LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS
BULLETIN
November 29/16
Compiled
& Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
The
Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
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Bible Quotations For Today
Martha, Martha, you
are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing.
Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 10/38-42/:"Now as they
went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha
welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s
feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many
tasks; so she came to him and asked, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has
left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help
All of us once lived among them in the
passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were
by nature children of wrath, like everyone else
Letter to the Ephesians 02/01-10/:"You were dead through
the trespasses and sins in which you once lived, following the course of this
world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at
work among those who are disobedient. All of us once lived among them in the
passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were
by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. But God, who is rich in mercy,
out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our
trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved and
raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ
Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his
grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved
through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God not the
result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us,
created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand
to be our way of life."
Titles For Latest
LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on
November 28-29/16
On Khaled al-Faisal’s Beirut
visit, what do we want from Lebanon/Turki Aldakhil/Al Arabiya/November
28/16
Obama’s
foreign policy legacy: Ambitious but largely unsuccessful/Dr. Azeem Ibrahim/Al Arabiya/November
28/16
What are
Egypt’s foreign policy intentions/Maria Dubovikova/Al
Arabiya/November 28/16
Genetic
research claims to trace mysterious origins of Israel’s Druze/By Ilan Ben Zion/The Times Of Israel/ November 25/2016
Muslims Demand
Right to Preach in Public Schools: Canada/ John Goddard/The Clarion
Project/November 28/16
Israel must
seek Saudi Arabia’s friendship/Edy Cohen/Jerusalem
Post/November 28/17
Palestinians:
The 'Wall of Shame'/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone
Institute/November 28/16
Grégoire Canlorbe: Interview with
Howard Bloom – Part I/Gatestone Institute/November
28/16
Titles
For Latest Lebanese Related News published on on
November 28-29/16
On Khaled al-Faisal’s Beirut visit, what do we
want from Lebanon?
Hariri Meets Aoun, Vows to Maintain Good Ties with Berri
Berri: Delay in Cabinet Formation Jeopardizes
Election Law
Report: Delay to Line-Up Cabinet Threatens Upcoming Parliamentary Elections
Kataeb Laments Delay in Cabinet Formation, Urges New
Electoral Law
Derbas: Hariri to Make More Concessions to Facilitate
Cabinet Line-up
Al-Mustaqbal Movement Elects Political Bureau Members
Report: Turkish Foreign Minister Expected in Beirut
Rahi returns from Europe visit
One shot by Daesh commander in Arsal,
critically injured
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For
Miscellaneous Reports And News published on on
November 28-29/16
Israeli Airforce Strikes IS-Linked Group in
Syria
Aleppo rebels handed over districts to Kurds: report
Aleppo rebels handed over districts to Kurds: report
In Major Blow, Syria Rebels Lose all of Northeast Aleppo
Britain Calls for Immediate Ceasefire in Syria's Aleppo
Syria Calls Chemical Arms Accusations 'Campaign of Lies'
U.S. Says French Strike Likely Killed al-Qaida Ally Belmokhtar
Can Conservative Fillon Keep France's Far-Right at
Bay?
Israel Jails Palestinian for Life for Tel Aviv Killings
Iraqi Forces Try to Weed Out IS from Those Fleeing Mosul
Kuwait Cabinet Steps Down after Parliament Polls
Cubans Begin Tearful Farewell to Fidel Castro
Dutch Far-Right MP Tops Polls Again ahead of March Vote
Khamenei's adviser: will be a global Islamic
government in this century
Al-Arabiya TV: Maryam Rajavi believes there is no solution other than dismantling
current regime in Iran
IRAN: Mullah’s judiciary attempt to arrest a member of parliament
Iranian political prisoners support Paris conference on 1988 massacre
Call on int’l organizations to guarantee security of Ahmad Montazeri,
prevent his imprisonment
Links From Christian
Today Site for on November 28-29/16
Two More
Yazidi Mass Graves Found Near Mosul
ISIS Are
The 'Grandsons Of Satan': Iraqi Christians Return To Find Church Desecrated By Jihadis
Stop
Victimising Christians, Says UK Equalities Chief
Winter
Closes In On Refugees Fleeing Iraq's Mosul
Cathedrals
Benefit From £5.4m Government Grants
My
Christian Faith Helps With Decisions Over Brexit,
Says Theresa May
Christian
TV Reaches Millions Of Christians Across The Middle East
Islamic
Extremism Infiltrating China, Officials Claim
Jerry Falwell Jr Says He Turned Down
Job As Donald Trump's Education Secretary
Jo Cox
Murder Led To 52,000 Tweets Celebrating Her Death
Trump
Will 'Cleanse' America Of Muslims, Three Mosques Warned In Hateful Letters
Churches
Join Resistance Against Trump's Deportation Pledge
Stephen
Hawking Visits The Vatican To Discuss Origin Of The Universe
Latest Lebanese Related News
published on November 28-29/16
On Khaled
al-Faisal’s
Turki Aldakhil/Al Arabiya/November 28/16
On March 9, 1973, Lebanese President Sleiman Franjieh visited
*This article was first published in Okaz on
November 28, 2016.
Hariri Meets Aoun,
Vows to Maintain Good Ties with Berri
Naharnet/November 28/16/Prime Minister-designate
Saad Hariri held consultations Monday with President
Michel Aoun at the
Berri: Delay in Cabinet Formation Jeopardizes Election Law
Naharnet/November 28/16/Speaker Nabih
Berri stressed on Monday that a prolonged delay in
the government formation process imperils stipulating a new electoral law that
helps hold the parliamentary elections on time, al-Joumhouria
daily reported Monday. Berri had voiced warnings in
front of his visitors that he has not been informed of any positive
developments as for the efforts exerted to facilitate the difficulties
hampering the formation, according to the daily. He stressed the need to
line-up a government and warned against the consequences shall the delay extend
further. He underlined the importance of drafting a new electoral system to
replace the 1960 law as soon as the cabinet is lined-up and before the
parliamentary elections slated in May. Berri voiced
fears “that some political parties might be pushing towards imposing the 1960
voting law, which would put the political class in a confrontation with the
overwhelming majority of the Lebanese who reject the 1960, according to statistics.”“The Development and Liberation bloc, the
Loyalty to the Resistance bloc and the Change and Reform bloc all meet on
common ground and on the need to draft a new law that achieves just
representation. Any law other than the 1960 law would be more worthy of the
aspirations of the Lebanese who want a comprehensive and just representation in
the parliament,” concluded Berri. Last month, the
parliament elected Michel Aoun, a former general, as
president ending a two-and-half-year deadlock that left
Report: Delay to Line-Up Cabinet Threatens
Upcoming Parliamentary Elections
Naharnet/November 28/16/The delay in lining up
a cabinet as the result of wrangling over specific ministerial portfolios,
raises fears about the fate of a new electoral law that is supposed to be
agreed among political parties in order to hold the parliamentary elections
slated for May, al-Joumhouria daily said on Monday.
Several political parties are adamant to be given certain portfolios in the new
government which is hampering the efforts of PM-designate Saad
Hariri to form one. The daily questioned the motives behind the unwavering
positions and said that it raises fears as for the fate of the electoral law
and the parliamentary elections that are supposed to be held in May. No
positive developments were recorded in the past hours at the formation level,
but the efforts are expected to resume to tackle
several hurdles including key portfolios, mainly the public works ministry
which is an issue of wrangling between Speaker Nabih Berri and the Lebanese Forces, added the daily.
Furthermore, the Marada Movement is still insisting
on one of three key portfolios -- public works, energy or telecommunications.
