Salafi Sectarian War and Terrorism in Europe……..

January 9, 2015 Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

Jan 2, 2015: Reports of protests against anti-Muslim attacks in Sweden.

Jan 5, 2015: Neo-Nazi anti-Muslim immigrant rallies in Germany.

Jan 7, 2015: Salafi terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo in Paris.

Jan 9, 2015: Two hostage situations involving Salafi terrorists in the Paris area.

What has gone below the radar in recent years is the low level Muslim vs. Muslim campaign being waged across Europe. It is a one-way Salafi vs. (other) Muslim campaign. It is overshadowed by the general Jihadi threat in Europe and by the sectarian war being waged by Wahhabi salafis against everybody else in the Middle East and by the Western military campaigns in the Middle East.

It is one-sided campaign in Europe by Salafis against other Muslims, especially Shi’as. It verges on violence, although it is more political so far. Salafi (Sunni) groups automatically strongly oppose the establishment of Shi’a mosques in European cities and try to derail them. Even as they complain of European prejudice against Muslims (which also exists).

Sometimes it gets violent. Recently a Belgian court sentenced a Moroccan to 27 years in prison for setting fire to the largest Shi’a mosque in Brussels and killing its Imam. He was acquitted of committing “terrorism” but convicted of setting the fire and causing death. This is not the first time Salafi terrorist plots have been uncovered in Europe against other Muslims (usually Shi’as). A Salafi who was arrested recently in North America admitted that he had plans to attack Shi’a establishments.

What some of the Wahhabi Imams in Europe teach is not just to go to the Middle East and fight the Western infidels. What the dominant message is, what resonates more, is their exhortation to go to the Middle East and fight/kill ‘other’ Muslims who are different. The thousands of civilians who are massacred every year by terrorist bombs and mass murdered in Iraq are Muslims. As are almost all those beheaded and shot in Syria.

Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

m.h.ghuloum@gmail.com

Arab Politics, GCC, Hezbollah, Lebanon

Lebanon’s Shi’as and Hezbollah: Back to the Feudal Past?……….

January 9, 2015 Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

Shuwaikh-school1

“However, this political dynamic may be starting to change. In recent years other Shiite organizations that resent the dominance of Hezbollah and Amal have emerged to question the direction of their leadership. This defection began almost immediately after the 2006 war. While hard-liners hailed Hezbollah’s resilience in the face of the Israeli onslaught as a “divine victory,” others questioned the human and material cost of the group’s intransigent stance. Skepticism continued to grow in the following years – after a 2008 invasion of Sunni areas in Beirut intended to consolidate Hezbollah’s political power, after a 2009 corruption scandal that brought into question the altruism of the group’s leaders, and most especially, after 2011 when it became apparent that Hezbollah was intervening in the Syrian civil war on behalf of the repressive Assad regime. One new Shiite voice is a group called the Lebanese Option Party, founded in 2007. The head of the organization is Ahmad al-Asaad, whose father, Kamel al-Asaad…………”

This piece is rehashing old wishful thinking, extremely wishful thinking about Lebanon. It is trying to recycle an old failed approach. It is old stuff of the kind that Thomas Friedman, for example, would hang his hopes on. The old semi-feudal Al As’ad family? The outlier Ali Al Amin who has hardly any following and is a permanent fixture on the vast Wahhabi sectarian media of the Saudi princes (Alarabiya, Asharq Alawsat, etc)?

The Al As’ad family were the semi-feudal political overlords of much of South Lebanon, during the days when the Shi’a were marginalized and kept impoverished and uneducated in Lebanon. They are as representative of Lebanese Shi’as as, say, the Romanovs were representative of the Russian people. The pro-Saudi March 14 camp keeps going back to them as a possible way to weaken Hezbollah. So far to no avail.
The petroleum princes need to think outside the box: they can’t go to the past and present it as the future. The people will never buy it. Saudi media have in the past promoted other pliable Shi’a stooges, including one or two crackpot clerics, to no avail. You can only buy so many votes, and you can never buy true love although you can lose it.

