It said fighters from the Conquest of Aleppo alliance of mostly moderate forces had on Friday captured a former research centre being used as a military barracks.
“This is a significant strategic step in terms of the battle that has been going on in Aleppo in the past two years,” said Observatory director, Rami Abdel Rahman, adding that it opened up lines of attack against several nearby districts controlled by government forces.
A video online showed the capture, with fighters from one of the groups firing in the air, the three-starred flag of the Syrian uprising behind them.
The Observatory said government forces had tried unsuccessfully to recapture the facility overnight and launched air raids against it on Saturday, prompting the rebels to partially evacuate.
Conquest of Aleppo and a second rebel grouping, Ansar al-Sharia, which is dominated by Islamists and al-Qaida’s local affiliate al-Nusra Front, began operations against government-held districts of Aleppo this week.
The attacks have prompted fierce clashes and heavy bombardments, with rebels firing hundreds of rockets and the government launching dozens of air strikes.
The assault began on Thursday, when Ansar al-Sharia attacked several neighbourhoods including Zahra, where an air force intelligence facility is based.
The coalition initially made progress but was pushed back by government forces on Friday night, the Observatory said. The monitor said government jets carried out some 40 air strikes, and at least 29 Ansar al-Sharia fighters were killed on Friday.
Thomas Pierret, a professor at Edinburgh University and a Syria expert, said the latest fighting could prove significant. The recent rebel progress in and around western Aleppo “is the first real progress by the rebels in Aleppo since ... July 2013”, he said.
Control of the city has been largely divided between the government in the west and rebels in the east since shortly after fighting arrived there in mid-2012. Frontlines have remained fairly static since then, though both sides have at times sought to encircle the other by advancing in the countryside around the city.
But he cautioned it was too early to say whether things might “evolve rapidly”, saying the west would prove to be difficult terrain for rebel forces because its buildings are ideal for regime snipers and its avenues wide enough for government tanks.Pierret said the loss of the Scientific Research Centre meant “the regime has lost an important line of defence, which leaves their control of west Aleppo more vulnerable”.
In the Qalamoun region, government forces backed by Lebanon’s Shia movement, Hezbollah, started a battle to capture the last rebel-held town in the area, which lies north of Damascus on the Lebanese border.
“Army units supported by the Lebanese resistance this morning launched a major operation in the Zabadani region in Damascus province,” Syrian state television announced.
The Observatory confirmed heavy fighting was under way between regime forces and their allies and rebels in the vicinity of Zabadani, which was one of the first towns to fall to the opposition in 2012.
The battle was announced a day after rebels attacked an army outpost at the entrance to the town, which the regime responded to with some 90 air raids using barrel bombs and missiles, the monitor said.
Regime troops backed by Hezbollah have also recaptured most of the Qalamoun region, which was once a bastion of the opposition.
In addition to Zabadani, opposition forces have bases in the mountainous part of Qalamoun that spans the border, but Hezbollah has been gradually advancing in that region in recent weeks.
