Compelling new evidence against Danish government’s handling of the cartoons

Last updated on: May 7, 2013 at 6:47 pm By Svend White

Have been too busy to blog lately, alas. A quick update on the Danish cartoon controversy. Just got my hands on a great new book by Rune Engelbreth Larsen and Tøger Seidenfaden called Karikaturkrisen: En undersøgelse af baggrund og ansvar ("The Cartoon Crisis: An Study of its background and responsibility") which pretty much demolishes the government’s justifications and much of the conventional wisdom about the Danish imam’s supposedly inflammatory contribution to the crisis. Haven’t read the whole thing yet and... Read more

An unlikely “mole” breaks a terror cell in Canada

Last updated on: May 7, 2013 at 6:47 pm By Svend White

An exceedingly interesting twist in a recent case of an alleged Canadian terror cell being broken: The hero of the hour is not only a civilian, a mole and a Muslim. He’s a highly conservative Islamist well known in Canada for promoting the introduction of shariah up north. When you get down to it, though, there is no contradiction. In fact, it makes perfect sense that a "hard-line" Muslim–assuming that this label applies to this individual, whom I do... Read more

Unbridled savagery in Bombay

Last updated on: May 7, 2013 at 6:47 pm By Svend White

I have watched the reports of carnage from the savage train bombings in Bombay with intense disgust and sorrow. The current count stands at 179 dead and 661 injured. And the death toll is likely to rise considerably, as many of the injured are in critical condition. Finally, who knows how many people have been devastated and families shattered by these cowardly attacks. Subhanallah. May Allah grant the victims and their families peace, and may these heartless monsters be exposed... Read more

Alan Wolfe on American conservatives’ inability to govern

Last updated on: May 7, 2013 at 6:47 pm By Svend White

Alan Wolfe argues here in the The Washington Monthly that conservatives have a dismal record in as political leaders. What I found most interesting was his argument that, contrary to its constant invocation of the Founding Fathers, today’s American Conservative movement is out of sync with American history and political culture. "Why Conservatives Can’t Govern" by Alan Wolfe The United States, as the political scientist Louis Hartz argued in the 1950s, was born liberal. We fought for our independence against... Read more

Continuity & Sci-Fi

Last updated on: May 7, 2013 at 6:47 pm By Svend White

Here’s a entertaining and wide-ranging essay ("The Science of Consistency: On fictional universes and the fans who rationalize them" by Todd Seavey) by a sci-fi buff about the challenge of maintaining continuity in science fiction and how inevitable such mistakes are in a fictional creation of any scale. Shabana is periodically taken aback when I take great umbrage at some "minor" mistake on her part concerning the key narratives of sci-fi/fantasy–I’d share them, but they’re too painful to recount–so I... Read more

“Europe’s Mosque Hysteria”

Last updated on: May 7, 2013 at 6:47 pm By Svend White

A sober and insightful discussion of Europe’s “Muslim Problem” and the real significance of current demographic trends. The comparison of Europe’s problems to the USA’s social and racial unrest during the 1960s is particularly intriguing. Europe’s Mosque Hysteria by Martin Walker (Wilson Quarterly, Spring 2006) There is nothing ineluctable about any clash of civilizations between Islam and the West. Current demographic trends are not immutable, and it would be foolish to extrapolate from them a spurious forecast about Muslim majorities... Read more

Europe fiddles as Gaza crumbles under Israel’s siege

Last updated on: May 7, 2013 at 6:47 pm By Svend White

Jonathan Steele in The Guardian provides an antidote to the blindly pro-Israeli sophistry we’re hearing in the "mainstream" media in the USA ("Europe’s response to the siege of Gaza is shameful") at the moment. I think all his charges are sadly borne out by the evidence. Thank God for real supporters of Israel like Gideon Levy who understand that peace can never be gained by waging an endless undeclared war. Thank goodness for the Swiss. Alone in Europe, their government... Read more

The problem with “Muslim-only” days: Balancing assimilation with natural social divisions

Last updated on: May 7, 2013 at 6:47 pm By Svend White

Recently, news broke in the United Kingdom of a "Muslim-only" day [Reluctant HT: Islamophobic] being organized by a local Muslim community at an amusement park. I’m relieved that it turns out that the hysterical reports have been, as so much news concerning Islam (e.g., the Miami 7) is, exaggerated [Great work, Indigo Jo!] to conveniently dovetail with the bigoted stereotypes and political agendas of Islamophobes, but the issue raised by these reports remains relevant and worth exploring. The idea of... Read more

John Stewart on “The Miami Seven”

Last updated on: May 7, 2013 at 6:47 pm By Svend White

Here’s a side-splittingly funny and characteristically dead-on bit by Jon Stewart on "The Miami Seven". As usual, I bemoan the fact that the best investigative journalism in the mainstream media seems to be being done by comedians. Those with weak bladders are advised not to watch this. You will soak yourself and everything around you. Don’t you love all these glib phrases like "aspirational not operational". In other words, they posed no threat whatsoever because they hadn’t acted or acquired... Read more

Who recognizes Gaza’s “right to exist”? (repost)

Last updated on: May 7, 2013 at 6:47 pm By Svend White

[Sorry for yet another re-post. Was dissatisfied with the wording, as usual.] Haroon at avari-nameh has summed up well the profoundly immoral doublestandards on lurid display in the standoff between Israel and the Palestinians at the moment. In order to bully the Hamas-led government into forcing some militants to hand over an abducted Israeli colonel–At the very same time that it continues to blow up people’s cars from the air, it should be noted–Israel has intentionally bombed the electricity and... Read more