The intent to offend
Recently something happened where many expected a ballistic reaction from Muslims in general - The Prophet
was depicted in a two part south park episode.
The media was salivating at the expected reaction, the network broadcasting it was cowering in fear - it censored the second of the two episodes to sucha degree that even speeches that did not mention Islam or the prophet
werew bleeped out.
CNN and other media were positive of a reaction - why wouldn't there be one? Remember the dutch cartoon saga and the many protests?
Navigating my Android, Xperia x10 Redux
Today while at work I read that the google maps that can be downloiaded for android (and this update has been available since before I got my phone) now comes with navigation.
So I thought I would test it out.
But before I get onto that, a couple of other things. I think google is spying on me...
In the maps app, for "from" I accidentally hit the letter "i" and the very first suggestion that popped up was "Islamgarh, Mirpur, Azad Kashmir" or something close.
Secondly, google mail has built in chat and the phone has a gtalk app. Today, freakily it suddenly started talking to me. Well, not it but someone who I have emailed (revival related) who needed to get some things done. I had thought if the app was shut, I would be unavailable.
Android Qibla Finder apps comparison
How do we know which direction we should face when we pray?
There are ways of calculating this - you need to know your current location, the location of the qiblah and also some way to determine direction.
Most android phones have built in GPS (and most/others can also use other means to determine a good approximate of the location), and a built in compass. This should be enough for some app to combine the data and let you know which direction to face.
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10
I wasw going to write a blog full of innuendo and stuff, but I cannot remember what most of it was 
And then I briefly considered taking a picture of the phone to accompany this blog, but again that would be weird since the photo would be taken with my old phone...
Ok... so... the phone.
Its got a nice and large screen (am I compensating for something by buying a phoen with such a huge screen?) and it looks nice enough.
It is an "Android" phone, meaning it has the android Smartphone OS on there - version 1.6 at the moment, which is sort of ancient, but I decided to accept the information that they will update it to the lastest version something in the near future.
Does Britain want to integrate with you?
ok, we have all heard the mantra. Its almost religious now, reaching feven pitch. You will even read it in The Revival Magazine, since our editor seems to be big on the idea. The mantra I am speaking of is one of integration - "Muslims, you gotta integrate, get with the times. "If you're not a part of the solution, your a part of the problem." seems to be the idea.
But what this ignores is the other side of the argument - does Britain at large want to integrate with us, or is it simply a hollow chant allowing extremist views to be propagated into the mainstream?
So how do we test this? What are the things that are important in a British society? apart from the usual "follow the law", there are others such as peaceful protests and taking part in society to shape our future together and be part and parcel of a just society.