Open your mind!

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10 responses to “Open your mind. Say no to terror.”

  1. Nas Avatar
    Nas

    very very cool. who did this by the way?

  2. promises Avatar
    promises

    Nice, very true…

    Thanks for sharing!

  3. Hanna Avatar
    Hanna

    It’s very absurd for Jordanian “intellectuals” to speak of the causes of terrorism in terms which parrot those popularized by American neo-cons and Israeli “intellectuals”

    suicide bombings are a new phenomena in the region. it is nothing more than a violent, sensless backlash to years of Israeli and american brutality to palestinians and iraqis.

    we are quick to forget the over 500,000 iraqi children murdered by the US/UK sanctions, protected by one veto after another. Then we have the almost one century of Israeli brutality and disposission against

    Arabs. And who protects and supports Israel? US and UK. Terror came to Spain, Egypt, and Jordan mainly for above reasons. Had our collaboration with Israel and US been a worthy cause, I would have been the

    first to say lets not give in to terrorism. But why in the world should innocent Arabs living in countries where they have no say over their regiems’ conduct continue to get killed for unworthy causes such as

    helping US and Israeli occupations? Fact is, no one cares about the average arab. Not US nor the regiems who have brutalized or sucked our blood for far so long.

    So it’s very misleading to talk about roots of terror in economic and social terms. But that’s yet another great victory for America in the region, to stifle debate on the real root causes of terror. This is evident by the array of TV soap operas and films that pay token mention to the great tragedies of Palestine and Iraq where hundreds of thousands along the years have paid dearly and no one could lift a finger to stop their pain. heck all you have to do is visit the dozen of jordanian blogs…almost total silence on iraq and palestine. this insular culture is very abnormal. but that’s the sort of culture that is being encouraged.

  4. Humeid Avatar
    Humeid

    When saying ‘terror starts in the head, say no terror’ elicits the response above, with accusations of parroting neo-con and Israeli views and the like, it really helps crystallize the cultural ailment we’re suffering from.

    The fact is that innocent people were murdered in Amman. Many more innocent people are being murdered in Iraq on a daily basis. By whom? By people who are ‘acting against the foreign aggression against the Arab and/or Muslim nation’. People so convinced in the heads that what they do is right that they are willing to give their life for it!

    No one should excuse the killing of civilians, regardless of perpetrators, be they American, Israelis, Arab regimes, extremist groups or anyone else.

    But when we see that people who a part of our culture see that the killing of even more innocent people is somehow an appropriate, excusable or understandable response to aggression (or ‘collaboration’), then we have to speak out.

    It is disturbing to see how easy it is for some people to ‘accept’ terrorist acts as the ‘natural’ response to aggression. They gloss over the whole cultural sickness of these acts. They want to forbid us from speaking out against these acts, in the name of searching for the ‘roots’ of terror. Absurd!

  5. Hanna Avatar
    Hanna

    Of course attacks against civilians are criminal. but when innocents are targetted by terrorists because authoritarian Arab regimes make decisions that put their people in harm’s way, that’s WRONG! We cannot ignore the catastrophic foreign policy of our regimes because it sounds smart to say that nothing justifies terrorism. I say we meet half way and say nothing justifies terrorism and nothing justifies innocents getting killed by terroists because their non-elected regimes acted in a manner that brought instability and attracted the wrath of unholy terrorists who otherwise would have left us alone. It would be irrational to ignore this angle of the whole screwed up situation. Lets at least be pragmatic enough like the Spaniards, and our EU friends and stay the f… out of any cooperation with US or Israel that is linked directly or indirectly to the misery and pain of iraqis and palestinains. better yet, Jordan should have a neutrality pact with all its neighbours. we mind our business and they mind their own. we stay out of their affairs and they stay out of ours. When the UN makes a call, we honor it, but we don’t play sidekicks to renegades such as Bush and Israel. That’s how we protect our precious stability and security.

