Category Archives: Conflict – Culture – Language – Psychology

Link – i24 Video – Interview – Mosab Hassan Yousef

09 Friday Jan 2015

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Gaza, Israel, Middle East, Political Psychology, Political Spychology, Religion

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Posted 11/30/2014.

On YouTube, it is an i24 video.

On BackChannels — if this post works — it has a context an adventure in political psychology and the interplay between personality — “malignant narcissism” — and controlled information space (language, linguistics, propaganda, gaslighting, political theater, manipulation, etc.) and political power that drives despotism, fascism, sadism.

Our global Internet with English as lingua franca has become the largest “mirror, mirror on the wall” in political history, and it reflects through and back to a political elite, from pundits worldwide to leaders worldwide.  Its reach is limited, of course, by language barriers and Internet filtering.  That leaves the despotic putting on a show for still captive constituents, but they know the barriers remain nonetheless permeable.  Bilingual national speakers, extended diaspora — including Palestinian diaspora — encounter these pages and videos as much and as well as anyone else.

There is always a “next new world”, and we’re heading for it even while some turn back and revel in a long ago darkness; for others, the dawn spreads out before them and everyone.

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Reprint: “Where is Molly Norris”

09 Friday Jan 2015

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Free Speech, Islamic Small Wars

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Original posted in 2010 in response to Molly Norris, a Seattle cartoon, who had encountered much of the threat visited on Charlie Hebdo (#JeSuisCharlie).  I had retrieve this piece for Facebook use before Fox got to the same thing today —

“Seattle cartoonist still in hiding following 2010 Islamist death threat.”

Also related:

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2015/01/08/ezra-levant-slams-medias-jesuischarlie-phonies/ – 1/8/2015.

Molly Norris is.

Molly Norris is Jesus Christ and Isis together as depicted by D. H. Lawrence.

Molly Norris is Dick Gregory, George Carlin, Lenny Bruce.

Molly Norris is every child who ever razzed authority and every adult who wished he had: Molly Norris is Bart Simpson.

Molly Norris is Howard Stern, Vladimir Nabokov, Boris Pasternak, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Dashiel Hammett and Lilian Hellman, Henry Miller, Graham Greene, and many others, challenging, politically inconvenient, transgressive.

Molly Norris is Molly Norris, Trey Parker, Matt Stone, also Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Carsten Juste, Flemming Rose, Geert Wilders, Kurt Westergaard, Lars Vilks, Olof Johansson, Roxana Saberi, and Salman Rushdie [1].

Molly Norris is Theo Van Gogh and Pim Fortuyn.

Molly Norris is Al-Nadr bin Al-Harith, Uqba bin Abu Muayt, Amsa bint Marwan, Abu Afak, Kab bin al-Ashraf, Ibn Sunayna, Abdullah bin Sad, Abdullah bin Katal (and one of two “singing-girls”) [2]; also Mansur Al-Hallaj; also, these associated with Salman Rushdie’s book The Satanic Verses,  Ali Dashti, Hitoshi Igarashi, Ettore Caprioli, Aziz Nesin; also Naguib Mafouz; also Taslima Nasrin, Farag Foda, Anwar Sheikh, Nasr Abu-Zaid, Rashad Khalifa, Matoub Lounes, Younis Shaikh, Robert Hussein, Nawal El-Saddaawi, Tahmineh Mini, Khalid Duran, Mahmoud Muhammed Talal [3] .

Molly Norris is Ayman Udas.

Molly Norris is every artist or writer who has ever been assaulted, banned, blacklisted, beaten, censored, intimidated, jailed, tortured, or murdered for something he expressed through language or fine art.

Molly Norris is every child who once doodled something naughty, every petulant teen who ever uttered an uncomfortable truth, every adult who for once told it like was.

Molly Norris is everyone.

So where is Molly Norris?

As everyone knows: everywhere.

