. .

.. .
VOL. 46, NO. 12 Jumœdå al-Álå – Jumœdå al-Œkira∆ 1439 (February 2018)
P.O. Box 747 Gormley, ON L0H 1G0, Canada (905) 887-8913 crescent.icit-digital.org
ISSN 0705-3754 LCM 77031986
Editorial board: Zafar Bangash, Mu˙ammad Ó al-‘Œßø, Afeef Khan
Affiliated with the Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought (ICIT), icit-digital.org

Contents
Reflections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Islamophobic Russian media undermines Moscow
The language of delegitimization Tahir Mahmoud
Zafar Bangash
Ahed Tamimi: new face of Palestinian resistance
Editorials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Ghada Nablusi
The real axis of evil
Bin Salmœn: Trump’s boy in Riyadh
US for endless war in Syria Yusuf Dhia-Allah

Will Pakistan cut the American umbilical cord?

Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Tahir Mustafa
Imam Khamene’i! Please stay the course
Ab¥ Dharr Time for the US to quit Afghanistan
Zia Sarhadi
Is Canada a Metis civilization? Part 3
Eric Walberg Book Reviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
From Yahweh to Zion
Dr. Kevin Barrett
Cover Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Islamic Revolution: the new power centre
Will madman Trump rain “Fire and Fury”
Zafar Bangash
on the world?
Dr. Kevin Barrett
News & Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
US reaction to recent riots in Iran Islam – Fundamentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
J. Abbas Trinity of kufr: atheism, secularism, officialism
Mu˙ammad Ó al-‘Œßø
Al-Quds: the capital
Eric Walberg Letters to the Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

From the editor’s desk...

Shaykh Zakzaky’s unending suffering

Shaykh Ibrahim Zakzaky, a highly respected alim and leader
of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria was shot and badly
wounded in December 2015. The Nigerian army murdered at
least 100 members of the movement including three sons of
the Shaykh. His wife was also attacked and injured. The
group’s compound was bulldozed. Despite international
protests and diplomatic representations, the Shaykh and his
wife remain incarcerated in terrible conditions.
On December 2, 2016, Justice Gabriel Kolawole of Fed-
eral High Court 6 in Abuja dismissed all charges against the
Shaykh. He also ordered Shaykh Zakzaky’s immediate release
and that of his wife. The judge also ordered the Nigerian gov-
ernment to provide him not only a house but also compensa-
tion and adequate security.
Far from adhering to the court ruling, the Nigerian gov-
ernment has appealed the verdict. The Shaykh continues to
suffer in terrible conditions.
Why does the Nigerian government refuse to abide by its
own court ruling and what forces are behind the brutal
assault on Shaykh Zakzaky, his family, and movement? Two
regimes in particular can be cited that have the backing of
the US: Zionist Israel and the Saudi Najdi Bedouins.
Both regimes are terrified of the power of Islam and its
spread into remote parts of Africa. The Zionists exercise great
influence over the Nigerian military; many officers are on the
Zionists and Saudis’ payroll.
They view Shaykh Zakzaky’s revolutionary, pro-people
movement as a threat to their exploitative policies.

Contents 1
 R E F L E C T I
THE LANGUAGE
OF DELEGIMIZATION
By Zafar Bangash
Imperialist powers use a number of tools in their drive to subjugate and
exploit other societies and lands. Before resorting to military force, an elab-
orate propaganda campaign (psychological warfare) is launched in which
the target society (or leader) is demonized. If a lie is repeated often enough,
people will begin to accept it as truth. To this day, more than 30% of Amer-
icans believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction before the US
attacked it in March 2003.
The West’s approach is based on categorizing governments as friendly
and hostile. Friendly governments are those that will do what the West
demands regardless of how detrimental those policies may be to their own
people. Hostile governments are those that want to pursue an independent
policy. All Western rulers want to know is that you’re for them; and if you
can be their SOB, then they don’t care what else you stand for.
“Friendly” regimes are given a pass regardless of how terrible or crim-
inal their conduct might be. The Zionist regime in occupied Palestine and
the Najdi Bedouins in the Arabian Peninsula offer good examples. Despite
their atrocious human rights records, both are referred to as governments
as opposed to the demeaning word, regime.
In the case of the Najdi Bedouins, they have never held even token
elections and do not intend to, if they can get away with it. The West is
quite comfortable with that. In the past, it was Saudi family dictatorship,
now it has become a one-man dictatorship (or at least that is what
Mu˙ammad bin Salmœn is trying to achieve). Anyone calling for respect
for human rights, no matter how politely, is immediately thrown in jail. So
why is Saudi Arabia referred to as government and not regime? The simple
answer is that it is a puppet of the West and fulfills its demands.
The word regime is reserved for those governments the West considers
as enemies, or are not sufficiently obedient. Thus Islamic Iran is branded
as a “regime” even though the government and the system in place are
completely legitimate and have backing of the overwhelming majority of
people. Elections are held regularly and people’s participation is far greater
than witnessed in any Western country in modern history.
The same applies to Syria where a determined attempt has been made
to overthrow a legitimately elected government. It enjoys the support of a
majority of people but one would be hard pressed to find any acknowledge-
ment of this in the corporate owned Western media (the alternate media on
the internet is clear on this but there are attempts to censor it).
2 CRESCENT INTERNATIONAL – February 2018
O N S
The Zionist regime in colonized Palestine has
been involved in land theft, ethnic cleansing, and
mass murder since its implantation in 1948. Pales-
tinians resisting the invaders are branded as terror-
ists even though according to Western-crafted
international law and UN resolutions (the UN is
a Western construct) such resistance is completely
legitimate. The UN also says that occupied people
are entitled to resist by whatever means necessary
(emphasis added) to secure their freedom.
Zionist squatters that barge onto Palestinian
lands in the West Bank and establish illegal
colonies are referred to as “Jewish settlers.” Both
words are meant to soften the criminal act that
the Zionists are involved in. There is taboo on
criticizing anything Jewish; it is immediately
branded as anti-Semitism. The word settler is
used to invoke memories of the early settlers
(confiscators) in North America with their pio-
neering spirit. That those European “settlers”
perpetrated genocides against the indigenous peo-
ple is also conveniently overlooked.
Let us consider the example of Winston
Churchill who is viewed in Western culture as a
senior statesman. He was an unapologetic racist
and mass murderer. In 1920–1922 when he
ordered the use of poison gas against Kurdish
tribes in Iraq, he denounced them as “savages.”
He even claimed it was better for them to die this
way than be ripped apart by cannon fire! He had
similar contempt for millions of people that
starved to death in India when it was under
British colonial rule. Far from accepting respon-
sibility for deaths caused by British policy,
Churchill said it was their fault, “They should
not breed like rabbits.”
Despite claims to “objectivity,” the Western
corporate media is an extension of the elites’ pol-
icy of domination and exploitation. That is why
Allah (Â) warns us in the noble Qur’an,
O you who have made a firm commitment
to Allah! If any iniquitous person comes
to you with a [slanderous] tale, verify it
lest you cause harm to people unwittingly
and afterward be filled with remorse for
what you have done (49:06).
Muslims and people of justice would do well to
keep this sound advice in mind. g
Zafar Bangash is Director of the Institute of Contempo-
rary Islamic Thought (ICIT).
 E D I T O R I A
THE REAL AXIS OF EVIL
With the centre of gravity of global political, economic, and military
power shifting toward Eurasia, there is visible panic among the warlords
in Washington, DC. This has affected their puppets in the Muslim East
(aka Middle East) and South Asia even more. There is thus a mad
scramble to create new alliances aimed at countering, or at least miti-
gating, some of the effects of the shift in global power balance.
This has resulted in the emergence of a new axis of evil that com-
prises such rogue states as the imperialist United States, Zionist Israel, report pointing out that the greatest internal
and Hindu India. The pleasure loving Najdi Bedouins of Arabia, terri-
fied to their bones, are trailing closely behind trying to seek protection ISIS but from homegrown white supremacists.
under the US-Zionist skirt.
While India and Israel have had a long relationship dating back to
1957 when the Zionist State opened a trade mission in India, diplomat-
ic and military relations have taken off
since the Hindu extremist Narendra
Modi came to power in 2014. Modi
became the first Indian prime minister to …A NEW AxIS OF EVIL
visit the Zionist State. Israeli Prime Min-
ister Benjamin Netanyahu reciprocated
THAT COMPRISES SUCH ItWar
this by a six-day visit to India last month ROGUE STATES AS THE
(January 14–19).
Behind these visits, Uncle Sam’s grub-
IMPERIALIST UNITED
by hand is clearly visible. The US has STATES, ZIONIST ISRAEL, on the military are simply not
been actively courting Hindu India, even
setting aside Modi’s gory record of com-
AND HINDU INDIA.
plicity in the murder of 2,000 Muslims in
Gujarat state in 2002 when he was chief
minister. Scores of Muslim women and children were hacked to death
by Hindu mobs.
The US wants to use India as a bulwark against China’s growing
economic and military power. The latter has embarked on ambitious
economic projects under the “One Belt, One Road” (aka the “New Silk
Road”) project whose flagship is the China-Pakistan Economic Corri-
dor (CPEC). While CPEC provides China access to the Indian Ocean
through the important port of Gwadar, the Silk Road project will con-
L S
nect the entire Eurasia landmass with Russia
and Europe.
This was supposed to benefit everyone, but
the United States wants to dominate the world
as has again become apparent from the new
National Defense Strategy (NDS) unveiled by
Defence Secretary James (mad-dog) Mattis on
January 19. The NDS spells out clearly that
Russia and China pose the greatest threat to
US hegemony. “Inter-state strategic competi-
tion, not terrorism, is now the primary concern
in US national security,” according to the Pen-
tagon document.
Does this mean that terrorism is no longer
an American obsession? Perish the thought.
The Washington warlords, however, have real-
ized that they have milked this bogey long
enough and now the specter of a new threat
needs to be created. Osama bin Laden is dead;
ISIS terrorists have been defeated in Iraq and
Syria, not due to any effort of the US, we must
note. And just last month, the FBI released a
threat the US faced was not from al-Qaeda or
These are the same people that voted over-
whelmingly for Donald Trump putting him in
the White House.
Thus, it was becoming
increasingly untenable to justify
massive budgetary outlays to
fight the phantom of terrorism.
is back to the days of the Cold
but with the added twist:
not only the Russians but now
even the Chinese are coming!
The $650 billion spent annually
enough; the Pentagon needs
more to confront this “growing
threat” from Russia and China.
“We face growing threats
from revisionist powers as different as China
and Russia, nations that seek to create a world
consistent with their authoritarian models,”
Mattis said.
In the Muslim East, the US aim has
remained unchanged: protect its illegitimate
offspring (Zionist Israel) and cash cow Saudi
Arabia. The excuse advanced is to “counterbal-
Editorials 3
ance Iran,” and to ensure the region is “not dominated by any power
hostile to the United States.” That the US should dominate the region
— as it has done for more than 50 years — is supposedly the natural
order of things. The other objectives are to contribute to “stable global
energy markets and secure trade routes.” Again, this is meant to satiate
America’s rapacious appetite for oil and other people’s wealth.
Will this axis of evil comprising the terrible trio succeed? The US is
a declining power; Zionist Israel and Hindu India with their racism and
US FOR ENDLESS
WAR IN SYRIA
Just as Dœ‘ish terrorists were defeated in Iraq and Syria, the US has
come up with another excuse to continue its illegal military presence in
Syria. On January 14, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that US
forces would stay in Syria for the foreseeable future. He also announced
that the US would create a 30,000-strong “border force” in Syria com-
prising mainly the Kurds. The US has not given up on overthrowing the
government of Bashar al-Asad.
Russia and Iran, both of whom have been supporting the Syrian
government, immediately denounced the move calling it illegal and a
clear violation of Syria’s sovereignty. Damascus was equally forceful in
denouncing the planned border force as a “blatant assault” on the coun-
try’s sovereignty. The Syrian news agency, SANA, citing a foreign min-
istry spokesperson reported that the army was determined to frustrate
the US “conspiracy, end the presence of the US, its agents and tools in
Syria, establish full control over the entire Syria territory, and preserve
the country’s sovereignty.”
Even NATO member Turkey criticized the move because Ankara
sees the Kurds as mortal enemies, denouncing them as terrorists. On
January 20, Turkish tanks rolled into northwestern Syria around the
Kurdish populated area of Afrin. This occurred at a time when the Syr-
ian army was making progress against ISIS terrorists in Idlib province,
in the same area where Turkey made its incursion.
While accusing Russia and Iran of creating instability in the region,
it is the US that is the chief culprit. Its presence in Syria is not only ille-
gal it maintains some 5,000 Special Forces operating from an illegal air-
4 CRESCENT INTERNATIONAL – February 2018
extremism, are becoming international pariahs.
To counterbalance this menace, other coun-
tries — notably China, Russia, and Iran — are
coming together to prevent instability and
chaos in the region. Zionist Israel and Wahhœbø
Arabia are the principal regional destabilizers,
backed by the US. Their designs must be frus-
trated. g
base inside the country. Further, the US wants
to “eliminate” Iranian presence in the country.
Testifying before the Senate Foreign Rela-
tions Committee on January 18, David Satter-
field, acting US assistant secretary of state for
Near Eastern affairs, when asked why US forces
were still in Syria, blurted out, “We are deeply
concerned with the activities of Iran, with the
ability of Iran to enhance those activities
through a greater ability to move materiel into
Syria. And I would rather leave the discussion
at that point.” Unlike US forces, Iranian advi-
sors are in Syria at the request of Damascus.
America’s assertions that its forces were in
Syria to combat ISIS terrorists are completely
false. Not only have US helicopters airlifted
many of these terrorists out of the country to
save them for another day but according to
Russia, some ISIS fighters are being trained and
integrated into anti-Asad forces.
While the US’ disruptive role in Syria is
evident, as is that of Zionist Israel that fre-
quently violates Syrian air space and carries out
aerial and artillery attacks, Turkey is playing a
double game. On the one hand it is involved in
the Astana talks to establish deconfliction
zones in Syria in order to reduce the level of
fighting while on the other it is assisting mem-
bers of the Free Syrian Army.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
accused the US of seeking to split up Syria, say-
ing it “does not want to keep Syria as a state in
its current borders.” This is America’s “Plan B”
in case the terrorists failed in dislodging al-
Asad from power.
The US is clearly preparing for a war in
Syria that could easily spill over into a wider
conflict with Iran, and potentially Russia.
There is no limit to US wickedness and crimi-
nal conduct. g
 O P I N I O
Imam Khamene’i!
Please Stay the Course
By Ab¥ Dharr
This month marks 40 years of struggle/jihad in Iran against virtually
the entire establishmentarian world. Power establishments of the
world are not kind to Muslims freely deciding their ideological pref-
erences and their political future. This is attested to by kings and
presidents who continue to rule against the will of their own popula-
tions. It is also demonstrated by the wars that are flaring up on the
Muslim map for no other reason than Muslim peoples wanting an
Islamic way of life: not atheistic, not materialistic, not secular, and
not inferior to world powers.
Simply stated they want to decide who their decision-makers are.
And the only place in the whole world where the population was able
to produce Islamic governance is Iran. And since that happened 39
years ago the elites in power from America to Arabia through, of
course, the Israeli catalyst have been incessantly working on undoing
this long-in-the-making Islamic success story in Islamic Iran.
Let us take a short stroll down memory lane. The Islamic State in
Iran was still a baby but both the “elected” dictators and hereditary
tyrants of the world saw no problem in killing that baby in its cradle.
They jointly launched an eight-year bloody and grinding war against
the valiant sons of that newborn government. To their disappoint-
ment those eight years immunized that very young Islamic republic
from ever having faith in goodwill coming from Washington, Riyadh,
and their Zionist handlers.
Then the combo of imperialists (led by Washington’s Republican
and Democrat regimes), the Israelis (governed by Zionist Labor and
Likud parties), and munafiqs (with their tribal regimes) changed tac-
tics. During the 1990s and up until 9/11 they tried to strangulate
Islamic Iran economically. Realizing that was not going to work,
these elitist evildoers came up with what must be the satanic bril-
liance of all-time: turn the world against Islam and Muslims, and turn
the Muslims against themselves. Hence, 9/11 and its aftershocks,
from which the Muslims and the whole world are still suffering from.
There are many observations and angles to the 9/11 tragedy. One
of them is that the figureheads and the warmongers of 9/11 have
totally disappeared. They are not on the airwaves, in the media, or
N
any other public forum. It is as if they are
long dead. This, in and of itself speaks vol-
umes about that historical and universal
crime. Be that as it may, 9/11 has morphed
into a political honeymoon between the tribal
rulers in Arabia and the racist rulers in Israel
with an up-and-coming strategic marriage
between Riyadh and Tel Aviv consummated
by a Trumpster America. This may appear to
be another one of those musical chair
arrangements in the world of politics — but it
is not. This current out-in-the-open Saudi-
Israeli cohabitation has always been there but
it was done behind closed doors. It took four
decades of an independent and thoroughly
Islamic based leadership in Iran to demon-
strate to the Muslims that mushriks and
munafiqs are working hand-in-hand, and to
the world that the corporate class of interests
is trans-Judaic, trans-Christian, and trans-
Islamic; in other words the rulers in Tel Aviv,
Washington, and Riyadh (along with others
of their ilk) are one fraternity of tyrants:
their Jewish, Christian, and Islamic affilia-
tions are meant to fool naive Jews, naive
Christians, and naive Muslims.
The Islamic Revolution and the Islamic
Republic in Iran through its generational
struggle for peace, justice, and equality has
made it possible for anyone with a clear con-
science and a working mind to distinguish
between Zionism and Judaism, imperialism
and Christianity, and Saudi-ism and Islam. It
is noteworthy to mention here that Britain —
the sick man of Europe — had and still has its
crafty hand in all three spheres: America,
Israel, and Saudi. After 40 principled years of
sacrifices, the martyrs and the ‘ulamœ’, the
unknown civilian, and the unknown soldier
have taught the rest of us that there are some,
but not many, orthodox Jews who are opposed
to Zionism, as there are some, not many, prac-
ticing Christians who are opposed to imperi-
alism, as there are some Muslims, and others
waiting in-line, who are opposed to the Saudi
regime. The very opaque layers of politics and
the very thick layers of traditionalism have
been deconstructed by struggle and sacrifice
throughout the past years of the epic Islamic
Revolution/Republic.
Opinion 5
 The mainstream media grudgingly leaks from time to time com- grace of the enemies of mankind: the business
ments that the world is reshaping itself and the key figure behind this ruling classes of the world.
worldwide change is Vladimir Putin of Russia. Vladimir Putin — a A supreme struggle that began 40 years
former functionary of the now defunct ago and succeeded 39 years
KGB — in Russia inherited a failing ago, an ongoing struggle that
Soviet Union and shrewdly came to has won the hearts of the com-
terms with the fact that imperialism mitted Muslims and people of
has no future. The rising forces in the T HE ISLAMIC freedom, justice and dignity,
world are ex-communist or pragmatic demands our respect, objectiv-
China and Islamic Iran. So he posi- REVOLUTION AND ity, and admiration. Muslims
tioned himself within that perspective. THE ISLAMIC belonging to Islamic move-
There is no food for the soul and no ments should be the first to
ideological motivation coming out of REPUBLIC IN IRAN show such recognition and
Putin’s Russia. Simply stated, Putin THROUGH ITS affinity. Alas, some of them
turns out to be a clever politician who have been ensnared by Saudi
knows in which direction the political GENERATIONAL largesse and Khaløjø honey-
winds are blowing. STRUGGLE FOR traps. From what we know, if
The person who is truly at the any of these Islamic move-
helm of an ideological future is the PEACE, JUSTICE, ments was subjected to the
inheritor of Imam Khomeini, the AND EQUALITY HAS same wars coming at all levels
leader of the Islamic struggle for jus- from multiple directions they
tice and the hope of those who are MADE IT POSSIBLE would have caved in or van-
without hope: that is, Imam Kha- FOR ANYONE ished without much of a trace.
mene’i. He could see through the Just look at the Islamic move-
rubric of the elaborate and hellish WITH A CLEAR ments in Algeria, Arabia,
schemes of satanic Zionism and dia- CONSCIENCE AND Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Syria,
bolic imperialism. Ask yourself: why Tunisia, and Yemen. What
is the Zio-American mass media A WORKING MIND was called the “Arab Spring”
worked into sour-and-sweet servings TO DISTINGUISH offers proof that they do not
of articles and comments against the have the stamina to under-
leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran? BETWEEN ZIONISM stand and withstand the lure
Why don’t they express the same hate AND JUDAISM, of financial attractions, nor
filled programs of theirs against the the fury of military entrap-
leaders in Russia or China? Both have IMPERIALISM AND ments. Some committed Mus-
nuclear weapons and economic capa- CHRISTIANITY, AND lims in Palestine learned this
bilities that can potentially bring impe- the hard way. And we pray
rialism to its knees. Why is North SAUDI-ISM AND and hope that they really
Korea an asterisk in the Hebrew ISLAM. learned their lesson. And
press? The mere thought that Islamic there would be no lesson to
Iran is capable of developing nuclear learn if it were not for the
technology is at the core of conver- Islamic Revolution and its
gence among the pernicious politicians capable leadership and its
in the US congress, the Israeli Knesset and the Saudi ruling family. insightful Imam Khamene’i.
And the well-known fact that Russia and China both have advanced
nuclear weapons and weapons systems does not bother them as much And Allah will [militarily] support
as the probability of an Islamic Iran gaining nuclear technology. those who [in their spirit] support
Why is it then that Israel and the US along with the Saudi hang- Him… (22:40). g
ers-on, are worked up against the leadership of Imam Khamene’i? It
is because his leadership of the Islamic Republic is consistent with Abu Dharr is the pen-name of a senior Islamic
the principles of justice. And in the larger picture, those principles of movement intellectual who contributes this month-
justice demand the liberation of the Holy Land from the trio of Zion- ly column, discussing key issues concerning the
ism, imperialism and Arabian clientelism (nifœq and shirk). If the global Islamic movement. For his introduction to
leadership in Islamic Iran were to relinquish its strategy of liberating this column, see https://crescent.icit-digital.org/
the Holy Land from its colonizers it would immediately fall into the authors/abu-dharr.