They need to try a new method, these princes: how about offering Lebanon membership in the Gulf GCC if they ditch Hezbollah? Hell at that price, even Hassan Nasrallah might become excited enough to jump on the Wahhabi bandwagon, right next to Hariri.
Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

m.h.ghuloum@gmail.com

France, Jihad, Terrorism

Paris Non-Suicidal Massacre: the Aftermath……….

January 7, 2015 Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

Shuwaikh-school1

The terrorists who attacked Charlie Hebdo in Paris are still on the loose. There is much speculation about the identity of the attackers, their allegiance, their particular connections. Could it be to the Salafi terrorists in Syria (and Iraq) who are loyal to the Caliphate? To West Africa and the Sahel region? France has always been active militarily in Africa. France has also recently participated in the air attacks on the Hollywood Caliphate of ISIS in Syria.
It is important that this was not a suicide attack. It was not meant to send three terrorists to the rewards and diversions of Paradise and to inspire others to follow suit. Here is what might happen back in the Middle East:

The governments of Egypt, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia may soon start campaigning to tie the Muslim Brotherhood to the attack.
British PM David Cameron, as usual, heartily agrees that this is an avenue to be explored. If only because the Saudi princes and Emirati potentates say so. All based on the principle that “money talks louder”.
Benyamin Netanyahu is no doubt trying to find a plausible Iranian-Hezbollah angle. (Plausibility not mandatory in this case).
Netanyahu will be supported by the Washington Post‘s David Ignatius, who can quote more of the usual credible Saudi and Bahraini intelligence officials than anyone else in the world.
Representative Louie Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) will call Obama a weakling ninny who is afraid to start a war against somebody………. anybody.

Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

m.h.ghuloum@gmail.com

Al-Qaeda, France, Jihadis, Terrorism

Wahhabi Terrorism: Why Paris? Why Now?……..

January 7, 2015 Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

Shuwaikh-school1

My first thought this morning on seeing the news was: why Paris? Why the most beautiful city in the world (it is true, not a cliché, to say that)?

During the 1980s, when I was a youngster, I used to travel occasionally to Paris on matters related to my work. I recall that several times whenever I landed at Orly or Charles De Gaulle, that would be followed by a terrorist attack. I used to, stupidly, joke that I had nothing to do with it.

Paris had several small attacks in those days, but nothing on the scale of these attacks we see nowadays. Those were the days when the Salafi Wahhabis were allies of the West in Afghanistan. Only the Russians, the Soviets, called them terrorists in those days. In the West, they were called freedom fighters. In the West, the words Mujahideen and Jihad were not dirty words yet.

Now the deed is done: the original Afghan incubator of Wahhabi terrorism is spent. It has been replaced with the Syrian (and Iraqi) incubator of Wahhabi terrorism.

Some things never change, however: petroleum fueled the Arab “Afghans” of the 1980s; petroleum fuels the terrorists of the new century. Not just financing: volunteers and weapons and, more important, a warped Salafi ideology.
Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

m.h.ghuloum@gmail.com

Arab Politics, Culture, US Congress, Women

Shaikh Boehner: Burqa and Niqab in the U.S. Congress……….

January 6, 2015 Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

Shuwaikh-school1

Was watching C-Span: Speaker John Boehner swearing in new members of Congress. He had to hop from corner to corner, posing for photos with each representative and his/her family. Wives, husbands, kids, occasionally grandparents. A long process.
Which made me wonder: how come we don’t have this kind of festive, joyous swearing-in in the region? That is, for the few countries that have parliaments and elections.
And then what about the Salafis? Would they also pose with their wives and kids for post-swearing photos? And with the burq’a or niqab, which all Salafi/Wahhabi wives are required to wear? How can one of them tell his wife from another’s? Suppose at photo time he sidles up to the wrong chick by mistake? Would that mean war? Intriguing question, no?……….
Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

m.h.ghuloum@gmail.com

Economics, Finance, U.S. Congress, U.S. Politics

New Age Heroes: Financial Opportunists, Lobbyists, and Rogue Crusaders………

January 6, 2015 Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

Shuwaikh-school1

“Haym Salomon funded not only the Revolutionary War but several leading politicians, yet passed on claiming huge debts. On January 6, 1785, Haym Salomon, the Polish-born immigrant to colonial New York who is revered in American history as the financier of the Revolutionary War, died. He was all of 44 years old — and he was bankrupt………….”

