Islamophobia rears its ugly head again in the attack on the TV series, All-American Muslim

The Jaafar family, one of the participating families in the Learning Channel's
'All-American Muslim' reality TV show.
Photograph: TLC

i first heard about this upcoming series while listening to an npr interview with a commentator who wrote a piece about it in the guardian...

wajahat ali...

I think it's refreshingly bland. It's honest, it's real, it's human. And it's nice to see a show where Muslims aren't terrorists, taxi cab drivers or potential terrorists, you know? They're just people.

i've actually been hoping for a show like this for quite a while... i had thought that maybe a sitcom a la the cosby show might do it but i was very pleased to hear about "All-American Muslim" and thought it might give a real push toward mitigating some of the more rampant islamophobia that has been plaguing the country...

guess not...

The cable channel TLC may have thought it was promoting the cause of ethnic and religious harmony by running a program that sympathetically examines the lives of five ordinary American Muslim families. But now the show itself has become a source of conflict, with the conservative Florida Family Association urging advertisers to boycott it and at least one major retail chain complying.

Media critics are already issuing scathing criticism of the decision by home retail giant Lowe’s to respond to the Florida Family Association’s campaign against the program. Gawker, for example, writes, “American Muslim, a TLC reality show that depicts the lives of Muslims in dangerous anti-American professions like ‘police officer’ and ‘high school football coach,’ is obviously the most egregious example yet of creeping Sharia. So thank (the Christian) God that all-American retailer Lowe’s has decided to pull advertising from the show!”

[...]

As viewed by the Florida Family Association, however, the normality and all-American quality of the families profiled is in itself a cause for suspicion.

“The Learning Channel’s new show All-American Muslim is propaganda clearly designed to counter legitimate and present-day concerns about many Muslims who are advancing Islamic fundamentalism and Sharia law,” the group writes at its website. “The show profiles only Muslims that appear to be ordinary folks while excluding many Islamic believers whose agenda poses a clear and present danger to liberties and traditional values that the majority of Americans cherish.”

in response, the home improvement chain, lowes, has pulled its advertising...

Lowe’s actions are already being described as “a public relations disaster” and have aroused anger among the American Muslim community.

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, for example, has issued a statement saying, “Sadly corporations, such as Lowe’s, have succumbed to the idiocracy of such garbage campaigns, which are orchestrated by groups and organizations which lack credibility, legitimacy, and are founded on the basic notions of bigotry and racism reminiscent of a shameful era in this country’s history.”

personally, i think this kind of attack is both disgusting and shameful... i've said repeatedly here that i have a fair number of islamic friends and count them among some of the finest people i know... they're people trying to make it just like the rest of us and to demonize them as a few brutally ignorant people in this country are trying to do is despicable...

here's the trailer for the series...



yes, bland, but also accurate... muslims in the u.s. live lives very much like everybody else... truth be told, muslims around the world live lives very much like everybody else... this overwhelming urge to demonize those whose beliefs, skin color, national origin, diet or surnames don't match our predetermined notion of what we think they SHOULD be needs to stop...

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Bullshit being spread about Muslims

this kind of garbage really pisses me off... i have made some very, very special friends in afghanistan, devout muslims all, and the notion that devout muslims are "violent" is not only the height of misinformation, it's criminally wrong...

spencer ackerman writing in wired's danger room...

The FBI is teaching its counterterrorism agents that “main stream” [sic] American Muslims are likely to be terrorist sympathizers; that the Prophet Mohammed was a “cult leader”; and that the Islamic practice of giving charity is no more than a “funding mechanism for combat.”

At the Bureau’s training ground in Quantico, Virginia, agents are shown a chart contending that the more “devout” a Muslim, the more likely he is to be “violent.” Those destructive tendencies cannot be reversed, an FBI instructional presentation adds: “Any war against non-believers is justified” under Muslim law; a “moderating process cannot happen if the Koran continues to be regarded as the unalterable word of Allah.”

These are excerpts from dozens of pages of recent FBI training material on Islam that Danger Room has acquired. In them, the Constitutionally protected religious faith of millions of Americans is portrayed as an indicator of terrorist activity.

“There may not be a ‘radical’ threat as much as it is simply a normal assertion of the orthodox ideology,” one FBI presentation notes. “The strategic themes animating these Islamic values are not fringe; they are main stream.”

The FBI isn’t just treading on thin legal ice by portraying ordinary, observant Americans as terrorists-in-waiting, former counterterrorism agents say. It’s also playing into al-Qaida’s hands.

Focusing on the religious behavior of American citizens instead of proven indicators of criminal activity like stockpiling guns or using shady financing makes it more likely that the FBI will miss the real warning signs of terrorism. And depicting Islam as inseparable from political violence is exactly the narrative al-Qaida spins — as is the related idea that America and Islam are necessarily in conflict.

"focusing on the religious behavior of American citizens" not only "makes it more likely that the FBI will miss the real warning signs of terrorism," it also is just plain wrong... if they really wanted to teach those counterterrorism agents something worthwhile, they should make them read, study and discuss the koran, preferably with mainstream imams or mullahs who could explain what islam is really all about...

