Why I Call "Knights in Support of the Invasion" Islamic

A few minutes ago I wrote a post about the Facebook group, "Knights in Support of the Invasion." I called it an Islamic group.

A Muslim, whose word I have no reason to disbelieve, said, "...that's the whole truth, we are a part of a peaceful religion...."

If I believe the 'peaceful religion' person, why would I call "Knights in Support of the Invasion" Islamic?

I Let People Define Themselves

In general, I prefer to let people define themselves. For example, if someone says, "I am a Democrat," or "I'm a Christian," or "I'm a vegetarian," I'm not likely to say "no, you're not."

If I've got fact-based reasons for thinking that the person isn't acting the way a Democrat, Christian, or vegetarian, might be expected to behave, I might point that out. I might even, if - say - the vegetarian was chowing down on a 16-ounce porterhouse steak at the time - come right out and say that there's specific reason to believe that the person isn't what he or she claims to be.

But, I don't know enough about Islam to say that Facebook's "Knights in Support of the Invasion" isn't Islamic. They claim to support Islam, and the group is (or was) focused on that support, so I think it's reasonable to say that it's Islamic.

Besides, the membership of Muslim clerics, prominent ones, who are subjects of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, seem to affirm that "Knights in Support of the Invasion" is an Islamic group.

With so many flavors of Islam around, I'm not going to be the one to say 'this is Islamic,' and 'this is not Islamic.' Besides, the closest thing that Islam seems to have to an authority, clerics under the ruler of the House of Saud, seem to think that the "Knights in Support of the Invasion" version is the real McCoy.

Related posts:

• "Islamic 'Knights in Support of the Invasion' Group on Facebook Shut Down: Censorship, or Common Sense?"
  (December 20, 2008)
• "'Will the Real Islam, Please Stand Up?' "
  (February 6, 2008)

"Mecca is being blown into pieces"

Irreplaceable buildings in Mecca have been destroyed. The city that's close to every Muslim's heart has lost:

• The house of Muhammad's first wife Khadija
• The Dar al-Arqam

As a historian, I'm very sorry to learn that the house where Muslims believe the Prophet received some revelations of the Quran; and the first Islamic school, where Muhammad taught, have been destroyed. I'm pretty sure that Muslims feel the loss even more.

From the sounds of it, more of Mecca's treasures will soon be gone.

"Mecca is being blown into pieces," is the way that Islamic architecture Sami Angawi put it. (TimesOnline (December 6, 2008))

Rebuilding Mecca

Americans call this sort of thing 'urban renewal,' and it can get messy.

But sometimes rather important. About 1,3000,000 people live in Mecca year-round. Many more come each year, for the Haj: around 2,000,000, more than doubling the population. Make that 3,000,000. Any time you have that many people in one place, there's going to be trouble. Particularly if streets, walkways, and the rest of the city isn't really built to handle the crowds.

Saudi Arabia has avoided a repeat of the 1990 disaster, when 1,426 died, but I get the impression that Mecca's infrastructure still has problems. Body counts are still pretty high:

Year	Event	Deaths
1997	Fire	343
1998	trampling	118
2004	stampede	251
2006	stampede	363

(TimesOnline (December 6, 2008), BBC (March 5, 2001))

That may be why the House of Saud has decided to do a whole lot of remodeling in Mecca. I could be cynical about members of the royal family owning contractors who will be involved, but this is Saudi Arabia. That territory seems to be run the way places were in Europe, back in the feudal period. Whoever was sat on the throne, owned the territory. So, it would be a little odd if a major construction project didn't involve a member of the royal house.

Sensitivity Training for the House of Saud?

Islamic architecture expert Sami Angawi says that he's not against Western influence, but that local experts should be involved in re-building a mosque. I see his point.

