It’s a little thought experiment I’d like to share with you all, and is basically a video of me talking, because I don’t want to write a long blog post that’s going to blind you to death.

The answers you come up with during this thought experiment are precisely the kind that have huge political consequences daily on the rights Mideast Youth fights for, and the freedoms we’re trying to advocate.

So, watch the video, and let me know in the comments section below…

… who would you trust more, Mr. X or Mr. Y?

The issue of Darfur is a political issue that bids militant groups that use violence to fight a legitimate government over perceived injustices

The Sudanese regime is NOT legitimate. A dictatorship is NEVER a legitimate government. This government came via a coup and wrecked havoc upon its own people throughout the whole country, even in the north. Moreover, the injustices are NOT perceived. They’re real. Just check this out, and you’ll know.

Secondly, I find it rather unfortunate that a post about this episode just had to, for some reason, include Israel in the picture. To me, it implies a conspiratorial mindset and seems by default to reject political pressure on a country when it comes from other powerful ones, even if this pressure could yield useful results. I could be wrong, but that is my perception.

Thirdly, I found the following naive:

That said however,President Bashir should do more to help his country to come out of this ugly war and bring Darfur and its tribes back to the fold of Sudan on equal footing with peaceful resolution to this tragic conflict.

Omar al-Bashir couldn’t care less about the people of his country, especially in regions populated by people from tribes he most probably views as “inferior.” The idea that Bashir “will” because apparently he “should” is silly. Won’t happen, and that’s why pressure is important, but it needs to be exerted strategically, and this where Ali Alarabi and I agree!

But with this indictment, the international community is exasperating the problem and complicates matters even worse especially for all of the innocent victims in Sudan.

Precisely. And this where I want to elaborate. I highly recommend my analysis for MEY’s readers.

June 20, 2008 (KAMPALA) — A coalition of Arab rights activists criticised the Islamic world for its silence on the atrocities and crimes committed in the troubled region of Darfur, Sudan.

In a statement issued on the sideline of the 35th OIC Council of Foreign Ministers Meeting, the Arab Coalition for Darfur blamed the Organisation of the Islamic Conference for focusing their concern on Iraq and Palestine.

“The suffering of Muslims in Darfur is as real as that happening in Iraq and Palestine,” the coalition said.

“The Islamic world’s response to the daily killings and suffering of millions of Muslims in Darfur has been largely silent, from both civil society as well as from institutions and majority of Islamic governments,” it said.

Yesterday the Ugandan President urged the OIC countries to accord some of their efforts and concern to Darfur crisis and southern Sudan peace process. He added that failure to resolve the Darfur issue would undermine the unity of the organisation.

The Arab rights coalition also underlined that negligence of Darfur crisis would not be good for the Islamic world. “The Islamic world must decide to end its wall of silence, before it is too late … More silence could be catastrophic on the Islamic community.”

The coalition is made up of human rights groups in Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, Algeria, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Libya, Mauritania, Kuwait, Palestine and Saudi Arabia.

The United Nations says up to 300,000 people have died from the combined effects of war, famine and disease and more than 2.2 million have fled their homes since the Darfur conflict broke out in February 2003.

Created by Arab activists last May in Cairo, the coalition urged the Arab heads of states to “use all their potential, relations and resources to stop the conflict.”

Initiated by the Arab Program for Human Rights Activists, the coalition includes rights activists from Sudan, Jordan, Bahrain, Algeria, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Libya, Mauritania, Kuwait and Egypt.

It’s a good move but I remain skeptical for good reasons. Darfur is super exaggerated, it’s a Jewish conspiracy remember? Oh yes, it is. Full stop. End of discussion.

Unless such a stupid mode of thinking gets eradicated, we will remain gullible and easily fooled into buying our dictators’ lies and falsehoods.

At the end of the day, I’m glad these activists are voicing their concerns out loud. I salute them!

Article Two of the new Iraqi constitution makes clear that “no law can be passed that contradicts the undisputed laws of Islam.” Likewise, Article Three of Afghanistan’s constitution states that “no law can be contrary to the beliefs and provisions of the sacred religion of Islam.”

Washington enthusiastically endorses each constitution, indicating that the Islamization of democracy is either harmless or unstoppable. In so doing, neo-cons have succumbed to the logic of the multicultural Left: namely, that’s the way those people do things over there and who are we to tell them otherwise?

Welcome to the essence of cultural relativism, the ideology that insists there is no universal standard of human dignity or decency. Thus, anything goes as long as it doesn’t directly affect me or my kids. How individualistic. How selfish. And how revealing that when it comes to re-building Iraq and Afghanistan, cultural relativism unites the post-modern Left and the neo-conservative Right.

