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Mohurram 10,1431/ December 27, 2009, # 60
Something is being concealed in the corporate media's
coverage of the flt.253 terror scare.
Please scroll all the way down.
Pakistani society is at the crossroads of traumatic change.
Cultural imperialism has successfully penetrated the
country. What is in store for women? Farhan Noor of
Pakistan's Critic Magazine has put it in the form of thought
provoking questions. Let's see how you would answer them.
[This is relevant to other Muslim countries too.]
Please scroll way down.
New Trend's Islamic leaders of the year GLOBALLY:
1. Syed Munawar Hasan, Ameer of Jamaate Islami Pakistan, for
leading a peaceful movement which has blunted US
intervention in Pakistan. He brought out masses of people in
each Pakistani city as part of the AMERICA GO campaign.
2. Khalid Misha'al, political leader of Hamas in exile in
Damascus, for his flexibility, balance, political
understanding and ability to thwart Israeli moves in spite
of the great pressures on Hamas.
From Imam Badi Ali [Jamaat al-Muslimeen North Carolina]
Spotlight: America is at the brink and none of its leaders
have the ability or the courage to pull it back. Look at the
wars, the blind support for Israel, the collapse of the
family system, random fornication, blatant adultery, proud
homosexuality, media control, unending funding of the rich,
the exploitation of women and children, the arrogance of
military power, the racism. This world power is going down
and its commanders are so mediocre, they can't pull it
back.
Jamaat al-Muslimeen [News]
Peaceful but uncompromising
P.O. Box 10881
Baltimore, MD 21234
Islamic Scholar Among Top Level Mathematics Professionals
who Visited China
Dr. Abdulalim Shabazz
[
DrAAS.info
],
Endowed Chair Grambling University,
Louisiana, was the only Muslim and one of only two African
Americans who visited China as part of a delegation of
mathematicians in December. The delegation was given an
extensive tour of Chinese universities. Dr. Shabazz was able
to visit Chinese mosques and for prayers at a priminent
mosque in central China.
There are millions of Muslims in China and their presence is
often quite visible in the numerous mosques.
We congratulate Dr. Shabazz for this new connection created
between US Muslims and Chinese Muslims. [He has just
returned home from China.]
Akmal Shaikh, British Muslim Facing Immediate Execution in
China: We Urge phone calls to the Chinese Embassy
[Excerpted from Brit media.] "The family of a British man
who faces execution in China in less than a week begged
today for his life to be spared.
Akmal Shaikh is due to be executed on 29 December after
being convicted of heroin smuggling. His family claim a
drugs gang exploited his mental illness to trick him into
smuggling 4kg of heroin into China.
Efforts to save the life of Shaikh, 53, from north London,
have intensified after the Chinese supreme court rejected
his plea for clemency and upheld the death sentence
yesterday.
Gordon Brown has written to the Chinese authorities pleading
for the sentence to be set aside and today, in his first
interview since a date for the execution was set, Shaikh's
brother told the Guardian of the family's trauma.
Akbar Shaikh, 60, said: "We are begging the Chinese
authorities to show compassion ... and mercy. Basically I'm
here begging for his life to be spared."
Shaikh was convicted in November 2008 of drug smuggling and
sentenced to death. He was originally arrested in September
2007 in Urumqi, north-west China, as he arrived in the
country."
Please call without delay. Be polite and accurate.
Chinese Embassy in Washington DC
Address: 2201 Wisconsin Avenue, N.W., Washington D.C. 20007
Tel: (202) 338-6688, (202)5889760
Fax: (202) 588-9760
US Muslims Remember Israel's Criminal Assault on the People
of Gaza
Gaza Anniversary: Sis. Anisa Abdel-Fattah of the National
Association of Muslim Women [NAMAW] gave a timely call for a
moment of silence on December 27 at 6.30 PM in memory of the
Israeli genocide in Gaza last year.
The call went out on a national level. May Allah reward the
sister for keeping the ummah aware and awake.
Khutba on Mohurram
New Islamic Year Begins with Promise of Struggle against
Oppression & Signs of the Coming Victory of Islam
The new Islamic year 1431 began on December 18, 2009: Dr.
Kaukab Siddique gave this juma' khutba on the occasion:
Masjid Jamaat al-Muslimeen was packed with worshippers but
the main points of the khutba are summarized here for
countrywide distribution, inshallah:
Text for Khutba: "The vanguard of Islam - the first of those
who gave up their homes, and of those who helped them, and
also those who follow them in all good deeds - well pleased
is Allah with them as are they with Him; For them has He
prepared gardens under which rivers flow, to dwell therein
for ever: That is the supreme triumph." [The Qur'an
9:100]
-
The Islamic calendar begins with the hijra of Prophet
Muhammad, pbuh, from Makka to Madinah.
-
The calendar was organized by the second Rightly Guided
Caliph, Umar ibn al-Khattab, r.a.
-
The hijra connotes Prophet Muhammad, pbuh, giving up
everything, his home, his property, his relatives, his place
in society and moving to a different city where Islam would
be acceptable.
-
During the hijra, Muhammad, pbuh, and Abu Bakr, r.a., were
alone and unarmed in a hostile environment. Allah sent down
the message: Do not be afraid: Allah is with us. This
message is very relevant to Muslims in America today.
-
During the hijra, the small creatures of Allah protected
Muhammad, pbuh, and Abu Bakr, r.a. The spider wove its web
across the cave in which they were hiding and the dove built
its nest on the rock above it. We Muslims must see other
creatures as part of one community.
-
The two most blessed had no food. Asma, r.a., the daughter
of Abu Bakr, r.a., put her life in danger by going out into
the desert with food for them. She was so poor that she tore
her waist band into two to pack the food in it. Thus the
support of women is essential to the Islamic movement.
-
The verses of the Qur'an proclaim hijra as second only to
jihad, and those who do hijra, muhajerin, as the best of all
Muslims, with the Ansar, who helped them, coming second.
-
We must remember Umar ibn al-Khattab, r.a., who was martyred
in the month of Mohurram. Under his supervision, Islamic
armies went out and dismantled the empires of Persia and
Rome, thus freeing millions of slaves and women who
gradually embraced Islam. Today Islam faces two empires
again: One has collapsed and the other too will be defeated,
inshallah.
-
The Prophet, pbuh, used to fast on the 10th and 11th of
Muharram in memory of the destruction of the Pharoah and his
army in the Red Sea. Pharoah thought he was god but Allah
drowned him and let his bodfy float on the water as an
example for all tyrants. Today's empire too sees itself as
Pharoah and is moving towards Allah's punishment.
-
The 10th of Muharram is the memory of the martyrdom of
Husayn, r.a.., the son of Ali, r.a., the beloved grandson of
the Prophet, pbuh. Husayn, r.a., stood against tyranny,
hereditary rule and corruption. He went down fighting
instead of accepting kingship. The beloved grandson of the
Prophet, pbuh, is part of our souls and our being as
Muslims. It is a tragic irony that a sect claims him and
remembers him with behavior which is forbidden in Islam.
Husayn, r.a., stood for all of us against tyranny and
oppression. Today he is being betrayed by those who use his
name as he was betrayed in his life.
-
Du'a: O Allah, help us to study the Qur'an every day.
-
O Allah, help us to study the Hadith of Muhammad, pbuh,
every day.
-
O Allah, unite the Muslims of America on the Qur'an and the
Hadith.
-
O Allah help us to spread the message of Islam in Baltimore
and all over America.
