Innocent Muslims and the Rampage of Anti-Islamic Extremists

“We cannot disguise hostility towards any religion behind the pretence of liberalism” - Barack Obama, Cairo Speech 2009

President Obama has a historic opportunity to demonstrate that the words uttered at the Cairo speech were not the usual rhetoric of a politician seeking popularity and votes, by taking swift action against the few anti-Islamic extremists who produced this satirical, and profoundly offensive, anti-Islamic movie (Innocence of Muslims). And consequentially, endangered the lives of innocent Americans abroad; unfortunately four Americans including the ambassador in Libya have already perished; igniting an emotional issue will generate emotional response with unpredictable consequences.   

An open condemnation has to be followed by further actions to show that US government policy will not tolerate crass insults hurled against an entire community, in the same way that the world does not tolerate racial slurs. Hence, the crucial question is - can the US government take the lead in the Western world and demonstrate that it will not continue to allow the propagation of hostility towards Islam and Muslims, behind the pretence of liberalism, or will it continue to submit to the liberal bullies who are waving the hypocritical flag of free speech?

Afghanistan and Iran

The two neighbouring nations have a long shared history. Historically, Iran has been the dominant nation with pre-Islamic empires that rivalled Rome and Greece; it came close to ruling Europe. Thus, Afghanistan has always been part of Iran’s natural sphere of cultural, religious, and political influence. Many Afghans speak a dialect of Farsi (Dari), which is considered a language of culture and scholarship. Geographically, modern Iran took shape after losing western Afghanistan including Herat, the second-largest city in Afghanistan, to the British in the Anglo-Persian War (1856–1857). Many Iranians consider western Afghanistan to be an integral part of its territory or at least see it as a little Persia inside Afghanistan

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Palestine, Tunisia, Egypt – The Rise of the Muslim Brotherhood

The Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan Al-Muslimun) groups are making steady progress; the election results show it is the people’s choice. Hamas won in Palestine, Nahda won in Tunisia, and now the Freedom and Justice Party led by Muhammad Morsi have been elected in Egypt, the largest Arab country, where the ideology and the movement of Ikhwan was formed by Sheikh Hasan Al-Banna in the 1920s. Under the Arab nationalist leader Jamal Abdul Nasser in the 1950s, the movement suffered as its activists were imprisoned, despite aiding Jamal Abdul Nasser to overthrow the old monarchy that had more or less mortgaged Egypt to the Western banks. Over successive years, the Ikhwan movement spread to most parts of the Islamic world.

Libya, Yemen, Morocco, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Algeria may also eventually elect a similar type of government in the future, provided there is political stability with a framework for a free and fair election. Until the election of Hamas in Gaza, Sudan was the one country were the Brotherhood was most successful in gaining power, its members making up a large part of the government for the last two decades. However, the Ikhwan based movements (Jamat-e-Islami) in the Indian subcontinent including Malaysia and Indonesia have not done well historically.

Therefore, why are the brotherhood groups succeeding now in the Arab world when they have been around since the 20s?

Freedom for the Syrians - is it inevitable?

Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and Libya fell; however, Syria and Bahrain seem to be defying that trend, where signs of regime change look remote; both nations are governed by the minority sect. Bahrain is dominated by the minority Sunni regime over the Shi’ite masses, and the situation is the reverse in Syria. In the case of Bahrain, the momentum for the protests is receding, whereas in Syria, the violence is escalating; to date it is estimated 15,000 people are dead.

With the systematic murder of 108 civilians including 49 children in Houla and subsequently 78 killed in the town of al-Qubair in a similar manner, the cycle of violence has escalated to new heights - naturally the peace negotiated earlier by Kofi Anan has been nullified. The harrowing pictures of children soaked in blood have been published in some of the Arabic newspapers; according to the UN the victims were summarily executed. In response, many countries have expelled Syrian diplomats. Note the contrast of response to the Israelis committing massacre of civilians in Gaza, and despite the overwhelming evidence, it was as usual, ‘defenceless’ Israel ‘defending’ itself with much greater firepower.

The NATO Withdrawal and the Future of Afghanistan: Construction or Destruction?

“The care of human life and happiness and not their destruction is the first and only legitimate object of good government.” (Thomas Jefferson - US President, 1801-1809)

It is far easier to destroy then to build; a single explosion can destroy in a moment a building that took weeks to construct. This holds true for physical artefacts as well as the human character. A single incident can tarnish an individual’s reputation permanently, but it takes years to build a good name and gain the trust of the community. Applying this axiom of ‘destruction being easier than reconstruction’ to Afghanistan, the country needs political stability, a rebuilding programme, and a thorough cleansing of the existing network of corruption.

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Rochdale Sex Crimes – Are they a product of the Pakistani Ghetto or Liberalism?

For certain, had these men been white Anglo-Saxons, the media coverage and the reaction would have been different; an isolated group of criminals only, with no reference to their racial or cultural identity. This is how for example serial killers are often portrayed. Take the example of the 8 Scottish paedophile gang convicted in 2009 [1] who were caught raping babies not consenting young teenagers like the Rochdale case, the news went unnoticed. Similarly, the recent case in Cornwall [2] also slipped under the media radar. There was no attempt to cast a slur on the wider community, based on the actions of these culprits.

In contrast, based on the actions of the 9 culprits in Rochdale, the media and certain politicians have been busy tarnishing the Pakistani community, which is almost a million or more in the UK. The notion of proportion and logic is discarded when there is an underlying agenda; predictably, the usual Islamophobes to the closet racists have come out blaming it on race and culture, the more daft elements of the far right are blaming religion.

Was it Khalid Sheikh Mohammed or Usamah Bin Laden behind the 9/11 attacks?

The US-led coalition went to war, and in the process killed almost a million people, in order to capture Usmah bin Laden, who allegedly masterminded the 9/11 attacks from the caves in Afghanistan. To avenge the killing of innocent civilians, by killing many more innocent civilians is a perverse notion of justice. If dispensing collective punishment is the policy, then it makes little sense to talk of innocence or guilt. Thus a suicide bomber is no different to those dropping bombs from a distance, both dispensing collective punishment on a community.  

Yet there was constant talk of guilt, and everybody pointed the finger at Usamah Bin Laden. He was conveniently killed, instead of being captured and put on trial – which would have provided the perfect opportunity to discover who was telling the truth. Of course, that is assuming he was going to be given a fair trial, rather than one based on ‘evidence’ acquired from water-boarding and other forms of torture that are regularly used by the Americans, euphemistically called "enhanced interrogation".