Way back in high school, I read The Good Fight by Ralph Nader. That was probably the first time I remember feeling a direct connection between the vaguely rebellious political spirit I had developed earlier, and the actual realities of the American political system. It was probably the first time I internalized the term “grassroots activism” slash democracy slash participation–whatever: the point was, it’s up to you as an ordinary person to make it happen, not elected “leaders.”

Nowadays, people blame Ralph Nader for “giving” the election to George Bush in 2000. I see in this claim a very misguided scorn: rather than attack the man who, according to every constitutional, legal, ethical, and moral standard was perfectly fine in running, perhaps some attention should be paid to the broken electoral system that allows an individual who failed to be chosen by a majority of Americans to take power. Rather than allow that frustration of Bush’s first election to dissipate throughout the years, perhaps we should have gathered our anger and made a strong push for solid electoral reform to democratize future American elections. Then again, much of this scorn was produced by the Democratic Party machine in the first place: so it’s not surprising that electoral reform (a threat to both institutionalized parties) would not have made the agenda. [Read more →]

Tags: Tags: barack obama, ralph nader // 17 Comments »

A few days ago, Hossam posted about the arrest and imprisonment of Khaled Hamzah Salim, an Egyptian engineer and the Editor-in-Chief of IkhwanWeb.com, the English-language website of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.

Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak, for whom George Bush and Condaleeza Rice have never failed to show their great appreciation, is currently in the process of thwarting efforts by the Muslim Brotherhood (Egypt’s most cogent political social force outside of the regime apparatus) to participate in upcoming municipal elections around Egypt (which already were delayed for 2 years back in 2006 because Mubarak feared that the Muslim Brothers would sweep in the elections).

According to Hossam, Khaled Salim was one of the leading individuals encouraging younger members of the Brotherhood to take an active role through new media like blogging. Abdel Mon`im I believe was the one who broke the news of Khaled’s arrest at his blog Ana Ikhwan–some might recall that Abdel Mon`im himself was the victim of Mubarak’s repressive crackdown and was held in prison from April to June of 2007. [Read more →]

Tags: Tags: egyptian muslim brotherhood, hosni mubarak, khaled salim // 2 Comments »

One of the absurdest ideas that has arisen regarding the Berkeley City Council’s now-abandoned resolution telling military recruiters they were not welcome in the town, is the idea that “freedom of speech” for military recruiters was at stake. The internalization and reproduction of this idea by many people who supposedly are on the left, cautiously dissenting–in their heads, without action–against the American occupation of Iraq has also been startling. The Daily Californian and The Daily Clog are no exception.

No official paid representative of the American government has a right to say whatever he or she wants to say in an official capacity (this is different from their free ability to share their opinions, and to lie, unofficially). And certainly nobody should agree that representatives of the American government are allowed to lie, deceive, or trick citizens without consequence, especially minors. This is one of the allegations that has been raised against military recruiters, who are situated near Berkeley High School–that they exaggerate the benefits to students of joining the military. [Read more →]

Tags: Tags: berkeley military recruiters, daily cal, daily clog // 6 Comments »

At Berkeley, there would probably be more kids registered to attend the conference than protesting outside of it. From the IndyBay report:

Speakers for the march made it clear that students support scientific research but when research is done for military paymasters it makes campus scientists into war accomplices at a time when the U.S. is occupying foreign lands in internationally condemned wars of aggression.

For example, A UCSB researcher worked on technology for a new type of bomb which was dropped on an Afghan wedding, killing 40 Afghanis gathered to celebrate the love between two people and their families.

U.S. officials denied responsibility for the bombing until camera footage made it impossible to deny. To the researcher’s horror, his teammates working on the bomb expressed no remorse for the innocents killed by their invention. Instead, they celebrated the news because the bomb worked as they intended it to.

Protesters reminded ICB attendees that scientists have moral responsibility for the consequences of their actions and when they work for the military, the consequence is that people die, many of them innocent civilians.

These students succeeded in shutting down the conference, which will not continue into its second day.

This is the kind of protest that this country needs right now–not the silly parades that are going on every month or so in the cities [Read more →]

Tags: Tags: iraq war protest, military industrial complex, student activism // 3 Comments »

Though I was unable to help with the enormous efforts that members of SJP put into Israeli Apartheid Week over the past two months due to other obligations, I did come to recognize last week for the first time just how I felt about our organization.

