Between Asgard and the Western Paradise

Recently, those in the English-speaking world, particularly America, have been hearing about the supposed “aggression” of the Russians against the Ossetians in the Republic of Georgia.  In the opening hours of the Olympic Games, the controlled American media took no time to denounce both Russian P.M. Vladimir Putin and President Dimitriy Medvedev, saying that the Russian Federation has reverted to “Stalinist” tactics.

Ethnic conflict in the region goes back to the days of the Soviet Union, where the ad-hoc Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic was created in 1918.  Despite the existence of the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast, an enclave of ethnic Ossetians within the GSSR, tensions continued to rise.  South Ossetians increasingly felt sympathetic with their counterparts in North Ossetia, but the South Ossetians were not able to secede from Georgia after Georgia gained independence.  In November of 2006, South Ossetians voted in a referendum regarding the region’s independence from the Republic of Georgia.  An overwhelming majority of the region’s 70,000 people voted in favor of independence.  Many Ossetians took Russian citizenship as Georgia refused to recognize the referendum.

The American media, however, conveniently omits historical data.  Perhaps even more shocking, they also omitted stories of Georgian troops who destroyed Tskhinvali, a city of 100,000, killing over 2,000 Russian citizens.  In general, the American media has been overwhelmingly and unquestioningly pro-Georgian, not even questioning the Georgian government’s censorship of “pro-Russian” sources.  At a time when the same media coverage criticizes China over lack of media transparency, they hypocritcally defend Georgian media censorship.  When Israel invaded Lebanon in 2006 severely damageing Lebanese civil infrastructure, and displacing approximately one million Lebanese, the media cited this as an internal affair of Israel, and claimed the act was in self-defense, and perhaps rightly so, as the Lebanese were said to have fired the first shots.  When comparing these two incidents, the hypocrisy comes through even with the media’s attempts to portray the Georgians as the victims.

The media was very sympathetic to the secessionists in the Serbian region of Kosovo, and currently displays deep affections for the Tibetan secessionist movement in China.  While this is a legitimate concern, one can easily apply the same logic to the case of Ossetia and their sympathies for Russia.  But, Ossetia, a tiny region in the Caucasus, virtually unknown in the English-speaking world until very recently, does not have the same appeal as does Kosovo or Tibet.  People may remember that the left-wing Clinton regime, in their loathing of Serbia, not only bombed the country, but devoted much airtime to vilify Slobodan Milošević.  That hate and false sense of sympathy towards Kosovo lingered until the time when the US recognized Kosovo’s independence.  Meanwhile, Tibet, as I alluded to before, is predominantly a non-Christian nation with “dark-skinned indegenous people” fighting a “light-skinned” super power.  The Ossetians have none of this.

However, the main interest for the media and American government more than likely likes in Russia’s business partnership with Iran, which Israel sees as a threat.

If the truth could be told, Russia deployed troops into South Ossetia, an autonomous territory populated with Russians.  It is the Georgians who have gone on the offensive against Russia, and Russia which is protecting their own citizens, as an eyewitness interviewed on American news reported (before being cut off by the host).  This is not a conflict between Georgia and Russia, but rather between Ossetians and Georgians.  The Georgians are not victims, nor are the Russians the aggressors.

This entry used information from: A Free Press? Not This Time

Having lived in Taiwan for some time and talked to a lot of foreigners, I’ve noticed that there are common mistakes among people who speak different native languages.

Lexical Problems:

Since Japan, Korea, and Vietnam were all influenced linguistically by China, a common error among Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese students is to use coinages derived from Chinese, but which are not strictly Chinese. For example, Japanese students refer to the subway (metro, underground) as 地下鐵 (dìxiàtiě) which is the Chinese reading of Japanese Kanji meaning (chikatetsu) “subway”. While its meaning is parsable, it’s not very well understood. A better term to use would be 捷運 (jiéyùn). Japanese speakers may sometimes use incorrect measure words. While Chinese also uses measure words, they are often different in Japanese. Thus, “a sheet of paper” is rendered by Japanese as 一枚紙 (yī méi zhǐ) instead of 一張紙 (yī zhāng zhǐ). Some Vietnamese tend to reverse the order of words, as modifiers in Vietnamese often come after the noun. Thus, a Vietnamese speaker might call a flower vase 瓶花 (píng huā) instead of 花瓶. Speakers of Western languages don’t have the advantage of cognates in their native languages and will sometimes use the wrong word entirely; this is usually because of a lack of understanding of certain connotations and cotexts. For example: 這是我同志。我們工一起。他也跟我同方。(Zhè shì wǒ tóngzhì. Wǒmen gōng zài yīqǐ. Tā yě gēn wǒ tóngfáng.) This sentence actually contains a grammatical error, but that will be discussed later. Tóngzhì means “partner” or “comrade”; here the speaker is referring to a business partner, but colloquially the word can refer to a person with which one has homosexual relations. That notion is reinforced, although unintentionally by tóngfáng. The speaker wants to say, “He is also my roommate,” but tóngfáng implies the sharing of a bed.

