Also from the Jakarta Post:

Islam 'recognizes homosexuality'

Abdul Khalik ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Fri, 03/28/2008 1:38 AM  |  Headlines

Homosexuals and homosexuality are natural and created by God, thus permissible within Islam, a discussion concluded here Thursday.

Moderate Muslim scholars said there were no reasons to reject homosexuals under Islam, and that the condemnation of homosexuals and homosexuality by mainstream ulema and many other Muslims was based on narrow-minded interpretations of Islamic teachings.

Siti Musdah Mulia of the Indonesia Conference of Religions and Peace cited the Koran's al-Hujurat (49:3) that one of the blessings for human beings was that all men and women are equal, regardless of ethnicity, wealth, social positions or even sexual orientation.

"There is no difference between lesbians and nonlesbians. In the eyes of God, people are valued based on their piety," she told the discussion organized by nongovernmental organization Arus Pelangi.

"And talking about piety is God's prerogative to judge," she added.

"The essence of the religion (Islam) is to humanize humans, respect and dignify them."

Musdah said homosexuality was from God and should be considered natural, adding it was not pushed only by passion.

Mata Air magazine managing editor Soffa Ihsan said Islam's acknowledgement of heterogeneity should also include homosexuality.

He said Muslims needed to continue to embrace ijtihad (the process of making a legal decision by independent interpretation of the Koran and the Sunnah) to avoid being stuck in the old paradigm without developing open-minded interpretations.

Another speaker at the discussion, Nurofiah of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), said the dominant notion of heterogeneity was a social construction, leading to the banning of homosexuality by the majority.

"Like gender bias or patriarchy, heterogeneity bias is socially constructed. It would be totally different if the ruling group was homosexuals," she said.

Other speakers said the magnificence of Islam was that it could be blended and integrated into local culture.

"In fact, Indonesia's culture has accepted homosexuality. The homosexual group in Bugis-Makassar tradition called Bissu is respected and given a high position in the kingdom.

"Also, we know that in Ponorogo (East Java) there has been acknowledgement of homosexuality," Arus Pelangi head Rido Triawan said.

Condemnation of homosexuality was voiced by two conservative Muslim groups, the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) and Hizbut Thahir Indonesia (HTI).

"It's a sin. We will not consider homosexuals an enemy, but we will make them aware that what they are doing is wrong," MUI deputy chairman Amir Syarifuddin said.

Rokhmat, of the hardline HTI, several times asked homosexual participants in attendance to repent and force themselves to gradually return to the right path.

It is a pity that moderate Muslims don't get more international air time.  In constrast, the newspapers in Australia today screaming about Bali bomber, Amrozi's impending nuptials (actually this was the reason I was looking in the JP in the first place).  The woman he is apparently marrying is his ex-first wife (he is still married to his third wife).  One of the reasons they divorced originally was that her parents thought he was an idiot.  So now do they think he is suddenly okay???? It's a weird world.

Just came across this in the Jakarta Post:

Joko Susilo: Puppet Diplomat Charms Kiwis

His shows sound really interesting.  Also like that he had a dig at the mono-lingualism of John Howard and his ilk.  Language teaching and learning (particularly of Asian languages) really suffered in Australia during the Howard years and it is going to take a lot to get us back on track.

I am pleased to hear that our new Asian-language speaking PM was receptive to what Joko Susilo had to say. 

I and other Asian language proponents really hopeful that all Asian languages (ie, not just Mandarin) will get a big boost under Rudd's leadership.  He certainly is a good role model in that area.

Heard this song on my favourite radio station a few weeks ago and liked it but didn't think any more about it until I saw something about it in this blog.  Apparently the lyrics to the Aerial Maps song come from a poem by Adam Gibson.

I pretty much consider myself a global citizen and not into stereotyping by nationality (unlike some of the idiots on Sam de Brito's blog) but quite liked Gibson's explanation of the song:

"The sentiment behind the song is a light-hearted one, it's not coming from a place of glib nationalism, like the 'Aussie Aussie Aussie' bullshit. I hate that completely. But it's more of a sense of saying, 'hey, you know what, there's some bloody good characteristics that many Aussie girls have that I really like and I admire' - so I wrote a song about them!"

