Easy entry level web designer jobs

One of the things that is missing from this site is a real logotype. I am not a very good logo designer since I have never created vector images, so I need help! I am now searching for a logotype designer who could help me out with creating a nice logo for the site (but also for printed media, merchandise and music albums).

Since andreas09 will soon be released and I have promised that it will be the last template that I release under the "andreasXX" series, it is now time to think about what to do next. I know for sure that I will build commercial templates for 4Templates.com, but that will not stop me from releasing more open source templates. I have got a number of suggestions for different things to do, and one suggesion was very appealing: "Do a number of trendy templates, based on the andreasXX layouts but with new images and a main focus on the actual visual appearance". I like that idea. Do you? Or can you give me a better suggestion? All ideas are welcome!

Global warming is a fantasy in the environment

Some say global warming is a fantasy in the environment. Some say it was destiny. Scientists are still pros and cons about it. To be sure, that natural phenomena can be felt in the following 10 events. And that certainly is not a mere imagination, because we've been there.

* Forest fires massive
Not only in Indonesia, a number of forests in the United States also burned ludes. In recent decades, forest fires over many areas meluluhlantakan within a longer, too. Scientists attribute this rampant fires with increasingly hot temperatures and snow melting faster. Spring came early so that the snow melts early, too. Forest areas drier than usual and more easily burned.

* Easily damaged archaeological sites
As a result of a hostile nature, a number of temples, historic sites, temples and other artifacts more easily damaged than some time ago. floods, extreme temperatures and causing tidal it all. Historic Sites 600 years old in Thailand, Sukhotai, already damaged by floods recently.

* The height of the mountain reduced
Without realizing it many people, the Alps have high shrinkage. This caused the melting of ice on top. For hundreds of years, the weight of the ice has pushed the earth's surface due to the pressure. As the ice melts, the weight is lifted and slowly lifted back to surface.

* The satellite moves faster
Carbon dioxide emissions more quickly make the planet warm, even into space impact. Terluat the air in the atmosphere is very thin, but with the increased carbon dioxide Jumah, the molecules in the upper atmosphere together more slowly and tend to radiate energy, and cools the surrounding air. The more carbon dioxide up there, then the atmosphere creates more encouragement, and the satellites move faster.

* Only the Strongest of Abiding
As a result of the growing season uncertain, the only living beings is the strong can survive. For example, early flowering plants this year, the migration of animals occur more quickly. They are moving slowly will lose food, they sementar more agile, able to survive. The same is true for all living things including humans.

* Massive Melting
Not only the temperature that triggers melting planet gununges, but also all the layers of soil that had been frozen. This melting ground trigger wrinkle causing irregular holes and damage to structures such as railways, highways, and houses. The impact of this instability on the high plains like the mountains could even cause the collapse of rock.

* Peculiarity in the Polar Region
The loss of 125 lakes in the Arctic a few decades ago led to the idea that global warming is happening more "excited" at the poles. Research around airyang source shows the possibility of missing the melting of the frozen world basis.

* Flowering plants in the Arctic
When melting Arctic trigger problems at the plant in danhewan lower plateau, also created the same situation with saatmatahari buried in the Arctic biota. Plants there is always trapped in the ice is no longer and began to grow. Scientists found an increase in photosynthetic formation of soil compared to soil surrounding the ancient era.

* Habitat Living Move to a Higher Plain
Since the early decades of the 1900s, humans had to climb in order to find lebihtinggi squirrel, beaver or forest rats. Scientists found that these animals have moved to higher ground due to global warming. The displacement of these habitats threatens the habitat of polar bears as well, because the ice where they live are also melting.

* Increased Allergy Cases
Often experience sneezing attacks and itchy in the spring matasaat, then Blame global warming. Several decades of allergy and asthma cases among the American people experienced an increase. Hidupdan pattern of pollution is considered the trigger. Scientists study showed that high levels of carbon dioxide and temperature trigger latter. These conditions also make the plants bloom earlier and produce more pollen.

(see More from www.livescience.com)

Professional web designers

I'm working on my very own links page, but until it is done, here are two great sites to check out:

Matt Deasy and Peter MacDonald have launched a new link site, a basic directory for web designers and topics related to web design. The site is called Bulletproof Links and it has got a good start with lots of useful links already. Visitors can add links by filling in a simple form. Simple, but very useful.

