"The Hicks Fix"

By Phoebe in Sydney

Well, I think the first thing Congress should do is repeal the Military Commissions Act. I’m very disturbed that a number of people who are looking at the highest office in the land have supported an act which advertently or inadvertently authorizes the admission into evidence of information gained through torture. That's not the America that I believe in. And the America that I believe in doesn't detain people indefinitely without charges.
Wes Clark, Democracy Now Interview, Mar 2, 2007

"Islamic evolutions"

By Dan Juma

CAVEAT: I'm not a Muslim myself, so don't expect me to necessarily defend it. I'm just trying explain it

Islam and its divisions

It is important to remember that Islam has not usually converted people by force but by persuasion. Although there has been forced conversion in the history of Islam, it is the exception rather than the rule, and has been condemned by most Islamic lawyers. However, it is not only the philosophical arguments and Sufic experiences of Islam that have converted people to the religion. The extra tax on non-Muslims, the jizya, has been an economic incentive for followers of other religions to convert to Islam. But the philosophic and experiential aspects of Islam have been important attractions of the religion and are therefore important in attracting people to it. In sub-Saharan Africa and southeast Asia in particular, Islamic rule spread more by peaceful persuasion and conversion of existing dynasties than by conquest.

"David Hicks: Nothing but an Echo"

By Phoebe in Sydney

At one point, tears welled in his eyes as he leafed through a book of photographs he had brought of the conflict in Kosovo. He displayed pictures of a Serb soldier kicking a woman lying on the street and of a 5-day-old baby who had died of exposure in the mountains, where her family had fled.
"This is the pornography of violence," he said.

USA Today article about Wes Clark, Oct 2003.

“Pornography exists for the lonesome, the ugly, the fearful – it’s made for the losers.” Rita Mae Brown

"Understanding Islam"

By Dan Juma

CAVEAT: I'm not a Muslim myself, so don't expect me to necessarily defend it. I'm just trying explain it

I. What is Islam, anyway?