Vicious Vortexes: a Line of Dancing Winds, from Xinchiang Province of China through Western Asia into Africa as far a Mauritania on the Atlantic.

Let us list the cyclonic 'winds' now whipping up dust in the settlements of Africa, the Middle East, Central and South Asia. Uyghur resistance in Kashgar, Yarkand, Akcha, Urumchi. Terrorist attacks as far distant as Kunming in Yunnan Province. A devilish set of conditions afflicting both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Iran's involvement in Iraq and in the Syrian war, in support of Bashar Al Asad. Daghestan, where a gangster-style low-intensity war sputters daily with shootings, etc. In Yemen, Eritrea and Ethiopia, into Somalia. Inside Africa, a new Saharan front opens with insurgency in Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Central Africa Republic, with cross-Saharan links to Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia and Egypt. Then there is Syria, in its fpourth year of civil war. Like other Arab revolutions, the militant Jihadists gain control over the movement, using extreme violence to eliminate opposition. Iraq is a gaping wound that will not heal. On June 11th, 2014, ISIS captured Iraq's second city, Mosul and is now marching on Baghdad.

Syria –

The moderate secular leadership of the Syrian resistance met with European leaders today, on the 12th of January 2014. The growing prominence of Al Qaida-linked Jihadi militants is largely because of direct assistance in sending arms and ammunition. Again, the same actors are involved.

Next week features a more comprehensive engagement putting rebels face-to-face with regime diplomats. The international community will try to persuade all three sides to put down their weapons. We examined the conditions necessary for a ceasefire, in several issues in 2012.

There are no fixed lines in this war. The regime must control at least 85 of some 123 districts. Syria looks like a checker board with three colors instead of two. The regime is still dropping barrel bombs on civilians. The secular rebels, whose revolution this is, are under pressure to perform. Casualties have been very high these past few weeks.

In the east, pro-Al Qaida militias have won control over Raqqah on the Euphrates River. That means there is a direct corridor for Sunni Jihadists

According to the UN, in the past three years, some 9 million Syrians have lost their homes. 160,000 Syrians are trapped without water or food in outlying districts of Damascus. Meanwhile, the Syrian Army is active in Aleppo, killing civilians as they emerged into daylight.

The world has not seen such a massive displacement of people, at least in this century. Syria is melting down. Outside powers do not want to discuss peace as long as their favorites are in disadvantageous positions.

In next week’s Syrian Peace Conference in Geneva, the original Sunni militants, led by Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, may not attend. Any peace deal must replace Bashir Al Asad and his henchmen.

Iraq –

War breaks out as Iraqi soldiers shell Fallujah and Ramadi. The Sunni minority is hanging on. All the pressure on, and exclusion of, the Sunnis by the Shia-led government, has left them with little choice except terror and bombings. Anbar province in Iraq’s southwest is Sunni controlled. The Sunni Jihadists in Raqqah, Iraq, have opened a corridor for Jihadis further west, to make it to Syria and Iraq.

Over the past two years, bombs have been going off weekly. They are usually planted in markets or churches or mosques or police and army outposts. Iraq has asked the USA for help and Mr. Obama will be providing Predator drones.

Egypt –

With presidential elections looming, players are jockeying for position. The local buzz in Cairo and Alexandria is that Maj. General Abdel Fattah al Sisi will join the race. Meanwhile, the Muslim Brotherhood has been forced underground. An urban terror is now part of life in and around Cairo.

In just a week or so, Egyptians will be going to the polls in a referendum on replacing the MB constitution (approved 2012). Adly Mansur remains interim president.

Yemen – 

To understand Yemen, one need remember the showdown between the Yemeni government and the Al Qaida of the Arabian Peninsula. AQAP was established in January 2009. The Yemeni government lost no time making war on AQAP. By late 2009, tens of thousands had been displaced. In February 2012 AQAP bombed the presidential palace, forcing Ali Saleh to flee the country.

The 2011 revolution in Yemen was to prevent Ali Saleh from handing over rule of Yemen to his son. That will not happen. The presidential platform of Abd Rabbu Mansur Hadi is multi-faceted. He has managed to extend government services, particularly in the south. 

One should bear in mind that Yemen’s government is not in full control. The tribes step in, setting up roadblock ‘checkpoints’  Will those tribes fall into line behind President Hadi? Some already have joined the government. Many are sitting on the fence.

Mansur Hadi comes from the south, from Abyan province. Maybe this helps him knit the fabric of Yemen back together. He is reforming the army, disbanding the Revolutionary Guards, and setting up military units whose prime mission will be the preservation of a strategic reserve.

Libya –

After Qadafi was killed, the militia did not put down their weapons. Today, there some 1,700 militia units in Libya. Most are well-armed. They control stretches of road, neighborhoods, sections of the grasslands. Rebels in Misrata and Tripoli have little incentive to cooperate with Benghazi. Huge stockpiles of weapons and ammunition were transferred to Jihadis. The problems in Niger and Mali following the overthrow of Qadafi, were made possible by these weapons.

