Babak Khuramdin

Christian Republican Terrorist Kills "Liberals" in Church Shooting!

2008-07-28T07:40:00.000-07:00

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/07/28/church.shooting/index.html

Jim Adkisson, 58, was charged with first-degree murder after Sunday's shooting at the Knoxville church.

Jim Adkisson's neighbors in a Knoxville suburb described him as quiet and helpful, but sensitive about certain topics.

"I was telling him about my daughter graduating from Bible college and I was a Christian and stuff, and he just automatically almost turned angry," neighbor Karen Massey told WVLT-TV, a CNN affiliate.

"He was angry with his parents because they had made him go to church all his life," she told the station.

"When the subject of religion came up, it set off like a light in him or something I noticed," Massey told WATE-TV, another CNN affiliate. "And at that point I thought I'd never bring up religion again."

Adkisson, 58, is charged with first-degree murder after the shooting at a Unitarian church during a children's play Sunday morning, officials said. Watch scene at church after shooting »

The gunman killed two adults and wounded seven others before being overpowered by congregants, authorities said.

One of the victims, Linda Kraeger, 61, died at a hospital several hours after the shooting at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, Knoxville municipal spokesman Randall Kenner said.

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Also killed was Greg McKendry, a 60-year-old usher and board member at the church, police said earlier in the day.

Five others were hospitalized in either critical or serious condition, police said. Two other people hurt in the attack were treated and released, Owen said. iReport.com: Are you there? Share photos, video, accounts

Adkisson is not believed to have been a member of the Knoxville church, and investigators have not determined a motive for the shooting, Knoxville Police Chief Sterling Owen said.

"[The motive] is one thing we're obviously aggressively pursuing," Owen said.

Massey and another neighbor said Adkisson was quiet and kept to himself.

"He never went anywhere. He never had anybody over. Just, it was really quiet. He rode a motorcycle and you know he would go out on the weekends on his motorcycle, but other than that, you never heard from him," Melissa Coker told WVLT-TV.

Coker told The Associated Press that Adkisson had been a truck driver, but she didn't think he'd been working steadily in the past six months.

"He's just a really, really nice guy," Coker told the AP.

Adkisson's landlord said she did not know him well enough to make any comments on his character but said he was a good tenant who paid his bills, according to CNN affiliate WBIR-TV.

Church member Barbara Kemper told the AP that McKendry "stood in the front of the gunman and took the blast to protect the rest of us."

Owen told reporters he couldn't comment on whether McKendry confronted the gunman, but he said McKendry apparently "was the first person [the gunman] encountered" in the sanctuary.

Members of the church said a man entered the building about 10:15 a.m. and began shooting during a children's production of the musical "Annie." About 200 people in the church were watching the production, which was being put on by 25 children, the AP reported.

No child was shot, and a few church members subdued the man and held him until officers arrived, police said. Church members said one of the tacklers was John Bohstedt, a man who had a part in the musical, the AP reported.

"This was a day the church was looking forward to for a long time, and it turned into a nightmare," Bohstedt told WBIR-TV.

Ken Kitts said he arrived late and saw a couple and a child running out of the church at "super-fast speed."

"Then everybody else started pouring out of the church, lots of them in costume from this show they were putting on," he said.

Inside, he said, was a scene of "absolute chaos," including wounded people and the gunman, who was pinned to the floor by church members.

"He was face-down in the middle of a bunch of shotgun shells rolling around on the floor," Kitts said.

Owen said investigators are looking into whether Adkisson has a criminal history. Bail was set at $1 million late Sunday.

"We don't know this particular individual. We may never know why," said Steve Drevik, a church member who arrived after the shooting. "All of this will come out in the next couple of days."

Rick Lambert, the FBI agent in charge of the bureau's Knoxville office, said federal agents are assisting Knoxville police with witness interviews and could help analyze evidence from the crime scene. He said the bureau is examining whether the attack was a hate crime.

"Anytime there is a shooting in a church, there is the possibility it could be a hate crime," he said.

The church, on its Web site, describes itself as a community that has worked for social change -- including desegregation, women's rights and gay rights -- since the 1950s.

Police said people were recording videos of the children's performance when the shooting happened, and investigators were reviewing the videos. Information on what, if anything, the videos show of the shooting wasn't immediately available.

The church's minister, Chris Buice, said he was on vacation when the shooting happened but rushed back when he heard what occurred. Sunday afternoon -- after McKendry's death but before Kraeger's -- he spoke briefly to reporters.

"Please pray for this congregation, because we are grieving the loss of a wonderful man," Buice said as he choked back tears.

The Utility of Islamic Imagery in the West

2008-07-10T22:18:00.001-07:00

The Utility of Islamic Imagery in the West
J.A. Progler
Asst Professor of Social Studies at CUNY, Brooklyn College
Vol XIV No. 4

The long history of encounters between Western civilization and Islam has produced a tradition of portraying, in largely negative and self-serving ways, the Islamic religion and Muslim cultures. There is a lot of literature cataloguing (and sometimes correcting) these stereotypes. It is not my intention to rehash this corpus here, though I do rely upon some of the more important works. What I want to do instead is focus on a particular dimension of these encounters, and examine why the West has consistently constructed and perpetuated negative images of Islam and Muslims. My focus will be on the utility of Islamic imagery in Western civilization.

Most people seem to be familiar with stereotypes and negative imagery of Arabs and Muslims-indeed, some are so firmly entrenched that the consumers of these images are unable to distinguish them from reality. At the same time, many people have an idea how these images come about (books, television, speeches). But by looking at the cultural history of Islamic-Western encounters from the perspective of utility, I am able to locate the correlations between imagery and political economy. Western image-makers, including religious authorities, political establishments, and corporate-media conglomerates, conceptualize for their consumers images of Muslims and/or Arabs in sometimes amusing and other tunes cruel or tragic ways. Upon closer examination, these images seem to serve essential purposes throughout the history of Western civilization. At times these purposes are benign, at others quite sinister. Often, there are tragic consequences for Muslims resulting from the socio-political climate fostered by images. Focusing on the dimension of utility can help to reveal some ties between imagery and action.

At the same time, I am aware that focusing solely on imagery misses the important dimensions of intention and power. Though I reserve a careful look at these dimensions for another study, I do recognize the need to consider here some of those people who have the power to provide public conceptualizations of Muslims, such as religious figures, academics, policy pundits, journalists, and entertainment conglomerates. Drawing upon the historical and cultural catalogue of assumptions and perceptions about Islam, these experts and spokespeople pick and choose the appropriate images to serve their purposes. Many times, they are seemingly unaware of using an image, which is indicative of how deeply entrenched they have become. The stories of those with the power to present need to be told, but they are beyond the scope of this article. Similarly, fruitful research may also reveal the degree to which Muslims contribute to their own images. That, too, I will reserve for another study. The purpose here, then, is to suggest some of the broader utilitarian dimensions of Islamic imagery in the West.

A recurring theme in the present study is the idea of packaging the complexities of Islam and Muslim cultures into easily comprehensible categories-good and bad, beautiful and dangerous, desirable and repulsive-and I look at these in terms of their utility in Western cultural history and political economy. Academic culture is an important site to reveal the utility of imagery, since these are the studies that inform policy makers and politicians; this is also where Western ideas are introduced into native cultures. But it is also necessary to focus on popular culture, especially news and entertainment, because this is where many people in the West get their impressions of Islam and Muslims.

The 'Other' in Western Colonial Discourse:

Images of the Other are prevalent in Western civilization, and have become firmly ensconced in the discourse of colonization and conquest, whoever the victims may be. Some images are rooted in Greek notions of barbarians, others born of the Middle Ages. They have been carried through the Reconquista and Inquisition, picked up during the age of colonial expansion, developed by Orientalists in the 19th and early 20th century, and continue on into the age of mass media and globalized political economy. But images don't exist in a vacuum. They have uses.

For example, in their invasion and colonization of the Americas Europeans brought with them-in addition to muskets and cannons-a great deal of cultural baggage, including rigid and preconceived notions of the Other. These images, intertwined with religious and political conflicts, all found their way into the new world, and eventually entangled Native peoples In fact, historians have shown that American legal traditions regarding Native peoples are based on legal traditions of the Holy Roman Empire which were born of the Crusades against Muslims [1]. For that reason, it will be instructive to spend some time looking at images of Native Americans in the West

The American scholar Berkhofer carefully analyzes the rationale for images of the "Indian " Particularly striking is his observation that there is a dual image, of "good" or "noble" Indians and "bad" or "ignoble" Indians, and how this developed from pre-conception to image to fact He nicely summarizes the elements of the image: [2]

1. generalizing from one tribe's society and culture to all Indians
2. conceiving of Indians in terms of their deficiencies according to White ideals rather than in terms of their own various cultures
3. using moral evaluation as description of Indians

Berkhofer suggests that "since Whites primarily understood the Indian as an antithesis to themselves, then civilization and Indianness as they defined them would forever be opposites " [3] He believes that while some researchers have uncovered one or another element of the Indian image, most have failed to put it all together. Images of Indians are usually treated by scholars in two ways Some have studied "what changed, what persisted, and why," while others studied "what images were held by whom, when, where, and why '[4] Some scholars see them "as a reflection of White cultures and as the primary explanation of White behaviour vis-a-vis Native Americans", while others see them "to be dependent upon the political and economic relationships prevailing in White societies at various times "[5] While each approach is useful in its own way, I agree with Berkhofer's suggestion that any comprehensive understanding of Western images has to consider both aspects, asking not only what the images were and how they continue, but also who holds them and why He combines the two approaches into a useful and broadly applicable methodology for analyzing images and their utility Berkhofer's methodology helps us to ask questions like who benefits from these images, and how are they manipulated and perpetuated? I want to look at European images of Muslims in this framework, and consider in particular the way images change to suit particular historical circumstances

Framing the Ubiquitous Orient

A growing body of critical literature examines the formation, utilization and perpetuation of images in the context of European conceptualization and colonization of the Muslim [6].Critics generally agree that Orientalist pursuits of knowledge are inextricably tied to colonial and imperial power, and that the West's self-image has been cultivated in a binary relationship with Islamic culture The literature in this area is quite detailed, and there is no need to repeat all of it here What I want to do is first look briefly at some of the factors in the development and maintenance of this binary vision from the Crusades through the modern period, and then apply the same method to more recent examples

According to Norman Daniel, "luxury" and "bellicosity" formed a dual image of Islam in Medieval Western Europe This nexus is intertwined with a second ignorance and malice In considering how the dual image of Islam persists, Daniel suggests that in some cases the reason is ignorance and in others it is malice Ignorance and malice can work together, as in, for example, when a malicious campaign directed by state power toward a scapegoat is explained by using images that rely on the general ignorance of the state's subjects and constituents This is an important factor in the maintenance of imagery, especially in democratic societies, and I will return to it later.

Edward Said was one of the first to make explicit connections between Western colonization and images of the Muslim world Said shows how the discourse of Orientalism gave itself legitimacy, revealing that what Orientalists were really talking about was creating the levers of power Said's general premise is that knowledge is inextricably tied to power, and that pure scholarship does not exist Drawing upon textual criticism from selected British and French Orientalists of the 19th and 20th centuries, he summarizes the "principle dogmas" of Orientalism

one is the absolute and systematic difference between the West, which is rational, developed, humane, superior, and the Orient, which is aberrant, undeveloped, inferior Another dogma is that abstractions about the Orient, particularly those based on texts representing a "classical" Oriental civilization, are always preferable to direct evidence drawn from modern Oriental realities A third dogma is that the Orient is eternal, vmiform, and incapable of defining itself; therefore it is assumed that a highly generalized and systematic vocabulary for describing the Orient from a Western standpoint is inevitable, and even scientifically "objective". A fourth dogma is that the Orient is at bottom something either to be feared (the Yellow Peril, the Mongol hordes, the brown dominions) or to be controlled (by pacification, research and development, outright occupation whenever possible) [7]

After noting that these dogmas "persist without significant challenge in the academic and governmental study of the modern Near Orient," Said argues that "the Orient" is itself a constituted entity, and that the notion that there are "geographical spaces with indigenous, radically different inhabitants who can be defined on the basis of some religion, culture, or racial essence proper to that geographical space is equally a highly debatable idea." [8] While there are numerous institutions in the West engaging in the study of the Orient, there are few if any in the Orient, and those are invariably run by Westerners (for example, the American Universities of Beirut and Cairo, or the Robert College in Turkey), and consequently, little if any study of the West is done by Orientals.

Building upon the foundation of classical Orientalism, a new breed of Orientalist emerged out of Cold War concerns. Characterized by a fusion of classic Orientalism with post-World War II social science, the new discourse was put at the service of foreign policy makers who emphasized prediction and control. However, with all the new techniques, as Said shows, most have not escaped the 4 dogmas of what we might call the orthodox discourse. Neo-Orientalists replace philology with a more anomalous expertise, which, like philology, is still based on language skills, but is more oriented toward strategic and business interests. This new Orientalism is practiced with an almost mystical authority by experts and Area Studies specialists who have mastered the necessary languages. The usual rationale for continuing Orientalism is that "we" can get to know another people, their way of life, thought, etc. To this end, the new Orientals (many trained at the feet of the orthodox masters) are sometimes allowed to speak for themselves, but only to a limited degree. The Oriental becomes useful as a direct source of information, but the Orientalist still remains the source of all knowledge.

As a way to avoid reconfiguring Orientalist discourse in new contexts, and to diffuse pre-existing truths, Said recommends some questions to keep in mind when approaching the Other: [9]

1. How does one represent other cultures?
2. What is another culture?
3. Is the notion of a distinct culture (or race, or religion, or civilization) a useful one, or does it always get involved either in self-congratulation (when one discusses one's own) or hostility and aggression (when one discusses the "other") ?
4. Do cultural, religious, and racial differences matter more than socio-economic categories, or politico-historical ones?
5. How do ideas acquire authority, "normality," and even the status of "natural" truth?
6. What is the role of the intellectual?
7. Is he there to validate the culture and state of which he is a part?
8. What importance must he give to an independent critical consciousness, an oppositional critical consciousness?

Said concludes with a warning to guard against accepting handed down notions of the other, and incorporating them into one's work without first subjecting them to critical analysis.

Thierry Hentsch incorporates and complicates most earlier studies of Orientalism. [10] He believes that Western images of the Muslim world are projections of Western insecurities about Self onto the Other, and that as long as the Other is a mirror for the Self, there will always be conflict. I think this is becoming evident in the recent usage of images of Muslims and -Islam, built upon not only centuries of images but in particular upon very carefully constructed images of Arabs from the 1960s and 1970s. I will return to this in due time.

To Hentsch, Western images of a sensual yet violent Orient are self-telling myths. Like Bernal, [11] Hentsch believes that racist myths of Western supremacy were fabricated in the 17th and 18th centuries and projected backward to explain contemporary realities. As Said pointed out, collating these myths became the job of the Orientalists. But Hentsch's sweep is far wider and more inclusive than Said. He considers pre-Orientalist cultural factors, and brings his treatment right up to the 1990-91 Persian Gulf Oil War. Hentsch believes that the West's myth of the Orient will continue to serve its explanatory functions right on into the next century.

Hentsch's essential hypothesis is that the area we call the Middle East (which he defines as the nations from Morocco to Iran; Said's Orient) has been a self-reflecting mirror for Western civilization, in which the West defines itself by constructing an Other who is everything the West is not. Hentsch's thesis is that the "Orient" is an zimmense repository of our own imagined world" and that "we reveal ourselves through our way of seeing." [12] His "capital supposition" is that "any study of the Other is futile unless we first observe ourselves face to face with it, and in particular, unless we attempt to understand how, and why, we have studied and represented this self-same Other down to the present day." [13] Speaking on ethnocentrism, Hentsch asserts that it "is not a flaw to be simply set aside, nor is it a sin to be expunged through repentance. It is the precondition of our vision of the Other. Far from offering us absolution, this precondition compels us constantly to return to our point of departure, if only to grasp the internal and external imperatives which shape our curiosity about the Other." [14] I want to continue with Hentsch's analysis, and look in particular at the genesis and continuation of images as they relate to the emerging European colonizing enterprise.

Races Debased and Unities Sundered:

In November of 1095, Pope Urban II initiated the first European attempt at colonizing the Muslim world-known in the West as the Crusades-by drawing this fateful picture:

For you must hasten to carry aid to your brethren dwelling in the East, who need your help, which they have often asked For the Turks, a Persian people, have attacked them I exhort you with earnest prayer- not I, but God-that, as heralds of Christ, you urge men by frequent exhortation, men of all ranks, knights as well as foot soldiers, rich as well as poor, to hasten to exterminate this vile race from the lands of your brethren Christ commands it And if those who set out thither should lose their lives on the way by land, or in crossing the sea, or in fighting the pagans, their sins shall be remitted Oh what a disgrace, if a race so despised, base, and the instrument of demons, should so overcome a people endowed with faith in the all-powerful God, and resplendent with the name of Christ Let those who have been accustomed to make private war against the faithful carry on to a successful issue a war against the infidels Let those who for a long time have been robbers now become soldiers of Christ Let those who fought against brothers and relatives now fight against these barbarians let them zealously undertake the journey under the guidance of the Lord. [15]

The Pope's words lay out many of the themes that would characterize this mass colonial movement East for the next two centuries In one reading of the Crusading venture, restless knights and small-tune princes are enticed by their lords with tales of land and wealth, in the hopes of turning their swords away from the increasingly nervous feudal establishment, or what the Pope calls the faithful brethren Landless folks and the poor-euphemized by the Pope as criminals-can also be turned Eastward with enticements of land and Divine forgiveness But what is most interesting here is that the Pope conceptualizes his Oriental Other in racial terms The enemy, for now, is the debased races of Turks and Persians, and Islam is not yet a part of the Western conceptual matrix.

There is also an overlap here with Christian treatment of Jews as the "instruments of demons", one of the key tenets of anti-Semitic white supremacy In Christian Europe, Jews and Muslims suffered the wrath of an increasingly rabid and intolerant resurgent Christianity, culminating in the expulsion of both from Muslim Spain in the 15th century, at the dawn of the expansionist age while this is not the place to trace this legacy in detail, this is also the period in which the religion of rationalism replaced Christianity, with the images of the other traveling full circle from Pope Urban's 11th century "debased races" to the Age of Enlightenment, with its biological explanation for colonization and genocide As Hentsch shows, [16] the uses of Islam continued to change according to European internal and external political and economic situations In the 16th century, when Ottoman Empire was consolidating its control over Mediterranean trade routes, the resulting "rift" was projected back to the first centuries of Islam, making a contemporary economic problem seem to be the result of "age-old" conflict Any rift in the Mediterranean was there long before Muslims came on the scene There was never any trans-Mediterranean unity The Catholic Church, which inherited the decaying Roman Empire, soon split into its Eastern and Western branches Conventional history, such as is found in World Civilization textbooks, overlooks this and continues to frame Muslims for sundering the imaginary unity of European civilization Religious imagery had its uses as well Christian disunity, which began long before Muslims came on the scene, was blamed on Muslim hordes that exploded from Arabia, forever sundering the unity of the Church

When the Ottomans were at the peak of their power in the 17th century, European princes viewed them as a respected and powerful rival However, with the waning of Ottoman power, the Muslim world was seen as a place of exotic trials and espionage This newly exoticized Orient began to be loved for its objects, while its people were despised or belittled By the 19th century, race-based explanations for colonization had fully re-emerged As Hentsch suggests, [17] some Muslims were considered by Europeans to be civilized according to their criteria, but this was explained by the presence of Aryan blood in some Muslim races In fact, as French travelers saw it, the problem with Persians was that, despite their pure Aryan roots, their blood was tainted because of mixing with lesser, darker skinned breeds Before continuing this trend into the modern period, I want to go back over this terrain and look at Christian and European obsessions and insecurities with sex and violence, and the ways they provided particularly fertile ground for images of Muslims.

Medieval Phantasms of Sex and Violence
And, if you desire to know what was done about the enemy whom we found there, know that in the portico of Solomon and his Temple, our men rode in the blood of the Saracens up to the knees of the horses (Daimbert, Official Summary of the 1st Crusade) [18]

Those amongst the Saracens are considered most religious who can make the most women pregnant they lie with their concubines and wives often in times of fast, because they suppose making love and desire are so meritorious, either to satisfy lust or to generate many sons to strengthen the defense of their religion. (Bishop Jacques de Vitry on the 5th Crusade) [19]

Count Roland gripped his sword dripping with gore he strikes his valiant blows, shivering shafts of spears and bucklers, too, cleaving through feet and fists, saddles and sides To see him hack the limbs from Saracens, pile them upon the earth, corpse upon corpse, would call to mind a very valiant knight. (Verse from the Song of Roland, 12th century minstrelsy) [20]

Nor did Mahomet teach anything of great austerity. . . indeed, he even allowed many pleasurable things, to do with a multitude of women, abuse of them, and suchlike. . . many Christians change and will change to the Saracen religion. (Dominican Friar Humbert of Lyons, c. 1300) [21]
These quotes are instructive in their presentation of Western Christian foundational attitudes toward Islam. In Medieval Europe, the Popes began to use Islam as a proxy to convince backsliding Christians to return to the fold and to convince themselves that Christians were chaste, denouncing Islam as a sexually liberal and even licentious religion. Once the Europeans gained a foothold in West Asia, one of the areas of greatest concern was miscegenation. In the Crusader mind, even sex with one's own wife was a carnal sin; sex with an infidel woman was punished by "castration for the Crusader and facial mutilation for the woman." Muslim women were "viewed as defiled and wanton whores and seductresses." To Christians, Muslim ease with sexuality was seen as "offensively non-ascetic behavior." [22]

In fact, it seems that Medieval Christians could do nothing but condemn the Muslim appreciation of sexuality, and
. . . therefore they attacked "Islam" as a religion that had been directly set up to encourage promiscuity and lust. . . Biographies of Mohammed by Christians describe the Prophet's sex life in a manner that reveals far more about their own sexual problems than about the facts of the Prophet's life. The Koran was said, quite incorrectly, to condone homosexuality and to encourage unnatural forms of intercourse. One scholar claimed that the foulness of lust among Muslims was inexpressible; they were deep in this filth from the soles of their feet to the crown of the head. Soon the Church would accuse any out-group in Christendom of excessive and unnatural sexual practices and twelfth century Christians stigmatized "heresy" of Islam by cursing what they considered its sexual laxity. [23]
To really grasp the utility of this imagery, we need to look at sexuality in European history. In his discussion of human sexuality, Foucault describes Arab-Muslim societies as among those "which have endowed themselves with an ars erotica" in which "truth is drawn from pleasure itself, understood as a practice and accumulated as experience." [24] Western civilization, on the other hand, possesses a scientia sexualis, the "procedures for telling the truth of sex which are geared to a form of knowledge-power strictly opposed to the art of initiations and the masterful secret." In the West, the confession is "one of the main rituals we rely on for the production of truth" and "Western man has become a confessing animal." [25] What needs confessing is the sin of enjoyment.

European discomfort with sexuality in Medieval times gradually gives way to a new outlook, still rooted, as Foucault stresses, in the old insecurities, but now at least with an outward expression of enjoyment. By the twentieth century, the alterity of sexuality has now been reversed, suggests Karen Armstrong, with the post-Christian West seeing itself as sexually liberated vis-a-vis a sexually repressed Islam:
At a time when many people in the West are liberating themselves from the sexual repressions of their Christian past, Islam is constantly denigrated as a sexually repressive religion. We have completely reversed the old stereotype and not many people seem interested in the truth of the matter or wish to find out about Islam itself. They simply want to bolster their own needs against their long established counter-image: Islam [26]
Sex and violence continue to be juxtaposed in disturbing ways in American culture. For example, American pilots watched porno movies while preparing to carpet bomb Baghdad in the 1991 Persian Gulf Oil war, and they scribbled sexually explicit graffiti on the bombs, labeling them as "Mrs. Saddam's sex toy" or "a suppository for Saddam." [27] George Bush purposefully mispronounced "Saddam" (which in Arabic has a heavy accent on the last syllable) so that it sounded more like Sodom, evoking the Biblical city of wanton sexual depravity, and thus sodomy. A wartime propaganda book produced by an American public relations firm hired by the Kuwaitis was entitled The Rape of Kuwait, adding another facet to the highly sexualized justification for what amounts to a firebomb lynch-party of Iraqis reminiscent of the same charge leveled at African Americans to justify racist brutality. I'll come back to some of these themes in a moment, but I first want to consider further some unique elements of the American conceptualization of the Muslim other.

Orientalizing the American Way:

Most of the literature on Orientalist pursuits focuses on European forms of Orientalism. Comparatively little has been written about the peculiarities of American Orientalism. The latter is worth careful attention, since the United States seems obsessed with becoming the leader in a unipolar world, and some official policy circles list Islam as a "new" but qualified threat to that supposed inevitability.

17th through 19th century American writings illustrates how Europeans who invaded North America believed that they were God's chosen people, that the land they were colonizing was the promised land, and that Native people's were God-less heathen who were to be driven from their homes and burned. [28] Sha'ban points out that religiously driven settlers, Puritans in particular, imagined parallels between themselves and the wandering tribes of Israel. These early roots were bolstered by an emerging and increasingly strong, literal, and exclusive sense of a relationship with their God, who had ordained pre-United States settlers to be "a light in the West" that would shine over the rest of the world. This expansionary, violent, and millennial sense of a divine mission became known as "manifest destiny." [29]

In practice, manifest destiny initially meant bringing the "light" of American style Protestant Christianity to the rest of the world. Americans saw themselves as being placed in the "center of the world" by Providence in order to carry out a Divine mission, as a writer in the American Theological Review put it in 1859:

Indeed, radii drawn from our eastern, western, and southern shores, reach almost all Pagan, Mohammedan, and Papal lands, or rather most of them can be reached by nearly direct water communication. [30]

The American missionary enterprise-the vanguard of manifest destiny- required information on "barbarians," "heathens," "savages," and "pagans," and especially "Mohammedans," "Turks," and "Saracens." Beginning in the early 19th century, particularly when manifest destiny turned cast as well as west, American writers took a strong interest in Islam and the Prophet. In various treatises, they dwell on the Prophet (upon whom be peace) as an impostor and portray Islam as a deviant Christian heresy. Some of the very few instances where this does not apply tend to romanticize the Prophet as a hero, but these views also had at bottom the intention to defeat Islam and convert Muslims to Christianity. An equally important goal of 19th century religious writings on Islam, as Sha'ban notes, was to describe the alleged depravity of Islam in order to assert the imagined purity of Christianity, a tendency inherited from Medieval European Christianity.

Commercial, diplomatic, and military contacts with Mediterranean Muslim lands, coupled with evangelical revivalism in the late 18th and early 19th century, led to a "shift of the American myth of God's Israel from the New World to the Holy Land." [31] But the imaginary world of Biblical Zion constructed in the parlors and parishes of the United States soon had to be reconciled with the realities on the ground in Palestine. Unfortunately, this reconciliation did not entail rethinking the vision of Zion-it meant imposing that vision on Muslims and non-Protestant Christians who happened to be in the way of the American sense of Providence.

Americans were also motivated in their dealings with Islam and Muslims by a complex amalgam of Oriental fairy tales. Making use of a body of literature largely ignored by other critics of Orientalism, Sha'ban takes a particular interest in Orientalism as found in popular American literature. He notes that one of the most often printed books in the 19th century United States was a translation of the Arabian Nights. That collection of fables and fairy tales, often translated in the West subject to the sexual whims of the translator and marketed to titillate readers, was taken as an accurate portrayal of a timeless, exotic, and mystical East. Tales of harems, genies, and magic carpets found their way into most American homes and libraries. These stories often provided the criteria by which secular travelers to the East would judge their own experiences.

Sha'ban's detailed analysis of travel literature reveals that, time after time, American men traveling to the East were both aroused and repulsed by Muslim culture. One American traveler to Istanbul in 1858 was so mystified and aroused by a veiled Muslim woman that he offered $50 to buy her, but soon realized it was not possible since he "was no Mohammedan." [32] While often envying the Turks for their "harems," some travelers also looked for signs of distress so that they might heroically rescue "oppressed" women from the clutches of the Turkish "barbarians." These expectations were founded upon what Sha'ban calls the "dream of Baghdad", and he aptly demonstrates that such dreams abound in early American Orientalism. This dream of Oriental splendour was picked up by Hollywood in its early years, with Rudolph Valentino epitomizing the Romantic lover in Arab garb. Similar Oriental fantasies permeated American entertainment all through the 20th century, ranging from cartoons like "Popeye meets Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves," to "The Adventures of Sindbad" and "Lawrence of Arabia," and right on up to the 1989 Disney Orientalist extravaganza "Aladdin.'

Corporate American Phantasms:

The dual image of luxury and bellicosity, as suggested by Daniel above, can be illustrated through looking at the incredible popularity of the Arabian Nights-type themes in American corporate culture. Though its use as literature has declined somewhat in recent times, the Arabian Nights, as noted above, was once among the most popular books in America. Hollywood has capitalized on this American obsession with things Oriental in its recent production of "Aladdin," a phantasmagoria of Orientalist cliche, complete with a menagerie of harems, genies, magic carpets, and, of course, murderous barbarians.

A promotional documentary about the making of Aladdin boasts of authenticity in its producers' emulation of "Islamic design" and "Persian architecture," showing scenes of animators carefully drawing images of mosques and calligraphy from photographs; they appear to use great care in detailing their drawings to the minutest degree. But one thing is missing from all this careful attention to detail-people. Characters in Hollywood's Aladdin are compound stereotypes, grossly racist caricatures of the worst Western phantasms-villainous sorcerers in turbans, sensuous harems, sumptuous feasts, hordes of fat ugly thugs with swords (ready to chop off hands for stealing bread), flying carpets, genies. All this is an alterity of the hero, Aladdin, who speaks and acts as if straight out of an American suburban high school. [33]

Sometimes, American media wizards ram together luxurious and bellicose images to create the classic American phantasm. A recent example is the 1995 American football Super Bowl half-time antics, an extended commercial-like foray. First, crooner Tony Bennett sings "Desert Caravan" against a backdrop resembling a mosque. Then Indiana Jones (who shot up many a Muslim barbarian in his Hollywood films) swings into the scene and rescues the football-shaped Super Bowl trophy from hordes of turbaned Muslims with swords (or were they Arabs? or Turks? Moors?). Jones makes short work of these generic barbarians, retrieving the trophy, along with a blonde heroine for good measure. This is followed by a song and dance routine, featuring gyrating women wearing costumes right out of the 1960s American Orientalist situation comedy "I Dream of Jeannie." Other women are draped in black or white chadors; some of these women doff their veils and swing them along with their hips, as if reveling in their new found "liberation." Of course, it is the American hero Jones who has rescued them from their oppressive Muslim masters. The show climaxes with a flashy display of fireworks, and the fans erupt into a jingoistic frenzy, the likes of which rivals similar outbursts when the national anthem is played. Clearly, such Oriental fantasies are part of America's national heritage, which can be utilized by production designers for all sorts of entertainment and commercial purposes.

Commercial television and its corporate advertising conglomerates from time to time intensify their utilization of Islamic exotica in Popular American culture. Interestingly, this often takes place side by side with an increase in the vilification of Muslims and Islam. American corporate news is full of talk about "Islamic terror," "Muslim suicide bombers," "the warriors of Allah," "the holy war of Islam," or "Iranian backed radical extremist Moslem fundamentalist terrorists." Examples abound, including a notorious programme in the Fall of 1994 called "Jihad in America," which described a centrally controlled, top-down international Islamic conspiracy to carry out terror in the US, or the more recent rush to blame the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing on Muslims. These public displays of jingoistic fury have real repercussions on the ground, with a series of mosque- burnings and increased hate and bias crimes against Muslims, including the tragic case of a new mosque in Yuba City, California, burned to the ground by arsonists on the eve of its opening to the community in September 1994. Imagery creates a climate within which such acts seem to make sense.

Images of Muslims seem to ebb and flow with the American political tides, and close examination reveals some connections. Following the violent orgy of death and mayhem popularly known to Americans as "Desert Storm," American corporate television began to feature advertisements with an Arabian Nights motif. For example, a commercial aired on corporate TV throughout 1991 and 1992 for "Near East Rice Pilaf" features scenes in a Middle Eastern bazaar. The ad segues to an American family preparing to gorge themselves on an exotic dish, as if eating Near East Rice Pilaf will somehow transport the consumer into an Eastern fantasy world. IBM computers, as part of its globalized campaign of superficial multicultural inclusion, produced a similar commercial, which utilizes Arabic dialogue and racist caricatures. In an exotic bazaar setting, two natives thoughtfully extol the virtues of the latest American techno-excesses. A similar commercial was produced by Isuzu automobiles, taking place somewhere in North Africa, also with Arabic (as well as French) speaking natives. It begins with a call from a minaret, a pseudo adhan (which has always been an aural symbol for Islam in American film and TV), and ends with the natives being dazzled by expensive leather seats and the corporation's newest mobile contraption. These and other commercials share the common theme of a utilizing a timeless fantasy world that is backwards yet ready for the salvation of American consumer culture. Not intended to sell computers and cars to anyone but Americans, these utilizations of Orientalist imagery serve to make powerful connections for consumers, especially between tradition and progress.

With increasing numbers of American corporations hopping on the Oriental bandwagon, American Muslims have tried to form collective responses. According to a series of press releases beginning in November 1994, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has mounted several campaigns against greeting card corporations for cards that objectify veiled Muslim women in degrading ways, or which feature nude women juxtaposed with verses from the Qur'an. There have been beer commercials featuring actresses with verses of the Qur'an emblazoned across their chests, and the fashion industry has suddenly discovered the beauty of Islamic calligraphy, using it in clothing designs modeled by voluptuous women in public pageants. CAIR has also worked on a number of bias incidents, many involving women barred from working because they choose to wear the Islamic modest dress. It seems that in American corporate culture, veils and other Oriental exotica are widely utilized to titillate buyers, but that real women who wear the Muslim modest dress are despised and rejected. Another phenomenon has also emerged since the Persian Gulf Oil War. There is an increasing number of corporate news media programmes about Muslims living in the US Some no doubt grew out of wartime public relations on behalf of "good Muslims," like the Kuwaiti royals, who hired one of the biggest US public relations firms to manage their wartime propaganda. [34] Most juxtapose two images there is a "terrorist fringe" among US Muslims (the "bad Muslims"), but most other Muslims are peace-loving and eager to be assimilated to the American way of life (the "good Muslims") The American corporate news pundits continually remind consumers that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the US; at the same time, they tell Americans that "Islamic terror cells" are on the rise in the US Muslims in such stories are usually defined by their politics and class While the media assure Americans that most Muslims are dutiful middle-class citizens, the "terrorist fringe" is always laying at the wait, a threat to the very core of American interests and values Such images have been utilized by politicians and corporate leaders to frighten American citizen-consumers into accepting all sorts of barbarous immigration and security laws.

