Ihsan Alkhatib

Between the Detroit Arab- American Study and TLC’s All American Muslims

2011-11-14T14:57:00.002-05:00

Sunday was the debut of the much- awaited TLC show All American Muslims. Five Arab American Muslim families from the Detroit area were chosen for a reality show. Much has been written on the show and most of it is positive. This is good. There is national and international interest in Arab Americans and Muslim Americans- an interest that can be traced to the 9/11 attacks and the subsequent mix of curiosity, paranoia, suspicion and enmity displayed toward Arab and Muslim Americans, in part due to the fact that the community “looked” like the enemy. The show was supposed to stimulate conversations and challenge the negative stereotypes about the Muslim American community.
No spelling bee queen, no Snooki
Blessed are those who do not expect too much for they shall not be disappointed. It’s good to keep this saying in mind when thinking of anything in life, this show included. This is reality TV. Some of the comments that I have seen online made by Arab and Muslim Americans are humorous- and to some extent troubling. One mother said that she wants to raise her children as good Muslims and she thought that exposing her kids to the show would help her do the job! Seriously? I wonder how many Italian Americans are encouraging their kids to embrace their Italian roots by watching Jersey Shore’s Chilean Snooki?
Ordinary Lives
The media hype over the show made some think it is a documentary or some scientific and rigorous representation of American “good Muslims”- those who are fully compliant with all the demands of the faith. I understand why some would have that impression. But it’s important to keep things in perspective. It’s TLC, the Teaching and learning Channel, but it’s not the Harvard Channel, Public TV or CNN for that matter. It’s a show about some interesting and likable members of the community. One key lesson one takes from the show is that the community is ordinary and includes a diverse group of people with varying degrees of religiosity and compliance with cultural norms and expectations. In that sense the show is an accurate representation of Muslim Americans. But if one is worried about their daughter’s future just because Nina Bazzi wants to open a club or Shadia Amen marries from outside the community I suggest that these parents need a reality check, not reality TV. If you are expecting a reality show to teach your children how to be Arab Americans or Muslim Americans then I suggest that Shadia Amen and Nina Bazzi are the least of your worries. Seek counseling.
A Part of Reality
Some say reality TV has “nothing” to do with reality. Not true. Reality TV is part of reality- but not “reality”. It is entertainment. The TLC show is not a documentary on Arab Americans or Muslim Americans. This is not a scientific study of Muslim Americans. The five families are not a representative sample of Muslim Americans or Arab Americans. The majority of Arab Americans are Christian and the majority of Muslim Americans are South Asian and African Americans. Some have loudly protested the fact that the show does not represent the Muslim community accurately. Some thought that some individuals have scandalized the community with their comments or dress. This is an interesting and mildly comical response from a Muslim community that has been seen nationally in the dim light of a Muslim man who tried to blow up an airline with hundreds of innocent human beings in it over Detroit and became known as the “underwear bomber.” Ten years after 9/11 and after all the mainstream media stories and scholarly studies we find that when many Americans think of Muslims they think of the “underwear bomber” and the 9/11 hijackers. Given this reality, Nina Bazzi’s reality TV comments are welcome entertainment- even fresh and enlightening.
The Detroit Arab American Study
Those interested in Arab Americans, Muslim Americans and the Detroit Arab and Muslim American community can access a number of scholarly studies on the community. How many are aware of or remember the Detroit Arab American Study (DAAS)? How many Americans, or Muslim and Arab Americans, have read the scholarly studies on our community? It would be great if there was a documentary on DAAS where its findings are presented and explained. The book Citizenship and Crisis –Arab Detroit After 9/11 by the Detroit Arab American Study Team presents findings based on DAAS. It’s a rigorous empirical study. Those interested in the community could go and read the book and the other studies that used the same dataset. In Chapter one Wayne baker and Andrew Shyrock write: “This book intervenes in the post-9/11 process of normalization, slowing it down to enable careful analysis and clear understanding. Through a careful analysis of systematic data collected on these communities and on the general population in the same region, we hope to make two contributions. First, we aim to insert accurate, objective information into the vigorous and often misinformed public discourse about Arab Americans. Our topics include basic demographic patterns, the 9/11 backlash, attitudes about civil liberties, social identities, religion and religious practices, values, social capital, political beliefs, and attitudes about US foreign policy.” And describing the Detroit Arab American community they write: “If Arab Detroit appears culturally distinctive to members of the larger American society, it seems even more peculiar in comparison to the Arab world. The broad range of lifestyles, national backgrounds, and levels of assimilation found among Detroit’s Arab and Arabic speaking population make it a difficult community to represent, both intellectually and politically.”
A Welcome Contribution
Reality TV has its clear and serious limitations in dealing with serious topics. But the other ways of dealing with serious topics also have their limitations. News articles and scholarly studies also have their limitations. A survey is a snapshot of reality that might not necessarily apply before or after. News stories also have their limitations. Go read mainstream articles and see whom they interview and quote when they write about the community and you will come up with a handful of names. Is that an accurate representation of the community? All American Muslims is a welcome contribution to the body of knowledge on Arab and Muslim Americans. The clear shortcomings on accuracy and representation are trumped by the positive message and the wide reach.

In Defense of the Ficano Administration and Azzam Elder

2011-11-02T22:11:00.003-04:00

Wayne county and a number of its officials are the news these days. A few media outlets are fixated on what they see as cozy political arrangements and are intent on bringing down the administration of Wayne County Executive Bob Ficano.

Defamatory and Unfounded Allegations
This is simply the media at its worst. The allegations of the county having improper relationship with political donors are defamatory and unfounded. One media outlet broke the news last year about the linkage between political donors and/or contractors and a fund that pays for overseas trips of county officials designed to bring business to the county. The media outlet brought this issue in an attempt to expose “government corruption.” The allegations are unfounded.
Now the media is following up this unholy crusade with this anti- Ficano campaign by attacking the administration for the severance pay of Turkia Awada, a woman known for competence and integrity. The media has jumped onto this issue as proof of alleged corruption and so-called cronyism.

These allegations and accusations are baseless and ill intentioned and are harmful to the interests of the county and its citizens. Is it possible that a bad decision was made? Yes it is possible. However, the media is creating the impression that there is some criminal behavior somewhere when there is not a shred of evidence of such. The allegations of criminality are outrageous in the very simple fact that they are unfounded and putting the competent administrators in a negative light is a disservice to the county and its citizens and unfair to these public servants.

Local Political Arrangements

The bottom line is that the media is attacking local political arrangements and asking the federal government to engage in a fishing expedition to create crimes out of thin air- to engage in creative prosecution of Wayne County government. We know that the federal government has an arsenal of vague laws that it can creatively use to indict a ham sandwich if it so wants. A call for such an expedition is outrageous and a waste of taxpayer money.

The Rise of Azzam Elder: The Success Story of Competence, Integrity and Hard Work

They are intent on destroying politicians who are known for competence and integrity. What explains the media’s running around following deputy county executive Azzam Elder and filming him talking in his car to a colleague? Or meeting another colleague? Are these crimes? What is the big deal about building a nice house for him and his family? Is it un-American? His wife is a judge and he is a high- ranking official. He spent the majority of his career living in a humble family-owned flat – eventually moving into his own home. He worked as a prosecutor for the county while his wife stayed at home. As an assistant county prosecutor he distinguished himself for his competence and integrity. One attorney who faced him in a criminal trial once told me that Azzam "kicked" his "ass all over the place.” With his competence, abilities and integrity he rose up the ladder to become the highest ranking Arab and/or Muslim American in the State of Michigan government today. To go after him, filming him, trying to make him look guilty is outrageous and disgusting. The man does not deserve that.

For this, these media outlets fixated on Wayne county deserve neither respect nor thanks. They are simply creating diversions for the Ficano administration when they need all the focus in the world on the real problems of Wayne County. We hope that the Arab- American community sees through this and supports the Ficano administration and its number two man, Azzam Elder, whose integrity and competence is beyond doubt.

The FBI training, Again and the Case of the Forgotten Muthanna

2011-10-16T13:33:00.000-04:00

The FBI counter- terrorism training is clearly a problem. There seems to be a theme in the training of the FBI agents- Islam is evil and adherents are a threat. The story from Seattle is that a community leader from that area who attended the 2011 FBI Citizens' Academy class in Seattle reported that the training included material equating Islam with Nazism, part of that documents read: "A careful comparison of Arab/Islamist propaganda and Nazi propaganda reveals the closeness of these links. . .I would suggest that the current conflicts are a continuation of Nazi policies carried out by Arabs. . ." The document was signed by an FBI agent.
Again, we have a problem. NPR reports that the FBI is reevaluating its whole counter- terrorism training that refers to culture or religion. This is a first step in the right direction. There is another problem. The NPR story posed the question: "The question that everyone is asking — and the FBI is trying to answer now — is how the Muslim bias crept into the training program in the first place." The NPR story gives three answers: "The counterterrorism training was, the officials said, given a low priority because the FBI didn't expect funding for that kind of training to get slashed." Second, "The recall suggests that the FBI is not entirely sure what it is teaching in its counterterrorism curriculum." Third, "[O]fficials close to the process say part of the problem is one of structure. The counterterrorism training division has a lot of autonomy."
Church Doctrine and Bias?
Is there another reason? The federal law enforcement agencies seek individuals with intelligence, education and with a history of conformity to America's law and expectations of moral behavior. After living in this country for almost twenty years, my impression is that those with religious background have the highest law abiding history. And as someone who has a hobby of listening to Christian religious sermons on AM radio while driving, I can relate that there seems to be a theme running in Christian sermons today- the focus on Israel and Islam is a common occurrence. And the focus is clearly negative. Are these law-abiding officers, who tend to be religious, prejudiced by their religious background and exposure to religious messages that keep hammering a negative view of Islam? I am not sure this is the case but if it is- then the problem is much deeper and makes the training ever more critical. There are major Christian figures in this country who have openly and unequivocally attacked Islam and its Prophet- doing so with no regard for anyone and in the most vulgar and vile manner . These are not the David Koresh types in this country. They are the Pat Robertsons, the Billy Grahams and others with millions of followers. They are leaders of millions of Americans- many of whom end up in law enforcement.
My point about the background issue of course only applies to some, perhaps many, in law enforcement, but clearly not all. But it is significant enough where it can make a difference in receptiveness to certain ideas. How could anyone, in a decision making position in the FBI hierarchy, with an above average intelligence and education and a law abiding background, accept the drivel of the pseudo training? I mean wasn't it obviously biased material or was accepted since it validated the former received messages from Hollywood, the media and many American religious leaders?
Agents Object to Biased Training
Again this is not everyone we are talking about. The NPR story reports that what brought this biased training to light is complaints from agents who were not happy with the training and saw through the bias and prejudice and voiced their objections. Of course, these objections were voiced due to the training being misleading and biased and not necessarily out of love of the religion of Islam or the culture- which is fine. Here is part of the NPR story: 'NPR has obtained real-time emails from agents who were attending that controversial class at Quantico this April. What the emails indicate is that at least some of those in that class objected to the biased information they were getting and they reached out both to experts and to supervisors to complain about the curriculum. One email said that the Prophet Muhammad was being portrayed as a warring military leader. It also cited an instructor as saying that a "true Muslim" had to support or take part in the killing of non-Muslims. The instructor also told the class, according to a handful of attendees, that Muhammad was an epileptic and the Quran didn't come to him in a series of heavenly visions, but instead was actually part of an epileptic fit.'
The Wall Street Journal recently had a series of articles about the expansion of federal criminal law prosecution and how prosecution under vague federal criminal law can ensnare the unwary, those who do not have the mens rea to commit criminal acts. In Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent by Harvey Silverglate, Silverglate tells stories of how individuals from different walks of life were ensnared using vague statutes. Here we have a perfect storm for the Muslim activists and their organizations, mainly the American Muslim charities: Vague laws, aggressive federal prosecution and a prejudiced federal law enforcement. Then you magnify the outcome by a multiplier with the foreign conflict dimension an aggravating factor.
I am not arguing that the problem is a deeper societal bias that cannot be remedied. My argument is that there is already a deep reservoir of bias in American society. This is fed by Hollywood and the media. It is aggravated by religious sermons that see the Muslims and the Arabs as the modern day enemies of "the people of Israel," in the Biblical sense, a conflict between Good and Evil. The media, Hollywood and Churches can do their "thing" or number, on Arabs and Muslims but the least we could expect, given this background and reality, is that the country that has the Harvards and the Georgetowns, the John Espositos and Noah Feldmans, gives its law enforcement an accurate and unbiased training on Islam and Muslims? Is that too much to ask? Isn't that in the US national interest?
*****
The case of the Forgotten Muthanna
One of the Muslim American victims of the post 9/11 big net cast in the War on Terror is Muthanna Alhanooti. I recently visited community activist and leader Muthanna al Hanooti. Muthanna who is serving time in federal prison in Milan, Michigan. He was sentenced to one year in prison after pleading guilty to transacting business with the former Iraqi regime without obtaining a license from the Treasury department. Harvey Silverglate in Three Felonies a Day writes about how the federal government exerts tremendous pressure to force defendants not only to sing but to compose as well. It does not seem that Muthanna composed- that is tell lies to save his skin. Now Muthanna serves time in a place about half an hour from Dearborn, the community where he lived and worked for a number of years and met and knew many people. Anyone who saw Muthanna at an event knew the extent of his friendships by the number of people going to him to shake his hand and hug him. Now Muthanna sits, feeling abandoned, by the community he loved and he served. He has no visitors. The community that he lived in, loved and served seems to have abandoned him. It is not a crime to visit a friend or anyone else in prison. Muthanna needs the support of his friends and the community. One does not have to be a family member to visit an inmate. More should be visiting him

Killing Awlaki and the Lessons of the Israeli Counter- terror War model: Terror Increases, Democracy Compromised

2011-10-16T13:12:00.000-04:00

The United States government killed Anwar Awlaki, an American citizen who joined, as a propagandist and cheerleader, the Al Qaeda's war against the U.S. This killing raises a number of constitutional questions regarding the seemingly summary execution of an American citizen. The Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution reads: "No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." Was Awlaki "deprived of life" without due process of law? Due process has two dimensions- substantive and procedural. Substantive due process is the question whether the penalty is fair compared to the violation or crime and procedural due process is whether the punishment was imposed through a fair and just procedure. To constitutional scholars the killing of Awlaki raises valid fifth amendment questions.
Operational Threat versus Propaganda Threat/Hate Speech
Terror experts have a different focus- they focus on the impact of the killing on the counter- terror campaign. The questions asked are not constitutional or moral questions- they are utility questions. A number of terrorism analysts seem to think the killing of Awlaki is a victory in America's war on terror. In a Reuters story dated 9/30/2011 none of the experts interviewed took the constitutional approach. One terror expert, Michael Ryan ,stated: "Removing Awlaki is an important accomplishment because of his ability to speak on the internet in a familiar American accent. He sounded normal even as he was saying outrageous things. His importance relates almost entirely to what Abu Mus'ab al-Suri referred to as the third circle of jihad, what we call home-grown terrorism. (The first two circles are what we know as al-Qaeda Central and AQ affiliates.) He consistently delivered the message that terrorism against Americans was a laudable activity. He effusively praised Nidal Hassan for his shooting American soldiers on American soil. He could also deliver interviews in credible Arabic. In those, his message was generally that the United States was at war with Islam and that the United States tolerated only those Muslims that followed the American line. Muslims that followed the American line were actually no Muslims at all, according to Awlaki. So taking Awlaki out of battle was a good blow against this kind of hate speech that might appeal to troubled people inside the United States. On the other hand, Awlaki had no role in operations and his death will have no effect on the ability of AQAP to carry out transnational terrorist operations..."
Real Terrorism Experts: Martha Crenshaw, Pedahzur and Perliger
In post 9/11 era many claimed to be terrorism experts though they had dubious credentials as to language skills, expertise and training. Many touted the Israeli model as the right and only way for the U.S. to deal with the terror threat-claiming, despite real evidence to the contrary- that the Israeli approach is a workable and effective approach. The Bush administration declared a War on Terror, that is, it adopted the Israeli view of the terror threat as a war issue and not a law enforcement problem. One of the real terrorism experts is Martha Crenshaw. Crenshaw edited a volume, The Consequences of Counterterrorism, with a chapter on the Israeli counter- terror experience. "The consequences of counterterrorist policies in Israel" is a chapter written by Ami Pedahzur of the University of Texas and Arie Perliger of Israel's Hebrew University. In examining whether the Israeli experience is successful they use two criteria: "Effectiveness" in decreasing incidents of terror and "democratic accountability." They examine five Israeli counter- terrorism policies, one of which is targeted killings, and conclude that the Israeli measures increased acts of terror and exacted a price on Israel by eroding its democracy.
The Israel Experience: From Limited to Expanded use of Targeted Killings
From "Ticking Bombs to "Ticking Infrastructure"
Israel is a country that utilized targeted killings, a "war model" counter- terror tactic, extensively in its counter- terror campaign. It began as a narrow and limited tactic but ended up being expanded with the classes or categories of those eligible for the one- time extra ordinary measure broadening over time: 'These days, "targeted killings" have become almost synonymous with air strikes aimed at insurgents and their leaders. This measure has been utilized extensively by Israel since the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada. The initial aim of this method was to stop "ticking bombs." In other words, when all other measures had been exhausted, targeted killings were supposed to strike at terrorists who were dispatched on a deadly mission. However, as indicated by Yuval Diskin, head of the General Security Service (GSS) and the person responsible for developing this tactic, its use quickly expanded from "ticking bombs" to "ticking infrastructures." This vague term refers to dispatchers and local leaders of terrorist cells. By 2004 it had become obvious that the targets of this policy had expanded once more and now included political leaders of different Palestinian factions, such as Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz al- Rantisi.'
The Utility and Cost of the Israeli Counter- Terror Approach
Steep Decline in "Public Trust in Political and Legal Institutions"
Pedahzur and Perliger characterize Israeli strategy as "the war model in its most extreme version." They evaluate the effort as a failure since Israel faced more acts of terrorism while eroding its democracy: "Israeli practices have generated poor outcomes, and generated Palestinian animosity toward Israel has only increased. These effects have played into the hands of the different insurgent groups and led to an escalation in terrorist campaigns. At the same time, the quality of Israeli democracy has declined, and Israel's standing as the only democracy in the Middle Eats has been compromised. For example, the ongoing adoption of the war model-type measures over the years has reduced the ability of a growing proportion of Israeli residents to exercise basic civil and political rights. The Palestinian population from the West Bank and Gaza, Israeli Arabs, and, in the last decade, left-wing activists have all suffered from a diminished ability to organize politically, to engage in effective political protests, and to sustain their civil rights. Other signs of the decline in the democratic foundations of the Israeli state have been the dramatic upsurge in administrative detentions, from several hundred during the early 1970s to more than ten thousand during the 1990s, the growing use of military force in security assignments in the interstate civilian arena, and a sharp drop in public trust in political and legal institutions."
Targeted killings raise important questions not only about the constitutionality of the controversial counter- terror tactic but about the Israel counter- terror war model itself as well.

The Alhanooti case: An oil contract with Saddam’s G.O.I. without OFAC license

2011-03-26T16:26:00.004-04:00

The Alhanooti case: An oil contract with Saddam’s G.OI. without OFAC license
The $40,000 potential, $0.00 realized

On Friday March 18 at 2 p.m. Judge Borman of the Eastern District of Michigan sentenced community leader and longtime activist Mr. Muthanna Alhanooti to a year and one day in federal prison. The personal saga of Muthanna ended on that day. There remains much confusion on the Muthanna case- what is it exactly that the government is charging he did? Is he a wealthy spy like the government charges seem to make him to be? Why was he sentenced to one year and a day in prison?
Government paints Muthanna as a spy, defense fails to counter
The confusion over Muthanna’s case is a result of the Bush administration’s presenting the case as a major case and the way that Muthanna’s attorney dealt with it. The government created the impression that Muthanna is a wealthy spy for Saddam. The government dealt Muthanna’s reputation a major blow by characterizing him as an agent/spy. Anyone who knows Muthanna knows that that cannot be true given the nature of Muthanna and his values. Muthanna is well known as a man who values friendship and freedom and hates betrayal and dictatorship. Such a man does not make a spy. The arrest of Muthanna made national and international news. In the U.S., the Wall Street Journal put his arrest as item one on its page one What’s News section. The international Arab media had a field day confusing the facts about the case and about Muthanna.

The five-count indictment
The initial indictment had five counts. Two counts were related to violations of the Iraq sanctions regime and three counts were making of false statements to FBI agents regarding the conduct in the first two charges. The first charge is conspiracy to “act as an agent of a foreign government,” “the second charge is the contract to purchase Iraqi oil in violation of the sanctions regime and three counts of false statement 18 USC 1001 (a)(2) to FBI agents. The conspiracy allegation is that Muthanna conspired with agents of Iraqi intelligence to form delegations to take to Iraq and work to undermine the sanctions regime. As compensation for his work, the government alleged that the government of Iraq allocated two million barrels of oil. It is a well- known fact that the government of Iraq rewarded its friends and those who advocated against the sanctions regime, whether independently or in coordination with Iraq, by awarding them contracts for oil that can be sold in the UN Oil for Food program. Many think that Muthanna actually received 2 million barrels of oil and is a millionaire. Far from it. In fact, the US government estimates that Muthanna would have made $100,000 out of the deal. Muthanna asserts that the contract would have resulted in $40,000 to him. Muthanna never received a penny from the deal- he merely accepted it and signed it off to LARU to take an allocation of Iraqi oil.

The Plea
Muthanna plead guilty to the second count of the indictment, the contract to purchase Iraqi oil in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (“IEEPA”) (50 U.S.C. 1705). He plead to accepting to the contract for the oil from the government of Iraq without having the proper license from OFAC, Office of Foreign Asset Control.

The government sentencing memorandum
In its sentencing memorandum, the government asked the judge to impose a sentence of 46 months on Muthanna- four years. In the Nature and Circumstances of the offense part the government wrote: “In direct contravention of IEEPA and the Iraqi Sanctions Regulations, defendant chose to unlawfully accept a valuable allocation of oil from the Iraqi government that was subject to the sanctions regime described herein. More specifically, defendant caused a contract between SOMO [State Oil marketing Organization] and an oil trading company, Laru, to be procured on his behalf…Defendant chose to ignore the national emergency that had been declared with respect to Iraq and instead, consummate for his own benefit a significant financial transaction with the highest levels of the Saddam Hussein regime.” Under the History and Characteristics of the Defendant section, the government wrote “Rather than being the result of a single mistake or bad decision, defendant’s crime was the result of a protracted effort to secure the oil allocation; indeed, Defendant, has told the FBI that he first discussed the oil allocation with Al-Huadithi approximately one year before the 2002 Congressional delegation.”
Muthanna had asked for probation. The government report read: ‘In his objections to the Presentence investigation report, defendant has indicated that he considers himself eligible for a departure based on his “extraordinary service to the United states during the early months of its occupation of Iraq by serving as a liaison with local government and other officials and the Coalition Occupation Authority in the Baghdad area.” However, the facts do not bear out Defendant’s assertions…Defendant could only recall by name one U.S. official with whom he met and he told the FBI that no U.S. government entity instructed defendant to perform any tasks , nor did the U.S. government offer or pay anything for defendant or FAAIR.’
Not only did the government refuse to acknowledge Muthanna’s efforts in helping the US government when he could, efforts that were motivated by loyalty and patriotism on his part, performed while not receiving one cent from the US government, the prosecution asked for a maximum penalty. The prosecution claimed, with a straight face, that Muthanna’s case is similar to Najib Shemami’s case. Najib Shemami admitted that he spied for the government of Iraq, endangered American troops and American citizens, and got paid by the government of Iraq for his spying and endangering Americans. According to a news report on the Shemami conviction, Shemami “told Iraqi authorities about the activities of expatriates in the United States. He also reported on U.S. military movements in Turkey before the invasion, describing the location of 200 tanks as well as tents for refugees.” This is completely different from the charges in the indictment of Muthanna let alone the charge he plead into. It also raises a question about the morality and ethics of such a comparison in a court of law.

The sentencing
In the sentencing, Judge Borman’s behavior was exemplary. It was a sober, deliberate and respectful process for all who spoke before the court. The performance of Muthanna’s attorney, an attorney who was paid a princely amount to defend Muthanna, however, left a lot to be desired. I am referring only to what I saw and heard in the sentencing hearing and soon after. Linda Moreno quoted Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn, the Russian novelist, on freedom and innocence. That was seen as pretentious and of no value in an American court sentencing a Muslim Arab American man. More importantly, there were a number of factors that she could have raised that could have only helped Muthanna get a lighter sentence. For example, Muthanna had inquired whether getting the gift contract from the government of Iraq is legal and was told by some who did the research that it is a U.N. program and is fine. This fact was not mentioned by Ms. Moreno. Most importantly, the government alleged in the sentencing that Muthanna “negotiated at the highest political echelons” the oil contract. Recall that in the prosecution sentencing memo the government used “protracted effort” and” discussed.” This assertion of a deliberative and willful process of “negotiation over a year” went unchallenged by the defense and was cited by the judge in imposing the one year sentence. When the government uttered the words of “negotiated” and “highest echelons” Muthanna nudged his attorney because it was not true and he wanted her to challenge that assertion. Ms. Moreno motioned to Muthanna to stay quiet and this single assertion was singularly mentioned by the judge in imposing a one- year term. I was in the courtroom at the time and Muthanna told me this outside the court room. He separately told attorney Shereef Akeel and Moreno about it and inquired why she did not challenge the government allegation. It was too late he was told. Looking back, the judge cared more about the untrue allegation of a deliberate “negotiation” with “upper echelons” than about the learned citation of Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn. The only solace of Muthanna is that he is not in Russia and he will not be serving time in the Gulag Archipelago.

Who is an authority on Islam Robert Spencer or Al Qaradawi?

2010-08-16T08:43:00.001-04:00

Islam is "Perpetual war" or "no compulsion in religion"
Mr. Robert Spencer is the author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) a book that is praised by a who's who of self-appointed for- profit crusaders against Islam. Spencer claims to know what "Islam" "is" and self appoints himself an authority on Islam. Spencer is on an unholy crusade looking for material he can use, in context and out of context, to advance his agenda of demonizing Muslims. He presents the religion as an evil ideology intent on dominating the world and subjecting it to Shariah law. The wording and titles of his chapters show his ideological bias. One chapter's title reads "Islamic law: lie, steal and kill." He is an activist who is involved with efforts to block and disturb efforts to builds Islamic centers in the US.
The Quran tolerant verses: "Canceled"
Spencer invokes the doctrine of abrogation (naskh) to claim that almost 200 verses in the Quran advocating peaceful co-existence, among other noble values, have been canceled by the "Sword verse" a verse that was referred to by an assistant US attorney in the trial of the Yemeni Imam Al Moayyed as the "terrorist verse." Spencer presents as an undisputed fact/consensus matter that "the violent verses of the ninth sura, including the "Verse of the Sword" (9:5), abrogate the peaceful verses, because they are revealed later in Muhammad's prophetic career. He adds "[D]ifferent understanding of abrogation met with little interest and support among Muslims worldwide- not least because they fly in the face of interpretations that have been mainstream for centuries."
"Moderate Islam" does not exist?
Spencer picks and chooses from the grand Islamic tradition to advance his agenda. It is true that some Muslims, a tiny percentage of worldwide Muslims, adopt the argument that he develops and misrepresents as mainstream Islam. As to the general Muslim public, he writes "…[those] who want nothing to do with today's global Jihad, while their theological foundation is weak."
Aggression vs. Non- belief
The theological foundation of those who argue against the wide ranging abrogation claim is not weak. It is voiced by, among others, the famous Muslim scholar of Aljazeera satellite TV station fame Al Qaradawi, a leading Muslim scholar who is watched on Al Jazeera by hundreds of millions of Muslims. On Al Qaradawi's website there is an Arabic- language entry based on a TV interview he gave headed "Aya al Sayf/The sword verse is a subject of disagreement and some say it was abrogated." [http://www.qaradawi.net/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=7197&version=1&template_id=197&parent_id=196]
Dr. Al Qaradawi's raises the argument that the "sword verse" itself is arguably abrogated. Qaradawi emphasized in the interview that "aggression on Muslims and not disbelief is the basis for Muslim warfare…There is disagreement on the so-called Sayf aya (the verse of the sword). Some claimed that it abrogated 200 verses of the Quran among which are the forgiveness and tolerance. But there are those who say that the Sword verse itself is abrogated." He stressed the importance of understanding and explaining these verses in the light of the context they were revealed and the reasons for the revelation.
Debating "Abrogation"
Spencer presents the abrogation argument as a settled matter. Qaradawi presents a different picture. Qaradawi states: "There are those who claim that Islam has to conquer the world by force. They rely on debatable vague grounds. They claim that the verse of the sword abrogated all the verses calling for peaceful coexistence. On principle, abrogation should be narrowly applied. There are scholars who argue that there is no abrogation in the Quran and call for reinterpreting the verses that have been thought be abrogated. The issue of abrogation is not a settled matter. There is not even one verse in the Quran that is claimed to be abrogated where you don't find scholars claiming that it was not. There is not even one verse that there is consensus among the scholars that it is abrogated."
The four "sword verses" in Sura Repentance
Qaradawi added, 'there are four verses, almost all in the Sura al Tawba/Repentance, that are understood as the sword verses. For example, verse 9:5 "But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the Pagans wherever you find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem of war. But if they repent and establish regular prayers and pay Zakat then open the way for them." When you examine this verse you find that it deals with the idolaters of Qureysh and the idolaters of Arabia. They violated treaties and exceeded limits and hurt the Muslims and fought them for years. Tawba/Repentance Sura addressed them "a declaration of immunity from Allah and his Messenger to those of the Pagans with whom you have contracted mutual alliances." This verse addresses those who fight Islam. The proof for this understanding is the subsequent verse 9:4 "but the treaties are not dissolved with those Pagans with whom you have entered into alliance and who have not subsequently failed you in aught, nor aided any one against you. So fulfill your engagements with them to the end of their term: for Allah loveth the righteous." Verse 9: 6 if one amongst the Pagans ask thee for asylum, grant to him, so that he may hear the Word of Allah; and then escort him to where he can be secure…"
Ibn Taymieh's Treatise on Warfare
Al Qaradawi adds 'the bizarre thing is that the radicals say that these verses were abrogated by Qur'an 47:4 "Therefore, when you meet the unbelievers in fight, smite at their necks; at lengths when you have thoroughly subdued them, bind a bond formed on them: thereafter is the time for either generosity or ransom, until the war lags down its burdens." ..Another verse that is considered the Sword verse is " Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of truth, (even if they are) of the people of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued." Quran 9:29. This revelation came in the context of the post Tabook battle when the Muslims fought the Byzantines after they had killed the Muslim messengers sent to them. The Byzantines were getting ready to invade Medina and the Muslims had to confront them. Among others, Shaykh al Islam Ibn Taymieh- his book Treatise on Warfare against the Unbelievers, in it he says that the prophet did not fight except those that did fight him and those who offered truces or peace treaties were accepted. '
Turning the world against us if no one refutes
Al Qaradawi identifies the problem succinctly when he states that those who make the argument that the "sword verse" abrogated the two-hundred verses calling for peace and tolerance pose a danger to the Islamic umma- a "danger of turning the world against Islam." Qaradawi adds, "If these ideas spread and no one refuted them then the world would see us as warmongering intending to control the world by force. We want to win people over by amity and not by the sword." Al Anfal 8:61 reads "But if the enemy incline towards peace, do thou also incline towards peace and trust in Allah" and 60:7 "It may be that Allah will establish friendship between you and those whom you now hold as enemies." Al Qaradawi concluded "there is no permanent enmity, no permanent amity, hearts change and Islam always wants to open doors for amity with people because it is mercy to all mankind."
The New York Times reported that as "a high-profile battle rages over a mosque near ground zero in Manhattan, heated confrontations have also broken out in communities across the country where mosques are proposed for far less hallowed locations." At the heart of these campaigns and the attacks by former politicians such as Newt Gingrich is an understanding of Islam as a violent political ideology, an argument relentlessly promoted by Spencer and many others. Islam is what Qaradawi is, not what Spencer and his fellow travelers believe. Even if one does not agree with all of Qaradawi's fatwas/opinions.

Understanding the failure of the Lebanese parliament to pass legislation ending the terrible treatment of the Palestinian refugees

2010-06-19T16:11:00.003-04:00

The scandalous division in the Lebanese parliament over the bills ending policies of discrimination in housing ownership and employment came up in a phone conversation I had with a relative of mine, a Palestinian refugee from Syria. My relative was puzzled by the treatment of the refugees in Lebanon and by what happened in the parliament. The country of his family's forced refuge, Syria, gives the refugees all the rights Syrians have except the right to vote and to run for office. The world has moved away from such blatant discrimination, how could those who speak of democracy, human rights shamelessly act the way they did he asked?

Any Muslim, any Arab but not a Palestinian Muslim

This phone conversation got me thinking of a situation that puzzled a friend of mine from Dearborn, a Muslim Palestinian attorney born in the US whose parents were from the West Bank, with no ties to Lebanon. Learning that Lebanon was seeking basketball players from overseas, this man wanted to take a break after law school and play basketball in Lebanon. He asked for my help. I called a Christian Lebanese friend of mine of Palestinian origin and asked him to help. He said his cousin works in recruitment of basketball talent and he would see what he could do. Then almost as an afterthought he asked me where is this player from. I told him he is an American born to a Palestinian Muslim family from the West Bank. There was an awkward silence. "It won't work," he said.. A Muslim American of any other nationality would do, he said. A Christian Palestinian would do but not a Muslim Palestinian even if he and his family have nothing to do with Lebanon. "Sorry."

Christian Lebanese and the Palestinians

Why a Christian Palestinian would be acceptable but not a Muslim one? If the Christian Lebanese right wing still has a vendetta from the civil war, why would a Christian Palestinian be ok and not a Muslim one, if the issue is the Palestinians as a people? This mystery is demystified by two interactions I had. On a flight from Amman to Beirut I was sitting next to a Lebanese Christina man. Our small talk, predictably, ended in politics. We talked about the war and the aftermath. We spoke about the different players in the civil war. To my surprise when he spoke about Palestinians he meant Muslim Palestinians. To him the Christian Palestinians were not "Palestinians." This realization is validated by the treatment of Christian Palestinians during the civil war. I once asked a Christian Palestinian friend who lived in the Christian sector of the city if the Christian militias bothered his family. He told me not at all. He thought a little bit and said the neighbors sometimes mocked his grandfather's Palestinian dialect. But that was it. He was accepted in Christian Lebanon. Even the few Christian Palestinians who were not naturalized were accepted in the turf of the Lebanese Christian right.

The beginning and end of the war

Began with a myth ended with a myth

The civil war of Lebanon that broke out in the 1970s began with a myth and ended with a myth. The war began with the myth/blatant lie that the Palestinians want to "take over" Lebanon. It ended with the grand lie/the founding lie of the Taif Republic that the Lebanese are innocent from the war and its atrocities and it's all the Palestinians' fault. The Lebanese Christian right wing needed a convenient enemy that does not draw attention to Lebanese vicious disputes and conflicts- so during the war they chose to have the Palestinians as the public face of the enemy.

More importantly, the Lebanese civil war ended by an imposed Syrian peace on the feuding Lebanese factions. Unwilling to examine the war period, or to have a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, to bring the civil war's many Lebanese war criminals to account, official Lebanon chose to "let bygones be bygones" as the late President Elias el Hrawi put it. But the masses and the youth who did not live the war needed a war narrative, a villain and a hero. The right-wing Christian narrative that carried the day was that the Palestinian was the villain and the Lebanese people the innocent victim of the "wars of others." Vindictive policies toward the Palestinians followed.

