Fort Hood: Islam and Muslims On Trial Already

Today is the third day since Major Nidal Hasan allegedly went on a rampage and took 13 lives and wounded 30 others at Fort Hood.

Muslims living in the US (and elsewhere) expect a backlash and some of the racist baiting has already begun.

To stem the inevitable, the Association Of Patriotic Arab Americans In The Military (APAAM) has released the following statement:

In the aftermath of this terrible tragedy, it is more important than ever that we not make the same scapegoating and broad stroke mistakes that were evident in the aftermath of previous tragedies. The Association of Patriotic Arab Americans in Military urges the media, government officials and all of our fellow Americans to recognize that the actions of Hasan are those of a deranged gunman, and are in no way representative of the wider Arab American or American Muslim community.

In fact, thousands of Arab Americans and American Muslims serve honorably everyday in all four branches of the U.S. military and in the National Guard. ...

Even as APAAM pleads for sanity the almost reflex tendency of the far right to portray Major Hasan's alledged action as a result of Islam, Islamic militancy, terrorism, and of course, jihad, is well on the way.

Here are just two examples of this kind of idiocy emanating from Frontpagemag.com

The magazine's editor, Jamie Glazov, interviewed Dave Gaubatz who is said to be
"the first U.S. civilian (1811) Federal Agent deployed to Iraq in 2003", and "the owner of DG Counter-terrorism Publishing".

In an interview under the headline "The Muslim Brotherhood and Fort Hood" Mr Glazov had this to say:

The murders by Malik Nadal Hasan at Ft. Hood, TX are not a ‘lone wolf incident’ as being described by most media organizations. Hasan had been taught the ideology that is being advocated by hundreds of Islamic scholars and Imams in the U.S. We as a country can continue to deny there are numerous Islamic leaders and their supporting organizations such as CAIR, ISNA, MSA, and MANA, to name a few, who advocate killing innocent men, women, and children whom they allege ‘oppress Islam.’

How many more incidents similar to this that have been occurring in America does it take before even the media wants to report the truth? ...

Gaubatz goes further. He even asserts that Hasan, an American soldier, is a terrorist:

Expect more. Israel has endured ‘suicide/attacks’ similar to this for many years. Malik Nabal Hasan is a terrorist supporting the ideology of Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, and yes, CAIR. In Palestine, the leaders send out the young and vulnerable to carry out the murders in the name of Islam. The same is happening in America.

Is Glazov for real? How can he justify making a connection between Hasan's alledged actions and Al Qaeda's "ideology"?

The truth is that it does not matter to the kind of mindset that Gaubatz appeals.

Complexity and details are not what he is seeking to uncover. Rather his instinct is to caste Islam and Muslims in one ludicrous and prejudicial net.

His effort is lauded by his interviewer, Jamie Glazov, who ends the interview saying " ... thank you ... for your courage to tell the truth, and for standing up for America."

How is this fool "standing up for" anything other than to race/hate bait against Islam and Muslims?

Islam does not condone the massacre at Fort Hood. There is nothing in the Qur'an that tells Muslims to kill Christians, Jews, or anyone else in the way of jihad.

But does that really matter when the anti-Islam/Muslim prejudices and hatred that drives the thinking of right-wing folks like Gaubatz is a fait accompli?

And there is more in the same publication under the oh so predictable headline "Jihad at Fort Hood".

The author, Robert Spencer, is a self-constructed 'expert' on Islam.

Spencer complains that the mainstream media in the US is not telling 'the truth' about what Major Hasan is said to have done at Fort Hood.

He supposedly sets the record straight with his 'deft' observation on Hasan's "motive".

He says in part:

Major Hasan’s motive was perfectly clear — but it was one that the forces of political correctness and the Islamic advocacy groups in the United States have been working for years to obscure. So it is that now that another major jihad terror attack has taken place on American soil, authorities and the mainstream media are at a loss to explain why it happened – and the abundant evidence that it was a jihad attack is ignored.

