It's great to hear that the dictator Bel Ali has fled with the Tunisian people's head tax to hide out in Dubai and bribe Saudi officials in anticipation of "disappearing" amongst his oil-wealthy Saudi buddies.
Yet I am still saddened to hear that the police have used the shock and awe method of keeping order in a country where their primary use was as a tool for Ben Ali to cling to power as only a dictator can, i.e. lots of bribes from America, more bribes from tourists holidaying in a de facto socialist state, and even more bribes from Saudis who considered Ben Ali to be an honorable Muslim even Qutb would be proud of.
In the future, I predict there may be a protest march in major cities in the West in solidarity with the moderates of Tunis. Let the cry be heard: INSHALLAH!
Let "peace, love, unity, solidarity and respect" be in their hearts!
Let us also hope that democracy rules in Tunis.
انه لشيء رائع أن نسمع أن الديكتاتور علي بلحاج قد فر مع ضريبة الرأس الشعب التونسي على الاختباء في دبي ورشوة مسؤولين سعوديين تحسبا من "الاختفاء" بين رفاقه السعودية الغنية بالنفط.
بعد ما زلت أشعر بالحزن لسماع ان الشرطة استخدمت أسلوب الصدمة والترويع من أجل حفظ في بلد استخدامها الابتدائي كأداة لزين العابدين بن علي التمسك بالسلطة كما ديكتاتور واحد فقط يمكن، أي الكثير من الرشاوى من أمريكا وأكثر رشاوى من السياح يقضون عطلات في دولة بحكم الامر الواقع الاشتراكي، والرشاوى حتى أكثر من السعوديين الذين يعتبرون زين العابدين بن علي ليكون مسلم الشرفاء حتى أن سيد قطب أن نفخر به.
في المستقبل، وأتوقع أنه قد يكون هناك مسيرة احتجاج في المدن الكبرى في الغرب في التضامن مع المعتدلين من تونس. واسمحوا أن يسمع صراخ : إن شاء الله.
السماح "السلام والمحبة والوحدة والتضامن والاحترام" يكون في قلوبهم!
دعونا نأمل أيضا أن قواعد الديمقراطية في تونس.
Originally posted: January 26, 2011 6:41 PM
Reference:
ben Ali has left Tunisia: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/tunisia/index.html
Showing posts with label Maghreb. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Maghreb. Show all posts
20140309
The Cat Has Rabies (satire)
Meeting with President Bush in 2001, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, an ally of Saddam Hussein at the time, offered to mediate a resolution between the United States and Iraq. There is an Arab proverb, the New York Times reported the Yemeni president as saying. If you put a cat into a cage, it can turn into a lion. Mr. Bush responded that he had no intention of reconciling, a senior administration official said.
"This cat has rabies," Mr. Bush said, referring to Mr. Hussein, and then added with a bluntness that was said by officials in the room to have shocked Mr. Saleh, "The only way to cure the cat is to cut off its head."
My opinion is the cat was given rabies in the form of military aid by America and earlier the UK. This is a pattern of UK and later American involvement in the Middle East that is tied to oil.
Indeed, Big Oil in the hands of the West and dominated by America is thus a threat to the Middle East and Muslim nations in Africa, according to Al Qaeda. Hence the ISIS' takeover of oil assets in Syria. This also explains the rebels in Libya, their takeover of oil assets in three ports, and the North Korean oil tanker.
NATO's limited role in the Libyan Civil War in 2011 and the failure of the US State Department to secure its embassy in Benghazi a year later are directly related to the current troubles in Libya today. Libya itself is slowly breaking up with not only ethnic tension arising from the Berber community of western Libya but also among Arab tribal clans based on the three classical provinces of ancient Libya: Tripolitania in the west, Cyrenaica in the east and Fezzan in the south.
With rebels holding wells in Tripolitania and Cyrenaica, the situation has deteriorated due to political infighting due to the machinations of the Muslim Brotherhood. Due to decades of the Qaddafi regime playing tribes against each other, and bribing a tribe to achieve political dominance here and there, the Libyan people are extremely weary of dictatorships. Their peaceful demonstrations in Tripoli had only turned violent due to militants' presence in the protests earlier last month.
