Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

The International Crisis Group (ICG): An Introduction

This article is not favorably impressed with the ICG, seeing it's attempted solution to the  Arab-Israeli problem as naive and dependent on denying reality.   

Fouad Ajami on Iran, Iraq, and the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) - (* See Update below on the NIE)

As Cliff May over at the National Review Corner says, "Always read Fouad Ajami."  Good advice.  Today Fouad Ajami writes about Iran, Iraq, the NIE report, and the future, as only an expert intimately acqainted with that part of the world can write.  Read it and compare the depth of his insights into Persian and Iraqi society, Shiite and Sunni conflicts, and all the rest, with the superficial drivel one hears from Congressional talking heads and the MSM.   I must content myself with only one quote:

I dare guess that were Ayman al-Zawahiri to make his way through this [NIE] report, he would marvel at the naïveté of those who set out to read him and his fellow warriors of the faith. Ayoob al-Masri (Zarqawi's successor in Iraq) would not find himself and his phobias and his will to power in this "infidel document." These warriors have a utopia--an Islamic world ruled by their own merciless brand of the faith. With or without Iraq, the work of "cleansing" Islam's world would continue to rage on.

UPDATE:  10/1/06

Michael Ledeen refers to a piece by Herb Meyer as a must-read.   Meyer was the Special Assistant to the Director of Central Intelligence and Vice Chairman of the National Intelligence Council during the Reagan Administration.  Meyer, who spent several years of his life managing the production of the NIE reports for President Reagan, wrote an article for The American Thinker.    He offers lots of insight into the production and significance of the document which I don't have space to reproduce here.  He does say, however,

One problem inherent to NIE’s is that they sometimes reflect nothing more than the institutional biases of each of the 16 participating agencies.  A second inherent problem is that sometimes these agencies are so determined to not be proven wrong about what the future holds that they try to have it both ways, for instance by obscuring their projections beneath an avalanche of “on the one hand, on the other hand” sentences.

Meyer says that during his term of service he weeded out Key Judgments that were accurate but worthless-- such as the old standby:  We judge that the future of US-Soviet relations will be volatile and subject to change."  Things have changed now.  Meyer looks at the current NIE report and says,

Some sentences in the Key Judgments contradict themselves, and some are trite (“We judge that groups of all stripes will continue to use the Internet…..”). Others are classic examples of the “on the one hand, on the other hand” syndrome.  And still others are simply unintelligible – they are neither right nor wrong, but written in a way to make them subject to whatever interpretation the reader wishes to make.

No issue is more important to our country’s security than the future of terrorism, and nothing could be more helpful to the President than a clear and accurate projection of what that future is likely to be.  That is what this NIE should have provided, but doesn’t.

Meyer is dismayed at the failure to produce a useful document.

Now you see the “secret” that the Key Judgments of this NIE inadvertently reveal – and it isn’t about Iraq or about the future of terrorism.  It’s about our own intelligence service, and what this NIE has revealed is that our radar is busted.  That’s frightening, and what’s even more frightening is the realization that if we know it, so too do our enemies.

Beijing Secretly Fires Lasers to Disable U.S. Satellites

From [U.K.] Telegraph:

"China has secretly fired powerful laser weapons designed to disable American spy satellites by "blinding" their sensitive surveillance devices, it was reported yesterday.

The news report can be found here.    (HT: Drudge Report)

UPDATE 9/29/06 - John Derbyshire responds to a report of  Sino-Fascist sentiments within certain segments of Chinese society. 

UPDATE  10/1/06  An Investors Business Daily article points out that

The tests are part of a Chinese goal of developing "asymmetrical" warfare capabilities designed to neutralize any technological and quantitative advantage the U.S. might have.  In any future conflict with the U.S., such as regarding the defense of Taiwan, the ability to blind our eyes in space would be critical to Chinese plans. . . .

Rather than trying to match us tank for tank or microchip for microchip, China plans to deny us full use of our capabilities, according to the Pentagon's analysis, by fielding "disruptive military technologies that could over time offset traditional U.S. military advantages."

Captain Shen Zhong of the chinese Navy Research Institute recently acknowledged that

"The mastery of outer space will be requisite for military victory, with outer space becoming the new venue for combat."

DHIMMITUDE IN GERMANY: MOZART OPERA CANCELLED DUE TO THREATS OF ISLAMIST VIOLENCE

UPI reports:

In Germany, Mozart bows to Mohammed

BERLIN, Sept. 26 (UPI) -- On the eve of the first German Islam Conference, a Berlin opera house has sparked controversy for canceling a Mozart show due to threats of Islamist violence.

The Deutsche Opera said in a statement security risks presented to the company by Berlin's police had caused them to cancel their show 'Idomeneo,' a Mozart opera in which King Idomeneo sets the severed heads of religious figures, including the Prophet Mohammed and Jesus Christ, on chairs and laughs at them.

The scene would pose an "incalculable security risk" for the house and its visitors, the opera said in a statement, referencing similar violence sparked by the cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad or the recent remarks by the pope.

More details here, including the following:

Ayyub Axel Koehler, the head of the Central Council of Muslims, one of Germany's largest Muslim groups, [said],  "While we are absolutely in agreement with the need for a free press, free opinion and free arts, we also think that there are certain limits to those freedoms," he said. "If there are issues that most deeply hurt the feelings of believers, then one should be considerate, as it should be normal
among civilized persons."       HT: Cliff May at The Corner.

UPDATE 9/28/06 - Roger Kimball concludes his article in Opinion Journal with these words:

Today it was Mozart. Tomorrow perhaps it will be Shakespeare. Or Dante, who after all has a pretty hot place reserved for Muhammad in "The Divine Comedy." It is not--not yet--too late to put a stop to our habit of appeasing a murderous fanaticism that demands privileges and indulgences it refuses to grant to others.

The spectacle of Deutsche Oper's decision to cancel "Idomeneo" suggests that the West's dealings with Islam have entered a new phase. Yesterday, we waited until after the Muslims took to the streets before capitulating; today, it appears we have moved on to pre-emptive capitulation.

Where will it end? I suppose that depends on how much we really care about the liberty and freedom we champion with words. Freedom, as some wit observed, is not free. Will we have the gumption to pay the cost? The jury is still out on that question. I hope and pray that the answer will be yes. "There is," G.K. Chesterton noted nearly 100 years ago, "a thought that stops thought. That is the only thought that ought to be stopped."

DHIMMIS AND DHIMMITUDE: AN EXPLANATION

See here.

Update: 9/28/06 - Michelle Malkin's extensive list of articles referring to dhimmitude can be found here. 

DARFUR EXPLAINED

See here.

