Bishopnose

I'm overcome by sadness after reading today's story Hasib Hussain: The boy who grew up to bomb the No 30 bus in The Independent newspaper. I won't say anything more except that my heart bleeds for all those who died in the terror attack; particularly for Hasib Hussain. With apologies to The Independent, I've lifted a part of its story here which says much:

A man who said he was Hasib Hussain's uncle said yesterday his nephew was not "the type'' to be a bomber. "He was a nice lad. He was really nice," he said. "He wasn't the type of guy to do it. He wouldn't do it. I wish in my heart he was still alive."

A series of setbacks in Hussain's life may be behind a sudden change from a British Asian who dressed in Western clothes to a religious teenager who wore Islamic garb and only stopped to say salaam to fellow Muslims.

School created the first setback. After attending Ingram Primary, he moved up to Matthew Murray secondary- now the Holbeck campus of South Leeds College - in September 1998, where he was entered for a number of GCSEs. But he was withdrawn by teachers from his GCSEs and left on 20 July 2003 with a GNVQ in business studies.

He had always found an escape in football. But, about two years ago, the Hornets' pitch was closed down. At about the same time, Hussain seemed to disappear into another world, according to associates.

"He was really into cricket and football. We would get together every weekend, then they closed the pitch down. I never saw him much after that until six to eight weeks ago," said a friend.

It seems he thought he had found Islam. He grew a beard and began dressing in traditional Muslim clothes. When he was last spotted by the friend he had shaved off his beard. Al-Qa'ida analysts have claimed that may be a sign of a radicalised Muslim's intention to become a terrorist. The friend said: "I asked him why he had shaved off the beard. He said it was a long story and that he did not like one mosque saying one thing and another mosque saying that was the wrong way. When he heard so many arguments he thought, 'Forget it. I will go my own way'."

It seems that he found no answers from the devoutly Islamic household where he grew up. He was close to Imran, according to locals. Imran, believed to be 24, works as an administrator in Leeds, and he has a young daughter.

But, according to some, Hussain's parents despaired of him for a time when, in the words of another friend, he went "off the rails" as an adolescent and they made desperate attempts to instil discipline into him. His father, Mahmood, a devout Muslim, is in bad health and has been unable to hold down a regular job....

Although Hussain's parents did not know it, his fatal association with the three men who joined him last Thursday may have dated back to those formative years at Ingram Primary School.

Note: Emphasis is mine.

I shan't dispute the islamic logic in social segregation of the sexes. But I'd like to congratulate Captain Hanadi Hindi for soon becoming the first Saudi woman pilot "to fly a plane with the private fleet of Prince Al-Walid" of the oil-rich kingdom of Saudi Arabia. To overcome her religious sanction against Muslim women mixing with men who are not their relatives, Hindi will have her father sitting next to her in the cockpit as her chaperone for 10 years, I suppose, since the prince has given her a 10-year-contract. The New Straits Times which carries the story today quoted Hindi as saying that her father will accompany her on all her trips "so that no one will say that I am traveling without a male relative." (I wonder whether her father is a pilot.) Unless of course, she decides to marry ..... er, the prince? After all, he's allowed four wives. But falling in love under the watchful eyes of a father..... hmmm ... , anyway, here’s the story from the New Straits Times:

First Saudi woman pilot to fly as driving debate rages on

While the debate over whether Saudi women should be allowed to drive rages on, Captain Hanadi Hindi will soon become the first woman to fly a plane with the private fleet of a prince. Prince Al-Walid bin Talal's decision to make Hindi part of his private crew has drawn criticism from some conservative Muslim scholars, who object to any easing of constraints that bar Saudi women from mixing with men other than relatives or traveling without the authorization of a male guardian.

But Hindi said the billionaire entrepreneur's Kingdom Holding Company had also hired her father, Zakariya Hindi, as a legal consultant.

He will accompany her on all her trips "so that no one will say that I am traveling without a male relative."

