Islamic world

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Robert Baer on Iran

July 2, 2010 in Iraq and the Islamic World, US Politics by DJ | No comments

Melophores by dynamosquito.
(Dynamosquito image.)

Earlier this week, the host of KUER’s “Radio West” interviewed Robert Baer, former CIA field officer, about Iran.  Baer’s view: our country doesn’t really understand what makes Iran tick.  They are not religious fanatics, they are a military dictatorship bent on one thing only: security.  That means (to them) dominating the Persian Gulf region and having more control over the price of oil, which is their main source of income.

Becausde we don’t understand them, the Iranians are largely outmaneuvering us politically.  Iran is a regional superpower, and they’re playing us to get what they want.  And sanctions won;t work, because they don’t think in terms of short-term results.

One of my principles of conflict analysis is that to understand why a participant does what they do, we have to know what they want.  This interview is worth a listen.

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YouTube & Politics – Part 4

June 14, 2010 in US Politics by DJ | No comments

Written by D. J. Mitchell and Susan Cain

In our last post about YouTube & Politics, we explored the anti-American propaganda of Islamic extremists. But there’s no shortage of anti-Islamic propaganda either, as evidenced by the video above.

In this 1940 cartoon by Leon Schlesinger Studios, Porky Pig finds himself in the French Foreign Legion, under attack by Ali-Baba, “Mad Dog of the Desert.”  After fending off various would-be Arab assassins, the final assault is by a small man with a bomb strapped to his head, who is very eager to use it– a suicide bomber.  All the male Arabs shown in the clip are bad guys.

Perhaps this was excusable in pre-WWII America. YouTube brings this little racist piece out of the mothballs of history, and makes it available in the here and now.

Anti-Islam propaganda is not relegated only to ancient cartoons. On a clip of a TV show by Pastor Joe Van Koevering, self-described former Palestinian terrorist and converted Christian Walid Shoebat “proves” that the mark of the beast found in revelation is the badge of Islam (even though Islam was still 500 years from being founded when the Revelation was scribed). The theme has been adopted by numerous evangelical Christian ads and messages, spreading hatred based on false theology.

Then there’s this admittedly funny but clearly anti-Arab comedy clip of an Arab terrorist going through customs. It’s not in English, but you won’t need the dialog to understand what’s going on.

And this clip, a warning in French about the need to “Save France” from the coming “Eurarabe: Islam in Europe.” This video suggests that western civilization itself is in danger of being overrun by crazed Muslims, and graphically equates Islam with the French riots of the past few years.

Here’s a series of anti-Islamic cartoons from AIPAC, the pro-Israeli lobbying organization, as exposed on YouTube.

Freedom of expression is an important ideal. As S. G. Tallentyre attributed to Voltaire,

“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

The internet has made possible free exchange of ideas on a scale previously unimaginable, and YouTube is an important tool in that exchange. Yet free expression also means that extremist views have increasing access to our thoughts and minds. Now more than ever, we must question what we read and hear.

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American Media Questions Israel

June 4, 2010 in Peace and Justice by DJ | No comments

destroying cars & homes with a bulldozer #6 by michaelramallah.

(MichaelRamallah photo: Israeli forces in Gaza bulldoze homes and cars.)

The American media have reacted with a delay that jet lag alone cannot explain. But the first reports of the correspondents are, in general, unfavorable to the Israeli argument. Only comments on Fox News insist on the “unknown” of the case and the threat posed by Hamas to Israel.

Le Monde reports that Israel’s attack on the humanitarian flotilla Monday, though overshadowed by both a long weekend and the massive BP oil spill (what perfect timing!) has caused the American media to do something it has rarely done in the past: show Israel in a less than favorable light.

It has also highlighted the schism between pro-Israel Jewish groups and progressive Jewish groups, with the latter condemning the attack.  Still, American Jewish supporters of Israel remain undaunted:

Malcolm Hoenlein, chairman of the Conference of Presidents… says he is not “not worried” “Why should I be? When Americans know the facts, everyone will understand that this was a deliberate provocation carried out by Al Qaeda, Hamas and others to assist a terrorist entity.

Humanitarian aid an Al Queda plot?  I thought they were more prone to bombings.

In any case, it appears that the attacks have had the effect of highlighting Israel’s contempt for the rule of law, and causing its supporters to grasp for increasingly implausible justifications.  Perhaps, finally, American eyes are opening: a bully is a bully, even when they happen to be your ally.

(Thanks to Google Translate for its assistance with writing this article.)

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You Tube & Politics – Part 3

May 25, 2010 in US Politics by asymptoticlife | 1 comment

This is the third in a series written by D. J. Mitchell and Susan Cain.

