Emergency Message
From: Allah (email other email, please) [mailto:god@trinityholy.info]
Sent: Saturday, May 19, 2012 9:03 AM
To: Kerkko Paananen
Subject: Emergency Message May 2012
Importance: High
Islamic Parallel Justice
In many German cities, Muslim arbiters, or "peace judges," are settling criminal cases before law enforcement can bring the cases to court. That is undermining Germany's rule of law, according to a new book published by Econ Verlag. German law expert and former public TV investigative journalist Joachim Wagner presented a new book on Monday in which he speaks of a parallel justice system among the Muslim minority that undermines the rule of law in Germany.The 236-page book, titled "Judges Without Law: Islamic Parallel Justice Endangers Our Rule of Law," looks into the problems the German judiciary faces when investigating crimes committed within Muslim communities in Germany.
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15353693,00.html
Religion to become extinct
A study using census data shows that religion is heading for extinction in Australia, Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Switzerland. The study, presented at the American Physical Society meeting in Dallas, found a steady rise in those claiming no religious affiliation. The research team's mathematical model attempts to account for the interplay between the number of religious respondents and the social motives behind being one. The team took census data stretching back as far as a century on religious affiliation. The team then applied their nonlinear dynamics model, adjusting parameters for the relative social and utilitarian merits of membership of the "non-religious" category. They found that those parameters were similar across all the countries studied, suggesting that similar behaviour drives the mathematics in all of them. And in all the countries, the indications were that religion was headed toward extinction.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12811197?print=true
Last Jew in Afghanistan
Zablon Simintov is a Turkmen-Afghan carpet trader and the caretaker of the only synagogue in the Afghan capital, Kabul. He is believed to be the sole remaining Jewish person permanently residing in Afghanistan. The Jewish population in Afghanistan once numbered around 5,000, but most emigrated to either Israel, Pakistan or the United States. Simintov had lived with the second last remaining Jewish man in Afghanistan, Yitzhak Levin, who died on 26 January 2005, aged around 80. Simintov deprecated Levin in an interview. Levin had initially welcomed Simintov but the two fell out permanently when Simintov offered help to emigrate to Israel to join the rest of the former Kabul community. Simintov is adamant that he only thought Kabul was too cold for the old man, but Levin took umbrage, thinking that Simintov was trying to take over the synagogue. A feud ensued, with the Taliban becoming involved after both men accused each other of wrongdoings ranging from running a brothel to misappropriating religious objects.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zablon_Simintov
Trimmed nails
Still out of breath from the fight, sweating, covered in scratches, blood, and hair, and carrying a nail trimming tool in one hand, I fling open the door. The picture-perfect charismatic family has decided to let the little girl be the front man. She looks to be about eight years old. She's standing on the front porch, while Mom, Dad, and Little Brother -- about five -- are standing a few feet back on the walkway. I grit my teeth in my best Dirty Harry impression, look directly at the little girl, and say, "Yes?"
http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/dal/330728336.html
Religious Wingnuts Need a Devil
Conservatives can do without a god, but they cannot get through the day without a devil. Their entire model of reality revolves around the existence of an existential enemy who is out to annihilate them. Take that focal point away, and their whole worldview collapses into incoherence. This need is so central to their thinking that if there are no actual enemies around, they will go to considerable lengths to make some or just make some up.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sara-robinson/why-are-conservatives-tar_b_737007.html?view=print
Taming of Religion
A recent blizzard of liberal columns has framed the debate over American Islam as if it were no more than the most recent stage in the glorious history of our religious tolerance. I pause to take part in a thought experiment, and to ask myself: Am I in favor of the untrammeled "free exercise of religion"? No, I am not. The taming and domestication of religion is one of the unceasing chores of civilization. Those who pretend that we can skip this stage in the present case are deluding themselves and asking for trouble not just in the future but in the immediate present.
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