When I was a little iddle boy, debates like the one at the address above would have fallen into the category that is “thinking about the unthinkable”. These days, that unthinkable has to be thought about around the world, not only on the Korean peninsula or around Kashmir in the completely absurd India vs. Pakistan debacle or other now old nuclear armed regions but in the middle east as well, and there not only Israel (perhaps) vs. Whoever (this playing the anti-Semites line of rant) but Whoever vs. Whoever.
During the above debate, those who tune in will hear description of the thinking that would be at work in a “poly-nuclear”middle east.
Call it political poetry as it calls for considerate and patient reading.
Today, Pakistan approaches a general election for setting the National Assembly of the Parliament of Pakistan. The run up to the event, which is to be held on or before March 18, 2013, is fraught with ambivalence over the direction of the country, overshadowed by the presence of Islamists, especially groups within the Pakistani Taliban, continuing to bring their intimidating and violent acts to the innocent of Pakistan, and haunted by memories of military dictatorship and fear of recurrence.
Mobarak Haider, who has long produced work in the area of political psychology, published the following with the Rationalist Society of Pakistan and on his Facebook page, and I’m please to post it here with the author’s permission.
Where is the End?
How many more do you wish to kill?
All Hazaras and Northern Shiites first?
Yes, they are comparatively easier to kill because they can be found in a herd, are peaceful and have no horns to hit back with.
Then all Shiite in smaller towns, followed by stronger ones in the cities? Then Christians en masse, if need be?
Good strategy by our strategic assets!
We must salute you Brave Lions of the Desert, before we salute the Men at their best who follow you to restore peace! Then will be a period of calm; vacation for you to eat in your cages your well-deserved meat and pats from the boss. Our great warriors in khaki will be admired for their immense courage and nobility in sparing their helpless brothers from carnage.
Our hearts ache in helpless frustration when we see you perform massacre after massacre with holy impunity.
We bite our lips in impotent rage when again and again our army manipulates our constitution against our constitution and brilliantly arouses civilians against civilians: “Well if law and order is to be restored by us , then what use are you?” asks the innocently bored general, “Now then, sit aside and face the cases of corruption which brought the nation to the brink of disaster”!
The politicians who have saved their skins by obediently playing second fiddle for five years will now save their skins by submitting confessions for pardon.
Great work!
As first step defeat the police and civil rule through your strategic assets, then get invited by an immense national clamor, to take over as interim or hopefully permanent government.
We are more aware than ever before that as a people crowd, we do not have the democratic option to have representatives.
We have to salute a savior.
Two of them, are available: Army Generals or Taliban Generals.
In fact it is not a choice but a possibility.
They will settle affairs among themselves; such is our destiny. In fact Allah seems to have chosen kings and soldiers as destiny of all Muslims for all times. In past centuries we had king like others had. Generals and Jihadists have appeared to combat the heretical trends of democracy and human rights. Perhaps that is why Muslim immigrants are struggling against representational democracies of the West, to attain their destiny of life-time rulers.
It is not true that generals and jihadists overthrow every rule they serve.
They are loyal to kings and sheikhs and Imams. They hate only modern Muslim rulers who choose heretical path of power: democracy.
Let us see some close cases.
Muslim kings ruled for centuries the Indian population which was deeply hostile most of the time. Throughout these centuries there were tiring wars, mass armed revolts and deep unrest which army alone handled, because no ‘darogha’ or ‘Kotwal’ could handle them.
But no general ever took over.
The British, foreign rulers with a foreign religion ruled us with a few thousand English soldiers and a large army of Muslims and other locals. Muslims soldiers faithfully fought to defend the British rule against Muslim jihadists led by Syed Ahmad Shaheed and others for half a century.
They finally fought for them in WW2.
The British hanged Muslim Ulama, they massacred in Jallianwala, they hanged freedom fighters, they hanged Ilm Din, a far greater hero of All India Muslims than is Mumtaz Qadri; he had acted over a book that strongly and directly insulted the Prophet of Islam, he had been defended by Iqbal and Jinnah, but he was hanged without the need of a Martial Law.
Musaddiq of Iran was easy to overthrow because of his democracy.
Ayatullahs rule till their death with an authority of Allah. They hanged hundred thousands, they plunged their people in a meaningless war of a decade. No protest from a general, not even grumbling.
Unlimited rule of kings, holy men and foreign rulers has been a norm because no general interfered with political power and no agency created independent civil brigades of assassins to create anarchy as a pretext for takeovers.
Isn’t it grotesque that an intelligence network which wrestles with CIA and KGB, locates and sends out their highly covered agents, fails in this godforsaken land to get hold of its own leashed Lions of the Desert?
As helpless observers of our disaster, we can just observe: “It is not wise to destroy your people, any people, for prosperity and power which already overflows from your coffers. Pain and disgrace will be the final reward of misdeeds”.
