Al Jazeera Messed up 'BIG TIME’ Here

Al Jazeera logo branded with emojis

Al Jazeera started up as a news outfit dedicated to telling the stories that affect Muslims across the globe particularly covering extensively the Palestinian struggle; this drew for them a lot of patronage from the Muslim world which largely saw it as the ultimate source of credible information on issues affecting Muslims. Al Jazeera also became a favourite for some westerners who had lost faith in the credibility of western media outfits like CNN and BBC. A great percentage of Al Jazeera subscribers still come from the Muslim world.

With time however, Al Jazeera has begun to tow the line of the west in certain aspects of society. On 26 June 2016, Up front host, Mehdi Hassan, attempted to stain the image of former Malaysian Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohammed, by asserting that the latter was anti-Semitic for his anti-Jewish stand.

This did not go down well with a lot of Al Jazeera fans as Mehdi Hassan and Al Jazeera were heavily lambasted on social media.

On 29 December 2017, Al Jazeera aired a documentary on India, the documentary was supposed to make a very good point but turned out to be a very devilish stunt.

India has one of the highest rates of honour killings in the world and it appears that there has been a spike in the rate due to the growing influence of western culture. Young Indians want to live like Americans and the Indian elders are bent on reminding them that speaking English and wearing jeans does not alter their Indian roots.

There now appears to be a group in India calling itself the ‘Love Commandos’ whose aim is to give western Indians the right to rebel against culture. The youths cite the fact that they are being forced to into marriage usually to people they ordinarily detested, but scenes in the documentary showed something else. The documentary featured scenes where unmarried youths were seen kissing and cuddling in public and the head of the so-called ‘Love Commandos’ calling it ‘freedom of love’.

The documentary also featured a scene in which an angry Hindu activist was seen saying, “If you want to kiss and have sex, do it in your room behind closed doors”, this definitely makes sense-right? The ‘Love Commandos’ branded these Hindu activists, ‘fundamentalist extremists’ and enemies of progress; Al Jazeera did not question the suitability of these epithets. This was the BIG TIME mess up.

The question then pops up, ‘Has Al Jazeera joined the vanguards of atheism and immorality?” Some might say it might have been a political move to get at the Indian government but to others, went off at a tangent there.

If Al Jazeera really wants to maintain its fan base among Muslims and people of reason, then it must stick to and only support rational views with sound intellectual, philosophical and spiritual depth.

There Were No Slave Markets Under Gaddaffi

Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al Gaddafi

In the last couple of weeks, world media, especially western media; has been inundated with reports of slavery taking place in Libya. Westerners of course have found in it another opportunity to claim superiority over Africans. 

To some other westerners, it is a show of the ‘superiority’ of westernization over Islam since Libya is a Muslim country. Western media is however constantly failing to highlight any link between the slave trade in Libya and the west’s predatory approach to global affairs.

The west had and has always shown dislike for non western nations making significant progress ‘without western approval’. This is evident in the cold relationship that always develops between the west and those states that choose to think for themselves.

America sought every means to crush the government of Muammar Gaddafi militarily but Gaddafi resisted the idea of an all out military confrontation. The west grew weary as Gaddafi’s popularity continued to rise on the African continent as Gaddafi served as the African Unions chairman from 2009 to 2010. 

During the so-called Arab-spring of 2011, the west committed yet another atrocity in the history of modern politics; the west overtly armed and supported rebels and self-seekers who eventually murdered the welfare state icon.

Now that Libya is in the state the west wants non western states to be in, westerners want to hands-off and blame the resultant calamities on Africans, Arabs and Muslims. 

CNN’s Richard Quest hosted a show in Rome on 11th December 2017 in which diplomats from Italy, America and Nigeria and were present. The show was meant to X-ray the factors that have made Libya a hub for slave merchants, none of the diplomats mentioned western influence to be the root cause. 

Very hypocritically, CNN is at the fore-front in condemning the slavery in Libya whereas it was also at the fore-front in supporting the onslaught against Gaddafi’s government.

Some media outfits have even alleged that Libyan government officials, particularly the coast guard are fully aware of the slave markets currently operating in Libya and have simply shut their eyes and ears to this latest practice because they gain from it financially.

Whether western media agrees or not, they can never dispute the fact that their governments planted the seed of discord that has grown to this tree bearing fruits of killings, corruption and slavery amongst others.

Libyans under Gaddafi were so comfortable that they wouldn’t have sought a means of livelihood in selling fellow human beings. Here are some benefits and privileges that Libyans enjoyed under Gaddafi’s welfare state.

