CHARLIE HEBDO AND THE HYPOCRISY OF THE WEST THROUGH SALMAN RUSHDIE

If there is any incident in recent times that has gotten my head throbbing and spinning like a ball, then it is this Charlie Hebdo issue. The rotational motion of my head has less to do with the incident itself and more to do with the concomitant issue of free-speech and the glaring hypocrisy in addressing it.
One of the interesting comments made on this whole Charlie Hebdo issue was by Salman Rushdie. In a speech delivered at the University of Vermont, he hinted that “the moment somebody says, ‘Yes I believe in free speech, but’ — I stop listening. ‘I believe in free speech, but people should behave themselves. I believe in free speech, but we shouldn’t upset anybody. I believe in free speech, but let’s not go too far.’ The moment you limit free speech, it’s not free speech,” he said. “You can dislike Charlie Hebdo, you know, not all their drawings were funny. But the fact that you dislike them has nothing to do with their right to speak. The fact that you dislike them certainly doesn’t in any way excuse their murder.”

Salman Rushdie was born in Bombay in the year 1947. For twenty seven years he lived in a fit of tranquility with his people in his country and beyond peacefully until his freedom of speech affected someone else’s freedom to breathe fresh air. He wrote a book in the year 1988, The Satanic Verses, tarnishing and maligning the glorious image of Prophet Mohammed. Muslims worldwide showed outright condemnation to the book by venting their spleens on the streets through massive protest marches. The Spiritual leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini, declared a fatwa on him; which means he should not be allowed to breathe the next second when seen. Out of spite of the resentment shown by the Muslim world to his repugnant work of art, the Western world in their characteristic hypocritical style and fashion quickly backed him, garnished and embellished him with colorful awards and rewards.
Notable amongst these were the Outstanding Lifetime Achievement in Cultural Humanism by the Harvard University, his appointment as Commandeur de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France in January 1999 and Knighthood for his services to literature by Queen Elizabeth.
Interestingly, in 2003, a mystery - detective book was released. The book, The Da Vinci code written by novelist Dan Brown highlights the love affair between Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene which lead to present day Merovingian Kings of France tracing their genealogical bloodline from that relationship. It also highlights how the entire morphology of Christianity was shaped and formed by the Council of Nicaea courting paganistic underpinnings.
The book ruffled the nerves of the West and more specifically the Christian world. Moreso when the author stated that “all descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.”
The reaction to the book was if not interesting, intriguing.
This is what Jimmy Wales’ Wikipedia states about the statements made about the book: “Stephen Fry has referred to Brown's writings as "complete loose stool-water" and "arse gravy of the worst kind". Stephen King likened Dan Brown's work to "Jokes for the John", calling such literature the "intellectual equivalent of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese". The New York Times, while reviewing the movie based on the book, called the book "Dan Brown's best-selling primer on how not to write an English sentence”. The New Yorker reviewer Anthony Lane refers to it as "unmitigated junk" and decries "the crumbling coarseness of the style". Linguist Geoffrey Pullum and others posted several entries critical of Dan Brown's writing, at Language Log, calling Brown one of the "worst prose stylists in the history of literature" and saying Brown's "writing is not just bad; it is staggeringly, clumsily, thoughtlessly, almost ingeniously bad". Roger Ebert described it as a "potboiler written with little grace and style", although he said it did "supply an intriguing plot". In his review of the film National Treasure , whose plot also involves ancient conspiracies and treasure hunts, he wrote: "I should read a potboiler like The Da Vinci Code every once in a while, just to remind myself that life is too short to read books like The Da Vinci Code.”
The one that baffled me the most was from no other than the hypocrite called Salman Rushdie. Salman Rushdie said during a lecture, "Do not start me on 'The Da Vinci Code'. A novel so bad that it gives bad novels a bad name." What rank hypocrisy! What is so bad about the Novel? Is it because it is against the Christian world and not the Muslim World? Against Islam, “freedom of speech is absolute”, against Christianity, “bad novel.”
As a surrogate of the West, he is just exhibiting the innate character enmeshed in their skins. Hypocrisy! It is this Hypocrisy that makes the West justify the Charlie Hebdo cartoons yet condemn the movie Passion of Christ. It is this same hypocrisy that saw the wrongful termination of Maurice Sine (a former Cartoonist of Charlie Hebdo) for what they term Anti-Semitic publications yet shower all sorts of adorations on other cartoonists who pick on Muslims as their victims. This same hypocrisy saw the courts banning all Public gatherings to see the French Comedian Dieudonné M'bala M'bala’s show just because of his views on Jews and the Holocaust he describes as “memorial pornography.” The ban was spearheaded by the French Interior Minister Manuel Valls.
The world will never be safe if such double-standardness continue. The world seems to have forgotten Reverend Jim Jones. Jim-Jones single-handedly led a nine hundred plus people to their deaths in the name of Christianity in what is now known as the Guyana: Crime of the century.
My Facebook post on 20th January, 2015 at exactly 7:52 quoting Dr. Is-haq Akintola bears it all.