من الواضح أن نظام الأسد نجح حتى الآن هو وحلفاؤه الإيرانيون والروس والعراقيون واللبنانيون في إرهاب العالم بالبعبع الداعشي. وقد كان النظام بارعاً في اللعب على وتر الإرهاب الإسلامي حتى قبل ظهور داعش على الساحة بقوة، فقد حذر السوريين والعالم من الإسلاميين منذ اليوم الأول للثورة. ولم يعد خافياً على أحد أن النظام ترك ورقة البعبع الإسلامي المتطرف كخيار أخير لابتزاز العالم وجعله يتحالف معه بدل إسقاطه. وقد شاهدنا في لحظة ما كيف أطلق بشار الأسد ألوف السجناء الإسلاميين الخطرين من سجونه، لا بل ساهم في تسليحهم وتوجيههم. فبعد أن شعر بالخطر من قوة الجيش الحر والجهات التي تدعمه، راح يعمل على تقوية الجماعات الإسلامية، وخاصة المتطرف منها، كي تظهر على الساحة بهدف مواجهة الجيش الحر وحرف الثورة الشعبية عن مسارها. ولا بأس إن واجهت النظام أحياناً. فمن الأفضل بكثير للنظام أن يظهر في أعين العالم على أنه يواجه جماعات إسلامية يمكن وصمها بسهولة بالإرهاب والتطرف، على أن يواجه ثواراً وشعباً يريد الحرية والكرامة والعيش الكريم. ومنذ أن أطلق النظام بعض الجماعات الإسلامية من سجونه، بدأ يتنفس الصعداء شيئاً فشيئاً، فقد اختفى المظهر الشعبي الثوري للانتفاضة السورية في الإعلام العالمي، وبدأ يحل محله المظهر الإسلامي المتطرف. ولعلنا نتذكر أن وفد النظام إلى مفاوضات جنيف جاء ليطالب العالم بالوقوف إلى جانبه لمكافحة الإرهاب، وليس للدخول في مفاوضات مع وفد المعارضة على الدخول في مرحلة انتقالية، واستطاع لاحقاً أن يقنع العالم برؤيته بأنه يواجه إرهاباً وليس ثورة شعبية. ومع بروز نجم داعش بقوة على الساحة، خاصة بعد السيطرة على مدينة الموصل العراقية والرقة السورية، شاهدنا كيف أن أمريكا استجابت بطريقة غير مباشرة لنداءات النظام السوري، وقامت بتشكيل تحالف دولي من عشرات الدول لمحاربة داعش وغيرها من التنظيمات الإسلامية كجبهة النصرة. وقد وصل الأمر بصحيفة الوطن السورية المملوكة لرامي مخلوف الواجهة التجارية لبشار الأسد بأن تقول إن الجيش العربي السوري يقف في خندق واحد مع القوات الأمريكية ضد داعش وأخواتها. ويرى البعض أنه كلما شعر النظام بخطر أكبر قام بتسهيل وصول داعش إلى مناطق جديدة في سوريا، كما فعل مؤخراً عندما سقطت مدينة تدمر بين ليلة وضحاها في أيدي داعش دون سابق إنذار، وأيضاً مخيم اليرموك في دمشق. وقد رأى البعض أن النظام قام بتسليم مدينة تدمر وما فيها من مخازن أسلحة هائلة لداعش بموجب اتفاق وليس نتيجة معارك. وقد جاءت تقارير المخابرات التركية قبل أيام لتؤكد على أن النظام ينسق كل خطواته مع داعش. ولم تستبعد أن يقوم النظام لاحقاً بتسليم منطقتي السلمية ذات الأغلبية الاسماعيلية والسويداء ذات الأغلبية الدرزية لداعش كي يقول للعالم: انظروا كيف تستولي داعش على مناطق الأقليات، وتهدد وجودها، وذلك كي يهرع العالم إلى سوريا ويحمي الأسد من السقوط بحجة مواجهة الجماعات الإرهابية. بالأمس سألت أحد الإعلاميين اللبنانيين الذين يدافعون عن النظام السوري ليل نهار: «هل صحيح أن ما يسمى بحلف الممانعة والمقاومة يهاجم داعش نهاراً، ويمدحها ليلاً»: فقال دون أدنى تردد: «نعم». لا بل أكد بوضوح شديد أن النظام استخدم البعبع الداعشي لتخويف الداخل والخارج، ووضع العالم أمام خيارين: إما أن تقبلوا بسيطرة داعش الرهيبة على سوريا والعراق، أو أن تدعموا النظام، وتتوقفوا