Human Rights Fueling War

February 03, 2012

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Human Rights activists and their media friends seem shocked by revelations that Libyan rebel forces are torturing detainees in Libya.

Why? In a recent “Salon’ opinion article (The Human Rights ‘Success’ in Libya; www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30369.htm) Glen Greenwald reviews how invasions “… are almost always sold by appeal to human rights concerns”. And they do not stop. Greenwald describes how such abuses become part and parcel of a military campaign aimed to topple a ‘brutal’ leader. Anything they execute is justified by that heroic shared goal, even though those western backers themselves conveniently escape any association or responsibility with such abuses.

What we have recently been told about the behavior of Libyan forces towards the people they have captured —first migrant workers they rounded up, then the former regime supporters, and now, detained Libyans during and following the invasion-- should come as no surprise. Some may have gloated over the way the former Libya president was treated by his captors. There were few sympathizers for Gaddafi and no critics of the rebels’ method of meting out that piece of justice. Yet, surely this behavior was systematic of a savagery encouraged by their western supporters who themselves were engaged in what is only later found to be ‘indiscriminate killings’ during their much celebrated smart-bombing of Libya. The murders and abuse by Libyan ground forces was inarguably an expression ‘license to kill’ granted to the heroic rebels by their partners in the air.

In my blog of November 2, 2011 (www.RadioTahrir.org/blog) I expressed by disgust and shame over the license accorded Libyan ‘rebels’-- allies of our esteemed NATO bombers. Only now, conveniently, we hear evidence that suggests that the widely publicized attack on Moammar Gaddafi may not have been so unique an occurrence.

In his January 27 article in Salon, Greenwald compares celebratory claims made by the invaders of Iraq in 2003 with a 2011 report that “Iraq is quickly slipping back into authoritarianism as its security forces abuse protesters, harass journalists, and torture detainees”, and how Iraq is “becoming a budding police state”. Greenwald concludes “Ironically, those who are the loudest advocates for these wars and then prematurely celebrate the outcome (and themselves) bear significant responsibility for these subsequent abuses: by telling the world that the invasion was a success, it causes the aftermath — the most important part — to be neglected. There is nothing noble about invading and bombing a country into regime change”, he continues, “if what one ushers in is mass instability along with tyranny and abuse by a different regime: typically one that is much more sympathetic to the invading regime-changers.”  But, again, human righters win the day.

As righteous western leaders, their regional lackeys, and human rights documenters supply us with a steady account of human rights abuses in other ‘unpopular’ regimes in support of their selective ‘Arab Spring’ campaign, they are preparing us, the public, for their next noble adventure. All the good people of Europe and America, desperate to share their way of life and their subservience to Israel, ostensibly deeply sensitive to the suffering of Arab sisters and brothers, are ready to sanction yet another war.

Forget about the catastrophe and the abuses that will inevitably follow. We are a naïve, acquiescent and complicit  public.

Nepal's Trials in Democracy

December 06, 2011

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Since writing the first part of these reflections, we’ve learned that the submission of the constitution has been delayed for yet another six months. Who’s responsible for this? and who, outside Nepal cares if this democracy fails or succeeds?

Many rush to assist (sic)Arab democratic movements and even hasten Arab revolts underway . Meanwhile Nepal’s emerging democracy is taking place in a geopolitical atmosphere where neither India (long an influential player in Nepal), nor the UK or USA offer genuine support. (Washington maintains a quiet but active presence in Nepal but has never publicly welcomed this new and real democracy although it offers abundant opportunities for educated Nepalese to settle in the US.)

The marginality of Washington in Nepal’s new found freedom’s may not be a bad thing. Perhaps the real test of a revolution’s success and the emergence of leaders with integrity may lie in the absence of a foreign hand to whom allegiance is owed or who dominate through puppet leaders. Even so, one cannot deny Delhi’s special interest in Nepal’s politics and excessive concern with India in Nepal’s public debates.

One exemplary institution that Nepal’s democracy has spawned is a free and aggressive press. Since the reforms, vocal newspapers and magazines have flourished… in English as well as Nepali. Dozens of papers, many representing the various parties, assure a lively political debate. Nepalese are well informed and many journalists are dedicated to a rigorous examination of issues. And although some pettiness and scandal mongering prevail, one meets hardworking, talented young men and women in the profession who ensure that the press plays a central role in the democracy. Although party differences exaggerated by the press sometimes leave one feeling that the country is in a state of anarchy. 

 Because of Indian economic dominance, the inability of the successive governments to implement promised reforms, to stem corruption and attract investment, the economy of Nepal is in real trouble. (Although no worse than under the dictatorship.) Everyone knows that these problems cannot be addressed until a stable leadership takes hold and the new constitution is established.

Then there is the problem of Nepal’s excessive foreign non-governmental activity (we cannot call it ‘assistance’). It is unlikely to be reformed anytime soon. But for the first time in my long involvement with Nepal, I heard outspoken criticism of the NGO presence there. One commentator actually described Nepal as “an NGO farm”; i.e. it breeds NGOs (for their own benefit).

Few Nepalese today will say that NGOs and expert advisors have significantly assisted Nepal; some even say “they do more harm” (than good). Everyone knows what high salaries and benefits NGO expatriates enjoy compared to what a local NGO employee takes home; they also know what little filters down and out to supposed project beneficiaries across the nation.

While the new government admits the that NGO activities are of limited benefit, they have no policy to reform or reduce them. Certainly the thousands of NGOs based in Kathmandu account for the steep rise in land prices, much of the conspicuous wealth one sees in the city. Their salaries and overhead expenses support many restaurants, brand name shops and elite services and products.

That aside, a more severe economic problem has emerged in recent years. One cannot speak about Nepal’s economy today without reference to a new and troubling reality—namely the migration of millions of young laborers, most of them unskilled, to the Arab Gulf countries. This has occurred in the past six years after the collapse of the carpet industry, blighted by a campaign against the exploitation of child workers. It is also due to failed development strategies for the rural people. (Exploitation of trafficked workers overseas is hardly better than child labor.)

Although remittances from abroad (an estimated 3 million workers, 13% of the entire population) help support millions of Nepalese at home, it creates serious social and economic problems overseas and at home. Rural areas are depopulated and agricultural production is in decline. Moreover thousands of men and women return with terrifying stories of mistreatment at the hands of Nepalese labor brokers and their Arab employers. Although widely publicized (in excellent investigative work by journalist Devendra Bhattarai and film-maker Kesang Tseten), and openly discussed by human rights agents, intellectuals and consultants, no one seems to have a plan to correct this problem. And Nepalese embassies in the Arab Gulf countries seem unwilling or unable to address the needs of their citizens abroad. While the inflow of cash from this labor seems to be crucial to Nepal, long term benefits to the economy remain to be seen. With an already weak industrial base, Nepal becomes more and more a consumer economy which in turn increases dependence on Indian imports, and he need for cash.

So problems are plentiful. There are abundant reasons for citizens to be exasperated if not fearful for their future. But major reforms won in the past 6 years have to be acknowledged--institutions essential for a healthy democracy are firmly in place. Without foreign help and with a minimum of human sacrifice, Nepal has come a very long way—surely a model for those still struggling against entrenched dictators. And a warning lesson for those tempted to interfere.

Latest Defeat; Arab Nationalism in the Crosshairs

November 02, 2011

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

It’s confirmed, in case you missed it. Arabs really are savages.

 

I wonder if other Arabs feel as I do: that the death of former Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi is a triple blow.

As western powers and their Gulf Arab allies gloat over their victory in Libya, we simple Arab peoples endure a threefold defeat: a) we are deprived of one leader who accomplished much-- for his people and for Africans and Arabs in general; b) any balanced view of  this Arab country’s modern history will be impossible now; and c) we lost whatever shreds of our dignity we still held when we glimpsed some of the barbarian character of the rebels who ended the battle.

 

Along with western media and historians of war and terror, the vainglorious heads of state doubtless have their day. We scroll through graphic footage to dispel any rumor that this African Arab leader is alive. There’s ample proof that he was dispatched most dishonorably. His regime is truly gone, the nation wrecked and plundered, cleansed of anything that might suggest Libya had achieved something in modern times.

 

As for me personally, I am in mourning. I admit it. I suspect that millions of others are experiencing a similar sadness, even grief, these days. Because we are not only witness to a dirty end and swift retelling of Gaddafi’s rule and his development of Libya, however imperfect, as a modern society. The record is there—the literacy rate, an enviable per capital income, coveted health and education benefits, even though all this is kicked deeper under the sand, sucked into the detritus of war.

Meanwhile a new western-created and disseminated legend emerges—one sodden with correctness, heroism, humanitarianism—all internationally sanctioned. It sparkles.

Not only will documentaries and news reports pass over us as we quietly grieve in the shadows. We ourselves must veil our loss. Otherwise we would suffer a double defeat: we’ll be challenged to defend a man who ‘killed his own’, who uttered outlandish, laughable words, a capricious fellow whose idiosyncrasies are dizzying and whose policies seemed crude.

Anyone who might write truths and come to Gaddafi’s defense is simply not credible now. We might even be charged as having been in his pay, beneficiaries of his regime at one stage or another. (Forget about America’s payouts, its unmatched atrocities and plunder; Washington’s policies are directed against ‘others’, not America’s own people!)

I am not only in mourning for a defamed man and the death of his achievements in terms of Libyans’ living standard and its support for nationalist struggles. I weep for the ignoble rebels who became dirty and at the same time heroic agents of the western agenda, deployed hand in glove with NATO to ‘protect Libyan civilians’.

In their military adventure, perhaps throughout their battles across Libya ending in Sirte, those gung-ho anti-Gaddafi rebels emerged-- for me-- not as liberators but as savages: the grubby, highly conspicuous frontline of hidden NATO warriors and their clean, smart gunships. We have not been allowed to see what crimes these fellows committed as they marched behind the NATO strikes, and ‘cleansed’ house after house, settlement after settlement, city after city. Although we could view their noble wounded rushed into the care of field hospitals, interviewed while recovering, the martyred remembered by proud families.

 

In the final battle, with the made-for-TV capture of the leader, suddenly neither NATO nor any politician is at hand. Instead, victorious rebels were given license to operate as they pleased. Packs of wild dogs set upon a wounded animal, they indulge an ugly fantasy. The result is less a humiliated Gaddafi than a gang of savage Arabs. Vultures, animals, ripping into their prey.

This is the image that we are left with. A ruthless bunch of  beasts, untamed, primitive, conveniently with camera in hand to document their pleasure. It’s almost pornographic. (From the little we know, American troops have behaved similarly in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yet, not being Arabs, they are not savages, just a few boys gone wild. And who remembers those images?) 

 

Do those rebels who assailed the last Libyan loyalists defending Sirte not realize how they are manipulated and used to defame our entire race? Their actions become a stain on all of us.

While a ‘detached’ human rights official calls for investigations, the observing, cool-headed world is handed this souvenir, a savage image of Arabs and Arab culture.

All of us carry the smudge. This is why I mourn today. All the pride and dignity won by revolutionary Tunisians and Egyptians these past months has been overturned by these unleashed Libyan brothers.

Another generation is handed the task of rebuilding; they are next to be sucked into the redeeming cycle of music concerts, seminars, fundraisers, testimonial city tours, children arriving for surgery at the hands of gracious western medics and, and, and.

Mohammed Ghani Hikmat, 1929-2011 (see our Sept 27 podcast)

September 19, 2011

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

To know Mohammed Hikmat Ghani was to know Iraq… well, Baghdad—vibrant, dynamic, proud, all-embracing. With a long, productive career, his work valued by museums and collectors internationally, Ghani the sculptor needs no introduction.

I first met Ghani in 1990 on my initial visit to Baghdad. It was a propitious encounter since through him, I made many good friends who helped me understand and like Iraq. Our encounter moved from a professional relationship-- I first interviewed him about his work for a US magazine-- to an enduring friendship with the entire family.

I remained close to Ghani and his wife, archeologist Gaya Rahal, up to the time we last met, a year ago at their home in exile in Jordan. His son Yasser, with his wife Rana, and their children, had just left for overseas. Ghani was so sad he could not talk about it. He was never a person lost for words, so we knew this separation was very hard for him.

Whatever the misfortunes of his homeland, the absent friends, and his personal disappointments, Ghani never relaxed his enormous energy as a sculptor, and his artistic imagination never flagged. That week in Amman, he had had a hugely successful exhibition of recent work. “All sold”, he said, with some astonishment. “I have new orders from many people who were too late to buy a piece in the show. I have to start working again, immediately.”

Collectors of Ghani’s recent work are Iraqis in the Diaspora, especially those living in Jordan. He was proud of this, proud that his people, despite recent hardships and material losses, continued to value art and the work of Iraqi artists in particular. Indeed, since 1991, the year when UN-US sanctions were imposed on Iraq, the Jordanian capital had emerged into something of a regional art center—this largely due to the influx of Iraqi artists driven there by lack of materials, by the closure of museums, and due to the decline of Iraq’s middle class who had supported the arts in their homeland.

The only time I witnessed a hiatus in Ghani’s production was during the US bombing of Iraq in early 1991. He was angry and shocked and would never forgive the Americans for that assault. During those 42 days, before he could repair his bombed studio, under siege, confined to his home, Ghani occupied himself assembling a photographic collection of his work—sketches, photographs and notes from his entire career. He set about preparing this for publication. (Indeed, within months it was printed, now certain to become a collector’s item.) In this he recruited the help of his skillful and devoted daughter Hajjar.)

Ghani often recalled his years in Rome, and kept in touch with fellow artists there. He knew Italian so well that when conversing in English, which he did with relative fluency, he spoke with an Italian accent.  Whenever lost for an English word, he quickly substituted with an Italian. This Iraqi’s conversation in English was often colorfully peppered with Italian.

During his exile in Amman, Ghani resumed his work, and to a degree the family’s social life continued. Any meeting after 7 pm with Ghani and Gaya was bound to be an Iraqi party; down the street or across town, Iraqi friends were gathering, and if I was in town, I accompanied them. Invariably I was gratified by hilarity and uplifting company. It was the same in Baghdad where I spent time with the Ghani family on every one of my dozens of visits there during the 13 years of sanctions from 1990-2003.

At their modest Baghdad home the atmosphere was always relaxed; I often joined Ghani and Gaya in the evening to find myself among Iraq’s most accomplished musicians, artists and scholars, among them oud master and composer Munir Bashir, literary critic Jabra Ibrahim Jabra, artist Laila Al-Attar, archeologist Walid Al-Jadir; with others, they made Baghdad the dynamic and vital city it was. Of course all that changed as the merciless sanctions took their toll, driving people out of the country, striking down many with illness or despair.

During the day, whether in Iraq or in exile, Ghani was not to be seen. He had a strict regime—at work in his studio by 9 am, an hour for lunch, then back to work until seven in the evening-- even at the age of 82. He was not to be disturbed when at work. Not even Gaya ventured into the studio. Only Yasser, in the years that he was an apprentice to his father, might be in the studio with him. I was once in his workplace, only because I was to interview him about his career, arguing that it was essential for me to be with him among the mock-ups and his finished pieces while we talked.

Ghani and his family survived the sanctions, but not without difficulties.

 “Never”, said Ghani; “these sanctions will never reach inside my house”. So he kept the mood upbeat, and an open door for guests including his children’s school friends. Although those sanctions did invade even this home—nothing could withstand that brutal, cold-blooded assault. The death or departure of friends and neighbors took its toll; still Ghani stayed on. It was not until the American led invasion, bringing threats to his family and the ransacking of the museums, that he went into exile. Before long though, in Amman, he was at work again.

“The mayor of Baghdad has asked me to return”, he told me in 2010. There will be work there for me. But as long as my country is occupied, I shall not go.”

The determined mayor persisted it seems, and finally last October, Ghani revisited his country. It was a bitter-sweet encounter. However, the sculptor did agree to design a series of pieces for the city. Back in Amman, in his final months, as he was failing, Ghani worked with his son Yasser to direct the details of the casting and the installation of his last works—four new sculptures to be erected in Baghdad. When they are installed, they will partner with the already well known Ghani landmarks in Baghdad to decorate this city he called his “most beautiful lady”.

Today his body rests there, a final wish of Ghani, awaiting these new installations.

Venerable Trukshik Rinpoche (1924-2011), Nepal

September 05, 2011

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Trulshig Rinpoche (1924-2011), Nepal

Trulshik was the name given to the son of YumWangmo. He was recognized in his infancy as the incarnation of the Trukshik Yogin, his biological father, who had had a close association with the then abbot of a monastery in SW Tibet.

At the age of just 19, the young Trulshik was appointed assistant director of that monastery, Dza-Rong. He eventually inherited the leadership of the center, located above Dingri, in the northern shadow of Everest.

Trulshik Rinpoche, as he was known, eventually became one of the most revered and influential Tibetan religious figures in Nepal and beyond. Today, September 5, 2011, he is no more in the realm of we sentients.

I recall Trulshik so vividly today. Hearing his voice clearly in my memory, I feel a surge of grief along with warmth of the memory of times together. You see, I knew Trulshik well in the 1970s when I was a young anthropologist in Northeast Nepal and he a fast maturing, skilled monastic leader. He immediately rose to the challenge of piloting a disoriented refugee community of Tibetans, most of them from Dingri in Tibet. Together they had fled into nearby Nepal beginning in 1960 after the Chinese occupation of their land.

Tibetan Frontier Families, my first book, has just been released in a new edition. (Vajra Books, Kathmandu, 2011). Here, I update the history of Dingri Tibetans and Trulshik's rise to prominence. I also recall Trulshik’s youth in Tibet, his early years in Nepal, and our close association. He was a genuine and important friend of this single woman scholar with few friends in that distant, once-isolated valley. (That was the pre-road and pre-mobile phone era in Nepal’s interior.) Starting in 1970, Rinpoche and I discussed news headlines, the past, and his plans for his growing monastery. (I was not in a position to converse with him on Nyingma Buddhist philosophy, and he did not appear to mind that.)

I was based not far from his retreat –just 5 hours by footpath through the mountains of Solu-- and, when I visited the monastery we had lunch in his chamber, where he often tuned into his shortwave radio, where together we followed international news. He kept an atlas nearby whenever  we talked.

After knowing each other a year, seeing my curiosity in and my attraction to the 13^th century yogin PhaDampa Sangyas, founder of the Zhijed Tibetan philosophical tradition, Trulshik shared with me a 5-volume manuscript he had secreted out of Tibet on the backs of his party of refugees. Moreover, he suggested I might photograph the more than 1,200 pages and he then made all facilities in the monastery available to me during the weeks of the project.

Those manuscript photographs I took to India; the film was printed, and eventually the entire 5 tomes were published for the first time. Recently I learned that Tibetans and other international scholars are engaged in work based on this text.) I need to mention the publication was arranged by another eminent figure of that era, Gene E Smith. A brilliant Tibetologist and a devotee, Smith was the US Library of Congress acquisitions officer in India those years. Many scholars like me owe much to Smith's support. He too recently escaped the wheel of sentient beings.

Last year, before his death, Gene and I reviewed my new introduction to Tibetan Frontier Families and we recalled the early years of Lama Trukshik’s career and his widening influence. Anthropologist Jane Goodall apparently became a devotee of Trulshik, along with other European Buddhist students. All followed the trail through the hills to his expanding monastery in northeast Nepal where my friendship with him had blossomed and where I spent many weeks at work on the manuscript and with the community of talented men and women who were part of the Rinpoche's center. (Consulting the web, I see that you can  learn about his foreign followers and Trulshik's international work there.)

In my new preface to Tibetan Frontier Families, you can find more about Trulshik’s life, and in the body of the original text , more details of his youth. I leave it to readers to consult my book, available on Amazon.com.

I believe there is not much beyond this in English about the remarkable early career of Trulshik. Although there may be a biography in Tibetan language written some 30 or more years ago. Suffice to summarize here what a brilliant manager he was; he drew around him dedicated, talented people; he was extraordinarily compassionate in the simplest way, and above all, he was hardworking, ready to serve anyone who came to him for spiritual or other help.

 For the first 20 years of his residence outside Tibet, Trukshik focused his attention on building up his original monastic center Thupten Choeling in Nepal. Despite his youth and limited access to anyone of his rank who he could consult, he flourished intellectually and spiritually. He emerged as a wise man by the time he was 45. I am told that after 1990 he had become influential within the ranks of the Tibetan scholarly hierarchy; and I understand he travelled the world. Although unlike many others of his background, his base remained the immediate community of monks and nuns in his mountain retreat.

I can hear his voice still so clearly-- laughing over some curiosity, his head always tilted to one side to emphasize his attention, chuckling about contradictions in earthly matters, praying, rosary in hand, in reflection on the problem of a supplicant, and his discerning comments as he inspects a calligrapher’s work, a liturgical ritual process, or this anthropologist’s writing. I still have some of his letters, written in a beautiful, careful hand, with a spot of whiteout here and there.

There will be abundant prayers for Trulshik’s soul in the coming weeks as his spirit travels beyond the worldly realm into that of the angles and countless Buddhist spirits in paradise. As in the case of Gene E. Smith who left his sentient body barely a year ago, I feel they hardly need our prayers to assure them a safe and swift passage.

Footnote--I am often surprised when I meet someone whom I have known for the past two decades and they have no awareness whatsoever of my work in Tibet. Perhaps, had I not been on record as opposing Zionist policies against my own homeland, and known for my unshakable pride in my Arab peoples, this early history would not have been obscured. So I welcome this opportunity through the passing of my dear friend Trukshik, to show that these lives are not unconnected.

This is by way of sharing with those who have known this author only from her work in the Arab lands, of an earlier era in Nepal, India and Tibet, the foundation for my dedicated ongoing research and work in the Middle East.

Bibliography, By BN Aziz

2011 Tibetan Frontier Families, new edition. Published by Vajra Books, Kathmandu, Nepal.

1979 The Traditions of PhaDampa Sangyas, A Tibetan text in 5 volumes, edited from a manuscript in Nepal, with an English introduction by BN Aziz. Published by Druk Press, Thimbu, Bhutan.

 

"Shock Doctrine" Applied on the Arab Awakenings?

June 15, 2011

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

The true test of revolution will come when Arab youth will not only say to outsiders, “hands off our revolution”. They need to resist the bribes and seductions that are sure to follow.

As if it isn’t bad enough that natural disasters become opportunities for western capitalist adventures to ‘clean the field’.

In her excellent 2007 study “Shock Doctrine”, Naomi Klein describes how western powers prepare the ground for corporate control. According to Kline’s analysis, the Friedman economic model lies at the heart of US foreign policy. The US, she claims, takes the opportunity of disasters, or creates upheaval in order to establish their economic plan on a ‘clear playing field’. This doctrine has been applied after natural disasters such as the Sri Lankan tsunami, the Haitian earthquake, and the toppling of governments that threatened capitalist dominance such as in Chile and in Iraq. 

Bad enough. But I wonder: could the USA view current Arab uprisings as a frame on which to apply its underhanded and vicious policy under the name ‘aid’? Today it’s labeled “civil society and democracy” or something equally noble. Could the heroic Arab Awakening offer Western powers opportunities to take over the revolution?

Improbable--at first glance. These are indigenous revolutions, led by people who themselves are cleansing corrupt systems. Citizens began the revolt; they already accomplished the unthinkable, and without outside help. (Even if  there is still a long road to climb, such as in Egypt and Tunisia.)

What first alerted me about a western co-opting of the ‘Arab Awakening’ was not American and British finger-waving at their old friends, the dictators. Not even backroom meetings between their military leaders. Nor the role that western social networkers claimed as theirs.

It was the US president’s offer last month of two billion dollars for the revolutionaries in Egypt and Tunisia. At the G8 meeting a few days later, the two billion became nearly $20 billion for the brave people across the Arab lands engaged in ridding themselves of dictators.

$20 billion! For what? It is not designated as military support. And who asked for it? $20 billion to help countries establish ‘new democratic institutions’! As if it is something to be bought over the counter. And what sign is there that it’s money  that’s needed, after what we witnessed, namely unarmed demonstrators who brandished nothing but courage, determination and their own voices. (see Poetry Square, Feb 5, 2011, RadioTahrir.org). Those cannot be bought, or sold. What have billions of aid to Afghanistan and Palestinians done for their democratic hopes? The main outcome seems to be corruption, stagnation, and a dominant Western hand in internal affairs.

According to writer Soumaya Ghannoushi, those billions promised for Arab youth are already at work. In her May 26/11 Guardian article “Obama, Hands off Our Spring”, she informs us of some of the conferences and workshops underway to channel the revolutionary Arab spirit into US hands. In Washington and elsewhere, she writes, US “programmes aimed at youth leaders include the Leaders for Democracy Arabic project, and the US state department's Middle East partnership initiative….”….  “young activists … are hosted by the Project on Middle East Democracy ..one of many conferences and seminars. Meetings are underway “between high-ranking US officials and the Muslim Brotherhood” in Egypt and with Tunisia Muslim representatives in the US.

Ghannoushi warns, “Washington hopes that these rising forces can be stripped of their ideological opposition to US hegemony and turned into pragmatists, fully integrated into the existing US-led international order.” Plans "to stabilise and modernise" the Tunisian and Egyptian economies…drafted by the World Bank, IMF and European Development Bank at Washington's behest... A $2bn facility to support private investment...”

It looks like genuine aid on the surface. Ghannoushi recalls Obama’s own words: “…now a historic opportunity…, to pursue the world as it should be.”

 

Ghannoushi’s alert is reinforced by Ahdaf Soueif (again in the Guardian Weekly 27 May/11 ) who warns: “To Arabs, the US is a force of occupation draped in a thin cloak of democracy and human rights.”

In “Our revolt is not for the US”, Soueif points the finger at Washington’s double standards, and how previous supports for freedom resulted in crony capitalism, blackmailing politicians, and widespread corruption. To Obama’s promises that US interests are essential to people’s hopes, she retorts:  ‘it’s obfuscation, and an insult to every citizen… who followed our revolution”.

Aid seems so well intentioned. But Naomi Klein spells out how it really works and her analysis is worth revisiting. “Shock Doctrine” documents just how western powers rush to fill the vacuum created by natural disasters in order to establish an investment environment. Klein illustrates how capitalist forces can similarly ‘precipitate’ a disaster, overthrowing countries with unfriendly economic systems in order to militarily impose their system. It’s hard to accept this ugly truth; but Klein’s research is convincing.

More troubling is the possibility that this same process is now aimed against our celebrated and prideful Arab Awakening. Is the US working on that clean slate to implant its own plan?

Our brave citizens who began this historic process are resisting the powerful economic and military forces that chain them. They are tearing down barriers set against them for decades. More hard work lies ahead to realize the revolution they began. Now, they must resist the more subtle, crafted intellectual might of the partners of their former oppressors. Can they do it? 

Oh, What a Lovely War!

May 12, 2011

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Was this the title of a British film? or a popular song of the 40s?

Either way, I know the phrase originated in the imperial West, the humanitarian West, the West that monitors human rights and establishes international criminal courts to try all but its own citizens.

Our latest image of a ‘lovely war’ is not the sleek and silent bombers flying over north Africa. Not the political accord rammed through the UN by a club of self-interested nations.

No. It’s the sight of night revelers in American streets after their noble president announced the extra-judicial killing of the Al-Qaeda leader. Public cheers which met this attack proves what I have always argued and few will accept: namely, Americans adore war.

First, the death of Osama Bin Laden does not mark the end of war. It only allows Washington to claim success with a totally failed strategy it launched 10 years ago to capture the man they blamed for the 9/11 attacks. More significantly, what has this one death cost the world? Unknown trillions of dollars in government expenditure, the murder of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, Afghanis, Pakistanis, Yeminis, and Muslims in the US’s undeclared war against Al-Qaeda. Not to forget the 6,000 plus American soldiers and the tens of thousands of maimed veterans.

Add to the calculation of ‘success’, the total devastation of two countries, Iraq and Afghanistan, with the future of millions of their citizens swept away in the chaos. Then there is the cost in American principles: Washington’s policies in its terror war betrayed a once respected standard of justice; it exposed how routinely torture is practiced by American authorities; it made racism against Muslims part of everyday American life; it gave us the infamous Patriot Act and other legalized means of curbing US civil rights. The USA beefed up its CIA and other intelligence agencies to fight non-existent threats represented by Bin Laden.

Significantly, as Washington is quick to assure us, this celebrated murder does not end the terror war; rather it raises new threats. Thus the need for continued vigilance and heighted security measures.  Instead of being reprimanded for their failures, US intelligence services are hailed for their success. And, according to May 12’s Washington Post, applications to join the American intelligence services have skyrocketed following the murder of Bin Laden, an act which some denounce as a war crime.

What success? Ten years and incalculable losses in the effort, these agents are champions of justice? Yes, believe it. And the war-loving American public is pressed to demonstrate its pride it its intelligence work and combat efforts. “We got him. We won.”.

The phrase is burned  into Americans from childhood, whether watching Tom and Jerry cartoons, cheering Bruce Willis-style heroes, or playing computer games. “We got him.” No other activity consumes the American public from childhood to death like war: whether our toys, combat sports, Batman fantasy figures, mafia and espionage thrillers, Nintendo games, novels, or intellectual productions like the celebrated ‘Civil War’ TV series. War is part of entertainment for Americans, fundamental to conditioning the concept of heroism. War defines who is a ‘good guy’. War offers everyone the thrill and glory of battle.

Don’t tell me you marched against the war in 2003. Or that you did not vote for George W Bush. It doesn’t matter that (at the most).02 % of the US public doesn’t support war. All Americans, including lofty-minded university ‘liberals’, are beneficiaries of the US war machine and war culture. All share similar heroes, all celebrate war literature, and all benefit from an economy dependent for growth on constant war.

Spontaneous cheers erupted when the US president—‘leader of the free world’-- announced Bin Laden’s murder. Think about it and you surely must agree how this exposes the true nature of Americans.

Note how the raw emotional pleasure of war has its corollary in intellectual debates. Witness the days of media commentary on that ‘military operation’. However eloquent the speeches, it is part of war’s enduring entertainment value.  Admit this and you open the door to change. Not Obama’s “Change” but real change, change we can believe in.

 

Progress-- the Palestinian struggle is sidelined for the wider Arab revolutions

April 16, 2011

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Some may not want to hear this. But it may be that Arab revolutions now underway are in part due to the failure of the Palestinian rebellion.

For decades Palestinian sovereignty has been the focus of all Arab nations. Citizens of 21 Arab states and the diaspora followed and supported their Palestinian brothers and sisters with admiration and fervor. If Palestinians could overthrow the Zionist oppressor, peace would spread across the region.

Arab leaders, one after another embraced the cause, and often paid severely for this policy. (Aiding Palestinians won these men severe criticisms and sanctions from the U.S.) “More Palestinian than the Palestinians” is a phrase I have heard throughout the region, often uttered with disapproval and dismay by Algerians, Syrians, Egyptians, for example.

Treaties with Israel by Jordan and Egypt were followed by growing exchanges between the Zionist state and some Gulf countries; ties between Israel and Morocco and Tunisia deepened. Those states were abandoning the Palestinian cause. And, as these overtures were ‘rewarded’ by the USA, these developments  further divided Arab peoples from their leadership.  (Egypt’s treaty with Israel has been a ‘cold’ peace.)

 Washington criticism and censure of states that continue to champion the Palestinian cause is a well oiled machine. Syria pays heavily for its support of the Palestinian movement. This is turn offers its government a cover for extensive surveillance and a beefy security apparatus. The US and Israel have both made it clear that Damascus’ backing of resistance against Zionism and Israeli aggression constitutes support for terrorism, for example. This makes Damascus an explicit target of western powers; at the same time it serves to weaken any chance for internal democratic reforms. (This is not to say the threat of Zionist expansion at all levels is not real. It is.)

By the end of 2010, the Palestinian struggle had reached a new low. The positions of the Gaza leadership and the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank now seems irresolvable. Palestinians on both sides have made many mistakes. Daily, more land is lost, more homes crushed. Palestinian leadership is weak, unable to negotiate, unable to unite. The so called “peace process” is inarguably a farce; the sooner this ruse is exposed, the better.

One result: Palestinians no longer provide a beacon of hope. Nor are they an example of honesty, courage and wisdom.

Lebanese knew this much earlier. But it took Tunisians, Syrians, Egyptians, Yemenis and Jordanians until late November of last year to face this reality. Maybe it was the impotency of Barak Obama with his unrealistic, flawed and failed attempt to revive a ‘peace process’ last September.

At a conscious or unconscious level, Arabs across the region realized it was time to focus on themselves and their own liberation. No longer would they accept Palestinian dominion over their own national goals. The Palestinian emperor had no clothes! We finally took to the streets to win something for ourselves.

Time to hear from Arab Americans

March 23, 2011

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Time for Arabs in America to follow the lead of their families in the Arab World. 

Across the entire globe people are watching the revolutions in the Arab world with some admiration (and apprehension). Leaders who share the excesses and abuses of those under attack doubtless feel threatened now. 

For most of the world these ongoing events are arguably inspiring. We witness the restoration of dignity in Arab voices and on the faces of Arabs from Morocco to Iraq.  

Arab Americans, particularly as it became clear that the former Egyptian president was doomed, dare to come into the streets to voice their support for Egyptian people. Of course their help was not needed in Tahrir Square. Nor is it required by the Yemenis, or Bahrainis as millions risk all to achieve that dignity that is now, finally, within their grasp. In the US, I am waiting for the spark to ignite our Arab Americans. 