Andrew "dez" Fernandez has a great categorized web design link archive, which I have found useful many times. In fact, I like the site so much that I wrote to dez and asked him to add a link to my templates page – which he has agreed to do. That made me like the page even more! This is a must-have bookmark for anyone interested in web design. If you have comments about an this post please share with us, who is the best professional design now

Free open source or Professional Design ?

First off, the XHTML/CSS templates that I have released through OSWD.org and on my templates page are not really supposed to look great. They are supposed to work as a solid ground for people who want to get a high-quality website online in a fast and simple way – in the spirit of OSWD.org, the site that got me started with open source template design. But the templates are also made as a tool for other designers who want to start with a working layout and add a great visual appearance along with their content. There is no need to waste time on building core layouts when the web is full of great open source layouts that works great…

The templates are built in a "one-size-fits-all" kind of fashion, which makes them suitable for many different kinds of websites. They are easy to customize, and very simple in code and layout structure. The more generic, the more useful they are so simplicity is an actual feature. The basic layout and details like valid code, accessibility features, low file size, and a simple navigation system are more important than beautiful images and flashy effects. I could of course do very specific and detailed templates, but that would mean that only a few people would find them useful. And usability is what the templates are all about.

Professional site design

Site design, on the other hand, needs to be very specific. Most commercial websites are created for a purpose. The more specific a site is, the better it fits its purpose. When I create a site design, I spend a lot of energy on details that many people will not notice – but that adds to the experience or functionality. While generic templates are never really unique, a commercial design must be something of its own, while people at the same time should be able to identify or relate to the company, the product, the event or whatever the website is promoting. The design must match (and enhance) the company profile and give a lasting impression of the general image. And it needs to be appealing to the target audience, which is normally defined by various demographic categories such as age, nationality, gender and income just to give a few examples. It must be fresh and striking so that it creates a curiosity and an interest for the company or product. If the site fails at any of these points, chances are that it may fail its purpose as well.

Details like valid code and accessibility features are often (sadly) low priorities to the clients, while graphics and cool effects is among the most important parts of the whole site. In order to provide a high-quality website, I need to keep a balance between the purpose and the functionality of the site. After all, web standards and accessibility are still important things even if many clients don't care about it. While I would rather build an accessible website with less features than a website with amazing features that doesn't work for everyone, it is not really my call. Sometimes I must accept that the site I build will not validate, which I would never do for the templates.

CMS – the Content Management System

Content management systems have become more and more popular over the years, and today almost anyone can have their own CMS to power their site. The open source systems are incredibly popular, and blogs become more and more common. The demand for new CMS designs and blog themes is big, and many people use open source web designs on their sites and blogs. In fact, many of the most popular CMS and blog themes were originally posted as free OSWD templates! The templates that I release are easy to convert to blog themes or CMS "skins". My templates have been converted to public themes for WordPress, Etomite CMS, LifeWithChrist, MovableType, Textpattern and sNews just to mention some of the most popular site engines. Some of the templates have also been used for commercial sites and custom CMS solutions, but in those cases they have often been strongly modified.

Whenever I build a commercial site, I often use one of these CMS or blog systems. sNews is my favorite for smaller sites because of its simplicity, while I prefer WordPress for larger websites because I know the system very well – but also for the many great plugins. But the custom-designed themes that I build as a part of a site design could never be released as a public theme. Not only because of the obvious design ownership and purpose reasons but also because the custom designs would not work for other kinds of sites – they are too specific.

Examples of designs

Here are a few examples of design work that I have made for various projects. None of these have been (or will be) available as an open source template, but if any of this gives you an idea for a template, please let me know and I may build it if I like the idea. Please note that some of these images are a lot smaller than the original designs and that there are no full-size screens available.

Conclusion

Open source templates and professional site designs are simply not the same thing. The difference is not only that templates are "ugly" in comparisation with site designs. The two things look different, work different, are made in different ways (where site design take a lot more time to do than templates) and they are made for totally different reasons. Templates are made for functionality, made with no other purpose than to help others. Site designs are made for a defined (and most often commercial) purpose. Designed sites look cooler, have more interesting features and their own "image", while templates are generic and neutral – with space for other people to add whatever "image" they want to.

And that leads to the explaination why I promote my templates rather than my professional services. It is simply because I do webdesign for the fun of it. I really like it, and it is one of my biggest interests. I've even worked professionally with web design (beside music production) for two years now, and I have learned a lot from it. But professional design is so much more than just the design, and all the related work take a lot of focus away from the creativity. There are more conditions (less freedom) and harder deadlines (less time for experiments), and huge expectations in the pro world. And at the end, in the best case scenario, the client is happy with the result. But template design is total freedom! No time limits, no demands, no expectations and most important: Thousands of people use each template – no matter how simple it is! It is encouraging, uplifting and truly inspiring. Template design doesn't give any money (other than your PayPal donations which I appreciate a LOT!), but gives me a lot of happiness…

I hope that this answers the question. Feedback and crazy ideas are welcome, as always.

