Obaman Nobel ja narsismin uskonto

Those who speak of the Obama follower’s “loyalty” or “devotion” misunderstand the words. Obama was elected president, not because of anyone’s loyalty, but because he was a skillful blank slate onto which people would project their own personalities and desires. The Peace Prize comes for the same reasons.

Humans find real loyalty inspiring, which is why songs and acts of undying devotion to God, country, friends, or the rare genuine hero can make them choke back tears. We were made for such loyalty; like Jonathan for David, sacrificing ourselves for something beyond us. Loyalty comes from what Burke called the religious impulse; when we are loyal, we stand by that person or thing no matter what. Great leaders inspire loyalty, which exists for the sake of the object.

In contrast, honoring a person because he represents what we want is, in fact, narcissism. Men like Obama, or earlier demagogues like Napoleon or Mussolini, make us feel a part of something greater than ourselves. But that something is in fact only a projection of our own selves and desires, lumped into a titillating aggregate. These men tell us they will give us everything we desire, and, cheering, we worship ourselves at their feet. Great demagogues inspire collective narcissism, which exists for the sake of the subject; for the sake of the self.

(Brian Brown, "Narcissism and Loyalty", Humane Pursuits, 9.10.2009)

Mitä Messias ehti tehdä saadakseen Nobelin rauhanpalkinnon

January 20: Sworn in as president. Went to a parade. Partied.

January 21: Asked bureaucrats to re-write guidelines for information requests. Held an “open house” party at the White House.

January 22: Signed Executive Orders: Executive Branch workers to take ethics pledge; re-affirmed Army Field Manual techniques for interrogations; expressed desire to close Gitmo (how’s that working out?)

January 23: Ordered the release of federal funding to pay for abortions in foreign countries. Lunch with Joe Biden; met with Tim Geithner.

January 24: Budget meeting with economic team.

January 25: Skipped church.

January 26: Gave speech about jobs and energy. Met with Hillary Clinton. Attended Geithner's swearing in ceremony.

January 27: Met with Republicans. Spoke at a clock tower in Ohio.

January 28: Economic meetings in the morning, met with Defense secretary in the afternoon.

January 29: Signed Ledbetter Bill overturning Supreme Court decision on lawsuits over wages. Party in the State Room. Met with Biden.

January 30: Met economic advisers. Gave speech on Middle Class Working Families Task Force. Met with senior enlisted military officials.

January 31: Took the day off.

February 1: Skipped church. Threw a Super Bowl party.

(Tommy De Seno, "How to Win the Nobel Peace Prize In 12 Days", FoxNews.com, 9.10.2009)

Tiibetin hengellinen johtaja antoi länsimaiden hengellisen johtajan nöyryyttää itseään

Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama said Thursday he accepted President Barack Obama's decision to avoid him on a visit here, insisting he did not want to cause problems by upsetting China.

The Dalai Lama -- who fled Chinese rule in Tibet more than 50 years ago -- is spending a week in Washington, his first visit in 18 years that will not include a meeting with the US president.

"I do not want to create any inconvenience to anybody," the Dalai Lama told CNN.

He said he accepted that Obama would not meet him "this time in order to avoid embarrassment to the Chinese president."

"So I have no disappointment," the Dalai Lama said.

The White House said Obama would meet with the exiled spiritual leader later this year but only after he pays his first presidential visit next month to China, with which the administration has been building warm relations.

Some US lawmakers and Tibet activists were furious over Obama's move, fearing that China will interpret it as carte blanche to clamp down on dissent in the largely Buddhist territory where it sent troops in 1950.

(Yahoo! News, 8.10.2009)

Ei äitijumalattaria, vaan leluja: jälkimoderni, feministinen new age -tulkinta neoliittisen ajan uskonnosta vaikeuksissa

They were carved out of stone and squeezed out of clay 9,000 years ago, at the very dawn of civilisation.

Now archaeologists say these astonishing Stone Age statues could have been the world's first educational toys.

