But now the Church has put off the debate on recruiting Muslims until next February at the earliest and will discuss the promotion of churches as tourist attractions instead.
from the Telegraph
The Persians were barbarians, the Greeks thought, not because they were weak (they were mighty) or stupid (they were clever) or rustic (they built lavish cities). They were barbarians because they were not free. Or, to put it more precisely, they had become accustomed to living under despotism; they lacked the will to rise up against their overlords and govern themselves, city by city, by the use of their own minds and strong arms. The barbarian may arouse pity, if he can no longer conceive of what it would be to stand tall and speak candidly; by this definition, the lowlier of the Calormenes in Lewis' Chronicles are pitiable barbarians. Or he may arouse a kind of half-comic aversion, as do the Cyclopses in the Odyssey, who gather in no assemblies, pass no laws, unite for no large-scale industry or agriculture, and do not give homage to the politically organized gods of Olympus, but mind their own petty business, each of them ignoring his neighbors -- as the bleeding oaf Polyphemus finds to his discomfiture. Or the barbarian may be one of the privileged few who cause others to truckle to his will, like the semisavage tyrants of Sicity (Agathocles, Hiero, Dionysus).
Whatever the case, the barbarian is missing something central to being human: living as a free man with duties and responsibilities in a community, taking part in spirited debate, and not having to duck and scrape when some big shot from a distant Persepolis descends with the imperial decree. The free man is both a dutiful son of his country and a father for it; the city commands his allegiance, but it is also in part his creation, his patrimony, which he will pass along to his descendants in turn. The Greeks claim that when this political liberty -- it is not the radical individualism of a Cyclops in his cave -- is lacking, that itself is barbaric, regardless of whether the people possess sweet and gentle manners. My family and I are preparing to go north for the summer, where the people of Canada have had the liberties of their small communities snatched from them by a bad constitution and a tyrannical court. They are, as one defender of liberty has put it, a Nation of Bastards, wards of the state. This novel kind of barbarism does overgo the barbarism of Persia, though, because the ancient Persians were willing enough to grant their outlands a measure of home rule; witness Cyrus's humane returning of the Jews to their homeland. Chief Justice McLachlin of Canada will not allow such local variations for a Calgary or a Thunder Bay. When it comes to detaching Canadians from the very culture that gave rise to Canada in the first place, only a mockery of debate is allowed. And only the shreds and patches of political opposition, too. Approach the presence, Clayton, Terence, Angus. Bow with awful reverence prone, flat as the Canadian shield. I'm not gloating over you, my friends of the permafrost. We in America will soon be leaving our nose-prints in the dirt, too.Anthony Esolen, in Mere Comments
Speaking of things which deal with Classics, I've been re-reading Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire over the last 2 weeks. It is fascinating stuff.
Rescue workers today began scaling down the search for a priest who was carried off the coast of Brazil four days ago by hundreds of balloons.
The Rev Adelir Antonio di Carli was last heard from on Sunday night, eight hours after he took off from the port city of Paranaguá harnessed to hundreds of brightly coloured helium-filled balloons. Strong winds had blown him off his planned route and out to sea.
The Brazilian air force today suspended its search as hopes of finding him alive faded. The navy continued to patrol waters off the coast of Santa Catarina state, but it was considering halting operations, according to the Reuters news agency.
From The Guardian.
TRABZON – Doğan News Agency
A mishap Thursday caused some mosques in the Black Sea province of Trabzon to broadcast a love song instead of the call to prayer for the noon prayers.
According to reports, all mosques are connected to a central system from which the call to prayer is broadcast to all mosques. On Thursday at noon, the people of Trabzon were greeted by Geçtiğim dikenli aşk yollarında, elimden bir kırık saz geldi geçti (On the thorny roads of love I tread, I got hold of a broken saz), sung by Zeki Müren, a highly respected Turkish singer, composer and poet who died in 1996. While he dressed effeminately, wearing large, ornate rings and heavy make-up, especially in the later years of his life, he never confirmed or denied the public rumors that he was gay.
According to reports, Müren's song was heard for three minutes, before the call to prayer began.
Officials from the Trabzon mufti's office said the mishap occurred due to a technical problem.And in other news "Istanbul's last pork butcher fights Islamist crackdown on swine"
Just in case you are wondering about etiquette for the day:
Shaykh Muhammad ibn Saalih al-‘Uthaymeen (may Allaah have mercy on him) was asked: What is the ruling on congratulating people on the occasion of the Hijri new year, and how should one reply to a person who offers congratulations?
He replied:
If someone offers you congratulations, then respond to him, but do not initiate such greetings. This is the correct view concerning this matter. So if a person says to you, for example, “Happy New Year”, then you can say, “May Allaah make it a good and blessed year for you.” But you should not initiate such a greeting, because I do not know of any report that the salaf [early generations of Islam] congratulated one another on the occasion of the new year, rather the salaf did not regard the first of Muharram as the first day of the new year until the caliphate of ‘Umar ibn al-Khattaab (may Allaah be pleased with him.