DRUDGE IS KING

Matt Drudge savors a report  that ABC  News, the Washington Post, and other news sources all read his Drudge Report and in fact proclaim: "Drudge Rules Our World."

In the stampede of books attempting to make their mark this season comes THE WAY TO WIN, by longtime political reporters Halperin and Harris.

The political director of ABCNEWS and the national politics editor of the WASHINGTON POST make it official in their new insider tome on DC politics and how it's played: The four words in every newsroom and campaign headquarters are: Have you seen DRUDGE? . . .

Mark Halperin and John Harris write "Matt Drudge rules our world." They say, "With the exception of the ASSOCIATED PRESS, there is no outlet other than the DRUDGE REPORT whose dispatches instantly can command the attention and energies of the most established newspapers and television newscasts."

Halperin and Harris explain: "So many media elites check the DRUDGE REPORT consistently that a reporter is aware his bosses, his competitors, his sources, his friends on Wall Street, lobbyists, White House officials, congressional aides, cousins, and everyone who is anyone has seen it, too."

This is all very interesting.  I freely confess that I "check out" the Drudge Report several times a day myself! 

UPDATE: 10/1/06  ABC News says "Drudge Report Sets Tone for National Political Coverage."

Jews are Hated for Being Jews (Shame on the World!)

I found Mark Steyn's following words arresting:

Jews are hated for what they are – so, at any moment in history, whatever they are is what they’re hated for.  For centuries in Europe, they were hated for being rootless cosmopolitan types.  Now there are no rootless European Jews to hate, so they’re hated for being an illegitimate Middle Eastern nation-state. If the Zionist Entity were destroyed and the survivors forced to become perpetual cruise-line stewards plying the Caribbean, they’d be hated for that, too.

Commenting on these words is Caroline Glick who says (writing in the Jerusalem Post):

It is crucial that all of us internalize the message that these lines convey. For in recent years, rather than recognize the prejudice of our detractors, we have devoted ourselves to attempting to understand and so justify the hatred they heap upon us.

We tell ourselves we are hated because we are too strong - or because we are too weak. We are hated because we are too religious - or because we are not religious enough. We are hated because we insist on defending Israel - or we are hated because we are willing to compromise on Israel.

Yet, as Steyn wisely notes, we are not hated because of what we do, we are hated because we are Jews.  . .   (More)

The West's Cowardly Acquiescence to Dhimmitude

I can't  remember when I have read an article that stated so clearly and so forcefully and so well the existing facts regarding Islam and the West.   I am referring to Clifford D. May's reminder of the West's cowardly acceptance of Muslim assymetry in relationship to Christianity and the West.

He writes:

Many commentators have noted the apparent irony: The pope suggests Islam encourages violence — and Muslims riot in protest.

Many commentators have pointed out the apparent hypocrisy: Muslims are outraged by cartoons satirizing Islamic extremism while in Muslim countries Christianity and Judaism are attacked viciously and routinely.

Many commentators are missing the point: These protesters — and those who incite them — are not asking for mutual respect and equality. They are not saying: “It’s wrong to speak ill of a religion.” They are saying: “It’s wrong to speak ill of our religion.” They are not standing up for a principle. They are laying down the law. They are making it as clear as they can that they will not tolerate “infidels” criticizing Muslims. They also are making it clear that infidels should expect criticism — and much worse — from Muslims.

They are attempting nothing less than the establishment of a new world order in which the supremacy of what they call the Nation of Islam is acknowledged, and “unbelievers” submit — or die. Call it an offer you can’t refuse.

May's article continues, offering incident after incident, example after example, and then he says:

Is the Western ideal of freedom of speech and of the press threatened? Of course but that’s only part of what is at work here. More significantly, Americans and Europeans are being relegated to the status of a dhimmi — the Arabic word applied to those conquered by Muslim armies between the 7th and 17th centuries. Based on sharia law, dhimmis are meant to “feel themselves subdued,” to acknowledge their inferiority compared to Muslims.

In some ways, we already have done so. For example, Muslims are welcome in the Vatican, even as Christians are banned from setting foot in Mecca. We do not object to Saudis building mosques in America and Europe, even as they prohibit churches and synagogues on Arabian soil.

We pledge to abide by the Geneva Conventions when waging wars against Muslim combatants. We do expect those combatants to follow the same rules. They are engaged in a jihad and they will show no mercy to infidel soldiers or even to infidel journalists. The “international community” does not seriously protest. With our silence, we consent to inequality.

Most of the world’s Muslims are neither rioting nor calling for the death of the pontiff. But quite a few may reason that if Christians and Jews haven’t the confidence to reject dhimmitude and defend freedom, they would be foolish to stick their necks out. After all, a Muslim who challenges the Islamist fascists brands himself as an apostate — as deserving of death as any uppity pope.

Eastern Religions: A Letter to a College Student

The other day I received an e-mail request from a college student for some suggestions related to Eastern religions.  For what it's worth, what follows is the substance of the e-mail reply I sent.  My goal was simplicity, rather than a lengthy bibliography.   Anyone reading this with better suggestions is invited to offer them in the comments section of this post.   Thanks!

Dear Sarah,

I hope you had a good weekend...    You asked about a Christian perspective on Eastern religions.  You might want to have a look at chapter 11, "Christianity and Religion" in C.S. Lewis's book Miracles.    I am sure it is readily available in your university library.

Another suggestion would be to have a look at Os Guinness's book, The Dust of Death, ch. 6 "The East, No Exit."  Especially valuable would be pages 211-231 where Guinness discusses the perspective of monism under three heads:   "Monism and Reality," "Monism and Personality," and "Monism and Morality."   Out of curiosity I just checked the internet and see that there's a paper available that draws heavily on Guinness.  It looks fairly useful at a quick glance.  It can be found here.

As far as other internet material is concerned, at one time I had a considerable amount of such information, but then I had a hard drive failure and lost it all.  What comes most immediately to mind, however, is a book that Vishal Mangalwadi wrote and which he has made available in its entirety on the internet - When the New Age Gets Old:  Looking for a Greater Spirituality.  It is now out of print.  For some reason the online version failed to include the "Table of Contents."  I have a copy of the book, and so I can provide the Table of Contents here:

1) The Universe in the Human Mind: The Background to New Age Thought

2) Let Us Make Man in the Image of His Stars: Astrology and the New Age

3) Spiritism

4) UFOs - A Religious Experience

5) Tantric Sex:  A Celebration of Life?

