summer patriot, winter soldier

beginning reconnaissance ... the basic architecture and functions of a mosque ...

the easiest way to find out about a mosque would be a simple visit to and stroll through the building, to learn what can be learned by simply viewing.  in my area of the world a straightforward perusal of the internet will find a listing of mosques, with information such as hours and address listed for each mosque.  the hours during which the building is open to the public are usually listed, along with a history of the building.  things may differ in your area.

if you undertake to visit a mosque it might be helpful if you understand the basics of what you are viewing.

www.islamicarchitecture.org obligingly provides a pretty good primer on the basic design and functions of the mosque, and, as we shall see in just a bit, the various articles at the web site contain rather direct admissions that the mosque serves     a far more wide reaching and multifaceted function than a simple house of worship: it is a fulcrum to expand islam.  www.islamicarchitecture.org/architecture/tech/spacedomesolutions.html discusses the history of mosque architecture, and in these texts we find the surprisingly frank assertion that the architecture served the functional needs of an expansionistic and militaristic society and religion.  the article quite frankly discusses the flexibility of the basic mosque design in serving as a place of political, religious or military operations, something not surprising given the unitary function and structure of islam:

the limitless variety of ground plan and interior designs in the architecture of central asia between the 11th and beginning of the 13th centuries can be reduced to two basic schemata: the courtyard-axis schema and the central dome structure. the first of these consists of a rectangular courtyard with two right-angular axes, the longitudinal axis being the main one, enclosed by buildings forming a rectangular outline. this schema was used for large buildings of both sacred and secular function, such as mosques, palaces, madras’s, and caravanserais. the simplest design was that of the courtyard mosque, where the space between the courtyard and windowless exterior wall was occupied by a continuous gallery. this consisted of several rows of brick piers forming continuous domed cells generally connected to each other by archways. stone or brick columns were not used because of the frequent earthquakes in central asia.

most of the surviving 11th and 12th century caravanserais, which served as inns for traveling merchants and their caravans [you may read this as extending islam via commerce if you wish: jjj], and often developed into trading centers themselves, stand out because of their combination of magnificence and functionality. they frequently had an impressive palace-like character. here too the longitudinal axis dominates, beginning at a monumental entrance portal and continuing through one or two courtyards surrounded by various types of rooms (accommodation for the traders, storage for goods, stables) and ending in a suite of splendid halls. The numerous functions of the caravanserais explain the complexity of their design and the differences between the concrete forms they took.

stepped console spandrel in the daya caravanserai, 11-12th centuries console supports of this type were the precursors of the weight-bearing as well as decorative muqarnas structures that were to become widely used in Islamic architecture in the following century.

not much has been known about the architecture of the 11th and 12th century central asian madrasa for very long, the one definite example of it that has so far been discovered being the khoja mashhad madrasa in southern tajikistan. this building shows that madras’s from this period already displayed the important features of madrasa design that were later to become the norm.

central asian palace complexes served on the one hand as the private residences of the rulers, but always, on the other, incorporated an official series of rooms that accommodated the authorities, and where officials carried out affairs of state. in the 11th and 12th centuries, these buildings were also as a rule constructed along the lines of the old courtyard-axis schema. their starting point was the courtyard, whose primary axis led from a ceremonial portal through to a vaulted hall or iwan, completely open to the courtyard. this is where the ruler would hold his audiences, while the public was confined to the courtyard. while the architecture of the palaces was strongly influenced by the local building traditions, the courtyard principle, despite numerous variations, was common to all of them. sometimes, however, the semantic and compositional center of the palace was not a vaulted throne iwan, but a domed hall. whether the individual palaces and official residences of the 11th and 12th centuries known about as a result of excavations followed the axis principle or not, their layout, in keeping with their wider range of functions, was essentially more complicated than that of the courtyard mosques, madras’s, and even caravanserais.

detail of portal of the khoja nakhshran mausoleum near regar, tajikistan, 11-12th centuries. this is a particularly well-executed example of typical decorative brickwork arranged in double bonds with decorative elements of carved terracotta. the corner column is an example of the use of decorative elements to a structural end. The kufic inscription and decorative embellishments alongside it are cut from specially baked pieces of clay.

this multifunctionality was typical of the complexes of the 11th and 12th centuries built according to the courtyard-axis schema; thus the courtyard mosques, for example, were also public, municipal centers and could additionally serve as fortresses at times of danger. the similar architectonic structure in each case permitted variations of function: caravanserais, madras’s, and even Friday (congregational) mosques could, under certain circumstances, undergo changes of basic function, or take on additional functions, without a fundamental alteration to their ground plan and room structure. characteristic of the courtyard-axis structure, however, is its clear, rectangular basic shape and general symmetry with longitudinal and often transverse axis too.

the   “… courtyard-axis structure …” also serves islam as the chief architectural feature of the madrasa, or islamic school, though as the excerpt below illustrates, it is sometimes very difficult to distinguish the function of the madrasa and the mosque, given that both serve the maintenance of islam, and both serve the expansion of islam.  again, in some sense it is nonsense to even draw or contemplate or acknowledge such distinctions, as these distinctions do not exist in islam itself.  there is, however, a purpose to be served by islamic apologists in drawing such distinctions, in that it serves to try and perpetuate a western insistence on viewing islam and its motives with the same view or perspective as westerners would view themselves.

thus the proponents of a madrasa for islamic instruction in the new york city school system named the proposed “school” the khahail gibran madrasa, after a Lebanese Christian, in a pretty thinly veiled attempt to disguise the fact that they wanted the new york city school system to pay for and establish islamic religious instruction in public schools.

the article linked at www.islamicarchitecture.org/architecture/schools/madrasamir-iarab.html makes the following observation with regard to the closely allied political and religious function of the madrasa and the mosque (they are, quite literally, the arms of the same octopus):

Schools--------------------------------------Madrasa Of Mir-i ArabMadrasa Al-Firdaus

