Haji 2003

Surely there is a distinction between believing something and smacking someone around the head with it. You likely have beliefs about najasat that you do not explicitly share with associates and co-workers affected by that belief. And likely there are fundamentalist vegetarians who believe that you and I are murderers but they keep that opinion to themselves. It's not about embarrassment it is about maintaining a civil society or indeed a society that can have some form of modus vivendi with the ones around it.

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/hundreds-storm-namibia-parliament-ahead-german-genocide-deal-vote-2021-09-21/?taid=614a11e9ad296e0001f947ee&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter I've been reading the following book: Davis, Christian. Colonialism, Antisemitism, and Germans of Jewish Descent in Imperial Germany, University of Michigan Press, 2012. It has some interesting detail about German genocide of the Herero and Nama people. The argument presented in the book is that this genocide paved the way for Germans to commit genocide on a much larger scale during World War II. One of the issues the book explores is the role of Germans of Jewish descent in the German colonial enterprise, some of whom, ironically, found support amongst anti-semites of their time. One such person was Berhard Dernberg who became colonial director in 1906.

The following discussion that Izutsu provides resonated with me a lot in the context of covid 19 and the current problems we have with science and pseudo-science, the following is from page 132 of his book referenced in previous posts:

If you think that those Afghans who helped the American occupiers in Afghanistan have had it bad, spare a thought for the 'harkis'. These are Algerians who helped the French in their brutal occupation of Algeria. Tens of thousands were killed by fellow Algerians after independence since France would not let them emigrate to France. Those that did have not been treated well. Today Macron has announced some help for them. There's more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harki

There is a debate as to whether the Iranians should have accepted Saddam's suing for peace in 1982, ultimately the war went on until 1988. The fact that they did not end the war earlier is sometimes used as a criticism of Ayatollah Khomeini. My view is that by the time the war ended, Iraq's financial position was so terrible (outstanding loans to Arab Gulf countries), that they embarked on an invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and then faced American retaliation. That would ultimately lead to another Gulf war in 2003 (this time between Iraq and an American led coalition) and the overthrow of Saddam. Had the Iranians accepted a ceasefire in 1982 would Saddam's economic position have been so terrible as to encourage his invasion of Kuwait? Likely not. Would he have been encouraged by his Arab and American backers to have another go at Iran some time after 1982, possibly. In sum while Iraqis celebrated the end of the war in 1988 and Iranians did not. I think the long-term victor was Iran and some of the reason for that was their continuation of the war.

A related book on al-Islam is the following booklet by Muhammad al-Tashkiri:

Here it is, from al-Islam:

Family viewing movie for Eid:

https://euobserver.com/opinion/152890

Don't know if there are fatwas are about this. 0% alcohol products have been around for some time, but I've never had the desire to try them.

TV rots your brain - proof https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/sep/13/the-proof-is-in-tv-really-does-rot-your-brain

Carry on hoping and praying. Like everyone else. Only God decides who has passed or failed and although others may have more material success, even they don't know their result. There's a reason, in my opinion, Shias are encouraged to listed to Dua Kumayl regularly, it's all about hope and persistence. The fact that you are making duas suggests that you're ahead of most other people, to be honest.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/12/lives-lost-poverty-an-arms-race-rights-destroyed-the-continuing-cost-of-911

https://theconversation.com/christian-nationalism-is-a-barrier-to-mass-vaccination-against-covid-19-158023 This is because:

The attacks were immediately construed as an attack on 'American Freedoms' by people whose ideology was against such freedom. The scale of the disaster (3000+ deaths) was considered to be such that merited a multinational response covering decades and the revenge included the commission of war crimes and torture. The cost has mainly been borne by Muslims who had nothing to do with the attacks and the benefits have been reaped by arms manufacturers and those who wanted to see the Middle East destabliised and Islamophobia increased. It's ironic then, that just last week over 1000 people died from CV19 in Florida alone, mainly as a result of exercising various freedoms like not being vaccinated or wearing masks and the response to this scale of deaths has been 'meh'. Putting 'freedom' on a pedestal has come with a heavy human cost for the United States, but we've also seen that when it does not suit the narrative even American deaths don't matter to many American policy makers and politicians.

Very useful analysis from Denmark, looking at a range of social and other factors that have affected how the public have responded to Covid. A great deal depends on how much people trust the government and how much people are willing to do things for others' benefit as opposed to their own selfish interests.

At the start (1 min) he refers to combatting his CV19 infection by having monoclonal antibody treatment (what Trump had), ivermectin and according to one of the other participants he 'threw the kitchen sink at it'. If people are willing/able to do that I don't see what the problem is with a vaccine.