From Guantanamo bay, the message is clearThe crescent versus the cross, again? [Archives:2005/843/Opinion]
It seems that the Bush Administration has decided to do away with all morals, human rights, tolerance and all the other niceties developed by prophets, philosophers, some good politicians and the sacrifices of so many human lives for the sake of freedom and justice over the ages. Not one month will pass without some ugly scene coming out of the quagmire of repulsive deeds that the machine that the White House created on a misleading anti-terrorism platform that is as convincing nowadays as saying that the American South fought the North to free the slaves. Even before the Abu Ghreib scandals have yet to see the hopes of justice one expected in the great tradition of American fair adjudication of moral issues, the news from Guantanamo says, “You ain't seen nothing yet!” What mentality would drive any human being to take the words of the Al-Mighty, addressed to all humanity and flush them down the toilet? How much insolence must one be prepared to see from an Administration that claims it is getting advice from its “father up in the heavens”?
Ironically, the YT's literary critic (See Literary Corner) is doing a review of a book that looks at the Holy Scriptures in all their manifestations, Jewish, Christian and Moslem (yes, the Qur'an is also scriptures) and the author of the book in question I must say took great pains to emphasize to his fellow Christians (I believe he is Catholic), “hay you fellow worshippers of the cross, there is a lot of sense in the Qur'an and if the Qur'an recognizes the Scriptures of Moses and Jesus, then we should at least return the gesture in kind, if not better!” Those are not exactly his words, but the implications point in this direction without fail.
Better yet, Moslems are ready to accept the ingrained hatreds of the so called neo-conservative evangelists against Moslems (as much lip service as we hear from Washington to the contrary, we honestly have no second doubts it is there). After all, any clique that has decided to ally itself with one the most chauvinistic ideologies of modern time and the likes of Ariel Sharon and BB Netanyahu certainly thrives on hate and narrow interests and certainly are as distant from religion as the perpetrators of Deir Yassin and Sabra and Shatilla. But if they do not revere the Qur'an as we revere their scriptures (even in their corrupted renditions), then at least they should leave it alone and not add insult to injury. Surely, the Qur'an has its rightful place in the hearts of Moslem, as it should for all God fearing individuals, as it is the only Scriptures that actually endorse the scriptures that Mr. George W. Bush says he is upholding and living by! He probably never read the Qur'an, or probably has no idea what the word Qur'an means. Mr. Bush simply could not have read the Qur'an, because the morals and teachings of the Qur'an are far more than Mr. Bush and his lynch men in Guantanamo Bay could understand or wish to live by.
So, Mr. Bush thinks that a fuzzy apology by Newsweek (but not a retraction, mind you) dissolves him from responsibility in all the evil that has come out of the White House, not just against Moslems, but even against his own people (except the rich ones of course). It is certainly enough to listen to the reports of the tens of deaths that are coming out of Iraq to presume that Mr. Bush has no desire to go to paradise or seek the favor of the Lord. But to allow such horrible desecration of the words of the Al-Mighty surely indicates that Mr. Bush has no desire whatsoever to reach the Al-Mighty as long as his friends in the military-industrial complex are happy. No, for Mr. Bush and his neo-conservative demagogues, there is no place for God in their hearts. Throughout history, men have used God to serve their own selfish interests or those that guarantee their hold on power and were as distant from the Al-Mighty as anyone can be. “You ain't seen nothing yet!”
On Democracy in Yemen
The closing chapter of the marginal democracy that we thought we had in Yemen has just been written by the regime recently with its incomprehensible attacks against some of the political parties that are exercising only the minimum rights accorded to them by the Constitution of the Republic of Yemen. Frankly speaking, the tie-up between the Houthi rebellion and the Party of Truth and the Federation of Popular Forces is not convincing or even clear. There were a lot of people, who were opposed to the latest and previous outbreak of fighting against the poor and deprived people of Sa'ada. These two parties were not the only opponents. Many of us, who were not associated with any political parties or any organized political association tried very hard to seek justifications for the senseless killings in Sa'ada In fact most of those who expressed their hopes that the end of the fighting would serve the interests of Yemen better than any fighting that probably was intended to serve interests that have nothing to do with the interests of the nation as a whole, were outside of any political or ideological inclinations. Even many of those who wrote in the press organs of these two parties were not of any partisan inclination.
The Latent Biases of Yahoo!
Strangely enough if you are a continuous browser into the Yahoo Live Newsfeed on Yemen, you will be surprised to find that for some inexplicable reason, you will find the Yemen Times erased from any mention. This is an unusual development, we thought deserved explanation from Yahoo! Efforts by this observer and others to get an explanation from Yahoo did not produce any results. There was not even an acknowledgement that Yahoo received our inquiries. We have two possible explanations for this strange behavior by a presumably respectable web server: 1) Locally, there may have been pressure to remove the YT from the newsfeed (the competition is enjoying extensive coverage, even if the articles are of no intrinsic value to any reader); 2) This may be the work of MERLI and AIPAC (American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee), who may not be pleased with the position of some of the writers in the YT about the International Zionist Establishment, not to mention the positions of some writers on the misdeeds of the Bush Administration. We read your mind, although we do Yahoo with Yahoo!
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[archive-e:843-v:13-y:2005-d:2005-05-19-p:opinion]
