HOPES and PROSPECTS (Mine & Chomsky's)
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Christine Saadah, 10 years old, killed by US-funded Israeli bullets in 2003 while sitting in the passenger seat of her family's car, next to her father George Saadah
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See the following MUST-READ article http//www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/killing-children-is-no-longer-a-big-deal-1.137639
Peace - genuine, enduring peace - to all of you,
This is a follow-up to a discussion called "Peacemaking and Peacemakers in the Great Reading", which was itself a follow-up to Dr. Ayman's "Introduction to Peacefulness". Please read them both before proceeding
- http//free-minds.org/forum/index.php?topic=9600414.0
- http//free-minds.org/forum/index.php?topic=13069.0
Note that "peacefulness" is an obsolete translation; "peacemaking" is truer. I have to take a little break from Free-Minds.org to finish some work, but I wanted to translate a few verses using this understanding (islam = peacemaking) before I go. Thank you all; I respect your right to disagree. I also wanted to promote Chomsky's upcoming new book, Hopes and Prospects.
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America's occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan has cost nearly one trillion dollars since 2001 (Costofwar.com) - not including the enormous cost of the latest "surge" of 30,000 new troops ordered by Obama in December 2009 (Democracy Now). In Iraq alone at least one-hundred thousand civilians have been killed since the American invasion (IraqBodyCount.org). At least 80% of humanity lives on less than ten dollars a day (World Bank, 2008), and twenty-four thousand children die every single day due to extreme poverty (UNICEF, 2010) - that's 1 child every 4 seconds. In the time that it will take you to glance over this post, hundreds of tiny human hearts will stop beating due simply to lack of energy from lack of food. Did this happen by chance? Of course not. It happened because of centuries of imperial occupations - like the ones in Iraq and Afghanistan - by the so-called "civilized world".
There is no peace without social justice. Making peace within our familes and with our neighbors is more than just not fighting - basic human rights must be guaranteed in all peace accords. For example, I cannot use my sophisticated F-16 fighter jets to steal all your freshwater sources (lakes, rivers and springs) and then sign a peace treaty with my newly captured land and water, leaving you robbed. We're going to have to share the resources of the god's earth to ensure lasting peace and justice.
It is my sincerest hope, and our greatest collective prospect, that peacemaking will prevail on earth. I took the name of this post from Dr. Noam Chomsky, and designed its image based on the cover art for his upcoming book. I am posting to follow-up on the peacemaking discussions with a selection of passages from the glorious reading (al-quran al-magid) in the best kind of translation that I can humbly offer. As always, my translation is unrefined and the original word of the god should be upheld solely.
319
The obligation at the god is peacemaking.
53
Today I completed for you your obligation by perfecting my blessing to you and approving peacemaking as an obligation for you.
With the wise reading in hand - al-quran al-hakim - we have the best tool to fulfill our obligation of peacemaking. This is what Abraham prayed for long ago.
2127-133
As Abraham elevated the foundations from the house with Ishmael "Our lord, accept from us. You are the hearer, the knower. Our lord, make us two peacemakers for you and of our descendants make a peacemaker nation for you. And show us our methods and redeem us. You are the redeemer, the merciful. Our lord, raise among them a messenger from them that he may recite to them your signs, teach them the book and wisdom, and promote them. You are the majestic, the wise." Who would abandon the way of Abraham except one who fools himself? We chose him in the low life and at the ending he was of the fixers/reformers. When his lord said to him, "Make peace," he said, "I make peace for the lord of the worlds." Abraham enjoined his sons, as did Jacob "O my sons, the god has chosen for you the obligation. Do not die except as peacemakers!" If you were witnesses when death came to Jacob he said to his sons, "Who will you serve after I'm gone?" They said, "Your god; the god of your fathers Abraham, Ishmael and Isaac - one god. We are, for him, peacemakers."
And here is the Amazon.com link to Chomsky's upcoming book
http//www.amazon.com/Hopes-Prospects-Noam-Chomsky/dp/1931859965/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273688288&sr=8-1