Elected Upper Chamber

In his article “From Lords to Lebanon: Labour Misses Cook” (Aug. 6), David Clark wrote: “Tony Blair would surely be in a better position today if he had supported Cook’s proposal for an elected second chamber rather than sabotaging it.” While Blair has seriously damaged the effectiveness of the British Constitution by getting rid of most of the hereditary peers from the Lords, he has at least displayed some vestiges of common sense in realizing that an elected second chamber is really a nonstarter.

There are essentially two objections to an elected upper house: First, where would authority lie? Traditionally power and authority rest with the Commons, and no reasonable person would argue with the arrangement, as it is an elected body. Two elected bodies will only cause confusion. The second objection lies in the fact that no UK government in history has ever had much more than 40 percent of the popular vote. Yet, due to the first-past-the-post system, the party with the overall majority in the Commons forms the government and implements its election manifesto. A system of proportional representation does not remedy this defect as governments are, more often than not, beholden to minority parties which hold the balance of power between the larger ones. It should also be realized that political parties depend heavily on corporate donations for their funding, and politicians, torn between those who elect them and those who finance them, generally come down in favor of the interests of the latter. So, an elected upper chamber would only be an unnecessary duplication of the House of Commons.

It would solve nothing in terms of either weeding out corruption or in making good the democratic deficit inherent in the elected element in our constitution.

Francis A. Andrew, Oman published 18 August 2006

Real Issues

Bush was wrong. But that does not mean there are no fascists among us. I believe there are some Muslims who behave as fascists, who want to impose their views on others. It is right that we must be sensitive to outrageous remarks such as Bush made. But that is not enough; we must also be sensitive to the havoc we are bringing on our homes, the wars we wage among ourselves, our youth who want to die for no apparent reason, the culture of hate in our world, the misery, despair and backwardness of our people, the lack of freedom in our countries and so on.

Forget Bush. He was just mouthing the nonsense written by one of his aides. The poor guy can’t even spell the word fascist — let alone understand its meaning. Instead of wasting our energy on “condemning” the likes of him, we Muslims must face the reality of our community and work toward peace and tolerance. I am sick and tired of the “silent majority” who admire terrorists and ignorant, fatwa-crazy mullahs. Where are our voices of reason and peace?

Hassan A. Hassan, Jeddah published 18 August 2006

Institutionalized Ignorance

It may upset you in the Islamic world that George Bush called you Islamic fascists. But you have to keep in mind that George is not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree. Actually, he has trouble pronouncing English words, let alone understanding the meaning of the word “fascist”. All he knows is that a large majority of his opposition here in the US is calling him a fascist and I’ll bet, true to form, he has never looked up the word, let alone understood it. This is the reality and this is the way your paper should be explaining the remark.

By the way, the Gallup Poll shows that four out of 10 Americans are prejudiced against Arabs. It is an intriguing point that Bush’s ratings correspond to the same numbers: 33 percent approve of the man. Coincidence? I think not.

As you well know, ignorance has become more or less an American institution. Try asking Americans if they can tell you where Lebanon, Syria or Iran is on the map. The answer would be funny — for you. Yes, sad for us, but funny for you.

Then ask them a question about the history of the Middle East, say, the relationship of Israel and Zionism with the United States. Try asking teenagers in this country what the meanings of the Fourth of July, Labor Day or Memorial Day are. It is sad, but true.

Peter Ambleau, United States published 18 August 2006

The Fools in Charge

An American living away from home, I found Robert Fisk’s article “Roots of Terror? Try Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine...” (Aug. 13) dead-on and well written. Sorry I can’t change the fools who run my own country.

Steve Glass, South Africa published 18 August 2006

Not Stupidity

I have to disagree with Iman Kurdi (“There Are Limits to Intelligence but Not to Stupidity,” Aug.12). There was no stupidity there. Bush was reading the text written by a speechwriter, perhaps a Zionist neocon.

