The most dangerous epithet in America
Rupinder Mohan Singh reflects on the changed meaning of the word “terrorist” after an attack on Sikh-American Dr. Prabhjot Singh. Continue Reading →
Tag: war on terror
Ahbash Rising: Religious Freedom in Ethiopia, Part 2
Protests in Ethiopia could have profound ramifications for Muslim-state relations in Ethiopia and beyond, writes Alex Thurston in the second of two posts on Ethiopia’s Muslims. Continue Reading →
Ahbash Rising: Religious Freedom in Ethiopia, Part 1
In the first of two posts on the deterioration of religious freedom for Ethiopia’s Muslims, Alex Thurston looks at Ethiopia’s relationship with the U.S. and the “Global War on Terror” Continue Reading →
Perverse Irony of the War on Terror
From Matthieu Aikins at Foreign Policy Magazine:
Indeed, the Global War on Terror has illustrated the troubling contradictions that underpin our age: That the West’s attractions of modernity, material progress, and liberalism can prove unsatisfying to smart and ambitious young men; that our allies in the Muslim world might be among the greatest sources of the terrorists who would do us harm; that the freedom promised by an age of unlimited connection across information and physical space might engender a draconian self-repression; and that a new golden age of capitalism might leave such ruined states and peoples on its margins. Today, we find the roots of terror in the growing instability of the world’s economy and climate, which in turn prefigures deeper coming threats to the global order. The perverse irony of the War on Terror is how badly it is has distracted our political and moral will from the great challenges of our time. This is bin Laden’s legacy.
Osama Bin Laden, Dead
Typing this, I hesitate. Is this a mere death? An assassination? A murder? And if not the latter, why not? Mass murderers and perpetrators of genocide have been brought to trial, yet the U.S. now abandons established paths of justice. They’ve “taken him out.” Have we already tried bin Laden in our media, determined him guilty beyond doubt, not worthy of justice except the justice that we see in death? Continue Reading →
U.S. Ethics, the Rule of Law and Human Rights
From Richard Kim’s recent editorial at The Nation, “Obama’s ‘War on Terror’“:
And so we now see clearly a kind of social cancer: the exercise of inhumane and abusive power simply because it is the state’s prerogative. Recall that this is what happened in Abu Ghraib—not torture for purpose but torture for fun, for petty retaliation, for no reason other than that the uniform allows it. The treatment of Manning in Quantico, as well as the incarceration of inmates in CMUs for no apparent penological purpose, demonstrates that the poisonous shards of Abu Ghraib are still with us.
30 September 2004 Daily Links
Creationism in a lab coat: “better to appear scientific than holy.” Wired News‘ Evan Ratliffreports on the “Intelligent Design” (ID) movement to introduce antievolution theory into classrooms — recently successful in Ohio, Continue Reading →
24 September 2004 Daily Links
The Republican Party admits to sending mass mailings to Arkansas and West Virginia residents warning that “‘liberals’” seek to ban the Bible as part of its effort to mobilize religious Continue Reading →
26 August 2004 Daily Links
The Pope says “No” to cosmic energy and tragic spiritual vacuums. South Africa’s Inkatha Freedom Party — a long-time adversary of the African National Congress party, which assumed power after Continue Reading →
God Willing?
David Domke, University of Washington professor and author of the just-released book, God Willing?: Political Fundamentalism in the White House, the “War on Terror,” and the Echoing Press, documents President Bush’s Continue Reading →