education is closely linked with worship in Islam and distinguishing between a mosque and a madrasa (literally school) is often difficult because early mosques, beginning with the prophet's house in medina, were used for either purpose. when the madrasa became established as an institution, it is believed to have originated in seljuk khorasan and it closely resembled the four-iwan mosque in plan.    the ancient city of bukhara, already flourishing when the arabs conquered it in 709, is famous as a seat of learning. its madrasa include the mir-i arab, built about 1535, when bukhara was entering its most glorious period as capital of an extensive uzbek state. it was one of only two madrasa allowed to function in the soviet union (the other was in tashkent). founded by a yemeni sheikh, for whom it is named, it was built (possibly under the sheikh's direction since he is described as an architect) on the four-iwan plan, with 100 cells for students studying islamic literature, law and arabic. it is not open to tourists, who can admire from a distance the calligraphy and mosaic around the drums supporting its two blue domes but are said to be missing some of the finest ceramic decoration in bukhara. among other schools of bukhara are the 15th-century madrasa of ulugh beg and, standing opposite it, the later madrasa of abdal- aziz khan, begun in 1645, which resembles it in plan though it is much larger. apart from its great size, its most notable feature is the great pishtaq (gateway), which is beautifully decorated with mosaic, plaster relief work and painting. immediately south of the mir-i arab madrasa is the 19th-century madrasa of amir alim khan, which breaks with architectural traditional and seems to have been primarily used as a library. If you will have recourse to the above floor plan of the madrasa, you will note that it contains a mausoleum and a mosque, item no. 3, which is circular in the floor plan and corresponds with the blue dome in the picture at the lower left of the excerpt above.  now, if a building “functioning” as a school is described as a madrasa, but has within its confines a mosque it is pretty hard to draw much of a serious distinction between a madrasa and a mosque, it seems to me.  presumably & concededly, not every madrass purports to contain a mosque within its architectural confines. If, however, you have read the passage above with the care i have come to expect of you, you will notice that the madrasa teaches islamic literature, islamic law, i.e., the sharia, and arabic, the language of islam, and its administrators the world over.  in short, the teaching of the madrasa is the dogma and faith of the mosque. it would seem that even without the absolute confirmation of a mosque inside every madrasa as above, the historical function of the madrasa is well confirmed, and the content of the education that takes place inside the madrasa, even in the “absence” of a mosque, confirms without doubt that it is but an extension of the mosque and of islam.  the madrasa is a religious institution, and it is an arm of the aims of islam toward conquest and conversion of all to the faith, as it the mosque. the historical role of the mosque, nearly contemporaneous with mohammed, has been to shore up, consolidate and administer and remove any threat to islamic and arab conquest conquests.  this is quite openly admitted to if not extolled at www.islamicarchitecture.org/architecture/mosque-history.html from which the following observation is drawn: within few years after the death of prophet mohammed, mosques became such important symbols, that when muslim conquerors established themselves somewhere, a mosque was put up first, and then the military camp was built around it.  this was inspired by the madina example, but in some principal cities, muslims constructed their mosque in the place that was the center of other religions. the shape of mosques came in many cases from a mixture of the architecture of conquered territories, and of the original patterns.  the addition of minarets, the towers from where the callings are made, were absent in the early mosques.  iwas inspired by religious buildings of other religions, where one believes that it was the churches of syria, that were most important. in short and as a matter of fact, the mosque has always been a fulcrum of conquest, as the mosque serves the role of military and political conquest, religious indoctrination and education, and political and religious administration of conquered areas and populations.  it has done so by the artifice of an advanced outpost of trade and economic relations if you must deal in current parlance; it has done so by the direct adjunct of military conquest; and it does so now as the adjunct and fulcrum of demographic conquest in western europe, and as the operational base for worldwide terror and the jihad wherever the mosque is found. no distinction can be drawn between islam, muslims, mosques, madrasa’s and any of the arms and accoutrements of islam  conquest in the 1400 years of islam, and any distinction that would view the presence of a mosque in an american neighborhood as an innocent event is drawn by apologists, deceivers, or the very seriously delusional. so, when you walk into the mosque to take a look around, what are you going to find?  how is the building organized? not all islamic communities in this country being able to afford building mosques of the grandeur found in the principle cities of the middle east and central asia.  the mosque will however, be laid out with features recognizable to the faithful all over the world, on a more or less standard array of features and functions.  what are the architectural features common to this “transformer” like building, at once a place of prayer and a place of operational planning for terrorist activities the world over, this building that does double duty as a haven for camel caravans (in the old days) and a military fort, literally to this day? well, this link from www.islamicarchitecture.org/architecture/themosque.html should give you a basic understanding of the building and the “face” it would present to americans as a place of worship: a mosque (masjid) contains symbolic or functional features, each one of which has its own history that is important to muslims, one is the mihrab, a niche that indicates the qibla (direction of prayer), the minbar (elevated pulpit) used for sermons, proclamations and readings, the quqbah {dome} set on a high drum and a centralized or annular (ring-like) plan with two ambulatories or corridors,  the minarat where the faithful are called for prayer. today the minaret serves as a visual inspiration indicating a muslim community, or as seen in mecca & madina sanctuaries displaying as far as possible the location of a holy place. the word mosque {masjid - house of god {allah}} from which all forms of a mosque derive, appears frequently in the quran,  literally means a place of prostration, a place of assembly, where all muslims are called five times a day to pray during the time of prayer. It is recognized as a unique symbol of Islam and serves as an institution in which the focal points of religious and social activities are combined. …. since the introduction of islam, the masjid is the centre of worship and other activities of the muslim community.   it is the  masjid more than any other institution that contributes strongly toward the completeness of a community.  throughout history of islam, the mosque has always played an important social role.  it has been a place of prayer, a centre of political activities, an educational institution, and a focal point of communal life. mihrab {niche}; dating back to the 700's, is the position of the person leading the congregation in prayer & marks the direction of mecca,  prayers are offered whilst facing in this direction. the mihrab is the most decorated part of the structure, often with lamps symbolizing the divine presence on earth. minbar {elevated pulpit}; placed next to the mihrab. the minbar is used in the sermons, such as the friday-sermon, two eid's of islam (eid al fitr) & (eid ul-adha), where the khatib (the person performing the sermon) stands on one of the lower steps, as the top of the minbar is restricted to the prophet only. oibah {dome}; an outstandingly prominent feature of the mosque is the qibah {dome}. Structurally speaking, the dome helps echo the sound inside a structure. best example of the earliest qibah {dome} is qubbat Al sakhrah - al quds {dome of the rock - jerusalem} is considered  to be one of the greatest religious structure world wide as it marks the location where prophet muhammad (peace be upon him) embarked upon miraj. minarat; first minaret (tower-like from where the muazzin (person calling for prayer) stood) came probably in 700's however written material suggest that minarats were erected as early as 665 AD. while it's not seen in early mosques, the implementation of minarats was both for functionality & inspiration. the muezzin called for prayer (the calling for prayer is adhan) from the top of the minarat, it could be heard more than a few blocks away from the mosque. read more about minaret types here. i will make a comment here having to do with the tone of the articles from the website discussed in this post.  folks, there is no apology for the fact that islam has been spread by the point of the sword, e.g., by conquest from the time of the beginning of the religion, nor for the fact that it is being spread by conquest now.  why should there be?  it is now as it was then, and that is the simple truth of the matter. i am going to wrap this post up, as it is getting late and the post is far too long.  this will be the last installment or post relative to the notion that mosques are forts.  if you are not convinced at this point, nothing additional will convince you on this point. go to the web in your area, and simply google the words “mosque + [a principal city near your] and see what google will tell you,  and i believe that you will be quite astounded.  in my neck of the woods, doing so produced the following websites, www.idrismosque.com and www.seattlesearch.com/493/seattle/spot_light_seattle_mosques.html the first site being devoted to the idris mosque, named after a wealthy arab who contributed the funds to build the mosque, and the latter site being a list of the 7 or 8 other mosques in the seattle region.  other websites, easily found, discussed the history of building the mosques, and the schools attached to them, the madrasa’s. very little else of substance is readily available pertaining to the activities of these mosques, at least as i was able to determine, though admittedly, I am a poor researcher at this point. but, we shall deal in the near future with finding out how to find out more. for instance, where you able to visit the library of a madrasa, and to view the printed material there, the instructional cd’s, the literature having to do with politics and religion, what books or materials might prove significant.  what sorts of tittles and volumes might indicate a predisposition of a congregation to integrate and assimilate into american life and mores, or, by contrast, what books might indicate a hostility towards that goal, or might even indicate a predisposition on the part of some or all of a congregation to support more radical aims, or even to support the jihad by financial contributions or by direct recruitment.  at www.atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com we find a recent post indicating that british surveillance and reconnaissance planes are picking up taliban radio transmissions where the speakers are speaking english with english accents on the open air, and then the same persons switching immediately to arabic during those transmissions. is it not logical and prudent to suspect that such native and home grown english citizens have been recruited in the jihad via the auspices of an islamic cleric in a british mosque or madrasa.  would it not be foolish, indeed, to shy from such speculation? how do we learn to look for signs that similar activities are being carried out in mosques near where we live?  how do we learn to recognize books and materials, such as cd’s or dvd’s that advocate violence against the west, and proselytize and recruit individuals willing to carry on terrorist attacks?  how do we learn to recognize political and social activities which may be carried on in a mosque which are dangerous to our communities? --john jay p.s.  while looking at some of the things above, i came across this extraordinary link, describing a visit by “presidential candidate” dennis kucinich to the idris mosque in seattle, described above on february 4, 2004.  i invite you to follow this link, read it, and look at some “campaign photo’s” linked at the kucinich supporter’s blog.  please understand what you face. kucinich is, or at least appears to be, something of a boob.  but, he is a dangerous sign of the times, in that he is a leftist who is willing to align himself with the interests of islam in order to advance his own political agenda, and looked at from another perspective, he shows that islam and islamic politicians and planners are willing to explore connections with the american left, and the american radical left such as can to utilized to advance the interest of islam. we need to start gathering intelligence on american mosques, to gain some appreciation of just how they have sought to establish these links, and with whom.  and, we need to understand just how seemingly unrelated activities and organizations are linked up, and how centralized their planning is, and just how well they have their agenda’s mapped out. the examples of long range planning by the muslim brotherhood, their goals and agendas, and how they have implemented the same via a worldwide terrorist network, coordinated with a demographic attack on europe, does not suggest that islamic and arab interests in this country have been satisfied to sit around and do nothing. the link is www.muhajabah.com/muslims4kucinich/archives/2004/02/kucinich_visit_1/php .  it simply must be read to be believed. and it is, plain and simple, wrapped up in the communications network of the mosque.  it has always been so, and there is absolutely no reason to believe that it should be otherwise in this country.  the mosques are up and running and we know their agenda, because it has been the agenda of all mosques ever built: it is to expand islam.

the dance ... on love ... where angels fear to tread ... in honor of valentine's day ...

preface.  this day i jump in where angels fear to tread, dive into the shallow end of the pool without testing the depth, and open my mouth in such a manner as to confirm my ignorance on a host of topics.  this post, at the conclusion of the valentine’s holiday, is a discussion of the meaning of true love.

this inquiry is not about coitus, per se.  the word itself is such an abstraction, yet it hints at the very complexity of the subject, that such an antiseptic word should have been needed to describe activities that we all engage in, quite lustily as a matter of fact, and describes a human action that put each of us here, and which is not in the slightest antiseptic: the “immaculate conception” is one of the wryest and cleverest descriptions of the begetting of the christ child as could be conceived.  i will frankly admit being inadequate to the task, as i haven’t the foggiest notion of how to either define love, true love, or to segregate the topics from either prosaic fucking or divine love making in any sense or degree that makes sense.  i am, however, just like the supreme court justice who remarked that though he could not define pornography, he knew it when he saw it.

i think i see a fundamental insight into the nature of love, and love making, in a human activity quite likely as old as either, and while dancing can be very nearly the same thing as love making or love, it is usually much more stylized and dignified. it is clear, however, that in a lot of situations it is prelude to both. i have friends, that while i suspect they may not view dancing as a necessary antecedent to love making, and if they do not it does not much matter, because they dance before they make love, even if they do not realize it.  dance incites love, it depicts it with amazing clarity, it teaches us, i believe, the proper ends to be sought, and it teaches us how to act before and after.  more than anything, dance teaches us that amidst the storm and tempest of love, amidst the passion and the driven urge, amidst those times when we go off to our own little place in climatic culmination, …, amidst these things there is companionship and, dare i say it, grace and ceremonial dignity.

i believe the conventions of dance show us the way to the purest forms of love, and show us the way to enjoying love and sex as the culmination of human expression.

so, rushing in where angels fear to go, my valentine’s day salute to the proper ends of romance.—first, some observations from william blake, who had a thing or two to say upon the topic.-- 

“how to know love from deceit”

love to faults is always blind

always is to joy inclind

lawless wingd & unconfined

and breaks all chains from every mind

deceit to secrecy confind

lawful cautious & refind

to everything but interest blind

and forges fetters for the mind.

