tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69162454154690999072024-03-16T17:26:39.105-07:00Terrorism CounterMike Ghousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01647894600183489442noreply@blogger.comBlogger45125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916245415469099907.post-18484518814881358092019-04-25T19:18:00.002-07:002019-04-25T19:18:23.680-07:00Book on Terrorism - American Muslim Agenda <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">If you are a conservative, then grudgingly you'll see the value in what this book offers, and if you are on the left, you want more of it, and if you are moderate, you will dance with joy.</span></i><span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">HOSTING A BOOK TALK<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="line-height: 28px;">The book is about building a cohesive America where each one of us feels secure about our faith, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual and political orientation. Who does not want to live a tension free life at home, workplace, and in the public space? </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">The "American Muslim Agenda” serves a two-fold purpose. On the one hand, it separates the chaff from the grain for fellow Americans to see Muslims for who they are and not how the media projects them. On the other hand, it challenges Muslims to restore Islam to its original purpose; that is to create cohesive societies, in our case, a coherent America, where each one of the 323 Million Americans feels proud of his or her uniqueness. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">The book presents many success stories to keep the reader bemused. I am pleased to submit three versions of the blurbs on the book talk. The format can be 10 minutes or 20 minutes presentation with room for Q&A. We want our esteemed guests to go home fully satisfied with all the questions they have had about Islam and Muslims. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Our conservative friends would grudgingly acknowledge the pathway laid out in the book, while the moderates will dance with joy. If your vision of America is in tune with the book, together as Americans, we can contribute towards the greatness of our nation.</span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Would this book bring a change? </span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Would this bring a change among Muslims towards others and others towards Muslims? Indeed, this book lays out a clear agenda to foster harmony among fellow Americans. It is akin to planting a seed and nurturing to give the beneficence to the next generation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Some of the reservations we have about Muslims is based on what we have heard from our parents, friends, teachers, pastors, and TV. It is time for us to learn first-hand about them and remove the misunderstandings and live freely. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">It is one of the bold books written about Muslims, and it highlights the sources of extremism and how to cure it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Unfortunately, some of the Muslim scholars from the past have reduced Islam to a religion of rituals and obedience. This book brings clarity to Muslims and fellow humans and separates the chaff from the wheat for you.</span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">What is the overall theme of your book?</span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">The overall theme of the book is to open people's hearts and minds towards each other. I believe that the ultimate ‘unexpressed’ purpose of humans is to live freely and be comfortable with one's culture, race, religion, ethnicity, sexuality, and individuality.</span></div>
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<b style="font-size: 14pt;"><i>Why do you think that this book will appeal to readers?</i></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">It will appeal to Muslims and Non-Muslims alike, as they have never seen the pristine, pluralistic Islam. Moreover, for the first time in Islamic history, the essence of Islam is explained. Also, for the first time, the book explains twelve values directly from the Quran that contributes towards building cohesive societies with no privileges to one over the other. It is human nature to get along with fellow beings, and this book will resonate with them and pave the path for them to see the light at the end of the tunnel.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">TEN T<b>AKE AWAY POINTS FROM THE BOOK</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">1. The American Muslim Agenda challenges Muslims to think and restore Islam to its original purpose – i.e., to create a cohesive America, where each one of the 323 Million Americans feels secure with his or her faith, race, ethnicity culture, sexual and political orientation. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">2. The American Muslim Agenda paves the way for Muslims to own their mistakes, and remedy them. It corrects how fellow Americans perceive Muslims.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">3. Islam is not about imposing (Sharia) your ideas or governing others. Islam is about living your life and letting others live theirs with freedom. That is the original Islam. Islam is about freedom and firmly stands for free will.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">4. The essence and purpose of Islam from a humanity’s (Aalameen) perspective for the first time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">5. Never before in Islamic history, twelve values of Islam that contribute to creating secure, orderly and cohesive societies have been articulated. Verses from the Quran fully back each value. Thus, the book becomes a reference manual to teach and learn about Islam.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">6. The best way to combat Islamophobia is through education, engagement, and dialogue. There are many success stories narrated including dealing with Fox News, Sean Hannity, Stuart Varney and the supposedly most of the Islamaphobes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">7. This book is the product of twenty years of research and interviews with the right, left, and the moderate fellow humans from many faiths including 150 interviews at Fox News and its many right-leaning guests.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">8. Can a Muslim become President of the United States? What does it take, there is a full chapter on the topic?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">9. In the end, it is learning to respect the otherness of the other and accepting the God given the uniqueness of each one of the 323 million Americans.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">10. There is a whole lot more, and it is all in the book.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Talk Version 1.0<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Title of the talk: Muslims making America the Greatest nation on earth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Americans Muslims are committed to building a cohesive America, an inclusive America where each one of the 323 Million Americans feel secure about his/her faith, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual and political orientation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">When you are free from apprehensions, and connect with fellow workers, the workplace becomes a joy to be. You will give 100% of your heart and mind to your work, and your family benefits from having a whole of you, thus creating a little heaven for yourselves.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Dr. Mike Ghouse, author, public speaker, pluralist, interfaith wedding officiant, and the president of the Center for Pluralism in Washington, DC., will discuss how Muslim efforts in building a cohesive America are working.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">He points out that we are Americans, we are free and brave people and must jettison our apprehensions about each other to live freely. Mike advises that if you are a conservative, then grudgingly you'll see a value in what this book offers, and if you are on the left, you want more of it, and the moderates will dance with joy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">He points out that we are Americans, we are free, and the brave people, and must jettison our apprehensions about each other to live freely. How do we accomplish that? It is by knowing each other.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">America has always led the world in science, medicine, math, agriculture, automation, information technology, exploration and all the advancements of the human race, and it is time for us to lead the world in building a cohesive nation. The book offers concrete solutions to Americans to make America a great and powerful model nation of inclusion for Americans to enjoy living their lives productively and purposefully, and the world to look up to us to emulate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">We have to assure each other and every American without exception that we are committed to each other's security, prosperity, and peace. Our goal is to reach out to every American who has not been reached before, particularly those who do not understand us. As American Muslims, we uphold, protect, defend and celebrate the values enshrined in our constitution.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Mike will share a few incredible success stories of dealing with our friends on the right and answer questions about Muslim efforts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">The book “American Muslim Agenda” will become a reference manual to knowledge seekers and teachers of Islam, and those who want to see one nation, one people and one America. For Muslims, it is backed up with verses from the Quran. You can order this book from Amazon, Kindle, Barnes & Noble, Google, and other book stores. See the talking points at http://www.AmericanMuslimAgenda.com and Mike’s profile appended at https://www.linkedin.com/inmikeghouse.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Americans Muslims are committed to building a cohesive America, an inclusive America where each one of the 323 Million Americans feel secure about his/her faith, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual and political orientation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">When you are free from apprehensions, and connect with fellow workers, the workplace becomes a joy to be. You will give 100% of your heart and mind to your work, and your family benefits from having a whole of you with them creating a little heaven for yourselves.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Dr. Mike Ghouse, author, public speaker, pluralist, interfaith wedding officiant, and the President of the Center for Pluralism in Washington, DC., will discuss how Muslim effort is ongoing in building a cohesive America, where each one of the 323 Million Americans feel secure about his/her faith, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual and political orientations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">He points out that we are Americans, we are free and brave people and must jettison our apprehensions about each other to live freely. Mike advises that if you are a conservative, then grudgingly you'll see a value in what this book offers, and if you are on the left, you want more of it, and the moderates will dance with joy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">The book paves the way for Muslims to own their mistakes, remedy them, and correct how fellow Americans perceive Muslims. Mike argues that Islam is not about imposing your ideas or governing others. Instead, Islam is about living your life and letting others live theirs with freedom. It is a bold challenge to Muslims. He shows a narration from humanity's (Aalameen) perspective of the essence and purpose of Islam for the first time in history.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Mike articulates, for the first time in Islamic history, twelve values of Islam that contribute to creating secure, orderly and cohesive societies. He concludes that the best way to combat Islamophobia (and other phobias) is through education, engagement, and dialogue. Mike lays out a clear agenda to foster harmony among fellow Americans. It is akin to planting a seed and nurturing to give the beneficence to the next generation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Mike believes when Muslims become one with all and defend American values with their souls, they will become part of the American story, and everyone’s language will automatically shift from us vs. them to us, the one nation under God with liberty and justice for all. As American Muslims, we uphold, protect, defend and celebrate the values enshrined in our constitution.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">This book will become a reference manual to teachers of Islam and knowledge seekers about Islam, as it is backed up verses from the Quran. You can order his book from Amazon, Kindle, Barnes & Noble, Google, and other book stores. See the talking points at http://www.AmericanMuslimAgenda.com and Mike’s profile appended at https://www.linkedin.com/inmikeghouse.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">The American Muslim Agenda is a primer, a blueprint, and a road map for Americans in general and Muslims in particular.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">A Muslim is someone who is a conflict mitigater and a goodwill nurturer, following the formula for peaceful societies practiced by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and guided by the Quran.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">As a community, American Muslims have not developed any concrete plans to extricate themselves out of the chaotic situations, hostility and incessant Islamophobic rhetoric we face. Each time a terrorist acts out, we start praying and wishing that the terrorist not be a Muslim. We are Americans, and we can do better than that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">There is only one America, and all of us are fully integrated parts of that nation. We need to learn to engage with those who are opposed to us, and reassure them that we are all in this together. Mike will share some success stories.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">When we start defending America and the American values we are in! We become an integral part of American Fabric. That is the clear objective articulated in this book.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">The book is available at Amazon, Kindle, Google, Xlibris, Barnes & Nobles, and other book stores. The softcover is priced at $19.99, and the hardcover is $29.99. It is also available as an eBook.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">The American Muslim Agenda will be in the hands of lawmakers, presidential candidates, media persons, lobbyists, think tanks, educators, interfaith activists, CEO, and fellow Americans. The book is about building a cohesive America where each one of us can live securely with our faith, race, ethnicity, and culture.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">As American Muslims, we uphold, protect, defend and celebrate the values enshrined in our constitution.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Mike is a public speaker, author, interfaith wedding officiant, a newsmaker and the executive director of the Center for Pluralism in Washington, DC. More about him at <span style="color: windowtext;"><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeghouse/" style="color: black; text-decoration-line: none;">https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeghouse/</a></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Email to: SpeakerMikeGhouse@gmail.com or text (214) 325-1916</span></div>
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Mike Ghousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01647894600183489442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916245415469099907.post-36576030657962930012019-02-13T18:12:00.001-08:002019-02-13T18:12:21.736-08:00American Muslim Agenda - What is it?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 21.4667px;">What is that Americans Muslims want? How close are they to what you want? What can they do about it? What are your issues with each other? If you are a conservative, grudgingly, you'll see the value in this book, and if you are a moderate, you'll dance and sing along with joy.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 21.4667px;">You and I have a responsibility to create a world where, you, me, and our grandchildren can live without apprehensions. No matter we go, we should feel secure about faith, race, ethnicity, culture and our political and sexual orientation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 21.4667px;">Would the book American Muslim Agenda bring attitudinal change among Muslims? Yes, it will, it’s akin to planting seeds and nurturing it to give the beneficence to the next generation. I know most American Muslims will wholeheartedly subscribe to the refreshed understanding of Islam, we need to expand it to more Americans.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 21.4667px;">Some of the reservations we have about Muslims and Islam are based on what we have heard from our parents, teachers, clergy, favorite media people and others. We need to find the truth on our own and find freedom from misunderstandings. It is a blessing to be free.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 21.4667px;">Muslims have shied away from confronting difficult issues about their faith, and most of them don't even have a clue about the essence of Islam, it was never articulated before in the history of Islam. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 21.4667px;">A few medieval scholars have reduced Islam to rituals, five pillars, dhimmi, jizya, sharia, externalities, and enforcement of your rules on to others. That is not Islam, and most Muslims can recite verses that Islam is about free will. God uploaded free will into Adam’s DNA, and emphasized it in the Quran, the prophet practiced ‘freewill’ and established examples for it. Sadly, Muslims know the truth but were bullied into silence with fatwa bombs. All I have done is articulated what Muslims believe, but dared not say it. The book is the voice of the majority of ‘American’ Muslims.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 21.4667px;">This book is a product of twenty years of research and thousands of discussions in which Muslims, non-Muslims, and “Islamophobes” have participated in it, including debates on Fox News with Sean Hannity, Stuart Varney, Pamela Geller, Brigitte Gabrielle, Robert Spencer, Jamie Glazov, Raymond Ibrahim, Walid Shoebat, Wafa Sultan, and several others. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 21.4667px;">Islam is about living your life and letting others live theirs. Islam is about building cohesive societies where all of God's creation lives with dignity and freedom. In God’s universe, we are merely a speck, and no one is more privileged than the other. If you are a moderate individual of any faith, you will find the book in tune with you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 21.4667px;">It is time to go beyond the five pillars of Islam, and I hope the Imams and Muslim scholars who are free thinkers would appreciate the contents of the book. This book may indeed become a reference manual for teaching Islamic values that contribute to creating a better world for all humanity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 21.4667px;">The American Muslim Agenda offers guidance to Muslims to be one with all, and it voices what Muslims believe and live with and empowers them to live their lives and let others live with free will. The book opens the door to people of other faiths to shed their biases and join hands in creating a world of safety, security, and harmony for all humanity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 21.4667px;">Islam is a public religion, and Muslims don't own it exclusively. You are invited to participate in discussions, including your faith. The book is expected to initiate conversations about the nature of Islam and fellow humans. I welcome your criticism (after reading the book).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 21.4667px;">You can get the book by calling 1-888-795-4274 x 4528 or get it from Amazon online or a book store. You can find the talking points at </span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="line-height: 21.4667px;"><a href="http://www.americanmuslimagenda.com/" style="color: #183e7c; text-decoration-line: none;">www.AmericanMuslimAgenda.com</a></span></span><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 21.4667px;">.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 15.4px; line-height: 21.4667px;"></span><br style="font-size: 15.4px;" /><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 15.4px;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 21.4667px;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Dr. Mike Ghouse is committed to building a cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. His new book, the “American Muslim Agenda” is about everything you wanted to know about Muslims. The book is available at Xlibris and Amazon. Mike is a public speaker, author, interfaith wedding officiant, and the executive director of the Center for Pluralism in Washington, DC. More about him at </span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="border: 1pt none; color: #00bcd5; padding: 0in;"><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeghouse/" style="color: #165288; text-decoration-line: none;">https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeghouse/</a></span></span><span style="line-height: 16.478px;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Mike Ghousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01647894600183489442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916245415469099907.post-54604242944212792362016-01-24T10:53:00.000-08:002016-05-09T17:06:30.487-07:00Town Hall Meeting about Terrorism and Foreign Policy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"> <span style="color: #222222; line-height: 20.02px;">Mike Ghouse’ Townhall meeting | TheGhouseDiary.com</span></span></h3>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Saturday, January 9, 2017, Dallas, TX – “War on Terror is the dumbest idea ever floated” was the title of my talk, and I spoke at two places; one was a private gathering, and the other was a group from College of Complexes at Roma Pizza Place on Greenville Avenue.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Here is a full video - including Q&A - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2Wm9--V9xY">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2Wm9--V9xY </a></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">About 60 people attended the event at Roma Pizza Place; this was my 3<sup>rd</sup> time speaking with this group represented by diverse American political values. There were conservatives, liberals and moderates; Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians and Independents, and a whole range in between. I love this group, as rarely do I speak to such political diversity and walk out learning as much as sharing my views.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Three out of sixty were ethnically and racially different – there was me, and a Black Gentleman, and the third one was of either Hispanic or Native America Origin and is running as a libertarian against Republican Congressman Kenny Marchant, whom I have voted twice.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I've been doing these town hall meetings for a while, it is good to be a moderate and have the ability to see different points of view without prejudice. I ask them “ Don’t go home regretting that you should have asked that lingering question, I will welcome any tough question, we are here to place everything on the table, be sincere with our expressions and deal with the issues honestly. You cannot upset me with any question. ” I encourage frank talks and people do open up to me, and hats off to them for dialogue in the most civic manner possible.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Let me take a detour with my background – in the late eighties, I was tuned into David Gold, the talk show host on AM 570 in Dallas, who was so venomous towards Palestinians and Arabs and made a hill out of every mole. They would not take my calls; they would screen the calls and would not take any one who was opposed to him. Lo and behold, years later David became my tenant, and I had a conversation with him. His income went up with the ratings, and ratings went up with rants and antics, why would he want to dilute his show with facts? He inspired me to go get my own Radio show in 1996, on AM 1150 which I ran for 5 years – I made sure both sides of the issue were addressed equally and fairly and no opinion was screened out.<br /><br />I am looking to get going again in Washington DC with a talk show hour, and I am looking for volunteer research assistants to fact check on Limbaugh and his likes, we still have some talk hosts who will not put opposing views, and we will challenge them to facts. Americans deserve to see two sides of the coin, and not bamboozled by one or the other. I am a moderate, and there aren’t any moderate shows out there, although a majority of Americans are moderates.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br />I asked my audience to lay it out and they do. However, it puts a huge responsibility on our shoulders to repair the world, it was not easy to hear fabricated stuff and the propaganda that some of my fellow Americans have bought into, but what can we do, for that is all they know. I was not surprised to hear Trump justifiers. We have a lot of work to do.<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Town hall meetings are true research material, honest people will tell us honestly what they think about the issue, in this case Muslims. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">There were several rational and good voices in the meeting, some of them who spoke well for Muslims had one thing in common- I.e., each one of them cited examples of good Muslim interactions-- I was particularly buoyed because, one lady said, had it not been for the medical treatment she got from the Islamic center of Richardson, she would not have been alive, and that center was set up and established by my late wife Najma and Dr. Amer Shakil, God bless her and may give the strength to Muslims to do more of this.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The second one was the guy who had attended Texas Muslim Barbeque in Cowboys stadium headed by late Dr. Lalani, and the first few meetings for that big event were held in my house, I was one of the three initiators of it besides Ambassador Ahsani. It is so good to hear its lasting effects almost after a decade. This meeting has pumped me up with the initiatives they I've proposed over the years. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I have responded to some 15 questions, and then about 10 of them shared their 2 minutes comment, did not get a chance to address them all, but concluded the meeting with a commitment to address them soon. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The full video will be out in 15 days; instead of negatively reacting to those comments, we have to think, what is that we need to do to fix the problems. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br />These meetings are helpful in learning about each other, what our problems are, and how we solve them. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">We have to become Amins of the society. Praise the lord, many a Hindus Jews, Christians and others consider me as an Amin; the foundation for building cohesive societies. Amin is some one who tells it like it is, the truth, is trustworthy and around whom people feel secure.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><i>There were several questions and comments - I have made some note and hope to repond to them this week, right here as an update of this note.</i></span><br /><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span><span style="color: #222222;">A few more pictures</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><strong><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 16.445px;">Dealing with Terrorism, the Islamic way</span></strong><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 16.445px;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; line-height: 16.445px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Dr. Mike Ghouse, community consultant, social scientist, thinker, writer, news maker, and a speaker on Pluralism, Interfaith, Islam, politics, human rights, India, Israel-Palestine and foreign policy. He is deeply committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day; he will discuss how the Bush and Obama methods of handling terrorism have not worked, where the first method created more terrorism and the second one has not mitigated it. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; line-height: 16.445px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Also, as a moderate Muslim, Mike will discuss the Islamic way of handling terrorism, to wit: “Mr. Baghdadi, you have three days to stop killing innocent people and destroying Allah’s creation, life and environment. If you do not heed the warning, we will hunt you down an ambush wherever you hide. If not, we will gas you, a few square miles at a time, not to hurt you, but to capture and put you on trial and ask you to give up the false claims you are making about your religion. Soldiers from around the world will be on the front line against you.” He argues that blaming the religion is the dumbest thing to do, because we cannot beat, kick, hack, shoot, hang, kill or bury a religion, it’s an intangible thing! </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; line-height: 16.445px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Mike concludes that we can blame the individuals and restore trust and harmony back for the society to function peacefully and cohesively. See also <a href="http://thearabdailynews.com/2015/11/19/war-terror-dumbest-idea-ever-floated/" shape="rect" style="color: #0c0c0c; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc;">http://thearabdailynews.<wbr></wbr>com/2015/11/19/war-terror-<wbr></wbr>dumbest-idea-ever-floated/</span></a> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A FEW MORE PICTURES</span></span></span></div>
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Mike Ghousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01647894600183489442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916245415469099907.post-76927223883489379792016-01-24T10:51:00.001-08:002016-01-24T10:51:18.320-08:00 Using cool heads against terror<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This is indeed a good piece, my piece which is similar was published at Arab News as well <a href="http://thearabdailynews.com/2015/11/19/war-terror-dumbest-idea-ever-floated/" shape="rect" style="color: #0c0c0c; line-height: 16.445px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc;">http://thearabdailynews.<wbr></wbr>com/2015/11/19/war-terror-<wbr></wbr>dumbest-idea-ever-floated/</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 16.445px;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 16.445px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 16.445px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Mike Ghouse</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> Using cool heads against terror</span><br />
<div style="color: #333333; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<a href="http://www.arabnews.com/columns/news/868681" target="_blank" title="http://www.arabnews.com/columns/news/868681"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">http://www.arabnews.com/columns/news/868681</span></a></div>
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<span style="color: #c26f03; font-weight: bold; text-transform: uppercase;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">AIJAZ ZAKA SYED</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">After long years of reading from the hymn sheet provided by its hosts,
sense finally seems to have dawned on the United Nations. The world body has
apparently concluded that it is insanity, in the words of Einstein, to do the
same thing over and over again and expect different results. </span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Addressing the UN General Assembly last Friday, Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon did not beat about the proverbial bush as he unveiled a blueprint to
tackle the challenge of extremism.</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The UN chief was unusually honest in his counsel to those busy fighting
the ever widening war on terror: “We all lose by responding to ruthless terror
with mindless policy – policies that turn people against each another, alienate
already marginalised groups, and play into the hands of the enemy. We need cool
heads and common sense. We must never be ruled by fear – or provoked by those
who strive to exploit it. Countering violent extremism should not be
counter-productive.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Cool heads and common sense? That’s the last thing anyone in the
coalition of the willing wants to hear right now as it fights ‘Islamist terror’,
forever shifting goal posts in the crusade against imagined enemies.</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Has anyone noticed that for the first time since the end of the last
Great War, the two superpowers, United States and Russia, and their numerous
gofers all find themselves on the same side of the fence as they purportedly
take on the monster called Isis or Daesh.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Indeed, it is interesting that the usually voluble Washington did not
make even perfunctory noises when the Russian bear barged into what has
traditionally been Uncle Sam’s turf. </span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In his last State of the Union address, President Obama trashed the talk
of an imminent World War III between the West and Islam, accusing clowns like
Trump of playing into the hands of Isis. The first black president of the most
powerful white, Western nation may not see it as such but many in the West
already seem to have concluded that this is indeed a civilisational battle for
survival. In fact, Pope Francis already sees the Middle East conflict as World
War III.</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Whether one likes it or not, after long years of Western wars and the
violent extremism of groups like Isis that they have spawned, this has indeed
acquired the proportions of a civilisational clash, something that neocon
pundits like Bernard Lewis and Samuel Huntington have long dreamed
about.</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Meanwhile, a Pakistani columnist of a popular Urdu newspaper thoughtfully
pointed out that with the involvement of the US, Russia, UK, France, Germany and
other members of Nato in the Middle East’s theatre of war, nearly all major
schools of thought representing Christianity – from the Catholic church and
Church of England to the Russian Orthodox church – are waging wars in Muslim
lands or fighting forces that claim to speak on behalf of the
believers.</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Hardly surprising then, notwithstanding the anger and revulsion that the
Isis tactics and its claim to represent the Muslims evoke everywhere, it
continues to attract the young and restless from around the world. </span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">On the other hand, after all these futile wars and years of carnage and
destruction that have left millions dead and homeless in the region, not to
mention the mindless destruction of historically rich countries like Iraq, Syria
and Libya, there is still no sign of a willingness to confront or even
acknowledge the sources and drivers of this conflict.</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Indeed, a few weeks ago the New York Times reported that the US is
considering a Pentagon proposal to set up a string of military bases in the
Middle East, Southwest Asia and Africa which could be used, “for collecting
intelligence and carrying out strikes” against Isis’ many affiliates across
those regions.</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The bases would serve as hubs for Special Operations troops and
intelligence operatives who would conduct counterterrorism missions, creating
what the Times described, in Pentagon-speak, an “enduring American military
presence” in these volatile regions.</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This despite the overwhelming evidence – and acknowledgement by President
Obama among others – suggesting that the Western invasion and occupation of Iraq
gave birth to the spectre called Isis.</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There cannot be a more absurd idea. An “enduring American military
presence” from the Middle East to Africa, over and on top of what already exists
across the region, may be the best thing to happen to the extremist fringe, from
Isis to Al-Qaeda and TTP to Boko Haram, further allowing them to portray
themselves as the ‘defenders of the faithful’ and inflate their
ranks.</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">If this isn’t precisely what the West and their allies are secretly
hoping for, they would do themselves and the region a huge favour by not taking
that perilous route.</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Military force and brutal, police state tactics cannot defeat terror and
extremism. Short-sighted and crude measures like UK Prime Minister David
Cameron’s threat to deport Muslim women if they do not learn English and his
promised ban on the Muslim veil do not help the cause of fighting extremism
either. These pronouncements are hardly any different from the intemperate
rants of US presidential hopeful Donald Trump.</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Camerons and Trumps would do well to spare 15 minutes to scan and mull
over Ban Ki-moon’s proposals, delivered as part of the UN action plan to counter
extremism. The UN chief offers 70 specific recommendations for action under
five broad categories:</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Prevention: It requires improving underlying conditions, helping
individuals attain their full potential growth. It is humiliation and
desperation that drive men towards extremism. “Extremism flourishes when human
rights are violated, political space is shrunk, aspirations for inclusion are
ignored, and too many people – especially young people – lack prospects and
meaning in their lives”, pointed out the UN chief.</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Principled leadership and effective institutions: The UN calls for
building “inclusive institutions that are truly accountable to people.” The UN
chief points out that “poisonous ideologies do not emerge from thin air.
