koso_man
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Regarding the article on Carter yestetday Dr. D wrote: Yes, and all those things are illegal in all “Christian” nations, but are legal in many Muslim nations. Nowhere in the West, at all – and especially among Southern Baptists – are any of these things true, most not for centuries. Yes, thankfully, at last! Carter is going to boycott the Baptists who are A G A I N S T all these things, in order to show those predominantly Muslim nations who are actually FOR them, what-for. Because abandoning the Christianity — one of the ONLY things that has historically stopped these things — is the way to shore up their defense and move forward. By retreating and surrendering, of course! It is tolerance to HATE Christianity for one views, but LOVE other religions for a different view, ones that by his own accounting is about nine times worse. Logic!
I don’t know. Is this an example of the perfect being the enemy of the good? Or is it an ideological purity test where everyone who falls short of God must be banished and purged? Since he spends a lot of time in Africa, among many Muslim nations who do these things (and pushing the subsequent cultural imperialism instead of leaving them alone), shouldn’t he himself be the first one to ostricized and removed from society? I think his own logic says yes. What is wrong with the thinking these days?
Just as i think it would be unfair to blame Christianity for the the Transantlatic Slave Trade, even though the Bible was used to justify it, I think to blame Islam for the dismally low levels of education amongst women in the muslim world today would be equally unfair.
Just as the Bible was used to justify the Transatlantic Slave Trade, the Bible was also used by many Abolitionists in their fight against Slavery. Similarly, amongst some muslims, the Quran and the Hadiths of the Holy Prophet (Peace be upon him) are being used to stop girls from being educated. However, historically and also presently, those same source have been and are being used to enable and encourage females to become educated.
The first ever university in human history was founded by a muslim women, and if im not incorrect so was the second. Interestingly, this was around the same time that the Bishops held a council in which one of the main points of discussion was whether women had a soul or not. Thankfully, the Bishops had come to a concensus that yes, women did indeed have souls.
By the way, that discussion was never held in Islam, and just by looking at the sheer amount of female scholars that Islam has produced its 1400+ year history (in comparison to many Christian societies that did not even allow women to read or write), I think its fair to say that Islamic civilisations history of how it viewed and treated women is much more admirable than Christian civilisation..
Mediterranean A ‘Sea Of Plastic’ (AFP)
Turkey may be the worst offender but do Westerners really have a leg to stand on when criticising them?
Not because the West itself is a much worse offender when looking at this problem on a per-capita basis. But because the West itself supported and pushed for secularisation in Turkey to happen. Westerners in general look at the founder of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, with fondness. But Ataturk ensured that problems arising from the excesses of capitalism such as overconsumption would occur when he decided that best path for Turkey would be to emulate the West, not just culturally, for example by changing the Turkish language from an Arabic script to a Latin one, but also in terms of its world view.The world was now no longer God’s creation, to be amazed by and to be explored but at the same time to be treated with reverence and respect, as Islam (like most of other traditions by the way) had inculcated in the civilisations it produced. No, now it was a spiritless domain to be utilised and exploited.
My apologies for pointing out the irony of Westerners complaining about other civilisations ruining the climate. They’re ruining the climate precisely because those in power, and to a large extent the general population too, have been brainwashed into believing that their traditions are no longer relevant and that by imitating the West, some kind of nirvana on Earth will be achieved!
It’s almost like a tragicomedy!
Zerosum, I think that the principle behind wanting only qualified people to study certain things is a healthy one. The Web as you call it (a very interesting term), most of the time, only gives us the illusion of knowledge.
For instances, if i needed to have a heart operation and you gave me the option between two surgeons who would undertake such an operation, one who had studied in an authoritative institution and had acquired his education by people who themselves were qualified to ascertain that this person was indeed qualified to open up somebody’s chest, and the other one being somebody who had spent years watching youtube videos, reading books such Surgery for Dummies etc, I know that it would probably take me less than 5 seconds to pick the first person rather than the second.