I also like the band's musical influences which include Go Betweens and Not Drowning Waving (probably why I liked the song so much when I heard it).

Show us a mannequin.

Does this count?  This movie has been getting great reviews in Australia but I can't convince my husband to go and see it with me.  Can't think why!

The question also reminded me of an old Twilight Zone episode featuring mannequins that come to life.  Anyone remember this?

Whose house (besides your own) were you in last and why?

The home of the kids after school carer (when I picked them up from there last night).  Prior to that, my mum's on the weekend. 

Translation please

Is anyone here able to tell me what these Chinese characters translate to in English?  It is my daughter's Kung Fu t-shirt and I have noticed she gets funny looks from people when wearing it out and about in Chinatown.

Escape

Carolyn Jessop

Pretty interesting in light of all the media attention focussed on the FLDS recently.  I am full of admiration for this woman who managed to escape the sect with her eight children including one with a disability.  Was also interesting reading this book after A Thousand Splendid Suns as there are a lot of parrallels between the situation of the FLDS and women in Afghanistan under the Taliban. 

We are planning fairly extensive renovations to the back of our house and plan to stay living there while all this is going on.  My husband had the idea of turning the garage into a temporary living space complete bbq for cooking, sink for washing up etc while all this is going on.  He has started making the garage bigger by extending the roof inwards to join it to the side of the house (previously about half a meter between garage and house) and then taking out the garage wall.  To make it more accessible, he just got a door put in between the house (our bedroom) and garage.  This photo is of the new door way, looking out into the garage (which still needs to be sealed):

New door

We have also moved Mollie the dog into the garage as it is a bit more sheltered than her old kennel.  Only problem is that we can now hear her dreaming at night! 

Will be so glad when these renovations are all over (if that ever happens)!

Show us your favorite pair of shoes.

 

Purple shoes

When was the last time you drove out of town?

Probably not since my road trip with my son to Canberra in January.  See blog entry here.  This is what I said then:

What a great kids holiday destination Canberra is!  Both my husband and I used to live in Canberra (it was where we met and fell in lerv) and didn't like it much then at all.  Once the initial excitement at leaving and moving to exciting Sydney had worn off, I kept experiencing a yearning to go back and visit.  In 2006, I took both kids there for a long weekend.  We met my brother there and had a great time.  This time I just took my son and met up with another friend and her two young sons for a three day 'boyfest'.  It was great!  There were so many free or cheap things to do with kids and being January, the whole of Canberra was like a ghost town so it was even easier than usual to get around.  We re-visited the National Museum on Lake Burley Griffin (this was a highlight last time) and Questacon and also went to the Botanic Gardens (where we came upon a huge water dragon sunning itself on a rock), the Black Mountain Tower and the War Memorial.  We also found a few good playgrounds (esp recommend John Knight Park at Belconnen) and went swimming a few times (including once at Dickson Pool).  Mostly cooked our own meals but did have one (fairly unmemorable) dinner out at the Dickson 'Tradies' - main attraction of that was the kids could sit and eat their meal in a train carriage - unfortunately this was the best thing about eating at this place!

This is a photo of my son on a previous trip to the National Museum:

J Nat Mus Canb

I have been out of town a few times since then but by air rather than by road and once was a work trip.  I have got very lazy about weekends away this year.  It is a bit hard to face with us both working full time, ie, weekends seem so much like 'catch up' time.  I also hate the thought of getting home with a whole pile of washing on Sunday night and no meals prepared and then feeling behind all week.  I feel like I need to take time off work just to make up for being away on the weekend.  It is the same this week, ie, have been late in both yesterday and today.  This morning, I prepared and put the ingredients for dinner into the slow cooker so I don't have to cook from scratch when I get home from work at 6pm or so.  Normally I would have done all this on the weekend.