Category Archives: Politics

Comments Not Posted – Posted

13 Monday Oct 2014

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

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , ,

For its quirky qualities, BackChannels draws a low but steady stream of viewers daily from around the world.  Apart from SEO spammers, few to none offer helpful comment, and when attempts are made, the qualities of the transmission may be sketchy.

Responding to an October 2013 story about imam Yusuf Kavakci, formerly of the Dallas Mosque Center and now living somewhere in Istanbul, this note arrived under pseudonym with an e-mail address traceable to a list of untraceable available e-mail addresses 🙂 —

Imam yusuf was not fit to be the imam,because he hide the true deen of Allah,without the sunnah of Prophet Mohammad mpbuh the deen is not complete. he was not following the sunnah in daily prayers and Janaza prayer. may Allah guide him,I am so glad he left the main mosque.

This spam-looking message responded to a piece critical of the Iranian regime’s little boy at the top and the flow down of that personality into the cruelty meted to Rayhaneh Jabbari:

***Please ACT & SHARE***
These petitions for #ReyhanehJabbari seem to have worsened the state of reconciliation for the two families. Please DO NOT sign or share such petitions, and also ask @Avaaz to remove this petition (there are also other sites such as the Amnesty international, Amnesty USA and…. please tell them, too):
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/contact
and
https://secure.avaaz.org/act/?aSRcjhb
Choose campaign feedback in the section topic area and write sth like this:
Hello
Thanks for the petitions. You do a great job, but this petition on #ReyhanehJabbari’s case may worsen the state of the two families in reconciliation and saving Reyhaneh. I have heard that these petitions have increased the rage of the late Mr. Sarbandi’s family. So please remove this petition, it is so urgent. Reyhaneh may be hanged because of the impact of this petition. Thank you.

An Iranian engineer sent it.

Allegedly, Rayhaneh Jabbari fended off her would-be rapist, which is the only story that makes any sense of “Mr. Sarbandi’s” death, either at Jabbari’s hands or some other.

The truth may never be known, for to preserve the family honor of the deceased, Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi, with Ayatollah Khamenei’s complicity, the alleged primary crime, that of alleged attempted rape, must be erased, and to that end, evidence has been mangled and prosecution-side stories changed while Jabbari sits in jail under pressure to sign a “confession” to a murder without motive.

Someone living in fear of the despot, perhaps in his pay, or just plainly cognizant of how things work in the culture — a voice for the realpolitik that might spare a life — has sought fit to attempt to quiet the worldwide attention garnered by the Jabbari case.  The approach, however, would seem ventured far at the expense of justice and the kind of cold hard truthful examination that would lead to the same for Jabbari and all Iranians.

While BackChannels appreciates the attention, its comment and contact guidance has been updated.

# # #

FTAC – Comment on Alliance, Belief, and Language

12 Sunday Oct 2014

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

≈ Leave a comment

Tarek Fatah, a founder of the Canadian Muslim Congress, thought the Banu Qurayza legend so egregious ethically and juvenile politically that he sought to dismiss its validity and credit jealousy — “We put one over on the Jews for once” — for the popularity of its defense otherwise but perhaps in relation to the Asian quarter that he has spent his life studying.

This comes from a critique site:

______
Muhammad and his band of immigrants arrived in Medina in 622 completely dependent on the hospitality of the three Jewish tribes that lived there alongside the Arabs. In less than two years, two of the tribes that had welcomed him, the Banu Qaynuqa and the Banu Nadir would be evicted, losing their land and their wealth to the Muslims as soon as their guests gained the power to conquer and confiscate. Muhammad accomplished this by deftly exploiting his opponents divisions.

The prophet of Islam chose the order of the doomed tribes carefully. He knew that the other two tribes would not come to the assistance of the first, for example, since they had been aligned against one another in a recent war. He also knew that the third would not assist the second – due to a dispute over “blood money.”

The last tribe to remain was the Banu Qurayza.
______

http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/muhammad/myths-mu-qurayza.htm

However, on the web there are many pages devoted to the Banu Qurayza story.