Christian Lebanon and Muslim Lebanon

At the heart of the division over the issue of the Palestinian refugees basic rights is an existential question regarding Lebanon itself as a polity. Whose Lebanon is it? I worked in California with a Lebanese Christian of Syrian origin. He said that the religious divide in Lebanon is sickening. He related how in college a Christian Lebanese girl one time stated that she is annoyed by how "Muslims are acting as if they owned Lebanon." My secular Syrian nationalist friend replied to her that Christians too act as if they own Lebanon. She replied, without hesitation, we do! Lebanese media report that the Palestinian issue divided the Lebanese in parliament along communal religious lines. The reality is that the Lebanese are divided along religious lines and the treatment of the Palestinians is a manifestation of this awful division. If the Lebanese truly believed and acted as if Lebanon is their country, regardless of sect and religion, these bills would not have been before parliament at all. The Palestinians would have been dealt with decently and honorably from their day one of forced refuge in Lebanon. They haven't and the Lebanese have to look at themselves in the mirror to know why. Stop pretending.

End the Siege on Palestine- in Lebanon

2010-06-16T19:32:00.002-04:00

Official Lebanon policy on the Palestinian refugees: Undermining Palestine and feeding the global terror network

The siege on Gaza and the Israeli assault on the Turkish humanitarian relief ship has brought world attention to the suffering of the besieged Palestinians in the Gaza strip. After Hamas won the Palestinian elections the Israelis with, Arab and international collusion, imposed a criminal siege designed to punish Gaza’s civilians for voting for Hamas. The Israelis are just professional liars when they say the siege is designed to stop the flow of arms. The siege is designed, just like the war on Gaza and the war on Lebanon in 2006, to break the will to resist occupation and Israeli hegemony. The Wall Street Journal reported on 6/10/2010 that in response to developments after the piracy and massacre at sea of the humanitarian workers, Israel allowed formerly banned items such as potato chips, spices, and cookies.

Official Lebanon undermines Palestinian nationalism
Government policy feeds the global terror network
The plight of the Palestinian refugees is well known. The Palestinian association for human rights (Witness) has documented the violations, harassment and discrimination that the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon endure on the hands of the Lebanese sectarian regime (www.pahrw.org). The Palestinians are denied the right to work in almost all occupations; they can not inherit, among other limitations and violations of basic rights and decency. Cut off from employment opportunities, isolated and besieged by Lebanese security forces and military, the refugees suffer high unemployment and live off an informal economy, private foreign aid and NGO support all of which have been dwindling. The issue of the plight of the Palestinians has been discussed as a human rights issue. It goes beyond that. It is an issue of importance to the Palestinian nationalism project and to international security/the global war on terror. Lebanon’s policy on the refugees is undermining Palestinian nationalism and feeding the global terror network. It should not continue unchallenged.

Everyday Jihad in Ain El Hilweh

The Lebanese Christian right wing and its like minded Muslim allies are obsessed with the Palestinian refugees and the “islands of lawlessness” in Palestinian refugee camps. What these right wingers, with a history of massacres and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians as well as their own countrymen on the basis of sect, fail to admit is that the Palestinians in Lebanon, and the Palestinian cause is being transformed due to policies that they have out of foolishness and bigotry put in place. The policy of mistreatment, marginalization and pure unadulterated hate has taken a toll on Palestinian nationalism and the global war on terror. In Everyday Jihad: The rise of militant Islam among Palestinians in Lebanon, Bernard Rougier writes about the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and the rise of “militant Islam” among them. Mr. Rougier spent four years studying the Islamists in Ain el Hilweh, the largest Palestinian camp in Lebanon with 35,000 inhabitants. Mr. Rougier concludes that a “new religious ideology took root in this Palestinian environment" in Ain el Hilweh that made it “a recruitment site [for global jihad] and a retreat for hunted down in countries of origin.” This development is not good for anyone- neither Lebanon, nor the Palestinians and the rest of the world.

From secular democratic nationalism to global terror networks
The US supplants Israel as the focus of grievance and violence

Mr. Rougier’s focus is not on the Islamist Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad. These groups are nationalist in their agenda and are relatively moderate. The book focuses on groups that have been inspired by the rhetoric of Al-Qa’ida and have joined the informal network of “global jihad” against the “unbelievers.” These militants are engaged in “a religious, global warfare for the victory of Islam against unbelievers. These militant Islamists situate themselves within the international Jihadist network and identify with the rhetoric of al-Qa'ida.” Rougier considers Hamas and Islamic Jihad not part of the “global Jihad” but part of the “national Palestinian space.” He adds that there are "religious figures who expended much of their energy dissolving the national Palestinian community the PLO had worked to crystallize since its creation” To those groups “history ceased to be an experience of national dispossession and became instead one more link in the chain of Muslim people victimized by the Kuffar (unbelievers) since Mustafa Kemal abolished the Muslim caliphate in 1924.” He notes that “[I]t was no accident that a video aired by al –Qa’ida in September 2006 showed a young Saudi-one of nineteen operatives who died on September 11 dedicating a poem to “Abu Mahjin the Palestinian,” the main leader of the Ain al Hilweh jihadist network...” To these groups the US has supplanted Israel as the enemy and the “embrace of violent terrorist tactics more aggressive and enthusiastic.” The siege on the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon has made this transformation possible.

US policy change needed
Ambassador Feltman’s friends must stop feeding the global terror network

The US has dealt with this threat by trying to upgrade the capabilities of the Lebanese security apparatus. This is not the best way to deal with the threat. What is needed is a change in the circumstances created by official Lebanon that have transformed Ain El Hilweh into the recruiting ground and retreat for “global jihadists.” The US needs to engage the moderate forces of Hamas and Islamic jihad, groups who are nationalist and not part of the global terror networks targeting the US and are best positioned to counter the radical groups. Official Lebanon has to be persuaded to change its policies that have played into the hands of the recruiters and theorists of the global terror networks. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs is very close to those forces that are behind the policies that transformed Ain El Hilweh into what it has become. Instead of spending resources and armaments on Lebanon’s security apparatus with the hope that the networks could be stopped, the US is better off changing the environment that has helped create the problem. It is time to test the friendship of Mr. Feltman’s so-called “Cedar Revolutionaries” by asking them to change policies that feed the global terror network.

Conspiracy of silence on the siege on Gaza-Conspiracy of silence on the siege of the Lebanon refugees

Those who support the Palestinian cause should mobilize to change Palestinian reality in Lebanon. The immense pressures official Lebanon puts on the refugees are undermining the Palestinian project. Those who support the Palestinian national project should see the contradiction in shaming the world for its silence on the siege of Gaza while they themselves are silent on the siege of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.

Gaining Zionist Approval, Losing Islam

2010-06-02T14:41:00.001-04:00

What good is it to gain Zionist approval but lose Islam’s soul?
Saying no to Muslim Zionism

In April of this year the American Arab anti- Discrimination Committee (ADC)- Michigan sponsored the Uniform Periodic Review event at Wayne State University. At that event one non- Arab Muslim leader asked a question and made a comment that seemed to be wrong in their logic and premises. The question was why the US government is refusing to give a “clean list” of Muslim charities that American Muslims can safely donate to. The comment was a response to a Palestine- related question. The comment was that Muslims have "many issues" and should not focus only on the issue of Palestine or be seen only from that angle.
Betrayal by appeasement: Asking the axis of evil Cheney-Rumsfeld-AIPAC where to give the Zakat?

The flawed thinking behind the question and the comment is clear to those who are familiar with the challenges that are facing American Arabs and Muslims in the United States after the biggest ever gift that was ever given to the Israel lobby- the 9/11 attacks; a gift that greatly facilitated the process of demonizing American Arabs and Muslims. The thought that the administration of George W. Bush, for example, would determine where the Zakat is spent is reprehensible to the overwhelming majority of Muslims who have seen that administration reckless attitude to Muslims. Who would want to hand their Zakat to groups handpicked by Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and other members of the neo- con gang? Who wants politicians, any politicians, telling them where their Zakat money goes? Is that what Zakat is about? When the government decides where your money goes, it is called taxation not the exercise of first amendment rights to free exercise of religion.
American Muslims for Palestine

As to the issue of Palestine, it is true that American Muslims have many issues more than Palestine. However, the sense of American Muslims, with a few exceptions, is that the suffering of the Palestinians is a Muslim cause of utmost importance. It is true that the campaign against American Muslims is motivated by the fact that the Muslim community cares about Palestine and is translating this commitment into real support for the persecuted Palestinians- activism and donations. Muslims do not believe this support is optional. A Muslim longtime activist once told me that of all the Muslims in the world the Palestinians are the most deserving of Muslim help. That is powerful. Mainstream Muslim thinking is that one be truly Muslim without caring about the Palestinians and the alAqsa mosque in Jerusalem.

Not a Jewish problem, or a pro- Israel problem
It's an Afrikaner problem

Those who think that Muslims should play it safe by distancing themselves from "politics", that is avoid the issue of Palestine in the hope that the aggressive Afrikaner Zionists that professor Mearsheimer talked about in his lecture in the Palestine Center in DC have to be aware of what kind of bargain they are asked to make. As a reminder, what Mearsheimer did in that lecture is divide the Jewish community into three groups- the righteous Jews, the Afrikaners and the middle group. The Afrikaners are the ones who are engaging in an unholy war against Muslim Americans. The problem that American Muslims are having is not the result of the effort of American Jews and/or even the effort of the supporters of Israel for that matter. The problem is the Afrikaners, not the Jews, and not the Israel supporters. The Afrikaners are the most vicious, the loudest, the most hateful and the most poisonous. An example of righteous Jews is The Jewish magazine The Forward which editorialized in support of the building of the mosque near Ground Zero. An example of Afrikaner Jews is Bret Stephens of the Journal.
WSJ Afrikaner View

Afrikaner Bret Stephens writes the "global view" column in the Journal, a column that if honesty was valued by Stephens would instead be called Zionist Afrikaner View. Mr. Stephens wrote in the Journal of May 25, 2010, “[T]he mosque at ground zero” a piece of pure poison and treachery that is greatly instructive as to the magnitude of the challenge facing American Muslims and the price that those who seek appeasement of the Afrikaners have to pay for safety.

Afrikaner Zionists are not asking for American Muslims to be neutral. They are not asking that they not help feed the Palestinians. They are asking for the impossible as a ticket to acceptance to the American mainstream that Muslims are eager to be part of. They are not only asking that Muslims who want to be accepted as acceptable “moderate” American Muslim worry about Muslims anywhere in the worked except in Palestine, they want a pledge of allegiance to Zionism and a lot more compromises/sacrifices that go to the traditional practice of the faith and the basic freedoms that individuals enjoy in this country. Here is what Stephens wrote:
"Muslims in New York want to build a mosque and cultural center near ground Zero. As a confidence building measure for those of us who live in the neighborhood, it would help if the pair voluntarily answered some questions about the nature of their beliefs. A sampler:
Who perpetrated the attacks of 9/11, and what was their religion?
Are suicide attacks or to her forms of violent jihad are acceptable under any circumstances, including against American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Does Israel have the right to exist as a Jewish state?
Do they agree with the state department’s designation of Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist organizations?
What aspects of Shariah law, if any, do they repudiate?
Will their center invite the input and participation of Muslim gay and lesbian groups?
Do they consider the Muslim Brotherhood to be extreme?
What influence will any foreign funding of Cordoba House have on its programs or on the literature it distributes?
Finally, it is worth asking Mr. Rauf and Ms Khan the broader question of how they think about tolerance itself. In the case of the famous Muhammad cartoons “moderate” Muslims typically make the case while free speech has its place, the sensitivities of the Muslim community should be respected. But tolerance can't just be a one-way street, and sensitivity is not the preserve of Muslims alone… will they return the favor by hosting an exhibition of the prophet? "

One hopes that those American Muslims who campaign on the platform of appease for safety and avoid Palestine at all cost read Stephens well: among other "gems," repudiate Shariah, an exhibition of the prophet, and the cherry on the cake, the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state with all that it entails to the previous and the future ethnic cleansing of non-Jews from mandatory Palestine.
What good is it for American Muslims to gain Zionist approval yet forfeit Islam?

“Sayyid Qutb hates Lady Gaga” as an Israel PR ploy

2010-04-04T11:55:00.002-04:00

Framing the Arab-Israeli Conflict
“Sayyid Qutb hates lady Gaga” as an Israel PR ploy
Whose interest the focus serves?

Between Pat Buchanan and “I guess you could say I¹m trying to help Israel” Bret Stephens

On the Arab-Israeli conflict

The Arab-Israeli conflict is a conflict that receives a lot of attention in the international media for many reasons. Arabs focus on international law- the Israelis are occupying Arab lands, oppressing Arab people and violating a large number of international laws. Had it been any other country engaging in all the violations and crimes that Israel is involved with, that country would been an international pariah on its way to the trash bin of history.

International law vs. international boogey man

After 9/11, Islamist radicals, aided by a motley crew of odd bedfellows, have taken over the place of the leftist radicals as international boogey men. Israel loses an argument grounded in international law and human rights. But Israel can win an argument that appeals to hate, fear and prejudice against Islam, Arabs and Muslims. Here, the radical statements of radical Arab and Muslims, used in context and out of context, become a refuge for pro-Israel advocates who want to demonize Arabs and Muslims and take the focus away from crimes such as those documented by the Zionist Jewish judge Goldstone.

The Wall Street Journal and Bret Stephens

The Wall Street Journal editorial pages have offered solid support to Israeli policies that its own reporters have put in a negative light in their reporting on the Arab-Israeli conflict. One of the writers of the Journal, Bret Stephens, a former editor of the right-wing Jerusalem Post, has a regular column in the paper that is used to demonize Islam and promote Israel. This public relations campaign for Israel is focused on framing the Arab-Israeli conflict as an intractable civilizational conflict rather than a territorial/international law conflict that international law offers tools to deal with. According to international law, the refugees have the right of return, the Syrian Golan Heights is occupied/stolen land, the settlements are illegal, etc. However, instead of focusing on these real issues that are manageable and that Israel cannot win, Stephens and the Wall Street Journal campaign serves its readers Lady Gaga and Sayyid Qutb.

Why focus on Lady Gaga and Sayyid Qutb? Because this frame serves Israeli interests best, Mr. Stephens admits. He does not admit this in the column of course. He admits this to a group he assumes thinks like him.

Bret Stephens:
Sharon Fan, Israel PR man at UJA Celebration

The website of the Toronto Jewish Federation helpfully posted the comments of Mr. Stephens who was their keynote speaker at their UJA Federation's Top Gifts Closing Celebration:

‘“As for the much-talked about PR battle between the Israel and Palestinian sides, Stephens feels that it's important for Israel to avoid getting into a "victimhood competition," to gain more sympathy from the worldwide press. He was referring to Israel's video release of scenes of the recent Jerusalem bus bombing that killed 11 people including former Torontonian Chezi Goldberg.
"As for releasing graphic footage of terror attacks, I think the efforts misplaced," he says. "Israel doesn't need better images or spokesmen. Israel needs rhetorical strategies to confront key Palestinian arguments about what this conflict is all about (my emphasis). The PR battle has several fronts. In Europe, Israel has lost it; in the United States, it has won it. In both cases, the outcomes have at least as much to do with existing popular prejudices as they do with the effectiveness of this or that PR battle."
Although Stephens does not see himself as a PR agent for Israel, he believes that Israel's story does not receive a fair hearing in other media.
"One of the reasons I left The Wall Street Journal for the Post was because I felt the Western media was getting the story wrong," says Stephens. "I do not think Israel is the aggressor here. Insofar as getting the story right helps Israel, I guess you could say I¹m trying to help Israel." (my emphasis)
“Stephens did little to hide his feelings about the current legal problems facing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his son, Gilad, involving allegations of financial contributions in exchange for political favours toward a large business development.
"It will be Israel's loss if the case against Sharon is proved," he says. "Sharon succeeded in uniting the country behind him in a way that no previous PM has since the days of Eshkol or even Ben Gurion. This was no mean achievement in a country so divided that it cashiered Sharon's three immediate predecessors early and saw another one cruelly assassinated. National unity is not just a political achievement; it is a moral and strategic one, against an enemy that sought, often successfully, to turn Israel against itself. I don't see any leaders on the horizon who could provide the same kind of leadership, Labor or Likud."’

Lady Gaga Versus Mideast Peace: between Pat Buchanan and Bret Stephens

In the Journal of Monday, March 29, 2010 Bret Stephens wrote “Lady Gaga Versus Mideast Peace .Are settlements more offensive than pop stars?” This column is a natural outcome of the PR strategy of painting the Arab-Israeli conflict as part of a grand intractable civilizational conflict: “Pop quiz—What does more to galvanize radical anti-American sentiment in the Muslim world: (a) Israeli settlements on the West Bank; or (b) a Lady Gaga music video? If your answer is (b) it means you probably have a grasp of the historical roots of modern jihadism. If, however, you answered (a), then congratulations: You are perfectly in synch with the new Beltway conventional wisdom, now jointly defined by Pat Buchanan and his strange bedfellows within the Obama administration.”

Outside the Israel PR Campaign: American voices echo Arab and Muslim concerns

A number of American public figures have drawn attention to what Israel does and how its actions affect the perception of America in the Arab and Muslim world and the interests of America. Stephens writes: “What is that wisdom? In a March 26 column in Human Events, Mr. Buchanan put the case with his usual subtlety: "Each new report of settlement expansion," he wrote, "each new seizure of Palestinian property, each new West Bank clash between Palestinians and Israeli troops inflames the Arab street, humiliates our Arab allies, exposes America as a weakling that cannot stand up to Israel, and imperils our troops and their mission in Afghanistan and Iraq."
Israel PR Campaign: Lady Gaga and Sayyid Qutb as soldiers in Stephens PR campaign’
In response to American voices that echo international law and politics, Mr. Stephens playbook summons the ghost of Sayyid Qutb and the very alive body of Lady Gaga: ‘Now consider Lady Gaga—or, if you prefer, Madonna, Farrah Fawcett, Marilyn Monroe, Josephine Baker or any other American woman who has, at one time or another, personified what the Egyptian Islamist writer Sayyid Qutb once called "the American Temptress." Qutb, for those unfamiliar with the name, is widely considered the intellectual godfather of al Qaeda; his 30-volume exegesis "In the Shade of the Quran" is canonical in jihadist circles. But Qutb, who spent time as a student in Colorado in the late 1940s, also decisively shaped jihadist views about the U.S.’
Stephens concludes: “[T]he settlements are merely the latest politically convenient cover behind which lies a universe of hatred. If the administration's aim is to appease our enemies, it will get more mileage out of banning Lady Gaga than by applying the screws on Israel. It should go without saying that it ought to do neither.”

Israel PR vs. American Policy

The U.S. position is that the radical Islamists' claim that America is engaged in a civilizational conflict with Islam is wrong and motivated by the Islamists’ campaign to radicalize the largest number of the almost 1.4 billion Muslims. We know whose interests Pat Buchanan has at heart, he is an American nationalist. We know that Mr. Stephens is serving the interests of PR for Israel. This PR of fanning the flames of civilizational conflict, in all practicality being in the same camp with radical Islamists but for Israeli reasons, can only harm American national interests. It is America’s position that the U.S. is not involved in a civilizational conflict with Islam. It is the radical Muslims’ view that Bret Stephens and his like-minded Israel supporters are promoting. We know who this position is designed to help and who it will not help.

]

St. Martin's Press Mainstreams Hate of Arabs and Muslims

2010-03-26T11:40:00.002-04:00

St. Martin's Press Mainstreams Hate of Arabs and Muslims
Wafa Sultan: The Native "Arab Muslim" Daniel Pipes needs to appear moderate
"Hungry" Sultan As the Radical Right/Israel Supporters Useful Tool

Faisal Al Qasim Makes Wafa Sultan

Wafa Sultan was a largely unknown Syrian-born psychologist who used to write articles for Arabic language publications until she was hosted by Dr. Faisal Al Qasim of Aljazeera's Opposite Direction. On that show Dr. Al Qasim provided her a forum where she used vulgar language to attack Islam and Prophet Mohammed. Dr. Al Qasim provided a forum for an unknown person of no intellectual, scholarly or policy merit to speak in a vulgar fashion about Islam on a network that is generously funded by a Muslim government and watched by millions of followers of Islam. The very appearances on Aljazeera, insulting its millions of viewers, have provided her with the "credentials" to be considered a number of things that have evolved with time from "Muslim reformer" to an advocate for the "Islam is evil" campaign spearheaded by Christian and Jewish extremists who need a "Muslim" to validate their extreme views or, as in the case of Mr. Daniel Pipes, to have the "Muslim" say outrageous things that make them appear relatively moderate.

St. Martin's Press Publishes "A God Who Hates"

St. Martin's press has recently published a book by Sultan, "A God Who Hates: The Courageous Woman Who Inflamed the Muslim World Speaks Out Against the Evils of Islam." Although, many things have inflamed the Muslim world, Sultan is not one of them. It is impossible to get St. Martin's Press to publish a book of a similar content and purpose that targets any group other than Arabs or Muslims. But what is acceptable for Muslims and Arabs is not acceptable for any other groups.

The Praise of Pipes, Spencer and Wilders

Advance praise for the book comes from Daniel Pipes, Robert Spencer, and Geert Wilders. Advance praise reads:"….but Islamic reformers have praised her for saying out loud, in Arabic., and on the most widely seen television network in the Arab world, what few Muslims dare say even in private. A God Who Hates..will remind readers why, even at a time when we are reaching out to others, we must be ever vigilant about the threat Islam poses to the West." Robert Spencer: " A God Who Hates shall be read closely and studied by the president, European leaders, ad all Western policy makers and opinion shapers- before it is too late." Daniel Pipes writes: "But she worries that Middle East customs are encroaching on the West and writes with passion to awaken Americans to a menace they barely recognize, much less fear."

One is tempted to read a book published by St. Martin's press and recommended for reading by Western policy makers and opinion-shapers. What does this ordinary psychologist say that deserves praise by "Muslim reformers"? What does she say that "policy makers" and "opinion shapers" need to take time from their busy schedules to read?

On 9/11: Because Muslims Hate Women

Much has been said and written about 9/11. There has been a 9/11 commission which published its findings in a rather thick report. Ms Sultan has an explanation for why the attacks happened: "Because Muslims, that is the 1.2 billion followers of Islam, hate their women. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks Americans asked themselves 'why they hate us.' My answer is: Because Muslims hate their women and any group who hates their women can't love anyone else. People ask: But why do they hate their women? And I can only reply: "Because their God does."

Arab Immigrants: "Raiders" of American Supermarkets

Sultan's bigotry is not directed only against Muslims but against Arabs as well. Arabs are "raiders." Sultan's Arabs are bad raiders who are interested not in finding treasure but in destroying food packets in supermarkets. She writes:
"When I immigrated to America I discovered right away that the local inhabitants were not proficient in raiding while the expatriate Muslims could not give it up. After I had been in the United States for only a few weeks, an Arab neighbor of mine took me to the supermarket in an attempt to familiarize me with the area we lived in. We went into a VOS market, and once there, she began to make holes in the lids of cartons of milk, Jell-O, and cream. Then she made holes in a number of bags and potato chips, packets of handkerchiefs, and packets of spaghetti. I shouted at her disparagingly, 'Dina, what are you doing?' She replied, ' May God curse them! They stole our land!'"

Muslims: irrational, don't listen

Orientalism portrays the East as irrational while the West is rational. Sultan parrots this orientalist "truth" by writing:
"When you talk to a Muslim, rationally, in a low calm voice, he has trouble understanding your point of view. He thinks you have lost the argument. A Muslim conversing with anyone else Muslim or non-Muslim, cannot remember a single word the other person has said,…"

Muslim Women See Themselves as "Furniture"

Muslims are "irrational" and do not listen to voices of reason that speak with a "low calm voice"? I wonder what other "insights" can Sultan share with us? Oh wait, there is more. Not only are Sultan's Muslims irrational, they have no "human feelings or values" either. Sultan writes:
"A Muslim man can see himself only in terms of his ability to pump out money and sperm. The Muslim women, for her part, sees herself only as an incubator for his sperm and as a piece of furniture he has bought and paid for with his money. The man alone decides when to take possession of this object and when to deposit his sperm in it dictating a relationship in which human feelings have no value."

The Rhetoric of Radicalization: Islamism is True Islam, America is Fighting Islam, and a True Muslim Does Not Acknowledge the Constitution

The Christian Science Monitor had a story entitled "Internet aids terrorist recruiting, radicalization, Pentagon says." The radicalization process involves, among other things, advocating what Sultan is preaching about Islam. In fact, Sultan says the exact same things that recruiters say and gets praised by Pipes, Spencer and Wilders- crusaders who have allegedly declared war on "radical Islam." Pro- Israel groups have either invited her to speak or awarded her for making statements about Islam that are similar to those made by radicalization agents.
"America is waging a war against Islam" is the primary recruiting argument for radicalization agents. Sultan relates in her book that she was "stunned" by the fact that there are Muslim youths memorizing the Koran in Anaheim while the "American government exposes its troop to dangers in Iraq and Afghanistan on the grounds of combating terrorism. Yet increasingly, both the government of the United States and the American people turn a blind eye to the fact that American children are imbibing terrorism…" Sultan also claims that Islamists are true Muslims, no one else: "Islamists who grasp the true nature of Islam…" and "[ A] true Muslim does not acknowledge the United States Constitution…"

Beyond Islamophobia: Demonization and Marginalization Policy
Promoters and Users of the Hungry Who Found Their "Heaven"

It is tempting to dismiss Sultan's book as Dear Diary fulminations of a mentally- ill "hungry" woman who found a way to make a living. After all the writer herself admits she was "hungry" when he came to America and the book is rich with "deep insights" that begin with "I know a Muslim woman…I once stopped for an oil change…driving out of the garage like the wind, shaking with fury (after an argument with a complete stranger)……I met up with a woman who had been a close friend before I left Syria… where I come from people believe that the officials of American embassies worldwide are the bearers of that key."

Rep. Keith Ellison and American "Sultans"

Representative Keith Ellison said the following about another "Sultan": "I think you give people license for bigotry. I think people who want to engage in nothing less than Muslim-hating really love you a lot because you give them freedom to do that. You say, 'yeah, go get after them.'"

It is more than that. The heart of the matter is that Sultan has found a way to make a comfortable undreamt of living by what she says and writes about Arabs and Muslims. Sultan herself writes on page 235 that she" loves America," the country that "fed" her when she was "hungry." The real problem is those who are taking in, paying, and promoting 'the Sultans" of the world. They are not mentally ill like the term Islamophobia suggests. They are in fact rather calculating individuals and groups who are out to demonize and marginalize Muslim and Arab Americans. They believe the exclusion of Arabs and Muslims in America is critical for the permanence and dominance of their national and foreign policy preferences. Sultan's book is merely another brick in the wall of the campaign of extremists who are engaged in an unholy war to demonize and marginalize American Arabs and Muslims.

George vs. TSA raises important questions for Arab travelers

2010-03-02T23:24:00.002-05:00

Arabic flashcards as terror paraphernalia?

George vs. TSA is a troubling case.

The ACLU is suing the TSA on behalf of Nick George for the violation of Mr. George's constitutional rights. This lawsuit arises from an incident that occurred in the Philadelphia airport. A non- Arab student, Nick George, was perceived as a threat simply because he had Arabic/English flashcards. These cards were found during the routine TSA screening process.

Looking for real threat

One can get in trouble not only for possessing drugs, it is also a crime to possess "drug paraphernalia." It seems a similar logic is working for the TSA as to Arabic, "the language that Bin Laden speaks." In the "War on Terror" it seems there is this sense that Arabic language material is "terror paraphernalia." One can only empathize with the young college student Nick George who found himself, due to Arabic material on him, being treated as a terror suspect until being proven innocent, a not uncommon experience for Arab and Muslim travelers. However, the real troubling aspect of this matter is how it was handled by government officials in different agencies and different levels of responsibility. Three TSA screeners, one TSA supervisor, one police officer, and a police sergeant all thought that Arabic/English flashcards are indicators of a threat. The FBI were called and two FBI agents spent half an hour engaging in the "art," as one FBI agent put it, of determining whether Mr. George is a "real threat."

ACLU press release

The ACLU press release reads in part 'ACLU Sues Over Unconstitutional Airport Detention And Interrogation Of College Student Carrying Arabic Flashcards- Incident At Philadelphia Airport Highlights Misdirected Security Efforts, Says ACLU. The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Pennsylvania today filed a lawsuit on behalf of Pomona College student Nicholas George, who was abusively interrogated, handcuffed and detained for nearly five hours at the Philadelphia International Airport because of a set of English-Arabic flashcards he was carrying in connection with his college language studies. "Arresting and restraining passengers who pose no threat to flight safety and are not breaking any law not only violates people's rights, but it won't make us any safer. It may actually make us less safe, by diverting vital resources and attention away from true security threats," said Ben Wizner, staff attorney with the ACLU National Security Project. "Nick George was handcuffed, locked in a cell for hours and questioned about 9/11 simply because he has chosen to study Arabic, a language that is spoken by hundreds of millions of people around the world. This sort of harassment of innocent travelers is a waste of time and a violation of the Constitution."

What language did Bin Laden speak?

The press release the ACLU explains fully why the Nick George is troubling from a constitutional viewpoint and from a general public viewpoint. However, the complaint filed by the ACLU highlights serious concerns, particular to Arab and perhaps Muslim travelers, that the ACLU press release does not mention. The TSA supervisor questioned Mr. George in a "hostile and aggressive manner." The questioning and responses, in part, went as follows:
"How do you feel about 9/11?
Mr. George responded that he thought 9/11 was a terrible event.
You obviously read. You know who did 9/11?
Osama Bin Laden.
Do you know what language he spoke?
Arabic.
At this point the TSA supervisor held up Mr. George's flashcards and stated: Do you see why these cards are suspicious?"

The FBI interview: The Art of Determining Real Threat

Mr. George was interviewed by two FBI agents who were called to assess whether Mr. George was a "real threat." One FBI agent asked Mr. George: "Are you Islamic?" Mr. George responded he was not. The agent followed up , asking whether Mr. George was a member of any "pro-Islamic groups" on campus. After approximately 30 minutes of questioning, one of the FBI agents concluded as follows: "Our job is more an art than a science. The police call us to evaluate whether there is a real threat . You are not a real threat." What if the student was an Arab or a Muslim and/or belonged to a pro- Palestinian group such as the BDS (Boycott Divestment Sanctions) movement? How would these factors have played a role in the art of threat assessment?

Questions raised by the George affair

The way the George affair was handled by the TSA and the FBI raises serious questions and is deeply troubling. It validates the fears that Bin Laden and the other radical terrorists and those using the terror attacks to push for an anti Islam/anti Arab agenda have succeeded in criminalizing the faith of 1.3 billion people and the language spoken by at least 300 million people. Who trained the TSA that Arabic is the "language of Bin Laden" and that those who want to learn it are to be viewed as suspicious? Gibran Khalil Gibran also spoke and wrote in Arabic? The Muslim philosopher Al Rumi also wrote in Arabic? How did Bin Laden succeed in owning the language? How could seven government officials, including two highly trained law enforcement officials from the FBI, all deem the flash cards as grounds for reasonable suspicion of involvement with terror and thus justifying detention and "hostile and aggressive" questioning from a TSA supervisor?

To read the complaint go to www.aclu.org/national-security/george-v-tsa-complaint-damages. To see a video of Nick George and Ben Wizner speaking about the case go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTgegDIUocw

"Duel in San Francisco"

2010-02-20T20:26:00.003-05:00

"Duel in San Francisco"

Challenger Maad Abu Ghazaleh and the Campaign to Unseat Tom Lantos

The Lessons of an Unsuccessful Campaign
"First you are an Arab"

How to do deal with the challenges we face as Arab and Muslim Americans? Regardless of who is the President of this country, as a community we are subject to unique challenges due to forces largely beyond our control. The United States is fighting a group of violent Muslims who commit their acts and justify them in the name of Islam. This has unfairly put us as Arab and Muslim Americans in a tough position.

Duel in San Francisco

One of the better documentaries made about Arab Americans after 9/11 is the documentary Duel in San Francisco by Allyson Luchak. Ms Luchak deals with the issue of Arab and Muslim Americans after 9/11 by weaving important questions about America and about our community around the campaign of Maad Abu Ghazaleh, a Palestinian American who ran as a libertarian against an entrenched member of Congress at the time, the late radical Zionist Tom Lantos.

Osama Siblani defines Arab- American Reality

The documentary opens with a- date 9/11/2002. This is the date that Ms. Luchak chose to begin taping of her documentary- one year after 9/11. One prominent Arab- American activist she interviewed was Osama Siblani of the Forum and Link’s sister Arab American publication, the Arab American News, Sada Al Watan. The way that Mr. Siblani framed the issues in that documentary still rings true today, almost nine years after the attacks and almost eight years after the documentary was made. Mr. Siblani told Ms Luchak that while this country is built on the idea that one is guilty until proven innocent, the Arab- American community after 9/11 finds itself being dealt with as guilty until proven innocent. A true statement then and a true statement now.

Maad Abu Ghazaleh: The Unlikely Candidate

Maad Abu Ghazaleh is a Palestinian American who came to the US in 1979 to study at Notre Dame University in Indiana. By 2001, he had degrees from Notre Dame, University of Virginia- Charlottesville, and Santa Clara University. He was an attorney and a business man who wrote and sold software. He lived in a mobile home by the ocean and spent his time alternating between working in his pajamas and enjoying the ocean. His hobbies included surfing the waters of Pacifica. Life was good. A shy and quiet person, he enjoyed his lifestyle and freedoms tremendously. He had no ambition to be wealthy, politically powerful or famous.
9/11 and its aftermath: Liberties Lost, a Scared Community and Slouching toward War
9/11 pulled Maad from his easy life. He was brought into politics by forces outside his control. He saw that Americans were losing cherished liberties in the name of security. He saw the Arab American and Muslim communities react to the national tragedy with fear and withdrawal. As Mr. Siblani stated in the documentary, 9/11 and its aftermath was a harsh blow to the community: many men were fired from their jobs simply for being Arab and/or Muslim, women were staying home for fear of attacks and children were being harassed in the schools for who they are. The country seemed to be on a war path in the Middle East with the war drums being beaten for war with Iraq, a nation that had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks. And it happened that one of the most vocal advocates of this war was none other than San Francisco’s congressman, Tom Lantos.

The Formidable Tom Lantos

The late Tom Lantos was no ordinary congressman. He had a war chest of one million dollars to spend on his election campaign. He was the only Holocaust survivor serving in congress He had been in congress for 22 years. He was a formidable incumbent with a lot of money to spend. He was no easy target for a challenger with no background in politics, no money and a name that most Americans could not pronounce. The challenger was also a Palestinian Muslim from the occupied Palestinian West Bank.

The Decision to Run

Maad told me that he decided to run despite the odds mainly because of how the community was reacting to the tragedy: laying low and hiding form the spot light. Nothing bothered him more. He told me that as Arab and Muslim Americans we should not be hiding but putting America to the test, that we are not responsible for 9/11 and should assert ourselves and be pro-active. He chose to run and despite advice to change his name he chose to run as Maad Abu Ghazaleh, the Palestinian Muslim American.

Media Reaction to the Run

Journalist Josh Richman told Ms Luchak in the documentary that what was different about Maad Abu Ghazaleh is that he ran as a Palestinian Muslim American. His identity was front and center. Other Arab and Muslim Americans who ran for public office did not focus on that aspect of their identity. This made his campaign different. That, Josh Richman said, was newsworthy.