6 CRESCENT INTERNATIONAL – February 2018


is canada a METIS
CIVILIZATION?
Part 3: Transition
to self-government
By Eric Walberg
The debate about the Indian Act and how to reconcile the elected
councils and the traditionals over the past 40 years has been shaped
by the sweeping intent of the White Paper of 1969, issued as Pierre
Trudeau began his career as prime minister. It set out a liberal, mul-
ticultural challenge, an attempt to supersede the Indian Act by elim-
inating any special status for Natives altogether. This galvanized the
Natives toward a defence of their special status, above and prior to
the colonial settlers. It is a nice historical touch that Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau has made native issues a priority, perhaps putting in
place a new dispensation that has been germinating ever since. Some
landmarks in the movement to replace the 1876 Indian Act include:
1.In 1973, the federal government commenced talks with the Yukon
Native Brotherhood (later the Council for Yukon First Nations).
In 1995, the Umbrella Final Agreement and the Final and Self-
Government Agreements for four Yukon First Nations became
law. Other Yukon First Nations subsequently signed final agree-
ments, bringing most of the Yukon’s First Nations into a radically
different relationship with the government of Canada. Reserves
were replaced by settlement lands. First Nations governments
operating under settlement agreements, with much wider scope
than those regulated by the Indian Act, had to design and imple-
ment financial management regimes, and continue negotiations
with federal and territorial authorities on financial/tax arrange-
ments and transfers of programs and services. In the Yukon First
Nations Land Claims Settlement Act (1994), the legislation
noted, “When a final agreement is given effect, the Indian Act
ceases to apply in respect of any reserve identified in the agree-
ment as settlement land.”
2. The creation of Nunavut in 1999, an Inuit-controlled jurisdiction
with the same range of powers as the other two territories, has
raised even further the bar on Aboriginal governance.
3. An agreement with the Nisga’a and the governments of Canada
and British Columbia was reached in 2000, eventually leading to
a British Columbia referendum on treaty process in the province.
The Nisga’a approach to self-government is markedly different
from that laid out in the Yukon, where each of the 14 First
Nations has a First Nations government operating under the
Umbrella Final Agreement. The old Indian Act administration has
been removed, and replaced with the
Lisims Government. Wilp Si’ayuukhl is
the principle lawmaking authority for the
Nisga’a, established along traditional lines,
with the Council of Elders, made up of
Hereditary Chiefs (Simgigat), Hereditary
Matriarchs (Sigidimhaanak) and other key
Nisga’a elders providing crucial cultural
leadership. Local matters are administered
by the Village Governments established for
the four main Nisga’a communities. In
addition, the Nisga’a made permanent pro-
vision for Nisga’a living off the settlement
lands, establishing Urban Locals in
Terrace, Prince Rupert, and Vancouver.
The Nisga’a moved quickly to convert
their settlement into an active and produc-
tive Nisga’a-led government, defining the
contours of fisheries regulation, creating
and amending electoral procedures, and
otherwise handling the business of gov-
ernment and administration for the
Nisga’a First Nation. As Kevin McKay,
Nisga’a Lisims Government Chairperson
commented,
The Indian Act was in our lives for
approximately 131 years. Compare
that to the history of the Nisga’a
Nation: our oral stories tell us that
we’ve been here since the beginning
of time. The Indian Act was here
for 131 years and it did a lot of
damage. The demand of our people,
especially our hereditary chiefs,
matriarchs and respected elders,
was that we achieve recognition of
the land question in a just and hon-
ourable way. The agreement, by
removing the authority of the
Indian Act (save for the role it
plays in defining whether an indi-
vidual is an Indian under the terms
of the Act), represented a major
shift away from the long-standing
system of external control.
4. Since the passage of the Cree-Naskapi (of
Quebec) Act in 1984, nine Cree commu-
nities are not subject to the Indian Act or
the band system. Instead they are repre-
sented by the Grand Council of the Crees
continued on p. 34
Opinion 7
Name ___________________________________________ Email _______________________________

Address _______________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________ Phone ______________________

q Volumes 1–3 ____ q Volumes 4–5 ____

q Volumes 6–8 ____ q Volumes 9–10 ____ q All ____ (each)

Send check, draft, or postal (money) order payable to Cresent International: ____________ (amt. enclosed)
In North America: Crescent International, 1380 Stouffville Road, Richmond Hill, ON L4E 3S3.
In the United Kingdom: Crescent International, FREEPOST (SCE5682), Slough, Berks SL1 3BF.

Payment can also be made by VISA/Mastercard/Eurocard/Switch,

for credit card requirements, please see p. 40.
 C O
ISLAMIC REVOLUTION:
THE NEW POWER CENTRE
Despite the odds stacked against it, Islamic Iran endures
By Zafar Bangash
s the people of Iran and their
A friends and supporters world-
wide celebrate another
anniversary of the victory of the
Islamic Revolution this month, it
would be worthwhile to reflect on its
achievements. Entering its 40th year,
the fact that the Islamic Revolution
and its fruit, the Islamic Republic,
have survived all these years amid
unrelenting hostility is in and of itself
a great achievement. What is even
more remarkable is that it has made
enormous progress in many vital
fields despite facing many challenges.
More on this later but first, let us con-
sider a basic aspect of the current
global environment.
When viewed against the back-
drop of developments in contempo-
rary history, the very survival of the
Islamic State is nothing short of spec-
tacular. The so-called global order
imposed at the end of the Second
World War has been an unmitigated
disaster for most countries and soci-
eties. Divided into two blocs, one led
by the US and the other by the erst-
while Soviet Union, newly emerging
independent states were left with lit-
tle choice but to join one or the other
bloc for survival. These were like vast
V E R S T O
prisons from where escape was virtual-
ly impossible. Countries existed as
vassals of one or the other superpower.
To achieve true independence
was a pipedream. Even escaping from
one bloc to the other was a risky
undertaking. Countries that tried to
break free from the deathly embrace
of one or the other hegemonic power
were quickly slapped back into place.
Egypt and Indonesia offer ready
examples. Others were overthrown
by Western-engineered coups as wit-
nessed in Iran in 1953, Guatemala in
1954, Vietnam in 1963, Chile in
1973, and a host of others. It was the
same story on the other side of the
fence — the “Iron Curtain” — in the
infamous words of the notorious war
criminal and racist Winston
Churchill. Hungary in 1956 and
Czechoslovakia in 1968 staged West-
ern-backed uprisings to break loose of
the Soviet bloc only to be brought to
heel by Soviet tanks.
Given this reality, the victory of
the Islamic Revolution in Iran was a
seminal achievement. Neither bloc
supported it; in fact, both blocs
opposed it for their own peculiar rea-
sons. Thus the struggle of the Iranian
people led by Imam Khomeini was
R Y
unique. First, to succeed and then to
survive for so long despite numerous
attempts, both internal and external,
by the enemies of Islam to destroy the
new Islamic order is even more spec-
tacular.
The resilience to survive these
serious challenges came from one
source: the Iranian Islamic leadership
and people’s reliance only on Allah
(Â). This is called the power of
Islam. It needs elaboration. Every sys-
tem is based on certain ideas and val-
ues. The former Soviet Union and its
satellites were based on Marxist ide-
ology. The West has pursued capital-
ism. Muslims have the Islamic system
of governance but only one country
— Iran — has truly adopted it in con-
temporary history. Communism has
long been abandoned while capital-
ism is on its deathbed because it has
deepened global inequalities both
within and between societies. This
has resulted in immense suffering
everywhere. The world is a deeply
troubled place today.
If we focus on the Muslim East
(aka the Middle East), the picture is
not only dismal it is deeply troubling.
There is hardly a country that is free
of turmoil, whether internally gener-
Cover Story 9
ated or externally imposed. Most
regimes are also totally subservient to
the imperialists and Zionists and exist
at their mercy. Islamic Iran, on the
other hand, despite nearly four
decades of Western-imposed sanc-
tions affecting its economy badly, has
not only weathered these challenges
but has emerged much stronger. Hun-
dreds of billions of dollars of Iranian
assets, especially income from oil,
were frozen and have still not been
fully released. Even spare parts for
civilian aircraft were embargoed pos-
ing a serious threat to passenger safe-
ty. This would constitute a war crime
but in the imperialist order, the US
rogue state commits such crimes and
gets away it.
Others states, such as Iraq that
were subjected to similar sanctions,
have suffered grievously resulting in
mass poverty, starvation, and the
death of hundreds of thousands of
people. In Iran’s case, far from bring-
ing it to its knees, the leadership has
used sanctions as an opportunity to
develop a resistance economy, as
repeatedly stressed by the Rahbar,
Imam Seyyed Ali Khamene’i. True,
not every segment of the government
machinery has followed through on
this advice thereby resulting in prob-
lems for ordinary people. The recent
protests over rising prices, hijacked
by foreign agents that degenerated
into riots, was one manifestation of
this phenomenon.
It also needs emphasizing that the
Islamic Republic is not a perfect
model of an Islamic State. There are
good and not-so-good people in the
government and state machinery.
What is indisputable is that the over-
all ethos is Islamic and that the
establishment is totally committed to
and sincere about Islamic values and
principles.
his is what explains the
T extreme hostility exhibited
by the Western world led by
the US toward the Islamic Republic
of Iran. That such hostility is totally
10 CRESCENT INTERNATIONAL – February 2018
irrational and ultimately futile is also
well-known. The Islamic Revolution
that occurred 40 years ago this month
(February) overthrew a Western-
imposed regime in Iran. The Islamic
Revolution did more: it drove a nail
in the coffin of the Western crafted
political order that was imposed after
the Second World War. The imperi-
alists and Zionists — beneficiaries of
the imposed order — saw the Islamic
Revolution as a threat to their vested
interests, hence their hostility.
What is even more disturbing is
that most of the regimes in majority
Muslim countries are also openly
hostile to the Islamic Republic and
the revolution that brought it into
being. This indicates their fear of the
example it has set and its impact on
Muslims worldwide. Indeed, the
Islamic Revolution has influenced
the thinking of even non-Muslims
struggling to free themselves from
the yoke of imperialism. This is par-
ticularly evident in South America
and parts of Africa.
What is heartening to note is that
the influence of the Islamic Revolu-
tion has spread far and wide; it is not
confined to any particular sect, reli-
gion, or segment of humanity. Many
people yearning for freedom and
change have internalized the process
it adopted. Today, Islamic Iran stands
as a truly free country unbowed by
the economic, military, political or
diplomatic pressure exerted by preda-
tory Western powers and their
regional allies.
t this point, it may be perti-
A nent to offer a definition of
the Islamic Revolution. The
late Dr. Kalim Siddiqui, one of the
leading experts on the Islamic Revo-
lution, defined it thus, “ The Islamic
revolution is that state of a society in
which:
1. all the Muslims of an area
become mobilized to the point
where their collective will and
effort becomes irresistible and
undefeatable;
2. the Muslim society acquires a
leadership that is positively
committed to the civilizational
goals of Islam and has no class
or other interests of its own;
3. the energies thus released are
capable of restructuring the
society at all levels internally;
and,
4. the social order acquires the
confidence and the ability to
deal with the external world on
its own terms.” (Zafar Bangash
(editor), Power Manifestations of
Islam: Major Writings of Kalim
Siddiqui. London, 1996; p. 136).
True, there are some Muslims,
perhaps many, who are still not fully
aware of or appreciate the importance
of the Islamic Revolution. This is
largely the result of relentless propa-
ganda beamed from Western media
outlets at the behest of their corpo-
rate or political masters. There are,
however, other reasons as well for
Muslims’ antipathy toward the Islam-
ic Revolution.
Part of this has to do with long-
entrenched sectarian prejudices that
are constantly highlighted by illegit-
imate regimes to divert attention
from their own failures. Unfortunate-
ly, most Muslims’ attachment to
Islam is only cultural; they are gener-
ally unaware of the Qur’anic message
or the Prophetic Sunnah and Søra∆.
The overwhelming majority of Mus-
lims, even Arabic speaking, are woe-
fully unaware of what Allah (Â)
says to them in the noble Qur’an.
This is both the result of the decline
of Muslims as well as the seculariza-
tion of Islam.
Islam has been reduced to a set of
rituals; further, it has been turned
into each individual’s personal affair,
much like Christianity. From this fol-
lows another misunderstanding: that
if in a particular society or geographi-
cal area, Muslims form a majority,
then it is Islamic. There is little com-
prehension that a collection of Mus-
lims in a particular society does not
 Imam Mahdi. Let the world be ruled
by tyrants and oppressors; let injus-
tice prevail. They would rather wait
until Imam Mahdi re-appears to sort
out the problems of the world than
take any remedial steps themselves.

