Category Archives: History

Burma, History, Muslims, U.S. Senate

U.S. Senate Love Affair with Muslims: Bombing Burma and a New Crusade…….

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I read that President Obama will visit Burma (a k a Myanmar) this week to reward the clinging military regime for offering a good spin in talking a democratic line.

I also read that Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, like the broken LP records of the U.S. Senate, are again calling for launching new invasions of and attacks on Muslim countries. Many senators of both parties agree with them, so long as the targets are Muslims: after all, how many Muslim voters do McCain and Graham have in their states? Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, African Sahel, possibly a couple others. And they are always seeking to set the ground for the Mother of All Middle East Wars, against Iran if they can swing it. Always on Muslim countries.
Nobody credible ever proposed attacking the Soviet Union even during the Hungarian or Czech or Cuban crises. Douglas MacArthur was fired for proposing a possible counterattack on China. Nobody seriously proposed attacking Nazi Germany until after Hitler, in a moment of monumental but characteristic stupidity, declared war on the USA. Nobody has even seriously proposed defanging Kim Jong Un, not even the perennial chickenhawk John Bolton. But they all want to bomb more Muslim countries.

So, perhaps, maybe, could be the Western powers need to take a breather, lay off their Muslim wars. Even if they think they are well-meaning and have lofty ideals, which most “natives” don’t think they do. Many Muslims, especially Arabs, quietly and loudly think of all this as a new Crusade aimed at getting Western hands on their petroleum or at helping maintain Israeli strategic supremacy. And not just Al Qaeda and other Wahhabis or Ayatollahs or the few remaining leftist types.

So, why not Burma, par exemple? Why is Burma never bombed, even as it has opened Nazi-style concentration camps for some of its ‘ethnic’ people like the Rohingya Muslims? Go for it, make history, just for once in this century to bomb some country that is neither Muslim nor Arab, for a change…………

(Someone suggested that maybe this should be AFTER they take care of the Caliphate of ISIS).

Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

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History, Saudi Arabia, Yemen

Pop-History: Ibn Saud in Yemen…………..

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“Three armies of Wahabi Arabs, sent forth by Ibn Saud, King of Saudi Arabia, advanced last week through the mountain passes of Yemen Arabia, converging on Sana, the walled white mountain capital of Yemen One moved eastward, from the Red Sea port of Hodeida that Ibn Saud’s men captured last fortnight. One moved westward from the great central desert toward Sana. The third drove down from the border bandit land of Nejram on Sada key city to Sana. They came in armored cars, in camel corps and on horseback. And behind them able Ibn Saud solidified their gains by cutting the customs duties at Hodeida 50% last week. . Hard-pressed indeed was their prey, Yahya ibn Hamid-ed-Din, Imam Yemen scion of Mohammed’s daughter Fatima’ and her husband Ali the fourth Caliph. He wanted to treat with Ibn Saud but his eldest son, the Emir el Hadi Mohammed Seif al Islam, suspicious and arrogant as his father but not so wise, is jealous of Ibn Saud’s great prestige. Emir called for war, for more war, for the Imam’s abdication in his favor. While the son launched guerrilla raids on Ibn Saud’s supply trains in the hills, the compact crinkle-bearded old man scrambled up into Sana, city of 40,000, and squatted in his throne room where the only ornament on the dark blue walls is his own scimitar. Refusing to abdicate, he set about rallying his black, wiry, citizens for the defense of Sana. Suddenly at week’s end frugal Yahya put his troublesome son behind him and sued for peace. Ibn Saud nailed home his conditions and declared an armistice. Hungrily his three armies halted in their tracks outside Sana…………..”

Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

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Elections, History, Sectarianism, U.S. Politics, US Congress

Ebola and American Sectarianism: the Politicization of Everything……..

_9OJik4N_normal Sharqeya-Baneen-15    DennyCreek2

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“We buy shit we don’t need, with money we don’t have, to impress people we don’t like….” George Carlin

In these divisive and divided times there is hardly anything, any event, or any phenomenon that is not politicized in America. It is almost like the country is reliving the 1860 campaign of Lincoln: it is deeply divided along political, economic,and cultural lines. That makes the politics venomous in election years, almost sectarian, to use a Middle Eastern reality that many Americans have discovered in the past decade or so. It continues in other years which are not election years but have become pre-election and post-election years. There is so much fuel, so much money to spend on politics: buying candidates, buying expensive airtime on the Boob Tube, and effectively buying voters by financing their favorite television shows.

