Iran would never make atom bomb: Ayatullah Khamenei

“The Iranian nation has never pursued and will never pursue nuclear weapons and will never seek nuclear weapons as it has the capacity to challenge the nuclear-backed influence such powers rely on,” said Ayatollah Khamenei, leader of the Islamic Revolution in a Wednesday meeting in Tehran with the director and officials of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) and nuclear scientists the Leader described the country’s nuclear and technological achievements further in line with national interests and beneficial for the future of the country.

“There is no doubt that the decision makers in the countries opposing us know well that Iran is not after nuclear weapons because the Islamic Republic, logically, religiously and theoretically, considers the possession of nuclear weapons a grave sin and believes the proliferation of such weapons is senseless, destructive and dangerous.”

“If nations are allowed to independently make progress in the fields of nuclear energy, aerospace, science, technology and industry, there will be no room left for the tyrannical dominance of world powers,” said the Leader.

“Sanctions have been in place since the victory of the Islamic Revolution while the nuclear issue is a matter of the past few years; therefore their (the West) real problem is with a nation that has decided to be independent.”

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei addressed a meeting with head and officials of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) and nuclear scientists in Tehran on February 22, 2011.  Here

America is the problem: Mani Shanker

The problem is neither Riyadh nor Tehran. The problem is Washington. I think Washington is right in worrying about Iranian nuclear weapons but why aren’t the Americans also worrying about Israeli nuclear weapons? Israeli nuclear weapons exist. The Iranian nuclear weapon, if anybody is making it, lies in the future.

Mani Shankar Aiyer in Arab News. Here

Mideast uprisings: A lesson for strong men and counterfactual historians

Manipulated over the past century and a half by greedy outsiders and their own repressive leaders, many Arabs in the middle east and north Africa are saying, "Enough already!" In country after country from Morocco to Bahrain, popular uprisings are now a raging fire. The long simmering resentment of ordinary people against widespread corruption, unemployment, grotesque inequalities and curtailment of freedom which is now a growing explosive anger, is said to have been sparked by the self-immolation of a young Tunisian man who refused to be cowed down by the brutality of a corrupt police force. The wave of protests has caught the world by surprise, especially the recent events in Egypt where the stunning removal from power of Hosni Mubarak, the long time dictator and US ally was unimaginable just a few short months ago. Egyptians themselves are probably among the most surprised. This time the bogeyman for the mass demonstrators is not the US or Israel, but their own leaders who have long exploited anti-US sentiments to control the citizenry while doing the bidding of the west for their own profit. I have no special insights to add to what we are hearing in the news about the middle east. Things are in a ferment; it is hard to predict how the present and future will shape up in Egypt or elsewhere, and what the implications are for the coming trends in geo-politics. At this moment, the hottest spot in the Arab fire storm is in Libya where the crazy colonel has threatened to become a martyr while inciting a civil war among his countrymen with the help of foreign mercenaries. A map of the region shows the time line and the current status of events in the affected areas.

Ruchira in Accidental Blogger. Here.

Erdogan leads Turkey - and the Middle East

Situating oneself in a fairly recent decade, if one were to suggest that someday Turkey, a staunchly secularist country, could have an Islamist head of government, it would have seemed a joke. And to suggest that an Islamist leader could as well prove to be the longest-serving leader in that country, second only to Kemal Attaturk, its founder and father figure, would have seemed a macabre joke.

"No way, the Pashas will never allow it to happen." That would be the repartee. The Pashas, or civil or military authorities, are confined to barracks. The results of the parliamentary elections held in Turkey on Sunday need to be put in historical perspective.

Without doubt, the resounding victory by the ruling party AKP (Justice and Development Party) led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with a mandate of 50% of popular support is a landmark event. Victory was expected, but not on a scale exceeding the 47% mandate of the 2007 elections.

The heart of the matter is that Turkey is reaching unprecedented heights of economic prosperity and is a land at peace after several decades of strife, bloodshed and chronic political instability. The contrast couldn't be sharper with its neighborhood, which is passing through great upheaval and uncertainties.

Turkey's economy grew at a rate of 9% last year, second only to China's among the Group of 20. The economy is already the world's 17th largest and growing income is beginning to percolate and give people hope of a better tomorrow.

Today, Turkey borrows more cheaply than Spain; a far cry from the not-too-distant past when it used to hold a begging bowl before the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Yet, it also showcases the IMF's success. Turkey has been one of IMF's biggest borrowers - US$25 billion in the past decade - but is well-poised to pay back its debts by 2013. The contrast with Greece, a pristine European Union (EU) member country, is at once obvious.

Unsurprisingly, a Turkish name that spontaneously sailed into view as a terrific candidate for the vacant post of managing director of IMF was of Kemal Davis, who nursed the sick Turkish economy at a critical phase when it was in intensive care. Arguably, it would have been a bitter pill to swallow for EU member countries if a brilliant Turkish wizard were to be employed to restore their economies to recovery.

