Category Archives: Arab Revolutions

Arab Revolutions, Culture, Human Right, Libya, North Africa

North Africa: an Amazigh Revival?………….

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      BFF

“Najwa Alazabi has another first name, Tiarina, but under Muammar Qaddafi’s rule she could never use it. Tiarina is a traditional name of Amazighs, a North African ethnic minority also known as Berber, and expressions of the Amazigh culture and script were forbidden in Qaddafi’s Libya……… The Amazigh are the original inhabitants of North Africa. Generations of conquerors have slowly eroded the Berber culture and language, while conversion to Islam and the promotion of Arabic as the language of God encouraged assimilation. Qaddafi’s policy of strict Arabization struck a final blow to their identity. Under his rule, Amazigh names, cultural symbols, and their written language were all forbidden. Amazigh activists were routinely harassed and, often, imprisoned. The Amazigh make up approximately eight or nine percent of Libya’s 5.7 million, according to Berber scholars, although after centuries of mixing between Arabs and Amazigh, no one can be sure……….Today, their conception of the own identity can carry some contradictions. Many view their culture as both different and not so different from that of Arabs. Defining themselves in opposition to the dominant Arab identity of Libya could bring them trouble in a country known for strident Arab nationalism…………”

Don’t expect any real improvement of the lot of the Amazigh. Not unless they force the issue. The new leaders were fed from the breasts of Muammar Qaddafi and his regime.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Bahrain, GCC, Human Right, Iran, Persian-American Gulf, Saudi Arabia, UAE, US Foreign Policy

Rommel of Arabia in Yemen, the Vast Shi’a Conspiracy to Conquer Abu Dhabi and the World………….

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“When the world is focused on the uprisings in Egypt, Syria and the President of Yemen’s agreement to step aside, the spotlight has been diverted from the threat posed by Yemen’s Al Houthi Zaidi Shiite, pro-Iranian rebels. With an estimated 100,000 fighters, the Al Houthis harbour not only an expansionist agenda but the will to topple the government and impose their own brand of Shiite religious law on the entire country and beyond. They have made territorial claims to a number of Saudi villages and in 2009 they battled with Saudi forces. For the Al Houthis, the Yemeni armed forces’ preoccupation with maintaining security on the street has been a gift. Over the past 10 months they have succeeded in expanding their territorial control from their homebase Sa’ada into four Yemeni provinces and over the main crossing points into Saudi Arabia……..n recent days, Shiites have been demonstrating against the Saudi government in the city of Qatif in the oil-rich Eastern Region, where anti-royalist slogans have been scrawled on walls. The kingdom’s mufti blames Iran for the unrest, credible when Iranian clerics are calling for an end to the Al Saud ruling dynasty………”

Predictable piece of rubbish by a retainer of the al-Nahayans rulers of Abu Dhabi, in one of their own newspapers. He is writing mainly about the Yemeni Houthis, who in 2009 totally defeated the invading high-tech Saudi armed forces under Prince Khaled Bin Sultan al-Saud. (Saudi semi-official had all but declared Khaled as the Rommel of Yemen, and he did have the same fate as Rommel at El-Alamein).
In the process, this writer also accuses Saudi Shi’as who are seeking equal rights of being Iranian agents. He is also throwing in a majority of the peoples of Bahrain and Iraq (most likely Lebanon as well) as foreign agents.
Funny: the UAE of the Bin Zayed Bin Sultan al-Nahayan brothers is groaning under the weight of foreign bases, from American to British to Pakistani to Monaco-an to Klingon. Not to mention the foreign mercenary force the al-Nahayan formed early this year with Blackwater veterans and Colombians, Australians, white South Africans and others. It is all part of the vast Shi’a conspiracy, I tell ya.
And what is wrong with wanting to overthrow the al-Saud, along with the mullahs in Iran and the despots in Manama? Anybody with any sense would want that.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Iran, Muslims, Salafi, Syria, Tunisia

Arab Revolts and Islam: Iranian Illusions, Saudi Machinations…….

