Shahid Mahmood2013-06-19T05:00:36-04:00Shahid Mahmoodhttp://www.huffingtonpost.ca/author/index.php?author=shahid-mahmoodCopyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Shahid MahmoodGood old fashioned elbow grease.Supporting Syriatag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.30856022013-04-15T12:42:25-04:002013-06-15T05:12:02-04:00Shahid Mahmoodhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/shahid-mahmood/]]>Eating Children, Satirically Speakingtag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.30452542013-04-09T17:34:33-04:002013-06-09T05:12:01-04:00Shahid Mahmoodhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/shahid-mahmood/
Historically, political satire has been used to highlight shortcomings using mockery to shame individuals into improving. Satire is constructive criticism that uses humor as a bludgeon. Comedian Bassem Youssef is a popular Egyptian satirist whose television show is watched by millions. Youssef, a practicing cardiothoracic surgeon, became famous after uploading several parodies on YouTube after the downfall of Hosni Mubarak in February 2011. The video clips mocked politicians and were watched by millions and eventually secured Youssef his own television show. His show regularly satirizes President Mohamed Morsi. Recently, he was accused of defaming President Mohamed Morsi in a lawsuit. Youssef was arrested and was only recently released on bail. His accusers claimed they, "suffered massive harm from Youssef's satire, and were psychologically affected by this nonsense, ridicule and slander addressed to the head of state." Ever the showman, Youssef went to his court summons wearing an oversized graduation hat -- a copy of the hat worn by President Morsi when he was awarded an honorary doctorate in Pakistan last month.
The Turkish Cultural Association in Austria a couple of weeks ago declared victory -- believing they had forced LEGO to remove a particular Star Wars toy from store shelves. They claimed this toy was anti-Muslim. According to the Turkish group "Jabba's Palace" looked like, "a mosque-like building inhabited by an obese, hookah-smoking alien." The Turkish group claimed that all the mini-figurines, included with the toy, were "deceitful and criminal characters such as gun-runners, slave masters and terrorists... and that the palace had an uncanny resemblance to Istanbul's Hagia Sophia mosque." LEGO responded, saying the palace and the mini-figurines did not reflect real buildings or people. Retiring "Jabba's Palace" was a business decision and was not a result of the criticism raised by the Turkish Cultural Association in Austria but rather because of strategic business decisions that only allow a life cycle of up to three years for many of Lego's Star Wars products.
Satire consists of amplifying the ludicrous until it is revealed how absurd it all is. But what happens when our reality already exists in an amplified state? Reality and fiction are so helplessly interlaced in our day-and-age that it becomes impossible to untangle the two. Jonathan Swift, in his satirical essay, "A Modest Proposal" recommended that the Irish could fix many of their problems by eating their children. This would prevent destitute children from being a burden to their country and would turn them into a beneficial public commodity. Swift wrote his essay in 1729. Could he write such an essay in 2013? The problem, some three hundred years later, is that many of us would actually believe him.]]>Killing Shiitestag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.25213712013-01-23T13:43:27-05:002013-03-25T05:12:01-04:00Shahid Mahmoodhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/shahid-mahmood/rafidah. I had never heard of the term and asked him about it. He told me, that in Arabic, "rafidah" refers to someone who has defected -- someone who rejects rightful leadership. It was apparent this was a depreciatory term for Shiites living and working in the region.
Pakistan has no shortage of its own pejoratives for Shiites. The reference "khatmal" is derived from a word that means "bedbug." Many Sunnis see Shiites as parasites -- sucking the lifeblood from their Sunni-faith. Like bedbugs Shiites need to be exterminated -- linguistically softening the genocide of a people. If a group of people is referred to as bedbugs how quickly will a government respond to their needs? When 130-people were killed in a bomb blast last week in a Shiite neighborhood in Quetta the Government was not shocked into responding, rather it slowly "yielded to protests."
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, the Sunni militant group, claimed responsibility for this attack. The militant group splintered out of the Sipah-e-Sahaba and has close ties with the Taliban. The hatred these Sunni militant groups bear toward Shiite Muslims is fundamentally theological. The split between Sunni and Shiite originate in a dispute soon after the death of the Prophet Muhammad over which of his Companions should lead the nascent Muslim community. Sunnis are referred to as the people who follow the true tradition of the Prophet Mohammad. Many Sunni militants consider beards a religious obligation and demand unconditional acquiescence, threatening punishment for non-compliance. The Prophet Muhammad is assumed to have had a beard and those who insist that devout Muslims grow beards contend that they are doing no more than asking the faithful to emulate the Prophet and his Companions. The growing of the beard for many Muslim-fundamentalists has become the imaginary first-step in becoming Arab and erasing any memory of their collective ethnicity and culture. These hirsute symbols are symptomatic of a prevailing bigotry mirrored by such people.
Sunni clerics routinely look to the past to inform present day decision-making. These clerics routinely condemn minority groups, like Shiites, who think differently. It is only when a person believes in the plurality of life will it become normal to condemn violence. Octavio Paz very eloquently once said:
"What sets worlds in motion is the interplay of differences, their attractions and repulsions. Life is plurality, death is uniformity. By suppressing differences and peculiarities, by eliminating different civilizations and cultures, progress weakens life and favors death. The ideal of a single civilization for everyone, implicit in the cult of progress and technique, impoverishes and mutilates us. Every view of the world that becomes extinct, every culture that disappears, diminishes a possibility of life."