عن المطالبة بإسقاطه. وقد قال ناصر قنديل أحد أنصار النظام السوري في لبنان أخيراً، ما معناه أنه عندما ظهر الجيش السوري الحر قرّر النظام العمل على إضعافه عبر ترك التنظيمات الإرهابية المتطرفة تنمو في البلاد عمداً، وهكذا تقضي على هذا الجيش، فيجد السوريون أنفسهم أمام خيارين لا ثالث لهما: أما النظام أو التطرف الإرهابي. ومن الواضح أن هناك تنسيقاً بين النظامين السوري والعراقي في هذا الصدد بإشراف إيراني. وقد سألت قبل فترة مسؤولاً عراقياً كبيراً: «هل فعلاً أنكم ضد داعش»، فقال: «نعم وبقوة». فقلت له: «لكن البعض يتهمكم بتسليم مدينة الموصل بمالها وسلاحها لداعش»، فقال: «للضرورة أحكام، فقد وجد أصحاب القرار في سوريا والعراق في لحظة ما أن الأمر يخدمهم، فقاموا بتسليم الموصل لغاية في نفس يعقوب». من الواضح أن الغاية أصبحت واضحة تماماً بعد أن بدأ العالم يميل إلى التعاون مع النظام السوري وحلفائه العراقيين وغيرهم لمواجهة «الجهاديين» بدل العمل على إسقاط النظام. وقد فاجأ وزير الخارجية الروسي العالم قبل أيام قليلة أثناء مؤتمره الصحافي مع وزير الخارجية السوري عندما قال إن هناك توجهاً أمريكياً عربياً إقليمياً لمواجهة داعش. وقد تحدث لافروف عن إمكانية تشارك السعودية وتركيا والأردن إلى جانب النظام السوري لمحاربة الجماعات المتطرفة في المنطقة. وهو تطور دراماتيكي بكل المقاييس. وقد وصفه وليد المعلم بالمعجزة إذا تحقق. صحيح أن داعش ليس من صنع النظام السوري ولا حلفائه، وصحيح أن للتنظيم استراتيجيته وأهدافه الخاصة المستقلة، وصحيح أيضاً أن داعش ليس عميلاً للنظام، بل يستغل وضع النظام العسكري الهش كي يتمدد ويتوسع في سوريا، لكن النظام بدوره يقوم بتسهيل حركة داعش، ويستخدمه كبعبع لهدفين: مرحلياً لإرعاب الداخل كي يعود إلى أحضان النظام، واستراتيجياً لتخويف الخارج بأن بديل النظام هو قوى إرهابية متطرفة في سوريا، فيهرع العالم إلى الساحة السورية لمواجهة كل الجماعات المقاتلة في سوريا، خاصة وأن النظام يعلم جيداً أن داعش مفيد له على المدى القريب فقط، لكنه سيكون كارثة عليه لاحقاً، وبالتالي يريد استقدام القوات الدولية إلى سوريا كي تحميه من التنظيم فيما بعد وكي تقضي على ما تبقى من ثورة في سوريا بحجة مواجهة الإرهاب، وهو ما يسعى إليه بشار الأسد ومعلموه الروس والإيرانيون بشكل مفضوح من خلال تجارتهم ببعبع الإرهاب. لكن الأمور بخواتيمها، فمن سينجح لاحقاً في استراتيجياته؟
AN EXCELLENT ANALYSIS!! In my opinion Salama Kila is the most perceptive and accurate analyst of the Middle East scene. I read, and re-read, every article he writes. سلامة كيلة Link
الكل يعلن الحرب ضد داعش، وهي تتمدد وتتوسع، وتنشط محققة انتصارات في مناطق شاسعة في شرق سورية وشمالها، وغرب العراق وشماله، فقد أخذت الرمادي وبيجي، بعد أن قيل إنها طُردت من محافظة صلاح الدين في العراق، وما زالت تفاجئ بالسيطرة على مناطق جديدة. وفي سورية، احتلت عين العرب، وقاتلت طويلاً فيها، ومن ثم طُردت، لكنها عادت إليها، بعد أن كانت احتلت تل أبيض، وبعد أن طُردت منها عادت، وسيطرت على الحسكة، بعد أن كانت قد سيطرت على تدمر. وتقدمت في الجنوب باتجاه اللجاة وجبل العرب، كما تقدمت نحو حلب، وقطعت النفط عن مناطق عديدة هناك. وأيضاً تقدمت نحو حمص، بعد أن كانت تحاول التوسع في القلمون.