Amending the current election law which divides seats among the different
religious sects is a subject of conflict among
Kataeb Laments Delay in Cabinet
Formation, Urges New Electoral Law
Naharnet/November 28/16/The Kataeb
Party on Monday called for “releasing the new government from captivity,”
lamenting the delay that the formation process has witnessed. “The
government must be formed as soon as possible and without procrastination so
that it can address the living conditions of the Lebanese and the economic,
social and political issues,” Kataeb's political
bureau said in a statement issued after its weekly meeting. It also noted that
“devising a new law for parliamentary elections that guarantees correct
representation and prevents a return to the 1960 law should be among the new
government's priorities.”The party also said the new
cabinet must approve a new state budget. The election of Michel Aoun as president and Saad
Hariri's appointment as premier-designate have raised hopes that Lebanon can begin
tackling challenges including a stagnant economy, a moribund political class
and the influx of more than a million Syrian refugees. In a sign that Hariri's
mission as premier might not be easy, Hizbullah's MPs
declined to endorse him during binding parliamentary consultations. Hariri and Aoun are still struggling to put together a new cabinet
amid conflicting demands from the political forces that are seeking to join the
unity government. Horsetrading is still revolving
around the so-called services-related ministerial portfolios, mainly public
works and telecommunications.
Derbas: Hariri to Make More Concessions to Facilitate
Cabinet Line-up
Naharnet/November 28/16/Caretaker Minister of
Social Affairs Rashid Derbas commented on the delay
in forming a new government and said that the hurdles obstructing it “are
draining” the initiative of PM-designate Saad Hariri
that first started with a comprehensive settlement to elect President Michel Aoun and end the presidential vacuum. “Hariri made major
concessions which fell within a comprehensive settlement that requires the
election of General Michel Aoun as president and that
expected a new government to be ready within a week after the election,” said Derbas in an interview to Voice of Lebanon Radio (93.3). Derbas considered the wrangling over ministerial portfolios
that have hampered the formation process so far as “draining the momentum of
the president and Hariri's initiative.”He added the the conflicts over key portfolios “means that the related
parties prefer their own interests over the interest of the State.”He
concluded as saying that Hariri is ready and will make additional concessions
to speed up the formation.
Al-Mustaqbal
Movement Elects Political Bureau Members
Naharnet/November 28/16/Al-Mustaqbal Movement
winded-up, on Sunday, its 2nd annual convention held at BIEL in Central Beirut,
which resulted in the election of PM-designate Saad
Hariri as Head of the Movement, and Ahmad Hariri as its Secretary-General. The
convention, in which 2400 voters and 400 observing members participated,
elected a 32-member political bureau, including 7 women. PM-designate Hariri
also appointed Bassem Sabeh,
Raya al-Hassan and Samir Doumit
as Vice-Presidents and MP Jamal Jarrah as a
representative of the Mustaqbal Parliamentary Bloc.
In a statement by the Movement's Media Bureau, it reiterated that "the
electoral process took place in a democratic and peaceful setting, following
the closed meetings which continued over the weekend, during which
participating members discussed the Movement's political and economic reports,
in addition to the organizational chart and internal procedures, before
concluding the works of the convention by adopting the proposed political,
economic and regulatory recommendations."
Report: Turkish Foreign Minister Expected
in Beirut
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November
28/16/Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu is expected to visit Beirut next week carrying a
message of congratulations from Turkish President Recep
Tayyib Erdogan to newly
elected President Michel Aoun, and to highlight the
latest developments of concern for both countries following his latest visit to
Iran, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Monday. After
his visit to
Rahi returns from Europe visit
Mon 28 Nov 2016/NNA - Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Mar
Beshara Boutros Rahi
returned on Monday to
One shot by Daesh
commander in Arsal, critically injured
Mon 28 Nov 2016/NNA - 20-year-old Ahmad Abdo Atrash received several gunshots as one Daesh
security commander opened fire at him, following previous disputes between the
two, National News Agency correspondent reported on Monday. Atrash
was admitted to a nearby hospital; his condition is reportedly critical.
Latest LCCC Bulletin For
Miscellaneous Reports And News published on on November
28-29/16
Israeli Airforce
Strikes IS-Linked Group in Syria
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November
28/16/Israel's air force targeted gunman linked to the Islamic State group in
Syria overnight, the army said Monday, after they fired on an Israeli soldier
in the occupied Golan Heights. "Overnight the (Israeli air force) targeted
an abandoned UN building that has been used by the Islamic State as an
operations centre along the border in the southern Syrian Golan Heights,"
an army statement read. It said the building was the "base for yesterday's
attack," which was believed to be the first such direct assault by jihadists
on Israeli soldiers in the Golan Heights since
Now Lebanon/November 28/16/Opposition factions reached an agreement with the
YPG to deliver Bustan al-Pasha, Al-Halak and other quarters bordering the Kurdish-controlled
Sheikh Maqsoud district, according to a
pro-opposition outlet.
One of the most popular pro-rebel outlets in Aleppo reported early Monday
afternoon that opposition factions reached an agreement with the Kurdish
People’s Protection Units (YPG) to deliver the Baydin,
Bustan al-Pasha, Ayn
al-Tal, Al-Halak, Sheikh Fares and Zaytounat quarters, all of which border the Sheikh Maqsoud district, which is under the de facto control of
autonomous Kurds. “The agreement to hand over the neighborhoods…
came to protect the lives of civilians and to avoid shelling by the regime and
Russian forces,” a military source told the
Albin Szakola/Now
Lebanon/November 28/16/ Liwa al-Quds
military commander Mohammad Mahmoud Rafeh was presented a medal by Russian military officers.
NOW's English news desk editor Albin
Szakola (@AlbinSzakola)
wrote this report. Amin Nasr translated
Arabic-language source material
In Major Blow, Syria Rebels Lose all of
Northeast Aleppo
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November
28/16/Syria's rebels lost all of the northern neighborhoods
of their stronghold in east
Cold, hungry civilians
'Turning point' in war
The government advances mean the regime now controls at least a third of
eastern Aleppo, just under two weeks into its renewed bid to recapture the
city. State television said the army had captured the key Suleiman al-Halabi water pumping station, which controls supply to
government-held west
Faisal Muqdad was speaking at the annual conference
in
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November
28/16/Britain called on Monday for an immediate ceasefire in
Syria Calls Chemical Arms Accusations
'Campaign of Lies'
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November
28/16/Syria launched a blistering verbal attack Monday on "Western"
countries that have accused it of using chemical weapons in its deadly
five-year conflict, dismissing the allegations as "a campaign of lies.""The multitude of accusations, made in some
Western circles without any tangible evidence, as to the responsibility of the
Syrian government in cases of use of toxic chemicals are but a part of a
coordinated and repeated campaign of lies," Syria's deputy foreign
minister Faisal Muqdad said. He was speaking at the
annual conference of countries belonging to the Chemical Weapons Convention, a
treaty that compels all member states to help rid the world of toxic arms. Both
the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad and the
Islamic State group have been accused of unleashing chemical weapons during the
conflict. More than 300,000 people have been killed since
Without naming countries, Kalamanov said there were
some who "attempt to use the OPCW to overthrow elected governments. That's
unacceptable."
'Troubling uncertainties'
Speaking at the start of the five-day conference in The Hague, OPCW chief Ahmet Uzumcu however stressed
that "gaps, inconsistencies and discrepancies" remain in Syria's
statements about its own chemical weapons program. Jacek
Bylica, the EU's special envoy for disarmament and
non-proliferation said more than three years after Syria joined the convention
"many and deeply troubling uncertainties regarding the dismantling of the
Syrian chemical program remain." "
U.S. Says French Strike Likely Killed al-Qaida Ally Belmokhtar
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November
28/16/Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar,
one of al-Qaida's key allies in North Africa, is thought to have been killed in
a French air strike, a U.S. official said Monday. The official, speaking to AFP
on condition of anonymity, confirmed a report in the Wall Street Journal that
But the official told AFP the latest strike is believed finally to have killed
the elusive one-eyed militant, known for kidnapping European citizens for
ransom. According to the Wall Street Journal report, citing experts and unnamed
officials, the strike reflects closer
Belmokhtar was born on June 1, 1972 in the ancient
desert city of
'Mister Marlboro'
In a rare 2007 interview he said he joined the mujahideen
rebels fighting the Soviet forces in Afghanistan in 1991 when he was barely 19
years old. In
Can Conservative Fillon
Keep
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November
28/16/Francois Fillon, having clinched the
presidential nomination for the right-wing Republicans party, will now join a
far bigger battle for the future of France, the European Union and mainstream
politics in the West.
