Hate the One Your With

Danish Cartoon Controversy, Islamophobia, Muhammad, Traditions (hadith literature), Yemen, Zaydi


[Photo of Muhammad al-Asadi by Mohammad al-Sharabi for Newsweek.

If your down and confused
And you don’t remember who your talking to
Concentration, step away
‘Cause your baby is so far away
And there’s a rose and it fits me close
And the eagles fly with the doves
And if you can’t be with the one you love honey
Love the one your with
Love the one your with
Love the one your with
You gotta Love the one your with
— Will Young

There is no dearth of Islamophobic and outright anti-Muslim rhetoric in both American and European public opinion forums. A litany of recent events, from the 9/11 Twin Tower tragedy to the Danish cartoon controversy, makes it seem to many people that Muslims are on the attack against “civilized” secular society. Muslims in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine (perhaps even Dubai these days) look at their nightly news and see an indiscriminate political war against their moral principles as well as individual lives. The rash of suicide bombings against Western targets, especially U.S. and British military in Iraq, gets precedence because it falls into the usual tit-for-tatness that uncontrolled violence feeds on. But how are we to understand the increasing threats and actual mayhem between fellow Muslims? Continue reading Hate the One Your With →

A Grave Development

Danish Cartoon Controversy, Islam in Europe, Islamophobia

The tension over the now infamous, even if not very funny, Danish cartoon depictions of the Prophet Muhammad has taken on a grave dimension, specifically the desecration of a number of Muslim graves in western Denmark. There are two lessons that immediately come to mind about this latest twist, but first the story as reported in The Washington Post:

Vandals in Denmark Strike Muslim Graves
By Kevin Sullivan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, February 13, 2006; Page A16

COPENHAGEN, Feb. 12 — About 25 Muslim graves in western Denmark were vandalized late Saturday night, bringing swift condemnation from Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen as tensions simmer from a Danish newspaper’s publication last year of cartoons of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

“I strongly condemn this disgraceful act, and I deeply regret the desecration of Muslim graves,” Rasmussen said in a statement released by his office Sunday night. “I have made it clear that the Danish government condemns any expression or any action which offends people’s religious feelings.” Continue reading A Grave Development →

What’s Good for Judas is Worth a Gander

Gender and Sexuality, Journalism and Media

 

There is an inherent danger in all archaeological and archival research. What if we find that a cherished truth may not be something worth cherishing any longer and what if it does not even appear to be truth? In today’s front page of The New York Times, in tandem with National Geographic online, it seems that the Gospel has been turned on its head. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John as a group make Judas out to be a goat, the evil quisling who betrayed Jesus. But now a new discovery of an ancient manuscript, reputed to be the Gospel of Judas, points to a good Judas. If this news had come out before Mel Gibson’s Passion, God only knows how it would have affected box office receipts. Of course coming as it does near the premiere of The Da Vinci Code, Hollywood may be in for a windfall. But why wait, since there are already at least two books and a television special for this Sunday on the National Geographic Channel.

Continue reading What’s Good for Judas is Worth a Gander →

Addicted to Oil: President Tells it Like it Is

Humor and Satire, Iraq War, Taliban

President Bush delivered a highly scripted and hyperbolically enriched “State of the Union” address last night. The time has long since passed when Presidents actually had the writing skills to prepare their own speeches so in a sense the speech is no more copywritable to George W. Bush than the White House is his White castle. The reaction flooding the airwaves and bloggy-eyed net this morning is, if I may go out on a limb here, partisan as usual. Historians of American history might wince at the opening salvo that “Yet the state of our Union has never been stronger,” but this line probably netted a few amens from executives of Exxon, whose 32 billion dollar profit last year was the most in history. Continue reading Addicted to Oil: President Tells it Like it Is →

Headlines, Heads Turn, Heads Roll

Iraq War, Journalism and Media

Today is the first day of the term at my university. My first class this morning offered the newness of a beginning relationship with twenty students and their first glimpse of an unknown (but dangerous) quantity, their professor. This is the first term in awhile that I am not in some way teaching about Islam or the Middle East (I intelligently designed a brief respite with a seminar on the influence of Charles Darwin). But picking up the New York Times this morning I realized that events in the Middle East are not about to take any time off. The picture top and center shows a well-dressed Saddam, right hand raised in defiance and left hand cradling a Quran. To the left the first news column is all about the Bush administration’s misreading of Palestinian support for Hamas, adjacent to an article by Michael Slackman on President Ahmadinejad of Iran. Skipping over the national news item of Alito’s confirmation process, the final column on the right details the severe injuries to ABC News Anchor Bob Woodruff and his cameraman in Iraq. Readers that go all the way down the page will find tidbits on Enron, Delay’s successor, Oprah Winfrey, Alan Greenspan, Hugo Chavez and Cindy Sheehan and the blockbuster trade of Mike Piazza from the Mets to the Padres. Continue reading Headlines, Heads Turn, Heads Roll →

GQ not for Osama’s HQ

Gender and Sexuality, Music and Dance, Osama Bin Laden

Osama Bin Laden as an arch-villain seems to have become so unimportant that even imposters are not sending tapes with his voice to al-Jazeera anymore. It has been over a year since his last tape was posted. His number-two, al-Zawahari, makes the news more often. But some of his extended family members have picked up the slack. Imagine a novel in which Osama has a sexy niece who is trying to make it into the hip-pop culture scene and, better yet, that she poses in seductive poses for a men’s magazine like GQ? Sound too far fetched? Well it happened this month. Continue reading GQ not for Osama’s HQ →

We’re Not all Orientalists Now

Orientalism


Leonhard Euler, 1707-1783

In a recent commentary for the New Statesman (December, 12, 2005) on the explosive popularity of the puzzle game Sudoku (Japanese for “solitary number”), there is a bit of irony that a writer with the last name of “West” insists that “We’re all orientalists now.” This craze in Britain began with popularization of the puzzle in both the Times and Daily Mail. “Everyone seeems to agree that it has been Japan’s most successful export since Mitsubishi motors, Sony televisions or Ninetendo Game Boy,” notes Patrick West, who then insists, “The problem is that Sudoku is not a Japanese game.”

The origins of Sudoku are said to derive from a Swiss mathematician named Leonhard Euler, who came up with his 81-space square in 1783. Continue reading We’re Not all Orientalists Now →

McGuffey Speaks to Abramoff

Ethics, Palestine

In the coming weeks it appears that several members of congress are in danger of losing their political scalps as the influence peddling and money laundering empire of Jack Abramoff comes to a head. According to a UPI story in today’s news, the Coushatta Tribe, which operates a casino in Lousiana, is pleased that the Abramoff who took some 32 million dollars to lobby against opening of a rival casino has been indicted. The article continues.

Tribal leaders’ testimony about their sizeable payments helped attract prosecutorial attention to Abramoff’s lobbying on behalf of Indian tribes. A Senate investigation brought to light e-mails in which Abramoff called some of his Indian clients “troglodytes,” “monkeys” and morons. Continue reading McGuffey Speaks to Abramoff →