mohammadalisalih.com Blog

An Arab immigrant who came to America in his thirties, I, until this day, thirty years later, can’t sing one full American song. I know few words from songs like “Strangers in the Night” and “Born in the USA,” and a little more from some Christmas songs.

I still remember many old Sudanese songs, and, thanks to the Internet, I listen to some of them on “Radio Omdurman,” the Sudanese national radio. Actually, I recently started writing down lyrics of songs I used to sing and write down when I was in intermediate school, about 50 years ago.

So, my relation to Michael Jackson is that of a reporter, not a fan. Throughout the years, I wrote about him, not about his songs. And he had been one of the examples in my pieces under “Black Inferiority Complex.”

What is that?During the 1990′s, my second decade in America and after I became a citizen and started looking for an identity in my new homeland, I was surprised, then confused, then saddened and then became angry because of the pre-occupation of Black Americans with the color of their skins. Also because of one result of that: I noticed a general feeling of inferiority complex in their relations to Whites.

In this context, I wrote about Jackson’s bleaching of his skin and fixing of his nose. He seemed to have been embarrassed by being Black. Then came his song, “Black or White,” which I thought was a sort of hypocrisy because if it didn’t matter what color he was, why did he want to look like a White.

Add to that his personal problems, like awkward behavior, military uniforms and the way he had children.

But, when he died, I, for the first time, carefully listened to some of his songs and found that they were mostly about love, joy and peace. Also, I appreciated his creativity on stage, like in the video “Moonwalk.” I said to myself this man must have happily entertained the hundreds of millions of people who bought his records, CD’s and DVD’s.

So, after his death, I am trying to be fair to him: despite his personal problems, he was a very creative entertainer. Even in the subject of race, I realized that he contributed enormously to narrow the gap between Blacks and Whites. Like Rev. Sharpton said, long before Tiger Wood in golf, and long before Obama in politics, Jackson had proved that culture superseded race. Jackson’s songs have entered hearts, minds and homes of hundreds of millions of Whites, Browns, Yellows and many other rainbow colors.

I even revised my opinion of his “Black or White” song after I read its lyrics. Like the following: “I took my baby. On a Saturday bang. Boy, is that girl with you? Yes we’re one and the same. Now I believe in miracles. And a miracle has happened tonight. But, if you’re thinking about my baby. It doesn’t matter if you’re Black or White.”

JEWS AGAINST OBAMA:

Ari Shavit, columnist, “Haartz,” Israeli newspaper

:

1.”The Blackberry president did not heed the distress of the Twitter rebels. In his first test Obama stumbled morally.”

2. “Due to a profound sense of guilt for the white man’s sins, the PC left is incapable of properly confronting the sins of a non-white person.”

 3. “It is the champions of human rights who are abandoning the Middle East ‘s residents to the mercies of despots.”

JEWS FOR OBAMA:

Philip Weiss, editor, “Mondoweiss” website:

1. “A central question for American Jews in the media when considering the Middle East is: How much authority do they grant Israeli Jewish voices?  Do they elevate Israeli Jewish opinion about Israel/Palestine over, say, progressive American Jewish opinion or American Arab opinion, or American non-Jewish opinion? Does the tail wag the dog in terms of ideas? I think the answer is Yes.”

2. When “The Washington Post” attacks the settlements, it turns to an Israeli. Gershom Gorenberg is so important to the American media now that he is writing for the Weekly Standard, the New York Review of Books, and American Prospect. (They’re not calling Rashid Khalidi.)

3. “This surely reflects the fact that in Jewish life (and by extension the Establishment media, which draw heavily from my culture), Israel is said to be aliyah, or high, and the Diaspora low.”

Sanford, South Carolina’s Republican governor and a former congressman, looked for the word of God over his affair with an Argentine woman, also did Ensign, Republican Senator from Nevada who was forced to admit an affair, and who also lived in a house at 133 C St. SE, Washington , DC .

At least five congressmen live there, quietly renting rooms from “The Fellowship,” an obsessively secretive Arlington spiritual group that organizes the National Day of Prayer breakfast. Other politicians come to the house for group spirituality sessions, prayer meetings or to simply share their troubles.

