What's next?  I will grant that the comparison between the ideology of the revolutionary movements present in the Middle East to post-WW2 Communism is an improvement.  It is at least a better comparison than the poor comparison to fascism.  At least Communism was transnational in its own self-description.  And certainly, Mao and Stalin destroyed their countries in the mid-twentieth century, murdering freely, imprisoning arbitrarily and generally using fear and power to extend their rule.  Their programs of national reform destroyed the heritage of their people.  And Mao and Stalin had just about as much in common with Marx as the Taliban (for instance) does with most practitioners of Islam: each tyrant twisting the words of a prophet to justify the deaths of any and all who disagree with them.

But the fact that one day the Islamic terrorists can be fascists and the next day they are communists, one day the Nazis, the next day its a Red Islam (not that Shariati minds), makes clear the extent to which the rhetoric is just that: rhetoric.  Bush and company are no closer to understanding who and what they are fighting against today, than they were the day before or will be tomorrow.  As with all good Islamophobia, the rhetoric is not meant to identify the enemy so much as rally public opinion into a cohesive and deadly force.  Bush and company are grasping at straws, desparately comparing their enemy to enemies of old in an effort to contain them, comprehend them and make the American people understand why Islam is such a threat to America (not the "good Muslims" of course. *wink, wink*).  Its a major victory if government policy makers can tell you the difference between Sunni and Shia, let alone the differences between an Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood.

And finally, one must ask, will we allow our country, our governments to kill in the name of its own idols?  Has the fanaticism of Bush been less deadly?  The Goddess of Democracy has been the justification for the destruction of Iraq, and many within our government would to build a new Temple to her in Iran as well.  Her hands are red with blood and her priests are calling out for more victims. 

Sheikh Ali Gomaa, Egypti's Grand Mufti, rejects Caliphate, affirms liberal democracy.

Also validates Islamic legal reform and multiple Islamic schools (says there were more than 90 at one point). 

What's his deal? Its the first I'm hearing about him - Mohammad "Ed" Husain, author of "The Islamist: Why I Joined Radical Islam in Britain, What I Saw Inside and Why I Left."

Thus began Husain's journey into the world of British Islamic radicalism. He joined a university campus branch of Hizb ut-Tahrir and said he was hooked on an ideology that calls for a caliphate in Muslim countries and the end of Israel, though in nonviolent ways. Membership made him feel important, even though he was only a cog in a larger movement.

In his case, he said, feverish internal politicking, religious arguments and leafleting on the streets, in the campus library and around pool halls in East London quickly took the place of what had seemed to be a dead-end life as a good Muslim. He had left an all-boys high school of mostly Asians - where he started out in a tie, blazer and polished shoes - feeling an outsider.

In contrast, being part of Hizb ut-Tahrir was an all-consuming business as he aspired to be one of the intellectual leaders of the new dawn of a Muslim caliphate. "I lost my smile," he said.
*

In his continued quest for religious meaning, Husain joined several other Islamic groups, left those, and finally settled with the Sufi teachings of Hamza Yusuf Hanson, an American convert to Islam, whom he believes teaches an Islam of moderation that is the true Islam. (Source)

Does anyone get a whiff of sensationalism coming from the title of this book and the article's tone? His experiences aren't that different from what I've seen in my community in America. A lot of friends/acquaintences joined the Hizby movement in college, then dropped out (or burned out) and joined the Hamza Yusuf camp. There was also a pretty strong Salafi faction, and others who did the MSA thing on campus. I personally never felt a part of any of those groups, though I went in and out of all of them. I chalk the waffling up to the growing pains of finding your identity, and personally don't think it was anything extraordinary. But, I guess its nice that someone can make money off their experiences.

Amnesty International has developed an innovative way to place the world's eye's on Darfur, by using before-and-after satellite images of villages that have been destroyed by the Janjaweed militia. The whole world can now literally watch a genocide transpire in front of their eyes. Go to Eyes on Darfur to see the striking satellite images. Pictures are worth a thousand words, but your actions will speak louder. Make sure to do something and not just turn away after looking at the images. You can read more about how Amnesty managed this in this WashPo article, and a general overview of the program in this Times article.

The Muslim world has been shamefully silent on this huge atrocity in its midst, and it has been western activists which have really shed a spotlight on this issue. The US government just placed renewed financial sanctions on Sudan by blacklisting 30 Sudanese companies and three individuals. While this wont fix the crisis, it has symbolic significance and may influence other international companies to be wary of doing business with them. Also, while China (the largest consumer of Sudenese oil) has so far refused to place sanctions on Khartoum, it has felt the pressure of Darfur activists who have called for a boycott of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The Arab League, on the other hand, held a conference in Khartoum last year which ended in a resolution denying any massacres in Darfur and expressing solidarity against "outside" influence in an Arab country. (Sudan's an Arab country? Moving on...) In addition, a US-Islamic World Forum in Qatar a few months ago failed to mention Darfur as an issue at all, while the Israel/Palestine issue was reiterated by Amre Moussa (Secretary-General of the League of Arab States) and Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi as the sin qua non of good American-Islamic relations.

This should be obvious, but it bears repeating that Israel/Palestine is not the be-all, end-all of US-Islamic relations - or rather, it shouldnt be. And if the Muslim silence on Darfur stems from wariness of "true" western intentions,  it makes sense for Muslim governments to not give the west any excuses to intervene. If they cant control the perpetrators, they should not be surprised when the rest of the world decides to finally stand up and put an end to it.

In Pakistan, an elderly, mentally disturbed man allegedly sets fire to his house in which copies of Quran are burned. Police, under public pressure, register complaint against him for blasphemy which carries a punishment of life in prison. Insert disgust here. Then read AE's great post on international human rights and death penalty.

By the way, the provision under which the complaint was registered was Pakistan Penal Code 295-B, which states "Whoever willfully defiles, damages or desecrates a copy of the Holy Quran or of an extract therefrom or uses it in any derogatory manner or for any unlawful purpose shall be punishable for imprisonment for life." Since so far only a complaint has been registered and no adjudication has taken place, one hopes that the judge will throw it out because it doesnt seem that the damages to the Quran were "willful" as required by the Code. But for this to happen, the judge would have to withstand the same public pressure that led the police to register the complaint in the first place.