Why Turkey Matters

The Turkish protests are being likened to the Arab Spring, but is there any real correlation to it? Not at all in ready my latest article on the new media platform, New India TV,

Finding the Truth in The Smoke and Mirrors Game

The Suspects:

Jumping the gun is a phrase that is used when things get out 

of hand, when people start to accuse each other, or point 

fingers at someone without evidence. And in the case of the 

two young men who are suspected of causing the explosions 

at the Boston Marathon the gun has not only been jumped, 

but it has been fired and the run to stick this crime on 

someone has already started.

Unlike most pundits, experts, or commentators posing as 

journalists, I am not going to try to prove a case for or against 

the suspects because, they are just that, suspects-people who

are thought to have put the bombs in place at the marathon....

Read More at New India 

Hoping for Change-Sigh

This is something that I wrote in 2010. Although things are a little different from back then, some things are are worst. Back then, we were just worried about impossibilities, like the entire population of America having its water supply compromised by terrorist,  but now that the Muslims are asserting their right self determination along their own values, it's time to bring out the ammo. Libya was the first trial and now Mali; just when we thought the war was over. Obama, said that the war on terror was over, then he said, he got Osama, then Al Qaida was weakened. An now what is the excuse? Ya Rabb, musaidinah!

Time to move on America

Maryam Ismail / 9 April 2010

People in our part of the world love to say, ‘the Jews control everything in America… All of the US presidents are Jews excluding Barack Obama; he has other problems’. Conspiracy theories make me laugh. That was until I listened to the two speeches given at this year’s annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) meeting.

Then the entire scenario unfolded before me like the end of the film, Ocean’s 12. Suddenly, everything I’ve ever seen had a new meaning. It became clear, that words like insurgent, terrorist, and militant were selectively taken from the word wall of Zionism. Placing these words into an ultra-mediated discourse has made them almost as ubiquitous as milk and sugar.

Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu and US Congress member Eric Cantor, took the team teaching approach, in giving their version of Israeli history, 101 and 102. Netanyahu played expert historian, and participant of the death-defying struggle of his people, painting the bloody and arduous history of the Jews of the past three millennia across a global canvas.

Next, Cantor, gave his introduction to modern US Jewish history which recounted the tale of 20,000 German-Jewish children on a ship who were denied entry to the US and were sent back to Germany, because Congress refused to pass a bill granting them entry. To make up for it, we see the end result, the state of Israel. Then we got to the real point of their speeches: Palestine, Islam, and terror.  I don’t know if it’s delusion or blindness, when Netanyahu spoke about Israel’s attempt at peace with Palestinians while at the same time saying that they have no right to their homes in Jerusalem.  “Amen” added Cantor.

Suddenly, Netanyahu’s geography got funky. He compared my home state of New Jersey (one of the smallest states in the US), to Israel. Building a scenario where Iran and Hezbollah (which he says has 60,000 missiles) were ready to pounce on this innocent and beleaguered mouse (Israel) which is already scratched and bruised. New Jersey is not Israel.

Trenton, the capitol of New Jersey couldn’t defend itself against Iran or Hezbollah. However, Israel with its endless source of conscripted military and white phosphorus, US-made and donated technology and weaponry, could and often does, annihilate anyone that has threatened it.

That’s my spin on it, but it won’t be coming to a movie theatre near you any time soon.

My jaw dropped when Cantor laid out his 12-step media plan to keep the world focused on the US “war on terror.” “From Yemen to Afghanistan to Pakistan, terrorists are not going to lay down their arms against America if we abandon Israel. We must do everything possible to hold the media accountable and empower our communities at home with an understanding of the true nature of our shared struggle with Israel.” 

Suddenly, that 1950’s film, the Blob came to mind. As if there isn’t enough hype and hysteria surrounding the world of Muslims, it seems that this is just the beginning.

First, the story was of 19 mad men, allegedly all from the Arab world. Then they somehow had a connection to Afghanistan. Then anthrax. Then old vials of Ricin were found in a refrigerator in Iraq. Now there’s this talk of American wannabe terrorists. You see how it goes from a little rock with a ball of jelly in it into a bloodthirsty monster devouring humankind?  Cantor does a remake with a mental montage of his version of Muslim world: “The American people know who stands with us in our fight against terrorism; we know who wept at candlelight vigils when America was attacked on 9-11 (I shed a tear for my friends in the WTC basement) and we know who sends teams of doctors and millions of dollars halfway around the world to save lives in Haiti.

"In the same way, we Americans also know who teaches their children to emulate suicide bombers (hmmm); who danced and tossed candy around in the streets on 9-11 celebrating that horrible day (A Fox News re-mix). And we do know who names their boulevards, schools and their public squares after terrorists," Cantor proclaimed. 

Am I the only person who believes this guy has gone off his rocker and is tired of this spiel?  It’s time to think differently, to stop rehashing this rhetoric. We have to think of the global common good. This constant search for bad guys is not healthy. No disrespect to those who’ve died and are dying in this mess, but a death is a death and everyone cries when their loved ones are gone.

