Los Teropong (Teropong means binoculars) comments on current issues in Malaysia, and sometimes the world, and put forth another opinion and perspective. BY THE WAY - THEY HUNG THE WRONG GUY ...
The poster is kinda self expalanatory .. another Motorway Prayer facility for muslims travelling in the United Kingdom. This second facility is at the Toddington Services, Southbound between Junctions 11 and 12 on the M1.
This is interesting .. picked it up from Yahoo .. on the The Dallas Morning News: 29 may 2008
Grapevine student with top grades won't be valedictorian
Grapevine High School senior Anjali Datta holds the highest grade-point average of the 471 students graduating from Grapevine High School this year.In fact, Grapevine-Colleyville ISD officials believe her GPA of 5.898 may be the highest in the high school's history.
It's still not enough to make her the valedictorian, which brings a one-year college scholarship from the state.
Her closest competitor's GPA is 5.64. No one disputes that she's the top student in her class numerically. The problem rests with another number entirely.
Anjali rocketed through high school in only three years. But a school district policy states: "The valedictorian shall be the eligible student with the highest weighted grade-point average for four years of high school."
Anjali says she and her parents are baffled. "I have not heard of any educational institution penalizing a student for excellence – for completing a demanding set of classes 'too quickly,' " said her father, Deepak Datta. "Anjali's experience will surely send a strong negative signal to other talented students trying to excel. "They will most certainly be discouraged from trying to do their best – instead will be more focused on gaming the system."
Ooops, sorry guys, you've gotta do it in four years, like everybody else, smart a***. Hmmm ... wonder if the name Susan (fictitious), instead of Anjali would make a difference .. aiyaaa .. tak tau lah ...
It's kind of ironic, the name Blinkey. To top it all, we gave the name to this scrawny kitten that appeared on our doorstep sometime in the month of Ramadhan of 2007. We were in two minds whether to keep the kitten or send it to the SPCA. After initially feeding it with some milk that transformed into kitten food (yup, we actually bought kitten food from the pet shop), it looks like the kitten was going to stay .. outdoors, that is.
These shots were taken on the 14 Nov. 2007. Blinkey had such a good appetite that in no time it had a bulging tummy. We were puzzled that it was constantly eating and finishing the food supply pretty quickly. A visit to the pet shop for more food revealed that it was worms. So we had to deworm Blinkey and we threw in a bottle of shampoo as well.
Things were getting serious, the cat was getting groomed as well, with body brush and shampoo and all.... However, Blinkey comes and goes as it pleases, never requiring an overdose of love or extra patting. A moment in your arms is all that is needed and off it goes. Its' favourite place is on the rug right at the back door. It will be curled up right there in various positions only a cat can muster. As a natural course of a cat's life, the call to mate was ceremoniously trumpetted by the appearance of several male cats. Dang, where did they come from ... not seen them before except one hanging around for some time. Still, the pursuit came to fruition when Blinkey became pregnant. At that time, we could only presume that Blinkey was around 6-7 months old (which would be about right) as physically, many cats are able to get pregnant when they are only six or seven months old [1]. Unfortunately, Blinkey's maternal term did not progress well and the pregnancy did not take its full course. We can only presume (again) that it miscarried as it gave birth to four still-born kittens in the first week of May.. A cat is pregnant for about 65 days, so naturally, this was not the case.
Then, in a blink, Blinkey died on the morning of the 21st of May 2008. I last saw a healthy Blinkey sleeping under the kiddy trampoline on the porch on the morning of 18 May. It was nowhere to be seen on the 19th, not even for food. Then, on the 20th of May, the maid found Blinkey just outside the house, on the pavement, bleeding from the rear end, so to speak. Blinkey was cleaned but looked weak and had no appetite for food, but instead retreated to rest in the bushes near the garden shed, still bleeding. We speculated that it may have gotten itself pregnant again and miscarried again ... Cats can get pregnant again anytime - it's not unusual cats come into heat a few days after giving birth [1]. Although it had the most frightened look on its face, it was still cleaning itself, and was kind of mobile but fidgetty. All we could do was place its food tray beside it near the bamboo plant in the back garden to save from moving unnecessarily and hopefully get better. We had no idea what else to do and even contemplated taking it to the vet the next day if its' condition persisted. As the saying goes, man proposes, God disposes ... Blinkey was found (by the maid) under the car in the porch in a pool of blood the next morning. Blinkey must have moved to the front and bled all night long. She must have laid there, in the cold and on the cold tiles all night. The maid took Blinkey to the side of the house and cleaned it and placed it at the side of the house. I was not at the scene, but my wife actually saw Blinkey gasping for breath after it was cleaned, until it breathed no more a few moments later. Inna lillahi wainna ilaihiroji'un .. Blinkey's gone, forever. We buried Blinkey at the back of the garden. Looking back at the whole incident that happened in the space of three days, we strongly believe that Blinkey may have been hit by a motorcycle near the house, and although no physical injuries could be detected, there may have been serious internal injuries... hence the bleeding. No feelings can describe the moment when looking at the lifeless form of Blinkey ... and it was still bleeding. It was so sad ... still, God giveth and God taketh away .. Goodbye, our Blinkey ...
