Category: America and the World
Posted by: an okie gardener
Tagging on to the previous post on topic, this link is to a 2004 note in Middle East Quarterly on the supposed influence of the book The Arab Mind on Neocons. The Arab Mind by Raphael Patai, a cultural anthropologist, is a book first published in 1973 with very politically incorrect conclusions.
The 2002 edition contains a forward that summarizes the book. Full text of the forward is at the above link. A portion is below, though I encourage you to go to the link and read the entire forward.
The 2002 edition contains a forward that summarizes the book. Full text of the forward is at the above link. A portion is below, though I encourage you to go to the link and read the entire forward.
16/12: Is Muslim Culture Rational?
A question I have raised before. See this piece by Ayaan Hirsi Ali in the LA Times. A portion of the article.
ONE DAY IN 1994, when I was living in Ede, a small town in Holland, I got a visit from my half-sister. She and I were both immigrants from Somalia and had both applied for asylum in Holland. I was granted it; she was denied. The fact that I got asylum gave me the opportunity to study. My half-sister couldn't.
In order for me to be admitted to the university I wanted to attend, I needed to pass three courses: a language course, a civics course and a history course. It was in the preparatory history course that I, for the first time, heard of the Holocaust. I was 24 years old at that time, and my half-sister was 21.
In those days, the daily news was filled with the Rwandan genocide and ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia. On the day that my half-sister visited me, my head was reeling from what happened to 6 million Jews in Germany, Holland, France and Eastern Europe.
I learned that innocent men, women and children were separated from each other. Stars pinned to their shoulders, transported by train to camps, they were gassed for no other reason than for being Jewish.
I saw pictures of masses of skeletons, even of kids. I heard horrifying accounts of some of the people who had survived the terror of Auschwitz and Sobibor. I told my half-sister all this and showed her the pictures in my history book. What she said was as awful as the information in my book.
With great conviction, my half-sister cried: "It's a lie! Jews have a way of blinding people. They were not killed, gassed or massacred. But I pray to Allah that one day all the Jews in the world will be destroyed."
She was not saying anything new. As a child growing up in Saudi Arabia, I remember my teachers, my mom and our neighbors telling us practically on a daily basis that Jews are evil, the sworn enemies of Muslims, and that their only goal was to destroy Islam. We were never informed about the Holocaust.
Later, as a teenager in Kenya, when Saudi and other Persian Gulf philanthropy reached us, I remember that the building of mosques and donations to hospitals and the poor went hand in hand with the cursing of Jews. Jews were said to be responsible for the deaths of babies and for epidemics such as AIDS, and they were believed to be the cause of wars. They were greedy and would do absolutely anything to kill us Muslims. If we ever wanted to know peace and stability, and if we didn't want to be wiped out, we would have to destroy the Jews. For those of us who were not in a position to take up arms against them, it was enough for us to cup our hands, raise our eyes heavenward and pray to Allah to destroy them.
ONE DAY IN 1994, when I was living in Ede, a small town in Holland, I got a visit from my half-sister. She and I were both immigrants from Somalia and had both applied for asylum in Holland. I was granted it; she was denied. The fact that I got asylum gave me the opportunity to study. My half-sister couldn't.
In order for me to be admitted to the university I wanted to attend, I needed to pass three courses: a language course, a civics course and a history course. It was in the preparatory history course that I, for the first time, heard of the Holocaust. I was 24 years old at that time, and my half-sister was 21.
In those days, the daily news was filled with the Rwandan genocide and ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia. On the day that my half-sister visited me, my head was reeling from what happened to 6 million Jews in Germany, Holland, France and Eastern Europe.
I learned that innocent men, women and children were separated from each other. Stars pinned to their shoulders, transported by train to camps, they were gassed for no other reason than for being Jewish.
I saw pictures of masses of skeletons, even of kids. I heard horrifying accounts of some of the people who had survived the terror of Auschwitz and Sobibor. I told my half-sister all this and showed her the pictures in my history book. What she said was as awful as the information in my book.
With great conviction, my half-sister cried: "It's a lie! Jews have a way of blinding people. They were not killed, gassed or massacred. But I pray to Allah that one day all the Jews in the world will be destroyed."
