J.A.F.I.

I have invented a new term. "jafi" - which stands for "just another frothing Islamophobe." You can of course substitute another adjective for "frothing".

I make a distinction between people who are genuinely concerned with the rise of islamic fundamentalism, which fuels islamofascism (note however the distinction), and genuine jafis who are simply ignorant fools.

I am hesitant to label Daniel Pipes a jafi, for example, but he has strayed into jafi territory from time to time. Neither would I label Charles Johnson of LGF a jafi, but his commentators are as frothing a pack of jafis you will ever find.

Today's jafi, however, is Congressman Tom Tancredo (Colorado-R), for suggesting on talk radio that a nuclear strike upon Mecca would be a legitimate response to a nuclear terror attack on US soil:

Colorado congressman says U.S. could retaliate against Islamic holy sites

July 18, 2005, 8:16 AM

DENVER (AP) -- A Colorado congressman told a radio show host that the U.S. could "take out" Islamic holy sites if Muslim fundamentalist terrorists attacked the country with nuclear weapons.

Rep. Tom Tancredo made his remarks Friday on WFLA-AM in Orlando, Fla. His spokesman stressed he was only speaking hypothetically.

Talk show host Pat Campbell asked the Littleton Republican how the country should respond if terrorists struck several U.S. cities with nuclear weapons.

"Well, what if you said something like -- if this happens in the United States, and we determine that it is the result of extremist, fundamentalist Muslims, you know, you could take out their holy sites," Tancredo answered.

"You're talking about bombing Mecca," Campbell said.

"Yeah," Tancredo responded.

I think that the "nuke Mecca" standard is a useful one for establish whether one is a jafi or not.

UPDATE: This guy is clearly a jafi too, but those who support a fatwa against him reveal themselves to be far worse. To any such fool, I ask you: Can the infinite, timeless message of the Qur'an really be harmed by a fat white guy's bladder?

Profile of Salafi jihadists

Razib is beginning a series of posts at GNXP to analyze the intersection of Islam with terrorist organizations. His first post is a review of Marc Sageman's book, Understanding Terror Networks, including a tabulated summary of the relevant demographics. There's a healthy debate in his comment thread as well, where Razib clarifies that the Sageman's analysis is not addressing the global sympathy towards islamofascism, but rather the "the few hundred that have actually actively engaged in jihad against the far enemy of in the dar-al-harb." In other words, the people who are the actual and direct threat, not a broader and circular attempt at defining a self-serving clash of civilizations narrative.

The main question that this debate is trying to address is whether terror arises from socioeconomic roots or not. I think that this is a valid route of inquiry, but not one that will bear much fruit. The real root of terror is not grinding physical oppression, but rather the intellectual oppression that the jihadis universally relate as their motivators - partly imposed as a legacy of the post-colonial world, but also one imposed upon themselves from within, borne of seeing the world with the adopted mantle of vicimization. The focus is presently on Islam, but I think that we are speaking about something far more intrinsic to the human condition.

Terrorist attacks in London

Multiple explosions rock London

A bus was ripped apart in an explosion in central London today and several blasts rocked the Tube network leaving dozens of people injured.

The Tube blasts at the height of the rush hour on Thursday were initially blamed on a power surge.

But amid the chaos eyewitnesses reported that a packed double decker bus in the Russell Square area had been severely damaged in a blast.

Union officials blamed the Tube blasts on a series of bombs, and Scotland Yard confirmed the bus explosion and said it was dealing with "multiple explosions" in London.

Tony Blair acknowledged that the attacks were terror-related:

Two people have been killed and scores have been injured after at least seven blasts on the Underground network and a double-decker bus in London.

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said it was "reasonably clear" there had been a series of terrorist attacks.

He said it was "particularly barbaric" that the attack was timed to coincide with the G8 summit which he would be leaving to return to London.

London's police chief said traces of explosive had been found at one site.

Sir Ian Blair urged people to stay where they were and not to call emergency services unless it was a life-threatening situation.

...

One caller to BBC Five said his friend had seen "the bus ripped open like a can of sardines and bodies everywhere".

Loyita Worley, who works for a City law firm, said she was on the underground train when an explosion took place in the next carriage, while it was in a tunnel.

The 49-year-old said: "All the lights went out and the train came to an immediate halt. There was smoke everywhere and everyone was coughing and choking, but remained calm. We couldn't open the doors."

blogger layout gremlins II

this time, its my fault, I've switched the DOCTYPE to XHTML 1.0 / Transitional. Layout will be wierd for a while until i get all teh validation errors fixed. Bear with me...

UPDATE: fixed, and the blog template now validates to XHTML 1.0 Transitional. Yay! CSS validation is still not 100% due to errors in Blogger's code, not mine. The archive page is also broken, but who is really reading my archives anyway? I'll add a google search box.

Gonzales for SCOTUS: the perfect is the enemy of the good...

It's a shame justice Sandra Day O'Connor is retiring. I always thought she would have made a fine Chief Justice. As one of the most interesting and articulate justices on the court, she will leave a huge vacuum to be filled.

Why not fill it with Gonzales?

