Yet another Republican speaks

And says something I agree with. Peter Wehner comes out with a strong commendation in Commentary Magazine for what Gov. Christie said the other day in his usual inimitable style.

It’s one thing, and a laudable thing, not to participate in this ugliness [Herman Cain style Islamophobia]. But it’s another thing, and a far more admirable thing, to stand against it. My former boss, President Bush, did this in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. And now, thankfully, Governor Chris Christie has as well.

I don't know what has come over me. I totally approve of words from two Republicans in as many days!

I think I'll go back to listening to Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly to get my mojo back.

A Republican speaks

In this case, calling out the foam at the mouth Islamo-phobists.

"Ignorant. They're ignorant."

"I'm tired of dealing with crazies!"

Please watch. A Republican governor pushes back against the crazy.

oddly - it will make him more popular than ever.

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Tatars

Real ones, apparently. In traditional costume. The song, less so.

G.K. and the boys of Subatai's 10th Tatar Tuman are probably rolling over in their grave.

I suppose I should dedicate this post to Jack's family. maybe not.

Is Western Civilization Different?

For years now I have had the notion that Western Civilization is different from every other civilization I am aware of because of the fundamental split right through the middle of its soul between secular and spiritual power. I have never worked out the details, but anyone who studies medieval history must be struck by this fact. Most, however, don't realize that it is unique.

I have found a good expression of it by Dan Diner in Lost in the Sacred: Why the Muslim World Stood Still. In discussing the critique of Western society by Sayyid Qutb, the Egyptian scholar who laid out the intellectual foundations for the jihadists (or whatever they should be called). It is, in fact, the reason Qutb thought Christianity had gone wrong right from the "render unto Caesar" incident:

Sayyid Qutb is not wrong here: a fundamental institutional tension does in fact run through Western culture, whether in the various interpretations of the "two swords" theory in the high Middle Ages or in the earlier distinction between imperium and sacerdotium inherent in the fabric of the Holy Roman Empire. The individuality and freedom so important to the West can be traced back to a basic question in medieval Christianity: who should be obeyed -- the emperor or the pope? These two authorities struggle for supremacy in the heart of the perplexed, who can choose only one of them. Thus the birth of freedom in the expression of a deep internal rift. It stems from the individual's doubt and despair. Freedom springs from conflict and the discord associated with it. And in this conflict the individual is left all alone. Only conscience born of this discord can provide a sense of direction -- but conscience is not infallible.

So far it is a good book, one that looks at Islam by taking its spiritual coherence and unity as a serious attribute of Islamic society.

This post brought to you by the color Red

... which seems to be in some trouble in Saudi Arabia. Wish I were making this up.

thanks to Andrew Sullivan, once again.

Begum Hazrat Mahal - a hero of The Great Mutiny

I was only going to make one link to today's issue of Dawn, but found this one, a column by Jawed Naqvi, simply irresistible. Naqvi seems to be Dawn's expert on Indian issues of interest to Anglophone Pakistanis.

In today's essay he discusses the life of a great, and much neglected, hero of the revolt against English rule usually called The Great Mutiny in 1857. One reason this outstanding fighter for independence may be neglected is that she is a female, the Begum Hazrat Mahal. Read the whole thing to see what Naqvi says about her, but here is a small taste:

She was born at a time and brought up in a manner suitable only for a life of gay abandon. Her obvious place was in the royal harem of the extraordinary King Wajid Ali Shah, essentially a poet par excellence and a connoisseur of beauty. William Howard Russell in his ‘My Indian Mutiny Diary’ writes: “The Sepoys, during the siege of the Residency, never came on as boldly as the zamindari levies and nujeebs (irregulars). This Begum exhibits great energy and ability. She has excited all Oudh to take up the interests of her son, and the chiefs have sworn to be faithful to him. Will the Government treat these men as rebels or as honourable enemies? The Begum declares undying war against us. It appears, from the energetic character of these Ranis and Begums, that the zenanas and harems (wield) a considerable amount of actual mental power and, at all events, become able intriguantes. Their contests for ascendancy over the minds of the men give vigour and acuteness to their intellect.”

