Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Not another...

...Islam Awareness Week!

Surely it's about time Muslims organised a 'let's get in touch with our own religion before preaching' week instread of yet again trying to convert the kuffaar (non-believers) in order to score more browny points with God, otherwise known as hasanaat.

Since most Muslims don't know what the Qur'an itself says, and hearing from others/dad/local imam does not count, it's hardly convincing when they try to sell it to the kuffaar.

Fix up brothers!

Sunday, January 28, 2007

What left?

The left and dictators... comfortable bed-fellows?

Nick Cohen of The Observer has his say.

hmmm

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Democratisation and European illusions


Angela Merkel said something that infuriated me the other day.

The BBC World quoted her as saying that the Germany and other western European countries endured a long and arduous struggle to reach the level they are at in terms of democracy and human rights, also referring to Europe's 'culture' of human rights. She referred to something along the lines of 'blips' along the way further contributing to progression along this path.

Something very closely along those lines, anyway.

If these comments aren't downright outrageous in their detachment from history then they are no doubt very problematic.

A few problems:

Illusion 1: Democracy means respect for human rights.

e.g. see foreign policy of US and UK invasion of Iraq, France's support of the genocidal Rwandan regime of 1994, increasingly draconian and anti-democratic anti-terror laws in this country. And hello Ms Merkel, how soon we have forgotten the Nazi genocide! Only 60 years ago, that's nothing when juxtaposed to modern history.

Illusion 2: Democracy is the goal

Rather is one of the means to achieve the ultimate goals of peace, stability and prosperity.

Illusion 3: Democracy within your borders translates to sound foreign policy

See devestation foreign policy of Israel, US and UK amongst others.

Illusion 4: Are our societies democratic anyway?

How can we in the UK call ourselves democratic when political protest is largely neutered, our system is two party and voting for alternatives is discouraged because it is considered 'pointless', corruption investigations are stopped by the PM for obvious reasons and our system so unrepresentative?

Illusion 5: Democracy, once achieved, is permanent.

In fact Democracy is fragile and is constantly challenged by the authoritarian nature of the governing structures, statesmen, bourgeois and religious leaders. In face of a multitude of challenges it need constant protection and regular bolstering.


So shut it Merkel!

Was I a dog in my past life?

Thanks to Andy for this one.

Dutch brewery brews beer for dogs.


hmmm, what to think...

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Sail to Guantanamo Bay in protest...


6,000 sail to Cuba to Close Guantánamo

Just over a week on from the 5th anniversary of the first transfers to the US prison camp at Guantánamo, over 6,000 people from more than 90 countries have set off on a virtual voyage to the US detention centre.

The travellers are taking part in AI’s latest online campaign to persuade the US government to close Guantánamo. The campaign will run until 26 June, International Day for the Protection of Victims of Torture.

Each person who signs up to join the flotilla can design their own outfit, redo their hair and choose from a range of flotation devices from pirate ships and dinghies to dolphins and dragons. People can also choose a message about Guantánamo in a selection of languages. As people progress towards Cuba, they will be invited to sign petitions on behalf of those detained in Guantánamo.

“The protests which took place less than a fortnight ago showed that people across the world want to see Guantánamo closed. We are now taking that struggle from the streets to cyber space,” said Denise Searle, Senior Director of Communications at Amnesty International.

“This campaign is also a response to the US government’s continuous disregard of international outrage at Guantánamo detentions and to AI's numerous unanswered requests to visit the detainees who are held there virtually incommunicado.”

http://www.amnesty.org/guantanamoflotilla



Do it!

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Why Iraqis should not do politics


A must see video of two Iraqis, one an MP, the other a journalist, on Al-Jazeera about to tear each tear each other to pieces arguing over the memory of Saddam Hussein.

شرّ البلية ما يضحك


My dear people, you're no good at politics!

Friday, January 12, 2007

More from the world of ' You know you've got Kurdish blood when...'


...You're speaking to a lady in your class you don't really know that well and you're making pleasant small-talk. You wish to ask her about her Christmas break and whether she enjoyed it or not. The following leaves Kurd's mouth:
How was your period?

Unsurprisingly Kurd gets a look of absolute-horror, y'know the one my fellow mountain people, as if I stole her goat or something.

What Kurd actually meant to say was:
How was your festive period?

Needless to say only Kurd would make a mistake on such a word.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Egyptian torture victim found guilty of 'resisting authorities'!!!

Remember this? The video of an Egyptian man being tortured by Egyptian police who also inserted a stick into his anus.


