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Re: Rebuttal to Ali Sina:
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Re: Rebuttal to Ali Sina:
"Kerry For President? An Election Like No Other "
...If you really claim that you are progressive and liberal shouldn�t you act like that in all circumstances? Or we are talking about selective progressiveness? You are progressive only when we are talking about backwardness of Islam, and Bangladeshi or Indian oppression on their minorities? And you will support any kind of inhuman acts on other parts of the world only because they are active against Islam and followers of Islam! No wonder, in psychology there does exist a term called reverse racial prejudice! ...
It is very disturbing to see that what the American liberals can see, our so called Eastern liberal freethinkers are failing to see it.
...Do you see the contradictions in your decision? On one hand, you are supporting a very conservative Christian, Corporate Sponsor, Texan cowboy; on the other hand, you are screaming your head off saying- you are a freethinker, you are against religions and religious discriminations, and you are fighting (at least in your illusion) against religious fundamentalism!...
Ali Sina has made an appeal to choose Bush in this upcoming US election. Similarly I have seen many progressive MM members, who are well known to take progressive stand when it comes to Islamic fundamentalism and minority or other oppressions in Bangladesh or India, have been blind supporter of US invasion in Iraq. This is very puzzling to me. If you really claim that you are progressive and liberal shouldn�t you act like that in all circumstances? Or we are talking about selective progressiveness? You are progressive only when we are talking about backwardness of Islam, and Bangladeshi or Indian oppression on their minorities? And you will support any kind of inhuman acts on other parts of the world only because they are active against Islam and followers of Islam! No wonder, in psychology there does exist a term called reverse racial prejudice! We were happy to see many of them coming out of the many extremist and provincial dogmas of Islam. Irony is while abandoning one form of extremism, they have embraced another.
To me, progressiveness means standing against any kind of oppression and not just selective ones. I remember when very few of us (I mean members of Mukto-Mona) stood against Iraq war, the majority of this progressive anti-Islam group supported Bush regime�s unilateral decision to invade Iraq. So now, let�s see, let�s re-evaluate what really happened. According to all the legitimate US commissions (not even talking about UN or European Commissions):
Saddam had no connection with Al Queda,
Saddam didn�t only not have the WMD,
he had no way to produce WMD in the future.
I am confused again�. Why did the US decide to go to the war, invade a country, kill thousands of innocent civilians? Oh yah. I forgot, Bush said the other day that he would still invade Iraq knowing what he knew now. Alright. I am sure all the Bush and Iraq supporters would come out and say- it is legitimate to invade a country on the basis of imaginary inventions (?) of other country�s intension. Do you understand where this logic leads us to? Do you understand what it means? How many countries have WMDs in the world? Who will determine- which ones are safe and which ones are not? What are the criteria? WMD in Israel is safer while those in India, Pakistan are dangerous? Actually- we'll have to rewrite the international and domestic law and constitutions which may look something like �. If I am in power, it is legitimate to punish someone on the basis of what I think, what I believe (even if it comes from Jesus and GOD), what my intention is, doesn't matter even if the lawmakers are not right in imagining what I am really thinking in my head and what I am intending to do� Isn�t it as simple as your nose on your face?
It is very disturbing to see that what the American liberals can see, our so called Eastern liberal freethinkers are failing to see it. American liberals are now very worried about the direction their country is heading to: ignoring the International community, being hated by the rest of the world, smashing women�s right to choose, imposing personal faith on Government decisions, funding faith based organizations, banning stem cell research, opening up Iraq contracts to Halliburton without any bids, torturing US war victims in barbaric way,.. The list can go on and on. Actually these liberal Americans have more in stake than our ex-Islamists who are failing to see the bigger picture. To liberal Americans, it is a question of protecting their future, their civil liberties, leaving behind a progressive society for their kids, and how they will be portrayed in history. For the so called progressive ex-Islamist it is a mere question of eradication of Islam. I would suggest these progressive freethinkers to do some more research and read the concerns of liberal Americans.
