World Should Show Moral Urgency in Tackling Daesh: New Age Islam's Selection, 05 April 2016
New Age
Islam Edit Bureau
05 April 2016
• World Should Show Moral Urgency In Tackling Daesh
By S. Prasannarajan
• Lebanon and Violated Citizenship
By Diana Moukalled
• Saudi Arabia Must Build New Strategies To Deal With The Paradigm Shift
By Khaled Almaeena
• Zaha Hadid, The Revolutionary Architect
By Turki Al-Dakhil
• Conspiring Against BDS
By Ramzy Baroud
Compiled By New Age Islam Edit Bureau
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World Should Show Moral Urgency In Tackling Daesh
By S. Prasannarajan
April 5, 2016
If the evil empire is still a geographical truth, it tells the story of a world without leadership
Fear is the weapon of the last revolutionary who has God on his lips and blood on his hands. He has been here with us for a while. On the next table in the café. On the beach among holidaymakers, waiting. In the stadium, watching the game-and us. In the street. In the mall. He is the most familiar stranger of our time, invisible but a disembodied invocation rising from the ruins. He is not afraid to kill or to be killed; it is the fear of God, his submission to the scriptures, that aggravates his bloodlust.
Somewhere in the sandy remoteness of Syria, he, the man in a black balaclava, wielding a knife, hovers over his victim, a figure on his knees, covered in orange robes, and the grotesquery of the colour symbolism a reminder of Guantánamo.
In the editorial office of a magazine in Paris, he demands silence from all those blasphemers and satirists.
He breaks into the theatre and calls off the performance. When you kill, for a perfumed alternative to the wretchedness of here-and-now, you suffer no remorse. You hate yourself to be in this land without justice; you kill your way into paradise.
It is a war against the pleasures and pursuits of others. It is a rejoinder to the ideas and attitudes of those for whom this world is good enough, and this life is preferable to afterlife.
That is why the killer is provoked by the possibilities of laughter, the transgressions of imagination, the threat of cartoons. His faith is built on paranoia and hate; he requires a kingdom where fear is the religion.
And where the perversions and pathologies of believers are prerequisites for the preservation of the idyll.
Now we pause in Brussels, in the helpless awareness that tomorrow is not different, not distant. It is easy to be distracted by the journalistic refrain of 'Why Brussels?' It is convenient to be consoled by the inevitability of Europe's guilt-ridden multiculturalism.
It is easy to see Brussels, as it happens in the wake of the arrest of a Paris attacker, as a footnote to the larger tragedy of France. The episodic horror of jihad is no longer a surprise.
What is surprising is our attitude towards evil, the absence of the kind of idealism that powered the struggle against communism, culminating in the fall of the Berlin Wall.
It was the moral idealism of a few brave men in Washington, London, Moscow and the Vatican that made it easier for the suppressed streets of East Europe to erupt. We owe them for the end of the lie.
If the evil empire is still a geographical truth, it tells the story of a world without leadership. It tells the story of leaders who evade reality by mouthing pious banalities such as 'terror has no religion.' Terror has religion, and the killer has no raison d'être other than his faith. A Reagan did realise that his fight was against an idea that was incompatible with freedom, with the instincts and interests of humanity.
A pope did realise that even the church could help the street in the fight against the jackboots of ideology.
A communist in Moscow made himself redundant as he choreographed the fall of an artificial empire. There was a moral urgency.
In this age of expediency, there are only evasions and triangulations. The so-called Daesh, carved out of countries at war with themselves, exists as a 'model' state of faith because leaders of Western liberalism are 'cautious', 'pragmatic', and cannot afford a 'backlash.'
These are meaningful, and even useful, words if you are dealing with a legitimate entity.
You are not even dealing with a traditional dictatorship, or even with a state, in spite of the nomenclature. Daesh is a faceless-literally-system of dehumanisation.
Behind every apparatus of horror there is a grievance, which invariably originates from the hazy region between history and mythology.