Cited Reference

  1. May, Ned.  “The Hit List: Nine Infidels in the Crosshairs.”  The West, Islam and Sharia, July 22, 2010: http://thewestislamandsharia.blogspot.com/2010/07/hit-list-nine-infidels-in-crosshairs.html

  2. Arlandson, James M.  “Muhammad’s Dead Poets Society: The assassinations of satirical poets in early Islam.”  Answering-Islam, n.d., http://www.answering-islam.org/Authors/Arlandson/dead_poets.htm; 2a. revised and expanded from initial publication as “Muhammad’s (non)assassinations of (non)victims” in American Thinker, October 12, 2004: http://www.americanthinker.com/2004/10/muhammads_nonassassinations_of.html

  3. Stephan, Susan.  “Intellectual Censorship in Islam: A Matter of Life and Death.”  Associated with http://www.faithfreedom.org, published on the web via Iranscope, n.d.: http://iranscope.ghandchi.com/Anthology/Islam/intelislam.htm

Other Reference

Archiving Early America.  “Thomas Paine’s Common Sense”: http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/milestones/commonsense/

Associated Press.  “Alaska man who made hit list of enemies of Islam gets 8 years in prison on terror charges.”  Fox News, August 23, 2010: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/08/23/alaska-man-accused-hit-list-enemies-islam-gets-years-prison-terror-charges/

Cambronero, Francis E.  “Writers Series Event Breathes Life Into Censored Authors’ Works.”  The Harvard Crimson, April 13, 2010: http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2010/4/13/magazine-writers-event-living/

Controversial & Banned Books (web site): http://www.banned-books.com/

Fefer, Mark D.  “On the Advice of the FBI, Cartoonist Molly Norris Disappears From View.”  Seattle Weekly News, September 15, 2010: http://www.seattleweekly.com/2010-09-15/news/on-the-advice-of-the-fbi-cartoonist-molly-norris-disappears-from-view/

Finkelstein, Daniel.  “Protecting Ayaan Hirsi Ali.”  Comment Central, The Times Online, October 18, 2007: http://timesonline.typepad.com/comment/2007/10/charles-moore-w.html

Geller, Pamela.  “Pakistani Artist, Poet Murdered in Shariah ‘Honor’ Killing.”  Atlas Shrugs, April 30, 2009: http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2009/04/pakistani-artist-poet-murdered-in-shariah-honor-killing.html

Geller, Pamela.  “Seven Muslims Arrested in Ireland Over Plot to Assassinate Cartoonist Lars Vilks.”  March 9, 2010: http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2010/03/seven-muslims-arrested-ireland-over-plot-to-assassinate-cartoonist-lars-vilks.html

Gould, Terry.  Murder Without Borders: Dying for the Story in the World’s Most Dangerous Places.  Random House Canada, 2009.

Hannan, Caleb.  “Molly Norris, “Draw Mohammed Day” Cartoonist, Placed on Execution Hitlist by Islamic Cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki.”  Seattle Weekly Blogs, The Daily Weekly, July 12, 2010: http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2010/07/molly_norris_draw_mohammed_day_1.php

Human Rights Watch.  “Banned, Censored, Harassed, and Jailed: Hellman/Hammett Grants Honor 42 Writers for Courage Facing Political Persecution.”  August 4, 2010: http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/08/04/banned-censored-harassed-and-jailed

International Freedom of Expression Exchange: http://www.ifex.org/

Jonsson, Patrik.  “Cartoonist Lars Vilks attacked for showing Prophet Mohammed in gay film.”  The Christian Science Monitor, May 12, 2010: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2010/0512/Cartoonist-Lars-Vilks-attacked-for-showing-Prophet-Mohammed-in-gay-film

Journalism and Democracy.  “Ulf Johansson gets wolf-like on freedom of speech.”  MENA – 2008 – Fojo: http://www2.fo.hik.se/mena08/subpage/ulf_johansson.html

Khattak, Daud.  “Sinter Ayman Udas ‘shot by her brothers for TV sin'”.  The Sunday Times, May 3, 2009: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6211260.ece

Lica, Mihaela.  “Bomb-in-Turban Muhammad Cartoon Artist Threatened Again.”  Everything PR, January 2, 2010: http://www.pamil-visions.net/kurt-westergaard/210080/

