Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Granted that Qadhdhafi is a nutcase, but Arab nationalism just can't work.

It's time to abolish the Arab League | Muslims Debate
In 2009, Gaddafi stormed out of the Doha Summit after he denounced King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia as a "British product, and [an] American ally." When Shaikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani of Qatar tried to rein him in, the Libyan responded: "I am an international leader, the dean of the Arab rulers, the king of kings of Africa and the imam of Muslims, and my international status does not allow me to descend to a lower level." In Sirte, Gaddafi took aim at the Qatari's weight, declared that Shaikh Hamad was "better than [him] at filling a void," before bursting into laughter. A few years ago, he told summiteers in Algeria that Palestinians and Israelis were "stupid" and that Israel should be invited to join the League. He even coined the term Isratine, Israel and Palestine, in the Oz-like fantasy land he envisaged.




"The Arabs have agreed to disagree." has been attributed to ibn Khaldun. I don't know if the attribution is correct, but the saying is certainly true.

Tuesday, March 02, 2010

It's about time!

Pakistan's Army takes control of al-Qaeda cave network on Afghan border - Times Online
Pakistani forces have taken control of a warren of caves that served until recently as the nerve centre of the Taleban and al-Qaeda and sheltered Ayman al-Zawahiri, the second-in-command to Osama bin Laden.
Let's hope this good news can continue!