Particularly since none of the architects are Saudi, and some aren't Muslim - and so won't be allowed to enter Mecca. I understand that many architects believe that buildings should fit their environment. I'd think that a person would learn more about a place by going there, rather than relying on photographs and maps made by someone else.¹

I was quite impressed that Foster & Partners - headed by Lord Foster - is part of the team that will be working on the northern expansion of the Haram mosque. I'm not sure what to think. Maybe King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, wants to show how global-minded he is. Or maybe he figures there aren't any Saudi architects who can handle the job.

Mr Angawi said that this isn't the Saudi Arabia of the fifties: " 'There is a lot of expertise right here in Saudi Arabia. It is not 50 years ago. We have the knowledge to do this ourselves.' "

Sounds to me like the Saudi king isn't quite in touch with his subjects' feelings - or that he's looking at more important things.

Coming Soon to Mecca: Hajorama!

Mecca already has Top Shop and Starbucks. When King Abdullah's project is finished, four years or so from now, Mecca will have 130 new skyscrapers, including a complex with seven towers and:

• A hotel with 2,000 rooms
• A convention center for 1,500 people
• Heliports
• A four-story shopping mall

The Abraj al-Bait Towers will be one of the biggest buildings in the world.

In a way, it's nice to see that Dubai isn't the only place in the Middle East where the leaders think big. And I think there's some sense to plans for catering to wealthy Muslims who want to visit Mecca. Saudia Arabia's oil won't last forever, and developing alternative sources of revenue is prudent.

And, I don't have a problem with businesses that provide goods and services to people engaged in religious pursuits. Although some of the 'Jesus junk' I've seen is amazingly tacky.

On the other hand, I think that some Muslims won't be entirely happy about Mecca's projected commercial and retail developments.

Terrorists Targeting: Mecca?!

I know: it's hard to imagine terrorists who claim to be defending Islam blowing up buildings and killing people in Mecca. But I wouldn't be all that surprised if it happens in the next decade.

It wouldn't be the first time that outfits like Al Qaeda or the Taliban hit a holy place that was in the way of their vision of Islam. Remember Samarra's Golden Dome mosque? the 2006 bombing of the Askariya Shiite shrine pretty much destroyed the Golden Dome, another attack in 2007 took out two minarets. (International Herald Tribune (June 13, 2008))

I've gotten the impression that it's mostly Shiite targets that get hit, like the one last month in Peshawar (BBC (November 24, 2008). That would seem to give Mecca, which apparently is in Sunni territory, a sort of immunity.

But, once in a while, it's a Sunni mosque, that gets bombed. Like the one in Zubair. (ABC News (June 15, 2007)) From what I've heard and read, the attacks on Sunni targets sometimes happen after a Shiite target is hit - which may be a response to an earlier attack on a Sunni site: And so on. You get the idea.

Given the Middle East's history of using bombings, beheadings, and shootings as a medium of communication, I think it's quite possible that some self-styled lions of Islam will voice their displeasure with economic development in Mecca with explosives, or something else lethal and indiscriminate.

In the news:

• "SAUDI ARABIA: Revamping Islam's holiest site"
  Los Angeles Times (December 7, 2008)
• "Gherkin designer Norman Foster must keep hands off Mecca, insists Muslim architect"
  TimesOnline (December 6, 2008)
• "Pakistan mosque blast hurts eight"
  BBC (November 24, 2008)
• "Golden Dome mosque is bombed again"
  International Herald Tribune (June 13, 2007)

Background:

• "Mecca"
  Holy Pilgrimage Site for Muslims
  About.com
• "Pilgrims killed in Mecca stampede"
  BBC (March 5, 2001)
Abraj al-Bait
skyscraperpage.com
• "Lord Norman Robert Foster"
  Structurae
• "Building the Gherkin"
  (about the Swiss Re London headquarters in London)
  artfilm.ch

¹ This won't be the first time that outsiders have had to deal with Mecca's special requirements. Ten years back, a Los Angeles company, won the bid to rewire the sound system in Mecca's mosques. Most of the project was done in a California warehouse, by American engineers. They put the sound system together and tested it there, because they weren't allowed to enter Mecca. A team of Muslim mosque technicians went to Los Angeles, where they learned how to install and run the system. On top of that, since the system mustn't handle any sound except an imam reading from the Quran, someone invented a way of testing the speakers - without sound.(TimesOnline (December 6, 2008)

The TimesOnline article leaves it vague, which set of technicians invented a soundless sound system check.