May, Ned.  “The Hit List: Nine Infidels in the Crosshairs.”  July 22, 2010: http://thewestislamandsharia.blogspot.com/2010/07/hit-list-nine-infidels-in-crosshairs.html

Marshall, Frank.  “The Koran Crisis: Making a Point.”  Right Side News, September 12, 2010: http://www.rightsidenews.com/2010091211607/life-and-science/culture-wars/the-koran-crisis-making-a-point.html

Militant Islam Monitor.  “Theo van Gogh’s book ‘Allah Knows Best’ – Murders of Van Gogh and Pim Fortuyn perpetrated by and for Muslims.”  November 14, 2004: http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/319

National Coalition Against Censorship (web site): http://www.ncac.org/

National Coalition Against Censorship, Blogging Censorship: http://ncacblog.wordpress.com/

Pipes, Daniel.  “‘Rushdie Rules’ reach Florida: Obama endorses privileged status for Islam.”  The Washington Times, September 20, 2010: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/sep/20/rushdie-rules-reach-florida/

Pipes, Daniel.  “[Theo van Gogh] ‘Education By Murder’ in Holland.  Daniel Pipes (initial placement: New York Sun), November 16, 2004: http://www.danielpipes.org/2218/theo-van-gogh-and-education-by-murder-in-holland.

Rosenbaum, Ron.  “Bonfire of the Intellectuals: Paul Berman’s outraged attack on Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s attackers.”  Slate, March 25, 2010: http://www.slate.com/id/2248809/

Seccombe, Mike.  “Voices of Banned Writers Past Lend Perspective on Tense Present.”  Vineyard Gazette Online: http://www.mvgazette.com/article.php?26699

Wikipedia.  “Everybody Draw Mohammad Day”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everybody_Draw_Mohammed_Day

Wikipedia.  “List of authors banned during the Third Reich”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_authors_banned_during_the_Third_Reich

Wikipedia.  “Pim Fortuyn”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pim_Fortuyn

Wikipedia.  “Piss Christ”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piss_Christ

Young, Gordon.  “Confronting Conformity.”  Kenyon College Alumni Bulletin, 31:4, Spring/Summer 2009: http://bulletin.kenyon.edu/x3016.xml

International Center for Journalists.  “Name a single jailed or censored writer or journalist.”  December 22, 2009: http://www.ijnet.org/ijnet/answers/name_a_single_jailed_or_censored_writer_or_journalist

Related right now:

http://www.vocativ.com/world/france-world/hostage-dramas-continue-terror-spree-paris/ – 1/10/2015.

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Cryptic – Integrity | Loyalty

09 Friday Jan 2015

Posted by in A Little Wisdom, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Philosophy

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You may have your integrity before God; your adversary does not; he has loyalty leveraged by fear, greed, or need: the father can be a very bad father — and in that is the fighting.

Link – On Political Manipulation – How the Palestinians, Among Others, are Played

08 Thursday Jan 2015

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Israel, Political Psychology, Politics

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“In an unseen control room, to the producers’ signal, as I responded with words like ‘coexistence’, ‘integration’ or ‘pluralism’, a technician pulled the trigger and rolled the stock ‘Israel as a terrorist state’ footage; detonating my truthful and universal message. I had been reduced to an instrument of rank media opportunism.”

http://www.spectator.co.uk/australia/australia-features/9411652/a-muslims-ambush-weekend-sunrise-bares-its-anti-israel-bias/ – 1/8 (10)/2015.

Related:

I’ve been appearing a lot on Iran’s Press TV Show the Debate. Anyone who watches the show can see it’s not really a true debate, but a propaganda show put on by the Velat-y-Faqih regime in Iran.

http://kaplanwatch.blogspot.com/2014/06/im-back-will-try-to-post-more-often.html – 6/17/2014.

“Disingenuous speech” is just a fancy way of saying “dishonest talk” or, let’s get right down to it: “lying” — and as far as BackChannels is concerned, lies are told either to hide something (often the liar’s own thieving from his marks) or to get something (through deceit).