iewed against this backdrop,

V one can begin to appreciate

the immense challenges
Imam Khomeini faced and how he
overcame them in bringing about the
Islamic Revolution. He had to fight
on multiple fronts simultaneously,
not with guns but with the power of
ideas. While addressing all Muslims,
he had to educate the Shø‘øs who
formed the bulk of the population in
Iran. In a series of lectures that have
been published in a book under the
title, Islamic and Revolution: Writings
and Declarations of Imam Khomeini,
the Imam outlined his reasons for the
necessity of establishing the Islamic
When US President Trump put Iran “on notice” via Twitter, saying
State. The book has been edited and
Tehran is “…playing with fire — they don’t appreciate how ‘kind’
annotated by Professor Hamid Algar,
President Obama was to them. Not me!” the Rahbar responded with
the leading authority on Iran. Mus-
the strength that all would-be Muslim leaders ought to note, “He
lims sincere about understanding the
says we should be grateful to Obama? We should be thankful because
nature, purpose, and ethos of the
he brought war and bloodshed to Syria and Iraq and he supported the
Islamic Revolution should study the
2009 demonstrations here, that’s what we should be thankful for?
two scholars mentioned above.
We are thankful to Trump for making our life easy, as he showed the
In the meantime, it is incumbent
real face of America… During his election campaign and after that,
on Muslims of whatever school of
he confirmed what we have been saying for more than 30 years about
thought and wherever they may
the political, economic, moral and social corruption in the US ruling
reside to offer moral, political, cultur-
system. Trump has said we should be scared and frightened of him.
al, and intellectual support to the
We will show on the anniversary of our revolution how we respond to
only Islamic State of our times. Any-
his threats… No enemy can paralyze Iran.”
thing less would be a betrayal of the
principles of Islam.
Finally we must return to the issue
transform it into an Islamic state. peculiar fiqhø understanding, then the of Iran’s development. Despite suffer-
A state becomes Islamic when the state is not Islamic. This is what has ing decades of sanctions, Islamic Iran
laws of Islam are implemented in that prevented some “Sunnø” Muslims has taken major strides in the fields of
society and it is able to deal with its from appreciating the significance of science and technology. It is not
enemies on its own terms, not those the Islamic Revolution in Iran. They dependent on any country for its self-
dictated by others. Further, that the simply dismiss it as “Shø‘ø”, as if Shø‘øs defence. Instead, it is able to export
Islamic state is an essential require- are not Muslims (nastaghfirullœh). large quantity of weapons to other
ment for establishing Islam in society, Unfortunately, there is a similar countries. Iran is the only Muslim
as exemplified by the noble Messen- lack of understanding even among country in the world to have put a
ger (r) when he migrated from some Shø‘øs. They are what we would satellite into space. These are
Makkah to Madinah. refer to as “traditional Shø‘øs”; they do remarkable achievements by any
Even those Muslims that under- not want to step out of their comfort standard and they are the direct result
stand the necessity of the Islamic state zone. They refuse to take any steps of the Islamic system in place in the
insist that unless it conforms to their against injustice in the absence of Islamic Republic. g

Cover Story 11
 N E
US REACTION TO
RECENT RIOTS IN IRAN
Crumbling America cannot misrepresent a justice-seeking Islamic Iran
By J. Abbas
he recent protests in Iran
T that quickly degenerated
into riots and vandalism
were met with the usual ecstatic,
hopeful hysteria in the US media that
is primed to exploit any situation
appearing to be potentially beneficial
to its agenda. One of the few things
that an increasingly fractured Ameri-
can media coalesces around is Iran.
American policy makers and media
members have looked on with grow-
ing horror as Iran has made tremen-
dous progress despite the billions
spent to destroy the Islamic Republic
over nearly 40 years. Economically,
culturally, and especially in the realm
of international relations and policy,
Iran has won grudging admiration,
even from the most pro-Israel, neo-
conservative elements of the US for-
eign policy establishment.
The reaction of the US media to
recent protests/riots is indicative of
its increasingly fractured, discombob-
ulated, visceral nature. Rational
thought and objectivity have taken a
back seat (if they were ever present to
begin with) to increasingly open
expressions of bias, thinly disguised as
objective reporting. This disease of
disingenuous expressions of objectiv-
12 CRESCENT INTERNATIONAL – February 2018
W S & A N A L Y
ity driven by imperialist or capitalist
designs was always part of the pathol-
ogy of American media. However,
the disease of hypocrisy, willful misin-
formation, paranoia, and angst have
now reached (to complete our analo-
gy) proportions of full blown, stage
IV cancer.
The protests in Iran, as the Iranian
authorities themselves have acknowl-
edged, sprang in part from the eco-
nomic frustrations of some members
of society. The protests were initially
peaceful. Soon, a tiny minority, most
of them trained mercenaries or infil-
trators, committed acts of violence
such as arson in a number of venues.
Some 20 people were killed, insti-
gators who were armed and attacked
police stations and other facilities
comprising most of the fatalities (two
policemen were among the dead).
Iranian intelligence will surely pro-
vide detailed information on who
these individuals were and their links
to organizations such as the US sup-
ported terrorist group Mujahideen
Khalq Organization (MKO), but the
Western media will of course ignore
or ridicule such information. The
protests were limited to a few cities
and a hundred to a thousand protest-
S I S
ers participated at any one time.
They soon petered out, as peaceful
and law-abiding protestors realized
that their legitimate grievances were
being exploited by outside forces with
a nefarious agenda.
What is remarkable is that tens of
thousands of people participated in
pro-government rallies throughout
Iran in the following days. Iranians
poured into the streets to proclaim
their love for the Islamic Republic.
Friday prayer leaders, the president of
Iran, politicians and leaders as well as
the Rahbar, Imam Seyyed Ali
Khamene’i declared that the legiti-
mate grievances of the protestors
should be addressed. They acknowl-
edged the economic difficulties Irani-
ans are undergoing in some sectors, a
pain that is a result of the vicious
attempt to strangle Iran’s economy.
n addition, as the Rahbar has
I pointed out, successive execu-
tive administrations have failed
in some areas of economic reform and
the complete eradication of corrup-
tion. The overall result, however, of
almost 40 years of Islamic revolution-
ary government has been remarkable.
Iran has taken tremendous strides in
 in the Muslim East and Iran, the
assertion is logical. One could cite
reams of historical data to prove that
the US has always actively under-
mined and intervened, both overtly
and covertly, in countries that it sees
as a threat to its imperialist designs.
To put things in context, Iran is
one of the greatest strategic and ideo-
logical challenges the US has ever
faced. Those who think that the CIA
and the intelligence agencies, para-
military units, and other agencies
that are aligned with it would just sit
back with their billions in disclosed
and undisclosed budgets and not do
anything to try and undermine Iran
What the “objective” mainstream media selectively excluded from its
have no sense of history.
coverage of the demonstrations in Iran. The “protests” in Tehran
The MKO (aka munafiqeen) is by
and some other Iranian cities had a familiar character. They didn’t
any measure an extremist, terrorist
erupt spontaneously. They were manufactured. Color revolutions
and cultist group. Washington openly
are a US specialty, with numerous ones staged against those who
supports it and is the field operations
choose to steer an independent course from US hegemony. Is it just
arm of US attempts to sabotage Iran-
a coincidence that the biggest protests since 2009 hit Iran shortly
ian society. In addition to its long
after a secret agreement was revealed between Washington, Tel
gory history of murders and terrorist
Aviv, and Riyadh to destabilize Iran? And shortly after a new
acts, it was also actively involved in
Executive Order was issued by President Trump allowing him to
arson and violence during the 2009
seize US assets of anyone he deems a “human rights abuser” …or
events. The US government that has
anyone who aids a designated “human rights abuser”? On New
historically plotted to neutralize Mar-
Year’s day, Iran’s Parliament National Security and Foreign Policy
tin Luther King Jr. due to a percep-
Commission chairman Alaeddin Boroujerdi said, “A major part of
tion of internal threats, would hardly
recent demonstrations has been organized by foreign, anti-revolu-
sit back and ignore what it perceives
tionary elements. They spread propaganda and manipulated public
as a massive external threat.
sentiment and the rightful demands of the people.”
The protests, as was expected,
petered out and all the hullabaloo
that the US media had engaged in
sectors such as nanotechnology, med- Hujaji, that glorious martyr who gave ended with a whimper. Even the
icine, social issues such as drug use his life fighting the very Dœ‘ish that prime minister of the Zionist regime,
rehabilitation, women’s education, the US created, trained, and used for who tweeted in Persian his “support”
economic self-reliance and technolo- its nefarious agenda. for the Iranian people, went back to
gy, both military and otherwise. Former US Secretary of State doing what he does best: undermin-
There is ample proof: Iran and its Condoleezza Rice’s dream of a “new ing the US by inserting his interna-
allies — Hizbullah, the Syrian gov- Middle East” has come true but it is tional agenda into its strategic play-
ernment, Russia, China, Óashd al- one in which American influence has book. By his own admission, the US
Sha‘bø (Iraq), and the many thousands waned and the Zionist state, by its is always at the beck and call of the
of dedicated young men from many own admission is in dire straits. The Zionist regime and its agents that
countries — have stopped American next war with Hizbullah (let alone have infiltrated the American politi-
and Zionist plots in the Muslim East Iran) will probably lead to the end of cal and military establishments.
dead in their tracks. American media the Zionist project.
outlets that knowingly but falsely To some, the reference to trained ut what lessons can we, the
allege that the Iranian public no
longer supports the Islamic Republic
did not mention that tens of thou-
mercenaries and outside interference
in Iran’s internal affairs may seem a
little paranoid. But, to anyone famil-
B discerning and Islamically cog-
nizant vanguards of a new
international order based on justice,
sands showed up to receive Mohsin iar with the history of US meddling indigenous rights, universal sovereign-

News & Analysis 13

ty, and world peace draw from these
events? Firstly, America is in terminal
decline. “Liberal democracy,” the false
idol that America (Ronald Reagan’s
“shining city on a hill” comes to
mind) is so proud of, a tool that the
elites believed would enable them to
maintain what was a plutocracy dis-
guised as democracy is crumbling
before our eyes. The 1% are in desper-
ation mode. America is suffering from
the worst crisis of confidence. West-
ern countries that claim to be beacons
of freedom and liberty commit gross
injustices against members of their
own societies. They routinely impose
draconian and unjust punishment on
individuals they perceive as a threat to
their stability. Examples abound: the
imprisonment of individuals for four
years for posting support on Facebook
for underprivileged people rioting in
London against a racist criminal jus-
tice system; and up to 80,000 people
in solitary confinement, something
that the UN Special Rapporteur on
torture Juan E. Méndez has called a
human travesty.
Imagine if Iran jailed a dispropor-
tionate number of young men from a
historically oppressed minority and
housed them in conditions that
amounted to torture, the US media
would be reporting it with screaming
headlines. There are sections of
white, middle America that have
HIV rates higher than some African
nations due to high rates of needle
exchanges, as the middle class that is
being crushed by a vicious capitalist
system, turns to drugs and suicide.
Many of these stories are culled
from American media sources; this is
the fascinating aspect of the decline
of American civilization. In a post-
modern, post-Enlightenment West,
where there is no truth and the only
truth that matters is based on individ-
ual perceptions, the problem is not
lack of information. There is a deluge
of information, so much that desensi-
tized minds no longer care. People
create echo chambers for themselves
where they process information that
14 CRESCENT INTERNATIONAL – February 2018
only fits their worldview. So, for
example, the story of a county in
middle America having HIV rates
worse than some African nations has
no impact as people go about their
stress filled, partisan, increasingly
myopic lives.
This encapsulates the reason why
American civilization shall inevitably
erode to the point of collapse — the
destruction of all possible references
of human morality and rational truth.
The Qur’an points to this reality. The
destruction of corrupt societies is not
always caused by meteors, earth-
quakes, or other natural disasters. God
destroys societies by the very moral
and ethical ills that said societies
commit in full transgression of all uni-
versal moral codes. The Qur’an also
repeatedly admonishes man for not
using his God given intellect.
American society is flooded with
contradictory information. A citizen-
ry that has zero critical thinking skills
marches to the beat of popular cul-
ture and partisan politics driven by a
moneyed, two-party system; zombies
come to mind; a capitalist system in
which the people are nothing but
walking talking zombies, the living
dead people drowning in a society
that places materialism above all.
The few that are awake live in fear
and disgust, a potential target for
their political views.
econdly, discerning Muslims
S with astute political vision
must realize that Iranian socie-
ty has reached a level of sophistica-
tion and institutional stability that is
unshakable. When Igor Nikolaevich
Panarin, a Russian analyst wrote in
1998 that US society would soon
fracture as states such as California
secede from the union, people
scoffed. Today, secession of the most
populated US state from the union
no longer seems implausible; it looms
large on the horizon.
American police brutality on a
daily basis is well documented. Large
swathes of the American public are
afraid to call the police in case of
emergency. Contrast this to the level
of concern during the protests in
Iran. The Iranian parliament met in a
closed session during the protests to
discuss the treatment of those arrest-
ed and to keep an eye on any poten-
tial abuses. This writer was in Iran
during the protests and witnessed the
level of interaction, dialogue, trust,
and confidence that underpinned the
Iranian public’s engagement with law
enforcement. There was the case of
an Iranian getting out of his/her car
to try and argue why a traffic ticket
should not be issued. The police offi-
cer was polite and patient. This scene
of patience and deference by the
police and respect toward them was
repeated countless times in the streets
of the Islamic Republic. People who
get out of cars at traffic stops in the
US face probable death. Iranian
police that patrol streets and give out
citations are unarmed. American
police are armed to the teeth. Any-
one who lives in Iran for any period
of time quickly realizes the sheer
absurdity of American propaganda.
It is a commonly accepted fact
within mainstream political theory
that electoral participation is one of
the barometers of the health of a
country’s political system. Over 73%
of Iranians participated in the last
presidential elections. Even virulent-
ly anti-Iranian Western publications
had to admit that millions of Iranians
enthusiastically participated in the
elections. In sharp contrast, the
American public’s confidence in the
US political system has been on a
constant downward spiral. Just 58%
of the electorate participated in the
2016 presidential elections and just
40% participating in the last congres-
sional elections. These measurable
indicators point to Iran being a more
vibrant, politically healthy, and
socially stable country. Iran has suf-
fered an unprecedented 8-year war in
which the whole world aided the
butcher of Baghdad, Íaddœm Óusayn.
It has faced vicious sanctions, sabo-
tage, assassinations, military pressure
etc. Yet, the ideological foundation of
the Islamic Republic is such that it
has withstood all these tests and not
only passed them but thrived. The
American government routinely
threatens, harasses, and attacks peo-
ple within the country who it per-
ceives as a threat.
hirdly, committed Muslims
T should realize that the US
media is nothing but a very
elaborate circus. Western media gen-
erally is an elaborate hoax although
outlets such as the BBC are very devi-
ous and clever about their agenda.
The US media on the other hand is a
Al-QUDS: THE CAPITAL
The seat of faith, not the nexus of Jewish exclusivism
By Eric Walberg
l-Quds is, literally, the holy
A city for the people of faith —
Jewish, Christian and Mus-
lim alike. In English, it is called
Jerusalem, named as “City of Shalem”
after a Canaanite deity, during the
early Canaanite period (approxi-
mately 2400BCE).
What is Zionism? But before that,
cesspool of schizophrenic activity.
Everything should be read between
the lines and with a pinch of salt. The
reality is often very far removed from
facts on the ground. The protests in
Iran and their coverage is but one
example. All peace loving, social jus-
tice conscious peoples should realize
that we are all in this together. No one
wishes ill upon America. As Imam
Khamenei has pointed out, America’s
enmity with Iran is not directed by the
people. It is directed by the elites, the
ones who victimize not only others
but also their own people.
But ultimately, the people must
take responsibility. Again, the Qur’an
eloquently lays out the scenario:
what is Zion, an inspiration for Zion-
ists and non-Zionists alike? Zion is a
place name often used as a synonym
for Jerusalem. The word is first found
in the Book of 2 Samuel (5:7), which
dates from 540BCE, and refers there to
a specific mountain near Jerusalem
(Mt. Zion), on which stood a fortress
that David (a) allegedly conquered.
when the masses will complain to
God on the day of judgement about
the elites that misled them, they will
be rebuked by the elites for not using
their own minds. Whatever the case,
the fact remains: the day when Amer-
ica’s slow decline will snowball into
manifest chaos doesn’t seem very far.
In contrast, Iran’s future is bright and
glorious. No one can stop the
inevitable coming of a justice-filled
future, least of all a crumbling Amer-
ica. Indeed, the American media and
political establishment’s reaction to
protests in Iran reminds one of a
dying old man desperately trying to
stave off death with diversions that
are pitiful. g
The term Tzion came to designate
the area of Jerusalem where the
fortress stood, and later became a
metonym for Solomon’s Temple in
Jerusalem, the city of Jerusalem itself,
and “the World to Come,” the Jewish
understanding of the hereafter. In the
Kabbalah, a more esoteric reference is
made to Tzion being the spiritual
point from which reality emerges,
located in the Holy of Holies of the
First and Second Temples.
Judaism’s tribalism (and its off-
spring Zionism) suffers from what
Alfred Whitehead called “misplaced
concreteness,” where abstract belief is
treated as if it were a concrete real
event or physical entity. It’s fine in
literature as metonymy, where a rei-
fied abstraction is intended as a figure
of speech, and actually understood as
such, but the use of reification in log-
ical reasoning or rhetoric is mislead-
ing and in this case, disastrous. God is
not on a hilltop requiring you to steal
the property and build a replica of a
mythical temple to fulfill a
“covenant” with Him.
News & Analysis 15
 steppingstone to India. After another
period of perfidy to the Arabs, it
finally came under Jewish, or rather,
Zionist control.
Zionism is a nationalist political
movement of Jews and Jewish culture
that supports what it views as the re-
establishment of a Jewish homeland
in the territory it defines as the his-
toric Land of Israel. It emerged in the
late-19th century in central and east-
ern Europe as a national revival move-
ment. In Jewish history, where myth
has always transcended fact, Jews see
themselves as in exile everywhere,
and everywhere in search of the Prom-
ised Land, for that magical “see you
next year in Jerusalem” moment.

