Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Speed reporting


You could say we live in the Jokey era, where even serious topics are looked at slant, with irony or derision or tongue-in-cheek.

Many times it's to compensate for a lack of understanding or knowledge--if it turns out what you write or say misses the point and/or is wrong/stupid/offensive, you can always hide behind the 'I was just kidding' defense and then employ the 'anyway chill out' strikeback.

It also feeds into our natural inclination to divide the world into us and them, snickering at their odd food/culture/customs, except when we erupt with indignation when we're being laughed at.

Why does it have to be that way? Why not just do your best to get it--talk to people in the know, do some reading, ask lots of questions? It's not that hard, it won't take that much time, and at the end of the day you get to trade that slick feeling of hipness in for genuine fulfillment.

And when you do chuckle, it's not out of ignorance but rather shared mirth.

As always, the Times provides fodder. In this case, Neil MacFarquhar, in his It’s Muslim Boy Meets Girl, but Don’t Call It Dating article.

So here’s the thing about speed dating for Muslims.

Many American Muslims — or at least those bent on maintaining certain conservative traditions — equate anything labeled “dating” with hellfire, no matter how short a time is involved. Hence the wildly popular speed dating sessions at the largest annual Muslim conference in North America were given an entirely more respectable label. They were called the “matrimonial banquet.”

“If we called it speed dating, it will end up with real dating,” said Shamshad Hussain, one of the organizers, grimacing.

Both the banquet earlier this month and various related seminars underscored the difficulty that some American Muslim families face in grappling with an issue on which many prefer not to assimilate. One seminar, called “Dating,” promised attendees helpful hints for “Muslim families struggling to save their children from it.”
I wanted to like the article--it's great to see a piece about Muslims with nary a mention of terrorists. How great would it be if we could all sit back and laugh because we love, poking gentle fun at foibles that ultimately cut across all religious and ethnic lines.

But Neil's overly-familiar style and word choice and general tone fall more into the let's all sit back and laugh at the unwitting foreignness of Muslims, befuddled by trying to adhere to a 7th century religion in modern America. Even the photo choice left me flat.

Yo, Neil--satire depends on two things that are entirely missing in post-9/11 America when it comes to Islam: common knowledge, and good intentions. Journalists don't have the luxury of working in a vacuum.

Photo of Fatima Alim, who "has strong views about the kind of woman her son Suehaib, 26, should marry," by James Estrin.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Jihad by any other name


It's human nature to want to be part of something bigger than yourself. Who wants to die having been just one out of billions, a drop in the ocean of human history?

Much better to try and create something--a work of art, a big family, a name--that will last long after your bones have returned to earth.

Of course, if you're not that talented, you can always glom onto someone else. Attach your name to something they did; in some way, being mentioned in an Oscar acceptance speech must count for something, right?

But what if you don't even know anyone talented? No sustaining skills of your own, no friends worth much... then what?

Well, then you're in trouble. You're stuck with waking up, eating, sleeping; repeat until dying. Looking for love, maybe finding it maybe not--but in any case, living on only in the fading memories of a few.

Unless, of course, you can latch onto some history-shaking group that'll have you. Then, if nothing else, you can die with a smile on your face, knowing that for a few moments in time you were part of something--perhaps even a vital cog?--that truly mattered. That will never be forgotten.

If you lived in 1930s Germany, for example, maybe you'd have joined the Nazis. Heck, they promised a Reich that would last for a 1,000 years. True, they were a bit bloody, but given that you probably defined your victims as 'other' at best, sub-human at worse, what matter a few million pounds of flesh if you could cleanse Christiandom of dirty Jews forever?

Likewise, if you found yourself in the American South in the 1950s, you could just don your white robes and go hunting blacks in the dead of the night to get away from the 9 to 5, yes sir no sir grind. A few lengths of rope, some torches and a bunch of your closest white friends and poof, you were a force to be reckoned with--not to mention master of your domain for a few hours to boot.

But, what now? In a world of 6 billion? What to do to make your mark, go down in history as a savior of your people, rise above the mundane day-to-day?