Shaykh ‘Abd al-Kareem al-Khudayr said concerning offering congratulations on the occasion of the hijri new year:
Praying for another Muslim in general terms, in phrases that are not meant as a kind of ritual on special occasions such as Eid, is acceptable, especially if what is meant by this greeting is friendship and to show a friendly face to one’s fellow Muslim. Imaam Ahmad (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: “I do not initiate the greeting but if someone greets me I return the greeting, because responding to the greeting is obligatory. But being the first to offer congratulations is neither Sunnah nor forbidden.from Ummmaariyah’s Weblog
I worked for a number of years in a setting where I had daily interaction with Muslim students and community leaders. As well, there have been my conversations with Muslims throughout the Holy Land.
Happy new year (1st of Muharram 1429)
Human Rights Gone Awry
What I do not associate with this deep and noble concept is getting ticked off by something you read in a magazine - or for that matter hear on television - and then scampering off to a handful - well, three - of Canada's proliferate human rights commissions - seeking to score off the magazine: this is what four Osgoode Hall law students and graduates --- a very definition of the 'marginalized' --- under the banner of the Canadian Islamic Congress have done after reading an excerpt from Mark Steyn's America Alone in Maclean’s. The complainants read the article as “flagrantly islamophobic”.
Maclean’s magazine? Well, we all know what a hotbed of radical bigotry and vile prejudice Maclean’s magazine has been. Go away … for what seems like a century Maclean’s was no more "offensive" (that is the can’t term of choice these days) than a down comforter on a cold day and if Mark Steyn's article offended them: so what? Not every article in every magazine of newspaper is meant to be a valentine card addressed to every reader's self-esteem. Maclean’s published a bushel of letters following the article's appearance: some praised it: others scorned it. That's freedom of speech: that's democracy: that's the messy business we call the exchange of ideas and opinions.full text here
And Daniel Simard, one of the complainants, has this to say, although the comments are closed...
Moving on, as I’m sure you are all are aware, I am party to a human rights complaint waged against Maclean’s magazine for the publication of an article written by Mark Steyn. Because of this, I have been one of the hot topics in the blogging world, and as a result of this and some of my posts, I have subjected our site and staff to increased scrutiny, censure and attack.
I want you all to know that I had no intention of dragging lawiscool into my personal disputes. Admittedly, I underestimated the unscrupulousness of my frantic foes and lacked the foresight necessary to obviate lawiscool’s subjection. I am grateful that you all are bearing with me and supporting me in my right and privilege to convey my messages through our blog. I also want you all to know that I grappled with the thought of excluding posts related to my dispute, but, rather than accede defeat to my crazed critics I decided it would be unjust to restrict the publication of fair and reasonable commentary.
Muslims Against Sharia has a post on the topic as well:
By now, most people living in Canada and a great many living in the US will know that a group of students at Osgoode Hall Law School have decided to take the Canadian weekly newsmagazine, Macleans, before several provincial incarnations of the Canadian Human Rights Commission. Their charge? The Canadian Islamic Congress is offended by passages from Mark Steyn's book, America Alone, which were published in an issue of MacLeans, the most offensive of which, is a quote from a Danish Muslim cleric (see second page), which the students seem not to have grasped (and what does that say about the standards at that once great, grand old institution, Osgoode Hall?).
And some reflections from the Canadian Islamic Congress site, highlighting thoughts from a 2006 strategy meeting:
II - Short-Term Action Plan
1 Rejecting media-imposed calls for Muslim "extremist/moderate" discourse.
2 Having more Muslim community media.
3 Sending more letters to editors and/or using Press Councils, etc etc as means to address frequent anti-Islam bias in the media.
4 Inviting more guests of other faiths to attend Friday prayers to make them more aware of Islam and Muslims.
5 Making a greater effort to defend and advocate for Muslim rights and responsibilities.
6 Encouraging greater participation in elections at all levels (federal, provincial, and municipal) and on government and professional boards.
7 Establishing a legal defense fund.
8 Training more Muslim representatives/spokespersons in how to use Canadian media effectively.
9 Enhancing Da’wa (education) efforts among Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
Kugluktuk has seen too many suicides. Rev. Christopher Davis buried nine young people--all suicide victims---in a twelve-month period; almost all the deaths were alcohol-related. That’s one every six weeks. And there are only 1,300 people in the hamlet, ninety percent of them Inuit, and most of them Anglican. Everybody is related to everybody so the pain is enormous.
“One curse that entered the Central Arctic in the late 1920’s when it opened up to the outside world was alcohol, which is truly a destroyer,” Davis said. “There are drugs in the North too, but alcohol is worse because it is legal and more accessible.”
And there is a vested interest in keeping the liquor flowing. The airlines make a profit from shipping it in as does the government-owned liquor store in Yellowknife where it originates.read the rest here
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