Sabbah Report » Islam

2011 Ends on a Sour Note… Is Hamas Really a Mean-Minded Christmas Scrooge*?

Stuart Littlewood — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 18:08:26 +0000

The original construction of the Orthodox Church was built in the 6thCentury, in what is now Gaza

Phoebe Greenwood, writing from Gaza City in The Guardian on 23 December, reported:

"There hasn't been a Christmas tree in Gaza City's main square since Hamas pushed the Palestinian Authority out of Gaza in 2007 and Christmas is no longer a public holiday."

The headline said Hamas had "cancelled Christmas". Could this possibly be true?

When I visited Gaza in late 2007 Fr Manuel Mussallam, the feisty old priest in charge of the Catholic community, took me and others to meet Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and some of his colleagues. Relations between Christian and Muslim – or at least between the Catholic community and the Hamasgovernment – seemed strong enough and friendly enough for Christmas celebrations to be left undisturbed.

The very idea of a ban actually makes me smile because Scotland, a Christian country of course, saw Christmas as a papist festival and for centuries discouraged it. When I lived there it wasn't even a public holiday.

But back to the Strip... Is Hamas being beastly to Gaza's Christians? Has Phoebe Greenwood got her story straight? I wrote to her at The Guardian, pointing out that revelations of this kind in the popular British press undo the hard work activists put in to help the Palestinian cause. Could she please throw more light onto it? I've had no reply.

I'm in England and unable to contact Hamas. Phoebe Greenwood is on the spot. Shouldn't someone from Mr Haniyeh's office be given a chance to comment?

As for Fr Manuel, he has finally retired and left Gaza. The school he ran there, part-funded by the Vatican, had 1200 pupils. About 1000 were Muslim and some of these the children of Hamas leaders.

The relationship between Muslim and Christian in the Holy Land, and the potential for friction, is frequently poked and prodded simply to make mischief.

Those with a rightful cause versus those who took it away

Archbishop Theodosius Hanna (Greek Orthodox Church), on a visit to Ireland a year ago, told politicians:

"The problem in Palestine has nothing to do with religion – it is not a religious issue. It is not a conflict of Christians, Muslims and Jewish people. It is a conflict between those who are the holders of a rightful cause and those who took away that right by military might.

"Palestinian people as a whole, including Christians and Muslims, have said repeatedly that what they want is peace. We want two states that live together in peace. However, the reality on the ground is that we are extremely far away from that goal because Israel does not want peace."

Fr Manuel, who accompanied the Archbishop, told his listeners what happened when the Christian school in Gaza was targeted.

"Five Hamas ministers visited the school after it was attacked and promised they would repair the damage... A Hamas minister, a Muslim, picked up the Holy Bible thrown on the ground, kissed it and put it back on the altar. He said Muslims were forbidden to do such things to the Bible. Hamas paid more than $122,000 to repair all the damage caused.

"Afterwards I met the Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh. When he embraced me he said this, and we believed it. He said: "Go to your family, but be assured that Hamas will employ weapons against Muslims to protect Christians in Gaza." This is the reality. Christians in Palestine are not suffering persecution, because we are not considered to be a religious community, but rather the people of Palestine. We have the same rights and the same obligations."

From left: Archbishop Theodosius Hanna and Father Manuel Mussallam

It is hardly surprising that Israeli oppression aided and endorsed by western Christendom, and the grinding poverty this evil alliance creates in the occupied territories, drives some Muslims into the arms of Islamic extremism. Hamas insists that extremist acts are incidents not policy.

Fr Manuel went on to tell the Irish what things were really like under military occupation.

"We have spoken to Israel for more than 18 years and the result has been zero. We have signed agreements here and there at various times and then when there is a change in the government of Israel we have to start again from the beginning. We ask for our life and to be given back our Jerusalem, to be given our state and for enough water to drink. We want to be given more opportunity to reach Jerusalem. I have not seen Jerusalem since 1990."

He described the nightmarish system of entry and exit permits, which Israel invariably refused.

"We want to see an end to this occupation, and please do not ask us to protect those who are occupying our territory."

A week ago, on Christmas Day, the Voice of Palestine website ran this news item:

DAMASCUS – Hamas Movement have offered its best wishes to all Palestinian Christians in occupied Palestine, and other countries on the occasion of Prophet Jesus' birth and wished them a happy holiday.

"On the occasion of rejoicing the birth of Prophet Jesus peace of God be upon him, the Islamic Movement of Hamas extends its sincere wishes to all our fellow Christians in their homeland Palestine, the cradle of prophecies and the land of divine messages, as well as to the Palestinian Christians in the Arab and Islamic countries and the whole world," Hamas said in a press release on Saturday.

Hamas wished this occasion to be an opportunity for uniting the Palestinian people and pooling the efforts of the world's free people to support the Palestinian cause and protect the Islamic and Christian holy sites.

In the past Hamas has shown great respect for the Christian tradition of Christmas and, I hear, Hamas officials in Bethlehem used to dress up as Santa Claus to distribute gifts to Christian children. So the question remains: has Hamas really become such a Scrooge* as to torpedo Christmas with a tree ban?

If so, it's a sure-fire way to lose friends and alienate people.

* for more about the mean-mindedness of that notorious character Ebenezer Scrooge, and his hatred of Christmas, see 'A Christmas Carol' by Charles Dickens. Scrooge eventually sees the light and redeems himself.

* Stuart Littlewood is author of the book Radio Free Palestine, which tells the plight of the Palestinians under occupation. Read other articles by Stuart.

The Israeli Jewish War on Islam in Palestine

Khalid Amayreh — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 14:49:49 +0000

As Israeli Jewish terrorist attacks on mosques in occupied Palestine are assuming a phenomenal frequency.

Indeed, with the Israeli government and security establishment doing next to nothing to put an end to this wanton and unprovoked terror, a huge fire is being started in the region.

In religious wars, all sides are usually variably culpable and blamable. However, in the occupied Palestinian territories, Jewish fanatics bear nearly 100% of the blame.

Their attacks against mosques are not provoked by similar Palestinian attacks against Jewish religious places. In fact, Jewish terror groups readily admit that arson attacks against mosques are meant to embarrass the Israeli occupation army.

The attacks are perpetrated under the slogan "Price Tag" every time the Israeli army moves to dismantle a Jewish settlement outpost.

So why is it that the Palestinians and their places of worship are attacked, not the Israeli army?

Well, it takes a thoroughly sick mind to rationalize, even glamorize such attacks, but the Israeli settler camp never faces a shortage of virulence, mental depravity and mental sickness.

We are talking after all about the worst of the worst that racist, Talmudic Judaism could breed, people who view the rest of mankind as subhuman.

The practical implications of such a venomous ideology are enormous and absolutely nefarious. If non-Jews are subhuman, then their lives must be worthless, have no sanctity and expendable.

Think not I am making an exaggeration as it is difficult to exaggerate the evilness of these racist thugs who spend a lifetime demonizing and dehumanizing humanity as they celebrate their Chosen-people or Master-race status.

Unfortunately, the Israeli government and security establishment are giving these criminal-minded thugs a free rein to gang up on virtually unprotected Palestinian civilians, torch mosques and churches and vandalize olive groves throughout occupied Palestine.

It is very hard to buy the Israeli government's argument that these terrorists are a marginal group. But even if they were a marginal group, this wouldn't minimize the gravity of their terrorist actions.

The Nazi Hitler Youth was once viewed as a marginal group. However, the world saw what that "marginal" group was able to do during Kristalnacht in November, 1938.

Hence, the question begs itself whether the Israeli government should wait until the so-called hill-top "troublemakers" morph into a Jewish Hitler Youth.

Unfortunately, the Israeli government, the most fascist ever, can't be given the benefit of the doubt.

In the final analysis, the suspected connivance and obvious leniency with which the Netanyahu government treats these despicable criminals, along with the mind-boggling reluctance to prosecute them raise many hard questions about the nature of that government.

One Israeli writer, when asked recently why the government didn't exercise its legal authority to arrest and try Jewish terrorists who attack Muslim and Christian holy place, said a venomous snake wouldn't bit its own tail.

There is another worrying dimension to this obscenity, namely the virtually complete absence of real condemnations of these terrorist acts by Jewish leaders in Israel and abroad.

Jewish leaders in Europe and North America wouldn't wait a minute to condemn the slightest anti-Semitic attack on Jewish targets, even if this target happened to be a lone Jewish grave in an isolated village in Eastern Europe .

Even remarks or even slip-of-the-tongue jokes are castigated and people are made to pay a price.

However, when fellow Jews carry out outrageous acts of terror, arson and vandalism against mosques and churches, we see that these same Jewish leaders become speechless as if the acts of terror took place in a different galaxy.

The Jewish leadership must realize that the orphans of Kahana and thuggish terrorists of Gush Emunim are more than trouble makers. They are in fact criminal fire-starters whose pyromania could burn Jews as well as non-Jews.

Hence, Jewish leaders must have the necessary courage and rectitude to admit that Jewish terrorism is a two-lane street and that Muslims won't stand idle if their peaceable holy places continue to be torched and vandalized in the most blatant and unprovoked manner.

Of course, it would be naïve to expect verbal condemnations by Jewish leaders to stem the tide of Jewish settler terror against Muslim and Christian holy places.

However, this is the very least Jewish leaders should and can do to exonerate themselves from the ostensibly logical Charge that these leaders adopt a duplicitous attitude toward Jewish terror in Palestine by denouncing it when speaking to a non-Jewish audience while praising it privately.

Finally, the Palestinians themselves must not entrust the task of protecting mosques and Churches to Israel . The Palestinian Authority (PA) must deploy armed guards in the vicinity of mosques in order to protect them from Jewish terror. Crying out for help won't help very much. We have to do our own duty first and none would blame us for doing what anyone else would if they were in our shoes.

* Khalid Amayreh a journalist based in the Occupied Palestinian town of Dura. He obtained his MA in journalism from the University of Southern Illinois in 1983.

