I'm going to devote a separate post to The Religious Policeman, but it would be a sin not to mention his blog here. Go read what this Saudi expat has to say - and why he calls himself the Religious Policeman.
Karfan of Syria Exposed fears he may be suffering delusions of adequacy as he explodes Myth No. 11:
Two months ago, it became obvious that King Lion the 2nd and his entourage grew weary of people barking at them from all sides. Being completely hopeless towards the big strong harmful dogs barking from the safe heaven of outside, they decided to start beating the dogs that they can beat: the tiny little harmless poodles inside the country. So they started a charitable campaign of filling some empty cells with people who dared to speak out loud demanding reforms and democracy. Some of the names they took are famous or became famous after the rides, like the Atassi seven and their snow-white princess. Some were never mentioned in media and they were known by word of mouth only. Some were released and some were not. So Karfan and I, being lawful disciples of chicken-citizenship conditioning, decided to keep a low profile for a while.
After taking a month and a half vacation from this virtual ranting duty, we realized that there is really nothing for us to fear from. We were fooling our selves by thinking that we are actually so important that a security service apparatus would waist their brilliant informants time to track us down ....
Karfan doesn't ask much of his government ... just one little thing. Read the post to find out what it is.
Syrian heretic Amarji has the latest on a conference in Venice:
The words and addresses if the conference organizers and participants, in contrast, were thankfully much more humble, albeit, at times, they could still be too apologetic.
“Modernization is not synonymous with westernization.” Said one of the speakers. Oh really. Can anyone name one thing that is modern but not Western? Whenever I ask this question, people are often tempted to refer to Japanese ingenuity. Obviously they haven’t heard of Commodore Perry and gunboat diplomacy.
Will gunboat diplomacy work with a certain country I wonder? It might be worth considering.
The problem with reform in the region, the reason why we don’t have enlightened despots at work, is simply the total corruption of our political and economic elite. We have thieves and thugs for decision-makers, avaricious morons for policy advisors and dreamy nincompoops for technocrats. How on earth can we modernize with this lot?
Big Pharaoh has this to say about the Iraqi women who demonstrated the other day:
And please don't tell me that the unveiled jeans wearing ladies are less Muslim than the women who are clad in black. Please don't try to convince me that Allah or God who created Mars, Venus, Jupiter, the rivers, the roses, and the water falls had a bad day today because a group of Iraqi women dressed in jeans decided to braze the terrorists and a terrible weather to demand equal rights and a better life.Read it all at the link. And did you hear about the two stoners going into the one dude's apartment? No? Well, better go here: Osama who?
Also from Egypt, Sandmonkey is breaking out the bubbly:
'Omar Bakri has been living in Britian for 20 years now as a refuge after SaudiRead it all at the link.
declared him to be an "islamic extremist"- imagine how bad you have to be for
that to happen- and kicked him out of Saudi. The fact that he wasn't arrested
for all of those years of hate incitement and support for terrorism was pissing
me off, and the fact that he came under fire finally after the London bombings
is the one good thing I consider to ever come out of this tragic event. Altough
to be fair ,the fact that he didn't keep his mouth shut after it either and
calling the 7/7 bombers the "fabolous four" , kind of helped.
Omar Bakri sparked outrage last week when he said he would not inform police if he knew Muslims were planning a bomb attack on a train in Britain and supported Muslims who attacked British troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.
So faced with the threat of going to jail for hate-incitement, our boy Bakri had to escape London and went to Lebanon, after overstaying his welcome and abusing the kindness of people who took him into their country, which is something that I am kind of glad about. And i am not the only one who thinks so it seems:
Omar Bakri's departure, however, was welcomed by Sir Iqbal Sacranie, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain. "There can be a bit of a celebration. That is something which I think will bring a bit of real joy and happiness to the community," he said.
Well, Sir Iqbal, I am happy to report that the good news just keeps on coming, and by good news I mean bad news for Bakri: They arrested him in Lebanon...'
Nadz, one of our favorite members of Dreams Into Lightning's Axis of Estrogen, admits to being a little spooked by beards:
'One thing we can learn from all of these attacks is this - religious nuts with beards are trouble. I'm not out to dis all of you bearded readers, but my experience is that regardless of your faith, the ones with beards are the scariest.
Case in point: Jewish settler nutcases goes on a shooting spree, killing 4 palestinian-israeli citizens. Following the example of previous asshole Baruch Goldstein, it seems. Look, it's just as evil when Hamas does it as well. I don't care if you're palestinian or israeli or tibetan, this is terrorism, pure and simple. My heart goes out to the victims' families and loved ones.
Another angry beardie won't shut up - Ayman Zawahiri is back in the news with a new videotape. And here's the shocker - he still wants to wage his jihad against infidel imperialist crusader zionist invaders. What a twist! And because it's fun, I'll examine his "logic".
"Blair has brought to you destruction in central London, and he will bring more of that, God willing,"
al-Zawahri said in the broadcast excerpts.
Of course! Don't blame the guys who actually blew up the train, blame Tony Blair! And Karl Rove, if you can manage it. It's just like the rapist who blames his victim by saying that she provoked him.
...He warned the Palestinians against what he called attempts to drag them into the election game in order to extract legitimacy for the Palestinian Authority(source: AlJazeera)
That's right, my fellow Palestinians: ignore the "game" of elections, democracy and reform, and instead use the tactic of blowing up buses full of civilians. That's the way to change things! Because it has worked well in the past and it's the "correct" thing to do, you see. Idiot.
"In Palestine, we are not only facing the Jews but also the anti-Islam international alliance headed by the US crusaders."
And international alliance? I wonder where their secret headquarters are? And
another thing - the crusades happened several CENTURIES ago! Get over it, you
touchy whiner.
Nadz also suspects there are a lot of closeted moderates out there:
... In case you haven't noticed, many of the Middle Eastern bloggers have
opinions that may surprise the average news-watching American. Sure, you have
your Raeds and Riverbends, but you also have your Iraq the Models and countless
others. Maybe it's because we are truly a minority that we use the internet to
speak to like-minded thinkers. Maybe it's because we are a frustrated silent
majority that needs a safer, more anonymous way to talk. Either way, blogs have
allowed people like my friend and passing drivers to say things that others
don't want to hear. And that can only be a good thing...
Mahmoud, who will NOT be registering his blog with the Bahraini government, thank you very much, offers some voices from the Bahraini blogosphere:
The first that cought my attention this morning was Silly Bahraini Girl where
she tells us in no uncertain terms that there is no connection between our blogs
and the oppossition, I know what prompted that one, or at least think I do, but
in any case it is absolutely true: as far as I know and observed there is
absolutely no connection between any of the blogs (currently alive) and the
government or the opposition, we are an independent bunch and hope that this
situation will continue.
emoodz once again has a thought provoking post
asking the simple question about patriotism, and more importantly to me is his
observation that
Ever since the opposition movement was lead by the
turban, sugarcoated with the sweet and drugging ideologies of Islam, people
followed without question, without doubt and with a lot of trust, to a dead end.
It is as I write this that people around me are awakening, realizing that this
is not the way to go. ...
Also, Mahmoud runs out of patience with some inept attempts at the English language.
And if you haven't been following Kuwaiti Girl's astronautical aspirations, go visit her site.
