::Homework Crapbox:: (2017)
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Commentary By David Gardner of the Financial Times, republished by The Straits Times
"However irritating and irresponsible Qatar may have been in its freelancing, Saudi Arabia has done immeasurably more to fuel Islamist extremism by exporting its Wahhabi sectarianism to the region and the Muslim world. For all that Iran has exploited Western interventions and Arab divisions to strengthen its Shi'ite proxy forces in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, the world's present terror plague is Sunni and rooted in the exclusivist bigotry of Wahhabism."
https://www.ft.com/david-gardner
http://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/qatar-pays-the-price-for-betting-on-the-brotherhood
Read comments on Facebook :
https://www.facebook.com/financialtimes/posts/10155335535405750
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wahhabism
Wahhabism is named after an eighteenth-century preacher and activist, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703–1792). He started a reform movement in the remote, sparsely populated region of Najd, advocating a purging of such widespread Sunni practices as the veneration of saints, the seeking of their intercession, and the visiting of their tombs, all of which were practiced all over the Islamic world, but which he considered idolatry (shirk), impurities and innovations in Islam (Bid'ah). Eventually he formed a pact with a local leader, Muhammad bin Saud, offering political obedience and promising that protection and propagation of the Wahhabi movement meant "power and glory" and rule of "lands and men."
The alliance between followers of ibn Abd al-Wahhab and Muhammad bin Saud's successors (the House of Saud) proved to be a durable one. The House of Saud continued to maintain its politico-religious alliance with the Wahhabi sect through the waxing and waning of its own political fortunes over the next 150 years, through to its eventual proclamation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932, and then afterwards, on into modern times. Today Ibn Abd Al-Wahhab's teachings are the official, state-sponsored form of Sunni Islam in Saudi Arabia. With the help of funding from Saudi petroleum exports (and other factors), the movement underwent "explosive growth" beginning in the 1970s and now has worldwide influence. The US State Department has estimated that over the past four decades the capital Riyadh has invested more than $10bn (£6bn) into charitable foundations in an attempt to replace mainstream Sunni Islam with the harsh intolerance of its Wahhabism.
The "boundaries" of Wahhabism have been called "difficult to pinpoint", but in contemporary usage, the terms Wahhabi and Salafi are often used interchangeably, and they are considered to be movements with different roots that have merged since the 1960s. However, Wahhabism has also been called "a particular orientation within Salafism", or an ultra-conservative, Saudi brand of Salafism. Estimates of the number of adherents to Wahhabism vary, with one source (Mehrdad Izady) giving a figure of fewer than 5 million Wahhabis in the Persian Gulf region (compared to 28.5 million Sunnis and 89 million Shia).
The majority of mainstream Sunni and Shia Muslims worldwide strongly disagree with the interpretation of Wahhabism, and many Muslims would denounce them as a faction or a "vile sect". Islamic scholars, including those from the Al-Azhar University, regularly denounce Wahhabism with terms such as "Satanic faith".
Wahhabism has been accused of being "a source of global terrorism", inspiring the ideology of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and for causing disunity in Muslim communities by labelling Muslims who disagreed with the Wahhabi definition of monotheism as apostates (takfir) and justifying their killing. It has also been criticized for the destruction of historic shrines of saints, mausoleums, and other Muslim and non-Muslim buildings and artifacts.
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[Switzerland] - The Null Stern Hotel (translated : Zero Star Hotel) looks enticing. As long as there are no man-eating wolves roaming about to be enticed. "Welcome to the Zero Star Hotel, Where the Only Star is You, the Customer." Siao siao.
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There is a hidden bunker inside this rock. Mai siao siao. Machiam camouflaged alien outpost to secretly observe humans, as described in an episode of Star Trek (except that it was Earth humans secretly observing a more primitive alien race on another planet).
https://www.dezeen.com/2014/12/18/bureau-a-antoine-mountain-hideaway-concrete-boulder-swiss-alps/
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[China] - Man shits inside his pants while on MRT, then shakes out the shit from his trousers onto station floor
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[Malaysia] - Vietnamese woman who accused M'sia Uber driver of molest arrested after her husband & gang of 9 men beat him up
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[Singapore] - We have all probably seen videos of the Turkish ice cream prank, which involves the seller using a long-handled metal stick to repeatedly wave the dessert before us and then snatch it out of the customer's reach. One Singaporean at the Geylang Serai Bazaar kena accidentally slashed by the metal stick while the seller was performing the stunt, leaving a deep bleeding gash on his forehead.