And the reason that "it happened" is according to this 'scholar' a matter of knowing that Islam preaches violence and Muslims are instructed to attack those who oppose them.

Same old nonsense and tired reasoning that would be laughable were it not for the serious danger it poses.

Inside of these two articles Frontpage Magazine is propagating racist hatred against Islam and Muslims and is doing so recklessly.

The charges against Major Hasan are alleged at this stage. This means that he has the constitutional right to a fair trial and his guilt will be established within these parameters.

The relationship that his actions have on Islam or any other Muslim is merely a matter of contrived guilt by association.

Mehdi Hassan of the New Statesman quite rightly describes folks like Robert Spencer (and I include Dave Gaubatz) as:

" ... nasty, divisive and Islamophobic bigots who take whatever opportunity, whatever tragedy, they can to stir up hatred against Muslims and Islam in the west."

These racist Islam haters would not attribute the same kind of motives to Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, as pointed out by a comment on Mehdi Hassan's article.

McVeigh served in the US Army and said his actions were aimed at bringing down the US government.

He massacred 168 people and his act remains the deadliest terrorist attack by an American citizen directed at the US government.

The fact that there were also religious (Roman Catholic) motivations given for his bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995, hardly moved right-wing folks to condemn Christianity and call the Bible a subversive and terrorist document.

But then impulse to draw Islam and Muslims as jihadists/terrorists is derived from a long history of racism that is as old as the US.

So the inevitable is well on its way. I called it below and so it is.

I remember that in the frantic moments after the Oklahoma bombing their were reports that Muslims/Arabs were the perpetrators.

The reports claimed that Israel had credible evidence to prove this assertion.

Not so. Yet even as the US struggled to come to terms with the bombing there were attacks against Muslims and folks who looked like they 'could be' Muslims.

The same was true of 9/11.

Just days after that horrid series of attacks in 2001, a white right-wing thug walked into a convenience store in Arizona and killed a Sikh man, Balbir Singh Sodhi, because he looked Muslim.

How dumb yet so tragic in consequence?

Right-wing commentators and conservatives in general would do well to interrogate the rise of terrorism within their own ranks before witch-hunting among Muslims.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has drawn attention to at least 75 "major terrorist plots and racist rampages that have emerged from the American radical right in the years since Oklahoma City."

The 'devil' may be closer than they want to admit.

These are the facts and yet again innocent lives hang in the racist (im)balance.

Onward!

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Fort Hood Massacre

As is the usual manner of the mainstream US media and its policy attachments, much will be said/made about this horrific incident in the moments, days, and months to follow.

The massacre comes at a time when President Obama looks more like his predecessor and the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are far from deescalating.

That said it should also be expected that much will be made about the alleged shooter, Major Nidal Malik Hasan (39), who is said to be an American born Muslim of Palestinian/Jordanian descent.

Major Hasan is suspected of taking 13 lives and wounding 30 others, as of this writing.

Though the story is still unfolding the Guardian reports that Major Hasan, a military psychiatrist, has in recent months grown increasingly "unhappy" in his career and has even been seeking to be honorably discharged.

The report says in part:

Unusually for a soldier, Hasan appeared to have little taste for violence, at least up until yesterday. His cousin, Nader Hasan, said: "He was someone who did not enjoy going to the firing range." That may have been a consequence of the stories he had heard in the hospital wards from the returning soldiers.

Hasan became an unhappy soldier as his career progressed, according to his family and colleagues.

Nader said his cousin, though born in America, had suffered harassment from fellow soldiers who questioned his loyalty to the US and commented on his Middle East ethnicity. As a Muslim, he was upset at the killing of Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Nader confirmed that he had been resisting deployment in either war zone.

He had been scheduled for deployment to Iraq at the end of the year and had told colleagues repeatedly he did not want to go. He felt trapped, looking at ways to buy his way out, even going to the extent of hiring a lawyer to see if he could leave military service honourably.