She was not saying anything new. As a child growing up in Saudi Arabia, I remember my teachers, my mom and our neighbors telling us practically on a daily basis that Jews are evil, the sworn enemies of Muslims, and that their only goal was to destroy Islam. We were never informed about the Holocaust.
Later, as a teenager in Kenya, when Saudi and other Persian Gulf philanthropy reached us, I remember that the building of mosques and donations to hospitals and the poor went hand in hand with the cursing of Jews. Jews were said to be responsible for the deaths of babies and for epidemics such as AIDS, and they were believed to be the cause of wars. They were greedy and would do absolutely anything to kill us Muslims. If we ever wanted to know peace and stability, and if we didn't want to be wiped out, we would have to destroy the Jews. For those of us who were not in a position to take up arms against them, it was enough for us to cup our hands, raise our eyes heavenward and pray to Allah to destroy them.
15/12: Advice for President Bush
From Powerline: Charge
15/12: Islam Update
Category: America and the World
Posted by: an okie gardener
I have mentioned before that we are seeing Muslims in Muslim lands converting to Christianity in unprecedented numbers. Although still small, the fact this is happening at all is extremely significant. Part of the motivation for the violent radical Islamic reaction to the West is that Islam perceives correctly that it is challenged from two sides--on the one hand the freedom and hedonism of the West, on the other from Christianity.
This article, copied by Dhimmiwatch, on the growing numbers of evangelical Christians in Morocco. Due to that famous Islamic tolerance, they must meet clandestinely.
Below is a portion of the article, and remember, Morocco is one of the most tolerant Muslim countries:
This article, copied by Dhimmiwatch, on the growing numbers of evangelical Christians in Morocco. Due to that famous Islamic tolerance, they must meet clandestinely.
Below is a portion of the article, and remember, Morocco is one of the most tolerant Muslim countries:
14/12: The Nature of War
A quote from the opening of Sea of Thunder: Four Commanders and the Last Great Naval Campaign, 1941-45 by Evan Thomas:
In 1943, American sailors and soldiers entering the harbor at Tulagi, the front-line U.S. Navy base in the South Pacific, passed a billboard telling them to
The billboard was signed by Adm. William F. Halsey, Jr., their commander.
Whatever the political goal of war, the form of war always is the same: kill the enemy. Inflicting death is the harsh essence of the conduct of war. Somehow between 1943 and today the American public seems to have forgotten this elemental truth. Wars cannot be clean and neat. They of necessity will be bloody, messy, and painful.
When we went into Iraq, war was the reality we chose. We should not be surprised. No amount of precision munitions will change the basic reality: people will die. Ours and theirs. We want to kill many, many more of theirs, and must to win. Any attempt to lay down Rules of Engagement based on legal conventions will endanger our troops and victory itself. We will, as a nation, accept the risk of certain basic conventions--no execution of those who actively surrender or who are wounded beyond ability to fight--but cannot please "world opinion," whatever that means, by accepting more restrictive conventions. War is what it is. See the earlier post on Rules of Engagement in Iraq.
In 1943, American sailors and soldiers entering the harbor at Tulagi, the front-line U.S. Navy base in the South Pacific, passed a billboard telling them to
Kill Japs, Kill Japs, Kill more Japs!
The billboard was signed by Adm. William F. Halsey, Jr., their commander.
Whatever the political goal of war, the form of war always is the same: kill the enemy. Inflicting death is the harsh essence of the conduct of war. Somehow between 1943 and today the American public seems to have forgotten this elemental truth. Wars cannot be clean and neat. They of necessity will be bloody, messy, and painful.
When we went into Iraq, war was the reality we chose. We should not be surprised. No amount of precision munitions will change the basic reality: people will die. Ours and theirs. We want to kill many, many more of theirs, and must to win. Any attempt to lay down Rules of Engagement based on legal conventions will endanger our troops and victory itself. We will, as a nation, accept the risk of certain basic conventions--no execution of those who actively surrender or who are wounded beyond ability to fight--but cannot please "world opinion," whatever that means, by accepting more restrictive conventions. War is what it is. See the earlier post on Rules of Engagement in Iraq.
13/12: UN Legit?
Question: Do you believe "That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed?" Do you also believe "that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it?"
If you answer yes, please read the next paragraph. If you answer no, then how much of the Declaration of Independence do you affirm?
Question: does it not follow that many, many of the governments sending representatives to the United Nations are unjust and deserving abolition?
