[Rhodes22-list] Politics - Is the Camel's Nose Wet

[Brad Haslett]

Ed,

No, I wasn't thinking along those lines but one easily could.  Our dilemma
is whether the enlightenment survives or not.  Iraq is but one step along
the way.  I see Iraq as but one battlefield, one tactic, in a long
struggle.  The other side has yet to even recognize that we're at war.
History will decide whether Iraq was the right battle at the right time,
just as it has Bull Run, Shiloh, Gettysburg, etc.  The enemy has chosen Iraq
as the focal point and if we vacate the field there, we'll only face them
again, stronger and more emboldened somewhere else.

We are talking about an enemy that wants to take us back to the 14th
century, or before.  Long before Christ was born there was a struggle for
women's rights.  After 1400 years, humanity struggled out of the dark ages
to publish, write, create art, invent! We eliminated beheading, slavery,
killing Jews for the sake of killing Jews, forcing women to marry against
their will, being forced to wear proscribed clothing.  This all came at a
terrible price in blood and suffering but we achieved it.  Are we now to
turn our back on all of this progress because we're afraid of offending
someones religious beliefs?  Bullshit!

The Minneapolis cab driver situation is on our soil!  Have we lost our
minds?  You can't draw cartoons in Denmark, write novels in England
(Rushdie), make films in Holland, or produce a play in Germany because it
might offend someone, or worse, they simply cut your head off!  Forget being
a reporter, especially a Jewish reporter for an American newspaper (Daniel
Pearl).  And now you have to worry about flying to MSP to see Slim and
whether to bring a bottle of wine or not!  This is insane.  If we can't put
a stop to this nonsense in the Midwest, we may as well as go shopping for
our prayer rugs and tell the wife she looks slim in a burka.

