Feb
25
YouTube Blocked In Pakistan (Update)
Filed Under Pakistan, religion, Ridiculous, Islam | Leave a Comment
Due to “blasphemous content, videos and documents.” The decision was made by an inter-ministerial comittee (Pakistani Telecommunications Authority) under direct authority from the government. The blasphemy in question comes in the form of a trailer for Geert Wilders’ new movie “Fitna”, although some have said that the movie has no official trailer. Others have protested the re-publishing of last year’s Mohammed cartoons:
An inter-ministerial committee has decided to block YouTube because it contained “blasphemous content, videos and documents,” a government official told AFP.
“The site will remain blocked till further orders,” he said.
Other officials said the site had been blocked because it contained controversial sketches of the Prophet Mohammed which were republished by Danish newspapers earlier this month.
One major service provider, Micronet, said in an email to subscribers that the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority had directed all ISPs to block access to YouTube “for containing blasphemous web content/movies.”
“Meanwhile Internet users can write to YouTube.com to remove the objectionable web content/movies because this removal would enable the authorities to order un-blocking of this website,” the email said. (emphasis mine)
Feb
23
“Only two decades ago, few foreigners would have viewed this loose federation of seven independent sheikhdoms, strung out along the southeastern corner of the Persian Gulf, as a land of opportunity. But thanks to the world’s fifth-largest reserves of crude oil and natural gas, an estimated $1 trillion of investment abroad, and plans to spend at least $200 billion over the next decade on infrastructure and other grandiose projects in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, the two most dynamic emirates, the UAE has burst into the world’s—and belatedly, America’s—consciousness.“
Feb
23
Turkey Launches “Major” Ground Offensive in N. Iraq
Filed Under turkey, Iraq, Politics, War, News | Leave a Comment
A few months ago I asked whether the Turkish army would defy the pleas of its allies and launch what all the papers are calling a “major incursion” into Northern Iraq, as part of their ongoing battle with PKK militants. Turkey had periodically shelled areas of N. Iraq, but sentiments were still expressed that this would not escalate into a significant operation. Subsequent actions by the Turkish military however only grew in capacity, with air strikes climbing in frequency, giving U.S diplomats an ever augmenting political migraine.
Yesterday, thousands of Turkish troops were sent into the Kurdish dominated area in order to destroy the bases from which the militants are operating, according to Turkish television. U.S officials have disputed that figure, claiming the troops involved were in the hundreds. Either way, the situation looks to get increasingly hostile, and a Turkish military source suggested the operation would last up to 15 days.
Turkey’s military said the cross-border offensive, possibly the largest in a decade, would continue until they had stopped the threat from PKK rebels, who have been using northern Iraq as a base to stage attacks in Turkey.
It said in a statement 24 PKK rebels and five soldiers were killed in clashes in Iraq. It also said at least 20 rebels were killed in separate aerial attacks.
The United States urged Turkey, a key regional ally, to limit its offensive to precise PKK targets and to bring the operation to a swift conclusion. Iraq’s government called on Turkey to respect its sovereignty and to avoid any military action which would threaten security.
The European Union and the United Nations also urged restraint, fearing the offensive could jeopardize the most stable region in Iraq at a time when security is improving, and also rekindle tensions between Turks and ethnic Kurds.
The Turkish military said its troops had entered Iraq late on Thursday to destroy PKK camps and hunt rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has been battling for decades to create a Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey.
The operations inside Iraq will intensify tomorrow,” said a Turkish military source, who declined to be named. (link)
Feb
23
Hitchens On Kosovo
Filed Under links | Leave a Comment
“Forget all the nonsense that you may have heard about Kosovo being “the Jerusalem” of Serbia. It may contain some beautiful and ancient Serbian and Serbian Orthodox cultural sites, but it is much more like Serbia’s West Bank or Gaza, with a sweltering, penned-up, subject population who were for generations treated as if they were human refuse in the land of their own birth. Nobody who has spent any time in the territory, as I did during and after the eviction of the Serb militias, can believe for a single second that any Kosovar would ever again submit to rule from Belgrade. It’s over.“
Feb
23
Saudi To Hold First Film Festival Next Month
Filed Under Reform, Saudi Arabia, News | Leave a Comment
There are no cinemas in Saudi Arabia, at least no public ones. It never really bothered me while I was there because we’d get bootleg DVD’s of movies which hadn’t been released yet in the U.S., via our compound’s illegal DVD dealer video rental store.
Hooray for small victories, I guess. Either way, this is rather interesting news:
RIYADH: Ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia, where movie theaters are banned, will hold its first official film festival in May, a newspaper reported Tuesday. There have been smaller and informal movie screenings in recent years but the new festival, which will be underwritten by the government, will mark the first time film critics from the region will be invited to take part, reported the newspaper Arab News.
The planned annual event will start on May 20 and is organized by a literary club based in the eastern city of Dammam and the Saudi Society of Arts and Culture, the daily said.