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Here's a headline that is false on its face

ya gotta get a little perspective here... what if the headline read "hearings on 'catholics' in america will be fair," or "hearings on 'japanese' in america will be fair," or "hearings on 'italians' in america will be fair" or "hearings on 'jews' in america will be fair"... don't you think that might rub a few people the wrong way...?

King: Hearings on Muslims in America will be fair

The Republican congressman who has organized controversial hearings into radical Islam called Muslims "part of the mosaic" of America Wednesday and said they shouldn't feel threatened or intimidated by his inquiry.

"If there is going to be animosity, I would blame it on my opponents," Rep. Peter King said in a nationally broadcast interview.

having a "hearing" on any minority group and characterizing it as "fair" is almost a contradiction in terms...

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Seeing Islam in a different light - FINALLY...!

The Disappearance of the Nightmare Arab
How a Revolution of Hope Is Changing the Way Americans Look at Islam

Perhaps the two biggest surprises of all here: out of a culture that has notoriously disempowered women has sprung a protest movement rife with female leadership, while a religion regarded as inherently incompatible with democratic ideals has been the context from which comes an unprecedented outbreak of democratic hope. And make no mistake: the Muslim religion is essential to what has been happening across the Middle East, even without Islamic “fanatics” chanting hate-filled slogans.

Without such fanatics, who in the West knows what this religion actually looks like?

In fact, its clearest image has been there on our television screens again and again. In this period of transformation, every week has been punctuated with the poignant formality of Friday prayers, including broadcast scenes of masses of Muslims prostrate in orderly rows across vast squares in every contested Arab capital. Young and old, illiterate and tech savvy, those in flowing robes and those in tight blue jeans have been alike in such observances. From mosque pulpits have come fiery denunciations of despotism and corruption, but no blood-thirst and none of the malicious Imams who so haunt the nightmares of Europeans and Americans.

Yet sacrosanct Fridays have consistently seen decisive social action, with resistant regimes typically getting the picture on subsequent weekends. (The Tunisian prime minister, a holdover from the toppled regime of autocrat Zine Ben Ali, for example, resigned on the last Sunday in February.) These outcomes have been sparked not only by preaching, but by the mosque-inspired cohesion of a collectivity that finds no contradiction between piety and political purpose; religion, that is, has been a source of resolve.

It’s an irony, then, that Western journalists, always so quick to tie bad Muslim behavior to religion, have rushed to term this good Muslim behavior “secular.” In a word wielded by the New York Times, Islam is now considered little but an “afterthought” to the revolution. In this, the media is simply wrong. The protests, demonstrations, and uprisings that have swept across the Middle East have visibly built their foundations on the irreducible sense of self-worth that, for believers, comes from a felt closeness to God, who is as near to each person -- as the Qu’ran says -- as his or her own jugular vein. The call to prayer is a five-times-daily reminder of that infinite individual dignity.

it's about time somebody pointed out a few fundamental facts... islam is NOT a religion of fanaticism... the qu'ran's basic message is respect, compassion and service to your fellow man, all conducted from a peaceful mindset... the demonization of muslims and the religion of islam in general is a particularly vile and narrow point of view... it's absolutely equivalent to painting all christians with the same brush because of the extremist, violent actions of an abortion clinic bomber...

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Now, THIS is Thanksgiving...!

more like this...



juan cole...

[O]ne of the things we should be giving thanks for on this day is that we live in a society where, ideally, it should make no difference if you are Christian or Muslim, Jewish or Buddhist, agnostic or Hindu. You can build your place of worship anywhere you like, within the boundaries of civic zoning laws, no matter which path you follow. The liberties of the US Constitution require no religious test before they can be enjoyed. They are universal. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that ALL men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men…” Americans are not Americans because they are white, or Christian. Everyone born here or naturalized is an American. Muslim-Americans are Americans.

very cool...

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The Constitution is not subject to opinion polling [UPDATE]

among so many other disgraces, what's happening in the u.s. regarding religious tolerance is a true national disgrace...

keith olbermann...



[UPDATE]

glenn zooms in on the islamophobia touched on above by keith... it's worth posting in full because it also touches on our ever-expanding surveillance state...

One of the most under-reported political stories is the increasingly vehement, nationwide movement -- far from Ground Zero -- to oppose new mosques and Islamic community centers. These ugly campaigns are found across the country, in every region, and extend far beyond the warped extremists who are doing things such as sponsoring "Burn a Quran Day." And now, from CBS News last night, we have this:

Fire at Tenn. Mosque Building Site Ruled Arson

Federal officials are investigating a fire that started overnight at the site of a new Islamic center in a Nashville suburb.

Ben Goodwin of the Rutherford County Sheriff's Department confirmed to CBS Affiliate WTVF that the fire, which burned construction equipment at the future site of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, is being ruled as arson. . . .

The chair of the center's planning committee, Essim Fathy, said he drove to the site at around 5:30 a.m. Saturday morning after he was contacted by the sheriff's department.

"Our people and community are so worried of what else can happen," said Fathy. "They are so scared" . . .

Opponents of a new Islamic center say they believe the mosque will be more than a place of prayer; they are afraid the 15-acre site that was once farmland will be turned into a terrorist training ground for Muslim militants bent on overthrowing the U.S. government.

"They are not a religion. They are a political, militaristic group," Bob Shelton, a 76-year-old retiree who lives in the area, told The Associated Press.

