Arab World - Different Voices
We are used to hatred, war mongering and calls for annihilation of some non-Muslim nations coming from the Muslim world in general and Arab world in particular. These are main stream opinions and it will remain so for a very long time. Western main stream media doesn’t really help changing the situation, but rather fueling it by ignoring other voices coming out from the Muslim world - not only from common civilians, or bloggers, but from the top officials and columnists. Here are few quotes (source - MEMRI):
Palestinian Information Minister Riyadh Al-Maliki at Ramallah press conference following the Israeli military operation in Gaza:
“As the force in charge of Gaza, Hamas must bear the responsibility for its citizens’ [wellbeing], and must not give Israel an excuse [to attack] by launching primitive rockets from Gaza. These rockets do not kill Israelis [but] accidentally hit Palestinians. They achieve the opposite of what is intended, causing hundreds of Palestinian civilians to be killed.”
Hilmi Al-Ghul, political advisor to Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayadh, speaking on Hamas boasting of “victory” over Israel
“What victory are they talking about? Do the massacre of [Palestinians] and the destruction of Gaza’s vital infrastructures count as a victory? Where is the victory in that? Over 120 [Palestinians] have been martyred, and over 300 have been wounded, while [on the Israeli side] only two or five have been injured. Is that a victory? Why doesn’t the Hamas leadership do a [simple] cost-benefit analysis?…
Massacre of Palestinians? Right…
“Oh leaders of the useless [Gaza] coup! The aggression is not ceasing, and the blood continues to flow from the Palestinians’ veins - so will you stop shouting [empty] and deceptive slogans? Will you return to your senses and to your people, and give up the wretched notion of establishing an [Islamic] emirate [in Gaza]?”
Kuwaiti reformist Dr. Ahmad Al-Baghdadi writing in the Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyassa
“Dozens of Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli attacks, triggered by the launching of a few Hamas rockets that [did no more than] wound one or two Israelis. [This prompts us] to ask: Is there anyone rational in this insane movement called Hamas?… How long will this madness last?
“I do not say this out of compassion or empathy for the Palestinians, for they are paying for the folly of following Hamas, which rules Gaza with funds [that come] from the Gulf… The Palestinian people, whom Hamas has placed under siege in Gaza, have been reduced to begging Hamas for charity. Due to the moral laxity of its members, this movement [Hamas] is not above stealing food from the mouths of the Palestinian people - food donated by the Gulf states…
“The truth that the Palestinians refuse to see… is that their daily suffering - the deaths and wounding, the unemployment, and the power outages - are mostly [the result of] the arrogance of [Isma'il] Haniyya and his movement. [Haniyya] controls this movement by means of a gang that does nothing but terrorize the Palestinians, brutalize them on a daily basis with [the help of] its gunmen… and [provoke] ongoing Israeli attacks.
“If the Palestinians [really] support Hamas, as they claim, they should stop complaining about what Israel is doing. Do they expect the Israelis to shower them with flowers rather than missiles? Hamas - whose leader appears only at rallies, like [Hizbullah Secretary-General] Hassan Nasrallah… - bears sole responsibility for the death of Palestinians [which is occurring] on a daily basis… In light of their insane insistence on launching improvised rockets [into Israel], they bear sole responsibility for the destruction of Gaza… “
Lebanese columnist Jihad Fadhel writing in the Qatari daily Al-Raya
“The harm that Hamas is causing Israel (through its rocket attacks on Sderot and Ashkelon) [is negligible] compared to the harm caused by Israel to Gaza… But [Hamas] harms the Palestinian cause even more by its negative attitude towards the [peace] agreement that Israel and the PA are trying to advance.
Kuwaiti columnist Nasser Al-’Utaibi wrote in Al-Siyassa
:…”In an obvious and deliberate move, Syria and Iran are pressuring [Hamas political bureau head] Khaled Mash’al and Hamas to escalate the [fighting] with Israel prior to the Damascus summit. This [move] has two goals: first, to divert the summit’s attention from the main issue [on its agenda, namely] Lebanon’s rights, its independence, its sovereignty, and its freedom to elect its own president without pressure from Iran and Syria… and second, to force the Arab leaders to attend the summit because Israel is perpetrating a massacre against the Palestinians…
“The Arab nation is tired of regimes, groups, power centers and self-interested [parties] exploiting the Palestinian cause as a pretext for [waging] wars… All peoples are familiar with this exploitation of the [Palestinian] problem, and with the harm these forces have done to the Arab nation in the past 50 years. They do nothing but [shout] high-flown slogans, issue statements that are never put into practice, and spend huge sums of money on weapons at the expense of the people’s wellbeing and quality of life. Can anything be worse than the conditions in which the citizens of Syria and Iran are currently living?
