[Bulk] #1055 Pipes weblog on DanielPipes.org, Danish cartoons, non-Muslim tourists, UNRWA

Daniel Pipes December 31, 2010

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Please take a moment to visit and log in at the subscriber area, and submit your city & country location. We will use this information in future to invite you to any events that we organize in your area. Looking Back on DanielPipes.org's First Decade by Daniel Pipes December 31, 2010 http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2010/12/looking-back-on-danielpipesorg-first-decade Send Comment RSS Share: Be the first of your friends to like this. DanielPipes.org went online exactly a decade ago, at the very end of December 2000. I am inspired to reminisce a bit on the eve of a new decade. Technically speaking, then, it has exactly spanned the decade of the 'oughts, the first decade of the twenty-first century and the third millennium. Historically speaking, it has been a wrenching time, marking the end of the post-Soviet glow and reluctant entry into the era of Islamism. My interests and this site went from the sidelines to the spotlight. Such topics as Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and terrorism became top-of-the-news regulars. Even hitherto obscure countries like Turkey and Yemen now gather headlines. Issues concerning Muslims in the West have gone even more dramatically from obscurity to centrality. Grayson Levy had the idea for DanielPipes.org. The website came into existence as a result of Grayson Levy approaching me in November 2000, announcing that I need a personal website and volunteering to build it. I agreed that the time had come and spent several weeks preparing my archive for him to post. I had modest expectations, content with 5-10 visitors a day to the site. The 300 visitors who turned up daily during the first eight months pleased me. 9/11 brought an avalanche of new readers and the numbers quickly jumped to 1,500 a day and then continued to increase until reaching a plateau of 7,000 a day in about 2004, where it has since more-or-less remained.. The site has found its niche, attracting nearly 60 million page visits and 112,000 comments by readers. It features translations into 35 languages other than English (French leads with 900 translations). An array of corporations have taken out advertisements. One piece of excitement concerned someone from the Council on American-Islamic Relations abducting DanielPipes.com; for details, on this and other topics, see "About DanielPipes.org." DanielPipes.org has become central to my work life – writing blogs, updating articles and blogs, monitoring and replying to comments, overseeing translations, and working with Grayson constantly to enhance the features. Beyond winning me new readers, the website permits me to write on any topic I wish, large or small, central or peripheral, topical or historical, whenever I wish. Newspaper articles no longer end up wrapping fish but becoming part of a living archive. Decades-old work returns to life. I have an audience in three dozen languages. This has been an exciting and rewarding experience. I look forward to the next decade and more. (December 31, 2010) Related Topics: Daniel Pipes autobiographical Bush Administration Disapproved Muhammad Cartoon Reprinting by Daniel Pipes December 29, 2010 http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2010/12/bush-administration-disapproved-muhammad-cartoon Send Comment RSS Share: Be the first of your friends to like this. The WikiLeaks dump establishes that the US embassy in Copenhagen did not want the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten to reprint the Muhammad cartoons in 2006. (See here for a refresher on that crisis) Post's public affairs counselor learned from a "Jyllands-Posten" journalist (strictly protect) last week that the paper was considering several options to commemorate the cartoons' first anniversary September 30, including re-publishing the original cartoons or running new ones on the subject. James P. Cain, the U.S. ambassador, hoped the Danish government would stop this, but it refused to interfere. Cain decided to approach Jyllands-Posten on his own: James P. Cain. With that, the Ambassador telephoned "Jyllands-Posten" editor-in-chief Carsten Juste, and asked straight out about his paper's intentions for commemorating the anniversary. Juste told the Ambassador that he and his team had been considering re-publication, but concluded that such a move would be unwise, especially so soon after the controversy caused by the Pope's Regensburg remarks. The Ambassador welcomed this news, noting that none of us wanted a repeat of the crisis earlier this year. The ambassador from the country with the First Amendment then concludes that Danish newspapers enjoy too much freedom of speech. This episode illustrates that the Danes have drawn mixed lessons from their experience in the cartoon crisis. ... On the negative side, though, this popular center-right government has hardened its views on the absolute primacy of free speech. The prime minister appeared willing to let Jyllands-Posten dictate the timing of the next Islam vs. West confrontation without question or open discussion within the government. Comment: Given the Bush administration's public record in 2006, Cain's attitude is as unsurprising as it is dismaying. (December 29, 2010) Related Topics: Freethinking & Muslim apostasy, Muslims in Europe, US policy Muslims Insulting Non-Muslims Tourists by Daniel Pipes October 29, 2010 http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2010/10/muslims-insulting-non-muslim-tourists Send Comment RSS Share: Be the first of your friends to like this. The Maldives are a tiny island country of under 400,000 citizens, every one of them by law a Muslim, that has simultaneously become a place of Islamist repression and high-end tourism. The profoundly incompatible nature of these developments came dramatically to light recently in the course of marriage renewal ceremony held as the posh Vilu Reef Beach & Spa Resort, which takes up the entire expanse of Meedhuffushi Island in South Nilandhe Atoll. A Swiss couple paid US$1,300 for a "Sunset Wedding." Here's the description: Say 'I Do' All Over Again Renew your love and commitment for each other thousands of miles away from home and the crowds, in an intimate and romantic setting out in the nature. Make your second time around yet your best at the idyllic tropical paradise of Vilu Reef with its awe-inspiring lush sceneries and exquisite ambiance of pure natural beauty. Imagine the two of you on the powdery beach with