Question: that being the case, in what sense is any vote of the United Nations morally legitimate?
I think it is time to seek alternatives to the corrupt morass of despotism that is the United Nations. Kofi Annan has no more moral standing to lecture anyone than the average prison inmate, and maybe less.
If you answer yes, please read the next paragraph. If you answer no, then how much of the Declaration of Independence do you affirm?
Question: does it not follow that many, many of the governments sending representatives to the United Nations are unjust and deserving abolition?
Question: that being the case, in what sense is any vote of the United Nations morally legitimate?
I think it is time to seek alternatives to the corrupt morass of despotism that is the United Nations. Kofi Annan has no more moral standing to lecture anyone than the average prison inmate, and maybe less.
13/12: Playing the Victim Card
We have had some discussion here and here about Muslims in the US playing the Victim Card. Organizations such as CAIR certainly understand how to use the rhetoric, and the courts, to portray themselves as victims of discrimination, attempting to put themselves into the line that includes freedom riders. Farmer has pointed out that such a policy will backfire with the American public, but apparently CAIR does not take advice from this website.
From Jihadwatch: linking to The Washington Times:
Muslim pilgrims urged to complain
By Audrey Hudson
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
December 13, 2006
American Muslims making a religious pilgrimage to Mecca are being encouraged to file civil rights complaints if they feel discriminated against by airlines.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), citing what it called the "airport profiling" of six imams removed from a recent flight, yesterday said Muslims traveling this month to the holy site in Saudi Arabia need to be aware of their rights.
"Given the increase in the number of complaints CAIR has received alleging airport profiling of American Muslims, we believe it is important that all those taking part in this year's hajj be aware of their legal and civil rights," said Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR spokesman.
Full article.
Jihadwatch has a great response:
The Council on American Islamic Relations, apparently oblivious to the public relations disaster that their trumped up Flying Imams controversy is becoming for them, is pressing on, asking Muslims flying on their way to Mecca to lodge complaints against airlines if their complementary pretzels are stale.
Memo to Ibrahim Hooper: I hereby volunteer to fly to Mecca. I promise you I'll keep close tabs on the airline service, Ibrahim, and will give you a full report as soon as I get back. What's that? As a non-Muslim, I am forbidden to enter Mecca? Any practice of faith by a non-Muslim in Saudi Arabia could land me in a Saudi Arabian prison? What are you, some kind of a kafirophobe?
I mention the fact that non-Muslims cannot enter Mecca to put CAIR's civil rights mau-mauing into perspective. In no majority Muslim country in the world today do non-Muslims enjoy full equality of rights with Muslims; at very least they are forbidden to proselytize, while Muslims are not so forbidden. But CAIR, although it has not hesitated to speak out about affairs in other countries, has never spoken out against that fact. It is in this light that its persistent attempts to gain victim status for Muslims in the U.S., with all the privileges that come with that status in this politically correct and silly age, should be evaluated.
From Jihadwatch: linking to The Washington Times:
Muslim pilgrims urged to complain
By Audrey Hudson
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
December 13, 2006
American Muslims making a religious pilgrimage to Mecca are being encouraged to file civil rights complaints if they feel discriminated against by airlines.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), citing what it called the "airport profiling" of six imams removed from a recent flight, yesterday said Muslims traveling this month to the holy site in Saudi Arabia need to be aware of their rights.
"Given the increase in the number of complaints CAIR has received alleging airport profiling of American Muslims, we believe it is important that all those taking part in this year's hajj be aware of their legal and civil rights," said Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR spokesman.
Full article.
Jihadwatch has a great response:
The Council on American Islamic Relations, apparently oblivious to the public relations disaster that their trumped up Flying Imams controversy is becoming for them, is pressing on, asking Muslims flying on their way to Mecca to lodge complaints against airlines if their complementary pretzels are stale.
Memo to Ibrahim Hooper: I hereby volunteer to fly to Mecca. I promise you I'll keep close tabs on the airline service, Ibrahim, and will give you a full report as soon as I get back. What's that? As a non-Muslim, I am forbidden to enter Mecca? Any practice of faith by a non-Muslim in Saudi Arabia could land me in a Saudi Arabian prison? What are you, some kind of a kafirophobe?
