Stupid media

We know that our local media lacks credibility. an example here: Alwatan prints reader letters that says that meat for fast food chains come from cattle that feed on dead cats and dogs. i love credible news like that. don't you?

Arabs can't write in Arabic

This was in a Bahraini newspaper a few days ago.
What a sad day that was.

Americans afraid of college prayer room

So, Normandale Community College, USA, have turned its meditation room into a Muslims prayer room. It has a male and female section, prayer times, direction of the Qibla, and people can thankfully actually pray there now. Katherine Kersten writes about it, it gets posted into Digg, then Islamophobia breaks loose, just look at the comments of Digg users:

It'd be a good time to start carrying pork-rinds around campus, and offer them to anyone you meet. Since it's not politically correct to "profile", offer them to eveybody, especially those in the meditation room. It'd be rude not to offer.

It works on airlines, too........

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Wow.

I think a group of female students needs to go in there quite often and be sure to be uncovered, speak loud enough to be heard, and not stay in the small cordoned off area for women. Show these folks what gender equality means.

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Come on diggers, you talk of free speech and bash religion all the time. whats stopping you now??? You rip the Christians a new one everyday, let me see your best shots about this oppression against women and against other religions.

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Is anyone beginning to understand how the excesses of the Crusades and the Reconquista happened?

All this my friends is pure Islamophobia. I can safely say so because they are contradicting their own AMERICAN LAWS which state: Every person has the right to practice his / her own religion.

Now, the segregation of sexes is done as part of the religion itself, and that is a private matter. No one is being injured by it is there? Is it increasing fatalities amongst infants perhaps? Guess not.

And the whining about a dedicated prayer room? Well, again, the AMERICAN LAWS state that they are free to practice their religion. Which incidentally means praying 5 times a day and that unfortunately needs a place to do so.

I mean seriously, people are stuck in a room praying and all this phobia surfaces? Americans are not Americans anymore. No, they do not believe in the words of their forefathers anymore. shame that.

Blood donation spam

I keep getting emails that say some one needs blood urgently, please donate and call him on number so&so.
While they are a beautiful gesture of kindness, they are also a sign of sheer stupidity and it makes me mad.
Why? Consider today's flavour of the blood spam:

There is a 5 year old boy admitted in salmania ward 204.room 3.

He has cancer & need blood donation B+ .

Please forward this to all you know ..

Father name &mobile 39xxxxxx

Khalid A H..

What is wrong with this? let me tell you:

O+ blood is the most common blood type in Bahrain. If someone has B+ and needs blood, they can give him O+, do not worry. If they are in shortage, they SMS their donor data base (I am one of them) so if they need blood I would know before you do.

Second of all, You do not know when this happened! It could be last year for all you know.

And as far as the phone number, it could be a prank and now this poor fellow cannot use his mobile phone because of all the "charity" phone calls he is getting.

I know Bahraini's are kind but, come on!

There is a table on the Ministry of Health's website showing blood type compatibilities. It also has a field where donors enter in their CPR number to show thier record. This of course does not work (nor is secure should it work).
I do have to commend the guys at Salmaniya hospital's Blood Bank though, they are providing an enormous benefit that no one thinks of. It is very easy to donate, nay it is beneficial too. Look here at what Wikipedia says.
So moral of post is:
1- Please give a call to Salmaniya's blood bank, it takes half an hour or so to donate. (How about organizing a bloggers donation day?? Anyone interested)
and 2- of course, stop forwarding junk without thinking. I hate it.

The Telegraph: 45 Muslim doctors planned US terror raids

We used to say these terrorists are uneducated, simple minded pawns.
Now a group of 45 Doctors did what??

A group of 45 Muslim doctors threatened to use car bombs and rocket grenades in terrorist attacks in the United States during discussions on an extremist internet chat site. One message read: "We are 45 doctors and we are determined to undertake jihad and take the battle inside America.

Ah, isn't that just peachy? What better way to give a good name to your religion of peace and making everyone see the error of thier ways than blowing innocent people who disagree with you up?

Of course, it makes total sense! How did I not notice? I must be stupid!

Do not press FORWARD, Press SEARCH

I just got this in the mail, It's in Arabic, I'll transelate after:

الإخوة الكرام ارجو الانتباه لهذه المعاني

أولا: المسجد ويسمى بالإنجليزية MOSQUE وهي تعني بيت البعوض ومن الضروري تسميته Masjid .

ثانيا: كذلك مكة تسميتها ب MECCA وتعني بيت الخمر ومن الضروري تسميتها MAKKAH

ثالثا: أيضا عدم اختصار اسم سيدنا وحبيبنا محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم بMohd وهي تعني الكلب ذو الفم الكبير أكرم الله نبينا وأعزكم الله ومن الضروري كتابة الاسم كاملً مثل MUHAMMAD

OK, What this is telling Arab Muslims is that:

1. They shouldn't use the word "Mosque" because it means mosqueto house! And it should be called "Masjid" as it is called in Arabic.
2. That they shouldn't spell the holy city as "mecca" because it means "the house of liquer" and thus must be spelled "Makkah".
3. And lastly, that we should write the name of our beloved prophet as Muhammed and not to abbreviate it to MOHD because that latter means a wide mouthed Dog/

And the forwarded e-mail goes on that this is serious and you should tell everyone.