“HYPOCRISY OF THE WEST: “To the West, Menachem Begin who later became Israeli Prime Minister was a notorious terrorist in Britain. George Washington, father of American Independence, was a saint even though he led Americans to ambush British soldiers in the struggle for independence in1776. Americans were heroes for raiding Tripoli in 1986. Israel was God-sent when it attacked Iraqi nuclear reactors in 1981. The annulment of election results in Algeria in 1991 was 'democracy at its best."

Inusah Mohammed

NB: The writer is a National Service Person at the Graphic Communications Group Ltd.

ONE SMALL STEP FOR MAAZI OKORO, A WAVELENGTH OF CIVILIZATION TO THE YOUTH OF NIMA AND BEYOND.

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter”…….Martin Luther king Jr.

Whenever a society is faced with a myriad of problems, whenever a society is sunk into the bottomless pit of underdevelopment, whenever a society finds itself in the doldrums of absolute despondency, whenever a society has no clear cut policy and direction, the only salvation to this society is its new generation. The youth of such a society must make the painstaking effort to take its destiny in their own hands.

A classic example to this effect is when our beloved nation was plunged into the bondage of colonialism and imprisoned in the shackles of imperialism, several efforts to save it and give it a taste of freedom and independence proved downright futile. It took a man with fresh ideas to bring the long awaited dream (freedom) into reality. And this quest was highly successful due to the strong support and concerted effort of the youth to help him. The man was Kwame Nkrumah and the youth was galvanized into the Committee on Youth Organization, CYO.  The rest they say “is history”.

We live in a community where we are still been hoodwinked into thinking abnormally. This abnormal thinking has to do with the frivolous and backward   conventions and norms that certain positions are meant for the “elders.”

It is baffling and sometimes irritating to find an ignoramus portraying himself as the know-it-all just because he is a man of age.
It is high time we (youth) broke away from this untruthful, vacuous, empty and backward thinking. At least the proverbial case of Solomon (the wisest man ever) and Methuselah (the oldest man ever) is a fountain we can draw inspiration from because “the wisdom of Solomon had nothing to do with the age of Methuselah.”

If we fail to take up the mantle of leadership in our communities, then that will be the very bane of our existence.  For too long we have vested power into our so called “elders” and they have failed us woefully.

I find it difficult to comprehend, do we as a community lack competent people in our midst who can represent us at the higher level? We have given enough chance to “foreigners” and their cumulative performance is appalling and nothing to write home about. We the people of Nima have vested our confidence into the hands two DOCTORS as our Members of Parliament and without any modicum of doubt, I will say they have failed us.  Why are we failing to think us a community?  It’s time we started voting wisely and prudently. We have allowed these people to take us for a ride. Don’t we have people from this community competent enough and conscious of the plight of the community to agitate and champion our cause?

 My fellow youth lets wake up from our slumber and fight for this community. It is at this point that I lift my hands up for Inusah Mohammed (Maazi Okoro} for such a bold step in contesting for the Assemblyman.