Americans of Arab heritage have enjoyed freedoms and successes of various degrees in the USA. But have they enjoyed real self-esteem? I think not.  

In a few cases where wealth is accompanied by distinction, individuals may experience precious dignity. Yet, the large majority of us are silent. As immigrants we remained silent about the oppression of the people in our homelands, silent over US complicity in the suppression of freedoms of sisters and brothers across the Arab world, and silent on justice issues at home in the US. 

We have a small handful of Arab commentators coming forward to condemn Israeli aggression and racism or offer haughty political analyses of ‘conditions’  in the Arab world. On the whole though, until dictators are about to fall, we remain passive and timid. Privately we may express our frustration and outrage. A few may author complex academic tomes for graduate students to pore over. That is the extent of our involvement in any liberation struggle.  

In the US, we concentrate on our personal liberation, mainly directed at getting a U.S. visa and a fine house.  Some of my Arab American colleagues bemoan this meekness. Yet few of us dare to act. It is a formidable task to be sure, especially after 1990 when the US targeted Iraq, and Arabs became the focus of heightened US surveillance.   

Still, why settle in the US on the claim that this is where freedom is to be found?  

For a long time I have been struck by how few Arab Americans one finds in institutions of justice and community activism. Among the ranks of U.S. teachers, lawyers, artists and filmmakers whose message is focused on liberty, we see precious few Arab Americans.  

The USA is a country where books and films can have immense social and political impact and where civil rights attorney are in the frontline of the struggle for justice worldwide. How many Arab American writers, filmmakers and lawyers can you name among them?  

Knowing the conditions our families live under, knowing the modern techniques of protest, the achievements of earlier American freedom fighters, tasting and benefiting from freedoms (won by others) in their new chosen homeland, they ought to be leading the way. Shame.  

Whose revolution is this anyway?

February 23, 2011

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Watch for another attempt to ‘orientalize’ the experience of the Arab peoples today.  

Why do western powers always want to take credit for beautiful, unpredicted epic moments they’ve had no credible role in?  

Even while world leaders congratulate Egyptians and Tunisians on their newly won victories, their minions prepare stories of heroic Americans’ and American institutions’ contributions to those transformations.

With the Egyptian revolution nearing its nadir, we are regularly updated by a televised statement from US President Obama who “is dealing with the unfolding events”—i.e. is defining this history. We learn that a student in Texas saved the revolution by posting tweets from  messages phoned to him when the Egyptian authorities closed down their IT and mobile networks. We share the brutalization of CNN reporters being roughed up. This really offers a firsthand experience of Egyptian police brutality. The heroic young Egyptian Google executive credited with starting Egypt’s FaceBook revolution wants to meet the FB founder, we are told. We are assured that American military leaders are in regular touch with their Egyptian counterparts whose confidence they have enjoyed for years.  

Americans—the administration and the people--- have  a troubling habit of placing themselves center stage in any positive social or economic change around the globe. Americans will believe the rewriting of this history in their direction. Regrettably. So, they’ll fail to ‘get it’. So they’ll remain arrogant.

This is one time that the Arab peoples at least know how their own extraordinary achievement—(thus far) toppling two US- friendly tyrants, both American bred—was a special moment they themselves planned, executed and risked. That makes it more special. And perhaps more likely to succeed in the long term.  

February 1, ten days before the resignation of Mubarak, Daily Star editor and international commentator Rami Khouri, www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/931803) wrote: “To appreciate what is taking place in the Arab world today you have to grasp the historical significance of the events…. we are witnessing the unraveling of the post-colonial order that the British and French created in the Arab world in the 1920s and '30s and then sustained - with American and Soviet assistance - for most of the last half century.

Khouri warns “The events unfolding before our eyes are the third most important historical development in the Arab region in the past century, and to miss that point is to perpetuate a tradition of Western Orientalist romanticism and racism… I agree with his assessment that “This is a revolt against specific Arab leaders and governing elites who implemented policies that have seen the majority of Arabs dehumanized, pauperized, victimized and marginalized by their own power structure; but it is also a revolt against the tradition of major Western powers that created the modern Arab states and then fortified and maintained them as security states after the 1970s.”

The awakening that Khouri correctly highlights is the driving force behind the anti-dictator movement from one country to another. It is unstoppable. Any Arab, at one level or another, wherever he or she lives, who has experienced the victimization and marginalization that Khouri refers to is bursting with exhilaration and pride today. We know this is a watershed. There is no going back.   

Can western leaders --and their journalists and commentators: all those Middle East experts--who long ago ceased to expect anything outstanding and determined from Arab peoples really appreciate the change?

They should. Because a parallel message to “get out Mubarak” is “get out USA”. At the very least it cries “Move Over. You can no longer take our acquiescence and stupidity for granted.” 

 

Dignity. Dignity. Dignity

February 11, 2011

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Let us savor the moment that the Egyptian people have won for themselves and given the whole world.

Mubrouk, elf Mabrouk to the revolutionaries of Egypt, to the martyrs who gave their lives in this struggle. 

Dignity. Dignity. Dignity. We hear the word repeated by Egyptian celebrants. What so many risked was not their daily food, not stagnant jobs, not fear of mobs. It was the moment to regain dignity.  

Few people in the west, whatever degree of dignity they enjoy, often forget the real meaning of this precious human quality. Perhaps seeing the determination, the daring, and the voices of the protestors during these past 18 days, viewers around the world may reflect on this word and its significance to their own lives.  

I follow coverage of the celebrations in Cairo moving from one international TV program to another.  Only on the western networks-- CNN and BBC and France 24— commentators one after another, press the jubilant Cairiens to speculate on their precarious future. The interviewers raise the specter of the US enemy Iran; they suggest the danger of a military takeover; they ask about Muslim extremists overtaking Egypt; the want answers for the threat the victory posed to the peace treaty Israel.  

A pity they cannot savor the moment. What a pity they cannot grasp the meaning of newly won dignity.  

We are proud of Tunisia’s and Egypt’s achievement.  We congratulate all their people. 

What 'Tahrir' Really Means.

February 01, 2011

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

I wonder if Americans can grasp the feeling, focused in Egypt but reverberating around the word, of imminent victory and a new dawn.  

Many Americans can remember their own emotions when they elected Barak Obama as their president not long ago. Remember the tears of pride, the reality that your time has come, that ordinary people can really have power.  This is what Egyptians are experiencing today.

Whatever the outcome, and whatever the difficulties the new era may hold, there is immense pride at what has already been achieved in Egypt. This is shared by all Arab peoples. A new dignity unknown by most of our populations has arrived. Look at the children in the streets of Egypt!  Their parents want them to relish this moment, a moment they dreamed for so so long.  

Think back again to American citizens, especially African Americans, at the arrival of Barak Obama in the White House. What a sense of dignity that fostered! There is nothing like it. It cannot be underestimated. And it arrives, in the case of Egypt and in African American history, after an era of repression and lost dignity. 

Yes, there are many unknowns for Egypt’s people as it moves out of its dictatorship. But they are willing to take the risk. That in itself is telling of their past indignities and silence. 

American and British media warn of the emergence of a ‘threatening’ Muslim power taking the helm in Egypt and engulfing the world. They invoke the specter of Iran in 1979, as if that revolution had no benefits. Such fears are clearly stoked by Zionist interests, since to be sure, Israeli’s security and interest are most at risk. Why would it not be so? Yet, is not Egyptian interest important too, an interest which has been subsumed to Israel’s for decades? Egyptians are taking back their nation. 

Not to forget American interests. Both Tunisia’s revolution and now Egypt’s are at one level, indisputably anti-American statements. Powerful and costly statements. Their citizens know that the indignities they suffered, the poverty caused by neo-liberalism, their thwarted democratic goals, and the submission to Zionist interests, is founded on American policy in the region.  

It is rare to see Israelis on the run; this sight will gratify many around the world. But Washington cannot run. Let us see how the American administration is able to change, to learn a lesson from Egypt’s people. We also wait to see the future role to be played by the numerous educated and successful Egyptians working in the US. 

Palestine: Moving Ahead Without The USA

January 22, 2011

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Chile and Paraguay recently announced their recognition of Palestinian statehood. This marks an increasing trend of individual states to respond to a new Palestinian initiative and bypass US policy.  

The Palestinians have long acted as if any chance of achieving sovereignty depended on close involvement and leadership from Washington—regardless of a standard Israeli rejectionist position. The passive approach by Palestinians proved futile. Today a new strategy may yield better chance of real progress on Palestinians’ goal of independence.

Gaining recognition from the international community country by country has further implications. It reveals the isolation of the US and the impotency of the (US dominated) UN; their sponsorship may not be as essential as many once believed.   

Naturally recognition of Palestinian statehood by individual states does not please Israel. But what does?   

Is the Palestinian leadership representing the West Bank finally on a realistic path? Let’s forget for the moment that Mahmoud Abbas is but an interim president; he rules without a mandate from the recent Palestinian election. Despite this he is the internationally recognized leader and is trying to use this to try a new approach. Neither the US nor Israel endorse his actions yet, his negotiations with states across the world demonstrate an initiative and confidence many had not expected of Abbas.  

Surely the growing endorsements from across the world of the Palestinian initiative are also a way of world governments to reject the American position. That in itself is valuable. It demonstrates a growing confidence of world leaders to send a message to Washington: ‘you are not the global leader; we refuse to acquiesce to your demands.  Eight South American countries and now Russian president Medvedev, on a visit to the West Bank  has affirmed his country’s 1988 position, namely recognition of a Palestinian state. Many forget that after the Madrid Talks , well before the Oslo Peace Accord,  statehood received widespread endorsement from nations across the world.  

Today, no less than 109 nations have endorsed the principle. Who are the world’s rouge states? 

Shooting for Democracy: Abroad? No, at Home.

January 09, 2011

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

During the past 2 weeks, international media have focused on tensions in two African countries: Ivory Coast and Sudan. In both, democracy was being tested in elections with western powers, particularly USA  and England, unambiguously supporting the challengers.

Western media’s intensity of support for an independent South Sudan is especially evident. At the same time, in both cases, we are warned to expect civil strife. Then last night democracy was being tested at home. 

Apart from the sense of tragedy and sadness, it’s all rather embarrassing, don’t you think? The democracy Americans are so proud of, the democracy it seeks to export worldwide suddenly finds its elected officials targets of gunmen. At no time of course is there any suggestion of ‘terrorism’ here, or that the nation is under threat from internal forces.  

Arizona’s mass murder follows news only a few days ago of a gunman murdering a school principal and wounding a second school official in another quiet American community. Surely these too common incidents reflect deep flaws in our democracy. It goes beyond gun control or troubled individuals.

Our dynamic and capable news organizations might better serve the American public, in deep the world, if they indulged less in anticipated turmoil abroad and focused on home grown challenged to democracy. 

A view of Al-Jazeera TV from the Middle East.

December 10, 2010

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Although I am not in Doha, Qatar itself I watch the Al-Jazeera networks daily along with a host of other Arabic language channels. I refer not to Al-Jazeera English, which many Americans (mis)understand as the famous Arabic language TV network that came to prominence after the first Gulf War in 1991.  Al-Jazeera (Arabic) attracted worldwide attention and admiration for alternative views it offered with the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. Today it remains a top news source where one can also find excellent critical views of US foreign policy and solid reports of developments around the world that never reach the US public.

The original Arabic Al-Jazeera is still an unrivalled world news source for Arabic speakers. It is a network (65 bureaus globally) with highly professional correspondents, excellent news sources, and a roster of Arab-speaking experts on a wide range of subjects. It features hard hitting debates led by provocative hosts—men and women; it maintains an unflinching support for Palestinian independence, and offers sound criticisms of Israel and US policies in particular.  

But Al-Jazeera (English) is a different and weaker creature. The Al-Jazeera that some Americans (especially those identifying themselves as progressives) look to as an hard-hitting alternative source on the Middle East is not the original Al-Jazeera.  

Much has changed in the last 6-7 years. Al-Jazeera Network now has five 24/7 Arab language channels: Besides (the original Arabic) Al-Jazeera News, it now includes Al-Jazeera Sports, Al-Jazeera Documentary, Al-Jazeera Mubasher (Live), and Al-Jazeera Children. Al-Jazeera Documentary frequently broadcasts translations of English language historical, political and science specials, often programs originating in the US. Al-Jazeera Children also takes a lot of material from western sources. 

Then there is Al-Jazeera English (English.aljazeera.net). It started up April 16, 2007. While this channel is generally supportive of Palestinian independence and seeks out alternatives to what one finds on CNN or BBC, it does not carry the hard-hitting programs and in-depth political analyses one finds on its parent Arabic news channel. Nor it as aggressively and uncompromisingly critical of US and Israeli policy as the Arabic channel.  

Al-Jazeera English is more akin to Free Speech Radio News (FSRN.org), the daily radio news radio program known to many Pacifica listeners. Unlike BBC and CNN, but like FSRN, Al-Jazeera English correspondents are primarily from within the country they are reporting on. Which means a story from Guinea Bissau will be reported by a Bissauan journalist, a story from Indonesia by an Indonesian journalist, and so on. These correspondents are excellent. The network also seeks out commentators who will, for example, dare to mention Israeli activities within Iraq, or to criticize UN policies, corruption and ineffectiveness. Welcome as they may be, criticisms of taboo subjects are limited, even on Al-Jazeera English.  

Then we have English Al-Jazeera’s in-depth interviews like that hosted by Riz Khan, and the debate program ‘Empire’ led by Marwan Bishara. Points of view broadcast in these discussions come close to what you might find on ‘Democracy Now’. (Al-Jazeera English is not a Middle East-focused channel.) 

This week Pacifica announced that its four US-Pacifica Radio stations will carry a one hour news feed from Al-Jazeera daily. This will, I expect be English Al-Jazeera; and since the original is a 24 hour service, the one hour of Al-Jazeera for Pacifica will, by necessity, be heavily edited. 

Will this edited English Al-Jazeera be a real addition to Pacifica? I suppose it is worth a try. But do not expect the hard hitting, real alternative news Arabic Al-Jazeera News provides Arabic speakers in the rest of the world. Alas. 

An Arabic TV station worth your time, if you were not barred from watching.

November 18, 2010

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Traveling in the Arab world I have easy access to an abundance of satellite channels-many but not all Arab. At least one of the Arab channel well worth watching is banned in ‘the free world’. That is, the channel is banned by the free world. Not censored. It’s legally forbidden, in that anyone caught receiving it in the USA for example can be charged with committing a very serious crime. So fierce is the taboo that I doubt if any hacker dares to bypass the US law to access it. The network is not only forbidden to the international public; several international satellite carriers are barred from carrying it.

Thankfully people living in most Arab countries can watch it daily. There is much to enjoy and learn here: regular discussions on health, religion, history and politics. The channel is not run by media amateurs; the quality of their productions is good and the subjects are varied. Along with children’s programs and game shows, we find history and family dramas.

As across the globe, men dominate programs where expert guests are called upon to offer opinions on health and international affairs. Yet women are highly visible here. They are frequent commentators on religious subjects; and they are program hosts, news presenters and guests.

The daily evening news is running as I write; today I hear little international news  except items that directly affecting this country. This is a nationalist but not a government station. So news highlights presidential and cabinet activities along with national events. No advertisements. But anti-smoking and other social consciousness promos are played in breaks. They are often in cartoon format.

Most mornings, I can find a 10 min cooking segment. Today the chef, in a fully equipped kitchen, demonstrates a German breakfast prepared with deep-fried eggs!

Regularly but not overly so we see lectures by the revered leader of the movement that sponsors this channel.

During the Eid Al-Adha I expected their religious programming would eclipse all the regular programs. But no. In contrast to several other channels which give  hours and hours of daily coverage of the Hajj events in Mecca, the Eid prayers and historical references to the meaning of the Hajj, this station has more community focused coverage. A 10 min special with reporter ‘in  the field’ talks to children at playground where families are gathered today: what’s the difference between Eid Al-Kebir (Adha) and Eid Al-Saeir (Al-Fitr). Following is short report at a graveyard where Muslims go the first day of Eid to remember their ancestors; families lay flowers, some pray, other sit quietly together at the gravestones. The reporter, a woman is end the segment with one family here recalling a young woman struck down and executed by a live wire fallen from a tower line near her home. In the interlude we view a promo for the weekly poetry performance on this channel. It’s a popular program in which 4-5 men recite in regional tradition a form of popular poetry which I think is called ‘zudgel’.

There is more of course—some excellent documentaries of the national resistance movement against former occupiers, and inspiring speeches by the resistance leader.  

Why should a satellite station with this range of content be banned in the US? And do you know which I am speaking about?

How Many Juan Williams Are Out There?

October 27, 2010

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

I’m not suggesting he’s a bad guy. Although his remark about “feeling uncomfortable in a plane with people wearing Muslim garb” is disappointing as well as loathsome. National Public Radio’s senior correspondent’s ‘slip’ follows that of several prominent journalists—Helen Thomas of the White House Press Corps, and Octavia Nasr and Rick Sanchez of CNN.

Yes. I know Thomas and Octavia got the boot because they dared to express solidarity or sympathy with America’s adversaries--Palestinians in the case of Thomas and a Hizbullah luminary in Nasr’s statement. In Sanchez case, he made remarks suggesting what everyone knows about the power of Jewish individuals and media in the US.  

Williams’ remarks, by comparison, exposed his bias against Muslims. Hitherto, comments against Islam and Muslims went unchallenged. What has changed? Does Williams’ expulsion mean the Muslim lobby is making some gains? Does it signify a growing commitment by media bosses to ensure political correctness, even when it comes to Muslims?

Or are we all so closely and scrutinized that any show of personal preferences or fears are swiftly challenged and condemned? Perhaps media personalities are so influential today that they dare not say anything that exposes this very condition. They must appear neutral. (Of course none of this applies to Jewish individuals in the US, in or out of media; viz NYT’s Tomas Freedman, PBS’s Charlie Rose, or NPR’s own Terri Gross and Daniel Shorr. Although the famous Dr. Laura who remained an unchallenged radio host for years, was recently forced out due to anti-Black references, finally despite her record of racist offences.)

Perhaps there a campaign underway to root out certain media voices in preparation for a media compliant new war? US media has already shown its reliability at times of war, especially in the early days. Patriotism rules the airwaves; public opinion is needed to pull off an assault that is either illegal or unnecessary. Later, when some begin to question a war, some media resume a critical role. By then the forces are already well entrenched with unremitting support from Congress guaranteed.

There is another explanation for the string of purges: a campaign by people like O’Reilly of Fox News to entrap influential individuals from the less right wing news organizations, and thereby weaken their institutions. (Williams has been signed up with the Fox TV network!)

Noteworthy is how little we heard about those fired individuals fighting back—from Thomas to Williams. They slip away quietly and without a fight. Why?

I listened to Williams’ NPR reports, first his news stories then his comments as a senior commentator, for many years. He is good, but like most NPR reporters, not extraordinary and not cutting edge. Williams was careful never to go too far on taboo subjects such as Palestinians rights or Muslims rights. Or Venezuela’s rights, or Cuba’s or Iran’s sovereign rights for that matter. This, although he eventually became known as NPR’s ‘rights’ expert.

The question is not, in my view, has political correctness got out of hand? It is rather how and why was Williams caught and so swiftly dispatched? Bill O’Reilly is well known for his provocations and his skill in disarming guests. Williams is not the first victim of O’Reilly’s wily ways.  O’Reilly’s positions are so well known, moreover, that you have to be very practiced if you dare enter a debate with him.

In the case of Thomas and Nasr, they may well have been entrapped. But as I wrote about Helen Thomas (in this blog) at the time of her banishment from Hearst and from White House press conferences, an old Washington hand like Thomas had to be ready for anything. If she wanted to say something strong and eloquent against Israeli policies, she should have used better discretion. Thomas, so admired for her assault on US presidents, could have chosen her time, prepared her justification, and had her supporters and Hearst Syndicate ready for the inevitable attack.

Nasr too is a politically savvy lady. The term ‘Twitter’ may sound innocent and ephemeral. But Twitters are very public. Really; how important was it for her to express public sympathy for the passing of a Muslim cleric? If it really was essential to her, she too could have chosen a more effective and timely venue.

Is there a housecleaning going on here? Or is our media business such that only official positions, even loathsome ones-- or those passed by Israel-- are acceptable?

In the meantime, while this purge is underway, how ironic that the forces of the right, represented by the likes of Beck, O’Reilly and other Republican or T-Party leaders, are able to say offensive things with impunity? Their proposals, accusations and exhortations border on incitement to violence and seem directed to deepening the racism that already weakens US society.

It seems that as the right wing interests and advocates get bolder, those representing moderation and deliberation become more timid. This will mean that good leadership, whether by President Obama, or journalists and professors is slipping away from our future.

Syria In and Out of The News

August 07, 2010

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Several media outlets took great pride in announcing the initiative by Syria in banning the full face covering at its universities. Another Muslim head covering story. As if the subject somehow warms the West to Syria, and offers the opening of a dialogue. Oh good. Now our otherwise hostile, yet ‘liberal’ Americans, can feel they one thing in common with a tentative Arab friend. 

At the same time, we hear nothing about the country’s president’s important diplomatic and political initiatives. In recent TV interviews with both the BBC and PBS in the past weeks, Bashar al-Assad has shown himself a capable statesman, and a leader who has opened a dialogue with others, if not the most worthy political ‘friends’ i.e. those sanctioned by Tel Aviv and Washington.  

Besides displaying his diplomatic lucidity and amicable character, Bashar al Assad’s message in those interviews was particularly telling on the political level. He tried repeatedly to the almost hostile British and American hosts to explain a number of important perspectives: a) how Syria and regional states view the world differently than Washington and London, b) that they give higher priority to developing good relations with their own neighbors, c) that they have priority economic interests with their neighbors, and d) they intend to protect those despite attempts by outside powers to divide them. We have to believe that at some level, western leaders got these messages. A pity they could not reach the wider public. But maybe, they did. 

I learned not long after about an even more important event regarding the Syrian leader, namely a successful international efforts further abroad. He was apparently warmly welcomed in a number of South American states who received him. For anyone familiar with the long history of migration form Syria to South America and the ties between the émigrés and their homeland, this would be no surprise. And it is certainly something to build on. This world is fortunately larger than the USA.   

A Call for More Gaza-bound Flotillas

June 22, 2010

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

The end of May confrontation on the high seas when Israelis attacked the Free Gaza Flotilla may have been a turning point in our efforts to support Palestinians. We must be proud of the martyrs who gave their life to expose the truth.

The 9 martyrs, the scores wounded and the hundreds of supporters on the Free Gaza ships show what determination and courage is needed and in the face of Israeli crimes and what can be achieved. It is also reminder of the sacrifices Palestinians must daily make in their struggle for justice.

In a June 1 article in Information Clearing House, journalist Yvonne Ridley makes a poignant comparison between the Israeli assault on the Mave Marmara flotilla and the infamous Achille Lauro attack in October 1985. There, a single passenger was killed by the hijackers. As she notes: “The incident created headlines around the world and polarized people over the Palestinian cause. It also prompted the law makers to create new legislation making it an international crime for anyone to take a ship by force.

“And this is the reason for the brief history lesson - under article 3 of the Rome Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation of 1988, it is an international crime for any person to seize or exercise control over a ship by force, and also a crime to injure or kill any person in the process.
The treaty necessarily adopts a strict approach. One cannot attack a ship and then claim self-defense if the people on board resist the unlawful use of violence.

“…. Whatever your view, a number paid the ultimate price for their international right to resist.
“Israel now stands virtually alone having exposed itself as a pariah state.”
            Today, across the entire world informed free-thinking people are signing up for a presence on the many ships setting out to again break the blockade.

Some of us know what Palestinians endure daily; we read accounts of the murderous blockade and Israel’s criminal policy. We can recognize Israeli and US propaganda that mask their brutal policies. But it took this civil action by brave souls in the international community to completely expose the reality of Gaza life to the world. Words are not enough. Support the campaigns by joining a flotilla.

'Sex and the City' Arrives in Abu Dhabi

May 28, 2010

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Are we, Arabs and the lands we so love, a mere theater stage for today’s Orientalists as well? There is hardly a doubt this was our 19^th century role. I am beginning to realize little has changed. For confirmation I need only take a glimpse at the explicitly ‘orientalist’-staged production 'Sex and the City 2'. What a brilliant idea boast publicists: —4 sexy girls of Manhattan fame take a fling on the desert, arriving in exotic Abu Dhabi for a weeklong spree. Imagine what this can inspire among millions of suburban wives who follow the stars!

Besides camels and sand there’s fashion and luxurious hotel settings.  Surely Arab hospitality has reached a new zenith. A new stage of orientalism. That’s us. From Morocco to Abu Dhabi, we’re the hottest thing in entertainment.

Of course we've practiced this. Coming out of the 19^th century we had Isabelle Eberhardt in North Africa, Gertrude Bell in Iraq; we propped for Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express. We furnished nasty characters for a plethora of espionage war novels during the cold-war years.

Then with political independence and dictatorships we offered our 'oil rich sheiks'. They set new heights in extravagances and vulgarities. Their behaviour may seem obscene but obscenity has its appeal. After all, their profligacy helped pour Arab dollars into the accounts of all those US and European suppliers

I was in Abu Dhabi a year ago where I learned that 100,000 westerners, mainly Europeans, live there and in nearby Dubai. Plenty of work. Wonderful salaries. They can look to the princes for ideas of how to spend.

Today cultural depravation in these desert cultures is no longer a problem; these new urbane populations have discovered international theater, art, film and poetry extravaganzas. All this just a few hundred miles from the ‘war theater’. Thus Abu Dhabi and vicinity offer convenient R& R facilities for those weary warriors from Iraq.

Much of the $US trillion dumped into that war seeps into neighboring states who not only host officers and soldiers. They are the commissary. All conveniences.

Then, as if real battles and bombs are insufficient, we have the rush of Iraq war films. Too dangerous inside Iraq? Jordan and Morocco are handy orientalist theaters for film-companies. You need bombs, terror images, ugly, dumbstruck Arabs, camels? No problem. We are the most hospitable people on the globe.

Morocco is  the actual setting for Sex and the City 2. It seems somebody in the real Abu Dhabi didn’t come through for American stars.

 

HipHop Muslim youths speak words our leaders are afraid to utter

April 26, 2010

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

The Muslim Student’s Association at a New York City university is sponsoring a rousing event today. Imams listen up!

Here on Tahrir, we’ve heard the response from our public.

These young poets possess more courage and they often speak for and about Islam better than the ‘experts’. No wonder that the young are drawn to these Muslim men and women who have embraced and advanced the dissent of this Black-originating genre. They pick up the beat, and move it into their culture with their own owerful messages. The phenomenon is worldwide.

Our young producers at RadioTahrir introduced us to MosDef, DAM, Outlandish, Boona Mohammed, Shadia Mansour, Kamal Imani, Gaith Adhami. Before these artists came to our studios at WBAI, we heard their precursor’s in the poems of  Dasham Brookins, Lisa Mohammed, Suheir Hammad and Mohja Kahf. They teach the fundamentals of Islam in their poetry. They also speak with a confidence and realism that the Muslim community, and the world, badly needs. They are not afraid of their own anger. Unapologetic, they also boldly challenge the establishment, Muslim and American, that has held captive their religion and their young dreams.

A few days ago, the poet and singer known as the godfather of Rap, Gil Scott Heron announced the cancellation of a Tel Aviv concert. (He) won’t play in Israel “until everyone is welcome there”, asserted the revolutionary artist. That action is indicative of the genre.

HipHop and spoken word accompanied by a rap beat, emerged and flourished among US Black youth. It has now swept the world. The style has proved remarkably versatile. Youths in China, Iran, Algeria and elsewhere readily adapt it to their own language with great creativity, retaining the smack that its originators imbedded their angry, bold poems.

The world’s youth have taken up Rap not as if overwhelmed by waves of western influence. Not at all. Rap applies to their experience, challenging authority, saying it like it is, pushing the message in the face of their adversaries.

I’m particularly struck by the poetry of Muslim men and women who employ  Hiphop beat to carry their messages. They need not shout their anger. They do not want sentimentality. No nostalgia here. They guide their anger and truth into a creative, courageous thing. Their contemporaries are listening carefully.

Much of their message is anger. It’s so welcome today when the Muslim voice has all but shriveled into an acquiescent blather of assurances of our harmlessness and innocence, ready to comply to almost any demand.

Listen to what our poets are saying and you may feel Muslims are finally finding our voice.   

Longstanding war diseases--recylced by media

March 13, 2010

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

There is little good news from Iraq. Especially so for anyone who has observed and recorded the decay of the nation’s civil society for 20 years.

This week, an enthusiastic and appropriately disturbed BBC reporter visiting Fallujah, Iraq told us about the alarming increase in abnormal births recorded among its people, at least those who remain after the American assault there in 2004. News?

In my 1996 research into deteriorating conditions across Iraq, (later published in my widely circulated essay “Gravesites”) I reported that both Iraqi farmers’ and doctors’ noted rising numbers of birth abnormalities and miscarriages. They assumed toxic pollution of various kinds resulting from the 1991 war and the sanctions were causal factors. Not surprisingly. Since the 1991 attacks used depleted uranium and since normally clean water, air and fields were polluted by numerous sanctions related breakdowns.

By that time, Iraqi health authorities had begun assembling data of these health conditions and diseases. They were comparing records of birth abnormalities and other new diseases from all parts of the country, and likely links to the 1991 bombardments and the sanctions.

Significantly, during the 2003 invasion of Iraq by US forces, it seems that those records were “lost”. Selected Iraqi ministries, were destroyed along with these documents. Little could be done for the victims. But the record of the diseases and related factors could have been useful. The record was expunged.

With the result that this recent BBC report suggests that today’s health crisis is new. As if Iraqis’ war experience were new. Of course, the ‘new’ findings call for research studies, according to a western medical researcher interviewed in the report. He calls for yet another study to determine the causes of these ‘disturbing’ abnormalities.

What’s new? The media tag today is Fallujah, a name that resonates with the world public. They may recall Fallujah was the site of a major US assault –Operation Vigilant Resolve—in 2004. Perhaps a center of ‘Sunni resistance’?

The BBC report gives the clear impression that Iraq’s health difficulties began only recently. The earlier bombardments are no longer part of the war record, no longer evidence of a long history of suffering and US war crimes.

 

See : Inside Fallujah by Ahmed Mansour (2009) and Swimming Up the Tigris, Chapter 12, by BN Aziz (2007)

Haiti and Gaza

January 17, 2010

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

I can’t help thinking of Gaza and its people as I hear and see the suffering of Haitians. More so as we witness the overwhelming response of the world rushing to Haiti’s aid.

I wonder: how many others remember Gaza as the Haitian tragedy unfolds, as reporters explore each family agony, as ships and planes of relief are mobilized, as money flows to countless relief organizations. Even as a few historians recall how Haiti has been plundered, its democratic attempts derailed, its people left in poverty, Haiti earns such unanimous sympathy. From around the world vows of support are launched. Heart warming? For some.

Exactly one long,painful year ago, we saw the massive onslaught against the people of Gaza. That was man-made: Israeli made. It was an earthquake that spread over the entire area and it lasted for 22 horrifying days. It persists.

Some photos escaped from the site of carnage forcing a few who cared to view the corpses, the weeping families, the homeless, and the aimless. In Gaza too, United Nations buildings were bombed, schools and places of worship, hospitals and police centers crushed, surrounded by corpses. Like an earthquake it was indiscriminate.

What contrasts so much with today’s Haitian experience is complete absence of international aid for Gaza. Not only was there no assistance for the dying, wounded and homeless during the assault. Throughout the 13 months since then and today, assistance to Gaza's people was barred.

In recent weeks we have witnessed this injustice, with the arrival at Gaza’s borders by a symbolic handful of supporters from “Viva Palestina” and Gaza Freedom March. One saw  how obstacles were place in the way of even their symbolic assistance. That is: the few of us who scoured through ‘alternative media’ saw. Otherwise there was no media attention.

Significantly, Muslim organization are also kept out of Gaza. (We note that several have announced aid to Haiti, a result of having surplus funds undelivered to Gaza!)

The ongoing siege against Gaza is clearly part of Israel’s larger genocidal policy against Palestinians.

Never was the politicization of humanitarian aid more obvious than it is in these events.

Of course we feel sympathy for the losses of our Haitian brothers and sisters. Doubtless, so do the many authors who have been pointing out how the US military is using the tragedy to essentially secure control of Haiti, following their history of interventions in Haiti over the past century. This history is important to bear in mind at this time. One article I recommend is “The Militarization of Emergency Aid to Haiti: Is it a Humanitarian Operation or an Invasion?” by Michel Chossudovsky whose link is:  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17000

Civil Rights in Prison!

December 14, 2009

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

I could never imagine it would turn out this way. For me, Lynne Stewart’s case, although it showed the extent to which the last administration would attack our civil liberties, was nevertheless a cause for optimism. Even as our rights diminished, as long as Lynne remained vocal and out of jail, I never lost hope in the justice system.

While other attorneys may have shied away from the challenge, Lynne Stewart did not. This remarkable activist and lawyer continued to use every day out if jail to speak out. She took every opportunity to warn others what her case, an assault on client-attorney privacy, threatened.

With the arrival of a man committed to change, a man who stood for integrity, Barak Obama, I expected a reversal of the worrying trend we saw during the last decade over our constitutionally protected rights.  (see www.lynnestewart.org)

Now Ms Stewart is ordered to jail. What has happened? Why pursue the conviction against Lynne Stewart now? What precipitated this?