To be honest, I think that perhaps it would be an overall good thing if President Bush nominates Gonzales to replace her. The far right hates Gonzales for being pro-choice. Gonzales' authorship of the torture memos is deeply troubling, but contesting his nomination and the threat of the filibuster makes little strategic sense for Democrats. Far better to reserve that for when Rehnquist retires and a anti-Roe justice is nominated. And inevitable GOP charges of Democrat obstruction and cries of "Bork!" would be much harder to sell if Gonzales is given a free path.

Gonzales would at worst be conservative-moderate, and given that Justices Souter and Kennedy have hardly been threats to the Republic, I don't think that Gonzales would singlehandedly destroy us. He might even do less harm from SCOTUS than as AG.

blogger layout gremlins

Dean Esmay kindly linked to my Mukhtar Mai jihad post, but mentioned that my layout was completely screwed up. This puzzled me as I hadn't made any changes to my template or inserted any wierd formatting into that post. With the help of Ali E, it seems the culprit is the following CSS code:

<div style="clear:both;"> ... </div>

being inserted by Blogger automatically wherever the template tag $BlogItemBody$ is invoked. This has been documented by other bloggers as well. The solution is to add the following line of CSS to your style section:

div { clear: none !important; }

That seemed to have resolved the issue for me. I suspect that the reason for this bloggery bugginess is to support the new image uploading feature that Blogger has just added, presumably to compete with Flickr. Since I have a Pro account (thanks, Murtz!) with Flickr, there's not much benefit to me. It's not enough to make me abandon Blogger, but I am quite irritated by the inconvenience. Especially since Blogger's implementation is obsolete.

Mukhtar Mai�s jihad

"The rights of women are sacred, so see that they are maintained." -- The Prophet Muhammad SAW

The Supreme Court of Pakistan has ruled to re-try the case of Mukhtar Mai:

Then it was the turn of Ms Mai's lawyer, Aitzaz Ahsan, to take the podium.

"This is a battle of a poor and illiterate lady who has decided to fight a legal battle against her rapists to the farthest level and she has not succumbed to the pressures she has faced in her course," he said.

He urged the court to review the village council system - Ms Mai was raped allegedly on the direction of such a council, or panchayat.

"In this case the role of the rapists and the panchayat are the same. It is all about dastardly rule," he said.

The court listened to the arguments and ordered her rapists be rearrested pending a new trial.

As the short order was read out, Ms Mai began to smile - the smile widening as the order began to register.

In a follow-up story at BBC News, a quote from Mai herself serves as a succint summary of the stakes:

"I had three choices. Either to commit suicide by jumping in a well or shed tears all my life like any other victim in such cases, or challenge the cruel feudal and tribal system and harsh attitudes of society."

This is a very good and hopeful ruling, with ramifications far beyond her own case. It took tremendous courage for this victim of gang-rape to appear in public and plead her case before the court. Sepoy explains:

The women�s body is the locus of a family�s honor. It is up to the woman to protect this honor and should they fail - by getting raped or falling in love with someone else or speaking out against domestic abuse, e.g. - the men have the right to seek redress. Along with this honor comes the code of silence. Crimes against women, however unfortunate, are an understandable response from the males, and should be left uncommented. The silence of outrage is mirrored in the silence of the victim. Shame dictates that a family silence their dis-honor. The easiest way to accomplish this, of course, is for the victim to kill herself. The family and the community exorcizes even the memory of the victim. No one remembers, except for those that committed the heinous act and those that used it as an instrument of their power. By staying out of the domain of �honor� and �shame�, the state facilitates this. The lack of a police report is, in the end, the most harmful silence of all.

Mukhtar Mai stood up against this silence and instead chose to speak - at unimaginable personal risk to herself. Her story is the Rosa Parks crusade of our time.

Many point to the case as evidence of some deep flaw within Asian or Muslim societies as a whole. In fact, Pakistan's prime minister generalllissimo Pervez Musharraf had ordered that Mai not be allowed to leave Pakistan, fearing bad PR along these lines (a foolish and unneccessary reactionary action, IMHO). But sepoy points out that there is a more fundamental reason for why these abuses occur - and it relates to education, not culture:

this is not a situation peculiar to Pakistan or Islam or to this particular moment in history. Domestic violence or honor killings are not a culturally unique phenomenon but they are a uniquely patriarchal one. One can easily find instances from Milan to Kentucky with a layover in Dubai. If there is a difference in the rate of incidence between say, Chicago and Lahore, then it is the rule of law and effort of education that has permitted this equality and protection to women in one case and not the other. In many countries, like Pakistan, women have little recourse in law against such violence and insurmountable normative practices that sustain or encourage it. It is easy enough to start labeling Islam or South Asian/�tribal� culture as the root cause of such violence. But that would be a fundamentally flawed and disingenuous conclusion. The culprit is not Islam or South Asian culture, the culprit, undoubtedly, is the State of Pakistan.

for which the Prime Minister continues to make excuses for, and which has not done enough - but this is now changing. The strength of Mukhtar Mai will be a north star for other women to navigate by, so that they can reclaim their rights and help stop this systemic practice of abuse and worse.