Pakistanis must believe in the plurality of faith so they can fully condemn violence. Freedom of faith is a basic and fundamental right. Without it, citizens are reduced to beings vassals -- never truly self-aware -- held hostage to the many interpreters of maladies.]]>Empty Chairs and Hopetag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.18776102012-09-12T15:04:42-04:002012-11-12T05:12:01-05:00Shahid Mahmoodhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/shahid-mahmood/
The empty chair is a powerful symbol. At the recent Republican Party Convention, Clint Eastwood held a mock interview with an empty chair seating an imaginary President Barack Obama. Eastwood's rambling conversation with an empty chair harshly admonished Obama for all his presidential shortcomings. Chris Rock, the American comedian, put it well when he said, "The empty chair was a metaphor for the entire Republican platform. There's nothing there, but blind hatred for a man that doesn't exist." This blind hatred is fueled by a withering contempt for factual credibility and polarizes the electoral vote. To illustrate this, Paul Ryan, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, gave a speech at the Convention that was shredded by journalists for its factual credibility. Even Fox News, the Republican media bastion, noted, "Ryan's speech was an apparent attempt to set the world record for the greatest number of blatant lies and misrepresentations slipped into a single political speech."
Speaking at the Democratic Party Convention a week later, Bill Clinton remarked how he often disagrees with his Republican peers but has "never learned to hate them." The Republican Party platform is based on a deep-rooted American conservatism. Their ideologies reject the liberal ideals of the Democratic Party. For instance, a majority of Republicans are pro-life and oppose elective abortion because of their religious and moral convictions, whereas Democrats believe women should have the ability to decide whether or not to abort. Democrats advocate that each and every woman has the right to choose for herself whether abortion is morally correct without any government interference. The liberalism that Democrats espouse to is an attitude rather than an ideological opinion. It is, according to the American educator-philosopher Morris Cohen, an attitude, "that insists upon questioning everything, seeking not to reject them but to find out what evidence there is to support them rather than their possible alternatives." Giving people the opportunity to question allows them to make choices. Choice is important because it offers hope.
In the three decades since the first "test-tube baby," IVF has become a standard procedure, providing hope to many infertile couples. In the United States alone, IVF is responsible for 60,000 newborn babies every year. The Sanctity of Human Life Act, which Ryan co-sponsored, should it ever pass, would ensure that life begins at fertilization. This Bill would dash the hopes of thousands by criminalizing the destruction of day-old embryos. Clinical IVF protocols would have to change -- making the procedure more invasive and prohibitively more expensive. Currently, during IVF, doctors create multiple embryos and implant the healthiest ones in the woman. Embryos that are not implanted are either frozen for use later or destroyed. The Sanctity of Human Life Act would declare embryos legally "people" -- so unused embryos that are destroyed or are strategically aborted after implantation would have doctors and parents charged with murder.
A conservative rhetoric is about control, while a liberal attitude is about hope. There are many Democrats who are pushing to have infertility treatments included as a core benefit to many health insurance plans, providing hope to thousands. President Obama was elected on a wave of hope some four years ago. He defined hope as being understood, "by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled." Humans, whether Republican or Democrat, can live weeks without food, days without water, minutes without air, but only seconds without hope. IVF does not promise children; much like hope cannot promise the fulfillment dreams. But, hope can cherish desire with anticipation -- ensuring dreams are never abandoned.]]>The Motion of Heavenly Bodiestag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.18539692012-09-05T11:24:32-04:002012-11-05T05:12:01-05:00Shahid Mahmoodhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/shahid-mahmood/
On the issue of motion, Usain Bolt is widely recognized as the world's fastest man. Bolt grew up in Jamaica -- a country historically reliant and populated by a legacy of indentured slaves. Slavery was our collective, one of many, incalculable madnesses. Slaves were stripped of the most fundamental of human rights. At the starting blocks of the 100-meter sprint final at the London Olympics, Bolt looked up into the sky and pursed his lips against an extended index finger. It is my assertion Bolt hushed an Anglophone God -- a gesture, reminding the host country, that as a Jamaican he has the right to run fast and win. It was an act of supreme confidence shown from a top-flight athlete -- symbolically on par with the Human Rights Salute given by two black athletes at the 1968 Olympics Games in Mexico.
Winning an Olympic gold, like most endeavors, is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. Science, in its many forms, plays an important role in securing success. Bolt does not subscribe to superstitious rituals but rather uses biomedical kinesiology to better understand the phases of his race helping him overcome scoliosis, the abnormal curvature of his lower spine, to help him run faster. And like most elite athletes, Bolt uses a strict regiment of rehydrating drinks to his benefit. The science behind these drinks ensures athletes have adequate energy throughout the day -- replenishing their bodily systems and aiding in recovery.
Just as water does not serve the rehydration needs of elite athletes, water is also not a fuel for cars. A Pakistani scientist, Agha Waqar Ahmad, however, is claiming to have invented a water-fuelled car. Experts in the field ridicule his assertion as it violates the laws of thermodynamics. Centuries ago, medieval alchemists convinced the world they could transmute base materials into something of value. They failed in their attempts -- but this did not stop both alchemists and their clergy patrons from fleecing the public. Ahmad's claim is deceitful and is supported by Pakistan's Minister for Religious Affairs who righteously states the Ministry of Science and Technology will fully support Ahmad's endeavors.
Our world is quickly moving forward. This past month, NASA scientists who have been navigating Curiosity, the robotic space probe, for nine months landed it on Mars; slavery in the west is relegated to but a sad chapter; while Bolt has now won six gold medals in two successive Olympics. In contrast, Muslim contributions to science have become increasingly erratic, losing ground to Islam's anti-rationalists. Here lies the tragic story of science in many Muslim countries -- a dysfunctional relationship between religion and modernity. We should never forget that the trust placed in human reason and the sciences could be every bit as miraculous as the stories of the prophets. This is the sign of supreme confidence.]]>The Power of Apathytag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.15283442012-05-18T11:45:26-04:002012-07-18T05:12:06-04:00Shahid Mahmoodhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/shahid-mahmood/
The seven original sins are a classification of our collective human vices. But as Eleanor Roosevelt, former U.S. First Lady, so potently put it, "so much attention is paid to the aggressive sins, such as violence and cruelty and greed with all their tragic effects, that too little attention is paid to the passive sins, such as apathy... which in the long run can have a more devastating effect." Apathy is not one of the original sins. It could be argued that the most dangerous human quality is actually apathy -- bereft of conviction, not from an individual's lack of awareness, but from an utter disdain bred of sheer complacency.