--william blake, “poetical schetches,” 1783

“i laid me down upon a bank”

i laid me down upon a bank

where love lay sleeping

i heard among the rushes dank

weeping weeping.

then I went to the heath & the wild

to the thistles & the thorns of the waste

and they told me how they were beguild

driven out & compeld to be chaste.

--william blake, “poetical sketches,” 1783

essay.  when first starting my practice it was that i would be selected to take papers to the superior court clerk’s office for filing, under the theory that it was far more economical to get a young lawyer out of the office than to trouble a productive member of the office staff: anyone who knows anything of a law office knows the truth of sending a person who bills at $60 an hour for “work” in the stead of one who is paid $7 an hour to be productive.  at any rate, it often came to pass that as i was working at the counter, a cynic might say standing and gabbing but i was merely honing legal skills, i came to heartily dislike a young woman who came in to file pleadings and such for a local credit agency.  she was what was in a less enlightened age called crippled.

somehow one side of her body was left untouched and quite lovingly formed by some agency or another, while another more malevolent force bent and shriveled the other side of her body, leaving her limbs and joints askew, and retarded and restricted its movement, so that she walked bent and crabbed and stooped, kind of dragging the reluctant side down the hallway by the main force of the stalwart efforts of her good side: there was no grace in her movement, no syncopation or accommodation, just raw physical effort.  it was not for this that i took the dislike to her, almost immediately.

no, i disliked here because she was loud, and impolite, and boorish, and seemingly because of her handicap thought it right to barge to the front of lines or demand to be served first, under one pretext or another.  just as there was no grace in her movement, there was no grace in her conduct or her bearing, and she traveled among people as she traveled down the hallway, dragging her infirmity before all to see in the starkest of terms.  i am a gentle soul at heart, despite what the foregoing narrative might suggest, and made several abortive attempts to say hello to her, or chat.  she would have none of it, and would brook no hypocrites who might talk with her in the line at the clerk’s office but who would leave her in her typical lurch come saturday night.

her stay on this verdant orb had not lent her a joyous disposition.  far from it, from what i could see.

i had not always been a great walker, but as i took up more complicated and onerous tasks in the law, i took up walking as exercise and a release from the tensions of the day.  and, being a bit anal, i soon selected a set path, which, as it turned out, took me past a little house with a tidy yard complete with a cocker spaniel dog, white.  it also turned out that this was a clever, friendly and playful little creature, who had more than a trick or two up her, … , what?, … sleeve will have to do, i guess.  for the little dickens had dug a small trench under the fence that confined her, which i had at first mistaken as the remnant of an abortive escape attempt.

after i had walked by several times the spaniel essayed an abortive bark or two and would trot along the fence making friendly little yelps of invitation (obvious to anyone who had ever grown up amongst dogs as i), to which i occasionally responded by going to the fence, leaning over, and giving her a scratch behind the ear or under the chin, and a rub at the nape of her neck.  i guess i passed the test, because one day she waited for me at the anointed hour at the hole in the fence, with a very grubby tennis ball, and instead of coming down the fence line to great me as had become her wont, she waited until i got to the escape trench, and pushed the tennis ball over to my side and under the fence, with her nose.  (anyone who has been around spaniels knows the intelligence of a spaniel nose, and how much it can get into, including trouble.)

well, she had a “fetch” playing friend.

and, i would stop and play fetch with her often, and she liked me, because i would rifle that tennis ball from one end of the yard to the other, and she never tired of charging after it.  i also teased her by making a big production of pretending to throw it one direction, waiting until she had charged off, only to toss it another direction in an attempt to deceive her, and hide the ball.  it made no difference to her, she charged around until she found it, in a sometimes very methodical, orderly and logical search pattern.

well, one day the dog’s owner came from the house, perhaps because i had bounced the tennis ball off an aluminum screen door a little too enthusiastically, and who do you suppose it turned out to be, none other than the young crippled woman to whom i had take such a hearty and instant dislike.  and, something remarkable happened.  well, good lord, what do you expect?  had something unremarkable happened, do you think i would have remembered it all these years, or would be writing about it.  of course something remarkable happened.

she smiled, something which i had never seen from a face whose singular expression was one muscle twitch removed from a barking snarl.  and, she was pleasant and friendly, and we chatted.  no, that was not the remarkable part, i sometimes inspire that in people, especially city folk, who find my rustic country ways charming, somehow, their exposure to civility and politeness being otherwise limited.  they are as charmed by my habits of digression as you, gentle reader, are irritated by them.

no, the remarkable thing was that she began competing with the dog, that lovely graceful little spaniel, for the possession of the tennis ball as i played fetch with the pup from outside the yard, on the boulevard between the fence and the street.  and she would race for the ball with her head thrown back and a smile and her mouth open in wild laughter, and when she got the ball, she would hold it to her waist and tease her little dog to jump for it, and twirl it away from the dog as she twirled, and she would hold it over her head and pirouette and twirl, and the pup would jump and chase the ball, and jump against her body, and she paid that no never mind.  and, if the pup tired, she would give the ball to her, pat her on the rump, and send her my way to where i stood astounded, i have no recollection if my mouth were agape or not, because i had not the control nor the self possession to be aware of trifling matters such as that.

she was transformed by the play with that dog. 

she was, quite simply, radiant and beautiful in movement, quite lovely, indeed.  every trace of truculence vanished.  no sense of incompleteness, no sense of loss, followed her like the little perpetual black rain cloud that hovered over jinx joe btfsplk’s head, and followed his every step keeping him continually wet, cold and forlorn in “little abner.”

no, no romance budded nor fast friendship formed.  we did not marry and have children, and we never became lovers.  the dog, the tennis ball, and presumably she moved from the house in not too distant a time.  but, when i saw her in the courthouse, she would smile and say hello, and the gloom would vanish from her face, and she stood taller.  i always felt rather proud for that.

but since that day with that slobbery fouled tennis ball i have held a firm conviction, and that is in the poetry and flow of motion, in the communion of physical movement and mental processes, one finds in the external and visible manifestation of the hidden actions of the brain, the truest insight into mental process and emotional state.  from that day, though i never set it to paper, i have felt that in dance one finds visible manifestation of the mental processes and emotional states of love, and of making love, and of the liberation and transcendence that the activity gives us from otherwise binding physical and emotional limitations, from hesitancy or inhibition, say. in her dance with the spaniel this young girl was likewise freed from the crippling physical limitations of her everyday life. perhaps,  perhaps the dance is even a truer and more accurate expression of love than coitus because dance is not so inexorably tied to the climax, although the dance floor can be a pretty intense place.  for whatever the observation is worth, i personally do not see the dance as a metaphor for the kiss, but as the prelude of the kiss. no, the kiss is, in my opinion, the most intimate, sensual and consensual of human acts:  but, it is so overtly focused and singularly unique as to defy conversion to mere metaphor status.  making love, oddly enough, is complex enough to be reducible to the metaphor by the movement, imitation and manifestation of love that is the dance.  phew!! 

as improbable as it seems, i owe all that to a slobbery tennis ball, a cocker spaniel, and a twirling girl.

well, what is love? 

or, more precisely, what is the love that i have chosen to prattle about today. i am not interested in the universal admiration of our fellow human beings, and have gone about as far as i am going to go on that front simply conceding them as “fellows”: i am still of the stripe that regards it as healthy to regard other groups as potentially antagonistic if not outright enemies, and believe firmly in the virtue of understanding just precisely what local scout troop belongs to.  i am not talking of the love between friends, and as a general rule feel more comfortable talking about the friendship between friends, though i will concede that certain friendships are simply transcendent at some point and do devolve into love.  i have such a friend, who i esteem amongst the people of the earth, but that is none of your damned business.

no, i speak of the love, spiritual and physical between a man and a woman.  neither do i mean to suggest that love and the sex act is the same thing, as they are not, although they can certainly be complimentary, and are as of necessity when sex is performed with love and caring. neither do i mean to purposefully exclude all other permutations of companionship, but i am on shaky enough ground as it is here, as is revealed by the fact that my experience in the matter are hardly universal.  so, i will just stick to what little i don’t know very much about, and will not venture into the infinitude of what i don’t know very much about: far better to keep the scope of one’s ignorance limited.

and, of necessity to my mind, i speak of the love between a man and a woman, and as revealed by dance, in reference to the community and of the institution, loosely speaking, of pair bondage, or perhaps more appropriately in spite of the blake poem at the beginning of the post, pair bonding.  it a more disciplined time i would have spoken of marriage, but, the vagaries of societal beliefs, behaviors and legal norms being what they are, going back into our distant past and looking at the matter as simply pair bonding seems fair, and with adequate historical, sociological and biological precedence.

in humans the pair includes the community.  only youngsters and those who have never been married will fail to understand and apprehend this.  and, it applies to couples who couple and couple outside the sanctity of the church and the society: only if you have never lived amongst neighbors while shacking up with a partner will you fail to comprehend this true fact.  when you marry in a church with family and friends and the government in the form of the marriage license and the health certificate, and your brothers and cousins in ill fitting suits and your former single friends looking both horrified and mystified at the proceedings, will you truly understand that a marriage is a group and communal undertaking, and only when you watch friends divorce, perhaps because of the interloping behavior of other friends, will you truly understand even more, that marriage and the breaking up of the same is a group and communal undertaking.  the involvement of the state is obvious in determining the legal ramifications of putting together and taking apart a marriage, but you only begin to understand the meaning of the phrase cousin when the friends and the community stick their noses into the whole thing, opportunely or inopportunely, as the case may be.

