George Bush's Saudi pals - heraldblog

George Bush's Saudi pals

After four years of vicious brow beating by the Bush adminstration, our friends and allies, the Saudis, have adopted a more tolerant attitude toward non-Muslims. These days Saudi citizens are told:
''Everyone who does not embrace Islam is an unbeliever and must be called an unbeliever. . . . One who does not call the Jews and the Christians unbelievers is himself an unbeliever."

''Whoever believes that churches are houses of God . . . or that what Jews and Christians do constitutes the worship of God . . . is an infidel."

To offer greetings to a Christian at Christmas -- even to wish ''Happy holidays" -- is ''a practice more loathsome to God . . . than imbibing liquor, or murder, or fornication."

Jews ''are worse than donkeys." They are the corrupting force ''behind materialism, bestiality, the destruction of the family, and the dissolution of society.

Muslims who convert to another religion ''should be killed because [they] have denied the Koran."

Democracy is ''responsible for all the horrible wars" of the 20th century, and for spreading ''ignorance, moral decadence, and drugs."
The house of Saud has obviously gone soft. Jews have been upgraded from "apes and pigs" to something approximating equus asinus. The fatwa against Santa Claus has been lifted, in favor of a mere snubbing of Christmas revelers.

Clearly, freedom is on the march.

Best. Blog. Ever.

From Juan Cole - who else?
A lot of Americans believe whatever Cheney says, though I cannot for the life of me understand why, since he lies to them relentlessly. He is the one who tried to link Saddam and al-Qaeda operationally. He even once said he knew exactly where Iraqi weapons of mass destruction were. Most people will only remember that Cheney said there wouldn't be an Iraqi theocracy, but won't bother to actually read the newspapers on Monday...

Although George Orwell/ Eric Blair wrote 1984 as an anarcho-syndicalist socialist critique of Stalinism, it is becoming increasingly clear that it was also prophetic about the direction of Late Capitalist societies characterized by corporate media consolidation. In such a society, Cheney can substitute himself for Sistani and speak for Sistani, erasing the real Sistani just as the Republican pundits have erased the real Iraq. "Ignorance is knowledge."
I have to admit, I gave way to despair watching Donald Rumsfeld lie his way through his Meet the Press interview yesteday morning. The alternate reality posed by this administration is like a tsunami that washes away 200 years of Democratic impulse. After a while, you just sort of give up and let the waves wash over you, waiting for that warm feeling of peace that comes just before the end. Then you walk towards the light.

But then I read Juan Cole, and the light fades to black, and I open my eyes, and world comes back into focus. I grab onto a floating palm tree, and there dead ahead - land! I'm saved!

7.2.05 04:17

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John / Website (7.2.05 17:01)
I agree. I don't know where I would be without Cole's blog. It's too bad he isn't on CNN, Fox, and MSNBC more often, because his voice is sorely lacking.