Blogging the democratic revolution
Egypt has been rattled by two sets of terrorist attacks in the past few days; one sequence of bombings in the resort area of Dahab three days ago, and today two suicide bombers blew themselves up near security forces. There is, for sure, no lack of purpose or symbolism that accompanies these attacks. It is an attack on the tourism industry, and by extension, any Muslim that is making disposable income and is enjoying life (as most of those injured were Muslims). It is also an attack on the Mubarak regime’s legitimacy. Attacking the tourism industry is a favorite for…
The Shia-led United Iraqi Alliance, which is the largest bloc in parliament and is therefore constitutionally obligated to nominate for approval the prime minister, has decided within itself to scrap Ibrahim al-Jaafari as its candidate for the post and has instead voted to nominate someone new. His name is Jawad al-Miliki. No comment yet from the Kurdish, SUnni, and secular parties. BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq’s ruling Shi’ite Alliance nominated Jawad al-Maliki as its new candidate for prime minister on Friday in an effort to end four months of political paralysis over the formation of a new government. No immediate reaction…
Yesterday, at a meeting with the Algerian speaker of parliament, Ammar Sadani (or Saadani), the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared that the years of “discord” among the Muslim countries was over. These years of discord had allowed Israel to occupy Palestine and for the West to dominate the lands of Islam. But, the “enemies” of the ummah had been weakened by recent developments in the Middle East, and, Ahmadinejad said, Iran and Algeria could change the balance of power in the Middle East against Israel and the United States. Sadani, in support of the Iranian president, responded, ever carefully, by…
What do most Americans think of when they hear the terms “Middle East” or “Arab world”? Perhaps images of angry young men wearing green head bands, marching to their death, in the West Bank, or car bombs in Baghdad. Others might think of imposing sight of Saddam Hussein or Yasser Arafat; the more informed might imagine the image of Muamar al-Qaddafi, decked out in his flamboyant robes. Many might imagine impoverished beduins or angry mobs protesting against the Zionist Enemy as they carry placards as they advance down a beige boulevard in Cairo or Damascus. Few would imagine Rami Khoury,…
Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak recently ruffled feathers in the Arab world when he publically questioned the loyalty of Arab Shiites not only to the Arab nation, but also to their own homelands. “Most of the Shiites are loyal to Iran, and not the countries they are living in,” he said. Such fears in the Arab East are long standing and often taken in a very matter of fact way when the region????????s Sunnis look at their Shiite neighbors???????? affinity for portraits of Iranian political leaders and mosques built with Iranian funds. Suspicion among the region????????s various groups has only been…
I noticed this photo on the Yahoo! site, listed as one of the most frequently viewed and emailed. It’s interesting because at my workplace, the photo editor was struck by the strangeness of the photo, too, and called me over to look at it as something disgusting. He pointed out that the hackneyed peace symbolism, the dictator-pleasing dance concept, and the scary topic – nuclear uranium – all combined to create a surprisingly Orwellian image. The phony joy of the lobotomized culties just happens to match the ayatollahs’ announcement of “happy news” about Iran’s new uranium enrichment program. Kim Jong…
I received an email from my friend Abu Khawla, coordinator of the Lafif Lakhdar International Defense Committee (Lakhdar is a Tunisian secularist and reformist who got a death fatwa by London-based imams). Below, I am reporting Khawla’s email as I received it. Hi friends I’m forwarding you a message I received from Professor Ikbal Gharbi-Zeitouna University in Tunis. It’s about the dramatic fate of a student of Al-Azhar University in Egypt. He was sacked for just writing an artic;le (in www.rezgar.com) entitled “Against the racist separation between boys and girls” shut down Al-Azhar” In his call (in Arabic, following Prof…
As I previously reported, the Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran (SMCCDI) needs urgent help in order to continue to exist and strenghten the fight against the Mullahs. You can make a donation of any amount or simply help spread the word asking to help. To know more on how to help, click here. I had also posted about the financial problems faced by the Los Angeles-based National Iranian Television (NITV), which is the most prominent opposition network broadcasting to Iran and helping Iranian freedom fighters by coordinating demonstrations and helping spread the opposition groups’ messages to the…
Can a civilized nation tolerate a crowd of people who let themselves be led by the nose by sheikhs, dervishes and the like . . . and who entrust their faith and their lives to fortunetellers, magicians, witch-doctors, and writers of amulets? *** Countries may vary, but civilization is one and for a nation to progress, it must take part in this one civilization. The decline of the Ottomans began when, proud of their triumphs over the West, they cut their ties with the European nations. This was a mistake which we will not repeat. I have previously provided to…
Source: AP, via Yahoo! Kuwaiti election volunteers in Salwa, Kuwait, during yesterday’s first-ever municipal election that allowed women’s participation. Draw your own conclusions.