Jesus and the Cherry Tree

Mantiq al-Tayr — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 16:44:13 +0000

Video link: http://youtu.be/obp2J3rVgSA

Usually at this time of year I put up a Christmas post in which I feature the folk Christmas tune called "The Cherry Tree Carol" and I point out its relationship to the beautiful story of the birth of Jesus in the Quran. Items 1 and 2 below are taken from my original Cherry Tree Carol post from 2009. Sting's rendition of the song is just plain gorgeous. It will change your mood. Please take a few moments and give it a listen.

1. The Cherry Tree Carol is a haunting story of the mystery and beauty of Christmas derived from one of the apocryphal Gospels, that of Psuedo- Matthew, which is also know as The Infancy Gospel of Matthew.

In this now popular Christmas carol, Joseph and Mary are walking near or through an orchard of cherry trees. She asks Joseph to pick some cherries for her because she is with child and would appreciate a helping hand. Joseph, as husbands tend to do when they discover their wives are pregnant and they know they are not the father, gets angry and tells her to just let the guy who got her pregnant get the cherries for her. No doubt dejected and feeling rejected, Mary knows not what to do.

But then a voice cries out from within his mother's womb. It's the voice of Jesus who commands the cherry trees bow down so that his mother may have something to eat. The trees do what any tree would do if ordered by Jesus, they bow down and Mary exclaims to the effect of "Hey Joseph, look, I can get all the cherries I want, nyah nyah." Joseph then realizes that there's more going on than he at first realized.

Now in the Psuedo-Gospel of Matthew, Chapter Twenty, the story as one might expect, is a bit different, but the similarities are clear. In this version, thought to be the inspiration for The Cherry Tree Carol, Mary, Joseph and a very infant Jesus are in the desert in Egypt and are exhausted from the heat. They come across a date palm tree where they rest. Mary asks Joseph for some dates, but they are pretty high up in the tree and he whines about it saying that instead she should be concerned because of the lack of water and their thirst. The baby Jesus orders the date palm to lower it's branches and his Mother is able to eat. Now the date palm, being humble and worshipful, did not rise back up after she had eaten, but rather it awaited Jesus' command. Jesus tells it to rise, says it will have its place in paradise, and then he makes one more request of it – something interesting in light of the Quranic version of this story that I will discuss below. He asks it to provide water through one of its hidden roots and it does so – providing clear, cool and sparkling water for the three of them and their animals.

2. Many features of the Cherry Tree Carol and the story from which it is derived are found in the Quranic version of the story in Surah 19, verses 16-34. In this version Joseph is noticeably absent, an absence which highlights the miraculous nature of Jesus' birth. The angel Gabriel appears to Mary, who has gone away from her people for some sort of religious purpose, in fully human form and tells her she will give birth to a son. She is astonished by this and asks how on earth that could be possible since she has never been touched by a man. Gabriel tells her that this is easy for God and that her son will be sent as a mercy to mankind.

So she is now with child and is driven to a date palm tree during the pains of childbirth, pains so severe she wishes she had never been born. But then a voice cries out – said by commentators to be that of Gabriel though in my own view it could even be that of Jesus – who tells her that all is well and that water has been provided for her beneath her feet. He then tells her to shake the date-palm and that fresh and ripe dates will come pouring down. He tells her to eat and drink and "cool thine eye." Lastly the voice commands her that if she comes across any man to say that she has vowed to speak to no one that day.

The next thing we see is Mary carrying her new baby back to her people who challenge her morality, as she had no doubt expected and feared. But keeping to her command, she said nothing to them and merely pointed to her baby. The crowd mocked her telling her that they could not possibly converse with a new born. At this point, the baby Jesus performs his own version of "enough is enough" as he addresses the crowd in no uncertain terms telling them, among other things, that God has made him a prophet and that he is to be blessed wherever he is. He also tells them that he has been commanded to be faithful to his mother, something he clearly intends to do. No doubt the audience was dumb struck. . .

The new-born Jesus then closes: "And peace be upon me the day I was born, the day that I die, and the day that I am raised up alive."

3. The video below is the entire Surah of Mary recited in Arabic by Shaykh Idris Akbar. The story of Mary and her baby begins at exactly 2:59 into the video and runs to about 8:06. So if you want to hear the Quranic story of the birth of Jesus recited in Arabic by a great reciter, enjoy. The video includes the Arabic script so readers of this page who are studying Arabic can follow along.

When you hear "wathkur filkitaab Maryam" you will know you are at the start of the right section.

Video link: http://youtu.be/_PESbd1PqkE

4. The story of Jesus in the Quran may well have saved the lives of about 80 to 100 of the first Muslims living in Mecca with Muhammad. They had to flee Mecca to Abyssinia because of religious persecution and they sought refuge from the Christian ruler there. The Meccans tried to bribe the ruler into forcing them to return to Mecca, but this ruler actually behaved like a Christian ruler should and granted the Muslims asylum. (No doubt he'd never stand a chance of becoming the president of the US today, but I digress.) As part of the discussion and debate between the pagan Meccans who had come to Abysinnia to bribe the ruler on the one hand, and the Muslims seeking protection on the other, the Muslims recited the story about Jesus to which I have linked above. After hearing it, the Christian ruler was so moved that he granted his protection to them. Things sure have changed.

A frequent commentator on this blog, Perry, mentioned the film on Muhammad's life called "The Message" produced by the late Mustafa Akkad. Akkad did two versions of the film, one in Arabic and one in English – filming them at the same time and using different actors. Below is the English version of the story of the King of Abyssinia. Very nicely done. Thanks to Perry for bringing this movie back to my mind.

Video link: http://youtu.be/KePlv9olUAU

5. I also love Judy Collins' rendition of the Cherry Tree Carol.

Video link: http://youtu.be/YNeQNQdo8TM

6. "No US administration has done more in support of Israel's security than ours. None. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise. It is a fact," Obama told a cheering crowd.

"To back up his position, Obama cited American cooperation with Israel on developing the Iron Dome anti-rocket system, efforts to clear out the besieged Israeli embassy in Cairo in September, and actions to counter attempts to delegitimize Israel in international forums like the United Nations."

"Shoring up his hard line on Iran, Obama reiterated that no options were off the table inpreventing the Islamic Republic from obtaining a nuclear weapon, and touted his administration's imposition of "the most comprehensive, the hardest-hitting sanctions the Iranian regime has ever faced. We haven't just talked about it, we've done it."

7. Israel goes entire week without killing a Palestinian in Gaza, but finally gets its fix.

8. Somebody help me here, just why is it that we are supposed to kill these people? Abe? Alan? Newt? Michelle? Mitt? Herman? Barack? Please remind me, I just can't seem to remember.

(Note to Shas Party members, the young lady on your right in the video below has a beautiful voice. Not to be missed.)

Video link: http://youtu.be/nEX_G7wZlFY

Merry Christmas folks.

The Washington – “Moderate Islam” Alliance: Containing Rebellion Defending Empire

James Petras — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 10:43:35 +0000

The dynamic of democratic, nationalist and class struggles throughout the Muslim world has set in motion a new constellation of alliances between the imperial West (US and European Union) and Islamist parties, leaders and regimes, dubbed "moderate" by US officials, propagandists and academics.

This essay analyzes the changing contemporary context of imperial domination, especially the demise of longstanding client regimes. It then examines the previous significant ties between western imperial powers and Islamist movements and regimes and the basis of 'historical collaboration'.

The third part of the paper will outline the political circumstances in which the imperial powers embrace "moderate" Islamists in government and utilize "armed fundamentalists" in opposition to secular regimes. We will critically analyze how "moderate" Islam is defined by the Western imperialist powers. Is this a tactical or strategic alliance? What are the political "trade-offs"? What do imperialism's neo-liberal clients and their new 'moderate' Muslim allies have in common and how do they differ?

In conclusion we will evaluate the viability of this alliance and its capacity to contain and deflect the popular democratic movements and repress the burgeoning class and national struggles, especially in regard to the 'obstacles' posed by the Israel-US-Zionist ties and the continued IMF policies which promise to worsen the crises in the Muslim countries.

The Transition from Neo-Liberal Client Rulers to Power-Sharing with Moderate Islamists

The key motivation in Washington's and the European imperial troika's (England, France and Germany) embrace of what their press and officialdom hail as "moderate" Islamist parties has been the collapse or weakening of their long-term client rulers. Faced with the ouster of Mubarak, in Egypt, Ali in Tunisia and Saleh in Yemen, mass protests in Morocco and Algeria, the US-EU turned to conservative Muslim leaders who were willing to work within the existing state institutional framework (including the army and state police), uphold the capitalist order and align with the empire against anti-imperial movements and states. In Egypt, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) (the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood), in Tunisia the Renaissance Party, in Morocco the Justice and Development Party have all indicated their willingness to serve as reliable partners in blocking the pro-democracy movements that challenge the socio-economic status quo and the long-standing military-imperial linkages.

The Islamist collaborators are called "moderate and respectable" because they agree to participate in elections within the boundaries of the established political and economic order; they have dropped any criticism of imperial and colonial treaties and trade agreements signed by the previous client regions - including ones which collaborate with Israel's colonization of Palestine.

Equally important "moderate" means supporting imperial wars against nationalist and secular Arab republics, such as Syria and Libya, and isolating and/or repressing class based trade unions and secular-left parties.

"Moderate" Islamists have become the Empire's 'contraceptive of choice' against any chance the massive Arab peoples' revolt might give birth to substantive egalitarian social changes and bring those brutal pro- western officials, responsible for so many crimes against humanity, to justice.

The West and their client officials in the military and police have agreed to a kind of "power-sharing' with the moderate/respectable (read 'reactionary') Islamist parties. The Islamists would be responsible for imposing orthodox economic policies and re-establishing 'order' (i.e. bolstering the existing one) in partnership with pro-multinational bank economists and pro US-EU generals and security officials. In exchange the Islamists could take certain ministries, appoint their members, finance electoral clientele among the poor and push their 'moderate' religious, social and cultural agenda. Basically, the elected Islamists would replace the old corrupt dictatorial regimes in running the state and signing off on more free trade agreements with the EU. Their role would keep the leftists, nationalists and populists out of power and from gaining mass support. Their job would substitute spiritual solace and "inner worth" via Islam in place of redistributing land, income and power from the elite, including the foreign multi-nationals to the peasants, workers, unemployed and exploited low-paid employees.