After Donald Trump's stunning victory in the
-A symbol of the past? - The stakes for
As well as pledging a crackdown on immigration, Le Pen has promised to pull her
country out of the euro and organise a referendum on
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November
28/16/Israel on Monday jailed a Palestinian for life for the 2015 killing of
two Israelis and the wounding of a third in a Tel Aviv knife attack, the
justice ministry said. A copy of the judgment of the Tel Aviv district court
said Rayed Khalil, born in 1979, was sentenced to two
life terms for the murders and an additional 20 years for three attempted
murders in the attack at a Tel Aviv office building. A justice ministry
spokeswoman told AFP that each life sentence was 25 years, with no possibility
of parole. The court ruled that Khalil, from the
southern West Bank city of
Iraqi Forces Try to Weed Out IS from Those
Fleeing Mosul
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November
28/16/An Iraqi officer shuffled through identity cards as he sat at a battered
desk by the side of the dust-blown highway heading east from the city of Mosul.
Six men in dirt-spattered tracksuits huddled nearby, waiting on a concrete
slab, part of the latest convoy of civilians to flee fighting as government
forces try to oust Islamic State jihadists from the city. Clutching a phone to
his ear, the officer stood up and read out the men's names one by one, waiting
a second to receive a word from the person on the other end. He then handed
them back their identity cards and let them go. Eventually, only one man
remained. The officer repeated his name several times, his voice rising.
Suddenly, he grabbed the man and started hauling him into a makeshift cell at
the back of what was once a roadside car workshop. "Everyone in
I'm in prison
Iraqi officials say the men they detain are investigated and -- if enough
evidence is provided of their ties to IS -- put on trial. Some parts of
It was the first news she had received from her husband in the 20 days since
Kurdish forces arrested him as he followed her out of their village close to
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November
28/16/The Kuwaiti cabinet on Monday submitted its resignation to the emir of
the oil-rich Gulf state following snap parliamentary polls, an official
statement said. The move falls in line with the emirate's constitution which
requires the cabinet to step down after polls. After accepting the resignation,
Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-
Cubans Begin Tearful Farewell to Fidel
Castro
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November
28/16/Hundreds of thousands of Cubans swarmed Havana's iconic Revolution Square
in a tearful and nostalgic tribute to Fidel Castro on Monday, kicking off a
week-long farewell to the divisive Cold War icon. Long lines of mourners
entered the towering monument to independence hero Jose Marti, filing past a
black-and-white picture of "El Comandante"
as a young, black-bearded revolutionary carrying a rifle. Many walked by
silently while clutching flowers, some took pictures with their phones and
others sobbed uncontrollably as they looked up at the portrait flanked by white
roses. But his ashes were not put on display, surprising many who had hoped to
see the urn holding the remains of their hero. The memorial began with a salvo
of 21 cannon shots from a colonial fort overlooking
Terminator Trump?
In a sign of changing times, U.S. President Barack Obama visited Revolution
Square during his historic visit to Havana in March, when he became the first
U.S. leader since 1928 to step foot in Cuba, a nation of 11 million people. In
2014, Fidel's brother and successor, Raul Castro, announced a diplomatic
detente with Obama, who has lifted some trade barriers. On Monday, the first
regular flights from the
'Nothing changes'
Dissidents who were repressed by Castro's regime for years said they were happy
that the "dictator" had died, but called off regular demonstrations
on Sunday out of deference to those in mourning. "We're going to remain
calm, even if (Castro) is the main culprit for the misery and lack of political
rights in
Dutch Far-Right MP Tops Polls Again ahead
of March Vote
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November
28/16/Far-right Dutch MP Geert Wilders was topping
the polls on Monday ahead of March elections, a new survey said, appearing to
have been boosted by his ongoing hate-speech trial. According to a poll
released on Sunday, if elections were held now the anti-Islam politician would
take 33 seats in the 150-seat Dutch parliament. That would make his Freedom
Party (PVV) the largest group in parliament, pushing the Liberal Party of Prime
Minister Mark Rutte into second place with just 25
seats -- well down on the 41 it currently has. The new weekly poll from
respected Dutch pollster Maurice de Hond comes ahead
of March elections as support for populist parties in Europe has been on the
rise since Donald Trump's victory in the
Khamenei's adviser: will be a global Islamic government in this
century
Sam Yono/Face Book/November 28/16 /Assistant and
senior adviser to Khamenei, Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi
said, that America has begun to decline and the present century will establish
a global Islamic government centrality of Iran. He added Safavi,
in a speech during the one occasion in the northern Iranian city of Gallus on
Monday, that America has begun to back down on the political and military levels.He continued, "The survival of the code and the
lives of the Iranian people to walk in the mortgage jihad and martyrdom
approach even if the Iranian people did not have the spirit of sacrifice for
the sake of the values and principles he would have been forced
to bow in front of the enemies and their ambitions." He noted that
Al-Arabiya
TV: Maryam Rajavi believes
there is no solution other than dismantling current regime in
Monday, 28 November 2016/On Saturday November 26, Al-Arabiya
TV published a report regarding a conference held in
The political figures and EU parliament members, the Syrian opposition,
international and Iranian legal organizations participated in the meeting and
they called for the referral of
The member of NCRI Foreign Affair Committee, Musa Afshar
stated:"the legal entities participating in the
meeting hold a considerable power to prosecute the criminals of war as well as
the perpetrators of crimes against the humanity."
As Al-Arabiya reports, the participating political
figures focused towards the need to review the US policy that has caused
destruction in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and other countries in the region. The
political and legal figures called for the referral of the case regarding the
increasing number of executions in
IRAN: Mullah’s judiciary attempt to arrest
a member of parliament
Monday, 28 November 2016/NCRI - A member of the Iranian regime’s Majlis (Parliament) who called for publication of the
report on bank accounts of the head of the regime’s Judiciary, Sadegh Larijani, escaped the
agents who were dispatched to his home to arrest him. Mahmoud
Sadeghi,
published the news via Telegram on November 27. This Member of Iranian regime’s
parliament in an interview with state-run ILNA news agency on November 27
pointed to the attempt by the regime’s agents to arrest him and said: “About an
hour ago when I was returning home, the agents holding a warrant tried to
arrest me… Considering that the issue is contrary to the law regulating the behavior of MPs, I resisted and entered my home. However,
the agents are still waiting in front of the home.”
The state-run Entekhab also wrote on Sunday night
November 27: “Following the action to arrest Mahmoud Sadeghi, a number of MPs went to the home of this member of
parliament.”Ali Motahari,
deputy speaker of regime’s parliament, during a speech on the same night
attacked the attempt by the regime’s judiciary to arrest Mahmoud
Sadeghi and said: “We are witnessing that a
representative who criticizes the Judiciary has been indicted immediately.
While he only wants an explanation about an issue, this is how he is dealt
with.”
In addition, Massoud Pezashkian,
another deputy speaker of the regime’s parliament, said in this regard: “The
nightly action to arrest Mahmoud Sadeghi
without informing the parliament is disrespect for the parliament first of all.
We will pursue this behavior…”
Not long ago, Mahmoud Sadeghi
called for an explanation regarding the bank accounts of the head of the
Iranian regime’s Judiciary. He said in the regime’s parliament: “What law
allows public funds to be deposited into personal accounts?” He asked Sadegh Larijani, Head of the
regime’s judiciary, to publish a report of 5-years performance of the accounts
in question and the expenditure of their bank interests “for transparency and
in order to prevent continued abuse by foreigners.”
Iranian political prisoners support Paris conference on 1988 massacre
Monday, 28 November 2016
NCRI - On Saturday November 26, a group of political prisoners in Iran in a
letter addressing the organizers, guests and participants in a conference held
on Saturday in Paris that called for accountability of the perpetrators of the
1988 massacre in Iran.
