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From: Paul Kneisel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 16:18:26 -0500
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [pttp] The Internet Anti-Fascist: Fri, 21 December 2001 -- 5:105
(#633)
__________________________________________________________________________
The Internet Anti-Fascist: Friday, 21 December 2001
Vol. 5, Number 105 (#633)
__________________________________________________________________________
News On Clerical Fascism:
01) Stephen Bates ([London] Guardian), "Priest linked to Franco to be
canonised: Pope helps Opus Dei founder towards sainthood," 21 Dec 01
Civil Liberties and the Current Hysteria
02) infoshop.org, "May Day 2000 arrestees convicted: Judge says
activists were "loitering while masked"; attorney plans appeal," 17
Dec 01
03) Timothy Egan (New York Times), "A NAtion Challenged: In Sacramento,
a Publisher's Questions Draw the Wrath of the Crowd," 19 Dec 01
News and Reports On Terrorism In Cuba
04) AP, "Cuban Anti-Terrorism Law Includes Death Penalty, 21 Dec 01
05) Granma International Digital, "Miami 5: US Must Act Against Miami's
Reactionary Terrorists," 20 Dec 01
Readers Write:
06) Milton John Kleim, Jr., "And When They Came For Me....," 18 Dec 01
Real Political Correctness:
07) AA News, "[William F.] Buckley Spins on Religious Terrorism, Blames
'Atheists Who Libe Un-Muslim' Lives: It's Arafat, Hussein and the
Assads -- Atheists all, says NR Guru," 20 Dec 01
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEWS ON CLERICAL FASCISM
01) Priest linked to Franco to be canonised: Pope helps Opus Dei founder
towards sainthood
Stephen Bates ([London] Guardian)
21 Dec 01
The Pope cleared the way yesterday for the imminent canonisation of one of
the most controversial figures in the Roman Catholic church over the last
100 years when he accepted the validity of a miracle said to have been
performed in the name of Josemaria Escriva, the Spanish founder of the
influential and secretive Opus Dei movement.
The miracle, which supposedly cured a Spanish doctor in 1992, clears the
way for the canonisation early next year of Escriva, said by some to have
been a friend of the fascist Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. Followers
now deny that Escriva was particularly close to Franco and claim he
protested against fascist slogans painted on church walls, but it is known
that he narrowly escaped execution by republican partisans.
The strenuous devotions of some Opus Dei followers, which can include self-
flagellation, and the success of some members in attaining senior positions
within the church and in secular governments such as Franco's, have caused
many to criticise the organisation. There are about 84,000 members of Opus
Dei worldwide, some 700 of them in Britain. John Paul II's long championing
of the cause of Escriva, who died in 1975, will be seen as a bolstering of
authoritarian and reactionary trends within the church, though more than
1,300 bishops petitioned the Vatican to launch the process of canonisation.
The Pope has created more than 200 saints since coming to office in 1978,
more than any of his predecessors. Among 13 names listed for canonisation
yesterday were the Italian Capuchin monk Padre Pio, who for more than 50
years until his death in 1968 carried weeping marks in his hands, feet and
side, reminiscent of the wounds of Christ, and the 16th century Mexican
Aztec known as Juan Diego, who may not have existed at all.
The church's acceptance of the authenticity of miracles committed in the
name of the three men is the final step before their canonisation which is
expected to take place after a meeting of Rome-based cardinals next month.
In Escriva's case he is said to have cured Manuel Nevado from chronic
radiodermatitis, caused by the doctor's prolonged exposure to x-ray
machinery. Dr Nevado was encouraged to pray to Escriva by a colleague and
was said to have been cured within a fortnight. The Vatican's medical
committee examined the doctor in 1992, 1994 and 1997 and pronounced the
cure "very rapid, complete, lasting and scientifically inexplicable".
Padre Pio is said to have cured an eight-year-old Italian boy of
meningitis, after his family prayed in the monk's preserved cell in the
hospital he founded. Juan Diego, who is supposed to have had visions of the
Virgin Mary who filled his cloak with out-of-season roses and inspired him
to build the basilica of Our Lady at Guadalupe, is claimed to have saved a
Mexican child who fell from a balcony in 1990.