In my linguistic morphology, what is of interest is the virulence of “Islamist” and ambition and violence associated with it. For such as Pamela Geller (no introduction needed), it’s pervasive, an integrated part of the religion, and the religion would not be itself without it. For Qanta Ahmed — most here I believe would know her or know of her — the state of affairs is opposite: BadDaddy and his Islamic Hate are an anomaly — along with the entire Muslim Brotherhood — destroying her beautiful Islam.

With regard to what I’ve called “Shimmer” (it’s huge! It’s small. It’s gone. It’s back), we’re starting to see some geopolitical polling indicative of the shift from feudal to modern across the Ummah.

Down in our own engine rooms, we are still wired together by language and its epistemologic influence plus, here, the programming that is “social grammar”. One cannot solve much in a Facebook post, but one may lay out a lot for consideration.

There’s a lot in a comparatively small package.

How do we wind up killing one another?

Somebody tells a lie and some dumb soul either believes it or goes along with it.

The rest is elaboration.

# # #

FTAC – A Comment on Violence Within Islam

12 Sunday Oct 2014

Posted by in Anti-Semitism, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Facsimile Bipolar Political Sociopathy, Islamic Small Wars, Political Psychology, Politics, Psychology

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

Hypothesis: The violence may be an offshoot of license, pandering, and provocation produced within circles of the society of the religion. Denials of culpability; preference for a loyal lie — telling or receiving — over an uncomfortable truth; and promotion of exclusivity and supremacist thought obviously reach a certain crowd and a certain kind of person within it who will then act on so many evil and false premises.

While sensitivity to anti-Semitic acts works some like litmus — if the Jews are being attacked, who is next? — the chief victims in the path of this behavior are Muslims. From Gaza to Quetta, if you look, you will see the same violence scaled up to frequent acts of intimidation, murder, and mass murder.

Source of inspiration for the comment:

http://nypost.com/2014/10/08/head-of-hebrew-association-attacked-outside-barclays-center/ – 10/8/2014.

Additional Reference

MAN SAYS HE WAS ATTACKED FOR BEING JEWISH AT BARCLAYS CENTER – ABC/WABC News – 10/9/2014.

# # #

Christy Anastas — From the Middle East Conflict — “Stories Not Told to the World” — A Christian Voice

10 Friday Oct 2014

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Israel, Middle East, Palestinia, Politics, Regions

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

The content dates from Spring 2014, and some of it has been well reviewed, but I feel it still worth a listen and a look.

______

A video was uploaded onto YouTube which featured a young Palestinian Christian woman describing what it was like to live under Israel military occupation. If that was all the video was about, it would have simply been added to the thousands of other YouTube videos which describe the same thing. What made Christy Anastas’ video unique was that she bravely revealed how Palestinian Christians have and are being treated by Palestinian Muslims and nationalists.

http://thefederalist.com/2014/05/01/what-happens-when-a-palestinian-doesnt-hate-israel-enough/ – 5/1/2014.

Christy Anastas: “I believe in people, not concrete.”

Posted to YouTube – 4/25/2014.

On the whereabouts of Christy Anastas —

Christy Anastas, the 24-year-old woman who has fled the West Bank (where a journalist was recently sentenced to a year in prison for mocking Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas on Facebook), will present herself for inspection at a police station in England on the morning of April 29, 2014.

Why?

Because a self-styled “peace and justice” activist has called the police in England, informing the authorities that she may be a “missing person.” Consequently, Christy will present herself at a police station somewhere in England this morning to assure them that she is not being held against her will.

http://blog.camera.org/archives/2014/04/christy_anastas_on_the_stone_p.html – 4/28/2014.

On PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat —

So, given that even Hamas never claimed that 96 percent of those killed were civilians, where did Erekat get this number? Again, we must admit that he simply made it up.

This is not exactly the first time: Erekat was one of the inventors of the “Jenin Massacre” in 2002. In fighting in the West Bank city, 52 Palestinians were killed, as were 23 Israeli soldiers. Yasser Arafat claimed at the time that the “Jenin Massacre” could only be compared to the siege of Stalingrad in World War II. Erekat himself said “the numbers of killed could reach 500 since the Israeli offensive began. Thousands of wounded. The Jenin refugee camp is no longer in existence, and now we’ve heard of executions there.”

There was considerable destruction in parts of the camp, but at no time did it cease to be in existence. He made that up. Does any of this matter? It does.

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=10183 – 10/8/2014.

