Yes, London is in chaos.

Likewise Birmingham and other UK cities.

Thousands on the streets looting, assaulting, starting fires.

Everybody has a theory about why it is happening.

Some blame the government for unemployment and reduced welfare handouts.

Others blame multiculturalism.

Some blame the police.

Others blame parents for not keeping their teens under supervision.

So far, I haven’t heard anybody blaming celebrity-atheist and author Richard Dawkins.

Certainly RD isn’t personally responsible for everything.

But he has done his bit to make the lives of Britons purpose-free.

Popularising the notion that smart people don’t believe in God.

* * *

Australia is half-way there, having let ourselves be lumbered with an atheist Prime Minister.

Plus a God-denying Greens party manipulating every government decision.

Not believing in God means not believing in any absolute difference between right and wrong.

The godless can logically feel free to do whatever turns them on.

They often do – and will do increasingly, unless big changes occur in our society.

* * *

When schools and media focus young minds on little else but mocking tradition and idolising celebrity-parasites, what can we expect?

But there is always hope.

God does exist.

His will is always done.

He is almighty.

When something bad happens, there is a reason.

There is always something to be learned from it.

When more people go to their church confessional on Saturday nights than go to night-clubs . . . .

Then we’ll know we’re ready to reform our world into a better and truly peaceful place.

The Australian government recently banned live cattle exports to Indonesia because their methods of killing are allegedly cruel and painful.

The ban seriously disrupted many Northern Territory and Queensland communities where thousands are employed in the cattle industry.

Then, the other day, we’re told that the exporting would resume.

The reasons for these changes – who leaned on who – we’ll probably never be told.

* * *

Islamic teaching is that cattle should be slaughtered by knife cut — severing the major neck blood vessels.

At the moment of cutting, the animal’s head must face Mecca (Makkah) the Muslim holy city in Arabia.

The resulting edible meat product can then be labelled “halal”, i.e. permissible for Muslims to eat – because it has, at least implicitly, been dedicated to the Islamic god, Allah.

The Koran says, “do not eat of that upon which the name of Allah has not been mentioned, for indeed, it is grave disobedience”.  (Qur’an 6:121)

* * *

It is all part of Sharia law.

Worldwide, big business is knuckling under.

McDonalds now sell, for example, halal chicken nuggets. Kentucky Fried, Pizza Hut and others do likewise.

None of which affect me.

However, the other day I was about to eat a slice of Coon cheese, when I spotted on the wrapping that word “halal”.

What to do?

* * *

Should a person professing to be a Christian eat food that has been dedicated to what is, to him, a false god?

Similar questions arose back in Biblical times and were dealt with by Saint Paul (in chapter 8 of his first letter to the Corinthians).

His attitude was that, although dedicating food to a false god has no effect and it is still just food . . . there is another angle to consider.

By taking that food, might we give the impression we are acknowledging that act of dedication as being valid?

A mosque built in Amman, Jordan, has been named after Jesus.

According to the Australian Cathnews website, “both Muslims and Christians have shown appreciation for it”.

A few weeks ago, a billboard was erected in Sydney carrying the message “JESUS: A PROPHET OF ISLAM”. Plus a phone number to ring and receive a free copy of the Quran.

Within 24 hours that billboard had been vandalised — the word “Islam” being partly torn away.

One of the organisers, a Mr Mohamed, said, “I’ve had positive feedback from Christians, atheists, Muslims . . . saying, ‘we support you, keep up the good work’”

He added, “About 10 percent of calls have been really offensive: ‘no one wants Muslims here etc.’”

Didn’t he receive any responses pointing out (politely) that the billboard message is simply not true?

He should have.

No need to be offensive. But Jesus wasn’t and isn’t a prophet of Islam.

* * *

When Jesus lived, there was no Islam to be a prophet of.

Jesus died in the year 30AD. Mohammed founded Islam 600 years later.

Jesus taught that he himself was the Son of God.

Islam says that he is not.

Jesus taught that God is a Trinity (God, one and unique in his essential nature, is three really distinct persons, Father, Son and Holy Ghost).

Islam says that he is not.

The teachings are incompatible.

* * *

Jesus Christ told his disciples not to blend in with other faiths – but to convert non-Christians to Christianity:

 “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you . . . .”   (St Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 28)

Abu Bakar Bashir has been sentenced to 15 years in prison by a Jakarta court.                 

He was found guilty of raising funds – about $60,000 — for a training school in Aceh, Sumatra, for the military training of terrorist recruits.

Bashir is angry about the sentence — saying it disregards Islamic Shariah and is the work of the friends of the devil.

