Sharansky on Democracy: Form and Substance

Natan Sharansky's splendid column in the LA Times explains the Israeli neoconservative's criticisms of the Bush Administration's approach to democracy.

I submitted a plan to Ariel Sharon in April 2002 for a political process that would culminate in the creation of a peaceful, democratic Palestinian state alongside Israel. At the time, no one was thinking seriously about peace because, after the worst month of terror attacks in Israel's history, we had launched a large-scale military operation to root out the infrastructure of terrorism in the West Bank.

I believed, however, that the crisis presented an opportunity to begin a different kind of political process, one that would link the peace process to the development of a free society for Palestinians. I had argued for many years that peace and security could be achieved only by linking international legitimacy, territorial concessions and financial assistance for a new Palestinian regime to its commitment to building a free society.

Despite my faith in "democracy," I was under no illusion that elections should be held immediately. Over the previous decade, Palestinian society had become one of the most poisoned and fanatical on Earth. Day after day, on television and radio, in newspapers and schools, a generation of Palestinians had been subjected to the most vicious incitement by their own leaders. The only "right" that seemed to be upheld within Palestinian areas was the right of everyone to bear arms.

In such conditions of fear, intimidation and indoctrination, holding snap elections would have been an act of the utmost irresponsibility.

The recent election of Hamas is the fruit of a policy that focused on the form of democracy (elections) rather than its substance (building and protecting a free society). ...

Read the whole thing.
democracy

Read this.

Now.

My 15 Minutes

Reminder ... if you live in Portland, you can catch my ugly mug on Portland Cable Access tonight (very soon, in fact) and Friday night. Here, again, is the blurb:

Iraq: Languages and Politics

A 50-minutes television program featuring intreviews with Hama Mohammed, a Fullbright Scholar from Suleimanyia, Northern Iraq who studies Linguistics at the University of Oregon and Asher Abrams, blogger and verteran of the first Gulf conflict.

on Portland Cable Access
Sunday, 2/26 at 11pm on Channel 22
Wednesday, 3/1 at 7:30pm on Channel 23
Friday, 3/3 at 8:00pm on Channel 23

Link: PCMTV Programming

Many heartfelt thanks to Ann Kasper for making this possible.

Iraq
Portland Community Media
15 minutes

Afternoon Roundup

Octavia Butler remembered. Baldilocks has a tribute to the late Octavia Butler:

A lot of famous people have died this week—Don Knotts, Darren McGavin and Dennis Weaver--but I was most shocked and saddened to learn of the death of sci-fi/fantasy author Octavia Butler who was only 58. I was a big fan of her work, to say the least.

All of her stories featured black persons—sometimes that fact was essential to the story line; other times it was incidental. For me, her best work was Lilith’s Brood, also known as the ‘Xenogenesis’ series: Dawn, Adulthood Rites and Imago.

Her last work—which I haven’t read yet--is called Fledgling. I can’t wait to read, though I will dread finishing it, knowing that it will be Ms. Butler’s last.

Freedom manifesto. Publishing at Jyllends-Posten, some of the bravest minds of our age challenge the orthodoxy:

After having overcome fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism, the world now faces a new totalitarian global threat: Islamism.

We, writers, journalists, intellectuals, call for resistance to religious totalitarianism and for the promotion of freedom, equal opportunity and secular values for all.

The recent events, which occurred after the publication of drawings of Muhammed in European newspapers, have revealed the necessity of the struggle for these universal values. This struggle will not be won by arms, but in the ideological field. It is not a clash of civilisations nor an antagonism of West and East that we are witnessing, but a global struggle that confronts democrats and theocrats.

Like all totalitarianisms, Islamism is nurtured by fears and frustrations. The hate preachers bet on these feelings in order to form battalions destined to impose a liberticidal and unegalitarian world. But we clearly and firmly state: nothing, not even despair, justifies the choice of obscurantism, totalitarianism and hatred. Islamism is a reactionary ideology which kills equality, freedom and secularism wherever it is present. Its success can only lead to a world of domination: man's domination of woman, the Islamists' domination of all the others. To counter this, we must assure universal rights to oppressed or discriminated people.

We reject « cultural relativism », which consists in accepting that men and women of Muslim culture should be deprived of the right to equality, freedom and secular values in the name of respect for cultures and traditions. We refuse to renounce our critical spirit out of fear of being accused of "Islamophobia", an unfortunate concept which confuses criticism of Islam as a religion with stigmatisation of its believers.