 Let us as youth take a great cue from the confidence   of this young, hardworking and educated youth.

It’s time we sat and make the right decision by giving our support to the youth.

Barring all unforeseen circumstances, we will sooner than later be going to the polls to elect our assemblymen for the various electoral areas.

I am not trying to be a political chauvinist. Neither am I not been politically jingoistic, but I think it’s time we vested the destiny of this community into the subtle hands of the youth, for I believe the destiny of any community rests on the shoulders of the youth. Let’s vote wisely. Let’s support the youth and we shall see ourselves raised from the nadir to the zenith of prosperity and development.

Alhassan Ahmed

NB: The writer is a student of Tafsiliyya School for Training and Education and the University of Ghana.

TEN TAKEAWAYS FROM THE SHATTA MOVEMENT FAMILY'S SHOW IN ALAJO

It’s now 2:50 am in the morning. I am now entering home after the Lord answered my prayer to make my deeply-slept sister Ruwaida pick my call and help me with the locked gate. That prevented me from using the burglar approach of jumping the wall which I usually do. With my Quran chapter 12 on replay and my Zesta Plantation Fresh Strawberry tea in my jug, I decide to make my observations from the Shatta Movement Family show staged in Alajo dance to Rudeboy Ranking’s “Dan Banza” on my monitor.

1.     I hate a duicker called Shatta Wale. On the other hand, our elders say we should never fail to acknowledge its swiftness no matter how much we hate it. Never will I forget how his presence helped in unearthing musical talents in Nima-Maamobi and its environs. He has succeeded in awakening the giants in the youth albeit some of the noisemakers who claim they are also doing Dancehall.

2.     Rudeboy Ranking is a man from another planet. His performance at the show was the tour de force of the entire programme. He has succeeded in winning the hearts and souls of the Dancehall aficionados in town. I was left wondering whether I was not in town since I found myself numb when everyone was singing along when he was on stage. A consistent diligence will see him ripping off the musical charts and placing him on a high musical pedestal in few months to come.

3.     The 2011 VGMA Reggae-Dancehall artist of the year, IWAN,  has suffered a real dip in his hitherto fine run in form. On a different angular look, IWAN could just be facing the music of life which is full of vicissitudes. He is still cutting out positive and conscious-minded lyrical songs which show his class as a force to reckon with the Reggae-Dancehall industry.  After all is said and done, IWAN will bounce back. That I believe. If you are in doubt, be reminded that there was a Bandana now Shatta Wale as a reference point.

4.     Mr. Logic and his Shatta Movement Family are doing well. However, they could be more effective in their ambitions if they cast themselves off the insults and calumnies they heap on Shatta Wale each time they grab the microphone. I don’t see the youth kowtowing to their hackneyed story of bringing Shatta Wale to the lime-light and he usurping their Shatta Movement from them and bla bla bla bum bum bum.  And so what? They should just concentrate and move on. The youth have their ears clogged when it comes to bad-mouthing Shatta Wale. They won’t listen to anything save his good music and positive side.

5.     Vibrant Faya should do a thorough self-introspection to find out if music is really what he can do.  With all the money and resources being lavished on him by the Shatta Movement Family, all he could come out with is the “Mampi” tune that he has continuously tried to push down through our olfactory lobes? The guy should be serious if he wants to go far.

6.     And if there’s anyone one whom the organizers must get on the knees and thank fervently, then it is the New-Town boy Bastero. That guy’s performance was a terrible mystery on the night. He brought the show back to a heightened sense of vitality after a couple of clowns mounted the stage to give us gibberish noises. Bastero is full of energy and should work very hard.

7.     Our people from the Zongo should exercise restraint and learn how to settle issues patiently.  The fighting and belligerence will not take us anywhere. And the Juede guy should be mindful of the fact no matter what there will be misunderstanding in such enterprises and never should he bring out a gun no matter the atmosphere.

