Looks like now there is a full-blown insurgency raging against Al Qaeda's occupation of Iraq...

More and more Iraqis seem to be taking up arms in order to prevent Al Qaeda from turning their homeland into their version of hell, I mean, Islamic paradise on earth. From the Associated Press:

A battle raged in west Baghdad on Thursday after residents rose up against al-Qaida and called for U.S. military help to end random gunfire that forced people to huddle indoors and threats that kept students from final exams, a member of the district council said.

Members of al-Qaida, who consider the district part of their so-called Islamic State of Iraq, were preventing students from attending final exams, shooting randomly and forcing residents to stay in their homes, the councilman said.

Let's hope the residents of the Swat Valley in Pakistan draw strength from this news too. See posts below if you don't know what I'm talking about here.

Swat Valley tea

Swat Valley tea, originally uploaded by .brian.

Don't let those big men see you holding that book, little girl. See posts below.

Shy girl from Swat

Shy girl from Swat, originally uploaded by KamiSyed.

I wonder if her school has been bombed. Then again, maybe this is one of the Swat girls who is not allowed to go to school.

See posts below.

Man from Swat

Man from Swat, originally uploaded by KamiSyed.

Do you know where your daughters are? Are you protecting them?
See posts below

The girls from Swat

The girls from Swat, originally uploaded by KamiSyed.

These girls live in the area in the North-West Frontier Province where "religious extremists" are blowing up girls' schools. See post below.

It can't be just coincidence that wherever Islamic extremists are, girls live in terror...

Uploaded on July 18, 2006by Heartkins

Swat Valley: Yet another place radical Islamists are unleashing hell

The Christian Science Monitor reports:

All throughout the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), Pakistan's impoverished western border with Afghanistan, lie the ruins of barbershops and music and video stores – symbols of Western-oriented life that religious extremists have destroyed in a growing wave of violence. Now Islamist militants have a new target, and if they are successful, observers say their campaign could be disastrous for Pakistan's future. In what appears to be an escalating spree over the last year, extremists have bombed at least four girls' schools and circulated violent threats warning girls to stay at home. While no girls or school staff have been killed, girls in some areas have stopped attending classes – marking a direct blow to Pakistan's national enterprise of "enlightened moderation," which posits female education as a central pillar.

Recall that this is the area in which many experts believe Al Qaeda may be hiding.

Now why would these self-proclaimed pious Muslims be targeting little girls? Can't they find anyone their own size to pick on? According to the Monitor report:

Entrenched tribal, religious, and economic imperatives in conservative areas regard the schooling of girls as either improper, since girls should not venture outside the purview of the family home, or unnecessary, since girls are often needed for work. As a result, Pakistan has one of the highest rates of female illiteracy in South Asia, at about 60 percent, and the lowest rate of primary school enrollment for girls, at somewhere between 42 and 48 percent. Those shortcomings are particularly pronounced in the NWFP, which, as of 2004, had the lowest ratio of female enrollment of any province in Pakistan, according to the International Crisis Group (ICG). In areas like the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), where the government's presence has historically been weakest, only 1 percent of women and girls are literate.

The extremists' position regarding girls' education was summed up by Maulana Fazlullah, an influential Islamic cleric in the area: "A woman has been asked to remain behind the four walls of the house. Men have been given preference by God," Fazlullah, was quoted as saying.

But obviously, many parents in the area do believe their girls should be educated, as otherwise there wouldn't be any girls' schools for the militants to attack. As the Monitor reports:

Indeed, if Fazlullah and others are against female education, it is probably because girls are pouring into schools. In Swat valley alone, primary school enrollment for girls has increased by nearly 31,000 since 2002, or 77 percent. And even though Fazlullah started preaching two years ago, girls' enrollment in Swat last year grew by more than 12,000, according to government statistics. As a result, female illiteracy has gone down by 9 percentage points in less than a decade. And national statistics suggest that female enrollment at the primary level has climbed by 12 percentage points between 1998 and 2005, according to the World Bank. "We have no problem," says Ghulam Akbar, the executive district officer of education in Swat. "The girls are still going. Very [few] have stopped."

This is real courage.

On the American conservative mindset you think you already understand (but probably don't)

Whenever I discuss politics with people, especially when I travel, I'm always amazed at how little understood the positions of American conservatives seem to be.

Not that I am necessarily a strict conservative myself. But I don't mind helping to clarify some points that in my experience are not particularly well-grasped - both at home and abroad, come to think of it.

Anyway, what made me embark on this mission is that I thought yesterday's Wall Street Journal had a great piece on "The Conservative Mind" by Peter Berkowitz, a senior fellow from the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

While you should read the whole thing, I thought I'd excerpt the parts that would be of most interest to readers of this blog.

On Iraq:

The split among conservatives has widened since Saddam was toppled in the spring of 2003. Traditional realists continue to put their trust in containment, and reject nation-building on the grounds that we lack both a moral obligation and the requisite knowledge of Arabic, Iraqi culture and politics, and Islam. Supporters of the war still argue that, in an age of mega-terror, planting the seeds of liberty and democracy in the Muslim Middle East is a reasonable response to the poverty, illiteracy, authoritarianism, violence and religious fanaticism that plagues the region.

On American conservatives versus European ones:

In contrast to much European conservatism, which harks back to premodern times and the political preeminence of religion and royalty, in America -- which lacked a feudal past to preserve or recover -- conservatism has always revolved around the preservation of individual liberty. Of course modern conservatism generally admires virtues embodied in religious faith and the aristocratic devotion to excellence. It also tends to emphasize the weaknesses of human nature, the ironies and tragedies of history, and the limitations of reason and politics. At the same time, it wishes to put these virtues and this knowledge in liberty's service.

On one of three authors, Russell Kirk, author of "The Conservative Mind" (1953), who he says have had the most influence on today's American conservatives, he writes:

[He had an] attachment to 'the proliferating variety and mystery of human existence' as against the routinizing and leveling forces of modern society.

(I have something of the same attachment myself.)

And that Kirk also had, writes Berkowitz:

. . .faith in custom and convention and consequently a distrust of the 'sophisters, calculators, and economists' who would reconstruct society upon abstract designs."

(And me, too.)

Finally, on Kirk's view of religion, he writes:

The leading role in this mix that Kirk attaches to religion marks him as a social conservative; his insistence that religion provides the indispensable ground for individual liberty marks him as a modern conservative.

Are Algerian "jihadists" just in it for the money?

Photo courtesy of Adventure, a LexicOrient product.

El Oued, the "city of a thousand domes"

From today's Washington Post report direct from Algeria:

According to intelligence officials in Europe, more than 100 Algerians are in prison here after being detained on their way to Iraq or upon their return, adding to worries that the far-off conflict is breeding battle-hardened fighters who could come back to haunt North Africa or nearby Europe.

As the Post continues:

Algerian security services have arrested 17 suspected members of an Iraqi recruiting ring based in El Oued, a Saharan oasis known as the "city of a thousand domes" for its unusual desert architecture.

...Analysts and journalists said El Oued, with a population of about 150,000, has a long history of supporting radical causes and was a key stop on smuggling routes into nearby Libya and Tunisia.

In early May, Algerian authorities discovered a makeshift guerrilla training camp in a palm grove several miles outside El Oued.

And here is a curious detail:

In the past, U.S. and European officials said, it was much easier for underground recruiters to persuade young Algerians to go to Iraq to battle U.S. forces than to get them to stay home and take up arms against the government and their fellow citizens. The Iraqi networks were also better financed than their local counterparts, officials said.