Let�s take a look at the list of the things which American Liberals think- Bush has done wrong. All these show fundamental conservative ideology that the liberals have opposed. I would ask all the progressive minded people who support Bush in Power to consider all of these before supporting any of his decisions:
1) Bush Regime invaded Iraq on the basis of false information. They ignored the decision of UN and took a unilateral decision on the basis of lies. They did not let the UN inspectors finish their inspection. (Please don't get me wrong, I am not trying to say that Saddam was a good ruler, but my point is there is lot more dictators like Saddam scattered in many countries. Does it make legitimate for the US to invade all those countries?) Don�t you think if they follow their own logic they should invade Saudi Arabia first for harboring/nurturing/building fundamentalist terrorism and spreading it all over the world? Moreover- before invading Iraq US should have seen its own face in the mirror. It was US who armed Saddam Hossain against Iran. It was US that first made bin Laden a Jihadi back in 1986 through formation of Al Qaeda against Soviet forces. Representatives of Taliban regimes not long ago visited the US.
2) Bush does not support abortion, women�s right to choose because his God is against it. He considers it a �destruction of life.� (Ref. 2nd round debate). I wonder- what about those lives of thousands of women, children, and other innocent civilians killed in Iraq? Are those �construction of life�?
3) He does not support embryonic Stem cell research because his God is against it even though almost all prominent US Embryologists made appeal to Bush pointing out its importance and potentials to cure many fatal diseases.
4) He does not like Gay marriage or Gay rights and wants to change American constitution to ban Gay marriages. Have you thought that his religion is also against Gays?
5) He is funding more faith based organizations than ever before. Today CNN showed that more than 70% of the people who go to church more often will vote for Bush. Support towards Bush is directly related to how religious Christian the voter is.
6) Bush demanded that American peacekeepers be permanently immune from the new war crimes tribunal to keep US officials and military personnel beyond the reach of war crimes prosecution. So we should not be surprised at all, when we see What Us army did with the Iraqi War captives in Abu Garibh jail. The Bush administration cut off military aid to about 35 countries that failed to meet a deadline for signing bilateral immunity agreements.
7) Bush�s vice presidential candidate Cheney still defends his vote against a 1986 resolution calling for the release of Nelson Mandela and recognition of the African National Congress. Cheney said this week �ANC was then viewed as a terrorist organization. . . . I don't have any problems at all with the vote I cast 20 years ago.'' The resolution was 245-177 in favor, but it needed two-thirds of the votes to override President Ronald Reagan's veto (another conservative president of the USA, may be the pioneer of neo-conservatism) on the proposal to free Nelson Mandela.
8) I am not even going into Bush�s tax cuts for rich only, Patriot Act, equal pay for men and women, civil liberties, environment and other contradictory domestic issues.
Do you see the contradictions in your decision? On one hand, you are supporting a very conservative Christian, Corporate Sponsor, Texan cowboy; on the other hand, you are screaming your head off saying- you are a freethinker, you are against religions and religious discriminations, and you are fighting (at least in your illusion) against religious fundamentalism. May be your slogan should change, it should say�.. We are against Islam only, we are fighting only Islamic fundamentalism and we are against discriminations done by Islam alone, if any other faith/regime/Govt./Super power commit the same crime, we will be with them. Then it will make more sense.
Let me remark on another side of the story before I finish this write up. Have you ever given it a thought that may be- if the USA did not sponsor the Saudi Kingship whole-heartedly since they discovered oil there (6% of US economy is controlled by Saudi money), may be the racist and parochial �Wahabi Movement� would not have spread in countries like Bangladesh, India, Pakistan? May be, today Jamat e Islami, their mullahs could not become so strong in our soil? May be- even Osama Bin Laden would not have been created if super Power imperialist Russia did not invade Afghanistan, or super power like the US did not fund Bin Laden? May be, Saddam would not be so powerful, if the US did not arm him? May be the Palestinians would not have to convert themselves to terrorists, if the US did not take side and finance Israelis to kill Palestinians? May be, Iraq would not have this influx of foreign made terrorists right now if the US did not invade a country without a legitimate reason? May be history is repeating itself here, US policy is again giving birth to another set of Osama Bin Ladens in Iraqi Soil; only difference is, before they wanted to create them for their own benefit, this time their own creation is biting them really hard.
Thanks!
Bonna
From Atlanta, USA
Email: [email protected]
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