-Nomadique-

Nomads
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Everything posted by -Nomadique-

  1. A beautiful tribute to your father, your words really moved me. May the heavy weight of sorrow be lifted from your heart and amiin to all your du'as my dear brother.
  2. ^ Wait for the spin. Great responses from Sheikh Sharif.
  3. ^ Indeed I do. For future reference if you ever order a drink from Boost Juice just know that the 'Original' is in fact ridiculously large. I learnt the hard way.
  4. from the great outdoors ofcourse lol
  5. Cadaan you're a cool bloke, keep doing what you do.
  6. The absurd world of Martin Amis Look, I'm busy. I'm writing a script and I won't be disturbed. Except that because I'm writing about terrorism and Islam, I keep being distracted by Martin Amis. He prowls the thickets of my research like a demented flasher. Sometimes Christopher Hitchens pops up, too, and flashes along with his friend. They rail against Muslims. They're obviously daft. But people take them seriously. No matter that they act like senile 12-year-olds on the Today programme website - smoking illegal fags to look tough and cool. No matter that Amis coins truly abominable terms like 'the age of horrorism' and when criticised tells people to '**** off'. Surely we all chuckle at the strenuous ennui of his salon drawl. Didn't he once accidentally sneer his face off? His 'insight' about Mohammed Atta involved pretending the hijacker was constipated for six months - brilliantly smuggling into our subconscious that idea that Atta was 'full of shit'. He abandoned his satire on terrorism in which a Muslim unleashes mass rape on America because 'faced with Islamism, even satire withers and dies', not because his idea was obviously rubbish. Despite his manifest absurdity (he called the World Trade Centre attacks 'edificide' and the towers' destruction an 'apocollapse'), people take him seriously and if they do then we must. Last week Amis was called a racist. I saw him speak at the ICA last month. Was his negativity about Islam technically racist? I don't know. What I can tell you is that Martin Amis is the new Abu Hamza. To recap, Amis was called a racist because he said Muslims were backward, violent, homophobic, paranoid, boring, retarded and ******. Hitchens said no, he's conducting a 'thought experiment'. Now Amis should be allowed to wonder aloud about anything. He can suggest Muslims should 'experience painful discrimination until they get tough with their children' if he likes. Thought experiments are fine. But if he bundles his thoughts on Islam together and iterates them one after the other as he did when I saw him, he displays not unguarded musing but the forging of an incoherent creed of hate. It goes roughly like this: 9/11 was horrific, its driving ideology was totalitarian, the totalitarians were Muslims, all Muslims follow a book they believe to be the immutable word of God, I don't believe that, therefore all Muslims are ******, and basically *******s. ***** *******s moping around the Middle East in a paranoid funk just cos they lost their empire, and what a rubbish empire it was, too, by the way. Now, what is your balanced view of these primitive wife-beating idiotic *******s? Like Hamza, Amis could only make his nonsense stand up with mock erudition, vitriol and decontextualised quotes from the Koran. To risk a familiar example, it won't do for Amis (or Hamza) to state flatly that the Koran exhorts Muslims to kill Jews without even asking whether this means all Jews or some particular group of Jews with whom the Muslims were fighting in the seventh century, or indeed, whether there are other verses that modify the message by deploring killing of any kind, or describing how 'people of the book [Christians and Jews] shall have nothing to fear or regret'. I claim no great knowledge on this subject - level-three SATs perhaps - but Amis couldn't pass the test for morning playgroup. If my Shetland pony looks like a high-horse it's only because Amis is trotting round the paddock on a chihuahua. So how does Amis manage to move from condemning the horrors of suicide bombings to pouring scorn on anyone who can believe in paradise - effectively all Muslims? He muddles his terms. Even Hitchens concedes Amis wrongly conflates Islamism with Islam. By fudging, Amis adds the weight of his reaction against terrorism to his contempt for Muslims in general. Take 'Islamism'. What does it actually mean? For many it means 'political Islam'. Amis calls it a 'murderous ideology', equating it with terrorism. Now look at the following statement: 'The terrorist killings in New York, Madrid and London were wrong. They were indiscriminate, un-Islamic and based on ideas abstracted to the point of insanity.' I was firmly told this by an ex-Mujahideen who fought in Afghanistan 20 years ago. He was an Islamist. I strongly doubt he was murderous. These concepts are more complex than Amis would have us believe. This lack of clarity allows him to group Muslims who stop teenagers shooting one another with a man who cheerfully saws the heads off Jews. It's not easy. Even ex-Islamists seem confused. Ed Husain - whose Hizb ut-Tahrir memoir The Islamist made him the summer's top ram-raid sound-biter - condemns Islamism as 'totalitarian' but later allows for 'moderate Islamists'. What sort of braincrash is a 'moderate totalitarian'? I doubt it could even walk. These distinctions matter because the way out of this mess (and it is a mess, fuelled by ignorance, *********, prejudice and weapons) is to clarify and discriminate rather than hurl abuse at anything that goes near a mosque. I doubt many Muslims can be bothered with Amis. But he nurtures in his audience a corrosive prejudice against people they've never bothered to meet. It is culturally dim for us to form confident opinions about people based upon how they look and what we've heard they think. It is also against our interests. Nonsense abounds on the causes of terrorism but it is hard to argue that alienation doesn't channel potential foot soldiers towards radicalisation. As one solitary Muslim asked him at the ICA, 'Why such contempt for Muslims?' Amis must have known something was up because he dropped his drawl and called the man 'sir'. But he could hardly unspeak his views. And those views are certainly alienating. With ignorance on his side, Amis can stare east through the salon window and convince us of a single advancing hoard. He's clever. He might put it brilliantly. He might call it a 'Meccalanche' or an 'Attaclysm'. But when he speaks, think 'Hamza'. · Chris Morris is a writer and broadcaster Guardian
