Tag Archives: Justice

A heartfelt message to the people of France 



In light of the third terrorist attack in France this year, which took place yesterday in Nice, I feel it more pressing than ever to pen this open letter to the French people.

Dear France, you are the beacon of the philosophical and artistic world. For ages, you have taught us about the beauty of language, and the tongue.

You have given us Voltaire, you have given us Rousseau. You have given us Delacroix and de Gaulle. You gave us Hugo and Bonaparte. All of these came from you.

You paved the road towards the enlightenment, essentially laying the foundation of American history.

So what has changed?

A lot.

The world we live in is no longer “balanced”.

Rather the specter of imperial overreach has disrupted this trend.

The modern perpetrators leading this movement are the US & England.

You, France have fallen victim to this neoconservative plot. The media is doing well to sensationalize the narrative too.

I am writing you because I want you to hold steadfast in the principles which built your prestigious nation. Principles of egalité, equalité, fraternité.

The fear-mongering cannot work and France must gain the courage to reassert its individualism in the international political arena, especially in the face of a fickle England.

Why are terrorists striking France? Analysts are quick to suggest it’s a response to French involvement in Iraq and Syria. But neither ISIS nor al Qaeda possesses a meticulous political agenda – instead they just want to spread fear and radicalism, compared to Hezbollah for example, which is tolerant, democratic and nationalist with clear political objectives,(not just ideological or chimerical-wish-fantasies). Therefore this reasoning doesn’t suffice.

The cause is likely the US’ and UK’s flirtatious relationship with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states who export radicalism and finance terror.

This is only one example of an indirect way terrorists are enabled.

The premise for funding radicals is to historically counter political movements of nationalism and sovereignty trending globally. This is how the balance of power is disrupted in the modern world. The US and the U.K. seek superiority instead of equality thereby inciting instability and retaliation.

Remember, it was under the auspices of the US in which al Qaeda formed in Afghanistan and ISIS in Iraq.

Dear France, I hope that we may return to an era of peace and stability. I urge you to recognize these sentiments in your quest for answers.

From an American-Syrian Muslim, sincerely with love,

Danny.

For Whom The Bell Tolls


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What dawns on us but truth,
If not to convince the youth,
Like water from a fountain,
Whatever happens no excuse,
This is conversations with glory,
Face to face with time,
They hold banners of revolution
If the clock ticks past nine,
But after twelve its all hell,
though walls still stand like eyes through veil,
looking for salvation through a peephole in a cell,
like a priest and a king,
having dinner over bells.

Still Under Occupation: The Middle East & the Struggle for Dignity


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Time and time again, we hear about the causes of injustice and instability in the Middle East.

There are about four main causes offered from analyses on this region. Each of them point to internal factors, though somehow quite different from one another.

But none of them recognize the possibility that instability is not a domestic ailment.

How could democratic institutionalism evade the Middle East for so long?

Here too, an anthology of theories has been written.

Getting into all the explanations would require too much attention, a luxury that modern high speed internet cannot afford to its consumers.

The main argument echoed in the halls of western political debate rooms blames ruthless dictators and Islamic crazies.

A list of more intricate explanations exist too.

None of them point to external factors.

But none of them can truly explain the distinctive features of the Middle East that make it lag significantly behind other regions in terms of democratic reform and political stability, like for example Latin America, where similar conditions exist: colonial history & resource abundance.

Why has America, and before it Europe, exercised endless security initiatives in the Middle East since the end of World War II? The US and Israel remain the only two occupying forces in the Middle East.

Research supports the logic that suicide terrorism is linked to foreign occupation.

US interventionism is not beneficial to the US nor to the international community. Violations of sovereignty are the primary cause of global instability. Whether or not democracy should evolve in a particular country is a domestic issue. Furthermore, cultural values must be considered to determine whether democratic political institutions can endure. Albeit, by injecting itself in the affairs of other countries, a US foreign policy of interventionism incites radicalism, paralyzes political development, and violates universal principles of self-determination and sovereignty. It was a the democratically elected leader of Iran, President Mossadegh, who was ousted in a CIA-led coup d’etat, which produced the mess that is radicalism and sectarianism today in the Middle East. World powers have played a hypocritical role in the region, loaning aid to authoritarian dictatorships and Islamic radicals simultaneously (Saddam & al Qaeda, for example), pinning two counterintuitive initiatives against one another – neocolonialism in plain-sight.

If democracy is in fact possible in the Middle East, its chances of seeing the light of day are being dimmed by the political hubris of world powers, namely the US.

 

Reading the Trump Card


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Donald Trump has amassed quite the voter base.

This doesn’t come as a surprise to those of us who understand the historical roots of racism in America.

For those who are in denial about it, it appears more difficult to grasp.

Let us remember that today, minorities suffer the worst economic hardships in America.

Public services are more than limited; and representation in politics is scarce.

Even then, the American people have resisted drastic political changes that might address our domestic inequalities. Furthermore, Americans are blindly obedient to media-disbursed narratives about our national security, which also ignore the complicity of America’s past century of foreign policy decisions that have made us the target of terrorists and provoked the rise of radicalism to begin with.

Donald Trump is exploiting the cultural paranoias afflicting the ordinary white man in America today who is too disillusioned with America’s apparent stagnation.

But the struggles of the white man are incomparable to those endured by the disenfranchised communities of minorities.

Progressivism itself has taken a halt due to the resilience of right-wing nationalism, which has crept into the left-wing too, via the likes of Hillary Clinton and that camp of centrist democrats.

But as previously mentioned this comes as no surprise.

The cultural revolution and awakening in America must address the grievances of immigrants and minorities as it does those of the average white American in order for change to be possible.

Bernie Sanders was unable to rally much of the minority communities, though his run remains impressive. His unconventional policies are ideal, but far from complete.

He hasn’t fully conceded yet, but the likely battle will be fought between Trump and Clinton.

Regardless, Clinton is better for the world than Trump, but she is worse than Bernie.

Our choices are not diverse; and our powers are limited.

Change must happen; but depending on political outcomes; it might get ugly before it gets pretty.