Found in Translation

Antony Loewenstein is delighted that his (ahem) best-seller is available in the Arab World.

I’m told the book is available in most Arab countries.

Nearly one in every three Arabs is illiterate. It's a perfect fit!

Antony, famous for silencing any dissent on his blog boasts:

I’m happy that this title continues to generate debate in the Arab world where a dissident Jewish, atheist voice isn’t too often heard.

In some Arab countries, Jews are forbidden from entering the country. In others, they are simply massacred. No wonder they aren't heard from. There's not many atheists elsewhere who would simultaneously describe themselves as Jewish either.

As for the "debate" being generated by his book?

In 2013 my first book My Israel Question was translated and published in Arabic by the Lebanese-based publisher All Prints. The name was changed to Cases Against Israel.

The Arabs have answered his Israel Question well and truly. HIs original publishers Melbourne University Press apparently couldn't. 

Allah Einstein

A batshit-crazy learned Iranian cleric has claimed that Albert Einstein was a Muslim.

Ayatolla Mahadavi Kani, described as the head of the Assembly of Experts in the Islamic Republic of Iran, who says that there are documents proving the Jewish scientist embraced Shiite Islam and was an avid follower of Ja'far Al-Sadiq, an eighth-century Shi'i imam. 

In the video, Kani quotes Einstein as saying that when he heard about the ascension of the prophet Mohammed, "a process which was faster than the speed of light," he realized "this is the very same relativity movement that Einstein had understood."

Even his name sounds Muslim! It was obvious.

I guess this is one way to prop up the otherwise practically non-existent intellectual output from the Arab-Muslim world. The site's down at present but Masada2000 noted:

There are a mere 12 Million Jews in the entire world yet they have received 185 Nobel Prizes. 

The Muslims number 1.4 Billion, or 117 times the number of Jews! Based upon this 117:1 Muslim-to-Jewish ratio, one might expect the Muslims to have 24,920 Nobel Laureates.
They have nine! and one of them [Arafat] was a murderer

  They've just added a tenth. Albert Einstein.

Merciful Muslims

A Christian man was captured by Muslims in Syria. He was forced to recite the Shahada and convert to Islam. As a reward for this, they mercifully decided not to shoot him.

They beheaded him instead.

(Warning: Graphic content)

Smug, Aren't They?

A letter in today's Sydney Morning Herald

Herald readers have been too polite so far, but I’ll say it. Bogan-land is a borderless area occupied by Daily Telegraph readers. 

Alan Carruthers Artarmon

I'm not sure if Mr Carruthers has picked up a copy of the Tele in the last decade, but as someone who reads three newspapers daily, I can say that had he read today's he would have seen every single one of the letters therein were far more relevant to the readership than the banal attempts at wit filling space in the Silly.

Yes, ten years ago the Tele was typically full of spelling errors in the brief section that wasn't the sport of the form guide. However many remaining Herald readers seem to have missed the substantial decline in calibre of that publication over the years.

Meanwhile, startup lefty publication The Saturday Paper has (literally) plastered these signs all over the inner-city.

Murdoch runs newspapers without the vandalism of private property.

Space. The Final Fatwa.

Time Magazine reports:

A religious watchdog in the United Arab Emirates has issued a fatwa against traveling to Mars with Dutch entrepreneur Bas Lansdorp’s project Mars One.

So no Illudium Q-36 Explosive Infidel Modulator then.

Apparently:

The organization, General Authority of Islamic Affairs and Endowments (GAIAE), has likened the voyage to committing suicide, something that is forbidden according to Islam.

Riiiight.....