Our investigation of newly-appointed national Libyan officials came out positive.

Turkey - 

The ruling party Justice and Development Party is fighting to suppress the Gulen Foundation. We believe the Turkish poresident is trying to grab all power. He already dominates the executive and legislative wings of government. 

One cannot mock God...

Egypt: Police and Interior Ministry troops open fire on a mass illegal rally by the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), killing some 50, wounding some 160. Their manifestation was seen as a provocation by many. Mr. Morsi was elected because Qatar gave some $8 billion to in fluence the election. Once in power, Mr. Morsi failed to bring in secular officials, thus ending any recovery. The self-described 'good Muslims' are using their faith, their din, to bolster their own identities, personal and collective.

Ask any one of them: Do you serve God and Islam? They will say, of course we do.That is not Islam.  I cannot help God. God helps me. Why is that reversed with many religious activists? Whenever Islam or any religion is used to bolster and enact egos, group egos, then crimes and divisive talk are not far behind. As soon as a group becomes exclusive, it runs off the rails.

Syria: the UN arms control teams are destroying the Syrian regime's chemical weapons. We were right in our assessment that Syria did not possess large quantities of Sarin and Chlorine., Will this willingness to compromise by the regime lead perhaps to a ceasefire? If Russia wants...

Yemen festers. The army is unable to control Shabwa and Anbar provinces in the south, and the Hadramaut. An attack occurred in Mukalla in late September. Saudi Arabia is constructing a wall to block the transit of Yemen-based extremists, terrorists.

Iraq: Violence in Iraq has been increasing since 2011. Al Qaida is responsible for most bombs. Iranian intelligence is assisting the Shi'a. But under the current imam not much hope for intelligence. Will the Shi'a start bombing Sunnis? They already are.

Both sides blame the Americans for unleashing their mutual hatred. While the US Army was in Iraq, it was a buffer between the various groups, so the violence dropped. Knocking out Saddam blew out the firewall between Iran and Syria.

American media commissioned a group of Iraqi social scientists to figure out how many people, on average, succumbed to Saddam's regime. They said before 30-50,000 per year were killed, not to mention many incidents of torture and imprisonment. US forces killed some 120,000 in the first three months.

Of course competent American analysts, those specialists in the Middle East, bewail the Bush War in Iraq. Very few Americans want the US government to do such things...but that's selfish, cruel, also.

The Arab Spring occurred because progress was not being made. The housing situation in Cairo and Alexandria, and up the Nile, has long been ridiculous. No apartments for singles. Each extended family lives together in two rooms. So much spent on the army, so little on farming communities.

Iran: Every nation in Asia and Africa has a secular government, excepting Iran, perhaps. For 30 years the US and Iranian officials avoided each other. Last week President Obama announced he had a 15 min. talk with President Rohani. Let us hope both are Neo-Mutazalites - adept at using reason to solve problems.

Tunisia: The ruling Ennada Party is stepping down, leaving rule of Tunisia in the hands of the National Salvation Front. The reason is that the Ennada government did not act on the murder of two liberal secular journalists. Support for the Islamists has dropped drastically. Tunisia did not 'bounce back' from the revolution almost 3 years ago. Ennada officials are trained in Qur'an not in the sciences or in technology, so how can they help? We salute their decision to just vacate the offices. 

An Attack on Syrian chemical rocket forces?

We argue against a symbolic strike as too risky. Hitting any chemical detail is fraught with risk. Most chemical agents have to be mixed in the warhead. Hitting these missile sites and/or chem depots can cause a catastrophic chemical 'event.' Hitting electrical grid will also impact on civilians.

But maybe the Turks or the Saudis or the Americans have some detail intelligence re Syrian chem plants, in which case it may be possible to target discrete components: pipes, pumps, minimizing civilian casualties.

 Has the Syrian regime been degraded in its air capabilities? The mere threat of US/allied intervention has roiled the Ba'athist bureaucracies and units in the cities. Matar Al Asad has an armed force on each of his eight fingers, but they are not free to go where they want. Many links between Syrian army bases are broken and when repaired, these inner-agency communications are read by the Americans. Giving the Free Syrian army an accurate maps with good intelligence might prove a better gift than weapons and munitions.

President Obama spoke today about the looming attack. He has yet to commit himself. The refusal of the British parliament to sanction a strike on Syrian regime, derives from knee-jerk opponents of everything American. We have talked to a few of these self-righteous types, and all bend history to their ideological protrusion, a kind of extremism.

Sometimes intervention works, sometimes it does not. There are no good outcomes. If the strike goes unpunished, it may be repeated. What then? The regime can box rebels into a small area, then hit it with chemicals. Of colurse women and children perish in ghastly fashion.

After WWI the world resolved not to produce or deploy chem weapons, but of course the powers and their proxies produced and stocked hundreds of tons of terrible gases like Sabin, Sarin, chlorine-based horrors in various flavors. The powers also kept themselves in landmines, anti-armor, anti-personnel, strewn about in some 18 countries. Afghanistan leads them, but the Eastern Congo is not far behind.  Somalia, Yemen, Sudan, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, India, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and also the mines buried along the borders of various nations, like the Libyan-Egyptian border sections.