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CIVIL LIBERTIES AND THE CURRENT HYSTERIA
02) May Day 2000 arrestees convicted: Judge says activists were "loitering
while masked"; attorney plans appeal
infoshop.org
17 Dec 01
The first chapter closed yesterday on an historic case involving New York
State's 150-year-old "mask law," says attorney Ron Kuby. Fourteen
anarchists who had been arrested on May Day 2000 for "masquerading in
public" at a march for undocumented workers' rights received a verdict of
guilty from Judge Ellen Coyne of Manhattan Criminal Court. She sentenced
them to two days' community services - prosecutors had asked for 15 - and
fines of $60 apiece, plus 15 days in jail if they don't complete the
community service.
Kuby says the case is the first-ever prosecution and conviction under the
mask law, which was enacted in the 1840s to help authorities suppress
uprisings by tenant farmers in the Hudson Valley. The farmers often
conducted midnight raids on landlords disguised in women's clothes or as
Indians, earning the nickname "the Calico Indians." Since then, it's
occasionally been used to justify arrests - in the late 1960s and early
1970s, for example, when New York police wanted to get drag queens off the
streets - but had never before traveled as far as a trial.
An appeal by the May Day defendants is certain by some time before May; the
judge granted them a stay of their sentences until then.
Coyne acquitted the 14 of unlawful assembly, but convicted them of
"loitering while masked." She did not explain the reasoning behind her
decision, however, which might have provided the defendants with some
guidance on how to argue their appeal. Kuby says he'll be basing his appeal
- as he did his arguments in this trial - partly on a novel decision
another judge handed down earlier in the case, in denying Kuby's motion to
dismiss. Judge Gregory Carro said that while the state can prohibit mask
wearing "to prevent identification during lawless activity," the
prohibition doesn't hold when masks are worn "as a necessary correlation
for freedom of association," which is protected by the First Amendment.
Civil rights lawyers will watch the outcome of the appeal closely, because
other cities including Philadelphia, Quebec City and Windsor, Ontario have
adopted their own mask laws in the two years since the anti-World Trade
Organization actions in Seattle. The defendants in the May Day case had the
right to wear masks, Kuby argues, since they had a reasonable expectation
that the police would target them if they revealed their identities. He'll
also be asking that the appeals judge declare the mask law
unconstitutional.
That reasonable expectation came from the behavior of police at other
protest events, such as the actions against the International Monetary Fund
and World Bank in Washington, DC weeks before May Day 2000. There, police
had photographed and videotaped activists to build profiles of them, and at
the May Day trial, the chief in charge of the arrests admitted that the
NYPD and other departments had been cooperating on profiling "Seattle-type"
activists in the crowd.
Adding another level of irony to yesterday's convictions was the fact that
the arrests took place on May Day itself - the worldwide workers' holiday
that became a tradition after the Haymarket bombing trial of the 1880s.
Eight anarchists were unjustly convicted of having plotted the bombing at a
labor rally in Chicago on May 1, 1886 and four were executed for the crime.
The prosecutor urged the judge to consider "the fact that they are
sympathetic to anarchist tenets" in imposing her sentence yesterday -
without elaborating on what those tenets are. Her statement brought to mind
the early years of the twentieth century, when people who supported
anarchist ideals were assumed to be "undesirable." Congress passed three
separate laws between 1900 and the end of the First World War aimed at
keeping anarchists out of the US and deporting those
- - - - -
03) A Nation Challenged: In Sacramento, a Publisher's Questions Draw the
Wrath of the Crowd
Timothy Egan (New York Times)
19 Dec 01
SACRAMENTO -- Christmas break usually leaves the campus of California State
University here to roaming roosters and janitors. But the school's
administrators have been busy all week, fielding questions over an
incident last week in which a commencement speaker was booed off the stage
for calling for the protection of civil liberties in the
government's response to terrorism.
"I have been a university president for 26 years, and I've never seen
anything like what happened last Saturday," said Donald R. Gerth, president
of the university. Dr. Gerth was on the stage in front of a crowd of at
least 10,000 graduates and guests on Saturday night when the speaker, Janis
Besler Heaphy, the president and publisher of The Sacramento Bee, raised a
number of questions about the government response to terrorism.
When Ms. Heaphy urged that citizens safeguard their rights to free speech,
against unlawful detainment and for a fair trial she was loudly booed. When
she wondered what would happen if racial profiling became routine, the
audience cheered. The speech was halted as Dr. Gerth urged the crowd to be
civil.