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“Former foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati says the use of the term ‘Arab spring’ is an attempt by the West to liken uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa to ‘color revolutions’ in East European countries. By using such a term the Westerners have been seeking to deny the significant role of “Islam” in inspiring revolutions in the Muslim Arab countries, Velayati said. The Westerners use the term “Arab spring” to convey their desired “view” of the revolutions in the region, the scholar-turned politician noted. Western countries seek to convey this view that “Muslim nations have got rid of Hosni Mubarak and Bin Ali ….to embrace Western approaches,” Velayati told the Mehr News Agency. They refuse to acknowledge the fact that the uprisings in Arab countries are inspired by Islam because it contravenes with their approach, explained Velayati, the senior foreign policy advisor to the Supreme Leader. “If Muslim nations who have risen up (against dictatorship) accept Arab spring they will have no alternative other than following the Westerners; however, the reality is that regional nations have cried Allahu Akbar (God is great) ……………”

The Iranian mullahs insist that the Arab uprisings were motivated by Islamist zeal. I have tried to explain to them many times that all these revolts started as secular movements and that the Muslim fundamentalists joined later, when they showed some success. Now, with the clear shift of political power in all these states to the Islamist fundamentalists, the Iranians may know something the rest of us don’t.

One of the most secular Arab states ‘was’ Tunisia, Bourguiba and Bin Ali made sure of that, and it is going Islamist. So is Egypt and Libya. Syria was absolutely the most secular Arab state of our modern times. Yet if the revolt against the Assad regime succeeds, as it looks like now, then Syrians will have a choice of alliances between: (1)Pro-Saudi Muslim Brothers, (1)Other Muslim Brothers, (3) Salafis (bought, signed, sealed, and delivered), (4) a weak minority of watered-down secularists. In the end the new Syrian regime will be dominated by Islamic fundamentalists of one stripe or another.
That is why I may humor the Iranians and say they may have a point. Still, the outcome may not be what the Iranians would have liked. Probably not.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Cairo, Egypt, GCC, Gulf states

The Other New Masters of Egypt and the Guardians of the Constitution…………………

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“He backs “resistance” against the “occupiers” in the Middle East – America and Israel. In his ideal Egypt, the sale of alcohol would be banned, beaches would be segregated and thieves would have their hands cut off – though, he says “it would not happen because no-one would steal”. Until last week Islamists like him were at the radical fringe, but the first results from last week’s election have shown a staggering success for Islamist parties like Mr Zumour’s…….. What has been counted so far amounts to a crushing blow for the middle-class revolutionaries, both Christians and Muslims, who filled Tahir Square in January and February to force former president Hosni Mubarak from power. They wanted more freedom, yet are now faced with the prospect of newly-confident Islamist parliamentarians determined to enforce Sharia, ban alcohol, and banish many of the rights Egyptian women take for granted. The cause of their fear is men like Mr Zumour, no longer just another militant but one of a string of Islamist radicals once banned and jailed who have thrown themselves into electoral politics……….. Gamaa Islamiya’s allied party Nour, representing Salafis who follow the puritan Saudi-style version of Sunni Islam, won more than 20 per cent of the vote. It was not clear how much of the vote Gamaa Islamiya had won last night but it appeared to be on course to win several seats. Together the hardline parties beat the liberal Egyptian Bloc into third place, a result profoundly depressing to secular and Christian Egyptians……….”

These election results will give everyone pause. The military junta, SCAF, now knows that its “popularity” will now improve among a certain segment of Egyptians. They can play the “guardians” of the constitution. The secular and liberal young, who started the revolt against the dictator back in January, in fact before that, now face a majority of Islamists, possibly controlling at least two thirds of the new legislature. 
A big majority of seats for the Muslim brotherhood and the Salafis and the smaller Islamic Jihad (Ayman al-Zawahiri’s old pals). The military probably think their lot has improved, that they will now be courted by others, of both sides. We shall see.
This is also good news for the Arab oligarchies in the Gulf region, especially Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, etc. They have always felt more comfortable with the Islamists, especially the Salafis, than with secularists. The potentates have a bitter history of struggle with the secularists, from the early days of Arab socialism under Nasser. The potentates know that the young secularists would push them on issues of accountability and freedoms. The Salafi and some Muslim Brother Islamists usually oppose freedoms, and would normally turn a blind eye to corruption as long as they share in the spoils (the examples of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are good ones).
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Libya, NATO, Salafi, Saudi Arabia, US Foreign Policy

The Not Yet Democratic but Polygamous Libya and her Salafis, a Holy Las Vegas………..

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In the new liberated Libya there is a struggle between rival factions of the new regime. The main struggle is between “moderate” Islamists and “radical ”Islamists. The former are represented by some regime figures, such as NTC leader Mustafa Abduljaleel who says that the new Libya will remove the Qaddafi restrictions on polygamy (I expect the US Congress to invite him to address a joint session just for that, and to honor him with rousing standing ovations). He also says that Libyan law will be Islamic Shari’a law, although he has not bothered to ask the Libyan people yet.

