The great month is coming quickly. I still remember the first Ramadan I spent in Montreal away of my family in Lebanon. It was so harsh and so tough. Without the company I had during the Concordia MSA 2004 Iftar, it would have been much harder.
http://almadinah-center.org/en/ramadan-2015/
Ten years passed and 11 Ramadan in this country. I still love to get inspired by the pious crowd gathering to break their fast. They come from all four corners of the world to this lovely city called Montreal. They come from all corners of Montreal to the center of the city (where Al-Madinah center is) to share their meals together.
Every day, when I break my bread with someone else, I feel the joy of being able to celebrate the blessings of that day and to know a new Canadian fellow.
Thursday, April 23, 2015
The Armnenian "Genocide" 1915
The University of Minnesota’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide
Studies has compiled figures by province and district that show there
were 2,133,190 Armenians in the empire in 1914 and only about 387,800 by
1922.
Post 1914????
Hence, one can not deny that:
So it is a war between the Young Turks and Eastern Anatolia Armenians. Why it was converted into Ottoman Empire Defense? I guess the main challenge to the Genocide in some countries in 2015 (especially in Lebanon was motivated by political ideologies not by historical facts).
Wilson puts it in a concise and short blurb (http://wilson.engr.wisc.edu/Armenia/justin.html)
"The region that was called "Ottoman Armenia," the "Six Vilâyets" of Sivas, Mamüretülaziz, Diyarbakir, Bitlis, Van, and Erzurum, was only 17% Armenian. It was 78% Muslim. This was to have important consequences for the Armenian revolution, because the only way to create the "Armenia" the revolutionaries wanted was to expel the Muslims who lived there."
The New York Times reported that: "The Young Turks, who called themselves the Committee of Unity and Progress, launched a set of measures against the Armenians, including a law authorizing the military and government to deport anyone they “sensed” was a security threat. (they did the same in the Arabic Middle East as well) (http://www.nytimes.com/…/times…/topics_armeniangenocide.html)
Third, the greatest cost to villagers was the forced purchase of guns. The villagers were turned into rebel "soldiers," whether they wished to be or not. If they were to fight the Turks, they needed weapons. The revolutionaries smuggled weapons from Russia and forced the Armenian villagers to buy. The methods used to force the villagers to buy were very effective, as British consul Seele reported:
"An agent arrived in a certain village and informed a villager that he must buy a Mauser pistol. The villager replied that he had no money, whereupon the agent retorted, "You must sell your oxen." The wretched villager then proceeded to explain that the sowing season would soon arrive and asked how a Mauser pistol would enable him to plough his fields. For reply the agent proceeded to destroy the poor man's oxen with his pistol and then departed.(Wilson)
Even Europeans, friends of the Armenians, could see that the revolutionaries were the cause of the curse that had descended on Eastern Anatolia. Consul Seele wrote in 1911:
"From what I have seen in the parts of the country I have visited I have become more convinced than ever of the baneful influence of the Taschnak Committee on the welfare of the Armenians and generally of this part of Turkey. It is impossible to overlook the fact in that in all places where there are no Armenian political organisations or where such organisations are imperfectly developed, the Armenians live in comparative harmony with the Turks and Kurds. (Wilson)
http://wilson.engr.wisc.edu/Armenia/justin.html
Post 1914????
Hence, one can not deny that:
- Horrible killing happened in the Eastern Anatolia and some of the states in which Armenians had a significant presence.
- Young Turks were extremely brutal in Anatolia, Middle East, Egypt and Arabia
- The declaration of the genocide is a political move to benefit of the 100th memory of the massacre.
- The Turkish denial is a political/financial defensive position because they already signed cooperation protocols in 2009
- The Arabic support in some countries is not reasonable but politically and ideologically motivated by some of the Islamist movements aligning with current Turkey.
So it is a war between the Young Turks and Eastern Anatolia Armenians. Why it was converted into Ottoman Empire Defense? I guess the main challenge to the Genocide in some countries in 2015 (especially in Lebanon was motivated by political ideologies not by historical facts).
Wilson puts it in a concise and short blurb (http://wilson.engr.wisc.edu/Armenia/justin.html)
"The region that was called "Ottoman Armenia," the "Six Vilâyets" of Sivas, Mamüretülaziz, Diyarbakir, Bitlis, Van, and Erzurum, was only 17% Armenian. It was 78% Muslim. This was to have important consequences for the Armenian revolution, because the only way to create the "Armenia" the revolutionaries wanted was to expel the Muslims who lived there."