Test the thought on the oligarchs of post-KGB Soviet Russia now FSB-controlled neo-feudal Russia; or Ayatollah Khamenei and his brother (by the grace of the Setad conglomerate); on Victor Orban’s developing “regime” in Hungary; on the guy with the “White Palace” in Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

There’s more to the politics played, I will grant you, but the destruction of integrity before a malignant narcissism and controlling (and frequently sadistic) will would seem a common denominator.

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Quote – From the Soviet Way of Thinking – #JeSuisCharlie

07 Wednesday Jan 2015

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology

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“We must execute not only the guilty,” Lenin’s commissar of justice, Nikolai Krylenko, said.  “Execution of the innocent will impress the masses even more.”

Remnick, David.  Lenin’s Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire.  P. 506. New York: Random House, 1993.

In light of today’s heinous attack in Paris, it may do (and with Putin’s neo-feudal and piratical Russian oligarchy in mind) to think back on the “red” part of the “red-green alliance” and its contribution to the manner of terrorism witnessed today.

Posted 1/7/2015.

http://freebeacon.com/national-security/a-tribute-to-charlie-hebdo/ 1/7/2015.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/395882/folly-fundamentalism-kevin-d-williamson – 1/7/2015.  (“Reform Jewish Extremism”?  I want in!  I want to hear what ten million people singing Kumbaya in tune together sounds like).  😉  Back on the serious note, no pun intended:

When the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints found itself the subject of an unkind Broadway lampoon, The Book of Mormon, its leaders did not bomb the theater or even try to force the show to be shut down as “hate speech.” Instead, they decided — in a brilliant stroke — to offer theatergoers copies of their scripture through an advertisement in the show’s playbill: “You’ve seen the play, now read the book.”

http://montreal.ctvnews.ca/french-police-identify-3-suspects-in-attack-on-newspaper-office-that-killed-12-1.2177723#ixzz3OAwQp8Fy – 1/7/2015.

http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/the-islamic-state-and-the-%E2%80%9Carmy-in-being%E2%80%9D – 1/7/2015.

http://www.rand.org/blog/2015/01/terror-in-paris-answers-from-rand-experts.html – 1/7/2015.

http://gawker.com/what-is-charlie-hebdo-and-why-a-mostly-complete-histo-1677959168 – 1/7/2015.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30710545 – 1/7/2015.

There are numerous calls to violent jihad in the Quran. But the Quran is hardly alone. In too much of Islam, jihad is a thoroughly modern concept. The 20th-century jihad “bible,” and an animating work for many Islamist groups today, is “The Quranic Concept of War,” a book written in the mid-1970s by Pakistani Gen. S.K. Malik. He argues that because God, Allah, himself authored every word of the Quran, the rules of war contained in the Quran are of a higher caliber than the rules developed by mere mortals.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/ayaan-hirsi-ali-how-to-answer-the-paris-terror-attack-1420672114 – 1/7/2015

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Jordan – Are We Going to End Up with “Hamasestine”?

06 Tuesday Jan 2015

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Jordan, Political Psychology, Politics

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Posted 1/6/2014

“They want to keep the state of enemyhood with Israel, and they want the Palestinians to think ‘thank God, we’re going to go back some day'” (7:55)

Mudar Zahran may need to launch a fleet of leaflets, posters, and slogans after all:

Islamic State group militants gained a foothold on the Jordan-Iraq border Tuesday when they destroyed at least six Jordanian border control posts, according to reports from Jordanian activists and Islamic fighters associated with the Islamic State, also known as ISIS.

http://www.ibtimes.com/isis-destroys-least-six-border-control-stations-jordan-iraq-border-1759922 – 12/16/2014.

The jackal pack of greedheads and zealots driving the Islamic Small Wars respect no weakness and take heart with such wins.  Like it or not, by either advancing or losing, they force the hands of power to act and reach decision.  The news of raids on Jordanian border control stations follows by nine days King Abdullah’s likening the fight with ISIS to “a third world war”.