What is with those who are still antagonising Islam and the Muslims?? They have nothing else to do?? Sheesh ... perhaps, I will join the call by our former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad ...
NST, 20/03/08 - Mahathir calls on Muslims worldwide to boycott Dutch products
KUALA LUMPUR, Sat: Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad called upon Muslims worldwide to boycott Dutch products in protest of a film released Monday on the Internet which criticised Islam’s holy book, the Quran. He said such a boycottt could result in The Netherlands having to “close shop”, as Muslims made up the wealthiest portion of the world’s population and were also the biggest importers.
However, in order to be effective, all 1.3 billion Muslims in the world must unite in the boycott and put the interest of Islam and Muslims over that of individual needs. “We must not be afraid of losing trade with them. If we do, then we won’t be thinking as Muslims, but more for our own self intersts,” he told reporters after opening the Malaysian Islamic Welfare Organisation’s (Perkim) 46th annual general meeting at a hotel here, today.
Dr Mahathir was referring to Fitna, a 15-minute film posted on a website on Thursday that highly criticised Islam, setting verses of the Quran against a background of violent images from terrorist attacks. Dutch legislator Geert Wilders created the film, which also shows statements from radical clerics and cited verses from the Quran interspersed with images of the Sept 11 attack on the United States, the 2004 commuter train bombings in Spain and the murder later that year of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh on an Amsterdam street.
Earlier, Dr Mahathir had said the film was a result of misconceptions about Islam and there was also a “critical motive behind it”. “They will continue to do this until we show to them Islam is a good religion, that we are not violent people, that we don’t tell lies to people...but this must be shown in practice by the Muslim community,” he said.
On the home front, Dr Mahathir who is also Perkim president, said it was very important for Perkim to give the right impression of Islam to Muslims and non-Muslims alike so that there would be no misunderstanding on the religion, which could lead to fear, suspicion or hostility against Islam. — BERNAMA
One thing which surprises non-Muslims who are examining the book very closely is that the Qur'an does not appear to them to be what they expected. What they assume is that they have an old book which came fourteen centuries ago from the Arabian desert; and they expect that the book should look something like that - an old book from the desert. And then they find out that it does not resemble what they expected at all. Additionally, one of the first things that some people assume is that because it is an old book which comes from the desert, it should talk about the desert. Well the Qur'an does talk about the desert - some of its imagery describes the desert; but it also talks about the sea - what it's like to be in a storm on the sea.
Some years ago, the story came to us in Toronto about a man who was in the merchant marine and made his living on the sea. A Muslim gave him a translation of the Qur'an to read. The merchant marine knew nothing about the history of Islam but was interested in reading the Qur'an. When he finished reading it, he brought it back to the Muslim and asked, "This Muhammed, was he a sailor?" He was impressed at how accurately the Qur'an describes a storm on a sea. When he was told, "No as a matter of fact, Muhammed lived in the desert," that was enough for him. He embraced Islam on the spot. He was so impressed with the Qur'an's description because he had been in a storm on the sea, and he knew that whoever had written that description had also been in a storm on the sea. The description of "a wave, over it a wave, over it clouds" was not what someone imagining a storm on a sea to be like would have written; rather, it was written by someone who knew what a storm on the sea was like. This is one example of how the Qur'an is not tied to a certain place and time. Certainly, the scientific ideas expressed in it also do not seem to originate from the desert fourteen centuries ago.
Recently, the leading intellectual in the Catholic Church - a man by the name of Hans - studied the Qur'an and gave his opinion of what he had read. This man has been around for some time, and he is highly respected in the Catholic Church, and after careful scrutiny, he reported his findings, concluding, "God has spoken to man through the man, Muhammad." Again this is a conclusion arrived at by a non-Muslim source - the very leading intellectual of the Catholic Church himself! I do not think that the Pope agrees with him, but nonetheless, the opinion of such a noted, repute public figure must carry some weight in defense of the Muslim position. He must be applauded for facing the reality that the Qur'an is not something which can be easily pushed aside and that, in fact God is the source of these words. As is evident from the aforementioned information, all of the possibilities have been exhausted, so the chance of finding another possibility of dismissing the Qur'an is nonexistent. For if the book is not a revelation, then it is a deception; and if it is a deception, one must ask, "What is its origin" And where does it deceive us?" Indeed, the true answers to these questions shed light on the Qur'an's authenticity and silence the bitter unsubstantiated claims of the unbelievers. Certainly, if people are going to insist that the Qur'an is a deception, then they must bring forth evidence to support such a claim. The burden of proof is on them, not us!One is never supposed to advance a theory without sufficient corroborating facts; so I say to them, "Show me one deception! Show me where the Qur'an deceives me! Show me, otherwise, don't say that it is a deception!"An interesting characteristic of the Qur'an is how it deals with surprising phenomena which relate not only to the past but to modern times as well. In essence, the Qur'an is not and old problem. It is still a problem even today - a problem to the non-Muslims that is. For everyday, every week, every year brings more and more evidence that the Qur'an is a force to be contended with - that its authenticity is no longer to be challenged!
