The Age of Idiocy

When It Comes to Analyzing the Middle East,

We Live in the Age of Idiocy

by Barry Rubin of The Rubin Reports

After more than 30 years of watching people write dumb things about the Middle East, I believe that in the last month I’ve seen more nonsense than at any previous time. The problem arises from ignorance, lack of understanding of the region by those presented as experts; plus arrogance, treating the region and the lives of people as a game (Hey, let’s try this and see what happens!), fostered by the failure of such control mechanisms as a balanced debate and editing that rejects simplistic bias or stupidity; as well as a simple lack of logic.

To put it another way, I am reading material that simultaneously has no connection with the real world, is full of internal contradictions, and often seems deliberately tailored to misrepresent events in order to prove a false thesis. Fortunately, this stuff has not done actual damage in the real world–much of it has not been implemented in policy–yet but may in future.

Click here to read the entire article…

Obama Loves the Saudi

Just a reminder for everyone about this man called change

Obama’s New Year Gift to the Saudi King

by Nonie Darwish of FormerMuslimsUnited.org

originally posted January 8, 2010

Islam is in trouble at the heart of its birthplace, Saudi Arabia, and consequently in other Muslim countries. Muslim leaders and media are desperately trying to regain control both internally and externally. Muslims are starting to openly and defiantly question; while the international image of Islam is being tarnished daily with every act of terror, hate speech and calls for jihad from the pulpits of mosques. The traditional open calls for violence and jihad Islam got away with for centuries is now under scrutiny especially after 9/11. Islam is now under the microscope. That is the quagmire of Muslims today. How can they continue teaching their basic religious jihad education but still save face and Islam’s reputation in a culture where image and honor is everything. Click here to read the entire article…

Islam is?

Murder and Hate!

An Ayaan Hirsi Ali Follow up

Ayaan Hirsi Ali Interviewed On Swedish Television

source http://www.youtube.com/

Islam Treats Kenyan Maids With Respect

Islam is peace and love.

Whose followers serve the same universal god

As Christians and Jews;

At least that is what our past

And current politicians tell us.

A Jim Turner intro…

But I bet the salve, I mean maid, who was thrown out of the 3rd story window will have a completely different opinion.  I can also assume that the other maids who were feed dog food and not allowed out of the employers house also have a difference of opinion – but hey, that is another story.

I do however finally believe that I understand what moderate Islam means. It means that rather than being be-headed, having a wrist, foot or both limbs chopped off with a blunt object, the followers will now just throw you out of a window all in the name of being – keyword – moderate. Click here to read the entire article…

Christians Receive Islamic Christmas Present

Death Wrapped with a Bow;

A Merry Christmas from your Islamic Friends!

Coptic Christians Gunned Down after Christmas Service in Egypt

Suspected Muslims fire automatic rifle from moving car;

congregation had received threats.

by Compass Direct News

In spite of threats of violence from Muslims in an area of Egypt wracked by sectarian violence, police declined to increase security for a Coptic Christmas Eve service on Jan. 6, and six Christians were shot to death after leaving the church.

Three men suspected to be Muslims, including one with a criminal record sought by police, were in a moving car from which automatic gunfire hit Coptic Christians who had attended services at St. John’s Church in Nag Hammadi, 455 kilometers (282 miles) south of Cairo. A Muslim security guard was also killed, and nine other Coptic Christians were wounded, with three of them in critical condition, according to news reports. Click here to read the entire article…

Boring Press Conference?

Boring Press Conference?

No, Gold Mine for Understanding

U.S. Middle East Policy

by Barry Rubin of the Rubin Reports

What could be more boring, you might ask, then a press conference following the meeting between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Qatar Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr al-Thani? Well, a little document like this is a gold mine of interesting stuff that either won’t be covered or won’t be understood in the mass media.

Qatar, though tiny, is a very interesting country. On one hand, it hosts al-Udayd air base which is vital for the U.S. presence in the Gulf. On the other hand, it hosts and owns al-Jazira television which incites anti-Americanism. To make matters worse, Qatar has been the Gulf Arab state closest to Iran, which hosted the anti-American and radical summit led by the Iran-Syria bloc.

