Ahmadinejad in New York - lock up your daughters!

As you are reading these words, you will hear a part of a rather famous song about New York. Don't worry, it only lasts for 30 sec.
(And I'll remove this song on Tuesday. In case you want to cut it now, hit 'pause' on the right side of your screen).

Anyhow...

I always like to travel to Iran, so I guess Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is equally exited about his trip to New York. I mean, a change of environment keeps life interesting, doesn't it?

And interesting it will be for Mr. Ahmadinejad. Not only because of his speech at the United Nations, but also because - holy moly - Tehran seriously differs from New York.

While New York never sleeps, Tehran seems to do mainly that: Sleep.

Bloody hell, it is just such a booooring city. This of course viewed from a Western perspective (I can't help it - I'm European).

If you want to escape the rat-race in the West, please visit Tehran.

First, the pro's. It has wonderful museums, beautiful mosques, extremely friendly people and you can ski during winter.

Iran is surprisingly modern. No, this isn't Afghanistan or the Arab world. Iran reminds me more of Turkey or, let's say, current Bulgaria. There are flat screen TVs in the metro, loads of people have computers. And while the girls carry headscarves, most guys carry cellphones with (illegal) porn movies on it. The countryside of course is more backward. That is not typically Iranian though. Try Kentucky.

The girls in Tehran are - believe it or not - very flirty. And beautiful too. Looking is ok, but touching is out of the question. According to Iranian law, sex between a muslim and a non-muslim is punishable by nothing less than death. This though might be another reason to visit Iran: If you are into risky sex, this could be your walhalla.

But let me continue with the positive points. Tehran's metro is ten times cleaner and more modern than the tube in NYC (There is a catch though - just like with buses, women and men travel in separate carriages. For some kind of reason the Iranian government seems to think that their own population will organise massive orgies the moment the sexes are mixed). But there is hardly any crime and ten dollars gives you around 250 glasses of orange juice, although I might be exaggerating a little now.

But this all comes with a price.

No bars (not allowed). No alcohol (banned - no problem for this total abstainer..). No concerts (western music forbidden, some sitar stuff allowed). No free press (it takes honestly less time to read an Iranian newspaper than to turn on my computer - only Ahmadinejad stories, quran quotes and soccer). Endless and utterly boring documentaries on TV (or soccer matches from Germany's third league...truly fascinating). No normal Internet (most things 'unmoral', like sex or democracy are blocked).

By the way, hardly anybody speaks English (English in Iran is kind of politically incorrect, the regime promotes Farsi - foreign influences are discouraged). But don't think Iranians aren't aware of what is happening around the world. Most people are, for instance, very, very critical of their own president. For instance, concerning Iran's nuclear programme, many young Iranians in Tehran told me: "You really think Ahmadinejad only wants nuclear energy? Yeah, right - are you stupid or so? Of course he wants The Bomb!"

On the streets of the capital, the only thing you see are veiled women (veil is compulsory, for non-muslim women as well). Highly moralistic religious slogans on every street corner (aren't they ever getting tired of all that preaching?). And, the only thing people seem to eat are pistachio nuts (actually, after oil and gas, pistachio nuts are Iran's second most important export product worth 700 million usd a year; oil/gas yearly around 55 billion usd).

So, yes, Iran - and I am not cynical now - is a beautiful and fascinating destination. And - again surprise, surprise - people from Europe and the US get a visa upon arrival at Tehran Imam Khomeini International Airport (IKIA, not IKEA). Yes, you heard it correctly - even US citizens DON'T NEED a visa to visit Iran; you'll get it immediately the moment you get to immigration (cost of a visa is around 50 usd, max seven days stay, not possible to extend).

Those seven days are perfect. Enough to get a glimpse of Tehran and other parts of the country. And just not enough to get you killed by this disease called Iranian boredom. Because there ain't any nightlife in Tehran. Sunset means prayer time and then either to bed or watching TV (another three hour nature documentary on the Divine Beauty of Clouds).

That is why I would not be surprised when president Ahmadinejad, after arrival in his hotel room in New York, will stay up the whole night.

Endlessly ordering popcorn and hamburgers and checking out pay-TV. Having wild pyjama pillow fights with his bodyguards and checking this website (like all blogspot.com's blocked in Iran) to listen again and again to that fascinating song called New York, New York.