People here are so busy defeating the terrorists by overworking in order to keep up and to buy more goods and gadgets (some call it more stuff, others call it more shit). That was how George W. Bush succinctly expressed one part of his strategy to defeat terrorism after September 2001: go shopping. So between work and other distractions the people have no time to think politically. They emulate corporations that have outsourced their jobs, factories and customer services, mostly to Asia. Many American voters have now outsourced their political thinking to the television sound-bite industry. I suspect that in many cases the last catchy sound bite on the last weekend before the election wins it all.

As per a decision of the Supreme Court of the USA, money has more than equal freedom of speech and political expression (Citizens United). “Corporations are people, my friend” intoned the Least Interesting Man in the World during the 2012 presidential campaign. So, the politics go viral, more than ever before: the country is divided and money is not a constraint anymore.
Some state governors, ambitious and/or terrified of looming elections, decide that Ebola suspects should be completely quarantined in their states. Other politicians, many from the party that is out of the White House, talk of banning flights from West Africa. Then they wait for their rivals to supply the wrong sound bite and provide a political edge.

In this era, nothing is sacred: from God to National Security to Death. Everything is being politicized: first God, then War, then health care, and now Ebola. Even the HIV/AIDS scare was never so politicized in its heyday. Only sports seem to have stayed above the fray, so far………

Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

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Arab Revolutions, Egypt, History, Media

Gosh, Al Sisi! Comparing the Generalisimo to Caesar and Jefferson and Steinbeck……..

_9OJik4N_normal Sharqeya-Baneen-15    DennyCreek2

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“No longer tainted as a former general who ousted Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mr. Sisi was finally recognized by the international community as a respected statesman and regional leader, Egyptian commentators say. Mr. Sisi even “changed the way presidents make speeches at the United Nations,” the talk show host Amr Adeeb proclaimed, showing a video clip of Mr. Sisi ending his speech late last month by chanting his nationalist campaign slogan. “Long Live Egypt!” Mr. Sisi said to what Egyptian viewers saw as raucous applause from the assembled world leaders. “A thing of genius,” Mr. Adeeb declared, suggesting the assembly had consecrated a marriage. “Abdel Fattah el-Sisi was the groom of the United Nations, and Egypt was the bride.”……………..”

Gosh, what a gushing article in the New York Times. Cute and breathtaking: you’d think the Times writer (David D. Kirkpatrick) was a teenage girl and Al Sisi was Justin Bieber or One Direction.

Rarely do I see so much bullshit packed into one article in a major reputable American newspaper. This ‘Professor Fahmy’ of the American University at Cairo he mentions here is apparently typical of many academics in the stagnant Egypt of the past four decades. Perhaps most of them, he is a “kisser”, and don’t ask “kisser of what”. It doesn’t matter as long as it is in power. They did it to Mubarak and his cronies for decades, and now they are joining the cult of Kim Jong Al Sisi.

The man was “elected” with the usual Arab 97+% of the vote, under the guns of army tanks. Only the sort-of-president of Yemen Hadi Al Zombie outvoted him with 99.8% of the vote in 2012, but that was through a Qatari-Saudi-UAE organized transfer of power. Al Sisi had one hapless opponent, almost acting as a shill, and the voter turnout was  reported by critics to have ranged between single digits or at best in the low twenties.

As for comparing Al Sisi to Nasser, it is equivalent to comparing Pope Alexander Borgia to St. Peter. Like comparing some Saudi prince or king  to one of the early Caliphs. Like comparing Ted Cruz to Abraham Lincoln or Thomas Jefferson. Like comparing Sarah Palin, with or without the proverbial lipstick, to Jeanne d’Arc. Like comparing one of these cheap N Y Times or Amazon bestseller thriller novelists to Steinbeck or Stendhal. I can go on, apparently……..

Had he ever been in a war, in any capacity, they’d probably compare him to Bonaparte (Ante-Waterloo) and Eisenhower and Zhukov. I forgot Julius Caesar who ruled Egypt for six centuries after his death.

End of this rant……….
Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

[email protected]

Cinema, Finance, GCC, History, New York, Waldorf Astoria

From Beijing and the Gulf to Manhattan and Paris and Rocky Mountains: Look Who is Coming………

_9OJik4N_normal Sharqeya-Baneen-15    DennyCreek2

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Agence France-Presse and other agencies reported this morning that Hilton Hotels is selling sells the Waldorf Astoria to a Chinese firm for $1.95 bn. It took a (proverbial? cliche?) few seconds to register, but the Waldorf? I mean you can’t get any more historical American than John Jacob Astor and the mountain men and the Fur Trade. Who would have thunk only a few years ago that the venerable (that is what they call them now) Manhattan institution will be sold to a bunch of Chinese oligarchs and People’s Liberation Army functionaries.

