To be a non muslim

To be a non Muslim is a broad canvas. 

In terms of faith one can be as devout as a Muslim or a person of no religious faith at all. 

One can cover ones head as a symbol of pious observance or laugh at the concept of symbolising something superior to mankind. One can be Congregational by nature or sit alone observing others in wonderment at their diversity. The culture you were brought up under can have a strong or a weak effect on your views and everyday character. 

These are just some of the myriad traits which define who we are and, in essence, define us as diverse and different, not only our differences from being a Muslim, but from each other so why then are we having this conversation.

Well obviously the context has to do with the incidence of faith based violence in other parts of the world and the potential for it to spread onto our shores.

Why have these pockets of extreme violence, which go beyond anything we have seen on this scale for years, been perpetrated in the name of Religion. 

What has happened over the last 14 years, since the 9/11 attack symbolised a major retaliation by al Qaeda (in its role as a militant Islamic organisation founded by Osama bin Laden in 1988/89 out of the Afghanistan struggle with the Soviets), to what it saw as western imperialism

Is it purely the strength and success of the militant wing of the religion or is it that this religion is unique in having a militant wing at all. 

Muslims reading this page will no doubt disassociate themselves from any link to "militancy" as they pursue their faith but it can't be ignored that these militants ISIS, Boko Haram, Al Qaeda all proclaim to sail under the flag of Islamic faith and are an interpretation of Islamic determinism. 

Perhaps it's this concept of "determinism", the concept that every event, every human action is preceded by conditions that could cause "no other" event, that they are unique and have an inevitability which gives the Jihad his strength and which we, in our wish-washy consumeristic world, fear the most.

Give that as it may, we are faced with a force of nature, a massive world wide, faith based interpretation of how life should be lived in strict observance of rules, with strict punishments for ignoring those rules and which finally believes that they are unique in the eyes of God. 

There is no delicate way to put this. The power of that force, unless it reinterprets its belief in Gods omnipotence (for a Muslim impossible) or their overarching social construct regarding the way people live and conduct themselves which is in stark contrast to the way, at least we in the West are proceeding, then there's bound to be a clash at some time in the future for society at large to fall under the sway of Sharia Law.

Militancy can be covert as well as overt and the radicalisation of disenchanted youth under a united banner is a powerful disrupting influence in any society, especially in the era of globalisation where national allegiance is diminishing and people are becoming bewildered.
What do we do and should we do anything ?

If we simply drift along and hope that the immersion of cultures and beliefs will be sufficient to bring about some sort of equilibrium then I think the falseness of that premise is beginning to appear in our urban society. There is and will continue to be a massive tolerance shown by all sides but for the "non Muslim" there is no "focus" as to what his stance should be other than a capitulation of what he would call, his beliefs and way of life. In fact he / she has been on the back-foot for a number of years, accused in the media and the establishment that it was racist or somehow not British to point out a discomfort as the towns were changed in their racial and now religious construct. Things will turn out ok, "we know what's in your best interests don't worry".

Well people are beginning to worry. One has to accept that there is no turning back but we are perfectly right to suggest that from now on there has to be some ground rules even if these rules appear to fly against the semi religious fervour of the 'political correct' ideology which has held us in sway for a generation.

To be a Muslim

  Who am I, is a question that is answered very differently as a Muslim than by me, one who does not believe in God.

For me I am the product of my mother and father, I am the result of my environmental upbringing, I am the result of my experiences, I am the solitude of my passage through this life.

For a Muslim the answer is very different. A Muslim in effect doesn't have a life outside his faith, his thoughts and his actions are controlled at all times by his religion, his essence is his religion !! 
It begins with farz, obligation and ends with haram,what is forbidden.
It is a scale by which to live your life by and comes, not from within but from outside,from scripture. There are clear orders and permissions which provides the individual with direction and the Islamic community, with unity.
It encompasses and encloses this world and the other world completely.
It is an organising religion and therefore it's reach to the poor and disenfranchised is very strong.
To be a Muslim is in some ways akin to being in a club but a club with strict codes of practice. Belonging and sharing common goals is a strong incentive, especially if the rules are laid out for you five times a day at prayer. To be a Muslim is above history, it is a mode of being, an ideal which in some-ways creates within it a sense of being a super race in its mental construct. Perhaps in its "trans national" identity the Muslim feels the resentment any person, living under an occupying power, feels towards the occupier since his affinity is first and foremost to his faith which is often under attack !
 

Sealing a friendship.

Activity,activity, activity. To worship at the alter of activity is a question everyone with time on their hands must ask.
After living a life of being driven by work, not to have anything to do, in the sense of a routine, we are asked to create a schedule a time table of activity. This time the set of activities have little or no purpose other than to keep us occupied.
I'm not speaking of the altruistic service one can offer the community which many find satisfying or the realm of hobbies to take up now the time is available. When one had proper work to do the day starts with with an energy, a sense of opportunity of performance and hopefully achievement, but without the instilled 'contractual engagement' there's no zip to stimulate the senses. 