Explaining Erdogan's mandate

Ironically, as a Bloomberg report wrote, "Rebuffed in its efforts to join the EU, Turkey now borrows at 10-year yields lower than at least eight members of the 27-nation bloc." The Turkish electorate is grateful to Erdogan's government for successful economic management. However, Erdogan's renewed mandate to lead the country for a third successive four-year term demands a much broader explanation.

Personal charisma was certainly a factor, as there is no one today in Turkish politics who can even come up to his shoulders in sheer stature as a statesman. It is a saga that becomes the stuff of an absorbing political biography - a long journey from the backstreets of a Black Sea town to Ankara via Istanbul, from a prison cell to the office of the prime minister, from rabble-rousing Islamism to consensual politics, from a Turkish politician to a towering regional figure who might very well end up in the years ahead moulding the New Middle East in a far more enduring and humane way than the Ottomans from Suleiman the Magnificent could manage through centuries.

The Turkey which Erdogan inherited in 2003 was a practicing democracy in appearance but still had common characteristics with the authoritarian regimes of the Middle East.

The military as the self-appointed Praetorian Guards of the Turkish state; the strong authoritarian undercurrent of the "deep state"; coercion as the instrument to smother dissent; a form of secularism that was as militant and suffocating as any religious extremism; the deep-rooted religiosity of the common people who were observant Muslims but steeped in worldly concerns; and, the inability or refusal to comprehend and to come to terms with political Islam - these were as much features of the Turkish crisis.

Erdogan proved himself to be a "liberator" and a "conqueror". He gently eased Turkey to face the reality that practicing or holding religious beliefs is not antithetical to the state or modernity. The thought churning through the Turkish mind when Erdogan took over the leadership was whether the practice of women wearing headscarves was compatible with the tenets of a secularist state.

M K Bhadrakumar in Asia Times. Here

வெல்ஃபேர் பார்ட்டி ஆஃப் இந்தியா ஜமாஅத்தே இஸ்லாமி ஹிந்தின் அரசியல் கட்சி அன்று: அமீரே ஜமாஅத் பேட்டி - மூன்றாம் பாகம்

m தேர்தல் அரசியலில் பங்கேற்பது பற்றிய விவகாரத்தில் ஜமாஅத்துக்குள்ளேயே கருத்து வேறுபாடுகள் நிலவுவதாகவும் தேர்தல் அரசியலில் பங்கேற்க வேண்டும் என்று பெரும்பான்மையான மக்கள் விரும்புவதாகவும் இது நம்முடைய கோட்பாட்டுக்கும் சிந்தனைக்கும் நேர்மாறானது என்றும் இப்போதையச் சூழலில் தேர்தல் அரசியலில் பங்கேற்பது என்றும் மற்றவர்கள் எதிர்ப்பதாகவும் விஷயம் தெரிந்தவர்கள் மத்தியில் ஒரு கருத்து காணப்படுகின்றது. நீங்கள் என்ன நினைக்கின்றீர்கள் ?

மௌலானா சையத் ஜலாலுத்தீன் உமரி: தற்போது உள்ள ஸிஸ்டம் இஸ்லாத்திற்கு அப்பாற்பட்டது, அசத்தியமானது என்பதிலும் இந்த ஸிஸ்டத்தை மாற்றுவதற்காக ஜமாஅத் பாடுபட வேண்டும் என்பதில் எந்தவிதமான கருத்துவேறுபாடும் இல்லை.

ஆனால் இப்போது நம்முடைய விவாதத்தில் இருக்கின்ற விவகாரம் இந்திய முஸ்லிம்கள் எதிர்கொண்டுள்ள பல்வேறு பிரச்னைகளுடன் தொடர்புடையதாகும். அவர்கள் சிறுபான்மையினராக இருப்பதால் இந்தப் பிரச்னைகள் இன்னும் அதிகமாகக் கூர்மையடைந்துவிட்டுள்ளன.

தேர்தல் அரசியலில் பங்கேற்பது மூலமாக முஸ்லிம்கள் எதிர்கொண்டுள்ள இந்தப் பிரச்னைகளைத் தீர்க்க முடியுமா  என்பதுதான் இங்கு எழுகின்ற கேள்வி.

இதற்குத் தீர்வுகாண்பதில் இருவேறு கருத்துகள் காணப்படுகின்றன என்பது உண்மையே. அதனைத்தான் நீங்களும் சுட்டிக்காட்டியிருக்கின்றீர்கள். தேர்தல் அரசியலில் பங்கேற்க வேண்டும்; அது ஒட்டுமொத்தமாக நாட்டுக்கும் சமுதாயத்துக்கும் நன்மை அளிப்பதாக அமையும் என்பதுதான் பெரும்பாலோரின் கருத்து. இது தொடர்பாக என்னுடைய கருத்தை வெளிப்படுத்த வேண்டும் எனக் கேட்டிருக்கின்றீர்கள். உங்களுடைய இந்தக் கேள்விக்கு நான் பதில் அளிப்பது பொருத்தமாக இராது. என்னுடைய சொந்தக் கருத்து இதற்குச் சாதகமாகவும் இருக்கலாம்; எதிராகவும் இருக்கலாம். ஒரு பொறுப்பாளர் என்கிற முறையில் நான் இந்த விவாதத்தில் விழக்கூடாது.