Then only a couple of years ago reports came out of some Saudi prince buying the Le Crillon in Paris. I had stayed there once for three days, and of course I did not pay for it: it was a paid official business trip, otherwise I could not have afforded it. Then the Qataris have been buying other Paris properties even before they were admitted into the Francophone countries (about two or three Qataris probably speak French but money makes up for any deficiency).

Not to be outdone, the Emirati (UAE) potentates have been buying British sports clubs and any horses and mules and stables that are for sale across England. Come to think of it, Abu Dhabi has been buying almost anything else that is English and for sale (be it nailed or not). Even the upstart robber shaikhs of Bahrain have been known to use their ill-gotten loot to dabble in British properties.

All this is against the trend in the past couple of decades. Even the Mafia’s hold on Las Vegas gambling has faded in recent years, or so the reports say. At least since Francis Ford Coppola wisely gave up on a fourth sequel of the Corleone saga (the third one stank to Sicily and back).

Speaking of oligarchies and potentates and globalization. How come the Russians and their fabled petroleum and gas oligarchs have not been snapping up Western hotels and sports clubs and horses and department stores? Could it be that they knew ‘the sanctions’ were coming?

Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

[email protected]

Arab Counterrevoltion, Bahrain, Culture, History, Mecca

After Freezing the Spring: Arab Regimes are Erasing its Symbols…..

_9OJik4N_normal Sharqeya-Baneen-15    DennyCreek2

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There is something bout history and monuments and revolutions that bothers Arab regimes, be they absolute tribal monarchies or militry dictatorships or Jihadi terrorists:

In 2011, the ruling family of Bahrain wasted no time in erasing Pearl (Lulu) Square, a landmark of the capital Manama and symbol of the popular uprising. In its place they created an ugly crossroad named after the imported forces that helped crush the protests.

Now Egyptian media report on a huge parking garage being erected in Tahrir Square, symbol of the Egyptian Uprising of 2011. That upriing was killed by the old regime feloul, the Egyptian army, Egyptian Wahhabi-liberals, and Persian Gulf oil money.

But what is new here? Saudi authorities have been for years destroying monuments to that older revolution that was led by Mohammed from Mecca and Madinah fifteen centuries ago. Historical structures and monuments of early Islam, especially in Mecca, have been gradually erased to be replaced by lucrative shopping malls and 7-star hotels. A truly royal land grab. And the ultimate counter-revolution, Arab style.

Of course this is not an aberration, there is a pattern. The Jihadis, the ultimate modern counter-revolutionaries, have been busy destroying other monuments to history from Iraq to Libya .

Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

 
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Arabian Peninsula, Caliphate, History, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Uncategorized, Wahhabi

Faith of MENA: Return of the Ikhwan under a Chubby Caliph……..

_9OJik4N_normal Sharqeya-Baneen-15  DennyCreek Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter

KuwaitCox2 “Wahhab was forced to flee from Medina, and in a more rural inland area – in the Nejd- he was adopted by the Saud family. With a combination of camel riding warrior power and Wahhabi religious zeal, the Saud regime spread across Arabia. In 1802 an army of 12,000 Wahhabi warriors attacked the Shia in the city of Karbala, slaying 4,000 of the city’s inhabitants and smashing Shia holy sites. In 1803 they attacked Mecca and, aware of the slaughter in Kabala, the Meccans opened their town to Saud rule. Against images, the Wahhabi warriors smashed opulent graves, and they forbade smoking. After taking power in Medina they smashed grave-sites again, including the tomb of the Prophet Mohammed. In 1813, the Ottoman sultan sent expeditions against Wahhabism. The defeated head of the Saud family was taken in a cage to Istanbul and beheaded……….”

Ikhwan is an Arabic word that means “brothers”. Ikhwan is now used in Arabic to refer to the Muslim Brotherhood. For many decades, the term Ikhwan when used in Egypt referred exclusively to the Muslim Brotherhood. Outside Egypt also the term was used in recent decades, at least since the 1950s, to refer to the Muslim Brotherhood. The other older original “Ikhwan” are dead. Or are they?