onald Trump’s decision to

Zionist invaders led by David Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak Rabin dese-
crate al-Óaram al-Sharøf on a victory tour following the Six Day War
in June 1967. Today, some 50 years since the end of the war, Israel
D make this official is not
really a new step — merely
another betrayal of promises made at
the very founding of Israel in 1948.
is still squatting on the Golan Heights, the Syrian territory it pro-
Since then, the so-called peace
mised to return within days of the war; East Jerusalem, which was
process has acted as a subterfuge for
supposed to be the capital of a Palestinian state, remains annexed to
the Zionist project of total control of
Israel, and now the whole city has been recognized by the US as the
the Holy Lands.
capital of Israel; Gaza, which houses about two million Palestinians,
Is it possible to continue to toler-
is today the world’s largest outdoor prison, blockaded by both Israel
ate this long history of betrayal? It
and a spineless Egypt; and the West Bank remains an Israeli colony.
seems the Arabian regimes are help-
It is evident, from the past 50 years of Israel’s (and America’s)
less to stop it. If we could be assured
policies, that it has repeatedly chosen territories over peace — and
that Jewish control of the land of al-
among the many tragedies is that because of the complicity and
Quds would bring peace and equality
racism of those who claim to follow the rule of law, it has gotten
among the Muslim, Christian, and
away with increasingly larger land grabs for five full decades.
Jewish natives — and the Jewish
immigrants — we could perhaps
accept this blatant act of imperialism
ne could argue, it really 11th–12th centuries of pillage and in the interest of peace.

O doesn’t matter who “gov-

erns” al-Quds, as long as it
is an open city to all monotheists, Jew-
ish, Christian, Muslim alike. Since it
was founded, 2,500 years ago, it first
passed from one empire to another —
Assyrian, Roman, Byzantine,
Ottoman, and British. For a brief cen-
tury in the 2nd–1st centuries BCE, it
was nominally under Jewish sover-
eignty, though under Roman control.
From the 7th–20th centuries, it
was under Muslim control. That was
the best period for al-Quds. All lived
in peace, except, of course, for the
rape, which is glorified in the Chris-
tian West as the Crusades.
As imperialism in its capitalist
form encircled the globe in the
19th–20th centuries, it fell into the
lap of the Brits. Through subterfuge
and betrayal of the covenant with the
Arab natives, who longed for inde-
pendence from the Ottoman Turks, it
was made a colony (mandate) of the
empire of the day.
Jewish influence in the British
elites resulted in a promise to estab-
lish a Jewish state as the final piece in
the imperial puzzle of the day — a
But there is no evidence to date of
this goodwill on the part of the occu-
piers. On the contrary, the past 70
years of Zionist control suggest that
only further suffering and injustice
can be expected.
Al-Quds should indeed be the
natural, foreordained capital of the
Holy Lands, but it will be the capital
of Palestine, Palestine-Israel, or — in
the interest of compromise — Israel-
Palestine. The world can only thank
far-off Iran for its steadfast support for
a just peace in Palestine that will
make this happen. g

16 CRESCENT INTERNATIONAL – February 2018


ISLAMOPHOBIC
RUSSIAN MEDIA
UNDERMINES MOSCOW
European Russians still view Muslims as “aliens”
By Tahir Mahmoud
A
fter Russia’s involvement in
Syria to prevent the collapse
of Bashar al-Asad’s govern-
ment and Damascus falling to Wash-
ington’s pseudo-Islamic proxies, some
Muslims started to mistakenly view
Vladimir Putin’s Russia as a shield
against Islamophobia. While today
some of Moscow’s interests in Syria,
Iran, Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi-occupied
Arabia and partly Bahrain, and
Yemen, align with legitimate Islamic
movements, at a strategic level, Rus-
sia does not view Muslims as allies.
As pointed out in the European
Islamophobia report for the year of
2016, “in contrast to many European
countries, Muslims are indigenous to
Russia. However, as a result of grow-
ing nationalist and isolationist senti-
ments and the narrow-minded con-
sciousness of Russian society coupled
with ill-conceived state confessional
politics, Russian Muslims tend to be
associated with ‘aliens’ and even ene-
mies by the average Russian.”
The concept of Muslims being
alien to Russia is not an idea that the
Russian media highlights only inside
its borders. This notion it also subtly
wants to establish in an already
Islamophobic Europe. Today, anti-EU
and anti-Muslim socio-political
forces in France, Hungary, and Aus-
tria are close to the Kremlin.
In 2016, Russia Today (RT),
Moscow’s foremost international
media tool, angered many of its Mus-
lim employees for negotiating to give
a talk show to a well known British
Islamophobe, Katie Hopkins. The
same year, Andrew Rigney, RT’s UK
studio director, made Islamophobic
comments on social media saying that
Islam was “rotten from the inside,”
ANYONE WHO
FOLLOWS RT
REGULARLY, WILL
IMMEDIATELY
NOTICE ITS
ISLAMOPHOBIC
BENT WHENEVER
IT REPORTS
ON MUSLIMS
IN EUROPE…
retweeted an image suggesting Mus-
lims are inclined to shoot their own
daughters, and shared an image saying
“there is no difference between the
Nazis and Islam.” Even though,
Rigney later apologized, it was a mere
pretence. Speaking to Crescent Inter-
national, a prominent Muslim UK
journalist stated that “RT in London
has lost a lot of its Muslim staff
because of its Islamophobic tone.”
Anyone who follows RT regularly,
will immediately notice its Islamo-
phobic bent whenever it reports on
Muslims in Europe, camouflaging its
anti-Muslim tone with the term
refugees. This sometimes extends
beyond Europe as well. In some of its
reports RT even quotes the notorious
racist and Islamophobic trash “jour-
nalism” website, Breitbart.
rom the Russian perspective, it
F may be argued that Moscow’s
alliance with the European
and North American right-wing
groups is necessary as it destabilizes
NATO regimes from within and pro-
motes regressive forces in the same
manner as NATO regimes do in Rus-
sia. This is a mistaken tactic that may
undermine Russia on a strategic level.
The EU would never launch direct
war against Russia for many reasons,
the most obvious being that EU
depends on Russian energy products.
If Moscow continues to be seen by
many Muslims as a hostile power, this
would allow NATO’s intelligence
agencies to facilitate an insurgency
within Russia, as there is already a his-
torical precedent to it in the North
Caucasus. By trying to win over exter-
nal allies, Moscow might create a
blind spot for itself internally and
alienate a significant portion of its
own citizens. As US imperialism is in
terminal decline, thanks to its dys-
functional and greedy selectoral
process, there is no strategic geo-polit-
ical threat to Russia emanating from
NATO today as it was in the 1990s.
If Moscow is truly aiming to play
chess instead of checkers, it should
revise its policies and establish
bridges with legitimate Muslim
organizations. Moscow’s lack of gen-
uine communication with Muslim
News & Analysis 17
organizations in the Muslim East and
North Africa (MENA) region puts
Washington at a greater advantage in
post-Islamic Awakening (Arab
Spring) events. The US was able to
camouflage itself and subverted Mus-
AHED TAMIMI: NEW
FACE OF PALESTINIAN
RESISTANCE
Heroic 16-year-old offers hope for renewed intifœ∂a∆
By Ghada Nablusi
he act of defiance by a 16-
T year-old Palestinian girl
Ahed Tamimi who con-
fronted Israeli soldiers when they
attacked her village of Nabi Saleh in
the West Bank, has become the new
face of resistance. She has become an
icon of the resistance struggle despite
facing overwhelming odds. Many
Palestinians have applauded her
courage and adopted her style of
resistance as their own.
Home to about 600 members of
the Tamimi clan, the Nabi Saleh vil-
lage, in the news since 2009, has
again been catapulted into the lime-
light. On December 15, the villagers,
according to the Zionist colonizing
army account, were protesting and
throwing stones at the heavily armed
18 CRESCENT INTERNATIONAL – February 2018
lim organizations in Egypt, Syria,
Libya, and Tunisia. A good place for
Russia to start reforming its strategy
toward Muslim organizations would
be Tajikistan. In the Central Asian
Republic, Russian and Iranian coop-
soldiers. The raiding Zionist coloniz-
ers fired stun grenades at the Palestin-
ian protesters in their own village.
Ahed’s mother, Nariman, captured
the events live on Facebook.
Two events had added spark to
the latest round of protests: President
Donald Trump’s recognition of Jeru-
salem as the Zionist thieves’ capital
(December 6), and Israeli soldiers
shooting and critically wounding
Ahed’s cousin, 15-year-old Muham-
mad. young boy was shot in the head
using a rubber-coated steel bullet.
While Trump’s decision evoked
global outrage, it also triggered Pales-
tinian protests, including in the vil-
lage of Nabi Saleh. During one of
those protests, the attack on and seri-
ous injury to the young boy’s head is
eration ended the civil war in the
1990s. If Moscow utilizes Tehran’s
weight and influence in Tajikistan,
Russia could avoid a repeat of Chech-
nya within its borders and the near
abroad. g
what enraged Ahed to take on the
occupation army that day.
As Israeli soldiers — a captain
and a sergeant — came to the family’s
walled front yard, Ahed and her 20-
year-old cousin, Nour Tamimi,
approached them. Ahed yelled at
them to leave, a natural reaction of
people fed up with the mindboggling
brutality of the occupiers.
When the Zionist soldiers refused
to leave, Ahed and her cousin,
already angered by their cousin’s
grievous injury, started to push and
kick them. As the melee intensified,
Ahed hit both soldiers in the face,
according to charges laid against her.
It was at this point that Zionist
racism came to the fore. How dare a
Palestinian slap an Israeli soldier; gun-
toting Zionist soldiers can beat up
Palestinians, they can shoot and kill
unarmed Palestinians but the latter do
not have the right to even protect
themselves or resist the occupiers.
The video caused an uproar in
Israel, amid complaints the soldiers
had been humiliated. Ahed was
arrested on December 19; soon there-
after, her mother Nariman and cousin
Nour were also arrested.
hile her cousin Nour has
W since been freed on bail,
Ahed and her mother
remain in prison. Ahed faces lengthy
prison time — potentially up to 14
years — after being charged with 12
counts of attacking and threatening
 As long as the Palestinians suffer
Zionist brutality, this is considered
normal. But when the Palestinians
resist and fight back with their bare
hands, then it becomes a crime and
evokes an even more violent response
from the Zionists.

esistance to foreign occupa-

R tion is an inherent right of

all people. This is recognized
in international law as well as in sev-
eral United Nations resolutions. This
is at the theoretical level but when it
comes to practice, the victims of
occupation are often ignored. They
are doubly victimized: first by the
occupiers, and then by their accom-
plices in the media and Western
Ahed Tamimi, center, who tried to fight off Zionist invaders as they
regimes as they vilify acts of resist-
seriously injured her 15-year-old cousin, appears at a military court
ance by the oppressed.
at the Zionist-run Ofer prison in the West Bank village of Betunia.
If the Zionists think they can
Ahed was arrested and shackled in a pre-dawn raid in the West
crush the spirit of resistance by
Bank a day after a video clip of the confrontation went viral. De-
imprisoning youths like Ahed, they
fense for Children International — Palestine has said that an
are deluding themselves. Several gen-
average of 375 Palestinians under the age of 18 are held in military
erations of Palestinians have experi-
detention every month.
enced nothing but the heavy boots of
Zionist occupation. Palestinian youth
no longer fear death. Surrendering to
soldiers in five incidents going back sary, a UN resolution of 1993 states. occupation itself is death but this is
to April 2016. She is being held in The Zionists are illegal occupiers of the death of cowards.
HaSharon Prison in Ben Yahuda, in the land of Palestine; unlike the Remaining silent or surrendering
clear violation of Article 76 of the Palestinians, the overwhelming to the status quo is not an option for
Fourth Geneva Convention. majority of Zionists have no link to most Palestinians. This is a policy
The Zionists are guilty of multiple Palestine. They are alien invaders in adopted by the puppets in the so-
crimes but two stand out in Ahed the land. called Palestinian Authority domi-
Tamimi’s case. First, she is a minor The residents of Nabi Saleh have nated by corrupt politicians. The vast
and cannot be charged or tried in a a long history of resistance. In 2009, majority of Palestinians view them
military court. Second, she has been their land and spring were illegally with contempt. For ordinary Pales-
moved from her village to a different seized for a nearby Zionist squatter tinians, especially the youth, death
territory and jurisdiction. Under colony. They have continued to hold while resisting is an honorable objec-
international law relating to foreign almost weekly protests against this tive; it is called martyrdom. Seeing
occupation, the occupying power outrage. Their demonstrations no other solution or option, this is
cannot relocate a person and hold against the theft of their land often what increasing numbers of Palestini-
him/her in prison in another jurisdic- end in clashes with gun-toting Israeli ans have adopted.
tion. The Zionists, however, are not soldiers. While the Palestinians The Zionists’ Nazi-like tactics are
constrained by any rules and they do throw stones — the only weapon merely strengthening the spirit of
not care for any law. they have — the Zionist occupiers resistance. Neither their dungeons
Ahed was not involved in any fire tear gas, rubber bullets, and even nor their bullets can silence the voic-
illegal activity. She was resisting the live rounds of ammunition. es calling for freedom nor crush their
Zionist occupiers, a right recognized All too often, Palestinian chil- spirit. Their bare hands have become
by the United Nations for people dren as well as women are arrested powerful weapons that now reach the
under occupation. They can resist after being beaten up with clubs or throats of the occupiers telling them
their occupiers by any means neces- rifle butts or otherwise roughed up. to get off our land! g

News & Analysis 19


BIN SALMAN: TRUMP’S
BOY IN RIYADH
Crown Prince trying to be a peer in a game he will lose
By Yusuf Dhia-Allah
uring the election cam-
D paign, candidate Donald
Trump did not miss any
opportunity to denounce the Saudis as
freeloaders. He said when he becomes
president (although neither he nor
anyone in his inner circle believed he
had a chance in hell of winning), he
would make the Saudis pay.
So how did Trump come around
to embracing the same freeloading
Saudis, particularly the young, erratic
crown prince Mu˙ammad bin
Salmœn? In his just-released book,
Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White
House, Michael Wolff provides the
answer. True, there are many other
insights into the inner workings (or
non-workings) of the Trump White
House, which could be best described
as a madhouse. More on that later but
first let us deal with the Trump-Bin
Salmœn embrace.
With his young son-in-law Jared
Kushner ensconced as his trusted per-
sonal advisor, the Orthodox Jewish
boy went to work with the extremist
Wahhœbøs in Saudi Arabia, especially
Bin Salmœn (BS). The two hit it off
fabulously well: each needing the
other. Bani Saud had finally found
their Jewish cousins!
Upset with Barack Obama for
refusing to heed their advice to mili-
tarily confront Islamic Iran that was
piling up victories, the Arabian rulers
sulked in their palace during much of
his presidency. Unexpectedly, along
came Donald Trump. They saw in
him an opportunity to reset relations.
Trump’s unorthodox approach suited
both parties well, especially dealing
through family connections.
The Najdi Bedouins have tradi-
tionally made decisions in the inner
sanctums of the family huddle
although the old King Salmœn and
his ruthlessly ambitious son, BS have
now ditched that, at least internally,
and replaced it with one-man rule. It
is not without peril as other “royals”
are unhappy with the imposition of
an upstart in the top slot, hence BS’
tight embrace of Kushner, and by
extension Trump.
“When MBS offered himself to
Kushner as his guy in the Saudi king-
dom, that was ‘like meeting someone
nice at your first day of boarding
school,’ said Kushner’s friend,”
according to Wolff.
This is also the style that Trump
prefers. It is a lot easier to deal with
one person than having to go through
elaborate protocol getting others on
board to get their approval. The fam-
ily-to-family dealings suited Trump
fine. “His was a much simpler view:
who’s got the power? Give me his
number,” writes Wolff about Trump’s
style of operations.
Another Trumpian trait high-
lighted in the book is, “The enemy of
my enemy is my friend.” Trump’s one
fixation was and remains Islamic
Iran. During the campaign, he missed
no opportunity to berate Obama for
striking a “bad deal,” referring to the
P5+1 nuclear deal with Iran. And he
threatened to shred it as soon as he
was elected even though it is not a
bilateral but a multilateral agreement
involving other countries as well.
The mad dogs Trump has surrounded
himself with — mediocre generals
that have failed miserably on the bat-
tlefield but need scapegoats to blame
others for their failures — have fur-
ther reinforced Iran’s image as the
“bad guy.”
For the record, the US military
budget is more than $650 billion
annually, plus at least 10,000 nuclear
weapons. Iran’s defence budget is a
paltry $15 billion and it has no
nuclear weapons, yet the Americans
are terrified of Tehran’s power. The
Washington warlords blame Iran for
their failures in Iraq and Syria and its
growing influence in the region,
“hence everybody opposed to Iran
was a pretty good guy,” as far as Trump
is concerned.
If the Americans are so scared of
Iran, what chance do the amateur
Saudis have? Their soldiers cannot
even march in a straight line. Bani
Saud are constantly looking for mer-
cenaries to protect them. When Pak-
istan mustered the courage to say
“no” to the Saudi demand for soldiers
to fight in Yemen, they hired South
American and African mercenaries.
There are also Blackwater mercenar-
ies operating in the Kingdom but
only to protect Bin Salmœn and his
close family (not other members of
the Bani Saud clan). In Trump’s elec-
tion, BS found his opportunity.
“Global liberal leadership had
been all but paralyzed by the election
of Donald Trump — indeed, by the
very existence of Donald Trump. But
it was an inverted universe in the
News & Analysis 21
 million. Trump was made to sit on a
throne like chair. Further massaging
his ego was the award of King ‘Abd al-
‘Azøz medal, the highest civilian
award in the Kingdom. All these
were capped by announcement of a
$110 billion arms deal that would rise
to $350 billion in 10 years.
Bruce Riedel, the former CIA
analyst, has questioned these deals
saying nothing has been signed. Yet
Trump was beyond himself describing
the Saudi arms purchases as an oppor-
tunity that would create “jobs, jobs,
and more jobs” in America while
Washington would provide “beautiful
weapons” to Saudi Arabia.