Mecca Maps

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Quran On Demand Text Service - By an Israeli Company

I think this is a great idea, but then: I'm no Muslim.

Pelephone has a Quran text service. Muslims in Palestine can get verses of the Koran on their mobile phones. I understand that the Salah prayer routine should be done five times a day - so this should be a big help.

The screen display looks like an actual Quran that users can scroll through

It's New, So it Must be an Attack on Islam?

Happily, no Imam has issued a fatwa against Pelephone's Quran text service. Yet.

In fact, a researcher of Islam, Dr. Mordechai Kedar, thinks it's a good idea: " 'I'm not a subscriber yet, but I think it's a very practical idea. As a researcher, I can see myself going into the Koran via a 3G phone and urgently retrieving a specific verse. It's certainly something accessible and good. I also think that the Muslim community very much likes all the technological innovations on the market,' " he said in a Haaretz.com article.

It's early days, though. The service is a couple weeks old, so some Muslim leaders may not have heard of it yet. I can see a few objections right off the bat:

• Pelephone is owned by Bezeq
  • That's the Israel Telecommunication Corporation Ltd.
  • Jews?!
  • Providing a Quran text service??!!
• Pelephone has had a similar service for the Christian Bible for about six months
  • Words of the Holy Quran getting mingled with un-Islamic text on the cell phone channels?!
  • And/or -
    How dare these Jews insult Islam by having this service for those Christians before us?
• This service could lead to great evil
  • Like men and women praying in the same room

That's Ridiculous! Muslims Wouldn't Act That Way

Many wouldn't: and don't. Quite a few Muslims, unhappily, aren't the best spokespersons for their beliefs. Or, rather, for what I sincerely hope the beliefs of Islam are.

Islam doesn't have a monopoly on crackpots, of course. On the other hand, the ruler of the House of Saud, in his self-proclaimed capacity as "Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques" is running a kingdom that doesn't quite seem to have made the transition into the thirteenth century. Examples:

• The head of Saudi Arabia's highest tribunal declared open season on network owners.
• A former Saudi diplomat to Washington, D.C identified Mickey Mouse is one of Satan's soldiers
• A highly-respected Saudi cleric said that women should only use one eye at a time when they're let outside

And that's just in the last half of 2008. Then, there's the case of the Egyptian doctor who was sentenced to death by slow torture.

Granted, "death" wasn't in the sentence. But, when you put a 53-year-old man in a Saudi prison and lash him 1,500 times over a period of 15 years: death isn't too unlikely. It works out to about 70 lashes a week, by the way. Another doctor was sentenced, too. The charge seems to be malpractice. A Saudi princess demanded morphine. When she got her way, she 'then' became an addict. So the doctor must be flogged. Probably to death.

It's not just Saudi Arabia, of course: there's a fairly steady stream of things like the strange case of the teddy bear vs. Islam in Sudan. As I've said before, with friends like these, Islam doesn't need enemies.

No News Will be Good News

If this dial-a-Quran service doesn't get in the news again, that will be very good news. I sincerely hope that devout Muslims in that part of the world can accept an assist from Information Age technology. Even if it doesn't come from a pure Islamic source.

Finally, some good sense from " '"The integration of Muslim ideas that were born in the seventh century with 21st century gadgets is a welcome phenomenon. In my class, for example, there are Arab students who download ringtones from the Internet that are the Adhan, the chant the muezzin uses for reciting the call to prayer. When they forget to turn off their cellphones, I suddenly hear the muezzin in the middle of my class.' " (Haaretz.com (November 24, 2008))

In the news:

• "Israeli Company Provides Muslim Text on the Go"
  FOXNews (December 1, 2008)
• "God speaking "
  Haaretz.com (November 24, 2008)

Background:

• Pelephone Business Profile
  (this page is mostly in English)

Related posts, on Islam, Christianity, Religion, Culture and the War on Terror.