Oppression, corruption and injustice are greenhouses for resentment.”</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Prevent extremism by promoting human rights: “All too often”, the UN
chief noted, “sweeping definitions of terrorism or violent extremism are used to
criminalize the legitimate actions of opposition groups, civil society
organizations and human rights defenders. Governments should not use these types
of sweeping definitions as a pretext to attack or silence one’s
critics.”</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Inclusive approach: An ‘all of government’ approach that breaks down “the
silos between the peace and security, sustainable development, human rights and
humanitarian actors at the national, regional and global levels – including at
the United Nations.”</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">UN engagement: It involves actions by the UN itself while also promoting
coordination with and support for national plans of action that address the many
inter-linked dimensions of the violent extremism and terrorism
threats.</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Real food for thought there. The UN approach at last acknowledges why
violent extremism has spread so rapidly around the world and attempts to craft
an effective response to it that, in the words of Rami Khouri, cuts out its core
drivers at the roots, rather than snipping off the buds that sprout at its
extremities.</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But if governments around the world, especially the world powers and
their allies busy fire-fighting in the Middle East, do not take these
recommendations seriously and adopt them as a global action plan, the UN
recommendations are not worth the paper they are written on.</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Doubtless, the battle ahead is long and arduous. You cannot win it by
quick-fix, dishonest tactics or by unleashing more firepower and boots on the
ground. What is really needed is serious, meaningful dialogue and
hearts-and-minds engagement between the West and the Islamic world at the civil
society level, while addressing the ideological drivers and sources of this
long-festering conflict.</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div style="color: #333333; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Email: <a href="mailto:aijaz.syed@hotmail.com" target="_blank" title="mailto:aijaz.syed@hotmail.com">aijaz.syed@hotmail.com</a></span></div>
</div>
Mike Ghousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01647894600183489442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916245415469099907.post-6403697076926684492016-01-23T12:49:00.002-08:002016-01-23T12:49:38.624-08:00The plight of Kashmiri Pundits<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.48px;"><span style="line-height: 14.124px;">No human being should endure the humiliation and injustice.</span><span style="line-height: 14.124px;"> </span><span style="line-height: 14.124px;">This is what makes the society less than civil. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 14.124px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />The suffering of Kashmiri Pundit’s is shameful, and they have been thrown out of their own homes where they lived for centuries. It is time that we the people talk about it and resettle them back in their homeland.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHgMMQv22Hnn-h5ZVTg7pcZtFZnGSpIsB6neYr-UgW5blLsHJZKOmF7DhTrmjsDq84sfFHAeAv6oM0xWAHMQvkhFT3p8c9LSYGu2Uxkz0QenJbczJDiHqBxJOrl8tz2NRMl2OiyP-lRk8c/s1600/AnupamKher.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #0d0d4a; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHgMMQv22Hnn-h5ZVTg7pcZtFZnGSpIsB6neYr-UgW5blLsHJZKOmF7DhTrmjsDq84sfFHAeAv6oM0xWAHMQvkhFT3p8c9LSYGu2Uxkz0QenJbczJDiHqBxJOrl8tz2NRMl2OiyP-lRk8c/s400/AnupamKher.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(234, 234, 234); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 14.124px;"><br />No nation should ignore injustice to her citizens. I hope Mr. Modi can take care of this, it’s long overdue. It's painful what has happened to the pundits. We have addressed this issue in our annual Holocaust and Genocides programs over the last ten years, along with many issues around the word including the Sikh Genocide, Bangladesh Genocide, Gujarat Massacre, and Burning of Dalit Villages.<br /><br />As humans, we should feel the pain for every human and rise about the religious lines; indeed, it is the sectarianism that breeds most of the conflicts.<br /><br />The menace of terrorism must be dealt with appropriately. The war on Terror will not cut it, it is the dumbest idea ever floated by Bushmen, and it has not receded, but aggravated it further. A dialogue is critical, only the powerful have the ability to shape things for common good. Only the powerful have the ability to demonstrate their civility, our government should take responsible steps to restore justice to the Kashmiri Pundits.<br /><br />Here is a video produced by Anupam Kher. </span><span style="line-height: 14.124px;"><span style="line-height: 14.124px;"><a href="https://youtu.be/P-mX7k_Z8qs" style="color: #0d0d4a; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="https://youtu.be/P-mX7k_Z8qs">https://youtu.be/P-mX7k_Z8qs</a></span></span><span style="line-height: 14.124px;"><br /><br /><br />Mike Ghouse<br />www.HolocaustandGenocides.com </span></span></div>
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Mike Ghousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01647894600183489442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916245415469099907.post-24622701348967754532015-12-17T15:40:00.002-08:002015-12-17T15:40:59.274-08:00War on Terror is the dumbest idea ever floated, there is another way to rid terrorism<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">War on Terror is the dumbest Idea ever floated | www.TheGhouseDiary.com </span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 23px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Indeed, war on Terror is the dumbest idea ever floated, there is another way to handle it; the Islamic way or through education and dialogue. </span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3jCyCwFZ44K71SWbSplqt9sEYAnL7FWJzFldmxBXYqOFKVWmVGCIP8VabOD0uDh9gMyeinduv-IoX_6EXN74xVhglwRr0AsuQeoQbFNmAR_ME4vOb8oOi2nqPkRtW08wpIEnWmPgGb73c/s1600/War.on.terror.is.the.dubmest.idea.+ever.floated.MikeGhouse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #0c0c0c; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3jCyCwFZ44K71SWbSplqt9sEYAnL7FWJzFldmxBXYqOFKVWmVGCIP8VabOD0uDh9gMyeinduv-IoX_6EXN74xVhglwRr0AsuQeoQbFNmAR_ME4vOb8oOi2nqPkRtW08wpIEnWmPgGb73c/s400/War.on.terror.is.the.dubmest.idea.+ever.floated.MikeGhouse.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid transparent; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="400" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.02px;"><span style="line-height: 23px;"><br />If a thief breaks into your home, would you ask him his religion? And if he were to say, he belongs to your faith; would you let him get away?</span></span><br style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.02px;" /><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.02px;"><span style="line-height: 23px;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.02px;"></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When a terrorist attacks and claims to be a Muslim who follows Islam, would you be gullible to buy his alibi, and look for faults with his religion rather than nailing him for his acts?<br /><br />Shouldn’t your attitude be, “Don’t give me that crap, I know your religion; it does not teach you to kill a single soul, let alone yourselves, I have read that myself. Shame on you to attempt to pass the buck to your religion, I am not buying it either! You committed the crime, you disturbed the peace, and you are going to pay for it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">God has created everything in balance and has given us the responsibility and a brain to preserve that balance between various elements of nature for our own good. The universe (planets, trees etc.) runs obediently and precisely as programmed (55:6) within the bounds of the universe (55:7), and God advises us to learn from nature, and not transgress (55:8) our limits (moderation). We have to act and preserve that God-given balance, and avoid the short cuts (55:9). Mind you, the earth is for all living beings, and for each one of the 7 billion of us (55:10).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Your act of murdering fellow humans is not an act of people who follow the Quran. Your claim to follow Quran is false and baseless. Quran 5:32 says, “If anyone slays a person, it would be as if he slew the whole people: and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">God advises how to deal with you; “Enjoin doing what is right and forbid doing what is wrong,” Quran 9:71. The wisdom is simple – God created everything in harmony and you messed it up, and it is our responsibility to forbid you from doing that, and restore harmony and cohesiveness of Allah’s creation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are not going to kill you blindly; we will give you ample notice to stop destroying Allah’s planet and his creation, and if you do not heed it, we will find you wherever you hide, ambush and kill you. However, Allah advises in the next verse to be kinder and gentler towards you if you reconsider and surrender.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you repent and bow down toward Allah’s guidance to preserve the balance, and harmony of the world around you, and enjoin doing what is right and forbid the doing of what is wrong, and keep within the bounds (respect all of his creation) set by Allah. He promises glad tidings to “all” believers (9:112), and we hope you would become a believer in the Quran that you claim.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />This will put an end to the recruitment efforts of the ISIS or Al-Qaeda and cut into the roots of terrorism. Misintpretation and mistranslations of God’s word have to be brought to an end. God is not a villain and he loves every one of his creation, period. God does not favor a single soul who is not good to his creation; life and environment.<br /><br />We have to tell the terrorist Daesh, we will gas you guys, not to hurt you, but to capture you and put you on trial and ask you to give up the false claims you are making about Islam. We will give you copies of the Quran and ask you to read and explain – not what is dished out to you by the Ulema (Scholars) of the past, but what the God-given common sense has allowed to you. We will give you a formula to study the Quran, don’t you read a singular verse, but study three before and three after the given verse to understand Quran’s wisdom to build cohesive societies. After all, Islam is about common sense and a faith of nature.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By the way, you don’t own Allah, the Prophet, Islam or the Quran. It is the book of wisdom for the whole humanity and I am not going to let you claim exclusive ownership of it. (Huffington Post "Quran is not for Muslims by Mike Ghouse").</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Blaming the religion is the dumbest thing to do, because you cannot beat, kick, hack, shoot, hang, kill or bury a religion, it’s an intangible thing my friend! You cannot do a thing about it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">War on Islam in the guise of war on terrorism, is certainly a stupid pursuit that will create more chaos and not peace. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When God created animals and humans, he gave horns, fangs and paws to the animals to resolve their disputes, but what did he give to humans? He gave us the ability to dialogue to resolve the conflicts. War should be the very last resort and should not be a sadistic venture.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If our objective is to punish the criminal (s), and cut down on more acts of terrorism, then blame the bloody individuals and make them pay for it. Obama did the right thing by nailing Bin Laden</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Restoring peace and sanity should be our goal and not bombing and creating more chaos and terror in the name of busting terror.<br /><br />Dr. Mike Ghouse is a community consultant, social scientist, thinker, writer, news maker, and a speaker on <a href="http://foundationforpluralism.com/" style="color: #0c0c0c; text-decoration: none;">Pluralism</a>, <a href="http://www.mikeghouse.net/InterfaithSpeaker_MikeGhouse.asp" style="color: #0c0c0c; text-decoration: none;">Interfaith</a>, <a href="http://www.worldmuslimcongress.com/" style="color: #0c0c0c; text-decoration: none;">Islam</a>, <a href="http://http//centerforamericanpolitics.blogspot.com/" style="color: #0c0c0c; text-decoration: none;">politics</a>, <a href="http://www.standingupforothers.com/" style="color: #0c0c0c; text-decoration: none;">human rights</a>, <a href="http://mikeghouseforindia.blogspot.com/" style="color: #0c0c0c; text-decoration: none;">India</a>, <a href="http://www.israelpalestinedialogue.com/" style="color: #0c0c0c; text-decoration: none;">Israel-Palestine</a>Terrorism and foreign policy. Over 3000 Articles have been published on the subjects. He is committed to building <a href="http://americatogetherfoundation.com/" style="color: #0c0c0c; text-decoration: none;">cohesive societies</a> and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. More about him in 63 links at www.MikeGhouse.net and bulk of his writings are at TheGhousediary.com </span></div>
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Mike Ghousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01647894600183489442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916245415469099907.post-13701308933043293032015-12-17T15:38:00.001-08:002015-12-17T15:38:48.013-08:00 Humiliation is the Root of All Terrorism by Peter Gabel <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Rabbi
Michael<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Death
with dignity is better than life with humiliation. – Maya Angelou<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">She
also said something to the effect that people will not remember hurts, but will
carry a grudge if you humiliate them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“No
one wants to be a terrorist, but if you push them to a corner and give no
options to be out of it, they only satisfaction they get is hurting you while
going down”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 150%;">War
on Terror is the dumbest idea ever floated - </span><a href="http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2015/11/war-on-terror-is-dumbest-idea-ever.html" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 150%;">http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2015/11/war-on-terror-is-dumbest-idea-ever.html</a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Editor's Note: <span style="color: #222222;">We
at Tikkun have long advocated for the adoption of a Strategy of Generosity in
US foreign policy, decisively shifting our perspective on how we relate to the
rest of the world from the "power over" approach which has failed miserably for
7000 years and produced nothing but violence and counterviolence to a deep
spiritual approach that recognizes the humanity of others and demonstrates our
care for the well-being of all who live on the planet. In the following piece
published on Truthout yesterday, our Editor-at-Large Peter Gabel offer a
philosophical foundation for that vision that shows the relationship between
healing and repairing the wounds that separate us and ending the otherwise
unending cycle of violence that causes so much human suffering. <br /><br />If you find this
compelling, help us spread the message. Join our interfaith and
secular-humanist-welcoming Network of Spiritual Progressives
www.spiritualprogressives.org/join or donate to Tikkun at www.tikkun.org/donate.
Read our proposed Global Marshall Plan which would be a massive step toward
implementing what Gabel calls for in this article. Don't just read and love this
article--join us in making it happen!!! This article will also appear in a new
section of our Tikkun home page which will assemble a variety of articles on how
best to deal with ISIS and all other forms of religious and/or nationalist
fundamentalisms and which will be updated several times a week: check it out
frequently at </span><span style="color: #222222;">www.tikkun.org/nextgen/overcomingisis <br /><br />So If you have
a strategy or want to argue against ours, please send it in an email to me.
---Rabbi Michael Lerner, Editor Tikkun
rabbilerner.tikkun@gmail.com</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Humiliation is the Root of All Terrorism by
Peter Gabel</span><br />
<br />
<div style="line-height: 1.46em !important; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 15px !important;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The
recent killings in Paris and San Bernadino have many people at once scared for
themselves and their families, angry in a way that makes some susceptible to
anti-Muslim rhetoric, and also utterly shaken that people in our own midst can
be drawn to ISIS and others who want to do us great violence for seemingly no
reason. How could anyone wish to start shooting and killing large numbers of
innocent, anonymous people in the name of restoring a patriarchal Califate from
a thousand years ago? Syed Farook was a seemingly normal county employee, an
environmental specialist earning $77,000 per year living in relative economic
comfort in southern California, recently married, and the father of a six-month
old daughter. How are we to make any sense of his and Tashfeen Malik's secret
devotion to ISIS and their decision to suddenly become mass murderers who
simultaneously effectively committed suicide, leaving their little child with
her grandmother? And how could tens of thousands of such people like these two
be massing in Syria and Iraq, ready to become martyrs for such a cause?</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.46em !important; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 15px !important;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As
compelling as these questions are, one would have to infer from the public
discussion of these killings and from the mass media that we do not really want
to know the answers. The idea that ISIS and other radical jihadis are simply
"evil," or that they "hate freedom" or are simply incomprehensible purveyors of
a "hateful ideology" (to quote the repeated formulation of Barack Obama) just
begs the question of why they are the way they are and why they believe what
they believe. To actually understand Farook and Malik and those who engage in
violent terrorism, and based on that understanding begin to do something to
change the conditions that have produced and will likely continue to produce so
much human suffering and loss, we have to attempt to grasp the terrorists'
experience of life from the inside, to see them as human just as we are, and to
see what shaped them such that their thoughts and actions make sense to
them.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.46em !important; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 15px !important;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Only
then can we develop a course of action to alter the future that is more
effective than the plan to "defeat and destroy" a large and scattered population
in a decades-long, diffuse war that will involve our children and grandchildren.
Thus please consider the following:</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.46em !important; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 15px !important;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">All
human beings are born seeking love and affirmation from others and every child
manifests this longing in a way that he or she expects to be reciprocated. We
know this from the newborn child's search for eye contact, from the fullness of
the child's vulnerability as he or she extends him or herself to mother, father,
to all others whom he or she first comes in contact with.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.46em !important; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 15px !important;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But
up to the present time, the world that children enter is not only suffused with
love and generosity and care, but is rather also corroded by fear and doubt, and
by violence, rejection, and what we might call "non-recognition."</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.46em !important; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 15px !important;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">When
a child extends him or herself toward the other with a newborn's open heart and
encounters the trauma of non-recognition of his or her humanity, often
manifested as open rejection, indifference, or even violence, the child suffers
a profoundhumiliation. Instead of the world being the embracing and loving and
affirming place that the child had been born anticipating and fully expecting,
the world becomes a traumatic environment of never-being-seen and
never-being-embraced.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.46em !important; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 15px !important;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Although
every child begins his or her life inside the small cocoon of a family of some
kind, he or she immediately encounters in every adult the legacy of the wider
world that has shaped each adult's being and that expresses the wider world's
"quality of life," its interhuman essence. Although every child is born to one
or two or a few people, that child very quickly becomes enmeshed in a vast
network of social structures and social relations, interhuman patternings that
manifest either the love and affirmation carried by true recognition and
embrace, or the humiliation and pain carried by interhuman patternings of
non-recognition, rejection, the mutual distancing of the rotating fear of the
other.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.46em !important; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 15px !important;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In
today's world, some sectors of the world's population have spent decades or
perhaps centuries impoverished and demeaned by the world's dominant groups.
Although these dominant groups have themselves acted, often unconsciously, out
of fear of the other, accumulating wealth and power to protect themselves
against others and displacing that process of self-aggrandizement onto the
supposedly neutral effects of a globalized economic market, they have in so
doing created pockets of humiliation, in which whole communities and peoples
have experienced life as discarded, unseen, uncared about, and often on the
verge of starvation. This is true of whole sectors of the Middle East, where the
rooted lives of whole communities of people were destroyed and demeaned by, for
example the imperialist carving up of the region by Western powers following
World War I, by the imposition upon them of inauthentic puppet governments, by
the rise of internal dictatorships resulting from the hierarchical and
alienating distortions of these earlier interventions.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.46em !important; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 15px !important;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Furthermore,
to the extent that members of these humiliated communities have sought escape in
Western countries, they have often found themselves ghettoized and disappointed,
in a sense re-humiliated refugees who were thrown into supposedly "free"
societies, but where there was no plan for integrating them as fully human and
for connecting them with others in a way that would have provided for them a
sense of recognition, of being seen and embraced.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.46em !important; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 15px !important;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Against
this background of profound and diffuse non-recognition and humiliation, it is
not surprising that people from these marginalized and demeaned communities
would be drawn to narrative interpretations of the world that would address and
explain theirhumiliation and offer a way out, however pathological, however much
such interpretations may involve substituting for their experience of
humiliation an imaginary vision of the world that can seem to restore each
person's sense of recognition and value, channel the rage resulting from the
long legacy of collective humiliation into purifying violence, and bring into
imaginary being the "perfect" society that once existed until being destroyed
and defiled by "unbelievers," by those who might prevent the vision from being
realized by denying or opposing it.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.46em !important; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 15px !important;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">When
terrorists engage in mass murder, they seek to reverse the dehumanization that
was done to them by dehumanizing their imagined oppressors while seeking to
bring about the redemption of an imaginary world in which they will become
healed, become recognized, become finally included and loved as they anticipated
they would be from their earliest days.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.46em !important; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 15px !important;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">To
summarize this in a simple formula: longing and vulnerability when met with
non-recognition leads to humiliation, which leadsto substitute imaginary visions
that resolve the pain of non-recognition through prideful grandiosity, perfect
unity, and dehumanization of those who dehumanized you.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.46em !important; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 15px !important;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">How
should we respond to this situation?</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.46em !important; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 15px !important;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">First
and in the short run, we must defend ourselves against harm and violence, since
there is no instantaneous way of rectifying a psycho-social problem of this
magnitude. Defending ourselves means not only engaging in whatever physical
struggle is necessary against those determined to kill us, but also finding
rational ways of protecting ourselves at home, in restaurants, in concerts and
other public gatherings.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.46em !important; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 15px !important;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But
second and most important, we must develop an approach to the problem of the
legacy of non-recognition that seeks toheal the wounds that we ourselves are
partly responsible for. This means transforming our policy toward those who have
felt humiliated by us, by our imperialist forefathers, and by our existing
institutions like the world market in such a way that we begin to truly
recognize their humanity. We should seek to eliminate hunger among the
impoverished and demeaned populations of the Middle East; we should help to
rebuild their roads, their bridges, their mosques; we should begin to relate to
these humiliated populations of the world as we always should have, with empathy
and compassion and generosity and care. We should see them as our fellow human
beings and offer them the recognition and affirmation and respect that they were
always entitled to, but which has been systematically and often ruthlessly
denied to them for decades, or even centuries, from the Crusades to World War I
to the Iraq War to the present-day exploitation for our benefit of their oil
reserves. In repair of disrupting, destroying and demeaning their historical
communities, we should enter into present community with them.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.46em !important; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 15px !important;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This
approach will not work with the most violent of our adversaries or with those
most committed to a delusional end-of-days Armageddon, but it will begin to have
an impact on those widespread communities—in the Middle East and in our own
Western cities—to whom the most violent and apocalyptic currently appeal. It
will begin to provide the "alternative ideology" that President Obama is
constantly calling for but seems unable to find. And it will gradually undermine
the appeal of the most delusional and most violent by healing the conditions
that produce their charismatic power.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 1.46em !important; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 15px !important;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The
United Nations Security Council could, if it grasped the truth of what I have
written here and wanted to address it, call a meeting <span data-term="goog_1133287017" tabindex="0">tomorrow</span> and begin.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 1.46em !important; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 15px !important;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 15px;">Peter Gabel is editor at large of
Tikkun and the author of </span><span style="line-height: 15px;">The Bank Teller and Other Essays
on the Politics of</span></span></div>
</div>
Mike Ghousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01647894600183489442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916245415469099907.post-34653516651356021692013-09-26T05:26:00.002-07:002013-09-26T05:26:34.096-07:00Five Things The Kenya Mall Attack Tells Us About Global Terrorism<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">The conclusion drawn in this piece is worth pondering, "If that pattern holds in other places, it means other terrorist
groups pushed to the brink of survival might escalate their attacks on
civilians as their political position wanes. Given the scale of horror
at Westgate, that should be a sobering thought for policymakers." </span><br />
<h1>
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/security/2013/09/23/2663651/five-things-the-kenya-mall-attack-tells-us-about-global-terrorism/">Five Things The Kenya Mall Attack Tells Us About Global Terrorism</a></span></h1>
<div class="timestamp">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span>
http://thinkprogress.org/security/2013/09/23/2663651/five-things-the-kenya-mall-attack-tells-us-about-global-terrorism/<br /><br />By <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/person/zbeauchamp/">Zack Beauchamp</a> on </span>
September 23, 2013 at 3:15 pm</span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="photo-box">
<span style="font-size: small;"><img alt="Kenya Mall Attack" src="http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/AP943049532015.jpg" /></span>
<div class="photo-credit">
<span style="font-size: small;">CREDIT: AP Photo/Ben Curtis</span></div>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><br />A small coterie of hostages <a href="http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/09/24/world/africa/kenya-presses-assault-against-militants-in-mall.html?ref=world&">still remain</a>
in the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, the last victims of Somali jihadi
group al-Shabaab’s assault on the Kenyan shopping center. What we’ve
learned about the attack in the roughly 48 hours since it began reveal
some important truths about the nature and future of transnational
terrorist organizations. Here are five of them.<br /><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><strong>1) Transnational terrorism isn’t just a Middle Eastern or Western problem.</strong>
When Americans picture terrorism, they usually think of mass casualty
attacks on Western targets or suicide bombings in Iraq or Afghanistan.
