Category: Islamism
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Free Speech: Is It Always Right to Say What One has a Right to Say?
It is not always right to say what one has a right to say. Thus one of my aphorisms. It is worth unpacking, however, especially in the light of the incident at Garland, Texas. First of all, the following is not a logical contradiction: You have a right to say X but you ought not…
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No One Safe from Islamist Savagery
A Richard Fernandez column. You don't mock 'the Prophet.' You keep your head down and your mouth shut. You hide in the precincts of the private. You are an apolitical runner, say, but one good enough to qualify for the Boston Marathon. Still not safe.
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Ayaan Hirsi Ali on the Tsarnaev Brothers
Here: When people commit violence in the name of religion, we must consider the possibility that they mean what they say. As I argue in my new book, which calls for a reformation of Islam, jihad in the 21st century is not a problem of poverty, insufficient education or any other social precondition. It is…
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The Religion of Archeological Conservation
If Islam is the religion of peace, is it also the religion of archeological conservation? An indication to the contrary. And not the first! Related articles What ISIS Really Wants Denying that There is Political Correctness . . . Why the Firestorm? Rudy Spoke the Truth that Hurts and Punctured the Obama Myth No Extremists…
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Are Any Christians in the Middle East Safe?
Yes, the ones in Israel.
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Explaining the Obama Admin’s Refusal to Identify the Threat as Islamic
I can't do better than Victor Davis Hanson, but I can quote him. Why won't the current administration accurately label and expose the Islamic roots of global terrorism? Hanson proposes the following possible explanations: I. Strategy The Obama administration knows full well that the Taliban, ISIS, al Qaeda, Boko Haram and the rest of the…
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Citizens Lynching Citizens
Imagine a history teacher who tells his students that in the American South, as late as the 1960s, certain citizens lynched certain other citizens. Would you say that the teacher had omitted something of great importance for understanding why these lynchings occurred? Yes you would. You would point out that the lynchings were of blacks…
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The God of Christianity and the God of Islam: Same God? (2015)
For Dave Bagwill, who posed some questions in the near vicinity of the ones I will be addressing. This is a heavily revised version of a 2011 post. The MavPhil doctrine of abrogation is in effect. This is a hairy topic; expect a hard slog. If you prefer a 'leiter' read, a certain gossip site…
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What ISIS Really Wants
Required reading. From The Atlantic, by Graeme Wood. (HT: Joel Hunter) Excerpt: Many mainstream Muslim organizations have gone so far as to say the Islamic State is, in fact, un-Islamic. It is, of course, reassuring to know that the vast majority of Muslims have zero interest in replacing Hollywood movies with public executions as evening…
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The Moral Idiocy of Barack Obama
Horribile dictu, our president is a moral idiot. Dennis Prager makes the case clearly and convincingly. Referring to Islamic violence, the president accuses anyone who implies that such religious violence "is unique to some other place" — meaning outside the Christian West — as getting on a "high horse." Is this true? Of course, not.…
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The Crusades: Misconceptions Debunked
A review by Thomas F. Madden of Jonathan Riley-Smith, The Crusades, Christianity, and Islam. Some excerpts (bolding added): It is generally thought that Christians attacked Muslims without provocation to seize their lands and forcibly convert them. The Crusaders were Europe’s lacklands and ne’er-do-wells, who marched against the infidels out of blind zealotry and a desire…
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Michael Walzer, “Islamism and the Left”
Very interesting. I am tempted to 'fisk' the whole of it. We'll see how far I get. In the three and a half decades since the Iranian revolution, I have been watching my friends and neighbors (and distant neighbors) on the left struggling to understand—or avoid understanding—the revival of religion in what is now called…
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Bernard Lewis, “Jihad versus Crusade”
We Americans are forward-looking people, 'progressives' if you will. ("History is bunk," said Henry Ford.) Muslims, by contrast, live in the past where they nurture centuries-old grievances. This is part of the explanation of the inanition of their culture and the misery of their lands, which fact is part of the explanation of why they…
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Another Double Standard
Perhaps you noticed this too. President Obama refuses to use 'Islamic' in connection with the Islamic State or 'Muslim' in connection with Muslim terrorists. But he has no problem with pinning the deeds of crusaders and inquisitors on Christians. This is a double standard. Surely, if no true Muslim beheads journalists or crucifies children, then…
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On the Use and Mention of Cartoons and Other Images
I had a new thought this morning, new for me anyway. It occurred to me that the familiar use-mention distinction can and should be applied to images, including cartoons. I recently posted a pornographic Charlie Hebdo cartoon that mocks in the most vile manner imaginable the Christian Trinity. A reader suggested that I merely link…