By Eduardo Galeano

(Eduardo Galeano is a Uruguayan writer and journalist and author of The Open Veins of Latin America, Memories of Fire and Mirrors/An Almost Universal History.)
To justify itself, state terrorism creates terrorists: it sows hatred and harvests alibis. Everything indicates that the bloodbath in Gaza, which its creators claim was designed to eliminate terrorists, will result in a proliferation of them. Since 1948 Palestinians have lived in perpetual humiliation. They can’t breathe without permission. They have lost their country, their land, their water, their freedom, their everything.
They don’t even have the right to elect their own leaders: when they vote for someone they aren’t supposed to vote for, they are punished. Gaza is being punished. It has been transformed into a rat’s nest without an exit since Hamas fairly won the 2006 elections. Something similar occurred in 1932 when the Communist Party won in El Salvador. Drenched in blood, Salvadoreans paid for their misbehaviour and since that time have lived under military dictatorships. Democracy is a luxury that not all peoples deserve.
***
The homemade rockets that the militants of Hamas blindly launch into land that used to be theirs and was usurped by the Israeli occupation, are the offspring of impotence. And desperation, bordering on suicidal madness, is the mother of the futile boasting that denies the existence of the state of Israel – while an extremely efficient war of extermination has been denying Palestine’s right to exist for years.
Little of Palestine remains. Bit by bit Israel is erasing it from the map.
The settlers invade, accompanied by soldiers who correct the borders as they go. Bullets sanctify the pillage, in legitimate defence.
There is no war of aggression that doesn’t claim to be a defensive war. Hitler invaded Poland to prevent Poland from invading Germany. Bush invaded Iraq to keep Iraq from invading the world. In each of its defensive wars, Israel swallows up another piece of Palestine and the snacking continues. This process is justified with land deeds granted by the Bible, by the 2000 years of persecution that the Jewish people suffered and the panic generated by the sight of Palestinians lying in ambush.
***
Israel is the country that has never complied with UN resolutions or recommendations, never abides by judgements of international courts and mocks international law. It is also the only country that has legalized the torture of prisoners.
What gives them the right to deny the rights of others? Who is granting them the impunity with which they are carrying out the slaughter of Gaza? The Spanish government couldn’t bomb the Basque region to wipe out ETA, or Britain invade Ireland to liquidate the IRA, with impunity. Perhaps the tragedy of the Holocaust introduced a policy of eternal impunity? Or is it the all-powerful US that gave the green light and has in Israel the most unfailing of vassals.
***
The Israeli army, the most sophisticated and modern in the world, knows whom to kill. It doesn’t kill by error. It kills for horror. The civilian victims are referred to as ‘collateral damage’, according to the dictionary of other imperial wars. In Gaza, three of every ten instances of collateral damage are children. Then there are thousands of wounded and disabled, victims of the technology of human butchery that the military industry is successfully applying in this operation of ethnic cleansing.

And as usual – it is always this way – in Gaza for every hundred Palestinians killed one Israeli is killed.

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from Heinrich Buecker
Coop Cafe, Berlin, Rochstr.3

Please take a look at the international declaration initiated by small businesses and international artists in Berlin

If you would like to have your name added to the list please reply to this e-mail.
send name or name of organisation – work or activity – city/country – and a website address if you like
Thank you very much

Heinrich Buecker
Coop Cafe, Berlin, Rochstr.3

War is illegal

Against a background of escalating ecological crises, and the fact that large parts of the world´s population are being exposed to extreme poverty, inhuman working conditions and increasing social tensions, the annual global military expenditure has risen to more than 1000 billion dollars.
The military-industrial complex of just a few G8 countries is responsible for the overwhelming part of this spending, causing incalcuable social and ecological consequences.

Unequal distribution of global resources, increasingly controlled by large multinational companies, global debt policy and unfair international trading practices ultimately could not be maintained without military security. In many countries the military is used to repress critical opposition.

The terror attacks of September 11, 2001 are increasingly used to justify systematic surveillance and the dismantling of constitutional rights. Even European countries have helped to establish Guantanamo-like secret prisons, where torture in all probability takes place.

Iraq was attacked based on falsified evidence causing the death of hundreds of thousands of people, widespread destruction, destabilization and contamination with cancer-causing depleted uranium munitions.
Now plans to attack Iran and the possibility of a new World War have been made public, meeting resistance even from moderate elements within the military due to the unforeseeable consequences

Faced with the choice between a war, that according to some western leaders, will last for many years or a possible peaceful transformation we support the following demands:
1) [Impeachment proceedings against US President Bush and US Vice President Cheney before the 2008 election, a demand raised in solidarity with large parts of the US public and some members of US Congress.] Furthermore prosecution by the International Court of Justice of G. W. Bush, R. Cheney and other officials from various countries for waging wars of aggression contrary to international law and committing crimes against humanity.

2) International investigation of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. They are used as the central justification for the “War on Terror”, but well documented evidence shows that the official explanation of 9/11 cannot be correct. International personalities in science, politics, and culture, including high-ranking military veterans, have called for a new investigation.

3) Immediate military withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq, and no attack against Iran. International prohibition of war as a means of conflict resolution Military intervention and export of weapons should be criminalized.
In a civilized society torture must be prohibited in any form.