The less moderate Islamists are the Salafis who want an even stricter Islamic society like Saudi Arabia or the Taliban. They have been clamoring to imitate the Saudi Wahhabis in tearing down ancient mosques and monuments as “haram” or taboo. In Mecca, some of the most ancient Islamic monuments from the days of the Prophet have been erased and replaced with five star hotels and shopping malls. Homes of the Prophet and his early sahaba supporters lost to the greed of princes and potentates. I have written here in the past about the transformation of Mecca as the new Las Vegas without the legal “diversions” of the one in Nevada. An unforgivable and irreversible crime.

Arab media reports
 tell us the Libyan Salafis are already eying some mosques and shrines that are centuries old, with plans to tear them down and erase all traces o them. In their place, they might want to erect murals of the king of Saudi Arabia and all the senior princes.

All sides of the new Libya are fully armed and ready. I expect the secular exiles who rushed home when the dictator seemed about to fall to be thinking of their plans B and C.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, GCC, Iraq, Libya, NATO, North Africa, Syria, US Foreign Policy

On the Western Liberation of Iraq and Libya and Syria and………….

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“Al-Asaad told us that despite being grossly under-resourced, he is getting more and more recruits every day. The latest reports put the size of the armed opposition force at anywhere between 1,000 and 25,000. In his interview, the colonel told us that he unequivocally is not seeking a coup and supports the Syrian National Council as the legitimate representative of the people. He also stressed that the force he is assembling is inclusive and non-sectarian. Finally, he makes a plea to U.S. President Barack Obama to offer quick and decisive support for the resistance and underscores that the establishment of a buffer zone, as proposed by Turkey and France, could accelerate defections and change the course of the conflict……….”

The Syrians who did not like American intervention in Iraq are now eager for American and French and British (and possibly Israeli) intervention in Syria. That is after the NATO intervention in Libya, which was aided and abetted by the Arabs. The hypocrisy some Arab leaders, and some opinion-makers of the Wahhabi faux-liberal stripe, especially in the Gulf GCC, is breath-taking (I like this last word more and more these days).
These Arabs cheered and helped and participated in the invasion (or liberation) of Iraq, only to turn around and bitterly criticize it when things did not go their way. They even pushed for a second American liberation of Iraq, a retake, just to set things right from the Wahhabi point of view. They practically pushed (an eager) NATO to intervene and liberate Libya from its ruling dynasty even as they helped chain the people of Bahrain to their repressive and corrupt dynasty of thieves.
Now they want to the USA and NATO to liberate Syria from its ‘current’ despotic rulers. Some claim they want the West to liberate Syria from the Assad regime, others that they want NATO to liberate Syria (politically) from Iran, some say they want it liberated from both. Some of them also want to liberate Syria fully by aligning it with the royal theocracy of the People’s Democratic Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. I wonder if they also want to liberate the Golan, and from whom.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Culture, France, Human Right, Islamophobia, Muslims, Religion, Salafi

France’s Jeannette Bougrab: Why She May be Right about Islam and Christianity and Judaism and……………

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“La secrétaire d’Etat à la Jeunesse Jeannette Bougrab réagissait dans un entretien au journal Le Parisien aux succès électoraux des islamistes au Maroc, en Tunisie et en Egypte. Elle est elle-même d’origine algérienne, fille de harki, le nom donné aux supplétifs algériens de l’armée française pendant la guerre d’indépendance. “C’est très inquiétant”, a-t-elle déclaré. “Je ne connais pas d’islamisme modéré”. “Il n’y a pas de charia +light+. Je suis juriste et on peut faire toutes les interprétations théologiques, littérales ou fondamentales que l’on veut, mais le droit fondé sur la charia est nécessairement une restriction des libertés, notamment de la liberté de conscience“, a-t-elle ajouté………………”


She says there is no such thing as “Sharia-light”, that religious law leaves no room for freedoms. On some level she is right, of course: once you apply the religious laws, any religious laws, be they Muslim or Christian or Jewish, you are pushed to go ‘all the way’. Freedoms are inevitably restricted. Salafis and Muslim Brothers who say they will apply “limited” Shari’a are playing for time. Limited Shari’a is like limited ‘virginity’ or limited ‘death’: it doesn’t exist, doesn’t make sense (at least I don’t think so). Religion can be moderated on an individual level: you pray, you fast, you lead your life the way you want within the law. Once the state starts to apply the Shari’a, or the laws of the Old Testament, the Bible and the Talmud, then there is no moderation. This applies to Muslims and Christians and Jews. Americans, more than  all other Westerners, are still grappling with this now that Christianity has become part of Republican political platforms. Jews in Israel are trying to fend off an aggressive Jewish-Salafi onslaught on civic society.
In some places, Saudi Arabia and Iran, they are mixing up Caesar with God, usurping power, and in the Saudi case wealth, in the name of Allah. Caesar was deified after he died.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab League, Arab Revolutions, Human Right, Syria

Arab League: 17 Top Syrians not allowed to Enjoy the Exciting Diversions of Riyadh and Had el-Homara ……….

