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Fadi Zaghmout

Moderates: Raise your voices for peace – Tag

King Abdullah have been warning the global community over and over again that letting peace slipping from us at this point of time would only help weakening the side of the moderates in the middle east.

I personally love what Queen Rania said when she appeared with Opera a year or so ago, and which is so true. She stated that the real fight is not between East and West, Muslims and Christians, or Arabs and Americans, it is between moderates and extremist at both sides. Moderates who want to live in peace and in tolerance for the others, and extremists who want to set their own rules and are raving havoc across the world to force others to comply.

Looking at the global picture, one would clearly figure out that moderates are finding it more and more difficult to reach their voices to the masses. Things are boiling in the middle east, and the western media along with the arabian one are not helping cooling things down. From the Prophet Mohammad offensive cartoons in Denmark, to the situation in Gaza, the fight over power in Lebanon, the Iranian problem and others, all are good materials for news channels. Al Jazeera has a brilliant formula for manipulating the arab citizens feelings, and hollywood is doing its own job of demonizing the Arabs.

Yesterday while watching the new American movie, The Vantage Point, which talks about a terror attack in Spain and kidnapping/Assassination of the American president, it occured to me that the situation is very critical, and moderates can not be lazy in raising their voices and counter back the effect of the extremists. In the movie, and in a critical point, the president’s assistants were so close to push him to launch a military attack on Morocco. He stood firm against it, saying ‘We can’t attack a friendly Arab Nation’. At that moment I realized how far George Bush is from the ideal president image in the movie.

Horror is at the door. If we don’t act immediatly and stand firm against the voices of hatred, we might end up in a situation were regret won’t help. Let us raise our voices in harmony and call for tolerance instead of letting rage blind us, and pride to drive us to hell.

I want to turn this to a tab so that you people would voice out your opinion and call for peace.

You have to write a piece for peace and tag another 3 people. If you can’t call for peace, just skip the tag.

I tag: Kinzi, Life, Hala

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Responses

  1. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    LOL! man you made me laugh so hard. i can’t believe there are people who believe in the axis of moderates. what a sad sad people. ATTENTION MODERATES! YOU CAN JOIN THE AXIS OF MODERATES WITH OUR LIMITED TIME OFFER. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS THIS:1- BETRAY YOUR PEOPLE.2- SUPPORT IMPERIALISM AND ZIONISM.3- LOOT THE NATIONAL WEALTH4- LEAVE A TRAIL OF POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT.5- DIVIDE YOUR PEOPLE INTO TRIBES AND REGIONS AND SECTS.6-BEFRIEND ARAB MURDERERS. YOU TOO CAN BECOME A MODERATE. DON’T WAIT! CALL THIS NUMBER1-800-SCREW-HONOR

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  2. The Observer Avatar
    The Observer

    An eye for an eye would make the whole world blind – Gandhi

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  3. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    observer, thank you for the words of wisdom. Do you think Ghani’s wisdome applies in the Arab context?Lets see. Ghandi called for creative non violence, mass protests, strikes, boycotts of colonialists goods until he ensured all of India is liberated. Almost every indian region rallied to Ghandi’s calls for resistance.Arab leaders, with “moderates” leading the pack, crush all organized forms of sustained creative non violence and civil disobedience and mass protests, support colonialist economies by buying their products, and encourage their people to ignore the plight of other arabs in other places and their elite even denounce victims of colonialism. So where do you see similarities between Ghandi and the 20 Arab dwarfs called Arab leaders?

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  4. Jezzeen Avatar
    Jezzeen

    one more thing dear. do you believe British rule of India is similar to Zionist control of Palestine?Let’s see. The British were interested in economic gains from India. they left the Indians alone. Indians could live and move and travel to any part of India. But Jews are interested in the land of Palestine with as few non-jews living there as possible.So whether you turn the other cheek or accept to live with one eye, it just won’t work.my friend, your Ghandi comparison works great if the British were still in Palestine. But you forget that the British left long time ago. What we have today is a supremacist ideology called Zionism that has one goal in life and it has never stopped to pursue it from day 1 and that’s ethnic cleansing of non-jews, be it by lethal force or economic strangulation.Here is another one for you. In the history of human struggle against oppression, freedom never came for free. Even the Indians under Ghandi were brutalized and massacred.

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  5. The Observer Avatar
    The Observer

    Anonymous, jezzen, are you the same person?I believe that Gandhi’s model can be applied anywhere, and especially in our Arab world. The Arab moderate leaders are just doing great in preventing their people of committing suicidal actions. The problem with us is that the fighting culture became dominant in our mind where we ended up fighitng everyone even our own selves. Now as for Palestine, in 1948, the united nations divided the land between us and the jews, and regarless of how fair that division was, and regardless of the consequences, we refused it and fought over and over again to take what we believed to be our right. At the end, and looking at the situation on the ground now, Palestinians are suffering more than any other nation in the world. If we rather tried more peaceful manners in the past 50 years, maybe we could have neutralized or minimized our losses. And maybe, just maybe those people in Palestine would have had better lives. Just look of how bad their condition went worse since the first suicide bomber.

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  6. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    You did not answer any of the questions above. I guess you are a smart guy who knows when it’s best to keep mum. I wonder if the Three Monkeys are part of the Axis of Moderates.

