Despite Britain seemingly going into festive lockdown from about 3 October every year, our cross-Channel neighbours are far less enthusiastic about Christmas. This chart from Statista, using data collated by YouGov, shows that the people of France are, by quite some way, the most apathetic about Noël. When asked whether […]
Thank God for Noam Chomsky. Not for his lifetime of eviscerating assaults on our political hypocrisy, but for his linguistics. Long before I knew him, undergraduate Fisk laboured at his university linguistics course, where Chomsky’s work first alerted me to the pernicious use of language. Hence I condemn at once […]
320. Commandment – make not unlawful the good things which Allah has made lawful for you [5:88] O ye who believe! make not unlawful the good things which Allah has made lawful for you, and do not transgress. Surely, Allah loves not the transgressors. [7:33] Say, ‘Who has forbidden the adornment of Allah […]
321. Commandment – eat and drink but exceed not the bounds (be moderate in eating) [7:32] O children of Adam! look to your adornment at every time and place of worship, and eat and drink but exceed not the bounds; surely, He does not love those who exceed the bounds. […]
322. Commandment – be moderate in spending [25:68] And those who, when they spend, are neither extravagant nor niggardly but moderate between the two;
Saudi Cleric Says Women Are not required to Wear Hijab, Can Put Makeup Around 5,000 Yazidi women and girls have been kidnapped by IS militants, who sell them as sex slaves ‘Saudi Cleric Says Women Are not required to Wear Hijab, Can Put Makeup Dec […]
Time: If there’s a factory where birds are built, the workers were clearly smoking something the day they designed the hummingbird. And the ostrich. And the toucan. Imagine, too, the pitch meeting for the parrot, (“Let’s make this one talk!”), or the peacock (“So we got this crate of feathers…”). Of […]
Source:N Y Times: The sweeping reorganization of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, set to take effect next year, is likely to involve the merger or the closing of significantly more parishes than was originally announced last month, archdiocese documents show. Church officials said in November that 112 of the […]
http://www.cnn.com/video/api/embed.html#/video/world/2014/12/15/bpr-coren-australia-hostage-situation-sydney.cnn 5 people have fled from Sydney cafe A hostage taker in a Sydney cafe has contacted three media outlets via the hostages. An unknown number of people remain captive. FULL […]
Source: The Daily Beast But Pope Paul VI did, decades ago. This internet rumor isn’t true, but the Catholic Church really has done hard thinking about animal souls. This week […]
Epigraph: No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Source: The Guardian By Rowena Mason […]
Summary by David Ignatius, Daily Star, Lebanon Gen. John Allen must sometimes feel that he’s navigating a maze as he organizes the coalition to defeat ISIS: Iran is a silent partner in Iraq but a potential adversary in Syria and elsewhere; Turkey and Saudi Arabia are crucial allies, but skittish […]
The Daily Star BEIRUT: United Nations and Lebanese officials are meeting Monday to launch the 2015-16 Lebanon Crisis Response Plan to deal with the more than 1.2 million Syrian refugees the country is hosting. Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas and Ross Mountain, the U.N. resident coordinator in Lebanon, will discuss […]
Islam prescribes many forms of worship that have outward expressions, prayer being the most obvious of these. Yet, the greatest, most important facets of worship are the internal ones, the […]
JEDDAH: IRFAN MOHAMMED Published — Monday 15 December 2014 Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has approved a project to install about 300 sunshades in the courtyards of […]
Businessinsider.com; It’s a saying favored by boomers and grandparents, a comeback beloved enough to make an appearance in New Yorker cartoons and on countless T-shirts: “I’ve forgotten more than you know.” Now, a team of researchers at the University of Tübingen in Germany has offeredsome support for the idea that the slowed-down recall we […]
Daily Times: Speaking to the Jamaat-e-Islami’s (JI’s) three-day convention in Lahore, the ameer (chief) of the party, Sirajul Haq, told his followers that UK agents in Pakistan were trying to spread the propaganda that Jinnah had envisaged Pakistan to be a secular state. He went on to claim Jinnah had […]
theguardian: Giles Fraser —- It’s depressing that a decade after I wrote about a Christian charity’s thinly disguised Islamophobia, they’re still at it Franklin Graham (second from right) leads his father Billy, flanked by former US presidents George HW Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, on the campus of the […]
Source: BBC At least one gunman has taken several people hostage at a cafe in the Australian city of Sydney. Pictures on Australian television show at least three people with […]