Monday 10 August 2015

About lions and babies

Are we hypocrite?

Belinda, who is happily married to her childhood sweetheart and who has two gorgeous kids is outraged by the hypocrisy of the moral-high ground that the media, government officials, social media and individuals are all taking around the killing of a lion by a rich dentist.

She hates hunting for sport and hates that a defenceless animal is killed at the whim of a human-being sporting a gun. She surely does not understand how killing anything is considered sport.

But what seems to trouble more is something what should have many other people also set to think about an even worse matter.

The outrage over the death of a lion! To the point where the man who killed it has to go into hiding. Where is the outrage over:
  • 60 million babies aborted in the USA since Roe Vs Wade,
  • the estimated 80,000 babies that are aborted in Australia every year and the
  • 336 million babies aborted in China over the last 40 years?
One may argue that abortion has nothing to do with the killing of Cecil the lion and that the two issues should not be connected. After all one is to do with killing for sport, the other is “women’s healthcare”.
Agreed. They are not the same issue. {World Outrage Grows Over Cecil the Lion}

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Three pillars of sustainable development, young people and their rights

United Nations Decade of Education for Sustain...
United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The member states of the United Nations have this week agreed on ambitious Sustainable Development Goals, but youth has been neglected in the adopted document.

There is made an agreement on a universal, interlinked agenda that applies to all countries and brings together the three pillars of sustainable development: economic, social and environmental. Its core aims – to eradicate hunger and extreme poverty, reduce inequality, achieve gender equality, improve water management and energy, and take urgent action to combat climate change should help to improve millions of lives – will help ensure the future of our planet for forthcoming generations.

But the younger generations are somewhat forgotten. Young people and their rights are not prioritised.

Find more about it on:

European Youth cries out: Sustainable Development Goals ambitious, but lack focus on youth


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Looking for writers for two Lifestyle Magazines

In March 2014 we had to write that a New Name became a fact.

Christadelphian World became Our World. It did not loose his Christadelphian connection, though because not so many christadelphians perhaps wanting to share thoughts with us and the rest of the world we had to go on other paths to share the Good News of the Kingdom of God and what was moving in the world of Christianity and Christendom.

Now, before the beginning of the new season, the new academic year, we made a call to several Christadelphian magazines to offer us some news we can share with you. In case we receive a positive reply we shall be back bringing more Christadelphian news.

In Counting sands and stars we also look at our community and the world of Christians which should know they have a uniform duty. Though we may be all different, as Christians we should be united in Christ and go for the same values and same goal, sharing the same hope.

As Christians we also should be looking forward to grow and to multiply. But to have our community growing we shall have to do some work. Without preaching, without witnessing it shall not be able to get non-believers to come to understand what Christianity  is all about and why it is so important to become a Bible believer.

On this site we shall continue to look at the world around us, whilst on the two lifestyle magazines Stepping toes and From Guestwriters we shall take time to go further and to go deeper in certain aspects of life matters.

The first magazine focusses on faith matters and is directing itself more at those who are looking about the differences in the different faith groups or religions we are rich (or poor).

The other magazine From Guestwriters direct itself to non-believers as well as believers of all sorts of religions. At that magazine we want to present a readers digest of interesting articles you can find on the internet, from christian as well as from non-religious writers.

The selection of writings presented is offered from our Christadelphian viewpoint and is presented there to enrich ourselves and those who come along our site. It is meant as meditation and reflection material, plus as guidance for our way of life.


In case there are historians, educators, psychologists, archeologists, analysts, architects, interior designers, a.o. who want to share their ideas, or think they could contribute to the magazine, so that it can become an interesting 'lifestyle magazine' are welcome to offer their services.

We look forward to start the season 2014-2015 with some new writers and to see more sorts of subjects tackled to reach more interested readers.

Are you called?
Are you the one we are looking for?

If you do not think you can contribute with writing but would like to find some articles on those websites, you may also let us know what sort of articles you would like to see or what your expectations are of those lifestyle magazines and of this website.
Please do let us know.


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Additional reading:

  1. Broeders in Christus 2013 & 2014 in review
  2. Belgian Christadelphians 2013 & 2014 in review
  3. My blogs 2014 in review
  4. Dissolution of Bijbelvorsers (Bible scholars), Association for Bible study
  5. A new voice calling for peace
  6. Welcome to “From guestwriters”
  7. Guestwriters for you
  8. Stepping Toes 2014 in review
  9. Do you have a writer or presenter in you?

