Liz Sly writes about Iraq

"It was also a significant triumph for Sadr, the heir to the legacy of one of Shiite Islam’s most revered religious families".  What is a religious family in Shi`ite Islam, Ms. Sly? There is no such thing. I asked an expert on Shi`ite religious tradition to comment and he wrote to me: "I'm not sure what that means. The Sadr family has a tradition of scholars in it. How far that goes, I'm not sure. But one of the "most revered religious families" does not make much sense to my ears. What is a "religious family" supposed to mean other than a family with a tradition of scholars? What other families are 'revered religious families" in Shiite Islam? The Hakim family has a number of revered scholars in it. It would be more accurate to say it is a family with a tradition of scholars -- just as there are families with a business tradition."

Syrian sex slaves in Lebanon

There was no mention of this in Western media for some reason.  AlJadid is reporting that Hizbullah uncovered the network and alerted the authorities. 

Israel making money from Gaza blockade

"In addition to the lethal violence routinely inflicted on Gaza, Israeli authorities enforce what they have called “economic warfare” – a de facto boycott of almost all agriculture originating in Gaza." "The trickle of exports that Israel permits from Gaza go primarily to European markets, but this is only allowed through Israeli export companies that profit from the situation by taking commissions and selling Gaza products for far higher prices than they pay the producers."

Abbas stressed that he retains security coordination with Israel

"Abbas stressed that he retains security coordination with Israel to prevent escalation in violence as well as fears of a collapse of the PA. "If we give up security coordination there will be chaos here. There will be rifles, and explosions and armed militants popping up everywhere and rushing at Israel. Without the coordination, a bloody intifada would break out. I want to cooperate with the Israelis. There is an agreement between us and I am not ashamed by it. But [Netanyahu] must respect it." "

Axis of Israel

"Steinitz and Shoukry's meeting was the result of US efforts to introduce Egypt into the regional energy treaty between Israel, Greece and Cyprus - something Israel is also interested in. The Americans also want to include Turkey in this treaty, which is viewed as an "energetic umbrella" strengthening the axis of moderate countries against Iran"

US has violated the Iran nuclear agreement already

"But while Iran has observed the letter of the agreement, he said, it has flouted its spirit with provocative actions such as testing ballistic missiles marked with slogans calling for the destruction of Israel," "Last month, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, accused Washington of failing to respect the terms of the agreement. The US has lifted sanctions “on paper”, he said, “but they are using roundabout paths to prevent the Islamic Republic from achieving its targets”."

Obama's nuclear summit neglects U.S. military stockpile

"But critics have pointed out that the summits have only focused on highly enriched uranium in civilian possession, which, according to the Department of Energy, only accounts for 2 to 3 percent of the world’s supply. That small percentage is used mostly by academics for research and medical isotope production. The remaining 97 to 98 percent is held in military stockpiles, which the security summits have largely ignored." (thanks Amir)

A Saudi Wahhabi translation of the Qur'an into Spanish

The verse in Al-Fatihah which refers to "those who are afflicted with the wrath of God" as "the Iranians). (Bottom, left).

I think that Saudi and Qatari regime are going too far in their zeal, don't you think? Huffington Post Qatari regime as an example

This article has
4182 views
7131 likes
hahahahahaha So more people liked it than who actually viewed it.  

One of the worst men in Yemeni history, and one of the most corrupt, has been appointed by the Saudi regime as "vice-president" of Yemen

The regime of Ali Abdullah Salih was bad but the worst part of that regime was this man, Ali Mohsin Al-Ahmar.

Alawites against the Syrian regime IV

Wait. So what is new about the so-called Alawites who are opposed to the regime and opposed to Shi`ite Islam? Ash-Share Al-Awsat (the mouthpiece of King Salman and his sons which is treated as "a secular" voice by Liz Sly and other cheerleaders of the Syrian "revolution") had published back in 2012 a story that AN UNNAMED Alawite cleric expressed opposition to the regime. Kid you not.

Wait: that Alawite statement from leading Alawites III

1) the Alawite community is really non-hiercharhical, unlike other sects.  2) So the "leading Alawites" signed that statement to explain their position to the world but they insisted that the statement not be released but to be seen by the BBC correspondent? 3) so the "leading Alawites" want to make clear where they stand but they withheld their names, but the BBC correspondent on religion was able to ascertain that one of them is indeed "a leading" Alawite.  OK. 4) So the Alawites are so uncomfortable with the stance of the regime that they preferred instead the stance of the enemies of the regime who declare day and night Alawites are infidels and pagans who have to be slaughtered?