அண்மையில் நடந்த ஜமாஅத்தின் மத்திய பிரதிநிதிகள் சபை கூட்டத்தில் பேசியபோது ‘நம் நாட்டின் அரசியல் அமைப்புச் சட்டத்தில் செக்குலரிஸம், சோஷலிஸம், டெமாக்ரஸி ஆகிய சொற்கள் ஒரு தனிப் பொருளில்தான் ஆளப்பட்டிருக்கின்றன. சோஷலிஸம் குறித்து நாட்டின் உச்ச நீதிமன்றம் ‘சோஷலிஸம் என்கிற சொல்  தொடக்கக்காலத்தில் எந்தப் பொருளில் ஆளப்பட்டதோ அந்தப் பொருளில் நாம் அதனை ஆள்வதில்லை. அதற்கு மாறாக சமூக நீதி என்கிற பொருளில்தான் தற்போது ஆளப்படுகின்றது’ எனக் கருத்து தெரிவித்துள்ளது.

மௌலானா அபுல் லைஸ் இஸ்லாஹி நத்வி

செக்குலரிஸத்தைப் பொருத்தவரை ரொம்பக் காலத்திற்கு முன்பே அப்போதைய அகில இந்தியத் தலைவர் மௌலானா அபுல் லைஸ் இஸ்லாஹி நத்வி மிகத் தெளிவாக எடுத்துரைத்துவிட்டார். அந்தக் காலத்தில் டாக்டர் சையத் மஹ்மூத் ‘செக்குலரிஸம் குறித்து உங்களுடைய கருத்து என்ன?’ என வினவிய போது மௌலானா அபுல் லைஸ் இஸ்லாஹி நத்வி அவர்கள் ‘செக்குலரிஸம் என்பதற்கு இந்த நாட்டில் எந்தவொரு மதத்தின் ஆட்சியும் இருக்காது; அனைத்து மதத்தினரும் சமமாக நடத்தப்படுவார்கள்; அனைவருக்கும் தத்தமது மதத்தின் அடிப்படையில் செயல்படுவதற்கு முழுமையான சுதந்திரம் உண்டு’ என்பதுதான் பொருள் எனில் நாங்கள் அந்த செக்குலரிஸத்திற்கு எதிரானவர்கள் அல்லர். ஆனால் செக்குலரிஸம் என்பதற்கு இறைவனின் ஆட்சியையும் இறையாண்மையையும் இறைவனின் அதிகாரத்தையும் மறுப்பதுதான் பொருள் எனில் நாங்கள் அதனை எதிர்ப்போம்’ என்று நறுக்குத்தெறித்தாற்போல் பதிலளித்தார். பிற்பாடு மத்திய ஆலோசனைக் குழுக் கூட்டத்திலும் இது குறித்து விவாதிக்கப்பட்டு மௌலானாவின் விளக்கம் உறுதி செய்யப்பட்டது.

ஜனநாயகம் தொடர்பாகவும் இதே நிலைப்பாடுதான். நான் இதனைக் குறித்து எத்தனையோ தடவை எழுதியிருக்கின்றேன். இறைவனின் அதிகாரத்திற்குப் பதிலாக மனிதர்களின் அதிகாரத்தை ஏற்றுக்கொள்வதுதான் ஜனநாயகம். இதனை நாங்கள் தவறான சிந்தனை என்றே சொல்கின்றோம். ஆனால் ஜனநாயகத்திற்கு இருக்கின்ற சிறப்பு என்னவெனில் அது கருத்து சுதந்திரத்தையும் விருப்பம் போல் செயல்படுகின்ற சுதந்திரத்தையும் வழங்குவதுதான். இந்தச் சுதந்திரமான சூழல் அழைப்புப் பணிக்கும் பரப்புரை செய்வதற்கும் சமூக சீர்திருத்தப் பணிகளுக்கும் களம் அமைத்துத் தருகின்றது. இதனால் தான் இத்தகைய சுதந்திரத்தையும் உரிமைகளையும் மறுக்கின்ற, ஒரு குறிப்பிட்ட பண்பாட்டையும் கலாச்சாரத்தையும் நாட்டு மக்கள் அனைவர் மீதும் திணிக்க நாடுகின்ற மற்ற ஸிஸ்டங்களோடு ஒப்பிடும்போது ஜனநாயகத்தின் அடிப்படையிலான சிஸ்டத்தை நாங்கள் விரும்புகின்றோம்.

