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From the BBC this evening:

September 11th, the day that three hijacked aircraft crashed into buildings…

Er…wouldn’t were deliberately flown into be a little better?

Dr Rowan Williams’s contribution to the ongioing debate about UK Law and Islam included the gem:

what most people think they know of sharia is that it is repressive towards women

How might a real Islamic Sharia Council enlighten us?

My name is Sister xxxx and I am applying for university this year, i wish to apply to study Medicine, however i was unsure about the shariah concerning the study of a subject where students have to undergo activities such as;

Autopsies, human disection and touching male patients; hence seeing people’s awrah

Muslims do need female doctors, especially for the treatment of ladies. To become a doctor, you have to go through all such topics as you mentioned. It is a necessity because there is no other way to learn medicine. Sometime you have to tolerate a lesser evil to avoid a bigger one. So you can study in a medical college, preferably in a women college if available and then, after graduating, just treat the women only.

Permissibility for women to study medicine, UK Islamic Sharia Council

Why is it necessary for women to wear an outer garment?

…The display of the beauty or the part of woman and free mixing with men lead to scandals like that of Mr Clinton & Monica which is not acceptable in Islam

Why is it necessary for women to wear an outer garment, UK Islamic Sharia Council

Fine. No problem there then. Move along. Nothing to see.

William Christie’s splendid production, starring Nicolas Rivenq and Patricia Petibon

Here’s a news reporter questioning an Obama fan on healthcare and change:

Helen’s photo (below) has been highly commended in Digital Camera Magazine‘s Photographer of the Year contest (architecture section)

Coventry Cathedral Baptistry Window, by Helen

Not bad for an accidental competition entry. March edition supplement out on Tuesday, 12th February.

This from the excellent blog, Ghost of a flea:

I could weep. It is post-punk in a minivan, yearning for a lost, and largely fabricated, youthful art-school rebellion, this sort of personality not only destroyed art in the 1920s, destroyed music in the 1970s and destroyed the social sciences in the 1980s, it now insists on whinging on at the thought of public art that might be enjoyed by the public. Self-regarding, vanguardist, Guardianista prats.

Ghost of a Flea, Angel of the South, on the closet snobbery of The Guardian

Cheap Chinese candles seem likely to spark another fierce battle between retailers and producers in the European Union and again expose divisions in the bloc over global trade.Peter Mandelson, the trade commissioner, is expected to recommend within days the pursuing of a complaint from candlemakers that a surge in imports is unfairly damaging their businesses.An investigation could lead to punitive tariffs on Chinese candle producers – provided a majority of the 27 EU states does not object.

Candles highlight EU trade rift

I have to suppose that some wag at the European Commission is playing a joke on the twice-resigned Peter Mandelson, presuming, doubtlessly correctly, that he would never have heard of Frédéric Bastiat’s satire on protectionism, the Candlemakers’ Petition, in which French candlemakers argue for blocking out the Sun because its free light was unfair competition.

Will Mandleson twig he’s being led into a trap?

The second bout of public tears just before a crucial primary vote – after no evidence that Senator Hillary Clinton has a history of tearing up in front of the cameras – provokes the unavoidable question: should feminists actively vote against Clinton to defend the cause of female equality?

Andrew Sullivan, The Tears Of The Anti-Feminist

the government’s decision to abandon the ‘aggressive rhetoric’ of the so-called war on terror, the guide tells civil servants not to use terms such as Islamist extremism or jihadi-fundamentalist but instead to refer to violent extremism and criminal murderers or thugs to avoid any implication that there is an explicit link between Islam and terrorism.

Heaven forbid anyone might draw a link between Islamism and terrorism. Read Melanie Phillips, Slouching towards dhimmocracy.

That’s my vote lost, then. Whom do I vote for now?