Grammatical Problems:

Grammatical errors seemed to be the strongest among speakers of Indo-European languages, who are unaccustomed to the idiomatic use of certain phrases, or the fact that certain words function a bit differently in Chinese, for example, being able to be used as both a verb and a noun depending on context. Wǒmen gōng zài yīqǐ follows the correct English pattern S+V, with the verb clause containing the modifier “together”. However, Chinese word order is different; the correct way to pronounce it would be placing the modifier before the verb to say 我們一起工作. Prepositions also appear in the wrong place, for example 我去公園,明天, corresponding to the word-order “I shall go to the park tomorrow”, where the correct order would be 我明天去公園.

The Games of the XXIX Olympiad opened in Beijing yesterday.  The ceremonies were attended by over eighty dignitaries and royalty from around the world, including George W. Bush, Kevin Rudd, and King Juan Carlos of Spain. Over 11,000 competitors are to compete in over 200 events.  The Opening Ceremony, directed by Zhang Yimou, consisted of cultural performances as well as the traditional raising of the Olympic Flag and lighting of the Olympic Flame.  Performers included Liu Huan, Sarah Brightman, and pianist Lang Lang.  Neighboring Nepal gave the Opening ceremonies a good review, according to an Indian newspaper, The Hindu.  The Nepali official newspaper The Rising Nepal in an editorial Sunday hailed the success of the opening of the Beijing Olympic Games, calling it a “big triumph” not only for China but also for its friendly neighbors.  The Vancouver Sun stated, ” China produced a show that blended modern technology and ancient arts to dazzle, intrigue, delight and astound” [1]. 

 Despite the threats of protests and a boycott, the Olympic stadium, dubbed the ‘Bird’s Nest’ for its unique appearance, was filled to capacity.

With the recent attacks on the Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, liberal fundamentalists have yet again used other people’s personal tradgedies in order to perpetrate their political agendas and launch new attacks on the more traditionalist worldviews of some Americans.  Some groups have used this incident to call for stricter gun control, and others have suggested that Jim Adkisson, 58, a former United States veteran, be charged as a terrorist.  Such people claim, that since he held a contempt for liberal ideologies, and acted on those impulses, that the crime was out of the ordinary, and thus worthy of being labeled a terrorist attack.

The mislabeling of this event as terrorism is based on on the idea that terrorism consists of simply using violence or intimidation against the government or civilian population in order to make a poltical statement.  The act of carrying a gun and shooting people is considered to be violent by American law, and it is clear that he had his own political beliefs.  However, this in itself is a very broad definition.  For example, “intimidation” could possibly be extended in the future to include mere verbal assault against someone with differing political beliefs.  This definition might also be applied to the mobs, who during the Olympic Torch relay in Paris, assaulted the wheelchair-bound athelete in an effort to “intimidate” the world community into cancelling the Olympic Games.  Of course, this latter incident is conveniently glossed over by such liberal fundamentalists.  By extending the definition to include anything, the liberal fundamentalists are seeking to label any action perpetrated by those they do not agree with as a terrorist action.

This incident neither should be viewed as a instance of religious victimization.  Unitarian Universalism is a cult, comparable to the Baha’i cult, which has already been discussed in a previous entry.  The specifics of Unitarian Universlalism will be discussed in another entry.

I have often encountered non-Muslims who have said to me that if one has been fooled into reciting Shahada, or recites it in jest, that he is ‘instantly’ a Muslim, and that his attempt to go back to another faith constitutes irtad (apostasy) for which the penalty is death. This however, is a misconception.  Just as in any other religion, if precepts are not taken full-heartedly, they are invalid.  In Islam, there are seven conditions which are required for the declaration of Shahada to be considered valid, which are explained here:

1. Al-Ilm, or knowledge. — This is to say that one must understand what is meant by the shahada. The first word of shahada, Ašhadu literally means to testify; and one must therefore understand that they are testifying that there is no God but Allah, and Muhammad (SAW) is his messenger. This can be compared to testifying in a court of law: if you testify before a judge to something that someone else has said without knowing its meaning, just repeating what they said, it cannot be considered as valid evidence.

