The Hall of Fire

I got googling, something I rarely do. http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html Top 10 Largest National Muslim Populations Indonesia 170,310,000 Pakistan 136,000,000 Bangladesh 106,050,000 India 103,000,000 Turkey 62,410,000 Iran 60,790,000 Egypt 53,730,000 Nigeria 47,720,000 China 37,10...

... there are more fundamentalist, intolerant Muslims in the world than there are progessive, liberal ones. I question whether this is true, numerically speaking, or whether it is the impression one gets from the media. Hamas could not have won in Palestine if that was not the case. I suggest that ...

I find myself in the embarrasssing position of trying to explain a faith that is not my own and of which I have learnt only a little in a short course in comparative religion (admittedly with some brilliant and very giving Islamic scholars). However, what I've said above is not supposition, but how ...

Ireland would be a perfect place as a location! It's been a while since I read Prince Caspian (years and years and years!) but scanning my mind over the various scenes, Ireland would certainly fit the bill.

So...are you hoping for a part as an extra?

I've read the Koran. Endorsement of killing infidels is most certainly there, along with a command to make a great heap of their disembodied heads. True, the Koran does contain that text. However, leaving it at that is very misleading - as Jewel said, one can quote baldly from the Bible that disobe...

Focussing purely on the idea of cartoons based on the Holocaust, I sincerely ask: is it forbidden ground? My brother-in-law is cartoonist for The Jewish News here in Oz, and I know there are very few topics he'll self-censor on - the Holocaust is one. Whistler, what is your opinion on this, separate...

Yov, I was speaking in the broader sense, not to this issue specifically.

Whistler, I am so disturbed by that report that I can't respond right now. I need some time to still my inner hysteria and to distill my feelings into coherent form.

Quite so.

There's the tricky problem of working out where sensitivity to the needs of others ends and over-sensitivity begins; defining exclusive vs inclusive.

Oh, Alatar, I'm sure it will be thoroughly enjoyable fun!

Break a leg.

Interesting question, Lord_M I'm ashamed to say that I find myself responding ruthlessly and viciously (on the inside, I hasten to add! :shock: ) I advocate tolerance, but faced with intolerance, I lose all rationality and up the ante. So, my emotional response to those who demand we turn our lives ...

Well, we seem agreed that we ought not to allow fundamentalists who threaten us with death for daring to not live according to their lights to dictate to us. Easy to say. But what do we do? How do we respond? How do we live without reference to the fear they wish to instil? How do we prevent them fr...

This is my Whistler etching, a scene from Amsterdam. There are tiny windmills visible in the background, if you look for them. I'm not posting this to elicit compliments, so you needn't pretend to like it: Whistler deliberately worked in such a way as to conceal his skills, despising all showiness ...

Of course! Masquerade! And absolutely marvellous, it is. Thank you Alatar!

I've posted at TOB - I won't post here because I'll get dizzy with the revolving doors.

But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, that I may multiply My signs and marvels in the land of Egypt. When Pharaoh does not heed you, I will lay My hand upon Eygpt and deliver My ranks from the land of Egypt with extraordinary chastisements. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stret...

:P Well, Miss Sassy-pants threw me a new curve with all that talk about foresight coming from Eru...........got me a-thinkin, it did......but it shouldn't take too long to fit it into my post..........maybe. :halo: Fëanor's foresightedness is THE MOST pivotal device in the story of the exodus. And ...

Yes...as in, "I've got dibs on the chair next to Primmie at the moot!" ;) :D I agree, Frrrrrrrellga - Pratchett writes women extremely well! And he writes the most engaging kind of protagoniste (that's the feminine 'e' ending, that I've just made up). Agnes is very, very good; I've only re...

When I was growing up, my absolutely hands down favorite book was "The Three Musketeers". My dad, another Dumas fan, always advised me to imitate Lady Winter, the villainess of the story. Not to the point of poisoning hapless rivals, perhaps ;) but he certainly felt that her energy and re...

The Australian parliament is today arguing the case for/against allowing RU486 to be made available in Australia. Three years ago, when the drug was first released world-wide, the Government decided not to allow it in Oz - due to a dirty deal done with ONE independent senator - they wanted his vote ...

Inference does not equate to intent, Hal.

I would suggest that, like beauty and normalcy, it is in the eye of the beholder.