Shelton was among several hundred demonstrators who recently wore "Vote for Jesus" T-shirts and carried signs that said "No Sharia law for USA!," referring to the Islamic code of law.

Others took their opposition further, spray painting a sign announcing the "Future site of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro" and tearing it up.

Earlier this summer opponents criticized the planned mosque at hearings held by the Rutherford County Commission, as supporters held prayer vigils.

At one such prayer vigil, WTVF reported opponents speaking out against construction.

"No mosque in Murfreesboro. I don't want it. I don't want them here," Evy Summers said to WTVF. "Go start their own country overseas somewhere. This is a Christian country. It was based on Christianity."

• Continue reading

The arsonists undoubtedly will be happy to tell you how much they hate Terrorism. And how there's a War on Christianity underway in the U.S. The harm from these actions are not merely the physical damage they cause, but also the well-grounded fear it imposes on a minority of the American population. If you launch a nationwide, anti-Islamic campaign in Lower Manhattan based on the toxic premise that Muslims generally are responsible for 9/11 -- and spend a decade expanding American wars on one Muslim country after the next -- this is the inevitable, and obviously dangerous, outcome.

* * * * *

Three other items worth noting:

(1) Kudos to The New York Times for publishing this Op-Ed by Palestinian-American journalist Ali Abunimah, with views on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict -- and the role played by the U.S. -- which are typically excluded from the American debate on those issues.

(2) Reflecting the fact that primitive fundamentalism is found in all religions and is by no means unique to Islam, this Jerusalem Post article details how an Israel singer was sentenced by a rabbinical panel to receive 39 lashes for the crime of singing in front of an audience mixed with men and women. That article rather substantially exaggerates the punishment -- the video reflects that the "lashes" were essentially symbolic and undertaken voluntarily, fundamentally distinguishing it from involuntary, genuine punishment for moral "sins" -- but the notion that such an act merits punishment is nonetheless instructive.

(3) This short though important post documents how children are being trained to give up all privacy, and to be good, dutiful Surveillance State citizens, through constant, pervasive surveillance in schools. As I wrote recently here, what is lost from the societal elimination of privacy is difficult to describe but of incomparable value:

Many people are indifferent to the disappearance of privacy -- even with regard to government officials -- because they don't perceive any real value to it. The ways in which the loss of privacy destroys a society are somewhat abstract and difficult to articulate, though very real. A society in which people know they are constantly being monitored is one that breeds conformism and submission, and which squashes innovation, deviation, and real dissent.

The old cliché is often mocked though basically true: there's no reason to worry about surveillance if you have nothing to hide. That mindset creates the incentive to be as compliant and inconspicuous as possible: those who think that way decide it's in their best interests to provide authorities with as little reason as possible to care about them. That's accomplished by never stepping out of line. Those willing to live their lives that way will be indifferent to the loss of privacy because they feel that they lose nothing from it. Above all else, that's what a Surveillance State does: it breeds fear of doing anything out of the ordinary by creating a class of meek citizens who know they are being constantly watched.

Training children from an early age to have no expectation of privacy -- to live on the assumption that their every move and even thought (which is what Internet activity is) will be monitored and recorded by authority figures -- exacerbates these harms quite substantially.

ya know, sitting here in a struggling little country like kosovo and reading about the insanity that's going on back in the u.s. isn't a particularly pleasant experience...

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Keith says all I care to say about the ground zero mosque debate

keith olbermann...

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Extraordinary rendition of a U.S. citizen - it could happen to you...!

note: mr. meshal was never charged...

"U.S. officials repeatedly threatened Mr. Meshal with torture, forced disappearance, and execution in order to coerce him to confess to wrongdoing in which he had not engaged and to associations that he did not have," according to the lawsuit [the suit, brought on behalf of Amir Meshal by the American Civil Liberties Union, is the first by a U.S. citizen seeking damages for the practice of "rendition," the extrajudicial transfer of terrorist suspects between countries], which targets two FBI agents, identified as Chris Higgenbotham and Steve Hersem, and two unidentified U.S. officials who allegedly questioned Meshal in Kenya and Ethiopia.

A spokesman for the FBI declined to comment, citing the Justice Department's policy in civil litigation cases.

Meshal, a Muslim born to Egyptian parents, traveled to Somalia in 2006 "to enrich his study of Islam," according to the lawsuit. Mogadishu, the Somali capital, had recently come under the control of a militia known as the Islamic Courts Union. Later that year, the U.S.- and Ethiopian-backed Transitional Federal Government of Somalia launched a military offensive and took back the city.

As he fled the fighting, Meshal was picked up in Kenya, near the Somali border, and held at the behest of U.S. officials, often in filthy and crowded cells, according to the lawsuit. He was repeatedly questioned by FBI agents who threatened to send him to Israel or Egypt unless he acknowledged ties to al-Qaeda, the lawsuit alleges.

Meshal signed a document waiving counsel, but the lawsuit claims that the FBI told him doing so was the only way he would get home, effectively leaving him no choice.

When a Kenyan human rights group filed a habeas petition on behalf of Meshal and other foreigners picked up at the border with Somalia, the American was secretly flown back to Somalia, where he was held for a number of days, before being taken to Ethiopia. He was also questioned repeatedly by U.S. agents in Ethiopia before finally being allowed to return to the United States on May 26, 2007, the suit says.

mr. meshal is now back home in new jersey...

