Egypten: Islamisme forude

Annals of the Arab Spring: Egyptians Demand Blind Sheikh’s Release

By Andrew C. McCarthy – April 21, 2011

The Islamic Group (Gama’a al-Islamiya) is the Egyptian terrorist organization led by Omar Abdel Rahman, the “Blind Sheikh” currently serving a life sentence in a U.S. penitentiary for conspiring to wage a terrorist war against the U.S., conspiring to murder former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, and other charges. With Mubarak now sacked, and Egypt enjoying that spontaneous urge for democracy, the IG and its Islamist allies have renewed their campaign to pressure the United States for the release of Sheikh Abdel Rahman.

This campaign has been ongoing since Abdel Rahman was first imprisoned following his 1993 arrest (he was convicted at our little nine-month trial in 1995, and sentenced a few months later). It was from this confinement that he issued the fatwa Osama bin Laden has credited as the Islamic authorization for the 9/11 attacks. The Sheikh had decreed that Muslims must fight for his release, exhorting “Muslims everywhere to dismember their [i.e., our] nation, tear them apart, ruin their economy, provoke their corporations, destroy their embassies, attack their interests, sink their ships, shoot down their planes, [and] kill them on land, at sea, and in the air. Kill them wherever you find them.” That would seem to cover it.

Mere HER i National Review Online. Monsters & Critics skriver:

A recently appointed Coptic Christian governor in Upper Egypt intends to resign from his post after days of protests against his appointment, according to state news website EgyNews.

Baggrund:

Egypt: Muslims Riot Over Appointment of Christian Governor

by Robert Spencer on Apr 21st, 2011

In the new modern, moderate, secular, democratic Egypt of the Arab Spring, Muslims in Qena are enraged and protesting because a Christian governor has been appointed for them. It was yet another indication that the Egypt that will emerge from this season of revolution and upheaval is much more likely to be an Islamic state than a secular democracy, no matter how much the mainstream media fantasizes about the latter.

The protests have been vehement, if not violent. Reuters reported Sunday that “thousands rallied outside the governor’s office in Qena and prevented employees from entering, blocked highways leading to the town and sat on a railway line into the province demanding that the appointment of Emad Mikhail be reversed.” A local resident added: “They started out by camping at the local government’s office. Then they set up a tent on the railroad tracks. They also tried to block the road and stopped buses to separate men and women passengers.” And “tensions were so high that the local Christian residents had to stay inside and couldn’t go to church to celebrate Palm Sunday.”

Mere HER i FrontPageMagazine. Kan også læses her hos Free Republic.

Opdatering 26. april 2011 fra Jyllands-Posten – om Israel:

En ny meningsmåling, der bygger på interviews med 1000 egyptere, viser, at 54 pct. af egypterne mener, at fredspagten skal afskaffes.

Og:

Blot 36 pct. af de adspurgte mener, at den skal bevares. Dermed kan et demokratisk system i Egypten betyde, at relationen til Israel bliver mere anstrengt.

Mere HER i Jyllands-Posten.

Opdatering - mere om undersøgelsen:

• Fra UPI: Pew: Egyptians don’t want Israeli peace
• Fra PEW: Egyptians Embrace Revolt Leaders, Religious Parties and Military, As Well

Andre kilder: Ynet News, Associated Press, Associated Press, ABC News, Reuters, Yahoo, PEW,

Syriens forsømte forår

Assad’s Taqiyya Against His People

by Walid Phares, Ph.D. – 22 Apr 11

Although the origins of al-Taqiyya are found in fundamentalist dogma regarding propaganda, Ba’athists and other authoritarian regimes in the region have used the practice for decades. In short, once widespread opposition to his one-party regime became evident, Assad needed to shield himself from international retribution. In an effort to buy time, the Syrian dictator announced that he would cancel ‘emergency law’ which forbids demonstrations and limits free speech.

Assad’s lack of credibility immunizes Syrian protesters to his “Taqiyya.” No deception will convince them that the Syrian President’s intentions are good. Ma’moun Homsi, a former Member of Syria’s Parliament who has been jailed several times for speaking out against the regime said recently, “The dictator is gaining time and playing the propagandist, nothing more.” In essence, Mr. Assad simply replaced an outmoded tool, the state of emergency, with a cutting-edge narrative referred to as “counter terrorism law.” His own speech indicts the so-called ‘reformist’ head of the regime who warned, “There will no longer be ‘an excuse’ for organizing protests after Syria lifts emergency law and implements the reforms.” What part of ‘reform’ does the Syrian President not understand?