Closer scrutiny reveals that, in most cases, the Muslims profiled on corporate TV programmes are Palestinians One insidious implication is that Palestinians are somehow inherently irrational, though this is not always made explicit The misogynist character of dominant media imagery of Muslims in the US is underlined, for example, when the corporate news shows images of Palestinian or other Muslim men crying, perhaps after another Israeli raid on their homes Since "real men" don't cry, it becomes hard for Americans to imagine other people's grief expressed in that way, and it is seen instead as an expression of rage or insanity The point is that some images are heightened by the inability of television to portray anything but the most extreme expressions of emotion, causing some to label TV as best suited to portray death. [35] This technical inadequacy is something that even good PR can't fix It also heightens the effectiveness of television as a medium to utilize deep-seated American visions of sex and violence in Islam

US corporate news features often use Islamic religious symbols to frame stories about violent political events For example, a 1994 story about the end of the disastrous American intervention in Somalia begins with the reporter intoning ominously "night falls ul Mogadishu" over the Islamic call to prayer and a backdrop of a mosque silhouetted by a dark, cloudy sky The report segues to picture bites of destroyed American helicopters and corpses of US marines. The call to prayer in this case, as in many others, forebodes death and terror. Furthermore, this is the only Somali voice in the piece.

Some media portrayals of Muslims are reminiscent of the contrived sense of inevitability that Native American scholar Ward Churchill brings out in his comments about the Orientalist extravaganza epic film, Lawrence of Arabia:

Its major impact was to put a 'tragic' but far more humane face upon the nature of Britain's imperial pretensions in the region, making colonization of the Arabs seem more acceptable-or at least more inevitable-than might have otherwise been the case. [36]

The US media often rely on pre-existing images of Muslim barbarity in order to explain the need for intervention or to help the US military save face when things don't come out as planned When the US Marines were escorting members of the UN out of Somalia in February 1995, ABC News televised a report of a multiple amputation, featuring a man who presumably had just been convicted of theft in an Islamic law court The piece was pure emotion and imagery, seeming to say, with Churchill's tragic self- righteousness, "look how easily the natives revert to their barbarity once we leave "

Despite its pervasiveness in the media, imagery that I have described above is far removed from the daily experiences of most American citizen- consumers But lately, some media producers have tried to bring these images closer to home

TV Holy War

In the Fall of 1994, PBS aired a documentary by journalist Steve Emerson Titled "Jihad in America," it followed on the heels of other recent works that put forth the thesis of an elaborate, secret, and centralized network of "Islamic terrorists," who take orders from Iran, and who are mounting a violent war against their hated enemy, the mighty Great Satan. [37]

Evidence within the programme suggests that Emerson has access to official government intelligence Most of the programme either consists of interviews staged by Emerson, or clips from Muslim conferences (which are available publicly from the organizations that sponsor conferences) However, some clips appear to be from other sources, such as home videos confiscated from Muslims in FBI sweeps during the Oil War and in the wake of the World Trade Center incident, or surreptitiously taped surveillance videos Using "former" FBI and State Department officials as informants is only a smoke screen to cover the access Emerson has to official intelligence Concurrent with the debut of his program, Emerson was invited to appear on news and talk shows as an "expert on terrorism " A year or so of this kind of programming set the climate for what became a rush to judge Muslims for crimes they did not commit

Within hours after a truck bomb blew up the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on Wednesday 19 April 1995, word was out that "Islamic extremists" were responsible Talking heads on all the major corporate news outlets made immediate parallels to the World Trade Center bombing, or to the car bombing of the American Marine barracks in Beirut Programmes sporting logos like "Terror in the Heartland" popped up on all the major networks. Speculations ran wild: an international cartel of terrorists were retaliating for the abduction from Pakistan of their leader, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef; fanatical followers of Shaykh Omar Abdel Rahman were protesting his trial in New York; Muslim extremists intended to show that even America's heartland was not safe from Mideast terror; religious and political "zealots" from the Middle East were lashing out at the US.

That night, Steve Emerson, along with CBS Mideast expert Fuad Ajami, asserted on a CBS news programme that the bombing had "all the earmarks of Islamic radical extremists," and that Muslim terrorists were now "wreaking havoc in the land they loathe." Former FBI agent and Pan Am flight 203 bombing investigator Oliver "Buck" Revell, who rose to public prominence after appearing in Emerson's anti-Muslim tirade "Jihad in America," was once again wheeled out of obscurity, spewing theories about how vulnerable the US was to attacks by Islamic militants.

It was not only the corporate news media that jumped to such conclusions about Muslims. The same accusations and speculations could be heard from other corners of US officialdom. For example, the director of the House Republican Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, Yossef Bodansky, well known for his conspiracy theories about a centrally controlled Islamic "holy war" against the West, assured viewers that "we have a host of enemies that have vowed to strike at the heart of the Great Satan" and called upon law enforcement agencies to take preventative measures that amount to severe curtailments of civil liberties. [38] The tirades by assorted "terrorism experts" continued into Thursday 20 April, when World Trade Center investigator Michael Cherkasky told CNN that "we've got to know what's going on in these fanatical terrorist groups," and called for beefed up intelligence against immigrants.

Politicians worked quickly to capitalize on the tragedy, quickly realizing its utility for pushing new anti-immigration laws and wiretap legislation. Then Republican Senate Majority Leader, and later Presidential candidate, Bob Dole reminded the President that the Senate was ready to pass a new "counter-terrorism" bill, the Omnibus Counter-terrorism Act of 1995, which had provisions for enabling the use of "secret evidence" to deport immigrants, allowed for the banning of fundraising by "suspected terrorist" organizations, and lessened or eliminated restrictions for conducting phone taps. Similarly, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde emphasized that the US had to identify "potentially dangerous foreigners" and that "we should keep them from getting into the country in the first place," while Florida congresswoman Ileana Ros Lehtinen cried that "the radical Islamic movement has penetrated America and presents a real threat to our national security and serenity." Summing up the general tone of most reporting up to this point, James Wooten, an expert on terrorism at the Congressional Research Service, asserted that "it's no longer to be looked at from afar, it's come home to roost."

As if a vast contingency plan were set in motion, other Federal agencies quickly joined the fray, and there was even talk of possible "retaliation" against. a Middle Eastern state. The Pentagon detailed several Arabic language interpreters to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for possible use in interrogating suspects, and the FBI began to question Arab and Muslim groups in the Oklahoma City area. A Jordanian-American was detained in London and returned to the US for questioning because his luggage contained "possible bombmaking equipment," but which later turned out to be a telephone and other innocuous items. When the man's identity was announced publicly, his property in Oklahoma was vandalized and his wife spat upon. [39]

Though the mainstream media ignored repercussions, the independent Muslim press reported hate crimes related to these incidents. [40] A Muslim woman in Oklahoma city miscarried her late term child when an angry mob besieged her home with bricks and stones. Muslims and Arabs were harassed and many organizations received death and bomb threats and phone calls demanding that they get out of the US. All of this abuse was further exacerbated by continuing reports, such as one that the Immigration and Naturalization Service was on the lookout for men of "Middle Eastern appearance" and that they had detained several suspicious men of "Middle Eastern origin." [41]

All of this occurred within less than 48 hours after the blast. However, when the composite sketches of "two white males" were released in the late afternoon of 20 April, people began to ask if this reduced the possibility that the bombing was carried out by "Middle Eastern terrorists." News services started mentioning a possible "lone kook" or a "disgruntled employee.' When a suspect with ties to American ultra-nationalists was arrested, attention shifted to the "militia" phenomenon. Although resurgent white supremacy had been seething for years, and despite the warnings of watchdog groups, the mainstream media acted as if the militias had come out of nowhere.

The lesson here is that, while a white American Christian acts alone Muslims always work together. In such a discourse, Muslims are guilty merely by association with the vast menagerie of imagery that government and corporate outlets use to sell products and ideas to Americans. The cruel ironies of American domestic problems began to pile up for Muslims: once it was announced that a man with possible ties to the militias was arrested for the Oklahoma City bombing and emphasis shifted away from "Islamic terror", some branches of the corporate news media insisted on clinging to the hope that there might still be an "Islamic connection," since "our boys" don't do such things; once a white Christian American "good old boy" stood accused of the crime, programmes entitled "Terror in the Heartland" were replaced by those with titles like "Tragedy in Oklahoma;" once it was clear that there were no "Islamic extremists" to blame, the tone of public discourse softened remarkably, with less talk of "retaliation" and more about "forgiveness " Despite the obvious haste with which American officialdom was set to blame Muslims, there were no public apologies to Muslims once it was clear that they could not bc blamed.

The Utility of "Muslim Terror" in Israeli-American Relations:

In the 1970s, Arab American academics like Edmund Ghareeb, Jack Shaheen, and Michael Suleiman made strong connections between stereotypes of Arabs in corporate culture and the issue of Palestine. [42] They concluded that in order for the dispossession of Palestinians to bc supported by ordinary Americans, Arabs had to bc written off as either backward barbarians (who don't understand that colonization is in their best interests) or violent terrorists (who deserve to be eliminated). This was a time when no one used the term "Muslim fundamentalist." Even the Islamic revolution in Iran was seen as some kind of wild and crazy Persian phenomenon.

At the same time, with the gradual acquiescence of Arab regimes to either American or Israeli demands throughout the 1980s and 1990s, there was a shift from "Arab terror" to "Muslim terror." The infrastructure of imagery, already in place from decades of anti-Arab propaganda, simply had to be transferred to Muslims, the new "enemies of peace." In fact, many of the same political problems still persist, but the "terrorists" are now conceptualized as Muslims, since Arab regimes were now obedient allies. Although the Persian Gulf Oil War was a successful test case for enframing the Muslim world into "good" and "bad" parties, Zionist colonization of Palestine still remains one of the core issues contributing to conflict in West Asia.

American scholar Edward S. Herman believes that anti-Muslim racism in US corporate culture is closely related to the issue of Palestine. He sees an "enormous pro-Israel (and anti-Arab) bias of the mainstream media and intelligentsia," and gives four sources of this bias:

1. Israel's strategic value to the US.
2. the influence of the pro-Israel lobby, AIPAC.
3. Western feelings of guilt toward Jews.
4. anti-Arab racism.

Herman clarifies what he means by anti-Arab racism:
This racism is mainly an effect and reflection of interest and policy rather than a casual factor. . . Arabs who cooperate with the West. . . are not subject to racist epithets and stereotypes. This suggests that if other Arabs were more tractable and responsive to Western demands they would cease to be negatively stereotyped. Scapegoating is a function of power and interest. [43]
While his remarks on anti-Arab racism illustrate my point about the utility of imagery, I want to take another one of Herman's observations-the pervasiveness of the Israeli lobby in framing American policy-and look at the utility of Muslim terror in that context.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) held a conference on the "Middle East Peace Process" in Washington DC on 7 May 1995, which was aired live on CSPAN. The guests of honour included US president Bill Clinton and Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. In his speech, Rabin warned that "extremist radical Islamic fundamentalists" are the "enemies of peace" and that "Khomeinism without Khomeini is the greatest danger to stability, tranquillity and peace in the Middle East and the world." The "scourge of Khomeinism" has replaced the "scourge of communism," and even as the Israelis "consolidate peace with Jordan," the forces of "terror" are seeking to "destroy peace between peoples of our area." He called for the "free world," which successfully mobilized itself against communism, to mobilized itself against "Khomeinism." Rabin concluded by stressing that "only a strong Israel can guarantee stability in the Mideast" and that, therefore, US foreign aid "must remain a key pillar of the peace process." But the aid Rabin demands is about more than "peace" and "stability."

Israel cannot survive without continuous transfusions of American dollars, both from US government aid ($4-5 billion in American tax dollars annually), and private contributions, making Israel one of the few states in the world whose economic viability relies almost entirely on foreign donations and charity. (Despite this, it has never been economically viable, with even the World Bank considering Israel to be a weak financial risk.) This is meaningful because recently the US Congress has been threatening to cut foreign aid. While the Cold War provided the impetus for supporting aid for Israel as the ''first line of defense" against the "communist threat," it seems that the "Islamic threat" is now being utilized for the same purpose by Israeli politicians and their proxies in the US Congress.

After Rabin concluded his speech, AIPAC president Steve Grossman introduced US president Bill Clinton by emphasizing that Clinton has raised the "strategic partnership between the US and Israel to new levels." Clinton began his speech by emphasizing that the US role in the "peace process" was to "minimize the risks taken for peace." He then noted that Russia's cooperation with Iran was a "prime concern" of the US because Iran is "bent on building nuclear weapons." Clinton ignored another "prime concern" of people living in the region, the long standing Israeli nuclear weapons programme and its cooperation with South Africa in detonating a several nuclear weapons, or its kidnapping and imprisonment of Mordecai Vanunu, an Israeli technician who revealed the existence of the long-denied Israeli nuclear weapons programme to the outside world.

Clintons rationale for preventing Iranian-Russian cooperation was that since Iran has "ample oil reserves" it cannot possibly need nuclear technology for peaceful energy purposes. He warned that while Iran haunts the Mideast," the US will seek to "contain Iran as the principle sponsor of terrorism in the world," reminding his audience that Iran undermines the West and its values." He also thanked the Israelis for "drawing our attention to Iran's history of supporting terrorism." But the utility of this imagery became clearer when Clinton next asked for AIPAC to help out with the floundering American embargo against Iran. American attempts at convincing the Europeans and Japanese to sever their economic ties with Iran have been met with little international support, and he seemed to think the Israelis would have some sway over European politicians.

Clinton stated that US support for Israel was "absolute" and that all forms of current assistance will be continued.-He chastised the US Congress as a bunch of "budget cutting back door isolationists" for daring to suggest that the US discontinue its bloated but politically selective foreign aid programs, emphasizing that the US "did not win the Cold War to blow the peace" on budgetary issues. But the kind of peace that Clinton and his cohorts support is clear from the ensuing promises he made to the AIPAC congregation.

Clinton revealed that the once closed American space launcher vehicle market would now be open to the Israeli arms industry, along with other previously unavailable high-tech US weaponry. He also noted that the US would escalate its pre-positioning of weaponry in Israel, and that it would buy $3 billion worth of Israeli made military products. Since the US already has the largest military-industrial complex in the world, buying weapons from Israel is another thinly disguised form of economic aid.

As with other aid, US taxpayers are slated to foot the bill in the name of "national security." Clinton explained the need for all of this wheeling and dealing about war and weapons of mass destruction as necessary because "Israel is on the front line of the battle for freedom and peace." Again seeming to assume that they held some sway over public opinion, this time domestically, Clinton suggested that AIPAC help to "lobby" the American people about budgetary matters.

Israel needs more than military aid. Clinton also assured his audience that the US will continue to support-loan guarantees for the "settlement of 600,000 immigrants from the former Soviet Union." This is perhaps the most intractable problem in the Middle East conflict, and one of the main causes of tension, since many Russian emigres are given inducements (and military training) to settle in West Bank areas, in and around Palestinian towns. But in the official conceptualization of this issue, when people who live there resist in any way, they do so because they are inherently "terrorists," not because of any machinations of state power. This contradiction is worth a closer look.

Rabin used the word "terrorist," and its by product "terror," more than "peace" in his speeches like the one at the AIPAC conference. Bernard Nietschmann attempts to provide clarification of the utility of language used to describe conflict and war. [44] He concludes that most wars and conflicts in the world today are of the state-versus-nation variety, and in most cases the state is able to frame the nation they are trying to subdue as "terrorists" or "extremists." Those states, in many cases clients of larger states like the US, are generally supported by the major Western corporate news media. Nietschmann believes that a term like "terrorist" is in most cases a non-word in the struggle for normative issues: the aggressors have always provided the definitions of words used to explain their actions. [45] As we have seen above, words provide the climate for actions.

Especially useful is the assertion that "terrorist" is basically a non- word, because it is always used from a position of power to describe those who struggle against the status quo, or the emerging neo-colonial world order. (One could add to this the term "fundamentalist," which came into vogue after the Islamic Revolution in Iran; similarly, the French use "integriste.") State terminology defines struggles and these terminologies are used to undermine nations that want to have their own vision. More often than not, the nations under state domination are indigenous peoples- Native Americans, Palestinians, South Africans, Australian Aboriginals- who were displaced by European invaders.

Nietschmann reminds his fellow Western political scientists that state systems set up boundaries and that all peoples within those boundaries become subjects. The present historical moment does tell us that states result in hierarchy and violence, that lines on a map make the world, that history has become the history of lines. States define land masses, and most defy logic. The state system serves transnational corporations, which need to bc able to deal with a head man. In addition to facilitating transfer of goods, states also allow use of force within their borders. Usually, the violence is explained as a police action against terrorists, who are portrayed as acting out of some kind of irrational, religious fanaticism. Occasionally, states will even cross borders into another state to attack "terrorists" without actually declaring war on that state, as in repeated Israeli invasions of southern Lebanon, or the recent Turkish incursions into northern Iraq.

There are parallels to this discussion in US history. When Mexicans resisted US expansion in the 19th century, they were called "bandits." Texans had a policy to shoot on sight any bandits, and sometimes marched as far as Mexico City to root out banditry. However, the "war against banditry" was accompanied by a systematic process of enclosure and depopulation, followed by mass ranch ownership. Within 2 years, over a million acres were conquered, while the "bandits" were relegated to the realm of American popular culture. Similar stories could be told about racism toward Native Americans. Returning to Berkhofer's discussion of whites stereotyping Native Americans, he notes that warlike images of Indians prevailed when Indians were a threat to US interests, and that the nostalgic images prevailed when they were seen as a vanishing race. When the US was involved with military action against Haiti around the turn of the century, American newspapers featured stories about stereotypical Haitians, drawing upon a previously constructed repertoire of images and tales of cannibalism and barbarous voodoo rituals.

Nietschmann's distinction between "state" and "nation" is useful, but it suffers from some glaring omissions, particularly in his list of nation/state conflicts. Israeli incursions into Lebanon since the early 1970s are not mentioned, nor is Indian domination over Kashmir. While the Timorese struggle against the Indonesian state is stressed, the struggle of the Achenese is ignored. These Muslim peoples have been struggling against oppression and domination since the 19th century, first against Dutch imperialism and later against its Indonesian surrogate state. Can the Shi'ites of Iraq and Bahrain (where they are oppressed majorities) and in Saudi Arabia (where they are an oppressed minority) be classified as "nations"? Or are religious distinctions not acceptable? There are other shortcomings in this short work on a long topic, but the overall point is instructive.

Conventional American public discourse utilizes images of Islamic resistant movements as intolerant and predisposed toward violence. While many contemporary movements do have a strong anti-Western sentiment, it is often qualified and in any case is a fairly recent phenomenon. If Arabs and Muslims are extremists in anything, I believe that it is in the patience and tolerance they have shown toward persistent Western interventions until very recently. Islamic movements have much more important characteristics than intolerance and violence. A central concept is social justice. In the West, where it is fashionable to be anti-social under the pretense that socialism is obsolete, it is easy to overlook calls for social justice and fixate instead on violent struggle. But seeing social movements only in terms of violence, real or imagined, is seeing them only in terms that are important to a narrow set of strategic interests.

I became deeply interested in this line of research around the time of the Persian Gulf Oil War in 1990-91. I was amazed at how readily the government and the corporate news media were able to rally public support for that senseless and destructive war. I was sickened by the grotesqueness of the war and the way academic experts and journalists self-righteously mimicked each other's stereotypes and biases in their inhuman depictions of "bad" Arabs and Muslims, while slavishly parroting the official public relations-fueled imagery of the "good" ones. I found it absolutely incredible that the persona of Saddam Hussein could be reworked from loyal proxy, during his murderous war against Iran, to Hitlerian demon after he became too big for his American britches. I thought to myself, Americans must be brain dead if they buy this. Many did. Not content with that as the sole explanation, I set out to see how imagery could be reworked to expedite a shifting political economy. This article is largely about what I found. One of the points I have tried to make is that Western civilization maintains a shifting array of images about Islam and Muslims. These images can be called upon as needed to explain, justify or simplify complex political, social and economic problems, whether they be international or domestic.

Notes:

[1] The best comprehensive discussion on the lineage of Western legal thought from the Crusades through modern legal treatment of Native Americans is Robert A. Williams, The American Indian in Western Legal Thought: The Discourses of Conquest (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990).

[2] Robert F. Berkhofer, The White Man's Indian: Images of the American Indian from Columbus to the Present (New York: Vintage, 1979).

[3] Ibid., 29.

[4] Ibid., 30.

[5] Ibid., 30-31.

[6] For example: Norman Daniel, Islam and the West: The Making of an Image (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1961); Hichem Djait, Europe and Islam (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985); Thierry Hentsch, Imagining the Middle East (Montreal: Black Rose, 1992); Edward Said, Orientalism, (New York: Vintage, 1979).

[7] Edward Said, Orientalism, (New York: Vintage, 1979).

[8] Ibid., 301 and 322.

[9] Ibid., 325-326.

[10] Thierry Hentsch, Imagining the Middle East (Montreal: Black Rose, 1992).

[11] Martin Bernal, Black Athena. The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1987).

[12] Hentsch, op. cit., ix.

[13] Ibid., x.

[14] Ibid., xiv, emphasis in the original.

[15] The passage appears in August C. Krey, The First Crusade: The Accounts of Eye Witnesses and Participants (Gloucester, Massachusetts: Peter Smith, 1958).

[16] Ibid.

[17] Ibid., and cf. Marshall Hodgson, Rethinking World History: Essays on Europe, Islam and World History (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993).

[18] In Krey, op. cit., 275.

[19] In Norman Daniel, Heroes and Saracens: An Interpretation of the Chansons de Geste (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1984).

[20] In D.D.R. Owen, ed., The Song of Roland: The Oxford Text (London: Allen & Unwin, 1972), 75.

[21] In Daniel, 1984, op. cit., 70

[22] These quotes are from David E. Stannard, American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), 179. Stannard provides a particularly useful overview of the relationship between sex and violence in Western colonial discourse, especially in the section on "Sex, Race, and Holy War."

[23] Karen Armstrong, Holy War: The Crusades and their Impact on Today's World (NewYork: Anchor, 1992), 230.

[24] Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality: An Introduction (New York: Vintage, 1990).

[25] Ibid., 58-59.

[26] Ibid., 230.

[27] In Stannard, op. cit., 253, cf. Douglas Kellner, The Persian Gulf TV War (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1992) .

[28] This story, including a case study of Puritan violence toward Indians, is well told by Francis Jennings, The Invasion of America: Indians, Colonialism, and the Cant of Conquest (New York: Norton, 1976) .

[29] Fuad Sha'ban, Islam and Arabs in Early American Thought: The Roots of Orientalism in America (Durham, North Carolina: The Acorn Press, 1991), 23-26.

[30] In Ibid., 20.

[31] Ibid., 149.

[32] Ibid., 183.

[33] Henry Giroux provides a useful analysis of Aladdin and other Disney films as they relate to child development in America, in his essay "Are Disney Movies Good for Your Kids?" which can be found in the collection of essays edited by Shirley R. Steinberg and Joe L. Kinchloe, Kinderculture: The Corporate Construction of Childhood (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1997), 53-67.

[34] Kellner, op. cit., 68-70.

[35] For an explication of this thesis, see Joyce Nelson, The Perfect Machine: TV in the Nuclear Age (Toronto: Between the Lines, 1987) .

[36] Ward Churchill, Fantasies of the Master Race: Literature, Cinema and the Colonization of American Indians (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 1992), 245.

[37] There is a growing genre of conspiracy literature espousing this thesis in the US, which has been recently heightened by an Israeli scholar working on a Congressional task force under President Bill Clinton, Yossef Bodansky. See in particular his book Target America: Terrorism in the U.S. Today (New York: Shapolsky, 1993). The same book with identical text is marketed outside the US under the title Target the West.

[38] This was reported by Reuters on 20 April 1995. All quotes in this paragraph and the next were taken from this report.

[39] This was reported in a series of news releases by the Associated Press on 20 April 1995.

[40] See, for example, Crescent international 1-15 May 1995.

[41] This was reported by Reuters 20 April 1995; for a fuller account of the media circus, see the July/August 1995 issue of Extra!, the magazine of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting.

[42] For a representative sample of this work, see the following: Edmund Ghareeb, ed. Split Vision: The Portrayal of Arabs in the American Media (Washington, DC: The American-Arab Affairs Council, 1983); Jack Shaheen, The TV Arab (Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1984); Michael W. Suleiman, The Arabs in the Mind of America (Brattleboro, Vermont: Amana Books, 1988).

[43] Herman's statements are taken from a piece he wrote in the November 1994 issue of Z Magazine.

[44] Bernard Nietschmann, "The Third World War," Cultural Survival Quarterly 11, no. 3 (1987).

[45] The relationship between language and politics, and especially the struggle over normative issues, is nicely detailed by Franke Wilmer, The Indigenous Voice in World Politics: From Time Immemorial (London: Sage Publications, 1993).

The Causes Responsible for Materialist tendencies in the West I of IV [1]

2008-07-10T22:16:00.000-07:00

The Causes Responsible for Materialist tendencies in the West I of IV [1]
Translated from the Persian by Mujahid Husayn
Martyr Murtadha Mutahhari
(Vol XII and XIII)

Materialism:

The topic of the present study are the causes that lie behind materialist tendencies. Before we proceed with the discussion it is necessary that we first define the word 'materialism,' as a term current in common usage, and specify its exact meaning for the purpose of the present discussion.

The word 'materialism' has various usages and all of them are not relevant to our study while studying the cause for materialist inclinations. For example, at times 'materialism' is used to refer to the school of thought which asserts the principiality of matter in the sense that matter is something fundamental (asil) and real in the realm of existence and not something imaginary and mental, an appearance and a product of the mind. In this sense it is opposed to 'idealism' which negates the real existence of matter and considers it a mental construct. In this sense of materialism, we would have to categorize all theists, both Muslims as well as non-Muslims, as 'materialists,' because all of them consider matter-as a reality existing in space and time and subject to change, transformation, and evolution, and which is also perceivable and tangible-as an objective reality existing externally and independently of the mind and having its own properties. Being a 'materialist' in this sense does not contradict with the concept of God or monotheism. Rather, the material world and nature as a product of creation constitute the best means for knowing God. The workings of Divine will and wisdom are discovered in the transformations which take place in matter, and the Holy Qur'an, too, refers to material phenomena as the 'signs' of God.

Sometimes this word is used to imply the negation of supra-material being, as an exclusivist school of thought which considers existence and the realm of being as confined to matter, confining being to the realm of the changeable and limiting it to space and time. It negates the existence of all that does not fall within the framework of change and transformation and is not perceivable by the sense organs.

Our present discussion centres around the causes for inclining towards this exclusivist school of thought, and the reasons why a group of people became protagonists of this exclusivist and negative theory, negating God and imagining anything outside the ambit of the material world as non-existent.

Is Man by Nature a Theist or a Materialist?

This manner of posing the issue, i.e with the question 'What are the causes for inclining towards materialism?,' suggests that we claim that man by nature would not incline towards materialism, and that materialism is an unnatural tendency opposed to human nature (fitrah). And since it goes against the rule, it is necessary to seek its cause and to investigate the reasons which have led to the violation of the rule.

To put it more simply, it implies that faith in God is equivalent to the state of health, and the materialist tendency is equivalent to disease. One never asks about the reasons of health, because it is in accordance with the general course of nature. But if we come across a person or a group which is sick, we ask as to why they are sick. What is the cause of their illness?

This viewpoint of ours is completely opposed to the view usually expressed in books on history of religion. The writers of these books generally tend to pursue the question, 'Why did man develop the religious tendency?'

In our opinion, the religious tendency does not need to be questioned, because it is natural; rather, the question that needs to be examined is why do human beings develop tendencies towards irreligion?

Presently we do not intend to pursue the argument whether being religious is something natural and the lack of religion unnatural, or if the converse is true, because we see no need for doing so from the point of view of the main topic of our discussion.

However, it is worth noting that we do not mean that, as the monotheistic tendency is natural and innate (fitrah), no questions arise when the issue is dealt with at the intellectual and philosophical level. This is certainly not meant. This matter is just like every other issue that naturally- and despite affirmation by natural instinct-gives rise to questions, objections and doubts in the mind of a beginner when posed at the rational level, and satisfying answers to them are also available at that level.

Therefore, we neither intend to disregard the doubts and ambiguities which do in fact arise for individuals, nor do we consider them consequences of an evil disposition or ill-naturedness. Not at all. The emergence of doubts and ambiguities in this context, when someone seeks to solve all the problems related to this issue, is something natural and usual, and it is these doubts that impel human beings towards further quest. Accordingly we consider such doubts which result in further search for truth as sacred, because they constitute a prelude to the acquisition of certitude, faith, and conviction. Doubt is bad where it becomes an obsession and completely absorbs one's attention, as with some people whom we find enjoying the fact that they are able to have doubt concerning certain issues and who consider doubt and uncertainty to be the zenith of their intellectual achievement. Such a state is very dangerous, contrary to the former state which is a prelude to perfection. Therefore, we have said repeatedly that doubt is a good and necessary passage, but an evil station and destination.

Our present discussion concerns the individuals or groups who have made doubt their abode and final destination. In our opinion, materialism, although it introduces itself as a dogmatic school of thought, is in fact one of the sceptic schools. The Qur'an also takes this view of the materialists, and according to it they are, at best, beset with a number of doubts and conjectures, but in practice they flaunt them as knowledge and conviction. [2]

The Historical Background:

This mode of thinking is not new or modern. It should not be imagined that this mode of thought is a consequence of modern scientific and industrial developments and has emerged for the first time during the last one or two centuries, like many other scientific theories which did not exist earlier and were later discovered by man. No, the materialist thinking among human beings is not a phenomenon of the last few centuries, but is one of the ancient modes of thought. We read in the history of philosophy that many ancient Greek philosophers who preceded Socrates and his philosophical movement, were materialists and denied the supra-material.

Among the Arabs of the Jahillyyah contemporaneous to the Prophet's ministry there was a group with a similar belief, and the Qur'an, while confronting them, quotes and criticizes their statements:
They say, 'There is nothing but our present life; we die, and we live, and nothing but time destroys us.' (45:24).
This statement, which the Qur'an ascribes to a group of people, involves both the negation of God as well as the Hereafter.

Materialism in Islamic History:

The word 'dahr' means time. Due to this verse and the term dahr occurring in it, those who negated the existence of God were called 'dahriyyah' during the Islamic period. We encounter such people in Islamic history who were dhari and materialists (maddi), especially during the reign of the Abbassids, when various cultural and philosophical trends entered the Islamic world.

Due to the freedom of thought which prevailed during that period with respect to scientific, philosophical and religious ideas (of course, to the extent that it did not contradict the policies of the Abbassids), some individuals were formally known as materialists and atheists. These individuals debated with Muslims, with the adherents of other religions, and with believers in the existence of God, and presented their arguments and raised objections concerning the arguments of the monotheists. Thus they did enter into dialogue and freely expressed their beliefs, and we find their accounts recorded in Islamic works.

During the lifetime of Imam Sadiq, may Peace be upon him, there were certain individuals who used to gather inside the Prophet's Mosque and express such views. The book al-Tawhid al-Mufaddal is a product one of such episodes.

A companion of Imam Sadiq ('a) named al-Mufaddal ibn 'Umar narrates: "Once I was in the Prophet's Mosque. After prayer I became engrossed in thought about the Prophet (S) and his greatness. Just then 'Abd al-Karim ibn Abi al 'Awja', who was an atheist (zindiq), came and sat down at some distance. Later another person holding similar views pined him, and both of them started uttering blasphemies. They denied the existence of God and referred to the Prophet (S) simply as a great thinker and a genius and not as a Divine emissary and apostle who received revelations from an Unseen source. They said that he was a genius who presented his ideas as revelation in order to influence the people; otherwise there was no God, nor any revelation or resurrection."

Mufaddal, who was greatly disturbed on hearing their talk, abused them. Then he went to Imam Sadiq, may Peace be upon him, and narrated the incident. The Imam comforted him and told him that he would furnish him with arguments with which he could confront them and refute their views. Thereafter Imam Sadiq ('a) instructed Mufaddal in the course of a few long sessions and Mufaddal wrote down the Imam's teachings. This was how the book al-Tawhid al-Mufaddal came to be compiled.

Materialism in the Modern Age:

As we know, during the 18th and 19th centuries materialism took the form of a school of thought which it did not have earlier. That which is ascribed to some schools of ancient Greece does not have a proper basis. Usually the writers of history of philosophy do not know philosophy, and when they come across certain statements of some philosophers concerning the pre-eternity of matter or some other opinions of the kind, they imagine that this amounts to the negation of God and the supra-natural. It has not been established for us that there existed a materialist school of thought before the modern age. Rather, what did exist earlier in Greece and elsewhere were individual tendencies towards materialism.

However, this is what has led many people to suppose that perhaps there is some direct relation between the emergence of materialism as a school of thought and science and scientific advancements.

Of course, the materialists themselves make a great effort to present the matter as such, and they try to convince others that the cause of the growth and prevalence of materialism during the 18th and 19th centuries was the emergence of scientific theories and that it was the spread of science which resulted in mankind being drawn towards it. This observation resembles a joke more than any noteworthy fact.

The inclination towards materialism in ancient times existed both among the educated as well as the illiterate classes. In the modern age, too, the case is similar. Materialists can be found in all classes, and likewise there are theistic, spiritual and metaphysical inclinations in all classes and sections, especially among the learned. If what the materialists claim were true, in the same proportion that advances are made in science and great scientists are born in the world, there should be an increase in the inclination towards materialism among the scholarly class, and individuals possessing more scholarship should be greater materialists, while in fact this is not the case.

Today, we see on the one hand some well well-known personalities like Russell, who, to a large extent, present themselves as materialists. He says, "Man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms." [3] Thus Russell rejects the existence of a conscious and intelligent power ruling the universe, although at other places he avers to be a skeptic and an agnostic. [4]

On the other hand, we find Einstein, the twentieth century scientific genius, expressing an opinion opposed to that of Russell; he says "You will hardly find one among the profounder sort of scientific minds without a religious feeling of his own ... His religious feeling takes the form of rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection. This feeling is the guiding principle of his life and work, in so far as he succeeds in keeping himself from the shackles of selfish desire. It is beyond question closely akin to that which has possessed the religious geniuses of all ages." [5]

Can it be said that Russell is familiar with the concepts of modern science whereas Einstein is ignorant of them? Or that a certain philosopher of the 18th or l9th century was familiar with the scientific concepts of his age whereas the theist Pasteur was unaware and ignorant of them?!

Or can we say that William James, the monotheist or rather the mystic of his time, Bergson, Alexis Carrell and other such thinkers were ignorant of the scientific ideas of their time and their thinking was in tune with the ideas of a thousand years ago, while a certain Iranian youth who does not possess a tenth of their knowledge and does not believe in God is familiar with the scientific ideas of his age?!

At times one sees two mathematicians, one of whom believes in God and religion while the other is a materialist, or for that matter two physicists, two biologists, or two astronomers, one with a materialist and the other with a theistic bent of mind.

Therefore, it is not that simple to say that the advent of science has made metaphysical issues obsolete. That would be a childish observation.