Anyway, who is a fascist? The Nazi claim of racial superiority and right to dominate others made them that. KKK claims that God gave them the land of Native Americans because of their superiority as a race. Jews claim that they have a covenant with God granting them the land of Palestine because they are special. The champions of this exclusivity are European Jews who run Israel’s expansion policy.

Muslims cannot be fascists because they are fighting to defend their birthright to their land. Islam allows no discrimination. Man’s equality as blood brothers cutting across all differences is a basic tenet of Islam. The Qur’an puts it thus in 49:13: “O mankind, We created you from a single pair of male and female and made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other.” Fascism is thus haram (forbidden) in Islam.

In the last few years, especially under Bush’s patronage, Jewish fascism has grown. It used to be hidden. Now it is going public. If anyone criticizes it, he or she is accused of anti-Semitism — even though Arabs are as much Semites as Jews.

Rashid Alhomaid, Arizona, US published 18 August 2006

Ahmadinejad on TV

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did a fine job of representing Iran on CBS 60 Minutes program. He gave the American people a view of Iran’s perspective on many of the issues on which there are disagreements and proved his ability present them effectively. I was very impressed, and I hope most Americans feel the same way.

Ed Friedemann, Carrollton, Texas published 18 August 2006

The Zionists of Israel Have Reversed American Morality

Aligning ourselves with the Zionists of Israel has reversed American morality. Expediency rather than principle now trumps our behavior and instead of trying to end so-called "terrorism" we're funding it, perpetuating it, and furnishing the weapons, without any stipulation that there will be no deliberate targeting on women and children.

Disassociating America from Israel and making peace with the Arabs on only Arab/American terms will bring peace and the Arabs will deal with their fringe violent elements, as do we.

There is no future for peace or financial stability on our current course of foreign policy with Israel.

Ed Friedemann, Carrollton, Texas published 18 August 2006

Indian Muslims

While we Indians won independence for our land from the British six decades ago, our minds, unfortunately, continue to be enslaved by British — or Western — culture. Realism requires us to understand that our sovereignty is limited to the extent we allow our thinking to be influenced by Western powers.

As a Muslim, I find it sad that, after six decades of independence, India’s Muslim community is being portrayed as a “terror community.” In addition, our loyalty to India is always under suspicion. Unfortunately, the media has done us the injustice of applying the term “Muslim terrorist” to all Muslims. In contrast, we have never heard terms like Hindu terrorists, Christian terrorists or Jewish terrorists. As a result, even watching news channels makes Muslims feel guilty because of the repeated use of the term. This point needs to be discussed in the media and other forums.

The Bombay blast and the bomb scare at London’s airports have had the look of a drama written and directed by superpowers. There are so many hidden reasons behind this costly game of killing people. It’s a script written for the specific purpose of labeling all Muslims as fanatics, terrorists and fundamentalists.

Instead of allowing others to tell us where we should focus our attention exclusively, we should start talking about atrocities and genocide committed by Israel, America and other Western countries. Similar atrocities take place in our country too. The Gujarat carnage was an example. In this context, we Muslims have the responsibility to propagate the message of Islam to the world. The Qur’anic teaching “If anyone slew a person — unless it is for murder or spreading mischief in the land — it would be as if he slew the whole people and if anyone saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people” makes clear how Islam values life and how totally opposed it is to killings.

Saif Ul Islam, Riyadh published 18 August 2006

Recruitment Scam

I congratulate the Philippine government on moving decisively against the crooks who run recruitment scams. It is nice to know that Manila has shut down 19 travel agencies and blacklisted 50 persons for illegal recruitment. I hope the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency will continue the job it has started until the whole system is cleaned up. Intensifying this campaign should focus on giving the public more information through all mediums — TV, radios, malls, billboards, commercials and even public toilets. The intended targets of these recruitment agencies are the common people. If they can see it everywhere, they’ll be warned. Keep up the good work.

Neille Nuqui, United States published 18 August 2006