Today:

http://www.emmaus-group.org/

# # #

 

Khamenei, in the Name of God – A Comment on the Rayhaneh Jabbari Story

10 Friday Oct 2014

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Iran, Islamic Small Wars, Middle East, Political Psychology, Politics, Psychology, Regions

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

. . . Shole Pakravan, said Wednesday morning that her daughter has heard nothing about the execution and is being pressured to sign a document that denies there was any attempt at rape and that there was no third party present at the time of the alleged murder.

http://www.bayoubuzz.com/us-news/item/759116-life-or-death-family-of-capitve-iranian-woman-left-in-the-dark – 10/9/2014; primary: http://www.lisadaftari.com/family-rayhaneh-jabbari-iranian-woman-death-row-dark-despite-report-spared/

As if more proof were needed of Ayatollah Khamenei’s ______ (you fill it it in — the writer’s tired), the entire world has now the spectacle of this smiley old white haired fella torturing a young woman not only by denying her an inherent right to an authoritative, honest, fair, just, and open — and openly audited — trial before the Iranian public but by degrading and humiliating her all the way to the gallows — or freedom, God willing.

Reyhaneh Jabbari’s first lawyer, Mohammad Mostafaei, had apparently made it clear that Jabbari’s death sentence was signed by the courts even after the evidence had been destroyed or went “missing.” Possibly those who signed her death sentence in the Islamic Republic of Iran are not even sure of Jabbari’s guilt themselves, or could be just trying to blame her for the murder, regardless.

 http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4283/iran-rayhaneh-jabbari-stay-of-execution – 4/23/2014.

The government announced that the execution will be postponed but did not give any indication the sentence had been overturned. It also did not disclose if any future execution date had been set.

Jabbari, who has already served seven years in prison, claims Sarbandi drugged her and attempted to have physical contact with her.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/04/15/tehran-government-postpones-execution-woman-charged-with-killing-her-accused/ – 4/15/2014.

Modafe website 31 Aug 2010 News Report- (Human right Lawyer Mr Mostafaei’s Official site)

Reyhaneh Jabbari is a girl from Iran. She is now 22 years old and has been in Tehran’s Evin prison where the last Wednesday of every month a number of prisoners are hanging. She has spent the best years of her life in the prison and she will. Maybe some other days of her life have left.

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/save-reyhaneh-jabbari.html – 8/31/2010.

Here is an interesting trio based on the web search “Iran, executions, last Wednesdays”:

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/08/07/iran.executions/index.html – “Human rights group notes ‘alarming spike’ in Iran executions” – 8/7/2009.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/02/us-iran-executions-idUSTRE71161O20110202 – “Iran executions three times last year’s rate: U.N.”- 2/2/2011.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/04/us-iran-idUSBREA330VH20140404 “Spike in Iran executions seen politically motivated” – 4/4/2014.

Proposed film title: “Iranimania II: Death Cult Hanging Orgy!”

Each of the above reports, published in  2009, 2011, and 2014, comments on the acceleration of the rate of hangings by the Iranian regime: more arrests, more “trials”, more hangings, never fewer, often if not predominantly similarly unjust — and when a hanging is “unjust” it is only a common act of murder.

Into this atmosphere of the Islamic Devilution in Iran comes Rayhaneh Jabbari who presents as a young miss who handily fended off a known regime _______ (again, you fill it in) “—a former intelligence officer and, at the time, a high-ranking member of Iran’s government—,” says an April 2014 Vice article of the deceased Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi, who had attempted to sexually assault her.

Earlier this month, Human Rights Watch declared in a most polite header with subheading, “Iran: Stop Woman’s Execution: Legal Process Plagued With Irregularities” (October 1, 2014).  The tone was matched by an equally circumspect recounting of the horror.

”The grotesque spectacle of bound, blindfold figures being hauled into the air by cranes in public hangings is a common sight in Rouhani’s Iran.”

Many of these executions were carried out after trials lasting “only minutes,” added Mr Hogarth.

“Iran is a serial human rights offender and Britain needs to confront this fact in any dealings with the country,” he said.

Since Hassan Rouhani has become president over 1000 prisoners have been executed including women and juvenile offenders.

http://www.ncr-iran.org/en/news/human-rights/17329-iran-a-prisoner-hanged-in-zahedan-prison3 – 10/8/2014.

