Smiting Pat Robertson for Spiting Ariel Sharon

Bible and Holy Land, Israel

The White House has just announced that Pat Robertson’s 700 Clubbing of ailing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon yesterday is “wholly inappropriate and offensive.” According to an article by Daniela Deane, posted at 2:54 pm on the Washington Post website, “White House press spokesman Trent Duffy made the comment to reporters traveling on Air Force One with President Bush this morning. He added that Robertson’s comments ‘don’t have a place in this or any other debate.’” The White House, even with an evangelical sitting in the oval office, is not willing to whitewash the latest off-the-cuff remarks of Mr. CBN. Continue reading Smiting Pat Robertson for Spiting Ariel Sharon →

Daily Death

Iraq War, Terrorism Issue, United Arab Emirates

People die everyday. It is hard to imagine a greater “life and death” issue than death, not only on the one who dies but for those who mourn. Today’s news, so new it did not make today’s edition of the New York Times, is full of death. The front page of the New York Times titles a headline “12 Miners Are Found Alive, Family Members Say,” but the hazard of deadlines prevented the newer news this morning that in fact 12 were found dead and only one found barely alive. On today’s Al-Jazeera it is announced that the ruler of Dubai died. On NPR this morning there was a report of a suicide bomber blowing himself up during an outdoor funeral in Muqdadiya, north of Baghdad, taking more than 30 mourners with him. And imagine all those people, thousands to be sure, who died in the last 24 hours but did not make the news.

The deaths in Dubai and Muqdadiya, Iraq could hardly be different to those left alive to think about them. Continue reading Daily Death →

When Kidnapping is not International Terrorism

Terrorism Issue, Tribalism, Yemen

The following news item just came across the wires from Arab News, an English language daily based in Saudi Arabia. Think of your gut reaction as you read…

SANAA, 3 January 2006 — Tribesmen holding five Italian tourists hostage in northeastern Yemen yesterday threatened to kill them if troops encircling the area move to rescue them, a local official said.

The five Italians, three women and two men, were snatched from Marib, some 195 km northeast of the capital Sanaa on Sunday and taken to the Serwah district, about 30 km away. Continue reading When Kidnapping is not International Terrorism →

What Would Jesus Ride

Bible and Holy Land, Israel

In The Guardian yesterday reporter Conal Urquhart wrote about “Plans for Holy Land theme park on Galilee shore where Jesus fed the 5,000.” Several evangelical Christian groups under the spirited guidance of Rev. Pat Robertson are negotiating with the government of Israel for land to build a 50 ha (125 acre) theme park tentatively called the “Galilee World Heritage Park.” If this seems like a joke, I note that “Sea of Galilee & its Ancient Sites” is listed on the online wish list of world heritage sites. It is no joke to righteously motivated investors trying to raise 60 million dollars. Nor to Syria, which disputes the take-over of its territory along the Sea of Galilee in the 1967 war. Nor is it likely just a joke to Jews, who Pat Robertson and his followers think are about to suffer the worst persecution ever as soon as a soon-to-be Rapture transports all Bible Believers to meet their Lord in the air. But I can’t help but wonder, in this biblically based theme park what would Jesus ride? Continue reading What Would Jesus Ride →

As the Year Ends

Iraq War, Islamic Rituals

In a matter of hours the year 2005 will be fodder for the historians. It was a typical year in many respects, full of violence, murder, poverty, hatred and natural disasters. There were also glimmers of hope or at least rumors of hope, but these were overshadowed by the continued human tragedies and political stalemating. What else is new? For those who follow events in the Middle East and regarding the world’s one billion plus Muslim population, there is little to be thankful for apart from hope-tinged rumors. The impacts of tsunami, earthquakes, suicide bombs, airplane strikes, political rhetoric and cultural insensitivity seem to have had free reign last year. Does anyone really expect much of a change this coming year? Continue reading As the Year Ends →

Yemen Bashing Needs a Reality Check

Anthropology/Sociology, Journalism and Media, Yemen

Most Americans know little about the country of Yemen, located beneath (geographically and metaphorically for many foreign policy makers) America’s oil-friendly ally Saudi Arabia. I have been going to Yemen since 1978, when I lived for over a year as an ethnographer in a highland tribal village northwest of the capital Sanaa. Since that time my academic career has focused largely on the history and culture of Yemen. I edited a bulletin (Yemen Update) devoted to all aspects of Yemeni Studies for a decade, and I have returned frequently as researcher and development consultant. Over the years there have been very few news articles about Yemen by American correspondents. The few that have appeared are generally so full of stereotypes and misinformation that I often turn the paper aside in disgust. The major 3-part article begun last weekend (Dec. 18, 19, 20) by David Finkel on a democracy development project in Yemen for the Washington Post is sadly yet another ignorant and dangerous posting that needs a reality check. Continue reading Yemen Bashing Needs a Reality Check →

Patriots Act while Politicians Talk

Iraq War, Journalism and Media, Terrorism Issue

The current politicized fracas over the renewal of the Patriot Act has reached the boiling point. A filibuster in the senate seeks to draw attention to provisions in the current bill that many Americans see as a stealth attack on civil liberties. The President and his surrogates insist that they have a right to act outside the law in order to respond to new threats of terrorism. Meanwhile the spin doctors in all media outlets are doing their job at dizzying speed. The seasonal message of “Peace on Earth,” routine as we come to expect it, has been drowned out in the past few days by finger pointing and alibi giving. Beyond the posturing on both sides of the congressional aisle and in the White House over the merits of the Patriot Act, we need someone to read the Riot Act to government officials who are more interested in justifying the Iraq War than saving the lives that mount up daily. Continue reading Patriots Act while Politicians Talk →

Rendition unto Seizure rather than Render unto God

Terrorism Issue

“The United States and many other countries are waging a war against terrorism.”

This is the battle cry announced today to the media by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice just before leaving on a diplomatic salvage salvo to Europe. If indeed we are to view recent attacks against U.S. and Western interests worldwide as a “war,” then it is an ongoing war with no real beginning and no predictable end. The Gospels remind us that there will be wars and rumors of wars, but another constant in human history has been the human potential for atrocities. Such potential is today labeled as “terrorism” when it flaunts regard for human rights and the Geneva Convention wisdom of how to wage war cleanly. But Rice is not going to Germany and France to sell war bonds; she has to explain why the United States has substituted the basic American value of civil liberty with an eye-for-an-eye counter-terrorism that comes dangerously close to combating terrorism with yet another form of terrorism. Continue reading Rendition unto Seizure rather than Render unto God →