The reaction to Gaza not being included in Iran’s deal makes it pretty clear who was paying attention and who wasn’t. It also shows who was assessing the situation as it actually was, and who was projecting their own hopes and expectations onto it.

As a lifelong Phoenix Suns fan, watching the Spurs get their hearts ripped out of their chests is my championship.

Just randomly remembered how, when Grant Wahl died in Qatar during the World Cup, people, including actual professional pundits, were unironically entertaining the possibility that the Qatari government had offed him because he was pro-LGBT.

People who still start their analysis with “this is going to give Israel an excuse to do X” shouldn’t be taken seriously. Israel has never needed an excuse to go on any of its murderous rampages. Needing an excuse is for states that are constrained by accountability and care about things like plausible deniability. Israel has spent decades demonstrating that if it wants to bomb, invade, occupy, assassinate, starve, expel, or escalate, it will find a justification after the fact or dispense with one altogether. The real question has never been whether Israel will be given an excuse. The question is whether Israel already wants to do it, and more often than not, the answer was decided long before whatever “provocation” people are arguing about today.

Sam Harris’ writing is the best argument against literacy

Waiting for some dork to jump into my replies and be like, “No, you see, when a country repeatedly spies on the US and gets classified as a major espionage threat by the Pentagon, that’s actually proof it’s a vassal state.” Listen, my only regret in life is going to be that I didn’t bully some of you aircraft carrier theory evangelists hard enough.

AOCAnon attacking a man who was literally imprisoned and tortured by Israel just because he criticized Ms. “Working Tirelessly for a Ceasefire” is on brand. Scream into a microphone about centering affected voices, but quick to dismiss them when they’re politically inconvenient.

Putting aside the fact that a majority of ISIS’s victims were Sunni (in Mosul alone, they executed Sunni clerics and imams who refused to submit to Baghdadi’s authority), is the admission here that as long as Israel isn’t killing Jews, Jews have no particular obligation to militantly oppose a genocide?

“Let the cowardly enemy know that the martyrdom of Zayd, Ja’far, and Ibn Rawahah was not a sign of the extinction of Muslim leadership or the disappearance of their cause. Rather, it heralded the emergence of the Unsheathed Sword of Allah. So await that which will dismay you, O enemies of Allah.” Those who don’t speak Arabic will struggle to fully appreciate the eloquence, flow, and power of what Abu Obeida said in this address, but he once again recentered everyone around what actually matters. The cause was never built around men, no matter how beloved, courageous, or irreplaceable they may seem. It is built around Allah and His Messenger ﷺ. Men die, yet the promise of Allah remains, and His decree continues to unfold through people we often do not expect. And so it has always been throughout Islamic history. Every time the enemies of Islam convince themselves that they have finally cut down the last great leader, Allah raises successors from places they never thought to look and from generations they never thought would matter. A generation that often makes them long for the very men they thought they had defeated. It’s the same spirit captured in the famous words attributed to Qutuz during the Battle of ’Ain Jalut. When one of his viziers rebuked him for recklessly placing himself on the front lines against the Mongols, he replied: “Greater men than I have died throughout Islamic history, and Islam still prevailed.” May Allah grant patience and steadfastness to those left behind, preserve the sincere among this Ummah, and raise from their ranks men and women who carry this trust with courage, wisdom, sincerity, and conviction. And may He never allow our hearts to become attached to individuals more than they are attached to Him, for He alone is Ever-Living, Everlasting, and sufficient for His servants.

I condemn the presence of Bezalel Smotrich at a parade I eagerly and enthusiastically attended celebrating the existence of an ethnosupremacist state whose democratically elected leaders are internationally sanctioned for war crimes and whose history is inseparable from nearly a century of dispossession, occupation, ethnic cleansing, and genocide. Also, in my condemnation of Smotrich, what I’ll actually be condemning is his rhetoric and speech, carefully couching my criticism in terms that are acceptable and palatable because, as a liberal, I don’t object to the outcome nearly as much as I object to the language used to justify it. Some of us are trying to maintain plausible deniability here.

I know this is gonna kick up a storm, but a society that increasingly wants to push children out of public life while insisting dogs should be welcomed everywhere is revealing a much deeper cultural problem. Children should be accommodated because they’re the future of society. Families shouldn’t be made to feel unwelcome in public spaces simply because children can be loud, imperfect, or inconvenient at times. As great as dogs are, they’re not substitutes for children, family, or social continuity. So when a culture becomes more willing to accommodate pets than the normal realities of raising children, it’s usually a sign that comfort and personal preference have started replacing responsibility and investment in the future.