They have a picture of a 10 cent U.S. stamp from 1975 calling Haym (Haim) Salomon a “financial hero”. It says somewhere that he ran a “brokerage business” as well, but apparently he had nothing to do with Salomon Brothers firm that came later. Mr. Salomon died bankrupt, but only because he lived in a different era.

Speaking of financial heroes, I fully expect the new U.S. Congress (both houses) to start creating new “financial” heroes. I expect some top lobbyists to be named, as well as CEOs of Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase and Mr. Blankfein of Goldman Sachs. For their role in the crash of 2008 that required government funds to bail all these geniuses out. The Koch Brothers and Sheldon Adelson of Las Vegas gambling, financial godfather of the New New Republican Party, will surely be on the list. Not to ignore some other likely candidates: famous anti-tax, anti-affordable universal healthcare, anti-affordable higher education, and anti-welfare ‘crusaders’.

The New New Democrats, led by you-know-who-she-is, should they win the White House in 2016, will likely not only follow the same path, but revert to their old habit of appointing top bankers as top financial officers of the U.S. government.
As for myself, I would suggest an economist like Paul Krugman or even Robert Reich for treasury secretary. But that would limit the New New Democrat president to one term. Unless she or he is impeached and convicted first by an uncharacteristically outraged Congress.

Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

m.h.ghuloum@gmail.com

Arab Revolutions, Bahrain, GCC, Mercenaries, Persian-American Gulf, UAE, United Arab Emirates

Gulf of Mercenaries: OMG, the British are Coming Back……….

January 6, 2015 Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

Shuwaikh-school1

Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) seem to be in a race to see which one can establish more foreign military bases and which one can hire more foreign mercenaries. I once suggested that the Persian-American Gulf should be renamed the Gulf of Mercenaries, mainly because of these two countries’ penchant for importing foreign mercenaries to crush dissent and help stifle reform.

The British were in Bahrain for a long time as colonial masters. They had military bases on the island, and they helped the Al Khalifa ruling family and their tribal allies keep absolute political control and enabled them to continue looting the country. They left at the beginning of the 1970s although their bureaucrats continued to call the shots in many local institutions.

The U.S. naval base is a more recent development in Manama and it is largely considered a ‘non-political’ presence. It is a port of convenience and has no internal role. The Saudi military presence is an even more recent development, and it is a totally political and domestic security presence. The Saudi forces entered the country to help the Al Khalifa crush the “Arab Spring” popular uprising of 2011. They are now in the country as a permanent presence.

Then there is the huge contingent of foreign mercenaries imported from such humorless places as Pakistan and Jordan and Syria. They are definitely a political presence.

The British government has done its best to support the repression in Bahrain, it has even sent its unemployed princes and princesses on occasional visits to Bahrain. Just to enhance the ‘legitimacy’ of the ruling sectarian elites. Even as it has called for sanctions, nay even war, against the Syrian regime.
Now the British are reported to be in the process of re-establishing a new foreign military base on the island. That seems like a purely political presence, since Bahrain does not face any external threat other than from the foreign mercenaries imported by its regime.

Sovereign countries have the right to allow foreign bases on their soil: nothing unusual about that. Especially if they face external threats. Provided these bases do not interfere in domestic politics. But will the small island sink under the weight of all these foreign bases and imported mercenaries?………
Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

m.h.ghuloum@gmail.com

Arab Revolutions, Bahrain, Castration, GCC

Decapitations in Bahrain: a Policy of Political Castration………

January 2, 2015 Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

Shuwaikh-school1

“The State Department has expressed deep concern over the detention of the Bahraini opposition leader Sheikh Ali Salman, warning the arrest could lead to more tensions in the island kingdom. Sheikh Salman, head of the al-Wefaq Islamic Society, was arrested on Sunday after leading a protest rally against elections in November which his party boycotted. He was remanded in custody for a further week on Tuesday. “Opposition parties that peacefully voice criticism of the government play a vital role in inclusive, pluralistic states and societies,” the State Department said………….”

