Last week, in a letter, 138 Muslim clerics sought to find “common ground” but only with Christians. In my view, they did so because Christians are the only religious group that outnumbers the Muslims demographically, by about six to seven hundred million.
In a sense, from a psycho-analytic point of view, this is an example of “literal” or “concrete” thinking. The World Trade Center and the Pentagon are symbols of American might. Hence, destroying these structures is “literally” the same as destroying American infidel power.
Last Thursday two dozen political activists and organizations signed a statement drafted by the National Iranian American Council calling on Congress to cut off Iranian civil society funding. The signatories — who ranged from representatives of billionaire philanthropist George Soros to the group The World Can’t Wait/Drive Out the Bush Regime– argue that such funding, rather than aiding democracy, has precipitated an Iranian crackdown on dissidents. These political activists are wrong. Should democracy funding be cut, not only will independent civil society be eroded but a vital tool to encourage Iranian moderation will be removed, speeding the slide toward confrontation.
Benazir Bhutto is a courageous woman. Today she drew crowds of political supporters in greater numbers than can either Pakistani President Musharraf or the nation’s Islamists. Precisely because of Bhutto’s political potential, someone tried to kill her before she had even finished one day at home:
More than 100 people have been killed, including 20 police officers, after two bombs hit crowds greeting returning Pakistani ex-PM Benazir Bhutto.
Ms Bhutto was being driven in a convoy through crowded streets from Karachi airport to a rally to mark her homecoming after eight years in exile. …
Several Islamist groups including pro-Taleban militants have made threats against Ms Bhutto. …
Witnesses said body parts were strewn across Ms Bhutto’s truck. The death toll is expected to rise. …
Such ugliness. Who is responsible? No one knows yet. The Islamists certainly want to kill Bhutto. The mere thought of a woman ruling Pakistan is anathema to their “religious” belief system. One may be tempted to think that President Musharraf should have planned better for Bhutto’s arrival but, “Police vehicles took the main force of the blasts.” That being said, I doubt Musharraf is celebrating her return. He doesn’t exactly relish the idea of Bhutto challenging his everlasting presidency.
“Used Hawks Flock to Giuliani’s Team” runs the title of a Oct. 15 Newsweek smear of presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, suggesting that the mayor’s advisors, “some of the Bush era’s most assertive neoconservatives,” represent George W. Bush retreads. The article even quotes a foreign policy analyst accusing Giuliani of “out-Bushing Bush.”
The Israeli-Palestinian peace process is about to be the topic of an international summit and optimism is breaking out all over.
A breakthrough to comprehensive peace, however, is very unlikely. Hamas controls the Gaza Strip; the Palestinian Authority (PA)-Fatah leader, Mahmoud Abbas, is weak; Fatah is still overwhelmingly radical and has not conducted the internal debate—much less public education effort—necessary for a change of policy.
Break-time for a good laugh. The filmmaker uses a recent, petty row over technology as a back-drop to show Hitler for what he was — a pathetic, puny, lunatic bully (surrounded by equally petty acolytes):
Conservative commentator and prolific author, Ann Coulter can be called a lot of things, but the shy, retiring type she is definitely not. Neither is she timid or taciturn. Since her emergence on the political commentary scene, she has assumed the position of the darling of the neo-cons and die hard right-wingers as she is a most vocal and outspoken cheerleader for the Republican party. She is a ubiquitous presence on the television talk show circuit and can always be counted on to raise the ire of Democrats, liberals and leftists of all stripes with her predilection for spewing forth a seemingly endless foray of acerbic jibes and over the top controversial analyses. In the past she has fired her salvos at women, ethic minorities, gays, Supreme Court Justices, Democratic presidential candidates, the widows of 9/11 victims, the New York Times and anyone else that does not subscribe to Coulterism.
Towards the end of Ramadan, (October 11th, 2007), a group of 138 Muslim clerics released a letter which called for peace between Muslims and Christians. Jews (my people), Hindus, Buddhists, other non-Christian denominations, secularists, and atheists were not included in this theologically-based appeal.
Already, I’m worrying. Why are they only talking to Christians? Although Jews represent less than 1% (.003%) of the world’s population, (there are perhaps 14 million of us), why not talk to Jews — since Jewish scripture is cited in the letter; and because we are also viewed as so very powerful?
As relations between Washington and Tehran deteriorate, critics of the Bush administration are seeking to cast blame for the rocky relationship not on Iran’s nuclear program or support of terrorism, but on President Bush’s intransigence. At the root of the attacks is the administration’s supposed rejection of a May 2003 Iranian offer of a grand bargain to settle all outstanding disputes. “Basking in the glory of ‘Mission Accomplished’ in Iraq, the Bush administration dismissed the Iranian offer,” Peter Galbraith, a Democratic party activist and former ambassador to Croatia, wrote in the October 11 New York Review of Books.
accuse Israel of “murdering” peace activist Rachel Corrie. These pages state respectively,
“American peace activist Rachel Corrie was murdered by an Israeli bulldozer driver on 16 March 2003 while attempting to defend a Palestinian doctor’s home from demolition.”
“JVP renewed its call in honour of the American peace activist Rachel Corrie on the third anniversary of her murder on March 16, 2003, when an Israeli Army Caterpillar bulldozer crushed her to death.”
Here’s the latest from the IPT on the terrorism financing trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF). Even though the jury is still deliberating, evidence was introduced clearly demonstrating the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) involvement with the HLF in financing the terrorist group Hamas:
As Hillary moves towards the political middle, her lead in the polls over her Democratic rivals has widened, and her rivals have moved further left. Hillary is smart enough to know that America’s strength lays in the center. Her Democratic rivals are just, well, plain loons. Here’s Edwards:
Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards has spent two weeks questioning Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s judgment in voting to declare the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization. On Sunday, he questioned her sincerity. Last month, Clinton was one of 75 senators who voted for a resolution giving the president the authority to call the guards terrorists. She has characterized the vote as a way to gain leverage for U.S. negotiations with Iran, but some of her rivals, including Edwards and Sen. Barack Obama, argue it amounted to giving Bush another blank check to go to war. …
Americans really need to start thinking about what they consider entertainment and whom they consider role models for their children. This isn’t exactly the first rapper to be caught with guns — by a long shot:
Grammy-winning rapper T.I. was arrested Saturday — just hours before he was to take the stage at the BET Hip-Hop Awards — in a shopping center parking lot where federal officials said he planned to pick up machine guns and silencers he had his bodyguard buy for him. …
It’s a difficult philosophical problem. President Shimon Peres said in regard to the invitation to Iran’s president to speak at Columbia that there’s a difference between academic freedom and freedom to lie. In other words, there must be some determination of what is reality.
One could argue, and I can easily accept this standpoint as long as it is applied consistently, that academic freedom requires making no such distinctions. People who claim that certain races are inferior or specific religions are disgusting, who assert the world is flat or September 11 was a conspiracy by the CIA has an equal right to speak on campus. Of course, though, this means someone has the bad judgment to invite them.
Scholars and theoreticians have long argued about the compatibility of Islam and democracy. Bush administration support for export of democracy to the Middle East has brought the debate to the forefront of policy circles. As the discussion continues, statistical models can be useful to interpret the historical record. While recent studies have reached contradictory conclusions, as more data is considered, a nuanced relationship between Islam and democracy emerges: In all but the poorest countries, Islam is associated with fewer political rights.
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