Mulsims in America

They have arrived! That great old American trait of trying to make a buck by selling you anything possible is now focusing on Muslim Americans. Advertisers are now figuring out how to target Muslims consumers without offending everyone else. There is also the little problem of which type of Muslim to focus on, since our Muslim population is so diverse. The story from The New York Times is here.

Somehow, I see this as a positive sign.

"Happy Ramadan" cards, anyone?


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A Baghdad Dispatch

Fouad Ajami has published his latest update on the war in Iraq in today's Washington Post. Ajami is a professor at Johns Hopkins and is author of The Foreigner's Gift: The Americans, the Arabs, and the Iraqis in Iraq. I greatly admire his work and his personal insights into the Middle East since he is a Shia from Lebanon who has long lived and worked in the US. When he talks and writes of 'us' and 'we' he invariably means 'us' Americans.

I do not know what to make of his political judgement. He is, to some extent, a prose poet of Shia triumphalism and it worries me that he is a close friend of the Chalabis. Still, his prospective on the situation is almost unique. If I understand his dispatch, the civil war for Iraq has just been fought, and the Shia have won. The US should not pull out, but allow the moderate Shia to forge some type of compromise with the more realistic Sunni who can accept no longer being in charge. Ajami's writings on Iraq always seem to me to be laced with an inexpressible sadness, but this dispatch ends on an upbeat note, perhaps too upbeat at this late date. Please see for yourself.

The crackdown on the Mahdi Army that the new American commander, Gen. David Petraeus, has launched has the backing of the ruling Shia coalition. Iraqi police and army units have taken to the field against elements of the Mahdi army. In recent days, in the southern city of Diwaniyya, American and Iraqi forces have together battled the forces of Moqtada al-Sadr. To the extent that the Shia now see Iraq as their own country, their tolerance for mayhem and chaos has receded. Sadr may damn the American occupiers, but ordinary Shia men and women know that the liberty that came their way had been a gift of the Americans.

The young men of little education--earnest displaced villagers with the ways of the countryside showing through their features and dialect and shiny suits--who guarded me through Baghdad, spoke of old errors, and of the joy and dignity of this new order. Children and nephews and younger brothers of men lost to the terror of the Baath, they are done with the old servitude. They behold the Americans keeping the peace of their troubled land with undisguised gratitude. It hasn't been always brilliant, this campaign waged in Iraq. But its mistakes can never smother its honor, and no apology for it is due the Arab autocrats who had averted their gaze from Iraq's long night of terror under the Baath.

Iraq: Hope, or 'light at the end of the tunnel'

As a Viet Nam era person (I volunteered for the war before I dodged the draft - long story) I am innately suspicious of government talk along the lines of 'light at the end of the tunnel.' Sometimes it's a train.

Nevertheless, there is some moderately encouraging news coming out of Iraq and especially in Anbar province. I listened to Gen. Petreaus last night on the 'News Hour' while he tried to explain just what was going on when John McCain visited the market in Baghdad. It wasn't entirely convincing, but I believe he is right to say there has been an improvement. McCain certainly is not as delusional as some commentators are painting him at the moment.

But I think it is Anbar that is more telling. As this 'dispatch' in the WSJ shows, tribal chiefs are beginning to co-operate with Iraqi and American forces against Al Qaeda. Partly this is because that after having a taste of rule by fanatics, the central government doesn't seem so bad, partly because the government and the Americans have been careful to offer them some inducements. But mainly I think it means that the Sunni chiefs in Anbar have made a rational and informed judgement that their future lies with a unified Iraq, one that owes them a debt for what they assume will be a 'victory' of sorts.

We'll see. But I sure hope this bears fruit.

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More on D'Souza's "The Enemy at Home"

As I said, Dinesh D'Souza's The Enemy at Home is getting roundly trashed almost wherever it is reviewed. Now Stanley Kurtz at National Review Online gives his take. It is by far the most sympathetic and nuanced review of the work, and the more damning for all that. The review is worth a read, though, because Kurtz uses D'Souza to spin off some interesting ideas about Islam, Muslim society, and the roots of the violence that he promises to develop in more depth.