Camels & Christians

Due to an extremely busy week, I have been unable to spend any quality creative time on blogging. So let me take you back to December 2007...

If there is a city in the Arab world that would seem to be safe for Americans, it is Dubai.

The events over the past decade have made many Americans uneasy about traveling in the Middle East. Much of this fear is based on media propaganda that needs to demonize the “other” in the so-called “war on terror.” But the less communication and contact that the Middle East and West has with each other, the more stereotypes fester and grow, and the more media plays on people’s fears. The image of the “Muslim terrorist” is ingrained in many Westerners’ subconscious; conversely, many Middle Easterners only know the image of a materialistic and war-mongering American.

Yet there are places in the world where interactions between cultures are breaking down these barriers.

Dubai is a city of immigrants. Nearly 4 out of 5 people on the street hail from other countries - primarily South Asia and North Africa. The few Emiratis you see are usually cruising in their plush Toyota SUVs that match their white gutrah headdress and long flowing thoub, with a Middle Eastern beat thumping through dark tinted windows. Wealthy tourists from Saudi Arabia, Syria, Libya, Kuwait, Iran, and other countries in the region come to Dubai for vacation; it is known as the Las Vegas of the Middle East.

Yet despite the immigrant nature of the city, Dubai (and the United Arab Emirates) is visibly Muslim. Five times a day, the uncountable muezzins call out for the city’s faithful to pray. On Fridays, stores are shuttered and the streets teem with laborers and construction workers enjoying their day off. Alcohol is forbidden; yet the five-star resort hotels skirt the law to serve their foreign clientele, an arrangement of convenience between law enforcement, businesses, and the Sheik.

The “news” in the UAE is centered on the Sheiks; who they visited with, what they said, what events they hosted, and what words of praise other world leaders had for them. Any notion of a “free press” is only a facade. Pictures of Sheik Mohammad bin Rashid al Maktoum, the UAE’s prime minister, vice president and Dubai’s ruler, adorn buildings, lobbies, and every business. A taxi driver originally from southern India brags about “seeing the Sheik walking this very street once.” The Sheik enjoys more than celebrity status; he is, well…king.

It is the Sheik’s rule that demands tolerance in the name of economic growth. The meeting of cultures and religions in one place is possible, in part, because of the Sheik’s desire to make Dubai a world-class city.

Yet Dubai is an exception on the Arabian Peninsula. How far into the desert does the tolerance and respect that all people are afforded extend?

Beyond the glitz and glamour of Dubai is desert, and eventually, the oasis city of Al Ain on the border with Oman. The 90-minute trip follows a first-class, two-lane paved highway surrounded by sand as far as the eye can see. The only plant life visible is the lush palms and bushes that line both shoulders and the median. A sprinkler system of tubes and hoses keep the roadside vegetation lush - literally “greening the desert.” Electricity is no problem for the oil-rich state, either; street lights illuminate the highway at night, geometrically placed along the median every few hundred feet.

Still largely functioning on immigrant labor, Al Ain feels more conservative and obviously doesn’t see as many foreign tourists. Not only a physical oasis of trees and water in the middle of the Arabian Desert, it seems an refuge for Emiratis seeking to escape the bustle of Dubai or the nearby financial and business hub, Abu Dhabi.

It is in this noticeably more conservative city of Al Ain that I admit to harboring doubts about how I will be treated as a westerner - more specifically, as an American.

We find a jovial Pakistani taxi driver who tells us in very broken English, when he’s not spitting rust-colored betel juice out the window, that he can take us to the Camel Souq, or market. A twenty minute drive away from town takes us back into the desert. In the middle of nowhere, pens of dozens of camels are arranged in the sun, with SUVs parked haphazardly between.

We are immediately surrounded by the camel traders. Their dress and skin color suggests many different nationalities - Sudanese, Egyptian, Saudi. They are excited to see westerners at their camel souq and greet us with gratuitous “A salaam Alaykums.”

