on a recent visit to the natural history museum, i was struck by the number of hijabs, kippot and crucifixes on display. unfazed by fossils, geological displays of the age of the earth, australopithecine skulls and the marble statue of darwin that gazes enigmatically over the entrance hall, they gamely queued for the dinosaur exhibit, children in tow, back and forth beneath the massive skeleton of diplodocus, eager to expand their knowledge of the universe. it was an inspiring sight and one that i found immensely encouraging given the current level and tone of debate between religion and science. nobody appeared to be there to tell their children “and these are the fake animals G!D Placed in the earth to Test our faith”. everywhere were children asking clear, in some cases unsettling questions about how things came to be.
david t from harry’s place forwarded me this cartoon by eli valley, whose satirical strips appear monthly in the leading us jewish magazine “the forward”.
although the mainstreammedia has already picked up the story, we’re sure that the good folk of wootton bassett would nonetheless appreciate a message of support. it appears that they are the latest stop on the publicity circuit for everyone’s favourite islamist nutjobs, the al-muhajigoon squad. predictably, the edl have vowed to picket the mosques frequented by the leader of the group that currently calls itself “islam4uk” and, no doubt, stephen gash of “sioe” has ordered an extra copy of “soldier of fortune” magazine in his excitement.
in the spirit that got these imbeciles to cancel their most recent demo and, naturally, in tribute to the recent foiling of the detroit pants bomber, i humbly propose the following:
let all who wish to show this truly grotesque man up as the nasty, ridiculous bigot he is – FLY THE UNDERPANTS!
it appears that the mainstream orthodox rabbinical council of america has picked a fight with the powerful chabad / lubavitch movement over the perennial problem about whether the last lubavitcher rebbe is dead, or the messiah, or both, or what. obviously, there is a slight problem with jews who start believing that the messiah has already come if the relevant prophecies haven’t been fulfilled. similarly, if the messiah in question hasn’t rebuilt the Temple, hasn’t ingathered the exiles of the jewish people or has, in fact, shuffled off this mortal coil and run down the curtain to join the choir invisibule, but his followers start coming out with terms like “occultation” and claiming he isn’t really dead and has Divine powers, G!D forbid, it does start to look a tiny bit like, well, er, christianity.
it has been brought to my attention by my esteemed colleagues here at the spittoon that one of the aims of the “one law for all” campaign, who are organising a rally on saturday 21 november, to “expose the discriminatory nature of religious law” and “put a stop to shari’a once and for all” because “opposing shari’a law is a crucial step in defending universal and equal rights”.
i will reiterate the reasons that i cannot support this:
1. what about jewish batei din and anglican ecclesiastical law?
some might consider this selfish, but shari’a courts must be allowed if the state is not to be guilty of severe double standards in respect of both jewish halakhah and christian canon law. although, obviously, some of the speakers (like the british humanist association and the national secular society) would argue that they would ban the lot and, indeed, maryam namazie herself says:
oh, this is just too feckin’ much. i’ve long been aware of the ideological excesses of rabbi yitzhak ginsburgh, but his disciple rabbi yitzhak shapiro of the west bank settlement of yitzhar has really done it this time. according to the left-leaning israeli daily ha-aretz:
Rabbi Yitzhak Shapiro, who heads the Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva in the Yitzhar settlement, wrote in his book “The King’s Torah” that even babies and children can be killed if they pose a threat to the nation.
Shapiro based the majority of his teachings on passages quoted from the Bible, to which he adds his opinions and beliefs. “It is permissable to kill the Righteous among Nations even if they are not responsible for the threatening situation,” he wrote, adding: “If we kill a Gentile who has sinned or has violated one of the seven commandments – because we care about the commandments – there is nothing wrong with the murder.”
the well-known jewish blogger dovbear has written a very interesting piece here in answer to the following question:
Why do solid Jews get so insecure around caftans and fur hats?
obviously, this is the sort of uniform he’s on about:
a frummily-dressed and therefore "proper" jew yesterday
the answer he gives is, in part:
It seems to me to be a mixture of perhaps four things. First, we are all brought up to admire frumkeit. Even wholly non-practising Jews look at Rabbis with respect and – at least until the whinging, preaching, chumras and demands for money become too much – affection. And the Charedim are ritualistically frum, which is actually how we define frumkeit. A man who davens 3 times a day, wears arba kanfot and is careful what he eats – that’s a frum man. A man who always looks after the sick, goes miles to do nachum aveilim and is always there when someone needs support – that’s a mensch. Different.
just so you don’t think it’s only muslims and christians who like to impose unnecessary strictures on daily life, this just in from ha’aretz:
the latest halachic ruling banning the use of elevators on the Sabbath shocked residents of the Tovei Ha’Ir retirement home in Jerusalem.
Most residents at this institution, which caters to the religious and ultra-Orthodox, received news of the rabbinical edict with indifference.
Tovei Ha’Ir residents have been using elevators on the Sabbath for years – this is the only way they can get from their rooms on the upper floors to the dining hall and synagogue.
One of the retirees, a Haredi man, barely concealed his sarcasm when he responded, “What changed suddenly? What was kosher until now is suddenly treyf?”
This is a cross-post by habibi of Harry’s Place
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On Saturday the “Stop the War Coalition” held an Israel hatred meeting at the University of London Union.
Here’s the video of Shamiul Joarder. At one minute in, he says:
“There is absolutely no room for anyone with antisemitic views in the Free Palestine movement”.
That’s quite funny coming from the head of public affairs of Friends of al Aqsa, which is led by Ismail Patel.
Perhaps Mr Joarder, in his position as head of public affairs for Friends of al Aqsa, thinks backing a blood libel by Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet is not antisemitic? This is the section of an article entitled “Is the Zionomedia Kingdom Invincible?”, originally published on September 18, that was subsequently quoted by his organisation:
Yusuf Smith, a white convert to Islam who runs the popular blogistan website under the pseudonym of ‘Indigo Jo’, wrote an extraordinary blog last week in which he states that converts to Islam who then renounce Islam have ‘no excuse’.
Writing about some western Muslim women who recently left Islam after their involvement in the Kharabsheh Sufi community in Jordan, Smith wrote:
“The theme of someone leaving Islam after coming to associate it with a particularly unpleasant or rigid variant is not new – the essay The Wahhabi who Loved Beauty gives an example from Saudi Arabia – but it’s not an excuse at the end of the day; a person may be forgiven for it if it’s temporary, but at the end of the day accepting Truth is a duty and this means accepting that the extreme behaviour of one group is not the same as Islam itself.”
although the 
