Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on Violence

‎Why I believe in non-aggression.

"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes: Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only LIGHT can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only LOVE can do that." -- The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.

A libertarian stance on intervention in Libya

Recently I stumbled on this blog titled: The libertarian case for intervention in Libya

I decided to comment on it and I fancied to blog it, so here it is:

    I wish I can say I couldn't agree more, as I also wish for individual liberty to be unrestricted on anyone and everyone, but if we say its fine for this government to use the money of its own people to enforce or kill a dictator, then this IS government going out of bounds and it being a policeman of the world (Where do we cross the line?). The disagreement of intervention is not based on only that govnt should let people be. This of course is not the case locally where the least of government libertarians would advocate is one that would protect their natural & property rights from those who infringe it.

   I would instead advocate us as restricted free people to use our OWN resources to help deprived individuals as much as we say that charity should not be done by the state, also if we wish to put our lives on the line for another nation, we should be able to do so, without using govnt tactics as theft to fund it.

    Yet I must remind myself and all, that this same state as with the western backed monarchies of the gulf nations has deprived its people by taking their right to arms and self-defence. Also, this coalition government is no libertarian government, is it?  In one of the recent speeches of PM Cameron he used a term that is also used among neo-conservatives and its “Muscular Liberalism” I would reference you to this journal article:  http://bit.ly/dV5nH4

    You point out correctly the role of the state in justice, but I would disagree that the military has a duty to topple dictators, that's not libertarianism, that's neo-conservatism, is it not?

   I am personally a libertarian who thinks that tax payers’ money should be used for the tax payer or else this theft has no use.

   In the end, I would argue the state in itself has no international duties, but the service of its nation without force and coercion, which is not the case today in the UK. If some individuals wish to be of honour and put their life on the line for their fellow man, they have the right to do so, along with whoever wishes to join them and/or fund them, provided they don’t force steal people’s money to fund it. 

"He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future." - George Orwell

An observation:


   3 examples:


1-  this is a quote from a tweeter @Iyad_elbaghdadi :

"Let's talk a bit about that quote: "Insurrection of thoughts always precedes insurrection of arms." It was said by Wendell Phillips. Phillips (http://j.mp/dLzdIG) was an abolitionist, calling for an end to slavery in the USA, and for equal rights for Native Americans. He made the case that slavery and oppression are chiefly in the mind of the slave. He won't allow his thoughts to stray too far. Therefore he said that the true end to slavery isn't in legislation or on the battlefield but in the mind of the slave. It starts with men not believing anymore that they're slaves, who believe they're free, who no longer recognize slavery as legitimate.This insurrection of minds, once it has taken hold in a person, is the true revolution  #Libya.  The Libyan people no longer believe themselves to be slaves to Gaddafi. They have broken those shackles of mind for good. #Libya"

2-  This example is an observation witnessed by a dear friend of mine who is studying a Masters degree on Islam in Britain. He is also on twitter: @Abdulazim


   He spoke of a vicious circle of the medias general view and narrative on young British Muslims. That when you impose an idea that young British Muslims are ticking bombs, that they are susceptible more than their peers to become violent, radical and criminal. Left alone, they will come to a crisis and two choices, either to leave their faith, or to truly become radicalised believing what he is told about himself, because of the media coverage. Then taking  the real Muslims as people who compromised. thus fueling the hate machine and entertainment news media. 


  he also added that this all comes down to: 


a) a lack of religious guidance from scholars
b) a rejection of the violence and imperalism of western states
c) an identity crisis 


3- this is my personal observation of what is happening to the people in Bahrain:


     The government is using all its resources to promote sectarianism, and today I can say from what I have seen, that I know how Nazi Germany can happen:
Control the media, control education, and control all important social institutions. How can you go wrong?.


    with the uprising of a nation of a majority shia populace where they are the oppressed! in the gulf where I am now, the local media wishes me to believe that unarmed civilians, (There is a gun ban in all GCC nations)  who only have old swords and kitchen knives are initiating violence and aggressing against an institution that has an armed and armored task force, another country's army and helicopters in the air to boost. (Just to add on this issue of media, reporters from outlets such as the CNN and BBC were not allowed in Bahrain) .


     The Sunni people in Gulf nations are made to think that their governments are protecting them from the threat of Iranian imperialism...That Collectively all Shia are terrorists who secretly wish the death of all Sunnis, that they would betray their fellow Sunni for a fellow Shia for any reason, that their allegiance is not to their own people, but to Iran and Hezbullah..


. These sentiments are not new, they are generations of hate indoctrination put to work now, from my father to my little brother. God knows if I didn't leave Qatar to the UK I would have still accepted such vile ignorance as fact. The funny thing is, these people who speak with such hate, would sometimes be the ones who commit what they accuse my Shia brothers and sisters of. The media narrative today of Bahrain and the embedded hate, can do nothing to a Shia individual, but make him possibly either confused or angry, and would give great publicity to the few radical elements among the Shia and nothing to a sunni individual, but confirm the lies


   The specific reasons of why sunni and shia would hate each other don't matter, because after I learned of the shia tradition from shia I knew what I was told was but lies. I needed nothing but to learn, which removed the shade of ignorance.


