Islamic Awakening – Conversation with Tariq Ramadan: Social Justice and ...

From Chicago...[27/12/2015] | Tariq Ramadan

An Alternative Path To Peace In War

"I love the peace and I love the war" Lupe Fiasco The Coolest 

In my latest article on alternative strategies for conflict resolution I discuss some various ways we can change how we resolve conflicts some of the problems involved in doing so .

 

 

An Alternative Path To Peace In War

 

By Razainc

The failure of carrot and stick incentives

Since the advent of game theory, academics in political science and economics, along with policymakers and politicians have been and continue to be driven by an oversimplified view which holds individuals in a rational actor paradigm. Implying that, based on Rational Choice Theory (self explanatory), people do a cost-benefit analysis to maximize personal advantages when making a decision. An example of this is Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) a concept developed primarily by John Von Neumann.
This view, though useful when dealing with large bureaucratic organizations (which tend to use rational approaches when making decisions) breaks down when dealing with committed individuals or groups. In other words, people committed to a cause.
Recent evidence from cognitive science and neurology suggests that another agent of decision-making is driven by transcendental ideals, which can be called “sacred values,” meaning the values that are core to a person’s identity, emotions, their sense of religious identity, these values vary depending on the individuals and societies.
Take for example the prisoner’s dilemma which says the most logical thing for two prisoners who are accomplices in a crime, is to tell on each other and sell each other out rather than cooperate. When the prisoner’s dilemma was tested with actual prisoners it showed them diverging from theoretical predictions with most prisoners choosing the non rational choice.
With the election victory of Netanyahu and his use of race baiting, as well as his comments reiterating denying the Palestinians a state, the belief has emerged that any settlement is dead and that the world is witnessing a new nadir in the occupation.
However, this dour state of affairs doesn’t have to be destiny, there is new evidence suggesting a path to peace can start with a simple acknowledgment of wrongs and a sincere apology.
Sacred Values
So what are sacred values and why should they be recognized when dealing with conflicts like the Israeli occupation of Palestine?
Sacred Values override utilitarian (cost benefit) forms of reasoning in humans, and they lead to action (sometimes violent) when a person feels such values are under attack. People will be ready to defend them at all costs. Under these circumstances, no material incentive will change a person’s mind or at least trigger what may appear as rational behavior. Actually, it would have the opposite effect and backfire. In other words, everyone does not have a price or more accurately, a material price.
Scott Atran, a French and American anthropologist, said in my interview with him:

“Our behavioral and fMRI research in the lab and in conflict hotspots around the world indicate that SVs (sacred values) are cognitively processed as deontic rules (I have a moral obligation to do such and such regardless of the risks or rewards, costs or consequences) that drive actions independent, or all out of proportion, to likely, rationally expected outcomes.”

Conflicts with sacred values also are different from other group conflicts like in gangs where there is camaraderie but not commitment to a sacred cause, Atran in my interview continues.

Continue reading ...

 

Nana Asma'u Leader Of Women’s Rights in Islam and West Africa

Leader Of Women’s Rights in Islam and West Africa

My latest article a brief reflection On the prolific Muslim leader, author, scholar, mystic, and poet Nana Asma'u. 

 

“Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs only to those who prepare for it today.”-El Hajj Malik El-Shabazz


I intended to write this article for International Women’s Day but time did not permit. This article is a short profile of Nana Asma’u’s pivotal role as Muslim leader in the 19th century. Nana’s father, Usman Dan Fodiyo, like his daughter is famous in his own right and I plan to write an article on him in the near future. Usman Dan Fodiyo was the first ruler of the Sokoto state and was succeeded by his son Muhammad Bello who was also a half-brother to Nana Asma’u.
There are a few things I wanted to mention about the Qadirriyya Sufi order before I delve into Nana Asma’u’s life. The Qadirriyya order was a decentralized order. Unlike some Sufi orders which focus exclusively on the spiritual dimension and break from traditional Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), the Qadirriyya order in Dan Fodiyo’s region focused on the Sunnah (saying and traditions of The Prophet Mohammed (SAW).

Education was important to the Qadirriyya order. “The Qadirriyya order sought to serve by teaching, preaching, and practical work while rejecting materialism.” The goal was not to consume yourself in the material world to the point where you forget about the spiritual dimension but live in the world while staying connected to spirituality.

Joining the Qadirriyya order was as simple as a hand shake and saying Ziker (liturgy) in remembrance of the eponym of the order, Abdul Qadir Jilani, after whose teachings the order was modeled. This made it very easy for locals in Dan Fodio’s region to join. It did however demand a certain level of spiritual discipline like praying, fasting and general asceticism. In practical terms Dan Fodiyo sought a balance where Fiqh would develop virtuous outward behavior, Tawhid (realizing the unity/Oneness of God) would be the basis of beliefs and Sufism would develop the spiritual dimension. While a few royals joined his ranks many of Dan Fodiyo’s followers were commoners.

