يا بحريه

.

ياسعد عمر العبدلات أول تصوير

Enjoy... a playback from wayback.

.

Michael Jackson picked the worst time to kick the bucket...Iran is probably coming down like a ton of bricks on the "green" revolution...I actually can't stop laughing every time the headlines come up. They aren't evening mentioning Iran in the little bits on the bar at the bottom.

.

Here you go....

"The group had asked that three "high value" prisoners – their leader Qais al-Khazali, his brother, Laith al-Khazali and a Lebanese Hizbullah commander, Ali Moussa Daqduq – should be turned over to Iraqi custody in return for freeing the captives. The Americans were apparently considering this (after a British request) until Iraqi officials said they were not prepared to prosecute the men."

.

Iran responds...two British hostages killed.

For ages I've been trying to work out why nobody kicks up a fuss about the British hostages that had been held for two years in Iraq. It was almost as if nobody cared, there would be a cursory news story about the latest video, a condemnation from the British Foreign Office, and then - nothing. These men were the forgotten.

I have to hand it to them, the Iranians are smart. When the Queen presented an award to Salman Rushdie a few years ago, the Iranians captured 11 British sailors and held a media circus with them that humiliated both Britain and the United States. On Friday, Ayotollah Khamenei called the British government the most evil on earth and Motaki has accused Britain and the United States of "interfering" with Iran's internal affairs. Then we hear of the deaths of two of the hostages. Nobody else would hold hostages for two years, feeding them and looking after them. If it has been al Qaeda or some crackpot movement in Iraq, they would have died a long tim ago. Instead, like winning cards they were held until it was prudent for them to be used. The Foreign Office knew it was the Iranians holding these five men but it did not make a big sensation of this as was the case with Ken Bigley for example. If you ask yourself why then you might begin to realise the scale of what is happening.

.

The 'noble' struggle against the tyranny of justice

I've been watching the so-called "revolution" in Iran with some interest and I've noticed a few things. Firstly the trend for the profligate, the rich and the beautiful of the world to rise up in their struggle against the tyranny of justice, and to imbue their struggle with a sham nobility. They are morally bankrupt and proud of it. But what is happening today in Iran is meddling to the highest degree by foreign powers that have consistently had designs for that country's (and the region's) riches for over two hundred years. I see the Western media frothing at the mouth with excitement at what is happening there, even the newspapers which are supposed to be impartial all write their articles with an underlying tone implying that the collapse of the Islamic republic would be a good thing - referring to it in similar terms to the former USSR, East Germany or North Korea.

It is as if by sheer coincidence, the enemies of the states that these left leaning and progressive media outlets so love to attack happen to be their own enemies. The language of liberty, freedom and individuality have become politicised and turned into an ideology - albeit one with no substantial content or particular message. It is the liberation ideology of the profligate, fleshed out and blooming shamelessly in a way that would make John Stuart Mill proud. This is wrong, and there is no justice in what those people, and those who demonstrated in Lebanon in 2005, are calling for. They are angry because they want more money and not because they are hungry. When they cry out, they cry out yearning for the soothing whispers of America's pied piper, with her promises of unlimited desires waiting to be fulfilled. This turns our understanding of justice, freedom and the struggle against tyranny completely on its heads.

When the poor and wretched of the earth rise up we should rightly call it just and noble. When it is the rich, the beautiful and the immoral who rise up, then that is just revolting.

.

Reflections

My cousin is in the tourism industry and has managed to drag me along to Antalya, on the southern coast of Turkey, due to some business he has here with some Kuwaitis. The flight took us about an hour and we landed yesterday evening, after many delays. Courtesy of the Turkish ministry of tourism I am now staying at a deluxe resort in one of the king size suites till tomorrow evening. Whilst my cousin went around his meetings today, I took the liberty of exploring the place and making use of the facilities. It is very difficult for somebody like me to feel at ease in a place like this, it is far too luxurious and extravagant for my taste, there is something about it which makes me uncomfortable. I think earlier today, I realised why that was the case.

I think Man is always striving to recreate his vision of paradise on earth. At lunch today, I had tender birds meat, all the fruit I could want, and beautiful water lapping gently underneath my feet as I sat in the shade to cool myself from the sun. At the same time, I am constantly reminded of how stunning Russian women can look, I am literally surrounded by leggy, slim and busty beauties. Unlike the boorish women in England and America, there are thankfully much less of those hideous tattoos that are so fashionable - and which make me feel so nauseous - to see. At the same time, the Qur'anic parallel's could not be more striking in my mind as I looked around myself in disbelief. Somehow, this is all not real, as if I was eating sand, and watching the walking dead. In this world there is nothing that is permanent and we should always remind ourselves of this fact, I think I understood today that what will make paradise so beautiful is not all that surrounds those fortunate enough to make it there, but the beauty of those who are there. Wonderful souls that deserve to be there because of all they endured or strived for. Around me I only saw ugly people stuffing their faces - I think that seems a bit extreme now that I re-read what I've written, but I suppose the temptations and enticements surrounding me are themselves extreme, so if I vent off a little here to keep things in perspective then maybe I can be forgiven. Whilst I say what I just have, I act as if it is the most natural thing in the world for me to be here and quickly strike a rapport with whichever beauty I happen to be sharing a jazuzzi or sauna with - truly what a strange situation I find myself in.

I have never felt as lonely and as far away from Allah as I do here, in this place...

.

Istanbul

I spent my flight listening to the In Our Time podcast for the seige of Vienna, and then the recording of the Mamno'oon programme from al Jazeera on Saeed al Noursi, so that was a fitting way to begin my trip in Istanbul. It is a strange city, it really is between East and West in so many ways. I was surprised to know that the official weekend is Saturday and Sunday and not Friday. In fact, up until the last ten years, Turkish officialdom was viciously anti-Islamic but things have been improving, especially with the slowly slowly approach taken by Erdogan. Went to one of the castles that the Ottomans built on the Bosphorus to help conquer Constantinople. Amazingly they built that fortress in only about 4 months, in 1452. Their grandeur still lingers around the city. Went to a small mosque near the fort when the time to pray began. There were about six people...but I hear that Friday prayers are absolutely packed in spite of the difficulty of taking time off work.

Went to the market yesterday with an aunt to buy vine leaves so that she could make me some delicious Yabrak (stuffed with rice and cooked with lamb cutlets). The seller asked me in Turkish where I was from, and I told him I was from Syria. He smiled brightly, shook my hand and then he muttered something to me under his breath about Islam and I pretended to understand, nodding my head knowingly. My aunt pretended not to hear as she inspected the leaves. She told me that he said Islam was a magnificent religion. Most of the poor in Turkey are Muslim and very religious. The girls are not aloud to wear a Hejab when they go to University, so what they do is either take it off on campus and then put it on when they leave, or they wear the most awful wigs (on purpose) so that they do not attract attention to themselves. The decadent and seedy club lands of Bodrum which I see on the television seem a world away from the humility of these people. In Mecca, my aunt noticed more people from Turkey around her than there were Arabs.

Finally, the call to prayer in Istanbul is absolutely beautiful, perhaps even more than in Damascus in fact, or maybe it is because I have not heard it in a while. It is so refreshing to come back to a place where I can hear that throughout the day.

.