Abu Bakar Bashir, the well known spiritual leader of militant Islamic group, Jemaah Islamiya, has now joined forces with Indonesia’s largest environmental organisation, WALHI, to protest against US-based mining corporation Newmont.
from http://richardness.org/blog/walhisstrangebedfellows.php
I’ve previously written about the Buyat Bay saga – where Richard Ness and Newmont were accused of having polluted a fishing village and its fringing coral reef with mine tailings.
You may remember that the story made the front page of The New York Times and that five miners, including Australian Phil Turner, were arrested and thrown into a Jakarta jail in September 2004. Richard’s son Eric runs a blog on the saga entitled ‘Watching My Dad’s Trial’.
When the claims of pollution where investigated by The World Health Organisation and CSIRO they were found to be bogus – a hoax. You can read a summary of the saga in my latest piece for the IPA Review entitled Politics and the Environment in Indonesia. There are copies of both reports’ at Eric’s website.
Richard Ness and Newmont were cleared of all charges in April this year, but the finding has been appealed.
In her journalism master’s thesis entitled ‘Tall Tailings: Truth and Friction in the Buyat Mining Scandal’ Canadian Kendyl Salcito suggested some of the key protagonists in the saga are members of the Islamic organisation known as Hizb ut-Tahrir.
Muhammad Al Khaththah, the leader of the Indonesian chapter of Hizb-ut Tahrir, appears in the above photograph with Abu Bakar Bashir.
It is perhaps not surprising that militant environmental and Islamic organisations are joining forces, they both believe that issues of poverty and corruption are a consequence of capitalism and the exploitation of people and natural resources by large multinational corporations. As a consequence many Islamic and environmental activists want to close down mining in Indonesia – at least the most efficient, high tec, modern systems of mining. Interestingly they are supported by activists from countries like Australia and Canada – countries that continue to enjoy a high standard of living as a consequence, at least in part, of capitalism and mining.
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
You would have to wonder what an enviromental group has to gain by associating with a UN listed terrorist organisation which supports al Qaida and the Taliban.
And vice versa
http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=4792&l=1
Rog,
I thought our kind and thoughtful hostess spelled it out quite well–“It is perhaps not surprising that militant environmental and Islamic organisations are joining forces, they both believe that issues of poverty and corruption are a consequence of capitalism and the exploitation of people and natural resources by large multinational corporations.”
Surely, you’ve heard the phrase, “eco-Taliban” before. These groups have lots in common, both in ideology and methods.
Perhaps some of your answer Rog is here:-
>to protest against US-based mining corporation
The US seem to make many enemies in Islamic countries, but I can’t for the life of me see why.
>many Islamic and environmental activists want to close down mining in Indonesia…Interestingly they are supported by activists from countries like Australia and Canada – countries that continue to enjoy a high standard of living as a consequence, at least in part, of capitalism and mining.
Are you sure Jennifer that Canadian and Australian activists want to ‘close down mining in Indonesia’ for the reasons you have suggested? This is a very sweeping statement from you. Perhaps they see the corruption of the Indonesian government itself, which often overrides good care of their own people, including safe guarding the environment for future generations, as a major problem in this country
Schiller shouldn’t you be apologising on the CO2 Ice Cores thread for making such a stupid comment about sheep and laying the boot into Luke? Oh that’s right, you don’t apologise and you don’t realise you make stupid comments.
The ‘t’ above is me. No, it is not my new tag, rather my busy fingers.
Radical Islam Working with the Left
After the fall of the Soviet Union, leaders of American communist groups found a new base in environmentalism from which to attack capitalism. Well, now the “environmental cause” has found…
Jen, I linked the tribulations of your dad and the story above in a post at the site where I contribute occasionally. I was not surprised to see the connections, as I stated in the post.
“Communists, enviromentalists, Islamic terrorists, The New York Times, and Democrats all in one happy cluster, working together to help each other’s causes.”
I’ll be so glad when you father can get to the end of this. It’s too bad that some don’t have any conscience about ruining lives just to further their political agendas.
A classic example of jumping in without checking the facts – Richard Ness is not Jennifer’s dad, as most of us who read these posts from Jennifer and Eric know. Instills a sense of confidence in all you write Woody, but don’t let that detract you from going after the reds, greens, rights, non- fundamentalist-Christians, anti-abortionists……..
