AKHTAR, a well-to-do cloth merchant in his 50s, recalls the optimism Afghans in his province of Helmand felt when the Taliban were defeated in 2001. It is exhausted. Now we just say everyone should leave us alone. And that includes British NATO forces. Mr Akhtar speaks for many. In ten days in Helmand this correspondent found no one who would say that British forces had improved things.
As NATO held a summit in Bucharest this week, Mr Akhtar's anger was a salutary reminder of how much it has to do to salvage a respectable outcome from the war. He is just the sort of Afghan who should welcome NATO's efforts to eliminate the Taliban. Yet, like everyone else, he blames the insecurity in Helmand for making life a misery, and his wealth futile.
NATO wants to demonstrate first of all that no ally is withdrawing; on the contrary, France has confirmed it will send another battalion (at least 800 troops). Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, says the mission is succeeding, and urges patience. NATO also stresses a comprehensive approach, in which military action is backed up by political and economic progress, eventually allowing Afghan forces to be at the forefront of the fight.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
04/04/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
Peaceful national development runs counter to the islamofascist agenda. They want jihad and sharia. There wasn't peace under the Taliban; those animals waged permawar on the people, while serving as base of international terror war. The Taliban economy was a basket case, with total reliance on Saudi aid. Further, it was both unlawful for women to work and spousal abandonment was legal. Perversely, women couldn't earn a living through work and they couldn't beg. Single women were expected to find husbands, and if they couldn't then they were killed according to sharia prescriptions against "wicked women." (In Muhammad's supposed "night journey" to hell and heaven, he claimed that most persons he saw in hell were female)
Why is the Canadian Human Rights Commission permitted to employ high-tech Stalinist tactics?
Next time someone threatens to move to Canada over real or imagined Patriot Act overreach, present him with this scenario:
Having settled into his new Ottawa digs, your expatriate pal is reading his morning paper when a familiar name leaps off the newsprint: his own.
Continued on Page 49
#1
these "people" are out-of-control stalinists, convinced that what they think is right is the only thing that matters. A LOT of people involved with this abortion need to lose their jobs, as well as suffer financially and socially like they inflicted on others. What better way to rehabilitate a racist than to act worse in investigating/prosecuting them
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/04/2008 20:59 Comments ||
Top||
Randi Rhodes called Hillary a [bad word]ing whore.
In and of itself, its shocking, but its otherworldly when we think about what Hillary Clinton has meant to liberals for most of the past sixteen years.
Maybe Bill Richardson owes James Carville money, because that would help explain the bitter jihad the former Clinton strategist seems to be on, so relentlessly decrying the New Mexico Governor as Judas that Richardson stopped doing media appearances. It didnt take much for Obama-backing General McPeak to declare Bill Clinton the equivalent of Joe McCarthy. And if youve read any Hillary vs. Obama thread on a liberal blog lately, you know that there have been friendlier back-and-forth exchanges in snakepits.
Theres something vaguely reassuring about all this, from the view of sitting on the right. It reveals to conservatives that the nastiness exhibited in our earlier disagreements with these folks was never personal; these people are clearly nasty to anyone who disagrees with them. As someone famously said, the Left is more interested in burning heretics than in winning converts.
Geraldine Ferraros long service to the Democratic party not to mention her historic status as the first woman VP nominee
means nothing to many Obama backers; shes a racist, David Duke in drag, as Rhodes put it. Im sure Senator Patrick Leahy thought his decades of work on the left side of the aisle including his work on Clinton's impeachment defense
had bought him some street cred from feminists, but no, he was called sexist when he called on Hillary to leave the race.
Hillary gets called a "monster" by Obama's surrogates; Hillary's surrogates wonder out loud if Obama ever sold drugs. Today Clinton surrogate Ed Rendell speculates that Americans know only half the story of Barack Obama. Day in, day out, in this race it continues.
Is there nastiness on the right? Sure. But its hard to imagine somebody being the equivalent hero to the right the way Hillary was a hero to the left, so suddenly and severely pitched overboard no, thats not it, denounced and demonized when somebody else came along. . . . To get a full appreciation for just how nasty things are, look at MoveOn.org: it was originally formed to save Bill Clinton's bacon in Monicagate, and now it is one of the Clintons' worst enemies.
