Freedom Not Welcomed In France?

This week french president Nicolas Sarkozy announced that "the burka is not welcomed in France." Also this week, french Law Makers announced that they are considering whether the burka threatens the country secularism. The burka is what some Muslim women wear to cover their hair and sometimes their face. Granted my personal beliefs dictate that wearing the burka is demeaning to both men and women and is a symbol of nothing short of ignorance but I also believe that every person who believes in a religion needs therapy.

It should not be up to us to dictate the dress attire of anyone as long as they are not harming others. If a woman chooses (and I use that word very loosely knowing the dynamic of some Muslim households) to wear a burka, then she should have the absolute right to do so. You cannot be a free country and demand women to dress a certain way. A secular country separates religion from the government, but does not dictate the absence of religion from the people. If a government decides to enforce such law, it will tread a very slippery slope. Where does it stop?

Are you going to ask Jews not to wear yamakas? Are you going to ask Christians not to wear crosses? How about the Star of David? A big red Santa Claus hat?

I am not a defender of any religion, especially one that asks its women to cover their faces, but what I do defend against is: Hypocrisy. You cannot ask the people to follow inconsistent rules and more importantly, you cannot ask the people to follow a dress code. There is a term for that, it is called: Fascism.

Why I Stopped Watching Bill Maher

For years now I have watched and admired Bill Maher. Although his ability to present a joke is not the best, his material was superb. Nothing funnier than a joke that blames everything on religion (sad but true). I watched his recent movie, "Religulous" with a big smile on my face, ear-to-ear. His idea about how we claim that we are the best people in the world when we have not proven it resonates greatly with me. His famous claim that they don't hate us for our freedom but they hate us because our armies are in their countries and our oil companies are running the show cannot be more true. I could keep going on and on about how much my moral beliefs aligned with those of Maher but this would be a lot longer than a one page blog.

Recently I was alerted to one disturbing fact about Bill Maher, his Jewish bias. On many occasions Bill Maher has stated over and over that he is a big supporter of Israel and in fact Judaism nearly escaped his comedy in "Religilous." I have no problem with Israel supporters, what I do not approve of is a self-proclaimed atheist who takes every chance available to mock religion but praises and supports a country built on religion. Israel is not just a country for Jews, it is a Jewish country based on Jewish law. How can you mock Evangelicals for their magic underwear belief but turn around and praise an entire country that does not have an official map because the Torah says that its map is from the Niles river to the Euphrates river (that spans four other sovereign nations -Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Iraq-).

I do not have a doubt in my mind that Bill Maher is an intelligent atheist. I do not think that he is a secret Mosad spy trying to brain wash us nor a closet Jew, but I think that he is clinging (maybe subconsciously) to his mother's religion or maybe just a little more acceptance to Israel because of its similarities to us. Sadly that is one form of belief Bill Maher is not free of yet.

To Queen And Country

I am sick and tired of an example after example of how the entire world is surpassing us in everything that makes us us. Fresh off the Iranian example yesterday where democracy (or at least the illusion of democracy) seems to have prevailed when Ahmadinejad's opponents succeeded in getting votes recounted. Another example of our never ending backwards journey is the UK. Britain has started an investigative probe in its involvement in the Iraq war. Mind you that is a war that they did us a favor by participating in, we were the ones who orchestrated it.

Not denying the British people the right to point the finger at their politicians who went along with Dubya's war but where is our investigative probe?

This is not the first time that I have called for an administration wide investigation into many things that took place during the Bush years including the Iraq war and I was criticized for it in the past. I was thought of as naive and unrealistic. I was told that something like this can never happen, well the British are doing it, why can't we?

Let me be perfectly clear, so I don't get all the hate messages from people who do not pay attention to details: I truly believe that Saddam Hussein was an evil tyrant. I truly believe that the Iraqi people are better off without him. I truly believe that Saddam was not even in the top five reasons why Bush decided to invade Iraq (top five however include the infamous three letter word). I truly believe that we could have helped the Iraqi people rid of Saddam in countless different ways that would not yield the 700,000-1,000,00 Iraqi civilian casualty or the 5000+ American soldier casualty, not to mention the Billions of dollars spent. Last fall, Exxon Mobile announced the biggest profitable quarter in the company's (or any company's) history, while most industries in the world were trying to avoid bankruptcy.

Unexpected Lesson

Days after the end of the Iranian elections and after re-elected president Ahmadinejad claimed victory, Iranians took to the street protesting the elections. Many claim that this election was rigged to the benefit of Ahmadinejad against his contender (the more moderate) Hussein Moussavi. Now due to this objection by the Iranian people, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Alkhamenei (sort of like the queen of England) called for an inquiry into this election.

It is not clear what would be changed (if anything) due to this inquiry, but what is clear is the unexpected lesson. Through our American goggles, we view this country as one that is full of people who hate democracy, freedom and justice. Well now, that same country has just out-freedomed us. It is the opinion of most Americans that we have the best democratic free political structure in the world. It is also the opinion of most Americans that Iran is not free nor democratic.

What happened this week should reshuffle ideas and change minds. When we had a controversial elections (to say the least) in 2000, most people were of the opinion off, lets just decide and get it over with. Most people did not care that the president-elect just controversially won because of a state that is governed by his own brother while producing unrealistic results from many counties in that state. On the other hand, no such thing happened in Iran, the only hint of corruption is solely based on the skeptics claiming it is, yet people are storming the streets of Tehran demanding an inquiry into this result.

I am not claiming that there was no foul play in this Iranian elections, chances are there was, but I am asserting that with the least bit of evidence of someone taking the final say away from the Iranian people, made them crazy, just like it should have done to us.

Obama Brings Something New: Common Ground

I watched the much anticipated speech by President Obama from Cairo and read the transcript a few times to get a grasp of how surreal this feels. 8 years removed from one of the biggest roadblocks in Muslim-American relationship, Obama stood in front of thousands of Arab Muslims pleading common ground and moderation. He was firm about terrorism, extremism and America's support of Israel, but at the same time he was accepting of all religions and all people if they desire to live in peace with their neighbors.

It has been a few weeks since the speech, so gaging the effects is difficult but I can't help but see that since then two events happened in the Muslim world that make me smile. The first event is that Afghani and Pakistani villagers are voluntarily fighting the Taliban for the first time in a long time. The second event is that Ahmadinejad might lose his presidency to a more moderate candidate during the current elections due to record numbers of moderate Iranians coming out to vote.

This blogger is not trying to tie the events with the speech but he can't help but enjoy days where the President of the United States is not dodging shoes during a speech at an Arab capital.

Another beautiful thing to see is that now a days both Conservatives and Liberals are not too happy with Obama, which means he is doing a great job because most of us are neither conservative nor liberal. Most of us are moderate. Most of us are conservative in some issues and liberal in others. I heard a quote once that stated: "You know it is a good deal, when both parties leave the negotiation tables unhappy."