It would seem to take a general with a well comprised army to empower a president with a fairly elected government, and nowhere may this be more so than for Pakistan, a state naturally inclined to drift west toward peace and prosperity only to find itself several times yanked back toward medieval oligarchy embalmed by the honeyed venom of Islamic dogma working through the veins of some impassioned young and many venal and well positioned elders, all glorious in their mission, frequently bloody in fact.
Such an impression, however, may overlook assaults against Pakistan’s defense and other security elements on the ground as well as the effects of a sustained and still within-bounds presidency and perhaps an equally persistent drone-and-missile program targeting Taliban leaders and clarifying both a human message and a form of conversation and its influence.
Out of habit, we may perceive strings and puppets and some, say, Qatar-to-Pakistan connections — or, say, a Pakistan military and ISI mainline to Taliban — but autonomy and autonomy-seeking behavior and politics may play a stronger role in Pakistan’s restive frontiers than so many other invasive forces. One might read — and I have read — a devout Pashtun’s equivalent of “they went that-a-way” in reference to the hotter heads in the area.
However Pakistan may wish to walk, one hopes it will be upright and down the middle of the street as opposed to slouching menacingly at one hour and obsequiously the next down both sides of it for decades to come.
Reuters. “Bomb Kills 14 Pakistani Soldiers in North Waziristan.” Updated News, January 13, 2013: “The court order came as an enigmatic preacher turned politician, Muhammad Tahir-ul Qadri, addressed thousands of supporters outside parliament and repeated calls for the government’s ouster. In earlier speeches, he said that a caretaker administration led by technocrats should take its place.”
“I’d like the crisis to come to an end so we can go back home” (0:48).
Six months is not a “crisis”.
Six months is a tragedy.
Governments had launched plans for a push-back for September 2013, but as has happened about six years ago in Somalia, the Al Qaeda-type forces (Al Shabaab in Somalia; Ansar Al-Dine in Mali) have wasted little time flexing their muscles in a weak state.
Ever hard to see starting out, “jihadists” have a way of becoming seen as they become entrenched.
One may note that in either space, Somalia or Mali, or elsewhere, if they pick up hard assets in machinery, such become visible and more easily draw retributive fire and associated thumping, but the same have the option of then responding with a lower visibility, Iraq-style, brush fire type of insurgency, provided redoubts and hideouts of one sort or another.
“Paris has already acknowledged that the rebels have turned out to be better armed than originally thought.” (0:48)
Later, same video with reference to the revolution in Libya:
” . . . a lot of the ones trained by the U.S. defected when they were needed most, taking guns, and trucks, and their new found skills to the enemy in the heat of battle. . . .”
So here we go.
NATO (unintentionally) armed and trained them, and today, with unrepentant and stung Malian citizens ready to fight, with French boots on the ground and welcomed, and with African forces in training, perhaps God Almighty himself has devised a demonstration for so unnatural a turn in humanity.
Deliberately ambivalent and ambiguous in the above statement — an indirect comment on language — I nonetheless wish the French, the Mali, and all of North Africa much luck and God’s grace in shutting down “Al Ansar” — as far from The Answer or any answer as can be (and the true translation “The Helpers” has a merciless and remorseless absurdity to it) — and the malevolent obscenity they have put before the witness of humankind.
For this two year old clip, the YouTube introduction by “DarSahb” reads, “This is the real islam and he is a real Muslim scholar and a real man who loves humanity without considering which religion they belong to n thats wat islam teaches. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said that “respect the humanity” so, we all need to respect each other.”
Yesterday, from Pakistan:
Mobile services were also suspended in areas of Lahore that come in the route of the caravan,Express News reported. The areas include Ravi Town, Model Town, Shahrah-e-Quaid-e-Azam, Minar-e-Pakistan and Imamia Colony. According to government officials, the decision was taken due to security threats.
Buses have been stopped on the way to their step-off points.
Police have been mustered in the tens of thousands to secure the marchers (the noun in mind for that today seems to be “Taliban”).
Dr. Tahir Ul Qadri presents something of a mystery today. His 604-page fatwa on terrorism (against it, thank God) seems to have brought him to David Frost’s attention, but before we believe the scholar “pro-west”, one may want to develop a larger view of the person.
Tahir-ul Qadri, who returned to Pakistan last month after years in Toronto, accuses the government of being corrupt and incompetent, and says polls cannot be held until reforms are enacted.
He claimed on Monday to be leading one million people into Islamabad, where they will camp out on the streets until their demands are accepted.
Ul Qadri’s primary demand seems to be for honest government, an essential “no” to corruption.
Who (the world over) is not in favor of honest government?