Community Reception to the Campaign

The Arab and Muslim American communities were excited about this run. Maad's campaign brought in volunteers from different backgrounds, including Jewish and Muslim volunteers. It generated excitement in the community. While the chances of winning were weak, the Arab and Muslim American communities in the San Francisco area particularly felt empowered by the run- felt their American identity validated by this run. Here was an Arab, a Muslim, whose name has not been changed to Mike or Sam or Jim, running for office against a "big Zionist."

The Lessons of the Maad Campaign

Maad did not win. But running for office is not only about winning. It is important to be part of the political process. It’s not all about winning. Running for office means you bring issues to the table, you get media coverage for your issues, you empower your community and you acquire political skills that are useful for future runs. Also, you give the incumbent a challenge. No matter how strong an incumbent is, politicians are a paranoid lot and no threat, no matter how small, is ignored. It is a testament to the greatness of America that here was Maad, with no money and no political experience and belonging to a threatened community, debating Tom Lantos in Daly City. That is priceless.

First You are an Arab

There are hundreds of thousands of political positions to run for. We Arab Americans and Muslim Americans have no reason not to give 100% political participation that includes running for office. We should encourage our own to run for office and support them financially and otherwise, regardless of whether we think they can win. There are individuals in our community that will hold us back. Maad tells me that at a major anti- war rally in San Francisco another Arab American wanted to hold him back from speaking and responded to Maad's protests by saying "you don't understand." Coming to Detroit to fundraise, Maad met Mr. Nasser Beydoun, formerly of the Arab American Chamber of Commerce, who began his discouraging words by saying to Maad “first you are an Arab.”

The Abed Hamoud Run

Close to home I recall another courageous run, that of Abed Hamoud, for Dearborn mayor against the incumbent late mayor Guido. I recall running into two people who made comments that hold much insight into how our community thinks. One man originally from Southern Lebanon told me he would vote for Guido and not Hamoud because the people of Bint Jbail think they own the city and the last thing he needed to deal with is a mayor from Bint Jbail! The fact is Mr. Hamoud is from Tebnin and not Bint Jbail but still… Another man, a Palestinian attorney, told me that he is not a big fan of Mr. Hamoud but himself and his family will vote for him. We need more of the second attitude and less of the first.

"First you are an Arab" should not be used as discouraging words.

On the fifth anniversary of Arafat's death

2009-11-23T03:23:00.001-05:00

Are Hamas and Fateh the new "notables of Palestine"?

November 11 was the fifth anniversary of the death/murder of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, Abu Ammar. Much has been written about Abu Ammar. Those who loved him thought of him as a saint, the very symbol of Palestinian nationalism, Mr. Palestine. Those who disliked him/hated him blamed the setbacks of the Palestinian national movement, unfairly but squarely, on him. In the last stage of his life, the George W. Bush administration adopted the Israeli view that Arafat is the problem and that that he should not be "isolated." Arafat, with the Arab and Islamic world watching, was held as a prisoner in his compound. Israel barged into his compound destroying and wrecking havoc to shake his resolve. He remained steadfast as he always liked to say, "ya jabal ma yhizak reeh," a mountain is not shaken by strong winds. To the very end, the symbol of the Palestinian national movement, remained steadfast to the principles of the Palestinian struggle - the right of return, the end of the occupation and an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital. He died on November 11 in France. Some say he was assassinated, not a far-fetched possibility given Israeli behavior and American official acquiescence to the terrorism of the "butcher of Sabra and Shatila," as Palestinians have come to know Ariel Sharon.

The Post Arafat Period
Five years ago the post- Arafat Palestinian era began. Those who disliked or hated Arafat expected change and promised it in irrational exuberance. They expected that the Palestinians will be crushed by the death of their leader and will take whatever their regional- power occupier, backed by the world's superpower, throws their way. The Israeli thinking was that a segment of Palestinians who have benefited from the Israeli status quo would have a vested interest in pleasing Israel and would sell their people on whatever Israel gives. Settlements continued. Checkpoints multiplied. The collective punishment of the Palestinians continued. Violations of human rights and international law continued. Israel continued the colonization of East Jerusalem and the oppression and gradual uprooting of its people. Israel unleashed more wars on Palestinians. The criminal siege of Gaza was followed by a war designed to break the will of the Palestinians to fight the Israelis, as the Goldstone Report concluded. After years of all these violations of human and international laws the will of the Palestinian people to be steadfast did not weaken. Israel with all its crimes, a world which watches passively while Israel piles abuse over abuse on the Palestinians and a super power giving Israel a de facto veto power in the Security Council did not shake their determination. Even the world's fixation on Israeli prisoner of war Shalit while ignoring the plight and illegal imprisonment of 11,000 Palestinians by Israel did not move them. The world's behavior and Israel's behavior are things the Palestinians got used to. They were not expecting and did not deserve to see their biggest groups Hamas an Fateh act the way they have been acting.

Hamas and Fateh
Every Palestinian who cares about his people laments the travesty that is going on in Palestine. Hamas takes over Gaza and suppresses Fateh, even disallowing the observation of Arafat's anniversary. Hamas begs Israel to negotiate with it and agree to a "long term truce," uses force against those who want to attack Israel from Gaza, suppresses basic freedoms and focuses on curtailing individual freedoms. Their steps to "liberate Palestine" are checking the IDs of men and women seen in public together and forcing female attorneys to wears an Islamic scarf because some of them allegedly "have been wearing clothes clinging to their bodies, walking into court with sunglasses holding their hair and wearing bright colors that might distract male attorneys." The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank is controlled by Fateh. The U.S. and Israel keep pushing Mr. Abbas and his group for more and more humiliating concessions while Israel is marching on with its settlements and massacring of Palestinians. The Palestinian house is beyond disorder.
Always on the Losing Side of History?
The Palestinians are facing a vicious enemy in the Zionist movement, a movement organized and focused to take over all of historical Palestine and remove its rightful owners and native population, the Palestinians. Justice, international law and human rights organizations are on their side. The setbacks and failures of the Palestinians are mostly the result of forces beyond their control. However, the Palestinians can do a lot to strengthen their position for the ongoing conflict with the Zionist movement. Having trusted leaders and functioning institutions is a must in the struggle. It is time to have new elections in Palestine, choose new leaders, and revitalize Palestinians national institutions. Let history not repeat itself. Let us read and act upon the conclusions of Issa Khalaf. Issa Khalaf in Politics in Palestine: Arab Factionalism and Social disintegration, 1939-1948 writes "[T]o the Palestinian notability of the 1940s, politics was a profession of continual conflict and little compromise. They were able neither to unite nor to organize themselves, much less lead their people. Compromise and cooperation were practically unknown, as each man pursued a disruptively individualistic path and jealously guarded his prerogatives." He adds, "[T]hroughout the mandate, the notables were unable to achieve any significant length of time a united political program or to cooperate in effectively creating local autonomous institutions, that would have served as a basis for governing their people. Despite the fact that they were denied legislative councils, the Palestinians could have developed self-governing institutions at the community level at their own initiative. However, the notability worried that such institutions would mean wider participation ad more democratic participation and therefore a weakened grip."

Are Fateh and Hamas the new notability unwilling to compromise and leading Palestine to more setbacks and failures in the epic confrontation with the Zionist movement?

Major Hasan and the revival of American exclusionary ideals

2009-11-23T03:16:00.004-05:00

Fort Hood shooting and the redefining of American identity

The crimes that Major Hasan stands accused of have rocked the nation. A fellow soldier, a doctor, went on a rampage killing his fellow soldiers. It is not unheard of that a soldier would open fire on fellow soldiers. But this is the country which is fighting a "war on terror" and two external wars in Muslim-majority countries. The nationality, religion and religio-political views of the alleged perpetrator became relevant.

In times like this we Arab and Muslim Americans transform from what Professor Amaney Jamal aptly put it, from invisible citizens to visible subjects. Somehow we are seen as responsible or at least able to explain the behavior of one of us gone bad. If a close friend of mine commits a crime, God forbid, I expect that I would be sought to explain. There is no logic to seeking Arabs and Muslim to explain and account for the behavior of one of more than millions of us. Jamal Dajani, senior director and producer of Mosaic News, spoke for all of us when he wrote in the Huffington Post Don't Ask me about Hasan "…different Bay Area reporters, all wanting to know the Muslim community's reaction about the recent heinous killings of Nidal Malik Hasan… Why did he do it? Apparently, I fit the profile of someone who has these answers: I am a Muslim Palestinian American: I must know what one out of the 1.5 billion Muslims around the globe is thinking at any given time. I'm sick and tired of these kinds of questions from media outlets whenever some kooky Muslim decides to commit a random act of violence...or in this case when a GI psychiatrist goes psycho. At the same time, I'm also sick and tired of self-appointed Muslim experts and spokespersons who jump at every miserable opportunity like this one to try to explain Islam."

Muslims in the armed forces as a "Difficult Issue"?
Right- wing nuts had a field day with the story. Pro- Israel fanatics , right- wing Christian nuts and Hindu fanatics took this as a opportunity to attack the Muslim community they hate, a community they would keep hating even if the newspaper had reported that a Muslim American had discovered a cure for cancer and invented a time- travel machine. We expect such from individuals with known agendas. However, what we do not expect is the mainstream media joining that ugly choir. On 11/9/2009 Yochi Dreazen of the Wall Street Journal wrote "Muslim Population in the Military Raises Difficult Issues": "The deadly rampage at Fort Hood is forcing Pentagon officials to confront difficult questions about the military's growing Muslim population. The military has worked hard to recruit more Muslims since the start of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the number of Muslim troops, while still small, has been increasing. There were 3,409 Muslims in the active-duty military as of April 2008, according to Pentagon statistics." The Fort Hood shootings make all our Muslim soldiers are guilty by association and seen as a threat. All the men that have served honorably don't count.

The CAIR roundup of "illiberal ascendancy"
On 11/12/2009 I received an email from CAIR Council on American-Islamic Relations documenting national responses to the Fort Hood Shootings:
'CAIR: U.S. Leaders Should Reject Anti-Muslim Rhetoric Prompted by Fort Hood Shootings
Pat Robertson says American Muslims should be treated as ‘members of some Fascist group’
CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad cited a number of statements by anti-Muslim extremists seeking to exploit the Fort Hood attack to generate hostility to Islam and to marginalize American Muslims.
Tunku Varadarajan, a professor at NYU's Stern Business School suggested that the term “going postal” be changed to “going Muslim.”
Television evangelist Pat Robertson said Muslims should be treated as communists or fascists. Robertson told his “700 Club” audience: "Islam is a violent -- I was going to say religion -- but it's not a religion. It's a political system. It's a violent political system bent on the overthrow of governments of the world and world domination…I think you should treat it as such and treat its adherents as such. As we would members of the Communist party and members of some Fascist group."
Dave Gaubatz, author of a Muslim-bashing book, called for a “backlash” against American Muslims. Gaubatz wrote on a right-wing Web site: “Now is the time for a professional and legal backlash against the Muslim community and their leaders.”
Widely-syndicated conservative columnist Cal Thomas said the Fort Hood shooter’s “preference for Muslim clothing” should have alerted authorities “that he might be a time bomb waiting to go off.”
The American Family Association has called for a ban on Muslims in the military. In an article titled "No More Muslims in the U.S. Military," the group's Director of Issues Analysis Bryan Fischer wrote: “It is time, I suggest, to stop the practice of allowing Muslims to serve in the U.S. military. The reason is simple: the more devout a Muslim is, the more of a threat he is to national security.”
Oklahoma writer Timothy Rollins echoed the call to exclude all Muslims from the military. He wrote: "What [the Fort Hood] attack does is further strengthen the case for the honorable discharge of all Muslims from the United States Armed Forces, regardless of the degree to which they may adhere to their faith."'

American Muslims need to Alter their view of US Citizenship?
It is understandable that the motives of a perpetrator of a crime be studied. Motive is important in a crime. The second reason is learning so polices can be developed to possibly prevent future outbreaks. Fair enough. But it did not stop there. The issue became Muslims in the US and particularly those serving in the armed services. What explains this and other mainstream media doing the same? Is it Islamophobia as CAIR puts it? Is it the "clash of civilizations" or the eternal hatred of the West for islam as Bin Laden, his crew propose It is useful in such time to read or re--read Rogers M. Smith book Civic Ideals: Conflicting Visions of Citizenship in US History. The publisher synopsis of the book is: "Is civic identity in the United States really defined by liberal, democratic political principles? Or is U.S. citizenship the product of multiple traditions - not only liberalism and republicanism but also white supremacy, Anglo-Saxon supremacy, Protestant supremacy, and male supremacy? In this powerful and disturbing book, Rogers Smith traces political struggles over U.S. citizenship laws from the colonial period through the Progressive era and shows that throughout this time, most adults were legally denied access to full citizenship, including political rights, solely because of their race, ethnicity, or gender. Basic conflicts over these denials have driven political development in the U.S., Smith argues. These conflicts are what truly define U.S. civic identity up to this day. Smith concludes that today the United States is in a period of reaction against the egalitarian civic reforms of the last generation, with nativist, racist, and sexist beliefs regaining influence. He suggests ways that proponents of liberal democracy should alter their view of U.S. citizenship in order to combat these developments more effectively."

American Muslims and American Fading Moments of "Liberal Ascendancy"

A review of the book by Michael McCann of U of Washington Smith’s challenge to the "hegemonic liberalism" thesis runs deeper yet. In short, he argues that liberal democratic values have historically been at a decided disadvantage in mobilizing support from constituents. The reason is that liberal values ask much of people --to be rational, industrious, self reliant, and respectful of others-- while offering them little sense of distinctive membership in a larger group. By contrast, ascriptive norms both rationalize inherited patterns of privilege and offer individuals the prospect that, "regardless of their personal achievements and economic status, their inborn characteristics make them part of a special community" that is "distinctively and permanently worthy" (p. 38). Smith acknowledges that liberal commitments have "checked" the appeal of ascriptive doctrines and inspired democratic reform at various historical junctures, most dramatically in the last half of the twentieth century. But such moments of liberal ascendance are generally short-lived and we can see about us today much evidence for the continuing allure of exclusionary ideals.
The response of America to the Fort Hood shootings tells us more about America than about the shooter or out community. The sooner we recognize this the better we will be able to deal with the crisis that we find imposed on us.

Dir. Offenbacher's "TEA" Demystifies Syria, Unveils Its Beauty and Diversity, and Wins AFF's Noor Award for Best Documentary

2009-10-30T17:43:00.001-04:00

13th Annual Arab Film Festival ("AFF") Held in California from October 15 to October 25
Dir. Offenbacher's "TEA" Demystifies Syria, Unveils Its Beauty and Diversity, and Wins AFF's Noor Award for Best Documentary

In California, October was a special month for Arab Americans. San Francisco's Mayor Gavin Newsom declared October "Arab Heritage month." Events celebrating this designation were held during the month. Another event, no less important, is the Arab Film Festival (AFF). From October 15 to October 25. Arab films from around the world were screened in San Francisco, Berkeley, San Jose and Los Angeles. In all forty- one Arab films were screened from throughout the world.

The opening night film was a Palestinian film, Pomegranates and Myrrh by Najwa Najjar. "A powerful story of love and freedom under repression and control, as described by AFF's program director, Daniella Jubran. Michele Shehadeh AFF's Executive Director Arab wrote in the event booklet "We are proud to present many great features, documentaries, and shorts highlighting this year's theme, "bridging cultures."… Two of our recently screened films, captain Abu Raed and Amreeka, were picked up for national distribution." When asked by the writer of this column if there is a need to hold a similar event, a Muslim Film Festival, to fight the backlash against Muslims, Mr. Shehadeh correctly noted that the discrimination "we face as people of color, as Arab, is not based on religion, it is based on skin tone and the fact that we are not white. When we are seen by non- Arabs they focus on our looks and act accordingly. "

The writer of this review attended a number of the screened films and enjoyed the most the film Tea on the Axis of Evil, affectionately called "TEA" by its director Jean Marie-Offenbacher's ("Jean"). The film takes the viewers throughout Syria from the Bedouins in the desert to the city dwellers with their Westernized lifestyle. Throughout the film, Jean manages to present lovely scenes from throughout Syria while having Syrians from different backgrounds speak for themselves about among other things marriage, love, religion and politics. The Forum and Link met with Jean asking her about her experience making the film:

Forum: When and how did you conceive of this project?
Jean: After the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, the media and representatives of the Bush regime began to describe Syria and Iran in the same terms that they had used to justify that invasion. I was afraid that destabilization or invasion of Syria and Iran could proceed with no opposition from U.S. or European citizens because they were so saturated with fear and loathing of "Muslim hordes." Images of both countries provided by our media were illogical, but Syria was particularly a black hole. Iran exports its film and art, while an opaque veil hides Syria's beauty from the West. References to Syria as a "Muslim" country seemed to intentionally deny the fact that it has a secular government and is a home of Christianity. In the spring of 2004 I decided it would be a good idea to move there and experience what was real and what was propaganda.
Forum: What were the obstacles to this project?
Jean: I did not know anyone in Syria. I asked everyone I knew if they knew anyone in Syria, so by the time I arrived I had a lovely greeting party at the airport and people to help me find an apartment and settle in to Damascus and show me how to get buses, planes and trains to travel.
I did not speak Arabic. Many people in Syria speak English and French and I am a good communicator.
I had not worked in film for 7 years and the last projects I had edited were on 35mm film, so I had to learn to shoot and edit in digital media. Digital media is much easier to learn than traditional so I was way ahead of the curve on camera and in the edit.
Forum: . How long did it take you to finish it?
Jean: I was glacial at completion, because I only had a few donations, so I could not hire a great staff to edit and post production supervise and produce and direct and cast and raise more money…too many hats on my head and some of them were covering my eyes. I shot from September of 2004 until July of 2006, but never edited at all until early in 2006. To make matters worse, my Macintosh computer kept destroying my work until Apple finally admitted that it was a lemon about a year and a half into the edit.
Forum: Where was the first screening? What are the plans for future screenings? Did TEA win any awards?
Jean: The first screening was in Northern Ireland at the Foyle Festival when it was still a work in progress. It was the only film at the festival that was sold out – the other screenings were attended by only a handful of people…that was when I was started to feel confident that ordinary citizens were thirsting for information about Syria – at least in N. Ireland. TEA’s first real screening as a completed film was at Sonoma International Film Festival in April 2009. The screening was so overcrowded that about 50 people were standing throughout and many had to be turned away. Californians were curious about Syria!

The Dubai Int Film Fest requested a screener, but I have not heard if it is accepted. The UNA and Harvard Kennedy School women alumni are creating an event for TEA in Boston in March for International Women’s Day. An exciting upcoming event in April is the Southern Circuit Tour, in which I am paid to travel to small towns in the south to present the film to rural audiences.
The first award was a Special Mention for being poetic at Salento International Film Festival in Italy. The first real award was in the Arab Film Festival in California, where it won the Noor Award for Best Documentary. It was thrilling to be recognized at this event by this community – the other films there were great, better all around than any festival I have ever attended so I was amazed that I won.
Forum: Is TEA available for purchase? Where and for how much?
Jean: As the film is new I am not settled on distribution in North America. For international distribution, Long Tale represents TEA. Anyone interested in purchasing "Tea" should contact me through my website.

Forum: Any thoughts/memories from the making of TEA you would like to share?
Jean: I have so many. The fondest memory, so many...but there are few moments on earth that compare to nights under the darpotabani in the desert...One weekend I took two friends of mine with me to Palmyra. Though they had grown up in Damascus, they had never been to the desert. My Bedouin friends met us there and put us up in a hotel that they had built. It was a beautiful, fantasy hotel that a few months later was mysteriously destroyed. On the second day, two of my Bedouin friends and I rode 40 kilometers - me on horseback, them on motorcycle - to desert hotsprings. One of the heads of a nomadic Bedouin family heard that I rode very fast and challenged me to a stakes race set for the following spring. My friends from Damascus arrived and the springs were opened for us. When we returned to the fantasy hotel, a sheep had been freshly prepared into a delicious mensaf in our honor. Every moment of this weekend was pure magic.
A one-word favorite memory would be food and it is probably misspelled: "macduce"; I ate it for the first time on the morning of day 1 of Ramadan with the Jasm family in Deir Ez Zur. I could probably tell you 1001 tales from the experience of making TEA in Syria.
Note: Dir. Jean Marie Offenbacher contact information is: Re Orient Films jmpo@reorintfilms.org, www.reorientfilms.org. More information about the Arab Film Festival can be found at www.AFF.org

Remembering the Houla Massacre. 10/31/1948

2009-10-29T02:36:00.001-04:00

Houla Massacre of 1948
Apathetic State: No Military Readiness or Political Will to Stand and Fight

The 1948 Houla Massacre Anniversary
October 31, 2009 is the sixty- first anniversary of the Zionist massacre in Houla, a village in South Lebanon. The Zionist Hagganah gang, led by Menachem begin, blew up houses and massacred in cold blood tens of the town's men. As a consequence of the Zionist attack, (one of a string of subsequent attacks on South Lebanon over the years), led to the people of Houla becoming refugees in their own homeland in 1948, living in the Dbayeh refugee camp. It was not until the beginning of May of 1949 that these displaced Southern Lebanese were able to go back to their destroyed village.

The Need for Strong defense of Lebanon
The Lebanese right wing elements has always claimed that there is no problem between the Zionists and Lebanon. They blame all the troubles of Lebanon on the victims of Israeli aggression, the Palestinians, instead of blaming the aggressors. To this group, the "strength of Lebanon is in its weakness" as the late Pierre Gemayel put it. As a result, there has been a determined policy of keeping Lebanon weak- a policy conceived even before the birth of the state of Lebanon. Lebanon has been paying dearly for this official policy since.

1948 Revisited: Failures and Flawed Performance
A few weeks ago a dispute arose in Beirut over the use of a Modern History Book at the International College (IC) school. The book calls Hizbullah and other resistance movements "terrorist organizations." The matter was seen by the supporters of the March 14th Movement some as an attempt by the supporters of the 8th of March Movement to discredit the Minister of Education, the sister of the late Prime Minister of Lebanon Rafic Hariri, and a member of the former grouping. Indeed, there is a problem with history books used in Lebanon across the board but it was not the IC book, which in reality had that offensive statement taken out or covered up. The real problem is that not one textbook used to teach the history of Lebanon actually teaches history. One of the matters that is not taught in history books is the truth about the performance of Lebanon in the 1948 Palestine war. The failures of the Lebanese state and the flawed performance of the Lebanese army are not taught. The massacre of Houla, and the subsequent occupation of a part of Southern Lebanon, are direct results of these failures and flawed performance.

The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948
An excellent book on the 1948 war is The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948, edited by Eugene Rogan and Avi Shlaim. The article of interest for this column is Mathew Hughes', Collusion Across the Litani? Lebanon and the 1948 War.

Debunking Lebanon's False History of a Valiant Fight:
A Belligerent in Name Only
No Political Will or Military Strength to Fight
The main argument of Mr. Hughes is that the official history of Lebanon's role in the 1948 war is false. He writes "In the debates surrounding the events of 1948, Lebanon's role is either exaggerated militarily or relegated to a few footnotes." He adds "[I]t is clear that Lebanon had neither the political will nor the military strength to fight Israel in 1948. It was a belligerent in 1948 in name only, leaving the fighting to others. Politically, its Christian dominated government had little incentive to fight Israel, elements of the Christian community preferring to collude with the Jewish Yeshuv before and after 1948. "

Who's Your Enemy, Past and Present?
Hughes writes about Lebanese Maronite Monsignor Ignace Mubarak "finding common cause with the Jewish Yishuv as minorities in an overwhelmingly Muslim region, Mubarak in an interview with the Palestine Post in March 1, 1946, made abundantly clear his support for Zionism and s Jewish state. The following year, in September 1947, he appealed on behalf of the Yishuv to the United nations (UN) Committee (UNSCOP) sent to investigate the future status of Palestine, linking together the Jews and the Maronites."

1948 War: A Weak Army, an Apathetic State
Policy Delivers the Galilee to Israel, Galilee Palestinians End Up the Much Complained About Refugees in Lebanon
The Lebanese army was unprepared to defend the budding state- instead it was groomed as an auxiliary to the state's police force. Hughes writes, "Until the war with Israel, the Lebanese Army was more of a police force than an offensive military force, not least because its main duties involved assisting the police and gendarmes in internal security…" This army, by design, fought only one battle with Israel, a much ballyhooed battle celebrated by the state's ruling elite. "Lebanese army sole engagement with Israel at village of Malikiyya on 5-6 June 1948 located 700 meters over the border inside Palestine/Israel…In effect, by 9 June the war for the Lebanese army, which had began on 5 June, was over. " He adds, "Lebanon did very little to help the ALA [Arab Liberation Army] during operations Dekel and Hiram." Incidentally, the Hiram battle is the battle were Israel succeeded in taking over the Galilee, a part of Palestine allocated to Arabs in the UN Partition Plan. This led to the uprooting of most of the residents of the Galilee who took refuge in Lebanon and have become the much complained about and mistreated Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon today.

The lack of a fight extended to the lack of political will or military readiness to defend Lebanese territories. When Zionist forces advanced into Southern Lebanon "the Lebanese army withdrew without a fight or remained in its bases, as Israel occupied between fourteen and twenty Lebanese villages in the Marj'Ayun valley stretching up to the Litani, in one of which (Houla) they massacred between thirty four and fifty two villagers…" Mr. Hughes concludes his assessment of Lebanon's war effort: "[I]n 1948, Lebanon did very little to confront Israel; nor did it do much to help Arab irregular forces fighting across the border in Galilee…The insignificant, operationally flawed performance of the Lebanese army and the ALA was a strategic asset for the Israelis who, untroubled on their northern border," were able to focus their better forces on other battlefields thus helping in the total defeat of the Palestinians.

Readiness and Political Will to Stand and Fight.

The performance of official Lebanon in 1948 is contrasted to the solid preparedness and resistance of the Hizbullah in 2006. Mr. Hughes concludes his chapter with citing a counter-factual comment by Charles Glass published in the London Review of Books of 17 August 2006, Hughes writes:"Political factors in 1948 were undoubtedly important considerations in the outcome of the war but so was a willingness to stand and fight. This point is nicely illustrated by Israel's 2006 war with Hizbullah in Lebanon when Hizbullah fighters took on and successfully checked the IDF along the Lebanese border leading one commentator to make the intriguing counter-factual comment that had Israel faced an enemy like Hizbullah in 1948 the outcome of the war might have been different."

Lebanon Today
The opponents of the presence of Hizbullah as a military force have stated that Lebanon needs alternative ways to defend itself. However, so far no official strategy has emerged to confront Israeli aggression against Lebanon. The recent folkloric making of the largest Hummus and Tabbouleh plates will not protect the Southern Lebanese from another Houla. Only military preparedness and the will to stand and fight does. Do these exist at the official level today, unlike 1948?

Love Palestine, love its Palestinians?: The plight of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon

2009-10-04T14:17:00.002-04:00

Love Palestine, love its Palestinians?: The plight of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon

Support for Gaza stops short, operation cast lead and the outpouring of support

During Operation Cast Lead against Gaza, a large number of Arab-Americans, leaders and community members turned out to protest the crimes of Israel in Gaza and the unlimited American support of Israel that enables this carnage. In the Greater Detroit area many of those in the protest were Lebanese who sincerely care about the Palestinian cause. It is great that the Palestinians have this show of support—it is heartening to see the throngs of supporters line up on Warren Avenue.

However, Palestinians in the Arab world are also victims of mistreatment and abuse. This mistreatment reaches appalling levels in Lebanon. One wonders how many of those Lebanese protesting Israeli crimes know, care or do something about the appalling situation of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, refugees who are now into their fourth or fifth generation of refuge. There is not a single week that goes by without the Lebanese daily al-Akhbar writing a story about the plight of the refugees—the excessive use of force by the national army and the looting of the Nahr al Bared Camp, the foul language written on the walls of the houses of the refugees, the ill treatment of the displaced refugees at the security checkpoints, etc.
You wonder what explains the loudness on the suffering of Palestinians on the hands of Israel versus the deadly silence as to the suffering of the Palestinians who live in Arab lands, particularly Lebanon. You wonder what is behind the almost universal silence of Arab-American newspapers run by Lebanese-Americans who are vocal supporters of Palestine but ignore completely the plight of the Palestinians in Lebanon? Suspicious.

Cognitive dissonance or tribal logic?: Lebanese civil war begins with a lie, ends with a lie

Is it cognitive dissonance? Is it fear of upsetting governments that are prone to abuse those who dissent? Is it a reality lived according to the Arab saying of me and my cousin against the stranger and me and my brother against my cousin? The Palestinian refugees in Lebanon face de jure and de facto discrimination that is not being seriously challenged in any way. A false history of the Palestinians in Lebanon has hardened many hearts to the plight of the Palestinian refugee and sunk into the unconscious of others allowing them the guilty comfort of the false sense of doubt about the injustice that the Palestinians live daily.
The Lebanese civil war began with the grand lie that the Palestinians either hate Lebanon or want it as a substitute for Palestine. One Lebanese fascist group has made the claim that the Palestinians hate Lebanon because it is "green" or that they want to take it over and forget about Palestine. Those deluded Lebanese forget that if Palestinians like Yasser Arafat, Nayef Hawatmeh, Dr. George Habash, Khalil al Wazir and Salah Khalaf wanted to replace Palestine with Lebanon, the Israeli army itself would have been glad to help them do just that. Israeli behavior and Palestinian behavior exposes this claim for the lie it is–the Israelis invaded Lebanon to crush the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and Palestinian nationalism aided by none other than the obnoxiously loud and militarily fickle supporters of Israel who provided aid and comfort to the occupier of their own land, the Israelis, time and time again. This includes massacring civilians in cold blood while the Israelis light up the sky and watch from a safe distance.

The reality is that the civil war began with a lie about the Palestinians and ended with a lie about the Palestinians. Not wanting to face the demons of the causes of the civil war and the Lebanese on Lebanese atrocities, the Lebanese ended their war with the myth that it was all the fault of the Palestinians and the Lebanese were merely victims. A former prime minister aptly called The War of the Victims Against the [other] Victims.

Also, the late President of the Republic, Elias Hrawi, summarized this national amnesia and demonizing of the Palestinians in a TV interview stating "let [civil war atrocities] bygones be bygones." When asked about the rights of the Palestinian refugees he stated that he would not "privilege the Palestinians over the Lebanese." That statement sealed the fate of the refugees and ushered decades of discrimination and abuse.

The courage of Natalie Abu Shakra and the shameful silence of others

Not all Lebanese approve of the mistreatment. Al Quds al Arabi of Sept 15., 2009 published an interview with a Lebanese young woman, Natalie Abu Shakra, who was part of the ship that broke the siege on Gaza. Natalie stayed behind and experienced Operation Cast Lead. Abu Shakra compared the lives of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon to the lives of the Gazans. She described the Palestinian camps in Lebanon as "ghettos, just as Gaza is." She told al Quds al Arabi reporter Zahra Merhi that the Palestinian refugees suffer from Lebanese government policy, have no rights, live in ghettos created by the state and that the reality of the camps in Lebanon is a "shame to mankind."

What a courageous woman young Abu Shakra is, a courage that we do not see from many men. No one expects all supporters of Palestine to brave the siege of Gaza and experience Cast Lead. However, it is not much to ask that the Lebanese who support Palestine communicate their disapproval of their country's shameful treatment of the Palestinian refugees and demand a change.

There are a number of consulates and an embassy to communicate this concern to. Also, in the Greater Detroit a number of delegations leave for Lebanon to meet with Lebanese officials to raise the concerns of the Lebanese community in the United States. Not one time I heard or read that any of these delegations raised the issue of the plight of the refugees. Not one time even though some of these delegations include some who wear the cause of Palestine on their sleeve, collar and elbow.

Lebanese sectarian democracy: Regime extends rights to groups, not individuals
Human rights groups ignore the biggest victims of abuse among them

The Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are victims of the country's consociational regime and its sectarian politics. In this regime individuals are not recognized, only sects that run the government and the lives of their flock. The rights and obligations of individuals are seen through the prison of the sectarian politics and sectarian spoils. In this regime, the refugees are thought of as another "sect" that wants to share the spoils of the sectarian pie. This thinking sees the Palestinians as a demographic threat rather than as a group of human beings that is owed decency and civility in treatment from a people known to have emigrated in large number throughout the world and knows what it means and feels to be outside the country of origin.
It is time for official Lebanon and Lebanese leaders in the United States to make the leap of thinking outside the sectarian box, dealing with the refugees as a human group rather than as a sectarian collection and obsessing about how they play out in the sectarian balance or imbalance. The civil war hardened sectarians in Lebanon are excused for not being able to escape the straightjacket of sectarianism.

However, there is no easy pass for the others—those who merrily and loudly advocate the concept of citizenship, individual rights and liberties, over political sectarianism but have chosen to ignore the Palestinian issue and to instead revel in their pyrrhic victory of the optional removal of the religious affiliation from state IDs. They would have had a bigger impact and a claim to consistency and solid principle in respect for human rights if they had centered their campaign on the Palestinians and challenged the core of the sectarian regime and not its manifestations.

Those in the Mahjar or diaspora, especially those who wear Palestine on their sleeve, simply have no excuse to inaction. They co-own the national shame.

Palestinian Refugees to be Resettled in America

2009-09-28T03:39:00.003-04:00

Victims of Iraq's Gangs are Coming to the U.S. this Fall

Miriam Jones wrote in The Wall Street Journal of July 17, 2009: "The US agreed to resettle 1,350 Palestinian displaced by fighting in Iraq, marking the largest resettlements ever of Palestinian refugees in the nation. The decision appears to signal a shift in Washington's previous position against resettling Palestinians out of concern about the potential impact on US relations with Israel and the Arab world. The resettlement which is slated to begin this fall, is likely to illicit strong reactions from people on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

There are many victims of the US unjust war on Iraq from the sanctions' regime to the invasion of 2003 and the reckless way the country was run in the war's aftermath. Much suffering occurred because our former C student President wanted to implement what he thought God wanted him to do. One group that suffered much from the invasion is the Palestinian refugees who have lived in Iraq since the aftermath of the Nakba.

Life is never easy for refugees. The international system recognizes states and citizens. To be a refugee is to be outside the system, to be in a transitional position. A refugee's rights are limited. It is the job of the international community to provide assistance to refugees and to work on their repatriation or re-settlement. Most are. Not the Palestinians'.

The Rights of the Palestinian Refugees in Syria

The Palestinians stand out in their refugee status. They have a special international organization, UNRWA (no Arab or Muslim country among its biggest donors, not even close), that provides assistance to them, an assistance that is ever dwindling. The Palestinians fled or were forced to leave Palestine by Zionist criminal gangs who committed war crimes and ethnic cleansing to uproot the native population. The reality now is that the Palestinian refugees fare better in some countries than others. The Palestinian refugees in Syria, for example, have all the rights of Syrian citizens except citizenship. The refugees serve in the army, work in the private and public sector. The biggest camp in Syria is al Yarmouk, which I visited , and does not look in any way like the ghettos that exist in Lebanon. The Syrians deserve much credit for their decent treatment of the refugees and their open door policies to Iraqi refugees as well as to the Lebanese refugees during the many years of civil war/s. This fact was lost on those who instigated hate and aided and abetted the hate crimes against Syrian workers after the Syrian troops withdrawal from Lebanon.