6) Doing Ecology is Being Human

7) Vegetarianism:  Self and Selfishness

8) The Reincarnation of the Soul

9) My Course in Miracles

Epilogue: Finding Ourselves

Appendix

Notes

Mangalwadi also has an 18-page paper available on the internet titled Yoga:  Five Ways of Salvation in Hinduism     I hope these suggestions will prove helpful.   Every blessing!

Europe's Slow Demise

Readers of the National Review Corner offer sad, but astute, comments on Europe (9/23/06):

On the West's battle with militant Islam: 

The Islamic world is operating under an ideology in which it fervently, passionately believes, while the West has rejected its traditional morality and cultural foundations in favor of a secularist nonjudgmentalism that inspires no one. How can we win the battle of ideas when our foe is completely committed and we have nothing for which we are willing to fight?

On Europe's lack of children:

Europe is reproducing far below replacement rate and will soon have to accelerate immigration just to change the bedpans. Unfortunately they cannot assimilate immigrants very well, lack the cultural self confidence to challenge Islamists and have overly generous welfare states. This combination of factors leads to 'Londonstans' all over the continent.

Europe's refusal to defend the West:

As others have written, it seems to me that the Europeans are largely playing for one generation of stability so that their baby boomers can die in peace. They do not seem interested in a generational struggle in defense of the West. Perhaps this is because they consider their Western heritage to blame for the ideological bloodshed of the 20th century. They seem morally exhausted. Few European countries could look at themselves in the mirror after the sins of omission and commission they commited during decades of fascism, Nazism and communism. I have never understood why the European desire not to repeat the excesses of 20th century atheistic ideologies did not lead to a revitalization of Christianity in Europe. Perhaps it is because these ideologies were never fully abandoned and are still taught in schools. If so, then the West has already been defeated by other 'isms' and Islamism is just the end state.

Rosie O'Donnell's Comparison of Radical Christians to Militant Muslims

Don Feder has a useful column taking to task Rosie O'Donnell's nonsensical  (and obscene) comment last week on ABC's "The View" in which she lumped together "radical" Christians with militant Muslims.  To that anti-Christian smear Feder responded:

Let’s see if I’ve got this straight:

Militant Muslims behead prisoners.  Radical Christians oppose embryonic stem-cell research.

Militant Muslims blow themselves up in crowded shopping malls, slaughtering women and children.  Radical Christians defend traditional marriage.

Militant Muslims fly planes into buildings, Radical Christians work to protect the sanctity of human life.

Militant Muslims threaten to kill those whom they believe have insulted their precious Prophet.  Radical Christians threaten to launch consumer boycotts.

Militant Muslims issue fatwas.  Radical Christians distribute voter guides.

Yep, I can see the similarities all right. The two are as alike as peas in a pod.  No wonder Jerry Falwell is so often mistaken for Sheik Nasrallah.

In this same article, Feder talks about ABC's documentary "Jesus Camp."  Recognizing the popularity of media attacks on Christianity, Feder says, "If I wanted to make a fast buck, I'd write a book titled:  The Unintelligent Leftist's Guide to Hating the Christian Right - In the Name of Tolerance and Diversity."

Quick Takes

        - Did you know that 35,000 people rallied outside the U.N. against President Ahmahdinejad of Iran the day he spoke there?   I didn't.  Where is the  reporting of the MSM??  That's  major news!!   Photos here.     (HT: Instapundit via Hugh Hewitt)

       - Thanks to Michelle Malkin for reminding us (some days ago) of this Toynbee quote: "Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder."   

       - Corporations, unfortunately, have bought into mainstreaming homosexuality.  A report says 138 major U.S. Corporations earned the top rating of 100 percent from the Human Rights Campaign, which advocates for homosexual issues.  That's up from 101 companies the year before.  Here's the top-ranked list of homosexual friendly companies.

Robert Spencer Rebuts Karen Armstrong on Islam's Violent History

Robert Spencer responds to Karen Armstrong's Sept. 18th article in Britain's The Guardian newspaper with an article of his own.  Armstrong makes several extraordinary assertions, one of which is the following:

Yet until the 20th century, Islam was a far more tolerant and peaceful faith than Christianity. The Qur'an strictly forbids any coercion in religion and regards all rightly guided religion as coming from God; and despite the western belief to the contrary, Muslims did not impose their faith by the sword.

Spencer recites the Muslim history of domination and violence that Armstrong refuses to acknowledge and says, towards the end of his article,

But Armstrong has never had an overly strong attachment to accuracy. Daniel Pipes has noted about her book Islam: A Short History that “Armstrong goes out of her way to soften every hard edge, explain away every unpleasantness, and hide what she cannot otherwise account for.”  . . .

The time for such disingenuousness is over, as is the time, if there ever were time, for the unseemly self-recrimination to which Armstrong is calling the West. The Muslim rage against the Pope’s call to eschew religious violence reveals an Islamic world in deep denial, as irrational as it is unable to take responsibility for its own actions. And in this it has Karen Armstrong and other Leftist haters of Western civilization and culture as willing accomplices.

* * *

I meant to post the following a few days ago, but through an oversight failed to do so.  It ties in to the above. 

Robert Spencer responds here to Ralph Peter's op ed in the New York Post which Spencer terms "one of the most confused and irresponsible pieces I have ever seen in an American newspaper." According to Robert Spencer,

Peters says that “the world’s only hope for long-term peace is for moderate Muslims - by far the majority around the globe - to recapture their own faith.” Fair enough. But his underlying assumption here is that the Islam of moderate Muslims is the genuine Islam, and all they need to do is “recapture” their faith. In fact it is not for Peters or any other non-Muslim to say what genuine Islam consists of, and there is no Pope of Islam to rule on what is Islamic orthodoxy and what isn’t. What we can do is look at the teachings of the various sects and schools of law -- which I have done, and have found that all mainstream Sunni and Shi’ite sects and madhahib (schools of jurisprudence) teach that it is the responsibility of the umma to subjugate unbelievers under the rule of Sharia. Can Peters point to a sect or school that ever existed in any period of Islamic history that represents the Islam that moderates must “recapture”?

Do Muslim sacred texts support "moderate" Islam?  Spencer says

I have also pointed out, as I said above, that violent conquest and subjugation of unbelievers is an element of the teaching of all Islamic sects (except the Ahmadiyya, who are persecuted as heretics as a result). This is simply a question of fact. Its truth or falsehood can be established by anyone who examines the teachings of the sects and madhahib. I invite all to do so -- and if you do, you will see that I am stating this accurately. Does this constitute the “primary agenda” of Islam? No. At some times and among some groups it has been central, but at other times and among others it has been for certain periods of time deemphasized almost to non-existence.

George Will on Holland and Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Geoge Will casts some verbal gems in his column today centering on Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali-born Dutch politician who has immigrated to the United States.