By re-branding itself as an al-Qaeda affiliate, the Algerian group has boosted its own fundraising and become more competitive in the marketplace for recruits, Algerian analysts said.

Liess Boukra, an Algerian terrorism expert, called the recruitment business "a real trade in cannon fodder."

"Indeed, it is possible that the recruiters for Iraq could redirect their combatants toward new operations, either in Algeria or somewhere else in the Maghreb or in the world," he said. "It depends on the nature of the request and how much they're willing to pay."

How much they're willing to pay?? Does this mean the Algerian jihadists are mercenaries? Fighting jihad for the money???? And deployable wherever they are paid the most?????

I guess Al Qaeda is now outsourcing the jihad function.

Justice a la Beijing

It's not about jihad or even Islam, but it is about, as Samual Huntington, author of The Clash of Civilizations, would say, "the decline of the West and the rise of the rest."

Take a look at justice Chinese style. From the New York Times:

The former director of China’s top food and drug safety agency was sentenced to death on Tuesday after pleading guilty to corruption and accepting bribes, the state-controlled news media reported.

Makes me wonder what kind of torture techniques Beijing uses.

The torture news that the NYT sees fit to print

While the New York Times apparently doesn't think the Al Qaeda torture story is news fit to print, here the Times continues its obsession with the "outmoded, amateurish, and unreliable" interrogation methods Americans use. As the Times reports:

As the Bush administration completes secret new rules governing interrogations, a group of experts advising the intelligence agencies are arguing that the harsh techniques used since the 2001 terrorist attacks are outmoded, amateurish and unreliable.

So what do the psychologists and other specialists sourced by the Times recommend?

Randy Borum, identified as a psychologist at the University of South Floriday and a consultant to the Defense Department, suggests adopting marketing techniques. As the Times reports:

“We have a whole social science literature on persuasion,” Mr. Borum said. “It’s mostly on how to get a person to buy a certain brand of toothpaste. But it certainly could be useful in improving interrogation.”

According to the Times:

The notion that turning up pressure and pain on a prisoner will produce valuable intelligence is a staple of popular culture from the television series “24” to the recent Republican presidential debate, where some candidates tried to outdo one another in vowing to get tough on captured terrorists.

The newspaper did, in all fairness, then duly cite that a 2005 Harvard study "supported the selective use of 'highly coercive' techniques." As the Times went on to report:

Defenders of the harshest interrogations, particularly as practiced by the C.I.A. at secret overseas sites, say they were carefully devised and have produced valuable intelligence. An agency spokesman, Paul Gimigliano, said the program “has generated a rich volume of intelligence that has helped the United States and other countries disrupt terrorist activities and save innocent lives.”

Another soft technique proponent, Steven M. Kleinman, a former Air Force interrogator and trainer, pointed to the "effective questioning" of German and Japanese prisoners during World War II. He said that in a questioning process that took about four hours, World War II interrogators were able to "educe information" without stooping to torture.

The Times, however, did not provide specific examples of just what type of information these four-hour conversations educed.

In fact, the Times failed to provide any specific cases where soft techniques had produced valuable information. From this I gathered that most soft technique proponents base their arguments largely on the immorality of harsh techniques - as opposed to the better results they produce.

But I do concede that perhaps this was because this is the Timess position as opposed that of the experts. And then it would make sense why the reporter didn't think it was even necessary to provide any concrete examples that show that soft techniques do in fact work.

Anyway, I wasn't really surprised to then read that Robert A. Fein, the Harvard psychologist who directored an Intelligence Science Board study of the subject, wrote in a prologue to the group's 325-page report that, contrary to what Mr. Borum told the Times, in fact, there is a shortage of relevant research.

According to Mr. Fein, this is why U.S. interrogators had to wing it after 9/11, and why there ended up being some, as he puts it, “unfortunate cases of abuse.”

The Times, incidentally, gave some interesting background in its report:

Many of the techniques that have come in for such criticism were based on those used in the military’s Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape training, or SERE, in which for decades American service members were given a sample of the brutal treatment they might face if captured.

Because the training was developed during the cold war, the techniques later adopted by the C.I.A. and Special Operations officers in Iraq were based, at least in part, on how the Soviet Union and its allies were believed to treat prisoners. Such techniques included prolonged use of stress positions, exposure to heat and cold, sleep deprivation and even waterboarding.

Let's hope that for our future enemies' sake that in the next war, Americans don't base their interrogation techniques Al Qaeda's torture manual. Yes, the same manual, as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, that the Times continues to ignore.

I guess their view of news is if Americans bleed - or caused the bleading - it leads; otherwise it's not fit to print.

Modern Saudi design?

Beyooooooooriful, originally uploaded by ♥♪♫ PrettineSs♥♪♫ -Harvard-.

Remember this photo? I posted it once before.

Traditional Saudi fashion

garland, originally uploaded by London looks.

From a "fashion show" at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London put together by Saudi women in honor of the new Islamic Art gallery opening.

Saudi fashion designer

Zaki bin Aboud, originally uploaded by ..£m@r/\tiprincess(R@bsh@)- /\ touch of roy/\lty-.

More evidence fashionistas herald freedom

Today's Washington Post reports that in Saudi Arabia, of all places, women are increasingly rejecting the black abaya:

The change is most striking in Jiddah, the kingdom's most cosmopolitan city, where many young women now wear their head scarves around their shoulders and leave their abayas open to reveal pants and T-shirts. Medical students here often forgo the abaya altogether, frequenting malls and coffee shops in brightly colored head scarves and white knee-length lab coats over jeans.

Abayas with patches of fluorescent color, floral patterns, animal prints, embroidery and even zodiac signs have started to show up in other cities as well, prompting clerics to criticize the trend and reiterate that abayas were meant to deflect attention, not attract it.

As the Post notes:

The redefinition of the abaya mirrors the greater, though still limited, personal freedoms allowed in the kingdom over the past five years. A major factor in the change was the involvement of young Saudis in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Many people began to question the official Wahhabi ideology that was believed to have partly inspired the hijackers and that had long dictated the country's ultraconservative lifestyle.

Curiously, though the black abaya has long been associated with the kingdom, it is actually a fairly modern fashion. As the Times reports:

The black abaya came to Saudi Arabia from Iraq or Syria more than 75 years ago, as did most textiles and goods at the time, said Leila al-Bassam, a professor of traditional clothing and textiles at Riyadh University. The robes caught on in the kingdom after King Abdul-Aziz, who conquered the country's disparate regions and formed a state in 1932, distributed them as presents to various tribal leaders, said Mussaed, the geography professor.

Before that, women wore modest but often colorful regional costumes, and in the more conservative areas did not leave the house until they were married, Bassam said.

As the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice started
enforcing the dress code across the country, the abaya slowly supplanted the traditional regional costumes and became the national dress.

Anyway, do check out the original Post link above as you'll be able to see some exquisite photos of this new trend in Saudi fashions.

Hell on earth: Being a refugee in an Arab state

We're all familiar with the hell of Palestinian refugee camps. Now see how Iraq refugees are forced to live in Syria. The New York Times reports:

For anyone living in Damascus these days, the fact that some Iraqi refugees are selling sex or working in sex clubs is difficult to ignore.

Even in central Damascus, men freely talk of being approached by pimps trawling for customers outside juice shops and shawarma sandwich stalls, and of women walking up to passing men, an act unthinkable in Arab culture, and asking in Iraqi-accented Arabic if the men would like to “have a cup of tea.”

As the New York Times goes on:

Many of these women and girls, including some barely in their teens, are recent refugees. . . . a United Nations report found last year, [that] many girls and women in “severe need” turn to prostitution, in secret or even with the knowledge or involvement of family members. In many cases, the report added, “the head of the family brings clients to the house.”