Why the Empire Arms Fundamentalist Anti-Secular Muslims

While the US and EU have backed respectable "moderate Islam" in heading off a popular upheaval of the young and unemployed, in other contexts they have enlisted violent, fundamentalist Islamic terrorists to overthrow secular independent anti-imperialists regimes - like Libya, Syria - just as they had done earlier in Afghanistan and Yugoslavia. The US, Qatar and the European troika financed and armed Libyan fundamentalist militias and then engaged in a murderous eight months air and sea assault to ensure their client's 'victory' over the secular Gaddafi regime. Fresh from NATO's success, the US, the European 'Troika' and Turkey, with the backing of the League of Arab collaborator princes and emirs, have financed a violent Muslim Brotherhood insurrection in Syria, intent on destroying the nationalist economy and modern secular state.

The US and EU have openly unleashed their fundamentalists allies in order to destroy independent adversaries in the name of "democracy" and 'humanitarian intervention', a laughable claim in light of decade long colonial wars of occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan. All target regimes have one crime in common: Using their national resources to develop modern secular states - independent of imperial dictates.

NATO implements its campaigns through conservative 'moderate' or armed fundamentalist Islamist movements depending on the specific needs, circumstances and range of options in any given target nation. With the fall of pro-Empire 'secular dictatorships' in Egypt and Tunisia, pliable conservative Islamist leaders are the fall back "lesser evil". When the opportunity to overthrow an independent secular or nationalist regime arises, armed and violent fundamentalist mercenaries become the political vehicle of choice.

As with European empires in the past, the modern Western imperial countries have relied on retrograde religious parties and leaders to collaborate and serve their economic and military interests and to provide mercenaries for imperial armies to savage any anti-imperialist social revolutionaries. In that sense US and European rulers are neither 'pro nor anti' Islam, it all depends on their national and class position. Islamists who collaborate with Empire are "moderate" allies and if they attack an anti-imperialist regime, they become 'freedom fighters'. On the other hand, they become "terrorists" or "fundamentalists" when they oppose imperial occupation, pillage or colonial settlements.

Contemporary History of Islamist-Imperial Collaboration

The historical record of western imperial expansion reveals many instances of collaboration and cooptation as well as conflict with Islamist regimes, movements and parties. In the early 1960's the CIA backed a brutal military coup against the secular Indonesian nationalist regime of Sukarno, and encouraged their puppet dictator General Suharto to unleash Muslim militia in a veritable "holy war" exterminating nearly one million leftist trade unionists, school teachers, students, farmers, communists or suspected sympathizers and their family members. The horrific 'Jakarta Option' became a model for CIA operations elsewhere. In Yugoslavia the US and Europe promoted and financed fundamentalists Muslims in Bosnia, importing mujahedeen who would later form part of Al Qaida, and then backed the Kosovo Liberation Army, a known terrorist organization, in order to completely break-up and ethnically 'cleanse' a modern secular multi-national state - going so far as to have Americans and NATO bomb Belgrade for the first time since the Nazis in the Second World War.

During President Carter's administration, the CIA joined with Saudi Arabia's ruling royalty, providing billions of dollars in arms and military supplies to Afghan Muslim fundamentalists in their brutal but successful Jihad overthrowing a modern, secular nationalist regime backed by the USSR. The murderous fate of school teachers and educated women in the aftermath was quickly covered up.

Needless to say, wherever US imperialism faces leftists or secular, modernizing anti-imperialist regimes, Washington turns to retrograde Islamic leaders willing and able to destroy the progressive regime in return for imperialist support. Such coalitions are built mainly around fundamentalist and moderate Islamist opposition to secular, class- based politics allied with the Empire's hostility to any anti-imperialist challenge to its domination..

The same 'coalition' of Islamists and the Empire has been glaringly obvious during the NATO assault on Libya and continues against Syria: The Muslims provide the shock troops on the ground; NATO provides the aerial bombing, funds, arms, sanctions, embargoes and propaganda.

These Islamist-Imperialist coalitions are usually temporary, based on a common secular or nationalist enemy and not on any common strategic interest. After the defeat of a secular anti-imperialist regime, militant Muslims may find themselves attacked by the colonial neo-liberal regime most favored by the imperial west. This happened in Afghanistan and elsewhere after the overseas Islamist fighters (Afghan Arabs) returned to their own neo-colonized, collaborating home countries, like Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Egypt and elsewhere.

Contemporary History of Islamist-Imperial Conflict

The relation between Islamist regimes and imperialism is complex, changing and full of examples of bloody conflict.

The US backed the "modernizing" free market dictatorship of the Shah in Iran, overthrowing the nationalist Mosaddegh regime. They provided arms and intelligence for the Savak, the Shah's monstrous secret police as it hunted down and murdered tens of thousands of nationalist-Islamists and leftist resistance fighters and critics in Iran and abroad. The rise to power of the fundamentalist-anti-imperialist Khomeini regime fueled US armed attacks and provoked retaliatory moves: Iran backed and financed anti-colonial Islamist groups in Lebanon (Hezbollah), Palestine (Hamas) and Iraq (the Shia parties).

Subsequent to 9/11 the US invaded and overthrew the Islamist Taliban regime, re-colonized the country, establishing a puppet regime under US-European auspices. The Taliban and allied Islamist and nationalist resistance fighters organized and established a mass guerrilla army which has engaged in a decade long war with armed support from Pakistani Islamist forces responding to US military incursions.

In Palestine, Washington, under the overweening control of Israel's Zionist fifth column, has armed and financed Israel's war against the popularly elected Palestinian Islamist Hamas government in Gaza. Washington's total commitment to the Jewish state and its colonial expansion and usurpation of Palestinian (Muslim and Christian) lands and property in Jerusalem and elsewhere reflects the profound and pervasive influence of the Zionist power configuration throughout the US political system .They secure 90% votes in Congress, pledges of allegiance from the White House, and senior appointments in Treasury, State Department and the Pentagon.

What determines whether the US Empire will have a collaborative or conflict-ridden relation with Islam depends on the specific political context. The US allies with Islamists when faced with nationalist, leftist and secular democratic regimes and movements, especially where their optimal choice, a military-neo-liberal alternative is relatively weak. However, faced with a nationalist, anti-colonial Islamist regime (as is the case of the Islamic Republic of Iran), Washington will side with pro-western liberals, dissident Muslim clerics, pliable tribal chiefs, separatist ethnic minorities and pro-Western generals.

The key to US-Islamist relations from the White House perspective is based on the Islamists' attitude toward empire, class politics, NATO and the "free market" (private foreign investment).

Today's 'moderate' Islamist parties in Tunisia, Egypt, Turkey, Morocco (and elsewhere), which have offered their support to NATO and its wars against Libya and Syria, uphold 'private property' (i.e. foreign and imperialist client control of key industries) and repress independent working class and anti-imperialist parties: They are the Empire's "new partners" in the pillage of the resource-rich Middle East and North Africa.

The US-brokered counter-revolutionary alliance among moderate Islamists, the previous military rulers and Washington is fraught with tensions. The military demands total impunity and a continuation of its economic privileges; this includes a veto on any legislation addressing the previous regime's brutal crimes against its own people. On the other hand, the Islamist parties uphold their electoral victories and demand majority rule. Washington insists the alliance adhere to its policy toward Israel and abandon their support for the Palestinian national struggle. As these tensions and conflicts deepen, the alliance could collapse ushering in a new phase of conflict and instability.

Emblematic of "moderate Islamiist" collaboration with US-EU imperialism is the role of Qatar, home to the 'respectable' Arabic media giant, Al-Jazeera, and the demagogic Qatari "spiritual guide" Sheik Youssef al-Qaradawi. Sheik Youssef quotes the Koran and Islamic moral principles in defense of NATO's 8-month aerial bombing of Libya, which killed over 50,000 pro-regime Libyans (themselves Muslims). He calls for armed imperial intervention in Syria to overthrow the secular Assad regime, a position he shares comfortably with the state of Israel. He urges the "moderate Islamists" in Egypt and Tunisia to cease any criticism of the existing economic order, ( see "Spiritual guide steers Arabs to moderation", Financial Times, December 9, 2011 - p5). In a word, this respectable Muslim cleric is NATO's perfect Koran-quoting "moderate Islamist" partner - a dream come true.

The Strategic Utility of "Moderate" Islamist Parties

Islamist parties are approached by the Empire's policy elites only when they have a mass following and can therefore weaken any popular, nationalist insurgency. Mass-based Islamist parties serve the empire by providing "legitimacy", by winning elections and by giving a veneer of respectability to the pro-imperial military and police apparatus retained in place from the overthrown client state dictatorships.

The Islamist parties compete at the "grass roots" with the leftists. They build up a clientele of supporters among the poor in the countryside and urban slums through organized charity and basic social services administered at the mosques and humanitarian religious foundations. Because they reject class struggle and are intensely hostile to the left (with its secular, pro-feminist and working-class agenda), they have been 'half-tolerated' by the dictatorship, while the leftist activists are routinely murdered. Subsequently, with the overthrow of the dictatorship, the Islamists emerge intact with the strongest national organizational network as the country's 'natural leaders' from the religious-bazaar merchant political elite. Their leaders offer to serve the empire and its traditional native military collaborators in exchange for a 'slice of power', especially over morality, culture, religion and households (women), in other words, the "micro-society".

For their part, they offer to marginalize and undermine the left, anti-imperialist secular democrats in the streets. In the face of mass popular rebellion calling into question the imperial order, a 'moderate' Islamist-imperial partnership is a 'heavenly deal' praised in Washington, Paris or London (as well as Riyadh and Tel Aviv).

Conclusion: How Viable is the Imperial-Islamic Coalition?

Those who thought that the spontaneous pro-democracy movements spelled the end of the imperial order left out the role of organized "moderate" Islamist electoral parties as able collaborators of Empire. The brutally repressed mass mobilization of unemployed youth was no match for the well-funded grass roots community organization of the moderate Islamists. This is especially true when politics shifted from the street to the ballot box, a process that the Islamist parties facilitated. In the absence of a mass revolutionary party, seeking state power, the existing military-police state was able to work around the mass protesters and put together a power sharing agreement at least in the short-run.