Nice, so while we’re trying hard to push for the desperately needed reform of numerous aspects of Islamic law, here comes the Bush administration in support of constitutions espousing the very things we’re trying to eliminate.

Ali Eteraz points out that Iraqi feminists bemoan this and why shouldn’t they? Too often, they pay a hefty price.

Dear Bush administration, I thought you’re with us against the Islamists?

More over at Irshad’s blog. Meanwhile and on a related note, check out Sudanese singer Nancy Ajaj. Sudanese conservatives loathe her. I can’t understand how they could abhor someone so sweet.

• Muslim reformer’s ‘heresy’: The Islamic state is a dead end

I am so ecstatic over the publicity his immensely important scholarly work is receiving. It’s also cool to see an intellectually diverse group of people like him and Manji working together to achieve a common goal we all share.

People, we are seeing the real beginnings of a growing Islamic reformation movement! And since I’ve been a long time Ustaz Taha fan, I’d naturally like to see the ideas he inspired spearhead it. I swear, I am sooo loving this. More publicity for ‘Islam and the Secular State‘ please!

As for the Muslim Heretics Conference, Manji blogged about it here. I’m awaiting her upcoming thoughts on Geert Wilder’s ‘Fitna’.

Recently, Irshad launched the Moral Courage Project, which I believe deserves attention here since I find that Mideast Youth exemplifies the essence of MCP’s purpose in many ways.

Two weeks ago, the first featured guest hosted by Manji was none other than the Sudanese Muslim scholar Prof. Abdullahi An-Na’im who recently launched new book “Islam and the Secular State“, one I’ve been anxiously looking forward to.

These are some of the ideas Abdullahi presents in it:

* “I do believe that it is possible, indeed necessary, to reinterpret Islamic sources in order to affirm and protect freedom of religion and belief. This is my position as a Muslim, speaking from an Islamic perspective, and not simply because freedom of religion and belief is a universal human rights norm…”

* “The possibility of belief in anything logically requires choice in the matter, as one cannot believe in anything without the freedom and ability to disbelieve it.”

I don’t know about you but this certainly excites me – a book full of concrete Islamic arguments and rooted in Islamic tradition calling for separation of religion and the state, and challenging the current Islamist status-quo of the Muslim world.

If you have time, check out the site of the upcoming conference which will feature An-Na’im’s work. It’s Heretic Muslims – A Celebration of Heresy Conference: Critical Thinking for Islamic Reform. I love the whole idea behind the “heresy” theme. Very interesting and deeply thought-provoking.

I think it’s cool that Irshad is featuring such intellectuals and collaborating with them to achieve common goals. I’ll be keeping track of MCP and Manji’s guests in the coming months. I encourage you to do the same. Like I said, I think the Moral Courage Project is highly relevant to this site.

anybody interested in posting once in a while over at Darfur-Awareness? A reader emailed me in today expressing disappoint over the lack of updates there. She’s right and I take full responsibility for that. I’ve gotten awfully busy lately and the frequency of posts is far from enough. I can hardly keep up with my online responsibilities thanks to being a final semester student and the upcoming book I’m writing.

Any volunteers? I could really use some help. It would be cool if we could pump up the pace of things.

Drop a comment if you’re interested.

Tehran’s police chief, Reza Zarei, has been arrested after he was found nude in a local brothel with six naked prostitutes, the Farda news website reported Wednesday.

… Over the past year Zarei was in charge of enforcing the Islamic dress code on Iranian women with the purpose of “moralizing of the city.”

It is alleged that in the past six months, hundreds of young people have been arrested in Iran for not respecting the Islamic code of behavior.

The immensity of this disgusts me but hardly surprises me. Are they gonna stone him to death? Lash his filthy butt? Oh yeah, like that’s ever gonna happen. You see, “Islamic” law is just a way to gain power, oppress people and hide behind a veil of piety.

Gosh, I need a glass of ice cold water. Muslim Heretics Conference anyone?

I get the same type of reactions and comments from Sudanese and Muslim conservatives about how I shouldn’t mention topics related to it on my blog.

Well, here’s the thing. It’s not like we’re talking about it 24/7 or promoting it. Blogs are a great means for public discussion (the only real ones in our “free” countries) and hence we use them to talk about the issue.

Ever heard of AIDS or HIV? No? How about prostitution? Don’t these issues involve bringing up the topic of sss… erm… ssee… Gosh, I’m so scared to say it. Okay, read the following backwards, xes. Yes, that word… we’re so afraid of hearing it because God forbid we naughty boys might end up with irreversible erections, right?

Excuse me, but most people don’t even realize the extent of how much room there was for sex to be discussed within the Islamic tradition a long time ago (before the lovely rise of Wahhabism and Taliban-mentality, or before many aspects of true Islam got buried under a pile of man-made cultural crap).