நமது நாட்டில் ஜனநாயகம் நிலைபெற்றுள்ளது. இதிலிருந்து பயனீட்டுவதற்கு நாம் முயல வேண்டும். இஸ்லாத்தை நல்ல முறையில் அறிமுகம் செய்வதற்கும் முயல வேண்டும். இஸ்லாத்தைக் குறித்து இங்குக் காணப்படுகின்ற தவறான கருத்துகள், எண்ணங்களைக் களைவதற்கும் முயல வேண்டும். இஸ்லாத்தை மேற்கொள்வதில் நாட்டின் வெற்றியும் உலகத்தின் நன்மையும் அடங்கியிருக்கின்றது என்பதைத் தெளிவுபடுத்த வேண்டும். எந்தவொரு மதமோ அல்லது மார்க்கமோ அரசாங்க மதமாக அறிவிக்கப்படுவதற்கு ஜனநாயகம் தடையாக இருக்கும் என்றும் சிலர் சொல்கின்றார்கள். ஜனநாயக வழியில் செயல்பட்டு இந்தத் தடையை அகற்றுவதற்கான பொருத்தமான வழிவகைகள் மேற்கொள்ளப்பட வேண்டும் என்றே நான் நினைக்கின்றேன். 

Parvaz Rahmani, Editor, Dawat interviews Moulana Syed Jalaludeen Umari, Ameer-e-Jamaat. Translated by T Azeez Luthfullah. More Here

Obama's nefarious designs in Syria

The parliamentary election result in Turkey ensuring another term for the ruling "Islamist" party AKP (Justice and Development Party) significantly strengthens the US position on Syria. Ankara has hardened its stance on Assad and has begun openly criticizing him. A more obtrusive Turkish role in destabilizing Assad and forcing a regime change in Damascus can now be expected in the coming weeks. Ironically, Turkey also controls the Bosphorous Straits.

By improving ties with Turkey in the past decade, Moscow had been hoping that Ankara would gradually move toward an independent foreign policy. The Kremlin's expectation was that the two countries could get together and form a condominium over the Black Sea. But as events unfold, it is becoming clear that Ankara is reverting to its earlier priorities as a NATO country and US's pre-eminent partner in the region. Ankara cannot be faulted: it made a shrewd assessment and drew a balance sheet concluding that its interests are best served by identifying with the Western move to effect a regime change in Syria.

Additionally, Ankara finds it profitable that it identifies with the Saudi approach to the upheaval in the Middle East. The wealth Arabs in the oil-rich countries of the Persian Gulf are willing to send their "green money" to Turkey. Ankara also shares Saudi misgivings about Iran's rise as regional power.

In sum, the US is slowly but steadily getting the upper hand over its agenda of a regime change in Syria. Whether Moscow will buckle under this immense pressure and accept a rollback of its influence in Syria is the big question. Moscow has threatened to cooperate with Beijing and adopt a common stance over Syria. But Moscow's ability to counter the American juggernaut over Syria is weakening by the day.

The course of events over Syria will certainly impact profoundly on the US-Russia reset. The Obama administration seems to have done its homework and concluded that it is worth taking that risk for the sake of ensuring Israel's security. The warship that sailed into the Black Sea carries a blunt message to Russia to accept that it is a mere pale shadow of the former Soviet Union.

M K Bhadra kumar in Asia Times online. Here

What role have women played in the Islamic Awakening of the Arab region?

What role have women played in the Islamic Awakening of the Arab region?

They were the catalysts of change and they were in the forefront in the struggle against dictators.

Tariq Ramadan discusses this amazing dimension of the Islamic Awakening with Khola Hasan, Director, Albatross Consultancy in this 24 minutes video. It is worth watching and enlightening. 

Watch Here

Nabil Elaraby and Indian frogs

It is an ancient game - the blame game. Suleiman can't account easily for all the blood on his hands that the waters in the Nile river can't wash away, and the sensible thing to do is to pass the buck to Mubarak. He also knows that there is an extraordinary revolutionary storm building up outside the cell where he is detained with the masses insisting that the military, the arch-reactionary segment of any society, must obey the will of the people and must craft policies so that Egypt's tormented soul is calmed.

And the fact of the matter is that the military is obeying. The Rafah crossing with Gaza is being permanently opened today. The Palestinians are no more under blockade! And Israel can't do anything about it. The Egyptian military is pressing ahead with the Palestinian unity pact despite protests by Israel, and ignoring Barack Obama's strictures.