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“The Arab League, which voted to impose sanctions on Syria for failing to end a crackdown on protesters, has listed 17 people banned from travel to Arab states, including President Bashar al-Assad’s brother, Egypt’s state news agency said on Thursday. The list also included the defense and interior ministers, intelligence officials and senior military officers. The president’s brother, Maher al-Assad, who was listed, commands the Republican Guard and is Syria’s second most powerful man. An Arab League committee charged with overseeing sanctions recommended stopping flights to and from Syria…………”

So these despots and killers will not be able to travel around the region and enjoy the amenities of places like Riyadh and Fujairah and Had ElHmarah. Serves them right, but I know other despots who can enjoy the amenities of Riyadh all they want.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Revolutions, Corruption, Economics, Human Right, Iran, Saudi Arabia

Breathtaking Hypocrisy: the UN and Human Rights Violations, the Prince and Kardashian……….

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“Of the 47 members in the Geneva-based Council, 37 countries voted on Friday for a resolution “strongly condemning the continued widespread, systematic and gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms by the Syrian authorities”. Six countries abstained, while four countries- Russia, Cuba, Ecuador and China- voted against the resolution. The text called for the “main bodies” of the UN to consider a UN report, published on Monday, which found that crimes of humanity had been committed and “take appropriate action”. It also established the new post of a special human rights investigator on Syria………”

I know the Syrian regime is repressive and that its security forces have killed many of its people. It deserves a UN human rights investigator. I know that the Iranian regime is repressive although it does not kill its own people as often as Syria. In fact, the repressive Iranian regime does not kill as many Iranians as the Western powers and Israelis do when they kill scientists and blow up installations inside Iran. If these acts occurred anywhere else the same Western powers would consider these incidents terrorist acts and call the UN Security Council to do something, and it would..
I also know that other Middle East regimes, not all but most of them, daily violate human rights, be it of their own citizens or of foreign laborers. I also know that most Middle East countries, especially Arab regime, expropriate, steal, embezzle, and mismanage the public wealth of their countries. They are veritable kleptocracies.
There have been credible reports that the late Saudi crown prince, Sultan bin Abdulaziz, left a personal fortune of over US$ 250 Billion (yep, with a capital . He didn’t exactly get that wealth by starting and re-inventing Apple or Microsoft. Nor was he a Warren Buffett. Nor was he an international celebrity like Kim Kardashian or Newt Gingrich.
Syria and Iran deserve investigation by international human rights groups, preferably non-government groups, unlike the UN which is a totally government group. Then they would appoint only one or two or three HR investigators for the whole Middle East, including Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Egypt, UAE……… et al.
Remember: Libya under Qaddafi was admitted to the UN Hman Rights Council.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Bahrain, OPEC, Saudi Arabia

Illusion of Gulf Arab Reform, the Lethal Price of Petroleum, Qaddafi the Good Repentant Leader …….

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“When U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a statement about the need to speed up political reform in the Arab countries, especially Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, did she really think that is possible under these two regimes? There is no way the answer to that can be in the affirmative, unless “reform” means some cosmetic marginal plans and some practices like symbolic elections and “consultative councils” that the state media use……… These day of domination of oil money, such terms are meaningless, especially when large Western public relations firms are available to polish the images of despotic regimes that have unlimited financial liquidity. When the price of crude petroleum exceeds $110 per barrel, the weapon of money in the hands of these repressive regimes becomes an even more effective weapon than torture and other means of repression. I recall meetings between op Western officials, among them Tony Blair, and the now-murdered Colonel Qaddafi when he was an absolute dictator. Yet the same media quickly changed the image of that “repentant leader” back to the “dictator that must be overthrown”………..”

This is my translation of a brief excerpt of a column by exiled Bahraini academic and activist, Dr. Saied al-Shihabi who lives in London. Arab columns are often long, some are way too long, most should not even be written. This was a good one, I enjoyed reading it.
Cheers
mhg


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