A Nation Raped and Ravaged
Iraq after six years of US led invasion:
Full Article Link @ Sunday Observer
by Latheef FAROOK
Iraq, a land where many great ancient civilisations such as Mesopotamian, Sumer, Akkad, Babylonian and Assyria flourished between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers for more than 7,000 years, has been ruthlessly raped and ravaged by the European colonial powers followed by the United States to loot its oil wealth for more than a century.
A mosque after a bomb attack
.....................full article at Sunday Observer
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
"Assuming the LTTE finished is fantasy masquerading as fact"-By Qadri Ismail
Articulating Ethics and Politics: A Leftist Engagement With The Present
"Assuming the LTTE finished is fantasy masquerading as fact"
By Qadri Ismail (Link for the Article)
Che Guevara once said: “if you tremble with indignation at every injustice, then you are my comrade.�
The distillation of a lifetime of agitation, intervention, reflection, this statement, the opposite of a sound bite, pithily articulates ethics with politics. We’ve known, at least since Aristotle, that the two are inextricable, yet distinct.
Che links them together in exemplary leftist fashion. If one understands ethics, following Levinas loosely, as deference to the other; and politics, following Derrida equally loosely, as a calculus about the possible; then Che’s formulation insists that, while the leftist might not (be able to) act upon every injustice, she must be moved. Narcissistic indignation is called identity politics.
[Che Guevara appeared on Meet the Press at CBS Television on December 13, 1964-AP]
When the leftist acts, she cannot be deterred by considerations of difficulty, of (im)possibility. They get overdetermined by the ethical imperative, the banal necessity, to resist injustice, oppression of the other. Not the political calculation whether resistance might be fruitful. Necessity, as opposed to choice, characterizes leftist action.
In other words, the leftist is not and has never been a realist. Revolutions, national liberation struggles, campaigns against patriarchy were not inspired by opportunists. Neither is the Tamil struggle for justice in Sri Lanka. The legitimacy of that struggle doesn’t stand or fall by the record – the abysmal, atrocious record – of the LTTE.
And yet, as one writes, many on the left, thinking the LTTE in the past tense, advice the Tamils to adopt a “realist,� that is to say mendicant, position regards the Rajapakse regime: reconcile with the actuality of its overwhelming power. Take what you can get. In effect, surrender.
As one writes, that same regime continues to bomb, from air and ground, the tiny territory still in LTTE hands. It kills between 10 and 20 Tamil civilians every day, maims dozens of others. Many little children are now amputees. They might be safe if the LTTE, unconscionably, does not hold them as human shields; even, horribly, shooting those who try to flee. But that is no alibi for this government’s brutality.
Yet, as one reads, one finds no indignation, no outrage, from sections of the left. There is, of course, the mandatory, parenthetical – pathetic – gesture of concern about civilian casualties. But the brutality of this government, it appears remarkably enough, should not shape our response to it. Only the “fact� of its assumed victory.
Take, as symptomatic instance, a recent position paper by Sumanasiri Liyanage. It expresses with clarity a position held by many about “the post-LTTE era.� But assuming the LTTE finished is fantasy masquerading as fact. Its record suggests resilience, not oblivion. Weakened, broken as the guerillas are – they’ve never been so unpopular, even amongst their own – there’s nothing inevitable about their disappearance from our politico-military terrain. Regardless, the leftist commitment to the justice of the Tamil struggle is not bound to the fate of the LTTE.
Liyanage’s undeniable commitment to peace with justice has been established over decades, with great consistency. I have admired his many thoughtful interventions, especially in the last couple of years. But, now – and this is said with loss, not anger – he effectively whitewashes the regime. Arguing that “revolutionary� constitutional change is “unlikely� – the word litters the article – he advances realistic “reform� as the position we should all adopt. One could ask, in response: if U.S. slaves had considered the likelihood of ending their captivity, if they had realistically calculated their chances against the overwhelming power of the white establishment, would they have rebelled? Unlikely.
Incredibly, Liyanage doesn’t once identify the Rajapakse regime as responsible for any – not a single – part of the horrible Sri Lankan present. The “JVP and Hela Urumaya…[are] the main advocates� of exclusivist nationalism. The SLFP, it would appear, doesn’t share this ideology, is innocent of blame.
As one writes, the Rajapakse regime has announced plans to house Vanni Tamils in specially constructed detention camps for up to three years. These camps will include schools, hospitals and banks. The populace inside will be held captive, policed by the military. The Rajapakses, brazenly, have even approached the U.N. and other international NGOs – the same organizations its spokespeople routinely slander – to fund these centers akin to concentration camps.
Given the career – brief, but consistently exclusivist – of this government, one doesn’t need to be an astrologer or political scientist to foresee the next stage of the plan. Over the past two years, led by the JHU’s Champika Ranawaka and Basil Rajapakse, the regime has systematically alienated Muslim land in the east. Sinhala settlers cannot be far behind.
There is little reason to doubt that the Vanni territory, once denuded of Tamils, will also be colonized with Sinhalese. This is the Rajapakses’ “final solution� to the national question: make the Tamils politically irrelevant. Physically eliminate any resistance, even the non-violent. Concentrate the rest in camps.
In this regard, the only moot question is whether Sinhala nationalism, which has systematically followed such a strategy since D. S. Senanayake in the late 1940s, learned this from Zionism – or whether the Israelis copied the Sri Lankan example. Not coincidentally, the two states have been co-operating openly since the mid-1980s. Mahinda Rajapakse, opposition M.P., may have been a champion of Palestinian rights, a progressive, in those 1980s; his regime is comparable to the Israeli state.