Susan has over 100 Muslim and Arab friends on Facebook, from whom she is learning about their religion, their culture, and what it is like to be an average citizen in the countries in which they live.

One evening on Facebook, Susan saw the above video posted by Kareem Wagdi, one of her newer Arab friends.  The video shows quotations, followed by photos of the Hollywood stars to whom the quotes are attributed. Although the text was written in Arabic, Susan could tell by Kareem’s comments in English that he was quite disgusted with its message. She told Kareem that although she was sure there were negative feelings in Hollywood, that there were others who had no ill feelings about Arabs and Muslims, and that many stars supported Arab causes. She also told him that (as is true with most Americans) she could not understand the Arabic that was written in this video.

Kareem responded that, according to the Arabic captions, some of the celebrities in the video made positive comments about Arabs, including Mel Gibson, Anthony Hopkins, George Clooney, Angelina Jolie, Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Ralph Fiennes, and Sandra Bullock. But there were some very negative comments from others. We have located translations of the negative comments the video attributes to the following people:

Tom Cruise: “The Arabs are the source of terrorism because they haven’t left anyone that they haven’t attacked and I hope that Israel annihilates Hizballah.”

A representative of Mr. Cruise confirms that he never said that, and added, “Thanks for coming to us – what I just found on line is ridiculous.”

Richard Gere: “The Arabs are a parasite on the world and it’s necessary to exterminate them all.”

Gere is the founder of the humanitiarian Gere Foundation. In 2005, after several trips to Palestine in support of peace, Gere did a television spot on behalf of a Jewish peace group, encouraging Palestinians to vote.

Harrison Ford: “The Arabs are grotesque creatures and are less than animals and we the Jews are the natives of this world, so there’s no comparison.”

Here is what Ford has actually said, which was also carried on the English-language website Islam Online:

“I’m very disturbed about the direction American foreign policy is going. I think something needs to be done to help alleviate the conditions which have created a disenfranchised and angry faction in the Middle East. I don’t think military intervention is the correct solution. I regret what we as a country have done so far.”

It’s clear that the video seriously misrepresents the views of these Hollywood celebrities, presumably for the purpose of showing how bigoted and racist we Americans are. And it would be easy to dismiss such obvious propaganda– but we can’t afford to. The YouTube video above has been viewed almost 400,000 times in two years. That’s over 500 views per day, every day, on this one video.

The website from which we obtained translations indicates that this propaganda has been circulating in email format since at least 2006. And a search of, for example, “Harrison Ford Arab quotes” will turn up plenty of discussion in English about the fictional quotes.

In a post-modern world of electronic communication, how is it possible that such untruthful propaganda would be believed by Arabs throughout the world? And how are we so unaware of it? First, all of us want to believe that what we hear and see through the independent sources on the internet is true. We want to trust it as a reliable non-commercial source of information. It isn’t. There are many good sources of information, and also many sources that are not reliable. Only through experience do we begin to learn the difference.

Second, and perhaps more importantly, is the language barrier. Arabic is the common language of the Islamic world, yet few Americans speak it. College enrollment in the study of Arabic language was only 1.5% of all college language study in 2006, up from just 0.7% in 2002. With no common language, we have no means to fact check what is being said on either side.

Taking advantage of these limitations, extremists use YouTube and other electronic media to spread the seeds of hate every day. Susan’s friend Kareem had no reason not to believe them. And until Kareem and Susan met on FaceBook, we didn’t know this was happening.

The internet in general, and YouTube in particular, is like an untended garden: truth can be found alongside misinformation. We must take care to nurture truth, to question our sources, or the weeds that sprout from the seeds of hatred will overpower it.

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YouTube and Politics – Part 1

May 10, 2010 in Peace & Justice by asymptoticlife | No comments

This is the first of a series of articles co-written by D.J. and Susan on the role of YouTube in politics.  Susan has done most of the research.

YouTube, the free video sharing site offers an incredible medium for uploading and watching videos.  People love it as a free avenue for airing videos that would otherwise have little outlet.  Some hope they’ll get their 15 minutes of fame.  (DJ has uploaded 37 videos so far.)  Others crave the unlimited access to millions of professional and amateur music videos, comedy, political satire, and so forth.

We tried to get a factual idea as to how many videos are on YouTube as of today, the answer is: no one knows. There are no certified totals, only educated guesses. Thirty thousand videos are guesstimated to be uploaded per day.  One source says over a billion vids are watched each day.  A technology site says that a 2006 “Wall Street Journal” article reported that YouTube hosted 6 million videos. The article also states that in 2008, a YouTube search “returned more than 80 million videos and 3 million user channels.” So, it’s safe to say that the total number is currently well into 100 million videos.

