Saturday, December 18, 2010
Open Letter to John Halle and Progressives for Support of Mobilization Apart from the Left Establishment
Many thanks for the supports of our initiative
I should say that as the drafter of the original letter, I feel I owe the Muslim community an apology for not making Obama's disgraceful policy with respect to Israel/Palestine one of the main grievances mentioned within it.
Please rest assured that this was an oversight and nothing more. I have since made specific mention of this matter in a follow-up piece posted here:
Please accept my apologies and thanks for your endorsement and excellent website.
John Halle
Our response follows:
Dear Protestobama.org:
We appreciate your recognition and reply to our endorsement of the Open Letter to the Left Establishment (here). We feel that it is an important step toward creating a real, conscious movement that can end American Empire, revive international sentiment based on the right of self determination free from external manipulation and heal wounds between the Muslim world and western nations generally. We also agree that there is absolutely no way that these noble goals are attainable without the complete denunciation and mobilization against all that is the Democratic Party and everything that even slightly resembles the apparent fraud that is the Obama Administration.
For us radicals and Islamic progressives of the Muslim community, it was extremely painful to observe the unconditional support for Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign. We watched as Obama pronounced that Jerusalem should belong solely to Israel in front of AIPAC, as his staff evicted two female American Muslims in hijab from camera's view, as he announced the intent to continue and expand drone attacks and military intervention in Pakistan and to sustain the war in Afghanistan, as he fraudulently pledged to end the war in Iraq while still expressing an intent to leave tens of thousands of so-called "non-combat" troops behind on permanent military bases surrounding the largest embassy the world has ever known, and as he sat silent while Israel rained bombs on our mothers, brothers, and children in Gaza. These are but some of the atrocious realities we endured even before he became president of the United States.
We were troubled when Muslims and liberal Americans overwhelmingly supported his election, continued to give him the benefit of the doubt as he rescued his Wall Street backers, expanded the wars, continued the Bush doctrine of the Global War on Terror substituting the term "Islamic Extremists” for “Terrorists" with the brush of rhetorical sophistry that represents so much his narcissistic norm. And yet, still today, we are troubled as communities continue to give him the benefit of the doubt and remain silent in the face of Hitlerian wars of aggression and deception.
We are a minority in our own community and know what it is like to have our words bent and twisted, our homes invaded, our lives turned upside down, to receive death threats, labels of anti-Americanism and criticism from those that are supposed to be closest to home. Our counterparts have utilized similar straw man arguments to attempt to isolate our ability to reach a larger audience and influence the political discourse as well. They denounce our suspicions, usually proven prescient with time, as hate and conspiracy theory. It is much more convenient for them to capitalize on the mutually reinforcing complaint shadowed by doubt and inaction in order to remain beneficiaries of the institutions that help sustain the empire, to profit from blogs, books, and blurbs existentially suggesting dissent but in reality lacking the courage, self sacrifice and principled action that all real social struggles require.
Dismissed as conspiracy theorists or barbarians, the establishment of the left and right will certainly try to reduce your hope, instill fear, threaten you with worldly loss and perhaps if recent methods become the norm even frame you with false sexual allegations and, or waterboard you in secret detention. It is apparent to us that by taking the stand stated emphatically in your Open Letter that you are so too willing to endure similar persecution, to face being cast out by your own and ridiculed by those you consider your brethren. From this we gain inspiration and motivation and we thank you and express our open-ended solidarity and gratitude for all that you do.
Already your Open Letter to the Left Establishment has been criticized, referred to as "a malign force" that is supposedly to inflict damage to a "peace movement [that] will grow steadily in the months ahead, on its own." In reality, there is no "peace movement," there are virtually no voices calling for true fundamental change, there is little urgency based on the moral imperativeness of ending illegal war and state terrorism today, not tomorrow, not in the coming months, but now before another innocent is bombed, drug from their homes in night raid, raped or tortured in detention or demolished by silent drone. There are already over a million dead in Iraq, perhaps more in Afghanistan, an ongoing occupation that maims and kills Palestinians daily, and yet when Wikileaks cables document a preoccupation with the Global War on Terror that has created diplomacy that fights terror with terror and aims to eradicate terrorism created by terrorism a simple grasp of the silent American majority actually suggests that there is no peace movement destined to grow anywhere. This seems to be more of the false hope for change that beguiled so many on the campaign trail originally.
As you rightfully stated in your letter,
“The election of Obama has not galvanized protest movements. To the contrary, it has depressed and undermined them, with the White House playing an active role in the discouragement and suppression of dissent – with disastrous consequences. The almost complete absence of protest from the left has emboldened the most right-wing elements inside and outside of the Obama administration to pursue and act on an ever more extreme agenda.”
Today we struggle against seemingly insurmountable odds, trying to create resistance amongst a passive and scared population: indebted, unemployed, lacking courage and political awareness. It is only a movement like the one that you’ve proposed that can develop into a platform that invokes the possibility of real fundamental change.
Despite sharing similar values such as the importance of charity, justice in the economic, political, legal and social realms and a rich historical tradition of struggle and activism against oppression, Islamists and those from the Left have shown little ability to work together despite sharing so many similar views. Usually this is due to the absolute rejection of liberals with regard to religion as a system that should have any influence in the political world and the mutually harmful stance of those claiming religion that theological difference must prevent those agreeing on principle from cooperating to advocate for justice.
It is unfortunate that many Leftists cannot see the similar worldview they share with those Muslims at the other end of America’s war against political Islam, those living under the oppression of tyrants armed and aided by the United States, those Palestinians suffering each day under mental and physical occupation, and those living in comfortable realities infuriated by knowledge of these policies on the ground. It is also equally unfortunate that those Muslims today struggling to find the means by which they can mobilize against external and indigenous oppressors have not taken more of an example from the history of social movements that have been largely effective in accruing new and preserving old rights within Western democracies.