Iraq and the Attacks of Sectarian Blood Hounds

Using the fig leaf of the lie that the Palestinian refugees were supporters of the former regime of Saddam Hussein, sectarian gangs pursued the Palestinian refugees with a vengeance. The Palestinian refugees were seen as a threat to the sectarian gangs, thugs that were set free to kill and pillage in the aftermath of the US occupation and the dismantling of the Iraqi state in the name of the Debaathification shibboleth. Iraqis fearing the bloodshed in Iraq could leave to Syria and Jordan, however, the Palestinian refugees could not. They had no militia and the US forces would not protect them. There were a number of brutal killings. Thousands of Palestinians got stuck at Iraq's borders. The refugee travel document that the Palestinian refugees hold is not an instrument for travel, it operates as an excuse for mistreatment and/or lack of admission (one refugee who lives in Saudi Arabia waited for two months for a transit visa from an Arab country). The refugees lived in makeshift camps, in open desolate areas, with humanitarian organizations providing basic assistance.

Ziad Asali and the Arab World Reaction

Dr. Ziad Asali, president of the American Task Force on Palestine, welcomed the decision, telling Ms Jones of the Wall Street Journal that it is "a significant step …consistent with the new US message of accommodation with the Muslim world." Dr. Asali noted however that the decision to settle the refugees in the United States might be seen as "conspiracy to liquidate the Palestinian refugee issue." Arab governments and non Palestinian Arabs always express the fear that the Palestinians' acquiring of citizenship of any country would mean the liquidation of the Palestinian cause. The fact that Zionists had citizenship of other countries and it did not stop them from working to take over Palestine and displace its people is somehow lost. Even today, a high percentage of Israelis have dual, if not more, citizenships along with foreign passports just in case. In fact, many of the radical Jewish settlers who terrorize the Palestinians in the West Bank, stealing and/or burning their crops, among other crimes, are American citizens. The Israeli soldier who perpetrated the massacre in Hebron, Baruch Goldstein, was an American citizen, a medical doctor nonetheless [I am not holding my breath for the US government to investigate how and why American Jews who come from privileged backgrounds get radicalized and indoctrinated with hate enough to go to Israel to steal Palestinian land and commit war crimes].

Decent Treatment Obviates the Need for Citizenship

The country whose government is the loudest on the issue of the "conspiracy to liquidate the Palestinians cause" is none other than the government of Lebanon. Day in, day out the issue of the Palestinian refugees is used as a political football. Some Lebanese groups like the right- wing Guardians of the Cedars use such base language when attacking the Palestinians- language that would make Meir Kahane and Jabotinsky blush. The Palestinian refugees are subject to de facto and de jure discrimination that is an embarrassment not only to Lebanon and its people but to humanity as well, as the Lebanese supporter of Palestinian rights, the brave Natalie Abu Shakra put it. This mistreatment, as the Lebanese al Akhbar newspaper reported, makes the Palestinians curse the day they were born Palestinian refugees and aspire to be naturalized in Lebanon or in any other country. If there is a conspiracy to liquidate the Palestinian cause it is the Lebanese government policy of abuse and discrimination that is the very embodiment of this "conspiracy." Those Lebanese who claim to support Palestine have offered only rhetorical support with no plan of action to change the reality and no follow up. Some of those supporters have gone to extreme measures for a lot less noble causes.

It is also important to note that the Palestinian refugees of Lebanon include a large number of naturalized highly successful people. The overwhelming majority of Palestinian Christians who sought refuge in Lebanon have been naturalized by the Lebanese government. A Christian Palestinian American reporter who went to Lebanon to write a story on the Palestinian refugees told me that he was shocked by the extent of denial of the Christian Lebanese citizens of Palestinian descent of their origin. He told me that he had to keep pushing and asking questions for most of those he interviewed to admit their Palestinian origin. He was surprised. Anyone familiar with Lebanese politics would not. That origin is used as an excuse to discriminate and abuse- rational people avoid that. No doubt this phenomenon is not limited to the naturalized Christian Palestinians but includes the Muslim Palestinians who have also been naturalized. However, it is more damaging to the Palestinian cause to have falsely defined as an issue of Muslim refugees losing their homeland to Zionist aggression- Christian Palestinians also lost their homes to the Zionist enterprise.

Thank you America, Brazil, Sweden, the U.K. and the Netherlands. The only thing the refugees will miss is the inflated rhetoric of Arab and Muslim support. And if you miss that you can watch on Al Jazeera. Palestine is wherever a Palestinian lives.

The Battle of the Head Scarf: a Muslim Woman, a Circuit Judge, and an Arab Muslim Attorney

2009-09-06T01:27:00.003-04:00

Moughni’s Character Assassination is Reminiscent of Abuse of Victims of Sexual Molestation

I was shopping on Warren Avenue when I saw an orange pamphlet distributed by attorney Majed Moughni. In a footnote it reads “Please copy, post and distribute until Judge Callahan is exonerated.” I was eager to read the judge’s story. My Facebook friends were posting articles that were all presenting the woman’s side. These facts are undisputed. An Arab Muslim woman, Raneen Albaghdady, appears in Court before Wayne County court judge William Callahan. She is the last person to go on record. The judge asks her to remove her head scarf. She removes it. Then comes the lawsuit against the judge filed by the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) on her behalf for violating her religious rights. Attorney Nabih Ayad, a Michigan Civil Rights Commission member is the attorney representing Ms Albaghdady.

Wayne County: Many Litigants and a Judge Wear the Muslim Head Scarf

My first reaction to this case was wondering how the judge could fail to recognize the Muslim scarf. After all, he has been a judge for a number of years in Wayne County, a county with a large Muslim presence. Day in day out Muslim women litigants wearing head scarves appear before the judges in that circuit. There is even a Wayne county judge, Charlene Makled Elder, a powerful symbol of political and legal integration of the community, who wears a head scarf. Is it possible that judge Callahan mistook the Muslim scarf for an improvised fashion statement head gear? It is possible. Lawsuits continue when there are questions of fact or law in dispute.
Mr. Moughni Steps In: “Counsel” “frivolous” “boyfriend” “singles bar”
Judge Callahan retained Dearborn attorney Mr. Majed Moughni to represent him in the lawsuit filed by CAIR. I have a passing knowledge of Mr. Moughni and respect him as a fellow attorney. But in this case he has been unfair to the litigant and used awful tactics in defending his client. The first thing that struck me is that he got the name of CAIR wrong- it is the Council not the “Counsel” as he wrote in his release. I expected Mr. Moughni to present the judge’s version of the events and make the reader give him the benefit of the doubt and tell us how the judge’s record shows that he is a tolerant person who would not violate anyone’s religious rights. Instead, Mr. Moughni arbitrarily usurped the role of the judiciary by declaring this lawsuit that raises constitutional questions “frivolous.” It gets worse. I thought that the bad old days where a woman risked that her reputation would be sullied for bringing a lawsuit were long gone. These days were resurrected by Mr. Moughni. The pamphlet referred to “singles bar” and “last boyfriend.” These are cheap shots that are reminiscent of the days when an abused woman would have her personal history, real or imagined, paraded in public as punishment for seeking justice for being wronged. Parading the victim’s personal history was also meant to shift the focus from the perpetrator to the victim.

The Mystery of the Head Scarf Revealed: No Magic

A woman that wears a head scarf does not magically transform into an angel or a superwoman. Muslim women who wear a head scarf do it out of a religious obligation they believe in. The fact that they wear it does not mean they don’t watch MTV, drink diet Cola or listen to Lady Gaga. When I was a student at Wayne State University a professor told me how he was working out in the college gym when he saw a woman wearing a Hijab playing a “mean” basketball game. He remarked how that scene was intriguing to him. It should not. Women who wear head scarves can play basketball too. That professor, who is a wonderful and tolerant man, told me how over the years he has seen an increase in the number of female students who wear a head scarf in his classroom. He stated that they tend to be the brightest students in his class. In the Greater Detroit area there is an increase, especially in the second generation, in the practice of wearing a Hijab as a religious observance and/or assertion of identity and non- Muslims are used to seeing women wearing head scarves. These women come from all walks of life.
Not Frivolous: The Hijab, a Religious Obligation, and an American Choice
It is the consensus of the Muslim religious scholars/ulema that a Hijab (Muslim head covering as well as clothes that cover most of the body) is mandated by the faith. A Hijab, however, is not a pillar of the faith like prayer, the pilgrimage to Mecca/Hajj and Zakat/alms giving are. In America the right to wear a Hijab, just like the Jewish men’s right to wear a yarmulke, is protected by the Constitution. This country gets many things right and one of the things it gets right is the balance between church and state and a nuanced secularism. There is nothing “frivolous” about that.

In this country the Hijab is a choice that women make. However, there is a mistaken belief that Muslim American women are forced to wear a Hijab. An observant Arab Muslim relayed to me an incident that occurred in California. It was a hot day in Los Angeles when a stranger approached him and his wife who wears a Hijab. The following conversation ensued:

Stranger: “How dare you dress in short sleeves while you force this poor woman to cover up like that in the heat?”
Husband: “Ask her if I made her dress like that?’
Stranger: “I can talk to her?”
Husband: “Yes”
Wife:”You think he is making me dress like that. He can not make me dress like this or not dress like this. I dress like this because God wants me to.”
The stranger got embarrassed and walked away.

Women Who Wear a Muslim Head Scarf: Women Who Are More Courageous than Many Men

After 9/11 women who wear head scarves were easy targets since they were readily identifiable. Still these women, the stronger sex, stood their ground and wore their head scarves despite the risks. For us in the Muslim community, these women wearing a Hijab are the most courageous members of our community- those who hate Muslims and want to act on the hate hesitate to attack a Muslim bearded man who might appear menacing to them. However the cowards would not fear attacking what they perceive is a meek woman.

Debatable Guilt, Clear Guilt

Despite the odds, these Muslim women exercise the religious obligation and the Constitutional right to wear a head scarf. We owe them to stand up to them, stand with them, and offer our respect and support. Judge Callahan’s culpability is debatable. I would say Judge Callahan probably deserves the benefit of the doubt on whether he knew that Ms Albaghdadi’s head cover was a religious head scarf or not. However, there is no doubt that the person who intentionally and willfully violated Ms Albaghdady is none but one of our own- Mr. Moughni who did it for less than thirty silver coins.

The Release of Political Prisoner Yemeni Imam Al Moayad: The End of a Saga of an Innocent Victim of “War on Terror" Gone Wild

2009-08-21T21:35:00.002-04:00

Three Appellate Judges, McLaughlin, Parker and Wesley, Exemplify Judicial Integrity
Another Bush/Ashcroft Ugly Chapter Closes

The recent release of the Yemeni Imam Al Moayad closes one of the ugliest chapters of the Presidency of George W. Bush. The frail Imam Al Moayad is now free, with his many friends, supporters, and people he helped in his long career in charity works. Upon arrival in Sana’a, he was met by a crowd of supporters that included three Yemeni government cabinet- level ministers.

Seeds of the Imam's Trial and Tribulation: A Desperate/Disturbed Man, a Religious Fundamentalist Attorney General, and an Overly Ambitious FBI Agent

The saga of Imam Al Moayad makes excellent material for a Hollywood drama. A down on his luck Yemeni “illegal immigrant “walks into an FBI office offering help in "bagging a big terrorist." An ambitious FBI agent in the post 9/11 heady times wants glory, just like his President George W Bush, and the law-despising Christian fundamentalist Attorney General Ashcroft and his successor Gonzalez- regardless of the collateral damage. A plan is hatched to set up the well- respected Yemeni Imam, the Imam of the biggest mosque in Sana’a, Al Moayad. The informer is sent to Yemen to sell the Imam on a plan to send money to Hamas. Mind you this happens in Yemen where Hamas is hugely popular and support for Hamas, material and/or sentimental, is perfectly legal in Yemen. In the US, however, in 1997 Hamas was designated as a terror group and it’s a crime to provide it with “material support.” Al Qaeda was designated in 1999. As to the support of Hamas, the Imam’s defense was that support for Hamas is legal in Yemen. As to Al Qaeda, the Imam admitted supporting al Qaeda during America’s Jihad against the Soviet Union. The Imam argued that his relationship with al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden ended with the end of the American Jihad with America’s defeat of the Soviet Union.

From Yemen to Germany to Judge Johnson's American Kangaroo Court

"The Most Significant Terrorism Case since 9/11"
5-week Legal Lynching in 2005

In the US, the informer’s statements and taped conversations with Al Moayad are used to get an indictment for Imam al Moayad for material support of Al Qaeda and Hamas. The Iman is induced to travel to Germany from where he is extradited to the United States to face charges. The politics of the case is obvious. The administration was eager to show progress in the “War on Terror.” The media reported that the Bush administration hailed the capture of the Imam as a "significant blow to al Qaeda." Attorney General Ashcroft claimed that al Moayad had "personally" handed Osama Bin laden twenty million dollars. The media described the case as "the most significant terrorism case since 9/11."

The behavior of the prosecutors and the district judge was troubling. The government wanted to win at any cost and dealt with evidentiary rules and fairness as obstacles in America's way to winning its “war on terror.” One of the government attorneys in the courtroom "celebrated" American ethnic and religious diversity and inclusion by referring to a Quranic verse as "the terrorist verse." The district judge, Sterling Johnson Jr., took leave of judicial sense and functioned as a part of the team of the prosecution. The defense team that included Robert J. Boyle and William Goodman put up a great fight but the playing field was uneven. The judge was a de facto part of the prosecution team. The district judge sentenced the good Imam to seventy- five years in prison. The Imam was mind boggled with the sentence and turned to the judge and asked: "Your Honor, what have I done? [to deserve this sentence.] But for the judge that was his Patriot day and he was making sure that the government bags the alien Imam.

The Other Irrational Exuberance: Government and Media Celebrate

The conviction of the Imam was celebrated in the media. A New York Post headline read "Brooklyn Jury Nails Bin Laden's Sheik. Imam Al Moayad was repeatedly described as Bin Laden's "spiritual advisor." Attorney general Gonzalez stated "[t]oday's convictions mark another important step in our war on terrorism." While the case was still on appeal to the Second Circuit Court, cheerleader John H. Richardson wrote a puffery jingoistic piece in Esquire of February 26, 2007, "Brian Murphy and The Bad Guys- How the FBI and One Extraordinary Agent Pursued and won a Terrorism case without Changing the Standards of American Justice." Mr. Richardson described the Al Moayad case as "the biggest and cleanest terrorism prosecution cases of our time." Reading the appellate court’s opinion it becomes abundantly clear the reality is the exact opposite.

I did not read the trial- court’s transcript but I read the appellate court’s sixty- eight page ruling. Reading the transcript makes you scratch you head and wonder what on earth was the district judge thinking. You would think that you see kangaroo- court antics from judges and prosecutors only in authoritarian regimes. It happened in Brooklyn. That travesty of justice was swept away with a unanimous 3-judge panel in October 2008.

Arabic- Media Reports on the Imam’s Release:
Appellate Court’s Courage and Analysis Shortchanged

While the district court’s proceeding is a travesty, the appellate court’s decision is American justice at its best. The appellate court’s courage in tackling the case with integrity without surrendering to jingoism and political pressure highlights the best feature of American government. There is so much to learn and admire about America, the Constitution and the American justice system from examining the appellate court’s opinion. The appellate court raised serious questions about the admissibility of the evidence in trial and determined that the fact that many highly prejudicial pieces of evidence were admitted, cumulatively, lead to an unfair trial. The appellate court held that the graphic testimony on the bus bombing in Israel, the video on the bombing, and the Bin Laden tape were all meant to inflame the jury with prejudicial effect outweighing the benefit of the evidence- especially that the defendant stipulated to the arguments the government wanted to make. The appellate court not only took the unusual step of vacating the judgment but also the rare step of sending it back, if it were to be retried, with direction that a different judge preside over the case.

These three appellate judges, McLaughlin, Parker and Wesley, should be honored for their judicial integrity in a time of crisis and enormous political pressure to deny due process to those who look like the enemy or are perceived as the enemy.

To read the opinion go to http://www.ca2.uscourts.gov/opinions.htm and under search type al Moayad.

Landmark Senate Hearing on Islamists- Insights into Explaining Government Behavior toward Muslims in US and Abroad- Part II-

2009-08-08T11:51:00.000-04:00

Baran Advises Open War on American Activist Muslims
Void Likely to Result, Most Likely to be filled by Radicals

In the landmark hearing on Islamists held on July 10, 2008 before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Zeyno Baran, a Turkish immigrant and Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute offered a broad indictment of almost all American Muslim institutions. If her argument is accepted by the government, and there is evidence it is, then the existing American Muslim institutional presence is at risk with no plausible alternative offered by Baran's favorite Muslims: "the secular, liberal and cultural Muslims." This void is bound to be filled by a radical alternative that will make the present Muslim establishment dearly missed.

The Islamist Infrastructure in the US

Activist Muslims are often associated with schools of thinking such as the Brotherhood and the Salafis. Baran states: "To understand how and why this [American Muslim radicalization process] is happening, one has to look at where people learn about Islam, who represents Muslims and Islam, what activities are conducted by these groups, and other related infrastructure questions. This is where the MB [Muslim Brotherhood] comes in- the most prominent Muslim organizations in America are either created by or are associated with the Brotherhood and the Wahhabis and are therefore been heavily influenced by Islamist ideology. Over the course of four decades, Islamists have taken over the leadership in almost all Islam related areas in America. This is worrisome, yet almost no one in the US government deals with it" [Baran's emphasis].
While individuals influenced by one school of thought might have been involved in violence this does not indict the whole school of thought. After all, the Crusaders claimed to be motivated by Christianity. The Jewish, Eastern Christian and Muslim victims can not justly argue that the Crusades present an indictment of Western Christianity.

NAIT: The Waqf as a Radical Idea

Baran does not spare any of the major American Muslim organizations from her indictment. The Muslim Student Association (MSA) is indicted though MAS it is not unlike Christian or Jewish campus groups. This obsession with Muslims takes away from attention that should be paid to American Christian and Jewish extremists. I am not sure if Baran saw the documentary Jesus Camp to see what very young children are exposed to in the name of Christianity to know what radicalism and brain washing is. Baran even attacks the North American Islamic trust (NAIT)- NAIT is a Muslim endowment that holds title to Muslim institutions.

MAS and CAIR

Of course an Islamic conspiracy would not be a ball without CAIR and MAS. The federal government has received much criticism for its engagement efforts with CAIR, the largest American Muslim advocacy group with national and international credibility. Caving in to the pressure the noise produced on the web based garbage spread by extremist Jewish and Christian extremists and fanatics, the government has disengaged CAIR. One Arab American leader told me that he heard that the “government unhappiness” with the leadership of CAIR is behind the government’s position. Baran’s argument shows otherwise.

A Huge Conspiracy: Islamization Effort or Political Islam?

Immigrant communities are close knit communities. Personal relationships and friendships are very important. However, when it comes to American Muslims this reality is seen as part of a conspiracy:
"What is critically important in all these organizations is their support for one another; the same leaders appear in multiple organizations, tend to have familial relations, and move within the same close trusted circles. Outwardly they all appear different entities, but they are actually part of a carefully planned Islamization effort."

Intelligence and Advocacy: You quote me I quote You

The most troubling aspect of the wild accusations of “experts” on American Muslims is their circular argument. Intelligence relies on them to indict Muslims and they in turn reference the government action to validate their position. Baran adds: "It is also very important to note that despite their outwardly moderate positions, NAIT, ISNA, and CAIR were all named as un-indicted co-conspirators in the federal case against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), which was charged with providing millions of dollars to Hamas." One Muslim activist told me that the government provided his attorney with a blogger’s hateful lunatic rants as evidence of his culpability in the case. The blogger in turn referenced the government case as evidence that she was right all along about the Muslim activist. This is the justice the US provides Muslim activists.

Baran’s Illogic: American Islamists Hate the US but Genuinely Want to Cooperate to Thwart Terrorism

Muslim activists have unequivocally condemned attacks against the US and offered their sincere efforts to combat extremism. It is not uncommon to hear these dedicated, ethical, indeed model citizen activists say to anyone who cares to listen from the government: "we are an asset not a liability," "we are against violence." "We are not the problem," "let us be part of the solution." These offers of partnership have been rebuffed due to this Baran logic:"Terrorist acts inside the US are huge setbacks for American Islamists…It is not surprising that most of these organizations offer their cooperation to prevent Islamist terrorism inside the US."[my emphasis]

America and the Turkish Un-delight: DOJ as an Islamization Agent

Baran's testimony is based on her immigrant background as a secular Muslim from a country that has adopted radical secularism that is completely different from the comparatively nuanced and sophisticated American secularism. The US Constitution guarantees freedom of speech, freedom of association, no establishment of religion and most importantly the free exercise of religion. While Baran's native Turkey bans the Muslim scarf in universities and government buildings with this ban strongly backed by the hard line secularizing courts, the United States department of Justice (DOJ) sued on behalf of a Muslim girl who was not allowed to wear her head scarf in school. Given Baran’s logic, one would conclude that the DOJ is an Islamizing organization intent on spreading Dawa and imposing Shariah on the US.

The Government Unleashed on Baran’s “Undesirable Muslims”

While Ms Baran is entitled to her personal preference to the "secular, liberal and cultural" Muslims, she is not entitled to privileging this group as “true Islam” and using the government as a sledgehammer to bludgeon the others who incidentally have more credibility and grassroots following. It is a stubborn fact that activist Muslims are the ones who have built the institutions of American Islam that provided the much needed services that a “Friday Muslim” or a “Eid Muslim” needs from a place to pray Jumaa/Friday prayer to an Islamic will template. Those who are not happy with the "Islamists" dominance in American Muslim life are outlaw them, Turkish style, due to American tradition and the US Constitution. The battle is therefore being waged through investigations, prosecutions, indictments, harassment (an example is the Holy Land case who’s who list of Muslim activists unindicted co conspirator) and exclusion based on dubious allegations and legal theories.

The Other Muslims to the Test: Creating Alternatives

It is time for Ms Baran and her “pious and practicing, liberal, secular, and cultural Muslims” to establish their own American Muslim institutions and compete in the marketplace of ideas for the hearts and minds of American Muslims. I highly doubt that Baran’s favored groups are willing or able to produce alternatives. Baran’s ideas carried into government policy would ultimately create an institutional void that is bound to be filled by radical alternatives that will make the present Muslim establishment sorely missed.

Landmark Senate Hearing on Islamists- Insights into Explaining Government Behavior Towards Muslims in the US and Abroad- Part I-

2009-07-20T10:43:00.001-04:00

Puzzling Reality

A few years ago I worked for an Islamic charity, Life for Relief and Development (LIFE). LIFE wanted to bring national and international attention to the crisis facing Muslim charities in the aftermath of 9/11. LIFE and Interaction, a major umbrella organization for non- governmental organizations (NGOs) engaged in relief work co-sponsored a forum at Interaction's annual conference dedicated to the issues facing the Muslim charity sector. LIFE retained an Arab American interlocutor to handle its contacts with the government. LIFE gave the interlocutor a list of Muslim charities in the Arab and/or Muslim world and asked her to check the list with the government and help with the visa issue. It turned out the government had a problem with about all of them. The government seemed to have a problem with all of them.. A puzzling reality until one reviews the testimonies at the Senate hearing entitled "[T]he Roots of Violent Islamist Extremism and Efforts to Counter It," held on July 10 2008 before the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs headed by none other big- time Israel supporter Senator Joe Lieberman.

Listening to those Who Validate Islamophobia: The Media Focuses on Hysterical Baran over Reasonable Mandaville

One of the witnesses before the Committee is Professor Peter Mandaville of George Mason University. Not much media attention was given to Mandaville's testimony. The witness whose testimony got the most attention and coverage is that of "observant Muslim" Turkish- born Zeyno Baran, wife of US diplomat Mathew Bryza. Baran's native Turkey has adopted European secularism that is anti religion in a most vulgar form. Ms Baran provided an "observant Muslim" cover for waging a war against all the Islamists painting them all as the enemy who wants to "impose Sharia law." As an "observant Muslim" making blanket accusations against all non secular activist Muslims she received the bulk of media coverage. The Christian Action Network dedicated 18 lines to her testimony versus the 4 lines given to Mandaville's. Surprisingly, the Congressional Quarterly (CQ) Newsletter also dedicated the bulk of its coverage of the hearing to the spread of the hell and brimstones testimony of Baran. Baran was in effect screaming the Muslim Brotherhood is here the Muslim Brotherhood is here and they want to impose Shariah law on the US.

Islamism is not a Monolith: Mandaville's Case for Engagement

Mandaville advocates that the US engage the nonviolent Islamists who constitute the overwhelming majority of the world's Islamists. Mandaville told the Senate that there is "a diverse universe of contemporary Islamic political thought and activism" and that "there are various manifestations of Islamism-violent and nonviolent. "Just as Islam cannot be said to be a monolith, the same goes for Islamism as an ideological project" he added. While other speakers such as Baran blamed violence unfairly but squarely on Islamism, Mandaville stated that there is "no definitive determination whether Islamism as a political ideology fosters or hinders violent extremism."

The testimony Mandaville gave before the Committee resonates with an article he wrote in CTC Sentinel published by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point entitled "Engaging Islamists in the West" June 2008 volume 1, issue. It is helpful to go back to that article to put his testimony in its proper context. Mandaville wrote:

"In recent years , US national security policy orthodoxy has deemed it too far "out of the box" to suggest that Islamist groups might have a role to play in countering terrorist threats. According to this reasoning, even if movements such as the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood or its affiliates in other countries have renounced violence or are not actively involved in fostering militancy, they still at some level, have common ideological foundations with groups such as al-Qaida."
Islamism and Violence: The Relationship Between Ideas and Behavior
In reality, the general tone and name of the session and the politics of its leadership indicate that the premise is that Islamism fosters violence.- that Islamism as an idea breeds violence. Mandaville responds: "While ideas are undoubtedly important, they will only drive an individual to act if articulated in terms that resonate with and seem to provide solutions that can address a person's own life circumstances and needs. In this regard I believe that the sociological and psychological contextualization of Islamist ideology holds the key to understanding the conditions under which it potentially poses a violent threat."

Slouching Towards a "Grievance Base"

Mandaville compares favorably the situation of American Muslims to British Muslims: "In the case of the UK, the experience of Muslims in that country as being a community subjected historically to discrimination and, more recently, singled out and defined in terms of the threat it potentially poses to security has provided a tangible basis on which to graft violent Islamist ideology. Heretofore, such a "grievance base" has been largely absent among Muslims in the United States. Should Muslims in this country begin to feel more markedly singled out and/or defined in terms of terrorism and threats to national security, the easier it may be for some among them to understand the worldview and vision of Islamic extremism as something that addresses their life circumstances." There is a real threat that with the extremists and bigots such as Daniel Pipes and Robert Spencer campaign of hate, along with government targeting of institutions run by Islamists or individuals sympathetic to Islamism, we are seeing, slowly but surely, the manufacturing of a "grievance base" were none has existed before.

American Islam: The House the Muslim Activist Built

It is naïve to think that institutions such as Muslim charities that are run by American Islamists or individuals sympathetic to Islamism can be targeted for selective prosecution/persecution with this action not contributing to the creation of a "grievance base" even among those who are Muslims in the most marginal and superficial sense. The real threat that Mandaville does not highlight is that an open season on the Islamists and those sympathetic to them will play out as a war on Islam itself in the United States. There is no doubt about this. It is a fact that individual Muslims in the US enjoy rights and freedoms just like every other citizen. However, by targeting the Islamists and those sympathetic to them in the US the government in effect is waging a war on the organized American Muslim presence. The segment of our population that is wantonly designated as the enemy is the force behind the institutions that make us (practicing Muslims, secular Muslims, lapsed Muslims, etc.) a community- the mosques, the centers, and the charities. The Rand Corporation has advocated government engagement of anyone but the Islamists: liberal Muslims, seculars, and the neo-Sufis. But these groups, as Mandaville points out have insignificant grassroots following, and worse, little credibility in the broad Muslim community. The activist Muslims, call them Islamists if you will, whether they belong to the Muslim Brotherhood or are sympathetic to its ideology, have built the institutions of the organized American Muslim presence. Therefore, irresponsibly and arrogantly tagging all American Islamists as the enemy within presents a real threat that the American institutional Muslim presence itself is at risk.

American Subjects Celebrating the 4th of July and the Promise of Equal Citizenship:

2009-07-02T19:47:00.002-04:00

In a few days we will be celebrating the 4th of July. Americans of all backgrounds, all religions and nationalities, celebrate the day of the birth of America as a nation. We will also be celebrating the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution, rights and freedoms that define America as a nation. These are promised to all American citizens. American history, however, shows that for many groups the enjoyment of these constitutional rights has been a struggle. The struggle of African Americans, for example, to overcome slavery and Jim Crow laws is the most powerful example of promises going unfulfilled without a prolonged and costly struggle. At this historical juncture, it is our turn to struggle to have our rights and freedoms respected by the government.

The Political Persecution of the Holy Land Foundation

We celebrate the 4th of July while we are the subjects of unfair treatment by the government. Many of our American Muslim charities have been shut: Holy Land Foundation, Global Relief Foundation, Benevolence International Foundation, and Help the Needy. Individuals of high moral caliber, such as the group that ran the Holy land Foundation, find themselves convicted and serving many years in prison on a flimsy legal theory of prosecution. Muslim charities are pursued ruthlessly while we see real spies for Israel receiving a slap on the wrist and our most infamous spy, Jonathan Pollard, receiving Israeli citizenship with the Israeli government treating him as a hero and lobbying for his release. Also, despite the fact that a number of Jewish organizations and other organizations are on the terror list, the bulk of law enforcement attention is focused on American Muslim organizations, especially the charities. When is the last time anyone was charged with supporting the Zionist fanatics of Kiryat Arba who have built a shrine to the terrorist and mass murderer Baruch Goldstein?

Through Our Enemies’ Eyes: Blanket Conviction of Muslim Charities

National security scholarship sees American Muslim charities as a threat to be eliminated. Michael Scheuer, a veteran CIA officer writes in Through Our Enemies’ Eyes:
“Islamic NGOs have been another source of funding, as well as a fairly easy and secure mechanism for invisibly transferring funds to Bin laden and other Islamist leaders. These organizations proliferated and matured during the Afghan war and are now found in virtually every location in the world where Muslims are at war, suffering, in refugee camps, where there are populations susceptible for conversion to Islam…Most Islamic NGOs are overwhelmingly occupied with humanitarian work…All are equipped, however, to knowingly or unknowingly, assist Bin Laden’s movement and other Islamists because they can provide employment, move and distribute funds and acquire legitimizing documents and work permits.” He adds “[T]he use of Islamic NGOs as conduits for funds and contraband, and as curtains behind which to hide illicit activities is an excellent example of how Bin Laden and other Islamists have manipulated the West’s legal system to their benefit.”

Muslim NGO Abiding by the Law Seen as a Disaster

The fact that the NGOs are law abiding is seen by Mr. Scheuer as a disaster: “Disastrously for Western countries, Islamic NGOs are largely immune from western police action because they are almost always legally registered, certifiably involved in humanitarian and charitable activities and affiliated with legitimate religious organizations. The use of Islamic NGOs as conduits for funds and contributions, and as curtain, behind which to hide illicit activities is an excellent example of how Bin Laden and other Islamists have manipulated the West’s legal system to their benefit.”

National Security Scholarship and Arabs and Muslims Americans: Subjects, not Citizens

Reading the scholarship on national security as it relates to Arab and Muslim Americans it becomes clear that these communities are not being thought of as communities of American citizens. Missing from the writing of individuals such as the 22-year CIA veteran Michael Scheuer and CIA veteran Marc Sageman are references to the rights of citizens, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, due process, free exercise, freedom of association- all these key democratic values are missing form their analyses. The government, which seems to be listening to these writers and implementing at least some of their ideas, needs to be reminded that Arab Americas and Muslim Americans are also citizens covered by the constitution and the promises of the Declaration of Independence. However, it is a big net being cast. The former attorney general John Ashcroft in Never Again (it is interesting that this is the same title as one of the late terrorist Meir Kahane’s books) writes: “The truth is, we don’t know how many people we caught who may have been involved in terrorist activity. But if they were involved in any criminal or immigration violations, we prosecuted them aggressively, incarcerated them, or sometimes expelled from the country, if we had that option.”

Recognizing Our Heroes: ACLU, ADC, CAIR

This Fourth of July, the Arab and Muslim communities should be celebrating groups that are fighting for the civil rights of Arab and Muslim Americans- fighting to have Arab and Muslim Americans treated as citizens and not as subjects. They are doing so by injecting into the national security debate the key democratic terms of Constitution, civil rights, civil liberties, free exercise, free association, chilling effect on exercise of rights; all terms that have been absent from the national security scholarship and seemingly forgotten by the government. Of these groups the American Arab anti Discrimination Committee (ADC), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) deserve special recognition. Recently the ACLU issued its report on American charities that highlighted the heavy price that government policy on Muslim charities has inflicted on the American Muslim community. ADC continues to fight for our rights locally and nationally. CAIR, despite enormous pressures, continues to educate on American Muslim issues and fight for the civil rights and liberties of American Muslims.

Joining, Donating or Simply Thanking

Let the Fourth of July be an occasion to recognize the vital work of the advocates that toil tirelessly to make this country what it promises to be. To show appreciation, you can engage in any and all of these constitutional rights’ affirming activities: joining, donating or simply saying thank you.

Happy Fourth of July ADC, ACLU and CAIR- and thank you.

Criminalizing the American Arab and Muslim Communities: Dressing Up Guilt by Association as "Terror Networks"

2009-06-09T13:19:00.005-04:00

The Biases and prejudices Guiding American National Security Research

Questioning the" National Security" Research and the Researchers?

Who is advising the US Government on the "War on Terror"? What is the logic behind the measures that have been inflicted on our community: massive wiretapping, delays in processing citizenship and other immigration applications, a massive "watch list," a large contingent of informers and agent provocateurs and the obsession with mosques and vocal activists and imams? The answer is usually given that the government is going by "guilt by association." Letters are written to the President and the Congress hoping to change this ugly reality. Community -law enforcement meetings are held to discuss the challenges/constitutional violations that law enforcement work is inflicting on Arab and Muslim Americans.

The Architects of the Guilt by Association: National Security Policies Drafters are the Domestic Policy Version of the Torture Memo Drafters

There is much truth to the summarizing of the problem we are facing as guilt by association. The blame is often placed on Congress and the President for the laws that enable law enforcement to engage in practices that civil libertarians correctly believe are anathema to the Constitutional rights of all American citizens. Blame is also often put on law enforcement agencies. While not exonerating law enforcement, there is a lot of blame that is not placed where it rightfully belongs- on the scholars that are engaged in national security research- research that is mostly done in secret thus escaping the vital peer review. The drafters of the national security research that criminalizes the whole Arab and Muslim American communities are as guilty as the drafters of the infamous torture memos that have resulted in lower level government agents engaging in torture such as waterboarding.

Underlying Theme of the National Security Research: Arab and Muslim Americans as Subjects and not as Citizens
Israel and Dictatorships as Models to Emulate

The architects of the law enforcement policies are to blame. Many of these architects are consultants and advisers who do research and then offer training seminars to law enforcement- this training allows the researchers to have great influence on how citizens experience the US government. These architects of national security policies are not the Congress, the President or law enforcement agencies. Much of the blame and the responsibility for the hardships inflicted on the Arab and Muslim communities should be placed on the national security researchers who have been treating Arab and Muslim Americans as subjects and not as citizens and copying law enforcement tactics from human rights violators such as Israel (as to its Arab citizens and the occupied Palestinians) and other authoritarian regimes.

