Vol 12, No.09 September 2012

.GLASS-STEAGALL CAN CORRECT MALAYSIA’S DANGEROUS

DEPENDENCE ON FOOD IMPORTS

By MOHD PETER DAVIS .........................................P 3

.CUSTODIAN OF THE CUSTODIAN OF THE CUSTODIAN

BY CHANDRA MUZAFFAR........................................P 4

.SOMALIA’S WITHERING SOVEREIGNTY

BY NAMA NASSER AL-ABOODI............................P 7

ARTICLES

A GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS?By Naomi Spencer

.UNDERSTANDING THE GLOBAL THREATS OF VIOLENCE

AGAINST SACRED SPACES

BY CHAIWAT SATHA-ANAND...............................P 9

Global food prices rose 6.2 percent

in July, the United Nations’ Food

and Agriculture Organization reported

Thursday. The FAO said it released

its Food Price Index ahead of its

regular publication schedule as a

warning against the impact of such

price rises.

The index, which calculates the

cost of a basket of food commodities,

overall averaged 213 points in July,

up 12 points from June. In February

2011, the height of the Arab Spring,

the overall index peaked at 238. The

index has remained above the average2008 level for more than a year and is

now trending toward an all-time high.

Grain prices have driven the

overall rise. The US corn crop is in a

state of disaster, with more than half

of all US acreage listed in poor or

very poor condition due to a record-

breaking drought. Under a parallel

drought, Russia downgraded its wheat

crop by several million tons on

Wednesday.

The FAO cereal index averaged

260 points in July, up 17 percent over

the month. Most of the increase is

attributable to a 23 percent rise in corn

prices over the month and a similar,

19 percent surge in wheat prices. The

cereal index is only 14 points below

the all-time high of 274 points in April

2008.

The FAO registered a 12 percent

rise in sugar prices in July, triggered

by unseasonably wet weather in

Brazil, the world’s largest exporter of

cane sugar. Oils rose 2 percent,

primarily on tighter supply outlooks

and record prices for soybeans.

Price indexes for meats and dairy

remained relatively unchanged for the

month, although the protracted

drought in the US rangeland has

distressed many ranchers, who will

be compelled to liquidate their herds.

The US Department of Agriculture

projects US consumer price inflation

for meat, poultry, and dairy in the next

few months as a result. Internationally,

the higher cost of animal feed will

ripple through livestock producers.

This process may sharply affect Asia,

where demand for meat is growing,

but nations have smaller domestic

stockpiles.

International food organization

Oxfam warned in response to the

FAO report that “millions of the

world’s poorest will face devastation”

from the increases. “This is not some

gentle monthly wake-up call—it’s the

same global alarm that’s been

screaming at us since 2008,” Oxfam

spokesman Colin Roche stated.

“These figures prove that the world’s

food system cannot cope on crumblingfoundations. The combination of rising

prices and expected low reserves

means the world is facing a double

danger.”

One billion people suffer from

hunger worldwide. Hundreds of

millions more who live in poverty are

vulnerable to food inflation because

they spend half or more of their

incomes on staple goods. Food price

shocks in 2008—driven by a

confluence of weather disasters,

protectionist measures, and

speculators jumping ship from the

financial market into commodities—

produced food protests across more

than 30 countries.continued next page

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 “There is a potential for a situation

to develop like we had back in 2007-

08,” FAO economist and grain analyst

Abdolreza Abbassian told Reuters

Thursday. “There is an expectation

that this time around we will not

pursue bad policies and intervene in

the market by restrictions, and if that

doesn’t happen we will not see such

a serious situation as 2007/08. But if

those policies get repeated, anything

is possible.”

While economists and aid

organizations have issued progressively

dire warnings over the consequences

of another food crisis, the underlying

factors—extreme weather, a disjointed

food distribution system, the possibility

of export bans, and above all, rampant

speculation—are more exacerbated

than ever.

Indeed, commodities investors

have rallied on the raft of bad news,

making price shocks inevitable.

Traders on the Chicago Board of

Trade, banking on the USDA to issue

a dire outlook on Friday, sent corn

prices soaring Thursday morning to

$8.265 per bushel, two cents below

the all-time record set in July.

Major banks and hedge funds in

particular have played a role in the

rally. As Bloomberg News noted,

“crops are the best-performing

commodities this year, and Goldman

Sachs Group Inc., Macquarie Group

Ltd. and Credit Suisse Group AG say

the trend will continue.”

One Chicago trader commented to

Reuters that Goldman Sachs was

leading the betting on a USDA corn

yield downgrade and predicting $9

corn and $20 soybeans by November.

“The Goldman roll started Tuesday,

you have that going on and the report

is tomorrow. Everyone is expecting

the corn number to be pretty friendly.”

Jaime Miralles of investment firm

Intl FC Stone Europe said that “a firm

$9 corn sentiment remains as

rationing is and will be required.”

Other speculators anticipate $10 per

bushel corn prices in the coming

months.

“I think general price firmness is

being seen in ahead of the USDA

report because the market is

increasingly realising how horrible

conditions are for U.S. corn,”

Rabobank analyst Erin FitzPatrick

commented. “There is pre-positioning

ahead of the report as people are

expecting more cuts in US harvest

forecasts. Despite recent rain in the

US, a lot of the damage has already

been done to corn.”