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Wednesday 5 August 2015

Koran fragments found in UK library are among world's oldest, says university

The University of Birmingham in central England may be the proud owner of fragments of one of the world's oldest surviving copies a Koran manuscript which may even have been written by someone who knew Prophet Mohammad, researchers said on July 22nd.

Muslim tradition says the prophet received the revelations of the Koran  between 610 and 632 — but it wasn't written down immediately. The first leader of the community after Muhammad's death, Caliph Abu Bakr, ordered the book to be written and it was completed by the third leader, Caliph Uthman, in 650.

Radiocarbon dating indicated that the parchment folios were at least 1,370 years old, which would make them one of the earliest written forms of the Islamic holy book in existence.
UK university unearths ancient Quran fragments

The manuscript was part of the university's collection of 3,000 Middle Eastern documents which was acquired in the 1920s by Alphonse Mingana, a Chaldean priest born near Mosul in Iraq.

His trips to acquire the manuscripts were funded by Quaker philanthropist Edward Cadbury, whose family made their fortune in chocolate, to raise the status of Birmingham as an intellectual centre for religious studies.
"The parts of the Koran that are contained in those fragments are very similar indeed to the Koran as we have it today,"
David Thomas, professor of Christianity and Islam, said.
 "This tends to support the view that the Koran that we now have is ... very close indeed to the Koran as it was brought together in the early years of Islam,"

"(These fragments) give us glimpses into potentially how something which we now call the Koran might have been used in this early period and how it might have been recorded,"

said Sajjad Rizvi, Director of the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter.


The leaves, held in the university's Mingana Collection, contain parts of chapters 18 to 20, written with ink in an early form of Arabic script known as Hijazi.

"This is indeed an exciting discovery,"

said Muhammad Isa Waley, lead curator for Persian and Turkish manuscripts at the British Library in London.
"A lot of people from Birmingham and all over the country will love to see it,"
said Muhammad Ali, the administrator at Birmingham Central Mosque.

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Ethiopia jails 18 Muslims for plotting to create an Islamic state in the country

Ethiopian-Muslim-Protest-Dimtsachin-YisemaEthiopia (AP)A court in Ethiopia has handed jail terms ranging from seven to 22 years against 18 Muslims who were convicted on terror charges, including allegedly attempting to establish a religious government.

Dimtsachin Yisema, a group lobbying for the release of Muslim detainees, said the sentences were “unjust” and called the Federal High Court a “kangaroo court,” railroading them for decrying its interference in religious matters. In other words, they are claiming victim status. 


According to some:
The verdict passed on muslim leaders & journalist by woyane is politically motivated and it is historical crime  on all Ethiopian Muslims. It is the sign of the regime's deep hate and hostility to the Muslims. Their hostility is expected as the regim's composition is more than 90 percent  non Muslim in the country of 50 percent  muslim community. Until  the form of the of the government  change, we Ethiopian muslims never expect justice.  This can be achieved through struggle by whatever means necessary.  That is all!

> “Ethiopia jails 18 Muslims over alleged terror,” Associated Press, August 3, 2015:
Ethiopian Kangaroo court sentences 18 Ethiopian Muslim Leaders, Preachers and Journalists 7-22 years in prison

Aantal burgerslachtoffers in Afghanistan bereikt een nieuw record

English: Afghanistan orthographic_projection
Afghanistan orthographic_projection (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In haar halfjaarlijks rapport schrijft de VN-missie in Afghanistan (Unama) dat het aantal doden, in vergelijking met dezelfde periode vorig jaar, met zes procent gedaald is. Het aantal aanslagen, moorden en gewonden bij gevechten tussen opstandelingen en Afghaanse veiligheidsdiensten, is met vier procent gestegen.

Het totale aantal burgerslachtoffers van het conflict is met één procent gestegen, tot 4.921. dat is het hoogste cijfer sinds 2009. Sinds dat jaar, toen het geweld in het land opflakkerde, worden die cijfers bijgehouden.

Sinds de Navo-gevechtsmissie zich terugtrok staan de Afghaanse politie en het leger alleen om te strijden tegen de islamstrijders, vooral taliban. Ongeveer 13.000 buitenlandse soldaten bevinden zich nog altijd in Afghanistan, maar hun takenpakket beperkt zich tot het opleiden van hun Afghaanse collega's. (BELGA/NSK)