The irrelevance of The Hope And Change Regime:
Tagged: language Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
-
thabet
-
thabet
A positive review, by Charles Moore of all people, of a new book on British Muslims by Atif Imtiaz.
-
thabet
Michael Nazir-Ali deliberately muddies the waters in his response to Sayeeda Warsi’s comments on Islamophobia:
‘That is why we must distinguish between those Muslims who want to live peacefully with their non-Muslim neighbours and those who wish to introduce Shari’a into this country, restrict freedom of speech and confine women to their homes, not to speak of introducing draconian punishments such as death for blasphemy recently awarded to a poor Christian woman in Pakistan.
‘If relations are to improve between Muslims and other people in the world, these are the kind of issues that must be tackled.’
What does Pakistan’s blasphemy law have to do with bigotry towards Muslims in the UK? Surely, given his connections to the country, he must know that attacks against Christians in Pakistan are sometimes ‘justified’ on the basis that British and American warmongers are self-proclaimed Christians.
Giles Fraser adds something more sensible:
This is also why the growing idea that there is in this country such a thing as Christianophobia – an equivalent to Islamophobia – is such total nonsense. Following Warsi’s comments, the usual suspects of the Christian right have waded in with another rendition of “what about us?” What about those nice Christian B&B owners who have just been fined for sticking to their sincerely held beliefs about gay couples not sharing a bed under their roof? But the power relations here are altogether different. With bishops in the House of Lords by right, with the monarch being head of the Church of England, with the long history of Christianity shaping our values and culture, Christians are not a persecuted minority, however much they may feel misunderstood.
Being a good Anglican liberal, Fraser though still shares the same blind spot other liberals do: sometimes, may be most of the time, the line between ‘believer’ and ‘belief’ is fuzzy and not as clear cut as liberals presume it to be.
-
thabet
Finally, some ‘change’!
-
thabet
Question: are far-reaching political and civil rights ultimately compatible with far-reaching social and economic rights?
-
thabet
The German English-language website Deutsche Welle tells us that a ‘moderate’ Bosnian Muslim, Bakir Izetbegovic (son of Alija Izetbegovic) is the front-runner for the presidency. Similar praise of ‘moderation’ was heaped on Bosnian Muslims by The New York Times.
The Serb candidate, described as a ‘nationalist’, has said Bosnian Serbs will secede from the multi-ethnic state, citing the ICJ ruling on Kosovo earlier this year.
-
thabet
More on the ‘moderation’ of the Bosnian candidate from The Guardian.
-
-
thabet
-
thabet
One man’s terrorist, etc:
-
thabet
-
thabet
A man who aggressively defends the diktats of a religious leader — one who goes around the world in expensive fancy dress — is moaning about the spread of cult-like aggressive behaviour in another religious group.
-
Lawrence of Arabia
We aren’t surprised though, right? I mean, you just mentioned what is arguably the only progressive thing about him: his defense of men in dresses.
-
Arwi are discussing. 
thabet is discussing. 
Arwi 9:35 pm on January 28, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
On Tunisia: And, most striking, no “down with U.S. imperialism.” The hated regime was perceived as an indigenous one, the result of fear and passivity, and not as the puppet of French or U.S. neocolonialism, despite its endorsement by the French political elite.
Yakoub 10:31 am on January 29, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
The US/Israel government centipede would back Shaytan himself if they thought it was in their national interests.
aziz 9:22 am on January 31, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
and vice versa?
of course, show me a nation in history that wasn’t so. Surely we aren’t under the illusion that had the Palestinians created their own state alongside Israel back in the 40s, it would be substantially different from the crop of Arab autocracies today?
(I’m not excusing occupation and injustice here. Just pointing out that teh flaws are universal ones).