Imperialism And Resistance

Over a hundred real authentic books on a variety of topics that readers of this blog are sure to enjoy – including many rare and out of print books on Islam (especially on the Shi’a school) all proceeds to benefit south south solidarity. Click here to make your selection (sorry no free books, but most are marked way below market, international shipping available).

Both books provide an extended history and context of indigenous struggles, both have an anthropological bent to them, but do try to authentically represent the people who are being talked about… important reading especially for educators, and anyone interested in getting a deeper understanding of Bolivia, Ecuador and the Andean region.

New Languages of the State: Indigenous Resurgence and the Politics of Knowledge in Bolivia

During the mid-1990s, a bilingual intercultural education initiative was launched to promote the introduction of indigenous languages alongside Spanish in public elementary schools in Bolivia’s indigenous regions. Bret Gustafson spent fourteen years studying and working in southeastern Bolivia with the Guarani, who were at the vanguard of the movement for bilingual education. Drawing on his collaborative work with indigenous organizations and bilingual-education activists as well as more traditional ethnographic research, Gustafson traces two decades of indigenous resurgence and education politics in Bolivia, from the 1980s through the election of Evo Morales in 2005. Bilingual education was a component of education reform linked to foreign-aid development mandates, and foreign aid workers figure in New Languages of the State, as do teachers and their unions, transnational intellectual networks, and assertive indigenous political and intellectual movements across the Andes.

Gustafson shows that bilingual education is an issue that extends far beyond the classroom. Public schools are at the center of a broader battle over territory, power, and knowledge as indigenous movements across Latin America actively defend their languages and knowledge systems. In attempting to decolonize nation-states, the indigenous movements are challenging deep-rooted colonial racism and neoliberal reforms intended to mold public education to serve the market. Meanwhile, market reformers nominally embrace cultural pluralism while implementing political and economic policies that exacerbate inequality. Juxtaposing Guarani life, language, and activism with intimate portraits of reform politics among academics, bureaucrats, and others in and beyond La Paz, Gustafson illuminates the issues, strategic dilemmas, and imperfect alliances behind bilingual intercultural education.

Indians and Leftists in the Making of Ecuador’s Modern Indigenous Movements

In June 1990, Indigenous peoples shocked Ecuadorian elites with a powerful uprising that paralyzed the country for a week. Militants insisted that the government address Indigenous demands for land ownership, education, and economic development. This uprising was a milestone in the history of Ecuador’s social justice movements, and it inspired popular organizing efforts across Latin America. While the insurrection seemed to come out of nowhere, Marc Becker demonstrates that it emerged out of years of organizing and developing strategies to advance Indigenous rights. In this richly documented account, he chronicles a long history of Indigenous political activism in Ecuador, from the creation of the first local agricultural syndicates in the 1920s through the galvanizing protests of 1990. In so doing, he reveals the central role of women in Indigenous movements and the history of productive collaborations between rural Indigenous activists and urban leftist intellectuals.

Becker explains how rural laborers and urban activists worked together in Ecuador, merging ethnic and class-based struggles for social justice. Socialists were often the first to defend Indigenous languages, cultures, and social organizations. They introduced rural activists to new tactics, including demonstrations and strikes. Drawing on leftist influences, Indigenous peoples became adept at reacting to immediate, local forms of exploitation while at the same time addressing broader underlying structural inequities. Through an examination of strike activity in the 1930s, the establishment of a national-level Ecuadorian Federation of Indians in 1944, and agitation for agrarian reform in the 1960s, Becker shows that the history of Indigenous mobilizations in Ecuador is longer and deeper than many contemporary observers have recognized.

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