Update – October 26, 2014

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/breaking-iran-executes-reyhaneh-jabbari-26-year-old-woman-who-killed-her-rapist-1471698 – 10/25/2014

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/25/iran-woman-hanged-for-killing-rapist_n_6046350.html – 10/25/2014.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/10/amnesty-iran-set-hang-woman-at-dawn-2014102422855125759.html – 10/26/2014.

# # #

“Come Hang ‘Em High” Khamenei – Another Alert

01 Wednesday Oct 2014

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Iran, Middle East, Politics, Regions

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

” . . . agents of Iranian security guard have transferred Mr. Kazemeini Boroujerdi to an unknown place in order to execute him soon.”

http://www.bamazadi.org/2014/10/mrboroujerdi-was-transferred-to-unknown.html#more – 10/1/2014

He reportedly first expressed his opposition to the theocratic nature of the Islamic government of Iran under which Islamic jurists rule or provide “guardianship” in 1994. He has been quoted as saying Iranians “are loyal to the fundamentals of the true religion and the Prophet’s mission”, but are “tired of the religion of politics and political slogans.”[1]

Boroujerdi and many of his followers were arrested in Tehran on October 8, 2006, following a clash between police and hundreds of his followers. Iranian officials charged him with having claimed to be a representative of Muhammad al-Mahdi, a venerated figure in Shi’i Islam, a charge he denies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hossein_Kazemeyni_Boroujerdi – as viewed 10/1/2014.

I have been told there are others today in similar danger to Boroujerdi and Jabbari.

One may recall here that the (malignant) narcissist is never wrong — or so sensitive to criticism as to suppress as much of that as possible.  In the medieval mode in which Ayatollah Khamenei exists, this sort of thing, a combination of rivalry accompanied by excoriating observations, may have been what compelled the Grand Ayatollah to push another ayatollah off stage:

Of course, you were correct when you said that international sanctions could not accomplish a damn thing! Not only because you and your cronies and support system in general, suffered no setback; your provinces of Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Bahrain also weren’t bothered, because they blatantly looted and pillaged the God given wealth and natural resources of our defenseless nation and laughed their way to the bank, while stripping them of their economic independence and their will to think freely.

You have filled these thirty five years of contemporary history with your disgrace and deceit; and the names and memories of the sons of Iran have been written in blood which is the legacy of an antiquated dictatorship that operates in the dark ages.

http://www.bamazadi.org/2014/05/kazemeini-boroujerdi-to-khamenei-it-is.html – 5/19/2014.

Words are eternal in several ways.

Installed in books, they have shelf lives.

Installed in minds, they have a life in memory.

Uttered in politics, even if not remembered, they may develop influence, which may prove more powerful than mere encrustation in ink as thoughts take on lives of their own, passing from mouth to ear to mind to heart, one from the other, again and again, across the world and possibly out into the universe to God’s own ears.

That’s influence.

Related Reference

http://www.reuters.com/investigates/iran/#article/part1 – 11/11/2013

# # #

 

 

Ayatollah Khamenei’s Islamic Injustice – Rayhaneh Jabbari

01 Wednesday Oct 2014

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Iran, Middle East, Political Spychology, Politics, Regions

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

Update – October 2, 2014

“Iran: Rayhaneh Jabbari’s mother confirms execution set for Wednesday, October 8.”

http://www.lisadaftari.com/iran-rayhaneh-jabbaris-mother-confirms-execution-set-wednesday-october-8/ – 10/2/2014

Update – October 1, 2014

Rayhaneh Jabbari, sentenced to hang for defending herself from her would-be rapist, appears to have been given ten days reprieve:

“An Iranian woman due to be put to death for killing a man she said was trying to sexually abuse her is reported to have had her execution postponed.

Officials said on Monday that Reyhaneh Jabbari, 26, had been transferred to a prison west of Tehran to be hanged.

But activists claimed on Tuesday that an online campaign had persuaded the state to give her a 10-day reprieve.”

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29429942

Such a reprieve, however, may not respond to the depravity and depth of the injustice bound up in the rigging of the case in “investigation” and “law”.

