Day: April 1, 2015

Arkansas Tops Indiana?

When Pence signed the Indiana discrimination law into being…he immediately caught flak and started backing away from the law…..the question to ask………if the country had not responded so badly would he be calling for “clarification”?  Answer:  Of course not….he would have thanked his lucky stars and moved on…….

Pence has been busy trying to explain the law and trying to convince the country that it is not discriminatory……he is failing miserably……..

Indiana governor Mike Pence is setting the record straight: Though the Religious Freedom Restoration Act “has been grossly misconstrued as a ‘license to discriminate,'” its stated purpose is to guarantee “that Indiana law will respect religious freedom,” he writes at the Wall Street Journal. Echoing his earlier comments, Pence notes that President Obama supported a similar law as a state senator in Illinois. He adds, “I abhor discrimination,” and the law, which some argue allows businesses to discriminate against gays and lesbians, “contains no reference to sexual orientation.”

Fellow Republican Jeb Bush suggests the law isn’t even slightly discriminatory but is focused on “simply allowing people of faith space to be able to express their beliefs,” he says, per the New York Times. Ted Cruz likewise argues “Indiana is giving voice to millions of courageous conservatives across this country who are deeply concerned about the ongoing attacks upon our personal liberties.”

I was wondering when the Bible Belt states would jump on this issue……and I did not have to wait for long………

Indiana might be backing away from its controversial religious freedom law, but Arkansas is embracing one of its own. State lawmakers today approved the bill and sent it along to Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who is expected to sign, reports Arkansas Online. Arkansas lawmakers rejected attempts to include a clause that would explicitly forbid discrimination against gay people, reports the New York Times. ”If you start shaving out exemptions in laws, next thing you know, you’ll gut the law because everyone will want an exemption,” says Republican state Sen. Bart Hester. In Indiana, meanwhile, Gov. Mike Pence says he wants just such a clarification on his desk by the end of the week, reports AP.

In Arkansas, protesters gathered at the state Capitol in Little Rock for the second consecutive day, and businesses including Walmart and Apple have either expressed reservations or called on Hutchinson to veto the measure. Assuming he doesn’t, Arkansas can expect reaction like this: States including New York, Connecticut, and Washington have barred government travel to Indiana in protest, notes NBC News. “They knew what they were doing,” says Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy. “They were going to make it legal to refuse to serve gay men and women. Somebody has to call them on it.”

We will see just how much clout Wal-Mart has with politicians in Arkansas….now won’t we?

Yemen: Battleground

This is my 8000th post……I really need to get a life beyond the keyboard….LOL

My regular readers understand that I watch the Middle East religiously looking for problems that could blow up into a major problem….especially for the US foreign policy…….this weekend while you were grilling or shopping of just plain goofing of a situation is rising with the conflict now going on in Yemen…….

We have been told by the media that there is an Arab coalition that has taken it upon itself to intervene in the civil unrest in Yemen because of the rise of the Shi’a minority, the Houthi, are on the rise and being very successful.  The rest of the governing authorities in the surrounding countries are Sunni and as we have been told that is a mixture of oil and water……

But what is all this hatred and mistrust between the two sects of Islam?

Sunni Muslims regard themselves as the orthodox and traditionalist branch of Islam.

The word Sunni comes from “Ahl al-Sunna”, the people of the tradition. The tradition in this case refers to practices based on precedent or reports of the actions of the Prophet Muhammad and those close to him.

Sunnis venerate all the prophets mentioned in the Koran, but particularly Muhammad as the final prophet. All subsequent Muslim leaders are seen as temporal figures.

In early Islamic history the Shia were a political faction – literally “Shiat Ali” or the party of Ali.

The Shia claimed the right of Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad, and his descendants to lead the Islamic community.

Ali was killed as a result of intrigues, violence and civil wars which marred his caliphate. His sons, Hassan and Hussein, were denied what they thought was their legitimate right of accession to caliphate. Hassan is believed to have been poisoned by Muawiyah, the first caliph (leader of Muslims) of the Umayyad dynasty.

His brother, Hussein, was killed on the battlefield along with members of his family, after being invited by supporters to Kufa (the seat of caliphate of Ali) where they promised to swear allegiance to him.

These events gave rise to the Shia concept of martyrdom and the rituals of grieving.

There is a distinctive messianic element to the faith and Shia have a hierarchy of clerics who practice independent and ongoing interpretation of Islamic texts.

There you have a very basic explanation of the differences in the two sects and both want  and claim leadership of ALL Muslims.  The history is much complicated than this simple explanation…..but it is a basic knowledge of the conflict….

I offer this small example for a good reason……..

Capping off weekend negotiations at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, the Arab League has agreed in principle to create a combined military strike force, which officials saying is aimed squarely at Iran.

The force will be combined from Sunni Arab nations, and the current aim, admittedly preliminary, is for a force of 40,000 troops backed by warplanes to be created within the next four months.

The elephant in the room in all of this is Yemen, as surely the Saudi-led invasion of Yemen would be just the sort of thing this force is designed for, though Saudi officials are still talking up a comparatively quick victory in Yemen, and predicting the war will be over before this force gets off the ground.

Let’s say the Saudis and allies decided to invade Yemen to go after the Houthis…..will Iran, as the major influence of Shi’a, stand by and let an invasion go unanswered?  There is already concern with the influence of Iran is having in Syria and Iraq.

Can this situation be settled peacefully or will the whole of the Middle East become a battleground between two warring sects of the same religion?

This could very well be the opening of Pandora’s Box that we were warned of in Greek mythology.