Posted by: Mike ||
04/04/2008 14:37 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"Democrat Fratricide: 'These people are clearly nasty to anyone who disagrees with them'"
That's not a bug, that's a feature.
I'll double my popcorn order again. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/04/2008 15:43 Comments ||
Top||
#2
The lefties being good adapter of Mother Europe are speedily heading to their Committees of Public Safety. Faster, faster.
In reviewing the maps of the Democratic primary results, in Dave Leip's electoral atlas, I was struck by the narrow geographic base of Barack Obama's candidacy. In state after state, he has carried only a few countiesthough, to be sure, in many cases counties with large populations. There are exceptions, particularly in the southern states with large numbers of black voters in both urban and rural counties. But overall, the geographic analysis has pointed up to me a divide between Democratic constituenciesa divide as stark as that between blacks and Latinos or the old and the youngwhich has not shown up in the exit polls. It's a division that helps to explain the quite different performances of Obama and Hillary Clinton in general election pairings against John McCain.
Let's look at Obama's and Clinton's geographic bases in the primaries, in order of voting. Readers who are not interested in detailed analysis, or whose eyes tend to glaze over, may want to skip to the concluding paragraphs of this post. . . .
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Mike ||
04/04/2008 08:19 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Check out the comments section. It's rife with lofty verses by academics leftists and public sector lifers decrying anyone who doesn't want BHO is an ignorant, uneducated, racist redneck, never grasping the irony that their own comments are minimally as bigoted as the (unproven) alleged closed-mindedness and bigotry of the people they critique.
I've said it here, and I'll say it again, when you educate a stupid person whith no common sense, you don't get a smart wise person, you get and educated dope with no common sense.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
04/04/2008 15:35 Comments ||
Top||
#2
FOX + CNBC/MSNBC > MCCAIN VERSUS OBAMA ONLY > Iff POTUS ELEX were held right now, and presuming OBAMA is the de facto DEM NOMINEE [no other], MCCAIN IS PROJECTED TO STILL WIN THE ELEX AS DUE TO HIM WINNING THE MAJORITY OF RED STATES + POPULAR VOTE [Slight but CONCLUSIVE margin]???
OTOH, PA State elex is still 1-1/2 weeks away - ITS STILL ANYBODY'S RACE INCLUD HILLARY'S.
#1
'While speaking to black people, King never condescended to offer Rev. Wright-style diatribes or conspiracy theories. He did not paint black people as victims. To the contrary, he spoke about black people as American patriots who believed in the democratic ideals of the country, in nonviolence and the Judeo-Christian ethic, even as they overcame slavery, discrimination and disadvantage. King challenged white America to do the same, to live up to their ideals and create racial unity. He challenged white Christians, asking them how they could treat their fellow black Christians as anything but brothers in Christ."
America, and in this case I mean white America, governments & institutions, has improved dramatically in the last 50 years. We've stepped up to Dr. King's challenge. Are we perfect? No. De jure we're getting close to being color-blind. De facto there's work left but things are very much improved.
I'd like to ask whether the blacks that Dr. King was speaking of have also stepped up to his challenge?
My take is that, in general they haven't. That's what the Wrights, Jacksons and Sharptons should feel guilty about. They missed the opportunity big time. Obama had the chance if he really believed to follow through on what he was saying last year. But it seems that the racial hustle combined with his socialist philosophy was more important. Too bad.
I'd like to see a Watts or Steele move into the national picture and see where we go from there.
#2
Neither Wright nor Obama are black. Wright is even lighter skinned than the senator. Dey ain't one of the bros, so they has to jive the creds. Trust me, suckah!
Engineers' personality traits make them excellent "field operatives"--that is, on--the-ground terrorists, according to an international security expert.
The connection between engineering and violent extremism is well known to terrorist groups and those who work to stop them, said Raphael Perl, who heads the Action against Terrorism Unit at the 56-country Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
"Engineers ideally make excellent strategic planners, and they make excellent field operatives. They think differently from how other people think," Perl said from Vienna, Austria, where he is based.