The following is the excerpts of the letter:
“Salute and greetings to all organizers, fellow participants and particularly
guests form across the world,
This conference which is held to strengthen the movement for seeking justice
for the massacre (of political prisoners) in the summer of 1988 in Iran shows
the desire of Iranian people for the elimination of tyranny and establishment
of freedom and democracy.
The product of overthrow of the religious dictatorship in Iran does not only
directed toward people of Iran, but also does good and rightness for the region
and human society and the failure of fundamentalism in the region.
We, political prisoners, understand more than anyone else the need for such
justice seeking. Today, we still face the wave of executions because that crime
and massacre was not accounted for.
Dear friends,
Every day when the prisoners are taken to the gallows and executed, it is as if
we are also hanged with them and we have to endure bitterly every moment of
these crimes while unable do anything about them…
We wish we could meet closely with you libertarian and humanitarian friends.
Now that there is an opportunity prepared for us, we would like to tell you
about our heartfelt wish and thank all of you the libertarians, parliamentarian
figures and jurists and all friends of the Justice Seeking Movement. Our wish
is the same as what the families of the massacred political prisoners want
which is expressed repeatedly by Mrs. Rajavi and that
is accountability and trial of the masterminds and perpetrators of this “crime
against humanity” most of whom are unfortunately hold government positions
including Ministry of Justice (in Rouhani’s cabinet).
Signed by political prisoners: Reza Akbari
Monfared – Saeed Masouri – Saleh Kohandel – Ali Moezi – Mohammad
Ali Mansouri – Mehdi Farahi Shandiz – Shahin Zoghi Tabaar
– Abolqassem Fouladvand –
Hassan Sadeghi – Arzhang Davoudi – Khaled Hardani – Ebrahim Firouzi”.
Call on int’l organizations to guarantee
security of Ahmad Montazeri, prevent his imprisonment
NCRI Statements/Monday, 28 November 2016/Mullahs' regime in fear of further
revelation of 1988 massacre and justice-seeking movement for victims
The so-called “Clerics Court” in the city of Qom in central Iran issued its
ruling sentencing Ahmed Montazeri, son of the late
Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri,
former successor to Iranian regime founder Ruhollah
Khomeini, to 21 years behind bars, and to be stripped of any clerical
authority. This ruling is in reaction to the revelation of a sound clip
unveiling remarks made by Mr.z Montazeri
during a meeting with the perpetrators of the 1988 massacre. Ahmad Montazeri has been sentenced on charges of “measures
against national security,” “publishing a classified sound clip” and
“propaganda against the state.”“Considering the mean
minimum and maximum punishments to be implemented” the ruling is decreased to 6
years behind bars and banned from clerical activities for 3 years, the ruling adds.The Iranian Resistance strongly condemns this cruel
ruling and demands urgent and firm action by the international community to
ensure the security of Ahmad Montazeri, and prevent
his imprisonment. This ruling, issued under orders from Iranian regime leader
Ali Khamenei, unveils the mullahs’ utter fear of
further revelations regarding the 1988 massacre and the justice-seeking
movement for its victims. These ridiculous remarks are an implied confession by
official organs in the Iranian regime proving the correct nature of this sound
bite.
“This justice seeking effort has targeted the entire religious tyranny, and
this is exactly why the mullahs’ regime is completely fragile against it,” said
Iranian Resistance President-elect Maryam Rajavi in a
e of Mr. Montazeri refers to
a conversation dating back to August 15, 1988 between Mr. Montazeri
and members of the "Death Committee", Hossein-Ali
Nayyeri (a religious judge), Morteza
Eshraghi (deputy public prosecutor), Ibrahim Reisi (deputy prosecutor) and Mostafa
Pour Mohammadi (representing the Intelligence
Ministry). In this sound bite Mr. Montazeri unveils
new scopes of this crime, now known as an obvious case of crime against
humanity and genocide. Pour Mohammadi is currently
the Justice Minister in the cabinet of Iranian regime president Hassan Rouhani. “We are proud to have carried out God’s orders
regarding the monafeqin (term used by the Iranian
regime in reference to the Iranian opposition People's Mojahedin
Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK),” he said after the sound bite’s revelation.
Reisi is now deputy chair of the mullahs’ so-called
Assembly of Experts and has recently been appointed by Khamenei
as head of the Astan Quds Razavi (one of
Nayyeri currently heads the
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran/November 28, 2016
Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis
& editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 28-29/16
Obama’s foreign policy
legacy: Ambitious but largely unsuccessful
Dr. Azeem Ibrahim/Al Arabiya/November
28/16
When President Obama took the presidency eight years ago, we looked set for an
overhaul of
Promises
When Obama promised a more open world, many of the youth of the
Chaos
In all this chaos, this new world disorder, the only major Obama foreign policy
foray that still has legs is the reopening of relations with
And that is the real tragedy at the end of the Obama presidency. Here is a man
of vision and principle, of intelligence and intent. If anyone could have been
trusted to take the world as they found it in 2008 and made it better by 2016,
it would have been Obama. And he cannot be faulted for not trying. But once again,
What are
Maria Dubovikova/Al Arabiya/November
28/16
At the same time, there is an economic and investment boom. According
to the UNCTAD 2015 World Investment Report,
The terrorist threat and unclear foreign policy could
be the factors that bring
The inarticulate foreign policy of
In recent days, rumors have swirled that
Genetic research claims to trace
mysterious origins of Israel’s Druze
By Ilan Ben Zion/The Times Of Israel/ November
25/2016
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/11/28/ilan-ben-zionthe-times-of-israelgenetic-research-claims-to-trace-mysterious-origins-of-israels-druze/
Controversial genome ‘GPS’ study suggests religious minority migrated to
Levant from mountains of Turkey, Iraq; author asserts similarity to Ashkenazi
Jews
Researchers may have unraveled part of the
mystery of the enigmatic Druze religion’s history and ancestry.
A study of Israeli Druze genetics published last week in Scientific
Reports of Nature may help shed light on the secretive religious sect’s history
and ancestry. Researchers examined a sample of genes from members of the
country’s 130,000 Druze in an attempt to better understand the origins of the
group.
Druze constitute a small minority, not quite
10%, of
The religion splintered off from Shia Islam in
the late 10th century CE and spread to the
According to Druze authors writing centuries later, persecution of the
faithful between 1021 and 1042 sent Druze fleeing for refuge from Levantine
cities to the mountains of
“The racial origins of the Druze have been the subject of wild
speculation over the years,” University of
Eran Elhaik
(Courtesy)
The new study, supervised by University of Sheffield population
geneticist Eran Elhaik,
sought to put some of the more dubious theories to rest by using the geographic
population structure (GPS) tool, an algorithm that tries to pinpoint a
population’s origins based on their genetic code. Elhaik
says the technique “works in a similar way to the sat nav
in your car,” but for finding ancestry instead.
The method involves recreating ancient gene pools from around the world,
then comparing individuals’ genetic fingerprints to find a corresponding
population. By analyzing the DNA of Israeli Druze and testing it against
different populations around the
Elhaik’s GPS method isn’t without controversy.
Earlier this year Elhaik’s study which pointed to
Ashkenazi Jews originating in what is today Turkey, supporting an equally
controversial theory about the origins of the Yiddish language, was dismissed
by some scholars.
The new study’s findings indicated Druze were
most closely related to neighboring Arabs in
The authors postulated that these Turkish-Armenian inhabitants of the
mountainous terrain along the modern day Turkey-Iraq border swept southwest
toward their heartland in what is now
“Although not actively encouraged by religious authorities, old and
modern historical records, along with our genetic findings suggest that it is
very likely that some conversions to the Druze faith were allowed after the
11th century A.D.,” the authors said. “Conversion efforts may have continued on
a small scale until such regional operations drew the unwanted attention of
local governments, forcing Druze leaders to halt further conversion efforts.”