But the attack on a Kenyan shopping mall should remind us that global
terrorism is a much broader phenomenon. In 2011, the most recent year
Global Terrorism Database data are available for, there were <a href="http://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/search/Results.aspx?page=1&casualties_type=b&casualties_max=&start_year=2011&start_month=1&start_day=1&end_year=2011&end_month=12&end_day=31&dtp2=all&region=13,2,7,4,9,3,5,11,12&count=100&expanded=no&charttype=line&chart=overtime&ob=GTDID&od=desc#results-table">1,144 terrorist incidents</a> outside of North America, Western Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;">Moreover, regional terrorist organizations can have global ties, as Shabaab does with Al Qaeda. Take <a href="http://csis.org/files/publication/111101_Gordon_JemaahIslamiyah_WEB.pdf">Jemaah Islamiyah</a>
(JI), the Indonesian group responsible for the 2005 Bali bombings, as
an example. JI began in Malaysia, trained by fighting the Soviet
invasion in Afghanistan, relocated to Indonesia, and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/14/news/14iht-rebels.html">developed</a> loose strategic partnerships with the Filipino Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><strong><br />2) Jihadist groups disagree with themselves — a lot.</strong>
The Westgate attack is the first major act Shabaab has conducted under
the leadership of Ahmed Abdi Godane, who took power in June after a
bruising, not yet fully settled internal battle. The Guardian’s Simon
Tisdall <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/22/kenya-attack-power-struggle-al-shabaab">reports</a>
that Godane was the avatar of a more extreme faction inside Shabaab.
That says a lot: Shabaab already had a rep as a particularly brutal
jihadi group before the “extremists” started taking over, but it hadn’t
recently conducted a civilian attack on this scale.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;">Disagreement, including violent disagreement, is nothing new for
jihadis. In 2005, Al Qaeda commander Ayman al-Zawahiri publicly
reprimanded Al Qaeda in Iraq’s (AQI) Abu Musab al-Zarqawi for <a href="http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/zarqawis-total-war-on-iraqi-shiites-exposes-a-divide-among-sunni-jihadists">counterproductively indiscriminate attacks on civilians</a>. Al Qaeda command thinks of Shabaab’s attacks on civilians as <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/security/2013/09/22/2662191/deadly-attack-kenya-mall-sign-desperation/">similarly counterproductive</a>. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><strong><br />3) Terrorist groups learn from each other.</strong> Shabaab’s tactical plan — explosives and gunfire directed at a “soft” civilian commercial and social center — <a href="http://newindianexpress.com/editorials/Terror-in-Nairobi-similar-to-Mumbai-attack/2013/09/23/article1797972.ece">looks</a>
a lot like the 2008 Mumbai attack launched by (largely) Pakistani group
Lashkar-e-Taiba. “Modeling previous successful attacks is significant,”
Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, the author of <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bin-Ladens-Legacy-Losing-Terror/dp/1118094948">Bin Laden’s Legacy</a></em> and an expert on jihadi groups, told ThinkProgress. “This attack is, in my view, a variant of the previous attack in Mumbai.”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;">Gartensten-Ross isn’t alone in this conclusion. A <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Teaching-Terror-Strategic-Tactical-Terrorist/dp/0742540782">well-established academic literature</a>
on how terrorist groups learn supports the idea that organizations
share information with each other and study the history of other groups
in a perverse sort of “best practices” learning method.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><br />That means, according to Gartenstein-Ross, we should start worrying
about more attacks on shopping malls. “They’re of economic and symbolic
significance, hard to defend, and if you strike them successfully, it
presents the enemy with a serious question about how to respond,” he
said. “Implementing stringent security procedures tends to defeat the
purpose of shopping malls.”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><strong><br />4) Weak states might be as much of a concern as failed states.</strong>
Everyone knows about the connection between failed states and
terrorism: when there’s no government, the argument goes, there’s no one
to stop terrorist groups from setting up shop.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">But states with a weak government, like Kenya, may be vulnerable in other ways. The theory, first <a href="http://journals.hil.unb.ca/index.php/JCS/article/viewArticle/216/374">articulated</a> by Davidson College Professor Ken Menkhaus (who wrote about the Westgate attack for ThinkProgress <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/security/2013/09/22/2662191/deadly-attack-kenya-mall-sign-desperation/">on Sunday</a>),
is that operating in failed states bogs down transnational terrorist
groups in local violence and leaves them open to international
intervention. Indeed, Shabaab had been put on its heels in recent years
by a multinational intervention involving troops from <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/explosions-gunfire-at-kenyan-mall-as-armed-attack-enters-3rd-day/2013/09/23/b0b558be-2442-11e3-b3e9-d97fb087acd6_story.html">Kenya, at least three other African nations, and the United States</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Weak states, by contrast, are arguably easier for terrorist groups to
manipulate. Nations in which bribery is routinized or where borders are
policed but porous allow terrorist groups to operate outside the law
without having to contend with the total chaos that reigns in failed
states. We’re not yet sure how the Shabaab operatives got into Kenya
without being noticed, but it’s likely that the weakness of the Kenyan
government had something to do with it.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Westgate isn’t a textbook example of Menkhaus’ theory: for one thing,
Shabaab is based in the failed state, Somalia, and not the weak state,
Kenya. But Shabaab’s incursion into Kenya should make us think about the
different ways terrorist groups thrive rather than myopically focusing
on the threat posed by failed states.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><strong>5) “Winning” a war on terrorism might look a lot like losing.</strong> A group of experts on East Africa and jihadi groups asked about the Nairobi attack <a href="http://matisak.wordpress.com/2013/09/22/nairobi-attack-any-strategic-importance-for-al-shabaab/">almost universally agreed</a>
that Shabaab has been severely degraded in recent years. Westgate, the
argument goes, is evidence of the group’s fundamental weakness. They’re
attempting to use attacks on civilians to regain power they’ve lost on
the more conventional Somali battlefield.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">If that pattern holds in other places, it means other terrorist
groups pushed to the brink of survival might escalate their attacks on
civilians as their political position wanes. Given the scale of horror
at Westgate, that should be a sobering thought for policymakers.</span>Mike Ghousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01647894600183489442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916245415469099907.post-46918214217572247852011-04-14T19:25:00.001-07:002011-04-14T19:25:36.970-07:00Muslim Speaker Mike Ghouse<b><span style="color: navy; font-family: Optimum;">Muslim Speaker Mike Ghouse</span></b><br />
<span style="color: maroon; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt;">NURTURING PLURALISTIC VALUES EMBEDDED IN ISLAM </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13pt;">A Muslim Speaker, thinker, organizer and an activist committed to building cohesive societies with a belief that what is good for Muslims has got to be good for the world and vice versa to sustain peace, harmony and prosperity. <br />
<br />
To be a Muslim is to be a peace maker, one who constantly seeks to mitigate conflicts and nurtures goodwill for peaceful co-existence of humanity. God wants us to live in peace and harmony with his creation; Life and Matter. Over 1000 articles have been published on a range of topics in Islam and Pluralism. Insha Allah, a book outlining the Muslim vision is on the horizon.</span><shape adj="0,,0" coordsize="" fillcolor="#fefdfa" id="_x0000_s1026" o:spt="100" path="m200,250r,59910at200,60160,300,60260,-300,60160,200,60660l5970,60260at5970,60160,6070,60260,5970,60660,6470,60160l6070,250at5970,200,6070,300,6470,200,5970,-300l250,200at200,200,300,300,200,-300,-299,225e" stroked="f" style="height: 4533pt; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; mso-position-horizontal-relative: text; mso-position-vertical-relative: text; position: absolute; width: 468pt; z-index: 1;"> <stroke joinstyle="round"></stroke><formulas></formulas><path o:connecttype="segments"></path></shape><shape adj="0,,0" coordsize="" fillcolor="black" filled="f" id="_x0000_s1027" o:spt="100" path="m200,245r,59970at200,60160,300,60260,-300,60160,324,60644e" strokecolor="#aab123" style="height: 4533pt; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; mso-position-horizontal-relative: text; mso-position-vertical-relative: text; position: absolute; width: 468pt; z-index: 2;"><stroke joinstyle="miter" miterlimit="10"></stroke><formulas></formulas><path o:connecttype="segments"></path></shape><shape adj="0,,0" coordsize="" fillcolor="black" filled="f" id="_x0000_s1028" o:spt="100" path="m250,60260r5775,at5970,60160,6070,60260,5970,60660,6470,60160e" strokecolor="#aab123" style="height: 4533pt; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; mso-position-horizontal-relative: text; mso-position-vertical-relative: text; position: absolute; width: 468pt; z-index: 3;"><stroke joinstyle="miter" miterlimit="10"></stroke><formulas></formulas><path o:connecttype="segments"></path></shape><shape adj="0,,0" coordsize="" fillcolor="black" filled="f" id="_x0000_s1029" o:spt="100" path="m6070,60210r,-59965at5970,200,6070,300,6470,200,5970,-300e" strokecolor="#aab123" style="height: 4533pt; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; mso-position-horizontal-relative: text; mso-position-vertical-relative: text; position: absolute; width: 468pt; z-index: 4;"><stroke joinstyle="miter" miterlimit="10"></stroke><formulas></formulas><path o:connecttype="segments"></path></shape><shape adj="0,,0" coordsize="" fillcolor="black" filled="f" id="_x0000_s1030" o:spt="100" path="m6020,200r-5770,at200,200,300,300,324,-284,-284,324e" strokecolor="#aab123" style="height: 4533pt; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; mso-position-horizontal-relative: text; mso-position-vertical-relative: text; position: absolute; width: 468pt; z-index: 5;"><stroke joinstyle="miter" miterlimit="10"></stroke><formulas></formulas><path o:connecttype="segments"></path></shape><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<h3 style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><a href="" name="2995520960605150884"></a><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://muslimspeakermikeghouse.blogspot.com/2011/04/in-defense-of-islam-pursuing-civil.html"><span style="color: black;">In defense of Islam, pursuing a civil dialogue</span></a> </span></h3><h1 style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="http://www.dallasnews.com/news/columnists/steve-blow/20100919-In-defense-of-Islam-pursuing-9397.ece"><span style="color: black; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">http://www.dallasnews.com/news/columnists/steve-blow/20100919-In-defense-of-Islam-pursuing-9397.ece</span></a> <br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13pt; font-weight: normal;">Over and over you hear it said: If Muslims oppose terrorism, why don't they stand up and say it?</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span></h1><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">If that has been you, Mike Ghouse ought to be your hero.<br />
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It is hard to imagine that anyone has worked harder than the <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Carrollton</place></city> resident to demonstrate the peaceful and moderate side of Islam.<br />
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And that effort includes personally visiting <city w:st="on">Dallas</city>' <place w:st="on"><placename w:st="on">First</placename> <placename w:st="on">Baptist</placename> <placetype w:st="on">Church</placetype></place> last Sunday just to put a friendly face on the "evil, evil religion" that the Rev. Robert Jeffress denounced a few weeks before.<br />
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"It was wonderful," Ghouse said of the visit. "We were so warmly received."<br />
He hopes a quick chat with Jeffress will be the start of deeper discussion about Islam and the importance of respect between religions.<br />
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"I want to have a dialogue with him, not to say he is wrong but to share another point of view," Ghouse said.<br />
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The 57-year-old Muslim was born in <a href="http://topics.dallasnews.com/topic/India"><span style="color: black;">India</span></a> and has lived in the <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">United States</place></country-region> for 30 years. He owns a small property management firm. But most of his day is devoted to building bridges between people of different faiths.<br />
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"It is my passion," he said in his distinctive raspy voice.<br />
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He has been a guest a dozen times on <a href="http://topics.dallasnews.com/topic/Sean_Hannity"><span style="color: black;">Sean Hannity's</span></a> TV and radio talk shows. "I don't like the way Sean cuts me off, but I have to honor him for giving the American public a semblance of another point of view."<br />
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Ghouse said he can understand fear and criticism of Islam because he went through a time of similar feelings. As a teen, he was troubled by passages of the Quran. He called himself an atheist for a while.<br />
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But he said deeper study led him to realize the Quran had been purposely mistranslated down through history.<br />
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In the Middle Ages, European leaders commissioned a hostile Quran translation to foster warfare against Muslim invaders.<br />
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Later, Muslim leaders produced another translation to inflame Muslims against Christians and Jews.<br />
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"It was all for politics," he said.<br />
Ghouse said he hopes to present Jeffress with a modern, faithful translation and challenge him to find evil verses.<br />
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"If he can, I will convert. I will join his church," Ghouse said. "If he can't, I will call on him to retract his statements and become a peacemaker."<br />
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Ghouse acknowledges that deep problems persist within Islam. "Three steps forward, two steps back," he said with a sigh.<br />
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And he agrees that mainstream Muslims have not done enough to counter violent images of their faith.<br />
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"That is very true," he said. "But part of it is that many Muslims have given up hope that we will ever be heard."<br />
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He said repeated denunciations of terrorism seem to fall on deaf ears.<br />
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And some efforts have backfired - like the proposed Islamic information center in <state w:st="on"><place w:st="on">New York</place></state>. He said it should be hailed for furthering the moderate Muslim cause.<br />
Instead, it has deepened hostility toward Muslims.<br />
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I have been astounded by the amount of anti-Islam propaganda that circulates via e-mail. Tons of it has come my way in the last few weeks.<br />
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One theme is that people like Mike Ghouse can't be trusted, that Islam encourages deception.<br />
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But Ghouse says actions speak louder than words. And he points to elections in Muslim nations.<br />
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More than half of Muslims live in countries with some degree of democracy. And time and time again, Islamist parties are overwhelmingly rejected in favor of secular, mainstream parties.<br />
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"The religious parties don't get more than 3 percent of the vote," Ghouse said.<br />
Polls show deep mistrust of Muslims. "But the most important question in those surveys is: 'Do you know anything about Islam?' " Ghouse said. "Most people say no."<br />
What keeps him going is faith in Americans, he said.<br />
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"The majority of Americans, if they know the truth, they will change their minds."<br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"># # #</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">M</span></b><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">ike Ghouse is a speaker, writer, thinker, futurist and an activist of Pluralism, <place w:st="on"><city w:st="on">Islam</city>, <country-region w:st="on">India</country-region></place> and Civil Societies passionately offering pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">He is a commentator at Fox News on the Hannity show, nationally syndicated Radio shows along with Dallas TV, Print and Radio networks and occasional interviews on NPR. He has spoken at international forums including the Parliament of Worlds Religions in <city w:st="on">Melbourne</city>, Middle East Peace initiative in <city w:st="on">Jerusalem</city>, International Leadership conference in <state w:st="on">Hawaii</state>, <state w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Washington</place></state> and elsewhere. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Concerned by the divisiveness, he saw the need to bring Americans together and founded America Together Foundation committed to building a cohesive <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">America</place></country-region>, indeed it is in response to ACT America which is bent on pitching one American against the other. We will be holding series of educational programs, conferences and workshops to address the issues that divide us such as Civil Right, GLBT, Quraan, Abortion, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, Racial Profiling and Stereotyping. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The Annual Unity Day USA is in its 7<sup>th</sup> year now, it is a purposeful event to bring Americans together, </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">on this Unity Day, we the people of the <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">United States of America</place></country-region> of every faith, race, ethnicity, culture and background will gather to express our commitment to co-existence, unity, prosperity and wellbeing of our nation. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Thanksgiving Celebration is in its 15<sup>th</sup> year showcasing cultural diversity. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The 5<sup>th</sup> Annual Reflections on Holocaust and Genocides is to </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">learn and to acknowledge and reflect upon the terrible things we have inflicted upon each other and commit to avert such tragedies. Through this event non-Jewish people have consciously learned about Holocaust for the first time, it was also for the first time that people of 14 faiths came together to join in to commemorate the Holocaust that commemorated within the Jewish Community for years. They are not alone anymore in their anguish, we are all in it together with them, and it is a Muslim initiative to effect a positive change.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The programs, seminars and workshops conducted by the Foundation for Pluralism have become a part of the America Together Foundation. While the Foundation for Pluralism continues championing the idea of co-existence through respecting and accepting the otherness of other, the commitment to nurturing the pluralistic ideals embedded in Islam through the World Muslim Congress continues.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"># # #</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Fuller Profile is at:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://www.mikeghouse.net/MuslimSpeaker.MikeGhouse.asp"><span style="color: black;">http://www.mikeghouse.net/MuslimSpeaker.MikeGhouse.asp</span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Mike is working on two </span><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">books scheduled to be released this year; The American Muslim Agenda and My Journey to Pluralism.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Mike has written over 1000 Articles on Pluralism, <place w:st="on"><city w:st="on">Islam</city>, <country-region w:st="on">India</country-region></place>, Peace & Justice and civil societies published in a wide spectrum of Newspapers and Magazines around the world. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Locally, he is a panelist at Dallas Morning News's and writes weekly on a range of issues facing the nation. Washington Post, Huffington Post and other news papers and sites regularly publish his work. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Mike is available to speak on Pluralism, Islam, Civil Societies, and Peace & Justice at your place of worship, school, work place, seminars, workshops or conferences. His work is reflected at three websites & twenty two Blogs listed at <a href="http://www.mikeghouse.net/"><b><u><span style="color: black;">http://www.MikeGhouse.net/</span></u></b></a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
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</div>Mike Ghousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01647894600183489442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916245415469099907.post-60189494493703088862010-01-30T11:38:00.000-08:002010-01-30T11:39:36.482-08:00War is TerrorismAn offensive war is Terrorism,<br />An occupation against the will of the people is terrorism,<br /><br />Good to see soldiers speakup<br /><br /> <a style="COLOR: rgb(42,93,176)" title="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akm3nYN8aG8" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akm3nYN8aG8</a><br /><br /><br />Mike Ghouse<br />~~~~Mike Ghousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01647894600183489442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916245415469099907.post-44746478178777324522010-01-16T16:39:00.001-08:002010-01-16T16:39:56.813-08:00Press Release, Holocaust and Genocides in Dallas<strong><span style="font-size:130%;">PRESS RELEASE</span></strong><br />Contact: Mike Ghouse (214) 325-1916,<br />email: <a href="mailto:MikeGhouse@aol.com">MikeGhouse@aol.com</a> <br />event email: <a href="mailto:HolocaustandGenocides@gmail.com">HolocaustandGenocides@gmail.com</a> <br />Website: <a href="http://www.holocaustandgenocides.com/">http://www.holocaustandgenocides.com/</a> <br /><br /><span style="color:#cc0000;">III ANNUAL REFELCTIONS ON THE HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDES</span><br /><br />DALLAS – (January 14, 2010) –The Foundation for Pluralism announces the 7/7 speakers Panel to reflect upon the Holocaust and Genocides event at 5:00 PM on Sunday, January 24, 2010 at the Center for Spiritual Center, 4801 Spring Valley Road, Dallas, TX. 75244.<br /><br />Each individual in the seven member panel would acknowledge the inhumanity in each one of us and reflect upon the solutions for co-existence. It is a purposeful event to learn, acknowledge and reflect upon the terrible things, that we humans have inflicted upon each other.<br /><br />What can you do as individual?<br /><br />Continue: <a href="http://holocaustandgenocides.blogspot.com/2010/01/press-release-on-holocaust-and.html">http://holocaustandgenocides.blogspot.com/2010/01/press-release-on-holocaust-and.html</a> <br />~ ~ ~Mike Ghousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01647894600183489442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916245415469099907.post-16365066791658699022009-10-25T12:08:00.000-07:002009-10-25T12:10:49.076-07:00Tackling TerrorismTackling Terrorism<br /><br />Wednesday, 14 October 2009<br /><br />Edited extracts from his recent interview with Channel 4’s Jon Snow<br /><br />The lesson is that terrorism has causes ? unless the causes are addressed; you’re not facing the problem. Now a lot of it is criminal activity, and criminal activity should be punished in the legal system fairly and honestly. But unless you address the grievances, you are more or less in the position of a doctor who’s injecting a patient with poison and then asking what’s the best way to deal with the symptoms.<br /><br />That doesn’t make any sense — first stop administering the poison. There were real grievances in Northern Ireland and Britain had a substantial responsibility for them. When Britain finally stopped responding to terror with more violence, and responded to terror by addressing the grievances, there was substantial amelioration.<br /><br />The response to September 11<br /><br />After 9/11 there was overwhelming sympathy for the United States, including inside the jihadi movement. There were fatwas coming out?condemning Osama bin Laden. How did the US respond? By alienating the people who were sympathising. By invading Afghanistan and Iraq and energising the support for terror.<br /><br />That’s injecting the patient with poison. Now they’re surprised there’s an increase in terror. The response to 9/11 — as historian Michael Howard pointed out almost straight away — should have been: it’s criminal, let’s try to identify the culprits, bring them to justice and give them fair trials.<br /><br />The Bush administration refused. It’s possible that they might have been able to extradite al-Qaida and bin Laden. In fact the Taliban made ambiguous offers of extradition if the US provided evidence, which of course any country would do. The Bush administration rejected that attempt, and [said] we’re going to bomb you because you’re not handing him over to us. Well that’s a major crime that welded the jihadi movement back together; the invasion of Iraq completed the task of reconstructing a massive worldwide terrorist movement.<br /><br />Non-violent resistance in Iraq<br /><br />As late as November 2007 the official US position as stated by Bush was that any Status of Forces Agreement would have to permit an indefinite US military presence, including of course huge military bases all over, and a privileged role for US investors.<br /><br />A couple of months later, Bush was compelled to back down on all of that and, at least on paper, accept withdrawal. Well, these are tremendous victories for non-violent resistance. The US could kill insurgents, but they couldn’t deal with hundreds of thousands of people demonstrating in the streets.<br /><br />The US approach to Iran<br /><br />If someone was watching this from Mars, they’d collapse in ridicule. The United States is telling Iran to stop its aggressive militarism? I mean we occupy two countries on their border, US spending on arms is approximately equal to the rest of the world combined, we’re threatening them with attack and violation of the UN Charter and on and on. Iran hasn’t invaded anyone for, probably, centuries, except for two Arab islands that the Shah conquered with the support of the United States.<br /><br />Israel’s security problems<br /><br />Israel’s invasion of Gaza in January hadn’t the slightest pretext. They claim they had to defend themselves against rockets and that’s accepted by human rights groups and fairly generally, but it’s perfect nonsense. You don’t have a right to use force in self-defence unless you’ve exhausted peaceful means. They could have accepted a ceasefire for the first time ever.<br /><br />When they partially accepted one for a few months in 2008 there were no Hamas rockets. They do not have a security problem, except for what they are creating, so as long as they choose expansion over security, they’re going to have a security problem.<br /><br />Barack Obama’s burden of expectations<br /><br />If Barack Obama fails to live up to expectations, there are two possibilities. Kennedy also generated enormous enthusiasm, and he quickly disappointed the expectations. He had a good propaganda apparatus, but if you look at what he did, he was maybe one of the most dangerous presidents of the 20th century.