-
O Allah, help the Muslim ummah to stand united globally
against Zionism and Imperialism.
4 young men embraced Islam.
Imam Musa Moblizes Support for the Family of Imam Luqman
Abdullah [Shaheed]
Text: "The women of the mujahideen's families, for the men
left behind in jihad, are like their mothers, and any
attempts at sexual bad behavior with them are strictly
forbidden." [Hadith of Prophet Muhammad, pbuh, Sahih Muslim,
kitab al-imarat.]
On December 25, 2009 speaking at Masjid al-Islam in South
East Washington, DC, Imam Musa devoted his juma' khutba to
the martyrdom of Imam Luqman Abdullah who was killed by
federal agents in Detroit, Michigan.
Imam Musa, a famous African American leader, urged the
audience to remember the very unique and special place Allah
gives to martyrs as proven in the verses of the Qur'an. To
share in some of these blessings, he said, we can help the
family of the shaheed in its daily struggle and in its legal
defense.
Imam Musa quoted at length from the books of Hadith to
emphasize the blessings which come from helping the family
of the shaheed. All the hadith he quoted were authentic
narrations from the collections of Bukhari, Muslim, Tirmizi,
Abu Dawud, Nasai and ibn Maja.
The masjid was full of devoted Muslims, men and women,
almost all of whom have embraced Islam, not Muslims by
birth, and given up the western way of life. Many of them
are young. Our observers say that Imam Musa has been blessed
by Allah to bring so many young men into Islam from one of
the most rugged areas of south east Washington.
The imam has an interesting sense of humor. In between
quoting Hadith, he made fun of George Bush and Obama. He was
helping Muslims to put these false gods out of their
systems.
He also made fun of Muslim lackeys of the government who are
using Masjid Dar al-Hijrah in Falls Church, Virginia.
[Ed. note: Among these lackeys are bootlickers like Johari
Abdul Malik and Mahdi Bray who have given up the values of
Islam to sell out Muslims.]
Imam Musa noticed that Dar Hijrah and many other communities
have been heavily infiltrated by "snitches" [informants] who
betray Islam at every opportunity.
After the Juma', Imam Musa personally served food to to
those who had lined up to eat. This is a refreshing example
in contrast to other masjids where only women serve and/or
prepare the food.
While funds were being collected for Imam Luqman's family,
four young men embraced Islam after being questioned and
taught by one of the leaders of the Masjid.
Timbuktu: The Hidden Glory of Islam in Africa: Learning
Opportunity for Young People
As Salaamu Alaikum, Greetings of Peace.
First time the exhibit on Timbuktu is going on the road. The
curators, management, and leadership of International Museum
of Muslim Cultures, Jackson, MS have worked hard for last
eight years first to establish the Museum and now taking the
exhibit on the road.Please view, post, and distribute the
attached flyer and the poster to announces the coming of an
exciting exhibit entitled: "THE LEGACY OF TIMBUKTU:WONDERS
OF THE WRITTEN WORD"
With financial and moral support from many local donors, the
NC Humanities Council, and UNC African Studies Center, and
the efforts of Cultural Enrichment Services, Inc.,
insha-Allah, presentation of this exhibit will be a
reality. Please mark your calendar with the important
dates listed on the flyer. Plan to bring your class, family,
friends, and neighbors to share in this experience. Pass the
Word!
If you are a teacher or know a teacher needing to earn CEU
credits, go to www.unc.edu/depts/africa/outreach/ to
learn how you may explore this exhibit and earn credits.
You may also register and participate in a discussion that
centers around the film - Caravans of Gold - with Barbara
Anderson, professor of African studies at UNC-CH.
If you are looking for activities for your children during
the winter break, register them for "Find Your Way to
Timbuktu" , an activity scheduled for 12/29/09 at 2:30 p.m.
at the library.
Remember, Timbuktu was known not only as a center of
learning, but its scholars were known as 'peace makers' or
'scholars of peace'. Please attend the panel discussion on
1/24/2010 to learn more about Timbuktu's legacy of literacy
and peace.
There is so much to gain and enjoy!
I personally appreciate the hard work and dedication of my
dear sister Okolo and brother Turk, the staff at the
International Musuem of Muslim Cultures, and the efforts of
Cultural Enrichment Services, Inc. May Allah bless them and
may their efforts blossom everywhere.
Was Salaamu Alaikum,
Imam Ali Siddiqui
California Muslim Institute & Center for Interfaith
Studies
2001 Range Ave, Suite 26
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
siddiqui@aol.com
707-545-5234
Attachment(s) from siddiqui@aol.com
2 of 2 File(s)
Final Flyer Timbuktu_Letter_Size[1].pdf
Poster Timbuktu_11x17[1].pdf
Books, Books, Books: Islamic Teacher & Scholar Offers his
best Asset to our Readers: Muslims must Start Reading
Mohtram Kaukab, Bhai, Assalamu Alaikum
Including my name in your choices list inclines me to offer
the only asset that I have got in this world, the books that
I humbly contributed, for the benefit of your devoted
workers and the readers of New Trend at lower than cost
price for energizing the Movement against ZULM [oppression]
and building the Team of Da'ees in American perspective. I
was in search of an occasion to offer and you provided the
opportunity to do it now. May Allah bless your efforts and
Barakah in your health.
The BOOKS:
1. The Commitment 50
2. Methodology of Dawah 75 +
3. The Dawah Program 10 +
4. Dawah And Its Objective 10 +
5. The Greatest Need of Man 25 +
6. Looking for the Book of Wisdom 10 +
7. Al-Fateha & Its Significance 50
8. Provision for Akhirah [Hadith] 10
9. The Revival 10 +
[NOTE: Added "+" are subject to availability in the
stock]
Shamim Siddiqi [New York]
In Memory of Israel's Operation 'Cast Lead" Against Gaza
by Mark Glenn [Idaho]
In light of the 1-year anniversery of Operation Cast Lead,
let us adopt the motto of Israel and her supporters of
'Never Again/Never Forget' and keep alive the memory of the
deliberate holocausting of thousands of innocent non-Jewish
civilians. Let us also keep in mind that everything that
took place was all part of Israel's insane religious
ideology and until we all come to grips with this fact we
will continue dealing with bloodshed and murder.
mg
http://theuglytruth.wordpress.com/2009/01/15/bloodshed-in-gaa-and-beyond-israel%e2%80%99s-national-orgasm/
http://theuglytruth.wordpress.com/2008/12/28/the-hanukah-masacre-on-gaza-judaism-in-its-finest-hour/
http://theuglytruth.wordpress.com/2009/01/06/natural-born-kilers
Women and their "Modern" Rights: Pakistani Women at the Crossroads
by Farhan Noor.
[Farhan Noor is Editor of Critic Magazine -- a
socio-economic quarterly, by the students, for the students
of Pakistan. Email: editor@criticmagazine.pk | URL:
blog.criticmagazine.pk]
There is a women-rights crisis in Pakistan; from abusive
chauvinists and cultural adulterations of religion to slow,
outdated, useless judicial process and legal system-the
plight is endless. Fortunately, there are people who
genuinely care. Unfortunately, there are also people who
apparently do but factually don't-and these are the
people/NGO's funded by foreign donor agencies having
ratified U.N.'s CEDAW. Their operations in Pakistan will
only serve to replace one kind of evil with another, and
worse. Any person who believes prostitution and abortion is
a woman's right, is not a woman's friend. We could disclose
their identities, but wont. You can see for yourself who
these people are. These are the people who talk about "safe
sex" practices in "Red-Light zones" and consider semi-nude
parading of their kind in the name of "fashion", "arts", and
"culture" as "liberating", "empowering", and "modernizing".
