Uighur life in exile.

I am not the slightest fan of the Turkish strongman who is trying desperately to subvert what is left of the Republic of Turkey, but at least he is doing the right thing by taking in Uighur refugees from China. 

This essay offers a snapshot of a refugee neighborhood in Istanbul and the efforts to preserve the memories and folkways of a battered people. Preservation of culture is an act of resistance, as the experience of Iron Curtain Eastern Europe demonstrates. 

And said preservation can lead to a national resurrection, as that same experience also demonstrates.

 

How did I miss "National Coffee Day" yesterday?

Obvious Answer: I didn't have enough coffee. 

In belated celebration, here is a link to The Oatmeal's 15-ish Things Worth Knowing About Coffee.

One addition from your host: it wasn't just Charles II who closed coffee houses--the Ottoman Sultan Murad IV earlier banned coffee because of its association with subversive elements. He even had people executed for violating the ban--sometimes doing the killing himself. 

Murad IV: Not known for his whimsy.

Harsh. 

Then again, I imagine caffeinated Janissaries could be difficult to manage.

Like churches, mosque splits happen, too.

Imam Hassan Al-Qazwini is the most prominent Shia Imam in Michigan, and until recently headed up the Islamic Center of America mosque in Dearborn. 

It appears that ethnic infighting played a role his ouster--he is Iraqi, and the ICA is largely Lebanese.

Still, an interesting look at one of Michigan's unique communities.


Outside, the walls of the Lebanese-American center had been spray-painted sometime over the past 24 hours with anti-Iraqi graffiti aimed at denigrating Qazwini, who is of Iraqi descent: “The Iraqi Center of Baghdad,” read one insult. It was a symbol of the lingering tensions that remain over his forced departure from the Islamic Center.

But despite the vandalism, Al-Qazwini garnered a massive show of support that day as he talked about the importance of educating the public about Islam. That night happened to be what is called in Islam the Night of Power, when one’s prayers and good deeds are believed to be worth more than those done in 83 years.
Jabbing his finger in the air to stress his points, Al-Qazwini cited a survey in which “62% of Americans ... have a negative view of our religion.”

“They think that Muslims are either terrorists or they support terrorists,” he said. “Who’s going to change that perception? You. Us. ... Allah will not change any people’s conditions unless they change their own conditions. We cannot sit aside and blame the Jews, continue to blame the Zionists for our pain.”

A few minutes later, he started a bidding process to help raise money for the new mosque. It’s common during the Night of Power for congregations to raise money.

“I need 10 hands, 10 people, brothers and sisters, who would donate $10,000,” he said.

In 15 minutes, Al-Qazwini raised $129,000 for the mosque.

All you need to know about Hamas...

...is found in this video where one of its spokesbeings refuses to distance himself from the blood libel (the hellish medieval fraud that said Jews slaughtered Christian children for Passover matzos).

"I have Jewish friends"--ah, yes. Where have I heard that before?

When Hamas is destroyed, I'll advocate for the Gazans. But not a minute before.

While it is true that Hamas is expert at getting innocent Palestinians killed, it has made it very plain, in word and deed, that it would rather kill Jews. The following blood-freezing statement is from the group's charter: “The Islamic Resistance Movement aspires to the realization of Allah’s promise, no matter how long that should take. The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him salvation, has said: ‘The day of judgment will not come until Muslims fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jews will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say ‘O Muslims, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.”

This is a frank and open call for genocide, embedded in one of the most thoroughly anti-Semitic documents you'll read this side of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Not many people seem to know that Hamas’s founding document is genocidal. Sometimes, the reasons for this lack of knowledge are benign; other times, as the New Yorker’s Philip Gourevitch argues in his recent dismantling of Rashid Khalidi’s apologia for Hamas, this ignorance is a direct byproduct of a decision to mask evidence of Hamas’s innate theocratic fascism.

Historical Cleansing.

Reminders of Jahiliyyah can be quite stressing to the hothouse flowers of jihad.

