[R-G] Don't be Silenced by Extremists

[Richard Menec]

I haven't read the essay Greg, but I trust your judgement.  Imperialism is
of course the driving force, and it will employ whatever is necessary to
control the world's resources in order to continue to exist, in order to
prevent collapse, in order to accumulate more wealth.  Unfortunately, that
also means getting powerful client states like Israel to act in its
interests.  Bombing Iraqi nuclear power stations is just one of many
examples.

Richard


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Greg Meyerson" <meyerson at worldnet.att.net>
To: "Radical anti-capitalist environmental discussion."
<rad-green at lists.econ.utah.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, March 01, 2006 8:07 AM
Subject: Re: [R-G] Don't be Silenced by Extremists


> hello:
>
>
> I read the petras essay, which argues that the the mideast wars are not
> about oil, in fact not about imperialism, but about Israel hijacking
> u.s. foreign policy, the tail wagging the dog.  we all know about
> u.s./israeli ties, neocons etc.  but marxist don't make this stuff
> PRIMARY.
>
>
>
>
> whatever this is, it's not a marxist analysis and I've always thought
> petras a marxist.  the categories of marxism are nowhere to be found in
> this essay.
>
>
> no even remotely sophisticated discussion of the geopolitics of oil.
>
>
> in one essay, called the "tyranny of israel over america," petras ends
> like I've never seen him end.
>
>
>
> Disastrous wars in the service of Israel may cause American citizens to
> reflect on and react to the tyranny of Israel over US foreign policy.
> Eventually we may even see the re-founding of an American Republic
> "free from foreign entanglements" to quote George Washington and from
> "Benedicts Arnolds" parading as US Senators.
>
>
> I've never read any of petras's books that contained such patriotic
> bullshit.  if it weren't for those israeli fifth columnists in the
> senate, we could go back to the great country of george washington,
> where real senators served the national interest.
>
>
> marxists:  doesn't this strike you as strange!!  perhaps petras has
> changed.  but whatever it is, it's not marxist.  do people on this list
> want to buy a conspiratorial analysis of u.s. foreign policy in
> mideast as driven not by imperialism but by service to Israel?  we
> gotta get our causal categories straight.
> On Mar 1, 2006, at 4:19 AM, Aaron wrote:
>
> >> Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2006 16:15:13 -0800
> >> From: shniad at sfu.ca
> >>
> >> http://tinyurl.com/gkxyr
> >>
> >> Toronto Star   February 28, 2006
> >>
> >> Don't be Silenced by Extremists
> >
> > One should never be silenced by the fear of being labelled
> > "extremist". And one should be wary of the views expressed by those
> > who use that word as a pejorative.
> >
> >> A plea from 11 Canadian Muslim academics and activists
> >>
> >> A curtain of fear has descended on the intelligentsia of the West,
> >> including Canada. The fear of being misunderstood as islamophobic has
> >> sealed their lips, dried their pens and locked their keyboards. With
> >> hundreds dead around the world in the aftermath of the now infamous
> >> Danish cartoons, Canada's writers, politicians and media have imposed
> >> a frightening censorship on themselves, refusing to speak their
> >> minds, thus ensuring that the only voices being heard are that of the
> >> Islamists and the racist Right..
> >
> > If those are the only voices the writers are hearing, they're not
> > doing much listening! I strongly recommend the article, The
> > Caricatures in Middle East Politics, by James Petras and Robin
> > Eastman-Abaya. It can be found at, among other places,
> > <http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=27388>.
> >
> >> Emboldened by the free reign they have received,
> >
> > Free reign to do what? Express impotent rage? Or does free speech only
> > apply to deliberate provocations by Zionist neo-con publishers?
> >
> >> Canada's Islamists and their supporters flexed their muscles at
> >> Queen's Park last week, with speakers promising to drown the Danish
> >> people "in their own blood". A protestor carried the sign "Kurt
> >> Westgaard - countdown to justice has begun ... it's just a matter of
> >> time." Elsewhere, in Pakistan, a Muslim woman was pictured carrying a
> >> sign, "God Bless Hitler",
> >
> > Wow! One Muslim out of approxiamately one billion expressed praise for
> > Hitler! Sounds like a trend!
> >
> >> and a Muslim cleric placed a million dollar reward for the murder of
> >> the Danish Cartoonist. Embassies were burned, churches ruined, and
> >> hundreds died in different Muslim countries.
> >>
> >> Undoubtedly, Muslims were angered by the insulting cartoons, but the
> >> overblown reaction was partly due to their pent-up frustrations, and
> >> partly the result of an orchestrated mischief of certain Islamist
> >> leaders. Islamic societies, run by variances of autocratic regimes,
> >> are in turmoil. Ravaged by rampant corruption, widening gap between
> >> rich and poor, and suppression of dissent, the people in these
> >> societies have lost hope in their own futures.
> >>
> >> The US-led invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, the unending occupation
> >> of the Palestinian territories and the quagmire of the Kashmiri
