Are spies civilians?

Since when is any person, female or male, who works for a spying outfit to be regarded by 'the right thinking public' as a civilian?

pull the other one.

split personality

When protesting at US embassies over their continuing atrocities across the world, how do angry natives distinguish themselves from those in the visa queue?

Postcolonial Copenhagen

Where do we start? These big meetings are ways to see global politics unfold.

Neoliberal capitalism took a bite out of the Ethiopian leader's 'legitimacy' and authority to voice the climate vulnerable people's cause. A lot of decoloniser leaders flopped in the end. pfft!

G77 (developing countries) faced difficulties being heard and being taken seriously. The walkout was ridiculed by the white press. I think they should have been more forceful, theatrical and employed novel tactics. A crap agreement is worse than no aggrement.

Much of the stuff was manipulated to avoid addressing 'difficult' developing nation demands. Like ' 2 degrees rise means more than 3 degrees in Africa, that will totally screw us up'.

Obama showed how captive he is to his bog oil owned senate. He doesn't have any post colonial testicles or ovaries. US unilateral bribery and extortion play was again very visible. Is obama just an oil poodle?

The UK didn't say anything against the US interest and did the 'mediator-diplomacy' thing.

UK Energy and Climate Minister showed his true colours in his blamestorm of the Climate awkward squad, demanding reform of the UN body to avoid such inconvenience in future.

China turned things interestingly, by bringing carbon intensity (CO2 emissions divided by GDP unit) into play, because we cant all be post industrially guilt tripped into buying all western 'low carbon development technologies'. China also asserted her sovereignty by being irked at being 'monitored'.

Bangladesh Finance minister put the cat amongst the pigeons by saying that the polluting countries could open their borders to climate refugees, while the Environment minister demanded 15% of any Adaptation Fund on a per capita logic.

George Monbiot was made to look rather silly by London's Mayor Boris Johnson
' I'm sorry but I cant hate the rich in the same way you do. A zero-carbon Porshe causes you fundamental ideological problems doesnt it?'

Radiohead's Thom Yorke, 'climate roadie' really didnt make much sense.

One of the serious climate protested was arrested by the coppers, before his group's plan to mix things up a little could successfully deploy.

Banksy was inspired by events to do some grafitti.


erm... more later.... possibly, but for now here's a new word.

Climate Septic
Someone who simply doesnt care about this earth and the people living on it, and spends their efforts oozing bile at scientists over politicians; error bars over observation; and anthropogenicity over environmental justice. I hope i am not a Climate Septic.

oh. decent Naomi Klien reflects on it here.

Hit Egypt in its Touristic testicles

Joining forces with the US imperialists to build deep foundationed wall to seal the citizens of Gaza in their prison?

Bastards.

• Don't visit that country (unless its for family).
• Discourage people from visiting that phaoronic place.
• Divest.
• Deface all Egyptian Tourist propaganda in a distinguishable manner.
• Point people towards deep exploration of Turkey.

[New Game] Cowboys and Iranians

Remember that game where the annihilation of the Native American civilisations is celebrated through child's play?

Well this better game is set to superscede its imperial bastard stepmother. Valuing courage, creativity and exercise, and more essentially, promoting a sense of agency when the powers are stacked up against you, this game is a game for justice.

Rather than genocide, zionism and colonisation, it celebrates giving the bully a wedgy, challenging the technological hegemony and paternity of the nuclear tipped west.

Bringin these narratives and values into everyday practice is important for developing life skills. We must inscribe the ummahtic situation and potential into our very flesh.

Try it out on the sprogs nearby. Consider it an Eid Present from me.

UEA Climate Change email issue

The unfolding the the Hacked Tyndall Center Email Revelations story has been interesting, this mini post is mainly to remind myself to write about it.

• Fishy timing, with tories seemingly cool on the issue with election year in the UK approaching, and the very hyped Copenhagen negotiations imminent.
  
• Why is it such a surprise that science is actually socially and politically produced?
• Is this really such a big deal? simply scientist banter?
• Is this like the ball tampering issue from cricket? standard practice but a good few get their knickers in a knot over it.
  
• How much is the 'media' responsible for bad communication on this issue?
  
• Incredible that climate denial had joined the ranks of genocide denial and holocaust denial isnt it?
• What part has the isolation of human and physical disciplines played in this mess up? fake interdisciplinarity doesn't count.
• What part has governmental technocracy played in cynicising the public towards decarbonisation?
• Climate Change is a discourse of power, its terms are contested from the academy to the parliament. This must be unpicked and refreshed because it has repressed certain trajectories of knowing. (cf. research funding streams) and perhaps entrenched soulless intellectual activity.
  
• There is too much bandwagonning and therefore waste of precious scientific capital in this area, this isnt just about climate change field but any contemporary science policy perogative.
  

Its time for political ecology to hit the Public Sphere, please.

Thankyou George Monbiot, thankyou Nigel Lawson

oo, and big ummah love to all the hajis out there!

An Iqbalian Vision for a New World

Here's a bit of Javidnama.


There is a world stil lost in our hearts,
A world that still waits for the call or 'Rise!'
A world without distinctions of blood and colour,
Where evening shines brighter
Than morning in the West;
A world purged of sultan and slave,
Boundless as a beleiver's heart;
A glorious world, which had its seed cast,
Into 'Umar's soul by a single look;
An eternal world, but one whose events are always new,
Ever new fruit of its master principles;
Within, it is not afflicted with change,
But outward change is occurring every moment.
See, that world is inside you!
I will tell you what its master principles are...

(Trans. Mustansir Mir)

[New word] EcoNaivety

Probably a temporary state, but i feel that certain publics are being rendered thus by the lifeless technocracy that has set in following neoliberal appropriation of environmental values specifically in the mitigation of human induced Climate Change.


Can you hear it?

Mrs Jones please turn of the light to save the environment (money), I shall just build a coal power station over your mothers grave, ok?

New parking charges are now in place in the university, we are letting a private company run the operation because we care about the environment.

Look at me, I'm an environmental consultancy sucking off the teat of local government funding streams, would you like a keyring.

I am an ecocrapitalist. I have decided to crade imaginary carbon in order to exploit the current policy space for every last grain of hope it might have left.


I can always hear it.

Maybe it was the Stern Report, maybe its just us, maybe its just the trappings of our times and powerlessness.

EcoNaivety is stuck in linearity and must get out. It builds a wall of carbon kajoosity around potentially creative relationships with each other. Dont get me wrong, accountancy has its place. Along with Family, Islah, Ummah and Baraka.

I suppose this was what we were getting at all those years ago with the banner
'Let's not let our postindustrial guilt suffocate our wanderlust'

Instead of regarding humankind as a permenant blight upon the face of the earth, we might conceive of ourselves as a potentially custodial, sympathetic constellation of forces. This is not a new revelation.

Why are you taking it out on BROWN, it was you son's choice and the evil Bliar's leadership wot got him killed.

These days the British public are being force fed armed forces pride and trained against thought crimes. Every billboard tries to explain the virtues of wearing a poppy with a backdrop of

The most wise and courageous thing to do would be to withdraw the limp phallus of british state terror from the middle east and central asian areas. Its made things worse. You can't polish a turd, even when its made with the congealed blood of tens of thousands of Asians and a few hundred white people.

The Prime Minister writes a letter to the mother of a soldier killed recently. What does she go and do?.... scream straight to the tabloids over his spelling. Meanwhile the tabloids get their kicks out of playing up the Prime Minister's sight problems. What grace and class.

Blue washed right, left and center.

Pathetic really.

Get them out .
Bring them home.
Stop thinking that you are the solution, you're not.

Al Muhajirun Spinoff vs British Muslims for Secular Democracy Deathmatch this saturday

Deep inside the sellout ghetto.

"Yaar, what shall we do yaar? that unwashed anjem choudhury and droogs are trying to bring the Sharia to Britain by textspeak, look..."

cum 2 hour demo islam4u: Shariah in the UK of A. send ths txt to all your brothers and sisters in islam
please please pretty please x x x x x

"Whats new yaar? save for the appeal to the 12 year old stupid girl sector?"

"I'll tell you whats new, now that the BNP got chastised by the british middleocracy, its up to us, as spokespeople for the Mourgoisie, to reciprocate to increase our visibility"

"Yes i was looking to acquire some new stationary the other day, So what shall we do? I wanted to go shopping that day"

"I don't know yaar, but you know what I do whenever I dont know what to do?"

"Ah yes, imagine like we imagine a white person imagines"

"Easy, theres a website for this"

2 hourse later.

"So that was how you came up with our Acronym?"

"Yes yaar, would you like a beer?"

"So how comes all the white liberals i talk to laugh us off as if we are some sex toy vendor?"

PHONE RINGS

"So the quilliam chaps are on the line, some sleazy sounding fella. They'd want in on this, actually I bet they'll actually end up with the credit, press coverage because we are such fat losers boohoohoo."

