Nigel Gordon

Well some good news on the gay front in Egypt. 22 men arrested in a raid on a bathhouse last year and charged with debauchery have been acquitted by a court in Cairo today. To see the whole story go to the BBC news site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-30775967

I have seen too many of these type of marriage, they were common back in the 1960s, nearly got into one myself. For some it worked, but they were in the minority. For most it ended up in disaster with a lot of people getting hurt, the man, the woman and worse still the children. What is worse many of these men feel threatened by children who turn out to be gay and take a very negative attitude to their sexual orientation.

A delightful story and I hope we see more of Ray, and I hope that somehow Maurice can be heard of again. He is too much of a character to lose.

That is very much the key to things, whether it is the Christian Right, the Muslim Jihadists or Hindu Nationalists, they are all taking an extreme position in order to assert their superior status to others. The Christian Right take the position that they are 'saved' so they have the right to decide what should be and how things should be run, the Muslim Jihadists take the view that they have the right to say what is and is not Islamic and to enforce Islamic law as only they understand the true message of the Prophet. We see the same sort of thing starting in the Hindu Nationalist movement and I fear for the future of Indian democracy. When you look at things closely, and understand the history of where they are coming from you find that the Christian Right and the Muslim Jihadists have more in common with each other than they do with other members of their own religion. What we need to recall is that the West has a great debt of gratitude to Islam, for it was the Islamic universities in Damascus, Baghdad and Cairo that preserved the teachings of Ancient Greece and gave them back to the West during the Renaissance. Many of the ideas which underlay the Barons demands to King John, which resulted in Magna Carta arose from ideas and concepts that those Barons had brought back from Crusades and are influenced by Islamic concepts, essentially that the government is subject to the law, an idea found in Arabic jurisprudence way before it came into the Common Law via Magna Carta. It's very easy to dismiss Islam on the basis of the actions of the fanatics, what we need to do is see the good side of Islam and find ways to bring that knowledge back to Islamic society, just as they gave us Greek Civilization and brought us out of the European Dark Ages.

Actually Chris the Quran and the Haddiths specifically forbid suicide. The Quran specifically states that those who commit suicide will be condemned to the fires. The teachings also state that those who kill other muslims are condemned to the fires. As the injured policeman who was executed by the gunmen outside Charlie Hebdo's offices as they escaped was a muslim the fate the the brothers is firmly laid out at being the fires of hell. The problem of the Jihadist mentality arises from the actions of one of the Ottoman Emperors Sultan Salim. He defined the Muslims in Egypt as being heretics, as they belonged to a different branch of Islam. This gave him the excuse to wage war on them and to conquer Egypt. The underlying reason for this was the conflict between the Ottomans and the the Mamluks over the control of the spice trade. Salim put forward the idea that it was permissible to kill Muslims who were opposing you as the fact that they were opposing you meant that they could not be true Muslims. The religious basis for the suicide bomber comes from the teaching that those who die in the cause of Islam will go directly to paradise. Historically the strongest version of this was found in the teachings of the Assassins, whose members would often go on missions which they knew they could not survive. However, from a strict theological position there is a major difference between going on a mission which you know you cannot survive and going on one with the intent of killing yourself. In the first case there is always the possibility that Allah will work a miracle and you may survive. Actually in the history of the Assassins their are some remarkable survivals that were put down to the intervention of Allah. Undertaking a mission with the intention of killing yourself as part of the mission is a different matter, that would be suicide and it is forbidden by the Quran and the Haddiths. Unfortunately a group of fanatics who have more in common with Adolf Hitler and the teachings of National Socialism than with the teachings of classical Islam have come up with a perverted teaching of Islam that supports a NAZI world view, in which they see Islam as the master race. One has to ask how much of this can be laid at the door of National Socialism which during the 1930s made an effort to befriend radical Islam. Incidentally we need to remember that the first European country to decriminalize homosexuality was the Ottoman Empire in 1858.

Another incident has started with hostages being taken in a Kosher supermarket in Paris.

