We all know and understand the democratic system.

In theory multiple ideas are floated by charismatic politicians and the best idea wins. In practice? not so much.

The major benefit of democracy in my opinion is not the theoretical idea of people choosing their leaders, but that it allows an orderly transition of power.

People eventually get annoyed by their governments and often people close to power too long start to reek. Democracy allows those people to be replaced, probably by younger less reeking politicians with the same views, but sometimes with those with slightly different views.

Unless the outgoing government has been catastrophic, the replacements are rarely a radical departure from before.

and unfortunately it is likely to do the job.

Last week a major story all over the press was how Corbyn had driven over a BBC cameraman’s foot. They didn’t focus on the fact  that it was a police car being driven by a policeman. It was all about Corbyn.

The week before when Simon Danzuk resigned from Labour after the party decided not to let him stand on the Labour platform due to him using a position of power when trying to solicit a 17 year old girl, it was apparently troubl for Corbyn.

Before (and since) then it is troublesome that the potential leader of the UK doesnt like the idea of nuking hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians to death.

Go watch it.

If you have netflix it ont cost you a penny and you will be supporting an independent documentary.

For those of you paying attention at the time, not much of what happened will come as a surprise (though the money Tony Blair Inc has made since leaving office might be a surprise to some), but there are many younger viewers who may not have as clear a recollection or awareness of events that happened at the time.

PS everyone at the time knew that the intel was a farce. No one believed it. If anyone says they thought otherwise, they are lying.

After dropping my mum off at the Relics of Makkah and Madinah event in Rochdale I decided to visit the world famous International Chippy for some food.

On the way back, I took a photo of the above painting which I thought was pretty nifty.

Over the past few years I think the mainstream Muslim community has started to shy away about discussing Jihad.

I am not talking about the struggle against your own soul, but war.

Islam has pragmatism and it understands that pacifism is not always the right answer. The revelation of the verses relating to Jihad were not easy and occurred after the Muslims had been oppressed severely for a long period of time.

As terrorism has become more prevalent, more and more people seem to shy away from discussing the topic, hoping to not ruffle any feathers, to not be misquoted and not be harrassed by any extremism government policies.

Recently a public debate has been stirred about whether actions preventing someone from public platforms (and therefore depriving them of the money they would have been paid) is “economic terrorism”.

The answer is no. No one has an automatic right to use a platform to spread their message. They can do so on their own, but they do not need organisations to support or pay them for it.

The Trump Presidency has started and barring any intervening acts, will last for either 4 or 8 years.

Now most people on social media are hyperventilating with either deep despaire or deep hope. Both are probably mistaken about their fears and hoples, but some of the things they fear /hope will happen.

While there is much debate about the impact of the Trump presidency on many things, there is less debate about its impact on the rights of Palestinians – where it will likely be a bigger catastrophe than previous American involvement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli right wing already considered it a major win when Trump won the US presidential elections.

Everyone seen this? Its an online comedy sketch by the BBC:

">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKL9b5-DL4A]

A lot of people have been offended by this. Some due tothe portrayals, some on using tragedy for comedy, others suggest it belittles the lives of people in the region and consider it as a form of continued mental colonialism.

There is even a change.org petition to get this banned (ever known a petition to actually matter?).

I thought it was audacious and funny.

A few weeks ago I got shown a message which suggested that ASDA added animal based preservatives to its milk which would render it unsuitable for Muslims.

At first I considered it a hoax and then I promptly forgot about it as the local shop is way more convenient to getting milk.

Until today.

So I did a quick google of it all and came across this page. Conclusion: it is Halal.

What is happening in Aleppo (and Syria in general) is truly shocking. Yet most Muslims do not seem to be as outraged as when Israel attacks the Palestinians or even Lebanon.

A lot of leftists you can ignore because they are more defined by their awe of Russia and anti American sentiment more than by justice or humanity.

But even Muslims are the same. I have even come across sentiment suggesting “aah well, atleast it is Muslims killing Muslims” as if that is some sort of excuse and makes it less bad.

That makes it worse – people who are meant to have the highest humanity and morality carrying out such despicable acts.