<br /><br />But the energy that was generated then turned into something quite constructive: the activism of the 1960s. Kennedy certainly did not support the civil rights movement, but it was inspired by the rhetoric and it went on and ultimately he had to sign on to it. That’s one possibility.<br /><br />The other possibility is cynicism. The constructive choice is going to have to be based on a realistic understanding of what is happening, not the illusions based on marketing.<br /><br />The US democratic deficit<br /><br />The irrelevance of popular opinion in the US is quite dramatic. Take the leading domestic issue right now, which is healthcare; it’s a catastrophe. The debate that’s going on is in fact surreal in many ways, not just Sarah Palin and the death panels, but there was a front-page story in the New York Times, reporting that the Obama administration had made a secret deal with the pharmaceutical industry in which it promised not to allow the government to use its purchasing power to negotiate drug prices, as is done in every other country and as, for example, the Pentagon can do for buying paper clips.<br /><br />But it’s legally barred in the United States and that’s the major reason why drug prices are twice as high as in most of the world. About 85% of the population think we should negotiate drug prices – but they’re not even mentioned, in fact I don’t think you can even find a report of the polls.<br /><br />Progress in South America<br /><br />It’s commonly said that one of the faults of the Bush administration was that they didn’t pay attention to Latin America. That’s probably one of the greatest boons to Latin America. If the United States would stop paying attention to them, the way it does pay attention to them, they would at least have a little window for maybe moving forward.<br /><br />The US supports democracy if and only if it conforms to strategic and economic interests. In fact, what’s been happening in South America is quite impressive.<br /><br />For the first time in hundreds of years, South America is beginning at least to face some of its huge problems. In fact, in many ways, it’s the most exciting region of the world.<br /><br />The lack of action on climate change<br /><br />The climate catastrophe will mostly harm the poorer countries. It’ll be pretty awful for everyone — Boston may go under water for example — but the rich countries have ways of dealing with it. The poor countries don’t.<br /><br />The rich countries have to make a choice: are we going to choose a future in which our grandchildren can survive, or are we going to choose short-term profit for the corporate sector? So far, overwhelmingly, it’s the latter.<br /><br />The state of human rights<br /><br />Watch the video, we do not defer to any authority by Naom Chomsky<br /><a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23805.htm">http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23805.htm</a> <br /><br />I’ve always been more or less an optimist, which means starting from a very low level of expectation. I think if you look at the trajectory over a longer period, including the recent period, there is a general improvement [in human rights], not only in the Third World but even in the rich countries.<br /><br />Take say the last US election. The Democratic Party fielded two candidates, a woman and an African-American, inconceivable 30 years ago, even 20 years ago. Intellectuals don’t like to talk about it, but it’s the result of the activism of the 1960s.<br /><br />Noam Chomsky’s new book, Hope and Prospects, will be published by HamishHamilton on October 29<br />-Mike Ghousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01647894600183489442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916245415469099907.post-81860556601460353422008-12-07T16:48:00.000-08:002008-12-07T16:49:10.581-08:00Scream Bloody Murder, reflections on Holocaust and GenocidesScream Bloody Murder, reflections on Holocaust and Genocides<br /><br />You feel angry knowing that the world stood by silently when the Jews were put on the train to the gas chambers; you feel anger when the Bosnian Muslims children were given chocolates and told not to worry and go right behind and open gunfire and massacre them; you feel anger when the Canadian general sends faxes upon faxes to the United Nations to send help, while the UN and USA did not want to get involved and 800,000 Rwandans were massacred, they were even announcing on their radio how to torture pregnant women to pull out the babies… It was a difficult documentary to watch, but you must watch and face the world; you have to do your share to clean your own slate of conscience.<br /><br />Continued: <a href="http://www.foundationforpluralism.com/Articles/Scream-bloody-Murder-reflection-on-holocaust-genocides.asp">http://www.foundationforpluralism.com/Articles/Scream-bloody-Murder-reflection-on-holocaust-genocides.asp</a>Mike Ghousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01647894600183489442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916245415469099907.post-17560177254739194402008-01-27T09:57:00.000-08:002008-01-27T09:59:07.803-08:00Assassins or fighters?http://www.countercurrents.org/stewart270108.htm<br />Terrorists: Assassins <br />Or Freedom Fighters? <br /><br />By Gaither Stewart<br /><br />27 January, 2008<br />Countercurrents.org<br /><br />“When the oppressed man can find justice in no other way, then he calmly reaches up into the sky and pulls down his eternal rights that hang there, inalienable and, like the stars, imperishable. When no other means remains, then he must needs take up the sword.”<br /><br />(Friedrich Schiller, William Tell)<br /><br /><br />Daggers flashing under moonlit Middle Eastern nights. Secret societies conspiring against religious oppressors. Justice! Assassins sent from paradisiacal gardens to roam over Arabian deserts to kill in the name of the Prophet. Revenge! The skill of the kill! The contagious frenzy of killing! Kill, kill, kill! Armageddon! Oh, the fear! The terror! Stop your evil ways or in the quiet of the night the Hashshashin will exact justice. <br /><br />In the year 1090, followers of the Ismaili sect of Shia Islam occupied the mountain fortress of Alamut in the mountains south of the Caspian Sea and 100 kilometers from today’s Tehran. Under their leader Hasan I Sabbah they quickly refined killing to an art. In the West the violent sect became known by the name of Hashshashin because of their fanatical dedication to their religion. Persecuted by the Sunni branch of Islam, the Assassins left their gardens to murder leaders of their oppressors. Perhaps the name Hashshashin derived from “hashish users,” the drug they ingested before their deadly attacks. When Marco Polo on his way to China he too visited the mountain fortress and called them Ashishin. Assassins!<br /><br />The Hashshashin referred to themselves as Fedayeen, which means something quite different. The now familiar word means no less than “freedom fighters.” The term Fedayeen has been used by Arab militant groups throughout history: volunteers dedicated to causes in which the government fails to act. A lonely business from the start!<br /><br />For our purposes here, the Assassins of then were associated with resistance against foreign occupation or tyranny. And as a rule resistance is not a joyful affair. The Fedayeen made of murder a meticulous system for killing targeted individuals in public, without however, as historians note, the loss of innocent life … and they never considered suicide.<br /><br />I just read an article by T.E. Lawrence about British occupation of today’s Iraq and the resistance it caused, published in the London Sunday Times of August 2, 1920. The letter could have been written today. History repeating itself. The eternal return. Lawrence of Arabia accused the British government whose 92,000 soldiers in Iraq couldn’t control three million Arabs in “revolt” against the invader. He spoke of the British “assassination” of tens of thousands of Arabs sacrificed in the name of colonialism and the popular insurrection it had caused. Terrorism was never mentioned: only colonialist oppression and the popular insurrection of the Arabs.<br /><br />A thousand years ago and one hundred years ago and again today, there has always been confusion between terrorism and resistance. As it was for mainstream Islam, it is a point of view for today’s US administration that sees terrorists under every rock, that blames every failure on largely unidentified terrorists, and justifies each of its own nefarious crimes on generic terrorism. <br /><br />Since terrorism is most often a point of view, perhaps literature can actually deal better with that slippery terrain. Still, what Power so unceremoniously, so handily labels terrorism, has become fixed and omnipresent in our day-to-day lives. But since it is no joking matter either, we have to treat it seriously, severely … also somewhat terroristically. <br /><br />As Schiller wrote in his 1804 play, William Tell, (written in the aftermath of the French Revolution to justify tyrannicide), that which for Power anywhere and at any time is terrorism, for the oppressed will always be resistance, revolt and rebellion. RESISTANCE! Neocon America instead simplifies a complex matter. It applies the label “terrorism” to any and every form of resistance to American imperialism abroad and today, at home, Power attaches the label to dissidents and anti-globalists and anti-war protesters and no-sayers under convenient provisions of the Patriot’s Act and other such illegal and anti-Constitutional legislation. Unfortunately, history is not an American forte. <br /><br />In certain times and certain places genuine terrorism is so complex as to be an almost taboo subject. Paradoxically official USA stutters and stammers at finding a proper name for American rightwing militias, Christian fundamentalist subversives, abortion clinic bombers or Ku Klux Klan lynchers. For such groups, “terrorists” would work quite well. Yet, the streams and rivulets and byways of terrorism are so shady and labyrinthine, and government propaganda so intense, that the observer searching for truth tends to lose his way among definitions and distinctions and political correctness. <br /><br />Such built-in complications are then intensified by the difficulty of recognizing “institutional terrorism”, i.e. terrorist acts organized by the state in order to justify harsh restrictive measures and laws, authoritarianism and in the most extreme cases, war. September 11 is the clearest example of institutional terrorism, though that historic date is far from the only one. We remember sinking of the US warship Maine in the Havana harbor that justified the Spanish-American War. What about Pearl Harbor to ignite World War II? And the Bay of Tonkin for Vietnam? <br /><br />About Legitimate Resistance, the Strategy of Tension and Agents Provocateurs<br /><br />The strategy of tension is an old story; yet, after all this time, agents provocateurs continue to be strange words to the untuned American ear. Italian “terrorism” of the 1970s and 80s, coming on the heels of the youth, student and worker uprisings in revolutionary 1968, illustrate the meanings quite well. <br /><br />Terrorism is first of all defined as a method of political struggle based on the systematic use of violence—assassination, sabotage, kidnapping, and today human suicidal bombers—practiced by political extremists or by secret organizations of a nationalistic nature. <br /><br />The second aspect of the definition is less recognized: terrorism—according to my encyclopedia—is also the instrument used by a political regime to grasp and to retain power.<br /><br />A terrorist is thus a member of an organization that uses terrorism and who executes terrorist acts. <br />Or, he is a member of a regime whose existence is based on terror. Nazi Germany was a terrorist regime. Ditto Stalinist Russia. Resistance to them was sacred. Now we have the entire Neocon structure and strategy that has attacked aggressively the entire world in the name of US imperialism. By definition, it is a terrorist regime.<br /><br />By extension, terrorist crimes are both those committed in revolt against a state to damage the collective and not specific individuals and they are violent acts against an oppressive regime. <br />Again by extension, terrorist crimes are likewise the criminal acts of an oppressive regime against the oppressed. This is the key: institutional terrorism is the catalyst for “insurgency” and “resistance” throughout the world today. The short geographical list is easy to pinpoint: Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Palestine. <br /><br />Thus terrorism is the story of relationships between power/authority and its subjects, and between oppressors and oppressed. We are used to the words, power and authority, often used synonymously, as if they were equivalent. But that’s not the case at all. Power and authority are not the same thing, and the distinction between the two concepts is significant.<br />Power [pouvoir, potere, Macht] implies the faculty to act, and in our minds is related to force, coercion and violence, in the sense of “authoritarian.” That is why I like to capitalize the word Power used in that sense. When one hears the word “terrorism”, the responsibility of Power must always be in front of your eyes; otherwise you will miss the point.<br /><br />Authority instead implies legitimacy, in the sense of “legitimate authority,” or the legitimate faculty to act or perform. The distinction is between legitimate authority on one hand and crude naked power on the other. Authority can be good or evil; naked Power will never be good. As we all know, authority too, like democracy itself, is a shaky business because the criteria for who establishes and who legitimizes authority, varies from time to time and place to place. Authority and democracy stand on the edge of an abyss, perpetually menaced by power, easily transformed into authoritarianism.<br /><br />In the same way, opposition to legitimate authority and opposition to naked power/authoritarianism differ: democratic opposition to legitimate authority should suffice in a democratic setting. But when the democratic process is inhibited, more violent means become necessary. In an article “Is There A Good Terrorist” in the New York Review of Books, Timothy Garton Ash cites Schiller’s for Power pertinent lines from Wilhelm Tell:<br />“When the oppressed man can find justice in no other way, then he calmly reaches up into the sky and pulls down his eternal rights that hang there, inalienable and, like the stars, imperishable. When no other means remains, then he must needs take up the sword.”<br /><br />The reality is that you can feel horror at indiscriminate killing and bombs and kamikaze attacks and still hold to and even encourage the use of “legitimate terrorism”, that is, resistance and armed rebellion, against naked illegitimate Power. As Hezbollah learned easily in south Lebanon, armed resistance pays: it permitted the clearing of their land of Israeli occupiers. Resistance always pays! <br /><br />Some years ago, at the end of a daylong interview with me in Paris—where he was a political refugee—the former Italian terrorist theoretician, Lanfranco Pace, defined himself as “living testimony to the limits of western democracy that is a precious possession that must be constantly enriched. Democracy,” he said, “is a mobile frontier. At times there is less of it, and one must fight for it.”<br /><br />The result is that golden rule: what for the oppressed is resistance, resistance to naked power—as we see today at all latitudes peoples of the world oppressed by the tentacles of the global octopus-like market economy, by poverty and hopelessness—for the oppressor smacks of conspiracy and terrorism. Like Iraqis in 1920 and today, nationalistic Hungarians in 1956 considered themselves freedom fighters; for their Soviet oppressors they were terrorists in a conspiracy against the New Order. Like the Jewish Stern Gang in British occupied mandatory Palestine were terrorists for the occupiers, but for the Zionists were “Freedom Fighters For the Freedom of Israel.” Lack of true information still makes evaluation of the nature of Afghan resistance impossible but instinct suggests that also Taliban insurgents against the foreign invader consider themselves freedom fighters, Fedayeen, just as they were called when they were armed by the USA to fight against the Soviet invader. <br /><br />Since oppression today is global, no one should be scandalized that resistance to that power is also global. It is no surprise that three-quarters of the world is up in arms against US power—either naked military power or disguised by the misnomer, globalization. A good rule is to substitute the word globalization with imperialism. It usually works. <br /><br />The argument that problems of ethnic, religious, economic and political opposition have emerged precisely from the liberalization of political freedoms in third- and fourth-world countries brought by golden globalization rings hollow and hypocritical in the face of the testimony to the growing poverty of 4/5ths of that world. Wider political freedoms might create more spaces for rebellion and unleash wider resistance and violence, but evidently the near universal rebellion today is the effect of pervasive poverty and hopelessness, not of newly acquired freedoms. <br />Moreover, for the hungry the risks of rebellion and terrorism will always be thousands of times better than sitting in apathy and waiting. <br /><br />The origins of modern terrorism are problematic. They have been since the French Revolution. As justified as the French were to rise up against oppressive aristocratic rule and ugly poverty, Robespierre was one of the first in the modern era to up continually the ante of revolutionary goals precisely in order to increase the obstacles to their achievement and to create the necessary tensions in order to justify crushing the enemies of his power. Robespierre’s terror was transformed into naked power at work against peoples’ natural tendency toward reaction. Throughout modern times his trick of tension strategy has been used over and over by authoritarian power—used to crush opposition. <br /><br />Tension strategy is always and always a tactic of oppressors. It refers to first permitting, stimulating, organizing, or even committing terrorist acts, in order to turn around and crush all opposition to the regime.<br /><br />The use of agents provocateurs is an old story with which Americans should familiarize themselves. Old as Adam! Go out into the world and sow discord! Make the people rise up, then crush them. On an international level we are familiar with the Gulf of Tonkin as first the provocation, then the subject of “false consciousness” inculcated in the American public, and the catalyst for the Vietnam War. In recent days, the US fleet, just barely in international waters along the coast of Iran, is playing the role of provocateurs to incite Iranians to react so as to undertake the stratospheric bombing the Neocons are itching for. <br /><br />It’s an old story. Every place in the world peace movements are anti-government. Washington hates peace movements. Protesters are reviled as troublemakers, evildoers. Anyone against the war is a potential terrorist. Protest equals terrorism. The FBI infiltrates and tries to cripple the protest movement from within. It’s an old strategy—enticing protesters to criminal behavior—then arresting them. The agents provocateurs join the protesters and break store windows. It’s against the law to break store windows. So the cops beat up the demonstrators and arrest them. Sometimes agitators are police agents. They run wild in the streets. They pretend to be demonstrators. They attack the police and throw bombs. The infiltrators create tension between police and demonstrators. Anti-war marches become a kind of war. The government and its police and its press then blame the demonstrators for the violence. The best way to defame pacifists is to link them to terrorism. The public will call for law and order. And the government will crack down on all its political opponents … and go ahead with its wars. <br />(Extracted from the novel, Asheville, by Gaither Stewart)<br /><br />In most circumstances, terrorism is too weak to overcome the power of the modern state/regime. Terrorists of Italy’s Red Brigades naively believed that the state had a heart that could be attacked. They lost. As a rule, terrorists lose. Most of the European terrorist organizations that mushroomed after the world-wide student protests of 1968 were defeated, though those based on nationalistic aspirations such as ETA in Spain and IRA in Ireland, that is, resistance movements, hang on and still today raise their heads from time to time. Now, US imperialism has created an entirely new field, a new wave, a new historical framework, for resistance: across most of Latin America, the entire Middle East and Asia from Iraq to Pakistan and Afghanistan, Resistance has been born. And it will not be defeated by military force. It will not go away<br /><br />In the 1970s and 80s European secret services infiltrated and crushed the Red Brigades (Brigate Rosse) in Italy, the Red Army Faction (Rote Armee Fraktion) in Germany, and Direct Action (Action Directe) in France. In the process and in application of the strategy of tension they exploited the same terrorist organizations, keeping them alive in name in order to blame them, in the name of freedom, for the limitations placed on personal liberties. Today the name Al Qaida, the real existence of which is dubious, is used precisely in the same manner. Al Qaida is omnipresent, forever available to be blamed for institutional terrorism in order to justify all the patriot acts and no-fly lists and house searches and arbitrary arrests and detentions and tortures and concentration camps.<br /><br />BRIGATE ROSSE<br /><br />Italy’s Red Brigades [Brigate Rosse-BR] formed Europe’s biggest, best-organized and most powerful “terrorist” organization. An elitist organization emerging from the 1968 protest movement, its rank and file came from the universities and factories. It comprised the most idealistic, the best part of the nation’s youth— la miglior gioventú, according to the title of a recent film depicting that generation sparked by resistance. The BR at one time claimed the admiration and moral support of millions of Italians. <br /><br />Its organizational structure is of interest because the organizers of Al Qaida (Pakistani and US intelligence services) seem to have borrowed from it since US Special Forces just can’t seem to locate that bearded man in a cave or his cohort riding his mule over remote Afghan mountain paths. At the BR base was a brigade of up to five persons, who provided arms and logistics; the brigades formed poles, which in turn formed a city column. The columns made up fronts that directed national political operations, controlled by an eight-man strategic directorate. The supreme level was a 4-5 man executive committee that conducted international relations and made major decisions culminating in the abduction and eventual murder of ex-Prime Minister Aldo Moro. <br />The co-founder of the Red Brigades, Alberto Franceschini, told me that the Brigadists never considered themselves terrorists. They “resisted” US power in Italy and the one-party system governing the nation. Franceschini pointed out that the chance of armed rebellion inevitably increases to the degree that political power is insufficient and incapable of mediation. The first, the real Red Brigades, were the resistance born on the Left. It aimed at splitting the big Italian Communist Party vertically, recruiting its left wing, and then overturning the authoritarian state. It aimed at revolution. Yet, when police finally decided to crack down, 5000 terrorists flowed into Italy’s jails, while 500 escaped abroad, the majority to France.<br /><br /><br />What does that very Italian story mean? <br /><br />It means that Power wanted and needed the BR.<br /><br />It means also that Power knew that the Resistance understood it.<br /><br />No wonder that as time passed former leftwing terrorists came to call themselves “West European guerilla” to combat imperialist efforts to weld European countries into the homogeneous structure it has assumed today, integrated in the instrument of imperialist power, NATO. <br /><br />On a practical level, the Europe’s terrorists-guerilla lost. That partially accounts for European military forces involved today in America’s madness in Afghanistan, where Italian soldiers have fallen and only yesterday two Dutch soldiers died for neocon illusions of grandeur. <br /><br />I offer this brief look at the Red Brigades in order to show another example of tension strategy. Franceschini told me that police could have crushed them quickly; however, their existence was convenient to the corrupt, anti-Communist, anti-Soviet regime of Christian Democracy, and to its ally, the United States of America. Red terrorists everywhere were the excuse for reactionary anti-Communism during the Cold War in Europe, Asia, Africa and even more brutally in Latin America, in Chile, Uruguay and Argentina. Fantomatic red subversives, and, in the name of the defense of democracy, for a mass of anti-democratic emergency laws, high security prisons and questionable justice as has happened in the USA today. Terrorism was the excuse. Italy, in close collaboration with the CIA, became in fact a bulwark against the Soviet Union, and its government managed to keep a firm hand on the Italian Communist Party, Europe’s biggest CP. “Red” terrorism was the weapon with which authoritarian power held at bay the Communist Party, which by the 1980s had become in practice a social democratic force.<br /><br />The real Red Brigades died in the late 1970s. After their Executive Committee and/or Strategic Directorate were infiltrated by Italian and American secret services, the Red Brigades became a riddle. After reporting for many years on European terrorism and after many meetings with terrorist leaders, my guess is that it became an empty name in the service of governments and secret services.<br /><br />EPILOGUE: In this mid January, the Rome Daily, La Repubblica, got its hands on heretofore top secret documents of the British Foreign Office revealing that in 1976, the election year in which the Italian Communist Party (PCI) garnered 34% of the vote, NATO weighed a “coup d’état” in Rome to keep the Communists out of the government. One released document states verbally: “An authoritarian regime in Italy would be more acceptable than a government including Communists.”<br />According to the documentation the plan was eventually discarded for fear that the powerful workers movement in Italy would bring about a Civil War and/or fear of Soviet intervention. The coup didn’t happen, though US-backed Fascists made several weak attempts. The “Italian question” continued to be the subject of NATO, of frantic communications and secret high-level meetings. Because the NATO role was crucial in the Cold War, the mere thought of the Trojan Horse of Italian Communists in a member government made Washington shiver in horror. <br /><br />Though the coup was ruled out, US subversive intervention in its vassal state of Italy were intensified. Terrorism was always a chief avenue for US control of Italy. After the real Brigadists were arrested the CIA infiltrated and turned some leaders of the second wave of Red Brigades. Fascist terrorists meanwhile bombed trains and assassinated NATO leaders; often the Left was blamed. The US meanwhile supported the organization of the secret Gladio army that would have been Italy’s military arm after the coup. Fascist militants described to me their military training camps in Sardinia and in the Abruzzi Mountains near Rome. New prisons were pinpointed while lists were drawn up of dangerous subversives to be arrested.<br /><br />For NATO planners the recruitment of some BR leaders was the culmination of the refinement of the instruments of tension strategy. It was that late version of the Red Brigades, which in 1978 abducted and assassinated the Christian Democrat leader Aldo Moro whose strategic plan of so-called “historic compromise” foresaw Italian Communists in the national government. The Red Brigades took the full blame.<br /><br />Today, G-8 leaders label anti-globals and peace protesters “terrorists” and “enemies of democracy” and call for emergency measures against them. They arrest anti-globals right in front of the White House. Anti-globals on the other hand consider themselves non-violent freedom fighters for a better world. As a rule, police and/or police-guided, infiltrated or stimulated “terrorists” such as the Black Bloc are the aggressors against the anti-global peace movements.