Being on the wrong side of history

A friend of mine told me that while on the board the flight that was taking Malaysian students safely back from Egypt, officials asked them to prepare thank you notes and posters showering praise on the government for helping them. It seems anything goes for propaganda and cheap political mileage. It shows the shallow state of mind of some of us.

The Malaysian prime minister made some baffling statements concerning Sheikh Yusuf al Qaradawi and the Ikhwan Muslimin - the Muslim Brotherhood. He was said to paint them as extremists. But probably upon realising the implications, the strong reaction and condemnation from many quarters, he made some twists of adjustments. He clarified that he only wanted them to change their ways and reject extremism. This made it even more astounding. People do remember that it was his august office that awarded the prestigious Malaysian Maal Hijrah title in 2009 to Yusuf al Qaradawi in recognition of his outstanding scholarship and contributions in the world today. Malaysian politicians do say and do awful things sometimes.

The PM's mission to Turkey was to probably get endorsements as he desperately wanted to be seen as the the voice and star of Muslim moderation in the world today. People probably believe he got an earful from Turkish PM Erdogan concerning Anwar. Some say that the PM received the same from Qaradawi when he was here.

The prime minister's sudden alarmist interest in the views of al Qaradawi is not surprising if he seems to want to align himself to those of Tony Blair, old Europe, the Neo cons and the Liebermans. His choice of media in Washington seems to be the extremely right wing conservative press like the National Review although he claims to be a moderate Muslim. This sort of appeasement may be acceptable and expedient in the short term but in the end, the world has changed and the right wing agenda shall never have a place anymore in liberated Arab and Muslim minds. Even the US and its allies will have to change to accepting the will and free determination of the people of the Middle East or anywhere else.

The Muslim brotherhood has a long and illustrious history. They were the resistance to colonialism, fighting against imperialism and the Israel project. They raised the dignity of the people and transformed the youth to be principled Muslims and to be upright upholding truth and justice. They rejuvenated and reformed Muslim society. They were put down brutally and suffered decades of severe suppression but kept on going with faithful resilience. They never took up arms against the state no matter what it did to them. They were never greedy for power. They were the voice of moderation and the conscience of the majority. The people were forever with them even through banishment and years of persecution. It is then for the Egyptian people to decide and not for us.

They certainly do not need dubious analysis or misguided advice from a prime minister who is headed for the wrong side of history.

Repression and Obama’s Cairo Speech

Repression and Obama’s Cairo Speech

Obama’s agenda and venture into the Arab and Muslim world brings a lot of promises but so far nothing has really shifted, far from being changed, his catchy election call.

Egyptians are worried that by choosing Cairo as his city for beaming his saintly message, Obama is in fact, endorsing repression. Egyptian political leadership and governing regime thrives upon brutal repression and severe suppression of democracy. For Cairo is not Prague, a vibrant democracy where Obama had previously addressed Eastern Europe.

Obama is expected to announce Mubarak, the Egyptian leader’s central role and shore up his regime as the bulwark against Iranian interests and promote America’s agenda in the Middle East. He is plainly regurgitating stability at the expense of democracy, emphasizing Israel’s security and unfettered expansionism by using his wonderful eloquence and mesmerizing talent. He will cite Pakistan as an example of the bulwark and the fight against terror, purposely being oblivious to the destruction of a peaceful and beautiful region and pathetically ignoring the plight of the 2.4 million sudden refugees because attacking Pakistan was Obama’s idea and election campaign pledge.

Guatanamo is still stuck, Obama could not even release a prisoner held since he was a 12 year old child. His administration is unable to move in closing down this medieval concentration camp and there are many second thoughts, leading Obama to declare that at least a hundred detainees held without trial as lethally dangerous people. He is still echoing Bush era pronouncements made outside the ambit of law and justice. The other black sites such as Bagram, Diego Garcia, Uzbekistan, other Central Asian Republics and clandestine Eastern European places holding countless kidnapped suspected Muslims based on flimsy evidence without recourse to the courts, in a CIA program surreptitiously called rendition.

Obama has backtracked in the release of all the documents, the shocking and devastating photographs of torture and abuse in Abu Ghraib. These photographs were held back and are being contested by the Bush administration and seem to be ratified by Obama’s new administration. The real reason is not the expected Muslim anger worldwide. Muslims are being abused, tortured, kidnapped and killed worldwide already. Such photographs are only documenting what is really happening as the images of loss of life and limb of Muslims are becoming anesthetized and insensitive. Humanity at large is being deadened and unfeeling towards the sufferings and brutality inflicted even upon Muslim women and children. People are being conditioned and dehumanized in a large and unprecedented scale and all that is being remembered or highlighted is the Holocaust of World War II.

The Obama administration has been on the defensive over its refusal to release the pictures, which were gathered as part of U.S. military investigations into prisoner abuse. The real reason for this drastic about turn is the complicity of the entire US administration in condoning and directing the torture and abuse from rendition, physical techniques such as waterboarding, sexual assaults and continued incarceration in extreme conditions. Bush and all of his cohorts bear all these responsibilities and criminal liabilities.

Israel has given Obama the cold shoulder and is facing him down even as the issue is only about removing a few settler outposts, nothing really touched on the illegal towns and forced confistication of Palestinian rights and property. Obama has not the will and ability to confront or moderate the grand Zionist agenda at his own peril.

North Korea has learnt the Iraq disarmament lesson and instead of tuning down its weapons program, it has ratcheted it up to crisis levels, playing for high stakes. Iraq foolishly subjected itself to inspections, embargo and humiliation only to be invaded by a totally false and deceiving resolution. Iran seems to be threading the North Korea path in order to face down a fickle Obama administration.

His decision to surge the military operations in Afghanistan and escalating the war into Pakistan has plunged another large Muslim nation into mayhem and tragedy. Obama has not pursued a political solution but instead he still chooses one of extermination and the zero sum game.

Obama has not stopped the US killing machine, the US torture regime and its longstanding collaboration and promotion of corrupt, brutal and bestial dictatorial regimes in the Muslim world.

In the eyes of the Muslim world, Obama has not changed a thing.