Quotes about cameo (6 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

“Perhaps [Condoleezza Rice] would have made a more timely cameo in New Orleans had a Chevron tanker caught fire. Jane Crow seems to be just as willing as old Jim was.”

Larisa Alexandrovna (1971) Ukrainian-American journalist, essayist, poet

Defending Those Who Know http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larisa-alexandrovna/defending-those-who-know_b_7517.html; "Jim" is a reference to Jim Crow laws.

Time

“It might come as a surprise to many, but the truth is that Islam today no longer has a living and evolving theology. In fact, with few exceptions, Islam’s last genuine theologians belong to the early part of the 19th century. Go to any mosque anywhere, whether it is in New York or Mecca, and you are more likely to hear a political sermon rather than a theological reflection. In the highly politicized version of Islam promoted by Da’esh, al Qaeda, the Khomeinists in Iran, the Taliban in Afghanistan and Boko Haram in Nigeria, God plays a cameo role at best. Deprived of its theological moorings, today’s Islam is a wayward vessel under the captaincy of ambitious adventurers leading it into sectarian feuds, wars and terrorism. Many, especially Muslims in Europe and North America, use it as a shibboleth defining identity and even ethnicity. A glance at Islam’s history in the past 200 years highlights the rapid fading of theologians. Today, Western scholars speak of Wahhabism as if that meant a theological school. In truth, Muhammad Abdul-Wahhabi was a political figure. His supposedly theological writings consist of nine pages denouncing worship at shrines of saints. Nineteenth-century “reformers” such as Jamaleddin Assadabadi and Rashid Rada were also more interested in politics than theology. The late Ayatollah Khomeini, sometimes regarded as a theologian, was in fact a politician wearing clerical costume. His grandson has collected more than 100,000 pages of his writings and speeches and poetry. Of these, only 11 pages, commenting on the first and shortest verse of the Koran, could be regarded as dabbling in theology, albeit not with great success.”

Amir Taheri (1942) Iranian journalist

"The mad dream of a dead empire that unites Islamic rebels" http://nypost.com/2014/06/14/the-mad-dream-of-a-dead-empire-that-unites-islamic-rebels/, New York Post (June 14, 2014).
New York Post

God , War , Truth , School

“At dawn, a railwaywoman
On a country platform whirls on the end of a chain
An irrelevant key, while a young guard makes to wipe
A crumb from her lapel; and see, she smiles
A permissory smile you take in from your corner seat:
A cameo of unrehearsed perfection.”

Alan Brownjohn (1931) British writer

The Old Flea-Pit (1987).

Smile , Perfection , Country

“Neither a community, nor a race, nor yet a culture, an ethnicity or social class, Islam can and must be regarded as what it claims to be: a religion. Yet, as such, it should behave as a religion. That is to say: develop a theology, some sense of transcendence and a moral structure to advocate and defend a set of beliefs. However, this is precisely what modern Islam is not, perhaps does not want to be. Unable to perform as a religion, modern Islam (in most of its varieties) acts like a political movement. It is obsessed with jihad and martyrdom, Kashmir, Palestine, world conquest, hijab, beards, uniforms and other paraphernalia of totalitarianism. In many mosques, including some in France, God is given no more than a cameo role, as jihadists, suicide bombers, hostage-takers and ISIS-style throat-cutters get top billing.”

Amir Taheri (1942) Iranian journalist

Stop giving modern Islam a free pass http://nypost.com/2015/01/09/stop-giving-modern-islam-a-free-pass/, New York Post (January 9, 2015).
New York Post

God , World , Religion , Communication

“Lying at the heart of this ridiculous cameo of modern summitry is nuclear's fundamental problem.”

Bernard Ingham (1932) British journalist

Article on Nuclear's Presentational Problem from the World Nuclear Association http://www.world-nuclear.org/sym/2002/ingham.htm's web site

Lying , Problem , Heart

“The Vicomtesse alias Moira Lister - even though she is on the wrong side of 60, is looking like an exquisite, flawless Gainsborough cameo.”

Moira Lister (1923–2007) actress

Jani Allan, "The Vicomtesse from Ostrichland", Sunday Times (1983), republished in Face Value by Jani Allan.