Because:

"If I can make it there,
I'll make it anywhere.
It's up to you,
New York..New York."

Harald Doornbos

For a lazy weekend: The first three minutes of 'The Hunting Party'

Here the first three minutes of The Hunting Party. The movie - starring Richard Gere - is very loosely based on the experiences of me and four friends in Bosnia.



A recent post on Harryzzz explains the story behind The Hunting Party, click here.

Thanks to Erik Schmidt for info.

Harald Doornbos

Great news for Lebanon's opposition - another MP is killed!

Here in Beirut - chaos. Another MP has been killed in East Beirut, where I live. This time Antoine Ghanem, a pro-government MP.

That is great news for the Aoun-Hezbollah opposition here.

Why? Because the opposition now only needs to kill another four pro-government MP's and, voila, the government will have lost its majority in parliament. Long live Middle Eastern democracy!

(Aoun is anti-Lebanese government and neutral towards Syria, Hezbollah is very anti-Lebanese government and very pro-Syrian, and Iranian, of course).

Just take a look at the list of Lebanese politicians killed since 14th februari 2005 (The day ex-PM Rafik Hariri was blown up). Although nobody has ever claimed responsibility for any of the killings it is pretty obvious who is behind all the killings...

Antoine Ghanem, MP (Maronite christian, pro government, anti-Hezbollah, anti Syrian)

Walid Eido, MP (Sunni muslim, pro government, anti Hezbollah, anti Syrian)

Pierre Gemayel, MP and Minister of Industry (Maronite christian, pro-government anti Hezbollah, anti Syria)

Gebran Tueni, MP (Maronite christian, pro-government, anti Hezbollah, anti Syria)

Rafiq Hariri, former PM (Sunni muslim, pro-government, anti Hezbollah, anti Syria)

Outside politics:

Baseel Fleihan, ex-Minister, wounded during Hariri attack, died later in hospital (I mistakenly took Mr. Fleihan for a Sunni muslim, he was though a protestant [see comments], pro-government, anti Hezbollah, anti Syria)

George Hawi, ex-leader Communist Party, (had problems with Syria)

Samir Kassir, writer/ journalist ( pro government, anti Hezbollah, anti Syria)

Give Fatah al Islam a phone call….

Salim Abu Taha, the spokesman of the Al-Qaeda inspired group Fatah al Islam in Lebanon, was supposed to be dead. He died, according to the Lebanese media, a couple of weeks ago during heavy fighting around the Nahr al Bared refugee camp in the north of the country.

That obviously wasn't true. Because Abu Taha was arrested this saturday by Lebanese authorities, hiding in the bushes outside the camp. This all two weeks after the Lebanese army defeated Fatah al Islam and took the camp. A couple of days ago we saw the same saga concerning Al Absi, the leader of the group. First he was killed, then he escaped, later he was dead again and his body identified by his wife. DNA made it eventually clear that it wasn't Al Absi after all.

So HARRYZZZ now gives you the unique opportunity to check yourself what happened to Abu Taha. Here is his mobile telephone number:

Readers in Lebanon call: 70-816085
Readers outside Lebanon call: 00 961 70-816085

I've spoken to Salim Abu Taha a couple of days before the fighting broke out in May this year. He is somewhere in his late twenties, early thirties. And to me he was very polite and friendly.

I can guarantee this is his cell phone number, but I have no clue if he will pick up the phone. Last time I tried (during the fighting) a recorded voice said: "This telephone is switched off, please try again later."

Well, good luck and let me know if you managed to speak to the guy! Please ask him if is he is free, arrested or dead (or went undercover to Kenya).

Harald Doornbos

INSIDE AL-QAEDA'S BRAIN (III)

If you haven't read part I and II of INSIDE AL-QAEDA'S BRAIN, you first might want to read part I here and part II here.

III

This feeling of loneliness and of isolation does not lead to any despair among the faithful. On the contrary. Over and over, Al-Qaeda-members are taught about the year 622. In that year, as the story goes, during the hijrah (the emigration), the prophet Muhammad was thrown out of Mecca by its city council. Muhammad and his followers – who literally were the fist muslims on earth – were banned from Mecca and fled to the city of Medina.

