Monthly Archives: April 2005

Abu Ghraib only the ‘tip of the iceberg’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The crimes at Abu Ghraib are part of a larger pattern of abuses against Muslim detainees around the world, Human Rights Watch said on the eve of the April 28 anniversary of the first pictures of U.S. soldiers brutalizing prisoners at the Iraqi jail.

“Abu Ghraib was only the tip of the iceberg,” said Reed Brody, special counsel for Human Rights Watch. “It’s now clear that abuse of detainees has happened all over – from Afghanistan to Guantánamo Bay to a lot of third-country dungeons where the United States has sent prisoners. And probably quite a few other places we don’t even know about.”

Human Rights Watch called this week for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the culpability of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and ex-CIA Director George Tenet, as well as Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, formerly the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the former commander of the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba in cases of crimes against detainees. It rejected last week’s report by the Army Inspector General which was said to absolve Gen. Sanchez of responsibility.

“General Sanchez gave the troops at Abu Ghraib the green light to use dogs to terrorize detainees, and they did, and we know what happened, said Brody. “And while mayhem went on under his nose for three months, Sanchez didn’t step in to halt it.”

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USA and political Islam are two sides of one coin (says crazed sectarian)

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Another classic of left Islamophobia from Maryam Namazie of the Worker Communist Party of Iran:

“It is political Islam that hangs the likes of sweet 16-year-old Atefeh Rajabi for ‘acts incompatible with chastity’ in city centres, stones Maryam Ayoubi for adultery, throws acid in the faces of those who refuse to veil, beheads prostitutes, and legally permits sexual apartheid and misogyny.

“All of you will have become uncomfortably familiar with this right-wing reactionary political movement from September 11 onwards when it went about its business as usual but this time outside its zone of influence and power. Political Islam and its ruling class would also turn this world into another Iraq if it could.

“This vile movement may make many claims as the USA does in order to legitimise its barbarity – from people’s liberation to democracy to rights – but they are only claims to dupe and legitimise. It cares as much for the liberation of the people of Palestine and Iraq as the USA does – not more, not less.

“Both will indiscriminately maim and slaughter the very people they claim to defend. One will behead Westerners feigning defence of women prisoners in Iraq with one hand whilst killing Iraqi women who refuse to veil with another. The other will feign a defence of rights through indiscriminate bombings whilst its soldiers’ boots are trampling over tortured naked bodies.”

Iranian.com, 26 April 2005

As usual, no distinctions are made between different tendencies within the broad category of “political Islam”, some of which are of course democratic-reformist in character, and an equals sign is placed between the world’s major imperialist power and the likes of Al-Qaida. I think most of us know which is the main threat to world peace. Evidently the WPI doesn’t.

‘Atomic Iran’ TV ad rejected

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Atomic IranA TV commercial warning Americans that Iran intends to launch a nuclear terror attack in the U.S. has been rejected by several stations due to fears it might inflame Muslims.

Titled “An Atomic 9-11: When Evil is Appeased,” the spot, sponsored by the Iran Freedom Foundation, is based on a scenario described in the new WND Books release “Atomic Iran: How the Terrorist Regime Bought the Bomb and American Politicians,” by Jerome R. Corsi, co-author of the best-selling “Unfit for Command.”

The ad, which can be viewed on the IFF website, began a month-long run last Tuesday in 17 markets nationwide. It was rejected, however, by independent stations in Chicago, Dallas and Roanoke, Va., according to the company that produced and distributed it, Fargo, N.D.-based TVAI, or Timeless Video Alternatives International.

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US tilts towards accepting Islamists’ political role

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“A chorus of voices demanding the Bush administration to listen and talk with popular Islamists in Arab and Muslim countries has reached a crescendo with senior officials recognizing the faulty policy of giving the cold shoulder to a more representative current. Media reports have suggested that the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) will seek to meet with leaders of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood during its upcoming visit to Egypt. The commission advises the US president, Congress and the State Department on international religious freedom worldwide.”

Islam Online, 26 April 2005

See also Islam Online, 13 April 2005 and 3 April 2005

Marc Lynch has also noted a rapprochement between the Bush administration and the Saudi monarchy, terming this “a pretty big setback for the neo-cons and hard-liners who have long identified Saudi Arabia and its export of Islamism as the premier threat to America in the region”.

Abu Aardvark, 26 April 2005

Or for a right-wing take on the change in US tactics, see David E. Kaplan’s article reporting that: “The White House has approved a classified new strategy, dubbed Muslim World Outreach, that for the first time states that the United States has a national security interest in influencing what happens within Islam. Because America is, as one official put it, ‘radioactive’ in the Islamic world, the plan calls for working through third parties – moderate Muslim nations, foundations, and reform groups – to promote shared values of democracy, women’s rights, and tolerance.”

US News, 25 April 2005

For an earlier indication of the shift in policy, see Condoleezza Rice’s speech to USIP on 19 August 2004, where she argued that the US government should “do everything that we can to support and encourage the voices of moderation and tolerance and pluralism within the Muslim world”.

