Ben Ali: Friendless, Homeless And Humiliated -Dictators Take Note

By Yvonne Ridley

17 January, 2011
Countercurrents.org

He might still be living in the lap of luxury, but make no mistake Tunisia's former President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and his family are prisoners.

Like birds in a guilded cage, they are languishing in a palace in one of the most exclusive districts of Jeddah but the truth is Ben Ali and his equally odious and corrupt family have nowhere else to hide.

It should signal a warning to all the other despots and dictators in the region – Egypt in particular – that no matter how close you think you are to the West, in times of trouble they will drop you faster than a burning coal.

As one of the cruelest oppressors on the planet scrambled to board a plane to escape what some may consider a well deserved lynching, the truth is he had no idea where he was going.

So fast was his demise.

We were told he was heading for Malta, then France and Dubai and half a dozen other countries but the truth is no one wanted the 74-year-old.

A desperate man, he finally found a bolthole in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah on Friday, arriving around midnight after close ally President Nicholas Sarkozy rejected a request for his plane to land on french soil.

Meanwhile frantic calls to the White House hotline and to Obama rang unanswered.

Once again America has proved itself to be a fickle friend just as the late Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi discovered when he went in to exile after his repressive regime in Iran was overthrown in the Islamic Revolution of 1979. The former Shah spent his exile in Egypt, totally isolated and shunned by the very same leaders in the West who had once supported him.

The Saudi government refuses to say how long he will be their guest but I like to think the many soldiers posted outside the palace's half dozen or so gates are not there for his protection but there to ensure he remains within the high sided walls.

Quite how this secular leader will settle in the land of the Two Holy Mosques is beyond me. Ben Ali despised Islam to such an extent he made sure his brutal enforcers abused and punished those God-fearing Tunisians who wore hijabs and grew beards.

For instance, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and the Interior and the Secretary-General of Tunisia's ruling political party, the Constitutional Democratic Rally, stated several years ago that they were so concerned about rise in the use of the hijab by women and girls and beards and the qamis (knee-level shirts) by men, that they called for a strict implementation of decree 108 of 1985 of the Ministry of Education banning the hijab at educational institutions and when working in government.

Police ordered women to remove their head scarfs before entering schools, universities or work places and others were made to remove them in the street. Amnesty International reported at the time that some women were being arrested and taken to police stations where they were forced to sign written commitment to stop wearing the hijab.

Perhaps someone should remind the Saudis about that and have him charged under Shari'a law just for starters.

Ben Ali's hatred and fear of Islam can also be witnessed in Egypt where Hosni Mubarak rules with an iron fist. The prisons and dungeons of Egypt are jammed full of members of the Muslim Brotherhood and other dissenting voices and political opponents who are rounded up everytime an election is in the offing.

Mubarak's betrayal of the Palestinian people and his irrational fear of Hamas speaks volumes also about his secular outlook and lifestyle which is at odds with Islam.

I was asked to leave Cairo in December 2009 by his Foreign Ministry after writing an article in which I said Mubarak had turned Egypt into America's rent boy in the Middle East because of the huge sums of money he willingly took from the US in return for oppressing the people of Gaza and supporting Israel.

But now he must be wondering if bending over a barrel for Uncle Sam is really a price worth paying.

After all, no one grovelled more to America than Ben Ali. In 2005 he was even ordered to extend the hand of friendship to the Zionist State, a country which had bombed his own when Yasser Arafat's PLO was headquartered in Tunis in 1986.

Did he object? No, in fact Ben Ali went one step further and invited the war criminal Ariel Sharon to visit Tunisia. Well, where has all that craven behaviour got him?

Just like the previous Tunisian tyrant, he happily kissed the rump of Zionists while belly-dancing in front of Western leaders who claimed to be among his closest allies.

Well, just where are his friends now?

He's friendless, homeless and humiliated.

British journalist Yvonne Ridley is the European President of the International Muslim Womens Union. She travelled extensively through Tunisia in February 2009 with the Viva Palestina convoy.

Aku Rindu...

semoga dakwah yang kita bina terus mempertahankan assholahnya

Oleh: KH. Rahmat Abdullah, Alloh yarhamhu

Aku rindu zaman ketika “halaqoh” adalah kebutuhan,
bukan sekedar sambilan apalagi hiburan

Aku rindu zaman ketika “membina” adalah kewajiban,
bukan pilihan apalagi beban dan paksaan

Aku rindu zaman ketika “dauroh” menjadi kebiasaan,
bukan sekedar pelengkap pengisi program yang dipaksakan

Aku rindu zaman ketika “tsiqoh” menjadi kekuatan,
bukan keraguan apalagi kecurigaan

Aku rindu zaman ketika “tarbiyah” adalah pengorbanan,
bukan tuntutan dan hujatan

Aku rindu zaman ketika “nasihat” menjadi kesenangan,
bukan su'udzon atau menjatuhkan

Aku rindu..
zaman ketika kita semua memberikan segalanya untuk da'wah ini

Aku rindu..
zaman ketika “nasyid ghuroba” menjadi lagu kebangsaan

Aku rindu..
zaman ketika hadir di “liqo” adalah kerinduan, dan terlambat adalah kelalaian

Aku rindu..
zaman ketika malam gerimis pergi ke puncak mengisi dauroh dengan ongkos ngepas dan peta tak jelas