10 hours later

"Wait a second MajEd, I hear you but fail to see how all this soas medieval BS is really going to play with middle england, I mean its ok for you, we actually have to make sense. No you cant use that in your thesis."

"Another long one ey?"

PHONE RINGS

"Its Peter Tatchell"

Awami Monkeys ban HT

The Bangladesh Awami League are the most idiotic excuse for a political party and a crying shame on the face of their captive Bangladeshis. They should be finally, and permanently, discredited, and abandoned.

Why the angst?

Well they have just banned Hizbut Tahrir. Why?

For campus-centric non-violent, non-criminal political activity.

To be a political actor worthy of a future in Bangladesh you must sign up to some bastardised political mythology, kill people, beg from foreigners, promote your minions wherever they might be, lie about your history and have a rather poor crude aesthetic.

I think the secularist problem was that as soon as a few people with a little status and education from the west, who had thought for a while about political Islam came to the country without political baggage, their house of cards fell down. It should be interpreted as a shot in the arm for nonsecular political forces.

You see its mainly the children of the 71ers who get into HTism. Their political heritages have been bloodwashed.

We are not waving, we're drowning.

A sad scenario for you tonight, I heard two tales of great similitude.

Imagine.

A British Council in Bangladesh which seeks to exploit perceptions of education to earn money by promoting bad education in the UK.

Brave, even foolhardy young people in Bangladesh who see the UK education option favourably to others, and write off warnings as 'jealousy'.

Thousands of 'kids' from desh in the UK this year who are unemployed and cannot afford to continue or return home.

Some of whom have died.

:-(

Just build the blumin road you slow coaches!

I just read a NewAge story about an ADB study over the costs and benefits of Bangladesh joining the Asian Highway. Here are some incomplete thoughts.

As if a linearly imprisoned, deterministic and economistic donor-driven study will ever do anything for national mojo? The BNP government sat on this and wasted it. The Awami league are going around with a begging bowl.

Lets talk about the 'wealthy and middle class bangladeshis' who stand to immediately and tangiably gain most from this.

Our national birthing occured in two steps, each one more parochialising and provincialising than the previous one. Appeals to Muslim and Bengal identity weren't really culturally productive, but political postures. Yet today with immigration, colonised curriculums and remittance, the Deshi wanna-bourgioise is better connecting to serving the technocratic interests of Anglosaxonia and the least interesting bits of Arabistan. It is also trapped by the Indian nation state and cowers to it on some important issues. Lets add some other countries to the mix. Let us have some partners.

Making it easy to reach other places by road would allow roots to grow into asia and broaden the outlook of this class of people. Perhaps.

The Real Iranian Question

Why has not Iran souped up its oil refining capacity in the many years that it has had to do so?

Given so many years of sanctions, the imbalance between overseas mojo projection and internal custodianship of key internal challenges is more stark than ever. It seems very irresponsible from my armchair. Semi-autonomous technological development in the majority world is difficult at the best of times, you need long term political support, financial allies and technical expertise. Will, skill and the ability to foot the bill. Yet look at the technological direction.

Though of course, I don't know even have a smidgeon of the full picture in front of me. Perhaps its easier to make longish range surface to surface missiles of questionable accuracy than the surface to air variety that might have protected Iraq and Afghanistan. Perhaps pre-existing sanctions, and nefarious skullduggery that has complemented them, have indeed thwarted Iranian refinery making attempts.

But come on guys. WILL. Who battled so hard against drugs coming in through Afghanistan for so long? Who united Islamic and Leftist Mojo? albeit so breifly. Who has resisted the economic patsy urge to sell out for so long?

There is another question that I have. Are the US and EU still powerful enough to bribe, convince and scare the rest of the world, the majority world, to make Iran suffer for the security of Israel?

Flashmob Iftaris erupting throughout the land this week

Wherever you are, share your iftar.

HERE is the website.

7 so far.

Not counting the others who have run with the idea as part of their own activities.

Neat. Fraternal. Good natured. Tawhesive

Neoliberalisation of Muslim reproduction

I pray for you
a fug smugly inclined
I'm feeling your juggling's
been stealing our time

Neoliberalised reproduction
of culture and race
May our Maker award us
good fortune and grace.

PVE has nothing
on this mad distraction,
from challenging falsehood
with revolutionary action

Litter the ummah
with exes declined
and see our new culture
run jilted and blind

bit on desh

Bangladesh has unfortunately been made a fool of this past week. Not sure why the western press has focussed on this week in particular though, and on certain kinds of foolishness. A Biman flight to London was delayed 10 hours for blocked toilets and national newspapers couldnt twig that the Onion was spoof news.

Meanwhile negotiations continue with the Global Climate Change nexus over the New Copenhagen Concensus and with India over Tipaimukh.

Stop moaning about a lack of power, just dont dress like europeans.
In news that was intepreted aboard as 'green', the prime minister of bangladesh orders government employees to not wear suits in summer and reduce aircon use. Nevermind the chronic inability to generate electricity.

Ex-FM killed in car accident
[Breaking News] The former Bangladesh Finance Minister Saifur Rahman is killed in a car accident on the Sylhet-Dhaka Highway. Innalillah... He had delivered 12 Annual Development Plans in his time, thats a big loss of national experience and a blow to the opposition to the BNP. Any fishiness and foul play aside, this, yet again, brings up questions of road safety in Bangladesh. Improving social discipline in Bangladesh is a very hard thing. Somebody please.

The World Bank don't know P1Gsh1t
‘Climate change is likely to deal severe blows to Bangladesh’s agriculture. We don’t know yet exactly what will be adverse effects, especially on livelihoods,’ said Khawaja M Minnatullah, a climate change expert at the World Bank Dhaka office. [NewAge 5th Sept]

HT Bangladesh get arrested commemorating the Battle of Badr
I do find the HT experience in Bangladesh interesting, even more so now that the Awami League have been promoted into incompetance (again) by the voters. Check the text of the report and its very revealing of the press-power nexus. Gone is the Z to J substitution, Tahrir, which means liberation, is not translated as such, and the issue about which they were raising awareness was secularly, or perhaps ignorantly, ommitted. Just 'Badar Day'.

The Battle of Badr is an important part of early Islamic History. nuff said really.

Towards Understanding the Tipaimukh Affair

So the Water Resources Minister of Bangladesh is a bit of a plonker. Plonker is a charitable description, because the other interpretation leads to a very dark place. He goes to India, declares that the Tipaimukh Dam is not a big issue to Bangladesh, and when questioned at to whether he visited the site, comes up with something along the lines of 'The weather was bad, couldnt get their in the helicopter'.

Clearly he cares very little for the 15 to 20% of the country's rice production that unfolds in Sylhet District. He has a BCom from Carmichael College in Rangpur, and is a businessman. If he doesn't understand water, you'd think he'd get by on brutal economistic logic. What is that they say about mutual self interest and rationality?

During periods like this, one wishes that Abdur Razzaq hadnt been shunted out of the Awami League's trusted circle. He had been water minister in the previous AL regime and pushed through a lot of Participatory Guidlines, a National Water Management Plan (Hello Halcrow and have-a-go- NGOs ) and a little destruction of Bangladeshi scientific capacity (Thankyou World Bank water sector Improvement). I mean, at the very least he'd have come up with a more convincing excuse.

Improving the living environment of Bangladesh is a very tricky task. Firstly there is a large 'ordinary' variability of the monsoon, then there is the Bangladeshi human impact, and the upstream modulations to rivers from India et al. On top of this another mysterious layer of climate impacts. The matter of Tipaimukh concerns upstream modulation, as Bangladesh constitutes a small areal proportion of the river basins that drain through its delta This is a Big Matter.

If any people needed to listen, adapt, assert, create and know the environment... I think it should be us. Yet you can see what political weight we give to the water sector by the quality of the present minister. Our previous battle to stop the Farrakha Barrage failed, and we see the devastating effects that barrage has had on the south east area of bangladesh. Some say that Farrakha was lost because Engineer Abbas and co were caught in a 'gratitude bind' with India. You see they had just liberated us and its hard to negotiate in that kind of action scenario.

Its funny how some within Bangladesh ask the question of 'prove to us that Tipaimukh is harmful'. I point you too whats happening on the Tista right now, and to the post-Farrakha impact. The Bangladesh Environment Network have issued this, if you are interested.

To ponder about:

• There are two impressive people in the Awami leage government, one with a calculating mind (finance minister, who is also from Sylhet) and another with courage (agriculture minister). Can they pull off some political moves?
• Can we get through to our indian neighbours of good will and express why this is the wrong this for their government to do.
• How can we improve the living environment of Bangladesh?
• Do we appreciate the natural systems in place, is this an Anti-Indian Mask issue?
• Can we ensure that the water resources sector gets a Minister capable of comprehending it and disciplining it?

I will write more about this matter as I learn more about its unfolding.

Dutch University fires Muslim Scholar for hosting sho on PressTV

I just got this news.

I can imagine how it came to this. Press TV is very interesting, but comes under fire for not being white enough, namby pamby enough nor subservient to western commercial academic interest.