We need to centre our discussion more on the question as to what were the factors that led to the emergence of materialism as a school of thought in Europe, attracting a large number of followers, even though the 20th century, in contrast to the 18th and 19th centuries, saw a decline in the advance of materialism and in it materialism even met with a kind of defeat?

This large-scale drift has a series of historical and social causes which require to be studied. I have come across some of these causes during the course of my study which I shall mention here. Perhaps those who have done a closer study of social issues, especially in the area of European history, would identify other reasons and factors. Here I only intend to discuss the results of my study.

Inadequacies in the Religious Ideas of the Church

The Church, whether from the viewpoint of the inadequacy of its theological ideas, or its inhuman attitude towards the masses, especially towards the scholars and freethinkers, is one of the main causes for the drifting of the Christian world, and indirectly the non-Christian world, towards materialism.

We will analyze this factor in two sections:

1. Inadequacies in the ideas of the Church relating to God and the metaphysical.

2. The violent conduct of the Church.

Section 1:

In the Middle Ages when the clerics became the sole arbiters of issues relating to divinities, there emerged amongst them certain childish and inadequate ideas concerning God which were in no way consonant with reality. Naturally, these not only did not satisfy intelligent and enlightened individuals, but created in them an aversion against theism and incited them against theist thought.

Anthropomorphic Conceptions of God:

The Church painted a human picture of God and presented Him to the people in an anthropomorphic form. Those who were brought up to conceive God with these human and physical features under the influence of the Church, later, with advances in science, came to find that these ideas were inconsistent with scientific, objective, and sound rational criteria.

On the other hand, the vast majority of people naturally do not possess such power of critical analysis as to reflect over the possibility that metaphysical ideas might have a rational basis and that the Church was wrongly presenting them.

Thus when they saw that the views of the Church did not conform to the criteria of science they rejected the issue outright.

There is a book titled The Evidence of God in an Expanding Universe, consisting of forty articles by forty scientists belonging to various fields of specialization, wherein each scholar has presented arguments proving the existence of God in accordance with has own specialized area of study. This book has been translated into Persian.

Among these scholars is Walter Oscar Lundberg, who presents a scientific argument for the existence of God. In the course of his study he examines why some people, including scholars, have developed a materialist tendency.

He mentions two causes of which one has been already mentioned by us, inadequate ideas taught on this subject to the people in the church or at home.

Our singling out the churches in this regard does not mean to imply that those who give instruction on religious issues from our pulpits (manabir) and mosques have always been informed and competent individuals who know what is to be taught and possess an in-depth knowledge of Islam. One reason why we mention only the church is that our discussion is about the causes behind materialist inclinations and these tendencies existed in the Christian world and not in the Islamic environments. Whatever materialism is found in Islamic societies has been, and is, the result of copying and imitating the West. Secondly, there existed in the Islamic milieu a school of thought at the level of philosophers and metaphysicians, which satisfied the intellectual needs of the researchers and saved the scholars from the fate of their counterpart in Europe, while there existed no such school within the Church.

In any case this is what Walter Oscar Lundberg says
There are various reasons for the attention of some scholars not being drawn towards comprehending the existence of God while undertaking scientific studies; we will mention just two of them here. The first (reason) is the general presence of oppressive political and social conditions or governmental structures which necessitate the negation of the existence of God. The second (reason) is that human thinking is always under the impact of some vague ideas and although the person himself may not undergo any mental and physical agony, even then his thinking is not totally free in choosing the right path. In Christian families the children in their early years generally believe in an anthropomorphic God, as if man has been created in the image of God. These persons, on entering a scientific environment and acquiring the knowledge of scientific issues, find that this weak and anthropomorphic view of God does not accord with scientific concepts. Consequently, after a period of time when the hope of any compromise is dashed, the concept of God is also totally discarded and vanishes from the mind. The major cause of doing so is that logical proofs and scientific definitions do not alter the past sentiments and beliefs of these persons, and it does not occur to them that a mistake had taken place in the earlier belief about God. Along with this, other psychic factors cause the person to become weary of the insufficiency of this concept and turn away from theology. [6]
Summarily, that which is observable in certain religious teachings-and regrettably is also found amongst ourselves, to a more or less extent-is that a characteristic concept is projected in the minds of children under the name and label of 'God.' When the child grows up and becomes a scholar, he finds that this concept is not rational and such a being cannot exist, whether it be God or something else.

The child on growing up, without reflecting or critically concluding that perhaps there might exist a valid conception, rejects the idea of divinity altogether. He imagines that the concept of God he is rejecting is the same as the one accepted by theists, and since he does not accept this creature of his own mind, which is the product of popular superstition, he does not believe in God. He does not notice that the concept of God which he is rejecting is also rejected by the theists, and that his rejection is not the rejection of God but is the rejection of something that ought to be rejected.

Flammarion in the book God and Nature observes: "The Church presented God in this manner: 'The distance between his right and left eye is 12000 leagues.' " It is obvious that persons with even a meagre knowledge of science cannot believe in such a being.

Auguste Comte's Conception of God:

Flammarion quotes a statement of Auguste Comte, the founder of positivism and what is known as scientism, which offers a good view of the way God was pictured by such scholars as Auguste Comte living in the Christian environment of that time. Flammarion says: Auguste Comte has said: "Science has dismissed the Father of nature and the universe from his post, consigning him to oblivion, and while thanking him for his temporary services, it has escorted him back to the frontiers of his greatness."

What he means is that earlier every event that took place in the world was explained by relating it to God as its cause. For example, if someone got a fever, the question why the fever had come about and from where it came had the answer that God had sent the fever. That which was commonly understood by this statement was not that it is God who governs the universe and that to say that He had caused the fever implied that He was the real and ultimate mover of the world. Rather, this statement meant that God, like a mysterious being, or a magician engaged in sorcery, had all of a sudden decided to cause fever without any preparatory cause, and so the fever came about. Later science discovered its cause and it was observed that fever was not brought about by God, but by a certain bacteria.

Here God retreated one step. Henceforth the theist was forced to say that we will shift our argument to the bacteria: Who created the bacteria?

Science also discovered the cause of bacteria by identifying the conditions in which they come to exist. Again God had to retreat one step, and the argument proceeded by asking the cause of that cause. God's retreat continued, and, at last, with the spread and expansion of science the causes of a large number of phenomena were discovered. Even those phenomena whose causes were not yet discovered were known for certain to possess causes belonging to the category of causes already known. Thereat man had to dismiss God for good with an apology, because there no longer remained any place and post for Him.

The state of God at this stage was that of an employee in an office in which he was initially given an important post, but with the recruitment of more competent individuals his responsibilities were gradually taken away, and eventually, when he was divested of all his earlier responsibilities, there remained no post and place left for him. At this time the manager of the office approaches him, thanks him for his past services, and with an excuse hands him the dismissal orders and bids him farewell once and for all.

Auguste Comte uses the term 'Father of nature' for God. His use of this term for God shows the influence of the Church in his thought. Although he was against the teachings of the Church, his own concept of God was derived from the Church's ideas, from which he was not able to free himself.

Taken together, the observations of Auguste Comte suggest that in his opinion God is something similar to a part and factor of this world, albeit mysterious and unknown, by the side of other factors. Moreover, there are two types of phenomena in the world, the known and the unknown. Every unknown phenomenon should be linked to that mysterious and unknown factor. Naturally, with the discovery of every phenomenon and its becoming known as a consequence of science, the domain of influence of the unknown factor is diminished.

This mode of thinking was not characteristic of him, but it was the thinking that prevailed in his environment and era.

The Station of Divinity:

Hence the main thing is that we ascertain the station of Divinity and comprehend the place, position and 'post' of God. Is the position of God and the Divine in the realm of being such that we may consider Him to be one of the beings in the world and a part of it? May we allot Him a certain function among the various functions that exist in the world, thereby affecting a division of labour, and then, for determining God's special function, examine the various effects whose causes are unknown to us, so that whenever we come across an unknown cause we have to attribute it to God? The consequence of such a mode of thinking is to search for God among things unknown to us. Naturally, with an increase in our knowledge, the area of our ignorance will continually diminish and the domain of our theism, too, will diminish to the point where if some day, supposedly, all the unknown things become known to mankind, there would remain no place for God or any theism.

In accordance with this line of reasoning, only some of the existing realities are signs of God and manifest and mirror His existence, and they are those whose causes are unknown. As to those things whose causes have been identified, they lie outside the realm of signs and indications of the Divine Being.

Hallowed be God! How wrong and misleading this kind of thinking is, and how ignorant it is of the station of the Divine! Here we should cite the words of the Qur'an, which observes in this regard:
They measured not God with His true measure. (6:91)

The ABC of theism is that He is the God of the entire universe and is equally related to all things. All things, without any exception, are manifestations of His Power, Knowledge, Wisdom, Will, and Design, and are the signs and marks of His Perfection, Beauty and Glory. There is no difference between phenomena whose causes are known and those whose causes are unknown in this regard. The universe, with all its systems and causes, is in toto sustained by His Being. He transcends both time and space. Time and time-bound entities, and similarly space and spatial objects, irrespective of their being finite or infinite-that is, whether they are temporally limited or extend from pre-eternity to eternity, and regardless of whether the universe is limited in its spatial dimensions or infinite, and, ultimately, whether the entire expanse of existents is finite or infinite in time and space-all these are posterior to His Being and Existence and are Considered among His emanations (fayd.)

Hence it is extreme ignorance to think in a Church like manner and to imagine, like Auguste Comte, that while looking for the cause of a certain phenomenon in some corner of the universe we would suddenly discover the existence of God, and then celebrate and rejoice that we have found God at a certain place. And if we do not succeed and are unable to so find Him, we should become pessimistic and deny God's existence altogether.

On the contrary, it is precisely in this sense that we must reject the existence of God, that is, a God who is like any other part of the world and is discoverable like any other phenomenon in the course of inquiry into the world's phenomena is certainly not God, and any belief in such a God is aptly rejected.

In more simple terms, we should say that this kind of quest for God in the universe is like the conduct of someone who when shown a clock and told that it has a maker wants to find its maker within the wheels and parts of the clock. He searches for a while and on finding nothing except its different parts, says: 'I did not find the maker of the clock and this proves that he does not exist.' Or it is like one who on being shown a beautifully stitched dress and told that this dress was stitched by a tailor, says, 'If I find the tailor in the pockets of this dress I will accept his existence, otherwise I won't.'

This kind of thinking is totally wrong from the Islamic point of view. From the viewpoint of Islamic teachings, God is not on a par with the natural causes so that the question should arise whether a certain external entity has been created by God or by a certain natural cause. This kind of dichotomy is both wrong and meaningless, because there cannot be a dichotomy or an intervening 'or' between God and natural causes for such a question to be posed. This form of thinking is anti-theist. Theism means that the whole of nature in its entirety is a unit of work and an act of God in its totality. Hence it is not correct to ask concerning a part of it whether it is a work of God or nature, and then to consider it to be a work of God on failing to identify its cause, and as related to nature and with no connection with God when its natural cause is known.

Auguste Comte's Three Stages of Human History:

Auguste Comte suggests a classification of the stages of the historical development of the human mind, which, most regrettably, has more or less been accepted, though from the point of view of those acquainted with Islamic philosophy it is mere childish talk. He says that mankind has passed through three stages:

1. The Theological Stage:

In this stage man explained phenomena by resorting to supernatural forces and considered God or gods to be the cause of every phenomenon. In this stage man discovered the principle of causality, but was not able to identify the causes of things in a detailed manner. Since he had grasped the principle of causality, he considered the cause of every event to lie within Nature. In this stage he postulated the existence of forces in Nature with the judgement that certain forces exist in Nature which are ultimately responsible for the occurrence of phenomena.

2. The Metaphysical Stage

In this stage, in view of the fact that man thought in metaphysical and philosophical terms, he could not go beyond the assertion that a certain event had a cause without having any answer to the question about the nature and character of the cause itself.

3. The Positive Stage:

In this stage man identified in detail the causes of things in Nature. During this stage, man turned away from thinking in general philosophical terms and adopted the experimental approach to the study of phenomena, discovering the causal links between them. It became completely evident to him that the phenomena are related to one another in a chain. Today science considers this approach to be correct, and, therefore, we call this stage 'the scientific stage.'

These three stages suggested by Auguste Comte could be possibly correct when viewed from the angle of the common people and the masses, in the sense that at one time the common people considered the cause of an event, such as a disease, to be some invisible being such as a demon or a jinn, and there are such persons and groups even today among educated Europeans. At a later stage they were able to recognize the order present in Nature and henceforth they attributed the cause of illness to the causes surrounding the sick person, believing that natural factors were responsible for it. Also, all those who have not studied medicine and have no medical knowledge but believe in the general order of nature have a similar kind of understanding.

During another stage the relationships between the various phenomena was discovered by the means of scientific experiments. This was not a new thing in itself and existed in the ancient period as well, although the eagerness to study natural phenomena and their causal relations is greater in the modern era.

However, this manner of classification of human thought is incorrect, because if we were to divide human thought into stages, our criterion should be the ideas of thinkers and not the thinking of the masses and common people. In other words, we should take into consideration the world view of outstanding individuals. Here it is that we find the classification of August Comte to be wrong through and through. Human thought, whose real representatives are the thinkers of every age, has certainly not passed

One of the eras or stages of thought is the stage of Islamic thought. From the standpoint of the Islamic method, all these ways of thinking can possibly be present simultaneously in a certain form of thought. That is, in the form of thought which we call 'Islamic,' all these three kinds of thought are capable of coexisting. In other words, a single person can at the same time have a mode of thought which is theological, philosophical, and scientific. From the point of view of a thinker cognizant with Islamic thought, the question does not arise as to whether the cause of an event is that which science tells us, or that which philosophy explains in the form of a force, or that which is named God. Hence, those like Auguste Comte need to be reminded that there exists a fourth mode of thought in the world of which they are unaware.

The Violence of the Church:

To this point we have pointed out the role of the Church in the process of inclination towards materialism from the point of view of the inadequacy of its theological concepts. Yet in another way, which was more effective than the inadequacy of its theological ideas, the Church has played an important part in driving people towards adopting an anti-God stance. This was its coercive policy of imposing its peculiar religious and scientific doctrines and views and depriving the people from every kind of freedom of belief in both these areas.

The Church, apart from its peculiar religious beliefs, had incorporated a set of scientific doctrines concerning the universe and man, which had mostly their philosophical roots in Greece and elsewhere and had gradually been adapted by major Christian scholars into its religious dogma. It not only considered any dissent in regard to the 'official sciences' impermissible, but also vehemently persecuted those who disagreed with these dogmas.

Presently, we are not concerned with the issue of freedom of religion and religious belief and that religious beliefs should inevitably be studied freely because otherwise that would go against the very spirit of religion, which is to guide to the truth. Islam supports the thesis that belief in religious doctrines ought to be based on research and not on conformity or compulsion, in contrast to Christianity which has declared religious dogma a prohibited zone for reason.

There were two other aspects in which the Church committed a major mistake. Firstly, it placed certain scientific notions inherited from the earlier philosophers and Christian theologians in the rank of its religious tenets, considering opposition to them to be heresy. Secondly, it did not stop at exposing the heretics and excommunicating those whose heresy had been proven and confirmed, but instead, like a violent police regime, it investigated the beliefs and convictions of persons by employing various tactics and tried to detect the faintest signs of dissent to religious beliefs in individuals and groups and persecuted them in an indescribably ruthless manner. As a result, scholars and scientists did not dare entertain any ideas opposed to what the Church considered as science; that is, they were constrained to think in accordance with the Church's thinking. This intense repression of ideas which was a common thing from the 12th to the 19th century in countries like France, England, Germany, Holland, Portugal, Poland and Spain, naturally resulted in the development of a general extremely negative reaction towards religion. The tribunals held by the Church and known as the Inquisition were initiated with an objective reflected in the very name given them. Will Durant says:
The Inquisition had a special procedure of inquiry and prosecution. Before the inquisition held its tribunal in a city, the summons of faith were communicated from the church pulpits. The people were asked to inform the inquisitors of any heretics or pagans that they knew of. They were encouraged to denounce and accuse their neighbours, friends and relatives. The informers were promised total secrecy. Anyone who knew a heretic and would not denounce him or hid him in his house faced denunciation and excommunication ... The methods of torture varied from time to time and from one place to another. Sometimes the accused was left to hang with his hands tied behind his back. Or he would be bound in say a way that he could not move, then water was poured into his throat so as to suffocate him. Or his arms and fists were so tightly bound with ropes that they cut into his flesh and reached the bones. [7]
He also says
The number of victims between the years 1480-1488, that is in eight years, exceeded 8800 burnt on stakes, and 96,494 condemned to severe punishments According to estimates, from the year 1480 to 1808 more than 31,912 were condemned to death by fire and 291,450 were condemned to severe penalties. [8]
George Sarton, the distinguished scholar and famous authority on history of science in his book Six Wings: Men of Science in the Renaissance, has a discussion under the caption 'witchcraft,' where he relates the crimes committed by the Church in the name of campaign against witchcraft:
Divines and religious scholars, consciously or otherwise, considered apostasy to be the same as witchcraft. Men quickly conclude that those who disagree with them are bad people. Magicians were men and women who had sold their souls to the Devil. On the assumption that heretics and irreligious persons also communed with the Devil, their persecution and torture were readily permitted and those who were orthodox in their faith could say to themselves: These trouble-making and disruptive people are magicians and they should be dealt with in this way, because they are neither capable of a straight faith nor eligible for pardon.
George Sarton refers to the book Hammer of the Magicians, which was written by two Dominican priests on the instructions of Pope Innocent VIII (r. 1484-1492) and which was, in fact, a practical manual on how to conduct the Inquisition of those accused of heresy and witchcraft. He says:
The book Hammer is a practical handbook for the Inquisitors and in it are found the details of the methods of detection, prosecution and punishment of magicians.... The fear of the magician was the real cause for killing them and these killings themselves became the reason for a heightened fear. In that period, a psychic epidemic had developed the like of which has not been seen until the present age of enlightenment. The proceedings of some trials of the Inquisition recorded in precise detail have survived. The Inquisitors were not bad people. They imagined themselves to be better at least than the ordinary people, because was it not that they were ceaselessly striving to uphold the word of truth and the name of God?! Nicolarmy, the inquisitor of Lourn was the cause of 900 magicians being burnt to death during a period of fifteen years (1575-1590). He was a conscientious man, and during the last years of his life he had a sense of guilt for having overlooked to kill some children. Has anyone the right to desist from killing the young of a viper? Bishop Tersepeter Binzfold issued verdicts for the death sentence of 6500 people.
He goes on to observe:
When the Inquisitors arrived in a new region, they used to announce that anyone suspecting someone of being a magician should provide information about it. Anyone concealing information was liable to exile and fine.

Providing information in this regard was considered a duty, and the names of those who provided information were not disclosed. The accused-among whom were possibly persons whose enemies had slandered them-were not informed of the crime they were accused of and were kept in the dark concerning the evidence of their culpability. It was assumed that these people were sinners and criminals, and the burden of proof lay upon them to prove their innocence. The judges adopted all kinds of mental and physical means for exacting a confession of sin and identifying collaborators. For encouraging the accused to confess, they were promised pardon or extenuation. But the judges imagined that honouring a promise given to magicians and heretics involved no moral obligation and the promise was kept for the short time which the accused took to say what had to be said. Every act falling outside the limits of honourable behaviour was committed against the accused and was justified as it was done for a holy cause. The more they tormented and tortured the people, the more they thought it necessary. What we have said can be easily confirmed by referring to the Hammer and other books and can also be pictured more vividly by studying the proceedings of the trials, of which there are plenty. [9]
After discussing this issue for three or four pages, George Sarton observes:
Belief in magic was truly a mental illness more dangerous than syphilis, and was the cause of the terrible death of thousands of innocent men and women. Apart from that, an attention to this matter reveals the dark side of the Renaissance, less appealing than other things which are usually said about this period, but knowing which is necessary for a correct understanding of the events of this age. Renaissance was the golden age of art and literature, but at the same time it was also a period of religious intolerance and cruelty. The inhuman character of this period is such that, excepting the present age, it has no parallel in history. [10]
Religion, which should have been a guide and a harbinger of love, acquired this kind of countenance in Europe. The very notion of religion and God came to be associated in everyone's mind with violence, repression, and tyranny. Obviously, the reaction of the people against such an approach could hardly be anything except the rejection of religion and the negation of that which constitutes its very basis, God. The severest blow is struck on religion and to the advantage of materialism whenever religious leaders, whom the people consider as the real representatives of religion, put on a leopard's skin and wear a tiger's teeth and resort to excommunication and accusations of heresy, especially when private motives take this form.

Notes:
[1] That which appears here is a translation of 'Ilal e gerayesh beh maddigari, 8th edition (Qum: Intesharat e Sadra, 1375 H. Sh.) There is a long introduction, dated rajab 1, 1398 H by the author written for the 8th edition of the book titled 'Materialism in Iran', this will appear at the end of the serial.

[2] ... they follow only surmise, merely conjecturing. (6:116)

[3] Irving William Knobloch, The Evidence of God in an Expanding Universe, cf. Russell, Mysticism and Logic (Penguin Books 1953), "A Free Mans Worship"

[4] See Russell, Mysticism and Worship, (Penguin Books 1953), "A Free Mans Worship", pp.50-59

[5] As the original source of Einsteins statement quoted by the author was not accessible to the translator, a parallel statement of his has been cited here from Ideas and Opinions by Albert Einstein (Calcutta: Rup & Co, 1984, first published by Bonanza Books, New York), based on Mein Weltbild, edited by Carl Seerling, trans and revised by Sonja Bargmann, pp. 40 (Tr.)

[6] Irving William Knobloch, op. Cit, the article by Walter Oscar Lundberg

[7] Will Durrant, The Story of Civilization, Persian transl. Tarikhe Tamaddun, v18 p350

[8] Ibid., p360

[9] George Sarton, Six Wings: Men of Science in the Renaissance (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1957), Persian transl. Shish Bal, pp296-8

[10] Ibid, p303

RAMADAN: Fasting according to the Five Schools of Islamic Law

2008-07-10T22:15:00.001-07:00

Fasting according to the Five Schools of Islamic Law

(by Allamah Muhammad Jawad Maghniyyah)

Translated from the Arabic by Mujahid Husayn

al-Tawhid, vol. IX, No. 4, Shawwal - Dhu al Hijjah 1412

Fasting in the month of Ramadan is one of the `pillars' of the Islamic faith. No proof is required to establish its being obligatory (wajib) and one denying it goes out of the fold of Islam, because it is obvious like salat, and in respect of anything so evidently established both the learned and the unlettered, the elderly and the young, all stand on an equal footing.

It was declared an obligatory duty (fard) in the second year of the Hijrah upon each and every mukallaf (one capable of carrying out religious duties, i.e. a sane adult) and breaking it (iftar) is not permissible except for any of the following reasons:

1. Hayd and nifas: The schools concur that fasting is not valid for women during menstruation and puerperal bleeding.

2. Illness: The schools differ here. The Imamis observe: Fasting is not valid if it would cause illness or aggravate it, or intensify the pain, or delay recovery, because illness entails harm (darar) and causing harm is prohibited (muharram). Moreover, a prohibition concerning an `ibadah (a rite of worship) invalidates it. Hence if a person fasts in such a condition, his fast is not valid (sahih). A predominant likelihood of its resulting in illness or its aggravation is sufficient for refraining from fasting. As to excessive weakness, it is not a justification for iftar as long as it is generally bearable. Hence the extenuating cause is illness, not weakness, emaciation or strain, because every duty involves hardship and discomfort.

The four Sunni schools state: If one who is fasting (sa'im) falls ill, or fears the aggravation of his illness, or delay in recovery, he has the option to fast or refrain. Iftar is not incumbent upon him; it is a relaxation and not an obligation in this situation. But where there is likelihood of death or loss of any of the senses, iftar is obligatory for him and his fasting is not valid.

3. A woman in the final stage of pregnancy and nursing mothers. The four schools say: If a pregnant or nursing woman fears harm for her own health or that of her child, her fasting is valid though it is permissible for her to refrain from fasting. If she opts for iftar, the schools concur that she is bound to perform its qada' later. They differ regarding its substitute (fidyah) and atonement (kaffarah). In this regard the Hanafis observe: It is not at all wajib. The Malikis are of the opinion that it is wajib for a nursing woman, not for a pregnant one.

The Hanbalis and the Shafi`is say: Fidyah is wajib upon a pregnant and a nursing woman only if they fear danger for the child; but if they fear harm for their own health as well as that of the child, they are bound to perform the qada' only without being required to give fidyah. The fidyah for each day is one mudd, which amounts to feeding one needy person (miskin.). [1]

The Imamis state: If a pregnant woman nearing childbirth or the child of a nursing mother may suffer harm, both of them ought to break their fast and it is not valid for them to continue fasting due to the impermissibility of harm. They concur that both are to perform the qada' as well as give fidyah, equalling one mudd, if the harm is feared for the child. But if the harm is feared only for her own person, some among them observe: She is bound to perform qada' but not to give fidyah, others say: She is bound to perform qada' and give fidyah as well.

4. Travel, provided the conditions necessary for salat al-qasr, as mentioned earlier, are fulfilled as per the opinion of each school. The four Sunni schools add a further condition to these, which is that the journey should commence before dawn and the traveller should have reached the point from where salat becomes qasrbefore dawn. Hence if he commences the journey after the setting in of dawn, it is haram for him to break the fast, and if he breaks it, its qada' will be wajib upon him without a kaffarah. The Shafi'is add another condition, which is that the traveller should not be one who generally travels continuously, such as a driver. Thus if he travels habitually, he is not entitled to break the fast. In the opinion of the four Sunni schools, breaking the fast is optional and not compulsory. Therefore, a traveller who fulfils all the conditions has the option of fasting or iftar. This is despite the observation of the Hanafis that performing salat as qasr during journey is compulsory and not optional.

The Imamis say: If the conditions required for praying qasr are fulfilled for a traveller, his fast is not acceptable. Therefore, if he fasts, he will have to perform the qada' without being liable to kaffarah. This is if he starts his journey before midday, but if he starts it at midday or later, he will keep his fast and in the event of his breaking it will be liable to the kaffarah of one who deliberately breaks his fast. And if a traveller reaches his hometown, or a place where he intends to stay for at least ten days, before midday without performing any act that breaks the fast, it is wajib upon him to continue fasting, and in the event of his breaking it he will be like one who deliberately breaks his fast.

5. There is consensus among all the schools that one suffering from a malady of acute thirst can break his fast, and if he can carry out its qada' later, it will be wajib upon him without any kaffarah, in the opinion of the four schools. In the opinion of the Imamis, he should give a mudd by way of kaffarah. The schools differ in regard to acute hunger, as to whether it is one of the causes permitting iftar, like thirst. The four schools say: Hunger and thirst are similar and both make iftar permissible. The Imamis state: Hunger is not a cause permitting iftar except where it is expected to cause illness.

6. Old people, men and women, in late years of life for whom fasting is harmful and difficult, can break their fast, but are required to give fidyah by feeding a miskin for each fast day omitted: similarly a sick person who does not hope to recover during the whole year. The schools concur upon this rule excepting the Hanbalis, who say: Fidyah is mustahabb and not wajib.

7. The Imamis state: Fasting is not wajib upon one in a swoon, even if it occurs only for a part of the day, unless where he has formed the niyyah of fasting before it and recovers subsequently, whereat he will continue his fast.

Disappearance of the Excuse:

If the excuse permitting iftar ceases--such as on recovery of a sick person, maturing of a child, homecoming of a traveller, or termination of the menses--it is mustahabb in the view of the Imamis and the Shafi`is to refrain (imsak) from things that break the fast (muftirat) as a token of respect. The Hanbalis and the Hanafis consider imsak as wajib, but Malikis consider it neither wajib nor mustahabb.

Conditions (Shurot) of Fasting:

As mentioned earlier, fasting in the month of Ramadan is wajib for each and every mukallaf. Every sane adult (al-baligh al-`aqil) is considered mukallaf. Hence fasting is neither wajib upon an insane person in the state of insanity nor is it valid if he observes it. As to a child, it is not wajib upon him, though valid if observed by a mumayyiz. Also essential for the validity of the fast are Islam and niyyah (intention). Therefore, as per consensus, neither the fast of a non-Muslim nor the imsak of one who has not formed the niyyah is acceptable. This is apart from the afore-mentioned conditions of freedom from menses, puerperal bleeding, illness and travel.

As to a person in an intoxicated or unconscious state, the Shafi`is observe: His fast is not valid if he is not in his senses for the whole period of the fast. But if he is in his senses for a part of this period, his fast is valid, although the unconscious person is liable to its qada', whatever the circumstances, irrespective of whether his unconsciousness is self-induced or forced upon him. But the qada' is not wajib upon an intoxicated person unless he is personally responsible for his state.

The Malikis state: The fast is not valid if the state of unconsciousness or intoxication persists for the whole or most of the day from dawn to sunset. But if it covers a half of the day or less and he was in possession of his senses at the time of making niyyah and did make it, becoming unconscious or intoxicated later, qada' is not wajib upon him. The time of making niyyah for the fast in their opinion extends from sunset to dawn.

According to the Hanafis, an unconscious person is exactly like an insane one in this respect, and their opinion regarding the latter is that if the insanity lasts through the whole month of Ramadan, qada' is not wajib upon him, and if it covers half of the month, he will fast for the remaining half and perform the qada' of the fasts missed due to insanity.

The Hanbalis observe: Qada' is wajib upon a person in a state of unconsciousness as well as one in a state of intoxication, irrespective of whether these states are self-induced or forced upon them.

In the opinion of the Imamis, qada' is only wajib upon a person in an intoxicated state, irrespective of its being self-induced or otherwise; it is not wajib upon an unconscious person even if his loss of consciousness is brief.

Muftirat:

The muftirat are those things from which it is obligatory to refrain during the fast, from dawn to sunset. They are:

1. Eating and drinking (shurb) deliberately. Both invalidate the fast and necessitate qada' in the opinion of all the schools, though they differ as to whether kaffarah is also wajib. The Hanafis and the Imamis require it, but not the Shafi`is and the Hanbalis.

A person who eats and drinks by an oversight is neither liable to qada' nor kaffarah, except in the opinion of the Malikis, who only require its qada'.

(Included in shurb [drinking] is inhaling tobacco smoke)

2. Sexual intercourse, when deliberate, invalidates the fast and makes one liable to qada' and kaffarah, in the opinion of all the schools.

The kaffarah is the manumission of a slave, and if that is not possible, fasting for two consecutive months; if even that is not possible, feeding sixty poor persons. The Imamis and the Malikis allow an option between any one of these; i.e. a mukallaf may choose between freeing a slave, fasting or feeding the poor. The Shafi'is, Hanbalis and Hanafis impose kaffarah in the above-mentioned order; i.e. releasing a slave is specifically wajib, and in the event of incapacity fasting becomes wajib. If that too is not possible, giving food to the poor becomes wajib.

The Imamis state: All the three kaffarahs become wajib together if the act breaking the fast (muftir) is itself haram, such as eating anything usurped (maghsub), drinking wine, or fornicating.

As to sexual intercourse by oversight, it does not invalidate the fast in the opinion of the Hanafis, Shafi`is and Imamis, but does according to the Hanbalis and the Malikis.

3. Seminal emission (al-'istimnd'): There is consensus that it invalidates the fast if caused deliberately. The Hanbalis say: If madhy is discharged due to repeated sensual glances and the like the fast will become invalid.

The four schools say: Seminal emission will necessitate qada' without kaffarah.

The Imamis observe: It requires both qada' and kaffarah.

4. Vomiting: It invalidates the fast if deliberate, and in the opinion of the Imamis, Shafi`is and Malikis, also necessitates qada'. The Hanafis state: Deliberate vomiting does not break the fast unless the quantity vomited fills the mouth. Two views have been narrated from Imam Ahmad. The schools concur that involuntary vomiting does not invalidate the fast.

5. Cupping (hijamah) is muftir only in the opinion of the Hanbalis, who observe: The cupper and his patient both break the fast.

6. Injection invalidates the fast and requires qada' in the opinion of all the schools. A group of Imami legists observe: It also requires kaffarah if taken without an emergency.

7. Inhaling a dense cloud of suspended dust invalidates the fast only in the opinion of the Imamis. They say: If a dense suspended dust, such as flour or something of the kind, enters the body the fast is rendered invalid, because it is something more substantial than an injection or tobacco smoke.

8. Application of kohl invalidates the fast only in the opinion of the Malikis, provided it is applied during the day and its taste is felt in the throat.

9. The intention to discontinue the fast: If a person intends to discontinue his fast and then refrains from doing so, his fast is considered invalid in the opinion of the Imdm i s and Hanbalis; not so in the opinion of the other schools.

10. Most Imamis state: Fully submerging the head, alone or together with other parts of the body, under water invalidates the fast and necessitates both qada' and kaffarah. The other schools consider it inconsequential.

11. The Imamis observe: A person who deliberately remains in the state of janabah after the dawn during the month of Ramadan, his fast will be invalid and its qada' as well as kaffarah will be wajib upon him. The remaining schools state: His fast remains valid and he is not liable to anything.

12. The Imamis observe: A person who deliberately ascribes something falsely to God or the Messenger (s) (i.e. if he speaks or writes that God or the Messenger said so and so or ordered such and such a thing while he is aware that it is not true), his fast will be invalid and he will be liable to its qada' as well as a kaffarah. A group of Imami legists go further by requiring of such a fabricator the kaffarah of freeing a slave, fasting for two months, and feeding sixty poor persons. This shows the ignorance or malice of those who say that the Imamis consider it permissible to forge lies against God and His Messenger (s).

The Various Kinds of Fasts:

The legists of various schools classify fasts into four categories: Wajib, mustahabb (supererogatory), muharram (forbidden), and makruh (reprehensible).

Obligatory fasts:

All the schools concur that the wajih fasts are those of the month of Ramadan, their qada', the expiatory fasts performed as kaffarah, and those performed for fulfilling a vow. The Imamis add further two, related to the Hajj and i`tikaf. We have already dealt in some detail with the fast of Ramadan, its conditions and the things that invalidate it. Here we intend to discuss its qada' and the kaffarah to which one who breaks it becomes liable. Other types of obligatory fasts have been discussed under the related chapters.

Qada' of the Ramadan Fasts:

1. The schools concur that a person liable to the qada' of Ramadan fasts is bound to perform it during the same year in which the fasts were missed by him, i.e. the period between the past and the forthcoming Ramadan. He is free to choose the days he intends to fast, excepting those days on which fasting is prohibited (their discussion will soon follow). However it is wajib upon him to immediately begin their qada' if the days remaining for the next Ramadan are equal to the number of fasts missed in the earlier Ramadan.

2. If one capable of performing the qada' during the year neglects it until the next Ramadan, he should fast during the current Ramadan and then perform the qada' of the past year and also give a kaffarah of one mudd for each day in the opinion of all the schools except the Hanafi which requires him to perform only the qada'' without any kaffarah. And if he is unable to perform the qada'--such as when his illness continues throughout the period between the first and the second Ramadan--he is neither required to perform its qada ' nor required to give kaffarah in the opinion of the four schools, while the Imamis say: He will not be liable to qada' but is bound to give a mudd as kaffarah for each fast day missed.

