Category: The Middle East

Secular Islam

 Randi Rhodes keeps harping on the idea that there’s a warped misogynistic, sado-masochistic, repressed-homosexuality theme running through a lot of what’s going on today in the Republican party and in our military fiasco in Iraq — phone sex with congressional pages, torture at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and black prisons, and of course, the wild popularity of …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2007/03/27/secular-islam/

Inky wretch

    —–Original Message—– From: [Jacques d’Nalgar] Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2007 12:34 PM To: ‘[email protected]’ Subject: Word games   Dear Apologist for Evil, I can’t say it was wholly a pleasure to read your calculated mischaracterization of recent remarks related to unpleasant observations of the happily departed German bishops during their late great visit to …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2007/03/15/inky-wretch/

Flying spittle

 I can imagine that in Mr. Greenberg’s mind, any modern comparison to the Holocaust is tantamount to its diminution/dilution and therefore an insult to the Jews’ well-documented suffering.  Also well-documented is the rage provoked by exposing the hypocrisy of Jewish nationalists.  Just ask Jesus… If Greenberg didn’t like your comments, I’m sure he’s thrilled with fellow Jew …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2007/03/14/flying-spittle/

Close call

 Friends, Four years ago this week, I forwarded this now-prescient speech by Ray Close: https://levantium.com/2003/02/09/war-coming/ It’s a long read, but remarkable in how accurately he anticipated the problems that would arise from this administration’s folly.  Well worth reading a second time (or a first, if you’re relatively new to this list). I called Mr. Close …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2007/03/12/close-call/

Baptists in Levantium

 Interesting history.  Thank you very much.  I’m curious, because it wasn’t mentioned in the article and perhaps wasn’t germane, but how much Baptist work in Israel/Palestine is with Jewish (secular and confessing) persons and how much is with non-Jewish (i.e., Arab Christians and Muslims and non-Arab visiting pilgrims/tourists) persons?  What are the ratios?  Maybe I’ve …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2007/03/10/baptists-in-levantium/

Børre’s nightmare

 http://almashriq.hiof.no/lebanon/300/350/355/july-war/20070304/20070304-images.html We left Beirut at 9 yesterday and were back 12 hours later. Drove to Sidon and checked in with the army to get permission to enter the occupation zone evacuated by the Israelis in 2000 and which is finally under Lebanese Army control. Then straight to Tyre, Jouwaya, Tibnine and Bint Jbeil. We saw …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2007/03/07/b%c3%b8rres-nightmare/

Pray for the little ones

The concluding paragraph of Fisk’s end-of-year summary: If Lebanon survives into next year, it will be the only “democracy” in the Arab world to have done so. Afghanistan is crumbling, Iraq is already a mass grave. The Palestinians face their own inter-factional catastrophe. But desperate for the help of Syria and Iran to ease his …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2006/12/29/pray-for-the-little-ones/