Oh, and its not exactly separate from Iran's Government. What I like is that it doesnt apologise for having unairbrushed assumptions. Its got a future i beleive.

This is why liberal jihadpornographers are hating on a simple alternative TV channel. Its their loss i guess. Prof Ramadan has plenty bigger fishing to do.

The Ganj is Green, Long live the Ganj!

What better way to nip nascent ummahtic mojo in the bud than to fund all sorts of anti-intellectual, de-politicizing civil society shizzle with flirty funds designed to formalise the informal and pour concrete over the fluid?

Constellationary Muslims embedded in London’s patchwork must think about the social architecture they are building every time they invest themselves in collective works. With PVE (Preventing Violent Extremism), ethno green wash, intercultural mosaic building, bismillah financing, charity quacking and social inclusion technospeak intervening from outside, it is easy to be sucked into the charade, mime islah (reform), feel good and bleed on.

Not that our internal reproductive pistons are tuned well at present. The social structures we inherit at political, sectarian and subcultural levels need to adjust to easy recognition, communication and creolisation. Yet the stage has not been cleared. On it reside some pretty established acts: failed yet flaying political parties from the decolonising world, sectarian willy waving, imamadolatry and subcultural in-breeding chafe and blister the joints.

If you want to hear just how badly tuned the Locomotive Ummah is, push the ‘insulting publication’ button, or the Eid one. Bring up and question that places real demand on the collective social intellect. Would you like a practical example? Perhaps you’d like to witness a badly staged election production featuring: the window dressing required for the charity commission, a scandalously sheepish audience with the angel of death playing Hope?

I’m just saying this because it is important to recognise certain qualities correctly and cast a critical eye upon those things to which we award respect. This is our social DNA. When labels are misrecognised, joint movement and action become impossible. We are not independent wiberal atoms.

[New Word] Flood clot

Cumulative Trouble caused by hydraulic block to the flow of water, sediment and aquatic life. Usually by unwise dam, barrage and bridge.

Narmada, Cauvery, Ambika, Farrakha now.... Tipaimukh?

[New Word] Tradiot

You know sometimes we stick to views in the mistaken belief that they are essential to a) who we are, b) entry to heaven and c) traditional continuity.

Well that is traditional idiocy, the characteristic of the Tradiot. You are a Tradiot if you nurture ignorance and malprotection with your safety blanket approach to life.

examples abound. why not list them.

The Yes Men fix the world

I watched The Yes Men fix the world and was quite motivated and in awe of the high of the righteous tomfoolery on display. The Yes Men are a couple of theatrical activists who demonstrate the depravity of corporate logic, shareholder irresponsibility and government abandonment in today's world. They remind me of Ralph Nader, Tehelka, Arundhati Roy and all things nice.

This particular film resembles a necklace of their recent performances. My favourite was where they wrote a special edition of The New York Times, set six months in the future, imagining what could be. They got a good response from the people in general, though not the folks who's armchairs they threaten. People still have hopes.

No policy wonk babble, civil society pretention or political idolotry. Thank goodness.

Another humanising and serious consideration that marks this out amongst the rest is their ability to follow-up. One powerful establishment swipe at their antics was that they gave false hope.

Whether their causes were the communities affected by the Union Carbide gas leak in Bhopal or Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, The Yes Men made themselves open to direct criticism from them, but got praise. Not the subaltern smile that makes us sick, it smelt distictly like political solidarity to me.

This film made me laugh, and gave me spirit fuel, but towards the end i had a look around me to find only 9 people in the theatre. I should be used to it by now, but that really sucked. I wish more people would benefit from this and strongly encourage you to see it while its on in London.

Its an eloquent way of helping someone understand the damage wrought by Milton Freedman, his horsemen and disaster capitalism.

[New Word] Jihadporn

Misplaced, myopic and unbrotherly bandwagoning onto foreign violent struggles. In search of mojo, some can launch themselves into Ummahtic cloud cuckooland and neglect the Tawhesive Imperetive. There are many ways to embody and fly the Ummahtic Flag of Love.

[New Word] Sushilism

The ngoisation of political life and advancement in South Asia, by: yaar, millenium development goal and rights-based approach.

'Suchil Samaj' is a translation of the term 'civil society' in Bangladeshi developmentese. It is rather naff, distracting and a 'useful' fiction for some, to say the least. Yet without actual air, there will always be a vacuum.

Let's have some air.

Lumley 'Daughter of Nepal' and the Illegal Attacks continue

So the British state propaganda engine report that Joanna Lumley, an actress who took up the cause of Gurkha Benefits was mobbed by well wishers in Kathmandu and lauded by that country's rulers. Her father was a Gurkha regiment officer (used to order them around).

From a British War machine point of view it is understandable, a generation of loyal native informants and proxy forces. Because we are fair and true to our word, we have institutional integrity and value this kind of valour.

And of course the Tories succeeded in making the Government look silly, ungrateful for yet-another-colonial-legacy and weak.

• But I thought something rather Maoist happened in Nepal?
• Since when was it cool to serve in a colonial force and constitute that subaltern smile?
• Does anybody else find something deeply wrong in this scenario?

I wonder if there are any Franz Fanon's amongst the group we are being trained to call Gurkha veterans.

Maybe its just part of the 'respect our boys' campaign thats running throughout the country. We must support our boys in the manner frames by British militarism, even though we know they aren't accomplishing anything, are winning us new enemies and are supressing the Afghani sociopolitical negotiation.

A better policy would to recognise that the UKs marginal political economic importance necessitates a no meddling policy in other countries. That the poison previous ruling elites injected into the world out their is best repented by vacating the space. That offensive/subversive departments in government should be down scale and machismo redirected to alternative energy and sustainable living instead.

[New Word] Think-bike

A thought arena thats altogether more genuine and democratic.
Where human effort and reflection unfolds and co-evolves between at least two people (tandem).
Think-bikes glide around the streets without big claims.
They are the sum and more of all the flaneurs out there.

which brings me onto:

The Think-bike Jam

Bangladesh Parliament directs madrassas to play personality cult

Feeling a little desh centric tonight. This is a corker.

Action advised for madrassahs not hanging PM, Mujib portraits
United News of Bangladesh . Dhaka

A parliamentary body asked the Madrassah Education Board chairman to identify and take action against the madrassahs refraining from performing national anthem, hoisting the national flag and hanging portraits of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
The parliamentary standing committee on government assurances in its 3rd meeting at Sangsad Bhaban Sunday issued the directive for action against the Islamic educational institutions not complying with the new government’s executive order approved by the cabinet.
Committee president M Fazle Rabbi Miah presided over the meeting.
The meeting also reviewed the implementation of the assurances given during the 7th and 8th parliaments and the 1st session of the 9th parliament on different issues under the ministries of education, environment and forest, and power, energy and mineral resources

It is really odd that some people in authority figure it important to hang pictures of human beings in Islamic institutions. Theres something about ex colonial nationalism's foci on personality cults, narcissistic national ritual and rather naff norms that's frankly quite insidious.

We do not even represent Our Prophet's image in mosques. As if contemporary Islamic education didn't have enough failings, holes and challenges already.

I pray for a sweet nuronic rain to: clean the air, trap the dust and uloominate.

Loughton, Dresden and Urumqi

Bad news at the local, european and global scales.

What is it about a certain kind of homo essexien that causes them such nafrat against other people. In places where the millet is sparse there are specific problems. Qualitatively different from spaces in which that is not the case. Head scratchy.

The german pencil pushers debate, 'is it technically because she was muslim?' The technocrappers. As her husband rushed to save her in that court room, all the security could do was shoot to him. She was stabbed 18 times and died. That's truth to power. Heart of green birds near to His throne one prays.

And the Chinese Han(gst) in the south west of that immense country. The state trying to prevent juma? How Blearsy.

Duas and improvement.

Brotherhood is not about endless indignant rallies, nor unflinching separatistic solidarity. We know the ways and create the ways. Its more than sabr. Don't depend on mojoless organisation and nation states. Realise that there is a problem of nafrat... here, there and everywhere...

Why do Asian immigrants so happily compete to join the bourgeoisie?

Was it something they put in your milk

Or something that entered your mind

that the only way forward

was to catch up from behind?

Why did the ACA,

enter the fray

When did his feet become clay?

today?

Accumulation of white symbolic power

Appears to be the need of the hour

Islah will have to wait for later

All hail the socioeconomic escalator.

Let's wax lyrical about how 'our kids are failing',

To the standards of Banksterism, Englishness, Key Staging.

Colonial patsy, dagger to the head,

Mishapen creation, so clearly we're dead

Tipaimukh Table tennis

Nobody in desh would like the Tipaimukh dam to be built, diverting precious water from sylhet and other districts downstream. The Indian Nation State has unilaterally built an awful lot of dams on transboundary rivers and routinely dishonours water agreements with Bangladesh. Not only do they withdraw excessively in the dry season, they release water in the monsoon season without warning. Its impacts are mean, destructive and disruptive.