3. If one is capable of performing the qada' during the year but delays it with the intention of performing it just before the second Ramadan, so that the qada' fasts are immediately followed by the next Ramadan, and then a legitimate excuse prevents him from performing the qada' before the arrival of Ramadan, in such a situation he will be liable only to qada' not to kaffarah.

4. One who breaks a Ramadan fast due to an excuse, and is capable of later performing its qada' but fails to perform the qada ' during his lifetime, the Imamis observe: It is wajib upon his eldest child to perform the qada' on his behalf.

The Hanafis, Shafi`is and Hanbalis state: A sadaqah of a mudd for each fast missed will be given on his behalf.

According to the Malikis, his legal guardian (wali) will give sadaqah on his behalf if he has so provided in the will; in the absence of a will it is not wajib.

5. In the opinion of the four schools, a person performing the qada' of Ramadan can change his intention and break the fast both before and after midday without being liable to any kaffarah provided there is time for him to perform the qada' later.

The Imamis observe: It is permissible for him to break this fast before midday and not later, because continuation of the fast becomes compulsory after the passing of the major part of its duration and the time of altering the niyyah also expires. Hence if he acts contrarily and breaks the fast after midday, he is liable to kaffarah by giving food to ten poor persons; if he is incapable of doing that, he will fast for three days.

Fasts of Atonement (Kaffarah):

The fasts of atonement are of various kinds. Among them are atonement fasts for involuntary homicide, fasts for atonement of a broken oath or vow, and atonement fasts for zihar. These atonement fasts have their own rules which are discussed in the related chapters. Here we shall discuss the rules applicable to a person fasting by way of kaffarah for not having observed the fast of Ramadan.

The Shafi`is, Malikis and Hanafis say: It is not permissible for a person upon whom fasting for two consecutive months has become wajib consequent to deliberately breaking a Ramadan fast to miss even a single fast during these two months, because that would break their continuity. Hence, on his missing a fast, with or without an excuse, he should fast anew for two months.

The Hanbalis observe: If he misses a fast due to a legitimate excuse, the continuity is not broken.

The Imamis state: It is sufficient for the materialization of continuity that he fast for a full month and then a day of the next month. After that he can skip days and then continue from where he had left. But if he misses a fast during the first month without any excuse, he is bound to start anew; but if it is due to a lawful excuse, such as illness or menstruation, the continuity is not broken and he/she will wait till the excuse is removed and then resume the fasts.

The Imamis further observe: One who is unable to fast for two months, or release a slave or feed sixty poor persons, has the option either to fast for 18 days or give whatever he can as sadaqah. If even this is not possible, he may give alms or fast to any extent possible. If none of these are possible, he should seek forgiveness from God Almighty.

The Shafi'is, Malikis and Hanafis state: If a person is unable to offer any form of kaffarah, he will remain liable for it until he comes to possess the capacity to offer it, and this is what the rules of the Shari'ah require.

The Hanbalis are of the opinion that if he is unable to give kaffarah, his liability for the same disappears, and even in the event of his becoming capable of it later, he will not be liable to anything.

The schools concur that the number of kaffarahs will be equal to the number of causes entailing it. Hence a person who breaks two fasts will have to give two kaffarahs. But if he eats, drinks or has sexual intercourse several times in a single day, the Hanafis, Malikis and Shafi`is observe: The number of ka ffarahs will not increase if iftar occurs several times, irrespective of its manner.

The Hanbalis state: If in a single day there occur several violations entailing kaffarah, if the person gives kaffarah for the first violation of the fast before the perpetration of the second, he should offer kaffarah for the latter violation as well, but if he has not given kaffarah for the first violation before committing the second, a single kaffarah suffices.

According to the Imamis, if sexual intercourse is repeated a number of times in a single day, the number of kaffarahs will also increase proportionately, but if a person eats or drinks a number of times, a single kaffarah suffices.

Prohibited Fasts:

All the schools except the Hanafi concur that fasting on the days of `Id al-Fitr and `Id al-Adha is prohibited (haram). The Hanafis observe: Fasting on these two `Ids is makruh to the extent of being haram.

The Imamis say: Fasting on the days of Tashriq is prohibited only for those who are at Mina. The days of Tashriq are the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth of Dhu al-Hijjah.

The Shafi`is are of the opinion that fasting is not valid on the days of Tashriq both for those performing Hajj as well as others.

According to the Hanbalis, it is haram to fast on these days for those not performing Hajj, not for those performing it.

The Hanafis observe: Fasting on these days is makruh to the extent of being haram.

The Malikis state: It is haram to fast on the eleventh and the twelfth of Dhu al-Hijjah for those not performing Hajj, not for those performing it.

All the schools excepting the Hanafi concur that it is not valid for a woman to observe a supererogatory fast without her husband's consent if her fast interferes with the fulfilment of any of his rights. The Hanafis observe: A woman's fasting without the permission of her husband is makruh, not haram.

The Doubtful Days:

There is consensus among the schools that imsak is obligatory upon one who does not fast on a "doubtful day" (yawm al-shakk) that later turns out to be a day of Ramadan, and he is liable to its qada' later.

Where one fasts on a doubtful day that is later known to have been a day of Ramadan, they differ as to whether it suffices without requiring qada'.

The Shafi`i , Maliki and Hanbali schools observe: This fast will not suffice and its qada' is wajib upon him.

In the opinion of the Hanafis, it suffices and does not require qada'.

Most Imamis state: Its qada' is not wajib upon him, except when he had fasted with the niyyah of Ramadan.

Supererogatory Fasts:

Fasting is considered mustahabb on all the days of the year except those on which it has been prohibited. But there are days whose fast has been specifically stressed and they include three days of eactl month, preferably the `moonlit' days (al-'ayyam al-bid), which are the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth of each lunar month. Among them is the day of `Arafah (9th of Dhu al-Hijjah). Also emphasized are the fasts of the months of Rajab and Sha'ban. Fasting on Mondays and Thursdays has also been emphasized. There are other days as well which have been mentioned in elaborate works. There is consensus among all the schools that fasting on these days is mustahabb.

Reprehensible (Makrah) Fasts:

It is mentioned in al-Fiqh `ala al-madhahib al-'arba`ah that it is makruh to single out Fridays and Saturdays for fasting. So is fasting on the day of Now Ruz (21st March) in the opinion of all the schools except the Shafi`i, and fasting on the day or the two days just before the month of Ramadan.

It has been stated in Imami books on fiqh that it is makruh for a guest to fast without the permission of his host, for a child to fast without the permission of its father, and when there is doubt regarding the new moon of Dhu al-Hijjah and the consequent possibility of the day being that of `Id.

Evidence of the New Moon:

There is a general consensus among Muslims that a person who has seen the new moon is himself bound to act in accordance with his knowledge, whether it is the new moon of Ramadan or Shawwal. Hence it is wajib upon one who has seen the former to fast even if all other people don't, [2] and to refrain from fasting on seeing the latter even if everyone else on the earth is fasting, irrespective of whether the observer is `adil or not, man or woman. The schools differ regarding the following issues:

1. The Hanbalis, Malikis and Hanafis state: If the sighting (ru'yah) of the new moon has been confirmed in a particular region, the people of all other regions are bound by it regardless of the distance between them; the difference of the horizon of the new moon is of no consequence.

The Imamis and the Shafi`is observe: If the people of a particular place see the new moon while those at another place don't, in the event of these two places being closeby with respect to the horizon, the latter's duty will be the same; but not if their horizons differ.

2. If the new moon is seen during day, either before or after midday, on 30th Sha'ban, will it be reckoned the last day of Sha'ban (in which case, fasting on it will not be wajib) or the first of Ramadan (in which case fasting is wajib)? Similarly, if the new moon is seen during the day on the 30th of Ramadan, will it be reckoned a day of Ramadan or that of Shawwal? In other words, will the day on which the new moon is observed be reckoned as belonging to the past or to the forthcoming month?

The Imamis, Shafi`is, Malikis and Hanafis observe: It belongs to the past month and not to the forthcoming one. Accordingly, it is wajib to fast on the next day if the new moon is seen at the end of Sha'ban, and to refrain from fasting the next day if it is seen at the end of Ramadan.

3. The schools concur that the new moon is confirmed if sighted, as observed in this tradition of the Prophet (s):

(`Fast on seeing the new moon and stop fasting on seeing it').

They differ regarding the other methods of confirming it.

The Imamis observe: It is confirmed for both Ramadan and Shawwal by tawatur (i.e. the testimony of a sufficiently large number of people whose conspiring over a false claim is impossible), and by the testimony of two `adil men, irrespective of whether the sky is clear or cloudy and regardless of whether they belong to the same or two different nearby towns, provided their descriptions of the new moon are not contradictory. The evidence of women, children, fasiq men and those of unknown character is not acceptable.

The Hanafis differentiate between the new moons of Ramadan and Shawwal; they state: The new moon of Ramadan is confirmed by the testimony of a single man and a single woman, provided they are Muslim, sane and `adil. The Shawwal new moon is not confirmed except by the testimony of two men or a man and two women. This is when the sky is not clear. But if the sky is clear--and there is no difference in this respect between the new moon of Ramadan and Shawwal--it is not confirmed except by the testimony of a considerable number of persons whose reports result in certainty.

In the opinion of the Shafi`is, the new moon of Ramadan and Shawwalis confirmed by the testimony of a single witnesss provided he is Muslim, sane, and `adil. The sky's being clear or cloudy makes no difference in this regard.

According to the Malikis, the new moon of Ramadan and Shawwalis not confirmed except by the testimony of two `adil men, irrespective of the sky's being cloudy or cloudless.

The Hanbalis say: The new moon of Ramadan is confirmed by the testimony of an `adil man or woman, while that of Shawwalis only confirmed by the testimony of two `adil men.

4: There is consensus among the schools, excepting the Hanafi, that if no one claims to have seen the new moon of Ramadan, fasting will be wajib after the thirtieth day allowing thirty days for Sha'ban. According to the Hanafis, fasting becomes wajib after the twenty-ninth day of Sha'ban.

This was with respect to the new moon of Ramadan. As to the new moon of Shawwal, the Hanafis and the Malikis observe: If the sky is cloudy, thirty days of Ramadan will be completed and iftar will be wajib on the following day. But if the sky is clear, it is wajib to fast on the day following the thirtieth day by rejecting the earlier testimony of witnesses confirming the first of Ramadan regardless of their number.

The Shafi`is consider iftar as wajib after thirty days even if the setting in of Ramadan was confirmed by the evidence of a single witness, irrespective of the sky's having been cloudy or clear.

According to the Hanbalis, if the setting in of Ramadan was confirmed by the testimony of two `adil men, iftar following the thirtieth day is wajib, and if it was confirmed by the evidence of a single `adl, it is wajib to fast on the thirty-first day as well.

In the opinion of the Imamis, both Ramadan and Shawwal are confirmed after the completion of thirty days regardless of the sky's being cloudy or clear, provided their beginning was confirmed in a manner approved by the Shari`ah.

The New Moon and Astronomy:

This year (1960) the governments of Pakistan and Tunisia have decided to rely upon the opinion of astronomers for the confirmation of the new moon with a view of putting an end to confusion [3] and the general inconvenience resulting from not knowing in advance the day of `Id, which at times comes as a surprise, and at other times is delayed despite all the preparations.

This decision of the two governments has become an issue of heated controversy in religious circles.

The protagonists of the move observe that there is nothing in the religion that disapproves of reliance on the opinion of astronomers; rather it is supported by this verse of Surat al-Nahl:

...And way marks; and by the stars they are guided. (16.16)

The antagonists state: The decision contradicts the above-mentioned prophetic traditon:

That, because the word ru'yah (sighting) implies sighting the moon with the eyes, which was common among the people during the time of the Prophet (s ). As to using a telescope or relying on astronomical calculations, they are inconsistent with the literal import of the tradition, they point out.

In fact, none of the sides has advanced sound reasons, because `guidance by the stars' implies determination of land and sea routes with the help of the stars, and not determination of days of months and new moons. As to the tradition, it does not contradict sound scientific knowledge, because `seeing' is a means for acquiring knowledge and not an end in itself, as is the case with any means that helps confirm facts. However, in my opinion, the judgements of astronomers do not lead to certain knowledge, nor do they remove all doubts as removed by vision, because their judgements are based on probability not on certainty. This is evident from their divergent judgements about the night of the new moon as well as the time of its occurrence and the period that it remains (above the horizon).

If a time comes when the astronomers attain accurate and sufficient knowledge, so that there is consensus among them and they recurringly prove to be right to the extent that their forecasts become a certainty like the days of the week, then it will be possible to rely upon them. Rather, then it will be obligatory to follow their judgements and to reject everything that goes against them. [4]

NOTES:

[1] Approximately 800 grams of wheat or something similar to it.

[2]. But the Hanafis observe: If he testifies before a qadi who rejects his testimony, it is wajib upon him to perform its qada' without liability to kaffarah (al-Fiqh `ala al-madhahib al-'arba`ah).

[3]. In 1939 the `Id al- Adha was observed on Monday in Egypt, on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia, and on Wednesday in Bombay.

[4]. Refer to the discussion on this issue in the first volume of our book Fiqh al-'Imam Jafar al-Sadiq (`a), the section on the proof of the new moon at the end of bab al-sawm.

Alleged Book Burnings in Iran and Egypt: A Study of Related Facts and Fiction

2008-07-10T22:14:00.001-07:00

Alleged Book Burnings in Iran and Egypt: A Study of Related Facts and Fiction

By Martyr Murtada Mutahhari-quddisa sirruh

Translated front the Persian by Dr. Wahid Akhtar

vol 14, No. 1 Spring 1997

This article, entitled "Kitabsuzi-ye Iran wa Misr" was added as the last chapter to Part One of the 8th edition of the book Khadamat-e mutaqahil-e Iran Islam wa Iran (`The Mutual contributions of Islam and Iran'). It was also published separately as a booklet. It was written in the atmosphere of the nationalistic and anti-Islamic propaganda of the Pahlavi era in Iran, and although the old rumours that it discusses have ceased to be of much relevance today, it is still of interest due to the light it throws on their origin and the motives that lay behind them. The late Dr. Wahid Akhtar had translated it years ago while translating Part One of the book which was published in several parts in al-Tawhid (vol. 6, No. 2 and vol. 8, No. 2).

Among topics relating to the reciprocal relations of Iran and Islam one issue that needs to be discussed is that of the alleged burning of libraries by Muslim conquerors of Iran. During past half a century thus issue has been so vehemently propagated that it is now taken as a recognized fact. The textbooks of secondary and higher secondary schools and universities-which must contain only such material as is definite and avoid mentioning anything dubious and misleading to the immature minds of school and university students regularly mention this story in their contents. If this incident were historically true and Muslims did set fire to a library or libraries in Iran and Egypt, there could be some excuse for saying that Islam had a destructive character and not a constructive one. At least it could be said that although Islam did create a civilization and culture it was also responsible for destroying other cultures and civilizations: Hence as against the services it rendered to Iran it also inflicted losses on the Iranian culture, that if it were a blessing from one angle, from another it was also a catastrophe.

So much has been said and written on the topic that there were libraries and educational institutions in Iran-such as primary and higher secondary schools and universities-and that all of them were destroyed by Muslims, that some Iranians who are not experts in this field have gradually come to believe it as an established fact.

Some years ago I happened to receive one copy of the journal Tandarust, which is purely a medical journal. It contained the summary of a speech by an eminent Iranian physician which was delivered in a certain university in the West. In that speech, after referring to Sa'di's famous verse:

Mankind are like members of one body

and stating that for the first time in history this Iranian poet had developed the idea of an international society, he goes on to make the following remarks:

Ancient Greece was the cradle of civilization and had great philosophers like Socrates . . . , but what may be compared to a modern university was the one that was founded by Khusro, the Sassanian king. A large academy named "Gundi-shapur" was established at Shush, then the capital of Iran... This university flourished for a long time until the invasion of the Arabs who destroyed it like all our other institutions. Although the sacred religion of Islam lays great emphasis on knowledge and requires one to seek knowledge even if it were to be found in China, the Arab conquerors set fire to the great national library of Iran in gross violation of the dear commandment of the Prophet (s), and destroyed all our academic institutions. From that day Iran remained under Arab yoke for two centuries. [1]

This is just an example out of many utterances and writings that make similar allegations without mentioning any historical document or evidence. Before embarking on a historical study of this issue and examining the so-called arguments advanced in its support, I would like to make some remarks in answer to this respected physician who has so categorically expressed these views before an international medical audience, which, as a rule, could not have been better informed on historical issues than the speaker himself.

Firstly, following the Greek era and before the establishment of Jundi-shapur in Iran, there existed the great academy of Alexandria which was incomparably superior to Jundi-shapur. From the 2nd/8th century onwards, or, to be more precise, since the last decades of the 1st/7th century, Muslims began translating foreign sciences into Arabic, and they benefited to a large extent from Alexandrian works, details of which are to be found in relevant books.

Secondly, the academy of Jundi-shapur, which was largely a medical centre, did not suffer the slightest harm at the hands of the Arab conquerors. It continued to flourish till the 3rd/9th and 4th/10th century. After the establishment of the great academy at Baghdad, the importance of Jundi-shapur was overshadowed and it gradually disappeared. Before the establishment of the academy at Baghdad, the Abbasid caliphs employed the services of physicians and astronomers from Jundi-shapur at their courts. The likes of Ibn Masawayh and Bakhtayshu` in the 2nd/8th and 3rd/9th centuries were products of this academy. Hence the claim that Jundi-shapur was destroyed by the Arab invaders is based on a total ignorance of facts.

Thirdly, the Jundi-shapur, academy was run and managed by Christian scholars who had close ties, from the viewpoint of creed and race, with the Byzantium (Antioch), and the spirit of this institution was Christian-Byzantine, not Zoroastrian-Iranian. Of course, it was geographically situated in Iran and was a part of Iran in the political and civil sense. But the intellect that had created this university was a different one which derived from the association of its authorities with a non-Zoroastrian milieu abroad. Similarly, other centres of education situated in Transoxiana had come into existence under Buddhist influence. Of course, the spirit of the Iranian people was one that was characterized by fondness for knowledge, but the regime of the mu'bads that ruled over Iran in the Sassanian period was anti-academic, and wherever it ruled this spirit strangulated all possibilities of growth of sciences . For this reason, the schools and sciences could flourish in the south-west and north-east of Iran which were distant from the influence of the religious spirit of the mu'bads, while in other places where this spirit was dominant scholarship had no chance of growth.

Among the compilers of literary, historical and geographical texts for higher secondary schools, who generally repeat the above-mentioned view in the manner of an official circular, the late Dr. Rida-zadeh Shafaq, who was a scholar and one not devoid of academic justice, has done some justice in this regard. In the textbook on the history of [Persian] literature, written for the fourth year, he writes:

"During the Sassanian period, books on literature, theology, sciences and history, both original works and translations, were in abundance. It may also be inferred from reports concerning court poets and singers that versified literature (poetry) also existed during that era. Despite this it may be concluded from historical evidence that the literature of that time was not very extensive and was mainly confined to the courtiers and priests. As in the last phase of the Sassanian rule, the life and morality of these two classes, the courtiers and the priests, had degenerated due to rampant corruption and intrigues at the court and the emergence of various sects, it may be said that the literary situation in Iran at the time of emergence of Islam was not bright and literature, too, was in a state of decay due to the corruption of these two classes."

Fourthly, it would have been better if this honourable physician, who, like the others, repeats in a parrot-like manner that "the Arab conquerors burnt our national library and destroyed our academic institutions," had pointed out where that national library was situated. Was it in Hamadan or Isfahan, in Shiraz or Azarbaijan? Was it at Nishabur or at Tisfun, in the sky or under the ground? Where was it? How is it that he and others like him who go on repeating this statement, know about the burning of a national library but have no information about its location?

Such an incident is not recorded in- any historical document, and although the details of Muslim conquests of Iran and Rome are on record, there is no mention anywhere in historical documents of any such library having existed in Iran, regardless of whether it was burnt or not. On the other hand, the records reveal what is contrary to this statement. The records show that there was no interest in academic pursuits in regions under Zoroastrian influence. Al-Jahiz, although an Arab, is free from Arab prejudice, for he has written a lot against Arabs, and we shall soon quote from him. In his book al-Mahasin wa al-addad, [2] he writes: "The Persians were not much interested in writing books; they were more interested in buildings." The Legacy of Persia, by a group of orientalists, [3] mentions in unambiguous terms the absence of interest in writing in Zoroastrian religion during the Sassanian period.

Researchers are unanimous in stating that even the copying of the Avesta was subject to restrictions and prohibitions. Apparently no more than two manuscripts of the Avesta were in existence when Alexander invaded Iran, one of which was at Istakhr and it was burnt by Alexander.

Considering that in the creed of the mu'bads teaching, education and instruction were exclusively confined to the courtiers and the priests and ail other social classes and occupational groups were prohibited from education, learning and writing had naturally no chance to grow. Scholars and writers usually arise from the deprived classes, not from the affluent class. It is the children of shoemakers and potters who become such figures as Ibn Sina, Biruni, Farabi and Muhammad ibn Zakariyya al-Razi, not the offspring of nobles and courtiers. Besides, as the late Dr. Rida-zadeh Shafaq has written, these two classes had become corrupt during the Sassanian era and scholarly works and cultural accomplishments are not to be expected from a degenerate class.

Undoubtedly, there did exist some literary and academic works in the Sassanian era, and many of them were translated into Arabic during the Islamic period and survived. Also there is no doubt that many of those works vanished, but not due to any book burning or some other accident of this kind. That happened rather in the natural and normal course, for whenever there, is a change in a people's ideas and beliefs and a culture overwhelms another and engages the minds of the people, due to an immoderate attitude which is harmful, the old culture is neglected and the literary and scientific heritage of the old culture gradually perishes due to the people's neglect and their lack of interest.

An example of this process is observable in our own time, in the invasion of Islamic culture by Western culture. The Western culture became a fashion in Iran, and the Islamic culture went out of fashion. For the same reason no effort is being made to preserve and protect the Islamic heritage. Rare and precious manuscripts in the fields of natural sciences, mathematics, literature, philosophy and theology, which were in personal libraries until a few years ago have disappeared and nobody knows what has happened to them and where they have gone. Probably they made their way to groceries or were allowed to perish. According to Prof. Jalal al-Din Humai, the precious manuscripts collected by the marhum Majlisi in his library, with the means that he had at his disposal, from all over the Muslim world, were sold as waste paper some years ago. Similarly, at the time of the Arab conquest of Iran there existed books in personal libraries some of which must have been precious manuscripts. Perhaps they continued to be preserved for two or three centuries even after the conquest of Iran. But following the Iranians' conversion to Islam and the prevalence of Arabic script and the falling of the Pahlavi script into disuse, the old books became unusable for the majority of people and gradually disappeared. But that there existed a national library or libraries and academic institutions that were destroyed deliberately by Arab conquerors is no more than a fiction.

Ibrahim Pur Dawud, whose bias is evident and who, in the words of the late Qazwini, is hostile to Arabs and everything that is associated with them, made efforts to collect `circumstantial evidence' from the nooks and comers of history, citing them, often with interpolations, as `proof' of the alleged book burning in Iran by Arab conquerors and destruction of its academic institutions. After him a number of individuals-some of whom, at least, were not expected to be misled by such an unfounded story-followed in his footsteps.

The late Dr. Men was one of them. [4] In Mazdayasna and Persian Literature, while dealing with the consequences of the Arab invasion of Iran, he refers to this matter repeating for the most part the views of Pur Dawud. Following is what he cites as evidence in this regard:

1) Sir John Malcolm has referred to this incident in his history.

2) During the Jahiliyyah the Arabs were illiterate. According to al-Waqidi only seventeen persons among the Quraysh were literate at the time of the Prophet's ministry. The last Bedouin poet, Dhu al- Rummah, used to conceal his literacy, and he would say, Amongst us literacy is considered a sign of being uncultured. [5]

3) Al-Jahiiz, in al-Bayan wa al-tabyin, writes that one day one of the chieftains of Quraysh saw a boy reading a book of Sibawayh. He shouted at him, saying: "Shame on you! What you are doing is the occupation of teachers and beggars." In those days, teaching-that is instruction of children-was regarded as a mean job, for a teacher's pay was not more than sixty dirhams and that was a petty income in their opinion. [6]

4) Ibn Khaldun, in the chapter "On the Rational Sciences and their Kinds" (al-`ulum al-'aqliyyah wa asnafuha) of his Muqaddimah, says: "At the time of the conquest of Iran many books of that country fell into the hands of the Arabs. Sa'd ibn Abi al-Waqqas wrote to `Umar ibn al-Khattab asking his permission to have them translated for Muslims. 'Umar wrote to him in reply that he should cast them into water, "for if what is written in those books is guidance, God has given us a better guide; and if that which is in those books is misleading, God has saved us from their evil." Accordingly those books were cast into water or fire, and the sciences of the Iranians that were contained in them were destroyed and did not reach us. [7] Abu al-Faraj ibn al-`Ibri in Mukhtasar al-duwal, Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi in Kitab al-ifadah wa al- i`tibar, Qifti in Ta'rikh al-hukama', in the account of Yahya al-Nahwi, Hajji Khalifah in Kashf al-zunun, and Dr. Dhabih Allah Safa in Ta'rikh-e `ulum-e `aqli dar Islam, have mentioned the burning of the library of Alexanderia by the Arabs. (This means that if it is proved that Arabs burnt the library of Alexanderia, it would indicate that they could also have burnt down libraries anywhere that they found them. Hence it is probable that the library in Iran suffered a similar fate at their hands.) However, Shibli Nu'mani, in his treatise Kitabkhaneh-ye Iskandarivyah, which has been translated into Persian by Fakhr Da'i, and also Mujtaba Minawi in an article published in the journal Sukhan (No. 74, p. 584), has refuted this allegation (concerning the burning of the library of Alexandria by Muslims).

5) Abu Rayhan al-Birdui, in al-Athar al-baqiyyah, writing about Khwarizm, says: "When Qutaybah ibn Muslim reconquered Khwarizm after the apostasy of its inhabitants, he appointed Iskajmuk as its governor. Qutaybah destroyed and eliminated everyone who knew the Khwarazmi script or had some knowledge of its people and their sciences. He dispersed them in different parts of the world, and so-their traditions and conditions have remained unknown, to the extent that after the advent of Islam there remains no means to learn about the facts concerning them." [8] Also Abu Rayhan writes in the same book: "When Qutaybah ibn Muslim destroyed their scribes (i.e. of the Khwarizmis), and killed their priests (hirbads) and burnt their books and writings, the people of Khwarizm were reduced to illiteracy. They were compelled to rely upon their memory in things that were needed by them. In the course of time they forgot all details pertaining to their differences and preserved in their memory only the general matters on which there was agreement among them. [9]

6) The story of book burning at the hands of Abd Allah ibn Tahir, which has been mentioned in Tadhkirat al-Shu`ara' by Dawlat-Shah Samarqandi.

These make up the bulk of the so-called evidence that Dr. Mu`'m has advanced to prove the alleged book burning in Iran by the Arabs. Among these, only the fourth one cited from Ibn Khaldun, along with the story of book burning in Alexandria mentioned by Ibn al-Ibri, al-Baghdadi and al-Qifti, along with what Hajji Khalifah has written, need to be examined critically.

There is also a seventh argument which Dr. Muin does not mention, but which is mentioned by Jurji Zaydan and is often repeated by certain Iranian writers. That is also cited as evidence of the Arab's hostility toward books, writing, and scholarship. According to it the second Caliph vehemently prevented the writing and compilation of books and proscribed writing and compilation with the slogan "The Book of God sufices us, considering it a crime."

This prohibition remained in force until the 2nd/8th century, when it was ignored due to the pressure and needs of the times.

It is obvious that a people that do not permit themselves to engage in writing and compilation for at least one century would not, within that period, tolerate the existence of books belonging to vanquished peoples.

Presently, first we shall examine the arguments forwarded by Dr. Mu'in-excepting the fourth one-and then examine the seventh one. Later on we shall take up in detail the fourth argument of Dr. Mu'in.

The first argument, that is, the statements of Sir John Malcolm, were already cited by us in the context of our review of Mazdayasna wa adab-e Parse and their baselessness has been made clear. Apparently, Sir John Malcolm lived in the 13th/19th century, and his statements concerning an incident that purportedly took place thirteen centuries earlier cannot be accepted as reliable historical evidence. Besides, he shows such an open hostility to Islam that no credence can be attached to any of his statements.

He claims that `the followers of the Arabian Prophet razed Iranian towns to the ground' (a lie-as the saying goes-that is not to be found in any apothecary's store!). It is amazing that-Dr. Mu'in should have quoted Sir John Malcolm's consistently incoherent nonsense in support of his assertions.

But as for the issue of the Arabs' illiteracy, the Qur'an itself has mentioned it. Yet what an argument is it? If the Arabs of the Jahiliyyah were illiterate, is it a proof that the Arab Muslims habitually burnt books? Besides, in the period of a quarter century that elapsed between the Jahilliyah and the conquest of Iran a wonderful literacy campaign had been launched by the Noble Prophet (s) in Madinah.

The Arab of the Jahiliyyah embraced a faith whose prophet told some of his prisoners of war to buy their liberty by teaching a certain number of Muslim children to read and write. The prophet of that creed encouraged some of his companions to learn foreign languages such as Syriac, Hebrew and Persian. He himself had twenty secretaries, each of whom, or several of them, were responsible for some secretarial job. [10] The Arab of the Jahilliyyah embraced a faith whose scripture swore by the pen and writing [11] and whose revelations began with the mention of reading and teaching. [12] Didn't the attitude of the Prophet (s) and the Qur'an in glorifying reading, writing and acquisition of knowledge inspire a sense of respect for books, writing, scholarship and education in the Arab of the Jahiliyyah, who came to be passionately attached to the Qur'an and the Prophet (s)?

As for the story concerning the contempt that the Quraysh and other Arabs had for a teacher's occupation, it is interpreted to imply not only that the Quraysh and Arabs in general considered the teacher's job as mean, but that they rather looked down upon literacy as such.

First of all, it is mentioned in this account itself (given by fahiz) that the teacher's job was regarded as mean due to its low income. It is the same as in our own country today where teachers, clerks and clergymen belong to low-income groups of society, and for the same reason some of them occasionally change their profession.

If a young teacher, clerk, or clergyman asks for the hand of a girl in marriage and she also receives proposals from some merchant, contractor, or real-estate dealer, the girl's family prefers to give their daughter in marriage to the merchant or contractor, though he should be illiterate, rather than to a teacher, clerk or clergymen. Why? Is that because they have a contempt for learning and intellectual abilities? Of course not. It has nothing to do with contempt for learning. To marry one's daughter to someone from such a class requires a spirit of sacrifice, and there are few who are ready to make it.

It is also strange that from a derisive remark made by an Arab belonging to the Quraysh about a child reading a book, it is construed that all Arabs were absolutely opposed to learning and writing and that they burnt books wherever they found them! It is precisely like saying that all the people of Iran are generally enemies of learning and literary, that they favour buffoonery and minstrelsy and that they burn books wherever they come across them because `Ubayd Zakani (d. 722/1322), the Iranian poet and man of literature, has said:

Don't seek knowledge so far as you can,

As, in this deserted path, you will beg your daily bread.

Make buffoonery your calling and learn the minstrels art,

And receive applause from the high and low

Or it is like saying that as Abu Hayyan Tawhidi, disgusted with poverty and hardship, burnt all his books, therefore his countrymen are enemies of knowledge and leaming.

As for Biruni's account concerning Khwarizm, though it is not documented and Biruni has not cited any source, it is not improbable. Aside from his other merits, Biruni is a historian of integrity and he does not make any baseless statements. Also, he was close to the date of the incident, for he lived in the second half of the 4th/10th and the first half of the 5th/11th and Khwarizm was conquered by Muslims about the year 93/711-2 during the reign of Walid b. Abd al-Malik. Moreover, he himself came from Khwarizm.

However, firstly, Biruni's report pertains to Khwarizm and the Khwarizmian language, not to the Pahlavi or Avestan languages.

Secondly, Biruni himself, in the introduction to his ,Saydalah, or Saydanah, which is still unpublished, discusses the ability of various languages as a medium for discussing scientific subjects and prefers Arabic to Persian and Khwarizmian. Especially concerning the Khwarizmian language he remarks that `this language is in no degree capable of expressing scientific conceptions, and someone desiring to express a scientific theory in this language is like one who wants to see a camel emerge from a drainpipe.' [13]

On this ground it may be said that if some books of an academic value existed in the Khwarzmian language, Abu Rayhan would not have described it as being so inadequate for academic purposes. The books referred to by Abu Rayhan could not have been anything beyond a few historical works. Qutaybah ibn Muslim's treatment of the people of Khwarizm, which pertains to the reign of Walid ibn Abd al-Malik not the period of the Rightly-Guided Caliphs if the story is true and free from exaggeration [14] was certainly inhuman and un Islamic. It was radically different from the behaviour of other Muslim conquerors that conquered Iran and Byzantine, who were mostly Companions of the Prophet (s) and under the influence of Islamic teachings. Hence, this conduct of Qutaybah, which pertains to the worst period of Islamic caliphate (the Umayyad era), cannot be taken as a criterion of the general behaviour of Muslims who conquered Iran in the early period of Islam.

In any case, the probable sites of academic institutions of Iran were Tisfun, Hamadan, Nahawand, Isfahan, Istakhr, Rey, Nishabur or Azarbaijan, and not Khwarizm. The probable language in which the academic works might have existed was Pahlavi and not Khwarzmian. Iranian books that were rendered into Arabic-such as the Kalilah wa dimnah, by Ibn al-Muqaffa`, and a part of Aristotle's Logic, by him or his son-were in Pahlavi, not in Khwarizmian or some other regional dialect.

Chirstensen writes that Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan ordered a certain book to be translated from Pahlavi into Arabic. [15]

That an invasion should result in the destruction of all works of academic worth of a language and in reducing a people to a state of complete illiteracy with total ignorance of their past history-that could be a consequence relating specifically only to a local language. Obviously a local language cannot develop into an academic language with varied kinds of books in medicine, mathematics, natural sciences, astronomy, literature, and religion.

If a language attains such a degree of development that it possesses a library of various sciences, the people speaking it cannot be reduced to complete illiteracy as a result of a single invasion. No invasion has ever been more terrible than that of the Mongols. Mass-scale massacres, in its literal sense, took place in the wake of the Mongol invasion; books and libraries were burnt; but this attack could not wipe out all the academic legacy in Persian and Arabic or sever the links of the post-Mongol generations with the pre-Mongol culture. For the academic heritage in Arabic and Persian was too wide-spread to be annihilated even as a result of several mass massacres by the Mongols. Hence it is clear that what was destroyed in Khwarizm was no more than a number of religious and literary Zoroastrian texts whose contents are known to us. Abu Rayhan also does not say anything more than this. A careful examination of Abu Rayhan's statements indicates that he is referring to books on history and religion.