This coming Friday, January 9, will mark the tenth anniversary of his victory in the Palestinian Presidential election. Funnily enough, though, his term was supposed to end six years ago. It didn’t — mainly because he’s called off every election since. Which means that this Friday will mark not only the birth of Mahmoud Abbas’ Presidential rule, but the death of Palestinian democracy.

http://www.algemeiner.com/2015/01/06/the-ten-year-klepto-dictatorship-of-mahmoud-abbas/ – 1/6/2015

The multiple pun that would be “Hamasestine” may meet its match in “Fatahlism”, for the worse Fatah’s position in the middle east conflict, the more loud and pushy the rant of its old man, “Abu Mazen”, the father who has protected no one’s interests but his own and in terms of what he is: another dictator.

While the malignantly narcissistic might define Palestinian progress in terms of harm brought to Israelis — Christian, Jewish, and Muslim — a more normal psychology might wish to watch for measures of progress in human rights and qualities of living brought to the refugees of 1948 and their progeny wherever they are living today.  In that regard, Abbas and much of the Arab world beside have accomplished nothing more than bad mouthing the Jews, and next to that old and boring behavior, modern and progressive secular democrat Mudar Zahran looks pretty good: at the very least, he questions the integrity of the old guards, royal and so-called revolutionary, while he himself has room today to promote his own forthright ethics, honesty, and objectivity.

Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mudar_Zahran

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/author/Mudar+Zahran

http://www.algemeiner.com/2013/12/09/arab-political-refugee-mudar-zahran-on-temple-mount-we-arabs-and-muslims-are-harming-al-aqsa-not-israel-or-the-jews/ 12/9/2013.

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West Papua – Where Foreign Journalists Are Not Allowed

05 Monday Jan 2015

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Papua New Guinea, Politics, South Pacific, West Papua

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Post 9/15/2014.

 NO

Freedom of the Press

Open Courts

Self-Determination

Indonesian State Impunity Promotes

Cultural Genocide

Murder

Rape

Theft

Torture

Until the hour someone sends me the “who, what, where, when, how, and why” on a breaking event, I, perhaps others as well, may not be able to do much more than add to the advocacy and compile whatever’s on the web in news and organizational support for this buffer that has been politically birthed between west and east, between democracy and narcissistic authoritarianism.

This Anzac Day weekend, we opened the first ever Free West Papua campaign office in Australia.

For more than 50 years, my people have suffered what I considered to be a slow-moving genocide under the repressive military occupation of Indonesia. During the second world war, the “Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels” of West Papua came to the aid of Australian soldiers. Now it is the West Papuans that need Australia’s help in order to end human rights abuses so that my people can be free to live in peace.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/28/west-papua-my-people-need-australias-help-before-it-is-too-late – 4/27/2014.

Five West Papuans were killed when Indonesian military and police personnel shot into a protesting crowd on Monday, local media reported. Reports say the protesters were not separatist rebels, but community members angered by the alleged assault on a group of adolescents who had clashed with soldiers the previous night.

http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/2014/12/10/West-Papuan-killings-cast-doubt-on-Jokowis-promises.aspx?COLLCC=2682691678& – 12/10/2014.

The protesters, some carrying ceremonial Papuan hunting bows that have a purely ritual function, expressed their grievance through a traditional Papuan waita dance, which involves shouting, running in circles and mimicking birdsong.

The police ordered the protesters to disperse and then struck them with batons and sticks when they refused to comply. Police and military personnel then fired live ammunition into the crowd.

http://www.ucanews.com/news/sydney-papua-incidents-offer-stark-contrast-in-media-access/72686 – 12/23/2014.

For years I worked as a tour guide, sharing my knowledge of the region with those few individuals who desired a glimpse of what the National Geographic calls “one of the wildest, most isolated frontiers on earth.” But on this visit I wanted to verify a village burning in the Lanny Jaya area and continue filming the West Papuan refugees living in Papua New Guinea.

http://www.independent.com/news/2015/jan/01/spoiling-paradise/ – 1/1/2015.

Jakarta: Two French journalists have been sentenced to two months and 15 days imprisonment in an Indonesian jail for reporting in the West Papua province while on a tourist visa.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/french-journalists-thomas-dandois-and-valentine-bourrat-receive-twomonth-sentence-20141024-11b9pb.html – 10/24/2014.