4) Conversion of military industries to civilian purposes and the development of ecological and sustainable energy resources. According to the UN environmental agency, a fraction of the annual global defence expenditure could ensure that all humans have access to clean water and a basic supply of food and healthcare.
This statement is based on a commitment to non-violence and tolerance of all ethnic groups and religions. Two devastating World Wars and historical catastrophes like the Nazi Holocaust must always remind us of the worst consequences of nationalism, racism and incitement to war.

Sign this statement, pass it on, whatever we can do. It is up to us.

(After US-President Obama took office the demand for impeachment in #1 has been placed in parentheses. The text of the declaration remains unchanged.)

to sign please use the mailform or send email to
support@war-is-illegal.org
or warisillegal@fastmail.fm

2600 signatures since Nov. 29, 2007
http://www.war-is-illegal.org/

By Pilirani Semu-Banda

LILONGWE, Mar 5 (IPS) – Sitting side by side, clothed in bright traditional outfits complete with headgear, they looked like any of the women who always dance and ululate for politicians at rallies.

But Loveness Gondwe and Beatrice Mwale are exceptional: with their newly formed Rainbow Coalition party, they are vying for the country’s top most positions of president and vice president respectively in Malawi’s May 19, 2009 presidential elections.

Malawi’s current president, Bingu wa Mutharika, has also picked a woman, Joyce Banda, to be his running-mate in the elections. But it is yet to be seen if the women will indeed make it to the top.

Such political positions have so far been a domain for men in Malawi – a woman’s role has mainly been limited to dancing and cheering for their leaders – mostly men.

For instance, Gondwe, the country’s first female presidential aspirant, has not had it easy in politics. She formed the Rainbow Coalition Party because the Alliance for Democracy (Aford), the party she has represented since 1994 – rising higher than any woman before her in the national assembly, where she was voted to the position of First Deputy Speaker – refused to endorse her as presidential candidate.

“I am an achiever and capable of bringing positive change to people’s lives and I am qualified to lead this nation,” Gondwe told the local media upon presenting her presidential nomination letter to the Malawi Electoral Commission.

She said if elected, she would like to make more employment opportunities available to the youth, in a country where the unemployment rate is at 45.5 percent.

Gondwe also aims to improve the conditions of service for civil servants who are the lowly paid and to support small holder farmers who play a big role in Malawi’s economy, which is predominantly agricultural.

“I would also like to see the maternal death rate going down so that women are able to participate in development work,” Gondwe said. Malawi’s maternal mortality is one of the highest in the continent at 807 deaths per 100,000 live births.

Banda, President Mutharika’s running-mate, who was Malawi’s foreign minister before her appointment, also told the media that she has been fighting a hostile environment as a female politician.

“I have had to learn how to navigate and find my way. People have seen my performance as a member of parliament. I am not emotional but solid and realistic. I have done my best as a cabinet minister and I will prevail in any political, social and economic storm,” said Banda.

All women vying for political positions in Malawi are benefitting from the support being rendered by the 50:50 Campaign, a national programme on increasing women’s participation in politics and decision-making positions. The campaign is being coordinated by the Ministry of Women and Child Development with support from international donors including the United Nations.

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By Erica Thompson

“An historical event is underway in El Salvador. For the first time, a government especially dedicated to the popular sectors is possible. The current government, subjected to the interests of small groups, has shown their inability to lead the country for the common good. A new government is born precisely of the hope of citizens to break the pattern and install a government that will be at the service of the entire Salvadoran population.”
—Program of Government, FMLN

In less than three weeks, millions will mobilize to vote for El Salvador’s next president. It is widely believed that the results of the March 15 election will open a new progressive chapter in the country’s long, violent history of military and civil dictatorships. A victory for the candidate of the leftist Farabundo Martí Front for National Liberation (FMLN), Mauricio Funes, and his running mate Salvador Sanchez Cerén seems imminent. Despite a dirty campaign against the left, rampant fraud from the right, and heavy police presence at the polls in legislative and municipal elections on January 18th, voters catapulted the FMLN into position as the strongest political force in the country, setting the stage for another win in March.

The FMLN’s path to national influence has been cleared with machetes and defended with roadblocks, organized with political caravans and public forums, door-to-door discussions, thousands of marches, inspiring speeches, and political struggle within the government. Its transition from peasant uprising to major political party has been made possible by unions, students and campesinos, vendors and families, teachers and nurses, mothers and migrants.
On the electoral front, Funes has maintained solid backing from El Salvador’s broad-based social movement, and the party has found new key support from a sizable Salvadoran immigrant business community in the United States. Also rallying to Funes’ side are rural communities and small- and middle-sized business sectors in El Salvador that are outraged with the ruling Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) party’s economic policies and systematic siphoning of public resources.

ARENA has tried to divide support for the FMLN by portraying a criminal image of the party and attributing its rising popularity to Funes, a journalist who critics call a “political moderate who only serves for the photos.” But the FMLN’s current popularity is not an isolated phenomenon and Mauricio Funes isn’t the anomaly the right would like us to believe. It is true that Funes’ candidacy has strengthened the FMLN’s chances of winning. His 20 years of investigative journalism and his popular morning news show, “The Interview,” which provided a forum for the public to challenge the government’s actions and official reporting, has given millions of Salvadorans a long look at Funes and a wide-open view into his politics. For this work he is widely respected. It is also true that the FMLN’s current popularity is very much in line with increasing electoral gains the party has made in past elections.

