Husain Haqqani on the hidden US Islamist agenda

The question is, now that the extent and nature of the problem is known, what can be done about it?

Who owns most of these mosques?

Incidentally, the danger isn't that somehow Sharia law will show up here. The danger is presenting only the radical version of Islam to American Muslims. At least some of it will stick with some of them if that's all they hear.

If nothing illegal is being done, in a free society such as the USA is there anything to 'be done about it' besides keeping an eye on them?

While I appreciate the fact that Hussein Haqqani is being candid about the growth of the Muslim Brotherhood, and its politicization of Islam's organizational structures, what is indeed amusing about this article, he seems to think this started only in 1925.

In fact the progress of Islam, has been dictated, directed and managed by the radicals since the time of Muhammad himself, in the 7th century AD. The moderates are simply people who have not yet been radicalized by Islam's political ideology, or people who are too scared to really take on the radicals for fear of serious personal harm. Thus the moderates in Islam, have never counted in real Islamic discourse - not for 1400 years. It is foolish to imagine that this is a new problem, that came into being in 1925, with the Muslim Brotherhood.

I thI think a point might be usefully made in amplification of Ambassador Haqqani's thesis.
The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt owed a debt to al- Afghani, a Shia Iranian, who was radicalised by his experience of Delhi in 1857- when the British put down the 'Sepoy Mutiny' and dethroned the last Mughal.
Al Afghani was one of the first Muslims to formulate Islam in a specifically Anti-Imperialist context but with the British in mind. The British Colonial doctrine, unlike that of the French, looked to shore up support from conservative Religious authorities. This was because, during the course of the Nineteenth Century, the British turned away from an "Occidentalist" i.e. Westernising agenda towards an "Orientalist" agenda. This had consequences first for Egypt- which came under British control- but also for Palestine- in particular the elevation of 'Grand Mufti' Husseini by Sir. Herbert Samuel.
In brief, the Muslim Brotherhood and its Indian equivalent (Jamaati parties) is stuck in a time-warp. It continues to bang on about Western Imperialism and the need to get rid of Westoxification even though Western Europe lost hegemony long ago.
The utility of keeping the Muslim Brotherhood on the pay-roll for America lay in the fact that the intellegentsia back in the 50's and 60's had a historicist notion regarding the inevitability of Socialism. In other words if Westernisation meant an inevitable drift to the left then the Brotherhood were a valuable brake on the process- especially if people like Nasser (who implemented land reform) looked like the main threat.
It wasn't till the 1970's that the equation between Modernism and a drift to the left broke down. Brzenski, as Carter's Secretary of State, was in place to put forward the notion of a 'green Islamic belt' to put pressure on the Soviet Union's soft Asiatic underbelly. This led to adventurism in Iran and Afghanistan. With the aid of the Pakistan military, which had just hanged the left leaning megalomaniac Zulfikhan Ali Bhutto, and which needed an Islamic fig leaf- the Soviets were lured into Afghanistan and the basis was laid for Al Qaeeda, the Taleban and so on.
From the U.S point of view, the vilification of the West issuing from its clients even in the 1970's looks puzzling. It would have been tempting to dismiss it as merely an Israel/Palestine thing.
Similarly, in the 1980's, if the major beneficiary of American largesse in the Afghan resistance, Gulbudin Hekmatyar was making ferociously anti-American noises than perhaps that was just a drugs thing. The guy didn't want to get indited by the F.B.I
Again if Osama started wagging his tail- that was just pique, the kid thought he was Rambo and could get rid of Saddam all on his lonesome.
Needless to say, the actual situation wasn't so simple.
The fact is, ideologies are important. The do impose agendas on those who subscribe to them. Ultimately, it is ideology that shapes strategy- not the individual idiosyncracies of leaders.
What is the Islamist ideology? It is an anti-Imperialist ideology not aimed at actually getting rid of the Western occupier- that would destroy the Brotherhood's own patronage network- but at bargaining with the Imperialist on matters of supposed 'symbolic' significance.
In other words, this is an Islamism that is actually a symbiote- a parasite- on the Western colonialism. Since such colonialism is now a spectre mainly, this is an Islamism which rehearses its rituals not to exorcise but to invoke that revenant.
This is not to say that such Islamism has no intellectual legitimacy. On the contrary. Thanks to the rise of Political Correctness and 'the closing of the American Mind', Islamism became the native dialect of that new type of Orientalism which took its point of departure from Edward Said's book "Orientalism".
I recall reading an earlier book by Said in which he remarked that the steep fall in the quality of Professors like himsef had to do with the much lower tarrif of competence in foreign languages they needed to demonstrate. As to the fall in quality of students for these sorts of courses- suffice it to say that Said found it necessary to warn his students that Jonathan Swift, writing 'Gulliver's travels', was not actually recommending the consumption of shit. Swift was writing satire. Please don't stir turds into your coco-pops. Of if you don't say it was coz my Professor told me to- or, like, it was in this book he forced me to read.