As for the story of book burning by Abd Allah ibn Tahir, it is an interesting episode and it is amazing that Dr. Muin should have cited it as an evidence of book burning in Iran by Arab conquerors. Abd Allah. was the son of Tahir Dhu al-Yaminayn, the famous Iranian general of al-Ma'mun's era who, supporting al-Ma'mun, commanded the Khurasan army in the battle between al-Ma'mun and al-Amin, sons of Harun al-Rashid (Ali ibn `Isa commanded the Arab army supporting al-Amin). He defeated al-Amin's forces, conquered Baghdad, killed al-Anin, and secured the caliphate for al-Ma'mun.

Tahir himself was personally hostile to Arabs. He awarded thirty thousand dinars or thirty thousand dirhams to Allan al-Shu`ubi, who worked in Harun's Bayt al-Hikmah, for compiling the Mathalib al-'Arab, a book describing the vices of the Arabs. [16] His son, Abd Allah, who is held guilty of the book burning, was the founder of the Tahirid dynasty; that is, it was through him that Khurasan attained political independence for the first time and an independent Iranian state came into existence.

Abd Allah, like his father, had a strong bias against Arabs. Nevertheless, it is one of the wonders of history and Islam that the same anti-Arab Iranian who had attained so much power as to declare himself independent from the caliph of Baghdad burnt all pre-Islamic Iranian books on the ground that all that literature was useless in the presence of the Qur'an.

It is said that one day a man came to the court of A'bd Allah b. Tahir (died 844 C.E.) in Nishabur and presented an old book containing `The Romance of Wamiq and Adhra.' When asked as to what book it was he said that it was an absorbing tale compiled by wise men and dedicated to King Anushirwan (531-579 C.E.). The emir ordered its destruction, saying that the Qur'an and Traditions of the Prophet ought to suffice for good Muslims, and added, "This book was written by Magians and is accursed in our eyes" The book was cast into water and he issued a decree ordering that throughout his domain any book found in Persian and written by Magians was to be destroyed. [17]

Why did he do that? I don't know. Most probably it was a reaction inspired by the Iranians' hatred of Zoroastrians. In any case this act was committed by Abd Allah ibn Tahir, an Iranian, not by an Arab. May we blame all Iranians for the action of Abd Allah, and claim that basically such was their thinking that they burnt any book other than the Qur'an that they found? Again the answer will be No.'

This act of Abd Allah was blameworthy. But it proves what we have said earlier, that whenever a culture is invaded by another, the champions and advocates of the new culture adopt an extreme and harmful attitude of indifference toward the old culture. The Iranians who were greatly impressed and inspired by Islamic culture, did not show any sign of attachment towards their old culture. Rather, they deliberately pushed it into oblivion.

There are numerous examples of a conduct similar to that of Abd Allah ibn Tahir on the part of Iranians, who while detesting the chauvinism of the Arabs, who as a race wished to impose themselves upon other peoples, had a pro-Islamic bias which they employed against the Zoroastrian heritage.

If the reference to the book burning by Abd Allah ibn Tahir is meant to show that such acts have precedents in history, there is no need of it. History has witnessed such scenes and continues to witness scenes of book burning. In our own times Ahmad Kasrawi celebrated a book burning festival. Christians cast eighty thousand books into flames at the time of the fall of Spain when Muslims were massacred on a mass scale. [l8] Jurji Zaydan, a Christian writer, concedes that the crusaders burnt three millions books during their invasion of Syria and Palestine. [19] The Turks burnt books in Egypt [20] and Sultan Mahmud Ghaznawi burnt books in Rey. [21] The Mongols burnt the library of Marv [22] The Zoroastrians burnt the books of Mazdakians in the Sassanian period. [23] Alexander burnt Iranian books, [24] and Romans cast the works of Archimedes, the renowned mathematician, into fire. [25] Later on we shall come to the burning of the library at Alexandria by Christians.

George Sarton, in his History of Science, says: "Protagoras, the Greek Sophist, in one of his books, while dealing with the problem of reality and truth, said: As for gods, we can neither say that they exist, nor that they don't. There are many things that prevent us from understanding this issue. First of them is the darkness surrounding the subject itself, and, second, the brevity of human life.' " [26]

Sarton says: "These views led his books to be burnt at the city square in the year 411 B.C., and it is the first instance of book burning recorded in history." [27]

As to the story of the prohibition on writing of books in the Muslim world, which was announced by the Second Caliph and continued for about a hundred years, this story is also noteworthy, although we shall discuss it in the third part of the present book relating to the contribution of Iranians to Islam, particularly in the section relating to culture and historical beginnings of writing and compilation. However, here it is necessary to point out that the prohibition ascribed to the Second Caliph related specifically to writing of the Prophet's traditions (hadith).

Since the early era of Islam there was a difference of opinion concerning the recording and compilation of the Prophet's hadith between two groups with Umar and some Companions on one side and Imam Ali (`a) and some other Companions on the other.

The first group led by 'Umar considered it permissible to hear and narrate hadith, but undesirable to record and compile it. Their excuse was that hadith, if written and compiled, might be mistaken for the Qur'an and it was feared that involvement with hadith might divert attention from the Qur'an. But the other group led by 'Ali ( `a) encouraged people to write and compile hadith.

The Sunnis (`ammah) following the line of `Umar abstained from compiling hadith for a century, but after one century they also followed the view of Ali in this matter and `Umar's view was abandoned. For this reason the Shi`ah were a century ahead of the Sunnis in compilation of hadith.

Hence the truth is that writing and compilation was not totally banned in all fields among Arabs and therefore it is wrong to say that a people who did not allow themselves to write and compile had greater reason for destroying written works belong to other peoples. The prohibition on writing, or its undesirability, was confined, firstly, only to hadith, and secondly, it pertained only to the Sunnis, while the Shi-`ah never adopted that approach concerning compilation of hadith. In any case, this issue has no bearing on the matter of books and writing.

Jurji Zaydan, in his history of Islamic civilization, and Dr. Dhabihullah Safa, in Ta'rikh-e `ulum-e `aqli dar Islam, have expressed certain views that require critical examination. Dr. Safa says:

Like all other Muslims, the Arabs believed in the dictum: (Islam demolishes what has been before it). For this reason the belief became rooted in their minds that they should not pay attention to anything except the Qur'an, for the Qur'an had abrogated all other scriptures and Islam abrogated all previous religions. The religious leaders had banned the study of all other books other than the Qur'an including even religious texts.

It is said that one day the Prophet ('s) saw a leaf of the Torah in the hands of `Umar. He was so upset that signs of anger were manifest in his face. He said to `Umar:

Didn't I bring you a bright and pure shari `ah? By God, had Moses himself been alive, he would not have had any choice but to follow me.

For the same reason the Prophet (s) said:

Neither affirm nor negate what the People of the Book (Ahl al-Kitab) say in the name of religion, and say: `We have faith in what is revealed to us and what was revealed to you, and our and your God is one.

One of the well-known traditions in that period was:

The Book of God contains the reports of those who have gone before you and prophesies of your future and the judgement governing you.

The words of the Qur'an, which states that:

There is naught in land or sea but it is recorded in a clear Book

naturally strengthened this belief, and the result was to make the Muslims confine themselves to the Qur'an and hadith to the exclusion of all other books... [28]

I am really amazed at the words of these learned men. Didn't they know that the phrase (Islam demolishes what has been before it) only meant that the advent of Islam annulled all older norms, customs and laws?

All Muslims, from the very inception of Islam to the present, have not understood anything from this statement but that Islam invalidated all the past religious customs and practices of the Jahiliyyah, including the jahiliyyah of the idolators and the jahaliyyah of the Ahl al-Kitab, and that it did not refer to anything other than the religious precepts and traditions. It is similar to the saying: which means that Islam conceals all that was before it and that it does not hold anyone guilty for his pre-Islamic conduct, such as a crime which requiring retribution or compensation if committed by a Muslim; but if the same was committed by a man before embracing Islam during his pagan days, Islam did not hold him liable for his past guilt. All Muslims have understood these sentences to signify this sense of amnesty. See, how great is the distance between this meaning and that which is imputed to the statement by these writers.

Similarly, the hadith relating to `Umar clearly indicates that what the Prophet (s) meant was that the revelation of the Qur'an and the ultimate Shari`ah abrogates the Torah and the Law of Moses. Hence he did not prohibit the study of other books even religious books. He forbade the study of the revealed scriptures of the past which have been abrogated so that Muslims should not mix the abrogated laws with the Shari `ah of Islam and therefore he forbade them from studying the Torah. The Prophet's statement "Neither affirm nor negate that which is said by the Ahl al-Kitab also referred to the religious legends and commandments. With this statement the Prophet (s) made them understand that truth was adulterated with falsehoods in the creed of the Ahl al-Kitab, and as they did not posses the ability to distinguish between them, it was advisable for them not to affirm them, for thereby they might endorse a 'falsehood, and not to negate them, for thereby they might negate a truth unknowingly. Similarly, the tradition stating that the Qur'an contained "the reports of the past, news of the future and the judgement governing your differences," which is also found in the Nahj al-balaghah, also refers to religious accounts, eschatology and religious laws, and it means that Muslims have no need of any other revealed book with the revelation of the Qur'an.

The most ridiculous of all is the reference to the Qur anic verse:

There is naught in land or sea but it is recorded in a clear Book.

So far as I know no commentator of the Qur'an has considered this verse as referring to the Qur'an. All exegetes have interpreted it as referring to the preserved Tablet (law mahfuz)

Muslims have never understood this verse and those traditions, quoted above, to signify what these gentlemen have presumed, that the verse and the traditions fashioned a mentality amongst Muslims to destroy every book except the Quran.

Now it is the turn to examine the fourth argument advanced by the late Dr. Muin. He quotes Ibn Khaldun as if he has mentioned the incident of book burning in Iran with certainty, and as if the accounts given by Abu al-Faraj Ibn al-`Ibri, Abd al-Latif Baghdad, al-Qifti and Hajji Khalifah were unproblematic. Although he was certainly aware that recent European scholars have established clearly and conclusively the baselessness and falsity of the story of book burning by Muslims in Alexandria, yet he contented himself with citing only the denials of Shibli Nu`mani and Mujtaba Minawi, ignoring the conclusive arguments forwarded by the European scholars.

Here we shall give a brief summary of the views of various scholars concerning the book burning in Alexandria, with the addition of certain points that occur to my mind. Hereafter I shall embark upon a critique of what Ibn Khaldun and Hajji Khahfah have said concerning book burning in Iran.

Most of the claimants of book burning by Muslims in Iran base their argument on the book burring in Alexandria. Obviously, if the illiteracy of Arabs during the Jahiliyyah, the expression of contempt for the teacher's profession by an individual belonging to the tribe of Quraysh, the book burning by Abd Allah ibn Tahir, an Iranian, and the book burning by Qutaybah ibn Muslim in Khwarizm one hundred years after the first Muslim conquests, can provide evidence for burning of libraries by Arab conquerors of Iran, the book burning in Alexandria by an `intelligent and wise man' like Amr ibn al-`As (who, according to the report, associated with a philosopher of those days in Alexandria) and that, too, not on his own accord, as done by Qutaybah ibn Muslim in Khwarizm, -but at the direct order from the person of the Caliph himself at the capital in Madinah, can with greater reason serve as a proof of the burning of the library in Iran! Hence this group of scholars always mention the book burning in Alexandria with great fanfare.

As a prelude to this discussion, it ought to be mentioned that the history of the Muslim conquests, both in general and in particular that is, accounts of the conquests in a particular region- have been recorded since the last decades of the 2nd/8th century, and these works are accessible to us. In the specific case of the conquest of Alexandria, beside Muslim historians, some Christians have also given detailed accounts of the fall of this city to the Arab conquerors. No source compiled before the Crusades; Islamic or Christian, Jewish or some other; mentions the book burning in Alexandria or Iran. It was for the first time at the end of the 6th/12th and the beginning of the 7th/13th centuries that Abd al-Latif al- Baghdad, a Christian, refers to it in his book entitled al Ifadah wa al-Nibar fi al-umur al-mushahadah wa al-hawadih al-mu`ayanah fi `ard Misr (the subject of the book is the events and conditions observed personally by the author, and is in fact, a travel account). In it while describing a `tower' ( `amud) known as `Amad al-Sawari, the previous site of the library of Alexandria, he writes: "It is said that this tower is one of the several on which was erected a theatre, where Aristotle used to lecture and which was an academy, and here stood the library of Alexandria which was burnt by Amr ibn al-`As at the Caliph's order."

All that Abd al-Latif intended to say, without himself endorsing it, is that there was such a rumour among the people (perhaps among his fellow Christians), for he begins his statement with the expression "yudhkaru," which means "it is said" or "it is rumoured." We know that if a reporter has some authoritative source in reporting some historical event or tradition, he cites his source or sources, as is done by Tabari, for instance, among historians and most of the traditionists (muhaddithin). The best reporting is of this kind, which gives the reader the opportunity to investigate the truth or falsity of the report, which he accepts if the source is credible. In case the narrator does not refer to a source, there are two alternatives. Sometimes he reports an incident as something which is generally known to have happened for certain, for instance, he may say that such and such an incident occurred in such and such a year. Sometimes he says, "It is said" or "It has been said." In case the report is in the first form, it means that the narrator believes in what he reports; however, others do not rely upon such reports which are not accompanied by a source or authority. The scholars of hadith do not consider such narrations as reliable. European historians also do not consider historical reports unsupported by documents and sources as credible and consider them unreliable. At the most it is said that so and so has cited such and such a report in his book without citing any authority or source; that is, it has no credibility as a historical report.

But in case an event is reported in the second form, that is, the reporter himself records it with the words "It is said" or "It has been said" and the like (in a passive voice), it indicates that the reporter himself is not sure of the credibility of what he narrates. Some experts are of the view that the word qila (it is said) indicates that the narrator himself does not believe the report to be credible.

Abd al-Latif has reported this incident in the third form mentioned above, which is at least an indication that he himself did not regard the report as credible. Besides, it is improbable that Abd al-Latif was so ill-informed that he did not know that Aristotle never put his foot on the soil of Egypt and Alexandria, to say nothing of his lecturing in that place. Alexandria was actually founded after Aristotle's death and after Alexander's invasion of Egypt. The city was planned in Alexander's time and probably its building was started at that time but it took the form of a city gradually in the course of time. Aristotle was a contemporary of Alexander.

Hence, whether Abd al-Latif believed in the truth of the report or not, the report itself is incredible in respect of its content; that is, it contains a statement that is definitely false historically, which is the story of Aristotle's lecturing in the library's theatre. If a report consists of certain statements some of which are definitely false, it is indicative of the falsehood of its other statements also. The burning of the library of Alexandria by Muslims has the same degree of credibility as the report of Aristotle's lecturing there.

Hence, the report of Abd al-Latif is weak in respect of source as well as content,, as it lack a source and authority in addition to containing an obvious falsehood. It is also weak in respect of the style of reporting, for it is reported in a way that suggests that he did not regard the story as credible.

Apart from all this, had Abd al-Latif lived in the age of Arab conquest of Alexandria (first/seventh century) or at least during the period of the historians (2nd/8th to 4th/10th century) who compiled, on the basis of the narrations of others, the chronicles of the Islamic conquests, including the conquest of Alexandria, there was a probability of his having met persons who were direct or indirect witnesses of the events and who might have narrated them for Abd al-Latif, whereas, it could be said, others had not chanced to meet such persons. But Abd al-Latif compiled his book at the end of the 6th/12th century and the beginning of the 7th/13th. [29] That means he lived six hundred years after the event which took place in the years 17/638 or-18/639-. In the course of these six centuries no historical work and no historian, Muslim, Christian or Jew, has mentioned this incident. It appears suddenly after such a long time for the first time in the book of Abd al-Latif: These considerations bring Abd al-Latif's report even lower than one lacking source and authority, and reduce it to a report whose falsity is confirmed by external evidence.

What is more significant is that histories bear testimony that the library of Alexandria had been devastated and burned several times before Alexandria was conquered by Muslims. Basically, at the time of the Muslim conquest the library did not exist in its earlier form. There were only some books in the possession of individuals from which Muslims benefited during the period from 2nd/8th to 4th/10th century. Here the famous proverb fits the present situation. Someone said: "Jacob, an Imam's descendant, was torn to pieces by a wolf at the top of a minaret." He was told: "That was a prophet's son, not that of an Imam. Moreover, his name was Joseph, not Jacob, and he was not at the top of a minaret, but at the bottom of a well. Moreover such an episode never happened, for Joseph was not attacked by any wolf!"

We may listen at this juncture to Will Durant, the author of The Story of Civilization. He rejects Abd al-Latif's report for the following reasons:

1) A large part of the library had been destroyed by Christian ardor under the Patriarch Theophilus in 392 [about 250 years before the Muslim conquest of Alexandria]; 2) The remainder had suffered such hostility and neglect that "most of the collection had disappeared by 642;" 3) In the 500 years [30] between the supposed event and its first reporter no Christian historian mentions it, though one of them, Eutychius, Archbishop of Alexandria in 933, described the Arab conquest of Alexandria in great detail. The story is now generally rejected as a fable. In any case, the gradual dissolution of the Alexandrian Library was a tragedy of some moment, (for it was believed to contain the complete published works of 'Eschylus, Sophodes, Polybius, Livy, Tacitus, and a hundred others, who have come down to us in mangled form; full texts of the pre-Socratic philosophers, who survive only in snatches; and thousands of volumes of Greek, Egyptian, and Roman history, science, literature, and philosophy). [31]

Will Durant has described the gradual stages of the destruction of this library at the hands of Christians in The Story of Civilization. Those who are interested may refer to its sixth, ninth and eleventh volumes (the Persian translation). Gustav Lebon, in The Arab and Islamic Civilization, says:.

"The burning of the library of Alexandria is attributed to the Muslim conquerors. It is very amazing that such an imaginary tale should have survived for such a long time and that it should be generally believed. But today the falsity of this story has been established. Now it is proved that before the Islamic era Christians themselves burnt and destroyed the said library in the same manner that they took great care to demolish all the temples and deities of Alexandria, so that by the time of the Muslim conquest nothing of its collection of books remained to be cast into flames.

From the time of its foundation, which took place in 332 B.C., until its invasion by Muslims, for one thousand years the city of Alexandria was counted among the great and important cities of the world.

In the age of the Ptolemies, all scholars and philosophers of the world had gathered in this city and they founded schools and large libraries. But these advancements in knowledge did not last long, for in 48 B.C. the Roman invasion under Caesar inflicted a severe blow to its academic life. Though it made considerable progress again under Roman domination and gained in importance, but this progress was transitory. For the madness of sectarian conflict arose among its citizens and continued to get more fierce day by day despite cruel suppression by Roman emperors, until Christianity was declared the state religion. Then Theodore (?) ordered all the temples, statues of gods, and the libraries of idolators [32] to be razed to the ground." [33]

The city of Alexandria, which is still one of the important cities of Egypt, was founded by Alexander in the 4th century B.C. and for the same reason was named Alexandria. Alexander's successors in Egypt, who were called the Ptolemies, built a museum and library and in fact an academy that grew to become a great centre of learning. Many scholars of Alexandria may be ranked with the great figures of Greece and are among the world's most famous scholars.

The school of Alexandria was started in the second and third centuries B.C. and flourished until the fourth century C.E.. Under the rule of Alexander and his successors Egypt was completely under the political domination of Greece. Afterwards, with the decline of Greek civilization and war with Romans, whose capital was the city of Rome in Italy, as a result of which Greece was defeated, Egypt and Alexandria also came under the political domination of Rome. Around the fourth century C.E. the Roman Empire was divided into the Eastern Empire with Constantinople (present Istanbul) as its capital, and the Western Roman Empire with its capital at Rome. The Eastern Roman Empire embraced Christianity, which had a negative impact both on the Greek and the Roman civilizations. The Western medieval ages, which marks -a period of decline in the West, begin nearly about this time (the division of the Roman empire into the Eastern and the Western).

After the conversion of the Eastern Roman Empire to Christianity, which considered the teaching of sciences and philosophy to be against the tenets of the Christian faith -and regarded scholars and philosophers as heathen and heretics who also misled others, the school of Alexandria fell under the shadow of Christianity. Once again, after the earlier attack of Caesar (48 B .C.), this library began to be subject to repeated plunder, attacks and conflagrations.

Constantine I is the first emperor of Eastern Rome who converted to Christianity. Justinian, his descendent in the sixth century C.E. officially closed down the academy of Athens. The school of Alexandria had been closed down or had undergone dissolution earlier in the fourth century C.E. The closure of the Athenian school took place in 529 C.E., that is forty-one years before the birth of the Prophet (s) of Islam, eighty-one years before his mission started, ninety-four years before his migration to Madinah, and one hundred and five years before his death, and one hundred twenty and odd years before the conquest of Alexandria by Muslims.

From what has been said it is clear that this library was established by polytheists and was destroyed by Christians. However, after the crusades, which continued for two hundred years (5thAlth and 6th/12th centuries), the Christians, on the one hand, became acquainted with the Islamic culture and civilization, which enlightened them, and, on the other, as a result of their final defeat by Muslims they nursed a strong enmity against Muslims in their hearts and launched a war of nerves against them.

They concocted and spread so many rumours against Islam, the Qur'an, the Pophet (s) and Muslims that it comes as an embarrassment to modem civilized Christians, and we see that some of them have written books in "apology to Muhammad (s) and the Quran" to compensate for the lapses of the past. [34] The book burnings attributed to Muslims are among these rumours which have occasionally been repeated by unsuspecting Muslim writers since the 7th/13th century with such words as "It is said" or "It is related that," without knowing that the story was one fabricated by Christian crusaders with the motive to malign Muslims.

During the last century when Western colonialism came to give top priority in its programme to instigating the national sentiments of Muslims against Islam and Muslims of the early era, the likes of Pur Dawud gave it the shape of a historical incident by giving prominence to such reports as that of Abd al-Latif, and it was taught as genuine history to the students-of Iranian schools and universities.

So far we have examined the report of Abd al-Latif: Let us now turn our attention to the statements of Abu Al-Faraj ibn al-`Ibri.

Abu al-Faraj was a Jewish physician, born at Malatya (Asia Minor) in 623/1226. His father had renounced the Jewish faith and embraced Christianity. Abu al-Faraj's education started with learning the tenets of Christianity. He was well-acquainted with Syriac and Arabic, and compiled a detailed history in Syriac based upon Syriac, Arabic and Greek sources. In that history there is no mention of any book burning by Muslims in Alexandria. He also prepared a condensed version of it in Arabic under the title Mukhtasar al-duwal. It is said that all its manuscripts are incomplete and defective. The strange part of it is that though it is a condensation of his detailed history in Syriac, it contains certain things that do not exist in the original Syriac history, and among these is the story of the book burning of Alexandria by Muslims.

Mukhtasar al-duwal was edited and published by Pocock, a professor at Oxford and one of those who have played an active role in spreading lies against Muslims. He also translated this book into Latin. Since then through this book and this man the false story of the Muslims' book burning of the library of Alexandria was circulated in Europe until it was refuted in recent centuries by European scholars like Gibbon, Krale (?), Gustav Lebon and others. [35]

The story of the book burning is narrated in Mukhtasar al-duwal in the following form:

In those days Yahya al-Nahwi, who was known as Grammaticus in our language, enjoyed fame among Arabs. He was a resident of Alexandria and a Jacobite Christian who ascribed to the Savari (?) creed. In his last days he renounced the Christian faith, and all Christian scholars of Egypt gathered around him and advised him to recant, but he did not. When the scholars were disappointed they stripped him of all the offices that he held. He lived in that condition until Amr ibn al As (the Muslim commander of the army conquering Egypt) entered Egypt.

One day Yahya went to see him. Amr came to know about his learning and scholarship and he paid him great respect. He began a discourse on philosophical issues which were unknown to Arabs: His speech made a deep impression on Amr and he became fond of him. As Amr was an intelligent, wise and thoughtful man, he made Yahyaa his companion, never parting his company.

One day Yahya said to Amr, "Whatever there is in Alexandria is in your control. As to things that are useful for you we have nothing to do with them, but as to those which you may not need, my request is that you favour us by putting them at our disposal, for we deserve them more than anyone else." Amr asked him what they were. He said: "They are the books on wisdom and philosophy that are stored in the state library"

Amr replied that he could not decide the matter himself but had to seek the Caliph's instructions in this regard. Accordingly, he informed the Caliph of the matter and asked for instructions. The Caliph wrote: "If those books are in agreement with the Quran, we have no need of than; and if these are opposed to the Quran, destroy them."

After receiving the reply Amr began dismantling the library. At his orders, the books were distributed among the public baths of Alexandria. Thus in a period of complete six months all the books were burnt and destroyed. Believe it, and do not be amazed. [36]

I am sorry that with or without amazement one cannot accept this counsel and suggestion of Abu al-Faraj (if it was really he who has given this account) or that of Prof Pocock. Aside from what we have already said in refutation of Abd al-Latif's statements that a historical narration devoid of a source and authority is not acceptable on any account, especially if the narration lacking source or document surfaces for the first time six hundred years after the alleged event, without anyone else having reported it earlier; even without a source or authority-in the view of researchers it has been established that basically there had remained nothing of the library of Alexandria at the time of the Muslim conquest of the city and therefore the story is totally baseless. In addition there are some points that may be mentioned as evidence of its falsehood.

Firstly, the main character of the story is Yahya al-Nahwi, the famous philosopher; who, according to recently uncovered evidence, had died about a hundred years, before the conquest of Alexandria, and his meeting with Amr is a fiction. [37] It is strange that although Shibli Nu`mani writes that he was one of the seven scholars who migrated to Iran from the Roman empire due to Justinian's persecution- and they were well received by Khusro Anushirvan, yet he has affirmed the very story of Yahya's meeting with Amr. He has failed to notice that there was a gap of more than one hundred and twenty years between the migration of the philosophers from Alexandria and the city's fall to Muslims. Normally, it is not possible that Yahya who was a renowned thinker about 120 years before the conquest of Alexandria should have lived on until those times to become an intimate companion of Amr. On this ground the reports that mention Yahya's meeting with Amr are baseless, even though they may not make any reference to the library.

Abu al-Faraj's report concerning Yahya's meeting with Amr falls in the category of Abd al-Latif's story of Aristotle's lecturing at Alexandria. The fabricators of these stories did not pay attention to their consistency with historical facts.

Secondly, it is stated in the story that after the order came from the Caliph to destroy the books, Amr had them distributed among the baths of Alexandria, and that these made the fuel for the baths for six months. At that time Alexandria was one of the largest cities of Egypt and one of world' biggest cities. Amr himself, in a report sent to the Caliph concerning the city, writes with much wonder:

In this city there are four thousand baths, four thousand edifices, forty thousand Jews who pay the jizyah, four hundred public places of amusement, twelve thousand grocers who sell fresh vegetables.

From this we are to suppose that these books formed heating fuel for four thousand baths for six months, which means that there were so many of them that they could serve as heating fuel for one bath for seven hundred thousand days, or two thousand years. What is more astonishing is that according to Abu al-Faraj's account all of them were on philosophy and not on any other subject.

Now it is good to think over this matter for a while. Have there ever existed so many books on philosophy since the dawn of civilization till this day when the printing industry has been active for centuries and is producing books at a stupendous rate to make fuel of four thousand hot baths for six months? Moreover, what might have the dimensions of a library that could accommodate so many books?

The books were not kept in piles like grain or straw, but were arranged in an orderly manner on shelves, for they were used by people. Hence a report by a Christian priest of the fourth century C.E., who was sent to the city by the emperor with the task of destroying the library, states: "At that time I found bookshelves entirely empty of books." [38] Not a hall that was seen by Abd al-Latif, not even the area of a city could accommodate such a library.

Nowadays there exist in the world, and especially in the United States and the Soviet Union, very large libraries and this is due to the advancements made in printing technology and other facilities unprecedented in human history. At the same time, there exist today large cities that had no parallel in human history. I do not believe there exists in any modem city even today any library big enough to serve as heating fuel for all its baths for six months.

All these points indicate the fictitious character of the story whose likes may be found only in the world of fiction. It is said that someone once made exaggerated claims about the largeness of the city of Herat in former days. He said, `There was a time when Herat was an extraordinarily large city.' `How large?' he was asked. He said, `At one time there were in Herat twenty-one thousand one-eyed cooks named Ahmad selling head and totters stew' Now imagine, how many men there must have been in that city, as all of them were not named Ahmad and all those who were named Ahmad were not one-eyed and all the one-eyed Ahmads were not cooks that made head and totters stew, Hence if only the number of one-eyed Ahmads who cooked heads and totters stew was twenty-one thousand, just imagine how many other people there must have been? The entire earth would hardly suffice to accommodate the population of Herat!.

The story narrated by Abu al-Faraj is like the story of one-eyed cooks named Ahmad who sold heads and totters stew. Hence, the contributors of an English encyclopedia, as mentioned by Shibli Nu`mani, have considered the story of Abu al-Faraj as belonging to humorous literature.

Thirdly, As Shibli Nu`mani and some Western scholars have written, in those days books were made of parchment which was unsuitable for the purpose of fuel and hence it was absurd to use them for that purpose. Shibli Nu`mani cites a writer Monsieur Der Pierre (?) as having stated: "We are certain that those who ran the baths of Alexandria would not have used books written on parchment as long as other kinds of fuel were available, and what is significant is that most of the books were made of parchment." [39]

Fourthly, if there had been such a library in Alexandria, Amr would have definitely mentioned it in his report to the Caliph concerning the city, which is recorded in histories. In that report he mentions theatres and public places of amusement and groceries, but does not mention anything about any library.

Fifthly, Alexandria concluded a peace treaty with Muslims after its conquest by Amr ibn al-`As, and its people were considered dhimmis treated in accordance with the rules of a dhimmah pact. Accordingly, their lives and properties, honour, and even their places of worship and freedom of religion had the protection of law and the Islamic government was obliged to safeguard them. In his treaty with the people of Egypt Amr ibn al-As wrote: "This is a pact of amnesty vowed by Amr, promising the people of Egypt the security of their lives, properties, houses and all their other matters." As cited in the Mujam al-buldan it is explicit that `The lands of Egyptian people, their properties and capital all belong to them and nobody has any right to interfere with them.' [40]

In general, we know that the behaviour of Muslims vis-a-vis the People of the Book (Ahl al-Kitab) followed a set pattern: they were brought under the dhimmah pact after the conquest of their territory, charged jizyah, and, in turn for the levy of jizyah, the Muslims were responsible for protection of their lives, property, honour and places of worship. The same modus operandi was followed in Alexandria also. Had Abu al-Faraj written in his history that during the conquest of Alexandria the Muslims had done such a thing before concluding the peace treaty, it might have been acceptable to some extent. But his report states that this incident took place long after the fall of Alexandria as a consequence of Yahya al-Nahwi's conversation with Amr. It is contrary to the general conduct and character of the Muslims to have committed such an act after the conclusion of the peace treaty.

Sixthly, what we know about the characters of Amr and `Umar does not conform to this description. So far as Amr is concerned, he was a shrewd man of an independent temperament. If he had any plans in any matter; somehow or another he was capable of convincing `Umar to accept it. The histories write that `Umar was not much keen to conquer Egypt, but Amr al-As made him yield to his views, to the extent that, as recorded, 'Umar's permission had arrived. Had the case been as stated in the narration, that Amr was so much impressed by the wisdom and learning of Yahya al-Nahwi that had made the latter his permanent companion and intimate friend, in his letter to `Umar he would have taken care to report the matter in such a way as to preserve the library sought after by his philosopher friend. It was not his type to simply seek the Caliph's permission and to carry out his instructions as soon as he received them without writing to him a second time and to set fire to books that were dearer to his scholarly friend than his own life.

Apart from this, Amr's conduct after conquering Egypt was that of a man who was interested in reform, development, and the welfare of the people, and not that of a tyrant and oppressor such as Qutaybah ibn Muslim.

Will Durant writes:

Amr administered Egypt competently. Part of the oppressive taxation financed the repair of canals and dikes, and the reopening of an eighty mile canal between the Nile and the Red Sea; [41] ships could now sail from the Mediterranean into the Indian Ocean (This canal was again choked with sand in 732, and was abandoned.) [42]

A person whose social awareness was so high could not believably have set fire to a library.

As for `Umar, though he may have had a harsh character, but no one can doubt his shrewdness and farsightedness. In order to avoid taking full responsibility on his person and also to make use of others' ideas he always consulted others concerning important issues, and particularly in the matter of his foreign policy he would hold consultations with others as is recorded in books of history. Two such instances are referred to in the Nahj al-balagah. One does not find in any history that 'Umar ever held a consultative session or sought counsel from anyone concerning the library of Alexandria. It is improbable that he might have taken this decision without holding any council. Besides, had he been of the view that there was no need of any book except the Qur'an, he should have also believed that there was no need of any place of worship other than mosques. If so, why did he tolerate the existence of churches and synagogues and even fire-temples in his treaties and pacts, even considering their protection and security as the duty of the Islamic government in return for the provisions of dhimmah?

Seventhly, if supposedly Amr did issue such an order, how one can one believe that the Christians and Jews of Alexandria received the books, which were the products of their culture and history, as fuel and burnt them without showing any reaction and without even making any attempt to save some of them by hiding them away secretly?

As for al-Qifti's report, it is the same as the story narrated by Abu al-Faraj and all objections to which Abu al-Faraj's report is open apply also to his report. As Abu al- Faraj did not mention this story in his detailed history written in Syriac but in the Mukhtasar al-duwal, its summary in Arabic, it is similarly amazing that al-Qifti too does not make any mention of this strange incident in his history of Egypt, [43] but in his book Ikhbar al- `ulama' bi akhbar al-hukama', which gives biographical accounts of philosophers. He has narrated this story under the account of Yahya al-Nahwi without referring to any source. In al-Qifti's story also, Yahya al-Nahwi is one of the two main characters of the incident, and all the books burnt were in philosophy and hikmah and made fuel for four thousand baths for six months.

Al-Qifti claims that Yahya al-Nahwi was a sailor in the early period of his life. At the age of forty-five he was captivated by the love of knowledge and became a philosopher as well as physician and writer. He also attained to the bishopric of Alexandria.

There is, however, some ambiguity about Yahya al-Nahwi in history.

What is certain is that there was a philosopher and bishop by this name in the pre-Islamic period who wrote a refutation of Proclus and Aristotle and a book in defence of the tenets of Christianity. Ibn Sina, in his well known letter to Abu Rahyan al-Biruni, has accused him of being insincere in his writings, alleging that his purpose thereby was to deceive Christians. On the other hand, Ibn al-Nadim, in al-Fihrist, mentions him and his meeting with Amr ibn al-`As without mentioning the library of Alexandria. In his book ,Sawan al-hikmah, Abu Sulayman al-Mantiqi writes that he was seen in the period of `Uthman and Mu`awiyah. Hence either the reports of Ibn al-Nadim and Abu Sulayman are baseless or the man known as Yahya in the age of Amr ibn al-`As and Mu awiyah was someone other than the one who wrote many commentaries on the works of Aristotle and other thinkers and was the bishop of Alexandria. It is not improbable that in inventing this story its fabricators made use of the mention of Yahya al-Nahwi in the works of Ibn al-Nadim and Abu Sulayman. However, it is definite that Yahya al-Nahwi the philosopher, physician and commentator of the works of Aristotle and the famous bishop of Alexandria was not alive during the times of Amr ibn al-`As and Mu`awiyah.