In the November 2011 elections, the radical Egyptian Islamist party, Nour, gathered one-quarter of the vote in Cairo and Alexandria. Their showing was even higher among the urban poor districts, which promises even greater support among poor rural constituencies in the coming elections. Essentially a Salafist Islamist party, Nour, unlike the Muslim Brotherhood, combined denunciations of class abuses and elite corruption with mass appeals to a return to a mythic harmonious life. They used effective grass roots organizing around basic services in order to gain a greater proportion of the working class vote than all the leftist parties combined. Nour's message of "class retribution against the ...abuses of Egypt's elite fueled Nour's new found popularity", (Financial Times December 10, 2011 p6).

Despite the successes of the Islamist-Imperial partnership, the world economic crises and especially the growing unemployment and misery in the Arab countries will make it difficult for the 'respectable moderate' Islamists to stabilize their societies. They are inextricably constrained by their alliances to function within the confines of the 'orthodox neo-liberal framework' imposed by the Empire. For that reason, the "moderate" Islamists will try to co-opt some secular liberals, social democrats and even a few leftists as 'minority partners', so that they won't be held solely responsible for dashing the expectations of the poor in their countries.

The fact of the matter is that the pro-imperial Islamist parties have absolutely no answer to the current crises: Charities delivered from the mosque during the dictatorship won them mass support; now more austerity programs imposed from their ministerial posts will certainly alienate and infuriate their mass base. What will follow depends on who is best organized: Liberals are limited to media campaigns and tied to economic orthodoxy; the leftists have to advance from protest movements in the downtown squares to organized political units operating in popular neighborhoods, workplaces, markets, villages and slums. Otherwise radical fundamentalist, like the Salafists, will exploit the people's outrage with moderate Islamist betrayals and promote their own version of a closed clerical society, opposing the West while repressing the Left.

The US and EU may have 'temporarily' avoided revolution by accommodating electoral reforms and adapting to alliances with "moderate" Islamists, but their ongoing military interventions and their own growing economic crisis will simply postpone a more decisive conflict in the near future.

* James Petras is the author of more than 62 books published in 29 languages, and over 600 articles in professional journals. Petras' latest books, Global Depression and Regional Wars (Atlanta, Clarity Press, 2009) is the third in a series, including Zionism, Militarism and the Decline of US Power (Atlanta, Clarity Press 2008) and The Power of Israel in the United States (Atlanta, Clarity Press 2006), analyzing the influence of militarism and Zionism in American foreign policy.

America’s modern barbarism

Lawrence Davidson — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 17:22:49 +0000

Has anyone noticed that the political air is wafting rancid lately? That is the smell of modern barbarism. Modern barbarism is a malodorous umbrella concept. Underneath the umbrella are lots of fetid phobias, isms and behaviours: Islamophobia, homophobia, xenophobia, semi-fascism, scapegoating, stereotyping, bullying, libelling and a growing, aggressive intolerance of everything and everyone who is not to the liking of the modern barbarian.

Here are some recent instances of this phenomenon.

Mistaking the particular for the general

Michael Quigley, a Democratic congressman from Chicago

Michael Quigley, a Democratic congressman from Chicago, made the New York Times on 24 September 2011. He made it by promoting the virtues of tolerance and diversity and lamenting the suffering that occurs when tolerance fails. Out and about in his Chicago district, he stopped in at a meeting of the American Islamic Conference. He made a short speech to the 100 or so conferees during which he said "discrimination comes in many forms, many shapes and many guises. You have my pledge to work with you to fight them, and I think it is appropriate for me to apologize on behalf of this country for the discrimination you face."

Quigley was correct about the growing levels of Islamophobia that confront Muslim Americans. Islamophobia is a delusional mind-set which mistakes the general for the particular, which condemns an entire group (which happens to have a billion plus members) for the particular actions of a very few. There is no logic to such an overreaching generalization. It is irrational.

Within days of Quigley's brief presentation he was "attacked harshly ... in the conservative blogosphere ... on radio and TV". There was "at least one death threat on a Fox news site that by week's end was still not taken down despite requests".

Along with "hundreds of nasty calls, emails and faxes" received by Quigley's office, he was soon lambasted by Bill O'Reilly, again on Fox, who denied that there was anything to apologize for. "What discrimination?" O'Reilly asked. "Statistics don't support claims of bias against Muslim Americans."

O'Reilly was simply wrong about this. As Ahmed Rehab, Executive Director of the Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), commented, O'Reilly would "have to be living under a rock" to believe there was no evidence. Both federal statistics on workplace complaints of discrimination and a recent report [.PDF] issued by the CAIR in conjunction with the Centre for Peace and Gender at the University of California at Berkeley have documented the rise of Islamophobia since the 9/11 attacks.

Despite O'Reilly being factually wrong on the issue of rising prejudice against Muslim Americans, Quigley's apology continued to draw scorn. Soon some right-wing spokesmen were trying to use the apology to call attention to what they believed to be the violent nature of Muslim culture. Ralph Peters, who might be thought of as a professional anti-Muslim, called Quigley, who is just 51 years old, a "silly old fool" and said you might as well "apologize for preventing them [Muslims] from beating their daughters to death for flirting".

First of all such violence is not a trait of Islam. Secondly, the United States could be made to look like hell on earth for women simply by over-concentrating on nationwide instances of spousal abuse. Such is the danger of mistaking the particular for the general.

Cheers and jeers

At about the same time Islamophobia was also playing havoc with Republican politics in Florida. Nezar Hamze, a long time Republican as well as CAIR's South Florida Director, was systematically discriminated against (to the point of the purposeful changing of local party selection rules) when he stood for election to the Broward County Republican Executive Committee. Usually those who want to serve on this committee are automatically accepted. It was "the first time ... anyone could recall ... [someone being turned down] in a county where Republicans complain about being outnumbered by Democrats." When Hamze's membership in the executive committee was denied, the 300 or so people present at the meeting "cheered loudly". Those cheers were strikingly similar to the foot stomping and applauds that have been heard from the audiences attending the Republican presidential primary debates.

At the Republican debates it is not only Islamophobia that is on display, but rabid reactions to gay rights, scorn for the vulnerability of the uninsured and calls for the blood of those on death row.

To this you can add the following stances that have come to the fore under the influence of a wave of modern barbarism centred in the ranks of the Republican party: Tea Party assertions that environmentalism is "unbiblical" and cutting taxes for the rich is righteous; health care reform is "the equivalent of drug dealing" (Rick Santorum); there is a serious threat of America turning into a "secular atheist country ... dominated by radical Islamists" (Newt Gingrich); "those who believe in evolution are part of a cult following" (Michelle Bachman); and the friendly embracing of fundamentalists who believe that the Statue of Liberty is a "demonic idol" (Rick Perry).

Who are these people who give tea a bad name and show up at presidential debates only to behave as if they are enjoying a bear baiting exhibition? Actually, they are Richard Hofstadter's politically paranoid, Eric Hoffer's true believers and Ortega y Gasset's revolting masses. They are people who are always with us even in the midst of modernity. And they obviously feel that, here in America, it is now their time. Maybe they are correct. They have captured one of the two main parties in the US, taken at least temporary control of the House of Representatives and fashioned a slate of Republican presidential hopefuls in their own image. As has been noted, in the midst of the cheering and jeering of these modern barbarians "not one Republican candidate...spoke up to admonish the crowd and call for civility".

Conclusion

For the rest of America to ignore what is going on here is the equivalent of turning one's back on a mugging in progress. And what is being mugged is the entire country.

Actually, this threat has been building up for some time. What do you think Ronald Reagan was doing, in terms of both domestic and foreign policies, if not laying the ground for George Bush Jr?

And the Democrats too have done their share to prepare the ground. Bill Clinton helped deregulate the economy to the delight of the devotees of greed and corruption, while simultaneously destroying the lives of millions of Iraqi innocents through draconian sanctions.

President Obama has allied with racists in the Middle East and let go free torturers and war criminals in our own midst.

Indeed, how many of us, politicians and voters, have turned a blind eye to the repeated bipartisan orgies of blood that sacrificed millions in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, among other places.

Who are these people? Well, intellectually speaking they are our lumpen proletariat. The one-dimensional thinkers and political savages that, until recently, had dwelled on the fringes of the conservative movement.

However, in another way they are a reflection of all of us and our frustrations with the built-in inadequacies of the democratic system. Winston Churchill was right when he said that democracy was the worst political system, except for all the others. The recurrent corruption, constant double standards, favouritism and influence peddling can get us all down.

But what sets the modern barbarians apart is their simple-minded intention to essentially dismantle government with nothing but a vague and vengeful minimalism in mind as a replacement. They are, if you will, intimations of our collective political ID.

So, Dr Jekyll, meet Mr Hyde. Who will it be? If you think you really share the character of Dr Jekyll, then you better assert yourself. Get active, get political, speak out, take a progressive stand. Otherwise, modern barbarism will have its way.

* Lawrence Davidson is professor of history at West Chester University. He is the author of numerous books, including Islamic Fundamentalism and America's Palestine: Popular and Official Perceptions from Balfour to Israeli Statehood.

Countering slurs

Paul J. Balles — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 15:24:32 +0000

Fordson High School is a secondary school in Dearborn, Michigan. At times Dearborn has been a victim of hostility toward its Muslim community. The city has the largest concentration of Arabs outside of the Middle East.

The school and its football (American football) team is the setting for the new film "Fordson: Faith, Fasting, Football".

In recent years, Fordson's team faced a range of challenges, from racial slurs hurled at them while playing to being falsely accused of being terrorists.

The film, about Faith (Islam), Fasting (Muslims during Ramadan) and Football (the film's setting), premiered on September 9th, two days before the tenth anniversary of 9/11.

The team had to train during Ramadan, and in order to fast for the month, they set their practice times from 11 pm to 4 am.

Paul Brunick, reviewing the film for the New York Times, notes that "...sound bites of unidentified but recognizable talk radio and cable news mainstays are the kind of provocations regularly criticized by media watchdogs."