وامتدت عملياتها إلى فرنسا وتونس والكويت والسعودية، وتقاتل في ليبيا، وتحاول الوصول إلى أفغانستان، بعد أن كانت من حصة "طالبان"، بعد أن رحل تنظيم القاعدة عنها، بعيد تبرير احتلالها. أمر لافت، خصوصاً وأن كل الكلام عن "الجهاديين" يشير إلى متطرفين مهمشين مفقرين، ويتسمون بالسذاجة العالية. يتسمون بقلة المعرفة، والميل الانتحاري، بهدف الحصول على حوريات الجنة، في وضع يشير إلى حالة من التهميش المجتمعي والحضاري. فئات متخلّفة أصولية، ينحكم وعيها لبنى قروسطية، ومنطق شكلي مطلق، ونزوع "روحاني" كبير، تقبع تحته حالة من حالات الهوس الجنسي. كيف لفئات من هذا النمط أن يفعلوا كل هذا الصراع العسكري المتفوق، وتحقيق الانتصارات التي تعجز عنها الجيوش العربية؟
شملت الحرب ضد داعش عشرات الدول، وخصوصاً أميركا بكل تفوقها العسكري، خصوصاً في مجال الطيران والصواريخ و"السيطرة على الجو"، كما قالوا في الحرب ضد العراق، وكما توضّح بالفعل. والنظام السوري الذي يقول، إنه يقاتل داعش، على الرغم من أن المعارك كلها تبدأ من هجوم داعش على قواته. وتركيا التي تقول إنها تحاصرها. والنظام العراقي الذي "يخوض الحرب ضدها"، لكن قواته تنسحب قبل تقدّم داعش، كما حدث في الموصل والرمادي وبيجي وغيرها، وإيران التي تحشد "الحشد الشعبي" لمقاتلة داعش.
كل هؤلاء "يخوضون" الحرب ضد داعش، وهي تتقدم وتتوسع وتسيطر. كيف نفسّر ذلك؟ إنها تقوم مقام "دولة عظمى"، تقاتل كقوة عظمى! وتهزم قوى عظمى وقوى إقليمية! على الرغم من أنه، قبل التدخل الأميركي، استطاعت كتائب مسلحة (مثل جبهة ثوار سورية) أن تهزم داعش في الشمال السوري، وأربكت الأمر تغطية جبهة النصرة على داعش، ومن ثم قتالها جبهة ثوار سورية وحركة حزم وغيرها، تلك الكتائب التي قاتلت السلطة وقاتلت داعش. قوى شعبية بسيطة استطاعت طرد داعش، ودول لا تستطيع ذلك؟
هذا وهم. ما يجري ليس قتال داعش، ولا أحد يقاتل داعش عدا قوى الثورة. على العكس، الكل يستخدم داعش في تكتيكات تتعلق بمصالح كل طرف. بمعنى أن الدول التي "تقاتل" داعش تغطي على تمددها وتوسعها، وتدفعها إلى التوسع هنا أو هناك، وفق التكتيك الضروري لخدمة تلك الدول. هذا مختصر الأمر.
أميركا تلعب بداعش من أجل المساومات مع إيران تحديداً. ولهذا، تغطي على توسعها، وتقصف بعيداً عنها، إلا في حالات نادرة. وتتشارك مع السلطة في حماية التوسع، بما يربك الثورة ويشلها، ويسهم في الضغط على أطراف أخرى، مثل تركيا. وتركيا تلعب بها، لأن ما يؤرقها هو ما يمكن أن يفعله أكراد سورية، ولهذا تساعدها على الضغط على المناطق الكردية. والنظام يساعدها على التقدم لوقف توسع الثورة، وإرباك نشاط الكتائب المسلحة، على أمل تحويل الصراع إلى صراع بين الطرفين. وإيران تستغل الأمر، لتعزيز وضع القوى الطائفية التابعة لها. ودول أخرى تدعم لتكريس الفوضى.
