2012-08-03
Sleeping With The Enemy
Well, the police have not made any contact with me, neither to arrest me nor to get more information about those with a terrorist mindset.
Nor was I kicked out of Friday Prayers.
So the war continues.
Today's sermon started off with complaints about people using rationalism instead of scripture to decide to use calculations instead of global/local moon sightings to determine the start of Ramadan. Like wtf? As if the moon gives a shit.
However, then it moved to move sinister matters. Apparently some Islamic organization in the US is issuing fatwahs saying that it's OK for Muslims to join the US Army. That's apparently bad, because the US Army kills brothers in Afghanistan. And the Australian government is the enemy, as it donates money to Indonesia to try to set the curriculum for Islamic teaching - trying to get its version of Islam implemented. And it is unacceptable to join the Australian government in itfar too - Allah would not approve of this. And to top it all off, the Australian government supports dictators in the Middle East like Assad. Any proof required of this? Of course not.
I'm thinking of spending Friday lunchtime outside the prayer centre with a protest sign saying "Don't believe prejudiced, lying, anti-western imams. For the truth, join the Mu'tazilah at http://www.mutazilah.org/enlight.htm ". And I will have a headband that says "I love Syria" in Arabic. Having difficulty finding a competent Arabic speaker at the moment. But another part of me says it is better to continue "information gathering" to fully understand the terrorist paradigm. I have been told that this prayer centre is run by Hizb ut-Tahrir. What an organization to be associated with!
But get this. In order for the North Sydney Council to allow me to book the centre for prayers myself, I have to have "evidence of your representation of the group; a letter from an Imam on letterhead would suffice.". So an imam, sorry, Imam, needs to sign off on my own prayer group, but it matters not one whit if the imam/Imam is an anti-Australian lying terrorist-supporting prick. And all these anti-Australian lies are taking place in Australian government-owned premises! Wtf?
And they're collecting money there too. Obstensibly for things not involving terrorism, but money is fungible, even if the front-groups are ostensibly semi-legitimate.
Ultimately I believe that the antidote to bad speech is good speech, not banning of bad speech. I hope Allah lights up the path for me to follow now.
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Nor was I kicked out of Friday Prayers.
So the war continues.
Today's sermon started off with complaints about people using rationalism instead of scripture to decide to use calculations instead of global/local moon sightings to determine the start of Ramadan. Like wtf? As if the moon gives a shit.
However, then it moved to move sinister matters. Apparently some Islamic organization in the US is issuing fatwahs saying that it's OK for Muslims to join the US Army. That's apparently bad, because the US Army kills brothers in Afghanistan. And the Australian government is the enemy, as it donates money to Indonesia to try to set the curriculum for Islamic teaching - trying to get its version of Islam implemented. And it is unacceptable to join the Australian government in itfar too - Allah would not approve of this. And to top it all off, the Australian government supports dictators in the Middle East like Assad. Any proof required of this? Of course not.
I'm thinking of spending Friday lunchtime outside the prayer centre with a protest sign saying "Don't believe prejudiced, lying, anti-western imams. For the truth, join the Mu'tazilah at http://www.mutazilah.org/enlight.htm ". And I will have a headband that says "I love Syria" in Arabic. Having difficulty finding a competent Arabic speaker at the moment. But another part of me says it is better to continue "information gathering" to fully understand the terrorist paradigm. I have been told that this prayer centre is run by Hizb ut-Tahrir. What an organization to be associated with!
But get this. In order for the North Sydney Council to allow me to book the centre for prayers myself, I have to have "evidence of your representation of the group; a letter from an Imam on letterhead would suffice.". So an imam, sorry, Imam, needs to sign off on my own prayer group, but it matters not one whit if the imam/Imam is an anti-Australian lying terrorist-supporting prick. And all these anti-Australian lies are taking place in Australian government-owned premises! Wtf?
And they're collecting money there too. Obstensibly for things not involving terrorism, but money is fungible, even if the front-groups are ostensibly semi-legitimate.
Ultimately I believe that the antidote to bad speech is good speech, not banning of bad speech. I hope Allah lights up the path for me to follow now.
# posted by Paul Edwards @ 21:55 
