zenpundit.com

[ by Charles Cameron — who thinks of meditation as an air conditioning technique ]
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No proof of anyrthing — just a little food for thought from this morning’s flow:

Sources:

Matt Damon, in Syriana, 2005

Lee Kuan Yew, 1923-2015, may he rest in peace, interviewed in NPQ, 2010

[ by Charles Cameron — there’s rather more going on in the burning of the Jordanian pilot than I can handle — here are some of today’s relevant highlights ]
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I’ll start and close with JM Berger, who has two of the wisest contextual comments of the day to offer us:

ISIS is so eager to turn back the clock that they sped past khawarij to jahiliyya.

— J.M. Berger (@intelwire) February 4, 2015

That’s the context as I see it, though you’ll note that Tim Furnish differs, later in this post.

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Two tweets give us Qur’anic justification for and against the use of fire in punishment:

The justification for burning Moaath is taken from Surat An-Nahl according to Minbr al-Taheed wl Jihad users. pic.twitter.com/pgvWGm9PLg

— Zaid Benjamin (@zaidbenjamin) February 3, 2015

and:

The Qur'an curses those who burned Christians alive (85:1-7). Can't imagine its author would be jazzed about doing same to Muslims.

— Will McCants (@will_mccants) February 3, 2015

The Quranic verse Zaid Benjamin quotes is given in English in his tweet. The first seven verses of Sura 85, quoted by Will McCants, read in the Arberry translation:

By heaven of the constellations, by the promised day, by the witness and the witnessed, slain were the Men of the Pit, the fire abounding in fuel, when they were seated over it and were themselves witnesses of what they did with the believers.

I would really like to see a detailed scholarly post commenting on McCants’ reading of Qur’an 85.1-7, with or without notes on related ahadith and tafsir.

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Two tweets offer ahadith related to the case:

@ground_glass Here… @will_mccants pic.twitter.com/3eyRhQfa4E

— Hameed (@SheikhThingsUp) February 3, 2015

and:

@SheikhThingsUp and yet this hadith exists as well. are they not contradictory? @will_mccants pic.twitter.com/hvFi2iB0On

— Christopher Dawson (@ground_glass) February 3, 2015

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Two from Tim Furnish:

#ISIS cites ISLAMIC doctrine of shifa' al-sudur ("retribution") & #IbnTaymiyya on bodily desecration–so once again Islamic norms followed.

— Timothy Furnish, PhD (@Occidentaljihad) February 4, 2015

and:

"#ISIS & #Islamic #Immolation:" my analysis of the brutal burning of the Jordanian pilot; http://t.co/qCGXc00Jwe

— Timothy Furnish, PhD (@Occidentaljihad) February 4, 2015

Here is Tim Furnish’s commentary, from MahdiWatch:

ISIS gruesomely burned alive Jordanian Air Force officer Mu`adh al-Kasabeh not simply to horrify or intimidate, but rather in order to exact retribution for the “Crusaders” and their Coalition allies dropping bombs and launching missiles that consumed Muslims (especially, allegedly, children) in flames. The Islamic doctrine of shifa’ al-sudur (the name of the video, note) was derived from Sura al-Baqarah [II]:179 and its idea of “legal retribution” which is supposed to lead to reconciliation between Muslims once scores have been settled in like fashion—between, presumably, ISIS and the Muslim nations (Jordan, UAE, KSA, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain and Oman) named in the video as helping the “Crusaders.” So, in this mindset, al-Kasabeh had to burn–not simply be decapitated. Lex talionis according to Allah.

ISIS also adduces a saying from the famous Sunni cleric Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328) that desecrating bodies is allowable if it horrifies (unbelieving) enemies into ceasing their aggression against Muslims—or, in this case, against the Islamic State proper.

So, just as with beheadings and enslavement of “pagan” women, ISIS is acting in a supremely, albeit brutally, atavistic Islamic fashion (not a nihilistic one, as the President keeps saying). Only when we admit that will we (Westerners and Muslims) be on the path to refuting and eradicating ISIS.