Tom McDonald directs our attention the newest outburst of piety, the destruction of priceless Assyrian artifacts in newly-ruined Syria.

Of course, the phenomenon is also imposed on the holy places and objects of other "Abrahamic" religions, too. Like the Aya Sofia church in Trabzon (formerly Trebizond) Turkey. There's a court battle over this one, with an initial injunction, but the Age of Erdogan means that this is likely to be a temporary speed-bump.

Good dhimmi!

Shorter Maureen Fielder: Krystallnacht was not anti-Jewish, it was anti-Versailles Treaty.

He first characterized the bombing as a "horrific act" without a shred of justification. He praised the Christian community in Pakistan, now more fearful than ever, and noted that he himself was educated by Catholic priests and later by Presbyterians. He counts many Christians as friends.

So I asked him point-blank, "Was this bombing an act of religious discrimination?" Was it religiously motivated? Without hesitation, he said, "No." He pointed to a statement from the Taliban themselves saying it was a response to the United States' frequent and continuing drone attacks in the tribal areas of Pakistan. He said the Pakistani government's protests to the United States have been unable to stop the drones, so the frontier tribes have resorted to their ancient "eye for an eye" response to perceived injustice.

Nice to see Dr. Ahmed has "many" Christians as friends.

Much like the white bigot who's "friends with a black guy."

Yeah, despicable.

And of a piece with freshly-minted chickenhawk Michael Sean Winters' airy dismissal of concern about the fate of Syria's Christians, should Assad fall.

Say what you will about the Reporter, they always manage to find a new low. And if Catholics ever go into ghettos, you can guess from whose ranks the authorities will recruit the Order Police from.

OK, upon further reflection, it's not that worrisome.

But that's OK: they're now the home of "The Francis Chronicles, reporting on the ministry of the world's parish priest!"

The wind at their backs. The orthodox-as-Chip-Diller response is losing it's effectiveness. Just saying.

Hat tip to Pat Archbold for the link.

Of wars and rumors of wars.

Yeah, let's sell this swine more advanced weaponry. Good intentions, and all that.

Just think of Morsi as Arab anti-Semitism's newest wet nurse.

Quick reminder: McCain would have been no better.

Going to be a long, miserable century, I'm afraid.

The Fast and the Furious: Cairo Drift.

We're handing over advanced technology to another cartel of thugs.

Psst--Morsi should be denied a tank permit:

Nearly three years ago, a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood delivered a speech urging Egyptians to “nurse our children and our grandchildren on hatred” for Jews and Zionists. In a television interview months later, the same leader described Zionists as “these bloodsuckers who attack the Palestinians, these warmongers, the descendants of apes and pigs.”

That leader, Mohamed Morsi, is now president of Egypt...

It worked so well in Mexico, I guess.

Time to start spreading the rumor that we have an off-switch for our military equipment like the Cylons did in the Galactica reboot. 

Moderation!

Video reveals Tunisia's ruling "moderate" Islamist party colluding with the Salafis.

Something to think about in light of our embassy in Tunis being stormed by Salafis a month ago.

Is it possible for an entire culture to suffer from Asperger's?

Symptomology:

• Not pick up on social cues and may lack inborn social skills, such as being able to read others' body language, start or maintain a conversation, and take turns talking.
• Dislike any changes in routines.
• Appear to lack empathy.
• Be unable to recognize subtle differences in speech tone, pitch, and accent that alter the meaning of others' speech. So your child may not understand a joke or may take a sarcastic comment literally. And his or her speech may be flat and hard to understand because it lacks tone, pitch, and accent.
• Have a formal style of speaking that is advanced for his or her age. For example, the child may use the word "beckon" instead of "call" or the word "return" instead of "come back."
• Avoid eye contact or stare at others.
• Have unusual facial expressions or postures.
• Be preoccupied with only one or few interests, which he or she may be very knowledgeable about. Many children with Asperger's syndrome are overly interested in parts of a whole or in unusual activities, such as designing houses, drawing highly detailed scenes, or studying astronomy. They may show an unusual interest in certain topics such as snakes, names of stars, or dinosaurs. 
• Talk a lot, usually about a favorite subject. One-sided conversations are common. Internal thoughts are often verbalized. 

