It is with a heavy heart and a great sense of loss that we mourn the loss of Said Maygag Samatar who passed away in California yesterday after a prolonged illness. Said was a visionary, a patriot, an eternal optimist and a good friend who navigated the often tumultuous waters of our politics with deft and grace beyond his age.
Having organized the last Sopri Convention with Said here in Washington DC, we in this community feel particularly proud of that event and feel blessed to have had a chance to work with this remarkable individual who is and shall remain our standard bearer for many years to come.
He left us a big void that is going to be hard to fill and we all shall miss him dearly.
May Allah forgive his sins and reward him in Heaven.
In an editorial published last Saturday, the Washington Post celebrated the killing of a man in Somalia who the Post
said “deserved the label of ‘evildoer.’” The man was killed when a U.S.
Navy ship fired Tomahawk missiles at a Somali home in which the man was
apparently located. The Post said that the missile “killed a vicious militia leader and an al-Qaeda operative.”
One of the great ironies of modern Christianity is how warlike many Christians are. Not all Christians, certainly. And many believers at many times in history have put state and ruler before church and God.
Yet it remains striking how many conservative evangelicals unabashedly acted as shock troops backing the Iraq invasion. Everyone from Jerry Falwell to Pat Robertson to Chuck Colson to D. James Kennedy to James Dobson to a host of lesser Christian leaders propagandized on behalf of President George W. Bush. A few war supporters have been humbled by the resulting catastrophe in Iraq, but most disclaim any responsibility for the debacle. Some, such as John Hagee, who has endorsed Sen. John McCain for president, now bray for war against Iran.
It is liike old times in the Persian Gulf. As of this week, a second aircraft carrier battle task force is being sent in – not long after Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Adm. Michael Mullen highlighted planning for "potential military courses of action" against Iran; just as the Bush administration's catechism of charges against the Iranians in Iraq reaches something like a fever pitch; at the moment when rumors of, leaks about, and denials of Pentagon back-to-the-drawing-board planning for new ways to attack Iran are zipping around
In 
Readings in the Age of Empire.
It is liike old times in the Persian Gulf. As of this week, a second aircraft carrier battle task force is being sent in – not long after Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Adm. Michael Mullen highlighted planning for "potential military courses of action" against Iran; just as the Bush administration's catechism of charges against the Iranians in Iraq reaches something like a fever pitch; at the moment when rumors of, leaks about, and denials of Pentagon back-to-the-drawing-board planning for new ways to attack Iran are zipping around