In such a context, advocating reform would be to debate how many Sinhalese should be allowed to colonize the north. Not whether colonization should occur in the first place.
But “reform� and “revolutionary change� are not the only alternatives. Resistance – the unyielding demand for peace with justice – is another. Liyanage, however, frames his position with canny rhetoric. Reform, after all, sounds realistic, possible, even reasonable. Naming its alternative revolutionary – spin worthy of U.S. conservatives, the (white) guys who call universal health care “socialism� – is delegitimizing. For, in the worldview fabricated by George W. Bush, that Liyanage reproduces, perhaps unwittingly, a synonym for revolutionary is terrorist.
Yes, the LTTE could be accused of terrorism – if one finds the term productive. Among national liberation organizations, its brutality is unmatched. Its record is too well known to require iteration here. A powerful case could be made that the LTTE and its leadership must face trial for war crimes. But, surely, an equally powerful case could be made about leading figures of the government.
On the other hand, if one advocates engagement with the regime, shouldn’t one also advocate the same with the LTTE? Ideologically, both embody exclusivist, extremist – if not totalitarian – nationalism. Both equate dissent with treason. Gotabhaya Rajapakse actually said this to BBC television, following the murder of Lasantha Wickrematunge. The LTTE has systematically assassinated resistant Tamils, including K. Padmanabha and Rajini Thiranagama. The only difference is that the LTTE’s brutality extends for decades. Simply put, it has killed, intimidated, devastated more. But considerations of number should not determine leftist ethics.
Liyanage knows this. He refers to the Tamils and Muslims as “numerically small nations,� desiring not to other the Tamils and Muslims by calling them “minorities.� Yet he cannot frame his position outside the logic of number. For, one could ask, after Derrida: at what number does a nation become small or large? Would we also need a cage for the medium-sized? Would the Chinese be extra-large? Is there some secret book of rules, available only to social scientists, with the right answers?
More importantly, does it matter? Does their number have anything to do with the fact that we’re moved, appalled, outraged by the oppression of the Tamils – or the Palestinians, for that matter? Should indignation not serve as the launching pad of our response?
The argument for engagement, for reform, is an argument for accepting the continued domination of the Tamils and Muslims. It negates the very basis of the Tamil struggle, for peace with justice. Even worse, it provides the Rajapakses with an alibi. For, one must ask: given that the president himself turned the consensus within the APRC, for greater devolution, into acceptance of the status quo, what are the chances of this regime, even minimally, reforming the state? Unlikely.
The stagist argument – finish the LTTE first, then attend to Tamil “grievances� – is, at best, counter-factual, presumptuous. Both about the LTTE, that it can’t re-emerge; and the regime, that it will suddenly, miraculously, turn democratic.
But what are the chances of the Rajapakses, who cannot countenance journalistic resistance – witness the murder of Wickrematunge, the continued imprisonment of J. S. Tissainayagam – suddenly becoming democratic? Is it “realistic� to expect this regime, which refuses to honor the 17th amendment, to discover the virtues of constitutional governance? Or, as Jayadeva Uyangoda begs, Mahinda Rajapakse to display “statesmanship�? You know the answer.
The Sinhala left has a long, impressive, honorable record on the question of social justice. Despite being woefully underfunded, we can boast of free universal health care and education through university. The United States cannot. Despite the best efforts of J. R. Jayewardene, in the 1980s, our trade unions thrive. They even strike every now and then. Without the left, this would not be the case.
On the national question, however, the organized left, with the rare exception of a Vickremabahu Karunaratne or Sarath Muttetuwegama, has been a paragon of complicity with Sinhala nationalism. It bears iteration that the same Colvin R de Silva, who said with astute prescience in 1956, that establishing Sinhala as the only official language would lead to separatism, sixteen years later effectively instituted Buddhism as the state religion. The militant Tamil resistance was inaugurated that same year, 1972. Then, as now, members of the CP and LSSP adorn the cabinet.
Just last January, after the murder of Wickrematunge, after the rampages of this regime against Tamil and Muslim civilians, documented over three years, an old leftist – I don’t have the heart to mention his name – told a mutual acquaintance: “Mahinda is basically a progressive.�
Surely, the task of our intellectual left must be to hold these positions to account, not make them role models!
Our task is to insist, and keep insisting, that there cannot be a just peace in Sri Lanka without radical – not reformist, or revolutionary, but radical – constitutional change. (Revolutionary change, a complete, total break from the past, is impossible – even conceptually. ) A form of confederalism, if that’s what it takes; which accounts for Muslim, as well as Tamil demands.
The equality of all citizens, including those outside the northeast, must be institutionalized in something like a bill of rights. As importantly, the symbols of the state must signify such equality. This means no special status for Buddhism. And redesigning the flag, which as it now flies reproduces – with its dominant, armed, scary lion and two miserable stripes for the minorities – Sinhala nationalist dominance.
This will take a long struggle, but reform – surrender to Sinhala nationalism – takes us down a dead-end. This will involve rethinking the tired clichés about peace we’ve inherited from social science, conflict management. This entails much labor, patience, anger and frustration, but we must abide by our convictions, not yield to our most conformist instincts.
