In direct contravention of my wife's explicit instructions, herewith I inaugurate my first blog. Long may it prosper.

For some reason, I think I have something to say to you. You think you have something to say to me? Email me at: gideonsblogger -at- yahoo -dot- com

 
Very good piece in OpinionJournal about Islamic law and suicide bombings. When this war is over, the few brave Muslims who have stood up and forthrightly declared that such murder-suicides are indefensible in Islam will be the only hope for the future of the religion.

In passing, it's worth noting that Taheri makes a legal argument as well as a moral one, articulating how, procedurally, a momentous change in Islamic ethics would have to be implemented to be legitimate. Another piece of evidence that the best weapon against fundamentalism is not modernity but traditionalism. (It is well-known that many of the leaders of the Islamic fundamentalist war are half-educated yokels (e.g. "Sheik" Yassin, head of Hamas) or opportunistic punks (e.g. billionaire playboy Osama bin Laden). Traditional Islamic leaders have been largely intimidated or bribed into silence or complicity with uneducated murderers.) More on this later.
posted by Noah at 8:58 AM