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People who live in glass houses...

do you suppose a statement that israel is a secular state will be forthcoming...?

israeli ambassador to the u.s. michael oren on cnn via think progress:

The Iranian regime is not a secular regime. The Iranian regime is carrying out what they believe to be a divinely ordained task on the planet, and that is the conduct of a holy war.

hasn't israel's position all along been that it wants recognition from other countries as a "jewish" state...? hmmmmmmm...?

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"We want reforms, we want kindness, we want friendship with the world"

ya know what i'd like to see...? i'd like to see this same thing happening in every country in the world with the same sentiments expressed... we all want kindness, we all want friendship with the world, we all want this world to be a better place... do ya s'pose maybe, just maybe, we're slowly approaching the day when a global "pandemic" of kindness and friendship will spontaneously erupt...? a guy can dream, can't he...?

Ayatollah Khamenei announced Saturday that the election results showing a landslide victory for Mr. Ahmadinejad were fair. But on Sunday he met with Mr. Moussavi, a moderate, to listen to his concerns. And on Monday, he promised the inquiry into the results.

Nevertheless, his announcement could not calm the anger of the people. There was so much distrust that some people said they believed the leader was just trying to buy time and to calm the crowds, rather than attempting to really investigate the outcome.

Hours later, a broad river of people in Tehran — young and old, dressed in traditional Islamic gowns and the latest Western fashions — marched slowly from Revolution Square to Freedom Square for more than three hours, many of them wearing the signature bright green ribbons of Mr. Moussavi’s campaign and holding up their hands in victory signs.

The silent march was a deliberate and striking contrast to the chaos of the past few days, when riot police officers sprayed tear gas and wielded clubs to disperse scattered bands of angry and frightened young people. When the occasional shout or chant went up, the crowd quickly hushed it, and some held up signs with the word silence.

“These people are not seeking a revolution,” said Ali Reza, a young actor in a brown T-shirt who stood for a moment watching on the rally’s sidelines. “We don’t want this regime to fall. We want our votes to be counted, because we want reforms, we want kindness, we want friendship with the world.”

i get chills just reading this... i don't think it's about one candidate as much as it's about people reclaiming their own power and standing up for what they want instead of bowing to old men whose sole concern is perpetuating their own power and control over others...

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Netanyahu will accept a Palestinian state as long as it's not really a SOVEREIGN state AND Israel keeps building settlements

woo-hoo... what a pile of bullshit...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bowed to U.S. pressure Sunday and accepted the goal of a Palestinian state. But it was unclear whether the breakthrough, welcomed by President Obama, would lead to a revival of peace talks with the Palestinians, who immediately rejected the sharp limits Netanyahu would place on their nation's sovereignty.

Netanyahu said Israel needed international guarantees that a Palestinian state would not have its own military.In his first policy speech on the conflict since taking office 10 weeks ago, he also insisted that the U.S.-backed Palestinian Authority give up claims to Jerusalem as a future capital, recognize Israel as a Jewish state and "impose law and order" on the Hamas militants who run the Gaza Strip.

[...]

Netanyahu's half-hour address, televised in Israel during prime time, staked out a strikingly different approach to the conflict than the one Obama offered 10 days earlier in an address to the Muslim world from Cairo. He again rebuffed Obama's call for a halt to the growth of Jewish settlements in the West Bank as a first step toward engaging Arab states in a broad regional peace effort.

ok, now lemme see if i got this straight...

it's ok with israel if palestine becomes a nation (like israel has the ultimate say-so) but palestinians can't have any means to defend themselves (unlike every other sovereign nation on the planet with the most belligerent, destructive, downright NASTY country imaginable right next door, a country that's been working to wipe palestinians off the face of the earth and take all their land since the late 40s), palestinians have to give up all claims to jerusalem (one of islam's holiest sites outside of mecca and medinah), and israel will keep expanding its illegal settlements on palestinian land... oh, yeah, and btw, the palestinians have to put down the legitimately elected hamas government in gaza...

heckuva deal, dontcha think...? no wonder the palestinians are so thrilled...

Palestinian leaders dismissed Netanyahu's call to begin peace talks "immediately, without preconditions," as a nonstarter.

"Netanyahu left us with nothing to negotiate, as he systematically took nearly every issue off the table," said Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian Authority negotiator. "Nor did he accept a Palestinian state; instead, he announced a series of conditions and qualifications that render a viable, independent and sovereign state impossible."

Nabil abu Rudaineh, an aide to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, said the speech was "not enough to start a serious peace process."

Ahmad Bahar, a Hamas leader in Gaza, said the speech "proves that resistance is the only way for the Palestinians to regain their legitimate rights." Hamas' alliance with Iran, hostility to Israel and violent opposition to Abbas' administration make Israelis skeptical that any peace accord can work.

like i said, heckuva deal...

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A call for reconciliation that's desperately overdue

but better late than never...

Obama Calls for New Beginning Between U.S., Muslims

In Cairo, president says no single speech can eradicate years of mistrust, adding that America and Islam share common principles of justice, progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.

it's worth pointing out that, no matter how disappointed i am in much of what obama hasn't done and apparently isn't GOING to do, i simply can't imagine john mccain extending a hand like this... and george bush...? yeah, when pigs fly out of my butt...

