29 - July 17th thru July 21st 2000,
Vol X
 
The
Troubled Nation of Islam
COMMON SENSE
By: Hassan Al-Haifi
Anytime one turns on the television, or opens up the newspaper for the
latest news, more than likely, one will find half the world's trouble spots
to be either in Moslem countries or in countries where Moslems comprise
a sizeable segment of the population. By trouble spots, the implication
is that the situation there has reached a stage of bloodshed or persistent
violence, widespread suffering, and death. The victims are most likely
to be civilian. There is certainly a well plot against Islam with international
overtones and certainly clandestine conspiracy aggravating most of the
troubles of Islamic nations as one can notice a strange uniformity to the
character and dogma preached by the leaders in these conspicuous activities.
It would be easy for Moslems to say that it is the "enemies" of
Islam in their Zionist or Masonic manifestations or that the anti-Moslem
campaigns have really not ended yet, and these "enemies will stop at
nothing, until they see Islam wiped out of the world". However, if
Moslems expect to have an easy life by simply having entered the fold of
the faithful, they are truly mistaken. As truly God-fearing people, as
the Al-Mighty would like us to be, should Moslems be satisfied by excusing
themselves from the responsibility for their plight and their sad and almost
pathetic state, after the Lord himself has endowed the Nations of Islam
with certain attributes, which they apparently fail to take account of?
Great is the gift of being among the faithful, whether by fate or persuasion.
This indeed is a great gift, which should never be taken so lightly, and
which should not be compromised with any other form of affiliation or identity.
It means that we are a part of those who have been entrusted to keep the
faith alive and to protect it from all corruptions and universal efforts
out to destroy it.
The Moslem World is a rich blend of natural physical resources, with
unlimited economic potential and international leverage of profound magnitude,
that has yet to be channeled correctly in service of the defense of the
faith and the interests of the Moslems throughout the world.
The Moslem World is endowed with a very rich diversity of culture and
heritage, that can easily become solid grounds for mastery of the world
in the fields of literature, science and the arts in all their manifestations.
The fields are infinite and enriching by any measure of wealth. All it
needs to ignite it is a greater appreciation of the real brotherhood among
Moslems, which Islam truly teaches and demands to be the rule, rather than
the exception. Again, a look towards Islam confirms it as the natural pillar
of affinity and nationhood
Of course, one can go on and on to describe the bounties that God has
truly directed towards His believers, but the above should suffice to indicate
that the Moslems truly have enough to make a great nation, indivisible
under God with liberty and justice for all, if we may borrow from our American
friends, some of their patriotic acclaim.
A close self-scrutiny of the Moslem World does not show much to be
truly proud of as a nation. Of course, Moslems must first recognize that
they are in their present pitiful state, not because of Islam, but because
they, and especially their rulers, have forgotten what being Moslem is
truly all about! Perhaps, the non-debatable fact is that the perennial
source of the all the problems of the Moslems has been and will always
be that they are prone to forgetting themselves. Time and again, over the
centuries from the time that the Prophet Mohammed (peace and blessings
of Allah be upon him) completed the delivery of his Graceful mission in
word and in deed, Moslems have seen the consequences of what happens when
Moslems take on more mundane postures, forgetting their true mission and
their pledge to their Lord, for the great gift of Islam, which they have
been so fortunate to be enlightened to. The results have been catastrophic
and brutal: Southern Italy, Southern France, Sicily, Spain, India, the
Philippines and more recently the unforgivable loss of Palestine. These
are just a few of the tragic losses of heretofore Moslem lands, with Moslem
majorities that have literally been wiped out of existence, except for
a few ruins that are used by the barbaric successors to the Moslems, as
tourist sites, after having destroyed most of the remains of a rich Islamic
presence, which coexisted with other ethnic affiliations in a classic example
of tolerance and social justice.
Perhaps, "forgetting themselves", may seem to be a simple conclusion
to draw, but for truly faithful Moslems it has serious and sad implications,
which ultimately become tragic. Moreover, from a theological standpoint,
"forgetting ourselves" has profound implications that are worthy
of serious contemplation as they touch on the borders of the true faith
of the believers in Allah, with all the conscientiousness and conscience
that should parallel this faith and drive it in full gear. This may seem
to many to be bizarre and very taxing on the mind, but one never ceases
to wonder at finding that many simple Moslems at the grassroots level who
see this better than any of their arrogant and misguided elites, political,
social and cultural. Faith, in Islam, is the essence of the creed, and
faith would not be faith, as the Al-Mighty would expect it from the believer;
If it did not have the appropriate metaphysical control and guidance mechanisms
within the Moslem scriptures that give faith and becomes an inseparable
bond embodying the real meaning of life, providing a cause to live for
and be willing to find in death a crowning glory, because, simply put,
one has given faith the best that one could. What more can one give to
a cause than a strong belief that is more than one's life. Faith entails
willingness to sacrifice a lot for the sake of the Al-Mighty for all His
kindness and mercy and for including us among the fold of the faithful.
