The Telegraph: Andreas Lubitz planned spectacular gesture that would go down in history, claims ex-girlfriend

"Able to Hide Secrets"

The Telegraph ; Andreas Lubitz planned spectacular gesture that would go down in history, claims ex-girlfriend

Airbus crash pilot Andreas Lubitz had been planning a spectacular gesture to make everyone “remember” who he was, it was claimed on Friday night. 

An ex-girlfriend of the Germanwings pilot who crashed his plane in the French Alps, killing all 149 others on board, described him as “tormented” and able to hide secrets. 

Maria, 26 (not her real name), told Bild newspaper that when she heard about the crash she remembered that he had said he was going do something “that would change the system” and “make everyone remember” him. 

She added: “It didn’t make sense at the time but now it all does.” Maria, who is thought to have met Lubitz at work, said he would wake up at night screaming in terror: “We’re going down.”

AND THEN THERE IS THIS IMPORTANT AND THOUGHTFUL COMMENTARY FROM THE VLAD TEPES BLOG:

Lets say for the sake of argument that he was not a muslim. 

The media reaction has been horror, fascination, curiosity and a desperate need to know the motive for this action. This should illustrate something very important about us as a people and even our media, including the parts of the media desperately trying to cover up the nature of islam and worse, act on policies that islam must always be written about as if it was benign and ‘the victim.’ 

Notice how it is clear in all articles that what this man did was anathema. It was an exception. A crime. Had he done it for jihad, which still may be the case, it would be no surprise to anyone. 

The point is that human nature is what it is and each culture or religion is a system which tries to make it all work in some way by emphasizing some aspects of our nature as virtues and others we suppress as sins or crimes or monstrosities. Islam is an inversion of Western culture whether its Judeo-Christian or secular humanist or game theory based logic with an axiom of reduction of suffering and maximizing of freedoms. Islam takes inflicting suffering and makes it a virtue. It calls the murder of other people martyrdom as opposed to our notions, which are the sacrifice of the selves for others. 

In other words, islam can be seen for what it is even in the reactions we have to the extremely rare case of a non-muslim committing an atrocious act like this. We know this is not how we think or behave. That it is horrifying to us. We do not celebrate this. 

It is also very important to note that some jihadi pages have claimed this man is a hero of islam. What a magnificent example of the raw depravity of that system of living that they would claim as their own with pride and joy someone who is likely not even a member of their cult, but because he committed an atrocity of such magnitude by murdering over a hundred people and from a position of trust, perhaps the worst kind of crime in non-islamic culture, that they would make him an honorary muslim in their eyes. 

Few have taken notice of this. But this is a great time for a moment of sober reflection by the media. Often by the mirror image can we better know a thing. The fact that The Islamic State has taken credit for this action is not evidence that he was a muslim by any stretch. But it is evidence that Islam feels this was a great and noble act. 

When sunnis destroy and kill shiias, we do not delight in it and say, ‘what a great hero for the West’ even if there is some schadenfreude in it. More typically we would know that this is simply more classical and orthodox islamic behaviour and an example of the reasons we oppose it. 

GO READ THE WHOLE THING.

BBC slammed for debating Ugandan bill to kill gays

UPDATE AT BOTTOM

The BBC thinks the question of whether there ought to be a law that allows governments to kill gays because they are gay is a legimate topic.

The BBC takes Islam so seriously that it has bought into the idea that Sharia is a legitimate form of law.

From Yahoo News:

LONDON – Politicians are criticizing the BBC for inviting debate on whether homosexuals should face execution in Uganda.

The broadcaster launched an on-line debate over a proposed Ugandan law that would punish some homosexual acts by life imprisonment or death.

BBC's "Africa Have Your Say" Web site asked for people's views on whether Uganda has gone too far and whether there should be any laws against gays.

But several British politicians said Wednesday that the BBC should not treat the execution of gays as a legitimate topic for discussion.

Opposition lawmaker Lynne Featherstone has written to BBC executives seeking an apology and end to the Web discussion. "The BBC are only fanning the flames of hatred as many of the comments demonstrate," she says.

One has to wonder if it isn't time to kill the BBC.

I'll stand with the gays on this one. If they decide it's time to kill the BBC, I'm ready and willing to start shooting.

UPDATE: Commenter Tom points out that Uganda is a Christian country. So, I was wrong to call the BBC out for dhimmitude in this case. Sorry.

Here's the story:

US Christian Leaders Oppose Uganda’s “Kill Gays” Bill

Timothy Kincaid

December 8th, 2009

A collection of religious leaders organized by Faith in the Public Life have issued a statement in opposition to Uganda’s “Kill Gays” bill (pdf).

And, unlike the careful language of some that only seems to sympathize with ex-gay ministries and oppose mandated reporting, this statement seems to find Christian sympathy for the targets of this legislation and is not conditional in its opposition.

