Pull the String

Why couldn’t Allen West be the first black president?

Sometimes ignorance is so stupefying it must be seen to be believed.

Like here:

Over the past decade, a number of academic studies have indicated a worrying and disproportionate trend towards negative, distorted and even fabricated reports in media coverage of the Muslim community. Recent research at Cambridge University concludes that "a wider set of representations of Islam would signify a welcome change to reporting practices. Muslims deserve a better press than they have been given in the past decade." And according to a recent ComRes poll, one in three people in Britain today believe that the media is responsible for "whipping up a climate of fear of Islam in the UK"….

An alternative inquiry is necessary to investigate what many regard as widespread and systematic discriminatory practices in reporting on Muslims and Islam in the British media. Victims – whether prominent or not – of alleged discriminatory media coverage have a right to have their testimonies catalogued and examined thoroughly by credible, independent assessors. Recommendations can then be made to improve ethical standards in the reporting of not solely the Muslim community but of all sections of society.

And here:

Like Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Christians, Sikhs and secularists, some Muslims have undoubtedly been violent and intolerant, but the new exhibition at the British Museum – Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam – is a timely reminder that this is not the whole story. The hajj is one of the five essential practices of Islam; when they make the pilgrimage to Mecca, Muslims ritually act out the central principles of their faith. Equating religion with "belief" is a modern western aberration. Like swimming or driving, religious knowledge is practically acquired. You learn only by doing. The ancient rituals of the hajj, which Arabs performed for centuries before Islam, have helped pilgrims to form habits of heart and mind that – pace the western stereotype – are non-violent and inclusive.

Where does one begin?

If reporting the numerous incidences of violence and extremism is considered “negative, distorted and even fabricated”, what would the signatories of this committee suggest? Not reporting anything at all?  I’m hardly a defender of the popular press and I believe they are, by and large, cowards when it comes to factual reporting of Islamism but reporting on yet more incidents of mass bombings, suicide attacks, honour killings and the goings-on of tyrannical theocratic states is what they do. 

Miss Armstrong’s article about the hajj is one of the most grotesque attempts at fluffery I’ve seen. Muslims (the ones I doubt Miss Armstrong will ever write about) do practise what they’ve learned. That’s the problem.

There is a reason why idolatry is a sin:

It is no simple task to erect a statue of anybody, let alone someone who presumably requires a large statue such as Kim Jong Il. In the South Korean city of Gumi, a mere 5m statue of former President Park Chung Hee cost 1.2 billion South Korean Won ($1.03 million). Kim Il Sung’s statue in Pyongyang is 24m high. For a massive statue like that to be erected, the foundations also need to be consolidated, then a road must be paved to go to the area. Lighting needs to be set in place and electricity provided all year round.

Thus, at the same time as Kim Il Sung was being publicly idolized, thousands upon thousands of people in different parts of the country were collapsing in the streets of hunger. If Kim Il Sung’s body had been cremated and scattered at sea then the North Korean people would not have starved, at least in principle.

The Kim family idolization project is not a simple comedy or a caricature, something to be laughed at like the odd behavior of an eccentric relative. North Korea cannot afford any of this, and will take the money from the people’s pockets. The opening act of the 3rd generation succession tragedy is beginning.

It reminds me of someone….

(With thanks)