- Holland evidently tolerates everything except skepticism about the sacramental nature of multiculturalism

- But the recoil of many Dutch people from Hirsi Ali suggests that the tolerance about which Holland preens is a compound of intellectual sloth and moral timidity. She was more trouble than the Dutch evidently think free speech is worth.

- Neither is she pessimistic about the West. It has, she says, "the drive to innovate." But Europe, she thinks, is invertebrate. After two generations without war, Europeans "have no idea what an enemy is." And they think, she says, that leadership is an antiquated notion because they believe that caring governments can socialize everyone to behave well, thereby erasing personal accountability and responsibility. "I can't even tell it without laughing," she says, laughing softly. Clearly she is where she belongs, at last.

The Overselling of Higher Education

George C. Leef of the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy has written a paper with the intriguing title:  The Overselling of Higher Education.  Read the first two pages, the Executive Summary, and see if you don't agree with his thesis.  Then, if you like, read the whole thing.  I think higher education has definitely been oversold.  His suggestions at the end of the paper are worth reading and heeding.    His paper was published September 5th.

On September 20th, he added this post:

A friend of mine who does economic consulting work in Oregon and Washington came across my paper "The Overselling of Higher Education" and helpfully sent me the following anecdote:

I was meeting with sheet metal contractors and their union representatives in Seattle. I learned that they could not find enough people to fill their apprenticeship program. Here's their deal: they need people with solid arithmetic and algebra skills, and good work habits. The person is paid to work as an apprentice, taking some classes at the same time. Classes are free. After 3 to 5 years, the person becomes a journeyman sheet-metal worker. The compensation package is then about $50 an hour, which is both wages and benefits. That works out to about $65k wages and $35 k benefits per year. And the person has no college loans. The bright, ambitious ones can go into management. Yet they cannot fill the apprenticeship program openings. Nobody wants to do blue collar work; everyone has been told to go to college. The high-school counselors are the worst.

According to the conventional wisdom of the education establishment, young people who enroll in college and then take a assortment of courses, often taught by grad students whose motivation and pedagogical skills are questionable, that don't require much effort to pass, are adding wonderfully to their "human capital." Conversely, those who might enter an apprentice program and learn how to work with metal, a skill that's in high demand, are regarded as "leakages" from the educational pipeline.

That makes no sense. 

Agreed.

The Beauty of God as Trinity: Love at the Center of the Universe

I like these word about the Trinity found in The Sacred Romance: Drawing Closer to the Heart of God, p. 73

"The story that is the Sacred romance begins not with God alone, the Author at his desk, but God in relationship, intimacy beyond our wildest imagination, heroic intimacy.  The Trinity is at the center of the universe; perfect relationship is the heart of all reality.  Think of your best moments of love or friendship or creative partnership, the best times with family or friends around the dinner table, your richest conversations, the acts of simple kindness that sometimes seem like the only things that make life worth living.  Like the shimmer of sunlight on a lake, these are reflections of the love that flows among the Trinity.  We long for intimacy because we are made in the image of perfect intimacy.  Still, what we don't have and may never have known is often a more powerful reminder of what ought to be.
    Our story begins with the hero in love.  As Buechner reminds us, "God does not need the Creation in order to have something to love because within himself love happens."

Dorothy L. Sayers- "The Greatest Drama Ever Staged"

I just discovered that one of the best short pieces of Christian writing that I have ever read is now available on the internet.  I am referring to Dorothy L. Sayers' The Greatest Drama Ever Staged is the Official Creed of Christendom.   I first read it years ago in an anthology of her writings.  I see it is now available in Creed or Chaos, another fine collection of some of her shorter material.  Sayers is also the author of the Lord Peter Whimsey detective series, the translator of Dante's Divine Comedy for Penguin Books, and author of The Mind of the Maker and The Man Born to Be King.

The people who hanged Christ never, to do them justice, accused Him of being a bore -- on the contrary; they thought Him too dynamic to be safe.  It has been left for later generations to muffle up that shattering personality and surround Him with an atomosphere of tedium.  We have very efficiently pared the claws of the Lion of Judah, certified Him 'meek and mild' and recommended Him as a fitting household pet for pale curates and pious old ladies.  To those who knew Him, however, He in no way suggested a milk-and-water person; they objected to Him as a dangerous firebrand. . .

And on and on she goes!  Read it online here.

Remembering Oriana Fallaci

Oriana Fallaci died this past week.  If you don't know who she is, this tribute by the Anchoress will help fill in the gaps.  At the end of her tribute she provides links to additional articles and mini-biographies.  Fallaci, one of the great journalists of the 20th century, and  author of The Force of Reason (2006) and before that, The Rage and the Pride (2002), warned of the menace of Islam to Europe, and for that she suffered the ostracism and condemnation fated to all who step afoul of political correctness.  As the Anchoress says in her annotated links, Michelle Malkin quotes Fallaci extensively.  It would be a good idea, therefore, to include her article in one's reading.

UPDATE: 9/18/06 - Add this Daniel Pipes' tribute to the above references.  This may be the most important of all.  Pipes includes a link to a report of an address she gave about a year ago titled "The European Apocalypse: Islam and the West."

Which is the Best English Translation of the Qur'an?

Fortunately, there is help available in evaluating the many different English language Qur'ans sitting on bookshelves today.  Khaleel Mohammed, who teaches in the Department of Religious Studies at San Diego State Univesity, wrote an article for the Middle East Quarterly in which he said of various English translations:

"Some are simply poor translations.  Others adopt sectarian biases, and those that are funded by Saudi Arabia often insert political annotation.   Since translators seek to convey not only text but also meaning, many rely on the interpretation (tafsir) of medieval scholars in order to conform to an "orthodox" reading.

Khaleel Mohammed offers brief comments on twelve English translations.  For most academics, he says, the translation of choice is that of Arthur Arberry: The Koran Interpreted: A Translation.

The translation is without prejudice and is probably the best around. The Arberry version has earned the admiration of intellectuals worldwide, and having been reprinted several times, remains the reference of choice for most academics. It seems destined to maintain that position for the foreseeable future.

His comments on many available English translations of the Qur'an makes this article well worth reading.

DON'T TRY HOMESCHOOLING IN GERMANY: YOU WILL WIND UP IN PRISON

Yes.  Homeschooling is illegal in Germany.  Here's  the story of one family's plight.   See also this account of homeschooling in Germany filed last year. 

EUROPE'S CAPITULATION: 9/11 FIVE YEARS LATER, A VIEW FROM EUROPE

Bruce Bawer's article, 9/11, Five Years Later:  A View from Europe, should go into one's "Europe" file.  It chronicle's Europe's continuing dissent into obscurantism and self-nullification.  Choosing a few quotes out of so many possibilities is difficult, but I'll try.