This whiny violent bully crap is getting old. Then again, Buddhists are probably the masters of Islamophobia, so I guess they deserved it.

"Equally condemn..."

Or, "an object lesson in how not to reassure."

“There is a need for deterrent legal measures against those individuals or groups that want to damage relations between people, spread hate and incite violence,”  Osama Siblani, Publisher of The Arab American News said in a statement. “It is a need that Americans should seriously consider.”

Sibliani is one of the organizers of a rally in Dearborn, Mich., that will denounce both the video and the deadly terrorist attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Libya. “While we condemn violence against innocent Americans abroad, we equally condemn the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims,” he said in the statement.

I don't know...how about seriously considering growing a thicker skin instead?

Or seriously considering violence to be worse than insult? Apparently that's too much to ask.

Nah. Better to run the Bill of Rights through the shredder, then nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

Meandering on.

Um...yeah.

OK, well...I'm awfully intermittent here, so thanks for humouring me. So, let me proffer a potpourri of links as restitution.

If you'd like to see me in person, I'm making a triumphant return to the stage (last seen in college) in a local rendition of Fiddler on the Roof. I'm playing Mordcha, the innkeeper, in three shows. An asteroid is born!

I know what you're thinking--"What's a Teroid?"

The Pope goes all-in in San Fran. Interesting times, as they say.

The home front remains interesting as well, though we are hoping for such to die down. The Eldest Son is bucking for traditional school at the rate he's going. What can you do?

Mayor Ratched goes a step beyond La Leche League, locking up the formula. By the by, Jeff's place is a lively locale, rewarding repeated visits--a haven for limited-government folks not interested in buying what the GOP is selling.

I have been violated! Ok, tagged. I won't hate, but need time to ponder.

An intrepid soul's taking a run at a Byzantium novel, and one worth watching. Yes, I offer advice in the comments. Like I could resist.

Don McClarey gets the annual bomb debate off to a contentious start. Lawyers... My thought: I'm glad I wasn't Harry Truman.

Professor (and father of 5) Amitai Etzioni explains that asking "does being a parent make you happy?" is the wrong question.

Tragic, telling Detroit quote of the year: "There's nothing here but the devil." Two suspects have been arrested.

If the facts hold up (fog of war, etc.), this is as surprising as the sun rising in the east.

Oh, and our new parish is finishing up a genuine renovation, as opposed to wreckovation. The original movement of the altar forward mercifully left the altar rails and everything else intact. Unfortunately, it created an acoustical sump by covering the raised platform for the altar with gold plush carpeting. Oh, and the altar was wooden, and ditto the lectern. Here are some pre-renovation shots of our parish (Abp. Vigneron leading a pro-life vigil from there) from the invaluable Diane K at the Assumption Grotto site.

The old marble lectern has been pulled out of storage, and the entire platform has been redone in marble--from the same quarry as the church when built in 1956. The altar will be marble, and immobile, with a massive 3 x 5 slab for the altar top. The granite baptistery has been moved back to the altar area. I'll have pictures later--Bishop Byrnes is dedicating the altar on August 19 at 11am.

It feels like home.

Tippler post-script: Fonseca Bin No. 27 is my porto of choice. Costco offers it at a ridiculously-low price, so enjoy.

The Arab Spring continues to waft rose petals into the air.

The Salafis are on the march in Libya, to the sorrow of the Sufis.


The desecration of graves belonging to Sufi saints and sages in recent months have put the peaceful Sufis on the defensive, prompting some to post armed guards at their mosques and lodges to ward off hardline thugs.

