Martin Amis: ‘I wish my sister had converted to Islam’.
(Covered in more detail by Muslimah Media Watch.)
Martin Amis: ‘I wish my sister had converted to Islam’.
(Covered in more detail by Muslimah Media Watch.)
Stupid headline of the day:
Could Helmand be the Dubai of Afghanistan?
MPs put through Early Day Motion on American use of depleted uranium in Fallujah:
Last week’s report from the BBC’s World Affairs Editor John Simpson was picked up by news outlets worldwide. While the report did not make a causal link between the use of uranium weapons and the subsequent rise in birth defects, it made clear that Iraqi medical staff suspect that the US’s use of toxic materials in its weapons is a possible cause of the health problems.
The story triggered a swift response from the US military, whose spokesperson claimed that they took claims about health problems “very seriously” but added: “No studies to date have indicated environmental issues resulting in specific health issues.” At no point did they deny using uranium weapons there. However, and in spite of several Freedom of Information requests, the US military is still refusng to disclose how much DU was fired in Fallujah, just as it is refusing to disclose how much was fired elsewhere in the country and where it was used. Unsurprisingly this makes it almost impossible to study whether these health problems are linked to uranium weapon exposure.
I saw John Simpson’s report on a BBC World programme hosted by Nik Gowing a few weeks ago. It was quite bizarre: Gowing spent the entire 5-7 minute slot trying to get Simpson to agree that the US wasn’t to blame. Simpson refused to get involved and simply discussed what he had seen and reported.
Kai Ede, the former head of UN mission in Afghanistan is speaking out publicly and consistently with the theory Ahmed Rashid floated immediately after some of the arrests of Taliban leaders in Pakistan, that the arrests were of people who were engaging in talks and were actually designed by Pakistan to scuttle the chance of an agreement.
The recent arrests of senior Taliban leaders in Pakistan may have disrupted secret talks between members of the group and UN representatives, the former head of the UN mission in Afghanistan has said.
Kai Eide, who stepped down from the post earlier this month, confirmed on Friday in an interview with the BBC World Service that the UN had been holding talks with Taliban leaders since the spring of 2009.
But he said the face-to-face talks held in Dubai and other locations were halted several weeks ago after more than a dozen Taliban members were captured in Pakistan.
“The effect of (the arrests), in total, certainly, was negative on our possibilities to continue the political process that we saw as so necessary at that particular juncture,” he said.
Viewed as a moderate Muslim who has encouraged dialogue with Western countries, el-Tayeb has outwardly criticized hard-line Islamists, saying the focus on rituals and outward manifestations of piety — such as Islamic garb or beards — comes at the expense of true spiritual development.
Holy Amnesia: Is the Bible more violent than the Qur’an?
Actually I think analyses like these are pointless exercises in exegesis. There isn’t any defensive value to such a “tu quoque” approach and it just gives total jafis like Andrew Bostom another chance to spout their nonsense.
Tu quoque is the new taqiyya. Always cute when the sub literate expand their vocabulary and learn a new word.
The Obama Administration has diverted a shipment of bunker-buster bombs originally being shipped to Israel. In fact, no major weapons systems have been sent to Israel since Obama took office.
The bunker busters wouldn’t really be useful for Israel against the Palestinians… but Iran is another matter.
CNN has released clips of an audio message from Anwar al-Awlaki directed towards American Muslims. I am not claiming that Awlaki would never say such things, nor am I usually one for conspiracy theories, but as someone who listened to a good amount of Awlaki audio in the past, it is undeniable that there is something off about the recording. Perhaps its just the audio source or quality, but it sounds off.
I guess denial isn’t just a river in Egypt then. Considering that he has praised the airliner plot on Christmas, it does not surprise me.
It sounds very much like Awlaki, but there are a couple spots where the audio sounds funny. “…America was my home.” and “…reconcile…” both sound odd in the delivery, to my ear. It could simply be a matter of quality, as abunoor says.
As for content, if this is the worst of the reported 12 minute tape, I can only assume there is an issue of context and would like to hear it in its entirety.
Well, based on what I heard on the CNN clips, it does seem as if he’s reading from a script. That’s the only thing ‘off’ I could detect.
But as regards to his message, as you said, it seems to be totally in line with what he’s recently been preaching. It makes no sense whatsoever for it to have been digitally spliced or what not. After all, why go through such an effort to simply repeat what he’s already said before?
A more complete version of the new audio has now appeared on Youtube. I will say listening to that version, it does sound authentic. I guess it was just the nature of the short clips in isolation that made it sound weird,
Allah knows best.
