Tarek Fatah's Blog, page 19
July 7, 2015
Greeks rejected Financial Colonialism in voting ‘No’ to Terms of Surrender
– French Economist and Author, Thomas Piketty
“If the European Union, International Monetary Fund and the European Common Bank refuse to reinstate emergency lending assistance to Greek banks and write down part of Greece’s debts, then Tsipras should walk away from the euro, impose strict capital controls and roll the dice. All of those alternatives are better for Greece than a never-ending financial siege, sucking the life out of it.”
July 7, 2015
Tarek Fatah
The Toronto Sun
The Greeks are no strangers to living under a siege. From ancient times to the 19th century siege of Athens by the Turks, they have proved their resilience.
Once more, Athens is under siege. Not a military one but almost as brutal. This one is trying to starve the country, financially, into submission.
But Sunday’s 61% to 39% “No” vote in the referendum was a resounding rejection by Greece to those demanding it surrender its sovereignty.
Leading the “No” side was the government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, barely six months old, elected with just 36.3% of the vote.
He asked Greeks to reject the European Union’s latest financial rescue offer, that would have entailed another round of pension cuts and tax increases, with no debt restructuring.
Standing against Tsipras on the “Yes” side was an alliance representing the power structure that runs the European Union. It included:
1. Conservative German Chancellor Angela Merkel
2. Socialist leader in the European Parliament, Martin Shultz
3. The European Commission
4. Other political parties in Greece
5. Private TV networks in Greece.
Polls suggested the vote would be a narrow victory for the “Yes” side, to accept the bailout package, and that this would soon topple Greece’s rookie, left-wing government.
But Greeks gave Tsipras a resounding mandate to reject Europe’s humiliating financial terms.
Reaction in the Greek diaspora was one of pride.
Andonis Artemakis, president of the Greek Community of Toronto, was subdued as he talked to me about the vote.
“Greece has spoken,” he said. “Its people will not be held hostage by Europe’s banking system.”
He said the Greeks are not alone in facing this new form of fiscal colonialism, that does not require physical occupation, and that is happening all over the globe.
“Look what these banks did to Iceland, Ireland, Spain and Argentina,” Artemakis said, referring to the 2008 global economic meltdown, which began with the subprime mortgage derivative crisis on Wall Street.
“Even the United States government today is subservient to the banking industry. It’s a direct result of the lifting of regulations that governed financial institutions”
I asked him how he sees the future.
“I hope people see the need for governments to balance the greed of invisible capitalism with the need of ordinary people and small businesses,” he answered. “If we don’t, then capitalism will have eaten the goose that lays the golden egg. We need to compromise between capitalism and socialism.”
Meanwhile in Germany the sabre rattling continues with the Daily Bild running a headline, on Tuesday, “No more billions for Greece”, showing Merkel in a Prussian helmet.
Responding to the German hectoring, French economist Thomas Piketty had some harsh words.
He told the German magazine Die Ziet:
“When I hear the Germans say that they maintain a very moral dealing with debt and firmly believe that debts must be repaid, then I think: That’s a big joke! Germany is the country that has never paid its debts. It is in no position to give lessons to other countries.”
If the European Union, International Monetary Fund and the European Common Bank refuse to reinstate emergency lending assistance to Greek banks and write down part of Greece’s debts, then Tsipras should walk away from the euro, impose strict capital controls and roll the dice.
All of those alternatives are better for Greece than a never-ending financial siege, sucking the life out of it.
