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Op-Ed Archives
April 02, 2008
A Brief Note on Zionism, Israel and the Nub of It
It being a little quiet around here what with all of us busy and/or lazy, I thought I'd spice it up by going against the usual, and quite healthy, distaste of most Aqoul principals towards wading into the Israel-Palestine morass. Especially as there are anniversaries and such coming up. Anyway, today's lesson comes from a column of Michael Gerson (not a fan, myself, usually) in the Washington Post. It tells of a speech at the Holocaust Museum by an old gentleman, a Mr. Traum, who was once a very young gentleman in Nazified Austria. He recalls various events especially around Kristallnacht in 1938-39. Below the break is a revealing nugget.
Continue reading "A Brief Note on Zionism, Israel and the Nub of It"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 01:37 AM | Comments (74) | TrackBack
December 16, 2007
Competent Adults in Charge? The Iraq Surge's Non-Failure
Not often do I get to be more right than Jim Henley, but here I claim it though I can't document my earlier growing sense that The Surge would turn out better than we cynics first expected. (The last time he was wrong, which goes back years, so was I, as when he predicted that Ariel Sharon would not go through with the Gaza withdrawal.) But now he is surprised that violence has not rebounded in Iraq since The Surge in a way he has predicted. I am far less surprised however and, although I started as a Surge Cynic as shown here, I have come to feel after more information that there has been a good chance of some sustained suppression of the violence. More on why, below.
Continue reading "Competent Adults in Charge? The Iraq Surge's Non-Failure"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 12:58 AM | Comments (28) | TrackBack
November 27, 2007
Hirsi Ali: Ideological Chameleon
First, I curse SP for pointing out this latest interview with the infuriating headline: Ayaan Hirsi Ali: My life under a fatwa. Boys and girls, we've been over this before. A fatwa is not an ummah-wide execution order, it is a ruling issued by an Islamic scholar in response to a specific legal question. I wrote about this distinction almost two years ago, when Wafa Sultan told the New York Times that Dr. Ibrahim al-Khouli had issued a "fatwa" when he called her an atheist during a TV interview.
Listen, you credulous glurge-sucking Western journalists, just because some idiot Ayatollah lobbed one at Rushdie almost two decades ago doesn't make every random statement by a Muslim (scholar or fanatic) a fatwa. Nor is a fatwa binding across the universe (else a lot of Muslim women with plucked eyebrows are going to hell). Of course, the f-word does score a lot of publicity amongst the chattering classes, which is why every faux reformer wants one.
But let's get on to the actual article, shall we?
Continue reading "Hirsi Ali: Ideological Chameleon"
Posted by eerie at 09:44 AM | Comments (31) | TrackBack
November 13, 2007
The Road Most Travelled
So I met up with an old friend of mine from home the other day. We had not seen each other for almost five years but had communicated regularly on email and the occasional phone call. I have a lot of time for her as over the years, she had not gone down that road which inevitably most of my childhood girlfriends trod, namely, marrying the first semi-respectable loser that came along and promptly disappearing into a world of children, family responsibilities and that slightly haughty smug security of not being talked about anymore (you know who you are).
Continue reading "The Road Most Travelled"
Posted by bint ash-shaitan at 01:02 PM | Comments (36) | TrackBack
September 07, 2007
Bin-Laden Versus Bin-Laden, same day
Osama bin-Laden on Sept. 7 2007* -- "19 young men were able, by the grace of [God], the Most High, to change the direction of [America's] compass."
Osama bin-Laden on, um, Sept 7, 2007 -- "burning living beings is forbidden by our religion, even if they be small like the ant, so what of men?"
In addition to terrorist, criminal, fanatic, and other filth-and-foul words, we can now add "what a fatuous dick".
Continue reading "Bin-Laden Versus Bin-Laden, same day"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 08:11 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
August 25, 2007
Syria's Consideration: A Realistic Travelogue in A Surprising Place
I must say something nice about the Washington Times, which normally has MENA-related fare along the lines of FoxNews and this type of swill. I saw this story a short time back of a travel-writer's visit to Syria in the dead-wood version, but not online. Now I see it is online. Amazingly, the writer actually seems to have taken note of the place and reported it and experienced what normal travelers there would notice, although one might find it too saccharine for its non-comments on the ubiquitous Leader & Family photos, or the pervasive poverty. Still, entitled sincerely and without guile The Kindness of Syrians, it is well done and refreshingly rooted in relevant reality; excerpts for you link-avoiders below the break. (Elsewhere on deeper questions of wealth and poverty, AbuFares has this to say; more on that at another time. Now back to the W. Times.)
Continue reading "Syria's Consideration: A Realistic Travelogue in A Surprising Place"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 09:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 16, 2007
Eavesdropping on London Buses and Other Political Pastimes
In keeping with my uncanny ability always to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, I ventured to London town just as various NHS doctors were ramming cars packed with explosives into airport terminals and parading about in the shape of human fireballs.
