From his recent travels to the Persian Gulfsponsored and paid for by the State DepartmentImam Faisal Abdul Rauf returned with a none-too-subtle threat. His project, the Ground Zero Mosque, would have to go on. Its cancellation would risk putting "our soldiers, our troops, our embassies and citizens under attack in the Muslim world."
Leave aside the attempt to make this project a matter of national security. The self-appointed bridge between America and the Arab-Islamic world is a false witness to the sentiments in Islamic lands.
The truth is that the trajectory of Islam in America (and Europe for that matter) is at variance with the play of things in Islam's main habitat. A survey by Elaph, the most respected electronic daily in the Arab world, gave a decided edge to those who objected to the building of this mosque58% saw it as a project of folly.
Elaph was at it again in the aftermath of Pastor Terry Jones's threat to burn copies of the Quran: It queried its readers as to whether America was a "tolerant" or a "bigoted" society. The split was 63% to 37% in favor of those who accepted the good faith and pluralism of this country.
This is remarkable. The ground burned in the Arab-Islamic world over the last three decades. Sly preachers and their foot soldiers "weaponized" the faith and all but devoured what modernists had tried to build in the face of difficult odds. But from this ruinous history, there has settled upon countless Muslims and Arabs the recognition that the wells are poisoned in their midst, that the faith has to be reined in or that the faith will kill, and that the economic and cultural prospects of modern Islam hang in the balance.
To this kind of sobriety, Muslim activists and preachers in the diasporain Patterson, N.J., and Minneapolis, in Copenhagen and Amsterdamappear to be largely indifferent. They are forever on the look-out for the smallest slight.
Mr. Ajami is a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.
#1
To this kind of sobriety, Muslim activists and preachers in the diasporain Patterson, N.J., and Minneapolis, in Copenhagen and Amsterdamappear to be largely indifferent. They are forever on the look-out for the smallest slight.
And why should they not? They have carefully observed our history, the buttered bread of our crutch leaning protected classes. No lectures or instruction required, they now ride the same wave of multi-culturalism and entitlement. Infidels can labor and be unmercifully taxed to support them. Everyone knows work is halal.
#2
Elaph survey says 58% of muslims surveyed said the mosque project was folly (they didn't say don't build it however). The imams who met at the GZ mosque site said the building of the mosque should continue. This was reported on Fox yesterday but I can't find it anywhere else. I guess these imams who met at GZ were part of the 42% who weren't surveyed.
#3
I guess these imams who met at GZ were part of the 42% who weren't surveyed.
Given that the imams are part of the Muslim diaspora, emigrants to the U.S., and not part of the Arab world -- especially Imam Rauf, who is Malaysian, not an Arab ubermensch at all -- no they were not part of the surveyed population, JohnQC.
#5
5am Sunday October 10, Michael Moore's house: worship time for the Ramadamadingdong followers. Bring your car horns, vuvuzelas, trumpets. It's an American RIGHT to worship as you choose wherever and whenever you choose and anyone who says no is unamerican.
Dear Lord wants it loud and proud, 5am, Sunday, October 10, Michael Moore's house. Video it for YouTube - and try to interview him on his reaction too.
[Chosun Ilbo] North Korean leader Kim Jong-il appointed his third son Jong-un as his successor in January of 2009 and apparently informed his closest aides of his decision first. The selection came just five months after he suffered a massive stroke in August 2008, and North Korean officials got to work immediately to cement Jong-un's position.
He's the only Kim son left, the others having proved unsatisfactory. After that, there's Kim Jog-il's sister, but however effective she might be, she's just a female, which in itself is unsatisfactory to those tradition-bound Stalinist apes.
In February, just one month later, the North Korean leader attended a military performance where he heard for the first time the song "Footsteps," which obliquely praises the younger Kim.
◆ Swift Ascent
According to sources in the West familiar with North Korean affairs, Jong-un was elected a deputy to the Supreme People's Assembly in March 2009 under the alias "Kim Jong" for the 216 electoral district, which represents Kim senior's birthday of Feb. 16. Once that was done, the regime convened three general meetings to reshuffle and reorganize the powerful National Defense Commission. It also replaced the premier and entire Cabinet.
Kim Jong-un then sat next to his father to witness the launch of North Korea's long-range missile on April 5 last year and was said to have orchestrated a punishingly expensive fireworks performance to commemorate his late grandfather Kim Il-sung's birthday on April 15, thereby announcing his rise to power to Pyongyang's ruling elite.
How to make friends and influence people when so many are eating grass and tree bark
.The National Intelligence Service told a National Assembly committee in June last year that North Korea informed its overseas diplomatic missions of Jong-un's appointment.
◆ Chinese Approval
Until last year, the process of succession appears to have been limited to the North Korean leadership and the military. "Until last year, few North Korean defectors had heard of Kim Jong-un," a South Korean government official said. But many defectors who escaped this year have. The NIS told the National Assembly in June this year that events are being held featuring poems and songs in praise of Kim Jong-un as part of a major campaign to bolster his personality cult. Intelligence officials added that Jong-un started accompanying his father on his so called on-the-spot guidance tours and boosting his influence in policies.
The North Korean authorities have started using slogans and expressions signaling Jong-un's rise to power. One of them is "party center," a code word for the succession that is making a reappearance for the first time in 14 years. And the notorious mass calisthenics performance "Arirang" featured placards spelling the letters "CNC," a quaint abbreviation for "computer numerical control," another code associating Jong-un with North Korea's idea of modernity.
Efforts to ensure a smooth succession spread from the North Korean leadership and military to ordinary people and even to the Chinese leadership. Kim Jong-il last month took Jong-un on a trip to China, where he apparently introduced him to Chinese President Hu Jintao.
Lee Jo-won, a professor at Chungang University, said, "It appears that the only thing left is to formally announce his succession."
But some experts say Kim Jong-il may need more time. He himself was given his first party post in 1964 and was anointed in 1974. But it was not until 1980 that he made his official debut. That meant he had 16 years to learn the ropes, whereas Jong-un, who is in his mid-20s, had just one year and nine months.
But Daddy is dying, and neither of the older brothers worked out. No matter how bad young Jong-un may be, he's the last possibility of the bloodline. His father should have had more sons more quickly, but now the country is stuck with the young pup.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/21/2010 00:00 ||
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Well, Kim Jong-il was clearly ill. So just to be optimistic, rather than pessimistic, perhaps Kim Jong-un will be the "un" Kin Jong.
"When used with adjectives, un- often has a sense distinct from that of non-. Non- picks out the set of things that are not in the category denoted by the stem to which it is attached, whereas un- picks out properties unlike those of the typical examples of the category. Thus nonmilitary personnel are those who are not members of the military, whereas someone who is unmilitary is unlike a typical soldier in dress, habits, or attitudes."
Posted by: Martini ||
09/21/2010 7:50 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il appointed his third son Jong-un as his successor in January of 2009 and apparently informed his closest aides of his decision first. The selection came just five months after he suffered a massive stroke in August 2008, and North Korean officials got to work immediately to cement Jong-un's position. 
