Who and what is a terrorist?

The label "terrorist" is one of the most exploited and hypocritical political terms used in our modern time. 

It is regularly used by our government to describe the targets of our CIA's drone attacks (who mostly turned out to be innocent civilians) or those who oppose our foreign invasions. It is used by Israel to describe Palestinians who oppose its illegal and brutal occupation of their land. It was used by the psychotic Qaddafi to describe brave Libyans who demanded freedom. It is used by the butcher Assad to describe and slaughter Syrians who revolted against his dictatorship for freedom and democracy. It is what Al-Sisi calls pro-democracy Egyptians who oppose his military coup. It is how Bahrain labels Bahrainis who demand equal rights and democracy. It is what China calls persecuted Uighurs and Tibetans who demand basic human rights. It is what India calls the occupied people of Kashmir for demanding freedom...

There are certainly groups such as Al Qaeda, Jewish Defense League, KKK, Neo-Nazis, and many others which have engaged in terrorism and deserve to be labeled "terrorist". However, by falsely accusing their legitimate opponents of being terrorists, governments that are actually engaging in terrorist-like behavior seek to dehumanize those opponents in order to justify human rights violations and murder against them and their communities. The manipulation of the term also leads to the trivialization and normalization of real acts of terror committed by such governments or actual terrorist groups and individuals. 

Therefore, next time you hear the term "terrorist", remember that it could be about a real terrorist, a freedom fighter, a pro-democracy activist, or some browned-skinned collateral damage.

A message and appeal to my dear fellow Muslims: Before it is too late.

Respect and credibility are earned, not granted. Before we complain about the world community's hypocrisy and double standard in how it remains indifferent to the barbaric gulag in Guantanamo Bay, murderous US drones, racist and brutal Israeli apartheid against Palestinians, & genocidal actions against Burmese Muslims in Myanmar, let's challenge our community's and Ummah's own hypocrisy.

Why do we expect others to do what we ourselves are not doing? We lack self-respect and credibility when we complain about injustices incurred by "others", but then deliberately ignore the many injustices committed by those who claim to be Muslim. Until we stop identifying injustice solely on the basis of its perpetrator, we should not expect our credibility and effectiveness to improve.  Until we change ourselves, we must not expect for the change from Allah/God to come. 

Our list of injustices that need to be condemned and challenged should also include the racist and inhumane mistreatment of migrant workers in Saudi Arabia or UAE, the shooting of peaceful protesters (not just by Israel, but also by the governments of Bahrain, Syria, Bangladesh, Egypt,...), lack of religious and political freedom in most Muslim-majority countries, torture and abuse of political detainees (not just in Gitmo and Israel, but also in prisons in Egypt, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Bahrain, and many other places, and the unfair and systemic mistreatment of women and minorities in many Muslim-majority countries (and not just the mistreatment of Muslims in Europe and the US). The list can go on and on. 

Islam teaches us that justice, freedom, and truth are indivisible, non-negotiable, and the divine right for all. Without practicing and striving for justice, we would be turning our faith into a ritualistic and empty practice. Basically, without justice, there is no Islam or true Muslims. Let's make a serious effort to change, before it is too late.

"O You who believe! stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to Allah, even as against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin, and whether it be (against) rich or poor: for Allah can best protect both. Follow not the lusts (of your hearts), lest You swerve, and if You distort (justice) or decline to do justice, verily Allah is well-acquainted with all that You do" (Quran 4:135)

"O ye who believe! stand out firmly for Allah, as witnesses to fair dealing, and let not the hatred of others to you make you swerve to wrong and depart from justice. Be just: that is next to piety: and fear Allah. For Allah is well-acquainted with all that you do" (Quran 5:8)

Kerry says U.S. looking to accelerate fall of Syrian regime

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry during a meeting in Rome on (Giuseppe Lami / EPA / February 27, 2013)

By Paul Richter

 

February 27, 2013, 2:00 p.m.

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State John F. Kerry said Wednesday that the United States and allies are jointly planning new ways to accelerate the fall of the Syrian regime, amid signs that Washington may begin directly providing non-lethal aid to opposition fighters.

Speaking in Paris one day before a gathering of Syrian opposition officials and world leaders in Rome, Kerry said U.S. officials and allies are discussing ways to convince Syrian President Bashar Assad "that he can’t shoot his way out of this. ... We are examining and developing ways to accelerate the political transition that the Syrian people want and deserve.”

As many as 70,000 people have died in the almost two-year-long war between forces loyal to Assad and opposition fighters, according to the United Nations.