The queues in the airport were interminable, the interrogation at customs was agonising and in the time it took me to reach central London, I could have flown back to Saudi Arabia, picked up the Ipod that I had forgotten and flown back. However, since it was London, armed with a stiff upper lip and a spirit of the blitz mindset, I deposited my baggage, found a quiet cafe in the West of the city, and proceeded to catch up on missed nicotine time in Saudi by chain smoking myself into a coma.
Continue reading "Eavesdropping on London Buses and Other Political Pastimes"
Posted by bint ash-shaitan at 12:32 PM | Comments (22) | TrackBack
July 10, 2007
Chanel and Shakira: Poor Alliteration and McDoomed Reporting
I have been meaning to write something about this for quite sometime but the bile clouded my judgement. In addition, part of me refused to give the article credence by commenting on it in any length while the rest of me seethed and wondered why this piece of frankly bordering on illiterate prose irked me so...I will try to be brief, as a dissection may spin out of control into an undignified meaningless diatribe.
The first lines read:
People often ask me how I can tie myself forever to Sudan, when I have covered the worst of this country in conflict zones like Darfur. I guess I finally understood the strength of love
Continue reading "Chanel and Shakira: Poor Alliteration and McDoomed Reporting"
Posted by bint ash-shaitan at 12:15 PM | Comments (15) | TrackBack
June 30, 2007
UK apes Saudi Arabia, fears for your health
Maybe inspired by how there are no pubs in Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom decided to join this prestigious league and ban shisha, de facto sentencing shisha shops to closing business. The gullible souls could argue that while the UK government is motivated by public health concerns, the Saudis are trying to enforce some liberticidal moral code. The truth though is, alcohol does a lot more damage than shisha, and if the concern is really health, then alcohol should be banned in UK pubs and white baby milk should be served there instead. Don’t take my word for it; stand in an emergency department for a little while.
The opponents to this ban have approached it under the cultural angle so far. They miss the point. First, being perceived as a Muslim tradition, they shouldn’t expect much to be granted to the protection of this custom. Second, cultural or not, exceptions on public health issues aren’t made for cultural reasons. Try arguing for heroin on a cultural basis. Now, it should be demonstrated how the health concern is a fallacy, at least when other equally or more dangerous substances like alcohol are not banned.
Continue reading "UK apes Saudi Arabia, fears for your health"
Posted by Shaheen at 06:24 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
June 05, 2007
USS Liberty: Error? Probably. Reinvestigate? Certainly.
Among the Mideast Six-Day War's 40th anniversary issues will be the June 8, 1967 attack by Israeli military forces on the USS Liberty, an American naval intelligence ship. In international waters near Egypt's Sinai peninsula, the vessel was torpedoed by Israeli Navy vessels, following repeated strafings/napalmings by Israeli Air Force planes. A special remembrance was held at the Navy Memorial (7th and Penn) in DC on June 8. Despite my own newer conclusion that the incident was indeed a result of Israeli errors, rather than an assault with foreknowledge of the ship's American nationality, I do think the incident should receive long overdue U.S. public investigation and hearings .
Continue reading "USS Liberty: Error? Probably. Reinvestigate? Certainly."
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 11:43 AM | Comments (27) | TrackBack
June 02, 2007
How Do You Say "Chutzpah" in Arabic?
The Department of Homeland Security, in a nod to the U.S.' long tradition of aiding those huddled masses who yearn to breathe free (or at least yearn to refrain from having their heads blown off), has announced that a whopping total of 60 Iraqis will shortly be admitted to the U.S. as refugees - but only if they pass the required security checks, of course.
Continue reading "How Do You Say "Chutzpah" in Arabic?"
Posted by evaluna at 12:00 PM | Comments (33) | TrackBack
May 10, 2007
On the failure of Liberals in the Arab World
I’ll use Liberal in both its classic and modern Anglo-Saxon meaning here. The previous thread’s comments gave me some neuron crunching about this issue. Socialism, from the 50s to the 80s, and Islamism afterwards, are perhaps the two ideologies which mostly shaped Arab thought during the second half of the 20th century.
The socio-economic variables are clearly an indicator on how radical one can be in support of those political lines. But it’s interesting to note that those ideologies enjoy support even among people who otherwise aren’t poor, are educated, and tend to be socially quite loose.
I’ll focus on one reason that has a huge weight in determining political orientations: national causes.
Continue reading "On the failure of Liberals in the Arab World"
Posted by Shaheen at 05:22 PM | Comments (16) | TrackBack
May 09, 2007
Why Israel is doing Arabs a favor by ignoring the Arab Peace Initiative
Because Arabs can score some PR points out of it, but would face the tough issue of dealing with it if they had to sit and really negotiate it. Or worse, find some formula about refugees that one of our duces would think is a face saving one and come to have to actually implement it. Of course, if we were smarter, it wouldn’t be a tough point at all. But see, in negotiations, we’re idiots.
I know this entry comes a bit late, the Arab Peace Initiative has been put back on the table several weeks ago already, but I felt inspired by a recent discussion of it with a concerned friend. At the beginning of the Oslo process, when Israelis were sending delegations of the finest international law and negotiations experts, Palestinians were sending teams of little bullies, thinking that the kafya military green wearing Sopranos would be as good with their brains as they are with their muscles.
