Jefferson Corner

Original Post: 17 Nov 2005

Riots and more riots continue to take place in France notwithstanding efforts by the Sarkozy, the French minister of interior who also is now expelling thousands of kids away from France.
The fact that I am of an immigrant origin in the US, I can be more critical of France and the policy of France of not integration and down right racism.
The sad thing that we all need to remember is that France was, is and has always been a colonist country with racists streaks that runs deep in its politics and its cities. Let us all remember Jean Marie Lapin who are the leader of the French right always talked in very racist and plain language and who always accused immigrants, Arabs, and Muslims, winning at times more than 20% of the votes in the French National Assembly and in towns and cities. The French Right like its counter part in Republican Rights and German Rights always blame foreigners and immigrants for the problems and ills of France, US and Germany.
Fortunately for us in the US, we are a nation of immigrants and as such the hate for immigrants does come to and end, sooner than later, because even those xenophobic politicians in the end are from immigrant roots.
In France like all across Europe no efforts what so ever is made to integrate immigrants and give them a stake in the country of their choice. No efforts whatsoever to give these immigrants and their children an opportunity.
In the US, Congress recognizing that racism runs deep in our society, past many laws that made it illegal to discriminate based in race, color, religion, sex and national origin, even went further and past “affirmative action” to make sure that it gives Blacks and other minorities the playing lever field when it comes to education and employment.
Unlike American where those of Italians, Jewish, Irish, Slovak, Arabs, German, Russians are all considered Americans without ever giving up their “own” culture and heritage and where Muslims, Jews and Sikhs can be what they are in France, such rights are denied to people of other cultures. I can and do appreciate what it takes to “be an American” I could never understand nor ever understood what it takes to be French. In the US it does not take a whole lot to be an American, it takes only an oath and a pledge of allegiance and one can continue to eat Kosher, Halal, eat pasta, each Couscous, tabule, homos, chicken gulag, meat balls, wear the yarmulke, the hijab and be an American. In France, it seems it take more than that; it takes one to denounce one’s own culture and way of life to become French. Does it take to drinking wine, eat cheese, eat baguete and pork to become French? I don’t know and I don’t think that the “blue blooded” French know who is a French and what it takes to become French. Perhaps the French should go back to the world most famous French slogan “ L’egalite-Fraternite-Liberte” and forget about Hijab, forget about drinking red wine with meals and recognize that France is for all French; White, Black, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus and not only for “blue blooded, blue eyes, fair skin” French. France should give freedom and equality to all French irrespective of race, color, religion and national origin.
France must give true meaning to the words “L’egalite-Fraternite-Liberte”. These words when carried out to the true meaning will make France a true and free country and take its rightful place as the birth of freedom and liberty. We are all saddened by the events taking place in France, however nothing short of drastic and fundamental changes are need to make a difference and give those immigrants a stake in France and its future.

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Original Post: 17 Nov 2005

Sitting in Agadir, Morocco on a windy, hazy and lazy afternoon, I am enjoying reading Amin Maalouf’s book “ The Crusade Through Arab Eyes” a very well written and enjoyable book that takes one back in time to the “Christian Holy Wars” of time past.
In the chapter titled” The Cannibals of Ma’arra” I could not help but complete the chapter and go to my computer and write this short essay. For those who are familiar with Arab litterateur and poetry, most if not all recalls the blind poet Abu’l Ala’al-Ma’ari. I recall of his most famous verses where he blames his father for bringing him to this world and ask the question what did he do to his father to deserve such thing? I was so stuck with the following verses:
The inhabitants of the earth are of two sorts:
Those with brains and no religion,
And those with religion, but no brains.

