The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    Ah blessed be new coalitions between "People of the Book"!

    By artappraiser on Sat, 09/28/2019 - 9:35pm |

    Just In time for Rosh Hashanah no less. Such a strong reminder that the book of the famous phrase is known in the west as the: The Old Testament!

    MBS “is leading Saudi Arabia through the most dramatic, positive and exciting social and economic reforms in the history of the Kingdom” — US evangelical activist Joel Rosenberg https://t.co/jcrYYzEqzt

    — Mohamad Bazzi (@BazziNYU) September 29, 2019

    Comments

    I continue to be baffled by the conservative view that Saudis are “good” Muslims and Iranians are “bad” Muslims. By almost any measure, Iranian theology is more moderate and liberated than Saudi Wahabis​m.


    by Michael Wolraich on Sat, 09/28/2019 - 11:38pm

    Which isn't saying much. Almost all religions are bad and we could spend the time playing shades of gray deciding which one is more bad than the other bad one. We can only hope that MBS moderates Saudi Islam so it's about as misogynistic and homophobic as evangelical Christianity in America. That would be an immense improvement but it's not very likely.


    by ocean-kat on Sun, 09/29/2019 - 12:28am

    Yes, it's absurd. But partly because the old timey mullahs have a stranglehold on Shia practice in Iran. Because overall Shi'sim is more amenable to the 21st century global values.

    And I sort of had the similar effects of Wahhabism in mind when I did this post. After all, MBS is supportive of lessening some of the worst effects of Wahhabism on Sunni Islam. There is such deep irony there that right wing Christians would think of him as a traditional ally. He's not, he's a thug who intends to try to modernize the culture by brutal force. Just further absurdity....how did we get here?...


    by artappraiser on Sun, 09/29/2019 - 4:54pm

    Very interesting, I wonder if it will be the best p.r. training money can buy or a more Trumpian iam what iam and that's all that iam. (And date chosen to coincide with Rosh Hashanah? Yes, I am a cynic about this kind of thing...)


    by artappraiser on Sun, 09/29/2019 - 6:33pm

    Question: does Norah have a kid trying to get into Stanford? Just askin...


    by PeraclesPlease on Sun, 09/29/2019 - 6:35pm

    Axios has a brief written summary and video of the MBS interview here.


    by artappraiser on Mon, 09/30/2019 - 12:22am

    offered without comment:


    by artappraiser on Sun, 09/29/2019 - 10:22pm