The very basic conundrum of division and emphasis on difference is that it often quells any real possibility for change. It is our belief that the endeavor you have set forth may potentially do much more than create resistance to the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and throughout the Muslim world; it may unite humanity, people from diverse persuasions upon resistance that sets aside difference for the sake of peace. When this is the case, it is easy to understand each other. As Norman Finkelstein recorded in his recent work This Time We've Gone too Far with regard to his visiting Gaza and talking to Hamas, the U.S. designated yet democratically elected "terror" group,
"As we parted ways at the end of the visit I felt obliged to state publicly that in my opinion none of them was deserving of the death Israel has attempted to inflict on them. I am aware that according to the "laws of war" they are "legitimate" military targets. But in a rational world the locution "laws of war" would make as much sense as "etiquette of cannibals." It is probably true that violent conflict would be more lethal and destructive in the absence of these laws, but it is also true that, in the pretense of neutrality they obscure fundamental truths. Whether from conviction, frustration, or torment, these young men have chosen to defend their homeland from foreign marauders with weapon in hand. Were I living in Gaza, still in my prime and able to muster the courage, I could easily be one of them."
It is in quotes like these, in the courageous ability to speak truth regardless of public opinion that we feel some really understand the perspective through which we endure the propaganda of the Orwellian corporatist State each and every day. Similarly you state emphatically,
“We hope that you reconsider your continuing failure to come to terms not only with the catastrophe which is the Obama administration but also for the damage which your insufficiently critical support has inflicted on the only force which has the capacity to oppose it: mass, organized, and militant expressions of popular protest.”
What was the civil rights movement absent the militancy of Malcolm X pushing in the background and giving Dr. King the appearance of moderation and the lesser threat? What was the American Revolution without the awareness that kings, queens and oligarchs never relinquish control without confrontation and violence? What was the message of Jesus Christ without the courage it took to cast the moneylenders from the temple? What was the message of Muhammad minus his staunch refusal to compromise, to preserve principles and true justice over false outwardly displays of change?
The notion that popular protest and majority mobilization creates change does not bear the test of realistic historical inquiry; instead long, hard and oftentimes unsuccessful clusters mobilize because it is the right thing to do and eventually their persistence forms a mass movement that creates the potential for change. As the quote attributed to Margaret Mead once expressed, “never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, dedicated citizens can change the world; Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.” We watch and we observe as your associates misinterpret and ridicule you, as you protest in the snow, as you are arrested, as the press refuses to give you the coverage you deserve. We empathize with your effort, appreciate your deeds, and recognize that it is only when we build bridges in the name of peace that we will ever end the clash of civilizations. We acknowledge that you have inclined towards peace and likewise do the same; therefore we implore all to assist you in your goals and objectives, express our solidarity with your movement, and will do our best to help it grow. If there is anything specifically we can do to assist please let us know.
Sincerely,
Younus Abdullah Muhammad
IslamPolicy.com
Who Is the FBI Really Trying to Entrap?
These are high crimes, as high as they come, which, in a just world, would warrant many counts of impeachment for both chief executives responsible: presidents Bush and Obama. The irony is, the very atmosphere of hysteria and war fever that the fake terror plots engender among the public, insulates the perpetrators from accountability for their crimes. No wonder the incoming Obama administration shielded the outgoing Bush gang from prosecution. Obama instructed Eric Holder to expand the phony terror racket, not to shut it down. Both presidents' historical legacies are now inextricably tied to a domestic war on terror that is largely a fiction.
The fiction has real victims, including the poor and powerless, largely Black and brown men who were manipulated like puppets in theatrical productions directed by the FBI for purpose of frightening an audience of 300 million Americans. The families of some of these entrapped, involuntary actors in the FBI's fake terror dramas are scheduled to gather at New York University, in Manhattan, on December 16, to devise strategies for seeking justice.
Muslim Americans have been criminalized as a community. In Irvine, California, an FBI operative was so brazen in soliciting recruits for jihad, mosque members got a court restraining order to shut him up. It turns out the informant was paid $177,000 to incite a holy war -- the going rate, apparently, for inventing terror where none has previously existed.
So who is the real target of government entrapment? It could not be the individuals sucked into the FBI vortex, since Eric Holder's men knew they were incapable of independently carrying out the crimes and, therefore, represented no danger to society. No, American society, itself, has been entrapped by the Bush and Obama manipulators. The object is to terrify the American public, so that they will surrender their civil liberties -- possibly the greatest extortion scheme in U.S. history.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com .
NY TImes, using bin Laden to usher in "digital monetary system"
In a new approach to utilizing the War on Terror to suppress liberty and freedom everywhere, this Op-Ed from the NY Times calls for a cashless society based on money created out of thin air not by the printing press but with the stroke of a keyboard. Of course, this policy which would place even more power in the hands of private central banks and international financiers, is only to rid the world of TERRORISM... Quite an interesting logic behind this piece.
source
By JONATHAN LIPOW
Published: December 17, 2010
source
By JONATHAN LIPOW
Published: December 17, 2010
THE 500-euro note is sometimes called the “Bin Laden” — after all, Europeans may never see the 500 euro, but they know it is out there somewhere. Unfortunately, Al Qaeda’s leader and the 500-euro bill are connected in another way: high-denomination bills make it a lot easier for terrorists to operate.
Organized crime has always been a cash industry. In 1969, the Treasury stopped issuing $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 bills specifically to impede crime syndicates — the only entities that were still using such large bills after the introduction of electronic money transfers.
Nowadays, terrorist networks have become important users of cash. No organization understands this better than the United States military. During the early years of coalition operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, American forces distributed cash liberally. From 2003 and 2008, about $19 billion in physical money was handed out to Iraqi suppliers and contractors.
But the military has gradually realized that the anonymity of cash makes it easy for terrorists and insurgents to smuggle in money and make purchases without a trace. That’s why for the past few years the military has been striving to replace its cash transactions with electronic fund transfers and debit card payments in the hopes of achieving a “cashless battlefield,” in the words of Peter Kunkel, a former assistant secretary of the Army.
