Ghost of a flea

We used to gasp at the way the Soviet Union stuck opponents of the regime in asylums. But the USSR is not the only country in history that has had a hard time seeing its adversaries as rational. The present generation of Americans is made uncomfortable by the idea that their country might have enemies whose enmity is the result of something other than fanaticism or mental illness. Maj Hasan’s colleagues, the Economist writes, say he thought the war on terror was a war on Islam. According to what we think Islam is, he is wrong. But according to a fundamentalist idea of what Islam is, he is right. There is rationality in such enmity, even if that rationality is built on different assumptions.

Saudi's armed forces arrested a sorcerer attempting to plant magic spells in the conflict zone in support of the Houthis, the Saudi newspaper Okaz reported. The paper reported that army officers spotted a “strange-looking” man with long dirty nails and thick entangled hair pulled back in disheveled braids wondering the border town of Jabal Dukhan.

The man was initially believed to be a refugee fleeing the conflict but security forces searched him and found amulets, animal remains and scrolls containing symbols.