30.1.09

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.

25.1.09

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.

22.1.09

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.

20.1.09

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.

12.1.09

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.

8.1.09

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!'

5.1.09

Allah Ya Maoulana




Cutesy kiddy version(above) of a devotional song I first heard from Nas el Ghiwane (below).