Reflections on Malcolm X’s legacy

By ISAAC SANEY

February 21st marks the 57th anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X, who later took the name El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz after his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1964. As a revolutionary internationalist and a leader of the Black liberation struggle, Malcolm X shaped and influenced a generation of Black activists, artists, revolutionaries and intellectuals. His impact has been profound and lasting. The assassination’s anniversary is, therefore, a time for serious contemplation of his legacy.

The Iranian Jews who joined the Islamic Revolution

Thousands flocked from Tehran’s synagogues to protests, led by their rabbis. Jewish delegates met with Khomeini to express support for his struggle. A groundbreaking study sheds light on the life of Iranian Jews, their complex view of Zionism and their surprising stance on the Islamic Revolution | Ofer Aderet in Haaretz.

The Islamic Revolution in Iran. Newspapers termed the December 11, 1978, protest a “demonstration of millions.” The Jews were there.

Lior Sternfeld is dismissive of the Israeli drama series “Tehran.” In contrast to many others, Sternfeld, a historian who specializes in modern Iran, wasn’t bothered by the final episode of the popular show, in which our aircraft turn back – and not safely – from their mission to bomb a nuclear reactor. What irked Sternfeld was the episode in which the protagonist, Mossad agent Tamar Rabinyan, takes shelter with her Jewish aunt, who remained in Tehran even after the 1979 revolution. The aunt broke off her ties with the rest of her family, all of whom immigrated to Israel, and she established a model Muslim family with a husband who holds a senior government job and a daughter who demonstrates in support of the regime. However, at the moment of truth, when the relative – the Zionist spy – needs help, she opens the door and hides her from the authorities.

Syria: The truth about Presidential Decree Number 16

GHASSAN KADI* discusses the issue of Decree No. 16 issued by the President of the Syrian Arab Republic, Bashar al-Assad, which has seen the country in the past few weeks engulfed in heated arguments, misinformation, confusion and worrying signs of increasing sectarianism.

(October 4) – Much has been said around Presidential Decree No. 16, but in reality, nothing has been said about its actual contents and context. When I began reading criticisms of it, they gave the impression that the Decree is handing over the Executive authority of Syria to the Clergy.

How imperial Britain promoted religion to stymie Palestinian nationalism

By SARAH IRVING*

Islam Under the Palestine Mandate: Colonialism and the Supreme Muslim Council, Nicholas E. Roberts, I.B.Tauris (2017)

In the dangerous and inaccurate popular narratives on Palestine, religion – a black-and-white tale of Islam versus Judaism – is often given priority of importance. Religious identities are taken as the simple, unquestioned driving force behind the actions of Palestinians throughout history.

A closer look, of course, reveals the flaws in this image. During the Ottoman period, the people of Palestine might have been more likely to identify themselves in terms of their family, neighbourhood, city or profession, depending on which identity the situation called for at a particular time.

The Daesh Chronicles: The definition challenge

The war against ISIS | GHASSAN KADI* argues against self-serving dogma substituting as analysis, and for the renovation of Islam

Islam, real Islam, is a religion of piety, wisdom and peace, and Muslims, real Muslims are not terrorists. Even though all terrorists that have been caught involved in terrorism are “Muslims”, this does not give a blanket description of all Muslims as beings terrorists.

The fallacy of Erdogan-style democracy

By GHASSAN KADI*

(November 4) – Erdogan’s AKP party has scored a monumental victory; not so much in terms of the lead in parliament though. As a matter of fact, it is a fairly narrow victory, but one that was least expected. What is monumental about it is the course that Turkey has set itself upon.

A victory for Erdogan perhaps, but for Turkey itself, the outcome of this election will probably take years and even decades until it becomes clear what the results truly meant for Turkey’s future and wellbeing.

Discovering Iran: a travelogue

By SORAYA SEPAHPOUR-ULRICH 

Marcel Proust once said: “The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.” During the past two decades, I visited Iran on numerous occasions staying 10-14 days at a time. This time around, I stayed for 2 months and heeding Proust, I carried with me a fresh pair of eyes. I discarded both my Western lenses as well as my Iranian lenses and observed with objective eyes. It was a formidable journey that left me breathless. 

Germany: Ramifications of the ‘war on terror’

On the assault on democratic rights

We are publishing information from Germany on PEGIDA, a German group, which includes organized neo-Nazis in its marches under slogans against the so-called ‘Islamisation’ of Europe. It is no accident that the states of the European Union abstained on the recent UN Anti Nazi resolution adopted by the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly November 21, 2014. It called for ‘Combating glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.’ The abstention by the EU states gave the green light directly to the fascists to go into action. No one can be taken in by the crocodile tears for ‘tolerance’ issued by Angela Merkel and other leaders. Our stand is embodied in the slogan of CPC(M-L) ‘Our Security Lies in the Fight for the Rights of All’, which is in direct opposition to the fascization of society. – TS

Pegida supporters were outnumbered at the Berlin march

Hollywood’s Kingdom of Heaven, the Crusades, Salah Ad-Din and Jerusalem

The Dome of the Rock Mosque (above) and the al-Aqsa Mosque are an integral part of the Noble Sanctuary in Jerusalem, considered third holiest site of Islam. and the object of attack of today’s Zionists. The media depicts the struggle over al-Aqsa as a Palestinian-Israeli conflict, when in fact it is also a Muslim-Zionist conflict, as both mosques are of the utmost sacredness and symbolic regard to Muslims across the world.

