“Battle For Haditha” Comes To British Screens

September 14, 2008 – 8:19 pm

Perhaps with the mainstream audience’s addiction to reality television and “found footage” movies such as “Cloverfield” and “Diary of the Dead,” Nick Broomfield’s recent ventures into features will finally give him the credit he richly deserves for a genre that he has been a giant in for over two decades.

His ground breaking and often controversial documentaries have been the template for an entire generation of reality drama, most keenly felt in Paul Greengrass’ work on “United 93.” Now Broomfield seems to have once again found a subject that will divide the public and tap into the collective zeitgeist of the moment.

His “Battle for Haditha” is the true story of a small engagement between a Marine patrol and two local men who have been paid 1000 dollars by al Qaeda to detonate an IED. The chaos that ensues after the explosion which kills a Marine Captain quickly develops into a massacre of the local population by the surviving Marines. In all 24 people died, but this is no crucifixion of the U.S. forces or a condemnation of the insurgents, but rather an even-sided account of one terrible day.

In fact, “Battle for Haditha” is an internal struggle of conscience for all concerned; Marines, civilians, and insurgents alike. Read More »

By Feature Writer | Posted in entertainment, iraq, jordan, terrorism | Comments (0)

Re-education and Incentivisation: The New Counter-Terrorism

April 22, 2008 – 11:33 am

In a major effort to defeat extremism, Saudi Arabia is re-educating more than 40,000 Muslim clerics in an attempt to both amend and modernise their interpretation of Islam.

Such non-militaristic strategies aimed at decreasing the potential for terrorism are of vital importance and can have enormously positive repercussions: Saudi Arabia is moderating its religious heads with a real hope that the rest of the devout population will follow. These kinds of models must be used in other nations as well in order to reinforce existing counter-terrorism strategies.

Social policies implemented to prevent terrorism from its core provide the only long-term solution to curb its threat. In an article published by the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Dr Andrew Silke, UN adviser and Director of Terrorism Studies at the University of East London, writes: “A remaining critical concern is that the current [UK] legislation is very poor in offering terrorists and their supporters a way out of extremism. There is no system to encourage terrorists to leave.”

Although it is vital that terrorists are stopped and brought to justice, there must also be rewards for their change in behaviour (assuming there is proof that they have denounced their past beliefs and actions).

Dr Silke adds: “Psychology has long known that it is much easier to change behaviour with rewards than with punishment. The UK though shows no sign of introducing a carrot to accompany the many sticks in its legislative approach, and this omission may yet prove costly.” Dr Silke mentions “Penititi Laws”, introduced in Italy in the 1980s, that cut prison sentences and granted early release for rehabilitated terrorists. This helped eradicate terrorism in the country.

By showing a criminal that he can benefit from both denouncing violent fundamentalism and from becoming more socially accepted, we have eliminated his reason to fight. But, meeting a criminal’s violence solely with state punishment only increases the offender’s rage and sense of social alienation, as well as his group’s perceived injustice. Read More »

By Feature Writer | Posted in current affairs, islam, religion, terrorism | Comments (0)

The Mindless Menace of Violence in the Muslim World

December 29, 2007 – 8:26 am

One more act of senseless violence greets us in the Muslim world this week. One more suicide bomber or assassin, or whatever we can call them these days, kills others and himself in a moment of premeditated madness.

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto is tragic. There can be no doubt about that. But what shocks me today, as I am shocked on a daily basis with the stream of murders and suicides in Pakistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey, and so many other countries is this nagging question: Where on earth do they find them?? Where on earth do the plotters and schemers find so many willing men and women of young age to mould into their insane vision of the world? How did those who planned this latest act of violence stumble upon this latest specimen of misguided fervour and convince him (at least it seems to be a him at the time of writing) to go and end his life by assassinating a mother of three children. How did they get through to this guy? And more importantly, why is it so goddamn easy to find self-terminating assassins in our region?