Check out what the guys at SunniPath, a traditionalist Islamic online resource, have to say for example:

The origins of Islamic erotic literature probably lie in early Abbasid Baghdad, where a fusion took place in educated circles between ancient Arab poetic traditions of amatory verse which described female beauty and the act of love with considerable frankness, and the translation of Indian texts.

… The genre is, when maintained within the fiqh boundaries, a legitimate branch of the Islamic sciences

… There are several works on the subject by Imam al-Suyuti, but apparently the most influential such text by an alim was the Ruju’ al-shaykh ila sibah fi’l-quwwa ala al-bah, by the great Shaykh al-Islam Kemal Pasha-zade, the leading scholar of the Ottoman state in the time of Selim I.

There is certainly a case for producing an advanced manual in English drawing on Islam’s rich legacy in this field.

OMG! A MANUAL? A SEX MANUAL so we can have better, ehm, “boom boom”? These perverted Muslims must be beheaded! How evil!

Here’s a suggestion. Let’s flush down the toilet the oppressive patriarchal aspects of our cultures and revive the lost, beautiful spirituality and openness of our faith.

I discovered this excellent documentary by accident while watching stuff on YouTube. It affirms what I already knew.

As China gets bigger, it will need increasing amounts of energy to fuel its growth. That’s where countries like Sudan come in. Sure, investment is great but the “no strings attached” manner in which China is conducting things is what heavily bothers me.

Watch the documentary for more. This is part 1 of 7:

Here are the rest:

- Part 2
- Part 3
- Part 4
- Part 5
- Part 6
- Part 7

What would happen if we threw a bunch of religious lunatics together in a small tiny room and left them inside for a while? Imagine them all – Talibani dudes, Hamas bearded men, half a dozen Jewish Kahane fans, and a few Pat Robertson followers – locked up together for two weeks.

Add a video camera into the equation and (drum roll) we’ve got ourselves a reality TV show! We can call it “The Holy Room” and it will come with some interesting and brain twisting challenges for its religious fundies to participate in. The prize? A billion dollars to use for whatever religious cause they might have – good or sinister. The best part? They must work together and get along during some challenges (like how it’s done in Survivor and The Apprentice).

Losers get killed by beheading. Or worse, they’ll be forced to watch porn on the gigantic indestructible TV screen inside their tiny residence. Ah, you know what? Make that gay porn – with a Marilyn Manson soundtrack.

Questions during challenges will include debating things like free will Vs predestination. We can even ask them if they think Jesus was black and if Hindus should get control over Jerusalem. The results can’t be all that bad and the entertainment will be priceless!

So? Who wants to join me? Any investors interested? Come on people, we can make history and some decent money with this shit.

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry over this:

My message to southerners whom are living in khartoum right now. Be careful if you become sick make sure not to be treated by arab Doctors they will inject you with HIV, I warned you about this two years ago, but many of you didn’t listen, at last two years many of southerns have been injected with HIV in Khartoum Hospitals, I got this message from Dr I trust. As southern women if you get pregnant travel to south for delivery to avoid three deadly things,
1- Not to be circumcise during the delivery
2- Not to be inject you and your child with HIV during delivery
3- To avoid not to be pregnant again, that will be your last child, the new arab’s policy is southerns lives in Khartoum don’t have to have more then one child and that policy will be worst after separation.I warn you.

Sigh! I think I’m beginning to understand how Jews feel.

By the way, my blog The Sudanese Thinker has been nominated for a blogging award. Please vote for it here.

As long as our governments keep feeding us with anti-Semitic garbage and we keep believing it, we’ll continue digging the stinking hole we’re stuck in deeper and we shall remain “intoxicated”.

This is a primary reason for why I think we Arab Muslims should use blogs as alternative sources of information about the real Jews, not the dehumanized ones we’re taught about in school and shown 24/7 in our government sponsored media. Best of all, blogs don’t just spread raw information from the bloggers behind them, but they also allow interaction with them. (Imagine how Web 3.0 technologies will be like in a few years from now).

Thank God for the blogosphere. It has opened my eyes to so much. As you may be able to tell, I have become deeply passionate about this new medium of communication. Too bad there are way too many of us who still remain blind and/or don’t want to leverage its power.

Anyways, Ahmadinejad is a freaking lunatic and the way he exploits the Holocaust is wickedly smart but nonetheless sickening.

Oh and don’t forget, Darfur is a Jewish conspiracy. Only 9,000 people died so far.

My parents pray 5 times a day, everyday, and while they encouraged me to do the same as a child, they never forced me to do so against my own will. I was free to make my own choices. Eventually I chose to follow my dad once in a while to the neighborhood mosque, a mosque that was blessed with a young charismatic Imam possessing a very beautiful voice. He had the ability to sing the Koran so beautifully, your mind got swept to a peaceful realm so far away, you never had to worry about a single thing. It was then that I slowly began to develop the habit of praying.