Stewart had been free on bond for several years. Even so she endured much personal anguish, illness and the loss of her livelihood. (She was barred from practicing law.)

Eventually she received a sentence of 28 months. Imprisonment was in abeyance while her lawyers argued for adjournments. We hoped that meanwhile, a new administration might reconsider the her case and indeed overturn a discriminatory policy instituted by its predecessor.

Bad enough that Stewart should was be found guilty in 2005 along with two others. Charges against her of conspiracy and providing material support to terrorists was initiated with the personal involvement of former of Homeland Security secretary, John Ashcroft. Stewart’s conviction stems from her defense of Omar Abdel Rahman found guilty on the 1993 NY bombing and subject to anti-terror laws instituted thereafter.

“You can’t lock up the lawyers,” explained Stewart. Many of those following this case believe charges against Stewart effectively served as a warning to all civil rights attorneys: “Stay away from terror defense cases”. That motive may indeed lie behind the government’s move against her. And it probably does discourage some civil rights lawyers.

But Stewart’s work on behalf of Rahman was consistent with her long career as a fearless, committed civil defense attorney. Some call her a radical activist. She does not seem to mind. There are doubtless injustices and ‘unpopular’ cases for which a lawyer has to be radical. Given the threats to our constitution in the government’s zeal to prosecute terror subjects, perhaps one is obliged to adopt radical views.

During the past four years while Stewart’s lawyers submitted their appeals Stewart, her family and supporters remained optimistic, energetic and indomitable. Stewart herself, although debarred and unable to practice law, travelled the country speaking to concerned citizens about injustices and the danger her case poses for lawyer-client confidentiality as protected by the US constitution.

I have no doubt that hearing her, many Americans began to understand the wider issues she was defending and the reality of the threats she spoke about.

We need to see Stewart’s current incarceration in a positive light. First, it warns us that the new administration is not what it promised, not what we voted for. Second, the jailing of such an admired woman, a 70-year-old attorney, a grandmother and a free and fearless thinker, warns us just how tenuous everyone’s rights are. (contact Ms Stewart at www.Lynnestewart.org)

Back Home by Mahmoud Ibrahim Al Amreeki

November 11, 2009

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Major Nidal Malik Hasan's attack on personnel at Ft. Hood’s army base was the act of a coward. Despite accolades heaped upon him by Imam Al Awlaki and others for carrying out a “heroic and virtuous” act and the only way a Muslim could justify serving in the US Army was to “follow in the footsteps of Nidal Hasan”.I’m reminded of back home. Back home where I come from, when we weref aced the with a racist system of injustice known as Jim Crow, that gave rise to the bombings of the homes of my relatives and other black folk, we put our trust in Almighty God and sought relief in the American Justice system, flawed as it was, for remedies to our situation. Back home where I come from, when we as a people of darker hue were faced with the lynchings in broad daylight and with body-burnings that lit the night skies, we put our trust in Almighty God and sought relief in the American Justice system, flawed as it was, for remedies to our situation. Back home where I come from, when we were eye-level to eye-level with the evils of segregation, treated by unjust laws as no better than cattle or dry-goods, unable to educate our children much less our selves, we put our trust in Almighty God and sought relief in the American Justice system, flawed as it was, for remedies to our situation. Back home where I come from, we organized, we protested, we marched, we boycotted, we used labor strikes, we took over the administrative buildings at some of the most prestigious American universities. We struggled. Back home where I come from, we took principled positions and with those positions we brought about change. We changed the way the world viewed us. Our cause. Our efforts and our humanity. In 1967 Muhammad Ali, the famous American boxer, too had a crisis of faith. Of belief. Of conscience. He too faced the very real prospect of going into the American military to fight with the possibility of dying in an unjust war, Viet Nam. Muhammad Ali was directly threatened with imprisonment, the loss of his considerable wealth, loss of prestige, of social status and the prospects of earning a living for the rest of his life. But he took a principled position, HE REFUSED. He said NO! In the tradition of our collective’ Back Home’ he would battle it out in the courtroom. In a justice system, as flawed as it was, to openly and clearly expose the hypocrisy of engaging in an unjust military venture, that like Iraq, make some people very rich and others widows and orphans. Muhammad Ali would, by taking a principled stand, show the puppets and the puppeteers. And for doing this, he gained the admiration and respect of the entire world. The cowardly act of murder by Major Nidal Hassan Malik at Ft. Hood and the praise heaped upon him by Imam Anwar al Awlaki and others of that ilk may be the way they do business ‘back home’. Something they honor ‘back home’. But for all of those Muslims who have come to my home and feel that way, I say, “Leave my Home”. Because the principles under which we operate are much higher than yours. Our understanding of Allah’s Guidance is much more pure than yours. Keep your garbage out of my home. Author Sh. Mahmoud Ibrahim al Amreeki Director: Dar ul Islam History Project New York, NY

Nobel Lareate Obama

October 11, 2009

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Some people I speak to are calling it the ‘Nobel War Prize’. Not very nice to hear. And these critics are not right-wing Republicans. They are against the US wars; they are men and women who aligned themselves with Obama during his campaign, people who believed he would really move to end our wars and torture prisons, people who saw real hope for more justice and equity at home.

 

I have to admit, this beautiful, eloquent man, seems to be stepping back from what he led us to believe was possible under his leadership. He is only 10months into his presidency, true. But his beautiful rhetoric and reaching out to adversaries has not yielded results for distraught Americans, or for those enduring US occupation and assault. Nor do they really promise rapprochement with Iran, a possible breakthrough towards peace between Israelis and Palestinians?

The much lauded and prestigious Nobel prizes can be for past achievements or for future promise. Will it give Mr. Obama the guts and the drive to go beyond words, and to use his awesome position to really change the way we are governed, the way wealth is distributed, the way peoples and nations co-exist?

A Short Visit to Syria:Part I

September 17, 2009

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Although the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is still a place to be discovered. Particularly Americans have much to learn and enjoy to a visit to this country, starting with the capital.

 

A pity the new administration decided to extend the sanctions against Syria. More than a pity. A mistake, as far as I’m concerned. And it disappointed many who had expected new policies from Barak Obama.

Damascus in particular appears to have changed a lot since I was last there, in 2003. Being summer, one sees more foreigners, Europeans but also Arab people. Many who live in the Gulf states come to Syria to escape the summer heat. Although Syria was hot (a dry heat) too. Syrians living in the Gulf States return here for their holidays. I was surprised to meet a great many students studying Arabic, although I had already heard that Syria is now a favored center for Arabic language study.

There are many, many things to do in Syria besides study Arabic: visit roman ruins at Palmyra (Tadmoor) in the East, and Bosra in the South; the hilly very early Christian towns of Sadnaya and Maloula not far northwest of the capital are also popular for visitors, and for weekend trips. Damascus has its ancient city center, the old city, with its market places and large, elegant, old houses, many now converted to restaurants. The city streets and cafes were full every night.

A really popular attraction for locals and visitors is the mountainside, Qaasiuun, that dominates the valley. A line of outdoor cafes, some rather expensive, now lines the ridge from which you overlook the entire city. It’s windy there and a popular place on summer nights; families sit on the grass and stroll along the paths through the evenings.

What most stuck me was how the city has expanded over the past decade. Whole new suburbs have been developed extending the city in all directions, with wide roads linking them to the city center. And the cars! And elegant indoor shopping malls! Even at 10 pm, traffic is heavy through the city.

I felt no tension at all moving around Syria. People are helpful and welcoming. Transport is easy. But Damascus in particular is great city to stroll around.

With the anticipation of Ramadan month, shops remained open late for shoppers. Then, one the holy month began, after slow day traffic, and following ifthar, when the streets completely empty while everyone is enjoying ‘breaking fast’ with their families and friends, the city begins to awaken. Streets and cafes are crowded until well after midnight.

All schedules change during Ramadan. It’s not a school or work holiday, but the pace slows considerably. One never knows when to phone a friend, and it’s never clear what hours offices are open.

Sounds like a page for The Lonely Planet guide? Not my usual entry. But I need to set the context, so little is known about Syria, that I want readers to know just how pleasant a society it is, how comfortable Syria is for a visitor, how at ease Syrians are.

Part II we’ll learn more, especially about the economy and education.

What was really going on at Guantanamo Prison?

April 01, 2009

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Guantanamo Bay Prison will close. But what about the files—records of the treatments or ‘experiments’ that went on there?

Don’t expect us to believe that detailed records those thousands of days of interrogations were not carefully amassed. Whether or not the prisoners are guilty of any war crimes, whether they will be released or not, the managers of this torture center have doubtless accumulated hundreds of thousands of pages—not to mention the videos and audio files-- of their ‘sessions’ with the prisoners. I speak not of pages of confessions, but pages of ‘observations’. What is to be done with this material? And do these have some ‘scientific’ value beyond any putative security purpose?

Let us be honest: as abhorrent a thought as it may be to us, torture and interrogation are could be viewed by some as a ‘science’. Careful records of those activities are made. We learn how ‘treatments’ are often systematically applied, reapplied, and applied again. Some reports by former prisoners speak of repeated torture sessions. They are retuned to their cells, then called out and interrogated again, with the same questions, over the over. They tell of promises made, or threats. We learn about the rigorous procedures applied by security staff when prisoners do not ‘behave’. We know about the involvement of ‘doctors’, perhaps psychologists, and of video tapings (for security purposes?). We learn that torture is applied psychologically and physically.

Yes, these ugly, shameful, illegal sessions may be used to secure ‘information’. But what prison needs years to interrogate individuals, using whatever means?

To me, procedures applied through such a sustained program suggest something more sinister than has been spoken of. I suggest the real aim of the torture and captivity was not primarily to extract information. Guantanamo became an “experimental center” on human behavior—specifically the behavior of Muslim men. Information sought was about how these people respond to various torture techniques, what reveals of their faith-- Islam.

Perhaps never in modern history have western authorities had what they might view as an opportunity to understand what they might consider to be ‘an alien religion’. Maybe some of the violence against these men served a masochistic purpose for some guards. Approached more coldly, applications could be conducted with the aim of discovering, for example, how these ‘aliens’ can be humiliated, enraged, converted? For those who resist, the jailers want to discover how their faith help motivates them, protects or defends them?

Experiments on prisoners were conducted in the not distant past. Is America capable of such things today?

 

Gazan Inaugural

January 19, 2009

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Co-incidences?

Israel’s assault on the Gazan people began November 4, 2008, the day Americans proudly elected Barak Obama to be their 44^th president.

On January 19^th, 2009 the eve of Obama’s inauguration, Israel announces its pullout from Gaza territories.

Who are we to thank: the Israeli murderers and their supporting citizenry around the world? American legislators who fund and endorse the long ethnic-cleansing campaign against Palestinian peoples? An indignant but ineffectual United Nations does no more than feed a people forced into penury? Or our glorious celebrity president, Mr. Obama himself?

"story of a duck and a slipper"-- an end of year tale

December 20, 2008

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

What a wonderful end of term send off Iraqi journalist Muntathar el-Zeidi (petition in support) gave the US president and the world!

This young man achieved the ultimate ridicule, the ultimate insult, the ultimate weapon. The simple shoe, heaved so accurately with its heavy meaning has hit homes across the globe. For those of us from eastern and Arab culture, our humble slipper has deep social significance to a foe. Directed at an adversary, it can be a stronger statement than any deadly weapon.

 

But what about the presidential duck. Holder of the most powerful office in the world, they say, ducked to miss the beautifully timed and perfectly directed missile. How this weapon forced GW Bush to duck is even more of a victory than if the thing had hit him smack in the face. Imagine, any person of such stature forced to crouch behind a post, like a scared rabbit. He ducked, like any common sniper or scared cowardly, defenseless animal. Regardless, Bush did not evade the attack. It could not have been a more perfect scenario— an internationally covered press conference.

 

The symbolism both of the ‘ducking president’ and the ‘shoe’ has not been lost on anyone, most especially Arab journalists and the public. What a heyday they are enjoying. It is truly an historic occasion, to record in drawing and song, to tell and retell our grandchildren, something to restore pride, to revive hope, to know this giant can be felled.

How poignant that this simple (almost) harmless act can indeed be so redeeming an action for the millions of humiliations, murders, insults, losses and hardships of years of US brutality starting with the embargo in 1990.

 

I recall a colleague in Algeria noting how US leaders were forced to sneak in an out of their occupied lands, despite garrisons of troops, tanks, combat aircraft and ultra super surveillance at their disposal. “Remember how Ms. Rice, Mr. Gates, Mr. Rumsfeld and GW always arrive in Iraq unannounced to visit the troops or review their battlements? They fly into a secured green zone or a US military base, and are out of Iraq within hours.” This, my colleague points out, laughing, in contrast to the Iranian head of state who announces his visit to Iraq two weeks before, flies into Baghdad airport greeted by officials and press, then makes his way by motorcade into the capital.

What is imperial power?

 

Colin Powell endorses more than Democratic candidate Obama

October 20, 2008

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Late in the game, the assumption that Muslim is a stain on one’s character has been challenged. Finally.

The challenge came not from the candidate who should have rebutted the personal attacks, not from the progressive press who allowed the innuendoes to mount, not from the Muslim leadership in the US, not from the only Muslim member of the US Congress, not from Muslims members of the Democratic Party, loyal to the young inspiring candidate, Obama, despite his proudly stated devotion to Israel and its Zionist aims.

The challenge and lesson came from a leading military figure, a former Secretary of State, a Republican Party luminary: Colin Powell.

In an October 19 TV interview, the former secretary of state announced his endorsement for the Democratic Party candidate. There Powell made a point to speak at length about the unmentionable, being Muslim. Why do we treat Muslim identity here as something negative, as un-American, he asked? Powell read the references and retorts to Obama’s possible Muslim background as I and other Muslims did: it was wrong to deny it, and objectionable to suggest it was not something fine. What if an aspirant to the White House were Muslim? So what? That should be as acceptable as any religious identity.

This is an excerpt from Powell’s interview on Sunday’s “Meet the Press”. In reference to questions regarding Obama’s religion, he said: “Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he's a Christian. He's always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not American. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? ….. "Yet", Powell went on, “ I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, 'He's a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists.' This is not the way we should be doing it in America"

The good general then recounts a photo of an American mother at the Arlington cemetery graveside of her soldier son, who died at the age of 20. His name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, and he was an American. "The symbol on his tombstone is the Islamic star and crescent", he takes the time in the interview to point out.

Powell is making more than a political point here. Powell expresses his dismay and objections to the many negative references coming from the McCain camp regarding Muslim identity in the country. But it appears that he is not unaware that the Democratic and so-called liberal community are as guilty of the anti-Muslim bias that disturbs him. Powell is directing his remarks to the entire country, including its leaders. And I cannot help feeling that he is also defining a possible new path for the young Obama. Because by endorsing the Democratic candidate in this context, Colin Powell is surely also endorsing the goodness of being Muslim in America. He is breaking a taboo for the soon-to-be occupant of the White House who, although during his election campaign he may be obliged to bend to Christian and Jewish pressures, as a president, he has to embrace the Muslim is a more mature way.

For those of us who look to the Democratic Party as the beacon of higher social values, of religious inclusiveness and expressed concern for human rights and equal treatment, we have been dismayed at times, feeling no party or leader represents our values. It seemed the party platform was being managed by select interest groups. Muslim and Arab Americans were being shunted aside. Where does one turn at such a critical time, when we have must hope it is possible to restore democratic and universal ideals and to mend broken trust around the world? It is sobering that a voice of maturity, reason and healing emerges from the ranks of the Republican Party, in the person of Colin Powell, a Black American leader, a military man.

Distancing Himself from Muslims; No Leader

July 20, 2008

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Barak Obama has leadership qualities no doubt, at least he possesses political qualities—the qualities that propel men into leadership positions. He is unarguably charismatic. Still, doubts arise about whether we can trust this man.

Many signs are appearing that Obama lacks what America needs more than ever—a person who can and wants to heal the terrible rift between the US and the Muslim world. It would not be difficult to correct his errors; he can begin at home.

He has to begin by respecting his own Muslim fellow citizens in the USA and by drawing us (with his abundant, audacious hope) into the political process. For, is it not we Americans of Muslim faith who can help him understand Islam, and assist him in developing a truly humanistic view of Islam and its peoples across the globe?

Just as Obama distanced himself for Reverend Wright, his own longtime Christian mentor and a respected community leader, a man who proudly expressed criticism of America, Barak Obama acts as if there is something wrong with Muslim people. He doesn’t want us in his on-TV audience; he doesn’t dare attend our place of worship, the mosque; he vigorously disclaims any influence from Islam in his life, as if it could have had a negative impact on him; he rejects assistance from Muslim leaders here.

Any opportunity to highlight or endorse the virtues of Islam and its followers, here in the US—voters and others who see hope in his candidacy-- Obama steps away from. What does this say for his “Christian” values and his claims of having a vision for change? (Many Americans in the Black community also see their Black presidential  candidate turning his back on them, as if coming too close will infect him with disease, weaken him. It appears any show of support by the man for a strong identity with African Americans may signal trouble to others.)

“Obama, wakeup! We share our dreams and heritage with you. We are Americans. We are here to stay. We can help you. And you need to help us contribute much to our nation.”

He seems to take every opportunity to spurn us. Does Barak Obama realize how, observing him, we read his denials? His rejection is not the response of a man of wisdom. And doesn’t he know that those challenging the value of any possible Muslim association are not going to cease their venal questions? They repeatedly recall his heritage and education in Indonesia: “Are you or have you ever been ……?”

“Obama, declare your own religious faith. But not at the expense of another’s. If your faith were truly genuine, you could see that all religious experience is of a single source. You could see the beauty of faith, bounty of its Islam’s spiritual resources. An association with Islam or Muslim people can be something useful to you, enriching you, expanding you.”

Rather Barak Hussein Obama retreats. And, and doing so he shows not simply the fear of losing other political friends but also a fear of Islam and the wider world. He is not a profound leader, not the leader our world so desperately needs today.

To remember our Iraq: more soldiers' testimonies? No!!

March 19, 2008

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

 
I do not know how Iraqis around the world are marking the fifth year of the US invasion, destruction, occupation of their land. I doubt that many even note the date. Surely we can hardly think beyond this morning-- will we return home alive from school, work, shopping, the hospital? Can we think beyond when a visa or travel document will arrive, or a phone rings with unpredictable news?
Year "Zero +5" has nevertheless been a chance to remind Americans themselves of what kind of catastrophe this has been for their  country. Anti-war friends have been working for years, not without some success. With the US public, now weary of the war and expressing sentiments that it should somehow end, we need to continue the education, and support this movement. But oh, look at what tactics arouse their consciousness! Confessions of atrocities by war veterans.
They are frantic to act, as with their desperate, meager, blighted support for the Palestinian struggle. For brothers and sisters in those occupied lands, all they can do is circulate reports about hunger, disease, and unschooled youngsters there.
Yet. I have to object to the latest anti-war endeavor--a display.
The movement has found a new tool to pry the American people out of their sofas and off their ski-lifts. The arrival of the fifth year of the US invasion of Iraq finds us watching organized confessions by traumatized paid murderers --our Iraq war veterans. One after another, they describe personal carnage they committed as soldiers against fellow human beings-- detainees and other citizens-- in Iraqi homes, cars, workplaces, checkpoints, neighborhoods. We've seen the photos of marauding American hordes moving through Iraq. Thanks to embedded journalists we've been with them on their patrols, witnessing their obscenities and war cries, their gung-ho raids, their assaults into bedrooms, their barked orders to terrified families, their brutish, ugliness in combat. We saw their uncovered faces smiling over naked prisoners and corpses of their victims. I myself need no reminders.
We are now so accustomed to images of that brutality; we can hardly distinguish between TV games and news images. Our minds are numb to violence. We need fresh stimuli.
I can hear the brainstorming at anti-war strategy meetings. "We've got to have something new for the 5th anniversary. What can we do?" So someone came up with a new spin: American confessions from war, not just their dirty deeds in combat action but from their torture duty too. Likable, soft-spoken (traumatized?) good American boys spill out details of deeds committed against fellow human beings over there.
At some level, it may be moving. But it's not really new. Don't you remember the torturers from Abu Ghraib prison, some having served their months' punishment or discharged, spoke on TV, calmly sitting in the living rooms recalling what they were convicted of? Have we forgotten the Vietnam atrocities?
     How do you really feel about these confessions? A day, a week, a month of displays? Who do you feel for? And will any American ensure that such a war is never, ever repeated, that your brother or son never, ever does this?

Watching Gaza

February 03, 2008

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

 

We are all watching Gaza. Some fret, others send money to someone who might pass it to a family. We dare not send it to an organization that could lead to charges of supplying Hamas--a (US/Israel) banned 'entity'. (The T-list they assign Hamas to really scares us; have no doubt.)

The rest of us criticize the Arab leaders, the American leaders, the Israelis, and the Palestinian Authority itself.

Last week I read in a North African paper that because of Israel’s policy towards Gazans, Mauritania, one of a handful of Arab countries with official ties to Israel, was considering suspending their diplomatic relation. A few days later, we hear of an armed attack on the Israeli embassy in Mauritania’s capital. Now instability threatens the country and neighboring Chad.The  Saharan area, where the US desperately wants to impose its Africom base, is destabilizing!  Back to Gaza, if we can bear it.

We watched Gaza’s economy crumble. We watched Israel mercilessly attack its people. We watched the electricity go off, the streets fill with water, the dead laying in pieces, the crushed homes-- score upon score—blasted. We watched the tens of thousands of Gazans protest the Annapolis conference (while we ourselves remained mute). We hear UN administrators’ reports of scarcity and poverty, of its inability to feed its Gazan wards. We read of spreading hunger; we listen to experts warning of increasing disease and rising death and despair.

Maybe be a few of us write to a US official to plead for some respite for the Palestinians. Perhaps a few more write to an Israeli embassy demanding a change in their heartless, torturous policies.

But essentially we are all simply watching. At a certain point in the crisis, we have to look at the facts. We are not ignorant. We cannot pretend the treatment of Gazans, and all Palestinians for that matter, is anything but absolutely wrong-- morally and politically. But we are all rendered mute. We simply watch.

Anyone who once ventured into Gaza to offer moral support is now stopped. Anyone who sent funds to help rebuild hospitals and schools are now afraid to do so. Anyone who spoke for the elected Gazan government no longer does so.

When the wall at Rafah was broken and desperate people rushed into Egypt for supplies, we had new images. Still we simply watched. Some thought those forays into the markets on the Egyptian side of the border were a sign of the fortitude of the Gazans and cheered them on. Others saw the open border as a tactic by Israel to test if it might later dump the whole of Gaza onto the Egyptians. I watched, embarrassed.

Are we not all somewhat embarrassed by this? by our own cowardice and fear of Israel? by our reluctance and inability to take a stand for a banned people?

Surely we are not waiting for our chance to elect a new US president to represent our cause for Palestinians.

 

 

 

Looking for our leaders in the New Year

December 24, 2007

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

In case you did not notice, the real, principled, smart leaders of our US Arab and Muslim community are, one by one, disappearing. Many of them are in jail. And that’s enough to chill the zeal of any would-be leader who dares to vigorously challenge the status-quo, arouse our ‘ethnic’ American masses. No social critics needed, especially those of us bearing Muslims names, wherever they are born.

 

The latest American social advocate to find himself sentenced to prison is Abdelhaleem Ashqar. He’s a former professor of business at Washington’s Howard University. In November Ashqar was sentenced by a Chicago judge to 11 years in prison. Why? He, like Sami Al-Arian, Ashqar simply refused to testify before a federal grand jury in inquiries involving the Palestinian struggle for justice against Israel.

 

Never before has our community been so in need of articulate courageous leaders who may express sentiments of many of us. We have an abundance of directors of national organizations in Washington. They say they are concerns with human rights, to educating the public. Their real role increasing seems to be offering assurances that most of ‘us’ are ‘moderate’, that we are willing to sit with Zionists, break fast at interfaith dialogs, and affirm how proud Americans we are. They name our (economically) successful entrepreneurs and media stars. They help identify bright young Arabs for the US foreign and intelligence services. If they have critical words for US policies they keep them for private in-White-House sessions, as per Arab tribal traditions.

 

What did Abdelhaleem Ashqar do, or refuse to do? The Associated Press headlines on the day of Ashqar’s sentencing reads: November 21, 2007: A former professor accused of providing money to Hamas terrorists was sentenced Wednesday to more than 11 years in prison and fined $5,000 for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury. "Ashqar” the article continues, “was convicted earlier this year of criminal contempt and obstruction of justice for refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating the Palestinian militant movement Hamas on June 25, 2003. But he was acquitted of taking part in a racketeering conspiracy aimed at bankrolling the terrorist group Hamas.

 

"Before being sentenced, Professor Ashqar delivered a nearly two-hour passionate statement describing the suffering of Palestinian people under the Israeli occupation and saying he would rather go to prison than divulge the secrets of Palestinian militants.

 

"The only option was to become a traitor or collaborator and that is something that I can’t do and will never do as long as I live," he told the court. After sentencing him to 135 months in prison, (Judge) Amy St. Eve ordered marshals to take Ashqar into custody immediately, saying that it wasn’t clear that he would not flee to avoid serving time. "A co-defendant of Ashqar, Muhammad Salah, was sentenced to 22 months in the same case after being convicted of lying under oath in a legal document. He also was acquitted of racketeering.”

 

Meanwhile in our papers and TV headlines one reads daily reports about deteriorating conditions and mass sufferings of Palestinians at the hands of Israel; bombings of neighborhoods and a virtual economic siege of the whole of Gaza. Among them are a few humanitarian appeals. None of these figures is contested. It’s all true. UN and other NGO leaders issue dire, urgent warnings, appealing for change, or mercy. They are supplemented with statistics quantifying the catastrophe. All this proceeds through a hugely publicized “peace conference” called Annapolis, then through another summit where billions of dollars are pledged to the Palestinian Authority. Smiles and handshakes galore while our Gaza sisters and brothers remain under assault and a siege of unparalleled cruelty and evil intent.

 

As for the pledged billions, while some of that may apply to NGO salaries to administer relief, the majority is in fact destined to Israel which has so crippled the Palestinian society, now a consumer economy, that Israeli itself is now the source of almost all Palestinian food, building supplies and other essentials.

 

So we collect money; we write reports; we pass on the sad news, month after month. But we do not do what Abdelhaleem Ashqar dared. As New Trend Magazine editor Kaukab Siddique notes, “He was opposed to Israel. This and this alone was his "crime". He has never broken American law. He never abused the hospitality America offered him. Accusations of sending funds to Hamas were disproved. When nothing could be proven against him, the puppet "justice system" wanted him to talk about the Palestinian community and to help incriminate and trap other Palestinian opponents of Israel. In the jargon of the American injustice system, this refusal to become a collaborator is called "criminal contempt" of the court and [don't laugh!] "obstruction of justice"! This is how the Zionists hide tyranny behind a facade of legal terminology. “It should be noted that Hamas is NOT an anti-American movement. It has been labeled "terrorist" purely to please the terrorist entity known as Israel. Hence any attempt to punish a Muslim for supporting Hamas is actually an Israeli move.

 

“Israel is striking at Muslims through the American injustice system. Ashqar's great sacrifice should be a rallying cry for the Muslims of America.

 

For two hours the condemned professor spoke to the court highlighting the suffering and sacrifices of the Palestinian people. Only one line of his speech was reported in the corporate media.”

 

OK. Ashqar was willing to go to prison. Under some circumstances, he could become an example, a model, a challenge to the US justice system that is clearly bent on serving Israel smother all dissent to its immoral policies. This American Muslim could, in ‘normal’ times be a badly needed voice and model around which our people could mobilize our common ideals and openly fight for the rights of Palestinians, and ourselves in the process. Are we up to it?

 

Or will we join the queue the of so-called educators to endorse the likes of a fraudulent Khalil Gibran school in New York calling itself an institution to serve our heritage and our people.

 

Harry Potter. Stephen King. Mars and Venus. But no Edward Said.

December 01, 2007

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Harry Potter. Stephen King. Mars and Venus. But no Edward Said.

Forsaken, neglected, or forbidden? How could Edward Said be unavailable in an Arab land which prides itself on its anti-colonial struggle and its intellectual prowess?

Arriving to teach sociology and comparative studies in Algeria, I was so confident of the influence of our esteemed Arab savant that I thought it unnecessary to bring with me my copies of Orientalism and his other important books from the US. It would be best to use a local French edition in any case, I decided.

My first shock came on my initial meeting with post-graduates students signed up to take my course anthropological methodology. In any campus, Arab or otherwise, we would find much to discuss about Said’s theories on cultural dialogue. Here in Algeria, there would surely be much for me too to gain from a dialogue on Said's ideas about culture and imperialism as well as the Occidental presentation of Islam.

Reviewing the students’ academic experience, one Algerians admit are, in general, heavily weighted in social theory in contrast to methodology and field research, I noted Said was not included in their accounts. When I introduced the name of our celebrated Arab theorist, the response of these graduate students was a feeble curiosity.

The name was surprisingly unfamiliar to the group. “A Palestinian? He's a leader of the Palestinian struggle for their homeland," one replied uncertainly. "Yes." Yet no one could name any of Said's 8 or more book titles.

“Orientalisme” I proffered; "1978. One of the most important theories of cultural understanding in the last 50 years?" No recognition. I named two more of the savant’s books—Covering Islam; Culture and Imperialism. They would be essential in our course.

Still no recognition. Surprised, I was not however dismayed.

Ignorance of the writer gave my presence here in Algeria and on the campus a clear and new direction. I would redesign the course so that a good part of it would be devoted to the practical application of Said's ‘orientalist debate’. But we needed the books, as many of his titles as possible.

I set out to locate what I decided would be the 2 essential volumes: Orientalism and Covering Islam. We could use them in Arabic or French. So I felt we had multiple options.

A month has passed since my search began. Neither at the Annual Exposition des Livres in Algiers, nor in all the city’s major bookstores I visited, can I find a copy of Said’s theories-- in any language.

In most cases where I inquire, directors of the Algiers’ largely French language ‘libraires’ recognize the name Edward Said. “Yes. Palestinian; American. We know his work”. Some say their store carried his book years ago. “Not today. No you won’t find his books now. Try La Maison de la Press. At Audin." "Try Les Beaux Arts Magazine.” The director of the latter, seeing my puzzlement, added, “Oui; C’est une scandale." I searched on. “What about ordering it from France? I asked one manager. "Non, ce n’est pas possible!" “How do you get your books, here, a store with hundreds or more of ‘editions francais?’" "Non, ne peut pas. The books we sell here, we obtain from a list sent to us by French distributors; we go through the list and order what we need. If it is not on those lists, so we cannot obtain a title you may want.” Scanning the shelves I see handsome coffee table books on Orientalist art and the history of orientalism in N. Africa. Beautifully illustrated French editions.

One can still find in old bookstores, discolored post cards displaying the now scandalous images so popular a century ago of 'the exotic East'--black slaves, odalisques and harems, camel caravans and sward-wielding horsemen.

But no Edward Said.

As it happened, the annual book fair was underway that week at the Salle des Exposition near the Hilton Hotel. The fair is a major event in the city every fall. Many hundreds of dealers from around the world (France and Arab states) converge here to display new titles. I found a prominent display of the recent Harry Potter volume, the latest French and Arabic writers as well as classics. Many children’s books. Books on CD were for sale. But no Edward Said.

What about university libraries or private holdings of colleagues in the academy? “Yes. We know Said. His volumes must be in someone’s library but I cannot tell you where. No, I doubt if you will find them in a university library.”

Why is there no interest in this man’s theories. Forget that he is a pre-eminent Arab thinker of the last half century. Forget that Algerians are ideologically and politically in total support of the Palestinian struggle. Put aside their determined anti-colonial history and their many writings on imperialism and colonialism. (So aware were Algerians of their former ruler’s use of anthropology to fragment and control their populations that they banned its study here for forty years.)

Is it state control of what Algerians read? Is it French censorship of Edward Said as a thinker who might eclipse their own lauded theorists? Or simple anti-Palestinian bias by a strongly pro-Israel France? Is it an attempt to exclude the Arab intellectual contribution to contemporary literary and historical studies? The search continues.

A little school that wanted to be an academy, and couldn't

September 02, 2007

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

In mythical stories, likable, humble little creatures have big dreams. Through diligence and kindness, they win friends and respect. They face obstacles with determination; drawing on common sense and the support of friends, they successfully pass through trials, emerging, in the end, as heroes. They achieve great things despite their modest goals.

This is not to be the history of a new school for Arabic language and heritage planned for an immigrant neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York.

The school had not even opened its doors to students when it found itself besieged by hostile neighbors. The attacks were initiated by a Zionist assault in the NY media. The national spotlight followed the Zionists and picked up the story. The school's position was weakened still more. The Arab American principal resigned; the school's board of advisors went into hiding. Parents of would-be students questioned whether their children should attend the school. And to ensure total disarray and controversy, a Jewish woman was named by the NYC board of education as the new principal.

The school in question is called the Khalil Gibran International Academy. Such a lofty title may have helped its planners win generous funding from a branch of the reputable Gates Foundation. But it did nothing to garner the support of city officials.

Here we are, at the beginning of the school year, 2007, with a grand name, ample funding, but no real school. Without having initiated even a single class for neighborhood kids, the place seems doomed.

