(Note to literalists: the Watched column presently contains only a smattering of 'warblogs' because the facilitator of the template-change--Dr. Menlo--is not very familiar with them, and will be adding more as they are sent to him. Also, this blog may contain areas of allusion, satire, subtext, context and possibly even a dash of the surreal: wannabe lit-crits beware.)
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[Watch this space for: Pentagon and Petroleum, The Media is only as Liberal as the Corporations Who Own Them, Wash Down With, and Recalcify]
WARBLOGGER WATCH
Sunday, July 07, 2002
For want of more damning evidence, Andrew Sullivan obsesses on the "Read Koran" bumper sticker found on gun nut Hesham Hadayat's door. "Why should we be surprised," he says, "when, under the current circumstances and stoked by the new anti-Semitism from the Arab world and Europe, Hadyat [sic] took the Koran's injunction to kill Jews literally?"
Hadayat might have gotten his presumed murderous anti-Semitism anywhere. Here's one such source unaffilated with "the Arab world and Europe."
As to sacred texts, the Bible also offers a cornocopia of pretexts for killing infidels. Admittedly Fred Phelps hasn't shot any gay people yet, though he is awfully happy when they die, and his interpretation of Scripture is creepily seconded by some truly scary folks.
This sort of thing has, of course, been going on for a long time. As one who bows neither to Mecca nor Rome, but is dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal, I would like to applaud Sullivan's Koran skepticism. But as he remains the world's preeminent gay Catholic apologist (who complains that "some of the most virulent anti-Catholic bigots in America are gay" as if this were not merely a favor returned), I don't see where he gets room to talk.
