The Assault Continues

Israelis bomb camp, cut power and water - Yahoo! News

The water has now been cut off as well.

Gaza Invaded

Israeli troops enter Gaza; Bridges hit - Yahoo! News

So in response to an attack against an Israeli military outpost on Palestinian soil on the border between Palestine and Egypt and the taking of a single POW, the IDF invades Gaza and attacks civilian targets such as the main power station and bridges. Yet the Palestinians are the badguys, the terrorists. The fate of a single Israeli soldier is taken to be of more moral worth then the lives and well-being of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. This amounts to a cynical disregard of even the most basic ethical precepts.

Islam: What the West Needs To Know

Islam: What the West Needs To Know

"Protocols of the Shuyukh of Mecca" Just another example of islamophobes adopting the tactics of anit-semites- selective quotation, allegations of conspiracies and of government acquiescence, and the implication that virtually every Jew/Muslim is knowingly or unknowingly part of the international cabal, and thus an enemy of White Christian civilization. So who's behind this? It is being released by "Quixotic Media," a company the sole purpose of which seems to be to release the film. It features Robert Spencer, Bat Ye'or, and Walid Shoebat prominently and sports a title derived from one of Spencer's anti-Islamic diatribes. And what's the point of it? To convince non-Muslims that Bin Laden's Islam is the true Islam? It seems like an utterly useless thing, something only designed to achieve political goals. It certainly won't help the West learn to deal with the Muslim world in a constructive way. Telling Muslims that their religion is inherently violent and that this is the fault of the Qur'an (not 'koran') and the Prophet (SAW) in no way helps the dialogue that's necessary if we are not to go on destroying one another. Robert Spencer is a Catholic and Walid Shoebat an evangelical so perhaps this is an attempt to undermine Islamic belief as a prelude to conversion. But I can say one thing with absolute certainty: the majority of Muslims will never change their religion. They may become virtually non-observant, but they'll never deny Islam. Being brought up Muslim or converting to Islam has a profound effect on one's conciousness, an effect that only very few people can ignore and/or sublimate. So dialogues ruled out, as is conversion. What's the alternative? Perpetual war and possible genocide? I don't see what other alternative Spencer and company offer. If violence is ingrained in Islam then all 'reform' attempts will inevitably fail. The Muslims as a whole will never convert to Christianity nor will they become atheists or agnostics on a large scale. It seems as if the only alternative is large scale recolonization of the Muslim heartland combined with ghetoizzation and/or genocide of the large Muslim populations in Western countries. This project, besides being ethically indefensible, would have serious negative repercussions for the West. My conclusion is that this movie is primarily about domestic politics. It is an attempt to subvert the noble attempts that have been made to make this country a trully pluralistic and multi-cultural society and it is also (probably secondarily) an attempt to justify Israeli policies of occupation and colonial expansion into the West Bank as rational 'self-defense' (hence the presence of Bat Ye'or and of Shoebat). The attempt to justify the crusades (also made in Spencer's "Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam") as self-defense may also be taken as applying to Israel as well, although it may just be an attempt by Spencer to present an apologia for the Church. I'm really disappointed that E-Street cinema is one of three theaters that are carrying this; there's a difference between independent film making and hate propaganda that is too vile for even Hollywood to fund.

An interesting commentary by Juan Cole

Informed Comment Concerning the recent arrests in Miami. I wonder what Michael Muhammad Knight makes of this. An example of racist institutions presuming that people of color are guilty until proven innocent? An counterfactual to the contention that 'folk-islams' are inherently less violent than the 'orthodox' variety? Or are the feds so desperate to find 'homegrown' terrorists that they'll jump on anything? الله عام

Waters calls on Israel to remove wall - Yahoo! News

Waters calls on Israel to remove wall - Yahoo! News Kudos to him. Of course, while the article mentions the number of Israeli deaths, it is silent about the thousands of Palestinians that have been killed since the start of the Intifada, many in their own homes as a result of IDF bulldozers at work.

They escaped Saddam but not the Patriot Act

Informed Comment A travesty of justice a bit north of here. An example of how the Patriot act has made our already kafka-esque legal system even more so. I pray that Allah has mercy on these men and grants them justice.

Realm of Truth: Will The Real Slim Shady Please Stand Up?

