Moon him

Did you hear that NASA is planning to plant a base on the moon by 2024? I’m hoping that we’ll be allowed to nominate candidates to send there. We have a few in mind. Considering Islam’s devotion to the lunar god (al-Ilah), as exemplified in all its veneration on stamps, coins, flags, etc., one of those nominees just has to be:

John L. Esposito

Here’s what our friend Stephen Schwartz, who’s not afraid to call himself a Muslim, had to say about Esposito and his 2002 book, Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam (from Schwartz’s book, The Two Faces of Islam):

Esposito had been somewhat embarrassed by his previous enthusiastic advocacy for the view that Islamic extremism represented and understandable response to the errors of American policy, which fostered social injustice and other grievances in the Muslim world. Such an attitude was predictable given that Esposito had previously occupied the post of president of the Middle East Studies Association, an organization firmly located on the left, anti-Western side of the academy. But Esposito was more embarrassed by the unfortunate fact that when bin Laden’s agents slammed jets into the Word Trade Center, the Pentagon, and Pennsylvania on September 11, the Fletcher Forum magazine remained on the newsstands with an article by him, titled “The Future of Islam,” decrying the obsession with bin Laden on the part of American political leaders. With the publication of Unholy War, he somewhat clumsily attempted to rectify his mistakes while holding to his original thesis.

So, all in all, that’s why we say the proper treatment for John Esposito is a good mooning.