الكل يعلن أنه يحارب داعش، لكنه في الواقع يتحارب عبر داعش، ويحارب الثورة بداعش. فقط هي ضد الثورة، وهم كذلك ضد الثورة، وكل ما يجري إنهاك طويل لتدمير الثورة، وتحقيق المساومات على جثتها. لكن، لا.
CAIRO — Two years after President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi led a military takeover promising to restore order and security in Egypt, he faces a rising jihadist insurgency that has shaken the stability of this most populous Arab state, a key ally of the United States.
Just two days after militants assassinatedEgypt’s top prosecutor on a Cairo street, the military on Wednesday called in F-16 war planes and helicopters to beat back a coordinated assault in Northern Sinai by a jihadist group affiliated with the Islamic State. Egyptian soldiers were killed, police officers were trapped in their posts, ambulances were paralyzed by booby-trapped roads and residents were warned to stay indoors by jihadists roaming on motorcycles.
The scale and complexity of the attack far exceeded any of the group’s previous strikes in Sinai, raising the possibility that it has begun to coordinate more closely with the Islamic State leadership based in Syria, experts said.
More broadly, even as Mr. Sisi has pressed a campaign to marginalize mainstream Islamists like the Muslim Brotherhood — with the authorities outlawing the group, jailing thousands, sentencing hundreds to death and using lethal force to shut down protests — he has faced growing opposition from more violent Islamists vowing retaliation for the government crackdown.
That failure to tamp down violence and restore order has undercut Mr. Sisi’s ability to prop up the second pillar he promised to restore: the economy. The vital tourism industry faces new threats from militants just as the government had begun to predict a recovery. The economy remains deeply dependent on tens of billions of dollars a year in aid from Persian Gulf monarchies.
At the same time, political life is frozen, with parliamentary elections promised two years ago yet to be scheduled. And the drumbeat of attacks by militants is fraying the public’s nerves.
“After the attacks in Tunisia, Kuwait and France, I imagined that we were far from this,” said Abdelrahman Essa, a 27-year-old engineer in Cairo. “It is a new stage of violence. I am afraid of the situation and the way events are developing.”
As the security crises mounted this week, though, there was little evidence that the government was preparing to change course. Officials pushed for restrictive new laws such as antiterrorism legislation and amendments that would speed up criminal sentences, including executions.
And in an escalation of the government’s war against the Brotherhood, police officers shot and killed nine members in a Cairo apartment on Wednesday, saying that they had been gunned down while violently resisting arrest.
A statement on the Brotherhood’s English-language website said the members, one of whom had been in Parliament, were killed “in cold blood.”
“Why is it that they haven’t figured out that this is not working?” askedMichael Hanna, an Egypt expert at the Century Foundation in New York, speaking of the counterinsurgency strategy. “Security is deteriorating. The government’s strategies, operations and tactics in Sinai are a failure.”
The rising tide of violence did not threaten to topple the government and may, at least for now, rally the nation behind Mr. Sisi’s get-tough approach, Mr. Hanna said. “It might erode confidence in Sisi, but they are not going anywhere, because the state is essentially unified,” he said.
Yet for Egyptians searching for stability — including the families of conscripted soldiers and the residents of Sinai, lashed together to a shadowy and intensifying war — the growing power and sophistication of the militants posed an immediate threat.
“No one is safe here,” said Mostafa Singer, a journalist trapped by the militants’ advance in Sinai. “The explosions are everywhere. We do not know if the army will be able to solve this.”