Meanwhile, the military aid given to Israel by America to ensure its survival has resulted in criticism in the Middle East by Muslim nations and is a direct cause of the rise of pan-Arab nationalism and later pan-Muslim nationalism within the region and other hotspots both in Africa, South Asian and Southeast Asia.
Both the Afghanistan and Iraq situation only led to the rise of the al Qaeda armn ISIS to be established in Iraq, only to be exported to Syria after Arab Spring went horribly wrong there. In the case of Syria, the corruption of the Assad regime is well known, especially its exploitation of the Lebanese Civil War in the 1970s and invasion of part of south Lebanon by Israel. Indeed, Syria impoverished Lebanon during that time until it left in 2005.
Thus Assad may consider himself the savior of the Levant, yet he is only the protector of corruption and extortion. It would be interesting to see how Lebanon deals with the many Syrians who automatically became Lebanese citizens between 1980 and 2000, seeing as their citizenship was illegal due to Syrian dominance of northern Lebanon.
Back in Yemen, the "rehabilitation" of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula consists of using the militia to rout out Sunni militancy in south Yemen that favors pan-Arabian nationalism over the republican ideals of the central hegemony in Sana'a. Yemeni government uses oil dollars to bribe tribal clans in northern Yemen. In this way, the Shi'a north is placated to moderate militancy while the Sunni south is forced to accept al Qaeda ideology (pan-Muslim nationalism) at gunpoint.
Here is what the difference between pan-Arab nationalism and pan-Muslim nation is: the former is a united Arab organization that is nominally Muslim but promotes a secular government (think of the failed UAR of Egypt and Syria) while the latter is a worldwide caliphate which considers the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan to be a dupe of America, promoting Sharia law based on tribal customs rather than on the Quran.
Given that Al Qaeda has submitted authority to the Taliban, and that the Taliban originate in Pakistan, it is interesting to note that Yemen is the hotbed of al Qaeda militants due to the drone attacks there. For it is they who aid the ISIS forces in Iraq and in Syria, along with militants from the Maghreb and elsewhere in the world.
Ah, the karma of Cold War politics in Afghanistan is biting us in the ass!
"This cat has rabies," Mr. Bush said, referring to Mr. Hussein, and then added with a bluntness that was said by officials in the room to have shocked Mr. Saleh, "The only way to cure the cat is to cut off its head."
My opinion is the cat was given rabies in the form of military aid by America and earlier the UK. This is a pattern of UK and later American involvement in the Middle East that is tied to oil.
Indeed, Big Oil in the hands of the West and dominated by America is thus a threat to the Middle East and Muslim nations in Africa, according to Al Qaeda. Hence the ISIS' takeover of oil assets in Syria. This also explains the rebels in Libya, their takeover of oil assets in three ports, and the North Korean oil tanker.
NATO's limited role in the Libyan Civil War in 2011 and the failure of the US State Department to secure its embassy in Benghazi a year later are directly related to the current troubles in Libya today. Libya itself is slowly breaking up with not only ethnic tension arising from the Berber community of western Libya but also among Arab tribal clans based on the three classical provinces of ancient Libya: Tripolitania in the west, Cyrenaica in the east and Fezzan in the south.
With rebels holding wells in Tripolitania and Cyrenaica, the situation has deteriorated due to political infighting due to the machinations of the Muslim Brotherhood. Due to decades of the Qaddafi regime playing tribes against each other, and bribing a tribe to achieve political dominance here and there, the Libyan people are extremely weary of dictatorships. Their peaceful demonstrations in Tripoli had only turned violent due to militants' presence in the protests earlier last month.
Meanwhile, the military aid given to Israel by America to ensure its survival has resulted in criticism in the Middle East by Muslim nations and is a direct cause of the rise of pan-Arab nationalism and later pan-Muslim nationalism within the region and other hotspots both in Africa, South Asian and Southeast Asia.
