By Phyllis Chesler

Quietly, deftly, persistently, cunningly, Sharia law has become the law of the land in Britain in matters of divorce, finances, and domestic violence. Yes — domestic violence. Of course, both parties have to request this alternate dispute resolution model of justice but I bet the British-Muslim women who “choose” to inherit radically less than their brothers and who “choose” not to press criminal charges against their husband-batterers are not making a free choice. In order to remain within their faith and family communities they must submit to Sharia law or risk ostracism, isolation, or the possibility of being honor-murdered. … (Continue reading…)

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By Jonathan Spyer

Seven years after September 11, 2001, al-Qaida as an organization is seen by many analysts to be in some disarray. One prominent observer of the network depicts it as having been reduced to a core of 200-300 operatives. Yet al-Qaida as an idea and as a franchise remains healthy and is still a threat.

Responding to this changed reality, the al-Qaida leadership is investing increased resources in propaganda, with the intention of radicalizing large numbers of young Muslims throughout the world. And these efforts are proving successful, though it is doubtful whether this success will produce real-world political benefits for al-Qaida.

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by Daniel Pipes*

When it comes to a state fighting a non-state enemy, there is a widespread impression the state is doomed to fail.

In 1968, Robert F. Kennedy concluded that victory in Vietnam was “probably beyond our grasp,” and called for a peaceful settlement. In 1983, the analyst Shahram Chubin wrote that the Soviets in Afghanistan were embroiled in an “unwinnable war.” In 1992, U.S. officials shied away from involvement in Bosnia, fearing entanglement in a centuries-old conflict. In 2002, retired U.S. general Wesley Clark portrayed the American effort in Afghanistan as unwinnable. In 2004, President George W. Bush said of the war on terror, “I don’t think you can win it.” In 2007, the Winograd Commission deemed Israel’s war against Hizbullah unwinnable.

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By Phyllis Chesler

I watched ABC News Anchorman Charlie Gibson interview Governor Palin last night and was horrified by his blatant disdain for her and by the grand inquisitorial nature of the interview. He was not there to draw her out but to trap, shame and expose her as an unqualified fraud. He never smiled. He never paused. He literally looked down at her as he peered through his half-lowered glasses. He grilled her relentlessly, on and on, and when he thought she did not have the right answer, e.g., as to what the Bush Doctrine really is, he “failed” her right on camera. … (Continue reading…)

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~by E.D. Kain, NeoConstant

Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch writes today about European neo-fascism, and specifically the Cologne anti-Islamization conference.

Spencer is absolutely correct in his assertion that the neo-fascist approach to combating Islamization is the wrong approach. Little Green Footballs is also correct. I am always open to the exchange of ideas, but in my mind, to replace one form of fascism with another is simply ludicrous. Western Liberalism and Democracy is and has been the antidote to fascism and should be the antidote to theocratic totalitarianism and sharia as well.

Here’s what Spencer has to say on the issue:

And I think that a race-based approach is wrong in a number of ways. To repeat:

1. It’s the wrong way to fight the global jihad. The jihad is not a race, Islam is not a race, Muslims are not all of one race. Those who are threatened by the jihadists are not all of one race. The issues between the Islamic world and non-Muslims are not racial. They are about religious supremacism. Bringing in race just confuses the issue, and allows jihadists and their de facto allies among the Eurabian elites to claim that this whole thing is about racism. …

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by Jonathan Schanzer*

Ingrid Mattson, a 45-year-old Canadian-born convert to Islam, caused an uproar in the blogosphere after she was invited by the Democratic party to a gathering of religious leaders in Denver on the eve of the convention. Other notable participants included Bishop Charles E. Blake, (Church of God In Christ) and Rabbi Tzvi Weinreb (Orthodox Union).

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By Phyllis Chesler

On September 11, 2001, at about 11 A.M., I walked over to my computer and typed the sentence: “Now, we are all Israelis.”

It always begins with the Jews. Osama Bin Laden called the assault on America “blessed attacks” against the “infidel … the new Christian-Jewish crusade.” He explained that the twin towers had fallen because of American support for Israel.

War — and a new kind of anti-Semitism — had been declared. … (Continue reading…)

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By Barry Rubin

MEMRI has released report Number 1847 on September 8, 2008, entitled, "Egyptian Researcher Muhammad Al-Said Idris: The American Response to 9/11 Proves that the Official Version of Events Is False," the transcript of an interview he gave on Al-Rafidein TV on September 8, 2008. http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1847.htm

This kind of talk, of course, is both silly and dangerous. Silly because to deny that al-Qaida planned and carried out the September 11, 2001, attacks is a lie not based on any evidence and quite contrary to a huge amount of evidence.

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by Cinnamon Stillwell*

“The American empire is going down.”

So declared history professor and former president of the Middle East Studies Association, Joel Beinin, on the Peninsula Peace and Justice Center (PPJC) cable television program, “Other Voices” (watch here) last week in Palo Alto.