and dance plays the same communal role on a symbolic level in many societies, and serves to integrate individual sexual and social behaviors into the standards of the community.

when society was less “sophisticated” these truths were more overtly observable, and now it is only in the few “primitive” or “agrarian” societies left on earth where the dance evidences this.  in some few societies we still have ceremonial dances commemorating the passage of young girls into marriage eligible womanhood, and the passage of young men into marriage eligible adult hood.  in our own heritage, we have the coming out and debutante balls, and if they aren’t the same exact parade of inspection of the young women for health and vitality and fecundity as in african ritual dances making the same parade of the wares of the young girls involved, i will eat my straw hat.

which brings us to the precise point that i have been moving towards since i typed the first letter of this post, and that is the a discussion of what true  love isn’t, in my estimation, and love isn’t an exclusive focus upon the psychology of the individual, either in the focus upon individual sexual gratification or a focus upon the intensity of an individual’s psychological reaction to “being in love.”  these things are for sure a part of what love is, as we all have a healthy regard for “self.”  i do not denigrate the role of sexual attraction or even perhaps lust as an antecedent to love, but passion, in and of itself, is not love.  (nor is self absorption, either as prelude to love and sex, or during love and sex.)  sex and lust are reasonable palliatives in a pinch, however, and able to take an edge off, i will grant you that, but they are not a substitute for love, just a holding game until the real thing comes along.  two limericks which i view as dispositive follow:

a wanton young lady of wimley

reproached for not acting primly,

     answered: ‘heavens above!

     i know sex isn’t love,

but it such an attractive facsimile.

                                    anon.

‘how much,’ sighed the gentle narcissus,

‘a man of my character misses!

     it’s clear on reflection,

     i’ve got an erection,

but all I can do is blow kisses.

                                    stephen sylvester

the penguin book of limericks, compiled by e.o. parrott

many societies have looked to dance to stimulate sexuality.  belly dancing, harem dancing, and my favorites as depicted in tombs and public statuary in thailand and laos, those wonderful dancers of those temples: goodness, watching those women dance must have been an experience.

in our own traditions and institutions were have dances which beat the sexual impulse to a froth, which i have always regarded as sort of interesting, thinking things pretty frothy naturally.  but, pole dancers and topless dancers and strip teases artists and the like, all function to excite sexual interest.  again, i don’t know why it is necessary, as all of it looks pretty exciting and sexy in the first place, but here we have it.

but, it seems incomplete.  it is not really communion, and it is not really companionship, to my way of thinking.

and neither, it seems to me, is the total fixation upon intensity of feeling and passion by the individual as experienced by the individual, in sexual union with another. to me, it is the interposition of a hand held mirror so that one person might more accurately gauge his or her reaction to sexual union or activity instead of participating in a sharing process with the other person of the sensual, spiritual and physical joys and sensations of love making.  all the emphasis upon the tickle aspect of sex or the passion of if, as experienced by the individual is a way for the individual to shield or screen or isolate his or her partner from a deeper access to his or her soul, or psyche, or fountainhead, however you want to put it.  it is a paradox, but in focusing upon one’s individual physical reaction to sex one isolates one’s self from a deeper sharing of the sensual intimacy which it represents: it is, in a way, hiding from intimacy during an act of intimacy.

this is represented not so artistically or tastefully in pornography, especially visual pornography.  as william f. buckley said so profoundly, “reductionism is the enemy of romance.”  pornography is the ultimate reductionist act, as it focuses on the purely anatomical and mechanical aspect of sex, robbing it entirely of its communion.  pornography removes all other aspect of love and focuses only upon sensation, it can be truly an experience of emotional poverty.  it is, in a sense, the intellectual and aesthetic equivalent of reading a tool and die manual, which, with its emphasis upon male and female parts reads just like a sex manual for pipe.  this is precisely buckley’s point, and pornography’s depiction.

and, modern dance communicates with equal precision the isolation, ennui and malaise if you will of the modern sexual relationship which isn’t a relationship at all, having been robbed of this aspect of things by the individuals seeking of refuge from intimacy, by an exclusive focus on physical pleasure or passion.  now, i don’t want to be condemnatory in this.  we all of us have physical and psychological needs, and we all of us don’t seek pair bonding as either a necessity or a goal.  but, we still need physical and sexual contact with others, because the only thing left if not that is abstinence or pleasuring ourselves.  and, all of this can be evoked wonderfully by the dancer dancing alone, even in the company of the other dancers.  modern dance can evoke the physical ecstasy available in sexual union even while the person having the ecstasy is isolated from the person conferring it, or at least actively involved in attempting to confer it.

i subscribe to the view, however, that love making is better if it involves another, especially if another is present. and, i also subscribe to the view of taking pleasure from another, even if it is all rather jolly and cheerful, without sharing the experience with that other is not true love.

i will put the following proposition quickly.

to me, true love at its pinnacle as it involves sexual union (and no smart assed remarks are solicited here) is a mutual sharing and communion of the physical, emotional, sensual and sexual experience involved during the sex act, or making love if you will.  it is sharing.  it is communion.  and by its very nature it is mutual, a mutual and contemporaneous give and take which resolute in a oneness of the persons involved.

i believe that no greater metaphor for love making exists than the dance.  to watch a man and woman who know how to dance, and who enjoy dancing with each other, is to understand completely the give and take and simultaneous cooperation of lovers.  it is to understand the natural beginning and end of the act of love, it is to understand the climax of same, and the denouement and what the sex therapists call the refractory period. 

to watch a man and a woman dance is to understand the sexual standards imposed by communities of humans over the generations, and what is expected, in the broadest of contexts, between man and woman who make love.  and, it is to understand the way the sex act has played out over years between man and woman.

who can watch a samba, a tango, the waltz, the apache café dancing of the french, and not understand what is being communicated in those lovely artistic expressions of love, romance, sex and communion between man and woman.

the artistic representation being derivative of the actual physical act, being representative of it and a metaphorical communication of it, should bring us back into a clearer understanding and reminder of what sex should be in the first place: an act of exquisite communication, not necessarily and wholly defined by convention, but aimed primarily toward communion and a broader sharing of life and its rewards with a partner to whom we are committed by love.  we have in the apache dance passion, and in the flamenco, the prelude to passion; we have in the courtly waltz the rectitude of the committed, but in that wonderful sweeping motion where the gentleman leans over as he supports the ladies swoon to her back and her bed, we see the prelude to gentle, courtly love; and, we have in the tango, the fiery performance art of love making, the sensuality of long sweeping caresses, tender touches melding into tempestuous swirling and twisting eruptions of motion.  is there a loving emotion or psychology that is not embraced in the dance?  is there anything that the dance cannot teach us about a tender, loving committed approach to sensuality and love making.   the dance suggests, in short, and this may sound a bit ridiculous, it should be loving, and aimed at a full realization of the relationship between a man and a woman, encompassing the full spectrum of their relationship.

even if we concede that sex and loving are perhaps not totally defined by societal convention, missionaries and canines squabbling for ascendency in a howling argument with tim russert whilst in the wings waits an eager inventor touting his latest insight into human communication, we should at least understand that sexual behavior, loving behavior, is at its best and most rewarding when an elevating aesthetic governs the activity of the persons seeking spiritual, physical and emotional union, and indeed, the dance does more, and suggests that those things cannot be achieved absent that aesthetic.  does this seem a dubious assertion to you, oh, gentle reader.  well, consider a time honored observation about a certain male attitude toward sharing, almost universally guaranteed to garner a rueful snicker even in very, very polite company, and that is the saying, WHAM, BAM, and THANK YOU MADAMME!!  consider that for a while, if you will.  in the encounter just described, what do you think the chances are that the woman involved found that little place where she hears music and sees the world in vivid colors, and has visions run through her mind as she experiences the ramp up to orgasm, orgasm, and the soft journey from that psychic state back down to the merely sensual.  what are the chances such an oaf will get to experience a nice appreciative cuddle, and a spoon session in which he gets to feel his partner's occasionally spasmodic release of sexual tension.

so, even while i am the last person on earth to say that even while conceptualizing the purest expressions of love we should not recognize a certain urgency and edge to that at times, and would not say that sexual union should not be pursued with eagerness, ardor and a male’s dominance on occasion, i am suggesting that even passion at its height should be limited by an aesthetic that recognizes and seeks the dominate goals of love and sexual union, and that is communion, affection, and regard for the needs and appetites of the other person, an aesthetic that does not elevate selfishness even at the height of passion.  making love with another is not license to be an oaf or an ignorant selfish clod.  and, those persons who do not recognize that are not going to experience sexual union and the ultimate perfect form of love, nor are they going to experience much save being with a person who probably is not much less an oaf than they, except to note that women have borne many burdens over the eons, suffered the seed of many oafs upon their bellies, for myriad reasons.

i think i see in the contemporary woman much less inclination to suffer such burdens.

now, i do not denigrate the recreational and exercise and sensual aspect of sex without love.  i am a political conservative, and not a prude.  if people do not harm themselves or others by their sexual proclivities, then far be it from me to say that they should not engage in sexual activities which are not aimed towards the spiritual communion in sex which i see reflected in dance, and in which i see the purest essence of love.

that is, after all and fundamentally, the business of the people involved.

i just do not think that so acting should be confused with love.