Islamist terrorism continues to be characterized by many as a desperate response to poverty, oppression, and/or Western foreign policies, rather than what it is: a jihad by people who seek to conquer the West as Muhammed did North Africa, subduing infidels and imposing sharia. . . .

Some understand the enemy, yet underestimate its capabilities.  One’s comfort can be one’s downfall: just as it seemed inconceivable that the Twin Towers could be brought down so easily, so our Western civilization can feel indestructible, and the idea of having to defend it can feel like – well, something out of an old movie.  . . .

Bawer speaks of the 

beginnings of a fast-growing, self-segregating European Islamic society that was becoming ever more confident and assertive in its rejection of Western values. . .  It is a war, moreover, in which the enemy’s most powerful weapon is not bombs but demography.  Muslim immigration levels remain high; so do reproduction rates.  Yes, only a tiny percentage of European Muslims are terrorists; but many more – who get their “news” from satellite channels such as Al-Jazeera and who feed one another’s animosity toward the West in mosques, in community centers, and on Internet message boards – find European culture intolerably decadent and share the jihadist goal of a European caliphate governed according to Koranic precepts.  Recent polls show that at least 40% of Muslims in the U.K. would like to see Britain under sharia law, and that at least one in four approved of the 7/7 attacks.  European-establishment rhetoric to the contrary, poverty and ignorance aren’t the explanation: the most intense anti-Western sympathies are nursed not by illiterate immigrants from rural Arab villages but by their well-educated, European-born children who live well and drive BMWs. . . .

I would never have believed on 9/11 that in 2006, most Europeans would still be surprised to learn – to pluck two examples at random – that over seven in ten immigrant women in Sweden (according to an EU study) are affected by “honor-related violence” and that Jewish children (according to a French government report) “can no longer get an education” in France because of abuse by Muslim classmates.  Some law-enforcement authorities have already thrown in the towel: in 2004, Swedish police admitted they “have no control over the situation in Malmö,” a city plagued by Muslim rapes and robberies; this August, after a Muslim gang shootout in Oslo, police said they were “reluctant to crack down on the gangs out of fear for their own safety.”

On 9/11, the free world was powerfully reminded of its freedom.  In Europe, alas, that day’s spirit has been steamrollered by an establishment that – apparently having already accepted the inevitability of Europe’s Islamization – routinely turn the truth on its head, representing aggressors as victims and self-defense as inflammatory.  (more)

RESPECTED THINKERS WARN ISLAMISTS MAY WELL DEFEAT THE WEST

There are thinkers today thinking the unthinkable: that the West may lose the war on terror.    That includes the celebrated historian Bernard Lewis.  Here's a report of what he said recently:

The British-born professor of Near Eastern studies at Princeton said Monday that he was "more optimistic about the future of our struggle" in the early 1940s — when the French had capitulated to the Germans, when Stalin was Hitler's ally, and when America was still neutral — than he is today.

"Hitler would have won under these conditions," Mr. Lewis said, citing America's inability to clearly define the war on terror and exactly who its enemy is. . .

During the darkest days of the fight against Nazism, Mr. Lewis said, he "had no doubt that in the end we would triumph." He does not "have that certitude now," he said.   (HT: National Review Online)

Then there is David Selbourne's book The Losing Battle With Islam and his sobering article in today's Times of London titled, "Can the West Defeat the Islamist Threat?   He offers 10 reasons why, if things don't change, the West will be defeated.  Sobering stuff, indeed.  These men throw a bucket of cold water on our complacency.  Better they warn us now than later.      (HT:Frontpagemag)

REMEMBERING THE MUSLIM NORTH AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE

John Derbyshire offers a noteworthy column  on a little noted subject:  the  slave trading of North African Muslims off the  Barbary Coast which had its heyday in the 16th and 17th centuries but continued into the early 19th century.  His data comes from Robert Davies' 2003 book, Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast and Italy, 1500-1800.   Derbyshire's article is well worth a read, as are readers' comments on the Amazon website.    Among other points Derbyshire makes is this one:

It was not race slavery, but nor was it indiscriminate. It was religious slavery. The human beings kidnapped and sold by the Barbary pirates were fair game because they were Christian. A Christian slave on the Barbary Coast could attain his freedom by converting to Islam, and many did so. . . .

Christians were captured by two methods. First, there was the seizing of ships by straightforward piracy. The ship itself became a prize along with its crew and passengers. Second, there were raids on the coasts of European countries. Spain, France, and Italy were worst affected, but the pirates sometimes ventured further afield. In 1627 they kidnapped 400 men and women from Iceland.

The victims in either case would be taken back to one of the Barbary ports — the main ones were Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli — and sold in a slave market, by auction. They ended up either as the domestic slaves of private persons, or as slaves owned by the state, to be put to work rowing galleys, or constructing public works.

Derbyshire concludes:

This whole terrible episode in European history has been forgotten. Is there any chance we might persuade the Muslim nations of North Africa to erect modest monuments to the million or so European Christians who suffered and died as slaves of their ancestors? My guess would be: no chance at all.

CHINA: EVER RISING POWER

Fred Stakelback of the Center for Security Policy has it right when he says

The belief that economic empowerment alone will eventually force Beijing to embrace democratization, thus eliminating the growing China threat, is based on wishful thinking, not fact. Ironically, economic empowerment has had the opposite effect, giving Beijing a means to project economic, political and military influence well beyond Asia.

Stakelback's article discusses China's emerging foreign policy strategy and especially China's  strong interest in the Middle East to meet its burgeoning oil needs 

NORTH KOREA ON THE VERGE OF COLLAPSE?

Mario Loyola, writing in National Review's Corner, cites an Atlantic Online article by Robert D. Kaplan, "When North Korea Falls"  and says,

But first, read  this excellent article by Andrei Lankov who shows how the regime's authority is already collapsing internally.   And Nicolas Eberstadt, an indispensable source on North Korea (and a dizzying array of other things) surveys North's political economy and the chances of an economic collapse. These three articles would be at the top of my list for anyone interested in becoming as well-informed about the Hermit Kingdom as most experts and decision-makers.

North Korea's potential for anarchy vastly exceeds that of Iraq's. Iraq is not going to suffer a general breakdown of its urban economy—sending millions into the surrounding country-side to live and die as hunter-gatherers. But North Korea has somehow survived at the edge of that nightmare scenario for nearly two decades. And it has nukes.