Ms. Heaphy tried to finish. But just as she argued that "the Constitution
makes it our right to challenge government policies," a clapping chant and
further heckling forced her off the stage.
Memory has etched different moments into different people's minds. "It was
when she started defending habeas corpus that things went downhill," said
Robert Jones, a university vice president.
But some students, while saying that the rowdiness was limited to a very
vocal bleacher crowd, criticized Ms. Heaphy for bringing up too many
philosophical questions arising from the terrorist attacks on a day that
they said should have been light and celebratory.
"She started out O.K., promising to be brief," said Britt Randall, who
graduated from California State last May and was attending as a guest. "But
then she goes right into Sept. 11, and she goes on, and on, and on."
The university did not keep a video or audio record of the speech,
officials said. But a home video of the commencement address taken by a
member of the audience shows that the heckling started about five minutes
into a nine-minute speech, and grew as Ms. Heaphy raised questions about
civil liberties violations.
The actions that Ms. Heaphy cited as questionable -- from expanded
wiretapping to harnessing the press, to unlawful detainment -- were
applauded by many in the audience.
"It was scary," said Bob Buckley, a computer sciences professor and
president of the faculty senate. "For the first time in my life, I can see
how something like the Japanese internment camps could happen in our
country."
All week, the speech has been the talk of Sacramento, and among civil
liberties advocates and their conservative critics.
"We've always known that if you took the Bill of Rights to the street and
asked most people to sign it, you would be unable to get a majority of
Americans to do so," said Ramona Ripston, executive
director of the American Civil Liberties Union chapter in Los Angeles.
Conservative talk radio stations in California have criticized the speaker,
a longtime newspaper executive, for the political content of the speech.
Ms. Heaphy refused repeated requests for an interview.
In letters to the editor carried by The Bee this week, most writers were
critical of Ms. Heaphy.
"Although I think it was a shame that she was unable to finish the speech,
I feel that she brought the reaction of the crowd on herself," wrote Jason
Collins, identified as a student who witnessed the speech. "The consensus
was that this forum was neither the time nor the place to be making such
strong political statements as she did."
Mr. Gerth, the university president, said that nothing in the speech
diverged from a basic American civics lesson. "It is not only thoughtful,
but extremely responsible," he said of the speech.
Ms. Heaphy did not question the war effort or the buildup of domestic
security. She praised the call to patriotism. But she repeatedly questioned
whether American values were being lost in the response by law enforcement.
"No one argues the validity and need for both retaliation and security,"
she said in the speech. "But to what lengths are we willing to go to
achieve them? Specifically, to what degree are we willing to compromise our
civil liberties in the name of security?"
University officials say the graduates themselves -- about 1,100 students,
or barely a tenth of the audience -- were polite and did not take part in
the heckling. The videotape is unclear on that point. But it does show
sporadic hooting, heckling and foot-stomping from the stands.
Cal State Sacramento, which is far less known than other big institutions
in the state system, has more than 27,000 students. It serves as a commuter
school for the Sacramento area, as well as a place for international
students to study.
Administrators say there have been no conflicts over the authorities'
questioning of some students from Middle Eastern countries, and few
protests -- one way or the other -- about the war.
"We had a teddy-bear drive to get at least one bear for each of the
victims' families from Sept. 11," said Artemio Pimentel, the student body
president.
Mr. Pimentel, who presents himself with a business card and occupies an
office with slogans from past campus elections -- "safer campus, no new
fees" -- said he was horrified by the jeering and heckling.
"I've spoken to a lot of students since this happened," he said, "and they
all say this is something they've never seen in their entire lives. People
were sickened by this. But to be fair, a lot of people are just tired of
hearing about 9/11."
A text of Ms. Heaphy's speech shows she intended to end on an upbeat note:
"America was founded on the belief that the freedom to think as you will
and speak as you think are essential to democracy. Only by exercising those
rights can you ensure their continued existence." But she quit about 500
words before that closing.
Mr. Buckley, the faculty president, said the incident was not unique to
this campus.
"I think she could have given the speech at any university in America and
the reaction would have been the same," he said. "People in this country
are hurt, angry and vengeful. There's a lot of emotion out there."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEWS AND REPORTS ON TERRORISM IN CUBA
04) Cuban Anti-Terrorism Law Includes Death Penalty
AP
21 Dec 01
HAVANA -- With President Fidel Castro presiding, Cuba's legislature
unanimously approved an expanded anti-terrorism law Thursday that
reaffirmed the use of the death penalty in the most extreme cases.