(To read this article in full, please visit GlobalComment)

By Nasser Ali Khasawneh | Posted in current affairs, islam, terrorism | Comments (0)

Notes from the Dubai International Film Festival: The Battle for Haditha

December 13, 2007 – 7:41 am

This article is part of a series on various films at DIFF 2007.

Nick Broomfield’s “The Battle for Haditha” has not yet gotten enough press. In some ways, this is understandable. Despite the explosive subject matter, this is a low-key film. There are no big-name actors, no enormous budget, and, most importantly, the picture’s stylistic elements tend toward a stark, bare-boned simplicity. Nevertheless, this is a film to see.

Broomfield cast many amateurs for key roles, among them some ex-Marines and Iraqi refugees, and this is both good and bad. There is a definite air of authenticity surrounding the film, yet the acting occasionally appears forced. Some of the dialogue struck me as contrived- although this may have something to do with the subtitles. I do not speak Arabic, but having been accompanied by an Arabic speaker at the screening, I discovered that the subtitles are not as good as they could have been.

This movie is earnest, but, in some scenes, it also comes across as didactic. Do we really need to see the chief insurgent character, a disgruntled former member of the Iraqi army, spelling out the message with lines such as: “The Americans created the insurgency by dis-banding the army”? Does the chief insurgent furthermore have to opine stiffly on the future of Iraq, noting (in a manner that suggests that he is channeling Fukuyama) the bleak possibility of the country inheriting a new leader, someone who will be a helluva lot worse than Saddam?

Yet in spite of a few missteps, this is a haunting picture. I can’t get it out of my head, and I probably won’t for a long time. Broomfield captures the comings and goings of the residents of Haditha, people whose lives are about to be shattered, with intimacy and grace. I was floored by the character of Rashied (Duraid A. Ghaieb), a young man besotted with his pregnant wife (Yasmine Hanani - who attended the screening alongside the director, and ex-Marine actors Elliot Ruiz and Eric Mehalacopoulos), keenly aware of the growing danger of staying with his family in Haditha, and yet unable to do much about it.

Alongside U.S. Marines and Iraqi civilians, Broomfield dares to portray the members of the Iraqi insurgency as human beings. These people are not just fundamentalist foreigners, they are also ordinary locals who are infuriated with what has happened to their country. This simple truth is about as inconvenient as anything Al Gore can come up with, and is bound to make American audiences squirm in their seats. Read More »

By Natalia Antonova | Posted in arts and literature, dubai, entertainment, iraq, terrorism | Comments (3)

Our Silence, Their Ammunition

January 11, 2007 – 11:30 am

(This essay was originally published in the Jordan Times on November 9, 2006)

A year ago, many across the world were shocked by news of bombs exploding in Jordan — a country seen as an oasis of stability in a volatile part of the world. We, Jordanians, were particularly pained and angered by the bombs that killed family members, friends and acquaintances. Although having watched the rest of the region and the world increasingly being targeted by terrorism, we simply did not think it would happen to us — or at least hoped it would not.

The feeble reaction, however, we Arabs and Muslims have expressed regarding terrorism in the region and the world, may have helped encourage an environment where terrorism is tolerated. If we are to presume that terrorists inflict fear and terror in the belief that they have support for their agenda (at least from some people, at some level), then every time we have been silent we have in fact encouraged terrorists.

Every time they killed in the name of Islam and spoke on behalf of Muslims, and we remained silent, watching the senseless killings, we acted as indirect supporters of their terror (and allowed them to usurp legitimate resistance struggles in the cases of Iraq, Palestine and Chechnya, for their own ends). Every time we stood silent as they killed innocent people and bombed civilian locations we added to their strength, handing them the bullets for their next attack. Our silence has been their ammunition.