Farmers and agricultural economists

estimate that corn yield in much of the

Corn Belt will be far lower than the

USDA’s already downgraded

estimate of 146 bushels per acre.

Some areas may yield 100 bushels per

acre or less, knocking the national

corn crop back to levels not seen in

decades.

The US Drought Monitor reported

that for the week ending August 7,

fully 80 percent of the contiguous US

is experiencing drought. “Every day we

go without significant rain is

tightening the noose,” said

meteorologist Mark Svoboda, who

continued from page 1 authored the latest Monitor report. In

Iowa, the largest corn producing state,

the area suffering from extreme drought

more than doubled in size. As of August

7, nearly 70 percent of the state was

under the most severe category of

drought. Over 81 percent of Illinois and

fully 94 percent of Missouri is in “at least

extreme drought.”

The USDA estimates that

inventories of corn, wheat, soybeans,

and rice will be reduced to 2008 levels

next year. Wheat inventories are

projected to contract 7.5 percent.

Wheat production in Russia, the

fourth largest exporter, is set to fall

by 20 percent this year. The Australian

wheat crop, stunted by repeated

frosts and poor weather, may yield 40

percent less than initial projections.

India’s agricultural region suffered a

monsoon season providing 22 percent

less rainfall than average, resulting in

a 7.8 million ton loss in the global rice

crop.

The FAO also reduced rice

production forecasts for Cambodia,

Taiwan, North and South Korea, and

Nepal.

10 August, 2012

Naomi Spencer is a wsws.org writer.

Source: WSWS.org

L E A D A R T I C L E

Dear friends, please visit our facebook “Just Imjw” to viewa selection of photos taken during our

JUST 20 Celebrations held on 8 September 2012

I N T E R N A T I O N A L M O V E M E N T F O R A J U S T W O R L D

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continued next page

GLASS-STEAGALL CAN CORRECT MALAYSIA’S DANGEROUS

DEPENDENCE ON FOOD IMPORTSBy Mohd Peter Davis

The Head of Russia’s Federal Drug

Control Service Viktor Ivanov recently

paid Malaysia a kind compliment whilst

defining a bold international economic

commitment to eradicate illegal drug

production worldwide.

Instead of poor farmers in developing

countries being financially forced to

grow crops like poppies for criminal

opium and heroine production, what

is necessary according to Ivanov is

“…a national high-technology

industrial sector into which the

population can be drawn. An

example is Malaysia, which has

turned from a backward

agrarian country into one of the

leading high-technology

countries in a few decades.”

This achieves

“…employment diversification,

in order to reduce the portion

of families whose welfare

directly depends on succeeding

in agriculture”.

However, unbeknown to Viktor

Ivanov, and indeed nearly all

Malaysians, high-technology

industrialisation also coincided with the

abandonment of modern food

production. Fifteen years ago Malaysia

foolishly followed the arrogant dictate of

the world Food and Agriculture

Organisation, “Produce microchips

and let the poor countries feed you”.

Malaysia could easily have achieved

both industrial production and

advanced food production. Local

agricultural research teams in universities

and institutions were making good

progress but their grants were abruptly

terminated and the expert teams

dispersed. A golden opportunity to

achieve food self-sufficiency was lost.

Today Malaysia is dangerously

dependent on imports for almost all of

its quality food, including beef, mutton,

lamb, milk, butter, cheeses, the corn

and soya bean for chicken, egg and

pig production, wheat for bread,

chapatti and pastries and shamefully

40% of all rice consumed.

Malaysians cannot survive on its

abundance of fruit and vegetables or

the oceans of palm oil for that matter

that swallow most of the good

agricultural land.

Without food imports the

population will surely face mass

starvation far crueler than during the

Japanese Occupation and the

associated American naval blockade

including all food ships.

Viktor Ivanov’s plan to upgrade

peasant food production worldwide

applies equally well to Malaysia’s highly

underdeveloped agricultural sector.

“ …the first level of advanced

food production is the creation

of the infrastructure needed for

organizing advanced agriculture,

including the formation of stable

markets, a low-interest credit

system for peasants, technical

and technology support for

agriculture (scientific and

industrial seed-farming,

fertilizers, and agricultural

machine-building), a system of

teaching and training for

agronomists and other

agriculture professionals, as

well as tough protectionist

measures to defend peasants

who are growing legal crops”.

Ending hunger in developing

countries and starvation in Africa is no

longer a utopian dream. A dramatic

economic change last week re-opened

all doors for the possibility of rapidly

rebuilding the world by employing the

traditional American Credit System as

used so successfully by Presidents

Lincoln and Roosevelt which

dramatically built the entire

infrastructure and agriculture of

America.

A very respectable faction of the

British Establishment has suddenly

decided to join forces with veteran

American economist and statesman

Lyndon LaRouche and associates,

accepting his persistent proposals for

a new version of President Roosevelt’s

1933 Glass-Steagall Bill to rescue the

world economy from otherwise certain

collapse. Europe and America are

currently on the brink of 1932-like

hyperinflation where a loaf of bread in

Germany ended up in just a few

months costing a wheelbarrow of

money, completely wiping out any

savings, jewelry and household goods

and creating utter destitution for the

entire population.