Without doubt, Nabil Elaraby, Egypt's foreign minister - who is choreographing Egypt's new 'partnership' with US, is untying the security ties with Israel and re-engaging his country with Arab brotherhood, and is forging ties with Iran - arrives in Delhi today. Elaraby is a rare scholar-diplomat and will have many heart-throbbing, intellectually stimulating, utterly spell-binding things to narrate to the Indian leadership. And yet, our media and think tankers seem unaware who Elaraby is. They are full of the US Secretary for Homeland Security Janet Napolitano. Not a word about Elaraby! Aren't they like frogs in a well croaking at the sliver of sky above and thinking that is all that the firmament is about? The Indian foreign policy establishment which reached out to Elaraby is once again outstripping our intelligentsia and making the latter appear rather pedestrian. 

M. K. Bhadrakumar in Diplomatic Perspective. More Here.

Throw a shoe at Obama's betrayal

At 4:17pm GMT on Sunday, I threw a shoe at my television screen, aimed at US President Barack Obama, precisely at the moment he began to explain that the reference in his Thursday speech at the State Department to the 1967 borders was in accordance with the Israeli interpretation of these borders.

Not that I was thrilled with that speech either but it was at least as meaningless as his previous speeches on the topic. But at 4:17 he said there will be “no return to the borders of June 4, 1967” and the thousands who attended the AIPAC convention cheered wildly. Annexation of Israeli settlement blocs built illegally in the occupied West Bank and the creation of a small Palestinian bantustan in the spaces in between was the essence of Obama’s real vision for peace.

It was a soft shoe and all it did was to bounce off the screen. Being such a harmless weapon it was also directed at my Palestinian friends who since Friday explained, publicly, how unusual and important was Obama’s speech at the State Department.

It is tough enough to know that in the White House sits someone who betrayed not only the Palestinians, but all the oppressed people in the world and in the US he promised to engage and represent.

But I have turned on my TV set and moved to Puerta del Sol in Madrid — there where thousands of young people were reformulating the powerful message that came from Tahrir Square in Cairo and which was also heard on the borders of Palestine on Nakba Day and in London’s Trafalgar Square during recent student demonstrations.

It was a call of defiance against such political discourse and its poisonous effects. Yes, they say in Madrid as they did on Palestine’s borders, our lives are ruled and affected by smug, cynical and indifferent Western politicians who hold immense power to maintain the unjust world for years to come, but we have had enough of this and will resist it.

Ilan Pappe in Counter currents. More Here

American media fraud in the Middle East

Too often, you consumers of mainstream media are victims of a fraud. You think you can trust the articles you read - why wouldn't you? You think you can sift through the ideological bias and just get the facts. But you don't know the ingredients that go into the product you buy. It is important to understand how knowledge about current events in the Middle East is produced before relying on it. Even when there are no apparent ideological biases, such as those one often sees when it comes to reporting about Israel, there are fundamental problems at the epistemological and methodological level. These create distortions, falsehoods and justify the narrative of those with power.

The American media always want to fit events in the region into an American narrative. The recent assassination of Osama bin Laden was greeted with a collective shrug of the shoulder in the Middle East, where he had always been irrelevant, but for Americans and hence for the American media it was a historic and defining moment which changed everything. Too often contact with the West has defined events in the Middle East, but the so-called Arab Spring with its revolutions and upheavals evokes anxiety among white Americans. They are unsettled with the autogenetic liberation of brown people.

The American media has been obsessed with Israel. And all too often, it just comes down to "what does this mean for Israel's security?" The aspirations of hundreds of millions of freedom-seeking Arabs are subordinated to the security concerns of five million Jews who colonised Palestine.

A student of the Arab world once commented that any self-appointed terrorism expert must first pass the Um Kulthum test - meaning, has he heard of Um Kulthum, the iconic Egyptian diva of Arab nationalism whose music and lyrics still resonate throughout the Middle East? If they hadn't heard of her, then they obviously were not familiar with Arab culture. In Iraq an equivalent might be the Hawasim test. Saddam called the 1991 war on Iraq "Um al-Maarik", or the mother of all battles. And he called the 2003 war on Iraq "Um al-Hawasim", or the mother of all decisive moments. Soon, the looting that followed the invasion was called Hawasim by Iraqis, and the word became a common phrase, applied to cheap markets, to stolen goods, to cheap products. If you drive your car recklessly like you don't care about it, another driver might shout at you, "what, is it hawasim?" If you don't make an effort to familiarise yourself with these cultural phenomena, then just go back home.

Nir Rosen in AlJazeera. More Here

Poll: Most Egyptians want Quran as source of laws

A poll conducted by a US-based center has shown that a majority of Egyptians believe laws in their country should follow the teachings of Islam's holy book, the Quran.

The survey reflects a shift toward religious conservatism. It also shows Egyptians are open to the inclusion of religious parties in a future government.

The poll's results, released on Monday, come ahead of September balloting - the first parliamentary elections since President Hosni Mubarak's ouster in February. Islamic parties are expected to make a significant showing

The poll, based on interviews with 1,000 Egyptians, was conducted by the Pew Research Center between March 24 and April 7. Its margin of error was plus or minus 4 per cent.