At this juncture I feel obliged to utter a stern warning against Islamaphobia. When you see a Muslim kindly do not immediately start hurling pigs at him. Kindly stop it. Take a cold shower or something.
One last word before I end this post. I have recently located a raving lunatic in some third world country. Kindly send him 44 billion U.S dollars immediately. Also make a note in your diary to begin a ground invasion of his country in ten years time.ink a point might be usefully made in amplification of Ambassador Haqqani's thesis.
The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt owed a debt to al- Afghani, a Shia Iranian, who was radicalised by his experience of Delhi in 1857- when the British put down the 'Sepoy Mutiny' and dethroned the last Mughal.
Al Afghani was one of the first Muslims to formulate Islam in a specifically Anti-Imperialist context but with the British in mind. The British Colonial doctrine, unlike that of the French, looked to shore up support from conservative Religious authorities. This was because, during the course of the Nineteenth Century, the British turned away from an "Occidentalist" i.e. Westernising agenda towards an "Orientalist" agenda. This had consequences first for Egypt- which came under British control- but also for Palestine- in particular the elevation of 'Grand Mufti' Husseini by Sir. Herbert Samuel.
In brief, the Muslim Brotherhood and its Indian equivalent (Jamaati parties) is stuck in a time-warp. It continues to bang on about Western Imperialism and the need to get rid of Westoxification even though Western Europe lost hegemony long ago.
The utility of keeping the Muslim Brotherhood on the pay-roll for America lay in the fact that the intellegentsia back in the 50's and 60's had a historicist notion regarding the inevitability of Socialism. In other words if Westernisation meant an inevitable drift to the left then the Brotherhood were a valuable brake on the process- especially if people like Nasser (who implemented land reform) looked like the main threat.
It wasn't till the 1970's that the equation between Modernism and a drift to the left broke down. Brzenski, as Carter's Secretary of State, was in place to put forward the notion of a 'green Islamic belt' to put pressure on the Soviet Union's soft Asiatic underbelly. This led to adventurism in Iran and Afghanistan. With the aid of the Pakistan military, which had just hanged the left leaning megalomaniac Zulfikhan Ali Bhutto, and which needed an Islamic fig leaf- the Soviets were lured into Afghanistan and the basis was laid for Al Qaeeda, the Taleban and so on.
From the U.S point of view, the vilification of the West issuing from its clients even in the 1970's looks puzzling. It would have been tempting to dismiss it as merely an Israel/Palestine thing.
Similarly, in the 1980's, if the major beneficiary of American largesse in the Afghan resistance, Gulbudin Hekmatyar was making ferociously anti-American noises than perhaps that was just a drugs thing. The guy didn't want to get indited by the F.B.I
Again if Osama started wagging his tail- that was just pique, the kid thought he was Rambo and could get rid of Saddam all on his lonesome.
Needless to say, the actual situation wasn't so simple.
The fact is, ideologies are important. The do impose agendas on those who subscribe to them. Ultimately, it is ideology that shapes strategy- not the individual idiosyncracies of leaders.
What is the Islamist ideology? It is an anti-Imperialist ideology not aimed at actually getting rid of the Western occupier- that would destroy the Brotherhood's own patronage network- but at bargaining with the Imperialist on matters of supposed 'symbolic' significance.
In other words, this is an Islamism that is actually a symbiote- a parasite- on the Western colonialism. Since such colonialism is now a spectre mainly, this is an Islamism which rehearses its rituals not to exorcise but to invoke that revenant.
This is not to say that such Islamism has no intellectual legitimacy. On the contrary. Thanks to the rise of Political Correctness and 'the closing of the American Mind', Islamism became the native dialect of that new type of Orientalism which took its point of departure from Edward Said's book "Orientalism".
I recall reading an earlier book by Said in which he remarked that the steep fall in the quality of Professors like himsef had to do with the much lower tarrif of competence in foreign languages they needed to demonstrate. As to the fall in quality of students for these sorts of courses- suffice it to say that Said found it necessary to warn his students that Jonathan Swift, writing 'Gulliver's travels', was not actually recommending the consumption of shit. Swift was writing satire. Please don't stir turds into your coco-pops. Of if you don't say it was coz my Professor told me to- or, like, it was in this book he forced me to read.
At this juncture I feel obliged to utter a stern warning against Islamaphobia. When you see a Muslim kindly do not immediately start hurling pigs at him. Kindly stop it. Take a cold shower or something.
One last word before I end this post. I have recently located a raving lunatic in some third world country. Kindly send him 44 billion U.S dollars immediately. Also make a note in your diary to begin a ground invasion of his country in ten years time.