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  7. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Observer, as for 1948, not even Ghanid accepted the division of the Indian subcontinent into India and Pakistan. Vicious wars were fought between the two. And that’s between two people who belong to the Indian subcontinent. Imagine if the division was between Indians and British. You just throw the name Ghandi but you have no clue what he stood for, do you? I know a paccifist when I see one. I know a peace activist when I see one.I know a parasite when I see one.

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  8. Hani Obaid Avatar
    Hani Obaid

    Good job Fadi. It’s amazing how much hate you got just by appealing for moderation. Have heart.I actually saw people reacting to the deaths in Gaza by cheering on saying that the brave Gazans should continue their resistance. Will these people’s blodthirst not be satisfied until all Gazans are dead?

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  9. The Observer Avatar
    The Observer

    Hani Obed, Thank you! I needed this voice of yours in the mess of those hatred messages! Would you please do the tag?

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  10. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Hani you are so dumb one does not know where to start. why don’t you fucking try to answer the questions. my god how stupid some people can be and they still don’t know it. do you think that if you throw the words moderate and peace and Ghandi and by attacking opposing points of views that this makes you peace-loving? Sharon used those words. you are dumb dumb dumb. and the honor of the THE DUMBEST JORDANIAN COMMENTATOR goes to HANI OBAID.

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  11. Shawer Avatar
    Shawer

    Dear Mr. Hani Obaid, I am a frequent reader of Arab blogs and every now and then I come across your interesting remarks.Frankly, I don’t know where you stand. Like the other commentators, I am confused by your statements.If you are a Leftist, I wish to remind that the left led third world liberation battles against colonialism. From Titu to Che Guevara and Castro to Ho Cho Minh and others. But you are against armed resistance so you can’t be a leftist.If you are a peacenik, like Ghandi, I wish to repeat what anon said. Ghandi is the model for creative non-violence, boycotts, protests, strikes. And Ghandi was vehemently opposed to the partition of the indian subcontinent. He called on his people to defy laws that support imperialist and colonialist interests. tens of thousands of Indians were killed because of these non-violent acts.Now you are not calling for boycotts of US and Israeli products, both engaged actively in colonialist and imperialist endeavors in Palestine, Syria, and Iraq. You are not calling for boycotts and mass protests and civil disobedience against repressive and corrupt Arab regimes.What are you Mr. Hani Obaid?And please, do make an effort to read the questions before you answer.

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  12. Hani Obaid Avatar
    Hani Obaid

    Shawer, since you were polite on that comment, I will answer to the best of my ability.I neither read nor study much political science, and I am certainly not a politician, nor would I ever want to be one. So I don’t need to align myself left or right, and for most matters I probably won’t even realize on which side of the political spectrum my opinion falls.I will not personally take Arms against anybody for any reason other than defending myself and my family. This I think should apply to nations as well as individuals.One need not agree or even know everything Gandhi ever stood for to adopt part of his ideas.Boycotts only work if enough people participate, out of the total market for that product. On the other hand a boycott that doesn’t work will effectively make you new enemies. For instance the boycott of Danish product only made things worse for Islam in Europe. Sure the comics were rude, but sometimes we have to consider the consequences of our actions, not just whether we are right.

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  13. Hani Obaid Avatar
    Hani Obaid

    Fadi, here it is. Thanks for the idea:http://blog.haniobaid.com/2008/03/06/gaza-myths/

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  14. المشكلجي Avatar
    المشكلجي

    “I will not personally take Arms against anybody for any reason other than defending myself and my family. This I think should apply to nations as well as individuals.” Nobody is asking you to take arms ,just don’t conspire with our enemies against our aspiration.that’s all …

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  15. ضذ الصهيونيه Avatar
    ضذ الصهيونيه

    we refused it and fought over and over again to take what we believed to be our right. At the end, and looking at the situation on the ground now, Palestinians are suffering more than any other nation in the world. If we rather tried more peaceful manners in the past 50 years,”First of all, Where do you get your “facts”? Zionist were bend to take not only Palestine but some part of Jordan(Salt and Ajloun mountain. Having said that,if you go over to every Zionist historical Documents as in the case of and the analysis by Israeli Historian < HREF="http://www.ilanpappe.org/Articles/What%20Does%20Israel%20Want.html" REL="nofollow">Ilan pappe<> ,you will see clearly the your “facts” not only altered and change but has nothing that relate to the historical events and what what happened in 1948 Please go read more because you have been mislead for too long. One more question before I go away, If I come to your house and forced you out because I am stronger than you, would you give your house or you will fight back ?

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  16. Hani Obaid Avatar
    Hani Obaid

    Mashkalji, you seem to define negotiating as conspiring. Meaning you prefer fighting. The problem is that you should only fight if you think there’s a chance you can win. Do you think you stand a chance ? What happens if we apply the current gaza casualty figures to the whole country ?10 Israelis : 100s of PalestiniansHow many Palestinians will be left ?

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  17. Hani Obaid Avatar
    Hani Obaid

    To help you with the math, there are about:4,884,276 IsraelisApplying 30:1, that means:146,528,280146 million Palestinians would have to die. There aren’t even half that many Palestinians on the whole planet.Unless you are suggesting they’d all go to heaven ?

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