Comparing the French & LA riots: Number of casualties, why?

You're so utterly monochromatic.

Community hierarchy. The mullahs, the ones with titles who can tell their adherents almost anything--and it becomes law.

There is no such authority attached to Imams or Mullahs--they are teachers and their authority is advisory only, if they haven't the respect of the community, they have no authority. Authority in Muslim communities never rises beyond the level of the community, with the exception of the interpretation of the Quran and the Hadith to determine what constitutes acceptable provisions of shariah. In the community the ulama have an authority which exists nowhere else in the Muslim polity--an alim is a righteous man, and in the aggregate they can exercise a limited moral authority in the community. Islam makes no provision for secular authority, and it is noteworthy that even in Muslim monarchies, the forms of government have been borrowed from the west. Only the Quran and the Hadith are legitimate sources of law in Islam.

As usual, in your haste to display your religious bigotry, you end by displaying your ignorance.

In your desperation to insult and/or peacock-strut about with your egomaniacal encyclopedia-sourced fodder, you create reasons to do it.

What a truly miserable person, filled with hate and self-importance you must be.

Everyone here knows the role of mullahs and leaders in the Islamic religion hold--which stupidly, you proved for me yourself.

There's no one here that doesn't know that elementary bit you pasted up there.

Why don't you stop making this thread all about you??

Let people discuss the topic.

Mullahs influencing Pak politics, says report
Rajeev Sharma
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 7
Islamic extremists continue to thrive in Pakistan under President Pervez Musharraf because of his reliance on the religious right to retain power and mullahs have never been so powerful in Pakistan as now, says the Brussels-based think tank International Crisis Group (ICG) in its latest report.
Mullahs in Pakistan today control two of four provincial governments and are also influencing national politics through their presence in the National Assembly.
The report, titled "The State of Sectarianism in Pakistan" also puts the Musharraf regime on the mat on the question of terrorism. It says howsoever significant the Musharraf's government successes against Al Qaida, including some 600 arrests of Al Qaida cadres, its record against Pakistani terrorist organisations is "far from impressive". Pakistan's sectarian organisations, many with close links to Al Qaida, have continued to flourish, belying General Musharraf's claims that his government had "broken the back of terrorism" and "our cities have been almost cleared of terrorists".

"These sectarian extremists are simultaneously fighting internal sectarian and regional jihads in Afghanistan and Indian-administered Kashmir, and an external jihad, against the West in general and more specifically against the USA," says the ICG report in a damning comment.

Ironically, as President Musharraf is praised by the international community for his role in the war against terrorism, the frequency and viciousness of sectarian terrorism continues to increase in his country. General Musharraf's lack of domestic legitimacy has forced the military to rely on alliances of convenience with the religious right, based on the politics of patronage.

The leading thinktank opines: "In the absence of international support, moderate, secular and democratic parties will remain in the political cold. The choice that Pakistan faces is not between the military and the mullahs, as is generally believed in the West, it is between genuine democracy and a military-mullah alliance that is responsible for producing and sustaining religious extremism of many hues."General Musharraf may have pledged to undo former President Zia ul Haq's legacy by transforming Pakistan into a moderate Muslim state, his performance in past five years is not dissimilar to that of General Zia, the ICG report says bluntly. Under General Musharraf, Zia's Islamisation measures, the primary source of religious extremism and sectarian conflict, remain untouched.

"Sectarian conflict in Pakistan," concludes the ICG, "is the direct consequence of state policies of Islamisation and marginalisation of secular democratic forces. Co-option and patronage of religious parties by successive military governments have brought Pakistan to a point where religious extremism threatens to erode the foundations of the state and society."
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For anyone interested in the truth about power of Islamic leaders...

The interesting thing here, though, is that one officer was detained (a euphemism for 'arrested') in the beating. That would never have happened in the USA. At worst, he might have been suspended, usually with full pay, while the police department itself 'investigated' to see whether further sanctions or punishment is indicated here. Hell, our cops don't even get detained if they shoot and kill someone, as long as they can claim it was in the line of duty.

There does seem to be a difference in operating philosophy here.

Really, MA?

Really. I've never heard of such a thing as an American police officer actually being taken into custody because he obviously stepped out of line and beat up a suspect. He might get called into his chief's office, asked to surrender his badge and gun, pending investigation of his conduct, and told to go home and sin no more.

MA is right. That's what happened to the cops in New Orleans that beat the old black man and the newswire journalist who dared to film them.

Merry Andrew wrote



I disagree. What actually happens is that the victim is immediately turned into a paragon of virtue and the police officer into a villain. That has caused many a good police officer to look the other way. And should the officer be white and the victim a minority all hell will break loose and Sharpton or a facimile will be screaming for his head before the facts are in. That poor schnook is cooked.