Our stance is in return simple: shutdown the 500,000 and
growing brothels in Pakistan, ban sale of pornography in DVD
shops, censor sexual-objectification prevalent in
advertising, and make Education easily accessible and viable
option for all girls in Pakistan. Then, and they only, the
beginning of renaissance can truly begin.
THINK ABOUT IT: QUESTIONS TO PONDER UPON
Q1.
Who is qualified enough to declare a certain thing to be a
woman's right, and on what basis? Is it Religion (God)? Is
it Science? Is it the U.N.?Or is it the cooperation of all
three? In case of latter, who do you think should have the
veto-power? Why?
Pakistan ratified the U.N proposed Bill of Rights for women
called as the Convention for Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) on 12 March 1996. This
Charter calls for women empowerment, gender equality and an
end to gender discrimination by advocating for
decriminalization of prostitution (Article 6 & Article
11-1c), legalization of abortion (Article 12) and
homosexuality (Article 5a), "liberation" of womenfolk from
responsibilities of motherhood (Article 11-2c), and the
discouragement of single-sex schools (Article 10c).
Scientific studies and empirical evidence however suggest
that each proposed woman's right is in fact a human rights
abuse. Even all the major religions hold strong reservations
against the propositions. Yet, 90 countries from all around
the world are its signatories, whereas most interestingly,
America, regarded as the champion country for democracy and
human rights, and the one who actually helped prepare the
Charter in the first place, have refused to ratify it and
constitutionalize it in their country!
Q2.
What future do you see for women in a decade from now
keeping in view the fact how CEDAW is regarded world over as
the reference guide for female gender rights?
DECRIMINALIZATION OF PROSTITUTION
Article 6: States Parties shall take all appropriate
measures, including legislation, to suppress all forms of
traffic in women and exploitation of prostitution of
women.
NOTE: Does this mean that CEDAW seeks to suppress the
"exploitation of prostitution" but not the prostitution
itself?
Article 11-1(c): The right to free choice of profession and
employment , the right to promotion, job security and all
benefits and conditions of service and the right to receive
vocational training and retraining, including
apprenticeships, advanced vocational training and recurrent
training
NOTE: Prostitution is regarded as a form of labor in many
countries. By saying that a woman has the right to "free
choice of profession and employment", any country can
legalize prostitution based on this Article.
LEGALIZATION OF ABORTION:
Article 12: States Parties shall take all appropriate
measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the
field of health care in order to ensure, on a basis of
equality of men and women, access to health care services,
including those related to family planning .
NOTE: On May 14, 1998, the CEDAW Committee criticized Mexico
for "the lack of access for women in all States to easy and
swift abortion " and recommended "that all states of Mexico
should review their legislation so that, where necessary,
women are granted access to rapid and easy abortion ;" on
January 28, 2002, the Committee urged Uruguay to "to amend
its legislation on pregnancy termination;" and as recently
as January 14, 2005, the Committee pressured Paraguay to
decriminalize abortion .
LEGALIZATION OF HOMOSEXUALITY:
Article 5(a): To modify the social and cultural patterns of
conduct of men and women, with a view to achieving the
elimination of prejudices and customary and all other
practices which are based on the idea of the inferiority or
the superiority of either of the sexes or on stereotyped
roles for men and women
NOTE: January 27, 1999, the CEDAW Committee told Kyrgyzstan
it "recommends that lesbianism be reconceptualized as a
sexual orientation and that penalties for its practice be
abolished." (Kyrgyzstan, 27/01/99, U.N. doc. A/54/38, par.
128.)
REDFINING MOTHERHOOD
Article 11-2(c): To encourage the provision of the necessary
supporting social services to enable parents to combine
family obligations with work responsibilities and
participation in public life, in particular through
promoting the establishment and development of a network of
child-care facilities
NOTE: Why is there so much stress on the establishment and
development of "networks" of child-care facilities but to
"liberate" womenfolk from the responsibilities of
motherhood?
Q3.
What is it to be a woman who a man can never be? Or is she
also about excelling in businesses and bringing food to the
table? In other words: what is the feminine niche? How is
she, in terms of roles and responsibilities, any different
from man, difference that makes any woman, a woman? Or is
she also all about working in factories and earning bread
and butter for the family, like man?
Q4.
One hotly contested topic in the issue of women's rights is
the right to a social life and practical intermingling of
genders. Urban Feminists have a point when they call for
women to partake in the socio-economic and political life of
a society. There is no doubt whatsoever in anybody's mind
that women have as much right as any man to be a part of any
decision-making process; that is not an issue. What else is
not an issue is their right to hold offices of importance in
private or public sector. The real issue is the formulation
of some kind of mechanics or code of conduct whereby men and
women can interact and intermingle with each other without
having to compromise on social values. For what we have seen
in western "permissive" societies where gender-intermingling
is allowed and has no boundaries, in universities, at
workplaces, in markets, at public recreational centers, or
even in religious spaces, certain devastating kinds of
socio-economic ills have sprung up, most notably: teenage
pregnancies, rape, and sexual harassment. Cultural critics
refer to the phenomenon as the "rape-culture". It is
therefore no surprise that every 2.5 minutes a woman is
raped in U.S. and every 8.6 minutes in U.K; that almost
40-60% of women are sexually harassed at their workplaces;
that 83% of girls in grade 8-11 were sexually harassed at
schools in 2002; and that 82% of the total 422,197 births
under the age of 20 in 2004 were from non-marital
relationships. Unfortunately, while the intentions and the
attempt to socialize women were good, the results however
have been bad. This makes it clearly obvious for a need to
develop some sort of a system in which women can socialize
without the fear of being hurt.
What sort a system in terms of social etiquettes, moral
codes, and more importantly civil & criminal laws can you
imagine which will enable and facilitate the intermingling
of genders in the most practical and beneficial way? What
can a man do from his side, and woman from her side, while
the Government on their side to facilitate such kind of a
system?
Q5.
Advertising is singularly cited as the main reason for the
degradation and dehumanization of the female gender.
Pro-feminist cultural critics such as Robert Jensen and Sut
Jhally accuse mass media and advertising of promoting the
"objectification of women" to help sell goods and services.
Naomi Wolf believes that even seemingly innocent and
harmless depiction of womenfolk in advertising or plain
physical attractiveness is in itself problematic. John
Stoltenberg goes so far as to condemn any sexual fantasy
that involves mere visualization of woman as wrongly
objectifying. It seems, for postmodernist feminist
theorists, the roots of evil lies in the "gaze". When
readers of magazines are turning pages and come across an
advertisement involving a "sexy model", they stop, and gaze
at it, before moving on. They even turn their magazines
sideways and look at it from every angle. The same is true
for viewers flipping TV channels and only pausing if a
sexually-charged commercial or a program is on air. Even
everyday pedestrians turn their heads around and gaze at
women walking past them till the very last minute possible,
and so do car-drivers and their favorite billboards.