Apathy will extinguish the preciousness associated with life if all one feels is the softness of their skin. Americans endlessly debate whether liberty is a treasured constitutional right or if it is something fundamentally different today. Does security edge out the timeless principle of liberty -- dispensing with the refrain of "land of the free" and substituting it with "homeland of the secure"? The recent controversy surrounding a class taught by the U.S. military underlines the pervasiveness of our societal apathy. The class instructor taught students that Islam must change or the United States "will facilitate its self-destruction," ultimately bombing Islam's two holy cities of Mecca and Medina not unlike Hiroshima and Dresden. Only recently was the class terminated when a student objected to the course material. Apathy best epitomizes those officers, cycled through this class over two years, who never felt obliged to tell anyone how wrong all this was.
Apathy will also extinguish the significance of faith if all one feels are hands clasped tightly in prayer. There are many Muslims who have been inculcated -- told if all they do is focus on daily prayers all their problems will disappear. There are also those Muslims who have been led to believe that they should renounce this material world. They will only find happiness in an afterlife amidst frolicking women and rivers of milk. With such conviction who, then, from amongst the Muslim community, will speak for the 300 Muslim-Shiites who were murdered in the last three months in Baluchistan? It seems Muslims are more interested in flogging Uncle Sam than speaking out against banned extremist groups that stop passenger buses to execute all those identified as Muslim-Shiites; or how a Sunni-ruled Bahrain can openly conscript Pakistani mercenaries to brutally contain a Shiite population insisting on equal and democratic rights.
The word "liberty" is defined as "free from compulsion." Once any government legally empowers itself to compel their citizens then liberty, as an ideal principle, vanishes -- never to return. In our post 9/11 world, having to choose between liberty and security is wrong. Those politicians who sacrifice liberty in the hopes of greater security deserve neither and will get none. Conversely, people of faith need to make some important choices. They need to take full accountability for their religious beliefs. There can be no "moderate" position; because once faith is ceded to a religious clergy it will invariably be pimped out at each and every street corner.
Apathy finds itself in our lives in surprising ways. The ensuing plot is ultimately tragic, but should every citizen pull his or her own weight their voice would add a genuine dose of humanity to these most outrageous of stories.]]>What is Your Kafka Plan Frequent Flyer Number?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.12766532012-02-14T13:16:57-05:002012-04-15T05:12:01-04:00Shahid Mahmoodhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/shahid-mahmood/
Marcel Duchamp, the French artist whose work challenged conventionality, was most often associated with subversive artwork such as turning a urinal upside-down and labeling it a fountain. He is also known for drawing a mustache on the Mona Lisa with the title L.H.O.O.Q. -- when pronounced in French, "elle a chaud au cul" -- "she is hot in the arse." Duchamp forced the observer to view ordinary objects from a new perspective. His mustachioed Mona Lisa defaced that which is valued.
What the mustachioed Mona Lisa is to the pristine original, Canada's Minister of Public Safety Vic Toews is to the humanist ideals enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Toews has, in fact, publically dismissed the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, a philosophy modeled on the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, by declining an invitation to speak at an event marking the Charter's 25th anniversary in 2007.
In 2011, Toews appeared before a government committee to support Bill C-42 -- a controversial amendment to the Aeronautics Act. Bill C-42 would insist that Canadian airlines provide passenger manifests to American authorities. At the proceedings of the Standing Senate Committee on Transport and Communications on March 10, Toews was asked by Senator Don Meredith: "How will we protect Canadians that [sic] are flying into the United States? How are they notified, and how do they clear their name?"
Toews responded, "The Canadian government could not set up a mechanism to assist a Canadian citizen in clearing his or her name. Other than the general assistance that is provided through consular services or through your member of parliament or your senator, there is no system."
He goes on to quip: "In your case, Senator, I would make my cell phone available to you."
The average Canadian does not have access to cell-phone numbers of high-ranking officials. Unlike their Canadian counterparts, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security offers a Traveler Redress Inquiry Program (DHS TRIP) providing US citizens a single point of contact -- a phone number -- for any American seeking resolution for difficulties experienced at airport security screenings.
Canadians, in comparison, are told under the Passenger Protect Program, that Public Safety Canada will only determine whether individuals pose a threat to aviation security. Only those Canadians who have received an emergency directive at the time of screening may apply to the Office of Reconsideration for a review.
From my experience, I can assure you that airport personal will never provide Emergency Directives. Public Safety Canada also directs individuals denied boarding to file complaints with any of the following organizations: The Security Intelligence Review Committee; The Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP; Canadian Human Rights Commission; and the Federal Courts. Toews should note I have systematically approached these organizations, when disallowed from boarding an Air Canada flight over eight years -- all to no avail.
People whose names show up on No-Fly or Selectee Lists have no recourse in Canada. Air Canada settled with me at the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal in 2010. The settlement package ensured Air Canada remedy systemic problems within a seriously flawed aviation security system. This was a first in Canada. The airline could not, however, remove my name from Federal No-Fly or Selectee Lists. My problems have been complicated with this latest Interpol incident -- illustrating the disregard this current Government has shown in protecting the privacy of Canadian citizens.