Why? And what should be done?

It seems that the school, however honorable its source of funding, and however qualified its appointed director, lacked a community base. Its board, rather than composed of Arab cultural and language authorities, was an 'interfaith' collection of local notables: three rabies, three Christian ministers and three Muslim imams, plus one or two other 'advisors'. What such a collection of characters has to do with a secular school focusing on language and heritage, escapes me. One would have expected a largely Arab board of cultural experts and educators. Moreover, their silence of that board, after the resignation of its principal, is more than odd. It's suspect. Were these 8 men and 2 women chosen to please the government and neutralize and community position? Their silence after their principal's resignation was even more deafening when her replacement was announced. Was it this board that sanctioned the city's appointment of a Jewish woman as the new school director

The particular incident that put the focus on the school's principal and drew the wrath of the Zionist press is irrelevant.

Americans of Arab heritage today, as in the past, should be accustomed to public criticism from that quarter; indeed we must be prepared for it. Debbie AlMontassar, the erstwhile Khalil Gibran principal is not the first community leader to be set in the cross hairs of the vicious Zionist press and longtime campaigners like Emerson. At the national level and locally, our Muslim and Arab leaders have found themselves under assault for all kinds of fabricated associations. Newly appointed members of human rights boards have been forced to resign; professors who dare to include books giving he other side of Palestinian history have been threatened and dismissed Heads of Muslim charities have been driven out. Attorneys have been silenced. Teachers have been removed. Writers have been slandered. Advisors on school curricula have been discarded. The major assault is against Arab experts--all Americans. But the campaign also extends to non-Muslims who dare speak out in favor of Arab and Muslim rights.

Given the potential of the designated school, even though others exist on a more limited basis, the director and her community should have expected some problems from the vigorous, ever creative Zionist lobby. Clearly the principal, despite her experience, was not sufficiently toughened and prepared for an assault. Moreover, there needed to be strong community (I mean Arab American) support. And a seasoned community-based board who knew the history of our struggle needed to be in place. This local base was surely more critical than Gates Foundation funding or the haughty title of "international academy' title.

After a hundred and fifty years' experience in this country, the Arab people are still not ready for leadership. Not only has the scandal damaged a local community and downed a young leader; it has dishonored the name of our foremost Arab American thinker and writer

American soldier testimonials…and then what?

July 14, 2007

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

American soldier testimonials…and then what?

It's becoming fashionable for young Iraq war veterans to confess how they brutalized people under occupation-- in this case, Iraqis. (Doubtless similar violations by Israeli occupiers of Palestinians occur; but Israel is not so foolish --or democratic--to allow testimonials by ex-military to reach the press.)

Confessions by these American brutes, it is suggested, are acts of atonement. These men are cleansing themselves of the awful things they did to Iraqi women and men. By giving these public testimonials detailing their killings and other atrocities, they are somehow absolved. Yes, they are. Think about it.

These interviews amount to a kind of confession where these 'basically good American boys' seeks redemption. Some authors of these reports along with the perpetrators themselves-- now veterans-- suggest moreover that these admissions are an expression of anti-war sentiment. They expose resistance inside the military. Thus these confessors are accorded a status something close heroism. "How brave they are to divulge these wrongs"; "they do this for a greater good--to stop further war atrocities." This is how the progressive press interprets the men's disclosures, in my opinion. We are made to listen sympathetically to their gruesome tales; we take in the grim details. Somehow we do not associate these horrible details of torture and murder with the young American voices, calmly, dispassionately telling these stories.

I guess the point of these exposes is to reaffirm the basic decency of these Americans: "Yes, war is bad". But "I love America; military service is an honorable profession". "I never expected to behave like that";  "they made us do it". "It was the system";  "I did not engage in these things but I saw others doing them".

In other words, America is still good, as shown by these conscientious youngsters; so is service in the American military a noble action. And American patriotism remains sacred, beyond question.

We are led to the conclusion that what is BAD is losing control, doing things against 'our American values' and national pride, against a 'hostile' although sometimes innocent population. Implicit in some of these confessions is the culpability of superior officers, and ultimately, American politicians. According to these accounts, officials must bear responsibility for the occupation and military actions.

The anti-war movement in the US seems thrilled to have these testimonials; they provide yet further proof that the Republicans and their leaders, especially the disagreeable and 'stupid' Bush, are the true scoundrels. Oust them. and all will be well. American values themselves are solid and we do not need to search our souls. 

To be continued… in our next blog: "What have these atrocities to do with American culture and history?"

 

 

 

           

Women's Fashions in Human Rights--Here are Three Women in Iraq

March 01, 2007

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

March 8, 2003, I was in Mosul, North Iraq. With friends, we awoke each morning to wait for the American attack on our country. It was a sad, hard time. We were nervous. We were helpless. We did not know from which directions the assault would come. There was nowhere to run, no one to turn to.

A bare three weeks before, many Europeans and citizens of other democratic countries had been somehow moved by fear or compassion or some celebrity call, --we did not understand its sudden appearance--to go into the streets of their cities and call back their governments from war. It may have seemed noble at the time; it was an expression of their democratic exercises, expression restrained for too long. But it made no difference to us inside Iraq, waiting for the bombing to begin. We knew it was far too late, and the numbers, although many million, were too pitiful.

I would not return to Mosul. But a few weeks later, a friend there managed to get a message to me: "Was Saddam so precious that all Iraq was the price?" she wrote.

For many of her people who somehow survive the months of chaos and slaughter, Iraq hardly has an identity anymore. And the idea of democracy is a bitter joke.

          We now enter International Women's Day, 2007, and coincidentally, an appeal is being circulated about our sisters in Iraq. My copy comes from that same correspondent asking about "the price of Iraq". This time, she passes on details of the imminent execution by Iraqi authorities (sic) of three convicted 'terrorists', all women. Their names are Wassam Talib, Zainab Fadhil and Liqa Omar Mohammad. They have not had anything approaching a fair trial; they were not allowed to have legal representation at trial. Talib (31), Fadhil (25), and Mohammed (26) are three of more than 2000 Iraqi women classified as "security detainees" in Iraq at present. All are held under the supervision of both the US occupation and the Iraqi puppet regime, in prisons, camps and detention centers across the country.

How an Iraqi is permitted to raise her voice in protest and on which side, is completely arbitrary under the current administration. Resistance to US occupation is a crime punishable by death; advocating support for resistance is also a serious crime.

In the case of these 3 women, they are convicted of complicity in the murder of Iraqi police and participation in what the court considered "terrorism".
Wassan Talib is charged with killing 5 police officers, participating with gunmen in an attack on a police post. Zainab Fadhil is charged with attacking a joint army patrol of Iraqis and Americans with her husband and her cousin in Baghdad. Liqa Omar Muhammad is charged with participating with her husband and brother in the killing of a Green Zone official and sentenced to hang. She gave birth in prison and is still nursing her year old child. Talib has a three-year-old daughter. 

All three women, along with a fourth, Samar Sa’ad ‘Abdullah charged in family homicide, deny they had been involved in any of the crimes. No appeals of their sentences have been permitted so the women, like most detainees, have no legal representation in the court.

The first execution is to take place Saturday, March 3.

          Recall the almost fanatic calls five years ago from western women on behalf of oppressed Afghan sisters. We were bombarded by TV talkers, articles, lectures and petitions during the last months of the Taliban rule. Recall the replayed video clip of a shrouded Afghan woman being put to death in a stadium. American women's energy in the defense of the victims of Taliban attacks seemed limitless. They may have helped shape US policy on Afghanistan. Because of that publicity, the US government won easy endorsement for is military agenda against Afghanistan.

And today? Afghan women live in fear not only from their former ideologues but from their 'democracy' occupiers.

In Iraq, Washington has created a government with a new justice minister and new courts to help dispense democracy to the public. As Iraqi commentators point out: "This is the signal of the opening of an era of legal executions in Iraq", following the standard set with the hanging of the former Iraqi president. "It is a horrible proof that the illegal executions of Saddam Hussein and other Baath leaders were not isolated or exceptional incidents, but that they laid the ground for unquestioned ongoing executions by the Iraqi ruling clique working hand in hand with the US occupiers.

Almost unnoticed an appeal for the Iraqi women is being circulated. Officials at  The BRussels Tribunal are trying to reach the Iraqi Minister of Justice but wide public action is essential.

That Democracy Problem… Again

January 15, 2007

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

With our thoughts turning to Martin Luther King's legacy today, I can't help wonder where King would stand on the need for popular protest in 2007.

As far as US foreign policy goes, surely this is a time for massive protests to demand change. Can we really leave it to our politicians to make a radical change in line with new public knowledge and sentiment about Iraq and other adventures?

The recent election wasn't enough, it seems. If this democracy works at all, we have to find other ways to implement it. The majority view on Iraq seems to be that American occupation of Iraq must end.

Many say that the election in November of more Democratic Party candidates to Congress and the Senate was the people's way to telling their leaders what they wanted, namely 'The occupation had to end and the troops had to come home'. With a majority in both the Senate and the House, in charge of key committees, our Democratic reps now have their chance. "Cut off war funds. Find a political solution. Let Iraqis rule themselves." In theory the Democrats could insist on a new policy.

To support a new direction we were handed a well-articulated formula--The Iraq Study Group Report. Compiled by a bi-partisan committee of experts and politicians, it spelled out necessary steps to address the deep problems the US finds itself in over Iraq. If you read the report, you may have felt as surprised as I was at its intelligent approach. The recommendations seemed reasonable and doable. Bring Iraq's neighbors into the dialogue, it advocated; get the Israelis and Palestinians sitting down to hammer out a real solution, it stressed; find bipartisan Iraqi leaders to bridge differences among themselves, it demanded; set a clear date for US troop withdrawal, it advised. The report appeared to have the stamp of a wiser Bush (the elder) as well as very experienced leaders, including members of the US military.

For two weeks, our press debated some of the report's main points. Then discussion came to a halt. With that, my own hopes for an intelligent new foreign policy and some respite for all the Middle East peoples evaporated. The much-lauded report was, in the end, a mere 'show' of democracy. The 'experts' debating its merits were not the same men who held the cards. They could only offer us an appearance of democracy.

Last week, the reality was exposed. The press had leaked most of the details well before the White House, announced America's new Iraq policy. There would be more troops. Israel would not engage with the Palestinians. And the US would not seek assistance though dialogue with Syria and Iran. There would be mo timetable. Democrats responded with anger and mild threats.

The entire nation dutifully tuned in on Jan 10^th to hear the US head of state read his pplan for Iraq. It was as if that high level list of recommendations had been a myth. It seemed the election of dozens of anti-war legislators never happened. What was the basis for Bush's policy proposal? Who really had crafted it? And does the president expect he can implement it without Congress's approval?

This seemingly foolish, doomed plan did not garner the same degree of debate in the media that the Study Group's proposals did. Has the opposition in Congress melted away? Are the Democrats in a huddle quietly devising their strategy to thwart the plan? Or is Congress--and therefore our democracy--actually impotent on an issue of this magnitude?

What alternative recourse does a democracy have, especially if the newly elected opponents of continued engagement in Iraq will not be able to stop this plan? Martin Luther King Jr. was able to join his civil rights agenda and mobilize his forces with those of the opposition to the Vietnam war. There are many parallels between the quagmire in Iraq and the failure in Vietnam.

Can the protests be repeated today, without King?

Eerie Silence in North Iraq

November 20, 2006

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

The term "Turkmen" means little to most western people, even those here who think they are up on Iraq ethnography. This is because Turkmens have not figured in media reports for reasons that will become clear. But watch for it. Iraqi Turkmen will soon demand world attention. Iraq, for outside observers is increasingly a land of ethnic and death statistics, usually in the context of the current conflict.

More and more, Iraq is debated in terms of the Sunni-Shia-Kurd formula, as if Kurd were not themselves populated by sunni and shia devotees. Forgotten are the once romanticized Marsh Arabs of the south. (For the most part, they have moved into the cities.) Christians are also set aside, as are Iraqi Jews. Iraq's Christians represent probably the earliest Christian community anywhere, and along with Iraqi Jews, demonstrate the long history of multi-faith co-existence in this part of the world. Iraqis had rightly been proud of that.

Today, upheavals resulting from the US invasion in 2003, from Zionist penetration of Iraq, and from the breakdown of civil order, create new and fiercely protected divisions. Christians are departing, continuing the exodus begun in the early 1990s. Jews are little heard from; if anything their numbers are increasing as Israelis, some of them of Iraqi origin, return to purchase homes and land and engage in business, if not settle here immediately.

While a terrifying power struggle and polarization goes on between Sunni and Shia in the country's center--around Baghdad, home to more than 25% of the nation's people--Iraqi Kurds, with Israel's help, are consolidating their expansion and hold in the north. They have largely escaped the upheaval across Iraq, protected in three autonomous northern governates which are somehow sheltered from the deadly forces unleashed across the rest of Iraq after 2003.

While the north 'appears' stable (as far as Kurdish-speaking Iraqis are concerned), there are troubling signs of an ethnic cleansing underway. Here we return to the Turkmen Iraqis. They number close to 3 million:--12% of Iraq's people. While press attention focuses on Sunni-Shia battles, Iraq's Turkmens face a campaign of discrimination that could become very ugly and costly. Tel-Afar, a Turkmen-speaking majority Iraqi city was subject to bombardments and a crushing siege by US forces. According to Iraq Turkmen Front spokesman Orhan Ketene, "This was instigated by Kurds who called in American firepower on the claim that the city harbored foreign terrorists". Two yars ago US air and land assaults on the scale of Falluja were carried out in Tel-Afar. A city of more than 300,000, it remains under military siege, crippled and little heard from. This, say Turkmen survivors and Ketene, is part of new Kurdish campaign to extend their sway and dominance westward, beyond their traditional governates of NE Iraq.

As troubling as the terrorizing of Tel-Afar is, we also see signs of a Zionist-type settlement by Kurds in the coveted city of Kirkuk. Kirkuk is targeted as a new center for Iraqi Kurdistan. Until recently, the city was multi-ethnic, although it is identified as the center of Turkmen Iraqi society and economy. For the past 3 years, Kurds have been moving into the city at an increased pace, frightening the Turkmen residents. As with Israeli 'settlement' in the West Bank, this is a strategy of "changing the facts on the ground". Assassinations against Kirkuk's Turkmen families have begun. Fear and tension are rising. Because the city is center of the important Kirkuk oil fields, it is a major economic prize and Kurds do not hide their ambitions for the city.  Kurds, backed by Zionist and American elements, are well armed and powerfully placed in the Iraqi government. Turkmens say the ongoing settlement of tens of thousands of new residents, all of Kurdish origin, is in anticipation of a referendum on the city's fate in 2007. With a majority Kurdish population, the city could become an official Kurdish territory. It is a frightening prospect for Iraq's Turkmens.

How Turkey, long an antagonist to Kurdish sovereignty will react, no one knows. It could be brought into the equation if Iraqi Turkmens are further threatened and find no alternative force to protect them. They say they have been unable to interest the Occupation Authority in their fate and their rights.

With the Americans hardly able to protect themselves and with the city of Baghdad out of control, US support for Turkmens appears unlikely, especially when Washington would be unwilling to confront the Israeli partners of Iraqi Kurds. American troops will one day depart. Now or after some years, it would not undo the wickedness their arrival planted.

Ramadan is here

October 03, 2006

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Ramadan Is Everything I Ever Had 

by Rachida Mohammedi

Ramadan is our literature: words received from Allah
Ramadan is our sociology: we pickup the phone to call "come to ifthar with us".
Ramadan is our psychology: each wants to prove to himself how patient he is, he doesn't eat or make love the whole daytime.
Ramadan is therapy: our yearning stomach can still enjoy the quiet of its emptiness.
Ramadan is art: all around, nasheed sinks into our souls, singing tunes of Allah.
Ramadan is catering: a space to offer creative flavors from across our world.
Ramadan is meditation: on dawn at al-Fadjr, on setting sun at Al-Maghreb.
Ramadan is childhood memories: togetherness and sharing favorite delights.
Ramadan is a full basket: spiritual and physical fruits together in a heap.
Ramadan is a book to read, a mouth to feed, a soul to welcome faith's seed.
Ramadan arrives.
Marhaba Ramadan!        24/09/2006

"Ramadan is here"

The city sounds, pipes twang, motors roar by, clock ticks,
sick baby's cry. Many layered
symphony orchestrated
elsewhere, played out
here. But in the

irony of opposites, elsewhere is here, it is

here that is elsewhere. So it is
by the tight scrutiny of the indefinable Way
here that it is orchestrated. There where it is
played out, and it is even both
orchestrated and played out here as well.
All far dimensions fit into one
passing sphere.
Here.

"Apprehension", Abdal Hayy Moore, from Ramadan Sonnets 1996, listen on RadioTahrir.org/poems
www.danielmoorepoetry.com  

Here, where every Muslim reads Qur'an.
Ramadan is not a Middle Eastern holiday. It is everywhere today--a month of reflection, readings, and community prayers for all Muslims. In Connecticut and Qatar, in Algiers and Jakarta and Hyderabad, it brings familiarity, anticipation and relief. Ramadan is here. We have a new meaning to our day; we try to mentally prepare ourselves and the children, we welcome the liberation from routine; we strengthen our family bonds.
The month brings high prices in the market and nervousness on the roads as we rush home before sunset. Fasting raises tension; it is proved. In Amman, it's more than in Cairo, they say. In Saudi Arabia, I hear, no one is nervous. Not because of piety, but because they simply reverse the routine, sleeping through daylight to rise and pray and work after ifthar, all night. We go to school all month, and offices and businesses open, but only until 2 pm. That's it for the day. So if you need to read books, buy and sell, travel, and make decisions, do it before noon.

The month before, families celebrated triple the normal number of weddings. Every night, not simply weekends, crowds gathered to dance and sing for the married couple.
Train schedules change; so do television programs. These last years, Ramadan brings us evening TV specials by satellite--comedies and dramas, singers, players, and poets. Egyptian channels vie with Syrian for the most compelling production of the year. Ramadan TV series are 30 days long, from the first to the end of the Holy Month. We remember stories years after that best Ramadan film.  Radio producers scour the country for sweet nasheed, and find the art of celebration of Holy Hadith and life of Prophet Mohammed. Nasheed vie with robust songs from our favorite vocalists all day on radio and television.
Presidents and kings sit with their people reciting Quran. Small children endeavor to fast for a day, or two, maybe a whole week.  Above all, we remember our holy book, recall our favorite sura, speak it and hear it explained, ponder it, and savor its words.   B. Nimri Aziz, Ramadan, Algiers

At last: Muslim women having our say.

July 11, 2006

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Is it possible? Has the western media really begun to listen to Muslim women? A series of recent articles under the banner ‘Half The World’  in the Guardian (UK) features stories about Muslim women and interviews, including one with Noble laureate Shirin Ebadi, with people from Afghanistan to Somalia.

From these reports, we hear about the high percentage of Saudi women engaged in business, of women taking the leadership in Somalia’s call for peace. (In 1988, on my first visit to Kuwait, I myself learned how active Kuwait women were in the nation’s commerce, with many top Kuwait companies run by women. But publication of my report, and doubtless others like it, was sidelined by the 1990 war and the focus of Kuwaiti women’s right to vote.) The Nation magazine is now featuring reviews of books by mainly Muslim women and the reviewer is the insightful Moroccan (American Muslim) writer, Lalia Lalami (morrishgirl.com).

Writings by Muslim women about our achievements escaped western feminists and scholars for many years. The number of Muslim women heads of state also escaped notice. Women singled out in the past were the complainers, the victims who appealed for assistance in fighting injustices in their society. And of course, there was the veil, burqua, and chador to claw at. For so long, and it probably hasn’t ended, what examples western writers highlighted showed abuse and inequality rather than the pride, achievement and intelligence. That abuse, as presented through western writers, must stem from Islam. Our women became a powerful stick with which to attack Islam, reaching its apex with horrifying accounts of the treatment of Afghan women at the hands of the Taliban. Never mind their suffering during the wars leading up to the Taliban’s ascendancy. No cries rose on behalf of Muslim women in the horrifying years of Russian occupation.Shirin Ebadi’s is receiving more attention today with the publication of her new book, Iran Awakening. There, she reiterates what the Egyptian activist, Nawal el-Saadawi has been arguing for many years, namely that women’s adversary is patriarchy, not Islamic teachings and values. And that is a universal opponent. Will the message finally get through?

For many years, Muslims could not write positively of their lives and cultures without becoming defensive of Islam. Our work went unpublished, or it was marginalized. Non-Muslims, especially feminists and anti-Arab advocates could get advance further by rushing to the defense of abused Muslim sisters. That would keep them in the leadership of the worldwide struggle for equality. Meanwhile anti-Arab advocates could add Islam to the reasons for their difficulties with Arabs and accept repeated Middle East political crises as acceptable.

For decades, Muslim lawyers and writers have been working hard to challenge patriarchal interpretations of Islam and the Hadiths, accounts of the life of the Prophet Mohammed from which many Muslim values derive.

Their scholarship was unmatched even though it did not reach into the lectures of Friday prayers across the world. The excellent work of sociologist Fatima Mernissi is followed by that of many other scholars, Asma Afsaruddin, Amina Wudud, Azizah Al-Hibri, Rafia Hassan. All are working in the USA. And the list is growing.

Scholarship by and about Muslim women is augmented and complemented with collections of creative and critical work. Shattering Stereotypes edited by Fawzia Afzal Khan is a fine collection; another is Islam Out Loud, edited by Abdul Ghafur. Azizah, a magazine for “contemporary Muslim women,” edited by Tayyibah Taylor is another example of a lively forum, run by Muslim woman, where one can read critical and reflective essays about everything that concerns them from gay relationships to where women pray in the mosque.

It doesn’t matter that these books are not best sellers listed by a major newspaper. They represent an enormous body of thinking, and the thoughts of millions of women, Muslim women. It is long past time for us to tell our own worlds.

Am I giving the western press undue praise for a few recent features by our members? Yes, I think we need years to see if any really change is underway. Meanwhile take note of our women who are writing. Support them. Write any parallel experience you have. Show yourselves.

The Charm of Blackness

April 11, 2006

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

By Rachida Mohammedi

A child of the Sahara, an Arab woman, a poet, educated in an Islamic atmosphere, my values are carried to me in simple songs.

Among the most cherished of these is “Kul lil maleeha-ti fi al-khimari al-aswadi: Tell my charming lover--she with the black scarf…”

Through our folklore, anywhere across the wide Arab World, no one can deny how much we enjoy Arab popular songs and poems without a thought about which country these words came from. For us, the song and the poem are beyond any nation.

Kul lil maleeha-ti fi al-khimari al-aswadi, wherever it originated, reminds me that throughout our Arab culture, Black, when it covers the head and shoulders or filigrees our hands, is reserved for the idea of glamour.

Think about henna, that earthy dark paste we use to decorate our palms. Arabs are unable to speak about beauty and adoration, to recount love stories, or to recite a fervent poem without imagining henna on our lover’s hands and feet, without invoking the image of dark henna. Henna, that green plant whose Black essence gives Arab romance its inimitability and value. The darker the henna on the palms of one’s beloved, the more beautiful she is! This is in the realm of aesthetics and love.

What about Blackness in Arab public life? From the 6^th to the 14^th centuries, during the height of the Abbasid Empire, from Istanbul in Turkey to Lisbon in Portugal, when the world was speaking Arabic, the Abbasids ascribed Blackness to the legal system—the most advanced system of justice the world had known. The Abbasids, the civilization embodying the height of knowledge, innovation and aestheticism across the world, chose Black as the official color of their courts. Yes, the Black cloak worn by its judges, a symbol of the dignity and pride of the Abbasid justice system, is the precursor of the same Black garment (abayah) proudly shouldered by judges and lawyers up to today.

Does the world notice that the Arab woman and man’s common Black abayah is the origin of today’s legal robe? It is also the robe recognized as the symbol of justice worldwide. It is the same robe proudly worn by graduating students. Is there anyone who doesn’t dream of donning this gown when she or he receives their university degree? In our Abbasid culture, more than a thousand years ago, the aalam, scholar, was awarded this Black abayah as a signed of their academic achievement.

From the court of justice to the halls of the academy to the heart of Islam, Black symbolizes esteem. Consider how our holy Kabbah in Mecca is adorned solely in Black cloth. This color that enshrines the holiest site of Islam, expresses the sublime meaning of our Kabbah. This in turn expresses the high regard in which Black is held by Islam.

          From these historical facts to lines uttered by our poets, Black is beautiful. From Arab poetry, rich in the metaphor of Blackness, in its sweet treatment of beauty, to justice across the empire, Black has always been a symbol of pride, beauty, love and the sublime. Who else but we give Black such profound meanings? Compare these facts to others’ claims that everything white is perfect and right.

Can Radio Really Change Lives?

February 25, 2006

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Every now and then, someone I don’t even know contacts me to tell me I changed their life. Imagine! I’ve never met them. But they know me through my radio broadcasts.

For more than 10 years I’ve been host of “Tahrir,” a weekly program from New York-- a talk show with in-depth interviews.

A ‘thankyou’ arrived yesterday from Yvonne Wakim of Syrian (father) and Cherokee (mother, Native American) heritage. Yvonne became a regular “Tahrir” listener a long time ago. Soon afterwards, she began writing. Yvonne has now completed two children’s books. “Because of you, I decided to become a writer,” she says. “I never forgot. Even ten years later I needed to tell you I succeeded.”

Naturally, I’m delighted.

One never knows who’s out there in ‘Radioland’.
Radio listeners often become attached to a particular broadcaster. I understand. I myself prefer radio because it offers intimacy; television does not.

Most people listen to radio alone, often in their car. Listeners bond with that unseen voice. The announcer’s outlook affects listeners’ views:-- about being Arab, about their career, about their health, about friendships, even about their purpose in life.

I work hard to appeal to my own community. And, thankfully, young Arabs and other Muslims who before 1995 were not attracted to journalism, seeing me at work, decide to study broadcasting.

Occasionally a listener who is Arab writes me. When they do, they reveal deep experiences. I receive calls from women abused by husbands, seeking support from other Muslim women. I receive calls from men detained for visa violations. I get emails from poets like Zaid Shlah in California who heard my interviews --by internet-- with scholar Dr. Salma K. Jayyusi, from filmmakers in search of Arab actors.

One of those ‘you-changed-my-life’ emails was from Francisco. “Those beautiful poems about the Mother of Ishmael… moved me to tears”, wrote Francisco, after hearing my June 21st program with poets Rachida Mohammedi and Mohja Kahf about Mother Hagar. Their Hagar poems evoked memories for Francisco of his grandmother, Maria Mufdy.
Francisco’s next email was longer. “…. I’m a regular listener, from Dominican Republic, originally of Beit Jala, Palestine… I tune into Tahrir to get in touch with my arabness… I finally embarked on a research project to learn about my family in Beit Jala.”

Soon, I hope, Francisco and I will produce a radio program based on his grandmother’s life.

New York Neighborhood

February 10, 2006

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Two small friends, book-bags hanging on their backs, amble down a street on their way home from school. An image familiar to us all. In the USA however, it’s a relic of the past.

The west side of Broadway in Upper Manhattan bordering Columbia University has become ‘upscale’ i.e. high-priced. Residents here are mainly white, middleclass families. Few if any children are seen in the street.

East of Broadway Avenue, barely five-minutes away, life is different. The majority of families here are Hispanic. These streets are their ‘al-barrio’—Spanish neighborhood. Hot summer nights find old and young talking on front doorsteps. Residents shop at local ‘bodega’ for plantains, avocados and beans. Everyone speaks Spanish.

Sociologists call these New Yorkers ‘working poor’ compared to West Broadway where annual household incomes approach $100,000.

Al-Barrio families may be poorer. But their neighborhood is clean and respectable, and crime is not above average. Nevertheless, it appears their children are always in danger.

Moving through the neighborhood at 8:00 am, I am reminded of the perils of city life as I watch these children heading to school. One al-barrio school is on 109th off Broadway, another on 108th street. Yet nobody walks to school alone. Even with an older sister nearby, young children must be accompanied by adults. Each is led by hand from home to the school gate. Every day. It’s normal.

Again at 3 o’clock, when school recesses, parents arrive to collect their children. This, even where a school is hardly 200 meters from home. The same applies in Philadelphia and San Francisco, in Arab, Irish, Pakistani neighborhoods, to immigrants and longtime citizens. Why?

First, children here are prey to sex and drug traffickers and other criminals haunting our streets. Second, American society now subscribes to the code called “parental responsibility”. Anyone allowing his child to walk to school alone could be accused of parental neglect!

Families in crime-free ‘suburbia’ and towns across the country suffer the same fate. Drive through any American town in mid-afternoon, you will see columns of buses waiting outside schools to deliver their children safely home.

Perhaps this explains why parents here tolerate their children spending so much time watching television or playing computer games. It may be the reason Americans don’t care about Palestinian children shot on their way to school. News about hardships of Iraqi children don’t concern people here. American parents have their own problems.

“Lost in Damascus—at year’s end”

January 02, 2012

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Mass arrests, fuel shortages, power cuts; and now: suicide bombings! Has Damascus reached a point of no return?

It took a long time coming, for a place renowned as the world’s oldest continually inhabited city. But by 2010  Damascus was once again an international crossroads. On my visit barely a year ago, foreigners moved through every corner of the city—the cobbled quarters of Bab Touma, the open avenue of Mezza, the clustered neighborhood stretching up Muhajirin onto Damascus mountain.

Thousands of young idealists crowded classes at the city’s renowned language institutes and Islamic academies, and huddled with Qur’anic teachers. As young as 16, joining others into their 60s, they came from Japan, Malaysia, Korea, Turkey, Italy and Russia, from across Europe in fact. Even an occasional American and Australian too.

Syrian Arabic had become the preferred form of Arabic language instruction and Damascus boasted the best institutes that by now had more students than they could handle.

Besides the students, hopeful travel agents foresaw a soaring future in tourism; expatiates were moving into the capital’s burgeoning private sector; there were now good schools for their Brazilian, Canadian and French-born children. Women and men who had married Syrians abroad were settling here. Syrian children from California and Sussex were with grandparents in Syria for the summer. Amended laws regarding banking and military service attracted those it had once send away cursing the country. Opportunities in Syria seemed unlimited… if you had a foreign bank account, parents with a spacious apartment, a viable business partner, or a study grant.

Those thousands of young people here last year reminded me of Kathmandu in the 1970s. Huddling in street cafes, they offer advice on visa extensions, on cheap rooms in quaint stone houses, ice cream specialties, cheap authentic eateries, and bus schedules to enchanting ancient Christian monasteries in the hills and roman ruins across the desert.

On weekends, many of these students fled the capital to spend a night in Aleppo, or the desert city of Tadmoor. A Danish lad grabbed his knapsack and joined his girlfriend from Moscow for a weekend in Beirut. (They could be back for their university classes by Sunday.) Bruce, from Virginia, never hid his history as a U.S. marine in Iraq before he began language studies here; he was a hard worker in class, his pleasures confined to weekend cruising bars and discos they were open until two a.m. in the old city.

Local youths mingled freely with foreign students and tourists -- in the universities, in cafes and discos. Fear of shared secrets seemed absent. Indeed Syrian lads in particular roamed the campus and cafes in search of work as language tutors, an occasional lucky one finding a European girlfriend among them, even a fiancé. 

The pleasures of restaurants and discos were not limited to foreigners, for by this time, the children of an expanding middleclass could afford an occasional night out. Thursday evenings, thousands crowded into the old city.

Not to forget the tourists. Jumbo buses carried them from city to city, and maneuvered the narrow lanes of the old town. They filled charming hotels—European alongside Arabs from Saudi Arabia, the Emirates and Kuwait whose favorite summer vacation spot was Syria, with its open, tolerant atmosphere.

Damascus’ many centers of art, music and theater were supplemented by the foreign embassies. From Pakistani to Spanish, Russian, British and American, they ran language classes for Syrians, and schools for the children of expatriates and wealthy locals. Most notably the embassies sponsored cultural events. A Spanish theater group this week, a film festival at the Dutch cultural center, a jazz band, an art exhibition. They featured Syrians as well as their own artists. There was plenty to enrich one’s creative life in the city every evening and in the daytime too.

That’s all in the past. Many embassies have closed. Hardly a foreign-sponsored event can be found now; language classes at culture centers have halted. Graduate students and unemployed actors who depended on part-time work tutoring foreign students are miserable; they miss these stipends and their foreign peers who made their lives bearable and hopeful.

On the surface, Damascus may appear normal. But say the young, and their parents: “We just don’t feel like going out now”; “We stay at home”; “We watch news, share rumors about roundups and checkpoints, search for gaz tanks and diesel fuel for winter”; “We phone relatives in besieged cities”;  “We escape into the glamorous Turkish TV dramas.”

Damascus has become a city of endless rallies, widely distributed by state TV. One resident says, “We show the world we are one, that we are strong”; another admits “We go to the rallies not only to defend our nation, but to burn off nervous energy”, and others who became protestors “because I was pulled from a bus and jailed for 40 days… for doing nothing”.

Everyone is nervous nowadays, seeing the news, watching friends depart, hearing nothing from detained relatives. Damascus is today a weary city..waiting for no one is sure what… and when.