Taxi-drivers and rickshaw-walas also keep photos of their
favorite actresses and models in their pockets while other
members of the lower-stratum buy cheap filmy newspapers
majoring in colorful pictorial content! What more, our youth
also seek the same pleasures while browsing pornographic
websites on the internet and buying x-rated videos besides
watching countless hours of Cable TV. Everywhere you go,
sexual imageries of women are on casual offer for
consumption. These imageries continue to bottle up in the
minds of men and when they cannot find a legal outlet for it
(by getting married) they either hire prostitutes or rape
girls, molest, assault, tease, or in the least, fantasize
about it. Furthermore, even educated and professional women
at multinational organizations are not spared from physical
and emotional sexual harassment on daily basis. Little is
wonder why the female gender is now regarded as the
"sex-class" because of all the uncalled-for emphasis on
female face and body, and their dressing, be it in:
advertising or fashion industries, modeling houses, in music
videos run on MTV, entertainment shows on Cable TV,
pageantries, and so on. Even female athletes are subjected
to wear less and less of clothing, which is tighter,
shorter, and glamorous i.e. "sexy". While Jeane Kilbourne
believes sexual objectification leads to violence, Dr.
Eileen L. Zuberiggen, chair of the American Psychologist
Association, and Associate Professor of Psychology at the
University of California, Santa Cruz, states: "We have ample
evidence to conclude that sexualization has negative impacts
in a variety of domains, including cognitive functioning,
physical and mental health, and healthy sexual development."
The solution, according to Wendy Shalit, author of 'A Return
to Modesty: Discovering the Lost Virtue' (1999) is to return
to pre-sexual revolution standards of sexual morality. Do
you agree? If so, then what pre-sexual revolution standards
of sexual morality, relevant to our own culture and
economics, should be re-adopted?
REPORT OF THE APA TASK FORCE ON THE SEXUALIZATION OF GIRLS
(Available Online at www.apa.org/pi/wpo/sexualization.html)
Dr. Eileen L. Zurbriggen, chair of the APA Task Force and
associate professor of psychology at the University of
California, Santa Cruz, in a statement. "We have ample
evidence to conclude that sexualization has negative effects
in a variety of domains, including cognitive functioning,
physical and mental health, and healthy sexual development."
Cognitive and Emotional Consequences: Cognitively,
self-objectification has been repeatedly shown to detract
from the ability to concentrate and focus one's attention,
thus leading to impaired performance on mental activities
such as mathematical computations or logical reasoning
(Frederickson, Roberts, Noll, Quinn, & Twenge, 1998;
Gapinski, Brownell, & LaFrance, 2003; Hebl, King, & Lin,
2004). In other words, thinking about the body and comparing
it to sexualized cultural ideals disrupted mental capacity.
In the emotional domain, sexualization and objectification
undermine confidence in and comfort with one's own body,
leading to a host of negative emotional consequences, such
as shame, anxiety, and even self-disgust. The association
between self-objectification and anxiety about appearance
and feelings of shame has been found in adolescent girls
(12-13-year-olds) (Slater & Tiggemann, 2002) as well as in
adult women.
Mental and Physical Health: Research links sexualization
with three of the most common mental health problems of
girls and women: eating disorders, low self-esteem, and
depression or depressed mood (Abramson & Valene, 1991;
Durkin & Paxton, 2002; Harrison, 2000; Hofschire &
Greenberg, 2001; Mills, Polivy, Herman, & Tiggemann, 2002;
Stice, Schupak-Neuberg, Shaw, & Stein, 1994;Thomsen,Weber, &
Brown, 2002; Ward, 2004). Research also links exposure to
sexualized female ideals with lower self-esteem, negative
mood, and depressive symptoms among adolescent girls and
women
Experts tell us that children who have been molested often
live with depression, eating disorders and low self-esteem,
all of which, negatively impact the quality of their lives.
Guess what? A team of psychologists recently reported that
exposing prepubescent girls to a media culture that teaches
them to be prematurely sexual is also strongly associated
with depression, eating disorders and low self-esteem. Rosa
Brooks, in the Los Angeles Times, wrote that capitalism is
"busy serving our children up to pedophiles on corporate
platters."
Sexuality: Frequent exposure to narrow ideals of
attractiveness is associated with unrealistic and/or
negative expectations concerning sexuality. Negative effects
(e.g., shame) that emerge during adolescence may lead to
sexual problems in adulthood (Brotto, Heiman, & Tolman, in
press).
Attitudes and Beliefs: Girls and young women who more
frequently consume or engage with mainstream media content
offer stronger endorsement of sexual stereotypes that depict
women as sexual objects (Ward, 2002;Ward & Rivadeneyra,
1999; Zurbriggen & Morgan, 2006). They also place appearance
and physical attractiveness at the center of women's value.
Impact on Others and on Society: More general societal
effects may include an increase in sexism; fewer girls
pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics (STEM); increased rates of sexual harassment and
sexual violence; and an increased demand for child
pornography.
Q6.
It is said that women are actually embarrassed and ashamed
of their own gender and this gender-equality mantra is
really an attempt to become man-like more than anything
else. American singer Madonna and the opening lyrics to her
song 'What it Feels Like for a Girl' seems to agree. She
says: " Girls can wear jeans, and cut their hair short, wear
shirts and boots, 'cause its okay to be a boy. But for a boy
to look like a girl is degrading, 'cause you think being a
girl is degrading ." We know that when a man dons a dupatta,
or a frock, a mini-skirt, a sari, or wear jewelry, he is
labeled a Hijra , but when women wear t-shirts and jeans,
they are instead called 'modern'. Further, we also never
find any man staying back at home, doing household chores,
and looking after the children, without being called a
'bum'. On the contrary, women who take on professional
careers, side by side with men, are instead hailed as
'empowered'. Again, whereas men will never act emotional and
sensitive, or caring, like women, in fear of being called
'sissy', women will nevertheless seek to become all macho
and muscular, as depicted in movies these days (Charlie's
Angels for instance). Is it true that women despise
womanhood and are loosing their femininity by trying to
look, feel, and act like men? Why not?
Differences or Discrimination? Is Truth Sexist?
According to Simon Baron-Cohen, director of the Autism
Research Center, Cambridge University, there are big
differences between the male and female brain which he
explained in his book 'The Essential Difference: Men, Women,
and the Extreme Male Brain. Baron-Cohen shows that this
distinction arises from biology, not culture. Below are a
few findings noteworthy of discussion:
Cell Numbers: Men have 4% more brain cells than women, and
about 100gms more of brain tissue.
Cellular Connections: Even though a man seems to have more
brain cells, it is reported that women have more dendritic
connections between brain cells.
Corpus Collosum Size: It is reported that a woman's brain
has a larger corpus collosum, which means women can transfer
data between the right and left hemisphere faster than men.
Men tend to be more left brained, while women have greater
access to both sides.
Language: For men, language is most often just in the
dominant hemisphere (usually the left side), but a larger
number of women seem to be able to use both sides for
language. This gives them a distinct advantage. If a woman
has a stroke in the left front side of the brain, she may
still retain some language from the right front side. Men
who have the same left sided damage are less likely to
recover as fully.
Limbic size: Bonding/nesting instincts - current research
has demonstrated that females, on average, have a larger
deep limbic system than males. This gives females several
advantages and disadvantages. Due to the larger deep limbic
brain women are more in touch with their feelings, they are
generally better able to express their feelings than men.
They have an increased ability to bond and be connected to
others (which is why women are the primary caretakers for
children - there is no society on earth where men are
primary caretakers for children). Females have a more acute
sense of smell, which is likely to have developed from an
evolutionary need for the mother to recognize her young.
Having a larger deep limbic system leaves a female somewhat
more susceptible to depression, especially at times of
significant hormonal changes such as the onset of puberty,
before menses, after the birth of a child and at menopause.