Reader, treat yourself to different views of the Arab Spring by sampling this site's archive. You will find weekly reportage (up to 2012) and learned commentary. I have friends in Syria, and have visited Syria, just months before the city of Hama was destroyed by the Al Asad army under Mater Bashad.

Bashar means humanity in Arabic, which is a weird joke, a mocking of the dead. He is right in not claiming control over the regime, because his brother Mater and a big gang of thugs run the war.

Fear and loathing in Hama, Homs, Haleb, ash Sham, Dara'a. Millions of Syrians have left their homes. We receive a report that Jordanian divisions (3) are moving up to the Syrian border. Are they gunning for Asad Ba'athi troops? Or are they there to prevent more people from surging across the border.

Iran will have a field day if the strike on Syrian chem troops does go through. They will figure they can use gas also. Of course they suffered from it, from Iraq.  There is the risk that Iran's proxies Hizbullah in southern Lebanon and the Syrian army will launch 'retaliatory' strikes of Israel, touching off a larger war. The Israelis have their own well-paid contacts in Syria, but the Americans also have an extensive net of CIA-paid agents, and perhaps, units, inside Syria.

High Noon in Cairo

The Egyptian army overthrew President Morsi July 3 2013. He had been in office for year. The army acted after an unprecedented two-week long demonstration, a big protest against Morsi and his Muslim Brothers. Now the leaders of that organ, the Muslim Brotherhood, are in jail. Huge counter-demonstrations by pro-Morsi protesters turned violent on July 7, when some Brothers tried to climb the fence where Morsi was detained. Fifty one were killed,  with almost 200 wounded.

Some say that Morsi was freely elected. They forget that Morsi issued sweeping laws giving him absolute power. That the Egyptian economy has not revived, is largely because Morsi's prayer leaders have no practical skills.

Our analysis of the Muslim Brotherhood is found below. Find it mentioned on the index to the right.

While we have been away, we have been working on a book:
Twelve Capitalisms: What Dead Empires have to Teach Us about Debt, Diplomacy, Immigration and New Job Creation. We have been reviewing the main Neolithic sites in the Old World, then moved to examine capitalism in Ancient Mesopotamia.

Maybe our most significant discovery is this: the first cities (i.e. Eridu) arose without strongmen, metal weapons, writing and the horse. So true capitalism existed before any rigid social stratification.

Middle East Nations Break Up

Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Libya, Egypt, Yemen all come apart...add to this Daghistan, Serbia, Sudan and Pakistan.

Iraq's central Shia-led government in Baghdad has lost control of Kirkuk and Diyala, as the bombing campaign approaches its 2-year anniversary.

Large parts of Syria are depopulated, some of its for 'peaceful reasons,' like failure of collective farms, industries, roads, etc, etc. Homs, Hama, Aleppo, Irbid, and down south, Der'a, and out east, Deir Az Zour all have abandoned ruined  neighborhoods. Children can't play in the rubble lest unexploded ordnance explode. We estimate 6 million internally displaced refugees, but another 6 million have been displaced earlier.

Lebanon is all securitized. Movemment between sectors is difficult and dangerous. Bathers on the beach don't seem to mind. Maybe we should all go to the beach...we believe Sunni and Shi';a factions will be fighting each other by mid June..there's time enough for a tan.War and peace are not opposites....there's the 3rd element...what is it? Care? "Teach us to care and not to care" - T.S. Elliot

Yemen is hanging on, a broad-based government piecing itself together. The Americans are laying low...their help is internal...how to trace weapons, money, drugs, bomb-makers...

Libya has not come together in the two years of peace. So it is not at peace. Benghazi was a Greek colony, while Tripoli was a Phoenician one. Why should they get together? Each has its own access to petroleum, though Benghazi's access is greater, thanks to the Adjabiyyeh port complexes and pumping stations. I doubt the EU can pressure Tripoli and Mizrata and Sabratha, and Zlitan to join a Benghazi-led government.

Egypt's Islamist government is being urged to disassociate itself from Muslim Brotherhood, by Europeans, North Americans and Far East potentates, but that's like a chicken disassociating itself from an egg, which happens, of course. Democracy in Egypt is like a chick in an egg, hammering to get out.

Thanks to the Boston bombing, Americans again ask why Islam is their enemy. That's a stupid response. The terrorists are not Muslims - they are mock-Muslims. Sure, everybody want the Shari'a to be free of unIslamic laws, but interest keep the women down, the orphan dispoiled, the criminal without a hand, the non-Muslim taunted and threatened, the Jihadist.. None of these were part of Muhammads practice at Medina.  Thereis no theory of war in the Qur'an.

The American Republicans now believe that Christian Zionism is the gateway to Armageddon. A few extremists can ignite the world. What fools, to think that Islam is the enemy! We will lose this one...

