Pajamas Media In recent House hearings dedicated to examining Islamic extremism, I stressed that the fundamental stumbling block to effective policy-making is educational and epistemological. What people are taught about Islam needs a serious overhaul before we can expect to formulate strategies that make sense. Worth heeding is former top Pentagon official William Gawthrop's … [Read more...]
The Perverse Sexual Habits of the Prophet
An Account by Fr. Zakaria Botros Danish; Indonesian Part 1 Father Zakaria Botros recently ran a show dedicated to discussing the question of morality and how it is—or should be—one of the hallmarks of "prophethood." At the start, he posed the focal question of the show: "Was Muhammad the prophet a moral man—the most upright man, worthy of being emulated by the world?" He … [Read more...]
Debating the ‘Mind of Jihad’
Jihad Watch Some time back, I wrote a book review for The Mind of Jihad by Laurent Murawiec for the Weekly Standard. Soon thereafter, Mr. Murawiec wrote something of an angry rebuttal -- accusing me of having an "agenda" and "disfiguring" his book -- which was to be published in a forthcoming Weekly Standard issue. The editors were kind enough to have asked me to respond to … [Read more...]
Conflating History with Theology
Judeo-Christian Violence vs. Islamic Violence Jihad Watch Especially after the terrorist strikes of 9/11, Islam has often been accused of being intrinsically violent. Many point to the Koran and other Islamic scriptures and texts as proof that violence and intolerance vis-à-vis non-Muslims is inherent to Islam. In response, a number of apologetics have been offered. The … [Read more...]
Jihad, Martyrdom, and the Torments of the Grave
Pajamas Media Why do some Muslims become suicide bombers or "martyrs"? In fact, these two near antithetic words — on the one hand, broken, desperate suicides, on the other, heroic martyrs — intrinsically demonstrate the radically different epistemologies the average Westerner and Muslim will articulate their answer through. In other words, that Westerners consider them … [Read more...]