f Trump was effusive in his

Jared of Arabia, center, at the heart of the Saudi shaykh-down. It

seems that Kushner and Bin Salmœn, left, share an appetite for
I praise for Kushner, “Jared’s got-
ten the Arabs totally on our
side. Done deal,” the decrepit Saudi
ambition and power. Having visited the Kingdom multiple times since king was not far behind in praising
his appointment as Trump’s senior adviser, Kushner’s intentions, his own son. Trump’s visit formed the
political aspirations, and motives in the White House have largely backdrop for pushing Mu˙ammad bin
escaped scrutiny. Kushner, who has also led unannounced (secret) Nœyif, hitherto the crown prince
American delegations to Saudi Arabia in the last few months espe- holding the important portfolio of
cially, personally intervened to wrap up a deal involving $110 billion the Interior Ministry, off his perch.
of weapons sales to the Saudis. While an overly-ambitious and ram- This occurred shortly after Trump’s
bunctious 32-year-old prince is hell-bent on creating war and chaos visit to the Kingdom (May 20–22).
in his attempts to accumulate personal and hegemonic power, Jared Bin Nœyif was removed from his posi-
Kushner, and by extension President Trump, has been quietly patting tion in the middle of the night,
him on the back. forced to pledge allegiance to Bin
Salmœn and then put under house
arrest. Bin Nœyif has not been seen in
public since.
Middle East,” writes Wolff. The two was not even the crown prince yet; After the midnight palace coup in
men — or an old man and the boy — he was still the deputy crown prince June and the November 4 arrests of
needed each other. At their first but with Trump’s backing he would dozens of princes seen as potential
meeting after Trump’s election, BS see to it that this changed quickly. rivals to BS’ ascension to power,
had promised Kushner that soon there Following the Trump-BS meeting, Trump boasted to friends that he and
would be “good news” for the US. the narcissist was invited to visit Jared had engineered this, “We’ve put
Trump the quintessential salesman Saudi Arabia where Bani Saud would our man on top!”
needed deals to make money; BS was not only line up puppet Muslim rulers Indeed. The uneducated boy from
eager to promise whatever money the to pay homage to him but also throw Riyadh and his father’s favourite son
Americans wanted in return for their lavish parties to massage his over- would become king, courtesy of
support in his quest to grab power. sized ego. Trump, equally uneducated and a
It was after this promise of “good This was Trump’s first overseas “f… moron” in the words of right-
news” that BS was invited to the venture to escape from unrelenting wing media mogul, Rupert Murdoch.
White House in March 2017 to meet attacks at home. The Saudis took Trump’s eye is on the big carrot BS
Trump. The two were photographed him, his wife Melania, daughter Ivan- has dangled before the world: the
together shaking hands and smiling. ka and her husband (the new Saudi Oil Company Aramco’s IPO
Such protocol is usually reserved for whizkid) in gold golf carts and treated (initial public offering) that is worth
heads of government/state and BS them to a lavish dinner that cost $75 $2 trillion. The American president

22 CRESCENT INTERNATIONAL – February 2018

would like this to be floated on the
New York Stock Exchange. Will BS
oblige? Informed observers are skepti-
cal and they have good arguments to
support their position. BS wanted to
become crown prince and needed to
eliminate potential rivals. This he
has achieved by projecting Trump as
his “friend.” His “royal” cousins
would not dare stand up to godfather
America. Floating the IPO on the
New Stock Exchange runs the risk of
losing everything. There are current-
ly court cases against Saudi Arabia for
the 9/11 attacks. These have already
put at risk the $750 billion the Saudis
have invested in the US.
BS failed in the other tasks as well
that Trump had assigned to him:
undermining Hizbullah by forcing
WILL PAKISTAN CUT
THE american
UMBILICAL CORD?
Trump tries to scapegoat Pakistan for US foreign policy failures
By Tahir Mustafa
onald Trump’s New Year
D gift to Pakistan was an
insulting tweet accusing
Islamabad of “lies and deceit.” The
self-described “stable genius” said the
US had given $33 billion in aid over
16 years yet Pakistan has been har-
boring “terrorists” that are involved
the Lebanese Prime Minister Sa‘d
Hariri to resign, and get the Palestin-
ian President Mahmoud Abbas to
surrender. Hariri’s forced resignation
was handled in such a clumsy manner
that BS got egg all over his face. And
when he tried to bribe and threaten
Abbas to abandon the quest for a
Palestinian state — even a truncated
one — the latter demurred.
Given Trump’s lack of intelli-
gence and total disinterest in detail,
he may forget all this in a few weeks
or months. Or at least this is what the
Najdi Bedouins are hoping for.
Besides, the Trump White House is a
zoo; there is constant infighting
among staff members while Trump is
obsessed with showmanship.
The narcissist likes praise, plenty
in attacks against US-NATO forces
in Afghanistan.
Trump’s insulting tweet was bad
enough; then came the announce-
ment from his ambassador to the UN,
the Indian-origin Nirmata Kaur Rand-
hawa (aka Nikki Haley) that the $255
million in Foreign Military Financing
of it. Cabinet and staff meetings are
little more than sessions where every-
one is expected to extol his non-exis-
tent virtues. Pointing to his errors
even in the most polite manner raises
his ire. He begins to froth at the
mouth like a gored bull in an arena.
That is when people run for cover.
If the Trump White House is in
such disarray, would it have any time
to worry about some petty potentate
in the desert?
The big question, however, is
whether BS would be able to retain
his hold on power after his father is
dead and gone? Equally critical,
whether Trump himself would be able
to hold on to power and complete his
first term in office? g
was also being cut. This is not aid or
largesse; it is payment for services Pak-
istan has already rendered to the US:
logistic support, use of its land and air-
space, and Pakistan’s war against ter-
rorists in the tribal belt where it has
deployed more than 200,000 troops,
one-third of its entire army.
Before analyzing the nature of the
US-Pakistan relationship and what
Islamabad might or ought to do, let us
first briefly review the $33 billion fig-
ure that Trump’s angry tweet referred
to. The figure comes from the Con-
gressional Research Service report on
Pakistan that was prepared in
November 2017. An annexure to
that report tabulates “Direct Overt
US Aid and Appropriations for and
Military Reimbursements to Pak-
istan, FY 2002—FY 2018.” The grand
total comes to $33.927 billion.
The “stable genius” in the White
House (“f… moron” in the words of
media mogul Rupert Murdoch and
“dotard” according to Kim Jung un of
North Korea!) is not interested in
News & Analysis 23
 gradually escalated since his year in
office. One segment of opinion-mak-
ers laments US lack of appreciation
of Pakistani sacrifices; another cau-
tions the government not to upset
the US (some commentators in the
English language media, on the US
payroll, want Pakistan to make up
with Washington and do what it
demands!). Foreign Minister Khawaja
Asif said, “Pakistan no longer consid-
ers the US an ally.” Amid all this
noise, the US Defence Secretary
James Mattis (aka “mad dog”) said,
the US and Pakistani militaries were
still talking to each other. Some US
officials have since tried to soft-pedal
After the US announced that it was cutting off $900 million in the threat but the essential message
military aid to Pakistan until it acts against the Afghan Taliban and has remained consistent.
the Haqqani terror network, Pakistani Foreign Minister Khawaja
hat is going on here? The
Muhammad Asif, above, said in an interview, “We do not have any
alliance… This is not how allies behave.” He went on to say that
the US has turned Pakistan into a “whipping boy” because of its
own failures in Afghanistan. Following previous incendiary remarks
W question many informed
observers are asking is
why can’t Pakistan cut the US umbil-
by the irascible US president, Asif had said that the Afghan Taliban ical cord; what has it gotten but grief
were the US and Afghanistan’s problem, not Pakistan’s, “If the US in its dealings with the warlords in
doesn’t trust us, it should repatriate Afghan immigrants [refugees] Washington? The US has shown no
in Pakistan [that is, send the 2 million Afghans in Pakistan back appreciation of Pakistani sacrifices —
to Afghanistan].” more than 70,000 dead, infrastruc-
ture losses amounting to $120 billion
and the destabilization of Pakistani
society in the form of terrorist attacks
detail. The pea-sized brain of this (half of this — $4.1 billion — was as a result of the US war on
orangutan (with appropriately applied toward Foreign Military Afghanistan — so why continue with
matching hair color) cannot absorb Financing); this relationship?
such figures. Was it the Pakistan-hat- 3. Pakistan Counterinsurgency Fund/ The tragedy of the Pakistani elite
ing Nikki Haley (she changed here Counterinsurgency Capability is that they cannot imagine life with-
name from Nirmata Kaur Randhawa Fund: $2.3 billion (both the out US support. America is their nir-
to sound more American) who Pentagon and the State Depart- vana and acquiring dollars their reli-
showed the bottom figure to Trump ment independently review this gion. In this quest they are prepared to
and told him the US was getting a before payments are made); suffer every humiliation. The price for
raw deal from the “duplicitous Pak- 4. The Coalition Support Fund re- such folly is paid by the hapless people
istanis”? (This Indian woman harbors imbursements: $14.5 billion that recognize the US’ bullying nature
illusions about becoming president of (these are against claims prepared and thus hate it with a passion.
the US! She also thinks Trump would by the Pakistan military for sup- While US-Pakistan relations date
be a one-term president. Is Trump plies, services and logistics pro- back to Pakistan’s emergence in 1947,
aware of this?). vided to the US-led coalition in the most recent courtship is the result
Let us break down the $33.9 bil- its war in Afghanistan. US audi- of Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s surrender
lion figure and view its appropriation. tors verify them before authoriz- to US demands in the wake of the
1. Economic-related Aid: $11.1 bil- ing them for release. There is 9/11 attacks. It took a 10-minute
lion ($8.7 billion of this was dis- usually a six-month time lag). phone call from Gen. Colin Powell,
bursed as economic support then serving as US Secretary of State,
between 2002 and 2011); In Pakistan there has been mixed for the chocolate soldier to melt.
2. Security-related Aid: $8.2 billion reaction to Trump’s threats that have Musharraf abandoned Pakistan’s 21-

24 CRESCENT INTERNATIONAL – February 2018

year policy on Afghanistan and
ditched the Taliban. He claimed he
did it in the “national interest,” that
all-time bogey trotted out by dictators
to prolong their grip on power. The
disastrous consequences of Mushar-
raf’s decision are all too obvious.
Trump’s insulting tweet should
facilitate a better understanding of
the reality facing Islamabad. America
is nobody’s friend; its rulers are self-
ish, greedy, and often quite obnox-
ious. It will not do to trot out all the
favors Pakistan has done for the US
to make them see sense.
n the 1960s, Pakistan provided
materiel (including diapers for its
troops serving in Afghanistan; let
them soil their pants!). As the former
US ambassador to Pakistan Richard
Olson pointed out in an op-ed pub-
lished in the New York Times on Jan-
uary 9, Islamabad has greater leverage
over Washington than is usually per-
ceived. “For the past 16 years our mil-
itary efforts in landlocked Afghan-
istan have been dependent on transit
through and especially overflight of
Pakistani territory,” Olson said.
“Without Pakistani cooperation, our
[US] army in Afghanistan risks
becoming a beached whale,” he
argued. And there are no alternatives
options does it have given that terror-
ists from Afghanistan frequently
sneak into Pakistan to carry out mur-
derous acts. The latest of these was
on November 30 when three terror-
ists attacked the Agriculture Univer-
sity in Peshawar killing eight stu-
dents. During their murderous attack,
the terrorists were in mobile contact
with their handlers in Afghanistan.
Fourth, Pakistan should cultivate
closer links with its neighbors to the
West, especially Iran, the Central
Asian Republics, and Russia. Rela-
tions with China are already very
close. America has made its inten-
tions crystal clear: it has chosen Pak-

I the US a military base in Bud-

haber (near Peshawar) from
where a U-2 spy plane used to fly over
or good options for the US.
Second, Pakistan should immedi-
ately repatriate all Afghans, two to
istan’s arch-enemy India and is prop-
ping it up as a bulwark against China
but its most severe consequences
Soviet territory. It aroused the Sovi- three million of them that have rav- would fall on Pakistan.
ets’ wrath with disastrous conse- aged Pakistan since 1979. Enough If America pursues a policy that is
quences for Pakistan, especially relat- hospitality for the Afghans; let the clearly detrimental to Pakistan’s inter-
ing to the Kashmir dispute as well as US and the Afghan government deal ests, why can’t the elite in Pakistan
the disastrous India-Pakistan war in with them. Far from appreciating think in terms of protecting their own
November-December 1971 resulting Pakistan’s hospitality, all it has gotten interests? It is time to realize that
in the breakup of Pakistan. is abuse and threats. America is not a friend but an enemy
In August 1971 Pakistan facilitat- Third, Pakistan should seal its of Pakistan. It is also the enemy of all
ed Henry Kissinger’s secret visit from border with Afghanistan by installing Muslims in the world, indeed op-
Islamabad to Beijing that opened the a fence. It will not be cheap but what pressed people everywhere. g
way for Richard Nixon’s visit two
years later. This resulted in US peace
talks with North Vietnam that finally
enabled America to extricate itself
from the disastrous war in Vietnam.
Again, after the Soviet invasion
of Afghanistan in 1979 and Pakistan’s
crucial role in defeating the Red
Army, the US ditched Pakistan. As
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
candidly admitted, during Senate
hearings in 2012, that after the Sovi-
et defeat, the US abandoned Pakistan
to deal with all the problems arising
from the Afghan war.
The US, therefore, does not have
a stellar record in its dealings with
Pakistan. The more crucial question
is whether Islamabad is prepared to An Afghan refugee camp in Peshawar, Pakistan. In a game of
draw the right conclusions from brinkmanship, Pakistani officials have intimated in response to US
repeated debacles with the US? It is threats that they will send the two million Afghan refugees back
not without strong policy options. home — many of whom will swell the ranks of the Taliban. Pakis-
To start with, Pakistan can with- tan has more leverage than “genius” chief executive realizes.
draw transit facilities for US war