Senator Nancy Ruth asked Toews during Bill C-42 deliberations at a March 10 committee meeting: "I am curious. What kind of regulation do we have in Canada such that Air Canada cannot transmit information to some other agency within the country?" Toews replied, "If an airline were to transmit such information to anyone without informed consent, the airline would breach our privacy laws. The law in place severely restricts the ability of airlines to share that information for any purpose other than a purpose specifically authorized by the passenger."
What Toews failed to communicate was that the Air Transport Association of Canada (ATAC) was actually pushing to merge Canada's Passenger Protect Program with the American Secure Flight Program. This new merger would match all watch list data into a single North American database. The Canadian government would actually share citizen information across the border -- disregarding Canadian privacy laws and those practices that respect Canadian civil liberties.
Duchamp's title for his Mona Lisa, "She is hot in the arse," implies the woman in the painting is in a state of sexual availability. There is no difference between Duchamp's Mona Lisa and the Canadian Government's shameless pandering to remain Uncle Sam's preferential trading partner. "Canada and the United States have long cooperated on trade and security measures at the border," said Toews. "The Beyond the Border Action Plan demonstrates our shared commitment ...by identifying security threats as early as possible and to facilitate the legitimate flow of goods and travel."
It seems to me the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms has been mustachioed and, were it up to Duchamp, re-titled, "hot in the arse."]]>The Total Sum of Tiny Pushestag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.10287502011-10-25T17:46:49-04:002011-12-25T05:12:01-05:00Shahid Mahmoodhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/shahid-mahmood/"snapshots of a world we barely recognize." Despite her personal differences with Martin Luther King, voiced in this recent recording, Ms. Kennedy was very supportive of ending racial apartheid in the American south. She was a great champion of the civil rights movement. At a time when many refused to stand beside a black person, Ms. Kennedy was more than happy to shake the "negro" hand. Because of her unwavering support, many black households in the 1960s hung the famous photograph of Dr. King standing beside the two Kennedy brothers on their living room mantles.
The American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson believed citizens should "strive to be the opener of doors for others, and not try to make the universe a blind alley." Ms. Kennedy was an opener of doors, and I would like to believe that she passed this belief on to her children. Her son, John F. Kennedy Jr. was known for his egalitarian spirit. He understood that at some point in time, everyone needed a helping hand. John initiated social programs such as "Reaching Up" and participated in the "Robin Hood Foundation" that helped impoverished children. And he did so very quietly -- without calling attention to himself or his famous family name. I spoke to John, on two occasions and met him once in his office at Hachette Filipacchi Media in downtown Manhattan. As an editorial cartoonist exploring the U.S. market for the first time in 1996 I had mailed countless portfolios to many leading American publications. The new, upstart magazine George magazine was high on my list for editorial commissions. George was a monthly magazine centered on the theme of "politics-as-lifestyle" was co-founded by John in September 1995. From all the various editors I approached, John was the only one who personally telephoned me, discussed my work, and offered to meet me at his office. His individual endorsement of my work advanced my career as an editorial cartoonist, helping me break into a very competitive North American market and ultimately become syndicated with the New York Times Press Syndicate.
John's small gesture, miniscule in the grand scheme of things, tremendously helped me. An egalitarian view maintains all humans are equal in worth and social status. All people are treated as equals having the same political, economic, social, and civic worth. Egalitarians believe that equality reflects our shared humanity. It is no mistake that throughout American history many of the social gains and much of the country's advancement toward democracy was made possible by an active involvement of the federal government. It has become much harder for active government intervention these days. Occupy Wall Street protesters have been picketing against the top one-percent earners -- attempting to raise an awareness of the economic discrepancies that exist between the rich and everyone else. The middle-class continues to flounder under the weight of years of Republican policies -- policies that consigned wealth from ninety-nine percent of the American population, to the one-percent of wealthiest Americans.
It was hoped that Democrats under President Barak Obama would reverse some of these Republican policies -- making government more egalitarian and socially responsible. But there are many Democrat colleagues who warn the President to veer away from outwardly supporting the Wall Street protesters as a group that could dissolve just as quickly as they materialized -- leaving the President politically vulnerable. It is ironic that President Obama, when asked in 2008, if Martin Luther King would endorse his presidential campaign answered: "Well, I don't think Dr. King would endorse any of us. I think what he would call upon the American people to do is to hold us all accountable...I believe change does not happen from the top down; it happens from the bottom up."
Dr. King was prescient. Many Americans feel trapped and are increasingly angry. Many recent polls find that 54% of the public approve of the Wall Street protests. President Obama should not ignore addressing these questions of financial inequalities. Democrats must unanimously start believing that change emanates not from winning ballot boxes but from egalitarian policies that truly help individuals. Citizens, otherwise, will trade the hope of Obama for the promise of Dr. King, who said decades ago, "One day we must ask the question, why are there forty-million poor people in America?"
The world is not moved by the strength of the wealthy few but by the total sum of tiny pushes of hundreds of millions of people.
]]>Letterman's Tongue and the Jihadisttag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.9443362011-09-02T10:46:47-04:002011-11-02T05:12:01-04:00Shahid Mahmoodhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/shahid-mahmood/ "I have a great sense of humor," she retorted, "and I think it's important to exhibit that humor sometimes when you are talking to people as well. Of course, I was being humorous when I said that."
Bachmann's self-proclaimed humor, itself, is worth laughing at -- consider a recent editorial in the Rolling Stone magazine. Author, Matt Taibbi, cleverly writes: "Bachmann is a religious zealot whose brain is a raging electrical storm of divine visions and paranoid delusions. She believes that the Chinese are plotting to replace the dollar bill, that light bulbs are killing our dogs and cats, and that God personally chose her to become both an IRS attorney who would spend years hounding taxpayers and a raging anti-tax Tea Party crusader against big government." Bachmann strongly believes that President Obama is not listening to her Christian God. She endorses people like the author J. Steven Wilkins, a fervent defender of Southern Confederacy and the institution of slavery. Why? Because, people like Bachmann see Southerners as truly God-loving Christians whilst the Unionist Northerners are a group of self-serving, godless communists.