Now at the start of a day there is a whole series of questions, shall I, shan't I. Shall I 'shave' for instance, do I wear the same shirt as yesterday what time to climb out of bed, shall I eat breakfast first before the shower. And so one is continually testing the water trying to persuade a course of action when in the past we was on automatic. 
The point of looking forward to retirement was to get off the treadmill and have the supposed luxury of choice but choice can be a trap, too much debate too much analysis leads to
inaction even paralysis as one opts for the default position of doing nothing.
Doing nothing becomes attractive, it is choice about not making a choice, all the pressure is removed, there are few disappointments and it's cheap !!!
The social issue of doing things whilst you can, before infirmity or death play their part is taken care of so long as you realise that 'activity' for its own sake is a con and that perhaps we should banish the concept after a certain age.
For those who want to be up on the golf course at sparrows or pounding the road even earlier, their world is one of sunrises and camaraderie and please understand I am not knocking either but what if you want to skip the competitive banter or the sore thighs and find your own peace in ruminating, its equally rich and rewarding.
Perhaps the mind, being now off the leash, free from the contamination and stress brought on by the concerns at work, is your true companion, ready to elope on a flight of fancy at any hour of the day or night, trustworthy and yet not demanding, and it only requires a shift from the world of others to seal the friendship !!

That which falls outside scripture.

Oh, she wished it were different.

Listening to a radio presenter I genuinely admire trying to bat away the concepts that were being presented by Muslim mothers regarding the Islamisation of the Muslim youth, boys and girls which is arguably creating a separate subsection to our already multi-layered society. This in response to the news coverage of the three girls who appear to be on their way to Syria.

I have written in the past of how I fear the strength of the faith identified in the Quran, a strength made complete by the rigour of prayer and custom. It is a faith which transcends national boundaries and binds its members in an awareness of a regime mentality which strictly subverts and rejects, at its core all other sub sets of human consciousness which lie outside "the faith". Only "we" know the true path to salvation and the rest of you are alien to us. I must add that it is not only the Muslim faith which have at their root this infallibility, most faith based concerns busy with saving mankind have a belief in their uniqueness.
The strength of this conviction makes for a powerful concoction of 'self'-belief (something hard to find in this chaotic world) for the individual believer. A belief in ones 'self', supported and amplified when it is counted and magnified by the other faithful, raises the spectre of 'self' sacrifice' as a positive thing.
This self sacrifice, at its extreme can be evidenced in the sacrificial killing, usually accompanied by ones own suicide which finds fulfilment in blowing up and killing the non-believer.
This outcome is proceeded by aligning ones self with a group of people who are so deeply focused on the Jihad, (the eternal effort, the struggle to win the fight for the Muslim cause) a group where the human bond of faith is greater than all other bonds. The bond of family, the bond of country, the bond of friendship, all can be put aside for this larger, all consuming, coming together of ancient scripture to provide the missing structure to ones life which leaves the humdrum modern lifestyle a very poor second.
No wonder the detached, disenfranchised youth (a youth we have cranked up with a sense of their own importance) fall under the spell of the Mullah with his repetition of the old old stories that speak to the faithful like "manna from heaven".
If the bond he feels for other Muslims (a religious bond like no other, promulgated by prayer and ritual in the Mosque) for the ones hurting in Palestine and Iraq and the well publicised West's involvement in both, then their resentment towards the West knows no bounds since the harm is seen as towards that of a brother or sister.
It's the millennium old problem, when Politics clashes with tradition, tribal affiliation and faith, especially when the poorly conceived political policies are driven by market economics, the instability left behind is a breeding ground for resentment. This resentment, funnelled by religious ideology can capture adherents even within ones own cosy environment at home. People who feel their true allegiance is not fulfilled within 'multiculturalism', with is many divergent standards but rather needs to align with something they feel is more substantial such as the local Mosque, and the focus and support of the congregation to make sense of a fundamentally corrupted world. Perhaps sadly, by introducing another corruption !!!
In Ataturk's secular domination of Turkey he saw a threat in the power of the Muslim religion and, in effect banned all outward manifestations of the religion knowing that these outward symbols were powerful in uniting the faith. His prohibition has been derided by many in the western world for with-holding from society, part of its cultural heritage, part of its cultural wholeness but this democratic persuasion to allow all views and social structures the space to foster their opinion is not reciprocated and would not be allowed if the boot were on the other foot.
The Saudi Arabian state is one example where tolerance is not valued and religious Shari law brooks no divergence from theocratic values.

Force 4 and rising !

The clouds rolled in, darkening all the while until the light took on a wild glow as the atmosphere began to bubble and boil with electric currents penetrating the sky. A force 4 typhoon was on the cards and the weather station down on the point was relaying the fall in pressure every fifteen minutes to Control who had the responsibility to paste together all the information. 