Administration officials, who have been under growing political pressure to expand the U.S. role, said they are weighing whether to begin directly supplying equipment such as armored vests and armored vehicles, which are non-lethal but valuable on the front lines. They remain opposed to providing arms, despite pleas from the rebels and many top U.S. officials.

Directly supplying aid would be significant for an administration that has been intent on limiting its involvement in the fight, and could presage other moves toward deeper involvement, analysts say. To date, the administration has provided humanitarian and non-lethal military aid through the political opposition and aid agencies, rather than directly to the fighters.

Such a decision "would be a big step, in that the former policy line of staying clear of armed groups would have to be redrawn," said Andrew Tabler, a leading Syria expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “That has policy implications going forward.”

Tabler said that in the absence of a “political track” -- negotiations between the two sides to end the conflict -- direct aid to the fighters was “inevitable.”

The administration has been reluctant to provide arms because of the difficulty of knowing which of the dozens of loosely connected armed groups are trustworthy, and which might end up aligned with dangerous militants. But critics have argued that in the absence of U.S. arms, militant factions grow stronger and the U.S. fails to build ties that could be valuable when it comes time, after the war, to build a new Syria.

“Hesitation and half-hearted support such as non-lethal equipment is no longer sufficient to stop Assad’s barbarism,” said Hussam Ayloush, national chairman of the Syrian American Council, a pro-opposition group. “We have a moral duty, as one of the world’s most powerful nations, to provide the Syrian people with every means to defend themselves and their families.”

Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, said the administration is trying to help the opposition “become stronger, more cohesive and more organized. As part of this effort, we will continue to analyze every feasible option that would accelerate a political transition to a post-Assad Syria.”

The best Jihad and the crippling Arab proverbs

I love Arabic poetry and proverbs. Most of them promote honor, heroism, selflessness, sacrifice, love, courage, and justice. But there are a few popular proverbs that need to be forever purged from the Arab culture because they lead to cowardice, dishonor, defeatism, apathy, selfishness, and lack of self-respect. Here are a few examples (I know that the rough translation sounds funny):

امش الحيط الحيط وقل يارب السترة
Walk beside the walls and pray for your safety (i.e. Avoid taking risks)

مين تزوج أمي بسمي عمي
Whoever marries my mother, I will call him my uncle (i.e. Go with the flow and blindly submit to authority)

اليد التي لا تقدر عليها بوسها وادع عليها بالكسر
The hand which you cannot resist, kiss it in submission, and then pray that it may be broken (i.e. Submit to injustice, and only resist it with empty hopes)

حط راسك بين الروس وقول يا قطّاع الروس
Place your head among all the other heads that are about to be cut, and then invite the executioner to proceed (i.e. Blindly follow others, even if it is in cowardice and helplessness)

ابعد عن الشر وغنّيله
Avoid trouble and sing to it (Usually used to convince people that getting involved in undoing injustice will only bring trouble)

الباب اللِّي بيجيك منهْ الريح، سدُّهٌ واستريح
The door from which wind will come, shut it and be safe (i.e. Don't rock the boat. Avoid trouble)

 الف مرة جبان ولا يقولوا مرة واحدة الله يرحمه
One thousand times coward is better than saying may God bless his soul (i.e. It is better to live as a coward without dignity and rights than to risk one's life and die)

For years, many Arab (especially Syrian) parents repeated those proverbs to their children to sway them from challenging repressive and brutal rulers. A whole generation of people who behaved like sheep developed, a generation of mostly subdued, humiliated, terrorized, intimidated, and apathetic people. With the exception of a few brave ones -- most of whom were executed, tortured, or exiled -- most Arabs witnessed and endured occupation, abuse, humiliation, dispossession, and denial of basic human rights for them, their neighbors, relatives, friends, and loved ones.  Most bore this abuse with resigned attitudes of complicity, apathy, and silence; some even responded with acceptance, justification, or opportunism.

In some countries like Syria, Libya, Iraq, and Tunisia, citizens allowed their psychotic and sadistic rulers to deprive them of political opinions or even of their hopes and dreams for a better day. Those victims, through the propagation of defeatist proverbs, justified their silence as a self-preservation and protection of loved ones and innocently helped extend the rule of fear, complicity, and helplessness for decades in their societies. Those proverbs and the attitudes they inspired are responsible for half a century of dictators who, until recently, believed that they had an unquestionable right to own the country, subdue its people, and murder dissenters.

When the Palestinians erased those destructive proverbs from use, the Intifada (uprising) against the brutal Israeli occupation started. And when other Arabs abandoned those proverbs and their resulting culture of fear, apathy, cowardice, and dishonor, the masses launched the Arab Spring and the popular Arab revolutions for freedom.