“We feel sorry for the Palestinian people, which fallen prey to the leaders in Damascus and Tehran… It pains us that innocent Palestinians are dying because of the stupidity of their leaders, who cleave to their positions [of power], pursue their own interests, and succumb to the [pressures of the] Iranian and Syrian regimes instead of looking after the interests of the Palestinian people…”
Network Solutions’ Parallel
If you’re living in the United States (that’s where Network Solutions hosting provider is located), grab a map of the world and look east…east…east, find a pond called “Mediterranean Sea” just south of Europe, and then look a little bit more to the east till you reach the shores of Lebanon. Stop there and look no further. Lebanon is a country which Network Solutions should send a letter of solidarity to and thank it for sharing the same vision on freedom of speech and expression, due to its joint decisions of banning movies before even seeing it.
Network Solutions banned “Fitna”, Lebanon banned “Persepolis”, and the similarities in technicalities of banning are stunning.
Network Solutions provided plenty of thoughts for debate regarding “free speech” when it decided to suspend the website of Dutch MP Geert Wilders where he intended to launch his newly made movie (and according to some speculations it’s just a publicity/media hoax - something I do not believe it is) “Fitna” - the movie that is supposed to explain the similarities between the ideologies of fascism and those that are preached in the Muslim “holy” book “Quran” (”Koran”, “Kuran”, whatever you spell it). “Fitna” website simply displayed the name of this movie and graphically designed logo, and no other content was yet published, but Network Solutions decided to take it down anyway due to complaints received from the Muslims. Needless to mention that this decision is highly controversial and it is one of these few things that the people from the democratic societies - whether they belong to political left or right - largely agreed to condemn. World Divided was not an exception, of course, and covered the entire shebang in this post.
In case of Lebanon it is a ban for the movie called “Persepolis”.
Persepolis is an Oscar-nominated animation created by Iranian-French cartoonist Marjane Satrapi, and it tells a story of an outspoken little girl living in the days of the Islamic revolution in Iran. The movie describes the atrocities of the Iranian regime - arrests and executions that followed the “revolution” in 1979. “Persepolis” was banned (obviously) in Iran after the crazed thin-bearded pokemon Ahmadinajad condemned it, but it was a huge success in the USA and France and won Jury Prize at Cannes festival.
Lebanon - a home for the large Christian and Muslim populations standing on the brink of political abyss (i.e. civil war) due to bitter rivalry between the various religious factions - decided to ban this movie because the authorities do not want to upset the Shiite community.
General Wafiq Jizzini, the head of the general security department at the interior ministry, told AFP he had approved the ban after Shiite officials expressed concern that its content was offensive to Muslims and to Iran.
Offensive to Iran? Last time I checked Lebanon is an independent state and it’s two countries away to the east (look at the map again) - Syria and Iraq - to Iran. But yes, how could we forget that the Hizballah and the majority of Shias in Lebanon are loyal first and foremost to Iran. I wonder if Network Solutions didn’t want to upset Iran as well…
Of course, comparing the freedom of speech in the US and this in Lebanon would simply be ignorant on my part, because nobody expects a Middle Eastern Arab country with a large Muslim population as Lebanon to be fully democratic (despite their claims of being such), but here is another major similarity (except the act of banning itself) between Network Solutions and Lebanese authorities:
“The office that handles censorship matters also informed me in their report that the film attacks Islam and the Iranian regime, and this could spark tension with Iran,” Jizzini said.
He added that he had not seen the film and that his decision was not final.
Feeling comfy, Network Solutions? Now you even know whom to address your letter of solidarity to.
Chavez On McCain
The stupid thuggish commie from Venezuela - Gooko Chavez - breaks the limit of hypocrisy he himself set. While he’s moaning and groaning about US intervention in South America in general and Venezuela in particular, he doesn’t pick words attacking the US presidential candidate John McCain, and threatens US - Venezuela relations to worsen if McCain is elected the next president.
Chavez said:
Sometimes one says, ‘worse than Bush is impossible,’ but we don’t know, McCain also seems to be a man of war.