To use Bachmann's words, there is also a "great sense of humor" why the sex-crime charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn were dropped this past week. This is not because Kahn is necessarily innocent, but rather the credibility of the immigrant hotel-maid could not be established in a court of law. Now that Kahn's travel-documents have been returned to him, he will likely plan a political comeback in France. Many of his colleagues in the Socialist Party are proclaiming his return as the homecoming of a worthy presidential candidate. What this story has sadly highlighted is that Kahn and his wife are privileged and extremely wealthy. Only wealth can assemble a legal defense team like theirs, posting a $1-million bail, ensuring a $5-million insurance bond, and renting an apartment for $14,000-a-month in lower-Manhattan. It is ironic that an individual like Kahn, who is from the political left, is leading a party supposedly representing the interests of the common man. Doubly ironic if you consider that Kahn was the managing director of the International Monetary Fund -- an organization accused by the political left of being interested only in ensuring how financial institutions recoup their loans on the backs of the destitute.
Irony, like satire, highlights our human shortcomings in the arena of ridicule. It shames us into improving. This form of humor channels societal criticism in the hope of constructive change. It is a powerful tool in the hand of talented artists and comedians. As a result, purveyors of humor are often targeted, beaten, and killed for their mass appeal and their ability to make audiences laugh and think. David Letterman was the recipient of death threats by a jihadist-group this month. The jihadist-group was upset by the comedian's jokes about the death of bin Laden. The group stated, "This despicable person mocked the leaders of the Mujahedeen and we urge jihadist followers everywhere to cut-off Letterman's tongue and shut it forever." Letterman responded to this fatwa using his Top-ten List as a radar-guided missile, "How can someone be so angry at a time when Kim Kardashian is so happy?" He proceeded to inform his audience he had started making inquiries if the TV network's life-insurance policy would cover him for jihad.
Letterman was lucky. Syrian security forces severely beat the political cartoonist Ali Ferzat last week. They left him hemorrhaging on the curb for his artistic dissension against the current Syrian regime. Ferzat is known in the Arab world for his scathing illustrations. I met Ferzat, in France, years ago at an exhibition we both had work displayed in. He mentioned how he absolutely loathed the corruption and brutality of Arab regimes. Ferzat's assailants broke his arms, hands and every one of his fingers to prevent him from ever picking up a pen again. In one of his latest cartoons, my favorite, he condemned President Assad's overtures for Syrian reform -- drawing a government official spewing flowers in a text bubble, with excrement dripping down the side of his head. The Syrian regime has publicly shrugged off international condemnation and continues to use brutal force to maim, arrest, and kill dissidents.
Voltaire once said, "God is a comedian, playing to an audience too afraid to laugh." The time has come for us all to leave our fears aside and laugh -- and laugh hard, very hard that is.
]]>A Nightingale, the Cream-pie and Two Flying Shoestag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.9208902011-08-11T12:33:44-04:002011-10-11T05:12:01-04:00Shahid Mahmoodhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/shahid-mahmood/
As a political cartoonist, trying to remove himself from the US No-fly List, it has proven very difficult to affect systemic change. Over the years, I was told by lawyers my phone was likely tapped and my garbage was being sifted through; my political leanings were questioned by the Ministry of Transportation; I was lied to by the deputy Prime minister; while police-officers surreptitiously questioned a carpenter -- asking him how he was being paid for his service during my house renovation. I was sent on multiple goose chases to different government ministries each claiming ignorance and blaming other ministries for Canada's post 9-11 quagmire.
A six-year process, which culminated at a hearing with the Canadian Human Rights Commission last year has, to date, yielded no clear remedy. The Canadian Government's No-fly List is a serious infringement on the rights of Canadian travelers. Federal Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart once said the No-fly List, "represents a serious incursion into the rights of travelers in Canada, rights of privacy and rights of freedom of movement."
Seeking public remedy for a wrongdoing is a near impossibility anywhere in the world. More than 300 people have died this past week in Syria, during the uprising against the wrongdoings of President Bashir Assad's regime. Individuals attempting to raise public awareness are killed. The Syrian poet and songwriter Ibrahim Qashoush was found dead in a river with his larynx ripped-out. He was abducted and killed by Syrian security forces in a manner only a brute would metaphorically illustrate.
Qashoush was known as the "nightingale of the revolution", composed political songs that criticized Syrian authority. Since his death, Qashoush's songs have spread across Syria, where anti-government protesters chant them as their own. When individual actions resonate with the greater public they become part of our daily lexicon -- helping us verbalize and protest at societal iniquities and inequalities.
Jonathan May-Bowles, the man who threw a pie at media-baron Rupert Murdoch was also sentenced last week. Bowles pleaded guilty to pieing Murdoch during a Commission Hearing regarding the phone-hacking scandal. Leaving court, after pieing Murdoch, Bowles cheekily quoted Murdoch when providing evidence, telling reporters: "I would just like to say this has been the most humble day of my life." Pieing, as defined by the group Entartistes, symbolizes human freedom and is an act of defiance that gives the power back to those people who feel helpless and powerless in the face of authority.
Rupert Murdoch who claims he paid little attention to, "maybe a call on a Saturday night once a month", has now been caught. Murdoch denies any responsibility in the current phone tapping fiasco. When asked who was responsible he said, "People I trusted, and people they trusted." He then confirmed that he was invited to the Prime Minister's residence after the election through the back door and was personally thanked for supporting the ruling Tories. He said, "I was invited within a couple of days (of the election) for a cup of tea, to be thanked for my support of Prime Minister Cameron."