Islamic fundamentalism with leadership election

David Charter in Brussels

The UK Independence Party is set to head in a fresh direction, fighting radical Islam, with the election today of a replacement for Nigel Farage as its national leader.

The two favourites to take over from Mr Farage are committed to adding the battle against Islamic fundamentalism to the party’s main goal of withdrawing Britain from the European Union.

Mr Farage resisted strong grassroots pressure during his three-year leadership to broaden UKIP’s focus to include actively campaigning against Islamism and immigration. But both Lord Pearson of Rannoch and the London MEP Gerard Batten - the two front-runners in a field of five candidates - say that they are determined to target Islamic fundamentalism.

The other three candidates are Mike Nattrass and Nikki Sinclaire, both MEPs, and Alan Wood, a councillor from Wiltshire and a senior party insider.

The result of the ballot of UKIP’s 16,500 members will to be announced today. Lord Pearson, 67, an Eton-educated self-made millionaire, was endorsed by Mr Farage as his only “serious” successor this month. Mr Batten called the endorsement an “insult” to the other challengers.

Lord Pearson invited the anti-Islam Dutch politician Geert Wilders to the House of Lords in February only for Jacqui Smith, then the Home Secretary, to issue a banning order so that Mr Wilders was turned away at Heathrow. The Dutchman travelled to Britain in October after overturning the ban.

Lord Pearson’s own outspoken views about Islam were recorded in Washington DC last month. Asked how much time Britain had before losing control of its cultural identity he said: “What is going to decide the answer to that is the birthrate. The fact that Muslims are breeding ten times faster than us. I do not know at what point they reach such a number that we are no longer able to resist the rest of their demands . . . but if we do not do something now within the next year or two we have in effect lost.”

He later insisted that his remark was directed at Islamists. “One is talking about the violent end of the spectrum,” he said.

Mr Batten, 55, has also invited Mr Wilders to speaking engagements and has called the Dutch politician “a brave man trying to defend western civilisation”. This year, writing in the magazine Freedom Today, Mr Batten addressed the notion of the confrontation of Islamism and the West. “It is a clash between civilisation and barbarism. It is a clash between everything that has made the modern world what it is and an ideology that wants to enslave us to a belief system that belongs in seventh-century Arabia and which was primitive and backward even then.”

Ms Sinclaire, 41, a newly elected MEP, has campaigned strongly and is regarded as having an outside chance of taking the leadership. Her main aim is to professionalise UKIP and organise a Shadow Cabinet to extend its appeal.

Mr Nattrass, 63, an MEP for the West Midlands since 2004, believes that UKIP’s main focus should be on winning votes in the next general election but has largely been absent during the campaign due to an illness in the family. Mr Wood is well known within UKIP as its nominating officer.

A UKIP source said that if Lord Pearson or Mr Batten were elected “You are going to see quite a lot stronger position from us. Nigel has always been afraid of the Islam thing backfiring. But the BNP are taking ownership of issues that have not been addressed by Labour, the Conservatives or the Lib Dems and they need addressing.”

Rainforest destruction accounts for 17% of global greenhouse gas emissions

Environmentalists across the world are to be enlisted as armchair detectives to monitor satellite images of rainforests and report any illegal logging.

The images will be frequently updated and anyone with internet access will be able to make instant comparisons with historical images and spot destruction of rainforest almost as soon as it happens.

Every four seconds an area of rainforest the size of a football pitch is cut or burnt down for timber and paper or to clear land for cattle and plantations.

Rainforest destruction accounts for 17 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than is produced by all the world’s cars, ships and aircraft. Tropical forests cover 15 per cent of the world’s land surface and have a double cooling effect, soaking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and maintaining high levels of evaporation from the canopy.

(Rickey Rogers/Reuters)

Rainforest destruction accounts for 17% of global greenhouse gas emissions

The armchair detectives will be able to report their findings to an international agency being created to monitor whether countries are meeting their commitments to reduce deforestation. Any state found to have broken its pledge will lose its share of a new global fund established by rich countries to pay nations for leaving their trees standing.

The fund, called Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (Redd) and worth up to $30 billion (£18 billion) a year, is due to be approved at the UN climate change summit in Copenhagen next month.

