HOME	Where the World's Views of America Come into Focus

By Hassan Al-Haifi (commonsense@yemen.net.ye)
May 19, 2005

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It looks as though the Bush Administration has turned its back on the sacrifice of so many through the ages for the sake of freedom and justice, and done away with all morals, human rights, tolerance and all other niceties instituted by prophets, philosophers and great politicians. Not a month passes without some repulsive deed emerging from the White House anti-terrorism machine, whose rationale has as much veracity as the claim that the American South fought the North to free the slaves.

Even before the Abu Ghraib scandal, one found little sign of the justice we might have expected from America’s great tradition of good judgment on moral issues. And for those not sufficiently disappointed already, the news from Guantanamo says, “You ain’t seen nothing yet!”

What mentality would drive any human being to take the words of the almighty, addressed to all humanity, and flush them down the toilet? How much insolence must one be prepared to see from an administration that claims it is getting advice from the “father in heaven?”

Ironically, the Yemeni Times literary critic is reviewing a book that looks at the Holy Scriptures in all their manifestations, Jewish, Christian and Muslim (yes, the Koran is also scripture) and I must say that the author of the book took great pains to emphasize to his fellow Christians (I believe he is Catholic), “Hey -- you fellow worshippers of the cross -- there is a lot of sense in the Koran, and if the Koran recognizes the scriptures of Moses and Jesus, then we should at least reciprocate the gesture, if not more!” Those are not exactly his words, but the implication is the same.

Better yet, Muslims are ready to accept the ingrained hatred of so-called neo-conservative evangelists against Muslims (despite any lip service to the contrary we hear from Washington, we honestly have no lingering doubts on this point). After all, any clique that has allied itself with one the most chauvinistic ideologies in modern times, and the likes of Ariel Sharon and BB [Binyamin] Netanyahu, obviously thrives on hate and selfish interests, and is as distant from religion as the perpetrators of Deir Yassin, Sabra and Shatilla.

[Editor’s Note: These are regarded by many Arabs as Israeli massacres of innocent Palestinians and in some cases Lebanese].

But even if they don’t revere the Koran as we revere their scripture, they should at least leave it alone and not add insult to injury. Surely, the Koran has a rightful place in Muslim hearts, as it should for all God-fearing individuals, since it is the only scripture that actually endorses the ideas that Mr. George W. Bush says he is living by and upholding! He has probably never read the Koran, and probably has no idea what the word “Koran” means. Mr. Bush simply could not have read the Koran, because the morals and teachings of the Koran are far more than Mr. Bush and his lynch mob in Guantanamo Bay could ever wish to understand.

So, Mr. Bush thinks that a fuzzy apology by Newsweek (but not a retraction, mind you) absolves him from all the evil that has come out of his White House, not just against Muslims, but even against his own people (except the rich ones, of course). One can see that Mr. Bush has no desire to go to paradise or seek the favor of the Lord, just by listening to the reports of the deaths coming out of Iraq. But to allow such horrible desecration of the words of the Lord surely indicates that as long as his friends in the military-industrial complex are happy, Mr. Bush has no desire whatsoever to reach the Almighty. No, for Mr. Bush and his neo-conservative demagogues, there is no place for God in their hearts. Throughout history, men have used God to serve their own selfish interests or guarantee their hold on power; and such men have always been as distant from the Almighty as anyone can be.

On Democracy in Yemen

The regime has just written the latest episode in limited democracy that Yemenis thought we had, with its incomprehensible attacks against political parties for exercising the minimum rights accorded them by the Constitution of the Republic. Frankly speaking, the connection between the Houthi Rebellion, the Party of Truth and the Federation of Popular Forces is not convincing or clear.

There were many people opposed to the latest and previous attacks against the poor and deprived people of Sa’ada. These two parties were not the only antagonists. Many of us not associated with any political party or organized political association tried quite hard to seek justification for the senseless killings in Sa’ada. In fact, most of those who expressed hope that an end to the fighting would serve Yemen’s interests better than fighting are free of any political or ideological inclinations. That includes many of those who write in the press organs of these two parties.

The Latent Biases of Yahoo!

Strangely enough if you are a regular of the Yahoo Live Newsfeed in Yemen, you might be surprised to find that for some inexplicable reason, the Yemen Times has been erased from any mention. This is an unusual development, and we thought deserved explanation from Yahoo!

Efforts by this observer and others to get an explanation from Yahoo have not produced any results. There has not even been an acknowledgement from Yahoo that it received our inquiries. There are two possible explanations for this strange behavior by a presumably respectable Web server:

1) Locally, there may have been pressure to remove the Yemen Times from the newsfeed (the competition is enjoying extensive coverage, even if the articles are of no intrinsic value to readers);

2) This may be the work of AIPAC (the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee), who may not be pleased with the what some Yemen Times writers have to say about the international Zionist establishment the misdeeds of the Bush Administration. We can read your minds, although we do Yahoo with Yahoo!