Tuesday 18 December 2007

The Guardian newspaper blocked me from posting comments on its website

I just learnt that my account on The Guardian newspaper section "Comment is free" has been disabled by the Guardian website adminstrator. The newspaper hasn't explained why, but I presume that the newspaper is more interested in imposing censorship on what I write on their site. What I write was not offensive whatsoever but it has a bitter taste of reality I must confess.

I suppose the Guardian didn't like someone who knows quite well what is it like to live in a backward Middle Eastern culture and telling stories from the inside that are bitter but true and may clash with the newspaper mild sympathy with Middle Eastern dictatorships and radical Islam.

Ahemadinejad’s speech at Columbia University

Ahemdadinejad is a typical dictator who is confused and demagogic in his approach to debate serious issues; he wants to confuse his audience using the analogy of research in physics and its resemblance to conduct a research on the holocaust. If he is setting the scene of debate in the way he did then we could ask him the following question: “Since the Quran is written 70 years after the death of Prophet Mohammad, therefore one can hypothesis about its originality as the word of God”. So why doesn’t’ he inject some of mullahs funds into finding out more about the truthfulness of Quran?

His twisted argument is aimed at discrediting the history of the holocaust and joining fascists who attempts to deny the most horrendous 20th century crime.

Dictators like him hang two young homosexuals in public to subdue the Iranian public to the will of a dictatorial regime and claim that homosexuality doesn’t exist in Iran. We should be thankful for him to lecture a western audience about his twisted thoughts and ideology so we can know more about him and his regime. He should be invited more often to expose himself more.…Al Atar

Monday 17 December 2007

The TV programme “Make me a Muslim”

The programme takes volunteers from different backgrounds and subjects themselves to the experience of becoming Muslim. The programme got more interesting as one of the Muslims starts lecturing the audience about how people in Britain have lost touch with spirituality suggesting that only Islam out of all faiths and religions is concerned with loss of spirituality and has the antidote for that. It gave my friend watching the programme together a sense of “who the hell this man to lecture us with not just a hint of arrogance and forcefulness but an abundance of it”.
People around Britain do mention their annoyance of Muslims speaking of solutions to humanity’s problems with a forceful tone suggesting that no one else on this planet has dealt with those problems the way Islam does. But all that coupled with the shallowness of issues raised trying to convince us of the depth of their argument. For example, in the above programme all of those Muslims speak of women not dressing modestly [i.e. cover from top to toe] suggesting that is what make women feeling unprotected and they may invite men for rape. What those Muslims don’t realise is that the matter isn’t just about feeling protected but about choices women can have or entitled to have, but then again that what Muslims and Islam have always trouble with…the human choice..............Al

So far 45 women were killed after Britain hands power to religious militia

It is reported that 45 women, in Basra-south of Iraq, were killed for not wearing Islamic dress, well done Labour for such brilliant job and for twisting the truth about what is happening after troop’s withdrawal. I therefore must agree with the anti-war movement for not trusting Labour going into war in the first place since British politics is about half solutions. But then one can ask what else they could’ve done? Good question; beheading women is a cultural issue and Britain cannot do much about it and one has to go along the idea of cultural relativism and suggests: unless religious militia and ordinary Iraqis get an open mind about the role of women in society, nothing can be done about it. But then I don’t agree with this business of cultural relativism and its clash with basic human rights. I subsequently suggest that Iraqis inside and outside Iraq must initiate a mass movement for the protection of women under those brutal conditions first and second push for the imposition of protective measure for the rest Iraqis if chose not to abide to religious practices.

I think we would be happier if Labour tells the truth about what is happening in Basra rather than twisting the truth and telling us rosy tales of what is really happening there…..Al Atar

Thursday 13 December 2007

Honour Killing across the Arab and Muslim world

Few weeks back The Guardian reported the honour killing story of Banaz Mahmod’s a 20 years old Iraqi Kurd. The British authorities are not willing to request extraditing the other killers who escaped to north of Iraq.