Nana Asma’u

Usman Dan Fodiyo’s teachings came into conflict with the ruling authorities, whom he felt were not properly practicing Islam, this lead to his followers being threatened. Thus Dan Fodiyo and his followers made hijra (migration) and eventually strengthened their numbers which infuriated the authorities, thus began what is known as the “Sokoto Jihad.” This is the context in which his daughter Nana Asma’u(1793-1864) grew up.

Asma’u was a West African princess, scholar, Sufi mystic, poet, teacher, educator, wife, mother, and actively involved in politics and social reform. Asma’u was born a twin, the custom was to name twins after Hassan and Hussein the Prophet’s grandsons. Dan Fodiyo however decided break from tradition and named her after Abu Bakr’s daughter Asmā’ bint Abu Bakr suggesting that he had spiritual intuition that she would be special.

Continue reading ...

 

 

 

My Coverage of the Black Lives Matter protests last fall

My Coverage of the Black Lives Matter protests last fall in Toronto

http://www.excal.on.ca/black-lives-matter-protest-in-toronto/

Why Trying to Blast Asteroids is not a good idea

So this was supposed to go in Excalibur thought I would post it here



On Monday morning at about 11:15am Jan, 23, 2015 Asteroid 2004BL86 flew by Earth at a distance of about 1.2 million kilometers. We detected Asteroid 2004BL86 back in 2004. “Asteroids in general are a very interesting aspect of objects in our solar system …when they get close to us they give us an opportunity to if you will to relive a piece of our past… their material which hasn’t changed in any substantial sice the formation of our solar system 4.5Billion years ago” “It gives us a great opportunity to examine a piece of our past” said Paul Delaney senior lecturer of physics and Astronomy professor at YorkU. 

Commenting on the how research is done on the asteroid Delany elaborated that by taking reflected light from the asteroid and passing it through a spectrograph you can analyze what its surface composition is. As the asteroid passes by the Earth scientist will determine its mass and knowing that they will be able to determine its density

Delany explained that radar imaging was being done to determine the shape of the asteroid.

“Delany said his students though not conducting research that they can publish will be able to gain very good skills that will help them with their future research by learning to find and track moving objects in space” “It’s an interesting object for the students to observe and you can actually show an object moving with respect to the background stars it the way we found Pluto for example it’s the way we find asteroids in general” “so for students to track this object down and snap images of it is instructive”

When asked why it a so important to study the Asteroid Delaney responded   “Asteroid in general are a very interesting aspect of objects in our solar system …when they get close to us they give us an opportunity to if you will to relive a piece of our past… their material which hasn’t changed in any substantial sice the formation of our solar system 4.5Billion years ago” “It gives us a great opportunity to examine a piece of our past beyond trying to just get a better understanding of the universe as a whole .“The comets nucleus … is of primordial material it has remained unprocessed since its formation 4.6 Billion years ago you got a piece from the Nebula in which the Earth, The Sun and the other planets in our solar system formed you are now literally extracting as much information about that piece of our history as you possibly can” The same material Delaney explained has been changed on Earth but on the comet it has remained close to as it was 4.6 Billion years ago. Delaney continued saying this would give us great insight into the material from which our plantery-system formed including us Humans this would be a great way to do it.

When asked about possible threats to Earth from Asteroids and possible responses that have been devised to counter them Delaney responded. Delaney when asked on nuking an asteroid explained it would not be practical.

Delaney explained the spacecraft had to be launched in 2004 for so that for over 10 years they could continue picking up the necessary momentum by gravity assists (think of it as slingshotting around a planet) to catch up to Comet 67P which was traveling close to 60,000 kilometers per hour, and was going to get faster as it travels closer to the Sun. Delaney further explained; The Rosetta and Philae  were both mainly automated since their launch in 2004. Since the fastest way we can communicate is by the speed of light which is about a billion kilometers per hour, and the Comet 67P was about half a billion kilometers away it would take about 27 minutes to communicate with the spacecrafts thus Philae  had to be automated to land safely on the comet.

