If George W. Bush wants Arabs to believe a word he says, then big heads should quickly start rolling in his administration. Starting with Donald Rumsfeld, who played down the torture incidents with the same arrogance he played down the catastrophic looting of the Baghdad museum – when he famously announced: “things happen.”

With the Washington Post’s bombshell report of having more than a thousand photos taken by American soldiers of their obscene escapades, the picture – pun intended – has become much uglier. I cannot imagine who is still naïve enough now to believe that such enormous photographic output could possibly be the result of so-called isolated exceptions, without high level endorsement inside what is supposed to be the most disciplined army in the world.

In fact, what we saw were merely those situations where the culprits had the nerve – and stupidity – to capture their acts on film through incriminating photo ops. The question everyone is asking is how many more similar incidents escaped the lens of these tourist warriors and went unreported. Read More »

To all Americans who have been horrified by the dreadful scenes of the charred and mutilated bodies of their fellow countrymen and women dragged through the streets and hung from bridges in Iraq , I would like to say a few indispensable words.

First, you must know and believe that such abominable acts are absolute anathema to everything the Arab culture and the religion of Islam stand for.

When prophet Mohammad entered Mecca as a conqueror after long years of forced exile, he didn’t shed a drop of blood. On the contrary, the legendary forgiveness bestowed upon those very people who drove him from his home and were bent on killing him was immortalised when he declared, upon entering the holy city, that those who take shelter in the house of Abu Sufian, his defeated arch enemy, shall be safe. The prophet then addressed the leaders of the vanquished city and their followers, absolving them: “Go, for you are free”. Read More »