Continue reading "Why Israel is doing Arabs a favor by ignoring the Arab Peace Initiative"
Posted by Shaheen at 12:50 AM | Comments (16) | TrackBack
May 05, 2007
The Forex Wall
I’ve hit it again. The Lounsbury and I have had a brief exchange about this some time ago, and I just discussed it with a Moroccan acquaintance. The guy’s an accountant. Morocco or Tunisia, to quote only those examples among many other Arab countries, impose trade restrictions when it comes to foreign currencies.
The argument I’m given in support for those restrictions is invariably the same: everyone will rush to buy foreign currencies, and the country will have a shortage of it. That such an argument comes from an accountant is puzzling. It totally ignores the fact that markets would automatically balance that demand. If some little buddy is ready to sell his house for a couple of euros, then he must be a moron of epic proportions. And if one’s worried about the resulting exchange rate, then there definitely are ways to control them through market mechanisms.
Continue reading "The Forex Wall"
Posted by Shaheen at 01:11 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
April 28, 2007
Maybe All is Not Lost in Translation
Apparently the U.S. Congress has taken notice that a grand total of fifty green cards per fiscal year was not going to meet the demand created by Iraqi and Afghan translators who have placed their lives in danger by serving as translators and interpreters for U.S. forces.
Continue reading "Maybe All is Not Lost in Translation"
Posted by evaluna at 12:10 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
France reflections: elections, Beurs, MENA, economy
As per The Lounsbury's suggestion, and following Ibn Kafka's extensive coverage of French elections, here are my two cents about them, Beurs, France and the MENA region and related economic bits.
Sunday's [May 6th] second round will most probably bring Sarkozy to French presidency. I have to say I'm very mixed up about this election. This round's vote is a matter of either gambling on Sarkozy, and risking what happened with Arab Americans, who happen to have voted George Bush in 2000, or choosing an economically destructive but marginally more risk averse community-wise choice with Segolene.
Continue reading "France reflections: elections, Beurs, MENA, economy"
Posted by Shaheen at 04:21 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
March 20, 2007
Egalité in time of elections
Another damning study in France, which shows that discrimination isn't improving in the Terre d'Asile, Land of Equality. If you're an Arab or African French, your chances of receiving equal treatment are statistically an 11% of employers. The president will be elected next month and France is well into its electoral campaign. Segolene and Sarkozy have done pathetic attempts at fishing Arab votes by visiting Arab countries, but so far, this internal issue that hinders the development of at least 10% of the French population isn't on any candidate's radar. Even Sarkozy's affirmative action, a fuzzy social - not ethnic - based concept, is unlikely to ever concretize given how controversial the idea is in Jacobin France.
Not that affirmative action is a good idea anyway, since it would only serve in reinforcing stereotypes, devaluate real merit and maintain the nanny government tradition that reduces incentives to perform.
Continue reading "Egalité in time of elections"
Posted by Shaheen at 01:19 PM | Comments (18) | TrackBack
March 19, 2007
Encore Rock the Casbah: Casablanca Terror & Mohammed al Faiz - A Proposal on Aid
I should start by admitting that that when our Permanent Anon inquired about Mohammed Faiz, I had a somewhat (or even rather) dismissive reaction. A dismissive reaction that was utterly wrong and misplaced. Faiz for those who don't know, is the supervisor and by family, owner, of an internet cafe in a poor neighbourhood in the Moroccan city of Casablanca who stopped an attempted bombing there.
My original reaction was, effectively, yeah, he did a good deed and possibly for his own interest (e.g. frightened he might get in trouble), so what?
On reflexion and on review of international and domestic press that effectively highlight the recidivist takfiri suicide bomber Raydi, I have changed my mind. And indeed apologize for my superficial reaction.
Continue reading "Encore Rock the Casbah: Casablanca Terror & Mohammed al Faiz - A Proposal on Aid"
Posted by The Lounsbury at 06:56 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
February 23, 2007
Tarek Fatah on Little Mosque
For some more provincial comments from the Big North, Tarek Fatah's take on Little Mosque on the Prairie has some good points. While I disagree with his idea that there might be an agenda behind the lack of portrayal of liberal Muslims in the show, he definitely put his finger on something when stating that "the liberal, secular or progressive segments of the community – are conspicuous by their complete absence from the Little Mosque narrative."
Continue reading "Tarek Fatah on Little Mosque"
Posted by Shaheen at 01:57 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
February 14, 2007
Lost in Translation: U.S. Policy Toward Iraqi Translators and Interpreters
With an estimated 3.8 million Iraqis currently living as refugees, it’s not surprising that the U.S. might want to help by taking in a few hapless souls until Iraq stabilizes. So I wasn’t at all shocked to see that Washington has offered to provide refugee visa slots for its customary drop in the bucket. That’s right - 7,000 lucky Iraqis, or 0.18% of those who have fled during the current conflict alone, will be granted the opportunity to start over in the U.S. in the form of asylum.