IBN report Here

The significance of popular uprisings in the Middle East

The popular uprisings in the Middle East have brought the question of political Islam to the center stage of America’s policy debate. How do Islamist thinkers view the political transitions underway in Egypt and Tunisia, and what are they saying about the turmoil in places such as Libya and Yemen? What role will Islamist political groups play in countries opening up to democratic reforms, and what are the implications for U.S. policy in the Middle East.

A discussion of these questions and issues with one of the foremost scholars of Islam and the modern world, Tariq Ramadan with Hussein Ibish, Brian Katulis and Susan Brooks organised by Center for American Progress.


More  Here

Make no mistake. Libya is not a bed of roses, Mr Obama

Unlike Afghanistan and Iraq, the West is not fighting “Islamist terrorism” in Libya or is on the quest of the holy grail called Weapons of Mass Destruction. The mission now is to “save lives” and take out the monster that just refuses to fade away like the other friendly, neighborhood dictators in Tunisia and Egypt.

He must hang on in there like a bad dream, an evil spell over Libya. Those who thought Muammar Qaddafi would soon follow his fellow travelers into the sunset were clearly mistaken. The demented author of the Green Book seems to sincerely believe he’s God’s gift not just to the people of Libya but to the whole of humankind. But then Col. Qaddafi, distinctly delusional that he is, isn’t the only one to live in this make-believe world.

There are many out there who have persuaded themselves their leadership is crucial to the survival of their people and their departure would bring on the end of the world. Such is the power of delusions of grandeur. You tend to believe you are at the center of universe.

Those larger than life statues, from Baghdad to Benghazi, are not the celebration of a monstrous ego but the manifestation of a perennial insecurity of the powerful. They have to constantly reassure themselves about their own power.

Some of the biggest and most obscene tributes to human vanity are found in Muslim lands. Islam came to banish all man-made idols and we have replaced them with men who view themselves as divine. They worship themselves and expect their people to do so. Qaddafi is not the only one to believe in his immortality and his right to rule Libya forever. He must kill his people, if need be as he has been doing all these years, to govern them.

There are others out there who have convinced themselves that if they deprive their people of their noble leadership, they will all perish and go to hell. Après moi le déluge, After me the deluge!

After four decades of absolute power, Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen believes his people are not still “ready” to govern themselves or determine what’s good or bad for them. ‘I am prepared to step down,’ he reasons, ‘provided people of Yemen prove they have a capable leadership to take over from me.’ Touche!

Bashar Assad of Syria, who and his father between themselves have ruled Syria for nearly half a century, doesn’t fit the description of a tyrant. He insists he and his people are “on the same page.” There’s no problem whatsoever.

What about those angry demonstrations? And why are the Syrian troops firing on peaceful protesters. 
Of course, it’s the doing of “conspirators and outsiders,” you know. There’s no trouble in the Baathist paradise of Syria. In fact, a Syrian government spokesperson told CNN’s Hala Gorani with a straight face, President Assad himself has wanted to introduce “reforms” since he took over from his father 11 years ago.

Then why hasn’t he? What are we waiting for? End times or another crusader coalition?

Truth be told, whether it is Libya or Syria or numerous other Arab republics, they have all suppressed, abused and persecuted their people for decades — or the lifetime of a tyrant. In addition to perpetual abuse of power and all-pervasive corruption, they all have one thing in common. They’ve all repressed popular democratic movements that turn to Islam for guidance and inspiration, rather than dance to the tunes of London and Washington. And they have all done this with the blessings of Western champions of democracy and freedom.

In Egypt, both Hasan Al Banna, the legendary founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, and his successor Sayyid Qutb were assassinated by the powers that be, not to mention the thousands of its activists who were incarcerated and tortured for years for believing in a better world. From Gamal Nasser to Anwar Sadat to Hosni Mubarak, the most admired grass-roots movement in the Arab world has remained banned and suppressed for half a century.

This is the same story all across the Arab world. From Egypt and Yemen to Syria and from Algeria and Tunisia to Libya, the Islamists have been hunted like animals for decades. In 1982, Syrian forces massacred thousands in the city of Hama in a crackdown on Ikhwan. The memories of Hama massacre are still fresh.

And who could forget how Algeria’s veteran revolutionaries dealt with the Islamic Salvation Front when it swept the first ever multi-party democratic elections in 1991-‘92? The regime not just annulled the historic vote and the verdict it threw up, it unleashed a reign of terror against the Islamists for daring to take the democratic path to change. Nearly 300,000 lives perished in the subsequent civil war whose wounds are yet to heal.

History repeated itself when Hamas wrested power from the corrupt and clueless elites of Fatah in 2006. The Palestinians are still paying the price for this cardinal sin, locked away as they are in the largest prison on the planet.

