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The War of Ideas in the Middle East
Oh shit. Let's bomb Egypt into oblivion to eradicate al-Qaeda like we did with Iraq and Afghanistan.
I get it now. That is sick. Very, very sick.
My God that is a brave woman.
I don't understand the "Mohammad is dead" chant. Of course he is. So will we all be. The message he brought on lives though. What kind of message does Zionist Judaism want to leave? Soldiers chasing 10 year olds? Let Zionism be dead, soon, inshallah.
He would say it was anti-Semitic and he would get Dershowitz to campaign until the person would be fired.
Are people fighting over God? That's news to me. I think people fight over resources, people fight for power and people fight because their greed can't be satiated. I have no problem with atheists. To you, your way, and to me, mine.
eljay,
We are part of the Abrahamic tradition, whether you believe it or not does not change that for us. We are not saying that to please the Christians or the Jews. Except for some interfaith circles, the Jews and the Christians have always rejected us as being part of that continued tradition, as do many atheists, and others. However, it doesn't put a dent in our belief that we are indeed the children of Abraham, spiritual and otherwise.
Abraham is no minor figure in the Quran. He's the "Friend of God," and very near and dear to Muslim hearts. I don't really understand your dismissive attitude about what Abraham means to us. We believe Abraham was a "Muslim," not a Jew, not a Christian, not a founder of a "new religion." He was a Muslim like others before him were too, who believed in One God. He has more prominence because his progeny really spread across the Earth. A Muslim doesn't encourage believers to convert to Judaism or Christianity because we believe that the Jews and then the Christians brought changes to God's religion and altered the book, so reverting back to the "original" Abrahamic faith would be going backwards and accepting those changes that corrupted the Word of God.
I hope that explains that it's not a PR stunt when we say that we indeed have a very real spiritual connection with Abrahim (may Allah bless him).
seafoid,
I like your parody. You should expand on it. Write a play and have it performed. Seriously.
Excellent post, Phil. What a smart lady, that wife of yours! :) I agree with her assessment of why we like to read memoirs.
There goes the chance of winning another Oscar, Emma!
Not only that, didn't hear much about the Muslims killed by the same killer. Didn't even know about it until he shot Jewish children. Which goes to show how much non-Muslims think the lives of Muslims/Arabs are worth.
Yes, that WWI truce was a very beautiful moment.
Ummm....I don't know what to make of that. Seems a bit odd, from both sides.
Gosh those were the most cutest kids!
I liked this segment, too. Couldn't stop laughing.
This was no deranged soldier who snapped. He was a terrorist, just like Fisk says here: link to independent.co.uk
Fisk pointed out something which no one else picked up on in the media, that of a plea by the US generals to their soldiers not to take revenge after the killings of two American soldiers. This was motivated murder, a terrorist act. It would have been if it were done by a Muslim, so why don't we label this bastard the same?
Last time I donated, I was supposed to receive a gift. Two books, I believe, because I made donations twice--different amounts. I never got them. :(
People's lives and ideas are more important than money.
Maybe he's trying to save his soul so G-d would let him in Heaven.
Crap. Just lost my job!
Phil,
Wonderful reporting.
But, you write, "As for the U.S.—well, we should be helping Egypt in a peaceful transition toward democracy."
I think the US, and us, should stay out and mind our business. The rest of the world is as smart as us, if not smarter, they will figure out what works for them and how. We have no business guiding anyone toward any democracy. We are figuring that our for ourselves daily in this country and we still haven't got it.
Thank you, Phil. That was a very moving piece. I feel your sense of loss, and it is a loss. For all of us, even those that are not Jews, even those that are not Egyptians. I'm sorry.
That was beautiful.
Ignore Witty, he's a bitter, old man.
That hurt.
I once had a dream, I was lost and kept driving on a highway, when I finally stopped and asked for directions. It was the house of a Jew. He had little kids playing inside. And a Palestinian woman was cleaning his table.
When I told of my dream to my mom she said that many Palestinians work as servants in Jewish homes. To be a servant in your former home to your oppressor--thinking about it had made my heart heavy at the time.
This video had made me feel worse.
How beautiful Zionism is!
Brewer,
Believe it or not, oppression comes in more than one way. Perhaps economically the people of Libya were doing well but they wanted more than that. The dissent in Libya was not sudden, it has a loooooonnnngggg history. Gaddafi's jails were filled with dissidents.