Speaking of worse than Bush “impossible” - it’s easy, Gooko - grab a mirror and you’ll see one. Or maybe you’re afraid John McCain will be more decisive than Bush and actually do something against the ideological (and hence economical) filth that you’re spreading?
And look who’s gets an endorsement from Gooko when he says:
Independently of who wins the elections, we are hopeful and it is within our plans to enter an era of better relations with the U.S. government, at the least one would hope for the level of relations we had with ex-President Clinton.
Another Terrorist With UK Passport Arrested
Some of the UK Muslim citizens keep embarrassing their host country again and again, but the main stream media seems to ignore this latest case of a British citizen getting arrested in Uganda:
Al Qaeda terror suspect held in Kampala
SECURITY authorities in Kampala are holding a London-based Somali suspected to be linked to al Qaeda. Ali Abdi Hassan was arrested on arrival at Entebbe International Airport on February 12.
“We suspected he had some links with al Qaeda based on the list of persons wanted for terrorism activities. We handed him over to the relevant security authorities for interrogation,” said a Joint Anti-Terrorism official who declined to be named.
Abdi, who holds a British passport, sought asylum in the UK following the turmoil that engulfed Somalia after the death of President Siad Barre.
He has lived in the UK for the last four years where he works at a chain supermarket. His wife and two children are also based in the UK.
Abdi, who has relatives in Mengo Kisenyi, a Kampala suburb which houses many Somalis, had come to Uganda for a one-month holiday.
He was briefly held at Entebbe Police station before being transferred to an unknown detention centre in Kampala.
A security source attached to military intelligence said: “We are holding him for questioning. Once we are through with our investigations and discover that he is innocent, we shall release him.”
The chairperson of the Somali community in Uganda, Hussein Hassan, said he had talked to Abdi shortly after he was arrested.
“When he was arrested, I was contacted. I drove to Entebbe where I met him and was told he is being held for questioning,” said Hussein.
Abdi’s relatives, speaking on phone from London, expressed dismay over the arrest.
“Abdi acquired a visa from the Ugandan embassy here in London and left the next day.
“He was due to travel back to the UK on March 17 but we have not heard from him since he left,” said his brother, Hayle Abdirahim.
If Abdi has a case to answer, he should be taken to court and charged, he argued.
“We need to know why our brother is being held. We shall get him lawyers to defend him in court. He should not die in a cell. For how long should a suspect be held?” he asked.
To answer the last question: when it comes to terrorists, the suspect should be held for as long as it takes to verify he isn’t one or he is. I hope Ugandans send him on a nice speedy trip to Guantanamo.
I wonder when the UK is going to seriously review its immigration policies and stop granting asylum to everyone who asks for it. I’m not holding much hope though. If 7/7 events did not trigger the alarm, I don’t know what will. Maybe, when the number terrorists with the UK passport reaches the state of being a dangerous trend all over the world (it already is, in my humble opinion) and some countries begin to review their entry policies versus the UK citizens and bring up a “visa” word, then the British government gets its head out of its bottom and smells the reality. I just hope it won’t be too late.
Yahoo Promoting Islamic Blog?
After we saw the latest online clash between those who defend the freedom of speech - democrats, conservatives, liberals and republicans alike - and those who are willing to bend the rules and basic individual freedom laws for the sake of political correctness - Network Solutions - here is another glimpse on online activism by the major Internet corporation. This time it is Yahoo!.
While browsing Yahoo! News, I found this article:
Qur’an (Koran) Argues Against Islamic Extremism in New Book
This weekend noted Islamic scholar S. M. Zakir Hussain released his proof against those who speak in favor of the Qur’an (Koran) in an extreme way. His careful reasoning is contained in the new book, “Secret Knowledge of the Qur’an” which has just been released by Cook Communication.. A summary of his argument is available on www.author-me.com. See http://author-me.com/nonfiction/islamicextremism.html.
Released his proof? As genuine and well-meant the argument of this Islamic scholar might be, how come Yahoo! decides quoting a media outlet that provided this story to Yahoo! News and determining this to be a proof? The story was contributed to Yahoo!News by PRWeb - the company that optimizes and distributes press-releases from business online.
If Yahoo!News indeed looked into the matter instead of just reprinting it, they would discover that there are plenty of other websites that are speaking about Quran from completely different point of view. Why adopting this particular one? And with all due honest respect to Mr. S.K. Zakir Hussein, there are bigger and more known and popular scholars in the Muslim countries, who preach exactly otherwise.