This journalistic rot, on full display in the United Kingdom, mirrors the incestuous relationship enjoyed between the political and business elite. The general public has a perception that laws, rules and regulations are routinely bent for those who live and breath within this rarified environment. The perception follows that those responsible in this current scandal got away and knowingly violated the law. Murdoch's editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson were both questioned regarding their roles in the ongoing phone tapping and corruption charges. This proved rather embarrassing for Prime Minister Cameron, who had employed Coulson as his media chief. Henry Kissinger, famously said in an interview with the Washington Post, "The illegal we do immediately; the unconstitutional takes a little longer." Kissinger has never been pied, except in an episode of the animated TV series, "Family Guy".
During a press conference in 2008 in Iraq, Muntadhar al-Zaidi threw both of his shoes at George W. Bush as an act of protest and extreme disrespect. He yelled, "This is a farewell kiss from the Iraqi people, you dog," as he threw his first shoe towards the U.S. president. He then shouted, as he threw his second shoe, "This is for the widows and orphans and all those killed in Iraq."
There was no acknowledgement by President Bush to the legitimacy of the public frustration in Iraq for the occupying forces. Bush's response to the shoe throwing was dismissive -- he said, "It's a way for people to draw attention. I don't know what the guy's cause was. I didn't feel the least bit threatened by him." Al-Zaidi was dragged out of the room and severely beaten following the shoe-throwing incident and shouting above the man's screams, Bush quipped, "That's what people do in a free society, draw attention to them." A large blood trail was photographed where security agents dragged al-Zaidi - beaten within an inch of his life.
There are two methods of removing the causes of protest: the first by destroying the freedoms which are essential to its existence; and the second, by giving to every citizen the same opinions, the same passions, and the same interests. Muntadhar al-Zaidi later testified he was moved to throw his shoes because he did not know what achievements Bush was praising in Iraq. "The achievements I could see were the more than 1 million martyrs and a sea of blood. There are more than 5 million Iraqi orphans because of the occupation. More than a million widows and more than 3 million displaced because of the occupation", said al-Zaidi. "I wanted to restore the pride of the Iraqis in any way possible, apart from using weapons." In Tikrit a copper monument, three meters in height, was dedicated to his shoe throwing action. Meanwhile, an online game, Sock and Awe inspired by al-Zaidi's actions, has been played by tens-of-thousands of people around the world -- with 100,000,000 shoes smacking George W. Bush in the face.
As of this evening that number is now 100,000,002.
]]>A Shock of Peroxide-Blonde Hairtag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.8877502011-06-30T10:54:05-04:002011-08-30T05:12:01-04:00Shahid Mahmoodhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/shahid-mahmood/was cleared last week of inciting hatred against Muslims. This editorial, however, is not about the Mr. Wilders' acquittal nor is it about free speech. This article is about Geert Wilders the caricature -- the man who wears slim-cut, European styled-pinstriped suits beneath a shocking-mane of dyed, peroxide-blonde hair. Mr. Wilders is a walking contradiction. He is a man who ignores a genealogy that includes Jewish-Indonesian ancestors, persistently warns Europe of an oncoming "tsunami" of Muslim immigrants, and compares the Koran to Hitler's Mein Kampf.
As someone who has been drawing cartoons for the past twenty-five years, it doesn't get any better than Geert Wilders -- he is a godsend to cartoonists like myself. Caricatures exaggerate prominent facial characteristics. Exaggerating these facial characteristics make the subject easily recognizable in the drawing. Exaggerations are usually imbibed with an inherent character flaw -- providing additional insight to the illustration. My favorite? In the years leading up to Watergate, the artist Philip Guston created a series of caricatures of Richard Nixon -- a searing denunciation of a corrupt president with a nose rendered as a bloated, disreputably dubious and deceitful phallus. The drawings also depict his sidekick, Henry Kissinger, as a walking, talking pair of black-rimmed glasses -- viewing the world through thick, myopic bifocals.
Mr. Wilders' blonde mane symbolizes a wave of nationalism that is sweeping Europe today. His hair, a revanchist symbol, is no different from Hitler's mustache or Mullah Omar's beard. Nazis were obsessed with racial purity. An essential requirement for any German SS applicant, up until 1940, was proof of Aryan ancestry dating back several generations. Hitler, like Mr. Wilders, would have failed his own ethnic filtering machinations. Hitler's trimmed mustache, as Mr. Wilders' hair, was part of a public image -- a symbol of Aryan modernity impressed on a country that had no place for an old-world, Jewish orthodoxy that restricted the cutting of hair.
The Taliban leader-in-hiding, Mullah Omar is no different than Mr. Wilders and Hitler. The Taliban consider beards a religious obligation and demand unconditional acquiescence -- threatening punishment for non-compliance. The Prophet Muhammad is assumed to have had a beard and those who insist that devout Muslims grow beards contend that they are doing no more than asking the faithful to emulate the Prophet. It was only last week, the Hizbul-Islam militants in Somalia ordered all men in Mogadishu to grow beards and trim moustaches and have said, "Anyone found violating this law will face the consequences." The growing of the beard for many Muslim fundamentalists has become the imaginary first step in becoming Arab and erasing any memory of their collective ethnicity and culture. These hirsute symbols are symptomatic of a prevailing bigotry mirrored by such people.
The old nationalistic notions of a pure Christian Europe with that of a new, melting-pot continent are explosive combinations. Many Europeans think the only way forward is to look back at a bygone era. The situation is no different in Muslim-dominated countries. Muslim clerics routinely look to the past to inform present day decision-making. These clerics routinely condemn minority groups and Muslims who think differently. Recently, an Egyptian, but Christian, telecom mogul, Naguib Sawiris, angered Islamic hardliners by posting an online cartoon of Mickey Mouse sporting a beard. The Islamic hardliners feel the cartoon ridicules Islam. According to the Islamists, Muslims grow their beards long and trim their mustaches -- a style said to emulate the Prophet Muhammad. The Islamists are now threatening Mr. Sawiris that they will have "to cut out the tongue of any person who attacks our religion," and have filed multiple lawsuits accusing him of religious contempt.