Conservative columnist Cal Thomas: “That two fell doesn’t prove that the house has failed.”

Rev. Rob Schenck, who has attended prayer meetings at the house: “They’ve done a very good job of creating an atmosphere as separated as it can possibly be from the tensions of the city … But I’ve questioned in the past the highly secretive nature of it. The secretive nature of it has come off as a bit too clever. It places them at risk of suspicion about their motives. It hasn’t served them well.”

COMMENTS:

1. As a journalist who covered Washington politicians for 30 years (and other politicians all over the World for longer than that), I have developed a strong cynicism towards politicians. After 9/11 and Washington’s decisions to invade two Muslim countries in a subtle war over Muslims all over the World, my cynicism developed into anger, then my anger developed into despise.

2. My most despise goes to Washington politicians, like Sanford and Ensign, who think they are real Christians. But they are not. Even before their affairs. Jesus Christ wouldn’t have done what they did; actually he wouldn’t have become a politician.

Arizona school officials violated the constitutional rights of a 13-year-old girl when they strip-searched her on the suspicion she might be hiding ibuprofen in her underwear, the Supreme Court ruled.

The decision put school districts on notice that such searches are “categorically distinct” from other efforts to combat illegal drugs.

In a case that had drawn attention from educators, parents and civil libertarians across the country, the court ruled 8 to 1 that such an intrusive search without the threat of a clear danger to other students violated the Constitution’s protections against unreasonable search or seizure.

Justice David H. Souter, writing perhaps his final opinion for the court, said that in the search of Savana Redding, now a 19-year-old college student, school officials overreacted to vague accusations that Redding was violating school policy by possessing the ibuprofen, equivalent to two tablets of Advil.

What was missing, Souter wrote, “was any indication of danger to the students from the power of the drugs or their quantity, and any reason to suppose that Savana was carrying pills in her underwear.”

It was reasonable to search the girl’s backpack and outer clothes, but Safford Middle School administrators made a “quantum leap” in taking the next step, the opinion said. “The meaning of such a search, and the degradation its subject may reasonably feel, place a search that intrusive in a category of its own demanding its own specific suspicions,” Souter wrote.

Only in America .

Dr. Fauzi Al-Asmar, a Christian Palestinian columnist, resides in Washington, DC (Experts):

1.”Zionism has, for over thirty years, tried to distort the image of Islam and Muslims, and, so, of the Arabs. It exploited activities of small fringe groups that, themselves, exploited Islam for political and personal reasons, and are disliked by Muslims and Arabs.”

2.”This Zionist’s exploitation reached its climax during the years of former President George W. Bush, who, himself, exploited the 9/11 attacks, and launched a “Crusade.” (Later, he retracted that, but it was too late) … Bush spent years in the White House serving this Zionist goal with the help of Zionist-influenced media outlets. ‘War of terrorism’ became war on Islam, Muslims and Arabs, and every Arab became a Muslim and every Muslim became an Arab.”

3.”True, Bush tried to mend fences with American Muslims and Arabs, visited the Washington Islamic Center and invited Muslims to the White House for Ramadan breakfast. But, in the eyes of Muslims and Arabs, Bush was still the aggressor. He and his top officials used labels like ‘Islamic terrorism,’ ‘Islamic fascism,’ and ‘Muslim terrorists.’”

4.”Then came President Obama, and, to his credit, he separated between Islam and terrorism and stopped using the above-mentioned antagonistic terms, even the term ‘war on terrorism.’”

5.”For the Zionists, these changes and Obama’s address to the Muslim World in Cairo, were a disaster, and the biggest block on the face of their decades-old strategy.
Malcolm Hoenlein, Vice Chairman of US Jewish Organizations Conference, said the Jews were angered by the Cairo speech, and that ‘There are many questions about what Obama believes in and what he defends.”

6.”On the other hand, a group of decedents of Jews who immigrated to Israel from Muslim and Arab countries sent a positive letter to Obama in which they mentioned ‘The long history of cooperation between Muslims and Jews.’ The letter added: ‘Islamic sovereignty over Jews was marked by tolerance and hospitality, in contrast to non-Islamic sovereignty, especially in Europe.’

