Quick Gilad Shalit Update

It's now 391 days since Corporal Shalit's abduction.

Iz a-Din al-Qassam, the military wing of Hamas want the release of over 1300 prisoners .... a high cost by most estimations. I pray that there will be a homecoming for Gilad soon. There is an audio recording released, made approximately one year after his capture, that I have linked here.

Shalom,

Julian

Gilad's Message
(In Hebrew)

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Gilad Shalit

I just felt the need to post a short blog to keep Gilad Shalit fresh in ever ones mind.

Gilad Shalit, a 20 yr old Israeli soldier, has been held hostage since 2006 June 25. There is no sign of his imminent release, but he is reported to be alive and in reasonable health.

It saddens me that someone 10 years my junior is in the situation he is in. He is stuck in the middle of a seemingly hopeless conflict that I am privileged enough to be so far away from.

Julian-Courtney - detached. Tweet

The Hijab // My Two Cents

Lately in many western countries, specifically the United Kingdom, there have been some calls by high level politicos to have Muslim women do without the hijab. The latest and strongest call to this action has been by the Rt. Hon. Jack Straw, a Labour Party leadership contender. Mr. Straw did not go as far as suggesting legislation, but instead made calls for a vague societal change to improve Muslim relations.

The hijab in the western world has come to specifically refer to the headscarf warn by Muslim women, but according to the Qur'an it refers to modesty of dress and demeanor of all persons of Islamic belief. This modesty of dress and demeanor in very central to Islamic belief, as is the Kesh (long hair and turban) for Sikh men. Many other examples of dress and custom that relate to other faiths could be listed, but none seem to be as under attack as the hijab (headscarf).

As with all traditions and customs of faith, many faithful make their own personal choices as to how strictly they follows those traditions and customs. That is not to say persons are not pressured by their family and faith to conform, but in the western world it is mostly a choice. I think that Muslim women should be allowed the freedom to choose to wear the headscarf without additional pressures from the government or other political entities. In a free and democratic society there will always be a need for some reasonable restrictions of religious and personal freedoms, but going after women for wearing a headscarf is just not a battle we need to be fighting to protect our society.

Shalom/Saalam

JuJu Tweet

does absence make the heart grow fonder?

Well I promise ... I won't answer the above question in this post.

For being absent for this stretch of time, I am disappointingly coming back with a fluff post. Before I get into the meat of the post, I thought I would take a moment to congratulate Shawn Graham and his NB Liberals on their election victory. The election proved disastrous for the NB NDB … here’s hoping Allison Brewer gets the boot.

Back to you’re regularly scheduled programme ....

For the past few months I have been a member of last.fm … a “social music” site. Basically you join up and install an app that tracks the music you listen to; which gets posted to your profile for all to see, and you build a social fabric based on that. I joined up with last.fm with out much though; it didn’t set off any alarm bells at the time, and it seemed like a pretty interesting idea.

Here’s the big BUT.

Letting everyone and their dog (not literally the dog I suppose) know so much information about a person’s music listening habits could be potentially dangerous. Sure it’s nice to make a few cyber friends that share similar musical tastes, but having an archive of ones musical interest seems to be potentially dangerous … on many levels. Having this data is stored away on somebody’s server has a creepy “Orwellian” feel to it. Will this data ever make it to an enterprise that could exploit it … or maybe it has?

With all the social networking sites out there on the Internet, I imagine it wouldn’t take much to know an individual quite a bit more than most would be comfortable with. That’s not to say I’m quitting last.fm, but the above mentioned issue does give me pause, and I thought I would pass it along.

Have a joyous Rosh Hashanah,

Julian-Courtney

Below is my last.fm most played artists ...

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