When Chechen freedom fighters forced their way into a school over two years ago, holding hundreds of Russian children hostage, many in the Arab and Muslim worlds kept disturbingly silent. The Chechens have legitimate political grievances against Russia, but is Beslan excusable? Read More »

By Feature Writer | Posted in current affairs, jordan, terrorism | Comments (0)

Reclaiming Islam in this Summer of Terror

August 31, 2005 – 11:38 am

“It’s good to be alive this morning,” my friend Firas wrote on MSN Messenger. It was the morning of July 23, 2005. The world had just woken up to news of the massive bombs in Sharm Al-Sheikh, a car bomb in the heart of the buzzing night life of Beirut, and various stories related to the hunt for the failed bombers in London. A month later, the news of death and destruction continue unabated, with the latest being a series of rocket attacks in Aqaba that killed a young Jordanian soldier, not to mention the sad monotony of the daily reports on the massacres in Iraq. The mad terrorists are on a roll this
summer, and they seem to be chasing every breath of life on planet earth. Read More »

By Nasser Ali Khasawneh | Posted in current affairs, islam, terrorism | Comments (0)

Bugger Off, Bin Laden

July 7, 2005 – 11:34 am

In Amman, I’ve been glued to British satellite television since getting up; walking away briefly to change into actual clothes and to wash my hair. A friend of mine that works in central London was unaccounted for, and has only made contact a couple of minutes ago. I’m angry, upset, disgusted, breathing sighs of relief for my friend, and so on.

But I’m not scared.

Today’s explosions in central London have first and foremost convinced me of the futility of terrorist activities. They may hurt, maim, and kill, but they won’t cow civilized people from around the world into submission. If anything, they are slowly beginning to prove just how useless their violent attacks ultimately are.

Today, I am recalling the attacks on America that occurred on September 11th, 2001. Despite the magnitude of those horrific events, despite the blood and the tears shed, we, for all intents and purposes, carried on (our subsequent actions in Iraq and elsewhere, however, have illustrated political opportunism in all its glory). London will carry on as well. Read More »

By Natalia Antonova | Posted in current affairs, terrorism | Comments (0)

An Open Letter to Osama Bin Laden and Ayman Al-Zawahiri (Wherever you are)

May 3, 2005 – 11:36 am

Aslaam-o-Alaikum!

Do you know what degree of shame, abomination, misery and wretchedness is being heaped on the innocent and peace-following Muslims all over the world because of this so-called and self styled Jihad of yours? Read More »

By Feature Writer | Posted in current affairs, islam, religion, terrorism | Comments (0)

A Culture of Hate and Death

November 16, 2004 – 11:37 am

(This article will be published in the December issue of Living Well magazine in Jordan)

I’m going to be very frank. Self-delusion and fear of the truth had eventually cost us too many beautiful lives on that grim Wednesday night. But unless we face the distressing facts, we should expect more terrible surprises. My patient editor always advises me that readers of Living Well magazine generally don’t expect to read about religion or politics – and to her dismay, I have since found it almost impossible to write anything not related to either facets of our lives. I think this escapist Jordanian phenomenon is symptomatic of our dangerous head-in-the-sand attitude. Very few people are actually willing to acknowledge that religion and politics are, whether we like it or not, deeply intermingled in dominating every single breath we take in every second of our existence in this plagued part of the world. Even fewer are those ready to confront the lethal outcome of mixing the two by illiterate dropouts who believe they hold, and can bestow upon others, the keys to paradise. Until our 11/9, that is. Read More »

By Zaid Nabulsi | Posted in current affairs, jordan, terrorism | Comments (0)

A Tale of the Confused Arab Left

September 5, 2004 – 11:39 am

Not that there is any tangible left or right these days in the pathetic political arenas of the despotic Arab regimes, but I will try to steer through the muddy waters. A discernible phenomenon is the unprincipled alliance forged by some of the desperate Arab leftist trends with Islamist movements in the Arab world.

What a shame, for the comrades.

Here is an example of the unfortunate consequences when such an unnatural marriage takes place.

A venerable Lebanese writer and political activist who often appears on Arab satellite stations is as secular as they come. However, she also chose to become a columnist for “Assabeel.” Her choice of newspaper is symbolic of this unholy alliance. Read More »

By Zaid Nabulsi | Posted in current affairs, jordan, lebanon, russia, terrorism | Comments (0)