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It was at least partially her fault, for driving in the motorcycle lane. She's lucky this happened on this side of the causeway, or the clueless woman might be dead by now.
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American ang moh says it's ridiculous that NUS & NTU are ranked higher than so many top USA Universities.
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It's true that Julian didn't throw the first punch, but he did make the first shove, which the Ah Beng interpreted to be as good as a punch. What really pissed Julian off, is that eyewitnesses testified that the Ah Beng still had the mood to continue going for his makan at the same hawker center immediately after Jullian lay unconscious on the floor.
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Welcome to China.
[China] - Woman gets hit by car which doesn't stop, and nobody else bothers to helps her, so she remains on the road groaning and moaning until a second car runs over her. It is unknown if she survived or died.
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[UK] - Burglars poured boiling water onto the faces of elderly couple *after* securely tying them up and robbing their money
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Deng Guilian cries during an interview in her hotel room in Ganzhou in southern China’s Jiangxi Province. They took her husband, then tried to silence her. Deng, 36, the wife of an activist arrested while investigating labor conditions in Ivanka Trump’s supply chain has fallen into the ranks of similar families left with no source of income. Even beyond the financial suffering, the government has many ways of making life miserable for those left behind.
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4-Year-Old Boy Dies of 'Dry Drowning' Almost a Week After Swimming Trip
https://www.yahoo.com/beauty/4-old-boy-dies-secondary-033451707.html
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John McCain kena mocked on Twitter for sounding incoherent when interrogating James Comey
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Guess her name couldn't help her this time, poor girl.
25 year old Miss Reality Winner kena jailed for leaking US Govt secrets.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/mother-fears-woman-accused-leak-made-example-085141761.html
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Donald Trump Impeachment Process Has Begun (doesn't necessarily mean he'll definitely be impeached of course).
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-impeachment-process-set-begin-160010494.html
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A 23-Year-Old Allegedly Copied The 13 Reasons Why Suicide And Left Behind Tapes
https://www.yahoo.com/news/23-old-tragically-copied-13-151500880.html
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Both Saudi Arabia (Wahabism of Salafism of Sunni Islam) and Iran (Shia Islam) accuse each other of being responsible for all the extremist terrorism in the world, via the proxy of hundreds of militant groups broadly under each banner, but the nature of these conflicts are as much geopolitical as they are religious, involving all the middle east countries in some way, rebels struggling to overthrow governments, Al-Qaeda vs ISIS vs Taliban, even geopolitical outsiders such as Russia vs USA are inextricably drawn into these conflicts for their own agendas, and the larger militant groups have international links to other militant groups in Africa and South East Asia). While the Jews of Israel have their hands full with the Israel-Palestine conflict.
[Australia] - Saudi National Soccer team snub minute's silence for victims of London terror attack
https://sg.yahoo.com/news/football-saudi-snub-minutes-silence-disgrace-233554883--sow.html
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73 year old French serial killer (who murdered over 20 women) to undergo risky open-heart surgery in Nepal after escaping from India jail
https://sg.yahoo.com/news/french-bikini-killer-heart-surgery-nepal-091351142.html
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So if there isn't $50 value within the card, what's the use of the card again?
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Ouch, this could certainly have deadly military weaponizing applications.
[Singapore] - Ultrasound waves in slimming treatment punctured woman's small intestine, would have killed her if she didn't seek medical help to undergo urgent surgery
Also see : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_weapon
An infrasound device that produces frequency that causes vibration of the eyeballs — and therefore distortion of vision — was confirmed by the work of engineer Vic Tandy while attempting to demystify a “haunting� in his laboratory in Coventry. This “ghost� was characterised by a feeling of unease and vague glimpses of a grey apparition. Some detective work implicated a newly installed extractor fan that, Tandy found, was generating infrasound of 18.9 Hz, 0.3 Hz, and 9 Hz.
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Putin, Xi and Fatty Kim are trying hard not to LOL.
Trump to sue Comey over his testimony
https://sg.yahoo.com/news/latest-russian-lawmaker-scoffs-comey-testimony-092857316--politics.html
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No country is spared, no one is safe.