In the nick-of-time the passage of

Glass-Steagalls will save Europe and

America from the same fate by

separating and protecting the genuine

commercial banks that society needs

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continued from page 3

for development programs. Meanwhile,

speculative banks will be quickly

neutralised for recklessly gambling the

savings and pension funds of the

public, criminally bankrupting the world

in the process and expecting

Governments to pay the gambling debts

of the world’s biggest banks by

savaging the jobs, health care, living

standards and pension funds of the

population.

Within days of the new Glass

Steagall becoming law, the ordinary

commercial banks will get a new lease

of life. However, the multinational “too

big to fail” speculative banks will be

essentially bankrupted, owning only

their own gambling debts. You gambled,

you lost, you pay.

This simple legislative Glass-Steagall

process which is gaining rapid support

at the highest levels in Britain and

America will pave the way for the

introduction of the American style

Credit System where National Banks

will supply the huge amounts of

funding to commercial banks for

competent and socially necessary large

scale national infrastructure such as

dams, electricity production, flood

mitigation, fast trains, highways, mass

housing, new industries and advanced

agriculture. These projects to lift up

the welfare, inventiveness and

creativity of the population and will

generate far more wealth than they

cost to build, revealing the wealth

creation secret and intention of the

credit system of a productive

economy.

As Russia has noted, Malaysia

managed to progress from a backward

country to a high-technology country

in a few decades. By adopting Glass -

Steagall and linking up with a Credit

System initially between America, and

the giant Asian economies, a long period

of unparalleled peace and development

can occur.

Malaysia, for the first time in its

history, can become self-sufficient in

food, and indeed a major food exporter.

This can overcome the serious mistake

Malaysia made in 1997 in abandoning

advanced food production, a mistake

Japan and South Korea were

determined not to make during their

industrialization.

12 July, 2012

Mohd Peter Davis is a retired agricultural

scientist with Universiti Putra Malaysia.

CUSTODIAN OF THE CUSTODIAN OF THE CUSTODIAN

By Chandra Muzaffar

Muslims and Muslim governments are

angry with Bashar al-Assad. They hold

him responsible for the massacre of

thousands of people, many of them

innocent civilians, in Syria. They want

him to go.

It is true that Bashar’s army has

killed a lot of people. It has used

excessive force — as I have pointed

out in a number of articles before this.

Anyone with a conscience would

condemn the mindless violence that has

bloodied Syria in the last 17 months.

But Bashar’s violence is only one side

of the story. The armed rebels opposed

to him have also massacred thousands.

How else can one explain the fact that

almost one-third of the 17,000 people

killed so far in the conflict are from the

army and related security agencies?

The rebels are not only well equipped

with a range of weapons and

communication apparatus but are also

supported by logistical routes

developed by the CIA and intelligence

provided by Mossad. Their weapons

are delivered through “a shadowy

network of intermediaries, including

the Muslim Brotherhood,” and “are paid

for by Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.”

Since April 2012, hundreds, perhaps

even a few thousand, militants, some

linked to Al-Qaeda and its affiliates,

from Iraq, Libya, Tunisia and Jordan

have crossed over into Syria to fight

the Bashar government in what they

perceive as a “jihad.” It is reported that

out of 200 rebels captured in Aleppo

recently, 70 were foreign fighters.

The mainstream media in most

Muslim majority states have not

highlighted these aspects of the Syrian

conflict. Neither have they subjected

to scrutiny the authenticity of the news

they carry on the conflict and the

sources of the news items. As a case

in point, the Houla massacre of 25 May

2012 was widely publicised all over the

world as an example of the brutal,

barbaric character of the Bashar

government. Scores of children were

allegedly butchered by his militia. A

picture of a large number of dead

children “wrapped in white shrouds

with a child jumping over one of them”

was offered as proof of the heinous

crime. The picture was actually from

the war in Iraq in 2003. The

photographer himself, Marco Di Lauro

of Getty Images, came out in the open

continued next page

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continued next page

to expose the fabrication. In fact, the

Houla massacre itself was “committed

by anti-Assad Sunni militants, and the

bulk of the victims were members of

the Alawi and Shia minorities, which

have been largely supportive of the

Assad”, according to the leading

German daily, the Frankfurter

Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ).

Houla is not the only case. A

Christian nun, Mother Agnes-Mariam

de la Croix of the St. James Monastery

has published on the monastery’s

website, an account of armed rebels

gathering Christian and Alawi hostages

in a building in the Khalidiya

neighbourhood in Homs, and blowing

it up with dynamite. The rebels then

put the blame for the crime upon the

Syrian army. There is also the story

of Zainab al-Hosni, allegedly abducted

by government forces and burnt to

death. A few weeks later, Zainab

appeared on Syrian television to nail

the lie about her. The most widely

quoted source for the alleged atrocities

committed by the Syrian government

is of course the Syrian Observatory

for Human Rights (SOHR) which is a

one man operation run by a Rami Abdul

Rahman from Coventry, England. His

statistics have been challenged on a

number of occasions by Syrian

analysts who have shown why his

reporting is unreliable.