8.     For once I thought I was in a furnace considering the cloud of ganja smoke that was hovering around the whole place. The youth smoke beyond reason in modern day Ghana.  A serious step must be taken to stem these iniquitous acts. The nation cannot have its youth engage in wanton smoking bouts.

9.     Ras Kuku should move past the eccentricity he wants to be known with and come out of the cemetery he is noted to be living in. His is too talented to be lagging behind. Puom must also be seen and heard more massively.

10.                        Dancehall is still having its field day in Ghana music. If you don’t know  what Dancehall is, you surely know Reggae. Well, “Dancehall is a rough , immensely scratchy  ‘street’ style of Reggae.”

Inusah Mohammed.

NB: The writer is a National Service Person with the Graphic Communications Group Ltd.

BEYOND THE HORIZON OF FRIENDSHIP LIES BROTHERHOOD

Today, 8^th December, 2014 is a very special day to me.  It is an august day because it coincides with the anniversary of birth of a very great friend of mine. And he has this to say about friendship which I will let out when I talk about the power of friendship. I crave your indulgence to begin like this;

In the Holy Quran, friendship was chronicled in a chapter that is 110 verses long. The Chronicle basically highlights how seven friends, the eighth of which was a dog left town to distance themselves from the iniquities of their people. They therefore sought refuge in a cave in order not incur the wrath of their wicked king and his subjects whose indescribable debauchery and ignoble deeds have reached a fever pitch high. This bond led them to their miraculous martyrdom in the cave. A company formed for service to Allah. That is the power of friendship.

My short stint with Christianity in the early nineties has imbued in me a strong sense of this weak and fragile in skin yet strong and formidable in spirit thing called friendship. My Sunday schools at Bishop Charles Agyin Asare’s Word Miracle Church now known as Perez Chapel led me to the story of David and Jonathan. Their story captured in the Book of Samuel of the Hebrew Bible is a story in which some medieval and Renaissance theorists described as Romantic love and a true representation of homosociality; same-sex relationships that are far from sexual activities. A story filled with heightening sense of suspense.

Friendship over the centuries has proven to be a very vibrant and viable force, a defier of all odds, a harbinger of hope and a purveyor of a gale of love that is more powerful that all hurricanes that have caused massive destructions to the world lumped together.

To see how powerful this thing called friendship is, let’s consider some statements made about it.

 Imam Ali (as) stated: "Two true friends are a single soul in different bodies." The same Imam Ali also stated “Friendship transfers a stranger in to a relative."

In his book “Out of Solitude: Three Meditations on the Christian life”, Henri J.M. Nouwen said this “When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.”
Of all the statements made about this great abstract noun, I love the one made by a friend the most. Before I unleash this poignant statement made by him, I’ll love to first make him known to the world.
This friend was born in the early nineties. We met last two decades and the bond kept increasing as the days unfolded. He is named Hamza Ayub. Presently there is a third name added to it to make it Hamza Hajj Ayub. In the school in which we met, I was then in class two when he was in class one. We had a special interest in him due to the fact he rode a bicycle and as young as we were, fascination was an understatement of how we felt when he rode past us. Another reason was that he is the son of one of the foremost scholars we have in Nima. As fate will have it, we found ourselves in the same class because I had to repeat the class due to the severity of my truancy by then. And that’s where the spirit of comradeship started till today as I make the letters on my keyboard dance on the monitor.

Now to the beef of all this needless description, this friend has the cardinal aspect of what friendship entails; brotherhood. He is kind. He is generous to the point of negligence. He never loses touch of a friend in need or a friend in despondence.

All friends will attest to the fact that he has what it takes to also offer his thoughts on the subject matter of discussion. And he has offered it aptly and rightly.
After considering the bond that led the seven friends to the cave and the same bond that kept David and Jonathan together and other references in the dim recesses of history, he came to a very powerful conclusion. And this is it:

“Beyond the horizon of friendship lies brotherhood.”

Happy earthday Hamza Hajj Ayub. I wish you more birthdays because “Statistics show that those who have more birthdays live longer.”

NB: The writer is a National Service Person at the Graphic Communications Group Limited.