Now at 20, with ever-increasing stress-causing factors, prayer just keeps getting better. Why do I do it? Simple. It’s a form of meditation (when performed right).

It’s not just a set of “up and down” movements. It’s certainly not out of greed for heaven, and it’s surely not out of fear of hell’s eternal inferno. Those are both common views, which in my opinion, are unfortunately over-emphasized and hammered into our heads from a very young age sometimes. They should be minimal reasons for praying.

I pray because it’s calming, because it’s soothing and because it’s relaxing. It feels best when I’m not in a hurry. It feels absolutely best when performed as if it’s the last prayer I’ll ever have the chance to perform.

Some pop Xanax to relax themselves. Some listen to Bob Marley and smoke marijuana while ignoring all the associated health risks. Others practice a little Yoga. If Islam was a burden, I would have given it up a long time ago, and hence I prefer to pray 5 times a day.

(Cross-posted from The Sudanese Thinker)

NOTE: Before getting accused of being all kinds of vile things, let me clearly state that I do not think less of any woman who wears the hijab. What’s inside a woman’s head matters way more than what’s on top of it. In addition to that, the majority of my female relatives wear the hijab.

——————————-

I’m not an advocate of the hijab. I’m not an advocate of harsh secular laws that ban religious garments and symbols either. A Muslim woman should be free to choose whether she wants to cover her hair or not. Sadly, in various Muslim countries that’s not the case, thanks to genius Islamic scholars and brainwashed hijabi Muslim women who parrot the former’s lines.

Common Islamic logic in such societies says that Muslim women must follow the strict Islamic female dress code.

When leaving the home, a Muslim woman must at least cover her hair and body in loose and unrevealing clothing, obscuring the details of her body from the public; some also choose to cover their face and hands. The wisdom behind this dress code is to minimize sexual enticement and degradation in society as much as possible for both men and women.

If they don’t do so in countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and previously even Sudan, they get harassed and intimidated. Wonderful, I know. However when it comes to men, the Islamic male dress code flies out of the window.

A man must always be covered in loose and unrevealing clothing from his navel to his knee. This is the absolute minimum covering required. He must never, for example, go out in public wearing a short bathing suit.

Behold! I present to you last World Cup’s Iranian football team.

Let’s dance and celebrate the double standards! But before we do that, please allow his Excellency Mufti Drima, the Sudanese Thinker to issue a Fatwa which all Muslims must blindly follow if they want to avoid eternal pain in the fires of hell.

It’s the moral duty of Ahmadinejad to punish the Iranian football team for revealing their hairy thighs and knees. The same goes for the House of Al Saud and other genius, wise, hijab advocating Islamic scholars. Moreover, since rape crimes are on the rise, female “moving black tents” (also known as ninjas) must not be allowed to walk in public. The way they move even when fully covered is still too tempting. From now on they’ll be transported inside boxes. Little eleven year old girls might have the same fate too. While we’re at it, let’s also reform Sharia laws so that boys as young as 7 will be forced to wear their own ninja costumes since many pedophiles are finding it difficult to control their extreme urges.

End of Fatwa.

Please spread the word or else Satan will bite you in your sleep tonight.

You may dance now.

(Cross-posted from The Sudanese Thinker)

(hat tip: Amal A)

(Cross-posted from The Sudanese Thinker)

- A huge and abundant amount of natural resources.
- Enormous expanses of fertile land.
- Diverse wild life.
- A highly-skilled and well-educated large Diaspora.
- Ancient sites and ruins dating back thousands of years to the Nubian Civilization.
- Unique geographic location.
- Afro-Arab identity.

Weaknesses:

- Underdeveloped infrastructure.
- High illiteracy rate and underdeveloped human capital.
- Extremely poor leadership.
- Rampant corruption.
- Lack of human rights.
- Lack of rule of law.
- Extreme disparity in wealth allocation.
- Ongoing identity crisis.
- Widespread tribalism.
- Victimhood mentality thanks to post-colonial hangover.

Opportunities:

- Attracting tons of foreign investment.
- Developing vast oil reserves.
- Big biotechnology and agricultural initiatives.
- Tourism (Red Sea resorts, developing Ancient Nubian ruins, wild life parks etc.)
- Port Sudan, a stopping location for ships passing in and out of the Suez Canal.
- Economic growth that is not reliant solely on oil.
- Bridging Africa and the Arab world.

Threats:

- Potential rebellions breaking out elsewhere besides Darfur.
- Possibility of war breaking out again if South decides to separate.
- China hindering democratic progress.
- More US sanctions.
- Intervention in Darfur.
- Increasing sectarianism and tribalism.
- The continuing spread of HIV/AIDS.
- al-Qaeda.
- Sharing our endless border with 9 countries.