"I have not the slightest doubt about the death penalty as an appropriate
punishment in terrorism cases," Castro said.
A full text of the legislation was not immediately made public, but
televised news reports indicated that it expanded upon the its previous
definition of terrorism.
The new legislation includes punishment for anyone convicted of using the
Internet or e-mail to plan violent attacks.
National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon said that while Cuba opposed
the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, it opposes just as
strongly the United States' subsequent war in Afghanistan aimed at
destroying the network blamed for the acts of terror.
- - - - -
05) Miami 5: US Must Act Against Miami's Reactionary Terrorists
Granma International Digital
20 Dec 01
U.S. authorities must act against the Miami mafia and extreme right,
affirms Fernando Gonzalez in his statement, after being unjustly sentenced
to 19 years' imprisonment, during which he presented documented evidence of
the terrorist actions of the CANF and other hardcore right-wing groups
The Cuban-Americans who today, after 40 years, continue to engage in acts
of terrorism against Cuba are clearly linked to the darkest episodes in
recent U.S. history: the assassination of President Kennedy, the Watergate
scandal, the murder of Orlando Letelier and Ronnie Moffit, and the
clandestine supply of weapons to the Nicaraguan contras, in violation of
legislation passed by the U.S. Congress.
These charges are part of the statement presented by Fernando Gonzalez
Llort, sentenced in Miami to 19 years' imprisonment at the close of this
edition, in a trial during which the accused became the accusers, by
demonstrating the long chain of terrorist activities against Cuba committed
by right-wing groups created, trained and financed by the CIA.
Utilizing documents declassified by the U.S. government, articles in major
U.S. newspapers and interviews broadcast on Miami radio stations, Fernando
described the genesis of hardcore extreme right within U.S. politics.
He stressed that those who believe that Cuban-American radio stations in
Miami and extremist Cuban-American organizations in that locality represent
the ideas of the majority of Cuban Americans in that city are falling into
precisely the same trap laid by that small but economically powerful
sector, in its attempt to present an image of unity and of representing the
sentiments of hundreds of thousands of Cubans living there, when this is
not the case.
Joaqumn Mindez, Fernando's lawyer, refuted prosecution lies and theories
designed to have him sentenced to more than 29 years in prison. The lawyer
stated that in 10 years of practice in Miami, he had never seen sanctions
for state crimes receive the maximum term established for a first offense,
as has already been the case with the other three Cuban compatriots whose
hearings preceded Fernando's.
Joaqumn Mindez's professional conduct had already provoked the rage of
Miami extreme-right groups, who organized demonstrations outside the
lawyer's home, calling him a traitor.
In his statement, Fernando commented that one of the documents declassified
by the U.S. government in 1997 and 1998 referred to a meeting that included
Richard Nixon, then vice president in the Eisenhower administration, which
approved a covert plan of action against the Castro regime. In a memorandum
of that meeting, General Goodpaster commented that the president stated
that he couldn't think of a better way of handling the situation, but the
problem was leaks and lack of security. Thus everybody would have to be
ready to swear that Eisenhower knew nothing about it... and that none of
those attending the meeting should be seen to be connected in any way with
that plan.
The accused asked in his statement: "What can we expect in 30 to 40 years,
when it is decided to declassify the documents on what is happening today?"
He cited the cases of Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch, both of whom
have an extensive history of links to the CIA, and who masterminded the
sabotage of a Cuban commercial airliner in mid-flight on October 6, 1976,
causing the deaths of 73 innocent persons.
Orlando Bosch, Fernando pointed out, is living freely in Miami, thanks to
the parole granted by former president George Bush, in spite of being
considered a dangerous and a notorious terrorist by authorities in the U.S.
Justice Department.
He charged that the influence and pressure exerted by Ileana Ros-Lehtinen,
Republican congresswoman from Florida and protector of terrorists, was
behind the presidential parole granted to Bosch.
The evidence presented by Fernando's defense confirms that Orlando Bosch
continues conspiring in Miami to commit acts of terrorism against Cuba. The
FBI is aware of documents concerned and nobody has arrested him.
