It's not a joke, he's serious. Reuters:
"The policies of my opponent [Kerry] are dangerous for world peace," [George W.] Bush said. "If they were implemented, they would make this world not more peaceful, but more dangerous."
Hrm.
[yikes! look what grew when I was away]
no subject
Date: 2004-10-05 07:40 (UTC)Even if you take that as a given, it is truly American-centric to associate Wahhabist Islam with 11-9-2001. The term was derived after a famous scholar Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703 -1792), and has been the official form of Islam in Saudi Arabia since 1924. Further, Wahhabist Islam (or Muwahhidun, as its adherents prefer) has, in and of itself, nothing to do with world domination (http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/gulf/wahhabi.htm).
In that, Huntingdon was right.
I understand that Samuel P. Huntingdon also argues that Hispanic immigration is undermining the United States.
I wouldn't give him any credence, if I were you.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-05 09:40 (UTC)As for Huntingdon, I have read his book in question "Who Are We" and I disagree with it. The US has always been a melting pot, and I doubt massive hispanic immigration will change that or that we should care even if it does.
But this does not mean his work in Clash of Civilisations is any less correct in that Michael Moore's TV Nation is any less valuable for his subsequent descent into lunacy.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-05 10:47 (UTC)You know, when you invent lengthy spiels about Muslim theology, if you want to be convincing, you need to show where you got it from. None of this corresponds to what I know about Wahhabist Islam, and certainly not about Islam in general.
Michael Moore versus Samuel P. Huntingdon: Moore does good sound research, makes excellent films, and is very amusing. Huntingdon is a racist nutter who isn't even funny about it. No contest. I suspect that if you knew as much about Islam as you probably do about American Hispanics, you'd find Huntingdon's theories about the one as ludicrous as you find the theories about the other.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-05 12:23 (UTC)*sigh*.
From http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Dar%20al-Islam, for example:
"Dar al-Harb (Arabic: house of war) is a term used in many Islamic countries to refer to those areas outside Muslim rule. In some conservative traditions of Islam the world is divided into two components: dar al-Islam, the house of submission or the house of God, and dar al-Harb, the house of war; the home of the infidels or unbelievers (Arabic: kufr). The terms are usually understood to refer, respectively, to those lands currently administered by Muslim governments and those administered by non-Muslim governments. The exact definitions of these territories can vary widely according to the viewer's concept of who is and is not a Muslim, and which governments are or are not Muslim in practice."
As for Michael Moore, once again, it appears you are taking the form of "don't bother me with the facts my mind is made up".
no subject
Date: 2004-10-05 14:28 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-05 16:07 (UTC)