If it is secular, it can't be Islamic (or Jewish or Christian). If it is Islamic, then it can't be secular, damn it

"he favors a more secular Islamic democracy".

Upcoming sectarian war (revolutionary, no less) in Syria

From a reader:  "After the defeat of Assad this FSA spokesman predicts a second 'sectarian' war with the Alawite minority in Syria.  One presumes  in this scenario that the FSA has both defeated Assad's relatively powerful military and also routed Hezbollah.  NYT is impressed with his 'disarming candor' . NYT goes on to point out that the spokesman preparing for a sectarian killing spree is in fact a believer in plurality, democracy, and free speech.  So not to worry.

[...] In Istanbul, Fahed Awad, a spokesman for one major Free Syrian Army battalion, told me, with disarming candor, that it would probably take three wars to complete the Syrian revolution — one to defeat Assad; then a sectarian war within Islam between the Sunnis and Assad’s Shia sect, the Alawites; and finally a fight over just how Islamic the new Syria should be. (Like most of the opposition, he favors a more secular Islamic democracy, similar to Turkey’s.)" Link

Taha Husayn

Taha Husayn's views on Egyptian nationalism evolved over the years. I rarely see references to that. In the 1960s, Husayn claimed in published articles (in Al-Jumhuriyyah newspaper) that he shifted from narrow Egyptian nationalism to Arab nationalism. Husayn may be neither: this politically cowardly writer simply went along with the ruling authorities: he was subservient under Faruq and subservient under Nasser.

Jamal Al-Afghani

Jamal Ad-Din Al-Afghani is so hard to classify or to categorize or label.  I am never sure how to label him.  Was he a revolutionary or a reactionary who cozied up to power, in Persia or in Constantinople? I was reading the account of Muhammad `Abduh by his student, Mustafa `Abdul-Raziq.  The charisma and impact of Afghani on his audience was immediate.  As soon as he set up shop in Cairo, he developed a large following.  There is much work to be done on Afghani, even after the publication of Nikki Keddie's work.

The religious doctrine of Hizbullah

When I read references in Hizbullah media or literature to their religious doctrine and to the signs of the return of the 12th Imam, I feel I have entered a twilight zone.  I mean, it is so outlandish from a secular or atheist point of view.  It is painful to my mind, truthfully.

Norman Finkelstein

I will spare you the boring sequence of emails back and forth between Norman Finkelstein and me about BDS in the last few days.  Norman (who took time from his busy schedule as a diplomatic missionary to achieve peace between Arabs and Israeli, from what I read in the Israeli press) wants me to correct the record that he did not speak inaccurately and unfairly against BDS in his recent remarks which I commented on.  I maintain that BDS is like an umbrella organization and that it does not have a ruling politburo.  I never read their literature and don't know much of the organization until Norman informed me.  I count myself as BDS supporter, advocate, and even spokesperson but I am categorically against the existence of the State of Israel and I never argued that our stance against Israel should be predicated on international law (especially that I believe that international law--which gave Israel its birth certificate through the UNSC*--has never been respected by Israel and should be conveniently disregarded by the other side as well).  But if Norman has in mind that particular organization (that he knows much more about than I do), and a particular newsletter of which he speaks, he should say so in the future.  I know it is much easier for his polemical task that he generalizes about the movement as he does, especially when he says that it should speak explicitly against the state of Israel. But I do and I am BDS--not a card carrying member though.

*I erred here. I should have said the UN General Assembly's recommendation.
PS I am alerted that the organization for which Barghuthi speaks is called PACBI and not BDS!  

The new Emir of Qatar

To be consistent, if you want to hail the surrender of power from one unelected Emir in Qatar to another unelected Emir, you should then hail the transfer of power from Hafidh to Bashshar Al-Asad. To be consistent, that is. 

Look at this headline in the Guardian on Syria

"Saudi Arabia: Syrian rebels must be armed".  Wait: so the armed rebels must be armed? This is like saying the hungry should be starved, and the naked should be stripped of their clothes, and the prisoners should be incarcerated, etc.

