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Archive for February, 2008
An Indian professor once was invited to deliver a general lecture in Malang Islamic University (UIN – Universitas Islam Negeri) East Java. From Surabaya airport he went to Malang city by bus. After coming back to India, he told us, Indonesian students in India, his impression thus:
Between Surabaya and Malang, I was so amazed to see so many hypermarkets, great supermalls and big restaurants. I saw a restaurant which is so big that I never see it before in India. What “amazed” me even more was that I did NOT see any public library at all.
He then blasted (with “emphaty”) a question that unable us to answer with pride: “So, what are you people doing other than shopping and eating out?”
Communism is a socioeconomic structure that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless society based on common ownership of the means of production and property in general.
… is the political and economic doctrine that aims to replace private property and a profit-based economy with public ownership and communal control of at least the major means of production (e.g., mines, mills, and factories) and the natural resources of a society. Communism is thus a form of socialism—a higher and more advanced form, according to its advocates. Exactly how communism differs from socialism has long been a matter of debate, but the distinction rests largely on the communists’ adherence to the revolutionary socialism of Karl Marx.
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Wikipedia
Encyclopaedia Britannica
The centre-left (or center-left) is a political term commonly used to describe or denote individuals, political parties or organizations (such as think tanks) whose views stretch from the centre to the left on the left-right spectrum, excluding far left stances.
Ideological definition of the centre-left
The centre-left includes social liberals, social democrats, democratic socialists, progressives, and some greens. Centre-left supporters accept market allocation of resources in a mixed economy with a significant public sector and a thriving private sector. Centre-left policies tend to favour limited state intervention in the economy in matters pertaining to the public interest. The centre-left also often favours moderate environmentalist policies and generally, though not universally, supports individual freedom on moral issues.
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Wikipedia
Ibid
Atheism is the denial of the existence of God.
Atheism, as an explicit position, can be either the affirmation of the nonexistence of gods, or the rejection of theism. It is also defined more broadly as synonymous with any form of nontheism, including the simple absence of belief in deities.
Continue Reading »Etymology: Greek agn?stos unknown, unknowable, from a- + gn?stos known, from gign?skein to know — more at know
Date: 1869
1: a person who holds the view that any ultimate reality (as God) is unknown and probably unknowable; broadly : one who is not committed to believing in either the existence or the nonexistence of God or a god
2: a person unwilling to commit to an opinion about something
Agnosticism (Greek: ?- a-, without + ?????? gn?sis, knowledge; after Gnosticism) is the philosophical view that the truth value of certain claims — particularly metaphysical claims regarding theology, afterlife or the existence of God, gods, deities, or even ultimate reality — is unknown or, depending on the form of agnosticism, inherently unknowable.
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Merriam Webster Dictionary
Wikipedia
Finally, people of Kosovo struggle to gain independent realised, thus becomes the only Muslim-majority nation in Europe. Despite its claim as embrcaing the “laid-back” version of Islam, some of its neighbors feel “unsafe”. Considering many factors, this pre-conceived notion is understandable.
That’s said, I think the existence of independent Kosovo is good to let European people in to more understanding towards Islam and that Muslims, many of them, just like any other who are busy to make a dissent living for themselves and their family. Every single Muslim represent a mozaic of Muslims as a whole, it’s NOT a homogeneous entity as one in other parts of the world might or is led to think.
Continue Reading »Frankly speaking, I dislike anonymous blogger or ghost blogger as I prefer to call it, particularly those who blog/write on such sensitive issues as politics and religion. Speaking of the latter topic without giving a clear name and identity, to me, does not represent a good intention, and thus credibility. A writer or a blogger who rigorously writes on those issues while hiding one’s true identity and name –such as the one behind indonesiamatters.com deserves our suspicion of having a hidden agenda. Specially when one is critical to certain religion while generously flattering or defending another most of the time.
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