's Hillhead area - but DNA tests linked both
him and Kriss to the vehicle. The killers fled to Pakistan but wete extradited
back to Britain more than a year later. Trial judge Lord Uist said: It was
pre-meditated cold-blooded execution. It truly was an abomination.' Accomplice
Damish Zahid, 22, was jailed for at least 17 years at an earlier trial.
IMRAN SHAHID, a powerfully set bodybuilder nicknamed Baldy,
was at the heart of the trouble which led to Kriss Donald's murder. He took
control of a feared Asian gang called the Shielders in Glasgow in the 1990s.
The son of a Pakistani businessman, he was born in Huddersfield but raised
with his four brothers and three sisters in Pollokshields, on the city's
south side. Imran and brother Zeeshan, known as Crazy, shunned traditional
Pakistani morality and hard work to terrorise the neighbourhood. In 1994,
when just 17, Imran made his name as a 'tough guy' by battering a 25-year-old
with a baseball bat and leaving him in a coma with brain damage. He is said
to have tried to escape justice by fleeing to Pakistan, as he did later after
Kriss's murder. when he eventually returned to Scotland, he admitted assault
and was jailed for four-and-a-half years. Such was his fearsome reputation,
Shahid was rumoured to have chopped off the fmger of his sister's boyfriend.
Shortly before kifling Kriss, he served time for felling a 42-year-old woman
motorist with a single punch and trying to run her over after a minor collision
in Glasgow's East End.[Metro Nov9,2006]
A YOUNG woman encouraged her husband to become
a Muslim martyr, the Old Bailey heard yesterday. In a letter, she urged him
to fight against non-believers and vowed that their baby son would follow
in his footsteps, it was claimed. The letter was read out to the jury trying
Bouchra El Hor, 24, for failing to disclose information on terrorism. Her
husband Yassin Nassari, 28, is charged with having documents and data on
terrorism. The couple, who had a five-month- old son when they were detained
in May, last year, deny the charges. Bouchra El Hor allegedly said in her
letter. 'I am so proud of my husband. I am happy that Allah has granted you
the chance to be a martyr. 'I am writing to let you know that you have my
support and to remind you to be strong and do not let Satan influence you.
to remind you that jihad is now compulsory and we are now obligated to protect
Islam, to help our brothers and sisters to fight the kuffar [non-believer].
'Maybe one day I can follow you. If I can't, I will send our son to you-so
he can follow his father's footsteps.' The letter was photocopied by police
at Luton Airport when the couple's luggage was searched as they returned
to Britain from Holland, jurors heard. Mtab Jaffeijee, prosecuting, said
its true significance was recognised only after police analysed the hard
drive of a computer seized at Nassari's home in Ealing, West London. It was
found to have instructions on how to make missiles and handle explosives.
El Hor, who is Dutch, and London- born Nassari were followers of 'extreme
ideology', Mr Jaffeijee said. He added. 'His wife was not only aware of his
intention, but positively encouraged it - despite the fact that his actions
would almost certainly result in his death in some form of combat, and would
also result in their son being without a father.' The trial continues today.
'We are now obligated to fight to protect Islam... to fight the
kuffar
