NM's blog

Is Saudi Arabia more Extreme than 'Islamic State'?

My comment
I find this hypocritical. It excludes the extremism of the Western regimes. When an organization kills or beheads people or throws gays to their deaths, etc, they are called extremists and barbaric, but when the Western regimes invade and occupy countries, kill half a million children through sanctions, kill civilians by bombing weddings and shelters, etc, impose economic policies on countries, support or turn a blind eye on Israel's state's and settlers' barbarism, being part of the counter-revolution that has aborted the Arab uprising, rendition, torture, blackmailing, arm-twisting, corporate involvement in fuelling wars in Africa, for example, etc... they are not called barbaric and extremists because they kill "democratically" using their smart bombs, F16s, white phosperous... and give people "freedom". The small barbarism, if you trace it, is the bastard child of the big barbarism of the big powers from the era of the empires to the invasion of Iraq to the arms trade and financial terrorism. Note: the Assad's regime has killed far more people than the Islamic state, but where is the outcry?
“We attacked a foreign people and treated them like rebels. As you know, it's all right to treat barbarians barbarically. It's the desire to be barbaric that makes governments call their enemies barbarians." (Bertolt Brecht)

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The Qarmatians (Al-Qaramita)

By Nadeem Mahjoub Documentary film-makers G. Troeller and M. C. Defarge once asked a cabinet minister in South Yemen, why socialistic ideas were so readily acceptable in that part of the Arab world. He replied: “Because we have been communists for a thousand years! My mother was Qarmatian.” Official Muslim scholars and clerics, and many so-called moderates (whether individuals or groups) oppose sedition ( fitna ). Tensions and contradictions in society should be solved peacefully and even if the ruler was unjust and impious, it is generally accepted he should still be obeyed, for any kind of order is better than anarchy and sedition. “The tyranny of a sultan for a hundred years causes less damage than one year’s tyranny exercised by the subjects against one another.” Revolt was justified only against a ruler who clearly went against the command of God and His prophet.” 1 Here we look at not what happened in the minds of people who call for calm, oppose dissent and preach the re...

Who Chooses Wars for Us?

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Putting a Racist in Their Place

UK

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Finance

"The hegemony of finance—the most fetishized form of wealth—is only maintained by the public authorities’ unconditional support. Left to itself, fictitious capital would collapse; and yet would pull down the whole of our economies in its wake. In truth, finance is a master blackmailer. Financial hegemony dresses up in the liberal trappings of the market, yet captures the old sovereignty of the state all the better to squeeze the body of society to feed its own profits. " (my emphasis) —Cédric Durand, Ficticious Capital , 2017, p. 155

Riddles of the Book

Against Authoritarianism and Neoliberalism in Venezuela

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