Michael Kerr on Syrian Alawites II

From Basim: "According to Michael Kerr, professor of conflict studies and director of the Institute for Middle Eastern Studies at King's College London, sectarian identity became a primary driver in the civil war in Syria, even though it was not the case at the beginning of the uprising there in 2011.

In the recent book he edited, The Alawis Of Syria, Prof Kerr wrote that Bashar al-Assad "took the strategic decision to facilitate sectarian narratives and counter-narratives and... perhaps intentionally, exposed his community to the reductionist logic of the most extreme Islamist forces". 

So ... Bashar al-Asad instaiged a sectarian war by facilitating a sectarian narrative and a COUNTER sectarian narrative to his own sectarian narrative. Okay."

Charlie Hebdo can't hide behind the cloak of satire anymore: it "unveiled" its true color.

Goebbels as editor of Der Angriff (until 1933) often respond to complaints of grotesque anti-Semitism in his magazine by claiming it is all "satire" and fun.  This has been the same ploy of Charlie Hebdo.  Its last editorial draws upon the novel "Submission".  This is a good critique of the editorial.  At least we now know the true serious side of Hebdo, and it is grotesque.  They basically make the argument that all Muslims are alike no matter what they say in public. Typical notion of classical anti-Semites.

Were the BBC and Michael Kerr duped with this so-called document by leading Syrian Alawites? Of course

It is such a typical spin of Western media.  They don't know that Saudi regime media have been peddling such stories about "leading (yet unnamed) Alawites" from the very beginning of the conflict.  BBC reporter on religion is unaware that Saudi regime often pays a handful of Shi`ites in Lebanon and make them issue a statement in which they say that "Shi`ites of Lebanon" are opposed to Hizbullah and sympathetic to the anti-Shi`ite sectarian government of Saudi Arabia. I am not kidding you.  But Michael Kerr believes that sectarianism was introduced to Syria by the Asad regime and that Syrian Jihadi groups and their Gulf sponsors are strict French revolution-style secularists.  1) it is interesting that those leading Alawites are not named. 2) it is more interesting that Alawites would want to claim that they are not Shi`ites when the Alawite community lobbied for years and decades to be categorized as a Shi`ite sect.  And here Kerr says; "Of the document itself, he says: "It is very significant that Alawi community leaders have stressed that they are not a branch of Shia Islam but a separate Muslim religious community that is of and within Islam."  Is this like the Hugh Trevor Roper "authenticating" for the Times Hitler's diaries? Pretty much.  

The US embassy in Riyadh fighting terrorism

It is asking Saudis to design a new logo for the US embassy in Riyadh to signify the friendship between the Saudi and American people.  

What is happening in Al-Arabiyya offices? The sectarian anti-Shi`ite war rages

So the entire office of Al-Arabiyya (the news station of Muhammad bin Salman who bought it from his cousin) in Beirut was closed down.  The reason? You see, their correspondent in Beirut, `Adnan Ghamlush, a Shi`ite, is tasked with providing a daily summary of Beirut dailies.  Two weeks ago, As-Safir had a report about the mental health of King Salman, and he just said the headline about the matter (it took 10 seconds only), he was cut off in mid-sentence and broadcast from Beirut ended.  His email with the station, was cancelled immediately and he was fired.  At the same time, there was anger in Riyadh because a silly short documentary on Hasan Nasrallah was perceived to be sympathetic to him, and Shi`ites in the Beirut office were collectively blamed for the "disaster".  So the office was closed down and the entire staff fired.

Azerbaijan versus Armenia: the Saudi regime media are baffled

The Saudi-Israeli anti-Shi`ite alliance is siding with Azerbaijan while the Shi`ite Iranian-Hizbollah alliance is siding with Christian Armenia. This does not fit into the sectarian narrative of Arab oil and gas and Western media.