Dietrun Günther, an official at the United Nations refugee agency’s Damascus office, told the Times that the U.N. was, in her words: “Especially concerned that there are young girls involved, and that they’re being forced, even smuggled into Syria in some cases,” she reportedly said.

And then saying that the U.N. has "had special talks with the Syrian government about prostitution,” she went on to describe the [Syrian] officials’ new openness as “a great step,” according to the Times.

Ignore the cultural condescension of this U.N. official's last remark - as if the best an Arab government can be expected to be is to be open about such a situation as opposed to competent enough to resolve it.

Anyway, as a Syrian women's rights lawyer, Mouna Asaad, told the Times: “Sometimes you see whole families living this way, the girls pimped by the mother or aunt.”

I suppose Syria deserves some credit for being willing to provide any kind of haven to the Iraqi refugees, in contrast to the oil-rich Gulf states who have kept their doors closed.

This, of course, hasn't stopped young men from the Gulf countries from taking advantage of the desperate Iraqis, however. As the Times goes on to report:

Inexpensive Iraqi prostitutes have helped to make Syria a popular destination for sex tourists from wealthier countries in the Middle East. In the club’s parking lot, nearly half of the cars had Saudi license plates.

From Damascus it is only about six hours by car, passing through Jordan, to the Saudi border. Syria, where it is relatively easy to buy alcohol and dance with women, is popular as a low-cost weekend destination for groups of Saudi men.

I suppose after hitting up the Iraqis in Syria, the next stop for many of these young men is ideally Iraq. If they can just find a way to blow themselves up in a crowded market there, then they can get the 72 virgins in Paradise, the jihadists promise them.

Torture Al Qaeda style - and if you think the U.S. military recruitment methods are bad, check out the ones al Qaeda is using....

The mainstream media seems largely uninterested in the story of al Qaeda's treatment of Iraqi detainees, but thankfully CNN's Senior Baghdad, Jane Arraf, is on the case, reporting on Iraqslogger from Baquba:

He wasn’t anyone rich, or important – he only sold used clothes for a living but they saw him smoking at the bus depot and that was enough for them to take him away.

He rolls up his pants to show me the scars inflicted during four days in captivity by suspected al-Qaeda members – this 24-year-old Iraqi man afraid to give his name and afraid to show his face on camera.

His legs are painfully thin from what appears to be a lifetime of near malnutrition. On his ankles, feet and hands are the raised round scars where he says his captors butted cigarettes out on his skin. He pulls up his striped cotton T-shirt to show me the same marks on his chest.

“They told me the Islamic State prohibits smoking,” he said. They were wearing masks, he said. When they checked his ID they found a Shiite name. They shoved him face-first into a car, blindfolded him and took him to the house in Baquba crowded with hostages.

The vendor was one of seven Iraqis rescued by soldiers from the 3-2 Stryker Brigade’s 5th Battalion 20th Infantry Regiment when they swept through an area of Old Baquba last week known as an al-Qaeda stronghold.

Nine others they were holding – including four Iraqi police – were shot dead just before the Americans arrived and the insurgents fled.

The man told Arraf that Al Qaeda was holding him because they wanted to kill his son, an Iraqi policeman.

As Arraf went on to report:

American and Iraqi officials say while al-Qaeda is able to draw marginalized young men with few prospects, when they don’t come willingly, they are using increasingly brutal recruiting methods.

“People used to be able to get by by saying ‘We’re with you’ and offer passive support by turning a blind eye to a lot of things that are going on. Now they say ‘you’re with us or against us’ and if you say ‘I’m with you’, they make you prove it,” [a U.S. intelligence who insisted on anonymity] officer said.

She said one 15-year-old boy arrested in Baquba said he was kidnapped by al Qaeda, raped and beaten and told they would kill his family unless he joined them. His first test was shooting someone, she said.

Contrast all the headlines your reading about this Al Qaeda torture story with the barrage you had to endure regarding Abu Ghraib.

The media's deafening silence reminds me of the UN Human Rights Council.

Last June, the council distinguished itself by singling out Israel for annual reviews of its alleged human rights abuses while expressing no interest in reviewing the activities of other countries with far worse records - namely, Myanmar, and North Korea, not not to mention several Arab countries.

Even then Secretary-General Kofi Annan was was incredulous. As he said in his annual International Human Rights Day address that year: "[It's] not that Israel should be given a free pass. Absolutely not. But the Council should give the same attention to grave violations committed by other states as well.".

By the same token, coudn't the media at least mention this Al Qaeda torture story?

Really, it's not as if it could be considered culturally insensitive or anything. Al Qaeda's victims here are other Arabs, in many cases, their fellow Sunnis. The media shouldn't be giving these guys a pass just because they're not, I don't know, Western, American, Israeli, whatever.

Can't everyone just be held to the same standard? I am certain people would suffer less if this simple rule were applied.

Do we need to stop Iran from building a bomb?

The editors at the Wall Street Journal say the answer to this question is yes.

First they point to the evidence that the Iranians are, contrary to their protestations, in fact intent on building a bomb:

In 2005, the U.S. National Intelligence Estimate predicted that Iran would be unable to produce sufficient quantities of weapons-grade uranium until "early to mid-next decade." Last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported that Iran was operating 1,312 centrifuges -- up from 164 just last year -- and could be operating as many as 3,000 within a month. That's enough to produce one bomb's worth of uranium every year. So much for another CIA "slam dunk."

They even come up with a list of concrete suggestions on how to thwart such Iranian ambitions:

We've noted that Iran imports nearly half of its refined gasoline, much of it via the United Arab Emirates. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and new French President Nicolas Sarkozy could demonstrate their Atlanticist credentials by putting a halt to their combined $8 billion in export guarantees to companies doing business with Iran. Targeted financial penalties against key regime figures (such as the plutocrat Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani) should also be considered, along with financial support for labor unions and dissident groups. The three U.S. aircraft carriers that recently shipped through the Straits of Hormuz in broad daylight are also a reminder to Tehran of our ability to use force against the nuclear threat if all else fails.

But as the editors duly note:

All these steps entail risk. But none compare to the risk of a nuclear Iran, reinforced in its power to promote instability in Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon with no fear of American reprisals. If you don't like the look of the Middle East today, wait until the region's most fanatical regime gets its hands on the world's worst weapon.

The editors' position made me recall a conversation I had with a British couple in India recently. Somehow they introduced the topic of American power.

They said they were so sick of American dominance in the world that as far as they were concerned, if what it took to get out from under American hegemony was a nuclear-armed Tehran, well, they were fine with that.

"You see we're just so sick of America," the wife summed up their position and then shot a warm glance at my Indian mother-in-law hoping she'd find agreement in her corner.

My mother-in-law, who had no idea what this woman was saying, simply smiled back.

Of course the British couple couldn't have known that my mother-in-law has a mortal fear of Islamic totalitarianism. This stems from the fact that she grew up in purdah in Pakistan and was only freed after she had to literally flee for her life when India was partitioned in 1947. All non-Muslims were expected to leave the new Muslim state of Pakistan, no matter that this meant leaving their ancestral homeland too.

In purdah, for those of you who might not know what I'm talking about here, the female half of the population is essentially confined to the house. Back in my mother-in-law's day in Pakistan, girls and women had virtually no educational opportunities or career prospects. The only thing a young girl could look forward to in life was an arranged marriage and a house full of kids. A female couldn't even leave the house if her head was uncovered and she wasn't accompanied by a male guardian.