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A highly personal perspective on Afghanistan

a friend of mine, perhaps motivated by my presence here in afghanistan, has been taking a much greater interest in the situation here... i received an email from him just this morning asking me if i would "connect the dots" for him... here's what i wrote back...

i don't know what the picture is on the puzzle box-top, my friend... i only have some pieces, same as you...

the only things i know for certain are that virtually every one of my afghan colleagues are smart, committed, open-minded, warm, friendly, compassionate people who would like nothing better than to have some peace and stability in their country so that they can get on with their lives...

most folks i know are devout muslims who reject extremism in all forms, be it islamic, christian, or jewish... they respect people of different beliefs and want that respect reciprocated... they have a hard time understanding the tendency of westerners to demonize islam across the board... they see christian and jewish extremists behaving in equally violent ways but understand that doesn't mean that christians or jews as a whole should be condemned...

people here work very hard to keep body and soul together... they are savvy business people who have been at it since well before marco polo stopped through the neighborhood, and are pragmatic enough to go with what works...

they feel powerless to change a system that seems to have them in its tight grip and they define that system as their own leaders who are out for themselves rather than the common good and are intent on raking in as much as they can before the door slams shut and they know it will sooner or later; the taliban who cannot bear the thought of people making choices that don't align with their fundamentalist beliefs and who want to destroy the infidels who advocate individual choice; and the current occupying power who they see as just one more big dog that blew in to town in pursuit of its national interests, interests that very little to do with the welfare of the common folk...

they are deeply frustrated but, nonetheless, they keep on keepin' on... about 2/3 of them are taking classes of one sort or another - english, computer, etc., and a large chunk of that number are in university degree programs, either at kabul university or the american university of afghanistan... some work all day and take classes at night... some of the drivers and guards work all night and take classes during the day... there are three former fulbright scholars on the project staff... i am a one-man academic counseling and letter of recommendation factory, having written letters to brandeis, univ. of maryland, univ. of texas, univ. of kent in the uk, and unr... i probably do 3-4 off-the-cuff, micro-seminars of 15-20 mins. each per day on various topics ranging from iso standards to leadership to communication and facilitation skills... they have an insatiable hunger for learning and see education as the most important thing besides food and shelter for moving their country forward...

that's my highly personal perspective, but it's my story, and i'm stickin' to it...

fwiw...

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Eid al-Adha

today begins the muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha and continues through the 12th... now that i've at least begun to gain a little familiarity with muslim religious practices and holidays, i thought it would be only fitting to honor some of my new muslim friends by offering up a little information about a major muslim holiday...

Eid al-Adha (Arabic: عيد الأضحى ‘Īd ul-’Aḍḥā, Urdu: بقرعید) or the Festival of Sacrifice is a religious festival celebrated by Muslims and Druze worldwide in commemoration of the willingness of Ibrahim (Abraham) to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to Allah. The devil tempted Ibrahim by saying he should disobey Allah and spare his son. As Ibrahim was about to kill his son, Allah intervened: instead Allah provided a lamb as the sacrifice. This is why today all over the world Muslims who have the means to, sacrifice an animal, as a reminder of Ibrahim's obedience to Allah. The meat is then shared out with family and friends, as well as the poorer members of the community (Islam names Ishmael as the son who was to be sacrificed, whereas the Judeo-Christian name Isaac).

Eid al-Adha is one of two Eid festivals celebrated by Muslims, whose basis comes from the Quran. (Muslims in Iran celebrate a third, non-denominational Eid.) Like Eid el-Fitr, Eid al-Adha begins with a short prayer followed by a sermon (khuṭba).

Eid al-Adha annually falls on the 10th day of the month of Dhul Hijja (ذو الحجة) of the lunar Islamic calendar. The festivities last for two to three days or more depending on the country. Eid al-Adha occurs the day after the pilgrims conducting Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia by Muslims worldwide, descend from Mount Arafat. It happens to be approximately 70 days after the end of the month of Ramadan.

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In Aqaba, Jordan

It's early on Monday morning and I'm listening to the gentle wash of the waves on the Red Sea shore outside my hotel room and thinking about my first impressions of Jordan.

My only previous experience with an Islamic country was the recent one in Afghanistan and so I was curious to see what Jordan would be like. The similarities are many - an Islamic people; a rugged, arid, desert landscape; muezzins singing prayers from the many mosques; women in headscarves and full-length, shapeless garments; and arabic people, most of whom are descended from nomadic tribes - but the differences are dramatic. For one thing, Jordan is not at war or at constant risk of terrorist activity, which makes it safe to walk the streets and generally to come and go as you please. For another, there is a much larger middle class and the abject, mind-numbing poverty on display everywhere in Afghanistan is mostly absent. The national infrastructure - what I have seen of it so far - is good. The 3 1/2 hour drive from Amman here to Aqaba was on a 4-lane divided highway that had obviously been recently resurfaced.

Aqaba is well laid-out with wide streets, often divided by medians full of palm trees, walking paths and places to sit and relax. The hotel I'm staying at is on a par with any other first-class hotel anywhere in the world, and there are a number of others in the same category and many more in various stages of construction. Restaurants are within walking distance and the sound of languages from numerous other countries - Germany, France, eastern Europe, and other Arab states - can be heard as tourists and their families come and go from beach outings.