All this of course wouldn’t have been possible without the active support and cooperation of our Western masters. Even as they have endlessly sung hosannas to the deity of democracy, they have aided and abetted their ever obliging allies to crush and destroy those foolish enough to believe in their rhetoric. Indeed, if the Middle East is still stuck with tyranny in 21st century and men in khaki rule forever, you know who to thank for.

So it’s rather touching to see Uncle Sam and his cohorts come around cheering on the juggernaut of change that is on the march in the Middle East. The folks who are still working with a racist and terrorist regime to wipe out an entire nation in its own land have no shame in pontificating about a people’s right to choose their destiny.

Those who have protected and pampered the Mubaraks and Ben Alis all these years see no irony in coming forward to claim credit for the tide that has turned the Arab world around. Talk of hunting with hares and running with hounds! Some Western pundits even have the cheek to thank the “Cowboy Crusader,” who gave us Afghanistan and Iraq and sent more than a million people to their death, for the Arab revolt.

Is there no limit to Western hypocrisy and duplicity? Why do they think they can fool all the people all the time? Don’t they see the writing on the wall? The tide has turned in the Middle East and Western powers will ignore it at their own peril. For those who have the courage to throw out their corrupt despots are capable of confronting their masters too.

A whopping majority in the Muslim world has no sympathy for Qaddafi whatsoever. They are waiting for his imminent fall and will celebrate his exit — and of others like him — just as they rejoiced over the departure of Ben Ali and Mubarak. But they aren’t going to welcome Janus-faced friends of their tormentors either. So expect no roses in Tripoli Mr. Obama and Mr. Sarkozy and Mr. Cameron!

Aijaz Zaka Syed in Arab News. More Here.

Obama does not want 'Change'

There’s nothing like a good war for politicians and businessmen. Wars help failed politicians reinvent and empower themselves as they turn their insecurities and delusions of grandeur into a national cause. And for those who make its instruments, nothing beats the war business. The world economy may be tanking and ordinary mortals like you and me may be driven up the wall by spiraling inflation. However, things that go “bang” and kill in ever new ways are on a roll.

No one really wants peace. Certainly not in the Middle East. Peace is the last thing the arms industry and their friends in high places want in the region, or anywhere else for that matter.

Indeed, the greater the unrest and instability, the better it is for people in the business.

This may be why while the rest of the world has moved on at a mind-boggling pace over the past five or six decades, particularly after World War II, time has stood still for much of the Middle East. The region is stuck in a time warp that is centuries old. The more things change in our part of the world, the more they have remained the same for the Arab world.

This is perhaps why most conflicts since World War II have taken place in the Middle East. Having drawn its lessons from the Two Great Wars, Europe has managed to avoid major military conflicts and keep the continent safe. However, war remains a big industry and vital source of revenue for the industry that deals in trillions of dollars.

Only it’s now staged elsewhere — away from the continent and in distant Arabia or Africa and Asia.

This is why the Arab-Israel conflict continues to fester even after seven decades. If the Middle East finds lasting peace, what will happen to all those fancy weapons the US and European war machine has been churning out year on year? Why would you want peace in the Middle East, or for that matter anywhere else on the planet, if you are Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman or even Dick Cheney’s Halliburton that has been making billions by building those military bases all across the Middle East and Central Asia?

And it’s not just the awesome arms and ammo that are an endless source of income for the merchants of death. Decades after its ostensible exit from the region, the empire continues to control all levers of power and economic interests in the Middle East. Using an ancient regime of licenses and monopoly, the US, UK, France and others in the West still call the shots by controlling virtually everything, from the oil industry to the supply of essentials like military uniforms and jackboots. No wonder for all their protestations and pretentions to champion freedom and democracy around the world, our colonial masters are cowering in their pants as the tsunami of change sinks one subservient satrap after another.

Change is the last thing the West wants now. Status quo is the name of the game. But who can stop an idea whose time has come? And beware. The current churning doesn’t merely target an old, corrupt order. It also seeks an end to the injustice, exploitation and open loot that the empire has presided over all these years.

Aijaz Zaka Syed in Arab News. More Here.

Al Jazeera has demolished the lies of the empire

The greatest tribute you could ever crave is to get it from your detractors. So when Hillary Clinton admits that "viewership of Al Jazeera is going up in the United States (and around the world) because it's real news," the Qatar-based television network has every reason to celebrate and pat its own back. Speaking before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week, the US secretary of state warned that America is "losing the information war," citing the superior quality of Al Jazeera as one of the reasons for her opinion.

Clinton compared the Middle East-based TV network with the giants of US media outlets saying: "Like it or hate, it (Al Jazeera) is really effective. In fact, viewership of Al Jazeera is going up in the US because it's real news. You may not agree with it, but you feel like you're getting real news around the clock instead of a million commercials and arguments between talking heads and the kind of stuff that we do on our news which, you know, is not particularly informative to us, let alone foreigners."