 

Nothing New in Nepal? Part 1 of 2

November 26, 2011

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Its mountains look as glorious as in the picture books; trekkers sport the same recognizable brands, the same professional boots; tourism in Nepal is flourishing although the noise and dust of Kathmandu are unabated; worshippers crowd the shrines and monasteries, their offerings reflecting undiminished devotion; and NGOs remain profitable… for their employees, if not for alleged beneficiaries.

Thus, on the surface it appears that nothing has changed in Nepal in the past decade. So, has the status quo been restored?

Not at all. Despite the apparent political stagnation, unresolved economic issues, excessive dependence on NGOs and tourism, the ousted king’s public appearances, and public frustration with a succession of prime-ministers, Nepal will never be the same.

International attention focuses on a so-called “Arab Spring”, still in the throes of rebellion, aggravated by outside powers, generating violence and instability over a large part of the world. Meanwhile Nepal may offer an example of how a democracy can take root and grow, albeit at a wearisome pace with much remaining to be tackled. Only this week a long awaited major agreement has been reached that will admit into Nepal’s regular army the thousands of members of the victorious rebel military.

Few will be aware that Nepal was ruled by dictators for almost 350 years. It started with a succession of inherited prime ministers (the Rana Era) and continued through a line of kings (the Shah Dynasty). Foreign powers happily co-operated with these men; and, when popular uprisings demanding democracy erupted in 1990, nary a word was heard from abroad. Neither foreign leaders nor the United Nations who come forward with such righteousness to demand the ouster of other entrenched autocrats, called for the removal of Nepal’s rulers. (Indeed Washington provided military support for the king’s forces  in putting down recent rebellions.) Despite its awful human rights record, the country continued to attract holidaymakers in record numbers and garner unlimited foreign assistance. 

Finally in 1996, a successful resistance mobilized not through exiled opposition leaders but by an indigenous armed rebel (Maoist) movement known as the People’s Liberation Army. (See Dispatches from Nepal by Li Onesto, Pluto Books.) Within 6 years, this people’s army was in control of 75 % of the country, mainly impoverished rural areas. Dubbed by Washington as a “terrorist organization” (a status that even today the US has not amended), the movement nevertheless thrived. In 2006, the rebel movement had so weakened the monarchy which had repeatedly blundered and discredited itself, and successfully tackled  the ‘royal’ army that it was able to negotiate a cease fire and then a comprehensive peace accord. Referenda and elections followed which removed the monarchy, declaring Nepal a secular republic with an open press. Multi-parties sprang up and human rights laws were instituted. The first election brought the rebel leader Pachandra in as prime minister with his Maoist Part winning a majority in parliament. But both he and his party were unable to retain the confidence of the government for long.

The past 3 years have seen a succession of leaders from various, mainly leftist, parties. Today’s prime minister Baburam Bhattarai, a highly regarded, experienced Maoist leader, offers new hope for stability.

Some pessimists describe the situation as close to anarchy, but the democracy itself seems firmly established. Indeed the proliferation of parties and vigorous public criticism of leaders can be read as a sign of a healthy democratic process.

By international standards, the toll from the war-- 15,000, two thirds of whom were rebel fighters and civilians killed by the military-- is low. More important the speed with which free speech and party reforms came into effect. It certainly helped that the unpopular king, Gyanendra who had succeeded King Birendra after the suspicious palace massacre of 2001, was gone. (Although he is neither dead nor exiled.) Not even the idea of a constitutional monarchy survived. 

Five years after the institution of democracy, although tourists are delighted that their treks can continue unhampered, and NGO activity has stepped up, many in Nepal may be wondering where they are headed. The promised constitution has yet to be finalized, poverty is increasing, real economic development is negligable, corruption is unabated, parties are squabbling and factionalizing, and dominance by the southern “madeshi” who live along the low-lying plain bordering India becomes more troubling.  (Watch for Part 2 of “Nothing New in Nepal?” next week)

“Tahrir is Here!” shout American protesters on Wall Street

October 07, 2011

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Whoever thought the Arab people today would inspire an American democratic movement? Who ever thought Steve Jobs, Apple’s celebrated founder, reputed world changer and one of the most brilliant minds of the century, was Arab?  Who conceived a Yemini woman would be our 2011 Nobel Peace Laureate, that Syrian people would shout in their streets for freedom? 

Meanwhile back on Wall Street: young Americans have begun a sit-in, copying Egyptian youth who set up their workstations and tents and sleeping bags and heath centers in Tahrir Square. Within 3 weeks, the Occupy Wall Street movement, joined by unions and well known intellectuals, has sprung up in several cities. (Angelina, what are you waiting for?)

There is doubtless much that the West could learn from Arab peoples today. But they fail to see it and cannot acknowledge even the possibility. We in the Arab lands have abundant heroes and heroines, from those Iraqi doctors who stayed on, in impossible conditions to tend the sick through decades of sanctions, abandoned by their own western teachers, to our astute journalists and Palestinian poets from Suheir Hammad to Mahmoud Darwish, women and men who speak for the oppressed worldwide, to teachers and mothers who keep the promise of education in the forefront of the lives of young Arab girls and boys, to the men and women who search out cluster bombs dropped by Israeli bombers across their farms. There are the psychiatrists who treat our traumatized millions through war after war after war, and the courageous women and men of Syria. Their fortitude and creativity and generosity is unmatched. And if recognized for their courage, all these Arab minds would indeed arouse people everywhere.

But it was Cairo’s Tahrir encampments and outrage that is the model for young Americans on Wall Street-- the 99%. They are indeed the “99%ers” whose combined assets equal the 1% of America’s richest. One slogan at the Wall Street sit-in shouts “Tahrir is Here!” Here, in the financial capital of the world, the center of lustful, unmitigated greed and power. These demonstrators, like those in Tahrir Square, Cairo, are young and jobless; they too have college degrees (a sign-carrying protestor cries: ‘I lost a job, found an occupation’). They do not use the word ‘dictator’ to address their enemy, but the CEOs are indeed dictators; their tyranny applies across the globe. Neither do the “99%ers” utter the word corruption—not yet-- although what they oppose is the theft of their lives and hopes by corporations whose immunity is sanctioned by Washington, and who enjoy privilege and wealth of obscene proportion, while poverty and despair grow. The US government refuses to acknowledge the link between the unbridled license of banks and thedespair of millions of its citizens;  Washington also refuses to consider the cost of its wars as a source of the country’s economic woes; neither officials nor the rich will admit their profits are based on US imperialist polices. These young people make the connections. And finally their anger has found expression.

It is not as if the problem is a mystery. Analysts have been exposing the issue for years: take a statement by former US Treasury official and economist Paul Craig Roberts, as recently as September 30, 2011: “…..(US) wars and military attacks have cost American taxpayers in out-of-pocket and already-incurred future costs at least $4,000 billion dollars--one third of the accumulated public debt--resulting in a US deficit crisis that threatens the social safety net, the value of the US dollar and its reserve currency role, while enriching beyond all previous history the military/security complex and its apologists.”

What is this but corruption?

I often walk along Wall Street and note the undiminished delight of tourists having their photograph taken in front of the New York Stock Exchange. Do they realize that if they attempted to enter the sacred gate of NYSE, they would surely be pounced on and arrested?

All day and through the night, I see rows of black limousines, engines purring, waiting in the streets adjacent to Wall St. for their masters to emerge, then rushing them to their stately, gated homes. We never see the faces of the rich. No general traffic is permitted anywhere along Wall Street today; security throughout the area is very tight, day and night, seen and unseen. Surveillance cameras abound, as do police. Every year, more barriers are installed to protect these offices from would-be attackers. This is indeed the seat of empire.

For over a decade I have questioned the political naivety and despondency of Americans through the many wars, during the 2008 economic collapse, reading exposes of the reckless but filthy rich investors and bankers. Citizens accepted the powerlessness of  their government to reign in these ruthless corporations or to punish offenders. Watching people worldwide rally against food prices, corrupt officials, and impotent or lackey governments, I asked “Why are Americans not in the streets?”

Well, maybe they needed the example from Cairo. If the Egyptians could unseat their dictator, maybe their daring could be replicated in the USA. For the first time in more than 20 years, I am hopeful.

"Yesterday"

September 12, 2011

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

I turned off my radio all day yesterday, Sept. 11, 2011. I didn't need to hear the memories and tributes and analyses underway. Neither did I want to participate in those memorials. Then I reconsidered. So I share this with you-- what I wrote and felt a decade ago today. bna 

 

Yesterday was Sept. 11, 2001. A Tuesday.

               I leave home 200 km beyond New York City for the three-hour drive into Manhattan. I make my way out of the quiet hills where I live, to drive into the metropolis to host my two weekly radio programs.

This Tuesday, I would not reach work.              

 

At 9:30 am, just an hour north of the city, I turn on my car radio. A panicked broadcaster’s voice is reporting the catastrophic event underway in the city.

I pull off the road to listen more carefully. It takes but a moment for me, to register the magnitude of this news. I find myself weeping uncontrollably over my steering wheel.

Cars slide pass me. Do those drivers know? Have they too heard? Do they also disbelieve the calamity we have entered? Are they rushing to sit with a friend, to turn on a TV to have real evidence?

Newscasters repeat: “All bridges and tunnels into Manhattan are closed”. 

I decide to continue southwards in the direction of New York City. Sapphire’s apartment is along this New Jersey route; so is Kay and Salah’s. I will stop at Paulette’s house: hers is the first along my route.

Before restarting the car, I open my cell phone and call my office--the radio station. Silence. All lines are cut. The building from which we broadcast is barely 500 meters from the World Trade Center. Somehow I do not expect it is in danger. I need to join my colleagues at work doing what journalists must at such a time. I switch my car radio to 99.5 fm. Ahhh. We are sending out signals. I hear the voices of colleagues: Jose, Sally, Burnard and Deepa. They sound calm, trying to make sense of the terror in the streets below them.

I wish I were there. Not for the news scoop; there is no scoop on this. Our experienced announcers will use their voice to help our stunned public through this. I want to be with my colleagues to capture the immediacy of this calamity. That's one job of a journalist, especially broadcasters, in a moment of crisis.

               At 20 kilometers from Manhattan I reach the top of the hill, “Mountain View”. From here, one can make out the far-off skyline of Manhattan. I always find it a breathtaking spectacle; seeing the peaks of identifiable city buildings is reassuring somehow. On this unhappy clear morning, reaching this crest on the road, I slow the car, and I gasp. Something is missing. No sign of the two highest towers, those at the southern tip of Manhattan Island. All I can distinguish in that vicinity is an enormous cloud of smoke seeping skyward. I begin to weep again.

It is clear I cannot proceed across the George Washington Bridge so I abandon any idea of reaching the radio station. I exit highway 4 and within a few moments, pull into Paulette’s drive. On her television I witness the catastrophe. All channels--news, food, drama, marketing, sports, history-- replay clips of the planes crashing into those buildings, then the softly, dropping towers, crumbling, sinking to the pavement.

I pull out my phone again. Still no connection with the station. I try the home of a colleague living in lower Manhattan. Nothing.

I manage to reach my family in a far away city; next I call the guests scheduled for tonight's broadcasts. The shows will be cancelled. Of course.

               I return to the TV. Paulette and her son and I hardly speak. As I watch the spectacular images (a spectacle indeed) of the impacting planes and the collapsing buildings, I feel sick, weak, stunned. Inside that inferno and among the fuming rubble, thousands of women and men are being incinerated, pulverized. The replays go on. And on. Each cycle takes but a few moments. But this rumble begins to deepen, to build a story and a fear and boundless anger. I know it will last a generation. I glare at the TV screen, wanting this to be just a film I can shut off.

               Every week, when I arrive into the city, I park my car uptown, then take the subway train to our downtown office, passing through the World Trade Center. Along with millions of commuters I exit the subway train that terminates under that maze of towers. I pass through the busy mezzanine and out to the street to walk to the east end of Wall Street. This subway station is now a mass tomb.

Those two towers are--were--so colossal; I have always been aware of their immensity. They dwarf everything around, even the 19-story building where I work.

That was yesterday.

Today, the day after, our radio station is not broadcasting. Neither are other communications centers in the neighborhood. Was our transmitter damaged, the electricity cut? Were we forced to evacuate?

               My thoughts shift from the dead and dying to the future, not a distant future, but to the coming weeks and months. Already newscasters are speculating that the perpetrators are Arab. This catastrophe is bound to affect Arab and Muslim Americans. It is going to bear down on every one of us, wherever we are in the USA. Not because of more terror attacks here. But because the authorities will launch a hunt. Expansion of intelligence activity across the country is inevitable. But I could not imagine the universal ramifications that would ensue.

After earlier, less horrific incidents, The US Congress had hastily passed an anti-terrorism law; the negative effect of on our civil rights is already apparent. Most Americans were unaware of this because the immediate target of those laws was one community—US Muslims and Arabs.   

New regulations were put in place, here and abroad. Congress had already granted greatly expanded power to our intelligence agencies and the civil liberties of our people had already suffered.

Thirty hours have passed since that morning.    

Tuesday night I drove home, mournfully, slowly, silently.

Any neighbors I meet volunteer child-like threats: “we’ll get them”; “wipe them all out”. They are afraid.

All of us are afraid for our future, the future of this disneyland of democracy and all the stuff we strive to possess, stuff that we take so for granted, for ourselves. I think; suddenly we all feel vulnerable in this invincible land. I know Americans will answer with revenge, not reflection. This frightens me most.

“Eid Eve and Morning”

August 30, 2011

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Eid begins. I send wishes for a happy and blessed Eid to all friends and associates, worldwide. You know what my main wish is.

Meanwhile some thoughts from the day’s events.

How long has the US been involved in wars in the Middle East?

According to a professor’s comment aired over the authoritative, self-styled liberal,  Northeastern Public Radio, it’s almost a decade. A decade? 

So claims a distinguished American professor/former military officer in “Academic Minute”, a new radio feature distributed across the US over the enlightened media, on a network followed by the most educated’ Americans. In today’s 60 second edition, the professor summarizes American military history in the Middle East—all 9 years of it!  And what about the remaining 95% of Americans who don’t follow these so-called experts? Well that same widely distributed radio network swiftly moved from “Academic Minute” to devote 10 minutes to Sunday’s final scores of university football matches.

So tell me: what is the real reason young Arab men and women dream of studying in the USA?

And the storm “Irene”. Well, with our Wall St. premises under mandatory evacuation order, my WBAI Radio station shut down Sat. night. So, from my retreat on the Beaverkill River in New York, we kept a closer watch on “Irene”. With my neighbors I followed the rise of the water meter by meter, as it became increasingly swift and fierce. From 5 am after fajr prayer, until 4:30 pm, it swelled. Trees, like enormous whales suddenly invading from the ocean, swished by in the muddy current. Chunks of trees looked like elephants with legs upturned, bouncing along in the raging water. Thankfully the worst of the flood was during daylight hours. Some villagers left; those of us remaining on the banks of the Beaverkill kept in touch, ready to evacuate to a neighbor on high ground. (We’ve had worse floods in here before this.)

The main fear from these storms is falling trees. Indeed, local roads are impassable, even this morning. My electricity was off for only half the day, but I hear millions are without power today. Business is hampered, they say-- for a few hours, 48 hours at the most. Isthis a crisis? Consider elsewhere. Can anyone here possibly, possibly imagine what life in Iraq is without power day after day, year after year after year, through summers and winters? And those blackouts are man-made in Washington and London.

Storm “Irene” has been a great opportunity for US politicians and emergency services to show off. At their control centers Saturday night and through Sunday, politicians asserted their leadership, their lofty humanitarian values. Not to be caught sleeping as happened in Hurricane Katrina. Today’s preparations may guarantee re-election of many officials. It’s proof that the US emergency system can handle something more serious, from other kinds of threats.

Will this experience of a rare regional storm force Washington to turn its attention to weather and the causes and results of climate change? Will it help Americans imagine what their war machines do to targeted tens of millions of across the globe?

Appeals: Don’t close this essay before you call for the Release of Suhair Atassi. Find out about her and act.

What am I reading? Ishiguro’s When We Were Orphans. What prose! A master of English, classic style. And Malcolm X, by Manning Marable, in preparation for a radio discussion. Also for radio review, The Arabs, A History—560 pp -- by an exalted Oxford University professor; I cannot recommend it, despite its rave reviews.

New Leaders of the Middle East, Part 2

May 24, 2011

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Barack Obama’s recent speech… Uh, which speech? The one to AIPAC where he essentially capitulated to Israel? Or the one two days earlier at the US State Department?

On May 19^th Mr. Obama revealed what was billed as major policy initiative, a new vision of the Middle East and North Africa. There, the American president confirmed that the country is determined not to be left out of the so-called Arab Awakening.  His declaration on what will be the American role across the region has been eclipsed by the issue of Israel. Put Israel aside (sic) for the moment.

 Let’s consider what Obama spelled out for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) on May 19^th. The US president may have appeared to establish a new link – no vision, be sure--between US policy and today’s political realities there. We will support you in your reform movements (and threaten [some] leaders who do not give way); we’ll  provide funds for civil projects. We will…, he said. 

Look again. Obama’s US policy is simply a dry blanket thrown over a fire. It’s a cloaked policy to channel and administer events which outside powers initially had no control over. And it is well underway.

US diplomats and economic advisors have been lining up with various sides in the revolutions following spontaneous uprisings last December. But long before, key institutions that will execute this policy were already in place. The GCC (Gulf Co-operation Council), Gulf-based Arab media networks, established 15 years ago, and a host of American university centers which are implementing US policy at an aggressive pace. The first two have been especially active in recent months.

The positioning of the GCC reveals its growing role as a diplomatic/military arm of US policies. This body of steadfast US allies conducts summits to affirm the US position vis-à-vis various junior (and by definition, unruly) Arab states. Witness the arrival of Saudi forces in Bahrain and GCC support for NATO strikes in Libya.

GCC is a notable club of royal non-democracies. Two new members—Morocco and Jordan, fellow monarchies and solid US allies, have been invited to join the group, at the same time offering yet another example of Washington’s double standard on democracy. Changes in those regimes are highly doubtful. Also unnecessary, in Washington’s eyes. 

It is this club of monarchies which is groomed to help the US manage the Middle East and North Africa.

One of GCC’s strongest assets is its media. The professionalism, popularity and ubiquity of the Arab TV networks is well established. Arab media, from sports and business to 24-hour news, is supplemented by an abundance of American features and action films. Together they now project the success of US policy in the Middle East, patiently nurtured by the State Deptartment over the past two decades. Their influence is most notable in the power of Qatar-based Al-Jazeera TV. Both its 24 hour Arabic and English news channels are widely respected; the former holds sway among Arab public and its intellectuals, the latter among American liberals.

With a few billion additional US aid dollars promised by Mr. Obama, we can expect to see more women’s conferences, jazz concerts,  media workshops, children’s art, poetry and literary events in designated countries. This gift presents a symbolic gesture by the US in ‘democracy building’. But the main investment will continue from the Gulf States through their powerful Arab networks. Although civil liberties are limited in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, their media networks (MBC from Riyadh and Al-Jazeera from Doha) define public opinion across the area, including positive views of the US.

Today Al-Jazeera is outshining the BBC and CNN in offering the Libyan rebels enthusiastic support, championing NATO strikes with astonishing candor:-- through Al-Jazeera we learn how noble are the Benghazi rebels; along with NATO, those pro-democracy agents are unquestionably heroic; and Gadaffi is a fool whose doom is assured. Note that Qatar (founder and sponsor of the Al-Jazeera networks) is most active among GCC members militarily assisting NATO attacks on Libya.

Consistent with its bias in support of US policy, Al-Jazeera and to a lesser degree (Saudi controlled) Al-Arabiya channel have been aggressively reporting on Syrian dissent and Yemeni opposition to their leaders. Al-Jazeera Arabic is taking a leading role in giving voice to western-based spokesmen for what it defines as pro-democracy movements there. Commentators on both sides of the Syria dispute are so polarized that Al-Jazeera’s coverage is hardly helpful. At the same time, their attention to Jordan and Bahrain has been muted. Why have democracy movements in these monarchies been marginalized?

Over the past decade, with the rise of Al-Jazeera, the establishment of American universities and other investments in the UAE, Qatar and nearby friendly states, and the creation of Abu Dhabi as a center of luxury art, culture, and high sport, this region has taken on a new and attractive image for western consumers. Abu Dhabi is now a glamour capital-- the ‘in’ place to play and shop. It’s also a significant employer of western consultants, professors, and entertainers. Who says culture and knowledge is not a political tool?

New Leaders of The Middle East? Part 1

May 01, 2011

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Who could have imagined the Saudis offering more than oil and being a lucrative market for US arms? Part 1

Today we see Emirati princes in the company of sexy American celebrities, Qatari planes over Libya, Saudi tanks rolling through Bahrain, Al-Jazeera selectively cheering protestors. A cynic would view it as a pre-planned realignment of the region, the successful expansion of expedient, proven friendships. 

A dominating role of the Gulf States in negotiating the various uprisings seems to have emerged by chance in the wake of the ‘Arab Awakening”. Tunisia and Egypt ousted their dictators and set in motion spontaneous demands for liberty across the region. There was plenty more to do—with dictatorships in all directions in need of change, rights to be recognized, and boundless dignity to be restored.

The ‘uprisings’ continue. But by the time Hosni Mubarak had been forced out, a new scenario eclipsed the movement symbolized in Cairo's Tahrir Square. Public awakenings in Bahrain, Yemen, Jordan, Syria and Libya are not following the same script.

Did the two early revolutions (Tunisia and Egypt), while emboldening other Arabs, also alert the remaining dictators and their Western friends to sharpen their strategies.

Did Washington and Britain decide: “This can’t go on; things are too unpredictable; these people will create instability (for us)”; we have to get involved. Let’s move on Libya; it offers new horizons across all of North Africa.  A perfect chance to rout that bothersome criminal, Ghadaffi.  END OF PART 1

Libya war means "Africom, here I come!"

March 31, 2011

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

America’s pet AFRICOM needs a home—if not by coercion, then by war. 

It’s not really about oil. It’s about a nice little piece of real estate strategically located in Africa. Just a few hundred square miles would be fine, hardly noticeable among the vast stretches of uninhabited (sic) Sahara, for example. 

For the past decade American military strategists have been house-hunting. They desperately need a continental base for their Africa regional military command, known as AFRICOM.  

Although working for years on this project, with an African American general appointed to head the project, Washington’s AFRICOM is still homeless. The US has been unable to convince (or coerce) even friends like Nigeria or Ghana to welcome a US military installation. Steadfast rejections. Although any host would find the arrangement very profitable, and it would doubtless offer it security (as per Jordan with its easy access to US forces in Iraq).  

Several attempts have been made to entice first a West African state, then some North African leader. Now a chance presents itself: Libyans' pursuit of democracy. What an opportunity Libya now provides for Washington’s military’s needs!   

Occasionally a political analyst raises the issue of Africom, and then only tangentially, in their review of west aggression against Libya. Mainly they see the West using humanitarian issues, peoples’ thirst for democracy and the newfound madness of a leader to justify military attacks and a probable invasion.  

Michel Collon of Investig’Action, in his excellent overviews of the Middle East, points to the long–established plan (led by France) for control of the Mediterranean. Only Libya remained a major obstacle in France’s realization of complete command of the area, he suggests. (Although Syria at some point may also been seen as rejectionist.) I refer you to Collon for details of France’s regional plans and Libya’s role therein; but let’s return to US interests in Africa. 

For more than a decade military wars and disease raged across Africa with little American concern. During this time however, North Africa was symbolically, economically and diplomatically sliced away from the Middle East. It became ‘South Med’ or  ‘The Maghreb’ in EU parlance. 

Before the current revolutions across Arab States, the USA became aware of how vital Africa was as an alternative source of oil and gas. Not insignificant was China’s expansion in the area too. In 2008 an Algerian observer noted the shift: Africa was no longer just an AIDs story. It was a new place for western investments!  

Yes, China was ahead of the game, with investments, development projects, partnerships and an estimated million workers in Africa. (Note how these men suddenly appear in the story of the flight of migrant workers from Libya.)  The USA and Europe awakened to the fact that China had to be matched if not thwarted on the rich continent. That was one issue. Another was protection for its investments. 

Since 2008 US has been polishing its image of Africa, and it has launched itself anew into the area. But it could find no host for the critical AFRICOM component of its neo-colonial policy. Even as the USA heightened the profile of AQIM (Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb) neither Algeria nor Mali would buy into it; not Morocco or Mauritania.  

On the surface the USA has no immediate interest-besides humanitarian aid and democracy, they say-- in North Africa, especially in Libya. Yes, Libya is rich in energy resources, but as in the case of Iraq, it has never refused to sell to the west. On its side, through one European intermediary or another, the west never totally dismissed the unpredictable and irascible Libyan leader, or his sons. Libyan investments are spread throughout the industries of European partners and the USA.  

Suddenly all those assets are frozen, and the march towards Tripoli is on. The US is a major partner in this war, despite what the president claims, and when victory is at hand, AFRICOM will be the first investment in Libyan real estate. 

Libya-- A new 'demon' to demonize

March 04, 2011

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

If you lived through the telecasts of arguments and battles in 1991 in Iraq, in Afghanistan in 2001, and then in 2003, the attacks and invasion of Iraq, you can recognize the process. Enthusiastically and ably assisted by the media and our intellectuals, the ‘just’ leaders of our democratic Western nations prepare for war.

The process of justifying their aggression is subtle at first. Then, when the opportunity arrives, it swings into action oh so gallantly.  

First we have an internal political crisis—in this case the call by Libyans inspired by the successes in Tunisia and Egypt to challenge their leadership. Some brave opponents are struck down and this in turn leads to more demonstrations. The threatened leader is defiant; he and his sons retaliate, at first with words. The protests continue but the leader vows to die fighting. With threats of serious fighting, hundreds of thousands of Libya’s immigrant laborers rush to the exits. A humanitarian crisis is at hand, we are told. Agencies rush to the borders to help.

The besieged leader sends his troops against demonstrators—this earn him the label: a man who ‘kills his own people’.

The UN goes into action; the Arab League calls a summit and suspends its recalcitrant member. More UN meetings. Sanctions are discussed, and some countries impose sanctions unilaterally. One partner, Italy, suspends its trade and non-aggression agreement with the rogue state. The US leadership boldly calls for regime change. Fears of the madman’s deadly arsenal circulate. (Forget about who sold his guns to him.) Individual nations freeze bank assets of their new enemy. More UN meetings; accusations of genocide spread. Human Rights organizations move into full gear. The international criminal court meets and announces it will launch an investigation of ‘war crimes’. US and allied battleships move towards the besieged country. The Arab leader appears on TV; his hours of talk offer editors around the world abundant clips--quotes to indicate he is a fool, totally unstable (and thereby cannot be trusted to behave rationally, or to engaged in dialogue). Demonization of the leader steps up. It looks like he is out of control—he must go. Any foreigner with prior experience in Libya is called on to give first hand evidence to the media about the eccentricities of the leader. Libyans in exile offer testimonials on the oppression they lived under. Documentaries are swiftly compiled to educate the world: look! we not only have a madman but also a criminal on our hands. Foreign military officers assure media that war ships are standing by, that they are ‘prepared for any option’. At the very least those warships may be available for ‘humanitarian assistance’. 

Who dares to defend the demon, a ‘new Hitler’? No one steps forward to talk about the funds he provided for their project, for their revolution, for their educational scheme. 

I found only one honest review of the ‘good’ West’s relationship with Colonel Gaddafi. Appearing online is “Petroleum and Empire in North Africa: Muamar  Gaddafi Accused of Genocide? NATO Invasion Underway”. Author Keith Harmon Snow has done his homework. Snow is a smart, well informed guy who knows a bit of recent history. Read it: (http://www.keithharmonsnow.com/)  

Oil is not the only motive. Petrol interests are a major factor behind the West’s new position on Mr. Gaddafi. There are also geo-military issues. Remember that the USA has for years coveted the center of Africa for its AFRICOM base. No country has been willing to ‘host’ Africom, but here, alas is an opportunity. A few hundred square miles in South central Libya would do perfectly, thank you. With Libya ‘secured’, that base can be in place by the end of the year. What a windfall! 

What I find most chilling is the process by which almost the entire globe, informed and disinterested people alike, now seems to be behind a US-led campaign to oust the man Washington helped bring to power 42 years ago and embraced in recent years.  

The same mechanisms working today against Gaddafi are the same ones that proved so rewarding in Iraq and Afghanistan.  

And the public buys it, hook line and sinker. The same intelligent public that belatedly told Bush and Blair “you lied to us” is now firmly on board for another invasion and another round of criminal acts by the leaders of ‘the free world’. 

Take a look through media and UN archives of the 1991, 2001, and 2003 US-UK led wars and judge for yourselves. 

What about an apology Mr. Obama?

February 15, 2011

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Why don’t the American administration and its politicians apologize to the Egyptian people?  

Egyptians themselves have at immense risk, finally thrown off their oppressor. I think an apology is in order. The Mubarak regime could not have carried out the corruption the suppression of dissent, the humiliation of its people without US support. The US not only offered ideological support. It provided materials support in the form of military training and equipment; it probably helped craft the techniques used by the Egyptians responsible for the repression for its people.  America must be considered partners in all the crimes of the Egyptian leaders, just as Swiss and other international banks welcomed the deposits of fraudsters into their companies.  

If the Egyptians do not raise the issue of US culpability in their difficulties, their poverty,their loss of dignity, corruption, and joblessness, one can understand. They have other priorities now. All indications are they do not seek revenge. One has to admire them for their grace.  

Egyptians want to move forward.  

Individuals, not the interim rulers, have made it clear. “We achieved what we did last week, alone, without outside support, either ideological or diplomatic help. We ourselves can and will pave the way forward.”   

No one says it will be easy. The revolutionaries know full well that the US leadership is working closely with their new military administration so that American interests (which include Israel) remain a priority. Based on what the Egyptians showed themselves capable of, I expect, although not without difficulties, they will prevail, with or without an apology, with or without that dangerous military alliance. 

The Poetry of the Square

February 05, 2011

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Cairo, February 4, Friday’s “Day of Departure”. We awaken to what we expect will be a tense, although possibly inspiring day. Millions are expected in the streets of Egypt’s cities. Millions will converge at Tahrir Maidan.

After Wednesday and Thursday’s confrontations and violence, no one knows what will transpire today inside Egypt. Will the thugs return? Will the military protect peaceful protesters? Will media be completely shut down?

Watching Al-Jazzera (Arabic) live from Tahrir Sq, the maidan is already crowded at 8 am; protesters have set up an audio system now, and we have people announcing their dreams. Not slogans; poems.

A young man uses a hand amplifier to announce his composition; he pauses for those around him to echo his words. This ‘protest poet’ has bandaged head; he pauses after every line to consult the small piece of paper in his hand. Some verses sound slightly poetic to me; how poetic, doesn’t matter. It is the poetry of this Egyptian moment that counts. 

American-Egyptian poet Sharif El Musa was in Al-Jazeera’s English studio yesterday, invited to comment on his country’s experience. It was Thursday, so the images of Wednesday night dominated the interview. Musa recalled the previous day when millions had assembled in the streets: “It was poetry” Musa observed: images we all witnessed, the raised Egyptian faces, their arms aloft, the stark messages from their throats and on posters. Many around the world will know the wall which has been scaled during these days—a proud, defiant time, glorious self-aware moment.  

It was poetry. I completely understood. Watching Egyptian brothers and sisters, I had felt something was missing in their journalistic remarks. However sympathetic the reporters were, they were unable to recognize the poetry of a revolution. They may have felt it. Surely some could.

Yet, only El Mousa said it. He characterized what is so deep, yet so simple. (The non-Arab, English language Al-Jazeera host did not grasp El Mousa’s point and so did not take up this profound observation. A chance missed.)  

This morning, Friday: people gather in streets and squares. Al-Jazeera Arabic hosts may be taking a morning off to prepare for this day. At 8 am, we watch footage images of Wednesday clashes repeated on the screen while anchors take calls from people around the world; most callers I can identify came from Egypt itself, also many from Saudi Arabia.  

I wonder about the western coverage; are they more drawn to the violence? can they possibly feel the poetry of this? The western media and Al-Jazeera appear to be clearly on the side of anti-government demonstrators. They finally interview some Egyptians in the street who are with their besieged government. Those statements do not come off with the same conviction and poetry of the pro-democracy voices. Those risking their lives speak a more gripping and moving experience-- a love, a determination, a vast, vast risk. 

Then for the first time, since January 25 when I began watching the events from Egypt, Al-Jazeera broadcasts music behind the images of today’s revolution; the music is mid 20^th C, Egyptian orchestral that we associate with Um Kuthoum; some instrumental, also vocal. The singers and lyrics will be well known to Arab listeners, words surely patriotic, composed for another era, but a parallel moment.  

Accompanying the music are the touching, inspiring, images from the week: water cannons, wounded, resting fighters in the square, banners, hand scratched placards, the flag, the flag, the flag, transformed by their bearers into face paint, into hats, sweaters, armbands. A single person stands against a wall, alone, with his banner’s corners tied around his neck, the flag billowing in front of his chest, his two hands clutching the loose ends pulling it to and fro, the billowing of the cloth moving in and out as if it is his very breath. Bandaged warriors rest, and do not cry out in pain or frustration; quiet, doctors and friends tend wounds, gently not in panic. The tenderness is palpable. Men clean the square of stones and debris from last night using sides of cardboard, pushing, pushing away the debris. In preparation for another day. A man chops into the pavement to manufacture stone missiles for his compatriots.  

