Archives for 2006

Bruce Thornton is a professor of Classics at Cal State Fresno and co-author with Victor Davis Hanson of Bonfire of the Humanities: Rescuing the Classics in an Impoverished Age and author of Greek Ways: How the Greeks Created Western Civilization (Encounter Books). His most recent book is Searching for Joaquin: Myth, Murieta, and History in […]

In the weeks just after 9.11.2001, the American government still did not understand Islam. It had spent the past fifty years not understanding Islam. It had spent the past fifty years thinking of Islam only as a “bulwark against Communism” and attempting to curry favor with such “staunch allies” as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, while […]

Many times, when speaking of the nature of Sharia and the rights of women and non-Muslim dhimmis under Islamic law, I have in reference to women quoted Qur’an 4:34: “Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for […]

The Taliban takes a cue from Hizballah, perhaps, in exploiting casualties caused by the use of human shields, a practice banned by the Fourth Geneva Convention (see Article 28). “NATO says Taleban using civilians as shields, as high toll feared,” from AFP: KABUL – The NATO force in Afghanistan Thursday accused the Taleban of using […]

Anti-dhimmitude in Danish courts. From AP: COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A Danish court on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit filed by Muslim organizations against the newspaper that first published the Prophet Mohammed cartoons that touched off protests in the Islamic world. The City Court in Aarhus said it could not be ruled out that some Muslims […]

T Thomas wrings his hands in the Business Standard of India over the widespread misunderstanding of Islam: not those committing violence in the name of Islam, mind you, but those who have the audacity to think that Islam may have something to do with inciting violence as a result. We need to ask, is Islam […]

In this week’s Jihad Watch segment at Hot Air, I discuss the implications of the Afghan jihadist demand that apostate Abdul Rahman be returned to Afghanistan in exchange for hostage Gabriele Torsello.

A new essay by the prolific and profound European essayist Fjordman: In my criticism of the European Union, I have been accused of being too positive towards the nation state. It is true that Western civilization isn’t exclusively about nation states. The Renaissance took place in the city states of Italy while nation states were […]

An update on this story. “Somali Islamists recruit for jihad against Ethiopia,” by Mustafa Haji Abdinur for AFP: MOGADISHU — Somali Islamists have begun recruiting thousands of young fighters to fight a jihad against Ethiopia, officials said Wednesday, amid fears of all-out war across the lawless Horn of Africa nation. A day after claiming to […]

The Taliban are solidifying their state-within-a-state in North Waziristan. “Taliban militias take control,” by Isambard Wilkinson for the London Daily Telegraph: ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Taliban militias in Pakistan have set up offices, introduced taxes and taken control of justice in the tribal agency of North Waziristan, where last month the government signed a peace agreement […]