The next video showing links to a YouTube page titled, “Misc. Dr. Tahir ul Qadri Videos” and maintained by Jawwad Sadiq.
It appears Sadiq is promoting Ul Qadri, but to western eyes and ears, at least two conversion-related clips in the series, one of a woman in burka talking about her experience (and how becoming Muslim helped her quit smoking) and the other of a young man accepting conversion (and affirming his belief in angels) might ruffle some feathers.
In a report filed today, Jewish News One notes that “Qadri went into exile in Canada in 2006 after falling out with Pakistan’s political leaders and the country’s political leaders are worried he is seeking to derail the upcoming elections which are vital for Pakistan’s transition from military rule as this could be the first ballot held after a civilian-led government has completed a full five-year term.”
But on Monday, Mr. Qadri’s threat to mount a million-person march on Islamabad to push for change in politics fell flat.
The march went ahead, but according to witnesses the number of participants was as low as 5,000 people and no larger than 30,000 as it neared Islamabad late Monday.
Mohamed Morsi: These futile [Israeli-Palestinian] negotiations are a waste of time and opportunities. The Zionists buy time and gain more opportunities, as the Palestinians, the Arabs, and the Muslims lose time and opportunities, and they get nothing out of it. We can see how this dream has dissipated. This dream has always been an illusion. Yet some Palestinians, who erroneously believe that their enemies might give them something… This [Palestinian] Authority was created by the Zionist and American enemies for the sole purpose of opposing the will of the Palestinian people and its interests.
Nature would seem by nature anti-monoclonal. It is elaborate and vigorous in invention, and perhaps “the survival of the fittest” refers not only to niche competitions among species over time but “survival of all that fits!”
In anthropology, culture, language, and religion, a great variance fits (and as great a legacy has been buried by time and left to recovery by scholars).
As a Jew, I believe in God in two dimensions: Tevye’s, to whom one may speak, and Einstein’s, the presence of which in every aspect of the universe fills one with awe.
Be that as it may, the world’s confrontation with Islam, which shimmers in perceived scale and threat, looming large at times when violence against any of its avatars’ endless array of targets has made it the news focus of the day, growing small in the company of Muslim associates and friends facing the same foe, comes freighted with an unseemly anti-Semitic streak, a fair part of it supported by officials in Muslim-majority states. Herewith a haphazard assembly of excerpts and links to more on the lowest standard of all: the quiet acceptance of the promotion of anti-Semitic bigotry (which usually belies other prejudices as well) in the Arab sphere.
+++++
First, however, a paragraph of rose colored counterpoint:
“Amongst the politicians elected in Egypt’s first democratic elections, one still hears the occasional anti-Semitic remark. Fayza Abul Naga, a secular 61 year-old woman who is a holdover from the Mubarak regime, recently claimed that Freedom House, an American NGO that conducts research into democracy advocacy, was ‘a tool of the ‘Jewish lobby.”’
This is ugly and regrettable, but not, I think, insidious — and not because there are almost no Jews left in Egypt, but rather because Jew hatred is a relatively new, imported phenomenon that has little history in Egypt and does not seem to run very deep.”
“Whatever you do, don’t accuse the person of being Jewish. That may cause an irrevocable breach, and could even provoke violence.
“Anti-Semitism, the socialism of fools, is becoming the opiate of the Egyptian masses. And not just the masses. Egypt has never been notably philo-Semitic (just ask Moses), but today it’s entirely acceptable among the educated and creative classes there to demonize Jews and voice the most despicable anti- Semitic conspiracy theories. Careerists know that even fleeting associations with Jews and Israelis could spell professional trouble.”
“During World War II, the leader of the Palestinians lived in a Berlin villa, a gift from a very grateful Adolf Hitler, who clearly got his money’s worth. Haj Amin al-Husseini, the grand mufti of Jerusalem and as such the titular leader of Muslim Palestinians, broadcast Nazi propaganda to the Middle East, recruited European Muslims for the SS, exulted in the Holocaust and after the war went on to represent his people in the Arab League. He died somewhat ignored but never repudiated.”
“The cartoons in this compilation are consistent with anti-Israel and anti-Semitic caricatures regularly appearing in the Arab and Muslim world depicting Jewish and Israeli power over the international community, demonic imagery to stereotype Jews – including big noses, black coats and hats Ð blood libels and animal references Ð snakes and spiders – to sinisterly portray Israel.”
“In the run up to the 2012 US presidential elections, media outlets across the Middle East have been featuring cartoons depicting the candidates – President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney – as well as the Democratic and Republican parties and the US electorate as subservient to Israel and the Jews.”