But the birthday of Islam's Prophet Mohammad, one of the highpoints in the Sufi calendar, is on Saturday and Libyan Sufis are determined to take their traditional processions through the streets to show they will not be cowed.

At a meeting of Sufi scholars to plan the celebrations, Sheikh Adl Al-Aref Al-Hadad said even being driven out of his zawiyah (Islamic school) late last year by Islamists known as Salafis would not deter him from marching.

"I'm worried but I'm not afraid," said Al-Hadad, whose Tripoli school was stormed by armed men who burned its library, destroyed office equipment and dug up graves of sages buried there. They turned the school into a Salafi mosque.

Just because people want to be freed from a particular dictator does not mean they want freedom.

Start the impeachment proceedings.

Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC) has suggested we need to jail Americans who manage the childishly simple task of offending violent Muslim theocrats.

Fortunately, we have Mark Steyn to take out the garbage:


A mob of deranged ululating blood-lusting head-hackers slaughter Norwegian female aid-workers and Nepalese guards — and we’re the ones with the problem?

I agree with the Instaprof: Lindsey Graham is unfit for office. The good news is there’s no need for the excitable lads of Mazar e-Sharif to chop his head off because he’s already walking around with nothing up there. And, as for his halfwitted analogy with World War II, he’s too ignorant to realize it but he’s singing the dhimmi remake of an ancient Noel Coward satire.

The reason we’re losing this thing is because of a lack of cultural confidence, of which the fetal cringe of this worthless husk out-parodies anything Coward could have concocted.

If Graham wants further input, I am happy to refer him to my unofficial spokesman, Haywood Jablomi.

My words sometimes taste like rawhide.

Senator Durbin's Muslim civil rights hearings began this week. As a deliberate partisan rejoinder to Rep. Peter King's almost equally pointless Islamic radicalization hearings of a few weeks back, I decided to avoid following them. However, I learned there was going to be some Catholic input in them, in the person of the emeritus Cardinal Archbishop of Washington Theodore McCarrick.

He's not one of my favorites, being a man who seems to think his function as shepherd is to sound vaguely pastoral, responding with soporific vagueries in the face of controversy. As I said at another board, I was expecting "the episcopal Derek Smalls" to deliver his usual "unmemorable soothing pap."

Oops. Big oops. It was actually very, very good stuff. [The link to the full presentation is at the bottom.]

This is a particularly clear-eyed section:

At the same time, we recognize that not every charge of wrong-doing against people or groups within a religious community amounts to religious discrimination, bias or bigotry. Religious beliefs are no excuse for threatening others with or carrying out acts of violence. At this particular moment in our nation’s history, we face a real threat to our national security from terrorism that has its origins in a particular form of extremist ideology that holds itself out as authentic Islam. These pervasive threats endanger all people both in this country and abroad. We cannot pretend that these threats do not exist. Our government has a duty to understand the threat and confront it effectively in order to keep our citizens safe and to promote and defend the common good of all.

He pointedly raised the mistreatment of Christians in Muslim-majority lands, noting recent atrocities, and stated that not all criticism of Muslim behavior could be fairly described as bigotry. At the same time, he delivered a sotto voce message to Catholics, indicating that we risk sawing off our own branch with indiscriminate criticism of Muslims, reminding us of our own historical experience in America. Given the growing contempt for the Catholic voice in the public square on multiple issues, it's worth heeding.



My apologies, Archbishop--this was genuinely good and useful stuff. And much starchier than expected. Bravo!

If you want a vision of sharia...

...imagine a whip scoring a woman's face - forever.

Thank God for grown-ups.

A Muslim writer protests the Williams firing.

And in even better news, a group of American and Canadian Muslims stand up for free speech. I especially appreciate this part:

We are concerned and saddened by the recent wave of vitriolic anti-Muslim and anti-Islamic sentiment that is being expressed across our nation.

We are even more concerned and saddened by threats that have been made against individual writers, cartoonists, and others by a minority of Muslims. We see these as a greater offense against Islam than any cartoon, Qur’an burning, or other speech could ever be deemed.