I read this verse few days after terrorist and suicide bombers attached 3 hotels in Amman, committing mayhem and murder and ask the question do these people have any brains or any religion? My conclusion is those terrorists have neither brains nor religion.
Amin Maalouf’s book is such a timely reading because it takes us back to the days of the Crusades and I knew from my days in middle school about the crimes and murder committed by these Christian Holy Worriers but I never knew the extent of murder and systematic killing these Christian Holy Worriers engaged in. More than 10,000 inhabitant of the town of Ma’ara where put to the swords. These Holy Worriers put more than 70,000 Jews, Christians and Muslims to death in the holy city of Jerusalem.
In the days of the Crusades, it was the “Christians” who were committing such crimes and these days it is the “Muslims” who are committing similar crimes. While the numbers of those killed by these “Muslim Jihadists” did not reach the number of death and murder committed by the “Christian Crusaders” the result and the motives are the same. Evil, murder and killing that took place some 1000-year ago, is the same that is taking place now, where killing of innocent people is committed by those who profess faith. Islamic Jihadists of today are no better than Christian Holy Worriers of the past.
We only need to go back to the above verses and see that the finding of Al’Ma’ari and his definition of world inhabitants have evolved to the worst. In today’s world the people have no brains and no religion. It seems that religion and brain are incompatible today as it was incompatible in times past. We only need to look at today’s world leadership and see that “they” do not have the brain nor the religion, because of there are brains, the world will not be in such a big mess it is in now, and if there was religion the world will not be the big mess it is in now!
We only need to look at some of those “brains” and “religion” out there to see that they nave neither. Those who planned and executed the war in Iraq did not have the brain or the religion. Those those who are carrying out the mayhem in Iraq of suicide bombing have no religion and certainly have no brains. Those big time names of Christianity and Islam, the likes of Osama Bin Laden and Pat Robertson have neither brain nor religion. The Christian Crusaders of time past are criminal and as evil as the Muslim Jihadists of today. Let us hope that world leaders of the future will be blessed with both religion and faith. Those those who continue to insist on occupation in the name of God have neither brains nor religion. There comes a time, when we need to live free from fear of these Jihadists and live free from dictatorships and live free from military occupation.

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Original Post: 17 Nov 2005

The events of the last couple of weeks in France does not speak well of France, in fact does not speak well of all of Europe.
Unlike the US where, even with the problems and issues people and government have with immigration, for the most part the US is the only country in the world that immigrants have a chance, a chance to make it and become part of the American dream.
Not withstanding the xenophobic rhetoric we heard during this past election in the Commonwealth of Virginia where the Republican candidate tried but failed to succeed on promoting racism, and fear among Virginians and promoting and advocating fear from immigrants, American will always be the land of the free and home of the brave.
France like the rest of Europe has nothing to be proud of. The often mentioned logo of France; liberty, legality and fraternity does not fit with the reality that is France where immigrants even those who have lived in France for some 50 years will always find nothing but discrimination, and marginalization in France.
As an immigrant to the US and having lived in Europe (Switzerland) and having lived overseas for some 20 years I can testify to the marked difference between immigrants to Europe and immigrants to the US. A world of difference, where these immigrants enrich American.
My late father who immigrated to the US in his early fifties and who learned to read and write in night school sponsored by the YMCA and who worked as a labor in steal mills and with the City of Gary, always felt very proud of being an immigrant and his sense of belonging could never be higher that the date of elections when he always wear his political hat as a partisan Democrats who worked the poll stations. My late father always talked to me about Franklin Roosevelt and how Roosevelt, as a democrat always fought for the common and poor man who turned American around from a country of soup kitchens to America that liberated Europe and the Far East.
France like Germany and all countries of Europe never made any efforts what so ever to incorporate and integrate these immigrants to Europe and never gave them the opportunity to escape the cycle of poverty, violence and marginalization. I could never understand why children of immigrants are trapped into the lives of their fathers and why children of immigrants never find seats in some of the best universities in Europe where they can have an opportunity to become professors, scientists, businessmen, lawyers, economists and physicians. There is a world of difference between Europe and the US notwithstanding what Republicans like Kilgore believe in.
Dominique de Villepin, Nicolas Sarkosy and Jacques Chirac could ever have the vision that the US has. To these leaders and leaders all across Europe, immigrants are like the old Black salves in times past. Europe today is like the US of the turn of century when slavery and disfranchisement from society was the order of the day.
France and Europe don’t know what they are missing, and they are missing out a lot from the marginialization of immigrants and children of immigrants.
I always feel a great sense of pride and empowerments when I read in the papers that children of immigrants are top graduates in high school and in universities all across the country. Yes, American have lots of problems and we must never surrender to the xenophobic feeling of right wing politicians, but American remain the only country in the world that gives the opportunity to new immigrants and where children of immigrants are always proud of their immigrant roots. Let us not forget that the Holocaust and the ethnic cleansing and mass murder of Bosnians place in Europe.