So when all non-Muslims were expected to leave the new Muslim state of Pakistan, my mother-in-law, who was 20 at the time, left this lifestyle behind. She was given five minutes in which to pack all of her life's belongings and she traveled alone with her infant son. Her husband, a government employee, had to stay behind.

When the train she was traveling on pulled into the station in India, instead of finding their family members among the refugees, they found that almost all of the passengers had been slaughtered. Many of the women and girls had been raped before they were killed, and their breasts sliced off - and then tossed into burlap sacks just to add to the horror effect.

My mother-in-law still shudders as she recalls seeing children being torn apart limb by limb.

For some unknown reason, she and her infant son survived this journey. Though she lost her ability to speak for a few months, so traumatized was she by this experience, she still recalls being happy to be in India.

She knew her sister-in-law never even got to make the journey. This young woman, her husband, and their kids had their throats slit before they could leave Pakistan.

And my mother-in-law still recalls the joy she felt when, for the first time in her life, she saw women walking alone and bareheaded. She says she immediately felt free.

So, some 60 years later, she was hardly the person who would have agreed with this British couple. For her the idea that exchanging freedom for Islamic totalitarianism could ever be considered a fair bargain was simply a preposterous notion.

Nevertheless the British couple were utterly confident that they had read her smile correctly.

"You see," the wife said, unable to contain a sneer in my direction. "Everyone wants an end to American superpower, even if that means having the Iranians take over."

"Well you might just want to do a little more research on this," was all I could think to say at the moment.

Michael Yon: It's not about Sunnis versus Shia in Iraq

Blogger and combat journalist Michael Yon sends this from his email from Iraq (via Instapundit):

Iraqis have told me many times that the larger part of this war is not about religion. Fanatical groups such as al Qaeda surely have wreaked havoc, but a huge part of the war is about business, influence and resources. The American Commanding General, David Petraeus, has said repeatedly that money is ammunition in this war. The meetings I attend with local leaders around Iraq are never about religion. Religion is seldom if ever brought up. The meetings are about security, electricity, jobs, water projects. The meetings often are about influence, and politics fit for a novel.

Berber

tamazight (berber) girl, originally uploaded by Ms Entropy.

Incidentally, when I was in Morocco, some kids took to referring to me as the Berber. I never figured out why.

Amman, Jordan

Arwa, originally uploaded by gurrygudfinns.

A Gypsy or "Nawar" girl in Jordan.

NRO: "Cultural changes are afoot" in the Middle East?

Jay Nordlinger reports in the National Review Online some good news from the World Economic Forum on the Middle East that just took place in Jordan:

For years and years, many of us have complained that Arabs and Muslims will not face up to their own problems. They prefer to deflect, blaming others for every sniffle and cough — and those others tend to be Israelis and Americans. But I’m happy to see that there is relatively little — relatively little — deflection at this WEF conference. Instead, participants are honestly grappling with the central problems, and seeking solutions to them.

. . .Take a debate staged by the Forum and televised live by Al Arabiya. The topic: “Is the Arab World Betraying Its Youth?”

The topic alone tells you that cultural changes are afoot.

Al Arabiya’s moderator talks about this aforementioned 200 million, the 60 percent of the Arab population who are under 24. They have little hope and great troubles. Unemployment is very high, and young people are delaying marriage, unable to support spouses and families. They are lining up at embassies, trying to obtain visas — emigration seems their only way out.

The audience is stocked with young people, brought in specially for this occasion. They stand up and air their grievances, and they joyously condemn their governments and elders. I believe this is something relatively new under the Arab sun.

As Nordlinger concludes:

When you begin to confront your own problems, instead of blaming, deflecting, and excusing — the solutions can’t be far off, can they?

Hazara niqab

A tour of my home- hazara face cover, originally uploaded by nesting.emily.

The caption was provided by the photographer.

Syria: Is Zawahiri trying to blowback the jihad to Syria

If this letter intercepted by a "Middle East intelligence service" is genuine, Syria might want to reconsider its policy of reflexively providing safe harbor to terrorist organizations. It may also not be a bad idea to shore up its porous border with Iraq.

From the London Times:

THE deputy leader of Al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has urged supporters in Iraq to extend their “holy war” to other Middle Eastern countries.

In a letter sent to the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq in the past few weeks, Zawahiri claims that it is defeating US forces and urges followers to expand their campaign of
terror.

He conjures a vision of an Islamic state comprising Lebanon, Palestine and Syria, where Al-Qaeda has already gained its first footholds.

Another Sunni province in Iraq turning against Al Qaeda; meanwhile Sadr's militia is terrorizing Iraqi policemen elsewhere in Iraq

The Associated Press reports:

American forces freed 42 kidnapped Iraqis — some of whom had been hung from ceilings and tortured for months — in a raid Sunday on an al-Qaida hideout north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

Military officials said the operation, launched on tips from residents, showed that Iraqis in the turbulent Diyala province were turning against Sunni insurgents and beginning to trust U.S. troops.

As the AP went on to report:

"The more contact we have (with) the Iraqi citizens, the more confidence that they develop in us, and in the Iraqi police and the Iraqi army. That leads to greater cooperation from the Iraqi citizenry," said Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a U.S. military spokesman.

Meanwhile, as the AP goes on to report:

...in Kut, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, 70 police officers resigned from an elite police unit and handed over their weapons, saying they were afraid of the Mahdi Army militia of the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, police said.

As one officer told the AP: "I fear reprisals, I want to keep my family and relatives safe."

40 years after Israel's victory in the Six Day War, no sign of peace

The Economist memorializes Israel's victory in the Six Day War of 1967 with this story in which the headline reads: "Israel's Wasted Victory; Six days of war followed by 40 years of misery. How can it ever end?" From the Economist:

Is there a way out? Yes: but making peace will take courage, and too much of the energy that should have gone into peacemaking has been squandered on the blame game. There is, admittedly, plenty of blame to go round. What right had the British, in 1917, to promise the Jews a national home in Palestine? Why did the Palestinians reject partition in 1947? Why did Israel colonise the territories after 1967? Why did the Americans let Israel get away with it? Why did the Arab states leave the refugees to fester in camps? The Palestinians are terrorists, Zionism is racism, Israel's enemies are anti-Semites. Yasser Arafat should have accepted Israel's “generous offer” at Camp David in 2000. But, hang on, Israel's offer was not so generous...

So what to do? You should read the article to find out how the magazine comes to this conclusion, but here it is:

For peace to come, Israel must give up the West Bank and share Jerusalem; the Palestinians must give up the dream of return and make Israel feel secure as a Jewish state. All the rest is detail.

Iraqi

VoteFlag, originally uploaded by mazinalizzi.

Memorial Day Tribute to Immigrants in the U.S. Military

From the Wall Street Journal:

On Memorial Day, we honor not only those who have fought and died for America, but the ideals they believed in and stood to protect. Some of those we'll pause to remember on Monday fought for a land of freedom they still only hoped to call home.

More than 40,000 members of the U.S. military are not yet U.S. citizens. Mexicans, Canadians, Filipinos and immigrants from countries on every continent now wear the uniform of their adopted homeland. New arrivals make up more than 5% of all U.S. enlisted personnel. And immigrant soldiers are an American tradition, fighting in nearly every major conflict of the past century. Half a million soldiers of Mexican descent alone have served in the U.S. armed forces. More than 20% of the recipients of the Medal of Honor have been immigrants.

In 2002, President Bush signed an executive order allowing legal permanent residents who served in the military to apply for citizenship immediately. Under the immigration bill now before Congress, military service could be opened up more broadly as a fast-track to citizenship. Critics have groused that letting immigrants fight our wars is unseemly, creating a "green card army." Others claim such recruitment represents a form of coercion. Don't tell that to the soldiers. Many risk their lives out of gratitude. One soldier who served in Iraq explained: "I wanted to help this country that had given me and my family opportunity."