Not that they already weren’t, as Dawa party candidate and current Prime Minister Ibraham al-Jaafari only won by a single vote within the UIA due to backing by the Sadrists, but the barrier for removing him has been broken as several independent politicians have broken with the alliance and said that someone else should be chosen for the position. That’s the big news over the weekend. BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 1 ???????? A senior member of the dominant Shiite bloc called on Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari on Saturday to drop his campaign to keep his post, becoming the first Shiite political…
The Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran (SMCCDI) , which most of you probably know by reading its reports I use to post both here and on my blog, is desperately looking for help in order to survive and keep on fighting for a just cause : total regime change in Iran and the establishment of a true secular democracy. Please, read SMCCDI’s Urgent Action, and spread the word as much as you can!
I’ll never forget him. Fabrizio Quattrochi, the brave Italian man in Iraq who told his brutish Islamofascist kidnappers at the moment of his murder that he had no intention of dying with a hood on his head and tried to tear it off, saying he would show them ‘how an Italian dies’ struck a fearsome blow against the cowards perpetrating the war on terror. He not only exposed them as inhumanly evil, he ruined their crummy snuff-murder propaganda movie, which was the reason they killed him in the first place. His actions achieved the exact opposite effect of their evil…
DOWN is a good way to put it for today’s world festival of anti-Iraq democracy protests. Because as GatewayPundit has noticed, attendence is down at every single one of these. He’s got a liveblogging roundup of these “antiwar” (who the hell isn’t antiwar?) protests around the world, city by city, showing that this ‘movement’ doesn’t quite have the move it used to. Not many people want to go to these stupid irrational things anymore, not after “peace mom” Cindy Sheehan kissed Iran ally Hugo Chavez on the lips. And even more because given the growing victory of democracy and democratic…
Tchahar-Shanbe Soori (Fire Fiest) has been celebrated by millions of Iranians, who defied the regime’s official ban on this “pagan” pre-islamic ritual, symbol of ancient Iranian heritage, and took to the street to celebrate and protest against the regime in its totality. Thousands of potraits of the regime’s leaders were set on fire and the females bravely took out their mandatory veils and set them on fire, too. Reports speak of copies of Koran and the Islamic Republic’s illegitimate constitution also burned. To see the photos, go here and here.
