High Noon in Arabia: The Rise of Islamic Democracies

Scholars in Islamic lands and non-Muslims outside, together debate whether or not Islam is democratic. It certainly is in spirit: there are no priests, and everyone is equal essentially. But in the letter of the law?

Our readers know the operable truths behind this debate. Bedouin tribes routinely elect their chiefs, who then represent their interests. Muhammad and his companions must have been democrats, as they won the support of diverse, fractious Medina (from year 0 to 8, 622-30 AD). The traditional view is that Muhammad left no instructions for a successor, but that is not true: he sanctioned the election of the kaliph, the lawful successor, by the community of scholars. He must have chosen this method, because the first four kaliphs – Abu Bakr, Omar, Uthman, and Ali – were all elected.

Back then, even during the prophet's lifetime, there was no 'Islamic religion' with all that that means today. The Shari'a had not even been countenanced, though Muhammad was known as a legal mediator. Even before he was a prophet, he understood perfectly the unwritten desert codes of the Hijaz, the Najd, the Syrian desert, and Southern Mesopotamia, all which derive from earlier Neolithic laws.

The rise of civilization as we know it was closely accompanied by the rise of written law. But the Jews, the Arabs, the Greeks had no notion of this earlier Neolithic period. But those living as nomads or close to nomads, certainly recognized and respected, these old desert laws.

These laws were worked out some 6000-8000 years ago, between settled communities, nomads, and traders. While most history portrays nomads as barbarians, destroying civilizations, they were actually essential to them.

Curiously, the Abrahamic religions stem from nomads (Christ wandered, hated cities, and preached to shepherds). In a key way, they were the nomad's response to the religious/civil laws of civilizations: Sumer, Babylonia, Phoenicia, Assyria, Hatti, Persia, Byzantium, Yemen. They preach equality between members (not universal freedoms).

They also preach genocide against each others. The Book of Revelations, for example, is full of genocide, as is some 8 of the 26 books comprising the Torah. Some Quranic verses, taken out of context, also appear to prescribe elimination of a group because of their religion, race, class or gender.

Since everyone is to blame, there's no need to play the blame game. And it is too late to be a pessimist: genocidal projects are well underway, including slow-motion genocide. Some radical Arab groups, Sunni and Shi'a, vow to drive the Israelis (and all Jews) into the sea, while a group of hard, mean racist Zionists expand their settlements “into all of Israel.” Iran is building a nuclear weapon, and a missile to convey it to Tel Aviv and/or Manama.

The US position in Arabia is shattered because of its acquiescence in the genocidal project of hard-line racialists - establishment of  Jewish settlements (by force) on the West Bank of Palestine. So much for the 2-state arrangement: why even maintain that idea? And so much for peace. Forget about that also.

Hypocrisy breeds hatred. The US loses influence in Egypt, in Yemen, in Iraq, and its politicians are loathe to criticize the Israelis for anything – even the pilfering of US secrets. The southern Republicans are also Zionists responsible for pushing through the Great Israel project. Some, like the venal Rick Perry and the louche Newt Gingrich – pledge to open war against the Iranians, if elected president. How dark can humans be?

Most analysts expect the Israelis to act, to bomb the bomb and missile factories in Iran. The two big ones are underground, easy found using Google Earth, just outside Natanz and (to the north) Qom.

Here, at Speculum, I presented to my elected officials and their staffs, a way to bring Iran and the US together, providing books to the Afghans. You can find that at http://www.centralasianlawreview.blogspot.com

Since Islam is compatible with modern democracy, the West should train at least one or two non-Muslim social scientists who have read deeply in fiqh and shari'a.

We cannot wait for that, so are moving into moderating Islam to fit modern world standards. Also, we will be converging on a number of offices in the USA, in a bid to seek peace. We write in Persian to the Iranians, in Turkic to all the Turks, and in Arabic to the Arabs.

Muhammad was a modest man. So were Moses and Jesus of Nazareth. Yet the leaders of Iran, Israel, Egypt and the Republicans in the USA, are not modest men. Far from it. But “he who is most humble is most arrogant” so the clerics are fair game in this turkey shoot. Many secretly aimed to win temporal power. They sanctify genocide, even against their own.

Indeed, the whole world should be critical of Muslims who put dress above conscience, and who like to pray before others (so as to win them). Some of the Shari'a is not Islamic and should be excised:  the laws of stoning-to-death, the cutting off of hands, hostility to foreigners and non-Muslims, repression of women, terror and offensive Jihad – these laws come from elsewhere, that is, they are not Islamic at all, and must need be expunged from all courts through the Muslim world and its diaspora.