I would like to believe that the Yahoo!News editor/s simply overlooked this news feed by PRWeb, because if he/she/they didn’t, it would mean they have taken a side in the argument regarding Quran and other religious books.
If Yahoo! indeed wanted to be accurate and balanced, they’d dedicate equal amount of bits and bytes to those who claim Quran does preach violence and extremism. Someone like Robert Spencer, for example. And I repeat, my argument is not against the blog and its author. I don’t doubt the good intentions of this scholar who’s struggling to reverse a negative image his religious book has acquired (rightly or not it’s debatable). However, adopting the Islamic scholar’s point of view can hardly be qualified as an independent, unbiased and well weighed approach. It may well be that I have missed something in my understanding of Yahoo! News policies and intentions, but I am wondering, are we so tangled in the struggle between the desire to maintain the right for free speech and political correctness that we are resulting to media anarchy?
Israeli Diplomats Go On Offensve
So often here in Israel we receive diplomatic figures, government officials and just celebs from Europe who come and try to teach us how we should live and what we should do Israeli-”Palestinian” conflict wise. Usually, most of the advises coming from these people are completely detached from reality and taken from a wishful thinking and pinky fluffy dreams of those who issue them.
Israeli policies on the diplomatic front were (and still are in their larger part) rather defensive. Strange speakers with questionable English popped up in the studios of European news channels, academic forums (just to get bashed) and lead “We’re sorry, we didn’t mean to” line, especially when it came to questions regarding casulaties among the civilian “Palestinian” population. It IS true. Death of civilians, in case they’re not adding the terrorists, is always regrettable. But war is a nasty thing and cannot be fought and won by wearing velvet gloves. The velvet gloves war, however, is exactly what the European officials want us to lead - us and only us. “Palestinians” are allowed to have it their way - any way they want - and be forgiven. Largely, it is our fault. We’re those who did not provide an adequate response to well-crafted, well-managed and skilled pro-”Palestinian” campaigns.
Managing “We’re sorry” campaign in Europe has cost Israel miserably losing diplomatic and the media war. While Arab commentators are given a free hand (free mouth, to be more exact) to say anything they please about Israel through twisting facts and shamelessly lying to the news host and hence to the audience, Israeli speakers are getting crucified without receiving even an equal interview time to this that pro-”Palestinian” guests do. Like in case of the Israeli attack on the terrorist camp in the West Bank city of Jenin in 2002 - Arab and leftwing media moaned about the “Jenin massacre” and about hundreds and thousands of people being executed in the camp, but when the UN commission examined the case it appeared that 56 “Palestinians” were dead - all of them armed terrorists - the result that was later confirmed by the “Palestinians”. 23 Israeli soldiers died in this operation as well, because IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) decided not to flatten the entire camp from the air (like Russia and France did in Chechnya and Sierra-Leone respectively) in order to avoid civilian casualties, but sent soldiers in to extract the terrorists. However, the word “massacre” has remained in the minds of the broader audience of the world. It’s a bad word, horrible word, and it’s catchy. What Israel had to say on the matter nobody cared to listen. Some “journalists” representing the big and supposedly neutral news networks were not even shy of becoming openly hostile to the Israelis. Even more regretful and alarming (and again, it is OUR fault) is that nobody cared about the facts anymore. But this case is just one among many.
Seems like this defensive and failed charade on the part of the Israeli officials abroad is about to end. The first encouraging sign of it we received from Israel’s ambassador to UK - Ron Prosor - an experienced diplomat who apologizes no more for his country’s right to defend itself and participates in any forum, as hostile as it may get, to clearly explain, without any bon-tone apologetics, what his country stands for. Regretfully, some of the European institutions, like University of Edinburgh, forgot the meaning of “variety of opinions” and “freedom of speech” and cowardly caved in to the demands of the radical terrorist-support groups.
Yesterday AKI reported another interesting case. Oded Ben-Hur - Israeli ambassador to the Vatican - decided to give a piece of his mind on what is happening in the Middle East and what awaits the citizens of Europe, just like the European diplomats push their “vision” to us here in Israel. The difference is that Oded Ben-Hur’s analysis is very much in tune with reality.
Rome, 20 March(AKI) - Muslim immigrants are a serious threat to peace and democracy in Europe, according to the Israeli Ambassador to the Vatican Oded Ben-Hur.
