Anders Behring Breivik - Norway proves Islamophobia -- Attacker not Islamic Extremist - Instead Right Wing Fanatic

Here is your Islamic Extremist, a Right wing Fantasist that killed at least 87 people, most of which were at a Political youth camp:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Behring_Breivik

News of this broke 19 hours ago thanks to the Amazingly intelligent Statistician and Doctor Hans Rosling.

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People continue to point fingers at a small number of extremists in the world thanks to the Bush Doctrine and the War on terror.

Our world is propagandized to such an extent that it cannot fathom any threat OTHER than Wahhabism. While Wahhabi's and their Saudi Arabia sourced ideology are a threat, we have Right wing Fanatics that remain as well.

These are people that cannot live comfortably with others. These are people that HATE multiculturalism.

The fact is, now is the point when people need to wake up and understand, WE SHARE MANY THREATS and looking at one religion or one group of people is shallow, uneducated, goes against the facts, and is simply ignorant.

The Wahhabi threat has been completely exaggerated and the threat of Right wing extremism is totally off the radar. If we keep this up, we will not be prepared for future attacks by other people coming from the same stalk of hatred.

Bush has blood on his hands as well because he polarized the world in such a way that now the world isolates different groups of people away from one another rather than everyone considering themselves part of ONE big family.

Former President Bush should not ever have a peaceful nights sleep simply because he will never have a clean conscience. How can you sleep calmly with about half a million innocent people killed in Iraq and the whitewashing and brainwashing of millions of people around the world.

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Utilitarianism

The Oslo bomber also left one tweet on a twitter page he created with a quote that is nearly identical to John Stuart Mill's quote. ("One person with a belief is a social power equal to ninety-nine who have only interests.")

No one really knows if the bomber is a utilitarianism but be warned, Utilitarianism allows ANY action to occur, if it's in the best interests of happiness. It allows rape, torture, and in this case terrorism.

Even if the Oslo bomber was not a Utilitarianism, people should be aware that the idea that the ENDS Justify the MEANS, an idea put forward by Utilitarianism, is a TOOL for terror.

What Can Republicans say Yes to?

Keep in mind, this is my 1,000th post and it is a reminder that while Democrats are horrible in a lot of ways, and do compromise too much, the new age Republicans of the last two decades are simply fully owned suits bought by corporations and special interests.

The only thing a Republican can say yes to is a near perfect deal where they compromise nearly nothing. Such a deal and holding America hostage to default, is immoral for everyone in America.

Go Figure: What can 72 tell us about life?

By Michael Blastland GO FIGURE - Seeing stats in a different way

Continue reading the main story

• Do we understand 'risk' of mobile phone use?
• The rate that changes without really changing
• How to measure happiness
• The riddle of the NHS budget

Is 72 the answer to life, the universe and everything? It's definitely the answer to a few economic questions, says Michael Blastland in his regular column.

You know the joke from The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy in which the answer to the ultimate question about life, the universe and everything is 42?

It was a typo. Should have been 72. The author, Douglas Adams, was secretly an economist and statistician who pretended to be a sci-fi writer of comic brilliance to hide his shame. Possibly.

So, 72. Why 72? The rule of 72 is derived, approximately, from 100 times the natural logarithm of 2. But you don't have to worry about where it comes from, only that it works reasonably well.

The rule of 72 helps clarify half the serious economic issues of the day. Compared with a famous joke, this is a dull practicality. But boy it's one really useful dull practicality.

The rule of 72 helps reveal the full effects of change. What it particularly shows is how repeated small changes can blow up.

For example, we're worried at the moment about inflation. How long before inflation, of say 6% a year, halves the real value of your savings? Easy - take 72 and divide it by six. The answer is 12, twelve years before £1,000 under the mattress dribbles into purchasing power worth £500.

