An analogous point could be made in relation to Northern Sudanese and Arabic language. When a Northern Sudanese enters the world of Arabic language, he or she enters into a process of identification with the Arab father, and alienation from the African mother. But Northerners feel the visible presence of the mother in their faces and skins, and as Deng has explained, "it does not require a professional social psychologist to presume that such a disdain for elements visible in their physiognomy must at some degree of consciousness be a source of tension and disorientation".

Northerners' way of resolving this tension, however, was rather unique. Instead of trying to reinvent or indigenize the Arabic language to fit their physiognomy, they fantasize about their physiognomy in order to fit the language. Hence the avoidance of using the word black to describe themselves, and the over-emphasis of their Arab origin. Ahmed al-Shahi, who studied the Shaiqiyya tribe, tells us that: "it is rude to refer to a Shaiqi person, "as being azraq (black) even though if his skin is of this color because such reference equates him with the 'abid".

A stark example that demonstrates this tension is the following passage which was uttered by al-Sharif Zein al-'Abdin al-Hindi, a prominent political leader in the North. He said:

I am an Arab. I know I am an Arab. No one can dispute this fact with me. I have a genealogy. I am so, son of so, (fulan ibn fulan) son of Muhammad Rasoul Allah (Prophet Muhammad). Yet, on the other hand, nobody can dispute my Africanness. … We have come and mixed with them, and the result is these ugly figures of ours.
"We", in the quotation, indicates the Arabs, "them" indicates the Nubians, and the expression "ugly figures of ours" indicates present day Northerners.

The statement reflects identification with the father (We), alienation from the mother (Them), and detestation of the self (ugly figures of ours). This is an optimal example of Du Bois' black person who "sees himself through the revelation of the other world", and who measures "one's soul by a tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity". Northerners' identification with al-Mutunabbi, in his satirical poetry against Kafur, the Nubian, is yet another example of a dislocated psyche.
Northern cultural and political elite feels the need to reiterate frequently that they are Arabs. They also feel uneasy with the word Sudan. Altayeb Salih, a novelist of international fame, said the following:
I wish that our leaders had named this country Sinnar.

May be one of the reasons behind the instability of this country that its named (Sudan) does not mean anything to its people. What is Sudan? Egypt is Egypt, Yemen is Yemen, Iraq is Iraq, and Lebanon is Lebanon. But what is Sudan? The colonialists have given this name to the area from Ethiopia in the east to the Senegal in the west. The other nations have given their countries names that mean something to them, and we were left alone bearing this legacy on our shoulders.
Loathing the name "Sudan" stems from the detestation of blackness. Detestation of blackness stems from identification with the Arabs and adopting their worldview.

The suggestion to change the name of the country was not new, it came into being immediately after independence. The main reason behind the suggestion was its meaning and connotations. The word Sudani is used by Northerners in a way identical to aswad, and abd (slave). All these terms are used by Northerners to refer to "slaves, or those of slaves descent, whose relatives belonged to a non-Muslim group of the South or Nuba Mountains". For the Northerner, being Sudani meant being black, and being black meant in turn of a low social status and low origins. Many Sudanist scholars, such as Heather Sharkey, and Ahmed Shahi, are in consensus that the stigma of "blackness" is rooted in the legacy of slavery, especially that almost every family in the central riverain North used to hold slaves. Although this is true, but to my mind, it is not the whole story.

There is a deeper level in which stigma of "blackness" is rooted, and that is the Arabic culture, which despises the blacks, as we have seen earlier. Northerners internalized not indiginized, the Arabic culture, and the Arabic language and value system. This is why they see the world through the Arabs' eyes, despite the paradoxes, and the self-debasement that such an outlook generates. It is generally observed that the more the Northerner becomes learned in Arabic language and literature the more he exaggerates his Arabic identity, and the more he detests blackness and the word Sudani.

Osman tells us that members of the prominent literary society Abu Rawf Group "refused, after independence, to apply for passports because they had to register themselves as Sudanese nationals before they could get one". Al-Tayeb Salih's statement represents a continuation of an old Northern wish to break away from the curse of the name Sudani. And if we read it along with al-Hindi's passage we can identify a wish to escape from one's own skin, or to bleach it, through discourse, to resemble that of an Arab. Deng rightly explains the tendency of Northern Sudanese to exaggerate Arabism and Islam and to look down on the blacks as slaves as "a deep-seated inferiority complex, or, to put it in reverse, a superiority complex as a compensational device for their obvious marginality as Arabs".