 

M Raza

Poetic Pilgrimage rappers strike a chord with Islam

Lupe Fiasco - Lupe Fiasco - Mazinger ft. PJ [Produced by SX]

Some fire from Lupe Fiasco

Lupe Fiasco - Lilies ft. Sirah [Audio]

More Lupe awesomeness

Lupe Fiasco - Mural [OFFICIAL AUDIO]

Lupe with that epicness

The Latest attacks In France Are About More Than Free Speech

 

Artist Brian Waterman

 

 

This is my latest article at Loonwatch

Paris attacks are about Al Qaeda trying to re-assert their power in light of the rise of ISIS

It has been a crazy, disturbing week with attacks in Paris and the massacre by Boko Haram in Nigeria, among many newsworthy worldwide events. I’ve been busy with school and doing research for future articles about Boko Haram, Al Qaeda, and ISIS but I wanted to highlight a few issues.
First, hopefully all responsible parties will be caught and tried in court and brought to justice. By trying them in court we will gain valuable information on their ideology and radicalization and also what connections they had to terrorist networks. However, it seems that the main suspects have been killed in police shootouts.
My hunch is that we should not expect it to be revealed that there was much planning for these attacks which are often ill-planned and not well though out. As professor Scott Atran describes in his book Talking To The Enemy, “Terrorism involves spectacular and often unexpected killings in order to destabilize the social order and promote a greater cause.” Atran also points out in a Guardian article that “publicity is the oxygen of terrorism” and of course there’s been plenty of that since the attacks.
Competition Between Al Qaeda and ISIS
What I want to discuss is the alleged connection between the Kouachi brothers and Al Qaeda in Arabian Peninsula(AQAP) and why it is relevant given the rise of ISIS. Terrorist networks are not static, they are constantly evolving and responding to their environment. At first, AQAP did not officially accept responsibility for the attacks, they did however praise them.
Now it has been confirmed that AQAP has officially accepted responsibility; it is likely that they are challenging ISIS, showing them that they are still “top dog” in terms of transnational terror.  This is worrying especially if this rivalry develops into a competition, in which both groups attempt to out-do each other in both operations and scale of terror attacks.
Interestingly, the hostage taker at the Kosher grocery, Coulibaly, claimed allegiance to ISIS. His later involvement begs the question: how much actual coordination is there between ISIS and AQ? (We will also have to wait and see if AQAP decides to forge their own path or if they are  seeking to ally with ISIS.) Either way at the moment their goals and even the extent of their coordination are a relative mystery.
AQAP’s  hand in the coordination, even if minor, is a power play to remain relevant and a challenge to ISIS. AQAP will attempt, to the best of its ability, to use the attack as a propaganda ploy and claim to be the real “defenders of Islam.” While the brothers’ full motivations are a mixed bag of statements and not altogether clear, it is worth noting that AQAP did not only say that this was revenge for the “honor” of the Prophet Mohammed (SAW) but also for France’s involvement and crimes in “Mali and the Islamic Maghreb” and France’s support for the “annihilation of Muslims in Central Africa in the name of race cleansing.”
In what may be an attempt at stealing some of the “spotlight,” which as mentioned these groups need to survive, ISIS apparently hacked The U.S. military’s Central Command social media accounts (Twitter and YouTube accounts which have now been temporarily suspended).
AQ, Marc Sageman has pointed out has a very low acceptance rate, lower than Harvard’s, the connection to the parent organization, especially in their transnational attackers, was very weak. It was usually self-seekers (“Lone-Wolfs”) inspired by the group. People went looking for AQ, not the other way around and AQ was picky. The original AQ was very much a clan but transitionally AQ was not a command and control organization. It’s sympathizers and volunteers overseas (in the West) more closely resembled the violent strain of the late 19th/early 20th century anarchist movement, a largely decentralized movement.
ISIS on the other hand wants Muslims to join them and they are targeting young disenfranchised Muslims for recruitment. (I touch upon the subject of what draws youth to political violence and some of the motivations of ISIS volunteers here.)

Continue reading ...

YorkU Physics Professor Randy Lewis's research confirmed by CERN

Sketch by: Razainc and B-Dubb

My latest article in Excalibur I will write an expanded version Inshallah.

Physics prof Randy Lewis research confirmed by CERN

CERN confirmed Randy Lewis’s theory when they detected two new baryon particles Xi_b’- and Xi_b*-. In a paper published in 2009 by Lewis, a York physics professor, and Richard Woloshyn, a Simon Fraser University professor, predicted the mass of these two new baryons, by using a numerical method called lattice quantum chromodynamics (QCD).

“It’s always good to see the calculation we worked hard at is agreeing with experiments. That means that everybody is a little bit closer to understanding the world of particle physics,” says Lewis.
The building blocks of the universe are matter (m) which is made of particles, and energy (E) they are related by Einstein’s formula E = mc^2 where c is the speed of light.

Atoms are made of protons, neutrons, and electrons. Protons and neutrons are made up of quarks. Lewis explains quarks come in six states[Edit 6/23/2015 this should have been flavors not states]: up, down, top, bottom, strange, and charm, and they also have two spin states.

