All Blog Posts from Public Eye

As much as I hate ‘trend’ stories -- you know, the “here is a suburban housewife who is part of the growing number of women …. Yadda yadda” story or the “Yes, this high school student is (a) drinking more, (b) drinking less, (c) being more promiscuous or (d) being more promiscuous … and he’s not alone” story – I think I may have spotted one of my own in recent days. It was reassuring to see two separate mainstream media pieces this week that took the extra step of infiltrating and *explaining* the Islamic militant mindset.

In the days after 9/11, when we asked “Why do they hate us?” it was impolitic to go much further than “because they hate freedom.” To actually dig into the details and extremist ideology was not seen as explaining the behavior as much as it was excusing the behavior.

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"We understand the anxiety of their families, but they must be assured that they are in safe hands and have a better life than the risky mission in the Persian Gulf waters."

--The Islamic Republic News Agency, assuring the world that the British soldiers being held hostage in Iran are actually now better off than they were pre-capture. (thanks to Greg Pollowitz.)

We got an email from reader Scott L. asking the following:

Over the last three or more years I’ve seen numerous reports from abroad detailing messages from Islamic web sites about some event, but seldom - if ever - is the web address made public. All news outlets seem to do it. What is your policy on this? I have a couple of possible reasons floating around in my head but I was wondering if y’all had a specific reason. The story about the two booby-trapped soldiers today piqued my interest.

I assume the story he's referring to is this one, concerning the brutal murder of two men believed to be Pfc. Kristian Menchaca and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker. The story notes that "[a]ccording to a web statement that has not been authenticated, the terror group Al Qaeda in Iraq is claiming it killed the U.S. soldiers. The statement also says the soldiers were 'slaughtered' by the new head of the group, successor to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed by a U.S. air strike on June 7th. "

The URL of the Web site is not mentioned in the story, which is credited to "CBS/AP." The story does include this information:

The claim of responsibility was made in the name of the Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization of five insurgent groups led by al Qaeda in Iraq. The group posted an Internet statement Monday claiming it was holding the American soldiers captive.

"We give the good news... to the Islamic nation that we have carried God's verdict by slaughtering the two captured crusaders," said the claim, which appeared on an Islamic militant Web site where insurgent groups regularly post statements and videos.

"With God Almighty's blessing, Abu Hamza al-Muhajer carried out the verdict of the Islamic court" calling for the soldiers' slaying, the statement said.

For most people who read this story, knowing the address of the Islamic militant Web site would not be terribly helpful – unless, that is, they speak Arabic. But one could argue that since the message was posted on a Web site, the URL of the site is relevant and in fact integral to a full accounting of the story. On the other hand, this is a site frequented by insurgents – is it worth printing the URL if it means risking introducing the site to people who might want to do harm to Americans?

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In Egypt, blogging can land you in jail, apparently. That’s the case for at least six bloggers in that country, who have been jailed following a spate of arrests after political demonstrations in Cairo. The Washington Post today looks at the case of one such blogger, Alaa Seif al-Islam. His blog, Manalaa, which he writes with his wife, “began not only to describe the troubles of Egypt under its authoritarian president, Hosni Mubarak, but also described acts of repression and became a vehicle for organizing public protests,” writes the Post. The blog has caught the attention of uber-blogger Glenn Reynolds, University of Tennessee law professor and author of Instapundit, who told the Associated Press of Seif Al-Islam: "He's certainly the most famous blogger in Egypt and arguably the best known reformer there now. When you suppress dissent, even minor voices become incredibly powerful."

According to the Post, Seif Al-Islam is still blogging from jail – on scraps of paper that his wife posts online. He's been in jail since May 7 and right now, it’s unclear when he might be getting out. Writes the Post: “Under Egypt's emergency laws, which have been in place for 25 years, the bloggers can be jailed indefinitely. A special court reviews such detentions only every 15 days. Some prisoners held under emergency laws have been jailed for more than a decade.”

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In a interview on the “Evening News” last night (which can be seen in full on the Web), CBS anchor Bob Schieffer talks with Akbar Ahmed, chairman of Islamic Studies at American University, about the spreading violence in the Muslim world over a series of cartoons published in European newspapers depicting the Prophet Muhammad – something forbidden in Islam. Day by day, the violence has grown and increasingly the anger is being directed toward the United States, which has not been a part of the story to this point.

Almost every close observer of the situation will say there is more to the outrage sparked by the cartoons than just the drawings themselves, that it is part of a larger feeling of disrespect felt throughout the Muslim world. That may be the case, but the cartoon story is a prime example of the dynamic that has shaped our world for the past five years and will likely continue to dominate it for the foreseeable future.

Whether or not you want to characterize the conflict as a “clash or civilizations” or not strikes me as a semantic argument because there’s no denying the cultural differences at odds here that make the challenges of discussing almost anything – from politics to individual rights to economics – seem almost insurmountable at times. As Mr. Ahmed tells Schieffer in their discussion over the cartoon issue, it’s a “classic confrontation” between “an immovable object and an irresistible force.”

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