Daesh too markets victimhood; it has created its own literature of war, suppression and subjugation.
And any terror state has its own fairy tale of an idyllic tomorrow, too. Daesh is steeped in the fantasy of an order of justice.
It requires a permanent supply of enemies to keep the fantasy alive. To keep the reign of fear.
Powers with a frozen conscience can never win the war of ideas.
Winners are not leaders who are swept aside by history but men who dare the worst instincts of the present. And look how fear is winning the street.
Source: khaleejtimes.com/editorials-columns/world-should-show-moral-urgency-in-tackling-daesh
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Lebanon and Violated Citizenship
By Diana Moukalled
5 April 2016
Some Lebanese men attacked the offices of Asharq al-Awsat newspaper in Beirut, damaged property, hurled insults and terrorized staff to protest against a satirical caricature. They then left the building and celebrated what they did. There were no security forces in the area to notice and stop them. People here are not even embarrassed by the idea of storming offices and institutions, as these men even brought cameras and media representatives.
Defending Lebanon becomes daunting when a group of men can behave in such a way without anyone deterring them. Some of them think it is OK to replace Lebanon’s flag with Hezbollah’s. Some participated in campaigns in which the cedar on the Lebanese flag was replaced with a garbage bag to protest the recent trash crisis.
This is not the first time a media outlet’s office is stormed in Lebanon. The most dangerous incident was when Hezbollah closed and burnt the offices of the Future Movement’s media outlets in 2008 during its famous attack on Beirut. Those who attacked Asharq al-Awsat’s offices do not care that Hezbollah sees nothing in Lebanon but a gelatinous entity with no borders or sovereignty. The party has repeatedly violated and insulted this sovereignty.
Overreaction
The caricature that Amjad Rasmi drew in Asharq al-Awsat criticized the concept of the Lebanese state and described it as an “April fool.” The caricature was harsh, provocative, inappropriate, and included all of Lebanon rather than just the state. However, after I saw how these men stormed its offices, I realized that they proved the caricature correct.
How can we be convinced that we are citizens in a state that is not present? This is the essence of our crisis. Citizenship in Lebanon has fallen into the hands of mobs - we must restore it from them.
How can we be convinced that we are citizens in a state that is not present? This is the essence of our crisis. A few hours before the offices were attacked, security forces revealed details of a ring involved in trafficking female Syrian refugees. This exposed scary facts about our reality in Lebanon. This news did not make anyone afraid for a country that is falling apart.
The caricature may have included the whole country, but the reaction revealed a vulgar concept of citizenship that is sponsored by those who violate its real essence. Citizenship in Lebanon has fallen into the hands of mobs - we must restore it from them.
Source: english.alarabiya.net/en/views/2016/04/05/Lebanon-and-violated-citizenship.html
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Saudi Arabia Must Build New Strategies To Deal With The Paradigm Shift
By Khaled Almaeena
5 April 2016
I don’t know why the Arabs get flustered and hot under the collar when an American official speaks out his mind. President Obama’s talk to the Atlantic magazine did that.
Dozens of writers (many who may have never heard of the magazine) immediately pounced on Obama’s words. Some even used racist remarks on the social media. Others tried to remind him of the Gulf’s strategic relationship and historic alliance with the US. A few were in a state of hysteria as to why the US had “abandoned” its “historic” allies.
How naïve we are and will always be!! There are no permanent friends or enemies in international relations.
As has been the case with the US it has always put its interest first. They believe that the time has come now for the US to re-evaluate its interest and opt for places where there is economic growth and relative peace. And that is South East Asia with Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, South Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia being the buzzwords.
Our people should know that their security does not depend on an alliance with America but on a vibrant and strong society.
In the region they are looking at their former enemy Iran. While there are diehard opponents of the Iranian regime there is a growing element that are looking at the possibility of raking in the dollars. Money talks. And despite Iranian shenanigans in the region the US will conveniently overlook them.