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A lost tomb and a sphinx in Luxor, painted anthropoid coffins in Dahshour and a noble woman’s tomb in Saqqara. Nevine El-Aref reports on the most recent discoveries in Egypt

It seems that the recent archaeological season has been very successful. Wherever archaeologists have dug, they have come up with amazing and important discoveries.

On Luxor’s west bank, major discoveries have been uncovered in the noblemen’s necropolis at Sheikh Abdel-Gourna and at Kom Al-Hittan, where the temple of the 18th-Dynasty Pharaoh Amenhotep III is located.

After almost 130 years of exploring the sands of the archaeological hill of Sheikh Abdel-Gourna, the tomb of Amenhotep, a deputy of the overseer of seal-bearers during the reign of Pharaoh Tuthmosis III — known among Egyptologists as “the lost tomb” — has been found by a Belgian archaeological mission.

Amenhotep’s tomb was previously discovered during the early 1880s by Egyptologist Karl Pieh, who also drew a sketch plan of its interior design. But unfortunately over the span of time it was re- buried in sand and its exact location was subsequently forgotten. In the early 2000s traces of the tomb were revealed during work on the tomb of Sennefer, the overseer of seal-bearers. Excavators found a remarkable sandstone statue dedicated to Amenhotep, and further excavations at the site revealed more about the lost tomb that early this year led to the mission’s finding the main entrance to the tomb chapel.

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(via Red State Rebels)

From Rebel News & Views

Dear Friends,

For many years, my friends have been requesting me to write this very famous poem of Dr. Iqbal, the Famous Urdu poet of India for non urdu readers. Finally, I have written it in Roman script. The first part of this poem deals with Iqbal complaining to God about the Muslim plight and the second part is the answer from God. The translation of this poem by an unknown person is included.

Asghar Vasanwala

Shikwa or Complaint [to God] by Allama Mohammad Iqbal – Roman Urdu

Kyon Ziaan kaar banun, sood framosh rahoon?
Fikr-e-farda na karum, mahw-e-ghum-e-dosh rahoon,

Naale bulbul ke sunoon, aurhama tan gosh rahoon,
Hamnawa main bhi koi gul hoon ke khamosh rahoon?

Jurrat aamoz miri taab-e-sakhun hai mujhko,
Shikwa Allah se khakam badahan hai mujhko.
_______________

Ai Khuda shikwa-e-arbab-e-wafa bhi sun le,
Khu gar-e-hamd se thora sa gila bhi sun le.

Thi tau maujood azal se hi tiri zaat-e-qadim,
Phool tha zeb-e-chaman, par na pareshan thi shamim;

Shart insaaf hai, ai, sahib-e-altaf-e-amim,
Boo-e-gul phailti kis tarah jo hoti na nasim?
_______________

Hum se pahle tha ajab tere jahan ka manzir,
Kahin masjood the pather, kahin maabood shajar,

Khugar-e-paikar-e-mahsoos thi insaan ki nazar,
Maanta phir koi un-dekhe Khuda ko kyonkar?

Tujhko maalum hai leta tha koi naam tira?
Quwwat-e-baazoo-e-Muslim ne kiya Kaam tira!
_______________

Bas rahe the yahin salijuq bhi, toorani bhi,
Ahl-e-chin cheen mein, Iran mein sasaani bhi,

Isi maamoore mein aabad the Yunaani bhi,
Isi duniya mein Yahudi bhi the, Nusraani bhi,

Par tire naam pe talwar uthai kis ne,
Baat jo bigri huri thi who banaai kis ne
_______________

The hameen ek tire maarka aaraaon mein!
Khushkion mein kabhi larte, kabhi dariyaon mein,

Di azaanen kabhi Europe ke kaleesaaon mein,
Kabhi Africa ke tapte hue sahraaon mein.

Thi na kuchh teg zani apni hakumat ke lieye,
Sar ba-kaf phirte the kya dahar mein daulat ke lieye?
_______________

Qaum apni jo zar-o-maal-e-jahan par marti,
But faroshi ke iwaz but shikni kyon karti?

Naqsh tauheed ka har dil pe bithaya hum ne,
Zer-e-khanjar bhi yeh paigham sunaya hum ne.

Tu hi kah de ke ukhara dar-e-Khyber kis ne,
Shaher qaiser ka jo tha us ko kiya sar kis ne?
_______________

Tore makhluq khudawandon ke paikar kis ne?
Kaat kar rakh diye kaffaar ke lashkar kis ne?

Aa gaya ain laraai mein agar waqt-e-namaz,
Qibla roo ho ke zamin bos hui qaum-e-Hejaz,

Ek hi saf mein khare ho gaye mahmud-o-Ayaz,
No koi banda raha aur no koi banda nawaz.
_______________

Banda-o-sahib-o-muhtaaj-o-ghani ek hue,
Teri sarkar mein pahunche tau sabhi ek hue.

Mehfil-e-kaun-o-makaan mein shar-o-shaam phire,
Mai-e-tauheed ko lekar sift-e-jam phire.

Dasht tau dasht hain, darya bhi na chhore hum ne,
Bahr-e-zulmaat mein daura diye ghore hum ne.
_______________

Safah-e-dahar se baatil ko mitaya hum ne,
Nau-e-insaan ko ghulami se chhuraya hum ne,

Tere kaabe ko jabeenon se basaya hum ne,
Tere Quraan ko seenon se lagaya hum ne.

Phir bhi hum se yeh gila hai, ke wafadar nahin,
Hum wafadar nahin, tu bhi tau dildar nahin!
_______________

Rahmaten hain tiri aghiyar ke kashaanon par,
Barq girti hai tau bechare Musalmaanon par!

