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Karen Armstrong Interview

She talks a lot about religion and politics in this particular piece. I think her history of the Sunni-Shi’ah political divide is a bit off. Arguably the first empires fighting about this were in the 11th century (Fatimids and Abbasids), but I would argue the political division goes back to the time of the Prophet. However, that doesn’t mean that they didn’t live well together. Karen Armstrong

CTC report: 85% of AQ’s victims are Muslim « All Things Counter Terrorism

CTC report: 85% of AQ’s victims are Muslim « All Things Counter Terrorism. Since the inception of al‐Qa’ida, the organization has claimed to represent Muslim interests around the world declaring itself the vanguard of true Islam, and the defender of Muslim people. Unfortunately for al‐Qa’ida, their actions speak louder than their words. The fact is that the vast majority of al‐Qa’ida’s victims are Muslims: the analysis here shows that only 15% of the fatalities resulting from al‐Qa’ida attacks between 2004 and 2008 were Westerners.

Columbia and Ahmedinejad

Here’s Stanley Fish’s take on the Ahmedinejad controversy at Columbia. I agree that there are other politics around Middle East Studies at Columbia that Bollinger needs to address. However, I disagree that Bollinger should have taken it down a degree. Columbia is a major world player from its overseas campuses, international fellowships, and just by nature of being in NY with an international student body. The World Leaders Forum functions because of Columbia’s proximity to the UN. I think Bollinger’s statement was poorly worded, his words ill-chosen. I think he should have expressed the sentiment, but expressed it better. Ahmedinejad…