h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

thats what you get living up on the tundra

I don't live on the Tundra! I live in the Aspen Parkland!

(for when you get home, Taff: http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/sag6299/$FILE/ecoregions_600.gif )

and, on that other subject some have been talking about on this thread, Pastor What'shisname from the First Baptist Church of the Everglades or whatever is in jail tonight for defying a court order to stay away from the largest Mosque in the U.S.

Okay two new questions to our knowledgeable h2g2 members:

Excerpts from the Quran are printed in newspapers, scraps of paper,
books, on wall pictures etc. So

A) Is it wrong to burn combustable items that have excerpts of the
Quran?

B) Does the size of the "excerpt" matter?

ps I am particularly interested on what the Quran / muslim theocracy has to say on the matter.

The Taliban banned paper recycling lest the paper contain fragments of the Quran.

<> Pull out the troops, set the hippies on them

I&#39;ve already mentioned that I&#39;ve torn up bibles before bunging them in the Oxfam skip. But don&#39;t let WG know.

So you ripped up a few bibles. There are plenty of worse things you could do. Although the bible is a sacred book to Christians I don't imagine you'll get anyone calling for your death over it. Why is it that many muslims feel the need to kill people over the destruction of a copy of their book? Wouldn't it be better if they could be more like Christians in this regard?

Because Muslims consider the Quran to be divine. It was the direct revelation from their God.

I do wonder how Sikhs would feel about someone burning/desecrating the Guru Granth Sahib which is quasi-divine and considered to be a prophet incarnate.

>I do wonder how Sikhs would feel about someone burning/desecrating the Guru Granth Sahib which is quasi-divine and considered to be a prophet incarnate.<

Maybe 99% of British Sikhs like 99% of British Muslims would view it fairly similarly. As for some old duffer of a judge that's another matter...

Dont get the impression, though, that all Muslims regard the Quran as a set of clear cut instructions. Yes, some fundamentalists do. but the orthodox position - not that theres really such a thing as Muslim orthodoxy - is that while the Quran is The Recitation of Gods words, not even Muhammed could express it in anything like clear Arabic. It needs study and interpretation. In theory, Islam is inherently heterodox - although as always in religions power blocs have formed.

***************************

But in the Ryan case the issue is NOT whether anyone might take offence.

I might be offended by (eg) anti-religious comments, but the real issue is whether they promote violence.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-13175213

Regarding that link - what a load of sphericals. I've seen fans of both sides coming out with sectarian bile right in front of the police ... who did *nothing*. At Ibrox last year, a friend complained directly to a police inspector about a specific group of fans chanting offensive bigotry... he was told to sit down & shut up or *he'd* be arrested. I've seen hundreds of Celtic fans singing and chanting through the one minute's silence of Remembrance Day, whilst their police escort did *nothing*. And yet I've seen half a dozen policemen smash a drunken wee laddie senseless cos he questioned the sexuality of one of them.

So now they're going for the easy target of keyboard warriors

The Police are IMHO part of the problem.

>>I&#39;ve seen fans of both sides coming out with sectarian bile right in front of the police ... who did *nothing*


I absolutely, totally agree. Both the Police and the Scottish footballing establishment have been in denial. The nail bombs have been a wake up call. Fortunately they do things better in Cumbria. Maybe Strathclyde Police can learn some lessons here about Zero Tolererance.

disband both teams and reform a single glasgow united football club!!!!!!

se what happens then when both sides of the divide are wearing the same colours

Many a true word is spoken in jest? Whod have thought there would ever be a DUP / Sinn Fein government in NI? All it took was a little effort and a desire not to kill one another.

In the case of Glasgow football there are also, of course commercial considerations. The Old Firm are pretty much the only teams that pull in the money. The quote rivalry unquaoe and quote banter unquote is in their interest.

It really is a freaky city. When I moved here I became very uncomfortable when I heard peoples religious affiliations referred to at work. (strictly as banter, of course). Growing up in Liverpool I never knew that one of our local teams was meant to be Protestant and the other Catholic, but in Glasgow they can tell you which is which*.

I was even more freaked out to discover that Panathenaikos use Irish iconography. ~Are you Protestant Greek Orthodox or Catholic Greek Orthodox?~


*Everton are the Catholics...I think.

other way round

protestant!

football, religion and politics all Blue

Yep I think Everton are Catholic. My grandaddy came from the west of Scotland..and I knew from a young age I was supposed to be a Gers supporter..but actually in a nice way because it was always assumed that the Gers were the greatest whatever the league might say.

I had it explained to me about which clubs were Catholic and which Protestant and how the funny thing was the Proddys were always best.

I'm an Arsenal supporter..hopefully they are proddy..because I forget.

<>

Yet strangely, Rangers are linked with Everton & Celtic with Liverpool.

Would you believe one of the people credited with lessening sectarian divisions in the West of Scotland is Margaret Thatcher. The shipyards, heavy industry and unions were strongly Protestant, operating a closed shop where Catholics rarely got a look in. Thatcher's decimation of these unproductive and over-subsidised industries broke the stranglehold both of the unions and the Orange Order. The new industries that came into being, small scale as they were, abandoned the bigoted employment practices of the past simply because small businesses just couldn't afford to discriminate against talented workers.

I've been very puzzled by this recent discussion, but I've soldiered on and now I finally think I understand what it is you've all been talking about and . . .






I never imagined how different my little colony and the Mother Country had become! That's a really foreign country over there (not as foreign as the U.S., of course)!

Even at their most severe moments, our conflicts between our various religious/ethnic bits have never been as bad as what seems to be normal business for your football clubs/fans or your trade unions.


(actually, there was a few months in the 1840s that might have been slightly comparable to the stuff you've been describing, and that Rebellion in 1885 might be compared to the Troubles -- but the Rebellion only lasted about a week. And, of course, we had the FLQ blowing up a few mailboxes and accidentally killing a hostage in October of 1970 -- but now the Quebecois are acknowledged as a Nation within Canada and a big chunk of the seats in our Parliament are held by Quebec Separatists. And, of course various First Nations blockade bridges and highways and rail-roads and golf courses every year or two, standing toe to toe with the Mounties or the Army, but that always gets settled without too many shots being fired and sometimes when the bayonet wounds heal, the protesters end up on our Olympic team. I simply can't comprehend the sort of sectarian crap you all are describing. From here, it looks no different from and just as sickly absurd as the ongoing tragic farces of Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq.)