Each one wants to show us his camels (as if I look like I’m going to buy one). They want us to touch them, pet them, feel their “strong legs.” I’m wary; it’s the first time I’ve seen camels in their native environment and I don’t know if they are going to bite, spit, or shit.

We walk along the stalls, and one camel trader appears to have “won” the competition - he has managed to secure our undivided attention and we walk off to see “his” camels. Dressed in a long robe and sandals with a weathered kaffiyeh wrapped loosely around his neck, he keeps his arm around my shoulder. As we walk, he asks one of the questions I had been dreading.

“Where are you from?”

“California. America,” I say. I had briefly considered lying and saying I was Canadian.

“Ah. America.” Then comes an even more uncomfortable question. “You Muslim?”

It is one thing to consider denying your country. It’s another to deny your faith. Though I don’t consider myself part of the organized Christian religion, I was raised Christian and my belief system today is based on the teachings of Jesus. I will always identify myself with Christianity.

So I answer truthfully. “Christian.”

I hold my breath and await the fury of the Muslim terrorist who will likely behead me for being an infidel, or torture me and hold me hostage, sending videos of me in an orange jumpsuit over the internet demanding that Americans accept Allah and ride a camel to work or I will be killed.

In the past, I have often heard a saying that many people “don’t hate Americans, they hate American foreign policy.” Based on experiences in the UAE, Afghanistan, and India, this still holds true.

But I wonder for how long we can continue claiming an inability to control our own country’s foreign policy? How long will we enjoy the goodwill and hospitality that the rest of the world is still willing to offer us?

The camel trader in the desert smiles and squeezes my shoulder.

“Ah. Christian. Good Christian. Come, see my camels.”

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Peace Y'all

Guest Voice: News Writer analyzes Jim David Atkisson's terrorist manifesto

I'd like everyone to meet News Writer, a journalist with an excellent blog Stop the Press. With an inside track to last summer's terrorist attack at a Unitarian Universalist Church in Tennessee, News Writer draws some chilling conclusions about hate speech, incitement to violence, and the role of right-wing media.

To Whom it May Concern
by News Writer

Jim David Atkisson's manifesto:

I guess you’re wondering why I did this. Well, let me explain in detail.

Over the years I’ve had some good jobs, but I always got laid off. Now I’m 58 years old & I can’t get a decent job. I’m told I’m ‘overqualified,’ which is a code word for ‘too damned old.’ Like I’m expected to age gracefully into poverty. No thanks! I’m done!

I’ve always wondered why I was put on the earth. For years I thought I was put here to die as cannon fodder in VietNam but somehow cheated the devil out of it. Lately I’ve been feeling helpess in our war on Terrorizm. But I realized I could engage the terrorists allies here in America. The best allies they’ve got

The Democrats! The democrats have done everything they can do to tie our hands in this War on Terror. They’re all a bunch of traitors. They want America to loose this war for reasons I can not understand. It makes me soooo mad!

In a parallel train of thought: It saddens me to think back on all the bad things that Liberalism has done to this country. The worst problem America faces today is Liberalism. They have dumbed down education. They have defined deviancy down. Liberals have attacked every major institution that made America great. From the Boy Scouts to the military, from education to Religion. The major news outlets have become the propaganda arm of the Democrat Party. Liberals are evil, they embrace the tenets of Karl Marx, they’re Marxist, socialist, communists.

The Unitarian Universalist Church

Don’t let the word church mislead you. This isn’t a church, it’s a cult. They don’t even believe in God. They worship the God of Secularizm. These sick people aren’t Liberals, they’re Ultra-Liberals. This is a collection of sicko’s, weirdo’s, & homo’s. The UU church is the fountainhead, the veritable wellspring of anti-American organizations like Moveon.org, Code Pink, and other un-American groups.

These people are absolute Hypocrits. They embrace every pervert that comes down the pike, but if they find out your a conservative, they absolutely hate you.

I know. I experienced it.

I can’t for the life of me understand why these people would embrace Marxism like they do.

I’d like someone to do an expose on this church, it’s a den of un-American Vipers.

They call themselves ‘Progressive.’ How is a white woman having a niger baby progress? How is a man sticking his dick up another man’s ass progress?