Hmm. This is what many in alternative media and numerous independent conscience keepers of the world have been saying for years. I mean, the bit about the unwillingness and inability of Western media, especially of those in the US, to see the whole picture and tell the other side of the story.

The US media has been too busy acting as the mouthpiece of the American empire and protecting the interests of the rich and powerful like those big boys of the Wall Street who continue to party Recession or no Recession. In fact, as a friend wrote this week commenting on Clinton's speech, the US newspapers have become newsletters of the US government.

This is why it is gratifying to see the world's most powerful woman work herself up over the growing reach of Al Jazeera and its ability and courage to offer "real news" as it happens - and in the process probably an alternative to the overbearing loudspeakers of the US media.

It's amazing what a critical difference a single voice of sanity, however frail, could make in the Goebbelsian cacophony of lies, half-truths and shameless spin. And what a fantastic journey of sheer courage and chutzpah - and of course loads of hard work and persistence - has it been for Al Jazeera.

It has changed the rules of the game not just in the incredibly dull world of the Middle East media but is forcing the movers and shakers of the world media to watch their step and constantly read and revise their script to keep pace with the change that the Doha-based network has come to represent. Al Jazeera has not just emerged as the real voice of the Arab street, it is pitching itself as a healthy, credible alternative, even if still hopelessly young and green, to the apologists and cheerleaders of the empire. Which has been hard to miss for anyone following the whirlwind of change that has turned the Arab world upside down.

A great deal has been written and said about the role the Internet and social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter have played in sowing the winds of change across the Middle East. Doubtless, the history of popular uprisings in the region - in fact the history of our times - will remain incomplete without the amazing contribution the Net has made. However, Al Jazeera had been there, long before the FB and Twitter arrived in the Middle East, educating, informing and fashioning public opinion across the Arab and Islamic world.

In fact, by faithfully and courageously reporting the dramatic, lightning developments in Tunisia, beaming the action right into millions of homes across the Middle East and around the world minute by minute, it unleashed the tsunami that swept away Egypt's Hosni Mubarak and now threatens many of his fellow travelers.

With its unvarnished and unedited reporting of the ground-shifting developments in Tunisia and Egypt, it created a template of change, a truly democratic and homegrown model, suggesting to the rest of the Muslim world they deserve better. That peaceful change is possible - without the intervention of our manipulative

Western friends or the cynical, diabolic extremism as championed by the likes of Osama Bin Laden.
As a student of media and someone who has avidly followed Al Jazeera's breathtaking journey, it's uplifting to see a little known television network, once identified as the mouthpiece of OBL, grow from strength to strength and take on the Goliaths of this world.

In a region where the media have long come to act as the hand maiden of governments and journalism has largely meant publishing and broadcasting of endless comings and goings of royalty, Al Jazeera came as a burst of fresh, life-giving air.
While rest of the pliant, media establishment obsessed over what is known as "protocol news", Al Jazeera, in the words of its boss Wadah Khanfar, looked for "the real actors. We have been guided by a firm belief that the future of the Arab world will be shaped by people from outside the aging elites and debilitated political structures featured so disproportionately by most other news outlets."

It kept its ear to the ground, listening to the drums beating in distance. This is why all those Western wonks and professional pundits failed to see the wave of change spearheaded by the Internet generation of young Arabs, dangerously aware of their democratic rights as well as the hopeless inadequacy of their elites, Al Jazeera saw the Arab revolt coming, as Khanfar so modestly claims.

It has exposed the shenanigans of both the corrupt, authoritarian regimes in the neighborhood and the terrorism and tyranny of big powers. From Palestine to Pakistan and from America to Australia, Al Jazeera has defied and demolished the lies and narrative of the empire. No wonder it constantly finds itself under attack from both brotherly Arab regimes and the bullies of the West.

While the Doha-based network has been repeatedly banned and harassed in numerous Arab countries, its journalists and offices have often found themselves in the line of fire, literally, of the Self-appointed champions of freedom and democracy. Amazingly, despite being funded by the Qatari government, a close ally of Uncle Sam, Al Jazeera has managed to jealously guard and maintain its independence so far. Which is how it should be.

By the way, why can't we have more Al Jazeeras out there? God knows we do need them more than ever. Instead of chasing those billion dollar mirages in the sand, why can't Arabs invest more in the media? Instead of crying all the time about Islamophobia and negative stereotyping of Arabs and Muslims in Western media and popular culture, why don't they do something concrete to address it?

Al Jazeera's success, especially that of Al Jazeera English, proves it's possible to make professionally credible attempts on this front. If a tiny emirate like Qatar can do it, surely big boys like Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey could do it. Even if 5 percent of what many Muslim countries spend on the expensive junk sold by the West as arms was devoted to developing world class media, universities and research institutions, they wouldn't be stuck where they have been. For those who control the media will control the mind.

Aijaz Zaka Syed in Arab News. More Here.