My invitation to debate Islamic scholar Carl Ernst can be found here. He now joins Omid Safi, Ahmed Afzaal, Mark LeVine, and other scholars of Islam in declining my invitation to debate, preferring instead to shy bricks from their ivory tower. (Actually, LeVine and I agreed to debate, but he never got back to me […]
Archives for 2006
Text of Ahmadinejad letter to Merkel
In contrast with his letter to George W. Bush, Ahmadinejad takes a gentler approach this time: See? We’re just like you, victimized by the Allies who won in World War II. And hey, we all want the same thing. Peace, prosperity, the return of the Mahdi — wait, never mind that last one. From Fars […]
Ahmadinejad says Holocaust ‘made up to embarrass Germany’
UPDATE: Fars News Agency has released the text, posted above. Ahmadinejad’s letter to Merkel from last month has not yet been released in its entirety by Germany or Iran, though the New York Daily News recently reported that Reuters has obtained a copy. It would be nice to see it. Meanwhile, details continue to emerge. […]
‘Withdraw Or Be Ready for-Full Scale War’ – Somali Islamic Courts chief to Ethiopia
Somali Jihad Update from The Ethiopian Reporter: “Somalia: ‘Withdraw Or Be Ready for-Full Scale War’ – Aweys to Ethiopia” “We call on Ethiopia to withdraw its forces from Somalia, otherwise be ready for full-scale war,” Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, leader of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) of Somalia, warned on Thursday. Ethiopia, despite numerous […]
Muslim students deny airline mutiny was a set-up
Sohail Ashraf and Khurram Zeb were removed from a flight from Malaga to Manchester recently when other passengers refused to fly with them. In the full version of this story, they deny that they were staging their odd behavior in order to provoke the passengers’ reaction. But there are plenty of unanswered questions about their […]
Tom and Huck make the hajj
Remember Shakespeare’s Macbeth, when Macbeth slays Duncan and proclaims an Islamic republic in Dunsinane? No, that one is a parody, but it’s not too far off from the Turkish versions of Western books circulating now. The good news is that Turkish secularists are taking some Islamic publishers to court for Islamizing Western classics in translation. […]
Fitzgerald: It is the arrival, not the journey, that matters
“With this centrality in mind, our goals in the Middle East should change from, in effect, promoting sharia-democracy to preventing the export of sharia and terrorism to advance sharia.” — Diana West, in her proposed speech for President Bush Diana West’s speech would be a considerable improvement on what is coming from Washington today. But […]
Iraq bomb attacks, shootings kill dozens
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki still insists there’s no civil war, and none looming in the future, either. From AP: BAGHDAD, Iraq – A wave of bomb attacks and shootings swept Iraq Sunday, killing dozens of people despite a massive security operation in the capital and appeals from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for an end […]
America’s Muslims Aren’t as Assimilated as You Think
This item by Geneive Abdo accurately notes the proverbial “circling of the wagons” that has taken place in Muslim communities in America since September 11, 2001, and the consequent revival of interest in Islamic traditions; it is unsurprising, but nonetheless helpful to have documented again the fact that Muslims favor their identity as Muslims over […]
Hamza henchman defies law to praise 7/7 bombers
More jihadist venom from Abu Abdullah. Will the British dhimmis do nothing? From the TimesOnline, with thanks to all who sent this in: AN associate of Abu Hamza, the hook-handed cleric, has defied Tony Blair’s ban on glorifying terrorism by praising the July 7 bombers and describing how he would “love” to kill British troops […]