31 July 2004

The new Malaysian prime minister is a moonbat too

Malaysia's prime minister says an increase in discrimination against Muslims since the start of the U.S.-led war on terror has fueled hostility between Islam and the West and incited religious extremism, a news report said Friday.
National news agency Bernama quoted Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who spoke at a conference late Thursday.

Abdullah said the war against terrorism "should not be allowed to escalate into a clash of faiths and religions."
In his speech Thursday at the Langkawi International Dialogue to promote trade and economic ties between developing nations, Abdullah said the fight against terrorism will never be won unless the issue of global poverty is addressed. He stated, "it is such poverty and hopelessness that provides fodder to terrorism."
In April 2004 in a speech given before the international advisory boad of a multinational corporation, Professor Haim Harari (honoraria and bio), a physicist whose family has lived in the Middle East for 200 years, gave his perspective on the causes of Muslim extremism.

The root of the trouble is that this entire Moslem region is totally dysfunctional, by any standard of the word, and would have been so even if Israel would have joined the Arab league and an independent Palestine would have existed for 100 years. The 22 member countries of the Arab league, from Mauritania to the Gulf States, have a total population of 300 millions, larger than the US and almost as large as the EU before its expansion. They have a land area larger than either the US or all of Europe. These 22 countries, with all their oil and natural resources, have a combined GDP smaller than that of Netherlands plus Belgium and equal to half of the GDP of California alone. Within this meager GDP, the gaps between rich and poor are beyond belief and too many of the rich made their money not by succeeding in business, but by being corrupt rulers. The social status of women is far below what it was in the Western World 150 years ago. Human rights are below any reasonable standard, in spite of the grotesque fact that Libya was elected Chair of the UN Human Rights commission. According to a report prepared by a committee of Arab intellectuals and published under the auspices of the U.N., the number of books translated by the entire Arab world is much smaller than what little Greece alone translates. The total number of scientific publications of 300 million Arabs is less than that of 6 million Israelis. Birth rates in the region are very high, increasing the poverty, the social gaps and the cultural decline. And all of this is happening in a region, which only 30 years ago, was believed to be the next wealthy part of the world, and in a Moslem area, which developed, at some point in history, one of the most advanced cultures in the world.

It is fair to say that this creates an unprecedented breeding ground for cruel dictators, terror networks, fanaticism, incitement, suicide murders and general decline. It is also a fact that almost everybody in the region blames this situation on the United States, on Israel, on Western Civilization, on Judaism and Christianity, on anyone and anything, except themselves.

Do I say all of this with the satisfaction of someone discussing the failings of his enemies? On the contrary, I firmly believe that the world would have been a much better place and my own neighborhood would have been much more pleasant and peaceful, if things were different.

I should also say a word about the millions of decent, honest, good people who are either devout Moslems or are not very religious but grew up in Moslem families. They are double victims of an outside world, which now develops Islamophobia and of their own environment, which breaks their heart by being totally dysfunctional. The problem is that the vast silent majority of these Moslems are not part of the terror and of the incitement but they also do not stand up against it. They become accomplices, by omission, and this applies to political leaders, intellectuals, business people and many others.

These two people speak for themselves do they not?

Harari says that the Moslem world only 30 years ago was poised to become wealthy, and what prevented this was the corruption of its own leaders. Now they blame the fanaticism and violence which flourishes under their eye on their poverty, which they blame on anyone but themselves.

Abdullah begins the history of his rationalization a mere 3 years ago, as if extremism and fanaticism hadn?t existed before 11 September 2001. Feh.


Although Islam is a political religion par excellence, and was aimed at building a political empire which emerged at the time of the Righteous Caliphs and ended with the Abbasid era, Muslim jurisprudence did not address political issues except in a few modest books, the most important of which were written by Abu Al-Hassan Al-Mawardi in the 11th century and Ibn Taymiyya in the 12th century, after the Mamelukes rose to power.
Arabs and Muslims have no political heritage to draw upon in administering their affairs today. Politics [for them] was a way to rule, not a science or a political doctrine, as explained by Ahmad Al-Baghdadi in his book Renewal of Religious Thought. Hence, the Caliphate has remained unchanged from 632 through 2004 ?-- it has kept its primitive, simple tribal form (the elite's allegiance to the sovereigns) -- an un-democratic structure, despotic, and bloody except for a brief period of 12 years during the rule of Abu Baker and Omar Bin Al-Khattab [the first and second Caliphs].
Dr. Shaker Al-Nabulsi
critique of Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi's claim that "democracy is in the essence of Islam."


Personal message to Abdullah and his fellow moonbats: You know what, I don't hate any one of you, but you guys collectively have been bringing this on yourselves since the beginning of Islam and if you are experiencing a little more pressure after what your "culture" allowed to happen in September 2001, well that's just too bad. Deal with it. If you have no internal conscience to keep you from violating norms of human behavior, rest assured we are going to defeat you and give you an external source of control on your bad behavior. Don't bother to use our defensive response to your attacks as an excuse to be even greater assholes, because you will not win in the end, and you need to think about what is in your best interests when that day comes.

Update:

Abdullah proposed that rich countries and western governments draw up plans to help poor countries, including Muslim nations, to reduce poverty.
Jesus, man. What a novel concept! It's never happened before in history! What a genius this politician is.
In return, governments that receive such assistance "should ensure proper
governance and transparency" in their countries.

Following the example of the "Palestinian" "Authority", naturally.