October 2009

How nice. Apparently, army ceremonies in Israel “have become Jewish mirror vision of Hezbollah events.”

Thank you, Dror Ze’evi, for writing this piece.

… what bothered me the most was the blatant religious content. During the brief ceremony, no fewer than three religious figures took the stages, all of them IDF rabbis if I’m not mistaken. They read prayers and biblical verses and spoke about the land being promised to Jewish people.

… The message conveyed in the ceremony, both openly and between the lines, is that the military is an arm of the settlement enterprise. The rabbis, the prayers, the songs, and the texts were almost entirely religious, and we can assume that the ceremony served as a brief reflection of the atmosphere that prevails later on during the service; an atmosphere that the parents don’t see.

… The defense minister and top defense officials must embark on an in-depth examination of the slow process whereby the army’s character is changing. They need to reexamine the way religious figures are integrated in the establishment in general, and in swear-in ceremonies in particular. They should also create a binding text for pledge-of-allegiance ceremonies that would allow for, if we insist, a mention of God, yet avoid altogether blatant religious content.

What really stood for me in the article are these two parts: “the military is an arm of the settlement enterprise” and “spoke about the land being promised to Jewish people.“

Pretty disturbing I must say.

Here’s some late, but rather unexpected significant news that’s gone quite unnoticed.

October 13, 2009 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese government downplayed the significance of changes made to the new generation of Sudanese passports that practically allows its bearer to use it to travel to Israel.

… The old Sudanese passport had a stamp on it reading that it is valid for “All Countries Except Israel”. South Africa is the only other country to be covered by this ban in the history of Sudanese passports during the apartheid era.

Major General Adam Daleel assistant police chief for passports and civil registry told the pro-government Al-Rayaam newspaper in an interview that said that removing the ban was a procedural decision relating to the size of the stamp on the passport.

Daleel stressed that people should not read too much into this step stressing that Sudan is committed to Arab embargo on Israel that commenced in 1958.

The Sudanese official said that removing the stamp should not be understood as endorsing trips by its citizens to the Jewish state.

He noted that the Sudanese national assembly at some point objected to the stamp saying it is a recognition of Israel.

Daleel acknowledged that Sudanese citizens can use the passport to travel to Israel if they reside outside the country but that the authorities will not grant an exit visa to anyone intending to head towards the Jewish state.

The fact that this happened around the same time US announced its new Sudan policy is not a coincidence. Long story short, it’s a strong indication that the Southern government is getting more say in matters that affect all Sudanese including Southerners.

Matters that include Southerners being stuck with a passport that forbids them from traveling to a country they’re supportive of, and that has militarily supported them in the past.

Officials at Khartoum can downplay this as much as they want, but there’s no question that it indicates a small – even if only symbolic – concession towards the Southerners and their demands within the context of the CPA.

Cool video from a person who’s ideas have had a massive impact on my journey and intellectual development.

This email from a new accidental reader made my day!

Subject: Thanks for giving me hope

Hi There,

I somehow stumbled onto your blog tonight.

As an ignorant American who travels a lot on business, I started researching Islam during the “cartoon riots” several years ago, and was really shocked at what I found. Reading “The Islamist” by Ed Husain helped make sense of some of it, but the rest – women arrested over naming a teddy bear, the wars over who is practicing the “right” or “most holy” form of Islam, silencing of 800-yr old church bells in Sweden – Well, I began siding with the Geert Wilders of the world – Maybe Islam really can’t exist within the confines of a diplomatic society.

Your blog gives me hope that reason can win out, and that there’s a lot more to Islam that what we read in the papers. Thanks.
Peace,

KLS.

Yay, this is cool, and really encourages me to keep moving forward.

I know blog updates have significantly lessened in recent months and this will probably continue for a few more.

But sometimes, (as much as it sucks), you just need to slow down so you can speed up again, and right now a lot is happening behind the scenes that will bear fruit soon.

Meanwhile, it would be really nice to know what kind of positive impact this blog has had on you, if any. Please share your thoughts below.

Finally, looks like the annoying divisions within the US State Deparment on what to do about Sudan are bye bye. There will be more internal arguing to come for sure but this is a pretty good step.

Here’s the new policy outlined here.

Call me a genius, but long time readers will know that I’ve been calling out for a more balanced approach for a long time, very similar to the one being espoused by the new policy.

Maybe Obama’s people have been secretly reading this blog.

The Save Darfur Coalition’s idiotic promotion of military intervention has been dumb from the start. Same goes for the more recent proposed La La Land appeasement approach of new key Obama people.

However, both combined have produced something in the middle that I believe is much better than anything we’ve ever had before. Tough action and credible real threats are needed, but so are some carrots.

Because, as we can see with terrorism-related stuff, the NCP has been very cooperative in recent years, but that still didn’t get Sudan removed from the US State Department’s list of terrorism-sponsoring countries, which up until now made a lot of people within the NCP reluctant in pursuing further cooperation to resolve things in Darfur.

Anyways, for now, this is all lovely and wonderful, but it’s still ink on paper.

Following up on this is what’s needed, while making sure the whole execrise doesn’t deginrate into mere lame naive appeasement. Don’t think the latter will happen though, with people like John Prendergast keeping a watchful idea.

Here’s to a fruitful new American Sudan policy.

This  is too damn funny! If you understand Arabic, you’re gonna laugh your ass. If you don’t, read the translations, and you’re still going to laugh your ass off.

Don’t you just love these clowns?

That Al-Azhar scholar (the same Al-Azhar Obama spoke at and praised) belongs in an episode of… taraaa… The Holy Room!

Seriously though, the paranoia on this one is staggering. Although, I’m glad this debate is gaining more and more momentum so that the Arab public can get more informed, and hopefully reform the current education system in regards to that important issue.

But beware, most of za bearded ones will fight! Especially in za wahhabi kingdom.

If we have za sexi education, za arab worrrlid iz eegoing to be bigger immorality, and zat is a big broblim.

BROBLIM I TELL YOU!

Za youngi boyz and girrrlz will be, erm, you know, sorry, zat iz dirty word, but you know what zey weel do?

HARAM!

No, no, we musti fight za zionist sexi shops.

LOL.

Yay to baby-making factories!

Let’s have more. LOL.

Yours truly was recently interviewed by Sudan Radio Project, along with Sudanese blogger, Kizzie, and Prof. Suad Badri from Ahfad University.

Enjoy and tell me what you guys think.

First, we hear about a Sudanese woman journalist who was arrested for wearing pants in public–and refused to plead guilty. Listen here.