Monthly Archives: February 2012

Voting in Yemen


Fouad al-Kibsi and a new video on the Yemeni election

IRIN Middle East, SANA’A, 10 February 2012 – A presidential election to be held on 21 February in Yemen will open the door for a new chapter in the poorest and arguably most fragile country in the Arab world, says new Prime Minister Mohammed Salim Ba-Sindwa.

A successful election will pave the way for comprehensive reforms, said Ba-Sindwa, who was chosen to lead a national reconciliation government – part of a deal signed in November ending months of political turmoil.

Once elected directly by people, the new president will be constitutionally empowered to re-unite the divided army and replace corrupt officials in the various government institutions, Ba-Sindwa told IRIN in an interview.

“Our plan for the post-election period is to make the rule of law prevail nationwide. This is key to purifying the country from corruption and corrupt officials,” he said. “We will apply the law on the senior [official] before the junior; on the strong before the weak and on the rich before the poor.”

The prime minister’s words echo the optimism among some in the country, who see the election as the cornerstone of political transition. It is one of a string of steps stipulated in a power-transfer deal brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), after year-long nationwide protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s 33-year rule dragged the country to the brink of civil war.

“The upcoming presidential election is the first step in this challenging journey,” Gustavo Gonzalez, senior country director for the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Yemen, told IRIN. “Any positive transformation of Yemen in terms of stability, security and development will have a strong geopolitical impact on the region,” he said.

But the election faces massive challenges in feasibility and credibility, with the only candidate starting his campaign just two weeks before the election, various groups boycotting the election and violence continuing to affect parts of the country.

The sole candidate, current Vice-President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, has the backing of the main opposition grouping and former Saleh supporters, but the electorate had no input in his selection and will not have a choice on election day beyond whether or not to vote. As Jane Novak, a US-based analyst and expert on Yemeni affairs, put it, “there isn’t a `no’ vote option on the ballot”.

Hadi was nominated by a parliament that deemed the country too fragile for possibly divisive competitive elections. But Hafez al-Bukari, president of Yemeni Polling Center (YPC), a local think-tank, worries the lack of competition will lead Yemenis to believe that democratic and competitive elections are not the ideal tool for change. Continue reading Voting in Yemen

Eliminating Islamophobia


Photo:Metropolitan Museum of Art

by Misha Habib

America has changed so much since my adolescence. Growing up as an American bred a very different outlook on life from the breeding it is providing today. And it is a shame because America is a piece of land that made a promise to allow everyone to speak the truth; to do whatever it takes to find the truth and to fearlessly defend the truth no matter what the consequences.

When I look back over the last decade I see one of the unfortunate consequences of its moral degradation…

To create national support for an enemy, the last decade has been spent breeding hatred and resentment against a symbol.

Accumulating support to annihilate the enemy was strategized along the lines similar to the ones used for the Soviet Union. In a hurry, the symbol chosen accidently represented far more people than they initially estimated. And as time began to show they really had no idea what the power of that symbol held.

By the time someone realized this symbol has far more strength than the iron curtain…
By the time someone realized their own people would spend their lives fighting for sanctity of this symbol.
By the time they realized it was too late…

America had become a victim of Islamophobia

The objective was to unite the nation against a common enemy- whether fear, vengeance or accumulating oil was the reason is irrelevant- we might eradicate the enemy and we might find alternative energy sources, but we most definitely have a new problem.

The US government likes to plan for the worst and hope for the best. The reality is that breeding a decade of hatred has led to what the government probably fears may have accidentally sown the seeds of a situation they never intended.

American children have witnessed countless displays of hate towards Islam and all its associated parts. Whether it be towards the person sitting next to them in the subway or instructions warning them not to play with the potentially evil Muslim children; worse if a family member, neighbor or any soldier the child cared about died on the battlefield fighting the evil Muslim enemy, the child has dealt with the loss on the reassurance that the sacrifice was for a good cause.