Every man and woman who serves in uniform today is of course a volunteer. They serve their country and along the way advance their own quest for meaningful and productive lives. Not a few who've enlisted did so after making their own difficult journeys to reach America -- and have a keen appreciation of the value of freedom. Since the Iraq war began, some 26,000 men and women who are serving our country have become U.S. citizens. What can we say but welcome, and thank you.

Lance Corporal Christopher Dyer

Lance Corporal Dyer, originally uploaded by nukeit1.

In memory of Lance Corporal Christopher J. Dyer, 19, Cincinnati, Ohio. KIA August 3, 2005
3rd Plt., L Co., 3rd Bn, 25th Marines
Operation Iraqi Freedom

Memorial Day 2007

USMC Cpl. Jason Dunham

USMC Cpl. Jason Dunham, originally uploaded by Toribear5.

In honor of your sacrifice, Memorial Day 2007. See post below.

Memorial Day Tribute

Peter Collier, coauthor of the book Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty, has an essay in today's Wall Street Journal, in honor of Memorial Day. Here are some excerpts but do read the whole thing:

Once we knew who and what to honor on Memorial Day: Those who had given all their tomorrows, as was said of the men who stormed the beaches of Normandy, for our todays. But in a world saturated with selfhood, where every death is by definition a death in vain, the notion of sacrifice today provokes puzzlement more often than admiration. We support the troops, of course, but we also believe that war, being hell, can easily touch them with an evil no cause for engagement can wash away. And in any case we are more comfortable supporting them as victims than as warriors.

Former football star Pat Tillman and Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham were killed on the same day: April 22, 2004. But as details of his death fitfully emerged from Afghanistan, Tillman has become a metaphor for the current conflict -- a victim of fratricide, disillusionment, coverup and possibly conspiracy. By comparison, Dunham, who saved several of his comrades in Iraq by falling on an insurgent's grenade, is the unknown soldier. The New York Times, which featured Abu Ghraib on its front page for 32 consecutive days, put the story of Dunham's Medal of Honor on the third page of section B.

After giving some brief glimpses into some past recipients of the nation's highest military honor, Collier concludes:

We impoverish ourselves by shunting these heroes and their experiences to the back pages of our national consciousness. Their stories are not just boys' adventure tales writ large. They are a kind of moral instruction. They remind of something we've heard many times before but is worth repeating on a wartime Memorial Day when we're uncertain about what we celebrate. We're the land of the free for one reason only: We're also the home of the brave.

Post-jihad Algeria: The women seem to be taking over

The New York Times reports that in Algeria, women often earn more than their husbands, have higher education levels, and professions such as law and medicine are dominated by women. They can be found waiting tables, driving taxis, pumping gas, and in government posts. As the New York Times reports:

“If such a trend continues,” said Daho Djerbal, editor and publisher of Naqd, a magazine of social criticism and analysis, “we will see a new phenomenon where our public administration will also be controlled by women.”

Why is this happening? Algerians spent most of the 1990s caught in a violent struggle between radical Islamists and government. Some 100,000 people were killed, many had their throats slit by the radicals.

Men stopped attending university when higher education was no longer a sure path to a secure career. For women, however, the university remained a sure way they could at least get out of the house.

To navigate a safe path around the radical elements, women became more overtly religious in recent years, attending mosque and donning the hijab. As the Times reports:

Sociologists and many working women say that by adopting religion and wearing the Islamic head covering called the hijab, women here have in effect freed themselves from moral judgments and restrictions imposed by men. Uncovered women are rarely seen on the street late at night, but covered women can be seen strolling the city after attending the evening prayer at a mosque.

“They never criticize me, especially when they see I am wearing the hijab,” said Denni Fatiha, 44, the first woman to drive a large city bus through the narrow, winding roads of Algiers.

The net effect of this, say the Times sources, is that the average age of marriage for Algerian women is now 29 as opposed to 17 or 18 as it was prior to the jihad. This means that Algerian women are having fewer children too, as is evidenced by the smaller class sizes in elementary schools throughout the country.

While most women see their prospects improving in this post-jihad Algeria, the men are often purposeless:

Algeria’s young men reject school and try to earn money as traders in the informal sector, selling goods on the street, or they focus their efforts on leaving the country or just hanging out. There is a whole class of young men referred to as hittistes — the word is a combination of French and Arabic for people who hold up walls.

Al Qaeda is reportedly trying to establish a foothold in Algeria, but according to the Times, Algerians are unlikely to find its message appealing:

[The] collective consciousness is simply too raw from the years of civil war for Islamist terrorists or radical Islamic ideas to gain popular support.

There is a sense that the new room given to women may at least partly be a reflection of that general feeling. The population has largely rejected the most radical interpretation of Islam and has begun to return to the more North African, almost mystical, interpretation of the faith, sociologists and religious leaders said.

Whatever the underlying reason, women in the streets of the city are brimming with enthusiasm.

“I don’t think any of this contradicts Islam,” said Wahiba Nabti, 36, as she walked through the center of the city one day recently. “On the contrary, Islam gives freedom to work. Anyway it is between you and God.”

Peace from Malaysia

On the media's role in the war on terror

Laurie Byrd at The Examiner reports on the media front of the war on terror:

Whether they realize it, members of the mainstream media are participants in the war on terrorism, and nowhere is that more evident than in Iraq.

As she goes on to report:

[Blogger Bill] Roggio recently told the Christian Science Monitor that most mainstream media reporters “display a lack of knowledge of counterinsurgency and the role the media plays in an insurgency’s information campaign.” He says al Qaeda and insurgent groups frequently choose their targets to get specific media coverage they desire.

She cites another example, this one offered by journalist Michael Yon:

“As the British increase their forces in Afghanistan, they are drawing down in Iraq. Although the drawdown in Iraq is based on pragmatism, the enemy apparently is attempting to create the perception of a military rout. So while the British reduce their forces in southern Iraq, they are coming under heavier fire and the enemy makes claims of driving ‘the occupiers’ out.”

Then there is the media's lack of interest in good news, according to Gerd Schroeder, a major in the U.S. Army who has served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He came to that conclusion, reports Byrd, after studying The Iraq Index, a report prepared by the Brookings Institute that keeps track of various statistics in Iraq, and comparing it with news reports on the numbers of trained Iraqi Security Forces.

As Bryd reports:

Schroeder concluded that when ISF figures became a good news story of progress, they received less media attention. He says there is “significant, unreported good news” in Iraq. He acknowledges there is plenty of bad news there, but that “the media has been doing a good job of reporting on those negative aspects.”

While I'm sure the mainstream media believes its role is to speak truth to and about power - and I agree that that's its proper role - it ought to remember that there are competing sources of power, especially in a war zone.

When it's Al Qaeda who is doing the torture it doesn't make Page One

Don Surber has a hilarious take on the mainstream media's coverage of the Al Qaeda torture story. An excerpt:

What was Amnesty International’s reaction?

cricket chirp

Yet Amesty International just 3 days ago called for the US to close Guantanamo Bay.

Where did USA Today play the torture book story?

Not on Page One.

Where did the New York Times play it?

Not on Page One.

Where did the Washington Post play it?

Not on Page One.

And yet such false stories as the “flushed Koran” got widespread play in the newspapers and on television.

But read the whole thing as it's very funny.