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Original Post: 17 Nov 2005

After the tragic events in Amman and the murder of innocent people it is difficult to drop the subject of terrorism and the excuses it finds among Arabs and Muslims in the Middle East, not only among people in the streets but among intellectuals as well.
Fighting terrorism must start with every house, with every family, with every street and with every journalist and with every satellite channel, and of course with every mosque and with every imam in every mosque.
The sad events in Amman is a reminder that all of us, Arabs and non- Arabs, must stand united in fighting this scrooge that is out to kill and maim for the hell of it. These terrorist are worst that any creatures on earth. There must never be an excuse for killing people.
The Arab streets in Amman, in Riyadh, in Casablanca, in Sann’a, in Ramallah and Gaza must stand up against terrorism loud and clear and must condemn this new culture of death that is but a cancer among nations.
I was in Casablanca when terrorist attached several locations and killed scores of innocent people and I was very impressed with the hundreds of thousands of Moroccan as they took to the streets to condemn such terrorist attached and I did not see any single Moroccan who went to give condolences to the families of those who committed such murder.
What I have seen in Casablanca I would like to see in Cairo, in Damascus, in Beirut, in Ramallah, in Gaza and in Riyadh and Baghdad. We need to make sure the terrorists know that they have no support what so ever in the Arab streets, they must know that they do not represent any one and certainly they are not Islam. These terrorists are nothing but misfits and killers and murderers who should pay a very high price for the murder they committed.
I am also calling on Palestinians to openly and publicly reject suicide bombing and must give a clear message to those who plan suicide bombing their pictures and posters will not adorn walls and streets and people will not visit and give condolences to their families and that no one, no one in Palestine will ever celebrate the death of a suicide bomber.
Yes, there are many grievances the Arabs and Muslims have against their own governments and against the West in General and the US in particular. Certainly against Israel and its racist and murderous policies, but there must never be any excuses for committing murder against innocent people; Jews and gentiles, Muslim and Arabs.
Such a culture of terrorism is not an Arab and Muslim culture. Before Muslim and Arabs started to commit these acts of terror and suicide bombing, many nations, people and culture did engage in such criminal and uncivilized activities. I reject claims by so called experts on terrorism like Steve Emerson and members of Congress and their staff who always try to make it a point that terrorism is nothing but an Arab and Muslim intrinsic trait. Individuals like Steve Emerson and members of Congress have their own agenda and it is not an American agenda. The US should understand and accept the right of people to reject and fight foreign occupation and Iraq and Occupied Palestine must not be an exception to the rule and that not all resistance to occupation are acts of terror.
The US as the leader of the so-called “Free World” should take the lead in pushing for a world conference on terrorism and liberation making a distinction between the two. At the same time there should be no distinction between acts of terrorism committed by groups and individuals and acts of terrorism committed by a state in pursuit of its policies. Let us not confuse acts of terrorism and acts of liberation.

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Original Post: 19 Nov 2005

Bayan Jaber Solaj, the Iraqi minister of interior not only should resign but should stand trial as well. The man is not only an arrogant minister who have a habit of insulting others (he called the Saudi “Bedouins” who could not teach him any thing) that is for sure, the Saudis could not teach such an arrogant and corrupt man any thing, he is too far gone to be salvaged by the Saudis and the Americans.
The discovery of “secret” prisons belonging to the ministry of interior where systemic abuse and torture takes places is enough reason for Solaj to step down and stand trial. The fact that he knew of such secrete prisons, and the fact that he know there was systematic torture of prisoners, are enough reasons for the man to get the hell out of the office and to take his place in the dock, in the court room with Saddam and his Baathist murderers.
Yes, one can understand the Shiite and what they had to endure during Saddam regime and one can understand the anger and frustration the Shiite have against the Sunnis who misruled and misused and abused Iraq and Iraqis for a long time, but that does not in any way ever, justify the abuses the Sunnis have to endure at the hand of Iraqi Shiites. This is not what this whole thing in Iraq is all about.
What the Iraqis need is not another Baathist regime like that of Saddam. What Iraqis need is not another Shiite regime like next door Iran responsible for the killing and murder of tens of thousands who challenged the mullahs of Iran. The Mullahs of Iran put to death, not supporters of the late Shah, but ordinary Iranians who saw that the Islamic revolution eating and devouring its sons and daughters. We do not need Shiite regimes like that of Iran. What the people of Iraq need is a democratic, secular state where citizens of Iraq can be equal in the eye of the law. What the Iraqi needs is not a secular criminal regime like that of Saddam’s Baathist regime, and do not need a regime of the Mullah, certainly, we do not need a regime like that of Paul Bremer and Solaj. Iraq and Iraqis more than ever needs freedom, freedom from fear, freedom of religion and from religion, freedom from war lords like those they had in Kurdish areas and certainly they do not need a Shiite or a Sunni majority, but an Iraqi democratic majority.
Hell broke lose when the Americans where caught on camera abusing prisoners in Abu-Ghraib prison, and the entire world jumped on the US demanding apologies and trials for those who committed such crimes. We should not demand less than that Now.
Well what the world now demands from Mr. Solaj is nothing less, and since he is directly responsible for authorizing such a systematic torture, then nothing short of resignation and trial will do.
I never could understand what is going on in Iraq and I like the recommendation of Dr. Salmeh, the former Lebanese minister of information and culture where he said in recent interview, that every one should have known that Iraq is quite an interesting and complicated country and once you open the door on such a complex problem you better come up with very original ideas, that address this strange combination of mosaic.
What is more surprising in the case of secret Iraqi prisons is the silence of the Shiite leaderships, a silence no less worrisome that the silence of the Sunni leadership at the ever increasing wave of suicide bombing and killing of innocent Iraqis committed by Sunni fighters. What Iraq needs is an outstanding secular leadership that keeps religious leaderships where it belong in the mosques and put criminal sectarian leadership behind bars for failing to stop all of the killings that is going on. The torture of Sunnis in secrete Shiite jails is no less dangerous that suicide bombing carried by Sunnis against Shiites. Iraq needs responsible leadership for a change not killers and murderers to rule it.

