Monthly Archives: December 2011

Islamophobia, Muslims, Racism, U.S. Politics

The Brain and the Ass: a Republican Fear that America will turn Atheist and Muslim Fundamentalist……

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““I have two grandchildren: Maggie is 11; Robert is 9,” Gingrich said at Cornerstone Church here. “I am convinced that if we do not decisively win the struggle over the nature of America, by the time they’re my age they will be in a secular atheist country, potentially one dominated by radical Islamists and with no understanding of what it once meant to be an American ………..”

Newt Gingrich probably meant “what it once meant to be a white American”. So the “brain” of the GOP worries that the USA will turn into an atheist society that will be controlled by radical Muslims. Some people claim that he is, essentially, the “brain” of the new regional Republican Party. If that is the logic used by the “brain” of the GOP, I shudder to think what utterances its “ass” can makes. I am not talking about Beck and Limbaugh and the usual right-wing media gasbags. I mean mostly the others in the Republican race.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Bahrain, Cairo, Egypt, Libya, NATO, Salafi, Syria

Western Liberation of Arabs from Iraq to Libya to Syria: Allenby back in Egypt?………….

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The West and Arab liberation:

  • Having “liberated” the Arabs (only briefly) from the Ottoman Turks in 1918 with help from the Hashemites of Hijaz (the al-Saud were an unknown clan in their tribal corner of remote Nejd),
  • Having recently liberated Iraq and Libya from their dictators, with Arab cooperation,
  • Being already poised to liberate Syria from its dictator, with eager encouragement from some Syrian “opposition” leaders who forget their own country’s history with the Western ‘liberators’,
  • (WTF moment): even the fucking Salafis of  the Persian-American Gulf, who hate the West probably more than they hate other creatures like Shi’as and Jews and Christians and secularists, are calling for Western liberation of Syria
  • Will the West (as in NATO) be ready to liberate Egypt and Yemen and Bahrain now?
  • The regime in Egypt has gone back to the mass killing business in earnest. Scores were killed at Maspiro, then tens this past weekend, and many in between, Then there are the arrests and the use of near-lethal crowd control. Egypt is going back to killings on the level of Syria. In Bahrain the rulers and their al-Saud masters have been killing people, arresting and sentencing others, even as they try to fool the international media with talk of reform and reconciliation. The same goes on in Yemen even with the funny GCC deal.
  • Will “Allenby” come back, marching into Cairo and other places like he did before?

Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Arabian Peninsula, GCC, Saudi Arabia, Yemen

Funny Saudi Diplomacy: What Doesn’t Happen in Yemen Never Stays in Yemen……..

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Then there is Yemen: the GCC have succeeded and failed at the same time. They have succeeded in keeping the rotten old order in Yemen. Ali is not head of state, but he and his cronies call the shots. The “opposition” that got some of the power are not the same people that sacrificed in Sana’a and Ta’az and ‘Aden. But it is not what most people would call an “opposition”, it is a new GCC-type opposition. The GCC plan was rejected by the peoples of Yemen but accepted by the traditional powers in the country. It succeeded for the existing power structure, succeeded for the GCC oligarchs, but it failed the people of Yemen.
 
The Saudi record of reconciling Arabs and Muslims is pretty bad, although their media tries to make it sound like a resounding success. They failed to settle among the Lebanese more than once, they failed to settle the Kuwait-Iraq dispute before the invasion in 1990, they failed to settle among the Palestinians (Hamas-Fatah), they failed to settle among the warring Afghans several times. They even tried, with miserable results, to invite Iraqis to Riyadh to discuss their internal problems, and the Saudis do not even have an embassy in Iraq. They offer money to the warring factions and hope for the best. Or maybe they are foolish enough to believe that all these people flocking to Riyadh respect and/or love them.
Cheers
mhg


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Egypt, GCC, Gulf states, Qatar, Religion, Salafi

Shaikh Abdulwahhab of Nejd, Bon Vivant Abdelwahab of Cairo, Shaikh of Qatar, Sectarian Princes…………..

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His Highness Emir of Qatar has opined that the Islamic umma (nation) needs to be inspired by the Wahhabi message. Most likely a message of ‘reconciliation’ to his scowling next-door neighbor. Apparently more than two hundred years have not been enough for the Wahhabi message from Nejd to inspire the ‘umma’.

  • Apparently the inspiration had to wait for the petro-money flowing to places like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq (with terror bombs), Egypt, Indonesia, Somalia, and many other places that have been blessed with the Wahhabi touch. A magic touch from the Kingdom without Magic.
  • Apparently the inspiration had to wait for the princes to assume control of Arab media and airwaves, something they have achieved with the likes of Alarabiya (son of King Fahd). Asharq Alawsat (Prince Salman and his son). al-Hayat (Prince Khaled bin Sultan), LBC, MBC, and many others (but not aljazeera, not yet). Oh, I forgot the Fox News partnership with Prince al-Waleed.
  • Apparently the inspiration had to wait for a further intensification of the barrage of fierce poisonous divisive sectarian ill-winds that have been blowing for some years now from the Kingdom of Wahhabism, with some help from satellites on the Persian-American Gulf, notably the now totally poisoned well of occupied Bahrain and its truly Goebbels-ian media.