I’ve just deleted the last 22 comments from this thread. Apart from Woody apologising for his mistake (I am not related to Richard Ness), they added no new relevant information.
If you have nothing relevant to add to this, or other threads, please refrain from commenting.
Environmentalism–including its variants of marxism, man-hating feminism, and white-hating racism–has exactly the same goal as Islamism. The destruction of Western Civilization.
Some people don’t want to live; they want you to die. Unfortunately, this type of person has been in control of the educational system in the US for decades. They have taught this mindset to two generations of pupils. So the number of LLLeftist is staggering.
Visit
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/
Latest Offerings from the Religion of Peace
8/5/07 ( Tsa-Vedeno, Chechnya ) – Three people, including a child, are burned to death in their car by Holy Warriors.
8/5/07 ( Narathiwat, Thailand ) – Two Thai soldiers on motorcycles are shot and killed by Muslim radicals.
8/4/07 ( Kabul, Afghanistan ) – A religious extremists kills three civilians in a suicide blast.
8/4/07 ( Yala, Thailand ) – Three civilians in a pick-up truck are ambushed and murdered by Islamic terrorists.
8/4/07 ( Baghdad, Iraq ) – A doctor is among over two dozen people killed by sectarian Jihadis in various attacks.
8/4/07 ( Mogadishu, Somalia ) – Islamists recruit a teenager to throw a grenade into a funeral procession, killing one.
—-
These headlines don’t get around much.
The other headlines that don’t get around much is radical environmentalists destroying millions of dollars/Euros in Germany and France by destroying laboratories and crops. And setting fires to farmers’ equipment.
In Europe, farmers who grow GM crops are the “new Jews” and of course, their enterprises will be torched by the new Green-Shirts.
‘Eco-Taliban’ is a phrase we will hear more frequently in the coming years.
Jen,
Perhaps there was a need for pruning above, but I think the issue of extreme Islam joining forces with ‘environmentalism’ is real, despite seeming remote to some.
All extremists are psychologically similar, and birds of a feather flock together. I have mentioned before the ‘beefsteaks’ of Nazi Germany, brown outside, and red inside. Former red shirted communists became enthusiastic brown shirted stormtroopers. The idea of green environmentalists joining forces with green flagged Muslim extremists is not so daft. We may note the support of some green politicians for abandonment of Iraq, and curtailing of police powers in Australia with respect to suspected terrorists.
It may be argued that there are deep religious differences. Islam, like Christianity and Judaism, is well known for its monotheistic belief. Religious ‘environmentalism’ is essentially a return to polytheistic nature worship of trees, rivers, rocks etc.
Yet, despite bitter argument in the past, physicists now mostly agree that wave and quantum theory are both correct. They are just different ways of looking at the same thing, one seeing many phenomena, and the other only one. So Muslim theorists may have no problem with viewing religious noumena in the same way. Allah is one, but Allah contains many. Venn diagrams help in the thinking.
So we may well see attempts by Muslim extremists to recruit extreme environmentalists, and provide funding for their more disruptive activities.
I don’t know if any Muslims read this blog, but if they do, I would be interested in their comments.
P.S. The Prophet Mohammed (pbuh) was indeed, very fond of cats. Middle Eastern people have long been aware of the important ecological role of cats in keeping mice down near granaries.
Before we get howls of ‘neocon ning nong’ and worse, I will state again that I am a long standing (five decades) greeny, in the landscape sense. Also, I was brought up by my father to respect Islam, indeed all major religions. He worked in Egypt in the 1930s, spoke Arabic, and had many good Muslim friends.
What was happening in Lebanon this time last year? That’s right, the Jews are playing victim again Schiller. Where’s that mirror?
These environmental groups should be ashamed of them selfs for even associating them selfs with these Islamic Extremists. These are the same people-(animals) who kill hundreds of Australians at Bali, These environmental groups say they are all about saving the world but then they go and join forces with a Islamic extremist group that is all about doing the opposite. Wake up to your selfs do you really think that these extremists main priority is saving the planet, No its more like killing innocent men,woman and children so called infidel’s.
These environmental groups naive, they are being used by the Islamic extremist groups for recruitment drives thats the only reason they associate with them and to get some positive publicity.