Mona Eltahawy, New York-based Egyptian columnist:

1.”Do you hear the silence from the Arab world over events in Iran? … For (Arabs), the silence is the sound of despair, for in Iran we are seeing the implosion of the politics of cutting off our nose to spite our face.”

2.”A succession of Arab leaders was known simply for standing up to America and Israel. It did not matter what they did to their own people, the human rights violations, the mass graves, the stifling of the media and most forms of expression. Standing up to the United States and Israel was enough.”

3.”Arabs argue over the politics of cutting off our nose to spite our face, challenging each other to support Iranian democrats despite Ahmadinejad’s taunts at America and Israel.”

COMMENTS:

Which is more important: Arab leaders “standing up to America and Israel,” or “what they did to their own people”?

Which is more important: America and Israel occupying Arab and Muslim countries, or Arab rulers suppressing their people?

Which is more important: sovereignty and independence of nations, or absence of democracy in some of them?

Which is more important: someone from far away occupying my house, or me mistreating my wife and children?

Which is more important: the leader of freedom and justice in the world invading other countries, or dictators mistreating their own people?

Yesterday, I almost fainted walking around Burke Lake, not far from where I live in Burke, VA, a suburb of Washington, DC.
That never happened before and I have been walking, or running around the Lake for 30 years. In 1980, I arrived in Washington as a foreign correspondent for major Arabic newspapers and magazine in the Middle East – still my job. I established an office in the National Press Building, two streets from the White House, and my wife and I bought our present house. At that time, there were forests between our sub-division, Cherry Run, and Burke Lake.
For 30 years, I have been going to Burke Lake (circling the lake is five miles). First, running with our dog, George, a golden retriever; then training our three children to bike or camping with them; then, walking while the children biked. Now, the children have grown-up, I walk with our second dog, Emma, a border collie.
Now, walking around Burke Lake is my only exercise. So, I try to do it everyday, winter, summer, spring and fall, rain and shine, though sometimes I find excuses not to. Because I go to office early, around 7:: 15-7:30, I come home early and go to the lake around three or four o’clock in the afternoon
For the last two weeks, it has been very humid and very hot, about 90 degrees. I don’t mind the heat (I am an immigrant from Africa, a Sudanese), but it is the humidity that bothers me
Yesterday, because the sun sets around 8:30, I decided to go to the lake later in the day, when it might get a little cool. I went around 6:30, and the temperature was 80. (It takes me about an hour and a half, but I don’t walk briskly; I put on a head radio, go with the dog and take it easy. So, it is partly exercise and partly entertainment.
Yesterday, I should have noticed that there wasn’t a single tree leave that was moving. The day before, around sun-set, there was a little breeze, and that was when cut the grass.
But yesterday, the tree leaves were motionless. About one quarter of the way, I started feeling exhausted (I am in my sixties), so I slowed down. But, it seemed to me that there was not air to breath. I took my shirt off, and that was the first time in 30 years that I did that.
Usually, it is nice to walk in a continuous shade under the tall trees, but yesterday that trees seemed like blocking the air, so I couldn’t wait to reach the open area around the dam, hoping to find some breeze. No breeze. I felt I was going to fain any time, and thought of calling 911 from my cell phone and hoping, if that happened, someone would be around to call 911, and, there were not many people walking or jogging.
When I made it to the restroom area, where there was a water-fountain, I splashed my face and hair with water, drank a lot and felt a little better.
And when I reached my car, I didn’t want to start the air-conditioning quickly for fear of adverse reaction. I opened the windows and drove home.