And please don’t forget Israel. Everyday the Zionist terrorists are killing innocent children and are even being glorified by presidential candidates and a large section of the servile US media.
The Gulf States are being ridiculed and lampooned in public and private by both the administration and those waiting to enter the White House on Jan. 20, 2017. The portrayal in the media that we barter oil for our security is very offensive to me.
Instead of reviewing our policies, preparing for a post-Iran deal, a post-oil economy we drug ourselves with words and express sadness, disappointment as to why we have been criticized and ignored as the US rushes to realign its foreign and economic policies.
Article after article is written on Obama’s statements. Yet, we forget Obama hardly makes the headlines in the US any more. It’s the Clintons, Cruzs, Sanders and Trumps who fill news space and television time.
They are a new breed of politicians for whom the past is long on. Roosevelt is a fading memory and the future is one where the interests of the US come first.
We have now become a very small blip on their radar screen. What do we do then? We too should first consolidate our economy, enhance societal change, giving the people a stake and participation and make logical moves to be prepared.
Our people should know that their security does not depend on an alliance with America but on a vibrant and strong society. They should also know we are not a protectorate of the West but a sovereign nation.
It’s time we build our own strategies to deal with the paradigm shift and realities of a complex and fast changing world.
Source: english.alarabiya.net/en/views/2016/04/05/Saudi-Arabia-must-build-new-strategies-to-deal-with-the-paradigm-shift.html
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Zaha Hadid, the Revolutionary Architect
By Turki Al-Dakhil
4 April 2016
Zaha Hadid, the revolutionary architect and the “queen of curves,” as she is described, has passed away.
She adopted the abstract pattern, and was influenced by deconstructionist philosophy during its wave in the 1970s. Her designs decorate East and West. A daughter of Baghdad who emigrated to Britain, she also designed shoes.
Legacy
She was a bridge between civilizations via architecture, and wanted to compensate for Iraq’s violated heritage via buildings that future generations will get to see.
A lot has been written about her iconic buildings in the world’s capitals. Hadid’s architecture is vibrant and revolutionary.
She haunted spaces, drew curves and created abstract designs. She made architecture speak. Her architecture says a lot to a world full of blood and destruction.
She was a bridge between civilizations via architecture, and wanted to compensate for Iraq’s violated heritage via buildings that future generations will get to see
Source: english.alarabiya.net/en/views/2016/04/04/Zaha-Hadid-the-revolutionary-architect.html
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Conspiring Against BDS
By Ramzy Baroud
5 April 2016
A thousand Israelis and their supporters gathered in Jerusalem’s International Convention Centre on March 28 at a conference aimed at combating the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS).
The conference was a display of “fear, paranoia, anger and determination,” as described by Antony Loewenstein, and featured top government officials, members of the oppositions and a strange conglomerate of guests, including celebrity has-beens like Roseanne Barr.
Statements made at the conference were predictably frightening and antagonistic — they amounted to nothing more than a display of the language of blood and vengeance that people have grown accustomed to within the Israeli political discourse. One of the most alarming of the statements was made by Israeli Minister of Transportation Israel Katz who called for the “focused civilian elimination of the leadership of BDS.”
We need to know how “to act against them, how to isolate them, also to transfer information to intelligence agents around the world, and other agents. We have to understand that there is a battle here. It is wrapped in many covers,” Katz said.
Barr on the other hand, called for nuclear bombing the University of California-Davis following its students’ support of BDS.
One must certainly have no illusions regarding the ferocity of the fight ahead — this is the nature of conflict between any popular movement, the objective of which is to put pressure on a state that violates international law with impunity, and a government that sees itself above and in no way bound by the law. The impetus behind the antagonism faced by the BDS movement is that it has in fact matured in its message and grown in size. Israel, sooner or later would see BDS as a threat, and would move decisively to combat it.
