His Excellency...

Just saw Crown Prince Hasan of Jordan on Channel 4 news. Relaxed, urbane and seriously clever. Made some very interesting points on the extradition of Abu Qatada to Jordan (pending agreement) and also on the notion of Islamic fundamentalism and suicide bombings, e.g. if suicide bombings are inextricably linked to Islam, then why do the largest Muslim nations in the Africa/Middle East (Sudan & Iran) have no instances of suicide bombings? He cited a book by Professor Robert Pape of the University of Chicago, 'Dying to Win: the Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism', and a report by the UK think-tank Demos, on the part that women play in fighting terror (61% of Iraq's population are women, according to Prince Hasan). The Demos report is published tomorrow but details are here.

Ciao for now, Fearless