Sunday, September 23, 2012

Pakistani Assassination Contract, Politics, and Hate

A Californian, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, made a short movie. He posted it on YouTube, and now he's famous: mostly because quite a few Muslims think it insults Islam. They're probably right.

Some folks in the Islamic world apparently believe that killing other Muslims is a good way to deal with this insult. I think that's daft.

Others seem to have decided that killing Americans is a reasonable response. I don't think that's a good idea, either: but will admit to a bias. I'm an American.

Earlier today, it sounded like the Pakistani government would give $100,000 to whoever kills that California filmmaker. Now (Sunday afternoon here near the center of North America), the bounty on Nakoula Basseley Nakoula seems to come from government official - who was acting on his own.

Either way, I don't think assassination is good way to react to hurt feelings. On the other hand, I don't think it's a good idea to hurl insults.

Incentives, Claims, and Decisions

Pakistan's Railroad Minister offered to pay whoever kills Nakoula Basseley Nakoula. International news services picked up the story, and now someone speaking for the Pakistani prime minister said that the Pakistani government had nothing to do with the bounty.1

Maybe the railroad boss really was acting on his own. Maybe whoever planned the assassination contract didn't realize that information travels fast these days. I don't know.

What's important, at least for Mr. Nakoula and anyone near him, is that whoever kills him gets $100,000. Between outrage, anger, and that reward: quite a few folks have a big incentive to hunt the filmmaker down.

California is a long way from Pakistan, but the now-famous Mr. Nakoula isn't taking chances:
"...While many Muslim countries saw mostly peaceful protests on Friday, fifteen people were killed in Pakistan during demonstrations over the video.

"People involved in the film, an amateurish 13-minute clip of which was posted on YouTube, have said it was made by a 55-year-old California man, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula.

"Nakoula has not returned to his home in the Los Angeles suburb of Cerritos since leaving voluntarily to be interviewed by federal authorities. His family has since gone into hiding...."
(Reuters)
I've got some sympathy for Mr. Nakoula's family, particularly if they didn't go along with the fellow's exercise in self-expression. For that matter, I hope Mr. Nakoula doesn't get killed as a result of his actions: if only so that he has time to reconsider the wisdom of his recent decisions.

Pakistan, California, and a Global Culture

The fuss over Mr. Nakoula's film isn't anything new, although that lethal attack on an American embassy in Libya made this situation stand out a bit.

Every so often, someone in a Western country burns a Quran, draws a nasty picture of Mohammed, makes a movie, or does something else rude in reference to Islam.

Then some Muslims set fires and - often as not - kill other Muslims; others point out that the latest outrage isn't nice; and still others probably stay inside and hope the building they're in doesn't get bombed, burned, or both.

That, in my opinion, does more to damage the reputation of Islam than any YouTube video could.

Like it or not, we live in the Information Age: when folks all over the world are likely to learn about someone burning a mosque (February 13, 2008), or offering a reward for killing an infidel.

I like living in a huge world, where most folks aren't just like me, and that's almost another topic.

Hate Crime Legislation: Sort of

Change the names, and a few details, and what Egypt's President wants sounds pretty much like 'hate crime' laws here in America:
"...'A new reality in the Middle East has emerged after the toppling of autocratic regime of Hosni Mubarak and others through democratic elections that brought newly-elected Islamist governments,' Emad Abdel Ghaffour, leader of the Salafist Nour Party, told Reuters.

" 'There are interest groups who seek to escalate hatred to show newly-elected governments and their Muslim electorate as undemocratic,' he said.

"Nour, whose party is the second largest in parliament and plays a formidable force in Egypt's new politics, said President Mohamed Mursi should demand '[!] legislation or a resolution to criminalize 'contempt of Islam as a religion and its Prophet' at the U.N. General Assembly next week."
(Reuters)
I'm not a huge fan of hate crime legislation. America had enforceable libel and slander laws before complaining about 'hate crimes' became fashionable. 'Hate crimes' looked like a way to criminalize opinions of folks who weren't on the same page as the establishment, and that's not quite another topic, too.