Yeh shikait nahin, hain un ke khazane maamur,
Nehin mehfil mein jinhen baat bhi karne ka shaoor,

Qahar tau yeh hai ke kafir ko milen hoor-o-qasoor,
Aur bechaare Musalmaan ko faqt waada-e-hoor!
_______________

Taan-e-aghiyaar hai, ruswai hai, nadaari hai,
Kya tere nam pe marne ka iwaz khwari hai?

Hum tau jeete hain ke duniya mein tira naam rahe,
Kahin mumkin hai saqi na rahe, jaam rahe?

Teri mehfil bhi gai, chahne walw bhi gaye,
Shab ki aahen bhi gaien, subah ke nale bhi gaye,
_______________

Dil tujhe debhi gaye, apna sila le bhi gaye,
Aa ke baithe bhi na the, ke nikaale bhi gaye.

Aae ushaaq, gaye waada-e-farda lekar,
Ab unhen dhoond chirag-e-rukh-e-zeba lekar!

Dard-e-Laila bhi wohi, Qais ka pahlu bhi wohi,
Nejd ke dasht-o-jabal mein ram-e-aahoo bhi wohi,
_______________

Ishq ka dil bhi wohi, husn ka jaadoo bhi wohi,
Ummat-e-Ahmed-e-Mursil bhi wohi, tu bhi wohi,

Phir yeh aazurdagi-e-ghair-sabab kya maani,
Apne shaidaaon pe yeh chashm-e-ghazab kya maani?

Ishq ki khair, who pehli si ada bhi na sahi,
Jaada paimaai taslim-o-raza bhi na sahi,
_______________

Kabhi hum se, kabhi ghairon se shanasaai hai,
Baat kahne ki nahin, tu bhi tau harjaai hai.

Ahd-e-gul khatam hua, tut gaya saaz-e-chaman,
Ur gaye dalion se zamzama pardaaz-e-chaman.

Ek bulbul hai ke hai mahw-e-tarannum ab tak,
Us ke seene mein hai naghmon ka talatam ab tak.
_______________

Qumrian shaakh-e-sanober se gurezaan bhi huin,
Pattian phool ki jhar jhar ke pareshan bhi huin;

Who purani ravishen bagh ki weeran bhi huin,
Daalian parahan-e-barg se uriaan bhi huin.

Qaid-e-mausim se tabiat rahi aazad uski,
Kaash gulshan mein samjhta koi faryaad uski.

_______________

Chaak is bulbul-e-tanha ki nawa se dil hon,
Jaagne wale isi baang-e-dara se dil hon.

Yaani phir zinda naye ahd-e-wafa se dil hon,
Phir isi bada-e-deereena ke pyaase dil hon.

Ajmy khum hai tau kya, mai tau Hejaazi hai miri,
Naghma Hindi hai tau tya, lai tau Hejaazi hai miri

Shikwa or Complaint [to God]

Translation by an anonymous person:

Why should I abet the loss, why forget the gain,
Why forfeit the future, bemoan the past in vain?

Hear the wail of nightingale, and remain unstirred,
Am I a flower insensate that will not say a word?

The power of speech emboldens me to speak out my heart,
I’ll sure be damned, I know, if fault my God.
_______________

Hear, O Lord, from the faithful ones this sad lament,
From those used to hymn a praise, a word of discontent.

Eternally were you present, Lord, eternally omniscient,
The flower hung upon the tree, but without incense.

Be Thou fair, tell us true, O fountainhead of grace,
How could the scent spread without the breeze apace?
_______________
The world presented a queer sight ere we took the stage,
Stones and plants in your stead were worshipped in that age.

Man, being inured to senses, couldn’t accept a thing unseen,
How could a formless God impress his senses keen?

Tell me, Lord, if anyone ever invoked Thy name,
The strength of Muslim arm alone restored Thy fame.
_______________

There was no dearth of peoples on this earth before,
Turkish tribes and Persian clans lived in days of yore;

The Greeks and the Chinese both bred and throve,
Christians as well as the Jews on this planet roved.

But who in Thy holy name raised his valiant sword,
Who set the things right, resolved the rigmarole?
_______________

We were the warrior bands battling for Thy cause,
Now on land, now on water, we the crusades fought.

Now in Europe’s synods did we loudly pray,
Now in African deserts made a bold foray.

Not for territorial greed did we wield the sword,
Not for pelf and power did we suffer the blows.
_______________

Had we been temped by the greed of glittering gold,
Instead of breaking idols, would have idols sold.

We impressed on every heart the oneness of our mighty Lord,
Even under the threat of sword, bold and clever was our call.

Who conquered, tell us Thou, the fearful Khyber pass?
Who vanquished the Imperial Rome, who made it fall?
_______________

Who broke the idols of the primitive folks?
Who fought the kefirs, massacred their hordes?

If the prayer time arrived right amid the war,
With their faces turned to Kaaba, knelt down the brave Hejaz.

Mahmud and Ayaz stood together in the same flank,
The ruler and the ruled forget the difference in their rank.
_______________

The rich and poor, Lord and slave, all were leveled down,
All became brethren in love, with Thy grace crowned.

We roamed the world through, visited every place,
Did our rounds like the cup, serving sacred ale.

Forget about the forests, we spared not the seas,
Into the dark, unfathomed ocean, we pushed our steeds.
_______________

We removed falsehood from the earth’s face,
We broke the shackles of the human race.