Likewise when it comes to complicated issues such as Theology, or Islamic Law, the scholars rightfully placed conditions on who was or who wasn’t qualified to study certain things.
Theology entails interpreting sacred texts, sacred texts are comprised of language, language is by its nature metaphorical. Therefore, in order to read, analyse and study and finally, interpret something as momentous as Divine Scripture, the scholars of Islam placed certain conditions, one of which was that a person had to be a master of Grammar for instance. To me this seems sensible, logical and necessary.
Now look what’s happening today in the Muslim world, in a time where knowledge has been ‘democratised’…you have people, usually, frustrated by social, political or economic factors going on the internet or buying books, reading things that they usually don’t understand or more dangerously, misunderstand and all of the sudden, blowing yourself up in a cafe and killing innocent bystanders becomes something that is permissible in the religion. Something that any religious scholar of any note would completely and utterly condemn, not based on placating the West, but based on their religious training.
The idea that you espouse, namely that there should be no preconditions to learning knowledge is exactly what has allowed for these crazy groups to come out of nowhere, claiming that they’re acting based on what they’ve read in the Quran or in the Hadeeth. It’s absolute madness!
As far as ACCESS to knowledge, which i think is far more important, the religion is unique in that anyone who wants to set out on the journey, should be allowed to do so, which is why historically, some of Islams greatest scholars were former slaves or came from extremely disadvantageous backgrounds in terms of poverty and so forth, again, something that is hard to find in any other pre-modern civilisation.
V. Arnold,
I appreciate your open-mindedness and it is very heartening to see that there are still people out there that haven’t allowed themselves to by affected by the constant scaremongering from the news stories, demagogues and organisations that are blinded by geopolitical shenanigans that come and go.
Considering your inclination towards Buddhism, I think you might find this book of interest, ‘The Common Ground Between Islam and Buddhism’ written by Reza Shah Kazemi with an introduction by the Dalai Lama.
Here is the PDF of the book – https://www.islambuddhism.com/docs/CommonGround.pdf
God says in the Quran in the Chapter of the Bees “For We assuredly sent amongst every people a messenger, (with the Command), “Serve Allah, and eschew evil”: of the people were some whom Allah guided, and some on whom error became inevitable (established). So travel through the earth, and see what was the end of those who denied (the Truth).”
In the Chapter of the Believers, the verse which is directed specifically to the Prophet Muhammed (Peace be upon him) says “Verily! We have sent you with the truth, a bearer of glad tidings, and a warner. And there never was a nation but a warner had passed among them”
These verses was and is still used as a proof by the scholars that along with Judaism and Christianity, earlier dispensations, such as Hinduism, Buddism etc might have also been Divinely inspired and therefore historically (although there have been undoubtedly instances of shameful persecution by Muslim rulers of other religious groups ), the majority of the Ulema (scholars) considered that Muslim rulers had a religious obligation to protect these religions and their practitioners as long the Jizya tax was being paid.
Obviously in a modern context the whole concept of religious minorities in the modern Muslim nation state paying the Jizya tax is up for interpretation, but the point is, in a pre-modern context this enabled the Islamic Civilisation to undoubtedly be one of the most tolerant pre-modern Civilisations in recorded history.
V. Arnold, No problem mate.
The Islamic civilization was not just advanced in the fields you mentioned but also in the fields of philosophy, ethics, law, education etc
.
If you ever go to a University graduation and wonder why graduates are dressed like 10th century Muslims, the reason is the whole idea of Public Universities came to Europe from the Islamic World (probably by way of Islamic Spain). The first ever public University was founded by a Muslim woman in the 9th century.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatima_al-Fihri
Which kind of destroys the myth propagated by both Islamic extremists and Islamophobes that Islam discourages the education of women
Anyone curious to know about the history of Islamic thought concerning the nature of time might find this paper to be of interest.
https://ctaps.yu.edu.jo/physics/mbaltaie/time-in-islamic-kalam.pdf
It is quite amazing how Rovellis hypothesis is so similar to the the Ashari/Maturidi tradition in Islamic Theology. The only difference being they stated these things 1000 years ago!