Out of a defeated and broken population came out amazing stories of heroism, courage, selflessness and sacrifice for justice, freedom and dignity, in Syria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, Palestine (Gaza and now in Bab Al-Shams), and many other places. Arabs, and all other nations, must permanently erase those proverbs from their psyche and culture to ensure that dictators are never allowed to return and for the remaining ones to reform or be dumped into history's  trash, along with Assad, Saddam, Mubarak, Ben Ali, Qaddafi, and all those like them.

A nation is in good condition as long as its culture advances a sense of dignity, love for freedom, and pursuit of happiness, equality, justice, and peace for all.

In the Qur'an (17:70), God says:
"And indeed We have honored the Children of Adam"

The honor and dignity bestowed by God on all people cannot be taken away by another human being, unless that person accepts to forfeit that God-given right.
 
Truly, a nation is in good shape as long as its people dare to speak out and stand against injustice.

In the Qur'an (4:135), God commands us:

“O you who believe! Stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to God"

The prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said:  "The best Jihad is speaking truth to an unjust (repressive) ruler."
أفضل الجهاد كلمة عدل عند سلطان جائر
And that is my jihad today.

Video footage emerges of Assad forces' massacre in Houla

Video footage emerges of Syrian battle that killed more than 100 as Hague warns country is facing all-out civil war

By Jason Groves and Damien Gayle
PUBLISHED: 21:56 EST, 28 May 2012 | UPDATED: 01:47 EST, 29 May 2012
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2151420/Syria-facing-civil-war-warns-Hague-amid-fresh-reports-civilian-massacre-Assad-regime.htmlhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2151420/Syria-facing-civil-war-warns-Hague-amid-fresh-reports-civilian-massacre-Assad-regime.html

A video purporting to show scenes of the massacre in which 100 people were killed has been released by Syrian opposition activists. 

The gruesome scenes show people running along a street, apparently just after the beginning of the attack on the town of Houla on Friday.

Smoke fills the air and the bloodied, lifeless bodies of youngsters can be seen on the ground in the video grabs, the authenticity of which have not yet been verified.

Panic: This frame grab made from an amateur video provided by Syrian activists yesterday purports to show scenes from the massacre in Houla on May 25 that killed more than 100 people, many of them children

Chaos: A youngster runs for his life in the video, the authenticity of which has not yet been independently verified

Tragic: The dead bodies of youngsters can be seen lying on the floor as violence erupts around them

Last night William Hague warned that Syria is on the brink of ‘all-out civil war’ - as reports emerged of a fresh massacre of civilians by the brutal regime.

The Foreign Secretary and David Cameron both launched high-level diplomatic talks aimed at ramping up pressure on dictator Bashar al-Assad.

Mr Hague flew to Moscow for talks with his counterpart Sergei Lavrov in the hope of securing Russian support for a tough new United Nations resolution.

The Prime Minister discussed the growing crisis with French President Francois Hollande by telephone, with both sides urging Syria to respect the ceasefire that was meant to have been imposed last month.

'All out civil war': William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, meets his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow yesterday to try to build a consensus for action over the violence in Syria

United front: Prime Minister David Cameron spoke with French president Francois Hollande by telephone to discuss the growing crisis in the Middle Eastern country

The Security Council will discuss Syria again today, ahead of a report tomorrow from former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, who is acting as the international community’s envoy on Syria.

In London, Syria’s charge d’affaires was summoned to the Foreign Office for a dressing down over the slaughter of dozens of women and children at Houla last week, which has sparked international outrage.

Foreign Office political director Sir Geoffrey Adams described the attack as ‘a sickening and evil crime’. He told the Syrian diplomat that Britain wanted all those responsible to be identified and held accountable and warned of ‘further quick and robust action’ from the international community unless all military operations ceased immediately.

The Houla massacre, in which more than 100 men, women and children were killed, was condemned by the UN Security Council in a rare show of unity on Sunday night.
Last night the Syrian Foreign Ministry claimed ‘hundreds of armed men’ took part in the atrocity.

But the condemnation appeared to have little impact on the hardline Damascus regime, with reports emerging of a fresh massacre in the town of Hama. Activists said at least 41 people had been killed during an artillery attack on the town by Assad’s forces.

Massacre: This citizen journalism image provided by Syrian opposition's Shaam News Network shows shrouded dead bodies in Houla

Mr Annan yesterday voiced his personal horror at the killings in Houla, as he visited Damascus for face-to-face talks with Assad.

He called on the regime to halt violence and urged ‘every individual with a gun’ to lay down their arms.

Speaking at a press conference in Moscow, Mr Hague acknowledged that Britain and Russia had not always seen eye-to-eye on Syria, but characterised the discussions with Mr Lavrov as ‘good and frank and honest’.