<br />No sane person believes that terrorism can be eradicated with military might. It is now a truism that every bomb that falls in the poor world spawns another terrorist, many of whom, unlike the Assassins of a millennium earlier, are eager to strap explosives around their bodies and blow themselves to pieces on a crowded square, place, piazza, or Platz of the rich world against the naked power that impoverishes them. If one accepts with Schiller that the oppressed will reach to the heavens to grasp their rights and resist their oppressors, then the dire warnings from Washington of more and more terrorism ring grim. <br /><br />While America-Empire allegedly searches for efficacious measures to combat terrorism, more sincere American leaders are advised to examine aspects of European experience as a guide to both what not to do, and to what can be effective. They should not be deluded: No security measures, no no-fly laws, Patriot Act measures, secret concentration camps and torture can eradicate what Power defines as terrorism and the oppressed define as resistance until America unites with the rest of the world.Mike Ghousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01647894600183489442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916245415469099907.post-13012571001366178172008-01-08T17:08:00.000-08:002008-01-08T17:21:11.686-08:00Terrorism no place in Islam<div align="center"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#000099;">Terrorism has no place in Islam.</span></strong><br />Mohammed Irtaza - </div><br />In the name of God, Most Beneficent, Most Merciful<br /><br />"O you who believe, do not consume each others properties illicitly - only mutually acceptable transactions are permitted. You shall not kill yourselves. God is Merciful towards you." (Quran 4:29)<br /><br />Terrorism has no place in Islam. This is the reminder of the Quran -<br /><br />"We made a covenant with you, that you shall not shed your blood, nor shall you evict each other from your homes. You agreed and bore witness." (Quran 2:84)<br /><br />The traits of the believers are reflected in jihad and not in terrorism as understood from these verses -<br /><br />"They avoid gross sins and vice, and when angered they forgive. They respond to their Lord by observing the Contact Prayers (Salat). Their affairs are decided after due consultation among themselves, and from our provisions to them they give (to charity). When gross injustice befalls them, they stand up for their rights. Although the just requital for an injustice is an equivalent retribution, those who pardon and maintain righteousness are rewarded by God. He does not love the unjust. Certainly, those who stand up for their rights, when injustice befalls them, are not committing any error. The wrong ones are those who treat the people unjustly, and resort to aggression without provocation. These have incurred a painful retribution. Resorting to patience and forgiveness reflects a true strength of character." (Quran 42:37-43)<br /><br />Innocent people are victims of terrorism. Killing innocent people is prohibited and condemned (Quran 17:33; 6:151; 25:68). One such verse states -<br /><br />"You shall not kill any person - for God has made life sacred - except in the course of justice. If one is killed unjustly, then we give his heir authority to enforce justice. Thus he shall not exceed the limits in avenging the murder; he will be helped." (Quran 17:33)<br /><br />Suicide attack, which is part of terrorism, is also prohibited as understood from this verse<br /><br />- "O you who believe, do not consume each others properties illicitly - only mutually acceptable transactions are permitted. You shall not kill yourselves. God is Merciful towards you." (Quran 4:29)<br />Grossness of murder can be understood from this verse -<br /><br />"Because of this, we decreed for the Children of Israel that anyone who murders any person who had not committed murder or horrendous crimes, it shall be as if he murdered all the people. And anyone who spares a life, it shall be as if he spared the lives of all the people. Our messengers went to them with clear proofs and revelations, but most of them, after all this, are still transgressing." (Quran 5:32)<br /><br />The Quran does not promote fighting but friendship with those who do not fight with believers on religious issues -<br /><br />"God does not enjoin you from befriending those who do not fight you because of religion, and do not evict you from your homes. You may befriend them and be equitable towards them. God loves the equitable." (Quran 60:8)<br /><br />The Quran promotes peace and it shows the way to establish the same -<br /><br />"If they resort to peace, so shall you, and put your trust in God. He is the Hearer, the Omniscient." (Quran 8:61) Another verse states - "...Therefore, if they leave you alone, refrain from fighting you, and offer you peace, then God gives you no excuse to fight them" (Quran 4:90)<br /><br />As the part of the peace process, the Quran urges on the polite treatment of captives -<br /><br />They donate their favorite food to the poor, the orphan, and the captive. "We feed you for the sake of God; we expect no reward from you, nor thanks." (Quran 76:8-9)<br /><br />The Quran teaches us how to treat the non fighting enemies in their territories -<br /><br />"If one of the idol worshipers sought safe passage with you, you shall grant him safe passage, so that he can hear the word of God, then send him back to his place of security. That is because they are people who do not know." (Quran 9:6)<br /><br />The Quran teaches us to honor covenants with others -<br /><br />"You shall fulfill your covenant with God when you make such a covenant. You shall not violate the oaths after swearing (by God) to carry them out, for you have made God a guarantor for you. God knows everything you do. Do not be like the knitter who unravels her strong knitting into piles of flimsy yarn. This is your example if you abuse the oaths to take advantage of one another. Whether one group is larger than the other, God thus puts you to the test. He will surely show you on the Day of Resurrection everything you had disputed." (Quran 16:91-92)<br /><br />We may need to fight back only when gross injustice is committed, -<br /><br />"You may fight in the cause of God against those who attack you, but do not aggress. God does not love the aggressors. You may kill those who wage war against you, and you may evict them whence they evicted you. Oppression is worse than murder. Do not fight them at the Sacred Masjid, unless they attack you therein. If they attack you, you may kill them. This is the just retribution for those disbelievers. If they refrain, then God is Forgiver, Most Merciful. You may also fight them to eliminate oppression, and to worship God freely. If they refrain, you shall not aggress; aggression is permitted only against the aggressors." (Quran 2:190- 193)<br /><br />Jihad is needed only when peaceful solution fails -<br /><br />"If it were not for God's support of some people against others, there would be chaos on earth. But God showers His grace upon the people." (Quran 2:251)<br /><br />The Quran allows to fight only if the terms of the treaty is violated-<br /><br />"If they violate their oaths after pledging to keep their covenants, and attack your religion, you may fight the leaders of paganism - "you are no longer bound by your covenant with them - that they may refrain." (Quran 9":12)<br /><br />Jihad should be waged only for the cause of God and weak people who were persecuted and oppressed. It is the duty of every believer to support people like these and relieve them from oppression -<br /><br />"those who believe are fighting for the cause of God, while those who disbelieve are fighting for the cause of tyranny. Therefore, you shall fight the devil's allies; the devil's power is nil." (Quran 4:76)<br /><br />War should be tolerated only to drive away aggression and tyranny -<br /><br />"Permission is granted to those who are being persecuted, since injustice has befallen them, and God is certainly able to support them. They were evicted from their homes unjustly, for no reason other than saying, "Our Lord is God." If it were not for God's supporting of some people against others, monasteries, churches, synagogues, and masjids - where the name of God is commemorated frequently - would have been destroyed. Absolutely, God supports those who support Him. God is Powerful, Almighty." (Quran 22:39-40)<br /><br />The Quran urges believers to fight in the cause of God, without any worldly intentions -<br /><br />"Those who readily fight in the cause of God are those who forsake this world in favor of the Hereafter. Whoever fight in the cause of God, then gets killed, or attains victory, we will surely grant him a great recompense. Why should you not fight in the cause of God when weak men, women, and children are imploring: "Our Lord, deliver us from this community whose people are oppressive, and be You our Lord and Master." (Quran 4:74-75)<br /><br />Victory should not lead to expansion or dominance but to advocate and establish righteousness -<br /><br />"They are those who, if we appointed them as rulers on earth, they would establish the Contact Prayers and the obligatory charity, and would advocate righteousness and forbid evil. God is the ultimate ruler." (Quran 22:41)<br /><br />Killing innocent people is forbidden according to the Prophet Muhammed's best hadith Quran -<br /><br />"You shall not kill - God has made life sacred - except in the course of justice." (Quran 6:151)<br /><br />And this is the Quranic rulings on the righteous Jews -<br /><br />"Surely, those who believe, those who are Jewish, the Christians, the converts; anyone who (1) believes in God, and (2) believes in the Hereafter, and (3) leads a righteous life, will receive their recompense from their Lord; they have nothing to fear, nor will they grieve." (Quran 2:62)<br /><br />Sadly, hadiths were fabricated after the death of the Prophet -<br /><br />"We have permitted the enemies of every prophet - human and jinn devils - to inspire in each other fancy words, in order to deceive. Had your Lord willed, they would not have done it. You shall disregard them and their fabrications." (Quran 6:112)<br /><br />The following fabricated hadith portrays Muhammad as a disbeliever and a Jew hater who promoted crimes against humanity!!!<br /><br />Narrated Abu Huraira:Allah's Apostle said, "The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say, "O Muslim ! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him." (Vol 4, Book 52, No. 177 translated by M. Muhsin)<br /><br />I read a similar hadith against Kahrijites -<br /><br />"Kill them wherever you find them. If I get them, I will kill them." (Bukhari, Moslem) - page 55 - Kashfush Subhat by Seikh Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab - translated in Bangla by Abdul Motin Salafi - Ministry of Religious Affair - Saudi Arabia.<br /><br />Please note that Kahrijites were the first Muslim dissidents and rebels, being present almost from the dawn of Islam. Like later dissidents, they chose to separate themselves from the main body of believers, feeling that the majority of Muslims had lost the true path.<br /><br />Is it not the time now to study the Quran by ourselves ? Is it not the time now to verify the authenticity of the faiths that we inherited from our parents with the help of the Quranic study ? Is it not the most important duty in our life ? Should we not take it seriously ?<br /><br />Thanks and God bless<br />M. IrtazaMike Ghousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01647894600183489442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916245415469099907.post-59179561057223529192007-10-24T21:12:00.000-07:002007-10-24T21:18:49.124-07:00Israeli ViolationsA list of UN Resolutions against "Israel"<br /><br />Here is a list of UN resolutions that Israel has not complied. As far as I know they have ignored every single resolution. But the situation is far worse than would at first appear, it involves the serious distortion of the official Security Council record by the profligate use by the United States of its veto power. (See Table)<br /><br />Israel's defiance goes back to its very beginnings. This collection of resolutions criticizing Israel is unmatched by the record of any other nation.<br /><br />1955-1992:<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">* Resolution 106: " . . . 'condemns' Israel for Gaza raid".<br />* Resolution 111: " . . . 'condemns' Israel for raid on Syria that killed fifty-six people".<br />* Resolution 127: " . . . 'recommends' Israel suspends it's 'no-man's zone' in Jerusalem".<br />* Resolution 162: " . . . 'urges' Israel to comply with UN decisions".<br />* Resolution 171: " . . . determines flagrant violations' by Israel in its attack on Syria".<br />* Resolution 228: " . . . 'censures' Israel for its attack on Samu in the West Bank, then under Jordanian control".<br />* Resolution 237: " . . . 'urges' Israel to allow return of new 1967 Palestinian refugees".<br />* Resolution 248: " . . . 'condemns' Israel for its massive attack on Karameh in Jordan".<br />* Resolution 250: " . . . 'calls' on Israel to refrain from holding military parade in Jerusalem".<br />* Resolution 251: " . . . 'deeply deplores' Israeli military parade in Jerusalem in defiance of <br />* Resolution 252: " . . . 'declares invalid' Israel's acts to unify Jerusalem as Jewish capital".<br />* Resolution 256: " . . . 'condemns' Israeli raids on Jordan as 'flagrant violation".<br />* Resolution 259: " . . . 'deplores' Israel's refusal to accept UN mission to probe occupation".<br />* Resolution 262: " . . . 'condemns' Israel for attack on Beirut airport".<br />* Resolution 265: " . . . 'condemns' Israel for air attacks for Salt in Jordan".<br />* Resolution 267: " . . . 'censures' Israel for administrative acts to change the status of Jerusalem".<br />*Resolution 270: " . . . 'condemns' Israel for air attacks on villages in southern Lebanon".<br />* Resolution 271: " . . . 'condemns' Israel's failure to obey UN resolutions on Jerusalem".<br />* Resolution 279: " . . . 'demands' withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon".<br />* Resolution 280: " . . . 'condemns' Israeli's attacks against Lebanon".<br />* Resolution 285: " . . . 'demands' immediate Israeli withdrawal form Lebanon".<br />* Resolution 298: " . . . 'deplores' Israel's changing of the status of Jerusalem".<br />* Resolution 313: " . . . 'demands' that Israel stop attacks against Lebanon".<br />* Resolution 316: " . . . 'condemns' Israel for repeated attacks on Lebanon".<br />* Resolution 317: " . . . 'deplores' Israel's refusal to release Arabs abducted in Lebanon".<br />* Resolution 332: " . . . 'condemns' Israel's repeated attacks against Lebanon".<br />* Resolution 337: " . . . 'condemns' Israel for violating Lebanon's sovereignty".<br />* Resolution 347: " . . . 'condemns' Israeli attacks on Lebanon".<br />* Resolution 425: " . . . 'calls' on Israel to withdraw its forces from Lebanon".<br />* Resolution 427: " . . . 'calls' on Israel to complete its withdrawal from Lebanon.<br />* Resolution 444: " . . . 'deplores' Israel's lack of cooperation with UN peacekeeping forces".<br />* Resolution 446: " . . . 'determines' that Israeli settlements are a 'serious<br />obstruction' to peace and calls on Israel to abide by the Fourth Geneva Convention".<br />* Resolution 450: " . . . 'calls' on Israel to stop attacking Lebanon".<br />* Resolution 452: " . . . 'calls' on Israel to cease building settlements in occupied territories".<br />* Resolution 465: " . . . 'deplores' Israel's settlements and asks all member states not to assist Israel's settlements program".<br />* Resolution 467: " . . . 'strongly deplores' Israel's military intervention in Lebanon".<br />* Resolution 468: " . . . 'calls' on Israel to rescind illegal expulsions of two Palestinian mayors and a judge and to facilitate their return".<br />* Resolution 469: " . . . 'strongly deplores' Israel's failure to observe the council's order not to deport Palestinians".<br />* Resolution 471: " . . . 'expresses deep concern' at Israel's failure to abide by the Fourth Geneva Convention".<br />* Resolution 476: " . . . 'reiterates' that Israel's claim to Jerusalem are 'null and void'".<br />* Resolution 478: " . . . 'censures (Israel) in the strongest terms' for its claim to Jerusalem in its 'Basic Law'".<br />* Resolution 484: " . . . 'declares it imperative' that Israel re-admit two deported Palestinian mayors".<br />* Resolution 487: " . . . 'strongly condemns' Israel for its attack on Iraq's<br />nuclear facility".<br />* Resolution 497: " . . . 'decides' that Israel's annexation of Syria's Golan Heights is 'null and void' and demands that Israel rescinds its decision forthwith".<br />* Resolution 498: " . . . 'calls' on Israel to withdraw from Lebanon".<br />* Resolution 501: " . . . 'calls' on Israel to stop attacks against Lebanon and withdraw its troops".<br />* Resolution 509: " . . . 'demands' that Israel withdraw its forces forthwith and unconditionally from Lebanon".<br />* Resolution 515: " . . . 'demands' that Israel lift its siege of Beirut and<br />allow food supplies to be brought in".<br />* Resolution 517: " . . . 'censures' Israel for failing to obey UN resolutions and demands that Israel withdraw its forces from Lebanon".<br />* Resolution 518: " . . . 'demands' that Israel cooperate fully with UN forces in Lebanon".<br />* Resolution 520: " . . . 'condemns' Israel's attack into West Beirut".<br />* Resolution 573: " . . . 'condemns' Israel 'vigorously' for bombing Tunisia in attack on PLO headquarters.<br />* Resolution 587: " . . . 'takes note' of previous calls on Israel to withdraw its forces from Lebanon and urges all parties to withdraw".<br />* Resolution 592: " . . . 'strongly deplores' the killing of Palestinian students at Bir Zeit University by Israeli troops".<br />* Resolution 605: " . . . 'strongly deplores' Israel's policies and practices denying the human rights of Palestinians.<br />* Resolution 607: " . . . 'calls' on Israel not to deport Palestinians and strongly requests it to abide by the Fourth Geneva Convention.<br />* Resolution 608: " . . . 'deeply regrets' that Israel has defied the United Nations and deported Palestinian civilians".<br />* Resolution 636: " . . . 'deeply regrets' Israeli deportation of Palestinian civilians.<br />* Resolution 641: " . . . 'deplores' Israel's continuing deportation of Palestinians.<br />* Resolution 672: " . . . 'condemns' Israel for violence against Palestinians at the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount.<br />* Resolution 673: " . . . 'deplores' Israel's refusal to cooperate with the United Nations.<br />* Resolution 681: " . . . 'deplores' Israel's resumption of the deportation of Palestinians.<br />* Resolution 694: " . . . 'deplores' Israel's deportation of Palestinians and calls on it to ensure their safe and immediate return.<br />* Resolution 726: " . . . 'strongly condemns' Israel's deportation of Palestinians.<br />* Resolution 799: ". . . 'strongly condemns' Israel's deportation of 413 Palestinians and calls for there immediate return.<br /></span><br />1993 to 1995<br />UNGA Res 50/21 - The Middle East Peace Process (Dec 12, 1995)<br />UNGA Res 50/22 - The Situation in the Middle East (Dec 12, 1995)<br />UNGA Res 49/35 - Assistance to Palestinian Refugees (Jan 30 1995) l<br />UNGA Res 49/36 - Human Rights of Palestinian Refugees (Jan 30 1995)<br />UNGA Res 49/62 - Question of Palestine (Feb 3 1995)<br />UNGA Res 49/78 - Nuclear Proliferation in Mideast (Jan 11 1995)<br />UNGA Res 49/87 - Situation in the Middle East (Feb 7 1995)<br />UNGA Res 49/88 - The Middle East Peace Process (Feb 7 1995)<br />UNGA Res 49/149- Palestinian Right- Self-Determination (Feb 7 1995)<br />UNGA Res 48/213 - Assistance to Palestinian Refugees (Mar 15, 1994)<br />UNGA Res 48/40 - UNRWA for Palestinian Refugees (Dec 13, 1993)<br />UNGA Res 48/41 - Human Rights in the Territories (Dec 10 1993)<br />UNGA Res 48/58 - The Middle East Peace Process (Dec 14 1993)<br />UNGA Res 48/59 - The Situation in the Middle East (Dec 14 1993)<br />UNGA Res 48/71 - Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Mideast (Dec 16 1993)<br />UNGA Res 48/78 - Israeli Nuclear Armanent (Dec 16 1993)<br />UNGA Res 48/94 - Self-Determination & Independence (Dec 20 1993)<br />UNGA Res 48/124- Non-interference in Elections (Dec 20 1993)<br />UNGA Res 48/158- Question of Palestine (Dec 20 1993)<br />UNGA Res 48/212- Repercussions of Israeli Settlements (Dec 21 1993)<br />==========+++===========<br /><br />U.S. Vetoes of UN Resolutions Critical of Israel<br />(1972-2002)<br />--------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />Vetoes: 1972-1982<br />Subject Date & Meeting US Rep Casting Veto Vote<br />Palestine: Syrian-Lebanese Complaint. 3 power draft resolution 2/10784 9/10/1972 Bush 13-1, 1<br />Palestine: Examination of Middle East Situation. 8-power draft resolution (S/10974) 7/2/1973 Scali 13-1, 0 (China not partic.)<br />Palestine: Egyptian-Lebanese Complaint. 5-power draft power resolution (S/11898) 12/8/1975 Moynihan 13-1, 1<br />Palestine: Middle East Problem, including Palestinian question. 6-power draft resolution (S/11940) 1/26/1976 Moynihan 9-1,3 (China & Libya not partic.)<br />Palestine: Situation in Occupied Arab Territories. 5-power draft resolution (S/12022) 3/25/1976 Scranton 14-1,0<br />Palestine: Report on Committee on Rights of Palestinian People. 4-power draft resolution (S/121119) 6/29/1976 Sherer 10-1,4<br />Palestine: Palestinian Rights. Tunisian draft resolution. (S/13911) 4/30/1980 McHenry 10-1,4<br />Palestine: Golan Heights. Jordan draft resolution. (S/14832/Rev. 2) 1/20/1982 Kirkpatrick 9-1,5<br />Palestine: Situation in Occupied Territories, Jordan draft resolution (S/14943) 4/2/1982 Lichenstein 13-1,1<br />Palestine: Incident at the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. 4-power draft resolution 4/20/1982 Kirpatrick 14-1, 0<br />Palestine: Conflict in Lebanon. Spain draft resolution. (S/15185) 6/8/1982 Kirpatrick 14-1,0<br />Palestine: Conflict in Lebanon. France draft resolution. (S/15255/Rev. 2) 6/26/1982 Lichenstein 14-1<br />Palestine: Conflict in Lebanon. USSR draft resolution. (S/15347/Rev. 1, as orally amended) 8/6/1982 Lichenstein 11-1,3<br />Palestine: Situation in Occupied Territories, 20-power draft resolution (S/15895) 8/2/1983 Lichenstein 13-1,1<br /><br />Security Council Vetoes/Negative voting 1983-present<br />Subject Date Vote<br />Occupied Arab Territories: Wholesale condemnation of Israeli settlement policies - not adopted 1983<br />S. Lebanon: Condemns Israeli action in southern Lebanon. S/16732 9/6/1984 Vetoed: 13-1 (U.S.), with 1 abstention (UK)<br />Occupied Territories: Deplores "repressive measures" by Israel against Arab population. S/19459. 9/13/1985 Vetoed: 10-1 (U.S.), with 4 abstentions (Australia, Denmark, UK, France)<br />Lebanon: Condemns Israeli practices against civilians in southern Lebanon. S/17000. 3/12/1985 Vetoed: 11-1 (U.S.), with 3 abstentions (Australia, Denmark, UK)<br />Occupied Territories: Calls upon Israel to respect Muslim holy places. S/17769/Rev. 1 1/30/1986 Â Vetoed: 13-1 (US), with one abstention (Thailand)<br />Lebanon: Condemns Israeli practices against civilians in southern Lebanon. S/17730/Rev. 2. 1/17/1986 Vetoed: 11-1 (U.S.), with 3 abstentions (Australia, Denmark, UK)<br />Libya/Israel: Condemns Israeli interception of Libyan plane. S/17796/Rev. 1. 2/6/1986 Vetoed: 10 -1 (US), with 4 abstentions (Australia, Denmark, France, UK)<br />Lebanon: Draft strongly deplored repeated Israeli attacks against Lebanese territory and other measures and practices against the civilian population; (S/19434) 1/18/1988 vetoed 13-1 (US), with 1 abstention (UK)<br />Lebanon: Draft condemned recent invasion by Israeli forces of Southern Lebanon and repeated a call for the immediate withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Lebanese territory;Â (S/19868) 5/10/1988 vetoed 14-1 (US)<br />Lebanon: Draft strongly deplored the recent Israeli attack against Lebanese territory on 9 December 1988; (S/20322) 12/14/1988 vetoed 14-1 (US)<br />Occupied territories: Draft called on Israel to accept de jure applicability of the 4th Geneva Convention;Â (S/19466) 1988 vetoed 14-1 (US)<br />Occupied territories: Draft urged Israel to abide by the Fourth Geneva Convention, rescind the order to deport Palestinian civilians, and condemned policies and practices of Israel that violate the human rights of the Palestinian people in the occupied territories;Â (S/19780) 1988 vetoed 14-1 (US)<br />Occupied territories: Strongly deplored Israeli policies and practices in the occupied territories, and strongly deplored also Israel's continued disregard of relevant Security Council decisions. 2/17/1989 Vetoed 14-1 (US)<br />Occupied territories: Condemned Israeli policies and practices in the occupied territories. 6/9/1989 Vetoed 14-1 (US)<br />Occupied territories: Deplored Israel's policies and practices in the occupied territories. 11/7/1989 Vetoed 14-1 (US)<br />Occupied territories: NAM draft resolution to create a commission and send three security council members to Rishon Lezion, where an Israeli gunmen shot down seven Palestinian workers. 5/31/1990 Vetoed 14-1 (US)<br />Middle East: Confirms that the expropriation of land by Israel in East Jerusalem is invalid and in violation of relevant Security Council resolutions and provisions of the Fourth Geneva convention; expresses support of peace process, including the Declaration of Principles of 9/13/1993 5/17/1995 Vetoed 14-1 (US)<br />Middle East: Calls upon Israeli authorities to refrain from all actions or measures, including settlement activities. 3/7/1997 Vetoed 14-1 (US)<br />Middle East: Demands that Israel cease construction of the settlement in east Jerusalem (called Jabal Abu Ghneim by the Palestinians and Har Homa by Israel), as well as all the other Israeli settlement activity in the occupied territories 3/21/1997 Vetoed 13-1,1 (US)<br />Call for UN Observers Force in West Bank, Gaza 3/27/2001 Vetoed 9-1 (US),<br />with four abstentions<br />(Britain, France, Ireland and Norway)<br />Condemned acts of terror, demanded an end to violence and the establishment of a monitoring mechanism to bring in observers. 12/15/2001 Vetoed 12-1 (US)<br />with two abstentions (Britain and Norway)<br /><br />--------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />Source: U.S. State DepartmentMike Ghousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01647894600183489442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916245415469099907.post-6473985636905114342007-10-23T19:35:00.001-07:002007-10-23T19:36:28.340-07:00Horowitz's Islamo-fascism<div align="left">Let our actions and words reflect conflict reduction and peace building. You and I can expect peace in the World, only, if you and I act and talk peace.<br /><br />May God direct Mr. Horowitz's energy towards creating peaceful societies, and he may find satisfaction in doing it.<br /><br />Mike Ghouse </div><div align="center"><br /><br /><strong><span style="color:#000099;"><span style="font-size:130%;">David Horowitz's and Islamo-fascism</span><br /></span></strong><a href="http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/43816.html">http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/43816.html</a> </div><br /><br />Gary Leupp: David Horowitz's misguided campaign against so-called "Islamo-Fascism"<br />Source: Counterpunch (10-10-07)<br /><br />[Gary Leupp is Professor of History at Tufts University, and Adjunct Professor of Comparative Religion. He is the author of Servants, Shophands and Laborers in in the Cities of Tokugawa Japan; Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan; and Interracial Intimacy in Japan: Western Men and Japanese Women, 1543-1900. He is also a contributor to CounterPunch's merciless chronicle of the wars on Iraq, Afghanistan and Yugoslavia, Imperial Crusades.]<br /><br />With much fanfare, a collection of far-right ideologues backed by right-wing "think tank" money are proclaiming an "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week" on college campuses beginning Oct. 22. It is a calculated effort to vilify Islam in general, place Muslim Student Associations on the defensive, and generate support for further U.S. military action in the Islamic world.<br /><br />Muslims constitute about a quarter of the world's population and around two percent of the U.S. population. They include members of many ethnic groups. Arabs are a minority in the Muslim world; the most populous Muslim countries (Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh) are non-Arab. The Muslim world is complex and divided, religiously (into Sunni, Shiite, and other groups) and politically. There are Muslim absolute monarchies, constitutional monarchies, secular states and Islamic republics. To understand this world, one needs to dispassionately examine it, avoiding stereotypes.