@dookie Said
I will have to take your word for it that you have seen "100's of hours of Tommy, some of it in real time" but I feel duty bound to warn you that there are laws against stalkers, at least in the UK.
Tommy rather obligingly puts almost everything he does in the political sphere online in real time, as do a lot of his friends (some of whom I know to varying degrees). It allows us to have multiple perspectives on events. Apparently he believes he has nothing to hide now that his name is out there.
@dookie Said As far as the "some of my best friends are x,y or z", believe it if you will. There are merely nominal Muslims. Who knows just who Tommy's friends are?
To see you claim some Muslims aren't
real Muslims is interesting considering our past discussions. From memory you got angry and stopped speaking to me for pointing that out (although I could be wrong, it was awhile ago). However, that said, obviously I agree with you.
Determining who is and is not a "real" Muslim, and what a "real" Muslim is, is the trick. It's difficult as it involves some acceptance of Islam being a doctrine, or rather, a series of doctrines, to which a self professed adherent more or less adheres.
Were the "real" Muslims the angry young men throwing things at women and children because they believed a thing that may not be true? Or, was the "real" Muslim Tommy's friend who has known Tommy for years, knows he is not anti-
Muslim and called on fellow Muslims to listen to Tommy speak about what some Muslim men are doing to young girls in the UK in the belief that they are being "real" Muslims by doing it? Is the real Muslim the attempted peace maker, those who seek to silence, or those who abuse little girls?
How do we even determine what is true here?
Are they perhaps, all "real" Muslims? Are none of them "real" Muslims? Is a "real"Muslim even meaningful? Is there a "real" anything?
I say, we start by reading the text of the koran with the basic understanding that words have a meaning and that context provides clues to the meaning of individual words.
Even in the mystical "east" this is true.
@dookie Said Well yes, my elephants memory supplies me with various incidents of profound bias......as in the Miner's strike in the UK when our Right-Wing press rejoiced in constant stories of striking miners using violence against those who were crossing the picket lines to work. A story broke of yet another miner being duffed up and his house ransacked. The press gathered......then dispersed quickly when it was revealed that the miner duffed over was a striker. That's life.
Have you ever heard of a band called "The Exploited"? Great British punk band. They had a song, the chorus of which was calling Maggie Thatcher a very unpleasant word beginning with "c" repeatedly. Then, as now, I generally stand with the worker over the political class that seeks to undermine and screw them over.
As I say, the media is never without bias, as people are not capable of being unbiased. However, sometimes the media outright pushes an agenda, and at times they blatantly lie. I am not sure whether the standard of journalistic integrity has plummeted over the years, or whether it is just that with so many people able to report events now and give real time reporting, maybe the media is finally being exposed. Although I think it is a bit of both.