From burkinis to the Koran: Why Islam isn't like other faiths - Los Angeles Times - "I understand why many Americans might find Islam puzzling and foreign. There’s no contradiction in the term American Muslim; but that doesn’t mean Islam is like other monotheistic faiths. It isn’t, in part because it doesn’t lend itself as easily to modern liberalism. The more I’ve studied my own religion — its theology, history and culture — the more I’ve come to appreciate how complicated it is and how much more complicated it must be for people who are coming at it from scratch.Contrary to what many think, there is no Christian equivalent to Koranic “inerrancy,” even among far-right evangelicals. Muslims believe the Koran is not only God’s word, but God’s actual speech — in other words, every single letter and word in the Koran comes directly from God... To question the divine origin of the Koran, then, is to question God himself, and God is not easily put in a box, well away from the public sphere.Differences between Christianity and Islam also are evident in each faith’s central figure. Unlike Jesus, who was a dissident, Muhammad was both prophet and politician. And more than just any politician, he was a state-builder as well as a head of state. Not only were the religious and political functions intertwined in the person of Muhammad, they were meant to be intertwined. To argue for the separation of religion from politics, then, is to argue against the model of the very man Muslims most admire and seek to emulate... it suggests there is — or at least there may be — a clash of cultures. Islam seems, at least by Western standards, unusually assertive and uncompromising. Critics might see it as full-blown aggressiveness. But Muslims often point to these qualities as evidence of Islam’s vitality and relevance in a supposedly secular age. To put it a bit differently, this is why many Muslims like being Muslim... to be unapologetically Muslim today is to, in a way, show that other futures are possible, that the end of history may in fact have more than one destination. If Islam has been — and will continue to be — resistant to secularism, then the very existence of practicing Muslims serves as a constant reminder of this historical and religious divergence. I realize that some of my fellow American Muslims will view such arguments as inconvenient, portraying Islam in a not-so-positive light. But it is not my job to make Islam look good, and it helps no one to maintain fictions that make us feel better but don’t truly reflect the power and relevance of religion. In the West, the common response to the challenge of theological diversity has been banal statements of religious “universality.” All too often, interfaith dialogue, however well-intentioned, is about papering over what makes us — or at least our beliefs — different. It is a tenet of our American faith that we’re all basically the same and ultimately want the same things. This is true in some ways, but not in every way."
White VP at CNN threatened to 'kill' longtime black employee over suing the network - "DeWayne Walker, who is black and has worked at the CNN Center in Atlanta for 16 years, filed a lawsuit against the CNN network in May over racial discrimination in job promotions.On August 15, 2019 CNN’s vice president and group creative director Whit Friese allegedly retaliated against Walker, the manager of integrated marketing for CNN, by threatening to kill him during an incident in the CNN Center bathroom."
Political ideology predicts involvement in crime - "Political ideology represents an imperfect yet important indicator of a host of personality traits and cognitive preferences. These preferences, in turn, seemingly propel liberals and conservatives towards divergent life-course experiences. Criminal behavior represents one particular domain of conduct where differences rooted in political ideology may exist. Using a national dataset, we test whether and to what extent political ideology is predictive of self-reported criminal behavior. Our results show that self-identified political ideology is monotonically related to criminal conduct cross-sectionally and prospectively and that liberals self-report more criminal conduct than do conservatives. We discuss potential causal mechanisms relating political ideology to individual conduct."
Liberals are more criminal than conservatives
'Peranakan nasi lemak' that costs (at least) $12.50 sparks controversy online over culinary origins" - "Some have even harked back to the time when upscale Peranakan restaurant franchise Violet Oon offered “Nyonya Nasi Ambeng” without making any mention or reference to nasi ambeng’s origins in Javanese-Malay cuisine... When queried by AsiaOne, Les Amis Group — which owns Lemak Boys — clarified that the restaurant is not a Peranakan based concept and does not serve Peranakan Nasi Lemak.According to the Les Amis Group spokesperson, the three chefs behind Lemak Boys fostered a strong relationship while working at Indigo Blue Kitchen and simply brought over some of their favourite Peranakan flavours. The nasi lemak served at Lemak Boys is not labelled as Peranakan Nasi Lemak as implied by 8 Days, which has since amended its feature."
Karen Kommerce on Twitter - "Peranakan food basically gentrifies malay food so chinese peeperles will eat spicy food"
"Yeah, thanks for wiping out 500 years of Straits Chinese culture with that single blithe statement....."
"Stop calling all Malay kueh and dishes Peranakan also... that is thousands of years of Malay culture, long before the Peranakan people existed.""
"Oh, which part of babi pongteh and purut Ikan are Malay, pray tell...."