Anne Barnard propagandizes for the Hariri family--typical

"the Future Movement, led by the powerful Sidon-based family of Rafik Hariri, the former prime minister assassinated in 2005, has often condemned the cleric’s sectarian rhetoric and use of arms".  Well, not true.  Some elements of the Hariri movement speaks in general terms against sectarianism, while other elements of the movement (in Tripoli in particular and in Beirut and in the Biqa`) speak explicitly in sectarian language.  And Barnard is wrong--what is new really--the statements of the movement against Asir were really a combination of restraint and respect and Bahiyyah Hariri's son, Ahmad, maintained close ties with the movement.  In fact, it is possible but not yet proven that Hariri family provided funding for the Asir organization.

A Qatari polygamist surrenders power to another Qatari polygamist

The new Emir of Qatar, despite his youth, has managed to acquire two wives already (I mean, simultaneously). 

God and Syrian coup of 1961

I was reading the communiques of the coup of 1961 which engineered the secession from UAR.  It struck me that only communique number 2 started with the "In the Name of God, etc".  

This is what they have in store for Syria: Syrian National Council and Qatar

The Syrian National Council issued a loud congratulations for Qatar for the transfer of power from the Emir to...his son--his son, damn it.  And described the step as "pioneering and unprecedented".  Was the transfer of power from Hafidh to Bashshar "pioneering and unprecedented" as well?