• Electricity was free for all Libyans.
• Banks in Libya were state-owned and loans were given to all citizens at 0% interest.
• If a Libyan was unable to find employment after graduation, the state paid the average salary of the profession until he/she got employment.
• Libyans who wanted to take up a farming career receive farm land, a house, equipment, seed and livestock to kick start their farms for free.
• Gaddafi carried out the world’s largest irrigation project, known as the Great Man-Made River project to make water readily available throughout the desert country.
• A home was considered a human right in Libya. In Qaddafi’s Green Book it states, “The house is a basic need of both the individual and the family, therefore it should not be owned by others”.
• All newlyweds in Libya received 60,000 Dinars (US$ 50, 000) from the government to buy their first apartment to help start a family.
• A portion of Libyan oil sales was credited directly to the bank accounts of all Libyan citizens.
• A mother who gives birth to a child received US $5,000.
• When a Libyan bought a car, the government subsidized 50% of the price.
• The price of petrol in Libya was $0.14 per liter.
• With $0.15, a Libyan local could purchase 40 loaves of bread.
• Education and medical treatments were all free in Libya. Libya can boast one of the finest health care systems in the World. All people have access to doctors, hospitals, clinics and medicines.
• If Libyans could not find the education or medical facilities they needed in Libya, the government funded them to go abroad for it – not just for free, but they got US$2,300 every month for accommodation and car allowance.
• Before Gaddafi’s rule, only 25% of Libyans were literate. Before his murder, the figure rose to 87%.
• Libya had no external debt and its reserves amounted to $150 billion though, much of this is now frozen globally.

Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi was born near Qasr Abu Hadi, a rural area outside the town of Sirte in the deserts of Tripolitania, western Libya. Being a Bedouin, his exact date of birth is not known since Bedouins were largely illiterate and did not keep birth records.  

He became the leader of Libya on 1 September 1969 after overthrowing King Idris in a bloodless military coup as a 27 year old colonel.

On 20 October 2011, Muammar Gaddaifi was killed in a joint military operation by America, NATO and the rebel group, National Transitional Council (NTC). Several videos related to the death were broadcast by news channels and circulated via the Internet.

The first shows footage of Gaddafi alive, his face and shirt bloodied, stumbling and being dragged towards an ambulance by militants chanting "God is great" (in Arabic). The video shows Gaddafi being sodomized with a bayonet.  Another video posted on YouTube showed fighters "hovering around his lifeless-looking body, posing for photographs and yanking his limp head up and down by the hair. Yet another video shows him being stripped naked and verbally abused by his captors.

It was stated in a report in October 2012, that Gaddafi had not been killed in crossfire as claimed by the NTC. He might have been executed without trial, along with 66 others, including one of his sons. The NTC refused a foreign and independent autopsy of Gaddafi’s corpse.

Many leaders and foreign ministers of Western countries like Australia, Canada, and the United States, made statements hailing and supporting the killing of Gaddafi. The Vatican City responded to the event by declaring that it recognized the NTC as Libya's legitimate government.

Reaction from the governments of countries including Cuba, Russia, Venezuela and Nicaragua was negative. Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez described the former Libyan leader's death as an assassination and an outrage. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega later called Gaddafi’s killing a crime during his inauguration on 10 January 2012.

A senior diplomat who had served at the US embassy in Moscow under the Obama administration disclosed that Putin had been appalled by Gaddafi’s fate to the extent that he watched a video of Gaddafi’s savage death three times, the video that showed him being sodomised with a bayonet. 

Putin also lashed out at the U.S. for the illegal killing of Gaddafi and asked, "They showed to the whole world how he (Gaddafi) was killed; there was blood all over. Is that what they call a democracy?"

The motion cannot be denied: The West has created the slave markets in Libya.

Saudi Arabia Supports Trump's Declaration

Masjidul Aqsa in Palestine

Leaked audio recordings have confirmed on 7 January 2018 that a top Egyptian official ordered media outfits in Egypt to support Donald Trump's decision to make Jerusalem (Islam's third holiest site) the capital of the Israelis. The current regime in Egypt led by Alsisi came into power after a bloody overthrow of the Islamic government of Muhammad Mursi. Saudi Arabia support the overthrow. This revelation goes to prove that Saudi Arabia itself is a supporter of the move by America. The Moments after America’s president, Donald Trump, did what he called fulfilling his campaign promise of declaring Jerusalem the capital of Israel on 11^th December 2017, a precarious situation seemed to have developed. For some who are against the move by America, it is a good development and for some others of course; a bad one. Those who see it to be good do so because it gives the world the opportunity to see what stand Saudi Arabia, ‘the leader of the Muslim world’, would take.