Nearly 2,000 figures have been unearthed at Catalhoyuk in Turkey - the world's oldest known town - over the last few decades. The most recent were found just last week.

Made by Neolithic farmers thousands of years before the creation of the pyramids or Stonehenge, they depict tiny cattle, crude sheep and flabby people.

In the 1960s, some researchers claimed the more rotund figures were of a mysterious large breasted and big bellied "mother goddess", prompting a feminist tourism industry that thrives today.

But modern day experts disagree.

They say the "mother goddess" figures - which were buried among the rubbish of the Stone Age town - are unlikely to be have been religious icons.

Many of the figures thought to have been women in the 1960s, are just as likely to be men.

Archaeologist Prof Lynn Meskell, of Stanford University, said: "The majority are cattle or sheep and goats. They could be representatives of animals they were dealing with - and they could have been teaching aides.

"All were found in the trash - and they were not in niches or platforms or placed in burials."

Out of the 2,000 figurines dug up at the site, less than five per cent are female, she told the British science Festival in Surrey University, Guildford.

"These are things that were made and used on a daily basis," she said. "People carried them around and discarded them."

(Mail Online, 10.9.2009)

Islam on tarkkaa touhua ja vaatii toisinaan huipputeknologiaa

Jopa 200 moskeijaa saattaa osoittaa väärään suuntaan rukoilijoille, paljastaa brittilehti Daily Mail. Ongelma havaittiin, kun tarkkanäköiset tarkastelivat moskeijoiden kohdistusta kaupungin uusien pilvenpiirtäjien katoilta.

Muslimit kaikkialta maailmasta suorittavat rukouksensa aina Kaaban pyhän kiven suuntaan, joka sijaitsee Mekassa. Rukoussuuntaa kutsutaan Qiblaksi. Suunta on islamissa tärkeä asia. Rukoilemisen ja moskeijoiden rakentamisen lisäksi siihen suuntaan käännetään teurastettavat eläimet ja haudataan muslimit.

Väärään suuntaan rakennetut moskeijat ovat yli 50 vuotta vanhoja. Brittilehden mukaan monet ovat nyt peloissaan siitä, että kaikki väärään suuntaan kohdistetut rukoukset ovatkin nyt pilalla.

Saudi-Arabian viranomaiset toppuuttelivat pelkoja. Heidän mukaansa suuria virheitä moskeijoiden rakentamisessa ei ole tapahtunut, mutta joitain moskeijoita on jouduttu kohdistamaan uudelleen. Viranomaisten mukaan ihmisten ei tarvitse pelätä rukoustensa puolesta.

Jatkossa moskeijoiden kohdistaminen on ehdotettu tehtäväksi lasersäteiden avulla.

(Uusi Suomi, 7.4.2009)

Suomen sekularistinen valtio opastaa muslimilapsia fundamentalismiin

Nuorilla muslimeilla on länsimaissa yhä useammin kaksi elämäntapaa: joko radikalisoitua tai länsimaistua. Suurin osa valitsee jälkimmäisen vaihtoehdon.

- Islamin sisällä on hyvin erilaista suhtautumista uskontoon. Tilanne on jännittynyt, sillä yhteisössä on yllättävän paljon uskonnon jättäneitä, jotka eivät voi puhua julkisuudessa asioista, Juntunen sanoo.

Yleensä vain kaikkein vakaumuksellisimmat muslimit kiinnittyvät uskonnollisiin yhteisöihin. Heitä on Juntusen mukaan reilu kymmenesosa Suomen muslimeista.

Irakista Suomeen tulleen Husein Muhammedin mukaan valtaväestö tekee karhunpalveluksen maltillisille muslimeille puuhatessaan islaminuskoisille erivapauksia. Vähemmistöjen pitäisi saada perehtyä valtaväestön elämään.

Muhammed kertoo esimerkin Helsingin koulujen jakamasta oppaasta, jossa kerrotaan, miten kouluissa tulisi järjestää muslimilasten liikunta sekä musiikin ja kuvaamataidon tunnit.

