Showing posts with label Shia Islam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shia Islam. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 05, 2016

Global Politics Is Perhaps Star Wars

In the Star Wars movies, you see these various life forms. There are numerous groups. They look different, they weight different, they sound different, they organize different. These are fundamentally different groups. Maybe that is what global politics is. We perhaps live on a Star Wars planet.

Yesterday I felt like the bottom fell out. What is this? What's going on? Let me go read the Shia Sunni entries on the Wikipedia. They likely have been massively vandalized. All is fair in war, I guess. I guess not all terrorists are alike. Not that I am calling anyone a terrorist.

The drone attacks prove my theory. I have always felt Americans take the Star Wars movies way too seriously.

Thursday, May 05, 2011

Khamenei Ahmadinejad Rift

ayatullah khameneiImage via WikipediaUltimately It Is About Iran, Because That Is Where It All Started
The Guardian: Ahmadinejad Allies Charged With Sorcery: an increasingly bitter power struggle .... a growing rift between Ahmadinejad and Khamenei which has prompted several MPs to call for the president to be impeached. ..... On Sunday, Ahmadinejad returned to his office after an 11-day walkout in an apparent protest over Khamenei's reinstatement of the intelligence minister, who the president had initially asked to resign ...... Ahmadinejad's unprecedented disobedience prompted harsh criticism from conservatives who warned that he might face the fate of Abdulhassan Banisadr, Iran's first post-revolution president who was impeached and exiled for allegedly attempting to undermine clerical power. ....... Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, a hardline cleric close to Khamenei, warned that disobeying the supreme leader – who has the ultimate power in Iran – is equivalent to "apostasy from God". ....... the feud has taken a metaphysical turn following the release of an Iranian documentary alleging the imminent return of the Hidden Imam Mahdi – the revered saviour of Shia Islam, whose reappearance is anticipated by believers in a manner comparable to that with which Christian fundamentalists anticipate the second coming of Jesus. ...... Ahmadinejad's obsession with the hidden imam is well known. He often refers to him in his speeches and in 2009 said that he had documentary evidence that the US was trying to prevent Mahdi's return.
This is how you know the regime in Iran is only months away from getting toppled. This rift is a sign the regime in Iran is feeling the pressure of street action elsewhere in the Arab world.
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Saturday, March 05, 2011

Saudi Arabi Next

King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz. (2002 photo)Image via WikipediaThere is absolutely nothing special about the Saudi king. The monarchy is a feudal institution. Monarchies everywhere are feudal institutions. Monarchies everywhere, in small countries and big, need to go.

The Saudi King Is No Exception, He Has To Go Too

And Friday is the best possible day to plan protests. You say your prayers. And then you come out into the streets in force.
The Independent: Saudi Arabia bans all marches as mass protest is planned for Friday: Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer and the regional domino whose fall the West fears most, yesterday announced that it would ban all protests and marches. The move – the stick to match the carrot of benefits worth $37bn (£23bn) recently offered citizens in an effort to stave off the unrest that has overtaken nearby states – comes before a "day of rage" threatened for this Friday by opponents of the regime....... The Saudi Interior Ministry said the kingdom has banned all demonstrations because they contradict Islamic laws and social values...... a statement broadcast on Saudi television said the authorities would "use all measures" to prevent any attempt to disrupt public order .... the ruling House of Saud had drafted security forces, possibly numbering up to 10,000, into the north-eastern provinces. These areas, home to most of the country's Shia Muslim minority ..... Not only are the Shia areas close to Bahrain, scene of some potent unrest in recent weeks, but they are also where most of the Saudi oil fields lie. More than two million Shias are thought to live there ..... the day of protest called for this Friday was – perhaps still is – likely to attract more than restive Shias in the east. There have been growing murmurs of discontent in recent weeks; protesters have not only been much emboldened by the success of popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, but online channels of communication by those contemplating rebellion have been established. Some estimates indicate that as many as 20,000 were planning to protest in Riyadh, as well as in the east, on Friday
For the longest time the royals in Saudi Arabia have been Marxists. Karl Marx said religion was "the opium of the masses." And so the Saudi royals have used religion as the reason they should rule. Get religion?

Now is the time to turn the table upside down. You use the prayer day as the day of protests. You use your religion against the king.
Original caption: Secretary of Defense Robert ...Image via Wikipedia
The Saudi king has the option to become a constitutional monarch, but only if he does not end up doing something stupid like unleash animal brutality upon a peacefully protesting people.
Los Angeles Times: Saudi Arabia activists warned that ban on protests will be enforced: Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry warns that public demonstrations are a violation of Sharia law. ..... fresh evidence of the government's growing nervousness over political unrest among its neighbors and calls for change at home. ...... discontent is lapping at its borders, most notably in Bahrain and Yemen ..... groups of intellectuals, liberals and Islamists around the country have signed various petitions asking King Abdullah and the ruling family to implement reforms, including ending religious and gender discrimination and moving toward a constitutional monarchy. ..... A week ago, the Shiite cleric Sheik Tawfiq Amer was arrested after giving a sermon in Hofuf calling for fundamental reforms, including adopting a constitutional monarchy. Amnesty International says the cleric is being held incommunicado and may be at "risk of torture or other ill-treatment."
Early signs are that Saudi Arabia is on its way to becoming a republic.

The Anatomy Of Revolutions For Democracy
Friday Prayer: Let A Million Libyans March In Tripoli
China: 2 PM, Sunday
Arab Dictators Are Shaking
Arab Dictators Will Fall Like A House Of Cards
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