Imperialism And Resistance

Allama Jawad Naqwi is a well known and outstanding scholar of Islam, his talks are widely listened to in Pakistan, and around the world amongst Urdu speakers. English speakers can now read some of his thoughts in online books – that also includes translations of some of his majalis.

Click on the images or links below to read the online books:

Martyr and Martyrdom

The Values of Ashura

Azadari A Movement of Lady Zainab

The System of Wilayat in the Vision of Qur’an

Perhaps one of the finest books written on the history of Latin America, and the colonial-imperialist plunder of the nations under the gun of capitalism. This is the book that President Chavez gave to Obama at the meeting of Las Americas in Trinidad and Tobago.

Derrick Jensen and Stephanie McMillan’s As the World Burns is a revolutionary graphic novel decrying the failure of the green movement. We have become a self-congratulatory society of “green” consumers, recyclers, yogi mediators, and letter-writers. Utilizing pigtailed girls, a one-eyed eco-revolutionary bunny, and a wise bird, the authors expose the fallacies of patting ourselves on the back as we continue down an unsustainable consumption path headed straight for world destruction.

The Uncultured Wars is a searing intervention by a political thinker who incisively critiques US liberalism, anti-Arab racism, Islamophobia, and the brutal excesses of empire. Salaita’s eloquent, honest and witty analysis challenges contemporary thinking about race, religion, feminism, indigeneity, the ‘war on terror’ and the Middle East. This is a book that anyone interested in cultural politics must read.’ – Sunaina Maira, University of California: Davis

The Uncultured Wars is a powerful indictment of dominant American liberal-left discourse. Through twelve stylish essays Steven Salaita returns again and again to his core themes of anti-Arab racism and Islamophobia and the inadequacy of critical thought amongst the ‘chattering classes’, showing how racism continues to exist in the places where we would least expect it.

For more information on downloading and reading Islamic books on your iphone/itouch click here.

As the liberal imperialists gather to replace the neo-con imperialists, it will become vital that we all begin to understand that the differences in style and dress should not distract us from the issues. At the same time, we also need to understand and recognize the mask, so that we have an easier time pulling it off, and exposing their actions.

The Democratic Party has managed, contained, controlled, co-opted, rolled back, and eventually destroyed every social movement that has arisen since then.

…(the author) devotes an entire chapter to explaining how and why the Democrats are just as imperialist as their counterparts across the aisle and points out that all the major wars of the 20th century were launched by Democratic politicians who claimed to want peace while they prepared for war. The fact that the party that jumped into two world wars, used nuclear weapons, designed the Cold War, and started “small” wars in Korea and Vietnam is seen as being less pro-war than the Republicans is a feat that would impress Karl Rove.

Muslims in the US, who are thinking of voting for either of two major war parties, might want to remember the authentic hadith of the Prophet (peace and blessings on him and his family) :

“The Muslim is the one from whose tongue and hand the Muslims are safe.”

Muslims living inside of the empire have an even greater responsibility to not ally one’s self, or vote for anyone who has promised to expand the war on Islam and Muslims (and thus killing more Muslim children and families) – both war party’s candidates have promised more of the same.

Obama, in particular, has promised to further intensify the war in Afghanistan, and expand it to Pakistan. Even mainstream newspapers have recognized, that the recent attacks by the Bush regime on Pakistan is an implementation of Obama’s policies: A vote for Obama/McCain is a vote for more war on Muslims, and more killings of Muslim children and families – such a vote clearly goes against the sunna of our beloved Prophet (peace and blessing on him and his Family).

From Washington Post, 9/15/08:

U.S. officials also confirmed last week that Bush has formally authorized cross-border raids into Pakistan without that government’s approval — an idea that Obama first endorsed.

When Bush announced the new troop deployments to Afghanistan, for example, Obama said he was “glad that the president is moving in the direction of the policy that I have advocated for years.”

Obama, although supportive of the shift in focus from Iraq to Afghanistan, criticized the effort as too little and too late.

via press tv:

US Presidential hopeful Barrack Obama has termed the cross-border raids by the US forces into Pakistan as a small step in the right direction.

Obama supported the raids but described them as “baby steps” by the Bush’s administration.

“The Bush administration has come to that point of view. That’s the kind of policy we have to pursue and continue …This is a baby step, but it’s a baby step in the right direction and something that John McCain hasn’t been willing to acknowledge,” Susan Rice, the top foreign policy adviser to Senator Obama, said.

“Senator Obama has been saying for well over a year, in fact, has been saying frankly since before the invasion of Iraq that the central front in the war on terror is Afghanistan and Pakistan. And we need to invest there,” she noticed.