(Mubarak al-Fadil)

KHARTOUM, July 15 (Reuters) – Sudanese authorities have arrested 17 people including opposition leader Mubarak al-Fadil and retired military officers, accusing them of trying to overthrow the government, state security leaders said on Sunday.

Fadil and Abdel Jalil al-Basha, both of the Umma breakaway party, were arrested in the early hours of Saturday morning. Fadil’s party denied the accusations.

“Their plan was to overthrow the government, but it was very weak,” Mohamed Abdallah Atta, deputy head of Sudan’s state security organ, told reporters. “They were ready to fight for seven days,” he added.

He said the group had wanted to execute their plan on July 15 but, lacking arms and soldiers, they had decided to delay and meet again on July 20. Lacking support, they planned instead to cause chaos in the capital.

Atta said the group planned to bring 1,000 conscripts from South Kordofan state in central Sudan, but only 30 had arrived in the capital.

He said Fadil was the group coordinator and was now in Kobar prison, but others were still being questioned by state security. Those charged would be taken to court, he added.

Atta said contacts had been made with undisclosed foreign countries, but said no neighbouring Arab country was involved.

And then…

July 16, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese government accused the US for the first time of involvement in a sabotage plot foiled yesterday.

US Embassy in Khartoum responds…

July 16, 2007 (KHARTOUM, Sudan) — The American embassy in Khartoum denied Monday allegations by Sudanese officials that the U.S. was involved in an alleged plot to destabilize the government.

“We categorically deny any connection with this alleged conspiracy,” the U.S. embassy said in a statement.

Hehehehe… I’m finding this finger pointing really amusing. But seriously though, I’m quite skeptical about this so called attempted coup. I’m even way more skeptical America had anything to do with it. After all the NCP is cooperating with the CIA extensively. Why mess that up? It’s all just distractions from important issues I say.

I asked a few people about their reactions and read some by other Sudanese. Iraq’s experience is what most fear (that includes me). A few year’s ago before the invasion, I remember people would usually be happy to hear or contemplate this kind of stuff. Now? “Nope, too risky, we don’t want Khartoum turning into another Baghdad” they say.

It’s sickening what those filthy butchers are trying to inflect upon innocent people. But what sickens me even more is how too many Muslims are in denial that we have a major major problem. “Oh it must be the Jooooz!” they proclaim. Don’t let me forget the other retards like far-leftist Alex Jones who simply help reinforce the denial syndrome too many Muslims suffer from. We need more of the Sabir types.

Of course, the overwhelming majority of Muslims are not terrorists, nor are all terrorists Muslim. But we’d be kidding ourselves if we claimed that a disproportionate number of terrorists aren’t Muslim or that the most destructive and deadly terrorist attacks aren’t perpetrated by Muslims fighting under the banner of Islam. Furthermore, terrorism is but an extreme manifestation of a rejectionist mentality that is all too common amongst Muslims. Though few Muslims attempt to justify terrorist attacks, many steadfastly deny that Muslims were ultimately responsible, attributing them to elaborate conspiracy theories in which the Muslim hijackers/bombers were unwitting pawns in a grand plot directed by America/Israel/India/Freemasons. Even if such views are to be taken at face value, their advocates seem disturbingly unconcerned about the propensity of Muslims to be brainwashed and unwittingly recruited into shadowy non-Muslim conspiracies.

Read it all here.

Too often I come across those 2 types of Muslims, the terrorist supporters and the ones in denial. The ones in denial are drowned in victimhood. As for the ones who support the Bin Laden types, they’re just blinded by anger and pure hatred. I know a few people who fit that category and I remember debating with them recently. They were still persistent in their support of Bin Laden. I then asked them a few simple questions. “What kind of life do you think you and your sisters will have once those people are in power and ruling over us? What kind of harsh Sharia do you think they’ll be shoving down our throats? If I rewind back time, would you like to live under the Taliban in Afghanistan?” … and suddenly… silence.

(hat tip for picture: Umar Lee)

Anger and hatred are powerful intoxicants. I fear we won’t wake up until it’s too late. This cancer is spreading too fast within our Muslim communities.

My intention with this series of posts isn’t to answer questions or provide solutions. I’m simply pondering and thinking aloud in the hope of getting you to think along.

Growing up, I’ve had too many mostly seemingly unrelated interests and lacked a focus on one particular topic. More recently however there has been a convergence occurring in my mind, a convergence which I’m very excited about.

