February 19, 2005
AWESOME PATIENCE:
Shias stand firm against the bombers: Suicide attacks fail to deter worshippers (Rory Carroll, February 20, 2005, The Observer)
Multiple attacks were expected in the run-up to yesterday's festival of Ashura, when Shias commemorate the 7th-century martyrdom of the grandson of the prophet Mohammad and Islam's schism into Shia and Sunni branches. This time last year bombers killed at least 180.After decades of oppression, Shias, who comprise 60 per cent of the population, are preparing to take power and Sunnis, a privileged minority under Saddam, are in the political wilderness.
The insurgents, a mixture of Islamic radicals and former members of the Baathist regime, hope that the attacks will destabilise the country. 'It is the rage of losers. No matter how many they kill, we have won,' said one Shia cleric.
Political ascendancy might seem an abstract comfort to Shias who have been killed while buying bread, queuing outside government buildings or, of course, worshipping.
Yet the community is not cowed. Emboldened by the 30 January election, when most Shias voted despite fears of attacks, men, women and children this week packed mosques for Ashura.
Individual bombers inflict less damage than before. Every day Shia mosques add to their panoply of sentries, razor wire, bollards and blast-proof walls. The strategy is not to prevent detonation, but induce it prematurely.
And the terror on the face of Friday's bomber might have been the knowledge that another mission had failed.
Imagine for a moment that a significant number of radicals in some American minority unleashed this kind of bombing campaign--would we be this restrained? Mind you, we put Japanese Americans in concentration camps when a foreign country bombed a miltary base outside the country. Posted by Orrin Judd at February 19, 2005 8:28 PM
No.
This is the European disease---live with a problem instead of taking care of it.
I also bet that they'll take the failed European Democracy system, too. A parliamentary system instead of the American system.
They would rather do that to their holy places?
Posted by: Sandy P at February 19, 2005 9:44 PMOJ,
The Japanese internment was a landgrab by American agribusiness engineered by two-bit thugs like Warren and McCloy.
There is no comparison with Iraq. Had we rounded up all Muslims in America and shipped them back to Trashcanistan, you might have a point.
Posted by: Bart at February 20, 2005 6:20 AMBart:
No, it was simple racism by FDR who was a hater.
Had he been president on 9/11 he'd have interned Muslims.
Posted by: oj at February 20, 2005 8:09 AMBut probably only in Brooklyn.
Posted by: jim hamlen at February 20, 2005 9:39 AMOJ,
Then why didn't the Japanese get their property back after the war?
Posted by: Bart at February 20, 2005 1:58 PMWhy didn't blacks get their 40 acres and a mule?
Posted by: oj at February 20, 2005 2:18 PMThere is this little thing called the Fifth Amendment about not being deprived of property without due process of law and about just compensation when property is taken for public use. When the Japanese agricultural property in the West was for all intents and purposes Aryanized, little to no recompense was paid and there was no attempt after the war to make things right.
The '40 Acres and a Mule' thing was merely statutory. And in all honesty they should have been able to sue in court to get theirs too.
Posted by: Bart at February 20, 2005 2:49 PMBart:
Yes, acts of Congress are by definition due process.
Posted by: oj at February 20, 2005 6:58 PMIn other words, the Congress can just take away people's property without due compensation because the mere act of passing the legislation would constitute 'due process?' That makes the 5th Amendment protections a nullity.
Posted by: Bart at February 20, 2005 7:44 PMno, takings specifically require compensation. But limitations are entirely compatible with the constitution.
Posted by: oj at February 20, 2005 8:32 PMActually, what is required is 'just compensation', admittedly a trial lawyer's bonanza. But the Congress cannot just give you pennies on the dollar take it or leave it. That is well established.
Posted by: Bart at February 21, 2005 6:28 AMHow much do you get when we enforce the Clean Air Act against you?
Posted by: oj at February 21, 2005 8:37 AM