1. You’re replying to the testimony of a woman whose child survived a mosque shooting by saying, essentially, “Muslims have Yemeni cafes now.” That doesn’t address her point at all. 2. The argument “things were worse after 9/11” doesn't logically become “therefore current fears, trauma, or anti-Muslim violence are overstated.” As I'm sure you're aware, post-9/11 hostility being worse and a Masjid still being attacked can both be true. Also, your standard is strange. If someone says, “I felt targeted as a visibly Muslim person,” the response isn’t to point to cultural visibility and restaurants because social visibility isn't evidence that prejudice disappeared. More importantly, this wasn’t an abstract discussion. A Masjid was shot up, and a family (this one in particular) lived through that. Responding with nostalgia about how much harder Muslims had it before doesn’t refute their experience.

I wanted to comment on Professor Rashid Khalidi’s “tiny ineffective minority” point that’s been going around, but specifically from a Muslim angle, because I think there’s a belief that has quietly become almost axiomatic in some circles: the idea that numbers themselves are strength. I don’t believe strength comes from numbers; I believe it comes from substance. A thousand people moving in different directions will accomplish less than ten people moving with clarity, discipline, conviction, and a shared purpose. Now, just to be clear, this isn’t an argument against coalition building. Coalitions matter, strategy matters, and working with people you don’t fully agree with around a shared objective can matter too. The issue is when numbers stop being a tool and start becoming the thing we put our faith in. And interestingly, the Qur’an speaks to this directly. When Talut (Saul) gathered his men against Jalut (Goliath), that army was tested before the battle, and it resulted in their numbers being reduced. Then, when they stood before the enemy and some people expressed a bit of despondency, Allah said: “But those believers who were certain they would meet Allah reasoned, ‘How many times has a small force vanquished a mighty army by the Will of Allah. And Allah is always with the steadfast.’” — Qur’an 2:249 Then, in a completely different chapter, the Qur’an gives us the inverse lesson. At Hunain, the Muslims had their largest force yet, and because of that, some became impressed by their numbers and nearly lost. Allah says: “Indeed Allah has given you believers victory on many battlefields, even at the Battle of Hunain when you took pride in your great numbers, but they proved of no advantage to you. The earth, despite its vastness, seemed to close in on you, then you turned back in retreat.” — Qur’an 9:25 The lesson I take from these verses isn’t that numbers are meaningless; it’s that numbers are neither victory nor defeat. The Qur’an first teaches us not to fear being few, then it teaches us not to trust being many. A movement with thousands but no discipline, sacrifice, sincerity, clarity, or substance can still be hollow, while a smaller group with those things can alter history. Again, to be clear, coalitions may be necessary, numbers may matter, but neither replaces substance. May Allah protect us from the arrogance of numbers and the despair of smallness. May He keep us from placing our trust in crowds, influence, visibility, or momentum more than we place it in Him. May He grant us sincerity when we are few, humility when we are many, wisdom in who we work with, firmness in what we refuse to compromise, and hearts that seek substance over appearances.

I’m sorry, am I losing my mind here, or is it being completely lost on the AOC sycophants sharing this clip as some kind of gotcha that this argument cuts both ways? If the logic is “work with people you don’t fully agree with in pursuit of a specific objective,” then that same framework can be used to justify tactical alignment with people like Tucker Carlson or MTG on issues where interests temporarily overlap. In fact, you could argue it applies more cleanly there than it does with AOC for some people, because the frustration isn’t just ideological disagreement; it’s that many critics noticed she arrived late, moved only once the political cost shifted, and, on Gaza specifically, often followed pressure rather than led it. You can disagree with that assessment, sure. But if the argument is coalition-building over ideological purity, then you don’t get to suddenly act shocked when people apply that standard outside the boundaries of acceptable liberal politics. Either the principle is real, or it’s selective.

The Jewish community hasn’t experienced anything close to the level of scrutiny, suspicion, surveillance, discrimination, and public hostility that many Muslim Americans have faced since 9/11. And for those who’ve been paying attention, it was mainly Jewish Americans who were often among those helping shape, justify, or sustain the policies and narratives that created it.

👀 most senior Biden official who resigned