The sheer volume of world history available within a two-hour drive of the city is amazing. From Lawrence of Arabia, to the Crusades, to major events recorded in the Bible, to the 4000 years of history and culture surrounding Petra, it's obvious that this is a truly ancient land with stories literally embedded in every rock.

The 40 kilometers of Jordanian coastline, stretching from Aqaba to the border with Saudi Arabia on the south, was increased to that amount a number of years ago by virtue of a land swap with Saudi Arabia, and it constitutes Jordan's only access to the sea. The port of Aqaba is a busy one and is equipped to handle both container and cruise ships and port facilities are being rapidly expanded.

Some people in my UNR class asked the other night why the U.S. was interested in giving foreign aid money to Jordan, and I had to confess I wasn't sure. Since coming here, I think I've found out why. The Islam practiced in Jordan is of the moderate, more open-minded variety and the country is relatively peaceful and stable and my guess is that the U.S. would like it to stay that way which means keeping the people happy and the current ruler, King Abdullah, in power. On the more immediately practical side, the port of Aqaba handles several hundred container ships a month where supplies for Iraq are off-loaded on trucks, and driven to Iraq by way of Amman.

I'll share other observations as I get them and when I have time. In the meantime, enjoy the photo below which was taken from the balcony of my hotel room. It's looking out at the Red Sea toward the south with the coastline of the city of Aqaba in the center right and unfortunately includes a construction site, only one of many here in this a-building resort city. To the far lower left right, well outside the border of the photo, is the city of Eilat, Israel. The border crossing to Israel is only minutes from the center of Aqaba and I am sure I'll be making that trip at least once during my visit. The map at the top of the post gives you a sense of place.

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Bollywood soaps on Afghan TV

i'm not going to sit here and defend those who get all wrapped up in soap operas, nor am i going to make a case for the values those soap operas promulgate... the bollywood soaps, the latin american telenovelas, and the daily u.s. potboilers are all of a piece - a combination of escapism and voyeurism that, arguably, contributes little to the mental or emotional health of an individual or a community...

however...

we are no longer living in an age where it's possible to shut out the world, nor are we living in an age where one group of people should insist on having the power to decide what's best for another group of people... it's time that everyone woke up to the reality that we must take charge of our own lives and begin making our own decisions, decisions that not only support our own values and our own physical and emotional health, but also ensure that those decisions support the general commonwealth...

people the world over must stop abdicating our personal power to those whose purpose in life is to take and hold that power and then claim that they are using it "in our best interests"...

Five nights a week, millions of Afghans put aside their dinner dishes, shush their children and turn on the TV to gape at Indian soap operas acted out in impossibly lavish settings by stars in sequined gowns and wedding jewelry.

To their defenders among Afghan journalists and social analysts, the dramas are a harmless distraction from the hardships and tensions of life in a poor, war-torn country where dust invades every crevice and suicide bombings are common.

To their critics in the government and among Muslim clergy, the shows represent an invasion of foreign behavior and beliefs -- from glimpses of cleavage and Hindu shrines to story lines touching on such taboo topics as divorce, infidelity and illegitimacy.

This spring, the off-screen plot has taken a contentious turn. The Ministry of Information and Culture banned the evening dramas last month, and government prosecutors have now charged one resisting TV station with offending public morals and endangering national security.

"These are serious charges that carry prison terms," said Saad Mohseni, co-owner of Tolo TV, which still airs the two most popular Indian soaps. "They are trying to go after us from every possible direction. The things they object to in the serials are happening every day in our own society, but we bury our heads in the sand."

The government of President Hamid Karzai, although propped up by Western aid and defended against Islamist insurgents by Western troops, is also highly sensitive to religious emotions in this conservative Muslim society and reluctant to defy Muslim elders.

Members of the senior religious council had complained that the serials were offensive to Muslims and should be banned. They have expressed similar concerns about other TV shows, such as a version of "American Idol," saying they encourage immorality.

it's time to stop giving our power away to the elite, self-anointed, almighty interpreters of right and wrong, be they religious or governmental authorities, and to start the serious business of looking inside for the real connection to truth and light...

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"Kill everyone who refuses to be made into a slave!"

i hate reading these articulate summaries of reality, not because i hate to face reality, but because i hate to be reminded of just exactly what is taking place in my country...

i just came from a meeting at the kabul version of baghdad's "green zone," where u.s. embassy and usaid staff all hunker down in a highly fortified compound inside their well-appointed, u.s.-style offices (albeit in trailers and temporary buildings, a big contrast with the obscene palace that we built in iraq), ensconced in their bureaucratic bubble, comfortable in the thought that the u.s. is THE world power to be reckoned with... all hail the united states of america...!

yet, sadly, this is the sad truth about the current reality in my country...

If the people can be aroused to perform their patriotic duty to restrain their government from destroying the world, before it crosses the nuclear threshold, then peaceful change is still possible. The lunatic-in-chief and his supporters in both the political parties are prepared to use nuclear weapons against vast civilian populations, if We the People are unwilling to stop them. This new phase in the war that is allegedly being fought in America's defense will represent the final transmutation of that war into a totally new war, fought to prevent alleged nuclear weapons construction, by unleashing actual nuclear destruction. Strangelove's "wet dream," a nuclear free fire zone.