"As a boyanese who has delved really deep into my boyanese culture and roots, I completely agree with you! Boyanese are not malays! Stop eroding my culture and roots! Sadly our fellow countrymen are too narrow minded to realise and accept that truth. #boyanesearenotmalays"
Singapore has indeed imported the US's culture wars
The irony is that now "cultural appropriation" is a crime that an entire culture can be convicted of even though it's been around for centuries
Karen Kommerce on Twitter - "Guy that knows nothing about #Peranakan food claims that Peranakan food is ripping off Malay food etc.FFS educate yourself about how different it is and the kind of labor used...
The reason why real Peranakan costs what it costs... Is that you are getting the home cooked variety that you previously would not have been able to get commercially.The good shit. With the highest quality ingredients, Labour with no compromises.
Honestly, being a lawyer and doing endless 100 hr weeks of due D is less emotionally exhausting and mentally challenging than cooking Peranakan food properly.
PENANG NONYA FOOD NO EXPENSE IS SPARED ALL ATTENTION MUST BE PAID OR YOUR EXISTENCE IS MEANINGLESS AND YOUR FAMILY'S HONOUR IS QUESTIONABLE.So fuck off you Chinese pleb. I have krosang, Kebaya, sarong and tali pendent older than your grandparents.
Sorry guys, you don't get to punch down Peranakan culture..And then when I defend #Peranakan culture, claim I'm punching down "Malay culture" whatever the fuck that means...This is the equivalent of me going #blacklivesmatterand you guys responding... #alllivesmatter
And all the randoms claiming that #Peranakan food comes from "Malay" food ignore the history of Straits Chinese in the region past 500 years.Burmese Mohingga and Penang Laksa are close cousins, fish based...Lots of overlaps with Thai food as well
What I really don't get about minority mean girls is that just because you're a minority, you don't get to get away with casual racism and cultural chauvinism.Just because it happens to you is not an excuse to be mean...
And this is exactly what white people they say when they get called out on their problematic behavior.Don't like me defending my food culture and heritage..... tough luck, suck it up.
oh, back to Curry Kapitan - it looks like a bog standard chicken rendang, but the fresh flavours are far more assertive - with Daun Kadok and lima purut.You can make a simple version ...but it's not the same and you dishonor your ancestors.
Peranakan culture is a tidepool of history - disappearing as the forces of globalisation, especially sinicise and homegnise us, as with the other creole cultures in Asia.Parsi, Dutch Burghers in Sri Lanka, Anglo Indians, Kristang ... we are people's that will disappear.
We'll be museum pieces at this rate....And all we get is hate from random #sinkheks claiming we appropriated Malay culture and food.@lim_jialiang- sorry, you're the worst kind of asshole, pretending to be inclusive and about social justice while being culturally insensitive.
Jebus, the hate really flows downward - I'm getting all these mean minorities talking shit about Peranakan culture being just borrowed Malay culture.Ignoring 500+ years of assimilation and history in the region.Wow.
Wow - so somehow, somewhere - giving a shit about food and cooking became an elitist mindset ... What kind of instant mee did you grow up on?
Of all the random arseholes starting @lim_jialiangclaiming that Peranakan food is not special ....I realise that none of them have any photos of home cooked Peranakan food.Which mostly means that none of you have Peranakan friends .....and only have the restaurant shiz."
Faizah Zakaria on Twitter - "There is a polarizing debate on SGTwitter about Peranakan Nasi Lemak and whether it is really a thing/ a thing worth paying highly for. I wouldn’t weigh in on it if not for the tweet below which descended into arguing that Malay as a cultural category doesn’t exist and..."
Hard-Working Plumber Looking Forward To Paying For His Neighbor’s Gender Studies Degree | The Babylon Bee - ""Listen, I'm just a plumber," he said. "I didn't go to college, but I work hard and support my family. I don't know about all that high-falutin gender stuff they teach in college, but I'm sure it must be important since it's so expensive! Happy to help out another person in need."According to studies, there are millions of white girls working at coffee shops across the country while struggling under the crushing student debt they acquired by irresponsibly obtaining college degrees that gave them no marketable job skills. Benevolent politicians have proposed transferring all the wealth from trade workers and minority business owners to help indebted white girls with their student loans so they can still afford their daily latte and cat food expenses... "I'm so thankful for the generosity of our Democrat leaders!" she said. "They really look out for the little folx. Also, down with capitalism and white men!"According to sources, Sam Caughorn owns a successful business he started right after high school. He also has 5 kids, a nice house, and serves as a deacon at his church. "I guess I can spare some change for poor disadvantaged girls like Amber""
U.S. Stimulus Checks Sent to Ineligible, Confused Austrians in Europe: 'Those Poor Americans' - "The U.S. federal government has sent hundreds of stimulus checks to people in Austria during recent months, prompting confusion among these European recipients who say they were ineligible to receive such funds... Other countries have also reported similar occurrences of U.S. stimulus checks mailed by mistake to ineligible recipients during the first round of payments. According to NPR, thousands of individuals across 129 countries, who once entered America on a working visa, had been cashing the checks and spending it in their home countries."