Continue reading "Lost in Translation: U.S. Policy Toward Iraqi Translators and Interpreters"
Posted by evaluna at 11:03 PM | Comments (11) | TrackBack
January 18, 2007
Allah v. God v. G-d v. YHWH v. The LORD
On Lounsbury's journal, a debate I will now hijack has been going on. That debate suggests a more basic underlying religious vocabulary dilemma that goes back decades at least: the selection by many Muslims to use "Allah " instead of "God" when discoursing religion in English. I personally oppose it but as I am not Muslim I have no direct stake in the underlying religious taboos, if any. But I do find it linguistically annoying and highly misleading, for reasons addressed further on.
Update: Courtesy of commenter Dawud is this Islamic scholarly explanation of why the term "God" is a halal one for "Allah".
Continue reading "Allah v. God v. G-d v. YHWH v. The LORD"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 11:22 PM | Comments (75) | TrackBack
January 09, 2007
Wishful Thinking, Grasping at Straws, and Other Habits of Highly Effective Pundits
I know that taking Andrew Sullivan apart whenever he embarasses himself talking about Islam is old hat on this blog, but his recent post about the possible benefits of the Iraqi civil war for the war on terror deserves special mention. You see, by declaring victory and then leaving Iraqis to slaughter each other, we counter al-Qaeda's "West versus Islam" narrative with an "Islam versus Islam" narrative.
Posted by homais at 02:05 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
January 05, 2007
Saddam Execution & Recent Events: A Moroccan Perspective
The casual reader of Tel Quel, a trendy francophone Moroccan weekly, or, to a lesser extent, of Le Journal hebdomadaire, might be forgiven for thinking that the average Moroccan is more interested in the depenalisation of cannabis, the right to convert to Southern Baptism or whether algebra will be taught in Tamazight than in events in the Middle East. One Tel Quel journalist wrote "Je n’aime pas le Hezbollah" ("I don't like Hezbollah"), thus showing how disconnected this magazine is from the broad strands of Moroccan public opinion - fiercely pro-Palestinian, pro-Hezbollah and anti-US.
Continue reading "Saddam Execution & Recent Events: A Moroccan Perspective"
Posted by Ibn Kafka at 05:10 PM | Comments (13) | TrackBack
December 14, 2006
Attending Holocaust Denial Conference Might Be Career-Limiting
The Tehran conference has drawn widespread condemnation for its roster of infamous attendees and controversial position on the Holocaust. Certainly any academic with half a brain wouldn't be caught dead at one of Ahmedinejad's little soirees, as demonstrated by the brewing intellectual slapfight between Alan Dershowitz and Norman Finkelstein. Using evidence from a neo-nazi website, Dershowitz insinuated that his academic nemesis not only attended, but would fit right in because he "has allied himself closely with the Holocaust denial movement by trivializing the suffering of its victims and denying that many of them were victims at all." Our man Richard Silverstein summarizes the story and casts doubt on Dershowitz's conclusion by noting that a) Finkelstein's own parents narrowly escaped the Holocaust, making denial a bit difficult and b) he was testifying at a federal trial in Chicago during the conference.
The motive behind this accusation is clear: legitimate academics who attend Holocaust conferences with David Duke and his ilk may experience slight credibility loss among peers. Rather like evolutionary biologists presenting papers at a conference of Creationists, I suppose.
Continue reading "Attending Holocaust Denial Conference Might Be Career-Limiting"
Posted by eerie at 11:46 PM | Comments (19) | TrackBack
December 04, 2006
Fun with Labels: Protest, Opposition, Siege, and/or Coup d'Etat in Lebanon
Even if one man's protest is apparently another man's attempted coup, there's still something just a little bit off about the rhetoric surrounding recent events in Lebanon. Commentators are at pains to distance what is happening now from what happened when the March 14th movement (or Cedar Revolution, if you prefer) peacefully camped out in downtown Beirut. It would be impossible to track down every instance of the sort of rhetoric I'm talking about, but Abu Kais, currently guest-blogging for Michael Totten, is a pretty representative example, referring to the situation as an "occupation of downtown Beirut" and a "coup attempt". And, our own Lounsbury has already posted on similar framings over on ...Or Does it Explode? that amount to: "How dare people we don't like use non-reprehensible tactics? Bad people should only use bad tactics!"
Continue reading "Fun with Labels: Protest, Opposition, Siege, and/or Coup d'Etat in Lebanon"
Posted by homais at 03:11 AM | Comments (85) | TrackBack
November 29, 2006
US & Iraq: Imbecilic Navel-Gazing as Strategy
I read and was told that the major US media (or to adopt the childishly imbecilic Neo-Bolshevik speak of the American blogs, "Mainstream Media") has finally gotten around to calling the Iraqi civil war, a civil war. I rather foolishly thought that this might be welcomed among the more cogent and cogniscent corners of online commentary as a breath of fresh air and a good point of departure for actually bloody well tackling the disaster looming in front of the US of A, rather than childishly whinging on about terminology and pretending if only they don't bloody admit how bad it is, some magical intervention will somehow rescue them from the now inevitable disaster. I do say invevitable, for the Americans have already lost - as the Soviets already had two or three years before they could bring themselves to admit it.