If a person can be reduced to a singular exaggeration like Kissinger's glasses or Mr. Wilders' hair-mane it can be posited, with little subtlety, that the person's character can be summed up in the reactions of a few irrational individuals. When a person believes in the plurality of life it becomes harder, as a cartoonist, to draw them using a singular exaggeration. It is easier to draw Hitler then it is to draw Obama; it is easier to draw Mullah Omar then it is to draw Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Octavio Paz very eloquently once said:
What sets worlds in motion is the interplay of differences, their attractions and repulsions. Life is plurality, death is uniformity. By suppressing differences and peculiarities, by eliminating different civilizations and cultures, progress weakens life and favors death. The ideal of a single civilization for everyone, implicit in the cult of progress and technique, impoverishes and mutilates us. Every view of the world that becomes extinct, every culture that disappears, diminishes a possibility of life.
Nationalism and religion target the ignorant, promising security in either a bygone era or an afterlife. The more one is educated, the more one understands that religion and state are intrinsically linked to life -- allowing us to live together having the freedom of choice and reflection.]]>Double-Tapping and Double-Clicking Osamatag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.8591672011-05-09T12:03:58-04:002011-07-09T05:12:01-04:00Shahid Mahmoodhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/shahid-mahmood/
He explained that a spokesperson from Al-Azhar University in Cairo had gone on record by saying, "Islam is opposed to burials at sea, and that if Osama's body was indeed thrown into the sea, then Islam is totally against that."
"Excuse me," I interjected. "Why should Muslims have anything to say about how the Americans chose to dispose of bin Ladin's body? Osama lived and died an ideological life completely divorced from the faith he was born into." I never received the promised follow-up call for the second part of the interview.
Religion differs from private belief in that it has a public aspect to it. It is fair to say -- he who controls Islam's public face controls the faith. Over the past four decades a gallery of rogues provided Islam a face on the international stage. As a political cartoonist in Pakistan during the eighties and nineties, Muslims were routinely branded mercenaries -- willing to take up any Arab cause for the right amount of money. Post 9-11 Muslims are branded extremists -- considered a people who full-heartedly endorse violence towards anyone who question the tenants of Islam.
Present-day Islam is caught between the specter of Abu Nidal and bin Ladin. Abu Nidal fiercely distorted politics in the 1980s to serve a financial agenda; while bin Ladin distorted religion to serve a political agenda. The letters in their names ironically reproduce the other's name in reverse order. But the men share more than names that are anagrams -- both came from wealthy backgrounds, their respective mothers sharing one husband with a dozen competing spouses. They were also both expelled by Saudi Arabia as unwelcome radicals after having been initially embraced by the monarchy. Whereas Abu Nidal is complicit in inciting a deadly hatred of Israel and Jews for monetary gain, Bin Ladin was guilty of festering a deadly hatred of the West for religious gain. Presented with these divergent views, both the American Constitution and the Canadian Charter of Rights are far more Islamic than the public face this religion presented the world.
These two terrorists shared in death as well. They were both shot -- "double-tapped" in the chest and head. The "double-tap" is a shooting technique where two well-aimed shots are fired at a target. The intent is to debilitate the target with a first shot to the chest until a second shot to the head kills the target. Abu Nidal was killed by Saddam's secret service while bin Ladin in a CIA-orchestrated operation.
The two men died the way they lived preferring to trade in death instead in the currency of life. The two had numerous opportunities to spend their wealth to relieve the social disparities that exist in their Muslim communities. Instead, extremists like bin Ladin preferred to issue declarations such as, "the United States is occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of its territories, plundering its riches, overwhelming its rulers, humiliating its people, threatening its neighbors, and using its bases in the peninsula as a spearhead to fight against the neighboring Islamic peoples."
Islam's image needs to change from within. This entails Muslims taking the initiative, replacing the gun with reason, the bullet with words. The lone gunman's "double-tap" should be replaced with the people's "double-click." It only takes the "double-click" of the mouse -- an act of pressing a computer button twice, in quick succession, without moving the mouse -- to render declarations like bin Ladin's dead. The first click selects the declaration, debilitating it, while the second click kills it.
Tonight I can report to readers, around the world, that the "double click has conducted an operation that has killed the bin Ladin's declaration. Read with caution -- perhaps a bit too graphic, but very true, "Islam is occupying countries like Pakistan, plundering its riches, overwhelming its rulers, humiliating its people, threatening its neighbors, and using its lands as a spearhead to wage a war against humanity."
If only Muslims could unite, agreeing to sink the public face of Islam down to the dark, unfathomable depths of the ocean.]]>Muslim Superheroes and the House Radicalization Hearingstag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.8327992011-03-09T17:13:22-05:002011-05-25T18:35:25-04:00Shahid Mahmoodhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/shahid-mahmood/"Without the bitter, the sweet ain't as sweet." --Vanilla Sky
Batman, in his comic book quest for justice, realizes he cannot stand alone in his crusade against global crime. The super-hero's recent choice of a new partner, Nightrunner, an Algerian Muslim living in Paris, has become a source of torment for many right-wing bloggers. Nightrunner is from a large ethnic group in France making perfect sense in casting him as Batman's latest partner. The character, Bilal Asselah, suffered greatly during the 2005 French-Muslim protests and was beaten mercilessly by the police. Ironically, it is likely because of an intolerant right that the creators of Batman created Bilal Asselah in the first place -- an individual who finds solace in adopting the masked identity of the vigilante Nightrunner.