I have not read the book linked below, but after reading this interview with the author, I’m gonna order it:

“A major part of the problem is that American liberals really seem to think there’s a decent, representative democracy under all of the machinery and violence. If only the Democrats ran all branches of government, and did so for an extensive period, many of these obstacles would be cleared away — or so the mantra goes. This naturally extends to war. I can’t tell you how many local yards have both ‘War Is Not The Answer’ and ‘Obama `08′ signs in them. As if one goes with the other. Since Obama has promised to expand the Terror Wars, and continually speaks in hawkish tones, this would seem odd to a skeptical outsider. But it’s very common within the US. As there’s no serious political alternative to the corporate-owned state, people have to dream, create scenarios, in which their votes ostensibly ‘make a difference.’

This is an open source epub version of Imam Khomeini’s famous work 40 hadith, you can download a copy and read the book on a variety of e-readers. For the iphone, I recommend Stanza – it appears to be the least buggy, and can be downloaded free (for now). You’ll have to set up the Stanza desktop, and import the ebook to the iphone (instructions on the Stanza website).

Click here for directions on how to read the book on the iphone/itouch.

Forty Hadith (epub) . To download: right click on the link, and choose save as – the file may download with a .txt extension – rename the file with an .epub extension. Let me know in the comments if you are having problems with the file, will try to provide support – but am only familiar with Stanza on the iphone.

This book can also be downloaded in a variety of other e-book formats - click here for more info.

And, of-course, you can always read the book on-line using just about any web browser here.

Forty Hadith

An Exposition on 40 ahadith narrated through
the Prophet [s] and his Ahl al-Bayt [a]

Imam Ruhullah al-Musawi al-Khumayni

Translated by:

Mahliqa Qara’i (late) and Ali Quli Qara’i

Published by:
Al-Tawhid
P.O Box 37165-111, Qum
The Islamic Republic of Iran

Following up to an earlier post: Islam e Mohammadi

(from The New Rose Garden Of Mystery by Allama Iqbal)

To see in Soul and Body a duality
Is doubt and unbelief and heresy.
The secret of Creation lies hidden in the soul;
The body is one of life’s stages, not its goal.

The Bride of Meaning henna-decked its hands with Form
The better to display its beauty’s charm.

Reality weaves veils to hide its face
Because it loves to show itself in subtle ways.

The West thinks Soul and Body to be separate;
Hence the dichotomy between Religion and the State.
The Church is busy saying prayers on Peter’s rosary,
Quite unconcerned with polity.

And as for Western polity, it is all pure deceit.
The intellect should always have the heart in train.
Look at the plight of Turkey, which has kept apart
the twain.
The Turks forgot themselves in aping Western ways,
And cut between Religion and State the ancient ties.

We saw the One as Many, bit by bit,
And so invented Number to keep count of it.
This ancient world, this handful of mere clay,
Is but a moment in Pure Being’s history.

The Western sages fashion only lifeless images;
The hand of Moses and the breath of Jesus – these
they don’t possess.
My heart found nothing in the wisdom of the Western mind,
And it beats restlessly for wisdom of another kind.

This book is an excellent, powerful, but easy to read for the non-specialist, introduction to the Islamic thought of Allama Iqbal. Two contemporary views are presented, the first, by Ayatullah Ali Khamene’i, provides a historical context and background of the period within which Iqbal wrote: The British colonization of India, the uprisings against, and the subsequent directions that Muslims took in response to the oppressive conditions:

Iqbal’s day to day life in city of Lahore and in the colonized subcontinent of India led him to directly experience the pains and hardships of life. It was at this juncture that Iqbal raised the banner of his revolt. His was a cultural, political, and revolutionary movement.

The first thing that was necessary for Iqbal to do was to make Indian society aware of its Islamic identity, Islamic “selfhood” and Islamic personality, or, rather the human dimension of its personality. He asked the people why they were complacent, why they were forgetful, and why they had abandoned their real selves. He asked them to regain their Islamic and human identity. The was the first message delivered by Iqbal.

The second view is by Dr. Ali Shariati, who gives a wide ranging tour of Iqbal’s thoughts, and places him in the context of anti-colonial struggles. But not of the nationalist kind, rather one that transcended narrow isolationist thinking, and provided a framework for Muslims moving towards becoming an umma.

“Reconstruction means to return to our own culture in all its meaning and with all of its body of knowledge.”

Iqbal can be difficult to understand for those without some background in philosophy, but with this introduction, one can begin to approach Iqbal at a much deeper level. And we can begin to apply his thoughts to our contemporary period, which is not all that different from the colonial period within which Iqbal’s thoughts were formed.

Our period’s imperialism is also both physical, and an ideological assault. The strategy of full-spectrum domination, includes the spread of a miserable corrupt ideology – that leaves its adopters devastated – materially, intellectually, and spiritually. We too have a need for clarifying our ideology, and to mentally distance ourselves from the constant barrage of propaganda. This requires that we too produce and read works that reflect our ideology, and that can express the concern of our contemporary period.