A Notorious Lebanese Christian war criminal dies: Long before ISIS and Al-Qa`idah there were the Lebanese right-wing sectarian Christian militias

This French daily, L'Orient-Le Jour wrote a fawning tribute to the self-admitted Lebanese war criminal.  Long before ISIS, there were the pioneers of the Middle East: inspired by Zionist terrorism, Lebanese Phalanges and their allied pro-Israeli militias of Lebanon perfected the art of torture and mutilation that we now see with ISIS.  Some Western reporters took note of this right-wing Christian sectarian war criminality of Lebanon (like Jonathan Randal of the Washington Post at the time) but this is now forgotten.  There is a book (Saade, Joseph, and Brunquell, F, et Couderc, F., Victime et bourreau, Paris: Calmat-Levy) in which Joseph Saadah recounts how he tortured and killed people with his own hands. This is the man who was an active participant in the "Black Saturday" when some 400 Lebanese Muslims and Palestinians were butchered en masse in East Beirut: Bashir Gemayel and Amin Gemayel fought to obtain the loyalty and services of this notorious man.  At the end of this grotesque tribute to this man, the paper mentions in passing his crimes: "Son côté sombre l'emporta momentanément.".

The last throes of paper media?

My weekly article in Al-Akhbar: "The last Throes of Paper media or the illusion of freedoms"?

Zaha Hadid in her last interview

She said that she suffered in the West as a woman and that she suffered in Arab countries because she was not "an American male".  

Mumtaz Ahmad died

"Iqbal International Institute for Research and Dialogue (IRD) Executive-Director Dr Mumtaz Ahmad passed away on Wednesday after protracted illness. He was 76. His funeral prayers were offered at his native village in Gujar Khan.

A noted social scientist, scholar and academic, Dr Mumtaz had been associated with the International Islamic University, Islamabad (IIUI) since 2007. In addition to his current position as the executive-director of the IRD, he earlier served the university as its vice president, and later as president."  Mumtaz Ahmad was a great host and friend when I visited Pakistan back in 2007 to give lectures in universities and think tanks in Islamabad.  He has often supplied me with materials for my blog and anonymous observations on Pakistani scene and Saudi influence.  He was under great pressures from the Saudi regime after he refused to toe the line: and he resigned from his job as president as Saudi wikileaks indicated that they were desperate to get rid of him.  He was a nice and kind man and was very helpful to young students in the field, and he cared about the Palestinian people and their struggle.  I offer my most sincere condolences to his son, Junaid, and to his family and friends.  

Israeli ambassador brags: a stigma unto the nations

 

PM of IsraelVerified account‏@IsraeliPM

"A strong Israel prevents the passage of masses of refugees to Europe. The world would be different if we were not here." Why not brags about racism and ethnic cleansing while you are at it.

Prince Abdul-`Aziz bin Fahd brags that his father King Fahd humiliated the US

Prime `Abdul-`Aziz bin Fahd brags that his father, King Fahd, was the only leader who ever expelled the US ambassador from his own country.

Economist changes its tune: now it is saying that Russia indeed has bombed ISIS

Only a few weeks ago, Economist stated that Russia is only bombing moderate Syrian rebels.  Today, the magazine has changed its mind: "Western and Russian bombers have pummelled the jihadists from the air,"

religion and atheism in the Middle East

"According to Google Trends, all of the seven countries most interested in the term “atheism” are in the Middle East. Still, a survey by WIN/Gallup International in 2012 suggested that Brazilians were more religious than Afghans and Armenians more zealous than Iraqis. Perhaps not wholly surprisingly, the proportion of Saudis reporting themselves to be “convinced atheists” was about the same as for Americans."

BBC explains the significance of shoes in Arab culture

"What Messi seems to have failed to appreciate is that in Egypt and other Arab countries in the region shoes can be used as a symbol of disrespect or insult. In Arab culture, showing the soles of your shoes can be seen as especially insulting. The Arabic expression "to hit someone with a shoe" is offensive." (thanks Basim)

Zaha Hadid on identifying as an Arab--not as British

When it comes to violating human and privacy rights, you may always look for Israel's dirty hands--literally in some cases

"Israeli Company Helps FBI Hack San Bernardino Terrorist’s iPhone". (thanks Terry)

Banning anti-Zionism from US college campuses

I like it when Zionists (including the State Department) say with a straight face that criticisms of Israel can be anti-Semitic if they are "excessive".  I have a solution: why doesn't the US government create a special office to clear and measure our criticisms of Israel to decide whether they are too excessive to ban them before we express them.  Are people aware how repressive and intolerant Zionists hoodlums in the US are and how much they pose a threat to the 1st amendment?