Accustomed to Change

I was born in the Truman administration, grew up in the '60s, and can't remember a time when my world wasn't changing. Technology went from vacuum tubes to integrated circuits, 'she's as smart as a man' stopped being a compliment, and America became visibly less WASPish. Some of the social changes were long-overdue reforms; some didn't come out the way I'd hoped.

But I didn't grow up expecting the world I'd grow old in to be the same as the one my grandfather knew. I didn't even think today's world should be like 'the good old days.'

I've said this before: I think the intermittent international riot that's happening again has more to do with culture, and less with religion. Or, rather, that there are at least two 'Islams.'

One of them is a faith that is adjusting to a world where camels and horses aren't the fastest mode of transportation. The other is a system of belief which worked for folks whose way of life was old when Abram left Ur: but which has trouble coping with a post-Magna Carta world.

Living with Difference

My ancestors had a thousand years or so to go from the days of Njal's Saga and the Táin Bó Cúalnge, to Huckleberry Finn and Catch-22. Even so, some folks in the Western world aren't acting well. What's different in the West is that our social and political systems don't generally regard killing neighbors as acceptable behavior. (July 24, 2011)

I'm not making excuses for the Pakistani Railroad Minister, the young Norwegian who tried to start a race war, or the Taliban. I do, however, think it's a good idea to remember that folks like that exist: and can cause serious problems if goaded.

We've all got wonderful opportunities to change the world - for the better. I think there are more effective ways of building a better world than posting provocative videos; or killing fellow-Muslims, Norwegians, or whatever.

Politics and Hate

Maybe the Railroad Minister and others are a lot shrewder than they seem. Getting folks angry is an staple political tactic:
"...'There are interest groups who seek to escalate hatred to show newly-elected governments and their Muslim electorate as undemocratic,' he [Emad Abdel Ghaffour] said...."
(Reuters)
Let's remember that it's not always 'the other guy' who's stirring up hatred, and that's yet another topic.

By the way, that Reuters article has been revised since I first read it. I think the original has interesting material, so I appended it to this post.2

Related posts:
In the news:
1 Excerpt from the news:
"Pakistani bounty placed on anti-Islam filmmaker"
Jibran Ahmad and others, Reuters (September 23, 2012)

"A Pakistani minister offered $100,000 on Saturday to anyone who kills the maker of an online video which insults Islam, as sporadic protests rumbled on across parts of the Muslim world.

" 'I announce today that this blasphemer, this sinner who has spoken nonsense about the holy Prophet, anyone who murders him, I will reward him with $100,000,' Railways Minister Ghulam Ahmad Bilour told a news conference, to applause.

" 'I invite the Taliban brothers and the al Qaeda brothers to join me in this blessed mission.'

"A spokesman for Pakistan's prime minister said the government disassociated itself from the minister's statement...."
2Reuters article, before rewrite:
"Pakistani bounty placed on anti-Islam filmmaker"
Jibran Ahmad (also Anis Ahmed, Tom Cocks, Robin Pomeroy, Editing by Sophie Hares), Reuters (September 23, 2012)

"A Pakistani minister offered $100,000 on Saturday to anyone who kills the maker of an online video which insults Islam, as sporadic protests rumbled on across parts of the Muslim world.

" 'I announce today that this blasphemer, this sinner who has spoken nonsense about the holy Prophet, anyone who murders him, I will reward him with $100,000,' Railways Minister Ghulam Ahmad Bilour told a news conference, to applause.

" 'I invite the Taliban brothers and the al Qaeda brothers to join me in this blessed mission.'

"A spokesman for Pakistan's prime minister said the government disassociated itself from the minister's statement.

"While many Muslim countries saw mostly peaceful protests on Friday, fifteen people were killed in Pakistan during demonstrations over the video.

"People involved in the film, an amateurish 13-minute clip of which was posted on YouTube, have said it was made by a 55-year-old California man, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula.