Ambassador Haqqani’s analysis was correct 10 years ago, with powerful media like the internet things are changing on daily basis. The entire East is in love with the West, but human beings hate bully behavior.

Ibne Vakil

ISLAM, CHRISTANITY AND CONSUMERISM:
THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS –
THE GREAT DEPRESSION II

DR. RAJU M. MATHEW

Global Economic Crisis

The world is under a great economic crisis. For the conventional economists it is only a Recession and not a Depression at all, for their partial analytical techniques, over-simplified models with unrealistic assumptions and over emphasis on data. It may take at least five years for them to realize that it would be a Great Depression and by that time it may be over. When Cybernetics is employed for the study of the working of the global economy as a whole with multi-sector approaches on the basis of the deeper understanding of Political Economy, we are forced to admit that this is not a simple Recession, but the Great Depression II that requires not only Economic Stimulus but Ethical or Spiritual and Political Stimulus Packages too to recover.

Consumerism

Not only the capitalist or developed countries but also the Socialist or Islamist or Less Developed Countries too are brought under the Great Depression II. It is not only Islam or Christianity but also Communism could not save the world from Consumerism and the unethical or immoral business practices that are hundred times deadlier than Materialism or even Atheism. Consumerism has emerged as the greatest threat to the very existence of Capitalism for it drained away saving and investment, that constitute Capital without which there is no Capitalism.

The corporate culture has corrupted almost all religions and communist movements and made them the victims of Consumerism. The corporate culture made everything expensive and unaffordable for the majority for it aims only ‘the chosen few’. It has speeded up the process of the demise of spirituality and moral values. Eroding of the basic spiritual values has paved the way for greed, fraud and corruptions at all level. The present crisis is the result of the total moral, ethical and spiritual failures rather then the economic and technical ones.

Animal Farms

Both Capitalism and Socialism are built up with thrift, mobilization and allocation of resources, production and distribution and treating consumers as rational human being and giving emphasis to social well being. That is why; both Islam and Christianity could survive or flourish under Capitalism or Socialism for they adhere to hard work, thrift, investment, social well being.

Islam and Christianity never advocate theft and looting or plundering, though the Israelites had committed theft, looting and plundering and devised formulas for sharing the loot, including women, especially virgins even to the priests and the God during the time of Moses as stipulated in the Chapter 31 of Numbers of the Old Testament. On the other, Consumerism is an ideology of harvesting without sawing and nurturing just like looting and plundering. It treats human being as mere irrational consuming animals without any concern for individual and social well-being.

‘Party Animal’ is a very popular word under Consumerism as it reduces men and women just like animals for consumption with animal behaviors besides treating them, especially women as consumable products to be bought though for a short period. The Corporate Culture with the powerful weapon of Consumerism aims for making the entire globe, ‘a very big animal farm’ with men, women and children.

Terrorism is a strategy of Consumerism to uproot the very foundation of Islam and Christianity besides Capitalism and Democracy. Unfortunately, Islam is the hardest hit and the greatest victim of Terrorism that aims at murdering Islam before the end of the twenty-first century. Unless Islam, contains the onslaught of Consumerism and Terrorism, they contain Islam for ever, a very big human tragedy.