<br /><br />But immediately after 9-11, the Bush administration, having no patience with "nuance," set about trying to link the secular republic of Iraq with the (mostly Saudi) al-Qaeda religious fanatics. It believe that having been attacked by al-Qaeda most Americans would support an attack on the completely unrelated target of Iraq. But what did al-Qaeda and Iraq have in common? The former hated the latter for its suppression of Islamic religious activism, and its tolerance for Christians and other religious minorities. But somehow Bush was able to conflate the two, so that even today about a third of Americans believe Saddam was involved in 9-11. Those on the Christian right are most inclined to this view, and to embrace sentiments like those expressed by right-wing extremist Ann Coulter in National Review Sept. 13, 2001: "We should invade [Muslim] countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity." But they're joined by secular neoconservatives like Norman Podhoretz who has called on Bush to bomb Iran, which he calls "the currently main center of the Islamofascist ideology."<br /><br />Iran is another country with no ties to 9-11 or al-Qaeda, and indeed a mortal enemy of the latter. But it is another Muslim state in the Bush administration's crosshairs, along with Syria-yet another, very different, Muslim country. It's in this context, and that of general disillusionment with the Iraq War, that the radical neoconservatives are pushing this "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week." It's the brainchild of David Horowitz, professional "former leftist" and Fox News commentator, proponent of the Iraq War who called one antiwar demonstration in 2002 "100,000 Communists," and author of a book attacking college professors as "far left" in general. He founded (as a non-student in his 60s) "Students for Academic Freedom" which insists that conservative students are treated unfairly in academe. Horowitz is known for his 1990s ads in student newspapers protesting calls for reparations for slavery, stating that African-Americans should be thankful that they're here. In 2003 he maligned Rachel Corrie, killed by an Israeli military bulldozer while protesting a house demolition in Gaza, as a "terrorist" supporter. He is not about spreading "awareness" but selectively focusing on aspects of the Muslim world that might produce sympathy for more U.S.-sponsored "regime change."<br /><br />The "Islam-Fascism Awareness Week" strategy is apparently to focus on gender inequality in the Muslim world. Participating students invite women's groups and gaylesbian groups to get involved, hoping to build a united front of general indignation at Islamic oppression of women and gays. Of course, in the Muslim world the status of women varies; under Saddam's secular Iraqi women were subject to no dress code, were among the best educated in the Arab world, and served in government, while under U.S. occupation their status (and that of gays) has plummeted. There is a big difference between the status of women in Syria and in Saudi Arabia. Recall how Laura Bush made a big deal about the burqa in Afghanistan, implying that the U.S. invasion would somehow remove it? It's still worn by the great majority of Afghan women. It was not invented by the Taliban and has not disappeared just because the U.S. has installed a client regime.<br /><br />The term "Islamofascism" itself---popularized by Eliot Cohen (Condi Rice's deputy), Frank J. Gaffney and other neocon writers for the National Review, and used by President Bush in saber-rattling speeches---is highly problematic. It's defined by the New Oxford American Dictionary as "a controversial term equating some modern Islamic movements with the European fascist movements of the early twentieth century." I teach every year Japanese fascism in the 1930s and 40s. I discuss different definitions of fascism, pointing out how some seem to fit the Japanese case, while others don't, causing some scholars to even reject application of the term. But there is precious little in any mainstream scholarly definition of fascism that applies to the Islamic world in general or even specific countries. What "ideology" links the disparate targets of this administration-the al-Qaeda and Taliban Sunni fanatics, the Baathists of Iraq and Syria, the Shiite mullocracy"guided democracy" of Iran---other than the common denominator of Islam? But you can't in polite company attack Islam in general, so you dub it "Islamofascism."<br /><br />Those seeking to link contemporary Islam with European fascism emphasize feelings of victimization and dreams of restoring lost glory. But where in the Muslim world is the charismatic leader? Bin Laden? The Baathists and Shiites hate him. Where's the mass-based party? Where's ultranationalism or racism? Islam emphasizes the equality of peoples before God, while the Qur'an explicitly states that righteous Christians and Jews will enter Paradise.<br /><br />The real intention here is to couple "Islam" with a powerful epithet, devoid of analytical content, conjuring up images of a universally detested past. Bush insists on comparing the constitutionally weak Iranian President Ahmadinejad, leading a country that hasn't attacked another in hundreds of years, with Hitler (as his father compared Saddam to Hitler). Similarly, the proponents of the "Islamofascism" concept want to play upon emotions rather than really spread "awareness." Their historical analogies are absurd, while their planned week is more than an affront to Muslims. It is an insult to everybody's intelligence.Mike Ghousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01647894600183489442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916245415469099907.post-79448198642129603802007-10-23T19:33:00.000-07:002007-10-23T19:34:25.160-07:00Horowitz Spreads FearDavid Horrowitz Intends to Spread Fear, Hatred<br /><br />This coming Monday, brace yourself for the excitement and thrills brought to you by the David Horowitz Freedom Center's "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week," beginning Oct. 22 and ending Oct. 26.<br /><br />This fun-filled week will feature an array of speakers, films, enlightening literature and the opportunity to participate in a sit-in. Student organizers can choose from a delightful list of speakers, including:<br /><br />Mark Steyn, a man who calls himself a "culturalist" rather than a "racist" for finding Western culture preferable to Arab culture and who supports immigration with the condition of assimilation.<br /><br />Phyllis Chesler, a professor of women's studies who wrote of the new anti-Semitism, which essentially encompasses anyone opposed to Israel's policies.<br /><br />And, if you're really lucky, like students at the University of Southern California, Ann Coulter, who once referred to Muslims as "ragheads" and is now apparently crusading for Muslim women's rights.<br /><br />The point of Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week is to spread the word about what Horowitz calls the two "Big lies of the left," that President Bush created the War on Terror and that global warming is a bigger problem than the threat of terrorism to our national security. Horowitz, author of the Academic Bill of Rights and a proponent of bringing a "diversity" of viewpoints to the college campus, totes the week as one which will bring attention to suppression of women's rights and Islamic attacks on Christians, Jewish peoples, gays and atheists. And of course, who better to discuss gay rights than suggested speaker Rick Santorum, who once compared consensual gay sex to polygamy and incest?<br /><br />The Freedom Center will provide all materials necessary to any college student willing to host a week at their campus, including a pre-made petition - which unabashedly invites Muslim student associations to support the freedom of Americans from Muslim terrorists.<br /><br />Horowitz warns that some college administrations, which he has criticized for years as supporting viewpoint discrimination in favor of liberal perspectives, might "refuse necessary permits or room reservations, and otherwise demonstrate their hypocrisy by failing to allow patriotic students a voice on campus." Because, as you can see, this is what it means to be patriotic, supporting the complete and utter insult on our intellect this conservative-think-tank-fueled week brings to us.<br /><br />SOURCE: The Minnesota DailyMike Ghousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01647894600183489442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916245415469099907.post-9869609386294851852007-10-12T22:30:00.000-07:002007-10-12T22:32:11.514-07:00Hindutva - TerrorismSaturday, October 13, 2007<br /><br />DOCUMENTATION<br />THE MILLI GAZETTE, NEW DELHI<br /><br />Hindutva —Terrorism's new signature<br />By Subhash Gatade<br /><br />May it be the suicide bombers of LTTE or the jihadists of Al Qaeda or ET guerillas working for a Basque region or the remnants of the Khalistani terrorists or for that matter terrorism unleashed by groups owning allegiance to the Hindutva brigade, the phenomenon of terrorism could be said to span every community or country in different measures.<br /><br />India, has also of late witnessed a spurt in terrorist attacks. Recently we were told India stands among the top five countries of the world which are susceptible to a terrorist attack.<br /><br />While nobody can deny the role of jihadi terrorists belonging to the likes of Lashkar-e-Toiba or Jaish-e-Mohammad in many such bloody and inhuman incidents, one feels pertrubed over the mono-chromatic presentation of such a complex phenomenon where green tends to dominate the rest. The conspiracy of silence over the phenomenon of what is known in popular parlance as 'Hindutva terrorism' needs to be questioned and confronted. ...The fanatics who spread violence in the name of religion are worse than terrorists and more dangerous than an alien enemy... (Quoted in the Supreme Court judgement in the Best Bakery Case)<br /><br />I<br /><br />Nanded, a city in Maharashtra, which has a significant population of different religious communities — Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs as well as Buddhists — should ideally have become a new metaphor for secularism as it is enlivened/practised in Indian subcontinent.<br />But sadly it is not so!<br /><br /><br />In fact, it represents today the newly emergent danger of majoritarian terrorism with due support from a section of the state machinery. A place which was once witness to the last days of Guru Gobind Singh, the last of the Sikh Gurus, has today metamorphosed itself into an important epicentre of Hindutva terrorist activities.<br /><br /><br />It was evident in two explosions the city witnessed within a span of nine months (April 2006 and February 2007) at the house of activists of RSS/Bajrang Dal and Shiv Sena resulting in death of four people. Arrival of Nanded on the 'terror' map of India was followed by exposures about some earlier incidents as well — which similarly showed involvement of Hindu youths in terrorist actions.<br /><br /><br />Of course the story does not begin and end at Nanded nor can it be said that it is a Maharashtra centric phenomenon. Ex-chief minister of Madhya Pradesh Digvijay Singh has on record admitted the involvement of groups/individuals affiliated with RSS in some similar acts in Madhya Pradesh. One can also look for similar leads in different extreme actions undertaken by the Hindu right.<br /><br /><br />The biggest problem in this connection seems to be the near absence of Muslims or Sikhs in the different intelligence wings of the government. As a cover story in the weekly newsmagazine 'Outlook' titled 'Muslims and Sikhs Need Not Apply' ( Saikat Datta, Nov 13, 2006) puts it barring IB (Intelligence Bureau) which has a handful of Muslim officers none of the other wings of intelligence even have a single Muslim officer in its ranks. 1<br /><br /><br />II<br /><br /><br /><br />Individuals associated with Hindutva outfits like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bajrang Dal are developing terror networks in north Maharashtra targeting the region's Muslim population. ...<br /><br /><br />The narco-analysis and brain-mapping reports, which are with Tehelka, reveal that the accused were being aided by state-level VHP and Bajrang Dal officials to execute bomb blasts at mosques in Parbhani, Jalna and Purna in central Maharashtra... (Shaswat Gupta Ray, The Tehelka, December 30, 2006)<br /><br /><br />An exclusive report 'Nanded Blast: The Hindu Hand' by Shashwat Gupta Ray ( www.tehelka.com) which revealed the manner in which local Sangh Parivar members were installing their own terror networks did not cause any furore.<br /><br /><br />Of course the reaction was on expected lines. In fact one had witnessed similar 'conspiracy of silence' when the actual blast had occured (6 th April 2006) in a house belonging to an old activist of RSS called Laxman Rajkondwar. The explosion had snuffed lives out of two youngsters who happened to be members of RSS/ Bajrang Dal. While Himanshu Panse, was found to be blown into pieces where his hands and legs literally lied scattered; Naresh, son of the houseowner had succumbed to injuries in the chest. Three youngsters who were later admitted to a hospital had suffered serious body injuries.<br /><br /><br />To be precise, it was the time when L.K.Advani's Bharat Suraksha Yatra was to enter the state of Maharashtra. A raid on one of the deceased's house had recovered dresses and caps normally worn by Muslims in the area and also some maps of mosques in nearby districts. One of the accused Rahul confessed to having made bombs earlier.<br /><br /><br />The idea was to attack mosques and Gurudwaras wearing those dresses and instigate a communal conflict. The expectation was that the community under attack would retaliate and a full scale riot would ensue. The only thing needed was explosives in one form or other which could cause maximum damage to the places hit. The making of bombs in a house owned by a old RSS activists who supposedly dealt in firecrackers also seemed rather perfect..<br /><br /><br />Part of the Nizam's state till its annexation, Nanded has had a history of communal tensions which have aggravated since the demolition of Babri Mosque.(1992) While Hindu's comprised the majority (5 lakhs), Muslims came second (2 lakhs) and Sikhs came third (l Lakh). The city had witnessed communal riots in the beginning of the year 2004 also when a group of miscreants riding a motorcycle had thrown bombs into a large congregation of Muslims in Parbhani, a city not very far from Nanded where they had assembled for their Friday prayers. While embers at Parbhani had died down soon, it took time for the police to control the situation in other cities and towns in Marathwada then, including Nanded. The miscreants who had thrown bombs in the congregation could never be found then. Incidentally the narco test of the accused in Nanded blasts revealed that this group of Hindu terrorists had only executed the criminal attack in Parbhani.<br /><br /><br />The most disturbing thing about the Nanded blasts is the lack of sincerity on part of the investigating agencies in pursuing the case, despite getting enough evidence that district and state leaders of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and RSS were involved in conceiving and executing the plan.<br /><br /><br />As the investigation done by People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and other democratic rights organisations ( www.pucl.org) make it clear the district administration even saw to it that the news of the blasts did not get wide coverage outside. They also allegedly pressurised the local media not to follow the case further after the initial hoopla was over.<br /><br /><br />The local police itself made contradictory statements initially and did not deem it necessary to make arrests in the initial stages. The leniency shown by the police towards these terrorist activities of a new kind was evident also from the fact that it did not invoke the more stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act and National Security Act which could have made their bail difficult.<br /><br /><br />And despite knowing the sensitive nature of the case, the CBI, a federal investigating agency also expressed its inability to conduct the investigations at its own level. In fact, when the honourable court was deliberating on a petition filed by some social organisations about the tardy investigations in the case, it filed a suo motu affidavit in the high court about its inability to take up the case as it was 'overburdened' and has 'limited hands to deal with such cases'. ( It is a different matter that later it was asked to investigate the case.)<br /><br /><br />The cumulative effect of all these half-hearted interventions albeit a 'secular dispensation' at the state and centre clearly demonstrated the kid-glove treatment meted out to the terrorists of the Hindutva variety. Secular activists rightly raised a question that if the bomb explosion would have occurred in a predominantly minority area and the involvement of some 'fanatic' Islamic group could be detected, whether the reaction would have been similar?<br /><br /><br /><br />III<br /><br /><br />Jalgaon: (Maharashtra) Police is learnt to have seized explosive material from a residential complex in MIDC area. According to senior officials, during a police raid on Someshwar Somani's house police recovered 26 bags of ammonium nitrate, 500 detonators,13 centrifuges etc which was meant for sale. ( Jansatta, 30 January 2007)<br /><br /><br />The cavalier manner in which probe in the Nanded blasts were undertaken could be said to have prepared the ground for stepping up of similar activities in the area. A possible explosive incident in an area not very far from the site of the first blast merely nine months after the first blast rather demonstrated this fact in a strong manner.<br /><br /><br />The said accident occurred, on February 10, 2007, at about 12.15 a.m. which killed 28-year-old Pandurang Ameelkanthwar on the spot as the biscuit boxes he was carrying exploded. His cousin, Dhaneshwar Manikwar, who sustained 72 per cent burns, died on February 16 at the JJ Hospital in Mumbai. The deceased Ameelkanthwar happened to be ex Shakha Pramukh (Branch head) of Shiv Sena and was associated with Bajrang Dal at the time of his death and hailed from an area called Rangargalli in Nanded which is a hotbed of rightwing Hindu outfits.<br /><br /><br />Preliminary findings of Concerned Citizens Inquiry conducted by Justice Kolse-Patil, Teesta Setalvad and others which went to the site with a forensic expert, interviewed people around the area, spoke to the owner of the house, the civil surgeon, fire brigade officials, and senior police officials, contradict the tentative conclusions of the administration. According to them it was not a fire accident, as it was made out to be, rather a possible explosive accident. ( The Hindu, Thursday, Feb 22, 2007)<br /><br /><br />Neighbours from the locality where the explosion occurred shared with the team some important information pertaining to the incident. According to them there was a third person present at the spot who also got injured in the explosion (who does not find mention in the FIR) and a police officer who is part of the investigation actually supervised seizing and spiriting away of critical evidentiary material from the spot.<br /><br /><br />The fact finding team also noted that Dhaneshwar Manikwar, one of the accused who later died in the hospital presented two versions about the cause of the accident. Initially he attributed the accident to the impact of a short circuit. Twenty hours later, he is learnt to have told the police that the two cousins had tried to set the godown on fire supposedly to claim insurance monies from the company.<br /><br /><br />It also felt that the state police, especially the Superintendent of Police and Inspector General of Police appeared to be in 'undue haste to close all possibilities of a possible liquid substance driven explosion, preferring to quote oral findings of forensic experts from Aurangabad who are reported to have told them that it was a petrol-ignited fire.'. And despite the fact that the massive explosion had thrown the iron shutter of the godown to a distance of 40 feet they insisted on calling it a petrol-ignited fire.<br /><br /><br />The fact finding team inferred that 'it was not a planned explosion but an impact explosion created due to the handling of large stocks of explosive/flammable materials stored here. This handling could have been for transportation to another place.'<br /><br /><br />But one of the most shocking observations which the team placed before the people is the 'nexus between some police officials and the rightwing Hindu outfits'. For the investigating team: "There is preliminary evidence to suggest some nexus between some police officials and the outfits that are using Nanded and the nearby belt to generate explosives and terror. Incidentally, Inspector Ramesh Bhurewar of the Nanded Police Station who is at the forefront of the present investigation was in charge of the investigation into the Parbhani blasts in which one person died and 40 were injured when similar low intensity explosives were placed in a mosque on April 25, 2003. He arrested no one during the long investigations. The FIR, shockingly, was only registered after a legislator, Fauzia Khan (NCP), raised a question in the State Assembly.<br /><br /><br /><br />Thereafter the inspector had closed the file (16/2003 dated 21.11.2003). He stated in his report that there were no accused in the matter. Following the Nanded blasts of April 2006 and brain mapping tests that the police conducted (see Annexures) dated 19.07.2006,the accused admitted to having placed the bombs at Parbhani. The Nanded and state police are hence guilty of underplaying crimes wherein members of the minority community are the victims, causing a loss of face for the state police."( www.sabrang.com)<br /><br /><br />The fact finding team demanded that central government should keep a close watch and monitor the increasing low intensity terror generating activities being conducted by political outfits that are misusing the Hindu religion. Independent investigations under a team of officers known for their utter professionalism and neutrality are a must, an impartial inquiry into the Nanded incidents, Malegaon, and the Parbhani and Purna blasts needs to be instituted, which is open to the public, to first and foremost investigate whether state intelligence and police agencies are professional and neutral in investigating instances of politically driven Hindu Right wing terrorism.<br /><br /><br />Nanded I followed by Nanded II, the saga of 'terrorist acts' involving activists / sympathisers of the Hindu extremist organisations does not end here. Post-independent history is replete with examples showing their participation in aggravating communal situation, targetting a particular community, aiding and abetting a riot.<br /><br /><br /><br />IV<br /><br /><br />'Aklera (Rajasthan): It couldn't be less subtle. A bright saffron board welcomes you to the ''Ideal Hindu Village'', Mishroli. Nestled in picturesque green surroundings, the village has acquired this tag just this month. The past 10 days have seen armed Bajrang Dal activists on the rampage, driving out about 25 Muslim families from their homes, ransacking their houses and setting them on fire.'('Bajrang Dal activists made a village in Rajasthan Muslim free'. The Indian Express, 29 September, 2003)<br /><br /><br />Amidst the ongoing controversy over the UPA Government's first anniversary celebration, not many took note of the Union Human Resources Development Ministry's significant decision to stop grants to 'Ekal Vidyalayas' (one-teacher schools) run by the so-called Friends of Tribal Society (FTS), in collaboration with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), in the tribal belts of the country.<br /><br /><br />The decision follows a study, which revealed that the FTS which was provided assistance by the erstwhile NDA Government since 1999-2000 under the "Innovative and Experimental Education Component of the Education Guarantee Scheme and Alternative & Innovative Education," was "misusing these funds and using the grants for creating disharmony amongst religious groups and creating a political cadre". ("Another Blow to V.H.P," by Mukundan C Menon, www.islaminterfaith.org)<br /><br /><br />It was only two years back that a website belonging to Terrorism Research Centre (TRC www.terrorism.com), a East Virginia based centre dealing with 'Terrorism and security related studies' declared Rashtriya Swaymsevak Sangh (RSS) a 'terrorist organisation' and lumped it together with a host of jihadi and secessionist outfits. The said list of 'known terrorist groups in India' on the website bracketed RSS along with other 'known names' in the field namely Al Badr, Al Mujaheedeen, Lashkar-e-Toiba to the likes of ULFA to the Hizb ul Mujahedin.2 The most baffling part of the whole episode as far as ordinary workers of the Parivar was concerned was that TRC was closely connected to the American government. The credibility of this centre vis-a-vis US government can be gauged from the fact that many of its directors and researchers have closely worked with US administration.<br /><br /><br />Coming close on the heels of the visa denial episode wherein Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat was not allowed to travel to USA by the US government, this much larger indictment of the very raison d'etre of the Parivar albeit by an institute close to the powers that be did leave the Sangh bosses seething with anger. It is worth noting in this connection that it took more than eight months for the RSS to formally react to this assessment of the TRC. Although the Times of India (TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, MAY 27, 2005 08:18:15 AM ] carried a report about the same in its print as well as electronic edition, even a cursory glance at the website of TRC communicated then that the name of the RSS was added to the list way back in September 2004. Milli Gazette, a fortnightly published from Delhi, had even reported about the same in its print edition in 16-30 Sept 2004 issue.<br /><br /><br />Of course without going into the merits of the Terrorism Research Centre's nuanced observations vis-à-vis the RSS which demands a more detailed treatment of the matter, it would be good if we discern earlier records to see whether it is for the first time that the Hindutva brigade or any of its allied organisations or their activities have earned opprobrium under the 'terrorist' category.<br /><br /><br />It was only two years back that the US State department added internet sites of certain organisations to the 'foreign terrorist organisations' list when "four Jewish Web sites were deemed 'terrorist' (Jerry Seper, The Washington Times)". Of course the unusual alliance between radical Jewish groups with Hindutva groups bringing together two extreme religious philosophies from different parts of the world is premised on the fact that they share a distant common enemy namely the Muslims. The report stated: Four Internet Web sites operated by two extremist Jewish groups have been included by the State Department on its list of "foreign terrorist organizations" - the first time the list has been extended to include Internet sites.<br /><br /><br />The listing, which went unnoticed when announced Oct. 3 in the department's annual re-designation of the world's terrorist organizations, includes the four sites operated by the Kach and its offshoot, the Kahane Chai, both of which have been designated by the department as terrorist organizations.<br /><br /><br />Interestingly one of these, i.e., www.kahane.org ( http://www.rediffmail.com/cgi-bin/red.cgi?red =www%2Ekahane%2Eorg) has had an important relationship with Hinduunity.org.( which 'Promotes and Supports Ideals of Bajrang Dal : VHP youth with Bharat) The Hinduunity.org site then still showed a prominent hyperlink to the www.kahane.org site.Secular activists in the states had known for long that, the website of Hinduunity.org was hosted by Kahane.org. on a common server and bear the same IP address. The particulars were: devserver.gwsystems.co.il (67.153.104.163) (Ref. Notice recently published in the Federal Register (Federal Register: October 10, 2003 (Volume 68, Number 197) page: 58738-58739))<br /><br /><br />Four and half years back secular activists in the USA had after a painstaking work brought out a report 'Funding Hate' which had exposed the linkages between the funds collected by IDRF (an umbrella organisation floated by Hindutva brigade) which collected money in USA and the way the money thus collected goes into sponsoring sectarian violence in India. A news item published in 'Financial Times, London had boldly stated 'Cut the flow of funds to instigators of sectarian violence' (( INDIA'S HARD MEN, page 16, 24 Feb. 2003 (no author's name given)). It need be noted that it was not alone in raising its voice against the modus operandi of the Hindutva formations in Western countries which supposedly had been aiding and abetting sectarian violence at home. The report unambiguously stated: A year ago India was scarred by some of the worst sectarian violence since partition, when up to 2000 Muslims were killed in pogroms in the western state of Gujarat, ostensibly sparked by an arson attack by Muslims on a train that killed 59 Hindu activists. Human rights organisations in India, the U.S. and Europe implicated two organisations in the well-orchestrated attacks, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP or World Hindu Council) and its youth off shoot, the Bajrang Dal (devotees of the monkey-god Hanuman).