Shameful, shameful

In his history of the UN, Tower of Babble: How the United Nations Has Fueled Global Chaos, Dore Gold argues that the UN got off on the wrong foot by refusing to oppose agression against Israel and Kashmir. He then catalogues a series of costly UN failures, from Korea to Rwanda to the oil-for-food scandal. In that context, the vote today in the General Assembly in favor of deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya isn't so bad.

And, of course, Zelaya has the full support of President Obama. Why is it bad to meddle in Iranian politics, but not in Honduran politics? According to news reports, U.S. embassy officials were deeply involved in the negotiations preceding the military's decision to send Zelaya into exile. Just what, I wonder, were they doing? Just what is U.S. policy on the substance of this dispute? Do we support elected presidents who seek to violate their constitutions?

Oh yes, of course, how silly of me - why would any news agency be interested in that when it can be covering Michael Jackson instead?

Mushrooming sharia courts in Britain

A new report by the Civitas think tank estimates that some 85 sharia courts currently operate in the United Kingdom, usually in mosques and behind closed doors. Many of their cases have to do with marriage or divorce. According to fatwas on websites of UK mosques, the courts are supposed to forbid Muslim women to marry non-Muslim men unless the latter convert. They are also supposed to grant custody of any male children over the age of seven to the father, regardless of other circumstances.

The Civitas report urges that sharia courts no longer be recognized under British law. A number of Tory politicians are on record opposing the use of sharia courts, as reported here, but the Labour Minister of Justice last year said "if, in a family dispute ...the parties to a judgment in a sharia council wish to have this recognised by English authorities, they are at liberty to draft a consent order embodying the terms of the agreement and submit it to an English court."

I wonder if there are any cases in which English courts have rejected sharia settlements. (Thanks to Rachel.)

Constitutionality in Honduras

As you may have noticed, the Honduran military just removed President Manuel Zelaya from power and exiled him to Costa Rica. You may also have noticed that the United States and the EU condemned this move.

But did you know that the military removed him in response to a decision by the Honduran supreme court that he was violating the constitution? Here's a summary of the issue by commentator Mary Anastasia O'Grady of the Wall Street Journal.

Does the new and improved U.S. foreign policy designed to restore our image and our popularity require support for presidents who break the law?

Nefarious forces

Sooner or later, this moment always comes: people revolt against a repressive government, and the repressive government blames the unrest on foreign conspirators.

Iranian Supreme Leader first singled out the United Kingdom, blaming its government policies, then BBC broadcasts. Now it has detained some of the local employees of the UK embassy in Tehran. The detentions came on the same day that an estimated 3,000 demonstrated against the regime, despite the beatings, arrests and murders that could ensue.

Do the Iranian people believe in these conspiracy theories? Daniel Pipes hopes that they do not, and notices that so far there is little evidence that the Iranian public is falling for them.

Islam and the West

In Dangerous Knowledge: Orientalism & Its Discontents, Robert Irwin highlights some of the tensions between Islam and the West that have gotten lost in the historical mist. Two struck me as particularly interesting:

-- Christopher Columbus, by sailing West, was "seeking to outflank the Islamic empires of the Ottomans, Mamluks and Safavids [in Persia]. He believed that he lived very close to the Last Days and he was inspired by knowledge that astrologers had predicted the imminent collapse of Muhammad's sect and the coming of the Antichrist."

-- The Austro-Hungarian ambassador to the Ottomans half a century later "believed that the Christian powers were wasting their time and resources in America, while Christianity's very survival was threatened by Ottoman advances in Europe ..."

And indeed, it wasn't until the Turks were defeated a hundred years later at the gates of Vienna that the tide turned against the Ottomans.

Iranian protests

Here are statistics on the anti-government protests, arrests and deaths in Iran. The webpage includes a map showing where incidents have been reported, and graphs showing the numbers of protesters on different days and the levels of lethal violence deployed against them. Looks like the website is maintained by the American Enterprise Institute, but it doesn't openly say so.

And here's a description, from a medical student, of what happens to protesters taken to hospitals. It includes the authorities carting away the dead bodies before they can be identified. (Thanks to Jihad Watch.) No wonder CNN is reporting this morning that parents are searching high and low for their children.

Funding university studies

Last March, the UK think tank Centre for Social Cohesion published a report detailing the funding from foreign governmental sources that underwrites strategically important studies in many UK universities, including Cambridge, Oxford, and the London School of Economics.

The report notes: "The UK’s finest universities are taking money from some of the world’s worst dictatorships – Iran, Saudi Arabia and China, all nations with appalling human rights records, are significant contributors to venerable UK institutions ...

There is clear evidence that, at some universities, the choice of teaching materials, the subject areas, the degrees offered, the recruitment of staff, the composition of advisory boards and even the selection of students are now subject to influence from donors."

I suspect a study of U.S. universities would produce similar results.