Gaddafi was not a nice person or a nice dictator. He has to answer for many of the disappeared Libyans, some dissenters living outside of Libya also vanished over the years. One Libyan dissident, someone my father knew, from Houston met the same fate. No one knew where he went, what happened to him.
You don't have to like Human Rights Watch, the Democrats, US foreign policy, NATO's role in wars around the globe; and your points may be legitimate, I probably agree with many of them, but please don't denigrate Libyan people's intellect by saying they desired nothing more from life than to live as mute and blind citizens under a leader they did not chose as long as they were getting meals and an education.
Believe it or not, the Muslim street, globally speaking, is not happy with their governments, with their systems and their power structures. Some Muslims are willing to do something about it, finally.
Oh and did I also mention that Gaddafi was a pariah in more ways than one? As an example, he would buy influence in internal Pakistani politics with his wealth, he likes to think himself the benevolent leader of Muslims everywhere. He also financed and armed a terror group in he 80s in Pakistan, that went around bludgeoning people with hammers, that were opposed to Bhutto after Bhutto had been hanged.
The guy is a douchebag and I hope he gets caught and hung live on TV as he did to university students in Libya to teach the rest of the country a lesson in the 80s. I hope his progeny rots in hell. I'll leave the fighting to the Libyans and how they want to conduct it and with who's help.
Phil,
Have you noticed that Richard has been particularly scathing over the past few months? In fact, ever since the last fund drive. I seriously hope you have gotten better at choosing your friends.
Witty,
Phil may not be a savior, but he's got a moral bone that you never were born with. May God forgive you.
What a fucking bastard. Palestinians have been attacked in many countries in the past, too. Gaddafi did the same at one time.
Very happy to see Gadaffi's tenure as life long dictator come to an end (soon), inshallah. Wishing the same for Syria, Yemen, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. In that order. (Also Pakistan).
From antiwar.com: link to feeds.bignewsnetwork.com
American flocking to Israel to join the IDF. Did they serve in the US military???
Threats to Latin American from Jewish organizations does not make a better wheel. Live and let live.
Witty is getting more and more pathetic in his old age. People tend to do that when they look at their life and realize what little they accomplished. And what has Witty accomplished? Nothing, except lied through his teeth for Israel and defended all racists who stand by Israel.
So does Islamphobia. AND attempted assassination of Muhammad (S) by a local Jew. He thought the Arabs weren't good enough to be sent a prophet by God, as they were not the chosen ones.
It's really not that complicated. Weather Assad is a softie and is really a human teddy bear, it doesn't matter. Him and all his other dictator compatriots in the region have got to go. People there want them to go.
Will people try to exploit the situation for their benefits? I'm sure they will and are. That doesn't really matter to me at this point. Let the Arabs taste freedom and down the road, one day, their destiny will be theirs. Along the way there will be much blood and slaughter, something I'm not happy about, but freedom has never come without it.
"ever since i watched the documentary on how the west set up the popular president of romania and his wife thru the cia..."
I just finished taking a summer class titled "CIA and the 3rd World." That stuff is NOT pretty. They have set up successful governments all over the world. And continue to try to do so to this day.
Witty's beloved Israel at work. He must be so proud!
I was wondering the same. Aren't there any dark-haired, dark-eyed Jewish beauties?
More from the same article:
"While there have been periodic media reports lauding the supermarket as an island of Palestinian-settler coexistence, right-wing groups and some locals have issued calls to boycott it,"
When extremist Jews call for a boycott, it's "holy" and therefore allowed. Anyone else who thinks of a boycott of Israeli products is an anti-Semite. Got it??
Chaos,
I've been taking one history class after another and there are some things I have come to realize. History isn't just a story of the world. History lives on to the present, it shapes the future, it makes the societies of today. History influences our cultures, our politics, our opinions. History is a living beast. What happened a century ago, heck centuries, ago, matters to this day. The past actions of people and societies, of governments and churches, of empires and monarchs have consequences for us, but most of the time we are not aware of them.
Every time I read a bit of history, I understand our current situation much better. Our present problems exist in the context of history and if people are fair they will look at history and interpret it fairly--but we don't do that. We interpret history to suit our ideologies.