As to Hajji Khalifah, he belongs to a much later period and lived in the 11th/18th century. He was a bibliographer and not a historian. His famous work Kashf al-zunun is a bibliography and a valuable work in the field. The statement cited from him consists of two parts: Firstly, he remarks that in the early period of Islam the Arabs were interested in three disciplines, language, laws of the Shari`ah, and medicine, of which they had some knowledge from earlier days and which was needed by them. But they did not study other subjects, for they did not want alien sciences to spread among the people before the foundations of Islam were strengthened.

This far the statement of Hajji Khalifah is correct. We shall deal with the beginning and development of sciences in Islam in the next part of our book relating to contribution of Iran to Islam. The Islamic sciences began to develop with qira'ah, fiqh and grammar (of Arabic), and in the first phase no attention was paid to mathematics and philosophical or natural sciences, which drew the attention of Muslims only gradually. The second part of Hajji Khalifah's statement is as follows: ""It is even said that at the time of conquering cities, the Arabs burnt all books that fell in their hands."

We see that though Hajji Khalifah is not a historian, yet he observes the care taken by the narrators of traditions in his remark. He does not say that Arabs burnt books on conquering cities, which might have been taken as his opinion and assertion in this regard. He says, "It is said that . . ." which indicates that such a thing was commonly said in the time of Hajji Khalifah during the 11th/7th century. For four centuries this story had been on lips, naturally gaining greater currency with every century that passed. It is like our own saying today that it is said, and very often, that the Muslims of the early era burnt books wherever they found them. If today we say these words we do not tell a lie, for we have seen that it started since the time of Abd al- Latif, Abu al-Faraj and al-Qifti.

Hence, not only Hajji Khalifah does not refer to any source and authority but also does not add anything new to the rumour current in his days, and he reports the matter in a manner that suggests his uncertainty regarding it.

Following Abd al-Latif, others repeated his words in their books. As we know that they reproduce Abd al-Latif's statements, they need not be discussed and examined. For instance, al-Maqrizi in al-Khitat, his history of Egypt, while giving as a historian the account of the conquest of Alexandria, does not mention the incident of book burning, but when he describes the Amud al-Sawari (Abd al-Latif's famous statements also occur under its description) he merely repeats Abd al-Latif's statements word by word. This is in itself an indication that al-Maqrizi did not give the slightest credence to this story, otherwise he would have referred to .it in his account of the fall of Alexandria introducing it at least with the words "it is said that . . . ."

Now it is the turn of Ibn Khaldun's statements concerning the book burning in Iran to be critically examined. If we do not refer to the original passage in Ibn Khaldun's history and believe the words of Pur Dawud cited by Dr. Muin, we might say that Ibn Khaldun's statement cannot be compared to that of Abd al-Latif, who was a physician and wanted to write an account of his travels, or that of Abu al-Faraj, who was also a physician, or that of Hajji Khalifah, a bibliographer, or even with that of al-Qifti, the compiler of a history of philosophers. For Ibn Khaldun was a historian and author of a general history. Hence, if he expresses his view in a definite and conclusive manner on some matter even without referring to any source, one might believe that he had some authority or source.

However, Ibn Khaldun also does not express any opinion. He mentions the matter in passive voice with the words "wa laqad yuqalu" (And it has been said. . .). Moreover, he has prefaced his statement with another assertion that weakens the matter further. After stating his general principle of sociology (which is not accepted by others), which states that with the expansion of a state and its population and prosperity rational sciences also spread and develop automatically, he infers that in Iran where the state and prosperity had expanded greatly it is impossible that rational sciences should not have been highly developed. Thereafter, he states, "It is said that these sciences reached Greece from the Persians, when Alexander killed Darius and conquered Persia, getting access to innumerable books and sciences developed by them. And when Iran was conquered (by Muslims) and books were found there in abundance, Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas wrote to `Umar . . . ."

As we know no history has recorded that Alexander carried away books from Iran after his conquest of the country and that it was thus that the Greek were introduced to new sciences. This claim is baseless. Pur Dawud has committed an act of deception here by not mentioning that Ibn Khaldun's statements begin with the phrase "It is said that" and also deleting the fictitious story of the transfer of books and sciences from Iran to Greece. And after these significant omissions he goes on to draw conclusions from them.

The rumour referred to Ibn Khaldun [concerning book burning in Iran] has apparently a different source from that of the rumour relating to the book burning in Alexandria. The former was fabricated by Christians with the purpose of shifting the blame of burning books to Muslim. But the source of the rumour referred to by Ibn Khaldan were apparently the Shu`ubiyyah. The slogan of the Shu`ubiyyah was, `All genius belongs exclusively to Iranians," and perhaps it may be inferred from Ibn Khaldun's remarks that they wanted to claim that all Greek sciences were borrowed from Iran. We know that Alexander attacked Iran in the age of Aristotle, when the Greek civilization and culture was at its peak. Another point to be noted is that the statements of Ibn Khaldun referred to so far are made in his Muqaddimah, which is a philosophical and sociological work. We have not come across anyone who might have cited these remarks from his history itself, al-'Ibar wa diwdn al-mubtada' wa al-khabar. Had Ibn Khaldun believed in its historical value, he would have cited this story in his history. Unfortunately I do not have access to the history of Ibn Khaldun at present, but I am sure that had there been a mention of this story in it, it is very improbable that the protagonists would have remained unaware of it. They would not have referred to the Muqaddimah instead of the history itself. One should refer to Ibn Khaldun's history in this regard.

As for the library of Alexandria, in addition to the absence of any source and the narrators' reporting the story in passive voice which discloses their own uncertainty about the report, there are certain external evidences of the story's false character, including the historical reports that the said library had ceased to exist centuries before the advent of Islam. There is also some external evidence concerning the book burning in Iran. First of all, basically no history has reported the existence of a library in Iran, as against the case of the library of Alexandria, whose existence between the period extending from the 3rd century B.C. to 4th century C.E. is historically established. Had there been libraries in Iran whose burning had not been recorded, their very existence at least should have been reported somewhere, especially considering that the incidents and events of the history of Iran were recorded in Islamic histories by Arabs as well as Iranians in greater details than about any other country.

Secondly, there appeared a certain movement among the Iranians which requires that if such an event had taken place it would- have been definitely recorded and projected with great fanfare. This was the movement of the Shu`ubiyyah. The Shu`ubiyyah was originally a sacred Islamic movement directed at the pursuit of justice and against discrimination. But later it changed into a racist, anti-Arab movement. The Iranian Shu`ubis wrote books dedicated to the vices (mathalib) of the Arabs, highlighting and publicizing with much hue and cry every weakness of the Arabs that they could find. They would scan the pages of history to search out the details concerning Arabs and would not overlook anything.

Had there been such a major weak point in Arab history, that they had set fire to libraries, particularly a library in Iran, it was impossible that the Shu`uiyyah should have failed to mention this matter, for the Shu`ubiyyah attained the zenith of their influence in the 2nd/8th century with the full support of the Abbasid who pursued an anti-Umayyad and anti-Arab policy due to political expediency and publicized their weak points making a mountain out of a mole hill. This is itself a definite proof of the fictitious character of the story of book burning in Iran.

Our discussion of the issue of book burning in Iran and Alexandria concludes here. To sum it up, it should be said that until the 7th/13th century, for six centuries after the conquest of Iran and Egypt, no mention was ever made in any Muslim or non-Muslim source of any such book burning by Muslims. For the first time, the issue was raised in the 7th/13th century, and even then those who raised it did not cite any source or foundation, and hence such reports are not reliable. Had these reports possessed no other shortcoming except this one, it was sufficient to undermine their credibility.

Moreover, with the exception of Abu al-Faraj and al-Qifti all have referred to it as a rumour current among the people and not as an incident that may have occurred. According to the rules of narration and historical reporting, if instead of reporting an incident a historian refers to it as something rumoured, that is, if instead of stating that such and such an incident has occurred says "it is said that such and such an incident has occurred" it indicates that the narrator himself is uncertain of its occurrence.

In addition, all the 7th/13th century reports which form the basis of all other reports-that is the reports of Abd al-Latif, Abu al-Faraj and al-Qifti-contain definitely false statements which establish their unreliability.

Besides, there is external evidence in regard to the reported incidents, both relating to Iran and Alexandria, which undermines the credibility of these reports, even if, supposedly, these reports had been free from the shortcomings of historical reporting and inner content.

Possibly, it may occur to the mind of the respected reader that I have prolonged my discourse on this issue more than was required and carried my criticism to an excessive degree, that this summary given here at the end would have sufficed, at the most with some additional details.

I agree that if the issue of these book burnings were only a matter relating to some historical event pertaining to mere historical research it would not have required these details. But the respected reader will note that this story has crossed the limits of historical research and has been used as a weapon of propaganda. For impartial scholars, both Muslims and non-Muslim, the baselessness of this story is definite, but the groups who want to exploit these stories for their vested interests make use of it in various ways for propaganda purposes. The story of book burnings in Iran and Alexandria has gradually assumed the form of a strategy for attacking Islam.

Shibli Nu`mani, in his booklet on the topic of the library of Alexandria, writes:

European scholars of renown, such as Gibbon, Carlyle, Hector, Renan, Siedlu (?) and others have considered most of the vain stories prevalent in Europe concerning Islam and Muslims as baseless and have expressly rejected them. But in popular writings and traditions they have not lost their popularity. It is to be noted that the story of the burning of the library of Alexandria is one of such popular rumours. It is truly amazing how Europe has propagated this issue giving it a strange and terrible form. Books on history, fiction, religion, logic, philosophy and other subjects-none have been free from this propaganda (in order to establish it as a fact in the minds of the people, with some pretext or another, this story has been inserted in all kinds of books, including even books on logic and philosophy). So much so that once in an annual examination of the Calcutta University in India (which was under the control of the Britishers) in the question paper on logic, which was printed in thousands a question was framed asking students to resolve the following fallacy: "If books are in agreement with the Qur'an, they are not needed. If they are not in agreement with the Qur'an, burn them." [44]

Thereafter, Shibli Nu`mani poses this question: What policy is behind all this? Is it on account of regret for the books that were lost, or is there some other motive involved? If that which is involved is concern and regret for books, why is this concern not expressed in relation to definite and much more terrible occurrences of book burnings at the hands of Christians in their conquest of Spain and during the crusades?

Shibli himself answers the question, remarking that the real cause lies in the fact that the Christians themselves had destroyed that library before the advent of Islam, and now they try to impress on the people that Muslims destroyed that library. The real motive is to hide their own guilt.

The reason mentioned by Shibli is only one of the reasons, that too applies only to the library of Alexandria. There are other causes at the work in this regard, and the main one is imperialism. Political imperialism can succeed only when cultural imperialism has succeeded. The essential condition for the success of cultural imperialism is to shake a people's faith in their own culture and history. Imperialism has found out the truth and tested it that it is Islam which is the source of the culture relied upon by Muslims and it is the ideology they are proud of. All other things are mere words that never go beyond the walls of conference halls, festivals and seminars and do not influence the minds on the masses. Hence the Muslim masses are to be brain-washed so that they lose their faith and conviction in their ideology and culture and are prepared to be moulded according to the Western pattern.

What is a better way of making a people lose faith in their culture and ideology and their standard bearers than impressing it upon the minds of the young generations that the figures whom they consider to be the emancipators of humanity and leaders on the path of felicity, who invaded other countries in the name of human liberation and overthrew the ruling regimes, themselves committed the most barbaric acts? And here was one example of it. Accordingly, the respected reader should not wonder why for setting a question concerning the resolution of a logical fallacy the examiner of the annual examination of the Calcutta University, which was under the control of the Britishers, could find no example or material other than the fictitious story of the book burning. Similarly, an Iranian writer compiling a book on elements of logic for the sixth year of higher secondary schools, a text of which tens of thousands of copies are printed and placed in the hands of unwary and simple-minded Iranian students, could not, while discussing the exceptional syllogism, and despite straining his mind, find any example other than the one that occurred to the English paper setters of Calcutta University and he was compelled to pose the issue in these words: "It is possible that the exceptional syllogism may simultaneously be both disjunctive and conjunctive, that is, a compound syllogism. The example of such a type of syllogism is the famous statement attributed to an Arab leader. When he wanted to rationalize and justify his act of setting fire to the Sassanian library, he argued in the following manner: `These books are either in agreement with the Qur'an, or are contradictory to it. If they are in agreement with the Qur'an, there existence is superfluous. Also , if they are contradictory to the Qur'an, their existence is harmful and superfluous. Therefore, in both the cases the books should be burnt." [45]

Several years ago I spoke in the Husayniyyeh Irshad on the topic of the book burning in Alexandria, making its baselessness plain. I remember well that after my lectures I received a letter from some sanctimonious person. He had written: "Why should you bother to prove this story as false? Even if it is false, let the people believe it, for it serves the purpose of propaganda against `Umar ibn Khattab and Amr ibn al-`As!"

This sanctimonious man had imagined all that fuss and clamour that was raised from Europe to India, the books that were written and the novels that were composed on this theme, which was inserted into question papers and books of logic and philosophy-all these were inspired by sentiments against `Umar or Amr ibn al-`As, or with the motive of seeking nearness to God, and to serve the cause of the Shi`ah and humiliate the opponents of Amir al-Mu'minin Ali ( `a)! This kind of people do not realize that in the mental climate in which these matters are raised that which is at stake is Islam. They do not know that in the present world the most effective weapon against a faith and a religion is not theological debating or arguments based on logic. The strongest weapon in favour of or against a faith or creed in our age is the manner in which the followers of that faith have encountered the manifestations of culture and civilization in the course of their history.

[1]. Majalleh ye Tandrust, year 24, no. 2.

[2]. Al-Jahiz, Kitab al-mahasin wa al-addad, p. 4.

[3]. Tamaddun-a Irani, Persian trans. by Dr. Behnam. p. 187

[4]. Dr. Win was alive and suffering from paralysis at the time of the compilation of the present book (1349 H. Sh./1969-70), and now that this chapter on book burning is being appended to this book (1357 H. Sh.) it is seven years that he has passed away May God forgive him.

[5]. Tajalliyyat-e Irani, pp. 36-37.

[6]. Dr. Suratgar, Ta'rikh-e adabiyyat (Intisharat-a Mu'assaseh-ye Wa'z, wa Khitabeh), p.10

[7]. Pur Dawud, Yashtha, vol. ii, p. 20

[8]. Ibid., vol. ii, pp. 21-23; cf. Muhammad Qazwini.

[9]. Al-Biruni, al-Athar al-baqiyah (Lieden), p. 30

[10]. See Murtada Mutahhari, Payambar-e Ummi.

[11]. This is a reference to the opening verse of the Surat al-Qalam which reads: "Nun. By the Pen, and what they write!" (68:1)

[12]. A reference to the opening verse of Surat al- A1aq which reads: "Read, in the Name of thy Lord who created; created Man from a clinging mass. Read, and thy Lord is the Most Generous, who taught by the Pen, taught Man what he knew not." (96:1-5)

[13]. Mujtaba Minawi, "Barrasiha-yi dar bareh-ye Abu Rayhan-a Biruni," Nashriyyeh Danishkadeh Ilahiyyat wa ma'arif-a Islami.

[14]. Dr Zarrinkub, Karnameh-ye Islam, p. 36. He considers the story as such to be dubious.

[15]. Christensen, L'lran sous les Sassanides, Persian trans. Iran dar zaman-e Sdsaniyan, p. 86

[16]. Ahmad Amin, Duha al-Islam, vol. i, p. 64

[17]. Browne, E. G., A Literary History of Persia, vol. i, p. 12; cf., Pesian trans. By Ali Pasha Salih, vol. i, p. 510; cf., Dawlatshah Samarqandi, Tadhkirah.

[18]. Jurji Zaydan, Ta'rikh-e tammadun-e Islami, Persian trans.vol. iii, p. 65; Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim Ayati, Ta'rikh-e Andalus.

[19]. Jurji Zaydan, Ta'rikh-e tammadun-a Islami, Persian trans.vol. iii, p. 65.

[20]. Will Durant, A Story of Civilization, Pesian trans., vol. xi, 224.

[21]. Jurji Zayadan, op.cit., iii, 66.

[22]. Will Durant, op. cit., xi 315

[23]. Christensen, op. cit., p. 385; Tamaddun-e Irani, by a group of Orientalists.

[24]. Ibn al-Nad-un, al-Fihrist (Cairo), p. 351.

[25]. Ibid., p. 386.

[26] George Sorten, History of Science, Persian trans. by Ahmad Aram, Ta'rikh-e 'Ilm, p. 271.

[27] Ibid.

[28]. Dr. Dhabih Allah Safa, Ta'rikh-e 'ulum-e 'aqli dar Islam, p. 32; Jurji Zaydan, op. cit. iii, pp. 54-55.

[29]. Shibli Nu'mani, Fath-e Iskandariyyah, p. 28. According to Shibli, al-Baghdadi completed this book in 603/1206-7. [30]. Or rather about six centuries.

[31]. Will Durant, op.cit., vol. xi, 219.

[32]. The library of Alexandria was established by those who are considered to be polytheists.

[33]. Jurji Zaydan, Ta'rikh-e tamadun-e- Islam wa Arab, Persian traps. (4th ed.), pp. 263-265.

[34]. Devanport's book bearing the same title (An Apology to Mohammad) was translated into Persian by Ghulam Rida Sa'idi. In that book (p. 22) Devanport mentions the story of book burning at Alexandria and rejects it in strong terms.

[35]. These details are cited from Shibli Nu'mani's Kitabkhaneh yi Iskandariyyah, Persian trans. by Fakhr-e Da`i, pp. 14-15, 38.

[36]. Ibid., pp. 16-18.

[37]. Amazing is what Dr. Dhabih Allah Safa writes,, in Tarikh-e 'ulum-a 'aqli dar Islam, p. 6. He says: "Yahya Nahwi was one of the eminent figures of the Alexandrian school during the last decades of the 5th and the first half of the 6th centuries C.E." (one hundred years before the Prophet's hijrah). Again on page 18 of the same book he says: "It is said that he was alive until the conquest of Egypt by `Amr ibn al-`As (641 C.E.). But according to historical evidence lie was one of the figures of the last decades of the 5th and the first half of the 6th century C.E., and his being alive till this time is contrary to reason and the normal course of nature."

Nevertheless, he has reproduced a summary of the story whose main characters are Yahya Nahwi and Amr ibn al-`As, and cites it as an evidence of the book bun-Ling at Alexandria!

[38]. Shibli Nu'mani, op. cit., p. 50.

[39] Ibid., pp. 53-56.

[40] Ibid.

[41]. I am not certain, but apparently this waterway is the same that was opened again in recent times and is called the Suez Canal.

[42]. Will Durant, op., cit., vol. ii, p. 220.

[43]. Jurji Zaydan, Ta'rikh-e tamadun-e Islam, (Persian trans. vol. iii, p. 64.

[44]. Shibli Nu`mani, op. cit., p. 6.

[45]. Dr. Ali Akbar Siyasi, Mabani ye falsafeh, p. 256.

Israel threatens Iran with war

2008-07-10T22:06:00.003-07:00

Israel threatens Iran with war
Thu, 10 Jul 2008 22:52:30
Israeli war minister, Ehud Barak
Israel hints at a possible military strike to halt Iran's nuclear program, claiming that it is 'the strongest country' in the Mideast.

In a speech on Thursday, Israeli war minister, Ehud Barak said, "Israel has proved in the past it is not afraid to take action when its vital security interests are at stake."

His comment came after Iran successfully test-fired its new long and medium range missiles in the Persian Gulf during a maneuver aimed at improving its preparations against possible attack after recent war rhetoric by the US and Israel over Tehran's nuclear sites.

However, Barak did say that Israel currently favors the use of diplomatic pressure and sanctions against Iran's nuclear program.

Israel, believed to have around 200 atomic warheads, accuses Tehran of developing nuclear weapons. Under US pressure, the UN Security Council has intervened in Iran's nuclear case and has so far slapped three rounds of sanctions on Tehran.

Some 240 nuclear inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities, however, have resulted in the publication of the most recent UN nuclear watchdog report conceding that there is no link between the alleged 'study of weaponization' attributed to Tehran by Western countries.

Last month, in a speech in Washington, Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert also said that the Islamic Republic threat must be stopped by all possible means.

Why is Israel such a piece of shit? Maybe because they are evil?

Marine admits Fallujah murder on tape

2008-07-10T22:06:00.001-07:00

Marine admits Fallujah murder on tape
Fri, 11 Jul 2008 06:36:44
A US Marine sergeant accused of murdering an unarmed Iraqi captive during heavy fighting in Fallujah in 2004 was heard on tape as saying he "did one guy."

The recording played by military prosecutors was made when Sgt. Ryan Weemer, 25, was applying for a job with the US Secret Service.

In the interview, Weemer said he and other squad members killed four unarmed Iraqis they were holding in a boarded-up house because they didn't have time to take the men to a jail.

"We called up to the platoon leader and the response was, 'Are they dead yet?'" Weemer said on the tape.

"We didn't take any prisoners. ... They didn't have weapons. They were just sitting there," Weemer went on. "We argued about it, but we had to move, we had to get out, our unit's moving down the street. I did one guy and then ... I just left, went out to my team."

Weemer is charged with one count of murder and six counts of dereliction of duty encompassing failure to follow the rules of engagement in Fallujah and failing to follow standard operating procedures for apprehending or treating detainees or civilian prisoners of war.

He faces a life sentence in military prison and dishonorable discharge if he is convicted of murder, and up to six months' imprisonment for each dereliction count.

The killings on Nov. 9, 2004, came after the squad captured men they believed had been shooting at them from a house.

OPEC warns against strike on Iran

2008-07-10T22:05:00.001-07:00

OPEC warns against strike on Iran
Fri, 11 Jul 2008 09:24:25
OPEC Secretary-General Abdalla Salem el-Badri
The Secretary General of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries warns that an attack on Iran has 'unlimited' impact on oil prices.

“We really cannot replace Iran's production - it's not feasible to replace it,” Abdalla Salem el-Badri said in an interview on Thursday.

Iran is the fourth-largest world producer and the second-largest OPEC producer of oil which produces about 4.2 million barrels a day of the daily worldwide production of close to 87 million barrels.

This is the second time this month that the OPEC Chief warns that Iran's oil output would be difficult to replace if an attack took place on the Islamic Republic.

On July 3, the secretary general issued similar warning in an interview with the daily newsletter of the World Petroleum Congress.

The Israeli military exercise early in June, which was widely speculated as rehearsal for a potential strike on Iran's nuclear installations, has contributed to higher oil prices in recent weeks.

The concern over disruption of oil shipment from the Strait of Hormuz in case of any military action against Iran has caused oil prices to rise by $5.60, to $141.65 a barrel on Thursday.

The Strait of Hormuz is one of the most important waterways in the world helping passage of 2.9 billion tons of goods, oil being the most important among them.

El-Badri calls for the peaceful solution of Iranian nuclear enrichment activity which Iran repeatedly said is for generation of electricity.

“If something happened there, nobody would be able to solve it," the OPEC Chief said.

Italy: Mosques must recognize Israel

2008-07-10T22:04:00.001-07:00

Italy: Mosques must recognize Israel
Thu, 10 Jul 2008 23:06:16
Italy may take its discriminatory practices to a new level, calling for measures to make mosque leaders quit unless they recognize Israel.

Action must be taken so that mosque supervisors recognize Israel, said European Affairs Minister Andrea Rochi.

We must force those who do not recognize Israel to leave the mosques, he added, according to Italian news agency Il Tempo.

Criticism has been leveled at Italy as it has failed to end fingerprinting gypsies as part of a census program, despite a European Parliament (EP) recommendation to stop.

Many Muslims around the world do not recognize Israel, saying the United Nations had no right to allow the establishment of a state in a land that has long belonged to the Palestinians.

World powers (aka US/ISRAEL/UK), which have long suspected that Iran is intent on building nuclear weapons

2008-07-10T06:09:00.000-07:00

CNN reports that "World powers, which have long suspected that Iran is intent on building nuclear weapons, have offered economic and other incentives to Iran in exchange for the suspension of its enrichment program." The WORLD POWERS are only 3 nations consisting the new Triangle of Fascism...The Bush Regime, Britain and Israel. No other world powers think Iran is developing Nuclear Weapons...however they are forced to say that they think so in order to not get attacked themselves. Iran Test Fires Missiles...just like any other nation does, why is it assumed Iran WHICH HAS NOT BEEN IN AN OFFENSIVE WAR FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS...UNLIKE USA/UK/ISRAEL would care to use such an inhuman weapon, which has only been used by the USA? Also, Israel has 200 Nuclear Warheads...maybe it's because that the Bush Regime is filled with Traitors such as Chertoff and other Israeli Dual Citizens? I smell some serious bullshit. http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/07/10/missile.iran/index.html

IMPEACH BUSH BEFORE WWIII

2008-07-10T00:23:00.000-07:00

This is the time for real Americans....civilians, FBI, CIA, Military to stand up against the Right Wing Zionist Bush Regime before they fully destroy America with eternal War...or a World War Three. Attacking Afghanistan, Iraq, and now possibly Iran will start a chain reaction so big that we will never be able to control it again. America will cease being a superpower and will have to bow down to Chinese, Indian, and Russian rule. The Israelis are destroying America because they want to exist in the bastard way they have for 60 years. But as always...all artificial things come to an end. Israel is no exception. The world is changing, but the Zionists have not. They still believe it's 1939, but it is 2008. Times are different and people don't listen to that Zionist propoganda anymore. Gas Prices, economy, and job loss in addition to lives lost in Iraq have been mounting up and pissing people off. Americans are not happy with their government (Bush Regime) working for Israel. They flat out don't like it anymore...and they know that America will end if Israel get's it's way. Stop this insanity before it's too late...before you have the blood of 70 million innoccent Iranians on your hands.

ISRAEL'S FINGER HAS ALWAYS BEEN ON THE TRIGGER AND PULLING!

2008-07-10T00:21:00.000-07:00

What a load of bullshit spewing out Western Media Agencies working for Isreal. Iran's finger is on the trigger because they have not been in an offensive war for over hundreds of years...while Israel, US, and Britain have been in wars eternally and their fingers have always been on the trigger. ie. Hiroshima and Nagasaki!
What a load of rubbish: http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/07/09/iran.missiles/index.html

Another Iranian Traitors Website....(I will post every traitors website I see just to expose these vile filth)

2008-07-06T03:06:00.001-07:00

This is another website by an Iranian Traitor who really is not an Iranian anymore: farsiposts.blogspot.com filth like this need to be reminded that they are no longer Iranian and do not represent what Iranians want in Iran.

Website of Iranian Traitors: "regimechangeiran.blogspot.com"

2008-07-05T20:11:00.000-07:00

This is the website of IRANIAN TRAITORS AND EMPLOYEES OF ISRAEL: http://regimechangeiran.blogspot.com I spit on the lineage of these pieces of Pseudo-Iranian Trash that would make such false claims against Iran. I hope that every one of them is put on trial and executed for being the traitor they are. These Zionist sympathizers are human feces that do not deserve the title "Iranian". I hope their lineage gets some sort of vile cancer and dies off so we do not have to deal with these traitors in the future.

The Mujahedin Khalq Terrorists "MEK" (Used by the Israeli, British, and Bush Regime to destablize Iran)

2008-07-05T20:04:00.000-07:00

2008-05-12

Activity at Camp Ashraf - will Rajavi cult victims be rescued soon?

Iran-Interlink, May 9, 2008:...In these circumstances, as soon as the MKO is de-proscribed in the UK, the militants in Camp Ashraf must be given asylum there, so that they can continue what Maryam Rajavi describes as their peaceful opposition to the Iranian regime More ...

2008-05-11

Questions over American policy toward MEK in Iraq

by Massoud Khodabandeh, Iran-Interlink.org, May 11, 2008:...Ultimately, those who had the power but who have failed or been unable or refused to dismantle a tiny foreign terrorist camp and its military structure in Iraq – despite continued requests by the Iraqi government to do so - are responsible for whatever disaster befalls its victims there More ...

2008-05-07

Confessions of MKO Terrorists

The atrocities and crimes of Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, MEK, PMOI) set up one of the bloodiest chapters of Iranian history. Soon following the Iranian Islamic revolution, the organization started a phase of armed struggle in a bid to destabilize the newly formed regime and have its revenge of failing to assume a share in the power. As a result, MKO’s dedicated terrorist teams launched numerous blind suicide operations, bombings, gun-shot assassinations as well as street gun-battles in which many innocent civilians and key officials were killed. More ...

2008-05-07

Batool Soltani

Biography Batool Soltani, a member of leadership cadre of MKO, is the last separated female member of the organization in 2006. Her husband and she moved to Pakistan in 1986. There, they joined MKO and after one year moved to Iraq. Her daughter, Hajar, was born in Pakistan and Mi'ad, her son, was born four years later in Camp Ashraf. In 1991, in the phase of ideological compulsory divorces, she got divorce of her husband and then her 4-year-old daughter and 6-month old baby were sent to Europe. In this regard, she says: More ...

2008-05-07

UK support for Mojahedin Khalq (MKO MEK PMOI or Rajavi cult) promotes terrorism

Press TV, May 07, 2008:...Mojahedin Khalq Organization - known in Iran as Monafeqin or hypocrites - assisted Saddam in the massacre of thousands of innocent Iraqis, and has committed several terrorist acts in Iran More ...

2008-05-01

Nowruzi family plead for justice to the Iraqi judicial authorities against the MKO about the mysterious murder of late Said Nowruzi in camp Ashraf

Sahar Family Foundation, May 01, 2008:... Nowruzi sisters (Elham, Susan, Simin, and Soheyla) urge the Iraqi authorities to investigate on suspicious death of their brother in camp Ahsraf in Iraq More ...

2008-04-29

U.S.- Protected Iranian Exiles in Limbo in Iraq

Ms. BATUL SOLTANI (Former Member, MEK): (Through translator) The MEK leadership remains in control in the camp and we had no choice but to stay. We were under psychological and physical pressure. The U.S. does nothing inside Ashraf. They allow the MEK to terrorize the inmates. More ...

2008-04-27

IRANIAN conservatives have won a big majority in parliament after two rounds of elections, according to final results, but the chamber could still prove critical of controversial President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Australian IRANIAN conservatives have won a big majority in parliament after two rounds of elections, according to final results, but the chamber could still prove critical of controversial President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Conservatives won 69per cent of the seats, reformists 16per cent and independents more than 14per cent, Interior Minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi... More ...

2008-04-27

Iraqi MP urges solidarity with MEK

He said "American policymakers must transcend old ways of thinking, and not be so consumed by fears of potential terrorists that they end up sacrificing potential allies in the struggle against terrorism," Mutlaq writes in The Boston Globe Wednesday. "The Iraqi government is caving in to pressure from Iran to make life difficult for the MEK". Mutlaq, who is an advocate of MEK, warns the US that "the U.S. government should not fall into the trap of marginalizing the MEK to appease Iran and lose a vital source of intelligence and an ally for the promotion of democracy in the greater Middle East." More ...

2008-04-27

The EU Presidency and Terrorism

France is already preparing for its EU Presidency which is scheduled for July-December 2008. For sure, France has identified a number of key policy areas on which to focus when it assumes the presidency. The first issue that is of great importance for the country members of the EU is security and preventive measures against terrorism and its global threat, a responsibility all the countries have a share to fulfill. The first measure is to identify any group that may pose even a minimum of threat and the sensible precautionary measure is not to unleash those already under the control. More ...

2008-04-23

The List of Designated Terrorist Organizations Was Released (Rajavi cult failed again in its lobbying efforts)

Mojahedin ws, April 23, 2008:...Redesignation of MKO as a terrorist organization underlines the fact that the organization has failed in its lobbying efforts to convince its supporters in the Congress to reconsider its outlaw position. Reportedly, MKO has been engaged in unproductive intelligence collaboration with American forces in Iraq to ... More ...

2008-04-23

18 million Iraqis want Mojahedin Khalq (Rajavi cult) expelled: Iraqi MP

“The MKO have killed a thousand of our people,” Honein Qaddu, who is also the secretary general of the Iraqi Democratic Society, stated in a meeting with Mohammad Javad Hasheminejad, the secretary general of the Iranian Habilian Society. “Since their arrival in Iraq, the MKO began to serve Saddam. They are complicit in the mass murder of Iranian and Iraqi people, so the Iranian and Iraqi people have the right to call for expulsion (from Iraq),” Hasheminejad stated. Saddam Hussein assassinated some 3000 individuals from the big family of the Iraqi Democratic Society and leveled 23 of their villages, the Iraqi lawmaker said. More ...

2008-04-23

Rerepsentavie of Anjomane Solh in Oslo meets with Ms.Erika Man MEP

Oslo, Friday, 11.04.2008 -- Mr.Ghasem Ghezi, the representative of Anjomane Solh Norway along with his delegation met honourable member of European Parliament, Ms.Erika Man at the sideline of Peace Conference on South Asia recently held in Oslo, the capital of Norway. The purpose of the talks was to introduce the organization specially activities of the Anjoman with regard to human rights and secondly, explaining about disaffected people from Mojahedin Khalig (MOK) in Iraq. Mr.Ghasem Ghezi presented a document about the issue and urged for necessary assistance to the people More ...

2008-04-23

Repatriating after being paid by Mojahedin Khalq (Rajavi cult or MKO)!

I am insistent to leave “ they paid 1800 $,took my signature and receipt. I left Ashraf for Turkey where the defectors of the organization helped me be settled in Istanbul More ...

2008-04-17

Anjomane Solh Participates in the Peace Conference

The Conference organized by International Association of Human Values, was attended by a number of political and social personalities, parliamentarians, intellectuals, diplomats and media persons from the deferent European and third world countries. The seminar was focus on the peace and harmony in the south Asia and speakers of the event emphasized on peaceful solution of the conflicts in the region. Declaration of the seminar called for the arrangement of such seminars in the European and Asians countries for durable peace in the conflict regions. According to the organizers of the seminar, human rights activists from about 25 countries participated in the two days conference. More ...

2008-04-14

What is a Destructive Cults?

In essence a destructive cult is an authoritarian group that is headed by a person or group of people that has near-complete control. Charismatic cult leaders often make extreme claims of divine or “otherworldly” power to exercise influence over their members. Many legitimate religions have had powerful figures who have inspired enormous dedication in people. Being a powerful leader is not inherently wrong , though it carries a high potential for abuse. A group becomes destructive when its leader actively uses such power to deceive members and to rob them of their individuality and free will. For example, I was told to surrender my free will (viewed as Satanic) to God’s representative, Moon, and his subleaders. Marshall Applewhite told followers that an alien entity was speaking through him, and used his message to justify his absolute control over their lives. More ...

