Month: July 2007

Current Affairs Legal

Guantanamo Lawyer Harassed

islamoyankee

Allegedly. Details here. A question for lawyers in general. Assume a lawyer wasn’t coming from Gitmo on a military plane, where he is clearly a target for investigation. If a lawyer were coming to the US from Canada and had client files, is the Customs Dept. violating confidentiality by going through those files? What if I, as a teacher, had student files on me that are meant to be confidential (strictly entering the US)? Technorati Tags: Guantanamo, war on terror[ism][ists]

Read More
Current Affairs

Is the US in an abusive relationship?

islamoyankee

Are we getting beaten up by our companion Saudi Arabia and making excuses for them? Because it sure seems that we are. Almost 1/2 of all foreign fighters in Iraq are from our friend and ally Saudi Arabia. I’m sorry, what?!? Look, people, we’ve had multiple rationale’s for getting involved in Iraq, starting with the search for WMD (which weren’t there, but even if they were, they were bought by the US and Saudi Arabia to stop the Shi’ah incursion from Iran) to spreading democracy and keeping the virulent ideology of Islamic extremists at bay. So as I understand it…

Read More
Current Affairs

Reading a Video

islamoyankee

Ali Eteraz has a highly speculative piece up on the latest OBL video. I’m actually with him until he gets to the Bollywood part. I hope that there are professionals watching these videos and trying to figure out next moves, but even in the popular media and quick deconstruction like this would take a lot of air from AQ’s mission. Imagine instead of the headline “OBL loves him some martyrs, run for your lives,” we got headlines like “Latest OBL video give further proof that he’s dead, AQ clueless.” Of course, the second headline shouldn’t be read to minimize the…

Read More
Politics

Keith Ellison Comments

islamoyankee

via TPM Cafe I found this interesting condemnation of Rep. Keith Ellison for something he didn’t say. Yes, he most likely was referring to Bush, but no, there was no direct 1-1 correlation. If this story gets any traction it will be interesting to see how it plays out. Perhaps, “Anti-Semitic Muslim Congressman denies Holocaust?” I think in the wingnutosphere “Anti-Semitic Muslim” is redundant, but then I don’t speak ignant. I wonder why no one is concerned that the AG most likely has a little hole drilled in your bathroom to see if you are “American” in your actions. Sounds…

Read More
Inter-faith Politics

You are American if…

islamoyankee

You are exactly like me. For those who haven’t heard yet, a Hindu was meant to give the opening prayer in the Senate yesterday, but before he could begin, he was interrupted by “patriots.” (video) (background pieces, 1, 2) I think Anna of Sepia Mutiny has it right that when she says that the pilgrims came for religious freedom. However, we have to understand that religious freedom still meant for those who had the power to exercise it, lest we forget what happened to the Native Americans and great civilizing “crusade” of bringing the Gospels. Her intent is right though.…

Read More
Inter-faith Intra-faith

Muslims are Evangelical Christians

islamoyankee

No really. via Street Prophets I see that Pew Research has done a new survey on the “intensity of religious identity” (related report here). I think that Pastor Dan hits all the right notes in his analysis. I think that there is an expectation that Muslims, by virtue of being Muslim, are expected to be more vocal in expressing their faith. Part of it is the post-9/11 onus that has been put upon us to represent, and part of it is the never ending push from the tariqah of Abd al-Wahhab [my friend Reza Aslan took me to task for…

Read More