This is of course pure, grade A, utter BULLSHIT.
I know many people just forward this out of good will but please oh please do not spread ignorance! Hell, Islam says that we should verify news and you don't! Just go do a google search, a wikipedia search and look in the dictionary. For Goodness sake, it took me 5 seconds to verify that this is bull.

Remember when a stupid rumor got out that said "Pokemon" means "I hate god"? Immediatly all "Pokemon" material got banned from several countries and the show stopped airing.
Please oh please, DO NOT press forward. Press Search.

patcondell is Racist (in my opinion)

This is a reply to patcondell's question on you tube whether he is racist or not. Being a person that explains allot, you tube comments aren't enough for me, so here it is:
Opposing views are fine, but the video turned weird towards the end. Looking at your other videos I can safely say: Yes. You ARE racist.
The practices of some individuals is far from the teachings. When Families in Jordan kill off their girl for bringing "dishonor", that's their society. Not Islam. I dare you to prove otherwise.
Saying that the Quran promotes war not peace clearly shows that you haven't read it. Don't bring up phrases out of context. A bad film review can have the phrase "unique", but that proves nothing without the rest of the text.
People take things out of context all the time to achive certain goals. Bin Laden is very good at it. So is Bush.

To sum up:

1. Women dress in black (like, what did you say? a Giant Pepper pot was it?) out of their own accord (outside of Saudi of course). You see it as a form of oppression, they see it as a form of dignity. Tell me why should they be ashamed of them selves? Why isn't it you who should be ashamed for having a limited view on things? So their dress means something different from what you think. Why do you have to force your idea on the subject?
   
2. The thought of Islam promoting war or was spread by the sword is really old. It's been discussed so many times before. Please catch up.

I think you have the wrong idea about Islam. If you wish to verify how true my words are, please, lets discuss here.
However, do not attempt to force your ideas here UNTIL you understand what it is you are criticizing. Only then your ideas, even if different, will be accepted.
What do you say?
What do readers think?

How to pimp in Bahrain

This is a page from "alwaqt" newspaper's classified page.
For the non Arabic speaker, it says: "Are you looking for your other half? Then callr" abu-ghayeb on *mobile number*"
What the hell is this?
Knowing how newspapers work, I am sure that they did not bother to take the time to see if this fellow is a legitimate licenced match making business. The person, could be, for all I know, a pimp or a pervert.
The mobile number isn't assuring, and the "name" isn't a name at all. Abu ghayeb is a nickname that is called on single people or ones who have no children yet.
So, our news papers could be trafficking prostitution? or paving ways to sexual crimes?
Alwaqt isn't the only one behind this, I saw a similar ad in alwaseet, not sure if this ran in other papers as well.
someone should address this.

Bahrain is not Freezing

Today many people have sent me e-mails bearing the picture shown to the right (click on it for a bigger view). The email said:

NEXT WEEK WE ARE IN FOR A SEVERE FREEZING – AS PER THE MET DEPT GET READY FOR
IT
AS WARNING HAS BEEN SOUNDED

So my wonderful wife e-mailed me asking how true it is, as my father is a Meterological Forecaster with immense experience, this is what I got:

This is an 8 day forecast, the met office here usually issue 5 day forecasts,
due to the decrease in reliability long forecasts have.
My father exclaimed
that while we have Northerly winds now, Friday & Saturday will see Sothern
winds (aka: Koos) making it unlikely to go to freezing degrees.
They also
expect more rain, and temp around 19 max – 13 min.
Everyone can call the met
office at 17323073 to confirm
Also, by going to weather.com (the Weather
channel's website) we see that their predictions are the same as our met office.
Picture attached and the link is below: http://www.weather.com/outlook/travel/businesstraveler/tenday/BAXX0001?from=36hr_topnav_business

There you go. You can click on the 2nd picture to see weather.com's 10 day forecast. reast easy, and ask everyone who sent this to you to verify a story before they send each piece of unproved crap to your inbox.

Have a happy and wet week end!

Akhbar Alkhaleej shows ignorance

Our dear news paper "Akhbar Alkhaleej" shows its ignorance when posting the picture of Devil Jin Kazama of Namco's successful fighting game "Tekken", as an illustration to a story about some crime forcasting program. What on earth do the two have in common? I'm sure that the person who used this mage doesn't know what this image is, and this is my point. Ignorance!
You know what? I may be picky but I'm tiered of people who cannot differentiate between a Koala bear, a Polar bear & a Panda. I'm tiered of people who will run a story on an elderly home and attache a picture of the YMCA. I'm tiered of people who refer to AAAALLLL foreign language music as "rock music موسيقى الروك". Things that are supposedly common knowledge should'nt go through this!
From now on, I shall point out stupidity and ignorance. I accept your contributions with pleasure.