Shihan

Is this because of policies from D. Trump?

Did I miss something, what was the mistake the author was referring to?

What happened to freedom of expression in this comment section?

So, let them have their qur'ans, let them hate the infidels and strive for an islamic state?

This reminds me about my apprenticeship, which started near the year 2000. Worked in big swiss retail company (comparable to Lidl, but much lesser in size). They already had SAP R2 and AS400 (IBM?) and wanted to migrated to SAP R3... well they finally did, but it took many (5-6) years and it also cost millions, if I remember correctly 60 millions. The headquarter who consisted of two houses with each 4 floors had at least two of the 8 floors packed with external SAP consultants. In 2005 or 2006 the company had to sell one of its sub companies after the other to get more money and the whole group was finally sold to a German competitor (I think they use also SAP R3 :-) ).

With the power of kek change will come!

So, illegals are cheap slaves who work at the farms?

The upside of this is that there will be fewer celebritites who think that because we are interested in their acting we are also interested in their political views.

What has that to do with the question regarding Google?

Maybe because there is no country called "Palestine". There is the "Palestinian Authority" that rules over the Westbank and used to rule over the Gaza Strip before Hamas took control over it.

So, you are saying that they (ISIS, Hamas, Boko Haram, Hizbollah, Al Qaida etc.) are not real muslims? They are also followers of Allah, see Mohammed as their Prophet and the Koran is their holy book. What makes them not real muslims in your eyes? Because they have a different (wrong?) interpretation of verses and hadith?

Morally wrong, sure, from my PoV. From their PoV they are the good guys.

Islam is a religion that teaches a few good things in verses and hadith from the early times of the religion when it was weak and had few members. So they needed to be tolerant and also wanted the Jews and Christians to be tolerant towards them.

Later, after the immigration to Mekka Mohammed changed his teachings and they become more and more intolerant and violent. The religion became more political as the teachings contained more and more text/rules about how to treat non-muslims. According to the koran, "Allah" knew that some verses contradict others, the later (more intolerant verses) abrogate (replace) the earlier peaceful verses (sura 16:101 and 2:106) - so you see that there is a bit of a problem with different verses telling different things.

Don't get me wrong, I would hope that all muslims would only follow the earlier peaceful teachings (and ignore the concept of abrogation) and many already do. But I don't think it helps in telling the others are simply "wrong" becaus that helps avoiding a much needed discussion (self-criticism). It would be better to acknowledge that there are intolerant verses and to understand why they are there and finally to come to the agreement that such intolerant teachings should no longer be accepted as part of the doctrine (well, only as some kind of "rejected part").

Well, I'am an atheist, but I wouldn't directly compare Christianity to Islam just because they are two Abrahamitic Religions. For example a huge difference is the way the "holy" books of those religions were created and are treated. The content of the Koran is more or less dictated by one person and is seen as the direct word of the religion's god (this is a mainstream islamic view). Bible was written over centuries and is only seen by a fringe group as the direct word of god.

What is your motivation in protecting islam? Why the finger pointing to Christianity and other religions? Sure, they also got problems, but do we currently really have a huge problem with those religions? What you are doing is like saying: "Well national socialism isn't that bad because other totalitarian ideologies also are stupid. Look at communism and how many dead people resultet because Stalin distorted the true teachings of marxism. See, national socialism isn't the problem."

Exactly. Their prophet raided caravans, fought against anybody who did not want to convert to his new religion or even sanctioned slave owning and stoning of women (it's all in authentic hadith that belong to mainstream Islam). So how can muslim distance themselves from such things? They really can't but they try anyway by saying "has nothing to do with my religion" to avoid the argument. A better solution would be that they would acknowledge that their prophet isn't a good role model and that some sacred verses and teachings must be discarded as they are not compatible with human rights. But no, they repeat the great marketing slogan that "Islam is a religion of peace" and hope that one day it really is. But without self-criticism it will never be one.

In my farsi class we also once had a brief introduction into the concept of Taarof. Never heard of it before and thought it is really interesting but I understand that it sometimes can get a bit too much :-)

Here is a video that also explains it and shows some examples of Taroof: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5oX2n1-diA

GeoCities was exactly what came to my mind when I saw the "fire" animation.

Isn't that a bit a sensational headline? A bit too exaggerated for my taste. Here is what he (Tony Abbott) seems to have said: "Let’s just understand exactly what the Leader of the Opposition has asked. He said that he wants primary school kids to be taught coding so they can get the jobs of the future. Does he want to send them all out to work at the age of 11? Is that what he wants to do? Seriously? Seriously?"

Religion is not simply another excuse it can also be a big motivational factor. It is too easy to just say "religion has nothing to do with it" or "it could have been any other religion".

If you look at the islamic doctrine and also the islamic history you will see that already Muhammad had critics of him and his religion be killed. That's mainstream islamic knowledge and doctrine and in the islamic world people wouldn't even be ashamed to admit that as it is normal ("divine") law for them. In the non-muslim world of course muslims don't go advertising about those part of their religion because they know that those parts aren't accepted and seen as something normal/positive. It's then easier to say "but your religion was bad too" - but that's just a "And you are lynching negroes" kind of argument. We don't need those kind of arguments we need a discussion for example why somebody who led his critics be killed should be seen as a role model.

Unfortunately not all parts of the world are on the same civilized level yet. There are many countries in which the law is based on so called divine rules and there it is seen as something positive/progressive that the woman can give birth to her child before she is being stoned for her "crime" (e.g. adultery (true meaning: have been raped)). Way to go humanity.

Is this legal? I mean: to make fonts with trademarked logos and publish them (regardless if it is offered for free or not).

Same for me... I tried swarm just a few times but then I threw it away also, didn't like it the same way I liked foursquare. Nowadays I only checkin somewhere rarely using Facebook.

If we start to avoid every word because someone think it is offensive we better start building our own kind of Neusprech right away.

What, that does exist? Give me an example of a major islamic authority who condems violence and intolerance against non-muslims who refuse to convert to Islam or pay the Jizya when they are under islamic rule.

It benefits the companies which sell tables and such games.

If the game benefits from it, I have my doubts.

Why would Skunk Work make something like that public? Do I miss something or wouldn't that be really weird? I thought normally such military related technological projects are only released to the public after they cannot longer hide it (e.g. like 'Beast of Kandahar' etc.).

I would be very carefull in trusting anyone when hearing such claims. Maybe it's true but maybe it is just propaganda against Assad's regime. Would he and his military really be so dumb to use chemical weapons when the inspectors are now officialy in the country?

Same security warning here. Using Firefox 20.0.1 at work.

Wow, what a genius. Lending money from banks and not paying it back. I think nobody ever had this wicked master mind plan. What's his point again? That stealing is OK when you want to promote your crazy, utopian socialist world view?

Twitter is turning to the dark side...

I starred at the page for like 5 minutes and was wondering why it wouldn't start to count down - not realizing that I was always moving the mouse around a bit. Damn you base-nervousness.

General advice: read as much (english) literature as you can. As someone already pointed out, this will help you to improve but will of course take some time and is a process that has no end.

Personally I can recommmend also books like "on writing" (by Sol Stein) which gives you advices on general writing (fiction and non-fiction).