Engineers may disagree, but they would be hard put to ignore Perl's statements. OSCE, the world's largest regional security organization, promotes democracy and conflict prevention, and includes non-NATO nations such as Russia and non-European Union countries such as the United States. The organization is seen as a growing and influential vehicle for the exercise of "soft power" in the anti-terrorism field.
Although not an engineer himself, Perl is a former fellow of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and a long-time terrorism expert for the U.S. Congressional Research Service.
Engineers make good strategic planners because they think in terms of systems and networks. They make good operatives because they tend to be thorough and meticulous, Perl said.
Another quality many engineers share is the ability to keep quiet. "It's fair to say they're not perceived as super-social animals or the life of the party," Perl said. "They're not going to talk to a lot of people and brag about any terrorist activity they may be involved in."
Because of those traits, terrorist groups actively recruit engineers. That means engineers are exactly the people who need to be in on anti-terrorism efforts, Perl said. He flatly disagreed with comments made by engineers in a recent EE Times article. Those comments criticized an Oxford study, "Engineers of Jihad," which found terrorists in Islamic countries were more likely to be engineers than members of other professions.
The study argued that an "engineering mindset," coupled with harsh socioeconomic conditions in certain Islamic countries, could lead to participation in terrorism. Angry engineers challenged the statistical significance of the study's small sample and labeled it sloppy science.
But the reality is that engineers are overrepresented in terrorism, Perl said. Al-Qaeda is a clear example; it's widely acknowledged that a significant number of the group's top leadership had engineering backgrounds. Further, the terrorist organization works to attract engineers to its ranks, Perl said. While such groups might benefit from recruiting operatives with technical skills, the more fundamental qualities that define engineers and other tech professionals are the primary draw. "Al-Qaeda is actively recruiting from the engineering community because they like those qualities.They're increasingly recruiting engineers, scientists, chemists, people with medical degrees and people with technical backgrounds," Perl said.
It's not only in Islamic countries that this is happening, he said. Al-Qaeda is increasingly recruiting scientists and engineers, especially non-Muslims, and is doing so worldwide, according to Perl.
There are very strong government policy implications, he said: Engineers need to participate in anti-terrorism efforts. Networks-possibly multiple networks at once-will be the next al-Qaeda targets. That's where engineers could be a critical component of anti-terrorism work.
"Just like it takes a thief to catch a thief, it takes an engineer to catch an engineer," Perl said.
#7
Engineers do well whatever they turn their hand to. Valuing result over process, they make a point of mastering whatever skill set is required to reach their next goal. The less sophisticated thinkers among them tend to be stymied by the illogical human factor, which of course is where those who become terrorists go off track -- trying to force the universe to fit their logical, given their starting point, but nonetheless unreasonable rules.
Oh, and they're terribly cute, every single one of them (except those who become terrorists, of course). :-)
#8
While engineers make good field operatives we have to remind that it is the losers coming from literary fields, the Ward Churchills, Nomam Chomskies, Michael Moores and similar who fill their heads with hateful lies and wild theories.
It is surprising but time and again we have seen enginers and hrd scientits buying at face velue every marxist, green or islamist el cheapo propaganda and meekly follow gurus who have halmf their IQ.
#14
We engineers are analytical fellows (and fellowettes). We hope for the best and plan for the worst. Because of our switchboard wiring, we can be great leaders, or we can be the most diabolically evil sons of b*tches you ever saw. So be nice to us.....
Now, some levity. An engineer joke.
It was during the French Revolution, and the local judiciary was lopping heads of enemies of the People with the Gillotine in wholesale quantities.
The first executation of the day was a doctor. Well, they pulled the rope and the Guillotine hung up. Tried again, no joy. So they let him go.
Well, they finally got the Guillotine going again.
The second executation of the day was a clergyman. They pulled the rope and the Guillotine hung up. Tried again, no joy. Must be a sign from God. So they let him go.
The third executation of the day was an engineer. They pulled the rope and the Guillotine hung up. Tried again, no joy. Then the engineer looked up at the release mechanism, and said, "Hey, I think I know what the problem is."
