Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

From the history of 'liberalism' or things my American professors at university never told me The famous French political theorist and historian Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) who is known for his major work Democracy in America. "In May 1847, noting that the 'Bey of Tunisia' had already abolished the 'odious institution' [of slavery]—which in Muslim countries, by the French liberal's admission, took a 'milder' form—de Tocqueville expressed the opinion that 'we should doubtless only proceed to the abolition of slavery with care and moderation'. De Tocqueville seemed to be ready to accept a compromise even more favourable to the slaveholding South [of the U.S.]. 'As for the policy permitting slavery to develop in a whole portion of the territory where it was hitherto unknown, I will concede ... that one can do nothing but tolerate this existence in the special, current interests of the Union.' [A letter of 13 April 1857]

Whenever you do something stupid, just remember that Roman emperor Caligula waged a war on Poseidon [the Greek god of the seas and other waters]. He had his army march to the beach and told them to start stabbing the water.

The Islamophobe Dutch politician Geert Wilders is organising a cartoon competition to depict the prophet Mohammed. Here is what Alain Badiou wrote in the aftermath of the attack on Charlie Hebdo : "Here and there, people say that  Charlie Hebdo ’s cartoons aren’t attacking Muslims as such, but rather the fundamentalists’ terrorist activity. That is objectively false. Let’s take a typical example of their cartoons: we see two naked buttocks and the caption ‘Et le cul de Mahomet, on a le droit?’ (‘And what about Mohammed’s arse – can we use that?’). So is the Muslim faithful’s Prophet, a constant target for such stupidity, a contemporary terrorist? No, that’s not any kind of politics. It’s got nothing to do with the solemn defence of ‘freedom of expression’. It is a ridiculous, provocative obscenity targeting Islam itself – and that’s all. And it’s nothing more than third-rate cultural racism, a ‘joke’ to amuse the local pissed-up Front National supporter.  It may be amusing f

The tip of an iceberg - Honour bound .. - To defend freedom. Those two of my favourite lines in this film Camp X Ray (a movie) (close the three or four pop-up windows)

Islams and Modernities By Aziz Al-Azmeh

Iraq Protests and anger of Shia men diretced at Shia politicians? I tought it was fundamentally, inherently and eternally a Sunni-Shia war! "Sunni and Shia politicians sat in the parliament and built fortunes with the blood of the people who massacred each other in the street." Oil flows freely, but corruption fuels growing anger You see, there is no hope in these people. We "liberated them", we "helped them having democracy" after 2003, but it seems they are not fit to catch up with "the civilised world".

The burka and handshaking, and other personal freedoms "Everyone should be able to attend their religious as well as their bodily needs without the police sticking its nose in". — K. M.  But today is not only the state or a company that might repress your freedoms, but also people who disagree with you; they avoid you, marginalise you, or even side with the state in repressing you in the name of "integration" and "our values". You are the Other, the threat, the radical, the non-conformist, etc.

Theresa May in Africa "Aid" is a con. It is partly to mask the criminal role of the City of London in capital flight and as a route to tax havens In figures: "In 2012, the last year of recorded data, developing countries received a total of $1.3tn, including all aid, investment, and income from abroad. But that same year some $3.3tn flowed out of them. In other words, developing countries sent $2tn more to the rest of the world than they received. If we look at all years since 1980, these net outflows add up to an eye-popping total of $16.3tn – that’s how much money has been drained out of the global south over the past few decades. To get a sense for the scale of this, $16.3tn is roughly the GDP of the United States. for every $1 of aid that developing countries receive, they lose $24 in net outflows." How poor countries develop rich countries Or aid in reverse I add the following mechanisms: Uneven and combined development serves the imperialist st

Qat, Friedman explained to his uninitiated readership, was “the mildly hallucinogenic leaf drug that Yemeni men stuff in their cheek after work.” Though Friedman himself “quit after fifteen minutes,” he still managed to devise the following “new rule of thumb” for US involvement in the country: “For every Predator missile we fire at an Al Qaeda target here, we should help Yemen build fifty new modern schools that teach science and math and critical thinking — to boys and girls.” This magical “ratio of targeted killings to targeted kindergartens” was, Friedman felt, America’s best bet “to prevent Yemen from becoming an Al Qaeda breeding ground.” The US [and its allies] helped massacre Yemeni schoolchildren

Iran 74 lashes for being a trade unionist