Realm of Truth: Will The Real Slim Shady Please Stand Up?

And who gets to do the defining of the civilization? The Muslim people themselves or loudmouths with guns and slogans? Obviously western interference is wrong, but this does not mean we should support any force that happens to be opposed to it. Nor should we reject any force out of hand simply because it may play along with the west for a time. How is Musharraf a dictator? He may be an un-elected executive, but that in and of itself does not make one a dictator. If he wants a law passed he has to go about it by parliamentary means; he can't simply make it so by fiat. While he has made mistakes, he's also not cruelly oppressive. You can say what you want in Pakistan, or print articles criticizing the government. Could you have done any of that under the Taliban? Could you write this blog under the Taliban? Or would they take you out into the street and beat you (or worse)? The Taliban executed the entire diplomatic delegation from Iran, nearly provoking a war, they were repressive of Afghan women (and it doesn't take some western feminist group to tell us this), and there is evidence to suggest that they attempted the ethnic cleansing of the Hazaras. We both rightfully decrie the crimes against human dignity that the US government has perpetrated throughout its history and resent the growing intrussions of the government into private life. We both lament, I believe, the closing of a relatively open society. We would have both very much resented the constant intrussions of the Amr bil Maroof committee into our lives, regardless of whether they tried to justify it with Islam. I don't think either of us would have liked to live in constant fear of a knock in the door at night signifying a suprise inspection. I don't think either of us likes TV, but they could have taken computers, tapes, or (more to the point for us) books. I would resent having to justify my library even to people who approved of my collection. Wouldn't you? How much of the insurgency in Afghanistan is actually do to any kind of support of the Taliban? How much is do to Pashtunwala? How much is there in the Dari speaking areas? How much is just the resistence to foreign occupation that one would expect? I am not saying the current government is legitimate, but the fact that the succeeding government is a puppet regime in no way confers after-the-fact legitimacy on the preceeding one. Akhi, I mean no disrespect in any of this. I just feel obliged to register a note of dissent with you on this issue.

In regards to the issue with the Hazara you can check out this and this

Double Standards

The Council on American-Islamic Relations - CAIR: Article Contents I don't know what to say about this, other than to blame Parker and Stone for this (the refrain is clearly taken from 'Team America: World Police.' Of course, me being offended by this type of thing is being oversensitive. And offense at a similar song with anti-semitic lyrics is a totally justified expression of an enlightened sensibity which speaks to the best of Western Culture. Being offended by a student in an arabic class writing 'al-qaeda' on the blackboard before class or jokes about the professor being late because he had to take the camel instead of the flying carpet is evidence that I need to 'lighten up.' Being offended by someone writing a smear on the blackboard of a Hebrew class or making Jewish jokes outside of the teacher's earshot is laudable. Perhaps I'm just not subtle or sophisticated enough to be an American; I just don't see the distinctions between these incidents.

Realm of Truth

Realm of Truth

What does brother Abdul-Haqq mean by utilitarianism?

Honestly, I don't see a consistent ethical system at work in the West; I think we would all be better off if there were one at work. At the level of control decisions are made according to cost-benefit analysis where the over-riding concern is profit, power, or both. This is not utilitarianism in the classical sense, in which the potential harms and benefits to all those affected by a decision are taken into account. This is shere Machiavellianism and not of the type that Machiavelli would have approved.

At the level of individual citizens, there is a hodgepod; most people act either on a vague 'feeling' or intuition of morally correct behavior or on a code (partially religious, partially social in origin) internalized during childhood. A minority work out their ethical beliefs according to a number of different frameworks (consequentialism [including utilitarianism], deontological ethics, virtue ethics, etc.) and then act on them according to their degree of personal integrity. While freedom is not the foundation of any of these systems (although deontologists tend to value autonomy as a characteristic imparting moral worth) it is generally recognized as a good worthy of preserving. Ethical systems which egregiously and unneccesarily restrict
(or eliminate) freedom are generally judged to have failed in preserving a key human good.

Racist Comment on G4TV

On Friday, May 26th, 2006, Morgan Webb, cohost of the XPlay show on G4TV, made the following comment in the context of a review of a new Soccer video game: "It's nice to see countries like Uruguay and Pakistan be good at something other than being illiterate." I think this is at least worthy of a letter of protest. They can be sent
here and here.