But no. Rather, even into the center regions of the American Whankatariat, idiotic, droolingly cretinous idiotic denial, and simple minded self regarding idiocy is the result. The essential objection as far as I can tell (once I peel away the piss-poor half-informed and 1/4 understood history of Shia and Sunni, of Arab and Kurd - typical "they've always been" rubbish) - is that calling a spade a spade may lead the US to flee the field.
Continue reading "US & Iraq: Imbecilic Navel-Gazing as Strategy"
Posted by The Lounsbury at 06:24 AM | Comments (14) | TrackBack
November 11, 2006
Arab Media: Al Jazeera Newspaper
Likely lost in the American elections noise and the Israeli Gaza invasion, an interesting item reported in the FT among other sources on Al Jazeera planning a competitor to the hoary old pan-Arab dailies, Al Hayat (my personal favourite), Asharq Al Awsat (All Saudi views, all the time...) and of course Al Quds Al Arabi (old school Arab nationalism, I found them shrill and boring when I bothered to read it).
A worthy concept, but I am afraid the very physicalness of newspapers make them too easy to ban (by the way, I remain puzzled why Hayat hasn't been found in Maghreb for decades) or pressure.
Continue reading "Arab Media: Al Jazeera Newspaper"
Posted by The Lounsbury at 07:55 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
November 04, 2006
Who Let The Cats Out?
I spent the past few days ruminating on a post, part of me wanting to ignore it and frankly bury it in the recesses of my repressed memory pile, another part of me gagging and wanting to spew my last meal. Am afraid the bile won and the balanced pondered upon post is in the bin. There are times when one has enough, when one comes to the realization that the tempered non-agitational reasoned approach to life leaves you out of the idiot pile but also robs you of your rage. It’s not Neanderthal or ignorant to be angry and I am, fucking seriously outraged, and I will not look for underlying causes or phenomenal precedents. Scum the lot of them.
Continue reading "Who Let The Cats Out?"
Posted by bint ash-shaitan at 04:30 PM | Comments (48) | TrackBack
October 28, 2006
On Iraq & Pre-War Predictions: What Do You Mean "We", Paleface?
Apologies to the old Lone Ranger joke. Clive Davis writes this lament of the disaster unfolding in Iraq. "It wasn't just the Bush team that made mistakes, of course. Didn't we all underestimate the challenge?" (emphasis added).
Ummm, no. That sentence may imply a whole new set of meanings for the words "we" and "all", hitherto unsuspected. Even my own neglected blog in early 2003 quoted this far-from-rare Jason Vest article from the (annoyingly) lefty mag The Nation that got it right. That article (and even little old me) were among so many others -- from every walk of life, punditry, as well as civilian and military industry, large and small -- who loudly forsaw everything, more or less. Not to mention our very own Aqoul curmudgeon. To the time machine!
Continue reading "On Iraq & Pre-War Predictions: What Do You Mean "We", Paleface?"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 02:03 PM | Comments (23) | TrackBack
October 24, 2006
Sudan's North, East, South, West; Whose Peace Treaty is the Best?
Another day, another peace treaty. Eastern Sudanese factions signed a peace deal with the Sudanese government earlier this week ending the convoluted, if less bloody and less publicised, uprising in the east of the country. Since the Naivasha treaty, which ended the long-running war between the North and the South, there have been two more treaties, one with rebel factions in Darfur and the latest with Eastern rebels. But have any of these treaties any promise? Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir declared, very much reminscent of a mother who had given her children too much candy, "This is the LAST peace treaty!" and, after a short pause, "to be negotiated outside the country."
Judging from the inherent weakness of the agreements themselves, and the Sudanese government's unfolding willingness (I will stop short of 'eagerness') to accomodate the immediate demands of rebels, it is not unreasonable to expect more uprisings, and/or more importantly, the disintegration of the current peace treaties as well.
Continue reading "Sudan's North, East, South, West; Whose Peace Treaty is the Best?"
Posted by Meph at 12:00 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack
October 22, 2006
Spinning in different languages or proper adjusting of message to audience?
Following up on some small debates on MEMRI mendacity and accusations of doubletalk between English and Arabic on the part of Arabophone intellectuals, I found the following article from Reuters interesting, amusing and also thought-provoking: Diplomat acknowledges U.S. "arrogance" in Iraq.
The essence of the story, the head of US public diplomacy Near East bureau, Alberto Fernandez, apparently (I have been too busy to watch TV myself) acknowledged the US has bollixed up Iraq due to arrogance and stupidity. The US government has forthwith claimed (re the English) it is a misquote.
A moment to reflect on the problems of structuring messages and communicating between languages, based on the longer text of the same Reuters story from the NY Times Reuters feed.
[Update: Unsurprisingly this is showing signs of setting off, what was it called in comments, a stupid storm: I point to Bou Aardvark's note on the issue. I wonder if the stupid storm on the part of pornstarlet wannabes like Malkin will actually deprive the US of one its few capable interlocutors on the Arab Sats, in some cretinous recreation of Soviet style purges for not following party lines]
Continue reading "Spinning in different languages or proper adjusting of message to audience?"
