Hold on a moment: Juan Cole is accusing Sarah Palin of similarities to muslim extremists? Juan Cole?? From the University of Michigan? The selfsame fellow who thought Cartoon Rage in Pakistan et al was "more about context than blasphemy", forgetting entirely that the context was clearly religious and grounded in islamic doctrine? The same one who refutes all connections between islam and violence - which are spelled out rather clearly in the collections of al-Buhkari and Sura 9 of the Quran? The same Juan Cole who so uncritically accepted the "Quran flushing" story, which proved to be false, but had nary a word about the use of the Bible as toilet paper a couple of years ago when the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem was invaded by muslim gunmen in 2002. The very same Juan Cole who dismissed as 'propaganda' from the very excellent MEMRI service (www.memri.org) the admission by Hamas that it used civilians as shields? That Juan Cole?

Say, what's the difference between Juan Cole and an islamist apologist?

Why, lipstick, of course.

www.jihadwatch.org

Geoff Periakis

It's odd: the hit piece listed makes two main attacks on Palin - that she is anti-gay, and that she tried to push creationism in the school curriculum - yet the article actually offers no proof of either accusation.

AP cleared Palin of the accusation of book banning (note: the book is listed on Amazon for $456.00, no less, which is a little bizarre), so that's false. Second, the implication about injecting creationism into school isn't supported by any of Munger's comments: she's described as believing in creationism, but not of actually pushing it anywhere.

So I'm confused: isn't this actionable slander? Or is the hit piece written sufficiently vaguely so as to avoid legal action?

Geoff