Make That Two Egyptian Doctors, a Saudi Princess, and Thousands of Lashes

A Saudi judge sentencing a doctor to 15 years and 1,500 lashes may be a bigger deal than I thought. Sure, it will almost certainly be a case of death by slow torture, but this is Saudi Arabia: They do things the old-fashioned way there.

Apparently, Egyptians and the Egyptian government don't see eye-to-eye with Saudi justice in this case.

More details are seeping into the news over here. Turns out there are two doctors involved. Rauf Amin Mohammad al-Arabi, who we heard about earlier, and Shawky Abd-Rabbu. They were convicted of prescribing morphine to a Saudi princess. She "then" became a drug addict.

Looks like she may have been prescribed morphine in America, and told the Egyptian docs to give her morf. There are at least two ways to look at this:

• It's the fault of the Americans
• Princess was a junkie when she met the doctors

The doctors denied the allegations, and got their sentences doubled to the 1,500-lash level when they appealed.

If what a family member says is true, we get an interesting look at Islamic justice, Saudi style:

"The sister of Abd-Rabbu said her brother was coerced into making false confessions and the Saudi authorities had threatened to imprison his wife who is also working in the kingdom."
(BBC)

A story about a princess who gets a trusted old doctor and his colleague killed by slow torture might have been mildly entertaining as a bad B-movie flick.

Being played out in real life, it's appalling.

The Egyptian government has banned more Egyptian doctors going to work in Saudi Arabia. The ones who are there already can stay and take their chances. Smart move, I'd say, as far as it goes.

Meanwhile, in Saudi Arabia, the House of Saud's very own Islamic law rules the land, and the Saudi royal family won't comment on the little issue of the princess and the flogged doctors.

The Saudi king's official title translates as "Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques." I wonder if this "Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques" has any clue, what this sort of barbaric 'justice' does to the perception of Islam outside his borders?

Change in the Middle East?

The BBC article wraps up with "Egyptian newspapers blame their own government, which they say suffers an inferiority complex when it comes to dealing with the oil rich Saudis, says our correspondent."

I could be wrong, but the House of Saud may be losing its grip on the respect of the rest of the Middle East. And that could lead to less 'pure' forms of Islam getting a hearing. Which might not be such a bad thing: at least for doctors dealing with very rich and influential patients.

Related post:

• "An Egyptian Doctor, a Saudi Princess, and 1,500 lashes "
  (November 11, 2008)

In the news:

• "Egypt halts doctor visas to Saudi"
  BBC (November 13, 2008)

An Egyptian Doctor, a Saudi Princess, and 1,500 lashes

It sounds like something out of a mildly deranged Arabian Nights story: The trusted old physician, after long service to the royal family, eases the suffering of the king's daughter. Who had been downing soothing draughts long before he gave her one.

Almost two years later, as the physician prepares to return to his homeland, the king's guards seize him and throw him in prison.

I'm being a bit unfair. Saudi Arabia has trials before throwing enemies of the crown into prison. In this case, two trials. Raouf Amin el-Arabi, the Egyptian doctor who had the dubious distinction of lasting 20 years in the House of Saud, appealed his conviction. The official charge is malpractice, by the way.

So a Saudi judge doubled his sentence.

Unless another Saudi judge gets his nose out of joint, the Egyptian doctor will serve 15 years in a Saudi prison, and get lashed 70 times a week.

My guess is that the sentence won't be carried out. Raouf Amin el-Arabi is 53, and will probably die before the full 1,500 lashes are delivered. Of course, in the interests of justice, a Saudi tormentor could go on lashing a corpse.

Or, maybe the international stink will encourage the powers that be in Saudi Arabia to letting the doctor go.