Iraq violence peaks, with eleven bombs killing over 200 innocent Iraqis. Terror is back, big time. Nur al Maliki talks of a manacing sectarian strife. All those warm feelings for Iran are now pushing him and his staff, to the wall. The Shi'a strike back in the west, in al Anbar province, but some of those bombs may come from Al Qaida.

For the Americans, the rise and spread of Iran is horrifying, not because Iran wants war, but because it was George W. Bush's invasion that blew off the firewall separating Iraq from Iran. Now we see an aggressive expansionfrom Iran through Iraq to Syria and Lebanon, all the way to Gaza.

The Gulf Sunni emirates have indistinguished themselves by providing some $20 billion to Islamist organsizations, to win in Egypt, and now in Syria and Yemen, as well. The US remains 'tight' with the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi, but obviously all that money flooding into foreign countries, to build mosques, a Wahhabi clerisy, is not in the West's interest. Such rabid Gulf intrusions is not any kind of local consensus, still less majority decision by those involved, the citizens. They do not support armed rebellion or armed suppression or bad money and stupid people masquerading as teachers.

At issue is differing views of Islam. The Salafis, Wahhabis and Muslim Brotherhood (MB), value outer appearances: the robe, the beard, the headgear, praying in front of others. This is a mockery of the prophet's ways and message.If they were Muslims they would not seek dominance, use terror, fund rebellion and sew confusion. "The letter of the law killeth the spirit of the law." (old proverb).

I've been writing about Islamic fundamentalism since 1972-73, when I lived in Afghanistan, Iran and Eastern Turkey. Back then I saw 'Islamism' as a counter-response to British-American influences. People saw their poverty as a dastardly western conspiracy. It is true that, in the 19th C., the Qajar (Mongol) shah but did not hesitate to trade the rights to tobacco, a new railroad, and, later, petroleum development, for large blocks of cash.

I've traveled many times into the rural Middle East and Central Asia in the course of my work, and I'm struck that the dirt-poor villages, all had lucid cores, usually not the mullah. Each responded to outside influences in its own way.

The problem with colonialism is that its overthrow and withdrawl is also damaging. The indigenuous people tend to blame the colonizer for their problems. Often they are right, but rarely do colonizing forces go out and shoot the local people.  Colonists prefer to rule through a legitimate compliant king or ruling class, and that's Iran political story, from the Qajar kings through the Pahlavis.

Alien Euro-American influences continue to play into Iran's war-like policies. The US never even thought about annexing or even contreolling Iran, but doctrines of 'forward deployment,' 'alliances' and economic corruption proved in some cases even more damaging. But the good things too must be factored in. All that money for oil should have filtered to the people, buit of course, that just doesa not happen in this region.

So: The Islamic Republic has renewed the Shah's claim to all Gulf islands, including Bahrain and those smaller ones, off Iraq's coast and Kuwait's. They have grown a large secret service(s) which operate as far as Argentina (where they killed 82 Jews by bombing a community center). Recently, they tried the kill the Saudi ambassador in the US.

Iran is flexing its muscle, developing a device or two, at great immense expense. A nuclear Iran will lord over its neighbors. It's surprising that Russia and China do not put pressure on Iran or Syria. Their own influence in the Middle East is at stake. A nuclear Iran and a Syria overloaded with poisonous gases, should worry the Kremlin and Beijing.

Is Iran in cahoots with Al Qaida? There may be certain, secret element in the Basij or Pasdaran or another Iranian secret service, that harbors and equip Al Qaida groups, even though these groups are Sunni fundamentalists. Iran remembers the murder in Kabul of 9 of its diplomats in 1991, and it ceretainly does not like the pressure Al Qaida is putting on Shi'a minorities in Afghanistan, Pakista, Iraq, Syria and in the Caucasus as well. One hopes they'll snap to.

Syria, o Syria! Large parts of the country have been depopulated. Most are cowering in their homes and apartments. There are some parts of the country which have seen no fighting, though war is influencing them, nonetheless. Russia has interests in Syria, not so much as a power play against the Americans (that's stupid), but in defense of their own minorities.

Syria is not entirely black and white. One hopes for a new government, but it must be a secular government, not a Sunni fundamentalist one. So the West is fighting Gulf sheikhdoms as well, even as they load up supertankers...

Yemen needs time to work out a genuinely inclusive, representational government and constitution, but there is no excuse for the population's backing of Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. Their hatred of America is a clear case of ignorance: like the Pakistanis, they blame the terror on the Americans. In other words, they're unable to accept their own contradictions and unlawful elements.

Several Arab nations have instituted new employment programs for the young: Saudi, UAE, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Djibouti, Eritrea, Sudan and Islamic Egypt and Tunisia. Algeria and Afghanistan, Singapore and Malaysia  have these programs. Morocco, Mauritania, Libya, Chechnya, Daghistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, Pakistan, India, Indonesia, do not.