   There is however a more important aspect to all of this, that the govnt used this tactic to remove itself from blame, to make as if shia are up to their antics again, and accused it of promoting the sectarian divide, making the rest love their government more and more for "protecting" them. Hence people praised saudi when it went into Bahrain with its tanks to a different country to "battle" unarmed people.


Has anything I said rang a bell in some other issue, in some other place in a time past possibly?


In this issue in my opinion it comes down to these matters: 

• It begins with collective judgment: to assign a group of people to have a specific negative aspect to them based on colour, creed, nationality or some type of grouping
• It comes from a position of power: either in number of in status. 
• Its for the Ignorant masses that the person or people of power deem to represent. They are meant to believe this so much so, that the people of the group accused of this lie start to doubt themselves and sometimes believe it to be the case. 
•  the purpose is to propose a set of ideas, or to alienate the particular group, or to propose a set of legislation, all for the consumption of more power either real of imaginary.

Of course this analysis at the end is purely simplistic and it comes from an individual who is no expert on this issue. 


At the end I'd like to propose this article I read recently that speaks close to the issue this blog wished to raise: Politically Incorrect Authoritarianism 


I hope you have found this blog to be of use. 


God Bless ^_^

God Vs Tyranny

The following is a passage from the word of God as I believe it to be, showing the attitude of God toward tyranny and how those who submit to him should act toward those who deny us freedom:

   "(6)But man exceeds all bounds (7)when he thinks he is self-sufficient: (8)all will return to your Lord. (9)Have you seen the man who forbids (10)[Our] servant to pray? (11)Have you seen whether he is rightly guided, (12) or encourages true piety? (13)Have you seen whether he denies the truth and turns away from it? (14)Does he not realize that God sees all? (15)No! If he does not stop, We shall drag him by his forehead (16)his lying, sinful forehead. (17)Let him summon his comrades; (18)We shall summon the guards of Hell. (19)No! Do not obey him: bow down in worship and draw close." [The Clinging Form 96: 6-19] 

Words of Wisdom

‘Even though you're not equipped,

keep searching:

equipment isn't necessary on the way to the Lord.

Whoever you see engaged in search,

become her friend and cast your head in front of her,

for choosing to be a neighbor of seekers,

you become one yourself; protected by conquerors,

you will yourself learn to conquer.

If an ant seeks the rank of Solomon,

don't smile contemptuously upon its quest.

Everything you possess of skill, and wealth and handicraft,

wasn't it first merely a thought and a quest?’

- Rumi

The scriptures of God

God spoke of the previous revelations in the Qur’an, as this Author can not explain such text, it is presented in its translated form:

“We sent to you [Muhammad] the Scripture with the truth, confirming the Scriptures that came before it, and with final authority over them: so judge between them according to what God has sent down. Do not follow their whims, which deviate from the truth that has come to you. We have assigned a law and a path to each of you. If God had so willed, He would have made you one community, but He wanted to test you though which He has given you, so race to do good: you will all return to God and He will make clear to you the matters you differed about” (The Feast 5:48)

“(105) We wrote in the Psalms, as We did in [earlier] Scripture:  ‘My righteous servants will inherit the earth.’(106) There truly is a message in this for the 

servants of God!” (The Prophets 21:05-106)

I hope you find this of interest ^_^

A matter of Death alone *reflection*

Hello and peace be upon you one and all =),

 Yesterday I was at an inspiring leadership conference organised by people who love God and love their fellow, and during that day This small reflection came to my mind, so I wished to share it with you, whoever who might read this:

    I will die. That I am certain. Yet, I do not own my death, but Yet, the life in which it takes is mine alone to dispose with as I wish. So who owns my death? Is it the person who will stab me in a dark alley? Is it father time? or shall it be a disease from mother nature? Or will my death be a result of some mistake a person makes whilst driving? Is my death the result of the magnificent entropy of this universe? Or is it just an incalculable incident that has no meaning?.

    Surely our death has meaning to each and every one of us. It might not matter to the stranger, but my death matters to me! who has my death in their hands to weave it at well? is it all what is around me, but me? waiting for a window of opportunity, waiting in that alley, watching me as I age, furthering the complexity of natures gifts, driving recklessly waiting for me to be on that same piece of tar.

   How can death be out of my control when my life is mine and mine alone?! yet I am more certain of my death than having a home, and having my faith with God. What does this all mean?

   Might I hazard a matter at will, that the ownership of my death is in the one who made the heavens and the earth to be? The one who created all nature and is beyond time itself, The one who gave life to me to own, cherish and live through. The one who controls the fabric of this expanding universe. The witness of the man who will stab me. The driver who will crush me. The disease that will kill me.

  Might I please add to all this, that if the preceding paragraph is to be true. Then fear of death is pointless, its coming is inevitable. Easier said than done however it seems to me.

 But if it is in the hands of who gave life it self. who made me free to love and hate, to be mistaken and correct, who gave me the mind to think, to be sad and happy, to be part of a group and a unique individual. To be the king of my life. Then might it be something to look forward to? to prepare for?

  Then the real question as it seems to me...What would you and I have prepared for death? or to put it in other words, what have we done with our lives thus far?

  I look forward to any comment an I do apologise for my downfalls ^_^