- Järjestelyt ovat todella kummallisia. Oppaassa sanotaan, että koska islamin "puhtaimmat lähteet" kieltävät ihmisen kuvaamisen, pitää sallia lasten olla piirtämättä ihmisten kuvaa.

- On yltiösuvaitsevaisia ihmisiä, joiden tavoitteet ovat varmasti ihan hyviä. Yhtä hyvä on, että muslimit tietävät joulusta ja saavat kuulla suvivirren. Muslimeista ei tule sen takia kristittyä, eikä kristityistä muslimia.

(Aamulehti, 4.4.2009)

Maa jonne "länsi" toi takaisin "demokratian" ja "oikeusvaltion"

Sayed Pervez Kambaksh, the student journalist sentenced to death for blasphemy in Afghanistan, has been told he will spend the next 20 years in jail after the country's highest court ruled against him – without even hearing his defence.

The 23-year-old, brought to worldwide attention after an Independent campaign, was praying that Afghanistan's top judges would quash his conviction for lack of evidence, or because he was tried in secret and convicted without a defence lawyer. Instead, almost 18 months after he was arrested for allegedly circulating an article about women's rights, any hope of justice and due process evaporated amid gross irregularities, allegations of corruption and coercion at the Supreme Court. Justices issued their decision in secret, without letting Mr Kambaksh's lawyer submit so much as a word in his defence.

Afzal Nooristani, the legal campaigner representing Mr Kambaksh, accused the judges of behaving "no better than the Taliban". Hundreds of millions of dollars have been poured into Afghanistan's legal system and 149 British soldiers have died there since 2001, but experts admit that state justice is still beyond the reach of most ordinary Afghans.

President Hamid Karzai promised last year that justice would be done "in the right way", after worldwide protests at how Mr Kambaksh was convicted. But Mr Nooristani claimed yesterday that there was "no respect for the law", even in the highest court in Afghanistan. "They have ignored the principle of crime and punishment, they have ignored the principle of innocent until proven guilty. They have got the same mindset as the Taliban."

The Supreme Court's decision means Mr Kambaksh's best hope is now a presidential pardon, which will force Mr Karzai to choose between fundamentalists in his government and the rule of law. It has also raised serious questions over the millions of dollars spent on Afghan justice reforms since 2001, which appear to have been wasted. Mr Nooristani said: "The whole system is corrupt. Even with more investment, the system won't work."

Mr Kambaksh was found guilty of blasphemy and sentenced to death last year for circulating an essay on women's rights which questioned verses in the Koran.

It later emerged he was convicted by three mullahs, in secret, without access to a lawyer. The sentence was commuted to 20 years on appeal. At that appeal, in October, the key prosecution witness withdrew his testimony, claiming he had been forced to lie on pain of death. The prosecution then appealed to the Supreme Court to reinstate the death sentence. The defence appealed to quash his conviction altogether.

Meanwhile, the student has been languishing in a Kabul jail, fearing for his life. Islamic fundamentalists have been baying for his blood while moderate groups have led marches countrywide demanding his release.

In February, the Supreme Court Judge Bahauddin Baha vowed the appeal would be held in "a very open court" but that promise has proved hollow. Mr Nooristani said he was told of the verdict when he arrived to submit his written defence. And Mr Nooristani has himself been threatened. Prosecutors have warned him they are gathering evidence against him for "defending infidels".

Western diplomats insist they have been lobbying hard to have the case reviewed. But critics say their softly-softly tactic hasn't worked. "The Afghans know the money just keeps coming no matter what they do," said an American lawyer in Kabul.

Even if Mr Kambaksh wins an 11th-hour pardon, there are thousands of people just like him, convicted illegally, with no recourse, support or international scrutiny.

Mr Kambaksh's case has been passed to the prosecutors' office for "execution of the sentence", which means he could be moved to Kabul's notorious Pul-e Charkhi prison, or north to Mazar-i-Sharif, where he was first found guilty. Both hold murderers, rapists and violent Taliban sympathisers. Conditions inside are grim and both are prone to deadly riots.

(The Independent, 12.3.2009)