Brain Storms without Brains

Brain Storms without Brains

Is diplomacy doomed? Is Iran next? And will we soon see nuclear bunker busters used to take out over 400 sites throughout Iran? You can imagine how we as Muslims would feel in that situation. And yet our government is planning for that contingency quite seriously.

Seymour Hersh, who first exposed the abuse at Abu Ghraib, and many other abuses, has published an alarming article in the New Yorker about how the Bush White House has given up on diplomacy and, in part to avoid Israeli reaction, is planning a massive bombing campaign to destroy Iran’s nuclear program, informing only a few selected people in Congress.

For the Bush White House, Democracy is so darned inconvenient at times of crisis, real or imagined! We have seen it with election phone jamming schemes, dirty tricks against whistle blowers and critics, Abramoff lobbying scandals, NSA surveillance, detention and torture policies. However, democracy and freedom of speech are also deeply misunderstood in Tehran, where the Foreign Ministry claimed the Hersh article was simply part of the psychological war by Americans “because they feel angry and desperate regarding Iran’s nuclear case.” So I guess now we hate them for their freedoms?

This spin is clearly a form of avoidance of the real pressure the US government is placing on Iran. Blinded by its own nationalistic rhetoric the Ahmadinejad government is clueless if it believes that all Americans have the same agenda. Similarly, Iranian list-serves send out denunciations of Noam Chomsky because he is not anti-Zionist enough for them! Ideological rigidity is the decadence of revolutionary rhetoric.

Too bad Iran cannot follow Brazil’s example and effectively build alternative sources of energy out of sugar cane! I am sure Jalaladdin Rumi would have approved! And why can’t we all be sweeter?

But instead we are still stuck with business as usual. Bitter kisses. Bitter tears. People are being sacrificed in the bloody streets of Baghdad. And while no one is safe, Shiah mosques have been particularly targeted. Muslims are slaughtered while at prayer. How tragically easy it is to set us Muslims off against each other in the Great Game of oil and strategic power politics!

If you feel strongly about this, get involved in new paradigms in Shia-Sunni dialogue. For example, MPAC is offering to fund a joint fellowship with the Qunoot Foundation for outreach to and research on the Shi'a Muslim community in the United States. Contact them before this week’s deadline (202) 547-7701 or (213) 383-3443. Or start your own project! As long as it does not involve nukes, please!

And speaking of plots, real and imagined; while A. Q. Khan has been “singing like a canary” in his gilded cage in Pakistan, a Mr. Naseem Khan has been singing pretty tunes for his FBI handlers in the USA; he has been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for his creations. For example, he had been trying to convince Hamid Hayat to attend a jihad training camp. Without being an admirer of such camps, it seems to me yet another case of entrapment, not encampment. Prosecutors have claimed, “We have detected, we have disrupted, and we have deterred, and whatever was taking place in Lodi isn’t going to happen now!” But “whatever” is not too clear; the elder Mr Lodi was employed in ice cream delivery, and that, at least, isn’t going to happen now! Even journalists have begun to notice that the trial has not “lived up to advance billing,” but the jury may be too intimidated, or sympathetic to law enforcement, to risk letting off a “security risk.” We will see!

However, one positive thing we have seen and marveled at is the growing pro-immigration movement. Last week another half a million marchers turned out in Dallas, Texas; and on April 10th, hundreds of rallies took place in 45 states across the nation as part of the National Day of Action for Immigrant Rights.

On that day, I joined over 100,000 New Yorkers calling for an earned path to citizenship; a reduction in family backlogs; green cards for immigrant students who grow up in the US; and protections for all workers. It was a colorful sea of humanity, with not enough Muslims participating, but I did see some West African brothers with woolen kufis and their sisters with glowing faces; and South Asian sisters also were glimpsed among the Mexican flags and American flags and Arabic and Spanish and Hebrew signs.

Brit Hume, the news anchor on Fox News, described the marchers, particularly those carrying Mexican flags, as "a repellent spectacle." And Diane West wrote a paranoid editorial in the conservative, Unification Church-owned Washington Times, claiming, “Small wonder that some organizational solidarity exists between Islamic and Mexican radical groups -- as seen, for example, when the Council on American-Islamic Relations joins a "pro-immigrant" rally at the U.S. Capitol.” She warns of supporters of “creeping Shariah” in league with Anti-Americans affiliated with ‘"civil justice" and "socialism and liberation" groups, the Mexico Solidarity Network, the Nicaragua Network, the Free Palestine Alliance and the Muslim Student Association.’ Alas, sometimes our enemies give us more credit than we deserve!

As the Irish immigration website states, “It is more urgent now for us to be heard, as the anti-immigrant people are already outnumbering us 2-1 on the phones.” To be counted in favor of immigrant rights, family reunification and a path to legalization, call Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Arlen Specter at (202) 224-4254. Senator Jeff Sessions, Republican of Alabama, has opposed any compromise on what he calls "amnesty” (202-224-4124) and so does Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas (202-224-2934) so if you are from those states or have relatives there you should call them! Everyone should also call powerful Republican Senator Frist (202-224-3344) who has been stalling the bills. He wants to run for President—so let him know you vote!

You don’t have to be a brain surgeon or a rocket scientist to have an opinion—or to hold office. In fact, it doesn’t take a spoonful of brains to know that if you don’t use your rights you lose your rights. Just program your cell phone—that’s the cell we all belong to after all – so let technology help us serve social justice for a change!