Islam

Origin of 'mosque'

2008-01-19T19:46:00.000-08:00

How did the Arabic word "MASJEED" become "Mosque" in English?

During the period of Muslim rule in the Iberian Peninsula (Andalucia or present day Spain and Portugal), the Arabic word MASJEED was written in the Spanish language as MEZQUITA (pronunciation: MEZ-KEE-TAH). It went from Spanish to Italian as MOSCHEA (pronunciation: MOS-CHIA), from Italian to Middle French (the French language as written and spoken c. 1400-c.1600) as "Mosquée", and from French to English as MOSQUE. The word MOSQUE was first used in English in 1717 CE.

Moderator History_Islam group, January 21, 2003.

William Shawcross in full cry, 2003

2007-04-16T01:05:00.000-07:00

On the day in 2003 that Saddam’s statue toppled in Baghdad, the neo-cons couldn’t wait to brag about the “success” of the war they had so enthusiastically supported. This was William Shawcross, writing in the Wall Street Journal:

April 9 - Liberation Day! What a wonderful, magnificent, emotional occasion - one that will live in legend like the fall of the Bastille, V-E Day or the fall of the Berlin Wall. Watching the tearing down of Saddam Hussein’s towering statue in Baghdad was a true Ozymandias moment. All those smart Europeans who ridiculed George Bush and denigrated his idea that there was actually a better future for the Iraqi people - they will now have to think again.

Iran and nuclear weapons

2007-04-07T01:44:00.000-07:00

Wherever U.S forces go, nuclear weapons go with them or can be made to follow in short order. The world has witnessed how the United States attacked Iraq for, as it turned out, no reason at all. Had the Iranians not tried to build nuclear weapons, they would be crazy. - From Sharon on the Warpath: Is Israel Planning to Attack Iran? by Martin van Creveld, Professor of History at Hebrew University, International Herald Tribune, Saturday, August 21, 2004.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/08/21/edcreveld_ed3_.php

Democratic critics 'the party of surrender' - Nixon

2007-04-06T03:46:00.000-07:00

As the Vietnam War wound down, Democrats in Congress were trying to cut off funding and bring troops home. In a Vanity Fair magazine article drawing on research for his upcoming book, “Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power,” ( historian Robert ) Dallek used telephone transcripts of calls between President Richard Nixon and his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, to show that soon after taking office in 1969, Nixon was aware that victory in Vietnam was impossible. Dallek also quotes the unpublished diaries of Nixon aide H.R. Haldeman, who said, “Nixon later urged that Democratic critics making this same point should be labeled ‘the party of surrender.’ ” - From Get Ready for Debate About Who Lost Iraq: Bush Could Blame Democrats, but Americans See It as His War, by Edward Epstein. Published on Thursday, April 5, 2007, by San Francisco Chronicle , April 5, 2007.

Martin Luther King on United States

2007-04-06T03:19:00.000-07:00

". . . the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today - my own government. " - From Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence, by Rev. Martin Luther King, April 4, 1967. (A speech delivered at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned at Riverside Church in New York City.)

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2564.htm

They put the lie to their own propaganda

2006-07-02T03:51:00.000-07:00

IN Cairo, Egypt, on February 24, 2001, Powell said: "He [Saddam Hussein] has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to use conventional power against his neighbors." This, of course, is the very opposite of what Bush and Blair told their respective peoples.

Powell even boasted that it was the U.S. policy of "containment" that had effectively disarmed the Iraqi dictator - again, the opposite of what Bush and Blair said time and again. On May 15, 2001, Powell went further and said that Saddam Hussein had not been able to "build his military back up or to develop weapons of mass destruction" for "the last 10 years". America, he said, had been successful in keeping him "in a box".

Two months later, Condoleezza Rice also described a weak, divided and militarily defenseless Iraq. "Saddam does not control the northern part of his country," she said. "We aim to keep his arms from him. His military forces have not been rebuilt."

John Pilger (interviewed by Anthony Arnove) CounterPunch, November 29-30, 2003.

A beginning

2006-06-26T00:22:00.000-07:00

This post is to launch my blog.