  6. Humeid Avatar
    Humeid

    Assuming that neutrality is possible is, in my view, unrealistic, especially for a country like Jordan. Assuming terror organizations are going to be ‘rational’ and leave us alone if we’re neutral is also unrealistic. Neutrality is not enough for many crazy people out there.

    And do you think the UN will be respected by those people? For them, the UN is just another aspect of the ‘infidel world order’. Not even the Shiaa muslims are good enough for them.

    Terrorism that starts in the mind has very little to do with external aggression. For an example of what I mean, read the story of how Egypt’s zealots drove out the Muslim scholar Nasr Hamid Abu Zeid from Egypt [link]. I mention this because I just wrote an article that touches on this story and how a local Jordanian columnist in one of our daily newspapers justified this form of intellectual terror.

    Accepting that logic just gives extremists, zealots even more control over our lives. No to that.

  7. Hanna Avatar
    Hanna

    “Accepting that logic just gives extremists, zealots even more control over our lives. No to that.”

    I don’t mind being a victim of terrorism if I must stand by principles that would make me proud such as defending human rights, equality, liberty, democracy and freedom. but here you are proud of exposing jordan to terrorists to protect collaboration with nations that violate international ligitmacy, kill hundreds of thousands of innocents with starvation, cruise missles, and half-ton bombs dropped from 50 thousand feet. I say to each his own. I would rather stick with the EU position on collaboration with US and Israel invasions. You can stick with Bush and Israel. I just won’t die for them. they have killed enough innocent arabs.

  8. Humeid Avatar
    Humeid

    Isn’t the internet wonderful, Hanna. You come to my website, you see a poster where I say ‘no to terror’. You immediatly insult me with your conclusions that I am a ‘neo-con’ or ‘israeli’ intellectual. You misinterpret my stance by saying I am siding with bush and israel.

    Then, You make me the spokesman of the jordanian government, just because i said that neutrality is difficult to achieve for a country like jordan.

    You preach to us with your black and white moralistic stance and make a angry speech about freedom and democracy.

    You ignore all arguments just because you WANT to believe that I am some mindless person who’s been ‘brainwashed by america’.

    Truly, the internet is wonderful!

  9. Hanna Avatar
    Hanna

    sorry if I offende you. i think occupation and invasion and the murder of innocents in palestine and in iraq is black and white. this is not some argument about supply side economics versus demand… this is not a discussion about how steep the interest rate cuts should be. we are not arguing about how far the gov’t should go in increasing fuel taxes. we are talking about the deaths of hundreds of thousands on one side of the border, the exile of a nation on the other, and the sound of war drums just to the north of us…all brough to us by folks who seem to only lust for oil and land. but the kicker is that now I am asked to walk down the street , unprotected, and one day be possibly killed by extremists and be happy about it because I am standing up to them while the antagonists of the conflict are very well-protected behind their barracks. as i said, the thought of of me getting killed because someonw pissed off the iraqis does not appeal to me. i would rather die defending jordanian borders not american interests. Bush said he will take the war on terror to the enemy instead of fighting it in the US. I never thought of Jordan as an enemy of the US, but here we are taking the hits for them. Instead of Jordan First, I want to propose Jordan: America’s Human Shield.

  10. vistaman Avatar
    vistaman

    The issue here can be summarized in two points

    Should the Jordanian intellectuals when condemning terrorism always mention the root cause of this terrorism which is the Israeli and US aggression against the Arabs and Muslims in Palestine, Iraq, and else where in the world. It is not enough to only condemn the terrorism. The problem needs to be correctly balanced. Otherwise, the intellectuals in this case will be repeating exactly what the Israeli and the US are.

    The second point is: should the Jordanian Intellectuals also mention that our non democratic governments, who were shoved on our throats, stop the support of Israel and the US at the same time condemns the act of terror. I think this point can be implicitly derived from mentioning the first one.

    That’s my 2 ta3reefah’s