Of course, in an era of global terrorism and international crime syndicates, the whole world is a battlefield. Raids on drug traffickers in Mexico often turn up tens of millions of dollars in cash. One raid netted over $200 million, mostly in $100 bills. So, why not eliminate the use of physical cash worldwide — not just a “cashless battlefield” but a “cashless economy”?
From a technical point of view, such an initiative is entirely feasible. The trick is to lower the cost of making transactions to the point where even the smallest payments can be executed efficiently. For example, a Twitter application known as TwitPay allows you to use your cellphone and a PayPal account to transfer money. In Kenya, a mobile banking system known as M-Pesa allows six million people to execute small payments using SMS messages.
Unfortunately, cellular-based systems are unsuitable as a complete replacement for physical money, particularly in the developing world. Cellphone coverage doesn’t yet extend to many rural regions or small urban centers; in addition, such systems remain too vulnerable to cybercrime and power grid or mobile service disruptions.
A better approach would be to use smart cards with biometric security features, like the Universal Electronic Payments System. In South Africa, the technology company Net1 now distributes social welfare grants to almost four million people. It’s simple: with a battery-operated, point-of-sale device akin to a credit-card terminal, money is transferred from one person’s card to another; during the process, the cards download and record each other’s transaction records.
Every few days, employees from the payments system head out to the villages and make their own money transfers, downloading the transaction histories of the cards they come into contact with, which contain the histories of the cards they interacted with, and so on. That data is then downloaded into the company’s mainframe, as a way of monitoring the flow of funds across the cards.
Best of all, the system can function offline and off the power grid, providing a secure means of payment under all conditions and without any geographic limitations. And the incremental cost of executing a transaction via this system is essentially zero. It is a promising model for the global economy.
In a cashless economy, insurgents’ and terrorists’ electronic payments would generate audit trails that could be screened by data mining software; every payment and transfer would yield a treasure trove of information about their agents, their locations and their intentions. This would pose similar challenges for criminals.
To help move to a global cashless economy, the Obama administration should push for an international agreement to eliminate the largest-denomination bills. Additionally, the United States Agency for International Development could make the promotion of electronic payments systems in developing countries one of its strategic objectives, much as the American military has done in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“Money’s destiny is to become digital,” announced a 2002 study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. In terms of public safety and national security, the sooner the world moves to a digital cashless economy, the better.
Jonathan Lipow is an associate professor of economics at the Defense Resource Management Institute at the Naval Postgraduate School.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Forces of Fortune: The Rise of the New Muslim Middle Class and What It Will Mean for Our World
An important work that calls on the West to not isolate the growth of fundamentalism so much as they seek to control and intervene in the rising commodification of Islam. The intro is read below and the book is full of very quality analysis albeit from a pro-secular perspective.
Response Of The Islamic Emirate To Obama’s Review Of The Strategy
Muharram 10, 1432 A.H, Friday, December 17, 2010
In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful.
Last night, American defeated President Barack Obama unveiled review of his failed strategy. One year ago, Obama had announced the strategy aimed at bolstering the tempo of the invading American forces in Afghanistan and thwarting the Jihadic activities of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
Having confidence in the help of the Almighty Allah (SWT) and in the ultimate victory of the legitimate Jihad of the Muslim people of Afghanistan against the invading Americans and their Allies, the Islamic Emirate responds to the review of the strategy by Obama as follows:
1. Obama unveils review of the strategy in a time that they left no stone unturned in Afghanistan to beef up the occupation but all their efforts have failed. Now he has come with the review of the strategy to present it before the American public and the public of the world in an effort to distract the attention from his failed strategy; to buoy up a new hope and keep people occupied in illusory expectations. However, the review of the strategy by Obama proves that his last year’s strategy with all other overseas schemes have faced frustration and failure because the substance of these schemes and strategy do not coincide with the ground realities in Afghanistan.
2. The past nine years have showed that the foreign troops surge and emphasis on military approach is a failed replica for achievement of victory by the foreign occupation in Afghanistan, never being in a position to play a role in transformation of the status quo in the country. This is the hard fact which Obama has also conceded, though indirectly, by resorting to reviewing the strategy.
3. Obama announced review of his strategy while thousands of people were demonstrating against the strategy in front of the White House. One day ago, an American intelligence agency, in its report. had expressed concern about American military setbacks in Afghanistan – in other words, an ultimate defeat that the rulers of the White House would have to accept it one day as a bitter reality.
4. Obama announced review of his strategy amidst his assertions regarding relative military advancement in some undisclosed areas of Afghanistan but all know that the ground realties are contrary to what he claims. More Americans have been killed in Afghanistan following the announcement of the said strategy.
5. The Obama strategy for Afghanistan not only has failed in the military field but has had no achievement at civilian and Administration level. All American programs in Afghanistan have faced failure and humiliation, up to this very day, after the announcement of the strategy.
6. In view of common Afghans, the strategy has only resulted in helping the puppet Karzai government remain in power; spread corruption, insecurity, grievances, incompetence of officials, killings of thousands of civilians during American operations. These are the consequences of the strategy.
7. In our opinion , the review of the strategy will have no achievement; will follow the path of Obama’s previous strategy which has already failed in practice and will not yield any positive message for the Americans. The continuation of the strategy at the current level without any change in its content symbolizes a defeat in view of its past record.
8. The only point which attracts attention in this review is the drawdown of America forces in Afghanistan next year. This is the bitter consequences which the American people are grappling with after losing thousands of American soldiers and spending hundreds of billions of dollars.
9. The Islamic Emirate will continue to stand by its unwavering stance as regards the review of the strategy as it was emphasizing on continuation of legitimate struggle against the invading American and all foreign forces in order to foil the strategy. The Islamic Emirate will not spare any sacrifice in the way of independence of its prideful country and Muslim people and establishment of an Islamic regime.
