Depens who you ask - he ran a pretty secular organization. I get the impression that like SH, he seemed to be situationally pious when the occasion called for it, but otherwise not a terribly religious man.
I believe the Qur’an specifically sanctions the marriage of Muslim men to Christian and Jewish women ( in fact I think one of Muhammed’s later wives started out as a Christian slave-girl ). It is basically silent on Muslim women, except it says not to marry them to off to ‘idolators’, which is generally accepted as referring to polytheists, not ‘People of the Book’ ( but a minority does hold that it refers to Muslim women being able to marry only Muslim men ).
So the most common school of thought is that intermarriage with Christians and Jews are fine, but marriage with polytheists ( variously defined ) is not. However another position is that the proibition on polytheists applied specifically to the hostile pagan Banu Ishmael on the 7th century and in fact modern Muslims can marry whoever the heck they want.
I don’t know where anybody could cite it, but it’s not a new idea.
You gotta like Abbie’s rationalizations, though: because giving Carter an award for promoting peace was an insult to George W. Bush and his war, Carter should have turned a Peace Prize down. What kind of fucking sense does that make? Carter worked for peace and won an award for it. Bush hasn’t, and he didn’t. What the fuck do he and his supporters care about the Nobel Peace Prize anyway?
Okay, playing devil’s advocate, because sometimes that’s just what I do:
Yes, I like Jimmy Carter and I have respect for him as well. One British show I was watching made a joke saying that Carter’s presidency didn’t work because the States weren’t ready for a 3-digit IQ president.
Ah, well. It was funny at the time.
And, continuing as DA, not that I grieve for Arafat, but I do wonder if anyone besides the Palestinians are sorrowful at his death.
I don’t know or care why or how the judges chose to award the Peace Prize to Carter - it was long-overdue and well-deserved. Jimmy Carter has done more to advance the cause of peace in any one day than you character assassins have done in your entire mean, scrabbled lives.
Well, according to the paltry references so far provided, the Nobel Committee did not “announce” any such thing. Some anonymous person alleged to have been associated with the committee is reported to have admitted that position when confronted. (It could be true, but we still have not seen the evidence.)
As to the charge of lobbying for the prize, we have nothing but the sort of “we all know it” references from extremely partisan Carter-haters without any actual evidence provided, at all. Again, it could be true, but no such evidence has been presented.
Carter is without a doubt a good, well-intentioned man. The damn shame of it is that no matter how well-intentioned you may be, if what you do fails you’re a failure. Has anything the man has done stuck? The Camp David accords? Nope. The North Korea issue? Nope.
The man is one of the world’s greatest peace advocates, without question. Too bad nothing he has done has done anything to further the cause of peace.
I thought Klinghoffer was Abu Nidal’s doing. I say we should ship Arafat’s corpse to Munich and shoot it.
Jimmy Carter deserved the Peace Prize, and if it also served as a rebuke to Dubya, so much the better.
And it’s a pity I’m an atheist because if anyone deserves to be screaming in Hell, it’s that fat, murdering bastard. I gotta tell ya, the bipartisan unanimity on Arafat’s death is downright touching. See, we can be unified as a nation.
When was the last war between Egypt and Israel? I would also submit that a large part of the reason there has not been another major middle east war is that Syria, et. al., know that Egypt will not be participating. You may have a different definition of “stuck” than I do.
I believe you’re right on that, but noonetheless, a terrorist is a terrorist.
I disagree, if only because (as I said above) nothing he has done has advanced the cause of peace. Like it or not, Kissinger was more deserving for the simple reason that what he did halted a war. Period. That it was lousy foreign policy, that it was a silly war, that he was just Nixon’s lapdog, that the end result was not one that the US desired, it doesn’t matter. He ended a regional conflict and allowed the country to resolve its own problems. Was Carter successful in any of his initiatives? None that I can think of, at least not at 12:40 Kwajalein time.
I respectfully submit that Israel and Egypt haven’t fought for two reasons. First, the last time they fought Egypt got spanked in every respect, and they know it. Sadat certainly knew it. Second, Egypt wanted their land back and did what they did for that express purpose. They knew they couldn’t take it back militarily, so Sadat swallowed his pride (and his nation’s pride, to his eternal sorrow) and got back what he could out of a futile war.
That’s all. I don’t believe for a second that Egypt would not attack again if they thought they could win. History has shown with their two major assaults on Israel that they cannot be trusted to respect the existence of Israel. If any of the surrounding countries thought they could strap Israel on and win, they would. There’s not a doubt in my mind.
Don’t forget that if they pick a fight with Isrel they’ll forfeit the billions of dollars in military and financial aid they receive from the U.S. They really need the money - Egypt does not have a thriving economy.
A common confusion. I was Abul Abbas, a Palestinian terrorist and a member of the PLO, thus the direct Arafat connection.
And for another connection - Abbas was given asylum in Iraq by Saddam Hussein, and was living in Baghdad at the time of the U.S. invasion. When he was captured by the Americans, Yasser Arafat launched a campaign to have him released. However, Abbas died while in custody of American forces (they didn’t kill him - he was in poor health for years, and already in rough shape when they found him, which probably explains why he didn’t hightail it to Syria when the invasion started).
The whole Abbas episode was shameful. The hijackers demanded a jet to take them to safety. One was provided, but Reagan ordered F-14’s to intercept it and force to land at a NATO base in Italy. They did, but the Italian government declared jurisdication and released him. Just another in a long line of appeasements for terrorists.
Abu Abbas and the PLF. While it is unlikely Arafat was directly involved in planning the attack and he certainly didn’t carry it out, he appeared to condone it and Abu Abbas’ faction of the PLF was definitely a pro-Fatah, pro-Arafat ally in the PLO ( other factions of the PLF were not ).
So they were fairly close to Arafat. And Arafat’s Fatah certainly had blood directly on its hands from other actions.