Marc Sageman's Understanding Terror Networks: Old Wine in New Bottles- Classic Authoritarian Regime Methods Dressed up and fancied Up for Use on Arab and Muslim Americans

An example of the troubling research that criminalizes the whole American Arab and Muslim communities is Understanding Terror Networks by Marc Sageman. Mr. Sageman describes himself as "a former foreign service officer who was based in Islamabad from 1987 to 1989 where he worked closely with Afghanistan's mujahedin. He has advised various branches of the U.S. government in the war on terror." Mr. Sageman's advice has been described as ground breaking in its approach. Many of us in the Arab and Muslim communities have experienced the logic and methods that Mr. Sageman presents and I have heard many times American Muslims and Arabs complain that the US government is acting like Israel or some other authoritarian homeland they have left.. Sageman's logic and methods have been practiced by Israel and by authoritarian regimes in the whole world- regimes that do not have a constitution like the US has- a constitution that guarantees civil rights and civil liberties to all the country's citizens.
Mr. Sageman argues that the government should not go after the individual terrorist only but after a large circle of friends and aquaintances- he states: the "social bonds predated ideological commitment- it was these social networks that inspired alienated young Muslims to join the Jihad.” " Mounting an effective defense against future attacks is a thorough understanding of the networks that allow the new terrorism to proliferate." He adds:
"Social bonds play a more important role in the emergence of the global salafi Jihad than ideology. Friends and relatives of identified terrorists need to be pursued and investigated wherever they reside. Especially important are those who were friends of the terrorist just before he started acts in the furtherance of the Jihad, such as traveling to Afghanistan for training. These friends helped transform him from an alienated Muslim, into a dedicated global Salafi mujahid…Relatives,. Including in-laws, especially of converts, should not be overlooked in the process."
It's not only friends and relatives that come into the circle of suspicion that leads to investigation and monitoring, in order to criminalize the whole community, even acquaintances are thrown in the mix by Mr. Sageman:

"Peripheral social acquaintances were crucial to the process of joining the Jihad. These need to be identified and investigated as well, as they were the ones who made the introduction without these bridges, potential candidates would not have been able to join the jihad. These individuals will be more difficult to identify because they were part of the dense networks of the cliques. However, they are probably where the members of the clique found them, namely around the mosques that traditionally send potential candidates to Afghan training camps. These few mosques need to be closely monitored or shut down."

The Imam as an Informer

One imam complained to me about law enforcement always asking to meet with him to ask him about his congregants- this came to my mind when I read Sageman stating: "Imams of conservative or fundamentalist mosques who reject terrorism could be excellent sources of information on their congregants. They know which members of their congregations re relatives or former friends of suspected terrorists. Such persons can become intermediary agents who can probe the terrorist." The Imam who complained to me heads a masjid that is perceived as the farthest from being a "conservative or fundamentalist mosque."

Exposing the National Security Researchers: Biases, Prejudices, Premises, Assumptions and Conclusions

To fight back against the law enforcement policies that are abridging our civil rights and liberties it is not enough to lobby the three branches or governments, to educate the media or to have law enforcement agencies- community meetings. We need to pay attention to the architects of the discriminatory policies. Their research is done in secret but there is enough information publicly available about these scholars and their research agendas, and their consulting for law enforcement to question them. Only by challenging the premises and the conclusions, and exposing the biases and prejudices of these researchers, do we have a real hope of changing the reality we are dealt.

From Begin to Netanyahu: Can President Obama, like Carter Before him, Deliver the Promised Peace with the Zionist Entity?

2009-05-29T23:50:00.002-04:00

Netanyahu: a Chip off the Old Begin Block

President Clinton, after a frustrating meeting with prime minister Netanyahu exclaimed "that SOB does not want a deal." In his former term as prime minister, Netanyahu gave plenty rhetorical support for peace while doing everything possible to derail any progress from 1996 to 1999. Another American president had to deal with an Israeli prime minister who talks peace but does everything to derail it. President Carter described the terrorist- turned- prime minister of Israel, the late Menachem Begin, as "psychotic." President Carter was able to bring peace between Israel and Egypt despite Begin's tactics. Throughout the peacemaking efforts of President Carter, Begin threw obstacle after obstacle. President Sadat, knowing that Begin is stalling and trying to derail the process, gave in more than one time to Begin's demands in order to bring peace between Egypt and Israel. The fact that Sadat gave in to Begin's demands many times made Sadat seem like a bad negotiator that had conceded much to Israel. Sadat knowingly made these concessions to have an American brokered peace treaty that Begin clearly did not want.

Israel: Talking Peace, Making War

Despite the claims that Israel wants peace and the Arabs want to "throw the Jews in the sea," throughout most of the Arab-Israeli conflict it is Israel and the armed Zionist gangs that predated the creation of the state of Israel that have wanted and were able to go to war and the Arabs unable and not ready to go to war. Those who are knowledgeable about peace negotiations between Arabs and Israel know that Israel does not want peace with its Arab neighbors.

Netanyahu and Sabotaging American Peace Efforts: From Waiting for "Arab democracy to Take
Hold" to the Manufacture of the Iran" Threat"

Prime Minister Netanyahu, the record of peace making during the Clinton years shows, just like his spiritual father Begin, does not want peace. Before the invention of the "Iran threat," Netanyahu used to speak about the need to wait for democracy to take hold in Arab societies before Israel is asked to engage in peace with its neighbors. Netanyahu's fancy rhetoric was intended to veil the reality of Israel continuing to occupy and colonize Palestine. Now that certifiably free elections brought Hamas to power Netanyahu and the pro- Israel American fanatics are singing the tune of the "Iran threat." In his first meeting with President Obama, Netanyahu wanted to focus on the Iran threat that he and allegedly the Arab moderate states agree is a priority- despite the fact that even Egypt's president Mubarak has made it clear that the priority is pursuing peace with the Palestinians.

Obama calls Netanyahu's Bluff? Changing the Subject and Negotiating for the Sake of Negotiating

While the world speaks of a two- state solution in Palestine and the urgent need to freeze settlement activity, Netanyahu came to the US intending to change the subject of Palestine by speaking about the "existential threat" that a nuclear Iran poses to Israel. Netanyahu, to waste everyone's time while creating facts on the ground and launching wars against Lebanon and the Palestinians, wants to renegotiate everything anew regardless of the positions of former Israeli governments. Renegotiating from scratch is a tactic that Israeli governments religiously follow in order to keep on talking peace, while making war. It is a tactic that has sickened Syria's Assad, the father and the son.

Israel and the Manufacture of the Iran Threat: Forget Palestine, let's Talk Iran

One of the scandals of Arab politics is the presence on the agenda of the "Iran threat" and "the Shia threat." Israel is promoting the idea of the Iranian threat that Israel and the "moderate Arabs" are facing. While there are a number of real issues between the Arabs and Iran, the question of Palestine remains the main issue and the manufacture of the Iran threat is an attempt to demote the issue of Palestine from the number one spot on the agenda. The question of Palestine is being made a secondary item on the Arab public agenda and in the Arab public sphere. These efforts have largely failed because it is Israel who keeps bombing Arabs, keeps colonizing their lands and keeps creating and threatening to create more refugees. Is it Iran that is holding a siege on Gaza and starving it to the extent that tunnels are built to smuggle diapers and food items? Is it Iran that uprooted the Palestinian people and destroyed more than five hundred villages and created the tragedy of the 61 year old exile? Is it Iran that is passing a law that makes it a crime for the Palestinians who live in Israel to even observe the tragedy of the Nakba?

Obama and the Politics of Engagement: President Obama Can't Do It Alone

We need a grassroots effort to support President Obama. President George W. Bush used to say that he is sick and tired of hearing about the Arab Israeli conflict. President Bush wasted eight years with the US not only not pushing for peace but actively supporting the aggressor, occupier and colonizer of Arab lands with American taxpayer money and unlimited diplomatic and military support despite the damage to American interests this unlimited support is causing in the Arab and Muslim world. President Obama is good for Arabs and Muslims for a number of reasons- one of them is that he is knowledgeable on the issues. Obama is inching closer to engagement with America's adversaries, including Hamas and Hizbullah, without whom no peace can materialize. The policy of refusing to talk to them has only increased their credibility and popularity in the Arab and Muslim world. Both Hizbullah and Hamas have won democratic elections and will not be fading away as political forces in the foreseeable future. It is impossible to have a deal that has a chance of survival with either Lebanon or Palestine without Hizbullah and Hamas at the table. However, a reasonable American foreign policy will face resistance from a solidly pro- Israel Congress. On embarking on the serious tackling of the Arab-Israeli conflict, President Obama deserves the full support of the Arab and Muslim American communities.
　
　
　

American Muslims in the Mosque: God and the FBI are Watching You?

2009-05-29T23:45:00.001-04:00

　
God, for sure. The FBI, maybe.

FBI Director Robert Mueller testified before the Senate in February 2005 on the issue of the "war on terror" stating "Efforts by extremists to obtain training inside the U.S. is also an ongoing concern. Although there are multiple reports and ongoing investigations associated with the paramilitary training activities of suspected extremists nationwide, the majority of these cases involve small groups of like-minded individuals who are inspired by the jihadist rhetoric experienced in radical mosques or prison proselytizing." (my emphasis).

A Google search using "Detroit Muslims FBI" brings up a first page with 10 items, 9 of them negative. One of these items is "Detroit Muslim groups claim FBI coercion" which quoted Imad Hamad, regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, stating "We have worked extensively with the FBI and others in the past, and certainly we would provide any information of a national security concern. But the issue now is this: Will they treat us as partners, or suspects, or both? We want to know." The writer quotes John Miller of the FBI stating that the FBI does not "target mosques" and does not "send people out on fishing expeditions. We investigate people … and with probable cause to do so under the attorney general's guidelines." But what is" Jihadist rhetoric"? A "radical" mosque? that FBI director referred to in his testimony?

Evil Israel, Ungodly US Foreign Policy= Jihadist Rhetoric?

The reality is that a tiny group of Muslims have declared an armed struggle on the US and have based this intention on religious grounds. The list of grievances include support for Israel in its occupation and oppression of the Palestinians, support for undemocratic regimes in the Arab and Muslim world, among other claims. The overwhelming majority of Muslims and Arabs condemn the use of violence and/or terrorism against civilian targets. However, the overwhelming majority of Muslims and Arabs condemn the unlimited support that the US provides to Israel, in many instances in harsh rhetoric. Many of the grievances of the radicals and terrorists are seen by many in the Arab and Muslim world as legitimate grievances. This agreement on grievances, however, does not translate into agreement and acceptance of anything else that involves the terrorists. The US considers Hamas and the Hizbullah as terrorist organizations. The majority of Arabs and Muslims think Hizbullah and Hamas are legitimate resistance groups that deserve to be supported. Providing material support for Hizbullah or Hamas is a serious offense. However, sympathy or emotional support is not a crime. Is that how law enforcement sees it too? It is not unusual in the US for a foreign group to be seen as terrorist by the government but not by a visible ethnic group- the experience of the IRA and the Irish American community comes to mind.

The Metrics of a "Radical" Mosque- The Business of Counting Headscarves

What is a "radical" mosque? How do we know one? Is emotional or rhetorical support for Hizbullah and Hamas an indication of hostility to the US? Is a mosque whose attendees express solidarity with Gaza and even with Hamas a breeding ground for terrorists and therefore should be monitored, infiltrated and manipulated? If a board member once said "Islam is the answer and will one day become the dominant religion in the United States, God willing," does that make the mosque radical? Is hoping and praying that Islam will be the dominant faith in the US and in the world an indication of radicalism and hostility to the US? Radical anti Muslim advocates/Israel cheerleaders such as Daniel Pipes are trying to indoctrinate the public and law enforcement through their "research and advocacy" that wishing that Islam become the major faith of America present a clear and present danger. The underlying theme of the anti-Muslim advocacy is indirect Israel support by weakening the other side and painting it as the enemy within? Who is buying this? One self-described expert on American Muslims concluded that a mosque in Chicago is becoming "radical" because over time more of the female mosque goers were wearing head scarves!

Love Me, Hate My Terrorist Designee?

Loving Uncle Sam and Sayed Hassan
Law enforcement is a balancing act between constitutional protections of the individual and the need to provide security. The government has every right to protect its citizens from attacks, preferably stopping them before they materialize. However, Muslims have the right to free exercise of their faith and free association. Emotional and rhetorical support for groups the US deems terrorist should not be taken as evidence of hostility to the US. I recall speaking with an elderly woman from South Lebanon who asked me if I were a US citizen and recounted how proud she was to get her US citizenship. The old woman at the citizenship interview was asked if she would fight for the US and she told the interviewer that "she would hold a machine gun and shoot the enemies of the US." The officer laughed and granted her the citizenship, she told me. But minutes later this proud American citizens told me how she admires Hizbullah [a group the FBI called the A team of terrorism,] and Sayed Hassan Nasrallah for liberating the South from the Israeli occupation and restoring the dignity of the Southern Lebanese. I laughed when she made these seemingly contradictory statements but on second thought I realized that to her it makes sense. This woman loves the US for what it did for her, providing her with opportunities undreamt of in her native land. At the same time, she admires Sayed Nasrallah and Hizbullah for making it possible for her to visit her village freely without Israel and its mercenaries humiliating her and her children in the process. Also, the Israelis used to think that going into South Lebanon, Rambo style, bombing and occupying is a picnic. The Hizbullah, the fact is the sons and fathers of her family and fellow Southerners, made this "picnic" a nightmare. She has no complaint against the Hizbullah and probably right after she watches the fourth of July fireworks on Michigan Avenue and waives the American flag she performs her evening prayers and prays that" God protect the resistance and the Sayed." This is not cognitive dissonance- to this woman and many like her it makes perfect sense.
Would this woman or a similarly situated person incite violence against the US? If the people she goes to the mosque with hold the same values, is that a mosque that needs to be monitored or infiltrated? Is a preacher who calls the occupation of Iraq a crime a person who is teaching hostility to America and encouraging terrorist attacks on the US, therefore there is a need to dig through his immigration file for a pretext to deport him?

Hating America vs. Hating American Foreign Policy/Policies

American mosques are not teaching hostility to America, hostility to America's foreign policy as to Israel maybe but not to America. American mosques are not encouraging terrorist attacks on the US. American Muslims are strongly against US foreign policy- the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan and the US support for Israel. It is alarming to law enforcement that some of the rhetoric used by ordinary Muslim Americans is similar to that used by foreign terrorists/ sworn enemies of the US. While there is some logic for concern, it helps to remember that Timothy McVeigh made arguments about the federal government taking liberties and becoming a danger to the US citizenry and their existence. There is a major political party that has won elections making almost identical arguments about the government being too big and threatening constitutional freedoms.

The 61 Year Zionist Poisonous Tree & Its Fruit of Refugees, Discrimination and Apartheid

2009-05-04T21:18:00.002-04:00

In trying to create the state of Israel, the Zionists approached many international powers. They approached the much maligned Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid who soundly rebuffed them despite their offers of support and money that the Ottomans badly needed. The Zionists were also turned away by the German Kaiser who did not as much as offer the atheist Herzl a chance to speak about his project. The Palestinians rejected Zionist colonization all along but many neither believed that the Zionists actually had a shot at achieving a homeland in Palestine nor that they were capable of committing the atrocities, rape and massacres, the Zionist gangs committed in 1948. The Zionist project and the Zionist entity called Israel brought them nothing but death and destruction at a magnitude never foreseen. The fruit of the Zionist poisonous tree include rape and massacres, mass expulsions and millions of refugees, demolished villages, discrimination against the Palestinians who hold Israeli citizenship, a system of apartheid in the West Bank and a besieged ghetto in Gaza.

Benny Morris: No Rape, No Murder = No Jewish State in Palestine
No Omelet without Breaking Eggs

In an interview with Haaretz, historian Benny Morris, author of The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, speaks candidly about the war crimes committed by the Zionist gangs against the Palestinian population during the “War of Independence”- a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing using the tools of rape, murder and destruction. His conclusion is that there is no Jewish state without expulsion of Palestinians and no expulsion of Palestinians without war crimes. He states that examining the historical record he found “far more Israeli acts of massacre than I had previously thought. To my surprise, there also many cases of rape. In the months of April-May 1948, units of the Hagannah [the pre-state defense force that was the precursor of the IDF] were given operational orders that stated explicitly that they were to uproot the villagers, expel them and destroy the villages themselves.”

Rape and massacres were used to force the population to flee. Morris states that he found record of dozen cases of rape which he assumes, due to the nature of the crime, that this is “just the tip of the iceberg.” As to massacres, he found record of 24 massacres perpetrated in 1948, “[T]hat can’t be a chance. Apparently various officers, who took part in the Operation, understood that the expulsion order they received permitted them to do these deeds in order to encourage the population to take to the roads. The fact is that no one was punished for these acts of murder.”
Morris agrees with the violent uprooting of the Palestinians without which “a Jewish state would not have arisen here.” “You can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs. You have to dirty your hands.”

Morris faults Ben Gurion for not going far enough, for not ethnically cleansing the whole of Palestine to the Jordan River. He believes that if Ben Gurion did not get “cold feet” and “falter,” the Arabs would have been completely been removed from 1948 Palestine, the West Bank and Gaza. That would have brought a quieter and more stable Jewish state, Morris believes.

MK Jamal Zahalkeh: Lieberman is the True Face of Zionist Racism
Jamal Zahalkeh, a member of the Israeli Knesset and a head of the United Democratic Front spoke on the issue of Israeli racism in Durbin in an eloquent and succinct manner that summarized the history of the conflict. MK Zahalka stated: "The Palestinian people are victims of racist colonialism. Colonialism has to be defeated and not compromised with. Eradicating racism paves the way for a just peace and coexistence between the Arabs and Jews in our homeland.” He added “After the appointment of Avigdor Lieberman as foreign minister, the Israeli establishment is unable to cover up its racism. Lieberman is openly a racist and called for the execution of the Arab members of the Knesset. He called for dropping nuclear bombs on Gaza and the Aswan dam…He calls on the Palestinian citizens of Israel to declare loyalty to Israel as a Jewish state, that is to declare loyalty to Zionism as an ideology which means betraying themselves and their people. Lieberman immigrated to our homeland and he calls for us the natives of the homeland to declare loyalty to his racist ideology and he threatens to exile us from our homeland if we do not declare allegiance to his blatant racist ideology.”

Anti-Palestinian Racism and the Manufacture of Israeli Identity

According to MK Zahalkeh Israeli racism is a product of a colonialist project that would not have been possible without the manufacturing of anti- Palestinian racism. “This racism toward Arabs, along with the Hebrew language, and an imagined Jewish common history, was needed to form an Israeli identity. This project needed racism to justify ethnic cleansing and apartheid. Without ethnic cleansing and apartheid it would have been impossible to create a Jewish state in Palestine” he argued.

Benny Morris: Complete Palestinian Ethnic Cleansing, Not at this Moment

Lieberman is portrayed as a lunatic fringe racist, just like Meir Kahane used to be portrayed. However, about 60 % of Jewish citizens of Israel support the transfer of the Arab citizens of Israel. Ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians is at the core of the Zionist enterprise. Palestine was already populated by another people as the Zionist delegation that visited Palestine reported “the bride is beautiful but she is married to another man.” Benny Morris writes: “If the end of the story turns out to be a gloomy one for the Jews, it will be because Ben Gurion did not complete the transfer in 1948. Because he left a large and volatile demographic reserve in the West Bank and Gaza and within Israel itself. If you are asking me whether I support the transfer and expulsion o the Arabs from the West Bank and Gaza, and perhaps from Galilee and the Triangle, I say not at this oment. I am not willing to be a partner to that act. In the present circumstances it is neither moral nor realistic. The world would not allow it, the Arab world would not allow it, it would destroy the Jewish society from within.”

Their One State vs. Our One State

The Palestinians, led by the PLO, have always called for a democratic one state solution where Jews, Christian and Muslims are equal. What the Zionist/Jewish supremacist enterprise has produced so far is also a one state, a one state where the Palestinians living within the green line are treated as second- class citizens and the enemy within with about 60% of Jewish Israelis wanting them transferred; a system of apartheid in the West Bank; and a besieged ghetto in Gaza. This is the reality that Zionism has inflicted on Palestine so far. It could get worse. The Zionist project is awaiting the right moment to ethnically cleanse all historical Palestine. This is the ultimate goal of the Zionist movement.

Arab & Jew: The Myth of Ancient Mutual Hatred

2009-04-17T20:41:00.003-04:00

Rosenberg Awards Hamad Peacemaker Award

On April 14, Brenda Naomi Rosenberg, President of Pathways to Peace Foundation, presented Imad Hamad, the regional director of the American Arab anti Discrimination committee (ADC), with the Peacemaker Award. In a short statement presented at the award ceremony, Brenda stated: "Imad has done what others say is impossible. He has work[ed] to create understanding and bridge divides during event he more volatile times of conflict between the Jewish and Arab communities. At times being one of the few threads linking the communities. Imad works for the mutual benefits of all communities. He never puts hyphenated labels on people. He sees all people as human beings. Imad continuously speaks out for peace, reconciliation and justice. He has labored tirelessly, at great personal sacrifice, to ensure that not only Arab Americans but all Americans receive the full value of their civil liberties in an environment of peace and under the cloak of brotherhood. Imad creates tolerance and understanding in every interaction, his dedication, experience, expertise, communication style, and humanitarian vision are an asset and a gift not only to metro Detroit but to our country and the world. It is our honor and pleasure to present him with this award."

Vision for Coexistence
In their declaration for coexistence/vision for ending the Middle East conflict, among other things, Imad and Brenda affirmed: “Israel as a national Jewish State along side [sic] a national Palestinian State both independent and sovereign, committed to living in a safe, viable and secure homelands, both ensuring complete equality of social and political rights to all inhabitants irrespective of religions, race, or sex; guaranteeing freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture.”

The Myth of Ancient Animosities
It might seem odd that a Palestinian American is being presented an award by a Jewish, Zionist nevertheless, American. The big myth of the Arab- Israeli conflict is that Jews and Arabs have been fighting for centuries and the conflict is intractable and bound to continue to the end of time. Those who believe in this myth would think this recognition extraordinary.
Arabs and Jews have not been fighting for centuries as anyone with even a passing familiarity with the region's history would know. For those who don't know, there is a small book, a book that can be read in a matter of a few hours, that dispenses with this myth in an eloquent and readable manner. This book is Jerusalem 1913- The origins of the Arab-Israeli conflict by Amy Dockser Marcus. It’s a little book, 207 pages, but packs a lot of history.

Ottoman Palestine: Arab & Jew Living in Peace
Instead of focusing on Palestine under the British mandate, Marcus focuses on the Ottoman period."Why had little attention been paid to the earlier Ottoman era, when the two sides had lived in relative peace, when they had shared the same community and set of common experiences, when they saw themselves for better or worse as being part of the same group?" She adds, "[T]he Ottoman era seemed like the most obvious period to study if you were trying to trace the origins of the conflict that would play a key role in Israel's future. It was the last time the Arabs and the Jews had a shared, joint history, when the two sides lived together n relative peace." "Muslims and Jews were business partners in the various markets of the Old City. They lived in the same buildings; often Jews rented their homes from Muslim owners. When a Muslim pilgrim went to Mecca, Jewish neighbors came to visit upon his return to offer their congratulations. Families from different religions made loans to one another, or vouched for one another at the bank. " Palestine of 1913, she adds," was a place where Jews had always maintained a presence and where Muslims, Jews, and Christians mixed together, fought, competed, argued, and shared their lives. In telling the story of 1913, I have tried to see it through the eyes of its people, who were transformed by the events of that year and were forced for the first time to take sides."

European Jewish Nationalism:
Aspiring for Jewish Dominance: The Turning Point: 1913
Marcus writes "every conflict had a turning point, a moment when things could have gone a little differently, when choices were made or decisions postponed, and from this turning point emerged a cascade of consequences, a narrowing of further options, and the path that had led us to today. It seemed that 1913 held many of the answers to my efforts to understand what was happening in our own time in Israel and with the Arab-Israeli conflict." She adds "in 1913..that Zionist leader after Zionist leader stood up and argued that they must aspire to create both cultural and demographic dominance in Palestine."

Zionist Crimes: Changing the Place and the People

The legacy of the Zionist conquest of Palestine consists of two crimes: a crime against its people, their peaceful coexistence Jewish, Muslim and Christian; and a crime against the place. Theodore Herzl wrote to Jerusalem mayor Yusuf Khalidi on March 19, 1989: "As you yourself said, there is no military power behind the Jews. As a people, they have long lost the taste for war, they are a thoroughly pacific element, and fully content if left in peace. Therefore there is absolutely no reason to fear their immigration." Time proved otherwise as to the militant and violent Zionist colonizers. The crime against the Palestinian people is all the inequities and dispossession that the Palestinians endured because of the European Jewish nationalism and its striving, by any means necessary, to conquer the land and dispossess its people- shattering the social fabric that tied the people together as Marcus aptly describes. The second crime is changing a land that, in many ways, resembled the place described in the Bible. Jerusalem, just like the rest of Palestine, as early as 1898, remained beautiful and largely unchanged. Marcus writes:"From the vantage of a hilltop, Jerusalem in 1898 looked much the same as it had been described in the Bible. Its hills were dotted with cypress trees, shepherds still guided their flocks over the rocky terraces, and women carried water from walls in jugs balanced on top of their heads. As in ancient times, the ochre stone of the buildings turned to pink in the fading light. The purple and mauve mountains of Moab could be seen over the horizon in the distance, and at the corner of one's eye, the first hint of the Dead Sea's austere shoreline. It was hard not to be moved by its transcendent beauty."

From Timeless Beauty of the Biblical Landscape to Ugly Settlements and Besieged Ghettos
Raja Shehadeh in Palestinian Walks documents the crime done to the Palestinian landscape with the settlers who want an American suburban lifestyle in the land of the Bible. Their excessive and irresponsible use of the precious water resources is appalling given that even the German Kaiser Wilhelm II told Herzl in Jerusalem that "a hot country like Palestine would need huge sources of water." Huge sources that it does not have.
In its review of Shehadeh's book, the Economist wrote:
" IT IS something of an irony that a land whose timeless beauty has survived basically unchanged since biblical times is being transformed by a people who base their claim to it on biblical history. Ugly, ever-expanding Israeli settlements sprawl on the West Bank’s hilltops; great roads splice their way through its undulating, terraced hills; wildernesses have become national parks that are barred to Palestinians; and Arab villages that once blended organically into the landscape are little more than besieged ghettos.”

Vision for the Future-Restoring the Fabric?

Marcus harbors a fondness for Ottoman Palestine when Jews, Christians and Muslims lived in peace: "In trying to better understand these events, in attempting to show how intertwined the inhabitants of Palestine once were and how and why the social, cultural, and political fabric came undone, there is always the hope that we can see the present more clearly. I also share the quiet idea that in rethinking the past, it sometimes possible to rethink the future."

This peace was shattered by the fervor of militant and aggressive Zionism: "But in many ways, Herzl's visit in 1898 marked a kind of turning point. For all its problems, Ottoman control had been responsible for the longest peaceful period Jerusalem had known. Now the rise of nationalism was shrinking the shared traditions and communal space that had always been a central part of the fabric of the city."
While the two- state solution is the solution that most Israelis are willing to accept, Jerusalem 1913 provides evidence that the only real and equitable solution is the one state solution advocated by Edward Said and Raja Shehadeh- a solution that can recreate the Jerusalem where Jews, Christians and Muslims coexisted in peace.

Israeli Holy War on Gaza: Hamas Rockets, What Rockets?

2009-03-21T15:44:00.005-04:00

Jihad has become known in the popular culture as holy war. The propaganda has been that modern and Western Israel is facing a Jihad from the religious fanatics of Hamas and other Islamists who are driven by religious zeal.

It seems the Islamists have intellectual company in the Israeli army rabbis who are on a holy war against the Palestinians.

Cliff Churgin writes in an article entitled "Israeli Soldier says fights was religious- Army was told Palestinian Lives less Important, he says" published in the Detroit Free Press of March 21, 2009:

'Rabbis affiliated with the Israeli army urged troops heading into Gaza to reclaim what they said was God-given land and "get rid of the gentiles"- effectively turning the 22-day Israeli intervention into a religious war, according to the testimony of a soldier who fought in Gaza.'
'Literature passed out to soldiers by the army's rabbinate "had a clear message- we are the people of Israel, we came to the land of Israel, we came by a miracle to the land of Israel, now we need to struggle to get rid of the gentiles that are interfering with our conquest of the land," the soldier told a forum of Gaza veterans."

Needless to say, there was no mention in this religious literature of the rudimentary Hamas rockets that were allegedly the reason for the war on Gaza.

Where is the Outrage?Israel Continues to Block Gaza Humanitarian Aid

2009-03-21T15:04:00.001-04:00

So many voices have loudly protested the rudimentary Hamas rocket attacks from Gaza but very few voices are being heard condemning Israeli crimes in denying Gazan access to food and other necessities.

In "US Complains of Blocked Gaza Aid" Chares Levinson writes in the Wall Street Journal of March 13, 2009:

"The US has complained to Israel over the holdup of aid shipments to Gaza of items as basic as jam, toothpaste, and toilet paper, which US officials say are being frequently trapped amid an erratic decision-making process...On Thursday, Israel rejected a shipment of 960 boxes of tuna, canned meat, diapers, wet wipes, sterile gauze, blankets, and candles, along with 184 boxes of flashlights."

It is wrong for the Gazan to fire rockets indiscriminately at Israeli civilians. Is it not a violation of international law to block the Palestinians from receiving humanitarian aid? Where is the outrage? Are Palestinian lives not equal to Israeli lives in international law?

Years ago suicide bombing was talked about as the be all end all of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Recently, the firing of rockets from Gaza was dealt with as the be all end all of the conflict. This fixation on sporadic suicide bombing and rocket firing ignores the daily indignities and violations that Israel has been engaging in with impunity against the occupied and persecuted Palestinians.

A muted moral outrage to Israeli crimes and violations helps perpetuate the vicious cycle of conflict.

Fouad Ajami and the Iraqi Sunnis

2009-03-21T14:10:00.003-04:00

In "Obama's Afghan Struggle," Fouad Ajami writes in The Wall Street Journal of March 20, 2009 that:

"The [Iraqi region] Anbar turned only when the Sunni insurgents had grown convinced that the Americans were here to stay and that the alternative to accommodation with the Americans, and with the Baghdad government, is a sure and widespread Sunni defeat."

Interesting.
A political scientist who ignores political forces and focuses only on the military part of the equation. Ajami's analysis ignores three political factors:

1. The importance and success of Americans efforts for meaningful inclusion of the Sunnis in the Iraqi political process.

2. The American realization, despite efforts by the likes of Ajami to distract policy makers, that Shiite sectarian militias are just as dangerous to Iraq as the Al Qaeda terrorists.

3. The campaign to rid government ministries of Shiite fanatics who used the government's authority to persecute the Sunnis of Iraq.

If only the Shiite Ajami was not mistreated at one time and mocked in the Arab world for being of Persian descent. Maybe he would not have had a love fest in Baghdad with sectarian fanatics like al Hakim and his pro- Iranian gang. Perhaps he would have been less anti- Sunni in his analysis of the Middle East politics.

US State Department 2008 Israel Country Report: Israel Discriminates Against Its Arab Citizens

2009-03-21T12:24:00.001-04:00

It is often stated that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. Defenders of Israel point to "Arab Israelis" as evidence of the inclusiveness of Israel despite its having a Jewish identity. The US State department 2008 country report indicates that Israel discriminates against its Arab citizens, Palestinians who, for a number of reasons, stayed in what became in 1948 the State of Israel.

Arab Education: Separate and Unequal
There is a big gap in educational achievement between the Arab and the Jewish citizens of Israel. This is attributable to discrimination in educational opportunities. "Institutional, legal, and societal discrimination against Arabs" continued and the "government maintained unequal educational systems for Arab and Jewish students." The report adds "Academic institutions and advocacy groups have long charged that resources devoted to the education of Arab children were inferior to those devoted to Jewish children in the public education system. The State Comptroller's February 10 report on local governments noted that in the 28 Arab communities surveyed, there was a combined shortage of 1,082 classrooms in local schools."

Freedom of Religion: 20% Get 4%
There is also discrimination in state funding of religious groups. Non-Jewish groups, who comprise more than 20% of the population get only 4% of the government funds. "According to Israeli government numbers, "Religious minorities, which comprised slightly more than 20 percent of the population, received approximately 65 million NIS ($18.6 million), or just less than 4 percent of total funding."

Death to Arabs
The British soccer fans are known for acting violently after soccer games. In Israel, it is normal for the Jewish fans to chant "death to Arabs." The State department report states: "soccer fans from certain teams chanted "death to Arabs" and anti-Muslim slogans during games between Israeli Jewish and Arab teams." There is no indication that the government of Israel or the educational establishment is doing anything about this blatant death wish. We hear so much about the so-called "glamorizing martyrdom" in the Arab world but here the Jewish fans, on a regular basis, chant death to the Arabs. Given this death wish, the devastation in South Lebanon and Gaza is put in its proper context.

Harsh and Degrading Treatment of Foreign Nationals with Muslim or Arab Names:
ADC Concerns Validated

A number of Arab Americans have complained to the State department about mistreatment at Israel's border entry points. The American Arab Anti discrimination Committee (ADC) and the Arab American Institute have raised this issue with the State Department. It seems this mistreatment is not limited to Arab Americans. The report states " there were numerous reports of foreign nationals with Arab or Muslim names subjected to harsh and degrading treatment at border crossings. Diplomatic missions regularly protested such treatment regarding their nationals."

Arab Victims of Violent Attacks
One often hears in the media about Arabs attacking Jews but not the opposite. the report states: "According to press reports, "Jewish residents of Jerusalem perpetrated at least 20 violent assaults against Palestinian residents of Jerusalem during the year, most often using knives, clubs, and other weapons. Many of these attacks were reportedly premeditated."

Ala Sudorehem Baqoon: Im el Fahm lil Kenesset
The Palestinian citizens of Israel are seen as a threat and as a burden. One Palestinian candidate for member of Knesset from the Arab town of Im El Fahm campaign slogan was "we [Arab Israelis] stay on your chest [Israel], we will not budge." The report states: "On September 9, a number of Jewish local and district-level government leaders held a conference under the banner of the Renewing Zionism Movement in the Galilee town of Kfar Tavor, during which the leaders urged the need to "Judaize" the Galilee and warned of dire consequences if Jews lose their majority in the Galilee." There is strong support for expulsion of Arabs from Israel. The report states that " in a March poll commissioned by the Knesset television station, 75 percent of the Jewish public supported the transfer of at least some Arab Israelis as part of a peace deal with the Palestinians, including 28 percent who believed all Arab Israelis should be forcibly transferred." Israel has the dubious distinction in the world in blatantly discriminating on the grounds of characteristics protected by the UN declarations on Human Rights while at the same time claiming to be a moral entity and a democracy. The report adds:"During the year the Israel Land Fund NGO launched a program to purchase Arab land in the Galilee and market it at discounted rates to Jewish buyers by distributing flyers to synagogues throughout the region stating the time was ripe to redeem the "Land of Israel."

Employment Discrimination: 20 % Get 1 % Employment

The report states that "Arab Israelis continued to suffer various forms of discrimination in public and private life." There is clear evidence of discrimination in government employment: "As of December 2007, Arabs (including Druze and Circassians) filled 51 of 528 board seats of state-run companies. Of the 55,000 persons working in government companies, 1 percent were Arab."

Israeli Hubris

In summary, Israel discriminates against its Arab citizens in all possible ways. It talks loudly about the need to get rid of them and "redeem the land." It has divided their historical land Palestine and split and uprooted their families. Millions of relatives of Israeli Arab citizens continue to live in exile as refugees. Israel continues in its occupation of the West bank and has turned Gaza into a besieged and impoverished ghetto. It continues to occupy Lebanese and Syrian land. At the same time, in classic colonial hubris, it asks its Arab citizens to "prove their loyalty" and to support its wars of aggression and occupation against its Arab neighbors.