On August 22, The Miami Herald published a full-page advertisement in which
the so-called Cuban Patriotic Front stated that it had established as one
of its principles the recognition of and support for the use of any method
to fight against Cuba. Fernando stated that Bosch's signature appears on
the list, and that he is acting with total impunity.
The Cuban defendant noted that the case of Posada Carriles is even more
shameful. After escaping from a Venezuelan jail where he was being held for
his participation in the sabotage of the Cuban commercial airliner in 1976,
he surfaced in Central America under an assumed name, on the orders of
Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, a military aide to the National Security
Council during the Reagan administration, and involved in an illegal
activity, the Iran-Contra scandal, subsequently investigated by a special
prosecutor.
All of that is documented, Fernando stressed in his statement, and the U.S.
security services are aware of it. They also know that it was the Cuban
American National Foundation that financed and organized Posada Carriles'
escape from a Venezuelan prison.
He affirmed that Posada Carriles and a further three Cuban-Americans living
in Miami, with a long history of acts of terrorism against Cuba and also on
U.S. territory, are currently being held in Panama for their role in a
conspiracy to detonate C-4 explosives in Panama City's university
auditorium, in which Fidel Castro would have been addressing thousands of
Panamanian students.
Under the noses of U.S. authorities, funds for Posada Carriles' defense are
being collected publicly in Miami, and the legal defense of those
terrorists is being coordinated, while the conditions are being created for
springing them from jail, Fernando commented.
After demonstrating further proof of complicity between the CIA and the
terrorists, Fernando asked, "What other option is open to the Cuban people
to defend their sovereignty and security?"
He denounced the prosecution's attempt, with a total display of hypocrisy,
to employ throughout the trial the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt
Organizations Act, known as RICO (passed over 20 years ago by the U.S.
Congress to combat organized crime and never applied to any terrorist group
in Miami), against defense witnesses, so as to prevent the exposure of
criminal activities in which the Miami mafia had participated.
Fernando argued that the acts of terrorism against Cuban tourism
facilities, at a time when the island's economy was recovering in the '90s
were financed and organized by CANF. Luis Posada Carriles, the principal
executor of those actions, admitted to The New York Times his
responsibility in planning them and said that they were funded by that
Miami-based organization. In the same interview, Posada Carriles affirmed
that U.S. authorities had not made any effort to interrogate him on the
terrorist attacks against hotels in Havana.
A few days after that interview, the anti-Cuba press in Miami took it upon
itself to erase Posada Carriles' confessions from the community memory and
keep these serious statements from appearing in the local press, by
alleging that President Fidel Castro was ill, thus
pandering to one of that community's obsessions.
In the final part of his statement, after revealing other overwhelming
evidence, Fernando stated: "It is the authorities of this country who must
decide to act on a principled basis and shake off the pernicious influence
of a small but economically powerful group of mafiosi and extreme right
wingers within the Cuban community in Miami.
"In these years of imprisonment," he emphasized, "the dignity I have
learned from my people and their history will always be with me."
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READERS WRITE:
07) And When They Came For Me....
Milton John Kleim, Jr.
18 Dec 01
First they came for the "evil terrorists."
I hated the "terrorists" for what Bush said they did, so I didn't speak
out.
Then they came for the pot smokers in wheelchairs.
I believed marijuana was a danger to my children, so I didn't speak out.
Then they came for the "anti-American liberals."
I didn't agree with the liberal perspective, so I didn't speak out.
And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.
Apologies to Pastor Martin Niemoeller, who hoped it wouldn't happen again.
Apologies for both paraphrasing his famous verses, as well as my foolish
vote for Bush.
- - - - -
Kleim was, at one time, headed the cybercell of William Pierce's neo-Nazi
National Alliance. He has since left the group.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
REAL POLITICAL CORRECTNESS:
It's from the rightwing authoritarians and always has been
08) [William F.] Buckley Spins on Religious Terrorism, Blames 'Atheists Who
Live Un-Muslim' Lives: It's Arafat, Hussein and the Assads --
Atheists all, says NR Guru
AA News
20 Dec 01
Forget Osama bin-Laden, Al Qaeda and a wave of Islamic theocratic
fanaticism sweeping the Middle East and threatening to destabilize regions
from the Balkans to South Asia and beyond. Forget, too, the endless chants
of praise to Allah, promises of a stable of dark-eyed concubines and
virgins for those who die in religious battle or "jihad" against the
infidel. The bulk of international terrorism is due not to Islamic
theocratic zeal and religious intolerance, says conservative wordsmith
William F. Buckley, but rather "well-known atheists who live un-Muslim
lives and have persecuted unto death the Muslim movements in their
countries."