Edward Said once told me, when I asked of his vocal opposition to the Oslo accords, that they could only lead to the continued subjugation of the Palestinian people – while providing Israel with the alibi of commitment to peace. Despite tremendous pressure, mostly from the PLO, he refused to yield his position. Refused, that is, to settle for mere reform.
The point is not that he turned out to be right. He was no realist. Rather, after a lifetime of agitation, intervention, reflection, he had conviction. He understood that the leftist, when confronted with surrender or resistance, doesn’t have a choice. Like Che, Said knew how to articulate ethics with politics.
The Heroes are the Villains
The Heroes are the Villains
Hameed Abdul Karim
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Here’s the script. A is the monster. B and C along with D are the good children doing all they can, risking life and limb, to save the world from this monster. The scriptwriters have used all their cunning to brainwash the audience to want the good children to succeed in their noble task of killing the monster. Mass hysteria is built up. There is tension in the air and suspense too. And when in the end ‘good’ triumphs over ‘evil,’ as in every movie, the entire audience heave a sigh of relief and approve the good deeds of their celluloid heroes.
The only thing is that this not a movie. This is real life. A is Iran. B, C and D are the US, Israel and the EU cartel. The scriptwriters are the ‘embedded journalists’ in the Western media. With ‘journalists’ like these, blood thirsty rogue nations and war criminals in a cocktail like that, you have an ideal recipe for disaster — disaster for non-complying non-white states. Together they are gunning for Iran the same way they went after Iraq.
And like in Iraq’s case the story begins in the media, with the same old fibs, as any discerning reader or viewer will notice when reading or listening to the constant refrain that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad had threatened to ‘wipe Israel off the world map.’ Never mind the fact that on more occasions than one Iran had denied their leader had ever made such a remark in the context that it’s being circulated in the world media and also in the local media, as made out in the article, "Choice: An Iranian bomb or bombing Iran" in The Morning Leader of February 4, 2009.
Iranians have repeatedly said Ahmedinejad was only quoting Ayatollah Khomeini when he (Ahmedinejad) was speaking to a group of Palestinians urging them not to give up hope and that the occupation of Palestine will also end in the same way the Shah’s rule in Iran had ended. What Imam Khomeini had actually said then was ‘this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the pages of time.’ Like the occupation of other regimes had ended.
Both Imam Khomeini and Ahmedinejad had spoken in Farsi and the translation of these words into English has been twisted out of context to fit into the doctrinaire system of the West’s agenda for global domination. Remember the Plan for the New American Century (PNAC)?
What’s never mentioned in what’s called the mainstream media is that Israel has over 200 nuclear weapons all ready to blast off at the press of a button. Iran doesn’t have even one. So what makes Iran the enemy of civilisation and all that? Is it not possible that Israel is the real enemy? Is it not possible that Iran might be seeking a nuclear bomb as a deterrent to Israel’s huge arsenal? Hush!
Such talk doesn’t enter into the main stream media ….it’s just not permissible discussion. Not for those ‘embedded journalists’ who report from the Western side of the fence. It’s about time somebody from ‘our’ side of the fence reports from a Third World perspective.
But to attack Iran they have to brainwash governments and their peoples’ to believe that Iran is indeed a threat to world peace. So they ‘monsterise’ Iran to a point where the whole world, especially the Americans, are programmed to believe the crap the media dishes out as ‘news.’ Hence the turbo charged propaganda line ‘Israel must be wiped off the map.’
Connect this to Iran’s nuclear programme for peaceful purposes and you have a ready mix of juicy propaganda to fool the world that’s already fed heavily on a regular diet of holocaust stories. All you need is Goliath to play the role of David. And Israel is doing that just fine.
However, there is one glitch in the script. And that’s Palestine. Nobody ever mentions that ‘Palestine was wiped off the world map.’ Neither do they name the culprits who did the foul deed. That doesn’t come within the realms of permissible discussion either.
Palestinians are paying a heavy price for the crimes of the people who now have the gumption to call themselves the ‘civilised world’ without an iota of shame.
Iran has not invaded any country in modern history. Israel, the US and many member nations of the EU cartel have done just that, spilling the blood of innocents in one slaughter after another. Israel has invaded all its neighbours. And yet we are made to believe they are the good guys in the movie and Iran is the monster. In actual fact the heroes are the villains. They are the enemy. The old phrase ‘they who tell the tales control the world’ holds true.
Unfortunately for the Palestinians and the Iraqis and the Afghans the movie hasn’t ended yet. Sadly for them there’s going to be more bloodshed, more slaughters, cries of anguish and many tears before the scriptwriters bring on the words ‘The End.’
Hameed Abdul Karim
Monday, March 2, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
Response to-‘Men of God and men who kill in God’s name’
This Response Was not publish in the Morning Leader as usual
By Latheef Farook
About CNN presenter Christian Amanpour’s dissemination of news. The pro Jewish Western media, integral part of Western war machines, always manipulates public opinion, with their lies, to facilitate the warmongers to help implement their evil designs especially on Muslim countries. For example, encouraged by the US Ambassador April Glaspie the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein sent his troops to Kuwait and triggered off the Gulf Crisis.
Media, especially Christian Amanpour and her CNN, played a crucial role in misleading the world to enable the US to invade and destroy Iraq under the guise of liberating Kuwait . As a journalist who witnessed the media manipulation during this war from the Gulf, I could state that the media won this war before the armies even entered the battlefield.
