An informative and insightful, if somewhat problematic, commentary from Egypt’s Al-Ahram Weekly. Anjali Kamat argues that the cartoons are not merely “offensive” but propagandistic, and that leaving racism out of the simplistic “free speech/Islamic intolerance” equation is to miss the… Read morePropaganda and the cartoon controversy, Pt. 2
A statement, apparently not yet posted elsewhere on the Web, from the UK branch of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) and allied groups: Civilised humanity must take a stand in defence of freedom of expression, against Islamists… Read moreUK: Iraqi feminists for free speech
From the website of The Muslim Brotherhood [
Harsh new methods have been used in a successful bid to break the inmate hunger strike at the Pentagon’s Guantanamo prison camp in Cuba. The methods reportedly included strapping detainees into “restraint chairs” for force-feeding, apparently to prevent the practice… Read moreForce-feeding breaks Gitmo hunger strike
An ominous juxtaposition of two news items. First, the anti-immigrant vigilante group known has the Minutemen rallied at the Capitol Building in Washington as the Senate debates a get-tough immigration bill already passed by the House. The Minuteman rally was… Read moreWar coming to Mexican border?
A victory for free speech and historical memory was declared last month when charges were dropped against Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk, who had dared to invoke the World War I genocide of the Armenians, as well as more recent persecution… Read moreTurkey: free speech on trial —again
This is cute. Just as the cartoon controversy is being portrayed as evidence of Western values of “free speech” versus inherent Islamic intolerance, comes the conviction of Shiekh Abu Hamza al-Masri in Britain—on charges of, basically, expressing his opinions publicly. That he… Read moreAl-Masri conviction reveals “free speech” double standard
Brian Tokar reports for February’s Z Magazine on the recently-concluded Montreal talks on global climate change, aimed at implementing the Kyoto agreement. What’s really dangerous is that this agreement—which the Bush administration is refusing to join, of course—was already essentially… Read moreUS sidetracks Montreal climate talks
In a big boost to the sclerotic campaign to divest from companies that do business with Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, which includes East Jerusalem, the Church of England reversed earlier expectations, voting to divest from the Caterpillar corporation:… Read moreChurch of England votes to divest from Caterpillar
A round-up on the Feb. 7 BBC shows how the crisis over the anti-Islam cartoons published in Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten (and since reprinted in Norway and other European countries) is spinning out of control. The protests sweeping the Muslim world have… Read morePropaganda and the cartoon controversy
As we noted in November, Noam Chomsky appears to have utterly lost his moral compass in his advancing years, jumping on the Bosnia revisionism bandwagon and, in one unsavory incident, engaging in blatanly censorious behavior towards a writer who dared… Read moreOnce more into the breach: Chomsky and Bosnia
The ongoing White House attempt to politicize science makes the front page of the New York Times. Now let’s get this straight: Bush wants to go to Mars, but is so beholden to the anti-science religious right that he wants… Read moreNASA chief bucks White House on science suppression
