One of many, at the 2hr 40 minute mark, worth reflecting on. If only this also applied to Yemen and the 400,000 killed in the Saudi coalition’s war on that impoverished nation.
The problem I have with the approach of avoiding condemning was is clearly wrong by appealing to context is that every single conflict situation provides such context. We might as well say that we then throw our ethics away completely, as they can never be actualized in the real world. We’re basically saying these are …
Keep a safe distance from those working to cause harm, wherever and whoever they are. It is very easy to break things. Much harder to make things better. Be with those striving to build a better world. O mankind, indeed, We created you male and female, and made you into peoples and tribes that you …
I am never going to be part of the crowd. In my youth, I had twenty years of training, preparing me to walk alone. A denunciation which once rang in my ears — “You must be joking!” — when a stranger attempted to push me towards another seemed to encapsulate the situation. I was and …
Funny. I was contemplating buying coffee bags in the supermarket the other day. Like tea bags, but filled with ground coffee. I’ve bought them for others before as a gift, but that’s different. You always spend more on others than you do on yourself. Certainly, I’d consider these an extravagance for myself, especially at the …
All across the media, so many asking the exact same question: how to defeat the militant scourge. Who dares recall that in living memory, Western intelligence agencies supported many of these militant groups, providing them with arms, training and finance. All of this is well documented in authorative sources for those who care to check. …
I am not being facetious when I say we are often an obstacle to people believing. It’s true. When we fail to conduct ourselves in accordance with our manners and mores, ceding ground on central principles for the sake of expediency, we ourselves become a hindrance to those invested in their own journeys of faith. …
Is it step up or step down? I’m never exactly sure. Either case, this has been the state of affairs for years now. Stepping into the breach left behind by vacant posts, longterm sickness, substandard management and a significant skills deficit. Today, I asked to be relieved of admin duties that have been plonked on …
What’s the likelihood that someone else with exactly the same name as me should also be Muslim? More likely than you’d think, it turns out. I thought I was unique. My surname is relatively uncommon; I’m not a Smith, Green or Brown. In England, about 1 in every 10,000 people have my surname, so there …
It is strange that recollections of school still dominate my sense of self so much. And not even the experience of school as a whole, but particular moments which loom large in my mind’s eye. Even now, over thirty years on, I still blame my failings then for my perceived failures now. Rarely do I …
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It’s been a long time coming, but I think today is the perfect opportunity to have a full on meltdown at work. Fortunately I work remotely, so no one is around to witness it. And so I suppose nothing need be done. Indeed, it’s true, nothing can be done. This is just the way things …
What a state of affairs to be in when your denials for having been responsible for hitting a hospital is admitting, “If we had been responsible, the entire hospital would have been obliterated.” The saddest part is that in this you are telling the truth. To assassinate one man, you do destroy entire apartment blocks, …
Can all the talking heads in the media — journalist, influencer, proselytiser alike — not simply put themselves in the shoes of those innocents whose lives have been ripped to shreds? Does occupying their shoes not drive you to silence? Does it matter whose side they were on? What faith they were? What colour their …
Surely it’s not difficult to make a distinction between the actions of a state and its leaders, and those of its citizens. In every nation there are the good and the bad, the moderate and the extreme, the kind and mean, and everything in between. Most nations have a political spectrum similar to the European …