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Original Post: 19 Nov 2005

What is the hell is going within the US Congress? Republican turned what should be a debate on the war in Iraq to a debate on patriotism and who is a coward? What a shame. But then Republicans these days have no sense of shame or patriotism.
It is very unlikely that finally the US Congress wakes up to its responsibility for the nation and decided to debate the War in Iraq couple of years later, couple of thousand dead soldiers later, and couple of hundred billion later? No, I do not believe it. What is going on in Congress has nothing to do with the war in Iraq but has every thing to do with the Republicans siege of the nation and the Republican definition of patriotism and loyalty to the country. It is war of intimidation and war against America.
Every debate that has to do with national security, or national interest or national priorities, or national rights and freedoms, or economic priorities always changed and manipulated by the Republican leaderships in the White House and Congress to debate on patriotism and loyalty to the country. I will not be surprised if the debate on abortion will also become a debate defined in terms of patriotism and treason.
The action of Representative Jean Schmidt is insult to all American and should be an insult to all Republicans as well. The personal attach on Congressman John P. Murtha is for sure meant to intimidate the nation and attempt by “Republican Chicken Hawks” to define what is America all about and who is a patriotic American and who is not.
One only need to see of those who where the “godfathers” of the war in Iraq how many of these in fact enlisted and joined the US military? Non-is the answer. Vice President Dick Chaney claimed had has some other “important” things to do that join the US military. Richard Perl, Douglas Feith, Paul Wolfowitz, perhaps fined it more compelling to join the IDF and lobby on behalf of Jonathan Pollard than join the US military.
One thing Representative Jean Schmidt and the entire Republican leadership have to understand and be reminded of is that a debate on war and peace, a debate that will send our men and women in harms way, have nothing to do with the crap that is “Republican Patriotism”. We must never allow these “Republican Chicken Hawk” define for us what is American Patriotism. We do need a lesson from Republican in Congress or the White House to teach few bits on US patriotism. Who in the hell they are to dare to tell us and define for us what is American patriotism is all about. Patriotism is standing up for America’s ideals and values. Standing up and fighting for America freedom and liberty, and standing up for freedom and liberty abroad, not to go to war on false pretenses and fraudulent claims and allow all the crooks and thieves the Republican Party can fined, to rape Iraq and raid our US and Iraqi national treasuries, and allow crooked businessmen and companies to defraud US Treasury out of billions of dollars of hard earned US tax dollars. We better see hundreds of crooks go to jail.
One thing Representative Schmidt failed to understand that a debate on the war in Iraq has nothing to do with American commitment to patriotism, but has every thing to do with Americas national interest and Iraqi national interest, and more importantly the very lives of those we decided to send to war to fight in a war that has no legitimacy what so ever. Instead of manipulating and hijacking the debate and make it about “patriotism” perhaps Republican and Democrats can wake up and live up to their responsibility of debating issues of national interests and rights, and leave patriotism to every single and individual Americans. We, as citizens can teach few Republicans what patriotism is all about. Let us put an end to this crap that is called “Republican Patriotism”.

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