<br /><br /><br />Now a Financial Times investigation has established that these groups receive extensive funding from Indians abroad, collected mainly as tax-free charity donations to front organisations in the U.S. and U.K.. This fund-raising is increasingly coming under scrutiny. So it should - as should the links between these groups and India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).<br /><br /><br />Behind the VHP and Bajrang Dal stands a quasi-paramilitary body, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS or Association of National Volunteers), which is the mother organisation of the Hindu revivalist BJP. Described by Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime minister, as "an Indian version of fascism", the RSS is at the centre of a protean network of front organizations. This structure facilitates arm's-length money-raising. It also makes it easier for the RSS to deny it is inciting agitation against Muslims and Christians.<br /><br /><br />Of course IDRF (India Development and Relief Fund), the US based charity organisation also presented a report in defence of itself against charges made in a report published last year that it was closely affiliated to the RSS and raised funds for sectarian causes in India. (Not funding hate, says IDRF, Hindu June 15, 2003) but that did not carry much ice and it was largely ignored in the media.<br /><br /><br /><br />V<br /><br /><br />"...The Chief Minister said that the proof he has, is the candid admission by the RSS workers who had been arrested earlier. Singh was speaking to media persons here at the airport. He said that the arrested RSS workers in their statement had said that they had planted bombs at a programme in Bhopal. He revealed that in 1993 when the bomb was being made in Seva Bharti office in Neemuch, it exploded..." ("CM ready to provide proof of Bomb making by RSS," Central Chronicle, 11 Sept 2003).<br /><br /><br />Can it be said that the involvement of RSS and its affiliated organisations in acts which could be construed as terrorist in nature is a recent phenomenon or it has a long history behind it. Close watchers of the organisation since its inception have always watched with scepticism many of its activities which in today's understanding of things could be construed as 'terrorist acts'. e.g. making communally sensitive speeches which culminate in riot-like situation or taking out a religious procession from an area which is inhabited mainly by 'others' and provoke people to engage in violence. The manner in which its founding leaders supported 'ethnic cleansing' of Jews by Hitler and also proposed application of similar steps here could also be interpreted as supporting 'terrorism'.<br /><br /><br />Coming to concrete 'terrorist acts' a notable example of involvement of RSS on the eve of partition itself pertains to the infamous 'Shikarpur bomb blasts' which saw deaths of two RSS activists.3<br /><br /><br />An article on 'RSS in Sindh : 1942-48' (Rita Kothari, July 8-15, 2006, Economic and Political Weekly) gives details of this bomb blast in the Shikarpur Colony of Karachi which witnessed deaths of two RSS activists Prabhu Badlani and Vasudev. According to her<br />....[I]n the Shikarpur colony of Karachi, the house of one Raibahadur Tolaram became the hideout for this cadre. The house was ostensibly taken over for tutoring students, and this turned out to be perfect camouflage for making bombs. The secret operation was going smoothly until on August 14, when a powerful bomb accidentally exploded. It blew two swayamsewaks and the house to pieces. The two young men who died were Prabhu Badlani and Vasudev. The local police swooped down on the premises. All but one escaped. He was imprisoned and tortured for several months, until he was exchanged for another prisoner of war in 1949. There are contradictory opinions about the precise identity of this prisoner and his connections with the RSS.<br /><br /><br />As she tells us the aim of the whole operation which involved manufacturing of bombs with 'intense preparations on part of 21 young men' was 'to blow up a few government structures before leaving'.<br /><br /><br />The memoirs of Rajeshwar Dayal, who happened to be Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh at the time of partition provides shocking details of another kind. It gives damning evidence of RSS chief Golwalkar's plans to stage a pogrom of Muslims. It is a different matter that despite a clear-cut case against Golwalkar, the then Chief Minister of UP Gobind Ballabh Pant refused to order his arrest. Taking advantage of this wavering on part of the government, Golwalkar promptly absconded and could be arrested only after Gandhi's assassination.<br /><br /><br />According to him: 'When communal tension was still at fever pitch, the DIG of Police of the Western Range, B.L. Jaitely, arrived at my house in great secrecy. He was accompanied by two of his officers who brought with them two large steel trunks securely locked. When the trunks were opened, they revealed the incontrovertible evidence of a dastardly conspiracy to create a communal holocaust throughout the western districts of the province. The trunks were crammed with blueprints of great accuracy and professionalism of every town and village in that vast area, prominently marking out the Muslim localities and habitations......<br /><br /><br />Timely raids conducted on the premises of the RSS had brought the conspiracy to light. The whole plot had been concerted under the direction and supervision of the Supremo of the organisation. Both Jaitley and I pressed for the immediate arrest of the prime accused, Shri Golwalkar, who was still in the area.' (Rajeswhwar Dayal, A Life of Our Times (Delhi : Orient Longmans, 1999 pp. 93-94)<br /><br /><br /><br />Terrorism's New Signature<br /><br /><br />Details of Recent blasts in Maharashtra which were allegedly executed by Hindutva terrorists:<br /><br /><br />- Parbhani blast at Mohammadiya Masjid, Rehmat Nagar, on Friday, November 21, 2003 , main accused Sanjay, Panse, Wagh or Widulkar<br /><br /><br />- Purna (district Parbhani) blast at Meraj-ul-Uloom Madarsa and Masjid, Siddharth Nagar on Friday, August 2004, main accused are Sanjay and Tuptewar.<br /><br /><br />- Jalna blast at Quadriya Masjid, Sadar Bazar, August 27, 2004, Wagh is the only accused<br /><br /><br />- Nanded blast - the bomb that exploded in Nanded on 6th April 2006 was supposed to explode at Aurangabad mosque on Friday, April 7, all the above accused were involved in planning that blast.<br /><br /><br />- Malegaon blasts also occurred on Shab-e-barat, a prominent day for Muslims on Friday, September 8, 2006.<br /><br /><br />A point worth noting is that all these blasts in central Maharashtra (including the ones in Malegaon on September 8) occurred between 1.45pm and 2.00pm at the most prominent mosque in these towns, just after the Friday prayers, when attendance is maximum.<br />(Source: The Tehelka, "Nanded Blast: The Hindu Hand")<br /><br />--------------------------<br /><br /><br /><br />Timely raids conducted on the premises of the RSS had brought the conspiracy to light. The whole plot had been concerted under the direction and supervision of the Supremo of the organisation. Both Jaitley and I pressed for the immediate arrest of the prime accused, Shri Golwalkar, who was still in the area.' (Rajeswhwar Dayal, A Life of Our Times (Delhi: Orient Longmans, 1999 pp. 93-94)<br /><br /><br />Pyarelal, Secretary of Mahatma Gandhi during those tumultuous times tells us, 'It was common knowledge that the RSS ...had been behind the bulk of the killings in the city (Delhi) as also in various other parts of India.' ( Mahatma Gandhi: The Last Phase, Navajivan Publishing House, Vol II, p.439)<br /><br /><br /><br />Different commissions of enquiry which looked into communal riots in post-independent India throw enough light on the role of RSS and other affiliated organisations in the trouble. May it be the Justic P. Jagmohan Reddy Commission of Enquiry which looked into riots in Ahmedabad and other places of Gujarat (1969) or Justic Madon Commission which analysed the riots in Bhiwandi, Maharashtra in early seventies or the Justice Vidhayathil Commission which probed the Tellichery riots ( 1971) etc., most of these commissions of enquiry have provided details of the involvement of RSS or (its mass political platform) Bharatiya Jana Sangh or other affiliated organisations in fomenting trouble. Justice Venugopal's report on the Kanyakumari riots of 1982 severely indicts the RSS for its role in fomenting riots against the Christians. A joint report by Justice Sinha and Shamsul Hasan on the Bhagalpur riots also censures the RSS.<br /><br /><br />To illustrate how the RSS has received severe indictment at the hands of judges who looked into disturbances, we could refer to Justice Venugopal as an example who sat on the commission which inquired into the communal flare up in Kanyakumari district in March 1982. According to Justice Venugopal, "The RSS adopts a militant and aggressive attitude and sets itself as the champion of what it considers to be the rights of Hindus against minorities. It has taken upon itself the task to teach the minority their place and if they are not willing to learn their place, teach them a lesson. The RSS has given respectability to communalism and communal riots and demoralize administration."<br /><br /><br />According to Justic Venugopal, the RSS methodology for provoking communal violence is: rousing communal feelings in the majority community, deepening fear in the majority community, infiltrating into the administration, training young people of the majority community in the use of weapons, spreading rumours to widen communal cleavage. Commenting on the shakhas which are organised under the name of physical training, it tells us " The aim behind these activities appear to be to inculcate an attitude of militancy and training for any kind of civil strife'" (Quoted in The RSS and The BJP - A.G. Noorani, Leftword, 2000, Delhi, p. 9).<br /><br /><br /><br />VI<br /><br /><br />It is a sad commentary on our times that despite a 'secular coalition' holding reins of power at the centre and in many states one does not see any sincere attempt to move beyond post 9/11 mythology vis-à-vis terrorism which stigmatises and demonises Islam and Muslims.<br /><br /><br />One finds oneself in a peculiar situation where it is difficult to decipher any qualitative difference between the 'secular' Congress and the 'communal' BJP over their response to any terrorist act. We have been witness to the dilly-dallying adopted by the Congress after the Nanded blasts or Malegaon bomb blast, but the same Congress led government had no qualms in targetting Muslims as a community after the July 2006 bomb blasts in Bombay.5<br /><br /><br /><br />A logical fallout of this situation has been the failure to address terrorism unleashed by Hindutva activists/formations. Malegaon bomb blast (8th September 2006) was one of those rare occasions when even Prime Minister acknowledged the possibility that the Sangh Parivar organizations could have a role in the blast. Emphasising the need to investigate the functioning of the Hindu Rightwing formations he clearly stated that he could not confirm or rule out the possibility of the involvement of Bajrang Dal in the bloody act at Malegaon. He made this calibrated statement en route to Havana, while going for the NAM summit.4<br /><br /><br />Post Malegaon bomb blast investigation underlined the gravity of the situation further. The police recovered bomb shells and 195 kgms RDX from some Shankar Shelke's shop on 16th September. This man whose godown had stocked this was found dead the next day and an employee of his was absconding. Similarly the recovery of more than 300 Kgms of ammonium nitrate, timers and fusers from the house of a Sarpanch of a village few kms from Aurangabad also went unnoticed.<br /><br /><br />Interestingly the nation could never know all these details pertaining to the extremist Hindutva groups.<br /><br /><br />One possible reason behind the ostrich like position vis-a-vis Hindutva terrorism could be that in this era of electoral democracy nobody wants to displease the broad masses of Hindu people whom these activists/formations claim to represent. With a rightward shift in the polity where one witnesses a new common sense about Hindutva getting wider legitimacy, one hardly notices any questioning over the deliberate cover up of Hindutva terrorism.<br /><br /><br />It is high time that more and more people get to know about these criminal/anti-human actions of the Hindutva terrorists. The mischievous and highly motivated understanding that a particular community, region or religious ideology is more prone or more susceptible towards what is known in popular parlance as 'terrorism' or 'terrorist activities' should be refuted at all costs. People need to be convinced there is no qualitative difference between terrorist acts committed by suicide bombers of LTTE or the jihadists of Al Qaeda or Khalistani terrorists, or adopted by followers of Hindutva formations. It would be the first step in their ultimate dissolution.<br /><br /><br /><br />Notes and references<br /><br /><br />1. From 1969 till today- RAW's current staff strength is about 10,000-it has avoided recruiting any Muslim officer. Neither has the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO), a crucial arm of external intelligence. The Intelligence Bureau (IB) with 12,000 personnel has been a little more open. It has a handful of Muslim officers, the senior-most is a joint director.'<br /><br /><br />2. New Delhi: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is furious with an American think-tank for declaring it a terrorist organisation and lumping it with a host of jihadi organisations and secessionist outfits.<br /><br /><br /><br />The Sangh leadership has written to the Terrorism Research Centre, protesting against the "terrorist" tag, but is yet to get a response.....<br /><br /><br />The 38 shortlisted to give the Sangh company include jihadi biggies like Lashkar-e-Toiba and Hizbul Mujahideen which have been declared Foreign Terrorist Organisations by the US. The RSS's hardcore ideological foe, the Jamaat-e-Islami, too has found a place. ("US think-tank calls RSS terrorist, Sangh fumes," Mohua Chatterjee, Times News Network, Friday, May 27, 2005 08:18:15 AM)<br /><br /><br />3. Anderson and Damle (The Brotherhood In Saffron, Vistaar Publication, New Delhi, 1987 ) mention 'manufacturing of bombs' at Shikarpur. The incident also finds mention in a biography' of ex Home minister and deputy PM L K Advani, former president of the BJP and former deputy prime minister, by Atmaram Kulkarni ( The Advent of Advani, Aditya Prakashan, Bombay, 1995). A Sindhi writer from Gujarat Jayant Relwani refers to it in an article on the predominance of the RSS in Sindh ( Shamne Sindhu Neer (River Indus in My Dreams), Laxmi Pustak Bhandar, Ahmedabad.1996: 89-90<br /><br /><br />4. "Bajrang Dal continues to be under the scanner. "There is no reason to rule them out. We still haven't found anything to prove that Bajrang Dal is not involved," a senior officer said. The Hindu fringe group is under investigation in Malegaon because of the role of its activists in various bomb blasts. " ("PM doesn't rule out Bajrang role," Josy Joseph, DNA India, September 13, 2006 00:50 IST)<br /><br /><br />5. The state administration also did not fail to show its anti-Muslim bias even in times of tragedy. While shedding crocodile tears over their plight, it saw to it that victims in Malegaon blast, majority of whom were Muslims, receive less compensation (1/5 th) as compared to victims of Mumbai blast, majority of whom were Hindus. (Iqbal A. Ansari, The Milli Gazette online, 14th Sept 2006)Mike Ghousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01647894600183489442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916245415469099907.post-70787241861081180812007-09-29T21:45:00.000-07:002007-09-29T21:57:10.955-07:00Terrorism Historyhttp://terrorism.about.com/od/originshistory/a/Anarchism.htm<br />History of Terrorism: Anarchism and Anarchist Terrorism<br />From Amy Zalman, Ph.D.,<br />Your Guide to Terrorism Issues.<br /><br />Anarchists employed "Propaganda of the Deed"<br />What is Anarchism?<br /><br />Anarchism was a late 19th century idea among a number of Europeans, Russians and Americans, that all government should be abolished, and that voluntary cooperation, rather than force, should be society's organizing principle. The word itself comes from a Greek word, anarkos, which means "without a chief." The movement had its origins in the search for a way to give industrial working classes a political voice in their societies.<br /><br />By the turn of the 20th century, anarchism was already on the wane, to be replaced by other movements encouraging the rights of dispossessed classes and revolution.<br /><br />Propaganda of the Deed<br />A number of late 19th century thinkers argued that actions, rather than words, were the best way to spread ideas.<br /><br />For some, it referred to communal violence, while by others it referenced assassinations and bombings carried out by anarchists.It was taken up by anarchists to describe assassinations and bombings.<br /><br />"Anarchist Terrorism"<br />The late 19th century saw a wave of political violence inspired by anarchist ideas which were soon labeled anarchist terrorism:<br /><br />1881: the assassination of Russian Tsar Alexander II, by the group Narodnaya Volya<br />1894: the assassination of the French president Marie-Francois Sadi Carnot<br />1894: Bombing of Greenwich Observatory in London<br />1901: the assassination of American president William McKinley in September 1901, by an anarchist, Leon Czolgosz.<br />These assassinations led to fear among among governments that there existed a vast international conspiracy of anarchist terrorists. In fact, there never was one.<br /><br />Anarchists Today: No Connection to Religious Terrorism or War on Terror<br />Anarchists themselves argue that they should not be considered terrorists, or associated with terrorism. Their claims are reasonable: for one thing, most anarchists are actually against the use of violence to achieve political aims, and for another, violence by anarchists was historically directed at political figures, not civilians, as terrorism is.<br /><br />On a different note, Rick Coolsaet suggests that there is an analogy to be made between the past and the present.<br /><br />Muslims are often regarded now with the same mixture of fear and contempt as workers were in the 19th century. And the jihadi terrorist has the same feelings about America as his anarchist predecessor had about the bourgeoisie: he sees it as the epitome of arrogance and power. Osama bin Laden is a 21st century Ravachol, a living symbol of hatred and resistance for his followers, a bogeyman for the police and intelligence servicesToday’s jihadis resemble yesterday’s anarchists: in reality, a myriad of tiny groups; in their own eyes, a vanguard rallying the oppressed masses (5). Saudi Arabia has now taken the role of Italy while 11 September 2001 is the modern version of 24 June 1894, a wake-up call to the international community.<br />The reasons for the rise of terrorism now and anarchism then are the same. Muslims worldwide are united by a sense of unease and crisis. The Arab world seems to be more bitter, more cynical and less creative than it was in the 1980s. There is a growing sense of solidarity with other Muslims, a feeling that Islam itself is in danger. This is fertile ground for a fanatical minority.<br /><br /><br />What is Terrorism?:<br />Terrorism is distinguished from other acts of violence, and from war, by always having these four characteristics:<br /><br />Terrorists violate the rules of modern warfare, established in acts called the Geneva Conventions and Hague Conventions; or they are actors (e.g., sub-state groups) who can't declare war legitimately;<br />Its goal is to achieve political change;<br />Its targets are symbolic of the political issue in question;<br />Acts of terror are designed to get attention from the public and media.<br /><br />Also see definitions of terrorism from the United States government and international bodies and conventions.<br /><br />Terrorism in the Pre-Modern World:<br />Violent acts on behalf of political change are as old as human history. The Sicarii were a first century Jewish group who murdered enemies and collaborators in their campaign to oust their Roman rulers from Judea.<br /><br />The Hashhashin, whose name gave us the English word "assassins," were a secretive Islamic sect active in Iran and Syria from the 11th to the 13th century.<br /><br />Their dramatically executed assassinations of Abbasid and Seljuk political figures terrified their contemporaries.<br /><br />Zealots and assassins were not, however, really terrorists in the modern sense. Terrorism is best thought of as a modern phenomenon. Its characteristics flow from the international system of nation-states, and its success depends on the existence of a mass media to create an aura of terror among many people.<br /><br />Sicarii, First Century Terrorists<br />The Assassins<br /><br />Robespierre's sentiment laid the foundations for modern terrorists, who believe violence will usher in a better system. But the characterization of terrorism as a state action faded, while the idea of terrorism as an attack against an existing political order became more prominent.<br /><br /><br />Should States Be Considered Terrorists?<br />U.S. State Department State Sponsors of Terrorism, Who's On the List and How to Get Off<br /><br />1950s: Twentieth Century Terror:<br /><br />The rise of guerrilla tactics by non-state actors in the last half of the twentieth century was due to several factors.These included the flowering of ethnic nationalism (e.g. Irish, Basque, Zionist), anti-colonial sentiments in the vast British, French and other empires, and new ideologies such as communism.<br /><br />Terrorist Groups with a nationalist agenda:<br /><br />Irish Republican Army<br />Kurdistan Worker's Party<br /><br />1970s: Terrorism Turns International:<br />International terrorism is considered to have gotten its start at the 1972 Munich Olympics, at which a Palestinian organization, Black September, kidnapped and killed Israeli athletes preparing to compete.<br /><br />The event also gave us our contemporary sense of terrorism as highly theatrical, symbolic acts of violence by organized groups with specific political grievances.<br /><br />Black September's political goal was negotiating the release of Palestinian prisoners. They used spectacular tactics to bring international attention to their national cause.<br /><br />Munich radically changed the United States' handling of terrorism: "The terms counterterrorism and international terrorism formally entered the Washington political lexicon," according to counterterrorism expert Timothy Naftali.<br /><br />Terrorists also took advantage of the black market in Soviet-produced light weaponry created in the wake of the Soviet Union's 1989 collapse. Most terrorist groups justified violence with a deep belief in the necessity and justice of their cause.<br /><br />Terrorism in the United States also emerged. Groups such as the Weathermen grew out of the non-violent group Students for a Democratic Society. They turned to violent tactics, from rioting to setting off bombs, to protest the Vietnam War.<br /><br />International Terrorism, Notable Attacks: 1968 PFLP Hijacking of El Al Flight 1988 Pan Am Lockerbie Explosion<br /><br />Learn more about counterterrorism.<br /><br />1990s: The Twenty First Century: Religious Terrorism and Beyond<br />Religiously motivated terrorism is considered the most alarming terrorist threat today. Groups that justify their violence on Islamic grounds- Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah—come to mind first. But Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism and other religions have given rise to their own forms of militant extremism.<br /><br />What is most distressing about this turn, as religion scholar Karen Armstrong points out, is terrorists' departure from any real religious precepts. Muhammad Atta, the architect of the 9/11 attacks, and "the Egyptian hijacker who was driving the first plane, was a near alcoholic and was drinking vodka before he boarded the aircraft." Alcohol would be strictly off limits for a highly observant Muslim. Atta, and perhaps many others, are not simply orthodox believers turned violent, but rather violent extremists who manipulate religious concepts for their own purposes.<br /><br />Robespierre's sentiment laid the foundations for modern terrorists, who believe violence will usher in a better system. But the characterization of terrorism as a state action faded, while the idea of terrorism as an attack against an existing political order became more prominent.<br /><br /><br />The Many Definitions of Terrorism<br /><br />There is no official definition of terrorism agreed on throughout the world, and definitions tend to rely heavily on who is doing the defining and for what purpose. Some definitions focus on terrorist tactics to define the term, while others focus on the actor. Yet others look at the context and ask if it is military or not.<br /><br />We will probably never arrive at a perfect definition to which we can all agree, although it does have characteristics to which we all point, like violence or its threat. Indeed, the only defining quality of terrorism may be the fact that it invites argument, since the label "terrorism" or "terrorist" arises when there is disagreement over whether an act of violence is justified (and those who justify it label themselves "revolutionaries" or "freedom fighters," etc.).<br /><br />So, in one sense, it may be fair to say that terrorism is exactly violence (or the threat of violence) in context where there will be disagreement over the use of that violence.<br /><br />But this doesn't mean that no one has tried to define terrorism! In order to prosecute terrorist acts, or distinguish them from war and other violence that is condoned, national and international institutions, as well as others, have sought to define the term. Here are some of the most frequently cited definitions.Mike Ghousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01647894600183489442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916245415469099907.post-67742336706051168602007-09-29T21:24:00.000-07:002007-09-29T21:27:00.645-07:00American Policy caused 9/11?<div align="center"><strong><span style="color:#990000;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Is American Foreign Policy Responsible for 9/11?</span><br /></span></strong>http://www.milnet.com/geo-pol/Is-American-Policy.html<br />By: Ryan Mauro<br /><br /></div><div align="left"><br />After the attacks of September the 11th, many questioned, “Why do they hate us?” While any deliberate attack on innocent civilians is deplorable, it is important to find the cause of radical Islamic terrorism. Many people point to the sources of anti-Americanism as the cause of terrorism, but anti-Americanism does not translate into an acceptance of, and willingness to participate in, suicide bombings. It is not fair to blame anti-Americanism (and thus American policy causing anti-Americanism) as the cause of the sickness, because hatred of one country’s policy does not lead most people to justify killing innocents. After all, most of Western Europe and Latin America is anti-American, but they aren’t participating in terrorism. The deliberate massacring of civilians, although conducted by many groups over history, is currently unique to the Islamic world, specifically the Middle East and North Africa. What is going in the region that is causing Islamic terrorism to blossom?<br /><br />All terrorist organizations, including Al-Qaeda, rely upon sponsorship by governments to be effective. This is the most important reason that terrorism has blossomed. Terrorists do not rely upon the support of populations, but of support from governments. At the time of 9/11, the State Department designated the following countries as state sponsors of terrorism: Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Libya, Sudan, and Cuba. Most people would add Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to that list, although that probably wasn’t done for political reasons. The Pakistanis and Saudis have played both sides a bit. If terrorism is not the inevitable result of offending people, but rather is an instrument of enemy states, then that means declaring War on Terror doesn’t strike the source of the problem. It’d be as if the colonists declared a “War on Bows and Arrows” during their fight with the Indians.