Posted by The Lounsbury at 12:23 PM | Comments (12) | TrackBack
October 17, 2006
Iraq the Mortal: Lancet reports 800 gazillion slain
I'll probably update or followup as time permits (have updated now after the break), but we should note the recent study issued by The Lancet, which alleges some absurd figure for Iraqi deaths from coalition and other violence post-US invasion -- a followup to their earlier study (see below for link to abstract), which at least had a broad enough confidence interval to fig leaf the foolishness. When I begged my government in 2002-3 not to enter this stupid war and occupation with all the cruelty and foolishness it would entail, I neglected to leave out the fact that it would perpetuate mass gulllibility among those who think "Bush & Co." is Hitler, and that any accusation should stick. And those, like the media, who think peer-reviewed medical literature is face-value gospel. Thankfully, a responsible and serious set of critics of the invasion/occupation/budding civil war, the Iraq Body Count, who actually ask critical questions and document the same matters in real time, has issued a serious commentary listing enough red flags about the Lancet study to decorate a communist banquet.
Continue reading "Iraq the Mortal: Lancet reports 800 gazillion slain"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 09:29 PM | Comments (27) | TrackBack
October 16, 2006
Backers of Dovish American Jewish Initiative Deny Opposing AIPAC
When JTA ran a story last week about an initiative backed by George Soros (or not yet backed if you believe Rosner's reports below) and other powerful dovish American Jewish leaders, it noted that one of the purposes of the initiative would be to present a progressive counter to AIPAC. All of this seems perfectly reasonable to any reasonable American Jew. But the 900lb gorilla Goliath has taken notice of little David standing beneath him and he's roared his annoyance. As a result, it's humorous to see the erstwhile progressives scurrying like ants to backtrack:
Jewish organizational officials who have participated in the meetings said JTA's characterization of their aim in a story earlier this week, as an alternative to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, was wrong...Those currently leading the effort say they're happy to work with AIPAC.
"My involvement is that Mort Halperin's an old friend," said Mel Levine, a former U.S. Democratic congressman who is now a high-powered West Coast lawyer. "Mort asked me to go to an initial exploratory meeting about a pro-Israel advocacy organization that would focus on a two-state solution, that would focus on Israel and was not in competition with anyone else."
That did not usurp AIPAC'S role of advocating for a strong U.S.-Israel alliance, Levine said.
Continue reading "Backers of Dovish American Jewish Initiative Deny Opposing AIPAC"
Posted by Richard Silverstein at 08:09 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Tarawih in the Kingdom, Part 2
Today I got the giggles.
We chose a small makeshift mosque that was close by as the big neighbourhood one was too far to walk after a long day and so we made our way to the small one round the corner. It was tiny, barely holding a hundred people and the women's section held barely a third of that number. The moment I walked in and saw that there was a curtain, a CURTAIN, separating the male and female section, all the piety I had managed to muster evaporated as all I could think of was that the billowing curtain might be blown high enough to expose the two worlds. There would be havoc.
As we began to pray an old woman a couple of feet away from me began whispering visciously in my direction. Alarmed slightly I edged away from her but this only seemed to infuriate her further. After a few more ignored hisses, she grabbed me by my cloak and dragged me in one surprisingly firm move towards her. As I staggered in alarm my mother looked at me barely surpressing a laugh and whispered "You were too far away from her, there shouldn't be any gaps between worshippers." This I knew but had never witnessed it so dedicatedly implemented. I managed to regain my composure and keep praying, bemused by the small, bent octogenarian's strength.
Continue reading "Tarawih in the Kingdom, Part 2"
Posted by bint ash-shaitan at 09:10 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
October 14, 2006
MEMRI Mendacity, brief thoughts
Following up on my Lounsbury comment about a fine illustration of MEMRI's mendacity with respect to its pretensions of providing a window on Arabic/Islamic discourse, as identified via this post at Dean's World, I thought I would blither on a bit about this and other nasty spin.
There is certainly an emerging and quite nasty strain of bigotted or at least xenophobic reactionary commentary in the West with respect to Islam generally - and let me insert here for the sub-literate that in noting this I am not intending to excuse the Islamic world of its own version of this nor deny there is a sad and often disgusting strain of violence-mongering as our own bint ash-shaitan illustrated in her note on Saudi mosque nonsense - and it strikes me that MEMRI is an agitprop operation that is specifically trying to feed that now.
Continue reading "MEMRI Mendacity, brief thoughts"
Posted by The Lounsbury at 10:58 AM | Comments (10) | TrackBack
October 09, 2006
Tarawih in the Kingdom
I stepped into the women's section of the neighbourhood mosque, my mother by my side and the imam's quranic recitations booming in my ears. The praying area was on the upper floor of the mosque, ornate, sweet-smelling and half full by the time we got there. The imam had already finished isha'a prayer and started on tarawih so we quickly joined the last line and started praying under the brilliant chandelier and, thankfully, an air conditioning vent.
