Blogging suspended

I'm off on holiday, so nothing before 4 Sept. Following week also likely to be light.

Shame I haven't got time to say more about this: Lisa Ramaci-Vincent responding to Juan Cole (via DSTfW).

Update (8 Sep): oh sod it, I know this is ancient history now in web terms, but I'm going to go back to this post "It's called courage". First, Lisa Ramaci-Vincent:

And yes, he was planning to to convert to Islam and marry Nour, but only to take her out of the country to England, where she had a standing job offer, set her up with the friends she had over there, divorce her, and come back to New York. He had gotten her family's permission to do so (thereby debunking the "honor killing" theory), but more importantly, he had gotten mine. [...] I have made inquiries to the State Department about the possibility of my sponsoring her in America. Do you perhaps labor under the misapprehension I am such a spineless cuckold that I would put myself out thusly for the woman you believe my husband was traducing me with?

On the other hand, she is unwise to ask questions like 'How often have you been to the Middle East, Mr. Cole? [...] How much Arabic do you speak, Mr. Cole? Steven had been learning Arabic for the last two years[...]'  In spite of his 'attitude', Cole is a useful source of translations from the Arabic media and an expert on some aspects of Iran (about which he does not seem to write much in his weblog). 

In the comments, nick (at August 23, 2005 06:57 AM) tries to defend Cole by saying he is only relaying a report from 'Britain's Conservative Telegraph newspaper'.  Cole, however, goes much further than the Telegraph, as pointed out by Sgt_Meengs_USMC (August 23, 2005 12:13 PM).

Then Lisa herself comes back at August 23, 2005 10:27 PM, conceding the point that Cole's qualifications perhaps exceed beginner's Arabic etc., but points out 'As for defending himself to me, to date the pusillimous professor has not had the guts to take keyboard in hand and respond to my email, which I sent to him personally. Had he 1/100th the courage my husband had, perhaps he would, but I have no plans to hold my breath. Blue is not my color.'