Western weapons are being used against civilians in Yemen

"ITV News has seen evidence that western weapons - including cluster bombs - are being used against Yemeni civilians by the Saudi-led coalition." "The UK's arms sales to the Saudi military are coming under scrutiny as the civilian death toll continues to mount. ITV news found a US-made cluster bomb canister, said to have been recovered from a village in Hajjah Province, in North Yemen."

Israeli war lies unveiled

From a reader: ""A new film narrated by Roger Waters, The Occupation of the American Mind, traces the rise of Israeli war propaganda in the United States. This propaganda, which has skillfully swayed U.S. public opinion in support of Israeli wars and occupations, has in fact been not so much a matter of skill as a matter of control. The U.S. corporate media has obeyed the Israeli propaganda office, because the U.S. government has done so, and the U.S. corporate media generally obeys the U.S. government."

 Video

Migrant worker slavery in Qatar

"Last week, Qatar was given 12 months to end migrant worker slavery or face a possible United Nations investigation that could see it become the fifth country to face a formal inquiry by the International Labour Organisation. The move followed an ILO delegation to the Gulf state this month that also found migrant workers stranded for months without pay and stripped of their passports." (thanks Amir)

Saudi-Lebanese war rages: Lebanese (non-hizbollah) youths storm into the office of King Salman's mouthpiece, Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat in Beirut

This was in response to the publication of this cartoon.  It says: April Fools' Day (and "state of Lebanon" inside the Cedar).

Now they will call Zaha Hadid Shabbihah

Of course, politically Hadid made her own choices that one can disagree with. She never considered herself British (I am Arab and Iraqi she asserted in a famous interview with Future TV).  She designed the Haidar Aliyev Center (and it was a beautiful design).  And she didn't handle the construction of her stadium in Doha well.  

This is how a French Lebanese daily remembered one of the most notorious war criminals in the history of the Lebanese Civl War

This man was in charge of butchery on "Black Saturday" in 1976 at the hight of the Lebanese civil war. Bashir Gemayel and Amin Gemayel fought to obtain this man's services. He excelled in the art of torture and killing with his own hands.  This is a laudatory obituary in L'Orien-Le Jour and one sentence in-passing mentions his crimes: "Son côté sombre l'emporta momentanément." (His dark side prevailed momentarily).

Colonial and racist Feminism: the French Minister of Women's Rights

The French Minister of Women's Rights Speaks: She compares veiled women to "American negroes" who supported slavery.

My radio interview: Discussing Arab political developments

You can listen to the interview here.

Zaha Hadid and Israel

When the Israeli occupation state wanted to commission a token Arab museum (intended to cover up the crime of the occupation of Palestine), it sought the services of Zaha Hadid.  Hadid refused.  

Zaha Hadid in Iran

This is a hotel under construction in Tehran; designed by Zaha Hadid. It will be the tallest building in Iran.

Regarding Syria and demonstrations

I hate to bother you but it is time to say this.  The day after the cease-fire was announced in Syria, there were a few demonstrations in Syria.  As soon as the first image arrived to Western news bureau, long articles were written about how the "revolution" restarted and that the non-violent peaceful revolution has resumed.  Western correspondents in Beirut and their editors in NYC and DC wanted so bad to validate the thesis of the silly narrative of a peaceful democratic liberal and secular revolution in Syria.  But what happened next? Well, demonstrations died down, and there was a massive demonstration in support of the regime in Damascus, and there was repression of demonstration in "liberated rebel" areas, and today, there was a demonstration against two rebel groups fighting it out in ghutah.  Of course, the coverage of the resumption of "revolution" stopped in its track.  Who will first write the first critical article about the "the shoddy journalism in the coverage of the Syrian war"?

Can you imagine the uproar and the international news coverage if this was against another religion? Stop Islam written on Univ of Michigan campus

"#StopIslam, Trump 2016 written on University of Michigan campus".  And Zionist hoodlums want to convince school administrators around US college campuses that anti-Semitism (and all forms of it should be rejected and condemned) is more rampant than anti-Arabness or anti-Islam.  (thanks Mel)

Did you know that Zaha Hadid even designed jewelry

Here

Zaha Hadid

architect Zaha Hadid dies aged 65

Zionist propaganda in passing

"The letter’s real impact may be political: Israel’s unusual, if not unprecedented inclusion with Egypt on such an inquiry is likely to rile Israel’s allies in Washington, who bristle at the notion that the Middle East’s only established democracy could be lumped in with a notorious human rights abuser like Egypt." (thanks Basim)