It is disappointing that most Muslim

governments and NGOs are oblivious

to all this and focus only upon Bashar’s

wrongdoings. The Organisation of

Islamic Cooperation (OIC) at its

emergency summit held in Mecca on

14 August 2012 reflected this biased

approach to the Syrian conflict by

condemning only the government

while exonerating the armed rebels. A

few states such as Algeria, Kazakhstan

and Pakistan called for a balanced

statement from the summit that would

also apportion blame upon the armed

opposition but their plea was ignored.

Worse, Syria which was suspended

from the OIC at the summit was not

even invited to the meeting and given

a chance to defend itself. It was denied

the most elementary principle of

natural justice. It is a right that is

fundamental to Islamic jurisprudence.

Why has the Muslim world as a

whole, especially its elites and its

intelligentsia, adopted such a blatantly

biased and starkly unjust position on

Syria? Is it because many are ignorant

of what is really happening in that

country, given the orientation of the

mainstream media? Or is it because

Muslims revere the Saudi monarch so

much — he is after all the custodian

of the two holy mosques— that they

are convinced that in seeking the

elimination of Bashar al-Assad he is

doing what is morally right? Or is it

because many Muslim elites are

beholden to Saudi wealth — and Qatari

largesse — that they are prepared to

acquiesce in their wishes? Or is it also

because of certain sectarian sentiments

that Muslims appear to be incensed

with the Bashar government?

It is these sentiments that I shall

now explore. For many months now

a segment of Sunni ulama (religious

elites) in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and

certain other states have been

attacking Bashar as an Alawite leader

who is oppressing the Sunni majority.

Since Alawites are a branch of Shia

Islam, the target has been Shia

teachings and the Shia sect. Given the

standing of these ulama, their vitriolic

utterances have succeeded in inflaming

the passions of some Sunni youth who

view Bashar and his circle as infidels

who should be fought and defeated at

all costs. Even the spiritual guide of the

Muslim Brotherhood, Sheikh Yusuf Al-

Qaradawi, has now joined the

bandwagon and accuses Shias of

theological deviance and malpractices.

It is important to observe in this

regard that in the context of Syria there

is no rigid Shia-Sunni dichotomy. The

Sunnis given their numerical strength

dominate the army, the public services

and the private sector. Some of the most

critical positions in Syrian society are

held by Sunnis. The Grand Mufti of

Syria for instance is a Sunni of the

Shafie doctrinal school. Indeed,

sectarian, or for that matter, religious

affiliation has very little weight in

society. In many ways, Syria is a

society that has sought to de-emphasise

religious and sectarian loyalties and

nurture a notion of common

citizenship. Since the beginning of the

conflict, it is the Western media that

have been preoccupied with the so-

called Sunni-Shia divide and appear to

be deliberately stoking sectarian

sentiments. The Arab media has

followed suit.

The way in which Sunni-Shia

sentiments are now being manipulated

convinces me that geopolitics rather

than sectarian loyalties is the motivating

force. If sectarian loyalties are really

that important, how does one explain

the close ties that the Sunni Saudi elite

enjoyed with the Shia Shah of Iran,

Reza Pahlavi, in the sixties and much

of the seventies? Was it because the

Shah was the gendarme of the US and

the West in the Persian Gulf and an ally

of Israel? Was this the reason why the

Saudis could get along so well with the

Iranian elite? Isn’t it revealing that it

was only when the Shah was ousted in

a popular revolution in 1979 and the

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continued next page

continued from page 5

new Islamic leaders of Iran rejected

American hegemony over the region

and challenged the legitimacy of the

Israeli entity, that Saudi relations with

Iran took a turn for the worse?

Saudi animosity towards the new

independent minded Iran was so great

that it bankrolled the Iraqi instigated

war against Iran from 1980 to 1988.

The primary goal of that war was to

strangulate Iran’s Islamic Revolution

at its birth. The war brought together

a number of pro-US Arab states with

the notable exception of Syria. Needless

to say the US and other Western

powers aided and abetted this anti-Iran

coalition. It was during this time that

anti-Shia propaganda was exported

from Saudi Arabia to Pakistan and other

parts of South and Southeast Asia.

Groups within the Shia community

also began to respond to these attacks

by churning out their own anti-Sunni

literature.

In spite of the relentless opposition

to it, Iran, much to the chagrin of its

adversaries in the region and in the

West, has continued to grow from

strength to strength, especially in the

diplomatic and military spheres. One

of its major achievements is the solid

link it has forged with Syria, on the

one hand, and the Hezbollah in

Lebanon, on the other. It is the most

significant resistance link that has

emerged — resistance to Israel and US

hegemony— in West Asia and North

Africa (WANA) in recent decades.

Israel, the US and other Western

powers such as Britain and France, and

actors in WANA like Saudi Arabia, Qatar

and Turkey, are worried. The Iran

helmed resistance has increased their

apprehension in light of five other

related developments.

One, Iran’s nuclear capability. Though

Iranian leaders have declared on a

number of occasions that they regard

the manufacture and use of a nuclear

bomb as haram (prohibited), there is

no doubt that the country’s nuclear

capability has been enhanced

considerably in recent years.

Two, the inability of Israel to defeat

Hezbollah and gain control over

Lebanon which it regards as its

frontline defence. This was proven

again in 2006 and today Hezbollah is in

a more decisive position in Lebanese

politics than it was six years ago.