I expect that as Major Hasan, who is still alive according to a news report, is put on trial his co-accused will be all Muslims, particularly those living inside the US.

Racist questions about the compatibility of Islam inside American democracy and culture will resurface.

And from inside Muslim communities there will be persistent voices who will seek to demonstrate their loyalty to America over their misgivings about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I dare add that even as more Muslims were killed in American drone attacks in Pakistan yesterday the fixation will be on situating the US as the victim of Islam and its terrorists.

In addition to the horror that this massacre represents it is necessary to see the US inside of the absolute violence that it has perpetrated in the Middle East.

I have said it here before, Islam is not at war with the US, rather it is the US that is at war with Muslims (Islam).

And that war is not about ideology or even religion. It is about resources. Oil in short!

I left the US in 2005 after 23 years, most of my life. A big part of my decision was the fact that I could not live inside of, and pay taxes to, a state that was at war with innocent people who looked like me and mine.

I absolutely refused to adopt an apologetic silence/posture while the noise about Islam and terrorism was all about me.

Don't get me twisted though. I am not even trying to defend what happened today at Fort Hood. Nor am I trying to agitate that all Muslims have no option but to leave the US.

It should be said that there are many Americans of every persuasion who abhor and resist what the US government is doing in the Middle East and elsewhere.

I am, however, pressing the (my) reality that I could not continue to live with conscience, and pay taxes, to an ever expanding and warmongering empire.

At one early stage in my life I was drawn to the idea of America. But as I looked closer I saw that the idea never really passed being more than just an ideal.

As Satre said, America is a brute and brutal.

There is a lot more of a fallout to come and innocent lives will continue to be spent.

And so the brutality of America/US continues ... one undoing dialectic at a time.

You simply can't run from your history ...

Onward!

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What Does Obama Look Like After A Year In Office?

See Mehdi Hasan's (New Statesman Senior Political Editor) "Change we can’t believe in" and his most recent article "Obama's first year -- good or bad?".

Same game and same crap is my thinking.

Onward!

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"Italy Convicts Former CIA Agents in Renditions Trial"

MILAN - An Italian judge sentenced 23 former CIA agents to up to eight years in prison Wednesday for the abduction of a Muslim cleric in a symbolic ruling against "rendition" flights used by the former U.S. government.

The Americans were all tried in absentia after the United States refused to extradite them. But the verdict, the first of its kind, was welcomed by rights campaigners who have long complained the renditions policy violated basic human rights.

Judge Oscar Magi dropped the case against three Americans, including a former CIA Rome station chief, for the abduction of Egyptian-born cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr (pictured), who was snatched off a Milan street in 2003 and flown to Egypt for interrogation.

He also acquitted the former head of Italy's Sismi military intelligence service, Nicolo Pollari, and his former deputy, ruling that evidence against them violated state secrecy rules.

Magi sentenced the former head of the CIA's Milan station, Robert Seldon Lady, to eight years in prison and the other 22 former CIA agents to five years each.

He ruled that those convicted should paid 1 million euros in damages to Nasr, better known as Abu Omar, and 500,000 euros to his wife.

Abu Omar was secretly flown from Aviano airbase in northeast Italy via Ramstein base in Germany to Egypt, where he says he was tortured and held until 2007 without charge.

It is the first case of its kind to contest the practice of "extraordinary rendition" under the administration of former U.S. President George W. Bush, in which terrorism suspects were captured in one country and taken for questioning in another, where interrogation techniques were tougher.

(Reporting by Emilio Parodi and Daniel Flynn; writing by Daniel Flynn)© 2009 Reuters

Article Source

COMMENT: A great start indeed. It must be noted though that there is evidence that the practice of "rendition" continues under President Obama.

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Louisiana Justice Who Won't Marry Mixed Race Couples Quits

A Louisiana justice of the peace who refused to marry a couple because the bride was white and groom was black resigned Tuesday, after weeks of refusing to step down despite calls for his ouster from officials including the governor.