The Qatari jefe said opined on the occasion of naming the main state mosque after Shaikh Mohammed Bin Abdulewahhab of Nejd, a close ideological and tribal and, yes, carnal (by marriages) ally to the al-Saud clan. Many of the Al Al-Shaikh (call me Al) descendants hold high positions at the Saudi court and bureaucracy. As I have repeated here, the shaikh is not to be confused with the late great Egyptian musician, singer, and occasional actor from the golden (pre-Sadat-Mubarak) days of Egyptian art and culture Mohammed Abdelwahab who was no Salafi, nor Wahhabi, nor any kind of fundamentalist but an avid bon vivant in his own right.
Cheers
mhg


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Espionage, Iran, Israel, Terrorism

Prisoners in Foreign Lands: Alireza Asgari and Tony Blair……

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“The director of the armed forces’ Bureau for Strategic Studies says that former Iranian deputy defense minister Alireza Asgari is still alive in a Mossad prison in Israel and strongly enduring its appalling conditions. In fact, after the Zionists kidnapped the Iranian official, they tried to create the impression that figures like Asgari, who are ready to die for Islam, are not loyal to the Islamic Revolution any longer, but the truth is entirely different, Shamkhani told reporters on Thursday. Shamkhani, defense minister during the Khatami administration, said Asgari will never seek asylum in Israel because he is not such a personality, and if anyone doubts the fact, his is somehow linked with Mossad. He went on to say that Asgari, who was definitely kidnapped by the Zionist regime with the help of arrogant powers, is strongly resisting against the pressure and will not succumb because he is not a person to betray his country……..”

Mr. Asgari very likely has caused the Israelis some grief in the past, or so they think. Or maybe they are just trying to milk him for all the information he has, about Iran and Lebanon.


Interesting terms the Iranians use: “arrogant powers”. But they may be right in this case, the term may apply. There have been reports from within Israel corroborating that Ali Asgari has been held a prisoner without charges or conviction. Almost certainly the former Iranian deputy minister is being held in Israel against his will. Otherwise why not show him in public? If there has been no international case against Asgari and no international warrant for him, holding him is an act of piracy and against international law. It is the same as holding, say, Tony Blair a prisoner (there are no warrants for his arrest either, although I am not sure why).

No doubt in my mind that if the Iranians were holding a former high Israeli official, the UN Security Council would have met to take action against Iran.

Cheers
mhg


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Ali Khamenei, Iran, OPEC, Saudi Arabia, U.S. Politics, US Foreign Policy

A Saudi Iranian Kiss? No Frenching Fundamentalists there………

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“Oil policy was often divorced from the wider politics of the region, analysts said, with one observing that “the Iranians have been trying very hard to please the Saudis right now”. Iran appears eager not to further antagonise Saudi Arabia at a time when Tehran is coming under increasing international pressure over its nuclear programme. Tehran’s main concern appears to be to discourage Riyadh from facilitating an expected European oil embargo by promising to make up for lost production. The Islamic republic’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, earlier this week sent Heydar Moslehi, the intelligence chief, to Saudi Arabia for a rare meeting with its interior minister, Prince Nayef……..”

They can kiss all they want, the Iranians and the Saudis, but it will never develop into a deep tongue-twisting body-tingling French kiss. Not of the kind they have with their respective allies. Not of the kind George W. Bush used to have with King Abdullah.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Revolutions, Lebanon, Libya, NATO

Lebanon and Iraq in Libya: NATO and the Warlords……….

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“The unfreezing of £100bn in Libyan assets by the UN this weekend has fired the starting gun for a fierce battle for influence being waged by the country’s militias, in which the frontline is set to be Tripoli’s international airport. The glittering prize immediately in prospect is a consignment of several billion dinars, printed in Germany, which is due to be flown into Libya on board five cargo planes. Whoever controls the airport when the cash arrives will be able to levy a hefty security fee for delivering it to the country’s central bank. But the fight to control the airport is part of a far wider battle for political and economic dominance in the new Libya; one that pits the various factions who united to overthrow the Gaddafi regime against each other, as well as remnants of the dictator’s defeated military………….”