Well, as the Washington Post's David Ignatius writes in an insightful column, Young Anger Foments Jihad, for many the answer seems clear. Let loose the dogs of war and march forth to defend our 'civilization'! If we don't get them first you can bet your last dollar they'll surely come get us!

Lock up the women and children, this isn't a sight fit for their eyes. Above all, remember the overiding justice of our cause--you can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs, and brother, we sure are out to make ourselves a doozy of an omelette, one that they're going write odes about and sing songs to for generations.

During Monday's commemorations of the fifth anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, I found myself wondering what the world will look like on the 10th anniversary, or the 20th. Will the catastrophe that began five years ago become a permanent feature of life -- a "long war" that won't end for many decades? Or will it gradually wane with time?

President Bush made an emphatic case for the long war in his speech to the nation Monday night. In his account, America is locked not simply in a war but in a meta-conflict, "the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century and the calling of our generation." He described a global enemy of Muslim fanatics that imprisons women in their homes, beats impious men and attacks Americans at will. I admire Bush's toughness, but I disagree with his analysis

As it happened, I spent the hours before Bush's speech moderating a discussion of the meaning of Sept. 11, which was hosted by the World Affairs Council here. One of the panelists was Marc Sageman, a man who comes to these issues with an unusual background -- he was a CIA case officer in Pakistan and then became a psychiatrist. I found in his comments a similarly unusual clarity.

Sageman argues in his book, "Understanding Terror Networks," that we are facing something closer to a cult network than an organized global adversary. Like many cults through history, the Muslim terrorists thrive by channeling and perverting the idealism of young people. As a forensic psychiatrist, he analyzed data on about 400 jihadists. He found that they weren't poor, desperate sociopaths but restless young men who found identity by joining the terrorist underground. Ninety percent came from intact families; 63 percent had gone to college; 75 percent were professionals or semi-professionals; 73 percent were married. ...

What transformed these young Sunni Muslim men was the fellowship of the jihad and the militant role models they found in people such as Osama bin Laden. The terrorist training camps in Afghanistan were a kind of elite finishing school --

Sageman likened it to getting into Harvard. The Sept. 11 hijackers weren't psychotic killers; none of the 19 had criminal records. In terms of their psychological profiles, says Sageman, they were as healthy as the general population.

The implication of Sageman's analysis is that the Sunni jihadism of al-Qaeda and its spinoff groups is a generational phenomenon. Unless new grievances spawn new recruits, it will gradually ebb over time. In other words, this is a fire that will gradually burn itself out unless we keep pumping in more oxygen. Nothing in Sageman's analysis implies that America should be any less aggressive in defending itself against terrorism. But he does argue that we should choose our offensive battles wisely and avoid glamorizing the jihadist network further through our rhetoric or actions. ...

There's another small detail about Iran that strikes me as relevant, now that I'm back home. As I explained in an earlier column, Tehran is a city of crazy drivers who nearly collide at every intersection. But the police are quite strict about requiring seat belts -- something I don't often see in the Muslim world. Even fatalistic taxi drivers buckle up. Another surprise: When I was traveling last week from Tehran to the holy city of Qom, there were actually police on the highway with radar guns, stopping pilgrims who might be tempted to speed. And I'm told the new mayor of Tehran, Mohammad Qalibaf, who succeeded the rabble-rousing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has created a special hotline so people can call and get potholes filled and trash collected.

Now I submit to you: A nation that is wearing seat belts is probably not a mortal enemy of the United States.

This is a week when we remember, with horror, that there are dangerous killers in the Muslim world. But unless we make big mistakes, we should not find ourselves condemned to a permanent war, much less a clash of civilizations.
Matania's Battle of Acre painting of Richard the Lionheart via History UK.

Monday, September 11, 2006

Now and then


'Try to Remember'
NPR's All Things Considered, December 13, 2001 The Fantasticks, the longest running musical in history, is closing in New York City in January after a nearly 42-year run. And, as NPR's Margot Adler reports, its famous music has resonated in a very different way since Sept. 11.