It’s an abomination.

It takes a warped mind to hate America.

It makes me so angry. I can’t live with it anymore!

The environmental nuts have to be stopped.

Know This If Nothing Else

I. This was a hate crime:

I hate the damn left-wing liberals. There is a vast left-wing conspiracy in this country & these liberals are working together to attack every decent & honorable institution in the nation, trying to turn this country into a communist state. Shame on them.

II. This was a Political Protest:

I’m protesting the liberal Supreme Court Justices for give the terrorists at GITMO constitutional rights. I’m protesting the major News outlets, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, PBS for being the propaganda wing of the Democrat Party. It’s criminal what they’re getting away with. They’re traitors! They must be stopped!

I’m protesting the DNC running such a radical leftist candidate, Osama Hussein OBama, yo Mama. No experience, no brains, a joke. Dangerous to America. Hell, he looks like Curious George!

III. This was a symbolic killing.

Who I wanted to kill was every Democrat in the Senate & House, the 100 people in Bernard Goldberg’s book. I’d like to kill everyone in the Mainstream Media. But I knew these people were inaccessible to me. I couldn’t get to the generals & high ranking officers of the Marxist movement so I went after the foot soldiers, the chicken shit liberals that vote in these traitorous people. Someone had to get the ball rolling. I volunteered. I hope others do the same. It’s the only way we can rid America of this cancer, this pestilence.

In Conclusion:

No one gets out of this world alive so I’ve chosen to skip the bad years of poverty. I know my life is going downhill fast from here. The future looks bleak. I’m sick & tired of being sick & tired. I’m absolutely fed up.

So I thought I’d do something good for this Country. Kill Democrats til the cops kill me.

If decent patriotic Americans could vote 3 times in every election we couldn’t stem this tide of liberalism that’s destroying America.

Liberals are a pest like termites. Millions of them. Each little bite contributes to the downfall of this great nation. The only way we can rid ourselves of this evil is kill them in the streets. Kill them where they gather.

I’d like to encourage like-minded people to do what I’ve done. If life ain’t worth living anymore, don’t just kill yourself, do something for your Country before you go. Go Kill Liberals.

Tell the cop that killed me that I said, ‘Thanks, I needed that.’

I have no next of kin, no living relatives. If you would take my sorry carcass to the body farm or donate it to science, or just throw me in the Tennessee River.

Sincerely

Jim David Atkisson

On July 28, 2008, after he wrote that, Jim David Atkisson went to the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church near Knoxville, where a children’s performance was taking place. He shot seven people, killing two. But instead of being killed by police, the East Tennesseans at the church took him down themselves, without weapons. They did break his arm. but they took him down, got the children out of the hall and called police.

On Monday, Jim David Adkisson pleaded guilty to the murders of Greg McKendry and Linda Kraeger and was sentenced to life in prison.

Yesterday, I spoke briefly with one of the four people who were in critical condition after the shooting. She told me she is doing much better than anyone thought, considering she took five bullets to the head. But she can see, speak, walk, and do nearly everything she could do before.

But she is angry, angry because the local newspaper chose to focus on Adkisson’s manifesto — it was released yesterday — instead of on the healing that has taken place in the church.

I can understand that. But I also think it’s important that we read Jim David Atkisson’s words very carefully and taken them to heart. Because I’m angry too.

Jim David Atkisson didn’t just get up one day and decide gee, I’m having a bad day. Think I’ll go kill me some liberals. He didn’t just suddenly decide the liberals at the TVUUC were his enemies. He was told repeatedly, for years, that they were his enemies. That all liberals are his enemies. That all Democrats are his enemies. That they are traitors. That they are unpatriotic. That they hate America. That they are socialists. That they are allies of terrorists.

That they don’t deserve a place at any table.

Now, where would he have an idea like that?

Limbaugh. Malkin. Goldberg. Coulter. Savage. Hannity. O’Reilly. Not to mention Bush. Cheney. McConnell. Kyl. Cornyn. Cantor. Boehner.

Actually, there’s far too many to name here.

