Tuesday 24 July 2018

Hit by State Agents

President Macron’s 26-year-old “senior security aide” –  whatever that may be – was filmed violently abusing demonstrators in Paris. For 2½ months Macron’s office apparently tried to cover it up. Fortunately, they were unsuccessful.

Lawyers can do wonders, and it remains to be seen if and how they seek to make it all end as fireless smoke.

And yet, whether this man will be found guilty or not is not the main issue. Deriving satisfaction and even pleasure from exercising violence is – as we have learnt over history – much more common than we would like to think and most of us like to have. Law enforcers can often do so with the formal or informal backing of their colleagues.


France is not alone. Despite our commitment to human rights and to the rule of law, we are regularly confronted with the ugly face of supposedly lawful aggression by agents of the state. This is going to become an even more pressing issue, as our countries are moving right.

Monday 23 July 2018

You Talkin To Me?


Macho Contest between
Iranian President Rouhani: “DO NOT PLAY WITH THE LION'S TAIL OR ELSE YOU WILL REGRET IT… PEACE WITH IRAN WOULD BE THE MOTHER OF ALL PEACE AND WAR WITH IRAN WOULD BE THE MOTHER OF ALL WARS.
and
US President Trump: “NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE AND DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!

This somehow reminds me of Robert De Niro https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QWL-FwX4t4

My Prognosis at Zenith


Zenith, a magazine that specialises in Middle East, North Africa and Muslim world issues, has just published a short article of mine, on the prognosis for Muslim Antisemitism, in their ... German edition: “Eine gute Prognose für muslimischen Antisemitismus.

German readers are welcome to follow this link and read the article.  

Once there, you will find plenty of other interesting articles.