The recently castrated and rather dazed opposition would to well to add its mojo in an alignment with the national interest in a conciliatory way vis-a-vis the Awami League to amplify the national mojo. You see, the Indian High Commissioner has dismissed the concerns of our water engineers and environmentalists (united on this point for once) as 'politically motivated'.

Fork you Pinak Ranjan, you and your symbolic violence can go evaporate.

Such a cooperative stance is tough though. Of course bnp mps read blogs and will follow my advice. Within the current political architecture its almost inconceivable that anything fruitful can be expected.

Janazatul Ghayb or not?

Its funny how questions are raised sometimes, above others which are far more aching.
Maybe a great socio-spiritual scholar makes an address to a special gathering, and their questions concern ritual cleanliness or some minor mechanics of ritual prayer. There are so many signs in a question.

What is it that you want to know about this situation?

Did he bear witness or not?

As the brit millet continues on its undignified track, we and I, wonder if a great singer of our times was Muslim when he left this world.

So much of our perceived dignity is contained in the answer to this question, wrongly so. I have seen you tube nasheed videos proporting to contain his voice to clumsy slideshow backgrounds construced by folks who sincerely beleive they are carrying the Prophets message to the people.

For the love of Him alone, will you 'daees' please cease?

Its not pleasant to put words into a dead man's mouth, not when its an individual and not when it's many individuals who have suffered death in the context of a favourite interpretation of a political struggle.

iKhatna

you know i'm talking to you so i'll cut to the chase.

Is their any stone you'll leave unturned

any cultural hook to leave unburned?

its like you're born to nafficate

there's another word that rhymes with 'tate'

thats what this is, i wish you'd stop

get better jobs, blow out the snot.

i've had it up to here with this,

can you not hear the whole world hiss?

puppeteered leaders, amateur thinkers,

row upon row just wearing blinkers,

is this really how you spend your bucks?

Forgive me, I thought you gave a ____.

[Defined] The Muslim Situationist

You know how it is, one day you are an activist, then you find yourself in an Egyptian jail being offered the opportunity to sellout. After a period of isolation you land yourself a great deal of british government attention and funding to publicly recant your views as vice-director of some dodgy foundation.

That's a particularly smelly example, but the essential point is that, its not right. Its the situation, its non-transferable experiences.

Attitude defining/changing stimuli and events can include: personal loss, money, the spurning of old friends, and attention from powerful sources.

Its hard to mitigate the harm of the Muslim Situationist. To mitigate the creation of such individuals and adapt to their present existence is a priority.

[New Word] Professionationalism

The tribal imprint of work that can lend its wearer a false sense of significance. e.g Professional's networking event.

Tehranistani Thunderstorms

Its hard to know how iran's latest temporary leadership change process will unfold.

• Opposition contesting the validity of the polls.
• Campus deaths, and the modern university as a bastion of political mojo.
• State muffling of news.
• Overbearing use of state security force, which at time restrains, at others molests.
• Social schisms becoming more apparent between ganj folks and townie yaars.
• Clear foreign backing for the pro-western narrative.
• Clear local desire for change.
• Copycatting of US election sloganeering.
• Substantial, under-reported local support for the incumbent.
• Outside ummahtic conservatives over-valuing the status quo and the whole 'sticking two fingers up at the west', over basic internal justice.
• Ummatic over-emphasis on the symbolic importance of Iran.
• Hundreds of thousands demonstrating physically, amplifying, forcing powerful hands.
• Other national yaars wetting themselves over the use of web 2.0.
• A distinct rupture of a political phase that has lasted a generation.
• Common use of raw betrayal and treachery accusations.
• The risk of political over-compensation evaporating real and struggled-for gains

Sorry, must stop analysing every political orchestration through the lens of Bangladesh.

This is my nonsecular political dua (prayer)

Oh Allah, assist the sisters and brother in Iran in their struggle for truth and life
Protect them from the plots of eachother, and foreigners
Prevent the reckless from wrecking things
Promote just, creative resolution, whatever that may be
because you know best, I dont really have a clue.

The Muslim Situationist

i may venture a meaning soon.

New Word - Salafree

To describe spaces of live possibilities, where the future is conceived.

Examples include: 

'This event/family/organisation is Salafree.'

'This book was conceived and written in a Salafree environment.'

and of course,

'This show was filmed in front of a live Salafree audience.'

Khatibs from another dimension

This blog is dedicated to all the crap khatibs out there in the Ummah, this one's for you, in a vain hope that you annihilate yourselves, or at least take a step off the minbar and find a good track of learning. 

I am able to discern exactly how crap you are and spot your socially spasticating impacts because I have tasted and imagined the other end of the spectrum. Many  havent, and you are retarding our advancement. Allah probably created you, as he created mosquitoes, HT, Israel and smelly people, as anti-examples, to give the truly awesome some context and struggle.

The millet should create new spaces and minbars with its intellect, dosh and will. Decision-making cabals should imagine what the future looks like and parents should invest in elocution lessons.

Also, stupid stupid professionals should create their own Jumma khanas in the city and not hog those of other communities, they are retarding.

so hear we go,

You are such a crappy khatib,

I want to eat my face,

Every time i must endure you,

Have you not heard of grace?

I'm not an alcopaki,

From the jamat aloof,

I know you'll feel the same some day,

and believe I have much proof.

Infantalising smug faced bums,

Aren't for the minbar destined,

There are qualities of mind and soul,

Beyond the large intestine.

But, I cant interrupt your khutba,

That's sunnaticly proscribed,

but Slap'n'Hug and Bitch'n'Scrub,

you will definitely find.

Gendered Genius

This is an excerpt from Sultana's Dream, a short story written by Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain in 1905. It is about an imagined science policy in Ladyland, where begums (the mothers of warriors) called the shots. 

"We talked on various subjects, and I learned that they were not subject to any kind of epidemic disease, nor did they suffer from mosquito bites as we do. I was very much astonished to hear that in Ladyland no one died in youth except by rare accident.

'Will you care to see our kitchen?' she asked me.

'With pleasure,' said I, and we went to see it. Of course the men had been asked to clear off when I was going there. The kitchen was situated in a beautiful vegetable garden. Every creeper, every tomato plant was itself an ornament. I found no smoke, nor any chimney either in the kitchen -- it was clean and bright; the windows were decorated with flower gardens. There was no sign of coal or fire.

'How do you cook?' I asked.

'With solar heat,' she said, at the same time showing me the pipe, through which passed the concentrated sunlight and heat. And she cooked something then and there to show me the process.

'How did you manage to gather and store up the sun-heat?' I asked her in amazement.

'Let me tell you a little of our past history then. Thirty years ago, when our present Queen was thirteen years old, she inherited the throne. She was Queen in name only, the Prime Minister really ruling the country.

'Our good Queen liked science very much. She circulated an order that all the women in her country should be educated. Accordingly a number of girls' schools were founded and supported by the government. Education was spread far and wide among women. And early marriage also was stopped. No woman was to be allowed to marry before she was twenty-one. I must tell you that, before this change we had been kept in strict purdah.'

'How the tables are turned,' I interposed with a laugh.

'But the seclusion is the same,' she said. 'In a few years we had separate universities, where no men were admitted.'

'In the capital, where our Queen lives, there are two universities. One of these invented a wonderful balloon, to which they attached a number of pipes. By means of this captive balloon which they managed to keep afloat above the cloud-land, they could draw as much water from the atmosphere as they pleased. As the water was incessantly being drawn by the university people no cloud gathered and the ingenious Lady Principal stopped rain and storms thereby.'

'Really! Now I understand why there is no mud here!' said I. But I could not understand how it was possible to accumulate water in the pipes. She explained to me how it was done, but I was unable to understand her, as my scientific knowledge was very limited. However, she went on, 'When the other university came to know of this, they became exceedingly jealous and tried to do something more extraordinary still. They invented an instrument by which they could collect as much sun-heat as they wanted. And they kept the heat stored up to be distributed among others as required.

'While the women were engaged in scientific research, the men of this country were busy increasing their military power. When they came to know that the female universities were able to draw water from the atmosphere and collect heat from the sun, they only laughed at the members of the universities and called the whole thing "a sentimental nightmare"!' "

Step out of your tanks and onto the pavement with your hand where we can see them.

Your SUV
reminds me
of american obesity

Must you consume the entire world
and expect me to leave a stone unhurled?

June 4th Election Patronisations

Another round of local and euro elections are upon us and the infanticidal political logic bleeding into the citizen's decision-making space suggests one should vote for a major party to minimise the effect of the BNP.

Apparently this logic becomes stronger because of the 'expenses scandal' that is 'rocking' the public's 'faith' in parliament.

Technocratic logic's of 'But the LibDems aren't strong' or 'The Greens aren't practical' abound and politics in the UK is thus rendered self-stagnating. Nope and we wont have proportional representation in the national majlis either.