If Moslems cannot think like that than they have, indeed, forgotten themselves
and became submerged in the worthless world of the mundane, leaving the
glory and ecstasy to be taken on by others later on. We have seen it before,
and it appears we are seeing it now. How many Moslems can truly feel content
that their faith in Allah is anywhere near the faith that the Prophet Mohammed
worked so painstakingly – and successfully to instill within his disciples:
the faith of conscientiousness and conscience and reason, a total submission
to the truth even if one's interests are at stake; even if one's soul is
pledged as a fair bargain for full spiritual fulfillment, the crowning
experience to a fulfilled life knowingly and persuasively? This is the
dividing line between true believers and followers, between free men and
those who prefer to take on disguised identities, pretenders, who play
roles that are misconstrued to be a part of the faith, when, in fact they
are driven by selfish motivates and misguided dogmas, what the Koran rightly
calls "the blindness of the heart"
Yet, God's will will prevail in the end. There is no question about
that in the true believer's mind. It is just a matter of time God's scale
of time. But alas, since God has endowed the faithful with much they can
work with, there is a purpose to this; If the workings of faith were at
their optimal best among the faithful: a universal connotation is to humanity
that goes beyond the five daily prayers and all the ceremonial rites, which
should only be taken as serving to reinforce the essence of faith, rather
than taking the place of faith itself, as the soul and fabric of the creed,
which God expects the faithful to convey to Him and to their brethren in
the faith, no matter what sectorial denomination they follow, for the essence
of faith is there among all of them and the spirit of brotherhood among
all of them is that element of Islam that needs to be heavily worked on
to remove much of the internal difficulties among Moslems, from borders
to water rights, to economic interaction etc. So, Moslems everywhere, must
start to ponder this question seriously, because the danger is getting
closer to home: How truly have we been in line with our early predecessors
who took the faith to such wide horizons? Is it right that Moslem should
start their renaissance by first of all refusing to recognize their own
Oneness, and sanctioning the blood of their own kind, let alone the blood
of non-Moslems? It has happened before, and the climax is not strange news
to anyone. It is happening now and the Moslems are as helpless as a lamb
waiting for the butcher's knife to slit his throat. "God does not bring
change to a people, unless they bring change themselves.
Under
the Motto "The Right to Respond"
Eritrean Embassy Responds
As part of our venture to give everyone a chance to express their opinion,
this week we give the chance to the Eritrean Embassy to respond to His
Excellency Ethiopian Ambassador's letter published two weeks ago on this
very page.
"In its issue No. 27, dated 3/7/2000, your esteemed newspaper, the
Yemen Times, published the response of the Ethiopian Embassy in Sana'a
to an article written by Mr. Hassan Al-Haifi entitled "On Neighborly
Relations on the Banks of the Red Sea" published on the same paper in
its issue of 19/06/00, in which Mr. Hassan placed the responsibility for
the war that has continued for the last two years equally upon the leaders
of both Ethiopia and Eritrea. The Eritrean Embassy would like to bring
the following points to the attention of Mr. Hassan and his readers to
help them better understand the backgrounds of the conflict before making
any drastic assessments.
In 1997, the Ethiopian Government requested permission from the Eritrean
Government to allow its troops to enter Eritrean areas in pursuit of Ethiopian
opposition groups who Ethiopia said had escaped inside Eritrea. In light
of the corroborative relations that existed between the two governments
before the war, Ethiopian troops were allowed into Eritrea. However, what
they actually did had nothing to do with their Government's initial request.
In the first week of August 1997, they occupied the Eritrean village of
Adi-Murug, expelled all the Eritrean residents of the area and destroyed
all the Eritrean administrative structures in the area, declaring it part
of the Ethiopian Tigray Administrative Zone.
Following this incident, President Isaias Afwerki wrote a letter dated
16/08/97 to the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Mr. Meles Zenawi, requesting
him to take the necessary measures to correct the mistake committed by
the Ethiopian troops in Adi-Murug. Nothing changed as the Eritrean Government
waited for a positive reaction from the Prime Minister. On 12/08/97, President
Isaias was compelled to write to the Ethiopian Prime Minister again repeating
the same request. The Ethiopian Prime Minister responded by promising the
President that he would indeed take all the necessary measures to correct
the mistake. Look what the Prime Minister's "necessary measures to correct
the mistake" turned out to be.
The situation in the village completely deteriorated as Ethiopia attempted
to create a status quo on the ground. On 08/11/97, a new map of the Ethiopian
Tigray Administration in Mekele, incorporating huge areas of sovereign
Eritrean territories including Adi-Murug itself. Consequently, the Authorities
of the Tigray Administrative Zone and the Ethiopian army intensified their
attempts to materialize their new map on the ground and set out expelling
Eritrean citizens from several villages near the common border of the two
countries, especially those around the southwestern Eritrean town of Baduma
under the pretext that those villages belonged to Ethiopia according to
their new map.