One thing that has always moved me is the reverberation of the congregation as they say "Amen" after the end of a quranic verse. As women are not allowed to raise their voices in prayer if men are in earshot, the rising chant after each verse is a deep rich tenor. These moments always affirmed - as far as I was concerned - the virtues of group prayer and the significance of communal religion. A lone worshipper believing more in a personal spiritual relationship with one's Maker, I am not a fan of mosque prayer but taken with the spirit of Ramadan and not wishing my mother to go on her own, I found myself smiling at the familiar "Amen" that emanated from the (not overlooked) male congregation below.
Continue reading "Tarawih in the Kingdom"
Posted by bint ash-shaitan at 05:03 PM | Comments (24) | TrackBack
September 20, 2006
Racism? What racism?
Allow me to bring your attention to a particularly poorly written piece of UAE agitprop. The UAE is quite heavily segregated socially - people of different national and ethnic origins tend not to mix together except for business. This has been exacerbated greatly by some rather flagrant racism.
I am not sure what legal sanctions exist regarding discrimination, but it is clear that if these exist, they aren't ever enforced. Housing ads can thus ask for Keralite Muslim bachelors, and job ads for Tagalog-speaking candidates only to apply for positions where these language skills are unnecessary, while nightclubs often turn away non-white people at the door on flimsy grounds. Pay scales differ wildly depending on one's skin color, as does how one is treated by all sorts of people one encounters, ranging from shopkeepers to immigration staff.
There has lately been some very slight movement towards recognizing this and doing something about it. Until now, that is.
Continue reading "Racism? What racism?"
Posted by dubaiwalla at 11:11 PM | Comments (11) | TrackBack
September 10, 2006
They'll Estonia When You Try to Trade Some Goods: Transition Model?
Estonia, the Model? (Title apologies to Bob Dylan.) It seems everybody must get Estonia'd. In this excerpt of a behind-the-firewall op-ed by John Tierney in the New York Times, we learn of the transtion from an economically totalitarian society to a free market one in the ex-Soviet state of Estonia. Assuming -- and tragically some you don't, I know -- that a free market-based state and economy is a generally good thing, does Estonia provide an example for MENA (Mideast North Africa) states, and if so which ones? Alas, our main economics contributor in the region is currently bailing out sinking enterprises so the expert answer may be harder to come by. Meanwhile, I suspect Estonia fails as a model.
Continue reading "They'll Estonia When You Try to Trade Some Goods: Transition Model?"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 10:14 AM | Comments (20) | TrackBack
August 23, 2006
Do-It-Yourself Profiling and Islamophobia
Following up on Matthew's barbuphobia entry, I would like to draw attention to some relatively minor yet rather disturbing events. Mere blips, but indicative of a growing acceptance of Islamophobia as an appropriate response to the current situation in MENA and the West.
Via Progressive Islam, the media has reported two separate incidents where passenger hysteria led to the ejection of Muslims from a plane. On a Malaga-Manchester flight, passengers overheard two Asian men speaking "Arabic" and refused to fly until they were removed. Similarly, a Canadian doctor returning home from a conference in Denver was escorted off a plane because one of the passengers found his behaviour suspicious and reported it to the flight crew. He was reciting evening prayers.
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Posted by eerie at 04:46 PM | Comments (12) | TrackBack
Barbuphobia: Clerics, Beards, Pre-Judgment, Piety & Stuff
Egyptian author Mona Eltahawy confronts her own presumptions about Les Barbus, presumptions derived from her experiences growing up in Saudi Arabia. By les barbus, I refer of course to a nickname used elsewhere for those conservatively pious, sometimes Wahhabi, Muslim gents who tend to sport long beards. They are often presumed -- can we say profiled? -- to harbor intolerant or reactionary social and religious views (not to mention explosives). The author herself concedes holding such statistically valid presumptions presupposing judgmental viewpoints on the part of conspicuously beadred Muslim men. But she soon comes to discover that such presumptions aren't always a reliable guide to each individual, especially after encountering a new person of the barbus type who turns out to be worth getting to know as a three-dimensional being in his own right, during meetings they had in and around a conference in Copenhagen on modern Muslims .
Continue reading "Barbuphobia: Clerics, Beards, Pre-Judgment, Piety & Stuff"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 01:24 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
August 10, 2006
More Death in the Levant: A Personal Note
David Lelchook was cut down by a Hizbullah rocket landing in or around Kibbutz Sa'ar, Israel on August 2. He was bicycling, unsuccessfully, to a bomb shelter. The rest of his family had relocated to the south for safety. He was hit by the explosive force of the random projectile. I didn't know him or his views, but I have known his sister for quite some time. Reading the latest news the other day, David's rare surname jumped out. A phone call confirmed the relation.
Continue reading "More Death in the Levant: A Personal Note"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 05:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Of, by and for the Lebanese
Michael Young has an article in the upcoming New York Times Sunday magazine discussing Lebanon's politics, the rise of Hizbullah, and the nature of the conflicting visions for the country. It's a good piece, and very different from much of Young's output over the past couple years. There's a sense of humility to it, and a willingness to look at the warts on "his" side of the equation as much as on the other side.