YouTube is available to anyone who has an unfettered internet connection– worldwide.  So it’s no surprise that it has been used as a political tool.  Some countries block YouTube , or control what its citizens can watch.  Some of those use their YouTube channel to spread disinformation.  Here’s an example:

Susan has two Facebook friends living in a country where YouTube is banned. The government of that country does not particularly like the USA, especially its policies concerning Palestine. That government posted a YouTube video (embedded above) on its”legal” channel, showing an American musician performing a pro-Palestinian song he had written.  According to both of these Arabic speaking friends, the government channel claimed that the video had been banned in the United States. The clear implication was that our government bans any media here that is pro-Palestinian; that we forbid our people to be anything but pro-Israel.

Citizens of that country can’t verify whether what their government tells them is true, because they can’t access YouTube.  They were shocked to learn from Susan that what they’ve been told is not the truth.

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Poem: A Dialogue Between Lady Liberty & Mother Egypt

April 29, 2010 in Peace & Justice, US Politics by asymptoticlife | No comments

EG 00 Tempio di Karnak 3 by Pluca.

(Pluca photo .)

Written by Susan Cain.

Two months before last year’s 9-11 anniversary, I made two amazing new young Egyptian friends. I thought it would be a nice tribute to our friendship if I wrote a poem about what their friendship meant to me. 9/11 must have been in the back of my mind because what I began writing was not about personal friendship. It was about America’s guilt in lumping all Muslims into the terrorist category and the rage and hate that attitude caused. When I finished writing that poem, I realized that I had discovered “middle ground” on Facebook with the Arab world. I understood their feelings as well as my own. I still have a lot of unanswered questions, but now they are more about the details & less about the “why’s and where’s”.

I hope that my poem suggests how much we could achieve if we all reached for the middle ground. My close Egyptian friends have dubbed me”Queen Susan, ruler of the Monkey Planet”. Queen Susan now offers her poem for you to read:


A Dialogue Between Lady Liberty & Mother Egypt a Few Years After 9/11

In one land, the morning sun rises. The evening moon graces the sky in the other.
The Lady of Liberty opens her eyes. The eyes begin closing of the Majestic Ageless Mother.

Two worlds so far apart, separated for miles by sometimes raging,ill-intentioned seas.
Two worlds like day and dark, separated by sometimes raging,ill-intentioned pleas.
“Death to the West!” “Blow the Arab bastards to hell!” Doesn’t everyone feel this way?
All Arab countries are surely the same! And don’t all in the West hate all Muslims today?

In one land, the morning sun rises. The evening moon graces the sky in the other.
The Lady of Liberty opens her eyes. The eyes begin closing of the Majestic Ageless Mother.

Actions by States have killed innocents en masse. Actions by Groups have done the same, nothing other.
The Lady of Liberty opens her eyes. The eyes begin closing of the Majestic Ageless Mother.
“Death to the West!” “Blow the Arab bastards to hell!” Doesn’t everyone feel this way?
All Arab countries are surely the same! And don’t all in the West hate all Muslims today?

In one land, the morning sun rises. The evening moon graces the sky in the other.
The Lady of Liberty opens her eyes. The eyes begin closing of the Majestic Ageless Mother.

Two worlds so far apart, separated for miles by sometimes raging,ill-intentioned seas.
Two worlds like day and dark, separated by sometimes raging,ill-intentioned pleas.
“Death to the West!” “Blow the Arab bastards to hell!” Doesn’t everyone feel this way?
All Arab countries are surely the same! And don’t all in the West hate all Muslims today?

In one land, the morning sun rises. The evening moon graces the sky in the other.
The Lady of Liberty opens her eyes. The eyes begin closing of the Majestic Ageless Mother.
I caught her eyes as they were closing, at the moment before her mind started dozing.
I saw tears in them both when she shook as she cried, and that’s when I started asking her, “Why?”
“You’ve taken my sons, my daughters and lovers; imprisoned us all in one group with The Others!”
Lady looked at the ground, and silence hovered between Lady and the Majestic Mother.

Two worlds so far apart, separated for miles by sometimes raging,ill-intentioned seas.
Two worlds like day and dark, separated by sometimes raging,ill-intentioned pleas.
“Death to the West!” “Blow the Arab bastards to hell!” Doesn’t everyone feel this way?
All Arab countries are surely the same! And don’t all in the West hate all Muslims today?

Lady’s eyes were clouded with rage when she turned toward Mother, the old aging Sage.
No longer a jewel in Lady’s eyes, Mother was evil; to be despised!
“Cruel, wretched woman, don’t you know what you’ve done? You blew up MY daughters! You blew up MY sons!”
“You arrogant fool, what makes you say that? That was none of my doing!Where are your facts?
You’ve taken my sons, my daughters and lovers; imprisoned us all in one group with The Others!”
Lady looked at the ground, and silence hovered between Lady and the Majestic Mother.