Its politics you muppets, you create possibilities with your imagination and social action, you shift power alignments and you oxygenate worthy political organisations.

We the society make a collective decision, and for our active health need the best answers and make sense of the uncensored composite mess. We need to know this to understand who we are in a polychromic snapshot, black and white line art is insufficient.

Dont worry, big business will find a way of fighting it's corner. They do not need you.

So here's the game plan for next year. Engineer a hung parliament and a sequence of events that puts Vince Cable in charge.

Hmmm.

On the politics of public virtue: MPs expenses Edition.

What kind of game is this strategic self-censure
of supine politicians, irrespective of gender?
Who've raped and destroyed a good couple of nations,
yet only reform for political pensions.

Do I give a damn for your petty scam?
Democratic virtue? I'd quite like to hurt you,
for making the world such a dangerous place
and having the gall to pronounce on disgrace.

You ignorant house packed with extremist touts,
Mother of hypocrisy and colonial legacy,
I'd like to see your obituary.
Good luck to the SNP, please liberate me.

they are wiping Palestine off the map : terrorism through tourism

I saw adverts for israel today on the underground. Adverts that erase Palestine from view. Strange how such cartographicide could be allowed. 

It's interesting to notice the symbols that the tourist agency play on to attract punters to that terrible occupation state. Not the fresh red blood of Gazans on the streets, or the tragi-comical eurovision peace songs. What kind of tourist....

israel has the largest arsehole footprint on the face of the Earth. It could quite easily have been avoided. Don't you wonder how different the world would be if the brits had not given in to zionist terrorism and abandoned the palestinians in 1948?

Shame on London Underground, shame on CBS Outdoors and of course the Advertising Standards Agency. The Palestine Solidarity Campaign have some actions you can do.

Travelers with a sense of justice are strongly urged to take creative measures to protect punters from being misled.

symbolic warfare : razakarology 101

I hear that awami thugs are marauding dhaka and hassling people by creating property disputes and threatening 'Collaborator' Blackmail. ('We have your name on a 'list', if you dont give us X we will destroy your public honour with a Rajakar accusation.')

This technique of acquisition thus permits the 'pure' patriotic awami leaguer to dislodge any person judged not to mime his liberation mythology from their business, institution or home through sheer symbolic violence.

I must point the finger of complicity at those in possession of discernment who are involved in the active and passive upkeep and non-contestation of that simplistic, circular and homogeneous narrative of virtue upon which this drunken awaminess rests.

Interestingly, and perhaps democratically, but most definately moronarchically, the symbolic capitalists in the business of petty occupation have their analogues in the national political sphere. They are now filing cases of secularist takfir.

Holy Cow, the Nation State.

white flight from rascism conference

Funny how it was only white countries that made a fuss at the pre-diluted UN Anti Rascism conference last month. They walked out and the white power serving media showed its colours. What kinds of idiots to they take the majority world for?

Ever read someone else's Nikah contract?

An interesting thing happened on the internet recently.

Its not the Online Nikah in the Maniac Muslim sense of the term.

Nor was it so technocratic as some ummahtocrats laid out in the UK last year.

Its actually quite educative just to read.

Doctor youre in trouble

Let's hear it for Dr Freddie Patel, who said the late Ian Tomlinson died from a heart attack and lent power of expertise to the Met Police excuse machine. A second post mortem reveals he died from internal bleeding. Which makes the uniformed shuor who assaulted him even more heavily culpable.

What a great man, his parents must be real proud. I mean their sonny jim was in the press, he's a doctor you know, and in officialdom at that. yaar.

Freddie, no not Mercury.

Sisters and brothers, comrades and freinds. For too long have we squeezed value out of the Uncle Tom metaphor, either because we think we are black and/or because we can't bring ourselves to utter the word 'baniya' (not that anybody would get the historical significance).

I propose that from this day the Doctor Freddie construct be used for those who ingratiate themselves with power, particularly of the shadda variety, so as to defile their names and 'talent'.

Political Futures for Britain

Priyamvada Gopal's piece on the recent past student actions in solidarity with Gaza got me thinking about the future of politics in the UK, post-New Labour fizzleout. What ideas and movement will their be in the moral ecology of these shores after a decade or so of Tory rule and the inevitable and long called-for re-equilibration of the UK's global significance?

The ideas that i want to see become commonsense arise from failings with respect to the way we interact with the rest of creation, capital, history and imperialism.

Lets not eat up and poison the planet.
Let's make a break from our colonialist pasts and presents.

Party politics here is a rather dull and lifeless affair, so perhaps ruminating on the potential reform processes within the defeated Labour Party is a waste of time. Maybe one of the causes of both voter apathy and radicalisation is the sheer boringness of the political field these days? Maybe the government should employ itself to encourage a more moderate boringness.

What would be interesting would be the death of the (2) established political parties and a freeing up of the space for interesting characters, traditions and visions to coalesce. Of course the Jackie Smith in you might suggest that I am doing the BNP's bidding for them, but I disagree. A pragmatic manager could do worse than the following political formation and distribution of labour, Tory councillers at the bottom, Social MPs and Green or Lib Dem Euro MPs.

Lamo Labour on European elections.

One thing that really annoys me about political parties during election times is how they try to cover up their lameness by fear-mongering. Take Harriet Harman's 'stop the BNP' pronouncement. With European elections coming up normal people might struggle to find reasons for voting labour, and an anti rascism platform might seem enough for election to positions at a scale that is hard to imagine.

This drowns out the space for the smaller parties. UK voters would be better placed to populate the European Parliament with Greens and Libdems. They represent the future and we should not drag our feet over getting there.

It is a classic line, "dont vote for what you believe, vote for us, else you are rascist and/or you'll get the Tory party."

Voting for unsuccesful parties is an essential part of transformational politics.

How Crap are the Police?

They have cast a rather large Arsehole Footprint over the past days. This footprint, much more immediately consequential that anything associated with carbon, has been helped by a Home Minister enfooled by porn, an exploitative Tory Mayor and a Prime Minister who has 'had his go' and should leave before he lets the Torys in.

It is hard for an institution to earn trust and reputation. Behaiving badly and doing PR isnt going to work. Here is their latest report sheet.

• Incarcerating thousands of civilian protesters for several hours and going ape on the Climate Camp during the G20 meeting that empowered the Inept Malevolent Fantasists by a trillion and was frankly a sideshow for President O-bomber.
• Causing the death of an innocent bystanding non-protester through general callousness and specific cruelty, then lying heaps about it.
• Flashing confidential anti-terror intelligence details at the Tory press outside Downing street then hurrying up a bunch of arrests on 'pakistani students' up north.

My default expectation is that the arrests will turn out to be BS as usual. Muhammad Adil, a Liverpool MBA student was captured in the raids, then released had some interesting things to say. The UK exploits its ex colonial master status to pretend to educate folks from the commonwealth. The British Council misleads thousands of young people all over the world every year. This Paki, bless, is going home.

"This has totally changed what I have learned about this country and my
time here...They are clearly identifying Muslim students. It's a big insult …
The first thing I will do is leave this country as soon as possible. The police
officer said your country [Pakistan] is not secure but I still prefer to
live there. I love my country."

Aim: Put People First. Method: Kill neo-liberal capitalism

We are in the midst of an interesting few days.

The G20 summit is in town, Brazil's Lula has pointed the finer of the great financial crime at 'blue-eyed bankers', Gordon Brown looks like a total goon, Obama's coming to town and Wednesday looks like it will be fun.

The movement for a superior resolution seems quite parsimonious to me. There was a demonstration yesterday, which had a lot in common with the recent 6 Billion Ways conference. With military occupation, financial, social, developmental and environmental failures colliding with each other, the arguments resonate louder. They make more sense together.

• The economy is declining and people are losing their jobs, so lets invest in setting up a greener infrastructure.
• Developing world doesn't want Aid, but fair trade rules.
• Agricultural sector is the mainstay of food sovereignty.
• The banks are ours now, lets stop them arming tyrants.
• Do not let the ideas (neoliberalism, light-touch regulation) and institutions (WTO, IMF, WB) that created the mess we are in, any chance to resolve it.
• We will be ok so long as we can find a way to bridge what we are capable of to what we actually do.

Detractors usually write off these human urges for pretty blue-blooded reasons and with pretty compelling quantitative seemingly 'practical' logic. Yet their system's failure and humiliation has created an environment where better ideas may be heard more seriously instead.

Yesterday green helmets were donned by thousands marching across London. Green helmets symbolising the willingness to work through these problems, together and creatively. Brass bands played, babies were cooed over and yes the weather was crap with sunny intervals.

Tony Robinson (from Time Team and the unforgettable Maid Marrian and her Merry Men) compered for the afternoon in Hyde Park and there was inspiration to be had. From individuals like Susan George and this cool Indian South African activist (something Naidu) fresh from hunger strike to organisations like Focus from the Global South and the new economics foundation.