Both the Afghanistan and Iraq situation only led to the rise of the al Qaeda armn ISIS to be established in Iraq, only to be exported to Syria after Arab Spring went horribly wrong there. In the case of Syria, the corruption of the Assad regime is well known, especially its exploitation of the Lebanese Civil War in the 1970s and invasion of part of south Lebanon by Israel. Indeed, Syria impoverished Lebanon during that time until it left in 2005.
Thus Assad may consider himself the savior of the Levant, yet he is only the protector of corruption and extortion. It would be interesting to see how Lebanon deals with the many Syrians who automatically became Lebanese citizens between 1980 and 2000, seeing as their citizenship was illegal due to Syrian dominance of northern Lebanon.
Back in Yemen, the "rehabilitation" of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula consists of using the militia to rout out Sunni militancy in south Yemen that favors pan-Arabian nationalism over the republican ideals of the central hegemony in Sana'a. Yemeni government uses oil dollars to bribe tribal clans in northern Yemen. In this way, the Shi'a north is placated to moderate militancy while the Sunni south is forced to accept al Qaeda ideology (pan-Muslim nationalism) at gunpoint.
Here is what the difference between pan-Arab nationalism and pan-Muslim nation is: the former is a united Arab organization that is nominally Muslim but promotes a secular government (think of the failed UAR of Egypt and Syria) while the latter is a worldwide caliphate which considers the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan to be a dupe of America, promoting Sharia law based on tribal customs rather than on the Quran.
Given that Al Qaeda has submitted authority to the Taliban, and that the Taliban originate in Pakistan, it is interesting to note that Yemen is the hotbed of al Qaeda militants due to the drone attacks there. For it is they who aid the ISIS forces in Iraq and in Syria, along with militants from the Maghreb and elsewhere in the world.
Ah, the karma of Cold War politics in Afghanistan is biting us in the ass!
20140203
The Moors Declined Due to Economic Competition with the Holy Roman Empire (satire)
I once checked the genetic map for Spain. It turns out that the ancestry of Spanish men were likely to be Greek, Berber, and what used to be called Moorish, along with a few Normans, Carthaginians, and Visigoths.
On the female side, the mitochondria assaying shows a predominantly Western European gene-pool e.g. Christian Hispanics (of Norman and Visigoth ancestry) sealing trade deals with the Moors by marrying off their daughters to predominantly Berber and a few Arabic Muslims.
Indeed, Spain and a part of France, and Sicily was conquered by the Moors, who soon settled into fiefdoms, only to conquer their neighboring Moorish governor if he kept his borders unguarded.
Once the Moors began to encroach on the Christian northlands of the Iberian peninsula, Christian knights in France were beseeched by emissaries of the Pope to rid Hispania of the Moors.
However, during the Moorish domination of Hispania, increased trade led to alliances between Christians, Jews and Muslims. IMO the reason for the Inquisition was originally to ensure piety and forced Christian conversion, so that the Pope's coffers were full of the faithful's tithes (and property when they died without heirs).
So the Colonial Period of Europe was probably due to economic competition with the Muslims. And it is not preposterous to have the Muslims discover America first.
Once the Catholics had the Moors leaving Spain, they at first let the Moors alone, being told they would give up Islam for Christianity along with a few of the Jews. In the end, a mass exodus of Jews left Spain for Constantinople and Asia Minor.
Meanwhile the Moors were forced to accept Christian or be burned at the stake after being tortured by the Inquisitors from Rome, who were Jesuits.
So, it was not just the lust for gold in China that led to Colonial powers of Europe sailing west. It was also the fact that a lot of gold left with the vanquished Moors, and Spain became somewhat impoverished just as the Dark Ages were falling.
Without the Moorish presence, the King and Queen of Portugal had to send explorers to find more gold to rebuild Spain for Western European tastes.
A pity though. The Moors were a cash cow for Europe but the Pope's anti-Muslim bigotry led to the rise of the Plague, since the storehouses of grain probably had less cats keeping the rats at bay due to the wars that drove the Moors out.