Islamic Law? Or Kangaroo Court, Saudi Style?

Does this weirdly anachronistic case show that Islam is a violent cult from a barbaric age?

If that were true, Islamic nations in general could be counted on to mistreat the foreigners who do their work.

But, although Saudi Arabia can be counted on for bizarre news like this every few months, very Islamic Indonesia quietly rolls along being a nation in the information age: no junkie princesses getting doctors sentenced to a prolonged death by flogging.

I've said this before: I think that Islam, in common with some other systems of belief, is heavily influenced by whatever culture its followers have.

So, we have Indonesia being rather quietly Islamic (with some recent and disturbing exceptions), while Saudi Arabia seems determined to paint Islam as a religion of very strange and dangerous men.

Examples:

• "Saudi Cleric Wants Women to Use One Eye - I'm Not Making This Up"
  (October 4, 2008)
• "Chief Saudi Judge: Death to Network Owners! "
  (September 19, 2008)
• "Mickey Mouse Must Die! Agent of Satan Targeted by Saudi Cleric "
  (September 19, 2008)

Every Crowd Has its Kooks

Meanwhile, in America, a Muslim education campaign demonstrated that Muslims aren't the only group with members who are ignorant, and want to stay that way:

• "The Subway Project and 'Why Islam?' - Terrorists in the Subways! Or, Not"
  (July 23, 2008)
• "Pro-Islamic Ads Coming to New York City Subways: There's a Real Danger Here, of Becoming Informed"
  (July 21, 2008)

Related post:

• "Islam, Christianity, Culture, and Kooks"
  (November 26, 2007)

In the news:

• "EGYPT: Doctor jailed and whipped in Saudi Arabia"
  Babylon & Beyond / Los Angeles Times (November 11, 2008)
• "Egyptians decry doctor's sentence of 1,500 lashes"
  Associated Press (November 11, 2008)
• "Protestors demand release of Egyptian doctor from Saudi"
  Daily News Egypt (November 11, 2008)

Related posts, on Islam, Christianity, Religion, Culture and the War on Terror.

Saudi Arabia's National Day, Islam, and Tribalism: This is Big

Tired of Islamic tribalism and 'Death to people we don't like?' You aren't the only one.

Most Islamic events in the Middle East seem to include the same familiar themes: Death to America; Death to Israel; follow Islam or die. For some events, like Hajj, these 'death to people we don't like' celebrations seem to be more of a sideshow. Then, there are get-togethers like Al Quds Day that show all the tolerance of a Ku Klux Klan rally.

It's hard not to get the idea that Islam is dedicated to wiping out everyone who doesn't agree. Of course, people have gotten odd ideas about Christianity by observing the Klan, and assuming that all Christians are like them.

The Saudi kingdom, which regards itself as a protector of Islam, seems to be wrestling with the idea that declaring open season on network owners may not be entirely appropriate. (The chief Saudi judge's network fatwa was quite reasonable, in its own way: he said it was only okay to kill network owners if they were immoral.)

It's about time. There's reason to believe that Muslims on the street are getting fed up with crazy fatwas. That 'death to Mickey Mouse' outburst wasn't an isolated incident, and today's Middle East is no more isolated than any other place with electrical power and Internet connections.

The Saudi Monarch Says Terrorists are Giving Islam a Bad Name?!

It looks like Saudi Arabia has been going through some tough reality checks:

• 2001: Saudi's leaders
  • Deny that any Saudis were involved in the 9/11 attacks
    • Until evidence piled up that the majority of the hijackers were Saudi citizens
  • Declare that foreigners were defaming Saudi Arabia by using the names and identities of Saudi citizens
• 2007: Saudi Arabian jihad rehab program cures Al Qaeda fighters of terrorism
  • 1,500 Al Qaeda members released, after promising to commit no more terrorist attacks
    • On the Saudi Arabian peninsula
• 2008: Saudi Arabia's king says that terrorists are giving Islam a bad name

This week's National Day statement was definitely not 'business as usual.' The news I've read doesn't say whether the Saudi king made his ground-breaking remarks in English, with a more standard-issue statement in Arabic, or whether we're looking at translations of what the king was saying to his subjects.

