islam doesn't speak, muslims do | "the ink of the scholar is worth more than the blood of the martyr" – Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)
A soldier who deserted from the US Army in Iraq because he found the war morally objectionable – partly because of the treatment of prisoners – faces the same punishment as those who abused the prisoners at Abu Ghuraib. I turn to those more knowledgeable: Can he plead that he deserted because the orders were illegal?
(Note: I’ve only recently become aware of what’s going in Sudan because of The Head Heeb. Read some of his background pieces (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), and continue to read him for the latest news. I want to throw in my two cents now, but don’t have the resources to give it the coverage it deserves on a regular basis.) Sudan is known as a failed state – the type that gives a base of operations to terrorist organizations; Sudan was in fact home, briefly, to Osama bin Laden, and was bombed in 1998 by the US for allegedly…
Read this short blurb on Gadflyer about an article on Slate. We apparently had multiple opportunities to take out Zarqawi and didn’t. He had an opportunity to kill an American, and he did. He was also going to release biological weapons in London, which we weren’t going to stop. Fortunately, the London police did.
The Boston Globe – along with all local media – is running the story about the first same sex marriage licenses being given out in the People’s Republic of Cambridge. I am really happy to be living in this city and state! Since in Islam – marriage is a civil contract – there should not be issues (ha! ha ha!) with Muslims seeing anything wrong with gay marriage. I am not sure what the Holy Quran says about homosexuality – perhaps someone can drop me the 411. But I think we should let people choose who they want to be…
Nick Berg’s father has been speaking out against the Department of Defense. It’s sad that he is criticizing the government, the entity that should have been protecting his son; it’s sad because the government should be seen as our protectors, particularly overseas. It doesn’t bode well for the country when the government is seen as contributing to American deaths internationally. The critique won’t get much traction, but I wanted to give my sympathies to the family for the loss of their son and their sense of betrayal. (Background pieces on Nick Berg in US Custody.) Aside: The video broadcast talking…
I was watching CNN last night and came across a Lou Dobbs interview with Fouad Ajami, Director, Middle East Studies Program, John Hopkins University. Dr. Ajami made a lot of sense to me. To get a sense of where he is coming from, here is a list of articles by or about Dr. Ajami: Iraq and the Arabs Future Rude Arab Awakening What the Arab World Is Watching [critique of Al-Jezeera] Lebanon Star [critique of Ajami’s attack on Al-Jezerra] During the interview, in which he was speaking about the Abu Ghuraib scandal and the brutal beheading of Nick Berg, Ajami…
Here’s a good article about an outreach event by a Muslim community for Milad un-Nabi. I love the line where terrorists are called “dissidents.” This is not an article I hate to love.
I have been going back and forth on making a personal assessment about who is ultimately responsible for the abuse at Abu Gharib. Do I blame the soldiers, the military, the civilian masters of the Pentagon, the President or the American People? President Bush – below makes the arguement (in Al Arabiya that this is not a reflection of America: Q Mr. President, thank you for giving us this chance here in Al Arabiya. Regarding the alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners, six U.S. soldiers are being reprimanded. Do you think that’s enough? THE PRESIDENT: First, I want to tell the…
We are truly sad at the death of Nick Berg. He was a non-combatant, a secured prisoner, and was killed in the most horrendous way. Our sympathies to his family. Unfortuantely, I believe he would have been killed regardless of whether the details of Abu Ghuraib had come out or not; whether Abu Ghuraib happened or not. The viciousness evident in the video was looking for an excuse to be let loose. Once more, I have to say, these people are animals. The ideology of Islam as hatred has become so embedded in their psyche that they murmur platitudes to…
Good for the Iraqis. Newsday.com is reporting that an estimated 1000 people have marched through the streets of Najaf urging Sadr and his army to leave town. A story on King Abdullah of Jordan on Slate reports other good news. “…On April 29 in Amman, Jordan’s capital, Abdullah’s wife Queen Rania led a march against terrorism. The Pan-Arab daily Al Hayat reported that close to 150,000 people turned out, some of them burning photographs of Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaida associate Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian national who had allegedly plotted a chemical attack against several targets in Amman. Jordanians…