Google is helping to create the new online detective tool, which is likely to be launched next year. Philipp Schindler, from Google UK, said: “Our engineers are exploring how we might contribute to this effort by developing a global forest platform that would enable anyone in the world, including tropical nations, to monitor deforestation and draw attention to it.”

Mr Schindler was speaking yesterday at a seminar on deforestation hosted at St James’s Palace by Prince Charles and attended by leaders and ministers from several of the largest rainforest countries.

President Jagdeo of Guyana told the seminar that the cheapest way for industrialised countries to reduce carbon emissions was to pay poor countries, such as Guyana, not to fell their trees.

Contributors to the Redd fund will pay about £4 for each tonne of CO2 saved by reducing the rate of deforestation. Fitting carbon capture and storage systems to coal-fired power stations costs more than £50 for each tonne saved.

Norway announced last week that it would demonstrate how Redd could work by paying Guyana up to £150 million over five years to preserve its trees.

Guyana’s forests have been far less logged than in many tropical nations, and under the terms of the new deal with Norway, Guyana could actually be paid for increasing deforestation. The memorandum states that Norway will compensate Guyana if it does not cut down more than 0.45 per cent of its forests per year, but Guyana is currently felling trees at a far slower rate. The countries contributing to Redd are concerned that their money could disappear into the pockets of corrupt officials in poorly governed countries. There are also fears that payments will result in logging companies switching to unprotected areas, resulting in no net reduction in deforestation.

Per Frederik Pharo, of the Norwegian Government’s forest protection fund, said payments would only be made when countries could prove that they had reduced their annual rate of deforestation by an agreed amount. He said the targets would be raised every five years.

Brazil has halved its rate of deforestation in the past year but Tasso Azevedo, of Brazil’s Forest Service, warned that it could increase again unless the country received substantial sums of Redd “People have to have some income and we need a lot of cash for the community to maintain the forest,”he said.

Amazing Designs From Top Web Desiners Wordwide

I have got lots of requests to post WordPress theme versions of my templates. Unfortunally, I am not a very good theme coder, so I have been waiting and hoping that the people who use the templates would build themes that they would want to share. But none of the themes have been for public use, so now I am working on converting them by myself. In a first step I will build andreas01 and andreas02 for WordPress, and I will host it on the templates page (using "download as: WordPress theme" or similar). I can't say how long it will take to finish the work, since I have a lot of other content to sort and upload first. But I will do my best to do it quick. If any skilled theme designer would like to help me out, I welcome all assistance. Also, specific requests and suggestions for 01 and 02 as themes are of course welcome.

Shortly after I posted the previous entry, I got an e-mail with a simple but interesting question: "So, how does your non-ugly and non-simple design look?". This is really a question about the difference between template coding and professional site design, since I act in completely different ways depending on which one of the two I am working with. I could show a lot of examples, and some day I will add a portfolio showing my site design work. But this site is not really made to promote my professional design services, so the portfolio is not a high priority right now. But since the question came because of a recent blog entry and I have got similar questions about my professional design before, I will try to explain the differences right here – and also why I rather promote my templates than my business design. For the first time on andreasviklund.com, here is a long entry!

First off, the XHTML/CSS templates that I have released through OSWD.org and on my templates page are not really supposed to look great. They are supposed to work as a solid ground for people who want to get a high-quality website online in a fast and simple way – in the spirit of OSWD.org, the site that got me started with open source template design. But the templates are also made as a tool for other designers who want to start with a working layout and add a great visual appearance along with their content. There is no need to waste time on building core layouts when the web is full of great open source layouts that works great…

The templates are built in a "one-size-fits-all" kind of fashion, which makes them suitable for many different kinds of websites. They are easy to customize, and very simple in code and layout structure. The more generic, the more useful they are so simplicity is an actual feature. The basic layout and details like valid code, accessibility features, low file size, and a simple navigation system are more important than beautiful images and flashy effects. I could of course do very specific and detailed templates, but that would mean that only a few people would find them useful. And usability is what the templates are all about.

But How With Amazing Designs From Top Web Desiners Wordwide? Please your Feedback and crazy ideas are welcome, as always

Who Top web designers and web templates?

Many visitors are requesting the current design of this site in regular template format, and of course I will make it available not that I abandon the design myself. I am considering to make a WordPress theme version of it as well, since it is also a common request. But the customized theme version that I run on the site right now is not good at all, so I would have to build a new theme from scratch if I would provide a WP-theme version as well…

Regarding progress for the new design and new content: The music will go down now, and pages will be removed and reorganized. Sorry for the big mess that my site will be for a while, it will hopefully be worth it in the end.

