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THIS ONE IS FOR CAERDROIA

A great, great, reference website on all things constitutional. It may have to go on the blogroll.

THE PROPHET MUHAMMED AND THE JEWS OF MEDINA

In light of al Qaida and other extreme Islamist demonizing of the Jews, I thought it might be interesting to look at what the Prophet Muhammed thought regarding Muslim-Jewish relationswhen he became a political ruler in Medina. Yes, this is an English translation, not Arabic but I believe the gist comes through clearly enough. It will sound foreign to modern American ears of course but judging from the views propagated in Saudi supported madrassas from Pakistan to Chicago it’s a different tune than we are used to hearing.

Osama bin Laden is not merely a fanatic, a totalitarian fascist, a sociopath and a terrorist – he’s also a bad Muslim.

ON MY READING TABLE

I’m currently ploughing through three very different books at a very uneven pace ( I also have the habit of randomly picking up old books off the shelf, opening to a page and then read from there – I did that yesterday for some reason with an Andrei Amalrik book) but enjoying them all enough so far for a recommendation to be given out. They are:

Islam in History by Bernard Lewis

Human Accomplishment by Charles Murray

The Adams-Jefferson Letters edited by Lester J. Cappon

The intellectual power of Adams and Jefferson in their later years is simply stunning, even if you get the impression that Jefferson is not entirely truthful when he writes that he had given up newspapers for Thucydides. Their ideas on revolution and history, particularly classical history, are worth the price of the book alone and have inspired me to pick up a copy of Defense of the Constitutions of the United Statesin the near future.

SAUDI WOMEN STRIKE A BLOW FOR REFORM

Showing more bravery and determination than many male moderate Muslim intellectuals, Saudi businesswomen have defied Islamists and Matawain (thugs from the Virtue and Vice ministry) to appear, unveiled, at an economic conference in Jeddah – and received television coverage by the regime. ( Link via Frontpagemag.com).

We can speculate on the causes – economic empowerment, the prospect of democratization in the region as a result of the invasion of Iraq, indigenous political efforts by Saudi women – but it is evident that this move had support in high places in the house of Saud.

BLOWING MY OWN HORN DEPARTMENT – THE DEBKAFILE ECHOES ZENPUNDIT

One of my predictions for 2004, that al Qaida would turn toward assassination as prospects for catastrophic terrorism diminished, is now being echoed by the DEBKA file – the news outlet connected to Israeli intelligence.