Amnesty International's dimming halo

Gerald Steinberg writes in the New York Sun:

For many journalists, diplomats, and political activists, Amnesty International is considered to be a highly reliable and objective source of information and analysis on human rights around the world. But the halo that surrounds its reports and campaigns is beginning to fray, as the evidence of political bias and inaccuracy mounts.

Recently, the Economist, published in Britain, noted that "an organisation which devotes more pages in its annual report to human-rights abuses in Britain and America than those in Belarus and Saudi Arabia cannot expect to escape doubters' scrutiny." Other critics, including law professor at Harvard, Alan Dershowitz, and the U.S.-based Capital Research Center, have been more pointed, providing evidence of Amnesty's systematic bias and reports based largely on claims by carefully selected "eyewitnesses" in Colombia, Gaza, and Lebanon.

Steinberg goes on to report:

NGO Monitor has also published a report on Amnesty's activities in the Middle East. The result is not a pretty picture for those clinging to the "halo effect."

Torture al Qaeda style

The Smoking Gun reports:

In a recent raid on an al-Qaeda safe house in Iraq, U.S. military officials recovered an assortment of crude drawings depicting torture methods like "blowtorch to the skin" and "eye removal." Along with the images, which you'll find on the following pages, soldiers seized various torture implements, like meat cleavers, whips, and wire cutters. Photos of those items can be seen here. The images, which were just declassified by the Department of Defense, also include a picture of a ramshackle Baghdad safe house described as an "al-Qaeda torture chamber." It was there, during an April 24 raid, that soldiers found a man suspended from the ceiling by a chain. According to the military, he had been abducted from his job and was being beaten daily by his captors. In a raid earlier this week, Coalition Forces freed five Iraqis who were found in a padlocked room in Karmah. The group, which included a boy, were reportedly beaten with chains, cables, and hoses. Photos showing injuries sustained by those captives can be found here.

Contrast these images with what went on at Abu Ghraib or reports of "extensive torture" by Americans at Guantanamo.

Trapped in hell, I mean the Islamic Republic of Iran

Shaul Bakhash, who teaches Middle Eastern history at George Mason University in Virginia writes about the plight of his wife in the Islamic Republic of Iran in today's Los Angeles Times:

ON MAY 8, the walls of Tehran's Evin prison closed around my wife, Haleh Esfandiari, a 67-year-old scholar, grandmother and dual citizen of Iran and the United States.

Haleh, director of the Middle East Program of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, went to Iran in late December to visit her 93-year-old mother, a trip she has made almost twice each year for a decade or more.

. . .Some suggest that hard-liners wanted Haleh in custody to block next week's U.S.-Tehran talks. Others say the government wants to trade her for Iranians held in Iraq. This is mere speculation. The only explanation I've been given came in a statement issued Monday by the Ministry of Intelligence, a fantastical accusation that reveals the imaginary web Tehran wants to weave to entrap my wife and others.

It goes like this: American think tanks such as the Wilson Center are advancing a U.S. government plan for a "soft toppling" of Iran, creating "links" between Iranian intellectuals and U.S. institutions and forming "informal communication networks" that can then be used "against the sovereignty of the country." In effect, in the eyes of the Iranian government, any exchange among scholars is tantamount to treasonous conspiracy.

Should you wake up one day to find your wife or child or parent in the hands of the secret police in a country that routinely violates the rule of law, you will likely choose quiet probing over publicity. You have no recourse to law or courts. You fear publicity may make things worse. You believe, almost always wrongly, that if you work quietly, use the contacts you have and wait reasonably, the nightmare will be over.

When Haleh was initially prevented from leaving Iran and the interrogations began, it was principally at my insistence that we did not "go public." Repeatedly I was told by those who supposedly understand the inner workings of Iran: "Don't worry; it's only an interrogation; once they have finished with their questions, they will let her go."

Once Haleh was arrested, however, silence was no longer an option. It is preposterous that she is accused of conspiring to overthrow the Iranian government by organizing conferences and encouraging dialogue between Iranians and Americans. The Wilson Center issued a fact sheet; Lee Hamilton, its president and director, held a news conference; and I began to speak openly about Haleh's frightening predicament.

One has to wonder why a state that is supposed to be running things according to God's law has so little respect for its citizens and coreligionists. Not to mention, why Iran keeps ratcheting up international tension with stunts like this.

But here is the lesson Bakhash is drawing:

It is easy to feel powerless in the face of a state's overweening power — especially a state that arrests, incarcerates and accuses its citizens at will. But the events of the last few weeks — the universal condemnation Iran has earned by imprisoning Haleh and others — have taught me that people also have power when they condemn injustice and stand up for wronged individuals. Is the Iranian government listening?

Now that Sadr's back in Iraq do you suppose the Madhi Army will now start distributing food supplies?

Family provider, originally uploaded by lakerae.

Let's hope so. A kid this age shouldn't have to be carrying this type of load. Time for the descendant of the Prophet to redeploy his forces here I would think.

Elvis confirmed to be in Najaf

U.S. Army inspecting a child's throat in Najaf

The New York Times confirmed that Moqtada al-Sadr, Iraqi cleric and leader of the Mahdi Army, is in Najaf. From the Times report:

The powerful Iraqi cleric Moktada al-Sadr surfaced in his home base of Kufa in southern Iraq today, delivering a sermon in a local mosque after what American intelligence officials called a four-month sojourn in Iran.

The cleric, addressing a large crowd amid heavy security, called for American forces to leave Iraq, but pointedly did not say how quickly those troops should leave, as he has in the past. A longer timeline would serve to give Mr. Sadr’s Mahdi Army extra time to prepare for the departure of the Americans.

Mr. Sadr called for an end to fighting between the Mahdi Army and Iraqi forces and police, asking his followers to conduct peaceful demonstrations instead. And though the Mahdi Army has been heavily involved in the nation’s brutal sectarian violence, he requested reconciliation between Shiites, Sunnis and Christians.

But as the Times went on to report:

“He has a great deal of administrative and management work to do,” said Toby Dodge, a Middle East expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. “He has to reassert control over an increasingly wayward military organization.” Mr. Dodge, who recently spent a month in Iraq, added, “Clearly, he needs to make his mind up whether his military organization is a tool of rampant sectarianism or a tool of national reconciliation.”

Well, I'm hoping that Sadr's return means that we'll soon be seeing the Madhi Army performing throat inspections instead of sectarian executions and helping to restore Iraq's infrastructure as opposed to trying to tear Iraqis apart for a change.

Elvis spotted in Najaf

The Washington Post reports:

Moqtada al-Sadr, the influential Shiite cleric and militia leader who went into hiding before the launch of a U.S.-Iraqi security offensive in February, is in the southern city of Kufa, senior U.S. military commanders said Thursday.

Sadr, who has long opposed the U.S. occupation and is ratcheting up pressure for a withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, has returned from neighboring Iran, perhaps as recently as this week, they said.

Why now?

Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the No. 2 commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, said he believed Sadr had returned to Iraq to shore up his organization.

"I think he's trying to consolidate his power base," Odierno said Thursday evening in his office near the Baghdad airport. "I think there's been a little bit of cracking in the JAM organization," he added, using an acronym for Jaish al-Mahdi, the Arabic name for the Mahdi Army.

But as the Post went on to report:

[Another Army] officer added that although he was fairly confident that Sadr had returned to Kufa, he would not be entirely certain until the cleric makes an appearance. "I wouldn't take it as gospel until you sight Elvis in the building," he said.

One Muslim's prescription for Islamophobia

Tawfik Hamid outlines a possible cure in today's Wall Street Journal:

Muslims must ask what prompts this "phobia" in the first place. When we in the West examine the worldwide atrocities perpetrated daily in the name of Islam, it is vital to question if we -- Muslims -- should lay the blame on others for Islamophobia or if we should first look hard at ourselves.