The same people who bitch about how long the cheques take to come also bitch about ineligible people getting it (or business benefiting) when there's a clear tradeoff between speed and accuracy of targeting
This Man Found A Genius Way To Catch Illegal Fishermen By Pretending To Be A Giant Salmon - "As Terry was positioned, in a wetsuit, in the Eel River to catch illegal fisherman at night, he waited for them to cast their lines and once the men took his bait, the warden proceeded to pretend that he’s a fish and reeled himself in. “I kept tugging and pulling, and tugging and pulling [the line]. And he’s groaning. And it was hard to keep from laughing because I knew this guy was going to be surprised.” Grosz recollected the memory."
Parti Liyani case: Defence was prevented from confirming with Karl Liew's mother that he does sometimes wear women's clothes as he claimed - "the High Court ruled to acquit former domestic worker Parti Liyani of four theft charges brought against her by the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) following a police report made by her former employer, Liew Mun Leong.Mr Liew—who recently announced his early retirement from Changi Airport Group, Surbana Jurong, Temasek Foundation and Temasek International—alleged that Ms Parti stole over S$50,000 worth of items belonging to him and his family.However, Justice Chan Seng Onn, in allowing Ms Parti’s appeal against her conviction and jail sentence of two years and two months, branded the Liew family as having “improper motives” against Ms Parti.We noted in a previous article that, two years ago, the district judge in Ms Parti’s trial as well as the prosecution blocked her lawyer’s attempts at bringing up her former employers intentions to prevent Ms Parti from lodging a complaint to the Ministry of Manpower over her illegal deployment to other locations.On top of that, however, the court documents also show another instance of Ms Parti’s lawyer, Anil Balchandani of Red Lion Circle, being prevented from corroborating a fact that Karl Liew had confirmed.When questioning Mr Liew’s son, Karl Liew, over an allegedly stolen female clothing belonging to the younger man, Mr Balchandani questioned him about his tendency to wear female clothing, asking: “Do you have a habit of wearing women’s clothes?”Mr Liew said he wore women’s “t-shirts sometimes”.However, the Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) then felt that question was asked with the intention to “insult or annoy” Mr Liew. And despite clarifying that he was merely establishing facts, District Judge Olivia Low did not allow Mr Balchandani to continue with that line of questioning. However, when cross-examining senior Mr Liew’s wife, identified as Mdm Ng, Mr Balchandani attempted to clarify with her on her son’s habit of wearing women’s clothing but was prevented from doing so.DPP Tan Yanying argued that such a question should not be asked of this particular witness, even though Mr Balchandani countered Mdm Ng would be able to corroborate whether her son did in fact wear women’s clothes as he claimed he sometimes did.The judge said that such a question is “not relevant”."
Facebook - "Mr Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara, CEO of Temasek International has commented that Liew Mun Leong has contributed to Singapore and that Singaporeans should hear his side of the issue too. I disagree. Let me explain. The learned High Court judge, Chan Seng Onn, has heard Liew Mun Leong and his son's side of their stories under oath alearly and he has delivered his judgement. That should be enough of the Liew's story telling. In Singapore, everybody contributes in their different ways to Singapore. Liew Mun Leong is not alone and not unique. Furthermore, his contributions aren't free. One very important reason why even until today, people still remember fondly and think highly of our first generation old guard leaders is because when anybody and that included even somebody from among their ranks broke any laws, they faced the music alone. The establishment then didn't muster any resources or connections to cover up, defend or protect their own kind or kakilang and we should never, never fall short of that level of impartiality and high standard if we desire to scale greater heights in our achievements and strengthen our nation building journey together. Wee Toon Boon paid with jail time for his corruption. Teh Cheang Wan paid with his life for corruption. The late pap law minister EW Barker and former pap MP Chan Soo Sen were charged and fined for drink driving offences in case anybody forgets and NTUC's Phey Yew Kok finally got 60 months jail time for CBT etc. Regarding Liew Mun Leong and his former maid theft case, too many people are following its developments closely. Liew Mun Leong and his family are people with much resources and means and totally capable of defending themselves. Temasek or any companies or organisations related to Liew Mun Leong, past and present, shouldn't get involved in any way. Contributions, character and crimes are completely different things and people shouldn't be confused. Think."
Facebook - "Not a word of remorse or regret. These multi-millionaires paid their maid $300 when she started working for them in their home and claim it’s a sign of what good employers they were, that over nine years her pay was raised gradually to $600. They have put her through four years of hell over a spoilt DVD player, old clothes, a damaged handbag and counterfeit watches. They made her clean a second house, and even an office. She said she was paid $10 for two or three days of this extra work and the payments were not even regular. So what happens next? Will the Manpower Ministry act? What happens when you tell barefaced lies in court? Why didn’t the Sunday paper, which let Mr Liew Mun Leong impress us all only last year with his Singapore Dream story of rising from failure and a humble background all the way to the top, go back and ask: “Why, Mr Liew? Why?” So much unfinished business in this story."