The Al Khalifa family that rule and loot Bahrain have ushered in this new year predictably. They have arrested more opposition leaders and other dissidents. This time they arrested Shaikh Ali Salman, leader of the largest peaceful opposition Al Wefaq Society (Shi’a). The ruling gangsters have been focusing on arresting leaders of various opposition and reform groups, a clear policy of decapitating all sources of opposition and independence on the captive island nation of Bahrain. They have failed to completely crush the uprising that started in 2011, even with thousands of Saudi occupation forces and imported Asian and Arab mercenaries.

Like their Saudi masters across the Persian Gulf, these rulers are deep into a policy of decapitation as well. But unlike the Saudis, they do not chop human heads, they mostly chop political heads, with the goal of a politically castrated country composed of yes-men and yes-women.
Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

m.h.ghuloum@gmail.com

Israel, Palestine, U.S. Foreign Policy, West Bank

Israeli Settlers Greet New Year with Stones and Uprooted Olive Trees……

January 2, 2015 Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

Shuwaikh-school1

“On Friday, American security personnel accompanying staff from the United States Consulate in Jerusalem drew their weapons on violent Israeli settlers who attacked a two vehicle U.S. convoy outside the Palestinian town of Turmusaya in the West Bank. Consulate staff were investigating a incident which took place on private Palestinian land on the first night of 2015 when six thousand recently planted olive saplings were uprooted, and dozens of old olive trees were destroyed by violent Jewish settlers from an illegal outpost the Adei Ad near Turmusaya. Officials from Turmusaya notified the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem and requested an investigation because some of the owners of the land are Palestinian-Americans. When the U.S. delegation arrived in the area to investigate settlers started hurling stones at the convoy…………..”

The U.S. Congress, most of its Adelson-ized members, in a brave fit of loyal patriotism, would probably blame the incident on the American diplomats. Not on their foreign soul brothers from among the extreme right-wing Israeli colonists who resort to terrorist tactics and get away with it.

Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

m.h.ghuloum@gmail.com

Culture, Culture and Sports, Muslims, Racism, Sports, Taliban

The Taliban Invade the Rose Parade……….

January 1, 2015 Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

Shuwaikh-school1

Woke up early, too early today on this very cold first morning of 2015. Watched the Rose Parade in Pasadena (on TV from the Northwest of course). Getting ready to watch the Ducks beat the WTF they’re called in Florida State (maybe the Seminoles that they killed off?). One nice float had a Sikh motif, with a bunch of Sikh people on it. Sikhs of India, and maybe elsewhere, wear turbans, sort of like some of us Muslims. Sort of like the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
I switched quickly to Fox News, expecting one of their Five, or is it Six, geniuses complain about the Taliban or other Muslim terrorists taking over the Rose Parade.
It has a ring to it if you are a regular watcher, occasionally with tragic results…………
Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

m.h.ghuloum@gmail.com

Arabia Deserta: MENA Focus

Salafi Sectarian War and Terrorism in Europe……..

Lebanon’s Shi’as and Hezbollah: Back to the Feudal Past?……….

Paris Non-Suicidal Massacre: the Aftermath……….

Wahhabi Terrorism: Why Paris? Why Now?……..

Shaikh Boehner: Burqa and Niqab in the U.S. Congress……….

New Age Heroes: Financial Opportunists, Lobbyists, and Rogue Crusaders………

Gulf of Mercenaries: OMG, the British are Coming Back……….

Decapitations in Bahrain: a Policy of Political Castration………

Israeli Settlers Greet New Year with Stones and Uprooted Olive Trees……

The Taliban Invade the Rose Parade……….

Multidisciplinary: Middle East, North Africa, Gulf, GCC, World, Cosmos…..