Quoting poet Ahmad al-Mulla, a board member of the Dammam Literary Club, the paper said the five-day festival will feature Saudi and other Gulf and Arab movies of various genres
Films were once shown in private clubs in Saudi Arabia until all public screenings were banned in the early 1980s because they were considered against Islamic law. Saudi Arabia is the only country to have banned cinema houses in the conservative Gulf region.
But cafes in main cities show films, sports games and video clips on large television sets.
Arab News noted that Saudi filmmakers are getting more support abroad than inside the country. Saudi films have been featured at festivals elsewhere in the Gulf, but they have been totally ignored at home. - AFP
Feb
23
Anti-Islamic Movie Causing Uproar Before Release
Filed Under Netherlands, religion, Ridiculous, Iran, Politics, Egypt, News | 5 Comments
Dutch MP Geert Wilders, head of the PVV (Party for Freedom), has angered many self-interested religious leaders and foreign state officials with a movie critical of Islam, weeks before it has even been released. If you don’t know about this yet read up on it now, because the likelihood of an international wave of riots “protests”, a la last years’ cartoons, could very well be on the horizon:
“It is regrettable that European lawmakers and politicians use gratuitous methods to gain electoral votes by attacking the sacred values and religions of others,” foreign ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said in a statement.
Dutch far-right deputy Geert Wilders has said he will be airing on television in the Netherlands in March a controversial anti-Islam film called “Fitna” (Ordeal), which accuses the Quran of inciting people to murder.
Such politicians, Zaki said in reference to Wilders, “focus their hatred on Islam” and plan to broadcast a film undermining Islamic symbols.
These acts “feed hatred against Muslims and encourage extremism and confrontation instead of opting for dialogue based on mutual respect,” Zaki said.
This month Egypt banned the sale of four European newspapers for reprinting the Prophet pictures and summoned the ambassador of Denmark.
Now, I don’t think this movie will be of any intellectual value. And I have similar sentiments towards the man behind the film, but at the end of the day it’s one movie that will broadcast on Dutch television. Why is the Egyptian foreign ministry speaking out about this, before the movie has even been aired?
Mr. Zaki is partially correct in his statement about actions which feed hatred against Muslims and encourage extremism, albeit not for the acts his statements were made against. The reaction to every single anti-Islamic or Middle Eastern sentiment expressed in Europe by Arab (and Persian) government officials, as if to imply that people of that continent should censor themselves so as to never offend Muslims, has played a large role in fanning the flames of the reactionary “protests” we see around the world. Hopefully the Dutch government will do the right thing once the movie is released and respond firmly in support of free speech to any of the patronizing formal protests which will undoubtedly be hurled their way.
Feb
22
Arab leaders doubtful on 2-state solution to Palestinian conflict
Filed Under Palestine, Israel, Peace, War | Leave a Comment
“People no longer trust that a Palestinian state can be established, for one sole reason: the brutality of the Israeli state and the retreat of the Arab world… And this is why there is a return to the radicalization of the Arab attitude, meaning the words ‘peace process’ no longer hold any meaning.”
Feb
19
On The U.S Presidential Elections
Filed Under hope, U.S, Politics, Uncategorized | 1 Comment
So I took a break from blogging and there’s much news to get to. Many events have happened around the world in the past couple of month, and as I sit here and try to recall one of them, a single name keeps flashing through my head. Obama.
Not to cast any insignificance on the assassinations in Lebanon, Pakistan or Syria, or to belittle the ongoing crisis with Iran, but the first viable African American presidential candidate has most certainly made his presence felt in the media, rightly or wrongly. It is a presence that I’m dying to relieve myself of, and hopefully by spilling my thoughts out onto a blog post I’ll stop chanting “yes we can” in the mornings while I shower.
I’ve been following the U.S elections with increasing interest, and I liken the whole deal to a sporting event. From premature speculation about how the votes will be cast, to the minute by minute coverage of the Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries, there has been more than enough information to absorb.
It can probably be argued that many of us following the race know too much about it. Yet nothing quite beats the election coverage of American media outlets on the night of a primary. When did every cable news network turn into ESPN?
Not that it hasn’t been effective. I wake up every morning checking to see what has developed overnight. So with McCain as the presumptive Republican nominee, the race between a former first lady and a skilled but rhetorically shallow orator moves into sharper focus.
The candidates trash talk, insinuate falsehoods and at times lie openly about their opponents. You have pundits measuring how black, how feminine and how old the candidates are. All of this is ridiculous, to be sure, but I’m not an American and I’m entertained. I don’t care much for domestic policy disputes, since I’m not a U.S citizen and don’t live there. My initial interest in the race was to gauge which candidate would have the best policy towards countries in the Middle East and on the War on Terror, but I soon learnt that wasn’t very important. As I would find out, what is actually needed in the Mid East is more “diplomacy”. Gosh, how could we have been so stupid? Why did nobody think of that before?