I am hearing a lot of disguised sympathy for the Norway Christian terrorist. Much talk about how the Muslims are colonizing the West. If that is the case, then hell yes we are "colonizing" the West. It's payback for when the West colonized and raped much of the world for a century or so. They stole the resources, made sure the would benefit from them even after they pulled out physically.
It is very true. I was shocked and disturbed at age 12. I was in the sixth grade. I had a couple of sleepless nights. I asked my mom many questions.
My daughter is a very kind, sensitive child. I have told her to hit back if another child hits her and she refuses saying she will pray for them "and inshallah they will become better." I don't know where she gets that from because my family doesn't talk like that. She certainly doesn't go to the mosque and so she's not hearing any talk about being extra kind to those that hurt you. But the point I'm trying to make is that if someone of her personality is exposed to the Holocaust at such a young age, it will surely harm them psychologically. I would never expose her to anything so violent until she's mature enough, or allow any school to do so either. Currently she's five
Good. Now they can go back to Israel and start convincing those around them that treating Palestinians like that isn't right and they went through something similar and that didn't feel so good.
"the culture of the Muslims to only marry Muslims"
To a degree, yes. But plenty of Muslims marry People of the Book--Christians and Jews. Lots of Catholics for some reason.
"Marc Sageman, a former C.I.A. officer and a consultant on terrorism, said it would be unfair to attribute Mr. Breivik’s violence to the writers who helped shape his world view. But at the same time, he said the counterjihad writers do argue that the fundamentalist Salafi branch of Islam “is the infrastructure from which Al Qaeda emerged. Well, they and their writings are the infrastructure from which Breivik emerged.” "
Translation: No matter which way you look at it, Islam and Muslims are still to blame for the white man's terror.
link to nytimes.com
Global Infidel Defence Fund
the name takes all the seriousness out of what the Norway terrorist is trying to say.
Germany’s top Jewish leader also highlighted the need to fight extremism.
“As a group that itself is always threatened by hatred, fanaticism and terrorism, we can identify particularly with the terrible loss of Norwegian society,” Dieter Graumann said, German news agency dapd reported.
link to washingtonpost.com
This really annoyed me. In practically every tragedy, why do certain people have to point out that they are the real, permanent victims?
This is absurd. Has there ever been another country in the history of the world that has been made a cult out of? What is wrong with religious Jews? Don't they realize israel has become the golden calf of modern times? I would at least expect them to be aware of it but often times they are the most adamant about worshiping israel to the point that criticizing it has become heresy.
Absurd, just absurd.
We never had the TV. Our dad wouldn't allow it. He said to read if we are bored. We did just that and rode our bikes, while our friends were glued to MTV. At the time we thought we were missing out.
I"m so used to not having a TV, I still don't have one and my dauther finds other forms of entertainment to make herself happy.
MRW, I found you the trailer!
link to youtube.com
You need to watch the Indian film "Tere Bin La Den" or "Without You." It's a play on his name. It's got English subtitles. It's a comedy and it's damn funny. Here's the plot: Some journalists are out of a job and they run across a guy who bears resemeblence to OBL, and they get the idea of getting him to make a video and selling it to a news network, and soon the intelligence services are on their tail thinking they know where OBL is. They ending is ever better. But what shocked me and managed to get a gasp out of me was how they literally made the guy look like OBL!!!
And i got to thinking, shit if they can do it, then the government has more means at their disposal.
A must watch.
I don't know about him being hailed as a martyr by the Muslim world. Those that consider him as such are the few who already consider him to be a hero.
Osama was a great excuse to kill scores of Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan. (And now Pakistan?). If the killing stops, Muslims will appreciate that he's gone, but if the invasions and occupations continue, then killing him, instead of arresting him, does raise questions.
Yes, high fructose corn syrum is in everything! Even in ketchup. I try to avoid it as much as I can. My sis in law, who's Canadian, said that they don't put that in their products.
Really? Corn deplets niacin? 'Cuz ive been grilling some corn lately, actually every day!
If anyone is looking for laughs, an Indian comedy film, "tere bin laden" (without you) is really good. it has English subtitles. I think i'm going to rent it again after exams and watch it.
It's depicted in Pakistan. A journalist and a leftist radio talk show host get together and come up with a plan to make money after they spot a guy who looks very much like OBL. They put out a video and sell it to a news network.... good stuff.
