Islam the Religion of Peace Unless You Disagree

In 2012 Blogger Raif Badawi was arrested for his views posted upon his blog "Saudi Arabian Liberals", where he advocated secularism and hosted political and religious debate in the highly charged religious atmosphere of Saudi Arabia. In 2013 Badawi was convicted with the crimes of violating the Kingdom's information technology laws and insulting Islam and was sentenced to seven years behind bars along with 600 lashes to be filled out through his incarceration.

When appealed, Saudi Arabian Courts increased his sentence to ten years and 1,000 lashes. Badawi received his first set of 19 public lashing in January of this year.

However the Raif Badawi story is just one of many when it comes to speaking your mind in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Saudi Courts have recently sentenced to death Palestinian-born poet Ashraf Fayadh for his 2008 book of poetry, " Insructions Within ". Citing his work contained evidence of atheism and destructive thoughts. Originally Fayadh was given the sentence of four years and 800 lashes, however, a new court panel concluded that his punishment was to light and a decision of death was handed out instead.

International outcry over the death penalty urged Western intellectuals and the literary community to hold rallies and sign petitions calling to set Fayadh free. In February their efforts paid-off somewhat as the case was retried for a third time leading to Fayadh receiving an eight year sentence along with 800 lashes.

*Mona Kareen, a New York based writer and friend of Fayadh, is translating the controversial book from Arabic to English for the independent Brooklyn based publishers The Operating System. " Most of it [the book] is about the experience of being a refugee in an oil kingdom. Specifically as Palestinian refugee born and raised in Saudi Arabia. Fayadh challenges [the] common narrative in which migrations end in Western countries. His work calls into question the role of Arab states... Highlights the marginalization of refugees in Arab society. " Mona Kareem goes on to say that Fayadh's poetic protests are inherently political and this is why the government of Saudi Arabia has come after him.

Saudi Arabia is home for 240,000 Palestinian refugees however they are excluded from laws that allow expatriates to purse citizenship and exist in limbo of statelessness. When it comes to other refugees in the Arab Kingdom who break laws many are deported, although, in the case of Ashrah Fayadh, whom is a Palestinian but born and raised in Saudi Arabia, he has no state to be deported too.

Today the 35 year-old poet sits in jai. No longer writes. Preparing for a new process of appeals. Looking at a reality of years of prison. His one and only care is that people don't forget him. But forget him they will. Many don't care about what goes on the other side of the world, about things they no nothing or care about. If the West in looking for change in places like Saudi Arabia they are never going to find it as the governments turn blind eyes to the abuses that are delivered Daily for those trying for change. Obama and other Western governments talk about trying to spur openness and freedom in places such as Iran but continue to allow our supposed allies in the region carte blanche when comes to their own Human Rights Violations.

*Mona Kareem is a researcher for the advocacy group Migrant-Rights.org and is currently a PhD candidate in the Comparative Literature Program at Binghamton University. You can find her at MonaKareem.blogspot.com

Symphony of Stupidity Part 3: Just Who the Hell is “Sam Bacile” and Why Do We Care, & Will Eric Holder Prosecute?

I don’t know about you, but if I were going to use a fake name so I could make one of the most incendiary YOUTUBE videos (come on, we can’t call what that is a movie no matter how much some douche bag radical cleric wants too) in YOUTUBE history I think I would of used a fake address as well. Buy hey, who am I kidding. Nobody is smart in this entire situation. And I mean NOBODY. Not “Bacile” who seems to really be Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, Nakoula is being named by the feds as the filmmaker behind the now the most notorious (and just awful) video; the ever loving Arabs of Egypt, Libya, Yemen, & so on; the governments of all those nations previously named; Obama; or even Mitt “Robot” Romney. They all have dropped the ball on this whole ball of wax.

But lets start with the simplest of idiots in this equation: That of Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, aka: Sam Bacile.

Nakoula Basseley Nakoula is a 55 year-old Coptic Christian (what’s a Coptic Christian? Glad you asked because in truth I hadn’t the slightest fucking idea either. I mean, really, how many fucking different names & ways does a person or group of persons need to basically worship the same GOD?… anyway, a Coptic Christian (according to Wikipedeia) is the name of the largest Christian Church in the Middle East (now that has to be fun) & belongs to the Oriental Orthodox family of churches which dates back to AD 451 & the Council of Chalcedon. The church group also has ties to the church founded by good-ol’-Saint-Mark back in AD 42. But enough of the history lesson. Seems as of 2012, the Coptic Christians claim about 10% of the Egyptian population. I guess they believe in, I don’t know, whatever the other Christians believe), who pled no contest back in 2010 to federal bank fraud charges in California and was ordered to pay more than $790,000 in restitution, was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison and ordered not to use computers, or the Internet for five years without approval from his probation officer. He [Nakoula], at last check, was still on probation, according to court records. Oops. Hence the alias.

