An observation. Years ago, when I was teaching we had foreign students. The muslims of those were not some monolith of faith. There were those who insisted on taking time out of class to kowtow to Mecca. Prayer mats and the whole nine yards. There were also those who didn't care. They wanted to learn and had no interest in praying to Mecca. There were those who had a political agenda. Right up to outright fraudsters. All human life was there.
Frankly, they were just people with as much variation as any other group. Like christians.
There is only one distinction for the muslims that I have ever found. While the fundies of whatever religion might propose in faith, only the fundie muslims were willing to go the whole nine yards and actually do it. Those folks were rather scary, but vastly in a minority. Most of them did not give a rats about whatever Islam claimed.
But part of the course dealt with the traditional 555 timer. and it's time cycle and how to control it. Given the sudden excitement of certain students, I chose to curtail that part of the curriculum in short order.
I was young at the time, but even then I was smart enough to realise that when certain lethargic student start asking question after no participation, they have a motivation. And It does not much help if they are islamic fundies and only wake up when one is teaching something that can be used to make bombs.
Now, for those unaware, the 555 timer is an entirely innocent time chip. it merely times events. But ask yourself what is it timing? The delay before a rocket launch to the moon? The delay before I wake and leave my home in the morning? The time to which I happened to set my alarm? The time it takes to rightly boil an egg? The delay before detonation? It can do all of those things, given correct connections and components.
To me, I was not willing to teach wingnuts to make bombs.
Frankly, they were just people with as much variation as any other group. Like christians.
There is only one distinction for the muslims that I have ever found. While the fundies of whatever religion might propose in faith, only the fundie muslims were willing to go the whole nine yards and actually do it. Those folks were rather scary, but vastly in a minority. Most of them did not give a rats about whatever Islam claimed.
But part of the course dealt with the traditional 555 timer. and it's time cycle and how to control it. Given the sudden excitement of certain students, I chose to curtail that part of the curriculum in short order.
I was young at the time, but even then I was smart enough to realise that when certain lethargic student start asking question after no participation, they have a motivation. And It does not much help if they are islamic fundies and only wake up when one is teaching something that can be used to make bombs.
Now, for those unaware, the 555 timer is an entirely innocent time chip. it merely times events. But ask yourself what is it timing? The delay before a rocket launch to the moon? The delay before I wake and leave my home in the morning? The time to which I happened to set my alarm? The time it takes to rightly boil an egg? The delay before detonation? It can do all of those things, given correct connections and components.
To me, I was not willing to teach wingnuts to make bombs.