I do not feel sad. Nor pity. How can I when I witness such dignity. Surely the president sees these images; he must be weeping, more than I am.  

Palestinian Woes

January 29, 2011

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

The "Palestine Papers": can the Palestinian leadership overcome this latest scandal? For a group of men who have achieved almost nothing towards the goal of a peace settlement with Israel, while more Palestinian land is stolen, more of their citizens murdered, jailed, driven to poverty, there should not be too much distress over the recent revelations.  

Palestinians interviewed about the disclosure of files said to represent their years of (unsuccessful) negotiations with Israelis and Americans claim they are not surprised by the details. They maintain they have known of their leaders’ incompetence as well as their hypocrisy. And they see the results in their daily lives. They have experienced only losses as negotiations proceeded from one site to another, under one sponsor or another. The emperor has no clothes.

Attempts by Palestinian Authority members to defend themselves in the media regarding the validity of the “papers” leaked by Al-Jazeera TV have been vigorous. They are fighting back, not against their American and Israeli co-conspirators however. They are attacking the prestigious Al-Jazeera network who they claim falsified or manipulated the facts. For me the revelations in these papers are damaging for all the parties involved—The US, Israel and Palestine. Yet, somehow only the Palestinian leaders are being put on the spot, exposed as disingenuous traitors. It is a sorry situation. And it leaves supporters across the world in a dilemma.  

And where does it leave the Palestinian people? To whom do they turn to lead them out of the morass? They did not vote these men to represent them. Rather when elections for a new president proved futile and inconclusive two years ago, Washington and the Europeans sanctioned the continuation in office of Mahmoud Abbas and his group, claiming they were the only Palestinians able to negotiate. (There was fear that a true election would bring Hamas to the West Bank leadership.) They reward these old men; they sanction them as representatives of the Palestinian people. And the futile negotiations and receptions go on.  

Unable to exercise a true election in the West Bank, perhaps it’s residents now have to follow the example of their Tunisian and Egyptians brothers and sisters. It’s ironic since the street resistance of Palestinians against Israeli occupation has always been a beacon for them.  

Who Will Follow Tunisia?

January 15, 2011

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Few cannot be exhilarated and admiring of the revolution in Tunisia? First it’s a rare success in popular struggles against a powerful military machine. Second the protests seem entirely non-violent. Third, we regularly hear warnings about the ‘Arab street’ exploding; time and time again, despite predictions, it never happens, leaving citizens with their impotency affirmed. The power of the establishment seems unshakable. 

Tunisia today proves the exception. The reasons are not difficult to see and comprehend. Yet, the real outcome remains unclear. Twenty-three years of absolute rule mean a power structure and attendant elite is in place; the flight of the president does not displace that. Not yet. So a major task remains for the public—to cleanse the system to remove a structure of co-conspirators, or at least put in place reliable representatives who can and will remove or weaken entrenched interests. Can that be done?  

Then there is the military, doubtless powerful and well-rewarded for keeping the power structure stable all these years. At the same time, it may have been Tunisia’s military leadership that informed President Ben Ali that they could no longer support him. Doubtless they remain in place. So another major issues is: how will a balance be established between any new leadership and this force? 

As for neighboring countries, one does not have to share a border with Tunisia to know what is possible.

Across the world, we see examples of successful people’s movements. Many of those, if not instigated by western powers, especially the US, France and Britain, have been strongly supported by outside interests. France and the US remained silent about the uprising against Ben Ali up to time of his departure.  During years of public discontent, the Tunisian power structure earned the goodwill of these powers. Indeed, Tunisia has established itself as a favored tourist haven—a stable, picturesque Mediterranean seaside to relax in.  

Together with the recommendations of tourists, Tunisia enjoyed foreign support for its security arrangements, for its rigorous cleaning of any militant dissent, Islamic or otherwise. Islamic terrorism provides a convenient label around which to secure western support to rout any political opposition.

Meanwhile the army and security services are assured of purchases of up-to-date weaponry from its supporters. At the same time the economy is dependent on tourism and a few exports like date and olives. Tunisia’s economy had become completely dependent on foreign arrangements, and with the spread of privatization, a new elite became satisfied beneficiaries, creating greater disparity between rich and poor. 

Most European commentators overlook the cozy relationship these leaders have with Western powers. So rather than asking what will happen to neighboring countries, we need to examine the nature of relations between Washington and Paris with their leaders. Ask: what are we supporting when we schedule a holiday to wander through quaint bazaars and be served cocktails on the beach; those easy holidays usually nicely obscuring any awareness of the way the country was governed.  Calibri">

Africom: the US military has for years been looking for a home for AFRICOM, an Africa-based US military presence. The rationale: growing threats of terrorist bases in the vast largely unpopulated areas across north and west Africa. Regular suggestions of terrorists operating in these areas pressure regional governments to permit American protection. Thus far, no country has accepted; in fact, most of them rigorously resist the invitation. This is a major issue for the US and must be kept in mind in any assessment of geopolitical dynamics of the region. 

The Man Behind Wikileaks

December 25, 2010

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

He did not impress me initially, although from the first exposé, the video “Collateral Murder”, I was impressed by the organization’s work.Now with the tensions, threats, and internet war that have developed in the wake of the release of the U.S. diplomatic cables, the exceptional character of this young man is more and more evident.

First, I am completely convinced that these leaks were some government scheme to find a reason to control the internet. For those of us who use alternative news sources and our own intelligence to understand the malice and chicanery that Washington indulges in, much of the information in the cables is not new to us. But the Wikileaks program, especially the most recent release of hundreds of thousands of cables is an astonishing accomplishment that will become a historical watershed.  

Activists and enterprising, courageous journalists have been trying in their own way to inform and motivate the public and confront the excesses of American empire.  But none have succeeded like Wikileaks promises.  

Street protests and inquiries are just not enough. And today we have many angry and bright young people whose can combine their ‘hacking’ abilities with their sense of justice to bring new rules to the game of people and power. Whistle blowing has come of age. And thanks to Wikileaks, they have the outlet they need to disseminate the awful information we now find ourselves poring over. 

With the release of Assange from a British prison, he has become much sought after. On the one hand certain government s  want him. And on the other, the media have found him a person of real significance. Before his recent imprisonment, on more than one occasion, he abruptly ended interviews when the agenda changed and his host went beyond what was probably agreed beforehand. Walking out of an interview with a major network is a rarity in modern-day media.  That it itself tells us something about Assange. 

Also contrary to others who might be advised to stay away from media while under house arrest, Assange is making himself available to the media--some media. In the past few days he has given interviews with Al-Jazeera Arabic as well as the BBC and Al-Jazeera English. I had a chance to watch David Frost’s lengthy talk with Assange on his December 20^th Al-Jazeera English program “Frost over the World”. It was a tour de force. Not by the veteran media personality Frost, but by the guest-- Julian Assange. This is a very bright and courageous man who knows exactly what he is doing and what his organization is capable of.  

On David Frost’s side, he like many celebrity journalists, has become rather conventional. He has lost his investigative bite. So that most of his conversations today are polite chats, lacking both challenges and revelations. This interview was  different and the camera focused on host Frost often enough to allow us to witness the awe which his guest’s replies inspired in him. This was a real interview, not a polite chat or a spar. It was apparent that Frost was captivated by the careful, articulate statements of Assange. That itself speaks much. 

By now most of you will have listened to Assange yourself. There are no evasions, no platitudes, no arrogance. He is brilliant in representing his organization, his aim and his legal problems. Normally lawyers might advise a client who is under police investigation not to speak to media.  But I would guess Assange’s legal team understand his special ability to address issues head on and to avoid entrapments or baiting.  

Having also heard Assange answer questions from Al-Jazeera Arabic TV host in another lengthy interview last week, I have even great admiration for his courage and lucidity. Many questions from Al-Jazeera were directed to forthcoming information from US-Israel diplomatic cables. This is perhaps the most sensitive of all US relations, and Assange prepared us that there would be some ‘controversies’ aroused by them. Simply to announce that cables directly related to Israel are forthcoming is in itself an act of immense courage. Stay tuned.  

The latest White House deal with Israel

November 30, 2010

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Some refer to it as a bribe. But somehow that doesn’t adequately define the deal what Washington has just offered Israel: more weapons and even more political support in exchange for a further 90-day freeze on (some) Israeli settlement constructions in the West Bank. This we know from the large print. 

Forget about the cost—it’s just 2 weeks’ payout for ongoing US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; and it’s a fraction of the cost of security measures that dismantle Americans’ civil rights, and expand surveillance practice across the US. Forget about what happens when the 90-day ‘freeze’ ends. Forget about conditions Israel demands with this gift (exclusion of Jerusalem is but one). And overlook the undeterred construction of tens of thousands of Jewish settlements and their infrastructure that for one reason or another are overlooked or exempt or viewed by the US as ‘not illegal’. You can even leave aside Washington’s promise of continued use of its UN veto on behalf of its ‘special friend’.  

What troubles me is the stance of the US administration—I mean the US president. Because this is a White House decision. The president did not receive a bill from the new Republican-dominated Congress to authorize this. Nor did he have a referendum from the American people for the deal. He and his secretary of state-- former presidential aspirant herself and darling of progressive American women-- laid this offer at the feet of the Zionist leadership. Then, in a response typical of Israel towards its lapdog, Netanyahu agreed to ‘consider’ the offer. 

I don’t know if the deal – we cannot use the term ‘gift’, since it seems to be a complex plan with onerous conditions and implications for US-Israeli relations—has yet been signed. I am unaware, moreover, of any fine print that may reveal that this deal is even more insulting than headlines show.   

However, just on the face it, this appears to be a foolish move by the US. Whatever power the Zionist lobby may wield on our election process, on the US Congress, and on the White House itself, this proposal cannot assure any ‘peace’ –no commentators suggest how it could possibly precipitate a resolution to the Israelis-Palestinian conflict – or somehow further enhance US and Israel relations. (Were they ever in doubt?) This administration had already indicated, and repeated, that there will be no change in the US’s largesse and support of Israel.  

So what will be the result of this ‘deal’? I shudder to speculate. It will have nothing to do with a sovereign or secure Palestine. No. I suspect there is something far more sinister in store for the American public and people across the globe who crave to see peace and justice in the Middle East.   

Meanwhile this troubling news of and the vote by the Israeli parliament to consolidate Israeli annexation of Golan and a part of Lebanon is eclipsed by coverage of the latest Wikileaks expose. Convenient. The American public and anyone hoping for peace in the Middle East will have to dig deep to find out the real costs of this blunder.   

What's in store for the American leader?

November 05, 2010

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

He and his party already comprised their earlier principles and goals. Now Barak Obama declares he is ready to comprise with the new US (right-wing) congressional leadership. If he really continues on this course, the US president is comprising his leadership ability.  

How things will work out for the US in the coming years, I do not know. I am not afraid of disaster. Nor do I fear such an overhaul of policies that the country will collapse.  

I so want Barak Obama to succeed—to succeed as a national leader, to succeed in giving us real structural social programs that I believe he initially stood for— equity, better education for all, government protection from predatorily private interests, nationally funded health care for all, less wars, less occupation, lower military expenses, as well as really visionary new programs to overcome Americans overwhelming ignorance, fear and belligerence. 

Yes, we had some reforms during Obama’s first year. To me they were not substantive enough- he came out with principles and went away with sad compromises fashioned to mollify some opponents, to pretend to his supporters that there were real changes. This applied as much to international positions as to domestic policies.

Internationally, yes, the image is (was) better: the words Obama sends out to the world are eloquent, and he displays intelligence. The shame of being American is less.

But these appearances really don’t matter. Because there is no basic change in US foreign policy. If anything, US support for Israel is stronger while the commitment to Palestinian statehood is weaker; threats and sanctions against Iran are heightened; the hunt for those who oppose US policies is as fierce and merciless; the growth of intelligence agencies to thwart perceived enemies is bigger while the support for dictators who follow the US line is as firm as ever. 

Speaking for myself, my life has changed little as a result of government under Obama (except maybe my cynicism has increased). And I also know the lives and prospects of 25-year olds and 40-year olds around me still on the cusp of their careers have not improved. As for Muslims in the US, things have actually worsened for us, as they have for our Hispanic peoples. So what do we have?  

Why does President Obama make such a point of his readiness to reach out to opponents? Is this all he has to say after their victory in the recent election? He was reaching out during his first two years. And with what results? He was unable to enact the programs he promised and we needed. And his compromising weakened him.  

On the one hand Obama has lost his once strong electoral base. On the other, he was never able to mollify his enemies. They seemed to have grown stronger while he and his arty lost their bearings. Today, it’s hard to see what Barak Obama stands for. 

Too bad. Because he does seem like such a decent guy. His weakness in light of his beliefs and intelligence surely reflect the regrettable status of the USA in general. 

A Mosque Or A Shared Holiday?

August 17, 2010

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

National media headline ongoing, and growing, controversy over the proposed Cordoba Islamic Center in downtown New York City. New York mayor Michael Bloomberg has given his wholehearted support to the leaders of the proposed religious center. He vows that it will be built. In his endorsement of the mosque, Bloomberg affirms the religious rights of all Americans and recognition of Muslims as an integral part of city life. Thank you Mr. Mayor.  

But are there not other perhaps less confrontational means of establishing these principles? I can suggest one: that’s the inclusion of Muslim Eid holy days in the city’s school curriculum. By removing your objection to the Eid holiday plan you may even achieve real integration and deeper respect for Islam. 

In general the acceptance in the US of its Islamic peoples is an uphill struggle. We recognize this. Strategies and priorities need to be carefully thought out.  

Opposition to any mosque project in lower Manhattan could have been anticipated. Resistance is so strong it demonstrates still widespread and shameful anti-Islamic sentiments across the country. The issue promises to remain a source of antagonism; opposition tactics will doubtless stir up even more anti-Islamic feelings. These must be laid bare for the world to examine. At the same time they must be forcefully and rationally confronted. Dispute—in the courts and in the streets—is the history of American justice, and injustice.  

Anti-Islam opponents vow to continue their challenge even after the New York City Council cleared one hurdle to the mosque’s construction, deciding the building under question was not a city landmark and was thereby available for commercial or other private use. Demonstrations are ongoing; OpEds commentaries are plentiful. (Although our Muslims themselves seem to be letting others speak on their behalf.)  

With Mayor Bloomberg’s endorsement of the mosque in question, the Muslim community has a good friend on its side.  

But Mr. Mayor: you could have chosen something more reasonable than this nationally debated and heavily polarized subject which could explode. You could allow the City Council vote on another issue-- adoption Muslim holidays in the New York City schools-- to move ahead. Several cities already recognize Muslim holy days.  

Last year, the same New York City Council voted overwhelmingly (50-1) to adopt the Muslim holiday proposal. It needed only your nod to make it law. You refused, Mr. Bloomberg. And that issue languishes. Meanwhile the question of a new city mosque introduces tension and controversy. Do we not already have abundant crises associated in the minds of the public with Islam? 

Do we not have sufficient mosques—almost 200—in the city today?  

A new downtown mosque will, we are told, be an educational center. Good. But surely the inclusion of Muslim schools holidays for New York City’s more than one million children can serve a wider educational role. All children as well as their parents would learn what these holidays mean and share the Muslims values represented therein. The Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha in our school calendar would incorporate Muslim values in the lives of many more than a single mosque will.

Mayor Bloomberg and our Muslim leadership need to get their priorities in order.

Tahrir is about politics, anyway you look at it

July 04, 2010

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

“It’s just culture”, say those who elevate politics to an undeserved status within journalistic discourse. It’s a dismissal, like saying she's “just a housewife”. In both housewives and culture, the demotion derives from complete ignorance of what a wife really is and what culture really is.

It’s insulting, and meant to be so. Worse, the housewife and the presenter of culture often accept the dismissal. Not me.

EVERYTHING is political. Where you live, how you write, your social network, your tastes, what you listen to, where you holiday. Everything.

Because Tahrir does not devote our weekly hour to analyses of war strategies, definitions of shia and sunni, the latest declarations from Tel Aviv or Washington, or Charlie Rose’s chat with the head of a political party does not mean what we discuss is not political.  

Politics is voice; it is empowerment; it is defining the debate; it is ourselves deciding what we value; it is rejecting those boxes others try to confine us to.

Tahrir gives considerable attention to our Arab/Muslim authors—poets, novelists, essayists, as well as other creative members of the community. These are people who work at articulating our values, our deepest pain and dreams and experiences. They are empowered by and through their creative work. Their words are not kneejerk reactions; they find ways that explore the deep recesses of our Arab and Muslim experiences; they find ways of demonstrating the universal in our experiences too.

To accept as important an issue defined as such by the NYT or the US military, or the public’s fleeting curiosity is to allow others’ agenda to dominate our lives and our public image, whether that of victim, or belligerent, or exotic. It is dangerous.

I am a veteran anthropologist. I was trained to examine and define culture, to tease apart all the elements in a society that make it something unique and perhaps universal as well. Anthropology views culture as a composite of economy, family, religion, power relations, environment, history. None is more important than another.

But look at what anthropology as a science is:  anthropology emerged in European thought in the service of imperialism. The much romanticized science of anthropology is the child of imperialism, developed to help rulers manage their occupied peoples across the globe. The British, Dutch and French understood how everything is political.

Anthropology in the hands of the European (and American, and Chinese scholars) works in two ways to assert power. A) it studies other peoples to essentially control them. B) it establishes itself (the expert) as the source of authority over those people. That authority persists for decades and centuries. It preempts a people’s own knowledge of themselves. Shocking when you realize this.

Recall the early Christian missionaries, forerunners of anthropologists. Were they politicized, or were they just religious care-givers? Today human rights 'experts' have replaced missionaries as agents of empire, disseminating standards of right or wrong across the globe. Highly moralistic and humanitarian just as missionaries of the past, are they without any political agenda?

On our July 13 Tahrir broadcast, we invite you to join the discussion. We live-stream at www.wbai.org 7-8 pm (New York time) and you can call in at 212-209-2950.

Helen! What did you say?

June 10, 2010

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

I want to shake her, gently. “How could you have so misspoken, my dear sister?”

I am not willing to simply reprimand Helen Thomas and leave it at that. Unarguably, it was a mistake. Of course the media is making this into a major story, with calls for her departure.

Many will agree that what she said is timid compared to the utterances of other public figures against homosexuals, Muslims, and Arabs. Those more despicable and racist remarks not only pass without censure. They incite further racism. They are unchallenged.

Helen Thomas is no stranger to the racist environment we live in today. Being Arab she and we are regularly targeted; we are even baited in the quest to uncover any word that could somehow be interpreted as a criticism of the ‘holiest of holy’ creation, Israel. Thomas must have passed many huddles on this course.

Helen is a public figure. Today, any celebrity’s every word is recorded somewhere, by somebody. One has to be particularly judicious on any controversy. Look how Justice Sonia Sotomayor skirted her interrogators. Brilliant.

Today even the most humble of us has to avoid being snared by new technology; recording devices are easily secreted. Not only is government security noting our every move and word. The public can too. Anyone identified as Arab and Muslim should expect to be subjected to close vigilance and scrutiny. We have enemies—known and unknown. Forces are at work trying to entrap us, to topple us.

I may owe more gratitude to Helen Thomas than most journalists inspired by her groundbreaking career. She is one of the few high profile Arab American leaders. And she represents a large community of Arab intellectuals and media workers working in the Arab lands. Her workplace—Washington-- is one of the most fearsome political and professional arenas. She survived for more than 57 years. That ought to have exposed her to any agent or agency waiting to entrap her. And she is a journalist known for her audacity.

She said she made a mistake. She affirmed her commitment to peace between Palestinians and Israelis. She apologized. But in anything involving Zionist settlement, no apology is acceptable. You’re gone. She must know this.

Helen could have salvaged her self-respect by a more extensive explanation of her remarks.

If I see her, I will want to know the full context of the interview in which she said they should “get the hell out… and go back to …”. I wonder: what was behind this outburst? She is known for her general criticisms of US policy on Iraq and Afghanistan; as far as I know Helen Thomas does not stand out as a champion of Palestine. Was it the Gaza massacres in 2008-9 that turned her? Was it the recent murders and kidnappings of FreeGaza Flotilla members? Did she overhear some ugly remark about Arabs, Muslims, or Palestinians at the event where she was caught with these comments?

I wonder: will we ever hear from the remarkable Helen Thomas again?  

A Melayu Philippine Muslim Play in NY

May 17, 2010

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Today’s comment is a review of “Pandibulan –Bathing by moonlight”, a moving and very special dance, music and folk tales presentation of the Melayu people of Southern Philippines.

Directed by an old friend from WBAI Radio, Potri Ranka Manis, this completely overwhelmed me when I saw it. The performance also showed me how much Potri Ranka Manis has been doing in the 5-6 years that we hadn’t seen each other, and all while she remained fully employed in a nursing career.

I almost missed Pandibulan, only catching the last performance Sunday May 2 at the end of its run at La Mama Theater in New York City. Pandibulan was a profound presentation of events, culture, history and politics that far surpasses what most New York theatergoers experience.

The 90 minute play fully absorbed me although it had virtually no spoken dialogue and neither HipHop music nor wild staging. The story was essentially told through a Yakan pantomime in music and dance. It was, in many respects, an opera. It tells the story of the far reaching trials of a people who inhabit Basilan Island, one of the most fertile areas of Mindanao in South Philippines. A people now fighting for its existence, their story traces their ancestry in their homeland to New York where her people have migrated in search of work, fighting here as well, this time to survive as a nurse.

This kind of history is rarely attempted on stage these days when political messages from the authentic source of a conflict are essentially taboo, and these simply would not attract funding. Moreover, how often do we see such a complex political story told in music and dance alone?

Potri Ranka Manis has given us a superb presentation. She created this for a talented young team, costumed in the most simple folk clothes that remind us of the peasant quality of life. Perhaps Ranka Manis saves all the luxury for the music; it runs through every second of the performance, changing the moods and guiding the choreography. No one would leave the theater after Pandibulan, without feeling uneasy about the story of the Maley people of The Philippines.

Just one video leak from an American battlefront in Iraq.

April 06, 2010

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

You really have to listen closely to what the US shooters say as their helicopter zeroes in on their Iraqi prey. More outrageous behavior lies beyond the video of these Americans murdering 12 Iraqis. The camera offers a bird’s eye view of the action—a gang of trigger-happy thugs hovering above a quiet Baghdad neighborhood. Machine guns blast.

The video is fascinating in itself, allowing us to view the targets through the crosshairs, real-time, of a genuine machine guns at work. The American helicopter circles and zooms in over its prey, circles, hovers zooms again.

Forget this (if you can). Listen instead to the US soldiers’ exchanges among one another: their obscene language, their laughter, the game they engage. Engage. Here, in our US war theater the word means ‘kill’. Kill anything wounded, anything in sight. Kill anything attempting humanitarian aid.

The entire episode we witness in this leaked 2007 tape is not really ‘war’. It is the record of a ‘hunt’. Hunt: as in ‘sport’.

More disturbing is the appearance of the prey walking across a street, totally unaware of being identified as targets of the impending massacre.

Repeated references to the Iraqis being armed at the early stages of the stalk seem contrived—an excuse for complete license. Later, all reference to weapons is set aside, replaced by questions of assurance that all signs of life have been eliminated.

Absolutely bloodthirsty, this team of Americans serving their country.

The predators are clearly enjoying themselves. It is as if they have been in sports training, now let loose, eager to practice their hunting skills. Their expressions of gratification, bordering on delight, is sickening.

Forget ‘rules of engagement’. Forget if this is being investigated by US military authorities. Forget which individuals are responsible. This is the way Americans view Iraqis. This is the result of their training. This is the ‘game’ of modern society and the education of our young, in countless internet and computer games about which we rarely raise questions.

Doubtless this one revelation is not isolated. Its only distinction is that it comes from one troubled, anonymous soldier who decided to share this particular record with the public.

Damascus, Syria. Part 2

February 18, 2010

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

News of a diplomatic breakthrough in Syria-US relations in mid-February seems to be a surprise, to the press at least. It comes nine months after the Obama administration extended US sanctions against this quiet corner of the Arab world. Only a few weeks earlier Washington had announced that Syria was among the places of origin for travelers to the US who must undergo enhanced security procedures.

Of the new détente, photos appeared and opinions of ill-informed experts flooded airwaves and blogs. Then this news headline disappeared.

It is difficult to know what this diplomatic move means, apart from a new US ambassador arriving in Damascus after a hiatus of five years. We do not know the substance of the talks between a ‘high ranked State Department official and his Syrian counterpart. What real changes, in terms of economic and political policies, will result between the two nations, we can only speculate.

That said, one thing is clear from observing life in Syria first hand: Syria isn’t waiting for the Americans to expand Syria’s universities, its tourism industry, its private commercial sector. More than seven million tourists visit Syria every year. Thousands of students arrive from around the world to study here. And, more and more international companies, among them brand name apparel and restaurant chains, are opening outlets in the capital, Damascus.

On its side, Syrian industry is expanding, supplying goods to a wide range of local and international markets. All this keeps unemployment low, and the middle and upper class growing. Educated Syrians are more likely to stay at home with lucrative jobs now available in the commercial sector.

There is little sign of recession in st1:place>Syria, which seems to have missed the global slowdown. Perhaps its omission from WTO, IMF and World Bank ‘patronage’ are to st1:place>Syria’s advantage under present conditions.

Syria, although included as a ‘third world’ nation by the westerner press, is not a debt-ridden developing country; it has ample local resources to feed and clothe its people, and a vibrant mercantile (commercial) community to attract investment and highly trained experts. (This, even though Syria bears the economic burden of more than a million Iraqi refugees inside the country.)

This is my second visit to Syria in recent months. I use it to take a closer look at the economy and explore corners of the capital that I had missed on previous visits. Some of my students were on winter break so I had ample company to the many cafes in the old city, the neighborhood of ‘Bab Touma’. Bab Touma was once known as “the Christian quarter’ of the city. An abundance of churches and seminaries may be found here; but it seems that as many mosques sit side by side with them.

This part of town once housed large families in elegant three story homes. Today, with increasing tourist demands, many of these elegant homes have been converted to enchanting cafes: Mona Lisa, Takaya, Alkaimaria, Beit Sitti and Beit Jiddu are five I visited. Besides offering western meals, they have the usual fare of local dishes. Fifteen years ago one found many small hostels in Bab Touma catering to back-packers. Today Bab Touma attracts more the middle class visitors. And the young. They pour into the quarter Thursday nights, couples arm in arm, cliques of girls, or boys. Some head for the chess cafes; others to hear bands, or solo musicians. It’s a free zone where you can munch hot waffles dipped in chocolate, puff arguile pipes and sip zattar tea in relaxing cafes. Whatever politicians any be planning, the Syrian public is confident their lives have already broken bounds.

Tahrir's Production Team wishes you Happy NewYear

January 01, 2010

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

This fall, Tahrir ran its annual three-month program for interns. We offer this course in radio journalism for young people from our community. What a delight it has been this year.

Lea came from France for a diploma in journalism at a city university but joined us for three months to learn what WBAI offers as an alternative media. Before returning to Paris last week she completed a powerful audio review of the book “Palestinian Walks”; it aired on Dec 15. Her previous journalistic work in France had limited her to short news pieces. Very short: 2 minutes! Here at WBAI we have the liberty of extended features and news stories that explore an issue in depth. Her piece for us was almost 9 minutes, and she learned how much one can do in this longer format. Lea intends to return to NY in the spring. Meanwhile in Paris, she plans to produce an interview for us with the preeminent expert in the field of Iraqi music, Scheherazade Hassan. This will compliment a recording of Iraqi music to offer as a gift to listeners on our next fund-drive.

Sally is using this year after her graduation and before she takes up graduate studies to work with us. She is interested in the marketing side of journalism, and is astonished by the way this free-speech listener sponsored WBAI works. Contrary to her and my own expectations, Sally’s been drawn towards audio production. With coaching on how to read for radio, Sally seemed transformed. And she took easily to audio editing on Adobe Audition, our basic tool in radio journalism today. Her interview with her sister, NJ college basketball star, showed us her interviewing skills. As any good journalist, Sally was impressed by her first interviewing assignment. “I learned much about my own sister I had not known before”. That aired on our Dec 29 broadcast.

Sarah Malaika is now a seasoned producer, having been with Tahrir three years. She has opened new doors to the wider artistic community through her wok as a museum curator and her interest in music. Listen to her enchanted interview (Nov 10) with Hafez Nazeri, the young Iranian musician who, with his father, gave an inspired concert in New York last month. I liked her interview with visual artist John Jauji after the Queen’s exhibition “Tarjama”.  Sarah takes charge of the program when she hosts and I can attend to other assignments. She has her own style, and doubtless her own listeners. That’s nice about having qualified team members, usually former interns, who continue with us. Each host brings their own style and therefore their own listeners.

Another intern is Ramatu. As a deeply involved activist in the NY community of African immigrants, Ramatu brings a wider network of community resources to Tahrir. She also writes for a community paper. Ramatu speaks Hawza language and prepared a Hawza promotional ID for WBAI. When Hawza speakers in our listening area hear this 30 second spot for the radio station, they are delighted. They are proud to hear their language, however briefly, on New York City airwaves. And so are we. Ramatu is now preparing a review of the edited volume of writing from Africa, “Gods and Soldiers”. It’s now a question of converting a written critique for radio, and that’s the new skill. Writing for radio is very different from writing for print media. But these interns catch on quickly.

Our fourth intern, Nehal, wasn’t with us for more than a month because of approaching exams. (She’s at the New Jersey Institute of Technology). Nehal took to sound production the first day however, and decided within an hour of placing her hands on the mixing board, that she preferred the engineering side of radio work. She also has a good voice.

A special quality of WBAI production is that we learn to do everything. First we identify the individual or issue for a story, then do the research to prepare sources, then undertake the interview with a quality recorder, then transfer that to the editing program, then edit, then prepare and read and edit-in the introduction and sign off, and finally select and mix in the music.

Last weekend at the film showing of “Islam on Capitol Hill” which Hassen Abdellah organized, I again met Adeeb. Adeeb joined us when he and Reem came on board two years ago. He was attracted to radio because of the scope it offers for music, and music is Adeeb’s primary interest. When we reached the point of our training in ‘reading for radio’ Adeeb found he had another talent. We all realized he is an excellent speaker. When I met him last week he told me about a new endeavor. He’s collaborated with a colleague to form the company AllSmiles.tv. He’s the artist development director. Congratulations Adeeb!

We miss Fatima and we know she misses us. She is a dynamic host in any gathering. But her new job in government doesn’t allow her to work in public media. We send out another congratulations, to Fatima and Ibrahim!

Reem has been with us for more than a year now. She is a second-year journalism student at a nearby university but there she has no opportunity to work in radio. It’s primarily print assignments; besides, the politics at the university is completely different. They actually assume that what they teach means journalists are totally objective. Of course at WBAI we know this is nonsense. Reem will spend the winter semester in Prague on an overseas course arranged by her university. She will specialize in radio journalism while there, so we’ll benefit from that when she returns.

Tamara originally an intern, rejoined us as a producer following a three year hiatus while she completed her degree in English literature and spend a year abroad as a Fulbright scholar. We went to the Nuyorican Café together with Saadia to see the play “Domestic Crusade” after which she interviewed the director. Tamara wants to produce book reviews when she has time; she helps us a lot by translating audio of interviews I completed not long ago in Syria

A lot of talent in our house, channeled into high quality journalism to serve our communities. Besides learning so much, we enjoy the work, and being together. Special thanks to ICLI for the intern training grant to Tahrir.

De Tocqueville in Algeria Revisited

November 15, 2009

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

“DeTocqueville in Algeria Revisited”. In the coming days I will be convening a panel of this title. Americans revere this 19^th Century French lawyer aristocrat for what is referred to as a “visionary work” on US governance in the 19^th century. Journalists, political scientists, theorists, politicians comment on our (USA) form of governance by quoting widely from the 1835 two volume masterpiece Democracy in America

In Algeria, the Frenchman is viewed rather differently. Alarmingly so.

Following on of his visit to the US and publication of his Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville was assigned to the recently invaded, richly endowed landmass on the northern coast of Africa--Algeria. His mission there? Assigned by France as a ‘membre d’une commission extraordinaire charge d’etudier le problem de la colonisation algerienne”, he was given the task of observing conditions in the newly occupied land and making recommendations to his government regarding its long term imperial interests in Algeria.

Based on his observations of the US during a relatively brief stay here, we know that Tocqueville was an extraordinarily astute observer of society and governance, also a prolific recorder. He applied these same faculties in two relatively brief visits to Algeria, in 1841 and 1846.

His remarks, in a series of letters, are available in an important 2003 (publisher GF Flammariaon, Paris) publication Tocquevulle Sur L’Algerie, compiled by Ms Selouna Luste Boulbina.

I received a copy of this book in 2007 during the early stage of my Fulbright professorship year in the North African state. I was startled of course, because the author’s view of Algeria was that of an avid colonist; such a contrast to what I believed was a humanistic “liberal” view of American society, a system praised for its egalitarianism, tolerance, etc.

Rather puzzled, I showed this book to a colleague, Hassane Sobhi, historian and sociologist at the University of Oran. Although I had seen no mention of Tocqueville among the numerous articles and seminars on French colonial experience I came across during my year in Algeria, Tocqueville is well known there. He is also despised.