Mere HER hos World Defense Review. Kan også læses her hos AINA eller i The American Thinker her.

Syriana

After Bashar al-Assad, the deluge

By Robert D. Kaplan | April 21, 2011

The late Princeton scholar Philip K. Hitti called Greater Syria — the historical antecedent of the modern republic — “the largest small country on the map, microscopic in size but cosmic in influence,” encompassing in its geography, at the confluence of Europe, Asia, and Africa, “the history of the civilized world in a miniature form.” This is not an exaggeration, and because it is not, the current unrest in Syria is far more important than unrest we have seen anywhere in the Middle East.

“Syria” was the 19th-century Ottoman-era term for a region that stretched from the Taurus Mountains of Turkey in the north to the Arabian Desert in the south, and from the Mediterranean Sea in the west to Mesopotamia in the east. Present-day Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, western Iraq, and southern Turkey were all included in this vast area. In other words, the concept of “Syria” was not linked to any specific national sentiment. The collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I led to Greater Syria being carved into a half-dozen states. Although territory had been cut away on all sides, the rump French mandate of “Syria” that came into existence, nevertheless, contained not only every warring sect and regional and tribal interest, but also the spiritual headquarters in the capital Damascus of the pan-Arab movement, whose aim was to erase all the state borders that the Europeans had just created.

Mere HER i Foreign Policy.

Video: FrontPage Close-Up med Evan Sayet & Jamie Glazov

Jamie Glazov er klar med endnu et interview - offentliggjort den 18. april 2011. Amerikansk humor. Evan Sayet kritiserer venstrefløjen:

Andre kilder: FrontPageMagazine,

Interview med nobelprismodtager, Shirin Ebadi

The Education of an Iranian Revolutionary

In 1978, the future Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi helped storm the justice ministry in Tehran in protest against the shah. ‘The future appeared full of promise’.

By David Feith – April 23, 2011

‘At the time I really believed that an Islamic Republic would bring us independence and liberty.” The time was 1978 and the belief belonged to Shirin Ebadi, then a 31-year-old judge on the Tehran city court. So strong was her revolutionary fervor that she helped storm the justice ministry, one of many acts of revolt that eventually toppled the shah and installed Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as Iran’s supreme leader.

“What would happen to our beloved Iran? No one knew,” Ms. Ebadi writes in “The Golden Cage,” her new book out next week, “but the future appeared full of promise.”

Mere HER i Wall Street Journal.

Andre kilder: Wikipedia,

Audio: Pascal Bruckner hos Philosophy Bites

Helt nyt interview om Pascal Bruckners nye bog:

Pascal Bruckner on the Pursuit of Happiness

22 April 2011

Is the attempt to find happiness self-defeating? Have people always been so obsessed with the pursuit of happiness? Pascal Bruckner discusses these questions with Nigel Warburton in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast. Philosophy Bites is made in association with the Institute of Philosophy.

Startes HER – åbner Windows Media Player. Varighed 18½ minut. Og yderligere en audio på 5 minutter:

Pascal Bruckner was a student of Roland Barthes’ – in this bonus content he talks about this experience

Startes HER – åbner Windows Media Player. Læs eventuelt også:

• Interview med Pascal Bruckner
• Lykken er…

Video: Kan Jorden brødføde 9 mia. mennesker? Ja, vi kan!

Feeeeeeeeedt!

The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves

Matt Ridley, bestselling author of The Red Queen, Nature via Nurture, and other books, tells the story of human cultural and economic evolution in his latest work, The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves. Combining the best of economics and biology, he explains both the “how” and “why” of the amazing (and recent) explosion in worldwide human well-being. Against the pessimism of many of today’s intellectuals and commentators, Ridley presents a compelling case for why progress will continue, but only if cultural evolution is allowed to develop in the direction of more contact, trade, and openness between people.

At this event, held at the Mercatus Center, Ridley discusses his book and answers questions from the audience.

Se eventuelt den korte video nederst først – her er fødevaredelen behandlet seperat. Fra 21. maj 2010 – uploadet på YouTube den 27. oktober 2010:

Og den korte – fra 22. marts 2011:

Man må håbe, at P.C. Matthiessen ser YouTubes:

• P.C. Matthiessen om verdens demografi

Opdatering 24. april 2011 – fandt lige endnu en fin video. Den er uploadet 15. marts 2011:

Matt Ridley – The Rational Optimist- Intensive Farming

Matt Ridley discussing intensive farming. The Rational Optimist is out now.