He said both countries were agreed that Mr Annan’s plan for a ceasefire followed by talks between the two sides, was the best hope currently on offer for Syria.

International attention: UN observers view bodies at a hospital morgue before the burial of the Houla dead

But Britain also believes Assad’s departure is a precondition to any long-term solution to the 14-month uprising.

He warned that the only alternative was ‘ever-increasing chaos in Syria and a descent closer and closer to all-out civil war and collapse’.

Mr Lavrov voiced Moscow’s support for the Annan plan, but made clear that Russia is not seeking Assad’s removal, saying: ‘For us it’s not the most important thing who is in power in Syria. For us the main thing is to provide for the end of all violence.’
Russia, which has an important naval base in Syria, has repeatedly shielded Damascus from action by the United Nations Security Council during the year-long uprising which has cost up to 15,000 lives.

Speaking alongside Mr Hague, Mr Lavrov said Moscow wanted Syria to sort out its problems ‘without foreign interference’ and stressed the need to ‘respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty’ of the country.

Find this story at www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2151420/Syria-facing-civil-war-warns-Hague-amid-fresh-reports-civilian-massacre-Assad-regime.html

Published by Associated Newspapers Ltd
Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group

© Associated Newspapers Ltd

Khutba/sermon: "Don't Forget Palestine"

Khutba by Hussam Ayloush on May 11, 2012 at IIOC in Anaheim, titled: "Don't Forget Palestine".

Ayloush on Panorama Show on Russia Today TV - "Russia, the UN and Arabs" (On Syria)

Syrian American Council (SAC) Board Member Hussam Ayloush discussing Russia's relations with the Arab World in the aftermath of its veto of the UN Security Council draft resolution in Syria. The show is entitled "Panorama" on Russia Today Arabic Television. The other guest is Evgeny Satanovsky, President of the Institute of Middle Eastern Studies.
February 15, 2012.
For more info: www.sacouncil.com 
http://arabic.rt.com/prg/telecast/657082/

Ayloush on Russia Today TV - Commenting on Russian support of Syria's As...

Syrian American Council (SAC) Board Member Hussam Ayloush commenting on the Russian veto of the UN Security Council draft resolution on Syria.
February 6, 2012
For more info: www.sacouncil.com
http://arabic.rt.com/news_all_news/news/577818/

What's going on in Syria - A short video

The video that got me banned from the "ArabCalendar" group. Who fears the truth?

In response to an email sent by an Arab American to the ArabCalendar about the recent rally held by Assad and his supporters in Damascus in which it was claimed that about a million supporters were in attendance, I sent an email with a video link showing the exact image of the whole rally which could not have included more than a couple thousand people. The video was shot and leaked by an eyewitness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QsXgLiepHk

Obviously, to those who do not believe in the importance of the truth and freedom of speech, the message was deemed unacceptable.  The "ArabCalendar" group’s pro-Assad moderator censored the email and removed me from entire the group list.  

It is in response to this widespread culture of control and censorship that the Arab Spring has started in the Arab World and it is for that reason it is being opposed by a few who share such dictatorial mindset.

The purpose of sending the video link was to educate those who are being misinformed by Assad’s propaganda machine, including his shameful supporters here in the US.  Such misinformation cannot continue forever. 

Truth, democracy and freedom are going to prevail in the Arab World and within the Arab community, very soon.

  

Below is the actual email

------------------------

From: Hussam Ayloush
Sent: Thursday, January 12, 2012 9:36 AM
To: 'ArabCalendar@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: Re: Pres. Assad & his people

In response to Ghassan’s email about Assad addressing a million Syrian supporter.

Pres. Assad & his people

Posted by: "Ghassan H. Elias" ibn3akkar@yahoo.com

Wed Jan 11, 2012 1:23 pm (PST)

الرئيس الأسد يلتقي السوريين في ساحة الأمويين ..وعائلته كانت بين الجماهير
الصورة تتكلم
11/01/2012
شوكوماكو - خاص
قال الرئيس الأسد مخاطبا مئات أكثر من مليون شخص احتشدوا في ساحة الأمويين  دعما لمسيرة الاصلاح التي يقودها .
أردت ان اكون معكم الأن لأنني انتمي لهذا الشارع وعلى من يريد ان يخاطب الشارع عليه أن ينزل الى الشارع ويخاطب الشارع من الشارع،

See for yourself the real “million” of Butcher Assad’s supporters.

فضيحة المسيرة المؤيدة الحاشدة المليونية في ساحة الأمويين والمجرم بشار الأسد يلقي كلمته 11 1 2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QsXgLiepHk

Shame on anyone who still supports this despicable murderous despot.

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