> >> dispute, has led many Muslims and non-religious peoples of Islamic
> >> origin, to view the 'West' as the source of their countries'
> >> problems.
> >
> > And what about the whole history of Western colonialism in the region?
> > What I find more disturbing than the exaggerated reaction to the
> > intentionally provocative cartoons is that there has NOT been a
> > massive, violent reaction against U.S., British and Israeli interests
> > in the Arab and Muslim worlds throught the entire last century!
> >
> >> The growing popularity of the Islamists in Muslim societies, the
> >> electoral success of the likes of Ahmadinejad in Iran, Shi'a radicals
> >> in Iraq, and Hamas in the Palestinian territories, rather than
> >> signifying the growing religiosity of the peoples of the Middle East,
> >> reflect political despair in the region.
> >>
> >> In the West, peoples of Muslim origin, be they religious or secular,
> >> are facing growing racism, Islamophobia, and discrimination reflected
> >> in immigration policies and anti-terrorist legislations.
> >>
> >> The cartoon crisis was the straw that broke the camel's back. The
> >> Islamists seized the opportunity and added fuel to fire. The
> >> calculated role played by the two Danish Islamists, backed by Islamic
> >> fundamentalist regimes, is a case in point. They not only aggravated
> >> an already inflammatory situation, but added their own infuriating
> >> images, never published in the West, as they took their case to
> >> clerics in the Middle East. Both, Imam Abu Laban and Ahmad Akkari
> >> have escaped the attention and scrutiny their acts deserved. These
> >> two men, who now sit in the comfort of their homes in Denmark, should
> >> be held accountable for their criminal actions.
> >
> > I'm curious what "criminal actions" are being referred to!
> >
> >> For too long the media has created an image that portrays communities
> >> from the Muslim world as a monolith entity, best represented by the
> >> Islamists. The media has created a false dichotomy that pits these
> >> Islamists against the West. The fact is that in all Muslim countries,
> >> progressive citizens are trying to break loose from the tyranny of
> >> the autocrats and clerics, and wish to develop a civil society where
> >> citizenship is based, not on inherited race or religion, but the
> >> equality of all, irrespective of faith, race, sexuality or gender.
> >
> > But not, unfortunately, in the Jewish state!
> >
> >> In Teheran today, the city's bus drivers are on strike. Thousands
> >> have been arrested; entire families have disappeared. Yet, this has
> >> not made a blip in the western media. Imagine, if the same bus
> >> drivers were burning books or embassies, this would certainly have
> >> been on the evening news. This is an appalling example that only
> >> outrageous, violent expressions of faith by Islamists are taken as
> >> the aspirations of people from Muslim societies.
> >>
> >> It is time for Canadians to stand up for the hard-won democratic
> >> values that the Islamists oppose. By rejecting the agenda of the
> >> Islamists, Canada's intelligentsia would be standing shoulder to
> >> shoulder with the Muslims and secular individuals from the region who
> >> reject both Islamophobia and Islamism. Islamism is not the new
> >> revolutionary movement against global forces of oppression, as a
> >> section of the Left in this country erroneously perceives.
> >>
> >> Today, the religious right and autocracies in the so-called Islamic
> >> world are united in their call for passing legislation to make any
> >> discussion on religion a criminal offence. This, at a time when many
> >> writers in Jordan, Iran, Yemen, Pakistan and Afghanistan are rotting
> >> in jails, facing charges of apostasy and blasphemy.
> >>
> >> We call on Canadian politicians and intellectuals to stand up for
> >> freedom of expression. Our democratic values, including free speech,
> >> should not be compromised under the garb of fighting hate. To fight
> >> Islamophobia and racism, we do not need to sacrifice free speech and
> >> debate.
> >
> > I hope they will stand up for freedom of expression when it offends
> > Christians and Jews (e.g., pornography and Holocaust revisionism), and
> > for the right to support movements that the Canadian and U.S.
> > governments label "terrorist"!
> >
> > More important is for Canadian politicians and intellectuals to oppose
> > Canadian complicity in the crimes of the U.S.-Britain-Israel Axis, and
> > especially Canada's key role in the invasion and occupation of Haiti.
> >
> >> Signed:
> >>
> >> 1. Jehad Aliweiwi, Former Executive Director, Canadian Arab Federation
> >> 2. Reem Bahdi, Associate professor, University of Windsor
> >> 3. Taj Hashmi, Associate professor, Simon Fraser University
> >> 4. Amir Hassanpour, Associate professor, University of Toronto
> >> 5. Tarek Fatah, Host, The Muslim Chronicle, CTS-TV
> >> 6. Tareq S. Ismael, Professor, University of Calgary
> >> 7. Jacqueline S. Ismael, Professor, University of Calgary
> >> 8. El-Farouk Khaki, Secretary General, Muslim Canadian Congress
> >> 9. Shahrzad Mojab, Associate professor, University of Toronto
> >> 10. Haideh Moghissi, Professor, York University
> >> 11. Munir Pervaiz, Secretary, Pakistan-Canadian Writers Forum
> >> 12. Saeed Rahnema, Professor, York University