Thursday, December 16, 2010

Four years of Irtiqa!

The first post of Irtiqa was on December 16, 2006. It was on a new religious video game from the creators of the Left Behind Series. Well, just like the name "Irtiqa", I hope this blog has evolved as well - and hopefully for the better. At the time I didn't expect the blog to continue for more than six months. But it has turned out to be a fantastic learning experience and it has introduced me to some wonderful and smart people. Then earlier this year (January 20th, 2010), Nidhal joined Irtiqa for his weekly posts on Monday mornings. He brings in a unique perspective to the blog and I have enjoyed his writings tremendously.

But most of all, THANK YOU for sticking around, reading, and commenting on the blog. Your encouraging words, both on the blog and over e-mails, have been a fantastic source of inspiration. So thank you!

Okay enough about this. Here is a total non sequitur. Since Coen Brothers' True Grit is starting next week, and their last film A Serious Man was not only a fantastic film, but it also addressed science and religion issues (see earlier posts "A Serious Man" and Physics and Accept the mystery - go see "A Serious Man"), here is an hommage to Joel & Ethan Coen and Quentin Tarantino.


Tarantino vs Coen Brothers from Leandro Copperfield on Vimeo.

and for the heck of it, here is another hommage of Kubrick and Scorsese (I like this one even better - perhaps because Kubrick kicks some serious ass!):

Kubrick vs Scorsese from Leandro Copperfield on Vimeo.

12 comments:

Shahid Saeed said...

Congratulations. Irtiqa remains a top notch blog.

Blogoratti said...

Congratulations...mine is a day after yours! Cheers!!

Dr. M. Akbar Hussain said...

Keep it up sir. Hope you don't mind some of my critical feedbacks :-)

Quellspring said...

Four more years! Four more years!

Ali said...

Congratulations, Salman and Nidhal.

I came across this blog sometime towards the end of last year and have been following (though sometimes irregularly) what's happenning here. I have enjoyed reading most of the posts and more so on commenting and debating on some of them, especially the ones posted by Nidhal.

However, i am disappointed that some of my older comments here are no longer there. For example, i clearly remember making a comment (or perhaps two) on your post of Tuesday, October 13, 2009, titled 'Making sense of Al Jazeera's strange coverage of "Ardi"'. I am afraid it is no longer there. I did comment saying that Lina Malkawi's analysis of what Al Jazeera presented is not something that i would rely on or something of that sort. And i also mentioned something disagreeing to your criticism of Dr Zaghloul El Najjar.

May be more of my comments on other posts too will no longer be there for I often present views that (sometimes strongly) oppose the main theme line i get from this blog. I must check on this.

Not that i even can complain about any disappearance of my older comments. But that i am disappointed to see that they have indeed disappeared.

Salman Hameed said...

Thanks to all.

Ali,

For the umpteenth time, there is no censorship on this blog. I have not removed a single comment from here. In fact, one comment that did not get published because of blogspot issues was posted by me separately. And you may notice that there are many comments that do not agree with the posts (for example see comments on the post criticizing Harun Yahya's idiotic atlas of creation).

But apart from what I believe about the lack of censorship, I really don't have much time to go back and delete your comments.

It is possible that you may have commented on Lina's blog directly, or may be there was some other issue, but I really don't mind having opposing comments on the blog.

Ali said...

Hi Salman,

No, I did not comment on Lina's blog. I have never commented on her blog. The particular comment i am talking about, I have commented here. And i remember writing the words "one woman's (or man's for that matter) interpretation of what Al Jazeera presented ...". I would not have used these words had i commented on Lina's blog for "one woman" in my comment was a reference I made to Lina.

I am not saying that you deleted my comment(s).

All I know is that my comment is not there. And i am pretty disappointed that it has disappeared.

I don't know why my comment(s) disappear. On the latest of this mytery, I SAW my comment published here before it vanished a few hours later. This is the commnet that you have posted from your email.

I hope i am not hallucinating. :)

Ali said...

Hi Salman,

Something strange is happening here.
I just wrote a commnet on this post and now it is not there.

Salman Hameed said...

Ali,

I just checked. Your last comment was caught in the spam filter (but not your first comment on the post). But I also checked for earlier comments, and did not see any others by you in the filter. I will keep an eye on it to see if it does that again.

-Salman

Ali said...

Thanks Salman.

Ali Kazim Gardezi said...

Great job Salman. You have given us lot of interesting articles to read, share and discuss.

It is one of my all time fav blogs. Wishing 'irtiqa' many more years :)

Dr. M. Akbar Hussain said...

This blog will evolve (irtiqa) into scienceatheismnews.blogspot.com over coming years.
:-D
Kidding...this blog is zara hut ke in a sense that it touches a different subject and is a blend of science and religion. Most of the posts are very interesting.

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