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Mark Safranski, my gracious host and the publisher of this blog, refers us to the ICRC:

If Jordan executes all ISIS prisoners for the ghoulish murder of Moath al-Ksasbah, it is a legitimate reprisal https://t.co/ONZtXfaVfH

— mark safranski (@zenpundit) February 3, 2015

Mr Orange suggests there have been previous burnings by ISI, the predecessor to IS / Daesh:

Many don't remember but when #IS was still #ISI they burned men alive. The video was never released but leaked via captured video material.

— Mr. Orange (@Mr0rangetracker) February 3, 2015

It seems to me there’s room for plenty of research as between international lawyers and experts in the history of Islamic exegesis…

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Three tweets regarding the Jordanian response:

Mosques across #Jordan to say a special prayer for Moaz Kasasbeh at noon tomorrow. Church bells will also ring in his honor. #ISIS

— Jon Williams (@WilliamsJon) February 3, 2015

http://t.co/Xumlhn1Z6l KABUL: (Middle East Press) #Jordan Executes #Sajida al-Rishawi and #Ziad al-Karbouli pic.twitter.com/ABjZXhlZfk

— MEP English (@mepenglish) February 4, 2015

and:

"The only problem we're going to have is running out of fuel and bullets." King Abdullah of #Jordan warns #IS filth: http://t.co/N18ap5uKPm

— Nu'man El-Bakri (@numanelbakri) February 4, 2015

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Common sense: this, from Daveed Gartenstein-Ross:

This year has highlighted the many thorny problems we confront. I wish the public sphere were less incompetent at considering hard questions

— D. Gartenstein-Ross (@DaveedGR) February 3, 2015

and John Horgan:

Think before you tweet images of Jordanian pilot Muaz al-Kassaba being burned alive. Don’t reinforce ISIS’ sadistic theatrics.

— John Horgan (@Drjohnhorgan) February 3, 2015

in light of which, let me add by way of requiescat:

Want to honor #jordanianpilot? Remember him as a pious Muslim coming to worship his Lord. #MuathalKaseasbeh pic.twitter.com/NWbuTPv5XJ

— omid safi (@ostadjaan) February 4, 2015

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I’ll close as I began, with JM Berger:

The backlash is the point of the video, not an unintended side effect.

— J.M. Berger (@intelwire) February 3, 2015

Let’s not feed the flames.

[ by Charles Cameron — always amazed at the way “end times” considerations find their way into so many areas of geopolitics ]
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One can take the line De mortuis nihil nisi bonum.. which I rconfess I like..

Obituary: Saudi King Abdullah, seen as a reformer & vocal advocate of peace in Middle East http://t.co/UtA2v9wurO pic.twitter.com/lyrvoNGX16

— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) January 22, 2015

One can take the line Veritas vos liberabit.. which I also favor, as does the CIA..

#Saudi King Abdullah dies. He leaves a dreadful human rights legacy. http://t.co/LO1cVkZB1N pic.twitter.com/kEHl8OUB7t

— Patrick Corrigan (@PatrickCorrigan) January 22, 2015

But as one might have guessed, my own final preference goes to omnium autem finis adpropinquavit..

my piece in @AlMonitor Some Shiites believe that the #Saudi king's death will signal the beginning of the end-times http://t.co/VJ7a9z6S6w

— Rohollah Faghihi (@FaghihiRohollah) January 22, 2015

Now there‘s a surprise!

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I hope to look into this third, specifically Mahdist interpretation of King Abdullah‘s death in a bit more detail in a subsequent post.

[ by Charles Cameron — a death at the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name church in Middlesboro, and a glance at the Covenant, Sword and Arm of the Lord ]
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There’s something very simple and profound about the sheer faith the snake handlers of the Holiness tradition bring to their worship. It’s not yo my aesthetic taste, and the doctrines espoused are, to my mind, literal-minded and unwise — but the faith, the trust moves me.

Pastor Jamie Coots has now died of snake-bite in the course of woship:

Like the police chief, Jeffrey Sharpe, interviewed above, in my own way and to my own degree I feel saddened by dis death.

