Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Islamism

  • The Left’s Insensitivity to Danger

    What follows is an old post from about ten years ago worth dusting off in the light of current events.  If 'true' admits of degrees, what I say below is truer now than it was then.  Just two of several current examples.  Barack Obama, the most Left-leaning president in U. S. history, traded Bowe Bergdahl…

  • Is Islam a Religion?

    An article by Howard Kainz

  • Boko Haram and the Kidnapped School Girls

    An important piece by Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

  • Decadent Art, Buddhist Statuary, and the Taliban

    Our Czech friend, Vlastimil Vohanka, writes: A question: Do you remember the title of your blog post in which you argued, if I recall correctly, that the Taliban damage to the Buddha statues would be evil — or ought not to take place — even if nobody ever got to know about it? I also…

  • Islam versus Chess

    Holy moly!  Perhaps Brandeis University ought to ban chess playing on campus lest some adherent of the 'religion of peace' take offense.  Jews dominate chess.  I wonder if that is part of the explanation of the irrational animosity of Islamists to the game of kings and the king of games.  Related articles Brandeis U. Decides…

  • Double Trouble from Strange Bedfellows: Leftist-Islamist Collaboration

    Required reading See my Islamism category for more on this and related topics. Related articles The Prospects and Perils of Muslim-Catholic Dialogue Leftism: The World's Most Dynamic Religion? Why the Political Left and Radical Islam Are NOT Strange Bedfellows

  • The Prospects and Perils of Muslim-Catholic Dialogue

    Here is a review of this new book by Robert Reilly. (HT: Monterey Tom) Excerpt: Pope Benedict XVI’s Regensburg Lecture is simply the most famous of the many examples of Christian outreach in the midst of an era in which conflict and misunderstanding seem insoluble by being inevitable. As Mr. Reilly points out, the pope’s…

  • Who Says Islam is Intolerant?

    Unbelievable.

  • Michael Valle on Marxism-Leninism and Islamism

    There are four new philosophical-political posts at Mike Valle's infrequently updated weblog that I recommend. Start with Marxism-Leninism and Islamism and scroll up. Excerpts with some comments of mine: One thing that people got wrong with the communists, and they get wrong with the  Islamists, is that they think that people can’t really believe this…

  • Richard Dawkins on Muslims

    The Guardian reports:  The outspoken atheist Richard Dawkins was involved in an online Twitter row on Thursday after tweeting: "All the world's Muslims have fewer Nobel Prizes than Trinity College, Cambridge. They did great things in the Middle Ages, though." If it is true, it is true.  And if it is true, then it is…

  • Hodges on Vallicella on Harris versus Atran on Islamist Beliefs and Practices

    Here.  Scott Atran enters the ComBox.

  • Does Anyone Really Believe in the Muslim Paradise?

    I dedicate this post to Peter L. and Mike V. with whom some of the following ideas were hashed out over Sunday breakfast at a Mesa hash house. Sam Harris reports on the curious views of one Scott Atran, anthropologist: According to Atran, people who decapitate journalists, filmmakers, and aid workers to cries of “Alahu akbar!” or…

  • Sam Harris on Islam

    I have been critical of Sam Harris, but here he talks sense.  (HT: Malcolm Pollack) Related:  Sam Harris on Whether Atheists are Evil On Religious Pluralism and Religious Tolerance

  • London Beheading

    I heard there was a beheading in London.  At first I thought the perpetrator had to have been a Catholic nun or maybe a Buddhist monk.  Imagine my shock when I learned that a practitioner of the Religion of Peace did the dastardly deed! Details here and here. But of course only an Islamophobe would…

  • What is to be Done?

    What is to be done about the threat of radical Islam?  After explaining the problem, Pat Buchanan gives his answer: How do we deal with this irreconcilable conflict between a secular West and a  resurgent Islam? First, as it is our presence in their world that enrages so many, we should  end our interventions, shut down…