10. The Islamic Emirate believes, peace and stability will not return to Afghanistan unless and until all foreign forces pull out of the country. The unremitting continuation of foreign interference will pave the way for more casualties and destructions. So rationally, the foreigners should start the withdrawal of the occupying forces now—a task which they would have to do ultimately at a later stage. Thus they will save themselves from the heavy losses in life and equipment which they are facing as a result of the war of Afghanistan. Likewise, the oppressed and miserable people of Afghanistan will also find salvation from the illegitimate invasion and atrocities of America. This is the mechanism of the solution.
The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
The Islamic Emirate Of Afghanistan: A Few Realities About The Demise Of Imperialist America…!!
Muharram 10, 1432 A.H, Friday, December 17, 2010
In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful.
On 4 of December 2010, Obama arrived at Bagram Airbase for two and half hours and after consulting the invading NATO and American commander (Petraeus), Karl Eikenberry and other senior officials, went to a newly built hospital inside the airbase which treats mentally ill soldiers who have succumbed to emotional and physiological problems due to the intensity of the Afghan war and met some of those soldiers who were under treatment.
Obama also met those unstable soldiers, whose hands and feet were tied with chains and used to curse everyone who came in contact with them! Obama was also abused by these nutcases!!
They warmly welcomed him with a great cussing fanfare!!! Seeing Obama bewildered by the state of his soldiers, Petraeus quickly took him out of the hospital and stood him on the podium where 4000 soldiers had been bundled up to listen to his 2010 end of year speech…
Obama declared in his speech:
I know it’s not easy for all of you to be away from homes, especially during the holidays! And I know it’s hard on your families that you are thousands of miles away and in a difficult situation!! I am here to raise your determination and to tell you that the Taliban momentum has been broken!! Today we can be proud that there are fewer areas under their control! Suddenly his eyes fill with tears….. And says with a quivery voice: You need to take out the Taliban leadership!! I don’t need to tell you this is a tough fight but we all are depending on you and I know that you are facing a very cunning enemy!!
Yes! It is a reality that American is facing the most sensitive period of its history. It is burning in the fire it lit with its own hands which has made its politicians, intellectuals and administration very nervous, stressed and jittery!! And its soldiers have become so tired of fighting that every new soldier arrives with a crushed spirit. And that, only after many incentives, enticements, promises, assurances and a big paycheck! Yet they still look for a ways and lies to avoid coming to Afghanistan!
In 2009, when 35 thousand additional troops were approved for Afghanistan, 55 percent refused to go under false pretexts and excuses! And why shouldn’t they decline, especially after being witnesses to the the hundreds of dead soldiers arriving at airports in coffins every day!!
There have been many facts and figures exposed by the Arabic, Farsi, Pashto and English media which I would like to share right here:
From the year 2001 until March of 2009, 7874 American soldiers, 184 commandoes (special force), 1686 marines and 260 air-force personnel have been killed which gives a grand total of 9496.
In 2010, 877 American soldiers have been killed in Helmand alone. This figure is taken from the dead soldiers whose corpses have been put in ‘pretty’ coffins and taken back to American airports where they are received with salutes and respects which have become a norm. So how could those American soldiers go to Afghanistan who are witnessing these scenes?!
In light of these reports, from 16 of February to 15 March 2010, 1391 American corpses reached their homes making it the bloodiest period for the invaders in Afghanistan! This report indicated that the most astonishing fact during this 31 day period was the economic damage caused by Taliban attacks which targeted 210 armored vehicles, 60 tanks, 30 fuel tankers, 5 spy planes and 12 apache helicopters.
The number of wounded and mentally ill in the past 9 years has not even been mentioned. The report did however mention that most of the soldiers returning back to their homes from Afghanistan have turned insane due to the psychological harm from the mission! And many others brains have been rendered useless and paralyzed.
Yes! The forces of the world’s ‘super power’ are resorting to drugs as a healing method!! The American government has so far used 950 billion dollars to treat these soldiers, which has been futile so far!! They have used all technology, science and experiments at its disposal to deal with this disease, but it has failed to control or improve their physical or mental state. In fact, 35 percent of soldiers are abusing drugs. Doctors have concluded that the reason for rampant drug abuse is coming in contact with powerful blasts and depressing!
To validate this, reputable sources say: 22 thousand soldiers, who have returned from Afghanistan, are suffering from anxiety. Of the returnee from the year 2007, 121 have been successful in committing suicide while 2100 have either failed or were stopped in their attempt. Another illness has also arisen in the ranks of American soldiers which has Pentagon very nervous, desertion. A lot of American soldiers take leave to go home but then fail to return to their units! And some soldiers inside units encourage their comrades to rebel against their commanders!!
This is the state of the most professional, well trained army which has earned the wrath of Allah SWT. This is the result of curse of those innocent Muslims who have been and are being abused by these criminals in Abu Ghuraib, Guantanamo and Bagram prisons! Now that we see America head deep in another quagmire!! Our conviction in Allah is made even firmer:
(…And they thought that their fortresses would defend them from Allah! But Allah's (Torment) reached them from a place whereof they expected it not, and He cast terror into their hearts, so that they destroyed their own dwellings with their own hands and the hands of the believers. Then take admonition, O you with eyes (to see).) Surah Hashr, Verse 2.
A British colonel (Mark Charlton Smith) has also confirmed these accounts by saying that allied forces can never achieve any major victory in Afghanistan. His words indicate that victory is not in their fate…
Similarly, on 13 December 2010 (USA Today) through Pentagon said that there have been 17000 attacks on coalition forces this year, which is a two fold increase from last year at a time when there are still 17 days left in the current year.
These spectacular failures compelled Obama to visit Afghanistan on 04 December in the cover of darkness in order to boost his troop’s morale but the opposite effect took place and he left for Washington, overwhelmed and defeated!!