Who benefitted? The western weapons industry .They sold a staggering $ 157 billion of armaments to Gulf countries that were all brought under the military umbrella of the US . In his first statement after the war, former US President George Bush Sr said, “ Israel is safe and the oil flows freely”. It was Israel that badly wanted this war and the US merely obliged.
Islam gave birth to one of the greatest civilisations in world history, enriched many other civilisations and in fact it was the Muslims’ contribution that triggered off the Renaissance in Europe . So how come the Muslims with such a fascinating and inspiring history have suddenly become terrorists now?
It was the years of systematic injustice, brutalities and oppression of Muslims by US, Britain, Europe, Zionist Jews and now joined by the Hindutva dominated India that turned peaceful Muslims to resort to armed struggle to establish their rights and dignity. Besides, they also imposed and protected cruel and oppressive dictators in Muslim countries who keep the people suppressed and obstruct their progress
Dealing with religious fundamentalism, Brian spoke about al Qaeda, Hamas, LeT and Taliban, but conveniently dropped the two largest and deadliest terrorist groups in the world- Zionist Jewish and Hindutva terrorism. Kashmiris were known for their peaceful nature. Political manoeuvrings of the Central Government in Delhi , rigging of elections in 1987 and 1996, years of political turmoil, economic problems, poverty and many other factors led to the 1989 mass uprisings and created the LeT.
Hamas is an organisation struggling to free the Palestinians from the Zionist Jews who robbed their lands to set up their Jewish racist state of Israel that was born out of terrorism. Israel is not a democracy, but an ethnocracy. Hamas was elected in a spotless free and fair election supervised by no lesser a person than former US President Jimmy Carter. Trying to crush Hamas only showed that the US claim to promote democracy is a farce.
About what Pope said;
In an extremely inflammatory speech, Pope Benedict associated Islam with violence at his former University of Regensburg , in his native Bavaria in Southern Germany , on 12 September 2006.
Citing an obscure medieval text, recounting a fictitious conversation between 14th-century Byzantine Christian Emperor Manuel Paleologos II and a Persian scholar on Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) Pope Benedict asked “show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached”.
He called upon Muslims to fight terrorism. This would have sounded fair if Pope Benedict, as Cardinal Erst Ratzinger, had called upon the Catholic community to shed terrorism when the IRA bombs killed more than 3,500 people, or if called upon Zionist Jews to stop killing innocent Palestinians who were made prisoners in their own homes and lands. However, Pope Benedict was not slow to punish Muslims around the world with a collective and guilt-ridden responsibility.
Pope Benedict’s remarks were either “the result of pitiful ignorance" about Islam and its prophet, or worse, a deliberate distortion of the truths. He later said he was “deeply sorry for his comments on Islam”.
Child abuse has been a major problem within the Catholic Church and did the Muslim media or any Muslim scholar in the world exploit this opportunity to humiliate the church and Catholicism?
Nevertheless, the question is how can Pope Benedict, as head of Catholic Church and a man of peace, accept an invitation by George Bush, who was described as a monstrous war criminal by Richard Horton, a doctor and the editor of the Lancet, named as a war criminal by British playwright and Nobel laureate Harold Pinter. He demanded that the Pope’s host be taken to the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague .
Yet Pope Benedict accepted Bush’s invitation, marking his 81st birthday, and provided a seal of approval for his crusade against Muslims. There Pope Benedict never found time to speak a word about the slaughter of more than 1.3 million Iraqi Muslims and virtual destruction of the Iraqi society.
According to Brian, Muslim terrorists have killed a total of 1027 people in Bali , US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania , US and French peacekeepers and others in London and Madrid . He should probe little more and find out the cause for these killings.
George Bush and Tony Blair together with their Australian racist poodle John Howard unleashed a global campaign demonizing Islam to inflame hatred against Muslims.
Iraq was an almost developed country known for its rich historic past. The US led invasion killed more than 1.4 million innocent men, women, children and the aged and threw more than four million into refugee camps both within and outside the country where they suffer to this day in appalling conditions. Hundreds of thousands of innocent women were raped and killed destroying the fabric of a society known for its religious values. Highly developed health, education, water, sewage and all other basic facilities were in ruins and Israel ’s secret service Mossad murdered hundreds of intellectuals and professionals.
In Fallujah, a city of 300,000 people, Bush dropped internationally banned and improved versions of napalm bombs, which burnt and melted fasting Muslims to death. The American media, despite its modern technology, was quite conspicuous in its silence on the Fallujah massacre, which is one of the most horrendous acts of genocide in modern history. There is lawlessness everywhere. Today the entire Iraqi population remains traumatised and these are the obscene images of crimes that cry out to the Heavens for vengeance. Yet did Brian ever describe Bush and Blair and Howard as terrorists?
If Brian Jansz was an Iraqi whose family was wiped out and whose daughters were raped and killed what would be his feeling towards Bush and Blair? I am sure if you have little bit of self-respect, dignity and feelings for your slaughtered loved ones you would rise up against this Anglo American savagery. Under such circumstance if I call you a terrorist what, would be your feeling? This is what you had done, Mr. Jansz, when you described the oppressed Muslims fighting for freedom as Islamist terrorists!
About 9/11 it was not the Muslims, but the Jews who danced in jubilation from neighboring building and video filmed the collapse of the WTC buildings. Almost every independent study undertaken by numerous professionals, institutions and organisations into the collapse of the WTC building came to one conclusion. And that was Muslims have nothing to do with this disaster as the Twin Tower buildings were not brought down by the aircrafts but by missiles placed within the buildings.
