Exams - no comment

It's exam period right now. But I don't want to talk about that.

Death in the News
After seeing the news in the past four months for Indonesia and Bagladesh, I must say human tragedy, unlike (or like) lightning has the horrible tendency of striking in the same place. Both these countries would be in the running for the title "The Land of Tears." Though really, Indonesia would win hands down because of December's tsunami and the subsequent aftershocks. Bangladesh though, despite the comparably small death toll, would get an honourable mention for the horrible frequency of man-made disasters. It seems like every month that country has some kind of building collapse, sinking ferry or deadly fire.

Okay, that was just crass on my part. Now for something completely different:

The Case for the Caliph: Why Islam needs their equivalent of the Pope
Given the current state of sectarian relations, and the rising nationalism of middle-eastern nations, why, you may ask, should Islam need the return of the Caliphate? This is rather puzzling given that one of the goals of those nefarious international terrorist networks is the Caliphate's restoration. Frankly, Islam needs a the Caliph to discipline the religion. If one man had the spiritual authority to castigate the terrorist acts perpetrated in the name of Allah, the world would be a safer place. Of course, another possibility is that such a man would declare jihad against the west (though he would be absolutely nuts to do so).

Historically, the Caliphate spiritual power has been intertwined with the political power of the dominant middle-eastern empire. The present day situation does not seem condusive to such an arrangement since there is no dominant empire in the middle east these days. I think a purely spiritual leader could lead the faithful though. Islam, well, Sunni Islam as I understand it anyway, is not terribly condusive to this arrangement though. Since there is no real clergy in the religion, compared to the Catholic Church at least, it would be very difficult to determine who should lead. Arab political leaders would probably bicker over the choice. Also, what would happen if there were pretender Caliphs vying for control?

This is all hypthetical though. The point is that no one person in the region or in the religion, other than maybe Osama Bin Laden himself, has the far-reaching fame influence to fill the Caliph's vacant boots. Technically, the Caliph's powers were conferred on the Turkish parliament after the passing of the last Caliph in the 1920's. Irregardless, it's all wishful thinking, that a spiritual leader could emerge and bring peace and order to a chaotic Islamic world.