City of Brass

American barbarism, civilization, and decadence (and Star Trek)

Aziz Poonawalla — Wed, 15 May 2013 19:11:36 +0000

I came across a lengthy excerpt online from the book, "Read the full post here »

Bishnu Shrestha and the 40 thieves (and one khukuri)

Aziz Poonawalla — Wed, 08 May 2013 13:56:17 +0000

This is a khukuri, a curved Nepalese-style blade issued as standard equipment to members of the Gurkha, which are famed Nepali units of the Indian Army (and the British Army of India before Independence): In 2010, a retired Indian Gurkha soldier, Bishnu Shrestha, was sitting on a train, when 40 dacoits (bandits) boarded the train and started robbing the passengers. When the robbers accosted an 18-year old girl and attempted to rape her in front of her parents, Read the full post here »

Muslims in Bradford, UK rally to save synagogue

Aziz Poonawalla — Sat, 04 May 2013 15:47:45 +0000

This is one of those great stories that often gets overlooked by the mainstream press and deliberately ignored by the Islamophobes: With only just over thirty members and an extravagant Grade II listed Moorish building, the tiny Jewish community of Bradford have for many years been in despair about their finances - until the local Muslim community stepped in to help. The grand-looking Reform...

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Obama still wants to close Guantanamo #Gitmo

Aziz Poonawalla — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:44:18 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vy-fsgXR4jw From today's press conference: 8:15 AM PT: Bill Plante of CBS asks about the Guantanamo hunger strike. Obama says he still wants to close it. "It's not necessary to keep America safe. It's expensive. It's inefficient. It hurts us" with allies and the global community. "Now, Congress has determined that they won't let us close it. [...] I'm going to reengage with Congress to try to make the case that this is not...

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open-source, lone wolf terrorism: different ideologies, shared methodologies

Aziz Poonawalla — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 17:34:11 +0000

To summarize what is known at this time, the main suspects for the Boston marathon bombing are two brothers who immigrated from Chechnya to America years ago and have grown up here. How they became radicalied, and what their motive was still remains unknown, but their method is best described as "open-source" lone-wolf terrorism - as this Read the full post here »

The muslim world sends love to Boston

Aziz Poonawalla — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 15:17:21 +0000

Just wanted to share these two moving images - the first, from two women in Kabul: and the second, two boys in Iraq: Next time you hear or read the Islamophobes' claim that muslims "dance in the streets" when there is tragedy in America, remember these images. Sources: Afghans send sympathy and love to Boston, whose pain they...

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Saudi national cleared of suspicion in #Boston marathon bombing

Aziz Poonawalla — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 12:17:40 +0000

Yesterday I posted some facts about a young Saudi national, a student on scholarship, who was injured in the marathon bombings but was "tackled" by another bystander for appearing "suspicious". Today comes word that he has been cleared of all...

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The Boston marathon bombing and the Saudi national

Aziz Poonawalla — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 18:08:48 +0000

UPDATE: the Saudi national has been cleared of all charges by police. For the American public, the Read the full post here »

Easter in the Qur’an: Jesus AS was raised to Heaven and will return

Aziz Poonawalla — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 13:15:41 +0000

Happy Easter to my Christian friends! Fundamentally, Easter is the day that Christians celebrate the resurrection of Christ. As I've noted before, in Islam there is no direct...

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Iraq War retrospective: not convinced by Colin Powell at the UN #iraq10

Aziz Poonawalla — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 23:15:44 +0000

On Feb 5th 2003, Colin Powell gave a speech at the United Nations that supposedly laid out the case for WMD in Iraq and the argument for invasion. After the war began and WMDs were not found, this speech destroyed his credibility and Powell's political aspirations were rightly dead afterwards. Here is the skeptical post I wrote a few days afterwards, in which I still pretended I was on the fence out of some misguided sense of...

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