Exploiting the fear psychosis created by the media in the aftermath of 9/11 George Bush accused Al Qaeda of masterminding the attacks, invaded Afghanistan within 27 days, killed hundreds of thousands of poverty stricken Afghans and installed a restaurant owner Hamid Karzai as president against the will of the people before starting to set up military bases all over the country. Afghans have been waging a fierce struggle to oust the occupier. Can we call them terrorists? If they are terrorists, what do we call George Bush and Tony Blair who had inflicted this unprecedented death, devastation and sufferings?
Almost eight years after 9/11 today, provoking the religious sensitivities of Muslims to justify the destructive designs has become an organized global campaign. Inevitably, average Christians have become victims of this plot just as much as the unfortunate Muslims have been.
With regard to Danish cartoons insulting Islam’s beloved Prophet.
Prophets are no ordinary people. They were chosen by the Almighty God to send His message to humanity as a whole. Is there any need to make fun out of them. No Muslim ever insulted Jesus or Moses because they are two of the most important prophets of Islam.The mere thought of insulting a prophet is blasphemy.
This caricature to stir up racial and religious antagonisms was first published in January 2006 in the far rightwing Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. Why Denmark ? Why not London or New York ? Denmark is the centre of activities for Mossad, which maintains very close relationship with the Danish intelligence service. The journalist who was instrumental in triggering off the controversy over the cartoons is an Islam-hating Ukrainian Jew, operating under the name of “Flemming Rose” with close working relations with the Israel ’s far right forces. Columnists James Petras and Robin Eastman pointed out that ‘the centre piece of the current explosive confrontation between the Muslim world and the US and Western European regimes and publishers are rooted in Israeli efforts to polarize the world in its favour and to promote isolation, economic sanctions and/or a military attack on Iran ’.
No Muslim throughout their more than 14 century history ever insulted members of other faiths. This is not part of Muslim culture and Islam completely forbidden such sadistic perversion.
Manipulating the media the West managed to successfully sell the Al Qaeda threat although, even today, Al Qaeda remains an organisation without an office, without an address, without a telephone or fax number and even without an e-mail address.
Muslim countries are being attacked and bombed with impunity; Muslims are tortured and killed, their religion and prophet mocked. Muslims are among the poorest people in the world and their countries the least developed despite some Muslim countries having enormous wealth and riches. Muslims now realise that the fight against terrorism was a skilfully executed conspiracy, crusade, against Islam and Muslims to reduce Muslim countries to wastelands.
This was proved beyond doubt by recent events in Iraq , Afghanistan , Somalia , Algeria , Bosnia , Kosovo , Albania , Chechnya , occupied Palestine , Kashmir, Gujarat and Central Asian Muslim Republics and many other areas where Muslims were suppressed. However, no one speaks about them. During the past one and a half decades, more than 12 million Muslims were driven to refugee camps where they suffer in abject poverty.
So long these oppressions continues Muslims are bound to fight for their Rights and Dignity .Ends
By Latheef Farook
About CNN presenter Christian Amanpour’s dissemination of news. The pro Jewish Western media, integral part of Western war machines, always manipulates public opinion, with their lies, to facilitate the warmongers to help implement their evil designs especially on Muslim countries. For example, encouraged by the US Ambassador April Glaspie the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein sent his troops to Kuwait and triggered off the Gulf Crisis.
Media, especially Christian Amanpour and her CNN, played a crucial role in misleading the world to enable the US to invade and destroy Iraq under the guise of liberating Kuwait . As a journalist who witnessed the media manipulation during this war from the Gulf, I could state that the media won this war before the armies even entered the battlefield.
Who benefitted? The western weapons industry .They sold a staggering $ 157 billion of armaments to Gulf countries that were all brought under the military umbrella of the US . In his first statement after the war, former US President George Bush Sr said, “ Israel is safe and the oil flows freely”. It was Israel that badly wanted this war and the US merely obliged.
Islam gave birth to one of the greatest civilisations in world history, enriched many other civilisations and in fact it was the Muslims’ contribution that triggered off the Renaissance in Europe . So how come the Muslims with such a fascinating and inspiring history have suddenly become terrorists now?
It was the years of systematic injustice, brutalities and oppression of Muslims by US, Britain, Europe, Zionist Jews and now joined by the Hindutva dominated India that turned peaceful Muslims to resort to armed struggle to establish their rights and dignity. Besides, they also imposed and protected cruel and oppressive dictators in Muslim countries who keep the people suppressed and obstruct their progress
Dealing with religious fundamentalism, Brian spoke about al Qaeda, Hamas, LeT and Taliban, but conveniently dropped the two largest and deadliest terrorist groups in the world- Zionist Jewish and Hindutva terrorism. Kashmiris were known for their peaceful nature. Political manoeuvrings of the Central Government in Delhi , rigging of elections in 1987 and 1996, years of political turmoil, economic problems, poverty and many other factors led to the 1989 mass uprisings and created the LeT.
Hamas is an organisation struggling to free the Palestinians from the Zionist Jews who robbed their lands to set up their Jewish racist state of Israel that was born out of terrorism. Israel is not a democracy, but an ethnocracy. Hamas was elected in a spotless free and fair election supervised by no lesser a person than former US President Jimmy Carter. Trying to crush Hamas only showed that the US claim to promote democracy is a farce.
