Author Archives: Effendi

Potatoes and Eggs

By Effendi | Published: October 21, 2011

These guys are either very brave or very stupid. By taking the piss out of the all-powerful Pakistani military, its political establishment and its Islamist sympathies in a satirical music video on a wide-range of issues that vex many Pakistanis – they are taking a big “artistic risk”. Take a look at the last still in the video; the singer holds up a placard which has written on it:

“If you want a bullet through my head ‘Like This Video’.”

Here is the WSJ:

The Punjabi song is called “Aalu Anday” (potatoes and eggs), an allusion to food price inflation. It had around 85,000 views on YouTube within days of being uploaded.

Posted in Drollery, Music | Leave a comment

Sic Semper Tyrannis

By Effendi | Published: October 20, 2011

The Mad Dog is dead. Libya can move on!

Posted in Democracy | Leave a comment

Two Headed Turkey

By Effendi | Published: October 19, 2011

Here’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, Islamism’s favourite democratic politician, talking big on the issue of Palestinian self-determination:

Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday told Arab foreign ministers in Cairo that recognition of a Palestinian state was “not an option but an obligation”.

“It’s time to raise the Palestinian flag at the United Nations,” Mr Erdogan told his audience. “Let’s raise the Palestinian flag and let that flag be the symbol of peace and justice in the Middle East.”

The prime minister’s appeal significantly raised the diplomatic temperature days before Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, is due formally to submit his statehood initiative to the Security Council.

And here’s where his actions speak louder than words on the issue of Kurdish self-determination:

Turkish troops backed by fighter jets and helicopter gunships have pursued Kurdish rebels into Iraq.

Posted in Islamism, Israel/Palestine | 1 Comment

Daud Abdullah Defends Police Spy

By Effendi | Published: October 18, 2011

Today we saw Daud “Istanbul Declaration” Abdullah defending Bob Lambert, the agent provocateur and police spy, in the Guardian.

Daud writes that Lambert is the victim of a “smear campaign” by neocons and makes this amazing claim:

“If at any point [Lambert] was involved in the infiltration of legitimate protest and political groups while being a special branch officer, then that was wrong. That being said, the political authors of such a policy should bear the full responsibility for it and not any single officer.”

Yes Uncle Daud, because Britain is a police state of the Syrian kind in which the government is involved with running operational policing tactics!

More hilarious even than Daud’s paranoiac bellowing are the readers’ comments that follow. This one by AbuJasoos, who refers to the article’s subtitle “Those of us who worked with Lambert knew of his police past. What matters is how his approach kept Muslims from extremism”:

Posted in Islamism | Leave a comment

Bob Lambert Exposed as Police Spy

By Effendi | Published: October 17, 2011

A few days ago, London Greenpeace published what could be considered a libellous exposé of Bob Lambert via IndyMedia:

Campaigners today outed the most-senior-yet police spy responsible for infiltrating environmental and social justice campaigns.

Former Detective Inspector Bob Lambert MBE had just spoken at a “One Society, Many Cultures” anti-racist conference attended by 300 delegates at the Trades Union Congress HQ in Central London. He was then challenged by 5 members of London Greenpeace who called on him to apologise for the undercover police infiltration of London Greenpeace, Reclaim The Streets and other campaign groups – an operation he took part in or supervised over two decades, whilst rising to the rank of Detective Inspector.

Posted in Uncategorized | 12 Comments

Afghan Women vs rich, white, middle-class feminists

By Effendi | Published: October 8, 2011

Never mind the stupidity of Madeleine Bunting and other rich, middle-class guilt-trippers, Afghan’s womens’ rights are worth fighting for today more than ever before. The war in Afghanistan is not, as she suggests, a war of revenge. Nor are human rights of Afghan womens’ being used as an excuse to wage war

This isn’t just history, the conflation of western aggression and women’s rights has underpinned the last 10 years of conflict. Laura Bush has expanded on her 2001 themes at regular intervals ever since. In 2010, Time ran a cover photo of a girl, Bibi Aisha, whose nose had been cut off, and used the headline: “What Happens If We Leave Afghanistan”. As my colleague Jonathan Steele points out in his fascinating new book, Ghosts of Afghanistan, Bibi’s story didn’t quite fit the template of brutal Taliban.

Posted in Afghan war | 8 Comments

Why doesn’t the Iranian cause attract popular support?

By Effendi | Published: October 7, 2011

What makes support for one Muslim cause ethical, politically correct and justified but not another? Why do large segments of the Left find it a moral obligation to support Muslim extremists like Hamas but have no qualms about ignoring the persecution and repression of ordinary, moderate Iranians by the Islamic extremist government?

Ghaffar Hussein attempts to unravel this quandary:

The politically active classes today, led by the liberal-left, take their shopping trolleys and enter the supermarket of political causes. The only causes that attract their attention from the shelves are those in which western governments are complicit or perceived to be complicit.

How else do you explain Palestine becoming a cause de celebre amongst young politically active students who couldn’t even point to Darfur or Kurdistan on a map? How else do you explain anti-globalisation protestors solely focusing on western targets whilst ignoring the excesses and state supported abuses of Chinese and Russian corporations?

Posted in Activism | 1 Comment

From antisemite to Zionist

By Effendi | Published: October 7, 2011

There is a fascinating article in the JC today by Kasim Hafeez, a British Muslim, who traces his personal journey from antisemite to Zionist. His descriptions of the casual anti-semitism in the Muslim community should not be unfamiliar to anyone within it. The description of his transformation shows that the intellect can be reached even when the heart has been twisted by race hatred and prejudice. Kasim is the founder of the website The Israel Campaign.

My hate for Israel and for the Jews was fuelled by images of death and destruction, set to the backdrop of Arabic melodies about Jihad and speeches of Hizbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah or Osama Bin Laden.

There was also constant, casual antisemitism around me. My father would boast of how Adolf Hitler was a hero, his only failing being that he didn’t kill enough Jews. Even the most moderate clerics I came across refused to condemn terrorism against Israel as unjustified.

Posted in Antisemitism | Leave a comment

Seeking justice that Bangladesh can take pride in

By Effendi | Published: October 5, 2011

David Bergman is a British journalist who has been reporting on the War Crimes Tribunal since it was created in 2010. He also maintains a blog which is full of superb legal insights, advice and observations on the day to day proceedings in the WCT. Here is an excerpt from an op-ed David wrote earlier this year on why it is vital that the Tribunal ensure legitimate and impartial processes and norms:

For too long the government has behaved as though anyone who has questioned aspects of the current process, and suggested changes, are their political enemies or are against accountability of those who committed war crimes in 1971.

This is not the case. While it is true that there are people who want to undermine and de-legitimise the tribunal, many of those who think the process can be improved are deeply committed to accountability for crimes committed in 1971.

Posted in War Crimes | 6 Comments

The Law and the Killing of Al-Awlaki

By Effendi | Published: October 3, 2011

A number of commentators have come out decrying USA’s killing of Anwar al-Awlaki without a trial.

Glenn Greenwald:

What’s most striking about this is not that the U.S. Government has seized and exercised exactly the power the Fifth Amendment was designed to bar (“No person shall be deprived of life without due process of law”), and did so in a way that almost certainly violates core First Amendment protections (questions that will now never be decided in a court of law). What’s most amazing is that its citizens will not merely refrain from objecting, but will stand and cheer the U.S. Government’s new power to assassinate their fellow citizens, far from any battlefield, literally without a shred of due process from the U.S. Government.

Greg Scoblete:

Posted in Terrorism | Leave a comment