I sincerely believe that one of the biggest things holding us Muslims, Africans and Arabs back from moving forward is the collective state of mind we’re entrenched in and suffering from. Victimhood. But this is only a symptom of a deeper underlying problem, and that is a collective paranoia based on the premise that we’re under siege. It’s this deep paranoia that is crippling us and consuming our energy. Many, if not most of us are so obsessed and focused on outside threats or “threats” to such an extent, that it makes us lose the focus desperately needed to solve our internal issues.

How did that become our reality? How do we deal with it? These simple questions awakened me to the immense complexities we face if we are ever to truly progress.

I’m a huge fan of personal-success literature. In fact I like it so much that if I were the minister of education of any country, I’d make it part of the education syllabus. I’m dead serious. My most favorite author of all time is none other than Napoleon Hill. Anthony Robbins has also written some pretty good books. Moreover, he once said “the only thing that’s keeping you from getting what you want is the story you keep telling yourself.”

The story we keep telling ourselves is a negative one infested with victimhood. How do we change that? I believe a large part of “the answer” lies within personal-success literature and studies related to the sociology of knowledge. One particular topic that has recently captured my attention is social constructionism, originally born out of the book “The Social Construction of Reality“.

The Social Construction of Reality is a classic book in the sociology of knowledge written by Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann and published in 1966.

The work introduced the term social construction into the social sciences. The central concept of The Social Construction of Reality is that persons and groups interacting together in a social system form, over time, concepts or mental representations of each other’s actions, and that these concepts eventually become habituated into reciprocal roles played by the actors in relation to each other. When these roles are made available to other members of society to enter into and play out, the reciprocal interactions are said to be institutionalised. In the process of this institutionalisation, meaning is embedded in society. Knowledge and people’s conception (and belief) of what reality is becomes embedded in the institutional fabric of society. Social reality is therefore said to be socially constructed.

The vast majority of people have the intellectual capacity to learn, do and become what they want. However the majority of those same people unfortunately don’t have the emotional capacity to step up to the challenges. IQ is great, but EQ is more important. A reality infested with victimhood only escalates the problem further.

There is a significant overlap between personal-success literature and what has been written about social constructionism. Also as a blogger or a person who reads sociopolitical blogs regularly, you’d realize that the internet and blogging are playing an increasing role in the social construction of reality for people around the world with access to cyberspace. Furthermore the effectiveness of the construction and or deconstruction of social reality is determined by various aspects including two things which I already have deep interests in, marketing and knowledge management.

Dominating the market place of ideas will only occur through better marketing, and that requires a thorough understanding of the audience we’re communicating our ideas to, which again brings us back to what the social reality of that audience is in the first place. What constitutes knowledge and what doesn’t to a particular society? In the West there is a higher emphasis on empiricism rather than revelation. In the Muslim world, the emphasis is instead generally on revelation. How can the proliferation of communication technologies and the internet be harnessed to spread empowering ideas that can bring about a positive mentality shift? If that happens, will it deal a sufficient and major blow to the victimhood mentality we generally suffer from? Those are just some of the questions that will be keeping me busy for the coming months (maybe even years).

I have a lot to read, consume, digest and learn. It’s fun. These are extraordinary times we live in. Who knows? Maybe I’ll be able to live and see the beginnings of the Sudan I envision, a Sudan with the best of Sudan, the UAE, America, Malaysia, Turkey, Europe and South Africa.

Information is like a drug and so I read to get my high.

(cross-posted from The Sudanese Thinker)

Darfur in the minds of different people constitutes and means different things. This is due to the fact that we, the general public around the world are getting exposed to a tirade of conflicting views and information. As that continues, so will our polarization. Therefore, the long and seemingly endless debates will keep stretching and as that happens, innocent lives will continue perishing.

There is hence a need to bring diverging opinions closer together by assessing and analyzing the views on both sides and presenting the results in a non-politicized context as best as possible. This is extremely important if we truly want to appease the situation.

Darfur in the Minds of Westerners

If you ask any person in America or the West who’s heard about the Darfur conflict what they know about it, they’ll most probably tell you, “it’s a genocide being waged by Arabs against Africans” and that “the United States and the UN must intervene to protect innocent lives”. That’s about all they know. Why is that?

When it comes to awareness, the massive majority of Americans are only listening to one main organization. The Save Darfur Coalition. It’s their story and narrative that the American people pay most attention to, a story, which doesn’t focus on important root causes such as water shortage and desertification. It’s a story that has made the conflict seem primarily racial in nature when it’s really not. Furthermore, it’s a story that doesn’t accurately portray the true situation and that some say has become politicized.

The Save Darfur Coalition is oversimplifying the Darfur conflict. That doesn’t help because when people don’t understand how complex things are, the solutions applied have a much higher possibility of exacerbating the situation rather than appeasing it.