About what Pope said;
In an extremely inflammatory speech, Pope Benedict associated Islam with violence at his former University of Regensburg , in his native Bavaria in Southern Germany , on 12 September 2006.
Citing an obscure medieval text, recounting a fictitious conversation between 14th-century Byzantine Christian Emperor Manuel Paleologos II and a Persian scholar on Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) Pope Benedict asked “show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached”.
He called upon Muslims to fight terrorism. This would have sounded fair if Pope Benedict, as Cardinal Erst Ratzinger, had called upon the Catholic community to shed terrorism when the IRA bombs killed more than 3,500 people, or if called upon Zionist Jews to stop killing innocent Palestinians who were made prisoners in their own homes and lands. However, Pope Benedict was not slow to punish Muslims around the world with a collective and guilt-ridden responsibility.
Pope Benedict’s remarks were either “the result of pitiful ignorance" about Islam and its prophet, or worse, a deliberate distortion of the truths. He later said he was “deeply sorry for his comments on Islam”.
Child abuse has been a major problem within the Catholic Church and did the Muslim media or any Muslim scholar in the world exploit this opportunity to humiliate the church and Catholicism?
Nevertheless, the question is how can Pope Benedict, as head of Catholic Church and a man of peace, accept an invitation by George Bush, who was described as a monstrous war criminal by Richard Horton, a doctor and the editor of the Lancet, named as a war criminal by British playwright and Nobel laureate Harold Pinter. He demanded that the Pope’s host be taken to the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague .
Yet Pope Benedict accepted Bush’s invitation, marking his 81st birthday, and provided a seal of approval for his crusade against Muslims. There Pope Benedict never found time to speak a word about the slaughter of more than 1.3 million Iraqi Muslims and virtual destruction of the Iraqi society.
According to Brian, Muslim terrorists have killed a total of 1027 people in Bali , US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania , US and French peacekeepers and others in London and Madrid . He should probe little more and find out the cause for these killings.
George Bush and Tony Blair together with their Australian racist poodle John Howard unleashed a global campaign demonizing Islam to inflame hatred against Muslims.
Iraq was an almost developed country known for its rich historic past. The US led invasion killed more than 1.4 million innocent men, women, children and the aged and threw more than four million into refugee camps both within and outside the country where they suffer to this day in appalling conditions. Hundreds of thousands of innocent women were raped and killed destroying the fabric of a society known for its religious values. Highly developed health, education, water, sewage and all other basic facilities were in ruins and Israel ’s secret service Mossad murdered hundreds of intellectuals and professionals.
In Fallujah, a city of 300,000 people, Bush dropped internationally banned and improved versions of napalm bombs, which burnt and melted fasting Muslims to death. The American media, despite its modern technology, was quite conspicuous in its silence on the Fallujah massacre, which is one of the most horrendous acts of genocide in modern history. There is lawlessness everywhere. Today the entire Iraqi population remains traumatised and these are the obscene images of crimes that cry out to the Heavens for vengeance. Yet did Brian ever describe Bush and Blair and Howard as terrorists?
If Brian Jansz was an Iraqi whose family was wiped out and whose daughters were raped and killed what would be his feeling towards Bush and Blair? I am sure if you have little bit of self-respect, dignity and feelings for your slaughtered loved ones you would rise up against this Anglo American savagery. Under such circumstance if I call you a terrorist what, would be your feeling? This is what you had done, Mr. Jansz, when you described the oppressed Muslims fighting for freedom as Islamist terrorists!
About 9/11 it was not the Muslims, but the Jews who danced in jubilation from neighboring building and video filmed the collapse of the WTC buildings. Almost every independent study undertaken by numerous professionals, institutions and organisations into the collapse of the WTC building came to one conclusion. And that was Muslims have nothing to do with this disaster as the Twin Tower buildings were not brought down by the aircrafts but by missiles placed within the buildings.
Exploiting the fear psychosis created by the media in the aftermath of 9/11 George Bush accused Al Qaeda of masterminding the attacks, invaded Afghanistan within 27 days, killed hundreds of thousands of poverty stricken Afghans and installed a restaurant owner Hamid Karzai as president against the will of the people before starting to set up military bases all over the country. Afghans have been waging a fierce struggle to oust the occupier. Can we call them terrorists? If they are terrorists, what do we call George Bush and Tony Blair who had inflicted this unprecedented death, devastation and sufferings?
Almost eight years after 9/11 today, provoking the religious sensitivities of Muslims to justify the destructive designs has become an organized global campaign. Inevitably, average Christians have become victims of this plot just as much as the unfortunate Muslims have been.
With regard to Danish cartoons insulting Islam’s beloved Prophet.
Prophets are no ordinary people. They were chosen by the Almighty God to send His message to humanity as a whole. Is there any need to make fun out of them. No Muslim ever insulted Jesus or Moses because they are two of the most important prophets of Islam.The mere thought of insulting a prophet is blasphemy.
This caricature to stir up racial and religious antagonisms was first published in January 2006 in the far rightwing Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. Why Denmark ? Why not London or New York ? Denmark is the centre of activities for Mossad, which maintains very close relationship with the Danish intelligence service. The journalist who was instrumental in triggering off the controversy over the cartoons is an Islam-hating Ukrainian Jew, operating under the name of “Flemming Rose” with close working relations with the Israel ’s far right forces. Columnists James Petras and Robin Eastman pointed out that ‘the centre piece of the current explosive confrontation between the Muslim world and the US and Western European regimes and publishers are rooted in Israeli efforts to polarize the world in its favour and to promote isolation, economic sanctions and/or a military attack on Iran ’.