2. Al-Yaqin, or certainty — When a scholar or scientist begins his study, he continues to refine what he knows until he uncovers facts which can’t be denied. Once we have knowledge, we should perfect this knowledge. Certainty is perfected knowledge which negates doubt, and here it is to be sure of the truth of shahada. The Quran says,إِنَّمَا الْمُؤْمِنُونَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا بِاللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ ثُمَّ لَمْ يَرْتَابُوا وَجَاهَدُوابِأَمْوَالِهِمْ وَأَنفُسِهِمْ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ أُوْلَئِكَ هُمُالصَّادِقُونَ, which means: “[Know that true] believers are only those who have attained to faith in God and His Apostle and have left all doubt behind, and who strive hard in God’s cause with their possessions and their lives: it is they, they who are true to their word!” (49.15) Abolishing doubt therefore increases faith and belief in Allah.

3. Al-ikhlaas, or sincerity — In today’s society, people constantly want to distinguish themselves from the rest. Some can successfully pursue fame and fortune, but others are not as lucky. Ordinary people might try to stand out from the crowd by the way they dress, the music they listen to, or even the religion they claim they believe in. When I studied Buddhism, I often attended lectures at a monastery. I happened on one occasion to ask another attendee who sat behind me, “Why did you become a Buddhist?”. His reponse: “Because I couldn’t stand Christianity and how strict it was”.

Can we convert to Islam because we want to make some kind of “fashion statement”? No. When we declare faith in Allah (swt), we do it for the sake of Allah (swt). We must not do it because we are running away from our former religions, or solely because we seek a Muslim’s hand in marriage and are attempting to please his or her family, and certainly not for superficial reasons of wanting to be an “individual”. Ikhlass helps us remain true to the purpose of Islaam, submitting to Allah (swt), and not to ourselves, and therefore negates shirk.

4. As-sidq, or truthfulness — Once we know something and are certain of it, we can say it truthfully. This means that when we say the shahada, we say it honestly. Going back to what I said in the beginning of this post, many people in the West assume that taking the shahada in jest makes one a Muslim. This is a direct refutation of that idea. Furthermore, the Quran says: يُخَادِعُونَ اللّهَ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَمَا يَخْدَعُونَ إِلاَّ أَنفُسَهُم وَمَا يَشْعُرُونوَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَن يَقُولُ آمَنَّا بِاللّهِ وَبِالْيَوْمِ الآخِرِ وَمَا هُم بِمُؤْمِنِينَ, which means: “And there are people who say, ‘We do believe in God and the Last Day,’ the while they do not [really]. believe. They would deceive God and those who have attained to faith-the while they deceive none but themselves, and perceive it not.” (2.8-9) Allah (SWT) cannot be fooled: those who claim to be Muslims and have taken the Shahada under false pretenses will be punished on the Last Day.

5. Aq-qabul, or acceptance -– A good scientist accepts the results of his experimentation, even if he previously had different thoughts on the matter. When one recognizes the implication of the Shahada as truth, then he must accept it, else he is an atheist. This also prepares us to accept the full truth of the Noble Qur’an as the inerrant and perfected word of Allah transmitted through his Messenger.

6. Al-inqiyad or compliance –- This is the manifestation of acceptance. We must be prepared upon reciting shahada, to carry out all the obligations of the Qur’an and submit to Allah (swt) as Muslims. This is shown in our daily actions, such as prayer, making hajj, and the like.

You may have heard Protestants say that salvation shall be attained by faith alone. This misconception has also spread somewhat into Islam. However, if we transgress Allah (swt) purposely while knowing this is non-compliance. This is not to say that we will be perfect, either. Everybody makes mistakes, but as long as we repent, we aren’t violating the precept of Shahada, for the Quran says: وَأَنِيبُوا إِلَى رَبِّكُمْ وَأَسْلِمُوا لَهُ مِن قَبْلِ أَن يَأْتِيَكُمُ الْعَذَابُ ثُمَّ لَا تُنصَرُونَ which means “Turn unto Him repentant, and surrender unto Him” (39.54).

7. Al-mahabbah, or love – This means that we are satisfied with the conditions of the shahada,love its implications of making us true Muslims. It means our actions will be guided by the love of Allah and by love of fellow Muslims.