Now today, the average European is ignorant of Muslim culture and its history in the Levant and Arabia. So are a great many Americans, whose hatred is unfounded and much Islamophobia is concentrated among neo-conservative religious folk some of whom can barely read science or do their income taxes. As for any sense of history, even their GOP leaders are simpletons about Arab history in the Middle East.
In my opinion, this is probably why 911 happened: to smarten the West up to the fact that it was not Muslims who bombed the World Trade Centres but Islamists and al Qaeda who have made a mockery of Islam by using Salafi and Wahhabi Islam rhetoric in perverted ways.
Meanwhile, these political ideologists are not truly religious but fanatical about Sharia without any compassion or mercy whatsoever. If the descendant of Moors were more organized, then they'd teach the fanatical terrorists about what real Sharia actually is. But alas! They are in an unofficial civil war in Liberia, or dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood west of Tripoli to Morocco.
Indeed, the Arab Spring has yet to bear any fruit of democracy, due to the perversion of Salafi and Wahhabi ideology into its political ideology consisting of being so pious everyone else is an unbeliever and only worthy of death.
Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are their bankrollers, and America and Canada their propagandists.
On the female side, the mitochondria assaying shows a predominantly Western European gene-pool e.g. Christian Hispanics (of Norman and Visigoth ancestry) sealing trade deals with the Moors by marrying off their daughters to predominantly Berber and a few Arabic Muslims.
Indeed, Spain and a part of France, and Sicily was conquered by the Moors, who soon settled into fiefdoms, only to conquer their neighboring Moorish governor if he kept his borders unguarded.
Once the Moors began to encroach on the Christian northlands of the Iberian peninsula, Christian knights in France were beseeched by emissaries of the Pope to rid Hispania of the Moors.
However, during the Moorish domination of Hispania, increased trade led to alliances between Christians, Jews and Muslims. IMO the reason for the Inquisition was originally to ensure piety and forced Christian conversion, so that the Pope's coffers were full of the faithful's tithes (and property when they died without heirs).
So the Colonial Period of Europe was probably due to economic competition with the Muslims. And it is not preposterous to have the Muslims discover America first.
Once the Catholics had the Moors leaving Spain, they at first let the Moors alone, being told they would give up Islam for Christianity along with a few of the Jews. In the end, a mass exodus of Jews left Spain for Constantinople and Asia Minor.
Meanwhile the Moors were forced to accept Christian or be burned at the stake after being tortured by the Inquisitors from Rome, who were Jesuits.
So, it was not just the lust for gold in China that led to Colonial powers of Europe sailing west. It was also the fact that a lot of gold left with the vanquished Moors, and Spain became somewhat impoverished just as the Dark Ages were falling.
Without the Moorish presence, the King and Queen of Portugal had to send explorers to find more gold to rebuild Spain for Western European tastes.
A pity though. The Moors were a cash cow for Europe but the Pope's anti-Muslim bigotry led to the rise of the Plague, since the storehouses of grain probably had less cats keeping the rats at bay due to the wars that drove the Moors out.
Now today, the average European is ignorant of Muslim culture and its history in the Levant and Arabia. So are a great many Americans, whose hatred is unfounded and much Islamophobia is concentrated among neo-conservative religious folk some of whom can barely read science or do their income taxes. As for any sense of history, even their GOP leaders are simpletons about Arab history in the Middle East.
In my opinion, this is probably why 911 happened: to smarten the West up to the fact that it was not Muslims who bombed the World Trade Centres but Islamists and al Qaeda who have made a mockery of Islam by using Salafi and Wahhabi Islam rhetoric in perverted ways.
Meanwhile, these political ideologists are not truly religious but fanatical about Sharia without any compassion or mercy whatsoever. If the descendant of Moors were more organized, then they'd teach the fanatical terrorists about what real Sharia actually is. But alas! They are in an unofficial civil war in Liberia, or dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood west of Tripoli to Morocco.
Indeed, the Arab Spring has yet to bear any fruit of democracy, due to the perversion of Salafi and Wahhabi ideology into its political ideology consisting of being so pious everyone else is an unbeliever and only worthy of death.
Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are their bankrollers, and America and Canada their propagandists.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)