Now that the whole fucking Muslim world wants to kick Nakoula’s ass for his video, of course he now looking for police help to keep him safe. On Thursday, Sheriff’s Deputies were dispatched to his house & production office in fear of reprisals. (they have been removed thus far, but be assured the FBI Terrorist Unit can’t be to far away. Nakoula is just to big of a target to not dangle out for some terrorist asshole to bite on)

And things look as if they are going to get worse for Nakoula, who will in no doubt be sued by the cast & crew for being miss lead about what the film they making actually was. Turns out that the cast & crew thought they were making a film called “Desert Warrior” & now have issued a joint statement saying: “they are extremely upset and feel taken advantage of by the producer.” The statement goes on to say: “We are 100 percent not behind this film and were grossly misled about its intent and purpose. We are shocked by the drastic rewrites of the script and lies that were told to all involved. We are deeply saddened by the tragedies that have occurred.”

 Now in the wake of the death of a U.S. Ambassador & three others in Libya, Attorney General Eric Holder said that Justice Department officials had opened a criminal investigation into the attack on the American mission in Benghazi. It was not immediately clear whether or not authorities were focusing on the California filmmaker as part of said probe. Now here is where it gets a little sticky. If Holder thinks that he can bring Nakoula Basseley Nakoula up on charges for the death of Ambassador Stevens and 3 of his staff I think he is way off base. Right or wrong there’s still something called the first Amendment & it is still firmly in place. I have no problem if the FEDS get him [Nakoula] on a violation of the terms of his parole, since he is in clear violation of. If Holder gets away with the former of the two, it will have long standing consequences on one of the things we, as Americans, hold dear. And that of FREEDOM OF SPEECH, PRESS AND ALL THE OTHER GOODIES THAT GO ALONG WITH THAT AMENDMENT.  

In the end nobody will listen. And the Wall Street Journal is saying best: There is no Isreali-American named Sam Bacile; there is no Jewish money cabal fronting cash for “Innocence of Muslims; quite surely this crap YOUTUBE video didn’t cost anywhere near $5 million dollars; and it seems that the head of the National American Coptic Assembly, Morris Sadek, has been publicly promoting the video suggests that they are somehow involved as well.

But like I said, none of that matters. Radical Clerics with an agenda all their own will, and have been, spinning the wheels of hate in the direction they most want it to go: TOWARDS AMERICA & THE WEST.    

Symphony of Stupidity: The United States Apologizes for Attack on U.S. Embassy in Egypt

 U.S. officials on Tuesday apologized (as is being reported by Reuters)  as pissed off Egyptians scaled the wall of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, tearing down the American flag & burned it, then tried to raise a flag of their own saying: “There is no God But God, and Mohammed his Messenger” in protest over a movie that is “supposedly” being made about the Prophet Mohammed.

In a statement released by embassy officials condemning: “”misguided individuals” who hurt the religious feelings of Muslims or followers of other religions. We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others.”

(Wasn’t that nice of us? Maybe I object to you objecting the right that is given to all AMERICANS & when we [The United States] wants to grant the DREAMERS those same rights we APOLPGIZE for it! How about this: FUCK YOU!)

However, it’s not clear what film the protesters are all in a huff about.

When asked no one seems to know really anything about the movie other than it’s being made in the United States and that it is being done by Christian pastor, Terry Jones (you remember Jones, right? He made fame in the Middle East in 2010 by threatening to burn the Koran, prompting riots in Afghanistan).

All they know is that according to the website www.standupamericanow.org, was that Jones & others were taking part in an event marking the 11th anniversary of the September 11th, 2001 attacks supposedly entitled: “International Judge Mohammad Day” that was going to be carried on the internet.

As we all know by now is that the ever peaceful & loving folks in the Middle East take great offense when it comes to THEIR god and/or MOHAMMED especially when it is negative (if your name is Jesus or Buddha or whatever I guess you’re just shit out of luck). Many of the protesters were thought to be supporters of Islamist group "ultras" youths (kind of makes me think of an Arab version of the thugs from Stanley Kubrick’s “Clockwork Orange”), the group played a big role in the uprising that brought down Hosni Mubarak last year.

19-year-old Ismail Mahmoud, a member of the so-called "ultras", said, that “This movie must be banned immediately and an apology should be made,” and called on President Mohamed Mursi, Egypt's first civilian president and an Islamist, to take action. But again he had no details of the film that angered him or other protesters.

This isn’t the first -and I doubt will be the last- incident where protesters clashed with American interests in Egypt since the outing of President Mubarak in 2011. During Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit last July, after new Egyptian President Mursi was sworn in, her motorcade was pelted with tomatoes & demonstrators shouted slogans against her [Clinton], reflecting perceptions of some Islamists, who have swept Egypt's presidency and a parliamentary vote, that Washington helped them [Islamists] to power.

Hell, maybe they weren’t protesting at all and instead saying thanks to 1.3 billion dollars that the United States sends Egypt every year as has since signing of a peace treaty with Israel back in 1979. Yeah, that could be it. You have to love it. The American government is borrowing money at a phenomenal rate to pay bills & here we are sending over a billion to them to prop up their [Egypt] military. With videos being uploaded to YOUTUBE showing protesters as they chant outside the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, attacking it because some take it to the extreme when they think that anything that maybe insulting to Islam, I, for one, think that shit [sending aide] has to come to a stop, especially when we can‘t get our financial house in order.

But what the fuck do I know. I’m just some asshole that has to pay taxes to a government that has to borrow money so they can send it to other countries.