Aku rindu..
zaman ketika seorang ikhwah benar-benar jalan kaki 2 jam di malam buta sepulang tabligh dakwah di desa sebelah

Aku rindu..
zaman ketika akan pergi liqo selalu membawa uang infak, alat tulis, buku catatan dan Qur'an terjemahan ditambah sedikit hafalan

Aku rindu..
zaman ketika seorang binaan menangis karena tak bisa hadir di liqo

Aku rindu..
zaman ketika tengah malam pintu depan diketok untuk mendapat berita kumpul subuh harinya

Aku rindu..
zaman ketika seorang ikhwah berangkat liqo dengan ongkos jatah belanja esok hari untuk keluarganya

Aku rindu..
zaman ketika seorang murobbi sakit dan harus dirawat, para binaan patungan mengumpulkan dana apa adanya
Aku rindu zaman itu,
Aku rindu...

Ya ALLAH,
Jangan Kau buang kenikmatan berda'wah dari hati-hati kami
Jangan Kau jadikan hidup ini,
hanya berjalan di tempat yang sama

Konvensyen Memperingati 500 Tahun Kejatuhan Empayar Melayu Islam Melaka

Realiti masyarakat melayu hari ini mengambarkan seolah-olah bangsa melayu telah hilang hakikat jatidiri mereka. Semua nilai negatif telah dilonggokkan pada imej mereka. Lebih malang lagi, senario politik semasa telah mengakibatkan perjuangan mereka ditentukan oleh agenda bangsa minoriti yang telah menjadi golongan pendesak. Adalah dipercayai, ini merupakan kesan langsung dari penjajahan jangka panjang yang bermula sejak tahun 1511 lagi.

Penjajahan fizikal dan minda telah mengakibatkan mereka hilang jatidiri dan agenda perjuangan. Apa yang dapat kita dilihat pada hari ini adalah simptomnya yang zahir dalam masyarakat. Antara senjata utama penjajah adalah humanisme dan globalisasi yang telah memaksa bangsa ini menerima piawaian barat sebagai ukuran keadilan, kejayaan dan ketamadunan.

Justeru itu, Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (ISMA) dengan kerjasama Persatuan Belia Islam Nasional (PEMBINA) akan menganjurkan satu Konvensyen yang bertajuk “Konvensyen Memperingati 500 Tahun Kejatuhan Empayar Melayu Islam Melaka” sempena memperingati kejatuhan Empayar Melayu Islam Melaka 1511.

Ia bagi menyedarkan masyarakat Melayu Islam sejarah kegemilangan yang pernah dicapai oleh bangsa mereka yang didirikan dengan berpaksi kepada keutuhan jatidiri dan iltizam tinggi terhadap pelaksanaan syariat Islam.

Sabtu 29 Januari 2011
Universiti Teknikal Melaka (UTeM)

8.00 – 8.30 pg
Pendaftaran Peserta

8.30 – 9.30 pg
Pembentangan 1
“Kegemilangan Empayar Kesultanan Melayu Melaka”
– YBhg. Prof Emeritus Datuk Dr Yusuf B Hashim, Naib Cancelor Kolej Universiti Islam Melaka (KUIM)

9.30 – 10.00 pg
Kehadiran VVIP / VIP

10.00 – 10.45 pg
Majlis Perasmian – Ucapan Alu-aluan dan Perasmian
Ucapan Alu-aluan oleh Al-Fadhil Ustaz Abdullah Zaik Abd Rahman
Presiden Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (ISMA)

Ucapan Perasmian oleh -
YB Dr Hj Mohd Puad B Zarkashi, Timbalan Menteri Pelajaran

10.45 – 11.00 pg
Jamuan VVIP / VIP & Jamuan ringan peserta

11.00 – 12.00 tgh
Pembentangan 2
“Kejatuhan Melaka dalam Tahun 1511 sebagai Pelajaran Penting kepada Bangsa Melayu-Islam Hari Ini.”
– YBhg. Dato’ Dr. Hassan Ahmad, Mantan Pengarah Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka

12.00 – 1.00 ptg
Pembentangan 3
“Perjuangan Bangsa Melayu Dalam Mempertahankan Jatidiri dan Agama Islam”
Al Fadhil Ust Mohd Fauzi Asmuni – Naib Presiden II Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (ISMA)

1.00 – 2.00 ptg
Rehat / Makan / Solat

2.00 – 4.00 ptg
Forum : “Mengambalikan Jatidiri Bangsa Melayu dan Islam”
- Pengerusi : Y. Bhg Tuan Hj Aminuddin Yahaya, Setiausaha Agung ISMA

Panelis
+ Al Fadhil Ustaz Abdullah Zaik Abd Rahman, Presiden Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (ISMA)
+ Yg Bhg Dr Muhd Razak B Idris, Presiden, Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (ABIM)
+ Profesor Datuk Dr Abdul Latif B Abu Bakar, Ketua II, Gabungan Penulis Nasional , GAPENA
+ Yg Bhg Dato’ Seri Dr Siti Zaharah Sulaiman, Mantan Menteri

4.00 – 4.30 ptg
Majlis Penutup Dan Ucapan Penangguhan
En Abdul Rahman Mat Dali, Timbalan Presiden Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (ISMA)

4.30 ptg
Majlis bersurai