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I find myself feeling a similar fellow-feeling for the worshippers in this church, with it’s quite similar rusticity and simple ways. And what interests me here is that the group worshipping here is one whose theology I have very little sympathy for — the Covenant, Sword and Arm of the Lord or CSA, a Christian Identity paramilitary church whose 200-acre compound was besieged and shut down by the FBI in 1985.

The opening of this video, from the trailer for Silhouette City directed by Michael Wilson, show us the worship of the CSA — and much as I dislike their racism and proneness to murderous violence, I find there’s something affecting in what this clip shows of the simple hearts of the believers. Reading Tabernacle of Hate, the autobiography of Kerry Noble whose quest for Christ brought him in contact with the group before it became infected with racism and hate, who went on to become its second in command and eventually left in disgust at all the hatred, I have the same feeling — of a simple piety led horribly astray.

Here then is the clip — it’s the first 35 seconds I’m inviting you to watch — the movie then turns to present day, more mainstream uses of militant Christian imagery:

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I don’t want to leave you on the sour note of CSA Christianity — so let me turn back to the Holiness snake-handlers.

For a deeper glimpse into their ways, you could do worse than to watch this documentary:

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May pastor Jamie Coots rest in peace.

This, on Jamie’s son Cody Coots, from The Christian Post yesterday:

The deadly rattlesnake that delivered the fatal bite to “Snake Salvation” pastor Jamie Coots in Middlesboro, Ky., last Saturday will be back in church to help praise the Lord in another heart-pounding service this Saturday, according to his son, Cody Coots.

Cody, 21, who will be burying his serpent-handling father on Tuesday night, told TMZ that the snake will not be killed. His father’s death, he says, was “God’s way” of taking him home, and his family will embrace the deadly rattlesnake that delivered his death sentence at the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name church in Middlesboro again this Saturday.

[by Lynn Rees]

One of the daily gripes the Norman Conquest (or perhaps Marcus Furius Camillius) inflicts on me is how Latinite words in English have higher status than English’s own native proto-Germanic words. This often leaves English with one proto-Germanic word with a viscerally concrete meaning rooted in the core words native English-speakers learn as small children and one vaguer but fancier Latin word learned later in life and used to signal high falutiness.

One example of this fashion-induced duplication that annoys me is these two pairs:

• power in place of strength
• control in place of grip

Consider Rear Admiral Joseph Caldwell  (J.C.) Wylie, Jr., United States Navy (if you don’t know who J. C. Wylie is, Carl von Clausewitz was the Prussian Wylie). Wylie writes in his criminally neglected Military Strategy: A General Theory of Power Control:

The primary aim of the strategist in the conduct of war is some selected degree of control of the enemy for the strategist’s own purpose; this is achieved by control of the pattern of war; and this control of the pattern of war is had by manipulation of the center of gravity of war to the advantage of the strategist and the disadvantage of the opponent.

From this insight, I’ve come to think of the heart of strategy (an even hazier Greek word revived and latinized by the French) as a three-way interplay between:

• purpose: a sentiment about how conditions should change
• power: a possibility for how conditions could change
• control: a certainty that conditions will change

But the many meanings of power and control can be bent to serve hide how easily this three way interplay can be grasped. One possible rework uses more bedrock English:

• goal: how things should be
• strength: how things could be
• grip: how things will be

This lets strategy be physically grasped:

1. The mind thinks of a goal.
2. It tells its muscles to act to reach that goal.
3. The muscles try to grip some thing.
4. Depending on what the muscles grasp, their grip is tightened or loosened in the shape needed to grasp it.
5. The strength of the muscles may be too little or too much to first get and then keep the needed grip.
6. If the mind’s need to reach a goal is strong enough, it may have its muscles keep trying to get a grip despite lacking the needed strength.
7. If the mind’s need to reach a goal is weak enough, it may release its grip even if its muscles have enough strength to hold on.

 
History is packed with those with enough power strength to reach their goals but who could never get control a grip strong enough to reach them. Reach exceeded grasp.