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Analysis of ‘West Asian’ voting patterns in most recent US elections at Open Left. An example:
Money quote: “It is simply astounding that Republicans have been able to take their relationship with several different communities who have ties to this region and alienate so many, so well, so quickly. “
Spate of terrorism arrests not connected, analysts say.
In the past week, U.S. officials have announced charges in five terrorism probes in five states. It is a confluence of cases unlike anything the country has seen since the September 11, 2001, attacks.
But CNN’s national security analyst Peter Bergen and law enforcement analyst Mike Brooks say not to read too much into it — the rush of arrests is a coincidence.
“These are things that are happening completely independently,” Bergen said.
Brooks agreed, calling it a “happenstance.”
Most everything else in the story has already been bloged/linked here at TI, with the possible exception of an indictment against a Brooklyn man for conspiracy to commit murder abroad and for support of foreign terrorists. The man wanted to join al Shabaab in Somalia and “take up arms against perceived enemies of Islam.”
There’s also this observation about the men arrested:
While the five probes do not appear linked, they do involve suspects of a similar “socio-economic profile,” said Bergen.
“The profiles of the people… generally speaking is much closer to what we see among European Muslims,” he said. “They tend to be less well integrated” into mainstream society, and in many cases have faced economic difficulties and unemployment, Bergen said.
If there is a link among the suspects, Bergen said, “it’s a feeling of exclusion from the American dream.”
though there’s no courtesy of a link, I infer that Mu’adh is critiquing the bloggers here at Talk Islam when he discusses the nature of the Maftoon:
The Maftoon (the Muslim under the spell of Western fitnah) is similarly deeply narcissistic, annoyingly self-reflective and burdened with his own efforts to provide inner self-love and moral simplicity. Burdened with a desire to stare at clean hands, and avoid dealing with a dirty world. Constantly providing his nafs with measured words for self-assurance, and always carefully avoiding comparisons between terrorists and the Taliban (and neo-cons). They see the world through right and wrong, not between have and have-not. Speaking about what ought to be and not what is. This is why they are overly moral.
one possible reply might be 2:177:
It is not righteousness that ye turn your faces Towards east or West; but it is righteousness- to believe in Allah and the Last Day, and the Angels, and the Book, and the Messengers; to spend of your substance, out of love for Him, for your kin, for orphans, for the needy, for the wayfarer, for those who ask, and for the ransom of slaves; to be steadfast in prayer, and practice regular charity; to fulfil the contracts which ye have made; and to be firm and patient, in pain (or suffering) and adversity, and throughout all periods of panic. Such are the people of truth, the Allah-fearing.
Debunking the cultural objectification of Muslims in the West:
The main element of this grievous fallacy, as I have explained in “The Anthropology of Islam,” is the idea that Muslims are shaped by culture and in particular by their own religion: Islam.
Marranci cites an amazingly stupid study as an example:
Sometimes, however, such–intellectual and analytical–fallacies can produce laughable results. Look at this academic article entitled, ‘Is ethnicity and religion an aetiological factor in men with rapid ejaculation?’
Muslim population multiplied 10 times faster in UK.
Earlier, I excerpted Imam Rios stating that apostasy is one of five major concerns of Muslims in the West. But is that true? According to this article, “Immigration, higher birthrates and conversions to Islam are considered as major factors behind rise of the Muslim population in the UK by more than 500,000 to 2.4 million in just four years.”
I infer from this that UK Muslims have more growing pains than apostasy issues. Is apostasy a greater issue in the US than in the UK, and if so, why?