Our Christian faith recognizes violence, harassment and unjust treatment of any human being as a betrayal of Jesus’ commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves. As followers of the teachings of Christ, we must express profound dismay at a bill currently before the Parliament in Uganda. The “Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2009″ would enforce lifetime prison sentences and in some cases the death penalty for homosexual behavior, as well as punish citizens for not reporting their gay and lesbian neighbors to the authorities.

As Americans, some may wonder why we are raising our voices to oppose a measure proposed in a nation so far away from home. We do so to bear witness to our Christian values, and to express our condemnation of an injustice in which groups and leaders within the American Christian community are being implicated. We appeal to all Christian leaders in our own country to speak out against this unjust legislation.

In our efforts to imitate the Good Samaritan, we stand in solidarity with those Ugandans beaten and left abandoned by the side of the road because of hatred, bigotry and fear. Especially during this holy season of Advent, when the global Christian community prepares in hope for the light of Christ to break through the darkness, we pray that they are comforted by God’s love.

Regardless of the diverse theological views of our religious traditions regarding the morality of homosexuality, in our churches, communities and families, we seek to embrace our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters as God’s children worthy of respect and love. Yet we are painfully aware that in our country gays and lesbians still face hostility and violence. We recognize that such treatment degrades the human family, threatens the common good and defies the teachings of our Lord — wherever it occurs.

Click here to see BTB’s complete coverage of recent anti-gay developments in Uganda.

Thomas P. Melady
Former U.S. Ambassador to Uganda and the Vatican

Ronald J. Sider
President
Evangelicals for Social Action

Jim Wallis
President
Sojourners

Dr. Sharon E. Watkins
General Minister and President
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada

Tony Campolo, PhD
President
Evangelical Association to the Promotion of Education

Bryan N. Massingale, S.T.D.
President, Catholic Theological Society of America
Associate Professor of Theological Ethics Marquette University

The Rev. Canon Peg Chemberlin
Incoming President
National Council of Churches of Christ USA

Brian McLaren
author. speaker. Activist

Jim Winkler
General Secretary
United Methodist General Board of Church and Society

Geoffrey Black
General Minister and President
United Church of Christ

Rev. Paul de Vries, PhD
President, New York Divinity School
Board Member, National Association of Evangelicals

Chris Korzen
Executive Director
Catholic United

Rev. Samuel Rodriguez
President
National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference

And many more.

Tariq (Janus) Ramadan

Just noticed a comment on my regular blog, Pink Triangle, that talks of Tariq Ramadan, and there's a link there to a magazine article that purportedly shows him to reflect my headline to this post.

The anonymous commenter, under a post about ex-Muslim Mariam Namazie, says:

Dutch magazine Gay Krant claims they prove in their next issue that Tariq Ramadan incites his followers against gays.

Tariq Ramadan, guest professor of Citizenship and Identity at Erasmus University and adviser for the Rotterdam municipality, preaches two messages.

In his books for Westerners, Ramadan preaches respect for gays. But when he talks to his Islamic supporters, gays and women must pay for it.

To finally say something nice about Haider

The mystery of what Jörg Haider did in the time left between his last appointment and hitting the concrete in a Klagenfurt suburb seems to be solved. Nobody denies anymore that he spent his last hours, and acquired that considerable level of alcohol, at a Klagenfurt "gay" bar he, so it seems, used to frequent, and that he had a somewhat special relationship to young Stefan Petzner, his party deputy, who had all the time since Haider's death rather behaved like a widower than like a political friend and ally.

I admit that I felt some vague Schadenfreude when it became known that Haider, this upright paragon of law-and-order virtues, had become the victim of his own anti-social recklessness. I do not feel anything like that at the latest revelations. Haider had never indulged in "homophobic" rhetoric and had been remarkably laid-back about any accusations of being homosexual himself, which was, to me, rather circumstancial evidence that he was NOT, although it seemed so obvious.

What IS interesting, though, is how the conspiracy theorists will bring in the Mossad now. On a more serious note, it is the question how he could, again, get away with it. It think that was because he was able to inspire unusual and inordinate loyalty in his followers and that his politically correct adversaries wouldn't have wanted to see him in a light they are forced by their own ideology to consider positive.

I have discussed such a phenomenon already here in a different context. Wouldn't it have cast a shadow on the oh-so-perfect gay community, who are selling us their lifestyle not just as an alternative, but as a preferable one, when it had transpired that Mr. Squeaky Clean had been one of them? Would a Haider have fit in such a picture? I bet he hadn't.

By which I have, at last, found something nice to say about that man.

Cross-posted at Roncesvalles.

Then they came for me

Here’s an interesting take on how it’s easy to sit back and think, But it doesn’t affect me.

In a moment I’ll give you three paragraphs from this article called “While we weren’t looking” from Transitions Online, a news outlet for post-Communist countries in Eastern Europe. They relate to last month’s Sarajevo event that would have shown gay-related film and other arts.

