CoreIssue
02-03-2006, 03:31 PM
Note: The first post here is a repost from the old board by CoreIssue.
Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2005 9:55 pm by CTZonEdit
In Basra earlier this month, some 700 university students met for a picnic where, according to press reports, women were unveiled, music played, and the sexes intermingled — in short, kids doing what kids always do in the spring. Taking a page from their Iranian counterparts, however, men loyal to clerical firebrand Moqutada al-Sadr attacked the gathering, firing weapons into the air and beating students with sticks. The assault did not go over well with many Basrans, who held three days of demonstrations, compelling Sadr to issue an apology. Still, one Sadrist sheik, Ahmed al-Basri, was unrepentant: "We beat [them] because we are authorized by Allah to do so, and that is our duty. It is we who should deal with such disobedience and not the police."
It's hard to imagine a stupider statement, or one more certain to alienate the hearts, minds, and hormonal urges of young people — unless you consider Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab Zarqawi's declaration of "bitter war against democracy and all who seek to enact it." The Z-man's target list must now include eight million Iraqi voters and 60 percent of the country's college students, who believe that democracy is superior to other forms of government, including Iranian-style theocracy. Add to this a million Lebanese swarming the streets of Beirut. Meanwhile, an entire generation of young people is absorbing images of women who seem to transcend their narrow societal roles to express a free sensuality and overt power over men. It's only a matter of time — if that time has not already arrived — before young people will make the Rousseauian connection between natural instinct, sex and freedom on one hand, and terrorism, sterility, and puritanical Islam on the other. In the life of Mohammad himself, democracy, eroticism, and Allah appear as natural allies, their energies reinforcing one another. It's ironic that salafists and ayatollahs have long feared this communion, and the erosion it portends for their power. Now, it seems, their nightmare is coming true.
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/vincent200503280729.asp (http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/vincent200503280729.asp)
Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2005 9:55 pm by CTZonEdit
In Basra earlier this month, some 700 university students met for a picnic where, according to press reports, women were unveiled, music played, and the sexes intermingled — in short, kids doing what kids always do in the spring. Taking a page from their Iranian counterparts, however, men loyal to clerical firebrand Moqutada al-Sadr attacked the gathering, firing weapons into the air and beating students with sticks. The assault did not go over well with many Basrans, who held three days of demonstrations, compelling Sadr to issue an apology. Still, one Sadrist sheik, Ahmed al-Basri, was unrepentant: "We beat [them] because we are authorized by Allah to do so, and that is our duty. It is we who should deal with such disobedience and not the police."
It's hard to imagine a stupider statement, or one more certain to alienate the hearts, minds, and hormonal urges of young people — unless you consider Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab Zarqawi's declaration of "bitter war against democracy and all who seek to enact it." The Z-man's target list must now include eight million Iraqi voters and 60 percent of the country's college students, who believe that democracy is superior to other forms of government, including Iranian-style theocracy. Add to this a million Lebanese swarming the streets of Beirut. Meanwhile, an entire generation of young people is absorbing images of women who seem to transcend their narrow societal roles to express a free sensuality and overt power over men. It's only a matter of time — if that time has not already arrived — before young people will make the Rousseauian connection between natural instinct, sex and freedom on one hand, and terrorism, sterility, and puritanical Islam on the other. In the life of Mohammad himself, democracy, eroticism, and Allah appear as natural allies, their energies reinforcing one another. It's ironic that salafists and ayatollahs have long feared this communion, and the erosion it portends for their power. Now, it seems, their nightmare is coming true.
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/vincent200503280729.asp (http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/vincent200503280729.asp)