My wife Shabana has written with eloquence and profundity about "being an immigrant". My favorite part:Such is the lot of being an immigrant. It's not all about "seeking/finding a better life" and making truckloads of money. Some of it is about giving up some life. … [Read more...]
King Abdullah as the Anti-Christ
July 28, 2005 By 1 Comment
An evangelical website speculates that King Abdullah of Jordan might be the Anti-Christ. Another example of how Christians are allowed to interpret their scriptures in the most apocalyptic terms--terms which pretty much eagerly promise Muslims, Jews and other heathens a bloody end--but neocons and even mainstream observers feel they have the right to police Muslims' theological beliefs. Another interesting thing about the worldview laid out in that article is how it … [Read more...]
Why Tom Tancredo can stand by bombing Mecca
July 28, 2005 By 1 Comment
Rep. Tom Tancredo has not only refused to retract his "bomb Mecca" comments, but has upped the ante, declaring that his shrill, prejudiced anti-Muslim rhetoric is justified by the supposedly widespread extremism of "moderate Muslims". While part of his chutzpah can no doubt be ascribed to his own churlishness and to the extreme political climate prevailing within the GOP, to write this off as simply the result of his prejudice is naive. It would be political suicide … [Read more...]
The backlash continues
July 26, 2005 By 5 Comments
The saga continues, alas. Apparently, total agreement with (or silence concerning) Muqtedar Khan's inconsistent politics is now part of the Shahadah, and some people appear committed to browbeating me into recanting my heresy (last posting: "The Last Word on Muqtedar Khan and PMU"). Someone who signed on at July 26, 2005 12:13 AM as MMamdani wrote a nasty comment (read it in its entirety here) that, as eager as I am to move on, requires a response : Akram, you now officially qualify … [Read more...]
The last word on Muqtedar Khan & PMU
July 23, 2005 By 2 Comments
A few weeks ago, I posted some comments concerning Muqtedar Khan's resignation from the Progressive Muslim Union that sparked a rather lively exchange between myself and some of his defenders in the blogosphere. I ended up removing the original entries from the blog after a few days. I did so out of my own ambivalence about PMU/MWU and because I realized that some my off-the-cuff remarks could have been phrased more judiciously (not to mention weren't intended as my definitive … [Read more...]
More on the London bombing
July 22, 2005 By Leave a Comment
Ivan Eland provides a compelling answer to the question, "Why Did Terrorists Strike London?. After explaining the likely strategic objectives behind this monstrous crime, he provides some moral clarity and consistency to his level-headed analysis that is conspicuously absent from so much of the commentary to be found in the American media:Anytime non-combatants are purposefully killed, a monstrous moral crime has been committed. But in the United States, no one ever seems to ask why … [Read more...]
Blair’s Bombs
July 22, 2005 By 1 Comment
As we mourn the dead in London and pray for peace, we should remember why we're in this mess in the first place. A deadly dance is going on before the world's eyes between George W. Bush and Osama Bin Laden. Like most dances, it requires two eager partners. As John Pilger argues in "Blair's Bombs" , the wide-eyed zealots running American foreign policy today (and the spineless British leaders who are going along with it despite their own intense misgivings) … [Read more...]
The problem with Michael Ignatieff (and so many other liberal American pundits)
July 21, 2005 By 2 Comments
Mariano Aguirre has written a trenchant critique of the politics of the pundit Michael Ignatieff in OpenDemocracy.net. This piece highlights a depressing trend in American political life, the willingness of many self-described liberal and progressive intellectuals to propagandize for the immoral and disastrously short-sighted "Neocon" foreign policy of the Bush administration and its allies. Since 9/11 there has been a parade of liberals who've finally come out of the … [Read more...]
How about defining “al-Qaida”?
July 14, 2005 By Leave a Comment
This is a really informative and stimulating review by noted terrorism expert Peter Bergen of an explosive new documentary by Adam Curtis called The Power of Nightmares. It argues something that I have long believed, that the al-Qaida threat has been hugely exaggerated by warmongering neocons and a sensationalistic media. They have created a largely fictious construct that takes spontaneous and independent acts of terrorism, crime and resistance around the world as part of a … [Read more...]
Friedman wrong (again) on Muslims & OBL
July 11, 2005 By Leave a Comment
"Friedman Wrong About Muslims Again And the Amman Statement on Ecumenism"http://www.juancole.com/2005/07/friedman-wrong-about-muslims-again-and.html A great piece by Juan Cole exploring the latest politically convenient oversimplification made by Thomas Friedman to blame Muslims for problems that aren't entirely of their making. … [Read more...]
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