We reclaimed your Kaaba with our kneeling brows,
We pressed the sacred Quran to our heart and soul.

Even then you grumble, we are false, untrue,
If you call us faithless, tell us what are you?
_______________

You reserve your favours for men of other shades,
While you hurl your bolts on the Muslim race.

This is not our complaint that such alone are blessed,
Who do not know the etiquette, nor even can converse.

The tragedy is while kefirs are with houries actually blest,
On vague hopes of houries in heaven the Muslim race is made to rest!
_______________

Poverty, taunts, ignominy stare us in the face,
Is humiliation the sole reward of our suffering race?

To perpetuate Thy name is our sole concern,
Deprived of the saqi’s aid can the cup revolve and turn?

Gone is your assemblage, off your lovers have sailed,
The midnight sights are no more heard, nor the morning wails;
_______________

They pledged their hearts to you, what is their return?
Hardly had they stepped inside, when they were externed

Thy lovers came and went away, fed on hopes of future grace,
Search them now with the lamp of your glowing face.

Unassuaged is Laila’s ache, unquenched is Qais’s thirst,
In the wilderness of Nejd, the wild deer are still berserk.
_______________

The same passion thrills the hearts, enchanting still is beauty’s gaze,
You are the same as before, same too is the Prophet’s race.

Why then this indifference, without a cause or fault?
Why with your threatening looks dost thou break our heart?

Accepted that the flame of love burneth low and dim,
We do not, as in your, dance attendance on your whims;
_______________

But you too, pardon us, possess a coquettish heart,
Now on us, now on others, alight your amorous darts.

The spring has now taken leave, broken lies the lyre string,
The birds that chirped among the leaves have also taken wing;

A single nightingale is left singing on the tree,
A flood of song in her breast is longing for release.
_______________

From atop the firs and pines the doves have flown away,
The floral petals lie scattered all along the way.

Desolate lie the garden paths, once dressed and neat,
Leafless hang the branches on the naked trees.

The nightingale is unconcerned with the season’s range,
Would that someone in the grove appreciates her wail.
_______________

May the nightingale’s wail pierce the listeners’ hearts,
May the clinking caravan awaken slumbering thoughts!

Let the hearts pledge anew their faith to you, O Lord,
Let’s re-charge our cups from the taverns of the past.

Though I hold a Persian cup, the wine is pure Hejaz,
Though I sing an Indian song, the turn is of the Arabian cast.
_______________

Jawab-e-Shikwa [God’s Answer] by Allama Iqbal – Roman Urdu

Dil se jo baat nikalti hai, asar rakhti hai,
Par nahin, taaqat-e-parwaaz magsr rakhti hai.

Qudsi-ul-asal hai, rif-atpe nazar rakhti hai,
Khaak se uthti hai, gardoon pe guzar rakhti hai.

Ishq tha fitna gar-o-sarkash-o-chalaak mira,
Aasman cheer gaya nala-e-bebaak mira.
_______________

Pir-e-gardoon ne kaha sun ke, kahin hai koi!
Bole sayyaare, sar-e-arsh-e-barin hai koi!

Chaand kahta tha, nahin, ahl-e-zamin hai koi!
Kahkashaan kahti thi, poshida yahin hai koi!

Kuchh jo samjha tau mere shikwe ko Ruzwan samjha,
Mujhe jannat se nikala hua insaan samjha.
_______________

Thi farishton ko bhi hairat, ke yeh aawaaz hai kya!
Arsh waalon pe bhi khulta nahin yeh raaz hai kya!

Taa sar-e-arsh bhi insaan ki tag-o-taaz hai kya?
Aa gai khak ki chutki ko bhi parwaaz hai kya?

Ghaafil aadaab se yeh sukkaam-e-zamin kaise hain,
Shokh-o-gustaakh yeh pasti ke makin kaise hain,
_______________

Is qadar shokh ke Allah se bhi barham hai,
Tha jo masjud-e-malaik yeh wohi Aadam hai?

Aalam-e kaif hai, dana-e-ramuz-e-kam hai,
Haan, magar ijaz ke asrar se namahram hai.

Naaz hai taaqat-e-guftaar pe insaanon ko,
Baat karne ka saliqa nahin nadaanon ko!
_______________

Aai aawaaz ghum-angez hai afsana tira,
Ashk-e-betaab se labrezhai paimana tira.

Shukr shikwe ko kiya husn-e-ada se tu ne,
Hum sakhun kar diyabandon ko khuda se tu ne.

Hum tau mayal ba-karam hai, koi sayal hi nahin,
Rah dikhlain kise rahraw-e-manzil hi nahin.
_______________

Tarbiat aam tau hai, jauhar-e-qabil hi nahin,
Jis se taamir ho aadam ki yeh who gil hi nahin.

Koi qabil ho tau hum shan-e-kai dete hain;
Dhoondne waalon ko duniya bhi nai dete hain!

Haath be-zor hain, ilhaad se dil khoo-gar hain,
Ummati baais-e-ruswai-e-paighamber hain.
_______________

But-shikan uth gaye, baaqi jo rahe but-gar hain,
Tha Brahim pidar, aur pisar Aazar hain.

Bada aasham naye baaqi naya khum bhi naye,
Harm-e-Kaaba naya, but bhi naye, tum bhi naye.

