Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi writes in a guest column for Informed Comment The Norway Attacks and the Paranoid Mindset It has emerged that Anders Breivik- who is suspected of killing at least 76 people in two attacks in Norway on Friday a week ago– was an avid user of online so-called “counter-jihad” forums. At one such […]
Archives for July 2011
Top Developments in the Arab Spring this Weekend
As usual, Friday was a big day for the popular Arab reform movements that are challenging dictatorial governments. 1. Syrian security forces are alleged to have killed about 20 protesters on Friday, as the demonstrations and rallies continue to be vigorous in places like Hama and Deir al-Zor. The one-party state, ruled by the Baath […]
European Extremism Scares Arabs
Egyptian newspaper Al-Shuruq in Arabic for July 29, 2011: Article on Anders Breivik with the title, “Europe’s Extreme Right: A Hatred Factory”
A Story More Important than Debt Limit Kabuki
I take it the American news cycle is dominated by the artificial debate over raising the debt limit. It is a silly season story. The budget was being balanced by Clinton in the late 1990s, and the Republicans were the ones who created long-term structural deficits by slashing taxes on the wealthiest Americans (even Bush […]
Controversies over Younis assassination in Libya
Abdel Fattah Younis, military leader of the Free Libya Forces, was assassinated Thursday. Younis was too close to Qaddafi, despite his defection, to remain truly popular with the rebels, and it is a little unlikely that his death will affect the terms of the uprising, despite what some observers are saying. He was not allowed […]
Dear Foreigner-Haters: Immigration is Good for You
Why is there such strong anti-immigrant sentiment in the industrialized democracies, and why does it get focused on Muslims? The shooting rampage and bombing by anti-immigrant Islamophobe Anders Breivik has raised these questions to a fever pitch. But the answers are just not obvious. I’m not generally a big fan of Milton Friedman. I like […]
O’Reilly’s Muslim-Hatred and Christian Terrorists
Television commentator Bill O’Reilly lambasted the press for referring to Anders Breivik as a Christian terrorist, on the grounds that he is not a practicing Christian and on the grounds that no true Christian can be a terrorist and on the grounds that Christian fundamentalists are essentially different from Muslim fundamentalists (“those crazy jihadis”). O’Reilly, […]
Boycott Beck! Brands Child Victims Hitler Youth
Glenn Beck, who was purveyed to the American public in their millions by Time Warner’s CNN for some time, before he was picked up and built up by Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Cable News, is obviously unstable and has done a good job of encouraging others to be unstable. But on his radio show on Monday, […]
The Irrelevance of the Knights in a Global Society
Norwegian right wing Christian terrorist Anders Breivik spoke of being a member of the “Knights Templar,” and if anything is further terrorizing about Friday’s attacks beyond their own horror, it is the possibility that an organization was behind them or that there are other members of it as looney and violent as Breivik himself. Update: […]