Watchers Council – Literal Provocations

Every week, in a contest for the week’s best post, each member of the Watchers Council nominates one of their own posts and a second from outside the Council for consideration by other council members. The full submission list is as always on the Watcher of Weasels page and pasted below. Last week’s posts were all over the place – a kind of pre-pre-election week that I doubt we’ll see again in the near-term – which probably explains the scattershot vote totals. There was a clear top post from The Razor on the militaristic undertones of the Koran, which intersect in nasty ways with Islam’s emphasis on the completeness and holiness of the text…

Mohammad dealt with moderation himself. The Koran blasts Muslims who attempt to moderate Mohammad’s teachings and Allah’s will, viewing such actions as a rejection of the faith… Mohammad witnessed how apostasy and heresy weakened other religions: the Arabian peninsula was full of Christian and Jewish sects that deviated from the dogma preached in Jerusalem, Constantinople and Rome. He therefore made it a point for Islam and the word of Allah to be taken literally; there was little room for interpretation – and that fundamentalism carried throughout out the Koran, the Hadith and other Islamic texts. In so doing he prevents any interpretation of Islam that would allow Islam to compromise with other faiths or for Islam to experience a reformation along the lines that Christianity did beginning six hundred years ago.

… and then a three-way tie for runner up between the Colossus of Rhodey on the left’s strange definition of “qualified,” Right Truth on the pro-Iran government in Iraq, and Bookworm Room on the condescension of liberal tolerance.

On the non-Council side there was again a clear top post, the transcript of Rupert Murdoch’s anti-BDS speech at the ADL…

Now the war has entered a new phase. This is the soft war that seeks to isolate Israel by delegitimizing it. The battleground is everywhere: the media… multinational organizations… NGOs. In this war, the aim is to make Israel a pariah. The result is the curious situation we have today: Israel becomes increasingly ostracized, while Iran – a nation that has made no secret of wishing Israel’s destruction – pursues nuclear weapons loudly, proudly, and without apparent fear of rebuke[...] Every day, the citizens of the Jewish homeland defend themselves against armies of terrorists whose maps spell out the goal they have in mind: a Middle East without Israel. In Europe, Jewish populations increasingly find themselves targeted by people who share that goal. And in the United States, I fear that our foreign policy sometimes emboldens these extremists.

… and again a tie for runner up between Daniel Pipes discussing Jewish politics and The Anchoress using the gleeful desecration of a Catholic altar to discuss what counts as “provocative” for various religions.

That should be more than enough to get you started. Below is the full list of submissions, and to ease you into that: baby animals from my much-beloved San Diego Zoo:

Council Submissions

* The Colossus of Rhodey – “Qualified”
* Joshuapundit – New Theory: ‘Suicide Terrorism Caused By Occupation’
* Right Truth – Pro-Iran Government in Iraq
* The Razor – The Cold Comfort of Truth
* Snapped Shot – Washington is the New Moscow
* GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Victory Parade
* Bookworm Room – The smug racism of the neo-colonialists
* VA Right – VA-07 Candidate Floyd Bayne Has Some ‘Splaining to Do
* The Glittering Eye – Why Is the Foreclosure Mess a Significant Story?
* Rhymes With Right – Where Is Obama’s Defense Of First Amendment Rights
* Mere Rhetoric – Newest Defense Of J Street’s Daniel Levy – His Anti-Israel Quotes Are “Ripped Out Of Context” Because He Means Well Or Something

Non-Council Submissions
* The American Scholar.org – What Columbus Day Really Means (Submitted by: The Colossus of Rhodey)
* Commentary/Rupert Murdoch – ‘The Aim Is to Make Israel a Pariah’ (Submitted by: Joshuapundit)
* Daniel Pipes – Israel and Congressional Democrats (Submitted by: Right Truth)
* Pajamas Media – Andrew Bostom – Geert Wilders, Western Sages, and Totalitarian Islam (Submitted by: The Razor)
* Six Meat Buffet – I Fear Aragula (Submitted by: Snapped Shot)
* The Last Stand – Putting Two And Two Together (Submitted by: GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD)
* Big Peace – Debunking the Ridiculousness of the ‘Poverty Draft’ Legend…. (Submitted by: Bookworm Room)
* Modern Survival Blog – Enormous Ring is Developing on the Sun (Submitted by: VA Right)
* The Daily Caller – One nation, under fraud (Submitted by: The Glittering Eye)
* The Anchoress – Muslim Moonwalks on High Altar (Submitted by: Rhymes With Right)
* Rick Richman / Commentary – Pulling Teeth at the State Department (Submitted by: Mere Rhetoric)
* Day by Day Cartoon – Nonfiction (Submitted by: The Watcher)