Another example. We're also worried about economic growth or growth we're missing while we struggle to rouse ourselves after recession. How long before economic growth of say 2.5% a year would make us collectively twice as rich? Take 72 and divide it by 2.5. The answer is 29, about 29 years at this rate to double the size of the economy.

The chart shows the difference that just 0.5% a year would make over a lifetime to growth in income per head in the UK. Beginning by taking a random round income of £25,000 today, it projects continuous real growth of 2% and 2.5%.

The 2% line is striking, ending at about £120,000 a year, but the effect of that extra 0.5% - worth about another £60,000 by the end - is even more so. This is not inflation, this is real money after inflation if - and I mean if - we achieve 2% or 2.5% real growth.

Since World War II, the national income per head has indeed roughly doubled twice. We are collectively about four times richer.

Another example. We're worried about depleting resources. If you want to know how much oil we'd be using if global consumption rose by, oh let's say a mere 2% a year, divide 72 by two. That's about 36 years before consumption would double. So if you think demand creates pressures now...

It's easy to underestimate the speed at which small changes add up. The rule of 72 spells it out. It shows that what often really matters are not one-off big numbers but small numbers that go on.

The rule of 72 also helps show how we could fix the national debt - pronto - if inclined.

Let's say there's 5.5% inflation - not far off the retail price index today - and 2.5% GDP growth, which is about what we hope for. Together that's an 8% change in the amount of money in the economy each year. So divide 72 by eight. The answer is nine. Nine years at those rates of growth and inflation would halve the value of the national debt as a share of national income. Bingo?

Maybe. Though playing with inflation isn't a great idea. And it could be said that this means fleecing people of the value of what they've lent us. It also depends on not adding to the stock of debt in the meantime, which is - how shall we put it - somewhat unlikely.

Small amounts of cash can grow into big problems

These are all examples of exponential or continuous and steady change. It was once said - a tad hyperbolically - that the greatest shortcoming of the human race was the inability to understand the exponential function.

A corollary is that if oil consumption did grow steadily every year, the amount consumed in the doubling period would be greater than all the oil consumed so far in human history.

If GDP did double every 29 years, then the national product would be greater in that period than the entire GDP of the UK so far - all years added together.

All this helps to show why some argue that long-term growth is just about everything, for good or ill - at least in economics, if not the universe.

But there's a problem with the rule of 72 that Douglas Adams would have loved. It's the wrong number. That is, it's not accurate.

If you want accuracy, better to use 70 or even 69. Those who favour 72 say it's only meant as a rough guide anyway and the great advantage is that 72 divides neatly by 2, 4, 6, 8 and 12, so most of the arithmetic is easier than with 69.

Either way, the insight stands. Watch out for that small stuff. It grows.

By the way, there's another useful animated graphic and map from the ONS You Tube this week. It shows how jobs in the West Midlands were most clobbered by recession, tallying with the damage to manufacturing.

Other ONS data has suggested the pain in the West Midlands even shows up in suicide figures. These ONS podcasts simplify the stats, some tell a good story of cause and effect, and they are well worth a look.

Source

Google+ and the friends v acquaintances debate

Comments (112)

By Tom de Castella BBC News Magazine

In today's Magazine

• The power of a custard pie
• 50 of your noted Americanisms
• Should people build their own homes?
• Paper Monitor

The much-hyped arrival of the Google+ social networking site throws open the debate on the difference between friends and acquaintances. So where is the line?

"If a man does not make new acquaintance as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone," said Samuel Johnson. "A man should keep his friendships in constant repair."

The comment takes on new meaning in the Facebook era when it's common for people to have hundreds of "friends". But they're not friends in the conventional sense.

The main novelty of Google+ is that it requires users to arrange their contacts in different categories or "circles". A new member is given the default settings of Friends, Family or Acquaintance and encouraged to create new circles under headings of their own choosing.

Facebook aficionados would point out that it has always been possible to create groups on Facebook, but some can find it slightly fiddly. Google+ seems to push the user down this route so that they target messages at particular contacts.