Three, the Anglo-American invasion

and occupation of Iraq in 2003 and the

introduction of electoral democracy

which has led to the rise of Shia political

power. Shia political elites in Iraq are

by and large inclined towards Iran,

which the US sees as a huge setback

for its hegemonic ambitions in the

region.

Four, the Arab uprisings, especially

those that are mass based, like in

Tunisia and Egypt, have raised

questions about the shape of democratic

politics in the region in the coming

years. Will it give rise to the emergence

of Islamic movements that challenge

the legitimacy of Israel, US hegemony

and the role of feudal monarchies in

WANA? Or, would it be possible to

co-opt the new Islamic actors into the

status quo?

Five, how will all these changes unfold

in a situation where US hegemony is

declining? How will Israel and the other

states in WANA that are dependent

upon US power for the perpetuation

of their interests fare when the US is

no longer able to protect them as it

did in the past?

For Israel in particular all these

developments in WANA portend a less

secure neighbourhood. Total control

and predictability are crucial elements

in Israel’s notion of security. It is

because of its obsession with security

that guarantees control over its

neighbourhood that it is determined to

break the link between Iran, Syria and

the Hezbollah. It reckons that if Bashar

is ousted that link would be broken.

This was obvious in the

conversation between Israeli Prime

Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and

Russian President, Vladimir Putin, as

reported by the respected Jewish

journalist, Israel Shamir. Netanyahu

made it clear that Israel preferred “the

Somalisation of Syria, its break-up and

the elimination of its army.” Bashar’s

successor —— after his ouster— he

stressed “must break with Iran.”

Netanyahu gave the impression that

Israel was in a position to “influence

the rebels.”

Since this is Israel’s agenda for

Syria, all the moves and manoeuvres

of states like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and

Turkey to eliminate Bashar would be

very much in line with what Israel

wants. Any wonder then that both

Israeli leaders and its media welcomed

the suspension of Syria from the OIC.

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continued from page 6

In this regard, Israel would have been

thrilled to read a pronouncement by

Al-Qaradawi in May 2012, widely

reported in the WANA media that “If

the Prophet Muhammad was alive

today, he would lend his support to

NATO.”

More than endorsement from

within the region, what Israel has

always been confident about is the

patronage and protection of the US and

most of Europe. On Syria, and in the

ultimate analysis, on Iran, the Israeli

political and military elites know that

the centres of power in the West share

its diabolical agenda. Indeed, it is Israel

that determines the US’s position on

critical issues pertaining to WANA. It

is the tail that wags the dog.

Israel’s relationship with a major

Arab state like Saudi Arabia, (with

whom it has no formal diplomatic ties)

on the one hand, and the US, on the

other, tells us a great deal about who is

in charge of who. The Kenyan-

American scholar, Professor Ali

Mazrui, once described the Saudi-US

nexus this way: the problem with the

custodian of the Holy Mosques is that

there is a custodian of the custodian.

If I may add, since it is Israel that

decides US foreign policy in WANA, it

may not be inaccurate to say that there

is a custodian of the custodian of the

custodian.

21 August, 2012

Dr. Chandra Muzaffar is President of the

International Movement for a Just World

(JUST).

SOMALIA’S WITHERING SOVEREIGNTYBy Nama Nasser Al-Aboodi

“In theory, theory and practice are the

same. In practice, they are not.” This

quote by Albert Einstein adequately

describes the behavior of the

international community of nation

states. For example, the theory behind

the Responsibility to Protect is that

states must respond to the needs of

people who are exposed to atrocities

such as ethnic cleansing, genocide,

and crimes against humanity. In other

words, countries have a responsibility

towards each other to intervene in the

name of humanity when their

governments have failed to protect

them. Somalia is a classic example

where the international community has

failed to intervene to protect civilians.

Somalia has been politically unstable

since 1986 when Mohammed Siad

Barre tightened his grip on power by

unleashing a reign of terror. Its civil

war is considered to start in 1991 when

his dictatorship collapsed. By using

humanitarian protection as rhetoric, the

United States along with Belgium,

France, and Italy sent their militaries

to Somalia in 1992 and sought to carry

out “Operation Restore Hope.” But

when the situation looked like it would

take more than the three months

President Bush expected, and due to

their unwillingness to accept casualties,

the allies withdrew. Somalia is not only

an example of a conflicted state as a

result of colonization, but is also an

example of how factional politics and

clan-based rivalries are undermining the

structure of the state as we know it in

international relations. The solution to

Somalia’s economic, political, and

social instability does not rest with one

actor. International and regional forces

should provide the environment in

which Somalia’s warlords and political

factions can engage in dialogue.

Moreover, Somali political divisions

themselves must be willing to

compromise with one another for their

country to reach stability.