Either way, this is big. I think that there's a chance that a major player in the War on Terror may be realizing that Al Qaeda and the Taliban are no more good for Islam and Muslims than they are for anyone else.

In the news:

Same old, same old:

• "ISO organizes Al-Quds rally"
  Daily Times (Lahore, Pakistan) (September 27, 2008)
  • "KARACHI: Imamia Students Organization Pakistan (ISOP) President Asif Qambri has said that the issue of Al-Quds can only be resolved through war and insisted that his organization is ready to fight for the cause.
  • "Qambri was addressing the 'Al-Quds Rally' organized by ISO Karachi on Friday. The rally was attended by thousands of men, women and children and proceeded from the Numaish Chowrangi to Regal Chowk, Saddar.
  • "The rally was addressed by Maulana Munawar Naqvi, Jamaat-e-Islami leader Dr Mehraj-ul-Hudda Siddiqui, Maulana Mirza Yousuf Hussain, Agha Aftab Haider Jafferi, Maulana Shaikh Muhammad Hasan Salahuddin and Maulana Syed Ali Murtaza Zaidi.
  • "The speakers declared Israel as the biggest terrorists of the world and stressed the need to launch a war against the nation. 'If we really want to end terrorism, the elimination of Israel is essential,' they said. The speakers said that it was shameful that the first Qibla of Muslims, the Bait-ul-Muqaddas, was under the occupation of Jews...."
• "Iran Denounces Support of Israel"
  Time (September 26, 2008)
  • "(TEHRAN, Iran) — A former Iranian president warned the West on Friday that its support for Israel would backfire, as hundreds of thousands of people staged rallies in support of Muslim claims to the holy city of Jerusalem.
  • "Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who is still considered influential in Iranian politics, said the U.S., Britain and France back Israel — and this is dangerous.
  • " 'They will put themselves in trouble, eventually,' Rafsanjani said during a Friday prayer ceremony in Tehran marking 'Al-Quds Day.' Al-Quds is the Arabic word for Jerusalem...."

The Saudi king said what?!

• "Change marks Saudi Arabia's National Day"
  CNN (September 27, 2008)
  • "(CNN) -- Saudi Arabia's National Day -- traditionally a day for reflections on self, religion and faith -- was marked Tuesday by an unexplained change in the traditionally conservative Saudi kingdom.
  • "Perhaps it was the kingdom's increasing access to the Internet, King Abdullah's efforts to reform and moderate his kingdom, general fatigue with the bad name imposed on Saudis by terrorists and other radicals who claim to represent them, or any combination of reasons.
  • " 'Unfortunately, the image of Islam is being tarnished by none other than Muslims themselves,' the monarch declared. He spoke clearly and repeated the word 'unfortunately' several times. 'If we want to be honest with ourselves, we have to accept this reality that the sons of Islam are the ones desecrating this pure religion,' he said, adding, 'Islam disowns them and disowns anyone who tries to give it a bad name.'...
  • "...In an editorial in the pro-government newspaper Al-Watan, columnist Saleh Muhammad al-Shihi expressed disappointment with what he calls his nation's limiting tribal mentality that stifles his longing for diversity.
  • " 'No one can leave the boundaries of the tribe whose name he carries,' he wrote. 'This tribe represents to you an existential value, but one that denies you the right to being different. It wants you to be a carbon copy of your seventh ancestor even down to your mustache... Many tribal rules are similar to the state laws. But state laws can be at least amended to serve the interests of the people, while no one dares amend tribal authority and rules.'
  • "Al-Shihi added, 'What is even more painful is that many of these tribal rules are on a par with many religious fatwas or edicts with the exception that tribal fatwas and rules don't die out even if half the tribe dies because of them I have come to experience and appreciate diversity. If I was not different, if you weren't different, if she wasn't different, we wouldn't be able to coexist in peace and happiness. We differ about the path as each of us has his own preferred path, yet we all agree on the destination.'..."

