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Muslim World: "Americans Are Not Your Enemy"

Therefore, Haroon is not your enemy, either.

Obama struck the right tone in his interview with Al-'Arabiyya, here in two parts (though, admittedly, it would have sent another and stronger message had he selected Al Jazeera.)  He offered to talk to Iran, to listen to what all sides had to say, and to negotiate to end the Israel-Palestine conflict.  Especially the first - talking to Iran - that's so important.  As unsavory as it might seem, we are in no position to dictate to any country in the region, and a long-term deal with Iran, recognizing its power and influence in the region, would help stabilize Iraq and Afghanistan and contribute to better relationships and interactions, regionwide, between and amongst the GCC, the Levant and even, I think, India and Pakistan.

In other news, another Bush administration failure!  His boneheaded and violent policy of asking Ethiopia to invade Somalia, just about two years ago, has ended exactly where it began, except the supposedly Qaeda-affiliated Islamists might be a lot more amenable to such rhetoric after fighting an American proxy army.  And, to top it off, Bush selected Somalia's oldest nemesis to do the job it couldn't and ultimately didn't want to do.  Bush was so bad he fails even after his presidency.  It's like Star Trek: "Watch your futures end."  I mean, sort of.  Isn't this why you read my blog?  Because I can connect George Bush to Somalia and then to First Contact's Borg Queen?

Lastly, the BBC's refusal to air a charity appeal has reached even the Times: "The BBC has rarely been buffeted as severely as it has in recent days over its decision not to broadcast a television appeal by aid agencies."  Goatmilk has a clip of a surprisingly blunt interview with Tony Benn.  Speaking of charity appeals, are you coming to NYU tonight?  6.30pm.  Kimmel Center.  Be there.

CBS' 60 Minutes: Is it the End of the Two-State Solution?

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Haroon Moghul to President Obama

I've just returned from the wonderful, inspiring and now very tiring Third Annual Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow Conference in Doha, Qatar.  My first such Conference, and a fantastic opportunity; I must say, the governments of the region have been inspiring and supporting initiatives that our communities need a lot more of, and should be positively congratulated for having such visions.

But, of course, right now we are about to behold the long-delayed transfer of power.  In that spirit, Tikkun Magazine asked a number of American activists, thinkers and leaders to pen memos to Obama.  In this most recent issue, you can read yours truly, along with Imam Khalid Latif, writing to President Obama, advising him on what we think the American Muslim community most wants from him and his administration.  The issue is available for sale at major booksellers everywhere. 

Other American Muslim writers featured in Tikkun include Shaykh Hamza Yusuf and Prof. Omid Safi.

Ways to Help and Wants to Understand

This website provides a helpful means of finding the right people to contact (works for American, Canadian and British voters) about the ongoing violence in Gaza, while at LRB, Henry Siegman has put together a flowing essay that point by point clarifies the nature of events and positions that have led us to our present crisis.  Definitely one of the better pieces out there.

How to Lose the PR War

Video of Alex Thomson from Channel 4 (London News) interviewing -- with no apologies, forcefully and powerfully -- Israeli spokesman Mark Regev on the matter of starving children in Gaza.  This is part of a broader, disturbing trend of civilian costs and casualties suffered overwhelmingly disproportionately by the besieged population of the Gaza Strip. Why is it that over 800 Palestinians have been killed, but only 130 of these were Hamas fighters?  (On the other side, 13 have been killed, 10 of them soldiers, several apparently in instances of friendly fire.)  Consider those ratios.

In a bit of positive news, Rabbi Michael Lerner of Tikkun Magazine has attached his name to a call for an immediate cease-fire which will run in the New York Times.  I have echoed that call.  All persons of conscience must support an immediate cessation of violence, in order to bring needed aid to the civilians of Gaza and to peacefully negotiate a long-term solution that finds a workable solution acceptable to both peoples.  The use of violence has failed both sides, and has resulted, for Israel especially, in a dramatic, worldwide decline in reputation and standing.

Is that really the outcome the Israeli government would like to conclude with?

Elsewhere:

On January 27th, I will be speaking at a fundraiser for Gazan civilians, co-sponsored by the Islamic Center at N.Y.U., Islamic Relief, etc.  Tickets, sold to raise monies for badly-needed humanitarian aid, will cost $25 per person.  Details will of course follow, along with notice of other events at NYU, Columbia and in the region, including the upcoming IMAN Community Cafe, scheduled for January 31st. 

Landing on Gaza

I wanted to point out two videos that especially caught my attention. Jon Stewart dissects the conflict in a way only he can. The man has more courage than most of our leaders. And more honesty, too. Over at CNN, Rick Sanchez makes a conclusion that seems to blow his mind into changing his mind. Watch the latter for a really rare occurrence, a reporter reporting.

End the conflict now, and end all attacks on civilians.

There Are Other Israels

It is an obvious reality that there are many other Israeli perspectives than the radical one espoused by and too often uncritically reflected by a neo-con and major-media refusal to consider anything but absolute good versus absolute evil, a Bush-like world of simple-minded and naive belief in war and the purifying, cleansing, moral character of asymmetric and disproportionate destruction as the road to (as they claim) "freedom" (for who, we know.)  But most Americans never hear about these other voices.

Firedoglake reports on increasing criticism of the Israeli right-wing narrative within the blogosphere, as much a result of the horror of the last few days as a result of progressive and critical Jewish and Israeli voices, from J-Street to Tom Segev to Joe Klein.  It is so important we note and appreciate such fair-minded and far-sighted thinking, and grow such institutions as can communicate similarly positive, humane, decent, democratic and respectful visions in our communities.  It is the narrative of this conflict that needs to be intelligently challenged before the dim possibility of peaceful change fades.