Two years later, the Mecca city council sent its army into the desert (towards a hamlet called Badr) hoping to permanently crush Muhammad and his, by then, army of a few hundred muslims. Although Muhammad was outnumbered by the Meccan attackers, the prophet of Islam won the Battle of Badr. This was of course the best PR Muhammad could have wished for. “Look,” he and his followers said, “God is obviously on our side! How is it otherwise possible that we defeated a much stronger enemy force?” Six years later, Muhammad – backed now by a much larger army – conquered Mecca and safeguarded Islam.

The Battle of Badr plays a crucial role in Al-Qaeda’s philosophy. It isn’t a coincidence that the perpetrators of the attacks of 9/11 were told by the leadership to mumble Badr-related verses from the quran right before hitting their targets
“This battle gives Al-Qaeda enormous inspiration,” according to Yosri Fouda, a journalist for Al-Jazeera and himself a muslim. He wrote a book about two of Al-Qaeda’s top commanders responsible for the preparation of 9/11. He writes: “They view themselves as a small group of fighters who, just like Muhammad, will be victorious against all odds and safeguard Islam.”

But, please, do not view Osama bin Laden as a primitive who still lives in the seventh century. He might be hiding in caves, for ever talking about the year 622 and using horse and donkey as means of transportation, but he isn’t the backward one.

The backward, the ignorant people are you – christians and Jews. Those who keep on living in the past, in a primitive state of rejection of the truth.

You still follow? Let me explain. Al-Qaeda fully understands that there weren’t any muslims before the year 622. Monotheistic, Abraham-inspired religion, starts with Judaism around 5000 years ago. Abraham (Ibrahim in Arabic) is considered a prophet in Islam and by Al-Qaeda.

Then, around 2000 years ago, Jesus showed up. In Islam, he is considered a prophet too (Isa in Arabic). With the appearance of Jesus, Jews should have made the “logical step” of becoming followers of Jesus (in other words, become christians). By refusing to do so, Jews rejected the prophet Isa (Jesus) and clung to their – by now – backward religion. Rejecting Isa turned Jews into ignorant people.

Only a handful of Jews did support Isa (Jesus) and they created, against all odds, a very successful religion called Christianity. No problem with that, Al-Qaeda says. But then, in the year 622, the prophet Muhamamd appeared. As Muhammad is considered the last prophet (and the one who received god's final words - the quran), this moment should have signaled an en masse conversion of christians to Islam. So while Jews made a catastrophic mistake by not accepting Christianity, christians made an, equally, crucial mistake by not converting to Islam. This, In Al-Qaeda’s worldview, makes Jews and christians backward, ignorant people. They, willfully, refuse to see the truth.

Actually, mainstream Islam in the Middle East considers Jews and christians very much the same. The main difference though between Al-Qaeda and mainstream Islam is seen in its response towards kaffirs or non-believers. While Al-Qaeda will actively hunt (and kill) for christians and Jews, the vast majority of mainstream muslims in the Middle East shrug their shoulders and have basically no real problems with local christians and Jews (which isn’t the same as lacking negative feelings towards The West or Israel of course. And there is more: Converting from Islam to any other religion is in all Middle Eastern muslim countries forbidden by law and - in most cases - punishable by death. And muslims will - hardly ever - marry a christian. Same the other way around by the way. "If my daughter ever marries a muslim - I will kill her," a maronite Arab told me recently here in Beirut. Don't forget, this is the Middle East).

That said; even to Al-Qaeda, christians and Jews – being monotheistic religions based on Abraham - are people of the book (mentioned in the quran). This is not the case with Hindu’s, Buddhists or – the worst – communists, secularists or atheists. Members of these religions or ideologies are, principly, Al-Qaeda's biggest enemies. To believe in the wrong god is one thing, to believe in no god, goes beyond their belief. If I ever will be captured by Al-Qaeda (which I sincerely do NOT hope), I’d rather tell them the story of how I attended a christian high school than how I, as a university student, worked for a semi-communist newspaper.

After the weekend: part IV

Harald Doornbos

Is Lebanon becoming a country of SUV-driving beggars?

What's new? Well, Lebanon wants money - again.

This time the Lebanese government wants 400 million dollars from the international community to rebuild the Nahr al Bared camp. Saudi Arabia is considering the request. 400 million dollars? That would equal 100 usd for every Lebanese, or 13.000 usd for every Palestinian (Now I understand why having 12 children is a smart move!)

This of course, after, in June this year, the Lebanese government wanted to have extra weapons, jeeps and ammunition, worth millions, from the international community to fight Fatah al Islam extremists in the camp.

