Thursday, September 21, 2006

The Chavez-Ahmadinejad affair



Since the incident with Khrushchev and the shoe, I haven't seen such an amuzing scene at the UN like the one with Chavez yesterday, when he crossed himself (I thought he was an atheist Communist) and complained of smelling sulfur.

My god, is he ever a comedian...! Certainly not statesmanlike behaviour! I am thankful right now that I am not a Venezuelan. I can sympathise with the embarrassment of most of the intellectuals there that they surely must feel now.

And the company that he keeps...! Not that they do not match. I saw Ahmadinejad's interview also, with Anderson from CNN. He wasn't too bad at the UN, he did not fulfill the fears of Jafarzadeh, but he made up for it during the interview. I am sad to say but he came across as a rather uneducated person. Ahmadinejad may be the proud owner of a civil engineering diploma but he certainly is lacking in other areas. Because of my age and European background I see certain things in him that I find quite alarming, so I feel compelled to share those thoughts here.

We know that his coming to power was not exactly "kosher", that is - it was greatly influenced by the gentle persuasive powers of the Basijs. Now he starts to show signs of a growing sense of supreme omnipotence. He is educationally speaking "half-baked", AND he is short! Does that remind you of somebody from the past? They even share the overwhelming hatred for Jews. Of course, just like his historic counterpart, he starts to enjoy a growing popularity among simple people, who see in him the shining knight who is ready to turn Iran into a nuclear "superpower", and who is able and willing to stand up, and even talk threateningly, against the great political giant, the USA. As an individual he seems to be obsessed by success, is arrogant, agressive, with a ruthlessly strong will.

If left to go ahead unchecked, I predict that soon there will be heads rolling in Iran, those of his previous supporters and allies, who now will have to be eliminated so he will not feel the burden of owing them so much. Then he will step up the militarization of Iran, will support with all means possible the inner strife in Iraq, until all foreigners will be forced out, after which we can expect a friendly Shia "Anschluss" between the two countries. Once that is done, the Middle East is his! (Please, see also my August 29 entry), "Iran prepares its school children to fight the West",.

*** I have another pet theory about Ahmadinejad. He is doing everything so "fly-in-your-face" wrong, and hence playing so openly into the hands of the US, that I sometimes get the odd feeling that he is actually a CIA agent who is instructed to do everything possible to make a Western invasion of Iran look legit.... or so it seems. :)

Thursday, September 14, 2006

The passing of Naguib Mahfouz (August 30, 2006)


Naguib Mahfouz (1911 - 2006) was considered the greatest Egyptian intellect of our times. Nobel prize laurate, writer, long time civil servant, he was one of the few Egyptians who dared stand up in support of Anwar Sadat's peace treaty with Israel.


He gained a lot of enemies for his stance, as well as his ideals. His novel Children of Gebelawi (1959) was considered blasphemous enough to be banned in most of the Arab world and, altough there was no murderous fatwah ever declared agains him, in 1994 Islamic extremists attacked Mahfouz, stabbed him in the neck, severely damaging the nerves to his right hand. At the beginning of this year the book has finally been published in Egypt, too.

Yes, we all mourn his death. He was a great storyteller, a great painter of the human condition. (If you are interested in 20th Century Egypt you should read his Cairo Trilogy, a most entertaining saga.) Yet I have also read some comments which imply that his death means a point of no return, the downfall of an ideal. I don't think so! His life and work left glowing embers behind. Those sparks will inevitably find their way into the hearts and minds of present and future intellectuals, fertile ground for ideas of peace, cooperation, a pursuit of mankind's common goals.

It is our duty, yours and mine, too, to keep those embers alive, nesting them in our palms, to blow on them every once in a while and let a small shower of sparks find new homes...

Friday, September 08, 2006

Core of today's Israel actually purchased and paid for!

Since I got involved in the topic of Israel and the Middle East during the Lebanon war, every day I find more and more interesting factoids.

Here is one that should enter public consciousness, and used as proof against hate-mongering propaganda. Even is we ignore the fact that there was accountable Jewish presence at all times throughout the last two millenia, during the British Mandate fervent zionists with a dream about re-establishing their homeland kept purchasing land there. By 1948 most of the core of the present day country was in their hands. If the Holocaust did not happen, eventually all of present day's Israel would have been bought up anyway. But the urgency created by the tragedy pushed the international community to speed up the creation of a haven for the displaced and the orphans of the concentration camps.