Well he's just been sentenced to three months imprisonment. His crime? 'Resisting authorities.'

Come again???

Yep the Egyptian criminal justice system expects you to lay there, taking beatings and be sodomized.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

India's 'Saddam Hussein' village



Typical BBC story! So this is where my hard earned tax money is going, to report this...


"God willing one day our village will be full of Saddam Husseins."

'But there is one problem in having so many Saddam Husseins, says villager Mohammed Hassan Abbas. "In the playground we have Saddam Hussein running after Saddam Hussein, behind Saddam Hussein who is ahead of Saddam Hussein but too far from Saddam Hussein... it can all get a little confusing," he said. '

haha

enough with the Saddam stories now!

Sunday, January 07, 2007

I feel good!


...because today I strode purposefully into a car show room, chin high, prepared to take no shit (in fact I was prepared to dish it out) and full of cynicism towards slimey car salesmen and a brain packed full of research.

And what did I get?

£1400 off a new car for my dad.

I'll drink to that!

Saturday, January 06, 2007

the sorry state of the Arab world

Monday, January 01, 2007

Saddam’s execution: A pivotal moment or just another day in the bloody history of Iraq?

Sunday 30th December should have been a momentous day. It should have been a day in which Iraqis, together, stood in memory of the almost countless number of victims of one of the most psychopathic and vicious dictators to have lived. It should have been a day in which Iraqis safely went about their daily routine, not having to worry that their sons would have their throat slit just because his name was Ali or Omar. Instead whilst many feel euphoria, albeit passing, at the dispatching of Saddam Iraq remains in a state where the present is all-too consuming for the past to be given the reflection that it deserves.

Amidst this background you'll probably hear Bush & co. claiming this as a victory for justice, the Iraqi people and cut off a lifeline to the 'insurgency'. Theirs opponents will claim that his execution will pour oil of the flames of insurgency and worsen an already ‘apocalyptic’ situation in parts of Iraq. The reality is that both ‘sides’ in Iraq are, as usual, far from the truth.

Bush & co.’s unrelenting desperation in Iraq only drives them to squeeze any news dry of its potential propaganda. Ba’athists were never a major part of the ‘insurgency’ for Iraq’s mushkila kubra/biggest problem is sectarian violence. Perhaps Saddam did have a hand in the violence through covert funding or messages but it is very unlikely that he was the major catalyst, as evidence one needs only to recall the scenes of Saddam being dragged out of his hole upon capture. Rather the murderous ‘insurgency’, shamefully called al-muqawama or ‘resistance’ by some, has proven itself so adept at handling whatever the opposition throws its way.

Conversely the so-called anti-war activists claim his death will cause more violence than his existence and that justice can never be delivered while Iraq remains occupied. Well we all knew Saddam was guilty so his guilty sentence was right, regardless of the tribunal’s fairness or legitimacy. On the subject of legitimacy the US government, anxious to shoot some political hoops on the international level, pressed ahead with one of the freshest experiments in western justice rather than handing him over for execution immediately. Note that this form of justice is packaged solely for 'them' rather than 'us and them'. Ultimately, though, the rough and raw Iraqi way got its way and Saddam had his life squeezed from him at the end of a rope. In response to this the same ‘anti-war’ activists also claim that Saddam’s execution is just another example of (Western) victor’s justice playing itself out in the developing world. To an extent this is true for how can one deny this when instigators of massive violence in the region (from the west and east) sit so far from the dock? Yet who can deny that Saddam’s victims – the majority of Iraqis – aren’t pleased by an execution that’d some had never even dreamed of dreaming? And isn't partial justice better than none at all?

On Iraq's future I try to be optimistic; indeed how could one, living so comfortably in the west, be otherwise when so many Iraqis relive horrors on daily basis, almost a parody of Groundhog day in Hell? Or at least I try to find for shreds of hope amid the rubble. But the reality is that Iraq is showing all the tell-tale signs of a continuing slide towards years of seemingly-endless violence. Its wretched post-invasion existence as a pseudo-state only leaves the country at the mercy of those that have the least interest in its success: the US, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria and Jordan to name but a few. Furthermore Iraqi civil society, loaded with years of increasing sectarianism and having lived an unimaginably torturous modern history, is now, unsurprisingly, imploding. Unsurprisingly this implosion is, of course, fuelled by the realist geo-politics of its neighbours.

And it is in deepest of sadness and despair with which I arrived at the conclusion that unless the aforementioned states agree to prioritise Iraqi security above their own cynical interests then Iraq will continue to be their battleground for years to come.