Two weeks ago, Lebanon wanted - and received from the US - a few hundred brand new four wheel drives for the Lebanese army.

Last year, Lebanon wanted - and received - 4 billion dollars from the international community to rebuild the destruction created by the summer war between Hezbollah and Israel.

This has been going on already for many years. UN, IMF, Worldbank, US, Saudi Arabia, EU, Iran. Mention the word Lebanon and they all are getting acute headache. Every time the 'poor' Lebanese screw up their own country, the rest of the world has to pay for it.

Every time something goes wrong here - the government or Hezbollah (thanks to our Iranian friends) go on an international begging spree and collect again several hundreds of millions of dollars.

And they are smart (and corrupt), these Lebanese.

Hezbollah says to Iran: "You want the US and these Sunni bastards to win in Lebanon?". And here come the suitcases with euro's from Tehran.

The government says to the US and Saudi Arabia: "You want the Shi'ite scum or Al-Qaeda to win?" The next day, it is raining checks signed in Washington and Riaad.

This beggar-mentality, in the long run, doesn't lead anywhere. Of course, now its great to get all this cash. Shopping, new cars, fancy dinners, real estate - lovely. But the world is quickly loosing its respect for this country and its inhabitants.

Especially if you consider that 15 percent of all cars in Beirut are, almost all, brand new SUV's! Around 5 percent is either a new Porsche, Mercedes or BMW. Man, there are more Hummers (shiny yellow or i-have-got-a-small-penis black) driving around in Beirut than in Baghdad (dusty army green).

My suggestion: Confiscate every SUV, Porsche or Hummer. Sell that stuff and rebuild the Nahr al Bared camp, fix the army, pay policemen and teachers a decent salary, get electricity to poor areas and start factories to create jobs! It also might help to stop kidnapping Israeli soldiers.

The Lebanese can endlessly complain about foreign interference in their country. Strange, isn't it? When everybody else (except you) is paying the bills - don't be surprised when these powers want and get influence. In life, nothing comes for free. It is either shopping and SUV's or real independence.

Harald Doornbos

Good news from the Middle East: Harryzzz on CNN website

More and more blogs and news sites all over the world are referring to harryzzz! Especially from Turkey - which is a huge honour! But now even mighty CNN.com started linking to this little blog.

The thing is though, that CNN still owes me 40 usd. Why? Well, in my, by now, rather extended life, I have done ONE story for CNN. And no, it wasn't recently. Somewhere in the last century, there was news from Kosovo. The CNN correspondent was on a holiday, his replacement absent, the third guy didn't pick up his phone (or was dead, I really don't know). So they eventually called me.

It went like this. My phone rang, I heard a male voice saying: "Hello, is that Harald Door... (inaudible)..whatever...this is CNN in Atlanta."

I said: "Yep, very funny Chris." And hung up..

I was convinced the caller was Chris Stevens, a rather hilarious correspondent working in Kosovo for The Scotsman and other British newspapers. He was a notorious joker (until he threatened an Albanian guy who turned out to be a violent local rebel commander).

One minute later my phone rang again

"Hey, this is CNN from Atlanta, don't hang up. I am not Chris."

I thought: "D'OH."

One hour later I, nervously, filed a little report over the phone. I never got paid for it (as so often in journalism). A couple of days later, somebody told me that CNN pays around 40 usd. "That's even worse than Radio Rotterdam," I said and forgot about it.

Well, eventually, ten years later CNN has "paid" by linking harryzzz. Check it out here (click on from the blogs at bottom of CNN page and the link will appear)

Harald Doornbos

INSIDE AL-QAEDA'S BRAIN (2)

In case you haven't read part I, it might be a good idea to read yesterdays posting first (just scroll down a little)

II

Because of Bashir Uddin’s silent nature, it makes more sense to take a left and visit Bin Laden’s friend Khalid Khawaja. This former ISI officer and ex-air force man makes up for Bashir Uddin’s absence of words. Because Khawaja, in his mid-fifties, is a talker. Oh, a big talker.

He helped Bin Laden during the jihad against the Russians in Afghanistan. And more recently, in 2001, Khawaja was the mediator between the Al-Qaeda/Taliban regime and a group of infuential Pakistani religious leaders. The aim was to get Bin Laden to leave Afghanistan and avoid, in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, an American onslaught on Afghanistan. That mission failed miserably. Since then, Khawaja has been helping Al-Qaeda members and their families in Pakistan who ran into trouble with the law.