There are certain parallels between the creation of Superman and Batman with that of Nightrunner. Young Jewish artists and writers sketched both Superman and Batman for the first time in the 1930s as fascism raised its head -- heroes, sent to save the world from evil. Their creators drew inspiration, willfully or not, from religious archetypes. Just as the baby Moses was set adrift in a small craft of bulrushes on the Nile, Superman was rocketed to Earth in a capsule moments before his world exploded.
Many years ago Jerry Robinson, the creator of Batman's arch-villain the Joker, asked me to join the "Cartoonist and Writers Syndicate." In his sales pitch for the Syndicate, he told me he enjoyed the manner in which I brought opposites together -- Bush and bin Laden; India and Pakistan; CNN and Al-Jazeera; the Mullah and Nuclear-power. Jerry mentioned, "At a glance your cartoons tell so much about contemporary world history and the absurdity of it all." What he meant was there should always be two contrasting views for a meaningful dialogue to take place. Like Batman and Nightrunner; Islam and the Republican-right are pairings that reflect the times we live in.
A display of these pairings has been on display this week. Peter King, a New York Republican, is chairing congressional hearings this week on the threat homegrown Islamist terrorism poses to the United States. Rep. King feels Muslim leaders are not doing enough to prevent future extremist attacks. He says, "There is a real threat to the country from the Muslim community and the only way to get to the bottom of it is to investigate what is happening." Inflammatory comments are indiscriminate and affect everyone in the broader Muslim community. Muslim groups have been protesting incessantly. However, there is a point to be made: What are mainstream Muslim leaders doing to distance themselves from radical Islam? It is easy to clamor for the First Amendment, and claim an affront to fundamental freedoms. It is easy to protest against the similarities between these congressional hearings and the McCarthyism of the 1950s. But what is really being done? Not a whole lot. Muslim leaders have yet to issue a fatwa against those Islamists who kill Christians; desecrate Synagogues; disfigure women and distort their articles of Faith to justify wonton acts of destruction.
Based on the future actions of Muslim leaders, Nightrunner will become either an Uncle Tom for affirmative action or a true symbol of hope for underprivileged minorities living in poverty. Hope is worth pursuing, for the other option is not too attractive. Rep. King, in his 2004 novel, Vale of Tears, illustrates an anti-Muslim malevolence in which Manhattan is struck again by Muslim extremists only to be saved by a Congressman hero from New York. History has an ugly habit of repeating itself.
]]>Raymond Davis -- Deport the Killertag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.8275622011-02-24T09:12:41-05:002011-05-25T18:35:25-04:00Shahid Mahmoodhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/shahid-mahmood/Raymond Davis is emblematic of the West's relationship with today's autocrats and dysfunctional democracies. His story highlights an impunity that the United States and its allies are discovering is very hard to cover-up in our digital age. The pro-reform groups, rallying in the Middle East, are not only speaking against leaders such as Mubarak and Gaddafi but also against polices of appeasement that sustain individuals like Mr. Davis.
These policies of appeasement allow military contractors free license to patrol and kill in Pakistan -- in the case of Mr. Davis the ability to fire on his assailants 10 times, and to shoot one of them five times in the back, even apparently as one was fleeing. These policies of appeasement allowed for a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, a mother of five, to be sentenced to death for "blasphemy" in Pakistan. These policies of appeasement allowed President Zardari to party in Normandy at his 16th century chateau whilst the flooding in Pakistan displaced over 20 million people in 2010. Who are the benefactors of such policies? The answer: the military, religious zealots and a feudal president who considers Pakistan as his god-given resource to exploit.
Some years ago I drew a cartoon of Uncle Sam disposing of a used condom (marked Pakistan) with a veiled Afghani woman cringing in the corner. It is easy to blame American foreign policy, as the cartoon shows. According to the Brookings Institute, for every militant shot dead by remotely piloted drone-aircraft in the border-regions of Pakistan, 10 civilians end up as collateral damage. It is a damning indictment of the controversial strikes sought to defeat militants living in the region. However, this was not the point of the cartoon. What many Pakistanis did not want to see was their own government's culpability in this mayhem. Pakistan's government has sold itself in the excess of $4 billion a year -- helping the U.S. government wage a war in Afghanistan. With $4 billion, there is likely a surplus of earmarked money. This allows the Pakistani military to breed extremists like they breed foxes in England -- ensuring an adequate supply of game, undermining claims that foxes are only killed in the name of pest control. Many Pakistanis despised the cartoon when published -- the original stolen in 2005 from an exhibition in Scotland.
Henry Kissinger mentioned, at the Pike Committee Meetings in 1975, that, "covert action should not be confused with missionary work." Arab demonstrators in recent weeks have called for a democratic regime change, not a U.S.-facilitated transition to another despot. This will hopefully limit Washington's covert actions in the region and from Americans deferring to local despots as necessary chattels for business and security. Pakistan needs to deport Raymond Davis back to the United States. It doesn't matter what he's done -- holding him accountable in Pakistan will not help address the real issues confronting the country. Letting Mr. Davis return to the United States will force Pakistan to look at itself far more critically. Judicially trying Mr. Davis in Pakistan is not a successful long-term strategy. The government of Pakistan has already sold its sovereignty. Courtesy of WikiLeaks, many Pakistanis now know that Prime Minister Gilani agreed to expand the CIA drone program in 2008, while promising to denounce it in Parliament for the sake of appearances. It is time the people of Pakistan hold both Prime Minister Gilani and President Zardari accountable for selling off the last few vestiges of Pakistan's sovereignty.
]]>Pakistan to Hunt Down Militantstag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2008:/theblog//3.1504242008-12-11T20:22:06-05:002011-05-25T12:55:17-04:00Shahid Mahmoodhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/shahid-mahmood/
]]>
]]>