A Call for a Consistent US Foreign Policy

The US government is always pressing governments, especially in the Arab world, for better treatment of their minorities. It is time to be consistent by openly criticizing and pressuring Israel, a major recipient of US largesse, to treat its Arab citizens better. The aid given to Israel should be dependent on its treatment of its religious and ethnic minorities.

For the full report: http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2003/27929.htm

House Demolitions and Settlements: Israel's Version of Suicide Bombing

2009-03-09T17:11:00.003-04:00

Kamikaze, Tamil Tigers then Hamas

Suicide bombing is a vile tactic that has been used by myriad groups to advance their political agendas. The most famous users of this tactic were the Japanese pilots, the kamikazes "divine wind", who attacked allied ships and sank a number of them. More recently, the Tamil Tigers, neither Arab or Muslim, were the number one users of this tactic until the Palestinian group Hamas used it between 2001 and 2004 unleashing over 100 such attacks on Israeli civilians.

This tactic was callously and misguidedly supported at the time by a number of influential voices in the Arab and Muslim world. In the absence of the needed blanket condemnation of this tactic, over time, this tactic was used by Muslims and Arabs against each other resulting in the carnage seen in Iraq and Afghanistan.

How and Why Suicide Bombing Failed?

Suicide bombing as a Palestinian tactic failed miserably. It nearly decimated the Israeli left and center. It entrenched the Israeli right in power. Internationally, it diminished the moral standing of the Palestinians' claim to be the morally wronged people and the just cause. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who used to work in Israel lost their jobs. This tactic provided a pretext to Israel to use draconian measures against the Palestinians. One of these measures is the excessive use of checkpoints that makes the movement of people and goods take much longer time and expense- thus choking the already troubled Palestinians economy.

House Demolitions and Settlement Activity

The Israelis also utilize a morally reprehensible tactic that achieves the same results that suicide bombing does. This tactic is house demolitions and land confiscation/settlement activity. Just like suicide bombings' impact on the Israeli side, house demolitions and settlement activity strengthen the militants and weaken the moderates on the Palestinian side. House demolitions and settlement activity make a mockery of the peace process.

House Demolition as Ethnic Cleansing

To most people losing a home is the biggest financial disaster that can befall them. In the US one's insurance would pay for such a loss. There is no insurance that compensates Palestinians for the loss of demolished homes on the hands of Hurricane Israel; the inhabitants become homeless. The goal of the demolition is to make space for Jewish-only housing. The Palestinian are pushed into ever contracting ghettos of unemployment and poverty.

Settlement Activity

Settlements are built in the West bank to further alter its demographics and create facts on the ground that make the creation of a Palestinian state impossible. As to the lives of the Palestinians of the West Bank, settlement activity means more theft of their ancestral land and homes. Also, the settlers come filled with hubris, religious zeal and hate for the Palestinians- intent on making Palestinian lives harder by attacking them and stealing their crops in the name of a so-called Biblical title to the land. With new settlers, more Israeli soldiers arrive, more Israeli- only roads are built on stolen Palestinians land. The Palestinians have to take longer roads to go anywhere in their own towns.

US Reaction to Settlements and Demolitions

Clearly, both tactics suicide bombing and settlements activity/home demolitions, are equally abhorrent and clear violations of international law. However, while the US, justifiably, used clear language to condemn suicide bombing, the US has been coy in responding to the crimes of demolitions and settlement activity, while at the same time being the patron saint of Israel- providing it with relatively huge economic and military aid as well as shielding it from international censure and sanctions. The US, as a supporter of Israel, has to go beyond mere spineless diplomatic rhetoric of "unhelpful" and "counter productive." The same moral clarity that prevails in response to suicide bombings has to exist when the issue is settlements and house demolitions. The US can do more to change the reality for Israel and the Palestinians. In 1991 President Bush senior threatened to withhold guarantees on loans to Israel unless settlement activity stopped proving that the US has the ability to alter Israeli behavior if it wanted.

Will President Obama be more Like President Bush senior?

Only when the US deals with house demolitions and settlement activity with the same moral clarity it requires of Arabs and Muslims in reacting to suicide bombing is there be a real possibility of moving the peace process forward.

The Palestinians Will not Go the Way of the Phoenicians

The Palestinian issue will not go away. The Palestinians will not disappear in history with little historical record like the Phoenicians and other ancient peoples have. For most in the Arab and Muslim world the lack of democracy, the lack of bread and the lack of clean water do not spur violence . The Palestine issue is probably the only political issue that would get Arabs and Muslims from various backgrounds angry enough to want to fight. Naturally, Palestine is the most powerful recruitment tool for Islamic militants.

The Solution We Know

If President Obama does not hold the Israelis accountable for their settlement activity and duplicity toward the peace process, we are looking into a future of more bloodshed and groups that are perhaps more deadly than even Al-qaeda. We know how to deal with the conflict: Israel has to return to the armistice line of 1967. Jerusalem has to be divided and East Jerusalem made the capital of the Palestinians state. The Palestinian refugees must have the right of return recognized.

Respect = Palestine

President Obama promised to respect the Arab and Muslim world. Karen Hughes, President Bush's envoy to the Arab and Muslim world, on her listening tours asked about what issues of concern Arabs and Muslims have with the US. Unlike what the know nothings but loud enough to be heard say, Hughes found that "they don't hate our freedoms." Karen Hughes heard nothing about Britney Spears and The Advocate- what she kept hearing about is Palestine- the main thorn in the side of the US-Arab and US- Muslim relationship.

Hamas Hypocrisy: Screaming Crusade, Grubbing for "Crusader" Money

2009-03-02T23:06:00.004-05:00

Strange is the logic of the radical/militant Islamists of the Hamas variety.

They are too eager to embrace the inventions of the West- the West that they so despise and want to change with their own vision of an ideal society imposed on it. They are so quick to use the Internet and email- all inventions of the "corrupt West" that they want to reform.

Now the militants of Hamas, who day and night promote the bogus clash of civilization thesis, and claim that the West in engaging in a Crusade against Islam, are none but too eager to get their hands on European and American money, that is mainly Christian, money.

This duplicity and the gall is nauseating.

After stealing UNRWA supplies at gunpoint in Gaza, thuggery that UNRWA never experienced before even though the Palestinians ran an alphabet soup of factions of all sorts of ideological persuasion. Now Hamas wants the West to hand it its funds to it to spend as it sees fit- that is to reward its supporters and punish its opponents- taking credit for the funds that "it won to the Palestinian people."

The message of these radicals is this:

We hate and despise your way of life and your democracy and you are engaging in a Crusade against Islam and Muslims- but business is business- give us your money. And no thank you.

Saving Turkey from Its Old Self: More US, Less Europe

2009-02-26T02:55:00.002-05:00

Turkey needs to be saved from itself. It can be saved by having the United States as its model for a modern secular state, and not any European country.

The late visionary leader Mustapha Kemal Ataturk wanted to build a modern Turkey from the ashes of the collapsed empire. He looked West for a model of what a modern state looks like. He emulated the strict secularism of Europe.

Turkey has changed and many Turks are increasingly more observant. The harsh Turkish secularism has the state banning women wearing headscarves from college campuses. Contrast that with the US justice department suing a school district to enforce the right of a Muslim teenager to wear a headscarf to school. I was at the CAIR annual convention in DC a few month ago when representative Keith Ellison alluded to this rather odd reality.

The US Constitution first amendment establishment clause has been read to mandate a separation of state and religion- the free excercise clause guarantees freedom of worship.

Americans are more religious than Europeans. The American approach to religion in the public sphere is more sophisticated and nuanced than the European almost fundamentalist secular approach to religion in the public sphere.

For Turkey to save itself, it needs to reinvent itself and its secular creed by becoming more American and less European.

Lebanon and the Palestinian Refugees: Ill treatment Creates a Time Bomb?

2009-02-24T23:42:00.002-05:00

The scandalously ill treatment of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon continues unchecked. Despite all the emotional support for Gaza, the Palestinian situation in Lebanon continues to be miserable. The excuses given by the Lebanese political figures are the national consensus on rejection of naturalization of these refugees and protecting the right of return. Only politicians that are raised on pure sectarianism would accept these excuses as justification for violating human rights and norms of decency in dealing with the refugees.

The Syrian’s Brother is the Lebanese’s Threat
The late President of the Palestinian Authority Yasser Arafat was asked about the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and he responded that there are Palestinian refugees in the whole world, not only in Lebanon, and that when a solution is found to the refugee issue, those of Lebanon are first in line. Despite this assurance, the Lebanese sectarian regime continues in its criminal policy that continues to violate international norms and human decency in its treatment of the refugees. Only in Lebanon are the refugees so mistreated. Compare the ill treatment in Lebanon to the Syrian treatment. Syria, which the superficially Westernized/sectarian to the core Lebanese call all the names in the book, extends all rights to its refugees- except voting and citizenship. This is true to Syria’s longstanding commitment to Arab unity and solidarity. The Palestinian is treated as a brother and a cause and not as a burden and a threat. Incidentally the sectarian regime of Lebanon perceives the refugees the same way that Israel thinks of the Palestinians who hold Israeli citizenship- a burden and a threat.

Shooting Lebanon in the Foot
But this ill treatment in Lebanon is a misguided policy. It is a policy that is a threat to the stability of Lebanon. In a report issued on February 19 entitled “Nurturing Instability: Lebanon's Palestinian Refugee Camps,” the International Crisis Group (ICG) issued a warning to Lebanon about this ill treatment and provided recommendations to the government of Lebanon.

Deprivation Creates a Time Bomb
The ICG aptly describes the Palestinian refugees as a time bomb. “Marginalised, deprived of basic political and economic rights, trapped in the camps, bereft of realistic prospects, heavily armed and standing atop multiple fault lines – inter-Lebanese, inter-Palestinian and inter-Arab – the refugee population constitutes a time bomb. Until the Arab-Israeli conflict is resolved, a comprehensive approach is required that clarifies the Palestinians’ status, formally excludes their permanent settlement in Lebanon, significantly improves their living conditions and, through better Lebanese-Palestinian and inter-Palestinian coordination, enhances camp management.”

The Lebanese State’s Shameful Distinction
The ICG report spared no punches. “The Lebanese state distinguished itself by shameful treatment of its refugee population. Today, the refugee question is intricately related to Lebanon’s sectarian divisions. Palestinians are overwhelmingly Sunni Muslims and, as the prospect of any significant return of refugees – most of whom have never set foot in their former homeland – to Israel diminishes, fear has revived of their permanent settlement or naturalisation (tawtin) in Lebanon, which would affect the confessional balance. The Christian leadership in particular has played on such apprehension, deploying it as a tool to mobilise its base. In turn, successive governments have enacted measures to foreclose any such possibility, notably by ensuring that refugees live in extremely precarious conditions. Refugee camps are denied basic public services; Palestinians face severe employment restrictions; and, more recently, have been denied property rights.”

Denial of Property Rights
Recently the Al- Akhbar Lebanese newspaper, the only Lebanese paper that pays attention to Palestinian grievances and has been exposing the vile duplicity of love of Palestine and ill treatment of its refugees, had an article on the crisis of refugees unable to inherit the property left to them by their family members. The Palestinian refugees are not allowed to own real property. Even those refugees who hold the citizenship of a third country are not allowed to own real property in Lebanon. The descendants of a deceased Palestinian cannot inherit the real property of their deceased family members.

ICG Recommendations or International Complaints
The ICG issued a number of recommendations to the government of Lebanon. It urged it to:
“1. Adopt a law clearly defining and delimiting the notion of settlement/naturalisation (tawtin) that will
a) restrict tawtin to the acquisition of Lebanese citizenship and/or the right to vote; and
b) provide Palestinian refugees with all fundamental rights short of tawtin, including the right to work and to own property.”
It is doubtful that the confessional elite would heed the call of the ICG. Only action at international tribunals raising the issue of violations of international laws and norms has a hope of making any change to these policies.

When Hate and the F Word Can Lead to Prison

2009-02-07T20:47:00.001-05:00

The first amendment protects speech. However, this freedom has important limitations. A former State department official and an Arab American from Michigan learned about these limitations the hard way in 2008.

In "Ex-Diplomat Sentenced for Anti-Arab Threats," Carrie Johnson wrote in the Washington Post of July 12, 2008: 'A retired Foreign Service officer was sentenced yesterday to one year in prison for making threats against Arab American Institute President James Zogby and other employees there. W. Patrick Syring, 50, who served two tours in Beirut during his 25-year State Department career, pleaded guilty to violating civil rights laws. The charges stem from messages he left at AAI in the midst of the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah."The only good Arab is a dead Arab," Syring said in a profanity-laden July 2006 voice-mail message delivered to AAI, which promotes Arab American participation in elections and policy issues. After federal prosecutors in the District accused him of intimidating the workers based on their national origin, Syring sent an incendiary message to a television station where Zogby had been interviewed. In the March 2008 e-mail, Syring repeated some of the language from his phone call and accused Zogby of "promoting the interest of Hezbollah, Hamas and Arab terror."The move prompted the government to withdraw its initial plea offer of no prison time, according to court records. Earlier this year, after the latter incident, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly declared Syring in violation of the terms of his release and ordered him to report to the D.C. jail, where he has spent the last four months. Under the terms of yesterday's sentence, the Arlington resident also must perform 100 hours of community service and pay a $10,000 fine."There is no room in our society for the intolerance of other races or national origins, particularly by those who hold positions in the government," said U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor.'

Another person to get penalized for using hate speech is a member of the Dearborn community who was convicted for sending threatening e-mails to a Michigan blogger, Debbie Schlussel, a blogger deemed by the Muslim and Arab communities an anti- Arab anti-Muslim bigot. Schlussel has been using her blog to promote and defend, in a zeal tantamount to idol worship, Israel and its convicted and unconvicted spies, as well as to attack Arabs and Muslim, especially the activists in the community, using tactics and language reminiscent of the Nazis and the late terrorist Meir Kahane.

The two incriminating emails sent to Schlussel stated:
" HEY WHITE BITCH JEW. WE WILL KILL YOU. HEZBOLLAH IS AWESOME. WE WILL NEVER DIE BITCH. WERE GONNA BLOW YOU UP."
"FUCK YOU AND YOU WILL SOON BE RAPED AND WILL DIE"

These two emails got the sender in serious trouble.
The defendant pled to the charge of interference with a federally protected activity, 18USC 245 (b) (2) (c) that has a statutory maximum penalties of one year imprisonment and $ 100, 000 fine.

The elements of this offense are:

1. defendant used force or threat of force;
2. defendant willfully injured, intimidated, or interfered with a person, or attempted to do so
3. defendant acted because of the victim's religion; and
4. defendant acted because of the victim was engaged in the federally-protected right of enjoying employment by a private employer.
The plea agreement read "on or about August 22, 06 defendant sent two emails to a Jewish woman as part of her employment writes blogs and speaks on topics that include Arab American and Muslim affairs."

Israel’s Attack on Gaza: A War Crime Ab Initio, Continues

2009-01-25T20:21:00.002-05:00

All is fair in love and war, it is often stated.
But that’s not exactly true since there are laws regulating what an entity/individual can do nationally or internationally. Putting aside the issues of love, while it might seem like an oxymoron, there are actually laws for warfare. When these laws are violated, the violators can be charged by war crimes, arrested and brought before the International War Crimes in The Hague.

Slobodan Meets Tzipi
This International Criminal Court is real. Slobodan Milošević, the late President of Serbia, was arrested and tried before it for the war crimes committed against Bosnians and Croatians. Just likeMilošević, Israeli officials and officers, when they travel internationally, face the threat of being arrested and tried for war crimes. Recently, a Belgian court was petitioned to arrest Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni upon arrival in Brussels, Belgium for the war crimes in Gaza. Olmert and Barak are not immune either. The only safe place for the Israeli war crimes’ suspects is Israel because once they travel internationally they are exposed to possibility of arrest and being brought to The Hague.

Real Concern in Israel
Israel is concerned about the possibility of its political figures and soldiers facing arrest for war crimes when they travel abroad. Israel tries to deflect accusations of criminal behavior by alleging anti- Semitic motives for the accusers but this defense is a political defense that has worked with diplomacy and is not effective as to international law. The fact is that even Israeli human rights activists have charged the Israeli army with war crimes. Israeli human rights activists have set up an Internet site detailing war crimes committed by Israeli official and army officers.

“Arrest Order” for Barak, Drafted by Israeli Jews

Examples of these websites are, according to the Israeli paper Haaretz include “ www.wanted.org.il, includes "arrest orders," complete with pictures and personal details, for Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Livni, Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai, Public Security Minister Avi Dichter, National Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi and his two predecessors, Dan Halutz and Moshe Ya'alon, former air force commander Eliezer Shkedy and others.” Haaretz states: The "arrest order" for Barak, for instance, states: "On December 27, 2008, the suspect ordered an aerial assault on all of Gaza's population centers. The assault included hundreds of sorties by fighter jets that dropped hundreds of tons of bombs on residential areas of Gaza, which led to the deaths of 1,200 people - men, women and children. Some 5,300 people were wounded and hundreds of thousands became refugees. On December 10, 2008, a formal complaint was filed against Ehud Barak to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Holland ... on suspicion of war crimes and crimes against humanity because of the siege of Gaza."

Israel Prepares for International Criminal Lawsuits
There is no doubt that war crimes were committed by Israel in Gaza. No one knows this better than the government of Israel itself. In an action that brings to mind the Bible insight that the guilty run when nobody pursues, the government of Israel ratified a bill granting support to Israeli officers facing potential war crime lawsuits for the many war crimes in Gaza. Israel also has banned the disclosure of the names of the officers that participated in the Gaza slaughter to protect them from possible international arrest and prosecution.Prime Minister Ehud Olmert trying to calm the real fears of the Israeli officers who participated in the Gaza atrocities stated that “the commanders and soldiers who were sent to Gaza need to know that they are safe from various tribunals.” This is another Israeli lie. Israel cannot promise safety from tribunals, it can only promise to help defend its officers in case they are captured and prosecuted.

Israeli War Crimes
Of course, there were many war crimes committed during Israel’s attack on Gaza. This can be discerned from the instances of blocking of and or rationing food and medicine importation into Gaza, using excessive force, disregarding the law of proportionality (the military benefit has to outweigh the harm to civilians for an act of war to be proportionate and thus permitted in international law), using white phosphorous munitions in civilian areas, bombing the UNRWA compound (the USA is one of the biggest donors to UNRWA- that was American money that Israel burned in Gaza’s UNRWA storage), firing at medical personnel, bombing medical facilities such as clinics and storage facilities, bombing the only university in Gaza, the Islamic university, and bombing mosques and civilian residences.

Crime Begets Crime
The reality of it is that the whole Cast Lead operation is a war crime in and of itself and the subsequent war crimes that followed are logical consequences of this crime. The blockade that preceded the war as well as the operation are war crimes. In both instances, the blockade and the operation Cast Lead were targeting civilians. “Making Palestinians pay a price,” “convincing the Palestinians that they are a defeated people,” “reducing the motivation of the Palestinians to fight/fire [the primitive and inaccurate rockets],” is a war crime. A war crime could only produce other war crimes.

From the Start, a War Crime, Continues
The war crime against Gaza has not stopped with the end of the shooting war. Relief organizations are still complaining about the arbitrariness of the Israeli army in allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza. Israeli officials claim that choking Gaza is a tactic to keep the pressure on Hamas. But this is collective punishment of the Palestinians that denies civilians food and medicine. The war crimes have not stopped with the ceasefire. The war crimes continue in an albeit different form.

“Moral Army” Uses White Phosphorous on Noncombatants
Israel always wonders why it gets the critical attention of the international community. Israel itself is a creation of the international community. Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that the Israeli army is "the most moral army in the world.” Amnesty and Human Rights Watch have already documented the war crimes violations by the “moral army” of Israel, such as the use of white phosphorous munitions in civilian areas.

For more information on this subject see
http://www.btselem.org/English/index.asp
http://www.pchrgaza.org/
http://www.pchrgaza.org/
http://www.amnesty.org/en/gaza-crisis
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/01/12/israel-end-gaza-s-humanitarian-crisis-once

An Open Letter to the Lebanese Left

2009-01-20T16:17:00.002-05:00

In response to the Israeli attack on Gaza, throngs of Lebanese leftists tried to reach the US embassy in Okar to express solidarity with Gaza and to express outrage at US support for Israel.

These young men and women were very driven. Despite the Lebanese army measures, they persisted in trying to reach the embassy.

It's nice to have good feelings for the Palestinians. In Gaza.

The energy of these protesters in their Jeans , t -shirts and Keffiyashs is refreshing in the age of homogenization and greed.

It is always good to feel for the downtrodden.

But-

How about those Palestinians in Lebanon denied of so many of the basic human rights?

Instead of driving to Okar in their buses, these budding revolutionaries should have driven South to the Palestinian camps to see how their beloved Palestinians are living. Those refugees are Palestinians too but don't have the distinction of being bombed ruthlessly by Israel- for the moment.

Did the left hold any events to pressure the Lebanese sectarian system to budge on the issue?

Did they hold any sit ins saying enough with this scandal?

The Swisss citizen of Lebanese origin, Suha Bishara, has wondered why there is no effort made by the left to ameliorate the situation of the Palestinians in Lebanon.

Do the Palestinians have to be killing Israelis or being killed by Israelis so that they get solidarity from the enlightened Lebanese left?

And finally- A note from the United States to the Lebanese left:

Our Palestinians are doing well, how are your Palestinians doing?

Israel's Propagandists Lies About the Al Arabiya TV Reporter

2009-01-19T20:26:00.003-05:00

The first causality of war is truth.

There is a video of a Palestinian reporter for Al Arabiya TV, Hanan Al Masri, speaking on the phone and wondering about the strong noise that sounds as if a rocket is being fired from under the building.

Israel's shameless propagandists such as Debbie Schlussel flatly lie - Schlussel claims 'VIDEO: "Impartial" Al-Arabiya Reporter Laughs About HAMAS Missile Being Launched from Her Building'

As a native speaker of Arabic I understood what she said.

The Al Arabiya reporter stated:
"As if from under the building"
"It's noise is so strong."
"Are they [Hamas] launching rockets from under the building office!!!

The reporter seems shocked that Hamas would do such a thing. This is in fact evidence that the Palestinians were not firing from near civilian targets. If Hamas habitually fired from near civilian locations, then the reporter would not seem shocked they are firing from nearby her building.

The reporter is thinking aloud. She is not a specialist in warfare. She clearly states the noise is so strong as if a rocket is fired form under the building. She did not say that a rocket is launched from her building.

http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=JY50cktUKbA

Is Mahr Enforceable in a Court of Law?

2009-01-17T10:50:00.002-05:00

Love Struck

When I was in law school in Toledo, one of my classmates told me that when he married his Palestinian wife, on the wedding eve, the father of the bride made him sign a paper saying that he owes his wife $100,000 in the event of a divorce. The love struck young man was reluctant to sign it but could not protest given that that would have caused a lot of problems (a possible bridezilla outbreak?). He told me that now he knows that that paper has no value as a contract since if it did meet all the requirements of a valid contract as set by Ohio law and was executed under duress.

It does not have to be this way.

What is Mahr? It’s easy to say what it is not-
It is not dower, not dowry and not bride price.
Mahr is frequently misunderstood as dowry. It is not. It is not a bride’s price, and not dower. Dowry is assets (goods, money and real estate) that a wife brings to her new husband- it’s a common practice in India. It becomes the husband’s property. Bride price is money that is given to the parents of the bride to marry their daughter. Dower is the wife’s interest in the property of the husband.
Mahr clearly is not bride price, dower or dowry.

Simply put Mahr is, in essence, a gift from the man to the bride. There is no valid Islamic marriage without a stated Mahr which can be upfront and/ or deferred. The Mahr is an intinsic element of the religious marriage agreement.

Most of the time it’s money but could be real estate or other things of value. It can be paid upfront or deferred upon the event of the dissolution of the marriage. If the wife asks for a divorce, and the husband is not at fault, then the wife is usually required by Islamic law to return the Mahr to her husband.
Mahr is not an Ante-nuptial Agreement
Mahr agreement has been compared to a pre nuptial agreement. It is not a pre- nuptial agreement and courts applying the standards and requirements for a valid pre- nuptial agreement are bound to erroneously invalidate a Mahr agreement.
A pre- nuptial agreement, unlike a standard contract, has a lot of requirements that are determined by state law such as that there is full disclosure of the assets of the parties and that the parties had the opportunity to seek legal counsel. This is a very high standard to meet. A pre-nuptial agreement is a mechanism to resolve the financial issues of the parties in case of a divorce. This is not the purpose of the Mahr agreement.
The Mahr agreement, by its very nature, is not an ante-nuptial agreement.
It’s more accurate to understand the Mahr agreement as a regular contract between adults.
Can Mahr be Devised As a Valid Contract?
If the requirements of a valid contract as defined by state law are met, then there is a strong likelihood of the Mahr agreement being upheld in the court. The common defenses against the enforcement of a contact, such as duress, should be kept in mind when drafting and executing a Mahr contract. If it looks like any other valid contract then the allegations that it is simply a matrimonial action, a religious ceremony or religious agreement, should not be recognized as changing the nature of the Mahr as a contract under state law regardless if it is part of a religious ceremony.
Institutional Response Needed
What needs to be done is an institutional response to the dilemma of Islamic issues arising in the context of the American legal system. Legal documents and strategies should be developed to become standard templates to be used by parties agreeing on Islamic matters such as the Mahr.

Bizarre Linkage

2009-01-13T22:50:00.003-05:00

The Palestinians in Gaza are getting a lot of sympathy from the whole world- except Israel and its blind supporters.

But much of this support is rhetorical, as has been the case for many years.

You would think this sympathy for the Palestinians would translate into a momentum for decent treatment of the Palestinians in some Arab countries.

No chance.

In a meeting with the Lebanese officials, the old revolutionary Nayef Hawatmeh of the Democratic Front was told that the Palestinian refugees' basic human and civil rights will be examined when the issue of the weapons of the pro-Syria militias outside the camps is resolved!

How the two issues are linked is one of the bizarre riddles of Lebanese sectarian and tribal politics.

"Funny" Gaza News

2009-01-06T16:37:00.002-05:00

It's really amazing to see and read the commentary on the war on Gaza.

It's completely one-sided. Not that this is new when it comes to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

But with the war on Gaza and the massive destruction and human suffering of the Palestinian people, it's not even funny how one -sided the media covrage is now.

It's funny, how of all the news media, only fake news would present both sides in a way fair to the Palestinians.

The mainstream media frames the war as a Israeli response to the rocket attacks of Hamas when the truth is that there is much more to the story. The snapshot of rocket attack and response to it is a grave misrepresentation of the conflict.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/index.jhtml?episodeId=213378

From Gaza to Beirut: All not Well With Palestine

2009-01-04T01:08:00.004-05:00

It's heartening to see the world sympathize with Gaza.

Gaza is the underdog.
Gaza is the "third world country" fighting a Western colonial nuclear superpower. Gaza is the victim of collective punishment and way disproportionate response of Israel to the ineffective and futile missiles of Hamas.

Gaza is clearly the victim of war crimes.
Human beings are made in the image of God- that is true for Gazans as well as Israelis. Israel is acting as if only Israelis are created in the image of God. 485 Palestinians have been slaughtered- 4 Israelis died in the Hamas missile attacks.

Gaza is besieged, outgunned, bombed ruthlessly. The goal of Israel is to break the will of Gaza to fight.

Good luck. No, no good luck.

But Gaza is not the only place were Palestinians are suffering.

In many Arab countries they are suffering as well. No one has forgotten that Nahr al Bared was destroyed due to a murdereous gang having taken it hostage. Until now the Al bared's refugees are refugees in other camps.

Life for the refugees is made miserable by Lebanese laws that discriminate against them and deny them the most basic of human rights- mainly economic rights and civil rights.

The camps are miserable places of poverty and hopelessness. It is simply a crime against humanity to treat human beings the way the Palestinians are treated in Lebanon. This reality is only made uglier when the pretext is said to be the delicate mythical sectarian balance that the overwhelmingly Sunni refugees would allegedly distort by being able to work and feed their children instead of living on international handouts.

Mind you human rights organizations have been asking Lebanon for a floor of rights and not the ceiling of citizenship. The refugees themselves do not want citizenship neither.

Let this love of Gaza and sympathy to the plight of the refugees and residents of Gaza translate into momentum for decent treatment of the Palestinian refugees in all the Arab and Muslim world- especially in the worst offending state of Lebanon. There is no justification for waving the Palestinian flag and shedding tears when these countries' and their citizens have their own refugees that are treated very poorly.

Becoming a Religious Extremist in the United States, Embracing Moderation in Saudi Arabia

2008-12-31T12:44:00.000-05:00

On Al Arabiya website there is an interview with a TV show host, Ahmad Al Shoukairy who recalled his extremism in the US being changed to moderate religiosity in Saudi Arabia.
He came to study in the United States and was not religious. He became religious in the United States and started praying in 1994.
He told the interviewer: "my religion started extreme...I used to argue with my mom and raise my voice because she trimmed her brows[ ultra conservatives think trimming brows is haram].” He said his religiosity began in the United States.
He abandoned extremism in Saudi Arabia. When he went back to Saudi Arabia, an Imam, Shaykh Adnan Al Zahrani, changed him and made him understand that” religion is not as narrow as he thought and there are other opinions.”

وتحدث الشقيري عن بعض نواحي حياته الشخصية المبكرة، معترفا أن "لحيته في مرحلة ما كانت طويلة"، مشيرا إلى أنه كان شديد البعد عن الدين ولم يكن يصلي، وفي عام 1994 بدأ الصلاة "ولكن بدأ تديني متطرفا.. أتشاجر مع أمي وأرفع صوتي عليها من أجل نتف الحواجب"، كما يقول.وقال إن تدينه بدأ عندما كان يدرس في أمريكا، وبعد عودته إلى السعودية تلقى دروسا عند الشيخ عدنان الزهراني، وهي التي غيرته كما يقول، حيث "استوعب أن الدين واسع وهناك آراء أخرى".http://www.alarabiya.net/save_print.php?print=1&cont_id=63215

From Southfield With Hate: Barbaric Attack not Enough, Michigan Attorney Calls Palestinians Cancer and Calls for Ethnic Cleansing of Gaza

2008-12-29T18:30:00.004-05:00

The world is shocked at the barbarity of the Israeli attacks on Gaza.
There is no courage or honor in unleashing a huge killing machine on the besieged and almost defenseless Gazans.

But Israel does it any way.

The worshippers of hate and mayhem are never satisfied. It's not enough to besiege and murder in cold blood. To the lunatic fringe of Israel supporters, this is not enough. The Palestinians are dehumanized and called a cancer that Israel needs to exterminate. To the hateful faithful it is not enough to bomb Gaza, Gaza needs to be ethnically cleansed as well. The Arabs of Gaza are a "cancer."

Mission accomplished Meir Kahane- your American disciples are marching on.

When I read the hateful rhetoric of blogger Debbie Schlussel, the image of the five dead Palestinian young sisters killed by Israel "precision bombs" came to my mind. The image of the five dead sisters was broadcast and rebroadcast in the Arab media to advertise the human cost of Israel safety for South Israel operation.

If only these kids could be alive to face Debbie Schlussel, a woman living in the safety and comfort of the United States, and ask her what they have done to her to be called a cancer that needs to be exterminated by ethnic cleansing. Their spirits must be wondering why this American woman is so tribal in the worst sense of the word that she is dancing over their graves and asking for more.

The Michigan openly hater in chief, wrote on the 28th of December:

"If Israel really meant business, it would have invaded and attacked Gaza long ago. Or rather, it would never have pulled out of there in the first place. It would have expelled the Gazans to Arab countries, the way the residents of Sderot's parents--who are once again under attack by Muslims--were kicked out by those countries. All of these things would have saved Israeli lives. But that's not what this is about.
You do not kill cancer by occasionally going through chemo or radiation when you want to look good at a Bar Mitzvah, after the metastasis is already happening. You kill cancer through regular treatment of the attacking cells, not by self-amputating your arm and leaving the cancer cells to fester on the remaining stump. That is what this ephemeral "war" on Gaza/HAMAS is. Nothing more."

This is pathetic in its hate and is reminiscent of the late terrrorist Meir Kahane's rhetoric.

But what is really nauseating is that the mainstream media has been recognizing this hateful bigot and responding to her campaign of open hate as evidenced by the email exchanges with the Free Press she posted on her blog.

Gaza: David vs. Goliath

2008-12-27T22:32:00.003-05:00

Israel has unleashed its massive war machine on Gaza. After years of keeping the Gazans prisoners in the Gazan big prison, the Israelis are flexing their muscles on the impoverished and virtually defenseless Gazans. Israel is promising the Gazans more death and destruction.

The Arab and Muslim world is not amused. There is, predictably, more hate and outrage directed at Israel, the moderate Arab governments and at the West.

It's a classic David vs. Goliath. And Israel is Goliath with all the might, fury and lack of balance.

Israel is using excessive force to deal witht the Hamas group. Israel is flounting all international norms of decent behavior. The siege of Gaza resulted in massive human suffering for civilians- imposing on them collective punishment that only radicalizes them. Stopping shipments of food and medicine in no way harms Hamas. It is ordinary Gazans who are starved, denied medicine, and bombed by the most powerful military and the only nuclear power in the Middle East.

Watching the Arab media and hearing the reactions of the Arab public, one clearly sees the immense harm Israel is dealing to the cause of peace by its savage war on Gaza. It is inflaming the Arab and Muslim publics and drowning the voices of peace and moderation in the Arab and Muslim world. It will only be a matter of days before the radicals and terrorists use the Gaza images as promotional material for their hate and terror campaigns

Brothers in Misery: Muslim and Jewish Charities

2008-12-27T22:25:00.002-05:00

2007 has not been a good year for charities. With the economic downturns, charities across the board are getting hit with decreasing donations.

Two types of charities stand out for losses- American Muslim and American Jewish charities. They both end the year with major losses.

Granted, Muslim charity pales in comparison to Jewish charity. Jewish charity totals in the billions, the combined budged of all Muslim NGOs and charities is probably less than 50 million dollars. All the big deal made about American Muslim charities misrepresents the reality of their being bit players in the charity business.

But despite being bit players, they brought the best in people- their small budgets made a huge difference in Gaza, Pakistan and Afghanistan where a dollar goes a long way. I have seen the Muslim working poor giving a single dollar and 5 dollar bill to help alleviate suffering overseas.

Unfortunately, this hard earned money got either frozen or got subjected to unrelated lawsuits- or spent on attorneys defending these NGOs from an assortment of charges. A number of charities got raided, prosecuted, among other legal problems.

Despite that, American Muslims kept giving and giving. Some, who never gave before the wave of prosecutions, asserted their faith, defiance and identity by giving.

Muslim charitable giving continued unabated.

Jewish charities end the year on a sour note.

In the Wall Street Journal of December 26, 08, Lucette Lagnado writes in “When Big Spenders Fail, Who Will Save Jewish Charity?” about the impact of the Bernie Madoff scandal on Jewish charities. She writes:

“The pain is being felt especially intensely in philanthropic circles, which may never fully recover. Some Jewish nonprofits- such as the Robert Lappin Foundation, which tried to enhance Jewish identity among the young; the Picower Foundation, which funded asserted Jewish medical and cultural causes; and the Chais Family Foundation, which promoted, among other endeavors, educational excellence in Israel- have shut down. Several large institutions, Hadassah and the American Jewish Congress among them, have been seriously wondered. Then there is the blow to the community’s sense of self- the confidence and prosperity that enabled it to build magnificence houses of worship Jewish day schools that rivaled the finest secular ones and, more recently, charities with impressively large endowments. "

Lagnado hopes that the tradition of more numerous small giving will return. I have no doubt that it will.

