The Dish

A reader writes:

What, did bin Laden actually think he’d ever change the way New Yorkers live and act?  Did he think we wouldn’t dust ourselves off and get back on our feet?  If he did, well, chalk it up as another miserable failure on his part. He obviously doesn’t know New Yorkers. He didn’t stop the annual Gay Pride Parade. He didn’t stop the annual Mermaid Parade (where women can, uh, "choose not to wear the veil"). And he sure hasn’t changed the daily routine of everyone’s favorite feathered denizen of 5th Ave, Pale Male.

If you’re gay, Jewish, or a free woman, you can always go for a walk in New York City and enjoy the day. It’ll make bin Laden furious.

Here’s a link to the interactive website. "We’re Not Afraid," set up after the London bombings to express ordinary people’s resistance to the psychology of terrorism. And here’s an image I love:

"JAHANNEM, OUTER DARKNESS‚Äî The hijackers who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon expressed confusion and surprise Monday to find themselves in the lowest plane of Na’ar, Islam’s Hell.

"I was promised I would spend eternity in Paradise, being fed honeyed cakes by 67 virgins in a tree-lined garden, if only I would fly the airplane into one of the Twin Towers," said Mohammed Atta, one of the hijackers of American Airlines Flight 11, between attempts to vomit up the wasps, hornets, and live coals infesting his stomach. "But instead, I am fed the boiling feces of traitors by malicious, laughing Ifrit. Is this to be my reward for destroying the enemies of my faith?"

The rest of Atta’s words turned to raw-throated shrieks, as a tusked, asp-tongued demon burst his eyeballs and drank the fluid that ran down his face," – from the Onion, September 26, 2001.

In this interview with clips from her music videos, pop-singer Deeyah, defends the choice of Muslim women both to wear the veil and not to wear it. It’s the choice that counts – a choice radical Islam denies half the human race.

Another special for Osama on his anniversary. You’ve seen it before but it’s well worth seeing again: psychiatrist Wafa Sultan telling it like it is about the state of Islam in the Middle East today – and about the technological, economic, moral and cultural backwardness of a society suffocated by religious fundamentalism and political autocracy.

"That our society no longer represents a philosophically unified and substantive whole is a loss greatly outweighed by the exuberance and genius and creativity that freedom has unleashed. Miracles in science and technology, astonishing advances in communication, the empowerment of millions to experience freedom of thought independently of big corporations, governments or expensive printing presses: these achievements of free people have expanded the possibilities of human freedom still further. The attack on the West by Islamism was not a function of the West’s weakness, but a nihilistic, embittered swipe at a success that cast the dreary failure of so much of the Muslim Middle East into a shaming shade. It turned out our flaw was not our softness, but our strength.

When asked to defend the contingent, and foundation-less conservatism I have sketched here, this should be enough. We like it here. We love our way of life. The proof is in the millions who long to be here, who aspire to this dream of human potential, who yearn to escape the stifling constraints of oppressive government interference or brutal theocratic tyranny. What greater argument need we have? Our only weakness is self-doubt, which is part of our own querulous, paradoxical strength. The achievement of this freedom is a consequence of luck and tradition, history and thought, of great leaders in dark times and ordinary people in the unlikeliest of places. But it is an achievement nonetheless. We can touch it with our hands, and express it with our voices. It is more secure than any abstract argument or esoteric thesis. It is as good a defense as we shall ever have. Why on earth should we ask for more?" – from "The Conservative Soul," out October 2.

From when we toppled the Taliban:

Mr. Zamon say the sky’s the limit for kite sales. "My business demand has gone up at least a hundred-fold in the last three weeks," said the 30-year veteran kite maker.

Sitting on the ground outside his Kabul shop, stripping bamboo sticks with a knife to make lightweight crossbeams for his kites, Mr. Zamon said unprecedented demand is forcing him to work night and day filling orders. In the United States, a kite-selling business probably wouldn’t get a second glance even from the local high school Junior Achievement club. But in sensory-deprived Afghanistan, anyone who can quickly produce a product or service that once had the Taliban seal of disapproval is reaping huge profits.

"I used to sell stationery, but I didn’t do so well," said Aurash Azizi, one 16-year-old vendor. "I switched to kites a few weeks ago, and I’m selling 20, 30, maybe 40 a day."

(Photo: Mark Ruiz, Spirit of America.)

"It is a certain fact that not all Muslims are terrorists, but it is equally certain, and exceptionally painful, that almost all terrorists are Muslims… We cannot tolerate in our midst those who abduct journalists, murder civilians, explode buses; we cannot accept them as related to us, whatever the sufferings they claim to justify their criminal deeds. These are the people who have smeared Islam and stained its image. We cannot clear our names unless we own up to the shameful fact that terrorism has become an Islamic enterprise; an almost exclusive monopoly, implemented by Muslim men and women." – Abdel Rahman al-Rashed, London’s Daily Telegraph.

Arlington, Virginia, 1 am, today, overlooking the Pentagon.

"When Muslims put the Prophet on a pedestal, we’re engaging in idolatry of our own. The point of monotheism is to worship one God, not one of God’s emissaries. Which is why humility requires people of faith to mock themselves – and each other – every once in a while … Clearly, I‚Äôm as impure a feminist as I am a Muslim.  The difference is, offended feminists won‚Äôt threaten to kill me. The same can‚Äôt be said for many of my fellow Muslims. What part of ‘no compulsion’ don’t they understand?" – Irshad Manji, tireless campaigner for reform within Islam, and author of "The Trouble With Islam Now".