July 3, 2015
Baloch Guerilla’s Song of Resistance against Pakistan’s Illegal Occupation – “Let Allah Nazar live long & prosper”
O Allah, O Prophet, let Allah Nazar live long and prosper
Heed to our prayers, let Allah Nazar live long and prosper
The enemy (Pakistan) has trampled our motherland
They have kept us oppressed and miserable
O Allah, O Prophet, let Allah Nazar live long and prosper
Heed to our prayers, let Allah Nazar live long and prosper
Our Sarmachar (freedom fighters) are our heroes
They will get us our rights for sure
O Allah, O Prophet, let Allah Nazar live long and prosper
Heed to our prayers, let Allah Nazar live long and prosper
Let’s vow to join the fight for our freedom
Let’s not hold back, let’s join the fight
O Allah, O Prophet, let Allah Nazar live long and prosper
Heed to our prayers, let Allah Nazar live long and prosper
July 1, 2015
Greece should call Europe’s bluff – IMF & Banks exposed in Toronto Sun
June 30, 2015
Tarek Fatah
The Toronto Sun
If a multi-billionaire runs into a financial crisis and cannot repay his or her debts to the banks, the banks don’t put him in debtor’s prison. Society allows debtors to declare bankruptcy, the banks write down losses and restructure their loans, while the debtor often walks free.
Case in point, the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, after accumulating $619 billion in debt. While millions of Americans suffered, the company’s top executives found lucrative jobs elsewhere on Wall Street.
Not so if you are a country, as the Greeks have discovered.
For five years their creditors have imposed their will, shrinking the country’s economy by 21% and forcing 25% of the people into joblessness.
There is no doubt that successive Greek governments mismanaged the economy with corruption filtering down to political patronage networks.
In 2009 alone, Athens borrowed abundantly: A whopping 15 % of the GDP.
But who were the bankers involved and why should they get off free and clear?
As Philippe Legrain, senior fellow at the London School of Economics (LSC) says in Foreign Policy magazine:
“By the time Greece was cut off from the markets in 2010, its soaring public debt of 130% of GDP was obviously unpayable in full. It should have been written down, as the IMF later acknowledged publicly.”
Legrain says 90% of what Eurozone governments and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have lent to the Greek government after 2010 has not gone to help Greece, but to rescue French and German banks on the backs of ordinary Greeks.
For five years, the Greeks have complied with the demands of the banks, but no more.
The difference this time is that facing the bankers today is a group of young, Greek populist politicians, led by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who don’t scare easily.
They are Europe’s new left, free of the ideological constraints of their predecessors — the dinosaur communists and socialists who also played their part in creating this mess.
On Tuesday, Greece refused to pay $1.73 billion it owed to the IMF.
On Sunday, Greeks will vote to reject or accept the bail-out plan put forward by the IMF, the European Commission and the European Central Bank, known as the Troika.
The situation in Greece is being followed closely and with grave concern by Greek Canadians.
Costas Manios, a former board member of the Greek Community Centre of Toronto, told me, “it’s time for Greeks to take their destiny into their own hands and stop being slaves of European bankers”, a widely-held view that cuts across political party lines.
Sipping coffee in Toronto’s Greektown on the Danforth, Manios notes he is not on the political left, but backs Tsipras’ stand.
“Greece should get rid of the clutches of the euro and embrace the drachma. This may cause a bit of pain, but will free the Greeks from IMF, Wall Street and Europe’s bankers,” he says
Others disagree. “Chris”, sitting across the table, interrupts Manios declaring: “Are you serious? Syriza (the ruling party in Greece) will leave the country in ruins … they’re communists.”
If Greece votes “No” and the Troika refuses to write down part of Greece’s debts, then Tsipras should walk away from the euro, impose strict capital controls and call Europe’s bluff.
Let those who referred to Greece as one of the PIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain) see the Greek lion, Nemea, roar.
June 30, 2015
Beware of this man. He wants to become the Prime Minister of Canada
Meet Justin Trudeau. He wants to be the Prime Minister of Canada so he can stop Canada’s CF-18 jets from bombing ISIS. What else can you expect from a man whose closest foreign policy advisor was born in Saudi Arabia.
http://tarekfatah.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Justin-Trudeau-on-ISIS.mp4
June 28, 2015
June 27, 2015
Do Foes of Gay Marriages simply Fear Joy itself? An essay from the past
Friends,
The U.S. Supreme Court ruling lifting the ban on Gay Marriage guarantees a right to same-sex marriage. This huge stride in universal human rights has come after a very long struggle.