The roots of the conflict in Somalia

can be dated to its colonial period. In

the 1880s, during the climax of the

scramble for Africa under the Berlin

Conference, Somalia was divided into

five colonial territories: French

Somaliland, British Somaliland, the

Northern Frontier District which

belonged to the British, Italian

Somaliland, and Ogaden which was

controlled by Ethiopia. Somalia gained

its independence in July 1960 and an

elected government that was

“underdeveloped in terms of both

sociopolitical and economic

infrastructure” replaced colonial rule

(Fatah, p.1, 2002). In 1969,

Mohammed Siad Barre led a military

coup, destroyed Somalia’s cultural

heritage, and set up a dictatorship that

was alien to the people. Siad Barre was

successful in turning clans against each

other and making them dependent on

the regime. One cannot discuss

Somalia’s political atmosphere during

Siad Barre’s dictatorship without

mentioning the Cold War. The United

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I N T E R N A T I O N A L M O V E M E N T F O R A J U S T W O R L D A R T I C L E S

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continued next page

States and the Soviet Union were

competing to expand their empires.

Considered to be a communist

dictatorship by the Soviet Union, Barre

enjoyed Soviet support and military

assistance. Nevertheless, Soviet

support halted when Ethiopia in 1977

underwent a military coup that brought

Mengistu Haile Mariam to power. The

Soviets rushed to Ethiopia, and

naturally, Somalia turned toward the

United States for assistance. In 1991

Siad Barre’s military dictatorship

collapsed and the accumulating tension

gave rise to armed hostilities between

clans and political movements.

Somalia is not only a victim of the Cold

War and a victim of colonization, but

also suffers from the effects of

colonization. Before colonization, clans

and ethnic minorities in the Horn of

Africa were autonomous and abided by

their customary law, known as the xeer

system. Decolonization, however,

resulted in arbitrary borders that did

not consider the population’s interests

but the interests of the colonizers. The

effects that colonization had can be

seen after Siad Barre’s regime collapsed

in 1991. Rivalry between different

interest groups escalated starting with

the warlords Mohamed Farah Aideed

and Ali Mahdi Mohamed competing for

control over Mogadishu. Since then,

different clans and political factions

have clashed in different parts of

Somalia for territorial control. The

different political groups and Islamic

political parties are complex due to the

divisions within themselves. The

Somali Democratic Salvation Front

supported mainly by the Majerteen clan

and the Somali National Front

supported by the Isaaq clan rose in

opposition to Barre’s regime and fought

to control parts of Somalia after Barre’s

collapsed. The Western Somali

Liberation Front supported by the

Ogaden has another agenda: self-

determination of the Ogaden region in

southeast Ethiopia. On the other hand,

Islamic political groups such as Al-

Ittihad Al-Islamiyya (AIAI) became

prominent after 1978 when Somalia

fought Ethiopia for control over the

Ogaden region. AIAI provided a solid

political agenda: to overcome clannish

politics, to form an Islamic Somali

Republic as they saw Islam as the only

unifying force, and to use military force

to pursue its goals. AIAI also played a

part in organizing Islamic courts, but

not all the courts were within their

control. Unlike other political

movements, the Islamic Courts Unions

provided a source of stability for

communities. Led by Sheikh Hassan

Dahir Aweys, they were formed to

bring back the rule of law and were

accepted by several communities

because they were pragmatic and

provided much needed security.

Somalia, however, is still in a state of

anarchy. If one looks at the situation

from a counterfactual perspective,

Somalia’s civil war can be said to date

back to colonization when arbitrary

borders were formed by colonizers.

With numerous political rivalries and

hostility toward foreign intervention,

the Somali crisis cannot be easily

resolved. I will try to highlight some

of the possible solutions. Many

scholars argue that instead of trying to

unify the country through the

Transitional Federal Government that

was set up in 2004 and supported by

the United Nations and the United

States, external actors in Somalia

should try and develop “building

blocks.” “Building blocks allow for the

creation of at least five or six political

units” and creates a kind of federation

(Gilkes, 1999, p.571). Instead of

unifying all the parties under one central

government, sovereign republics

would unify under a weak central

government. This would seem

effective since Somalia is already

divided into Somaliland in the north,

Puntland in the east, and Somalia in the

south. But the concept of building

blocks as a resolution does not

consider how the country would deal

with transnational issues of

globalization and regional issues such

as Somalia’s borders and neighbors. If

Somalia’s political units were to be

autonomous republics, they would not

be unified in matters of transnational

issues such as climate change,

globalization, and trafficking which are

essential for stability. In addition to

“building blocks,” external influences

are concerned with Somalia’s political

future. The United States would like

to see Somalia run by a pro-Western

government and not by Islamic politics.

From their point of view, if Somalia

were to be run by fundamentalists, it

could be the base for Al-Qaeda and

other “terrorist” operations. Moreover,

Islamic politics is a threat to the United

States, other Western governments,

and Ethiopia because of Somalia’s

proximity to Yemen and the trading

route in the Gulf of Aden. They fear

that because Yemen is already a base

for terrorist activities, Somalia will

become an arena for similar activities.

Nevertheless, Islam is an important part

of Somali ethnic identity and if it were

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continued from page 8

to resort to Islamic politics, it should

be viewed in a positive light. What is

crucial is that Islamic states should not

isolate themselves and should not wage

war on non-Muslims. The Muslim

Brotherhood’s recent victory in Egypt

has shown that secularism is not the

only way. The Egyptian public is in

favor of a state that integrates, to an

extent, religion into politics. Egypt

offers hope that Western governments

will accept Islamic politics rather than

fight to prevent its emergence.