"I can see the logic of Google's split. Friends and family are quite insulated groups from each other, who you relate to in different ways," says Prof Robin Dunbar, author of How Many Friends Does One Person Need?

He argues that beyond a core group of 150 people - made up of "intimates", family members, and friends - what one is really talking about are "nodding acquaintances".

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

One list is for people I can tolerate talking to. The other is for people who can fall down a well.”

Caitlin Moran, Times columnist

The phone-hacking scandal, with its nexus of journalists, media owners, politicians and police officers, has thrown a spotlight on the dividing line.

John Yates, who this week resigned as assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, referred to former News of the World executive Neil Wallis as a "friend" but not a "bosom buddy". David Cameron has been happy to call his former media adviser Andy Coulson a "friend". But some feel the need to offer a qualification.

Jeff Jarvis, who writes the BuzzMachine blog, says the distinction between an acquaintance or friend doesn't matter online. "Acquaintance is just a label. I don't use it."

The circles on Google+ are just modern day mailing lists, he says. He organises his Google+ contacts into circles labelled things like "Germany", "World" or "Celebrity".

He argues it's about relevance rather than privacy or intimacy. "The idea you can use these sites as a vault for your private thoughts is absurd. If you have a secret, leave it in your head."

The different social networks overlap but prioritise different things. Indeed Facebook already allows users to put people into groups, it's just a "pain" doing so, says Jarvis. Facebook is for maintaining relationships, Twitter for broadcasting, Tumblr for quotations and Google+ for sharing, he believes.

Facebook allows people to have thousands of friends

Times columnist Caitlin Moran is an early adopter of Google+. She has never been a fan of Facebook - "too slow" - and although previously enthusiastic about Twitter says it has become too nasty. "Twitter is like a pub full of people shouting. Google+ is more like withdrawing to the smoking room with friends."

Moran has eschewed Google+'s ability to have numerous different circles in favour of a clear distinction. After importing contacts from her existing social networks she set up two circles. "One is for people I can tolerate talking to. The other is for everyone else who can fall down a well."

But in the Facebook age, it's easy to get confused about friendship, says Gladeana McMahon, the former GMTV life coach. "A friend is someone you've got a regular relationship with now or in the past. You keep in contact and are involved in their life."

On the other hand, an acquaintance is someone you've met but not had the chance to develop a friendship with. It may turn into friendship. But often it will never go further than a brief hello.

You can create worthwhile relationships online, she says. If they're meaningful they will probably move into the "real" world but it's also possible to have a modern version of the "pen pal" arrangement using Facebook or Skype to talk to someone you'll never meet in the flesh.

But social networks will never be able to understand the multiplicity of human relationships, she warns. "One thing that will never fit into a box is a human being."

Jarvis says that Mark Zuckerberg grasped this point. The Facebook creator believes that people each have one authentic identity rather than different selves. In interviews for Jarvis's forthcoming book Public Parts, Zuckerberg told him that it was becoming impossible for people to maintain separate identities.

Continue reading the main story

A classical view

Cicero's On Friendship (44 BC)

• "A friend is, as it were, a second self"

• "The shifts of Fortune test the reliability of friends"

• "Friendship makes prosperity more shining and lessens adversity by dividing and sharing it"

• "Many pecks of salt must be eaten before the duties of friendship can be discharged"

Essentially our work, home, recreational and family selves are one and the same. If you bump into your lawyer at the supermarket at the weekend, he may be wearing shorts and be with his child. He is a complete person not just someone you know from work, Jarvis argues.

Dunbar, professor of evolutionary anthropology at Oxford University, says that may work while you're at university. But by the end of one's twenties it's no longer tenable. Not only do we see people in different contexts, like work or leisure. We also have friends scattered around the world who don't necessarily mix or interact.

And then there's how we communicate online. Status updates on Facebook are often banal, he says. "You write 'I had Weetabix for breakfast', which your best friend may care about but not many others will."

