singer, i kinda disagree with you because i see "faith based initiatives" as recognized by this administration as a world apart from sharia law. now, i know some folks want to make the leap that any recognition of any religious group as being able to help their community and as such deserving of funds to allow that to happen is akin to declaring that jesus h. christ is now the secretary of the interior. i just don't see it as such.
the wahhabist zealots are seeking a strict unelected theocracy that is unswerable to no one and has the power to overturn any law. in a strange way, their "majils" (as they are called in iran) are a perverse mirror of our supreme court. only as we revere law and order and require a complex vetting process for supremne court justices, the process over there is usually nepotism or who can command the ear of those already on the council. eventually, the goal is a return to a khalifa: a muslim empire that rules the middle east and offers its allegiance only to allah, after of course it has cleansed it's lands of chrisians, jews and other infidels. it's a split in islam that goes back to the fact that no one ever planned for what to do after muhammed died so there was a split between those who wanted to modernize the religion and make it more accepting and forward thinking and those who demanded that life mirror only what the official qur'an dictated. unfortunately, they never adequately settled that argument so unlike christiaanity that went through a reformation and lost much of its relevance as a political institution, islam is still the central tenet in folks lives and holds all the sway.
as to the idea that the surrounding coluntries are scared ****less of america swooping in on them, the only two contries that really have that as a fear are iran and syria. syria of course is more frightened of israel since their bombing the ****e out of assad's little buddies in hezbollah is a much more real possibility than the idea that the us is going to invade.
the iranians are more frightened of their own people than of any outside force as their tenuous hold of power is less and less strong with each succeeding generation. if anything, the iranian experiment in islamic revolution stands as an example of the inherent problems in a theocracy and proves on an almost daily basis to more and more young iranians why a representative democracy is a necessary component for progress. the widespread corruption that runs rampant in the theocracy there and the abject poverty of the majority of iranians gets harder and harder to blaame on anyone else.
the schools of hatred that you talk of, the madrassas, are the result of people trying anything to hold onto power. it's the same as any other dictatorship where education is abandoned in favor of propaganda. the worst fo the madrassas are in saudi arabia where the ruling house of saud made a deal with the wahhabists in the 30's that teh hous of saud would take care of the financial and foreign relations and the wahhabists would deal with education and internal issues. those generations of youths that have been taught to hate have all grown up and are acting just like they were taught to act. osama is not an aberration, but a perfect model of a saudi public education. but how can we effect change? how can we force palestinians to stop teaching their children that jews make passover matzos with the blood of palestinian children?
the change in these countries might come, as tom friedman recently noted in his times column (and if you're not reading friedman's columns you should be and nick kristof as well, even though i disagree with kristof almost all the time) when the upper middle class in islamic countries see their maid's children (usually indian and sometimes chinese or asian) doing better than their own. but it's not going to come quickly enough or without bloodshed. if by our actions in iraq we can push it in that direction, it's worth it. even if not, it was worth it to try. otherwise it's just buying time until some hate group gets it's hands on a nuke and wipes out nyc, which will supremely piss me off in the shake (10 nanoseconds) before i'm vaporized along with 8 million others.
r.i.p. marco, my guardian angel.
...global warming can manifest itself as heat, cool, precipitation, storms, drought, wind, or any other phenomenon, much like a shapeshifter. -- jim geraghty
pray to st. jude
i'm a sonic reducer
he was the gimmicky sort
fenchurch=mejusthavingfun=magwildwood=mmousefan=bkcollector=bradmajors=somethingtotalkabout: the fenchurch mpd collective
i made no judgement or point. just posted a link..jpg?format=auto&width=300)