Additional Reference

http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/radio/program/connect-asia/papua-activist-hubertus-mabel-shot-by-indonesian-military-reports/1062038 – 12/17/2014.

http://www.humanrightspapua.org/

http://paper.li/Black_WPapuan/1371945233

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/9/22/west-papua-mediablackout.html – 9/22/2014.

http://www.culturalsurvival.org/ourpublications/csq/article/west-papua-forgotten-war-unwanted-people – n.d.

http://thediplomat.com/2014/01/the-human-tragedy-of-west-papua/ – 1/15/2015.

http://etan.org/issues/wpapua/2014/1409wpap.htm – September 2014.

http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/9173 – 4/22/2013: “The military presence in West Papua is almost always accompanied by human rights violations such as killings, arbitrary arrests, rape and torture.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morning_Star_flag

On “Uncontacted People”

The Indians’ decision to make contact was not driven by a desire for material goods, however, but by fear. With the help of translators who spoke a closely related indigenous Panoan language, the Acre Indians explained that “violent attacks” by outsiders had driven them from the forest. Later, details emerged that their elder relatives were massacred, and their houses set on fire. Illegal loggers and cocaine traffickers in Peru, where the Indians are thought to come from, are likely to blame, according to the Brazilian government. Indeed, Funai’s own nearby monitoring post was shut down in 2011 due to increasing escalations with drug traffickers.

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140804-sad-truth-of-uncontacted-tribes – 8/4/2014.

So what do anthropologists who specialize in first contact say? Are there ‘uncontacted tribes’? The short answer is ‘no’, and while I appreciate SI’s work on behalf of ‘tribal’ people, I find it disappointing to find that they still use this sort of language. Any one who reads the material on their web page will see that by ‘uncontacted’ they actually man ‘frequently in contact with, and victimized by, outsiders’. Let’s take a look at the evidence from SI’s website.

http://savageminds.org/2008/07/01/are-there-uncontacted-tribes-the-short-answer-no/ – 7/1/2008

Posted 1/8/2014.

Caption statement by the Free West Papua Campaign: "West Papua, Melanesia. Rally organised by the KNPB. These are the images the Indonesian government is trying to stop the world seeing. The Indonesian government always lies to the world and says that West Papuans who want freedom are just small groups in the jungle. In fact the vast majority of peaceful civil society want freedom. This is why Indonesia dosen't want foreign journalists in West Papua. Because every West Papuan who they meet tells them they want freedom. This is the truth in West Papua. That almost everyone wants to be free. This is the truth that Indonesia is trying to hide. West Papuans want to be free and Indonesia believes it has the right to torture and murder those who want to be free."

Caption statement by the Free West Papua Campaign: “West Papua, Melanesia. Rally organised by the KNPB. These are the images the Indonesian government is trying to stop the world seeing. The Indonesian government always lies to the world and says that West Papuans who want freedom are just small groups in the jungle. In fact the vast majority of peaceful civil society want freedom.
This is why Indonesia dosen’t want foreign journalists in West Papua. Because every West Papuan who they meet tells them they want freedom.
This is the truth in West Papua. That almost everyone wants to be free. This is the truth that Indonesia is trying to hide. West Papuans want to be free and Indonesia believes it has the right to torture and murder those who want to be free.”

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Gülen and the Gulls (the American Public)

05 Monday Jan 2015

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, North America, Political Psychology, Psychology, Religion, Turkey, United States of America

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In a normal public school district, you’d be able to tell who the vendors are, but in charter world, it’s purposely opaque. It must amount to millions of dollars of business that aren’t going out to bid, or that in all likelihood, aren’t even going out to Americans.

http://www.tbfurman.us/2014/07/a-patronage-empire-concept-and-its.html – 7/31/2014.

Related:

http://gulencharterschools.weebly.com/concept-schools-favored-vendors.html – September 2013.