THE MISERABLE STATE OF UNIVERSITY EDUCATION TODAY

Donald Kagin in a useful article  takes a look at Harvard University and the state of university education today.  He sees major problems and a vacuousness which cannot be reformed from within.  Kagin comments on two recent books:  Harry Lewis's  Excellence without a Soul: How a Great University Forgot Education (Lewis was the Dean of Harvard College) and Harry Bok's Our Underachieving Colleges: A Candid Look at How Much Students Learn and Why They Should be Learning More.  (Bok served as President of Harvard from 1971 to 1991 and is now interim President).   Both Lewis and Bok offer incisive critiques, but Kagin thinks neither comes through with sufficient answers.  He concludes his essay saying,

As things stand now, no president appears capable of taming the imperial faculty; almost none is willing to try; and no one else from inside the world of the universities or infected by its self-serving culture is likely to stand up and say “enough,” or to be followed by anyone if he does.  Salvation, if it is to come at all, will have to come from without.

Reform never comes easily.  The university today reflects the advanced decadence of a tired civilization in need of intensive care and a major blood transfusion.  Islam thinks Western civilization is ripe for the picking.  The alternative is Christian reformation and revival.  I don't see anything else on the horizon that can slow the Gadarene march to oblivion.

Update 9/15/06:  David Horowitz examines the situation at the University of Colorado.  He reproduces catalog course descriptions and offers his comments.  Preceeding that he offers an introduction, saying he has visited hundreds of university campuses and

. . . I came to be familiar with the massive corruption of the academic enterprise that had occurred since I was an undergraduate in the 1950s, which had transformed large segments of the liberal arts schools into political parties of the academic left. This corruption was the result of a determined campaign by Gramscian radicals to use the universities as a platform for their “transformative” agendas of radical social change. In pursuit of their goals, they had created entire academic departments and fields, while subverting others in order to institute programs of study that were ideological rather than scholarly in content and design. To further these goals, they had instituted a system of intolerance (“political correctness”) to de-legitimize alternative intellectual paradigms and ideas, and had put in place the largest and most effective blacklist in the history of the country, whose purpose was to rid faculties of independent-minded professors, who might interfere with their designs.

By the time I made my university rounds, the refusal to hire conservative academics had led to a vanishing presence of conservative faculty members in many liberal arts disciplines. In the fields of sociology and anthropology, for example, the ratio of leftwing professors to conservatives was now approximately thirty-to-one. These two fields themselves had been largely transformed into exercises in leftwing ideology and bore little resemblance to scholarly inquiry. In these fields particularly, but in many others that still bore some resemblance to traditional academic pursuits there was a disturbing absence in university courses of assigned texts that did not validate or amplify with the professor’s ideological point of view. The net effect was to deny students access to alternative – and particularly -- conservative ideas that would challenge the course assumptions. The curriculum was thus transformed into a program of indoctrination.  (more)

Update 9/18/06: Horowitz puts the University of Texas under the microscope.  Later reports include Arizona State and Willamette University.

CNN's 9/11 Coverage Distilled to 27 Essential Minutes

Allah Pundit distills CNN's first six and a half hours of 9/11 anniversary coverage to an essential 27 minutes here.   Conspiracy theorists who say there never was a plane crash at the Pentagon will have a tough time dealing with the evidence here presented.
HT: Hugh Hewitt

MODERN WORLD DEPRIVES CHILDREN OF CHILDHOOD

"Junk food, the internet, and TV are poisoning childhood," reads one of the headlines at The Drudge Report.  I clicked the story and thought it worth posting.   Here it is.  Though its a London-based article, it applies to the United States as well. 

EUROPEAN MULTICULTURALISM: WHAT IS ITS PRESENT STATUS AND WHAT OF THE FUTURE?

Is multiculturalism in Europe now in tatters, or does it reign as strongly as ever?  A symposium of major analysts discuss the question.    Those participating include Bat Ye'or, Claire Berlinski, Bruce Bawer, Leon de Winter, Fjordman, Hege Storhaug, and Lars Hedegaard.  This important symposium needs careful reading and re-reading.   I have only excerpted a fraction of the entire proceedings.

Bruce Bawer describes the present situation this way:

Multiculturalism has become official dogma in much of  Western Europe, and the word is routinely used as if it were a synonym for equal rights or ethnic pluralism or colorblind democracy.  Of course, it isn’t. It’s a grotesque expression of cultural self-contempt and self-destructiveness.  Multiculturalism compels self-declared anti-fascists to blind themselves to the most chillingly fascist phenomena of our time.  It compels feminists to accept the subjugation and abuse of women by men who believe they have the right to rape, beat, and murder them.  It compels gay activists to embrace as allies people who, given the chance, would drop a wall on them. 

 
Multiculturalism is deeply, perversely irrational.  If you’re a multiculturalist, it’s verboten even to notice, acknowledge, and express concern about murderous hatred directed against you and yours by the officially oppressed.  For a multiculturalist, any act or statement by a member of an officially oppressed group, however morally reprehensible, is to be understood either as a legitimate reaction against “our” prejudice (or our forebears’ colonialism) or as a legitimate aspect of an alien culture that we, in our pitiful narrowness, have failed to understand and respect – which is, of course, our obligation.

 
Many Europeans recognize that multiculturalism is leading their societies to disaster.  If you can get them to loosen up and trust you, they may venture an awkward, uneasy critical word or two about the proliferation in their midst of people who long for sharia law and about the refusal of multicultural-minded political leaders to address this growing crisis responsibly.  But many such Europeans hardly know how to express their concerns, because they’ve almost never heard such concerns openly, intelligently, and responsibly articulated.  All they’ve heard all their lives from officially approved authorities – teachers, professors, the media, politicians, government agency workers, talking heads on TV, the representatives of state-funded “independent” organizations like SOS Racism – is that any concern about multiculturalism and its consequences is tantamount to racism. . . . 

There’s a widespread resignation to the fact that multiculturalists control the media, academy, state agencies, and so on.  Besides, they know what happens to those few people who do openly dissent from multicultural dogma – they’re demonized as bigots and racists.  They know very well that if you want to get ahead in European society, you don’t take on multicultural orthodoxy.

. . . The political establishment seems solidly planted, unmovable, unchangeable.  There may be a widespread rage, in short, but it’s largely an impotent rage.  Europeans today have been bred to be passive, to leave things to their leaders, whose wisdom they’ve been taught all their lives to take for granted.  Even Europeans who are highly uneasy about multiculturalism, then, tend to be incapable of effective action or organization.  They look around for somebody else to do something, or at least to say things that might help clarify the situation, help bring their own often muddled views into focus, and help make them feel justified in their vague but increasingly intense sense of alarm.