[Emphasis mine]

Saudi Breakthrough! Jihadists Reformed!! Al Qaeda Members Promise No More Jihad*!!!

*on the Arabian Peninsula, that is.

Saudi Crackdown on Terrorists Bears Fruit

I can't be sure, but this sounds like the terrorist rehabilitation program I wrote about in "Jihad Rehab" (August 22, 2007). "The New York Sun" article, "1,500 Qaeda Members Freed After Counseling," quotes Muhammad al-Nujaimi, a man on the special committee to reform jihadists in the Saudi kingdom:

"The committee has met around 5,000 times to offer counseling to 3,200 people, who were accused of embracing the takfir ideology. The committee has successfully completed reforming 1,500 people," which sounds like wonderful news.

I'm underwhelmed by this achievement. The terrorists promised to lay off their violent ways - on the Arabian Peninsula. There's not much on the Arabian Peninsula, except Saudi Arabia.

In other words, the kingdom whose people provided most of the 9/11 hijackers and many of the foreigners who have been jailed in Iraq for trying to overthrow the Iraqi government, now has extracted a promise from members of a terrorist group that they will not attack Saudi Arabia.

This is a great accomplishment?!

For the House of Saud, I suppose so. For all the rest of us infidels and insufficiently-Islamic people, not so much.

---

Miscellany

I always dig up more facts than I use, when writing these posts. This time, I have an unusually big pile of stuff that didn't quite fit into the body of the post: and some of the pieces are too interesting to file or forget -

Saudi Sensibilities

Saudi Arabia is a marvelous kingdom. Its foreign minister, Saud al-Faisal, hadn't wanted to go to the peace conference at Annapolis. He knew that there might be at least one Jew there, and al-Faisal did not want to be forced into a position where he might have to shake the Israeli prime minister's hand.

Patriotism can make people do personally repugnant things: Saud al-Faisal said he'd go to the Annapolis conference anyway, to see about getting back territory that Israel has held since 1967.

Takfir?!

There isn't all that much on Takfir ideology on the Web. I take what I find on Wikipedia with a grain of salt, but that's where I found the least suspect/most detailed discussion. Here's how the Wikipedia article on Takfir started:

"In Shia terminology, "takfir" is the practice of crossing the arms when standing upright during salat (or takattuf, called qabd by Sunnis).

"In Islamic law, takfir or takfeer (تكفير) is the practice of declaring unbeliever or kafir (pl. kuffār), an individual or a group previously considered Muslim. The act which precipitates takfir is termed the mukaffir."

1967 and Unintended Consequences

The year 1967 shows up quite often in Middle East news. That's the year when the Arab world rose as one and drove the Jews into the sea. That was the original idea. What actually happened is that Israel refused to cooperate, pushed back, and held some territory it deemed to be strategically or tactically important.

There are more delicate ways of describing the Six Day War, but that seems to be the gist of it.

Another Resource

There's an interesting discussion of Takfir ideology and other ideas in Jordan, at "The Jordanian Regime Fights the War of Ideas."

I found this at the Hudson Institute: Center on Islam, Democracy, and the Future of the Muslim World. What caught my eye was the word "and" in the title. In this context, that's a very hopeful word.

Saudi Arabia, the Taliban, and other bastions of the the world as it was a millennium ago may not be Islam's best representatives. The Center on Islam, Democracy and the Future of the Muslim World discusses an exciting development in Islam, which the organization claims got more serious attention after the 9/11 attack.

The Center seems to believe that Islam, and the social/political reforms that started with the Magna Carta in Europe, can exist side-by-side. The leap from tribal mores and autocratic regional authority to the 18th century philosophies of systematic thinking and individual rights is huge. However, I think that there are people in the Muslim world with the brains and the guts to make the leap.