Those curious about these issues, should read the Middle East Speculum. The blog is an excellent archive which you can read either forward or backwards. Over 60 postings.

by M. Abdul Qasim

Syrian Outcomes

The Seven (7) Steps to Democratic Government

The first step is the ceasefire.

The second step is to release all the political prisoners.

The third step is to talk, discuss needs, issues, events and endemic problems, across class, gender, professional associations, race, labor unions, religious affiliations, and across the great divide separating the very rich from the very poor.

Step four is to write a constitution,

step five: ratification of the constitution in the new assemblies or in the central divan for the ulama.

Step six: formation of party platforms

Step Seven: elections.

That's the octave of modern state formation. Each 'note' is itself an octave, and each of the smaller octaves are themselves made up of seven elements.

Let us explain, citing an example. We start with a country that has overthrown its leaders, using civil disobedience. Somehow a ceasefire must be effected, and for that to happen, both sides must step down. The process of negotiation, back and forth like a tennis game, can go either way, either building trust, or aggravating the relationship. There is no such thing as the status quo: it's either up or down. Mostly down. So the complexity of getting a ceasefire in place consists of seven activities: from making contact, to recognizing economic and ecological changes, to adapt in order to fulfill material and medical needs, to actually enforcing a ceasefire, to transition into formal talks. And each of these is a complex affair.

We will return to the seven steps in organizing democracies in North Africa and the Middle East.

By John Paul Maynard

The author is, amongst other things, the moderator/instructor of an on line discussion group on

Notes on the Prophet's Way

معظم المسلمين يتوقون للاتصال مع التدريس النبي نفسه. حتى يتم إصلاح الدين والشركة، التي تم استبعاد المعرفة الحقيقية. البشر لا يسوا الحيوانات. مصنوعة تماما عن الحيوانات بيئاتها. الإنسان هو كائن خلق الذاتي، الجميع مختلفة والجميع ينبغي أن يكون في ذلك بلده، بلدها. الإسلام هو مجرد هذا اللقاء الشخصي مع الذكاءات العالي. دعونا نتعلم الحقائق من جميع الأديان، وتسعى كل مخالف نفسه في كول شيء      

                                                 Most Muslims yearn for a connection with the teachings of the prophet. Most believe in the corporate religion; they worship inner knowledge of the truth. Humans are not like animals. Animals are made perfectly for their environments. But humans are self-creating beings. Each of us is different. Islam is different one to another. Islam is an encounter between the human personality and Higher Intelligence(s). We are invited to examine the truths of the various religions, and to go against ourselves in everything..

Egypt's Bizarre Islamist Constitution

Late on November 29^th, 2012, after sixteen hours of debate, President Muhammad Morsi and Egypt’s Constituent Assembly, signed into law a new national constitution, with 294 provisions.  Islamic law remains the law of the land, as it was before.  But this rise of the clergy, hijacking the 2011 Egyptian revolution, using foreign (Saudi) money to vote themselves into most offices, is unprecedented.

The Islamist constitution did not evolve through consultation between parties. It does not recognize the equality of women before the law. Furthermore, it puts restrictions on where women are to work. Egypt's Copts are alarmed, because the new constitution offers no guarantees that their rights will be honored.
Morsei showed his colors by simply announcing that we was seizing, usurping, all power, bypassing the courts and violating Egypt's existing laws. CC an you imagine what he would do to Egypt if he had his way?

"Allah favors the Muslim clergy so gives the top clergyman absolute power." This is wrong, un-Islamic, and quite against the grain of Bedouin politics. Some western social scientists, realizing that early 'primitive' societies generally elect their leaders and that these leaders are immediately accessible, call this time-honored nomadic (and town) way 'primitive democracy.' But it is real democracy, ancestral to all Arabs. 

Authenticity in Arabia and in all Arab countries, derives from the long traditions of the Bedouin: Compromise, reconciliation, petitions, show-your hands referendums, the just settlement of legal disputes, the payment of damages - all this was second nature to Arab ancestors.

Readers of this blog know how we feel about the relation between democracy and Islam: they are compatible. "Government must consult with the people at every step."

 Bedouin sheykhs sought consensus, but recognized the validity of opposition:  “My people will not agree on an error”  - Muhammad.
After Muhammad's death in 632 CE, Abu Bakr was elected Khalifa (successor) by the various ulemas (learned elders). After his assassination, Omar was elected khalifa. After him, Uthman, and Ali - all elected. Muhammad left no instructions, no texts, but we can be certain that he set up the election of the khalifa.

Elections, petitions, audiences, lobbying, legal claims and challenges, diplomacy between tribes, tolerance of non-Muslims - these are elements in Arabia's traditional democracies.
But one can fully understand why the Ikhwan (the Brothers) go for it. Their organization was illegal from 1954 to 2011. Their ideology and their texts, like the new constitution, shows no tolerance, no compromise, and redress of grievances, and no recourse to courts, except for the Islamic courts he'll be setting up, over time, in all neighborhoods and towns.