We plead for the universality of freedom of expression, so that a critical spirit may be exercised on all continents, against all abuses and all dogmas.

We appeal to democrats and free spirits of all countries that our century should be one of Enlightenment, not of obscurantism.

12 signatures

Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Chahla Chafiq
Caroline Fourest
Bernard-Henri Lévy
Irshad Manji
Mehdi Mozaffari
Maryam Namazie
Taslima Nasreen
Salman Rushdie
Antoine Sfeir
Philippe Val
Ibn Warraq

Go to the link for bios of these important people. The Belmont Club has this: 'The intellectual gauntlet has been flung full in the face of Islamism by an unlikely group which includes a Somalian woman, Bangladeshis, exiled Iranians, Lebanese, fugitive British writers of subcontinental origin and an assortment of individuals with a vague left-wing background, none of whom would have been granted admittance to a London gentleman's club in the 19th century. And their manifesto has been printed, not in the New York Times, Le Monde or the Times of London, but of all places, in a provincial Danish newspaper of no particular fame. Never has free speech in the West seen so unlikely a league of defenders. ...'

One of the signatories of that manifesto, lesbian Muslim reformer Irshad Manji, answers readers on the Danish Mohammed cartoons:

"I saw you on the Danish news. As a convert to Islam and an ethnic Dane, I have been so sad and shocked to watch my brothers and sisters behave in the most undignified way. Can't they see that they portray Islam as a violent and unforgiving religion? Personally, I can't see why non-Muslims should ever submit to an Islamic taboo. Actually I found the drawings to be hilarious. I know they were harsh, but that is Danish humour. And I think that Muhammad, peace be upon him, had a sense of humour." - Østen

Irshad replies: He must have had a great sense of humor to put up with the ignorance and threats that he got from his fellow Arabs. Speaking of ignorance and threats...

"i hear ur interview on cnn about the protests of cartoon character of prophet muhammad, peace be upon him. u said that why r there huge protests in muslim world. my answer is why not. print the cartoon of jesus and see what the christians will do.

remember me because by gods promise u n ur partner that bastard rushdie will die with lot of pain n u both will pray for death but death will not come to u so easily inshallah. n u will die soon inshallah. n ur soul will rot in hell. read this n remember every day." - handsome_guy

The rotting soul replies: I challenge you to read the next letter every day and learn the difference between between intimidation and disagreement...

"Based on things I've read on your website, I'm sure we would not agree on most political issues and regarding sexuality (I'm a conservative Christian). However, I just want to say that I wish for you all things good, pray that you continue to influence people in a positive way, and thank God that you are out there doing that already. Shuukran and ma'salaama!" - Tracy

"Caught your interview on CNN. Where did you get your ideas from? I know you like white cocks in your wide and stinky pussy but keep in your limits you dumb fuckin bitch ass gang banged hoe." - anonymous

Irshad replies: I don't know where YOU get your ideas because I've never had such, uh, penetrating sex. Ever. In my life. But that, my friend, is the kind of pleasure you may need -- at least according to the next Muslim...

"I saw you on CNN discussing the hysteria over the Danish Muhammad cartoons. I also read your book back in late 2003 and at that time I was struck with indignation and joined with other Muslims in condemning it. I'm a white boy who converted to Islam when I was 17 out of a combination of seeking meaning in my life and rebelling against society. I am also gay, and only came to terms with that about a year or so ago. And now, while I still believe in Allah and Muhammad as his messenger, I also get the feeling that God gives us plenty of room to be human.
I guess while I love Allah, I dislike Muslims. Most, if not all, annoy me to the core of my being. Sometimes I feel that Muslims deserve to be offended by such trivial things like the Danish cartoons. I thought they were kind of funny, actually! I especially liked the quote by one of the editors of a Jordanian paper who reprinted the cartoons: 'What is more insulting to Islam, someone drawing a cartoon or someone blowing up a wedding party?'

Muslims need to wake up. They also need to start drinking wine, embrace any and all homoerotic tendencies, write some poetry and for the most part free themselves of the fundamentalist chains they have created (for themselves and everyone else!). The Muslim world will only be free when bars fill the streets and women show off their natural, feminine beauty. Muslims need to grow up and stop expecting everyone to be mindless sheep before a 1,400-year-old oral tradition. Nakedness will free Dar-al-Islam!" - Jamal

Irshad replies: When the revolution comes, Jamal, remind me to shave my legs.