Hezb'lah-Jugend...













This is becoming worse than a nightmare... Children! The children of fallen Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon are taken into special training camps and their natural grief for their parent(s)turned into hatred, to be trained and prepared for martyrdom! "Just when you thought Hezbollah couldn't sink any lower."

Please, read Russell Berman's article, Cradle to Grave: Hezbollah Children as it appeared on Saturday, September 2, 2006, in TELOS:

In the debates during and after the recent war in Lebanon, supporters of Hezbollah have tried to represent it as a deliverer of social welfare and not as a terrorist organization. Let us leave aside the question as to why a social welfare organization would be armed to the teeth and dwell for a moment in order to consider the claim itself and its theoretical/political implications. The utopia of the social welfare state has been phrased for a more than a century in terms of providing benefits to its client-citizens "from cradle to grave." In other words, the whole life course would become an object of state administrative practices. This bureaucratic apparatus logically necessitates some level of intrusion by the state into the private sphere of family life: care-taking, starting with the cradle, means a politicization of the nursery, and so forth. Hence Hayek's anxieties that even a modest social state would not stay modest for long and set out on a "road to serfdom."

To talk about Hezbollah as only a welfare state is an apologistic misrepresentation, akin to discussing Hitler in terms of managing unemployment and building the Autobahn (the way the press praises Hezbollah for its Iran-bankrolled big-spending in the Lebanese reconstruction). Hezbollah is however like a "welfare state" in the Hayekian sense: leveraging its resources and political clout to extend a tyrannical control over the private sphere. This is nowhere more evident than in the fate of the Hezbollah children.

The intrusion of Nazi ideology into nascent pan-Arabism in the 1930s in fact included the establishment of youth movements modeled on the Hitler jugend, and the lynchpin in this connection was none other than Baldur von Schirach, the leader of the Nazi youth program. This sort of fascist politicization of youth therefore has a long history, but Hezbollah has taken it to new heights. Its message to the Lebanese is evidently this: the price for the social welfare benefits is sacrificing your children. The content of Hezbollah's welfare state practice is to accelerate the itinerary from cradle to grave: straight from the cradle, into the grave.

The Egyptian weekly Roz al-Yusuf published an article on August 18 by Mirfat al-Hakim on "Hezbollah's Children Militia." Some excerpts:

Hizbullah Recruits Children Barely 10 Years Old
- "Hizbullah has recruited over 2,000 innocent children aged 10-15 to form armed militias. Before the recent war with Israel, these children appeared only in the annual Jerusalem Day celebrations, and were referred to as the 'December 14 Units,' but today they are called is tishhadiyun ['martyrs'] . . . "
- "Hizbullah has customarily recruited youths and children and trained them to fight from a very early age. These are children barely 10 years old, who wear camouflage uniforms, cover their faces with black [camouflage] paint, swear to wage jihad, and join the Mahdi Scouts [youth organization] . . .
- "The children are selected by Hizbullah recruitment [officers] based on one criterion only: They must be willing to become martyrs."
The Children Train to Become Martyrs
- "The children are educated from an early age to become martyrs in their youth, like their fathers, and their training is carried out by the Mahdi Scouts youth organization. . . . [This organization], which is affiliated with Hizbullah, teaches the children the basic principles of Shi'ite ideology and of Hizbullah's ideology. . . . The first lesson that the children are taught by Hizbullah is 'The Disappearance of Israel,' and it is always an important part of the [training] program. . . .
- "The Mahdi Scouts organization was founded in Lebanon on May 5, 1985. . . . According to the organization's website, the number of [scouts] who had undergone training by the end of 2004 was 1,491, and the number of scout groups which had joined [the organization] was 449, with a membership of 41,960. According to the organization's most recent statistics, since 2004, 120 of its members have been ready to become martyrs.
- "The organization's goal is to train an exemplary generation of Muslims based on the [principle of] 'the rule of the jurisprudent' [a founding principle of the Islamic Revolution in Iran], and to prepare for the coming of the Imam Mahdi [the Shi'ite messiah]. Its members, including the children, undertake to obey their commanders, to bring honor to the [Muslim] nation, and to prepare themselves for helping the Mahdi [when he comes]."
(Source: The Middle East Media Research Institute, Special Dispatch Series - No. 1276, Sept. 1, 2006. Link.)