This is because people don't change the way they converse online. Research has shown that they behave as if they are addressing a maximum of three other people, even though a post may go out to hundreds.

And social networking friendships demand a huge amount of work if they are to be maintained. Otherwise they will wither in a matter of months once emotional closeness is lost, Dunbar says. When it comes to using technology with our closest friends, it is texts not websites that count, he argues.

Research carried out by one of his post doctoral students involving 30 Sheffield sixth formers showed that 85% of the texts they sent were going to one of two people - usually a boyfriend or girlfriend and a best mate. It illustrates that there are things we still want to share with only our nearest and dearest, he says.

But as Oscar Wilde reminds us, friendship mixed with human nature can be a prickly business. "Anybody can sympathise with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathise with a friend's success." Or, for that matter, their choice of breakfast.

Source

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Commentary

Regardless of how this article seems to be arguing against itself, a friend is not an acquaintance, they are two different things.

A true friendship requires constant contact and work while an acquaintance requires next to none. Even a semi-developed acquaintance will not get upset if you don't call them after a while and usually you won't worry about them enough to want to call them.

The inability to separate these ideas is a new phenomenon among a number of people I know in my generation and this has mostly been caused because of facebook and myspace.

Facebook and myspace would have you believe a friend is anyone who accepts the label. That's absurd if you think about it.

To simply become someone's husband is not a label anyone can put on, but something that is achieved through sacrifice, hard work, and love.

Friends, especially true friends, are not acquaintances and we would do well to remember that.

The shuttle's successors

At first sight the Dream Chaser looks like a smaller version of the Space Shuttle, the vehicle it is designed to replace. In fact its origins can be traced back to the designs for Nasa's unfinished HL-20, a winged craft that was to serve as the lifeboat for the International Space Station.

"Space is hard and we know that"

Mark Sirangelo, Sierra Nevada Corporation

Dream Chaser

• 2015 launch date
• Atlas V launch vehicle
• 7 total crew capacity
• $100m Nasa funding so far*
• Runway landings

Like the shuttle, Dream Chaser's primary mission is to carry crew and cargo into low-Earth orbit and the International Space Station. Its developer, the Sierra Nevada Corporation, says the re-usable craft will be able to land on conventional runways.

Pictured above left is a scale model of Nasa's HL-20, the Dream Chaser's inspiration. On the right, a wire-frame image, again of the HL-20. Before the Dream Chaser launches in 2015, it needs to pass a safety checklist that includes, atmospheric, orbital and crew-rated testing.

*Total funding given in rounds one and two of Nasa's Commercial Crew Development programme (CCDev).

Source

Young and unemployed

Germany may have an ultra-modern economy but one of the pillars at the very centre of it is very traditional: the idea that people learn a skill on the job.

Markus Heinze has taken advantage of Germany's apprenticeship system

Right at the core of the economy are apprentices.

Just to get a sense of how pervasive the system is and how wide-ranging the possibilities are, just go to the website of the country's Economy and Technology Ministry.

There you will find page after page of advice on every conceivable occupation from A to Z: Anlagenmechaniker (plant mechanic) to Zweiradmechaniker (bike mechanic) via Holzspielzeugmacher (wooden toy maker), Manufakturporzellaner (porcelain maker) and Schuhmacher (shoe-maker).

Germany has a "dual system" - the apprentice spends some time learning on the job and the rest learning broader theoretical subjects, relevant to the job, at a college.

Courses are designed by employers and government with trade unions also involved.

Employers and government pay for them, with the wage to the apprentice often about a third of what they get when they are qualified.

Learning with your hands

Leonardo Duricic, Chief Technical Officer for C. Bechstein, which has been making pianos in Germany since 1853, says: "In the apprenticeship which is three-and-a half years you learn practical work which is about eight to nine months of the year".