Sleepless in Sudan, shares a similar view in a blog entry dated back 2 years ago when she was an aid worker in Darfur:

Find out more. The conflict in Darfur may be complex and the context somewhat daunting, but it’s hard to help when you’re ignorant about the issues involved. It’s going to be a lot easier for you to help the people of Darfur if you try to understand the situation and use your knowledge to take certain actions

…No matter how good your intentions, uninformed opinions or arguments will not take you very far.

Understanding the situation is indeed crucial.

Darfur in the Minds of Muslims and Arabs

For most Muslims and Arabs who have heard about Darfur, the conflict is one, which has been over exaggerated by Zionists in an attempt to use it as a pretext for invading Sudan and getting to the wealth of natural resources it possesses. These include oil and uranium. As a result many Muslims and Arabs simply downplay the seriousness of the violence. Others completely deny it even exists. Why is that?

The Khartoum government and their supporters successfully managed to deflect people’s attention away from the reality. They did that by playing “the Israel Card”. In the Arab and Muslim worlds, pointing the finger at Zionists tends to work extremely well.

The True Reality of Darfur

Arabs Vs Africans?

The portrayal of the Darfur conflict primarily as “a genocide waged by Arabs against Africans” is an inaccurate oversimplification. This article will provide you with an idea of what Darfur is really about and the complexity of its state of affairs. It doesn’t stop there though. There’s more and the following stresses it further:

Ahmed Mohamed Haroun is one of the two named by the ICC as suspected war criminals involved in Darfur. This is a picture of him.

Does he look Arab to you?

The Khartoum government is not waging war in Darfur because it’s primarily interested in wiping out certain ethnic African populations. All the Khartoum government mainly cares about is fighting the rebellion and maintaining its solid grip on power in the country. It’s primarily an issue of wealth and power sharing. Only after that do ethnic and tribal factors come into play. The recently settled eastern conflict in Sudan further proves this point. The Khartoum government has marginalized the inhabitants of eastern Sudan just like it has done to Darfur (and Southern Sudan) even though the tribes in eastern Sudan consist of ethnic Afro-Arabs and ethnic Arabs who crossed the Red Sea from the Arabian Peninsula about a century ago.

The recent discovery of oil in Darfur is also a factor. Part 4 of Inside Sudan, by VBS sheds more light on this.

The Scale of Violence

In today’s Internet Age, hiding the death and destruction occurring in Sudan’s western region simply isn’t going to work. There are thousands of videos and pictures available online for anyone to see. Moreover accessing Google Earth and zooming into Darfur via satellite, reveals extra surprises. People can disagree about statistics and numbers but there is no question as to how bad and horrific the situation in Darfur is.

Downplaying the mass violence and pretending it doesn’t exist is morally wrong. It indicates a lack of respect for Sudanese lives. Furthermore, pointing the finger solely at the Zionists and retreating back into a state of denial doesn’t help ease the suffering of millions of women and children struggling in Darfur and in refugee camps.

The Agenda Behind Darfur: The Enablers & Turabi’s Role

The Agenda

It would be very naïve to think that there’s no agenda behind what’s happening in Darfur. One does exist.

We always witness talk in the mainstream media about China and how it’s “the enabler of genocide”. It’s a good thing that China is being put under scrutiny for its enabling role in this conflict but… what about the rebels? Who are their enablers? From where are they getting their financing? Which parties are providing it to them and why?

How can the rebels afford their ongoing war against al-Bashir’s NCP dominated Khartoum government? How can they afford their travel expenses in and out of European countries?

Certain groups are providing them with the financial means to do so. The question is who? Moreover and more importantly what is the agenda of those financiers? They certainly have one. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be financing Darfur’s rebels in the first place. In politics, nothing comes for free.

It’s known that Chad allegedly provides the rebels support. It’s also known that wealthy Darfurian businessmen overseas outside Sudan provide support too. What isn’t well known and focused on in the Western mainstream media however is the agenda of regime change some powerful groups have in mind. The influential right-wing organization Project for the New American Century, for example has the following published on their website:

Now it’s time for the threats to end and the consequences to begin. After all, in addition to the humanitarian imperative, the United States has a strategic interest in Sudan. Khartoum is one of seven regimes on the U.S. government’s list of state sponsors of terrorism, and Sudan’s dictatorship has had ties with almost every significant terrorist organization in the broader Middle East. Al Qaeda was based in Sudan during the 1990s, and other terrorist groups continue to operate there freely. This month Die Welt reported that Syria and Sudan have been collaborating in developing chemical weapons and may have used them against civilians in Darfur. Thus, in moving against Khartoum for its human rights abuses, we will also be striking a blow in the war on terrorism.

Al-Bashir’s worries are not baseless. The United States and Israel did after all support the Southern Sudanese militarily and financially against the Northerners during the long and bloody Southern- Northern Sudanese civil war which raged on for more than 2 decades.