"Nakoula has not returned to his home in the Los Angeles suburb of Cerritos since leaving voluntarily to be interviewed by federal authorities. His family has since gone into hiding.

"In the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka on Saturday, thousands of Islamist activists clashed with police who used batons and teargas to clear an unauthorized protest. In Kano, northern Nigeria's biggest city, Shi'ite Muslims burned American flags, but their protest passed off peacefully.

"The demonstrations were less widespread than on Friday, but showed anger still simmered around the world against the film and other insults against Islam in the West, including cartoons published by a French satirical magazine.

"Showing continued nervousness among Western governments, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle called on Muslim countries to protect foreign embassies.

" 'The governments in host countries have the unconditional obligation to protect foreign missions. If that doesn't happen, we will emphatically criticize that and if it still doesn't happen it won't go without consequences,' he told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper on Sunday[.]

"Germany's embassy in Sudan was stormed on September 14 as was the U.S. mission in the capital Khartoum where there were deadly clashes between police and protesters against the film.

"MILITIA OUSTED IN BENGHAZI

"In the Libyan city of Benghazi, a crowd forced out an Islamist militia some U.S. officials blame for a deadly attack on the U.S. consulate during one of the first protests, on September 11.

"Ansar al-Sharia, which denies it was involved in the attack that killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, quit the city after its base was stormed by Libyans angry at armed groups that control parts of the country.

"That might go some way to vindicate U.S. President Barack Obama's faith in Libya's nascent democracy where Ambassador Christopher Stevens had worked to help rebels oust Muammar Gaddafi only to be killed in a surge of anti-Americanism.

" 'It's the view of this administration that it's a pretty clear sign from the Libyan people that they're not going to trade the tyranny of a dictator for the tyranny of the mob,' said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.

""It's also an indication that the Libyan people are not comfortable with the voices of a few extremists and those who advocate and perpetrate violence, to drown out the voices and aspirations of the Libyan people." [ID:nL5E8KM49W]

"In Egypt, the leader of Egypt's main ultra orthodox Islamist party, that shares power with the more moderate Muslim Brotherhood, said the film and the French cartoons were part of a rise of anti-Islamic actions since the Arab spring revolts.

" 'A new reality in the Middle East has emerged after the toppling of autocratic regime of Hosni Mubarak and others through democratic elections that brought newly-elected Islamist governments,' Emad Abdel Ghaffour, leader of the Salafist Nour Party, told Reuters.

" 'There are interest groups who seek to escalate hatred to show newly-elected governments and their Muslim electorate as undemocratic,' he said.

"Nour, whose party is the second largest in parliament and plays a formidable force in Egypt's new politics, said President Mohamed Mursi should demand '[!]legislation or a resolution to criminalize 'contempt of Islam as a religion and its Prophet' at the U.N. General Assembly next week."
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Saturday, September 15, 2012

Anti-American Protests, Anti-Islamic Film, and Getting a Grip

I've been out of town on business all week, and started catching up yesterday. I discovered that four Americans had been killed Tuesday at an embassy in Libya, and that both Libyan and American authorities seemed to think the attack had to be treated seriously.

That's progress of a sort. As for the usual protests:
Today I learned that many of the protests were a response to "...a film ridiculing Muhammad produced by an American in California and being promoted by an extreme anti-Muslim Egyptian Christian campaigner in the United States...." (AP, via FoxNews.com)

I think killing Americans and torching an embassy isn't an appropriate response: not even for someone who's really angry. That said, I can sympathize with Muslims who are upset about what seems to be the latest anti-Islamic film.

But folks who get upset, and then kill someone? That's unacceptable.

Ridiculing 'Those People'

I'm part of a religious minority in America, and long ago got used to having my faith ridiculed by other Americans:


(Chick Publications, via FoxNews.com, used w/o permission)

I don't like comics like the one in that excerpt. But I'd much rather live in a country where folks are free to express their opinions: as long as I'm allowed to do the same. I remember the trailing edge of McCarthyism, and the more recent political correctness: and didn't like either one.