If the prophet Muhammad returned, to conduct interviews with various sorts of people, would he recognize the Muslim leaders? By dress, yes, but not from spirit or law. Muhammad had no use for any use for a clergy. Though he had a legal background, as a mediator, he was no universal law giver. He limited his changes, his reforms, to just a few areas: women's rights, to stop infanticide, to elect of officers from the bottom up (by merit), the guarantee of rights to non-Muslims, and the many prohibitions against harm, even during war. 

Muhammad was a humble man, averse to any assumptions. So when God and Her Angel tell him that he is not a teacher or world conqueror, but one who warns...

Islam was a search for the living truth inside, a method for psychological growth and discovery. The original revelations are lost because they were never really studied. Never use one's piety to assume you are better than others. We must not forget that the Islamists are not educated in the 'western' social sciences. Morsi was trained as an engineer, benefitted greatly from his stay in the US. As an engineer he has not been exposed to Euro-American democratic theory and practice.

A referendum is to be held December 15, to get the people's approval. Saudi monies will no doubt continue to percolate through the society. But opposition is increasing. Those protesting in Tahrir Square are secular people, most educated, some writers and intellectuals. Morsi is a tough religious bigot, famous for not compromising with all those he considers non-Islamic. Of course he knows full well the hideous assassination campaigns implemented by the Muslim Brothers, from 1929 to 201l.

Mid November featured another mini-war between Gaza's Hamas and Israel. Morsi walked a narrow line, hosting ceasefire negotiations. The Israelis did not invade.

The Palestinians won for itself a new status at the UNO, as an observer state, while Israel in return, cuts Palestinian dues and announces the expansion of East Jerusalem Israeli settlements. Primary elections in Israel last week saw Bibi 'the whiner' Netanyahu, move further to the right, joining Avidor Lieberman's fascist racist bid to drive the Arabs out of all of Palestine. Lieberman goes down in a flurry of corruption charges. As foreign minister, he thought he could 'accelerate' the annexation of Arab lands. The American government is acquiescing, as usual.

Dissension erupts inside the MB hierarchy, over who gets what. Can the MB moderates hold down the hot heads? The extremists will just form their own secret cells and plot as they did before.

The MB is already engaging the Israelis. HAMAS is MB.  Obviously, the leaders of Egypt do a disservice to their nation if they are distracted by arming and plotting war vs. Israel, Europe, and the USA. But can the new Islamist government survive just talking tough to Israel?

Instead of addressing domestic needs, the Arab states gang up on Israel. This lets the extremists in Israel take advantage of the hidden dissensions and contradictions inherent in Islamist politics, to eat its own twin – Arab Palestine.

Even more sordid than the greedy ignorant Islamists are those self-defined ‘christian’ American Zionists who back the Israeli right’s military solution – to cleanse the land. That the victims, the dispossessed, should include some 600,000 Palestinian Christians, does not even register with these Americans.

It is easy to see how hatred of Jews, Christians and secular Muslims has precluded justice and prosperity in much of the Islamic world.  Religious hatred is no stranger to 'christians,' be they Orthodox, Catholic or Protestant. The hatred has 'flavors' typical of each. The popes, for example, launched 62 'crusades' or tried to, killing some 15 million. What does God think about the children of Abraham threatening genocide against innocents? She's an angry Mother, as the struggle is degrading millions of lives.

If Jerusalem were holy, it would and could be easily shared...but, with the financial support of American Zionists, Christian and Jewish, we should expect the very worst. Psychiatric wards in Israel are full of American crazies trying to spark 'the Final Day rapture.' Fortunately today the US and USSR are not liable to go to war over the Holy Land, as they were, from 1964 to 1991. (trip-wire nuclear war which would have ended human life on earth.)

So here we are, surrounded by religious nuts, people with wealth or power, who have no shame.  They hold their ancient texts to be the only guide. Why not just open your eyes?

Perhaps the most relevant aspect of the new Muslim fundamentalist governments is that their members are incompetent, not being educated. Without critical thinking and consensus-building, the government will lack the informed specialists required to put the economy back together. So we expect Morsi to be voted out of office in 2015.

Yathrib, or Al Medina, ‘the city,’ was Muhammad’s refuge and his think tank, for some eight years.  None of the citizens were Muslims but animists and Jews, with some Christians, too. Not just from Palestine, but from Yemen as well (and Ethiopia). All kinds of regulations had to be promulgated, to protect minorities, and it is these laws which actually made the Shari’a and fiqh work.

Unfortunately, a few bad laws crept back in. One might think they would have been quickly excised, as they prevent the world from accepting the Shari’a. But no: the mistakes have become permanent fixtures, masquerading as Islamic law.

The Ikhwan (Muslim Brotherhood) and the Salafis have a rather narrow, uncritical approach to the Shari’a.  Today’s Muslim parties have little of the grace and tolerance and mercy and intellectual curiosity characteristic of their predecessors. 

Fiqh was always taught alongside the Shari’a.  Fiqh was, is, the logical processes of jurisprudence:  determining guilt, compensating the victim, punishing the criminal(s).  Fiqh is the logic underlying a judicial case.