News & Analysis 25


TIME FOR THE US
TO QUIT AFGHANISTAN
As Taliban gain ground, US can only save face by leaving
By Zia Sarhadi
In addition to Afghanistan,
I Pakistan has suffered the most
from America’s 16-year war in
the landlocked country. Pakistan’s
human losses — nearly 70,000 dead
and $120 billion in infrastructure
damage — are colossal by any stan-
dard. America’s 2,400 military per-
sonnel deaths pale into insignificance
compared to Pakistan’s.
It is America’s war launched with-
out reason or cause, unless hubris
counts as justification for launching
wars in distant lands. But that is pre-
cisely what has happened. It was the
neocons ensconced in important
positions within the regime and in
various right-wing think tanks that
came up with the ludicrous — and
dangerous — notion that America
should go for “full spectrum domi-
nance.” Following the demise of the
Soviet Union, Washington should
not allow the emergence of a rival
power to challenge US hegemony,
the neocons argued. Further, that the
American people would be con-
vinced of this militaristic policy if
there were another “Pearl Harbour
type attack” on the US mainland.
The 9/11 attacks occurred at such
a convenient time that many experts
believe it was an inside job. Further,
the official inquiry commission has
gaping holes in it that simply served
26 CRESCENT INTERNATIONAL – February 2018
the neocons’ nefarious agenda. But
here is the rub: the US launched the
war on Afghanistan — not Saudi
Arabia from where 15 of the 19
alleged hijackers had come. The US
accused Osama bin Laden of plan-
ning the attacks, a charge he vehe-
mently and repeatedly denied. True,
he praised the attackers but that
could hardly be used as justification
for launching war on a country where
he was staying. Washington demand-
ed that the Taliban government hand
him over to the US; the Taliban
demanded proof of his involvement
in the attacks. George Bush and his
neocon handlers scoffed at the
demand and told the Taliban, “We’ll
see you in Kabul.”
The US launched what is now
referred to as the longest war in its his-
tory. After more than 16 years of war
and intense bombing of mud hut vil-
lages in Afghanistan, the Washington
warlords are nowhere near achieving
any of their objectives that not only
remain vague but also keep shifting.
At the height of the war, the US-
NATO had 160,000 troops in
Afghanistan. Of these, 100,000 were
American soldiers. According to the
best guestimates, the Taliban never
had more than 35,000 to 40,000 men
under arms. Yet they have given a
bloody nose to the self-declared super-
power. The reason is simple: unlike
the Americans, the Taliban — and
Afghans in general — are not afraid
of death. Further, they enjoy the sup-
port of the Afghan population. This
explains why they control or have
influence in at least 60% of
Afghanistan. The other 40% territory
is no man’s land with total lawless-
ness. The puppet regime installed by
the Americans cannot enforce its writ
even in Kabul where attacks and
explosions are quite frequent. The lat-
est attack occurred on Kabul’s Inter-
continental Hotel on January 21. The
hotel is not only in a secure area in
Kabul but is located on a hilltop. How
did the gunmen manage to penetrate
such a security cordon with American
and Afghan troops everywhere?
American troop levels have
declined in recent years. At present
they stand at around 13,000
although the Pentagon announced
on January 12 that another 1,000
American troops would be deployed
this month to “help” the Afghan
army fight off the Taliban’s expected
spring offensive.
The US has spent nearly $1 tril-
lion in Afghanistan since October
2001. Militarily or economically, it
has anything to show for its 16-year
campaign. Afghanistan remains vir-
tually at the bottom of the Human
Development Index. So what precise-
ly is its mission in Afghanistan? Even
Osama bin Laden, the bogeyman for
launching the war on Afghanistan, is
long dead and gone.
he Taliban have shown that
T they cannot be defeated mil-
itarily. This much should be
clear even to the gung-ho American
generals. Who are the Taliban and
how did they emerge?
Many of them are veterans of the
Afghan war against the Soviets. At
that time, they were called mujœhidøn
(freedom fighters); today they are
branded as “terrorists” because they
are no longer useful as America’s Cold
Warriors. That 10-year struggle
 caused much angst among Muslims
elsewhere.
Initially, the Taliban had the
blessings of the US and Britain as
well. The Americans had no problem
dealing with them, even inviting a
delegation to visit the US in Decem-
ber 1997. UNOCAL executives facil-
itated the Taliban’s visit. The Ameri-
can oil company was keen to build a
gas/oil pipeline from Turkmenistan
through Afghanistan to Pakistan.
When the Taliban awarded the con-
tract to the Argentine company
BRIDAS, the Americans went ballis-
tic and all hell broke loose. They
vowed to teach the Taliban a lesson;
the 9/11 attacks were used as pretext
to launch the war on Afghanistan.
Smoke rises from the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul after a late-
Already devastated, the land-
evening attack on 1-21-2018. Gunmen stormed the hotel in the
locked country has since been
Afghan capital, triggering a shootout with security forces. An
bombed beyond the Stone Age. Hun-
Afghan official said that the assault on the hotel ended after more
dreds of thousands of poor Afghans
than 12 hours with all the attackers killed by security forces.
have been murdered and the war is
Claiming responsibility for the attack, in which the gunmen were
still raging but the US has not suc-
able to occupy several floors of the hotel and in which 18 people
ceeded in its nefarious agenda to sub-
were killed, the Taliban are sending a message that not even the
due the intrepid Afghans. True, the
most secure zones are safe from reclamation operations from foreign
Americans have installed their pup-
occupying troops, especially the US. The gunmen were able to
pets as rulers in Kabul but their writ,
penetrate the security corridor around the hotel because there is not
like that of the Americans does not
a place in Afghanistan where the locals do not have contact with the
extend beyond the capital and even
Taliban, and hence can help them plan military operations such as
that is not guaranteed.
this one. Such operations are expected to continue so long as there
are foreign troops on Afghan soil.
fter 16 years of war and total

(December 1979 – February 1989) the consequences of the 10-year

resulted in the defeat of the Red Army
and ultimately disintegration of the
Soviet Union. Ronald Reagan who
was president during most of those
years even welcomed a mujœhidøn dele-
gation to the White House!
Like all wars, the war against the
Soviets also caused a massive refugee
problem most of which has been
borne by neighboring countries, espe-
cially Pakistan and Iran. Each has
hosted between 3–4 million refugees.
They did not return home even after
the Soviet withdrawal in February
1989 because a power struggle erupt-
ed among former mujœhidøn allies. The
US too abandoned Pakistan to face
Afghan war.
These included a drug culture
spawned by opium cultivation in
Afghanistan. While former allies
struggled for power in Kabul, warlords
emerged in the rest of Afghanistan to
stake out their own claims. There was
no safety or security for people amid
such lawlessness. It was affecting Pak-
istan as well, that still hosted millions
of Afghan refugees.
Pakistan took steps to address the
problem and helped in the creation of
the Taliban. The movement of the
madrasa∆ students put an end to the
lawlessness ravaging Afghanistan
even if their obscurantist views have
A failure, it is time for all for-
eign troops to leave
Afghanistan. If the Washington war-
lords will not do so willingly, they
should be forced to withdraw.
All of Afghanistan’s neighbors —
Iran, the Central Asian Republics,
Russia, and China — want US forces
to leave. Not one of them was sup-
portive of the US invasion in the first
place but after 16 years of bloodlet-
ting and destabilization of the region,
it is time for Uncle Sam to pack his
bags and go home!
Americans are sore losers; they
have never won a single war in their
entire history notwithstanding the
genocidal war on Native Peoples in
the Americas. More than 40 million
unarmed or lightly armed indigenous

News & Analysis 27

 and perhaps has already risen — as
the terrorists face further defeats in
Syria. The US is relocating them to
Afghanistan.
The presence of terrorists to the
west in Afghanistan, and India’s huge
military build-up to the east, pose an
existential threat to Pakistan. Islam-
abad cannot take these threats light-
ly; it must protect its interests, indeed
its very survival.
The Afghans themselves must
determine the future of their country.
Their neighbors — China, Pakistan,
Iran, the Central Asian Republics,
Russia, and Turkey but not India —
should help them find a solution. It
must be Afghan-led and no group
should be excluded from it.
America is a destructive power; it
Instead of clearing the way for the millions of Afghan refugees in
has never brought stability anywhere.
neighboring countries to go back home, the US is using the war-torn
In recent years, its involvement in
country as a safe haven for ISIS mercenaries defeated in the Iraq-
Iraq, Libya, and Syria amply demon-
Syria theater. Reports say that the US has given safe passage to
strates its disruptive and destructive
over 10,000 terrorists, who have reassembled in the countryside of
role. It is a supporter of terrorists.
Afghanistan, such as in the training camp above. Former Afghan
Why should it be assumed that its
President Karzai remarked “How [are] unmarked non-military color
conduct would yield any different
helicopters supply[ing] these people, not only in one part of the
results in Afghanistan?
country but in many regions… And this is a daily occurrence.”
It is for Afghanistan’s immediate
neighbors to take steps to protect
their own interests and in the process
peoples were murdered in the Euro- American support were withdrawn, help the Afghans to achieve peace
peans’ colonial drive. the Afghan army would collapse and stability in their country. This
Pakistan should make clear that it within six months. So much for must begin with the immediate exit
would provide transit facilities to US- America’s $1 trillion spent in of all US and NATO forces from
NATO forces but not to bring more Afghanistan in 16 years. Afghanistan. It is long past due.
war materiel into Afghanistan. The From Pakistan’s perspective,
transit facility would be for exiting n the interim, Islamabad should Washington’s close alliance with
US forces out of Afghanistan on their
way back to the US.
Washington’s demand that the
I emphasize that it expects the
US and Afghan forces to halt all
terrorist attacks against Pakistan from
Hindu India is meant to disrupt the
$50 billion China Pakistan Economic
Corridor (CPEC). While the project
Taliban should be forced to negotiate across the border in Afghanistan. would connect the region and bring
with the puppet regime in Kabul is a These terrorists enjoy safe havens in huge prosperity to Pakistan, the evil
non-starter. It is for the Afghans to Afghanistan right under the noses of duo is hell bent on disrupting and,
decide, not any outside powers. The US and Afghan forces. In addition to therefore, destroying it. Hindu India
Taliban have repeatedly said they will Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and is also involved in terrorist activities
not accept the US-imposed constitu- Jamaatul Ahrar, there has been a in Baluchistan. There is ample reason
tion on their country, nor the puppets huge influx of ISIS terrorists into to suspect that the US has given its
installed in Kabul. Afghanistan, courtesy of the US. blessings to such Indian crimes.
Once the US-NATO forces exit Zamir Kabulov, Russia’s special With such open US hostility and
Afghanistan, the puppet regime envoy for Afghanistan said in India’s historical enmity toward Pak-
would collapse. Ashraf Ghani admit- November that there were more than istan, the rulers in Islamabad would
ted in the CBS “60-Minutes” pro- 10,000 ISIS terrorists in Afghanistan. be derelict if they do not take steps to
gram broadcast on January 14 that if This number is likely to increase — safeguard the country’s interests. g

28 CRESCENT INTERNATIONAL – February 2018

 B O O K R E
FROM YAHWEH TO ZION
French historian explores the Jewish question
By Dr. Kevin Barrett
From Yahweh to Zion: Jealous God, Chosen People,
Promised Land… Clash of Civilizations by Laurent
Guyénot (author), Kevin J. Barrett (translator); Pub: Sifting
and Winnowing Books, Lone Rock, Wisconsin, 2018, 492
pages. Price: $29.95 Pbk.
o Muslims have a Jewish problem, or just a Zion-
D
ist problem? Clearly, the invasion and coloniza-
tion of Palestine by Zionists, and the establish-
ment of a self-proclaimed Jewish State there, is the central
political problem facing the Muslim Ummah. But how
“Jewish” is that problem?
Some argue that Zionists are just another sub-species of
European settler colonialists. According to this interpreta-
tion, the Jewish identity of the squatters in Palestine is no
more relevant than the British identity of settlers in colonial
Kenya and Rhodesia, the Afrikaaner identity of settlers in
South Africa, or the French identity of settlers in Algeria.
But all of those settlers have either packed up and gone
home, or learned to live in legal equality with their native
neighbors. Only colonized Palestine persists as an ethnic-
supremacist European settler colony, dominating, subjugat-
ing, and expelling natives, and imposing apartheid condi-
tions, in the 21st Christian century/15th Islamic century.
What accounts for the seemingly anachronistic persistence
of Zionist colonialism in an otherwise postcolonial era?
Gilad Atzmon points out that all other settler colonizers
committed their crimes while flying the flag of a European
home country. Only the Zionists embarked on a settler
colonial enterprise without the official sponsorship of a par-
ticular European nation. Atzmon adds that other settler
colonial projects were organized around the exploitation of
V I E W S
native labor. But the Zionists are not especially interested
in exploiting Palestinian workers. They want to get rid of
the Palestinians, not put them to work. So for Gilad Atz-
mon and his followers, the Zionist project is a peculiarly
Jewish effort. We cannot understand the “Jewish State,” he
says, unless we understand Jewishness.
If we follow Atzmon’s lead, we must ask: what is it about
Jewish identity, as it has developed over 2,500 years of his-
tory, that has created the peculiar — and peculiarly persist-
ent — genocide in Palestine?
To ask this question is to court hysterical opprobrium.
Any less-than-favorable mention of Jews, Judaism, Jewish-
ness, or Jewish identity in today’s mainstream Western aca-
demia, media, or book publishing world is strictly forbid-
den. As John Cobb, one of the world’s leading Christian
theologians, says in his blurb for Laurent Guyénot’s new
book From Yahweh to Zion,
…we know that there is rather tight censorship with
respect to what may be said about these matters
without ad hominem response. The fact of Gentile
crimes against Jews throughout history is used to jus-
tify this censorship, much, but not all, of which is
self-imposed. In my view, through their role in this
censorship, Jews are paving the way for the rise of
anti-Jewish feeling and perhaps much worse.
I agree with John Cobb that certain Jews’ heavy-handed
ad hominem attacks on their critics are fueling a dangerous
backlash. The alt-right includes a growing number of peo-
ple who are fed up with “Jewish power’s ability to silence
discussion of Jewish power,” to paraphrase Atzmon. Some of
Book Reviews 29
these people are angry, chauvinistic, and potentially dan-
gerous. In the past, such anger has led to violence against
innocent Jewish people. To forestall its possible recrudes-
cence, we need to discuss the most sensitive topics — not
censor them and thereby relegate them to the neo-Nazi cor-
ners of the internet.
t is in hopes of fostering a reasoned interfaith dialogue
I on these matters that I agreed to translate and publish
Laurent Guyénot’s From Yahweh to Zion, which I
believe may be the best book ever written on what used to
be called “the Jewish question.” Dr. Guyénot, a PhD
medievalist historian by training, explores many legitimate
“Jewish questions,” including: Is Judaism/Jewishness a reli-
gion or an ethnicity? What is the Jews’ relationship to God
and the prophets? What accounts for the Jews’ ability to
maintain tribal cohesion over more than 2,500 years? Why
have Jewish communities so often been at odds with their
non-Jewish neighbors? Why have Jews been overrepresented
— in many non-Jewish societies throughout history — in
positions of wealth and power? Why does this overrepresen-
tation seem to be increasing today? Why is this issue off-lim-
its for discussion in polite company (including the main-
stream media and the academy)? Is Jewish tribal cohesion an
important factor in the deep xtate? And what role does the
creation and endless expansion of Israel play in all of this?
Dr. Guyenot’s thesis, in a nutshell, is that a tiny Jewish
elite, representing a very small fraction of Jews, has
hijacked the idea of God and turned it to their own aggran-
dizement. Over two-and-a-half millennia, this elite has ter-
rorized its own people to enforce their sense of separateness
from other groups, garnering wealth and power in the
process. Today, much of the Jewish population neither
believes in God nor practices most of the prescribed Jewish
rituals. But the terrorizing of Jewish people by their own
leadership, the enforced sense of separation from other
communities, and the amassing of wealth and power by the
Jewish elite whose prime weapon is the adaptation of mil-
lennia-old brainwashing processes to today’s secular setting,
all continue — with Israel replacing Yahweh as a central
focus of worship.
From Yahweh to Zion is the work of a historian not just
of facts, but also of ideas. The book’s exploration of 2,500
years of Jewish history will shock many believing Jews and
Christians with its unfavorable interpretation of the Torah,
the central Jewish holy book that Christians have included
in the Old Testament. Since both traditional Jews and
Christians consider the Torah/Old Testament to be inerrant
scripture, Guyénot’s exposure of that book’s all-too-obvious
immorality will challenge and discomfit many readers (two
traditional Catholic friends and colleagues of mine have
refused to review the book for that reason).
In a recent radio interview with me, Dr. Guyénot, who is
a non-doctrinaire Christian, noted that Muslims are in a bet-
ter scriptural position to embrace his insights than are Chris-
tians and Jews. He was alluding to the notion of ta˙røf: the
Qur’anic doctrine, backed up by numerous hadiths, holding
that the Torah (like the Zab¥r and Injøl) was originally an
authentic divine message, but that what survives today is the
product of alteration and distortion by human transmitters.
Guyénot’s historical analysis suggests that the original
distorters of the Torah’s divine message were what he calls
the Yahwist priesthood. This priestly elite shaped the mes-
sage to favor its own self-interest. They drummed up follow-
ers by casting Yahweh as a tribal god, merely one god among
many, who would bring his followers good fortune if they
punctiliously obeyed “his” orders (which were actually the
orders of the priests themselves, and often involved plun-
dering other tribes). Later, the priesthood learned to play
the double game of making Yahweh a tribal god for the
tribe, and a supposedly universal god (who still favored Jews
as the Chosen Ones) for everyone else.
he Qur’an abolishes this priesthood of con-artists,
T and indeed all priesthoods. It corrects many of the
Torah’s stories to make them moral rather than
immoral or questionably moral. It restores the true picture
of the one universal God. It insists we are equal before God,
that the only meaningful distinction between people is in
their degree of God-consciousness and goodness, not their
tribal affiliation or material wealth. And it corrects the
Jews’ erroneous portrait of life as a purely material this-
worldly affair by insisting that the next world’s rewards are
better and more enduring.
So from a Qur’anic perspective, there are indeed “Jewish
problems.” Laurent Guyénot’s interpretation of how these
problems have manifested in history, culminating in the
present apotheosis of Zion and accompanying War on
Islam, is an essential contribution to a critically-important
conversation. g
The Islamic Book Trust
www.ibtbooks.com
World’s premier online
bookstore for Islamic books
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Book Reviews 31

