22 March 2011

19 March 2011

This is not a joke.

"Jihad Cosmo"

From The Independent, via Carolyn McCulley:

"Not content with launching an English-language magazine that debuted with a feature called "How to make a bomb in the kitchen of your Mom", al Qa'ida's media wing has followed up with a magazine for women, mixing beauty tips with lessons in jihad.

The 31-page glossy, Al-Shamikha, which translates loosely as "The Majestic Woman", features a niqab-clad woman posing with a sub-machine gun on its cover.

The magazine's editors explain their thinking in a launch issue preamble: "Because women constitute half of the population – and one might even say that they are the population since they give birth to the next generation – the enemies of Islam are bent on preventing the Muslim woman from knowing the truth about her religion and her role, since they know all too well what would happen if women entered the field of jihad... The nation of Islam needs women who know the truth about their religion and about the battle and its dimensions and know what is expected of them." Analysts say the idea is to market global jihad with the same slick feel as Cosmopolitan or Marie Claire push Western culture to young women."

McCulley: "I put that one sentence in bold because it's similar to what many Christian leaders say to women, minus the Islam reference, of course. The kingdom of God needs women who know the truth about their religion and about the battle and its dimensions and know what is expected of them. Murder and suicide are not one of the expectations, however. A big, big difference there."

03 March 2011

March 3, 2011

Today, I enjoyed lots of little things.  Lemon in my water (have any of you dear faithful RubyRi readers tried this at home?  It's a win.), a few squares of chocolate, the satisfaction of getting a lot of work done, and a really great dinner.

And then I came home.

Tonight, I did NOT enjoy hearing scratching sounds coming from an interior wall in my house. It could only mean one thing.  I'm buying stock in tin foil.