Khawaja isn't liked by Pakistan's military any more. Especially because he once was one of them. And his, suspected involvement, in the beheading of the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, hasn't helped either. His open adoration for Bin Laden is a huge embarrassment to Pakistan's president Pervez Musharraf. This because Khawaja isn't some kind of village idiot who resides in a remote part of Pakistan. No, Khawaja speaks perfect English, lives in Islamabad and - as stated before - loves to talk to anybody who wants to hear his voice. Every now and then, Khawaja gets arrested, to be release a couple of weeks later.

Khawaja is waiting for me outside the door of his apartment. For some kind of reason, in the hall next to the stairs, somebody has put a table tennis table.

“Oh, the attacks in Madrid [the Al-Qaeda trainbombing in 2004, killing 191, wounding over 1000] were an enormous success,” he begins, “An eye for an eye. The Spanish government has pulled its troops out of Iraq. I’m telling you [With you he doesn't specifically mean me, but the West, or more generally: Unbelievers, h.d.]: This is the beginning of our victory, just like our fight against the Russians in Afghanistan.”

Khawaja goes on: “There will be hundreds of attacks in Europe – another hundred Madrid's. And you can not beat us. We have a superior ideology. Who the hell are you guys? Where do you stand for? Your soldiers don’t have a heart for the matter, they only fight for money, which makes them professional killers. We fight for God and for God only.”

In order to avoid his wife, mother and daughters, we now move to the guest room of the apartment. Khawaja orders a servant to bring tea and cake. In the meantime, I show Khawaja an issue of Newsweek containing a cover story on the Al-Qaeda attack in Madrid. Pictures of total destruction and utter suffering. Images of the dead, the wounded and the shocked. I tell him I see madness, innocent people, terror.

Khawaja doesn’t agree. “The real perpetrators are responsible for this,” he claims, “America, the Jews, Satan.”

As Khawaja looks at the pictures in Newsweek, I ask him:

“What does Europe have to do to avoid such Al-Qaeda attacks in the future?”

“Madrid,” answers Khawaja, “was the result of the battle between the slaves of God and you – the slaves of Satan. Surrender to God and the attacks will stop.”

“But religion isn’t important for us,” I try, “And nobody wants to become a muslim.”

“Look,” Khawaya says, “That is your big problem. That is the power of Satan over you. Islam gives you the right for liberation. Nobody deserves to be ruled by the devil. Accept Muhammad, peace be upon Him, as the last prophet and as the messenger of God. We will help you to reach justice. The time will come that we shall liberate you from your oppressors. We will liberate you from democracy. People do not have the right to rule, that is only to God.”

The battle between good and bad, between God and Satan, truth and lie, and believers and kaffirs – unbelievers – are already central themes in the Quran, let alone in Al-Qaeda’s beliefs. Al-Qaeda considers itself an organisation of hardcore idealists, of Utopians. They only want to do good by implementing God’s laws on earth.

Its members ask themselves often the following question: How is it possible that the rest of the world doesn’t see the truth; doesn’t want to accept God’s will on earth?

Worse even: Many muslims willingly choose the wrong side.

The governments of Saudi-Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Pakistan are all pro-American and serve Satan. Even the Syrian government is satanic. For sure, they might be enemies of the US. But the Syrian government is secular. Just as bad. Or take Iran. Very, very anti-America. But its inhabitants and government are shi’i, not sunni. In other words: Satan-worshippers. Even the Hamas government in Gaza is quickly loosing Al-Qaeda's support. "We caution some of the Islamic groups, among them Hamas, which are risking the bloods of their sons ... to cleanse and purify their jihad of contemporary jihadi pollutants," said Abu Yahia al-Libi in a 90-minute videotape, posted on the net, last Monday. "Patriotism, nationalism, shared unity, the supreme interest and other slogans ... none of these have any space in the religion of Allah the Glorious and the Great," he said, criticizing groups such as Hamas for "abandoning jihad and jumping into the ballot boxes." Another reason for Al-Qaeda's anger at Hamas is this: Hamas gets most of its money from "Satanic Iran". This qualifies Hamas, in Al-Qaeda's eyes, to be branded "heretics".

Sorry for delay, during the weekend: Part 3