Two political movies

The Boston Globe is running an editorial about the recent Khatami visit to Boston.  They were there when he met with members of the MIT Faculty members.  Some choice quotations: As the people around his table at the MIT Faculty Club laughed, Khatami added: “And Bush and Ahmadinejad are cut from the same cloth. …… Demonstrating his reputed interest in the Western Enlightenment, Khatami at one point cited the British philosopher John Locke, observing that Locke’s reason for separating religion from the state was to protect religion. He invoked Locke to make the point that many Iranians who favor more…

I just saw this piece over at TPM. I don’t know enough about “Gorgeous George” to make a detailed comment yet. However, at least superficially, the argument makes sense. There is a potential for anti-Muslim backlash. [update]: More from the Exiled Afrikan. [update 2]: ThaBit weighs in, as does Crooked Timber. Follow the trackback as well. [update 3]: Apparently the stupidity regarding Muslims has begun. [update 4]: Galloway is now officially included in the oil-for-food debacle. Muslims as a fifth-column rhetoric should begin soon. Technorati Tags: George Galloway

‘Stealth Jihad’ Conveys Paranoia – Newsweek. Also, simply put, foreign words freak people out. “Jihad” and “Sharia” reinforce the sense among Americans that Muslims in general have an unfathomable world view. During World War II, formerly obscure words like “hara-kiri” and “kamikaze,” which suggested the “warlike ferocity” of the Japanese, became common parlance, Nunberg says. “There was this sense of being confronted with this hostile, alien culture.” The Japanese were “literally demonized,” he says.