Hindi said she is heading to London in about three weeks for a three-month training course before she takes up her job as a pilot for Prince Al-Walid.

Kingdom Holding hired Hindi even before she clinched her Commercial Pilot's Licence and an Instrument Rating (CPL and IR) from the Mideast Aviation Academy in Jordan last month.

The company, which runs a worldwide business empire, had offered Hindi a scholarship to carry her through her last year at the Jordanian academy, and Prince Al-Walid took out doublespread advertisements in the press to congratulate her on taking her CPL.

"I thank God that Prince Al-Walid has given me the opportunity to serve my country and serve his highness, bearing in mind that he is a member of the royal family," Hindi said.

Hindi said that before the prince offered her a 10-year contract, she feared she might not find a job in Saudi Arabia.

Her apprehensions were well-grounded, given that women in the Muslim country are still excluded from many professions that would appear less controversial than piloting a plane and are the only women in the world banned from driving a car.

The appointed Shura (consultative) Council in May shelved the suggestion of Mohammad Al Zalfa, who cited a host of economic reasons to end the ban, such as the fact that the prohibition has led to the presence of around a million foreign drivers who cost the country 12 billion riyals (3.2 billion dollars) a year.

Advocates of an end to the ban also cite the prohibitive cost of hiring drivers for families of limited means.

They also defend their case on social grounds to counter the religious-based arguments of opponents, pointing out that by having to rely on drivers, Saudi women end up spending much time alone with male strangers.

Hindi said she was "not against" allowing women to drive because some women either cannot afford to employ drivers, which forces them to rely on public transport, or have no able-bodied men in their families to take them around.

It would be good if women could get behind the wheel "with certain restrictions," such as granting that right only to women of middle age or more, she said.

But despite having blazed a trail by becoming the first Saudi woman pilot, Hindi diplomatically shifted the issue away from ideological grounds.

Being a pioneer "is a very big responsibility... I hope I will be a good example for Saudi women," she said.

'A good boss, attentive and careful spender'; in other words, a Mr Nice Guy. That quote from Datuk Asrie Kadir, of his ex-boss Datuk Osu Sukam, the former Sabah Chief Minister who has fallen from grace for failing to pay a RM7 million gambling debt owed to a London casino, made it to the headlines on page 12 of today's Prime News of the New Sunday Times (picture) as if on cue. (See post below) It is one coincidence which I'm not happy at all because a lot of people who know Osu, know him to be a "really nice guy"! He is an "exemplary" Muslim: Soft spoken, demure, never quick to anger, patient, and, yes, attentive, and always willing to listen. He mixes well with people of all races and from all walks of life. He is able to accept other people's differences. Yet for all these good qualities, he is certainly a lousy politician because he's not given to bigotry. And he spent 11 years as a federal minister, as a "yes-Minister", under former Premier Tun Mahathir Mohamad. Of course, his detractors pointed out, only a "yes-man" could survive under Mahathir. Osu was said to be Mahathir's blue-eyed boy, and as the story goes, he was supposedly his first choice to become the Sabah Chief Minister in December 1994 shorty after Umno took control of Sabah. But while Osu was on the flight home to Kota Kinabalu, expecting to take up the chief ministership, the Sabah governor, the late Tun Mohd Said Keruak, expediently swore-in his son Salleh as the new chief minister on a two-year rotation. Meanwhile, Osu waited patiently for almost five years while the Malay, the Chinese and the Kadazan party leaders played musical chairs with the most important post in the Sabah government, before he became Sabah's 11th chief minister on 14 March 1999. To the Chinese, the number 14 is a bad omen. Ever wonder why there isn't a 14th floor in most hotels in Malaysia and Hong Kong? Fourteen is a homophone of another Chinese word in the Cantonese dialect that means "tetap mati" in Malay or "condemned to death" in English or "sure die one" in Malaysian weblog English (Manglish). (Please give me time, and I'm sure I'll sound like suanie or minishorts in time to come. I'm a green-horn at blogging. I realise that it isn't easy to speak or write Manglish which I now accept as a legitimate language!)

