Short Quiz

[johnkarls]

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SHORT QUIZ

1. What does the movie Braveheart have to teach us, according to our author, about tribal societies ("segmentary lineage systems") in addition to the fact that many exist in Christian areas of the world (e.g., the Scots, the Basques of Spain, etc.)?

2. When Captain Cook became the first European to visit the Hawaiian Islands in 1778, why did the indigenous people call the Europeans "People Without Song"? Although this incident is not mentioned by our author, what does this have to do with his concept of tribal societies?

3. Who was responsible for the idea that "Islam has bloody borders"? Was he right? Was the recent genocide in Sudan an example of this? Was the genocide in Rwanda during the Clinton Administration an example of this?

4. Is Islam centralized like the Roman Catholic Church? Or is every Islamic cleric free to issue fatwas?

5. Did the British learn in trying to re-establish relations with Iran that had been broken off because of the fatwa of Iran's first "Supreme Leader" (Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini) that all Moslems are obligated to try to assassinate Salmon Rushdie because of his novel, The Satanic Verses, that a fatwa can only be revoked by the Islamic Cleric who issued it? And this would no longer be possible because Ayatollah Khomeini had died in the meantime?

6. Does this mean that Osama bin Laden's famous fatwa to nuke 10 million Americans (about which the Founding Dean of Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, Graham Allison, wrote a famous book that is still The Bible for America's War on Terror) can never be revoked?

7. Our author spends quite a bit of time discussing the Code of Honor that is central to tribal societies -- when we studied the biography of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the famous Somali woman who became a member of the Dutch Parliament, were we convinced the Dutch were correct that it was "liberal" to permit all of its Islamic immigrants to practice their religion unfettered or that Ayaan Hirsi Ali was correct that it was NOT "liberal" for Holland to permit its Islamic immigrants to commit Honor Killings on Dutch soil?

8. Does Islam's command that all apostates (Muslims who fall away from the faith) must be assassinated mean that Ayaan Hirsi Ali was forced to go into permanent hiding in the United States for her campaign against Honor Killings in Holland?

9. Is President Obama an apostate under Islamic Law?

10. Is President Obama's status as an apostate under Islamic Law the reason why it is virtually impossible for him to visit any Islamic country? That every otherwise-trustworthy member of the local security forces might, in obedience to Islam's command to assassinate apostates, suddenly fire her/his weapon at President Obama?

11. Does every good Moslem believe in a truly-fearsome Judgment Day on which s/he will be prosecuted by Avenging Angels?

12. Does our author ridicule the popular notion that Islamic martyrs will find 72 virgins waiting in Heaven?

13. Isn't the real problem that Islam teaches that every Islamic martyr (female or male) will, along with 72 close friends and relatives, by-pass the Judgment Day and go immediately to Heaven (rather than "moldering in the grave" for centuries awaiting the fearsome Judgment Day)?

14. And that this is why close friends and relatives of Islamic martyrs are often seen on newsreel footage rejoicing over, rather than mourning, the news of the martyrdom?

15. Is our author correct that hospitality is central to the Code of Honor of tribal societies generally? Or is it more a feature of tribal societies in desert regions -- that "we are all in this together" and survival dictates we should help each other even if we are enemies?

16. Does our author excuse Mullah Omar's harboring of Osama bin Laden in defiance of Pakistan's central government as required by the Code of Honor and its central tenet of hospitality?

17. Did President Obama multiply many-fold the use of drones begun during the Bush Administration?

18. Did President Obama stop trying to capture for interrogation Al Qaeda suspects? How many Al Qaeda suspects have been captured during the Obama Administration?

19. The U.S. government claimed that when Osama bin Laden was assassinated, it captured his personal correspondence and other documents whose size was compared to a small college library -- accordingly, does it appear that the Obama Administration has relied on this treasure trove of information in fighting terrorism rather than capturing/interrogating suspects?

20. Is Al Qaeda a centralized "command and control" organization or has it always been a loose confederation of violent dissident groups? Before the end of the Irish Republican Army's terrorism against the British public, did the IRA use to train with Islamic terrorists in North Africa?

21. Because the Obama Administration appears to have focused on some historical documents related to one individual (Osama bin Laden), is it conceivable that President Obama believes his own rhetoric that the War on Terror is over?

22. Is our author right that the collateral damage caused by President Obama's drone policy has vastly increased (rather than diminished as President Obama claims) the ranks of Islamic radical terrorists (similarly to how U.S. military tactics in Vietnam increased the ranks of Vietnamese opposed to the South Vietnam government)?

23. If it is still necessary in today's world to keep a close eye on radical Islamic terrorists (please see Q&A-6), wouldn't it be a lot smarter to return to the old capture-and-interrogate-suspects policy since collateral damage could be minimized and responsibility for disappearances often avoided?