HOT5 Daily 9/10/2010

1. "Inside America's Mosques" Interesting reading.

Representative Sample: I, along with a team of young American researchers, traveled throughout the country studying U.S. mosques for the book Journey into America: The Challenge of Islam. From fall 2008 until fall 2009 we visited over 75 cities and over 100 of the estimated 1,200 mosques in the United States, some of which are little more than a room or two. And we were reminded that Muslims in America are as diverse as Americans overall. There is no one pattern that can describe them all, and any generalities fail to cover the whole picture.

2. "A New Synagogue in Litchfield?" Jewish synagogue and community center project blocked -- no big deal.

Representative Sample: maybe I missed it, but I haven’t seen the speech in which President Obama defends the Litchfield synagogue in the same way that he defended the Ground Zero mosque. Nor have I seen Nancy Pelosi demanding an investigation of synagogue opponents in the same way that she demanded an investigation of GZ mosque opponents. And will the “human rights activists” and liberal clergymen who have been so fervent in their defense of the mosque project also step up to defend the Litchfield synagogue project? I think we all know the answer.

3. "Questions for Imam Rauf" From a fellow Muslim. Somehow he'll just be dismissed as some sort of Islamic Islamophobe.

Representative Sample: Islamists in "moderate" disguise are still Islamists. In their own more subtle ways, the WTC mosque organizers end up serving the same aims of the separatist and supremacist wings of political Islam. In this epic struggle of the 21st century, we cannot afford to ignore the continuum between nonviolent political Islam and the militancy it ultimately fuels among the jihadists.

4. "Inflicting greater harm judged to be less harmful" When it comes to human perception.

Representative Sample: Joseph Stalin once claimed that a single death was a tragedy, but a million deaths was a statistic. New research from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University validates this sentiment, confirming large-scale tragedies don’t connect with people emotionally in the same way smaller tragedies do.

5. "Am I a Hypocrite?" Liberal atheist at least recognizes that his position on the Koran burning appears hypocritical, something that many other people seem completely oblivious about.

Representative Sample: it suddenly occurred to me that I have supported, and continue to support, lots of other forms of expression that may lead -- indeed, already have led -- to violent retaliation. Not only did I support Salman Rushdie publishing The Satanic Verses, I criticized bookstores that refused to sell it for their cowardice. Likewise for the Danish cartoon controversy. I wholeheartedly supported the publishing of such cartoons and I republished them myself because I thought it was very important to stand with those who were being threatened with violence.