<br /><br />While self-criticism will be necessary in assessing how to combat terrorism, we have to be careful to not blur the lines between what’s acceptable and what is unacceptable. I find it strange that people ask themselves what we did to deserve being targeted by Islamists. Is that not the same thing as victims of abortion clinic bombings asking what they did to deserve being bombed? Sometimes there are just philosophical differences, and people who use those differences as a way to find a purpose in life, even if it means dedicating themselves to killing innocents over those disagreements.<br /><br />While American policy surely causes anti-Americanism, and policy should be fixed to reduce that, there are limits. For example, Islamists may condemn our culture, but does that mean we eliminate our freedoms to sooth their anger? Islamists, and the governments that promote them, deliberately manipulate the feelings of the population. Their hatred comes from half-truths. One only needs to take a quick glance at American foreign policy to see that terrorism does not emanate from an objective critique of our actions.<br /><br />For example, while Islamists condemn our support for Israel and presence in Saudi Arabia, they make no mention of what we have done for Muslims. During the Cold War, we staunchly opposed any Soviet interference in the Middle East. In the 1980s, the mujahideen in Afghanistan were backed by America to defeat the Soviets. In 1990, the U.S. freed Kuwait from the Iraqis, and defended Saudi Arabia, Islam’s holy land, from his probable scheme to invade. In 1995 and 1999, we fought on the side of the Muslims to protect them against the Serbs and Croatians, who were Christians! In 1999, the US hurt relations with Russia by criticizing their action in Chechnya. And it was American pressure that caused Israel to withdraw from the Gaza Strip, forcing Jewish families from their homes, so the Palestinians could make it a homogenous area for themselves. While the U.S. does sell arms to Israel, we do the same for Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and its Arab enemies. Just like the radical Muslims manipulate the interpretation of the Quran for evil ends, they also manipulate the interpretation of American policy for evil ends.<br /><br />Likewise, while anti-Semitic feeling is real in the Islamic world, Israel is also a scapegoat in many cases. Few people know that Israel actually treats the Palestinians better than any Arab country does. The entire Palestinian problem was created by Arab nations refusing to allow the Palestinians into their country, and even today, Palestinians are denied citizenship and rights in the Arab world. There are religious disputes, of course, but we must question why this translates into violence and a demand that one side simply not exist. Israel allows Muslims to visit their Holy Sites and even lets them vote in municipal elections (Bard, 221-223). This isn’t to say Israel is perfect or their positions are correct, but one must ask why Israel, which is the least oppressive in the region (even towards Muslims), is the target.<br /><br />Dr. Tawfik Hamid, a former Al-Qaeda terrorist and associate of Ayman al-Zawahiri, also disagrees that American policy is what caused 9/11. In his book, he describes how he was taught not to think, how all misery was blamed on the infidels, and how 72 virgins awaited him in heaven, which was a treasure because sex before marriage, masturbation, and even looking at a woman in certain ways were strictly forbidden. Dr. Hamid describes how verses of the Koran are used to teach their students to kill the infidel, arguing that these verses are what cause terrorism, not current events. He also describes the history of violent political Islam, highlighting how it goes back to before the establishment of either the state of Israel or the United States. Hamid’s thesis is that all Islamic terrorism emanates from “purists” who forcefully took control of the Arabian Peninsula, thus controlling the heart of Islam (and able to shape it to their mold), and then during the 20th century, they exported this form of Islam using the oil wealth. He also notes that more Muslims have been killed by Islamic terrorism than Americans or Israelis, so the idea that the Israel issue is the primary motivator is false.<br /><br />Some say Islamic terrorism comes from being poor or uneducated. This is also untrue. Bangladesh is the poorest Islamic country, but few terrorists come from there. Saudi Arabia, the richest Muslim country, has the highest number of terrorists. It also doesn’t come from a lack of education, because terrorist organizations rely upon highly educated Muslims to operate (Hamid, 78-79).About three-fourths of Al-Qaeda terrorists who have been captured come from the upper or middle class, and the remaining one-fourth come are mostly immigrants who went to Europe and due to the welfare state in Europe, and “by the standards of the Third World, these people are not poor” (Miniter, 127).<br /><br />I personally feel the theory that best explains Islamic terrorism is the one advocated by Dr. Bernard Lewis. He noticed that most terrorists emanate from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Pakistan. These are countries that are American allies, yet are corrupt and deny freedom and rights to their citizens. Saudi Arabia funds Wahhabism, the strand of radical Islam closest to Bin Laden’s ideology, and Pakistan created the Taliban. Egypt’s state press is anti-American, eager to blame America (rather than the government) for their ills. For example, a majority of Egyptians believe “the Jews” did 9/11, not Bin Laden (Bard, 254). Lewis’ theory is that America is targeted not because of our advocating of freedom (or, “imposing our way of life” as some say) but because of our hindering of freedom. These three countries are failed states, but the rulers are rich. The people of these countries hate their governments, and when they see America allied with their governments, they see a conspiracy to oppress them. The governments of the people, whom wish to remain in power, must project their anguish upon an external enemy, with America being the easiest scapegoat because we have the wealth, power, and prestige. You can see this in the state-controlled press of these countries. Additionally, such as in the case of the Saudis, their internal enemies leave the country to fight the West. Thus, a cycle is created. Although terrorists hate these governments which ally with the West, they rely upon them. The governments, who fear the terrorists, export them outwards, and at the same time, crush any hopes of freedom because any referendum will result in their loss of power. Lewis then concludes that political freedom, allowing people to control their own lives and channel their talents into productive causes, is the antidote to radical Islam which emanates from oppressive governments.<br /><br />There’s one more part to his theory. Oppressive governments then, which are opposed by the United States, govern populations that are pro-American. He says, “It's interesting that pro-American feeling is strongest in countries with anti-American governments. But the anti-American feeling is strongest in those countries that are ruled by what we are pleased to call ‘friendly governments.’ And it is those, of course, that are the most tyrannical and the most resented by their own people.” (Lewis, 1).<br /><br />The evidence shows he is right. In Afghanistan and Iraq, the people quickly allied themselves and embraced democracy despite the attempts by terrorists and state sponsors of terror to sabotage it. In Iran, the people despise the regime. I attended a conference of Middle Eastern democratic leaders at Seton Hall a few weeks ago. Amir Abbas Fakhravar, a top student leader who was imprisoned by the regime for his anti-mullah demonstrations, described how the people of Iran want the mullahs gone, and many have American flags hidden in their homes. Farid Ghadry, the leader of the Reform Party of Syria, described the same thing in Syria. Eblan Farris from Lebanon also described it. The people there support America because we have stood up to the regimes that oppress them.<br /><br />In conclusion, I think that we should listen to the former terrorists and the democratic leaders in the Middle East as to what caused terrorism. They know it better than we do, as they have lived in or amongst terrorist organizations. Their feelings about the cause of terrorism are unanimous. It is caused by state-sponsors who use it as an instrument of warfare, and we are merely caught in the cross-fire of an Islamic civil war between those who favor democracy, freedom, human rights and those who favor Islamic “purity,” oppression, and a denial of those values that every human possesses. Their solution is also unanimous: That the United States must stand with those who stand for freedom and reform in the Islamic world, assisting them by various means, and against the state sponsors of terrorism who simultaneously threaten their citizens and our own.<br /><br /><br /><br />--------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /><br />References<br /><br /><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><br /><br />Bard, Mitchell G. (2002). Myths and Facts: A Guide to the Arab-Israeli Conflict. Chevy Chase: American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise.<br /><br />Hamid, Dr. Tawfik. (2005). The Roots of Jihad: An Insider’s View of Islamic Violence. Top Executive Media.<br /><br />Jeffrey, Dr. Grant R. (2002). War on Terror. Toronto: Frontier Publications.<br /><br />Lewis, Dr. Bernard. (2006). Bring Them Freedom, Or They Destroy Us. Retrieved April 21, 2007 from http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/09/bring_them_freedom_or_they_des.html.<br /><br />Miniter, Richard. (2005). Disinformation: 22 Media Myths That Undermine the War on Terrorism. Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing.<br /><br /></div>Mike Ghousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01647894600183489442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916245415469099907.post-45749873959370403202007-09-29T20:52:00.000-07:002007-09-29T20:55:43.494-07:00US Policy and Terrorism<div align="center"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#990000;"><strong>US policy, not poverty, 'is cause of terrorism'</strong></span> </span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-size:130%;">TERROR: THE MOTIVE</span><br />The Sunday Herald, Feb 19, 2006 by Paul Hutcheon</div> <br /><br />A LEADING US academic will challenge the establishment this week when he makes the controversial claim that poverty is not the root cause of international terrorism.<br /><br />Alan Krueger, professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University, will say suicide bombers tend to come from middle-class families. He will also argue that terrorism is directly motivated by US policy decisions.<br /><br />Krueger's arguments will be made in a prestigious three-part lecture series at the London School of Economics, beginning on Tuesday. The former member of the Clinton administration will present new research on the "causes and consequences" of terrorism, which he says have been misunderstood.<br /><br />One of his main findings disputes the supposed link between deprivation and terrorism. "One point I'm going to make is that the popular stereotype, from Tony Blair on down, seems to be that poverty is the root cause of terrorism. That is a very questionable presumption. The evidence doesn't point in that direction, " he told the Sunday Herald.<br /><br />Krueger reached the conclusion by sampling members of Hezbollah and looking at the biographies of suicide bombers in Israel. "Overwhelmingly they were from well-off families, " he said.<br /><br />He said his model is relevant to al-Qaeda (whose leader Osama bin Laden came from a wealthy family and whose main ally was a doctor) and the 9/11 attacks on New York. "It fits very well. Fifteen of the 9/11 hijackers were middle-class or from high-income classes."<br /><br />Krueger also applied his findings to the London Tube and bus bombings last July. "My vibe on the people who carried out the suicide attacks was that they were not from struggling families."<br /><br />He argues that terrorists, instead of coming primarily from poor states, tend to hail from oppressive regimes, such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt. This, he says, shows that terrorists tend to be motivated by fanaticism, not poverty. "In most cases [a suicide bomber] is not someone who has nothing to live for, but someone who desperately believes in a cause."<br /><br />He will also say US policies, such as the presence of troops in the Middle East, are one of the main factors behind terrorism.<br /><br />"A good example is US presence in Saudi Arabia, which is a large part of the motivation for al-Qaeda. The US just had to think of suicide bombers as people who are destitute, whereas I think they are motivated by political factors.<br /><br />"We have to own up to the fact that a lot of the terrorist activity is in response to policy decisions."<br /><br />Krueger's research challenges the conventional wisdom that terrorism is motivated by third world conditions in Arab countries and by envy of the West. The left, particularly in Britain, has tended to argue that a root cause of Muslim anger is Palestinian poverty, an explanation that Krueger's model seems to reject.<br /><br />SNP leader Alex Salmond said he agreed with the academic's analysis of the Bush administration's anti-terror policies. "Krueger is undoubtedly correct. The war on terror has been disastrously counterproductive, " he said.<br /><br />Copyright c 2006 Newsquest Media Group<br />Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights ReservedMike Ghousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01647894600183489442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916245415469099907.post-60813715391255599522007-09-29T20:45:00.000-07:002007-09-29T20:48:42.621-07:00Causes for Terrorism<div align="center"><span style="font-size:130%;color:#006600;"><strong>The Causes of Terrorism</strong></span><br />From Robert Kennedy,<br /><a href="http://privateschool.about.com/od/history/a/terrorism_2.htm"><span style="font-size:78%;">http://privateschool.about.com/od/history/a/terrorism_2.htm</span></a><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /></span></div><div align="left"><br />Terrorism runs riot in places where there is no hope. It thrives in societies which have broken down to the point where ordinary citizens decide to take the law into their own hands. Our children need to understand the root causes of terrorism and what can be done about them. They need to know that they can be a powerful force for change in the world.<br /><br />Hopelessness<br /><br />A society where suffering is widespread and severe is the ideal breeding ground for terrorism. Why? Because suffering creates hopelessness. When hopelessness takes hold, the sufferers are easy marks for leaders who have terrorist agenda. Examples include Hitler and the Nazis, Lenin and the Bolsheviks, Osama Bin Laden and Al-Quaeda.<br /><br />Terrorist Leaders<br /><br />History offers many examples of charismatic individuals who have been able to control entire populations to achieve their own personal goals. </div><div align="left"><br />In recent times Hitler, Mussolini, Milosevic, Mao Tse-Tung, Osama Bin Laden and many others have inflicted incredible pain and suffering on their peoples all the while believing totally in the correctness of their mission</div>Mike Ghousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01647894600183489442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916245415469099907.post-73185594054651016192007-09-29T20:36:00.000-07:002007-09-29T20:49:37.186-07:00Causes of Modern Terrorism<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR_F-Ir5H1LrMLsn-uapDfGpV22uWvTCWOQvpVOsE8VDJz_dIPQV1nPHg9gRo7UtdRViLv6h3WTZhxX9k3khTyq9lNhoPvhhFGm79bN6eEJebc2pDZLzMxT8ButSO6Y-M-x3DDQzmYG4A/s1600-h/arafat2.gif"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5115837347799174642" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" height="130" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR_F-Ir5H1LrMLsn-uapDfGpV22uWvTCWOQvpVOsE8VDJz_dIPQV1nPHg9gRo7UtdRViLv6h3WTZhxX9k3khTyq9lNhoPvhhFGm79bN6eEJebc2pDZLzMxT8ButSO6Y-M-x3DDQzmYG4A/s320/arafat2.gif" width="140" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;color:#cc0000;"><strong>Causes of Modern Terrorism</strong></span><br /><div><div align="left"><a href="http://wwwnew.towson.edu/polsci/ppp/sp97/terror/causes.html"><span style="font-size:78%;">http://wwwnew.towson.edu/polsci/ppp/sp97/terror/causes.html</span></a></div><br /><div>Every terrorist needs a particular cause to justify the use of terror tactics both to his own psyche and to the audience he hopes reach. Most terrorists are not deranged or psychotic individuals. From their point of view, terror tactics are logical, valid activities to achieve a particular goal. These individuals do not consider themselves insane nor do they want the world to consider them insane.<br /><br />The modern wave of global terrorism that began in the second half of the 20th century is rooted in specific economic, social and political grievances. The validity of these grievances is of course debatable. This page will profile origins of terrorist movements in three parts of the world—the Middle East, Europe and Latin America.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#cc0000;">Middle East Terrorism</span><br /></strong></span><br />The current global wave of terrorism, in many ways, originated and was fueled by events in the Middle East, particularly the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict. Some of the world's most violent terrorist acts have been committed in the name of Palestinian self determination and the destruction of Israel.<br /><br />Israel's official creation in 1948 began an intermittent conflict which lasts to this day. Palestinians maintain <span style="color:#ff0000;"><span style="color:#000000;">Israeli lands</span> (?)</span> were promised to them by British colonial authorities. Israel's Arab neighbors failed to destroy Israel by conventional military means, so radical Palestinians believed terror tactics were the only other choice. Even prior to Israel's formation, Jewish settlers used terrorism against British colonial authorities and Palestinian Arabs living in the area to affect the creation of a Jewish state. Consequently, Arabs reciprocated. In 1964, the major Palestinian terrorist groups formed a coalition called the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) under the leadership of Yasser Arafat. The PLO's stated mission included the annihilation of Israel and establishment of a Palestinian state. The terror escalated to a global scale after the 1967 Six Day War when Israel annexed Palestinian lands on the west bank of the Jordan River and Gaza Strip near the Sinai Peninsula.<br /><br />The causes of Middle East terrorism are mainly political. The dispute is over possession of land. Palestinians considered the territory occupied by Israel rightfully theirs. Aside from the land dispute, a social element is also present in this situation. Israel is the only non-Muslim nation in the Middle East, therefore it vividly stands out as "different," or an "invader." Islam is more than just a religion to its faithful. It is a prescription for life; dictating social norms in addition to civil and criminal law. The existence of Israel is viewed as an invasion of the western world's "corrupting" influence.<br /><br />To fundamentalist Muslims the West, led by the United States, is characterized by the inequity and exploitation of capitalism, a philosophy centered on the individual. Islam on the other hand, is based on a more egalitarian and group-focused philosophy. But the main reason Muslims are opposed to Western influence concerns the attractiveness of capitalism. While Marxists have attempted to paint capitalism as evil and decadent, they have failed to account for its comparative efficiency in allocating resources and generally raising living standards. Coupled with the fact that life in the West is often glamorously portrayed by the media, religious leaders fear Muslims will be corrupted by Western greed and forsake their Muslim faith. This fact is one explanation for the increase in Muslim fundamentalism in the Middle East.<br /><br />Fundamentalist terrorist groups like Hizballah and Hamas are infamous for their fanatical tactics, most notably suicide bombings. Religious zealots will be recruited by these groups to take explosives, either strapped to their bodies or in vehicles, and detonate those explosives, killing themselves, and destroying the assigned target. In 1983, a Hizballah suicide bomber drove the bomb-laden truck which destroyed the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon killing over 200 Marines. More recently, Hamas suicide bombers have blown-up a number of buses in Israel. The Muslim fanatics are convinced killing themselves in the process of killing their enemies is a path to martyrdom and eternal salvation.<br /><br />Middle East terrorism has fueled the global wave of terrorism because a variety of terrorist groups (IRA, ETA, Japanese Red Army, Baader-Meinhof Gang, etc.) have received training and support from Palestinian terrorist groups, particularly the PLO.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;color:#cc0000;"><strong>European Terrorism</strong></span><br /><br />A number of rather small, elitist terrorist movements evolved in Europe between the late 1960's and early 1980's. Most were left-wing Marxist-Leninist or nihilist movements which grew out of the activism and student protests of the 1960's. Their motivations included economics and idealism. Western Europe suffered an economic downturn and high unemployment in the 1960's, which European Marxist scholars assailed as evidence of capitalism's failure. Graduating college students, who encountered flat labor markets, blamed governments and business leaders for the economic hardship.<br /><br />Extremists in these left-wing student movements felt violence was necessary to destroy the industrialized capitalist structures they found detrimental to society. These groups were mainly composed of well educated idealistic individuals seeking to "reform" society. Examples of groups include Italy's Red Brigades (BR), West Germany's Baader-Meinhof Gang (also known as the Red Army Faction) and France's Direct Action (AD). These groups wreaked havoc throughout the 1970's, targeting business and political leaders. The most notorious terrorist act was committed by the Red Brigades, when they kidnapped then murdered former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro in 1978.<br /><br />The oldest of Europe's recent terrorist insurgencies also have far different motivations for their respective struggles. Northern Ireland's Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) and Spain's Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA) wish to secede from their nations.<br /><br />In 1922 Ireland was granted independence from Britain with the stipulation that its six predominantly Protestant northeastern counties (known as Ulster) would remain part of the United Kingdom. Many Irish never truly accepted a division of their nation. The Catholic minority that remained in Ulster was then discriminated against in terms of employment, housing and effective political participation. Catholics launched a civil rights movement in 1968 which was violently repressed by Protestants. The stage was then set for a pattern of violence that continues today. Radical Catholic nationalists called for Ulster's secession from the U.K. and union with the Republic of Ireland.<br /><br />Extremist elements of the Irish Republican Army (IRA—guerrilla group formed in 1919 to secure Ireland's independence from Britain) then split to form the PIRA, or "Provos," in 1969 and embraced terrorism, claiming IRA's tactics were too timid to be effective in reuniting Ireland.<br /><br />Social, political and economic elements led to this conflict. First and foremost, economic and political discrimination led to Catholics in Ulster becoming an underclass. Second, Catholic Irishmen wanted to be reunited with the rest of the Irish nation. These factors culminated in the Irish civil rights movement and the choice to use terrorism to affect reunion.<br /><br />The Basque ETA was formed in 1959 as a political movement against General Franco, the fascist leader of Spain. The movement's goal was the creation of an independent state for Spain's Basque ethnic group. The Basques have been oppressed and their culture attacked under Franco. Initially the group received a great deal of support in its anti-fascist efforts, particularly from France. But Western support waned as the ETA made greater use of terror tactics.<br /><br />The ETA's struggle stemmed from political oppression the Basques had suffered, and the Spanish government's attempt to destroy their culture and assimilate them into Spanish culture. Although many Basque grievances were settled after the end of Franco's rule, the ETA vows to maintain its struggle until Basques are given a sovereign homeland.<br /><br /><strong><span style="color:#cc0000;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Latin American Terrorism</span><br /></span></strong><br />Terrorism in Latin America is essentially a product of class conflict. Until recently, nearly all Latin American nations were controlled by corrupt authoritarian regimes who gave little consideration to the welfare of their people. The result—a majority of Latin Americans live in poverty. The undereducated and impoverished people were very receptive to the egalitarian Marxist, Leninist and Maoist philosophies espoused by extremists.<br /><br />Nearly every Latin American nation has had, or currenlty has, an active guerrilla or terrorist insurgency. The driving force behind most of these groups has been a desire to reorganize society along socialist lines, remove foreign business interests and redistribute land and wealth.<br /><br />Major Latin American terrorist groups include Peru's Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) and Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA), Colombia's National Liberation Army (ELN) and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and Chile's Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic Front (FPMR).<br /><br />Click here or the image to view a video clip allegedly showing MRTA terrorists preparing to seize the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima, Peru on December 17, 1996. </div></div>Mike Ghousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01647894600183489442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916245415469099907.post-5760331411066399832007-09-29T20:32:00.000-07:002007-09-29T20:33:16.391-07:00Stressed Populations<div align="center"><span style="font-size:130%;color:#000099;"><strong>Fear and Violence in Stressed Populations</strong></span><br />Stress, Violence and Peace in the Balkans<br />Dai Williams, 27th April 1999<br />Courtesy of The Eos Life-Work Resource Centre </div><br /><br />Williams explains, that, “Stress arises when the combination of internal and external pressures exceeds the individual's resources to cope with their situation. Stress may develop from chronic (ongoing) or acute (sudden) pressures. As general pressures increase on a population - economic, environmental or political - then a greater proportion of individuals are likely to cross the threshold from anxiety to panic or violence.<br /><br />Physical and mental behaviour in the stress zone is determined by the fight or flight response, when threat or fear triggers an adrenaline reaction. Civilised cultures try to suppress the fight response or channel aggression into other activities e.g. sport. But it is latent in most people, restrained only by codes of social behaviour. In war (or criminal) situations these codes and restraints break down, potentially liberating great brutality, or are redefined to make violence a duty.”<br /><br />The psychological climate of a community or population determines what percentage of the population may resort to organised or mindless violence. If a population is already stressed every additional source of stress increases the probability and number of individuals that will become violent. For example an individual whose relative has been killed or maimed, is more likely to take violent action themselves. This has been found in research into the background of terrorists in Northern Ireland. As these pressures increase then normal social and moral restraints become weaker.<br /><br />These patterns indicate that violence is a last resort in a stressed population. The existence of violence is a warning that the population is already over-stressed for reasons that are usually obvious.<br /><br />If violence is the only way to restrain violent individuals or groups it must be very carefully limited. Collateral damage is psychological as well as physical, increasing fear and the potential for anger and violence in a much larger population. The key task in peacemaking is to reduce and minimise all avoidable sources of stress - military, economic, environmental as well as political.Mike Ghousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01647894600183489442noreply@blogger.com0