His supporters, including about 500 who were at the court, are vowing revenge.

One message on the internet warns that there will be a series of bomb blasts across Indonesia.

* * *

Interesting how Bashir doesn’t think of himself as an extremist, “Islamist” etc.

He sees his actions as being those of a normal Muslim.

In this, he is following the Prophet – who used methods that would, today, be described as terrorism.

Nobody in the Prophet Mohammed’s day, least of all himself, ever seriously considered Islam to be a religion of peace — or threats and killing to be something foreign to the Islamic faith.

Anything but.

When Mr Obama and Australian political party leaders talk about how Islam is a warm/fuzzy ideology which can coexist indefinitely with other religions, active Muslims worldwide smile with pleasure and contempt.

* * *

Bashir claims to know the motive of the foreign countries (specifically Australia and the USA) which he says influenced the court . . . .

He says their aim is to “kill Islam”.

But that is not true.

While it might be a good thing if the world was freed from Islam, imprisoning persons like Bashir will not achieve it.

No matter how richly Bashir deserves to be locked up, the biggest task in undermining Islam is something else . . . .

The only way is to convert Muslims to Christianity.

That will not be easy.

Many who do so will be butchered for their trouble.

But that is what must be done.

Victorian premier, Mr Ted Baillieu, made a statement yesterday which  has been blown up as something controversial.

He said that at official events it will be up to individual government ministers whether or not to make an acknowledgement  of Aboriginals as the “traditional owners” of the land.

“I am not seeking to be provocative. Nothing has changed in particular in that regard,” Mr Baillieu said, “We still encourage the welcome ceremony.

“I’ve simply said that ministers should respect indigenous communities and they should address these issues where appropriate . . . .”

But is it always “appropriate” for gatherings of white people to be addressed by Aboriginal elders “welcoming” them to where they already live?

* * *

Mr Baillieu is now under attack by some Aboriginal spokespersons.

His ruling has been called “a retrograde step”, “disappointing” etc.

One said, “I feel like I’ve had part of my heart ripped out”

Another, “I would ask the premier, what are his values? Has he truly embraced indigenous culture?”

* * *

The timing of Mr Baillieu’s reform coincides with so-called “AFL Indigenous Week”.

And 2011 “Sorry Day” (next Thursday).

The previous premier, Mr Brumby, made his ministers always acknowledge “the traditional owners and custodians of the land . . . .”

A lot of Australians are happy to acknowledge Aboriginals as traditional “custodians” of the land.

But NOT to call them traditional “owners”.

Two very different things . . . .

* * *

It’s basic to common sense and justice to recognise that no human being — and no human racial faction– ever “owns” a land.

The land — like everything in creation – is owned by its Creator.

By God himself.

Jesus Christ came with the message of God being King of everything.

Teaching the prayer, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, THY KINGDOM come.”

A national day for all of us (black and white) to unitedly tell God that we are “sorry” for not obeying his commandments . . . .

That might be a better idea.

 The Australian budget this week  increased money for school chaplains in government schools by $200 million.

Enemies of school religion classes are now on the warpath, accusing the agency which organises chaplains and voluntary religion teachers – ACCESS Ministries – of “proselytising”.

Victorian lawyer, Andrea Tsalamandris, intends taking ACCESS before the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

Because children whose parents stop them attending religion classes aren’t given schoolwork to do while those classes are on, Andrea T claims they are being “discriminated against”.

Or is it she who favours discrimination – wanting those attending religion class to be disadvantaged by missing out on the lessons given to religion-non-attendees during religion class time?

* * *

This debate could go on forever.

The contenders live in two different universes.

A universe where there is no God isn’t something a believer can easily visualise.

So communication is difficult.

It’s tempting for the believer to fall into a trap — the trap of seeking to explain their mission using the lingo familiar to secularists.

ACCESS CEO, for example, told the media that her organisation has “no interest in converting people of other faiths”.

Yet aren’t they motivated by loyalty to Christ who told his apostles to “go and make disciples of all nations”?

But she isn’t deliberately lying or deceiving.

To her, the existence of God is an objective fact.

So presenting that fact to young people isn’t proselytising/brainwashing etc. – it’s simply giving the child a chance to live in the real world.

* * *

Many government school children will grow to be believing adults.

Including many not brought up religious at home.

One big influence being contact with teachers who are Christian, and who live consistently with the love taught in the Gospel.

Many regular class teachers, uninvolved with formal religion teaching, can have that effect.

I certainly was influenced by such teachers, who, while trying to teach me physics etc., imparted by their good example spiritual truths by which I now hope I can live my life.