Still clouded with rage, glaring sharp as a knife she screamed, “You’re the cause of all of this strife!
You killed her husband. You murdered his wife!”
“You arrogant fool, again I say! That was none of my doing; took no part in that day!
You keep taking my sons, my daughters, my lovers; throwing us all in one group with The Others!”
Lady slumped to the ground, and silence hovered between Lady and the Majestic Mother.

Two worlds so far apart, separated for miles by sometimes raging,ill-intentioned seas.
Two worlds like day and dark, separated by sometimes raging, ill-intentioned pleas.
“Death to the West!” “Blow the Arab bastards to hell!” Doesn’t everyone feel this way?
All Arab countries are surely the same! And don’t all in the West hate all Muslims today?

“What did I do?” cried Lady in grief. “My heart hurts so. It’s beyond belief. I hate you so much; Hope your lives are just brief!”
“If you want death for me, then I’ll bring it to you! The whole world will fear the red, white and blue!
I’ll rain bombs and destruction all over your world! I’ll turn you into a frightened girl!”
Mother plead, “Bombs won’t make your pain disappear. They kill innocent people, make them live in fear!”
Lady screamed, “Fear is one thing you’ve brought to my door. I cannot live in fear anymore!
“I don’t want you to fear me. I don’t want you to kill. When these words reach your heart, I’ll be your friend still.
“Lady, you cannot go on this way with an unquenchable urge to make us all pay.
You keep blaming my sons, my daughters, my lovers; hating us all in a group with The Others!”

Mother knelt to the ground, and silence hovered between Lady and the Majestic Mother.
Two worlds, unknowingly not so far apart, can be separated by calm and friendly seas.
Two worlds experiencing day and dark, united by soft speaking, kind pleas.
“Would you be my friend?” “Can I help you with that?” Why can’t we feel this way?
Surely Arab people feel the same. And don’t we in the West want peace today?

(By: Queen Susan, ruler of the Monkey Planet, Sept. 2009)

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From Disbelief to Understanding

April 27, 2010 in US Politics by asymptoticlife | No comments

Guest author Susan Cain was born in Memphis, TN. She was studying operatic voice in college, but became disillusioned with majoring in education & French, and dropped out when she discovered the world of blues musicians. She sang blues on weekends, while pursuing a day job in accounting. She writes, “I was working my way up the corporate ladder when I contracted meningitis in 12/1991. After a 30 day coma, I awoke deaf & with an impaired sense of balance. I concentrated all of my attention on my daughter, until I became obsessed with politics right before the Iraq war began.”

September 11, 2001 by wallyg.

(Wally G. photo .)

I never understood what it was like to feel disbelief until 9/11. For weeks I felt like I was watching a continuing Hollywood disaster movie unfold every time I turned on the television. It had to be a movie. The events happening around me were completely out of my control. This movie tormented me, making me feel a sense of helplessness that I could hardly bear. It made me clamp an American flag on my car window so that I felt united with the people in my country. We were all so comforted by this national unity that we let our politicians have a free hand to lead us with fear.

I felt like I was the only person in the Bible Belt that was listening to the muffled voices telling us not to invade Iraq. I had no control over that, but that was when I started asking myself “Where did the hate come from that gave birth to the extremism behind 9/11?”

I had started watching a lot of PBS programming to follow issues that our mainstream media seemed to be ignoring. One evening, PBS advertised a program. Part of its title was “Where Did the Hate Come From.” I thought my question was about to be answered. I’ll admit, the program did a great job of explaining things, but how “in-depth” can a 2-6 hour program be? Since watching that one program, I’ve been searching for more answers as more questions have arisen.

I finally became discouraged with blocked websites while using public access computers at the library. During the last week of August 2008, I got my own laptop, hooked up to the internet, and a world beyond my dreams opened up to me. I located a long-lost friend who insisted I join Facebook as an easy way to stay in daily contact with her. After stumbling along in the dark on Facebook for a couple of months, I began meeting people in the Arab world that I had been learning about. I have developed a few special friendships with some of these people that feel as deep as if they were in my real life. We have earned each others’ trust. We have discussed politics and religion very deeply and without arguments.

The friends that I have made from Egypt are especially dear. They are foremost in knowing that one cannot judge the citizens in a country by the actions of its government. They were the Arabs most willing to talk to me when Bush was our president. They were the Arabs that I did not have to prove that I was a “good guy” to before they would open up to me.

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