I'm giving up reading the newswire as every day brings half a dozen more postings picking up some of awful things which happen around the world every day and blaming all on Islam.

No doubt this comment will be followed up by about twenty telling me I'm a naive Leftist and it's only the truth and by the way have you read this bit of the Koran etc.

Trouble is, I'm experienced enough to know that selective reporting and the continuous emphasis on people's religion is a classic propaganda tool, all the more appealing as it doesn't mean you actually have to lie outright: just select, edit and distort.

(You could do the same with Christians, Jews etc)

There are clearly forces (and not just the fascist BNP) pushing a 'Hate Muslims' agenda and the IMC newswire is in danger of becoming another playground for them.

And more recently there's been the worse possible response in the form of anti-semitic 'Jews run the world' crap, using all the same selection/distortion techniques.

My last comment is the same as my first: divide-and-rule keeps us all down.

please dont quit.

i used to read the guardian religiously. i went to the summer solstice (it was wonderful). but when i saw the pictures of the event in the Guardian i was horrified! they didn't reflect what i saw. the G had very few pictures. one was a pic of a woman holding up the flag of St George (nothing wrong with that). but of the odd 30,000 people there, she was probably the ONLY one (i never saw the flag there). and yet they published that picture.

the culture of stone hendge was completely removed. the whole anarchist aspect wasn't mentioned (they showed pictures of "clubbers" sleeping, but there was no music at the event. and those people probably weren't "clubber").

people who write for indymedia also have an agenda (yes, i too genuinely suspect a lot of them are bnp sympathisers). but at least with indymedia we have a chance to put forward our view! thats important.

we can retreat aways into our little trade union bi-weekly newsletters, and live our cosy little bohemian liberal socialist lifestyles. but we alienate ourselves from the masses, it does just what "they" want, as you mention, divide and rule. hording knowledge doesn't help to change society.

post articles from unionist newletters :)

I agree with the comments of 'trade unionist'. Indymedia is becoming more and more like a hate site, not only in terms of its demonisation of muslims, but in its general intolerance towards anyone who does not conform to its narrow, elitist world view. Just looking down the newswire today, and you can see a sucession of racist bile. What I find particularly disappointing is the degree to which so called 'progressives' have jumped up on the racist, anti-muslim bandwaggon set in motion by Blunkett and New Labour, but propelled along by the BNP. The willingness of people to describe other human beings as 'fascist' and 'scum' just for maintaining cultural practices which give muslims an identity and a degree of mutual self-defence in the face of state-sponsored racism disgusts me.

Instead of villifying this community, which feels as much under threat as the jewish community in London did in the 1930's, facing as it does the very real possibility of racist attack and indefinate detention without trial (what is coming next?), we should be mobilising in their support and defence. Unfortunately, your 'me, me, look at me, I'm an individual' politics, with its inherent elitism and the fettishisation of the actions of the unelected small group acting on behalf of the masses, does not enable you to do that.

From my experience of the 'muslim community' (if it is fair to call them that), most progressive muslims, that is those working in our schools, hospitals and work places up and down the country, are crying out to be 'integrated' (whatever that means). Unfortunately they are increasingly faced with the sort of racist bilen that is increasingly prevalent on indymedia. Sort your act out indymedia: stop being a mouthpeice for the hitler-worshippers, or lose what little is left of your credibility.

Hi Trade Unionist. I think you should stick with Indymedia UK as a newspoint at least for a while. Yes, you're correct that there are BNP sympathisers who attempt to use the newswire for their own ends - but this is nothing unique to the Indymedia project. Any open newswire is going to be subject to use and misuse. It is not just Muslims that have been the targets of hate posters on this site. You frequently get anti-feminists, or people convinced there's a world jewish/communist/homosexual conspiracy against them (delete as appropriate). Recently Indymedia India was overrun with Hindu chauvinist groups using it to advocate attacks on Sikhs and Muslims... and so it goes on. I think it's a reflection on the bad state of the world rather than the state of Indymedia users per se.

