Category: Facebook & Twitter

Selections of Status Updates, Notes, Comments and Tweets made since 2009, a year which coincided with the gradual discovery by Arab and Middle Eastern activists of the potential of Facebook and Twitter as tools for social and political activism.

Rebels retake Christian town of Maaloula

Rebels retake Christian town of Maaloula | News , Middle East | THE DAILY STAR.

The battle of Qalamoun is heating up with the Christian towns of Deir Attiyeh and Maaloula coming under regime shelling. Rebels sought refuge there thinking the regime will not pursue them. They were wrong, as wrong as those who believe that the regime will protect confessional minorities: Christian, Druze or Alawites. The regime divides all so it can conquer all. Those who rely on it to be their protector are actually protecting it. Meanwhile, pro-regime media outlets will spin this as an attack by rebels on the towns, while pro-rebel sources will claim they are there to protect the inhabitants. We can only hope that the nuns of Mar Thecla, Mother Pelagia and all, are safe and sound.

Syria conflict threatens to tear Azerbaijan apart

Syria conflict threatens to tear Azerbaijan apart | Washington Times Communities.

But of course. Add to this reports that Armenian authorities are settling Armenian immigrants who escaped from the chaos in Syria in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region and the picture will become even more complicated, and the prognosis more ominous. At the beginning of the revolution when I warned this conflict will have spillovers beyond the region and that the impact will be global, I was dismissed as naive. But I was neither naïve, nor that intelligent really. I simply refused not to see the obvious. The sectarian overtones were just too strong, carnage too bloody and the region too central to the thinking of so many Muslim peoples across the world for this not to have a larger impact. The situation in Pakistan and parts of India, as well as parts of Southeast Asia and a number of African countries will be affected in due course of time. And soon, even areas where there are no Muslims will begin to boil as a result of Western inaction on this. I hate being a prophet of doom, but I hate its agents more, some of whom are world leaders.

Is Obama waging war against Sunni Islam?

Amarji Special

The United States is tired of being the policeman of the world, we are told. But when we wonder about the alternative, we are told it is the UN. But the UN does not move without leadership and its decisions can be blocked by Russia or China who apparently have no problem with genocide. NATO does not move without US approval, when Turkey wanted to call on it to intervene, the Obama Administration made it clear that it would not welcome this development. The Arab League has never proven effective in this regard. Moreover, it, too, requires a tacit American approval before endorsing major action.

Continue reading “Is Obama waging war against Sunni Islam?” →

Fred Hiatt: The choices Obama made

Fred Hiatt: The choices Obama made – The Washington Post.

When I published my “Short Stories of A Liar, Hypocrite and Irresponsible Bastard” as a critique of President Obama’s policy on Syria, some wondered in private exchanges if I weren’t too harsh on the man. Well, this is the documentary evidence that proves my case. My criticism of Obama is not premised on ideology but on facts, including his own statements, promises and back-peddling.