In an article about his research published last week on Scroll.in, Elhaik claimed that
the genetic proximity of Ashkenazi Jews and Druze is supported by his two
studies this year indicating Turkish origins of both peoples.
“Our findings explain a 1,000-year saga of two people living side by side
in these lands,” Elhaik wrote. Ashkenazi Jews moved
north and west, he claimed, and Druze moved south, “only for both people to
reunite hundreds of years later” in modern
“And although by that time, neither one recalled their common roots, both
retained the evidence in their genes,” Elhaik
said.
Muslims Demand Right to Preach in
Public Schools: Canada
John Goddard/The Clarion Project/November 28/16
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/11/28/john-goddardthe-clarion-project-muslims-demand-right-to-preach-in-public-schools-canada/
http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/muslims-demand-right-preach-public-schools-canada
Student Islamists are mounting a coordinated campaign to expand Muslim
religious services in the high schools of Canada’s sixth largest city.
So far, authorities are proving sympathetic, suspending a new policy
meant to regulate student sermons.
“The school board should not be policing religion,” campaign leader Shahmir Durrani told one of two
November board meetings in
“Many students are feeling stigmatized because of this.”
Talk of prayers and sermons might come as a surprise to those unaware of
how widespread Muslim religious activity has become in some Canadian school
jurisdictions, and how far the fundamentalist MSA has penetrated the public
education system.
The changes started a decade ago, when the
At first, Muslim students were denied Friday congregational prayers and
were told they could only pray only as individuals.
Five years ago, however, the Toronto Sun reported that 800 students at
Toronto’s Valley Park Middle School were converting the school’s cafeteria into
a temporary mosque every Friday during class hours, with boys praying in front,
girls praying behind them separated by a barrier and menstruating girls obliged
to sit at the very back to observe the service but not participate.
One of
The list of 17 includes Meadowvale Secondary, which temporarily banned
its MSA 10 years ago after two alumni were caught co-leading a terrorist cell
known as the Toronto 18, with plans to blow up buildings in downtown Toronto. A
third cell member had led the school’s Friday prayers.
The MSAs promote Friday prayers in schools, but
how many
At some point —
On Sept. 20, the school board ruled that students could not deliver their
own sermons, but must choose from a bank of approved sermons written by a
committee of six local imams. Themes were restricted to the board’s stated
values of caring, cooperation, honesty, inclusiveness, respect and
responsibility.
The students pushed back. In a well organized campaign, three levels of
activists publicly petitioned school trustees to scrap mandatory use of
approved sermons. They also demanded that students be allowed to pray together
every day, not just on Fridays.
“Eliminate the prohibition of allowing students to pray together outside
of Jummah [Friday] prayers if it is convenient [to
the students],” said campaign leader Durrani, a
“Policing this one group [Muslims] based on prejudice and control… could
have serious psychological impacts,” said Maleeha Baig, a student at the same university and coordinator for
the High School Muslim Student Associations, a subsidiary of the youth
federation.
“This policy… sets out to prohibit the discussion of Islamic beliefs in
sermons,” said Hamza Aziz, MSA president at
Bilal Sheikh, a self-described “active Bilal Sheikh (extreme front) with other members of the
Muslim community who refused to stand up for the Canadian national anthem at a
recent school board meetingmember of the Muslim
community” — and who with several other men refused to stand for the national
anthem — accused the board of “systemizing Islamophobia.”
In response, school trustees immediately suspended mandatory use of the
approved sermons. As an interim measure, they ruled that students can submit
their own sermons to a principal for approval on the Monday before the Friday
prayer service. A revised permanent policy is to be announced in the coming
weeks, board chair Janet McDougald said.
Although the school trustees have allowed the prayers — which are already
problematic due to their segregation rules (and certainly embarrassingly
stigmatizing to girls who are menstruating) — the involvement
of the Muslim Brotherhood-linked MSA organizations, which are known promote
Islamist ideology, is even more than troubling.
*John Goddard is an independent newspaper and magazine reporter living in
Edy Cohen/
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/11/28/edy-cohenjerusalem-post-israel-must-seek-saudi-arabias-friendship/
While we expect a whole different world under
president Trump, we must also accept that the rules in the Middle East have
changed and that we need a strong and stable
Many including some Jewish writers and activists in the US have cheered the
passing of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA
), which enables victims of terrorism to sue Saudi Arabia as an alleged
supporter of terrorism, but if we take a closer look at the facts we will
discover that anyone who wants stability in the Middle East should have opposed
the law.
The first and main issue with the law is that undermining Saudi Arabia empowers
Iran, and even those who claim Saudi Arabia is an Islamist state should ask
themselves whether Iran is preferable.
What we may conclude from these facts is that
Terrorist groups like ISIS, Muslim Brotherhood and others regularly attack
Also,
No, we must look to the day we see an Israeli embassy or at least business
office in
To those who don’t like this view, consider the alternative:
May this be a call to the Israeli government to seek true and open friendship
with Saudi Arabia for the good of the region, Israel and also Palestinians,
bearing in mind that the Saudi deputy crown prince, Muhammad bin Salman Al Saud, is a very open-minded and practical man who
easily accepts new ideas and is avidly seeking positive change in his country.
**The author is chairman of the Kedem Forum human
rights NGO.
Palestinians: The 'Wall of Shame'
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone
Institute/November 28/16
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9442/palestinians-wall
"The equation facing the Palestinian factions is clear: Hand over the
terrorists and there will be no wall. The Palestinians have proven that they
are unable to take security matters into their own hands in this camp." —
Lebanese security official.
These anti-Palestinian practices are regularly ignored by the international
community, including mainstream media and human rights organizations, whose
obsession with
Typically, Western journalists and human rights activists do not even bother to
report or document cases of Arab mistreatment of Arabs. This abandonment of
professional standards is why apartheid laws targeting Palestinians in several
Arab countries are still unknown to the international community.
The Lebanese authorities also say that they decided to build the wall after
discovering several tunnels in the vicinity of Ain al-Hilweh,
used to smuggle weapons and terrorists into and out of the camp.
The new wall will not solve the real problem -- namely the failure to absorb
the refugees and grant them citizenship. Palestinians living in Arab countries
are denied citizenship (with the exception of
Now is the time for the international community to apply pressure to the Arab
countries to start helping their Palestinian brothers by improving their living
conditions and incorporating them into these countries.
The refugee problem will end the day their leaders stop lying to them and
confront them with the truth, basically that there will be no "right of
return" and that the time has come for them to move on with their lives.
It is no secret that Arab countries have long mistreated their Palestinian brothers
and sisters, governing them with inhumane laws and imposing severe restrictions
on their public freedoms and basic rights. Building a wall around a Palestinian
community to prevent terrorists from entering or leaving, however, has raised
the bar on such infringements.
This is precisely what is happening in
The Lebanese authorities say the Palestinians have left them no choice but to
build the controversial concrete wall. The Palestinians, they say, refuse to
cooperate against terrorists who have established bases within their camps. Yet
that problem raises the question: "What has
In fact, among all Arab countries,
These anti-Palestinian practices are regularly ignored by the international
community, including the mainstream media and human rights organizations, whose
obsession with
As such, the plight of the Palestinians in many Arab countries continues to be
a taboo, as far as the international community is concerned. Typically, Western
journalists and human rights activists do not even bother to report or document
cases of Arab mistreatment of Arabs. This abandonment of professional standards
is why apartheid laws targeting Palestinians in several Arab countries are
still unknown to the international community. Even when Western journalists and
human rights advocates do hear about these violations, they prefer to look the
other way. A story without an anti-Israel angle is not a story, as far as they
are concerned.
So what is going on in
Until a few years ago, the population of Ain al-Hilweh
camp was 70,000. But the influx of refugees fleeing the civil war in
Ain al-Hilweh, like most of the camps in
For years, the Lebanese authorities, for whom the camp is
"off-limits," have been trying, unsuccessfully, to clean the camp of
its hundreds of terrorists.
