Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: The witless on the pitiless, in reply to Simon Grigg,
In large parts of the Islamic (and indeed Christian) worlds believers have yet to make that jump – they treat the words in the books as the direct word of god. They may, as sects do, interpret, but they are still the word and that word has not changed at all since 632.
Actually, the Pew poll in Egypt I mentioned in an earlier thread was alarming in that respect: among other things, it showed strong support for sharia law, cutting off the hands of thieves, etc. And that was in groovy, secular, freshly-democratic Egypt. Yikes.
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Hard News: Asking for a Contribution, in reply to recordari,
I've just been nudged into signing up for flattr. Looking forward to finding out what the hell I've done and incorporating it in the site.
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Hard News: The witless on the pitiless, in reply to Danielle,
And I’m sure all the people using it have impeccable working-class cred themselves, you understand.
And strictly drink only instant coffee.
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Hard News: The witless on the pitiless, in reply to bomber,
i’ve responded to your defamation here
And I sincerely respect your right to do so. Cauldron of ideas and all that. Have at it.
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Hard News: The witless on the pitiless, in reply to R A Hurley,
Although I have to give it up for your description as a “middle class foghorn,” Russell. So evocative!
The middle-class thing certainly seems to have taken hold, via The Standard et al. I'm just a bit puzzled as to when and where I've claimed to be otherwise.
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Hard News: The witless on the pitiless, in reply to R A Hurley,
I don’t think you can carry my argument quite that far. All I wished to suggest was that morality is coming from some other source and being applied to religious texts. They are not the sole source of it.
Quite. Some unattractive family customs of, say, Pakistani immigrants in Britain are often attributed to Islam, when they're at least as much about the tribal culture they've brought with them. Muslims in Bosnia exercise their faith quite differently to Muslims in Saudi Arabia because their influences are very different.
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Hard News: Asking for a Contribution, in reply to Danielle,
Thank you!
It looks like I'll be able to give CactusLab $5000+, which is just bloody fantastic.
There has also been some new advertiser interest, ditto.
And while I said that it would all go into site development, I wish to propose an amendment to the effect that a small portion will also be used to buy a nice lunch for Emma and David and their families when I'm down in Christchurch on the 22nd, as a token of everyone's appreciation.
Those in favour say aye.
Those against?
Motion carried.
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Hard News: The witless on the pitiless, in reply to recordari,
When Russell does, I might.
Oh, don’t put this on me now.
Oddly enough, I did look at it yesterday, and the instructions didn’t work for a modern Apple keyboard – no alt key. So it’s the backtick then retype the vowel …
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Hard News: The witless on the pitiless, in reply to HORansome,
but here the Māori are an indigenous people who still speak and write in the language.
And as I noted, indigenous people are writing right now, in their own media, in a style other than the one you're saying is the only correct one.
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Hard News: The witless on the pitiless, in reply to Simon Grigg,
Either you buy into these brutal bronze age and/or desert tribe morals and teachings or you dismiss them. There is no half way point surely. You can’t pick and chose the ‘word’ as the times require.
But picking and choosing the word -- or at least interpreting it -- is precisely what Bin laden and the other Wahhabists are about. In theory, they worship the same god as the Sufis, but the beliefs they express and the actions they take are very, very different.
Despise him or not, Osama saw himself as true to his texts, as odious as they may be. And he’s not alone.
No doubt that's how he saw himself, and he was clearly confident in in dishing out interpretations. But the family that runs the dairy around the corner from are see themselves as good, observant Muslims too. And they're not killing anyone.