US Consulate Mumbai press release, 20 August 2004

This prompted the question: “why is it that in the three years since 9/11 you haven’t given this kind of a speech to a Muslim audience in one of the five largest Muslim countries, nor has any senior administration official?” Rice replied: “That’s a very good question, maybe we should.”

Of course, this merely represents the adoption of a more pragmatic approach on the part of US imperialism. However, it does make things rather more difficult for the Islamophobes, right and left, who reject dialogue with any Islamists at all, or indeed with any Muslims less liberal than Irshad Manji.

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Maddening mullahs let young Muslims down (claims Muriel Gray)

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“… there were no theological surprises for those familiar with the principles of Islam, as naturally everything the young folk fancied doing, singing, dancing, even drawing human figures upon which a textile student required to sketch fashion designs, was simply forbidden. Why even ask?”

Muriel Gray watches Sharia TV.

Sunday Herald, 24 April 2005

The National Secular Society approvingly quotes the standfirst stating that “Islam is its own worst enemy in these times of street violence, race hatred and political malevolence”.

NSS Newsflash, 25 April 2005

Pope reaches out to Muslims after Mass snub

Posted on by Bob Pitt

One day after ignoring Islam and hailing the “great spiritual heritage” shared by Jews and Christians in his inaugural Mass, Pope Benedict XVI on Monday, April 25, welcomed progress in Christian-Muslim dialogue.

“I am particularly grateful for the presence in our midst of members of the Muslim community,” the pontiff said in a private audience with the leaders of other religions and Christian Churches, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

“I express my appreciation for the growth of dialogue between Muslims and Christians, both at the local and international level,” said the new leader of the Roman Catholic Church.

“I assure you that the Church wants to continue building bridges of friendship with the followers of all religions, in order to seek the true good of every person and of society as a whole,” added the 78-year-old pope.

In a homily marking his inauguration, Pope Benedict XVI paid homage to “my brothers and sisters” of the Jewish people, but failed to make any reference to Islam or Muslims.

Islam Online, 25 April 2005

Robert Spencer, who had anticipated a harder line on Islam from the new pontiff, is worried that this may be “a sign that this Pope will continue along a familiar path of dhimmitude”. He finds some reassurance in the thought that the Pope’s call on “those who profess to belong to religious traditions” to follow the path of peace “might have been a pointed declaration to his audience that they need to clean their own house”.

Dhimmi Watch, 25 April 2005

‘Washington finally gets it on radical Islam’ – Pipes is pleased

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Does the Bush administration really believe, as its leadership has kept repeating since right after 9/11, that Islam is a ‘religion of peace’ not connected to the problem of terrorism?” Daniel Pipes asks.

Front Page Magazine, 25 April 2005

Pipes takes comfort in the news that “America’s highest officials widely agree that the country’s ‘greatest ideological foe is a highly politicized form of radical Islam and that Washington and its allies cannot afford to stand by’ as it gains in strength. To fight this ideology, the U.S. government now promotes a non-radical interpretation of Islam.”

But Pipes is still not entirely convinced: “Working to change how Muslims understand their religion, of course, raises some difficult implications. It is one thing to want to help moderate Muslims and quite another to locate them.”

All the same, this marks a bit of a retreat from Pipes’ recent denunciations of the Bush administration for going soft on Islam. Is he perhaps angling for a reappointment to the USIP board?

US guards at Guantanamo tortured me, says UK man

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A British resident has claimed he was tortured by US guards at Guantanamo Bay, suffering violent sexual assaults, near drowning and an attack in which he was blinded. The Independent on Sunday has been given a detailed account from Omar Deghayes of repeated abuse by American and Pakistani interrogators over the past three years including electric shocks and sodomy by US guards.

The allegations, made by human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith, have persuaded British ministers to take up Mr Deghayes’s case. In some of the most disturbing allegations to emerge from Guantanamo, Mr Deghayes also accuses US and Pakistani interrogators of beating him repeatedly since his arrest three years ago, smearing his face with human excrement, starving him of food, and withdrawing light and clothing.

Independent on Sunday, 24 April 2005

US Muslims sue government over border detentions

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Five US Muslims sued the US Department of Homeland Security, accusing the US border agents of rights violation and racial profiling.

The suit, filed in US District Court on Wednesday, April 20, named Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff among four defendants in what the New York Civil Liberties Union called a case of profiling, according to Reuters on Thursday, April 21.

The three men and two women said the agents who detained them as they returned from an Islamic conference in Canada violated their rights, held them, along with dozens of other US Muslims. They added that they were interrogated, photographed and fingerprinted against their will in December 2004.

The lawsuit alleges that the plaintiffs, who were later released without charge, were singled out after telling customs officials they had attended a “Reviving the Islamic Spirit” conference in Toronto.

The suit does not seek monetary damages, but asks for a declaration that the government action was unlawful, an injunction against further enforcement of such policies and practices and erasing from all federal databases of information obtained from the plaintiffs, Reuters reported.

Islam Online, 21 April 2005

See also alt.muslim, 22 April 2005