At Muslimah Media Watch: Coulda, Woulda, Shoudla: Islam as Rehab for Women?
from Floating Sheep: geographies of religion (mapped by search terms). I like the way he overlaid the queries for sex for comparison.
I’ve never been big on national pride, team pride, or school pride, until today, when my alma mater really earned it. This victory is part of the ongoing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign.
Text of (pending) Senate resolution honoring Nowruz in Iran.
Johan Hari has a must-read article about forced kidnap, mutilation and rape of women in Ethiopia, as practiced for generations – and changing now.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I confess to finding St Pat a fascinating figure, for doing dawah on the jahilliyat frontier a century before Islam.
Aziz, I always try to make the case that Naomh Padraig was a “Muslim” in some sense since he was a follower of Isa (as) before Muhammad (saw).
Unfortunately it is not easy to argue that he did not believe in the trinity and the divinity of Isa (as)……
Abu Noor (born Michael Patrick Ryan)
(born Michael Patrick Ryan)
I should say born and baptized as Michael Patrick ibn Patrick ibn Marty ibn Patrick ibn Patrick Ryan
I always find ironic that before Middle Irish, there was no [p] in the Gaelic; his name is rendered in old documents as Cathraic much as Latin pascua “Easter” was borrowed as Casca (remaining as suck in Modern Irish and Scottish). Modern Irish, of course, has nativised the p-: Pádraig.
P was borrowed in from Latin and other neighbouring languages, but in indigenous words P > 0: notably Gaelic atháir (Latin pater, Sanskrit pitar, English father). Also note cict “a Pict” (a Latin borrowing) as well as Cruithen “Pict” (the Gaelic term).
Good heavens, what’s wrong with me that I should misspell nearly every word? It’s Cásc “Easter”, athair “father”. FAIL.
De-indenting: Incidentally, the group called “monophysites” were/are actually not monophysites, but miaphysites. That’s how they self-identify. True monophysites were never part of the larger conflict. The Coptic churches, which dominate in Near Asia and North Africa, are miaphysite.
In truth, there is no real difference in the credos of the miaphysites and dyophysites/Chalcedonians; it’s a matter of semantics. Not that religions ever needed real reasons to fight like cats and dogs…
Dilshad Ali offers her own, personal take on the Salafist coup at IslamOnline.
A muslim professor in Germany has decided that the Prophet SAW did not exist.*
I understand the need and right of academia to perform critical examination of religion, but this seems a pretty quixotic agenda. It seems like he’s more intoxicated with his own status as academic freethinker than performing any serious academic inquiry. There’s far more evidence for Mohammed’s SAW existence than there was for Jesus AS.
*astaghfirullah.
What I find ironic is that the Saudi regime is consciously or unconsciously contributing to this opinion by destroying the places where the Prophet lived and taught. The cave in which he received his first revelation is used as a garbage tip. Very soon the only evidence of the Prophet’s existence will be the oral traditions of hadith, because all the archeological evidence (much more difficult to refute) will be gone.
In 100 years I predict that the Prophet’s existence will be subject to as much dispute as Nabi Jesus. And we will have a Muslim regime to thank for it.
Thank you, I was about to say something similar. There isn’t much difference between what this professor is suggesting and what the grave-destroyer mentality has been up to for long time.
I’ve been trying to read more about this Muhammad Sven Kalisch fellow, and his theories seem a bit baffling to me. His denial of the historical reality of Mohammed seems to be rooted less on evidence and more in his personal gnosticism, although none of the stuff I have read have gone too far into depth about his ideas. I’m curious, now.
BTW, I’m not aware of any serious modern scholar of the New Testament of Christian origins who denies the existence of the historical Jesus. You sometimes get “mythicist” writers, e.g. Earl Dohertry or Robert Price, deny the existence of Jesus, but they’re usually not taken seriously by knowledgeable academics, even fairly “liberal” ones. Mohammed should hold up just fine as a historical figure. Of course, Muslims should expect scholars to apply “higher critical” techniques on the Quran and other Muslim sources, which may very well transform the way we view Early Islamic history and the development/reliability of the Quran as a document (which is basically what happened with the Bible during/after the Enlightenment).
Amongst all the commentary about the Israeli-US flap over 1600 settlements in East Jerusalem, Roger Cohen’s in the NYT stands out.
This is a watershed moment. Palestinian violence, Palestinian anti-Semitic incitement and jihadist infiltration of the Palestinian national movement all undermine peace efforts. They are unacceptable; Biden was right to “ironclad” the U.S. commitment to Israeli security. But it’s past time that Palestinian failings cease to serve as an excuse for Israel’s remorseless, cynical scattering of the Palestinian people into enclaves that make a farce of statehood. That is “an affront” to America.