The main thing that sets it apart from so much of the commentary on the war is a willingness to look at Hizbullah as a Lebanese phenomenon, run by Lebanese with a vision of what Lebanon ought to be, and responding to Lebanese circumstances. This is something I was getting at back at the war's start, and which raf picked up on in his analysis. And it's the kind of thinking that is the only way that Lebanon is going to be able to get itself out of the mess it will be in, even after the bombs stop falling.
Continue reading "Of, by and for the Lebanese"
Posted by tomscud at 06:46 AM | Comments (12) | TrackBack
July 25, 2006
Magical Thinking, Purely Wishful
North Korea. It lacks exactness, but that is the precise analogy to the utterly bizarre, divorced from reality, unrealistic and wishful thinking world in which US policy on Lebanon and Israel is occuring. Magical, wishful and eventually will be forced to meet hard reality. Sad that hundreds will die pointlessly in the process, but c'est la vie, ach ghdi ngoulek, larab fqet, hmir bla qma.
Posted by The Lounsbury at 05:13 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
July 22, 2006
International Convention Needed on Blowing Off Little Girls' Faces
With little girls’ faces in the Middle East being blown off , and dangers of it continuing for a while longer, our clandestine correspondent has learned of a rare ultra-secret “face to face” meeting that has been going on to limit it. With the aid of an international mediator, an Israeli representative and a Hizbullah representative have gotten together to discuss the parameters of a Fifth Geneva Convention on Standards for Ripping or Blowing Little Girls’ Faces Off. Some of the text has leaked to ‘Aqoul, below. (This is not to be mixed up with little girls being encouraged to sign death messages on artillery shells that might blow off little girls' faces.)
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Posted by Top Secret Anonymous Guy at 07:18 PM | Comments (47) | TrackBack
July 13, 2006
Season of Migration to the West: Gulf London
Ah summer in London town, it wouldn't be the same without the Arabs parading down Oxford Street and patronising the cafes of Mayfair. Grossly made up Gulf women tottering in their high hooker heels buying perfume in Selfridges and Harrods and then finishing off a day of shopping with some strong coffee or even the illicit sugary alcoholic drink. The casual observer reels from passive amusement to sickening anger at the decadence and the smugness of the swarm that descends on the city and with its prams and shopping bags and Bentleys, generally getting in the way and giving the proverbial middle finger to honest nine to fivers trying to grab a quick lunch before they get back to their grind and contemplate the exorbitant taxes they have to pay for the privelege of living in Great Britain.
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Posted by bint ash-shaitan at 09:23 AM | Comments (47) | TrackBack
June 28, 2006
Putin Issues Hit on Diplomat Murderers in Iraq
Russian President Vladimir Putin is quite steamed at the moment over the recent murders of four Russian diplomats in Iraq, apparently committed in retaliation for Moscow’s behavior in Chechnya. In a further geographic expansion of his Chechen campaign, he has vowed to have Russian Special Forces knock off the diplomats’ killers , who had demanded that Russia withdraw from Chechnya. Some think Putin is but full of sound and fury on this one, but they may be forgetting his KGB past.
Iraqi sovereignty be damned, apparently - but then circumstantial evidence suggests that if Putin follows through, it wouldn’t be the first time that Russian nationals acted in their official capacity to violate a Middle Eastern country’s sovereignty in order to settle a Chechen separatist score.
Continue reading "Putin Issues Hit on Diplomat Murderers in Iraq"
Posted by evaluna at 10:58 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
June 27, 2006
Denouncing the 'Islamofascists': Ambivalence & Rhetoric
As any regular reader knows, I rather despise the idiotic term "Islamofascist" as both technically inaccurate (at least for Sunni Islamists) and aesthetically displeasing. A bad, clumsy and frankly dim attempt to dredge up the misty memories of WWII and the 'good fight' against the Nazis. I'd have preferred if its pimps (notably Sullivan, who is often dim in this area) had chosen say a Commie reference, which given Arab Socialist influences on Islamist thinking in areas like economics, would at least have had some relevance to reality.
However, I noted that the controversial Moroccan French language weekly, Tel Quel has in its recent edition adopted the same sort of discourse as illustrated in its cover "The New Fascists".
Continue reading "Denouncing the 'Islamofascists': Ambivalence & Rhetoric"
Posted by The Lounsbury at 03:47 PM | Comments (16) | TrackBack
June 25, 2006
Muslim Europe - Silent or Not?
A quick note to draw attention to what struck me as a well written article on Muslims in Europe and silence (or not) with respect to recent radicals terror attacks in Europe: Muslims address silence on Europe attacks.
The core commentary may be summarised as "these Terrorists aren't our folks and we're busy with our lives" with an undercurrent of "speaking out gets one shunned as taking sides."
Overall, I think the arty captures the various streams of reaction in the European Muslim communities (at least those I am familiar with). The seperate question is, are the reactions reasonable. I'd say on some level yes, although there is certainly a weakness in not admitting the "circle the wagons" reaction is not good enough.
Posted by The Lounsbury at