The assassination of the prosecutor, Hisham Barakat, on Monday showed evidence of the evolving tactics and was the first time since the start of the insurgency nearly two years ago that the militants had killed a senior government official. The authorities said Mr. Barakat was killed by a remote-controlled car bomb, placed along the route that his convoy traveled every day.
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the bombing, but analysts said it was possible that it was the work of one of the new Islamist militant groups that have framed their attacks as revenge for arrests and prosecutions by the government.
The full-scale offensive on Wednesday in Sinai by the Islamic State affiliate began after sunrise with simultaneous assaults on more than a dozen military checkpoints. It was the most audacious yet by the militant group, which calls itself Sinai Province.
For hours, as the militants laid siege to the town of Sheikh Zuwaid, Sinai Province even released updates on its progress. The police station was under siege, it told followers in a statement, adding, “The lions of the caliphate were also able to blow up two pieces of machinery belonging to the Egyptian apostate army.”
To finally overcome the militants, the military called in warplanes and helicopters, conducting airstrikes that left the remains of the militants still sitting in their pulverized vehicles, witnesses said. A military spokesman said that 17 soldiers had been killed along with 100 of the militants — lower casualty figures than given by Egypt’s semiofficial state news media, which reported throughout the day that dozens of soldiers had been killed and injured.
There was nothing to suggest the militants were routed, only that they may have staged a tactical retreat. The militants have been able to carry out dozens of smaller attacks in Sinai, seemingly at will, killing hundreds of soldiers and police officers.
Brian Fishman, a researcher at the New America Foundation in Washington who previously taught counterinsurgency strategy at West Point, said that the coordination illustrated by the assailants — suicide bombers backed up by direct and indirect fire, well-aimed mortars used in combination with small arms, and simultaneous assaults in many places — was the strongest evidence yet of strategies used by Islamic State jihadists in Syria and Iraq.
“People need to get training or to have a lot of practice to pull that kind of thing off successfully; it is a lot easier said than done,” he added. “The more we see these kind of sophisticated attacks, the more you have to conclude that there is actual learning going on, and potentially direct knowledge transfer by people moving around and providing training in this kind of thing.”
Mr. Fishman also called the attacks more evidence that, even after two years of a heavy-handed crackdown by the Egyptian security forces, “the jihadi elements in Sinai aligned with ISIS are growing,” not retreating, which renews questions about the efficacy of the government’s approach to counter insurgency.
All the signs on Wednesday pointed to an increasingly violent confrontation between the government and its opponents. “We are in a real state of war,” the prime minister, Ibrahim Mehleb, said as he spoke about legislation the cabinet was considering “to face the terrorism we are in,” according to the state news media.
In its statement, the Brotherhood said its members had been “assassinated” while they were detained. “The criminal Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is laying the foundations for a new phase where it will not be possible to control the anger of the oppressed, who will not accept to be so executed in their homes among their families,” the statement said.
“Rise in revolt to defend your homeland, your lives and your children,” it continued. “Destroy the castles of injustice and tyranny. Reclaim Egypt once again.”
"Media outlets have been reluctant," writesBrit Bennett for the New York Times, "to classify the Charleston shooting as terrorism, despite how eerily it echoes our country's history of terrorism. US-bred terrorism originated in order to restrict the movement and freedom of newly liberated black Americans who, for the first time, began to gain an element of political power."
Bennett is one among countless critical thinkers and commentators arguing why the slaughter of nine African Americans in a Charleston historic church must be qualified as a "terrorist" act.
Inside Story - What now for Muslim-Western relations?
In another piece for the New York Times, Charles M Blowinsists, referring to the confessed murderer, "[Dylann] Roof was a young man radicalised to race hatred who reportedly wanted to start a race war and who killed nine innocent people as his opening salvo. If that's not terrorism, we need to redefine the term."
"American anti-terrorism law has its legislative roots in the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871," points outJelani Cobb, "which broadly empowered President Ulysses S Grant to prosecute Klan members for abrogating federal law regarding black rights".
