eatbees blog

There are those in the West who want us to believe that democracy in the Arab world would be a bad thing, because Islam is intolerant by nature, and Arabs are unsuited to democracy. What this reveals is a lack of understanding on the part of people who have those views.

Today Senator Trent Lott told CNN, “It’s hard for Americans…including me, to understand what’s wrong with these people.” But doesn’t he discredit everything he’s said by concluding, “They all look the same to me?” Or is racism against Arabs still openly acceptable in America?

Majority Leader Bill Frist offered his impressions of Iraq and the “global war on terror” on CNN: “But what we’re seeing here is a metastasizing cancer that is not just in Iraq, it’s throughout the Middle East. But it’s like any other cancer, you’ve got to go and you’ve got to cut it out….”

Is it too late to save democracy in the United States? Yesterday, the Senate passed a bill which allows President Bush to define torture as he likes. And it writes into law the authority long claimed by the President to hold “enemy combatants” without charges, or right of appeal.

I’m reading No god but God by Reza Aslan, and there are things in it that are so brilliant that I have to share them right away. He addresses the so-called “clash of civilizations” between Islam and the West by redefining it as a clash of monotheisms….

I’m writing to you from Asheville, North Carolina. This blog will deal with politics, religion and culture, and the intersections among the three. The hidden fourth subject is technology, because that is what enables us to communicate in this way.