Dyslexic Shahada

Two articles by Ted Swedenburg on Islam and Hip-Hop. One on the 5% and one on the international context. Man knows his stuff, and it helps mark a new face of Islam that’s growing world-wide, the Western Muslim. No more gharabzadegi for us, we sit (un)comfortably in all worlds.

[T]he study shows that out of those stopped only 0.15 per cent resulted in firearms charges. This number stands to directly contradict Commissioner Kelly’s statements that the stops are responsible for the fall in gun crime. Also of note is the fact that out of all ethnicities stopped, white people had the highest chance of having committed a crime, despite being proportionally the least searched. via andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com

We caught Saddam! In absolute terms, this a good thing. It doesn’t matter how it gets spun, or whether it was worth going to war for. We caught him. No matter how you cut it, Saddam is a bad man, dare I say evil? He needed to be brought to justice over 20 years ago, but better late than never. I’m an American, and proud to be one. Part of that pride is the belief that the US is a nation of laws, of principle and of hope. We’ve caught Saddam alive, which means not myth, no legend, no symbol,…