Women attempt suicide three times more than men. Yet, men
kill themselves three times more than women, in part,
because they use more violent means of killing themselves
(women tend to use overdoses with pills while men tend to
either shoot or hang themselves) and men are generally less
connected to others than are women. Disconnection from
others increases the risk of completed suicides.
The results of the scientific research explain why men and
women excel at different kinds of tasks. For example, men
tend to do better with tasks requiring more localized
processing, such as mathematics, while women do better at
integrating and assimilating information which aids language
skills. Doreen Kimura writes in Scientific American: "Men
and women differ not only in their physical attributes and
reproductive functions, but also in many other
characteristics, including the way they solve intellectual
problems" (2002). The author further states: "... from
observations of both human and nonhumans that males are more
aggressive than females; the young males engage in more
rough-and-tumble play than females and that females are more
nurturing. We also know that in general males are better at
variety of spatial or navigational tasks.
The "father" of sociobiology, Edward O. Wilson, of Harvard
University (Wilson, E.O. - "Sociobiology". Harvard
University Press, 1992), said that human females tend to be
higher than males in empathy, verbal skills, social skills
and security-seeking, among other things, while men tend to
be higher in independence, dominance, spatial and
mathematical skills, rank-related aggression, and other
characteristics.
THINK ABOUT IT: A Possible Way Forward?
Q7. YES or NO Questions
In this section you are required to either support or negate
the following point of views. State your stance and
arguments clearly.
-
What if men (father, brother, husband, and son) were made
legally responsible to look after ALL the economic needs of
the woman (whether she is a mother, daughter, wife, or
sister), and be accountable for it, would women still work
in organizations and factories to earn a living? By the
enactment of such a kind of law, the total labor force and
unemployment in the country will massively decrease, and due
to short labor supply, there will be significant increase in
employee salaries. In case, if a woman is alone, and has no
male relatives, the State will then provide her complete
financial security, otherwise she can always work if she
wants to. Sounds good?
-
What if the most difficult and challenging task of creating
model human beings, having excellent morals and character,
who are talented and skilled, and productive for the
society, is given to the mothers, instead of nurses at
day-care centers? Of course, both the State and her male
relatives will finance for her the best of education
possible and provide her all the facilities and resources
she would need to do her job successfully. Would you accept
it?
-
What if there was an option to take less of money without
being asked to spend it on anything as opposed to take more
money and be forced to spend it on different things? For
instance, if there is an inheritance law which states that
though men will get a bigger share in pie, they will have to
spend it on their family, like: on education, on health, on
food, in providing shelter, clothes, and so on; however,
women, on the other hand, will get a smaller share, but they
will NOT be required to spend it on anything (even on
herself and can save it if she wants)-will you accept such a
kind of law?
-
What if in a bid to eliminate cases of physical and
emotional sexual harassment of working women, and the costs
associated with it, women are given an option to work
separately from men, in departments of their own, with
absolutely equal facilities and resources? This step also
promises to make it increasingly difficult for husbands to
cheat on their wives and wives to cheat on their husbands,
thereby significantly reducing envy and suspicion between
couples and subsequently, divorce rates. Will you vote in
favor of such a kind of arrangement?
-
What if in a bid to stop men from unnecessarily gazing at
women and putting innocent women at unease and insecure in
public spaces, men and women are both advised to first and
foremost dress appropriately (cover their bodies such that a
man's awrah--navel to the knees--is covered and a woman's
bodily curves become obscure?) and secondly not to
intermingle without necessity? Will you accept it?
-
What if your sister or any other woman is looking to get
married but finds that the market is saturated i.e. every
man already has a wife, and the only options available are
to marry someone who is already married (polygamy) or to
live on as public property. Will you ask the legislators to
legalize polygamy? (other option being to get it banned)
Our America: by Kaukab Siddique
Media Blitz After Nigerian Muslim Allegedly tries to bring
down Airliner
December 25-27, 2009. Almost as if at a signal, US media
have burst into a flood of speculation about Umar Farouq
Abdul Muttaleb, a 23 year old Nigerian who allegedly tried
to blow up an airliner on its approach to Detroit.
It goes against all the rules of war to publicize an enemy's
successful breakthrough in spite of stringent security
precautions. In any war, such incidents are not publicized
because they would give comfort to enemy forces. Nine eleven
we could understand because the targets were the most
important in America and large numbers of people could see
the towers collapsing. It couldn't have been hidden.
But why this three day long media blitz over an incident in
which no one was killed and the plane survived with minor or
negligible damage? Zionists like Larry King cancelled their
weekend to come on the air and fuel the spculation about
what might have happened. The President of the USA had his
fun filled holiday in Hawaii interrupted to be told of this
tragedy which didn't happen.
Looks like we are back in the era of George Bush when all
kinds of stories could be bandied about on national TV
["nuclear bombs in suit cases" and other wonders of the
Zionist-Jewish imagination].
No inquiry has been carried out but already the entire issue
has been discussed in detail on every cable TV channel
pouring into homes across America.
NOT ONE CRITIC was invited who would oppose the media's
line. NOT ONE ISLAMIC critic was invited, not even a
Tom.
People in war time are seen as provocateurs or enemy agents
if they spread news of enemy action which would scare or
demoralize the population. What kind of war is this in which
the government and its allied corporate-zionist media want
the people to be scared.
Very quietly security measures could have been tightened.
With the media blitz, every American senses great danger and
helplessness. Does this mean the government is planning Bush
type repression against Muslims?
Why are Yemen and Nigeria being highlighted as potential
enemy populations?
Did al-Qaidah in Yemen send the Nigerian youth? If we look
at what the US is doing in Yemen, the possibility of
reprisals is not far fetched.
Here is the Yemen slaughter carried out by US
surrogates:
'US aided' deadly Yemen raids . 64 killed include 23
children, 17 women
quotes from al-Jazeerah follow:
The US provided firepower and intelligence to help the
Yemeni government launch a series of deadly raids against
suspected al-Qaeda bases in the country, the New York Times
has reported.
Barack Obama, the US president, approved the military and
intelligence support after receiving a request from the
Yemeni government, the newspaper reported late on Friday,
citing officials familiar with the operations.
'Many more killed'
Residents of Abyan said that there was no al-Qaeda training
camp in the area and that the raids had destroyed several
homes.
Ali Mohammed Mansour, who said he helped bury the dead in a
mass grave, said that the community was only 100 metres away
from a main road and 2km from an army base.
Abbas al-Assal, a local human rights activist who was at the
scene, said 64 people were killed, including 23 children and
17 women.
"The government wants to show the world that it is serious
in pursuing al-Qaeda elements and that the south of Yemen is
a refuge for al-Qaeda. That is not true at all," al-Assal
told the Associated Press by telephone.
Mohammed Hazran, Abyan's deputy governor, said that 10
al-Qaeda suspects were killed in the attack, including
Mohammed Saleh al-Kazemi, a Saudi who had resided in the
country since fighting in Afghanistan.
He was imprisoned in Yemen for two years before being
released in 2005.
'Grave mistakes'
A provincial security official said that "grave mistakes
occurred in the operation due to failures of information,
which led to a large number of civilian deaths".
"If [al-Kazemi] was wanted, why didn't the authorities come
and arrest him all this time?" he said.
Al-Qaeda fighters are thought to be living among tribes that
have raised concerns with the central government, especially
in the northeast of the country.