2008-04-13

Iran mosque blast kills 11 wounds almost 200

TEHRAN (AFP) - Eleven people were killed and at least 191 wounded when an explosion ripped through a packed mosque in Iran's southern city of Shiraz during prayers by a prominent cleric, officials said on Sunday. More ...

2008-04-13

An extract of Nazi Biglari s interview with Rayan Crocker American Ambassador in Bagdad

Nazi Biglari: there are two Iranian dissident groups in Iraq: Mujahedin-e-Khalq and the Kurds of Iraqi Kurdistan. Do the Americans have any links with these two? Rayan Crocker: we consider MKO as a terrorist group. They killed American military officials in Tehran and were a part of Saddam’s intelligence service. Everything is clear. We oppose all terrorist organizations whoever and wherever they are. Nazi Biglari: what will you do with the Mujahedin Khalq in Camp Ashraf? Jalal Talebani has called them terrorist group and said that their presence in Iraq is illegal. Rayan Crocker: this is a crucial question and we are negotiating the case with Iraqi administration. If they are supposed to leave Iraq, they should have a destination that should be designated. More ...

2008-04-10

Camp Ashraf Countdown by Anne Singleton

In a message issued in 2006, Mojahedin leader Massoud Rajavi set his cult members a deadline of January 2009 by which time he told them if the Mojahedin had not overthrown the Islamic Republic of Iran, then all the residents of Camp Ashraf would be free to stay or leave: “Anyone who wants may leave, and I will myself throw out all those who are worthless. I will keep the rest who are pure, and then, I will tell them what they can do for me”... Anne Singleton, April 10 2008 More ...

2008-04-09

Why the US granted protected status to Iranian terrorists

By Scott Peterson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor The US State Department officially considers a group of 3,800 Marxist Iranian rebels - who once killed several Americans and was supported by Saddam Hussein - "terrorists." But the same group, under American guard in an Iraqi camp, was just accorded a new status by the Pentagon: "protected persons" under the Geneva Convention. This strange twist, analysts say, underscores the divisions in Washington over US strategy in the Middle East and the war against terrorism. It's also a function of the swiftly deteriorating US-Iran dynamic, and a victory for US hawks who favor using the Mujahideen-e Khalq Organization (MKO) or "People's Holy Warriors," as a tool against Iran's clerical regime. More ...

2008-04-06

A New but Obsolete Message

At last, fifteen days after the beginning of Iranian New Year, Massoud Rajavi’s New Year message came out in Persian. Interestingly, a big bulk of his message is comprised of reports and official quotes published in Iranian papers and again, as he habitually repeats it in his similar messages, promised the forthcoming overthrow of the regime. More ...

2008-04-06

A group of Mojahedin Khalq (Rajavi cult) defectors arrived in France

BBC persian, April 06, 2008:... In the past months, groups of separated members have struggled to get to Western countries through neighboring countries. Many of them were arrested especially in Turkish borders and were returned to Iraq. Following Saddam’s fall, a big number of MKO’s members held within the Camp Ashraf against their will, found the opportunity to escape the cult and take refuge in an American-run temporary facility not properly accommodated for the huge number of defectors More ...

2008-04-04

Asghar Farzin, Reza Sadeghi, and Ali Biglary, former members of the MKO, plead for justice against the organisation to the Iraqi judicial authorities and urge them to deal with the situation in Ashraf camp

Sahar Foundation, Baghdad, April 04, 2008:... I Ali Biglari was born on 1969 in Kermanshah, Iran. During the Iran-Iraq war I was arrested by the Iraqi forces. On October 1989 the MKO people including Mehdi Abrishamchi came to the camp of the prisoners of war in Iraq and recruited me telling many lies and giving false promises. On the year 2000 I announced that I wanted to dispatch the organisation and consequently they put me in solitary confinement. The condition to get out of the jail was to announce that I regretted my previous request to leave the organisation. Eventually they handed me over to the Iraqi security forces and they took me strait to Abu-Ghraib prison under the charge of illegally passing the boarder More ...

2008-04-02

Results of US Invasion of Iraq

Iraq was occupied by the US-led troops from 20 March to first of May 2003. Five years have passed since the Bush administration launched the war on terror beginning with the campaign entitled "Operation Iraqi Freedom" to topple the Saddam regime in Iraq. Yet the panoramic picture of Iraq continues to remain in a sombre situation. The US was yet to reach its target to “disarm” Saddam Hussein’s regime of weapons of mass destruction in the fight against “terrorism”, but nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons were never found in Iraq after the military occupation. More ...

2008-04-02

Letter of Mr. Keyvan Radbin to the SFF

Mr. Radbin is a former member of the MKO. He managed to leave the Ashraf camp just after the occupation of the country. He lives in Canada now. The letter was originally in English which is as follows: I am Keyvan Radbin. I was born on Sep. 22-1971 in Tehran. I got familiar with MKO by their TV and Radio programs. I became their full-time sympathizer from 1999 to 2001 in Tehran and my activities contained social and advertising for the organization. I leaved Iran to Iraq from Turkey for joining to MKO on July 18-2001. I stayed in Turkey for around one month and then after explanation process by the organization's people in charge, I got moved to Iraq first to Basra port and then to Baghdad. After staying in Baghdad for half day I was moved to Ashraf camp. More ...

2008-04-02

Iran in the Headlines this Week

Barrages of rockets have recently been launched at the fortified "Green Zone" in Iraq. The green zone is the base of American troops in the country along with the headquarters for the current Iraqi government and US embassy. General David Petraeus, the most senior military office in Iraq, had stated the he believes that the rockets launched at the Green Zone in Iraq were Iranian made and supplied weaponry used by groups trained in Iranian Qods Forces, a branch of the Revolutionary guard. Petraeus accused the Iranian regime of violating promises made in the past to the Americans and Iraqis to prevent any attacks that could be contributed to certain Iranian elements. Iran has consistently denied any involvement and considers such accusations as pretexts designed to serve as pressure tactics against Iran. Meanwhile Iran has joined the US in Iraq, discussing ways they might utilize to enhance security in Iraq More ...

2008-04-01

Why Are the Cults at War with the Media 2

As stated, MKO considers advantages of the effectiveness of the media in its cult-like activities so important that it uses a number of methods to manipulate the media. The MKO-run media and websites quantitatively rise to a big number which, compared with the group’s insignificant political weight and modest structure, indicate they are means merely utilized to accomplish the cult’s objectives More ...

2008-03-27

Why Are the Cults at War with the Media 1

Cults are complex phenomenon in the modern world because of their dubious positions towards the media and the sophisticated communication technology. They, based on their natural potentiality, misuse the media and modern means for censure, persuasion, distortion, brainwashing and mind-control activities against their insiders and sympathizers. Cults show diverse and double reactions in their dealing with the media that draw substantial public attention to accomplish a variety of objectives. Besides, the media in any form play a key role in the formation of public opinion and thought, life-style, and even the depiction of a nation’s destiny. More ...

2008-03-26

Iran s national women soccer team prepares for Asian Cup

Payvand.com -- Iran's women national soccer team was only formed 2 years ago. However, during the short time they have been building the team, practicing and playing, they have become a force in Asia to be reckoned with. The team is now preparing for the final round of the Asian Cup which will be held starting next week in Vietnam. Iran is slated to play matches against the host Vietnam, Myanmar and Taiwan in their group. More ...

2008-03-25

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister: Iraqi govenment committed to preventing the presence of Mojahedin Khalq Organisation (Rajavi cult)

Asked about the Iranian opposition group Mojahedin-e Khalq's presence in Iraq, Salih says the Iraqi government "is committed to preventing the presence of elements that harm neighbouring states," and the same situation that applies to PKK applies to other groups that use Iraq as a base for their operations. He notes that Mojahedin-e Khalq enjoys a "protected persons" status. Salih adds: "We do not want this organization to operate in Iraq and thus spoil relations with Iran, and equally we do not want Iran to use any cards against us internally."... More ...

2008-03-19

An Interview with MKO former members

Radio GRR, Italy, March 09, 2008:... The report reads that:” an Iranian intelligence expert revealed that the organization is able to launch terrorist attacks in Europe. It seems that MKO has an influence in Brussel organizations something that makes Tehran be on the alert. The 27 members of European Union are still opposed to the removal of the group from terror list and the Supreme Court issued a ruling on the freezing of the MKO’s assets ... More ...

2008-03-16

Getting to know MKO hooligan Leila Jazaeri

Nejat Society, March 16, 2008:... ... A'zam Farahani Mullah-Hassani Kohneh, who has now changed her name to Leila Jaza'eri is an active supporter of the proscribed terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organisation of Iran (MKO) in London. In the early 80s she married another supporter of the MKO called Hassan Jaza'eri who later died in Ashraf Camp, the main military and ideological training base of the MKO in Iraq More ...

2008-03-16

Apeals Suplement - Ms Batul Soltani, former member of the MKO appeals to the Iraqi legal authorities against the organisation based in Camp Ashraf in Iraq

Sahar foundation, Baghdad, March 16, 2008:... In 1991 we were separated by the order of the organisation and had to give up our children who were sent to Europe later. At first my husband and I resisted against these demands, but being under enormous psychological pressure, we were forces to yield to their orders and eventually we were separated both from each other and then from our children More ...

2008-03-16

Camp Ashraf- Human Catastrophe (A report on the meeting of Iranian Human Right Association in Europe and North America)

Iran Ayandeh- Translation: Nejat Society – March 7th, 2008:... On Thursday, March 6th, a number of human right associations and MKO defectors attended a roundtable, investigating the human aid to captured people of Camp Ashraf and TIPF; in the round table which lasted the whole day, Mr. Masud Khodabandeh submitted a report on his activities in Iraq during previous weeks, then they discussed the ways to aid the Iranian captives of Ashraf and More ...

2008-03-16

Chemical massacre of the people of Halabja by the Iraqi regime March 1988

The brutal massacre of the oppressed and innocent people of Halabja began before the sunrise of Friday, 17th of March 1988. The Iraqi regime committed its most tragic and horrible crime against the civilian people on Friday, 17th of March 1988. On that day, Halabja was bombarded more than twenty times by Iraqi regime's warplanes with chemical and cluster bombs. That Friday afternoon, the magnitude of Iraqi crimes became evident. In the streets and alleys of Halabja, corpses piled up over one another. Tens of children, while playing in front of their houses in the morning, were martyred instantly by cyanide gases. The innocent children did not even have time to run back home. More ...

2008-03-12

Stop taking our beloveds as hostages!

Nejat Society On Sunday March 2nd, a meeting was held by Nejat Society Gilan Branch, in Rasht, where a lot of families of Nejat Society attended to represent their determination to save their beloved ones from camp Ashraf and stop taking them as hostages by MKO Cult. The meeting began with the speeches of Mr. Ebrahim Khodabande, a former political activist of MKO in England. He described the studies made on cults during years, stressing that all the cults have the same nature in brainwashing and psychologically manipulating of the members, forcing them to divorce, separating the children from their parents. More ...

2008-03-12

Ms Batul Soltani former member of the MKO appeals to the Iraqi legal authorities against the organisation based in Camp Ashraf in Iraq

Sahar foundation, Baghdad, March 11, 2008:... My name is Batul Soltani daughter of Morteza. I was born in 1965 in Iran and at the moment I live in Baghdad. I married with Mr Hosein Moradi in 1986 in Iran and then we moved to Pakistan together the same year. We were recruited by the MKO in that country and then we were ordered to go to Iraq a year later in 1987. In 1991 we were separated by the order of the organisation and had to give up our children who were sent to Europe later More ...

2008-03-06

Ms Batul Soltani, former member of the Leadership Council of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO)

My name is Batul Soltani daughter of Morteza. I was born in 1965 in Iran and at the moment I live in Baghdad. I married Mr Hosein Moradi in Iran in 1986 and then we moved to Pakistan the same year. There we were recruited into the MKO and the next year, which is 1987, we were ordered to go to Iraq. In 1991 we were separated by the order of the organisation and yet again by their order our children were taken away from us and sent to Europe. My husband and I initially resisted these orders and did not wish to either be separated from each other, nor to abandon our children, but we were put under enormous psychological pressure and we were forced to submit to their demands More ...

2008-03-05

A Terrorist Group with Different Faces

One of the groups which best represents cult – terrorist organisations is the National Council of Resistance of Iran ( NCRI ). The principles and modus operandi NCRI follows, caused the US State Department to designate the group along with the Mojahedin-e-Khalq ( MKO / MEK ) and the National Liberation Army (NLA) as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation. Having been designated as a terrorist group in the US, NCRI has managed to cover its true nature in Europe and present itself as a democratic group. This cover-up has enabled NCRI to work publicly and actively, taking advantage of the facilities and support of the European governments, international organisations and NGOs. More ...

2008-03-05

Uprooting Terrorism, the Solution to Chaos in Iraq

The first outcomes of Iranian president’s visit to Iraq was al-Maliki’s reiteration that Iraq will not let terrorist groups like al-Qaeda, the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) or the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) terrorist groups turn Iraq into a base against friendly countries in the region. That is what Iraq needs to end a phase of anarchy following the fall of the dictator who acted as the god-father of terrorism and groups like MKO that is notoriously known to have acted as Saddam’s mercenaries and private army. More ...

2008-03-04

Terrorists will not use Iraq soil

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has said that Baghdad would not let terrorists use its soil to attack neighboring countries. Democratic Iraq has a constitution and will not let terrorist groups including al-Qaeda, the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) or the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) insurgents turn Iraq into a base against friendly countries in the region, al-Maliki told IRNA Sunday. More ...

2008-03-02

Talebani: the presence of Mojahedin Khalq terrorists prohibited by constitution and we will get rid of them soon

By Tina Susman and Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers, March 2, 2008:... some in Washington have cultivated ties with the group and advocated using them to destabilize the Tehran government. Numbering up to 3,000, they remain under U.S. guard at their former base northeast of Baghdad More ...

2008-03-01

Iran Nuke Laptop Data Came from Terror Group(Mojahedin Khalq or Rajavi cult)

By Gareth Porter, Inter Press Service, Washington, February 29, 2008:... German officials have identified the source of the laptop documents in November 2004 as the Mujahideen e Khalq (MEK), which along with its political arm, the National Council of Resistance in Iran (NCRI), is listed by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist organisation. There are some indications, moreover, that the MEK obtained the documents not from an Iranian source but from Israel's Mossad More ...

2008-02-29

Mr Teymur Khattar and Mrs Khattar Appeal to the Iraqi legal authorities to deal with the case of the suspicious death of their son Soheyl Kattar in the base of the MKO in Iraq called Camp Ashraf

Sahar (Dawn) Family Foundation, Baghdad, February 29, 2008:... My name is Teymur Kattar. I was born in 1948 in the city of Hamadan in Iran and at the moment I live in the city of Karaj in the province of Tehran. My wife and I wish to appeal to the Iraqi security and judicial authorities to deal with the case of the suspicious death of our son Soheyl Kattar in the base of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organisation (MKO) in Iraq called Camp Ashraf More ...

2008-02-27

Al Araghiah TV reports on the Symposium in Baghdad

Alaraghiah TV, Baghdad, February 2008:... Alaraghiah TV reports on theSymposium held in Baghdad on the subject of foreign terrorist organisations in Iraq More ...

2008-02-24

Report on the situation of remaining members of Mojahedin Khalq Organisation in Camp Ashraf after Consultation with Iraqi Government officials

Iran-Interlink, February, 2008:... In January through February, Iran-Interlink representative Massoud Khodabandeh was invited by the Iraqi Government for a series of consultation meetings on Camp Ashraf. His report has now been published Camp Ashraf is home to Forward Operating Base (FOB) Grizzly, but also contains 3,400 foreign terrorist fighters from the Iranian Mojahedin-e Khalq Organisation (MKO or MEK) who were corralled and disarmed by US Special Forces in 2003. The fighters have been under US military police protection for five years and now the Iraqi Government wants them removed from the country. More ...

2008-02-23

Khattars appeal the Iraqi authorities to investigate the suspicious death of their son in the camp of Mojahedin Khalq Organisation (Rajavi cult)

Sahar Famly Foundation website, February 23, 2008:... ...Mr Teymur Khattar and Mrs Khattar Appeal to the Iraqi legal authorities to deal with the case of the suspicious death of their son Soheyl Kattar in the base of the MKO in Iraq called Camp Ashraf More ...

2008-02-21

Iranian Opposition and the Tremulous State of the Alternative

The relation of MKO and other opposition groups is one of the main challenges Mojahedin have been faced with from the beginning of their formation. Despite all the efforts made during the last three decades, not only such a problem has not been solved but also the existing crises have been intensified. The main elements leading to the friction can be viewed from different angles. However, it has to be pointed out that the main factor is mental and political structure and ideology of Mojahedin. A brief look at the charter of the National Council of Resistance (NCR) and the borderlines drawn between Mojahedin and other opposition groups may easily get to the bottom of frictions. More ...

2008-02-18

200 former MKO members exit Iraq

Iraqi Foreign Minister, Hoshyar Zebari says Baghdad has managed to secure the departure of 200 former MKO members from Iraq More ...

2008-02-17

Nejat Society Letter to The Iraqi President of Higher Judicial Council

We the signatories of the present text would wish to draw your good attention to the subject described below and request you to add this document to the case dealing with the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organisation (MKO) in Iraqi judiciary system. We do appreciate and thank you for your sincere cooperation beforehand. More ...

Iran: Mossad spy sentenced to death

2008-06-30T06:08:00.000-07:00

Iran: Mossad spy sentenced to death
Mon, 30 Jun 2008 11:41:19

Mossad spy in Iran, Ali Ashtari
Iran's Revolutionary Court has sentenced to death an Iranian found guilty of spying for the Israeli regime's intelligence agency - Mossad.

"Ali Ashtari had links with the spy agencies of the Israeli regime and transferred sensitive information from Iran's research, military and defense centers, including the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, to Mossad officers," an official at Iran's Intelligence Ministry said Monday.

"Ashtari provided information about certain Iranian figures to Mossad and made efforts to connect experts of these sensitive centers to the Israeli intelligence agency," he added.

"This is an initial verdict and is required to receive final approval from the country's Supreme Court. The defendant has the right to appeal the verdict," added the Iranian official.

Ali Ashtari, 45, was arrested a year and a half ago. Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court found him guilty of high treason and sentenced him to death.

*****

Hell ya! finally caught one of these treasonous bastards! Fry the F**ker!

The Iranian Dissident Filth

2008-06-30T06:02:00.001-07:00

The Iranian Dissident Filth

What are Iranian Dissidents other than traitors, cowards, and low life scum that can only resort to treason and violence against Iranian Shia Muslims (90%), Iranian Sunni Muslims (9%), and Iranian Zoroastrians/Jews/Christians/Bahais(1%)...?

The Baluchi, Kurd, Azeri, Arab Iranians that rebel against Iran are nothing more than paid stooges that are mercenaries. If caught these traitors should be dealt with accordingly! Remind me again what the punishment for treason is in various countries?

Something really interesting is that the Iranian Dissidents will no longer have any sympathy from Iranians in Iran, because they don't want to turn into Afghanistan/Iraq. They don't want to have their families wiped out and national treasures pillaged. Persopolis will no longer exist along with the museums that hold it's treasures. Instead you will have Israeli Cluster Bombs on it as well as Abrahms Tanks. Is that the future you want as an Iranian? Then go "F" yourself and die! I hope that if there is any sort of attack on the country that the families of dissidents will die in the bombing first, because they actually deserve to meet a traitors death.

Iran (Persia) is The Islamic Republic of Iran if you like it or not...unless you can overthrow the US Government for the crimes of The Bush Regime, don't try to justify the same in Iran. I am sick and tired of people who are intolerant and evil who for their own material gains wish death to others.

As I said again...Iranian Dissidents should be hunted down and taken care of like any other traitor or spy. They forfeited their Iranian Citizenship the first day they helped people attack Iran. You know who you are and you know that eventually you will pay the price of your crimes in this life or the next. Oh ya btw Afshinjam...maybe "Someday" you should have actually visited Iran like I did 4 times recently to understand Iran is not the Monarchist Pipe dreams of your mommy and daddy anymore and things are different under the Islamic Republic: http://www.bia2.com/ , http://www.tehran24.com/, http://www.presstv.com/. Afshinjam, Aylar, and the other whores for money that sing, strip their clothes off, and basically whore themselves out are nothing but cheap filth and will never "save" the Iranian Nation or Women for that matter. Women in Iran are more free than you ever will be...you will always be a Slave Whore of the Zionist Meat Market. Just like poor American girls that have become victim to it.

Iran for Iranians who actually live in Iran and must deal with your evil intentions! F**K Iranian Dissidents...Long live Iran!

The Secret American Army

2008-06-29T22:25:00.001-07:00

The Secret American Army
June 29, 2008: The United States now has thousands of spies inside Iraq. This didn't happen overnight. For the last five years, the U.S. has been building an informant network there. This sort of thing takes time, and knowledge of how Arab culture works, and how to work it. The U.S. Army Special Forces, the CIA, reservist cops and Israel were key components. The results (mostly classified) have been impressive. For example, last year, tips from Iraqis led to the discovery of 6,963 weapons caches, plus similar information on safe houses and terrorists themselves. During the first half of 2009, tips led to finding nearly 5,000 weapons caches.

Back in 2003, the Special Forces and CIA already knew about the tradecraft of developing local informants. The Special Forces were always practicing this, but were now so damn busy chasing terrorists and taking care of so many special jobs no one else could handle, that spy networks were not something they could concentrate on. The CIA also had a shortage of people with practical experience in setting up informant networks. That's mainly because media and Congressional pressure in the late 1970s caused the CIA to largely get out of the spy business. Too dangerous because of the nasty people you have to deal with while recruiting quality informants. Thus the reservist cops and Israel became two of the major sources of expertise in this area.

In the United States, it's quite common for police to join the reserves. They don't always end up doing police work, but they have their experience with them always. In Iraq, reservists who were detectives and police commanders quickly saw the need for databases and developing informant networks. That led to the Israeli connection. Israel had been at war with Palestinian terrorists since 2000, and had cranked up their already extensive informant network in the Palestinian territories, and throughout the Arab world. Israeli advise turned out to be critical. But one bit of Israeli wisdom was decidedly unwelcome. Setting up a reliable informant network in Iraq would take time, and there was no way to rush it.

The "surge offensive" of last year was largely possible because the informant network had grown to the point where commanders were confident that many Sunni Arab tribes were ready to switch sides. They knew this because the Special Forces had taught so many officers how to "drink tea" (sit down and talk with local Iraqi big shots). Israeli intel experts advised on how to work an Iraqi neighborhood to find people willing to talk, and how to persuade them to do it even in the face of terrorist threats.

U.S. intel troops, mainly U.S. Army, persevered, and now that's paying off. You can tell by the confident pronouncements from U.S. generals about success in Iraq. It's career suicide to make such statements, unless you are very confident with your resources, especially your intelligence capabilities. Naturally, no one will talk openly about this stuff. Can't risk giving the enemy anything. But in a decade or so, if not sooner, lots of details will come out. It's quite an epic adventure.

More information regarding Bush strategy on Iran: http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/iran/default.aspx

Report: U.S. 'preparing the battlefield' in Iran

2008-06-29T22:17:00.001-07:00

Report: U.S. 'preparing the battlefield' in Iran

New Yorker article says Congress authorized up to $400 million for covert ops in Iran
Journalist Seymour Hersh says program is being staged from Afghanistan
U.S. officials decline comment, deny the U.S. is launching raids from Iraq
Iranian general says troops are building graves for invaders in the event of war
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration has launched a "significant escalation" of covert operations in Iran, sending U.S. commandos to spy on the country's nuclear facilities and undermine the Islamic republic's government, journalist Seymour Hersh said Sunday.
White House, CIA and State Department officials declined comment on Hersh's report, which appears in this week's issue of The New Yorker.
Hersh told CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer" that Congress has authorized up to $400 million to fund the secret campaign, which involves U.S. special operations troops and Iranian dissidents.
President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have rejected findings from U.S. intelligence agencies that Iran has halted a clandestine effort to build a nuclear bomb and "do not want to leave Iran in place with a nuclear program," Hersh said.
"They believe that their mission is to make sure that before they get out of office next year, either Iran is attacked or it stops its weapons program," Hersh said.
The new article, "Preparing the Battlefield," is the latest in a series of articles accusing the Bush administration of preparing for war with Iran.
He based the report on accounts from current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources. Watch Hersh discuss what he says are the administration's plans for Iran
"As usual with his quarterly pieces, we'll decline to comment," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe told CNN.
"The CIA, as a rule, does not comment on allegations regarding covert operations," CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said.
Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad, denied U.S. raids were being launched from Iraq, where American commanders believe Iran is stoking sectarian warfare and fomenting attacks on U.S. troops.
"I can tell you flatly that U.S. forces are not operating across the Iraqi border into Iran, in the south or anywhere else," Crocker said.
Hersh said U.S. efforts were staged from Afghanistan, which also shares a border with Iran.
He said the program resulted in "a dramatic increase in kinetic events and chaos" inside Iran, including attacks by Kurdish separatists in the country's north and a May attack on a mosque in Shiraz that killed 13 people.
The United States has said it is trying to isolate Iran diplomatically in order to get it to come clean about its nuclear ambitions. But Bush has said "all options" are open in dealing with the issue.
Iran insists its nuclear program is aimed at providing civilian electric power, and refuses to comply with U.N. Security Council demands that it halt uranium enrichment work.
U.N. nuclear inspectors say Tehran held back critical information that could determine whether it is trying to make nuclear weapons.
Israel, which is believed to have its own nuclear arsenal, conducted a military exercise in the eastern Mediterranean in early June involving dozens of warplanes and aerial tankers.
The distance involved in the exercise was roughly the same as would be involved in a possible strike on the Iranian nuclear fuel plant at Natanz, Iran, a U.S. military official said.
In 1981, Israeli warplanes destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor.
Iran's parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, warned other countries against moves that would "cost them heavily." In comments that appeared in the semi-official Mehr news agency Sunday, an Iranian general said his troops were digging more than 320,000 graves to bury troops from any invading force with "the respect they deserve."
"Under the law of war and armed conflict, necessary preparations must be made for the burial of soldiers of aggressor nations," said Maj. Gen. Mirfaisal Baqerzadeh, an Iranian officer in charge of identifying soldiers missing in action.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/06/29/us.iran/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

Inshallah hameyeh "Iranian Dissidents" be azayeh madareshoon beshinan...

'The US is not a republic anymore'

2008-06-29T12:33:00.001-07:00

'The US is not a republic anymore'
Sat, 28 Jun 2008 17:42:15
An interview with Gore Vidal by Afshin Rattansi, Press TV, Tehran

Gore Vidal
Press TV:We hear that Michael Mukasey is going to become the latest of the President's Attorney-Generals to be subpoenaed, this time over his conversations with Bush and Cheney - does this show that Congress is serious about calling the executive to account?

Gore Vidal: No, Congress has never been more cowardly, nor more corrupt. All Bush has do is to make sure certain amounts of money go in the direction of certain important congressmen and that's end of any serious investigation. After all, one of the bravest members of Congress is Denis Kucinich who brought the article of impeachment in to the well of the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives must then try the president, and then after that it goes to the Senate for judgment. However, none of these things will happen because there's nobody there except for Mr. Kucinich who has the courage to take on a sitting president who is kind of a Mafioso.

Press TV: How can it just be one person among so many hundreds of Congressmen who wants the impeachment of George W. Bush in these circumstances?

Gore Vidal: Well it's because we no longer have a country. We don't have a republic any more. During the last 7 or 8 years of the Bush regime, they've got rid of the Bill of Rights, they've got rid of habeas corpus. They have got rid of one of the nicest gifts that England ever left us when they went away and we ceased to be colonies - the Magna Carta - from the 12th century. All of our law and due process of law is based on that. And the Bush people got rid of it. The president and little Mr. Gonzales who for a few minutes was his Attorney General. They managed to get rid of all of the constitutional links that made us literally a republic.

Press TV: You have often written about the US's superpower status in terms of the history of previous superpowers. Do you think we're witnessing the end of US power as some suggest. Will the White House be seen like Persepolis?

Gore Vidal: Well it won't make such good ruins, no. It'll be more like the tomb of Cyrus nearby. They managed to destroy the United States - why? Because they're oil and gas people and they're essentially criminals. I repeat that this is a criminal group that's seized control of the country through what looked like an ordinary election. But there's some very nice films and documentaries about what happened in the year 2000 when Albert Gore won the election for president and they saw to it that he couldn't serve. They got the Supreme Court - which is the Holy of Holies ordinarily in our system - to investigate and then accuse the thieves of being absolutely correct and the winners - Mr. Gore and the Democrats - of being the cheaters. It's the first law of Machiavelli, whatever your opponent's faults are, you pick his virtues and you deny he has them. That's what they did when Senator Kerry ran a few years ago for president. He's a famous hero from the Vietnam War. They said he was a coward and not a hero. That's how it's done. When you have a bunch of liars in charge of your government you can't expect to get much history out of that. But later on we'll dig and dig… and we will dig up Persepolis.

Press TV: Senator Obama talks about change but of course he has courting Wall Street as well as the Israeli lobby - do you see any prospect of change with him as president?

Gore Vidal: Not really. I don't doubt his good faith, just as I do not doubt the bad faith of Cheney and Bush. They are such dreadful people that we've never had in government before. They would never have risen unless they were buying elections as they did in Florida in 2000, as they did in the State of Ohio in 2004. These are two open thefts of the Presidency. When I discovered that this did not interest the New York Times or the Washington Post or any of the press of the country I realized our day was done. We are no longer a country we are a framework for crooks to go in and steal money. Knowing that they'll never be caught and they'll be admired for it. Americans always take everybody on his own evaluation. You say I'm a state and they say "oh, yeah yeah yeah, he's a state, isn't that great." And you accuse the other people of your crimes before you commit them. It's an old trick which was known to Machiavelli who wrote about it in his handbook, the Prince.

Press TV:Finally that issue which is exercising so many minds in the Middle East and beyond. You, yourself have written about so many Imperial wars of the United States. Do you think Bush and Cheney would risk another war in what Mohammad ElBaradei of the IAEA calls a fireball?

Gore Vidal: They are longing to but they have spent all of the money. They have got it in their own private companies like the Vice-President and a company called Halliburton which is stealing more money and should be on trial sooner or later before Congress. But perhaps not, who knows? But it's well known in Washington, these people are leaking away the money of the country. Well there's no more money. They are longing for a war with Iran. Iran is no more a harm to us than was Iraq or Afghanistan. They invented an enemy, they tell lies, lies, lies.
The New York Times goes along with their lies, lies, lies. And they don't stop. When the public that's lied to 30 times a day it's apt to believe the lies, is not it?

Gore Vidal is a renowned American writer and erstwhile political candidate.

SG/DA

Israeli spymaster: Be 'prepared' to attack

2008-06-29T12:32:00.001-07:00

Israeli spymaster: Be 'prepared' to attack
Sun, 29 Jun 2008 08:30:08

Shabtai Shavit
Former Mossad chief Shabtai Shavit says Israel should be ready to attack if sanctions fail to sway Iran to renounce its nuclear program.

“As an intelligence officer working with the worst case scenario, I can tell you we should be prepared, we should do whatever necessary on the defensive side, on the offensive side, on the public opinion side for the West, in case sanctions don't work,” Shabtai Shavit told the Sunday Telegraph.

“What's left is a military action,” he continued.

Israel has stepped up its rhetoric against Iran and is said to be preparing its public for a war against the oil-rich Islamic Republic.

The New York Times quoted Pentagon officials last week as saying that over 100 Israeli F-16 and F-15 fighter jets staged a maneuver over the eastern Mediterranean and Greece between May 28 and June 12.

As part of the maneuver, Israeli jets flew over 900 miles, roughly the distance from their airfields to a nuclear enrichment facility in the central Iranian city of Natanz.

On June 6, Israeli deputy prime minister Shaoul Mofaz told the Yediot Aharonot that Tel Aviv would attack Iran if the country did not halt its nuclear activities.

In his comments to the Sunday Telegraph, the former Mossad chief also warned that American approval was not a necessary pre-requisite for Israel to carry out an air strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.

"When it comes to decisions that have to do with our national security and our own survival, at best we may update the Americans that we are intending or planning or going to do something," Shavit said.

MT/MR/GM

Iran: Israel no match for our defenses

2008-06-29T12:31:00.001-07:00

Iran: Israel no match for our defenses
Sun, 29 Jun 2008 18:34:00

Iran's Defense Minister, Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar
Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar says the Israeli regime is no match for the organized and skilled armed forces of Iran.

"Modern weapons are not the only defense criteria… The willpower and support of Iranians is very important," said Brigadier General Mohammad-Najjar on Sunday.

Israel will not be able to match Iran's defensive capabilities and has therefore launched psyops against Tehran, Najjar suggested.

He was referring to recent reports indicating that Israel has launched a military maneuver over the Mediterranean to rehearse for an aerial strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.

Najjar added that Tel Aviv is a 'mass producer of weapons of mass destruction' and such reports only signal its 'weakness and desperation'.

Israel accuses Iran of pursuing a military nuclear program and demands the country abandon its uranium enrichment. Tehran, however, insists its nuclear activities are aimed at providing fuel for its under-construction power plants.

A former senior Israeli general, Isaac Ben-Israel, claimed on Saturday that Tel Aviv is capable of carrying out a 'successful' aerial strike on Iranian nuclear sites at any time.

Brig. Gen. Najjar, however, warned that Iran is fully prepared to counter any act of aggression.

Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) commander Major General Mohammad-Ali Jafari said on Saturday that Israel is within 'the range of Iran's missiles', warning that Tehran would use all possible means to repel any attack on its soil.

MJ/MD/AA

Hersh reveals covert US ops in Iran

2008-06-29T12:27:00.000-07:00

Hersh reveals covert US ops in Iran
Sun, 29 Jun 2008 10:31:50

The New Yorker magazine says Washington has escalated covert operations against Iran in a bid to destabilize the country's leadership.

In a report published in the online version of The New Yorker magazine, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has revealed that US Congressional leaders quietly agreed late last year to President Bush's funding request for a major escalation of covert operations against the Islamic Republic.

The article centers on a highly classified Presidential Finding which, by US law, must be made known to Senate leaders, the Democratic and Republican House and to ranking members of the intelligence committees.

“The Finding was focused on undermining Iran's nuclear ambitions and trying to undermine the government through regime change,” the article cited a person familiar with its contents as saying.

The finding also focused on working with the country's opposition groups and funneling money.

The article cites current and former military, intelligence and congressional sources as saying that $400 million was approved by congressional leaders for clandestine operations against Iran.

US Special Operations Forces have been conducting cross border operations from southern and southeastern Iraq since last year, the article said.

These have included seizing members of Iran's Qods force -- an arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps -- and taking them to Iraq for interrogation.

The operations also involved the pursuit, capture or killing of 'high-value targets' in the so-called war on terrorism, according to the article.