“Le technicen du colonization”, spat my colleague when I made my first timid inquiry. He went on to elaborate on Tocqueville’s role in helping the French government devise their scorched earth and settlement policy in his country. He blamed Tocqueville for the depth of pain Algeria endured, and the atrocities executed by the French occupiers. Remember this man worked in Algeria barely 13 years after the arrival there of French troops, a presence with would become a 134 year occupation. So the policies that shaped the next 120 years of French rule in Algeria were fundamental. Algerians hold Tocqueville as responsible as the military generals for the crimes committed by their rulers over that period.

The coming conference (Middle East Studies Association, Boston Nov 21-24) panel will bring together Simone Fattal who has closely followed Tocqueville’s work and who sent me the collected letters Tocqueville sur L’Algerie, Professor Hassane Sobhi who elaborated on the French author’s work, and two other scholars who examine his writings more fully.

Such a critical examination in an American academic context is promising. It can lead to are reading of Democracy in America as part myth, since this French visitor was describing a system of government which clearly applied to only white European settlers. It can also lead us to identify how he applied his understanding of a “successful” colonization of America, to the French colonial policy.

Gaza: No Anniversary

October 30, 2009

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

I cannot fail to remember Gaza. I do not need the latest report of a human rights organization to evoke the images. I do not need the UN’s Gladstone Report, or the anniversary of the latest massacre, or an appeal for funds to repair a hospital, or the day of solidarity coming up January 1, 2010—a New Year. Gaza is part of our lives. A shameful part. Occasionally we see an image, if we search, and only if we search, of a bandaged body, or a crushed shell of a home, or a grave. I cannot imagine this endless year that a million Gazans have lived without us. They are still waiting. The name Hamas chills the public, and any sympathizers withdraw into a corner in their confusion and shame. Last March I took part in a series of short presentations at Brecht Forum in NYC called “We Are Gaza” organized by my colleague Fawzia Afzal-Khan. A lot of passion filled the room and the audience along with the performers seemed self-gratified. They had dared to be part of this memory—for indeed it takes courage in the US to openly declare in Amreeka: “We are Gaza”. A five-page account of current statistics circulated. Grisly statistics; I remember them. A month ago, a friend circulated a series of poems from Gaza penned by Atef Abu Seif. It’s called “A Dead Life: Stories from the Time of Gaza”. Here are two.

There used to be five of us. He was not the first to be born, or the last

He was not even in the middle

It was not his luck to be firstborn, to be indulged most

He also was not the last to arrive, the final cluster on the wine and sugar crystallized.

He was not the symbol of glad tidings, where middle is best

His birth did not suggest anything in the history of the family.

Yet, in spite of all that, he was the most spoiled and closest to our parents’ hearts, most privileged, most rewarded.

It was Joseph, whom we envied for the space people made for him in their hearts

We did not throw him in the well and we did not sing at his departure. We cried!

Now we must live without our jealousy, give up part of our nature, and we must accept that we have become four.

A Different Morning

This morning is different. No jets in the sky. Even the sun was late in rising from its bed. And the sound of guns can no longer be heard at the outskirts. Ambulances that did not sleep all night settled down to rest. Even the sun woke up late from its bed in the east. Children, contrary to their custom, did not fill the streets with the noise of their games; nor did the hawking of the women carrying their baskets on the way to market. Also, in the alley in our quarter, the kiss will not appear that two small lips will draw on the cheek of the mother standing in the doorway saying her last good-bye to the son on his way to school.

Two African Men

September 28, 2009

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

They addressed the UN general assembly in New York last week. A first time for each man. Was it planned so that the contrast between their presentations would be so stark? One spoke for 90 minutes, the other took barely 20.

One is African Arab, the other African American. One has been in power for 40 years while the second, a newcomer—has headed his country for 8 months. One spoke in his native Arabic; the other in English. One expressed a widespread disapproval of the UN and world nations. The other, although critical at times, raised future possibilities and called for harmonization, muting any hint of censure. Need I go on?

Even if the press highlighted the Arab leader’s eccentricities and excesses, a close reading of the speech of Moammar Kaddafi of Libya is hard both to admire or to defend--whatever one thinks about the history of failures of the world body. What the Arab declared was not unreasonable. And much of what Kaddafi said was, in my opinion, true. Many heads of state present there may have wanted to utter what Kaddafi dared, but lacked the courage.

What Kaddafi did was offer the world press, especially western media, an opportunity to contrast this new, handsome, elegant and eloquent western leader with a rough, long-winded and long-serving Arab head of state. The better Obama ‘appeared’--and he is clearly a man of ‘appearance’-- which is not to say he is phony. (More and more  critics are viewing him as ‘a paper tiger’.)  Yet the American’s elegance only heightened the comparison. It made me, as an Arab, want to hide under the nearest table.

US and British media seemed to delight in highlighting the Arab’s style and they took advantage of the Libyan’s problems over his NY city accommodation to emphasize what appeared to be ‘silliness’.  Kaddafi provided the media with photo ops no journalist could pass up.

Even now, when Libya is enjoying normalization with the st1:place>US, and where mainly US businesses will benefit, it is at the cost of Arab dignity and leadership. Who is at fault? How can this change? I wonder: would the presumed successor to the Libyan leadership, Moammar’s son Saif, be a better match?

A Speech to Remember?

June 10, 2009

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

The most poignant commentary on Obama’s Cairo excursion is by the brilliant political cartoonist Steve Bell. His June 5 Guardian newspaper portrayal of the Obama visit to Cairo has the US president posing on a desert landscape next to a docile, satisfied-looking camel, tickling its chin!

Some praise the speech as historic. In a limited way it was: in tone, in eloquence.

But these qualities are insufficient to assure real changes in US policy and alter how USA may be evaluated across the world. In themselves Obama’s words do not promise substantive change in policy that the world expects and needs.

Obama could have uttered really revolutionary promise with a decision to recognize the Hizbullah and Hamas political parties or an announcement of serious compassionate review of all Muslims held in US custody, at home and abroad. Such declarations would signal true policy change.

There was nothing remotely approaching this. If Obama defined any policy, it was of Washington’s unwavering solidarity with Israel. He explicitly said so, reinforcing the position with support for Jews and Israelis on a number of fronts. Those references stood in sharp contrast to tepid recognition of Palestinian rights and daily injustices at the hands of Israel. Obama left room but very little in concrete terms for their dream –and their right-- to a viable Palestinian state.

President Obama’s Islamic greeting and quotations from the Quran as well as invocations of Muslim contributions to civilization show what we already know—that the present US leader is smart, courteous and charming.

So why did he decide to make this much touted speech on his stopover in Cairo between visits in Saudi Arabia, then Buchenwald in Germany?

Everyone I spoke to and most commentators in the Middle East have said ‘we applaud your oration and good words; but we await action, signs of substantive changes’. While oratory and good manners are a respected feature of Arab discourse, the people to whom Obama’s words were addressed know that a convincing presidential statement must be implemented with deeds. Nowhere is this more anticipated than in regards to Palestinian rights and the rights of Muslims (in the US and elsewhere) suspected of working against US interests.

So why all the fanfare and the long speech? Few commentators are speculating but I suggest this: he plans to ask Arab governments for something major, in regards to Israel, or further financial support, or military bases; he may do so pointing to his Cairo gesture. Perhaps the public is not fooled but Arab leaders may find any request hard to reject after this display of intelligent warmth.

Calling for The Arrest of An African Head of State

March 01, 2009

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

How ironic. An arrest warrant is issued by a European-based court for an African head of state.

We have just witnessed millions of Palestinians subjected to a massive assault with the loss in just 22 days of 1,400 lives, hundreds of them children, the wounding of almost 5000 following years of an unopposed and unpublicized ethnic cleaning campaign. Can anything happening in southern Sudan match this?

Has anything conducted by Khartoum match the US aggression on Iraq, the displacement of up to 6 million and the deaths of millions, the compounded inestimable destruction, following 13 years of a massive US-designed and executed blockade?

Can anything in Sudan match the assault on Afghan society and nation, where numbers of dead and destroyed livelihoods are not even tallied? Yet, it is an African, an Arab-speaking leader, a Muslim who is indicted by the European court.

To make matters more troubling this policy being vigorously endorsed by the new US administration, where the new US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, sounds chillingly like Madeline Albright and Condoleezza Rice.

Some Americans are outraged by the abuses of the past former President Bush for what is now agreed was a war (in Iraq) fostered by lies and other deceptions. There is talk of possible prosecutions of former white house officials in connection with abuses. This is largely talk, although someone may be singled out and made a scapegoat. There is almost no chance of George W. Bush or his V-P being charged with any wrongdoing.

 It is clear that indeed there are unresolved conflicts that result in the plight of hundreds of thousands of Sudanese now huddled in the Darfur camps. Meanwhile no major international body is able to or wants to resolve the conflict peacefully. And who is really trying?

In the West, conflicts around Darfur provide a convenient arena for certain international interests to highlight the Sudanese suffering as a campaign of Arab domination and Muslim excesses. It is presented as religious and racial persecution, thus justifying international moral indignation.

In reality, we have the targeting of yet another wealthy Arab nation whose resources are much coveted, but whose competitors-- China among them—are in line ahead of Europeans and Americans. The Sudanese leader may not be far off when the charges his accusers of seeking to make a grab for Sudan’s resources. The country is the largest in Africa and one of its richest. European colonial attitudes and tactics have not changed much.

Gaza; end of year, or a beginning?

January 01, 2009

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

It is less heart wrenching if we call the war against Gaza an end of the year review rather than “a beginning of.” Regrettably it is neither. The cowardly punishment of the Palestinians is a long and now well understood agenda.

No one is fooled by statements from Tel Aviv or Washington politicians. Nor are we fooled by the silence of the US president-elect. Remember the guy who made “change” his campaign agenda.

Put aside the numbers of dead and wounded in this campaign, on any side. I have seen enough to remember the blind school for girls, Bashir’s father bedridden and speechless from a stoke, a boy born unable to walk, an aunt in prison, the heart attack of Mona’s mother, the engagement of the boy upstairs, the anticipated university admission of the shopkeeper’s daughter, the pregnant girl, the boy with a limp. All these ailments and hardships, we find in any society, and more.

There are sicknesses, treatments, applications, fights between neighbors or women and daughters-in-law anywhere, including Gaza. think of your own family, and your friends whose children are born with illness, of a father’s sudden death, cancer patients awaiting treatment, a runaway child, or husband, of all that a car crash brings, of a lost gift or a broken sink. A youth wants to write a book, another loves art and dreams to become a sculptor. A young couple fall in love and intend to marry. We all deal with accidents and illness, with marriage and funerals and celebrations, dreams and defeats.

Add to all this, a savage one-sided war. Not just days of bombs, but a siege: no ambulances, broken phones, smashed windows, dwindling food supply, crippled hospitals. Being unable to move from one neighborhood to the next, denied a visit from your son since 1985 because he is barred from returning to his homeland.

This is life in Gaza, in a few sentences. This is everyday in Gaza. The present attacks, in addition to any Israeli and US policy strategies, are aimed at humiliating a people, forcing them to succumb to further disgrace and helplessness. It won’t work.

In his December 28, 2008 address in Lebanon, Hezbullah leader Seyyed Hassan Nassrallah recalls the choice made by Imam Hossein (PBUH): "And how far disgrace is from us! Allah refuses us the life of disgrace, His Messenger and believers do too."

Nassrallah asks: “Why did he declare ‘And how far disgrace is from us’, Why did he say ‘we shall never be disgraced?’ “It was not an emotional outburst! The matter was rather one of humanitarian, ideological spiritual, religious and humane commitment springing from human values, dignity and human rights. As Hossein (PBUH) later tells us ‘...Allah refuses us the life of disgrace, His Messenger and believers do too. Indeed, proud, exalted and lofty spirits will never prefer to obey the vile people, rather than the death of the honorable ones.’"

Why I Am Joyful About The Election of Barak Obama

November 05, 2008

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

It’s gratifying. It’s thrilling. It’s a redemption of the American public; perhaps they now realize that they themselves do make a difference.

I myself cast my presidential vote for third party candidate Ralph Nader; it was a statement of my support for badly needed party reform here in the US. Even though I am a registered member of the Democratic Party. And my Democratic congressional candidate got my vote at the local level.

          But I felt it was Barak Obama who we needed to lead this nation. The decision had to go his way; American voters, sometimes irresponsible and shockingly naïve, had to grasp the terrifying dangers of an alternative.

          Barak Obama is a real leader. Increasingly over the months as I observed the campaign from a distance—I did not attend campaign rallies but reported on campaigns-- I became increasingly convinced that this man possesses extraordinary qualities, including leadership skills.

          My journalism brought me into contact with people across the country, a broader range of citizens than normal. I also read more widely, on all sides of the political spectrum to inform myself as a reporter. And what I learned, although not always what I wanted to believe (more of that next week) about the new Black leader, told me he had to win--had to win not because the alternative held frightening consequences for the nation and the world. Had to win because citizens were being involved in the civil (election) process, if not the real politic alone, more than I witnessed in 40 years living in the US. Had to win not just because of charm or charisma or profound statements. But had to win because Barak Obama is unarguably a brilliant, skilled, and experienced community organizer. One can see the facts: millions more Americans registered to vote; millions of students and youth, new voters, brought into his campaign; millions of Black Americans, politically very sophisticated but marginalized over the years by racism and other inequalities, motivated. Surely the Obama slogan “Yes we can” which could have been a fatuous, prosaic media bite, held special meaning for them. The statement rings deeper for the Americans of African heritage than for anyone else:--

Yes, we can: “We can alter the course of our history;

“We can realize the dreams of Malcolm X, Fanny Lou Hammer, Martin K King, Rosa Parks, WEB DuBois, Anglea Davis and the millions more who fought, who dreamed, who died.

And “Yes we can lead this nation, as president.

“Yes, we can break though the awful, shameful cycle of racism.

“Yes we can change our leadership.

“Yes, we African Americans can speak and act free of the stereotypes we have been associated with, bringing the highest standards of language, thought, compassion to an issue.

“Yes, White Americans can accept us and chose a great and Black American as their president too.”

So November fourth’s victory, I believe, is a special and powerful one for all African Americans. And thereby for the USA.

Some of us witnessed and noted the rallies for Obama--facts the media chose to play down. Hundreds of thousands of Obama supporters flocked to his campaign gathering in numbers never seen before. Those numbers foretold his certain victory on Tuesday.

          Now to Mr. Obama the campaigner. Through all the debates, and all the rebuttals to malicious attacks re Obama’s relationships with individuals, the African American kept his cool. He responded with facts, and in a dignified yet forceful manner. He defended himself without falling into a cycle of counter attacks. In his debates with campaign opponents, first Hillary Clinton, then John McCain, Barak Obama displayed extraordinary composure, respect, and control. He is grace embodied. He is firm; he is confident.

          In Chicago where Obama has lived for over a decade, his community organizing skills are well known. His professional partnership with an astute wife, Michelle, is legend. These he brought to the national campaign in a masterful way. First, essential to any community mobilization, Obama was optimistic. He believed negative situations could be reversed, that despair could be turned to hope and action. And he transferred this to others. He worked with Americans long marginalized—the Arab American, the Hispanic, the Black. His efforts brought them into the political process in Chicago like never before.

All this Obama applied then on the national scale. Not for 100 years or more, has the grass-roots political landscape be altered. Never has such a high percentage of Americans voted. Have you ever seen lines of waiting voters outside the poll booths like that before, except in South Africa, Chile, Nepal, Palestine, and India? This is new for USA!

          Next? Now that Obama is president-elect, what we can expect? Next week, we share thoughts stemming from the irrefutable campaign decisions by Obama --downside of the campaign. Facing some realities.

Remember the Prisoners in Your Prayers

September 01, 2008

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Ramadan Kareem.

For those of us who are students, or working in education, journalism, the tourism business, travel, today marks a change of routine. For Muslims, it is a welcome day that begins the month of spiritual contemplation, study, and communion with the ummah, the community of Islam.

In my prayers, I remember first and foremost the prisoners.

Prisoners everywhere, whatever their religion, whatever their past transgressions, their innocence, their claims, they are denied the brotherhood and sisterhood and family essential to human life and growth and hope. It is an especially difficult hardship at this time. Among those captives, I remember those fellow Muslims held illegally by US authorities. As an American citizen, I must accept some responsibility. And shame.

No one is unaware of the inhumanity carried out on these men and women, treatment that disgusts us, baffles us, shames us, in its obscenity and venality. The news, images and testimonies have exposed for all the world to witness, the ugly underbelly of America, the hypocrisy, and the deeply entrenched racism, now directed overwhelmingly towards Muslims. Hundreds have been summarily deported from their US homes.

Human rights organizations and foreign governments have come forward in the defense of caged men like those in the Guantanamo Bay prison. Some of those released like Sami Al-Hajj, Mozaaem Beg and former Muslim Chaplain James Yee provide testimonies about the injustices. In the US itself, the treatment of political prisoner Sami Al-Arian undermines confidence in the US justice system.

So many others need our attention. Tens of thousands. In Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Guantanamo, the US federal prisons, and secret facilities across the world. Almost every Palestinian man has experienced Israeli inflicted imprisonment.

I have no doubt, many of these souls are really subjects of mind-experiments, a fact that will eventually be revealed. They are not tormented for their confessions. They are hostages in a secret study of Islamic belief. What makes these believers so strong, so able to resist all of our brutality, to hold their dignity intact? Given what we hear about the many psychological problems and suicides of US combatants, yes, some would want to compare. That is not their aim however. No these confinements are likely a deranged kind of experiment. The authorities seek to develop ways they can further attack and undermine the faith. Think about it: seven years of torture! Guantanamo, in other words, is nothing less than an experimental laboratory. Am I too cynical?

Not at all. Because faith fundamentally is about Allah, God, not the human vessel of divinity.

Sami Al-Haj: ex-prisoner 345

May 11, 2008

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Free. At last.

Even as journalist Sami Al-Haj displayed his joy to be home, at last, in his native land, Sudan, he remembered the unnamed and unfreed American torture victims yet imprisoned in  Guantanamo US naval base.

He declared “Torture does not end terrorism; torture is terrorism”.

How I admire this man, this journalist, this patriot.

I doubt if I could have withstood a fraction of what he did, even for a year. Could you? Al-Haj somehow survived that American hell 6 years and 5 months!

I wonder if others feel as I do:--shame over American behavior, its leadership, its collaborating psychologists, it lackey media, its stone-hearted jailers, its ignorant citizens, its spineless intellectuals.

At the same time, do you not feel esteem for this young man? Do you not feel renewed hope that public outrage by however few may still be effective to force a government to change? Is this not surely affirmation of how Islam empowers humans with immense inner strength?

How auspicious for me that somehow, last Thursday and Friday, I had access to Al-Jazeera TV. I waited up late in the night to see footage direct from Khartoum. With millions of others, even vicariously, I wanted to welcome that plane carrying the once-young journalist and two of his compatriots when it touched African land at Sudan’s airport.

Gratification; then, momentarily, anger eclipsed this wave of victory. I was forced not to forget from where he had come. I watched Al-Haj manhandled by his captors--uniformed American servicemen carrying their prisoner out of the US Air Force plane and down the steps. Three Americans, each twice Sami’s bulk, gripped him clumsily before passing him to a waiting stretcher. If this is how they treat a human being as they release him, my god, begin to imagine the prison! I glared at the image in shame. Al-Haj’s hands remained bound by his notorious captors, boney legs dangled lifelessly from their clumsy criminal arms. Finally Al-Haj was handed to comrades and laid on a nearby stretcher. There, I witnessed his wrists still bound together at his waist. Only now, firmly on African soil, his own people cut away the bonds.

The Americans had refused. (US authorities arrogantly, reprehensibly maintained they were not releasing Al-Haj as a free man, but rather handing over their prisoner to Sudanese authorities. Forever righteous, our American department of defense. We later learned Al-Haj and his companions were bound and shackled to chairs throughout the long journey.)

Humdulillah, he is home. But the freed man appeared so frail that I thought, “My God, he is sick; he is dying.” The crowd of attendants whisking him into the hospital, cameras rolling all the while, saw something else.

Hardly 20 minutes later, Sami Al-Haj managed to sit up in the hospital bed and he was speaking to the cameras. Grasping a phone, with cameras rolling above him, he was giving an interview condemning his captors, Guantanamo prison itself, the torture methods, the brutality of the Americans. His voice was unwavering and unequivocal. How readily and energetically he reentered his journalist’s voice.

Even though Sami Al-Haj was yet to meet his family, he had to send a message to the world—an urgent testimony-- denunciation of the hypocrisy of the US administration, above all else, to testify to their brutalities.

Al-Haj's firm voice and clear words, his eyes focused as his spoke, affirmed the ignorance and folly of the Americans, the beautiful energy of Islam, the integrity of Al-Jazeera TV network.

Of course one needs to recognize the hard work of many western attorneys in particular. The obstacles they faced seemed insurmountable in the early years when the US Department of Defense was stonewalling any claims of these prisoners rights.  If only shame motivates American civil rights lawyers to challenge the American will, so be it.

Border Crossing Amman-Iraq ”Detained Again !! from Mohammed, Last of Iraqis Feb 12/08

February 18, 2008

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

"Detained Again !!" testimony from just one Iraqi leaving his nation, only to be returned - Mohammed, Last of Iraqis.

I'm writing this in Jordan, Amman, queen Alia airport, it's 8:15 am now and it has been 18 hours since we arrived and still waiting to get back to the great Iraq….I'm still waiting to get back to my country and my home after being rejected by Jordanian intelligence for no reason at all; when he interviewed us he asked us why do you want to get to Jordan? I showed him our invitation to UK and my wife's British birth certificate and told him that I want to travel to UK and my wife wants to issue a British passport from Amman, he asked me where would you stay in Jordan?

I showed him the deed of my father's flat in Amman, then he wrote something and asked me why didn't they let you in last time you came to Amman? I told him I don't know, they haven't told me anything. He asked me again then why do you insist on getting to Amman? I smiled and told him" I told you I want to get to UK and this is possible only through Jordan because the British embassy in Syria doesn't give visas" he told me ok, wait outside ………..it has been 18 hours without food or water...and there is no one to buy anything from…I'm ready to pay 100$ for a sandwich and a bottle or water or at least let us go back home.

They say the Iraqi airplane will arrive at 2 p.m. but from past experience I don't believe that will happen, I believe it will be later than that.

I don't know what to say or feel, I need sleep, I need a sofa or bed, my body is aching from laying on the ground and sitting on the metal chairs, I'm hungry and thirsty….I'm angry, so sad and so so tired, I just want to scream.

I didn't think that I will go throw this experience again…..It's so devastating, it destroys my soul and body, it kills me to see these real, classy and good original Iraqi men and women laying and sleeping on the floor for no mistake they have committed…only because of our original sin …..the sin of being an Iraqi...I remember how these Jordanian pigs used to welcome us before when we were in power…..and when we became weak and in need to get in their country they humiliated us and refused us…I remember how we used to welcome them….I remember how they studied in our universities not only for free but the government was giving them a salary in US dollars when majority of Iraqis haven't seen the dollar or dreamed of holding one…I remember how Iraq used to give them oil for free!! I remember how nice we used to treat them in our universities and in the streets…and I see how they are paying it back to us….things will change and we will be strong and powerful again if god wills….Iraq is great and real Iraqis are greater….it's only the era of idiots controlling a great country and I wish it will be over as soon as possible….it's like someone who doesn't know how to ride a horse and he rides on a mustang, that's how our puppet politicians controls Iraq.

I can't watch this old professor who studied in the USA and worked for many many years in Canada and USA and got back to Iraq to help in building the country he always loved, he got back to Iraq to rebuild it and here he is laying on the floor because he wanted to have a vacation with his daughter and see his other daughter whom he haven't seen since 5 years…

In the airport jail there are three small rooms….one was occupied by men only (men who came without their families) and the two other rooms are for families…we (the detained Iraqis) arranged them like this….In my room there are: a brother and his sister who got a scholarship in an American University and wanted to go to the US…the professor and his daughter…two women who were delegated from the Iraqi government bank (Al-Rafidain Bank)….a Christian girl who wanted to go to the Pharmacy college in Amman because all her family lives there, she was in Baghdad to finish her high school.

In the other families room there are a stewardess in the Iraqi airlines with her two children!! Imagine they didn't let a stewardess that worked on our plane to get to Amman, she was even wearing the uniform!!.....a women with her two children who are students in a primary school in Amman.

In the men's room there are about 13 men, 6 of them are delegated from the ministry of anterior, and one of them is a big merchant and the rest I don't know much about.

It's 9 am now….we are so thirsty ….it has been 19 hours and they didn't brought any water to us…if any one wants to drink water he must drink from the WC tub….the WC was so dirty and I can't believe that anyone can drink from that…we told them we want to buy water and the pig officer replied someone will come soon to take your orders just wait…we will bring you breakfast by the way!!

I told him I don't want your food or water, I don't want anything from you…I want to buy my food and I want to buy my water…you either let me go and buy or send me someone to take my order, he said someone will take your order soon, just wait.

In our room we were chatting all the night we couldn't sleep because it's so hard to sleep in conditions like this…the floor is so dirty and the blankets are dirty too in addition that so many people were using it! People that you don't know how are they or how dirty they are or what disease they have…there is one pillow in each room, it was the treasure at that time…although you can see how clean it is!?

I was talking with that professor who I really admired for the science and experiences he have. He is so educated and classy….I asked him if you were living in the USA and you career was going well why did you get back to Iraq? He said" first of all my mother was crying every time I call her and she was begging me to get back…and when the revolution happened in Iraq and Ahmed Hassan Al Bakir became the president…the Iraqi government asked the scientist to get back to Iraq and help in rebuilding it…they asked each one personally…so I got back and as soon as I got back they asked for me in the governmental palace…as I went there they said thank you so much for being the first to respond to the call of the revolution…….." he stopped and his voice chocked when he said that last sentence…I looked at his face and I noticed his eyes were filled with tears and he was looking so sad, I immediately remembered my father who was in UK and was working there in the 80s and wanted to get back to Iraq. when my mother asked him why he answered her" simply because my country needs me, I must get back to build my country."

…..he stopped talking for about 15 minutes and he changed to another story, the story of his threatening, he said" one of my neighbors have left Iraq and left his home, we live in a neighborhood controlled by AlQaeda and because he is a Shiite he decided to leave his home and head to Jordan before he is threatened, so he left his house and asked me to look after it…one day I saw some people trying to break into his house I went outside and told them stop what are you doing, he said this house is mine now, the prince said so, I laughed and told him are you Muslim?

He said sure, I said don't you know the Quarn verse (to the religious people, don't enter houses that aren't yours unless you ask for permission and greet its owners* this is a translation for the verse it might not be so accurate but I tried to give the meaning*)…and I told him let me talk to your prince…an hour later he came back with someone and he begun yelling and cursing and he hit me then I called the awakening and they resolved the issue…few days later I received a poem written on a paper that says (don't you think we forgot you or will forget you, we will kill you and if not then we must be dead).

I told him then why didn't you leave Iraq? He said I'll never be afraid of such low lives, it's my country and I will never leave it, I left everything for it, and I'm not afraid, when god wants me to die, I'll die no matter what I do.

It's 10:15 am they finally brought a small bottle of water for each one and the breakfast (fried chicken!!) and someone came to take the order I ordered some chocolates, water and pizza (which the only alternative for chicken) I paid the guy and the rest were discussing what they want, and the bastard officer said "leave them, they are acting like young stupid kids, they will never decide" that's when I said enough is enough….I told him "why do you say that…I don't allow you to talk like this about descent Iraqi men, he said can't you see it has been a long time and they haven't decided what they want yet, I told him" can't you see that they don't have Jordanian Dinars! Can't you see that you don't accept Iraqi Dinar! Can't you see that they only have 100$ banknotes!! Can't you see the way they have slept the night! I'd like to see how will you act when you sleep like this…then I turned around and left him.

It's 1:00 pm they asked us to get ready because the plane has arrived, we carried our handbags and waited for the plane which to my surprise came at time. We reached Baghdad and I was feeling some happiness because I'll be able to sleep on a bed, on my bed in my home without humiliation I reached home at 6 pm.

Now when I review my writings I feel so much pain and very very sad , it was a different thing last time when they didn't let me in, I was going for a vacation and this time it was to secure my future and try to make my dreams true, last time when they didn't let me in I immediately went to Syria and I had so much fun that made me forget what happened and it's effects, but now….oh now…I'm so sad, I'm so sad, I even don't have the mood to write a letter, I feel my chest is getting narrower on my heart everyday and my lungs are getting smaller every minute…when I open my bags to put my stuff back I feel the failure with every jeans and shirt I put back…I feel the disappointment every minute, a stupid low life intelligence officer destroyed my future and killed my dreams, a legal dream of having a secure safe future, a dream of becoming a dentist in a place that appreciate science and doctors, not trying to kill each one of them….a dream of trying to have a normal life and live like the rest of the world do….not living as a prisoner in my home…where there is no place I can go without endangering my life…and even at home I'm not sure of my safety…a stupid officer made me sleep on the floor and starve me!! A stupid officer prevented us from seeing our families whom we miss so much…a stupid officer destroyed our dreams….

this is what happened in one day…this is a story for one person…just imagine every day how many stories like this happens…every day…can you imagine? This is a serious issue….I don't know what the Iraqis are made of to stand these crisis? What happens every day in that cursed airport is something so important, where is the media from all of this? It really requires the media attention, the light must be spotted on this issue and I'm ready to help as much as I can to expose the truth. http://last-of-iraqis.blogspot.com/2008/02/detained-again.html

Dakar Rally Cancelled

January 20, 2008

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Should western sportsmen exhibit their prowess in the midst of regional wars and difficulties?

As 2008 Olympic event in China approaches, human rights advocates are using the high profile event to protest Chinese policies across the world. How can a nation with such a bad human rights policy be the host of a hallowed, clean-spirited event as the Olympics?” charge critics. Now we have another angle. Organizers of the Dakar Rally across desert stretches of Africa have called their race off due to security fears. “If you want to be worthy of club membership in ‘our’ great sports competitions, change your politics.”

The 20 year odd ‘tradition’ of the Dakar car rally, 2008, from Portugal to Senegal was cancelled on short notice, not by the African states involved but by its French sponsors. It is hard to know if the decision is due to terrorist fears as officials claim.

Rallies like Dakar are really part of the neo-colonial trend of making western sports events more exotic. A form of ‘extreme sports’. Heavily financed participants race across rich, poor and far-flung corners of the world where poverty, negligence or local conflicts cause havoc among nearby inhabitants.

Sports events on this scale have shown little respect for the ills of local populations. They ignore their politics? If some carrot is offered to leaders, these transient, high-powered sportsmen care little about any raging war just a few miles away. Take the new tennis and golf competitions now held in Dubai and other Gulf Emirates, hardly an hour by plane to Iraq. And did you hear any protests from mountaineers and hikers to Nepal during the last decade of war there? Few Himalayan enthusiasts were willing to jeopardize their holidays by protesting that nation’s royal dictatorship and abuses. During the 40 years that I have known Nepal, I heard not a whisper from Peace Corps volunteers, anthropologists, trekkers, or the high altitude elites, that the widespread poverty supporting their cheap holidays was in anyway related to visitors themselves.

But the Dakar cancellation does not seem to have deterred others. I read in a local Algerian newspaper that a Harley Davidson club is planning a rally across this country in May. Up to a hundred motorcycle enthusiasts will roar across the mountains of Algeria and into the Sahara towards the nomad camps of the fabled Tourag in the far south.

Eid Al-Adha

December 19, 2007

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Eid Al-Adha from one’s neighborhood

In the Maghreb and across the globe, the spirit of Islam waves through us.

From New York—“I got your message and my best friend's message from Turkey this morning. Without these messages I wouldn't know if it was Eid today. You reminded me my childhood eids. Thanks. I can imagine the warm feelings everywhere.” AB

 

“This is so inspiring, I'm glad you're there to witness and be a part of it. And, yes I love the Algerians, especially their recitations. It's truly amazing that when we look for the Muslims we can find them anywhere we are in the world. May Allah bless you with success on this journey and inspire you with new vision.” AA

 

Dec. 19. 2007 Eid morning here in an Algerian neighborhood; awaking to fajr prayers and knowing that virtually everyone around me and across the nation is in prayer. The Algerian communal morning recitations, led by the president on TV at Jamiyeha Djedid near Bab Eloeud in the capital, has its 'Algerian' character, a spiritual music I’ve enjoyed nowhere else (except a trace of it among Tibetan Buddhists).

 

You can grasp it on our Tahrir web page in ‘prayers’—Algeria Qur’an recitation. (It is national rather than particular to Ghardia.) The rhythm and simplicity carry, I believe, the sufi tradition that, despite what others may believe, is very strong in Algeria, as in Morocco, etc. Enjoy it.

 

Algerians are one of the most 'religious' peoples I have encountered. The hadiths are widely known and invoked, and discussed in regular conversations. One feels a deep, deep love for the Prophet Mohammed. Love with knowledge.

 

The children are excited about the sheep in their apartments awaiting the sacrifice. I feel the joys of the children and the determination of the families, across all the neighborhoods, despite everything and economic difficulties that "C'est la fete".

 

I turn on the TV after my prayers and watch the broadcast from Mecca, touched by the exaltations of the pilgrims realizing their lifetime dream. The on-camera commentators are surprisingly profane in contrast to the landscape of ‘realizing’ pilgrims in the beyond. It reflects how private and divine the hajj experience is. (Many other Arab stations are broadcasting pop songs or talk shows and Al-Jazeera, true to form, has some ‘talking political heads’.)

