Wednesday, May 27, 2015

"At your command, o Husayn"

Regarding the Iraqi military slogan in the operation for Ramadi, "At your command, o Husayn" (and not the other lousy translations that I have seen in Western media of the slogans).   As I wrote in Arabic this morning, religious slogans and chants mean nothing to me: they sound like those who call on people to buy fruits and vegetables from their carts in Lebanese streets (when I was a child).  I prefer "At Your command, o Habash" or "At your command, o Marx" but why is the Saudi media (and by extension these days, Western media) regarding this slogan as sectarian in nature?  Husayn is the grandson of the Prophet, who is the prophet of Sunnis and Shi`ites alike. Husayn was never a divisive figure among Muslims and the calling of his name was never seen as sectarian or provocative, although the (Sunni?) US Department of Defense objected to the slogan, as if the US was not a full partner in crime in the sectarian war launched by the Saudi government after 2003, and especially in the wake of the humiliation of the Israeli army in 2006 in South Lebanon.  Saudi Arabia wanted to help Israel by finding a way to undermine wide Arab and Muslim support for resistance movements in the region.  Furthermore, it is telling about the skewed standards and criteria that the blatant and explicit and grotesque discussions in Saudi and Qatari media about the wholesale extermination of all Alawites does not generate US condemnation but this slogan does.