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Showing posts from April, 2012

100 Years On: Why the Titanic Still Matters

                                                   Introducing the ‘Ship of Dreams’ It had ... and still has ... all the ingredients of a legend. Imagine a 46,000 gross ton British luxury ocean liner, 11 stories high and four city block long, the largest ship of its kind at that time. A technological wonder, it also replicated society as a whole since it was, in essence, a floating city. Of course, there were the poor Irish peasants at the bottom, hoping to have a new start in the New World. Yet the rich and famous also booked passage on the maiden voyage: the Astors, Guggenheims, Morgans, and other high society folk. They would lose none of their opulent creature-comforts: bone china, the finest sterling silver, crystal chandeliers, and carpets so thick you felt you were on velvet quicksand. Prestigious French cafes graced the top decks, instead of the minimal number of lifeboats. Indeed, many consider this ship a ‘work of art.’ More impressive was the part that no one sa

Destroy the Churches

" I will expel the Jews and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula and will not leave any but Muslim ." - Sahih Muslim 19.4366 (statement attributed to Muhammad from the Hadiths). ‘ Destroy the churches’ bellowed the decree from the influential figure. Who said this? And when? • Genghis Khan? • Some Muslim caliph from the Middle Ages? • Head of the politburo of the now defunct Soviet Union? No, the statement to ‘ destroy the churches ’ was uttered on March 12, 2012, from a supreme religious leader of one of the United States’ great allies: the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia. Sheikh Abdulaziz al Shaikh made this statement (fatwa) in response to a Kuwaiti delegations question of whether their nation should prevent the construction of new churches. The Grand Mufti’s reply: yes, you should prevent the construction of new churches in Kuwait. Then he went even further: infact, all churches in the Arabian peninsula that already exist should be destroyed.