Lebanese security forces steer clear of the refugee camps in an attempt to
avoid friction with the Palestinians living there. This evasion has allowed the
camps to become hotbeds for various jihadi groups and
terrorists who pose a threat not only to the national security of
Alarmed by this heightened threat, the Lebanese authorities recently began
building a concrete wall around Ain al-Hilweh,
sparking a wave of denunciations from Palestinians. The Palestinians claim that
the new wall, which will be completed in 15 months, will turn the camp into a
big open-air prison. They refer to it as the "Wall of Shame." Their
main argument is that it is disgraceful that any Arab country would build a
wall surrounding a refugee camp at a time when Palestinians are asking the
world to condemn
Camp residents claim that the Lebanese authorities have misled them concerning
the construction of the wall. According to the residents, the authorities led
them to believe that it was to be a small fence on the outskirts of parts of
the camp and not a massive concrete wall surrounding the camp. The Lebanese
security authorities have chosen to call the new barrier the "Wall of
Protection" -- stressing that it is mainly intended to prevent terror
attacks against
The Lebanese authorities also say that they decided to build the wall after
discovering several smuggling tunnels in the vicinity of Ain al-Hilweh. These tunnels, they say, are being used to smuggle
weapons and terrorists into and out of the camp.
Representatives of Ain al-Hilweh and other
Palestinians have been holding marathon meetings with Lebanese government
officials in the past few weeks to persuade them to halt the construction of
the wall. The Palestinians in Ain al-Hilweh are now
threatening that if the Lebanese government does not cancel the project, they
will seek the intervention of other Arab, and also Western, countries, as well
as the United Nations.
Notably, the Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership in the
The "Wall of Shame" appears particularly to bother Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal. Last week, he
telephoned a number of Lebanese officials, including Prime Minister Tammam Salam and Parliament Speaker Nabih
Berri, to warn about the consequences of the
construction of the wall. Mashaal, who is based in
Hamas's spokesman in
Protests against the wall reached their peak when hundreds of Palestinians (and
some Lebanese) took to the streets of the nearby city
The continued mistreatment of Palestinians at the hands of
Now is the time for the international community to apply pressure to the Arab
countries to start helping their Palestinian brothers by improving their living
conditions and incorporating them into these countries. Holding Palestinians in
refugee camps for more than six decades is deadly counterproductive. The camps
become sanctuaries for terrorists who pose a threat to the national security
and stability in these Arab countries. There is no reason why a Palestinian
living in
Moreover, Arab states' lies concerning the return of refugees to former homes
inside of
If the lies do not end, the day will come when these countries will be forced
to place all the refugees behind walls and fences -- a move not likely to
enhance stability in these countries. Ain al-Hilweh
should serve as a wake-up call to all those Arabs who continue to subject
Palestinians to apartheid laws and practices.
*Khaled Abu Toameh, an
award-winning journalist, is based in
Follow Khaled Abu Toameh on
Twitter
© 2016 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The
articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of
Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced,
copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone
Institute.
Grégoire Canlorbe: Interview with
Howard Bloom – Part I
Gatestone Institute/November 28/16
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/11/28/gregoire-canlorbe-interview-with-howard-bloom-part-i/
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9408/howard-bloom
“Millions of Muslims envision Islam as a religion of tolerance, pluralism, and
peace. But there is a blunt fact staring us in the face…. For
Allah and His Messenger demand that Muslims be on top. They demand that
Muslims allow others to live only if they take a role as second-class citizens
in a purely Muslim state and pay the jizya, a tax
designed to shame. And they demand that Islam rule every inch of land on God’s
own speck of dust — the planet Earth.” — Howard Bloom.
“Those who want to ‘annihilate’ or to convert their fellow men in the West are
not madmen. They are rational and they are something more — they are idealists.
They want to save us…. If we are tricked into following false laws, believing
in false gods… we will go to an unspeakably painful hell.” — Howard Bloom.
“It is very unlikely that [
“My introduction to Islamic culture came in 1962. In the back of a library file
on the
“As hungry replicators eager to remold the world,
ideas often turn their ultimate weapon — the superorganism
— into a killing machine. And, contrary to the doctrines of some modern
critics, they do not engage in this ‘hegemonic imperialism’ only in the
purportedly ‘malevolent West.’” — Howard Bloom.
There are only a handful of authors alive today whose ideas about geopolitics
have won respect in both the world of Islam and in the West. One of those
authors is Howard Bloom.Bloom’s second book Global
Brain was the subject of an Office of the Secretary of Defense
symposium in 2010, with participants from the State Department, the Energy
Department, DARPA, IBM, and MIT. And the Department of Defense’s
SENSIAC Military Sensing Symposium then relied on Bloom to explain how to see the
world through the eyes of Osama bin Laden.Bloom’s 182
appearances on North America’s highest rated overnight talk radio show, Coast
to Coast AM, a show that airs on 500 of the continent’s leading radio stations,
have covered everything from the Gulf War and 9/11 to the Fort Hood shootings.
In addition, he has dissected headline issues over 30 times on
Grégoire Canlorbe: In a
market overwhelmed with books on Islam, what is unique about The Muhammad Code?
Howard Bloom: The Muhammad Code tells a story quite unknown in the West, namely
the story of the only founder of a major religion ever to call himself “The Prophet of War” and to command 65 military
campaigns. It tells the story of how that man set our ancestors in the West up
for over 1,300 years of enslavement and attack, the story of how he laid the
groundwork for the destruction of superpowers far more potent than the
Millions of Muslims envision Islam as a religion of tolerance, pluralism, and
peace. But there’s a blunt fact staring us in the face. What
Since the beginning of history, we have been blinded by evil’s ability to don a
selfless disguise. From our urge to pull together comes our tendency to tear
each other apart. From our devotion to a higher good comes our propensity to
the foulest atrocities. And from our commitment to ideals come our excuses to hate.
Righteousness in Islam consists in following Muhammad’s footsteps. And those
footsteps are violent, imperialist, colonialist, sadistic, and genocidal. But those who want to “annihilate” or to convert
their fellow men in the West are not madmen. They are rational and they are
something more—they are idealists. They want to free us. They want to save you
and me.
As they see it, you and I were made from a clot of blood by Allah, by God. We
were given everything we have by Him. Since we are His creations, we will
experience true justice and peace only if we live by His laws and are
enlightened by His truths. What are those laws and truths? The ones that God
himself gave to Mohammed in the seventh century. Islam believes it is out to
save us in an even more profound way. If we are tricked into following false
laws, believing in false gods, and sticking to what Osama bin Laden used to
call false “opinions, orders [and] theories,” we will go to an unspeakably
painful hell. Our earthly life is but a brief interlude, a brief gift, a brief
test to see if we can follow God’s path. But hell and heaven are forever.
Islamic militants want to save you so you can spend the time that really
matters, the time that lasts the longest, the time from your death to the Day
of Judgement, in the luxurious upper rooms of paradise. Only if your eyes are
opened to the legacy of Mohammed, only if you are persuaded to drop all other
“opinions, orders, theories and religions” can Islam save you. What happens,
according to them, if you stubbornly refuse Islam? What happens if you cannot
be won over to the light? You must be wiped out. You must be kept from
corrupting the minds of others and dragging them down to hell with you.
When former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad held a press conference in September 2006 to
report on his visit to
Islam has called for the annihilation of the Jews for close to 1,400 years. But
why eradicate those of us who live in
Grégoire Canlorbe: Besides
your concern for the survival of the modern Western civilization, how did you
come to have an interest in Islam? Does it have anything to do with your
personal history?
Howard Bloom: My introduction to Islamic culture came in 1962. My parents and
grandparents were Zionists—people who wished ardently for the right of Jews to
return to a homeland that appears in a flood of Hebrew prayers, the Promised
Land, the Hebrew territory from which Jews were expelled over and over again
and which the Jews stubbornly rebelled to retake in 66 AD, 133 AD, 351 AD, 438
AD, and 614 AD. Those Jews, my ancestors, battled the biggest imperialists of
the day, the Romans.