I’ve been following this site for over six years now and I actually went on a week-long binge sometime in 2013 where I read every article from TAE from 2007. But it’s really demoralising as a Muslim to see this kind of rhetoric where it’s just assumed that if I practice my religion, I’m somehow automatically suspected as going against European laws.
This kind of suspicion seems to have truly become mainstream nowadays. God knows what its going be like in a decades time.
If anyone liked Koyaanisqatsi i would highly recommend Baraka and Samsara…Both produced by Ron Fricke, who was also involved in Koyaanisqatsi.
In fact just taking another glance at the graphs above, look at the correlation between money supply growth and the crash in velocity…sorry illargi but I think chs is right. The fed has crashed the velocity of money. It doesn’t matter though because there are many other stats that show that the American consumer by and large is massively suffering. Isn’t the middle class now a minority for the first time in decades.
I think the reason velocity is going down is because the money supply is growing disproportionately to transactions and gnp thanks to QE.
Think about it. There’s something like an extra 4 trillion dollars sit in bank reserves doing nothing thanks to the Fed. Take away that money supply and the velocity of money wouldn’t be crashing the way it is.
In other words I don’t think velocity of money crashing tells us much about the health or illness of the consumer.Illargi, my condolences for your loss, that was a very touching article. I can only imagine the pain your feeling.
Sorry Illargi, i think your hypothesis is a bit of stretch.
I think you’ve invested too much into Tspiras as a character. You must remember that this man is a politician and power isnt know to generally attract people with principles that are unbreaking. There are of course exceptions but theyre very rare.
Im gonna sit on the fence of this issue until the dust settles but my inital reading of the situation is that Tsipras has folded. Whether the corrupt maniancs in Europe end up self destructing anyway remains to be seen…but i guess its all speculation at this point.
The truth will reveal itself soon enough.Tbh I love this website and I truly appreciate the sacrifices illargi must be making on a daily basis but I really have to express my resentment at this idea that has been put across the last few blogs in which the poverty and distress the Greeks are suffering is inexcusable simply because they’re are European and inside the European Union.
The country I’m from, Kosovo, is also geographically in Europe. The unemployment rate for the last decade has been 40%! Kids are dieing from cancer on a reoccurring basis due to the uranium bombs dropped during the war and they aren’t even given a fighting chance due to the horrific health system.
This is how the world is for a shamefully large percentage of people yet it’s suddenly inexcusable that the Greeks have joined the club. I don’t know but I find that abhorrent.
Anyway, please don’t take this as an attack on your character illargi, I’m sure you mean well and I have massive respect that your practising what you preach by going to greece and I can only wish you success in your endeavours there…what’s happening to the poor in Greece is terrible.
My only point is that poverty, indignity and distress is inexcusable no matter who is suffering from it.
https://www.channel4.com/news/will-self-martin-rowson-cartoon-charlie-hebdo-satire-video
Interest take on the Charlie Hebdo situation and freedom of speech.
Yeah but Raleigh based on that reasoning, surely the likes of Charlie Hebdo should be speaking out against those same corporations who have politicians in their pockets? Unless your implying Islam is actually directing these corporations and banks and therefore theyre fair game.
I guess what im trying to say is, how is provoking a generally weak people, and honestly, you look at the Islamic World right now, and they are most definitely weak, gonna help the situation?
As far as i know, none of these cartoons are satirizing the media, the banks, the politicians, the corporations that are literally destroying the future of the next generation of people. But yeah lets express our freedom of speech to insult 1.5 billion people because “we’re fighting the man” – honestly i find it pathetic.If someone has a passion to get rid of Islam or show the muslims the error of their ways, follow the footsteps of Dawkins or whatever orientalist and actually write a book with some actual intellectual arguements – for me, thats 10x more courageous and dignified – and guess what, i wont be offended, i’ll actually read it and see what the other side has to say.
As a Muslim i obviously found their cartoons offensive, but for me thats not the point. The fact they got killed is clearly wrong but im also worried how this is being turned into a freedom of expression issue.
