I had composed a long, detailed magnum opus the other night responding to the Washington Post piece mentioned previously, when the fate that bloggers fear worse than death befell me. My PC rebooted suddenly, completely unbidden, just as I was reaching a crescendo. I think I triggered an unknown keyboard shortcut for shutting down. It was enough to make me howl into the inky sky. Perhaps it was a sign from on High that I wasn’t supposed to be watching... Read more
An Indian reader posted an intriguing comment on my post about anti-Semitism in contemporary India ("The latest thing in Bombay’s nightlife: Nazi dining!"): I believe that India hosts highest number Hitler admirers in the world. Most Indians are either unaware of the crimes committed during WWII or they conveniently chose to ignore it. Most young students and even radical elder people have a fascination, admiration of Adolf Hitler. I try to find the pattern of certain sentiments (both anti-muslim and... Read more
The Washington Post ("For Conservative Muslims, Goal of Isolation a Challenge") has an interesting and wide ranging article on the state of Wahhabism among American Muslims. There’s a lot to comment on, but I’ll just note my exception to one claim: The sense of beleaguerment among many Muslims in the Washington area is particularly strong among Salafis. "In the past, people would say, ‘I’m Salafi.’ Now, I never encounter people who say that," District resident and Muslim activist Svend... Read more
Commenting on my satirical post "Understanding Muslim Language", someone on an Internet discussion group shared an entertaining anecdote from Australia that illustrates one of the pitfalls of cross cultural translations in general and the literal translation of Muslim religious rhetoric into Western languages: In Iran when you are frustrated with someone that you are talking to you say la ilaha illallah. Here in Australia they show Iranian movies rather frequently on a foreign language channel called SBS. In these movies... Read more
An alarming report ("Assyrians Face Escalating Abuses in "New Iraq")on the plight of the ancient Assyrian community in Iraq. The longstanding persecution of ethnic minorities in Iraq is quietly writing the end chapter to Iraqi Assyrian history: if the world doesn’t wake up to the plight of this people, they will soon be shoved through the door of extinction, warn patrons and human rights defenders. The Assyrian Christian population of Iraq, historically traceable to the Mesopotamian cradle of civilisation,... Read more
A reminder to those who imagine that anti-Semitism is a particularly "Muslim" problem today. Cuddly, non-Muslim India has it, too. In spades. And this despite the fact that, unlike most Muslim countries, India is closely allied today with Israel. By no stretch of the imagination is India locked–either militarily or culturally–in a cold war with a Jewish state. From "Hitler-themed eatery draws fire" on MSNBC.com: A new restaurant in India’s financial hub, named after Adolf Hitler and promoted with posters... Read more
Things have been exceedingly hectic, but I think I’m approaching the point where I might be able to blog again with a modicum of regularity. So I give you a a strange scene from Sri Lanka that reminds us how inadequate our simplistic categories are. A peace rally of Buddhists, Muslims and Hindus is disrupted up by a band of violent Buddhist monks! It sounds like a New Age joke. SRI LANKA: Pro-War Monks Turn Peace Rally Into Fracas When... Read more
A comrade commented on my post about the controversy among German Catholics over the "Popetown" program ("German Catholics offended by ‘Simpsons’-style cartoon of Vatican") by predicting that many will respond that, sure, some Catholics may be calling for censorship, but at least they’re not burning embassies, killing people, etc. I thought I’d repost my response to that observation on its own since I think it begins to addresse some of the underlying problems with the cartoon debate and punditry on... Read more
German Catholics call for censorship of seemingly considerably less offensive portrayal of Pope than the Jyllands-Posten cartoons. Muslims are supposed to take Muhammad with a bomb in his turban in stride at the same time that Catholics are up in arms over the Pope on a pogo stick. It kind of says it all, doesn’t it? Now, I should note that I don’t have a problem with Catholics pressuring MTV to drop the series. Judging by the stills on the... Read more
Good news: We’re one step closer to warp drives and photon torpedos. BBC NEWS | ‘Cloaking device’ idea proposed The cloaking devices that are used to render spacecraft invisible in Star Trek might just work in reality, two mathematicians have claimed. If I could have one imaginary technology from ST, it wouldn’t be obvious ones. Not the cloaking device. It’s not the transporter, either. Not the warp drive. Not the tricorder. Not even the phaser. Give up? Perhaps this shows... Read more
Akram's Razor
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