Via Paul Cella, I see this fascinating CSM report:
When Judge Hamoud al-Hitar announced that he and four other Islamic scholars would challenge Yemen’s Al Qaeda prisoners to a theological contest, Western antiterrorism experts warned that this high-stakes gamble would end in disaster.
Nervous as he faced five captured, yet defiant, Al Qaeda members in a Sanaa prison, Judge Hitar was inclined to agree. But banishing his doubts, the youthful cleric threw down the gauntlet, in the hope of bringing peace to his troubled homeland.
"If you can convince us that your ideas are justified by the Koran, then we will join you in your struggle," Hitar told the militants. "But if we succeed in convincing you of our ideas, then you must agree to renounce violence."
The prisoners eagerly agreed.
Now, two years later, not only have those prisoners been released, but a relative peace reigns in Yemen. And the same Western experts who doubted this experiment are courting Hitar, eager to hear how his "theological dialogues" with captured Islamic militants have helped pacify this wild and mountainous country, previously seen by the US as a failed state, like Iraq and Afghanistan.
"Since December 2002, when the first round of the dialogues ended, there have been no terrorist attacks here, even though many people thought that Yemen would become terror’s capital," says Hitar, eyes glinting shrewdly from beneath his emerald-green turban. "Three hundred and sixty-four young men have been released after going through the dialogues and none of these have left Yemen to fight anywhere else."
"Yemen’s strategy has been unconventional certainly, but it has achieved results that we could never have hoped for," says one European diplomat, who did not want to be named. "Yemen has gone from being a potential enemy to becoming an indispensable ally in the war on terror."
To be sure, the prisoner-release program is not solely responsible for the absence of attacks in Yemen. The government has undertaken a range of measures to combat terrorism from closing down extreme madrassahs, the Islamic schools sometimes accused of breeding hate, to deporting foreign militants.
Now that is a story about moderate Muslims really fighting terrorism!
Hmmm, must be re-link for emphasis month at ObWi. Charles posted this link in his Wahhabism post.
But Jonah Goldberg told me death and killing would be much better for the spirit of the American people.
Lol, quite right. That is what I get for working too hard on the day he posted that and never reading it.
Reprise!
Reprise!
But I like your post much better. 🙂 I confess to bias: I never click on any of the links from Bird’s anti-Muslim posts.
This is fascinating, though. And look – all done without the US dropping bombs on Yemen! Amazing, eh? 😉
“And look — all done without the U.S. dropping bombs on Yemen!”
I doubt too that these Socratic-minded Muslims were wearing mini-skirts.
But, seriously, this is some wonderful news. I thank Von for posting it. And it’s a relief from the usual grim stuff over at Cella’s place.
Bird’s anti-Muslim posts.
Let’s not lie, Jes. I oppose certain extremist offshoots of Islam.
Let’s not lie, Jes.
Let’s not.
I oppose certain extremist offshoots of Islam.
That would be why you felt the need to post, at length (and even make a second and completely irrelevant reference to it in another post) about an unsolved murder in Jersey City, and certain unfounded anti-Muslim speculations about it?
Sure, Bird. The fact is: I find your posts about anything to do with Islam are colored by an anti-Muslim bias, and if I’m going to discuss issues where that religion relevantly comes up, I prefer it to be on someone else’s threads, such as Edward’s or Sebastian’s. You can certainly tell yourself that my perception is wrong (Sebastian and I have had a recent lengthy discussion about the unprovable nature of perception) but I call it as I see it.
That would be why you felt the need to post, at length (and even make a second and completely irrelevant reference to it in another post) about an unsolved murder in Jersey City, and certain unfounded anti-Muslim speculations about it?
If the crime is shown to have been religiously motivated, then it would have been done by Islamic extremists who practice the very radical offshoots of Islam that I oppose. I find your definition of “anti-Muslim” overly broad, unreasonable and not conducive to meaningful conversation.
Bird: I find your definition of “anti-Muslim” overly broad, unreasonable and not conducive to meaningful conversation.
That’s nice, but irrelevant. My point was that I don’t follow links from the posts of yours that I perceive as anti-Muslim, because I don’t trust what I perceive as your anti-Muslim bias. That’s why I appreciated Sebastian reposting this link, because I do trust Sebastian not just to pick outright hateful weblinks, and I don’t trust you. That was the point of my initial comment.
If the crime is shown to have been religiously motivated, then it would have been done by Islamic extremists who practice the very radical offshoots of Islam that I oppose.
Yet you were unable to show that the crime was religiously motivated: the only “evidence” for it was, as I recall, that one news source had claimed it might be – which naturally, you immediately leapt on and repeated, because it suited that bias of yours.
My point was that I don’t follow links from the posts of yours that I perceive as anti-Muslim…
Your loss. Never mind that Sebastian and I both linked to the same credible news source, which conflicts with your statment that I “just to pick outright hateful weblinks”.
Yet you were unable to show that the crime was religiously motivated
The point of the post wasn’t to prove these were religiously motivated murders, but to raise the possibility given the plentiful circumstantial information available. It is not “anti-Muslim” to do such a thing.
Charles is not anti-Muslim.
Charles is not anti-Muslim.
I am glad to learn that, but he does a very good job in hiding it IMHO.
FWIW; I also had the impression that Charles was not very objective where muslims were concerned.
Bird: which conflicts with your statment that I “just to pick outright hateful weblinks”.
That isn’t what I said, though.
DutchMarbel: I am glad to learn that, but he does a very good job in hiding it IMHO.
Indeed he does. I presume Sebastian has better knowledge of Bird offblog than I do, but nothing Bird has posted on a blog has ever indicated anything else.
My Quran is Better Than Your Quran
Talk about unorthodox methods of battling the war on terror.
“If you can convince us that your ideas are justified by the Koran, then we will join you in your struggle,” Hitar told the militants. “But if we succeed in convincing you of our ideas, th…
Perhaps I should say that Charles is slightly less anti-Muslim than Jesurgislac is anti-American and let you define how much you think that is.
Sebastian: Perhaps I should say that Charles is slightly less anti-Muslim than Jesurgislac is anti-American and let you define how much you think that is.
Heh.
Perhaps I should say that Charles is slightly less anti-Muslim than Jesurgislac is anti-American and let you define how much you think that is.
Nah, he can’t be that bad…
Though some of her best friends seem te be American, so maybe *she* isn’t that bad. Would that make him better by the now obligatory comparison? Hmmm…. maybe some of *his* best friends are muslim…. choices choices… 😉
Dutchmarbel, I think Sebastian came up with an unarguable rejoinder: I have no way of proving that I’m not anti-American, and indeed by Sebastian’s standards of anti-American (what appears to be “feeling free to be critical of the US when it does bad things”) I am anti-American. Of course, by that standard, so is Sebastian. 😉
And only three of my best friends are American. 😉
Sebastian’s standards of anti-American (what appears to be “feeling free to be critical of the US when it does bad things”)
Much as I agree with you on most subjects, you must get really fond of those weird karnak (carnak?) awards 😉
I like measurable things. I think I might make my definition of biased that you are biased about X when you (over the past three months, you have to allot a time frame I assume) post more than 30%-70% favorable/unfavorable about X 😉
Carnac with two c’s, dm, but everyone spells it with two k’s., which just goes to who how much the blog crowd cares about accuracy ;^)
I hope I’m not being too presumptuous, but here’s some links to help you understand it
here and here
tnxs LJ, I like knowing the specific origins \(^_^)/