The disaster unfolding in Washington is like nothing the earth has ever seen. The highest form of government ever produced by man is putting the final stages of planning on freedom's demise, and yet the freest people in the history of the world believe that they are powerless to change anything, as they watch excitedly from the sidelines, screaming patriotic hymns to Clinton and McCain. The planners and their stooges ultimately believe in their own ability to carry forward the grand "success" stories of Iraq and Afghanistan into the rest of the Muslim world. The illusion that they can destroy select areas of the rest of the world without destroying us, helps to calm the delirious worry-free psyches of an immoral society, ready to kill the world to save their own sorry asses.

The war on terrorism uses our beliefs against us. It has been exposed as a holy war between Christianity and Islam, at least that is evidently what the Jewish neocon authors of the war want it to be. It is only a matter of time before it becomes obvious to everyone that the war of the new world order is a war against all religion. Religious belief and basic human morality must be allowed to serve as the basis for the fight against this war, because it is a war on life itself. The inherent evil of the whole operation must become the rallying point for the people to oppose the war. It is nothing less than an egotistical human attempt to overthrow the moral basis of international law, replacing it with the inhumane law of parasitic capitalist Darwinism. Kill everyone who refuses to be made into a slave!

don't get me wrong... a lot of the people in that well-guarded compound in kabul, a mile or so from where i'm sitting typing this, are good, decent people, doing what they think is right, much as i am doing... for, after all, am i not implicitly enabling the imperialistic aims of my country by being here...? i won't try to rationalize my way out of that, but i do think i am offering a degree of white light where perhaps it hasn't shown brightly before... and, then again, maybe i'm only deluding myself like so many of my fellow citizens...

p.s. sitting not 15 feet from me is one of my afghan islamic counterparts, a highly intelligent, eager-to-learn young man with whom i have struck up a friendship... he's very much interested in leadership and management and i'm giving him informal tutorials once or twice a week that he's positively eating up... he's getting the opportunity to pick my brain and i'm getting the opportunity to see and learn about afghanistan through his eyes... now THAT'S a win-win...

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This will not be good for PK, but, of course, the U.S. simply MUST blame it on al Qaeda

as i've posted previously, benazir bhutto was far from the ideal person to save pakistan from the power lust of musharraf, but having her killed off could very well plunge the country - a country with a nuclear weapons stockpile - into violent chaos... this does not bode well...

from the wapo...

Bhutto Assassinated at Rally
Thursday, December 27, 2007; 9:19 AM

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan, Dec. 27 -- Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday at a political rally, two months after she returned from eight years of exile to attempt a political comeback, officials said.

Bhutto, 54, was shot at close range as she was leaving the rally in this garrison city south of Islamabad, aides said. Immediately after the shooting, a suicide bomber detonated explosives near Bhutto's car, killing at least 15 other people.

Bhutto was rushed to a hospital with extensive wounds to her torso, her supporters said. Shortly after she arrived at the hospital, an official came out of the building and told a crowd of supporters Bhutto was dead.

Also Thursday, a rooftop sniper opened fire on supporters of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif at a different pre-election rally in Rawalpindi, leaving four dead and at least five injured.

Bhutto's death is a devastating development, coming 12 days before Pakistanis are set to vote in national parliamentary elections already marked by enormous political turmoil. President Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency in November -- a move which he said was to combat terrorism, but which was widely perceived as an effort to stave off legal challenges to his authority. U.S. military officials said last week that the terrorist group al-Qaeda increasingly is focusing its efforts in Pakistan.

Bhutto, who returned to Pakistan in October, had been running for parliament. Her People's Party was expected to win enough seats for her to become prime minister. A daughter of a Pakistani political royalty, she was the most popular candidate running, and had fared very well in recent polls.

[...]

At the Sharif rally, party spokesman Ahsan Iqbal said supporters were fired upon while waiting to welcome the former prime minister. He called the attack unprovoked, and said it was carried out by Musharraf supporters. Musharraf's party is "panicked by the astounding reception Mr. Sharif is getting," Iqbal said. "They're trying to use violence as an excuse to postpone the elections."

this item from the associated press wasn't mentioned in the wapo story...

[Bhutto's] supporters at the hospital began chanting "Dog, Musharraf, dog," referring to Pakistan's president Pervez Musharraf.

the fact that a sharif rally was also targeted is a very strong indication to me that the violence is government-backed... that the u.s. is seizing the opportunity to blame the whole thing on al qaeda, to me, points to that even more strongly...

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Benazir Bhutto's niece calls b.s. on Aunt Benazir

i'm not entirely sure why i'm so fascinated with the happenings in pakistan... maybe it's that they are, in a broken mirror kind of way, illustrating many of the same dynamics that go on here in the u.s., to say nothing of the kind of people the u.s. government chooses to support...

once again, pakistan, pervez musharraf and benazir bhutto are in the news... this time, one of musharraf's principal opponents has been arrested, pervez says he'll give up his military role, and bhutto calls for him to resign... but, as bhutto's niece notes, in this la times op-ed, bhutto remains in a comfortable house arrest...

