Ali Eteraz

The permanent link to all my articles at Jewcy is here. Feel free to bookmark it. I have been writing there since September ‘07 and have placed a number of longer and more substantive pieces there — check them out if you are new to this site. I have also updated the link in the “External Writing” section of the sidebar.

My Friday column at Jewcy, entitled Muslims and the Evangelical Manifesto, is now available. I argue that American Muslims can draw certain lessons from the recent evangelical initiative. I am interested in people’s opinions on this stuff as it relates to the future of Western Muslims.

Comment there.

I have a piece up at Global Comment about two thoughts I wrote up while at the famed Prado museum in Madrid.

The first is about beauty, and the second is about breasts, so basically I repeat myself.

Comment there.

I argue at the Guardian that the issue with people Pastor Rod Parsley, he of copious spittle and sweat, isn’t really that he makes anti-Muslim sermons, but that he’s a political theocrat, for which I proffer evidence, and which is the real problem that McCain’s association with Parsley represents.

Link:

Islam is an anti-Christ religion that intends, through violence, to conquer the world.

The fact is that America was founded — I am going to stagger you right now — America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed.

Muhammad received revelations from demon spirits, not from the living God.

America has historically understood herself as a bastion against Islam in the world.

In fact, I’ll tell you this, I do not believe our nation can truly fulfill her divine purpose, until we understand our historical conflict with Islam.

When it comes to Islam, now the greatest religious enemy of our civilization, its dangerous.

Recently in Philly, the killing of a cop, Sgt. Liczbinski, with a Chinese semi-automatic rifle, has been huge news. One of the gunmen, who was killed, is now being refused burial by a local mosque.

The leadership of the Germantown Masjid has refused to conduct funeral services for Howard Cain, the bank robber who killed Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski with a Chinese-made semi-automatic rifle.

“No, we will not bury him at Germantown Masjid,” said Tariq El Shabazz, managing director of the mosque. “We don’t want one slight scintilla hinting that we condone his behavior.”

On Sunday evening, a friend of Cain’s family asked if Cain’s burial could take place at the mosque on Germantown Avenue near Logan Street, El Shabazz said.

El Shabazz declined to conduct the service after researching Islamic law and meeting with Saadiq Abdul Jabbar, chief executive of the mosque; Imam Talib Abdullah, and others.

“We don’t tolerate that kind of behavior,” El Shabazz said. “Their actions are not from Islam. You don’t dress like a woman, you don’t rob people or transgress against them or commit murder. On all three grounds, they are dead wrong.

“We are not saying that Muslims should not bury him, or that he should not have Janaza [funeral prayers],” he added. “He is a Muslim and he has that right, but we don’t want that here.”

I mentioned this mosque just a few days ago as the one belonging to Muslims who weren’t all that interested in voting.

Take a pen and squeeze the ink into a glass of water. The ink will fall and then the water will ripple and the ink will disperse into the water.

It is my understanding that the laws of motion govern this event.

a) is that true?

b) if so, how come the laws of motion — or whatever laws govern this event — prevent this event from occurring backwards? In other words, why can’t the ink come back out of the water and go into the pen?

Update: Omar asks in the comments whether I ask this question due to “creationist idiocy.”

Response: I suspect that I ask this question because of creationist idiocy, but I don’t know enough science to even know if that’s why I ask.

I was at the bookstore and just randomly I saw a book called Something Something Sacred by some guy named Something Kauffman.

It was a book about ‘Complexity Theory.’ I have never heard of this. At first blush it sounded like code for creationism but I actually read a bit of the book — which is where I picked up this example — and the guy said that he didn’t believe in God (at least not in the traditional Abrahamic sense). He went on to say that God was creativity, or something along those lines.

In many ways, it was very similar to the Bergsonian arguments that Iqbal made in his Reconstruction. However, being that it was packaged different — Complexity Theory — and the guy wasn’t a believer, it made me wonder if perhaps there was some area of science that I hadn’t heard of yet that was worth investigating.