--john jay

p.s. i am not sure i know what ayn rand knows about love, for although i have read some of her key works, including “the romantic manifesto,” signet books, penguin books, no pronouncement from her about love ever struck me with enough force for me to remember it with all clarity at this juncture.  she may have considered the matter just a bit muddled, which is not casting aspersions upon her, as love is one of the move muddled topics associated with humans.  some think it the essence of life, i tend to lean that way, while others regard it as simple biology, to which i say, is there such a thing, while others regard it as an invention of literature and philosophy of european origin.

i do think, however, that her views on dancing as a performance art sufficiently muddled to suggest that she had not the least aesthetic comprehension of what dance is, or, for that matter, how it reflects upon love and a part of love, love making.  in the “romantic manifesto,” at page 66, rand asks, “what does dancing express?” and then, over the next 4 pages delivers an almost indecipherable explanation of, … , well, … basically nothing.  she is so busy trying to impose an all encompassing system of philosophy upon dance that she does not notice that is a beautiful metaphor and stylized depiction of love and the act of love.

it goes to show that even the smartest person, and she was exceedingly smart (and, indeed, the smartest of persons), may be forgiven this small intellectual gaffe, may sometimes fail to see the forest for the trees.  and if one of the world’s foremost thinkers and philosophers may be at something of a loss in understanding the meaning of dance as it reflects the essence of love, maybe the rest of us may be forgiven for our focus upon the physicality of love making at the cost of the loss of our vision as to what love and love making really mean, and what we should expect and strive to derive from each.

joy.  companionship.  communion.  understanding. friendship.  support. and, yes, passion, ardor, sensuality, physical pleasure, and climax, followed by resolution and companionship.

"the revolutionary: luther and religious liberty" ... libery magazine ... a post script to "render unto caesar" ... the tensions of duties owed to the prince and the prelate, and one's everlasting soul ...

in the previous post i mentioned an article in “liberty” magazine, a wonderful periodical published by the adventist church of america, regarding the teachings of martin luther as regards the relationship of church, state and the congregation.  the article is “the revolutionary: luther and religious liberty,” authored by nicholas miller.

that article may be found in liberty magazine, vol. 102, no. 4, the july & august issue of 2007, beginning at page 2.

it should come as no surprise that as the relationships between prince and citizen, the prelate and the faithful are complex with a rich texture of interwoven loyalties, so is the course and content of luther’s thinking about these matters over time.  adding to the froth of the luther’s public and private debate, we have a situation that just as the prince vied for loyalty and popularity, so did martin luther compete for his flock with the likes of calvin and others whose theology was at considerable variance from his from time to time, even while he sought the spiritual loyalty of the prince’s citizen, and preached the civil obedience of his flock to the prince.

the continued relevance of luther’s religious and political thinking, and calvin’s for that matter, is found in the following observation in the author’s closing remarks:

“the thread of the story is not so indistinct and vague, not so speculative and fanciful, to prevent one from saying, with a meaningful basis in history, that when the american constitution and bill of rights were drafted, it represented in some way a reuniting and political flowering of the secular implications of the priesthood of believers luther had expressed in the 1520’s.  those ideas, which became divided and submerged, now reemerged modified, even transformed, but still recognizable, and contributed to the formation of a representative form of republican government, and in the rights of conscience protected by the bill of rights from infringement by the majority.

to end where we started, these threads allow us to view those princes at speyer, with all their prejudice and blindness to the anabaptists, as truly asserting a foundational principal—protestantism the idea that in matters of conscience, that majority shall have no say—that, through may tortured pathways, false turns, blind alleys reconsidered, eventually formed part of the basis of our form of limited republic government.  not a government luther envisioned, certainly, but one in which he would recognize the principles of religious liberty that he early championed.

i believe that in the observation with regard to luther’s thinking “…as truly asserting a foundational principal—[that in] protestantism the idea that in matters of conscience, that majority shall have no say-- …” we find the doctrinal underpinning which created our religious and political heritage, and which contributes to the continued vitality of that religious and political heritage in our system of coexisting and compatible spheres of civil (public morals) and religious (private morals) loyalties, a system which politically and religiously remains as it ever has been in inimical opposition to the fascism of islam.

consider the statement for its meaning.  it is not saying that the majority has no say in the formation of community attitudes on conscience, for that would be ridiculous in the extreme: of course majority views are taken into consideration, and over time, may prove determinative.  what the statement means is that in matters of individual conscience and belief, the majority cannot dictate to the individual or smaller groups what the content and shape of individual conscience and political and religious belief will be.  thus, we shoot our mouths off in public or keep our counsel as we may choose, but we vote in private as our conscience dictates, not as a public dictates.

in luther’s consideration, and in the later day consideration of our founding fathers, neither prince nor prelate nor the community is the final arbiter’s of an individual’s beliefs and conscience, but that the individual is.  conscience is a function of faith and considered thought, the function of the mind, the embodiment of the spirit, the quest for the attainment of the fountainhead of one’s religious faith, the product of free choice: it can be no other way.

by these very fundamental tenants, islam and republican democracy, (to be distinguished from the hysteria of the mob), are anathema to each other, forever incompatible: (indeed, we may view the mob as the absolute pinnacle of the fascist state, for surely nothing has the “unity” of visceral hysteria, nothing is as removed from the intellect and discipline of contemplative conscience as the motives of the mob.) for islam submits to no divergence from its imposed order, and tolerates no individual conscience: one adheres to islam, one does not explore it.

and, the above points to the place of the republic and the individuals who comprise it, between dogma and madness.  it is, sometimes, not a very comfortable place to be.

--john jay

p.s.  i will say it again.  i am not a member of the adventist church.  but, this little magazine is a wonderful institution, and it is as prickly as any publication can be with regard to the preservation of religious liberty and thought and expression, as any magazine you will come across.  you may not always agree with it, but it will hardly ever fail to provoke keen thought on the issues it treats.  the magazine is found at www.libertymagazine.org, and it maintains subscription services at:

liberty subscriptions, 55 west oak drive, Hagerstown, Maryland 21740

and may be reached by phone at:

1(800) 456-3991.

i do not always read it cover to cover, but i always take a look at the contents when it arrives.  it is a very good magazine.

render unto caesar the things which are caesar's due, and unto god the things which are god's due ... the mosque is not a church, it is fort apache

prelude.

i loved those spring mornings mixing the nitroglycerin batches up, not really much to it when you pay the proper attention, the little shafts of sere sunlight in through the gun slits in the concrete basement walls, broken into odd little patterns moving past the mounting points for the browning .30’s, the little detritus hunks of lint floating gently upwards seeking the warmth, adding a soft powdery ambiance to the work: the gun mounts were a pain, however to keep dusted.  every now and again we would call for more fixings, and some obliging member of the flock would traipse gingerly down the stair well carrying a bucket of this or of that, stepping carefully around the ammo boxes and grenade launchers, and past the pile of vintage world war ii rifles stacked in the corners but spreading out in disorder upon the black and white linoleum squares, past the sturdy wood benches with the reloading equipment making fodder for the rifles, past the alcove where the minister read screed after screed about killing our eternal enemies, the lutherans, the episcopalians, the catholics, the church of england types and the unitarians (god, how i despised the uni’s, too arrogant to believe in anything), and all of their stooges, past the furnace room where children peered in past the door frames kneeling at the threshold, for truly a threshold it was to adulthood, as the adults talked of bank robberies and killing the city council and hanging them from lamp posts, all the while we heard the stirring parts of “rock of ages” drifting down the rafters as the rest of the congregation provided us “cover”.

oh, those were stirring days to be a presbyterian in n.e. oregon, as we built and plotted the launch of our homemade missiles into downtown walla walla and environs.  we would redress our doctrinal and ancient grievances, by the grace of a beneficent creator.

i love those memories.  my junior year of high school i was elected president of my junior class and of the church youth group, the only meeting i missed that year, wonderful cover for moving back and forth between shop class and the rotary meetings, adjunct subversive groups in league with our machinations.  i also succeeded to head of the junior auxiliary for munitions production, and the honored position of making our own dynamite.  i could hardly wait for my friend to get back from his chemistry major at university of oregon, so he could tell me about the plastique explosives we had been reading about, better yield you know.  at county fair i got to drive our church ice cream truck and sell confections, smug in the knowledge of the grenade launchers and browning automatic rifle hid in the back of the truck, ivory white exterior festooned with orange and red and lemon colored popsicles painted on the side, “presbyterian charities” stenciled just beneath the popsicles and over the rear axle wells.

halcyon days to be a presbyterian, I tell you.  it almost brings tears to my eyes, this little reminiscence.  that little peaceful appearing church, that firebrand minister, i wonder where he is know, i’ve lost track since his commitment … .  i hold a special affection for the large busted older ladies who brought us double fudge brownies when we broke from our labors, we called them with reverence the i-mam’s, short for aye aye, ma’am, when they encouraged us to increase production for armageddon, which was fast coming.  well, not everything was perfect, you understand, we did tread on sacrilege because of mrs. stewart, who we called the i-i-mammies, short for aye aye, mammary(s), because she insisted on white chocolate chips with macadamia nuts, which we considered effete and not suitable for warriors: it seems a small matter now, a trifling, really.

what, say you, this is not the way your presbyterian church was?  the hell, you say!!