the sound of the waves lapping the shore and rustling of the palms to the cool ocean breeze in a traditional Maldivian wedding setup against a breathtaking and magical sunset backdrop. The perfect way to say 'I Do'… all over again for that spiritual and memorable reunion of you two. The climax of the three-day event is a 15-minute ceremony during which "The Master of Ceremonies begins the wedding ceremony by reciting the wedding vows." This involves a hotel employee solemnly reading an Islamic blessing in the Dhivehi language from an official-looking document. Trouble was, the M.C., identified as Hussein Didi, had a good laugh at the expense of this particular Swiss couple, as an amateur video taken by hotel employees and posted on the internet with English translation makes evident. As the couple held up their hands in a kind of prayer, unaware of the joke underway, the staffer intoned: You are swine. The children that you bear from this marriage will all be bastard swine. Your marriage is not a valid one. You are not the kind of people who can have a valid marriage. One of you is an infidel. The other, too, is an infidel and, we have reason to believe, an atheist, who does not even believe in an infidel religion. … You fornicate and make a lot of children. You drink and you eat pork. Most of the children that you have are marked with spots and blemishes Didi also insulted the man's penis and called the couple some very foul names. Other staff members taking part in ceremony maintained a serious demeanor, though one sniggered. The document at hand was nothing but a list of Vilu Reef employment regulations. The staff can be heard debating whether or not the Swiss woman is wearing a bra. "Don't look at the breasts!" one orders as the bride bends over during another part of the ceremony, planting a coconut palm. The video has caused uproar in the Maldives, where tourism provides more than half of the foreign currency. The president and foreign minister all offered groveling apologies and assurances that the incident would not be repeated. Comment: Guileless, soft, clueless, starry-eyed, romantic Western tourists unaware of resentment, hate, insults, and supremacism directed to them from Muslim locals; it's a old, sour, pungent story but not one often caught on film and exposed to the wide world. Here is the response of an Egyptian on hearing about this Maldive story: I cannot count the number of times I have witnessed something along these lines when Westerners stay at a luxury hotel, stop a cab, shop, or just walk down the street in Cairo. Recently at an elegant restaurant, I saw an American guy trying to make conversation with the bar man, to which the Egyptian bartender smiled at him and told him in Arabic, "Go to hell, you son of a bitch." Muslims have a rich vocabulary for those they call khawagas (Westerners) such as sharmuta (whore), bitch, slut, fag, and worse. But as they display no hostility in their demeanor, foreigners who do not understand Arabic have no clue what is happening. . (October 29, 2010) Related Topics: Islam, South Asia UNRWA Official Calls on Palestinians to Accept Reality by Daniel Pipes October 23, 2010 http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2010/10/unrwa-official-calls-on-palestinians-to-accept-reality Send Comment RSS Share: Be the first of your friends to like this. Here's a man-bites-dog story: The director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency's New York Representative Office, Andrew Whitley, told a conference in Washington that Palestinians should accept that they will never return to Israel and, rather than continue to dream of this, they should work to improve their current circumstances. Andrew Whitley of UNRWA. If one doesn't start a discussion soon with the refugees for them to consider what their own future might be—for them to start debating their own role in the societies where they are rather than being left in a state of limbo where they are helpless but preserve rather the cruel illusions that perhaps they will return one day to their homes—then we are storing up trouble for ourselves. … We recognize, as I think most do, although it's not a position that we publicly articulate, that the right of return is unlikely to be exercised to the territory of Israel to any significant or meaningful extent. It's not a politically palatable issue, it's not one that UNRWA publicly advocates, but nevertheless it's a known contour to the issue. Whitley concluded these startling remarks by suggesting that UNRWA should resettle its clients rather than continue to perpetuate their refugee status. Comment: How refreshing to hear such words. As I put it in 2009, were Palestinians to give up on their irredentist dream of eliminating Israel, this "would liberate them to focus on their own polity, economy, society, and culture" and "become a normal people." (October 23, 2010) Nov. 3, 2010 update: After complaints from the Palestinian Authority, the Jordanian government, and many others, Whitley abjectly apologized for his remarks in a letter to the UNRWA spokesman: I am writing following my realisation – from media reports, statements and letters from individuals, organisations and governments – that part of the remarks I delivered at a conference in Washington hosted by the National Council on US – Arab Relations, on 22 October, 2010, were inappropriate and wrong. Those remarks did not represent UNRWA's views. I express my sincere regrets and apologies over any harm that my words may have done to the cause of the Palestine refugees and for any offence I may have caused. I have spent much of my long career workinxxg for the Palestinian people, and defending their rights, in different professional capacities. It is definitely not my belief that the refugees should give up on their basic rights, including the right of return. I wish to put this letter on the public record out of concern that what I said in Washington could be interpreted in ways that negatively affect the reputation and work of UNRWA, an organisation I have been proud to serve since July 2002. The Agency is at liberty to use my statement in whatever ways it sees fit. There is no need for a reply. Yours sincerely, Andrew Whitley Comment: That UNRWA might contemplate going out of business and helping end the Arab-Israeli conflict – it was too good to be true. Related Topics: Palestinians This text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an integral whole with complete information provided about its author, date, place of publication, and original URL.

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