Media in a lot of ways does rule the world- and the American media has a significant control over the national minds. When I watch an American movie or television miniseries and a visual displays the sounds of the azaan (call to prayer), followed by hoards of people bowing down in worship I know something bad or violent is about to be introduced onto the screen. Whether it is Hollywood or American television productions the last decade has made something very clear- Arabic words, Arabic sounds, veils, beards and Islamic forms of worship- all these things represent evil.

Ten years of subliminal messages are a powerful enemy to fight.

In the last decade those seeds have grown. Those children are now adults. Their breeding has been blossoming in ways that those watering the seeds could not have imagined- the government has lost control of the hatred.

What we now have is regret and an urgency to do damage control. The situation must be handled before it leads to the frightening scenario of future national violence or the many unthinkable possibilities that anger and hatred result in.

Today when a politician or spokesperson comes in front of the camera saying Islam is about peace; reassuring us there are many good Muslims and we should build them mosques in the name of peace, that too on places like ground zero- these statements will seem absurd in the face of those programmed to hate anything and everything that has to do with Islam.

Subliminal messages have a far more powerful impact that can be quantified and reversed.

Sufism has become an umbrella term for the various methods of preaching and practicing a peaceful Islam. A desperate attempt is being made to use this label to display a positive side of the religion. People are waving the label Sufi like a white flag in a war zone. Continue reading Eliminating Islamophobia

World Press Photo of the Year 2011


The international jury of the 55th annual World Press Photo Contest has selected a picture by Samuel Aranda from Spain as the World Press Photo of the Year 2011. The picture shows a woman holding a wounded relative in her arms, inside a mosque used as a field hospital by demonstrators against the rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, during clashes in Sanaa, Yemen on 15 October 2011. Samuel Aranda was working in Yemen on assignment for The New York Times. He is represented by Corbis Images.

Comments on the winning photo by the jury
Koyo Kouoh: “It is a photo that speaks for the entire region. It stands for Yemen, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Syria, for all that happened in the Arab Spring. But it shows a private, intimate side of what went on. And it shows the role that women played, not only as care-givers, but as active people in the movement.”

Nina Berman: “In the Western media, we seldom see veiled women in this way, at such an intimate moment. It is as if all of the events of the Arab Spring resulted in this single moment – in moments like this.”

Aidan Sullivan: “The winning photo shows a poignant, compassionate moment, the human consequence of an enormous event, an event that is still going on. We might never know who this woman is, cradling an injured relative, but together they become a living image of the courage of ordinary people that helped create an important chapter in the history of the Middle East.”

Manoocher Deghati: “The photo is the result of a very human moment, but it also reminds us of something important, that women played a crucial part in this revolution. It is easy to portray the aggressiveness of situations like these. This image shows the tenderness that can exist within all the aggression. The violence is still there, but it shows another side.” Continue reading World Press Photo of the Year 2011

The Conference on Islam in America


The Conference on Islam in America is a collaboration of diverse Muslim individuals and groups whose mission is to clarify and to further define the modalities for Muslim life in the pluralistic society of America.

The Conference on Islam in America will:

• facilitate dialogue, debate and consensus-building among the diverse theological, ethnic, class-based and political elements of the Muslim community here in the United States on the complex array of social, political, cultural and moral issues that confronts us as Americans;
• facilitate informed civic participation of by American Muslims through conversations with American policy-makers, educators, civic leaders and shapers of public opinion;
• promote the application investment of Muslim resources and talents, through the utilization execution of demonstration-projects and best practices in directed attempts to address on selected American societal issues.

The mechanism for reaching achieving these objectives is an annual conference, webinars and accessible community initiatives.

We hope that you will join us to participate in this exciting and stimulating dialogue on the future of Muslim voices and lend a hand in contributing to this powerful and beneficial event. To register for the conference, please click here to be directed to the registration page or contact Trent Carl at tcoiamerica@gmail.com for more information. We look forward to seeing you in September.

