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France vs. Niqabs and Burqas

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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July 23, 2010  |  Permalink  |  Comments (7)

On NASA's Strange Priorities

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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July 6, 2010  |  Permalink  |  Comments (96)

Erasing the George W. Bush Administration Online

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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June 25, 2010  |  Permalink  |  Comments (23)

Ah, the Joys of Polygamy

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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June 21, 2010  |  Permalink  |  Comments (12)

American Muslims in the Liquor Business

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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June 20, 2010  |  Permalink  |  Comments (6)

A Military Strike on Iran's Nuclear Infrastructure?

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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June 12, 2010  |  Permalink  |  Comments (27)

Rashad Valmont – Jihadi?

I have long argued (for example, in 2002) that when a Muslim in the West for no apparent reason violently attacks one or more non-Muslims, the working assumption should be that jihad is involved. Of course, that assumption could prove wrong, but jihad is so often the case (TheReligionOfPeace.com records over 15,500 violent attacks worldwide since 9/11) that this motive should be at the forefront of the investigation.

I mention this because we learned today that the military has charged one Staff Sgt. Rashad Valmont with premeditated murder in the shooting death of Master Sgt. Pedro Mercado at Fort Gillem, Georgia. Initial reports tell us little about Valmont except that he is 29 years old and from the Virgin Islands, and that he reported to Mercado at the personnel management branch of the U.S. Army Medical Professional Management Command – and has a typically Muslim first name.

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June 11, 2010  |  Permalink  |  Comments (8)

Who Lost Turkey?

Elections within the next year could reverse Ankara's course; that said, two main explanations are circulating that address the now-burning question., "Who lost Turkey?":

• Blame the European Union: U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates says that if Turkey is, as he delicately puts it, moving eastward," this resulted "in no small part because it was pushed, and pushed by some in Europe refusing to give Turkey the kind of organic link to the West that Turkey sought." July 8, 2010 update: Barack Obama has endorsed this theory, as quoted in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera: "He discussed the risk of losing Turkey, noting that Europe's reluctance to include Ankara as a full member could push the Turkish people to 'look elsewhere'."

• Blame Islam: A reader of mine argues that the Atatürk revolution, now nearly ninety years old, "had all the ingredients of success (Westernization, modernity, secularism, democracy, economic growth) – and these were not imposed from without, but came organically from within. That the Atatürkist experiment is rapidly failing points to the futility of trying to modernize Islam."

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June 10, 2010  |  Permalink  |  Comments (56)

Hafiz al-Asad and Me

Hafiz al-Asad (also spelled Hafez al-Assad) died ten years ago today, prompting some personal reflections:

I worked the Syria topic for 15 years, 1985-2000, writing one major academic study, two monographs, and many journal articles, newspaper articles, and book reviews – in all, about 100 publications. Because of my hostility to the regime, however, other than two visits to the country as a student in 1972 and 1973, I was not allowed to return, even when such august institutions as Reader's Digest and the U.S. government sponsored my travel.

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June 10, 2010  |  Permalink  |  Comments (12)

More on Islamist Turkey Overreaching

Extra points that did not fit my main article today, "Islamist Turkey Overreaches."

(1) The sex scandal that forced opposition leader Deniz Baykal to resign as head of the Republican People's Party (CHP) a month ago could potentially be the turning point whereby Turkey's secular forces find their voice and develop a compelling program. Baykal's successor, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, is the key person to watch.

(2) Ahmet Davutoğlu has made some astonishing statements about the flotilla confrontation, including an allusion to invoking Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty: "Citizens of member states were attacked by a country that was not a member of NATO. We think that should be discussed in NATO."

(3) Adnan Oktar (who goes by the pen-name Harun Yahya) mailed out a statement today that also disapproves of the flotilla maneuver:

Israel should be allowed to search the boats and that Israel had a natural right to do that. What should have been done was to inform Israel of the cargo, permit them to examine the boats if they wished and then to distribute the humanitarian aid being carried to the people in need in Gaza together.

June 8, 2010  |  Permalink  |  Comments (4)

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