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

You start to get money from the beginning”

Markus Heinze Apprentice at C Bechstein

"The rest of the time is used to learn the theory. The apprentices go to a special school for piano makers. But if you only learn theory, it's like learning swimming by reading a book."

The practical work involves the treating of wood and iron in complex, fine ways to produce a masterpiece of engineering on which masterpieces of music can be played.

Leonardo Duricic knows the benefits of both ways of education, the theoretical and the practical.

He went to university himself first but then decided he wanted to make pianos so took an apprenticeship.

"I first went to college and learnt the academics. I had a vast, nice education - but professionally I was able to do nothing."

One of his apprentices, Markus Heinze, told the BBC of the benefits of this way of training: "The advantage is that you learn with your hands and get into a field that couldn't be learnt at a university, especially the building of pianos".

"The other thing is that you start to get money from the beginning and this a big advantage."

Continue reading the main story

Unemployment rates for under 25s

• Germany 9.9%
• UK 19.6%
• EU 20.9%
• USA 18.4%

Source: Eurostat 2010

But does he feel there is a snobbery which puts those who work with their hands below those who work with their brains and learn at university?

"That exists in Germany but it isn't a big difference. You have some people who work with their brains on computers and things like that and they earn more money but some hand-craft people are pretty well paid too."

Mr Duricic says that apprentices are tested, before being taken on, on their sense of hearing - as well as wider aspects of aptitude and attitude.

"We also give them free-of-charge piano lessons, and training on music and composers, in addition to the hand-crafting and the profession that they are learning."

Unfilled places

There are disadvantages to apprenticeships, too.

Firstly, some fear that they tie people too closely to a particular industry.

The broader the skills, the broader the opportunities, so the key is to mix specific and broader training.

At the moment, there are about 40,000 unfilled apprenticeship places available in Germany.

Employers bemoan the lack of applicants, but the problem is partly money. The better the funding for apprenticeship schemes, the more the burden on the coffers of the funders, namely companies and tax-payers.

The dilemma is that training for the future costs money today - as pay to the apprentices and for the teaching facilities - and when funds are tight, the pressure on those funds is greater.

But nobody can deny that in an economy which is doing very well, apprenticeships have been a solid pillar to economic success.

Source

Fukushima crisis: Nuclear only part of Japan's problems

Continue reading the main story

Japan quake

• Q&A: Contaminated beef in Japan
• Q&A: Health effects of radiation
• Life on edge of exclusion zone
• Japan minister quits after a week

The crisis at Japan's Fukushima power plant has sparked a national review of energy policy and turned public opinion largely against nuclear power, but Shinji Fujino of the International Energy Agency argues this is just a small part of the serious electricity supply challenge the country now faces.

The earthquake on 11 March triggered the automatic shutdown of reactors at 11 of Japan's 54 nuclear reactors, with a total capacity of 9.7GW.

At the moment, only 18 nuclear reactors are producing power. The rest have either been shut down because of safety concerns or for routine maintenance.

In addition to the nuclear reactors, thermal power plants with a total capacity of 9.4 GW were also shut down following the natural disasters.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

For the time being, electricity companies will have to bridge the gap between supply and demand by increasing capacity in thermal power plants”

In total, Japan's power supply capacity in the affected area has been reduced by about 40%, which is almost equivalent to the national capacity of Switzerland or Austria.

In terms of its energy supply, Japan is isolated, having no interconnections with neighbouring countries. The national transmission system is divided into two separate frequency areas - the 60 hertz (Hz) western system and the 50 Hz eastern system. Although the two areas are interconnected using three frequency converters, the total shared capacity is comparatively small (roughly 1 GW). Thus the east of Japan, which includes Tokyo and the tsunami-hit areas, has faced serious power shortages.

In the first weeks after the disaster, the government and electricity companies asked all electricity consumers to voluntarily reduce their energy usage. In addition, rolling blackouts were implemented to try to balance supply and demand.