Who bhi din the ke yehi maya-e-raanai tha,
Naazish-e-mausim-e-gul lala-e-sahraai tha!
_______________

Jo Musalmaan tha Allah ka saudai tha,
Kabhi mehboob tumhara yehi harjaai tha.

Safah-e-dahar se baatil ko mitaya kis ne?
Nau-e-insaan ko ghulami se chhuraya kis ne?

Mere Kaabe ko jabeenon se basaya kis ne?
Mere Quran ko seenon se lagaya kis ne?
_______________

The tau aaba who tumhaare hi, magar tum kya ho?
Haath par haath dhare muntezir-e-farda ho!

Kya kaha? “bahr-e-musalmaan hai faqt waade-e-hur,”
Shikwa beja bhi kare koi tau laazim hai shaoor!

Adal hai faatir-e-hasti ka azal se dastur,
Muslim aaeen hua kafir tau mile hur-o-qasur;
_______________

Tum mein hooron ka koichahne wala hi nahin,
Jalwa-e-tur tau maujood hai, Moosa hi nahin.

Munfait ek hai is qaum ki, nuqsaan bhi ek,
Ek hi sab ka nabi, din bhi, imaan bhi ek,

Harm-e-paak bhi, Allah bhi, Quran bhi ek,
Kuchh bari baat thi hote jo musalmaan bhi ek!
_______________

Firqa bandi hai kahin, aur kahin zaaten hain.
Kya zamane mein panpaneki yehi baaten hain?

Jaa ke hote hain masaajid mein saf-aara tau gharib,
Zahmat-e-roza jo karte hain gawara tau gharib.

Naam leta hai agar koi hamara, tau gharib,
Pardah rakhta hao agar koi tumhara, tau gharib.
_______________

Umra nasha-e-daulat mein hain ghafil hum se,
Zinda hai millat-e-baiza ghurba ke dam se.

Shor hai ho gaye duniya se musalmaan naabood,
Hum yeh kahte hain ke the bhi kahin Muslim maujood?

Waza mein tum ho nisari, tau tamuddan mein Hanood,
Yeh musalmaan hain! Jinhen dekh ke sharmain Yahud?
_______________

Baap ka ilm na bete ko agar azbar ho,
Phir pisar qabil-e-miraas-e-pidar kyonkar ho!

Har koi mast-e-mai-e-zauq-e-tan aasaani hai,
Tum musalmaan ho? Yeh andaaz-e-musalmaani hai?

Chaahte sab hain ke hon auj-e-surayya pe muqeem,
Pahle waisa koi paida tau kare qalb-e-salim!
_______________

Ahd-e-nau barq hai, aatish zan-e-har khirman hai,
Aiman is se koi sahra no koi gulshan hai.

Is nai aag ka aqwaam-e-kuhan eendhan hai,
Millat-e-khatam-e-rasal shoula ba parahan hai.

Dekh kar range-e-chaman ho na pareshan maali,
Kookab-e-ghuncha se shaakhen hain chamakne wali,
_______________

Khas-o-khashaak se hota hai gulistan khaali,
Gul bar andaaz hai khun-e-shuhda ki laali.

Rang gardoon ka zara dekh tau unnabi hai,
Yeh nikalte hue suraj ki ufaq taabi hai.

Nakhl-e-Islam namoona hai bro-mandi ka,
Phal hai yeh sainkron saalon ki chaman bandi ka.
_______________

Qaafila ho na sakega kabhi weeran tera,
Ghair yak baang-e-dara kuchh nahin samaan tera.

Nakhl-e-shama asti-o-dar should dood resha-e-tu,
Aaqbat soz bood saya-e-andesha-e-tu.

Ki Mohammed se wafa tu ne tau hum tere hain,
Yeh jahan cheez hai kya, lauh-eo-qalam tere hain.
_______________

Jawab-e-Shikwa: [God’s] Answer to the Complaint

Translation by an anonymous person:

The word springing from the heart surely carries weight,
Though not endowed with wings, it yet can fly in space.

Pure and spiritual in its essence, it pegs its gaze on high,
Rising from the lowly dust, grazes past the skies.

Keen, defiant, and querulous was my passion crazed,
It pierced through the skies, my audacious wail.
_______________

“Someone is there,” thus spoke the heaven’s warder old,
the planets said, “From above proceeds this voice so bold.”

“No, no,” the moon said,” “tis someone on the earth below,”
Butted in the milky way: “The voice is hereabouts, I trow.”

Ruzwan alone, if at all, understood aright,
He knew it was the man, from heaven once exiled.
_______________

Even the angles wondered who raised this cry,
All the celestial denizens looked about surprised.

Does man possess the might to scale empyreal heights?
Has this mere pinch of dust learnt the knack to fly?

What are these earthly folks? Careless of all respect,
How bold and impudent, the lowly dwellers of the earth!
_______________

Extremely rude and insolent, cross even with God,
Is it the same Adam whom angels once did laud?

Steeped in bliss, man is of wisdom’s lore possessed,
Nonetheless, he’s alien to humility’s sterling worth.

Man feels proud of the power of his speech,
But the fool doesn’t know how and what to speak.
_______________

You narrate a woeful tale, thus the voice arose,
Your heart is boiling over with tears uncontrolled.

You have delivered your plaint with perfect skill and art,
You have brought the humans in contact with God.

We are inclined to grant, but none deserves our grace,
None treads the righteous path, whom to show the way?
_______________

Our school is open to all, but talent there is none,
Where is that soil fertile to breed the human gems?