In 1995, I ran for a seat in the Ontario Legislature as a candidate of the leftwing NDP on a platform of then Premier Bob Rae that included Bill 167; a proposed law that did not mention ‘same-sex marriage’ and spoke only of ‘same-sex rights’. In canvassing door-to-door I witnessed the hostility of religious yet bigoted Canadians towards Gays and Lesbians.
I didn’t win, but didn’t give up on supporting the struggle for same-sex rights. My wife Nargis Tapal and I continued to speak out for the rights of gays and lesbians as equal citizens, undeserving of the hatred and mockery they received, especially among Muslim Canadians and their clerical leaders.
In 2003, Nargis and I penned this essay for the Toronto Star. (This was long before the Star put me on their no-fly list to appease their Islamist readership). On occasion of this huge victory for our Gay and Lesbian friends, we would like to share this article with you.
Read and reflect.
“Gays and lesbians wishing to marry face a gantlet of opposition and we, as a heterosexual Muslim couple, can empathize with their pain. To become husband and wife, we, too, had to confront deep-seated prejudices. Culture, religion, and family would not permit the daughter of a Shia Muslim of Gujarati ethnicity to marry the son of a Sunni Muslim of Punjabi ancestry.”
September 13, 2003
Do foes of gay marriages simply fear joy itself?
Tarek Fatah
and Nargis Tapal
The Toronto Star
Last month, we attended a number of weddings in Toronto. Each had its own flavour, from Pakistani to Palestinian, from elaborate Orthodox church ceremonies to modest mosque rituals. Though the rites differed, the grooms and brides were all beaming with joy.
As these couples embraced their future together, we couldn’t help but feel sad for Canada’s gay and lesbian couples being pilloried for seeking the same happiness. We were also taken back to a humid August evening in Karachi in 1974 when we were permitted to marry.
Gays and lesbians wishing to marry face a gantlet of opposition and we, as a heterosexual Muslim couple, can empathize with their pain.
To become husband and wife, we, too, had to confront deep-seated prejudices. Culture, religion, and family would not permit the daughter of a Shia Muslim of Gujarati ethnicity to marry the son of a Sunni Muslim of Punjabi ancestry.
Four years earlier, our paths had crossed at a noisy demonstration at the University of Karachi. Two 20-year-olds pursuing graduate studies in English literature; one, an orator with two stints as a political prisoner; the other, a Beatles fan with a Ringo Starr mop of hair, who had never been to a protest rally in her life. They fell in love. In true Islamic tradition, she proposed, he accepted.
However, it was not to be that easy. This was traditional Pakistan where nothing happened without parental assent. When news got out that Nargis Tapal and Tarek Fatah wanted to wed, all hell broke loose. Both families vetoed the match. Devastated, we contemplated eloping, and were accepted at Oklahoma State University, but just to get there would cost a fortune, and we were penniless.
With nowhere to run, we persevered and several years later, both sets of parents buckled and gave their consent. To this day, we still cannot understand why it was so difficult to achieve such simple joy. After 29 years as husband and wife, we want no one denied the happiness we enjoy.
Sadly, the gatekeepers of bliss and the purveyors of grief are still alive and well. From prelates and imams to rabbis and pundits, the forces of religion are arrayed against the gay and lesbian community. Once again, we are witnessing an attack on joy and happiness in the name of religion and tradition.
As Muslims, we acknowledge that no faith, particularly Islam in its traditional interpretation, permits same-sex marriage or condones homosexuality. However, neither does faith allow hate and bigotry to be camouflaged as a quest for religious purity.
Most Canadian Muslims reject the notion of same-sex marriages and they are perfectly entitled to their beliefs, if, indeed, the issue is one of belief. But we think the position taken by religious leaders attacks the basic humanity of gays and lesbians. Dehumanizing “the other” is the first step to setting them as targets of bigotry and hate. Invoking religion to accomplish this task is shameful.