The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
Top Test Scores From Shanghai Stun Educators
Arab Development Reports conducted by the UN since 2004 consistently show that the Arab world has zero world class universities, virtually no effective scientific discoveries, and no academic contribution to the world. As a result, the talented are outsourced to the West where they can go to jumua, pray, fast, produce kids that love Zaytuna Institute, and work at the local multinational firm raping the Muslim world, building weapons for the military industrial complex, teaching the kuffar Arabic and Islamic history so they can shatter the deen, or operating on the kuffar. It is of utmost importance that any nation have sovereignty and development based on indigenous culture and history. Unfortunately, while our most talented debate the supremacy of the Arabs over other nations, the Arabs continue to be humiliated in the real world. The following report is one example of how far a nation can rise when it concentrates on technology, mathematics, engineering and does so while maintainign its cultural independence. Here is to sovereignty and independence from the evil rulers that prevent Islamic Development. The report referenced in the article is worth using for personal analysis:
With China’s debut in international standardized testing, students in Shanghai have surprised experts by outscoring their counterparts in dozens of other countries, in reading as well as in math and science, according to the results of a respected exam.
American officials and Europeans involved in administering the test in about 65 countries acknowledged that the scores from Shanghai — an industrial powerhouse with some 20 million residents and scores of modern universities that is a magnet for the best students in the country — are by no means representative of all of China.
About 5,100 15-year-olds in Shanghai were chosen as a representative cross-section of students in that city. In the United States, a similar number of students from across the country were selected as a representative sample for the test.
Experts noted the obvious difficulty of using a standardized test to compare countries and cities of vastly different sizes. Even so, they said the stellar academic performance of students in Shanghai was noteworthy, and another sign of China’s rapid modernization.
The results also appeared to reflect the culture of education there, including greater emphasis on teacher training and more time spent on studying rather than extracurricular activities like sports.
“Wow, I’m kind of stunned, I’m thinking Sputnik,” said Chester E. Finn Jr., who served in President Ronald Reagan’s Department of Education, referring to the groundbreaking Soviet satellite launching. Mr. Finn, who has visited schools all across China, said, “I’ve seen how relentless the Chinese are at accomplishing goals, and if they can do this in Shanghai in 2009, they can do it in 10 cities in 2019, and in 50 cities by 2029.”
The test, the Program for International Student Assessment, known as PISA, was given to 15-year-old students by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a Paris-based group that includes the world’s major industrial powers.
The results are to be released officially on Tuesday, but advance copies were provided to the news media a day early.
“We have to see this as a wake-up call,” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in an interview on Monday.
“I know skeptics will want to argue with the results, but we consider them to be accurate and reliable, and we have to see them as a challenge to get better,” he added. “The United States came in 23rd or 24th in most subjects. We can quibble, or we can face the brutal truth that we’re being out-educated.”
In math, the Shanghai students performed in a class by themselves, outperforming second-place Singapore, which has been seen as an educational superstar in recent years. The average math scores of American students put them below 30 other countries.
PISA scores are on a scale, with 500 as the average. Two-thirds of students in participating countries score between 400 and 600. On the math test last year, students in Shanghai scored 600, in Singapore 562, in Germany 513, and in the United States 487.
In reading, Shanghai students scored 556, ahead of second-place Korea with 539. The United States scored 500 and came in 17th, putting it on par with students in the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Germany, France, the United Kingdom and several other countries.
In science, Shanghai students scored 575. In second place was Finland, where the average score was 554. The United States scored 502 — in 23rd place — with a performance indistinguishable from Poland, Ireland, Norway, France and several other countries.
The testing in Shanghai was carried out by an international contractor, working with Chinese authorities, and overseen by the Australian Council for Educational Research, a nonprofit testing group, said Andreas Schleicher, who directs the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s international educational testing program.
Mark Schneider, a commissioner of the Department of Education’s research arm in the George W. Bush administration, who returned from an educational research visit to China on Friday, said he had been skeptical about some PISA results in the past. But Mr. Schneider said he considered the accuracy of these results to be unassailable.
“The technical side of this was well regulated, the sampling was O.K., and there was no evidence of cheating,” he said.
Mr. Schneider, however, noted some factors that may have influenced the outcome.
For one thing, Shanghai is a huge migration hub within China. Students are supposed to return to their home provinces to attend high school, but the Shanghai authorities could increase scores by allowing stellar students to stay in the city, he said. And Shanghai students apparently were told the test was important for China’s image and thus were more motivated to do well, he said.
“Can you imagine the reaction if we told the students of Chicago that the PISA was an important international test and that America’s reputation depended on them performing well?” Mr. Schneider said. “That said, China is taking education very seriously. The work ethic is amazingly strong.”
In a speech to a college audience in North Carolina, President Obama recalled how the Soviet Union’s 1957 launching of Sputnik provoked the United States to increase investment in math and science education, helping America win the space race.
“Fifty years later, our generation’s Sputnik moment is back,” Mr. Obama said. With billions of people in India and China “suddenly plugged into the world economy,” he said, nations with the most educated workers will prevail. “As it stands right now,” he said, “America is in danger of falling behind.”
If Shanghai is a showcase of Chinese educational progress, America’s showcase would be Massachusetts, which has routinely scored higher than all other states on America’s main federal math test in recent years.
But in a 2007 study that correlated the results of that test with the results of an international math exam, Massachusetts students scored behind Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan. Shanghai did not participate in the test.
A 259-page Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development report on the latest Pisa results notes that throughout its history, China has been organized around competitive examinations. “Schools work their students long hours every day, and the work weeks extend into the weekends,” it said.
Chinese students spend less time than American students on athletics, music and other activities not geared toward success on exams in core subjects. Also, in recent years, teaching has rapidly climbed up the ladder of preferred occupations in China, and salaries have risen. In Shanghai, the authorities have undertaken important curricular reforms, and educators have been given more freedom to experiment.
Ever since his organization received the Shanghai test scores last year, Mr. Schleicher said, international testing experts have investigated them to vouch for their accuracy, expecting that they would produce astonishment in many Western countries.