The original ‘Ikhwan’ were quite different. They did not grow in the cosmopolitan atmosphere of old Cairo. They sprouted in the Arabian desert of what is now called Saudi Arabia. They were the zealous Wahhabi militias allied to King Abdulaziz Ibn Saud. They helped him conquer his homeland of Nejd, then conquer Al-Ahsaa (Eastern Arabia), Hijaz (Mecca and Madinah), and large chunks of northern Yemen. They also made a stab at conquering Kuwait which was under British protection, hence a no-no.

Eventually things fell apart for them. Ibn Saud was getting used to mingling with “civilized” Westerners, like the British who provided him with financial aid for some time. He realized, or was told, that the Wahabi zealots, his Ikhwan, his brothers, were outdated. They had served their purpose in helping him expand his Nejdi emirate to include most of the Arabian Peninsula. It was time to make deals with the British and eventually with the Americans. The Ikhwan’s usefulness had ended, and it was time for them to disappear.

Fast forward to the Caliphate in Syria and Iraq. The ideology of ISIS is similar to the Saudi Ikhwan, in spite of such modern trappings as the Omega watch on the fat wrist of the funny chubby Caliph and the Hello-Kitty pink box shown in the media. Like other Salafis and zealous Wahhabis of our time, they are not averse to using modern technology, especially means of transportation and tools of communication. They are still into blowing up and destroying monuments of Islam and other faiths, but they have learned to appreciate the joys of You-Tube and network news.

Cheers

Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

Al-Azhar, Arab Revolutions, Egypt, History, Islam, Islamic History, UAE, Uncategorized, Wahhabi

Grand Ayatollah of Al Azhar Gets His Just Reward on the Gulf………

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Qatari daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi reports that His Excellency the ‘Great Imam’ shaikh of Al-Azhar went to Dubai last week by private plane. He was to receive the Dubai Holy Quran International Prize (WTF that be). He is reported to have received the award as “Islamic Personality of the Year” as a reward for his efforts in the service of Islam (WTF they be). It does not say if he is rewarded for siding with the military coup that overthrew the elected Muslim Brotherhood presidency of Mohammed Morsi in July 2013, nor if he was awarded for siding with Hosni Mubarak during the uprising of 2011. As I noted in a recent post here, he was bound to win the prize.

This is news to most people, the fact that now Shaikh Dr. Al Tayeb calls himself the “Great Imam”, or is it the “Grand Imam”? Apparently the Al Azhar bureaucracy and its hierarchy are now copying some of the Shi’a (Shi’ite if you prefer) titles like Grand Ayatollah, etc. It is now not too fat-fetched that Dr. Shaikh Al Tayeb will pop out some day with the title “Grand Ayatollah” of Al Azhar, possibly earned from one of them ubiquitous online for-profit theology colleges.

Now what would their Wahhabi allies and financiers in Riyadh think of all this? A Grand Ayatollah leading Al Azhar, just as its original creators of the Fatimid Dynasty had intended? Thus undoing the military coup of Salah El Din Al Ayyoubi (Saladin) who overthrew his Fatimids bosses and benefactors long before Al Sisi overthrew his Morsi boss and benefactor. Saladin did atone for it later by liberating Jerusalem from the European barbarians. No wonder there are complaints, warnings, and fears about the spread of Shi’ism in Egypt. No wonder the military regime and its Salafi and Wahhabi-Liberal allies ban Bahrain activists and Iranian tourists from coming to Egypt. It can be risky. Look, even the recently Wahhabi-ized Al Azhar shaikhs are adopting Shi’a titles now. Soon they might start allowing Shi’a mosques and Husseiniyyas all over Cairo. Who knows, some day we might see Al Sisi playing Shimr, or maybe even Al-Hurr, in a re-enactment a Shi’a passion play about the Battle of Karbala.

And our princes and pals on the Persian-American Gulf had thought their man Al Sisi had come to power and was generously rewarded in order to stop all that.