I haven't decided what to do yet but I will probably release the template first, and if someone makes a good WordPress theme version of it within the first couple of days I can support that version rather than doing a theme version myself. If anyone would want to build an officially supported theme quickly, feel free to contact me to get the template version before the official release! If noone would want to build the theme, I will do it myself in a few days.

But I need a name for the template! Suggestions are very welcome, post a comment or write me an e-mail. Ideas and general feedback about naming templates are of course also welcome, as there will be more releases. It would probably be a bit silly to continue with andreas11 and up. Or would that work? Let me know what you think…

Pluralism in Egyptian Religious

by MICHAEL SLACKMAN

The New York Times

CAIRO - Writing in his weekly newspaper column, Gamal al-Banna said recently that God had created humans as fallible and therefore destined to sin. So even a scantily clad belly dancer, or for that matter a nude dancer, should not automatically be condemned as immoral, but should be judged by weighing that person’s sins against her good deeds.

This view is provocative in Egypt’s conservative society, where many argue that such thinking goes against the hard and fast rules of divine law. Within two hours of the article’s posting last week on the Web site of Al Masry al Youm, readers had left more than 30 comments - none supporting his position.

“So a woman can dance at night and pray in the morning; this is duplicity and ignorance,” wrote a reader who identified himself as Hany. “Fear God and do not preach impiety.”

Still, Mr. Banna was pleased because at least his ideas were being circulated. Mr. Banna, who is 88 years old and is the brother of Hassan al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, has been preaching liberal Islamic views for decades.

But only now, he said, does he have the chance to be heard widely. It is not that a majority agrees with him; it is not that the tide is shifting to a more moderate interpretative view of religion; it is just that the rise of relatively independent media - like privately owned newspapers, satellite television channels and the Internet - has given him access to a broader audience.

And there is another reason: The most radical and least flexible thinkers no longer intimidate everyone with differing views into silence.

“Everything has its time,” Mr. Banna said, seated in his dusty office crammed with bookshelves that stretch from floor to ceiling.

It is a testament to how little public debate there has been over the value of pluralism, or more specifically of the role of religion in society, that so many see the mere chance to provoke as progress. But now, more than any time in many years, there are people willing to risk challenging conventional thinking, said writers, academics and religious thinkers like Mr. Banna.

“There is a relative development, enough to at least be able to present a different opinion that confronts the oppressive religious current which prevails in politics and on the street, and which has made the state try to outbid the religious groups,” said Gamal Asaad, a former member of Parliament and a Coptic intellectual.

It is difficult to say exactly why this is happening. Some of those who have begun to speak up say they are acting in spite of - and not with the encouragement of - the Egyptian government. Political analysts said that the government still tried to compete with the Muslim Brotherhood, a banned but tolerated Islamic movement, to present itself as the guardian of conservative Muslim values.

Several factors have changed the public debate and erased some of the fear associated with challenging conventional orthodoxy, political analysts, academics and social activists said. These include a disillusionment and growing rejection of the more radical Islamic ideology associated with Al Qaeda, they said. At the same time, President Obama’s outreach to the Muslim world has quieted the accusation that the United States is at war with Islam, making it easier for liberal Muslims to promote more Western secular ideas, Egyptian political analysts said.

“It is not a strategic or transformational change, but it is a relative change,” said Mr. Asaad, who emphasized that the dynamic was for Christians as well as Muslims in Egypt. “And the civil forces can unite to capitalize on this atmosphere and invest in it to raise it to become a more general atmosphere.”

Two events this summer highlighted the new willingness of a minority to confront the majority - and the overwhelming response by a still conservative community.

In June, a writers’ committee affiliated with the Ministry of Culture gave a prestigious award to Sayyid al-Qimni, a sharp critic of Islamic fundamentalism who in 2005 stopped writing, disavowed his own work and moved after receiving death threats for his writing.

Muhammad Salmawy, a committee member and president of the Egyptian Writers’ Union, said he thought Mr. Qimni had been honored in part because “he represents the secular direction and discusses religion on an objective basis and is against the religious current.”

What happened next followed a predictable path, but then veered. Islamic fundamentalists like Sheik Youssef al-Badri asked the government to revoke the award and moved to file a lawsuit against Mr. Qimni and the government.