We reward the deserving folks with splendid meed,
We grant newer worlds to those who strive and seek.

Arms have been drained of strength, hearts have gone astray,
The Muslim race is a blot on the Prophet’s face.
_______________

Idol-breakers have left the scene, idol-makers remain,
Aazar has inherited Abraham’s glorious name.

Wine, flask, and drinkers-all are new and changed,
A different Kaaba, different idols now your worship claim.

There was a time when you were respected far and wide,
Once this desert bloom was the season’s wealth and pride.
_______________

Every Muslim then was a lover profound of God,
Your sole beloved once was the all-embracing Lord.

Who removed falsehood from the earth’s face?
Who broke the shackles of the human race?

Who reclaimed our Kaaba with their kneeling brows?
Who presses the sacred Quran to their heart and soul?
_______________

True, they were your forbears, but what are you, I say?
Idle sitting, statue-like you dream away your days.

What did you say? Muslims are with hopes of houries consoled,
Even if your plaint is false, your words should be controlled.

Justice is the law supreme, operative on this globe,
Muslims can’t expect the houries, if they follow the kefir’s code.
_______________

None of you, in fact, is deserving of the” hoor”,
A Moses is but hard to fin, burneth still the Tur.

Common to the race entire is their gain or loss,
Common is their faith and creed, common too the Rasul of God;

One Kaaba, one Allah, and one Quran inspire their heart,
Why can’t the Muslims then behave like a single lot?
_______________

Cast, creed and factions have disjointed this race,
Is this way to forge ahead, to flourish in the present age?

It’s the poor who visit the mosque, join the kneeling rows,
The poor alone observe the fasts, practice self-control.

If someone repeats our name, it’s the poor again,
The devout poor hide your sins, preserve your vaunted name.
_______________

Drunk with the wine of wealth, the rich are unconcerned with God,
The Muslim race owes its life to the poor, indigent lot.

“Muslims have vanished from earth,” this is what we hear,
but we ask, ” Were the Muslims ever the Jewish sects.

You are Nisars by your looks, but Hindus by conduct,
Your culture puts to shame even the Jewish sects.
_______________

If the son is alien to his learned father’s traits,
How can he then claim his father’s heritage?

All of you love to lead a soft, luxurious life,
Are you a Muslim indeed? Is this the Muslim style?

All of you desire to be invested with the crown,
You should first produce a heart worthy of renown.
_______________

The new age is the lighting blast, it will set your barns on fire,
It can’t produce in groves or deserts the Old Sinai’s burning spire.

The new fire consumes for fuel the blood of nations old,
The clothes of the Prophet’s race are incinerated in its folds.

Don’t be depressed, gardener, by the present scene,
The starry buds are about to burst with a brilliant sheen.
_______________

The garden will soon be rid of its thorns and weeds,
The martyr’s blood will bring to bloom all the dormant seeds.

Mark how the sky reflects its orange purple hues,
The rising sun will flush the sky with its rays anew.

Islamic tree exemplifies cultivation long and hard,
A fruit of arduous gardening over centuries past.
_______________
Your caravan needn’t fear the perils of the path,
But for the call of bells you own no wealth at all.

You are the plant of light, the burning wick that never fails,
With the power of your thought you can incinerate the veil.

We’ll love you as our own, if you follow the Prophet’s ways,
The world is but a paltry thing, you’ll command the pen and page.

Asghar Vasanwala can be reached at asgharfv@gmail.com

Fierce debate has been raging in ‘The Independent’ about Israel’s conduct in Gaza. Here, one leading Jewish thinker argues that until Jews shake off their persecution complex, there can never be peace in the Middle East

By Antony Lerman

In the wake of Israel’s attack on Gaza, eager voices are telling us that anti-Semitism has returned – yet again. Eight years of Hamas rockets and the world unfairly cries foul when Israel retaliates, they say. Biased media are delegitimising the Jewish state. The Left attacks Israel as uniquely evil, making it the persecuted Jew among the nations. Even theatres keep wheeling out those anti-Semitic stereotypes, Shylock, Fagin and the “chosen people”, just to torment us. If this bleak picture were an accurate portrayal of what Jews are experiencing today, who could deny that suffering is the determining feature of the Jewish condition?

In most Jewish circles, if you pause to question this narrative and suggest that it might be exaggerated, that it unrealistically implies a level of dreadfulness and victimhood unique to Jews, you’ll attract hostility and disbelief in equal measure, and precious little public sympathy. But in the work of Professor Salo Baron, probably the greatest Jewish historian of the 20th century, we find powerful justification for just such a questioning.

Professor Baron spoke out angrily against what he called the “lachrymose conception of Jewish history”, which placed suffering at the centre of Jewish life. “Suffering is part of the destiny” of the Jews,” Professor Baron said in an interview in 1975, “but so is repeated joy as well as ultimate redemption.” Another distinguished historian, Professor Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, said Baron always fought against the view of Jewish history as “all darkness and no light. He laboured mightily to restore balance”.

Baron, who was born in Poland and went to America in 1930 to teach at Columbia University in New York, died aged 94 in 1989, perhaps one of the most significant years in post-war Jewish history. With the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the USSR, the suppression of Jewish religious practice and cultural expression came to an end. More than two million Jews were finally free to choose to be Jewish or not. An astonishing number chose Jewishness and a remarkable revival of Jewish life began. This historic moment aptly illustrates the central truth of Baron’s critique.

