I sometimes talk to Muslim audiences. There is often an FBI agent in the audience and sometimes an ACLU representative. Maz Jobrani suggested at one such event that everyone else leave and let the two of them talk. Now it turns out that the agents often are there gathering information on participants and storing it, […]
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International Politics and Economy
Muslim- and Liberal-Hater Breivik Confronted by Survivors in Open Court
Norway’s mass murdered Anders Behring Breivik, a right wing white Christian supremacist who has confessed to killing 77 Labor Party youth activists and allegedly wounded 151 others, appeared in open court on Monday. The BBC reports: “One of those who witnessed his shooting spree on Utoeya was 20-year-old Bjoern Ihle from Oslo. “He aimed at […]
Newt’s new Crusade against the Arab Spring
Newt Gingrich’s poll numbers and fund-raising have improved recently, as the GOP faithful continue their quest for an ABM (not anti-ballistic missile but “Anyone but Mitt”). Gingrich in turn has begun trying out talking points again, which is good for pundits and stand-up comedians, but bad for everyone else. In his most recent foray on […]
Islamic Law not a problem in Bush’s Afghanistan & Iraq, but a Problem in Libya?
George W. Bush said of Iraq and Afghanistan,, “I’d like to be a president [known] as somebody who liberated 50 million people…” The 2004 Constitution of Afghanistan [pdf], drafted and passed under the rule of George W. Bush in that country, makes Islam the religion of state and forbids any law that contravenes the sharia […]
London Riots: Its the Economy, Stupid (Not a Clash of Civilizations)
The unfortunate riots in Tottenham in London tell us a great deal about the problems of immigrant communities, and what they say to us most eloquently is that people want to be treated with justice. They want to be treated in accordance with a rule of law, and not singled out for extra policing on […]
Al-Tamimi: The Norway Attacks and the Paranoid Mindset
Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi writes in a guest column for Informed Comment The Norway Attacks and the Paranoid Mindset It has emerged that Anders Breivik- who is suspected of killing at least 76 people in two attacks in Norway on Friday a week ago– was an avid user of online so-called “counter-jihad” forums. At one such […]
Top Developments in the Arab Spring this Weekend
As usual, Friday was a big day for the popular Arab reform movements that are challenging dictatorial governments. 1. Syrian security forces are alleged to have killed about 20 protesters on Friday, as the demonstrations and rallies continue to be vigorous in places like Hama and Deir al-Zor. The one-party state, ruled by the Baath […]
O’Reilly’s Muslim-Hatred and Christian Terrorists
Television commentator Bill O’Reilly lambasted the press for referring to Anders Breivik as a Christian terrorist, on the grounds that he is not a practicing Christian and on the grounds that no true Christian can be a terrorist and on the grounds that Christian fundamentalists are essentially different from Muslim fundamentalists (“those crazy jihadis”). O’Reilly, […]
The Irrelevance of the Knights in a Global Society
Norwegian right wing Christian terrorist Anders Breivik spoke of being a member of the “Knights Templar,” and if anything is further terrorizing about Friday’s attacks beyond their own horror, it is the possibility that an organization was behind them or that there are other members of it as looney and violent as Breivik himself. Update: […]