Thought for the day . . . . TFTD.ws

US presidential nominations

TFTD: US presidential nominations The world is watching with close interest the developments of the US nomination process. It is widely agreed that whoever ends up in the White House, American politics will be different.

Q: Does it really matter to us WHO is elected? Or are they all equally bad (or good) in terms of inadvertently promoting our goals?@ (Rummani)

Public apology

TFTD: In an (almost) unprecedented symbolic gesture, the Prime Minister of Australia yesterday presented an apology to the aboriginal people for the laws and policies of successive governments that had caused degradation and suffering decades ago.

Q: In the interests of social cohesion and 'setting the record straight', would a future khalifah offer such a public apology for past injustices and for the darker pages of our history?

Outside the fold

TFTD: In order to function and survive, a newborn state must either accept the existing world order (presuming they would recognise the new stat's existence) and work WITH the international community, or opt for isolation, working instead OUTSIDE the community of nations.

A radically ideological state may not only opt for the latter, but may also attempt to undermine international institutions by seeking to establish its own alternative world order (complete with its own instituitions) in line with its own world-view and values.

Q: If the proposed Islamic State were to do this, what common global values could it use as a foundation for such institutions? What other incentives might it offer potential defector states?

Entitled by law

TFTD: Entitled by law Are residents in the Islamic State ENTITLED by law to have provisions made to accommodate their religious convictions, even if these were to differ from the khalifah's adoption?

For example, would Shabina Begum have had the right to demand her school accommodate her jilbab, if the khalifah had adopted that the jilbab was not obligatory?

Would this apply to other faiths too?

Smelting away

Muslim Lords, Muslim MP's, Muslim neighbourhoods, Islamic schools, Islamic banks, Islamic parties, Shariah TV,  and now we're told bits of the Shariah might become law in the UK.

However hard they try, the non-Muslims seem unable to resist the overwhelming tide, and integration into Muslim society seems inevitable.

Q: Is this what was meant by "smelting society in our crucible"?

Bugged

TFTD: Can the acquisition of covert surveillance recordings by the state be justified by public security concerns?

Real Tareeqa?

TFTD: It is sometimes said that the state (in the form of the executive authority of the khalifah) is the physical manifestation of the Tareeqa, or the method that implements, sustains and propagates the Islamic way of life.

Q: Considering that the khalifah is, in theory at least, acting ON BEHALF of the people, and it is these people who maintain his authority, hold him to account and ensure the rules of Islam aren't violated, is it right to describe society as being the real Tareeqa?