WILL MADMAN
TRUMP RAIN
“FIRE AND FURY”
ON THE WORLD?
Odds of nuclear winter better than 50/50
By Dr. Kevin Barrett
Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael
Wolff; Pub: Henry Holt and Company, New York, New York,
2018, 324 pages. Price: $18.00 Hbk; $13.09 Pbk; $14.00
Amazon Kindle.
The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War
Planner by Daniel Ellsberg; Pub: Bloomsbury Publishing,
London, UK, 2017, 432 pages. Price: $18.89 Hbk; $9.20
Amazon Kindle.
ichael Wolff’s new book Fire and Fury takes its
M title from one of Donald Trump’s most infa-
mous Twitter outbursts. On August 8th, 2017
— between the anniversaries of the US nuclear holocausts
of Hiroshima (August 6th) and Nagasaki (August 9th) —
Trump tweeted, “North Korea best not make any more
threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and
fury like the world has never seen.” Trump’s promise to
counter mere verbal threats by murdering millions of people
with nuclear bombs suggested to many observers that the
President is, at best, monumentally careless with his tweets.
At worst, he may be stark, raving mad — as 27 mental
health professionals wrote in The Dangerous Case of Donald
Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a
President. One of the authors, Bandy Lee, an assistant clin-
ical professor of psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine,
briefed Democratic lawmakers last month on the president’s
mental state. Though professional psychological and psy-
chiatric associations have discouraged such diagnoses-at-a-
distance, 70,000 self-described mental health professionals
Dr. Kevin Barrett is a US-based journalist, commentator, and
radio broadcaster. He hosts the TruthJihad radio program as
well as manages the VeteransToday website.
32 CRESCENT INTERNATIONAL – February 2018
have signed a Change.org petition entitled “Trump is men-
tally ill and must be removed.” Indeed, one does not need
to be a psychiatric professional to see signs of sociopathy,
narcissism, and emotional and intellectual instability in
Trump’s demeanor, words, and actions.
From a Muslim perspective, the psychiatric diagnoses
ring true. Trump is an extreme embodiment of bad adab. His
self-centered arrogance seems to rival that of Pharaoh, the
Qur’anic villain who follows the egomaniacal path of Satan.
On January 2nd, Trump inaugurated 2018 by once again
taunting Kim Jong un, “I too have a Nuclear Button, but it
is much [a] bigger & more powerful one than his, and my
Button works!” Some tried to laugh it off, pointing out that
Trump’s unintentional Freudian joke sounded like a line
from the nuclear black comedy Dr. Strangelove. Others
countered that having a deranged buffoon like Trump in
command of the world’s biggest military machine may be a
joke on the world, but not a terribly funny one, since the
eventual punchline could be tragic beyond measure.
ow did we reach this point? Wolff’s Fire and Fury
H offers one answer: Trump’s run for president was
a publicity stunt designed to bolster his brand
and enhance his riches and fame. Nobody, least of all
Trump himself or his family or advisors, ever expected him
to win, or thought he would be capable of governing if he
did (Trump, being a quintessential narcissist, quickly
changed his mind on election night when he saw that he
had won; but nobody else did).
Wolff’s account mainly follows Steve Bannon’s view-
point, according to which it was Bannon, backed by huge
cash infusions from the billionaire Mercer family, who put
Trump in office. Bannon’s project was, and still is, to turn
America in the direction of right-wing nationalism, in the
manner of a Pat Buchanan on steroids. Bannon initially saw
Trump as a useful idiot. But as Trump’s presidency under-
went slow-motion implosion during its first year, with Ban-
non’s America-first project taking a back seat to the inter-
nationalist Zionist bankster machinations of former Gold-
man Sachs honcho Steven Mnuchin and Kissinger-
Netanyahu protégé Jared Kushner, Bannon jumped ship,
told all to Wolff, and broke decisively with Trump.
All this gossip about America’s unlikely, absurd, and
quite possibly deranged President is as gripping and enter-
taining (at least until the novelty wears off) as it is horrify-
ing. But in the end, it is not Wolff’s book that we need to
read to understand our predicament. Daniel Ellsberg’s The
Doomsday Machine is far more edifying, and in the long run,
more important.
llsberg is a former nuclear war planner for the
E RAND Corporation who risked life in prison by
leaking the Pentagon Papers in hopes of stopping
America’s genocidal assault on Vietnam. The Doomsday
Machine makes a strong case that the problem is not that we
have a madman president. The real dilemma, according to
Ellsberg, is much worse than that: we have a nuclear war
system in place which is, for all practical purposes, in the
hands of omnicidal lunatics — and has been for more than
70 years.
It isn’t that the individuals who run America’s nuclear
war system are all as crazy and ignorant as Trump. As indi-
viduals, most of them are quite sane, not to mention highly
intelligent, like the young Dan Ellsberg when he worked for
RAND. Ellsberg opens The Doomsday Machine with a quote
from Nietzsche, “Madness in individuals is something rare;
but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs, it is the rule.”
The nuclear command and control systems of our epoch
illustrate the point to perfection.
As Ellsberg makes clear, it is only through the grace of
Allah (Â) that all human life and all large animal life on
earth, or virtually all of it, has not yet been extinguished by
these nuclear madmen. For the nuclear war fighting plans
and scenarios of the US, and presumably Russia as well,
seemingly guarantee that such a thing will happen, proba-
bly sooner rather than later.
Two key points emerge from Ellsberg’s book. First, the
chances of a major nuclear war between the superpowers
are shockingly high. Repeatedly, such a war has been nar-
rowly and improbably averted. If a professional oddsmaker
were fully informed about the issue, he would probably con-
clude that the chances of a full-scale nuclear war breaking
out are about 5%/year or 50/50 per decade (or per two
decades if the oddsmaker dons rose-colored glasses). That
means that during the 70-year nuclear superpower standoff,
we have flipped the coin three to five times, and gotten
lucky every time. In other words, we just played Russian
roulette, holding a gun to the head of the world, with five
bullets in the chamber (actually the odds are worse than
that, but you get the drift). Absent continual miraculous
divine intervention, we are eventually going to get the
mal˙ama∆ that Shaykh Imran Hosein and others claim is
foretold in scripture. Or, paraphrasing Ibsen, “If a gun is on
the mantle in the first act, it must go off in the third.”
The second key point is that the looming mal˙ama∆, as
Imran Hosein says, is likely to kill all or nearly all of the
world’s population. Ellsberg points out that even today,
many decades after the discovery of the planet-killing
“nuclear winter” that would follow even a relatively small
nuclear war between superpowers, nuclear war planners
continue to work toward “limited” nuclear wars under the
delusional assumption that “only” tens or hundreds of mil-
lions of people would die, rather than the full seven billion
(plus or minus a few miserable cannibalistic survivors). For
the truth, according to climate scientists, is that even an
improbably minuscule nuclear exchange of 100 small
nuclear bombs (and no big ones) would put enough smoke
into the atmosphere to block incoming sunlight planet-
wide for more than a decade, plunging the earth into
“nuclear winter” and completely ending agriculture. The
result would be that all of earth’s population, except per-
haps for a few warrior cannibals, would die of starvation.
he Qur’an tells us “…if anyone kills a human
T being — unless it be [in punishment] for murder
or for spreading corruption on earth — it shall be
as though he had killed all mankind; whereas, if anyone
saves a life, it shall be as though he had saved the lives of
all mankind” (5:32). Allah (Â) thus emphasizes the
importance of protecting human life, showing the immense
consequences of even one unjust killing. And yet the
nuclear war planners calmly plot the murder of the whole of
mankind, all the while deluding themselves into thinking
they are behaving acceptably by imagining that they are
“only” plotting the murder of tens or hundreds of millions.
The upshot is that, yes, Trump may be an ignorant,
unstable, narcissistic nutjob. But the menace of Trump
pales in comparison to that of the criminally-insane nuclear
command and control system, which is built and main-
tained by thousands of individually sane people, and toler-
ated by 300 million seemingly normal Americans. g
Crescent International magazine
is now available online
visit us at:
crescent-online.net
crescent.icit-digital.org
Don’t forget to refer to our
Daily News Analysis
where we provide our unique
perspective on stories as
they develop.
Get your own hardcopy of Crescent
International, your best source of insightful
Islamic commentary and analysis
on current events, newsmakers, and
movement issues, not to mention
Imam Mu˙ammad al-‘Œßø’s tafsør
series, The Ascendant Qur’an
(see p. 40 for subscription details).
Book Reviews 33
metis civilization, from p. 7 Dual Authority

The writing is on the wall for the Six Nations

(Eeyou Istchee), which signed an agreement in 2012 with the elected council and the Haudenosaunee Con-
province of Quebec that would abolish the municipalities in the federacy. The century-old legitimacy of the
region and merge them with the Cree Regional Authority in a new elected council vies with the millennia-old
regional government called the Eeyou Istchee James Bay Territory. legitimacy of the confederacy. Government
policy to support one side against the other
Many of these Aboriginal governments have reconstituted them- undermines the search for an acceptable com-
selves along traditional lines, re-establishing the control of clans, rec- promise. Understandably, there is no strong
ognizing the authority of elders and hereditary leaders, and/or permit- movement to overthrow the elected council,
ting the exercise of Aboriginal customary law. As of 2016, 22 com- which carries out the important work of
prehensive self-government agreements maintaining day-to-day life on
had been signed by the federal govern- the reserve. The unfunded
ment. Of those, 18 were part of a com- Haudenosaunee Confederacy
prehensive land claim agreement or has the prestige of tradition on
modern treaty. M ANY OF its side (David Suzuki paid a
Land is now controlled locally, under visit to them in 2014), but is in
the terms of the settlement agreements.
THESE ABORIGINAL no position to usurp the elected
There has been a gradual reduction and GOVERNMENTS HAVE council.
eventual elimination of the First The HCCC and the
Nations tax exemption. The current RECONSTITUTED SNEBC have parallel struc-
push to finalize modern treaties in tures to govern and promote
British Columbia and treaty negotia-
THEMSELVES ALONG development, the SNEBC hold-
tions in the Maritimes will, over time, TRADITIONAL LINES, ing government funding and
result in even more status Indian com- legitimacy as their trump card.
munities agreeing to come out from RE-ESTABLISHING The HCCC authorized the
under the Indian Act. Haudenosaunee Development
Ontario lags behind. In January
THE CONTROL OF Institute to set up a corpora-
2014, the Nipissing First Nation adopt- CLANS, RECOGNIZING tion, the NewCo, to negotiate
ed what is believed to be the first consti- contracts with external eco-
tution for a First Nation in Ontario. It THE AUTHORITY nomic corporations, as part of
is supposed to replace the Indian Act as the next phase of development
the supreme law that regulates the gov-
OF ELDERS AND for the Haudenosaunee. The
ernance of the First Nation, but has not HEREDITARY Joint Stewardship Board (JSB)
been tested in court. is an agreement between the
The government of Canada has LEADERS, AND/OR HCCC and the City of Hamil-
finally begun to address Canada as a ton for shared responsibilities
Métis civilization, moving in other ways
PERMITTING THE and environmental guardian-
beyond the Indian Act, working with ExERCISE OF ship of the Red Hill Valley. The
Métis communities and urban Aborigi- HCCC worked to restore the
nal populations, groups ignored under ABORIGINAL Burtch Lands after its use and
the Indian Act. “Put simply, the Indian abandonment by the official
Act no longer dominates Aboriginal-
CUSTOMARY LAW. government, but the Ontario
government relations and no longer pro- government is determined to
vides a singular focus for the manage- put the lands in its own control
ment of status Indian affairs.” under the corporation it set up
An important nongovernmental organization helping to facilitate with SNEBC participation.
the transition is the Centre for First Nations Governance, a non- The SNEBC works directly with the offi-
profit organization that supports First Nations as they develop effec- cial Canadian government on housing, edu-
tive self-governance after the demise of the Indian Act. It was found- cation, and infrastructure. They hosted the
ed as the National Centre for First Nations Governance in 2005 with North American Indigenous Games, Cham-
federal government support, but was defunded in 2012 by the Harper pion of Champions Pow Wow and the World
government and reconstituted as a self-financing consultancy group. Indigenous Peoples Conference on Educa-

