Raymond Ibrahim's Blog, page 24

Muslim Jihad in Christian Ethiopia

Not only does last week's jihadist rampage against Ethiopia's Christians highlight the travails Christians encounter wherever Islam has a sizable population, but it offers several insights, including some which should concern faraway, secular nations...

No 'Revolution' for Egypt's Christians

On March 5, Muslims attacked, plundered, and set ablaze an ancient Coptic church in Sool, a village near Cairo, Egypt. Afterwards, throngs of Muslims gathered around the scorched building and pounded its walls down with sledge hammers—to cries of "Allahu...

Mubarak Still in Charge?

While the media has eagerly accepted the "happy ending" that Egypt's Hosni Mubarak abdicated—after all, the uprisings were dragging on and it needed a quick denouement to the drama so it could return to Lady Gaga—an increasing number of Egyptians are...

Weeping and Other Hysterics

From Congressman Keith Ellison's emotional breakdown to Congresswoman Jackie Speier's accusations of "racism," last week's hearings on Muslim radicalization have made it clear that those who oppose the hearings have little of substance to offer. Still,...

El Baradei: On the Record

Mohammad El Baradei, whom many tout as a great reformer, is now on record supporting the Egyptian constitution's controversial Article 2, which states: "Islam is the Religion of the State. Arabic is its official language, and the principal source of...

Libya: What to do?

As with Egypt, American sympathies instinctively side with Libya's oppositional forces as they seek to overthrow the tyrant Qaddafi—and rightfully so. But where U.S. foreign policy is concerned, prudence is in order. This is especially the case...

Caliphate, Jihad, Sharia: Now What?

"You can sit here and talk about jihad from here to doomsday, what will it do? Suppose you prove beyond any shadow of doubt that Islam is constitutionally violent, where do you go from there?" Such was Columbia professor Hamid Dabashi's response to my...

Mosques Flourish in America; Churches Perish in Muslim World

As Muslims prepare to erect a mega-mosque near the site of the 9/11 atrocities, it is well to reflect that the sort of tolerance, or indifference, that allows them to do so, is far from reciprocated to churches in the Muslim world. I speak not of...

Is an Egyptian "Democracy" a Good Thing?

That democracy equates freedom is axiomatic in the West. Say the word "democracy" and images of a free, pluralistic, and secular society come to mind. Recently commenting on the turmoil in Egypt, President Obama made this association when he said that...

Egypt's Identity Crisis

With Egypt's "July Revolution" of 1952, for the first time in millennia, Egyptians were able to boast that a native-born Egyptian, Gamal Abdel Nasser, would govern their nation: Ever since the overthrow of its last native pharaoh nearly 2,500 years ago,...