At this point, the Eritrean government tried to solve the dispute peacefully
by proposing that a Joint Border Committee between the two countries be
set up to seek the settlement of the dispute on the basis of internationally
recognized colonial treaties. Although, the Ethiopian Government verbally
seemed to accept the Eritrean proposal, it continued to procrastinate setting
a date for the committee to meet. All the while, its army continued to
occupy additional Eritrean territories by force and to expel Eritrean citizens
from their homes and to replace them by new arrivals of Tigrayans brought
from across the border in an attempt to create facts on the ground.
These developments reached a point of explosion on 06/05/98 when Ethiopian
troops opened fire, in an unprovoked attack, on a group of Eritrean army
officers who were on their way to meet their Ethiopian Military counterparts
around the Eritrean town of Baduma to negotiate a peaceful end to the encroachments.
Four of the Eritrean officers were killed. In an unexpected escalation,
the Ethiopian Government sent the bulk of its troops to the common border
of the two countries and on 13/05/98 its parliament declared war on Eritrea.
All of these developments as well as the subsequent Ethiopian behavior
during the last two years of negotiations and the re-escalation of fighting
verify without any doubt that the Ethiopian provocation have been a premeditated
plan having nothing to do with a border dispute. This fact had repeatedly
been declared to the public by the leaders of the Ethiopian Government
in their interviews and statements to the media. They have shown no shame
in declaring publicly that their objective is not to correct any ills that
have been committed but to solely destroy the Eritrean Army, overthrow
the Government and subjugate a sovereign country and its people.
It is only the obsessive expansionist mentality of the Ethiopian Government
that may explain the rationale behind Ethiopia's invasion of Eritrea all
the while falsely claiming to commit itself to a peaceful settlement to
the conflict. When in fact, it came time to sign the three documents of
the peace agreement that it already accepted verbally, the Ethiopian government
stalled and instead began another heavy offensive against the State of
Eritrea, invading and destroying sovereign territory and at the same time
expelling and killing its people.
Eritrea has accepted all the proposals presented by the OAU, namely
the Framework Agreement, the Modalities for Implementation and the Technical
Arrangements at face value, with no preconditions at all. Eritrea did so
for no other consideration than to avoid the risk of additional bloodshed
that loomed upon the two brotherly people of Ethiopia and Eritrea as a
result of the policy of state vandalism propagated by the TPLF leaders
in Ethiopia. It has been the challenge of the Eritrean people and its defense
forces by aborting Ethiopia's expansionist dreams that has forced the Ethiopian
Government to come back to the negotiating table
Embassy of the State of Eritrea
Sana'a. 08-07-2000
DO
WE ACTUALLY NEED SUCH A PARLIAMENT?
Jalal Al-Shara'abi
What did the previous parliament achieve? What has the present parliament,
scheduled to expire next year, achieved so far?
The answer is pretty discouraging. Yet, what is more discouraging is
the fact that the parliament does in no way deserve to be called democratic.
It has been no more than an expression and embodiment of hegemony by certain
social groups that dominated partisan and political life.
The Sheikh is still the absolute master controlling people and their
properties. You are even subject to eviction from your land any time he
wishes. And he has the power to expropriate harvest of your land. You are
still merely a tenant subject to eviction any time if you disobey his orders.
You are lucky if you are not locked up in his private jail. Ironically,
he is the same sheikh who had benefited from democracy and chose to be
part of a more powerful political party to continue serving his own interests.
The parliament is viewed as some sort of a stigma in the so-called
democracy of our country. The parliament has not been selected in a truly
democratic manner. In their discussions, the members do not often assume
any democratic criteria but rather behave, in a way just to please their
masters.
About a third of the MPs are incapable of reading and writing. The
remainder of them are on committees with which they have nothing to do.
Little wonder that their discussions are always away from the main spirit
of the subject at hand.
They blindly fight tooth and nail to support the stands of their parties
disregarding credibility. Their main concerns are to obtain allowances
and pursue their relatives' files applying for recruitment in government
jobs.
Do we really need a parliament whose members fight to speak first even
before reading the articles presented for discussions? Is there a need
for a parliament whose main job is endorsing decisions passed by the cabinet?
Our parliament is the last to know what is going on outside the beautiful
building of the parliament.
Instead of joining hands to work for the people, the members busy themselves
exchanging invectives.
Issues are discussed to be endorsed by the needed majority and despite
all, people still suffer from errors of their judgment for electing wrong
individuals as their representatives.
Some members, if have the power, would strongly object to what is going
on in the parliament. However, they cannot escape blame for being inactive
because, thereby, they are betraying the people who elected them to ventilate
their legitimate grievances.
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