April 2009 – islamicate

AIRLift – Buy a Graphic Novel, Save the World

islamoyankeeApril 30, 2009

I have lifted the following wholesale from Aziz P.. He says it. I wouldn’t say much different. It’s a good cause. I will feature the post until the weekend (or I remember to take it down) so it stays on top. —–Begin Verbatim Verbiage—– My friend, the writer G. Willow Wilson, is the author of the comic book series AIR which has been getting rave reviews and recognition. But AIR is more than a book, it’s also a cause! I’ll let Willow explain: Whacky as it is, AIR is a book with a message. So, for every copy of AIR…

Web/Tech

Muslim Americans and Facebook Survey

islamoyankeeApril 30, 2009

Forwarded as received. Hello, We need your assistance! The Communication Department at the University of California, Davis is conducting survey research on Muslim Americans social networks, interpersonal relationships, and use of the website Facebook. We will be running our survey in May and June. We are offering over $500 in prizes (either ipods, cash or gifts) in a lottery for participants. Instructions: Interested individuals should click the link and join the group. We will then notify the group members when the survey starts. (It will only take two minutes to register, and the survey will only take 20 minutes). This…

Inter-faith Politics

Iran’s Jewish Rorschach Test

islamoyankeeApril 30, 2009

This kind of complexity, so second-nature to Iranian Jews, always eludes the outsiders looking in. Thus, the Jews of Iran — lately a bitterly contested talking point for pundits of all stripes — have become a looking glass in which all find what they wish to see. Hawks hear Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and see another Holocaust in the making. Doves cite the existence of Hebrew schools and synagogues in Iran, and see no reason for alarm. Who is right? Everyone and no one at once. Full story here via here.

Current Affairs

Torture and Cowardice, Pt.2

islamoyankeeApril 27, 2009

JMM hits it out of the park with this piece. Being bold means taking responsibility for being bold. As I’ve argued before, I think the answer to the ticking time bomb rationale for torture is this: that in the extremely unlikely circumstance that government officials ever found themselves in that position of having a ticking time bomb ticking away, they might have to make the decision to break the law. Not fudge it or keep their actions hidden, but take the decision on their own responsibility that it was the best thing to do in the situation — despite it…

Current Affairs Religion

Is Torture Utilitarian?

islamoyankeeApril 27, 2009

Glad other people are speaking up about the immorality of torture. As politicians argue, and our pragmatist-in-chief tries to find an angle, we can agree that not all moral dilemmas can be reduced to a cost-benefit analysis of pleasure and pain. There are some kinds of pain a morally serious person ought never to inflict. [From Is Torture Utilitarian?]

Politics

Taxi to the Dark Side

islamoyankeeApril 25, 2009

A documentary about the torture of one man. See the trailer. Apple – Movie Trailers – Taxi To the Dark Side.

Current Affairs

Radicalizing

islamoyankeeApril 24, 2009

Follow the link to Krugman’s piece. Down the memory hole is right. As Krugman says, the period leading up to the Iraq war was indeed a radicalizing experience. I think there were plenty of people like me who had a degree of faith in elite opinion, in the sensible people in nice suits, which I never will again. And those people hate the dirty fucking hippies more than ever for the simple crime of being correct. [From Radicalizing]

Current Affairs

It’s All About Us Indeed

islamoyankeeApril 24, 2009

Either we are doing this to people, or there were no people were involved. In which case I’m sure PETA can launch a more effective drive than the human rights community. From TPM Reader CR: One odd thing about this torture debate is that it’s all about *us.* Whether we committed a crime, how it affects our collective soul, how the wheels of justice ought to move (if at all). But nobody is talking about the victims–it’s as if torture were analogous to smoking the marijuana you grew in the woods behind your house. Something technically illegal, but something that…

Politics

Deep Thought – Atrios

islamoyankeeApril 24, 2009

Indeed The United States doesn’t torture, but anyone who opposes torture is un-American. [From Deep Thought]

Current Affairs

Islamic ‘Adl in Orakzai

islamoyankeeApril 23, 2009

Glad to see I have a role model in becoming a sardonic old man. It’s not justice or shari’ah, it’s extortion. What surprises me, however, is that none of the maulanas and muftis made an issue of the exact amount of money when so many avenues of argumentation were open to them. Was the amount extorted from the Sikhs right according to all the major schools of Islamic jurisprudence? Wasn’t it less? Wasn’t it more? Shouldn’t the amount be equivalent to the value of a certain weight in gold? And what about the requirement, according to many jurists, that the…