Then came an imperialist force that made the Romans look like pipsqueaks; a
violent, militaristic, colonialist empire on its way to becoming largest in the
history of the planet—one of the few imperial powers still around in today’s
world and still, like us, in a mood for conquest: the empire of Islam. Mohammed
himself did not take kindly to Jews. Mohammed said, “Whoever of the Jews falls
into your hands, kill him.” And, “The Hour will not be
established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew
will be hiding will say. ‘O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill
him.” According to the 9th century Muslim historian Abu Al-Abbas
Al-Baladhuri, the armies of Islam wiped those 41
Jewish cities off the face of the map. For the next 1,312 years, Jews would end
their springtime holiday Passover dinner with the phrase, “Next year in
Zionists such as my grandparents and parents were proud of the fact that Jews
had trickled back into
In 1962, when I was 19 years old, my father offered to send me for a year to
My dad’s offer sounded good. I wanted to see if 19th and 20th century thinkers
were right: if by changing the structure of society you could change human
nature and wipe away greed, gripes, and violence. The kibbutz was a laboratory
of social change. So I said yes. To prepare myself, I hitch-hiked from my
hometown, Buffalo, New York, down to Pennsylvania’s Swarthmore College, where I
had friends, and spent a month in the library studying peoples of the Middle
East, such as the Natufians of 11,000 years ago and a
little-known culture, the Nabataeans, who invented a
system of terraced irrigation that allowed them successfully to farm the
deserts of southern Israel and the surrounding lands from 312 BC to 105 AD.
Then one day, I had a shock. In the back of a library of materials on the
The villains behind these radical misunderstandings of history were, according
to the Arab League, those clever liars, those people out to dominate the world,
those “sons of pigs and monkeys,” the Jews—my family and me. One of my aunts
had managed to survive the Holocaust’s concentration camps. One of my cousins
had lost her parents, her brothers, and her sisters, and had been saved by a
Catholic farm family in
This was one of my first introductions to the fact that another culture can
have a radically different system of thought, a radically different way of
seeing the world. It was also my introduction to Islamic anti-Semitism. Where
did this hatred of Jews come from? There are fewer Jews on the planet than the
inhabitants of just one Muslim city,
If I were to understand just how different the world looked through the lens of
another culture, I might as well study a culture that made hatred of me a
central preoccupation. For the next four decades I studied the instinctual
underpinnings of war, creativity, and genocide. For the next four decades I
studied mass behavior, from the mass behavior of quarks, nucleons, and galaxies to the mass behavior of reptiles, chimpanzees, rats, birds, fish, bacteria,
and human beings. And for the next four decades I used the culture of Islam as
a test-case, a supreme living specimen in which to watch the instinctual forces
of history at work. That’s how I came to write The Muhammad Code.
Grégoire Canlorbe: Your
book invites the reader to pay attention to the achievements and the mentality
of Mohammed, especially to understand the mass murders and infringements of
personal freedom perpetrated now on behalf of Islamic fundamentalism. Could you
tell us more about the life of “the Prophet”?
Howard Bloom: To understand men such as Osama bin Laden, the iconic example of
guerrilla warfare; Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the
“George Washington” of the Islamic Revolutionary Republic of Iran; Dr. A.Q.
Khan, the father of the Pakistani Islamic Bomb of 1998; to understand the heads
of groups such as ISIS, Boko Haram,
and Hamas; to understand the Islamic militants making headlines today and who
will make headlines tomorrow, you have to understand the key to their way of
thinking, and, like them, you have to understand the life of Mohammed.
Two hundred years after the fall of
Some modern scholars feel that Mohammed’s visions may have been the result of
epileptic fits. The citizens of
The citizens of
The fledgling prophet was no man of peace. He consolidated his hold over
At last Mohammed was ready to take revenge for the indignities his former neighbors in
Once Mohammed’s birthplace had been conquered, the sword of Islam was not
sheathed. The city’s wealthy traders and illiterate Bedouins joined the army
that had begun in
Within a few generations of Mohammed’s death, these men from backwater towns
and primitive desert tribes had built an empire of awesome size. But their
victories did not stop there. In coming centuries, Mohammedans would repeatedly
make the Europeans tremble—eventually attacking even
Grégoire Canlorbe: You
conceive of Mohammed’s ideology—his complete system of values and beliefs—as a
“meme” or replicator. Could you clarify this notion, borrowed from Richard
Dawkins?
Howard Bloom: In 1976,
If Dawkins is right, humans and their social groups originated as mere puppets,
complex tools of tiny molecules. You and I were fashioned as if we were
cranes, dump trucks and tanks, designed to be driven by a set of replicators.
We are gatherers of raw materials operating at the behest of microscopic mini‑factories
seated at the center of our cells. For genes are infected with an overweening
ambition: their ultimate goal is to reproduce—and in the process, to overrun
this world. Up to this point, Dawkins was summing up and simplifying the
evolutionary biology emerging around him. Then Dawkins made a totally original
contribution: He posited the existence of a new replicator, one that has no
physical substance, and can not be studied under a microscope or kept in a jar.
It is the meme—the catchy idea.
Genes, said Dawkins, first made copies of themselves in primordial puddles. But
memes also copy themselves in the puddles of human minds. And the ones that are
truly successful jump from one mind to another until they girdle the planet.
Think of the pop song you loathe but cannot get out of your mind. That is a
successful meme. So are Islam, Christianity, and freedom. The memes that count
the most are the ones that assemble vast arrays of resources in startling new
forms. They are the memes that construct social systems, from tribes to
empires. As genes are to the individual organism, so memes are to the social
organism, or super-organism, pulling millions of individuals together—family,
tribe and nation—into a collective creature of awesome size.
The meme, like its predecessor the gene, is capable of assembling vast amounts
of matter. Unlike the gene, the meme can manufacture forms of order than mere
genetic stuff could never dream of. And finally there is something that Dawkins
himself failed to see. Very often, it is the meme, not the gene, whose survival
and expansion come first. We are willing to live and die for “something bigger
than ourselves.” And that something is the cluster of ideas that sits at our
culture’s core. But there is more. As hungry replicators eager to remold the world, ideas often turn their ultimate
weapon—the superorganism—into a killing machine. And,
contrary to the doctrines of some modern critics, they do not engage in this
“hegemonic imperialism” only in the purportedly “malevolent West.”
The ravenous voice of the meme calls out to charismatic men and women.
Disguised as revelation or inspiration, it has spoken to humans as diverse as
Mohammed, Napoleon I, Lenin,
The voice of the meme calls out to those on a lower level as well. To them, it
dictates sacrifice. The converts have a sublime perception of truth and feel
caught up in a frenzied oneness with some superior being whose power leaves
them in awe. But the holy vision or lofty secular ideals that create this
thrill may be merely the voice of the larger social beast calling for some
ultimate contribution—demanding that a seventh century Mohammedan hurl himself
against the defenses of a city far from his ancestral
home; or that his descendant hijack a civil aircraft and crash it into an
American office building.
Grégoire Canlorbe: The
intellectual elite in the West is often reproached for believing blindly in the
neo-Darwinian view of evolution, according to which genes (instead of groups)
are the true objects of “natural selection.” It implies, in particular, that
humans and other social animals, far from sacrificing their own individual
interests—survival and reproduction—for the sake of a mythical Leviathan,
society, instead cooperate for their own selfish motives and, unwittingly, in
the interest of their genes. What are your thoughts about that?
Howard Bloom: Our membership in a larger organism—and the fact we occasionally
find ourselves expendable in that superorganism’s
interests—is indeed not a fashionable theory at the moment among academics. As
I mentioned, current evolutionary theory says that preservation of your genes
is your first priority—preservation for yourself, your children, and for your
remaining relatives. And self-sacrifice in the interest of the group, the very
definition of altruism, does not quite square with the notion of genes fighting
for themselves no matter what. Underlying the notion of genetic selfishness is
another, even more basic assumption, the theory of individual selection,
according to which the “struggle for life” occurs between individuals—and only
between individuals. In fact, the idea that this competition could occur
between groups has been resoundingly dismissed since the publication of The
Selfish Gene. It has been mocked and scorned.
