Laila Lalami

I am taking a break for a few days to enjoy the snow in Park City, Utah and read the stack of books I received as an Eid gift. Happy new year!

Now that the Taliban regime has fallen, the identities of some of the people who had joined their ranks are slowly being revealed. Of course, we’ve all heard about John Walker, the American Taliban. But there are also French, Australian and British nationals, in addition to the scores of Arabs, Pakistanis, and Chechens who served with them.

From the L.A. Times: Militant JDL Members Arrested by FBI

The chairman of the Jewish Defense League and a follower were arrested after allegedly plotting to blow up a Culver City mosque and the office of Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., federal authorities said today. Irv Rubin, 56, and a member of the militant group, Earl Krugel, 59, both of Los Angeles, were arrested late Tuesday after the last component of the bomb– explosive powder– was delivered to Krugel’s home, U.S. Attorney John S. Gordon said.

And to think I was supposed to drop off a Zakat at that particular mosque because it wasn’t too far from my work.

In the Washington Post today, U.S. Weighing Whether to Release Bin Laden Tape:

President Bush is mulling over whether or not to release a forty minute video of Bin Laden, which has been billed as containing definite proof of the man’s involvement in the September 11 attacks. There has been a lot of hype about this video and oftentimes this type of hype doesn’t deliver. If the video doesn’t live up to its hype, it will be disturbing because it would mean we have been engaged in a war for two months without having had the most solid evidence against Bin Laden and his accolytes. If the video does indeed live up to the hype, then I’m glad we will finally have some more concrete evidence to share with people in other parts of the world who might otherwise feel that Bin Laden is being persecuted. The video is likely to be released by Wednesday.

Also in the Post: Bush to Tell Russia U.S. Will Withdraw From ‘72 ABM Pact:

President Bush is expected to unilaterally withdraw the US from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty by this Thursday. The treaty, of which the US and the Soviet Union were signatories, was put in place to curb the development of a national missile defense system. By withdrawing, we are removing any limits on the type of system we want to test or build. People who have spent the last three decades working on arms control see this as a failure, and the move is opposed by Democratic Senate Leader Tom Daschle.

Busy week for Bush.

A disturbing case of censorship in scientific publishing is reported in the Guardian today:

A keynote research paper showing that Middle Eastern Jews and Palestinians are genetically almost identical has been pulled from a leading journal. Academics who have already received copies of Human Immunology have been urged to rip out the offending pages and throw them away. Such a drastic act of self-censorship is unprecedented in research publishing and has created widespread disquiet, generating fears that it may involve the suppression of scientific work that questions Biblical dogma.

Journal Axes Gene Research on Jews and Palestinians

One of the common misconceptions that people have about Islam is that it encourages polygamy. In reality, polygamy predates Islam and was very widely practiced through the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Since the seventh century, Islam’s message has been that it would tolerate this practice, and under such stringent conditions that it would be hard to think of situations in which these conditions would obtain in this day and age. (Today, less than 2% of Muslim marriages are polygamous. In my opinion, it’s still 2% too many.)

At any rate, I stumbled on this interesting article that discusses the practice of polygamy by Orthodox Jews, and shows how Yemeni Jews in fact stretch the limit of two wives to four, probably in response to cultural mores.

Polygamy may be banned by the state constitution and abolished by the predominant religion, but it is still practiced by ultra-orthodox followers of the faith, some who want it made lawful to avoid sticky legal and moral questions.

Sounds like Utah, but it’s Israel.

Political pressure to loosen the prohibition on polygamy for Sephardi Jews who came to Israel from Muslim countries is growing, a researcher told the American Anthropological Association’s annual meeting, which concluded Sunday in the nation’s capital. (…)

Jews living in the predominantly Arab country of Yemen still practice polygamy under the belief that Israel’s rabbis are wrong in their prohibition of plural marriage. Yemeni Jews have an “unspoken cap” of four wives, rather than two. (…)

When Israel became a state in 1949, the ban on polygamy became legally binding on all Jewish residents. Yet some Sephardi Jews in Israel continue to take second wives in “underground” marriages performed by rabbis who oppose the legal ban. Kalifon said these plural marriages by Sephardi Jews have created a mire of legal problems.

Polygamy’s Practice Stirs Debate in Israel

Forgive my cynicism. I am betting Alex that we will capture and execute Osama Bin Laden a few days before X-mas, in time to (a) satisfy the American people that the Administration has achieved one its most important goals in the war, and (b) to boost consumer confidence ahead of the highest shopping week of the year. Or maybe it’s just wishful thinking.

Robert Fisk, the British journalist who writes for The Independent was travelling through Afghanistan when his car broke down:

[Fisk] got out of the vehicle and was attempting to push it to the side of the road when a group of 40 to 50 people gathered. “At first they were reasonably friendly but then a little kid threw a stone at me. More stones followed and then I find myself being punched and beaten in the face. “My glasses were smashed and my spare glasses were ripped away from me. I was covered in blood and couldn’t see anything. I was obviously frightened.” Mr Fisk said he fought back and began lashing out at the mob, whose numbers had now swelled to about 100. He knocked a couple of his attackers to the ground but was then rescued by a Muslim religious leader, who forced the mob back and guided him to a police wagon. “Without his intervention I would now be dead,” he said. But Mr Fisk said he could understand the refugees’ anger, as many had relatives who had been killed by the US bombing of Afghan city Kandahar last week. “It doesn’t excuse them for beating me up so badly but there was a real reason why they should hate Westerners so much. “I don’t want this to be seen as a Muslim mob attacking a Westerner for no reason. They had every reason to be angry - I’ve been an outspoken critic of the US actions myself. If I had been them, I would have attacked me.”

UK journalist beaten by Afghan mob

Bold move by Shimon Peres today:

Peres and others from the center-left Labour party, Sharon’s biggest coalition partner, walked out of a cabinet meeting on Tuesday to oppose a decision to declare the Palestinian Authority a “terror-supporting entity.” But Peres and other ministers from the left-wing Labour Party postponed a decision on Wednesday whether to pull out of Sharon’s national unity coalition government, officials said. A spokesman for Peres said the ministers decided first to submit to Sharon’s Likud a list detailing government

I came across this piece from Israeli poet Shin Shalom (pen name of Shalom Joseph Shapiro)

Ishmael, my brother,
How long shall we fight each other?

My brother from times bygone,
My brother, Hagar’s son,
My brother, the wandering one.
One angel was sent to us both,
One angel watched over our growth -
Thee in the wilderness, death threatening through thirst,
I a sacrifice on the altar, Sarah’s first.

Ishmael, my brother, hear my plea:
It was the angel who tied thee to me.

Time is running out, put hatred to sleep.
Shoulder to shoulder, let’s water our sheep.

Enjoy.