Right wing radio talkers incited a man to commit an act of terrorism, ladies and gentlemen, aided and abetted by the previous administration and Republicans in Congress.

It’s no wonder they’re terrified the Fairness Doctrine may return (although Barack Obama has said he doesn’t support that).

But if I were them, I’d be much more worried about what might happen if the Obama administration decides to crack down hard on terrorism and those who fuel its flames.

Inciting acts of terrorism sounds like a valid crime to me.

Stop by Stop the Press for more. Many thanks to News Writer for contributing this guest voice at AWOP TeamZine.

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Drones, Shoes, and Modern Art

There may be a new administration in the U.S., but tell that to Iraqis, Afghans, or Pakistanis.

Even China’s Prime Minister Wen Jaibao is paying for Bush’s eight years of failure.

Less than three days after taking office, President Obama has continued the failed U.S. policy of dropping bombs from unmanned drones to fight the so-called “war on terror.” He ordered two airstrikes in Pakistan that killed 22 – only 8 of which were militants. Neither Obama nor his press secretary would even acknowledge the strikes, much less the collateral damage it caused or future militants it recruited.

And last weekend, Obama praised elections in Iraq as “millions of Iraqi citizens from every ethnic and religious group went peacefully to the polls across the country.”

I guess the three Sunni candidates assassinated on Thursday don’t count as marring the peace because that wasn’t actually on Election Day.

But if the president of the United States said it, it must be true – and should be repeated verbatim, without any context, background, or substance. And if he refuses to say anything, so will the media.

Not having learned their lesson, mainstream news outlets continue reporting with the same ignorance of democratic responsibility that they did during the 2002 Iraqi WMD hype or the 18-month-long Israeli “defensive” embargo of Gaza’s freely-elected government.

When Muntadhir al-Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist-turned-shoe-hurler, assaulted President Bush in December, the media and pundits jumped in. We were placated by the notion that had such an event taken place in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, the perpetrator would have faced certain torture and death.

But we liberated Iraq and this was a sign of democracy. According to Bush, “that’s what people do in a free society, draw attention to themselves.”

Apparently, in a free society people are also hauled off to prison without a hearing, much less a trial. Since he was beaten and dragged from the room on December 12, al-Zaidi has been in Iraqi custody inside the Green Zone. He was last visited by a family member on December 21 (who made allegations that al-Zaidi was tortured), and has not been seen or heard from since.

It leaves one wondering just exactly how different this treatment is compared to what Saddam Hussein’s regime would have meted out.

To be sure, throwing footwear at a presiding head of state goes beyond freedom of speech and warrants a stiff penalty. But I had assumed that a free and democratic Iraq would have used the rule of law to implement punishment – not simply attempt to “disappear” dissent.

Unfortunately, it seems notions of freedom and democracy only apply to those who don’t question the existing regime. Which doesn’t sound much different from Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.

Last week, an orphanage in Tikrit erected a huge copper-plated shoe sculpture in honor of al-Zaidi’s protest. But this isn’t guaranteed under freedom of speech, either. Within one day, Iraq’s central government forcibly removed the monument.

Too bad, because the U.S. architects of the Iraq invasion have been dreaming about a day when a Iraq could express their feelings openly and publicly. But freedom has limits dictated by those with power.

Former Pentagon official Richard Pearle spent much of 2002 spreading misinformation in the media about Iraq’s alleged WMDs and link to 9/11. In September 2003, with the occupation of Iraq just getting underway and the smell of all that oil percolating into the noses of Washington D.C. elites, Pearle spoke to the American Enterprise Institute, a prominent think tank:

“And a year from now, I’ll be very surprised if there is not some grand square in Baghdad that is named after President Bush.”

I guess those Iraqi orphans just erected the wrong kind of monument.

There may be a new president, but U.S. foreign policy hasn’t changed. The government still thinks it can create its own reality by merely repeating what it wishes were true.

And our nation continues to contradict its grandiose ideals when it comes to freedom or democracy for non-white, non-Christian people.

Wil Robinson
International Political Will