Following an “extended leave” from Stanford University in 2006 based on what Beinin then described as the university’s “minimal institutional interest in the study and teaching of the modern Middle East,” a two-year stint as director of Middle East Studies at the American University in Cairo (AUC), Egypt, and rumors earlier this year that he was to land a position as director of the Middle East Studies Center at Portland State University, Beinin is back at Stanford this Fall.

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By Phyllis Chesler

I admit it, call me crazy, but I was utterly charmed by Governor Sarah Palin which is to say that, despite her beauty, her smiles, and her humor, I saw that she was also Annie Oakley-deadly and no man’s pushover; indeed, I would not mess with her. (Well, did you think this veteran feminist would be charmed by a woman because she is a lightweight?)

After all, Palin represents a state that gave women the right to vote in 1912 — New York State enfranchised women in 1917; a state in which women like Libby Riddles and Susan Butcher have won the incredibly difficult dog sled race known as the Iditarod. Butcher won it three times in a row — something that no man has ever done. The race covers 1,161 miles of Alaskan wilderness and the racer, known as a “musher,” often faces 100 mile an hour winds, blizzards, wild animals, thin ice, avalanches, snow blindness, and sleep deprivation. … (Continue reading…)

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WASHINGTON (September 2008) – In this contentious election season, one thing that’s taken for granted is that American citizens will be the ones choosing the next president.

But a new paper from the Center for Immigration Studies reveals a concerted effort gathering force to allow new immigrants to vote without becoming citizens. It is being mounted by an alliance of academics and law professors, local and state political leaders, and community and immigration activists.

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by Ali Alfoneh*

Almost three decades after the Islamic Republic’s founding, former Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) commanders are infiltrating the political, economic, and cultural life of Iran. Half the members of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s cabinet are former IRGC officers,[1] and he has appointed several IRGC officers to provincial governorships. The IRGC’s rise has been deliberate. Facing both external opposition to Tehran’s pursuit of an indigenous nuclear enrichment capability and internal pressures for political and economic reforms, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei considers the IRGC officer corps more apt at crisis management than the bureaucratic teams of either former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (1989-97) or Mohammad Khatami (1997-2005). IRGC chief General Mohammad Ali Ja’fari’s announcement of internal restructuring to prepare the IRGC to counter “internal threats to the Islamic Republic”[2] reflects the organization’s expanding role. The Council of Guardians, which screens candidates before elections, privileged IRGC veterans, who won the bulk of seats in the March 2008 parliamentary elections. Whereas there has always been tension within the Islamic Republic’s elite concerning whether the Revolutionary Guards’ political or military role should be dominant, recent shifts suggest the debate is concluding as the IRGC cements a commanding influence over political decision-making.

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By Judith Colp Rubin*

*The following article is an extract from Barry Rubin (ed.), Iraq After Saddam (Sharpe, forthcoming).

Iraqi women once enjoyed more civil and social rights than many of their sisters in other Islamic nations. Ironically, that was thanks in part to the dictator Saddam Hussein, although in the last years of his rule women were among those groups whose rights were eroded. Now that Hussein has been overthrown, Iraqi women are among Iraqi special interest groups seeking rights. Yet women here are not a united force as Islamist women have emerged as a political entity. Meanwhile, women remain disproportionately victims of the violence that has gripped the country.

When Iraq’s long-ruling dictator Saddam Hussein was overthrown by U.S. forces in 2003, women were among the special interest groups clamoring to be heard in structuring the new regime and society. In the climate of burgeoning democracy, women started forming nongovernmental organizations–80 of them in Baghdad alone. There were suddenly programs to teach women about computers, political leadership, entrepreneurship, democracy, and the media. There were also handicraft workshops, women’s centers offering free legal advice or aid to battered women, and classes in English.

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By Barry Rubin

If I had to nominate the funniest cartoon I’ve ever seen, it was a very simple one showing a driver in a car at a “T” junction. He was staring desperately at three signs that read: No Left Turn; No Right Turn; No U-Turn.

The Middle East isn’t quite like that, but the current moment–though surely temporarily–seems somewhat akin to that drawing.

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by Michael Rubin*

While the international community focuses upon Iran’s nuclear program, Iran’s faltering economy dominates the Islamic Republic’s domestic debate. In his 2005 election campaign, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad famously promised to bring Iran’s “oil [money] to the table of every Iranian.” Oil prices may have more than tripled to over $130, but few Iranians see benefit. Across the Iranian political spectrum, officials and even the president’s former allies have blamed Ahmadinejad’s policies for runaway inflation and shortages of basic commodities. Outgoing Finance Minister Davoud Danesh-Jafari, acknowledged Iranians’ frustration as he stepped down in May 2008, “In economics, a government is not judged by its intentions.”

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