Sunday, March 23, 2003
From casbah to caliphate, via Clayton
"The Philosopher of Islamic Terror", by Paul Berman
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/23/magazine/23GURU.html?pagewanted=all&position=top
Link via Arts and letters daily
Middle-class warriors leading a vanguard movement? It all sounds so-o-o Monash University, circa mid-1970s, which means, if you ask me, that Berman's deep pessimism as to the future persistence of Islamo-fascism is unfounded. If cheesy blond heterosexual virgin goody-goody Peter Costello can banish, almost single-handledly (?) the hard Left from the temple of student politics in Australia, then turfing out Al Qaeda should be a cinch. Rock that casbah!
And, as for your utopian caliphate: if you're still looking for it, then you plainly can't see the caliphate for the second bananas, the 2-I-Cs, the non-threatening blonds waiting in the wings. You see, my fellow crazed idealists, the revolution *was* televised. Yep - they lied; you missed it; it's time to now give up, go home and watch the edited highlights.
"The Philosopher of Islamic Terror", by Paul Berman
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/23/magazine/23GURU.html?pagewanted=all&position=top
Link via Arts and letters daily
Middle-class warriors leading a vanguard movement? It all sounds so-o-o Monash University, circa mid-1970s, which means, if you ask me, that Berman's deep pessimism as to the future persistence of Islamo-fascism is unfounded. If cheesy blond heterosexual virgin goody-goody Peter Costello can banish, almost single-handledly (?) the hard Left from the temple of student politics in Australia, then turfing out Al Qaeda should be a cinch. Rock that casbah!
And, as for your utopian caliphate: if you're still looking for it, then you plainly can't see the caliphate for the second bananas, the 2-I-Cs, the non-threatening blonds waiting in the wings. You see, my fellow crazed idealists, the revolution *was* televised. Yep - they lied; you missed it; it's time to now give up, go home and watch the edited highlights.
