Ilan Goldenberg explains what we should expect in tonight's debate:
The economy isn't the central issue of this debate, but it is the issue most on voters' minds, which will certainly not escape the notice of moderator Jim Lehrer. Watch how the candidates link foreign policy to the economy and how they respond to questions about the financial crisis. Voters may have less appetite for John McCain's more aggressive military-focused approach than they had only two weeks ago. This is not to say that the American public is ready to return to isolationism. But given the current environment, spending $10 billion per month in Iraq or growing the military by 150,000 troops, as Sen. McCain has suggested, becomes much less appealing. The economic crisis of the past two weeks may cause voters to reject a foreign policy that in anyway resembles the costly adventurism of George W. Bush, and that could spell trouble for Sen. McCain.
And Gershom Gorenberg writes about a mosque in Cape Town and how it shows that change in Islam may come from the religion's periphery, not its center.
Claremont Main Road Mosque is tucked between auto dealerships, bargain electronics emporiums, and fast-food joints in the southern suburbs of Cape Town. The street is gritty, four lanes wide, awash with engine noise from the minivans that provide public transportation between Cape Town and the townships around it. The mosque, 150 years old, predates all this. My cab driver drove past it twice. I found it by the Islamic green of its high, peaked roof.
Being out of place is the mosque's pride. During apartheid, the government designated the Claremont area as whites-only. Cape Muslims, mostly descendants of slaves brought by the Dutch from Southeast Asia, were officially "colored" and were expelled to townships. In quiet protest, they continued coming to their mosque. By the 1980s, it was a center for young anti-apartheid activists and for a bubbling mix of Islam and questioning, progressive politics. That blend still sets it apart from most of local Islam, and much more so from the stereotype of Islam in the Western media.
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—The Editors