In the words of the great comedian, Bernie Mac, “America, let’s move on.”  I hate to say it, but if we don’t there’ll be no end of the Jihad Janes, Petey the Petrol throwers, and Wally Wahhabis, because this theme is coming back home, ‘if you’re not down with the latest theme on terror, you’ve got to be a terrorist.’

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle.asp?xfile=data/opinion/2010/April/opinion_April48.xml&section=opinion&col

There Is No Comfort in Death

©2012 Maryam Ismail

Within the past month or so, African Americans have been killed either by police or self-defenders protected under the law.  Trayvon Martin was killed on February 26^th, According to a New York Times report, on March 24^th, in Pasadena,  California, Kendrec  McDade was shot at eight times and killed as he reached for his waistband, believing their lives were in danger. In Chicago, on March 22^nd, Rekia Boyd died after being shot in the head by an off duty police officer while hanging out in the park. These murders have pierced the heart of the African American community.

Add to this the murder of Shaima Alawadhi or racial profiling of Muslim students and mosque goers, and you have a common thread.  These are two groups of people that we (those who are participating within the structure of white supremacy) are not comfortable with you around us the way you presently, look, act, dress, talk or pray, etc.  In essence until you change so that we aren’t afraid of you, you shouldn’t be here.

 At the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, on Saturday, Wajahat Ali, head researcher of the report, Fear Inc., stated that “Before it was Arabs or Muslims, but now Islam is the enemy.”  Knowing that this sentiment is pervasive, the story of Shaima Al Awadhi remains at the lower end of the spectrum in terms of coverage.

Also, the murder of Shaima Al Awadhi has seeming been pushed aside by the coverage of Martin and other killings of African Americans because, unlike hers, it’s a single incident. Another reason is that although some are suspecting her death as a probable hate crime it’s not one that involves the state or laws that justify vigilante justice which are now being used in incidents where racism comes into play.

 Nevertheless, this doesn’t mean that hate crimes against Muslims don’t happen. I’ve seen it happen shortly after 911. A man attacked a woman in the supermarket claiming that she (the representative of all Muslims world-wide) blew up the World Trade Center.  Little did he know that she had back up, my husband and his friends and I created such a fuss that the guy and his wife were escorted out of the store. The owners, the Corrado Brothers of Corrado’s in Clifton, New Jersey, were not going to let anyone disturb their customers. They were among the few that I’ve seen who would stand up for Muslims during that time.

The Martin case, has caused such outrage is mostly because of the circumstances around it clearly point to wrong doing. A kid visiting a relative in gated community, and was then approached by someone who didn’t live there. Listening to the recording of the phone call made by Martin’s killer to 9-1-1, we hear him being told, to not follow Martin; basically, leave him alone.

 I don’t know what went through George Zimmerman’s mind as he followed Martin. What I do know is that Martin’s death is a lynching. One that in the eyes of the law, is ok. It’s as Wild West as you could get; if you don’t like the way someone looks you can just kill him and get to go home.

“Stereotypes of a black man misunderstood, but it’s still all good,” rapper The Notorious B.I.G so aptly put it. But it wasn’t all good.

This is was especially the case in aftermath of the seemingly endless brutal violence in New York City duringthe 1990’s. Eleanor Bumpers, Michael Griffith, Gavin Cato, Aamadu Diallo are some of the names of the fallen. In retrospect, can’t help but see a pattern between what happened to him and New York during the tenure of Mayor David Dinkins and these final days of the Obama administration.

 Dinkins, the first African American mayor of New York City, whose skin color and history (race) proved to be more salt in old wounds then a healing balm of the African Americans living there.  Most of you may not know the many names of those who died during that decade in New York City alone, but they represent the terror of the 1990’s. Many were victims of perception. In 1994, Dinkins was followed by Rudolph  Guliani. He had a different approach he used paddy wagons that rounded up everyone who look like they didn’t belong on the streets of New York.

During the Guliani administration, 1999,  Ahmadu Diallo a Guinean college student,  was shot 41 times by off-duty New York police officers as he reached for his wallet (they assumed it was a gun).  Initially, his killers were indicted by a Bronx grand jury, but after a ‘change of venue’ which moved the trial to Albany, where they were acquitted.

 This Saturday on the Melissa Harris Perry Show, Diallo’s mother came out to speak about the similarities between the killing of her son and Trayvon Martin. One element has been the attempts to portray Trayvon in a negative light, something that Kadiatou Diallo called “Heartbreaking. First suffering the loss of a child, then having to go out and defend his honor.”

I have two sons in the US, both African American and Muslim and I pray every day for their safety. I listened to the terrifying howling of what is now being said to be the voice of Trayvon Martin, and then, I heard the sound of a gunshot. I felt it bounce off my heart. After that, I didn’t hear anymore howling.