“Salman Rushdie was less of a disaster than Sayyid al-Qimni,” said Mr. Badri in a television appearance on O TV, an independent Egyptian satellite channel. “Salman Rushdie, everyone attacked him because he destroyed Islam overtly. But Sayyid al-Qimni is attacking Islam and destroying it tactfully, tastefully and politely.”

But this time Mr. Qimni did not go into hiding. He appeared on the television show, sitting beside Sheik Badri as he defended himself.

A second development involved a religious minority, Bahais, who face discrimination in Egypt, where the only legally recognized faiths are Islam, Judaism and Christianity. Nine years ago the state stopped issuing identification records to Bahais unless they agreed to characterize themselves as members of one of the three recognized faiths. The documents are essential for access to all government services.

An independent group, The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, won a court order on behalf of the Bahais that forced the government to issue records leaving the religious identification blank. The first cards were issued this month. While the decision was aimed specifically at solving the problem faced by the Bahai community, the case tapped into the evolving debate, said the group’s executive director, Hossam Bahgat.

“It is an unprecedented move to recognize that one can be Egyptian and not adhere to one of these three religions,” Mr. Bahgat said. Still, he remains less than optimistic; most of the public reaction to the Bahais’ legal victory was negative, Mr. Bahgat said.

“It is known that you are apostates,” read one of many comments posted on Al Youm Al Sabei, an online newspaper.

But there has been at least a hint of diversity and debate in response to Mr. Banna’s remarks on belly dancers. Hours after they were posted, some readers began, however tentatively, to come to his defense. “Take it easy on the man,” an anonymous post said. “He did not issue a religious edict saying belly dancing is condoned. But he is saying that a person’s deeds will be weighed out because God is just. Is anything wrong with that?”

Mona el-Naggar contributed reporting.

Former Muslims Need Urgent Protection from the U.S. Government

by Nonie Darwish

Hudson Institute

The US government must protect its citizens not only from the terrorism of jihad, but also from Islamic Laws condemning Muslims to death and that encourage vigilante street justice.

How can a former Muslim like Rifqa, or like myself, live in peace in America when there are neighborhood mosques reading scriptures, to their believers telling them to kill Muslims who left the religion?.

Even if 10% of Muslims in America follow Sharia as it is taught, we are in trouble. Muslim scriptures such as the Sahih hadith by Mohammad 9:50 states: “No Umma (a member of the Muslim community) should be killed for killing a Kaffir (an infidel). . . Whoever changes his Islamic religion, kill him.”

There is no peace for the apostate, not even in the West. The above threat is real and will increase exponentially with the growth of the Muslim population and those who demand Sharia as a religious right. No religion should give the right to its followers to kill others, period.

In spite of the clear danger to the life of Muslims who leave Islam, both the legal system and mainstream media still don’t get it. The most recent case in the US of the 17-year old girl, Rifqa Bary, is an example.

US courts need proof (even though it is clearly stated in Islamic law books) that Islamic Law condemn apostates to death and encourage any Muslim on the street, even family members, to kill them. The Western media do not seem to be interested in the topic. That is the same media that dedicates weeks of valuable air time to ridiculous claims of human rights violations.

Ms. Bary, Muslim convert to Christianity, had good instincts when she realized the great danger to her life, escaped from her home in Ohio and sought protection from the Christian community in Orlando Florida. If she had not escaped, she could have been yet another statistic of Muslims killed for leaving Islam.

The following are some laws on apostasy in mainstream Sharia books:

Apostates are to be given three days to repent and return to Islam. If s/he refuses, s/he is immediately killed. All Sharia books agree unanimously on this point. (Hanafi law in general, Shafi’i law f1.3, Hanbali law (from Al Mughni), Maliki law and Codified Islamic law).

It is obligatory for the caliph to ask him to repent and return to Islam. If he does, it is accepted from him, but if he refuses, he is immediately killed.

There is no indemnity for killing an apostate, or any expiation, as it is killing someone who deserves to die

Testimony of apostates is not admissible.

An apostate does not inherit from Muslim parents.

Marriage of an apostate is immediately dissolved if the spouse is and remains Muslim.
The above laws have kept Muslims enslaved inside the iron curtain of the Islamic State under penalty of death for 1400 years and still continues. Laws encouraging the killing of non-Mulims, especially those who left Islam, also extend to non-Muslim nations, not just individuals. According to Sharia, non-Muslim nations are invited to convert to Islam; if they refuse, a jihad war must begin.