At the same time, we have to be aware that if progressive politics is to be democratic and avoid making the authoritarian mistakes of the past, then debate is essential - but occasionally uncomfortable. This is where the newswire can be very useful. For example, whilst there are neo-fascist trolls misusing the wire, not all the postings dealing with Islam can be dismissed as from the BNP. Feminists and gay rights campaigners have raised issues about religion and culture that some of us in the left/anarchist movement need to address, and clearly, they are not facists.

As with the corporate media, I think the trick is to read the newswire with a critical eye, and to try and react to other progressive posters in a comradely fashion. This way we can maybe improve the broad anti-capitalist movements response to the world around us.

Hang in there, mate!

Caz

Indymedia is open publishing and anyone can publish, within the guidelines.
The amount of time zionists and other right wing groups spend on the site shows it's working.
Better if you try to forget about left and right which is only played out in the lower reaches of the triangle
the pointy bit at the top doesn't have a left or right . better to look at things in terms of power and no power.

Freemasonary knows no left and right they are in on both sides . It's fashionable to be against muslims,
Is Lord of the rings just modern day cowboys and indians, the men of the west against a lot of ugly auks and trolls or whatever, or Muslims. Buzzbee and the zionist possee are keen to stop public opinion turning against israel, but they are fighting a losing battle. Now with the court rulings and EU UN taking positions against their new wall . The situation is getting a bit tight . time for another little diversion perhaps in a european capital city.
Remind the world of just how evil these muslims are even though the(banks) people that fund them are worse.
Just this week the(BCCI) bank of cocaine and criminals is up for trial. There are a few more (banks) that should be joining them in the dock !!! the war against terror is part of everyday business life for the small elite band of thugs that run the world ..

I can't see how you can be throwing in the towel when there is so much to do. check it oout

It's obvious who's posting these anti-Muslim articles.

The fucking dirty Jews.

Allahu Akhbar, brothers!

The b.b.c. is putting out a lot of programmes and news items that are not always "what they seem".

The Sudan/Darfur is oil-rich. Mega-full, and do we not see a pattern.
Tribal/religious unrest.
The "arrival" of guns, ammunition. The rise of "rebels".

And then..... the arrival of western "liberators", who disarm the rebels, and make safe the land, followed shortly thereafter by those kind people from the oil companies. Or mining corporations, or loggers.....

Following the money, it seems as if we are about to get an incredible series of "hysterical/historical events".

WHEN, the mainstream media begins to run the Jewish/zionist part of the twin tower spectacle, then the world might just not be the same, ever again.
So by now, the mainstream media/b.b.c. must be fully aware of the involvement of the zionists and the cia/pentagon black-op.

Except that they dare not run the "assumptions". But millions of internet users have already "got the picture". Disinformation, money, power, and religious fanaticism, these tenets are not individual and particular to Islam.

 http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=1927
and,
 http://www.libertyforum.org/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=news_crime&Number=292796314.

would indicate that the only crime the muslims commit is to live on land containing large oil reserves.


O.k., so check out, `phone the press, write to them, contact the b.b.c., ask them to comment on allegations of 9/11 being an inside job. Drone on and on, about the rabbi at the pentagon, whose hobby was remote control systems for airliners.

Because if the people know, then the government knows, and so does the b.b.c.

Yes, it's important to repeat the point, that the people posting hate articles are not the organisers of the site, but the groups who see this site as a threat to their own agenda.

The number of zionists I argue with on this site, because they all flock here to get us to shut up about Palestine. Often the BNP are here, to turn the issues into one of race, and sow division and hatred. I've even argued with an afrikan, who was goingo n about the evil blacks, and how apartheid was the best thing to happen to South Africa.

Then we get people pretending to be from groups they are not, like that 'Allah Akbar' jihadi poster, blaming it on the 'evil jews'. We get campaigns of confusion and disinformation directed at the site, because if they can't stop the truth being said, then they'll just try and hide it behind clouds of Spam.

All this opposition just goes to show that the site is working, and getting the truth out there, and I think the people who run it are doing a fantastic job. Let's not run away from the site because the racists show up. Lets confront them here, like we would confront them on the streets, and hold our ground.

'First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win' - Gandhi