Outside on the boulevard the palm trees were beginning to sway in the wind as it built up incrementally to a full blown gale. 
Most of the birds had long gone, heading inland in search of shelter leaving only the ones still with young to stay behind and chance their luck. Nature can be cruel to the small creatures, nests destroyed, hard won security blown away in a night of bedlam, which to the returning commuters listening to the weather warnings on the car radio meant no more than securing the patio door but for the rats and mice would mean a full scale evacuation as the inevitable waters rose.
The town council aware of their responsibilities, not least against litigation had already started to warn people against going out unless they had to. The schools had closed early and the mothers had swept up their precious cargo to scurry home and worry until dad arrived. As the wind freshened into a gale the sirens wailed their shrill warning, adding to the natural foreboding it made. The few still out on the street measure in their minds eye, how many blocks still to go !
At about 2am there was a tremendous crash and sound of breaking glass. Having only just  got to sleep from listening to the wailing wind rise, tormented like a banshee, wondering if the rope holding the canvas covers would hold, this crash was what you had feared.
Struggling into a raincoat and stepping out into the wind torn night you surveyed the wreckage. The wind had got under the garage roof and lifted the sheet of corrugated tin dislodging the plasterboard cladding and punching out the window. As the rain slewed down in a continuous sheet of water there was little you could do to save the situation and momentarily you thanked your stars you were on land and not tossing about on the sea.

Two minds are never alike

One of the greatest failings we have as individuals is that we live too long listening to ourselves. The constant communication we have internally sets up a surety of purpose and a belief in our integrity which under any other circumstance we would question. On any subject, we hold opinion and regularly confirm that opinion with an internal dialog that is passing through our heads. We continually self justify virtually every utterance we make since it comes, so to speak "straight from the horses mouth". Our method of finalising our thoughts is complicated by previously held opinion and by our background and upbringing, but it's surprising how constrained we are even listening to other argument by our own preconceived ideas.
Is this a bad thing ?


The meaning of the word individual speaks for who we are, we are individuals each separate and independent. This independent mind can be scary since if one were to consider that in a perfect world we would all be alone with our own unique views, untainted by herd think but also pretty lonely.

Realising one is alone, totally alone is both frightening and pretty mind blowing. Our lives are usually spent trying to win favour, trying to find common ground to break the impasse of being seen as a maverick, or self centred, of being seen as odd!! It's perfectly natural to try to find allegiances with others since some of our ideas are so fundamental to our thinking that we would feel an oddball if we were in a majority of one. The social aspect of our human make up needs the society we keep to think generally along the same lines and it is this search for a sense of common ground and, in a way, a loyalty to a set of ideals which makes us fragile. We can be disappointed where we would least think to find it. We create a presumption that we are all singing from the same hymn book and that knowing the words is the same as understanding the meaning.
Perhaps if we were to practice mental celibacy, perhaps always define our conversation with the understanding that not even 50% of what we say is understood in the way you would wish.
Would this lead to more reticence, more a willingness to withhold on the basis that what you say will inevitably be misconstrued, not with any malice but simply because two minds are never alike !!!!
 

Greek debt.

So the Greeks are reaching a point where they have to make a decision to exit the EU.

John Maynard Keynes made the point years ago that to force austerity on a nation which can not repay its loans only propels the nation to greater austerity and untold misery. 

The misery in Auschwitz was clearly a crime against humanity. The famine created by the ideological programs in the USSR during the Stalin era, was a crime against humanity. 
What sets these crimes against the current enforced pauperisation of a nation by the Banking fraternity of another, is that it is not done by the jackboot but by the sleek procedures of expensively suited executives who turn off the tap which they had so recently left on. If it were plumbing you would have a claim.
Even if you have been encouraged to run up debt by the financial practices of the time, clearly you are to blame for accepting the offer of a loan when you couldn't afford the repayments. But perhaps your financial situation has changed, perhaps the interest rates go up and the repayment agreement no longer covers the cost of servicing the loan. If you are an individual you can renegotiate the repayment schedule or declare yourself bankrupt which implies a complete secession of further loans and you are forced to live out of earnings.
These are the options for the Greeks but the Troika, but mainly the Germans, are demanding full repayment with no extension of the loan repayment period even though the Greeks are simply digging a deeper hole as their indebtedness rises because they have to borrow more to cover the repayment terms. As their debt increases the 'interest' increases in line with the risk.
One has to ask what is behind the trenchant actions of Wolfgang Schauble in his denial of any softening of the repayment schedule. Clearly the German Bankers are the most exposed to the indebtedness of Greece and others but in the history of the Common Market, now the European Union, German industry has benefited to the tune of trillions of Euros in trade. It was this trading market that initiated Germany and France to embark on the project.
If now a tiny economy has caught financial pneumonia, then to with hold penicillin is a crime for which, historically Germany can ill afford to practice !