[ by Charles Cameron — Ali Soufan and Maajid Nawaz ]
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Back to back in my Twitter feed early today — a DoubleTweet:
Ramadan, the month of blood.
— Maajid Nawaz (@MaajidNawaz) June 26, 2015
Fridays of Ramadan are devoted for prayers and worship not terrorism and murder- All through history truth alway won, murderers alway fall.
— Ali H. Soufan (@Ali_H_Soufan) June 26, 2015
[ by Charles Cameron — CIA, Osama, gaming, and I ]
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What I have in my collection, somewhere:
**
In search of our respective lost childhoods? À la recherche du temps perdu?
To be honest, I think the gameplay in mine’s a bit more visceral.
[ by Charles Cameron — Escher, Mallarmé, Jarry, Macdonald, and Alex Schmid ]
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Sources:
Stuart Macdonald, entry in “Defining terrorism: an impossible puzzle” contest Stéphane Mallarmé, Un Coup de Dés Jamais N’Abolira Le Hasard The DoubleQuote format is mine own
Further refs:
Alex Schmid, The Revised Academic Consensus Definition of Terrorism Alfred Jarry, Exploits and Opinions of Dr Faustroll Pataphysician
[ by Charles Cameron — my mind is enriched by the mere possession of these two works ]
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There are other books on my desk which I should read before either of these, books I am committed to reviewing or simply wish to review, but I can’t help casting the odd sneaky glance at these two books by Michael Cook — works of vast and impressive scholarship, each of them:
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Michael Cook takes an in-depth, comparative look at political identity, social values, attitudes to warfare, views about the role of religion in various cultural domains, and conceptions of the polity. In all these fields he finds that the Islamic heritage offers richer resources for those engaged in current politics than either the Hindu or the Christian heritages. He uses this finding to explain the fact that, despite the existence of Hindu and Christian counterparts to some aspects of Islamism, the phenomenon as a whole is unique in the world today. The book also shows that fundamentalism–in the sense of a determination to return to the original sources of the religion–is politically more adaptive for Muslims than it is for Hindus or Christians.
From Martin Marty‘s review:
This is a work of enormous erudition and considerable subtlety. Cook’s learning is vast, his insight profound, his treatment of sources fair. Ancient Religions, Modern Politics is a most impressive achievement.
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What kind of duty do we have to try to stop others doing wrong? The question is intelligible in almost any culture, but few seek to answer it in a rigorous fashion. The most striking exception is found in the Islamic tradition where ‘commanding right and forbidding wrong’ is a central moral tenet. Michael Cook’s comprehensive and compelling analysis represents the first sustained attempt to map the history of Islamic reflection on this obligation and to explain its relevance for politics and ideology in the contemporary Islamic world.
From Robert Irwin‘s review:
[Cook’s] account of how injustice and immorality have been confronted by Muslim thinkers provides an unusual and fascinating perspective on the social history of Islam. It also furnishes an essential basis for understanding the roots of modern Islamic rigorism. This is one of the most important scholarly works dealing with Islam to have been produced in the western world in the last one hundred years.
At 200 pages, Cook’s Forbidding Wrong in Islam: An Introduction is the “short” version
[ by Charles Cameron — humanity I love, but humans when humanity goes out the window — more difficult ]
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The question, the choice facing me, is this: should I DoubleTweet today’s Times tweet —
Dentist nearly lost his hand in racist attack by man wielding machete who said he wanted revenge for Lee Rigby http://t.co/EDwRs32jxI
— The Times of London (@thetimes) June 23, 2015
with another of today’s tweets, this one from the Evening Standard:
Schizophrenic who decapitated grandmother found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity http://t.co/vgrlSxHJOk pic.twitter.com/wPql57ZtoN
— Evening Standard (@standardnews) June 23, 2015
— or with this one — or similar — from the Daily Mirror a couple of years ago?
Lee Rigby trial: Murder accused Michael Adebolajo 'confessed he tried to behead soldier' in police interviews http://t.co/pBIjqCerGo
— Daily Mirror (@DailyMirror) December 4, 2013
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There’s a simultaneity to the first option, and a sort of tit-for-tat causality to the second: which is to say there are both synchronic and diachronic linkages on offer.
So it is with the world’s events, there are synchronicities and diachronicities.
**
Hat-tip to Bryan Alexander of Infocult: Uncanny Informatics. A very bright man, a very Russian beard, a very good friend.
Zenpundit is a blog dedicated to exploring the intersections of foreign policy, history, military theory, national security,strategic thinking, futurism, cognition and a number of other esoteric pursuits.
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