121Contact

Maulama Akonjee and Thara Uddin

Maulama Akonjee and Thara Uddin, Imam and friend, murdered.

The energy of grief is powerful. So are the energies of frustration and anger. Think. Take that energy and turn it. Use it to make things better…even the smallest kindness. Together we can move our world toward more peaceful tomorrows. @Akojee @Islamophobia

Vote for me. I represent The Hatemonger and Know-nothing Party.

We are against undocumented immigrants. We will round them up and build a wall. We know Obama is a Muslim, not born in America. We know vaccines cause autism and global warming is a hoax.

We choose war instead of foreign policy. We will give more tax cuts to the rich. We will limit the rights of women and gays. We will deny lesbians the right to marry. We will make it harder for blacks to vote. Muslims will not be tolerated, and certainly not taught science. Teachers deserve less pay and school get too much funding. And why should you pay for lunches for poor kids?

Vote for me. I'll fix America good!

[blatantly cut/pasted from Robert Reich on fb by 121Contact]

 

[blatently pasted from Robert Reich on fb]

Each anniversary is different, of course...

At the first anniversary ceremony  at Ground Zero a small army of bagpipes finished "Amazing Grace." That slow beating drum synchronized the souls of all who stood waiting for the tradition-to-come reading of the names.

The first names of the those who died on 9/11 were slowly  pouring into the air. My brother and I were standing a little bit off to one side of the podium, our feet already tired, and we talked about how Mitch's name wouldn't be read for hours.  I remember that it wasn't really quiet. People were coming and going, phone-talking, or chatting softly. Occasionally a joke or remembrance told would bring a soft laughter into the morning.

Sometimes the clan of the victim was close by. The name, no matter how softly read, slashed the morning air and focused seemingly at random on a group of ten, or two, or occasionally of one, in the tens of thousands who had gathered.

"I knew him," Ken said quietly. And then, after more, some more  names came off the podium, each one slashing the morning air, he said, again, "I knew him." I stopped counting after a couple of dozen lives known and now gone were acknowledged. He had helped some get their jobs in the Twin Towers. Some were colleagues, friends, or competitors.

September 11, 2015 by Yaseen, 121Contact

 

 

The right to free speech is one of our most important rights.

The right to free speech is one of our most important rights. Curtailing it for any

reason is dangerous. That being said, when one exercises this right, you must

realize that people may react or over react to what you say.

 

The attack in Texas, though foiled, was obviously a deplorable reaction to people

exercising their right to free speech but, can you really be surprised by this reaction ?

This anti-Muslim event had nothing to do with free speech. It was an obvious attempt

to inflame and incite a response. I guess they succeeded in that. For those who were

angered or surprised by the response, consider the response you might get if you had an event showing Jesus engaged in homosexual sex or goose stepped through Tel Aviv wearing a swastika or paraded through a black neighborhood wearing KKK robes.

 

You have the right to display your bigotry and racism but don’t portray yourself as an innocent victim when you intentionally provoke a violent response.

 

It is a shame that the only reaction to this event was two violent men rather than thousands of peaceful demonstrators of all faiths,expressing their disgust at what the people who ran this event stand for.

 

May 5, 2015 by Bruce Kimball, a frequent contributor to 121Contact.

 

"In Texas, police have shot and killed two men they say opened fire outside an anti-Islam event in the city of Garland, wounding a security officer. The event, organized by Pamela Geller, executive director of the American Freedom Defense Initiative, included a contest for drawing the best caricature of the Prophet Muhammad."   Democracy Now

a young woman's dream

I wish I could hire the SEALS, you know, group in the field...I would sen them to Baghdad.

I would have them pick up my family, in the night when they were sleeping. They could load them onto helicopters. They would be drugged and asleep still asleep when they were all moved together.

Then they would wake up here in New York, and look around surprised, and wondering, and they could start a new life...

Every day when we go to the Majid...the refugees from ISIS

“Every day when we go to the Masjid, especially on Fridays after the Hutbah, we we see 20s, 30s, 40s of women and children from Ramadi, Fallujah…begging. Most of them are women and children living I abandoned buildings with cardboard for windows. Each family to a room. One of the families lives under a tree…there’s no room for them. And today it is very cold in Baghdad. Some of them are very young, very young, who ISIS killed their husbands.