The millions lost by Muslim charities and the billions lost by Jewish charities are a true loss of hope to the most needy. Despite these challenges, giving will continue. Neither massive fraud nor prosecutions will stop people from giving. It’s an American, Jewish and Muslim tradition to help the less fortunate.

Afghanistan War

2008-12-26T09:50:00.002-05:00

Charile Wilson's War the book by George Crile should be a must read. The movie version is excellent.

An interview with the author is below.

http://www.pritzkermilitarylibrary.org/events/2005-10-06-georgeCrile.jsp

Mutaa and Other Nontraditional Islamic Marriages

2008-12-14T11:30:00.002-05:00

The Mutaa, Misyar, and Urfi marriages are becoming more common arrangements in the Muslim world. These arrangements pose legal and social challenges that different societies are developing different strategies to cope with. I am not aware of studies that examine these forms practice in the United States. There is anecdotal evidence that they are being practiced. In Sex and Reason, Judge Richard Posner mentioned in passing Islamic practices such as the Mutaa and polygamous marriages and I am not aware of extensive legal studies of Muslim practices in America.

While I am not aware of legal cases making arguments for the validity of these arrangements as marriages in a court of law, it does not seem that any of them would qualify as marriages in the common American law understanding of a legal marriage.
Family law is a matter of state law. This is a reason cousins can marry each other in some states but not in others. The age of consent for sexual activity and marriage is different to from state to state as well.

Valid Marriage
The general rule is that a marriage which is valid where it was held is valid everywhere. If an immigrant from Yemen or Poland comes to live in the US, they don't have to marry their spouse again. The exception to this rule is if the marriage is against public policy then it would not be recognized. An example is someone's marriage to an 11 year old child. Such a marriage would probably be held invalid in all the states.
In the Muslim world, three forms of marriage, the Mutaa/pleasure or temporary marriage [an excellent book on the subject is Shahla Haeri's Law of Desire], Misyar/traveler's marriage, and Urfi/unregistered marriage.

A Tripod of Unconventional Marriages
Mutaa marriage is a marriage that is recognized by the Shia Muslims only- it requires no witnesses and has a set expiration date. The nontraditional marriages recognized by Sunni scholars include the Misyar and the Urfi which unlike the Mutaa marriage require witnesses and have no set expiration date. In a Misyar/travelers marriage as the name hints, the couple travels to meet each other and do not live with each other as husbands and wives usually do. Additionally, a Misyar husband is not required to support his fellow traveler wife.

URFI Marriage
An Urfi marriage, on the other hand, is a marriage that is witnessed by two witnesses and has no expiry but is unregistered with the state and thus not declared to the world. An Urfi marriage is officiated by a clergy and a copy of the marriage contract is given to both parties but not registered with the state. The relationship is usually kept secret due to family resistance or the presence of another wife whom the husband wishes to keep in the dark.

Least Common Denominator: Women's Fewer Rights, Fewer Protections
From an Islamic law viewpoint, what the three forms of marriage have in common is one important thing - the three of them provide fewer rights and protections to the wives and any children born into the arrangement than an ordinary Muslim marriage do. From an American law standpoint, these three marriage forms lack critical requirements of a valid marriage. The Mutaa has an expiration date and no witnesses. It is usually done in secret. For these reasons it has no chance whatsoever for qualifying as an American legal marriage- not even a common law one. The second form, the Misyar, is trickier. The couple has no intention of living together as husband and wife or supporting each other financially/ provides maintenance. Urfi is undocumented and usually secret. In an Urfi marriage there is the living together element, support, and permanence element but it is kept secret and unregistered. It would not be deemed as common law marriage in states that recognize common law marriage since Urfi is intentionally unregistered marriage to keep knowledge of it from the world. Common law marriage requires that the couple act as husband and wife in public and present themselves as husband and wife. In Urfi marriage the intent behind not registering it is hiding it from the world

TPS for Iraq

2008-12-13T21:55:00.003-05:00

In an article in the Free press by Niraj Warikoo, "Top Chaldean says US efforts in Iraq fall short- people need better security," Iraqi Cardinal Delly states: "The occupying powers could do a lot more to help bring about peace, reconciliation and security,""We are puzzled as to why they have not done more to bring about peace and security in Iraq." Cardinal Delly described the post invasion reality in Iraq as "The absolute worst time that I've seen in my life has been the last five years." He added that "There is a complete breakdown of security and "that about 40% of Iraq's 1.25 million Christians have fled the country during the past five years, but he said that Christianity will continue to survive in Iraq.

Cardinal Delly said "there is no official persecution" from the Iraqi government, but that the attacks against Christians come from "individuals in the country who are antagonistic."
A number of Iraqis who applied for asylum after the 2003 invasion were denied asylum. To qualify for asylum, an individual has to show that they have a subjective fear of persecution that is reasonable that makes them unwilling to go back to the country of habitual residence. The persecution has to be on the basis of a protected status such as religion, race, national origin, or political opinion. A number of Iraqis have had their asylum denied because immigration judges have found that while there are random acts of violence in Iraq, the applicants for asylum have not been able to show that they are singled out for persecution. A number of immigration judges have not been giving weight to the fact that the government is unwilling or able to protect Iraqis.

I recall one case I had in the post- invasion period, at the height of the unrest and chaos. My client was a Chaldean who came to the US as a child. The judge, who is not on the bench anymore, denied him asylum. After the trial, off the record, I told the judge, who has been always nice, that my client is sent to die in Iraq. The judge got angry and told me about a soldier he knows that was shot in Iraq and is now paralyzed. I was taken aback by the judge's response. basically, the judge was saying if an American is going to be paralyzed in Iraq, he would not feel for an Iraqi going back there.

US invasion of Iraq, regardless of whether it was a good idea or bad idea at the time, has brought a lot of pain and suffering to millions of Iraqis. It is not totally the fault of the US government- the terrorists, the sectarian fanatics, the small Iraqi politicians who are unable to rise to the occasion are all to blame.

It's not Obama's war. The US as a country has an obligation to the Iraqis.

Millions have fled their country seeking safety in neighboring countries. We should do more to help the Iraqis. The asylum route is not the most efficient way of dealing with the Iraqis. The asylum process has been inconsistent in dealing with asylum applications across the board. Research on immigration courts have determined that the odds of winning or losing an asylum case is largely a function of the immigration court location. A better way to deal with Iraq is to grant Iraqis Temporary Protected Status (TPS).

Cardinal Delly wisely noted that "Even an earthworm, when somebody tries to touch it, shrivels, sensing danger. So, it is normal for an intelligent human being to protect himself when there is danger around. This is a natural thing that the good Lord instilled in all of us to try and protect all creatures." Iraqis should not be forced to go back to a country that is in the situation Cardinal Delly aptly described. Iraqis deserve TPS status.

CAIR: Unequivocal Condemnation of Terror and Clear Support for American Muslim Integration

2008-11-30T10:29:00.002-05:00

Terror has struck India and the suspects seem to be radical and violent Islamists. In response to the terror attacks, CAIR executive director, Nihad Awad, stated in CAIR's press release: “We condemn these cowardly attacks and demand that all hostages taken by the attackers be released immediately and unconditionally. We offer sincere condolences to the loved ones of those killed or injured in these senseless and inexcusable acts of violence against innocent civilians. American Muslims stand with our fellow citizens of all faiths in repudiating acts of terror wherever they take place and whomever they target.”

This is a clear and unequivocal condemnation of terror that reminded me of a conversation with a former longtime FBI agent. The former agent told me that the people at CAIR "don't get it.," they condemn terror and in the same press release they mention political issues or disputes and link the two together. He added that this linkage in the context of condemnation gives the impression that they are not sincere in their condemnation and gives the appearance that they are somehow justifying the terror act. I disagreed with the man because I give CAIR the benefit of the doubt but I sensed that he was sincere in his critique of CAIR. The press release on the India terror attack leaves no room for speculation on where CAIR stands on the issue of terror.
This might not pacify its many enemies but it does help their friends defend them.

Another criticism of CAIR has been that they are a civil rights group that does too much foreign policy and not enough domestic policy. CAIR is also sending a clear message on that as well. On the 23rd of November CAIR held its annual banquet in Arlington, Virginia. The emphasis of the event was on American politics. The theme of political engagement was hard to miss. Speakers emphasized the need to engage the American society at large and get involved in the political process. Debbie Almontaser, a guest speaker demonized by the anti Muslim bigots spoke of the support she received from her" Muslim, Christian and Jewish brothers."

It is clear that CAIR is pushing hard the theme of engagement and integration . This is important because a community that is politically engaged is not a marginal community ripe for radicalization. It's important when these themes are heard from individuals like Nihad Awad, a man who is trusted and liked by the grassroots supporters of CAIR and by Muslims overseas. Awad stated that "America is not the enemy of Islam and the Muslim world is not the enemy of America." This is a message that is diametrically opposed to what the hate mongers in the US and abroad are selling. The US government has been repeating what Mr. Awad said albeit the government did it unconvincingly as far as the Muslim world is concerned. It means a lot to the Muslim world when this message comes from Nihad Awad himself. CAIR was, as result of a political witch hunt, listed, in addition to a long list of who's who in Islamic advocacy in the US, as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation case.

The India press release and the banquet themes show that CAIR is becoming sensitive to its critics. Instead of investigations and prosecutions, the Obama administration should engage CAIR to make sure that their stands of condemnation of terror, rejection of Islam-US confrontation and advocacy of American Muslim engagement and integration are heard clearly in the US and abroad

Is that a Bomb in your laptop or Bad Speech? Laptop Searches at the Border

2008-11-21T10:53:00.000-05:00

I am attending an international conference in Washington, DC this week. I received an email containing this alert: “There is recent controversy regarding the search and seizure of laptops… by border and customs agents for people entering the US from abroad. This applies to US citizens and non-citizens. Agents seem able to make arbitrary seizures of laptops and these devices for indefinite periods of time based upon any criteria they choose…What does this mean? It is recommended that all laptop data be backed up in a secure location before you travel. Further, sensitive research data should be encrypted, and references to research participants should be encoded in such a way as not to identify or harm them. Consider the practical aspects of having your laptop seized at the border. What will you do if your laptop is seized and kept for an indefinite period of time (days, weeks, or even months)?”
Another email that I have seen on this issue is from an attorney concerned about traveling to Canada with attorney- client privileged material and whether to allow the border agents to see it and if they are to see privileged material, does this sharing breach the ethics rules. These e-mails come close in time to a local related laptop seizure at Detroit international airport. On November 7, Greg Krupa of the Detroit News wrote an article “Airport Laptop Seizures Angers Muslims” on an incident that occurred with Imam Elahi of Dearborn Heights. Imam Elahi was returning from a trip to his native Iran when he was subject to secondary inspection. His laptop was seized and searched away from his sight. It was returned to him with a damaged hard drive. What I found most troubling is that he was questioned about an article on his hard drive. This questioning about content usually occurs in countries like North Korea and Cuba, not the United States.
Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post wrote an article on the issue of laptop searches on August 1, 2008 entitled “Travelers' Laptops May Be Detained At Border-No Suspicion Required Under DHS Policies.” Ms Nakashima wrote under DHS policies “federal agents may take a traveler's laptop computer or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies” and that “officials may share copies of the laptop's contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption or other reasons.” Agents can seize and search "any device capable of storing information in digital or analog form," including hard drives, flash drives, cellphones, iPods, pagers, beepers, and video and audio tapes.” The search and seizure power also applies to “all papers and other written documentation," including books, pamphlets and "written materials commonly referred to as 'pocket trash' or 'pocket litter.' "
Of course there is a need for security at international borders and the government has an intrinsic sovereign power to search those coming into the country. Federal courts have set border searches and seizures as an exception to the fourth amendment requirements- border searches are different because they occur at the border. However, if safety and smuggling of contraband are the issues and not bad speech, what the border agents need to know then is that the laptop or other electronic devices international travelers have are not in fact a bomb or hiding contraband. They can tell if a laptop is a shell or a bomb by simply turning it on. I personally have travelled overseas a number of times and had my laptop put through the scanner as well as infrequently turned on and off to check that it is in fact a functioning laptop and not a bomb. I had no problem with that. But for an agent to turn on a laptop or other electronic device, without probable cause or reasonable suspicion, and read articles to search for content protected by the first amendment, this is a completely different matter.

Obama's Rahm

2008-11-08T18:40:00.001-05:00

The appointment of Congressman Rahm Emanuel as President Elect Obama’s chief of staff made headlines in the Arab media. His Israeli roots were emphasized and his service in a civilian capacity in Israel during the first Iraq war was noted. This raises the issue of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Obama and Mr. Emanuel, as to the Arab-Israeli conflict, deserve the benefit of the doubt.

In an interview in the weekend November 8-9 Wall Street Journal Mr. Emanuel told Mr. Jason L. Riley

“I think the country is incredibly pragmatic” “Pragmatic and progressive. But you still have to mix and match different objectives. You have to be flexible.” “I don’t think the country is yearning for an ideological answer.”

When speaking about policy change, he did not mention the Arab-Israeli politics. The elections, he noted, provided “clear directions” to change health policy and energy policy. On energy- “to change an energy policy that has been exporting $700 billion of our wealth to countries overseas.”

This is good. The man does not think ideologically- he values pragmatism. And when he talked about energy policy he did not do what others have commonly done-link oil exclusively to Arab countries (leaving Canada, Mexico and Venezuela who are key exporters of oil to the US) and to terrorism.

This is a reasonable man who would help move along the peace process.

Ralph Nader Owes America an Apology

2008-11-05T09:25:00.004-05:00

Ralph Nader is a remarkable activist and citizen.

His impact on American life is tremendously good. As an Arab American, I am proud of his achievements.

Yesterday, however was not good.

While America was celebrating this historic moment, Nader made a racially insensitive remark about President Elect Barak Obama, saying that President Obama should not be an Uncle Tom.

Nader does not have a racist cell in his body. No one can doubt this fact. The Uncle Tom comment was just unbelievable in its insenstivity and harshness given that day.

That was a terrible offense. At a time of historic moment, when especially Black Americans are overjoyed by Obama's achievement, to have Nader make that remark was appalling and infuriating.

He rained on America's parade and gave the impression that he is a sore loser who is hating.

Ralph Nader should apologise.

Free Speech and Self Censorship: Arab Americans in the Street and in the Classroom

2008-11-02T21:59:00.001-05:00

On 10/28/08,the London- based Asharq al Alwsat newspaper published a report on the US elections. The reporter, Raghida Bahnam, interviewed a number of Michigan Arab Americans for the story: "Arab Americans Strongly Support Obama…Hope he will understand their Concerns." The story emphasized how Arab Americans are excited about Obama's candidacy. One interviewee told her that he wants to vote for Obama because Obama is Black and as a Black American he would understand the fears and concerns of other minorities such as Arab Americans.
It was a good report but what concerned me in the story was the response of a man named Hassan. Hassan told the reporter that he is not interested in politics, that though he lives in the US, he does not get involved in politics. He said after 9/11 and the passage of the Patriot Act, there is no longer freedom of speech and we can't speak freely or we get dragged for questioning and get thrown in jail for no reason. ..I don't discuss politics and I don't vote.
Hassan is an alarmist. His fears are overblown. He is paranoid.
I am not sure how many people think like Hassan. Driving to my office on Warren Avenue, I know that Hassan is in the minority. Anyone driving down Warren Avenue between Greenfield and Wyoming would see all these Arab Americans for Obama signs. Arab American excitement about Obama is obvious.
But the fear of adverse consequences for free speech seems to be present on college campuses as well. Last week, I was speaking with a friend of mine who teaches political science at a state university in Michigan. The professor told me that he thinks that his Arab and Muslim students are self censoring themselves in their assignments and in classroom discussions. While there is normal variation in the responses of non- Arab and non- Muslim students, he noted, his Arab and Muslim students almost uniformly have positions that are strongly pro- national security over civil liberties and civil rights. It seems, he said, that these students think this is the pro-American position and they need to prove their patriotism by taking 100% pro national security positions.
This is troubling. College is where future leaders learn important skills. Freedom of speech is a core value of higher education in universities and is vital for democracy. The Arab college students of today are the future leaders of the Arab American community. The fact that some are self censoring themselves instead of expressing themselves intelligently and freely is an issue of concern. Government and community organizations should take note of this reality.

The Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon: Victims of Legal and Social Discrimination

2008-08-30T08:59:00.000-04:00

What do the famous singer Majida Al Rumi, Fatah commander Sultan Abu Al Aineen and Hanan Ashrawi have in common? They are Palestinians but have key differences. Majida al Rumi is the child of a naturalized Palestinian refugee and has become a major singer who sings patriotic Lebanese songs. Sultan Abu Al Aineen is a Fatah commander and a Palestinian refugee residing in Lebanon. Hanan Ashrawi is a Palestinian from the West Bank and Gaza and a member of the Palestinian parliament.
Hanan Ashrawi lives under occupation and has lived under occupation since 1967 when Israel occupied and began the process of colonization of the West Bank and Gaza. Majida Al Rumi is a well off and accepted Lebanese citizen who makes a good living singing classic music and patriotic Lebanese songs. Sultan Abu Al Aineen is a Palestinian refugee denied of the most basic of human rights in the democratic republic of Lebanon.
An estimated 400,000 Palestinian refugees live in Lebanon. They live in a number of refugee camps facing legal and social discrimination. A number of laws discriminate against them. The US State department 2007 Lebanon human rights report states:
"Most Palestinian refugees were unable to obtain citizenship and were subject to governmental and societal discrimination, particularly in the area of employment; however, Palestinian women who married Lebanese men could obtain citizenship. According to a credible international human rights group, Palestinian refugees faced severe restrictions in their access to work opportunities and diminished protection of their rights at work. Very few Palestinians received work permits, and those who found work usually were directed into unskilled occupations. Some Palestinian refugees worked in the informal sector, particularly in agriculture and construction. Palestinian incomes continued to decline. In 2005 the minister of labor issued a memorandum authorizing Palestinian nationals born in the country and duly registered with the MOI to work in 50 (out of 72) professions banned to foreigners. However, there were no indications that this memorandum was implemented consistently." According to Wadie Said "they represent the poorest sector in all of Lebanese society and the poorest grouping of Palestinian refugees in any Arab country." This is the result of de facto and de jure discrimination by Lebanon. Wadie Said writes:"The Lebanese work permit requirement does not merely impose an onerous burden on Palestinian refugees looking for work in Lebanon. In actuality, it effectively rules out their prospects for employment, except within the narrow sphere of employment permissible without a work permit—UNRWA, the Palestinian Red Crescent (the PLO's medical relief service), NGOs and fields not requiring official permission (“agriculture, animal husbandry, or small enterprises within the camps,” according to the statute). In 1994, 4.86 percent of a potential workforce of 218,173 worked in these fields. A mere 0.14 percent of the workforce—an estimated 350 workers—obtained work permits. The remaining 95 percent were unemployed or temporarily employed in the informal sector, which is characterized by unsteady, low-paying, dangerous, and non-regulated work in such fields as construction and seasonal agriculture." One can appeal for ending discrimination against the refugees in the name of Islamic solidarity or pan Arabism. After all, the Palestinian cause has been used by Islamists and nationalists alike to promote their ideology. However, as Lebanese human rights activist and Swiss citizen Suha Bishara observed to the Lebanese paper al- Safir, there is a curious lack of attention to this matter from those who claim a love of Palestine. Ideology aside, ending discrimination fulfills an obligation of Lebanon under international law. Said writes:" In 1972, Lebanon became a party both to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. While not specific on the issue of the refugees' right to work, the former recognizes “the right to work, which includes the right of everyone to gain his living by work which he freely chooses or accepts, and [that the states that are party to the covenant] will take appropriate steps to safeguard this right” (Article 6). The Convention guarantees the right to “work … [and] form and join trade unions” (Article 5). By virtue of becoming a party to the treaty, Lebanon has a duty, if not a legal obligation, to preserve and afford the right of employment to “everyone,” refugees included."

Samaa Abu Sharar conducted a field study of the Palestinian refugees. She wrote:
"There is a general feeling that reigns amongst the Palestinian refugees that the
Lebanese state has no intention of improving their conditions. This feeling of skepticism is
the result (as we understood from our long conversations in the camps) from long years of
intentional negligence as they say, practiced by the Lebanese state towards them. A
commonly heard phrase was that “The Lebanese state never felt we are its responsibility,
the UNRWA was the one in charge when it came to solving our problems. But at the same
time, the state always restricted the UNRWA with the limitations it imposed on the
international organization to solve these problems since the UNRWA does not always have
the final say in solving them.”
The Economist of May 8, 2008 noted that Lebanon denies the refugees "the right to own property or to work in dozens of white-collar professions" and even "the third-generation refugees in Lebanon" run the "risk losing their right to re-entry if they stay abroad longer than six months." The Economist explains that this ill treatment is result of the fear that "naturalising the country's 350,000 Palestinians, most of them Sunni Muslims, would tip the delicate sectarian power balance." But a work permit, the right to own property and move freely, are not the same as citizenship as surely the Lebanese government would know. The only reasonable explanation for this ill treatment is that these restrictions are callously designed to compel the refugees to leave Lebanon seeking a better life elsewhere.
It's nothing short of a scandal how the Palestinian refugees live in Lebanon. Arab Americans and Palestinian Americans need to mobilize to change this reality.

Coptic Priest Zakaria Botros: Holy War of Words

2008-08-17T18:54:00.004-04:00

Driving from Ann Arbor today, I felt like listening to the ethnic programming radio station 690 AM.
It happened that an Egyptian Coptic priest I read about in the Arab American News, Zakaria Botros, was speaking about Islam. I listened to the whole show. He brings up controversial topics on Islam, from Islamic texts, to argue that Islam is a false religion and that (Coptic Orthodox) Christianity is the one true faith. After poking fun at their faith with his Egyptian humor and demeanor that is ideally fit for entertaining, he invites his Muslim listeners, to embrace Christianity!
In his demeanor and self righteousness he has no air of doubt about the supremacy of his faith. He reminded me of another Egyptian that mixes humor, promotion of one's faith and ridicule and attack of others' faith- the Egyptian Al Qaeda # 2 terrorist Ayman Al Zawahiri when he goes on rants against Christianity and the West.
What Zawahiri (who is a medical doctor by training) and the priest have in common is rejection of the other, inability to see any good in others, and a call for the other group to convert to the one true faith or be ridiculed and damned forever.
The Western ideas of tolerance and co-existence skipped both Mr. Zawahiri and the priest.
Back to the Arab American News report:
The priest Botros received a coverage of a whole page in the Arab American News of August 16-22, 2008. Reporter Khalil Alhajal wrote:
"Local religious leaders believe they 've successfully convinced a local AM radio station to force a regular guest on one of its programs to tone down his intense, often strange commentaries critical of the Islamic faith" and that "Muslim leaders feared the weekly programs could cause tensions between local Christian and Muslim communities, and sought out talks." Mr. AlHajal quotes Ghalib Begg the Chair of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan stating that "It seems that the hate speech has stopped" as a result of talks with the station owner."
Father Shalhoub of the Orthodox Church of Livonia is a frequent presence at Arab American events in Dearborn. Father Shalhoub played therapist for the priest. Just like psychologists who try to explain bad acts by trauma in childhood, Father Shalhoub basically argued that the priest's behavior is explained by the trauma of persecution of Copts in Egypt. Shalhoub stated:
"Botros' outbursts may come from a bitterness felt by many Egyptian Christians who he said have struggled to practice their faith in that country for years." "Historically, Christians in Egypt have been persecuted," he told reporter Al Hajal.
A Dearborn based Shia Imam, Imam Baqir Berry stated " [T]his is really dangerous. When he is defaming all those people in the community , they want to speak out . We cannot just close our eyes to it."
I know that Imam Baqir is not an attorney but his sister Huda is. He should ask her what defamation is. What priest Botros is saying on the radio is not defamation. He is preaching his faith by knocking down the competition- glorifying Christianity by mocking Islam and bringing attention to controversial issues in Islam.
And closing eyes is not relevant here- one can either cover his ears or turn off the radio/change the station.
This is a country that protects free speech and free speech includes offensive and hateful speech as well. One fights bad speech with good speech or by ignoring bad speech.
A visit to a local bookstore's religion section shows that the bulk of offense against established religious beliefs actually is focused on Christianity.

The Criminal Attorney and the Blogger: You Call that Evidence?

2008-08-01T16:59:00.003-04:00

The blogosphere is the wild west of journalism. Anyone can have a blog. Barriers to entry are almost nonexistent. There is no editor to do any kind of quality control. This is good and bad.

It's good because it allows an unfettered exchange of ideas. It can be bad because it's easy to unfairly focus negative attention on a cause, a person, or a group, making allegations that sully reputations. If no other evidence to the contrary is out there, the negative information end up defining a cause, a person or a group.

In the balance between freedom of speech and reputation, freedom of speech trumps in the US- unlike for example, in the UK. Therefore, legal recourse is very hard.

The other day a friend of mine involved in a high- profile case told me that his lawyer approached him with a stack of printouts from a blogger's site. This blogger is known for being a rabid Islamophobe and a zealous Zionist to the right of Ariel Sharon. She has no credibility and her mental fitness is seriously questioned. She stoops to the level of calling our governor Granholm a name, "Granho," our US attorney/Judge Steve Murphy, "Abu Porno." She also had a picture of well- known journalist digitally enhanced with human excrement on the journalist head because he crossed her. Not a civilized discourse from a learned human being.

Still this learned attorney, who is rightly well- respected and experienced, made the grave mistake of facing his client with that blogger's pile of garbage- columns from her blog- to argue for the weakness of his client's case.

This attorney is deservedly well -respected. But he could be in the client's situation with his integrity and reputation sullied by a blogger and having no recourse to deal with it since our law making protecting the reputation of public figures very difficult. He should have known better- way better.

Shaykh Safar Needs a State to Humiliate the People of Falsehood

2008-07-29T15:55:00.004-04:00

The relationship between state and Mosque is one of the hottest topics in the world today.

The Islamists across the board believe in a role for Islam in government though they disagree on the details. But the concept of citizenship and the modern state is absent from at least some of the discourse, if not most of it.

Shaykh Fadel al Safar, a professor of Islamic law in Iraq, wrote a book on the subject entitled the Jurisprudence of government in Islam. He starts the book with a wish and a prayer. The wish is for an Islamic state.

But the prayer--This is not a prayer for the end of hunger, corruption, and torture and death squads -God forbid.

Instead he starts his worthy book by asking God for a State that honors Islam and its followers and humiliates falsehood and its followers…

A state is for all its citizens. Not Mr. Safar's. It’s a state that is used to "humiliate the other." The other is anyone who does not belong to the privileged faith group.

This is one of the reasons why political Islam is troubling to those who value civil rights and equality.

See below the relevant Arabic text and the link.

شبكة النبأ: ورد في دعاء الافتتاح: ( اللهم إنا نرغب اليك في دولة كريمة تعزُّ بها الاسلام وأهله وتذل بها النفاق وأهله، وتجعلنا فيها من الدعاة الى طاعتك والقادة الى سبيلك وترزقنا بها كرامة الدنيا والآخرة).

المؤلف: الشيخ فاضل الصفار
الكتاب: فقه الدولة.. الدولة الإسلامية في المنظور الفقهي
عرض: الباحث حميد جاسم الغرابي

http://www.annabaa.org/nbanews/71/276.htm

Suha Bishara: on Palestine and Sunni-Shia Tensions

2008-07-16T00:33:00.008-04:00

The late PA leader Yasser Arafat once answered a question about his governance of the Palestinians by telling The New York Times, give me the Swiss to rule and I will rule like Switzerland does.

It seems he was onto something. Switzerland does have a good influence on people.
Leave it to a woman, a Christian, a communist Lebanese, married to a Swiss and living in Switzerland, to speak freely and clearly about Lebanon- in particular about the Palestinians and about Sunni-Shia tensions.

On Palestine:

On the occasion of the release of the Lebanese prisoners from Israel in an exchange between Hizbullah and Israel, the Lebanese daily al- Safir interviewed Suha Bishara. Many years ago-Suha Bishara tried to assassinate Antoine Lahd, the head of the Lebanese militia set up by Israel to guard its Northern border-- the South Lebanon army. Suha Bishara was part of the secular national and leftist resistance movement that was fighting Israel before the Syrians colluded with Iran and its Islamists to limit guerrilla warfare to the Hizbullah.

In this interview she is asked what can a Lebanese, living in Lebanon, do for Palestine these days?

She replies: They don't need our direct support. The most important support for them is for the Lebanese to be united. The second issue is the civil rights of the Palestinian refugees. Nobody has really struggled for this issue. It’s not acceptable that a Palestinian refugee cannot work in Lebanon. And if he builds, we destroy. I am not talking about citizenship here. Though I do believe that a person is entitled to the citizenship of the country of his birth. Period. Palestinian or non Palestinian. (for a video on the situation of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xog_gXYGx3o

Below is the Arabic text:
برأيك، كيف يمكن للبناني أن يعمل من هنا لأجل فلسطين؟ [ هونيك، ليسوا بحاجة إلينا بالشكل المباشر. الدعم الأهم بالنسبة إليهم هو أن نحصّن أنفسنا داخلياً أولاً. ثانياً، قضية الحقوق المدنية للفلسطينيين في المخيمات. لم يناضل أحد فعلياً لهذه القضية! مش مقبول فلسطيني ما يقدر يشتغل، وإذا عمّر حجر نهدّه نحن! هذا من دون الدخول في موضوع الجنسية، علماً أنني أؤمن بحق الإنسان بحمل جنسية الأرض التي يولد فيها، نقطة على السطر، فلسطيني أو غير فلسطيني

On Sunni-Shia relations:

She is asked "What reservations about Hizbullah you have?"

She replies:

No political party can get involved in internal politics and limit its program to the resistance slogan. This means as if your existence is a function of the enemy's existence. Question? does this mean that if Israel ceases to exist then Hizbullah would think of economic issues and get involved in Lebanese law making? Hizbullah should declare an economic program to get the country out of its economic crisis. Second, there is a huge gap between the leadership and the supporters of the Hizbullah. When they talk about the sectarian war being an impossibility, this is true as to the leadership thinking. The leadership thinks of sectarian war as serving the US designs. But the Hizbullah supporters, since the death (martyrdom) of Imam Hussein, have been raised on the basis of "who killed me?" My brother's name is Omar and all the family suffered a lot because of that. What happens when you have political parties and incitement included in the equation with this kind of background? You would have out of hand chaos, violence and bloodshed.

ـ ما هي المآخذ؟ [ أولاً، لا يوجد حزب سياسي قادر على بناء سياسة داخلية واختزالها بالمقاومة. كأنك موجود من خلال العدو. سؤال: إذا راحت إسرائيل، منفكر ساعتها نشتغل بالاقتصاد، ونصوّت على قانون؟ يجب أن يعلن سياسة واضحة لإخراج البلد من الأزمة الاقتصادية، وذلك كي يتكامل. ثانياً، هناك شرخ بين القيادة والقاعدة. عندما يتحدثون عن استحالة الحرب الطائفية، هذا صحيح طبعاً على مستوى القيادة لأنها اتخذت هذا القرار على المستوى العقائدي وتقرأ الحرب الطائفية كخدمة للمصالح الأميركية. أما القاعدة فمنذ مقتل الإمام الحسين تمت تربيتها على أساس »مين قتلني«. أخي اسمه عمر وكلنا نعاني لأن اسمه عمر منذ ولادته. فكيف إذا دخلت في المعادلة أحزاب وشحن؟ ستعود التربية و»بتفلت الفالوتة«.

http://www.assafir.com/WeeklyArticle.aspx?EditionId=991&WeeklyArticleId=43223&ChannelId=5677&Author=%d8%b3%d8%ad%d8%b1-%d9%85%d9%86%d8%af%d9%88%d8%b1

Lebanon War Memoir: Cobra's book

2008-07-13T01:42:00.002-04:00

A controversial book on the Lebanon war from the Christian militias' experience as told by a former militia man is posted online.

http://www.aceviper.net/members/cobra/intro.html

When Not to Sue the Bastards?

2008-07-11T14:00:00.003-04:00

Why Do Bigots Defame Arabs and Muslims and Get Away with It?

It is often said that the US is a highly litigious society. Individuals are suing and being sued at a rate that surprises many people- the US has way more lawsuits than China, for example.

Sue the bastards. It's a classic response that a person that is wronged hears. However, many times suing is not the best way of dealing with a problem. One of the areas where suing might not be the best way to go is in cases of defamation of a "public figure"- a celebrity, a politician or even anyone who injects themselves in the "public eye."

Take the case of a number of Arab and Muslim leaders that are being targeted by American bigots. Arab and Muslim personalities involved in public affairs find that the American bigots are targeting them with a campaign of organized libel (written defamation) and slander (spoken defamation). The labels are terrorist, terrorist sympathizer, former terrorist, terrorist apologist, Hizbullah agent, defender of Hamas, etc. The goal of the zealots is to cause the libeled individuals to be either intimidated and thus become silent on issues important to Arabs and Muslims-- or to cause non- Arab and non- Muslim Americans to avoid dealing with them either due to the sensational and serious accusations or to avoid the attacks that might extend to them by having associated with the victim.

One is tempted to think that these bigots targeting the Arabs and Muslims are nothing more than ignorant and marginal bigots who seem to suffer of one form of mental illness or another.
This is a big mistake. These bigots are highly driven, well organized and focused individuals who are driven by a clear agenda. This agenda is the marginalization of American Arabs and Muslims. The emergence of the web and the blogs has made their job much easier. Pick a high profile Arab American or Muslim American and Google their name. The odds are you would find some bigot attacking them with wild accusations that are laughable. But to non- Arab and non- Muslim Americans who have not dealt with the victim before these wild accusations raise a red flag. The result is the innocent victim loses an important contact or even money because of the defamation that is spread by one web site connecting to another and since there is no other information online dealing with the accusations head on- these allegations end up painting the reality of the victim.

The question is: why not sue? Cost is one reason. Litigation is very costly. Second, litigation takes time- the wheels of justice are slow and this can be very frustrating. Third, the person perpetrating the lies might have nothing to their name which means an expensive legal victory that amounts to little gained. Fourth, litigation opens the gates of discovery. And this discovery can be very wide in scope- depending on the judge. This discovery is susceptible to become a tool for further harassment of the victim. Also, a lawsuit might be welcome by the attention craving bigots and might even rally the zealots together. The defamer is also likely to grab the opportunity to get free media exposure while playing the victim of "an attack on the first amendment." Also, media coverage is a sure way that the lies would be repeated over again in the mainstream media.

The biggest hurdle though is that under American law it is very difficult for a "public figure" to win a defamation suit. The victim has to show that the defamer acted with "malice" - that they made untrue statements knowing that they are untrue or with reckless disregard of the truth.

This malice element keeps many - even libeled attorneys from suing their defamers. It is an awful situation that can be remedied by generating good speech. If those who libel Arabs are using blogs to spread lies, then the Arab and Muslim activists and their friends should also create web sites and blogs. This can achieve two goals: exposing the defamer and telling the truth about the defamed people.

(originally appeared in the Forum and Link Volume 5, issue 2 July 10, 2008)

The Wall Street Journal Matchmaker Cabbie Story

2008-07-08T21:30:00.005-04:00

The media can fairly represent Arabs and Muslims in the US when they cover them as ordinary people-and sometimes extraordinary people.

Stories about bad Arabs and bad Muslims, even when true, help perpetuate biases and prejudices when not balanced by the overwhelming other reality- the non- terror or foreign policy reality.

One story of the other reality is in the weekend Wall Street Journal of June 5-6, 2008, the Fourth of July weekend, about an Egyptian cab driver who plays matchmaker in Manhattan.
"These Singles Just Wanted a Taxi, But Mr. Ibrahim Drove Them to' I Do'" by Jane Spencer.