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/04/2008 21:27 Comments ||
Top||
#15
which found terrorists in Islamic countries were more likely to be engineers than members of other professions.
As an engineer who likes to get at the "root cause" thingy, I really prefer to look at the religious side of that engineer's beliefs vis-a-vis terrorism.
But that's just me, an engineer.
Posted by: BA ||
04/04/2008 22:29 Comments ||
Top||
I find this controversy absolutely fascinating (which is why I will probably write a column about it). The Ukrainians want to call the organized murder of Ukrainians "genocide." The Russians don't. One of the things I find particularly interesting is how this disagreement cuts across the whole "Which Was Worse: Communism or Nazism" argument, which as some can imagine I've spent a lot of time thinking about while working on my book.
The Russians defend themselves by arguing that they were merely trying to slaughter an economic class of people, not an ethnicity. I understand why, as a technical matter, this might be a defense against the charge of "genocide" which, after all, is about killing a type of people. From the article:
Historians agree that the 1932-33 famine was engineered by Soviet authorities under dictator Josef Stalin to force peasants to give up their private plots of land and join collective farms. . . . Some are convinced the famine targeted Ukrainians as an ethnic group. Others argue authorities set out to eradicate private landowners as a social class and say the Soviet Union sought to pay for its rapid industrialization with grain exports at the expense of starving millions of its own people.
"There is no historical proof that the famine was organized along ethnic lines. Its victims were million of citizens of the Soviet Union, representing different peoples and nationalities living largely in agricultural areas of the country," the Russian State Duma resolution said.
Now, part of what fascinates me is why anyone would think murdering people because of their economic status is somehow any less evil than murdering people because of their ethnicity. I know what many of the whys are, and I think they reveal something profound about how different people see the world. In America and the West generally, vast numbers of leftist intellectuals forgave Stalin, Mao and others for murdering people who stood in the way of Progress and historians continue to do so today. Indeed, "modernization" was one of the great excuses and rationalizations for murder, theft and, yes, genocide in the 20th century and, I fear, people will be going back to this intellectual well for a good long time.
One last point: If you are a Marxist you generally consider race, ethnicity and nationality to be mere epiphenomena, absurd and archaic categories of the Old Order, right? And, you believe that class is an enduring category of humanity, more "real" than mere ethnicity, right? So by your own definitions, isn't slaughtering a whole class of people a form of genocide or attempted genocide?
Posted by: Mike ||
04/04/2008 12:31 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
See. And all you bastards doubted me.
Posted by: The Ghost of Walter Duranty ||
04/04/2008 14:05 Comments ||
Top||
Pope Benedicts choice to publicly baptize the most prominent Muslim in Italy, Egyptian-born Magdi Allam, highlights a quiet worldwide exodus from Islam. In recent years, millions have moved on. With this high-profile action, Pope Benedict demonstratively blesses this massive conversion from the highest levels of the Church.
Interviewed by al-Jazeera in 2006, Ahmad al-Qataani, leader of the Companions Lighthouse for the Science of Islamic Law in Libya, explains the decline:
Islam used to represent Africas main religion and there were 30 African languages that used to be written in Arabic script. The number of Muslims in Africa has diminished to 316 million, half of whom are Arabs in North Africa. So in the section of Africa that we are talking about, the non-Arab section, the number of Muslims does not exceed 150 million people. When we realize that the entire population of Africa is one billion people, we see that the number of Muslims has diminished greatly from what it was in the beginning of the last century.
On the other hand, the number of Catholics has increased from one million in 1902 to 329 million 882 thousand (329,882,000). Let us round off that number to 330 million in the year 2000.
As to how that happened, well there are now 1.5 million churches whose congregations account for 46 million people. In every hour, 667 Muslims convert to Christianity. Everyday, 16,000 Muslims convert to Christianity. Every year, 6 million Muslims convert to Christianity. These numbers are very large indeed.
Allams public baptism came just ten days after the body of Catholic Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho of Mosul, Iraq, was found in a shallow grave after being kidnapped by al-Qaeda February 29. The ceremony came just three days after an al-Qaeda tape threatening the pope and condemning cartoons of Mohammed. Muslims who convert to other religions or abandon religion entirely are subject to a standing order of death for apostasy. The baptism of Allam is an act of defiance in the face of Islamic threats.