Japanese leaders want to boost the country's use of renewables

Electricity companies have taken many measures to restore power supply, including repairing damaged thermal capacity (fossil fuel power plants damaged by the earthquake and tsunami), bringing back thermal plants which were closed for inspections, and also thermal power plants that were previously decommissioned. Thanks to these actions, the supply-demand balance has improved and large-scale blackouts have been avoided.

However, the real challenge is in the summer months - the peak period of power demand in Japan, when temperatures in Tokyo routinely exceed 30C and air conditioning accounts for about 50% of total electricity consumption during peak hours.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

Owing to geographic and climatic conditions, the resource potential for renewable energy in Japan is relatively low when compared with other developed countries”

In response to this challenge, the government has announced a plan it calls Electricity Supply-Demand Measures in Summer Time which demands a 15% reduction in usage for all electricity consumers. The plan aims to minimise the impact of power shortages on people's everyday lives and on industry, while ensuring that any power reduction will not impair Japan's economic recovery.

How can it be achieved? Big businesses could install more energy-efficient machines and equipment, and shift or shorten the working times of staff. In offices and households, people could turn off lights and IT equipment and no longer leave electrical devices in stand-by mode. The government can take mandatory action to regulate the big energy consumers the current regulatory framework. For others, including households, action is voluntary.

In parallel with these short-term measures, the government has started to reconsider its mid- to long-term energy policy. At the moment, Japan relies on nuclear for about 30% of its power supply. The last national energy plan, published in June 2010, proposed nine additional nuclear units by 2020 and 14 or more by 2030. These large increases in nuclear capacity were expected to contribute to achieving Japan's ambitious CO2 emissions-reduction target (25% below 1990 levels by 2020).

Planning new nuclear reactors will now be much harder. Agreement from local residents will be necessary before restarting shutdown nuclear reactors - making it very difficult to bring them back online even after stress tests or upgrading.

Continue reading the main story

Nuclear crisis

• 11 March: Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant struck by huge earthquake and tsunami
• 16 March: 20km (11-mile) evacuation zone declared around plant
• 17 April: Plant owner Tepco says crisis will be under control by end of the year
• 20 May: Tepco President Masataka Shimizu resigns as firm posts losses of 1.25tn yen (£9.4bn; $15.3bn) for the past financial year
• 2 June: PM Naoto Kan survives no-confidence vote over his handling of quake and nuclear crises

For the time being, electricity companies will have to bridge the gap between supply and demand by increasing capacity in thermal power plants, in particular plants fired by Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). Given the available facilities and supply risks of each fossil fuel, LNG will be expected to play a major role. However, greater use of LNG could result in higher electricity prices as well as higher CO2 emissions, which will make it more challenging to meet the Kyoto Protocol target (6% below 1990 levels for the first commitment period 2008-2012).

Japan has a relatively small share of renewables, which account for approximately 5% of its total primary energy supply. The current National Energy Plan has set a target of 10% by 2020. At the G8 summit in France this May, Mr Kan announced a plan to increase renewables to more than 20% of total electricity supply by the early 2020s. The government also plans to install 10 million rooftop photo-voltaic units (solar cells) by 2030. Owing to geographic and climatic conditions, the resource potential for renewable energy in Japan is relatively low when compared with other developed countries.

But necessity is the mother of invention. Tackling these challenges head-on could help Japan's economy to recover, and become more competitive in the long-term.

Shinji Fujino is head of the country studies division of the International Energy Agency and is currently in charge of reviewing energy policies of the IEA member countries.

Source

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Commentary

Nuclear power is the past, not the future.

British Museum to stage Hajj exhibition

A 16th Century Ivory sundial and Qibla pointer is among articles to be displayed

The world's largest exhibition on the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, is to be staged at the British Museum early in 2012, it has announced.

Manuscripts, diaries, historic photographs and contemporary art will be displayed to mark the annual ritual, undertaken by Muslims across the world.