I recommend people attend the Alternative London Summit at the University of East London on Wednesday after the March of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Mark Thomas's parting words to any police thinking of acting to form amused, "Remember is was Jackie Smith who cut your pay".

An alignment of bogeys

Its strange the kinds of alliances that are forming these days.

• 1971 obsessed Bangladeshi seculars rail against any Muslim organisation and dont think twice about allying with Zionists intent on creating a public equation between al quaida and those resisting Occupation with more than their pens.
• Skanky UK journalists talk to their bedfellows in Bangladesh to create the beautiful idea of the climate terrorist.
• Jionijom and Zionism look decidedly similar.

I'm sensing a new possible addition to this particular variety of bogey alignment.

Government-speak in the uk is full of terrorism (as it is in Bangladesh). In the past few days the UK government has issued a new policy on countering terrorism and a cabinet minister has tried to wave her willy at the MCB and make one of its office bearers resign. Meanwhile the unfortunately incumbent government in Bangladesh has similar bogeys up its nose.

The Awami-minded Bangladeshi smells rotting flesh in all Islamic philanthropy and is keen to establish blame for the BDR mutiny at the feet of the Islamically orientated. It is annoyed I guess that Muslim Bengalis in Britain have grown more religious in their modernised lives. Awami educational thinkers are eager to reduce the religious character of education, particularly in the madrassa stream.

Without referring to its own dubious funding culture, Awami forces routinely overplay the economic power and influence of their (minor) Islamist rival and continually link it to the terrorist group JMB. Its like some kind of anti-jew propaganda: on the campus, in the media organisation, in the parliament or with Americans around. It will get worse with time.

One of the reasons why I find the Awami political brand annoying and lacking in honour is the ease with which they go crying off to foreign allies for intellectual, economic, financial and military assistance. They are very good at lying and are constituted from that useless bourgeoisie class (sorry, civil society) that have become fat, stupid, aloof and inept on foreign development dollars.

So I think twice over accepting that a British run charity is a knowing supporter of militant training activity. It just ticks too many boxes.

Allahu'Alam.

A prejudicial ode to contest two

Contest Two, oh Contest Two
did Maajid really ghostwrite you?
will we be safe from killers and liars
who make their bread from human fires?

Contest Two, oh Contest Two
I do not seek funding from you
the answers to ummahtic riddles
cannot be found in your reeking piddles.

Contest Two, political fawning
Over you I'll find it quite annoying
Of course i see your legitimate aim
but must you cause such colonial pain?

That is not the way

Strange court-based news over the passed few days.

A Muslim man who has been in legal limbo and incarceration for years was awarded £60k for being beaten sadistically and abused by uk security forces six years ago. If you dont beleive me his injuries were documented by an expert. What matters is how his appeal against extradition unfolds in the European Court.

Today I rode the tubes and learnt of another story where the 'award' dwarfs this. £400k for an ex-headmistress who stood accused of Islamophobia and Racism, leading her to depression and playing a big role in her decision quit the profession. Her county council (Surrey) was judged to have tolerated 'troublemaking' Muslim governers to a blinding extent and did not support her.

Local government is rather wierd like that. The fear of being accused a racist, especially amongst white people(and ridiculous exploitation of the term), is retarding our ability to improve socially. Needless to say this event pressed all of the buttons of the 'political correctness gone mad' collective, but thats not my interest.

Adjusting for the right wing media family's portrayal, it appears to me like a story of muslim governers participating and engaging rather much with their local state educational infrastructure, and of a primary school head teacher being completely out of her depth.

I wonder what actually happened? Woking mosque is the oldest in the country, features a pretty garden and general elegance, and was built with a donation from the Begum of Bhopal (a queen of India). Muslim parents and citizens have been generally encouraged to take more responsibility in school governance in recent years. I don't think this case of spastication is the general one but it should give us lessons in how not to go about it things.

Where is the edge between our religious rights and taking the piss?

Given that the thinktanks are closed minded and dont actually do research and that the universities are busy reproducing themselves. Where can we know whats going on?

non-heroism in the eye of this beholder

No, I am not proud and grateful for what UK soldiers have done to Iraq. I would like to express my annoyance that their operations have been such a hazard inducing influence (mainly) on the Iraqis and (slightly) on the UK. It is not as if they did not have a choice, or that the information wasnt available to them. They were wrong, and so were the bankers, so no kudos for them. No crocodile kudos either.

Perhaps the UK Govt should only have defensive armed capability. Turning countries upside down shouldn't be rewarded. I do not believe my government responsible enough to wield such weapons of national disintegration. Besides, think of all the afforestation programmes the troops could be involved with. They could take guerillla gardening to new levels.

I wonder how if I could fit all these words on a banner.

a poem about getting real about climate change in development-speak

Climate Change, Fries my brains
Reveals so many growing pains
No noble, elegant paradigm
another organised development crime.

With one great science, they'll justify
entrench their interests, they'll multiply
subvert your knowledge and expertise
with CDM's contrived to please

No charity case, will cure our ills
no westoxifying development pills
Can't we just be our better selves
and make our own good book of spells

Undistracted by Sharia Satirised Social Spastication, by Ummahtic Overstretch, or by Secularist Surrender...

I think we will be fine.

It really is funny how easily government 'Muslim castration' policies are lampooned in khutbas.

Folks, make dua for the BDR

Something awful is afoot in Dhaka, and its been going on since early morning. Its not the University this time, nor the garments workers. The Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) has gone ape, aggreived soldiers have mutinied against their officers and there's firing going on everywhere. At present the BBC reports that one rickshaw puller has been killed in the Army-BDR crossfire (but who knows really, who will ever know). 

The BDR are the people who guard the borders of country, 20 000 of them are based in the HQ in question, which is straddled by residential, commercial and educational activity in the heart of the Capital. There also some political geography to this eruption. Its near to where the Prime minister and a lot of the national-level politicians live. Posh people frequently have their weddings in the BDR Durbar Hall, and the adjacent 'Rifles Square' is military-petty commercsial complex of Bangladesh. The Prime Minister was there a day before awarding medals, when apparently all they want are better working conditions. They have been institutionally screwed around for quite a while. Then theres the international sphere, an Indian news agency alleges that the boss of the BDR has been killed, though the BDR deny this.

This is significant because it means that the Andolon Culture has penetrated the paramilitary forces. Perhaps this is the only language they feel our government understands and acceptable in current political grammar, after all they have learnt from their leaders and observed the behaviour of institutional occupiers in recent times. Maybe its miraculous that their discipline held out this long. 

Thats really sad from the point of view of precedent, but also it shows that the society does not give enough value to its border protectors. We prefer to parrot out development twaddle than address issues as we conceive and face them. This is only good news for hostile neighbours and smugglers.. and Shaytan. 

I am not too knowledgable about the co-ption of the Army proper into UN peacekeeping, but I know that a lot of their pay condition issues and institutional crapness are diffused by such lucrative work. The BDR on the other hand has far less social and economic mobility.

How the government deal with the scenario will be formative in the minds of the electorate and Dhaka's middle class, so they had better pull out their best moves. The BDR cantonment is currently surrounded by tanks and RAB. Negotiations are being reported across blogs and newsmedia, so you can spend time listening to Bangladeshi Whispers if your heart desires.

Suheir Hammad "Not you're exotic, not you're erotic"

When you consume me you give me value

This is an analysis of the essence of pakihood. I mean no insult to Allama Iqbal, and the dreams of many others. What I'm talking about here is a kind of undignified behaviour that makes me want to eat my face.

There's an annoying salacious rumour doing the rounds of the yaar yaar types and white town. Its providing actual pride to the yaar types. It involves a hollywood actor and a young lady from a significant south asian muslim political family.

Sure the symbols this generates are potent: politics,  exotic east, entertainment, sensuality, western domination, eastern subservience, and most critical of all, a brown delight at providing consumable entertainment for white people, and hence essential worth to themselves.

But its just another addition to a long list of cultural capitulations. Take my country, pervert my religion, teach it to me, take my assets, take my dignity...oh and while your at it, enjoy my curry and my sisters. While im watching you rape my culture, let me take lots of your qualifications to prove my worth according to your great white standards.

This comes several weeks after the cringeworthy news that some proto-yaar-type did 23 A-levels, only to study IT at Cambridge. erm... mashAllah.

Come on guys, where's your spirit of the Pind? don't tell me Clooney won't get honour killed over this? At least refuse to regard this as anything but shameful, remember that actors and actresses are values at the same level as prostitutes where you come from, at least complain about class mismatch? Or is his white symbol far just too potent?

Halal Turkey Bacon in every cafe is the solution i tell you.

You have to laugh at the UK government sometimes. Sometimes because no other emotion ticks the correct box. The campaign to corrupt every level of muslim organisation is now apparently changing tack. A fatal lack of mental toughness has resulted in folks, who are far away from violent crime, perverting themselves to 'engage' it. For local governments keen to bribe mosques to take on their service burden, the preventing violent extremism jive is another technocratic chocolate bar. Why are they obsessed with mosques? as if potential terrorists are institutionalised fellows.....