render caesar his due?  we answered only to god, the one god, and accepted only the direction of god, in all matters, in our little church.  peace be upon you.

article.

i have been reading army field manuals for the better part of two weeks now, and they are fascinating documents, offering a clear insight into the way the military establishment views and analyzes its role in the scheme of things, especially in the overall context of history, politics and sociology.  and yes, the military is extremely interested in the mechanics of killing people because that is one of their missions, but the mechanics of killing do not occupy as much attention as you might think, the whys and the wherefores occupying just as much.

consider if you will the matter of doctrine.  the military has to know what it is about, and why it does things, in order to do them.  these sentences are not unrelated, and they are not nonsense, as they reflect a constant preoccupation of military thinking: why do we do what we are doing, and how do we do it in the best and most efficient way possible.  the military is very self-conscious, as well you might imagine groups of men with weapons that are so fashion conscious to be, as fastidious as they are about their shoes.

i wish i had saved the passage, or marked it somehow, but i did not, because i did not realize the significance of it when i first read it, but in a manual i came across quite by accident, i read something which i at first took to be rank tautology.  the author stated, we could not fight these kinds of campaigns, referring to counterinsurgency, because we did not know how to, and we did not know how to because we could not adequately understand them in military terms.   at first i thought it to be something so superficial as saying, you cannot fight it if you do not know what it is, and i harrumphed, and thought of arnold schwarzenegger’s comment with regard to the green goop on the tree leaf in the movie predator, “if it bleeds, we can kill it” which i would have written “if it bleeds, it dies.”

those who criticize the military as being a non-thinking institution miss the obvious point.  yes, of course, it is an institution, and it approaches warfare and conflict as an institution.  do you think that war is a damned brawl?  and, that is the strength of the military, and that is the weakness of the military.

it must have rules.  it must have objective and aims.  it must have criteria against which it can measure its performance in meeting these goals.  it must have doctrine.  it must know what it is about.

when it does not have rules, or clear objectives, or performance evaluating criteria, it faces the situation which every android who ever kissed captain james t. kirk faced, in that things simply will not compute.  without doctrine, there is only chaos, and random killing to which purpose is very hard to assign.  random killing is for civilians, that is what civilians do best, and random killing is not the business of the military.

or, your basic liberal and radical social activist and very deep thinkers may think so, but they do not know bupkis.  the military, which does know just precisely what it is about, and randomness is not it: think about it.  any institution which has rules on how to set out the toilet paper, does not go around killing people by accident, at least not on purpose.

organized killing is the business, or one of the businesses of the military, and they study it assiduously.

if memory serves me correctly, the manual in which read the remarks discussed above, dealt with army operations in the mode of counterinsurgency, e.g., fighting insurgency.  this is a far different proposition that dealing with a military opponent who plays more or less by the rules observed by most militaries.

oddly enough, the mosque presents doctrinal difficulties. the united states army does not have a field manual devoted to fighting an enemy who takes refuge in a religious institution, nor a field manual devoted to waging war against a religious institution, or in performing basic field reconnaissance or intelligence gathering operations against it, at least not per se.  you cannot imagine my disappointment when i discovered that, and that discovery was in a “negative” sense, because i looked for the appropriate field manual, and i could not find it.

but, let us return to the subject of insurgency and the doctrinal problems presented by the islamic mosque, as illustrated by the u.s. military’s role in policing iraq after the fall of madman saddam hussein’s regime.

[here is a hint, so that you will know where i am going, and so you do not get bogged down in the “bill of particulars” portion of this indictment. if you perceive the military at a loss without the “appropriate” doctrine, then you will appreciate my ultimate point that a civil society without the “appropriate” doctrine to understand islam, and its various components, is equally at a loss in understanding how islam must be dealt with. witness, my friends, the horror that is happening in europe, and quite principally, because they are not even aware it is happening, in the main.  they have not conceptualized what is happening, and a good deal of their populace because of their leftist leanings is not capable of understanding, such is the nature of their intellectual binders.  there now, you should understand what i am about.]

on march 31, 2004 a mob in fallujah killed and mutilated the bodies of 4 american civilian contract workers, an event memorialized by the grisly photos of their charred and dismembered bodies being drug through the street, hung from a bridge over the eurphrates river, and being otherwise horribly abused, although that term is not really adequate to describe the blood lust of the iraqi mob. 

coalition authorities had previously shut down a newspaper, al-howza, and a house organ for a movement headed by muqtada al’sadr for “inciting violence” and for generally promoting resistance to the american occupation.  on april 3, 2005 american forces entered al’sadr’s home in najaf seeking his arrest but apparently missed him.  that same day violence broke out in sadr city when militia elements presumably under sadr’s direction took control of police stations and other civic buildings in sadr city.

april 4, 2004 a 19 man patrol in 4 humvees was escorting three sewage disposal trucks, or “honey wagons”, collecting sewage in the stead of the nonfunctioning sewer system servicing sadr city.  after being confronted by crowds who threw rocks at the patrol and the trucks causing the honey wagon drivers to quite after being threatened with death by one crowd, the patrol continued on and confronted further crowds which were armed at a local mosque.  some attempts were made to negotiate the surrender of those weapons, which proved unsuccessful.  from there the patrol made its way to what was known as the sadr bureau, headquarters for al’sadr’s political wing.  they were met by a large crowd which scattered, and soon came under a smattering of small arms fire, which escalated into an ambush and entrapment in which eight (8) american soldiers lost their lives, including casey sheehan who volunteered to join a column which traveled into sadr city to rescue the beleaguered patrol: sheehan was not a combat infantryman, but a mechanic in an artillery unit, who had insisted upon joining the rescue effort of his comrades.

that same evening the military retook the police stations captured by al’sadr’s militia and returned them to the iraqi civilian forces on april 9, 2004.

please note that the armed crowds were encountered by the patrols at al’sadr’s mosque, and at his political headquarters.  this shall be a recurrent theme.  it is a matter of interest to me, personally, that in none of the events recounted in this post, did it appear that the military authorities had any sense of what was being said to the populace at these mosques on a contemporaneous basis, nor did it appear out of the ordinary to the humvee mounted patrol that armed people should be congregating before the mosque and the political headquarters of al’sadr. this suggests that neither the men in the patrol had any sense of the mood of the crowd, nor had field intelligence garnered much sense of what was occurring inside these buildings, what was brewing.  this of course, contributed to the loss of the lives of these fine young people.

the account above was taken from a lengthy and complete account of the ambush and battle at http://talkingproud.us/eagle101904.html, authored by the editor of the page, mr. ed marek.  the full text of the article includes news accounts of the ambush, and interviews with participants in the battle.  it appears that the editor of the page has made every effort to accurately convey what occurred that day, and the prelude to it: it is a good, if not disturbing, read. 

full scale violence erupted again in sadr city in may 2004.  it involved again the militia of the muqtada al’sadr which zealously adhered to the preachments of al’sadr to eject the u.s. military from iraq.  folks, i want to introduce you to an another extraordinary website, one which is amazing to a country boy like me whose introduction to technology was by way of a crank phone on a party line with an operator. at any rate, the website link describing the events in sadr city leading up to a full scale battle over two days in may of 2004 is http://www.kumawar.com/battleinsadrcity/detail.php and this site devotes itself to generating games based upon the battles engaged in mere days before.  the computer simulations are an invaluable aid in understanding the events, in that the settings are replicated with such felicity that you get a real consideration of the tactical situations involved in the battles: they are amazing.

the fighting in sadr city in may 2004 begins with another ambush:

patrolling coalition forces in sadr city are suddenly under rocket-propelled grenade fire, hailing down from rooftops and from covert positions. the executors, members of the al-mahdi army, have more in store for us troops: mortars and at least one anti-aircraft gun. the guerillas are holed up and unseen, but certainly not unheard. our men are under a barrage of fire in an angry, restless city.

in unrelenting attacks over the next 48 hours, mahdi militiamen seek refuge in a mosque, not for the comfort of peaceful prayer, but as a safety zone from the 1st cavalry’s certain retribution. they are well-armed and patient. and plentiful. more guerillas will emerge all through the city, ensnaring the coalition at a police station, then re-doubling their efforts to kill when military backup arrives.

it appears certain that al’sadr used his mosques as places of recruitment for the al-mahdi army, and that the mosques were also places where operational planning and execution of his plans take place.  the mosques are truly military bases, as surely as were the cavalry forts of the u.s. army in spreading the settlement and conquest of the american west.

further, al’sadr used his mosques and his religious status to foment and fan resentment against the american forces in iraq, spreading propaganda painting them as relentless conquerors:

through his inheritance of a network of mosques, soup kitchens and informal courts, al-sadr lures volunteers for his army from a mixed bag of former butchers, farmers and students desperately seeking a purpose. creating hostilities by liking the u.s. presence to saddam’s wrath of terror, al-sadr fuels a fierce determination in his followers with widespread propaganda regarding the powerlessness of u.s. troops and, conversely, the might of the sadr militia. a senior al-sadr aide reports the u.s. are occupiers who "kill iraqi's, rape our women and steal our riches."

the battle at sadr city serves prelude for the siege of the imam ali mosque in najaf just months later, in which the united states marines, the u.s. army, private contractors and elements of the army of el salvador take on the mahdi guerrillas in the wadi al salam cemetery and the mosque.  this account is more fully and wonderfully set out in the mission background portion of the war game found at http://www.kumawar.com/najaf/detail.php , again, a veritable treasure trove of visual and written information.