Brad


On 10/26/06, Tootle <ekroposki at charter.net> wrote:
>
>
> Brad:
>
>      Are you drawing an analogy between the cab drivers and the anti Bush
> on this list?
>
> Ed K
> Greenville, SC, USA
>
>
>
> Brad Haslett-2 wrote:
> >
> > OK, folks, we may disagree on Iraq and most other issues but this should
> > be
> > a no-brainer.  This article is from Slim's newspaper published this
> > morning.  Despite Slim's bias against the author, she's been all over
> this
> > story. How can we stem the growth of Islamic radicalism outside our
> > country
> > if we don't have the balls to stop it domestically? This is PC  gone
> wild.
> > As Paul Harvey would say, "and now for the rest of the story."
> >
> > Brad
> >
> > --------------------
> >
> >  [image: StarTribune.com] <http://www.startribune.com/> KERSTEN102606
> >
> > Last update: October 25, 2006 – 9:50 PM
> > Airport taxi flap about alcohol has deeper significance The airport taxi
> > controversy may go deeper than the quandary over whether to accommodate
> > Somali Muslim cabdrivers who refuse to carry passengers carrying
> alcohol.
> > Behind the scenes, a struggle for power and religious authority is
> > apparently playing out.
> >
> > *Katherine Kersten,* Star Tribune
> > The taxi controversy at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport
> has
> > caught the nation's attention. But the dispute may go deeper than the
> > quandary over whether to accommodate Somali Muslim cabdrivers who refuse
> > to
> > carry passengers carrying alcohol. Behind the scenes, a struggle for
> power
> > and religious authority is apparently playing out.
> >
> > At the Starbucks coffee shop in Minneapolis' Cedar-Riverside
> neighborhood,
> > a
> > favorite Somali gathering spot, holidaymakers celebrating Eid, the end
> of
> > Ramadan, filled the tables on Monday. Several taxis were parked outside.
> >
> > An animated circle of Somalis gathered when the question of the airport
> > controversy was raised.
> >
> > "I was surprised and shocked when I heard it was an issue at the
> airport,"
> > said Faysal Omar. "Back in Somalia, there was never any problem with
> > taking
> > alcohol in a taxi."
> >
> > Jama Dirie said, "If a driver doesn't pick up everyone, he should get
> his
> > license canceled and get kicked out of the airport."
> >
> > Two of the Somalis present defended the idea that Islam prohibits
> > cabdrivers
> > from transporting passengers with alcohol. An argument erupted. The
> > consensus seemed to be that only a small number of Somalis object to
> > transporting alcohol. It's a matter of personal opinion, not Islamic
> law,
> > several men said.
> >
> > Ahmed Samatar, a nationally recognized expert on Somali society at
> > Macalester College, confirmed that view. "There is a general Islamic
> > prohibition against drinking," he said, "but carrying alcohol for people
> > in
> > commercial enterprise has never been forbidden. There is no basis in
> > Somali
> > cultural practice or legal tradition for that.
> >
> > "This is one of those new concoctions."It is being foisted on the Somali
> > community by an inside or outside group," he added. "I do not know who."
> >
> > But many Somali drivers at the airport are refusing to carry passengers
> > with
> > alcohol. When I asked Patrick Hogan, Metropolitan Airports Commission
> > spokesman, for his explanation, he forwarded a fatwa, or religious
> edict,
> > that the MAC had received. The fatwa proclaims that "Islamic
> > jurisprudence"
> > prohibits taxi drivers from carrying passengers with alcohol, "because
> it
> > involves cooperating in sin according to the Islam."
> >
> > The fatwa, dated June 6, 2006, was issued by the "fatwa department" of
> the
> > Muslim American Society, Minnesota chapter, and signed by society
> > officials.
> >
> >
> > The society is mediating the conflict between the cab drivers and the
> MAC.
> > That seems odd, since the society itself clearly has a stake in the
> > controversy's outcome.
> >
> > How did the MAC connect with the society? "The Minnesota Department of
> > Human
> > Rights recommended them to us to help us figure out how to handle this
> > problem," Hogan said.
> >
> > Omar Jamal, director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center, thinks he
> > knows
> > why the society is promoting a "no-alcohol-carry" agenda with no basis
> in
> > Somali culture. "MAS is an Arab group; we Somalis are African, not
> Arabs,"
> > he said. "MAS wants to polarize the world, create two camps. I think
> they
> > are trying to hijack the Somali community for their Middle East agenda.
> > They
> > look for issues they can capitalize on, like religion, to rally the
> > community around. The majority of Somalis oppose this, but they are
> > vulnerable because of their social and economic situation."
> >
> > *The society*
> >
> > What is the Muslim American Society? In September 2004 the Chicago
> Tribune
> > published an investigative article. The society was incorporated in
> 1993,
> > the paper reported, and is the name under which the U.S. branch of the
> > Muslim Brotherhood operates.
> >
> > The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna.
> > The
> > Tribune described the Brotherhood as "the world's most influential
> Islamic
> > fundamentalist group."Because of its hard-line beliefs, the U.S.
> > Brotherhood
> > has been an increasingly divisive force within Islam in America, fueling
> > the
> > often bitter struggle between moderate and conservative Muslims," the
> > paper
> > reported.
> >
> > The international Muslim Brotherhood "preaches that religion and
> politics
> > cannot be separated and that governments eventually should be Islamic,"
> > according to the Tribune. U.S. members emphasize that they follow
> American
> > laws, but want people here to convert to Islam so that one day a
> majority
> > will support a society governed by Islamic law.
> >
> > How are society members to respond when questioned about a Muslim
> > Brotherhood connection? The Tribune cites an undated internal memo: "If
> > asked, 'Are you the Muslim Brothers?' leaders should respond that they
> are
> > an independent group called the Muslim American Society."
> >
> > The April 2001 issue of the society's magazine, the American Muslim,
> lists
> > "essential books" for understanding Islam. They include works by Hassan
> > al-Banna, the Brotherhood's founder, and Sayyid Qutb, one of its most
> > violent theoreticians.
> >
> > Here's the flavor of these authors' writings:
> >
> > "Always cherish the intention of jihad and the desire for martyrdom in
> the
> > Way of Allah, and actually prepare yourself for that," wrote Al-Banna.
> >
> > Osama bin Laden relied heavily on Qutb in formulating his world view,
> > according to the 9/11 Commission. Qutb had "an enormous loathing of
> > Western
> > society and history," states the commission's report. He taught that "no
> > middle ground exists" in the "struggle between God and Satan." All
> Muslims
> > must therefore take up arms in this fight, he said.
> >
> > Hassan Mohamud is vice president of the society's Minnesota chapter. The
> > society is independent and has no connection with the Muslim
> Brotherhood,
> > he
> > said.
> >
> > The Minnesota chapter's website, however, states that the organization's
> > roots lie in the Islamic revival movement that "brought the call of
> Islam
> > to
> > Muslim masses ... to reestablish Islam as a total way of life."
> >
> > Mohamud says the society has three goals: to present the "real image" of
> > Islam in American society, to preserve the identity of Muslims here and
> to
> > "make that identity fit without having clashes between cultures and
> laws."
> >
> > He emphasizes, however, that Muslims must follow shari'a, or Islamic
> law,
> > in
> > every aspect of their lives. "There are two conflicting systems here --
> > two
> > ways of life -- that want to live in the same place and respect each
> > other,"
> > he says. The society aims to facilitate conciliation between the two.
> >
> > Mohamud adds that Americans need to learn about Islamic law because the
> > Muslim population here is growing. That's why the proposed two-tier
> system
> > for airport cabdrivers is important, he says. It could become a national
> > model for accommodating Islam in areas ranging from housing to
> contractual
> > arrangements to the workplace.
> >
> > MAC officials will hold another meeting today about the airport
> > controversy,
> > and Mohamud says he will try to revive the two-tiered pilot project for
> > taxis. Whatever the meeting's outcome, we now have reason to believe
> that
> > the issue is only a prologue to a larger drama playing out in Minnesota
> > and
> > the United States.
> >
> > Katherine Kersten • kkersten at startribune.com
> >
> > (c)2006 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.
> > __________________________________________________
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> >
> >
>
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