Its important to analyse the whole situation that makes the government so stupid and evil, and the interests that constantly negotiate new levels of retardedness. Some sell-out academies now offer MA's in terrorism related guff, think tanks devote a quarter of their 'resources' to pissing in the wind on this matter, experts inform and rub each other's backs and the powerful wilfully prevent certain obvious facts (the foreign policy link) from being accepted into the official public vernacular.

Meanwhile our organisations are weakened by criticism and their horizons narrowed by myopic mojolessness.

Lets imagine some headlines...

• Muslim Organiser arrested for advising aspirant students not to become medics and thus 'moronic NHS lackeys'.
• One million Muslim males arrested for refusing to accept homosexuality. We'd have locked up the women, but we are hoping that some of them will breed with us while all the alternatives are unavailable. What do you mean they still wear headscarves?
• Muslim elder held for 48 days for contextualising Two Nation Theory as a defensive solution in British Occupied India during the 30s and 40s.
• Mother arrested for forbidding her children from having sharia subverting sexual relations with white people.
• Muslim institution's assets frozen for not playing footsie with government poodle.
• Ten thousand Muslims finally do some superfiqh, converting to Judaism in order to get away with being thoroughly socio-culturally inbred, yet accepted by 'mainsteam' society.

Fork off you forking Pakis!

This really takes the biscuit. One again realises that this country has no concern for anyone else other than itself. Nooooope, the Muslims of India are not safe from its forked tongue.... you'd (naively) think Bangladeshis might get less malice. But you'd be in Ummahtic-cloud-cuckoo-land.

If only I could argue this one out with Allama Iqbal now and have access to a time capsule.

I can see this playing well with Hasina's new Awami League government in Bangladesh. They are all for some highly dubious 'south asian tewwow agreement' and sucking on the Obamas manboobs for Development, Deradicalisation and Social Spastication dollars.

I think im going to study the similarities of spastication between PPP and the AL. You bingos are such pakis, you pakis are such bingos. I am so glad my honour doesnt depend on either of you.

Consumer approaches to space and community

Its funny how many residents of houses-with-icy-bits-of-pavement-right-outside have not cleared up the hazard on their front door yet. I wonder how many have even considered taking a shovel to it. No, just enjoy the snow, leave clearance to the government, because they can protect you.

One of the things id like to do is to create a collaborative map of spatial witness statements to investigate gritting last sunday night, when the snow was falling. The maps of which and where councils bothered to grit would speak volumes about the comparative value given to this kind of public safety. Cascading shirking from economistically motivated transport and government entities has been noticed by those with an eye out.

My angst is that we have become ionised out of a sense of local and community commitment. Whether by mass transit systems, distraction, hatred of politics or self love. If theres a problem, the significant and responsible person should not run away from or ignore it so easily, they must be expected to dig in and solve it. Becoming aloof (socially) and distant (spatially) causes harm, but this is what happens most of the time. Apparently it is called 'social mobility'.

Extreme examples are cowardly corrupt third world politicians running away from their electorates to the west and white flight from western capitals. Normal examples I guess are some of the economic migrations of non powerful people of the third world. The difference between the extreme and normal cases is not clear but has something to do with the ability to transform situations. In either case the underlying matters are not addresses, merely postponed and perhaps multiplied

The anticonsumer approach I'm looking for is not contained simply caused by migration patterns. The truth is that if everybody is on the run and in transit, we must spend efforts repairing fissures in local social space and reduce reliance on government.

Iranian satellite launch inspires hundreds of millions

It has been 30 years since the Islamic Revolution ushered in one of the most interesting governmental experiments of the 20th Century.

For the Muslim that is.

Warts and wonders have ensued and the global hegemon and its minions have continually slashed at Iran's hamstrings. Cruelties, atheisms, foolishnesses and corruptions have raised their ugly heads also. Lessons must be learnt from this experience. Nondrunken ones.



Launching a satellite into space isn't THAT exceptional, but unlike an effete Millennium Development Goal or 'Poverty' Reduction Strategy Paper, there is something extremely ballsy about it. Having your own eyes up there monitoring and communicating with your own environment is of great benefit to any nation. Nurturing the expertise to pull off such a feat, in these techno-hegemonic days is something to be written home about. Iran has done this despite severe technological blockading.

It is an expression of confidence, policy continuity and autonomy. I hope it is matched by effective surface-to-air defensive capability.

Erdogan's spine, the BBC's shame, the IDF's latent evil and the WSF's hope

The Turkish Prime Minister Erdoganstormed out of a session at the Davos Summit yesterday after not being given adequate time to counter the forked tongued lies of Shimon Peres over the Israeli assault on Gaza. He returned to his country a hero and his actions were appreciated many many outside it.

The head of the IAEA Mohamed El Baradei pulled out of BBC press interviews because of the BBC's partisan stance on refusing to allow the DEC's humanitarian appeal for Gaza. I think too that it is time to superscede the BBC. Can other actors please emerge now!

Other less powerful, but equally noble men and women are shedding their ties with the BBC. Many more are wondering whether to bother switching to HDTV and how, in the Age of the Internet, to bypass paying the BBC and Sky for their 'impartial' lies altogether. The most dangerous thing is the perception that one's media is objective, value free and scientifically pure.

Meanwhile an Israeli Militant involved in the Gaza massacre talks to Young British Jews in London freely. Interesting how he was permitted entry into the UK.

As the over-reported WEF chugs on capitalistically in a resort in Switzerland the World Social Forum is taking in Brazil. Check it out.

The Matrix through a Poem

Obama becomes O Bomber

Ordering a drone attack which killed 18 people in Pakistan.

What a arsehole. Its the same old same old, I worry about is how many good people, especially those of colour, are now being sucked into the system.

Upazila elections subverted

by the international agencies that forced the ctg into a corner with the general election date. Imperial democratic conditionality.

by the parties hungry for power that rejected the idea of having the upazilas before the 'big one'. Heroin addiction.

by the have a go activists who actually dont give a stuff about decentralisation and simply focus on the national picture from their westoxified ghettos. Glue sniffers.

by the voters who like all good bangladeshis dont credit these matters with the power and seriousness they represent. aar ki bolbo?

and by the newly empowered MPs flexing their brawn on the local adminsitration. shuorer sau.

its just really really sad.

Quilliam's Million's - Slumdogs and Groundhogs

First of all I would like to say that I eagerly await the biography of the actual Shayk William Abdullah Quillam (d.1932), and I hope that the thousands of hard earned pounds that the Muslims of the UK have donated for the restoration of his historic first mosque in Liverpool bear fruit.

The Ex-Islamist industry in the UK is showing exponential growth, especially for those with no dignity or understanding of naffness. The 1 million pound UK government empowerment of the group that calls itself the Quilliam Foundation is nothing surprising. I have written about Quilliam before. Some policy wonks believe this group of spineless, stupid and sold-out, failed SOAS students can achieve their desired policy objectives. If their goals are to divert people and waste their time, they may achieve them. If their goals are to fund Ed and Maajids collection of suits, they may achieve those too.

Historically the ingrowing toenails of cultural invasions have hampered maturation of Islamic thought and practice. Quilliam are just another layer of Islamic flame retardant. An example of a deeper, vivid and long term cultural invasion is what the British colonialists did in Bengal. This was to destroy the waqf system of endowments which nourished our educational institutions and civic life. One third of the land of Bengal was waqf. Now we have NGOs with names that rhyme with CRAP miming 'education' with overseas 'aid', and interest sucked out of the richer poor of Bangladesh. Nice one.

In "Pedagogy of the Oppressed", Paolo Freire (a Brazilian educationalist influenced by Marx and Liberation Theology) was concerned with how schooling and oppressing had become intertwined. Its the kind of book that revives my belief in the power of ideas to change the world. Cultural Invasion, Divide and Rule, Manipulation and Conquest are often used by the Blue Meanies of our world to program how people think and act.

European Colonialists reformed Islamic education, and education for Muslims using these tools. Their proxies continue this desacralising project. Advertisers spend a lot of time pushing our material greed buttons. The media-government complex exercises its power to reorient the channels of our minds. Suffice to say, Colonised and Captive Minds abound, and its quite annoying. But there is always resistance and the resultant vectors are a negotiation.

Being resistant to invasion, yet creative and acquisitive with one's actual trajectory is the challenge before us. It always has been, we already own a large number of blind alleys and potential launchpads. Islamism 1.0 did get a lot wrong, religious nationalism too, don't get me started on westoxified secularism. However not every iteration everywhere has been fruitless. There are some golden threads about the place.

The task of enflowering and animating contemporary Islamic Societies is one to which Muslims must devote themselves. Only they can do it. These things to not happen on their own. The problem is that somewhere along the line a large chunk of the talented and blessed Asian contingent decided to devote their energy to certificates of white social mobility. ACA, MBA, MBBS etc. The mass proliferation of technocrats has been quite spasticating, in the civilisational sense.