The museum's director, Neil MacGregor, said the Hajj was a cultural phenomenon "that needs to be better understood".

Hajj: Journey To The Heart Of Islam will run from 26 January to 15 April.

Pilgrim's journey

Every adult Muslim is meant to undertake the Hajj at least once in their life if they can afford the journey to Saudi Arabia and are physically able.

Many Muslims save for years in order to perform the pilgrimage.

Circling the Kaaba in the Great Mosque in Mecca is part of the ritual

Once they arrive, they must brave vast crowds and the fierce heat of the desert as they perform the Hajj rituals.

The exhibition will examine the pilgrim's journey, the rituals and the destination of Mecca.

It will also feature the work of contemporary Saudi artists such as Ahmed Mater and Shadia Alem.

Mr MacGregor described the Hajj as a "supreme spiritual moment for Muslims" which "shapes the notion of the Islamic community worldwide".

He added: "Very beautiful things, supreme works of art, have been made to be sent to Mecca to accompany people.

"We'll be looking at some of those objects and they are supreme."

Source

Post-9/11 hate killer Mark Stroman executed in Texas

Speaking before his execution, Mark Stroman described hate as "pure ignorance"

Continue reading the main story

Related Stories

• Inside death row

A multiple murderer who went on the rampage after the 9/11 attacks, killing three people he thought were Arabs, has been executed in the US state of Texas.

Mark Stroman, 41, died by lethal injection despite last-minute representations by his lawyer at the US Supreme Court.

In his final weeks Stroman's plea for clemency was backed by Rais Bhuiyan, who was shot but survived.

Mr Bhuiyan had said that killing Stroman was "not the solution".

The execution at Huntsville prison was delayed slightly by the final legal appeals, before Stroman was taken to the death chamber.

"Even though I lay on this gurney, seconds away from my death, I am at total peace," he said.

"God bless America. God bless everyone," he said. "Let's do this damn thing."

Stroman was pronounced dead at 2053 CDT (0153 GMT).

'Hate is ignorance'

Speaking to the BBC before Stroman's execution, Mr Bhuiyan, 37, said Stroman was guilty of "hate crime", but warned that his death would not achieve anything.

"His execution will not eradicate hate crimes from this world. We will just simply lose another human life," Mr Bhuiyan said.

Stroman's execution was the eighth in Texas during 2011 so far, and came as his lawyers sought a last-minute stay at the nation's highest court.

They cited the "significant surprise" of Mr Bhuiyan's support, and argued that Stroman's path to "this violent frenzy" was not made clear by defence lawyers during earlier trials and appeals.

Stroman admitted the killings, saying he was motivated by anger at the 9/11 attacks and wanted to take revenge on Muslims - or people who resembled Muslims.

"I had some poor upbringing and I grabbed a hold of some ideas which was ignorance, you know, and hate is pure ignorance. I no longer want to be like hate, I want to be like me," he told the BBC.

Source

Texas death row killer forgiven by shooting victim

By Alastair Leithead BBC News, Texas

Mark Stroman, due to be executed for going on a killing spree, now describes hate as "pure ignorance"

In the nine years Mark Stroman has been on death row in Texas, he says he has watched 208 people walk past him on the way to be executed.

This week it is his turn.

But fighting to save his life is the man he shot in the face and blinded in one eye.

In the days following 11 September, 2001, Stroman attacked three people, killing two of them.

The attack left Rais Bhuyian blind in his right eye

He was targeting anyone he considered an "Arab", calling it revenge for 9/11.

"What Mark Stroman did was a hate crime, and hate crimes come from ignorance," said Rais Bhuiyan, 37, the only man to survive the shooting.

"His execution will not eradicate hate crimes from this world, we will just simply lose another human life."

'Uneducated idiot'

It was a Friday lunchtime when a gunman walked into the petrol station shop and pointed a double-barrelled shotgun at Rais.