Yet Dawkins and individual selectionists have had a
very bad time dealing with the problem of altruism. August theorists such as
W.D. Hamilton and R.L. Trivers explained away the
seemingly “altruistic” tendencies in humans and other species by generating a
new mathematical system, the notion of kin selection. It stated that
individuals would only sacrifice their own interests in favor
of others if the others in question were relatives, creatures who contained
similar sets of genes. In other words, self-sacrifice was “selfless” only at
first sight. In fact, it consisted of increasing the number of our genes in
generations yet to come. The selfish-gene theory of evolution is partly right.
It is a powerful tool for cracking the mysteries of evolution and human behavior. But from Darwin himself to V.C.
Wynne-Edwards, Robert Ardrey, and the late Edward.
O. Wilson, its limitations have been attacked by a line of scientists with
powerful minds. Those critics demonstrate that our biology often refuses to
follow the paths that scientific assumptions about personal survival and kin
selection would predict.
We come complete at birth with an arsenal of survival instincts in the interest
of our genes. But we are also equipped with self‑destruct
mechanisms—depression, anxiety and hopelessness. Not to mention the deactivation
of our immune system when we are seriously discouraged. That depressed immune
system invites disease to come in and do its worst. And we are crippled by the
stress hormones that flood our system—glucocorticoids.
These hormones in short, sharp doses are energizers, emergency handlers. But in
the long, never-ending doses that hit us when we are down, stress hormones
destroy our health. Stress hormones are poisons generated within us—not by
psychology alone, but by our biology. According to selfish gene theory and the
theory of individual selection, these self-damaging circuits should not exist.
So why are self-destruct circuits present in animals
of all kinds?
A wide range of evidence—evidence you can find in my books The Lucifer
Principle and Global Brain—indicates that these biological suicide circuits
turn us into components of a mass IQ, neurons of a collective brain. And our
fellow neurons in the collective brain, our fellow humans and thought partners,
are not necessarily our kin. How do self-damagers increase the collective
intelligence? They turn down the resources and the influence of those of us who
do not seem to be able to solve the problem of the moment. And they turn up the
popularity, health, vigor, cash, and influence of
individuals who do seem to have a handle on things. They are tricks our body
uses to turn us into modules in a neural net. A massively
parallel-processed social learning machine—to repeat, a group IQ.
If preserving our genes were indeed our ruling force, then self-destruct mechanisms
should not exist. Or, at best, their action should be limited to aiding those
who carry genes nearly identical to our own. Even more damning, our acts of valor on the battlefield have generally nothing to do with
an individualistic gene selfishly protecting a copy of itself.
By the standards used by the selfish gene clique, and their colleagues in
economics and the social sciences, the rational choice crew, the genes of
kamikaze aviators in the closing stages of World War II were radically
different. They did not show the degree of genetic relatedness demanded by
Hamilton’s and Trivers’ mathematics. To many
Americans, the kamikaze’s ultimate devotion to their emperor and the glory of
Here is the bottom line. Evolution, either biological or cultural, is not just
a competition between individuals. It is also a competition between groups. It
is a race between the varieties of cooperation that grow up between solitary
creatures—the unseen ties that bind those creatures together into a larger
unit. Men and animals do not merely struggle to maintain their individual
existence. They are part of social organisms that scramble for survival—and
that work for mastery over other organisms of their kind. And very often the
interests of the group outweigh those of the individual, including his life and
the posterity of his genes. What’s more, our savagery, not only as individuals
but as groups, comes as an actual feature of our biological legacy. As E.O.
Wilson writes in his 2012 book, The Social Conquest of Earth, “To form groups,
drawing visceral comfort and pride from familiar fellowship, and to defend the
group enthusiastically against rival groups—these are among the absolute
universals of human nature and hence of culture.” “It can now be argued in the
context of modern biology,” says
From military crusades to ethnic deportation, mass slaughter, and migratory
invasion, culture alone is not responsible for group violence. In fact, it
comes from something both sub- and superhuman, something we share with
gorillas, apes, fish and ants—a brutality that speaks to us through the
“animals” in our brain. From bacteria colonies to human conglomerations, superorganisms are hungry creatures, attempting to break
down the boundaries of their competitors, chew off chunks of their opponents’
substance and digest and redistribute it as part of themselves.
In the world of humans, that struggle takes the form of a competition between
ideologies, between worldviews, between group souls. When the Japanese aviators
guide their planes to the American enemy, when the Crusaders of Christendom
march off to challenge the Empire of Islam, or even when Donald Trump and
Vladimir Putin gauge each other, the struggle is not a battle of men, but a
battle of networks, learning-machines bound together by memes, testing and
confronting their respective shapes, claiming supremacy over each other.
In law, politics, and economics, individualism is a personal credo of great
importance. I, for one, am a passionate believer in free speech, democracy, and
capitalism. But to scientists, the obsession to place emphasis on the
individual has been a chimera leading them down a dead‑end path. History,
either natural or human, has never been the sole province of the selfish
individual, essentially preoccupied with preserving his genes. For history is
the playfield of the superorganism—and of its recent
step-child, the meme. It is the environment of the mass murders that occur when
one animal society tries to dominate another, the large‑scale savageries
that arise when one human culture tries to impose its own system of values. On
May 12, 2004, Osama Bin Laden explained how powerfully the 21st century’s
wireless jihad was driven by Mohammed’s ideology. In a message to the worldwide
community of Islam he wrote, “The main confrontation,” is “a religious and
doctrinal one, not an economic or military one.” “The clash,” he said, “is in
fact a clash of civilizations”—a clash of worldview-driven sociopolitical
blocs.
Bin Laden also told us just how powerfully Mohammed’s notions powered him and
what those memes mean for the Western civilization in a statement he addressed
directly to us Americans, a statement most of us missed. “Why are we fighting
and opposing you?” asked bin Laden. “What are we calling you to, and what do we
want from you? The first thing that we are calling you to is Islam. The religion of the Unification of God; of freedom from associating
partners with Him [Islamic code for Christianity], and rejection of this; of
complete love of Him, the Exalted.” Then bin Laden commanded us to “the
discarding of all the opinions, orders, theories and religions which contradict
the religion He sent down to His Prophet Muhammad.” In other words, bin Laden
called for a worldwide end to Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, yoga, New Age
beliefs, secularism, humanism, Darwinism, constitutions, and separation of
Church and State. Only time will tell if our memes have the
stick-to-it-iveness to survive or if Mohammed’s
ideology will take over your life and mine.
TO BE CONTINUED…
Howard Bloom is the author of The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition Into the Forces of History (“mesmerizing”-The Washington
Post), Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st
Century (“reassuring and sobering”-The New Yorker), The Genius of the Beast: A
Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism (“Impressive, stimulating, and tremendously
enjoyable.” James Fallows, National Correspondent, The
Atlantic), and The God Problem: How A Godless Cosmos Creates (“Bloom’s argument
will rock your world.” Barbara Ehrenreich).
He also has two books about to be published in new versions: How I Accidentally
Started the Sixties (“a monumental, epic, glorious literary achievement.”
Timothy Leary), and The Muhammad Code: How a Desert Prophet Gave You ISIS, al
Qaeda, and Boko Haram—or
How Muhammad Invented Jihad (“a terrifying book… the best book I’ve read on
Islam,” David Swindle, PJ Media).
Bloom explains that his field is “mass behavior, from
the mass behavior of quarks to the mass behavior of human beings.” That specialization gives him a
wide scope. In 2005, Bloom lectured an international conference of quantum
physicists in
Bloom has his own YouTube series, Howard the Humongous, which gets up to
790,000 views per installment. His website, howardbloom.net,
has had between four and five million hits.
Grégoire Canlorbe, a
journalist, currently lives in
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