The guilty "Atheists" in Buckley's post-September 11 spin scenario are
Yasser Arafat of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, Saddam Hussein of
Iraq, and Syria's powerful Assad family.
Atheists all?
Buckley made the charges in his December 14, 2001 column "A Way To Go"
("It's the Regime, Stupid") published in his National Review magazine.
Considered a founding member and icon in the modern American conservative
movement, Buckley has also been a staunch defender of the Christian faith,
beginning with his critique "God and Man at Yale," through his historic
debate with Atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair, and now his latest spin trying
to deflect the September 11 terrorist attacks in Washington and New York
onto -- not Koran-quoting zealots, but rather -- Atheists.
Where did he get such a notion?
Buckley begins by citing a recent article by Boston University professor of
international relations Angelo M. Cordevilla -- a "tough hombre" -- in the
latest issue of the Claremont Review of Books. The publication is
affiliated with the conservative Claremont Institute, and this "tough
hombre" proposes bellicose moves in the global arena to combat terrorism,
beginning with "a declaration of war against the Assad regime by the U.S.,
Israel, and Turkey." Buckley goes on to inject his own nostrums, and
summarizes Cordevilla's points about the "war on terrorism," homeland
security and the task of destroying elements of the al Qaeda organization.
It's often unclear which idea belongs to which writer, but both men seem be
on the same ideological and strategic frequency.
Then Buckley asserts that "The principal sponsors of the terrorists are not
religious fanatics." A quote follows, possibly referring to a statement
from Cordevilla -- that Arafat, Saddam Hussein and the Assad family of
Syria are "icons of Islamism despite the fact that they are well-known
atheists..."
No proof to this claim is offered, and Buckley proceeds to urge us to
"Destroy those regimes," and realize "that attempts to appeal to moderation
don't work, and in fact, reach back to bite us.," September 11, then, is
re-cast not as a militant Islamic Jihad by interests intent on establishing
a post-modern Koranic Caliphate of sorts throughout the Muslim world, but
terrorism by "atheists."
Attaching the "A-word" to any of these individuals is a formidable task,
but one not neglected by either Christian fundamentalists even further to
the right than Buckley, but some Islamic militants as well. The case for
saying that Arafat, Hussein or the Assads are Atheists, appears based on a
paucity of evidence. To the contrary...
* Laurie Myloroie, author of the book "Study of Revenge: Saddam Hussein's
Unfinished War Against America," is one of those who argues that Iraq is a
key component in Osama bin Laden's network (or what might remain of it), a
view not shared by all Arabists and intelligence officials. Even so,
Myloroie recently told the Voice of America as recently as October 5, 2001,
"Both bin Laden and Saddam are Sunni Muslims." That accounts, in part, for
Hussein's hostility toward his Shi'ite neighbors in Iran. In terms of
cementing his power in Iraq and making that country a major player in
Middle East politics, of course, Hussein will gladly use religious
rhetoric, symbols and institutions when it is in his interest to do so.
Iraq is more "secular" in certain respects than other nations in the
region, and Myloroie noted that Hussein rose to power "by suppressing all
religious institutions and religious leadership that they thought would be
independent from (his) control." Arguing against the connection between
bin Laden and Hussein is a quote from the Al Qaeda founder insisting that
Hussein is an "atheist" and that his "God" is the Ba'athi Party which
controls the government.
And there is more. Since the Gulf War, Hussein has embarked on a carefully
scripted campaign of courting Islamic religious interests, and has even
constructed the world's largest mosque in Damascus as a symbol of his new
union between church and state.
* Hafez-al-Assad headed the military directorate of the Syrian Ba'athi
Party (which has been at odds with its opposite numbers in Iraq), and in
1970 overthrew the government of president Nur al-Din a;l-Atasi. Three
years later, riots erupted after Assad -- elected president for a seven-
year term in a popular plebiscite -- dropped a requirement from the
nation's constitution that the president must be a Muslim. Assad was
accused of heading an "atheist" regime.
Even so, Syria partnered with Egypt in 1973 to declare war on Israel -- a
conflict with deep cultural, religious and historical roots.