A narrator in the film says, "We've been called many names: an Islamic School, an Arabic School, a Hezbollah High School, camel jockeys, damn Arabs, towel heads, sand niggers."

One of the students comments, "It's real hate; you can feel it." But they're young, they're football players and they want to win, not just on the football field but as Arab Americans.

Says the narrator, "But when all of this hatemongering is mashed together with a sweeping orchestral march, the individual instances of bigotry are transformed into something larger: a glimpse of how monstrous our post-9/11 hysteria may appear to future students of American history."

In the film, residents of Dearborn react to the events of 9/11. One man says, "Please God, don't let them be Arabs" about those who flew the planes into the twin towers.

Another reflects, "We were hit twice; once by Osama bin Laden and second by those who associated us with Osama bin Laden."

Very few films or TV programmes portray Arabs in a favourable light. Those that do need to counter the negative images reflected in the bigotry of a century in Hollywood.

Films like Oscar nominated "Syriana" and "Kingdom of Heaven," which display Arabs and Muslims as people rather than stereotypes, can help break down the image that has been built up for years.

As Professor Emeritus Jack Shaheen made clear in his landmark study Reel Bad Arabs and his documentary based on the book, Hollywood has a long and reprehensible record of vilifying Arabs.

In a 2008 interview for Lebanon's Daily Star, Jim Quilty noted that "Regarded as a sort of 'Orientalism' for film junkies, Shaheen's book inspired 'Planet of the Arabs,' Jackie Salloum's 2003 video that stitches together nine minutes of reprehensible Arab representations like a feature-film trailer. In 2006, the book generated Sut Jhall's documentary 'Reel Bad Arabs'."

In the same year as his documentary appeared, Shaheen released his new book, "Guilty: Hollywood's verdict on Arabs after 9/11." In it, he reveals that instead of an improved image of Arabs, their portrayal has worsened following 9/11.

A review in Publishers Weekly points out that "In an index of more than 100 post-9/11 films, the book depicts and debunks the most prevalent stereotypes of reel Arabs—exotic camel-riding nomad, oppressed maiden, corrupt sheikh, terrorist. Dehumanizing portrayals of Arabs have real consequences..."

The road to deserved improvement of the Arab image in the west will be paved with films that portray Arabs as they really are.

It's time to put ignorant stereotypes to rest by countering the propaganda with reality as in the Fordson film.

* Paul J. Balles is a retired American university professor and freelance writer who has lived in the Middle East for many years. He's a weekly Op-Ed columnist for the Gulf Daily News. Dr. Balles is also Editorial Consultant for Red House Marketing and a regular contributor to Bahrain This Month.

FBI Teaches Agents: ‘Mainstream’ Muslims Are ‘Violent, Radical’

SR Editor — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 19:21:55 +0000

By Spencer Ackerman

The FBI is teaching its counterterrorism agents that "main stream" [sic] American Muslims are likely to be terrorist sympathizers; that the Prophet Mohammed was a "cult leader"; and that the Islamic practice of giving charity is no more than a "funding mechanism for combat."

At the Bureau's training ground in Quantico, Virginia, agents are shown a chart contending that the more "devout" a Muslim, the more likely he is to be "violent." Those destructive tendencies cannot be reversed, an FBI instructional presentation adds: "Any war against non-believers is justified" under Muslim law; a "moderating process cannot happen if the Koran continues to be regarded as the unalterable word of Allah."

These are excerpts from dozens of pages of recent FBI training material on Islam that Danger Room has acquired. In them, the Constitutionally protected religious faith of millions of Americans is portrayed as an indicator of terrorist activity.

"There may not be a 'radical' threat as much as it is simply a normal assertion of the orthodox ideology," one FBI presentation notes. "The strategic themes animating these Islamic values are not fringe; they are main stream."

The FBI isn't just treading on thin legal ice by portraying ordinary, observant Americans as terrorists-in-waiting, former counterterrorism agents say. It's also playing into al-Qaida's hands.

Focusing on the religious behavior of American citizens instead of proven indicators of criminal activity like stockpiling guns or using shady financing makes it more likely that the FBI will miss the real warning signs of terrorism. And depicting Islam as inseparable from political violence is exactly the narrative al-Qaida spins - as is the related idea that America and Islam are necessarily in conflict. That's why FBI whistleblowers provided Danger Room with these materials.

Over the past few years, American Muslim civil rights groups have raised alarm about increased FBI and police presence in Islamic community centers and mosques, fearing that their lawful behavior is being targeted under the broad brush of counterterrorism. The documents may help explain the heavy scrutiny.

They certainly aren't the first time the FBI has portrayed Muslims in a negative light during Bureau training sessions. As Danger Room reported in July, the FBI's Training Division has included anti-Islam books, and materials that claim Islam "transforms [a] country's culture into 7th-century Arabian ways." When Danger Room confronted the FBI with that material, an official statement issued to us claimed, "The presentation in question was a rudimentary version used for a limited time that has since been replaced."

But these documents aren't relics from an earlier era. One of these briefings, titled "Strategic Themes and Drivers in Islamic Law," took place on March 21.

The Islam briefings are elective, not mandatory. "A disclaimer accompanied the presentation stating that the views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. government," FBI spokesman Christopher Allen tells Danger Room.

"The training materials in question were delivered as Stage Two training to counterterrorism-designated agents," Allen adds. "This training was largely derived from a variety of open source publications and includes the opinion of the analyst that developed the lesson block."

Not all counterterrorism veterans consider the briefings so benign. "Teaching counterterrorism operatives about obscure aspects of Islam," says Robert McFadden, who recently retired as one of the Navy Criminal Investigative Service's al-Qaida-hunters, "without context, without objectivity, and without covering other non-religious drivers of dangerous behavior is no way to stop actual terrorists."

Still, at Quantico, the alleged connection between Islam and violence isn't just stipulated. It's literally graphed.

An FBI presentation titled "Militancy Considerations" measures the relationship between piety and violence among the texts of the three Abrahamic faiths. As time goes on, the followers of the Torah and the Bible move from "violent" to "non-violent." Not so for devotees of the Koran, whose "moderating process has not happened." The line representing violent behavior from devout Muslims flatlines and continues outward, from 610 A.D. to 2010. In other words, religious Muslims have been and always will be agents of aggression.

Training at Quantico isn't designed for intellectual bull sessions or abstract theory, according to FBI veterans. The FBI conducts its training so that both seasoned agents and new recruits can sharpen their investigative skills.

In this case, the FBI's Allen says, the counterterrorism agents who received these briefings have "spent two to three years on the job." The briefings are written accordingly. The stated purpose of one, about allegedly religious-sanctioned lying, is to "identify the elements of verbal deception in Islam and their impacts on Law Enforcement." Not "terrorism." Not even "Islamist extremism." Islam.

What's more, the Islamic "insurgency" is all-encompassing and insidious. In addition to outright combat, its "techniques" include "immigration" and "law suits." So if a Muslim wishes to become an American or sues the FBI for harassment, it's all just part of the jihad.

On Tuesday, the leaders of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security, Joe Lieberman (I-Connecticut) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), warned that law enforcement lacks "meaningful standards" to prevent anti-Islam material from seeping into counterterrorism training. Some FBI veterans suspect the increased pressure on American Muslims has a lot to do with the kind of training that Quantico offers.

"Seeing the materials FBI agents are being trained with certainly helps explain why we've seen so many inappropriate FBI surveillance operations broadly targeting the Muslim-American community, from infiltrating mosques with agents provocateur to racial- and ethnic-mapping programs," Mike German, a former FBI agent now with the American Civil Liberties Union, tells Danger Room after being shown the documents. "Biased police training can only result in biased policing." (Full disclosure: This reporter's wife works for the ACLU.)

The chief of the Training Division, Assistant FBI Director Thomas Browne, came into his current job in January. His official biography lists no terrorism expertise beyond serving as a coordinator for a bureau "Domestic Terrorism Program" in Tennessee sometime in the last decade.

It is unclear what vetting process the FBI used to approve these briefings; if any Muslim scholars contributed to them; and what criteria Quantico uses to determine Islamic expertise. "The development of effective training is a constantly evolving process," says FBI spokesman Allen. "Sometimes the training is adapted for long-term use. This particular training segment was delivered a single time and not used since."

Several of these briefings were the work of a single author: an FBI intelligence analyst named William Gawthrop. In 2006, before he joined the Bureau, he gave an interview to the website WorldNetDaily, and discussed some of the themes that made it into his briefings, years later. The Prophet "Muhammad's mindset is a source for terrorism," Gawthrop told the website, which would later distinguish itself as a leader of the "birther" movement, a conspiracy theory that denies President Obama's American citizenship.

At the time, Gawthrop's major suggestion for waging the war on terrorism was to attack what he called "soft spots" in Islamic faith that might "induce a deteriorating cascade effect upon the target." That is, to discredit Islam itself and cause Muslims to abandon their religion. "Critical vulnerabilities of the Koran, for example, are that it was uttered by a mortal," he said. Alas, he lamented, he faced the bureaucratic obstacle of official Washington's "political taboo of linking Islamic violence to the religion of Islam," according to the website.

* Spencer Ackerman: Brooklyn-raised, DC-based defense nerd. Reported from Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay a couple times.

Source: Wired

Muslims are our fellow Americans [video/pledge]

Haitham Sabbah — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 08:57:35 +0000

They are part of the national fabric that holds our country together. They contribute to America in many ways, and deserve the same respect as any of us. My Fellow American pledge to spread this message, and affirm the country's principles of liberty and justice for all.

Take the pledge: http://myfellowamerican.us/pledge

Video link: http://youtu.be/cjm0uk2JO58

Muslims Bombed Norway! Where’s the Apology?

Mohamed Khodr — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 16:42:59 +0000

By Mohamed Khodr * | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

This image shows Anders Behring Breivik from a manifesto attributed to him that was discovered Saturday, July 23, 2011. / AP PHOTO

As expected the Washington Post's subdued non-hysterical coverage of the horrific terrorist attacks in Norway contrasts sharply with the hysterical coverage of a "jihadist" bombing in Israel; the U.S., such as the Fort Hood massacre, or it's never ending false reports and columns on Iran's nuclear program and existential threat to the nuclear power Israel.

