NO NEED TO BE SHOCKED

              

 Saturday 14 January, 2012

No Need to be Shocked

Hameed Abdul Karim

The media is awash with the pictures of US marines urinating on dead Taliban fighters and commentators and anchor personnel use the word ‘shocking’ to describe this stomach turning act of  US barbarism. But judging by past exposures of Americans’ cruelty and sadism from My Lai in Vietnam to Nicaragua in South America to Abu Graib in Iraq this should not come as shock or surprise.

What can you say of a nation that has been at war with one country or another for the last hundred years at least, killing millions, maiming many more and destroying property worth billions when its apologists come out with statements like ‘this is not consistent with America’s core values’ and to trivialise the latest scandal to hit the empire as an aberration and not the altruism the empire stands for?

IS THE EMPIRE LOSING ITS GRIP?

Thurday 5 January 2012

Is The Empire Losing its Grip?

Hameed Abdul Karim

In recent times the US Empire has taken quite a few body blows. Gone are the days when Henry Kissinger and Ronald Reagan reigned supreme in tandem with their cousins across the pond. The heady days of the Bush doctrine of ‘either you are with us or with them’ are fast vanishing whilst Barack Obama grapples with the crises left behind by the neocons and creating new ones for himself and his successors. There seems to be no way out for the empire unless it decides to extend its war on terrorism to Iran and unleash its military might on China and the rest of the disobedient states

ISLAM AS ENEMY

                                                                              

Sunday, 8 January, 2012

Islam as Enemy

Hameed Abdul Karim

The Western powers have always needed enemies to force their agendas down the throats of different nations at various times in history. With the end of colonialism, however, the U.S. spurred by its imperial mindset, has taken over the role of ‘civilising’ the former colonies, with the full backing of France, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK which now are, for all intents and purposes, U.S. satellite states.

Enemy number one has always been ‘Islam’. The war against Islam, however, was reduced to a low intensity conflict whilst the West engaged itself in the ‘Cold War’. When Soviet Russia eventually caved in due to Western pressure, not without the crucial help of the Afghan Mujahedin though, it trained its guns back on Islam. 

Islam has always been a thorn in the West’s side. Despite centuries of colonialism the West has not been able to subdue the faith or the spirit of millions of its adherents.

War on Terror or Crusades?

Muslims see the West’s ‘war on terror’ as yet another campaign to crush Islam and think it’s a continuation of the crusades despite pious pontifications to the contrary. This raises the question - why does the ‘empire’, see Islam and the Muslims as enemies? This is largely because Muslims have never surrendered their passionate loyalty to their faith or their traditions in return for cars, coca-cola and in general the ‘good life’ which is fast crumbling under its own contradictions as we speak. Muslims had fought for their independence with ferocity as one insurrection after another during colonial occupation clearly demonstrates. Bear in mind that virtually all Muslim countries were under occupation of one Western colonial power or another for centuries but hardly any Muslim exchanged his or her faith for material gains. Even the likes of Salman Rushdie or Taslima Nazreen have not been able to make a dent in the mindsets of Muslims despite the West’s heavy funding and political support to bring Islam and Muslims into the ‘enlightened era’ and to fit in cozily with America’s PNAC.

‘Islamic Banking’ – ‘Islamic Fundamentalism’?