The commandment to wage violent wars against non-Muslim countries was given a pretty name by Sharia; jihad became a sacred duty for every Muslim head of State and individual.

It is astounding how many Muslims have been desensitized to feeling of any sympathy or guilt toward murdered victims of apostasy laws and jihad. In Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and so on, the majority of the population believe that apostates must be killed and that jihad against non-Muslim countries a badge of honor. I do not wish to see the same desensitization happen in the West, but the silence of Western media is deafening.

Former Muslims need protection now from the US government and court system. We need protection from Sharia Islamic Law.

Nonie Darwish, ex-Muslim and author of the book on Sharia, Cruel and Usual Punishment

Free joomla and wp templates provider

I would like to return a link to this new site, a simple but really useful link resource if you are looking for free website templates. I found the site in the referrer list in my site statistics, and it was a nice surprise. I really like the way that the logotypes are used, and the fact that there are no ads on the site. Unfortunately, the layout breaks in IE7, but that will probably be fixed soon…

Rick Blalock of Beauty in Design will be porting a number of my designs into Joomla templates. The first port has already been released: andreas07 for Joomla. The demo looks really good, so it will be really interesting to see more Joomla versions.

I hope that OpenWebDesign.org will be added to the list as well, that would make the site even better. Go check it out!

Music on the web downloads

Just a note today, as a reaction to the fact that Swedish police is once again arresting people for "filesharing": It is in no way illegal to download music or distribute it through filesharing networks. People seem to believe so since media often mix up filesharing with music piracy. What is illegal is to spread copies of music (or other original works) without the permission from the owner or original author. But as most people realize today, there is much more free (or cheap) non-commercial music available on the net than there is commercial music in your closest record store. And if the original author allows you to download and share the music, it is not just legal – it is a great way of helping the artist to get the music heard by more people.

I don't think that this post will stop people from sending angry e-mails about "copyright infringements" to me, but I still want to make it perfectly clear: I am the author of most of these songs (and the co-author of the rest of them) and from now on I will ignore e-mails that tell me that I have been reported to the police because I have downloadable music on my site. Don't let the commercial music industry fool you. Please give yourself a chance to discover the wonderful world of non-commercial music on the web. Chances are big that you'll find many great artists, and many hours of great music – for free!

This music can be downloaded, shared, re-distributed and used in various projects without any other obligation than giving credits to the original author. The only thing you can't do is sell it, and that is simply because the music should stay free. I can't say that the music is very professional or even good, since most of it is old music made just for the fun of it, But the lagoona have been downloaded in more than 8 million copies over the years so atleast some songs could be worth listening to. Read more about Lagoona on Wikipedia if you want to learn more.

The Poetry Of Hafiz Collection

Hafiz, a Sufi poet, expressed in poetry love for the divine, and the intoxicating oneness of union with it. Hafiz, along with many Sufi masters, uses wine as the symbol for love. The intoxication that results from both is why it is such a fitting comparison. Hafiz spoke out about the hypocrisy and deceit that exists in society, and was more outspoken in pointing this out than many poets similar to him.

All the Hemispheres

Leave the familiar for a while.

Let your senses and bodies stretch out

Like a welcomed season

Onto the meadows and shores and hills.

Open up to the Roof.

Make a new water-mark on your excitement

And love.

Like a blooming night flower,

Bestow your vital fragrance of happiness

And giving

Upon our intimate assembly.

Change rooms in your mind for a day.

All the hemispheres in existence

Lie beside an equator

In your heart.

Greet Yourself

In your thousand other forms

As you mount the hidden tide and travel

Back home.

All the hemispheres in heaven

Are sitting around a fire

Chatting

While stitching themselves together

Into the Great Circle inside of

You.

From: 'The Subject Tonight is Love'

Translated by Daniel Ladinsky

From the Large Jug, Drink

From the large jug, drink the wine of Unity,

So that from your heart you can wash away the futility of life's grief.

But like this large jug, still keep the heart expansive.

Why would you want to keep the heart captive, like an unopened bottle

of wine?

With your mouth full of wine, you are selfless

And will never boast of your own abilities again.

Be like the humble stone at your feet rather than striving to be like a

Sublime cloud: the more you mix colors of deceit, the more colorless

your ragged wet coat will get.

Connect the heart to the wine, so that it has body,

Then cut off the neck of hypocrisy and piety of this new man.

Be like Hafiz: Get up and make an effort. Don't lie around like a bum.

He who throws himself at the Beloved's feet is like a workhorse and will

be rewarded with boundless pastures and eternal rest.

