BE SPORTY, SRI LANKA

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

                                                              Sunday 21 October, 2012

RESPONSE TO ‘A VICTORY OUT OF THIS WORLD’

Be Sporty, Sri Lanka

Hameed Abdul Karim

Desmond Samith’s article titled ‘A victory out of this world’ (LAKBIMAnews Sunday October 7, 2012) shouldn’t have surprised me or even hurt my feeling. But you know what? It did both.

I have heard this tattle for years. I mean the skit ‘Sri Lankan Muslims supporting Pakistan because of their cultural and religious ties’. So, in a sense, Samith was only following an old script, but it still hurt, because it projected Muslims as traitors in this hyper patriotic era that we are living in today thus exacerbating the divisions that exist in our society.

US ELECTIONS: COMI-TRAGEDY

Monday 15 October, 2012

US Elections: Comi-Tragedy

Hameed Abdul Karim 

For sheer entertainment and suspense there’s hardly anything to beat the US elections.  There are the tantrums and the hyperboles of the candidates that make you wonder if this is serious business or just another bout of fun and frolic. You will see supporters of both candidates cheering and whooping with every punch line either candidate makes. Makes you wonder if you are watching another Hollywood movie.

And for sure there is a Hollywood mix in it all. We had the ageing Clint Eastwood doing the talking to an empty chair, pretending he was talking to President Barack Obama. It went down well with Romney’s supporters. Makes you wonder if Eastwood is on the road to senility assuming he’s not already ‘made it’ there. Comedians had a field day with the Eastwood’s histrionics. After that show of theatrics he has been kept away from the circus. Maybe he has done his bit for the grand old party.

ISRAEL AND HOLY WRIT

                                                        

                       

                                                                     Thursday 4 October, 2012  

       Israel and Holy Writ

                   Hameed Abdul Karim

Ms. Maureen Seniviratne is one of the most prolific writers in the local press. She deals with topics of public interest quite extensively and naturally she is widely respected for her contributions.

But, running the risk of being irreverent, I am afraid her views of the ‘Holy Land’ under her article titled ‘Holy War’ appearing in Ceylon Today on Saturday 24 September are a tad bit   off the mark. For example, she eulogises the European Christian crusaders when she says ‘those who fought in these holy wars were blessed on earth and after death would enter a place reserved for them in heaven’. Such characterising of slaughter of thousands upon thousands of Muslims, Christian and Jews by the Christian crusaders is to ignore the savagery that went behind the conquest of ancient Palestine. One of the commanders had sent a note to the then pope bragging that they were now walking ankle deep in the blood of the heathens in the holy city of Jerusalem. Pope Urban II must have been delighted with the news because it was he who had directed his soldiers to Palestine to stop the infighting between Catholics that threatened his hold on power.

THE DISAPPOINTMENT THAT'S OBAMA

         18 September, 2012


The Disappointment that's Obama 

Hameed Abdul Karim

When President Barack Obama’s election victory was announced virtually the whole world whooped in joy. Here, we thought, was a chance that the world would be a better place to live in, without the likes of George Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld and company pursuing their dangerous extreme right wing policies to bring the world to its knees and force us to worship the empire.

Obama came in like a breath of fresh air. Being an offspring of a mixed marriage with and a white mother, we thought he might have a deep understanding of the feelings of people of all races. His ‘Muslim’ heritage led Muslims to believe he might accommodate their feelings and especially, right the terrible wrongs his country had inflicted on the Palestinians.