This post is in response to an earlier post by another member who recalled visiting Speakers corner in Hyde Park, London and coming across a situation where a couple of speakers got challenged on the existence of God.

That debate was shut down by populist rhetorical devices which speakers will often use to close debate when they are not knowledgeable or confident in debating a topic.

I will not suggest that I am knowledgeable enough or have the eloquence to do the topic justice, but there were a couple of topics I wanted to reply on.

And dont forget your Christian brethren that are being oppressed in the holy lands.

If you have any questions, see how Christians in Bethlehem are treated and what their wishes are.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccuinnElnSs

Its an interesting take.

The choir sounds amazing.

But I do wonder if they know what they are reciting or are simply treating it as a piece of music.

There is a lot of criticism out there for the Channel 4 Documentary called “My Week As a Muslim” that was aired tonight.

A lot of it is based on the fact that a non Muslim was taken and “black-faced” to fit as a Muslim/Pakistani stereotype instead of actually talking to actual Muslims.

There are a lot of comments on it on Twitter, a lot of ridicule.

However I think that is part of what makes it a success.

A lot of the comments are accurate. It shouldn't take a white woman to disguise herself as a Pakistani Muslim woman to see the abuse and hate that Muslims can experience.

But it has taken that.

Hate crime is not a new thing. Racist attacks are not a new thing. Even murder of Muslims due to their beliefs is not a new thing.

Sexual assault and similar crimes have been in the headlines recently.

Since the Weinstein scandal broke out with huge allegations of assault, groping, rape and other crimes have been prominent news.

The scandal is expected to simply be the tip of the ice berg in the entertainment industries and since its publication many other events and scandals have been publicised – often with men in power abusing their power criminally either to humiliate or to take sexual advantage.

An interesting video on love:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNx7kDJ2kDI

For some reason the video is not embedding. The video is asking the question whether you love fish. Is it love if you take it out of the ocean, kill it and eat it?

What is described as love in this example is something you find beneficial. You love what you benefit from. This love is then contrasted with another form of love – one that you ivet in, one that you give into and it is suggested that the love where you ge is superior to the love where you recieve.

I dont necessarily agree with it, but it is interested to analyse why we desire what we desire.

A couple of years ago there was a lot of hoohaa in the media about a conpiracy for Muslim extremists to take over schools, mostly in Birmingham. A lot of this hullabaloo was supported by the then Prime Minister David Cameron, his Education Minister Michael Gove and the OFSTED head Michael Wilshaw.

The hysteria reached such levels that a government enquiry was set up to investigate the infiltration.

The Muslim community in Birmingham was much demonised by this enquiry and many students and teachers tarnished by the media hysteria.

Dont believe the opinion polls which suggest that the Conservative lead is slipping. My blog posts on The Secrets of Democracy and Voting and The Secrets of Electoral Opinion Polls will explain my views on how the system works and what the polls are really saying.

In short, Conservative voters are more likely to actually actually turn up to vote than Labour voters, who will be busy tweeting and posting on facebook telling others to vote.

With the narrowing of opinion polls recently in the UK General election, I think people need to question what they actually show.

An opinion poll of voting preference is not simply asking 20 people (or 200 or even 2000) people what they think and then publishing the results.

They are a lot more involved than that and depending on the assumptions used the results can vary greatly.

Firstly a simple example.

To simplily matters and ignore opinion, consider an election on a factual basis where a person would vote whether they are old or young. Based on the criteris there are 20 participants that can vote – 10 old people and 10 young people

My thoughts go out to their families.

I never thought that something like this would happen in Manchester.

If it was a terrorist incident, I thought such mindsets were less prevalent in this region, making us almost immune.

Attacking innocents (especially children, as many at this even would have been) is despicable and against Islam.

Justifying haraam acts is kufr.