Enunciate O Imams

We were hoping that the Arab Spring was true to its name […]. However, it has started in the winter, amid storms, bitter cold, glaring lightning and thunder, and it is yet to come into the light. I can criticize every opposition movement we have seen in every country, whilst not defending any regime, some of which having an aptly deserved reputation when it comes to oppression, corruption and failure. Today, I content myself with the opposition in Bahrain as an example of failure, with notes in passing about Syria and Libya because of limited space. I can accuse some in the Bahraini opposition of high treason, but I shall not, because those people are not traitors as much as they are ignorant, to the point of being outright foolish, handing over their necks to the enemies. According to the news, the Institute for Gulf Affairs will host conferences in Washington on Bahrain on the 14th of December. What is this institute and who are the guests? The Institute was founded by a Saudi Shiite named Ali al-Ahmed, a dissident opposed to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries from a Shiite standpoint, through the “remote control” ten thousand kilometers away, and who deals with some of the fiercest enemies of the Arabs and Muslims. This institute has documented activities of which it is enough to cite a joint report published with Freedom House, a Likudnik den that includes in its ranks senior members who worked in the Israel lobby. The report studied 12 Saudi school textbooks and concluded that they contain prejudice against non-Muslims. I compare this with a book written by the Israeli peace advocate Professor Nurit Peled from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, entitled “Palestine in Israeli School Books: Ideology and Propaganda in Education”. The book irrefutably establishes the presence of racism and prejudice in Israeli schoolbooks against Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims, and articulates support for us while the institute supports the enemies. Answering the question I raised about who will attend the conference, the participants include the Representative (who is a real scourge) Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. She is a Cuban Jewish immigrant, and with a few clicks, one can see her entire political track record online, a track record that is entirely hostile to the Arabs and Muslims, with the most recent hallmark of it being her campaigns against the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. This is in addition to her absolute support for Israel, i.e. the state of crime, racism and occupation. Another participant is Elliott Abrams. His political record too is available with a few clicks. He had lobbied for and supported the war on Iraq, just like Ros-Lehtinen and the Israel gang, and he is a Likudnik racist to the bone. Are the Bahraini dissidents with or against their country? Are they with Iran or with the advocates of war against it? Do they approve of the killing of one million Iraqis, of which 600 thousands were Shiites? Can former MP Khalil Al-Marzooq, member of Al-Wefaq party in Bahrain, be so ignorant that he does not know what kind of people he will sit with in the event hosted by the Institute for Gulf Affairs? I am certain that the man is not a traitor, and so I accuse him, if he participates, of ignorance and foolishness. He would be dealing with people who were an essential part of the war on Iraq, people who support an American, Israeli or joint American-Israel war on Iran to destroy its nuclear facilities. I ask what does the ‘supreme leader’ of Al-Wefaq Sheikh Isa Qassim think about dealing with the enemies of Iran in particular, and what does the leader of this leader, i.e. Imam Khamenei in Qum, think of this? Kindly enunciate, O Imams. A quick note about the Syrian opposition: If the differences within the opposition are not enough, then some in the opposition have now revealed their true colors in the street, because they are street thugs, and not at the headquarters of the Arab League, when they attacked others in the Syrian opposition and assaulted them physically. I ask how these “democratic” elements of the opposition intend to deal with the figures of the current regime in Damascus, should they seize power for themselves. The answer lies in the brutality of the Libyan rebels in killing Muammar Gaddafi in a horrendous manner that repulses anyone with an iota of humanity. Finally, before another foolish supporter of the opposition claims that I am defending this or that regime, I say that today, I have criticized the opposition and presented my reasons while condemning some of them along with the regime. I wrote many pieces on Syria in which I called for the killing of the protesters to be halted. In fact, the first couple of pieces preceded the Saudi statement about the “killing machine” and the Arab League’s initiative, whose first item was the need for the killing of the protesters to top. Only in the Arab world is winter a whole year, and without rain to water the thirsty land. khazen@alhayat.com