News du jour: labor issues, UN, city growth, religion

Today's Peninsula has some interesting articles:

• Labor law directives issued -- funny, I assumed these things were already in effect, since they're part of the new labor law.


• Two committees to be set up to look into labour disputes -- seems like a good idea to have a better process, but I wish I knew who'd be ON the committee!


• Sheikha Mozah joins UN panel -- to combat extremism and prejudice. Groovy.


• Doha to get major facelift in coming decades -- Notable for the phrase "The area between the Doha Corniche and the D-Ring Road will get a major facelift..." Weird. I mean, that's almost all of Doha... and it's not like the area OUTSIDE the D-Ring ISN'T getting a major facelift!


• Six of the seven dead Nepalese were Muslims -- The religions of the fire victims isn't in itself interesting, but I was intrigued to read that only 10% of the Nepalese workers in Qatar are Muslim. What do you suppose the rest are -- Hindu? Buddhist? All the offical sites say that Qatar is around 99% Muslim, but I think that must refer to actual Qataris (the remainder being Bahai, I suppose). I wonder what the religion breakdown would be if the 80% expatriate population were included?

Religion quote

...we must never forget that as indispensible and historically valuable as the Quran and the traditions of the Prophet may be, they are nevertheless grounded in mythology. It is a shame that this word, myth, which originally signified nothing more than stories of the supernatural, has come to be regarded as synonymous with falsehood, when in fact myths are always true. By their very nature, myths inhere both legitimacy and credibility. Whatever truths they convey have little to do with historical fact. To ask whether Moses actually parted the Red Sea, or whether Jesus truly raised Lazarus from the dead, or whether the word of God indeed poured through the lips of Muhammad, is to ask totally irrelevant questions. The only question that matters with regard to a religion and its mythology is "What do these stories mean?"

-Reza Aslan, No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam, xviii