Bravo, ladies and gentlemen! Thanks for standing up and being counted.

Half the World.

Waaaay back, during the abortive attempts of the Iranian people to be free of the Revolutionary Guard and the Jew-hating messianic dwarf who fronts for them, I said I was going to post something about one of my favorite cities: Esfahan (Isfahan), Iran.

The traditional capital of the Safavid dynasty, Esfahan is an architectural marvel, as well as a center of Persian culture. Indeed, the city is so justly proud of its heritage that it uses the couplet: "Esfahan, nesfeh jahan!" Esfahan, half the world! The following photos should demonstrate why.



Shah Abbas I was the greatest of the Safavids, the Shia dynasty that ruled Iran and the surrounding areas for over 200 years. A perpetual thorn in the eastern side of the Ottomans, the Safavids made life miserable for the Sultans in Constantinople, committing the powerful Ottomans to a draining second front during the peak of the Turkish empire. Abbas triumphed over the Ottomans, and used his wealth to create architectural masterpieces like the Sheikh Lotfallah Mosque (above). He moved his capital to Esfahan in 1598, and naturally, he had to spiff it up to his demanding specifications.



As impressive as it is on the outside, it is the interior of the Lotfallah mosque that truly dazzles.



The dome is simply a marvel.





Shah Abbas was known for genuine tolerance of Christians, once saying he'd prefer the dust off the lowliest Christian's foot to the presence of the kingliest Ottoman. He resettled Armenians liberated from the Turks in Esfahan (which was followed by a steady stream of Armenian immigrants) and permitted them to build the Holy Savior Cathedral.



The Cathedral frescoes are stunning. Note the similarity of certain decorative motifs in both the mosque and the cathedral.









There's even a memorial to the Armenian genocide in the Cathedral courtyard.

Despite the glory of the Lotfallah, Shah Abbas was not finished adorning his new capital. Yet another mosque, even grander, arose: the Shah Mosque.

But that will have to wait for another post.

"I think he can *hear* you, Ray."

Juan Williams' sin was simply in voicing NPR's own fears out loud.

In the end, NPR did not post the cartoon, although it is readily available around the Internet. Many listeners wrote to say that they were disappointed with that decision.

. . .

Listeners who are strong First Amendment advocates say NPR's response is insufficient. Many have written asking that NPR join with other American media and stand up to extremism and intimidation. But NPR also has, in my opinion, an obligation not to exacerbate the tensions that already inflame relations between Muslims and non-Muslims. Would posting the cartoon help or hinder the goals of free speech and a free press in the Muslim world?

To put in another way — would NPR post racist or anti-Semitic cartoons on its Web site in the name of free speech? Or do the values of public radio demand another, more measured response?

NPR may have a special role in this: In radio, the shock of the visual can be avoided by clearly describing why the cartoon is considered offensive. This does not compound the offense by re-publishing it. There is a value in euphemism, even though the temptation to poke radicals in the eye is strong.

NPR resisted that temptation, much to the dismay of some listeners who want NPR to use the cartoon as a weapon against radical Islam. In reporting this story, NPR has been clear, but not provocative. It's been a tough call all around, but I think that NPR did the right thing.

Translation: we submit--don't behead us.

Who's the "Islamophobe" again?

"Think about it: if the average Joe expresses anxiety over Islamic fundamentalism, they’re called Islamophobes. But if an editor removes a comic in which Mohammed isn’t even present, that’s not honest to Allah Islamophobia?

Look, the media can’t have it both ways. They cannot criticize the public for concerns over Islam and then pull this stunt over a fear they may get stabbed in front of a Starbucks. If their governing principle in the newsroom is fear, then they should admit it and get the hell off our backs for feeling pretty much the same way."

--Greg Gutfeld, commenting on the Washington Post's decision to pull a cartoon that mentioned Muhammad.