Another view point is that since clans

are the only functioning institutions in

Somalia, Somalia should return to its

traditional xeer system. The “building

block” concept and the idea that

Somalia should return to its traditional

political system raises questions about

the nation state. Somalia has proved

that the state with its power in the

centre is not the only functioning

political system. When people are led

down by the structure of the state, they

shift their allegiance to their tribes

where they can “regain autonomy

through anarchy” (Simons, 1994,

p.821). For this reason, the traditional

definition of the state must be revised

in order to accommodate challenges to

the structure of the state. Somalia’s

withering sovereignty already

undermines the essence of the state.

Through dialogue and commitment,

Somalia needs to reach political stability

in order to develop its capacity to

provide security for its citizens, engage

in political decision-making, integrate

into the world economy, and deal with

the challenges facing the country.

Commitment and cooperation are

needed from all angles to save Somalia’s

sovereignty.

References

Fatah, A. A. (2002). Somalia’s

Traditional Clan-Based System

Holds Key to the Country’s Future

Stability. The Washington Report on

Middle East Affairs. Retrieved July

3, 2012, from http://

www.wrmea.com/component/

content/article/237/4054-somalias-

traditional-clan-based-system-holds-

key-to-the-countrys-future-

stability.html

Gilkes, P. (1999). Briefing: Somalia.

African Affairs 98(393), 571-577.

Retrieved July 3, 2012, from Jstor

database.

Simons, A. (1994). Somalia and the

Dissolution of the Nation-State.

American Anthropologist Association

96(4), 818-824. Retrieved July 3,

2012, from Jstor database.

28 July, 2012

Nama Nasser Al- Aboodi was an intern with

JUST from 19 June to 28 July 2012.

By Chaiwat Satha-Anand

UNDERSTANDING THE GLOBAL THREATS OF VIOLENCE

AGAINST SACRED SPACES

On August 6, 2012, the neo-Nazi Wade

Michael Page walked into the

gurudwara (Sikh temple) of Wisconsin

in Oak Creek and murdered 6 people

including the temple president. He was

killed by the police in the incident. While

the Sikhs in the US had suffered from

discrimination since they started coming

to the United States in the early

20th century: they were driven out of

Bellingham, Washington, in 1907; and

out of St. John, Oregon in 1910, this

most recent Oak Creek killing sparked

global outcries from Washington DC to

New Delhi. In India, members of Sikh

communities staged protest

demonstrations in several places including

New Delhi and Jammu, Kashmir.

There are many ways to understand

this abominable incident. Page’s

personal history of his association with

the far-right group and psychological

profile would be one way. Bringing in

the American history of violence with

its reverence for the gun culture,

including the most recent killing at the

screening of The Dark Knight Rises

at a Denver cineplex on July 20, 2012

which claimed 12 lives, would be

another. Situating this case in a larger

context of growing hate-groups in the

US would be yet another way.

According to the Southern Poverty

Law Center, there are now 1,018 hate

groups which is a 69 per cent increase

since the beginning of the twenty-first

century. There is also a resurgence

of the anti-government “Patriot”

A R T I C L E SI N T E R N A T I O N A L M O V E M E N T F O R A J U S T W O R L D

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continued from page 9

movement, some groups with their

armed militias. It grew by 775% during

the first three years of the Obama

administration, from 149 in 2008 to

1,274 in 2011. In Wisconsin alone,

there are 8 hate groups including the

neo-Nazi “New Order” in Milwaukee,

“Crusaders for Yahweh” in Eau Claire,

and “Aryan Nations 88” in Green Lake,

among others.

Situating the Wisconsin killing in the

American context is certainly

important, but I would argue that the

case is much more dangerous if

viewed in the global context of a

heinous trend conducive to deadly

religio-ethnic conflicts: that of violence

against sacred spaces which includes

killing worshippers in their houses of

worship. This article attempts to show

that there is indeed such a trend of

violence against sacred spaces and that

to cope with such phenomenon, it is

important to understand why violence

against sacred spaces is dangerous.

Violence against sacred spaces: a

global trend?

In southern Thailand, there have

been cases of violence against sacred

spaces and religious personnel since the

new round of violence re-exploded in

2004. But recently, two of the most

significant cases include: the killing of

10 Malay Muslims, including the

Imam, while they were praying in the

Al-Furqan mosque in Narathiwat on

June 8, 2009; and the bomb attack that

killed two Buddhist monks from Suan

Kaew temple while they were making

their daily rounds of alms begging

under military protection on a road in

Yala on May 16, 2011, one day prior

to the most important date in the

Buddhist calendar – the Visakha Puja

day. Incidents such as these prompt

me to ask if they are but isolated cases

or symptomatic of a global trend.

In 2010, I conducted a study on

the issue of violence against sacred

spaces covering the period of 2009-

2010 and found that there have been

104 incidents related to sacred spaces

and religious personnel around the

world, 49 took place in 2009 and it rose

to 55 incidents in 2010. In 2010, the

number of people killed in relation to

sacred spaces increased 19.8% and

those wounded increased 29.1%.

These incidents combined have killed

1,730 people and wounded 3,671.