Also from TB Furman:

Basic research, basic due diligence, basic critical thinking skills— these are the only things required to figure out that there are multiple connections between this transnational social/political/religious movement and the three charter schools in Chicago, that these connections are purposely blurred to keep people uninformed, and that this phenomenon is consistent with the established patterns of behavior of the Gulen Movement worldwide.

http://www.tbfurman.us/2014/04/taking-good-long-look-at-concept.html – 4/9/2014. Page contains audio recording and slide show, “Gulen 101”.

Related: Herkul – This Week: The Broken Jug: Droplets of Wisdom from the Heart: “Genius Minds and Flourishing of Talents.”  12/21/2014.  The main web appears in Turkish while the English version appears to begin on the page cited.  After practically and classically describing a narcissistic personality, Gulen goes on to say:

“By even developing a certain code of rebellion of their own, they might begin to refuse even very plausible thoughts developed as a result of serious pondering and forget the fact that doing things for the sake of God is exalted above all.

Actually, what lies at the root of such wrongs is a lack of learning manners. In the past, people who were responsible for education were very good teachers of manners as well.”

Behave!

🙂

And obey Gülen — as regards aspects of the autocratic, authoritarian, unreasoning, and cult-of-personality dimensions evident in the Fathullah Gülen story, Rachel Sharon-Krespin’s Middle East Forum piece (Winter 2009) contains plenty for related reflection.

TB Furman’s latest: “The Million (Billion?) Dollar Question Charter School Oversight.”  January 3, 2015.

Related: Sharon Higgins’ Charter School Scandals blog.

Today, despite the rhetoric of European Union accession, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has turned Turkey away from Europe and toward Russia and Iran and reoriented Turkish policy in the Middle East away from sympathy toward Israel and much more toward friendship with Hamas, Hezbollah, and Syria. Anti-American, anti-Christian, and anti-Semitic sentiments have increased. Behind Turkey’s transformation has been not only the impressive AKP political machine but also a shadowy Islamist sect led by the mysterious hocaefendi (master lord) Fethullah Gülen; the sect often bills itself as a proponent of tolerance and dialogue but works toward purposes quite the opposite. Today, Gülen and his backers (Fethullahcılar, Fethullahists) not only seek to influence government but also to become the government.

“Fethullah Gülen’s Grand Ambition” – Turkey’s Islamist Danger – by Rachel Sharon-Krespin – Middle East Quarterly – Winter 2009, pp. 55-66.

Gulen, once respected by Erdogan, is now vilified and branded an “assassin” — a reference to Hassan Sabbah’s violent medieval cult. Thousands of public servants allegedly close to the Gulen community have been removed from their jobs. Some have been arrested.

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/12/turkey-erdogan-gulen-war-benefit-lesser-known-islamic-groups.html#ixzz3NxZdUY00 – 12/30/2014.

“A Gülen organization controls the real estate companies that own their schools. They charge rent to their own schools and taxpayers foot the bill. They refuse to answer public records requests, falsify attendance records, and cheat on standardized tests. Yet, Ohio continues to grant them charters to operate.”

Scott Beauchamp quoting Matthew Blair in in article in The Atlantic, “120 American Charter Schools and One Secretive Turkish Cleric,” August 12, 2014.

No more tender a national achilles heel offers itself to America’s enemies quite like public education.

That Fethullah Gülen’s organization has run itself into trouble against Turkish autocrat Erdogan fits with the same emerging neo-feudalism that has surfaced in Russia, i.e., cabal of shady nouveau riche rise to operate organization out of the public’s view, exploit the same, any which way (and they produce sufficient tell-tale propaganda to prove it), and live lavishly promoting their favored or more convenient ideological or religious program – but then they must contend with one another.

There is a “Gulen Movement 101, Session One”.

This, however, is what I have listened to while working on this piece:

Sharon Higgins’ closing questions:

  • Have these charter schools been built on a foundation of exaggerations, half-truths, and lies?
  • Why won’t public officials publicly address this situation?
  • Americans are still in the dark because no national reporting has been done that portrays the extent of the GM’s (Gülen Movement’s) presence here?
  • Why are taxpayers — who don’t know about this group — being forced to fund these schools?

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