"Freedom" shouldn't mean "free to agree with me, or be quiet:"

Living in a Big World

Like I've said before, we live in a big world. Like it or not, the 7,000,000,000 or so folks who share the planet don't all:
  • Look alike
  • Wear the same clothes
  • Follow the same
    • Faith
    • Customs
I like living in a world where not everyone is like me. It would be unreasonable for me to expect everyone to enjoy a world of differences - but I think most of us can learn to say 'I don't agree' without killing someone.

I also hope that more of us can learn to say what we believe: without hurling insults at 'those people over there.' And that's another topic.

Here's a bit of what started me writing this post:
"Fury about a film that insults the Prophet Mohammad tore across the Middle East after weekly prayers on Friday with protesters attacking U.S. embassies and burning American flags as the Pentagon rushed to bolster security at its missions.

"At least seven people were killed as local police struggled to repel assaults after weekly Muslim prayers in Tunisia and Sudan, while there was new violence in Egypt and Yemen and across the Muslim world, driven by emotions ranging from piety to anger at Western power to frustrations with local leaders and poverty.

"A Taliban attack on a base in Afghanistan that killed two Americans may also have been timed to coincide with protests.

"But three days after the amateurish film of obscure origin triggered an attack on the U.S. consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi that killed the ambassador and three other Americans on Sept. 11, President Barack Obama led a ceremony to honour the returning dead and vowed to 'stand fast' against the violence.

" 'The United States will never retreat from the world,' said Obama, who in seeking re-election must defend his record on protecting U.S. interests, both at embassies and more widely in a region where last year's Arab Spring revolts overthrew pro-Western autocrats to the benefit of once-oppressed Islamists...."
(Ulf Laessing and Tarek Amara, Reuters)
"...Protesters angered over a film that ridiculed Islam's Prophet Muhammad fired gunshots and burned down the U.S. consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, killing one American diplomat, witnesses and the State Department said. In Egypt, protesters scaled the walls of the U.S. embassy in Cairo and replaced an American flag with an Islamic banner.

"It was the first such assaults on U.S. diplomatic facilities in either country, at a time when both Libya and Egypt are struggling to overcome the turmoil following the ouster of their longtime leaders, Muammar Qaddafi and Hosni Mubarak in uprisings last year.

"The protests in both countries were sparked by outrage over a film ridiculing Muhammad produced by an American in California and being promoted by an extreme anti-Muslim Egyptian Christian campaigner in the United States. Excerpts from the film dubbed into Arabic were posted on YouTube...."
(Associated Press, via FoxNews.com)
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Friday, September 14, 2012

Dead Americans Returned from Libya, Bomb Threats at Home: 'Same Old, Same Old'

'Yankee go home' has been replaced by 'the great Satan America,' but other than that I tend to see what's been happening overseas as more of the 'same old, same old.'

In Libya, four Americans were killed on Tuesday. I rather hope that someone's going to figure our why embassy security was, ah, modified:
"...sources have told the BBC that on the advice of a US diplomatic regional security officer, the mission in Benghazi was not given the full contract despite lobbying by private contractors.

"Instead, the US consulate was guarded externally by a force of local Libyan militia, many of whom reportedly put down their weapons and fled once the mission came under concerted attack...."
(BBC News)
Some details of what happened during that attack are public knowledge: but not why the attack happened, or who planned it. Much as I'd like to know exactly what Libyan and American officials know and guess about the attack, I think they're acting sensibly.

Blurting out sensitive information, or off-the-cuff exclamations make for exciting news: but I don't think it would be good for most Libyans or Americans at this point. What we do know is more tantalizing than enlightening:
"...Four people have been arrested in connection with the attack that left Stevens and the three other Americans dead, the top aide to the president of the Libyan parliament said Friday.

"Those arrested were not directly tied to the attack, Monem Elyasser, the chief aide to Prime Minister Mustafa Abushagur, told CNN by telephone.

"Elyasser did not release the identities of the four suspects in custody, nor did he detail the allegations against them.