First of all, theres thousands of books by orientalists, scientists, christians etc that criticize Islam and lay out arguements against it. Im all for that. But cartoons that crassly depict a figure that, whether you believe should or shouldnt be, is held dearly to over 1.5 billion people, what exactly is the aim?
The worst thing about incidents like these, is society, especially in Europe is being polarized. If you dont believe that Muhammed (pbuh) isnt a prophet and feel that you want to try and show us poor Muslims why he wasnt through actual arguements, then that is your God-given right as far as im concerned. But as far as these cartoons are concerned, especially considering the fact that there are several Muslim countries that have been bombed by Western countries over the last few years, just seems so petty and insensitive.
As far as Freedom of Speech goes, it is only the State that can grant or withhold a citizens Freedom of Speech, not 2 lunatics. I just find it amazing this is how the whole incident has been framed seeing as mocking a government as a form of criticism is what satire was always about, not mocking the beliefs of a minority within your country (France) that by any standards have been completely shunned and alienated.
Again, i have to reiterate that what happened was intolerable and heinous but i think theres something very worrying with this whole Ju Suis Charlie phenonemon. Where were the tears and cries of “Je Suis Mustapha” or “Je Suis Ivan” for the bombs being dropped on Libyans and Ukrainians heads from people and the media? Its just utter hypocricy and shows so much how media directs peoples stances to these issues.
John, i wholeheartedly agree.
Hotrod, i think that is the main point made by the presentation i put up in the debt rattle. That was his main point, its not that velocity of money has gone down, but the fact that the people are unwilling (in the opinion of the video, because people are tapped out) to borrow. This is a big problem for the central banks i think,,,which makes me think what are the likelihood of the government enacting massive tax credits to make consumers spend since federal spending has not been able to fill the gap left by consumer borrowing since 08.
Ilargi, thanks for the reply, but i would strongly suggest you watch the video when you have time.
He makes the point that money velocity is not actually down as much as its made out to be because a big percentage of the base money is sitting idly as reserves that isnt actually participating in the economy.
At first i thought he he was trying to show that the economy is doing well, but if you continue listening, he actually says this doesnt mean the economy is doing well because whats happened since 08 is that borrowers are tapped out and arent borrowing enough. Government borrowing hasnt come close to filling the gap either.
He makes some very interesting points and i was just wondering what your take would be.
illargi, if you have time please see my comment on todays debt rattle.
Oh and a massive thank you for your sacrifice in running this site, its much appreciated.
Happy new year!
This presentation, which isnt really that long, really cleared up a few things for me.
Illargi, i would love to know what your thoughts are on this presentation and whether you agree with his proposition or not.
Also, seeing as borrowers just wont borrow, couldnt the government just give massive tax breaks?
Agree 100%. By the way, are you based in the UK? cos i just noticed the time of the posts are based on GMT.
Having just re-read what i wrote, i just want to clarify that i am not anti-Gold, and from reading TAE over the last year or so, i dont think TAE is either. I just think theres so much manipulation in the markets today, and so much motivation to make the system seem healthy, that Gold-bugs are really being naive idealists.
Ilargi, i appreciate the fact that you express your opinions sincerely and not just to be part of the ‘crowd’….thats why i check this blog on a daily basis, and i will be donating too! (Its taken longer than i would have hoped due to personal circumstances).
Also, i’m absolutely sure someone (indeed probably more than one person) has read this blog over the years and didnt heed your caution over Gold. They must be regretting that, what with Gold sinking the last couple of years!
Anyway, just wanted to thank you for your work!
Ilargi, with the sudden drop in oil prices as well as the dollars surge, do you think the Fed will hold off raising rates in 2015?
Btw Illargi,
I urge you to check out this talk give by Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, given in the 90s, called The Misgivings of Progress and it’s Impact on our Environment.
Hes probably one of the greatest muslim thinkers in the West, and this talk really is profound.
Ok so here is how i think it will go down.