Hizbullah and the clashes in Sidon

Now, as far as the involvement of Hizbullah in the clashes in Sidon: here is what I believe.  Without any analysis or information I can categorically rule out any intervention by Hizbullah in the Sidon clashes for one simple reason: the Lebanese Army (side) fought so clumsily and lost too many men, and their advance was too slow, and the top fighters and Al-Asir and Fadl Shakir managed to slip out from their "tightly cordoned off" area, that can only prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Hizbullah was not involved and that the lousy fighting force of the Lebanese Army was in charge.  I in fact managed to interview fighters from the secular Syrian Social National Party (you know why I chose fighters from those party and not Hizbullah? Because Hizbullah fighters don't talk about their military exploits...EXCEPT when they encounter Western journalists with known hostile agenda to the party, like Prothero and Blanford.   Only to those hostile journalists and other Zionist correspondents in the region, Hizbullah fighters and commanders (famously tight lipped about their military work under the threat of expulsion) become garrulous for some inexplicable reason)) about their involvement in the one day of clashes in Lebanon known as May 7, 2008.  The Syrian Social National Party fighter described to me in detail how Hizbullah fighters managed the "battle" against Hariri Salafis that day, and I can categorically tell you that the fight in Sidon was typically clumsily run by the inept Lebanese Army.   On May 7th, the entire operation was over in a few hours.  So for me, I don't have to talk to anyone or research the matter or even make phone calls to rue: this is a Lebanese Army fight, through and through.  The Interior Minister of Lebanon (somebody who is close to March 14 and has presidential ambitions) has just announced that only Lebanese Army soldiers and commanders were involved in the fighting.  But most importantly, if there is evidence to the contrary, it should be presented.  I can easily and casually now dismiss anything on Hizbullah that comes out from Nicholas Blanford (after the fiasco of his "interview"--in which he was not present--with Hariri assassination suspects?  Or his hagiographic book on Rafiq Hariri funded and distributed by Hariri family?) or Mitch Prothero (and his paintballing with "Hizbullah"--with all of Hizbullah including Hasan Nasrallah personally, at least that is what I surmised from the title--and his admission that he paid someone from the southern suburbs for this game) has no credibility whatsoever as far as I cam concerned.  If there are non-political editors who judge the work on non-political bases, Prothero and Blanford would either have been fired or they would have reassigned and never allowed anywhere near Lebanon because their own work discredited them.  But my colleague, Elia Muhanna, is a much nicer person than I am and much more forgiving and patient than I am.  He in fact asked Prothero and Blanford for their evidence, and here is what they said:  "about seven or eight other guys all dressed in paramilitary clothing, some with yellow ribbons and very obviously Hezbollah. They were paranoid about our cameras..."  This must be a comedy material.  1) Don't you love the evidence of they were "obviously Hizbullah"? What is obviously Hizbullah? Are they men with tails?  Are they men who strap potatoes to their neck?  I mean, ordinary Lebanese can't tell who is "obviously" Hizbullah and who is not but this comedy duo can?  2) Let me get this straight: so those Hizbullah fighters were paranoid about the cameras but they had distinguishing Hizbullah markings and then invited those two Western correspondents for a chat?  I mean, do you know how typically unbelievable that is? 3) On Blanford: the man who is not-a-good propagandist for the Hariri family (and who hilariously published the Hariri family accusations about the killing of Rafiq in a book that named the Syrian regime as a culprit, before the Hariri family changed its mind and named Hizbullah?) does not even try.  He is so casual and flippant in his fabrications and tall tales that I now recognize his articles from this claims of encounters with Hizbullah fighters or commanders.  4) I received videos of Hizbullah fighters in Qusayr and they did not "obviously look Hizbullah" and they did not have distinguishing markings on them. But for some reason, they do that for Western journalists to be easily identified.  5) Paramilitary clothing?  Even journalists were them in Lebanon.  6) Is that Hajj guy the same as Hajji and the same as Rony and AbuKhalil who appeared in previous fabrications by Blanford, or are they newly invented superheros?  7) I noticed in the comment's section in Elias blog that somebody said that Now Hariri website (which has the stellar journalistic reputation of checkout's tabloids in the US) "reported" that Hizbullah participated in the clashes.  Well, yes, Now Hariri reported that people "on facebook" circulated a picture of what "they" said was a Hizbullah fighters and that "ground sources"--kid you not--confirmed to Now Hariri that the man was in the supportive auxiliary arm of the resistance of Hizbullah.  (Now Hariri is famous for attributing the most bizarre information and claims that are damaging to Hizbullah to "high places sources" or to "sources close to Hizbullah" or to "someone familiar with Hizbullah thinking".  8) But let me say this.  Why do Hizbullah fighters and commanders always talk to those Western journalists who are known as hostile to Hizbullah and they never talk to, say, reporters of Al-Akhbar which is owned by a man (Ibrahim Amin) who is a personal friend of Hasan Nasrallah? Why do they pick them of all people.  9) The area around the neighborhood of where the clashes occurred, and the neighborhood itself, has an army of Lebanese journalists belonging to all different warring factions in Lebanon and not one of them spotted a Hizbullah fighter. Not eve the TV stations that are hostile to Hizbullah.  In fact, Nada Andrawus works for LBC (which is a right-wing sectarian Christian station that is hostile to Hizbullah) and she was asked on the air by a guest on Kalam An-Nas whether she saw any Hizbullah fighter as she was on the ground, much closer to the action than the comedy duo above, and she said that she has not.  10) This is what Anne Barnard "reports" today:  "Some residents said they had seen people they knew to be Hezbollah fighters firing weapons, or moving through neighborhoods with the army. Others reported shelling from an area where Hezbollah has positions."  Wait.  This is a Sunni neighborhood and if the residents said that they saw people who are Hizbullah fighters, it raises questions.  Hizbullah fighters are not supposed to be known or seen, and they are not supposed to be Sunni.  The Sunni supporters of Hizb in Sidon are the Arab nationalist group, The Popular Nasserist Organization of Usamah Sa`d.  Big distinction.  As for the area where Hizbullah "has positions": I don't know for the life of me what Barnard means and if she knows what she was talking about, i would have asked her myself.  11) Hizbullah admitted its involvement in a foreign country (Syria), so why would they deny their involvement in Sidon if they were involved especially that the Asir guy had been provoking Hizbullah for over a year?  Why would they deny it if true when they did not deny their involvement in Qusayr?