Also, one of the other reasons I didn’t just dismiss him as a creationist was because he posited that studies had shown that some molecules were self-generating and self-replicating — which obviously goes against the creationist approach to science.

I never got to figuring out what Complexity Theory meant because I had the better sense of not purchasing the book. From what I gathered in the introduction, their view is that the problem with science is “reductionism” — which is just one approach of doing science. The idea of taking a universal and deriving a particular from it (which is Aristotelian), they argue, is not the only approach to science.

My article about the deplorable way the American working class is represented and perceived is up at Huffington Post.

Comment there.

Click to enlarge.

Critique this. I intend on using it in a presentation. The sizes of the boxes correspond roughly to what I think is the influence-impact-prominence of each group. Triangles refer to hierarchies, circles or ellipses to lack thereof. Fat lines mean meaningful connection, light black lines mean definite connection, dotted lines mean loose connection.

This is my work-product. You must get permission to use it otherwise I’ll litigate.

Definitely give me ideas on how to reorganize because its very crowded.

I critique Sam Harris’ article at Guardian. Feel free to get in the comments section; if that’s your kind of thing.

Comments closed.

Has anyone heard of Stop the ACLU website? Here is a post they made about me, entitled “American Muslim Lawyer on Free Speech,” which makes me seem like an opponent of free speech. Their rationale? Well they quote a bit of this post about Wilders and the film, Fitna, from Jewcy, and then identify a few code words about me, which they hope will be sufficient for their commentators to think of me as an opponent of free speech.

a. American-Muslim

b. Lawyer

c. Contribute to “leftist organs” like “Puffington Post and Guardian from time to time.”

The trick works. As you can see from the nasty comments section. This is called pure misrepresentation and its one of the oldest blogger tricks. You say just enough buzz words to your community — who often already think like you — in order to make them think something and if you are criticized, you can dust your hands and say you didn’t really say anything.

Of course, the website must be composed of idiots because I have long held one of the most liberal views on free-speech among American-Muslims or lawyers.

Defending Mark Steyn’s right to free speech against Muslim law students from Canada. My fight with the law students, which took place on this blog right here, was featured on Steyn’s own website (look it up), and The Corner, a conservative group blog. Ironically for the idiots at Stop the ACLU, I even defended Steyn on “leftist organs” like the Guardian.

In the past I also condemned the decision by various Muslim Student’s Associations (1, 2) to shut down the Muhammad Cartoons. The first, an open letter, was featured on Andrew Sullivan’s website. I assume Stop the ACLU looked those up before they posted.

Defending Salman Rushdie’s right to free speech and artistic hubris - oh looks, its published on leftist organ Huffington Post.

Also, the guilt-by-association tactic doesn’t quite work because I do not limit my writings to “leftist organs” unless of course you count Pajamas Media and Jewcy (which is non-ideological and features such conservatives as Schwartz from Weekly Standard and Weiss from PJM and Kirchik from Commentary, along with leftists) or conservative blogs like Dean’s World, where I used to write.

Even in my Jewcy piece on Wilders, I don’t actually suggest silencing Wilders. Hell, before that post I actually wrote a review about the guy and his trifling little film. I simply, using my own free speech rights, suggest taking morons like Wilders out of liberal society — not physically — by creating a consensus against idiotic and time-wasteful opinions like theirs. I’d do the same thing against Omar Barkri Muhammad or plagiarists or scientologists who wanted to change the American constitution. When stupidity prevails, I mock it.

There is a difference between opposing free-speech, which I don’t, and opposing dimwits, whom I pretty consistently reprimand. This website clearly doesn’t recognize it. I’ll wait and see if they update or retract.

In terms of economics:

If that happens, America will close out a 125-year run as the No. 1 economy [in the world]. We assumed the title in 1890 from - guess who. Britain? France? No. The world’s largest economy until 1890 was China’s. That’s why Maddison says he expects China to “resume its natural role as the world’s largest economy by 2015.” That scenario makes sense.

