Ahmadinejad, President and Blogger

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By Nazila Fathi - NYT

mahmoud-ahmadinejad.jpg Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran, is not the first name that comes to mind when thinking of net surfers and instant messages. Yet, it turns out, the man is a blogger.

Equally surprising for a leader known for a kind of thundering public presence, his blog is not especially tough. He condemns Washington’s policies, but writes infrequently and more ponderously than in his confrontational speeches. Yet the reader comments posted alongside his own seem far less censored and harsher than one might expect.

“I think you are an evil leader,” one comment posted by an American reader said. “Freedom and tolerance are necessities in this day and age, and the fact that your country kills intellectuals, journalists, minorities is horrible and deeply disturbing.”

Another reader said his claim at Columbia University in September that there were no gays in Iran was absurd and called his domestic policies “brutish.” Still another wrote: “Shut up please, would you? I get headaches reading your nonsense stuff.”

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The Bane of Extremism

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By Masroor ul Hassan

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Religious extremism is not a modern phenomenon invented by the fundamentalist Muslims, as is being projected by the Jewish media amply supported by hard line Christians. Thanks to the West’s media power and well orchestrated propaganda campaign, almost every innocent western citizen is convinced that Islam, as a religion, preaches violence. Therefore, they perceive Muslims as violent people projecting Jihad as the only course of action to snatch their self perceived rights and alleviate their sufferings at the hand of wealthy nations.

A brief visit to past history may provide a better insight into the phenomenon of extremism as we know it today. 1492 AD was the year of two major events casting profound effect on history. One, Columbus discovered America and the other; Grenada fell to Christian Western Empires. The discovery of America and its consequential turning into a homogeneous nation destined to become the sole super power of the 20th Century is recent and common knowledge. Second major event of that fateful year, the fall of Grenada merits discussion since it was a forerunner of the decline of hitherto uninterrupted Muslim power. Read more



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Reform of Islam is Not Bush’s or the Pope’s business

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Interfaith Dialogue Should Focus on Man not God

The Pope Rejects Muslim Outreach

(Speech given by Ali Baghdadi at Northeastern University, Chicago, Interfaith Dialogue Day, Nov 13,2007)

TS Admin : I am glad to know of another Muslim with whom I have a commonality of thought, by and large. I had written my article The Neocons’ Greatest Sin in a similar mindset, though in a different way.

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I was invited to talk to you about Islam. After serious consideration I declined. I am the wrong person. My views about Islam are not the norm. They are controversial. A few weeks ago I received an email, an assassination threat, from an Indian Muslim who will be traveling to the United States to accomplish his “holy” mission. My co-religionist, who works for the Arab American oil company in Saudi Arabia, accused me of being a “murtad”, a renegade. He was angered by an article in which I stated that Moses, according to archeology, a science, is a myth. He actually never existed. Muslims respect Moses as a prophet. My Indian Muslim “friend”, Z. T. Minhas, an insane and a coward, has not arrived yet. The U.S. intelligence, which intercepts our electronic, particularly international mail, has not reacted. Muslims, killing one another, is consistent with U.S. policy.

I was born in Islam. Documents of old torn up paper that I inherited claim that my family descends from Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam. I spent the first twenty-three years of my life in the shadow of al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, which according to the Quran, Islam’s holy book, Prophet Muhammad had journeyed to, and then ascended to heaven, and returned home to Mecca in Arabia, all in one night. Some influential Muslim scholars say that the journey was only a dream. Others, with the Dark Ages mentality, insist that it was physical. Read more



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Zion-power and War: From Iraq to Iran - The Deadly Embrace

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by James Petras* - November 2007

*James Petras, a former Professor of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York, is the author of more than 62 books published in 29 languages, and over 600 articles in professional journals.

I Want You to Die for Israel
The lesson is clear: the rise of Judeo-fascism (JF) represents a clear and present danger to our democratic freedoms in the United States. They do not come with black shirts and stiff-arm salutes. The public face is a clean-shaved, necktied, pink-jowled attorney, real estate philanthropist or Ivy League professor. They work hard to send the family members of non-Zionists to fight wars in the Middle East in the interest of Greater Israel. And they tell us to keep quiet or face slander, ostracism in our communities, loss of jobs or worst… And it is the exemplary punishment of the many small voices, which keeps the number of vocal critics low…until recently.

