I can see that these topics are popular here…hey i’m all for banter and quick witted responses as opposed to…well… half witted psuedo-intellectuals.

I appreciate your point about coming from a Muslim country…and yes i am British born and bred, so i am not as personally affected by the political happenings in other countries.

Thank you very much for wishing me luck…so many people on this forum have wished me well on them, and, finally it seems to have worked…did very well today, mind you only started revising last night about one question.

I wrote about an Italian gentleman by the name of Beccaria, who is credited with ushering in a new approach to the European penal system. I would love to read and study more of his work and the reforms he forwarded.

I think we are on to something. I seem to remember that the Kirk, in my case, considered women to be, how can I put this, something less than men. Adams rib, maybe.

The question that arises is, given that women do better than men educationally, why would they accept that? It is, I would argue, the Achilles heel of all organised religions. Maybe.

Sleep tight, and best of luck in the exams. Look forward to continuing this somewhere. Though hopefully not in 2050. I’d be 102!

Good luck with your exams.

If they are anything like History exams I remember them as being like slow torture for about 4 weeks.

Thanks. I agree with you. Your point reminds me of just how insidious the Catholic Church was in Ireland, what was the name of that movie?

It is only after the current consensus has been overturned that people realise that the sky has not fallen. There would have been folk back then that argued for continued incarceration in Bedlam. Damn strong pillars of the community they would have been too

Likewise you make good points in this post…interesting prediction of 2050…I’m 28 now so I may just be able to witness for myself the picture…who knows we might even have Khilafah…well if I were a betting man I might have fancied a flutter, i’m sure the odds would be extremely lengthy!

I will fire away on this after the exams…for now I need some sleep

In the 1950′s in this country a young woman could be contained in a mental institution for becoming pregnant.

Are you lurking?

Anas is an I/P obsessive and a believer in the islamophobia myth. He is also a good blogger and a great lad.

wow…you actually need reinforcements.

I really feel quite flatterd!

Interesting post, as usual. Could I take a shot at it?

The problem with any absolute belief system is just that, it is absolute. It is also prescriptive in it’s belief that what was good for the fathers is good for the sons, and so on ad infinitum. Daughters don’t get a look in. By it’s nature, it resists change. It is, in effect the drag factor on a society, much as the Catholic Church – the only church – was prior to the Reformation.

It has a particularily rosy view of the past. It takes no account of the undoubted squalor of these times. It gives to itself the political without a corresponding link to the practical. It holds assent to a political belief system, for that is what it is, above all else. It is apparent that people who cannot succeed in other spheres can succeed as censors, thought police, etc, etc. If this reminds you of anything – perhaps the Soviet regieme, with added God – then we would be on a
course to mutual understanding.

It is a recipe for a static society, while the rest of the world moves forward. Did I mention that a static society is a dead society? No? Well I will now.

So, the question everyone should be entitled to ask is whether that is a system of government they approve of, are happy with, gives them liberty, equality and support. And for their children, and their childrens children. If you opt for religious dictatorship, now, then you are storing up resentment and wars later. Life does not go on in the vacuum that marginal political theorists occupy.

It is a dynamic thing. Things change. Folk get educated, fathers are dead chuffed when their daughters do well at uni, and can’t hack it in a debate with said daughter when she asks the ‘why’ question. People are entitled to change, to question. They are not sheep. A religiously structured society does everything in it’s power to suppress that.

For instance, when I was young; long, long, ago, women had to give up work if they ‘fell pregnant’. UK, 1960s.

I would not assume that anything, much, can stand up to the maelstorm of change. Only those that adapt to it will succeed. The more ridiculous adherents will push the more sensible away. It was ever thus. Expect to see a whole lot of Muslim apostates by the 2050s. Perhaps the majority of the so-called Ummah.

My best shot. Fire away! After your bloody exams.

dunno where you grew up though, for some of us there is far more reality to this ‘ummah’ and sharia business than ‘debate’. like can i just say i found out – very naive of me not to know – that i cannot initiate a divorce in my own country -isn’t that nice? f**ckng mullahs.