Spirituality and Human Values

In the demise of spirituality and basic human values, religions turn towards rigorous and harsh customs, devotions, stereotype prayers and fasting, as a regimented drill, without any element of love, mercy and forgiveness. All these factors acted as catalysts for religious fundamentalism. A big vacuum in spirituality of religions paved the way for terrorism. The youth, especially the poor, are indoctrinated and getting believed that the greatest virtue is to become martyrs and to die and kill for their religions for they are rewarded with all the luxuries and pleasures of a ‘seven star hotel’ besides the service of seven virgins in the Paradise after their martyrdom. Sex, drugs and money are indiscriminately administered to them as the immediate rewards for their loyalty and commitment.

Islam and Christianity

Islam and Christianity, the two major world religions have miserably failed, in practice, to imbibe the basic moral, spiritual and ethical values to the humanity. After embracing the corporate culture, they have been rivaling each other in spreading across nations and adhering to the rigorous religious practices. Their champions or leaders have become as materialistic as the ancient Epicureans.

Because of their warring or quarreling factions and their quench for pomp and acquiring more and more material wealth, almost all religions miserably failed to lead the world in the realm of spirituality and to inculcate minimum ethical and human values to the society. Most of the sects or cults in Hinduism and Buddhism also assumed the role of big multinational corporations with assets in terms of trillions.

The Ideology of ‘the Chosen People’

Both Islam and Christianity claim that they are the chosen people of their God. The ideology of chosen people was originated at the time of Abraham and developed into violent and aggressive form during the time of Moses, after the Exodus, on the march of Israelites towards the ‘Promised Land of Canaan’. The Bible gives a detailed account of the kings or peoples who were looted, raped, captured or exterminated in their hands.

When a particular tribe or race or religion or party claims that it is chosen, it undermines other tribes or races or religions or parties and subscribes to the deadly ideology of superior race or tribe or religion or party that would become the basis of Fascism as had advocated by Adolph Hitler. Under Lenin, especially during the time of Stalin, ‘the Comrades’ or the card holders of the Communist Party claimed that they were the chosen ones and the superior people. It is a deadly ideology in which , others are branded inferior or even sub-human being so that they could hate or subjugate or exterminate them and thereby they could please their God or prove their loyalty towards their Party.

Christianity is a thousand kilometers away from Jesus who taught to make peace on earth and to love and forgive the enemies so as to become the children of the Loving Heavenly Father. Islam too is far away from Koran that taught to worship the Most Merciful Allah who demands every Muslim to give mercy and care not only to all human beings but to animals and even trees also.

Both Islam and Christianity, besides Communism, are corrupted with power, money and Consumerism besides the deadly ideology of ‘the chosen people’ with the right to punish or exterminate the disobedient or men without the ‘official version of the faith’ or men with alien faiths who are branded as ‘Pagans’ or ‘Kaferes’ as the communist are branding their enemies as ‘revisionists’ or ‘imperialists’ for extermination.

For the Just, Loving and Merciful God or Allah, all men are chosen and everybody has an equal right for a decent life just like the people of the OPEC or OECD countries and everybody must observe spiritual and ethical values. Nobody has any right to dominate or exterminate other people. If Islam and Christianity fail to bridge the gap between the rich and poor and to end discrimination between the Black and the White and upheld basic spiritual and human values, at least among their own followers, their very worth and relevance are questioned in the age of the Global Crisis and thereafter. This is the fundamental crisis of both Islam and Christianity, threatening their very existence.

Oil and Cars

Industrialization started with steam powered locomotives and nurtured by the automobile industry that speeded up the processes of urbanization and fast life style besides giving predominance to oil industry. Oil producers and automobile industry started to dictate the entire economies of the world, especially of the western industrialized economies. OPEC has squeezed oil importing nations by charging exorbitant price for oil and amassed the wealth of nations.

The corporate world has effectively employed Information Technology to have a virtual control over the entire globe by e-money, e-banking and e-commerce and spread the corporate culture of greed, fraud and consumerism. Oil, cars and consumerism, originally acted as the catalyst of boom have turned the catalysis of Doom or the Great Depression II. They have drained away the saving and investment habits of the middle class and made everybody debtors and upset not only the balance of economies but also of the Nature.