The U.S. will probably raise rates in the 1st quarter to give some juice to the banks….it will however set off a massive global financial crisis (part 2 lets say)….the fed will the go back to ZIRP and resume QE (QE4) and they will again try and kick the can down the road…im 50/50 on whether they will be successful this time.
Illari, what do you think?
Illargi, do you think the dollar strengthening will put the fed off from raising rates…the dollars will be coming home to roost anyway, why would the fed wanna make it worse?
I know that bank profits are being hit with low rates now, but the fed must know we’re on the precipice of a massive deflationary event. Its making me think twice whether they’ll raise rates now, especially if the dollar keeps rising.
MayAllBeWell….if im note mistaken, treasure rates (at least on the 10Y bonds) are down from about 10-15% since January to about 2.6%, historically im not sure when its been lowers, but thats very low going on recent history i think.
If the Fed hikes the fund rates up as anticipated by todays blog, its gonna go either lower as all the dollars around the world are gonna start rushing back to the U.S. bond market, at least thats what i think Ilargi supposes (quite rightly imo).
I think what youve misunderstood is that Ilargi is saying the fund rate will rise, not the treasuries.
Given that, i dont think todays blog is a big switch at all to the narrative provided by Nicole.
Of course, im no financial expert, so maybe ive got it horribly wrong, but in any case, im pretty sure that answers your question. If not, im sure Ilargi will clarify (please do ilargi! i wanna know if i’ve gotten this right!)
Oh and this song 40 years ago still rings true, what an artist.
Rodriguez – Cause
Cause I lost my job two weeks before Christmas
And I talked to Jesus at the sewer
And the Pope said it was none of his God-damned business
While the rain drank champagneMy Estonian Archangel came and got me wasted
Cause the sweetest kiss I ever got is the one I’ve never tasted
Oh but they’ll take their bonus pay to Molly McDonald,
Neon ladies, beauty is that which obeys, is bought or borrowedCause my heart’s become a crooked hotel full of rumours
But it’s I who pays the rent for these fingered-face out-of-tuners
and I make 16 solid half hour friendships every eveningCause your queen of hearts who is half a stone
And likes to laugh alone is always threatening you with leaving
Oh but they play those token games on Willy Thompson
And give a medal to replace the son of Mrs. Annie JohnsonCause they told me everybody’s got to pay their dues
And I explained that I had overpaid them
So overdued I went to the company store
and the clerk there said that they had just been invaded
So I set sail in a teardrop and escaped beneath the doorsillCause the smell of her perfume echoes in my head still
Cause I see my people trying to drown the sun
In weekends of whiskey sours
Cause how many times can you wake up in this comic book and plant flowers?81, im afaid you’ve jumped to a wild and very cynical conclusion regarding my comment.
Of course i dont intend on living immorally knowing that the collapse will eventually come…collapse or no collapse we’re gonna die either way. All i meant was that waiting for the inevitable to happen is quite draining so i’m just gonna make peace with the fact that no matter how much they try to prolong the inevitable, it must happen.
My problem has been that i’ve become obsessed with looking for tell tale signs of when the next shock will happen, and its occupied a big part of my life the last few years. In the meantime i’ve neglected to actually live life.
All the best,
KosoHonestly, i’ve been waiting for this whole charade to implode for the last 3-4 years…i’m amazed it’s held up this long.
If they can keep this zombie alive this long, whose to say they wont keep it alive a while longer yet. Next financial crisis? More QE. High energy costs? More debt, and on and on it goes.
I’ve severely underestimated the power the people at the top have, so i’m gonna stop waiting and try and get on with my life.
No shale gas potential in Weald basin, concludes British Geological Survey
Boogaloo,
I think we can all see what the end game is. My question is what options do central banks have left when we have the next inevitable correction (read: recession, stock markets getting hammered etc).
Boogaloo & Diogenes,
Im not an economist, but if i understand you correctly, does this mean that when the next correction comes, central banks will hop back on the QE train? In other words the FED will go back to buying 85 billion a month (maybe even more).