“This is the first time that we have internationally comparable data on learning outcomes in China,” Mr. Schleicher said. “While that’s important, for me the real significance of these results is that they refute the commonly held hypothesis that China just produces rote learning.”
“Large fractions of these students demonstrate their ability to extrapolate from what they know and apply their knowledge very creatively in novel situations,” he said.
Chris Hedges - Noam Chomsky and other Progressives call for Unified Resistance against Corporatist Obama...
The following is a letter from protestobama.org to the left establishment. As followers of Millat Ibrahim we must understand that in the West, those most capable of accurately critiquing the systems of kufr and identifying the oppressive nature of reality are the radical progressives. Certainly Allah (swt) says that we should seperate from the kuffar and express our animosity for their shirk:
In Surah Mumtahina, Allah says in ayah 4 that,
There is for you an excellent example (to follow) in Abraham and those with him, when they said to their people: "We are clear of you and of whatever ye worship besides Allah: we have rejected you, and there has arisen, between us and you, enmity and hatred for ever,- unless ye believe in Allah and Him alone": But not when Abraham said to his father: "I will pray for forgiveness for thee, though I have no power (to get) aught on thy behalf from Allah." (They prayed): "Our Lord! in Thee do we trust, and to Thee do we turn in repentance: to Thee is (our) Final Goal.
Still, a few ayaat later Allah (swt) informs us that:
Allah forbids you not, with regard to those who fight you not for (your) Faith nor drive you out of your homes, from dealing kindly and justly with them: for Allah loveth those who are just.
Muslims in the West should support not the liberals that are seeking reform and giving Obama the benefit of the doubt, but those that want to radically alter the nature of the imperialist society. Certainly there is no harm in working in conjunction with them. Chris Hedges and Ray McGovern are building the foundations for civil protest along radical lines in America now. We express our solidarity with this movement and implore all Muslims living in America to attend, participate, aid and assist this effort in every way. You can start by reading the appeal below and signing it and then visiting stopthewars.org where you can support a small movement based on principles that run similar to ours. Islampolicy.com expresses our solidarity with this movement as it is the only platform that could ever lead to both an end of wars and a justification for the type of assimilation the so-called "American Muslim leaders" call to. Indeed the "American Muslim leaders" share the platform of the liberals these radicals have also identified as 'fraud.' Here is to those that can realize the same is true of our "establishment."
This letter is a call for active support of protest to Michael Moore,Norman Solomon, Katrina van den Heuvel, Michael Eric Dyson, Barbara Ehrenreich, Thomas Frank, Tom Hayden, Bill Fletcher Jr., Jesse Jackson Jr., and other high profile progressive supporters of the Obama electoral campaign.
With the Obama administration beginning its third year, it is by now painfully obvious that the predictions of even the most sober Obama supporters were overly optimistic. Rather than an ally, the administration has shown itself to be an implacable enemy of reform.
It has advanced repeated assaults on the New Deal safety net (including the previously sacrosanct Social Security trust fund), jettisoned any hope for substantive health care reform, attacked civil rights andenvironmental protections, and expanded a massive bailout further enriching an already bloated financial services and insurance industry. It has continued the occupation of Iraq and expanded the war in Afghanistan as well as our government’s covert and overt wars in South Asia and around the globe.
Along the way, the Obama administration, which referred to its left detractors as “f***ing retarded” individuals that required “drug testing,” stepped up the prosecution of federal war crime whistleblowers, andunleashed the FBI on those protesting the escalation of an insane war.
Obama’s recent announcement of a federal worker pay freeze is cynical, mean-spirited “deficit-reduction theater”. Slashing Bush’s plutocratic tax cuts would have made a much more significant contribution to deficit reduction but all signs are that the “progressive” president will cave to Republican demands for the preservation of George W. Bush’s tax breaks for the wealthy Few. Instead Obama’s tax cut plan would raise taxes for the poorest people in our country.
The election of Obama has not galvanized protest movements. To the contrary, it has depressed and undermined them, with the White House playing an active role in the discouragement and suppression of dissent– with disastrous consequences. The almost complete absence of protest from the left has emboldened the most right-wing elements inside and outside of the Obama administration to pursue and act on an ever more extreme agenda.
We are writing to you because you are well-known writers, bloggers and filmmakers with access to a range of old and new media, and you have in your power the capacity to help reignite the movement which broughtmillions onto the streets in February of 2003 but which has withered ever since. There are many thousands of progressives who follow your work closely and are waiting for a cue from you and others to act. We are asking you to commit yourself to actively supporting the protests of Obama administration policies which are now beginning to materialize.
In this connection we would like to mention a specific protest: the civil disobedience action being planned by Veterans for Peace involvingChris Hedges, Daniel Ellsberg, Joel Kovel, Medea Benjamin, Ray McGovern, several armed service veterans and others to take place in front of the White House on Dec. 16th.
Should you commit yourselves to backing this action and others sure to materialize in weeks and months ahead, what would otherwise be regarded as an emotional outburst of the “fringe left” will have a better chance of being seen as expressing the will of a substantial majority not only of the left, but of the American public at large. We believe that your support will help create the climate for larger and increasingly disruptive expressions of dissent – a development that is sorely needed and long overdue.
We hope that we can count on you to exercise the leadership that is required of all of us in these desperate times.
Best Regards,
Sen. James Abourezk, Tariq Ali, Rocky Anderson, Jared Ball, Russel Banks, Thomas Bias, Jean Bricmont, Noam Chomsky, Bruce Dixon, Frank Dorrel, Gidon Eshel, Jamilla El-Shafei, Okla Elliott, Norman Finkelstein, Glen Ford, Joshua Frank, Margaret Flowers M.D., John Gerassi, Henry Giroux, Matt Gonzalez, Kevin Alexander Gray, Judd Greenstein, DeeDee Halleck, John Halle, Chris Hedges, Doug Henwood, Edward S. Herman, Jack Hirschman, Dahr Jamail, Derrick Jensen, Louis Kampf, Allison Kilkenny, Jamie Kilstein, Joel Kovel, Mark Kurlansky, Peter Linebaugh, Scott McLarty, Cynthia McKinney, Dede Miller, Russell Mokhiber, Roger Morris, Bobby Muller, Christian Parenti, Michael Perelman, Peter Phillips, Louis Proyect, Ted Rall, Cindy Sheehan, Chris Spannos, Paul Street, Sunil Sharma, Stephen Pearcy, Jeffrey St. Clair, Len Weinglass, Cornel West, Sherry Wolf, Michael Yates, Mickey Z, Kevin Zeese
Please sign the Open Letter to the Left Establishment.
