The following DVD is currently being distributed in newspapers across the US, warning citizens about the supposed dangers of militant Islam. It’s about as subtle as a sledge-hammer. Terrorism against civilians is a crime. Resistance to occupation is not, whether it be in Iraq, Afghanistan or Palestine:
Showing all posts tagged Islam
Beating the western drum
My following essay appears in the Guardian today: During the recent war between Georgia and Russia, bloggers on both sides of the conflict provided searing accounts of atrocities and manoeuvres unseen by western journalists. In a country such as Russia the space for alternative and critical views are rare. The war showed an authoritarian regime’s…
Murder the TV moguls
Saudi Arabia’s highest judicial authority proves why his country is the home of religious fundamentalism and a perversion of Islam (wholly backed by the vast majority of the Western world for its black gold): A Saudi scholar… has issued a religious decree saying… it is… permissible to kill… the owners of television networks broadcasting “depravation and debauchery”. “It is…
Squandering 9/11
Chris Toensing, Bitterlemons International, September 11: Bob Woodward’s four books chronicling the wars of President George W. Bush are sensitive barometers of conventional wisdom in Washington. Whereas the first volume, published in 2002 at the height of the self-righteous nationalism gripping the capital after the September 11, 2001 attacks, hailed Bush’s self-confidence in acting to…
Poor little Osama
Conspiracy theories abound in the Middle East: Seven years later, it remains conventional wisdom here that Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda could not have been solely responsible for the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and that the United States and Israel had to have been involved in their planning, if not their execution, too.…
Fearful of the modern age
More madness in Saudi Arabia (just a typical US client state): When Hala al-Masaad invited her girlfriends over to celebrate her 18th birthday with cake and juice, the high school student was stepping into an unusual public debate. Is celebrating birthdays un-Islamic? Saudi Arabia’s most senior Muslim cleric recently denounced birthday parties as an unwanted…
We can’t ignore modern Islamism
This week marks the 42nd anniversary of the execution of Sayyed Qutb, one of the most prominent figures in contemporary Islamism. What is his legacy today, by an young Egyptian member of the Muslim Brotherhood (who features in my new book, The Blogging Revolution.)
Friends, not enemies
What, all Muslims aren’t terrorists who hate the West? Contrary to the common assumption that Muslims view globalization as a threat to their society, a new poll of Muslim countries finds that globalization is generally viewed positively. The poll was conducted by WorldPublicOpinion.org in six nations with predominantly Muslim populations in different regions of the…