However, the article cited current and former officials as saying that the scale and scope of the covert operations inside Iran, including forces from the Central Intelligence Agency, have now been significantly expanded.

Many of these activities were not specified in the Presidential Finding and some congressional leaders have had serious questions about their nature, the article said.

According to former CIA officer, Robert Baer, the Jundullah terrorist group is among the outfits inside Iran benefiting from US support.

Jundullah, which operates in Iran's Sistan-Baluchistan province and Pakistan's Baluchistan province, has carried out a number of attacks against Iranian civilians as well as high-profile government and security officials.

Neither the Democratic leaders in Congress nor the White house and the CIA would comment on the finding, the article said.

Neocons/Zionists Making Video Games to Tenderize...

2008-06-16T00:20:00.001-07:00

Why do you think The Neocons and Zionists who made the game "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" like to make their games in advance to tenderize the public...especially youth to go to war? It is pre-training for the new Imperial Robots. This game basically was made to prepare people for this most recent news leading up to war in favor of Israel: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/06/15/nuclear.ring.ap/index.html

Benjamin Freedman

2008-06-15T20:17:00.000-07:00

Benjamin H. Freedman was one of the most intriguing and amazing individuals of the 20th century. Born in 1890, he was a successful Jewish businessman of New York City at one time principal owner of the Woodbury Soap Company. He broke with organized Jewry after the Judeo-Communist victory of 1945, and spent the remainder of his life and the great preponderance of his considerable fortune, at least 2.5 million dollars, exposing the Jewish tyranny which has enveloped the United States.

Mr. Freedman knew what he was talking about because he had been an insider at the highest levels of Jewish organizations and Jewish machinations to gain power over our nation. Mr. Freedman was personally acquainted with Bernard Baruch, Samuel Untermyer, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, Joseph Kennedy, John F. Kennedy, and many more movers and shakers of our times. The Willard Hotel, Washington, D.C., speech was given before a patriotic, Christian audience (NOT before Nazis as some have suggested) in 1961 on behalf of Conde McGinley's patriotic newspaper of that time, Common Sense.

Though in some minor ways this wide-ranging and extemporaneous speech has become dated, Mr. Freedman's essential message to us -- his warning to the West -- is more urgent than ever before.

http://www.benjaminfreedman.net

Iranian Mercenary Bloggers

2008-06-03T04:12:00.000-07:00

I was reading some Iranian blogs and discovered that many of them that are against the IRI are nothing more than paid stooges of the Zionists and their intel agencies. Israel pays up to 50,000 dollars to each Iranian Jew to move to Israel...some accept, but for the most part even Iranian Jews are not stupid to fall for their tactics. Most Iranian Jews are patriots and will defend Iran against Israel. Just like the Iranian Arabs defended Iran against Iraq. However, the few who do give in tend to make videos, websites, and books bashing Iran and writing about fake stories of 'stoning' and other oppression that is non-existing in Iran except in their Zionist pipe dreams. Nazanin Afshinjam or whatever her name is in Canada is a perfect example of a brainwashed expat youth that has grown up with Shahanshah fantasies. People need to wake up and see Iran is not the boogieman that Israel has made it out to be. When are we Iranians going to stop taking money from Zionists to hate ourselves and write blogs against ourselves? Long live Iran and Islam. May the eyes of those who oppose Iran and Iranians go blind with envy.

Waging war on Iran 'insane'

2008-06-03T04:11:00.001-07:00

Waging war on Iran 'insane'
Tue, 03 Jun 2008 08:40:47
President George W. Bush's vision to wage war on Iran is 'insane' and 'incomprehensible', prominent journalist Christopher Hedges says.

During a Q&A at the recent 2008 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Hedges said political analysts in American and Middle Eastern affairs could not justify the Bush Administration's plans to attack Iran.

"It is so insane to attack Iran. It is almost incomprehensible for those of us who come out of Middle East," said Hedges, who spent seven years in the region, mostly as the Middle East Bureau Chief for The New York Times.

In spite of a Dec 3 National Intelligence Estimate conceding with 'high confidence' that Iran is not conducting a nuclear weapons program, the Bush administration insists that 'all options' - including the use of military force - are on the table to counter 'Iran's threat' to Israel and the Middle East.

"The consequences would be devastating and so counterproductive to us, and everyone who lives in Middle East," Hedges continued.

"The intelligence estimate (on Iran) was an effort by our 16 intelligence agencies to speak out with one voice against a war in Iran in a way they didn't in the lead-up to war in Iraq," the Pulitzer prize-winning reporter added.

However, pointing to the resignation of Admiral Fallon, Hedges stated that the NIE report on Iran's nuclear program had not persuaded the administration to 'count out' a military option against the country.

His remarks came amid reports that the US president is drawing up plans to launch an air strike against Iran 'within two months'.

The Iranian Army...a tradition 7000 years in the making!

2008-06-02T21:11:00.000-07:00

Iranians will never give in to those who wish to ruin Iran...

CONFESSIONS OF A BRITISH SPY: THE MEMOIRS OF HEMPHER (DOWNLOAD)

2008-05-13T19:55:00.000-07:00

Now you can download the British agenda for Palestine, Ottoman Turkey, Safavid Persia, and Mughal India here: http://www.hakikatkitabevi.com/download/english/14-ConfessionsOf%20ABritishSpy.pdf There is a little known article on the web that can be accessed by typing the words "confessions of a british spy" into a search engine.
It concerns a british spy plot to destabilize the Ottoman Empire in the early 1700's. The article, if genuine (and it appears to be) was translated into english from a Turkish document.
It relates the story of how a young Muslim, Wahhabi, by name was "recruited" by a British spy (Hempher). The purpose of the plot was to cause Muslims to begin fighting amongst themselves and therebye distract the Ottoman authorities from what was really going on. This was to be achieved by corrupting the mainstream Muslim religions.
This man went on to begin the Wahhabi movement in what is now Saudi Arabia. As we all know, that is where the "big bucks" are coming from that support the Muslim extremists that continue to howl for the blood of those who don't think as they do.
As indicated in that document the relationship between Wahhabi and the tribal chief that protected him during the startup period continues to this day in the modern rulers of that country and the Wahhabi religion..
It is a fascinating "read" in light of what is now happening in the world and if you follow the thought and begin to research other articles on the net, many placed there by Muslims fighting back, you are going to be appalled.
There is a great deal of information available to read and it is well worth the time spent digging for it.
I recommend "confessions of a british spy" to everyone as a great place to start on the path to "enlightenment" regarding peaceful Muslims today and the problems that they face.
As a person who knew absolutely nothing about Muslims before I read this article, it heightened my interest as I began to explore the web. That effort has created an entirely different picture of the current unrest and the reasons for it in my mind.
It may do the same for you. Ref: http://www.danielpipes.org/comments/78

ISRAELI SEX & PROFANITY TOURISM COMMERCIAL!

2008-05-13T19:51:00.001-07:00

Just look at this filthy commercial by the ISRAELI GOVERNMENT TOURISM BOARD!

ISRAEL TRIES TO CHANGE OPPRESSIVE WARMONGERING IMAGE TO PORN SEX

2008-05-13T19:30:00.001-07:00

Obama Wins The War but Loses a Tiny Battle...He Will Be President: Hillary Clinton Wins West Virginia's Poor White Racists!

2008-05-13T19:01:00.000-07:00

Barack Obama will become the new President of the United States because he is what people (normal people) want. The White Racists who live without electricity and running water in West Virginia and the Republicans on the edges have voted for Hillary Clinton. However, that means nothing...Hillary will lose with educated and diverse people. She will only win with White Racists in rural America because they want to get bent over again and screwed without lube again by Hillary instead of George. Obama will win in the end even against McCain and his Nazi Republican Party. The Mormon Racist (Mitt Romney) will contribute to him losing his election. Mitt Romney comes from the cult called Mormonism that is a racist anti-black Church. Here is what the Racist Zionist Mormon Religion teaches!:
No wonder why minorities in Utah don't win Worker's Compensation Cases and are not hired for good jobs. If you are not Mormon in Utah...you will hit a glass ceiling! Also, African-Americans are considered the children of "Cain" and have been cursed by blackness for the sins of Cain!
Here is what Mormons are really like! No wonder they love the Bush Regime and Israel!!!

'No reason to celebrate Israel's birthday'

2008-05-13T07:06:00.001-07:00

'No reason to celebrate Israel's birthday'
Tue, 13 May 2008 13:50:56

The following letter was posted on the web site of the Palestinian NGO Network on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Israeli regime's establishment.

60 Years of Palestinian Dispossession...
No Reason to Celebrate
"Israel at 60"!

“Even after fifty years of living the Palestinian exile I still find myself astonished at the lengths to which official Israel and its supporters will go to suppress the fact that a half century has gone by without Israeli restitution, recognition, or acknowledgment of Palestinian human rights and without, as the facts undoubtedly show, connecting that suspension of rights to Israel's official policies. ... the Palestinian Nakba is characterized as a semi-fictional event ... caused by no one in particular.”

Edward Said, commenting on the “Israel at 50” celebrations in the US in 1998

The creation of the state of Israel almost 60 years ago dispossessed and uprooted hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes and lands. With their peaceful lives ruined, society fragmented, possessions pillaged and hope for freedom and nationhood dashed, Palestinian refugees held on to their dream of return, and Palestinians everywhere nourished their aspiration for freedom, dignified living, and becoming whole again.

There is no reason to celebrate! Israel at 60 is a state that is still denying Palestinian refugees their UN-sanctioned rights, simply because they are “non-Jews.” It is still illegally occupying Palestinian and other Arab lands, in violation of numerous UN resolutions. It is still persistently and grossly breaching international law and infringing fundamental human rights with impunity afforded to it through munificent US and European economic, diplomatic and political support. It is still treating its own Palestinian citizens with institutionalized discrimination.

In short, celebrating “Israel at 60” is tantamount to dancing on Palestinian graves to the haunting tune of lingering dispossession and multi-faceted injustice.

There is absolutely no reason to celebrate! But there are myriad reasons to reflect, to engage, to work towards peace and justice.

Signatories:

Mahmoud Darwish (poet, Palestine),
John Berger (artist/author, UK),
Augusto Boal (director/writer, Brazil),
Ella Shohat (author, USA/Occupied Palestine),
Roger Waters (musician, UK),
Ken Loach (filmmaker, UK),
Andre Brink (writer, South Africa),
Aharon Shabtai (poet, Occupied Palestine),
Judith Butler (philosopher, USA),
Vincenzo Consolo (writer, Italy),
John Williams (guitarist, UK),
Tom Leonard (poet, Scotland),
Anthony Loewenstein (author, Australia),
Patrice Nganang (writer, Cameroon),
Demis Roussos (singer, Greece),
Mourid Barghouti (poet, Palestine),
Ilan Pappe (historian/author, Occupied Palestine),
Naomi Wallace (playwright, USA),
Ahdaf Soueif (writer, UK/Egypt),
David Toscana (writer, Mexico),
Tariq Ali (author, UK),
Tom Lanoye (writer, Belgium),
Radwa Ashour (writer, Egypt),
Juan Goytisolo (author, Spain),
Nigel Kennedy (musician, UK),
Marcel Khalife (musician, Lebanon/France),
Gianni Vattimo (philosopher, Italy),
Gabeba Baderoon (writer, South Africa),
Milton Hatoum (writer, Brazil),
Alain Platel (dance/theater director, Belgium),
Leon Rosselson (songwriter, UK),
Al-Mutawakil Taha (writer, Palestine),
James Kelman (writer, Scotland),
Michel Khleifi (filmmaker, Palestine/Belgium),
Ian Pace (pianist, UK),
Benjamin Zephaniah (poet, UK),
Ishtiyaq Shukri (writer, South Africa),
Eyal Sivan (filmmaker, Occupied Palestine),
Victoria Brittain (author/playwright, UK),
Hany Abu Assad (filmmaker, Palestine),
Raymond Deane (composer, Ireland),
Mahmoud Shukair (writer, Palestine),
Paul Ben-Itzak (dance journalist, USA/ Occupied Palestine),
Caryl Churchill (playwright, UK),
Simon Shaheen (musician, Palestine/US),
Margaretta D'Arcy (playwright, Ireland),
John Arden (playwright and novelist, UK),
Annemarie Jacir (filmmaker, Palestine),
Marita van der Vyver (writer, South Africa),
Adrian Grima (poet, Malta),
Omar Qattan (filmmaker, Palestine/UK),
Mary Ann Devlieg (cultural director, Belgium),
Ibrahim Nasrallah (writer, Palestine/Jordan),
Elias Khoury (writer, Lebanon).

The Palestinian NGO Network is a civil and democratic body, which seeks to support, consolidate and strengthen the Palestinian civil society on the basis of the principles of democracy, social justice and sustainable development.

US laying foundation for Iraq colonization

2008-05-12T07:16:00.000-07:00

US laying foundation for Iraq colonization
Sun, 11 May 2008 23:07:37

'Selling Iraq to the US' is what best describes a secret security accord between the Bush administration and the government of Iraq.

Washington drew out a draft proposal for a security deal in January 2008, a preliminary part of which was signed by officials of the two countries on March 17.

The negotiation, set to conclude in late July, will not only establish the basis for a long-term US occupation of Iraq, but will also turn the country into a US colony and yet another military base for Washington in the Middle East.

The accord with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government will replace the UN mandate and allow multinational military presence in the country.

This 'firm handshake' between the US president and the Iraqi prime minister is referred to by the Western media as the Status Of Forces Agreement (SOFA).

While every revealed article of the agreement is tied to security and military arrangements, Western media portrays the accord as mere cooperation in the areas of politics, economics, culture and security.

All the provisions of the agreement have been introduced in a haze of ambiguity as transparency in the issue would certainly provoke an outcry among the weary people of Iraq.

One look at Article 10 of the treaty makes it apparent that the US administration hopes to quietly impose the binding contract and legitimize its indefinite military presence in the country.

"As long as Iraqi security/military forces are not well-trained, security hasn't been ensured, the neighboring states pose a threat, and terrorist attacks continue, the treaty will be officially binding and both parties are obliged to implement it."

The first article of the treaty allows the US Army to carry out military operations in Iraq at any time and any place.

Under Article 2, American and British troops can arrest suspects at any time without the consent of the Iraqi government.

Article 3 reinforces Article 10 by asserting that there are no time limits for the presence of American forces, thus annulling the 1790 UN Security Council anti-occupation Resolution.

The contents of the treaty will dissipate all hopes of a sovereign Iraq, turning the country into a medieval US colony.

According to Article 4, American servicemen and non-servicemen are not obliged to attend any court hearings in Iraq, literally granting them capitulation privileges.

Article 7 puts the Iraqi ministries of defense, interior and intelligence under the direct supervision of US officials, ensuring Iraq will be officially governed by the United States.

Article 6 allows the US to set up 41 military bases in Iraq; Article 8 provides American forces with the authority to supervise arms sales as well as train Iraqi military and law enforcement personnel.

Article 9 argues that as a member of the international community Iraq must recognize Israel and unconditionally support Washington's Middle East policies.

Which government can claim it has the right to delegate the fate of the nation that has entrusted it with executive powers?

Yet, there is but a shred of a doubt that this treaty has no objective other than handing Iraq over to the United States.

One must ask what has made al-Maliki and political leaders of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council and al-Dawa party sink so low as to consider signing such a degrading and demeaning accord.

The US has clearly been successful in duping certain Iraqi officials into launching a crackdown on the resistance fighters of Mahdi Army, claiming the lives of a myriad of innocent civilians.

It is evident that Washington deliberately dragged Iraqi echelons into the battlegrounds as part of a devious plot to cause a rift between Shia parties in the hope of debilitating resistance movements.

These extortionist plots, however, considering the current situation in the war-torn country and the growing hatred toward the occupiers seem to have been in vein.

According to senior Iraqi politician Mohsen Hakim, the Iraqi government conceded to the accord only on certain conditions: US forces should not establish large-scale military bases in the country, should avoid using Iraqi territory for military purposes, and need to recognize Iraq's right to secure deals with other countries.

These conditions, although deficient, do not counter the humiliating effects of the other contractual obligations of the treaty, thus compelling Iraq to go under the yoke of the United States.

SOFA is yet another US attempt to gain tacit support of two main Shia parties al-Dawa and the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council in a bid to foment discord and manipulate public opinion regarding the county's Islamic resistance movement, setting the stage for a new puppet government in the country.

What is even more astonishing is that Iraqi political leaders are falling for this political legerdemain and are willingly digging their own graves.

Of course, one should not forget that if the US conspiracy succeeds, the same people who brought the current Iraqi leaders to power will withdraw their support and entrust their future to another Islamic government.

Nuclear Israel is a Threat to the Islamic World

2008-05-08T20:20:00.000-07:00

The Nuclear State of Israel is a threat to the Islamic World. It hold's 200 Nuclear Warheads. It can use them on any Muslim country in order to keep them from getting power. Israeli's with Nuclear Bombs can have all the Nuclear Weapons they want...but no other country in the region may have them. The Israeli government is more corrupt than Saudi Arabia and Egypt combined! Wake up America before Israel fully assimilates you.

Ahmadinejad & Israel

2008-05-08T20:15:00.000-07:00

One of the biggest lies that is told about Ahmadinejad and Iran...he NEVER SAID "wipe Israel off the map". This was a mistranslation done by Zionist agents wanting to attack Iran. Fortunately there are still Americans who know that this Israeli infiltration is going on in the US and are actively seeking these Israeli dual citizens out and tracking them. The FBI keeps tabs on such people all the time. THE REAL TRANSLATION SAYS THAT ISRAEL...DUE TO INTERNAL PROBLEMS WILL WIPE ITSELF OFF THE MAP. Hence, Iran is no threat to Israel and does not intend to be. Israel is a threat to itself. Internal conflict in Israel is huge...many are leaving Israel because of it.

Baila Rabinowitz (MIM) Zionist Terrorist

2008-05-08T06:09:00.001-07:00

Baila Rabinowitz the Zionist Terrorist that lives in New York has a blog called 'the militant islam monitor'. Under the guise of pointing out terrorists and their organizations she attacks law abiding American Muslims and anybody that is not a Muslim that does not agree with the Zionist ideology. Baila Rabinowitz, Daniel Pipes, and her other co-horts are Israel Zionist Terrorist Dual Citizens! They want to see the destruction of the USA and the salvation of Israel at the expense of America. These people suck America dry with companies such as Starbucks that pays its proceeds to Israel. Every cup of coffee is a bullet in a Palestinian childs head.

Jewish Incest Dad Speaks!

2008-05-08T06:03:00.001-07:00

Josef Fritzl the Austrian Jew who fathered 7 childen with his own daughter and kept her and half his bastard incest children in the cellar for 24 years speaks! a
Many European Jews (AshekaNAZI) have been known to be into the occult, baby killing, and now we know incest! These are the same people who took Palestine from the Arabs and are dominant over Mizrahi Jews in Palestine (so called Israel). This story is just an example of how twisted these people are and how they can infiltrate America's government and armed forces. Don't forget Michael Chertoff the Israeli Zionist Dual Citizen that is the head of Homeland Security! There are more like him. 90% of Hollywood, Media, and people you see speaking from the Bush Regime are Isreali Dual Citizens. Also, don't forget the Isreali Mossad "Art Students" at your local mall selling massage and spa gear. They actually pull intelligence from American FBI, CIA, NSA, and other agents as well as spying on law abiding American Muslim Citizens.

Anti-Muslim Terrorists Bomb Mosque In Iran

2008-05-08T05:52:00.000-07:00

Most likely the Terrorists who bombed this Mosque were part of any of the western paid Terrorist groups like the MEK/MKO, Sessesionists, Iranian Monarchists, Iranian Communists, Iranian Ultra-Nationalist Fascists, etc.

Iran's enemies: Israel, Saudi Arabia, and others may well have something to do with such Terrorist actions.

Real Iranian Nationalists would fight these Terrorists to protect their homeland. Any group that says they are "nationalists" and attack Iran are nothing more than traitors and terrorists. They are paid stooges of Iran's enemies. Real Iranians are united against this bullcrap. Muslim, Jew, Christian, Athiest Iranians all love Iran and would not attack it. Only the paid Terrorists that work for Zionist Terrorists would do such a thing.

Fars, another news agency, said about 800 people, mostly young, were gathered at the mosque to hear a prominent local cleric's sermon denouncing Bahai and Wahabi (Bahai's work for Israel and the Wahabis work for Britain) faiths -- both of which are considered heresies by some Shiites, who make up about 90 percent of the Iranian population. These heretical sects were invented by the British to divide and conquer Islamic lands. You can read all about it in THE CONFESSIONS OF A BRITISH SPY: MEMOIRS OF HEMPHER.

Jesse Ventura: Give me Liberty or Give me Death

2008-05-05T19:54:00.000-07:00

Jesse Ventura is one real American that sees the Fascists/Neocons/Zionists destroying America!

George Galloway Speaks About Barack Obama

2008-05-05T19:44:00.001-07:00

ONLY OBAMA!

George Galloway speaks to a Zionist propagandist...

2008-05-05T19:41:00.000-07:00

George Galloway speaks to a Zionist propagandist...

This man is beautiful...I wish I would see more people from the West denouncing these Zionist/Neocon Fascists.

God Answers Starbucks Coffee (Zionist Coffee)

2008-05-05T19:33:00.001-07:00

I can't begin to explain how I just brewed myself a cup of Arabica Coffee in celebration to the Jewish Zionist supporting Starbucks Coffee failing in the market and having to reformat. I wish I could see the look on the Zionist CEO's face when he found out his company is going down the drain, because the fad of expensive Zionist Israeli supporting Coffee is going out of style due to high inflation and a dying nation. Of course this is due to the vampiric Zionists sucking America dry. I pray one day that all these filthy Zionist companies fail and regular people including regular Americans take back their nation from these blood suckers.

Jewish Zionist Propoganda

2008-05-05T19:29:00.001-07:00

From movies, tv shows, books, politics, religion, to anything that involves the exchange of money or goods there is a Zionist hand involved somewhere.

Just the other day I noticed the local Hindu lady that carries Halal food buys her Halal food from an Israeli Company. Just amazing how they have their hands in everything. Of course they will deny it as usual, but eventually the one God that they have left behind will answer them. My Jewish Orthodox brothers and sisters know that the secular Zionist Jews are nothing but European Zionist Nazi usurpers of Judaism. To learn about the extent of Jewish Zionist Propoganda...check out: www.prothink.org and www.jewwatch.com

Paul: Obama should school McCain

2008-05-05T19:22:00.000-07:00

Paul: Obama should school McCain
Mon, 05 May 2008 22:37:46

Republican congressman Ron Paul says he favors Democratic candidate Barack Obama over Republican John McCain because of his Iraq policy.

In an interview with CNN's The Situation Room, Paul said he is intrigued with the Obama approach to US foreign policy on matters of the Mideast as well as the Democrat's willingness to end the Iraq war, which he believes to be in complete contrast to that of Senator John McCain.

The 72-year-old veteran politician, who is unopposed for his eleventh House term, added that his liking for Obama does not mean 'an endorsement'.

Paul, whose policies often run counter to those of new-age Republicans, explained that endorsing Senator McCain 'would really confuse' his supporters.

McCain, who is a fierce Iraq-war enthusiast, has stated his willingness to spend federal dollars to support military operations in Iraq.

Ron Paul believes the Iraq war was launched in violation of the Constitution. The long shot presidential contender promises to put an end to the occupation and bring the troops home if elected president.

*****

For all you politically disabled Americans...now you see that Ron Paul never was a racist...the same way Obama is not!!! VOTE OBAMA OR THE USA WILL FALL BY THE HANDS OF THE NEOCON FASCISTS.

What the NEOCON/ZIONIST Fascists have given you in the past 8 years:

1. $4.00/gallon Gasoline
2. 2 WARS+
3. Economic Failure
4. Jobs Shipped Overseas
5. Defense Shipped Overseas
6. Development of North American Union
7. Private Corporate Military & Intelligence built in parallel to US Military & Intelligence(Blackwater)
8. Israeli Dual Citizens taking over American Government and Media (ie. Michael Chertoff)
9. American troops fighting for the Israeli Government
10. Breaking Geneva Convention Laws
11. War Crimes
12. Torture
and alot more!

Neocon Fascists Want to Attack Iran, but Top General Says Time is not Right!

2008-05-05T07:07:00.000-07:00

Mullen: Time not ripe for attacking Iran
Mon, 05 May 2008 13:58:59

Admiral Michael Mullen
Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Mullen has said the US presence in Iraq and Afghanistan makes attacking Iran more difficult.

Admiral Michael Mullen noted that he would prefer to avoid a new regional war.

"I actually am very hopeful that we don't get into a position where we have to get into a conflict," Mullen told an Israeli television, Reuters quoted.

Referring to Bush administration's long-running military commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan, he pointed out that it would be a very significant challenge for the United States right now to get into a third conflict in that part of the world.

Believed to have the Middle East's only atomic arsenal, Israel bombed Iraq's nuclear reactor in 1981. Israeli war planes also destroyed a site in Syria last September which US officials claimed was that of a secret nuclear program, though Damascus denied having any such facility.

Speculation that Israel could attack Iranian nuclear sites alone has been offset by assessments that its armed forces are too limited for the task.

*****

If Israel attacks Iran, it should be occupied by the United Nations and stripped of it's 200 Nuclear Missiles and Army. Israel has become a rabid bastard state in the middle of Islamic Lands. The AshekeNAZI need to stop while they are ahead. Soon enough the world will wake up to their crap and stop believing in movies like "The Pianist" by Zionists such as Roman Polanski. Read books by NORMAN FINKELSTEIN and see from the words of a real Jew about the Evil Zionists. The Evil Zionists have such ISRAELI DUAL CITIZENS such as Michael Chertoff as the head of Homeland Security, let alone other agencies and government officials. The Israeli yoke needs to be removed from the American Government if the USA is to survive this Israeli onslaught. www.prothink.org

Waterboarding IS...Torture!

2008-05-02T05:15:00.000-07:00

I think that every person who thinks that waterboarding is not torture, should be waterboarded themselves in a serious manner. Infact, they should be sent to a different country that does torture and have them tortured. So, they can 'research' deeper and see if they then think it is torture. GTF out of here with that Nazi bullshit! "It's not toture" my ass! The Nazi Neocons and Zionist would like you to believe that it's not torture, but it freakin is! What kind of demonic evil people think that torture is not torture...that's right fascist pieces of Zionist and Neocon shit...that's who. They should be arrested and put in jail for life for their un-American un-constitutional ways. Long live freedom! Tell your congressmen/women to stop supporting the evil Zionist/Neocon Empire! America will perish at their hands...

Obama and The Hillary / McCain Nazi Party

2008-05-01T04:25:00.000-07:00

If anybody thinks that voting for Hillary or McCain is good, then they are Nazi's at heart. Only Obama has the knowledge and ethics to turn America around and make it great again. The other two are paid stooges of the Corporate Zionist War Machine. Guns and Bibles and Gay Sex...is that all America understands? This great nation is on the verge of collapse. The new Roman Empire will fall like the last because it is no longer a Republic. It's republic have submitted themselves to the Imperial forces of Bushius Caesar and his Imperial Regime! (Jeb Bush should be pre-impeached before he get's to continue the Dynasty after Hillary is illegally elected)

Native Hawaiians Renounce Statehood!

2008-05-01T04:16:00.000-07:00

Hawaii's native population wants to 'disjoin' the United States and return to a Constitutional Monarchy because it was forcefully overthrown by America in the 1800's. (Isn't it funny that the Neocons support Iran's Constitutional Monarchy, but not Hawaii's?) Puerto Rico and Hawaii, along with Guam and the Philippines, were annexed into the United States in 1898 after the Spanish-American War. Guam and Puerto Rico remain territories of the United States. The Philippines gained independence after World War II, and Hawaii became the 50th state in 1959.

Although the monarchy was not overthrown until 1893, its fate effectively was sealed six years earlier when the same group that forced the overthrow imposed a new constitution on King David Kalakaua, who was forced to sign it under threat of arms.

The document dramatically reduced the authority of the monarchy and instituted voter requirements that limited voting to wealthy businessmen and Hawaiian landowners, barring 75 percent of the native Hawaiian population and all Asians.

When Queen Lili'uokalani ascended the throne after the death of her brother in 1891, she began work on a new constitution that would have effectively reversed the 1887 document. With the help of John L. Stevens, the U.S. Minister to Hawaii, the elite group that had changed the constitution in 1887 opposed the queen's actions.

Two years later, under threat of U.S. troops, she yielded her authority, saying, "Until such time as the Government of the United States shall ... undo the action of its representative and reinstate me in the authority which I claim as the constitutional sovereign of the Hawaiian Islands."

The queen was later imprisoned in Iolani Palace for eight months for her participation in an attempted 1895 revolt, until she relinquished her claim to the throne in return for her release. She died in 1917 at 79. Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/05/01/hawaii.palace.takeover/index.html

The Fast & Furious...Iranian Style!

2008-04-30T20:54:00.001-07:00

This is Iran's youth car culture in Tehran, Iran!

Super Star: Iranian Fast Food Restaurant! (One of many)

2008-04-30T20:52:00.000-07:00

This is Iranian "Super Star" fast food restaurant or a.k.a. Carls Jr.! One of my favorite fast food joints in Tehran...their hamburgers are Halal and they taste better than Carls Jr. in the USA!

Fast Food or Ghorme Sabzi?

2008-04-30T20:50:00.000-07:00

This is a great video by some Iranian-American youth, it talks about why we eat fast food vs. health food...like ghorme sabzi:

Lebanese Shia Majority Resistance (Lebanese Real Army)

2008-04-30T20:33:00.001-07:00

This is a game made by the Lebanese depicting the Lebanese Resistance to Israeli forces (which they won):

The Women of Lebanon's Shia Muslim Resistance to Israeli Zionists

2008-04-30T20:27:00.001-07:00

This is a great video from Aljazeera about the Lebanese Shia Muslim Resistance's women who are the backbone and foundation of the resistance!

Islam & Sects: Sunni - Shia Split

2008-04-30T20:22:00.000-07:00

This is a great video by a Sunni brother than explains the Sunni-Shia split in a respectable and honorable manner to both SCHOOLS OF ISLAM:

American Christian Converts to Shia Islam!

2008-04-30T20:10:00.000-07:00

Here is a great video of an American Christian that converts to Shia Islam over Salafism (British Arabian Cult):

Edeaa...The Monarchists Pre-Revolutionary Utopia!

2008-04-30T20:06:00.001-07:00

This is another one of my favorite videos by the Abjeez! It basically shows the hillarious pre-revolutionary Monarchist romanticism that is just so pathetic!

Democracy At The Point of a Sword...by Abjeez!

2008-04-30T20:03:00.001-07:00

What they try to fill your minds with to throw you off to the war crimes going on is all this crap about Iran abuses gays and women...BULLSHIT! Here are some Iranian women who don't agree with that:

Iranian Child Rapists Executed (Sex Offenders)

2008-04-30T19:53:00.001-07:00

This is probably one of my favorite picture to expose the lies about Iran. These 'teenagers' in the picture are CHILD SODOMIZERS (SEX OFFENDERS) a.k.a. Child Rapists! THEY SHOULD BE EXECUTED FOR SUCH CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY...ESPECIALLY THE CHILDREN! They either imprison or execute them in America too depending if their sodomy/rape/sex offence kills the victim. These criminals should be brought to justice and tried and if found guilty imprisoned or executed. Americans would LOVE if this was to happen, then they could stop the Child Sex Offender registry that does not really work and ends up with hundreds if not thousands of American children getting raped every day. We should reward them for cleaning the streets of Iran of such filthy child raping criminals. Kudos!

Nazi Whore: Elizabeth Haselbeck Voting For Nazi Whore Queen Hillary!

2008-04-28T20:22:00.000-07:00

Israeli IDF Nazi Whores Killing Palestinians

2008-04-28T20:13:00.001-07:00

Israeli baby killing and mass murder come in such pretty packages...makes you wonder if any Israelis really are "Civilians"? Next time a desperate Palestinian rushes into the icecream store (Israeli Army Girls with Machine Guns) strapped and blows up...stop and wonder why!

These girls and their mail counterparts are the same MOSAD agents that work in American Malls with their Kiosks/Carts that sell no good Massage, make up, 'herbal remedies' pillows, and other Israeli junk to unsuspecting Americans. Their main purpose is to spy on American Government Agents and American Muslims. This is a documented fact by the FBI!

June 2001: DEA Draws Up Report on Israeli Spies
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States the Israeli spy ring were known to have operated in, according to a June 2001 Drug Enforcement Administration report (this Fox news graphic was based on information from that report). [Source: Fox News]The DEA’s Office of Security Programs prepares a 60-page internal memo on the Israeli “art student spy ring.” [Drug Enforcement Agency, 6/2001] The Memo is a compilation of dozens of field reports, and was meant only for the eyes of senior officials at the Justice Department (of which the DEA is adjunct), but it is leaked to the press around December 2001. The report connects the spies to efforts to foil investigations into Israeli organized crime activity involving the importation of the drug Ecstasy. The spies also appear to be snooping on top-secret military bases. For instance, on April 30, 2001, an Air Force alert was issued from Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City concerning “possible intelligence collection being conducted by Israeli art students.” Tinker AFB houses AWACS surveillance craft and Stealth bombers. By the time of the report, the US has “apprehended or expelled close to 120 Israeli nationals” but many remain at large. [Le Monde (Paris), 3/5/2002; Salon, 5/7/2002] An additional 20 or so Israeli spies are apprehended between June and 9/11. [Fox News, 12/12/2001]

Ann Coultier The Nazi Whore Voting for Hillary Clinton!

2008-04-28T19:47:00.000-07:00

Proof that Hillary Clinton is party of the Corporate Zionist Nazi Agenda...Even the Nazi Sean Hannity is shocked to hear that Ann Coultier is voting for Hillary over McCain! LOL McCain is Worse but Hillary is WORST! Fox News = The News of the 4th Reich (Goebbels where are you to see your glory!)

Iranian Communists in France burn

2008-04-28T19:11:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of the filthy Mujahedin Khalq Zombie Robot Communists (that wave the Safavid Lion and Sun Flag) instead of their Communist flag to fool Iranians...setting themselves on fire at the order of the filthy Terrorist Masud and Maryam Rajavi! These people are worse than their Los Angeles Monarchist counterparts...Everybody thinks these people are just dumb and mindless. That is what happens when Athiesm and Communism takes over a person's brain. It is not much different than Monarchists, but even worse!

Iranians in France burn
June 21st, 2003
AnIranian runs on the road after setting himself on fire during a protest near theheadquarters of the French counter intelligence agency, Wednesday, June 18, 2003in Paris. At least three Iranians set themselves on fire Wednesday after theagency led a massive raid on Tuesday on the offices of an Iranian oppositiongroup, The People’s Mujahedeen of Iran. The protest was the latest in a seriesof dramatic protests in Europe against Tuesday’s crackdown onthe MujahedeenKhalq, which is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and theEuropean Union (news- websites). (AP Photo/KR Images Presse, Nicolas Marques)