The Hollywood action film The Kingdom of Heaven fictionalizing the medieval Crusades of the 12th century was released in 2005. It is continuously rebroadcast on TV, e.g., this past weekend on GAME-TV, due not only to the fictionalised action but mainly because of its cinematic disinformation and falsification of history about Muslims, the Crusades, the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and Salah Ad-Din (Saladin), who is battling to reclaim the city from the Europeans. The following review by Prof As’ad AbuKhalil* was written in 2005 shortly after the movie’s release. We are also reproducing it in the context of the current Zionist provocations against the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, which Israel closed on October 29 as it sent hundreds of police “reinforcements” into Jerusalem.

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The Kingdom of Heaven (and of plunder, pillage, bloodshed and mayhem): Ridley Scott’s version of the Crusades, or the limitations of Western liberalism 

WHAT do you expect. I can summarize the movie’s (Kingdom of Heaven) message for you: there are good crusaders and bad crusaders, and the viewers are supposed to cheer for, and identify with, the good crusaders. Or, Rumsfeld is bad and Bush is good. You may say that the Arabs were presented humanely, or so bloviated US reviewers in unison. Leaders of Arab-American and Muslim American organizations will praise the movie, no doubt, and so will the King of Morocco (who was thanked at the end of the credit, but torture in his kingdom was not noted in the credit for some reason).

US Empire: Old Testament armed forces

Under the pretext of “religious freedom,” religious zealotry runs rampant in the US military, and among those wishing to deploy it

Philip Giraldi (Feb . 12) – THE connection between America’s wars in the Middle East—and its wars more generally—with the more fundamentalist forms of Christianity in the United States is striking. Opinion polls suggest that the more religiously conservative one is, the more one will support overseas wars or even what many might describe as war crimes. Fully 60 per cent of self-described evangelicals supported torturing suspected terrorists in 2009, for example. That is somewhat puzzling, as Christianity is, if anything, a religion of peace that only reluctantly embraced a “just war” concept that was deliberately and cautiously evolved to permit Christians—under very limited circumstances of imminent threat—to fight to defend themselves.

The FBI’s bomb factory

By JEFFREY ST. CLAIR*

IT’S nearing dusk on November 26, 2010. More than 25,000 people have gathered in a light rain at Pioneer Square in downtown Portland, Oregon to watch the annual lighting of the holiday tree, a 100-foot-tall Douglas-fir logged from the Willamette National Forest. Three men in a nearby hotel room have just finished eating a take-out pizza. The TV turned to a local news channel, which is covering holiday celebration. The men spread towels on the floor and say an Islamic prayer, asking that Allah bless their operation. The men pat each other on the back, leave the room and walk to their vehicle, a white van.

Argo: Hollywood as extension of CIA propaganda

THE MONOPOLY MEDIA rolled out the red carpet for the Hollywood film, Argo, the movie adaptation of the memoir published by ex-CIA operative Tony Mendez on the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7. It eulogized the cosmetic role of Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor, a common CIA operative and US cheerleader, fawned over actor-director Ben Affleck’s presence with predictable slavishness and adorned their websites with trailers and video clips. This of a movie which insults and denigrates an entire people.

Hollywood has played a dirty role in the smuggling of American spies from Iran during the early years of the popular anti-imperialist revolution in Iran. The latest movie, reviewed by ZAINAB CHEEMA and MAKSUD DJAVADOV,* shows the tight relationship between the CIA and Hollywood. That the Harper government suddenly and unilaterally severed diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran on the same day as this racist film’s world premier in Canada is hardly fortuitous. Both are uncivilized instruments of imperialist warmongering and must be condemned. – TS

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THE PRESIDENTIAL SEASON is moving apace, so sluggishly that even robo-Romney, the personality-challenged Republican candidate, is outshining the hapless Barack Obama. It is times like these when Hollywood must step in to ramp up the drama and adrenaline — the result is Pentagon-funded Argo, the movie adaptation of the memoir published by ex-CIA operative Tony Mendez on the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis.

Salman Rushdie – An intellectual in the service of imperialist war

BIG POWERS intent on invading and waging war on a sovereign country or countries, in order to gain hegemony over a region of the world, must first create public opinion for so doing, including denigrating and demonising a whole people. Such was the role played by the writer Salman Rushdie with his book The Satanic Verses published in 1988, which insulted Islam and gravely disturbed and provoked its followers. What followed is justified and grotesquely glamorised in Rushdie’s latest book, Joseph Anton, an autobiographical work focussing on his decade under police protection, the title being his assumed name during that period. This new book is currently being massively promoted.

Muslims and the Media

– Shunpiking Interview with Sandra L. Smith –

Sandra L. Smith

ON 26 October 2006, Tony Seed, editor of Shunpiking Magazine, interviewed Sandra L. Smith on the topic of Muslims and the Media. Sandra is the National Leader of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) and editor of the party’s daily newspaper, TML Daily.*

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On the question of Muslims and the Media, I want to make several important points. I will stay away from the examples of media disinformation that are prevalent and well known to us all, especially to Muslims who are its victims. Instead, I want to highlight aspects of the modus operandi and underlying premise of this media disinformation.