Hussein Shobokshi, a columnist for Asharq Al-Wasat
newspaper, told Al Jazeera that al-Qaeda fighters were
working with members of the Houthi rebel group, which is
fighting the government in the north of the country.
"Ideologically they are very different, however, in a very
Machiavellian way they have decided that joining forces
would definitely increase the effectiveness of the military
campaign against the Yemeni govenment," he said from
Beirut.
Yemen's government has in recent months ordered a series of
deadly raids against Houthi fighters in the north of the
country, as well as a growing separatist campaign in the
south of the country.
The assailant is Nigerian. Few Americans know what happened
in Nigeria this summer. Hillary Clinton went to Nigeria to
support the murderous Nigerian military's slaughter of
Muslims. The news was censored by US media. Here is what we
published.
Nigerian Army attacks Mosques, Schools, homes, Slaughters
600 Muslims: Islamic Leader Muhammad Yusuf Challenged
Westernization.
Armored Division Let Loose on unarmed/poorly Armed Muslims:
Religious Establishment Silent
Special New Trend report
From July 27 to 30, 2009 Nigeria witnessed some of the most
brutal scenes in its history. For decades, the Nigerian
military has been trying to crush Islamic challenges to its
policies of westernization and links with Israel but this
one broke all records of military brutality.
An Islamic leader named Yusuf, from the city of Yobe, called
on the people of Islam to stop the westernization of
Nigeria. He got a great response and the Islamic movement he
led set up mosques in 4 cities with its headquarters in the
city of Maiduguri way up in the northeast. The military saw
the emergence of this new force as a threat to its links to
the U.S. and Israel.
The president of Nigeria, nominally a Muslim, signalled the
army to go ahead with the massacre of Muslims while he left
the country for a trip to Brazil. An entire armored division
was set in motion to attack the Islamic movement in Kano,
Bauchi, Yobe and Maiduguri. In Kano, the brutal regime
demolished the major mosque where the Islamic people would
meet. In Maiduguri, the Islamic people defended the mosque
with whatever they could pick up, like sticks and stones,
daggers and machetes, even bows and arrows. These were no
match for the military's ruthless use of machine gun fire
followed by mortars, artillery and tanks.
The people gave their lives willingly and the army, parts of
it secularized, Christian and animist, had no qualms in
slaughtering the Muslims. At least 500 Muslims were killed
by the army, at least 100 in the mosque which Yusuf attended
in Maiduguri. This mosque too was demolished. They didn't
have a chance as the kafir military broke into the prayer
area.
In Bauchi, the Muslims responded by attacking government
offices, police buildings and churches before the army
arrived to crush them. In northern Nigeria, the regime has
been setting up churches funded by western powers and giving
property to southern Christians to dilute the 100% Muslim
population.
The religious establishment in Nigeria is firmly in the
hands of the government. "Muslims" get elected to high
positions but these upper class Muslims never protest when
the army kills poor Muslims. These rich Nigerians are the
sort of Muslims the Egyptian president Mubarak has on his
side. When Mubarak kills Muslims, al-Azhar supports him;
Al-Azhar condemns the Islamic movements like al-Gamaa. The
same is now happening in Nigeria.
The Nigerian government has launched a big propaganda
campaign to cover up the brutality which the army has
inflicted. The Islamic movement is being labelled "Nigerian
Taliban," a term which could also show the Ameirican-Israeli
hand behind this action. The religious establishment is not
questioning the government but is claiming that those killed
by the army were "not Muslims." [Compare with Swat, Pakistan
where the Pakistani generals claim that the mujahideen are
'Indian agents."]
Part of the propaganda was that the Islamic movement had
abducted 180 women and children. Even BBC and al-Jazeera
reported this, but as the report continued, it noted that
the 180 were the wives and children of the men defending the
mosque. In such situations, the Islamic victims have no
media and their enemies can say whatever they want.
Late news: July 30: The Nigerian military announced that the
Islamic leader Muhammad Yusuf was captured and SHOT DEAD
WHILE IN CUSTODY. This is a crime under any law and the
Nigerian military commander should be brought before an
international tribunal.
July 31: A direct report from Nigeria broadcast by NPR says
that many of the leaders of the "Nigerian Taliban" were
university people who sacrificed their careers to join
Muhammad Yusuf to stop the advance of western materialism.
[Editorial comment by New Trend. The world media are
controlled by the Zionists. They do not mention the
suffering of Muslims regardless of how terrible it is. In
December 2008, New Trend noted the Nigerian military's
slaughter of Muslims in the central Nigerian city of Jos. At
that time, the U.S. media were going through the orgy of
out-of-context reporting on Mumbai, India. Not a word about
Jos was said. Stacks of Nigerian bodies did not create a
stir.
Seven months later Human Rights stated that the Jos massacre
did take place.
On the positive side, it is evident that a VERY STRONG
Islamic thrust is emerging in Nigeria. It is coming from the
poor and the oppressed. The terrible brutality of the
Nigerian army is not enough to smash the Islamic movement.
It's only a matter of time before the Islamic forces will be
dominant. Many more Yusufs will emerge, inshallah.]
NOTE: The entire three portions of this series is included
in my book, The Mother of All Battles. For the month of
December 2009, Uruknet readers, as well as those on other
sites, will receive a discount for the 400-page book. The
price is $20 per book. When ordering, mention this offer.
For non-U.S. readers, the postage is $12.95. I can fit two
books into each USPS Priority envelope. This postage is a
one-price limit for any amount of what can be put in the
envelope. If two people want to order the book, each can pay
for the book and have them shipped in one envelope, making
the shipping cost half of what it would be if only one book
was inserted. Just click on the link following the picture
of my book below to order.
Saddam Hussein's Greatest Legacy: December 2003 to December 2006
Malcom Lagauche
December 25, 2009
As we approach the third anniversary of the assassination of
Saddam Hussein at the hands of agents from the U.S. and
Iran, we must remember the legacy Saddam left after he was
kidnapped. His steadfastness and integrity equaled these
same traits he possessed while he was the president of the
country. This is part three of a three-part series. It is an
excerpt from my book The Mother of All Battles: The Endless
U.S.-Iraq War.
After Saddam's execution, the press had a field day in
analyzing and editorializing the incident as well as Saddam
himself. Most were writing well out of their league and
their ignorance of history showed. Because most U.S. readers
do not know the history of Iraq, the scribes' words were
taken as true.
The theme of many articles was that justice was not achieved
because Saddam was hanged for a lesser crime than the major
ones assessed against him. The "progressive" writers wanted
to see him tried for gassing incidents so they could tie
together U.S. involvement with the "misdeeds" of Saddam
Hussein. Article-after- article mentioned Rumsfeld's visit
to Iraq in the 1980s and said the U.S. gave Iraq the
technology for Iraq's WMD programs during the Iran-Iraq War,
however, not one questioned the reason for the war. They all
blamed it on Saddam and wrote as if Iran was a benign and
aggrieved country. Also, not one writer mentioned that
Saddam was quickly hanged before the gassing incidents could
come to court. Many people accuse Iran, not Iraq of gassing
the Kurds at Halabjah. If Saddam was dead, these items could
not be addressed, so the truth behind the myth of "gassing
his own people" went to the grave with Saddam. Further, not
one mentioned that Saddam's Iraqi attorney, Khalil
al-Dulaimi, the only defense lawyer able to speak in the
courtroom, had been approached twice in the previous year by
Iranian agents who tried to persuade him not to mention
Halabjah at the trial. On his first encounter, in Jordan, he
was offered $10 million to keep the subject off the agenda.