That shouldn’t come as a surprise. It was in their interests to destabalize a hostile regime.

Are Darfurian rebels receiving support from the United States and Israel directly or indirectly through neighbouring countries like Chad?

Professional journalists and the Western mainstream media should definitely dedicate more time to answering this question.

Turabi’s Role

Many aren’t aware of Turabi’s role in the Darfur conflict. The following are excerpts highlighting his involvement:

1-

Although analysts have emphasized the racial and ethnic aspects of the conflict in Darfur, a long-running political battle between Sudanese President Omar Hassan Bashir and radical Islamic cleric Hassan al-Turabi may be more relevant.

A charismatic college professor and former speaker of parliament, Turabi has long been one of Bashir’s main political rivals and an influential figure in Sudan. He has been fingered as an extremist; before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks Turabi often referred to Osama bin Laden as a hero. More recently, the United Nations and human rights experts have accused Turabi of backing one of Darfur’s key rebel groups, the Justice and Equality Movement, in which some of his top former students are leaders.

Because of his clashes with Bashir, Turabi is usually under house arrest and holds forth in his spacious Khartoum villa for small crowds of followers and journalists. But diplomats say he still mentors rebels seeking to overthrow the government.

2-

Dr Khalil Ibrahim, a protege of Islamist hardliner Dr Hasan al-Turabi. Formed in November 2002, JEM is increasingly recognised as being part and parcel of Dr Turabi’s Popular Congress. Time magazine has described JEM as “a fiercely Islamic organisation said to be led by Hassan al-Turabi” and that Turabi’s ultimate goal is “the presidential palace in Khartoum and a stridently Islamic Sudan”. [2] Khalil is a long-time associate of Turabi’s and served as a state minister in Darfur in the early 1990s before serving as a state cabinet-level advisor in southern Sudan. Ibrahim was a senior member of the Islamist movement’s secret military wing.

Proposed Solution

1. A well-informed individual is a more effective and capable individual. Understanding the conflict thoroughly is vital for the achievement of any real long-term peace.

2. Just as al-Bashir’s NCP dominated Khartoum government is playing a war role, so are the rebels. Before any negotiations for a comprehensive and inclusive peace agreement take place, the fighting needs to stop. The enablers on both sides can make that happen (if they’re actually interested).

3. Turabi’s involvement needs to be addressed and dealt with.

4. The peace agreement has to be satisfactory to the rebels and the Khartoum government needs to make some concessions that address some of the key rebel demands. Otherwise any agreement will be a meaningless piece of paper.

Darfur’s innocent women and children have suffered for way too long.

PS: As usual your comments and criticisms are welcome.

I go into deep modes of thought during such low moods. “Liberation, my foot” would usually be a thought but there were other ones that came into mind too. America did liberate Iraq. Bush did liberate Iraq.

It’s true! Hold up for a second, have a glass of cold water and try to relax. I think there’s something many of us are conveniently forgetting. A few years ago, when the American army arrived in Baghdad, they weren’t greeted with many bombs and bullets, some but not many. They were generally welcomed by Baghdadis. And when Saddam’s statue fell, everyone cheered and celebrated. It was a very symbolic moment, a media spectacle, sure, yes, but nonetheless a powerful symbolic moment. So, there you go, America did liberate Iraq. I emphasize the word “did” though. It’s past tense. I don’t see any “liberation” now. All I see is blood and death. So what happened between now and then?

Here’s what happened. Rumsfailed failed to maintain order and security. Baathists were sacked and the mother of disasters happened, the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. It was the main event in my opinion, which caused anti-Americanism in Iraq and the region to shoot up sky high and in effect helped give rise to the current situation. A new government unfortunately seeking revenge was also brought into power. The bad news just kept coming and coming. America screwed up. Bush screwed up. Dickhead Cheney screwed up. Rumsfailed screwed up. They mismanaged the war badly but the terrorists and militias went beyond that. They started terrorizing and spilling the blood of their own people. I can understand if they only fought the invading forces. I can’t be mad at them for that. After all that’s legitimate resistance and nobody would like someone to invade his or her home. They didn’t fight legitimately and today the vast volume of innocent blood is spilled by them, not the Americans or coalition forces. On the contrary, the American forces are trying to help maintain security but everyday we still see the terrorists persisting.

I’m not sure, how badly the Iraqi state of affairs will continue to deteriorate or whether things will improve anytime soon but I am sure of one thing. If, I repeat if, order and security is back and if Iraqis start seeing peace, prosperity and justice in the coming years, then I believe Bush will go down in history as a liberator. If that doesn’t happen, then he will forever be remembered as an evil warmonger and will go down in history as one of the worst presidents in modern times.

Meanwhile, just remember and try not to forget that America did liberate Iraq, but only very briefly. At the moment, things are a mess.