Call it whatever you like OG! Your definition nicely articulates a dajjalic sense of community. In other words, community as tribalism is ethics turned upside down. Well said, OG. Well said.

Ginan Rauf

except- really- that the timing is off. let’s see 500,000 displaced
in a matter of ten days. I.3 million in a state of seige in Gaza, no electricity . hmm…. and it’s not like anybody is trying to call attention to kashmir or educating us what needs to happen that void gives the whole show away, the timing of the invocation.

Let’s see how many dead in Iraq? in the hundreds of thousands. Hmm so as Americans do we speak? Hmm how many places of detention that seem global in scope? Do we care about our troops over there? What might happen to them? the looming crisis? the possibility of retailation on our troops. Or is that just more tribalism.
In case you haven’t notice Gingrich and company are gleefully speaking about WWIII on national t.v or maybe we are the world.
What about the possible retailation by disgruntled Muslim minorities in Europe or right here in the United States- you know tribal things like 7/11 and Madrid. the consequences are hardly tribal but really
quite global and transnational as the evacuations in Lebanon amply demonstrate with communties all over North America being impacted, just to bring it home to you. And to broaden the issue a bit. In terms of gender- hmm, well there are many Asian domestic workers stuck over there, in Lebanon. Many too poor and helpless to
secure a proper evacuation. So really there are Asians involved here. You know in the modern world when any city gets hit all cities are impacted. We are after all the sole superpower. It would seem to me that with the power comes even greater responsibility
Given the direct direct direct shipment of arms to the killing fields, here, in our country where we are responsible it seems far too easy to invoke other causes to excuse ourselves….. Does one perhaps invoke the tribal in order to avoid the ethical writ large?.

Ginan, for me its an issue of scale.

I don’t know. I’ve been through two wars, one as a willful near victim of Serbian genocide (ask if that doesn’t make sense) and the other as a Marine in Afghanistan. I’ve seen and smelled far too much, far too closely. I just don’t feel compelled anymore to fight another war for anyone and taking the side of perpetually inept and corrupt Muslims is just too much to ask. I can’t control what Hezbollah does; I can’t control what Israel does. Niether cares about world opinion let alone my opinion.

However, my community will outlast the flavor-of-the-day conflict. I won’t be raising my toddlers in Israel, Lebanon, Palestine, Kashmir or Bosnia for that matter. I have the severely limited resources of a young middle class family which is nothing compared to the resources and power of even the weakest state. I must make an economic choice and concentrate to the close at hand where I can do the most good. The international scale is no longer my battlefield; my f***ed up community is. Protest movements today are far too scattered and unfocused to do much good. And, worse, they seem to fly against common sense and ask people to risk themselves at the hands of terrorists for the sake of abstract “goodness”, only to be exploited by the same people they should oppose.

- A Salafi in worship, a Sufi in society, a Secularist in government.

Omar, I can understand the desire to live, to get on with one’s life.
Let’s just not detract from the suffering of others. those who also
just want to live and get on with their lives and raise their families.
It is what we should all be doing. Who wants to fight? The question
is how can we live and let others live as well.

cheers,

ginan

Talking about one does not detract from the others. Everyone has an ethical role. A friend used to make a joke before he would make a point about some small political matter in town. He would raise his hand and give a list of all the crises in the world and admit their importance and ask for permission to speak on the infinitely small matter of X.

Taking off on this as a rant….I hate when people will minimize the disasters of their own lives because someone suffers worse elsewhere. One should not indulge in self-pity (beyond the permissible 24 to 48 hour period) or exaggerate their circumstances into the drama of the ages. But all matters have a haqq (a right and an obligation) and we must learn how to give each thing its haqq. Giving all matters their proper haqq is nothing other than justice.

Omar I thought what you observed about the rewarding of violence was interesting—that perhaps if more Muslims got behind non-violent resistance movements (in palestine, kashmir, chechnya, you name it)they would have more efficacy. Instead, it’s the suicide bombers and militias who are talked over and debated and praised and defended.