Of course, people have thought of that before. The Bush administration has exhausted many avenues to pursue some sort of stability and peace in the troubled region, so the idea that a Democratic president would simply use diplomacy to settle foreign disputes is like revolutionizing the art of writing by reintroducing the pencil. It’s empty, meaningless rhetoric that shies away from addressing the nuances of a conflict in order to avoid controversy.
So what will Obama do on, say, that small issue of the Islamic Republic of Iran supporting and funding terrorist groups, bringing Lebanese political life to a halt, influencing militias in Iraq, threatening Israel, pursuing regional hegemony and apocalyptic weaponry? Simple, via his website:
Diplomacy: Obama is the only major candidate who supports tough, direct presidential diplomacy with Iran without preconditions. Now is the time to pressure Iran directly to change their troubling behavior. Obama would offer the Iranian regime a choice. If Iran abandons its nuclear program and support for terrorism, we will offer incentives like membership in the World Trade Organization, economic investments, and a move toward normal diplomatic relations. If Iran continues its troubling behavior, we will step up our economic pressure and political isolation.
In other words, he’ll try to lure away a tyrannical theocracy with money, in the hopes that they will stop killing people and running illegal militias. Just like all murderers are treated in the secular world. And if all that doesn’t work (it won’t), he’ll just continue doing what George Bush has done and isolate them. That’s not a plan, that’s naive bribery, with a fallback option of the status-quo.
Well, maybe Iran isn’t his strong suit. Pray tell, what will he do with Israel-Palestine?
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Obama will make progress on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a key diplomatic priority. He will make a sustained push – working with Israelis and Palestinians – to achieve the goal of two states, a Jewish state in Israel and a Palestinian state, living side by side in peace and security.
That’s all there is on the website. Nothing on how he’ll achieve all this, nor any mention of the right of return or Hamas. In fairness to him, the other candidates are equally as vague.
My point with all of this is that he is just another politician, an obvious fact which those who have resisted the lure of his personality cult still grasp. Yet too many have jumped aboard the Obama bandwagon as of late, and his ability to inspire hope (which is as ridiculous as it sounds) has touched people Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa. And for a while, he had gotten me too. In fact, I still hope for a few things.
I hope that his campaign will not raise people’s expectations as to what can be accomplished in the Middle East, only to be met with a shot of realism which sends those high hopes falling.
I hope that when Hezbollah gets so influential in the Middle East, or when Hamas destroys his efforts at consolidating peace with a suicide attack or barrage of rockets, that he will not legitimize them in the eyes of the world by negotiating with them.
I hope that the war which Al-Qaeda waged against his country will not be viewed solely in the vacuum of Pakistan and Afghanistan, while the spread of a theocratic, celestially mandated ideology continues to spread across the world.
Most of all, I hope that in 4 years time Obama will not have to face the world and reluctantly admit that “No, he really can’t.”
Feb
18
Links for 2008-02-18
Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Egypt shocked by ‘foul-mouthed’ Gaza cousins - Telegraph
“They used very bad language that we didn’t expect them to use. We had the impression before that they were good people going through a hard time. But this is not the way we expected them to be at all.”
AFP: Pakistan on election alert after suicide carnage
“There are now 46 people dead, and about 50 critically wounded who are being evacuated to Peshawar”
Barak: Syria, Iran may help Hezbollah retaliate for Mughniyah killing - Haaretz
“The IDF and defense establishment are prepared on all fronts,” he said. “We have no interest in escalation, but we will conduct ongoing situation assessments regarding threats abroad in order to be prepared.”
Here we go again: “More than a dozen Danish newspapers on Wednesday reprinted a cartoon that sparked massive protests in Muslim countries two years ago. The newspapers acted after police revealed an alleged plot to kill the creator of a caricature.”
Iran urges Dutch not to air Koran film: Reuters
Dutch MP Geert Wilders has created a controversy before even airing his movie.
Feb
17
Defending The Imam ‘Till The Very Last Moment
Filed Under Iran, Politics, Weird | Leave a Comment
“Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you’ve got to say, and say it hot.”
-D.H Lawrence
But try not to let it kill you..
TEHRAN, Feb 17, 2008 (AFP) — An Iranian ayatollah died suddenly of a heart attack during an impassioned speech lashing out at insults against the family of revolutionary founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in the run-up to elections, the press reported on Sunday.
Ayatollah Mohammad Reza Tavassoli, a former head of Khomeini’s office, died while delivering the speech to Iran’s main arbitration body, the Expediency Council, of which he was a member, the Kargozaran daily reported.
He had been responding to unprecedented ultra-conservative attacks against Hassan Khomeini, Ayatollah Khomeini’s respected grandson, who had criticised mass disqualifications in the March election and military interference.
“He was attacking those people with fossilized minds who attack the family and the ideas of the Imam Khomeini when he had a cardiac arrest,” Mohammad Hashemi, brother of council head Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, told the paper.
He also quoted a letter from Khomeini from the early days of the revolution denouncing “reactionaries who attack the family and friends of the Imam Khomeini under the pretext of defending him.”
“Defending the Imam until the very last moment,” lauded the headline of Kargozaran next to a picture of Tavassoli, 77.
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