Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

"Aren't Arabs terrified? Aren't Iraqis terrified? Don't Arab and Iraqi women weep when their children die?  "What fools we are to live in a generation for which war is a computer game for our children and just an interesting little Channel 4 news item." Tony Benn, 1998

By Imad Abu Shtayya

Are We ISIS? France Escalates Its Already Aggressive Foreign Policy Terreur partout, humanité nulle part La « guerre mondiale contre le terrorisme » a tué au moins 1,3 million de civils

Joseph Needham:  Extrapolation, not Acceleration

In War For OpenDemocracy,  Étienne Balibar  writes in response to the Paris attacks about how populations on 'both shores' of the Mediterranean are taken hostage—and Europe has a nearly irreplaceable function. "Yes, we are at war. Or rather, henceforth, we are all  in  war. We deal blows, and we take blows in turn. We are in mourning, suffering the consequences of these terrible events, in the sad knowledge that others will occur. Each person killed is irreplaceable. But  which war  are we talking about? It is not an easy war to define because it is formed of various types which have been pushed together over time and which today appear inextricable. Wars between states (even a pseudo state like 'ISIS'). National and international civil wars. Wars of 'civilisation' (or something that sees itself as such). Wars of interest and of imperialist patronage. Wars of religions and sects (or justified as such). This is the great  stasis  or ‘s

Youssef here is really expressing my  plight in Britain. I have been openly told not to express what I think in class. In society in general I have learnt not to offend people by refraining from saying what I think.  My Censorship, Your Bigotry

" When Arabs or Muslims die in the hands of the selfsame criminal Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) gangs in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, or Lebanon, they are reduced to their lowest common denominator and presumed sectarian denominations, overcoming and camouflaging our humanity. But when French or British or US citizens are murdered, they are raised to their highest common abstractions and become the universal icons of humanity at large. Why? Are we Muslims not human? Does the murder of one of us not constitute harm to the entire body of humanity?" Hamid Dabashi

Interviewing Imprisoned ISIS Fighters ISIS: The Inside Story حكاية الدولة الإسلامية من الداخل Are We ISIS? Madeleine  Albright  ... I think this is a very hard choice, but the price —  we think the price is worth it . Stated on CBS's  60 Minutes  (May 12, 1996) in reply to Lesley Stahl's question "We have heard that half a million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?" Albright was U.S. ambassador to the United Nations at the time. Hundreds of Civilians Killed in US-Led Strikes on ISIS " I don’t much like it when a head of state speaks of the dead as heroes. It usually happens because citizens have been sent to war and not come back, which is rather the case with the victims of the attack on  Charlie Hebdo . The attack is part of a war declared on France, but can also be seen in the light of the wars France has got itself involved in: conflicts where its participation isn’t

Flag Down

“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 How to Politicize a Tragedy

"Only when we recognize the war criminals in our midst, will the blood begin to dry." John Pilger "ISIS in Paris" by Tariq Ali

On barbarism "Under these circumstances of social and political disintegration, we should expect a decline in civility in any case, and a growth in barbarism. And yet what has made things worse, what will undoubtedly make them worse in future, is that steady dismantling of the defences which the civilization of the Enlightenment had erected against barbarism... For the worst of it is that we have got used to the inhuman. We have learned to tolerate the intolerable. "Total war and cold war have brainwashed us into accepting barbarity. Even worse: they have made barbarity seem unimportant, compared to more important matters like making money. "Barbarity is a by-product of life in a particular social and historical context." Eric Hobsbawm, On History, 2013 .

"Those to whom evil is done / do evil in return". W. H. Auden Paris Attacks Highlights Western Vulnerability " What the mass media offers is not popular art, but entertainment which is intended to be consumed like food, forgotten, and replaced by a new dish." W. H. Auden

Why the Syrian Army Remains Loyal

America, America A poem by Saadi Youssef

The Power of a Dollar

The First World War Poppy Day: ‘What did our Boys Fight and Die for’? Nadim Mahjoub

Turkey: The Phantom Election Read also What Does the State Want from Dead Bodies and Turkey's role in the geo-political struggle Whose Side is Turkey on?

How 'Hebrew Labour' Destroyed Arab-Jewish Solidarity

A photograph by Hadeer Mahmoud  Egypt 27 October 2015