Is David Cameron Satanic?
It has been reported that Anjem Choudary has called David Cameron satanic.
Quite frankly, David Cameron is one of the least satanic prime Ministers we’ve had. I suppose though, he shares with John Major and Margaret Thatcher, no outspoken religious views, which must make him satanic to some.
Choudary was on BBC Radio 5 this morning and Phil Williams asked if he was on benefits. He refused to answer. Judging by the texts read out on the program, Choudary doesn’t have much support.
Let’s hope it stays that way and we can file him and his movement in the same dustbin as those of the Far Right.
Surely though after another atrocity in Pakistan yesterday in the centuries-old feud between Sunni and Shia Muslims, Islam needs a few men of peace with vision. On the subject of the rivalry between the two parts of Islam, read this.
How Not To Do Your Dirty Washing
Of all the terrible stories today in the news, the abuse that went on in Ireland in the Magdalene Laundry system is one of the worst. It’s here in the Guardian.
We rightly condemn the systematic abuse of women by such as the Taliban , but why was this system allowed to flourish within my lifetime in Ireland?
But then the Roman Catholic church is not very sympathetic to the things that are taken for grated in civilised countries like contraception, gay rights, divorce and necessary abortion.
I suppose it won’t get any better, as the new Pope will probably be another decrepit individual with thoughts rooted firmly in the Dark Ages.
Bono Is 1000-1 To Be Next Pope
This surprising fact is given in this article in the Wall Street Journal.
At least, he knows more about life, than most of the Popes, I’ve seen toddling off into the sunset.
I doubt the next Pope will be a coeliac though, as the one who just has resigned, has I think banned them from the priesthood.
Pret A Manger Set A Dangerous Precedent
According to this article on the BBC, Pret A Manger have set a dangerous precedent by caving in to religious pressure, as I believe it will open up companies for all sorts of silly challenges.
When I used to serve in a pub in the 1960s, everybody knew that a Virgin Mary was a non-alcoholic version of the alcoholic Bloody Mary.
A few months ago I saw a sign advertising a Bolly Mary in a restaurant, which was a curry with vodka.
It’s not as though Pret A Manger were using the name on an unwholesome product, laced with lashings of alcohol.
I suspect that quite a few Virgin Mary cocktails have been drunk tonight.
My Mother-In-Law’s Funeral
After Oakwood, I thought I take a bus through Barnet and come home on the Northern line, but I got off near where my mother-in-law used to live.
This picture shows St. James’s church in New Barnet. which was where my mother-in-law worshipped.
St. James’s Church In New Barnet
C, my late wife, also used to worship there as a child, but as a teenager she just didn’t get on with the vicar, so she moved her patronage to the church where we got married at Cockfosters.
By the time my mother-in-law died, there was a new vicar, who we’d not met until her funeral. He was incidentally an ex-policeman and we did know that my mother-in-law liked him a lot. She was taken into the church and the vicar started to go through the funeral service. Every time, he spoke of my mother-in-law he called her Frances and her many cousins in unison would chant her birth name of Edith.
After the cremation, we came back to her house round the corner and sandwiches and soft drinks were partaken. Most of the cousins left and we were left with a couple of my mother-in-law’s half-sisters and their family. We did then have a bottle of wine and about an hour later, when everybody had left, we were drinking by ourselves in the empty house, when the door bell rang.
It was the vicar! He’d been unable to come to the cremation or even back to the house, as he had had two funerals that day!
He congratulated us on our drink, as he felt it was a good practical idea. He then asked us, what all the hissing was about and we told him, how my mother-in-law had hated her first name and had always used her second. but the cousins had continued to use Edith.
He then said, that the first day, he’d met her, she’d walked up to him and said hello, indicating she was Frances and in the six months they’d known each other, he’d not used anything else.
So as she was virtually a friend, he felt that he didn’t need to check with the family. As it was, we’d have given the same name.
Today was probably the first day since then, that I’ve gone anywhere near that church.
Algeria
I had a unique insight on Algeria as a child. Next to where we lived in Cockfosters, in about the late 1950s, a family moved in next door. The father was English, but unusually for the time, his wife was a white Algerian of French extraction. I can remember her talking to my mother about life in Algiers during the Second World War and I think my mother was sympathetic to her flight in those years.
The lady had little time for the non-white Algerians and we’d probably say she was racist now, sixty years later.
It must have been about the time of the Front Algerie Francaise, who were trying to keep Algeria part of France.
You do wonder how those bad relations between the two factions in Algeria left a legacy, that we’re seeing worked out in that part of Africa today.
One thing I do remember about my neighbour, was that she wanted their son to be a Roman Catholic priest, a notion that really horrified my mother, who being of Huguenot descent, wasn’t too keen on that branch of the Christian religion. The son’s name was the same, as a well-known actor and I often wonder what he did in later life, when I see a Catholic priest.
The bonus of living next door, was that occasionally when my mother was away, I got a delicious meal sent in from next door, that had been cooked in the French manner.
Religion In The Workplace
I think yesterday’s judgement on the cases brought at the European Court of Human Rights is a sound one.
I think it is fair to say, that if you do a desk job, crosses, head scarves, turbans and other symbols are more of less irrelevant.
But when health and safety might be involved it’s another matter. So for instance a nurse shouldn’t wear a big dangly necklace, whether it is a cross or not!
I remember that when I started in industry, quite a few scientists and engineers used to wear bow ties, as a normal tie might get in the way of what they were doing. It probably isn’t so common now, but then jobs are more keyboard-based.
I know that has nothing to do with religion, but the same principle of safety should apply.
As to people ending up in jobs that are against their religious beliefs, like the Registrar, who wouldn’t officiate in civil partnerships, then the law is the law and unfortunately for them, they must either change their employment or come to an accommodation with their employers.
I Like This Advert
The London Underground has more many decades been famed for its posters, graphics and art.
I Like This Advert
Their own adverts are usual better than companies and organisations that pay for them. I do feel too that some shouldn’t be allowed to advertise.
I Don’t Like This Advert
I don’t think any religious or quasi-religious adverts should be allowed, with the possible exception of charities that do good work, like the Salvation Army or Christian Aid. But Scientology should definitely not be allowed.
Apparently, they are having a media blitz according to this article in Wired magazine. Here’s the first paragraph.
The Church of Scientology is in the midst of a multi-million dollar media campaign that includes running ads on news sites, satellite dish networks, 37 cable stations, and even Wired.com — a blitz that seems to have not so much won new friends or influenced people as stir up more animosity towards the group many consider nothing more than a greedy cult.
I was pleased to read this, as the last bit is my view of this scientifically-incorrect movement.
I certainly won’t be watching a Tom Cruise film. In fact, I don’t think I ever have. Nicole Kidman is another matter though!
Breaking Bad News WIth Style And Dignity
The Reverend John Graham is one of Britain’s leading crossword puzzle setters. As reported on the BBC web site, he used one of his own puzzles to announce that he is dying of cancer.
What a dignified and stylish way to break bad news!
What’s Wrong With Snooker?
The news from Pakistan just seems to get worse.
The latest was this bombing of a snooker hall in Quetta.
I doubt that any religion or sect could be against such an innocent game of snooker and it looks like Sunni Muslims were attacking Shias.
I just can’t understand anybody wanting to kill anybody, except in exceptional circumstances!
The Anonymous Widower 