I loved this part:

Not one substantive point about what the woman actually said. Note this priceless piece of hackery: "Of course, it's helpful not to mention Hafez Assad's response." Erm, and your point is? That Wafa Sultan is supposed to feel reassured by this?

Well, reasonable people read the NYT article to find out what she said. I merely added what was not said.

And no, why would she grasp the point that secular ME governments are as bloody-minded, if not moreso, than the Islamist groups they try to suppress (and in some cases inadvertantly facilitated their radicalization)? Perhaps that would make the situation too complicated for the droolers to grasp. Yes, that's probably it.

And note the downright dishonesty of conflating Wafa Sultan with Irshad Manji.

I wonder what is dishonest about mentioning them both in the same entry. They have many things in common.

I suppose we can take it as a sign of our increasing popularity that complete and utter morons are flailing madly over our entries.

"The Christ" Heh. I rather like that. More like "The Anti-Christ," though, in that you have an anti-messianic complex -- you keep telling morons and the easily-led to piss off rather than trying to get them to follow you.

i looked at LFG and it made my head hurt! L! why did you make me do that!?

anon: it is simply because L does not like the stench associated with those who follow.

Who's the Christ? Me?

One thing I don't understand about "the Lounsbury" (rather like Gibson's "The Christ").

Ah, I had skipped that part. Boring. She really does have extremely poor reasoning skills.

"At the very least she need not confuse Lounsbury with 'Aqoul.

In fairness, um, {whispering}. . . it . . does. . . say . . ."Aqoul" . . . up. . . top.

-- Devil's (or Anti-Christ's) advocate

This place is like the haunted west wing of 'Aqoul. People who know their way around aren't afraid, but it's a bit riskier for newbies (and very risky for idiots).

BTW you might enjoy this.

I was tempted to tell them we were spooks, but figured it wouldn't go over well.

BTW you might enjoy this.

My favorite, "Is everything a game?"

No, but almost everything has an element of the absurd.

I am constantly bemused at the inability to distinguish between being serious and being solemn.

E: you really shuold tell them we're all spooks. i also think its funny that they think everyone that frequents aqoul is 100% western university educated. i take offense to that! and so does جامعـة 7 نـوفمبر بقرطـاج

sure... it might want to be a western university but are is really? well... it is in the maghreb region...

perhaps the quote you have an anti-messianic complex should be put up as part of L's "Fans" section...

I like that.

As for the explanation, eerie, bloody let them hang.

Too late, I posted. They will either be charmed or suspicious about my obvious Western-ness.

I saw that. To be fair if you count the authors and know their intimate details one could fairly call 'Aqoul "a theoretically Muslim dominated blog."

You might alternately explain 'Aqoul as the vision of the Apostates or near Equivalents not irredeemably alienated from the Islamic universe.

Maybe we could categorize authors along the lines of "Recited the shahada and meant it", "Recited the shahada but didn't really mean it", "Recited the shahada but broke all the rules", etc followed by "Cuddly apostates" and "Kafir of various sorts"

You'd have to add a category for "was once asked to convert, but undiplomatically laughed it off, because why convert from one religion that one doesn't believe in to another religion that one doesn't believe in?"

Erm, "For the chicks (fellas)*?", presuming your local mosque/synagogue/church/Buddhist temple/Pagan circle has a comely selection?
The worms are gonna have at us one day regardless, so we might as well have fun beforehand.

*in second place strictly because I'm male and straight, of course.

Perhaps we can add the

you have an anti-messianic complex

I do like it.

"...because why convert from one religion that one doesn't believe in to another religion that one doesn't believe in?"

As Woody Allen noted in his standup routine of the 1960s, his marriage broke for religious differences, he was agnostic, she was atheist and they couldnt agree on what religion NOT to bring the kids up in.

Or as a James Joyce character said: "What kind of liberation would that be to forsake an absurdity which is logical and coherent and to embrace one which is illogical and incoherent?"

As to this silly question: why convert from one religion that one doesn't believe in to another religion that one doesn't believe in?

The transactional advantages. Religion is often about community. Business usually revolves around community. Sealing deals often revolves around transactions that require some communitarian trust.

Really quite straight forward.

It is all about getting things done.

Wallahi, I have a naive bunch of rubes as colleagues.

Fa binisbatilla ash-Shahada, wa koul al ouajibat mourtabet biha, aqoul lekoum mima qalet azzoujah al-oulah liya, fa qalet li b'ad az-Zaouaj oua fi hada al waqt alethi kunt melian min ch'our-l-moumine "laou kunt bgha sheikhan, fa satazaouji sheikhan" fahemt hadha mzien. L-mohim, hadi al-mara kanet mouchaouiqa, oua laha al-'ibarat mohima mithl, "In bght ouahed bint min l-bled, inqlebi alieha."

Depends what kind of transaction one is trying to accomplish. Some of us have our thoughts pretty much written on our foreheads, so the amount of trust we would gain in the community by undergoing an insincere conversion would be more than counterbalanced by its obvious insincerity.

Besides, this may or may not make sense to those more oncerned with transactional costs, but to me it would be extremely disrespectful to do something like that, knowing how sincerely the community involved would take it (they, from all that I know of the ones I never met and from what I'd observed of the ones I did meet) were pretty much the definition of the Pious Middle.

(And hey, what's with the transliterations again?)

Self amusement.

The Lounsbury Zone.

As for sincerity, well I am all for transactional sincerity. Works well for me.

I suggest recited the shahada but only commits transgressions endearing to the West i.e I'm a Muslim but I drink and shag about and am generally an alright sort.

L- laou kunt bgha sheikhan, fa satazaouji sheikhan

Haha, well sheikh indana min-almumkin an ya'ni ghani wa lahu sulta.
In that sense inta sheikh wa ala raasna min fouq.

As to conversion and it's transactional advantages, this is rather fascinating and this ostensibly simple justification has always confounded apostate partners of mine who made much of a fuss re principles and betraying family bla bla.

Over sentimentalised fools the lot of them.

ya ukhtii,

maybe you haven't found the "right" apostate or kaafir yet ...

ya abu l-maal,

i've actually tried to decipher your arabcais but my head started to hurt ... something with you having made poor choices re: women?

--raf*

mutassif Raf Bey, bad night and many narcotics.

Give you another chance

Fa bi annisbet illa ash-Shahada, wa koul al wajibat mourtabet biha, aqoul lekoum mima qalet az-zoujah al-oulah liya:

fa qalet li b'ad az-Zawaaj wa fi hada al waqt alethi kunt melian min sh'our-l-moumine:
"laou kunt bgha sheikhan, fa saoufa tazaouji sheikhan"

fahemt hadha mzien.

L-mohim, hadhi al-mara kanet moushawiqa, wa laha al-'ibarat al-mohima mithl, "In bght wahed bint min l-bled, inqlebi alieha."