A Muslim monthly magazine asked its readers in an editorial, “Would you rather have church or state in your bedroom?”
Without answering the question, and oblivious to the implications of inviting church, mosque or state into our bedrooms, the writer goes on to predict moral disaster.
Accepting homosexual relationships as “marriage” will be the last nail in the coffin of human morality, according to the editorial:
We Muslims allowed and promoted the delinquency in our daily life and kept quiet; we tolerated the illegitimate relationships of consenting adults outside marriage; we turned a blind eye to the “coming out of the closet” and hid behind the curtain of “hate the sin, but love the sinner” … Even if we are looked upon in the West as “fundamentalists” or “homophobes,” it is an obligation for all Muslims to do our part just as the Catholics are doing.
Last nail in the coffin of human morality?
Not the Holocaust, not the genocide in Rwanda, not the massacres in Bosnia? Just same-sex marriage? Not murder, not hunger, not rape, not war, not honour killing, not illiteracy, not sexual assault by clergy, not its cover-up? To the editorial writer, nothing seems to be as vile as homosexuality.
Muslims should know better than to fall into this trap. They have been at the receiving end of slander and hate and it has taken collective action of some courageous people to defend the human rights and humanity of Muslims as equal citizens in our society.
Even though an overwhelming majority of Canadians does not believe in the Qur’an as a word of God and Prophet Muhammad, may peace be upon him, as a Messenger of God, we Muslims have been given a status, at least in the law, as equal citizens, no matter how offensive others may find our religion.
The same holds true for the other side. After all, Muslims do not believe that Jesus was a Son of God; or that God should be worshipped in physical depictions such as statues; or that God does not exist at all, as atheists say.
However, not only have we learned to accept Canadians with whom we have profound differences of religious belief, we have developed a society in which these differences are no hindrance to our relationship with each other.
It has been the intrinsically tolerant nature of Canadian society that has defined the rights of Muslims as equal citizens, despite our minority status. How can we then campaign against the very values that accord us the dignity we deserve?
If you believe your religion doesn’t permit gay marriage, then simply don’t marry a person of your own sex. End of story. Why would you wish to impose this standard on people who believe that religion, in their interpretation, does not exclude same- sex marriages?
The same religious groups that today say their only objection to the proposed law is the word “marriage,” were at the forefront of challenging Bob Rae’s Bill 167 in 1994; a proposed law that did not mention same-sex marriage and spoke only of same-sex rights.
The law drafted by the federal government as presented to the Supreme Court makes an explicit declaration protecting the right of any church, mosque, synagogue, and temple to refuse to perform same-sex marriages.
So why the fuss over gay marriage?
Could it be the same forces of religion, tradition, culture, and hate that opposed our heterosexual marriage 30 years ago are still making their presence felt? Is it joy that they fear? Happiness, it seems, is an affront; they simply cannot fathom the idea of two people wishing to live together as a family, and to be accepted the way the Almighty created them.
As a happily married Muslim couple who almost weren’t, we need to speak on their behalf, even though Islam does not permit same-sex marriages. If gays and lesbians wish to pursue their own path in life, who are we to place obstacles in their way?
If their choices are contrary to that of the Divine, only the Divine can be certain.
Let us find God in our kindness and compassion instead of hate and self-righteousness. For isn’t God the most merciful and the most compassionate?
Only God knows whether we are right in standing up for our gay friends, but we do so in all sincerity and with the hope that no one should shower grief over the happiness sought by another human being. Let us learn to live and let live.
June 18, 2015
Let’s face reality. Many more Muslims support ISIS than is commonly believed – My Toronto Sun Column
June 17, 2015
Tarek Fatah
The Toronto Sun
In the last week of May, the Qatar-based Arabic news network Al-Jazeera polled its Arabic-language audience on the question: “Do you support the victories of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in your region?”