The last time the world saw a disagreement between Saudi Arabia and America was in 1973 when the then king, Faisal bin Abdul Aziz decided to part ways with the ideology of his predecessors which was basically partner-in-crime relationship with the west. His rule saw Saudi Arabia impose sanctions on the West (including America) for their support for the Israelis during the Arab-Israeli war. This cold shoulder was however short-lived as King Faisal bin Abdul Aziz was assassinated by his nephew Faisal bin Musaid on 25 March 1975. Faisal bin Musaid had just returned from America some days before the assassination of the king, he was executed on 18 June 1975. A new king, Khalid bin Abdul Aziz, was crowned and the Saudi-West romance continued; it has not seized till this day.

Despite trump’s ranting particularly against Muslims before he assumed office on 20 January 2017, Saudi Arabia was not moved in the slightest, the relationship has continued without any hitches. The world will wait in vain to hear the Saudis criticize Trump’s support for Israel desiring to make Jerusalem its capital.

Why would the Saudis criticize Trump’s declaration when the gulf country is seeking stronger ties with the Israelis? On 16 November 2017, Saudi newspaper, Elaph, interviewed the Chief of Staff of IDF (Israel Defense Forces), Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot, in which the Israeli official was quoted to have said, Israel and Saudi Arabia are in “complete agreement” on their plans for the Middle East especially as regards Iran. He was also quoted to have said, “With President Donald Trump, there is an opportunity for a new international alliance in the region and a broad strategic plan to stop the Iranian threat.”In July 2017, Israeli communications minister Ayoob Kara, hinted that there are plans between the Israelis and the Saudis to begin direct flights from Tel Aviv and Macca and Madina during Hajj. This is expected to bring in millions for both parties. More recently, an Israeli found his way into the Prophet’s Mosque in Madina and shared the picture he took at the site on social media. The Saudi-Israeli bond is getting stronger by the day hence, criticism for anything that favours the Israelis by Saudi Arabia should not be expected.

On 11 December 2017, a 25-member Bahraini delegation visited Israeli settlements in a show of the growing solidarity between the Saudi-led block and Tel Aviv. This visit by the Bahrainis angered Palestinians and Muslims across the globe. Why is Bahrain important in this discussion? 

Bahrain is an extension of Saudi Arabia. The Bahraini monarchy enjoys support and protection from the Saudis. During the so-called Arab spring of 2012-2013, Bahrainis rose against the monarchy seeking to abolish it. It took Saudi Arabia’s military intervention to keep the regime in power. Could it then be conceived that the Bahrainis would initiate a process that the Saudis would find provocative? It is vivid; the Bahraini delegation that visited the Israelis did not do it at the behest of Bahrain alone but for the whole of the Saudi-led block. If this is not the case, then we expect to see Saudi sanctions on Bahrain.

The last Saudi monarch who sympathized with the Palestinian cause was Faisal bin Abdul Aziz, every other one (both before and after him) have been indifferent. ‘Indifferent’ for some might be a very mild word to use; they would rather go for ‘hostile’. Saudi Arabia is not known in modern times to have ever criticized an Israeli onslaught on Palestinians rather, the monarchy sees as an enemy every entity having the success of the Palestinian cause at heart. It is not news that the Saudis supported the overthrow of the Islamist government of Muhammad Mursi who was a strong advocate of the Palestinian cause. 

On 7 March 2014, Saudi Arabia declared the Muslim Brotherhood, the number one supporter of the Palestinians a terrorist group and instigated the freezing of assets of the Islamic charity organization worth millions of dollars by the current dictator. Saudi Arabia and her allies have also imprisoned a number of Muslim Brotherhood officials. The overthrow of Muhammad Mursi gave way for the Western-Saudi puppet, al Sisi, whom in conjunction with the Israelis has made life a hotter hell for the Palestinians.

On 6 June 2017, Saudi Arabia's Foreign minster, Adel Al Jubeir, declared HAMAS a terrorist organisation a day after Saudi Arabia and her Arab allies formally cut ties with Qatar on the grounds of what they called Qatar's disloyalty to the region. HAMAS is the resistance group that has kept Israel from from taking over the whole of the Palestinian lands especially Gaza.

The unshakable friendship between Saudi Arabia and America, the growing love between Saudi Arabia and the Israelis coupled with the expected silence of Riyadh on Trump’s declaration is a clear, lucid and vivid indication of Saudi Arabia’s support for the latest development.