Pakistan, Bollywood, Mumbai, Nationalism, Gay Marriage, Muslims

"It seems quite certain that the terrorists who attacked the financial capital were trained in Pakistan. The outrages have sparked a wave of indignation among the middle class. Demonstrations have been held in the major cities, calling for revenge, in particular for strikes against training camps in Pakistan. The models held up here are Israel and the United States; if they can "take out" individual terrorists and invade whole countries, ask some Indians, why not we?" [link]

Militants blasted their way into two transport terminals in Pakistan on Sunday and torched more than 160 vehicles destined for U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan, in the biggest assault yet on a vital military supply line, officials said.  Terminal manager Kifayatullah Khan said armed men flattened the gate before dawn with a rocket-propelled grenade, shot dead a guard and set fire to a total of 106 vehicles, including about 70 Humvees.  [link]

Just three years ago, the central government still controlled the provinces near Kabul. But years of mismanagement, rampant criminality, and mounting civilian casualties have led to a spectacular resurgence of the Taliban and other related groups. Today, the Islamic Emirate enjoys de facto control in large parts of the country's south and east. According to ACBAR, an umbrella organization representing more than 100 aid agencies, insurgent attacks have increased by 50% over the past year. Foreign soldiers are now dying at a higher rate here than in Iraq.  [link, adding: The Taliban have changed: "Last year, for instance, Mullah Omar issued an edict declaring music and parties -- banned in the Taliban's previous incarnation -- permissible."]

On Naming Before Ending: Reflections on Mumbai

First off, as I must say, this was disgusting.  No question.  But closely following and importantly, how did it happen, and just as much, how were we told it happened?  The latter concerns me.

I found out about the attacks while waiting in Columbia's student center, hearing that the violence seemed sporadic, random and terrible, in all senses of the term.  By the time I got to a television, which was due to travel not till the next day, it was already India's 9/11.  Really?  It was 26/11, but that's about that.  There's no way what happened happened without local collaboration, never mind the very real possibility that the attackers were themselves Indians who, even if trained in militant camps outside the country, were in part shaped by an unfortunate climate of fear, violence, deprivation and depression amongst their 130-million plus community -- which, historically, should be understood as a reason in part for the Pakistan movement, the economic and political liberation of a huge and hugely deprived minority -- sitting at the bottom of the over-populated Indian barrel.  Hurt, then radicalized, turned inane and insane.  9/11 was an attack on America from outside America; American Muslims are not the bottom tier of American society, and certainly do not exist in a situation comparable to untouchables -- we were not often described as the fifth column before 9/11, either.  So it is amusing that the American media, which is always careful never to break a sweat thinking, dreaming or researching, found itself on the side of the Indian State within a matter of hours.  Not India's people, but the wider and broader purposes of the State, which are usually articulated incompletely.

Before the attackers were even gunned down or captured, the Indian government had leaked that they were Pakistanis.  How, pray tell, did they know?  Do the have databases of all Pakistani citizens?  Can they still be fighting off an attack and already know where it came from and who was involved in it?The numbers involved fluctuates, but the origins are certain.  While it is extremely doubtful, to the point of conspiracy-theory-mindedness, that the attackers were anything but Muslim, at least in self-identification, consider the way the media buys into narratives.  Pakistan's ISI has rogue elements, and finances terrorist attacks, but India's RAW cannot, because India is a democracy.  News flash: Democracies attack each other (who overthrew Mossadegh?), and other types of states.  Democracies can also finance violence and encourage human rights violations.  The continued laziness that runs through our public discourse, refusing to define what is "terrorism" -- this certainly was -- and what isn't -- Gujurat, maybe?  On NBC news, they called it the most brazen attack on India short of war.  Certainly 200 dead is a tragedy, a massacre, an outrage, and deserves condemnation as such.  But what about when armed gangs storm through Muslim villages, raping and killing hundreds, or when Christians are killed and their churches burned in Orissa -- why is it that those are not attacks on India, but attacks in India?  It makes sense for the State to blame the foreign, to draw attention away from its own failings -- just as official discourse in the Arab world focuses nauseatingly and endlessly on Israel -- to draw attention away from their own failings.

It is amazing how much difference one word makes, and how little difference our media makes, except in calcifying narratives that already exist, and encouraging unthought.  Terrorism is too often, and disturbingly, defined not only by who kills, and for what "reasons," but just as much if not more so by who is killed.  The "how" -- protests of the MSM aside -- is rarely nearly as important.  Explosions are explosions.  But who's exploding, and who's exploded?  We need to condemn, but we need to ask questions, too.

May God give peace to those who were killed, and serenity to those who gave their lives, health or wealth to help others under fire, and may He bring peace and calm and security to India, and may He stop all those who seek to harm.  May He grant us the wisdom to fight the ideas and beliefs that lead to such violence, and may He help us to never become content in our understanding of the world, but always eager to hear from the other, and better understand, rather than turn away in anger.

Muslim Americans For Obama: That Feeling of Hope and Disappointment

For many American Muslims, the excitement over Barack Obama’s candidacy and election was muted by a sense of being marginalized politically:  The New York Times today features a story and video hosted by the Islamic Center at New York University, our second appearance in their mediasphere in recent weeks.  (The header pic is from the musalla we now inhabit at 371 6th Avenue; join us for prayers, events and more: Our website can get you quickly on our mailing list and part of a community of hundreds of dedicated Muslims from all sorts of ethnic, professional and cultural backgrounds.)