There is rising anger and hostility in America against the ZPC (the Zionist Power Configuration), against its arrogant authoritarian communal attacks on our democratic values. Sooner or later there will be a major backlash - and it ill behooves those who, through vocation or conviction, engaged in the firings, censoring and intimidation campaigns against the American majority. The American people will not remember their cries of ‘anti-Semitism’ they will recall their role in sending thousands of American soldiers to their death in the Middle East in the interests of Israel.

1. Introduction
2. From the Iraq War Cover-up on to Iran War Propaganda
3. Israel, the ZPC and the Run-up to the Invasion of Iraq
4. War with Iran: The Highest Priority for the ZPC (and Israel)
5. Israel Lobby or ‘Zionist Power Configuration’?
6. War For Oil or War For Israel: The Public Record
7. Zionist Warmongering: Fear and Venom
8. From a Scratch to Gangrene: The Transition from Zionism to Zion-Fascism
9. The ZPC and Holocaust Denial: At the Service of Israel
10. Zionist Authoritarianism on the March

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Unearthing the past, endangering the future

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On the recent Turko-American rift on the Armenian genocide.

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Turkey votes to invade northern Iraq; Congress considers the Armenian genocide. The two are dangerously connected

Standing before a blurred photograph of a ditch full of emaciated corpses, an elderly woman begins to cry. “The Turks are butchers,” hisses another. These women are among thousands of diaspora Armenians who travel from all corners of the globe to pay tribute to their dead at the genocide memorial in Yerevan. “Our objective is not to attack this or that country,” explains a grim-faced guide. “It is to ensure recognition of the first genocide of the 20th century, that of 1.5m Armenians by the Turks.”

For decades, Armenians round the world have lobbied for explicit official recognition of their point of view. Over the years, Armenian groups in America (where perhaps 400,000 people have Armenian ancestry) have persuaded 40 out of 50 states to recognise the genocide. They seemed poised to snatch their biggest trophy yet when the Foreign Affairs Committee of America’s Democrat-controlled House of Representatives passed a bill on October 10th stating that “the Armenian genocide was conceived and carried out by the Ottoman empire from 1915 to 1923.” But this was overshadowed, on October 17th, by another, related, vote: the Turkish parliament’s decision to allow the government to clobber guerrillas of the homegrown Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in their haven in northern Iraq.

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Putka versus Dubya : Who is going to kill us more?

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By Anwaar Hussainbush-putin-2.jpg

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin was born on October 7, 1952 in St Petersburg, then known as Leningrad. His father Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin, was a factory foreman and his mother, Maria Ivanovna Putina. He was raised as an only child; his two brothers died young, one shortly after birth, the other of diphtheria during World War II. In his youth he was often called Putka.

On the world stage, Putka’s arch rival is the 43rd President of the United States of America, George Walker Bush. He was born two days after the national holiday of the Fourth of July, 1946 in New Haven, Connecticut where his father was attending Yale College in the Class of 1949. His mother was the former Barbara Pierce, whom his father had married on January 6, 1945. George was their first born. He likes to call himself Dubya (W).

Of late, Putka has been hopping mad with Dubya. Dubya has been riding rough shod in his backyard for some time now with Putka merely watching. Dubya’s latest push to expand NATO to Russia’s borders and his plans to deploy missile defense systems in the former Soviet bloc, however, seems to have finally drawn Putka’s ire. Dubya’s administration’s sporadic criticism of Putka’s rising dictatorship has not helped the matters either. Read more



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The biggest threat to the West lies within itself, not with Islam

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By Simon Jenkins

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I remember as a small boy going from door to door in our village collecting money for a missionary ship, the John Williams. It was taking God to the heathen of the East Indies, a distant realm to which the Good Lord, despite His all-seeing wisdom, had carelessly (and I thought excitingly) denied His presence. It never occurred to me that the natives might adhere to some other faith. I saw them waiting eagerly on the beach for the Bible to be carried ashore, wondering only why the Royal Mail was so slow.

