Religion Dispatches
…are today 15 nations, invaded Afghanistan; the U.S. worked with Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and other countries, like Egypt and China, to offer assistance and arms to mujahidin fighters to resist and defeat that occupation. In 2003, the United States mustered a coalition of some forty-nine countries, which was strong enough to swiftly topple Iraq’s government, but not strong enough to pacify Iraq, establish a new government, or secure it from foreign…
Read More…eported to have said: “In difference there is mercy for my community.” The freewheeling misuse of religion on both sides is a dismal augury of continued social and political chaos in Egypt. Time and time again, revolutionaries have eventually learned that without the rule of law and principled adherence to justice, the popular will does not translate into a moral mandate for positive social and political change. Religion can be an important ally i…
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…. Even Salafis escape easy characterization. America’s oldest Arab ally is Saudi Arabia, which implements and exports the type of Salafi Islam we’re so alarmed by. So what kinds of Salafis can we live with, and who would we prefer to live without? Salafis in Egypt are hard to pin down, too. Does their conservative theology make them politically dangerous, or politically irrelevant? Today, we’d guess the former. But prior to January 25, 2011, leadi…
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…hose who argue for further Muslim Reformation are in fact arguing for more Saudi Arabia-like states and more bin Ladens in the world. It is this basic ignorance of tradition that allows people to sound as though they are speaking for a “good,” when they are actually promoting the “bad.” It is not a Reformation we need, but a Renaissance, a rebirth of the scholarly class as arbiters of interpretation. Just as Abd al-Wahhab was condemned by his fami…
Read More…agnitsky Act, Secretary of State Pompeo recently named 17 individuals from Saudi Arabia implicated in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. This means any assets or business interests they have in the United States may be frozen. The Global Magnitsky Act could be invoked to sanction Stepan Tkach, Dmitry Asmolov and Sergey Bogodelov, the investigators and torturers working for the Investigative Committee of Russia who mistreated the Witnesses—i…
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…t without igniting a horrible civil war, one that Iran, Syria, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia would not sit out. The best hope is that Iraqis will decide for integration and sovereignty, but it is up to them to decide whether they want a unitary state, a decentralized federation, three nations, or something else. I don’t want President Obama to make that decision or to commit U.S. troops to one of these outcomes. We must hold the Obama Administration to…
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…intellect. When journalists discuss Islamic politics, they often reach for Saudi Arabia, Iran, or Afghanistan. But that form of Islamic politics, authoritarian and draconian, has been discredited. Mostly by itself, without much need for foreign intervention (but, keep in mind, that doesn’t mean America’s stock has risen). Most of the popular Islamist figures in the Arab world today are all about democracy, although they articulate their interest i…
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…tries that still use the death penalty quite liberally: among them Russia, Saudi Arabia, China, North Korea, and Myanmar. Deterrence, Vengeance, Retribution In an increasingly abolitionist global environment, what are the arguments for a continued commitment to the death penalty? There are three main ones. Far and away the most common argument offered in favor if the death penalty is the argument for deterrence. The threat of execution, it is held…
Read More…the Oklahoma ballot measure that prohibited Sharia law in state courts. In Saudi Arabia, the Mecca Clock Royal Tower is under construction. When finished it will be the second tallest building in the world. It is also located right next to the Kaaba, Islam’s holiest site. And there is now a video game rating system based on “the society, culture, and the special values of Islam.” The Chaplain for the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers is asking fans to for…
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…The Sudan, there are of course strong restrictions around women’s dress in Saudi Arabia. That’s possibly 2 countries for the other side. (In fact, in the whole Muslim world, only two other countries legally mandate the veil: Iran and Afghanistan.) There must be an explanation for why a journalist would make such a broad, unsubstantiated statement, and it returns us to the simple need to define Arabs as either secular (like us) or religious (unlike…
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