"The announcement came as the United States is struggling to determine whether a militant group planned the attack that killed the four Americans...."
(CNN)
Meanwhile, quite a few folks in other parts of the Middle East are expressing the usual anti-American sentiment. I'm pretty sure that this does not 'prove' that:
  • Everything is the fault of
    • America
    • The Jews
    • Islam
    • Democrats
    • Republicans
  • America should
    • Pretend the rest of the world doesn't exist
    • Bomb Libya
    • Arrest all Muslims
    • Apologize for offending someone
Meanwhile, bomb threats affected routines at some American universities: including one of my Alma Maters, NDSU. Those threats resulted in no explosions, but quite a few questions.

I have no idea who made the bomb threats: but I'm not terribly surprised that they happened. We just passed the September 11 anniversary, and some major issues are at stake in the coming November election. Threatening to kill college students isn't a reasonable response to America's domestic situation: and that's another topic.

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Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Remembering September 11, 2001; and Looking Ahead

On September 11, 2001, thousands of people died in an attack on cities along the east coast of North America. The attack was carried out by people who apparently didn't approve of America, America's way of life, and anything else that wasn't exactly consistent with what they preferred.

I'm not entirely pleased about some aspects of America's contemporary culture, either: but slaughtering thousands of folks I don't like isn't a reasonable response. I'll get back to that.

Since 9/11/2001, a remarkable number of national leaders have decided that getting killed by religious fanatics isn't a good thing. Even more remarkable, many have committed to an armed response to the threat of Al Qaeda and like-minded outfits.

I think peace is nice. I think war is very unpleasant. But sometimes peace isn't an acceptable option.

The Job at Hand

In the short term, the job at hand is dealing with the sad fact that some folks would like to kill more people who don't dress and act the way they want us to. Since asking nicely hasn't worked in the past, my guess is that military action in the Middle East and other parts of the world will continue to be necessary.

Tolerance, Real and Imagined

While dealing with the physical threat posed by religious fanatics, I think it's vital to preserve the tolerance that earned America their hatred. That's going to be difficult, since my country is home to some folks who seem as fervently dedicated to their own notions as any Al Qaeda zealot.

One lot seems to feel that 'Muslims and other foreigners' are a Satanic threat to their own views of how everybody should dress and act. These folks see "tolerance" as allowing others to agree with their views: even if the others look like foreigners.

Another lot seems convinced that all religion is a sort of psychiatric condition or social pathology. These folks see "tolerance" as allowing others to hold differing opinions: as long as the 'intolerant' people keep quiet, and do whatever the 'tolerant' folks tell them to.

I'm not at all fond of either sort of 'tolerance.'

Sorting Out 'Quirky' and 'Constant'

Tolerance has been defined as "a permissible difference; allowing some freedom to move within limits." (Princeton's WordNet) I think that's reasonable.

One of the major challenges in today's world is determining just what "some freedom" means. We're going through exciting and promising changes - which means that quirky little preferences that may have worked a few generations back simply don't apply any more.

The trick will be distinguishing between rules that don't matter, like which side of a plate the fork goes on, and ethical principles that apply to 'left fork,' 'right fork,' and 'no fork' folks. It's not going to be easy: but it's necessary. And that's another topic.

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Blogroll

Note! Although I believe that these websites and blogs are useful resources for understanding the War on Terror, I do not necessarily agree with their opinions. 1 1 Given a recent misunderstanding of the phrase "useful resources," a clarification: I do not limit my reading to resources which support my views, or even to those which appear to be accurate. Reading opinions contrary to what I believed has been very useful at times: sometimes verifying my previous assumptions, sometimes encouraging me to change them.

Even resources which, in my opinion, are simply inaccurate are sometimes useful: these can give valuable insights into why some people or groups believe what they do.

In short, It is my opinion that some of the resources in this blogroll are neither accurate, nor unbiased. I do, however, believe that they are useful in understanding the War on Terror, the many versions of Islam, terrorism, and related topics.