Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

This is a very interesting paper. The case of HTS in Syria

State violence Crammed into cells and forced to drink from the toilet in Syrian prisons? No, in American detention centres. "callous indifference to human life that is normalised among agents", [and among those who knew about and those who pretended that did not know about it.] Note: here too the dentention centres are called 'concentration camps'. I disagree with that. I think one should read about the British concentraion camps and the Nazi ones, for example, before using such an inaccurate comparison.  However, given that we are not in Syria or Libya, but in the richest country on earth [though not per capita] and, as the report states, it is not a problem of resources, and with all her bragging of "freedoms", "helping to liberate" Iraqis and Venezuelans, among others, it is an act of barbarism to treat vulnerable people in such a way. But should we wonder? Just look at the American prisons, Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib ... Crammed into c...

The following questions were asked in 1978: "With what moral right can the rulers of a nation speak of human rights when within it the millionaire and the beggar coexist, the Indian is exterminated, the black man is discriminated against, women are prostituted and large masses of Chicano, Puerto Ricans and Latin Americans are scorned, exploited and humiliated?  How can this be done by the rulers of a nation where the Mafia, gambling and child prostitution predominate, where the CIA organizes subversion and universal esp ionage plans and where the Pentagon creates neutron bombs capable of preserving material assets while exterminating human beings, in an empire that supports reaction and counterrevolution throughout the world, that protects and encourages the exploitation by monopolies of the wealth and human resources on all continents, unequal trade, a protectionist policy, an incredible squandering of natural resources and a system of hunger for the world?  How can this be...

Let Them Drown The Violence of Othering in a Warming World

The Question of Sectarianism in Middle East Politics Over the centuries there have been many variations and mutations in the ‘orthodox’ as well as the sectarian formations, and the divisions only broke into conflicts when they were politicised into struggles for power or resources. For the most part, various Shi`ite sects lived quietly under Sunni rule, and were, mostly, left alone. Like elsewhere in the pre-modern world, communities were, typically, isolated in separate localities, except in the main cities  where they often occupied different quarters. Politicisation came with social conflicts, rebellions and geopolitical confrontations