Without it I would never have really found out more about the loon right winger Daniel Pipes who appeared on QandA last night. (Note to producers - the combination of Pipes together with Doug Cameron was just too much extremism to get any dynamic going. Also the Craig Thomson nonsense was demeaning for QandA).
Courtesy of twitter I've found this blog post in which Pipes asserts that the Black Saturday bushfires were a jihadist attack. The best he can find is a muslim "gloating" - totally ignoring the fact that the muslim only refers to it as an act of god.
Ahh so glad the world has Daniel Pipes to defend it.....
Meanwhile, I can't help rethinking the whole discussion on democracy on last night's QandA and whether Israel is a good or bad example. In the final analysis I disagree with Nick Minchin that we have to find a "two state solution".
I actually reject the whole 1850s to 1950s obsession with national self-determination when it is anything other than anti-imperialism. It isn't about race culture or language but geography.
The people within a defined physical area agree to run their country co-operatively. There can be no space for theocratic states - be they muslim or jewish - or christian. The separation of church and state that Minchin happily mouthed works if all religions know they can be treated equally.
Our model for democracy should be a single state of Israel in which both Palestinians and Israelis co-exist. The unresolved issue is the dispossession of some Palistinians by the Israeli invasion. There is probably no alternative other than the UN - as author of the creation of Israel - shouldering that as a financial liability.
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
Showing posts with label Islam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Islam. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Wednesday, June 01, 2011
Cattle
The images on 4 Corners last night were very confronting, but it is hard not to feel for the cattle industry.
Live cattle are exported to Indonesia both because the Indonesians insist on Halal butchery, and because the Indonesians cannot accept frozen or refrigerated meat as they have no refrigeration.
The show showed conditions in reverse order. What used to be the only way to slaughter cattle in Indonesia was what was shown last. Cattle being tied and beaten till they would lie in such a way as to be able to have their throats cut. What looks like the very cruel Australian Meat and Livestock box is in fact humane compared to this, if done properly.
What is more interesting is that the whole idea of Halal butchery, the death by one clean stroke, is that the animal is not meant to be tortured before death. But I guess the technique was designed with goats and sheep, not Australian beef cattle.
How do you justify a stunner for an abbatoir that kills four beasts a day?
In all the discussions of frzen or refrigerated meat the option of "cryo-packed" meat seems to be ignored. While we keep this refrigerated it actually doesn't need to be - meat in a sealed bag devoid of oxygen does not go "off".
The Muslims of Indonesia will trust Australian Halal slaughter. Can we just find a way to package it?
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
Live cattle are exported to Indonesia both because the Indonesians insist on Halal butchery, and because the Indonesians cannot accept frozen or refrigerated meat as they have no refrigeration.
The show showed conditions in reverse order. What used to be the only way to slaughter cattle in Indonesia was what was shown last. Cattle being tied and beaten till they would lie in such a way as to be able to have their throats cut. What looks like the very cruel Australian Meat and Livestock box is in fact humane compared to this, if done properly.
What is more interesting is that the whole idea of Halal butchery, the death by one clean stroke, is that the animal is not meant to be tortured before death. But I guess the technique was designed with goats and sheep, not Australian beef cattle.
How do you justify a stunner for an abbatoir that kills four beasts a day?
In all the discussions of frzen or refrigerated meat the option of "cryo-packed" meat seems to be ignored. While we keep this refrigerated it actually doesn't need to be - meat in a sealed bag devoid of oxygen does not go "off".
The Muslims of Indonesia will trust Australian Halal slaughter. Can we just find a way to package it?
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
Thursday, May 05, 2011
Confusing consequences with goals
The world's "great" religions need to be understood in the context in which they developed. It is useful to understand why they developed and survived - basically because they "worked". That is for another post.
But it is important to understand them to be able to engage in a useful discussion with them. All religions suffer from a problem that, while they all have evolved in many ways, at any point in time they are perceived to be wholly true. Even the Koran shows a progression in the sayings of the prophet as he progressed from little known seer to ruler. It is just harder to see because of the ordering of the sura by length.