Sen. James Abourezk, Tariq Ali, Rocky Anderson, Jared Ball, Russel Banks, Thomas Bias, Jean Bricmont, Noam Chomsky, Bruce Dixon, Frank Dorrel, Gidon Eshel, Jamilla El-Shafei, Okla Elliott, Norman Finkelstein, Glen Ford, Joshua Frank, Margaret Flowers M.D., John Gerassi, Henry Giroux, Matt Gonzalez, Kevin Alexander Gray, Judd Greenstein, DeeDee Halleck, John Halle, Chris Hedges, Doug Henwood, Edward S. Herman, Jack Hirschman, Dahr Jamail, Derrick Jensen, Louis Kampf, Allison Kilkenny, Jamie Kilstein, Joel Kovel, Mark Kurlansky, Peter Linebaugh, Scott McLarty, Cynthia McKinney, Dede Miller, Russell Mokhiber, Roger Morris, Bobby Muller, Christian Parenti, Michael Perelman, Peter Phillips, Louis Proyect, Ted Rall, Cindy Sheehan, Chris Spannos, Paul Street, Sunil Sharma, Stephen Pearcy, Jeffrey St. Clair, Len Weinglass, Cornel West, Sherry Wolf, Michael Yates, Mickey Z, Kevin Zeese
Please sign the Open Letter to the Left Establishment.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Karbala and the Lofty Revolution
"The revolution did not die in the grounds of Karbala"
by Abu Talha
Nor did it begin in Karbala. The revolutionary spirit, or soul of Islam lays not within a historical event, or figure but rather on an absolute truth that transcends history and the material world. It is the only absolute truth whose centrality shapes Islam and according to whose dictum the universe submits. At-Tawheed, the Divine Unity of Allaah is the all-pervasive feature and core of Islam. Basing itself on an absolute reality, as opposed to a historical occurence or figure, purely relative, as the Christians do with Jesus, or Jews with Bani Israel.
Had the story-tellers amongst the Shi'ite understood this grand truth, they would not have emphasized their keeness on revolution for their revolution is based on, as Musa Sadr said, the soil of Karbala and the death of Husayn radiyallahu 'anhu. It is no surprise that they posses such a superficial understanding of revolution considering that the emergence of Shi'ism itself is based on 'Ali and his Wilaya. Only by understanding the fine discernment between the absolute and the relative do we realize the significance of this fact. Stemming from relativity and shallow foundations, they cannot but produce only a facade of revolution, just as the Marxist tried to do by replacing the chains of capitalism with the chains of proliterian dictatorship. The all-inclusivity and comprehensiveness of the revolutionary nature of Tawheed lays in its all-inclusive, comprehensive, and universal worldview of not only man and society, but also of reality.
Muhammad Salallahu 'Alaayhe wa-Salaam began this revolutionary movement with La ilaha ila Allah, and not by recalling the plights of Yahya, Yusuf, Musa, Nuh, Ibrahim, or 'Isa. And it was La ilaha ila Allah that shook the thones of tyranny in the east and west, not history. It was only when the likes of 'Ali Shariati understood this and gained this insight did they give way to the revolution in Iran in the name of Shi'ism, which had been before that stagnant and sterile. Tawheed, as it had done before provided the only powerful catalyst for a true revolution. Explaining this phenomenon moreso, this miracle, Sayyid Qutb says;
the Law prescribed for human beings is the same Law that governs the entire universe. Accordingly, when human beings deal with each other and the universe in accordance with this one universal law, they achieve harmony and avoid conflict and division. This integration of all human power generates such an invincible force that nothing can stand before it. That is why the great accomplishments of earlier generations of Muslims now seem almost supernatural. Indeed, such things were possible because the Islamic concept generates a unified force, which integrates the energies of both people and nature, prepares them to receive the blessing of Allah, and thereby makes them responsive totally to Allah so that both forces mutually reinforce each other in a single force dedicated to His service.
History opens its pages to the caravan of youth and elders alike who revolted under the banner of Tawheed. The history books of Ahl as-Sunnah that speak of men such as Sa'id Ibn Jubayr, Mujahid, Ibrahim an-Nahki, and contemporary giants like Sayyid Qutb and Hassan al-Banna whose words still live amongst the living bodies of today. Their insight of mans inherent freedom, liberty, and dignification that made them defiant to the state of subjugation and servitude today to despots cloaked in the guise of nationalism, liberty, and democracy.
Husayn radiyallahu 'anhu represents a tradition and not a beginning. Setting an example for Ahl as-Sunnah as well who have long forgotten the implications of the lofty kalimah which today is merely uttered upon tongues. Grasping its true essence is key to beginning a new era free from humiliation and subjugation and to the liberating shade of La ilaha ila Allah. Echoing once again the words of Rab'i bin 'Amir who upon being asked by Rustum - the king of Persia - "for what purpose have you come?". He boldly replied; ""Allah has sent us to bring whoever wishes from servitude to men into servitude to Allah alone, from the narrowness of this world into the vastness of this world and the Hereafter, and from the tyranny of religions into the justice of Islam."
December Review Can't Hide the Failure of the Afghanistan War
Please try to ignore the very harsh music in the background...
From the NY Times: LINK ... also seems Obama's "great news" about Afghanistan is just more cattle fodder.