Aunt Benazir's false promises

Bhutto's return bodes poorly for Pakistan -- and for democracy there.
By Fatima Bhutto
November 14, 2007
KARACHI -- We Pakistanis live in uncertain times. Emergency rule has been imposed for the 13th time in our short 60-year history. Thousands of lawyers have been arrested, some charged with sedition and treason; the chief justice has been deposed; and a draconian media law -- shutting down all private news channels -- has been drafted.

Perhaps the most bizarre part of this circus has been the hijacking of the democratic cause by my aunt, the twice-disgraced former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto. While she was hashing out a deal to share power with Gen. Pervez Musharraf last month, she repeatedly insisted that without her, democracy in Pakistan would be a lost cause. Now that the situation has changed, she's saying that she wants Musharraf to step down and that she'd like to make a deal with his opponents -- but still, she says, she's the savior of democracy.

The reality, however, is that there is no one better placed to benefit from emergency rule than she is. Along with the leaders of prominent Islamic parties, she has been spared the violent retributions of emergency law. Yes, she now appears to be facing seven days of house arrest, but what does that really mean? While she was supposedly under house arrest at her Islamabad residence last week, 50 or so of her party members were comfortably allowed to join her. She addressed the media twice from her garden, protected by police given to her by the state, and was not reprimanded for holding a news conference. (By contrast, the very suggestion that they might hold a news conference has placed hundreds of other political activists under real arrest, in real jails.)

Ms. Bhutto's political posturing is sheer pantomime. Her negotiations with the military and her unseemly willingness until just a few days ago to take part in Musharraf's regime have signaled once and for all to the growing legions of fundamentalists across South Asia that democracy is just a guise for dictatorship.

It is widely believed that Ms. Bhutto lost both her governments on grounds of massive corruption. She and her husband, a man who came to be known in Pakistan as "Mr. 10%," have been accused of stealing more than $1 billion from Pakistan's treasury. She is appealing a money-laundering conviction by the Swiss courts involving about $11 million. Corruption cases in Britain and Spain are ongoing.

It was particularly unappealing of Ms. Bhutto to ask Musharraf to bypass the courts and drop the many corruption cases that still face her in Pakistan. He agreed, creating the odiously titled National Reconciliation Ordinance in order to do so. Her collaboration with him was so unsubtle that people on the streets are now calling her party, the Pakistan People's Party, the Pervez People's Party. Now she might like to distance herself, but it's too late.

naturally, the wapo gives us NOTHING of benazir's background, and i'm certainly not the only one who notices... this from a commenter on the wapo article...

Bud0 wrote:
Do we have to paint everything in black and white? Musharraf is a dictator, but that doesn't make Bhutto (or Sharif or Imran Khan) a saint.

I think readers deserve to know that these are all millionaire aristocrats who got into politics so they could siphon the national treasury to their family's bank account.

And the dirtiest of the three is Bhutto, whose wealth is estimated at $1.5 billion, since her father and her both took turns looting Pakistan's coffers.

She also faces criminal money-laundering investigations in both Spain and Switzerland.

This woman is no Aung San Suu Kyi. In fact she has a lot more in common with Ahmed Chalabi.

That's why I get antsy when the Post seems to push her. Everyone knows she's Bush's new chosen puppet, that the US govt engineered her return. Is she now to be wafted in to power on a magic carpet of uncritical media coverage?

context-free journalism... gotta love it...

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Fighting terrorism with comics in Germany

This is the cover of the comic book commissioned
by the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia to
teach children about Islamism and terrorism. In
the middle is Murat, a troubled Turkish youth, who
gets caught up in the machinations of Harun, a boy
who has been radicalized by a local man preaching
Jihad.

honestly, i don't have an opinion one way or the other on this, but i have to say, i'm impressed with the creativity and the sincere attempt to put some constructive stuff out there in kid-friendly style that doesn't demonize or preach...

The Interior Ministry of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia is taking a new tack in the fight against homegrown terrorism. It's using a comic book -- complete with colorful images and "youthful" language -- to battle nasty jihadism.

[...]

[T]o be fair, the story is not half-bad, and it's pretty well put together.

Andi has all the accoutrements needed to mark him as your run-o-the-mill hipster kid -- baseball cap, hoodie and messy hair -- and he has a Turkish girlfriend, Ayshe. Her brother -- and Andi's buddy -- Murat, is going through a bit of a crisis because he can't find a position as an apprentice, and he blames his rejection letters on xenophobia. That makes Murat the perfect prey for the strange new kid on the playground, Harun, with his serious demeanor and steadfast belief in what he's been fed from Islamists. Harun, in turn, beats it into Murat's head that he will be discriminated against because of his religion.

[...]

Of course, after 38 pages, there is the inevitable happy ending: Murat transforms himself from a potential public enemy number one back into a cheerful chap. And, joy upon joy, an apprenticeship position appears out of nowhere, just to hammer home the moral of the story a little bit further.

[...]

One thing is for sure: the officials have given it a good shot. The story is a bit too short and sweet but, at the same time, it's half-way believable because you can see that a lot of the details are a fairly faithful reflection of reality.

definitely an "a" for effort and at least trying to get past stereotypes... maybe the u.s. will take lessons... < scratches chin > nah...

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