Day: June 5, 2007

Is there peace loving Muslim in the House?


 I received this email a short while ago.

 Worthy of reading and further thought…

A man whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War II owned a number of large industries and states. When asked how many German people were true Nazis, the answer he gave can guide our attitude toward fanaticism.

“Very few people were true Nazis “he said,” but many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it, they owned us, and we had lost control, and the end of the world had come. My family lost everything I ended up in a concentration camp and the Allies destroyed my factories.”

We are told again and again by “experts” and “talking heads” that Islam is the religion of peace, and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace.

Although this unqualified assertion may be true, it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff, meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the specter of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam. The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history. It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics who systematically slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder, or honor kill. It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals. The hard quantifiable fact is that the “peaceful majority” the “silent majority” and it is cowed and extraneous.

Communist Russia comprised Russians who just wanted to live in peace, yet the Russian Communists were responsible for the murder of about 20 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant. China’s huge population it was peaceful as well, but Chinese Communists managed to kill a staggering 70 million people.

The average Japanese individual prior to World War II was not a warmongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way across South East Asia in an orgy of killing that included the systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians; most killed by sword, shovel, and bayonet. And, who can forget Rwanda, which collapsed into butchery. Could it not be said that the majority of Rwandans were “peace loving”?

History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our powers of reason we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points: Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence.

Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don’t speak up, because like my friend from Germany, they will awake one day and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun.

Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs, Afghans, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, and many others have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late.

As for us who watch it all unfold; we must pay attention to the only group that counts; the fanatics who threaten our way of life.

Lastly, at the risk of offending, anyone who doubts that the issue is serious and just deletes this email without sending it on, can contribute to the passiveness that allows the problems to expand.

My muslim friends, what are you waiting for? Speak out against your brother who are perpetrating a terrible wrong!

Sporting Nation


While doing some research at work today, I came across a decision of the Federal Court of Australia, which categorically stated that Melbourne is the sporting capital of
Australia (Adrenalin International Powersports Pty Ltd v John Caines Management Pty Ltd [2004] FCA 206 10 March 2004). So all you Sydney-siders, there’s your legal endorsement so save your efforts. Although the judge concerned (one Marshall J) actually started his judgment with this very categorical statement, he of course followed it up with some examples of events held in
Melbourne, to substantiate his very bold (but true) claim. A Melburnian would readily appreciate what Marshall J was talking about. Australians love sports and excel in the sports they play in and Melburnians immerse themselves in soaking up such excellence, going all out at such events to be part of them. Sure, there is the occasional event requiring bus loads of school kids to prevent the embarrassment of empty seats but that is down to poor planning which result in an event overdose.  Of course, if you are not living in
Australia, you would not, like an ex-(Australian) boss of mine was wont to say, give a flying continental. Indeed, as far as the rest of the world is concerned: so what? Well for one thing, it is a fantastic lesson for someone like the brilliant Malaysian government (yes, them again – they are and have always been, my favourite piñata) who are world champion perpetrators of self-grandeur. The pre-occupation with building massive facilities when neither the performance nor the spectator interests are there to justify them is always infuriatingly curious.Of course, the true intention of the government is almost (I’m being generous) always to line their own pockets, for why else would you build huge sports facilities when you are a nobody in world sports? It wins an All-England badminton trophy every 10 years or so. It flatters to deceive in field hockey. It struggles to keep up with its neighbour in sepak takraw, a sport it invented. It sucks in football, a sport it excelled in 30 years ago when it used to hold its own against the now mighty Koreans. JS Park is now a household name, known across the world as the nippy winger down the right or left channels of the Theatre of Dreams. I doubt if many Malaysians can even name the First XI of the Malaysian football team. It sounds like a no-brainer but I guess it is too much to ask the government to simply develop various sports at school level, and spend the money there, instead of building grandiose stadium and complexes. I know a journalist from a Malaysian daily has recently gone to
London to take a closer look at the Sports Minister’s building project there. Maybe he’ll write something soon, as well. The point must be: have excellence in the sports first, which can be achieved without all those construction project. Maybe the ministers’ retirement funds or their mistresses’ jewellery collection need those projects but not Malaysian sports don’t. You must then create spectator interest, which is loads easier once the athletes start to deliver performances. In other words, you want to be a sports capital, you gotta love sports.