34 CRESCENT INTERNATIONAL – February 2018

tion in 2016–2017. Both are present at international fora such as
UNDRIP. The dual authority weakens the overall authority of the
natives in dealing with the Canadian government, but things still
get done.
Prospects for Métis civilization
The number one priority for both SNEBC Chief Ava Hill and the
HCCC is recovering some of the land stolen over the past two-and-
a-half centuries. Second is recovering some of the revenue that all of
the Haldiman Treaty lands are producing for Canada every day.
Third, these resources must be used to build or rather rebuild native
life. Outreach to the broader society is also a priority. Natives tradi- ples are Métis, that is, intermarrying and
tionally have been generous and trusting, which accounts for how
easily they were conned into giving everything away to a European
money- and private property-oriented society.
The SNEB have a tourism program, offering participation in tra-
ditional ceremonies, art and sports events, canoeing by moonlight.
An innovative example of this outreach is the program of the Missis-
saugas of the New Credit First Nation
(MNCFN), which brings Indigenous
and non-Indigenous youth together to
learn about the history, people and ecol-
ogy of the Credit River. Indigenous eld-
T HE GREAT LAW
ers and leaders lead workshops run by OF PEACE IS THE
the environmental group Ecosource.
Carolyn King, who led a workshop
FOUNDATION OF
about the history of the MNCFN, told RENEWAL, AND IS
the Toronto Star it is important to give
youth “a more intimate look at, and
VERY MUCH IN LINE
relationship with, the First Nations WITH ISLAMIC
community, a first step to creating and
building relationships. The Indigenous
TEACHINGS ON
youth who participated were a very GOVERNANCE AND
important contribution.” Joseph
Pitawanakwat, from Manitoulin Island,
RELATIONS WITH
a member of the Wikwemikong First NATURE.
Nation, and founder of Creator’s Gar-
den, ran the workshop about the signif-
icance of plants along the Credit River.
This initiative is a hint of how a real Métis civilization can come
about. It relies on a deconstruction of the “colonial syndrome” as
outlined in Part 1, a renewal of human-based civilizational thinking
that arose at the same time as the native civilizations were being
destroyed: the radical rejection of imperialism and racism proclaimed
for the first time in 1917 in Russia. Communism became imperial-
ism’s mortal enemy, much more worrisome at the time than the
defeated native resistance. Not surprisingly, communists were
hounded and vilified much as natives were through the 20th century,
even as they fought for fundamental human rights.
But it was not only communism that was anti-imperialist and
anti-racist. Islam promoted this from the 7th century onward, and
Muslims suffered the same travails as did Canada’s native peoples in
the 19th–20th centuries. Now that commu-
nism has been defeated, it is possible — nec-
essary — to go back to the drawing board to
fashion a new Canadian identity, incorporat-
ing the anti-racism of the communists, Islam
and the native traditions as embodied in the
Great Law of Peace. We are beginning this
very haltingly, though pipelines, resource
exploitation, and dams still have the upper
hand, and our cousin Israel continues to
remind us of our past and present sins toward
natives, both Canadian and Palestinian.
Already one-third of Canadian native peo-
assimilating naturally to the dominant colo-
nial, immigrant culture. The new popularity
of all things native, the rediscovery of cul-
ture, languages, ethos, is encouraged by new
immigrants, especially Muslim, as Aalia
Khan, the leader of the nature walk through
Mississauga’s Creditview Wet-
land underlines.
Islam is now the second
largest religion in Canada.
There is much in common
between Islam and native cul-
tures. Perennialism is a per-
spective in modern spirituality
that views each of the world’s
religious traditions as sharing a
single, metaphysical truth from
which all doctrine has grown.
The Swiss Frithjof Schuon
(1907–1998) was first attract-
ed to Hinduism before convert-
ing to Islam in Algeria in 1932.
He lived with and wrote about
the Plains Indians in the US,
emphasizing the commonalities
between native religions and
Islam.
Canada’s special place in world culture
will come, not through its colonial past,
which created a rich but exploitive “civiliza-
tion,” but through its multiculturalism, tem-
pered by the precious heritage of our native
peoples. The Great Law of Peace is the foun-
dation of renewal, and is very much in line
with Islamic teachings on governance and
relations with nature. Muslim Canadians can
find common ground with Canada’s native
peoples; for Torontonians, that means work-
ing with the Six Nations as the people whose
land became Toronto. g
Book Reviews 35
 I S L A M – F U
trinity of kufr: Atheism,
secularism, officialism
Tafsør of S¥ra∆ al-Nisœ’, the fourth s¥ra∆ of the Qur’an
By Imam Mu˙ammad Ó. al-‘Œßø
However it be, Allah [Himself]
bears witness to the truth of
what He has bestowed from on
high upon you; out of His own
wisdom has He bestowed it from
on high, with the angels bearing
witness thereto — although
none can bear witness as Allah
does (4:166).
n this œya∆ Allah (Â) preempts
I the propensity of Muslims to be
saddened by the fact that
“Christians” and “Jews” seem to be
paying scant attention to the facts
revealed here in the Qur’an. A disturbing aspect within the
psychology of some Muslims ever since the inception of
Islam has been the inferiority complex it harbors vis-à-vis
Christians and Jews. One indication of how pathetic this
psychological condition can become is that the Muslims
want “Jews” and “Christians” to certify what Allah has
given them in the form of the Prophet (r) and the Qur’an.
Sometimes it appears that Muslims are more desirous of the
approval of “others” than of the approval of Allah.
These Judeo-Christians can go on all kinds of philo-
sophical tangents, they can concoct any number of mental
schools of thought, and they may devise every type of dog-
matic prognosis, yet has any of this mental exploration and
investigation brought forth the level of certitude that
comes from Allah’s exacting words in the Qur’an? And at
the more visceral level where the impact is felt by the man
on the street, the practical result of their philosophical drift
36 CRESCENT INTERNATIONAL – February 2018
N D A M E N T A L S
in a direction that ultimately ended
up denying God altogether has been
the social drift of their governments
and establishments in a direction
that subsumes ethics, morals, and the
golden rule to the vested interests of
a class of people accountable neither
to God, and thereby nor to the peo-
ple it rules. Any thinking Muslim
should expect this simply because
these Yah¥d and Naßœrå have
changed, lost, or mutilated the origi-
nal scripture sent to them by Allah
(Â). Therefore, so what if these
mental drifters, buried under layers of
asphyxiating philosophies, do not or cannot see the light of
scripture and the guidance of God,
However it be, Allah [Himself] bears witness to
the truth of what He has conferred from on high
upon you [Muhammad]. Out of His own wisdom
has He conferred it from heaven above, with the
angels bearing witness thereto — although none
can bear witness as Allah does (4:166).
This testimony from Allah (Â) suffices. The Muslims
need the validation of neither the intractable Yah¥d nor
the distracting Naßœrå when Allah tells them that He and
His angels testify to the fact that it is He who disclosed the
Qur’an and the truth therein. Who are “Jews” and
“Christians” when Allah is our witness? And when the
angels are our witnesses?
 This œya∆ does not operate in a vacuum. During the
time of Allah’s Prophet poisonous ideas, inaccurate infor-
mation, skewed opinions, hearsay, and the toxic mixture of
truth and lies, which were meant to disgrace the Prophet
and discredit the Qur’an, were circulating in the Arabian
society of Madinah. The heavy air of this relentless barrage
may have been so suffocating that Muhammad (r) and his
disciples could only breathe easier with some of these words
of comfort and reassurance. The long discourse in this thor-
oughgoing Qur’an about the Yah¥d and how they orches-
trated an enormous public campaign to defame the
reputation of Muhammad (r) and his mission must be kept
in mind. These œyœt were revealed in Madinah at the height
of Yah¥dø social scheming and political plotting.
The words of the Qur’an press on with an accurate
diagnosis of the reality on the ground in Arabia, around
Muhammad (r) and the core of committed Muslims with
him. The œya∆ declares an intention to inflict harm on
those who are still in denial of Allah (Â) and pose a seri-
ous threat to the freedom of this Islamic call of duty. Even
after Allah states He is a witness to the truth and validity of
this Prophet and the scripture he brought, these antagonists
do not desist; hence,
Behold, those who are bent on denying the truth
and on turning others away from the path of Allah
have indeed gone far astray. Behold, those who are
bent on denying the truth [of Allah’s power mani-
festation] and on transgression, Allah will indeed
not forgive them, nor will He guide them onto any
passageway except a passageway that leads to Hell,
therein to abide beyond the count of time: and this
is indeed easy for Allah [to do] (4:167–169).
This is obviously a general statement operable and applica-
ble to all who meet its description. There are evidently
power blocs of people — then and now — who deny God,
object to His power, and take exception with His presence
in human affairs. Their elaborate programs deflect from God
and “turn off” God at the psychological and mental core in
self and in society. Some of these sophisticated structures
have become a spent force of history. But one that is persist-
ent is the Yah¥d. They have, if nothing else, shown a con-
sistency in their defiance of God, which exhibits itself in
their belligerent attitude toward prophets, in their peculiar
opposition to Muhammad (r), and now in their hostile dis-
position toward a growing transnational and multicultural
Islamic movement of self-determination and self-rule.
This œya∆ speaks about active kufr. There have always
been power blocs of kufr that are stumbling blocks in the
way of ømœn. No involved Muslim with a shred of intelli-
gence can stand up today and say there is enough “freedom
and democracy” in the world to offer Muslims of substance
the airwaves, satellite TV access, and an assortment of pub-
lic programs that will make it possible for them to present
and explain everything about the døn of Islam. Civil hur-
dles, legal restrictions, “religious sensitivities,” and military
forces act as virtual barriers to any public access for
Muhammadi and Qur’anic Muslims.
oday’s Muslims are daydreaming, thinking the
T world is liberal enough to accept the Islamic pro-
gram as it is presented here in this thoughtful
Qur’an. To experience the layers of denial (kufr) to this
divine and practical order of Islam, these types of people
would have had to advance into the real world with the
profound message of this Qur’an. Regardless of their con-
temporary disposition, the Muslims still are tasked with
moving ahead with the meanings herein. And as they do so
they should take notice of Allah’s words as they tell them
it is the kœfirs and the detractors who are on the wrong
course in life, “Behold, those who are actively in denial [of
Allah’s power] and are in the process of forcing back
[potential Muslims] it is they who are in deep deviation.”
There are governmental structures, ministries of the
interior, information ministries, ministries of “justice,” and
ministries of “defense” that will not permit Muslims to
express the social meanings of this Qur’an or their ideolog-
ical nature. These ministries are not run by phantom per-
sonalities. The employees in them are not ghosts. They are
real people whose job description is to ensure that secular-
ism as defined by a materialistic, Judeo-Christian West lives
and Islam as understood at its source (the Qur’an and
Sunnah) dies. These secular gatekeepers, even though they
may sport cultural “Islamic” gewgaws, are to be evaluated
not by their “cultural trinkets” but rather by their job
descriptions. And their job descriptions are to serve in the
Imam al-‘Œßø’s unique
khu†ba∆s now online
Every week for the last 34 years, Imam
Mu˙ammad al-Œßø has led Jumu‘a∆ Íalœ∆
outside of Washington’s Islamic Center,
in protest at its subservience to despotic,
pro-Western, and anti-Islamic Muslim
governments. Now his passionate and
insightful khu†ba∆s can be accessed online:
www.islamiccenterdc.com
www.icit-digital.org
Islam – Fundamentals 37
kœfir establishment while rendering disservice to an ideolog-
ical Qur’an and a practical prophet.
These employees of kufr demonstrate mental deviation,
conceptual fogginess, and a depraved doctrine. They are to
be held responsible for social disorder, behavioral disorder-
liness, and unstable circumstances — conditions that are to
be expected when Allah (Â) no longer is the authority on
human affairs. Such conditions erupt when the Qur’an and
Sunnah are “elevated” to the abstract, or when the Qur’an
is considered absent the Sunnah of the Prophet (r), or vice
versa. A kœfir lifestyle and system in this world leads to kœfir
consequences and systemic chastisement in the world to
come. This kufr state of affairs is the dogged deviation and
errant waywardness this œya∆ speaks about, “…they are
irretrievable in their departure [from Allah].”
When the œya∆ continues it refers to the kœfirs’ cumula-
tive defective effort, “In fact those who deny Allah [and
His power in social affairs] and do injustice…” First of all,
it should be mentioned that kufr itself is injustice. When
the human mind takes issue with the divinity and authority
of Allah (Â) it sets itself on a course that cannot secure
justice in self and in society. Allah is the truth; denying
Him amounts to a denial of the truth. Allah is fair to indi-
viduals; denying Him leads to being unfair to individuals.
Kufr, in general, should be understood as the abstract, men-
tal, and academic exclusion of Allah from being man’s
authority on earth. The time should come, with more
urgency today than ever before, when Islamic descriptive
literature is cleansed of such words as blasphemy, disbelief,
and their Judeo-Christian equivalents when referring to the
word kufr. Blasphemy is understood in the Judeo-Christian
culture as any word, sign, or action that intentionally
insults the goodness of or is offensive to God. Until the
Enlightenment, it was punishable by death. Blasphemy was
classified as heretical if it openly asserted something con-
trary to faith, and as non-heretical if it involved careless or
insulting speech about God. In many Christian countries, it
is technically a crime, and is extended to include the denial
or ridicule of God, Christ, or the Bible; but the law is sel-
dom, if ever, invoked. Blasphemy is also a crime in certain
non-Christian countries.
n the Qur’an and the Sunnah, kufr has an active mean-
I ing. It is a reaction to the movement and success of
committed Muslims. People, especially the vested inter-
ests of the rich and powerful, begin to deny Allah (Â) when
Muslims affirm Him. Therefore, in the absence of Muslims
who are affirming Allah, the legal and social implications of
people who are denying Him are absent. It can be said along
these lines that before the advent of the Qur’an and Muham-
mad (r), the people in Arabia were not “technically” kœfirs
because there was no Islam or ømœn to deny. In this context,
the œya∆ in S¥ra∆ al-Mœ’ida∆ can be appreciated all the more,
“…and those who do not rule with [the justice] revealed by
38 CRESCENT INTERNATIONAL – February 2018
Allah, they are kœfirs [in denial of Him]” (5:44).
Transgression, oppression, and infraction of justice are
the practical result when people, especially those deputized
to make decisions on behalf of their constituencies, omit
Allah’s authority out of their personal and public lives. This
social and official behavior of kufr becomes a spiraling
dynamic with destructive consequences. Anyone with an
open mind can take a look at the world today and see how
true this œya∆ is. Every society on earth that has expelled
God out of its conscience and out of its community is paying
a very heavy price for that deliberate decision. Sadly, what
complicates matters even more is that some of these soci-
eties did not mean to expel God out of their lives; rather,
they wanted to expel the misrepresentation and falsification
of God as championed by “church,” “synagogue,” or even
“mosque” officials, and wound up having to live a “godless”
life replete with all the terrible consequences they have to
endure as a result. From the richest country in the world to
the poorest, and from Rome to Jerusalem to Makkah, no one
has been able to escape this faux-religious dynamic.
For all practical purposes, God is no longer an authority
in human affairs. The world is in a virtual bowing position
at the altar of secularism, atheism, and officialism, all of
which together have virtually become the trinity religion of
the world. The high priests of this contemporary religion
are the presidents, prime ministers, proxy kings, corporate
executive officers, military generals, and “philanthropists.”
All of them, including their ecclesiastical confederates who
carry prayer beads, wear peculiar headdresses, and don reli-
gious robes, have one thing in common: God is not their
authority, and by extension, He is not the authority of those
they claim to lead. This has become the new religion of the
masses with “Jewish,” “Christian,” and even “Islamic” fla-
vors. This is the context in which the œya∆ should be read,
Certainly, those who are bent on denying the truth
[of Allah’s authority and power] and are bent on
inequity and transgression, Allah will indeed not
forgive them, nor will He guide them onto any pas-
sageway except the passageway that leads to Hell,
therein to dwell for eternity… (4:168–169). g

letters
Milestone for The
Ascendant Qur’an
Alf alf mabr¥k; inshœ’allœh in a few
weeks or months, ICIT will witness
another great milestone: none other
than the tafsør of the noble Qur’an,
The Ascendant Qur’an, celebrating its
tenth anniversary (first volume was
printed in 2008). The first of its kind
initiated by the late Dr. Kalim Sid-
diqui (ra˙matullœhi ‘alayhi) at the
request of the youth of South Africa
(in 1996), this great and noble task
fell on the shoulders of our dear
brother, Imam Mu˙ammad Ó. al-‘Œßø.
May the merciful Lord make his task
easy, œmøn.
With Volumes 11 and 12 already
uploaded to the ICIT digital library
or hard copies en route from the
printers along with other publica-
tions already there or on the way, this
will, inshœ’allœh only boost the morale
of the youth and the Ummah at large;
and yes, the emerging Islamic leader-
ship around the world as well.
The ICIT founders know that only
Allah (Â) will reward them in both
worlds. Again, by involving more sin-
cere and committed seekers of truth
and justice, can one truly succeed.
Muslim Abdullahi Mahmood
Abuja, Nigeria
Jerusalem
Jerusalem is not and will never be the
capital of Zionist Israel. It is a holy
city in a holy land that has been
occupied by mass murderers and
thieves from Europe, Russia, and
North America. Regardless of what
the US or anybody else says, these
thieves will have to vacate every inch
of Palestine unless they are prepared
to live in peace and harmony with
the original inhabitants of the holy
land: the Palestinians.
Sadiq Abul Khayr
Beirut, Lebanon
UN as US bully pulpit
The United Nations General Assem-
bly is a platform where diplomats
from around the world use diplomatic
language even if it is largely con-
trived, mostly grandstanding. The
UN Charter is frequently invoked
and appeals to uphold international
law (for all it’s worth) are made.
The US, however, adheres to no
norms. It uses the UN as a bully pul-
pit threatening member states with
dire consequences if they deviate
from the line set by Washington
regardless of how unreasonable or
unjust that may be.
Washington also has a habit of
sending pit bulls to the UN that
attack anyone disagreeing with US
position. If they could physically bite,
there is little doubt these US
(un)diplomats would have taken
chunks of flesh from those opposing
their position. It matters not whether
US representatives are men or
women or anything in-between.
By their atrocious conduct, Amer-
ican officials have become a laughing
stock of the world. They are living up
to the much deserved epithet of the
“Ugly American”!
P. Cartwright
Dundas, ON, Canada
Orangutan!
The New York Zoo has issued a
notice that an escaped orangutan
from the zoo (in 2016) has been
sighted at various times in Washing-
ton, DC and Florida. The zoo’s press
release further advises people to exer-
cise caution as the animal is danger-
ous and given to bouts of sudden rage.
Anyone who sees the orangutan
should immediately notify the zoo
management so that trained handlers
can bring the animal back to its right-
ful place: a cage.
John Freedman
New York, NY, US
Letters to
the Editor
Letters for publication should be
concise, appropriate to the subject
of the paper, and clearly marked
“for publication.” The writer’s name,
address, and telephone number must
be given. Letters may be edited or
abridged to fit. Send to:
Crescent International
P.O. Box 747, Gormley, ON,
L0H 1G0, Canada
email: crescent@ca.inter.net
Letters 39
 SUBSCRIPTION FORM
Subscribers in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Brunei should send forms and payment to the
Other Press Sdn Bhd in Malaysia. Subscribers in southern Africa should pay the Rand rate, and
send forms and payment to our South African office. All other subscriptions should be paid in
US dollars or pounds sterling, and sent to our North American or UK  offices.
In case of query, please email: crescent@ca.inter.net

Subscription rates
[Figures in brackets are institutional rates. Gifts to institutions may be made at the individual rates.]
Malaysia/ Singapore/ South Africa Asia/Africa UK/Europe North America/
Indonesia Brunei Rest of World

One year: RM 70 S/B$ 60 R.300.00 US$ 30 £ 24 (40) US$ 40 (60)

Students (1 yr): R.200.00 £ 16 US$ 30
Two years: RM 130 S/B$115 R.500.00 US$ 56 £ 44 (70) US$ 75 (100)
Five years: RM 310 S/B$270 R.1100.00 US$140 £110 (160) US$170 (270)

Please complete all sections of this form clearly and in BLOCK CAPITALS.

Please enter my subscription for (delete as applicable): 1 yr / 2 yrs / 5 yrs. Amount enclosed: _  _  _  _  _  _  _  _ _
[Please complete credit card payment form below, or send cheque/money order. Payments sent to our agent in Malaysia should be made
payable to ‘The Other Pres Sdn Bhd’. All other payments should be to ‘Crescent International’.]

Name: __________________________ _ __ ____________ Title: Mr / Mrs / Ms / Dr / Other: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Postal address: __________________________ _ ___________________________ _ __ __________ _____

__________________________ _ __ _________________________ _ __ _______________________ _

Zip/Postal Code: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Country: _______________ _ __ ____________ ___

Telephone no.: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ e-mail: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Credit card details

We regret we cannot accept card payments in South African rands.

Cardholder’s name: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ Please charge RM / S/B$ / US$ / GB£ _  _  _  _  _  _  _  to my card below.

(If different from above.)
(Delete currency as applicable.)
Billing address: _______________________ _____ _ __
Card type: VISA / MASTERCARD / EUROCARD /  SWITCH
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Card number: __ __ ___/ ______ _/ _____ __/ ______ _

Start date: _ _ _ _ _ _ / ______ Expiry date: _____ / ___ _ _ _

Country: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ Zip/Postal code: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Issue no. (if applicable) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Security code: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Telephone no.: _________________________ _ _ _ _ __

e-mail: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Signature: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Date: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Please mail this form and your payment to the correct Crescent office for your region:
Malaysia/Singapore/Brunei: Southern Africa: North America: UK/Europe/Rest of world:
The Other Press Sdn Bhd Crescent International Crescent International Crescent International
607 Mutiara Majestic P O Box 34111 P  O  Box 747 32 Warrington Avenue
46000 Petaling Jaya Erasmia 0023 Gormley Slough
Selangor South Africa Ontario L0H 1G0 SL1 3BQ
Malaysia Tel: (012) 370 1069 Canada UK
Tel: (603) 7781 3197 Tel(alt): (072) 588 1231 Tel: (905) 887 1119 / 8913 Tel: (01753) 523 719