But some Muslims took it into their primitive, bone-headed minds that this was not to be. People were beaten up in the streets, dragged out of cars. A Danish national was almost killed. Here are three paragraphs, but the article (it’s in two short parts) is well worth reading.

Once some people get showered with stones again in places where they are the minority and thus get on the majority’s nerves, “We did not know” will sound as exactly what it is: an ordinary lie.

Once the long-haired guy from the second floor comes back home with his eyebrow ridge broken and his eye closed due to a blow received because he held his girlfriend’s hand while walking in town, “We did not know” will sound as exactly what it is: an ordinary lie.

Once the girl with whom half of the children in the neighborhood are in love returns [home] in tears and beaten up because she left the house in a top that does not cover her bellybutton, “We did not know” will sound as exactly what it is: an ordinary lie.

The thesis of the piece is (and this is its strapline, too) that “Bosnians’ indifference to last month’s attacks on Gay Pride attendees could come back to haunt them.”

We all need to take care. One is reminded of that poem attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller, “First they came . . .”. There are variations on the verse. Here is one of them:

They came first for the Communists,
     and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
     and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
     and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics,
     and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
     and by that time no one was left to speak up.

When will they ever learn?

As if we actually needed proof that Islam was slowly but surely creeping further and further into our way of life in the UK, we learn from today's Sunday Times (UK) that sharia courts now have official sanction, and that there are five of them operating in the country, including one I blogged about last week (see "How do you solve a problem like sharia?").

It's a frightening situation, and one I certainly wasn't aware of, and presumably most people were not, either, given that the paper has seen fit to publish the fact as a news story.

It says the British government has "quietly sanctioned" the powers of these "courts" so that "sharia judges [can] rule on cases ranging from divorce and financial disputes to those involving domestic violence".

Rulings issued by any of the five sharia courts are enforceable "with the full power of the judicial system, through the county courts or High Court".

Now you might argue that there's nothing to worry about, since they're just arbitration assemblies, and sharia "courts" are able to set themselves up as such under the Arbitration Act of 1996, which Muslims have taken advantage of.

But what happens when one of these kangaroo "courts" decides to "try" a case involving homosexuals or women?

There are rumblings of disquiet in the UK about it, and rightly so. Read more at my regular blog.

Don't shake hands – you might catch something

Oh, hello. I won't shake hands: you might catch something. Oh, yes, being gay makes you likely to pass on death-dealing diseases with a handshake. You're contagious. Or should that be infectious? No matter, but you have to be so careful, you see, because there's this magazine that says you can catch things. Just by shaking hands with gay people. No kidding.

And I'm gay, so perhaps you didn't ought to be reading this page. Just in case. Especially if you're Muslim.

The proof of this phenomenon is here, in the Local, a German online magazine that quotes a German Arabic-language magazine called al-Salam. Well, you might have known religious nutters would be behind it all. If it's not Muslims it's Catholics or evangelicals.

But this magazine is passed around cafés and restaurants in and around the German capital and presents us with the ungrammatical headline, "A flesh-eating bacteria and sexual abnormality". A bacteria? Oh, well, it probably lost something in translation.

Anyhow, it says that gay men are hit by deadly diseases and that Muslim "brothers" should not shake their hands as "one never knows what kind of bacteria and germs are found on them".

Read the rest of the story here. What you'll discover when you do is that, once again, people are afraid of criticising Islam lest they be thought racist.

And now the good news . . .

Being Muslim and being gay just don't sit comfortably together. In fact, some people have been known to be hanged just for being gay. Even if you're young, handsome and confident and in a Western-style kind of job, you have to keep one foot inside the closet, it seems.

I'm glad to read some good news – with that above reservation – from South Africa. It's in The Times (SA) and concerns a Muslim web designer who's decided to come out. And he feels happier for it. Good for him, say I.

The paper tells us:

Naufal Khan, 27 of Sandton – the brains behind the Gay Desi section of the Indian lifestyle website www.indianspice.co.za – said his decision had been prompted by “overwhelming support” for gay and lesbian people worldwide.

Despite coming out of the closet, Khan says he hasn’t been able to utter the words “I am gay” to his parents.

“I think it would be too much for them to handle. Rather let it be unofficial, like every other Indian family. My mom knows I am gay, but my dad is not very accepting, nor are any of my family members,” he said.

Not surprising, really, is it, when all a belief system has to go on is desiccated old scriptures written at a time when such proscriptions may – may – have made some kind of social or economic sense (as perhaps – perhaps – may have been the case in Leviticus)?

“Being Indian was the first hurdle," says Khan. "The second was being Muslim. I really did not want the mullah factory on my heels, trying to make me see the light that my ‘affliction’ was curable [. . .] My cousin nearly choked on his meal when I told him I’m gay.”

He said his cousin’s response was, “I don’t agree with it, and Islam doesn’t as well.”

Well it's time Islam learned that it's here, it's staying, it's natural and bloody Islam had just better get used to it.