FIRE IN THE HOLE

Grenfell Tower, London.

"Consider, he said, the Islamic State’s justification for burning to death the Jordanian pilot Muʿdh al Kasasbeh—namely that since the pilot had burned people alive and crushed them with rubble, he must suffer the same fate, under the doctrine of reciprocal punishment, or qisas. “First of all, qisas is never applied in fitna [social discord] or war. That’s by the consensus of scholars: no qisas in war.”Instead, he said, qisas is restricted to civil punishment, a literal eye-for-an-eye administered in times of peace by a proper court to settle disputes between two citizens. The Islamic State was applying an established doctrine, but only after plucking it out of a context that had been considered essential for centuries. Second, he said, in burning Kasasbeh they acknowledged the scriptural command not to use fire as an instrument of torture—only God may punish with fire—but they treated that command as subordinate to the use of qisas by Abu Bakr al Siddiq and others. Traditionally, however, historical examples are considered the weakest category of authority, and inadequate for the taking of a life. “No scholar would ever use a piece of historical tradition as legal evidence,”Yusuf said. “You are dealing with gross amateurs, not jurists."
The Way of the Strangers, Graeme Wood.



RUMOURS claiming the media has been told to “cover-up” the death tell of the Grenfell Tower fire are circulating on social media.
Twitter and Facebook users are sharing claims the Government has ordered newspapers and TV channels not to report the facts about the London tower block inferno.
They make outrageous claims Prime Minister Theresa May has issued a so-called “D Notice” amid fears of “damage” to her position.But Daily Star Online can confirm this is NOT true and no such guidance has been issued as firefighters try to establish the death toll.

Wild rumours Government oredered media to cover up Grenfell Tower death toll, The Daily Star, 16 June, 2017.

The chatter was confirmed. The silence taken. Across the horizons, a swirling circle, an invisible, streaming army, not of the dead, for these creatures did not die, but of chatter, conflicting radio messages, an ominous tide.

They were there, trans-dimensional, the ones the humans had mistaken for gods, and fluxed in and out of an equally ominous time in history. They had been sent. There was a sickening thud. All their schemes came to nought. The rabbit holes disappeared. The swirling, hysteric streams, containing as they did the screams of millions, were drumming towards him.

But there was no clarion call. There was no master. No easy sense of direction. No mystery, or no one prepared to solve the mystery. If destiny was to grip one unsaved soul, as converts preached through suburban walls, these were just flashes in a tinder point of history, the repressive policies, the shutting down, the belligerent, malignant, unpleasant bureaucratic overreach which had gripped the country just a prelude.

"One step closer to the revolution," Old Alex commented at one of the local Tables of Knowledge; his head rising. 

He watched them, as if fish in an aquarium, anemones flowing in the thickened air, already in the ceiling, barely captured in the fabric of things. 

Far off, the disasters, 150 dead in Kabul, more than 100 feared in London. The world staggered, not from one existential crisis to another, because they were already beyond that, but to something more terrible, flames extinguished. All the agony was on a physical plane, lives crushed. 

The modern technologies transmitted their grief, the anger, the visual and spiritual disturbances, here in this far off, seemingly innocent place. But there was nothing innocent about this time, the deliberate embrace of ignorance, the crushing of public knowledge, the dumbing down, as the saying went, of whole populations. They were feed, food, supplies for the gods, who racked up their successes in battle and in war, these ancient occlusions stepping from behind their veils of the real. It was not just the agencies at war, but ancient gods wrecking havoc. 

They had been sent to stop the slaughter through an equally ancient device: knowledge. 

But the unhappy gods cared as little for their own destinies as for the bugs, the humans, they so eagerly crushed. This conclusion, this deepening pit of their own delusions, would never wipe the planet clean, so fecund was the planet.  

But  they would change the course of the species. And wreck among themselves the worst of things. 

Be grateful for small mercies, he warned. Because there will be no mercy. 

THE BIGGER STORY:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/16/we-want-justice-grenfell-tower-protest-spills-into-town-hall

Hundreds of protesters angry at the government’s handling of the Grenfell Tower disaster descended on the offices of Kensington town hall while others barracked the prime minister as she met residents for the first time near the scene of the tragedy.

More demonstrators marched through in central London through Whitehall towards Downing Street and then on to Broadcasting House off Oxford Street. The crowd later moved off towards Kensington High Street, chanting: “No justice, no peace.”

“We are here today because you must look at that building with tears streaming down your face,” one woman said as they neared the foot of the tower. We need answers and we need answers now,” another man said through a megaphone. “This should not be happening in the United Kingdom.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/16/london-fire-latest-updates-grenfell-tower-fire-victims/

Grief over the Grenfell Tower disaster turned into angry protests on Friday as the official death toll rose to at least 30 and dozens more deaths were feared.

Prime Minister Theresa May faced cries of "coward" and "shame on you" as she returned to the site of the devastating fire in west London after being criticised for not meeting victims in the wake of the tragedy.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/london-fire-58-people-now-presumed-dead-in-grenfell-tower-horror-as-16-bodies-recovered-a3567366.html

At least 58 people are now presumed dead following the devastating fire at Grenfell Tower, police said as the search to recover bodies continues.

In the latest update on Saturday, Commander Stuart Cundy said officers have now established there were 58 people known to have been in the tower at the time of the disaster and who are still missing.

Police have so far recovered 16 bodies and the first victim has been formally identified as 23-year-old Mohammed Alhajali.

All 24 floors of the high rise building has now been searched. The recovery operation was paused on Friday over fears for the safety of emergency workers in the building but is now set to resume.