The Emir of Qatar surrenders power to his son...in 1960

  This is not the first time that the Emir of Qatar surrendered power to his son. It had happened before in 1960, as this clip from Al-Ahram shows.  (thanks Khodor)

Walid Jumblat and Ahmad Al-Asir in better days

 

Zionist-Saudi alliance

This is quite something.  Al-Majallah (the mouthpiece of Prince Salman) publishes a cover story against Edward Said written by neo-con Joshua Muravchik.

US ambassador in Egypt

  A sign in Egypt accuses the US ambassador in Egypt of supporting "killers, terrorists, and Ikhwan".

The debate about Snowden

In this arrogant and conceited democracy of the USA, notice the debate about Snowden: forget the consensus that he is traitor, forget that there are some who have charged him, tried him, convicted him, and sentenced him; notice that the fact that the US has invaded the privacy of tens of millions of people around the world does not bother anyone in the US.  Imagine if this was done by a Russian spy agency. 

The new US ambassador in Lebanon

When the new US ambassador in Lebanon negotiated with the Lebanese Communist Party.

Flash. Charles Ayyub drunk on live TV

Watch MTV now LIVE: pro-Syrian publisher of Ad-Diyar, Charles Ayyub, is officially drunk. 

A letter to Bashshar Al-Asad

This is humorous. A pro-Syrian regime publisher of Ad-Diyar, who had admitted receiving money from Rafiq Hariri and Prince Bandar, writes a letter to Bashshar Al-Asad and asks him for money.  (thanks Raed)

can you imagine if this sentence--only this one sentence--is said about Jews?

"‘Bill, I’m with you about the Muslims.’" (thanks Michele)

How Lebanese sodiers become "Shi`ite gunmen"

"Medics transport an injured Lebanese soldier, after clashes between followers of a radical Sunni cleric Sheik Ahmad al-Assir and Shiite gunmen, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Sunday, June 23, 2013." (thanks Basim)

Refai Taha...told Reuters they renounced violence because Islamist rule had now been achieved

"Yet nominating a member of al-Gamaa al-Islamiya, remembered for a 1997 massacre of visitors in Luxor that some call "Egypt's 9/11", showed the growing importance to the beleaguered Mursi and his Muslim Brotherhood of a group whose leadership includes at least one unrepentant former associate of Osama bin Laden. That man, cleric Refai Taha, and other leaders of al-Gamaa and its parliamentary wing in Luxor told Reuters they renounced violence because Islamist rule had now been achieved, through elections - but they would take up arms again to defend Mursi and were committed eventually to establishing full Islamic law." "Until 2010, annual U.S. State Department lists of "Foreign Terrorist Organizations" described Taha as "missing" since 2001. He is not mentioned by name in subsequent editions of the list."

Samantha Power and her Zionist services

"As if that wasn't nauseating enough, I've also read an article in the Israeli daily Haaretz about Power's recent job in the White House. In 2009, she played a "central role," the paper says, in coordinating contacts between the US and Israel on managing the political fall-out of Israel's attack on Gaza at the beginning of that year. Power helped Israel to minimize the damage caused by the Goldstone report, the findings of a UN mission that Israel had perpetrated war crimes. This, let us remember, was the same Samantha Power who advocates "atrocity prevention" and the "responsibility to protect." Palestinians attacked by Israeli and American weapons, however, are not deemed worthy of protection."

US has a new ambassador

"He served in Lebanon as Deputy Chief of Mission from 1998 to 2001, and as a Political Officer from 1992 to 1994. He also served overseas in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. In Washington, he served as Director of the Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs from 2001 to 2003, and Executive Assistant to the Secretary of State from 1999 to 1998." (thanks Amir)

Human Rights Watch office in Beirut: the propaganda branch of Hariri family

The press releases and reports by Human Rights Watch office in Beirut are but an anthology of propaganda literature of March 14. They still act as if in Syria there is no civil war between two sides who violate human rights on daily basis and who commit war crimes on daily bases.  They still act as if in Syria there are massive demonstrations being put down violently by the regime, and there is a pretension that there are no armed groups in Syria whatsoever.