That was a previous generation's of distraction. Poverty sucks you see, affects the imagination and the horizons. One of our own generation's distractions is this extremism schizzle, manufactured and framed by hose who seek to beat the living prayerlights out of us. Quilliam is an artifact of this violence. Its employees are highly paid assassins. Whether in Londonistan, Barmigram, Kuala Lumpur, Dubai, Dhaka or Lahore this carefully designed distraction should be recognised as one, lampooned and a superior, contextual, dignified action plan imagined and translated.

The Distraction Formerly Known As Quilliam is quite comical though, I hope taxpayers appreciate the layers of ironies contained in this organisation's creation. This one will be mentioned in a list-based Channel 4 programme a few years from now called Most Embarrassing and Cringe-worthy Moments of UK Government Meddling.

I hope they do not distract too many good people, or use and abuse vulnerable characters. They have history with this you see. Maybe that is the Whitehall Mandarin's game plan after all. If that is so, I hope they realise this and disband accordingly, lest their children grown to hate and curse them.

Quilliam are not the only ones foolish enough to think they are anything but tools. Young Muslim Advisory Groupies should take note. The only thing worse than having no leader is for a bad 'leader' to inflict their leadership upon you. This last point is probably what Allah is demonstrating to us all with Mahmoud Abbas.

There's still a long way to go

200 000 people braved the cold in London last Saturday. I know large numbers, Ive been on Umrah (the minor pilgrimage) during the last days of Ramadan. Their other plans were put on hold because the Israelis are still at it, killing Palestinians.

It is such a disgusting state of affairs that good people in Israel are appealing for the outside world to Boycott, Divest and Sanction their own country. Naomi Klein puts it so well. Meanwhile a few of The Occupation's UK based foot soldiers put on a pathetica excuse for a 'Pro Israel' rally at trafalgar square. The need for them to have a demo and to construct it like they did speaks volumes. I worry that many of my Jewish neighbours have been fundamentally misled by this Israel Project. Can't wait for them to reach a more post zionist future.

At demonstrations, as an individual, you tend to have dozens of human interactions which are generally hopeful and full of good things. Therefore there were millions of positive interactions amongst the protesters, drawn from all of the country.Value inheres to each newly created relationship. Thus we are being Tawhesive.

There was the granny who came despite her broken arm, and the slightly tipsy aunty who had fashioned her very own grim reaper for the occasion. Can't forget the story of the girl who brought a shoe mounted on a stick. She threw the shoe towards the Offending Embassy, then cracked the stick over her leg and threw the peices towards the same target. I have never seen English girls kick so much arse.

There were so many happeneings and each happeneing defied reduction to a headline. Cute teenage begums singing jarringly potent nursery rhymes. Initiatives to shove aid towards the palestinians by air and by sea despite the Israeli's best efforts. The motivational song by some chap from the Baby shambles. The biggest banner in the whole world promoting Palestine Solidarity enabling sportswear. Not to forget, the biggest palestinian flag in the whole world. Participating in some bizzare dancey chant with some Somalis. Trying to move people away from a dangerously squishy false finish at the Czech Embassy (doh!) and miaowing when Galloway came on.

Praying asr and magrib jamaats on the streets of Kensington and Chelsea reminded me how far muslims have come in the past 8 years. I remember battling with the whole 'demos are bidah' and 'you mustn't cooperate from those who aren't 100% identical to you' rubbish which has thankfully been ejected from the habitus. I hope we have come along far enough for InterPals bank account not to be shut down by spurious bank actions. (I wonder who decided to cause this charity grief?)

Needless to say, there is a lot of expression and introspection as the sight of oxygenated palestinian blood on the streets of Gaza rips of the veils that have been drawn over our eyes. Its Uloominating.

Why are Muslim countries so weak?
How 'Muslim' is this issue anyway?
Why can we not defend them?
Why do Zionists demonise me with the Anti-Semetic barb?
How come Project Israel has such a suffocating effect on the Ummah's breathing?
Whats with this easily exploitable secular-islamist schism?
What is better, no leader or a useless leader?
Whats with these post-holocaust zionised jewish cousins of ours, why are they so mental?
What can we, as little atoms, small crystals and raging supernovae do for Palestinian dignity?

These questions accompany joint actions with others of good will. But despite being a just cause, Palestinian Freedom still has a long way to go, and by freedom I mean contiguous territorial integrity.

In many ways it is just the tip of an iceberg of many other seldom addressed ummahtic 'mojo' problems.

Expressions of solidarity for what Palestinians are going through have taken many forms around the world. What is PC in one place isnt necessarily so in another place. Even Ban Ki Moon's compatriots are venting. Have a look around You Tube for ideas, I think the vocabulary of protest must grow.

Demonstrating

There is a lot of feeling for Palestine, I can feel it growing and hope it fruits into grace guilded action and realisation. Here's to Palestinian Unity, Dignity and Territorial Integrity. May they have better friends, brothers and comrades also.



Last week London hosted its largest Palestine specific demo (70K+) in the wake of the latest animalistic behaviour from the most dangerous beast in the Middle East. This coming Saturday there will be another one, this time from Speaker's Corner(noon) to their embassy. Check the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign for details about protests throughout the land, boycotting particulars et al.

It would be nice if these demos reversed one day. For example, folks might meet in a central location en mass, gee eachother up and spread out 360 degrees to sweep through london with the widest expression. Especially when we are on the lowering consumption (climate change/greed mitigation) flex. Its the people to people interfaces that are important. But the demonstration effect is equally significant, and I believe worth investing time and effort in.

The homogenised and corporate media will cover events as they choose. I will not adapt my behaviour to provide added value to this 'intermediary creator of opinion', no matter how they can manipulate the people supporting Palestine. I will not cake my sentiment in sterilised PR speak to ingratiate my message with some imagined white middle-class sandwich-eating demographic.

Bengal Tiger, not fox. Indian Elephant, not horse. Monsoonal downpour, not drizzle. Lunghi, not kilt. Water, not paper. Post colonial rock, not rap.

So 'No' to the 'Sunnah of the Jews' Methodology, as the more secular and materially valued brown folk so 'succinctly' put it. 'Sunnah of the Jews' is a vernacular way that unimaginative aspirants in immigrant communities conceive 'community successes'.

I for one care less for them! It is more dignified to live up to one's own better nature, rather than anothers. Thankyou Ustad Fanon.

What the corporate gossip engine cannot do is drown out people's direct experiences. People with their eyeball on the media forget this sometimes. These personally authored and trusted narratives chime throughout the land and subvert press engineering. We have seen this over the past 7 to 8 years.

Some complain about other people's bad manners on protests. They overplay it and use righteaous indignation to abdicate responsibility. This is the wrong attitude. The demonstration scenario is full of learning. It is Noahs Ark! When young rough people are surrounded by people older and younger than them, there is a behavioural negotiation. People instinctively learn how to behave in such a cosmopolitan whirlwind. When they don't learn instinctively, they can also be guided by responsible people who recognise signs and give a hoot. Moaners tend not to give that much of a hoot. I think they are more fearful of 'guilt by spatial association' and eurocentric post-holocaust accusations.

Maybe they have a point, but it is when gangs go off on their own and mix politics with their latent gangsterism that trouble occurs. I hear that gangs in Harlesdon are increasingly interpreting OBL in scary ways these days. Not something you'll hear too frequently, these guys aren't natural attendees of deradicalisation programmes, just affected by another layer of effed upedness. Come on Boris, stick that on your Crime Map (sponsored by Foxton's).

Take the increase in nastiness experienced by North London Jewry over the past couple of days as a (less dramatic) example of the political chav. Its hardly a witch hunt, but a shame. Jews march as an integral part of the movement, some walking all the way to central london in obeyance with their sacred traditions. Jewish columnists have written such heart rending introspectives on animalistic Israeli behaviour. Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis for goodness sake (may they repopulate the earth). So wtf?

The problem with the foolish 'activist'/political chav (of which i hope i am not one) is that they are a liability to their cause. Intimidating Post-Holocaust Zionised Jews who are our neighbours and who call the UK their home is wrong on so many levels. Talk about reinforcing paranoia with an Asiatic dimension.

Yet, when the rage and hurt is too large to know what to do with, one generally observes this level of retarded behaviour. The rest of the world is lucky that we are Muslim and observe it in the way that we do. With tonnes of sabr and hardly any clue. Any other group undergoing similar throat strangling would have gone totally ape by now.

oh dear, somebody might interpret that as a threat rather than an observation...

I read a comment from a characteristically hopeless Met policeman that such spikes are 'inevitable'. I think they can be decreased through practical social technique and guidance within political gatherings and tutelages. Of course the British legal system will make harsh examples of anyone in this climate. A few years ago a foolish youth was jailed for wearing a bomber jacket to a demo.

I worry about being a liability to my cause, or transforming myself into a palatable untrue object.

Then I remember Ismail Patel's line, that points directly at the regional neighbourhood and those most locally responsible, 'You belly dancing arab leaders!'