OMG. I'm sorry but what an idiot. Would it be cruel to say I laughed? To make such stupid jokes in front of your white "friends!" Shit, I wouldn't make a stuipd joke like that in front of my Muslim in-laws. Ppl need excuses these days to turn someone in as a "threat." What the hell is a Muslim doing in Iowa? Hello!!
In other news, a Texas teacher was fired for making a freshmen girl cry after he caled her out in front of her classmates and said that she must be grieveing at OBL's death. On a positive note, the classmates stood up for her and comforted her. The story can be found at Houston Chronicle.
These are men with guts. Unfortunately, men (and women) with guts are far and few these days.
And Chinese have in turn sold plenty of it to Pakistan.
Pakistan did not sell nuclear secrets to "your" enemies. A rogue scientist did. France also sold nuclear technology illegally, (or gave it for free?) to Israel. Don't forget that. Also, what do you mean "our" enemy? Aren't you an Israeli?
When people talk about terrorism and Pakistan, why do they forget the hundreds that have been killed in terrorist attacks inside Pakistan itself? there have been attacks on the police, on the army, on the government. Clearly, it's not the military and the government attacking their own interests.
I seriously doubt, even with all the stealth and jamming that was used, that the Pakistan government was in total ignorance of US military presence there. They may not have known the target or the mission, but they couldn't have been in the total dark. Just doesn't make sense.
Pakistan has a highly porous border with Afghanistan and people come in and out of there every day in the hundreds and thousands. Knowing the terrain, and knowing the culture, it's understandable how Osama could have escaped detection.
As for the "secret" compound, it fits very well with the surroundings. Virtually, anyone who can afford it will build high walls around their homes and property. My parents debated doing same with theirs, but then ditched the idea since they don't live there. And expensive SUVs are not a rare sight in Abbotabad, one of the richest places in Pakistan.
IDs and finger-printing came into wide use after 9/11. It's easy to get commit a crime and "disappear."
If anyone’s been a good friend to the US, it’s been Pakistan, who has gone against the wishes of it’s people time and time again in order to please the US. They have gone out of their way to put into harm their own soldiers to fight America’s war on terror. On the other hand, when their own people die in terrorist attacks, nothing is really done about it. No one pursues that.
In order to be such good friends with the US, Pakistan has sold out its people.
Avi,
I can't believe how easily people are buying into the official narrative regarding OBL and the operation by the US. Pakistani media, analysts and intelectuals have dubbed this as the weapons of mass deception.
This is the excuse that will culiminate in the US trying to get rid of Pakistan's nuclear capability.
The media there is asking how did foreign helicopters get into the heart of Pakistan without the military knowing? It's just not possible. As soon as an airplane enters into Pakistani territory, doesn't identify itself, military planes are up in the air in seconds following it, and if need be are given the orders to shoot it down. Keeping that in mind, the US is saying no intelligence was shared, while Pakistan is saying intelligence was shared.
WTF is going on?!?
I predict escalating tensions and war on Pakistan. Somone is unhappy with Pakistan's nuclear capability. Pakistan is not a threat to any country, other than India and vice versa.
When Pakistan declared nuclear capability, it wasn't dubbed as the "pakistani bomb," it was dubbed as the "Muslim bomb." It was seen as a strategic win for the "Muslim" world.
Someone tell me again, this isn't a war on Islam?
Hey, there was a good American citizen that dragged a black man behind his truck in Texas, a decade agao, in a smal town. Made international headlines. Now, if only we can all learn civility from Americans!
From what I understand from reading her blog, is that her family has political connections, and that also played a role in her being let off rather easily as compared to others.
Note that her father makes angry calls to people with political power about these guys.
Excellent work, Tim. It is unfortunate that the so-called journalists of today have to be schooled by those outside of their profession on ethics, honesty and integrity, and a basic compnent of journalism, called fact-checking.
James North,
I wouldn't expect anything from Witty. He's an old-school hypocrite. We should just write him off.
Besides, he has his own blog which the racists from here like to read. We should discourage him from commenting on this site at all, and encourage him to stay on his own blog where he can preach to fellow hasbarists.
May God grant her a healthy, blessed life. I pray for your safe reunification with her, inshallah.
Chaos,
It's Mikael. the e is slightly elongated. So it would be pronounced as Mikaeel.
Maybe an Arab can help.