Some twenty years ago I had the privilege to be a guest at a lunch at which some of Frances leading cartoonists were present. I don't speak French and many of them did not speak English, but a two hour lunch turned into an afternoon and a bit of the evening of fun, as pens came out. After twenty odd years I can no longer remember the names of the people I met but I fear some of them are now dead. I suspect it is probably difficult for those of us in the English speaking world to realize just how important the cartoon is to French culture. For those of us in England this would be somewhat similar to some gunmen taking out the presenters of PM or worse still the cast of the Archers. Not sure what the equivalent would be in the US or Australia.

It appears that the US distributors of the DVD of Pride, a film about gay activists joining up with Welsh miners during the Miners Strike, have straight washed the DVD cover. The cover image has been photoshopped to remove any references to gay organizations and all mention of gay and lesbians has been removed from the cover blurb. You can find more information out about it at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-30679455 There is also a petition being raised about it at: go.allout.org/en/a/pride-straightwashed What possible sense can there be in removing all external mention of gays and lesbians from the promotional material when the moment the film starts it is quite clear what it is about, unless they have done a lot of editing, which would destroy a good film.

I have enjoyed the Sanitaria Springs series and have thought a couple of times about writing something to contribute but have pulled back as I could no see a way I could get into the story as a Brit with a limited knowledge of the US. Pedro has tackled this problem in a very effective way by making his main character an outsider looking in on events. That works and works well. This is story adds a great deal to the overall feel of the series and is well worth reading. To expand slightly on the points raised above when I was living in Germany I found that England, as an address was not recognized by the International Postal Union. I had to address my letters either to Great Britain or the United Kingdom. However, the post office would accept letters addressed to Wales or Scotland. Says something about the status of England.

I would recommend anybody to read the story, it is so much better than the film.

By far the best of the series, though that is what you would expect from the author.

I believe it is called advertising!!

I loved it, now popping out to get a new box of tissues!

It has been fifty years since I was out on a boat fishing for a game fish, this latest chapter brought back a lot of memories. A very good description of the experience.

Nicholas is a writer whose works I have always enjoyed and have read many times. It nice therefore to come across a new piece of writing from him and one that I am sure will attain the same standing as his other works. At the moment it is too soon to have a feel of what this story is about or where it is going to go, though I sense the influence of Grisham in it. However, I may be mistaken on that point. No matter what I look forward to reading it in the weeks to come. You can find it here http://awesomedude.com/nicholas-hall/the-boys-of-nodaway-ridge/index.htm

Actually curry was already a widely eaten dish before the Ugandan Asians arrived in England. The first curry house opened in London in the 18th Century, and I can remember eating curry at home in the early 1950s before the Ugandan Asians were expelled. My first recollection of going to an Indian Restaurant was for my tenth birthday in 1958, which was well before the expulsion in 1972. In the 1960s I was regularly having lunch in an Indian Restaurant as it was the cheapest place around to eat. Chicken Tikka Masala was certainly around in the 1960s as I recall having it at an Indian Curry House in Walsall on numerous occasions when my then boyfriend took me out.

No Dabeagle, you are not guilty of hijacking a thread, just of making a point which is very valid given this story. Like you I am feeling a little disappointed after reading this story, disappointed because I know that even as I was reading it, hundreds if not thousands of Richies in places around the world are going down the same path and experiencing the same pain.

That is all that is important, it is what is at the centre of Buddhist and Pagan understanding. First know yourself then know how you fit in with everything else. Until you have done the first, you can't do the second.