whoa, whoa up here bubba, did you just say el salvador?  oh, yes, friend, you want to look into it, you will find that in the opinion of all who were there, the el salvadorians acquitted themselves more than just fine.  you might also be interested to know that he u.s. marines and army contingents who fought in the cemetery battle were also under the command of a polish contingent.  you didn’t know that, did you, because it was not reported in the mainstream media, was it, because to do so would give lie to the assertion that the united states has pursued this whole affair all by itself without international support, wouldn’t it.  but, that is an aside.

after the fighting in baghdad’s sadr city an uneasy truce existed for a bit between the mahdi army of al’sadr and u.s. forces.  but, the mahdi’s were spoiling for a fight.  and, a fight they got.

it occurs in najaf, not far from baghdad, and it is where al’sadr lives.

the battle begins innocently enough when elements of the 11^th marine expeditionary unit stray too close to an al’sadr stronghold while on patrol.  several days later the battle erupts when the al’sadr mahdi attack the najaf police station, and the marines are called in to help after the iraqi police fend off two waves of attack.

the marines move to the attack, and the mahdi immediately seek refuge in the mosques and the wadi al salam cemetery, the final resting place for a ghastly 5,000,000 bodies in crypts, graves and mausoleums, connected by tunnels and passageways running underground beneath the crypts.  the mosque and the cemetery are both staging area and refuge for the mahdi guerrilla’s, and they attack the marines from these areas and retreat to them.  the cemetery, however, will prove a fierce killing ground of the mahdi’s, and they will not have to go far for burial:

the mahdi fighters flee the scene and seek refuge in the untouchable imam ali mosque. mahdi guerrillas also establish a base of operations in the adjoining burial grounds, the sacred wadi al salam cemetery. it is not the first time rebel fighters have used the cemetery as a sanctuary. the crypts were regularly exploited by fugitives from saddam hussein's security forces. what the cemetery hideout lacks in originality, it makes up for in complexity.

with 5 square miles of multi-story burial chambers, caves, and clusters of tombs for millions of dead muslims, the cemetery is the perfect insurgent haven. the enemy and their stockpiles of weapons are both well-obscured, surrounded by brick and mortar walls and underground crypts and chambers. the mahdi army is overhead and underground, everywhere it seems, and the sense of eeriness and surrealism for u.s. soldiers could only be paralleled by the tactical changes seen in the mahdi army.

the battle for the control of najaf was brutal.  eventually the fighting would cease, after coalition forces "prompt" a negotiated settlement to the battle when a nearby hotel which is being used as a haven for guerrilla fights from the cemetery is hit by a devastating air strike.  iraqi governmental forces which have done a lot of the fighting enter the mosque as the mahdi fighters leave it, u.s. marines standing by at the ready, and very large weapons, small arms and ammunition caches are discovered left behind by the al’sadr fighters in the cemetery and in the mosque.

it is a theme to be oft times repeated, a singular feature of battling the mahdi.

a very scholarly article by ron e. hassner, in the spring 2006 issue of the washington quarterly, entitled “fighting insurgency on sacred ground” pp. 149-166, sets forth, inter alia, some of the tactical and strategic considerations involved in deciding whether mosques are to be attacked and treated as “legitimate” military targets, or whether religious deference should be paid to them.  http://www.twq.com/06spring/docs/06spring_hassner.p.  the description of the role of the mosque as a weapon of battle by the insurgents in the iraqi fighting is described as follows:

insurgent’s strategic use of mosques

these iraqi objections to u.s. behavior toward sacred sites, although genuine, have played into the hands of insurgents in iraq.  the insurgents have consistently exploited u.s. reluctance to execute standard operation near mosques for fear of a public backlash.  the most elementary manner is by making these sites centers for rallying public support for the insurgency.  sunni clerics have used their podiums at large mosques in baghdad, such as abu hanifa and umm al-qura, to exhort the population to join the insurgency and call for a holy war against u.s. soldiers.  in the early stages of the war, it was common to hear calls for jihad over mosque loudspeakers, particularly in mosques located in such cities as samarra and falluja, where u.s. forces were conducting particularly intense operations.  through their contribution to the anti-u.s. recruitment effort, such appeals can have a long-term negative effect on the counterinsurgency campaign.  in the short term, however, the presence of pro-insurgency clerics in iraqi mosques seems to pose no immediate threat to u.s. operations, and no drastic steps have been taken to curtail their activities.  [this is incredibly stupid, in my estimation, for what it is worth: john jay.]

the use of mosques to store ammunition poses a more significant challenge.  in mosques throughout baghdad, karbal, kufa, and mosul, u.s. forces have found explosives and bomb-making materials, rifles, machine guns, bullets, mortars and rounds, rocket-propelled grenades and launchers, anit-u.s. propaganda, and pro-insurgency documents.  although at time weapons were well concealed within the mosque, the quantity and quality of weapons discovered in some cases leaves no doubt that worshipers were well aware of their presence and location.  the storage of weapons in mosques was most apparent in fallujah where, according to one us. military report, more than 20 of the city’s 133 mosques contained aches of weapons or were used as bases for insurgency operations.  u.s. forces made one of their greatest discoveries on november 24, 2004, when they entered the mosque headed by radical sunni cleric and insurgent leader abdullah janabi.  according to one report, the complex, which was rigged to explode and had to be disarmed by a u.s. team of experts, was “packed with bombs, guns, rocket-propelled grenades and ammunition,” as well as “an aluminum shed full of mortars and tnt” and even “an ice cream truck, decorated with orange, red, and blue popsicles and packed with rocket-propelled grenades and bomb-making materials.”

finally, enemy fire directed at u.s. troops from inside mosques poses the greatest difficulty for u.s. operation in iraq.  since the onset of the military campaign, the media have reported scores of incidents in which u.s. forces have come under fire originating from the interior of mosques.  in most cases, insurgents have used rifles or rocket-propelled grenades to target soldiers from inside or from the mosques’ minarets.  often, conflicts between soldiers and insurgents end with the latter’s retreat into the apparent safety of the mosque and a final clash at the site.  in several instances, news coverage of the ensuing lashes has omitted references to the insurgents’ deliberate choice of these mosques as battle sites, reporting only the u.s. infringement on muslim sacred places.

shi’a cleric moktada al-sadr has been particularly adept at exploiting sacred sites for his personal safety and the security of his militia.  in april 2004, he successfully avoided capture by u.s. troops by seeking refuge in a mosque in kufa, guarded by militiamen armed with heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.  al-sad then moved to the most sacred she’s shrine in iraq, the imam ali shrine in najaf.  ignoring calls by iraq’s then-prime minister, ayad allawi, to leave the mosque, al-sadr remained in the shrine and continued to call for war against u.s. forces.

the spectrum of u.s. responses   

the aborted siege of the imam ali shrine in najaf, in which al-sadr’s forces sought refuge, represents one extreme end of the spectrum of u.s. policy: situations in which u.s. troops abandon operations altogether for fear of harming a sacred shrine.  although u.s. military helicopters and jets targeted houses around the mosque and u.s. marines conducted intense combat in the adjacent cemetery, the marines received explicit instructions not to fire at eh shrine.  predictably, the insurgents eventually withdrew into the shrine itself.  after eight days, u.s. forces withdrew completely from the site in response to intense pressure from arab and muslim leaders worldwide.  they were replaced by iraqi policemen who, thanks to intervention by grand ayatollah ali al-sistani, were able to enter the shrine and disarm al-sadr’s men.  [i personally am inclined to lend more credence to the version that has the mahdi giving up after suffering heavy casualties and negotiating an end with the marines: after all, the whole thing started with attacks from the al’sadr militia upon civilian police stations, so I do not think the mahdi much intimidated or impressed by the iraqi cops.  Just my preference: john jay.]

in all cases, u.s. soldiers operate under orders that prohibit raids on mosques unless insurgents are using these sites for hostile purposes. …  although claiming the right to attack mosques and shrines used as bases, u.s. troops have ceased pursuit of insurgents when they seek refuge inside at other times as well. ….

at the other end of the continuum of u.s. responses lie cases in which u.s. forces have attacked sacred sites with full knowledge of the destruction that was likely to result.  although in some cases the damage to or destruction of shrines appears accidental, at other times u.s. forces have fought fire with fire.  to prevent insurgents from returning to mosques form which have have been expelled, u.s. forces have also taken over the structures and positioned themselves on their rooftops or minarets.  this strategy has perversely led to insurgent attacks on mosques that are being used as bases of u.s. operations.  on april 1, 2005, insurgents blew up the top of the malwiya minaret, one of iraq’s most important heritage sites, because u.s. forces were using the 1,000 year old sandstone tower as a sniper’s nest.

all-out attacks by u.s. forces at sacred sites have tended to occur after particularly significant, difficult, or drawn-out battles with insurgents situated inside.  in april 2004, for example, u.s. marines attacked the abdul aziz al-samarrai mosque in fallujah with hellfire missiles and two 500-pound bombs.  lieutenant colonel brennan byrne claimed that between 30 and 40 insurgents had been firing at marines form the mosque, explaining that, “if they use the mosque as a military machine, then it’s no longer a house of worship and we strike.

fighting insurgency on sacred ground, pages 154-56.

the use of the mosque as a weapon extends to small engagements, some the no less lethal to the american troops involved.