Where's the label of "Christian terrorist"; where's the label of "radical extremist Jihadist" since the culprit calls for a Christian holy war against Muslims; he called the killing of civilians "necessary"; but leave it to Ms. Rubin, the blind solid and countable zionist delphi oracle to immediately jump on her usual pro israel bandwagon that muslim terrorists are responsible for the Norway attack. This woman's entire purpose at the Pro Israel Post (it didn't use to be that way under Katherine Graham) but now is under her daughter's tutelage.

I'm not surprised that the Post deems Rubin's column worthy of an apology, after all the issue deals with the despicable Muslim world, a world genetically and religiously predisposed to terrorism; never mind the Babylonial Talmud and the multiple Halakic ruling of Israel's rabbis that gentiles are meant to serve and die for Jews and their children can be killed at times of war.

Forgotten is that Zionist terrorists and Israel introduced terrorism to the world of car bombings, hijacking of and shooting down of civilian planes, introduction of letter bombs, assassination of UN representatives, manufacturing deceitful bombings blamed on Arabs to inflame the U.S. such as the Lavon Affairs and the USS LIberty, the impunity of constant wars and attacks upon civilians, Lebanon multiple times, Sabra and Chatils, the multiple attacks on Gaza, imprisonment and torture of Palestinian women and children, and the total defiance of the UN and humiliation of U.S. Presidents.

Europe and the U.S. xenophobia against Islam and Muslim immigrants is so hypocritical given that both invaded and colonized the Arab and Muslim world with Christian soldier "immigrants" that came by overwhelming force to "civilize" and "education", and "Christianize" the southern hemiphere. They were not wanted but they stayed anyway, now Muslim immigrants in Europe, needed to do fill the jobs unwanted by Europeans (Hispanics) are despised and deported. Europe is aging and with low fertility needs foreign workers as long as they are not Africans, Asians, or Muslims.

It is as Prof. Samuel Huntington said in his book "clash of civilizations"

"The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do."

"Hypocrisy, double standards, and "but nots" are the price of universalist pretensions. Democracy is promoted but not if it brings Islamic fundamentalists to power; nonproliferation is preached for Iran and Iraq but not for Israel; free trade is the elixir of economic growth but not for agriculture; human rights are an issue for China but not with Saudi Arabia; aggression against oil-owning Kuwaitis is massively repulsed but not against non-oil-owning Bosnians. Double standards in practice are the unavoidable price of universal standards of principle"

The Post like the rest of the MSM have the same corrupt power on our government and society that Murdoch has in England. You are complicit in Israel's intransigence to avoid peace at all costs as it continues to steal Palestinian land and its water resources to thirst Palestinians while filling illegal settler swimming pools and fountains.

I doubt the Post will apologize for its knee-jerk attack against Muslims or ever change its ways to bring peace in the Holy Land despite its important to U.S. interests.

Rubin's attack on Muslims is the real "Anti-Semitism" since Arabs are the only true remaining Semites (languages not religion or ethnicity) while the Jews of today are not.

* Mohamed Khodr is a political activist who frequently writes on the plight of Palestinians living under the brutal occupation of Israel, U.S. Foreign Policy, Islam, and Arab politics.

Islamophobia on the rise in USA

Paul J. Balles — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 13:03:44 +0000

By Paul J. Balles * | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

In an earlier article I noted that evangelic preacher Pat Robertson, David Gaubatz, Paul Sperry and Daniel Pipes are Islamophobic cult leaders who take every opportunity they can to vilify Islam and Muslims.

They were all particularly vindictive following the shooting at Fort Hood by the psychopath Nidal Malik Hassan who also happened to be Muslim.

The fact that he was Muslim had nothing to do with his maniacal action. It was no more related to the teachings of Islam than the paedophilia of a few priests is connected with Catholicism or the acts committed by Rabbi Meir Kahane of the Anti-Defamation League were related to Judaism.

Reports of a number of incidents in the past year or so strongly reveal a spike in anti-Muslim hate crimes.

In May 2010, for instance, a bomb exploded at an Islamic centre in Jacksonville, Florida. In August, a man slashed the neck and face of a New York taxi driver after finding out he was Muslim.

Four days later, someone set fire to construction equipment at the future site of an Islamic centre in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. This March, a radical Christian pastor burned a Quran in Gainesville, Florida, leading to deadly riots in Afghanistan that left at least 20 people dead.

A few days ago, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) published a benchmark report on Islamophobia in America.

Islamophobia is close-minded prejudice against or hatred of Islam and Muslims. An Islamophobe is an individual who holds a closed-minded view of Islam and promotes prejudice against or hatred of Muslims.

CAIR identifies a number of individuals and groups who have rallied against Islamophobia as well as a number who can be identified as Islamophobes.

Those who CAIR says

deserve recognition for their outstanding contributions to pushing back against Islamophobic trends during the period include: New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg; Loonwatch.com; Congressional Tri-Caucus; Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN); Jon Stewart, Aasif Mandvi and "The Daily Show"; Keith Olbermann and Countdown; Stephen Colbert and "The Colbert Report"; Media Matters for America; interfaith leaders; and Rachel Maddow and "The Rachel Maddow Show."

Many are available on TV in Bahrain.

Some individuals, institutions and groups were at the centre of pushing Islamophobia in America during the period covered by the report:

Pamela Geller and Stop the Islamization of America; Robert Spencer and Jihad Watch; Brigitte Gabriel and Act! for America; Frank Gaffney and the Centre for Security Policy; Steven Emerson and the Investigative Project on Terrorism; Newt Gingrich; the four members of Congress who called for an investigation of Muslim Capitol Hill interns; Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaeda and other violent extremists; and Daniel Pipes.

According to those interviewed for the CAIR report, on a scale from 1 (best situation for Muslims) to 10 (worst possible situation for Muslims) Islamophobia in America stands at 6.4. Interviews were conducted in September and October of 2010.

The public's favourable rating of Islam sank from 40 per cent in November 2001 to 30 per cent in August 2010, according to the Pew Research Centre. In late November 2010, the Public Research Institute found that 45 per cent of Americans agree that Islam is at odds with American values.

"Sources of Islamophobia are those individuals and institutions that produce and package materials, ideas or rhetoric about Islam in order to promote a skewed view of the faith and to induce fear, hate or prejudice in those who receive the materials," says CAIR.

Islamophobic behaviour is being repeated in Europe and elsewhere. The much-needed CAIR report details its nature. The report can be accessed and downloaded [.PDF] from the internet.

CAIR's work on Islamophobia has been a long time coming; too long, as the disease grows and spreads. Zionists scream "anti-Semitism" to silence critics of Israel. Long overdue has been the more honest label "Islamophobia" for those who wrongly vilify Islam and Muslims.

Pat Robertson: Muslims are the New Nazis

SR Editor — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 09:27:50 +0000

By Tim Murphy * | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

American TV personality and evangelical Christian leader Pat Robertson, backed by an Israeli flag, delivers a speech on a pilgrimage to Israel. AP Photo/Brennan Linsley

Televangelist Pat Robertson isn't the powerful political force he once was, but as the founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network, he's still an influential voice on the Christian Right. Yesterday, on his television show, The 700 Club, Robertson delivered a warning to a weary nation: Muslims are the new Nazis:

Robertson: I was thinking, you know, if you oppose Muslims, what is said? Well, you're a bigot, right? Terrible bigotry. I wonder what were people who opposed the Nazis. Were they bigots?

Co-host: Well, in that day I think they were looked down upon and frowned upon.

Robertson: Why can't we speak out against an institution that is intent on dominating us and imposing Sharia law and making us all part of a universal caliphate? That's the goal of some of these people. Why is that bigoted? Why is it bigoted to resist Adolf Hitler and the Nazis and to say we don't want to live under Nazi Germany?

Watch:

Video link: http://youtu.be/mQOujxM585w

Not to nitpick here, but people who opposed the Nazis were not "looked down upon and frowned upon" as bigots. This was a few decades ago, so it's understandably a little obscure, but the United States actually went to war with Nazi Germany. There was a movie about it and everything.

As you'd probably guess, this is hardly the first time Robertson has compared a large and diverse group of people to Nazis:

Here's Robertson in 1995:

"Since the advent of the head of the Justice Department, Janet Reno, things have gotten out of control. Something is going on that is just very unwholesome in this nation....this is a shocking abuse of federal power. It is reminiscent of the Nazis. Something has got to be done."

And in 1993:

"Just like what Nazi Germany did to the Jews, so liberal America is now doing to the evangelical Christians. It's no different. It is the same thing. It is happening all over again. It is the Democratic Congress, the liberal-based media and the homosexuals who want to destroy the Christians."

Also in 1993:

"When lawlessness is abroad in the land, the same thing will happen here that happened in Nazi Germany. Many of those people involved in Adolph Hitler were Satanists. Many of them were homosexuals. The two things seem to go together."

And in 1990:

"[T]he liberal media and the screenwriters...are the spiritual descendants of Goebbels and the Nazis. They're not just talking about kikes and Jews; they're not talking about, quote, 'n-----s.' They're talking about Christians now."

And in 1984:

"The state is steadily attempting to do something that a few states other than the Soviets and the Nazis have attempted to do, namely, to take the children away from the parents and educate them in a philosophy that is amoral, anti-Christian and humanistic and to show them a collectivist philosophy that will ultimately lead to Marxism, socialism, and a communistic type of ideology."

So as you can see, Muslims are the new gays are the new Clinton Justice Department are the new gays (again) are the new screenwriters are the new public schools are the new Nazis; it's worse than we thought.

* Tim Murphy is a reporter at Mother Jones. Email him with tips and insights at tmurphy [at] motherjones [dot] com.

Source: Mother Jones

Does America have a Muslim Problem?

Franklin Lamb — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 19:21:42 +0000

Muslims, slightly more than 1% of Americans, are currently the target of nearly 15% of all hate crimes.

