“Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding”
And what will happen?
Will I dream?
I am too scared to close my eyes.
For a second please hold me.
None can change in me these things that I believe.
But I don’t know what happens now.
I am too scared to close my eyes
Legion (Anachron)
[Link opens in new window the presentation includes sound and therefore might not be worksafe.]
mfi
Laying the Groundwork - part 1
The terms “Islam,”"Islamism,” and “Islamic Activist,” are regularly seen in Western commentary without any explanation of their meaning and frequently very inaccurately. The term “Political Islam” in particular arose in direct reaction to the Iranian revolution of 1979, and from its usage one would almost imagine that “Islam” had hitherto been resolutely apolitical. Nothing could be further from the truth and the casual way in which the expression, which is both self-serving and wrong, entered western discourse is an indication of the West’s continued to failure to deal with Muslims on any terms other than its own.
Islam is in fact intrinsically concerned with matters of governance and is thus inherently political. Now that this idea has entered into Western consciousness it has been taken to mean that all Islamic activism is equally political and resolutely anti-Western to boot. Again nothing could be further from the truth. There are major differences between those forms of Islamic activism that emphasise:
respectively. What then should we understand by the terms “Islamism” and “Islamic activism?”
Both “Islamism” and “Islamic activism” are best understood as meaning “actively asserting and promoting;
believed by Muslims engaged in them to be Islamic in character.”
But first what do we mean by the word “Islam?”
In any overview of Islam it is wise to start with Islam’s most important prayer. Al-Fatiha (الفاتحة), "The Opening,"
Sura I, Fatiha, or, “the Opening” is the most important prayer in Islam.. It is recited seventeen times daily in particular during the five regular prayer times. It is also recited when marriage engagements or business deals are contracted. It is powerfully lyrical and its importance cannot be understated in any attempt to understand Islam and Islamic activism. The Fatiha is the first sura because of it sums up the entire content of Islam. It is thus very special both within the Qur’an (Koran) and in the minds of Muslims.
1. bismillah ir-rahman,ir-raheem.
1. In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
2. ilhamdoolilah reb el-‘alameen,
2.Praise be to God, the Cherisher and Sustainer of the Worlds;
3. irrahman-raheem,
3. The Most Gracious, the Most Merciful;
4. Malek yom id-deen,
4. Master of the Day of Judgement
5. ih-yaka n’aboodoo wuh ih-yaka nest’a-een
5. Thee do we worship, and Thine aid do we seek
6. iddeen-il-siraht il-mustaqeem,
6. Show us the straight way,
7. siraht aletheena anaamta aleihim
7. The way of those on whom Thou hast bestowed Thy Grace,
… gheir il-maghdoobi aleihim
… Those whose (portion)Is not wrath,
… wuh lah il-dohleen.
… And who go not astray.
Islam (الإسلام ‘al-’islām) is a religion with nearly 1.5 billion adherents world wide. Its followers are called Muslims and are predominant in East- and North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and Indonesia.
The word ‘Islam’itself is best translated as meaning an existential surrender to God’s will and guidance and has a deeper meaning of peace ’salam’, peace, and ’salama’, safety and security a fact which can be seen from its coming from the Arabic root word “s-l-m”. The same is true of the word “Muslim” (مسلم) which literally translated means a person who has made this existential surrender or acceptance of God’s will.
Islam is an Abrahamic religion and Muslims in common with Jews and Christians, trace themselves back to the Hebrew patriarch Abraham.
Islam itself was proclaimed by a prophet called Muhammad [b circa 571 - d 632 June 8.] Muhammad’s name Muhammad can be translated variously as “highly praised,” “the praised one,” or “the praiseworthy one” and comes from Arabic root word h-m-d حمد "to praise". He was a member of the Banu Hashim one of the clans comprising the Quraysh tribe. The Quraysh were effectively the rulers of Mecca, and the guardians of the Kaaba which was the most sacred place in Arabia and is now the holiest place on earth for Muslims.
When he was 40 Muhammad was visited by the Angel Gabriel (جبريل Jibril) who began dictating to him the Muslim sacred text the Qur’ān قرآن. The word قرآن is often transliterated variously as Qur’ān, Koran, or Qur’an, occasionally it is transliterated as Alcoran. For purposes of clarity I use Qur’an throughout this and subsequent texts. Irrespective of how it is transliterated it refers to Muslim sacred text called in Arabic قرآن a word which comes from the word meaning "recitation", with the verb being “to recite.” The recitation process continued for 23 years until shortly before Muhammad’s death - a fact that is considered to be the reason why some verses clarify others. From earliest times Muslim scholars have considered that the reason why some verses of the Qur’an appear to permit things forbidden in later verses is that God did not want to dismay the fledgling community by causing the full rigours of his laws to be revealed at once. That God was leading the Muslim community by gentle steps into a life in acordance with his will and commandments.