“[Muslims] have a different agenda, and are beginning to be a real serious menace to democracy and peace in Europe,” he said during a speech at the American University of Rome.Ben-Hur also criticised what he called the Italians’ “docile, ostrich-like approach” to Muslims in Italy.
“People here in Italy should have raised hell,” he said.
Ben-Hur spoke at length about extremist Islam and what he saw as a “sharp decline in their [Islamic] culture,” following the expulsion of Muslims from European lands in the 15th century during the Spanish ‘reconquista’.
He referred to leaflets that he claims to have in the Israeli embassy, that are linked to a programme by Osama bin Laden “to re-conquer Europe.”
“They (Muslims) are witnessing what they define as the death of their culture, so they have introduced the culture of death,” he told students.
“This is why those guys with explosive belts kill Israelis and Jews, for the sake of killing Jews and killing Israelis.”
Referring to media coverage, he said important material was missing from news reports.
“But [people] don’t see the incitement by the imam, they don’t see the incitement in the mosques.”
Ben-Hur said Israel still treated the wounded from Gaza in Israeli hospitals and that Hamas sent badly injured people to die in Israel.
“Hamas, who is in charge in the Gaza Strip, they send people that they cannot handle in their hospitals,” he said.
“Sometimes they send them to die in Israel to give us a bad image, we manage to save most of them, but nobody would write about it, nobody would be interested, this is not news!”
“Because of the fear of terrorism, we are losing, day in and day out, the war of image.”
“The problem is information wise, propaganda wise, we dont have huge numbers of casualties. That (show) we are suffering. These are not sexy figures,” said the ambassador.
The senior diplomat was pessimistic about the prospect of peace between Israel and the Palestinians and said there was no “partner” with which to build an accord.
“As time goes by, if these [Palestinians] are the people we are going to live with, do we trust them?” he asked. “Aren’t we risking the future of our nation? We need pressure, a unified pressure.”
With regard to Iran, he said that the country’s hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was a very unpredictable person and Iran’s Shiite revolution should frighten people around the world.
Regarding Iran’s nuclear programme, he did not believe a nuclear attack on Israel would take place.
“Ahmadinejad is building his atomic capacity not to destroy Israel,” said the ambassador.
Instead, Ben-Hur focused the debate on Iran’s alleged nuclear missiles and its range, which he said could reach Europe.
Whether you like it or not, these are the views many in Europe agree with. The question is, will the European leadership get its head out of “politically correct” sand - something that the EU citizens are getting so fed up with - and face the reality.
One of the facts of this reality is that Israel is not an enemy of Europe but rather fighting a common threats - the same threats that undermine the very basic values European progressive societies stand upon. And as we all know, reality has this tendency of delivering a devastating blow in the face of those who are not prepare to confront it - a blow that will be very hard to recover from.
Welcome To Indonesia, You Western Worms, Snakes and Maggots.
Beautiful green welcoming Indonesia is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. Hoards of westerners flocking there to enjoy the beaches, the palms, the sun, the local cuisine…Bali bombing seem to be forgotten and Indonesia was taken off travel warning lists by the Western governments. But here is what one Indonesian religious leader thinks of the guests of his country, and what in his opinion should be done to them (utterly stupid, but dangerous nonetheless):
Firebrand Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir has called on his young Indonesian followers to attack tourists - including Australians - in a fiery sermon.
In the talk given in October last year Bashir urges his followers to “beat up” western tourists, whom he likened to “worms, snakes and maggots”, The Australian newspaper reported on Monday.
“God willing there are none (tourists) here,” he told the young Indonesian audience on October 22.“If there were infidels here, just beat them up. Do not tolerate them.
“Worms, snakes, maggots - those are animals that crawl. Take a look at Bali … those infidel tourists. They are naked.”
Bashir was convicted of conspiracy over the 2002 Bali bombings - which killed 88 Australians - serving 26 months in prison.
Experts have interpreted Bashir’s comments as a sign the cleric has become emboldened since being released from prison last year.
The speech was recorded by Australian PhD student Nathan Franklin, who is specialising in Indonesian politics.
“Going to jail, serving a very light sentence, and becoming a media icon - it’s the best thing that’s happened to him,” Mr Franklin said.
So, my fellow Western and pro-Western snakes, warms and maggots, would you give it another thought before booking your vacation in Indonesia? I can’t go there anyway, since Israelis are not allowed to enter Indonesia, except on a special government invitation, which usually issued to our business delegations when the Indonesians discover some of our agro and water technologies.