By Franklin Lamb * | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

Whatever becomes of the truly pathetic "Pastor" Terry Jones and his plans to appear later this month at the largest Mosque in Michigan to condemn Islam and to generate some media attention while provoking all decent Americans and people of good will everywhere with his hate speech, will not be of much lasting import to Muslim and American relations.

Even as Jones prepares to act as grand inquisitor and plans to prosecute the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) for various imagined crimes, it reminds us that when it comes to intolerance, nothing is new under the sun in our land that beckons with its Statue of Liberty near Ellis Island in New York harbor:

"Give me your tired, your poor/ Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free/ The wretched refuse from your teeming shore/ Send these, the homeless tempest-tossed to me/ I lift my lamp before the Golden Door."

Muslims and Arabs who began arriving in America in the middle of the 19th century have in many ways embodied the intended fulfillment of the American dream promised in the above words of Emma Lazarus. The reasons that Muslims are often described as being "As American as apple pie" includes exactly their qualities that every Westerner observes and often comments on if they are fortunate enough to live among Muslims abroad or have Muslims as neighbors in their communities in the USA.

These Muslim qualities, the product of Islamic culture and Koranic teachings, including the five pillars of Islam, result in strong law abiding families with respect for their elders, comprised of fun loving and hardworking individuals who sacrifice for their children, have respect for education, compassion for humanity and who perform acts of unsolicited charity for the less fortunate, and exhibit tolerance of the views of others.

Muslims make up slightly more than 1% of the 308 million Americans, but according to recent FBI statistics, since 9/11 and the seemingly eternal US government War on (of) Terror, Muslims in America are currently the target of nearly 15% of all hate crimes.

Robert Kennedy used to say during US Congressional hearings on hate crimes that approximately 20% of the American public is unfortunately quite capable and indeed ready for believing just about anything and acting violently toward their neighbors while being easily influenced toward racism, xenophobia, and hate of " the other."

It appears that not much has changed since the violence of the 1960's in America when some of our best leaders were assassinated. Sociologists claim that the American penchant for irrationally fearing different cultures has been true since the founding of America and our history is replete with examples that belie the passages in our schoolbooks that claim that our country is a unique example of a grand melting pot. Rather, the current trend in America appears, according to a range of observers from left leaning Noam Chomsky to fairly hard right Pat Buchanan, to be an increasing fracturing along ethno-nationalist cleavages.

When Americans are incessantly exposed to US wars in the Middle East and the ranting of fellow Americans who support and seek political advantage from those wars, including the Christian Zionists and pro-Israel lobby, American society becomes vulnerable to hate speech and crimes.

While the US political establishment and American society at large has mounted a significant chorus condemning the views of Terry Jones, Daniel Pipes, Bridgette Gabriel and hundreds like them who seek political and cash profit from sowing domestic discord, much more must be done by every citizen to support real American values of tolerance and good neighborliness.

On Friday, March 4, 2011, the Zionist Middle East Forum launched another Israel backed anti-Muslim campaign to try to wedge the "Pastor Terry Jones" hate campaign against Islam and Muslims.

The current US Zionist lobby, with a reported budget of five million dollars includes the following 'talking points' with which the lobby intends to saturate the US public:

"The Koran burning by Florida pastor Terry Jones has created hysteria in the Muslim world. In Afghanistan alone, some twenty people, including U.N. workers, have been killed and beheaded to screams of "Allahu Akbar!" Western leaders around the globe-including Obama and members of Congress-have unequivocally condemned Jones' actions (without bothering to point out that freedom of expression is a prized American liberty)

Western leaders rush to profess their abhorrence at what one American did to one inanimate book, what about what Muslims are doing to living and breathing Christians around the Islamic world-to virtually no media coverage or Western condemnation.

We should also mention the jihadist attack on a Baghdad church, killing 52 Christians; the New Year's eve Coptic church explosion, killing 21; Muslim rampages that destroyed several churches in Indonesia, Nigeria, and the Philippines; Iran's "round up" of some 70 home-worshipping Christians; and Kuwait's-a nation that owes its very existence to U.S. war sacrifices-rejection to build a church.

Such is the surreal and increasingly irrational world we live in, where irate Muslims and groveling Westerners obsess over the destruction of one book while ignoring the destruction of many human lives; where a guaranteed and hard-earned American right-freedom of expression-receives a lot of condemnatory huffing and puffing from those charged with protecting it, while murderous and barbarous-in a word, evil-behavior is devoutly ignored.

With carefully organized and well-funded hate campaigns as illustrated above, America does, in a sense have a "Muslim problem" but it can be remedied by every American working in her or his community exposing profoundly un-American effort to sew religious and cultural discord.

* Franklin Lamb is Director, Americans Concerned for Middle East Peace, Beirut-Washington DC, Board Member of The Sabra Shatila Foundation, and a volunteer with the Palestine Civil Rights Campaign, Lebanon. He is the author of The Price We Pay: A Quarter-Century of Israel's Use of American Weapons Against Civilians in Lebanon and is doing research in Lebanon for his next book. He can be reached at fplamb@gmail.com

Yahweh Good Allah Bad [Satire]

Mantiq al-Tayr — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 15:06:58 +0000

WARNING: STRONG LANGUAGE

By Mantiq al-Tayr * | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

1. Something else bothered Orlich. Yee mentioned he had studied in Damascus. Orlich wondered about a man who would go to Syria - a state sponsor of terrorism - to find God.

Maj. Jason Orlich

What do you do after you help destroy a man's military career and then help create a system of prisoner abuse that is then used against hundreds of prisoners? I mean that's a pretty good track record right there. What would you do for an encore? (See here for a complete expose. Also, take a look here and here and here and see Orlich suck up to Steve Emerson here.)

Why not put together a huge bullshit-filled KKK-like anti-Muslim briefing up on the internet? Oh, and make sure to put your name and military rank on it so that the whole world will know, as I demonstrated last week in my most recent post, that the US government is rife with anti-Muslim bigots. (Go here for the downloadable power point presentation and go here to see it in html format.)

You can read about this guy's antics in the links below, but for your amusement, I have also drawn a few quotes from the relevant articles:

Of course the quality of language work at Guantamo was always superb as we can see from this article on how totally fucked up the government's case was:

Another accusation, that he distributed radical literature to the detainees, was based on an erroneous translation of an Islamic symbol in Ottoman-style calligraphy.

Later on in the same expose of government malfeasance we read of more great language work being done:

Airman Al Halabi's lawyers also made a charge of misconduct after a government translator contacted them to say that one of the prosecutors, Capt. Dennis Kaw, had discouraged her from alerting the court when she found a mistake in her translation of the Syrian government's letter. Captain Kaw had insisted, rather improbably, that the Syrian government had given Airman Al Halabi permission in the letter to travel not only to Syria but also to Qatar; instead, the relevant word meant "the homeland."

And read this:

As recently as a week ago, reports suggested that at least 17 prisoners at Guantánamo Bay have been subjected to the program. But Maj. Jason Orlich, a creator of Guantánamo Bay's "incentives" program that uses long-term sleep deprivation as a punishment for those who misbehave or fail to cooperate, testified that nearly all of the 350 to 400 prisoners held in two Guantánamo Bay prison camps were subject to the program, which entails waking the prisoners, shackling them, and moving them to a different cell along with all their belongings. Maj. Orlich was reluctant to specify the frequency of the moves, but testified that three-hour intervals "would not be abnormal."

Maj. Orlich also revealed that the Frequent Flyer Program was Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), although it did not appear in writing in the SOPs of that time-begging the question of what other detainee treatment policies were omitted from the written records. According to Maj. Orlich, Guantánamo Bay leadership was aware that the Frequent Flyer Program was in use, and the program was a routine included in what the military calls its "daily synchronization matrix." Maj. Orlich also said that the Frequent Flyer Program was ongoing at the time of his departure from Guantánamo Bay in April 2005, and he had never heard of any order to stop the program. This is despite previous government claims that the program had been discontinued in March 2004.

And here are some excerpts from the extremely bigoted and ignorant slide show this guy has put up on the web apparently subsequent to his tour in Guantanomo. I wonder if he gives this briefing to other people in the military and the US government. On the first slide of his presentation he mentions his PACOM affiliation. Maybe you all investigative journalists out there could ask PACOM if this means that they endorse his presentation.

You know it's gonna be good when it starts off with a quote from the fraud Walid Shoebat which I will spare you. Note to Shas Party members: the headlines in bold are mine, not from the presentation by Maj. Jason Orlich – though I can understand why people could get that confused. The quotes from the slide show are in italics.

Also, the author of the presentation states:

This brief is based upon Extensive Research, Islamic texts, history, and lessons learned at JTF GTMO

So let's take a look at some of the fruits of this extensive foray into Islamic texts.

Yahweh be good, Allah be bad:

Yahweh = Allah

* Yahweh is a loving Father, who, along with the Son and the Holy Spirit, is One God.

* To Muslims, the concept of a triune God is a blasphemy.

"They do blaspheme who say God is one of three...,for there is no God except one God." Surah 5:73

. . .

God." Surah 8:30 * Allah of Islam is frightening.

"It is God whom ye should more justly fear, if you believe." Surah 9:13

Muslims are Moonies:

2 Different Spiritual Worlds

Yahweh and Allah

* Before Islam came into existence, the Sabbeans in Arabia worshipped the moon-god Allah who was married to the sun-goddess.

* Common practice to use the name of the moon-god in personal names in Muhammad's tribe.

* Allah was a pagan deity in pre-Islamic times.

* An Allah idol was set up at the Kabah along with all the other idols of the time.

* The pagans prayed towards Mecca and the Kabah because that is where their gods were stationed.

* The idol of their moon god, Allah, was at Mecca, they prayed towards Mecca.

* The worship of the moon-god extended far beyond Allah-worship in Arabia. The entire fertile crescent was involved in moon-worship.

* The early success Islam had amongst Arab groups that had traditionally worshipped Allah, the moon-god.

* The use of the crescent moon as the symbol of Islam, and which appears on dozens of flags of Islamic nations in Asia and Africa, and surmounts minerets and mosque roofs, is a throwback to the days when Allah was worshipped as the moon-god in Mecca.