The results were shocking. Of the 56,881 Arabic-speaking respondents, a whopping 81% voted yes.
The results of this online survey may not be scientific. But they do provide anecdotal evidence of what many see as a rise in the support of Islamism in the Arab Middle East, among Muslims in the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent, and in the diaspora in Britain and France.
On Monday, a 17-year-old Briton became that country’s youngest suicide bomber after he blew up a brand new SUV packed with explosives in the northern Iraqi town of Baiji.
Talha Asmal had Arabized his name to Abu Yusuf al-Britani and is the latest young person used by jihadi Islamists as cannon fodder in their quest to establish an Islamic caliphate.
This as laid out in sharia law, as a precursor to the Islamic Armageddon enshrined in Hadith literature, based on Prophet Mohammed’s prophecy.
In the wake of news reports about the British teen’s act of terror, another story emerged about three UK-based sisters taking their nine children and linking up with their brother inside Syria to join the ISIS jihad.
Here in Canada, the RCMP came up with their own startling revelation.
They have arrested Somalian Ali Omar Ader, an alleged extremist and hostage taker they say was involved in the kidnapping of Canadian freelance journalist Amanda Lindhout in Somalia in 2008. He was visiting in Ottawa.
South of the border, two Pakistani-American brothers were convicted on terrorism charges earlier this month.
Raees Alam Qazi and Sheheryar Alam Qazi confessed to planning a terrorist attack on New York City landmarks and were sentenced to 35 and 20 years in prison, respectively.
While these and other incidents of Islamist terrorism keep occurring at regular intervals, the explanation for what is happening remains the same.
That is, that these individuals are not acting in the name of Islam. That Islam has been “hijacked” by the terrorists.
This is what the family of Britain’s youngest suicide bomber told the media:
“As a family, we would like to take this opportunity to unequivocally state that ISIS are not Islam. They do not represent — in any way, shape or form — Islam and Muslims and we are no longer prepared to allow a barbaric group like ISIS to hijack our faith.”
But increasingly, similar words by present and former U.S. presidents that “Islam is a religion of peace” ring hollow today.
The reality is quite different.
It is true that for many Muslims, Islam is a moral compass that guides them in their daily, law-abiding lives.
But for many others, Islam is intrinsically interwoven with the doctrine of armed jihad and the goal of ultimate Muslim supremacy over non-Muslims.
I would have hoped to hear more Muslims saying in the wake of these latest incidents that despite the fact sharia law dictates the doctrine of armed jihad, we as Muslims reject it as inapplicable in the modern era of nation states, the United Nations and international law.
Contrary to the often-repeated mantra that there is nothing in common between Islam and the Islamic State, for many Muslims, there is a link.
And we Muslims should acknowledge that reality.
June 16, 2015
Something is Fishy about Missing British Muslim Sisters and their Nine Children – Story Doesn’t Add Up
You may have read the story of three Muslim sisters from Bradford who went to Saudi Arabia for pilgrimage and are are now feared to have travelled to Syria with their nine children. The sisters and their children, aged between three and 15, were due back in the UK but are thought to have boarded a flight to Istanbul in Turkey on 9 June.
It is being speculated that the three sisters have run away and have joined their brother who is already fighting for the Islamic State, ISIS
However, something does not add up and no one among the press dare to ask that question. You see, no woman can enter Saudi Arabia without a male escort, a husband, brother, adult son or father.
The question is: How did these three women enter Saudi Arabia for pilgrimage in the first place? They either never went to Saudi Arabia or there is a man missing in this story who knows what happened while the family is not telling the truth.
Here are two of the fathers. They’re obviously much older than their wives and from their English, seem to be recent immigrants who were married to these three UK-born Muslim sisters of Bradford.
June 9, 2015
Atrocities in Balochistan – Pakistan Military committing War Crimes
If YouTube is restricted in your region, here is the raw video of the same film:
http://tarekfatah.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Pakistan-Army-atrocities-on-Baloch.mp4
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