The baptism of Allam also comes in the midst of papal dialogue with Muslims. The dialogue began unpromisingly with the catcalls from Islam and its secularist allies which greeted the now-famous September 20, 2006, papal address at the University of Regensburg.
In October, 138 Islamic leaders presented the pope with A Common Word Between Us and You nailed by critics as a craftily written call for conversion. On March 4, Pope Benedict approved formation of a permanent Catholic-Muslim forum scheduled to meet in November. And now he has thrown his own call for conversion into the discussion. Islams secularist allies were quick to echo Muslims, calling the baptism provocative. While accepting the Islamic death penalty for apostasy as a given, they complain the popes action could set back dialogue.
While the secularists wring their hands, Allam writes that his mind has been freed from the obscurantism of an ideology that legitimizes lies and deception, violent death that leads to homicide and suicide, blind submission to tyranny, permitting me to join the authentic religion of Truth, Life, and Liberty. I realize what I am going up against but I will confront my fate with my head high, with my back straight, and the interior strength of one who is certain about his faith.
Allam, author of numerous books and deputy editor of Milans Corriere della Sera, joins a list of converts from Islam which includes many other public intellectuals and millions of average people from all over the world. This is more than the normal flow between two large religious communities. Islam can point to little in the way of recent conversions.
Its claim to be the worlds fastest-growing religion stems mostly from the high birth rate in Islamic countries, whose infant mortality rates have been cut by the introduction of Western medicine. Christian growth is based on adult conversion. As leading Christian evangelist Wolfgang Simpson writes, More Muslims have come to Christ in the last two decades than in all of history.
Although al-Qataani points to Africa, there is another phenomenon based on repulsion from Islamist dictatorship, corruption, and terrorist violence. In Iran as many as 1 million people have surreptitiously converted to Evangelical Christianity in the last five years. Pastor Hormoz Shariat claims to have converted 50,000 of them through his U.S.-based Farsi-language satellite ministry.
He contrasts the upswing to the efforts of evangelical missionaries in Iran between 1830 and 1979, whose 149 years of work built a Christian community of only 3,000. One Iranian religious scholar believes youth are abandoning Islam because it is identified with the corrupt Iranian government. Now the Iranian Majlis (parliament) is debating the death penalty for conversion.
After years of al-Qaeda war on Iraq, a similar phenomenon is growing. The New York Times March 4 reports: After almost five years of war, many young people in Iraq, exhausted by constant firsthand exposure to the violence of religious extremism, say they have grown disillusioned with religious leaders and skeptical of the faith that they preach.
A high school girl tells Times reporters: I hate Islam and all the clerics because they limit our freedom every day and their instruction became heavy over us. Most of the girls in my high school hate that Islamic people control the authority because they dont deserve to be rulers.
A 19-year-old man says: The religion men are liars. Young people dont believe them. Guys my age are not interested in religion anymore. A Baghdad law professor explains that her students have changed their views about religion. They started to hate religious men. They make jokes about them because they feel disgusted by them. A 24-year-old female college student says, I used to love Osama bin Laden. Now I hate Islam. Al-Qaeda and the Mahdi Army are spreading hatred. People are being killed for nothing.
In southern Russia the same pattern is emerging. According to Roman Silantyev, executive secretary of the Inter-religious Council in Russia, freed from atheist control, two million Muslims converted to Christianity. Repulsed by bloody terrorist attacks, those living in areas such as Beslan have converted to Christianity in the greatest numbers of all. As many as 100,000 have converted to Christianity in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan.
After decades of Islamist war, evangelicals report thousands of sub-rosa converts in rural areas of Kashmir. Says one churchgoer: I am interested in this religion. I hate violence. I hate fundamentalists in Islam. I come here to seek peace. An Indian newspaper headline reads: Urban Muslim Youth Out to Junk Faith.
Following decades of terrorist rule, Palestinians are being quietly converted, holding in-home services to avoid detection. Says one evangelist: Ive been working among these people for thirty years, and I promise you Ive never seen anything like this.