A young women came to the house to beg. She was so pretty, so beautiful. She looked liked from a good family. She told us she was from Heet, near Fallujah, Anbar. They killed her family and threw her from the house. Now she begs at my door.”

You can send money. You can send clothes. You can contact us for instructions.

[email protected] 

Axe Attack: Radical Islam-Motivation or Self-Justification

 

One month after Jihadists publish a call for attacking American police officers a man named Thompson wields an axe and does just that. Was he motivated by it? Was he radicalized by it? Or did he merely find a convenient outlet that justified the psychopathic urges already rising within?

The jihadi essay "To 2.6M Muslims in USA: A Call to Arms to Defend Islam and Avenge the Slaughter of Muslims," which was distributed in Arabic and English on September 16, 2014, and in which its author wrote: "Even though just about every American man and many women are lawful targets you're well advised to pick your targets for maximum impact. For example, the impact of killing Joe Blow down the street is not the same as killing police officer Johnny Smith. Because the cost associated with the process of recruiting, training, preparing and outfitting Johnny for the job before putting him on the street is significant. So there is a significant economical impact resulting from eliminating Johnny in addition to the impact of loss of his life on his family and friends. There is also a very important icing on the cake, too. Knocking off a police, military or any other law enforcement officer sends a chilling message to the so called "civilians" and fill their hearts with consternation." [SITE]

The simplistic ‘explanation’ is clear: Islam is to blame, and Thompson received his orders from Jihadi Central. It’s so easy to put the cart before the horse...and, wait a minute: maybe there's no horse at all.

The NYC Police Department described Thompson as 'self-radicalized.' He had evidently browsed al-Qaeda web sites and watched beheadings. The media, as usual, jumped on the terrorist theme and built stories characterising Thompson as a "radicalized Muslim", with "Islamist extremist leanings" despite lack of evidence.

His Black Power anti-American feelings were rarely mentioned.  In fact his postings were more anti-government, anti-Western, and anti-white than pro-ISIS or any such Islamist ranting. 

Simplistic answers sell newspapers and thrill viewers but they don't really help us understand, or educate.

 

 

 

Baghdad Days February 2, 2014

We’re on the phone again to Baghdad—the Saturday morning call. At some point I am complaining about all the things I have to do, and the cold, and the car being buried in the snow…Z interrupts me.

Mr. Bruce, I have to tell you something. I think your list is very easy. Each one is a small thing. Let me tell you. Just two days a car very close to the house was exploded.

Momo was not home. He was headed to the bakery to bring bread. I sent him. Myself.

The explosion was very close to the checkpoint.

                The national guards at the checkpoint, the guys become crazy

                Shooting, detaining all the store’s owners

                A bunch of crazy Shi’a guys…shooting and acting crazy.

I kept calling M and he didn’t answer. This is a big fear in me. I kept calling but he did not answer the phone.

In that situation I hate to even remember. I was so afraid.

When he came home finally he told me. “I was hiding behind the concrete wall because they were detaining people and I was afraid they would take me.”

So you are worried about your car buried in the snow!

---

February 2, 2014 by Bruce Wallace, 121Contact

 

 

 

We’re looking for an American guy . . .

Hi.

121Contact is looking for an American guy, 17-19 years old to correspond with an 18 year old guy in Baghdad who hungers to improve his English. FB, email, Skype, chat…whatever is OK with him. Write [email protected] to get started.

Another Frame in the Iraq War Movie: American Denial, New York Times style.

Another Frame in the Iraq War Movie: American Denial, New York Times style.
March 17, 2013 by Bruce Wallace, 121Contact

 The New York Times ‘A War, Before and After,” March 17, 2013 begins 6 days of remembering the war in Iraq, anecdote by anecdote. Today’s installment: A contractor, without remorse, alludes to the interrogations he did in Abu Ghraib. A soldier remembers her “Let it start” moment as she waited to kill, and speaks of her husband’s ‘penetrating traumatic brain injury.” An infantry officer recalls failed ‘Peace Operations’ as if they were failed pledges to a fraternity.

No mention is made of the suffering of millions of innocent Iraqi civilians, nor of the over 100,000 who died as a direct result of the invasion and occupation. This failure to acknowledge the severe price the Iraqis paid pictures them as less than human, as if their pain does not count.

This one-sided framing of the occupation as a recitation of suffering by American warriors fails the American people. It prevents an honest look at all of the consequences of choosing violence as a means to achieve political ends.