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Ozmen’s Extra has a huge selection of top quality olives at good prices.

Roneys has closed its doors for good. Last day of trading was yesterday. They couldn’t make it work financially any more.

There seem to be a lot is ‘sure I saw something’ noise around this, yet no one is able to verify. last minute? It’s been known about for months, and numerous other councils have managed it fine. Sheffield City Council on the other hand ? Predictably no action and no communication.

Has there been any updates on this? Loads of people have been pound around the country already and yet there doesn’t seem to be any sign that SCC is doing anything about it, and needless to say the hapless Star never mentions it. Should we just assume this will be another SCC screwup with no communication and likely done at the last minute in a half -assed way?

It’s a timing issue. Islam is nothing more than the word of God. It was sent down over history to various prophets including Jesus and Moses.

That's very helpful, and a lot more sensible response than I've had from others I've asked. Thanks.

FM .. I have a question for you, and i ask it as a recent revert. Why is it necessary to recite the Shahada and the five salat in Arabic? The Qur'an makes it clear that Allah knows and sees everything and 3:29 tells us "Whether you conceal what is in your heart or reveal it, Allah will know it." The words are as simple and beautiful in English (and any other language) as they are in Arabic, and surely in reciting them it is important that you believe what is behind them, rather than having to go through what is essentially a phonetic recitation? I've asked several Muslim and have never received what I consider to be a proper explanation.

The president simply doesn’t have the power to shut down social media platforms.

And in a similar way there are no states that are run on Christian, Jewish, Buddhist lines etc. It is, by definition, impossible. Those creeds are by nature divinely inspired. Man - with all his flaw - can aspire to follow God's understanding, but will never be able to use those principles to govern other man. Only God can do that.

More specifically they take a literal interpretation of verses taken out of context to further what are very human and political agendas. what they do is completely against the core messages of the Quran. Core texts - especially those from centuries ago - will always be treated this way.

We need to define the word tolerant, and again we need to focus on historical context. As the Prophet Muhammed became more influential and Islam spread, the pantheist ruling classes sought to oppress and attack Islam. The hostility of the pantheist authorities determined to convert Muslims back to their view, or finish them off. Battles were fought. Treaties signed and broken. It was only in this context - of being attacked and persecuted - that the Quran were allowed to be fight back. Even then, war was to be avoided. Allowed to live in peace side by side, the Quran says that "There is no compulsion in religion" (2:256) and those polythiest and other non Abrahamic religions who keep peace with Muslim and allow freedom of worship are tolerated and celebrated (9: 1-15), those nonbelievers who seek safe conduct should be protected and kept safe (9:6) etc. There is nothing in the Quran about intolerance to other religions, except to those who actively want to suppress Islam and attack its believers. On the contrary, much of it is about living in peace with people of all beliefs.

First off, noone spoke to the omnipotent being. According to Muhammed, the Quran was revealed to him in very small parts over a period of 23 years. It wasn't revealed as one text, and it certainly wasn't revealed in the order you see in the text today. AND it wasn't revealed directly; it came as messages from the Angel Gabriel. Now - did an 'angel' (whatever that means) really appear? I don't know. According to eye witnesses who saw some of the process, the Prophet seemed to go into a trance, sweated, murmered words etc. What we might consider for example to be some sort of trancelike 'divine intervention.' Should we take the words absolutely literally (using our conditioned understanding of what an angel is and looks like), or should we try to understand it in the way that makes best sense for the individual? The verses that comprise the Quran were collected and memorised by Muhammed and his disciples randomly and over more than two decades. It was only after various battles between Muhammed's follows and the Meccan pantheists from 624-630 (when many of those who knew the verses died, and after Muhammed's death in 633 that the Quran was ordered as we know it today and collected into one volume by Abu Bakr. If you deviate from the original, are you a non-believer? No, for the reasons I've tried to outline. Becoming a muslim is incredibly easy - the process is simple. NOW, you question is probably; ok, the Quran proscribes eating the flesh of the pig. If I then eat bacon, am i a non-believer? Or if i don't pray five times a day, am i non-believer? Am i no longer a muslim? Absolutely not. You are still a muslim. You might be breaching some of the rules of the Quran, but you remain a muslim. Whether you are a good muslim in the eyes of scholars, imam or even Allah himself, well that's another issue altogether. But you remain a muslim. Again, I'd love to hear Friendly's comments on my understanding.

The point about misinterpretation relates to individual phrases rather than the whole text. Like all holy texts, it is very easy to pull out individual phrases and interpret meanings to them which fail to take into account context and, in the Qur'an's case, huge vagaries in relation to translation and the fact that often the verses therein relate to historical events happening in the period 610-633 (battles, political tensions, religious arguments) which most casual readers or cherry pickers don't know of. Understanding some of those, helps understand the text much better. A good example of this is the sentiment, often pointed at by Islamophobes, as prima facie evidence of Islam's intolerance to other faiths. This largely stems from a phrase which appeared in Dawood's translation which appeared in the 1950s and is in the Penguin Classics edition: "He that chooses a religion other than Islam, it will not be accepted of him and in the world to come, he will be one of the lost.' Pretty damning, right? Clear evidence of intolerance. And yet . . and yet . . . The word 'Islam' in this context does not mean what we think of it now - ie a religion followed by 1.6 bn people. The word 'islam' in the 7th century Arabic of the Quran means 'complete devotion to God, unmixed with any other [God]. It's important to know that, because the Arabic world - including Mecca - was essentially pantheist at the time, until the Quran took hold. Those who read the word Islam in the context most do - of the religion presented to the Prophet Muhammed - will set up a barrier , illegitimately based on this verse, between Islam and other monotheistic religions. Not so. It was God / Allah who originally sent down both the Torah and the Bible earlier and the Quran appeals to what is common in both: "People of the book [Jews and Christians] - let us arrive at a statement that is common to us all; we worship God alone, we ascribe no partner to him [ie, there is only one god, at a time of pantheism] , and none of us takes others beside God as lords." The Quran repeatedly forbids arguing with the People of the Book and in one passage (29:46) he addresses all three major religions: "We have assigned a law and a path to each of you. If God had so willed, He would have made you one community, but He wanted to test you through that which He has given you, so race to do good; you will all return to God and he will make clear to you the matters you differed about." I'm rambling, but only to make the point that focusing on individual lines to come up with 'aha' moments, while tempting and easy, is actually fraught with difficulties and complexities. One more thing on the name of the religion. Islam is a derivative of the arabic word; Sal'm. Which means 'peace'. I'm no expert though. Friendly Muslim would be able to elaborate.

Unlike other holy books, the Koran acknowledges the above point about interpretation. In the third sura (roughly chapter) Allah says in one of his messages to the Prophet: “Some of its verses are definite in meaning - these are the cornerstone of the scriptures - and others are ambiguous. The perverse at heart eagerly pursue the ambiguities in their attempt to make trouble and to pin down a specific meaning of their own. Only God knows the true meaning.” This is to be expected. It’s not a scientific text. Any important text - religious, literary, philosophical - will be open to interpretation in different ways if you focus on single lines or verses.

Poseidon are opening another branch - bang on the Hunters Bar roundabout on Eccie Road, where Ceres used to be.