Actually the growth of Islam is something of a myth. There is some evidence that the number of practicing Muslims is shrinking faster than the number of Christians. The perceived increase in Muslim population is coming about from two factors: Anybody who is born of a Muslim parent is counted as being a Muslim, whether they have practiced as such or not. This is due to the fact that a Muslim parent is required by Muslim law to speak the words of commitment into the ear of the new born that they may be Muslim from the moment of birth. There have been a number of cases where apparently non-Muslims have been charged with apostasy on the basis that if they had a Muslim parent they were Muslim. Given that Islam is the dominant religion in many parts of the world that have a high birth rate this is leading to a growth in the number of people born Muslim. Because of the lack of structure within Islam a large proportion of the Muslim population is in fact being counted twice. I have a friend who is a devout Muslim and he is counted as a Muslim at the mosque he attends in London and also at the mosque he attends here in Leicester, I suspect he is also counted at the mosque he visits when he is in Paris, as he is also still a Algerian national he is counted in the population figure for that country, where the presumption is that all citizens are Muslim. That being the case he is being counted at least thrice and maybe four times. In fact there is evidence, at least amongst the Muslim diaspora a large proportion of the population is High Day and Holiday Islam only. They are about as Muslim as a lot of the so called Christians who attend church for weddings, funerals, Easter and Christmas. Islam is clearly showing the type of structural instability that we saw in Christianity in the later half of the 19th and first half of the 20th century. As with all religious groups that are in crisis its stalwart members have a tendency to move to the more radical side of the religion. We saw this with the rise of Christian fundamentalism in the period from 1850 to 1950 and we are now seeing the same process in Islam, albeit somewhat accelerated. It is interesting to note that the two religious groups which are growing fastest in pure percentage terms are number one the Buddhists and number two the Pagans.

I think there is still a lot of currency to that hypothesis though I don't think that it was the dinosaurs that got wiped out, that I believe is the Yucatan impact which is somewhat later.

I wonder if he wears easy wash shirts? They are clearly an abomination before the Lord and those wearing them shall be stoned.

There are times when the first few lines of a story grab you and hold you, like the opening lines of Mary Renault's 'The Charioteer'. Before you read anything else, from those opening lines alone you know it is going to be a good read. Unfortunately it is not often that happens but fortunately Dabeagle has done it in 'Life in a Northern Town'. From the very start the words grab you making the atmosphere of the situation a reality that you want to explore and one you will want to keep on exploring. This first chapter has got hold of me, I can't wait to read the rest. You can find it here: http://www.awesomedude.com/dabeagle/life-in-a-northern-town/life-in-a-northern-town-01.htm

Does anyone eat Chicken Tikka on the day it is made? It should stand for at least 12 hours pref., 24. You are correct about the Tikka Paste problem. Was in Tesco's on Friday and the girl went to load the shelves with some. Before she got any on the shelf they had all been taken off her trolley! Fortunately I live in a city which has a high percentage of its population is of ethnic origins based on the sub-continent. As a result there are plenty of small shop which sell the required ingredients to make my own. Just off to spend the evening over the pestle and mortar! I don't think Shaw liked his alternative future, it is though a dammed good play if you ever get the chance to see it performed. It performs a lot better than it reads.

Rick, I suggest you read Bernard Shaw's the Apple Cart. There is a scene in it where the American Ambassador informs the King that Congress had decided they have made a mistake and are rescinding the Declaration of Independence. The response is quite interesting. Just think, if we had not lost the American Colonies we would not have got the Raj - which would have meant no Balti or Chicken Tikka Masala. Where would we be without our national dish?

This appears to be a classic case of drawing a conclusion from a self-selecting data set. The survey appears to have been carried out at one branch of Waitrose (an upmarket supermarket) located in the Docklands area. This is the financial trading district of London and has a high American ex-pat population. Like Bruin I do not know one family that is celebrating Thanksgiving, and that includes two families that have US connections. One has a mother who is American the other the whole family except the youngest two children, were born in America and in the case of the parents grew up there. As they stated they can't afford Thanksgiving having forked out for Bonfire Night and are now busy saving for the seven days of gluttony that makes up the English Christmas. A company that I do some work for did conduct a survey a couple of years ago on Thanksgiving. Of over a thousand respondents between the ages of 18 and 40 living in the English midlands only six knew when Thanksgiving was and only twenty knew what it was. More than seventy percent stated that they had not heard of it.