. . .They were brought up to believe that their societies’ one great overriding virtue, other than the bottomless generosity of the welfare state, is an unbounded multicultural tolerance –a limitless openness to and “understanding” of even of the most brutally intolerant foreign cultures.

 

To shake off a lifetime of this kind of indoctrination is not easy: it’s hard to quit yourself entirely of the deeply instilled notion – perverse though it is – that the ultimate act of goodness is to pour endless amounts of your own hard-earned tax money into the pockets of immigrants who hate you, hate your country, hate your form of government, and will gladly destroy it all when they’ve gained enough power to do so.  The feelings of guilt and insecurity on the part of many of those who dare to reject this orthodoxy should not be underestimated.

I wish I had time and space to excerpt more material from this symposium.  Particularly interesting (alarming?) are the various scenarios and suggestions made by the participants. --   I'll go ahead and bite the bullet and extend this post a little further.  I apologize for its length.  Fjordman says,

A Multicultural society is only temporary. Sooner or later, we will return to a new mono-cultural society. This will happen either through the division of the previously coherent territory into new, mono-cultural enclaves or through the takeover by society as a whole of the most forceful and aggressive of these competing cultures.

The tectonic plates of global power are now shifting in ways they haven't done for centuries. This is the retreat of the Western world order. Multiculturalism and the inability or unwillingness of Western nations to uphold their borders are viewed by Muslims as a signal that their ancient Western rival is weak and ripe for conquest. This is no doubt the background for the ongoing aggressive posture by the Iranian president, among others. Al-Qaeda strategists have earlier outlined a schedule for awakening the Islamic world and overthrowing the West, with a timeline stretching over the coming fifteen to twenty years. A world war of sorts with the Islamic world is already inevitable by now, no matter what we do. The only question is whether this will be a cold or a hot world war. . . .

It could be similar to the division of India after WW2, with the creation of one or several Islamic "Pakistan" enclaves.  All of Europe will not be lost, but some parts may be, and many others will be damaged by the fighting.  Many of our cultural treasures will burn. . . .  The truth is that Europe has got itself into a bad fix, again, and will have some turbulent and painful decades ahead regardless of what we do at this point.  The choice is between some pain where at least parts of Europe prevail and pain where Europe simply ceases to exist as a Western, cultural entity.

The most civilized thing we can do in order to save ourselves, but also to limit the loss of life among both Muslims and non-Muslims, is for Westerners and indeed infidels in general to implement a policy of containment of the Islamic world. This includes stopping Muslim immigration, but also by making our countries Islam-unfriendly, thus presenting the Muslims already here between the options of adapting to our societies or leaving if they desire sharia law. Even whispering about Jihad should be grounds for expulsion.

Since Islamic countries can use organizations such as the United Nations to influence Western freedom of speech and immigration policies, Westerners need to discredit and disengage from the UN as much as possible, at some point maybe withdraw from it completely. We cannot under any circumstances allow Islamic nations to influence our legislation.

Regaining our cultural confidence is a more complicated and longer term goal. It probably cannot be achieved until today's version of Western Europe has collapsed.  Western Europe is now a collection of several layers of different Utopias, Multiculturalism, welfarism and transnationalism, that will soon come crashing down. 

However,  just as Islam isn't the cause of Europe's weakness but rather a secondary infection, it is conceivable that the Islamic threat could have the unforeseen and ironic effect of saving  Europe from herself.  Europe will go through a turbulent period of painful, but necessary revival. Maybe Jihad will trigger a new Renaissance in the West.

Europe will bleed but she won't die.  It remains to be seen whether this is wishful thinking or whether it will actually happen.  In any case, it will take time to materialize.
It may sound unrealistic to talk about the collapse of the European Union or pulling out of the UN, but I believe things will rapidly get worse in the years ahead. A generation from now, things that will seem improbable or outright impossible now will have come to pass. We will see some of the largest changes in world politics since WW2, perhaps in centuries.

Berlinski disagrees with Fjordman and points to Turkey as a place of moderate Muslims and a hopeful sign.  She says, "I would direct Mr. Fjordman’s attention not only to Turkey, but to the flourishing in other Islamic countries of such groups as the Liberal Islam Network, the Progressive Muslims,  the International Forum for Islamic Dialogue, and the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy."   

Bat Ye'or responds to the idea of Muslim women being a significant force saying,

"Can Muslim women help? As much as I praise and admire Nonie Darwish, Wafa Sultan and so many others, I will qualify Storhaug’s optimism. The majority of Muslim women choose Islamism in Europe, Egypt, Turkey, and other countries, and a few even become suicide-bombers. Islamic culture is fourteen centuries old and it has conditioned men and women alike. In my view, it is a mistake to imagine that women’s emancipation will impact considerably on Muslim relations with the West. These are two different and unrelated domains. Traditional Muslim attitudes toward non-Muslims are set in the religious, legal and historical framework of jihad, totally unknown to most Westerners and which has its own conceptual rationalization. . .

Eurabia is a European self-poisonous secretion whose functioning must be exposed in order to be neutralized. Its passion for multiculturalism emerges from its hate of Judeo-Christian culture and even more, its revulsion of Israel, and thus of the Jewish roots of Christianity.  This is the drive to European self-destruction.

Everything which happens today in the Muslim world develops within a religious and historical civilisational framework that we deliberately ignore. What I see and hear today I recognize it, as it is endlessly repeated in past chronicles. Maybe we should start to learn this history to understand what is happening to us, as a first step to find a solution, to retrieve our lost basic liberties to life and security, and our self-esteem. Because even if moderate Islam will prevail – a hazardous speculation, even for  Turkey-- it is our right to refuse Islamization and to maintain our Western secular rules and our spiritual values which differ from those of the shari'a.

ABC'S 'Path to 9/11' - What was edited out

What was edited out of ABC's "Pathway to 9/11" can be found here.    The website has the original video of the sections edited out of the final version.  It also posts a useful synopsis of each section edited out.

Updated 9/23/06 - A friend e-mailed me the following: 

I checked out the clips that were supposedly the 20 minutes that ABC edited out of the first installment (Sunday nite). Recollection is that I remember all but one of said clips as being in the actual showing on the network. Whether the TVC people got their excerpts straight or what, I don't pretend to know...

I don't know the answer to this.  If anyone has analyzed what ABC left in or took out, I'd be glad to know. 

IT'S HARD TO DEAL WITH LIES

David Pryce-Jones notes that

"The mindset  ...  spreads throughout the Muslim world that the West has a deliberate policy to wipe out Islam.  In the five years since 9/11, Islamists everywhere have made great progress in establishing another of the great simplistic, indeed absolutely false, Us-and-Them divides."