AP photo of the 'Tribute in Light' over lower Manhattan as seen from Brooklyn on the fifth anniversary of 9/11 byPeter Morgan.

Friday, September 08, 2006

Want fries with that?


You can't make up some of this stuff. There are so many funny quotes in the Detroit Free Press' day-after coverage of the suspension of an assistant coach for the Lions that even the unprecedented bizarreness of the situation can get lost.

Lions suspend assistant coach for opener

Nicholas J. Cotsonika: The Lions have suspended defensive line coach Joe Cullen for Sunday’s regular-season opener against Seattle because of his two recent arrests, NFL sources said Thursday.

Lions coach Rod Marinelli informed the players of the suspension during a team meeting Thursday morning, but he declined to discuss the situation when he met with the media after practice Thursday afternoon.

“I’m not going to talk about Joe right now,” Marinelli said. “It’s an in-house decision what we’re dealing with. The team knows, I know, and that’s what’s important.”

Cullen coached the defensive line as usual Thursday and is expected to continue coaching in practice. He was unavailable for comment.

Lions chief operating officer Tom Lewand declined to comment, and team president Matt Millen could not be reached for comment.

Cullen met with the defensive linemen Wednesday.

“He was just like, ‘This is what happened. I apologize,’" defensive end Kalimba Edwards said. “He was real professional about it.”

Cullen was arrested and charged with indecent and obscene conduct Aug. 24, the night before the Lions’ third exhibition at Oakland. A worker at a Dearborn fast-food drive-thru window saw him naked behind the wheel of his SUV and called the police, according to police reports.

Then Cullen was arrested and charged with drunken driving Sept..1, the night after the Lions’ exhibition finale against Buffalo. After he sped down a Dearborn street without his headlights on, someone called the police, and when the police found him, a breath test determined his blood-alcohol content was .12, over the legal limit, according to police reports.

“In pro football — in life, period — in this day and age, it’s hard to be shocked by anything,” Edwards said. “When he told us, we were just like, ‘All right. We play football on Sunday, dog. Keep on coaching. We’re going to keep on playing.’"

Some players learned of the incidents by listening to sports talk radio as they drove to team headquarters Thursday morning.

When Marinelli addressed the situation in the team meeting, he didn’t go into detail about what Cullen did.

“I’ve been trying to find a paper to get exactly what happened,” wide receiver Eddie Drummond said.

Marinelli — who called it a “great, great talk” — discussed how he expected the Lions to handle the potential distraction. He said this kind of thing was why he put the Lions through a tough training camp and why he flew them to the Bay Area the day of their exhibition at Oakland instead of the day before.

“Who can forget that airplane trip and concentrate on the game?” Marinelli said. “We had 13 guys who could do that. … That’s how you handle these situations with the team. They seemed to respond very well. We’ll find out. We’ll come and we’ll go put ourselves on the field on game day.”

Marinelli has only one team rule — the “Do Right” rule, which essentially means use your common sense and do the right thing. He also has a “Do Right” list. Mess up — in ways little or large — and you’re on it.

Cullen is “on the ‘Do Right’ list today,” wide receiver Roy Williams said, speaking figuratively. Cullen was not actually on the list. “I’ve been on the ‘Do Right’ list, too,” Williams said.

Williams said the Cullen situation wasn’t a distraction for the offensive players because they “don’t even know the guy, really.” But as for the defensive linemen, Williams said: “It might be a distraction for those guys.”

The defensive linemen insisted they could see Cullen the same way they had before and respect his authority.

“We’re supporting the guy,” defensive tackle Marcus Bell said. “We’re behind him. That’s all that matters.”

“The thing is, he’s a Lion, he’s family and we’re going to support him because all he does is support us,” defensive tackle Tyoka Jackson said.

“As a professional athlete, man, what goes on in a person’s personal life ain’t got nothing to do with the job,” Edwards said. “All kinds of stuff’s going on in these cats’ lives. You’ve still got to go out and play ball on Sunday.”
Uncredited Detroit Lions photo of Cullen via the Free Press.