Islam is also losing adherents in areas where Islamist harassment is heavy on the streets. The London Times estimates 15% of Muslims living in Western Europe have left Islam 200,000 in the UK alone. Those who leave often face harassment, threats, and attack.
The mufti of Perak, Malaysia, estimates about 250,000 people have abandoned Islam, making formal application for apostasy to the state a right allowed to Malaysian citizens who are not ethnic Malays. Says he: This figure does not include individuals who dont do solat, doesnt fast and breaks [sic] all the tenets of Islam. Borrowing from the communist playbook, Malaysia operates reeducation camps for any ethnic Malay found guilty of apostasy. Unsurprisingly, ethnic Malays are at the bottom of the economic ladder in Malaysia.
In a letter published in Corriere della Sera on Easter Day, Allam points out the pope sent an explicit and revolutionary message to a church that until now has been too cautious in the conversion of Muslims because of the fear of being unable to protect the converted who are condemned to death for apostasy.
Thousands of people in Italy have converted to Islam and practice their faith serenely. But there are also thousands of Muslims who have converted to Christianity who are forced to hide their new faith out of fear of being killed by Islamist terrorists.
Allam describes Islam as a system for taking and holding power. Threat of violence is its enforcement mechanism. Allam also points out: Beyond the phenomenon of extremists and Islamist terrorism at the global level, the root of evil is inherent to a physiologically violent and historically conflictual Islam. So it is not coincidental that Muslims are abandoning the faith as U.S. and coalition soldiers smash al-Qaeda in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. Islamist terrorists and street thugs are beginning to look impotent.
Appeasement-oriented opinion explains Islamic violence as a response to Western policy. For them, reality is incomprehensible. But in a 1998 ABC News interview with John Miller, Osama bin Laden explained his motivation: Allah had given the jihadis victory over one superpower (the USSR) and Allah would grant them victory over the other.
But a decade later it is not coming to pass on the battlefield. The defeat of the Islamists puts the lie to the claim that Allah will cause the infidels to desire submission. As a result, the Islamists ability to intimidate their captive populations is weakened. More and more it is Muslims who no longer desire submission to Islam.
#1
I don't know what to make of this. I spoke recently to a Persian emigre (living in CA) who said that among his associates, nearly all had abandoned Islam for Christianity.
However, during the rest of our conversation, he said all kinds of contradictory nonsense so I wasn't sure anything he said was reliable.
#2
When we realize that the entire population of Africa is one billion people
From wikipedia
"The total population of Africa is estimated at 888 million (as of 2005). It has doubled over the past 28 years, and has quadrupled over the past 55 years (UN estimates [2]). Population is projected to reach one billion by 2015"
Posted by: john frum ||
04/04/2008 11:38 Comments ||
Top||
#3
I think cracks are showing in Islam's base, however I don't believe "Droves" are leaving the faith. If the west stood up to Islam and refused to be intimidated by it, maybe. Maybe it would convince the fence sitters or people who are "Fed up" with Islam to leave, but they aren't gonna do that unless they think they can leave safely.
#4
Population growth may be projected, but between the various wars and deadly diseases ravaging the refugees, and the other diseases like malaria and AIDS apparently pandemic in the rest of the continent, how likely is it that the graphs of projected and real population never intersect?
#6
DarthVader: I know that just among the Anglicans in Africa, they can't build churches fast enough and have to have outdoor services for the converts. Some of their dioceses have doubled or tripled in size and their Archbishops have to continually ordain new bishops and priests.
Ironically, the split in the Episcopal church in the US is forcing many wealthy white congregations to become African missionary churches. They then send large amounts of money to their African Archbishops when they need money most.
Africa either is becoming or already is the largest Anglican communion in the world.
The Catholics, Evangelicals and other Protestant denominations are also being flooded with new members, most converts from Islam.
Saudi Arabia has been tracking Islamic growth around the world, and their only significant new growth is by births, not conversions. Yet at the same time they are losing adults at a tremendous rate.
#11
I'd heard someone once say that Al Queda started the war because they realized Islam was losing and felt that a clash of civilization might bring back the faithful.