Assad's Ba'athi ideology resulted in Syria being considered part of the
"Soviet camp" in the final years of the Soviet Union; but in respect to
religion, as with the case of Hussein in Iraq, Assad thought in terms of
power and political consolidation. Following the 1979 Islamic Revolution
in Iran, Muslim groups staged popular uprisings throughout the region and
Shi'ite doctrine was seen as both a religious and political threat. The
Syrian army quashed riots in Aleppo, Homs and Hama, and Assad began making
public declarations concerning his country's Islamic roots. Members of the
Muslim Brotherhood tried to assassinate Assad in 1980, and later in the
year when the Iran-Iraq war began, Syria backed the clerical regime in Iran
-- a move said to reflect the conflict between Ba'athi groups in Damascus
and Iraq.
Even with the alliance between Assad's government and the theocracy in
Tehran, the Muslim Brotherhood again tried to stage uprisings in hopes of
establishing its own clerical regime. When Syria withdrew from several
areas of Lebanon following attacks by the Israeli army, this resulted in
the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem issuing a fatwa against Assad for presumably
treating the Palestinian Liberation Organization poorly.
In June, 2000, the older Assad died and was succeeded by his son, Bashar,
who began a program of minor political reforms. During a papal visit last
year to Damascus, Assad accused Jews of "trying to kill the principles of
all religions," and noted that Jews had supposedly murdered both Jesus
Christ and the Muslim prophet Muhammad. The religious dimension behind the
pope's historic visit to Syria was complicated further when international
Christian leaders expressed their disapproval.
One example of how the Assads embraced religion occurred in December, 1999
when the government called for public prayers asking God to deliver rain in
the midst of an acute draught ravaging the country. CNN noted, "Muslim
clerics and officials reiterated Assad's call for prayer and reminded
Syrians of 'the sacred blessing that is water.' Muslims were asked to
perform a "purifying fast for three days..."
* Charges that PLO leader Yasser Arafat is an "atheist" are equally
problematic. The accusation is made occasionally by apocalyptic
Christians, and ministries engaged in aggressive missionary work in Israel
such as the Ark of Salvation group. They insist, in the words of one
cleric, that the Palestinian Covenant is "an excuse in pure unadulterated
atheist Marxism," and note that terms like "Islam," "Allah" and "Muhammad"
are absent. Indeed, the Covenant (adopted in 1964 and revised in 1968),
"Al-Mihaq Al Watani Al-Filastini" does not include this language.
Whether the PLO is "secular" is a subject of contentious debate. Right-wing
Israelis often insist that the Arafat organization is indistinguishable
from militant Islamic groups. Indeed, the logo on many PLO publications
often depicts the region on the Temple Mount known as the Dome of the Rock,
a devotional locus for Muslim, Christian and Jewish believers. Arafat
prays in public, and even if the PLO is "secular" to some extent, this does
not mean that Arafat, or any other PLO official, is an "atheist."
In fact, "atheist" is a term used in Middle Eastern discourse to often
refer to those who believe in religions other than the peculiar and
discreet faith of the individual making the accusation. A Shi'ite may use
the term against a Christian or Jew (and perhaps even vice versa!).
Regimes that do not reflect a "correct" theocratic bent, or have secular
components -- such as women not being required in Iraq to wear a burqa --
can lead to misuse of the term. In the Middle East alphabet soup of labels
and descriptions, "atheist" means different things to different speakers.
A "secularist" -- or an individual accused of being one -- can easily be
branded an "atheist" without much need for further explanation.
But if anyone associated with a command of language and fluidity of
discourse should know better, it should be William F. Buckley. He is
considered the man that popularized the use of terms like "oxymoron" in
everyday American parlance, and both admirers and critics note his talent
at "beating people over the year with a thesaurus." A "secularist" or
individual who embraces a different religion, especially one who navigates
the treacherous political waters of the Middle East though, is not
automatically an "atheist." If anything, the shabby charge serves to
divert us from a blatant truth -- that the violence of September 11 was the
result, in part, of religious fervor, and the designs of those who would
transform the earth into a theocracy.
"Atheists" conducting a religious Crusade or Jihad? Now there's an
oxymoron from the man who should know better.
* * * * *
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is
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__________________________________________________________________________
FASCISM:
We have no ethical right to forgive, no historical right to forget.
(No permission required for noncommercial reproduction)
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