We don’t have it here, but…

28 November 2008 · Comments Off 

Happy thanksgiving thingy to all of you on the other side of the big pond.

Enjoy your turkey/tofurkey or whatever else you enjoy at this time of year.1

  1. Frankly, it all sounds a bit like a pre-christmas warm up… ;-) [↩]

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Jobs for the ploys

17 June 2008 · Comments 

Since the news that a muslim that had applied to be interviewed for a job as a hair stylist cum model didn’t get the job (because she was unable to do it and lived too far away) and then took the prospective employer to a tribunal for “religious discimination” and was awarded £4,000, I’ve been trying to think of other jobs that muslims, by virtue of the injunctions of their chosen religion, are unable to perform but can still apply for and then take the employer through a similar legal minefield when they’re found to be unsuitable for the post.

Here are some other suggestions for muslims:

  • food taster at Pork Farms
  • fruit machine engineer
  • loan arranger
  • whisky quality control
  • sex worker
  • porn actor
  • gossip columnist
  • bikini model
  • spy
  • tobacco farmer
  • tattoo artist
  • cosmetic dentist
  • bingo caller
  • nightclub compere
  • off-licence retailer
  • male model
  • beautician
  • croupier
  • wig maker
  • sculptor
  • exotic dancer
  • movie critic
  • masseuse

You only have to suffer the very vaguest of “hurt feelings” and there’s no usury involved whatsoever. Easy money! Just remember to initially ask for a ridiculous payout first though, as they tend to haggle you down to something more reasonable.

I wonder if I should see if I can get a job as an imam…

/hattip The Freethinker

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‘Dangerous Ideas’ banned in China

11 June 2008 · Comments 

The book What Is Your Dangerous Idea?: Today’s Leading Thinkers on the Unthinkable has been blocked from being published in China. The Chinese authorities give the following reasoning excuse:

[it] can’t be published in China because some content is not accordant to Chinese regulations, for example, some content about religious, soul. [sic]

Whatever one might accuse the Chinese government of, freethinking obviously isn’t part of the problem.

Note to self: you still haven’t got around to buying this one yet, have you?

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The Onion: Protests over The Golden Compass

14 December 2007 · Comments 

You couldn’t make it up. But they can. :-)

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Does Islam have a sense of humour?

20 November 2007 · Comments 

Apparently it does, according to this magazine article over on the BBC.

Let’s see if this is true:

Behead those that don't laugh

I’d like to see some muslim opinion on whether this doctored image could be considered amusing.

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The qualities of the faithful

27 September 2007 · Comments 

At a recent christian fair trade conference, Labour MP and government minister Stephen Timms made the following comment:

There is positive impact when people of faith are involved in the lives of their community, because these people bring valuable qualities in their service which are rare elsewhere and they are qualities modern Britain urgently needs.

It’s not reported by Ekklesia as to what Timms thinks are these valuable qualities actually are, nor if indeed these qualities are actually valuable, but from reading some of his speeches from his web site, he seems to think that simply having “faith” is enough of a virtue in itself.

Inexplicably, I’m not convinced. Like all socially progressive activities claimed exclusively by the religious, there’s no reason why these things can’t be both motivated and achieved without resorting to superstition.

I’ve never heard of Timms before, but apparently he’s the Labour Party’s “vice-chair with special responsibility for faith communities”, whatever that is.

On his web site, Timms writes on christian socialism:

It is clear from the Bible that Jesus was not only a man who empathised with people’s problems, but was a man who took action to change them. It is my hope for this generation that people who are committed to following the lifestyle of Jesus will seek to engage in politics and with the political authorities, as Jesus himself regularly did.

From my own reading of that same book, I remember an episode whereby the Jesus character also told people that they should sell all of their belongings and give the proceeds to the poor. I wonder if Timms is willing to go that extra mile for his biblical convictions, seeing as he’s so adamant that it’s the basis for social responsibility.

Somehow, I think not.

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