"Give a Dollar to Kill an Arab"

From Jason:  "You've probably heard of this one before, but...

Basically, my father recently told me a story that an Egyptian friend of the family had told *him*, when he was a little boy and she was visiting New York around 1948. (I don't know if this was before or after the Nakba.) Apparently she saw Zionists raising money in the streets for Israel with signs reading "Give a Dollar to Kill an Arab." She complained to the police, but they told her it was free speech and how they couldn't do anything about it, etc. Google turned up the slogan here, from 1956:"

World War Z--for Zionism

From Yazan:  "On your post regarding the new zombie movie, the person is right. It's an Israeli-lovefest, one that even the Israelis themselves are proud about: 

"For a solid 10-minute stretch, “World War Z” is the greatest piece of cinematic propaganda for Israel since Otto Preminger’s “Exodus.” While the rest of the world has fallen to cinders, Israel survives. After Pitt’s plane narrowly escapes doom during a bloody action set piece, he touches down at Atarot Airport. The Israeli flag, shown in glorifying closeup, ripples proudly in a sun-dappled halo."

The pathetic track record of Human Rights Watch: a pattern of cowardice

"In response to these developments, Ken Roth, head of "Human Rights Watch," tweeted:
"Snowden’s #Ecuador is limiting asylum rights http://trib.al/goW5gcS and criminalizing journalists who harm security."
No sooner had Snowden’s plane touched down on Russian soil then Roth retweeted this pearl of wisdom from one of his "human rights" buddies:
"Edward Snowden, martyr for online freedom and privacy, now passing thru Moscow? Say hi to Alexei Navalny while you’re there."
As one Twitter wit quipped:
"Seems @KenRoth is following Snowden around the world, blasting HR in every country his plane is landing.""  As if there is a democratic country that would dare take him. (thanks Richard)

The question for US is how to make sure that no shots will ever be fired from Syria on Israel

"According to a source privy to the talks between the Obama administration and the rebel Supreme Military Council, a decision on how to transfer the arms could be made within one week. "The question is not who they provide the weapons, but what [is] the mechanism?" said the source. One of the key hurdles slowing down the process is the question of how to ensure the weapons are used against the regime and not stockpiled for after Assad falls."

Meet the new democratically-elected Emir of Qatar

He is shown here with his influential mother, Mozah.

The work of Saudi Arabia and Qatar: lynching of Shi`ites in Egypt

"Giza prosecutors have ordered the arrest of 15 people implicated in the murder of four Egyptian Shias in attack by Sunni Muslims in a Giza village on Sunday, an incident which has heightened sectarian tensions in an already polarised country.

Prosecutors have discovered the identities of some perpetrators of the vigilante murders, a security source told state news agency MENA.

Four Egyptian Shia Muslims were killed in a mob attack, allegedly led by Salafist sheikhs, in the town of Zawyat Abu Musalam in Giza governorate on Sunday afternoon.

Residents surrounded a house of a prominent Shia local after being informed he was hosting a religious gathering, beating the guests and setting the house on fire, according to reports."

When you can't make your mark as a foreign correspondent in the Middle East, you simply fabricate a story involving Hizbullah. The absurd case of Mitch Prothero

From Emily:  

"mitchell prothero

I just spent 3 hours with the Hezbollah unit taking down Assir's men in Sidon. There's no debate Hezbollah led this fight. #lebanon".   

He's so self-aggrandizing and dishonest.
Look at him here posing proudly "with a new friend... made during sectarian fighting."
Is this appropriate conduct for a journalist?"

PS Now my comment.  No one in the Hariri media have even claimed to have seen one Hizbullah fighter in Sidon, but this guy managed to spend 3 hours with them.  How hilarious is that, and who on earth will ever believe this guy, especially after his last bout of encounter with Hizbullah fighters?  If Hizbullah fighters really led this fight, it would have been over two days ago, and Al-Asir would have been captured and paraded.