Such an appreciation is not evident in the heading given to Paul Sheehan's column in the SMH today; Repressing women is sharia's raison d'etre. In fairness to Sheehan this heading is probably an editor's work - but it confuses the outcome "repression of women", as the cause.
But Sheehan himself comes close to that heading writing;
Because when you scrape away the layers of rhetoric of such jihadists, or those who rationalise their actions, it is evident their primary concern in seeking to impose strict sharia is to control and constrain women's freedom. This is the core cultural impact of sharia.
In this context, the whole concept of Islamic holy war has been in part an expression of sexual repression and sexual oppression.
Let's briefly consider polygamy and its one-sided nature. The Arab tribes that Mohammed coalesced were constantly engaged in war. The consequence of war is that there are lots of deaths. Men can breed many warriors, women only one at a time. It makes sense to send men to war and not women because men are expendable. Once you do so you will have a population imbalance and the process of breeding more warriors will more readily occur by having asymmetric polygamy.
But the law goes much further than this. Indeed one of the bases for the success of Islam was that it treated women better than the other social orders around it at the time. Families have responsibilities to the wives of their brothers and sons. No woman is left uncared for.
Sheehan is right, however, to note that in a modern society with greater life expectancy and not dominated by tribal war-fare that these practices are wrong. To do so requires an engagement with Islam that says "we respect your beliefs and your right to those beliefs, as we ask you to accept our beliefs. We have modified our cultural values as the world has developed around us and we encourage you to do the same."
We have plenty of evidence for how we have changed - the God of a twenty-first century Christian is not the God of Joshua who told him to exterminate all other people.
But equally we have parts of the twentieth century church that are equally repressive of women, as evidenced by the Papal view of contraception and the place of women in the Church.
Sheehan needs to be a little less shrill about Islam and more reflective about belief and culture.
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
But it is important to understand them to be able to engage in a useful discussion with them. All religions suffer from a problem that, while they all have evolved in many ways, at any point in time they are perceived to be wholly true. Even the Koran shows a progression in the sayings of the prophet as he progressed from little known seer to ruler. It is just harder to see because of the ordering of the sura by length.
Such an appreciation is not evident in the heading given to Paul Sheehan's column in the SMH today; Repressing women is sharia's raison d'etre. In fairness to Sheehan this heading is probably an editor's work - but it confuses the outcome "repression of women", as the cause.
But Sheehan himself comes close to that heading writing;
Because when you scrape away the layers of rhetoric of such jihadists, or those who rationalise their actions, it is evident their primary concern in seeking to impose strict sharia is to control and constrain women's freedom. This is the core cultural impact of sharia.
In this context, the whole concept of Islamic holy war has been in part an expression of sexual repression and sexual oppression.
Let's briefly consider polygamy and its one-sided nature. The Arab tribes that Mohammed coalesced were constantly engaged in war. The consequence of war is that there are lots of deaths. Men can breed many warriors, women only one at a time. It makes sense to send men to war and not women because men are expendable. Once you do so you will have a population imbalance and the process of breeding more warriors will more readily occur by having asymmetric polygamy.
But the law goes much further than this. Indeed one of the bases for the success of Islam was that it treated women better than the other social orders around it at the time. Families have responsibilities to the wives of their brothers and sons. No woman is left uncared for.
Sheehan is right, however, to note that in a modern society with greater life expectancy and not dominated by tribal war-fare that these practices are wrong. To do so requires an engagement with Islam that says "we respect your beliefs and your right to those beliefs, as we ask you to accept our beliefs. We have modified our cultural values as the world has developed around us and we encourage you to do the same."
We have plenty of evidence for how we have changed - the God of a twenty-first century Christian is not the God of Joshua who told him to exterminate all other people.
But equally we have parts of the twentieth century church that are equally repressive of women, as evidenced by the Papal view of contraception and the place of women in the Church.
Sheehan needs to be a little less shrill about Islam and more reflective about belief and culture.
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
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