10/1/2014

The only thing I want … from God, from people around the world … in any way, in any form, is I just want to bring Rayhaneh back home,” Pakravan said in Farsi, which was translated by FoxNews.com. “I wish they would come tie a rope around my neck and kill me instead, but to allow Rayhaneh to come back home.”

http://www.lisadaftari.com/mother-rayhaneh-jabbari-iranian-woman-sentenced-death-makes-plea-daughters-life/ – 10/1/2014.

What is Khamenei going to do?

Is he going to wait until the news cools down over the next two weeks — and then murder Rayhaneh Jabbari?

Or will the Ayatollah count on other news overshadowing the carrying out of the kangaroo sentence?

Or might the regime issue a “Tut, tut, it was all done too much in a hurry” accompanied by exoneration?

Let the world keep a steady watch on whatever course this injustice takes and judge with heart and reason the cruelty of the trial meted to Rayhaneh Jabbari to possibly spare the reputation of a man acknowledged to have slipped her a “date rape” drug:

Jabbari, who worked as a decorator, was convicted of the 2007 fatal stabbing of Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi, a former employee of the Iranian Intelligence Ministry. Jabbari, who was 19 at the time, has long maintained Sarbandi drugged her and tried to rape her after the two met at a café and she agreed to go to his office to discuss a business deal.

Sarbandi took Jabbari to a rundown building in a remote location, according to her supporters. Once there, he offered her a fruit drink which forensic tests conducted by the police determined contained a date-rape drug, according to human rights advocates.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/09/29/iran-set-to-execute-woman-accused-killing-attempted-rapist/ – 10/1/2014.

What might one call such a man if one cannot call him that which evidence suggests?

Related on BackChannels

FTAC – The Gift of Good Conscience – Rayhaneh Jabbari

Additional Reference

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2014/09/232348.htm – 9/30/2014: “Reported Pending Execution of Reyhaneh Jabbari.”  U.S. State Department Statement.

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/806276129394270/ https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stop-the-Execution-of-Reyhaneh-Jabbari-%D8%B1%DB%8C%D8%AD%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%87-%D8%B1%D8%A7-%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%85-%D9%86%DA%A9%D9%86%DB%8C%D8%AF/229296820611775/p>

# # #

“Soft Power” Reminder: Foreign Influence on American Policy

27 Saturday Sep 2014

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Politics

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

The foreign assault on western intellectual assets and channels hardly looks an assault: it arrives with money, lots of it, and funds primary academic and media jobs that in turn boost portions of the economies of the open democracies.  Although in the United States that spending may look like Washington-business-as-usual, the yellow flags are going up.  Mainstream journalists and conservative intellectuals have found cause to revisit foreign state interests and related facilities and research grant funding only superficially intended to foster greater depth with integrity in the key policy analyses by the hires that benefit from those paychecks.

Related excerpts follow with the post capped by a 25-minute talk by Mitchel Bard on his findings related to influence from the middle east.

More than a dozen prominent Washington research groups have received tens of millions of dollars from foreign governments in recent years while pushing United States government officials to adopt policies that often reflect the donors’ priorities, an investigation by The New York Times has found.

The money is increasingly transforming the once-staid think-tank world into a muscular arm of foreign governments’ lobbying in Washington. And it has set off troubling questions about intellectual freedom: Some scholars say they have been pressured to reach conclusions friendly to the government financing the research.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/07/us/politics/foreign-powers-buy-influence-at-think-tanks.html – 9/6/2014.

Let Brookings take Qatar’s money—or Russia’s, or China’s, or Burma’s, or Saudi Arabia’s—if it wants. But make them own it. Make them disclose it.

http://freebeacon.com/columns/this-is-not-what-democracy-looks-like/ – 9/19/2014

The Times article exposed — astonishingly — the corruption of liberal establishments such as the Brookings Institution, the Center for American Progress, and the National Democratic Institute. How honest, honorable, and unexpected from a newspaper that has become the nation’s billboard for unthinking liberal bromides. Conversely, the exposé found not a penny going to conservative institutions such as the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation, and the Hudson Institute.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/387939/think-tanks-sale-or-rent-daniel-pipes – 9/15/2014.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Agents_Registration_Act

Bard, Mitchel.  The Arab Lobby.  Broadside Books, 2011.

# # #