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Eating Your Own

In the last month three articles have come out regarding the Muslim attack on Islamist ideologues. Chris Dickey came out in Newsweek with a few good examples in the Muslim majority world. My two (minor) gripes are that he didn’t mention the stuff happening here in the US, for example, that’s been going on much longer, and the gates of ijtihad never closed for the Shi’ah, so the debate is very different. Lawrence Wright has a wonderful piece in The New Yorker that highlights the nuances involved in the ideological dispute happening in AQ now. Most importantly what emerges is…

Rashid Khalidi [Updated]

Updates: There’s a move to push Khalidi’s book, The Iron Cage, into the public consciousness. I haven’t read this particular book, but it’s en route. Get yours here. Juan Cole has some more information. Rosenberg at TPM Café (one of my favorite writers over there) [/end update] ———- Prof. Rashid Khalidi is under fire once more. Apparently John McCain gave him some money and some Republicans don’t like the fact that McCain is running a virulently xenophobic campaign, and borderline anti-Semitic one that treats Jews as mindless, sub-human, single-issue voters, while at the same time funding a xeno. Prof. Khalidi…

Bringing Iraq Home

As TPM notes, it seems like the London bombings were based on ideas developed in Iraq. As we’ve seen, it doesn’t match up exactly because the devices were crude with little chance of causing mass casualties had they gone off, thankfully they didn’t. Here’s my question, why did Afghanistan stay local? Why did the mujahidin stay in Afghanistan and not export themselves to the Soviet Union? Or, to put it another way, why is Iraq flowing past its borders? Is this simply Al-Qaeda ideology? Strike at the infidel? It just seems so ineffective if you want freedom for you Muslim…