Wednesday 13 February 2008

The Bobrokness of British Media & Two Gay News

So many things happened for the past one week or two.



Here, one of the burning issues is the recent lecture by the Dr. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury who called for adoption of some elements of Sharia law relating to family and commerce matters into the British law. As expected, his call was immediately shot down and hugely criticised by majority of British newspapers the following day, with an exception of The Guardian. While each newspaper was trying to outdo each other by publishing ambigious articles on the variety implementation of Sharia law around the world and stories of two or three women who they claimed were given unfair trial and treatment under the Sharia law, The Guardian was more objective and transparent by presenting the whole picture of Sharia law, which is far beyond the stoning of adultery and amputation. In fact, the paper reminded the people that the Archbishop of Canterbury has clearly indicated that the adoption of Sharia law is to be limited to family, inheritance and commerce matters, and not the hudud or corporal punishment.


All this while, I thought only the media in the Third World countries who were irrational and quick to jump to conclusion, but this incident clearly an eye-opener for me on the low professionalism of the majority of British media. Plus, many journalists here, besides syok sendiri, they love to make generalisation based on weak observation.

For example, in an one-sided article by Johann Hari (Rowan Williams has shown us one thing - why multiculturalism must be abandoned, The Independent), how conveniently the author concluded that Sharia law is unjust based on two sad divorce stories ruled by "the voluntary enterprises performing British Sharia courts at some mosques" in Britain.

Thank to Allah, because of this row, I've learned about Beth Din, the Jewish "courts" in Britain. If they are genuinely concerned about multiculturalism (which I think, nonsense!), what's their take on Beth Din? Get rid of it too? I really doubt it.

On happy notes, I received two you-make-my-day messages. One from my cousin in London and another one from my lecture. Can you guess, which one is which one?

You are cordially invited to attend the wedding reception of SNU & SAR. This is to be held on Sunday, 17th February at our residence from 1 pm to 6 pm. RSVP.

Clear background, aims and structure. A good number of key ICT Policy-related sources/articles. You have also drawn upon a good range of authoritative resources concerning your country case study. The Framework could have been explained in slightly more detail with a diagram. The Framework has been applied clearly - highlighting levels of development in each dimension of the Model. It would be good to make use of a table to make this even clearer. Good targeted use of data to support analysis. Analysis is critical and well-balanced with good links to development goals. Greater referencing required in latter half of essay.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Tell me about it...the longer you stay in this coungtry, the better you know about the mentality of some people in this country - especially those who read the tabloids such as The Sun & Daily Mail - dua dua nih memang sah sah ke-racist-an theyols... walaupun cuba tu nak cover cover sometimes but you know they use race sentiment tu fasal dapat sambutan tu...hanjss siyal sangat!

Like Avang said - this is a funny island with funny people!

ukanera arenaku said...

totally agree with Avang!