He had been robbed before and knew what to do. He offered the money from the cash register, but that didn't appear to be what Mark Stroman had come for.

"He asked me 'where are you from?' and that's a strange question to ask in a robbery. As soon as I said 'excuse me?' I heard an explosion and felt the sensation of a million bees stinging my face."

Rais Bhuyian, a Bangladeshi-born naturalised US citizen, played dead until his attacker left.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

If I can forgive my offender who tried to take my life, we can all work together to forgive each other and move forward”

Rais Bhuyian Victim

He needed many operations, has lost the sight in his right eye and still carries shotgun pellets in his face, but is now campaigning hard to prevent his attacker from being put to death.

Mark Stroman killed two other men in a similar way - Vasudev Patel, an Indian immigrant who was Hindu, and Waqar Hasan, a Muslim born in Pakistan. They were both shot as they stood behind a counter.

"I was an uneducated idiot back then and now I'm a more understanding human being," Stroman said through the black telephone handset, from behind a thick pane of glass in the death row visiting room at the Polunsky Unit, Livingston, Texas.

It was a week before the death sentence was due to be carried out, and his last opportunity to speak publicly about what he did, why he did it, and what he thought about the man he shot who was now fighting for his life.

"At that time here in America everybody was saying 'let's get them' - we didn't know who to get, we were just stereotyping. I stereotyped all Muslims as terrorists and that was wrong."

Stroman is shaven-headed and covered in tattoos. He made a point of putting up a small American flag on the counter behind the thick glass as the camera started rolling for the interview.

Mark Stroman is due to be put to death by lethal injection

At 41, he has lost some of the muscle he had when he appeared in court nine years ago, when he proudly held up an American flag and gave the thumbs up to the courtroom cameras.

"I had some poor upbringing and I grabbed a hold of some ideas which was ignorance, you know, and hate is pure ignorance. I no longer want to be like hate, I want to be like me," he said.

"No matter what I do or say is going to change the fact that even you are going to view the Muslims as suspect," he told me.

"If you get on the airplane and you see one, you might not be wanting to, but you are going to watch that person - we live in different times now, but it's not right to stereotype them and I'm the first to admit I did that."

Offering forgiveness

Rais Bhuyian is a Muslim, and on what he feared was his deathbed, he promised Allah he would make a pilgrimage to the Hajj in Mecca. There he thought more deeply about what had happened and what he wanted to do.

"This campaign is all about passion, forgiveness, tolerance and healing. We should not stay in the past, we must move forward," he said.

"If I can forgive my offender who tried to take my life, we can all work together to forgive each other and move forward and take a new narrative on the 10th anniversary of 11 September."

He had been in touch with Stroman, who he would like to see as "a spokesperson, an educator, teaching a lot of people as ignorant as him what is wrong".

Stroman says he has asked himself the question a thousand times - would he be able to forgive the man who shot him in the face? He said he would find it very hard.

"I tried to kill this man, and this man is now trying to save my life. This man is inspiring to me.

Rais Bhuiyan says Stroman could have a role as an 'educator'

"Here it is, the attacker and the attackee, you know, pulling together. The hate has to stop - one second of hate will cause a lifetime of misery. I've done that - it's wrong, and if me and Rais can reach one person, mission accomplished.

"If this is what my purpose in life is, let's do it - rock on, saddle up it's rodeo time as we say in Texas."

It seems very unlikely that the governor of Texas will issue a stay of execution - the state is known for its regular use of the death penalty - but Stroman seems resigned to it.

"To be honest, the closer I get to death the more at peace I am," he said.

Rais Bhuiyan's desire to forgive and to stop this execution is a small step towards bringing communities together.

"He did what he did, but now he is a different person, and can talk to the people - those who are as ignorant as him - so there is a chance we can live in a better society. Execution is not a solution in this case."

Mark Stroman is due to be put to death by lethal injection on Wednesday 20 July at 1800 Texas time (0000 GMT on Thursday).

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