. . .To bring an end to Islamophobia, we must employ a holistic approach that treats the core of the disease. It will not suffice to merely suppress the symptoms. It is imperative to adopt new Islamic teachings that do not allow killing apostates (Redda Law). Islamic authorities must provide mainstream Islamic books that forbid polygamy and beating women. Accepted Islamic doctrine should take a strong stand against slavery and the raping of female war prisoners, as happens in Darfur under the explicit canons of Shariah ("Ma Malakat Aimanikum"). Muslims should teach, everywhere and universally, that a woman's testimony in court counts as much as a man's, that women should not be punished if they marry whom they please or dress as they wish.

We Muslims should publicly show our strong disapproval for the growing number of attacks by Muslims against other faiths and against other Muslims. Let us not even dwell on 9/11, Madrid, London, Bali and countless other scenes of carnage. It has been estimated that of the two million refugees fleeing Islamic terror in Iraq, 40% are Christian, and many of them seek a haven in Lebanon, where the Christian population itself has declined by 60%. Even in Turkey, Islamists recently found it necessary to slit the throats of three Christians for publishing Bibles.

Of course, Islamist attacks are not limited to Christians and Jews. Why do we hear no Muslim condemnation of the ongoing slaughter of Buddhists in Thailand by Islamic groups? Why was there silence over the Mumbai train bombings which took the lives of over 200 Hindus in 2006? We must not forget that innocent Muslims, too, are suffering. Indeed, the most common murderers of Muslims are, and have always been, other Muslims. Where is the Muslim outcry over the Sunni-Shiite violence in Iraq?

Islamophobia could end when masses of Muslims demonstrate in the streets against videos displaying innocent people being beheaded with the same vigor we employ against airlines, Israel and cartoons of Muhammad.

But read the whole thing.

A mosque in Rome so why not a church in Mecca?

The mosque in Rome

Not long ago, the idea of a mosque in Rome seemed preposterous. As the New York Times reported back in 1989 when the mosque was still under construction:

When the idea first came up more than five decades ago - building a mosque in Rome for subjects from Italy's colonial holdings in Africa - Benito Mussolini is reported to have said absolutely no.

When the idea first came up more than five decades ago - building a mosque in Rome for subjects from Italy's colonial holdings in Africa - Benito Mussolini is reported to have said absolutely no.

There will be a mosque in Rome, the Fascist ruler said, only when a Roman Catholic church is permitted in Mecca.

But, as the Times went on to report: "Not only is the first mosque now rising in the city of St. Peter, in a low-lying wooded area three and a half miles northeast of the Vatican, but it is also described by its Italian architects as the largest in Europe."

Whether or not this Roman mosque is the largest in Europe, as Abdul Qayuum Khan, then director of the Islamic Cultural Center in Rome told the Times in 1989, it is still the most important: ''The simple fact is that it is the only one located in the heart of Christianity, in the Mecca of Catholicism, you might say," he was reported as saying.

As one of the mosque's chief architects told the Times: ''For centuries, Islam and Christianity were in conflict. This is an expression of the opening of a dialogue among the different religions.''

As the Times went on to report:

The church dropped its objections [to having a mosque in Rome] after the Second Vatican Council in 1965. In the 1970's the Italian Government gave the Islamic center permission to build, and the Rome municipal government made a gift of a 7.5-acre undeveloped lot.

Saudi Arabia, custodian of the holy lands of Islam, footed the construction costs, estimated at $40 million and the mosque opened its doors in 1995.

More than a decade has now passed. Did the building of this mosque in Rome usher in the Islamic takeover of this traditional capital of Christendom?

Not as far as I can tell. This 2003 Christian Science Monitor report still seems largely accurate:

Islam has become the country's second-largest religion, with the number of Muslims estimated at 700,000 to 1 million among a total population of 57 million. Only 30,000 Muslims have Italian citizenship. The rest are labeled extracomunitari - working on temporary visas or illegally.

Unlike other religious communities, Italy's Muslims have yet to be formally recognized by the state. Other religions, including Judaism and smaller groups such as the Assemblies of God and the Seventh-Day Adventists, have signed agreements with the government, giving them official recognition and a chance to benefit from a national "religion tax."

Talks are under way to establish a formal dialogue, but observers warn that the Muslim community has yet to overcome internal divisions, and right-wing elements in the Italian government are intent on blocking all dialogue.

"There is a kind of resistance to formally recognizing that we are here," says Khalid Chaouki, president of the Young Muslims of Italy, complaining that some right-wing mayors refuse to authorize plans to build mosques and cemeteries. "It is very hard to make people realize we are people, not just Muslims."

Anyway, now that I've been in Rome for a few days and feel confident issuing opinions on the situation here, may I suggest that in order for Muslim's to gain full recognition of their humanity in this center of Christianity, they ought to consider building a church in Mecca. A move like this would certainly help persuade Christians that, well, they too are people, not just Christians.

Now speaking on behalf of the Vatican, I'm sure the Catholic Church would even be willing to fund such a project.

Threatened by a Los Angeles-based terror cell?

Peregrine Falcon, originally uploaded by Églantine.

See post below.

In Los Angeles, was this a terror cell bent on genocide masquerading as a birdlover's club?

As regular blog readers know, I love falcons. So I can't help but point to this, um, bizarre story in the Los Angeles Times:

U.S. Fish and Wildlife agents infiltrated the odd subculture of "roller pigeon" clubs in Los Angeles and found that members were illegally killing hawks and falcons that prey on their birds, officials said today.

A roller pigeon, in the eyes of those who collect them, distinguishes itself in mid-flight by doing aerobatics or rolling over. Hobbyists from around the country come together to compete and judge each team's ability to work in unison.

But a roller pigeon, in the eyes of a hawk or falcon, is fast food.

Anyway, as the Times continues:

Hobbyists in Southern California became fed up by raptors spoiling their competitions and, according to a federal indictment released today, began illegally trapping and killing the predators.

Six men from Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties, including the president of a national umbrella group for the hobbyists, were arrested this week on charges of violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

It turns out that these roller pigeoneers were setting up traps and then shooting the predatory hawks and falcons as they tried to prey upon their pets. (If people who prize falcons are falconers, pigeon fans must be pigeoneers - as pigeoners just didn't sound right.)

I say this has to be considered genocide. Because assuming genocide is derived from the same root genre is, you can take it to mean the desire to kill a class, any class, as opposed to only a class of humans.

But was this cell's activity terrorism?

(Thanks Blubby, for pointing me to this story.)

Poppies

Poppy field in harvest 2, originally uploaded by hidupku.

Helmand Province, Afghanistan. In case you don't know what they look like. See posts below for more details.

Helmand, Afghanistan

Where the locals, like this poppy farmer pictured amid his crop, seem to have rejected the Taliban - see the posts below.

Remember this self-portrait of the Taliban?

Taliban Self Portrait, originally uploaded by sepoy.

It was published by Slate

PBS' Enterprising Ideas: Can for-profit health-care franchises improve African lives?

It's slightly off-topic but I can't help myself. Look a this cool new idea from PBS:

Can the quality of healthcare in developing nations be transformed by the same principle that makes fast food such a success here? On Friday, May 25 at 8:30 pm (check local listings), NOW travels to Kenya to investigate an enterprising idea: franchising not burger and donut shops, but health services and drugs in rural Africa. American businessmen are teaming with African entrepreneurs to spread for-profit clinics around the country in the hopes of providing quality, affordable medical care to even Kenya's poorest people. But can they overcome obstacles like extreme poverty, corruption, fraudulent services, and long distances to establish a sustained solution to a chronic problem?