NYPD Blues…


The NYPD: Islamophobia in Blue

by Deepa Kumar, Empire Bytes, February 6, 2012

NEW YORK City police officers were shown a movie called The Third Jihad which warns that ordinary Muslims are part of an age-old conspiracy to dominate the world. The police chief and his spokesperson participated in this “counter-terrorism training,” and then lied about their involvement. And Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who touts himself as a champion of religious tolerance, doesn’t plan to do anything about it.

This latest series of events that unfolded in late January only sheds more light on the depth of anti-Muslim racism in New York City. Home to about 800,000 Muslims, as well as the world’s largest police department, the Big Apple has become the crucible of entrenched Islamophobic policies enacted by the state since September 11.

“This is not stereotyping,” Talat Hamdani said at a January 26 press conference at City Hall.

Talat’s son Salman died on 9/11 as a first responder, but his sacrifice has never been officially recognized because police initially viewed him as a suspect in the attacks. “This is legal persecution of American Muslims,” Talat said. “This is our city, our state, our country.”

Almost a year ago, in January 2011, Tom Robbins of the Village Voice broke the story about the NYPD showing this racist film to its officers. At the time, police spokesman Paul Browne claimed the movie was only screened a few times, and that the clips of Ray Kelly in it were from old footageand not the police commissioner’s direct participation with right-wing filmmakers.

But when police were forced to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request from the Brennan Center for Justice, it came to light that the movie was a regular part of training for months, that more than 1,500 officers had viewed the film, and that Kelly had given a 90-minute interview for the pseudo-documentary.

After a year of denials and evasions, the truth was out, and it received some attention in the mainstream media. Yet this is only the tip of the iceberg. Continue reading NYPD Blues…

The Druze, a “singular people”


The current Islamophobia that sees states trying to adopt anti-sharia laws and painting Islam in the monocolored rhetoric of violent jihadism has a long history. So has the interest in converting those people in the Middle East who did not follow the kind of Christianity of the American and European missionaries. The Ottomans, who controlled much of the region up until the end of World War I, were rather tolerant in allowing Christian missionaries to operate in the Holy Land. I recently came across a little pamphlet published in 1853 by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, based in Boston. This was a series that targeted young people. The first part of the issue I have is about the Druze, characterized as a “singular people” who may or may not actually have a religion. I attach the brief item here.



Behold the Huthis


Huthi political rally near Sa’da this week

The ongoing political turmoil in Yemen has been overshadowed, and understandably so, by the increasing bloodshed in Syria, soccer riots in Egypt and lingering resistance by a few Qaddafi supporters in Libya. The past year of protests and revolution, unprophecied by political pundits, reminds me of a giant tire with so many holes that it is impossible to stop the air from escaping, even when one hole seems to be plugged. Meanwhile the road gets bumpier and bumpier in Yemen. Now for the latest recap… about-to-be-former President Ali Abdullah Salih is still in New York receiving medical treatment. He is in principle immune from prosecution, but certainly not immune from the continuing opposition to the excesses of his long rule in Yemen. A recently infused political form of Islam, known as Ansar al-Shari’a (with its own Facebook page) has all but replaced the infamous name Al-Qaida, in the south. The upcoming election, with one emerging compromise candidate for President, hardly seems headed for a democratic exercise apart from name only. Several aid workers were captured earlier this week and then released. And, behold the Huthis…

Al-Jazeera posts a video of a celebration of the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday in a remote area outside of the northern city of Sa’da. There on a platform etched against a barren landscape, a region less vibrant after almost eight years of conflict with the government that has left the ancient town of Sa’da in tatters, stood Abd al-Malik al-Huthi, the leader of the rebellion. Reports of his death at the hands of a government raid in 2009 are, as Mark Twain once noted about a premature obituary for himself, greatly exaggerated. While I do not doubt the sincerity of those present who celebrated the birth of the Prophet, the political flavor of the event certainly dominated the scenes shown on al-Jazeera.


Abd al-Malik al-Huthi speaking near Sa’da this week

Continue reading Behold the Huthis