However, one can certainly not be oblivious to the internal challenges faced by BDS itself. While the movement is largely de-centralized, and local decisions are left to the numerous branches located throughout the world, speaking in one voice is a certain challenge. Of course, there are the guiding principles, but it remains essential to overcome the practical hindrances to an honest and transparent democratic dialogue in order to keep the movement strong and forward thinking.
BDS was initiated after repeated calls from Palestinian civil society, especially in 2004 and 2005 to boycott Israel for its crimes against Palestinians, its violations of international law, its illegal occupation and its discriminatory, racially motivated policies. The call found receptive audiences across the world, and over the last decade it became the primary platform, if not rally-cry for pro-Palestine activists confronting Israel.
BDS did not expand so significantly in recent years only because of its own organization and successful branding. One cannot ignore the multiple crimes carried out by the Israeli Army and armed Jewish settlers since then. One cannot overlook the many racist laws passed by the Knesset, targeting the country’s minorities. With every killing, every additional day of siege on Gaza, every war, and every abhorrent statement made by an Israeli official, BDS grew significantly.
BDS owes much of its success to an effective strategy that is predicated on harnessing the energy of civil society, but also to the fact that Israel is relentless in demonstrating the need for global action, to end the occupation, the discrimination and the impunity of an army that killed much too many Palestinians.
Yet, not until recently did Israelis and their supporters begin viewing BDS with alarm, if not real concern. In the past, that job was left to Zionist student groupings in western campuses. But they failed, and terribly so, to stem the flow of the pro-Palestine sentiments in US-Western campuses. As of last year, a large anti-BDS movement began forming with the sole purpose of crushing the budding BDS movement, but to no avail.
The “big guns” were summoned by two massively rich Zionists, casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and Haim Saban. They invited fellow millionaires to a June 2015 conference in Las Vegas in order to raise funds for an anti-BDS movement. Those invited, mostly rightwing zealots, went to the Venetian hotel, (also owned by Adelson) with the understanding that a minimal acceptable donation is one million dollars. Anti-BDS activists and government officials who travelled to Las Vegas for the event were promised by an Israeli-American businessman, Adam Milstein that they “no longer have to worry about financing and fundraising. You just need to be united.”
Galvanizing on the momentum, Hillary Clinton, who is now leading in her party’s primaries as a precursor for presidential elections in November, sent Saban a letter that could serve as a glaring example of a politician groveling to a rich funder with no regard for morality or self-respect:
Under the letter heading, “Hillary for America,” she wrote to “express her alarm” over BDS, insisting that countering the movement must become a “priority.” “I am seeking your advice on how we can work together to reverse this trend,” she wrote.
“As a Senator and a Secretary of State, I saw how crucial it is for America to defend Israel at every turn. I have opposed dozens of anti-Israel resolutions at the UN, the Human Rights Council and other international organizations,” she boasted, going as far as condemning the Goldstone Report, which accused Israel of committing war crimes in Gaza.
Clinton is not alone. In June 2015, soon after the anti-BDS millionaires’ club concluded its gathering in Las Vegas, President Barack Obama signed into law a measure specifically designed to combat BDS.
“The Trade Promotion Authority legislation … contained the anti-BDS provisions, which make rejection of the phenomenon a top priority for US negotiators as they work on a more distant free trade agreement with the European Union,” the Times of Israel reported.
Within months, the floodgates had opened, and a foray of BDS condemnations followed. Yet, this was largely a farce. The calls from western governments, originating from the UK, the US, Canada and others to criminalize the boycott of Israel have hardly slowed down the momentum of the movement. On the contrary, it has accelerated it. History has taught us that criminalizing civil society and outlawing ideas, especially those that are guided by moral principles, is never a good idea. Nor is calling for “eliminating” civilian society activists and bombing their universities.
The only sensible strategy to combat BDS is one that not a single speaker in the anti-BDS gatherings had raised: Ending the very criminal and racist policies that inspired BDS in the first place.
Source: arabnews.com/columns/news/905761
URL: https://newageislam.com/middle-east-press/world-show-moral-urgency-tackling/d/106868