I learnt early in life that if I wanted to keep my friends and stay out of trouble, I'd be wise to avoid any discussion of two taboo subjects: Politics and religion. Why? I asked. Well, because there are just so many bigots on both sides of the fence, so said my teacher. And, God bless his soul, he was right. So for a long time, I avoided these two topics like the proverbial plague; that is, until Minishorts was idiotic wise enough to review a scum(najis) gem of a trash book written by no less a religious bigot no matter how nice Minishorts finds him to be in "real life". Real life? That means he has a fake life. And only Minishorts, I guess, can tell them apart through her "personal experience" and "scarce email" exchange with him. Unwise, I say, because Minishorts knew the risks she was taking: "the subject matter can be quite heavy as it might be offensive to many", "... (the author) failing in being objective and tolerant in his book" and "... the overzealous religious-self within this student of comparative religion has overcome his trying efforts to be tolerant." And so, I feel I must add my penn'orth sen-worth of my rumblings thoughts to Minishorts' review of nothing short of religious bigotry which has ruffled some feathers. I know the bigot is gleefully congratulating himself for being such a very nice person and for his small success in notoriety.

I've a natural aversion to nice guys because too many of them invariably have a split personality and live a double life of good and evil; like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. The FBI has this to say of an organized serial killer: 'He is usually socially adequate and has friends and lovers, often even a spouse and children. They are the type who, when captured, are most likely to be described by acquaintances as "a really nice guy" who "wouldn't hurt a fly".' The late Dr. Harold Frederick Shipman was England's - and perhaps the world's - most prolific serial killer. He was Dr Death as well as Mr Nice Guy. The International Herald Tribune reported on 14 May 2001 that, "When Dr. Shipman was first arrested in 1998, the community was outraged at a perceived miscarriage of justice. By the time of his conviction last year (2000) in the murders of 15 people, the disbelief had all but vanished. Only then did the true scope of the crimes begin to emerge." On 13 September last year, the IHT wrote of Dr Shipman in an article entitled Re-evaluating a traditional trust: You, your physician and Britain's 'Dr. Death': "Fred, as he liked to be called, practiced medicine for more than 30 years. Until a few years before his untimely death, Fred was very popular among his patients. They loved his endearing bedside manner and his willingness to visit patients at home. Some even called him the best doctor in the region."

In Seattle, Clem Gregurek, a neighbour of Gary Leon Ridgway, the USA's worse serial killer known as the Green River Killer, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2003 for killing 48 prostitutes, said this of him: "He's a nice guy, I didn't notice anything weird."

 Then, most recently, The New York Times reported on 21 June of a "Nice Guy" school teacher in China who raped 26 schoolgirls between the ages of 10 and 14. The newspaper also said that in December 2003, a "Nice Guy" teacher in rural Shaanxi Province was executed for raping 58 girls in 15 years. It added that last October a teenage girl in rural central China tried to commit suicide after a "Nice Guy" teacher forced her to watch him rape her cousin. And the list of all these "Nice Guy" criminals goes on and on. What do you think every con-man, criminal and terrorist has written over his face? "Mr Nice Guy", naturally. And so does every political and religious bigot. No wonder Jesus Christ rebuked the man who called him "good". "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good - except God alone." Mark 10:18 (New International Version of the Holy Bible).

Minishorts says her very nice friend touches on "the treatment of the feminine gender in this religion (Buddhism?)" in his book but doesn't give any details of his comments which I've no reason to believe that they are praises. Well, women are my favourite subject. Honest. I don't know how the Buddhists treat their women. But I would like an educated and intelligent Muslim woman to tell me how her man treats her. How does she feel about her religion which allows her husband to marry four wives. How does she feel about sharing her husband with three women. And, of course, it seems logical to ask why Islam doesn't accord a woman equal rights to have four husbands. How does a Muslim man feel if the table is turned against him: when he has to share his wife with three men.