  7. Rokko's Modern Life no longer your favourite show huh?
  8. ^ I liked the name Rokko better.
  9. Originally posted by Cara: Exactly what are you doing Neph? You must be leaving out certain details, like the fact that the plate squeaks, and that you turn the bread over a couple of times Clearly you've all misunderstood her. There is absolutely nothing wrong with substituting a dish cloth with a peice of bread. It's cheap and environmentally friendly. Neph, olive loaves do absolute wonders for my glassware, I recommend it.
  10. ^ LoL. Don't take that seriously, I was just messing with you.
  11. ^^^^Buuxo you thought your experience was lame. Try voting in an electorate that will never ever be lost by the Liberal Party. My only 'useful' vote went towards the Senate. Castro, Rudd is still very much an enigma, hardly anyone knows what he stands for. He may well turn out to be quite similar to Howard but only time will tell. At this point though there is some hope that the divisivness that came to characterise Howard's tenure has some chance of being rectified. Intel, I see you're relieved you don't have to move back to New Zealand.
  12. Originally posted by Cadaan: Hahaha Croatia has a town called "Split". Was that the only thing you picked up on? You Canadians need to develop a sense of humour. Look back at that map.
  13. ^^^How on earth did you post on this thread in 2002 when you only joined in 2004? Weird.
  14. ^ I knew GT was a lunatic. Originally posted by Kool_Kat: AND AND AND, the Bride and Groom will SING to each other...Ohh how cute... Shoot me now.
  15. ^ The point I was trying to make is that historically speaking all Somalis have an equal claim to the name 'Somaliland'. When Malcolm X used the phrase he wasn't thinking of one particular area (sorry Jacaylbaro ) but all Somali lands that went on to gain independence. So if you happen to find yourself living in modern day Djibouti you can cite that quote, same goes for someone in Kismaayo or Hargeisa. It's all good. It's no fun trying to explain a comment that was meant to be light hearted you know... P.S Jacyalbaro I sincerely hope you're not relying on this flimsy evidence to support your cause. Let me warn you, you may be inadvertedly supporting the cause of Somaliweyne instead.
  16. ^ This means alot. Rudd's victory speech was quite something. I was really struck by the following: "I say to all of those who have voted for us today, to each and every one of them that I will be a Prime Minister for all Australians. A Prime Minister for Indigenous Australians. Australians who have been born here and Australians who have come here from afar and have contributed to the great diversity in Australia." Mainly because multiculturalism was being killed off by Howard and the position of Indigenous Australians had regressed during his 11 and a half years in power. If this speech is a good indication of Rudd's thinking he will be much better than I thought. Let's hope for the best.
  17. Originally posted by chubacka: OMG thats the best news I've heard all morning Best news i've heard in years. Howard has been the Prime Minister of Australia since I was 10! Argh! I've got some Labor* party hacks to celebrate with. * This is the only situation where the American spelling of Labour is used.
  18. ^I know. Sorry about the news reer England.
  19. Come now Red Sea, you should be able to spot Croatia on the map. It's that xaasid country that stole the entire coastline from Bosnia Herzegovina. Clearly that little opening was a mistake, but what did I tell ya.
  20. ^Rightio. Time for sleep - Hopefully this time tommorow I'll be celebrating the disposal of Howard.
  21. ^Article or book? I've read a review of it and it looks very interesting. Another book to add to my ever extensive reading list. P.S: Sorry, I had to get myself a midnight snack lol
  22. ^He can be a little too self absorbed at times. The more interesting the guest the less patience I have for his antics. Campbell, Klein or Wolf? lol That reminds me of an old song from Sesame Street... One of these things just doesn't belong here, two of these things are kinda the same
  23. ^ Oh i'm sure you put it up for the right reasons Hunguri. The sheer size was just bothering me lol. P.S I'm heading into the chatroom folks anyone care to join me?