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Reflections on an Islamic Center in Lower Manhattan

August 16, 2010

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Some observations:

• Cordoba House (or Park51) was announced in early April; that it remains an item of debate over four months later, and not just locally but nationally, points to Islam in the United States becoming a populist issue.
• Politicians who support the Islamic center, notably New York's mayor Michael Bloomberg, are paying a political price for their stand.
• As in the case of French hijabs or Swiss minarets, this is a case of going after a very visible but merely symbolic problem. What would victory achieve, exactly? I'd rather focus, say, on Islamist penetration of security services.
• Feisal Abdul Rauf and Daisy Khan proved not ready for prime time; ongoing investigations increasingly reveal what unsavory Islamists they are.
• As Raymond Ibrahim points out, the huge debate over this Islamic center has done significant damage to the lawful Islamist cause.

And my position on this controversy? While Muslims have every legal right to build a mosque near Ground Zero, this initiative carries the unmistakable odor of Islamic triumphalism. More importantly, Abdul Rauf's dubious background and associations give reason to worry that his center will spread Islamist ideology. Therefore, it should be barred from opening.

Niqab Security Outrages at Canadian Airports

August 3, 2010

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I visited Toronto in early March 2010 and as I left the country I passed through the usual security check at Pearson International Airport. What made it different is that the next passengers after me in line were a man, a small child, and a person in niqab. (I write "person" rather than "woman" as I hardly know who was under the niqab outfit.)

Curious how the niqabi's hidden identity would be handled, I looked back as the trio was dealing with the security agent. To my astonishment, the agent did not demand to see the niqabi's face but was content to see those of the man and child. I wanted dearly to video this procedure on my mobile phone but dared not, thinking that this could well get me hauled in on some charge that I, ironically, was breaching security.

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Operation Desert Storm Plus 20

August 2, 2010

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It was twenty years ago on this day, that Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, initiating a crisis that lasted half a year and beginning the slow turn of events that led eventually to his own overthrow and execution, followed by the American-led occupation.

While immensely important in the history of Iraq, the real surprise lies in the transitory nature of the invasion and the war it spawned. Here's how I put it on the tenth anniversary, in an article titled "After 'Desert Storm,' Barely a Footprint Was Left in the Sand" and published in August 2000:

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My Website Furthers Computer Science / Linguistics

August 1, 2010

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On the grounds that "danielpipes.org is clean, consistently formatted, carefully edited and larger than WSJ," a team of three authors from Google and Stanford University have used my website to explore a possible connection between linguistic syntax and web mark-up. To put it more technically,

Spanning decades, Pipes' editorials are mostly in-domain for POS taggers and tree-bank-trained parsers; his recent (internet-era) entries are thoroughly cross-referenced, conveniently providing just the mark-up we hoped to study via uncluttered (printer-friendly) HTML.

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France vs. Niqabs and Burqas

July 23, 2010

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National Review Online asked several writers: "Is France really banning the burqa? What does this mean? What could other Western nations learn from it?" My reply follows. For those of Raymond Ibrahim, Judith Apter Klinghoffer, Melanie Phillips, James V. Schall, Jonathan Schanzer, and Bat Ye'or, click here.

The French lower house of Parliament, the National Assembly, voted last week 335 to 1 to prohibit from public places all "clothing intended to hide the face," with a €150 fine per breach.

This step does not ban niqabs and burqas but constitutes one of many steps in this direction. The French Senate must pass the bill. The Constitutional Court will likely review it. Both French and Europe courts will certainly judge it. Its chances of becoming law remain unclear.

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On NASA's Strange Priorities

July 6, 2010

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Charles F. Bolden, Jr., head of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

One was he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math, he wanted me to expand our international relationships, and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering.

NASA, he went on, is pursuing "a new beginning of the relationship between the United States and the Muslim world."

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Erasing the George W. Bush Administration Online

June 25, 2010

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Here's a pet peeve: Through eight years of the two George W. Bush administrations, I linked hundreds of times to White House and Department of State documents, plus less frequently to other U.S. government departments and agencies. I made efforts to link to original documents (and not news articles, much less blogs) because, having earned a Ph.D. in history, I value primary sources.

I assumed during those years that the documents, being part of the U.S. government's permanent record, would remain available so long as the government and the internet were functioning – in other words, a long time.

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Ah, the Joys of Polygamy

June 21, 2010

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Being an occasional series reporting on the complications that accompany polygynous marriages.

"Bangladesh Bigamist's Friends to Decide Faith as 'Wives' Fight Over Corpse": I cannot do better than to quote the news report.

A Bangladeshi court summoned friends of a dead man in an effort to end a six-month wrangle over his corpse by his two wives—one of whom is Hindu, the other Muslim, police said Monday. When Chandan Kumar Chakrabarty, alias Sazzad Hossain, 42, a vice-principal at a Dhaka college, was stabbed to death by muggers last December his secret double life was exposed and his two wives have since fought over his body.

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American Muslims in the Liquor Business

June 20, 2010

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In an anthropological study, The Arab Moslems in the United States: Religion and Assimilation (New Haven, Conn.: College & University Press, 1966), Abdo A. Elkholy presents field research he did in 1959 in two Muslim communities, in Toledo, Ohio and in Detroit. The book contains a very precious glimpse of Islam in the United States just before the immigration law was overhauled in 1965, leading to a permanent change in the nature of American Islam.

One startling fact Elkholy discovered concerned the sometimes deep involvement of Arabic-speaking Muslims in the liquor business. Indeed, Muslims were attracted to Toledo

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A Military Strike on Iran's Nuclear Infrastructure?

June 12, 2010

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Whether or not Iran's nuclear buildup will be stopped is the most urgent topic in the Middle East these days. I note occasional developments here that point to the use of military force against the Iranian nuclear infrastructure.

"Saudi Arabia gives Israel clear skies to attack Iranian nuclear sites": In a sensational report, Hugh Tomlinson writes in the Times (London) that

Riyadh has agreed to allow Israel to use a narrow corridor of its airspace in the north of the country to shorten the distance for a bombing run on Iran. To ensure the Israeli bombers pass unmolested, Riyadh has carried out tests to make certain its own jets are not scrambled and missile defence systems not activated. Once the Israelis are through, the kingdom's air defences will return to full alert.

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