New Awareness

People are getting aware that for the wrong logistics of their places of stay, work, shopping and entertainment, they have to travel a lot and burn out a lot of oil unnecessarily. They could have avoided over 60 per cent of their journeys, especially in the age of advanced communication technologies. By a proper use and development of public transportation system, many could have avoided owning cars or traveling in cars. A good majority of business trips are unnecessary or unproductive. ‘Traveling less and less and consuming lesser and lesser oil for the recovery of the economy and for the health of the environment’ will emerge as a major slogan in almost all countries so as to affect the future of oil, automobile and hospitality sectors.

Natural Death

It is time for the Multinational Corporations to have a natural death for their crimes committed against the humanity, especially against the poor nations and peoples. Championing the cause of consumerism, they have even turned a malignant cancer of Capitalism and Globalization besides corrupting Islam and Christianity and other religions besides Communism. They destroyed the economic foundations of millions of families and virtually wiped out the middle class not only in the west but also in emerging economies with their aggressive marketing strategies.

Selling dreams and fantasies, they dragged everyone into illusions. They have invisible links with various terrorist organizations. They are involved in money laundry, corruptions and fabrication of documents and cheating the shareholders and the general public. For the high salary and bonus besides aggressive marketing and spending billions for sales promotions and thereby making big profits, they keep the cost post of production high and they push up of cost of living too. That is why; no popular government could dare to support or bail out them with tax payers’ money. Let them pay the price and face the wrath of the people.

The Stimulus Packages

It is fact that, none of the stimulus packages, though in terms of several trillions, could save the world from the impending peril and miseries of the millions unless the world saves itself from the dirty hands of consumerism and controls the growth of automobile industry besides reducing oil consumption to the extent of 30 to 40 per cent and turning towards spirituality and ethical values. This is the time for fair business practices and code of ethics for all economic activities besides regulating aggressive marketing and advertisements. Ensuring sustainable income along with reasonable saving and investment is the only means for recovery on a long term basis. Otherwise, all the stimulus packages and recovery efforts would vanish within three to six months after making some symptoms of recovery and then aggravate and prolong the crisis to the extent of ten years.

Recovery and Growth

The present global crisis taught the humanity the basic lesson that various socio-economic systems or organizations could not survive without the basic moral and ethical values and some element of spirituality and maintaining the balance of the Nature. It is high time in burying down Consumerism and Corporate Culture besides adopting slow and simple life styles and turning towards spirituality and setting right the imbalances between urban and rural sectors and also between agriculture, industry and service sectors and the different regions of the world for the very survival of humanity. Humanity could not afford to pay so much high salary and bonus in terms of several millions to the CEOs and Managers and to allow the traders and business people to make such a huge profit within a short span of time. Cost of production and cost of living must be put back at the minimum for sustainable development.

It is a great crime against Humanity and the Nature to burn out so much oil and generating so much heat and sound from the speeding millions of cars and driving away the millions from farms and rural life to the cities. It is high time to redefine the very meaning of development and urbanization especially when the entire humanity is under threat and peril. The fruits of development must be reached in the hands of all people, sparing none on any ground. Then only we could bring out a real recovery and attain sustainable growth.

(This is the seventh series of work on ‘The Great Depression II’ by the same author and prepared on 20th April 2009. The other works can be found if a search is made under “Dr. Raju M. Mathew’ using AltaVista or Google).

About the Author
Dr. Raju M. Mathew is an economist, a strategist and theoretician with strong background in Cybernetics, Education and Information Technology with long years of experience in teaching and research. He has so far supervised ten doctoral works, including the basic approaches of Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam towards knowledge, economy and spirituality.
Dr. Mathew formulated two basic theories of knowledge consumption and knowledge production that got published in 1985 and appeared in several languages. Now these theories are known in his name and have become an area for doctoral research. In 2005, Prof. Mathew proposed Knowmatics and Knowledge Technology as the two Post-Information Technology disciplines for processing and handling knowledge so as to develop knowledge industries. He is the founder president of the International Forum for Knowmatics & Knowledge Technology (IFKT). Some of his works are available in the site: www.ifkt.net.
Dr. Mathew is on a mission of making the world aware of the impacts and intensities of the present Global Crisis, the Great Depression II of 2009 and persuading the governments and international agencies and religions to formulate correct strategies and policies and implement them urgently for an early recovery, so as to save the lives of millions, especially the young and the poor. Dr. Raju M. Mathew can be contacted by e-mail: rajoocyber@yahoo.com.