at http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2007/08/riding_with_4th_stry.php, we find the story of such an engagement, showing that perhaps the military has shifted its views, changed it doctrine, if you will, as to the viability and legitimacy of attacking mosques as any other military target, if the tactical situation demands it.  in the linked story, the reporter describes a small battle involving a local mosque from which insurgents put rifle fire onto a u.s. patrol: this battle resulted in the death of a u.s. solideri. the story illustrates full well why mosques much be viewed as the wellspring of islamic military and guerrilla operations:

“tarmiya’s like a mini-mogadishu,” one officer told me: “al qaeda has the run of the place. they just live there, in the houses, armed to the teeth; they don’t really have any incentive to attack us unless we attack them, because the last thing they want is an assault.”

mushada has been in a similar situation, although not quite as bad, and in both places there is frequent skirmishing between al qaeda and the patrols that the 4-9 runs out of its pair of jss’s, resulting in a slow but steady stream of casualties for both sides. (tarmiya, one sergeant told me, has a coordinated med evac system for wounded fighters, with prearranged pickup points where casualties are picked up by al qaeda red crescent ambulances or bongo trucks). in one incident last week, charlie company of the 4-9, which runs the tarmiya jss, took fire from a mosque on the edge of town; in the resulting firefight a soldier was killed and an apache was eventually called in to take out the al qaeda fighting position with a hellfire missile. in the mushada area, down the road from tarmiya in alpha company’s area, armed fighters aren’t as much of a problem as ied’s are. msr tampa, the country’s main north-south highway, runs right through the place, so the stretches of road entering and exiting mushada are actually the two most heavily bombed roads in all of iraq. that’s where i was going.

i expect that if you have borne with me thus far, you have probably asked, well, yes, all well and good, but my stars and garters, what does this have to do with any islamic mosques in our good country, where none of this perfidy can be going on?

in answer, i will refer you to http://www.biglizards.net/blog/archives/2007/08/how_dare_you_sp.html for a very good article that appeared at that blog on august 25, 2007 as hatched by dafydd. the article is entitled, “how dare the dictator spy on radical mosques!” the question being asked rather tongue in cheek. the below should establish beyond any doubt the reach of the jihad, and the fact that global jihad is being waged against the u.s. on our shores, and in mosques.  a lengthy quote from the article follows:

this could get interesting (and potentially ugly): an imam and pizzeria owner were convicted of supporting terrorism … and they’re now appealing, claiming the national security agency’s terrorist surveillance program violated their constitutional rights.

first, just the facts, ma’am:

after a bloody raid by american forces on an enemy camp in rawah, iraq, on june 11, 2003, a defense department report took inventory. eighty suspected terrorists killed.  an enormous weapons cache recovered.  and, in what the report called “pocket litter, “a mote book with the name and phone number of the imam of a mosque halfway around the world, here in the state capital.

prompted by that notebook and records of 14 phone calls between the imam, assign m. aref, and damascus, syria, the federal bureau of investigation quickly began a sting operation aimed at mr. aref.  federal agents used an informant with a long history of fraud who spun tales to mr. aref about a fictitious plot involving shoulder launched missiles and the assassination of Pakistani diplomats in new york.

mr. aref and a friend who owned a pizzeria were convicted of supporting terrorism by agreeing to help launder money for the fake operation, and in march the two men were sentenced to 15 years in prison.

what makes the case unusual is that aref may have been under surveillance by the national security agency, possibly under the tsp.  there are two external indicators of this:

…one of aref’s defense attorney (who is paying for the high-powered legal defense?) asked special agent timothy coll whether aref had been under “24-hour surveillance.”  the lead prosecutor, assistant u.s. attorney william c. pericak, objected, saying “i’m concerned that a truthful answer should implicate classified information.”

the defense lawyer rephrased the question to ask only whether aref had been under 24-hour physical surveillance, and coll quickly answer no.  i’m not sure how cull interpreted the phrase “physical surveillance,” or even whether that is a term of art, but the implication is certainly that are was under 24-hour non-physical surveillance, which may mean a phone tap, which in turn may mean the tsp.

friends, this imam was an islamic “cleric” making war on the united states from within the confines of a mosque, where he too sought putative refuge from detection and paying the price of battle.  can it be made any clearer to you?

this should convince you that the jihad reaches to the united states not just through clandestine cells planted here by al qaeda and the like, but through the more public institutions of islam, through the basic institution of the mosque.  it is hard to imagine a more fundamental and a more overt unit of islam than the mosque, and the fact is, the world being what it is today, it is hard to imagine a more fundamental unit of the jihad and the global terror than the islamic mosque.

what this requires in the most fundamental sense is a reshaping of how we conceptual our doctrine with regard to the mosque.  not as a military which is doing so, but as civil participants in a democracy that is under attack.  we need to understand the source and the scope of that attack, and we need to shift our attitudes.

the mosque is not the friendly little house of worship that the presbyterian church was on the corner of 1^st and elm where you grew up, and the imam who frequents and lives within that mosque is not the friendly mr. roger’s like minister that you grew up with who coached your little brother in little league.  The activities of the mosque are not limited to birthing, marrying and burying the members of the congregation within the strictures of the church and also seeing to the spiritual needs of the congregation, leaving unto caesar that which is caesar’s due in the various deals struck by the catholic and protestant churches alike in their dealings with the secular state, over the past centuries in the continual fight between sovereign and church.  (i introduce you to “liberty magazine,” published by the adventist church, which deals with the ongoing topic of the accommodation of the spiritual to the corporeal almost every issue: they are especially keen on free speech and religious freedom, and how the tensions play out in the legal and political arenas, as well you might imagine.  some issues back they had an especially fine article on the theology of martin luther and other german protestants, and how they limned out the boundaries of allegiance to the prince on this earth and the kingdom of god.  suffice it to say, luther advocated obedience to earthly sovereigns. look for yourself at http://www.libertyunbound.com/archive , and, read the magazine.  it is well written.  and, no, i am not an adherent to the adventist faith, but there is much to be admired in their continued examination of and preoccupation with these issues and topics: you will be pleasantly surprised at the spritely writing, it is quite provocative.)

there is no separation of church and state and political activities in the operation of the mosque, for these matters are by definition the same within islam, as islam is, in its theory and in its implementation and expression, a fascist unity, and the mosque is the place where this unity is given operational reality.

the jihad is the mosque, and the mosque is the jihad, sooner or later.

the mosque is not a presbyterian or a unitarian or a catholic or a methodist church: the mosque does not suffer the limit on its theological reach such as crafted by luther and the princes he dealt with.  islam, the mosque, knows no such restraint.

the mosque is, in truth and in reality, fort apache, and each mosque is an extension of islam, and each mosque is an operational cell of islam, and to that extent, an operational cell of the jihad.  we have to conceive it as such, or it will be the source of our destruction.

we cannot be inhibited by traditional notions of sacred religious institutions when we deal with it, or the nominal “spiritual leaders” of the building, as they are not simple ministers intent on doing spiritual work, they are also political and military operatives intent on shaping the role and identity as to whom shall belong the homage of caesar’s, and that is islam, all wrapped up in a nice neat little package.

we have to conceive of the mosque as a military outpost, for that is what it is.

having moved to that formulation and conception, we have to next understand how to deal with it, attack it and conquer it if it comes to that, just as our troops in iraq have moved and are moving toward such a conceptualization instead of having to deal with each mosque as though it presented some strange and novel issue, and just as they have learned how to deal with the mosque on an operational, tactical and strategic basis.

doctrine is essential in all things. it is essential that in military operations and in politics, in our private civil affairs, that we have a proper conceptualization of what we are doing, and, in fact, we can hardly act if we don’t know how to act.

but, in these matters, we should understand the limits of doctrine, and no subject illustrates this better than the sex act.  we know all about sex until we do it for the first time, and then it is a revelation that calls for some re-conceptualization, if you will pardon the phrase, for we realize that we have not known quite as much about the subject as perhaps we had been led to believe.  and, on each subsequent occasion we learn more and more, until we acquire a more suitable context of experience by which to expand our doctrine: but, we never really can learn all the subtleties until our experience broadens.  experience and conceptualizing go hand in hand, and each broadens and enriches the other.

we must learn from our intercourse with islam, or else we are …. , well, i will let you complete the line. 

and, no matter how much society and culture may try to imbue us with knowledge, it is literally the task of each new generation to master the doctrine all over again.

and so it is in our intercourse with islam, and its institutions, including the mosque.

each generation has to learn a new, that Islam and the mosque are not as they might seem, and that in dealing with them, there are subtleties and truths to be learned again, so that we understand just how the intercourse is to go, and what the other side intends to accomplish.

our doctrine is worthless, unless we comprehend the doctrine of the other side, and divine the intent of the same.

n  John Jay

p.s.  from whence flows the separation of church and state, this compartmentalization of lives found in the west?  oh, yes, that.  render unto caesar those things which are caesar’s due, and unto god those things which are god’s due.  our doctrine flows from jesus christ iscariot, who acknowledged a man’s religiosity even as he paid tribute to the reality of civil rule.  you can look it up, and take a gander at luther’s explanation, short version, in the liberty magazine put out by our friends the adventists.

understanding this is just as important as understanding the tenants of islam, which recognize so such separation between earthly and heavenly commands.  the muslim, by way of stark contrast, can recognize no caesar coming between or before his god: he answers, in short, to no earthly king. 

and neither does the mosque.  it serves only islam.  it serves only the jihad.