Hezbollah is a large millitant group mostly based in southern Lebanon with a goal to resist Israel.

It had large popular backing when until around 2000, Israel had occupied southern Lebanon. It got a lot of support from the people on the street, and the governments of Syria and Iran.

It has also been involved in two conflicts with Israel since the Israeli withdrawal, but still enjoyed widespread support as "Legitimate resistance" and also for being a thorn in Israel's side.

The people of Syria supported Hezbollah almost totally, and this was helped by the fact that the regime also supported Hezbollah as its trump card to hit Israel should any hostilities arise with Israel or its allies.

The people of Syria gave them shelter and support.

Consider this a thought experiment.

If Country A wants war with Country B, but also wants to be the righteous party, and suffer the least possible consequences to itself and its allies, how does it go about this?

First, Country B would need to be Isolated. They it will need to be "defanged" in order to control any possible damage to itself. Then the best part - Country B needs to be made desparate enough to be forced to attack first.

No innocent country attacks first. The Defender have the moral highground on their side.

Now let's apply this. Replace "Country A" with "USA" and Country B with Iran.

I'm not sure if many other people picked up on this, but there was a point when there was almost a massive crackdown on alcohol in the UK.

It wasnt in 1909. It was in 2013.

If it was successful alcohol would have been treater closer to how cigarettes are treated (so not really a ban and the Britain wouldn't have gone teetotal, but its a good title).

It was back in around March of this year when the there was a call for all advertising of alcohol to be banned, and the products have a mimimum price to push up prices.

Since it is kicking off over there, I thought its a good topic to blog about.

In my typical style, it will be without research. People are free to correct any factual errors, disagree with opinions etc. That is what the internet is for.

Before Bangladesh there was East Pakistan. and before then whatever India as a whole was called. I assume it was called India.

The British managed to get control over all of it but the people there wanted independence.

Some wanted a United India, others saw pitfalls in that.

Without rehashing the whole argument, in the end it was divided into two countries - Pakistan and India. This blog is not about India.

So Mr Iain Duncan Smith has stated on Radio that he can survive on £53 a week. I think he should try it. For a prolonged period of time.

While having to live a week or two or a short period of time on such a figure is doable, especially if you have help and support from family and friends, if it is long term or if you are the breadwinner, it is nothing short of a disaster.

For a responsible person paying their way, living on £53 a week is not enough to live a dignified life.

I'd like him to try living on that amoung without handouts and charity for a meaningful amount of time so that he can see the codswallop that he talks for what it is.

Here is an "expose" about how the Iraq war was based on false evidence. It aims to show how the intelligence was fooled and how the west was missold the war.

From its excerpt:

On the eve of the tenth anniversary of the Iraq War, Panorama reveals how key aspects of the secret intelligence used to justify the invasion were based on fabrication and lies.

So it seems to suggest that it is trying to uncover the truth.

Except it is all lies within lies.

Everyone at the time knew that the evidence was a bare faced lie. The intelligence services were not fooled.

Over in the Halaal Meat: HMC Vs HFA topic when discussing the topic of meat certified as halaal was found to contain pork was certified by the HFA, it was pointed out that the HFA was shocked, angry and demanding answers.

Shocked and angry and being fooled by one of their suppliers?

No.

They were shocked, angry and demanding answers from the people who uncovered this scandal.

Link to HFA demanding explanation

There have been posts by another user-not-to-be-mentioned-by-name who has attacked fellow muslim groups for mostly not being too worried at jihad and doing a bad job of it.

But the probably is that by all accounts, most jihadi groups engage in bid'ah (while accusing others of it).

Or if you go by Imam shafi'i's view, then bid'ah sayyi'ah.

Bid'ah is according to Shaykh Ibn Taymiyyah something which contradicts Qur'an and Sunnah. (According to Imam Shafi'i's opinion bid'ah sayy'iah is something which contradicts Qur'an and Sunnah. I will refer to both as simply bid'ah in this post).

Now what is this bid'ah that the jihadi groups do? indiscriminate murder for one.

Im going to turn off comments on this post, as I cba to debate and this post is not about debating the evidences of the different poistions, but on the issue of definitions.

As we all know we love debating the concept of bid'ah. Its a good debate as everyone has evidence that supports their views and it is all seemingly contradictory.

The basic argument is over two views on Bid'ah - One group says that bid'ah hasanah exists, the other says it doesnt. One says all Bid'ah is bad while the other says only bid'ah sayyi'ah is bad.

So its all irreconcileable.

Or is it?

In the grand scheme of things, from my understanding there are two popular positions on Bid'ah:

Position 1 as AFAIK supported by Imam Shafi'i:

I've just come across this app today - available on Android and also iOS devices (iPhone, iPad etc) too.

It is a pretty simple app with a pretty simple goal: A step by step guide to prayer and its precursors.

Prayer is something where many can feel embarrassed to ask questions as they think they should already know everything, so having an app that covers the basics is a very useful thing.

This app covers all the basics wudu, ghusl, prayer, funeral funeral (something that can be performed so occasionaly that you need to brush up every time before any funeral you attend), eid prayers and salaatul tasbih.