Emir of Qatar

So it is official.  I still stick to my post from yesterday: the Emir of Qatar directs all his policies on the basis of his hostility to Saudi Arabia and the Saudi hostility to his rule.  As you know, the Saudis always in indirect negotiations with the Emir insisted that he surrenders power, even to any of his very young sons at the time.  They first insisted that his father returned to power, and when that was not possible, they said that they would accept any alternative but the Emir.  There is such bad blood between the two even during the alliance during the Arab spring.  The anti-Qatari tendencies have been growing in the Saudi media.  The Emir of Qatar was subjected--by his own admission--to internal pressures from the family in the Bush years: they asked him to be more compromising and forthcoming in response to pressures from the Bush-Cheney administration.  The fact that the Emir decided that to ignore his feud with the House of Saud and mount jointly with House of Saud the Arab counter-revolution indicates that there was a plot of some sorts, and that the US was not far behind.  This will make the GCC more agreeable for the US especially that the other members are far less troublesome for the Saudi family and for the US, notwithstanding the Saudi-Omani tensions and even the conflict between UAE and Saudi Arabia, both of which compete in the game of pleasing the US/Israeli alliance.

Covering Turkey in Jadaliyya

Jadaliyya has been providing excellent coverage of Turkey.

The Ahmad Al-Asir Phenemenon

My latest blog post about Ahmad Al-Asir of Sidon for Al-Akhbar English.

A coup in Qatar?

Aljazeera broke the news of an impending meeting tomorrow between the Emir of Qatar and his family council and "those who tie and lose".  If what has been written transpires, i.e. if the Emir surrenders power to his son, it will indicate that the House of Saud has succeeded in engineering (with full US consent) a coup in Qatar.  Ever since he overthrow his father, House of Saud has categorically rejected the Emir and feuded with him (and he with them).  They consider a coup within the royal family (as if it has not happened within the House of Saud) a dangerous precedent.  And if Tamim takes over, that would signal a supremacy in the Gulf and even in the larger Arab world for the House of Saud.  There is one problem in that scenario that even the US can't resolve: that the House of Saud are themselves deeply divided.  The show has just started.

The only Palestinians loved by the New York Times

Do you know that Zionist media, like the New York Times, never care about the lives of the Palestinians unless those Palestinians are spies for Israel or collaborators.

International law and Palestinian cause

“How does one pro­pose to win sup­port for the Pales­tin­ian cause based on inter­na­tional law yet not sup­port two states? That just doesn’t make any sense to me,” he said."  Let me simplify it for you: not everybody argues on international law, OK? You want to win an argument by deliberately misrepresenting the arguments of the other side--to which you once belonged.

Further decline of AJE

Look who they are promoting now.  (thanks "Ibn Rushd")

The US embassy in Beirut

Notice that the US embassy in Beirut which interferes in all aspects of Lebanese political and social life is mum about the clashes in Sidon: the Embassy which wants to use the Army against Hizbullah "terrorists" hearts the Salafi terrorists. They are in the same trench.

Jihawg Ammo: Pork-laced Bullets (Idaho)

Abdallah sent me this:  "A company out of Idaho is selling this ingenuous product:

This private company has a Facebook page where they link to anti-Islamic sites:

Watch the local news segment ("investigative team"). It's a train wreck. The reporter actually mentions the "72 virgins" myth, saying that it's something Muslims are promised in Paradise. It's almost shocking how careless and stupid it is:"

Martin Bernal II

If you think about it, Western academics reacted to Bernal's Black Athena in tones and language used previously against Edward Said's Orientalism.

How many nuclear weapons does the U.S. have?

"Global Zero says the United States has 7,700 nuclear warheads, citing a Federation of American Scientists report. The Department of Defense disclosed in 2012 that "as of September 30, 2009, the U.S. stockpile of nuclear weapons consisted of 5,113 warheads." "