Most of these incidents took place in

Iraq and Pakistan which accounted for

77.2% of casualties in 2009 and 71.2%

in 2010. If one considers the fact that

Iraq is in a state of war and that

Pakistan is not, it is important to point

out that the number of people killed and

wounded in Pakistan is 33.8% more

than the number of casualties in Iraq

in relation to sacred spaces and

personnel. In addition, the year 2010

saw a dramatic increase of 147% in

number of casualties in Pakistan

resulting from violence against sacred

spaces and personnel compared to

2009. (Peace & Policy 17 –

forthcoming 2012)

In addition, a cursory glance at

what has happened to sacred spaces

in the first six months of 2012 yields

the following results:

• January/ People’s Republic of

China: More than a thousand of

Northwest Muslims fought against the

Chinese police who demolished their

mosque in the Ningxia region.

(Bangkok Post, January 3, 2012)

• February/ Thailand: suspected

insurgents threw two M 79 grenades

into a Buddhist temple in Southern

Thailand to avenge the earlier killings

of four Malay Muslims by the Thai

rangers. (Bangkok Post, February 2,

2012)

• March/ Australia: the Nazi

symbol “KKK” and “white power”

were scrawled across a wall, and

several headstones were vandalized at

the Fingal Head Cemetery, a burial

ground for the Aboriginal people in

New South Wales. (Bangkok Post,

March 9, 2012)

• April/ Sri Lanka: Buddhist monks

led an angry protest calling for the

government to demolish or move a

mosque in Dambala, North of Colombo.

(Bangkok Post, April 24, 2012)

• May/ Jerusalem: Vandals, believed

to be ultra-orthodox Jews, armed with

hammers caused serious damages to

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11

a 4th century synagogue in the town of

Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee. (

Bangkok Post, May 31, 2012)

• June/ Iraq: Coordinated bombings

and shootings took place during a major

Shi’ite religious commemoration killing

at least 59 people and wounding more

than 200 in and near Baghdad.

(Bangkok Post, June 14, 2012)

Though each case needs to be

construed in the context of its own

local conflict dynamic, taken together

what these incidents mean is that:

violence against sacred space could

happen anywhere; the targets could

belong to any religion/belief; the

perpetrators could be organized or

spontaneous; and violence that took

place could be either provocative or

reactive. Moreover, some of these

cases engender deadlier violence. For

example, recent explosions at three

churches in Northern Kaduna, Nigeria,

killed at least 16 people. Very soon this

incident led furious Christians to

retaliate against Muslims in a

subsequent riot that killed at least 45

and wounded more than a hundred.

(Bangkok Post, June 19, 2012)

The use of violence against sacred

spaces that has occurred around the

world was possible precisely because

of the uncertainty of the cultural line

separating the sacred from the profane

spaces. Moreover, when these sacred

spaces are attacked, it is their sanctity

that generates cultural power producing

continued from page 10 collective identity, often times through

moral outrage. Because of this

complex conditionality, Muslims,

Christians or Buddhists, among others,

who witness their places of worship

attacked, would react with outrage,

and at times with vengeful violence.

One of the reasons why attacking these

targets endowed with religious

symbolic meanings can be extremely

dangerous with the curse of making

conflicts deadlier is because they are

not individuals but communal. The site

that hurts is not the body or physical

entity but the self – at times collective.

Through anger of those communities

of faith attacked, a kind of moral

outrage as evident in Nigeria and

elsewhere, violence against sacred

spaces oftentimes engender conflicts

deadlier and intractable. As a result, this

kind of conflict becomes increasingly

difficult to resolve.

Anticipating such incidents which

seem to occur with increasing

frequency, the TODA Institute for

Global Peace and Policy Research,

together with the Center for Global

Nonkilling in Honolulu, Berghof

Foundation, and Peace Information

Center in Bangkok, organized an

international conference on “Protecting

Sacred Spaces and Peoples of Cloths:

Academic Basis, Policy Promises” in

Bangkok on May 28-29, 2011 to

explore a specific class of ethno-

religious conflict when perpetrators

target sacred symbols and peoples,

especially religious, which usually

render existing conflicts deadlier and/

or much more difficult to cope with.

At the conclusion of the conference,

international scholars and policy

makers in attendance, including the

eminent secretary general of ASEAN-

Dr.Surin Pitsuwan who was there for

the whole conference, seem to agree

that this issue is indeed a dangerous

global problem rarely touched by

researchers, and that some appropriate

regional and/or global policy needs to

be formulated to prevent existing

conflicts from sliding further into the

realm of deadlier violence.

Perhaps the beginning of the second

decade of the twenty-first century is

the right time for a country such as

Thailand or a region such as ASEAN

to do something globally significant -

initiating a cultural code of conducting

conflicts that would render violence

against sacred spaces internationally

and formally unacceptable, for

example. By overcoming its local or

regional shortcomings, this country

and/or ASEAN could help re-imagine

a world where ethno-religious conflicts

would be contained by locating sacred

spaces and lives of religious personnel

outside the curse of violence.

17 August, 2012

Dr. Chaiwat Satha-Anand is the

Chairperson of Strategic Nonviolence

Commission, Thailand Research Fund and

Senior Research Fellow at TODA Institute

of Global Peace. and Policy Reseach. He is

also a member of the JUST International

Advisory Panel ( IAP)

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