In my childhood days in Iraq, the early fifties, I used to hear stories about women who got pregnant due to rape incident or had premarital sex and subsequently got murdered by their fathers/brothers/close relatives. Normally the killer goes free regardless of the heinous crime. Those stories used to annoy me and instigate a deep questioning of such brutal social and cultural fabric and used to wonder: why people seemed to pretend that those crimes are acceptable to commit?; why people cannot expose the hideous nature of those crimes or condemn them? On the contrary we used to hear accounts of murderers strolling proudly the streets of their home towns and are admired by others for been brave enough to defend their honour. Admiration stems from a brutal idea labelled “Washing the shame”. “Washing the shame” is an old Arabic expression, still in use, in Arab, Muslim and other backward societies.

Friends telling stories of honour killings in Egypt despite their self-portrayal of being the elite of the Arab regarding social development! But then claiming elitism and having religious figures calling for the killing of Kafirs (non-believers) and the Jews is hardly an elitist.

As Guardian suggested that an effective way to stop honour killings is to demonstrate to the rest of society that those killings are punishable crimes and men mustn’t be proud of them or be misled by the sense of pride attached to those murders.

The United Nation or I should ignore the UN for its corrupt nature and focus on honest international groups and liberal nations to campaign for more effective intervention rather than thinking in terms of “cultural relativism” and nations’ sovereignty….Al Atar

Young Iranian-German footballer’s refuses to play for Germany vs Israel

Youth in the Middle East are exposed to extreme flood of anti-Semitism or I should say dislike of the Jews at very early stages of their development. Those brainwashing exercises include stories of:
1. Uncleanness of Jews and Christians
2. Uncleanness of things they handle and how compulsory it is washing oneself or things if got in contact with them
3. How it is forbidden to eat food cooked by Jews and Christians
4. How defile they are as a common expression used by the majority

Besides the above stories, people are warned in similar way about dogs; that obviously gives pretty good idea of the scale of the problem and how such intolerance would hamper attempts to develop solutions between Palestinians and Israelis.

Friends tell me that the above childhood’s accounts are still around in majority of Middle Eastern social makeup and that tells us the kind of indoctrination Middle Easterners are exposed to.

A friend telling me about his latest visit to Egypt: in my visit to Egypt, he says, I came across the same old stories about Jews and their uncleanness and honesty that is similar to the ones I heard when I was young in Iraq. He continues: I sensed the immensity of antagonism and dislike for the Jews in every part of Egypt I visited. It was an experience that gave an insight that no matter what the Jews would do they are not forgiven for been just Jews. In most of the Middle East countries you still hear descriptions of the Jews that make one feel living the days of Shakespeare’s “Merchant of Venice”.

Misled people should know about such social dynamic and subsequently I would like to assert that unless this brainwashing process stops there seem to be no way of achieving peace between Israel and Middle Easterners. To the world this should be some sort of precondition to work around achieving peace between Israel and the Palestinians….Al

Wednesday 12 December 2007

Britain pulling troops from Iraq, why?

Pulling troops from Iraq, why?

In his visit to south of Iraq Gordon Brown promised big reduction of troops and full withdrawal by mid 2008; he looked very serious no smiles no visit to Iraq’s prime minister apart from a phone call probably saying “quick hello I am off to Afghanistan sorry cannot meet up you Iraqi guys are a bit of trouble; need to tell my troops in there that we need to stay longer to secure democracy”.

Not been cynical but to tell the truth, of course the British had failed in their job in Iraq and that can be narrowed down to the following reasons:

1. The fear and paranoia of Iraqi politicians of being labelled, by pan-Arab movement, as traitors of the Arabs’ cause for letting foreign troops on home territories and been selfish and in not considering the higher priority of the big Arab nation.

2. Pulling out the troops would secure the next election and Gordon Brown has to show by all means that his government succeeded in its task in Iraq and no mess been left behind. Labour portrays a rosy picture of Iraq as if everything is hunky dory. As a result of that, troops are handing power to local militia, supported by Iran, to set Shariaa courts and do the normal duties of locking up dissents, whipping women for not wearing hijab or dare to go astray from the normal Islamic practices like the Iranian regime’s normal practice.

3. For election purposes again, Gordon Brown feels that pulling the troops out of Iraq will please the strong UK and European anti-war movement who are obsessed with Iraq and not other parts of the world.

4. To please the Arabs who always blamed Britain for their misery and who always rejected the idea of been conquered by others and fought fiercely to stay free from foreign imperialism but happy to rot under local dictatorships oppressing them like hell.

We should thank labour led by Gordon Brown for such brilliant move…Al Atar

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