This is the single most meaningful and powerful indictment I have seen or heard since 9/11. Why do our leaders and media not speak this way?

Wow. Astounding.

It looks like the page is gone. Could someone who saw it give the rest of us a rundown?

This was covered in the New York Times recently.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/11/international/middleeast/11sultan.html?ex=1143176400&en=23aad3fa7f0f1932&ei=5070

She's a hero of Islam, even if Islam's followers don't yet get it.

It loaded for me just now, Keshmeshi. Give it a second or two after clicking. Nothing appears on the page that opens, but then a box pops up with the video.

good watch. i love my fellow secular human beings. we sooo rock.

Dear Dr. Sultan, you're my hero. Thank you.

CHANGE OF TOPIC- Amazing Attack on Transgendered people. Dan, didn't this guy write for you a while back? Amazing garbage at this blog.
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Eventually we'll all be privileged victims

Today's Seattle Times reports: "Democrats favor transgender discrimination ban"

The Democratic majority on the Metropolitan King County Council appears ready to adopt an ordinance that would prohibit discrimination against transgender people.

Supporters say they want to send a message that Washington's most populous county opposes an initiative and a referendum proposed by Tim Eyman to overturn a new state law protecting sexual minorities.
Oh, brother. It's not like the government can grant every imaginable class of citizens privileged access to litigation if they don't get the job or the apartment they want. But you know that the Democrats will never stop increasing the number of privileged victim classes. Which minorities (sexual and otherwise) are they going to "protect" next? People who prefer sex with the lights on? People whose middle names begin the letter "M"?
Continue reading "Eventually we'll all be privileged victims"

Fortunately, the Republicans on the Council are united against the Democrats' overreach:

Reagan Dunn, R-Bellevue, said Monday he opposes the measure because it would expand the role of government and put a strain on small businesses, opening the door for more lawsuits.

"I don't think we should be heavily involved in the minutiae of the way businesses are operating," he said.Unfortunately, I think those are precisely the reasons why the Democrats favor this.

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at 10:11 AM | Comments (26) | Email This

You can google "Ijtihad" if you want to see evidence of a movement in Islam toward free-thinking, secular principles--and away from fundamentalism.

Check out the photo of Irshad Manji with gay and lesbian Palestinians, or the countless essays by Muslim scholars condemning 9/11, suicide bombings and other terrorist faves.

Islam isn't going anywhere any time soon. The biggest question is how many Muslims will embrace modernity, and how many will fight it with their very lives.

The biggest question is how many Muslims will embrace modernity, and how many will fight it with their very lives.

A side-bar question - how many people will die in the process. People fighting modernity .. well that's your privlege. But they've access to really nasty weapons and can hurt a great many people in the process.

Dan, have you read the new Harper's yet? Lapham came up with a good one again, this time about the whole cartoon debacle/freedom from religion, etc. (although he should've given props to the Stranger).

http://www.muslimwakeup.com/main/archives/2006/03/by_zuriani_ani.php

Finally, a Syrian of whom this Syrian-American can be proud. Plus, she looks a helluva lot like my mother. Eerie.

...I thought that you, David, didn't support. Or am I remembering that incorrectly?

You probably remember correctly. I think the manifesto frames the argument poorly--following the same line of reasoning Hitchens used (reasoning suited only for bludgeoning).

I think Irshad Manji does great work, and I support her. I plan to sign over to Project Ijtihad any proceeds I receive from the piece you had me write with, along with my own matched funds. She and I had a friendly correspondence about it.

Salman Rushdie also signed the manifesto, and I have great respect for him--and respectfully disagree with his decision to back the manifesto.

Manji and Sultan are evidence of Muslims who have embraced modernity. "Modernity" should be able to embrace them, and without admonishment about "the Muslim thing."

In the battle of fundamentalism vs. modernity (not restricted to Islamic fundamentalism), it would serve us well to recognize that only modernity has something to lose.