From: Drunk on the Wine of the Beloved

Translated by Thomas Rain Crowe

I Have Learned So Much

I

Have

Learned

So much from God

That I can no longer

Call

Myself

A Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim,

a Buddhist, a Jew.

The Truth has shared so much of Itself

With me

That I can no longer call myself

A man, a woman, an angel,

Or even a pure

Soul.

Love has

Befriended Hafiz so completely

It has turned to ash

And freed

Me

Of every concept and image

my mind has ever known.

From: 'The Gift'

Translated by Daniel Ladinsky

Let Thought Become Your

Beautiful Lover

Let thought become the beautiful Woman.

Cultivate your mind and heart to that depth

That it can give you everything

A warm body can.

Why just keep making love with God's child-- Form

When the Friend Himself is standing

Before us

So open-armed?

My dear,

Let prayer become your beautiful Lover

And become free,

Become free of this whole world

Like Hafiz.

From: 'The Gift'

Translated by Daniel Ladinsky

School of Truth

O fool, do something, so you won't just stand there looking dumb.

If you are not traveling and on the road, how can you call yourself a guide?

In the School of Truth, one sits at the feet of the Master of Love.

So listen, son, so that one day you may be an old father, too!

All this eating and sleeping has made you ignorant and fat;

By denying yourself food and sleep, you may still have a chance.

Know this: If God should shine His lovelight on your heart,

I promise you'll shine brighter than a dozen suns.

And I say: wash the tarnished copper of your life from your hands;

To be Love's alchemist, you should be working with gold.

Don't sit there thinking; go out and immerse yourself in God's sea.

Having only one hair wet with water will not put knowledge in that head.

For those who see only God, their vision

Is pure, and not a doubt remains.

Even if our world is turned upside down and blown over by the wind,

If you are doubtless, you won't lose a thing.

O Hafiz, if it is union with the Beloved that you seek,

Be the dust at the Wise One's door, and speak!

From: 'Drunk On the Wind of the Beloved'

Translated by Thomas Rain Crowe

Laughing At the Word Two

Only

That Illumined

One

Who keeps

Seducing the formless into form

Had the charm to win my

Heart.

Only a Perfect One

Who is always

Laughing at the word

Two

Can make you know

Of

Love.

From: 'The Gift'

Translated by Daniel Ladinsky

I Know The Way You Can Get

I know the way you can get

When you have not had a drink of Love:

Your face hardens,

Your sweet muscles cramp.

Children become concerned

About a strange look that appears in your eyes

Which even begins to worry your own mirror

And nose.

Squirrels and birds sense your sadness

And call an important conference in a tall tree.

They decide which secret code to chant

To help your mind and soul.

Even angels fear that brand of madness

That arrays itself against the world

And throws sharp stones and spears into

The innocent

And into one's self.

O I know the way you can get

If you have not been drinking Love:

You might rip apart

Every sentence your friends and teachers say,

Looking for hidden clauses.

You might weigh every word on a scale

Like a dead fish.

You might pull out a ruler to measure

From every angle in your darkness

The beautiful dimensions of a heart you once

Trusted.

I know the way you can get

If you have not had a drink from Love's

Hands.

That is why all the Great Ones speak of

The vital need

To keep remembering God,

So you will come to know and see Him

As being so Playful

And Wanting,

Just Wanting to help.

That is why Hafiz says:

Bring your cup near me.

For all I care about

Is quenching your thirst for freedom!

All a Sane man can ever care about

Is giving Love!

From: 'I Heard God Laughing - Renderings of Hafiz'

Translated by Daniel Ladinsky

I've Said It Before and I'll Say It Again

I've said it before and I'll say it again:

It's not my fault that with a broken heart, I've gone this way.

In front of a mirror they have put me like a parrot,

And behind the mirror the Teacher tells me what to say.

Whether I am perceived as a thorn or a rose, it's

The Gardener who has fed and nourished me day to day.

O friends, don't blame me for this broken heart;

Inside me there is a great jewel and it's to the Jeweler's shop I go.

Even though, to pious, drinking wine is a sin,

Don't judge me; I use it as a bleach to wash the color of hypocrisy away.

All that laughing and weeping of lovers must be coming from some other place;

Here, all night I sing with my winecup and then moan for You all day.

If someone were to ask Hafiz, "Why do you spend all your time sitting in

The Winehouse door?," to this man I would say, "From there, standing,

I can see both the Path and the Way.

From: Drunk on the Wind of the Beloved

Translated by Thomas Rain Crowe