To be sure, the number of asinine remarks, statements, opinions, and arguments that saturate the discussion regarding Israel and Palestine is enormous. Most of these are either chauvinistic or based in falsehoods. And, I think, for a long time the mainstream perspectives (and to this day, the mainstream of Israel advocacy) merely reproduced the statements and arguments of “official representatives” of either people, acting as simple propagandists. [Read more →]

Tags: Tags: israeli apartheid week, students for justice in palestine // 2 Comments »

If I could subscribe to Daily Cal articles by author, I’d subscribe to Ryland Walker Knight’s column in the Arts & Entertainment section. I haven’t seen any of the exhibits or movies he has reviewed recently, but his articles are interesting enough for me to want to see them–even the negative ones.

Drawn Out: Political Satire Doesn’t Make Up for Unoriginal Commentary

Worse than the politics is the oppositional structure Chagoya employs. Everything is a dig, a sign, a referent of the evil intentions of the world. Instead of restructuring the historicity (say, the power) of the art world, as appears the goal, these works rather reiterate the same old argument in an opposite (negative) vocabulary. The coin is flipped but it’s the same coin.

Shock and Awe: Despite explosions aplenty, ‘The Kingdom’ falters under poor execution

And no matter what Berg’s film says about the never-ending cycle of violence at its close, “The Kingdom” is just as racist as (though a little less fascist than) its robot counterpart—which is an odd claim given that it stars Foxx, a black man. But, of course, there are other Others to hate on out there, and “The Kingdom” sure does like its Near Easterners in an American box—or wrapped up in bombs. Ashraf Barhom and Ali Suliman (stars of the 2005 suicide-bombers-are-people film “Paradise Now”) are both fine here, but their characters, save a few scenes of Muslim prayer scored to Explosions in the Sky’s weepy-heroic guitar solos, are prized for valiant American mimicry. I look forward to the time when we Americans make stars of Muslim actors for being valiant Muslims just as we have now made Jaime Foxx a star for being an American actor, not a black American clown.

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In this article about the topic of the hour in Britain, CNN writes:

Sharia law is a legal and social code designed to help Muslims in their daily lives. It has proved controversial, however, because of its use in some Muslim states to justify suppression of women’s rights and extremely brutal forms of punishment, including beheadings.

I thought this to be a rather uncharacteristic treatment of shari`ah in the press. Even though it’s not antagonistic, however, it thoroughly places shari`ah into the realm of liberalism, dressing it in the language of liberal revolution (”used… to justify suppression of women’s rights and [extreme brutality]”). That’s something.

Tags: Tags: cnn, shariah // Add Comment »

Razan has been doing a great job posting updates about the Free Tariq campaign. I did not know about Tariq’s blog before, but this is the first high profile campaign regarding the arrest of a Syrian blogger. [Read more →]

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I have not updated this site in a while because I have wanted to redesign it for a bit. I spent quite a bit of time experimenting with some new design concepts, but ended up ditching that effort. I had a new organization in mind rather than a design, so in the meantime I’ve put together this clunky theme so that I can continue to post with the new organization while I continue to work on the design. I got bored of the standard blog front page of all posts in the same place–this isn’t much of a departure, but at least the front page is more manageable. If you spot anything funny, let me know.

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Update: This article was also published by The Electronic Intifada.

Ishmael Khaldi has been all the rage amongst Israel advocacy groups in the United States, especially the liberal-minded San Francisco Bay Area. An Arab bedouin who embraces his Israeli citizenship and has worked for the Israeli police as well as Israel’s occupying army, he was a dream come true for the Israeli consulate, which decided to hire him as Deputy Consul to San Francisco in December 2006. The timing and destination could hardly have been more opportune given growing efforts by activists in the Bay Area to bring awareness to the apartheid realities of Israeli state policies within and without the 1967 borders. What better way for the Israeli government to prove that it’s not racist than by having an Arab with an Israeli passport denounce the claim, in an official capacity? [Read more →]

Tags: Tags: hasbara fellowships, ishmael khaldi, tokenism // Add Comment »