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from Andrew Marshall:
Malaysian reforms: will rhetoric become reality?
David Chance, the Reuters bureau chief in Kuala Lumpur, has written a new analysis on the prospects for genuine economic reform in Malaysia. He is not optimistic. You can read the full analysis below:
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Malaysia's plans to revitalise investment by backing national champions and ending race-based policies may sound ambitious, but the details are hazy and real economic reform will face formidable obstacles.
The government starts public consultations this month on a new round of reforms, but there is growing resistance from voters and disappointment from investors over measures taken so far.
A government think tank has identified a dozen growth industries such as oil and gas, biotechnology and Islamic finance to focus on in a drive to double Malaysia's income per capita and propel it into the ranks of "developed nations" by 2020.
from Good, Bad, and Ugly:
Real death threats?
US pastor backs off Koran-burning plan for now
Jones' adult son Luke, who wore a handgun on his hip because of death threats against church members, told reporters his father would fly to New York later on Friday.
Shouldn't that be 'alleged death threats,' or 'reported death threats?'
They taught us in school not to state it as a flat-out fact unless we had verified it. Have you? It's a fairly important, not to say inflammatory tidbit to let pass w/o either qualification or verification, n'est-ce pas?
from Global News Journal:
German banker bows out after stirring race, religion debate
A German central banker, Thilo Sarrazin, whose outspoken comments on race and religion sparked a fierce national debate unexpectedly quit the Bundesbank board on Thursday evening, sparing Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Christian Wulff and Bundesbank President Axel Weber a messy legal and political battle.
But Sarrazin, 65, made it clear that he will not go away and plans to use his new-found fame to press forward with the issues tackled in his best-selling book: that Muslims are undermining German society and threatening to change its character and culture with their higher birth rate. Whether Germans like his views or not, there is no denying that Sarrazin has struck a chord.
from Good, Bad, and Ugly:
No sideburns here…
Florida pastor not backing down on Koran-burning
"We are not convinced that backing down is the right thing," Jones, a gray-haired, mustachioed preacher with mutton-chop sideburns and author of a book titled "Islam is of the Devil," told a crowd of reporters in a brief statement made in the grassy yard in front of his stone-and-metal church.
I read this article on the New York Times site. It describes Terry Jones as "a gray-haired, mustachioed preacher with mutton-chop sideburns."
from Good, Bad, and Ugly:
Style on the Koran…
Obama says planned Koran burning is boosting Qaeda
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama warned on Thursday that a Florida pastor's plan to burn copies of the Koran is being used as an al Qaeda recruitment tool and he urged the minister to reconsider the decision.
Please Use the Correct Spellings Of Muslims Holy Book , Use "QURAN" Not Koran.It Would Be Very Appreciative If This Correction has been made in all your digital and print versions.
from Tales from the Trail:
State Dept: church Koran burning plan”un-American”
There have been lots of angry words over plans by an obscure Florida pastor to burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
But State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley pulled out the biggest gun of all on Tuesday in his effort to distance the government from the pastor's incendiary proposal -- he called it "un-American."
from FaithWorld:
Far-right anti-mosque video game triggers outrage in Austria
The picturesque Austrian province of Styria is overrun by huge mosques with minarets, if you are to believe an online video game designed for the far-right Freedom Party ahead of regional elections on September 26.
In a shooting range-style game, players have 60 seconds to collect points by putting a target over animated mosques and minarets that emerge from the Styria countryside and clicking a “Stop” sign. They also have the chance to eliminate bearded muezzin who call Muslims to prayer.
from Photographers Blog:
Religious Imam, reality TV star and dream son-in-law?
When a friend told me about the "Young Imam" reality TV show, I thought it must be just another 'preaching and nagging' religious program.
But when another friend of mine jokingly said "the young imams are dream son-in-laws", I decided I should take a peek into this phenomenon. While I could understand why Mawi became a heartthrob of teenage girls after he won the Malaysian version of American Idol but, a religious TV program doesn't usually catch on in Malaysia.
from Good, Bad, and Ugly:
Rabbi’s remarks…
Abbas, Palestinians should die: Israeli rabbi
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An influential Israeli rabbi has said God should strike the Palestinians and their leader with a plague, calling for their death in a fiery sermon before Middle East peace talks set to begin next week.
"Abu Mazen and all these evil people should perish from this earth," Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, spiritual head of the religious Shas party in Israel's government, said in a sermon late on Saturday, using Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's popular name.
from Good, Bad, and Ugly:
Was religion relevant?
Jakarta introduces women-only trains to avoid groping
JAKARTA (Reuters Life!) - Women-only train carriages were launched this week in Jakarta in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, in an attempt to avert groping and sexual harassment on packed commuter trains.
Your editors are showing their anti-Islamic bias again.
The first paragraph gratuitously labels Indonesia "the world's most populous Muslim nation." This is irrelevant to the story, unless you wanted to deliberately link "Muslims" with "groping". Why else would you include those words?