#12
Gener speaking, yet another reason for the ISLAMIST "HIDDEN IMAM/MAHDI" TO SHOW UP IN THE NAME OF GOD-ISLAM, BY AND FOR THE SAKE OF SAME. The ISLAMIST SWORD no longer points at both the US-West + Russ-China/Asia > THANKS TO DUBYA + US SUCCESS/ENTRENCHMENT, OSAMA BIN LADEN IS NOW POINTING IT SOLELY AT THE LATTER.
#13
rjschwarz: It was more than Islam. It is a war to preserve barbarism against civilization. In this case, Islam is just the face of barbarism; but the conflict is older than Islam.
Civility offers "the better way" than barbarity, as judged by *everyone*. Thus people leave barbarity and try to become civilized. Only those who are invested in barbarity try to resist this stampede. They do so by intimidating or trying to intimidate those on the side of barbarity to stay there.
But that doesn't work. The only thing that will preserve barbarity is for civilization to be utterly destroyed, so that there is no choice.
The great irony of Islam was in its origins, *it* represented civility, compared to everything else around it. And it never got it through its head that it is no longer "the best" or the efficient way, that appeals to people.
If you listed to them, you will hear their bafflement as to why *anyone* would choose anything other than Islam. Because Islam is the better way. It has always been the better, most civilized way. There is no better, no gentler, way to treat women, for example. Beating them is kindness compared to slaughtering them for no reason.
But even they are realizing that Islam is no longer civil. In fact it is primitive, violent and crude. The only supporters it has left are those that are invested in it, and those they can force to remain in it.
Christianity is the religion of modernity and middle class aspiration. The roots of Christianity as we know it is northern Europe where what we call the modern world originated and developed.
So, rather than Islam causing societies to be backward, it's the other way round. Backward societies remain Muslim. Introduce modernity and people want a religion suitable to a modernizing world and that's christianity. Although Budhism and Hinduism, generally non-prosletyzing religions, seem to adapt to modernity quite well.
Observant, middle class Hindus I know, regularly make jokes about their religion.
#15
I agree w/ya Phil - the bedouin tribalism of the middle east is still strong there & pre-dates the arival of islam by a thousand years - they just married up the whacky mohammad cult w/the pre-modernity/late B.C. mind-set.
Readers of this blog know that I have often written in defense of the brave Somali born dissident Ayaan Hirsi Ali, author of Infidel. Not just from the murder threat that hangs over her because of her collaboration in Amsterdam with the film maker Theo van Gogh, who was stabbed to death by a Islamic fanatic who left a note threatening Hirsi Alis life.
Not just from milquetoast liberals who cant see past the shibboleth of multi culturalism to express unequivocal support for Hirsi Alis right to live and express her dissent from the Muslim culture she was born into. The type of liberal who coined the term Enlightenment fundamentalist for her because she believes that tolerance of intolerance leads to repression and murder. And because it gives such a timid intellectual an excuse not to do anything to protect her from death threats. But also from the cowering, pusillanimous European governments who have refused to give her adequate security protection from death threats.
The situation is precarious. Adequate security against intolerant murderers is costly. Now at last theres a way believers in freedom of expression uncowed by fundamentalist rage, can make a gesture that could mean the difference between life and death. Not just for Hirsi Ali, but of all dissidents from woman-hating sharia law. Hirsi Ali has set up a foundation to support freedom of expression for dissidents and offers those who wish to a way to contribute to her own protection. If you go to her new website you can find ways to contribute to her and other brave dissidents. I hope you will.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The Russians defend themselves by arguing that they were merely trying to slaughter an economic class of people, not an ethnicity. I understand why, as a technical matter, this might be a defense against the charge of "genocide" which, after all, is about killing a type of people. From the article:
Readers of this blog know that I have often written in defense of the brave Somali born dissident Ayaan Hirsi Ali, author of Infidel. Not just from the murder threat that hangs over her because of her collaboration in Amsterdam with the film maker Theo van Gogh, who was stabbed to death by a Islamic fanatic who left a note threatening Hirsi Alis life. 