Muslims react, blaming the West. But most Western states better incorporate the essential values of Muhammad and of God, the rule of law, economic opportunity, human rights, and mobilization of its women. This is why the great Islamic reformer Jalal ad Din al Afghani (19^th C) said: “I search the east and found many Muslims but no Islam. I went to the West and found no Muslims but I found Islam.”

The pressures on human populations are such that they can no afford dictators (and their dynasties) or to indulge in the politics of symbolic appeal. Also, let us seek support in the Torah, in Exodus 20:7, where God says: “Do not use my name to cause harm. If you do, I will punish you especially severely.”

Egypt -

Today (Feb.11 2012) the chairman of the American Joint Chiefs of Staffs (Gen. Martin Dempsey) met in Cairo with the leaders of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, led by the Sphinx, Marshall Tantawi. They have so much to discuss. The Egyptian armed forces are about to be denied the Pentagon teat, to the tune of some $3 billion/year (including all contracts).

Everyone seems to be taklking about the unholy alliance between the army and the Islamists: these two totalitarian forces want to keep control. The educated secular non-Islamists who started the revolution, have been cut out. It's hard for them to speak up, as their ideas can easily be ridiculed as 'western' by the Islamists and the face-sensitive army.

Hosni Mubarack's trial is a distraction. The new rulers (his appointees) want to blame it all on him, so they can retain their assets and their controls. He was not a Qadhafy or an al Asad or even an Ali Saleh. Mubarack  was not so bad, many Egyptians believe, compared with anarchy or the rabid nationalism of Gamal Abdul Nasser.

SCAF is using the same rationalew to kill Egyptians as Bashar al Asad uses to kill his own Syrian people: they are terrorists under the control of foreign powers.

Even as I write, there are some 500 demonstrators in Tahrir Square demanding that SCAF resign and hand over power. Most Egyptians, however, want life to get back to normal, and so descry the occupation of Cairo's most important round-about.

As we saw over the past months, the Islamists all together comprise some 76% of the parliamentary seats, a clear majority, likely to veto 'minority' positions held by secular educated Egyptian professionals. But the group to watch is the April 6^th Youth Movement. These are Egyptian students well armed with electronic devices, who can summon into the streets.

SCAF made a mistake in arresting and holding and charging, some 44 members of foreign NGOs dedicated to democratizing Egypt. This harsh move comes as a logical next step after SCAF's prosecution of some 12,000 demonstrators.

Syria -

The carnage continues, with death rates double what they were just last month. The center of opposition is in Homs, which was an independent kingdom (called Emesa) not so long ago, and for a long time. Homs had endured, with Hama, a repression of opportunities (and lives), so it is natural that the city should demonstrate, resist and now fight, as best they can.

Democrats in and out of Syria support the demonstrators. But the protesters are themselves split, between the hard line who will battle to the death, till Al Asad and his cronies leave office, to the more moderate, better educated protesters who want a negotiated settlement, leading to a new kind of government.

The Syrian Free Army will slowly grow, but they're no match for Syria's armed forces and secret police.

Russian foreign minister Lavrov visits Damascus on the 9-10^th of Feb.. After their meeting, al Asad said: “We will ceasefire and talk.” But he just orders more killing. On the 11^th, a high-ranking Syrian general is shot dead on the streets of Damascus.

It's too late to be pessimistic. All the Syrian regime needs to do, is back off, stop firing at citizens. But no army will let deserters organize against it. The regime is under pressure to root out 'the armed terrorists.'

Lebanon-

On the 11^th of Feb., 2012, fighting broke out in the streets of South Beirut, as Shi'a Islamists fight with Sunni Islamists. Hizbullah of course is funded by Alawite Syria, while the Palestinian refugees and other Sunnis, want Al Azsad down and down in such a way he does not get up again. Both have sent fighters over the border into Syrian, and many weapons and much ammo.

Palestine -

Fatah leader Abu Abbas (Abu Mazen) and Hamas leader Khalid Mashal sign documents unifying their two fiefdoms, each a vital part of any Palestinian state. Unfortunately, those who oppose peace have the guns and the justifications to kill.

Iraq -

Iraq is in a parlous state, split between Shi'a and Sunni. Even the Kurds are split. Iran is slowly taking over. Sunni fighters are also streaming in from Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. Nur al Maliki is a sop to Muhammad Sadr, the rash bumpkin and Irani stooge, who never fails to voice hate to America as a glue to hold his disparate people together.

The new American embassy opens, but will house only 8,000 Americans, not the 16,000 originally planned. But even the Green Zone has been divided by the regime into sections where foreigners have problems getting through.

By 'High Noon' we mean a moment of decision.

by JPM, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts   Feb. 14, 2012 

Assessing Arab Revolutions After One Year

As if the year were itself a new, more intense octave, violence flared up in Syria, Egypt, Libya, Sudan, Somalia and the Yemen. Iraq too, seems to be descending into chaos. One hopes for countervailing forces and factors, but every group pursues its own interests. The revolutions have been usurped by groups with narrow interests.