A, Islamic law graduate is a mujtahid, i.e., one who struggles (to find a just ruling).  Ijtihad is the method of struggle. Fiqh  explains how to use precedent, analogy and logic to apply the Shari’a and fiqh to specific crimes and misdemeanors. Discrimination against non-Muslims, or women, or abusing g prisoners of war, or war as punishment, goes against God's wish. In fact, it is all a mockery of God’s message.

"If you use my name to cause evil, I will tear you limb from limb." (Exodus 20:7) 

 The MB muftis know some Arabic and some have at their disposal the original treatises by Malik ibn Anas and Abu Hanifa Numa. Like the Wahhabis in Saudia, they take Ahmed Ibn Hanbal (780-855) as the source of their teachings. But Ibn Hanbal was not an extremist. In fact, I remember reading (in Arabic, as he has never been translated into a European tongue) a passage from Ahmed ibn Hanbal which I recorded. It goes like this:  "Verily God does not consider your appearance or your wealth, but looks at your heart and your actions." He also warns against "praying before others - to be seen." Islam is an interior search, not nearly so superficial. It is about being in the presence of God. Will you want worldly wealth and power then? No, by God, for She effaces the ego (nafs)."  

Most Muslims are told that the 'Door of Interpretation' was closed in the 12th C. But, paradoxically, Ahmed ibn Hanbal kept, keeps, it open. So it is highly paradoxical that the Wahhabis, the Brothers, and the Salafis represent a tradition claiming to be open to new legislation. Maybe secular leaders can use Hanbal to coax the radical Islamists back into civil society.

From my own interviews with 'leading' mullahs, imams and muftis, in the Levant, Persia and in Central Asia (including Russia and Pakistan), only a few clergy demonstrated a critical approach, able to rule against fanaticism. "The is no fanaticism (ta'assob) in Islam." (M).

Yet still we hear of weird customs, like the stoning of adulterers, and the cutting off of hands and the gouging out of eyes, not mention beheadings and maiming, even of other Muslims.

The first, stoning, is an old Hebrew custom, well attested in both Old and New Testaments. The cutting of hands and gouging out of eyes, is a foolish reading of Christ’s injunction: “If thy right hand offends thee, cut it off. If thy right eye offends thee, pluck it out.” The veiling of women was an upper class Babylonian custom carried forward by Byzantine Christiandom, enforced by the male clergy. India, too, has these issues. Restrictions on women’s rights, education and mobility, definitely goes against the prophet’s practice in Mecca, Medina, and later, in Mecca again.

The point is that Muslim muftis and imams cannot use the Shari’a, or get non-Muslims to respect it, until they excise the bad un-Islamic laws that crept into it. These have no basis in the Qur’an or in Muhammad’s rulings.  They discredit the entire juridical tradition and method. Once these errors are corrected, then the world will respect Islamic law - if its texts are ever translated into a Western language. Fat chance..

“The letter of the law killeth the spirit of the law.”  Unscrupulous clergy bent on power manipulate the law for their own narrow ends. We see that in the so-called Judaeo-Christian traditions as well. In Hinduism and even in Buddhism.

IN CONCLUSION -

Now today we are witnessing proof of the fact that the original ‘Arab Spring’ has been successfully taken over by narrow mock-Muslim clerics and political leaders babbling about Higher Things they know nothing about. Shamelessly these men have used Islam to cement their power and influence. It should not surprise us that they know little history, or even know the history of their own faith. As for the high discipline of comparative religions, forget it.

These Islamist are fundamentalists who worship a book and a man, Muhammad, even though the Qur’an tells us that Muhammad was just a warner, not even a teacher, no less a conqueror.  To worship him is to associate God with a man, like the Christians do. But that was not the original way.

One reason the West is so powerless to influence change, is that it knows not the living traditions of Islam: the various Sufi traditions, plus, more closely, and politically, the 19th century Muslim traditon of reform. In the mid 19^th C. it rose from the injustices of colonialism. Its progenitor was Jalal ad Din al Afghani (Asadabadi), who traveled west and ended up working with M. Abdu on a newspaper called Al Minar, the Lighthouse, in Paris. Allegedly al Afghani made this statement:

“I traveled in the East. I found many Muslims but no Islam. I traveled in the West. I found no Muslims but I found Islam.” 

Which is more authentically Christian or Muslim? A secular state that provides for its poor and elderly, and educates its young to think critically. Or a self-promoting clerical regime that can’t respect  basic human rights or can’t keep the country together?  

Governments now do the work of religions, providing education, healing, relief for the destitute, scientific info, without forcing citizens to think in a specific mythic or ideological fashion.

Humans are not animals. Animals are made perfect, perfectly adapted to their environmental niches. Humans are, after adolescence, self-creating organisms. Neuroscience has confirmed the truth that we are all unique. Cultural pressures to conform may seal off the spirit. The human psyche is of course split. The little ego-consciousness loses the ability to communicate with its deeper, more conscious ‘other half’ – the so-called Unconscious, which of course is the real consciousness.