Thousands of Iranians are rushing into the streets of the main Iranian cities in order to celebrate their ancient pre-islamic festivity known by the name of “Tchahar-Shanbe Soori” (Fire Fiest). The event has been banned by the regime and labeled as “pagan”, “haram” and “un-islamic”, but millions are increasingly defying the ban by celebrating what is the symbol of Iranism while rejecting Islamism and the Shiite religion itself. Tchahar Shanbe Soori is an ancient persian festivity that derives from the Zoroastrian religion. The SMCCDI Movement is reporting that : Noise of fire crackers and hand made explosive devises are echoing…
The popular Los Angeles-based Iranian satellite network, National Iranian TV (NITV) has been forced to cut off the broadcasts to Iran due to serious financial problems. The SMCCDI Secularist Movement has details: One of the main bridges of communication with Iran, which is the Los Angeles based “National Iranian TV” (NITV), has been forced to cut off its satellite broadcasting due to financial problems. Such a bad timing couldn’t have come at a worst time, as; the well trusted and popular NITV has prepared, since months, the ground for massive demonstrations at the occasion of the banned “Tchahar-Shanbe Soori” (Fire…
A political storm had been heading over Iraq with the bombing of the al-Askariya shrine and the sectarian tensions that rose out of it. The Shia United Iraq Alliance used the occassion to push forward with it’s plan to nominate current Prime Minister Ibraham al-Jaafari for the position again, despite the wishes of every other political bloc in the new parliament. In essense, they said that they are the only group fit to rule the country right now and their choice for prime minister is constitutional and must be respected by the other parties. Well, a few people disagreed. The…
The SMCCDI Movement reports that U.S. Congressman Curt Weldon (R-PA) has had a direct conversation with the Iranians in Iran through a popular Los Angeles-based Iranian satellite TV: In part of the Sunday Q&A program and responding to an Iranian woman who asked “why the US is staying idyll in reference to the plight of Iranians?”, Curt Weldon stated: “You’re no more left alone; the American People, the US President and the US legislative power are behind you and are hearing you… Republicans and Democrats are coming together in order to call for an end to tyranny in Iran… Our…
As I’ve been saying all along, the only ones who really stood to benefit, and those who really took advantage of the al-Askariya shrine bombing, is Moqtada al-Sadr and his counterparts in Iran. Now, a preliminary investigation by the deputy governor of Saladin, where the Shia holy city of Samarra and the shrine is located, has yielded that the perpetrators of the bombing was most like… dun dun dun… Iran! The deputy governor of the Iraqi province of Saladin, where the holy city of Samarra is situated, said preliminary investigation was pointing to Iran????????s role in the bombing of the…
The rising star of Moqtada al-Sadr has been the subject of much recent speculation: how his bloc became the biggest in the Shia UIA alliance, how he controls one of the most extremist militias in the country, and how he has become one of the most important politicians in Iraq’s development toward democracy. And also one of its biggest threats. Avowedly ready to stage an uprising should Iran give the order, some military commanders must be wondering why the hell they didn’t get rid of him a long time ago when they had the chance. Now his prominence is being…
President Bush has once again renewed his moral support of the Iranian people and their aspirations to total freedom. This time, it seems, he’ll do more than merely talking about freedom; he pledged economic aid to the Iranian freedom fighters and those who risk their life by taking to the streets against the regime. It remains to be seen if these funds will be directed to genuine opposition groups rather than to ‘reformers’, who want to save a part of the regime. Indeed, to be effective, the funds should be directed to those student,workers and women’s movements that don’t have…
The sweeping victory of Hamas in the Palestinian parliamentary election has the Bush administration and foreign policy experts on their toes. Isn????????t democracy supposed to be what frees the entire region from tyranny? That????????s how the meme goes. Yet fairer elections in Egypt gave one quarter of the seats to the Muslim Brotherhood, and now Hamas rules the territories. If we define democracy on these terms alone, then what we have on our hands is a political census that shows the possibility of many countries electing Islamic extremists to power. I seriously doubt the world wants to handle more than…
The blogosphere has been abuzz about the bombing of the al-Askari shrine in Iraq, one of holiest shrines in Shia Islam. Of course, news reports always labels shrines as one of the holiest shrines, but it’s definitely true this time. This one is at the top. The attack was so profoundly felt by Shia Muslims that it has led to attacks on Sunni Muslim mosques and believers all over the country in retribution. Some think this may be a precursor to civil war. Others think not. I think not. But many haven’t looked at is the politics behind the attack;…
Finally, investigations are being held into the existence of Shia-led death squads in Iraq. Apparently the U.S. military caught some policemen about to execute a Sunni, and when questioned about it, they admitted it as if nothing were wrong with it. The incident has prompted an official investigation, though that it has not happened yet is absolutely astounding. The so-called “death squads” are formed by members of the different Shia militias, like Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army and the SCIRI-linked Badr Organization that was trained by Iran for about twenty years. These squads have targeted, and still target, Sunnis and kill…