"A Nation With Child-Martyrs Will Be Victorious"
According to the article, Na'im Qasim, deputy to Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, said in an interview on Radio Canada: "A nation with child-martyrs will be victorious, no matter what difficulties lie in its path. Israel cannot conquer us or violate our territories, because we have martyr sons who will purge the land of the Zionist filth... This will be done through the blood of the martyrs, until we eventually achieve our goals."

You can also find this article, together with related material on the subject, on the site of the Lebanese Canadian Coordinating Council.

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Actually Hezbollah is not the only entity doing this. The new Hamas regime in Gaza is gearing up very much to follow suit. I have been aware of special summer camps there, where similar indoctrination is happening, but I don't think they reached Hezbollah's level yet. In my photos the kids seem to be still only play-acting. I am very curious whether this phenomenon can be found elsewhere. If you know about any similar "children's camps", please, I would very much like to know about them.







Muslim mothers! How can you stand by and allow this to happen? Surely there are aberrations like "Umm Nidal" who, by her own admission, is ready to offer ALL her children to the Cause. She wants them all to become suicide bombers against Israel. I know that most of you are different and not supportive of such ideology. I know because many of you have become friends of mine over the years, we shared our hopes and sorrows. But by keeping silent and idle, you are in effect accomplices, whether you like the notion or not. You allow it to happen!

"What can I, a powerless woman, do against a terrorist organization like Hezbollah?" - you ask. Lots! First of all gather around you all the likeminded women of your community. You don't even have to write articles or lobby, although do it if you can! Just discuss matters among the women you know, point out anything that happens in your local Muslim community that you think does not serve the true interest of that community. Make those ideas gently flow, back into the consciousness of your family and friends in your mother country. As you become more active, the ideas will come. Most importantly, though, raise your children in such a way that they themselves cannot be swayed by harmful propaganda. By protecting their minds you will save their lives!

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Forcible conversion to Islam


Fox News journalists Steve Centanni and cameraman Olaf Wiig were held hostage in Gaza for three weeks. They were released on Sunday, August 27, 2006. During their captivity their were converted to Islam by gunpoint. They announced their conversion on TV, complete with anti-Western slogans.

After their release they (understandably) talked nicely about their captors and Islam itself. After all they rightfully fear for their safety. The danger still exists that those captors' revenge can reach them anywhere if they malign them. They do carry the memory of those first hand experiences.

I will also watch them closely in the coming months to see whether they will actually start practicing their "new religion". You may raise an eyebrow and think to yourself: Why on Earth would they do that? I say they most probably will! Why? Because once you are a Muslim, there is no way out!!! If you try to convert to something else, or return to your old religion, you will be declared an apostate and, as such, condemned to death - any Muslim has the right to eliminate you.

Sunday, September 03, 2006

BlogDay 2006

I made this discovery today and I think it is a great idea. Unfortunately the official date of BlogDay 2006 was August 31, so I am a bit late. But better late than never! Being the master of my own space, I declare BlogDay still on, and I hereby present you with my chosen five "newly discovered" great politico blogs.

Since recent political events made our attention focus on the Middle East, and I followed the general trend in my postings, I continue in the same vein by offering you links to blogs that are either maintained by bloggers in the Middle East, or deal with events in that area.

1. Editor: Myself. The ultimate Iranian blog by fellow Torontonian, Hossein Derakhshan.

2. Iraq: the model. "New points of view about the future of Iraq."

3. The Listless Lawyer. Although not an outright "political" blog, he does touch upon political issues often. What connects him to the general topic of my BlogDay quotes is his wonderful series on Islamic Democracy and the Sovereignty of God.

4. The Mesopotamian - trying to bring one more Iraqi voice of the silent majority to the attention of the world.

5. Pedestrian Infidel. Great teamwork of five: two from the States, one from the UK, Anti-Jihadist from Malaysia, Avenging Apostate from the UAE, and the sole female of the team, European Kafir - GO GIRL, GO!!!

Friday, September 01, 2006

Lebanon demands disarmament of Palestinians

According to this article in jpost.com the Lebanese government tries to enforce UN Security Council resolution 1701 and disarm the militants in the Litani area refugee camps. Their Fatah leader, Monir Al-Makdah, rejects the resolution altogether and refuses disarmament. They consider the resolution illegal because it does not include the right of return of Palestinian refugees.

Hmmm...

As far as I understand, sooner or later independent Palestine will become reality. I find it fascinating though, that so many of the refugees want to return to their old homes inside Israel, seemingly vieing for Israeli citizenship!

Unless, of course, they have something else in mind...