Libyans have just been liberated by NATO warplanes and special forces: just as Iraqis were liberated by the West a few years ago, just as the Syrians might be soon. Instead of getting on with the job of rebuilding the country, the militias are fighting, essentially, over the carrion left by the dictator. There have been more of these violent rivalries in the past weeks, with casualties.
It is possible that soon every Libyan militia will be identified by the Arab regime that supports and finances and arms it. There will be a Saudi militia, a Qatari militia, a UAE militia, and possibly even an Iranian militia. An Egyptian as well. It will be like Lebanon in the old days, like Lebanon these days. Except that the Lebanese militias kept within certain bounds and followed certain rules, especially when they were not massacring helpless Palestinian refugees (Sabra & Shatila) and other Lebanese.
The Libyans have their own money, but some will have much more of it than others, hence the foreign financing. But then, the Libyan may surprise me and put their house in order.
Cheers
mhg


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Gaza, Israel, Palestine

Fools of Hamas: Making Netanyahu’s Job Easier, Somali Dollar………….

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“Hamas yesterday declared itself bolstered by the Arab Spring and the exchange with Israel of more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, as the group mounted a show of strength with tens of thousands attending a lavishly staged rally in the centre of Gaza City. Gaza’s ruling Islamic faction bussed in supporters from across the territory for a mass rally to mark its 24th anniversary at which their leaders’ rhetoric laid heavy emphasis on continued adherence to armed struggle and the eventual “liberation” of the whole land, including what is now Israel. Ismail Haniyeh, Gaza’s de facto prime minister, told the rally: “We affirm that armed resistance is our strategic option and the only way to liberate our land, from the [Mediterranean] sea to the River [Jordan]. God willing, Hamas will lead the people… to the uprising until we liberate Palestine, all of Palestine.”……….”

Hamas is in no position to liberate anyone. The fact that they had to trade one scrawny Israeli soldier for over one thousand of their people tells it all: an exchange rate of a thousand to one (like the dollar or euro to the, say, Somali or Bengali currency). This type of statement only feeds the hostility and belligerence of the American GOP right-wing, and possibly many Democrats as well, who are against a Palestinian state even in Gaza and the West Bank. Yet Mahmoud Abbas is quoted that Hamas had promised him to accept a solution based on Gaza and the West Bank.

Cheers
mhg


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Arab Politics, Iraq, Terrorism

As the Last American Soldiers Leave, Iraqis are at it Again………

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“An arrest warrant has been issued against the Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi late Saturday for being the mastermind behind the recent bombing targeting the parliament, spokesman of Baghdad police operations said. The car bombing which took place on November 28, was an attempt to assassinate one of the members of the parliament, he added. According to the Iraqi government, evidence pointed at al-Hashimi’s embroilment in the parliament blast incident after deriving confessions from four arrested Islamic Party members……… Hashimi was the head of the Islamic Party, a political party representative of the Muslim Brotherhood in Iraq, in 2004, but in 2009 he announced that he is no longer a member of the party. Instead, he created the Tajdeed movement, which is considered to be one of the political parties component of the secular Iraqiya block. Meanwhile, the allegations against Hashimi came hours after the Iraqiya bloc which won most of the votes of Iraq’s disenchanted Sunni Arab minority Walked out of parliament………..”

A serious charge: Tareq al-Hashimi doesn’t look like a master terrorist. Lucky for Iraqis, they have three vice presidents.

Iraqis couldn’t seem to wait for the last departing American soldier to cross the Kuwait border before they started at each other again. All this may give senator John McCain and Lieberman (Joe not Avigdor), and Gingrich and Romney, the excuse they need to re-invade Iraq and restore a Republican order.

It is interesting how roles have shifted in post-2003 Iraq. Early on the southern provinces were talking about ‘federalism’ while the likes of al-Anbar tribals and former Ba’athists were against it, claiming that it would lead to fragmentation. Most neighboring Arab despots were also against it: the usual Arab obsession with centralized authority. Now it is the likes of al-Anbar tribals and former Ba’athists who are calling for “federalism” with some of the neighboring Arab media cheering on.
Cheers
mhg


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Egypt, Middle East Women, Muslims, religious police, Salafi, Saudi Arabia

Salafi Cleric Compares a Woman’s Face to a Vagina: Sexy Eyes and Oral Wahhabi Outrage…………..

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Maybe the heading of this posting should be “What’s new pussy cat?”

Arab media report that Shaikh Abu Itzhac al-Huweini, a famous Salafi cleric with whom I am not familiar although he is considered some kind of authority by many, has compared a woman’s face to her vagina. The shaikh opined that a woman who exposes her face is like one who exposes her vagina in public (her said nothing about fellatio, though).
This is not the first time opinions like this are expressed by Salafi Wahhabi shaikhs. Only a couple of weeks ago the Saudi religious police (Commission for the Propagation of Vice) threatened, again, that women who have sexy eyes should cover them in public or they would face punishment. They didn’t exactly define “sexy eyes”, but said something about eyes that are too tempting. Now that is lowering the bar in an extremely horny society. I think that in repressed Saudi Arabia, especially in the grim Nejd region, any part of a woman, including an exposed toe, would generate orgasmic outrage among some of these guys.

Cheers
mhg


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