Overwhelming evidence
Even more pertinent is the fact that according toa recent report, "since September 11, 2001, nearly twice as many people have been killed by white supremacists, anti-government fanatics and other non-Muslim extremists than by radical Muslims".
Let's for the moment set aside the fact that since 1980, according toone account, the US has "invaded or occupied or bombed" no less than 14 Muslim countries and caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions of refugees. Let's also disregard for now the countless Palestinians (Muslims and non-Muslims) slaughtered or made homeless refugees by the US-supported and armed Israel.
With such overwhelming evidence, why is it that US political leaders, law enforcement officials, and leading journalists refuse to designate this heinous crime as an act of terrorism?
These same groups would not hesitate to identify - with minimal evidence - a similar act perpetrated by a Muslim as a "terrorist" act or, for that matter, paint any act of violence by an African American as being "gang related".
...the most troubling problem with this term "terrorism" is that it has become a sponge word. It absorbs a spectrum of social malaise with multiple causes and files them under Islamic and Muslim acts only.
Philip Bumpexplained in the Washington Post why Roof cannot be called a terrorist: It is simply because he is white.
"Most Americans are white," he wrote, "and we see white people like ourselves. When I see Dylann Roof, I remember being a white male his age, barely out of my teenage years and experiencing weird anger in a difficult time... We can identify much more easily with who he is. When [Senator Lindsey] Graham looks at Roof, he doesn't see a terrorist with a weird name and foreign ties. He sees a kid who was in his niece's English class - literally."
For Muslims only
Bump has a point. As his essay demonstrates, the term "terrorism" has become so categorically synonymous with being Muslim (not just those who may commit criminal acts, but any Muslim) that applying it to a white person dismantles the whole lexicography of US (and Israeli) political culture.
It is that political lexicography that is shaken to its foundation anytime a Jewish terrorist goes on a rampage in Hebron or anywhere else in Palestine, or an American KKK-wannabe slaughters innocent people point blank in Charleston or anywhere else in the US.
For white Americans, categorising Roof's act as terrorism would mean accepting the reality of the terror they have historically perpetrated on African Americans, Asians, Latinos, or more recently Muslims of diverse background.
This exposes a streak of xenophobia in some Americans that originates from the early white settlers of Native American lands, in whose minds - from the time of slavery to this day - anyone else in their midst is seen as cheap labour, a slave, a foreigner, or a terrorist.
With this historical context in mind, only when people look at the faces of Geert Wilders, Pamela Geller, Bill Maher, or Sam Harris and see the glaring signs of their bigotry that ricochets from African Americans to Latinos/Latinas, Asians, and Muslims, will the injustice of this term "terrorism" be exposed for what it is: A racist term designated by white supremacists in the US and Israel to discredit, not just categorically condemn, violence of all sorts, but also the peaceful resistance of the oppressed.
A sponge word
African Americans were still mourning the Charleston massacre when the term terrorism was back in circulation during the reporting of recent incidents in Tunisia, France, and Kuwait.
Anti-Islam and immigration rally in the Czech Republic [Getty]
This provides yet more evidence that the term "terrorism" was exclusively utilised for Muslims and Muslims only.
I have alreadydemonstratedhow Islam and Muslims have become metaphors for terrorism and barbarity and today, even the most "progressive" Westerners use terms such as "jihad", "jihadist", or "fatwa", when they want to refer to their own (Christian or Jewish) "fanatics", as if no other term in English or other European languages can be found to label their own instances of terrorism.
But the most troubling problem with this term "terrorism" is that it has become a sponge word. It absorbs a spectrum of social malaise with multiple causes and files them under Islamic and Muslim acts only.
The three incidents in Kuwait, France, and Tunisia have a number of different causes and motivations specific to each one's domestic circumstances. But the sponge word "terrorism" prevents and preempts any understanding of those root causes by allocating them to an innate characteristic that Muslims, and only Muslims, share: simply by being Muslim.
Hamid Dabashi is Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York.