“People have known for a long time you can piece the quarks togather in many different ways.”
“The word baryon just means something that gets its properties from its three important quarks. If they happen to be two ups and a down we happen to name that baryon a proton. If they happen to be one strange, one bottom , and one down then we happen to name that baryon a Xi_b.”
“These two new particles… each of them is a combination of one bottom quark, one strange quark , and one down quark. It turns out they do stick togather and we predicted the mass, and it agrees rather well with what we see in real life.”

 

 

Continue reading ...

Angela Davis and Bobby Seale At The Activist Assembly

Angela Davis and Bobby Seale At The Activist Assembly

Entering to thundering applause and a standing ovation entered Bobby Seale and Angela Davis.

 This is an expaned version of my article in Excalibur from a few months back.

Speaking first was Seale with a standing ovation. Seale spoke of his early childhood, his work in the Air Force, and the Hi Tek industry and his studies. In the midst of all this he read a book by an anthropologist that connected him with his roots. Bobby learned about slave revolts and all the wars that African American had fought in for America all of this influenced him. 

Seale would be influenced by Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. He would go on to create a grassroots jobs based tutorial program for youth in the community. 

After founding the Black Panther Party (BPP) with Huey Newton and others, Seale still focused on programs like BPP’s 10 point plan and Breakfast Program for youth. Seale said that communist and capitalist imperialism were two opposite extremes for him.  Seale spoke about how the goals for his programs was about putting the money back in the community while at the same time educating youth and giving them skills.

 Seale spoke about wanting all power to all the people and changing how black people were underrepresented in the system, by doing things like voter registration and getting more black politicians, jurors and community leaders. He spoke of empowering women in the BPP teaching them self-defense. BPP’s guns were for self-defense according to Seale. BPP wanted to empower black and brown people to be in politics, and be judged by more black and brown jurors, and have a say in their communities. An example was endorsing Shirley Chisholm an African American woman who ran for president. BPP also did voter registration. But the police and the FBI did not look at it that way they would see the BPP as a threat. An FBI program called COINTELPRO would be directed against the BPP and among many African American leaders. Seale spoke of a time when the local police would collaborate with the KKK. Even the BPP’s children’s breakfast program would be seen as a threat by the Director of the FBI J Edgar Hoover.

When asked about holding politicians accountable, Seale said you vote them out if they don’t do their job, and protest to try to unseat them. Seale said that even if most of them don’t keep their promises having a few good politicians who do keep their promises is better than none. Seale stated it was important to work with politicians, and that it was more important that they fight for their promises not weather they succeed. 

When asked about his advice to young activists: Seale said try understand your ideas beliefs as much as possible and that they correspond to reality, he or she who assume without investigation 9/10 is wrong so learn to investigate.

 

Next up was Angela Davis . Davis approached the podium with a standing ovation, Davis started by speaking about education stating “Public universities weather in Canada or the US are no longer public Education has become a commodity”  going to say “People strove for education because it had a connection to freedom and liberation”. Davis began talking about when she grew up it was not possible for majority of Black people to vote including her parents who were teachers

Davis went on to state “just as the black struggle in the US was a struggle acknowledged by people all over the world, the 1980’s  especially the eyes of the world were focused on South Africa” she said now “the eyes of the world should be focused Palestine”.

But she cautioned about the environment and the dangers of fossil fuels saying “No struggle can be successful if we cannot manage to guarantee that there will be a habitable environment “

Davis spoke of the need to globalize struggles against racism. How she came to see prison as it functions as tool for racism. Davis then spoke of the soaring prison population in Canada, especially among Aboriginals and a sharp increase in Aboriginal women according to Howard Sapers report. Davis went on to highlight that one of the fastest growing sections of the prison population globally is women. 

When discussing the Michel Brown another case in long line of police killings, she stated that we rarely hear about African American women who are killed or a are victims violence. 

Davis discussed police and security militarization and its intersections with anti–Muslims racism and Islamophobia. She highlighted the Islamophobia directed against Muslim women referencing the headscarf bans and veil bans.  

Davis went on speak of the militarization of the police in America with aid of the Israeli government, and spoke of the continuous assault on Occupied Palestine. 

Davis also said there is a need for a 50^th anniversary commemorating the founding of the Black Panther Party. And She went on to state how the Black Panther Party's 10 Point Plan was still relevant.

  

Davis when talking about South Africa said that although wonderful things are happening in South Africa there are also things like the prison system. Davis then went on to talk about the influence private security corporations and that also own private prisons around the globe. Davis stated that women were the most consistent target of violence in the world. 

When asked about holding politicians accountable, Davis emphasized the importance of protesting saying that even with progressive politicians you shouldn’t stop protesting so that you push them to go further and keep more of their promises than they normally would have. Saying “so a lot of these responsibilities are our responsibilities”

Davis ended with discussing alternatives to prison system for justice.