China was the largest economy for centuries because everyone had the same type of economy - subsistence - and so the country with the most people would be economically biggest. Then the Industrial Revolution sent the West on a more prosperous path. Now the world is returning to a common economy, this time technology- and information-based, so once again population triumphs.

I wonder what role the 18th and 19th century adventures of the East India Company and other European colonial powers had in slowing China down.

Sam Harris writes about Wilders and Fitna on Huffington Post and calls for the stamping out of all of Islam. Promptly gets shot down by some very astute bloggers who have both wit and common sense. Saves me time.

One thing I wish Sam would realize: the precise kind of Muslims who support atheists and apostates — taking me as an example — are not particularly interested in demonizing the aggregate of Islam. This is because the tools to help apostates and atheists come from within the positive traditions and cultures that surround Islam. In fact, I once suggested a Society for Muslim-Apostate Understanding, which someone with organizational and inspirational resolve should take up.

Only among virginity obsessed Muslimeen:

TUNIS, Tunisia, April 27 (UPI) — A Tunisian family alleges their daughter was raped during a telephone conversation with a man, a lawyer for the family said.

The 30-year-old man said he never touched the young woman. But he acknowledged he heard her scream while they were “totally into” an erotic telephone conversation — and that she reported bleeding, Al Arabiya reported.

Maha al-Metebaa, a lawyer representing the family, told the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Qabs the case needs careful investigation because of its unprecedented allegations. He said a medical examination had determined that the woman, 20, was no longer a virgin.

“The intercourse did take place with all its details but verbally only,” he said. “The sexual act did not really happen because the physical proximity factor is not there, yet it happened because there is a direct physical impact – the loss of virginity.”

Direct physical impact? Dimwit, its called a finger. She must have at least one.

The comments section at the blog — top link — that picked this up is hilarious.

By the way, let me know if UPI is a legitimate source of news. They do seem fair and balanced, doing a story about a prudish mom in Washington who has a problem with Urban Outfitter’s magazines.

Also, I want to add that this only became news because Saudi owned channels like Al-Arabiya and conservative newspapers like Al-Qabs actually decided to treat the parents’ asinine allegations as news. Once you’re done laughing, realize that the embarrassment here is of our own making. One thing the entire Muslim world could benefit from: better. editors.

Via Poligazette. Text says: “Hey Men; Your Decency Is Up To You (Not To Women). Wear An Eye Mask. Protect Yourself.”

Picture I took randomly walking around.

I previously shared a youtube of Indian kathak performers doing a dance-off with flamenco dancers (beautiful video is available again), as well as Punjabi flamenco.

Now check out Kiran Ahluwalia merging ghazal with Portugese fado guitar.

You can check out more of her music here (its at the bottom left entitled Soch Ka). The link above the song is sort of a tutorial on ghazal.

For actual ghazal poetry and the Iberian Peninsula you can check out Agha Shahid Ali’s Lorca ghazals. I believe they are in his book Country Without a Post Office in the back.

My review of Shuja Nawaz’ book, Crossed Swords, is now up at Jewcy.

Comment there.

Beauty queens are low on political acumen — take Miss South Carolina as evidence. Pakistan’s Miss World International, Mahleej Sarkari, is no exception. She told GEO TV that she would go on a date with Musharraf, not marry him mind you, on some Australian Island.

LAHORE: Miss Pakistan International Mahleej Sarkari has said that she wanted to date President Pervez Musharraf at some Australian island where she would like to talk and spend time with Musharraf for several hours, Geo TV reported on Thursday.

Sarkari told the channel that she did not want to marry Musharraf, although it was allowed in Islam for men to have four wives at the same time.

She hoped that Pakistan’s first lady Begum Sehba Musharraf would not mind if her charismatic husband goes on a date with her, the channel added.

Irony is that she’s Balochi, an area of Pakistan that Musharraf pretty effectively destroyed.

Here are some, safe for work, pictures of Mahleej.

Big mess in Michigan, and this could stick around for a while as Obama/Hillary may use McCain’s association with the Lebanese businessman as a way to attack him.