Later, in Paris, the Iranians upped the ante by offering him
$100 million. The only way to keep the subject away from
public scrutiny was to kill Saddam on bogus charges. Shortly
after he died, the court dropped the genocide charges
against Saddam Hussein.
But, in most of the reporting, a visible part of history was
missing. At the same time Saddam Hussein and Rumsfeld met,
Iran was killing Iraqi soldiers and civilians with missiles
supplied by the U.S. The U.S. had already made the deal with
Iran to sell them missiles and other military material, with
Israel getting the obligatory 10% for being the middleman.
Iraq and Iran were both supplied by the U.S.
After Saddam's execution, some writers mocked him and again,
re-wrote history. In "So Long to 'Our Tyrant,'" Andrew
Cockburn stated in Common Dreams on December 30, 2006:
Though he was expelled from Kuwait and his economy wrecked
by sanctions, Hussein was allowed to survive because
Washington for a time continued to believe that he was
useful as a bulwark against Iran abroad and militant Shiism
at home in Iraq. When that policy was discarded by the
neoconservatives after the 9/11 attacks, the dictator's days
were numbered.
Cockburn, of all people, should know that after Desert
Storm, many plots to get rid of Saddam emerged.. For
instance, even Scott Ritter, once head of the U.N.
inspection team, stated that the goal of the U.S. personnel
on the inspection contingent was to overthrow Saddam. He
admits that he was part of the scheme.
John Simpson of the Sunday Times relayed more historical
revision in his piece "Tyrant Met His End with
Fortitude:"
Every important step he took was a disaster, from the attack
on Iran in 1980 which started a hugely debilitating war that
lasted for eight years, to the foolish invasion of Kuwait,
which brought him into open conflict with his former
friends, the Americans. Yet he knew how to appeal to
ordinary people across the world. He was hated by most of
his own people, but loved by the poor and disinherited of
the rest of the Arab world.
He ruled Iraq by relying on the Sunni minority. His
ministers were mostly Sunnis and so were most senior
officers in his army and police force. Tens of thousands of
Sunnis died as a result of his repression and the wars, but
since his overthrow by the British and Americans in 2003,
Sunnis have tended to identify more closely with him.
The glaring mis-representation in this piece is the
depiction that his ministers, the officers in his army and
police force consisted mostly of Sunnis. In fact, 60% of the
Republican Guard officers were Shi'ite. As were two-thirds
of the Iraqi ambassadors assigned to the U.N. during
Saddam's tenure. Iraq's mouthpiece to the world in March and
April 2003, Mohamed Sahaff (the Iraq Information Minister)
was Shi'ite. In the infamous deck of 55 playing cards
created by the U.S., 35 individuals were Shi'ite. Plus,
Tariq Aziz, the Iraqi foreign minister, was a Christian.
Justice could have been better portrayed if Simpson took a
few minutes to research facts before he made such erroneous
allegations.
In the article, "Rule of Noose," in The Nation of December
31, 2006, Bruce Shapiro wrote:
If Iraqi executioners have a particular expertise with the
gallows, it is because Saddam gave his country so much
practice. Hanging, shooting, gassing, beating, Saddam and
his agents were masters of them all. Saddam, depraved and
sadistic, was the polar opposite of the banal bureaucrat
evil Hannah Arendt famously saw in Adolph Eichmann.
Shapiro packed much rancor into such a short span of words.
"Depraved and sadistic" stick out. I doubt that Shapiro has
an education and background in psychology, but he tries to
dissect Saddam Hussein's brain. On December 30, 2006, the
only "depraved and sadistic" Iraqis we saw were the ones who
taunted Saddam and those who pulled the lever for his
hanging.
On the other hand, some articles contained realistic
information. According to Robert Dreyfuss, in his article,
"The Consequences of Killing Saddam," in The Nation,
December 31, 2006:
An overwhelming majority of the Sunni Arab population of
Iraq now supports the resistance, and its intensity is
likely to grow significantly in the wake of Saddam's death.
Earlier this year, 300 Sunni tribal leaders met in Anbar to
issue a demand that Saddam Hussein be released from prison,
just one indication that support for the former president of
Iraq was widespread. "The execution of Saddam means that the
flame of vengeance will be ignited and it will hurt the body
of Iraq with unrecoverable wounds," a Sunni tribal leader
told the New York Times.
Michael Boldin spoke of the lies and deceit of the U.S.
administration in his piece "Saddam Was Right and Bush Was
Wrong," published online by www.populistamerica.com on
December 30, 2006:
The non-existent weapons of mass destruction weren't the
only falsehood. There were the phony uranium purchases, lies
about al-Qaeda training camps in Iraq, mobile weapons labs,
and drones that were going to attack the East Coast of the
U.S.
Remember the lies about babies being thrown out of
incubators? The propaganda started years ago. Even the
claims of Saddam's brutality are suspect. Why? Because most
of these claims come from the same people that have already
discredited themselves.
Boldin is one of the few writers who went right to the core
of the problem of the demonizing of Saddam Hussein. If those
who accused Saddam of myriad atrocities had been exposed as
liars about virtually every aspect on Iraq, how could they
transform themselves into purveyors of truth in describing
Saddam Hussein and his regime?
Al-Quds of al-Arabi assessed the situation in a logical
manner. Its editor, Abdel Bari Atwan, told Aljazeera
News:
Arab public opinion wonders who deserves to be tried and
executed: Saddam Hussein, who preserved the unity of Iraq,
its Arab and Islamic entity and the coexistence of its
different communities such as Shi'ites and Sunnis ... or
those who engulfed the country in this bloody civil war?
The pundits had a great time writing about Saddam Hussein's
execution. Many work for huge publications with limitless
resources for research, yet they chose to re-hash old
discredited information and add a few new untruths as
well.
These represent only a few statements made in the Western
press. But, in newspapers from Brazil to Russia, from India
to Indonesia, from Pakistan to Venezuela, and many other
nations, the media were much kinder to Saddam Hussein and
the barbaric end he experienced.
Many Western observers are not aware that Saddam Hussein was
well-regarded in much of the world. Brazilians remembered
that thousands of their countrymen were recruited by Saddam
to build the advanced highway and bridge systems that once
crisscrossed Iraq. Egyptians did not forget that more than
two million of their countrymen owned and worked land in
Iraq prior to January 1991. Indians did not forget the
reciprocal dealings with Iraq and how the Ba'athists gave
support to Indian causes. The Lebanese remembered the dozens
of Iraqi trucks that showed up daily at the Lebanese border
during that country's civil war. They were laden with food
and clothing for any Lebanese person in need. The convoys'
recipients included all Lebanese, not a certain faction of
those battling in the civil war. Most Palestinians display a
picture of Saddam Hussein on their walls. Over the years,
many nations have temporarily supported the Palestinian
cause, only to withdraw aid once threatened by the U.S.
Saddam Hussein, even during the embargo years, supported the
Palestinians with no exception, while other Arab regimes did
not want to get involved because they did not want to upset
their puppeteers in Washington and Tel Aviv.
It didn't take long for the world to see how quickly the
bogus court that tried Saddam became unraveled. On March 9,
2007, the headlines for Al-Jazeera News read, "Saddam Judge
Flees Iraq." Raouf Abdel-Rahman was the judge who sentenced
Saddam Hussein, Barzan al-Tikriti (Iraq's former
intelligence minister) and Awad Hamed (former head of Iraq's
Revolutionary Court) to death. All were hanged.