“We have to build a society of respect and brotherhood in accordance with the Prophet’s commandments,” he told me in Urdu. “We will treat non-Muslims kindly, but we have a big fight against the Jews ahead of us. We will take that up, God willing.” This manifesto for the future was identical – almost word for word – to what Yahya Mujahid, a senior leader of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistan-based outfit charged with carrying out the Mumbai attacks in November 2008, told me in Lahore in 2009: that the LeT would take up the “fight” with the Jews after “liberating” Kashmir from Indian rule.”
“The purported “Franklin Prophecy” has been an anti-semitic staple since it was created in the 1930s. The version quoted in Al Madinah is similar to this:
There is a great danger for the United State of America. This great danger is the Jew. Gentlemen, in every land the Jews have settled, they have depressed the moral level and lowered the degree of commercial honesty. They have remained apart and unassimilated; oppressed, they attempt to strangle the nation financially, as in the case of Portugal and Spain.
“Several years ago, there was a survey (methodology unknown) that asked Saudi school children what they thought of Jews. Now, none of these children had actually met a Jew. They were uniform in their reactions, though: they should be spat upon or chased away with stones or simply killed. That reaction did not spring unattended from the minds of these children: it was put there.”
“Despite a promise to the USA in July of 2006 to undertake a program of textbook reform by eliminating all passages that disparage or promote hatred toward any religion or religious groups,” the report finds that “the encouragement of violence and extremism remains an integral part of Saudi Arabia’s national textbooks. As before, there continues to be a great preoccupation throughout the texts with Jews and with Israel. Rank antisemitism saturates the curriculum. Repeatedly, Jews are demonized, dehumanized, and targeted for violence.”
“The Saudi justice minister said that the Protocols is treated as part of Islamic culture because it is a book that has long been found in plentiful supply in Saudi Arabia (one of the relatively few non-Muslim books to be so), and was a book that his father had in his home.”
It’s easy commenting off the web — there is so much material to dredge up and look over; however, it has been for me and much remains journalism’s “second row seat to history”: someone else has to report off the street for one to have anything new to offer, and “the street” is not yet adequately digital, at least not without a budget and lot of ways of paying for — and vetting — information!
Today, Facebook boasts a “Free Ahmed Meligy” public page, and there are other networks, but there’s no getting “an official says” from them.
And what to do with this sort of chatyping sequence?
Thread #1: “Dear Friends we also opened an official Facebook page for Ahmed because we think that publicity is the best tool to save him… but we still need more information . . . .”
Thread #2: “To All: We have word that, pending an investigation, Ahmed will be released within 2-6 weeks. We can give you no further information, other than he is in custody and asks that we not do anything to jeopardize this process . . . .”
One flustered Facebooker noted, “I am confused, other pages are asking us to contact human rights groups and get him help . . . .”
A sea captain might say, “Bilge talk,” and that’s where Facebook’s curious on this matter may be stuck.
News of blogger Ahmed Meligy’s arrest has not been the least confined to his circle of Facebook buddies. The Jerusalem Post has posted the story [1] and repeated it in a separate story [2]; I’m not the only personality to blog on it; and, of course, word gets around in the human rights and free press communities.
Once the “cat’s out of the bag” it doesn’t go back in, so while today’s story may be mumbling around the swamps of assertions, rumors, and suggestions, it will come out.
In the meantime, dig this statement from one of the Egyptian president’s aids:
“There will be no such thing as Israel,” he continued, “instead there will be Palestine which will be home to Jews, Muslims and Druze and all the people who were there from the start.
“Those who want to stay will stay as Palestinian citizens. Those who conquered Palestine will have to go back to their countries,” he added.” [3]
“I am being arrested now, they took me from my house without telling me why . . . I am at the police car now . . pray for me” Ahmed Meligy, December 31, 2012. [1]
A writer with a blog in a national newspaper online, also an affable personality with scads of Facebook friends, has today a presence in the world. When news involving the same of a world, or a small portion of it, gone awry, of an errant arrest, an injustice and insult done to that person, word gets around.
At the moment, it looks like Egypt’s brand new egalitarian, liberal, modern, and peaceful and thriving democracy — do you need the two winks? — has arrested peace activist, brave blogger, and ever friendly Facebook personality Ahmed Meligy.
Here is how this brave good soul started a recent blog post in The Jerusalem Post:
The main motivational belief that drives all the members and supporters of the Islamic groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists is that Allah (swt) is on their side. They all believe that the Arab spring was the reward from God for their patience and struggle over the years. After dominating the power now they feel and act invincible against the whole world. This is why Hamas had no problem escalating the conflict with Israel by firing at Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. [2]
For as long as I’ve known of him, Meligy has worked for peace diligently, earnestly, honestly. For that, he is somewhere in chains today in Egypt.
***
My add to a related Facebook post: “Ahmed climbed a new kind of hill, sent a new kind of message from it, and built a new kind of audience. His Facebook buddies want to know where he is and that he’s well.
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