Syria -

Some 200 Syrians were killed on Feb.4, a casualty level of civil war. These atrocities occurred because Al Asad knows Russia, Iran and China will be in support. Sudan, Eritrea, as well.The Arab League is rife with intrigue and accusations, and is not yet able to field a delegation seeking a ceasefire.

The recent one-month long Arab League Monitoring Mission to Syria was narrowly voted to continue – but not now. It is not clear whether they have an assertive peace plan. Though the Arab League under Amr Musa (Mousa) seemed to side with the protesters, the conservative members, led by Sudan and including Morocco and Algeria, Eritrea and Bahrain, appear to set the terms of peace – surrender to the authorities.

The opposition in Syria is divided between those who want to negotiate a new government, and those who want to fight the regime to the end. And while no outside power will offer direct military assistance, Turkey, Qatar and even Saudi Arabia, are exploring ways by which they can, separate or together, clip Al Assad's wings. All those Special Operations troops want to go in. They start by arming the opposition – supplying ammo, water, food and fuel.

The regime will try to control all the roads, but these can be hit, forcing the regime to pull back its forces, to protect government installations and VIPs. So we see the Syrian situation evolving this way.

The massive assault launched by the noxious 4^th brigade, first on eastern Damascus, then in and around Homs – has killed a thousand or so. This is not fighting but the firing of large-caliper weapons intro crowded urban neighborhoods.

One would have thought that the world community might pull together around a condemnation (with sanctions) of such inhumane behavior, but Russia and China have refused any UN support for military intervention in Syria.

The whole Arab world is wondering why Russia and China are taking such obstructionist positions. They can only be what they are. We expect the situation in Syria to intensify, even to the point of civil war. Last week, some 200 innocents were killed in one day, and those figures are those of a civil war.

Meanwhile, the Hamas leadership, in exile in Damascus, decides to flee, some going to Doha, others to Amman, and others to Egypt and from Egypt, back to Gaza. In Doha,  Khalid Meshal, head of Hamas, meets with Abu Mazen (Mahmud Abbas) to a new attempt at reconciliation.

Egypt -

The anniversary two weeks ago brought hundreds onto the streets around Tahrir Square, Cairo. The big push from below is to curb the power of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), led buy the Sphinx, Marshall M. Hussein Tantawi.

What enervates educated people in Cairo is that the army, police and the Islamists have worked out loose arrangement to share power and to keep it from the 'west-influenced troublemakers', i.e. the secular democrats.'

Last month M. El Baradei threw in the towel, convinced the elections for president this summer, will be rigged. El Baradei had worked out an alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood, only to have it blown up in his face when the Brothers took up the army's bid for totalitarian control. How naïve.

Yemen -

Readers of this blog have been able to chart the slow disintegration of the country called Yemen Republic. After one year of unrest, the southern province of Abyan (including the port city of Aden) and Shabwa province in the east, have fallen under al Qaida control. In the past week, some 200 Yemeni soldiers have been killed at their posts, while on patrol, and in their barracks.

This is unusual development to us, as it was apparent, a year ago, that extreme poverty and the breakdown of eco-socio-nets, meant the rise of local hotheads who can supply necessities.

Two weeks we noted that the UN was sandbagging all its offices, particularly those in the Aden area, now flooded with refugees. More unfortunately, we see the new Vice President, Mansur al Hadi, inviting Al Qaida to join the government in talking out solutions.

Al Qwaida of the Arabian Peninsula is just one of the groups claiming Islam as their own and vowing to wage war on non-Muslims. Unfortunately, most of the food aid, fuel discounts and ammo comes into the country by ship at Al Hudaidah thanks to non-Muslims. But the clerics provide some solace as the people starve.

Again, as in Egypt and Syria and Tunisia and Libya, the educated democrats have been pushed to the side. The army is in control, around Sana'a and Ta'iz (perhaps), but not in Abyan and Shabwa, or in the north, around Sa'ada.

Jordan -

King Abdullah II received Hahas leader Khalid Mashal on February 6, 2012. Hamas is fleeing Damascus – it's too hot for the Islamists – which also coincides with talks between Fatah and Hamas, over a new unity government, formed by elections.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) as fallen steeply over the past months. Whether the newly unemployed will side with the Muslim Brothers and/or the Salafis, is not yet known. Islamists now control most labor unions and professional associations.

Israel and Palestine -

Mahmud Abbas of Fatah and Khalid Mishal of Hamas met in Qatar in the latest step in their reunion. The Israeli line is that such reunion threatens peace. But not so fast. A Palestinian government, elected, would be a better position to negotiate than either party at present. Of course there are many who do not want any peace agreement - Jews and Arabs alike.