"Shari'a exists wherever Muslims happen to exist." Yet another beautiful post from Abde at City of Brass:

n the wake of various polls that purportedly prove that British muslims desire Talibanesque rule, I'd like to bring attention to the following commentary on Shari'a from Thabet of the Muslims Under Progress blog:

Shari'ah exists where ever Muslims happen to exist. So if a Muslim decides not to eat a bacon sandwich, to avoid alcohol, to visit the mosque on a Friday, to perform the qui-daily pray, to pay zakat, to ritually wash herself, and the Muslim does all this living in London, New York or Sydney, then shari'ah is in existence and being observed.

This teaser excerpt does not do the essay justice; please do read the rest. Or not, as you prefer - I have discharged my duty. ...

Now discharge your duty (if you choose!) and read the post at the link - and follow Abde's link to the original essay.

Support the Women's Funding Network

Thanks to Blanche for passing this on.

Women's Funding Network

From: Chris Grumm,President, The Women's Funding Network
Date: 10/12/05 14:18:27
To: Francis Kintz
Subject: Help Raise Awareness of Human Trafficking


WFN Home Women Without Borders fund >> forward


Dear Francis,
Do the numbers 80,000 or 2,950,000 mean anything to you?
In my weekly blog, I talk about how shocked I have been by “did you know”
statistics. Here's what I mean...

Did you know that 80% of the 800,000 people trafficked across borders every
year are women and girls?
How about that when you google “mail order brides,” you turn up with 2,950
000 websites?
Today, slavery has a new name – human trafficking.
Like slavery, human trafficking is not the problem of "other" communities or
countries, but rather it is a problem that festers beneath the surface of
our own backyards.
Don't miss a Lifetime Television movie event
Human Trafficking
Oct. 24-25, 9 PM ET/PT
To host a gathering in your home to view the movie on October 24, click here


So what can we do? First and foremost we can all get educated. Start by
inviting your friends and colleagues to join you in watching the Lifetime
mini-series Human Trafficking movie beginning October 24, 2005.

Help us share their stories and raise awareness. It’s the first step in
ridding the world of this crime.

Sign up to host a viewing then download the step-by-step tool kit online.

Human trafficking, like slavery, seems only as real as the history pages
upon which it is written.
You can help determine how the next chapter in is written – become educated
and take action against human trafficking today!

Sincerely,
Chris Grumm
President, The Women's Funding Network

"Israel will have to attack Iran."

Jerusalem Post:

"Whether America provides Israel with a security umbrella or not, Israel will have to attack Iran," NRP-NU MK Effi Eitam said on Tuesday.

In an interview with Channel 10 television, Eitam warned that "In the coming year - and no later - Israel will have to take one of the most difficult decisions in its history."

The attack will be necessary, said Eitam, "Unless an unimaginable miracle happens and the diplomatic initiative will bear fruit."

Israel
Iran

Television Appearance

Your humble blogger recently had the honor of being interviewed for Portland Cable Access television by Ann Kasper. The first airing was last night, but if you live in the Portland area you still have two more chances to catch the show:

Iraq: Languages and Politics

A 50-minutes television program featuring intreviews with Hama Mohammed, a Fullbright Scholar from Suleimanyia, Northern Iraq who studies Linguistics at the University of Oregon and Asher Abrams, blogger and verteran of the first Gulf conflict.

on Portland Cable Access
Sunday, 2/26 at 11pm on Channel 22
Wednesday, 3/1 at 7:30pm on Channel 23
Friday, 3/3 at 8:00pm on Channel 23

The schedule is available at PCMTV programming. The program is titled "Iraq: Languages & Politics". I'm featured in the second half of the program.


Iraq

Afternoon Roundup

Michael Totten: Kirkuk not good. Michael J. Totten wanted to go to Suleimaniya after visiting Erbil. But his driver had other ideas.

KURDISTAN, IRAQ – I liked almost everyone I met in Iraqi Kurdistan. But no culture is without its annoying bastards, and the idiot who drove me from Erbil to Suleimaniya was one of them.

A torrential storm blew into Erbil on my last morning in the city. Streets flooded, in some places with feet of water. The power was out everywhere except in my fake “Sheraton” hotel. A journalist friend who was staying in another hotel packed his bags and moved into the “Sheraton” while I was on my way out. His hotel was wet as well as dark.