Ginan Rauf

Willow, don’t you think non-violent action also needs to be
focused on centers of power and highly militant cultures
where the capacity to inflict harm through the use of
power is really needed to restore a balance of power. I mean
why is there so little interest in the refusnik movement?
The resistance can be highly effect in the privileged sectors
of the North.

Ginan, I just don’ think its a good idea for one side to completely disarm when the other is sharpening its blades for regional domination. You can insert “US” or “UK” or “Salafis” or “Ikhwanis” into that sentence; it applies equally, in my opinion. In fact, fundamentalists know they can’t win outright, so they are basically counting on the West to defeat itself so they can go ahead and take over the MidEast without having to face Western militaries. For every action, there is a wholly unanticipated consequence, a lesson our Admin hasn’t yet learned, or have they?

- A Salafi in worship, a Sufi in society, a Secularist in government.

One needs to bear in mind that you are talking about countries that
– one of which is the fourth largest army in the world, definitely in
the region and one that spends more on the military than the rest
of the world combined. Do you think this wanton use of force on
a country like Lebanon that doesn’t even have an air force is going
to convince others around the world that disarming is a good idea.
this lawlesenss is merely going to make lesser powers scramble to
produce more lethal weapons, to pursue nuclear weapons and so
forth. The complete impotence of so-called moderate leaders and
the cyncial abandonment by the west is what is boosting the
fundamentalists. that is the tragedy. nobody is talking about
disarming anyway, one is talking about convincing the sides involved that violence shouldn’t be the only language used. a

Uh, Omar, I don’t think that so many Muslims necessarily support Palestine due to the violent nature of the resistance.

I think it has more to do with the fact that Palestinians are Arab, Jerusalem is important religiously to Muslims, and Arab fundamentalist movements have worked ceaselessly to make this issue seem vitally important to Muslims around the world.

Unfortunately, Arab lives are often regarded as more authentically “Muslim” and hence worth more than, say, Kashmiri lives. This racist dynamic is especially visible in cases where the Arab majority is oppressing a non-Arab Muslim minority, such as Berbers, Kurds, or Darfuris.

I’ve also noticed the role of the Western media in shaping Muslims’ ideas of what causes deserve our attention. Before Serb bombing of Kosovo a few years back and the resulting media coverage, how many North American Muslims had even heard of Kosovo, much less knew that the majority of the population was Muslim? Same goes for Bosnia. And so on… Palestinians appear on CNN regularly, but Uighurs don’t. Therefore, few of us know that Uighurs exist, much less the oppression they face.

EXACTAMUNDO YA UKHTI AZIZATI!

“Unfortunately, Arab lives are often regarded as more authentically “Muslim” and hence worth more than, say, Kashmiri lives. This racist dynamic is especially visible in cases where the Arab majority is oppressing a non-Arab Muslim minority, such as Berbers, Kurds, or Darfuris.”

OR ANYONE ELSE. If all of God’s creation is ontologically Mulsim, then we are all Muslim. Who is undeserving of our compassion?

Ginan Rauf

By the way some of those being slaughtered are Christian Arabs.
So that makes them less authentic Muslims and hopefully deserving of our compassion. Incidentally, there are quite a few
Asian migrant and domestic workers stranded in Lebanon who
are being subjected to the same terror. So really given the demographic diversity and number of foreign nationals in the country compassion for Lebanon is compassion for the ontological Muslim or existential human as it were, to say nothing of the Iranians
who might be the next target should this continue to grow. The
shredding of any semblence of international law will only make the
Kashmirs, the Kurds, the Darfuris all the more vulnerable since really
in the minds of many the Muslim easily blurs into the Arab.

what are the issues that impact larger numbers of people that
should concern us these days?

Ginan, you’re thinking big. If I was an aid agency director, a UN official or even an official of any government, I’d think big like you, too. Heck, I couldn’t even get an uncontested seat on my mosque’s exec committee. Thus, I think local, small, unimaginitavely. If I can produce results here, then maybe I’ll try to scale up.

- A Salafi in worship, a Sufi in society, a Secularist in government.

No No No – I think small and then trace connections and think
consequences and interdependence and ripple effects ripple ripple

act locally, think globally ——-