Western thinkers must begin to recognize the difference between Islamism and Islam, or we are headed toward an ideologically defined battle with one quarter of humanity. That’s the entire point of Newsweek’s Is It Islamic or Islamist? I’ll add “jihad” and “Jihadism” to the mix. The political or social philosophies of Islamism and Jihadism (note [...]
[22 Oct 2010]
Photo by Ranoush. Found on Flickr. “No matter how smart I was, I wasn’t getting the respect I wanted. They still hit on me, made crude remarks and even smacked me on the butt a couple times. [With the niqab,] they have to deal with my brain because I don’t give them any other choice.” [...]
[13 Jun 2010]
From yesterday’s Jerusalem Post, Jews back Muslims on minaret ban: Citing religious discrimination, a diverse coalition of Jewish organizations is objecting to Switzerland’s ban of minarets on local mosques. Swiss voters this week approved by a strong majority a referendum outlawing the construction of minarets. The measure, pushed by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP), [...]
[4 Dec 2009]
From The Bizarre Logic Behind the Swiss Minaret Ban by Yassin Musharbash: One should certainly avoid sugar-coating the sometimes unpleasant situation faced by Christians living in the Muslim world. There is room for criticism. But one should choose the appropriate means. To paint the Swiss referendum against building minarets as an act of solidarity with [...]
[3 Dec 2009]
A less polite me would say “Really, Thom Friedman? Just STFU because your latest column is the biggest load of BS on the internet this week.” So thank you Glenn Greenwald for taking Friedman to task: In a very rare moment of candor for this rank war-loving propagandist, he announced very clearly the real purpose [...]
[29 Nov 2009]
But the knee jerk reaction of blaming Islam and Muslims, in general, or looking for delusional links to “al Qaeda,” for the horrific murders at Fort Hood points to something far more fundamental, overdue, and urgent — namely something of a psychological barrier for Americans to accept the Islamic component of their own society, culture, [...]
[26 Nov 2009]
From Mark Ames’ Alternet’s article, The Memory Scrub About Why Ft. Hood Happened Is Almost Complete … If It Weren’t for Archives: The Army’s pig-headed failure to accommodate Maj. Hasan was, for a time, the most important — and most damaging — detail for understanding his shooting rampage. Because if Maj. Hasan tried to get [...]
[23 Nov 2009]
From Karen Armstrong’s Foreign Policy piece: Think Again: God: Homo sapiens is also Homo religiosus. As soon as we became recognizably human, men and women started to create religions. We are meaning-seeking creatures. While dogs, as far as we know, do not worry about the canine condition or agonize about their mortality, humans fall very [...]
[19 Nov 2009]
It was the most successful form of colonialism: the colonized mind identified completely with the colonizer. The Javanese had held out for centuries, but finally they had lost. Their idea of there being many paths to God, none better than the other, had broken under the weight of the orthodox Arab injunction about the one [...]
[16 Nov 2009]