Snitch Visas

Via Perverse Access Memory, I found the news about snitch visas for informants about criminals and terrorists. The logic looked impeccable: Foreign terrorists lurk among foreigners, and foreigners want to live in America. So why not give foreigners a visa in return for ratting out suspected terrorists? The idea, it turns out, has sputtered in… Continue reading Snitch Visas

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Zimbabwe Cricketers Protest Mugabe

Two members of Zimbabwe’s World Cup Cricket team, Andy Flower and Henry Olonga, are protesting Mugabe’s despotic rule by wearing black arm bands during their World Cup game against Namibia. Andy Flower is a former captain of the team and Henry Olonga is their first black player. According to BBC, Zimbabwe cricketers Henry Olonga and… Continue reading Zimbabwe Cricketers Protest Mugabe

Warne Scandal Bigger Than Iraq in Australia

According to Yahoo! Sports: Cricketer Shane Warne’s dramatic exit from the World Cup knocked the looming war with Iraq off the front pages in Australia as the sports-mad nation reacted with bewildered anger to the latest scandal engulfing its spin king. “Devastated” ran the page one headline on Sydney’s Daily Telegraph, with The Australian newspaper… Continue reading Warne Scandal Bigger Than Iraq in Australia

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New Readers

Welcome. If you are following a link from Burt Lum’s article in the Honolulu Advertiser, the post he refers to is available here. While you are here, please go through my weblog. I have quite a few interesting posts about politics, Islam, Pakistan, etc.

Eid Greetings

Eid Mubarak, everyone. Today is Eid-ul-Azha, which the celebration of Abraham’s offer to sacrifice Ishmael (Isaac according to the Bible, but Ishmael in the Quran). To commemorate that event, those Muslims who can afford it sacrifice cows, goats or lambs. Haj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, is also going on at this time. For some links… Continue reading Eid Greetings

Zionist Church of Swaziland

Browsing through the religious data in the CIA World Factbook, I found out that Swaziland, a small landlocked country in Southern Africa (area 17,363 sq km slightly smaller than New Jersey and population 1.1 million) has a Zionist religion. No, this has nothing to do with Zionism. According to the CIA entry, Swaziland has the… Continue reading Zionist Church of Swaziland

Cricket World Cup Predictions

As the world cup has finally started, I should make my predictions. The teams are divided into two pools. The top three teams from each pool advance to the super-six round where they play each other. Two teams are then eliminated and the rest advance to the semifinals and then the final. So here are… Continue reading Cricket World Cup Predictions

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Muslim Population

Tom Friedman in an anti-France op-ed in the New York Times argued to replace France with India in the UN Security Council: Because India is the world’s biggest democracy, the world’s largest Hindu nation and the world’s second-largest Muslim nation, and, quite frankly, India is just so much more serious than France these days. Now… Continue reading Muslim Population

Maudoodi: According to Kepel

I have started reading Gilles Kepel’s book Jihad : The Trail of Political Islam”. It is an interesting book with a somewhat different viewpoint about political and militant Islam. Here are some excerpts about Maudoodi (for some background, read my earlier posts [1, 2]): By contrast with Egypt, where Nasser crushed the Muslim Brothers in… Continue reading Maudoodi: According to Kepel

World Cup Cricket

It starts tomorrow in South Africa. Some of the games are in Zimbabwe which has created a few problems. England appealed to the International Cricket Conference (ICC) to move their match against Zimbabawe but failed. Also, New Zealand have refused to play Kenya in Nairobi, because of concerns over a bombing in Mombasa in November… Continue reading World Cup Cricket

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