“You might not want to drive to Suli today,” he said. “You’ll have to go over some steep mountain passes.”

“I’m from Oregon,” I said. “It rains eight months out of the year there. I’m not worried.”

I would have to find a new driver and translator in Suleimaniya unless I wanted to pay hotel accommodations for my guys in Erbil. So I asked Birzo, my translator, to find me a driver who would just drop me off at my hotel in Suli, then turn around and head back to Erbil. He took me downtown and set me up with a company that had a good reputation.

“This man will take you to the Suli Palace Hotel,” Birzo said as he introduced me to a fat grinning 20 year-old. “Normally it would cost 50 dollars, but it’s raining so he wants 60. He doesn’t speak English, but you should be fine. He knows where the hotel is.”

“Okay, Birzo,” I said. “Thanks for all your help.”

“If you have any problems,” he said, “just call me and I will translate for you over the phone.”

I loaded my luggage into the car and we were off.

As we were leaving the city, my driver said “We go Kirkuk.”

“No!” I said, more sharply than I probably should have.

“Kirkuk good, Kirkuk good,” he said.

“No,” I said. “Suleimaniya. We are going to Suleimaniya.”

“Erbil. Kirkuk. Suleimaniya.” he said. The fastest road went through Kirkuk. “Kirkuk good.” ...

Go read Michael's post at the link to find out what happened after that.

ITM on the shrine crisis. Mohammed at Iraq the Model has some thoughts on the recent bombing of the Shi'a shrine in Samarra:

It's not a secret who was behind the attack on the shrine and I am sure that who did it were the Salafi/Wahabis whether Iraqi or foreigners and with external support from parties planning to disrupt the political process in Iraq.
The reason I believe it's the Salafis who did it comes from their own ideology which considers all mosques built upon tombs as places of polytheism and infidelity and thus must be destroyed. This also applies to Sunni shrines like Abu Haneefa and al-Gailani; Salafis consider the Shia and the Sufis their worst enemies and they commonly refer to them in their speech with the term "tomb worshippers" or Mushrikoon Quborioon in Arabic.

It's worth reminding that this is not the first time Salafis try to destroy the shrines in Iraq; their armies invaded Iraq back in the 19th century and burned the shrines in Kerbala and Najaf before the Ottoman empire repelled them and stopped them from reaching Baghdad where they were planning to destroy the shrines of al-Kazum, Abu Haneefa and al-Gailani (Shia, Sunni and Sufi respectively).

Followers of other sects would not dare do something like this because they fear the wrath of the imams; our culture has many stories about the supernatural powers possessed by the deceased imams. These stories planted fear in our hearts from even talking badly about them, let alone blowing up their tombs!

This leaves only one faction that justifies and pushes for destroying these tombs and this is the Salafi ideology.
Of course there are some who invest this ideology for political causes and here we come to the second beneficiary who stands behind the first beneficiary who carried out the attack for ideological reasons.

This second beneficiary is the parties who would like to see the new Iraqi state fall apart and who are scared of the idea of a democratic, stable Iraq next door as such a neighbor would transmit the democratic infection to their peoples. This includes more than one neighboring country; one provides logistics and training, the other provides media support while another one endorses the remnants of the Ba'ath regime who lost a lot of their privileges when Saddam was toppled.

Now that we have outlined the identity of the perpetrators depending on motives, interests and ideology we can move on to talk a little about the reactions to the atrocity which has a lot in common with the reactions to the Danish cartoons (I'm comparing the reactions here, not the actions that triggered them). The two reactions are similar in two aspects a) Overreaction and b) Exploiting the atrocity to serve political causes.

As a person who lives in Baghdad I've been following the situation from the early hours after the attack; on Wednesday morning I was on my way to work when I heard the news on the radio and I began watching closely to probe the feelings of the common people. People were at work as they always are, clerks behind their desks, grocers looking after their goods and municipal workers picking trash from the streets and I haven't noticed any unusual feelings among the people I came in contact with. In general life was normal until noon in the Shia majority district of Baghdad and there were absolutely no signs of a crisis of any sort. But on my way home I saw the men in black take to the streets after Ayatollah Sistani issued his fatwa (I wish my Shia brothers bear with me and read to the end).

Ayatollah Sistani issued a fatwa on Wednesday that sounded peaceful and normal from the first look but if you look closer at each word you will find that the "safety valve" became the igniter this time.

