Paul Long's Ramblings

Pastor's Notes for 1 April 2012 uploaded To read, click HERE

another interesting piece by Tawfik Hamid The "Snakes and Ladders" of the Muslim Brotherhood By Tawfik Hmaid www.tawfikhamid.com After 80 years the dream of the Muslim Brotherhood  ( MB )  to reach  power  in Egypt has come true. Currently, the MB controls the majority of the seats in the Egyptian Parliament and soon they will write the new constitution of Egypt. The ascent of the MB to power may have some similarity to the game of "Snake s  and Ladder s " where the 'Ladder' helps the players to reach the top while a 'snake' close to that top can also bring the player down to the bottom. The question is: Will the MB go down the 'Snake' after ascending via the 'ladder' of power? Analysis of the factors that helped the MB reach power reveals that this is a very likely possibility. Ascending via the Ladder Factors that helped the MB reach power 1- The Hijab When the Supreme Guide (The Murshid) of the MB had the opportunity to meet wit

Quote of the day. “Iranians see our page and break down with excitement. They always thought we hated them. The power of this initiative is that it bypasses governments."  - Michal Tami, an Israeli who with her husband, Roni Edry, launched a Facebook page to Iranians saying, “We will never bomb your country. We love you,” that has received daily responses from hundreds of Iranians. ( Haaretz ) http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/iranians-shocked-by-israel-loves-iran-facebook-initiative-1.420069 Iranians shocked by 'Israel loves Iran' Facebook initiative New York Times, Washington Post report on the initiative started by two Israelis who sent a Facebook message to Iranians last Thursday saying, 'We will never bomb your country. We love you.' By Roy Arad A week ago, fear and hatred seemed to dominate the Middle East. Then, a simple online call for peace turned those sentiments upside down - at least briefly. The trigger was the Facebook message t

Why do I keep posting this like this on my blog? To remind me not to forget that this is happening. And what makes me sad and angry is that little is being done by most key world leaders and so called human rights activists about Christians being persecuted. Muslim Persecution of Christians: February, 2012 by Raymond Ibrahim Stonegate Institute March 16, 2012 http://www.meforum.org/3193/ muslim-persecution-of- christians-february-2012  Print  Send  RSS Share:          Be the first of your friends to like this. Half of Iraq's indigenous Christians are gone due to the unleashed forces of jihad, many of them fleeing to nearby Syria; yet, as the Assad regime comes under attack by al-Qaeda and others, the  jihad now seeps into Syria , where Christians are experiencing a level of persecution unprecedented in the nation's modern history. Likewise, some  100,000 Christian Copts  have fled their native Egypt since the overthrow of the Mubarak regime; and in northern regions of N

Listening as Spiritual Hospitality   To listen is very hard, because it asks of us so much interior stability that we no longer need to prove ourselves by speeches, arguments, statements, or declarations.  True listeners no longer have an inner need to make their presence known.   They are free to receive, to welcome, to accept. Listening is much more than allowing another to talk while waiting for a chance to respond.  Listening is paying full attention to others and welcoming them into our very beings.  The beauty of listening is that, those who are listened to start feeling accepted, start taking their words more seriously and discovering their own true selves.  Listening is a form of spiritual hospitality by which you invite strangers to become friends, to get to know their inner selves more fully, and even to dare to be silent with you.

Saudi Grand Mufti Calls for "Destruction of All Churches in Region" by Raymond Ibrahim Jihad Watch March 14, 2012 According to several  Arabic   news   sources , last Monday, Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, declared that it is "necessary to destroy all the churches of the region." Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti confirms Islamic hostility for churches. The Grand Mufti made his assertion in response to a question posed by a delegation from Kuwait, where a parliament member recently called for the  "removal" of churche s (he later "clarified" by saying he merely meant that no churches should be built in Kuwait): the delegation wanted to confirm Sharia's position on churches. Accordingly, the Grand Mufti "stressed that Kuwait was a part of the Arabian Peninsula, and therefore it is necessary to destroy all churches in it." As with many grand muftis before him, the Sheikh based his proclamation on

Pastor's notes for 18th March 2012 To read, click HERE

Finally bought an iPad a few days ago - on Friday ... I know .... iPad 3 is coming out soon so why not wait and buy the ipad3? One word - budget! And also the worry that suddenly no more ipad2 and iPad 3 way above my budget. Been wanting an ipad for a long time - ever since it came out - not that I am ungrateful fr the iPod touch my mum gave me few years ago ... Just that my eyesight has become progressively poor. *sigh* and it is hard to read and do things on an iPod. Plus ... As a Star Trek fan, an iPad is so Trek-like! (Gene Roddenberry had a wonderful knack of envisioning what future gadgets might look like) Whenthis iPad 2 came out I got excited thinking that I would be able to buy an iPad 1 cheaper thinking the price of the orignal would drop and i can get one cheaper. oops - wrong thinking as when I finally enquired I found that there was no longer an iPad - only iPad 2s ... *sigh* Guess Apple products are not like the windows Pc based products where older models drop

On Saturday after collecting my car from the workshop, I thought to myself how pleasant the experience was compared to back home in Malaysia. A week earlier, someone hit my car from behind - not a major accident but right side of the bumper and lights were damaged. Other driver was at fault and so in summary this is what I did. 1. Dropped by the insurance office (it happend to be a couple of minutes away)to check on the procedure. 2. I was told that I had to call a toll free number to make the report. And to make it easier, a staff there told me I could use their phone and offered to get all my insurance details form the computer so I had all the necessary info at hand. 3. I called explained and since I had the other driver's details the person on the phone told me it would be much easier to handle and told me that since it was not my fault, the would be no excess fee. Then asked if I would like her to do the report for me online. I obviously said yes 4. I did my report

Pastor's Notes for the 4 March 2012 bulletin To read click HERE