Last week a 29-page letter to the Pope was issued from a galaxy of 138 Muslim leaders designed to refute any such exclusive creed. It pleaded for better understanding between Christians and Muslims, based on a shared monotheism and the affinity between the Bible and the Koran. Both contained commandments to love a single god and to love one’s neighbour. The archaic language boiled down to hoping that the two religions might respect each other because “the future of the world depends on peace between Muslims and Christians”. Read more



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China: Is High Growth - High Risk Liberalization the Only Alternative?

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by James Petras*

The complete China paper - September 2007

Shanghai, the financial capital of China

Picture: Shanghai, the financial capital of China.

Introduction
China’s drive toward economic superpower status in the world economy has accelerated in recent years. As China’s economy becomes globalized, fundamental changes in its financial markets have opened opportunities for overseas expansion as well as increasing risks of financial crisis. Dynamic growth, large-scale financial speculation and overseas expansion are accompanied by deeper and more pervasive social and economic problems, which can undermine sustained growth and political stability. Read more



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The Western Woman Writes To My Muslim Sisters

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From your Christian sister - with love.

by Joanna Francis*

Admin’s note : Truth Spring would be glad to publish an opposing view, as an article or as a comment.

* Ms. Joanna Francis is a co-founder of Feminenza, a US based author and a journalist. Her blog: JoannaFrancis.wordpress.com (see more at the bottom of the article).

The Western Woman Writes To My Muslim Sisters

Between the Israeli assault on Lebanon and the Zionist “war on terror,” the Muslim world is now center stage in every American home. I see the carnage, death and destruction that have befallen Lebanon, but I also see something else: I see you. I can’t help but notice that almost every woman I see is carrying a baby or has children around her. I see that though they are dressed modestly, their beauty still shines through. But it’s not just outer beauty that I notice. I also notice that I feel something strange inside me: I feel envy. I feel terrible for the horrible experiences and war crimes that the Lebanese people have suffered, being targeted by our common enemy. But I can’t help but admire your strength, your beauty, your modesty, and most of all, your happiness. Yes, it’s strange, but it occurred to me that even under constant bombardment, you still seemed happier than we are, because you were still living the natural lives of women. The way women have always lived since the beginning of time. It used to be that way in the West until the 1960s, when we were bombarded by the same enemy. Only we were not bombarded with actual munitions, but with subtle trickery and moral corruption. Read more



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The Second Coming of Saladin

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by Pepe Escobar

The best lack all conviction
While the worst are full of passionate intensity.
- W B Yeats, The Second Coming

 

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DAMASCUS - The discreet green-and-white tomb of the greatest warrior of Islam, Saladin - by the splendid Ummayad Mosque in the former seat of the caliphate - may be the ideal place to meditate on if, where and when Islam may be shaken again by the advent of a new Saladin, nine centuries after the illustrious deeds of the great Muslim general.

Saddam Hussein, not least because he was also from Tikrit (although Saladin was a Kurd), fashioned himself as the genuine article - fighting (twice) the infidel Christian armies of the US. He is now no more than a martyr for a minority. Osama bin Laden carefully fashioned his iconography as a cross between Saladin, Che Guevara and the Prophet Mohammed. But as in the immortal line in Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, “his methods are unsound”; despite the marketing success in the expansion of the al-Qaeda brand, bin Laden will never be able to capture the collective conscious of the Ummah.

The new Saladin might be the son of a Palestinian refugee victim of the Nakhba (”catastrophe”) 59 years ago. He might be a computer wizard too sophisticated to be tempted by al-Qaeda’s Salafi-jihadism. He might be an angry young man straight out of the “sanctions generation” in Iraq - deprived of everything while he was growing up, courtesy of the “international community”.

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Anwaar’s articles appear simultaneously here at Truth Spring and at Soul Vibes in The Pakistan Tribune.


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