WASHINGTON — As President Obama prepares to release a review of American strategy in Afghanistan that will claim progress in the nine-year-old war there, two new classified intelligence reports offer a more negative assessment and say there is a limited chance of success unless Pakistan hunts down insurgents operating from havens on its Afghan border.
Massoud Hossaini/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
A Marine helicopter dropped flares over Marines on the ground in Musa Qala in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.
Related
Mullen Expresses Impatience With Pakistan on Visit(December 15, 2010)
Post-Holbrooke Question: ‘What Now?’ (December 15, 2010)
The Lede Blog: Revisiting Holbrooke's Last Remarks(December 14, 2010)
Times Topics: National Intelligence Estimates |Afghanistan
Readers' Comments
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The reports, one on Afghanistan and one on Pakistan, say that although there have been gains for the United States and NATO in the war, the unwillingness of Pakistan to shut down militant sanctuaries in its lawless tribal region remains a serious obstacle. American military commanders say insurgents freely cross from Pakistan into Afghanistan to plant bombs and fight American troops and then return to Pakistan for rest and resupply.
The findings in the reports, called National Intelligence Estimates, represent the consensus view of the United States’ 16 intelligence agencies, as opposed to the military, and were provided last week to some members of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees. The findings were described by a number of American officials who read the reports’ executive summaries.
American military commanders and senior Pentagon officials have already criticized the reports as out of date and say that the cut-off date for the Afghanistan report, Oct. 1, does not allow it to take into account what the military cites as tactical gains in Kandahar and Helmand Provinces in the south in the six weeks since. Pentagon and military officials also say the reports were written by desk-bound Washington analysts who have spent limited time, if any, in Afghanistan and have no feel for the war.
“They are not on the ground living it day in and day out like our forces are, so they don’t have the proximity and perspective,” said a senior defense official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he did not want to be identified while criticizing the intelligence agencies. The official said that the 30,000 additional troops that Mr. Obama ordered to Afghanistan in December 2009 did not all arrive until September, meaning that the intelligence agencies had little time to judge the effects of the escalation. There are now about 100,000 American forces in Afghanistan.
The dispute between the military and intelligence agencies reflects how much the debate in Washington over the war is now centered on whether the United States can succeed in Afghanistan without the cooperation of Pakistan, which despite years of American pressure has resisted routing militants on its border.
The dispute also reflects the longstanding cultural differences between intelligence analysts, whose job is to warn of potential bad news, and military commanders, who are trained to promote “can do” optimism.
But in Afghanistan, the intelligence agencies play a strong role, with the largest Central Intelligence Agency station since the Vietnam War located in Kabul. C.I.A. operatives also command an Afghan paramilitary force in the thousands. In Pakistan, the C.I.A. is running a covert war using drone aircraft.
Both sides have found some areas of agreement in the period leading up to Mr. Obama’s review, which will be made public on Thursday. The intelligence reports, which rely heavily on assessments from the C.I.A. and the Defense Intelligence Agency, conclude that C.I.A. drone strikes on leaders of Al Qaeda in the tribal regions of Pakistan have had an impact and that security has improved in the parts of Helmand and Kandahar Provinces in southern Afghanistan where the United States has built up its troop presence. For their part, American commanders and Pentagon officials say they do not yet know if the war can be won without more cooperation from Pakistan. But after years and billions spent trying to win the support of the Pakistanis, they are now proceeding on the assumption that there will be limited help from them. The American commanders and officials readily describe the havens for insurgents in Pakistan as a major impediment to military operations.
“I’m not going to make any bones about it, they’ve got sanctuaries and they go back and forth across the border,” Maj. Gen. John F. Campbell, the commander of NATO forces in eastern Afghanistan, told reporters last week in the remote Kunar Province of Afghanistan. “They’re financed better, they’re better trained, they’re the ones who bring in the higher-end I.E.D.’s.” General Campbell was referring to improvised explosive devices, the military’s name for the insurgent-made bombs, the leading cause of American military deaths in Afghanistan.
American commanders say their plan in the next few years is to kill large numbers of insurgents in the border region — the military refers to it as “degrading the Taliban” — and at the same time build up the Afghan National Army to the point that the Afghans can at least contain an insurgency still supported by Pakistan. (American officials say Pakistan supports the insurgents as a proxy force in Afghanistan, preparing for the day the Americans leave.)
“That is not the optimal solution, obviously,” said Bruce O. Riedel, a former C.I.A. official and now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, who led a White House review of Afghan strategy last year that resulted in Mr. Obama sending the additional forces. “But we have to deal with the world we have, not the world we’d like. We can’t make Pakistan stop being naughty.”
Publicly, American officials and military commanders continue to praise Pakistan and its military chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, if only for acknowledging the problem.
“General Kayani and others have been clear in recognizing that they need to do more for their security and indeed to carry out operations against those who threaten other countries’ security,” Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top American commander in Afghanistan, said last week.
But many Afghan officials say that the United States, which sends Pakistan about $2 billion in military and civilian aid each year, is coddling Pakistan for no end. “They are capitalizing on your immediate security needs, and they are stuck in this thinking that bad behavior brings cash,” said Amrullah Saleh, the former Afghan intelligence chief, in an interview on Tuesday.
The Pakistan intelligence report also reaffirms past American concerns about Pakistan’s nuclear stockpile, particularly the risk that enriched uranium or plutonium could be smuggled out of a laboratory or storage site.
The White House review comes as some members of Mr. Obama’s party are losing patience with the war. “You’re not going to get to the point where the Taliban are gone and the border is perfectly controlled,” said Representative Adam Smith, a Washington Democrat who serves on the Armed Services Committee and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, in an interview on Tuesday.
Mr. Smith said there would be increasing pressure from the political left on Mr. Obama to end the war, and he predicted that Democrats in Congress would resist continuing to spend $100 billion annually on Afghanistan.
“We’re not going to be hanging out over there fighting these guys like we’re fighting them now for 20 years,” Mr. Smith said.
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