The Jerusalem attack and the Failure of Hamas

2008-07-02T20:48:00.001-04:00

Today a Palestinian from Jerusalem used a bulldozer to run over a number of cars and people in West Jerusalem area.

Two died and a number of people were injured.

This was a classic act of terrorism. Indiscriminate violence against noncombatants. A despicable crime. No nuancing needed.

I watched a Hamas spokesperson on Aljazeera speaking from Gaza say that this attack is "understandable."

Understandable?

It 's impossible for the Palestinians to achieve an independent state without the support of fair minded Israelis and world public opinion. Condoning such terrorism is not only immoral- it is also foolish politically.

Hamas seems intent on keeping the label of a terrorist organization and ruling over an isolated and impoverished Gaza strip.

I can't recall how many times I heard and read that Islam does not condone indiscriminate attacks of this nature.

Regardless of the politics of the matter and the legitimate grievances of the wronged and occupied Palestinian people- plowing into noncombatants goes against Arab and Muslim values.

Hassan Sabra Analysis of Lebanon events

2008-06-27T12:22:00.001-04:00

For an outstanding review of Lebanon events see
http://www.alshiraa.com/alshiraa/details.asp?iss=1347&cat=2&art=1&id=13909

Haykal's Monolgogues- Boring and Wrong

2008-06-26T00:28:00.011-04:00

I am not one of those who listen to Mohamed Hasanyn Haykal's monologues on al Jazeera as if it is revealed truth of the sage of sages. I tried to listen for more than ten painful minutes and failed miserably. My graduate education had me sit through many many lectures- some quite boring. Haykal gets the cake with his boring run on sentences and monotnous monologues.

The man, however, is considered one of the best analysts in the Middle East. This is understandable if his competition is the Baath and Thawra newspapers- papers that are only good to wrap street vendors goods.

I think this reputation is a legacy of the dismal history of Arab media. However, the internet and satellite tv changed the rules of the game creating what one scholar called Arab Public Space. The quantity and quality available now makes Haykal's analysis pale in comparison.

The worst analysis he provided- according to Hassan Sabra of Lebanese weekly Al Shiraa- is on the May 2008 conflict in Lebanon. It's amazing how much Haykal does not know and his bigoted and ignorant view of MP Walid Jumblatt. He had the gall, without citing any logic or sense, to defend the Hizbullah attack on the defenseless Beirutis and the Druze of theMountain.

http://www.alshiraa.com/alshiraa/details.asp?iss=1346&cat=2&art=1&id=13862.

One conclusion from reading Sabra's column is Haykal is another reason to ditch al Jazeera for the Al Arabiya TV.

Lebanon's Divided Public Opinion

2008-06-22T00:25:00.004-04:00

Pew Global Attitudes Project titles its report on Lebanon "Lebanon's Precarious Politics
Many of the Country's Sectarian Differences Do Not Run along a Straight Muslim-Christian Fault Line" -November 15, 2007.

The Precarious Republic is a title of a book by Michael Hudson that was written before the breakout of the civil war in Lebanon. The book pointed out the weaknesses of the Lebanese consociational political system and its increasing stresses, due to internal and external pressures, that made him call Lebanon a "precarious republic."

Today Lebanon is divided on issues of importance- perceptions of itself and regional and international powers.

On favorable views of foreign powers, PEW reports:

Christians: 82 % favorable views of the US- 14% favorable views of Iran

Sunnis 52%- 8%

Shia- 7%-86%

The most remarkable of these are the favorable views of the US held by Lebanese Sunnis- 52%. The Iraq war, the Palestine conflict and the war on terrorism made the US have a dismal record of approval in the Muslim world. It seems for the majority of Lebanese Sunnis, the US policies toward Lebanon trump all these other concerns. As to Iran, all the talk of pro-Iran Sunnis, all the money and effort exerted led to a dismal record of support- less than 10%.

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/636/lebanon-politics

Sex, the City and Dearborn Arab Women

2008-06-10T12:02:00.002-04:00

I went to the movies with my wife. I wanted to see "You Don't Mess with the Zohan," my wife wanted to watch Sex and the City.

Sex and the City turned out to be as good as she expected. My wife and I spent three of our precious free time to watch this movie. Once you have children, their needs make it almost impossible to have free time.

One scene in the movie reminded me of Dearborn Arab women.

Carrie was about to move in with her boyfriend. She expressed anxiety that the place she would call home, in the event of a falling out she would have no legal rights to.

Then they decide to get married.

As an attorney who practices family law, I have come across a number of Arab Muslim women who put themselves in a situation that Carrie wanted to avoid.

A number of local couples opt to have a religious marriage but not a civil marriage. (This is a phenomenon worthy of a systematic study).

They go to an Imam who marries them, does Katb al Kitab for them.

Imams, as well as other clergy, have the legal authority to marry couples provided the couple has a marriage certificate issued by the county clerk. Without a marriage license, any document issued by the Imam does not make a legal marriage.

This legal document protects women in the case of a falling out.

Michigan, with few narrow exceptions, does not recognize common law marriages. However, I heard a judge say once that she would be willing to recognize as a legal marriage a religious marriage that extends over a number of years and results in children- it would be an issue of equity.

But this would be an uphill battle and a bad situation that could easily be avoided by getting a marriage license.

The unfortunate reality is that without a civil marriage, I have seen and heard a number of women end up with nothing. The women that have put themselves in this bad situation have included first as well as second generation Arab Americans; women with little education and women with graduate degrees.

The Islamic "marriage contract" stipulates an amount of money or other thing of value to be given to the woman in the event of a divorce. However, the women are unable to get that since the agreement is usually not properly executed to survive a challenge by the putative husband.

Advice for Muslim Women: The Maid or the Partner?

2008-06-09T12:19:00.003-04:00

Today three entries in the Islamist website Islam Memo in the "Happy home" section show why the Islamists raise serious concerns about gender equity and gender equality.

The three entries are:

"If you do not take care of your husband, he will find someone else who will"

"clean house= happy home"

"obedience and marital happiness."

Sounds like a wife is considered a maid and not a partner.

http://www.islammemo.cc/

The Imam, the Danish Cartoons and Piss Christ

2008-06-02T13:18:00.003-04:00

In today's Al Arabiya website there is a news item on the suicide bombing against the Danish embassy in Islamabad.

The PM of Denmark called it an "unjustified attack."

The Danish Deputy PM called it "an attack on Denmark and the values it defends."

The Muslim League denounced it as an act of "violence and terrorism."

The Aljazeera Arabic news channel reported on this issue interviewing Pakistanis on the subject. The interviewees basically said that "Denmark is to blame for publishing the insulting cartoons and then for not apologizing for them."

Going over the comments' section in Al Arabiya website, a number of commenters said that the Danish deserve it for "insulting the prophet," others said that it is wrong to use violence. Some blamed Israel and the US for the bombing. One commenters accused Denmark of bombing its own embassy so that the Muslims are placed in the position of apologizing to Denmark instead of the opposite.

Most voices disapproved the deed but asserted that "Denmark is wrong" and should be boycotted or their embassies shut down for insulting Muslims with the cartoons.

The Danish are defining this matter as an attack on freedom of expression. Many Muslims see the cartoons as an attack on their faith and its symbols.

Both are inaccurate positions.

The Danish are wrong because the Muslims feeling insulted do not care what freedoms the Danish have. The issue is that they perceive the cartoons as "Christian Denmark" and not one individual or a groups of individuals "attacking their faith."

The Danish government is painting the attackers as haters of the freedom of expression and other Western values.

But anyone who peruses a Western cultural product will not fail to note that the sacred is not sacred. How many times you see God's name taken in vain, you hear "holy shit," "Jesus f--ng Christ" among other choice terms. An African American actor, Morgan freeman, played God in Bruce Almighty and Jim Carrey having the powers of God for some time used the powers to make Jennifer Aniston's breasts bigger and to have his dog use the toilet.

I am not a religion scholar but for Muslims and other followers of Monotheistic faiths insulting God is a bigger offense than insulting the Prophet.

But we have not seen demonstrations and violence in response to Bruce Almighty?

The Pakistanis who bombed the embassy probably haven't heard of Piss Christ- the award- winning "Piss Christ" controversial picture by photographer Andres Serrano. Mr. Serrano won an award for that picture- an award partially supported by the US government agency, the National Endowment for the Arts.

Mr. Serrano took a picture of a Crucifix submerged in a cup full of his yellowish urine. The artistic community thought it great art, many Christians felt insulted.

It was not an attack on Christianity not by the artist, not by the US government nor by the arts' community.

By asking the Danish government to apologize and blaming the controversy on Denmark the government and people many Muslims show an acute lack of understanding of Western society and government- that is the respect or lack thereof to the sacred in the public space and the role of the government.

Muslims who live in the West know better than those in Karachi and Khan Yunis. However, unfortunately, this issue is not explained to the Muslim world. Understanding and having an explanation does not mean excusing or justifying. But some voices actually add fuel to the fire. After the film Fitna came out, a local Imam in Dearborn told a newspaper reporter that Fitna is part of a Western Crusade against Islam while other Imams had no comment.

Muslims deserve better.

The Merkava and the Fulbright Scholar: The Israel "security" sham

2008-05-31T14:02:00.003-04:00

In Today's Wall Street Journal "What's News" an item on Palestine reads:

"The White house predicted Israel will relent on its decision to deny visas to Gazan recipients of Fulbright scholarships."

This is irrefutable evidence of the irrationality and vindictiveness of the Israeli government in its dealing with the Palestinians.

Denying the visas to the Fulbright scholars is further evidence that Israel takes measures against Palestine under the pretext of security when in fact these measures are taken out of a sense of entitlement, colonial supremacy, fear of international scrutiny and transparency.

The "security" sham must not be allowed to continue.

Tolerant Nasrallah, Intolerant Malkin: It's More than a Garment Thing

2008-05-30T01:58:00.003-04:00

McCain's daughter is pictured wearing a scarf that looks like the Arab scarf, the Kaffieh.

Rachel Ray wearing the same scarf in a Dunkin Donuts commercial led to pressure from right wingers. This pressure resulted in Dunkin Donuts withdrawing this commercial. Too bad. Ms Ray looked great in the scarf.

But Dunkin Donuts did not want to deal with the controversy and Rachel Ray did not need the headache of a tiny minority of zealots using the web to call her "Jihadist Sympathizer" among other things.

Thousands of miles away, Hizbullah held a rally in Beirut.

The news item of the event had a picture of a young woman, dressed in Jeans and T shirt, holding Sayed Nasrallah's picture. This young woman looked like any average young woman in a Western city.

As any visitor to the areas dominated by the Hizbullah finds great diversity in dress from the ultra conservative chador to the tight Jeans and T- shirt. Unlike the Taliban, the Islamists of Hizbullah, surprisingly but smartly, have a liberal dress code for those living in their areas.

I am not surprised that the right wing goes after anything that puts Arabs or Arab symbols in a positive light. They hate Arabs and hate their symbols and want to make sure that nothing of Arabic origin be seen as normal and part of American culture (they should be consistent and stop using our Arabic numerals). The right wingers engage in a holy war against this scarf under the pretext that it is a symbol of radicals or terrorists. Millions of ordinary people wear these scarves in the Arab world. The fact that a few radicals and terrorists wear it does not transform its nature as an Arab garment. I have read that a number of those accused of hate crimes against Arabs in Chicago have a flag post on their lawn. Does this fact diminish the American flag?

I am not surprised. This is the same country where some elected officials had French fries renamed Freedom Fries. But the key difference between the campaign against French products and the Arab scarf is that the campaign on the scarf is a part of the effort to feed an image of the Arab as foreign, threatening and dangerous. An Arab scarf or something that looks like it worn by Ms McCain and Ms Ray takes away from that and that can never be allowed by the merchants of the Arab is evil and the Arab is the other.

When Hizbullah shows more tolerance to personal dress than Michele Malkin, we know that there is something wrong in the land of the First Amendment.

The Sunni- Shia Fitna: Two Fatwas-Shaykh Naim Qasim's and Shaykh Mawlawi's

2008-05-30T01:03:00.005-04:00

Is there a Sunni Shia Fitna in Lebanon or not? It's good to know. Because if there is one, it should be dealt with before it festers and grows out of hand into something real ugly like what happened in Iraq.

MP Saad Hariri stated that the Fitna has happened due to the violations and trauma of May 7 events.

These comments have been faced with cynicism by the Hizbullah and its allies. Since MP Shaykh Saad Hariri and the 14th of March group are allied with the US- the charge is that it is the US (with its junior team member Israel), the convenient suspect for ALL Arab and Muslim ills, that is pushing for an alleged "Shia- Sunni Fitna."

The claim is that the US wants this Fitna and that its allies and friends are "shamelessly irresponsibly" etc. promoting this idea.

However, today in al Safir the leader of a Muslim Brotherhood group, al Jamaa al Islamiya, (which has the [bad] habit of other Islamists, that it blaming the US for everything and not giving it credit for anything,) told al Safir basically the same thing as Shaykh Saad of the Future Movement did.
(http://www.assafir.com/Article.aspx?EditionId=951&ChannelId=21579&ArticleId=2871&Author=عمار%20نعمة)

In this Al Safir interview Shaykh Faysal Mawlawi stated that "the chief responsibility for the events of May 7 conflict is Hezbollah's and that Hizbullah should have preserved the sacredness of its weapons."

Shaykh Mawlawi stated that the [Sunni-Shia] Fitna has happened already.

"To us the heart of the matter is that Hizbullah is not realizing that the [Sunni-Shia] Fitna has already occurred. It's now in [people's] hearts. It would have increased multiple fold had it not been for the Doha agreement."

Shaykh Mawlawi is not a friend of ex- US ambassador to Lebanon Feltman nor a frequent guest at the US Lebanon embassy events. I doubt he is on their A, B or z list of invitees.

Shaykh Mawlawi's concern about Hizbullah's failure to realize what happened was validated in the same paper by Hizbullah's second in command, Shaykh Qasim of Hizbullah.

In the same paper, Shaykh Naim Qasim, is quoted from an interview with Satellite TV station Orbit that:

"we assure Arabs and Muslims there is no Sunni-Shia Fitna."

He stated: "There is no Shia Sunni Fitna. We don't want it and we are not contributing to its creation."

(http://www.assafir.com/Article.aspx?EditionId=951&ChannelId=21579&ArticleId=2885&Author=)

Add this to the litany of Shia- Sunni disagreements and differences that keep ordinary Muslims puzzled and at a loss.

Palestine Supporters and the State of Palestine

2008-05-28T10:45:00.002-04:00

Where is the support for a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza among Arab Americans, Muslims Americans and their friends?

Where are the massive grassroots campaigns to create a momentum for a Palestinian state?

From Madrid to Oslo- the formula agreed on is land for peace, as to Palestine- a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.

This is the Palestine struggle today.

The real struggle today is the creation of a state in the West Bank and Gaza.

The Arabs, Muslims, Palestinians, their friends and supporters, need to keep the goal of a Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza, with Jerusalem as its capital, the center of their efforts.

But this is not the case.

There is too much energy spent on the Nakba and the issue of the refugees. These are core issues and should be focused on. However, the issue of a state on the West Bank and Gaza should be the centerpiece of action of the pro- Palestinian groups, Arab and non- Arab, Muslims and non Muslims.

Look at the events supporting Palestinians. See for yourself how much energy and effort is spent on activism for this goal. Not much.

For the Palestinians to have their state, supporters of their cause have to keep their energy focused on the creation of a Palestinian state.

It's "a Kind of" Apartheid- Haaretz & President Carter

2008-05-27T10:46:00.006-04:00

In "Our debt to Jimmy Carter," The Israeli newspaper Haaretz editorializes on the Israeli debt to President Carter for the peace agreement with Israel writing in part:

"Israel is not ready for such comparisons [with South Africa], even though the situation begs it. It is doubtful whether it is possible to complain when an outside observer, especially a former U.S. president who is well versed in international affairs, sees in the system of separate roads for Jews and Arabs, the lack of freedom of movement, Israel's control over Palestinian lands and their confiscation, and especially the continued settlement activity, which contravenes all promises Israel made and signed, a matter that cannot be accepted. The interim political situation in the territories has crystallized into a kind of apartheid that has been ongoing for 40 years. In Europe there is talk of the establishment of a binational state in order to overcome this anomaly. In the peace agreement with Egypt, 30 years ago, Israel agreed to "full autonomy" for the occupied territories, not to settle there."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/974893.html

President Michele Suleiman : "Defensive National Strategy" and "Syria Diplomatic Relations"

2008-05-25T13:35:00.004-04:00

It's official.

Army Commander Michele Suleiman is the President of the Republic.

In his acceptance speech, he emphasized the need for "diplomatic relations "with Syria and for a "national defense strategy."

This is remarkable.

These two echo the demands of the 14th of March coalition.

President Suleiman called for a "calm dialogue" on the issue of the weapons of Hizbullah in order to develop a "national defense strategy."

In effect, this is what MP Jumblatt has been saying- a "defensive" strategy (not offensive) where Hizbullah does not solely have the country's war decision.

See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f0nktMjWjA

This is an auspicious beginning for the Presidency of Mr. Suleiman.

The impressive turnout of Arab and other dignitaries means that the days of Lebanon being monopolized by one medium power are gone.

The future of Lebanon is an Arab and international responsibility.

Hope the events of May 7 never happen again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=related&v=9VUdKhjfwRU

King Solomon and Splitting the Baby

2008-05-25T11:21:00.002-04:00

Al Arabiya TV has a program on Palestine.

In this program Arabs and Jews are interviewed about the 1948 war and its aftermath. At one point, the interviewer, to illustrate the refusal of the Palestinians to accept the UN partition plan, asked a Jewish Israeli if he knew the story of King Solomon and the two competing claims for a baby.

The Jewish interviewee says yes. He told the traditional reading of the story. There is a more reasonable reading of the story.

As a judge facing competing claims for a baby, the common thinking is that King Solomon devised a plan to find out who the real mother is.

King Solomon proposed splitting the baby with the understanding that the real mother would not accept the splitting of the baby while the false mother would.

King Solomon, the story goes, figured out that the woman that accepted spliting the baby is not the real mother so he gave the baby to the other woman- the real mother.

A more reasonable reading of the story is that King Solomon took what we now call the best interests of the child test. He reasonably concluded that a woman who would agree to splitting a baby is clearly unfit to raise a baby.

Splitting a baby means the baby would die.

Presumably, anyone even at that time knew that. The fact that the other woman would agree shows that either that she is mentally challenged and/ or mentally ill. In both circumstances, she would be unfit to take care of the child.

King Solomon gave the woman to the fit mother- his test did not reveal who the real mother is.

The Sunni and the Shia Urban Myths and the Challenge of Coexistence

2008-05-24T01:14:00.005-04:00

The Sunnis and the Shia: Adventures in Medieval Thought in the age of SMS

After the misadventure of May 7, the question being asked is how can the tension between the Shia and the Sunnis be reduced in Lebanon and in the Arab and Muslim world.

It is going to be a very difficult job. Take Lebanon for example.

In Lebanon they embrace modernity- they love Western toys of all kinds.
In a nation of about 4 million people, there are more than one million cell phone lines. It seems that almost everyone has a cell phone and a satellite television access.

The internet is widely used with no censorship.
But education and modernity do not change medieval outlooks.

The Amal and Hizbullah supporters, for example, had to place their flags on the light poles in majority Sunni areas. The sight of these men gave their tribe members feelings of power over the Sunnis while the other tribe felt that the Shia are out to humiliate them.

That sight, to me, reminded me of Neil Armstrong's moon moment.

When Neil Armstrong placed the American flag on the moon and made his one small step, one giant leap statement it was a moment of triumph for science, technology, humankind and rationality.

On the other hand, the flags on Lebanese poles stand for the opposite of everything that that American flag placed on the moon by Mr. Armstrong stood for.

It's a big problem we have in the Arab world.

I remember a wealthy engineer - a Shia- saying in the 1995 that PM Rafiq Hariri wants to kick the Shia out of Beirut! That simple. That successful millionaire with an engineering degree believed that his tribe in threatened by the Sunnis. No explanation and logic was needed.

Iraq is worse.

A highly educated Sunni Iraqi who lived in the West for years and dealt with scientific issues relayed to me, in all seriousness, what is obviously to me, not him, is an urban myth.

He told me, in all seriousness, that a Sunni woman told him that she was going through a Shia area in Baghdad when she saw a baby on a grill. She asked what's going on and she was told that this is a Sunni baby being cooked for the feast of Imam Hussein. I had to muster all my self control not to burst laughing at the idiocy of this anecdote.

What’s interesting is that both the Sunni and the Shia who shared urban myths of the threat against their communities are highly educated people. One only wonders what kind of myths the less educated classes are hearing and sharing.

The issue then is not an education and ignorance issue where the lesser educated and worse off have their grievances directed at the other group.

The issue is a lot deeper and scarier.

Super modern toys, medieval times.

Egypt's Mehdi Akif's Mujahid

2008-05-23T14:44:00.004-04:00

The Islamists, including the Muslim Brotherhood, always criticize the US for not recognizing them and for distust of them (with the rare exception of the Turkish modern and democratic Islamists).

For example, the Palestinian Hamas always protests that the US is hypocritical for not recognizing them despite their gains in the Palestinian elections. They protest that the US as a believer and promoter of democracy should recognize them and engage them.

Voices from the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood have called for the US to pressure Mubarak’s government to ease the pressure on the Brotherhood.

The Arab Islamists also have protested that not all of them are terrorists and that the US and the West should deal with them as the up and coming force in the Arab and Muslim world after the nationalists and the secular groups have been allegedly discredited.

Today an interview in Elaph, (if the interviewer has been accurate and truthful), raises serious questions about the Brotherhood's position regarding terrorism and engagement with the US.

The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood leader, Mehdi Akif, told an interviewer from Elaph that Usama Bin Laden is “a Mujahid whose sincerity he does not doubt” and that he supports “Al-Qaida’s activities in response to oppression and corruption.”

For the interview see

http://www.elaph.com/ElaphWeb/AkhbarKhasa/2008/5/332823.htm

Jumblatt in Al Shiraa

2008-05-23T08:52:00.002-04:00

See in Al Shiraa of this week Hassan Sabra's analysis of the role of MP Jumblatt in managing the crisis of May 7.

http://www.alshiraa.com/alshiraa/details.asp?iss=1342&cat=1&art=1&id=13718

The Gains and the Losses of May 7 and the Doha Agreement

2008-05-22T22:31:00.004-04:00

The May 7 2008 Hezbollah military misadventure in Sunni Beirut and the Muslim Druze Mountain and the Doha Agreement have handed the Saniora government and its allies major achievements.

Think of the reality before Doha.

The following is the reality of the political and economic stalemate that existed before the Doha agreement:

The Speaker of the Parliament, an ally of the Hezbollah had the parliament shut down thus making electing a President of the Republic impossible and precipitating the constitutional crisis of the vacancy in the top political position in the Republic.

Second, the Hezbollah and its allies erected about 1200 tents in the middle of downtown Beirut thus greatly suffocating the economic life in this economic and tourist hub and undermining investor confidence in Lebanon.

The Doha agreement has resulted in the decisions to reopen the parliament, and to elect the candidate nominated by the very same pro- government coalition, General Suleiman, as President of the Republic. The agreement also involved the decision, already implemented, to remove the 1200 tents choking the economic life of downtown Beirut.

In addition, and most importantly, Hezbollah’s misadventure of May 7 and the Doha discussions have changed the Lebanese and regional perceptions of Hezbollah.

On May 7 Hezbollah broke its pledge of not using its "holy and sacred weapons" against other Lebanese and as such, as US officials put it, “undercut its self- proclaimed mantle as a resistance movement against Israel.”

Before May 7 and the Doha agreement, Hezbollah opposed any discussion of its weapons on the pretext that its weapons are solely for the defense of Lebanon and were not and would not be used against other Lebanese. That is these weapons shoot only "South of the South" as the hugely popular singer Mr. Khalifeh's song has it.

These weapons to the shock and awe of the Arabs and Lebanese were used against largely defenseless other Lebanese- even the Sunni Mufti of the Republic highlighted this fact when he pointedly made an appeal addressed to the Arab and Muslim world against the group.

The effect of the May 7 misadventure can be seen on the regional level by a recent online poll by the satellite news Alarabiya channel where of 60,000 participants 70% said that the weapons of the Hezbollah have lost their legitimacy(http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2008/05/22/50283.html)

True the Hezbollah and its allies got a veto power in the cabinet. But Hezbollah has lost much of its soft power in Lebanon and in the Arab and Muslim world and its weapons are going to be an item on the national government and public agendas.

What the Hezbollah gained in the cabinet is quantifiable and limited but what it lost in soft power is priceless.

The Doha Lebanon Agreement: Many Winners and One Loser

2008-05-21T19:54:00.002-04:00

The Doha success has winners and a loser.

MP Aoun emerges as the biggest loser.
He insisted on a “transitional government.”
He wanted so bad to become President and thought the juvenile but deadly move of the Lebanese Opposition would lead to his coronation over Lebanon. He comes back from Qatar a broken old man. Good. No President of the Republic title for him -he deserves the title the Don Quixote of Lebanese politics.

Lebanon will have a President and the Camp of shame in Downtown Beirut will be dismantled and the filth left cleaned by Sokleen. I was a witness to what the squatters in the tent city wrote on the walls of the beautiful downtown- filthy words from filthy dark minds and hands. The words and the filth should be pictured and documented so that we do not forget.

As to MP Saad Hariri the success in Qatar shows that militias and street people with guns are not the key to political participation and political influence. MP Saad Hariri emerges from Doha a modern leader with hands unsullied by the dirt of street battles. He promised to rebuild again- he is to be believed, it seems to be the destiny of the Hariris to rebuild what others have destroyed.

As to the Arab world and Qatar- there were too many naysayers. But- Arab positive engagement - from Saudi Arabia , Egypt and Kuwait specifically, was the key to the halt of the descent into civil war and Iraqization.

As to Qatar-The Qataris have shown, again, that despite their country’s tiny size, they can play a big positive role in the Arab world.

They deserve much of the credit for the political agreement reached in Doha.

Holy Violence and Unholy Politics: Radical Islamists from Gaza to Beirut

2008-05-20T09:30:00.006-04:00

The radical Islamist violence in Beirut, aided by a motley crew of has- been leftists, quasi fascists and nationalist groups, directed inwards, highlights the threat the radical Islamists pose to their own societies. Societies that have been sleeping while the radicals have been growing like wild and poisonous mushrooms on a spring lawn.

Despite their rhetoric that plays on legitimate national and economic frustrations, their goal is political power- unchecked- except by their own thoughts of what God really really wants.

Once in power, by ballot or by the gun, they would rule ruthlessly against others- just as their secular revolutionary predecessers communists did.

Some of yester year's communists have re-emerged, with the same old bearded face of leftist youth and folly, as radical Islamists. That seems odd but not really.

Both ideologies are rigid, absolutist, totalitarian and violence prone.

It’s disgusting the naïve and misguided support that they get from Western sources and a few Muslims and Arabs in the West.

These supporters live in a democracy, enjoying civil rights and civil liberties, while supporting groups that are clearly and violently against both.

These supporters and apologists defend a regime for others to live under- a regime that they would not accept for themselves for even one day.

The radical Islamists, whatever the brand name, share adverse positions on freedom of speech, civil rights, civil liberties, religious minorities, women’s rights and representative government as we know it.

In this day and age these rights are taken for granted as the norm- but the radical Islamists refuse them, mock them, fight them and oppress their compatriots that support them-

They have their own ideas of a utopia that never really existed except in their heads.

The use of “holy violence” stands out as another common theme- and people are "martyred" whether they want to be or not.

This use of violence is in many ways the post- modern religious incarnation of the radical Arab nationalist and leftist “revolutionary" violence to force one marginal, but well organized and fired up with zeal, group’s will on the rest of society.

As to the US- a common theme among these radical Islamists is an unhealthy obsession with America and an almost- comical kneejerk anti-Americanism.

This is true for all the radical Islamists from the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood to Hamas to the Jordanian Islamic Action Front to the Hizbullah and its lesser Islamist allies in Lebanon.

Lebanon Vigil pictures

2008-05-20T08:31:00.001-04:00

For pictures of the vigil held in Dearborn to protest the violence in Lebanon, check

www.futuremovementusa.com.

Western Islam and the Jewish Experience

2008-05-18T22:18:00.003-04:00

In Migrations and Cultures: A World View, Thomas Sowell writes about the great migrations- among them the Chinese (the largest diaspora in the world) and the Jews.

It is interesting that his arguments on the Jews, in many ways, apply to the Moslems in the US today- explaining why they are better off as a group in the US than they are in Western Europe.

Sowell writes:

“Where anti- Semitism was strongest and most implacable- Eastern Europe being again a prime example- Jews tended to be least assimilated in language or culture. Where acceptance was greater in Western Europe and their offshoot societies in North America and Australia-Jews tended much more to become culturally assimilated, citizens and patriots.”

Now about the Jews in the Muslim world, Sowell writes:

“Among the factors influencing the better treatment of Jews in Muslim lands during the early Middle Ages was that Jews were less conspicuous , or only one of a number of non-Moslem minorities in the Islamic world, while they stood out sharply as the only non-Christians in Europe- at a time when religion was an enormous influence.”

In an odd twist of fate-the same logic applies to the Muslims in the US.

Arab American News Report on Pro- Government Vigil in Dearborn

2008-05-16T14:49:00.005-04:00

See below a report in the Arab American News on the Vigil held in Dearborn on Tuesday in support of the government of PM Fouad Saniora and against the violence there.

The reporter, Khalil AlHajal, wrote a balanced and thorough report. Kudos to him and the Arab American News for this fine reporting that is on par with reporting by any of the renowned national media:

http://www.arabamericannews.com/news/index.php?mod=article&cat=Community&article=1062

Pro-government Lebanese demonstrate in Dearborn By Khalil AlHajal
- The Arab American NewsFriday, 05.16.2008, 02:25pm

Local supporters of both sides of the conflict weigh in on crisis in Lebanon

Dearborn — About 100 people gathered on the steps of City Hall here on Tuesday to protest violence in Lebanon over the past week that has left at least 65 dead and 200 wounded.
The protestors were supporters of the Lebanese government's ruling March 14 coalition, which has faced demands to step down from a Hizbullah-led opposition for the past 18 months.
Last week's violence saw Hizbullah fighters take over west Beirut, overrunning Sunni supporters of the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.
"We need Lebanon, not another Iraq," said protestor Walid Nassif, Coordinator General of the Future Youth Association in the U.S. The Future Movement is the largest party in the March 14 coalition, Lebanon's majority bloc in parliament.
"I hope that this will not result in a Shi'a-Sunni conflict," Nassif said.
Fighting broke out in Beirut last Thursday after the cabinet announced plans to probe a private Hizbullah communications network and reassign the head of airport security over allegations he was close to the powerful Shi'a group. Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah called the moves a declaration of war and when they were not rescinded, opposition gunmen went on the offensive in Beirut. Fighting spread to north Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley and Druze areas south and east of Beirut.
Nassif said a cousin of his, a 26 year-old housewife, was killed in the Bekaa valley during one of the clashes.
"If this continues like this, we will not have Lebanon. It's very simple," he said.
Local college students who identified themselves as sympathizers of the opposition observed the demonstration from a distance.
"They have the right to freedom of speech… But the current government in Lebanon is illegitimate, and really, it's time for change. It's time that there's equal representation," said Rashid Baydoun, a Lebanese American pre-law student at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.
Bilal Dabaja, another Lebanese UM-D student opposed to the Western-backed government, said he doesn't believe the conflict is about sectarian strife, but political alignments.
"This conflict is purely political," he said. "There’s no sectarian basis. All sects can be found on both sides… In any other country in the world, when there is such a strong opposition, you would see the prime minister resign and they would have elections."
He said that U.S. influence and support for the Siniora government has been the only thing keeping it in power in the face of massive, paralyzing civil disobedience campaigns over the past year and a half.
But Nassif said support from the U.S. has been limited to words.
"These past few days shows who has support from who," he said.
He said that if the U.S. had been deeply involved in the Lebanese government, there would have been more weapons to fight Hizbullah with.
"Where are the weapons from the U.S.? They have the weapons and we don't. Iran is helping to destroy Lebanon. If Iran really cares about Lebanon, they will support Lebanon," Nassif said. "We never want any other interference. We don't want no United States, we don't want Syria and we don't want Iran. It will not happen."
Dabaja said March 14 forces did have weapons, referring to reports that the Future Movement used a security firm to assemble a private force.
"They do have weapons. Weapons were found," he said.
He said the government is illegitimate because supporters of Hizbullah and its Shi'a and Christian allies that oppose the government make up a majority in Lebanon.
"Trust me, the majority of the people are not with the opposition," said Nassif in response.
"We respect Hizbullah when they fight Israel, but when they kill people in Lebanon, you know this is wrong," he said. "That's not the goal of a resistance… Because they disagree with their [opponents'] opinion, they want to kill them off."
Dabaja said elections should be held immediately to show who does have more support among the people.
"If you claim you have the majority, let's have elections," he said.
Edward Moussawer, a protestor from Troy who identified himself as a U.S. representative of the pro-government Lebanese Forces party, said the opposition should play by the rules.
"They should go through the legal way, to take [the government] down by voting," he said. "After two years, there's elections. Just wait. You should not use force."
Nassif said Lebanese people can no longer explain the existence of Hizbullah as a necessary entity to protect the county from Israel, now that the militia's weapons have been used against fellow Lebanese.
"We can't say that anymore. How are we going to explain this to our children, about what they did? How are we going to explain it to America, the officials? Shame on them. To kill their brothers and sisters… We live together. Shi'a and Sunni are brothers and sisters. If we disagree, we don't need to kill each other. If they disagree, they should sit down and have a dialogue… We want Hizbullah to go to the south and protect us from Israel… If [Hassan Nasrallah] believes that the weapons are more important than people, he is wrong… I hope that he doesn't mean that… I know that Hizbullah knows they made a mistake and are reflecting on what they did."
Dabaja said the violence was low-intensity, describing the clashes as being carried out by "individuals who are saying enough is enough."
Dearborn attorney and blogger Ihsan Al-Khatib, who demonstrated with the March 14 supporters, said he was glad the group could demonstrate peacefully in Dearborn with supporters of the opposing side looking on.
"They're not angry. Even though ugly things are happening in Lebanon," he said.
He said what troubled him most about the week of violence was the targeting of media outlets.
"It's unacceptable what happened to Future TV," he said.
Militants burned down the offices of Future TV, a television channel owned by parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri's family, on May 9. The station began broadcasting again on Tuesday.
During the clashes, the Lebanese army refused to engage in the fighting in order to maintain its neutrality as a multi-sectarian institution that the rival camps both support.
Nassif said he was upset the army didn't intervene.
"The role of the army is to protect the civilians," he said. "I really don't agree with the army staying neutral. By them not doing that, they really are taking sides."
Baydoun said the actions of the militants and the neutrality of the army were justified.
"In the case of a legitimate crisis, there comes a time for change," he said. "The current government have yet to prove themselves. They haven't reached out to the opposition… The people of the south have been disenfranchised for decades. It's time for us to come together as a country."
Hizbullah officials said Thursday that it would return things to normal in Lebanon, reopening the airport and removing roadblocks, after the government reversed the decisions that triggered the bloodshed.
The announcement came after a high-powered Arab League delegation arrived in the country seeking a solution to the crisis, Lebanon's worst since the end of the 1975-90 civil war.By Khalil AlHajal - The Arab American News -->

Youtube Muslim Voters in the US- CNN clip

2008-05-16T12:33:00.000-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0ZguEEAG5s