10 November 2003

Objective journalism in action

[source]

The highlight of the between rally debates had to have been when a well pressed lefty came out to argue with us. After 20 minutes of shouting “You don’t understand, you don’t understand!” and “Let me finish. Stop interrupting me” most definitely deflated her ego, the cops finally came over and told her she had to go to the designated opposition area across the entryway steps or stop getting in our faces. Well she made a point of going and standing behind the barriers, which was o so laughable since as near as I can tell she was the ONLY person to ever do so. Most participants snuck out to the front steps for smokes and tried to ignore our calls for them to denounce suicide bombings. Twice more she came out to argue her side. And guess what we found out? She was a reporter with NPR! After that, we started repeatedly shouting for her to tell us her name, and she said she wouldn’t. You know, cuz journalists from NPR need to be anonymous to remain impartial.

This was from a conference at Ohio State University with topics like “Toward a Global Intifadah”. The writer above was part of a protest against the conference. It’s interesting that an NPR reporter was a fervid advocate of a specific political viewpoint. I’m sure that won’t influence her report on the conference or the protestors.

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Hot story of the day - Canada wins world championship

[source, source]

Canadian Beats World at Rock, Paper, Scissors

This, it seems, is serious stuff to the 320 competitors who shook their fists early into Sunday morning at the World Rock, Paper, Scissors Championships at a nightclub in downtown Toronto.

The man who did win — and netted himself a purse of C$5,000 ($3,825) — was Toronto’s Rob Krueger, a member of the team “Legion of the Red Fist.”

To achieve the lofty title of World RPS Champion, he threw a combination of rock-paper-paper, defeating his opponent’s offering of three rocks.

At last, an arena where Canada is competitive.

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Educational chains

[source, source]

Leading government cleric Sheikh Saleh Al-Fawzan is the author of the religious books currently used to teach 5 million Saudi students, both within the and in Saudi schools aboard – including those in the Washington, D.C. metro area.

“Slavery is a part of Islam,” he says in the tape, adding: “Slavery is part of jihad, and jihad will remain as long there is Islam.” […]

Al-Fawzan is member of the Senior Council of Clerics, Saudi Arabia’s highest religious body, a member of the Council of Religious Edicts and Research, the Imam of Prince Mitaeb Mosque in Riyadh, and a professor at Imam Mohamed Bin Saud Islamic University, the main Wahhabi center of learning in the country.

Al-Fawzan refuted the mainstream Muslim interpretation that Islam worked to abolish slavery by introducing equality between the races.

“They are ignorant, not scholars,” he said of people who express such opinions. “They are merely writers. Whoever says such things is an infidel.”

One wonders how long the Saudi Entity will be able to get away with teaching that slavery is OK in Washington DC.

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He just needed a little encouragement

[source, source]

Muqtada al-Sadr … issued a conciliatory statement on Saturday, November 1. The young Sadr and his followers in the Army of the Mahdi have been increasingly clashing with US troops, as well as more moderate Shi’ite groups. Alarmed by US army threats that he would be arrested as a rabble rouser threatening Iraqi stability, Sadr issued a statement asking American troops to spare Iraqi lives, calling for unity and brotherhood between the Americans and the Iraqis.

He stated that Saddam Hussein was a “sinful aggressor” and that he and his backers were the real and only enemies of Iraq, not the Americans. Sadr described Americans as guests in Iraq, adding that they were “peace loving people”. He also stated that the Iraqi people only want good for the Americans (credit for translation of Sadr’s statement goes to Juan Cole, professor of history at the University of Michigan ).

These statements were a repudiation of Sadr’s earlier comparison of the IGC and the new Iraqi regime to Saddam’s government. Sadr has been lashing out at the US as a result of Pentagon threats to arrest him. Many of his followers have already been arrested and his house was searched last month after he declared a shadow government and an unarmed militia that was in fact heavily armed.

What’s surprising is not how much muscle it takes to get a change like this, but how little.

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