I mention the fact that non-Muslims cannot enter Mecca to put CAIR's civil rights mau-mauing into perspective. In no majority Muslim country in the world today do non-Muslims enjoy full equality of rights with Muslims; at very least they are forbidden to proselytize, while Muslims are not so forbidden. But CAIR, although it has not hesitated to speak out about affairs in other countries, has never spoken out against that fact. It is in this light that its persistent attempts to gain victim status for Muslims in the U.S., with all the privileges that come with that status in this politically correct and silly age, should be evaluated.
Category: America and the World
Posted by: an okie gardener
I don't think the Arab world understands compassion, civility, restraint, the same way we do. It seems that Arab culture interprets restraint as weakness. And, what it cannot respect it cannot befriend.
The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler links to this post on Blackfive by a NCO in Iraq on the negatives of our current Rules of Engagement.
I think we need to remember that on our own Western Frontier, the rule of law was not established among white settlers by late-twentieth-century-judicial procedure. Cow Towns and Mining Towns were tamed by "Wanted Dead or Alive," armed posses who shot first, and quick rope justice.
In the history of the English language, "outlaw" meant one who lived outside the rule of law and therefore outside the protection of the law; in other words, one who could be killed with impunity.
Paging General Sherman.
The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler links to this post on Blackfive by a NCO in Iraq on the negatives of our current Rules of Engagement.
I think we need to remember that on our own Western Frontier, the rule of law was not established among white settlers by late-twentieth-century-judicial procedure. Cow Towns and Mining Towns were tamed by "Wanted Dead or Alive," armed posses who shot first, and quick rope justice.
In the history of the English language, "outlaw" meant one who lived outside the rule of law and therefore outside the protection of the law; in other words, one who could be killed with impunity.
Paging General Sherman.
Category: America and the World
Posted by: A Waco Farmer
Wow! It turns out Sean Hannity has not been making this stuff up. Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad really does deny the Holocaust, and Iran really did host a scholarly conference investigating the conventional wisdom that six million Jews died at the hands of the Nazis during WWII. They even invited my old neighbor and eminent scholar, David Duke, who praised Iran for its courage to facilitate a free discussion of this volatile issue.
How do I know Sean was right? I read it in the Washington Post (full story here) and heard it on NPR (listen here).
Does this mean that Okie Gardener's coverage of Iran, the 12th imam and Mr. Ahmadinejad's apocalyptic world view might be true as well?
You may review one of his earlier posts on the subject here.
What does all this really mean? Iran is a nation whose foreign policy seems akin to "waving its hands in the air like they just don't care." Iran is playing to a different audience. They are playing by their own rules. Negotiate with Iran? Negotiate with Hitler? Negotiate with Stalin? Sure. Why not? What do we have to lose? But keep Ronald Reagan's advice in mind: Trust but verify.
How do I know Sean was right? I read it in the Washington Post (full story here) and heard it on NPR (listen here).
Does this mean that Okie Gardener's coverage of Iran, the 12th imam and Mr. Ahmadinejad's apocalyptic world view might be true as well?
You may review one of his earlier posts on the subject here.
What does all this really mean? Iran is a nation whose foreign policy seems akin to "waving its hands in the air like they just don't care." Iran is playing to a different audience. They are playing by their own rules. Negotiate with Iran? Negotiate with Hitler? Negotiate with Stalin? Sure. Why not? What do we have to lose? But keep Ronald Reagan's advice in mind: Trust but verify.
11/12: 1938 Alert
Category: America and the World
Posted by: an okie gardener
According to this article on an unreleased UN report, the UN has determined that Iran is looking for uranium in Somalia, in exchange for arms. Also, that Al Qaeda has a presence there. Link from Instapundit.
We seem to be seeing the establishment of a Taliban-like Islamist state in Somalia. Unlike Afghanistan, however, Somalia is not landlocked, is close to vital sea-lanes, and near both the Middle East and Africa. Lots of potential for deadly mischief.
And, Iran and the Palestinians agree, on to Jerusalem. Here. Links from Gateway Pundit.
We seem to be seeing the establishment of a Taliban-like Islamist state in Somalia. Unlike Afghanistan, however, Somalia is not landlocked, is close to vital sea-lanes, and near both the Middle East and Africa. Lots of potential for deadly mischief.
And, Iran and the Palestinians agree, on to Jerusalem. Here. Links from Gateway Pundit.