The New York Times reported that: "The Young Turks, who called themselves the Committee of Unity and Progress, launched a set of measures against the Armenians, including a law authorizing the military and government to deport anyone they “sensed” was a security threat. (they did the same in the Arabic Middle East as well) (http://www.nytimes.com/…/times…/topics_armeniangenocide.html)
Third, the greatest cost to villagers was the forced purchase of guns. The villagers were turned into rebel "soldiers," whether they wished to be or not. If they were to fight the Turks, they needed weapons. The revolutionaries smuggled weapons from Russia and forced the Armenian villagers to buy. The methods used to force the villagers to buy were very effective, as British consul Seele reported:
"An agent arrived in a certain village and informed a villager that he must buy a Mauser pistol. The villager replied that he had no money, whereupon the agent retorted, "You must sell your oxen." The wretched villager then proceeded to explain that the sowing season would soon arrive and asked how a Mauser pistol would enable him to plough his fields. For reply the agent proceeded to destroy the poor man's oxen with his pistol and then departed.(Wilson)
Even Europeans, friends of the Armenians, could see that the revolutionaries were the cause of the curse that had descended on Eastern Anatolia. Consul Seele wrote in 1911:
"From what I have seen in the parts of the country I have visited I have become more convinced than ever of the baneful influence of the Taschnak Committee on the welfare of the Armenians and generally of this part of Turkey. It is impossible to overlook the fact in that in all places where there are no Armenian political organisations or where such organisations are imperfectly developed, the Armenians live in comparative harmony with the Turks and Kurds. (Wilson)
http://wilson.engr.wisc.edu/Armenia/justin.html
Wednesday, April 08, 2015
The individualism impact on our global culture
Since the emergence of humanity on the Earth, the family has been the primary social unit. It has been also the principal economic unit. Humanity as a collective of families evolved to be the dominant species on Earth according to Darwin (1871) and Megarry (1995).
Humans, in families, advance and progress better. They foster advantages and realize synergies that would not be realized otherwise. Survival, performance, security, development, education, civilization in addition to other humane progressive characteristics were fostered and nurtured due to the social bounds between family members and close ties within the societies.Until now, family businesses manage 3/4 of the human productions globally (Goody, 1996).
There is a price tag for this family synergy. Group friction affects the members of the same families in various forms demonstrated by business conflicts, divorce, parental issues, youth issues. Such issues hinder the survival and growth of humans on earth.
Families ties and kinship are divine trust to the human according the main religions of the world Islam, Judaism and Christianity. They might be also mandated by other religions of the world but I am not aware of.
Family kinship is a moral order and a divine order to share value and offer compassion for others within the same family and extend that goodness to the larger national or universal families.
Lately, the western culture is advocating for the individual as a social unit of humanity. What are the impact of such a paradigm shift in the humane relations? What is the impact of the way we run our lives?
On the one hand, the individualism is the basis of the amoral economic logic of modern money market (Steward, 2003). The individualism is the basis of capitalism as well. The individualism lead us to live an introvert live in which a neighbor does not know whether her next door old friend is sleeping hunrgy or has got a simple meal.
We are living in an age in which we close our doors and forget about the rest of the world around us. we die alone. Our nieghbours leave this world alone. We continue our lives as if nothing happened !!!
Humans, in families, advance and progress better. They foster advantages and realize synergies that would not be realized otherwise. Survival, performance, security, development, education, civilization in addition to other humane progressive characteristics were fostered and nurtured due to the social bounds between family members and close ties within the societies.Until now, family businesses manage 3/4 of the human productions globally (Goody, 1996).
There is a price tag for this family synergy. Group friction affects the members of the same families in various forms demonstrated by business conflicts, divorce, parental issues, youth issues. Such issues hinder the survival and growth of humans on earth.
Families ties and kinship are divine trust to the human according the main religions of the world Islam, Judaism and Christianity. They might be also mandated by other religions of the world but I am not aware of.
Family kinship is a moral order and a divine order to share value and offer compassion for others within the same family and extend that goodness to the larger national or universal families.
Lately, the western culture is advocating for the individual as a social unit of humanity. What are the impact of such a paradigm shift in the humane relations? What is the impact of the way we run our lives?
On the one hand, the individualism is the basis of the amoral economic logic of modern money market (Steward, 2003). The individualism is the basis of capitalism as well. The individualism lead us to live an introvert live in which a neighbor does not know whether her next door old friend is sleeping hunrgy or has got a simple meal.
We are living in an age in which we close our doors and forget about the rest of the world around us. we die alone. Our nieghbours leave this world alone. We continue our lives as if nothing happened !!!
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