Keith Bardwell quit with a one-sentence statement to Louisiana Secretary of State Jay Dardenne and no explanation of his decision: “I do hereby resign the office of Justice of the Peace for the Eighth Ward of Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, effective November 3, 2009.”

Gov. Bobby Jindal called Bardwell’s resignation “long overdue.”

Bardwell, who is white, refused to marry Beth Humphrey and Terence McKay.

When questioned, Bardwell acknowledged he routinely recuses himself from marrying interracial couples because he believes the marriages harm the couples’ children. In interviews, he said he refers the couples to other justices of the peace, who then perform the ceremony, which happened in this case.

Read the rest of the NY Daily News article here.

And I was thinking we was free up there ;)

Onward!

Picture/Story Credit

Don't Ask

"Which country in Africa is home to the largest population", I asked the young bright face in front of me.

"China", she shouted back almost instantly.

I looked at her with a smile borrowed from years of experience with young undergraduate students.

"Are you sure?", I asked.

"Yes I am because they have more than a billion people there", she insisted.

"But China is not on the African continent", I said.

She looked back with a furrowed brow as a slow smile of recognition crept over her face.

"Oh yes that is true ... China is more like in Europe", she declared.

"Right ... and China's capital city would be Lagos, right?", I said.

"I don't know but is this question going to be on our final exam", she asked somewhat exasperated.

"No it won't be on your exam. I'll stick with the easier questions on foreign policy formulation and implementation", I replied.

My head hurts!

Wonder what Mita is doing at home?

Onward! ... if even slowly.

Image Credit

Mita

A good few years ago I started my first Mexican vacation in Punta Mita, a small resort town about 26 miles North of Puerto Vallarta.

I stayed at a local hotel that was nothing fancy but it was not too bad. My travel companion could speak Spanish so getting around town was a lot easier than my subsequent solo trips.

I've read that Punta Mita has undergone a lot of development since my visit.

AnyHowze, I got to thinking about Punta Mita not because I miss the place or my travel companion.

Nope. My most treasured memory is of a kitten that hung around my hotel. She was perhaps the friendliest cat I have ever known.

She followed me around the hotel for the entire week. The owner did not claim the kitten, in fact, no-one even knew how she came to live at the hotel.

I grew so attached to her that I started to plot ways to sneak her across the US border.

I began calling her Mita and she would respond.

In the mornings I'd open the doors to our large living space and Mita would be there to play and, of course, eat the goodies we offered.

I left Punta Mita without Mita. My heart was heavy but I was consoled by the fact that she had a home and lots of other folks to befriend.

Last night I made it back from a long weekend in Kimberley and the usual angst about being here started to set in.

My colleague who lives adjacent to me stopped by and started mumbling about a kitten that was close to death and wandering around our common areas.

When he left I walked him home and cast an eye around.

He said he was worried that someone might drive over her and he wanted to leave some milk out but did not know where to do so.

At about that moment I heard this faint meow and I turned to see this very small fur ball walking over to me.

Now I know that Ferrel cats, even kittens, will not allow you to pick them up. Well that has been my experience.

Nonetheless, I bent over and said "come here little one" and she walked right into my hands.

My colleague said, "now you have a new friend so take her to your house."

I carried the fur ball over to my townhouse and gave her milk and tuna fish. She was hungry.

If you did not know you would think that the kitten and I knew each other well.

She settled into my place and settled into me.

Sometime really early this morning I opened my eyes and watched her fast asleep on my chest.

My heart beat probably reminded her of her moms. She barely stirred all night even when I got up.

Before leaving for work I carried her downstairs, she is too small for the stairs, and she ate again and even went into the garden to do her business.

She reminds me of Mita from Punta Mita and I have started to call her Mita too.

She follows me around the house and right now I expect she is curled up somewhere on my couch.

In a way Mita has come home. :)

Onward!