No Muslim throughout their more than 14 century history ever insulted members of other faiths. This is not part of Muslim culture and Islam completely forbidden such sadistic perversion.
Manipulating the media the West managed to successfully sell the Al Qaeda threat although, even today, Al Qaeda remains an organisation without an office, without an address, without a telephone or fax number and even without an e-mail address.
Muslim countries are being attacked and bombed with impunity; Muslims are tortured and killed, their religion and prophet mocked. Muslims are among the poorest people in the world and their countries the least developed despite some Muslim countries having enormous wealth and riches. Muslims now realise that the fight against terrorism was a skilfully executed conspiracy, crusade, against Islam and Muslims to reduce Muslim countries to wastelands.
This was proved beyond doubt by recent events in Iraq , Afghanistan , Somalia , Algeria , Bosnia , Kosovo , Albania , Chechnya , occupied Palestine , Kashmir, Gujarat and Central Asian Muslim Republics and many other areas where Muslims were suppressed. However, no one speaks about them. During the past one and a half decades, more than 12 million Muslims were driven to refugee camps where they suffer in abject poverty.
So long these oppressions continues Muslims are bound to fight for their Rights and Dignity .Ends
‘Men of God and men who kill in God’s name’
Morning Leader Article
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‘Men of God and men who kill in God’s name’
I refer to an article penned by Dr. Marina Reffai in your esteemed newspaper a few weeks back regarding the above subject. ‘Jihad’ means a ‘Holy war.’ In the true context it is fighting ‘temptation’ of shaitan (satan) or against anyone desecrating the name of God. The blurbs of the CNN presenter Christian Amanpour outlined how that news channel covered all aspects of world news and not as an insult to any religious belief.
I don’t intend to make this a controversy but explain to the doctor that it is the bounden duty of newscasters to disseminate news as it happens utilising the modern technology available. There is nothing to be sore about when it comes to facing the ‘truth.’ In modern times ‘religious fundamentalism’ has become a weapon of certain terrorist groups viz. al Qaeda, Hamas, LeT, Taliban among many others who are holding the free world hostage with their twisted ideologies. To prove the facts let me outline a few atrocities;
1. The Pope says that jihad violence is against God’s nature — Muslims get insulted
2. Muslim terrorists murder 202 tourists in Bali — expects no criticism.
3. Muslim terrorists murder 292 innocents in US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania — expect no criticism
4. Muslim terrorists murder 241 US and 58 French peacekeepers in Beirut — expects no criticism.
5. Muslim terrorists murder 52 in London and 191 in Madrid — expects no criticism
6. Muslim terrorists behead Western hostages in Iraq and Christian schoolgirls in Indonesia — expects no criticism
7. Muslim extremists force women to wear sacks in Afghanistan, stone to death women for getting raped or leaving home un-escorted, engage in honour killing of sisters and daughters for dating a suitor — and expect no criticism.
8. Muslims danced in the streets and handed out sweets to the children to celebrate the horror of 9/11 and other worldwide terror attacks — and expect no criticism
9. Muslims have carried out over 5,800 fatal terrorist atrocities since 9/11 — and expect no criticism.
What a hue and cry was raised when a Danish cartoonist produced some caricatures. Demonstrations by the Muslim diaspora who, in the first place, had poured into Denmark seeking safety from terrorists in their own countries, demanded an apology.
The Danes quite correctly reciprocated. "We’re sorry we gave you shelter when war drove you from your country, sorry we took you in when other Muslim nations rejected you, sorry we gave you food and shelter when you had none, sorry we let you re –unite with families when your homeland was not safe, sorry we never forced you to work while we paid your bills, sorry we gave you free rent, phone , internet, car and school for your 10 kids, sorry we built mosques so you could worship your religion in our Christian land, sorry we never forced you to learn our language even after living for 30 years."
Due to holy wars and ideological wars Muslims, en masse, have found refuge in many Western countries as refugees and after establishing themselves — thanks to the generosity of those countries — want the hosts to ‘play ball.’
In this respect I will quote John Howard the former prime minister of Australia, a courageous leader: "Immigrants, not Australians, must adapt. Take it or leave it. I am tired of this nation worrying about whether we are offending some individual or their culture. Our culture has been developed over two centuries of struggles, trials and victories of millions of men and women who have sought freedom. We speak English, not Spanish, Lebanese, Arabic Chinese, Japanese, Russian or any other language. Therefore if you wish to become part of our society you have no choice but to learn our language. Most Australians believe in God. This is not some Christian, right wing, political push, but a fact because Christian men and women, on Christian principles founded this nation and this is clearly documented. If God offends you, then I suggest you consider another part of the world as your new home, because God is part of our culture. We will accept your beliefs. And will not question why. All we ask is that you accept ours and live in harmony and peaceful enjoyment with as. This is our country, our land and our lifestyle and we will allow you every opportunity to enjoy this. But once you are finished complaining, whining and griping about our Flag, our pledge, our Christian belief or our way of life, I highly encourage you to take advantage of one other great Australian freedom… the right to leave! If you are not happy here then leave. We didn’t force you to come here. You asked to come here. So accept the country you accepted.