The State Department asked “Twitter” to avoid disrupting communications among Iranians as they protested the reelection of President Ahmadinejad.
Obviously, it is hard to say how much twittering is actually going on inside Iran . Tweets circulated by Iranians in the America tend to be in English. Though many people might be sending tweets in and out of Iran, their use inside Iran, a Third World country, is low,
Mehdi Yahyanejad, of a Farsi-language site in Los Angeles : “Twitter’s impact inside Iran is zero. Here, there is lots of buzz, but once you look . . . you see most of it are Americans tweeting among themselves.”
However, an Iranian-American activist in Washington said that tweets from a handful of students have been instrumental in getting information to people outside Iran . She spoke to the media on condition of anonymity citing concern that authorities in Tehran could block her from receiving transmissions.
COMMENTS:
1. Exactly 30 years ago, Ayatollah Khomeini led the “Tape-Recorder Revolution” when he started sending taped messages from France . But, Khomeini, soon after, went to Iran , and ACTUALLY led the revolution against the Shah.
2. Later, the Russian, Polish, Czech, Romanian and Ukrainian Revolutions were fought ACTUALLY from inside their respective countries by people who SACRIFICED with their lives when they faced repressive governments.
3. With all due respect to the Iranian-Americans who are “sacrificing” their time on Twitter to try to ignite a revolution in Iran , they need to be ACTUALLY in Iran to SACRIFICE for Iran if they really love Iran .
4. As for the State Department, they may need to be reminded that President Obama is not a strong supporter of “War On Terrorism,” which I have come to believe is but a subtle war on Muslims. Unless remnants of the “Neo-Cons” still want to plot for Muslims to kill Muslims. Otherwise, why is the HYPOCRACY? When was the last time CHINA held a general election?

Senator Ensign, Conservative Republican of Nevada, days after confessing an extramarital affair with former assistant Cynthia Hampton, accused her husband and also former assistant, Doug Hampton, of trying to extract a financial payout.
That followed a whisper campaign carried out by the Senator’s allies about what prompted his revelation that he had an affair.
The Ensigns and Hamptons were lifelong friends, living in the same Las Vegas-area neighborhood. The senator hails from a family of multimillionaires in the casino industry.
The affair began in December 2007. In April 2008, Ensign and his wife, Darlene, separated. At that time, Doug and Cynthia Hampton abruptly left Ensign’s offices.
Ensign went public after learning that Mr. Hampton had asked Fox News to undertake an investigation into Ensign’s affair with his wife.
Once he was alerted to it, Ensign quickly returned home and announced the affair without naming his mistress.
COMMENTS:
1. Didn’t Senator Ensign, during the uproar over former President Clinton’s affairs with Monica Lewinsky, ashamed Clinton and asked him to resign?
2. Would Senator Ensign have stopped the affair if Mr. Hampton didn’t ask him to?
3. Would he have announced the affair if he hadn’t been contacted by Fox?
4. Would he have paid Mr. Hampton money if Mr. Hampton didn’t go to Fox?
5. Didn’t he know that the extramarital affair broke the marriage contract he made under the eyes of God?
6. Is he a real Christian?

Secularism and communism have exacted a severe toll on church membership in Germany, especially in the eastern part, and Americans who visit Wittenberg, the city of Martin Luther, discovered “it is perhaps the most atheistic region in the world,” said Stefan Rhein, director of the local Luther Foundation.
“You actually have to go up to people and tell them who Jesus was. They say, ‘Oh yes, Christ. Didn’t he have something to do with Luther?’ “Said Wilhelm Torgerson, a German Lutheran pastor.
Wittenberg began a celebration of the Reformation in September, on the 500th anniversary of Luther’s arrival in the city, until Oct. 31, 2017, the anniversary of when Luther publicly challenged the authority of the church in Rome by nailing his 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church.
The theses were a list of complaints about church doctrine. Luther reserved particular scorn for the sale of indulgences, or the practice of promising salvation in exchange for money. Pope Leo X excommunicated Luther for heresy three years later, but the German’s theological rebellion spread across Europe and divided Christianity.
COMMENT:
I have always admired Luther, not only because of his historical role, but, also, because of his courage, which was, of course, the starting point.
I have come to believe that Muslims need a reformation like the one Luther lead. But, whereas Luther protested the corruption of the religious leaders, it is the corruption of dictators and politicians in the Muslim World today that is the problem. However, Muslim religious leaders are not less corrupt for the only reason that they have not revolted against their corrupt rulers.
Will this happen? An Arabic and English banner that says: “La Islam Bedoon Huriya” (No Islam Without Freedom) nailed to a wall of a major mosque?