Twenty years on, that revival continues, but the world’s response to Israel’s war on Gaza and the dramatic rise in anti-Semitic incidents in a number of countries since the war began have led many to paint a very dark picture of the current Jewish predicament. So, in thinking about the accuracy of this, especially in view of the poisonous weed of anti-Semitism that Howard Jacobson, writing in The Independent last month, claims to find growing in practically every patch of criticism of Israel, I wondered what light Professor Baron would have found in the current darkness. Would he have concluded that the lachrymose conception of Jewish history has returned and that a restoration of some balance is required? Have we Jews succumbed psychologically to a sense of eternal Jewish victimhood, a wholly negative Jewish exceptionalism, or is paranoia justified?
Some pioneering research, published as Israel’s bombing of Gaza began, throws some light on this. It reveals just how much the feeling that no matter what we do, we are perpetually at the mercy of others applies to Jewish Israelis. A team led by Professor Daniel Bar Tal of Tel Aviv University, one of the world’s leading political psychologists, questioned Israeli Jews about their memory of the conflict with the Arabs, from its inception to the present, and found that their “consciousness is characterised by a sense of victimisation, a siege mentality, blind patriotism, belligerence, self-righteousness, dehumanisation of the Palestinians and insensitivity to their suffering”. The researchers found a close connection between that collective memory and the memory of “past persecutions of Jews” and the Holocaust, the feeling that “the whole world is against us”. If such a study were to be conducted among Jews in Britain, I suspect the results would be very similar.

For Jews to see themselves in this way is understandable, but it’s a distortion and deeply damaging. As Professor Bar Tal says, this view relies primarily on prolonged indoctrination that is based on ignorance and even nurtures it. The Jewish public does not want to be confused with the facts. If we are defined by past persecutions, by our victimhood, will we ever think clearly about the problem of Israel-Palestine and the problem of anti-Semitism?

To justify its attack on Gaza, Israel threw the mantle of victimhood over the residents of southern Israel who have lived under the constant threat of rocket attack from the territory since 2001. Israeli government and military spokespeople seemed to get a remarkably sympathetic hearing in the media when they made this argument. But history did not begin in 2001. As the Israeli journalist Amira Hass notes, the origin of Israel’s siege dates back to 1991, before suicide bombings began. The relentless emphasis on Israeli suffering, to the exclusion of all other contextual facts, and the constant mantra that no other country would tolerate such a threat posed to its citizens over such a long period provided the basis for arguing that the military option was the only alternative. The victim is cornered and there’s only one way out.

But the popular Israeli phrase ein breira, “there is no alternative”, won’t stand one second’s scrutiny. There was a wealth of informed senior military and security opinion, especially following the disaster of the 2006 Lebanon war, which argued that there is no military solution to the problem of Islamist groups such as Hamas and Hizbollah. Even before Lebanon, in 2004, former IDF spokesman Nahman Shai, a senior figure in the Israeli establishment, said: “Despite all the anger, frustration, and disgust we feel, we ought to talk to Hizbollah. We must exploit every possibility to reach a compromise with them and gain precious time. Does it really embody all the evil in the region? What are we waiting for? We can always go back to fighting terrorism.”

Early in January this year, Israel’s former Mossad chief and former national security adviser, Efraim Halevy, said: “If Israel’s goal were to remove the threat of rockets from the residents of southern Israel, opening the border crossings would have ensured such quiet for a generation.” Daniel Levy, former adviser in the office of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, shows clearly where the wrong choices were made: withdrawing from Gaza without co-ordinating the “what next” with the Palestinians; hermetically sealing off Hamas and besieging Gaza after the 2006 elections instead of testing Hamas’s capacity to govern responsibly; instead of building on the ceasefire, Israel was the first to break it on 4 November. In short, there were other alternatives.

The current flurry of diplomatic activity only confirms this. Tony Blair’s first trip to Gaza, Hillary Clinton’s talks with Israel’s leaders and stronger language on settlements and the $5bn pledged for Gaza at the Egyptian donor conference are all discomfiting signs for Israel’s polity, now in a state of electoral upheaval. They show that the Gaza offensive blasted open the doors to alternative diplomatic options, as well as the possibility of a new Palestinian unity government. Instead of validating the government’s line that this was justice for Israel’s traumatised southern citizens, it only served to demonstrate to the world, and especially to the new Obama administration, Israel’s responsibility for the injustice of the humanitarian disaster in Gaza.
It’s not a political judgement to feel compassion for Israelis terrorised by Hamas rockets, and it’s just the same for Palestinians living in a virtual prison in Gaza. But the objective predicaments of the two populations are not the same. To convince yourself that a turkey shoot is an act of great heroism, you need the “self-righteousness” and “blind patriotism” Professor Bar Tal found in his study. You see yourself as David against the Islamist Goliath. The world sees a powerful elephant and an aggressive, rogue mouse that draws blood. The elephant hands the mouse the power of veto over the entire Middle East peace process by demanding that the mouse recognise the elephant’s existence before any meaningful negotiations with Palestinians can take place. All this does is send a message of weakness: “We genuinely believe that our existence is threatened by this mouse.”

Professor Baron argued that you cannot understand the history of the Jews outside of the histories of the societies in which Jews lived. Yet this narrative of victimhood is sustainable only on the basis of a negative Jewish exceptionalism which severs the Jewish experience from the historical mainstream.

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(Submitted by a reader)