Moohammad he a bad man and Khadijah, she be a bad girl getting her daddy drunk and all.

Genesis of the Islamic Faith

570 C.E. Muhammad born in Mecca

– Both parents died before Muhammad was 6

Abandoned by Mother, Amina, and passed around, rejected and possibly abused by 2 men (Ishaq 71, 72)

– Muhammad was raised by his Grandfather Abd al-Muttalib who almost

Sacrificed Muhammad's Father Abd-Allah in the Ka'aba while praying to Allah and

Practicing divination. (Tab VI 2,5)

– He also liked to constantly stroke/pet Muhammad. After his Grandfather's death, his Uncle Abu Talib raised him. (Ishaq 73)

-Muhammad became a trade agent for a rich female merchant named Khadijah who was 40 years old.

Khadijah who was 15 years his senior invited Muhammad and his uncles to her home. She got her father so drunk that he married them. Her Father later regretted marrying them. His sons, Al-Qasim, Al-Tayyib and Al-Tahir died in infancy; He had Fatima (wife of Ali) and 2 other daughters. (Tab VI 49)

Mongol invaders good, resistance to them very very bad and Ibn Taymiyya is a hadith.

Ibn Taymiya and NO TOLERANCE

PRINCIPLE: MUSLIMS SHOULD RESIST, FIGHT AND OVERTURN ANY ISLAMIC GOVERNMENT THAT DOESN'T GOVERN THE LAND ACCORDING TO THE ISLAMIC LAW ONLY!

PRINCIPLE: MUSLIMS SHOULD ENFORCE JIHAD ON ANYBODY WHOSE BELIEFS DIFFER FROM ISLAM, ESPECIALLY JEWS AND CHRISTIANS.

1263 A.D. – Born in Syrian town of Haran

Fought Mongolian invaders of Syria (1299-1303) and taught that Mongolians

were not true Muslims and that fellow countrymen should not submit to their authority.

Declared that anyone who submitted to Mongolians, helped them or dealt with
them was an infidel.

Taymiya acted as if he were a military leader, declaring the Muslims to be
infidels and attacking them.

Taymiya established the mind-set of NO TOLERANCE and refinforced principles that were practiced centuries earlier in the times of Muhammad.

REMEMBER: Today's terrorism is a result of this mindset and Taymiya is one of most widely read Hadiths.

2. Yes, it's already video time. Now the first video below is one that I found on Rick B's site http://ww3zionism.blogspot.com/ Check his site out.

And no doubt many of you have seen it. But I'm linking to it because:

A. It is very well done. I take my hat off to the people at the Onion. They are superb.

B. Listen to the little girl's Arabic at near the end of the video. Shows you what happens when David Gaubatz types are teaching people Arabic.

C. It is short, so Shas Party and Tea Party members can follow it.

Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CqpEacxdS0

And now for some serious study of the gifts that ~~Yahweh~~ er, Allah, has bestowed upon us. Kind of makes you all want to shout out in unison الحمد لله doesn’t it?

Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mezDRxqI7x0

As we all know from Peter King’s (Asshole, New York) inquisition, Shakira law made it to Nashville. Maybe that’s not so bad after all.

Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTdV6dn_3_0

نشكر الله

* Mantiq al-Tayr is a blogger who is attempting to wake up other American citizens to the true dangers and challenges which face their country and is devoted to justice for the Palestinian people. Truth is his objective, satire is his tool. He also enjoys reading the Qur'an from time to time. See his website.

No related posts.

Manufacturing the Muslim Menace [Satire]

Mantiq al-Tayr — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 18:44:05 +0000

WARNING: STRONG LANGUAGE

By Mantiq al-Tayr * | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

1. Today I just want to do a couple of things quickly. First of all, Skulz Fontaine has been sending me some great stuff and I've been a bit remiss in not sharing some of these with you. I like this one.

But of course the land theft continues, as does the killing – killing Palestinians being the Israeli national pass time. Plus it just seems that attacking, harrasing and shooting at Palestinians is as Israeli as assaulting the USS Liberty.

2. But I want to address something else as the main topic today. What some people like to call Islamophobia – I call it what it is – Anti-Muslim Bigotry – in the United States is getting out of hand. Our country is sick and we need to understand the source of this sickness and do something about it. One good place for you to go as you begin searching for the source is an article I've linked to before by Max Blumenthal. It is here. And here's another real interesting one. And you should read all about David Horowitz – who pays Robert Spencer something like 132k a year to write his bullshit. I strongly recommend you go to Loonwatch and do a search on David Horowitz. Oh hell, I'll do it for you.

And this brings me to:

3. But I also want to draw your attention to something else. Islamphobia is being actively supported by local, state and federal governments and law enforcement. Anti-Muslim hatemongers routinely train local, state and federal officials to hate Islam and Muslims and it looks like they get good money for it. I tell you, I am in the wrong business, but I digress.

It is very possible that these hate mongers have trained people in your community and your state and for sure some of them have been saying some real interesting bullshit to people in the federal government. I mean real wackos like Nonie Darwish and Walid Phares and Steve Coughlin.

I can hear you know, "Okay, Mantiq, prove this. How come you haven't provided one single link under this topic whereas you are always linking everything to everything else and we can't even finish your goddamn posts because we are running of all over hell's half acre reading your links?

Never, fear. Your link is here. It is to a new 80-page study of this phenomenon done by Thomas Cincotta of Political Research Associates. It is entitled:

Manufacturing the Muslim Menace: Private Firms, Public Servants and the Threat to Rights and Security. It's a nice PDF file and you can download the whole thing for free.

Here is an excerpt from the preface to the report about how effectively your public officials are being trained:

"Kill them, including the children."

That's how to solve the threat of violent militant Muslims?

The above quote is from what one official involved in homeland security said was how she understood the underlying theme of a speech by Walid Shoebat at an anti-terrorism training in Las Vegas in October 2010. Our investigator had turned around after Shoebat's speech and asked the woman seated one row back what she thought was the solution offered by Shoebat.

The report focuses on three private training outfits and the loons who work for them. They are:

A. the International Counter-Terrorism Officers Association (ICTOA)
B. Security Solutions International, LLC (SSI)
C. The Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies (CI Centre)

I like how the CI Centre (where Walid Phares plies his trade) spells centre the British way. Makes them look cool.

And the report has a section on each of the following people who work for one of the three firms mentioned above:

Mark A. Gabriel – ICTOA guest speaker
David Gaubatz – SSI guest speaker
Walid Phares – CI Centre Faculty
Clare M. Lopez – CI Centre Faculty
Tawfik Hamid – CI Centre Faculty
Stephen Coughlin – CI Centre Faculty
Nonie Darwish – CI Centre Faculty
Detective Ebrahim Ashabi – SSI Expert
Walid Shoebat – ICTOA Guest Speaker

This report is a must read and it is free. Send it to your congressmen and your state representatives and demand that your state, local and federal governments stop funding these modern-day equivalents of the Ku Klux Klan.

4. There are five million decoy Muslims in the US. They are here to trick you and then to kill you.

Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drQETQ2iprU
(I bet Shas Party members won't get this.)

5. Shakira law spreads to MUST (Missouri University for Science and Technology)

Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=626Z2wmieUo

Scapegoats and witch hunts

Paul J. Balles — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 17:26:02 +0000

By Paul J. Balles * | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

There's a sick mentality in the world that demands scapegoats and feeds witch hunts.

"Scapegoating is the practice of singling out any party for unmerited negative treatment or blame. A scapegoat may be a child, employee, peer, ethnic or religious group, or country," reports Wikipedia.

"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson, one of the most famous short stories ever written, reveals the evils of village scapegoating.

The village has an annual lottery resulting in the winner being stoned to death. Explaining what she hoped the story would convey, Shirley Jackson said:

"I hoped, by setting a particularly brutal ancient rite in the present and in my own village, to shock the story's readers with a graphic dramatization of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives."

Pointless violence and general inhumanity still reign supreme in tribes, villages, countries and the world.

They function in part on established ritual. Often, the only thing required to enshrine a new scapegoat is a compulsive need for someone to despise.

It doesn't matter who wins the lottery; and it makes no difference what happens to the winner. The winner is always the loser.

If it happens that the chosen scapegoat has multiple numbers, the next step can become a witch hunt.

The term "witch-hunt" since the 1930s has been used as a metaphor to refer to moral panics in general (frantic persecution of perceived enemies).

Wikipedia points out that "This usage is especially associated with the Second Red Scare of the 1950s (the McCarthyist persecution of communists in the United States)."

That brings us to the present and US Congressman Peter King. As chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, King is holding hearings to investigate the domestic threat of what he calls the "radicalization of the American Muslim community."

King apparently decided that Islam is to be the scapegoat for America's ills; and he is now on a witch hunt for Muslims to burn. King's anti-Islamic bias discredits him as a bigot.

According to the Washington Post's Eugene Robinson, "King once complained that 'we have too many mosques in this country' (USA), and on another occasion offered the ludicrous opinion that '80 to 85 percent of mosques in this country are controlled by Islamic fundamentalists.' His claim to be free of anti-Muslim bias lacks credibility."

That's putting it mildly. Adding to his statement about 85 percent of the mosques in the US being controlled by Muslim extremists, King told Sean Hannity of Fox News, that they make up "an enemy living amongst us."

Not only have mosques coloured King's bigotry. He complained that "There are too many people sympathetic to radical Islam. We should be looking at them more carefully and finding out how we can infiltrate them."

King has accused Muslims of failing to help expose terrorist plots in America. This is patently untrue, as Charles Kurzman, University of North Carolina terrorist expert reveals:

"...in exposing alleged terrorist plots, the largest single source of initial information (48 of 120 cases) involved tips from the Muslim American community."

If King had a serious concern about a lack of Muslim cooperation with authorities, he would have invited Muslim leaders to his hearings. He has invited only one.

He should have invited law enforcement officials to corroborate or correct the biased figures he has been spouting. He did not.

Witch hunts like King's do nothing to increase security. They feed fear and breed hatred. According to a Time magazine poll, 43 percent of Americans view Muslims negatively.

Scapegoating and witch hunts have always been pointless, inhumane activities.