The West has no policy whatsoever to "wipe out Islam."  Political correctness, in fact, has given Islam an exalted, protected "space" in the West.  But what does truth count in a world of propaganda and lies?

While the West has no desire to "wipe out Islam", there should be a strong resistance to ourselves being wiped out by radical Islamic jihadists.  Michelle Malkin commemorates 9/11 with a series of important posts.  She praises those writers who have done so much to expose the radical vision of said jihadists.  I share her gratitude.  She writes:

We owe these and many other outspoken dissidents our thanks. I personally owe Robert [Spencer], Daniel [Pipes] , Steve [Emerson[ , Diana West, and Andy Bostom deepest gratitude for helping educate me about a threat I shrugged my shoulders at before 9/11. More: Bat Ye'or. Oriana Fallaci. Wafa Sultan. Aayan Hirsi Ali. Irshad Manji. Ibn Warraq. Bruce Bawer. MEMRI. Bloggers: Charles Johnson, The Jawa Report, Laura Mansfield, Gates of Vienna, The Counterterrorism Blog, Zombie, Honest Reporting, Paul Belien and The Brussels Journal. So many more.

Not all of them agree on every aspect of the Islamic terrorist threat to the West or how best to defend ourselves against it. And I don't agree with everything they've written. But all of these men and women are inspirations who share a common intellectual defiance against submission to jihad.

Michelle Malkin points readers of her blog to Robert Spencer's special Hot Air video which provides historical context for the 9/11 attacks.

HOW THE LEFT UNDERMINDED NATIONAL SECURITY PRIOR TO 9/11

This lengthy article by David Horowitz sets the record straight concerning the Clinton administration's attitude towards terrorist threats and attacks.    The history of failure upon failure cannot permanently be expunged.  Those with selective memory would do well to read what the historical record actually says, and not what they wish it said. 

PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH'S IMPORTANT SEPT. 5TH SPEECH

This is the speech that offers quotes from enemies of the West which state exactly what they intend to do.

CONSERVATIVE WRITERS NAME BOOKS THAT HAVE INFLUENCED THEM

Sorry, but I'm a sucker for lists of favorite books, or books that have influenced others.  If a person is passionate about a book, it's worth noting to me, if only for what it reveals about the person.   But sometimes a recommended book can open up undreamed of vistas in our own life as well.  C.S. Lewis did that for me.  Through him I became acquainted with Charles Williams, George MacDonald, G.K. Chesterton, and numerous others.  And through them, still others.  This particular list cites books that have influenced various conservative writers.   It's not as extensive a list as I have seen elsewhere, but worth noting none the less.  Paul Johnson's Modern Times appears more than once, as does Whittaker Chambers' Witness.

JEWS WHO HATE ISRAEL

For a stomach turning read, take a look at this article by Paul Bogdanor, co-author of  The Jewish Divide Over Israel: Accusers and Defenders.   Bogdanor recites the unbelievable hatred towards Israel displayed by anti-Zionist writers such as Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein, Tony Judt, Jacqueline Rose, Michael Neumann, and others.  This is all very eye-opening for those of us less acquainted with the Jewish anti-Zionist phenomenon.   It boggles one's mind to hear Jews calling other Jews "Nazis" and worse. 

Of the book itself, an  Amazon editorial review says:

Today, Jewish "progressives" rationalize violence against the innocent as resistance to the oppressor, excuse Arab extremism as the frustration of a wronged party, and redefine eliminationist rhetoric and physical assaults against Jews as "criticism of Israeli policy." Israel’s Jewish accusers have played a crucial and disproportionate role in the current upsurge of antisemitism precisely because they speak as Jews. Eager to evade the "moral taint" of justifying Israel’s right to self-defense, Israel’s Jewish accusers find themselves, in an age of suicide bombers, complicit in the murder of their fellow Jews.

The article offers a solid introduction to this sad phenomenon.

UNIVERSITIES AND THE COLLAPSE OF THE WEST

Here is a long article dissecting the abject  failure of Western universities to offer critical thinking towards anything non-Western, and that  definitely includes Middle Eastern and Islamic studies.   It doesn't help that prestigious universities receive Saudi money to fund such programs.  This is an article to save.  It illustrates well the latent death wish of the West.     Here are the concluding paragraphs:

While Multiculturalism is spreading ideological tribalism in our universities, it is spreading physical tribalism in our major cities. Since all cultures are equal, there is no need to preserve Western civilization, nor to uphold our laws.

It is true that we may never fully reach the ideal of objective truth, since we are all more or less limited in our understanding by our personal experiences and our prejudice. However, this does not mean that we should abandon the ideal. That’s what has happened during the past decades. Our colleges aren’t even trying to seek truth; they have decided that there is no such thing as “truth” in the first place, just different opinions and cultures, all equally valid. Except Western culture, which is inherently evil and should be broken down and “deconstructed.” Western Universities have moved from the Age of Reason to the Age of Deconstruction.

While Chinese, Indian, Korean and other Asian universities are graduating millions of motivated engineers and scientists every year, Western universities have been reduced to little hippie factories, teaching about the wickedness of the West and the blessings of barbarism. This represents a serious challenge to the long-term economic competitiveness of Western nations. That’s bad, but it is the least of our worries. Far worse than failing to compete with non-Muslim Asians is failing to identify the threat from Islamic nations who want to subdue us and wipe out our entire civilization. That is a failure we quite simply cannot live with. And we probably won’t, unless we manage to deal with it.

QUICK TAKES

In the "Things I Didn't Know" Department:

        - "The fastest rise in rates of depression since the 1990s is among children, at younger and younger ages.

        - "Mental health problems in college students have been rising since 1988, and in 1996 anxiety replaced relationships as the main source of student angst. 

        - "Less than a third of adult males now reach responsible adulthood (indicated by a steady job, marriage, and children) by age 30. "                         - Source: World Magazine

THE EQUALITY OF THE ALTAR RAIL

I very much like this story which excellently demonstrates the equality of us all before God.   The altar rail, before which men and women, rich and poor, black and white (and brown and red) all gather side by side, wonderfully illustrates that equality.  This particular story has a kicker - the estimable  character of Robert E. Lee.

WHY RADICAL ISLAMISTS POSE A GREATER THREAT THAN HITLER

Cliff May points out:

1) Hitler did not have the access to the technology these groups have.

2) Hitler never acquired nuclear weapons.

3) Hitler did not have the kinds of fifth columns this enemy may have.

4) Hitler had a nation and a “volk” he wanted to protect, and he did not believe in an afterlife for himself or his followers.

5) Hitler never managed to kill Americans on American soil.