Abdel-Rahman was the second judge on the trial in which the
defendants were accused of crimes against humanity for the
execution of 148 people from the city of Dujail in 1985. The
first judge, Rizgar Amin, resigned. He accused the
U.S.-allied Iraqi officials of scripting the trial for him.
When Abdel-Rahman came on board, the so-called trial turned
into a fiasco. He constantly kicked the defendants and their
lawyers out of the court room. He made public statements
before the end of the trial in which he stated that Saddam
was guilty. When a defense witness came forth with a video
tape showing how the head prosecutor, Jaafar al-Musawi and a
prosecution witness, Ali al-Haidari had lied, Abdel-Rahman
confiscated the video tape and had the witness, along with
three other defense witnesses, arrested and tortured.
When the appeals court turned down the request of Saddam's
defense team about the death verdict, Abdel-Rahman had to
set an execution date within 30 days of the appeal verdict.
Saddam was hanged within four days, on the date of the
beginning of a Moslem holiday.
For a few months, Abdel-Rahman relished in his image as a
no-nonsense, tough judge. The truth differs. He stood
against everything a judge is supposed to represent: to find
the truth. He lied and he was a fraud. He was brave while he
was protected by the U.S. Army in the Green Zone, but once
the hangings were conducted, it appears that Abdel-Rahman
must have lost some of his protection. He fled to Great
Britain.
There is one aspect of this mockery that is confusing.
Abdel-Rahman asked for "political asylum" in Great Britain.
Political asylum is usually requested by citizens of
countries in which they are not allowed political, social or
religious rights that other citizens enjoy. Abdel-Rahman was
a product of the quisling Iraqi government. He was right in
the middle of all the shenanigans and violence the
pretenders thrust on Iraq. Why did he ask for "political
asylum" when he was a mainstream player in the sordid
politics of Iraq?
It is probable that there were many Iraqis who were offended
by Saddam Hussein's show trial and hanging and some were
probably picking up the stench of Abdel-Rahman's scent. Even
the U.S. and the Iraqi stooges would have been unable to
give him enough security to ensure that he would be alive at
retirement age.
Abdel-Rahman may have been the temporary victor because of
his actions in an unfair Iraqi courthouse that led to the
hanging of Saddam Hussein. But, in death, Saddam Hussein won
the battle against him as Abdel-Rahman made a secret and
cowardly exit from Iraq.
At the time of the writing of this book, a very ill Tariq
Aziz is being tried on false charges. Out of nowhere,
Abdel-Rahman reappeared in Baghdad. It appears that no one
wanted to be the judge who orders the hanging of Aziz, so
the quisling Iraqi government made a deal with the person
who handed down Saddam Hussein's death sentence. It will be
interesting to see Abdel-Rahman's actions after the trial.
He may well return to England for his extended vacation.
Saddam Hussein knew how his life would end, but he was well
aware that his legacy would be part of the equation that
will resurrect Iraq. He never sold out, not even at the end
when he was offered chances to be freed from prison. He knew
that if he sold out, he would have sold out Iraq.
Long after his execution, Saddam Hussein still gained
ludicrous press coverage. On the first anniversary of the
hanging, two British newspapers ran stories about the
one-year anniversary.
On December 31, 2007, the British daily newspaper, The
Telegraph, ran an article called "Few Gather to Remember at
Saddam's Tomb." It was written by Akeel Hussein and Colin
Freeman. Here are a few statements:
On the first anniversary of his death, however, the final
resting place of the man whose last words were "Iraq is
nothing without me" shows little sign of becoming the shrine
many feared it would ...
... Yet the supporters who gathered to commemorate by laying
flowers and reading the Koran numbered only in the dozens,
not the hundreds of thousands that Saddam's deluded ego
might have expected ...
This pieces is a horrible example of journalism, especially
coming from such an established newspaper as The Telegraph.
The tone of mockery is normally never seen in a feature
article. Plus, the inaccuracies are glaring. Even from
Saddam's naysayers I have never seen the last words
attributed to him that this stooge tag-team wrote. However,
the facts are true: only a few dozen people showed up at
Saddam's grave.
Now, let's go a few miles across London and see how The
Times handled the same story. Deborah Haynes and Ali Hamdani
collaborated on the article "Thousands Prevented from
Visiting Saddam Tomb on Anniversary of Execution" that was
published on December 30, 2006.
Let's take a look at a sampling of this article:
A handful of Saddam Hussein supporters wept at his graveside
in a village north of Baghdad today on the first anniversary
of the toppled dictator's execution, while thousands more
were prevented from visiting the tomb because of heightened
security ...
... "The anniversary of the execution of the martyred
President Saddam Hussein is a sad one and hurts all
honorable Iraqis," said Um Marwan, age 40, who was leading a
delegation of women to the burial site.
"You cannot compare Saddam to Maliki or Talabani who are
hiding in the Green Zone," she said.
In the nearby village of al-Dawr thousands of people had
planned a demonstration to condemn the execution followed by
a march to Saddam's graveside, but their movement was
restricted by an indefinite curfew imposed from Saturday,
said Selam al-Abid, a former guard to Saddam.
Two stories used basic facts (and some fiction on the part
of The Telegraph) in depicting the first anniversary of
Saddam Hussein's murder. However, only one stated why there
were so few people at Saddam's grave.
If Saddam Hussein is a spent force in Iraq, why does the
U.S. and its quisling allies keep people from visiting his
grave? They are cowards with absolutely no integrity and can
only function surrounded by tanks and enough military
hardware to incinerate the entire country of Iraq. So much
for "bringing democracy to Iraq."
Since the publishing of my book, the Iraqi quislings have
gone even further in keeping people away from Saddam's
grave. According to an article in Al-Jazeera News of July 6,
2009, titled "Iraq Bans Visits to Saddam's Grave:"
The Iraqi government has banned all organised visits to the
grave of Saddam Hussein, the country's former leader who was
executed in 2006.
The government issued the order on Monday after some schools
began arranging trips for their pupils to visit the site in
Saddam's native village of Al-Awja, outside the northern
town of Tikrit, a government statement said.
... Thousands of Saddam's Sunni Arab supporters regularly
visit the site to commemorate the former leader with poems
and songs of praise.
Many also visit to mark the anniversaries of his birth and
death.
Buried alongside him are his two sons Uday and Qusay, who
were killed in a US attack in the northern city of Mosul in
July 2003.
If Saddam Hussein is a spent force in Iraq, why does the
U.S. and its quisling allies keep people from visiting his
grave? They are cowards with absolutely no integrity and can
only function surrounded by tanks and enough military
hardware to incinerate the entire country of Iraq. So much
for "bringing democracy to Iraq."
NOTE: The entire three portions of this series is included
in my book, The Mother of All Battles. For the month of
December 2009, Uruknet readers, as well as those on other
sites, will receive a discount for the 400-page book. The
price is $20 per book. When ordering, mention this offer.
For non-U.S. readers, the postage is $12.95. I can fit two
books into each USPS Priority envelope. This postage is a
one-price limit for any amount of what can be put in the
envelope. If two people want to order the book, each can pay
for the book and have them shipped in one envelope, making
the shipping cost half of what it would be if only one book
was inserted. Just click on the link following the picture
of my book below to order.
The Mother of All Battles is available. To order, please
click on this link:
http://malcomlagauche.com/id8.html
2009-12-28 Mon 20:35:17 cst
NewTrendMag.org