So to those who daily see and hear the atrocities of war due to extreme, religious fundamentalism causing such suffering of innocent people in the world I have outlined the twisted egotistic ideologies of the few individuals who ‘want to rule the world and people’s minds’ through terror tactics.
In closing I wish to recall an incident I witnessed whilst working in the Middle East. It took place during the Iran-Iraq war a few year back. This occurred on an Arab TV channel that was showing pictures of that war.
The irony is that while the war rages on the soldiers in the battlefield kept a continuous barrage of firing on the opposing side while they do likewise. When the muezzin (priest) calls all believers to prayer (which is done five times a day) every man lays down his arms, spreads out his prayer mat and prays. The very moment it is finished they all are back in business — killing each other.
Brian Jansz, Pannipitiya See The Reply to this Article
Scroll down the web page
‘Men of God and men who kill in God’s name’
I refer to an article penned by Dr. Marina Reffai in your esteemed newspaper a few weeks back regarding the above subject. ‘Jihad’ means a ‘Holy war.’ In the true context it is fighting ‘temptation’ of shaitan (satan) or against anyone desecrating the name of God. The blurbs of the CNN presenter Christian Amanpour outlined how that news channel covered all aspects of world news and not as an insult to any religious belief.
I don’t intend to make this a controversy but explain to the doctor that it is the bounden duty of newscasters to disseminate news as it happens utilising the modern technology available. There is nothing to be sore about when it comes to facing the ‘truth.’ In modern times ‘religious fundamentalism’ has become a weapon of certain terrorist groups viz. al Qaeda, Hamas, LeT, Taliban among many others who are holding the free world hostage with their twisted ideologies. To prove the facts let me outline a few atrocities;
1. The Pope says that jihad violence is against God’s nature — Muslims get insulted
2. Muslim terrorists murder 202 tourists in Bali — expects no criticism.
3. Muslim terrorists murder 292 innocents in US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania — expect no criticism
4. Muslim terrorists murder 241 US and 58 French peacekeepers in Beirut — expects no criticism.
5. Muslim terrorists murder 52 in London and 191 in Madrid — expects no criticism
6. Muslim terrorists behead Western hostages in Iraq and Christian schoolgirls in Indonesia — expects no criticism
7. Muslim extremists force women to wear sacks in Afghanistan, stone to death women for getting raped or leaving home un-escorted, engage in honour killing of sisters and daughters for dating a suitor — and expect no criticism.
8. Muslims danced in the streets and handed out sweets to the children to celebrate the horror of 9/11 and other worldwide terror attacks — and expect no criticism
9. Muslims have carried out over 5,800 fatal terrorist atrocities since 9/11 — and expect no criticism.
What a hue and cry was raised when a Danish cartoonist produced some caricatures. Demonstrations by the Muslim diaspora who, in the first place, had poured into Denmark seeking safety from terrorists in their own countries, demanded an apology.
The Danes quite correctly reciprocated. "We’re sorry we gave you shelter when war drove you from your country, sorry we took you in when other Muslim nations rejected you, sorry we gave you food and shelter when you had none, sorry we let you re –unite with families when your homeland was not safe, sorry we never forced you to work while we paid your bills, sorry we gave you free rent, phone , internet, car and school for your 10 kids, sorry we built mosques so you could worship your religion in our Christian land, sorry we never forced you to learn our language even after living for 30 years."
Due to holy wars and ideological wars Muslims, en masse, have found refuge in many Western countries as refugees and after establishing themselves — thanks to the generosity of those countries — want the hosts to ‘play ball.’
In this respect I will quote John Howard the former prime minister of Australia, a courageous leader: "Immigrants, not Australians, must adapt. Take it or leave it. I am tired of this nation worrying about whether we are offending some individual or their culture. Our culture has been developed over two centuries of struggles, trials and victories of millions of men and women who have sought freedom. We speak English, not Spanish, Lebanese, Arabic Chinese, Japanese, Russian or any other language. Therefore if you wish to become part of our society you have no choice but to learn our language. Most Australians believe in God. This is not some Christian, right wing, political push, but a fact because Christian men and women, on Christian principles founded this nation and this is clearly documented. If God offends you, then I suggest you consider another part of the world as your new home, because God is part of our culture. We will accept your beliefs. And will not question why. All we ask is that you accept ours and live in harmony and peaceful enjoyment with as. This is our country, our land and our lifestyle and we will allow you every opportunity to enjoy this. But once you are finished complaining, whining and griping about our Flag, our pledge, our Christian belief or our way of life, I highly encourage you to take advantage of one other great Australian freedom… the right to leave! If you are not happy here then leave. We didn’t force you to come here. You asked to come here. So accept the country you accepted.
So to those who daily see and hear the atrocities of war due to extreme, religious fundamentalism causing such suffering of innocent people in the world I have outlined the twisted egotistic ideologies of the few individuals who ‘want to rule the world and people’s minds’ through terror tactics.
In closing I wish to recall an incident I witnessed whilst working in the Middle East. It took place during the Iran-Iraq war a few year back. This occurred on an Arab TV channel that was showing pictures of that war.
The irony is that while the war rages on the soldiers in the battlefield kept a continuous barrage of firing on the opposing side while they do likewise. When the muezzin (priest) calls all believers to prayer (which is done five times a day) every man lays down his arms, spreads out his prayer mat and prays. The very moment it is finished they all are back in business — killing each other.
Brian Jansz, Pannipitiya See The Reply to this Article
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