"If we had as many franchise outlets delivering health care in developing countries as Subway has sandwich shops, we've estimated that we could serve about 120 million people a year," Businessman Scott Hillstrom, who conceived the idea, told NOW's David Brancaccio.

This episode is part of a new beat on NOW and NOW Online called "Enterprising Ideas" that focuses on innovative solutions to social problems around the world. For the next two years, NOW will devote time to examining how people are applying business skills toward a new kind of bottom line: Making the world a better place.

NOW has created an all-new website at www.pbs.org/now/enterprisingideas, which has more innovator stories, tools and tips for starting new programs and a contest to find a social entrepreneur for special NOW coverage. The site launches Friday, May 25.

U.S. deaths in War on Terror compared to peacetime during the Clinton years

Gateway Pundit has some interesting statistical comparisons on U.S. war deaths. For example:

The US has been fighting the War on Terror for over 5 years and has lost just over half the soldiers in battle as the Clinton Administration was losing during peacetime in 8 years.

Check out Gateway Pundit as there are other interesting comparisons, complete with graphics.

Bad news for the Taliban, but good news for the locals in Afghanistan

From the London Daily Telegraph:

The Taliban's much-vaunted spring offensive has stalled apparently due to lack of organisation after dozens of middle-ranking commanders were killed by British troops in the past year, according to military sources.

According to the Telegraph, this is because the Taliban are mourning their recent losses. Their genocidal axe-murdering commander, Mullah Dadullah, was the 1,000th Taliban to have been killed in recent months.

It's too early to declare victory, however, as military sources reportedly told the Telegraph that the Taliban may well be plotting a wave of summer assaults.

But in Helmand, the locals are no longer intent on killing British forces. Once they were able to establish for themselves that British forces were neither interested in raping their women nor stealing their poppy crops, as the Taliban had led them to believe, they have for the most part laid down their arms. Consequently the British forces in the area can now get on with some much-needed infrastructure projects, such as road building.

Saudi newspaper publishes fatwa authorizing killing of Hamas

Memri writes that yesterday a Saudi daily, Al-Watan, posted an article written May 16 by an unknown sheik on its front page in which the sheik gives Islamic sanction to kill members of Hamas.

Memri summarizes the key points of the sheik's argument:

Hamas, like the Khawarij, is rebelling against a legitimate ruler whose authority it had already accepted; Hamas labels as apostate any Muslim who has committed grave sins (kabair), for example, drinking wine; Hamas cooperates with anybody who supports it, even if he is a Christian, and consider an enemy anyone who disassociates himself from it, even if he is a devout Muslim.

After listing their "Khawariji" characteristics, the article recommends that the following measures be taken against Hamas: "We [should call] upon the media to [invite] their scholars to appear on TV or on the Internet to [be asked] about those criminal murderers. If they say that what they [i.e. Hamas members] do is prohibited, then you should kill them cold-bloodedly, [and you will] be rewarded by Allah for ridding Muslims of their influence and evil. Jews have more mercy towards our nation than [Hamas]. If they [i.e. the scholars] say that their conduct is permitted, then kill their scholars... they are all the same."

I guess this follows from the Mecca accord.

Muslims: by far the most frequent target of today's jihadists

From the International Herald Tribune:

"We live in a world where when Christians kill Muslims, it's a crusade. When Jews kill Muslims, it's a massacre. When Muslims kill Muslims, it's the weather channel. Nobody cares," Ambassador Dan Gillerman told reporters at a press lunch at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York.

Gillerman said moderate leaders from Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt had not done enough to stem violence between Muslims. He cited recent incidents in Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, Kenya, Jordan, Turkey, Algeria and Morocco.

As the Herald went on to report:

"What we are witnessing today truly is a clash of civilization, in the singular ... because most of the horror, most of the bloodshed, most of the terror and most of the killings are within Islam. And the vast majority of victims are Muslims."

More Hazara kids

Bamyan Sisters, originally uploaded by Chris Kuhn.

See post below.

Hazara girl

Hazara School Girl, originally uploaded by Jonathan @ Gaucin.

I'm blogging from Italy now, and met a Hazara - an Afghan refugee whose family fled to Iran in the 1980s during the Soviet war in Afghanistan. They are stil afraid to go back to Afghanistan.

But he had to leave Iran in order to find work as it's getting more and more difficult for the Afghan refugees there.

He says he never intended to stay in Italy. A shoemaker who speaks German and English in addition to his mother tongue, Farsi, he said he was on his way to Austria but only ended up in Italy because he got cheated.

He had to teach himself Italian and has been arrested but now he's found an employer who is willing to overlook his illegal status and says he's doing ok though he misses his family. But at least he doesn't have to worry about them as for the women, life in Iran is ok. They don't have to find work, he says.

This Hazara girl on Flickr made me think this is what his daughter would look like - especially when she thinks about her daddy.

Chosing between America and Al Qaeda

A former Islamic scholar interviewed on Saudi-controlled satellite television station, Al-Arabiya, explains why he's on the American side.

The scholar, Abd Al-Hamid Al-Ansari, is a former dean of Islamic Law at Qatar University.

Here are excerpts from his interview, via Memri, the Middle East media translation service:

Interviewer: "The American invasion of Iraq - isn't it a provocation to Arab mentality?"

Abd Al-Hamid Al-Ansari: "That's true. But there have always been international conflicts. Besides, it is not only the Muslims who are subject to these so-called injustices. Since America is a superpower, it intervenes in the affairs of all the other countries, and all the peoples suffer because of this. But the question is how to respond. Should I respond by sending my children to commit suicide and blow themselves up? Let's say we accept that a certain person is anti-American - what are the civilians, children and women in Algeria to blame? Are they Americans? I ask you, who are most of the victims of suicide operations and terrorism - the Muslims or the non-Muslims? They are Muslims. The number of people killed by Muslims carrying out suicide operations is far greater than those killed by the Americans or the Israelis.". . .

Interviewer: "You believe that the American presence in Iraq is legitimate..."

Abd Al-Hamid Al-Ansari: "It is legitimate and legal, because of the Security Council resolution, and the consent of all the countries in the region."

Interviewer: "You don’t consider it occupation?"

Abd Al-Hamid Al-Ansari: "No, I don’t consider it to be occupation now, because it is not in the interests of the Gulf countries or of the Iraqis for the Americans to leave now. In addition, when can you call it occupation? When it runs counter to the will of the people. If 10 million Iraqis elected the current government, it is a legitimate government, whether you support it or not. This legitimate government invited the Americans, and it renews this invitation every year. The American presence in Iraq is exactly like the American presence in the Gulf countries. I wrote an article about it, and I say so here too. Iraq needs the American presence for its stability and defense more than we, in the Gulf, need the American bases to protect our interests.". . .

Interviewer: "In your opinion, collaborating with America is better than with bin Laden?"

Abd Al-Hamid Al-Ansari: "Of course, if it serves the interests of my country. Am I supposed to be a collaborator with backward people?"

Interviewer: "Why do you consider them primitive? Do you associate this with religion?"

Abd Al-Hamid Al-Ansari: "No, it is because they are the enemies of life. Anybody who is the enemy of life is backward, because he pushes my son to blow himself up."

"...We want to make our youth love human beings as human beings, before they love them for being Muslim or non-Muslim, Shi'ite or Sunni."

". . .We need to focus on the beautiful aspects of life and society. Not everything in life is tragic. You should make people love life. I would like the religious scholars, through their religious discourse, to make our youth love life, and not death." . . .

Indeed.