Muhammad’s message was profoundly unwelcome to the Quraysh and he and his followers were persecuted. In 622, Muhammad, fled for his life from Mecca 200 miles north to the city of Yathrib. (Yathrib was later renamed al-Medina (”the city.”) in present day usage Medina refers to the city and Yathrib to its environs, I adopt this usage throughout the site.)
The Hijra as this event is called (هِجْرَة “the migration”) marks for Muslims the turning point of all history. Islam is, as we shall see below an intrinsically political religion which postulates a community of believers run on Islamic lines. The Ummah أمة)
“community” at Medina was the first such community and for this reasom the Muslim or Hijri calendar is dated from the Muhammad’s founding of the Ummah at Medina. Eight years later Muhammad after protracted warfare in which the Quraysh unsuccessfully tried to wipe out the fledgling community entered Mecca in peaceful triumph and died there two years later. He was buried in Medina, the town which first acknowledged him him as a prophet.
According to Sunni Muslim belief and practice there are five fundamental requirements or “pillars of faith” that all who profess to be Muslims must observe:
“There is no god except God, Muhammad is the messenger of God.”
“And what you give in usury, so that it may increase through (other) people’s wealth it does not increase with God, but what you give in Zakat, seeking God’s Pleasure, then it is those who shall gain reward manifold…” (Qur’an 30:39)
I nGleanntaibh ceoigh - why I say “no”
“i ngleanntaibh ceoigh”
“Within the foggy glens”
Sometimes in all the horror with which we deal we need to remind ourselves of peaceful places, times, and people, lest as Nietzsche warned, when we gaze into the abyss we find it staring right back at us. This somewhat self-indulgent posting is me reminding myself of why I fight.
If you’re Irish you come from a country that was invaded and rose in rebellion quite literally once a generation. Ireland was at war more or less permanently for 800 years until eventually the invaders were forced to sign a peace treaty and leave most of the island, hanging on only to a politically and economically unviable rump of their former colony. The Republic from which I come and whose constitution contains the promise that she will cherish all her children equally is a lot less than a 100 years old. Within my lifetime the Republic has gone from a poverty stricken backwater to a vibrant, successful, and open society.
I’m very proud of that.
Within my lifetime, or shortly thereafter, I expect Ireland to be united and that that’ll be done peacefully. I have no doubt that there will be atrocities and setbacks - but the momentum of the peace process is such that it is now unstoppable.
I’m very proud of that too, even fifteen years ago saying or writing that would have been inconceivable.
The place in the photo above is an easy bicycle ride and then a short walk from the home in which I grew up. It was the scene of a ferocious and bloody revenge attack upon a patrol of British “irregulars” - the notorious “Black and Tans.” The “Tans” were counter terrorists used by what was at the time the most powerful empire the world had ever seen. We had risen in rebellion yet again and in an early version of the “Salvadoran Option” the British empire resorted to terrorism, death squads, collective punishments, murder, torture, and rape to try to get their oldest colony back under their heel.
I’m probably one of the very few people who knows what happened at that place now and I only know about it because I knew some of the elderly men who had fought in our war of independence. Certainly it wasn’t known to the family from South London peacefully having a picnic there on the last day of their Irish holiday and who sent me this photo. I saw no reason to enlighten them - those days are long gone.
The leader of the 1916 uprising that started the war of independence - Padhraic Pearse, famously characterised the British empire as “strong and wise and wary” but strong and wise and wary though they were they failed and went down into the dust. Empires built on blood and racism always do fail in the end and their life-spans are getting shorter and shorter. Empires are built on fear and the biggest change of my lifetime is that “brown people” are no longer afraid and longer prepared to let others set their societies’ agendas. Long after the current attempt at an American empire is but a bitter and embarassing memory, people like me and you, and them, the people who say “no” will still be here.
On those days when we come close to despair, we need to remember that.
Mháircaish.
Beannachtaí lá fhéile Padhraig orthain go léir.
Deaglán
That’s what it sounds like to me anyway:
Declan“American arrested with weapons in Iraq-official
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An American described as a security contractor has been arrested by police in a northern Iraqi town with weapons in his car, said a provincial official.
Abdullah Jebara, the Deputy Governor of Salahaddin province, told Reuters the man was arrested in Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit on Monday.
The Joint Coordination Center between the U.S. and Iraqi military in Tikrit said the man it described as a security contractor working for a private company, possessed explosives which were found in his car. It said he was arrested on Tuesday.”