Two years ago the shrine of Imam Ali in Najaf was attacked and although this is the holiest shrine for Shia Muslims the incident wasn't met with that much angry reactions instead we heard soothing statements like "these are mere stones and we can rebuild them and make them even better than before".

This time things were different because the political situation is different; the Ayatollah called for nationwide protests (and not to attack Sunni mosques) and a week of mourning. Now let's examine the part that said "do not attack Sunni mosques"…the sentence openly accuses the Sunni of being behind the attack or why would their mosques be mentioned in the first place? ...

However, it seems there are also some positive outcomes from this incident and its aftermath; the first one in my opinion was the performance of the Iraqi army which had a good role in restoring order in many places. Actually the past few days showed that our new army is more competent than we were thinking.
But the latest events have also showed the brittle structure of the interior ministry and its forces that retreated before the march of the angry mobs (if not joined them in some cases) and I think the statements that came from the meetings of our politicians pointed this out so clearly when Sunni politicians said they wanted the army to replace the police and police commandos in their regions and this indicates growing trust between the people and the army.

The other positive side is represented by the line we've seen drawn between clerics and politicians.
In spite of the attempts of clerics to look like as if they were the defenders of national unity with all their meetings, joint prayers and hugs, the political leaderships got a sense of their growing danger and the meeting at Jafari's home (which al-Hakeem didn't attend) showed that the government is keen to keep the country intact and the government systems as functional as possible to contain the crisis. This meeting indicates that politicians have realized that those clerics whether Sunni or Shia are the origin of the problem and are ready to coup on even their political allies which made the politicians more aware of the danger imposed by clerics on the project of building a state ruled by the law.

Clerics will not stop and they will carry on with their plans and I suspect they will launch the next phase of their plan soon after they received instructions from Syria (the Muslim scholars) and from Iran (the Sadrists).
The objective of the second phase will to move the conflict from one on the streets to a conflict with America. ...

Mohammed calls on the Iraqi government to disband the religious militias.

Iran Focus: Terrorist training camps in Iran. In an exclusive report, Iran Focus identifies 20 terrorist training camps inside Iran:

London, Feb. 27 – Iran Focus has obtained a list of 20 terrorist camps and centres run by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

The names and details of the training centres were provided by a defector from the IRGC, who has recently left Iran and now lives in hiding in a neighbouring country. Iran Focus agreed to keep his identity secret for obvious security reasons.

The former IRGC officer said the camps and the training centres were under the control of the IRGC’s elite Qods ["Jerusalem"] Force, the extra-territorial arm of the Revolutionary Guards.

“The Qods Force has an extensive network that uses the facilities of Iranian embassies or cultural and economic missions or a number of religious institutions such as the Islamic Communications and Culture Organisation to recruit radical Islamists in Muslim countries or among the Muslims living in the West. After going through preliminary training and security checks in those countries, the recruits are then sent to Iran via third countries and end up in one of the Qods Force training camps”, the officer said. ..

Full analysis and list at the link.

news
Iraq
Iran

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Considers Rice's $85M Iran Democracy Request

... and I've just called the Foreign Relations Committee's office to express support.

Majority Phone: (202) 224-4651
Minority Phone: (202) 224-3953

You can also contact your senator to show your support. I've just called Senator Smith's and Senatory Wyden's offices; I don't have to look up their numbers 'cuz they're on my speed dial!

Iran

Octavia Butler

Octavia Butler has died, reports fellow SF novelist Steven Barnes. (Hat tip: heyiya.)


This is an awful tragedy. Octavia Butler's passing is a great loss to the world. I enjoyed her ingenious and often chilling stories in "Bloodchild", as well as "Mind of my Mind" and "Parable of the Sower". I really don't know what else to say now; I'm just stunned.

Octavia Butler info page.

Cross-posted to Translinear Light.

Who to Blame

Is it just me, or has there been an uptick in a certain, er, variety of social-conservative thought (and I am using the word "thought" somewhat broadly) that seeks to lay all the blame for America's ills on feminists and gays? Oh, and for those awkward moments when bashing homosexuals isn't socially acceptable, there's always some other group of queers you can pick on.

Listen, I don't mind sitting through all the sexist, homophobic drivel about "feminized society" and "feminized men" and all this crap, but don't expect me to get on the program with you.

Best. Cox & Forkum. EVER.

Here.