In this sense, Biden’s foray has been salutary. It brought U.S. “vital interests” to the surface. It challenged Israel’s ostrich-like burrowing into polices that, over time, will make one divided, undemocratic state more likely than “two states for two peoples.” It asked again the question posed recently by David Shulman of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem: Are Israelis, cocooned, still able “to see, to imagine, and to acknowledge the suffering of other human beings, including those aspects of their suffering for which we are directly responsible?”
Also, Richard has been awesome, as usual.
In a nutshell, how the GOP sees muslims and liberals:
Pakistani men sentenced to life for burying women alive:
Another defendant involved in the case was sentenced to six months in prison, while 16 defendants were acquitted of the so-called “honor killings.”
they should also be buried alive.mofos
Indonesia’s largest Muslim group calls for welcoming President Obama and condemns hardline protests.
(Via an emailer.)
Sayeth General Petraeus, “Israel’s intransigence could cost American lives.”
Greenwald makes the case that we are at an inflection point in US-Israeli relations.
IslamOnline’s management have declared war on the staff, apparently. an attempt by conservatives to exert control?
Daniel Larison provides an appropriate response to Ross Douthat’s silliness.
Yes, the problem might be that we do not have artists capable of rendering contemporary architects of a war of aggression that was based on shoddy intelligence, ideological fervor and deceit in a sufficiently subtle, even-handed manner. If only Hollywood were better at portraying the depth and complexity of people who unleashed hell on a nation of 24 million people out of an absurd fear of a non-existent threat! Life is so unfair to warmongers, is it not?
Obama announces the list of charities to receive his Nobel Peace Prize money. I’m particularly gratified to see Greg Mortenson’s Central Asia Institute on the list – of Three Cups of Tea fame.
the subtext to this piece about western jihadis seems to be that radicalized converts are rubes, when drawn from lower/struggling social classes.
Glenn Beck is an American problem and has nothing to do with countries or people even remotely related to the ’stans’. Septics should create their own derogatory suffixes…
Heh. ‘Septics’.
Weird, half the commenters are showing up with thabet’s avatar.
test
Ya, something seems broken, noticed this yesterday.
I know nothing about computers, but I think if you comment while not logged in, it is displaying the avatar of the initial poster, even though you include your recognized name and email which normally would give you your own avatar.
the problem was the buddypress plugin – its working now, disabling that. filed a trac here:
Germany convicts home-grown militants.
I seriously think the only suitable punishment for such people is that they are parachuted into the middle of a war zone so they can play out their stupid fantasies.
Wajahat Ali on Jihad Jane and cartoon controversies. I love his closing point:
As an artist who relishes creative freedom, I resist calls that advocate artistic censorship or pander to political correctness. However, art – whether it be through words or images – has never existed within an isolated vacuum, and generally draws upon and animates the existing cultural context of the day.
Art can be used as a loaded cultural and political weapon to incite animosity amidst an already hostile climate dominated by foolish controversies–or it can be used wisely and bravely as a common language to bridge the divides.
and, I’ve got a post at COB in response to Waj.
I pretty much agree with you.
Kudos to Wajahat Ali, he seems to be all over lately in MSM.
Interesting discussion at Blogging Heads about the context for this violence in Nigeria and about the major issues facing Nigeria in general, with reference to other African countries as well. It features Dayo Olopade, who is a Nigerian American, and Eliza Griswold, who has a book coming out (although not for several months I don’t think) called “The Tenth Parallel” about the historical dividing line in Africa between Muslim and non-Muslim populations.
No doubt, and although obviously I haven’t read her book, from her comments in the diavlog she does not maintain and I hope I didn’t give the impression that it is some sort of fixed or exact line. The main point is that there are historical conflicts between different groups of people along these fault lines which are primarily contests over resources but which have been imbued both historically and currently with religious overtones.
To your average secular materialist that will come as no great insight, but obviously there is a strain of analysis that constantly speaks of “Islam’s bloody borders” and would posit that there is something inherent in the nature of Islam which causes wars and violence in areas where predominantly Muslim and non-Muslim populations come into contact.
abunoor 4:28 pm on March 19, 2010 Permalink |
Here are the comments Rashid had made along these lines a month ago after the arrest of Mullah Baradar.
abunoor 4:32 pm on March 19, 2010 Permalink |
I can’t find a link now but I heard on the radio before that Pakistan’s response was that the arrests of the Taliban officials were joint operations with the U.S.
Also, Peter Galbraith, formerly Eide’s No. 2 (before they had a falling out around the Afghan elections) is claiming that Eide is “greatly exaggerating” the level of talks that were going on.