Favorites » Her Blog
 -
The Size of StumbleUpon Compared to the Rest...
-
May 12, 5:09pm
90 reviews
stumbleupon
http://www.videotopic.com/littlesu.html
-
I always wondered...great representation!
 -
StumbleUpon - twodogs88s web site reviews and blog
-
May 12, 5:04pm
1 review
stumblers
http://twodogs88.stumbleupon.com/
-
how true
 -
ordeneuss reviews
-
May 6, 9:11am
1 review
stumblers
http://ordeneus.stumbleupon.com/
-
Fabulous, albeit brief, site!!! Learn and be wowed, too.
-
May 6, 9:08am
-
This is fascinating. Thanks to Ordeneus.
Thursday, 8 February 2007
Which glossy brand name has been the biggest winner on the planetary roulette wheel of globalisation? Most of us could reel off a dozen eligible mega-corporations: Apple, Coca-Cola, McDonald's, the Nike swoosh. They are all wrong. The check-in-your-chips champion of globalisation is in fact a puritanical desert-nomad from the sands of Arabia who died in 1792, and the evidence was there in this week's Islamic panic front pages.
In his 18th-century oasis, Mohamed ibn Abd al-Wahhab Wahhab had a dream. He dreamed of an Islam stripped down to a cold list of mechanical rules, strictly enforced, severely upheld. He ordered whippings and beheadings of Muslims to "purify" the faith. He smashed up and burned down the worship places of the softer, more mystical Muslims all around him. And - his smartest move - he cut a deal. He met the chief of the desert bandits who lived in the nearby long stretch of sand called Najd - a man named Mohamed Saud - and offered him his allegiance, in return for enforcing his severe, new brand of Islam. The Saud ruling family and the Wahhabi doctrine have been locked in a stiff waltz ever since.
More than two centuries later, oil was discovered under the territory of these bandits, and billions of dollars began to soak into the Kingdom. True to their ancestor's deal, the House of Saud used this black gold to promote the ideas of Wahhab, no longer merely on their own sands, but across the world.
By paying for thousands of schools, mosques and trained imams, they dispersed the ideas of one reactionary little preacher to every continent. It has been a corporate strategy that leaves Ronald McDonald looking like a puffing, obese slouch. Slowly, steadily, they are succeeding in eroding other, gentler forms of Islam. They are globalising Wahhabism - and your petrol purchases are paying for it.
Which brings us to the swish, swanky classrooms of the King Fahd Academy in west London, in the year 2007. A Muslim teacher called Colin Cook has revealed that children there are taught, via Saudi textbooks, that Jews are "repugnant" and Christians are "pigs". Exercises for five-year olds include the charming exercise, "Mention some repugnant characteristics of Jews". Cook repeatedly heard children in the playground idolising Bin Laden. Challenged on Newsnight about whether she will stop using these racist books, the headteacher, Sumaya Alyusuf, said, "No... I cannot withdraw them. There are good chapters in the books."
Why are we surprised? The King Fahd Academy is not a freak. It is part of a deliberate globalised project, led by the House of Saud, that has been documented a hundred times. Azzedine Gaci, the head of the regional Muslim council, in Lyon, France, explains: "When Saudi Arabia gives you €1m with one hand, with the other they give you a list of what you must say or not say." Here's some of the things you can say, taken from standard-issue Saudi textbooks. For 10-year-olds: "The whole world should convert to Islam and leave its false religions lest their fate will be hell." For 12-year-olds: "There is a Jew behind me - come and kill him!"
And what can't you say? Anything about freedom for women, which is, the textbooks explain, "a continuation of the Crusades". A woman can only be taught to "enable her to be a successful housewife, an exemplary wife and a good mother". No need for maths or technology, shabibi, there's the kitchen. They are banned from any form of physical education, because it would be "obscene" for them to change their clothes outside the home. Besides, "they might become attracted to each other if they saw each other in leotards", in which case they would have to be killed.
These textbooks are not only being used in Riyadh and a few scattered outposts; let's look at two very different countries. In Sweden, almost every Islamic school is either funded by the Saudis or seeking out their cash, according to the investigative programme Kaliber. In Pakistan, there were 246 madrassas at the time of independence, in 1945. Today, there are 6,607 - the majority using these Saudi textbooks provided for nada. Every time you fill up with a fresh tank of petrol, you are helping to buy some more.
Moderate Muslims have been warning for decades that allowing children to be indoctrinated with this poison in their formative years kneecaps any attempt to stimulate less literalist readings of the Koran later in life. But where is the counter-offensive, siding with these decent Muslims against this wall of bigotry? There are 120 Muslim faith schools in Britain, many of which would not be financially viable without Saudi support. The Government proposes to build more. And in the mosques? Nobody seems to know how many of Britain's imams are trained by the Saudis.
In the US, the figure is 80 per cent, and in France it is 70 per cent. There was a taster of the Saudi mullah-training in a recent D
 -
Johann Hari: We all fund this torrent of Saudi bigotry - Johann Hari, Commentato…
-
May 6, 9:04am
1 review
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-we-...
-
Excellent and informative article
 -
September 5, 2006: 99 wolves crash into glass - The Cellar
-
May 6, 8:59am
3 reviews
arts
http://cellar.org/showthread.php?p=263338
-
Whoa! This is unbelievable. What an artistic achievement. Thanks to Ordeneus for sharing this!
Before y'all git yer green underwear in a bunch, here is the scoop:
From the "cool art" dep't:
It's 99 life-sized wolves, made over a period of six months out of sheepskin, straw, and other such materials. They crash into a thick pane of glass and tumble in confusion onto the floor. The lead animals are the ones crashing, but clearly the pack is headed for the smackdown as well.
 -
candiedkisses's profile - StumbleUpon
-
May 3, 5:56pm
12 reviews
stumblers
http://candiedkisses.stumbleupon.com/
-
I LOVE the gastronomique images here!!!!! This one is SIMPLY wonderful...
 -
StumbleUpon - blueyez43s profile - StumbleUpon
-
May 3, 5:53pm
85 reviews
stumblers
http://blueyez43.stumbleupon.com/
-
 Very nice blog, blueyez!
-
StumbleUpon - Athyriums web site reviews and blog
-
May 3, 5:50pm
192 reviews
stumblers
http://athyrium.stumbleupon.com/
-
Magnificent beauty! And it is throughout this site!!!!
 -
StumbleUpon - KittenGotClawzs web site reviews and blog
-
May 3, 5:45pm
190 reviews
http://kittengotclawz.stumbleupon.com/
-
ah,warmth and love
StumbleUpon is the best way to discover great web sites, videos, photos, blogs and more - based on your interests.
Everything is submitted and rated by the community. Discover, share and review the best of the web!
|
Join StumbleUpon >
