For the past several weeks, The New York Times has been running interference for the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist organization set to play a significant role in Egyptian politics after the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak. In addition to publishing commentaries by two apologists for the Muslim Brotherhood, Tariq Ramadan and Essam El-Errian, on its op-ed page, the Times has published a news story that depicts the group's spiritual leader, Yusuf Qaradawi, as “committed to pluralism and democracy.”Speaking of, Jeffrey Goldberg seems to understand Qaradawi a bit better than the Times:
In fact, Qaradawi is a virulent anti-Semite who has called on Allah to wipe out the Jewish people. Moreover, he has worked to undermine the democratic principle of free speech by defending the Iranian fatwa calling for the death of writer Salman Rushdie and by promoting a “day of rage” against cartoons of Muhammed printed in Sweden and Denmark.
The man has also defended the practice of female genital mutilation and affirmed Muslim teachings calling for the death penalty to be applied to those who leave Islam and encourage others to do the same.
Mark Gardner and Dave Rich did yeoman's work not long ago, analyzing the Egyptian cleric Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi's 2003 book, Fatawa Min Ajl Falastin, or Fatwas on Palestine, and came to the conclusion that this putatively moderate Islamic cleric argues clearly and consistently that hatred of Israel and Jews is Islamically sanctioned, and that the destruction of Israel is mandated by God.
But the NYT does have an analysis that notices that Iran is a big winner from Arab turmoil.
While it is far too soon to write the final chapter on the uprisings’ impact, Iran has already benefited from the ouster or undermining of Arab leaders who were its strong adversaries and has begun to project its growing influence, the analysts said.
Meanwhile, a Saudi man in Texas was arrested for wanting to blow up some stuff, like George W. Bush's home and reservoir dams in Colorado and California:
One extract from what is alleged to be Mr Aldawasari's diary says: "And now, after mastering the English language, learning how to build explosives and continuous planning to target the infidel Americans, it is time for Jihad."
Here's some garden variety British anti-semitism.
JoshuaPundit has a nice piece on the hypocrisy of the ICC.
A very funny article about Thomas Friedman at TNR.
A Facebook group is parodying "Israel Apartheid Week" posters.
On that same topic, an "IAW" event in New York was canceled because of objections by a Zionist gay porn director.