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Nasrallah speaks on the 2nd anniversary of the end of the July war

On August 15, the Secretary General of Hezbollah Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah delivered a speech marking the 2nd anniversary of the July-August war. The following is the text of the speech carried by Hezbollah-affiliated Al Manar TV. The text is reprinted here with permission from and thanks to Mideastwire.

Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah“I seek refuge in God from Satan, the accursed. In the name of God, the merciful, the compassionate; praise be to God, the Lord of the worlds; may the peace and blessings of God be upon our Lord and Prophet Muhammad and his good and chaste family members, righteous companions, and all the Apostles and messengers.

“God has said in his glorious book: “In the name of God, the merciful, the compassionate. Call to mind when ye were a small (band), despised through the land, and afraid that men might despoil and kidnap you; But He provided a safe asylum for you, strengthened you with His aid, and gave you Good things for sustenance: that ye might be grateful.”

“Peace and the blessings of God be upon you. At the beginning of my speech, and before touching on the glorious and dear occasion of the second anniversary of the divine victory, the triumph of the resistance, of Lebanon, and the nation, I would like to pay homage and offer condolences to the families of the martyrs, the martyrs of the Lebanese Army, and the martyrs of our good people in the city of Tripoli and the northern region who fell yesterday by murderous hands and the criminal operation that targeted the homeland, the Army, the people, and the entire country. I pray to Almighty God to grant the injured quick recovery and to give all the families of the causalities solace, patience, and forbearance. Continue reading… »

Cultures of Resistance

Cultures of Resistance Activism Forum is a project that aims to address the Western hostile use of language intended to restrict debate related to mainstream Islamist movements and currents. The project will explore more effective means to respond to hostile use of language - as well as explore how better to insist on extending public debate beyond its standard focus on ‘Islamist violence’ - by launching a ‘positive’ (non-defensive) discourse on Islamism. In partnership with a wide number of social activist and public campaign groups, we aim to advocate for a shift in language from the defensive to the positive; to learn how others, in different struggles, have achieved this transition; and by this means, and by gaining greater critical mass, to open space in which a discourse of rebuttal and ‘resistance’ can be developed through visual and other means to imposed narratives and stereotyping. The aim is the change the terms of debate and to move to a more directly challenging, but more widely accessible, advocacy of understanding of Islamist ideology.

Cultures of Resistance magazine will be published twice a year by Conflicts Forum.

Volume One | Issue One [PDF]
Jihad and Terrorism:
A War of Words - Moazzam Begg
Talking About The Conflict - Mark Perry
The Paradox of Islamist Dialogue - Alastair Crooke
Brixton, Berkley and Other Roads to Radicalisation - Massoud Shadjareh, Arzu Merali
A Note — April 2008 - Tom Clark
The Islamic ‘Other’ in Film - Sukant Chandan
The Language of Oppression - Dyab Abou Jahjah
All is War - Aki Nawaz

America’s victory in Lebanon

By Mark Perry, Bitterlemons, June 12, 2008

The prime minister of His Majesty’s Government, the rotund Lord North–reputed (falsely) to be the bastard son of George III–once sniffed to his cabinet that if it were not for the interference of France, the American colonists would surely return to the loving arms of their mother country. He said this in the midst of the dark winter of 1776, when George Washington’s ill-clad army was traversing the ice-clogged rivers of New Jersey to do battle with Hessian mercenaries that the parsimonious North had hired. The result was predictable: when Washington attacked the Hessians (groggy from their Christmas libations), the British-paid militia dropped their arms and fled, giving the Americans their first military triumph. Continue reading… »

Understanding Political Islam

A two-day specialist course organised by British Muslim Initiative and supported by Al Jazeera Centre for Studies, Conflicts Forum, Demos, Forward Thinking and The Cordoba Foundation.

Venue: Olympia Conference Centre
Date: 12-13 July 2008

As recognized or unrecognized oppositions, parties in coalition governments or fully in power, or active players in civil society, Islamists have risen to prominence in the last two decades across much of the Muslim world. Today, Islamism is an undeniable fact of the political and cultural life of most Muslim countries in Asia and Africa, and even among Muslim minorities in Europe and the United States.

Although much attention has been directed to the violent and radical forms of Islamism -particularly since the 9/11 terrorist attacks-, its more peaceful, mainstream manifestations continue to be largely overlooked. Indeed, few topics seem to attract more interest than political Islam today. But a cursory look at the majority of what gets said and written reveals a disturbing dearth of objective and accurate understanding of the subject and a worrying pattern of generalization, and oversimplification. Apart from a few honourable exceptions, authors seem to confine themselves to repeating and recycling the same flawed material, with little effort to grasp this socio-political phenomenon and comprehend its complexities.

The British Muslim Initiative is organising a two-day specialist conference on Understanding Political Islam, to take place on 12-13 July 2008 in London, supported by the renowned think tanks the Al Jazeera Centre for Studies, Conflicts Forum, Demos, Forward Thinking and The Cordoba Foundation.

The conference will bring together some of the world’s leading experts on Islam and Islamism and a number of prominent intellectual and political figures, along with a host of researchers, journalists, and academics. It will be held as an invitation or registration-only event at Islam Expo, the largest Muslim cultural event in Europe. The aim is to open the way for a transparent and challenging discussion of a complex phenomenon which has been the subject of much attention but insufficiently objective and sophisticated analysis.

Please visit the IslamExpo web site for more information.

Terror and truth

By Alastair Crooke, The Guardian, June 1, 2008

Sir Hugh Orde speaks rarely heard truth when he says that he has never heard of a terrorist campaign that was “policed out”, adding that he could not think of one that had not ended through negotiation.

There has been an unshakeable faith in Europe that western law-enforcement officers could pad around the bazaars of Rawalpindi and in the refugee camps of the Middle East hunting-down “bad actors”. It has been a fantasy fuelled by the conviction in the west that “secular” Muslim societies must at heart be pro-western - surely they must share the antipathy many in the west feel toward movements motivated by Islam? The flawed assumption has been that these seculars loathe movements such as Hizbullah, and would become the west’s ready collaborators in undermining them. Continue reading… »

Nasrallah’s speech delivered on the 8th anniversary of the Resistance and Liberation Day

The speech of the Secretary General of Hezbollah, Sayyid Hassan Nassrallah, delivered on the 8th anniversary of the Resistance and Liberation Day, Al Raya Playground, Southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, May 26, 2008

Sayyed Hasan NasrallahFirst of all, a great greeting is paid to every pure spirit of the resistance and homeland martyrs; especially that of the leader of Resistance martyrs Sayyid Abbas Al Mousawi, the sheikh of the resistance martyrs’ Raghib Hareb, and the dear brother whom we miss today the leader Al Haj Imad Moughniyah.

You are mostly welcome in the 8th anniversary of the Resistance and Liberation Day. Here you are filling the squares with your presence and justifying your reality and identity that you are again and again the most honorable, precious and the purest people. Continue reading… »