 

Algeria TV, after the prayer traditionally visits hospitals and old age centers to talk to children, veterans and others without families nearby. It is always touching and I think really shows the depth of feeling for this holy day, the only program I like on Algerian TV. Festivals are especially meaningful to the old and the young.

 

best to you and your families for a joyous Eid

Presidents today fall far short of our expectations…this includes university presidents

September 30, 2007

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Presidents today are falling far short of our expectations…this includes university presidents. Many of you must be aware how the president of Columbia University in NY, one of our nation's most prestigious and wel endowed universities, behaved with his opening remarks to the Iranian president. If you missed the spectacle, you can witness it on Youtube.

I wonder if Bollinger realized how much he sounded like a puppet parroting a slogans forced on him by his political 'owners'.

For over 15 minutes, in an introduction to the demure, still silent guest, Columbia's president, prefaced by remarks on the merits of free speech in America, launched into a tirade of unparalleled rudeness and foul taste. It is hard to believe this happened in the USA, let alone at a center of higher learning. We condemn white extremists for talk like this. Yet, Bollinger's remarks were actually applauded by some in the audience.

There is general agreement, that in response to the odious remarks by the Columbia chief, the Iranian head of state handled the situation with grace and intelligence. He may even have gained support from within Iran, from Iran's  university faculty as well as the general public, and from people arorund the world who are already familiar with America's excesses in nationalism and displays of self righteousness.  

What adds to my surprise about this regretable display by the Columbia U. president is the American response. Forget about the mainstream media here, for we well know about their loyalties and their agendas. What shocks one is the complete silence and therefore endorsement of Bollinger's behavior by our American academic community.

Richard Bullet, a senior professor and director of the ME Institute at Columbia has first of all chosen to remain silent. A resignation in protest would be in order, I think. Or he could appear in a public protest. At least he and supporters might publish a letter threatening the president with a boycott.

Alas, we hear not a word, neither from Bullet, nor from the coterie of Arab American faculty who are Columbia's prized in-house Arab World experts. For years now, one by one, those men have been subjected to threats, attacks; now with this crisis, they seem to be duly cowed. They had been fighting for years to hold on to their shaky seats. Perhaps, having succeeded to fight off the campaign to oust them, how could they again jeopardize that hard won security?

OK; let's say I understand why Columbia's faculty are in too tenuous a position. To openly object, they risk their jobs. But what about professors of our other universities?

Our universities, whether private, state, city, or otherwise, claim to be islands of progress, imbued with superior morality, enjoying limitless free speech. Have you heard a word from heads of universities, faculty, and students associations about Bollinger's behavior? Are there any campus actions underway anywhere in the country in defense of traditional university ethical and ideological standards?

If so, let me know, for I have missed them.

In the 70s, I was a research associate at that same department, the School of International Affairs at Columbia, where Bollinger made his remarks. I saw then how that institute is linked to the US State Department Not only ideologically by its choice of staff and teaching matter, but in terms of its faculty, it works within government policy. I tolerated that at the time. I also accepted as a fact of Columbia University life, the overwhelming Zionist influence in faculty appointments, on-campus programs, public lecture series, and recruitment of students.

But this recent display crosses a boundary. Given that a program was planned and a dignitary was invited, why and how the odious tirade by Bollinger was permissible, I cannot comprehend.

Fortunately, I chose not to work in an American university. Being an independent scholar is difficult on many fronts. One works with neither medical insurance nor a pension. Yet, today I feel proud that I can speak freely about this disgusting event and I feel I am beyond the intimidation threats that a university career imposes on its members. I am fortunately not beholden to people like Bollinger and his gang.

With the publication of my new book, I had recently been considering a speaking engagement at Columbia. Now I voluntarily abjure that idea. Who will join me?

Soldiers Tell the Truth--Is It Enough?

August 05, 2007

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

American soldiers' testimonials: Part 2

Chris Hedges is a graduate of Harvard Divinity School who went on to a career as a foreign correspondent for a number of newspapers. So one should not be surprised that he is the thinker and writer who is asking questions about how soldiers view their killings and their related war work. In a recent article " The Death Mask Of War: American Marines and soldiers have become socialized to atrocity" (Information Clearing House, July 29, 07), Hedges concludes "The war in Iraq is now primarily about murder. There is very little killing."

 

He proceeds to ask essential questions one rarely hears: what is the culture supporting these murders? He recognizes the answer does not lie in a profitable defense industry, or the appeal of advanced weapons technology, or the immaturity of soldiers, boys barely out of highschool.

Hedges, like many of us, has heard those gruesome, soft-spoken, often cool-headed testimonials by US Iraq was veterans recalling their murderous careers. "The Iraq war", he notes, "has unleashed a new wave of embittered veterans not seen since the Vietnam War. It has made it possible for us to begin, again, to see war's death mask."

Those testimonials seem to have the affect of absolving the young Americans from person responsibility. --He was just doing his job. He was young and ill-prepared. It's the officers and politicians who are responsible.-- That's the spin of the anti-war movement. It's almost like a Truth-and-Reconciliation exercise. Except this one is just for local consumption; it reconciles nothing with Iraqis.

Hedges' report looks more deeply than others into what lays behind the barbarity of US troops. "War", he notes, "is also the pornography of violence. It has a dark beauty, filled with the monstrous and the grotesque. The Bible calls it "the lust of the eye" and warns believers against it." Let us admit to the appeal in examining, over and over, the naked bodies of abused Iraqi men held at the US's Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Surely there is some irresistible voyeurism to be indulged in as, in the comfort of our living rooms, we view body parts and mutilated corpses of the enemy.

It is not just the troops on the ground doing the killing. It is the culture which educated and trained these men; it is the community who, voluntarily or otherwise, support the invasion and occupation.

"War allows us to engage in lusts and passions we keep hidden in the deepest, most private interiors of our fantasy life," notes Hedges. "It allows us to destroy not only things, but human beings. In that moment of wholesale destruction, we wield the power to the divine, the power to revoke another person's charter to live on this earth. The frenzy of this destruction -- and when unit discipline breaks down, or

there was no unit discipline to begin with, frenzy is the right word -- sees armed bands crazed by the poisonous elixir our power to bring about the obliteration of others delivers. All things, including human beings, become objects -- objects to either gratify or destroy or both. Almost no one is immune. The contagion of the crowd sees to that.

"It takes little in wartime to turn ordinary men into killers. Most give themselves willingly to the seduction of unlimited power to destroy, and all feel the peer pressure to conform. Few, once in battle, find the strength to resist. Physical courage is common on a battlefield. Moral courage is not."

Are sergeants and other officers who receive recruits into the battlefield know they are taping into these conditions--the unlimited power to destroy; the ease of seeing someone darker skinned and unable to communicate with him, as subhuman?

So the Iraqi street, which is the battlefield, is like a graduate school that turns boys into men. There, they can indulge in unlimited exercises to prove their manliness, to justify their being in an alien land, to make America's  (and their own) presence there seem totally right, and justified.

Hedges, by the end of his review of soldiers' confessions, suggests that these testimonials have the redemptive power to save us from ourselves. They remove the mask.

Here, I disagree with Hedges. These are exercises of cleansing that will allow us to do them again, and that allow us to become the only arbiter and moral judge of war. We ourselves are not the appropriate persons to assess our wrongs.

For me, the danger of these truth sessions is to conclude that since we have told the truth, there need be no further searching-- neither jural, moral, spiritual or psychological. It is as if no one else need judge an American. A very dangerous outcome.

Iraq and the US. more than a four-year war

March 19, 2007

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Iraq and the US. More than a four-year war

I often wonder, when I hear the morning's headlines, why US news give the numbers of those Iraqi women and men dead in bombings in Iraq before they mention that four, six or one American soldier died that day. I often wonder why our national papers and American TV networks splash picture after picture of crying men staggering among the ruins of their homes and streets. Why do they broadcast Iraqis carrying their corpses and not Americans?

Is it because Americans care more about the Iraqi dead?

Do these images really impact readers and viewers here? Do they arouse in the US public, an abhorrence for war, and the loss of Iraq to the world? Do they inform our citizens what Iraqis really experience?

Some soldiers are writing blogs and books about what army life is like. These may provide anecdotes for Americans at home funding the war, and the families of those boys defending their country. I doubt if they inform. They make no more of an impact than memoirs by retired US generals and viceroys in Iraq.

          The anti-war movement here is growing, they say. If this is true, the rising ire of Americans still lags behind the demands of people worldwide. In Asia and Europe and South America, the antagonism is furious. Given the increase of security across the US, publicly protesting Washington policies is increasingly hazardous. We are kept farther from the earshot of politicians. So the anti-war protests underway, especially in the USA, is somewhat encouraging.

Yet, the prisons in Iraq, in Israel, and in Guantanamo along with the secret dungeons brim with women and men accused of threatening democracy--Israeli or American. (Let us not forget that Iraq and Iraqi nationalism is viewed as a threat to Israel.)

To mark the beginning of the fifth year of the military occupation and destruction of Iraq, I don't know where to rest my attention. Shall I pray for the souls of those friends long dead--Mustafa, Umaya, Khalaf, Nuha--somehow gratified that they did not live to witness this. Or for those who persist--teaching, repairing torn bodies, caring for aged parents, planting a few acres of wheat, transmitting news--because they will not abandon Iraq. Some believe that their very endurance inside the country can help forestall a total calamity.

This fourth anniversary means little to many of us who understood that the American and Zionist assaults began a generation ago. Iraq was "contained" in a US supported war with Iran for 8 years. Then came the 1991 Gulf War followed by the 12-year embargo war. The plan may not have gone as smoothly as was hoped. But, like the Zionist agenda on Palestine, this aggression on Iraq is a complex and long-term plan. We would do well to keep this in mind when searching for solutions.

 

 

 

Little Mosque on the Prairie, a Canadian TV Comedy

February 10, 2007

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

I wonder how the planners of the Little Mosque, a new TV comedy series, decided to locate Mercy, the mythical inter-faith community where this story takes place, out on the Canadian prairies? Did they know that Regina, Saskatchewan is said to be home to the oldest mosque in North America, built 150 years ago. (This record applies to modern times; we often forget about the much earlier African Muslim immigration of up to 700 years earlier.)

In any case, now as then, few of us associate the Canadian prairies with Arabs and other immigrants, especially Muslims. But of course, the inhabitants of Canada's prairies have heard about 9/11. And, like Americans, they are nervous about newcomers.

It is this anxiety combined with the personalities of a community of Muslims in this small prairie town that furnish the lines and laughs for this new comedy series. Anything and anyone is game for a laugh. Why not Muslims? Especially when interfaith dialogue and scholarship seem to be failing.

This comedy series appears to be an outgrowth of standup comedy routines, mainly by a new generation of young Arab and Muslim entertainers on the comedy scene in recent years, and the talent of Muslim-Canadian writers like its creator, Zarqa Nawaz.

Even so, I was a bit apprehensive when I first learned about Little Mosque. Viewing clips of the weekly program on YouTube, I immediately liked it. It is tasteful, well acted, and funny. Some of the lines seem to come straight out of the Arab American Comedy Festival.

 Little Mosque on the Prairie  has the requisite characters: Fatima, a Black Canadian who waitresses at the local deli; the blustering but harmless Baber, a new immigrant critical of anything and anyone White, Sara, a convert to Islam who works for the town's lady mayor and is married to Yasir, the community leader. They have a hip, pretty daughter, Rayyan. (Of the women, some cover their heads and some don't.) Into their midst comes the handsome bachelor Amaar; he's been hired as the Imam of the new mosque. Then we have a benevolent Christian, Rev. McGee, always ready to step in as mediator between the sometimes-bumbling Muslims and the suspicious white folks and incompetent police. It helps, I think, that many of the actors seem to be of Asian origin if not Muslims themselves. (Director Nawaz, born in the UK, moved to the Canadian prairies after her marriage.) They play characters who are cute and flirtatious, naive, conciliatory, aggressive, isolationist, provocative, and angry.

I guess Little Mosque falls into the genre of sitcom, 'situation' or 'family' comedy. It plays on misconceptions--not only those about Muslims-- and fears that we all recognize. The closest we have in fictional writing to 'Little Mosque' is the new novel Girl in the Tangerine Scarf, by Mohja Kahf where we find some of the same absurdities created by being Muslim in America. The humor in Kahf's novel has not yet hit home with American readers, although I could easily see it as a screenplay.

Political satire, although little recognized beyond its borders, has become a hallmark of modern Canadian culture. Perhaps the development of Little Mosque is an extension of Canada's deep-rooted quality satire. Yet, Little Mosque unquestionably is a breakthrough in political terms. It speaks to the universal, not only in its humor but also through its characters and the events they encounter. From the clips I reviewed, the foibles and fears that Little Mosque on the Prairie builds on are as American as they are Canadian, British and European.

The series, although widely reviewed in the US media, did not emerge from that culture where, we are told, American networks and administrators are desperately trying to win the Muslim public. I doubt if an American network will pick it up. Somehow Americans seem too attached to violence to work with something like this.

What about the rest of the clash-of-civilization world? I am particularly curious to see how viewers in Arab and Muslim countries will react. Having lived in many of those lands, I cannot imagine Islam associated with comedy entertainment. TV in the Gulf States, Syria, Algeria, Egypt address Islam in their abundant educational and spiritual programs. If they should care about difficulties Muslims face in the West, they can watch  deadly serious US (propaganda) documentaries--some State Dept-funded --laden with measured opinions and professorial conclusions--almost all by non-Muslims--along with predictable testimonies by US Muslim citizens, all predicated on the myth that our life began on 9/11.

We wait to see how, after a score of weekly episodes, if Little Mosque can reach beyond the clichéd sources of tension and conflict offered in the early episodes. What will be left to learn about these folks in Mercy, Saskatchewan, after we have run through the stereotypical airport scene, the gay swimming instructor, hijab shopping, and abundant 'explosives' metaphors? Surely there is a limit to the terrorism-related metaphors the series' producers are currently building on. Then the show's charm and talent will be put to the test. I hope they succeed.

You can view dozens on clips from the series on YouTube. Or you can go to CBC TV Little Mosque.

At The Expense of Democracy

December 18, 2006

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Hamas leaders have announced they will not participate the in the Palestinian elections called by PA president Mahmoud Abbas. Can you blame them? They did it the right way a year ago after many hard, hard years of building up their party in local communities, addressing on-the-ground needs of Palestinians as well as articulating a reasonable political platform for a new state. Hamas is not a threatening 'Islamist' party but a party built on supporting popular resistance to a horrendous, disabling occupation strategy.
    Over the years, Hamas appealed not only to Muslim citizens enduring the disabling effect of Zionist occupation and a corrupted Fatah Palestinian administration. Christian and Muslim Palestinians alike understood the principles of the Hamas Party and turned to it as their confidence in Fatah was eroded. 
    Moreover, the rise of the Hamas Party was a gradual, maturing process of more than 15 suffering years. Although the American public may have been surprised at their victory in the national election last year, Palestinians were not. Nor was Israel, whose agents and military know everything than is going on the in 'prison' that is Palestine. For a decade, Hamas had been winning in key university and local elections. On their side, Hamas was not new to government either. The West may hear of Hamas only in the context of conflict (a status Israel prefers). In reality, the movement is a sophisticated local level organization and a mature political party.
    Unlike some guerrilla organizations who concentrate on military resistance, Hamas early on formed itself into an administrative structure. One of the reasons for its recent political success was its ability to address the daily needs of citizens and to organize communities in crisis as well as formulate an appealing ideology.  In any case, the world knows that their victory in the last election was earned fair and square.
    The shameful, cowardly, bullying response of the occupier and of Washington is also well known. They declared Hamas 'outlaw'. Government funds and aid was frozen so that they could not administer. Israel stepped up assassinations of its leaders. Then Israel actually kidnapped at least 14 of their parliamentary members. Kidnapped an elected body!!
     As the Chilean dictator is buried this week, we are reminded of the words of the American Secretary of State who hailed the military overthrow of the democratically elected president, Salvador Allende, in 1973. Representing US policy in Chile, he said: "I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people…". How many more democracies will we destroy for the sake of our stingy definition of democracy?

Lynne Stewart's Victory

October 17, 2006

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

They were energetic and vocal on this early Monday morning (October 16, 2006) in downtown Manhattan. Yet it was palpably not a cheerful group that made its way across the city square to the US Federal courthouse.

Six TV crews crowding around the white haired woman were not from mainstream press but from community rights organizations. Individuals behind her held banners calling: "Free Lynne Stewart", Justice for Lynne", "We Love You Lynne", and "Win Lynne Win".

Civil Rights attorney Lynne Stewart made a short speech thanking supporters--those 2-300 who eschewed work that morning to give witness to her ordeal. She assured the crowd of her struggle, then slowly made her way to court. Along the route, she reached out to grasp hands of well-wishers, recognizing many in the crowd. Then she moved a few more meters, arm in arm with her husband Ralph, a retired schoolteacher and union organizer. Three of their fourteen grandchildren pressed close to her side.

The crowd passed police barriers and guards that now encircle every American courthouse. Office workers, unaware of this historic moment, rushed past, uninterested. At the courthouse gate, we found extra security guards posted--'in case of trouble'. The crowd clearly was reluctant to let Lynne and her husband proceed forward, even though they knew she must. They knew, as Lynne herself did, that she might be taken from the courtroom in shackles, never to see these streets again, forbidden to see even her grandchildren. US government prosecutors requested a 30-year sentence! At 67, this meant the rest of her life in prison.

"I brought my medications and my books to the courtroom with me today", Lynne announced to her well-wishers. She tried to smile. If the judge this morning followed the government's directive, she knew that she might be escorted straight to a prison cell.

 Two years ago, this well-known civil rights attorney with a long and distinguished record for aiding the poor and voiceless, was found guilty by a US federal court of aiding 'terrorists'. In this case, it was her own client Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman whom she had visited in prison where he is serving life.

Lynne Stewart has been a vocal defender of civil rights all her life. During the many months between the time of her conviction and her sentencing she refused to do what most fearful citizens awaiting sentencing would, i.e. lay low and try to appease the government. No. Lynne Stewart traveled to every corner of the USA speaking to community groups and college students about the erosion of American civil liberties in recent years and the injustice being directed to her.

Stewart was willing to become a martyr. She would cross the country, speaking wherever she could, warning fellow Americans how the current (Bush) administration had eliminated civil liberties and eroded constitutional protections.

Behind Stewart's conviction is the issue of the government's invasion of attorney-client privilege. This had been a sacred right in American law: namely that any exchange between an attorney and his client is private and protected. After the imposition of the first US anti-terrorist laws in the mid-1990s, the government began to wiretap attorneys' conversations with their clients. Thus the 'evidence' on Lynne's exchange with Abdul Rahman.

When Stewart herself was charged as 'abating terrorism', it was a very serious matter. Lynne took up the challenge of her defense arguing that the evidence was obtained illegally. "This is a constitutional issue," she said to me several years back in one of our many radio interviews. "This is not just about me. I am challenging the government's invasion of an attorney's rights and the erosion of our Constitution that protects this." Not only did Lynne appear on my program and other alternative media. The legal professional across the country saw her challenge as a test case for the Constitution. Thus, her struggle began to receive wide attention. She spoke out forcefully. Legal experts closely followed the case.

How was it that, in a case of terrorism, the most serious of all legal issues in the USA today, Stewart was traveling across the country addressing public gatherings. "I have two sons, both successful, and they were able to meet my half million dollars bail. So I am not in a cell. And I am going to use my freedom of movement to speak out about these injustices.

"The government has said I cannot practice law, the core love in my life--I am disbarred during the time the case is being heard. So I intend to use my 'time out' speaking wherever I can about my case. All Americans must be informed how our government is depriving us of our rights."

I've worked with Ms. Stewart since the mid 1990s when we profiled on my radio program the US government's use of 'secret evidence'. Most of those cases involved Muslims and Arabs. Stewart and a handful of attorneys successfully defended those accused men when government prosecutors had withheld evidence on the claim that it was too sensitive to share with the court. They forced the government's hand, revealing that in fact the 'secret evidence' was baseless.  It was a victory.

Then came September 11, 2001. New anti-terrorist laws were enacted and a new government aggressively prosecuted people on the slightest suspicion. Some of those men acquitted in the phony secret evidence charges were back in jail. Thousands of Muslims were apprehended; hundreds of thousands were questioned by FBI and other security officials; many were deported secretly without trial, and most of the few who were able to mount a defense were convicted. It was and remains a very tense and troubling atmosphere for Muslims in the USA.

In Lynne's prosecution, the government reached beyond Muslim victims. It targeted any attorney who dared to defend a terror suspect. It threatened that they too could face possible imprisonment. This was another reason for Stewart to fight back... and win.

The case had a chilling effect in the legal profession. Attorneys who had once defended Muslim suspects had already stepped back from taking their cases. Some even distanced themselves from Lynne when she dared to challenge the government.

As the 'war on terrorism' expanded, the political atmosphere across the USA grew less tolerant. The government has managed to thwart attempts to apply the rule of habeas corpus for the Quantanimo captives and others accused of association with al-Qaeda or terror. This mood was not a promising one for Lynne Stewart.

She had been extraordinarily brave in speaking out. She summoned extraordinary energy to fight back. With the result that thousands began to rally in her favor. Over 1,200 letters were written to the judge attesting Lynne's fine character and her life of service. Defense funds were raised. Stewart herself wrote a lengthy letter to the judge explaining her actions and asking for mercy.

Something worked.

At 2 pm yesterday afternoon, Lynne Stewart emerged from the court to be met by hundreds of cheers and a now expanded national media.

The judge had been extraordinarily responsive. He handed down a 28-month sentence: two years and 4 months. It was a victory. "Heck, I can do that standing on my head," was Lynne's tearful although smiling response.

Moreover, Lynne does not have to serve this sentence until her appeal on the original charge is settled. That will take another year, perhaps longer. So Lynne is gearing up for another court battle. Forty-eight hours later she attended an ifthar dinner in Brooklyn and gave a rousing speech to the crowd.

Stewart's is one of the few victories in the long struggle to restore democratic rights in the USA. Citizens must seize it and follow this woman's courage.

Details of the case are available on www.LynneStewart.org.

Time Out for Lebanon

August 02, 2006

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

Sixteen years ago today, Iraqi troops marched into Kuwait. Just four days later, August 6, 1990,  U.N. Security Council Resolution 687 was passed. It held far reaching implications and must have been designed months or years before. The U.N. plan doomed the Arab aggressor who had been armed to fight the American enemy, Iran, for eight years. Resolution 687 set in motion the notorious blockade of Iraq and the 1991 Gulf War, allowed Israel's disregard for the Oslo Accord and other treaties that might lead to Palestinian statehood, and prepared the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Is Israel's American-backed destruction by of Lebanon supposed to ease my worries about Iraq and to forget Palestine's sovereign rights? I read that fifty Arab souls were blown to bits in Baghdad. But today the toll in Lebanon is 57. One attack was carried out by my people in internecine war--Arabs killing Arabs. Distasteful. The other was by my enemy.

I mustn't mention that this same enemy was deeply involved at every stage in Iraq's demise; this same enemy gleefully supported the 2003 Iraq invasion; the same enemy entered Iraq behind U.S. troops, or perhaps at their side; this same enemy planned bombings in Iraq that helped fuel inter-religious attacks and inflame sectarian animosities. I must not remember that this same enemy supported the rise of Hamas in the 1980s as a counter to the PLO and Fatah's opposition to occupation. I mustn't let any feelings of pride in the Hizbullah's actions in the past and today, show.

I must only mourn for my dead brothers and sisters. Better still if I shout against our Arab leaders for their cowardice and their complicity with the United States. So Kuwaiti women have been given the right to vote, thanks to the lobbying of our American feminist and human rights advocates. There has been some progress; Arab people are catching up.

Numbers published about the attacks on Lebanon that most alarm me are not of deaths--I know how efficient a killing machine Israel is.

What I note is the list of Lebanon's American and European residents: 40,000 Canadians, 25,000 Americans; 20,000 British. More than 100,000 foreigners had homes and were raising their families in the country. Each must have invested over $75,000. to do this. Some surely helped rebuild the great, little nation, hiring teachers, patronizing local businesses, buying books and cars and ice-cream. Hardly 100 miles from Beirut, following the Oslo Peace deal in 1993, expatriate Palestinians, even those who did not wholly approve of the peace treaty details, said 'never mind, let's start to rebuild'. Within a few years, many thousands of families had resettled in the West Bank and Gaza; they opened shops and schools, clinics and construction companies. Early investors made a good return in businesses serving new middle class consumers; more profits were realized through land sales… for a while. Most benefit however went to Israeli suppliers since Palestinian communities were landlocked, local industry was thwarted, forcing Arabs to obtain their construction materials and almost all food through Israeli suppliers.

Lebanon is not the same as Palestine. After the end of its civil war in 1990--alas, another sectarian war--reconstruction began and proceeded smoothly and rapidly. Eventually major financiers, many of them Arab investors, joined the economic boom and expansion continued. Lebanon once again offered Arabs more liberties, greater cultural diversity, superior food, seminars, books, a first class Arabic education, entertainment and a rich cosmopolitan life that is quintessentially Arab. Rural life has always been integrated into Lebanese society. Many are amazed how Lebanon's much admired qualities were rejuvenated, even though economic disparities that were behind the civil war had not been addressed.

Iraqi refugees have moved to Lebanon and added to its flavor and energy; Kuwaitis and Canadians, and Argentineans and Brazilians built summer homes there. The export industry flourished. Arabs from around the world go to Lebanon to publish their books, study theater, meet grandmothers, and have cosmetic surgery.

Cosmopolitanism is as dear to Lebanon as the Hizbullah party is. After driving the Israeli occupiers out of the south in 2000, the Hizbullah  movement remained at work; as a legitimate party it widened its in social, political and economic programs. After the Syrians were threatened by the Americans and left Lebanon, Hizbullah remained true to its agenda.  It had always been genuinely Lebanese. Now it is truly Arab.

Watching Torture--and the UN Report

May 24, 2006

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

So the United Nations has somehow found the spine to censure the USA on its treatment of foreign prisoners. Yet, we note that the UN report (Monday,May 22) refers only to Guantanamo Bay captives and the practice of transferring detainees for punishment outside US territory. Should we be pleased by the UN statement?

Should the captives themselves be hopeful? And if the US government is culpable, what can an American say to the men and women who, for more than 4 years, have being subjected to things we really cannot imagine, even with the photos?

I doubt that the tortures we saw practiced in Afghanistan and Iraq were invented for Muslims and Arabs.

African Americans say that Abu Ghraib exercises are neither new, nor unique to Iraq; American Black men are subject to similar humiliations and torture in US prisons. Remember how police treated the MoveOn prisoners in 1980 in Philadelphia when Black men were striped and marched naked in the streets?

Did you not see photos of naked Iraqi young men, captured and striped by US soldiers, immediately following the arrival of foreign troops in Baghdad? The youths had been forced to walk uncovered through the streets. Somehow, no journalist or human rights officers noted the racial underpinnings of that action.

We heard about how Jews were forced to desecrate their holy book during their persecution in Europe. We have photos of massacred Japanese and Vietnamese men and women, many of them mutilated and exposed. (It seems we maintain a taboo on photos of mutilated Whites —western men and women--except to demonstrate the savagery of enemies.)

On the www.afterdowningstreet.org site one can scroll through a collection of ‘disturbing’ pictures. It seems the bodies and body-parts posted there belong to Iraqi women and men...and children. In some pictures of the Arab ‘victim’ we see groups of American servicemen standing casually beside the dead.

Analysts point out that today’s high-tech, compact cameras and internet make it possible for these pictures of death, abuse, torture and gross immoral acts to reach the masses. As a result (we maintain), we now learn the truth. These awful facts can no longer be hidden from the public, we argue. We demand investigations ; we will make our government accountable, we say.

Our righteous, angry, progressive movement with hundreds of hard-working investigative journalists, prides itself on the discovery of US crimes against humanity. No matter that it takes years to uncover. The revelations seem to cleanse our culture and conscience. American is not so bad, after all-- because we expose the truth.

Hearing the UN’s call for the closure of Guantanamo prison, I and my families doubt if justice will be restored.

Long, long before the release of those shocking photos, most ordinary Iraqis and Afghans knew that terrible things were being done in the prisons. Even after the Abu Ghraib scandal broke across the world, mistreatment did not stop in the dozens of US prisons and other dungeons across Iraq.

Whatever journalistic essays reveal and the United Nations censures, the American vase of democracy seems broken. Perhaps the damage is irreparable. Too much humiliation has been heaped on hundreds of thousands in Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan. Its affect is cumulative, and unstoppable.

As we observe, resistance to US power and arrogance is accelerating globally. And across the world, Iraq’s insurgency might seem like a reasonable response—a justification not only for prison abuses but for the daily invasion of thousands of homes, farms, schools and streets, and for 12 years of a merciless and unprecedented UN-overseen blockade.

From One End Of Wall Street To The Other

March 15, 2006

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

At the southern tip of Manhattan, the opposite end from Spanish Harlem, is Wall Street. A quintessential symbol of supreme power, the street is barely 200 meters long.

WBAI Radio’s offices and studios, where I work, are on Wall Street. So I’m frequently in the neighborhood. Three short blocks away from my building is the financial hub of the country—the New York Stock Exchange. Another 100 meters beyond is the big hole in the air, that awful record of the collapsed World Trade towers.

The neighborhood has become more frequently visited since 9/11/2001. Every day, tourists come by here. They arrive by tour bus, by foot, and by subway. They move around guards and barriers with respect, photographing NYSE, the super-size flags, the guards and gothic columns.

No private cars are permitted.

Nearby the Stock Exchange are offices of hundreds of financial companies where thousands of young people toil, night and day. They are ambitious and hard-working MBA graduates from across the USA—future stockbrokers and company managers. I can’t enter their offices. But I see where they exercise. Numerous sports clubs, some at street level, are located in the immediate vicinity of their Wall Street offices. I glimpse those young wannabe executives huffing and puffing on treadmills and cycling machines. Early mornings. At lunch-time. After work. All young, all fit, all well groomed, they must stay trim to advance in the financial world.

Raj, an aspiring stockbroker originally from India, tells me he’s at the office until after midnight. It’s his job to witness the opening postings of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

This neighborhood is equally busy at midnight and during the day, but not with restaurant and theatre visitors. Lines of black limos park nearby Wall Street waiting for the young executives to come off their shift. Lines of fast food couriers stand in the cold with boxes of pizza and fried chicken-- nourishment for those staying through the night. Whatever the hour, this place is alive.

Since radio is a 24-hour operation too, we journalists also find ourselves leaving our office late, but without a limousine standing by. Our low budget ‘peace and justice’ radio station moved into the neighborhood before 2001, when Manhattan was losing tenants.

After 9/11, things changed. Despite predictions that the city was unsafe and that many residents would flee, that didn’t happen. The city center seems to have more glamour and appeal than ever before.

Books, Like Radio, Still Count

February 17, 2006

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

“That’s it; radio is finished!” cried educators and journalists in the 1950s, when television moved into our homes. Radio was headed for the dustbin, they said.

They were wrong. Radio is expanding today, with internet broadcasting, satellite radio, podcasting, and micro-radio. Radio programs like the Diane Ryme Show www.wamu.org archive their broadcasts so we can download and listen to anything, anytime.

Thus, I’m skeptical when people say the internet will render books obsolete. Doubtless internet reading is appealing. Since our young prefer to read news online, newspapers are expanding online editions. At the same time we learn that internet browsers devote only 45 minutes a week reading news whereas we paper-readers spend 45 minutes each day with printed news! Let’s see how online news competes when it ceases to be free.

In any case, book publishing seems to be unassailable. Look how many people are writing a book, if not a blog! The subjects we can find between the covers of books is overwhelming. And poets never stop writing.

Visiting London recently, I noticed that bookstores were more numerous across the city. Bookstore children’s departments were larger too. I am told more English language books are published than ever before—100,000 new titles a year in USA; 140,000 in Britain!

Surely, book popularity is tied to the proliferation of great stories for children. Harry Potter books are part of a wider phenomena. Children’s books— terribly overpriced-- is an expanding business in the US and UK.

Books offer the promise of celebrity to unknowns and more celebrity to the famous. Look! Clinton’s autobiography is a bestseller! Even Paul Bremer, the disgraced US viceroy to Iraq, wrote a book.

Books lead to TV appearances and book tours. Oprah Winfrey, the beloved American talk-show host, mostly interviews authors on her program. Oprah’s Book Club helped revitalize reading among Americans. So have coffee bars. Many bookstores have lounges where people can meet, sip coffee and buy books. Busboys and Poets (www.teachingforchange.org) in Washington is a literary adventure. Launched by my friend Anas Shallal, ‘Busboys’ is a theater, a bookstore and a café.

As a radio producer, I am deluged with new books to review. Publishers send their latest releases. Authors eager for an interview contact me to announce their availability. Among a lot of rubbish, I always find gems.

Oh dear; I forgot. This is a, ummm, blog, isn't it?

 

Tahrir Podcast

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Tahrir Diwan

a poem.. a song..

Naomi Shihab Nye reads "Return"
America's award-winning poet, Naomi Shihab Nye

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Qur'an Surat Al-Laila
from 'Approaching the Qur'an' CD, male reciter

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Book review

Parvez Sharma's
Jihad for Love
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Hanan alShaykh and Tahrir members

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