Cheers

Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

[email protected]

Arab League, Gaza, Hamas, History, Islam, Israel, Mossad

Trapped and Eyeless in Gaza: Hamas and Mossad, Arabs and the Memory of Badr and an Earlier Ramadan……

Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter “The Egyptian cease-fire proposal that was published Monday night took most members of the diplomatic-security cabinet by complete surprise. Economy Minister Naftali Bennett heard about it in a television studio moments before going on air. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman heard about it on the radio. A senior Israeli official said Lieberman knew that talks were being held with the Egyptians, but had no idea a proposal was being finalized. Upon hearing the news, he realized that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, who were running the talks, had left him out of the loop………………”

Modern Arab legend has it that the Israelis were instrumental in the rise of Hamas. The somewhat credible story is that way back in the days when the PLO, Fatah, PFLP and all the other secular Palestinian acronyms were bugging Israel, the Israelis thought of encouraging some rivals to distract them. That the Mossad helped the growth of what the Palestinians call ‘Islamic resistance’. It was a classic example of the old ‘divide and rule’. The rest is history, allegedly, but in fact credibly. It is not clear how aware the ‘Islamists’ were of the alleged Israeli role on their behalf.

Now back to the current. No wonder Hamas leaders were unhappy, nay fundamentally pissed. No wonder they rejected a deal they did not know any details of. Of course Hamas may now be somewhat trapped, more trapped than Benyamin Netanyahu, since both are not sure what to do next. In some ways Hamas’s task is easier: it mostly reacts. All it has been doing so far has been to duck the air raids and missiles, occasionally firing a few rockets that apparently do little serious harm. In other words, they only respond to Israeli action, which puts them in a weak position.

Netanyahu is also trapped: his biggest problem now is what to do next if Hamas continues to reject the deal he made privately with Al Sisi (and perhaps with the knowledge of Abu Mazen whose legal tenure in office also expired long ago)?

As for the people of Gaza, they are even more painfully trapped than either Hamas or Israel, screwed by almost all sides, to put it crudely. As usual they pay the terrible price of this new brutal Israeli assault, which was claimed to be a reaction to Hamas actions in which the people of Gaza have no input. The last Palestinian elections were so long ago, that was when Hamas won. But we don’t know how new elections will turn out in both Gaza and the West Bank. Provided they are free and fair elections.

As for the other Arab regimes they are as usual divided and impotent. They all mouth some vague verbal support for ‘Gaza’, but some of the potentates are no doubt praying fervently this Ramadan for an outright Israeli victory. (They would be praying silently, with the history of the Battle of Badr in mind during an earlier Ramadan). They have done it before, they will do it again.

Cheers

Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

[email protected]

Culture, History, Iraq, Islam, Jihadists, Saudi Arabia

Biblical Monuments, Islamic Monuments………

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“Soon afterward the minions of the self-appointed caliph of the freshly self-declared Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, paid a visit to the Mosul Museum. It has been closed for years for restoration, ever since it was looted along with many of Iraq’s other institutions in the wake of the culturally oblivious American-led invasion of 2003. But the Mosul Museum was on the verge of reopening, at last, and the full collection had been stored there……… … Soon after al-Bagdhadi’s men arrived in Mosul, they told the museum staff that the ancient statues were “against Islam.” But then they left the building. The collections remained unmolested for several days, and the initial reports that the statues had been smashed appear to have been erroneous. The photographs of shattered sculptures that circulated on the Web actually came from Syria, according to local officials in Mosul. But the caliphate’s gauleiters issued a city charter and declared in its Article 13 that “false idols” would have to be destroyed. For this strain of Sunni Muslim jihadists, any representation of the human form (with the apparent exception of their own propaganda videos), any shrine that might lend itself to idolatry, and any place of worship dedicated to the faith of supposedly heretical Shia Muslims must be obliterated…………..”

Before ISIS (ISIL) the other Wahhabi power, Saudi Arabia, had started to dismantle the premier monuments of early Islamic history in its birthplace of Mecca and Madinah. Excerpts from relevant previous posts:

“I have written earlier posts on this topic, how a combination, an alliance of royal greed and Wahhabi dogma has destroyed, is still destroying the priceless historical monuments of early Islam. It is downright criminal what the Al Saudi princes and their merchant allies and retainers are doing. Properties closest to the Kaaba are the priciest, and that is where monuments of early Islam were located. Ergo, these monuments were doomed once the Saudi princes set their eyes on that prime land, within walking distance to the Holy Mosques”.

“It is not only the Wahhabi dogma against any historic sites, nay against history. It is also greed: properties in Mecca that are near the Kaaba are valuable. The tear them down to build expensive 5-star or 7-star hotels and apartments and shopping centers. Greed combines with Salafi dogma to doom the ancient monuments of early Islam. Homes and mosques of the Prophet and some of his early followers have been destroyed and built over with new ‘properties’.

Cheers

Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

[email protected]