So Qatar is hedging its bets rather well. In public, Hillary isn’t going to complain about this stuff. Did she do so in the private meeting? Perhaps, though the jollity of al-Thani, a member of the ruling family, seems to belie any tough words from the secretary of state. But this is going too far:

“Qatar is a friend and an ally of the United States, and the partnership between our two countries is a model of the new beginning based on mutual respect and mutual interest that President Obama called for in Cairo.” Click here to read the entire article…

Cant We All Get Along?

The “Why Can’t Everyone Just Be Friends”

Narrative of the Israel-Palestinian Conflict,

Evenhandedness Gone Mad

by Barry Rubin of The Rubin Report

It’s a heartening story just made for this season and the Western media : two seriously injured children, one Israeli and one Palestinian, becoming friends together in a hospital, with an innocence that transcends the hatred of their peoples. The New York Times article is written precisely balanced, two families, two causes, absolutely identical. Oh how foolish is this unnecessary conflict. What folly drives humanity!

On one level, who can object to such a story, so fair, balanced, so humane and touching? Nowadays, to treat Israel on an equal footing with the Palestinians is rare enough and thus should be sufficient.

Yet something bothers me about this story, everything it leaves out and misleads about.

First, the basic tale. Orel was injured by a rocket fired from Gaza at Beersheva. Marya was injured in an Israeli missile which killed a terrorist leader. Both are eight. Click here to read the entire article…

First Strike; Obama or Israel?

THE TWO MOST-ASKED QUESTIONS:

WILL OBAMA ATTACK ISRAEL, WILL ISRAEL ATTACK IRAN?

By Barry Rubin of Rubin Reports

Of all the questions readers ask, there’s no question about which are the two most frequent. First, is Israel about to attack Iran or when will this happen? Second, do President Barack Obama and his entourage hate Israel and will there be a major confrontation or some kind of sell-out.

The first two questions are pretty easy to answer, the third less so.

Israel and an attack on Iran: Israeli policy is quite clear. Its current emphasis is on supporting strong sanctions. There is, of course, skepticism as to whether strong sanctions will be applied and whether such a step would work, but that’s not the determining factor. It is recognized that the West must thoroughly try diplomatic means to satisfy itself that everything short of an armed attack has failed.

Only when the sanctions have been seen to be ineffective at stopping Iran’s march to nuclear weapons would Israel even begin to go into an attack phase but even then there are two major considerations. Click here to read the entire article…

Muslims Attack Christians Over Jesus; WHAT?

SCENE OF RESURRECTION IGNITES RIOT

CHRISTIANS CLUBBED FOR CHURCH SCREENING

“JESUS FILM” ENRAGES MUSLIMS

by Paul L. Williams

Some 50 Muslim villagers armed with clubs and axes attacked the audience during a screening of the “Jesus Film” in the Punjab Province of Pakistan, injuring three part time evangelists and five Pakistani Christians.

Two of the evangelists remain in critical condition..

The Muslims trashed the movie projector, burned reels of the film and absconded with the public address system and donations from Christian viewers in the Catholic Church of Chak.

Officers at the local police station refused to register a case against the Muslim assailants, sources said.

The injured Christians were taken to the Basic Health Unit (BHU) of Chak village. Click here to read the entire article…

Hizballah to be on UN Security Council

Lebanese Hizballah to be on UN Security Council

by Barry Rubin of The Rubin Reports

On January 1, Lebanon will become a member of the UN Security Council, having been elected last October by the General Assembly for a two-year term. The Lebanese government now includes a majority of ministers who are nominees of either Hizballah or of President Michael Suleiman, a Syrian and thus Iranian client. Hizballah also has a veto over government decisions.

This means that Hizballah will have a say in resolutions condemning Israel, managing peace-keeping operations in Lebanon, dealing with sanctions against Iran, and so on.

It was bad enough that a Libyan official chairs the General Assembly while Sudan, Algeria, and Iran virtually run the Human Rights Commission.

Meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband stated in an interview that his government has concluded that “carefully considered contact with Hezbollah’s politicians, including its MPs, will best advance our objective of the group rejecting violence to play a constructive role in Lebanese politics.” Click here to read the entire article…

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