The great prophets and spiritual teachers were humble men and women who never wanted us to worship them, or follow them. They wanted each of us to have the chance to develop the powers that they themselves enjoyed. All growth of essence comes at the expense of personality. Essence cannot talk, so liturgies and scriptures miss the point. Certainly one is lost if he or she uses a religion, a faith to strengthen ego or to bear grudges against innocent non-Muslims or against Muslims of other sects.

The Egyptian president does not control the military.  Women and children fail to attain equal rights, deviating from Muhammad’s  practice at Medina.  Freedom of religion - but also the primacy of Islam.  It seems that Pres. Morsi avoided a big showdown with the secular, educated, competent citizens by conceding to the Consultative Assembly. Egypt will have one house of parliament. The majority – Sunni Muslims – will dominate by electing people who use Islam to reinforce their egos.

Western observers are horrified at the entrenchment of political Islam in Egypt, but have made little effort understanding Islam. The Shari’a and fiqh are disparaged. Certain inhumane regulations crept back into the founding corpus of written law.

Though Muhammad had a background in jurisprudence, unwritten desert law, he did not assume to be any universal law giver.

His contributions were new laws guaranteeing women the freedom to choose a mate, to divorce, to inherit, to be free of physical and verbal abuse. Non-Muslims are to be respected. There should be no compulsion, no coercion in religion. No exposing to death female babies.  As for the doctrine of Jihad, it rose later, after Muhammad had passed (632 AD).  The Qur’an expresses no theory of war,. Those verses mentioning war are warnings against ‘mischief and corruption’ and setting down how prisoners of war are to be treated. Nor is there any call to war in the reputable ahadith.

Al Qaidah, the Taliban and the Muslim Brotherhood point to a few sentences where Muhammad curses non-Muslims and bids his followers to fight. In the Qur’an there are some three or four verses where God or Angel Gabriel, tells Muhammad to fight and kill the infidels and the hypocrites. One can easily understand Muhammad said this things reactively, in the heat of battle, or under threat of assassination. Those nearby remembered the statements, so they became canonical.

Two years ago, in Algeria, Berber Tuaregs in Tindouf, far in the south, members of the refugee POLISARIO, started immolating themselves after some 6 months of continual protests. The news was picked up by Algerian radio stations and bloggers, triggering more immolations, as well as confrontation outside Algiers, between an amorphous group of discontents, including many women and educated people, and the regime’s specially trained riot police. The rest is history. Tunisia lit up, then Egypt. In Yemen, demonstrators filled the streets. 

Syria seemed to stand above waves of aspiration and deprivation, but come spring 2012, starting in the far south, at historic Dera’a, private citizens began attacking the secret police. The authorities overreacted, killing their own citizens. The civil war was on.

 Now, after the deaths of fifty thousand, the civil war rages around Aleppo, Damascus and Homs, Hama and Dei az Zaur, in the east, on the Euphrates. 

Back in September, Al Asad started using fighter bombers and attack helicopters to bomb apartment complexes. So the Free Syrian army along with diverse Sunni militants and some Christian and Shi’i dissidents, are trying to take or disable military airfields. At the moment, the regime is trying to clear the road from the big international airport east of Damascus, to the city’s center.

Iraq is a basket case. Shi'i take bombs hits just  a block or two from the mosque at Kerbala, while the Kurds have signed deals with foreign oil firms in defiance of Baghdad.'

Kuwait holds elections on Dec, 1st, with victory going to the pro-government parties. The Islamists have tried to use their old male hierarchies to defame and block secular royalists. It's the same old Muslims Brotherhood. Their fixations on outer things, like their robes and beards, precludes any penetrating self-analysis. For example, mullahs and imams may have heard the names of the seven different kinds of land-ownership in the Shari'a, no Muslim cleric (or western anthropologist) has analyzed those seven forms as an 'arrangement' - we'll not say 'system.' That's a modern term, taken from the Greek.

Bahrain is another case where a demonstration by secular, educated younger people, for simple democratic equality, was usurped by Irani-charged Shi’i imams, now advocating for the overthrow of the Sunni regime.  Earlier reforms had opened the parliament to elected Shi’i representatives, but these were unable to influence events. Most left their offices.

Many fine, sane, educated people in the Middle East and elsewhere in the Muslim world, are now finding it imperative to link up and try to prevent the ultimate dumbing down of Islam. Islam is not about dress, the kind of beard you grow, and ritual expressions. It is not about praying to be seen by others.  Muhammad had no clergy – he did not want them. Corporate Islam, with its five pillars, has migrated rather far from its source as a means of transformation, of evolution – in other words – spiritual search.

Whenever clerics and their flocks use the corporate religion to discriminate against others, deny others their rights, to wage war and gather booty, to kill for God or simply to reinforce and embellish one’s own puny ego, then you know the whole enterprise has gone off the rails. What we see in the Middle East today, in North Africa, the Balkans, the Caucasus and in Central Asia, is a big train wreck.

 

 

 

isH