Edip Yüksel’s article on legal and political issues.
Share/Bookmark The Terrible Terrorist Test Edip Yuksel 1 May 2013 www.19.org ‘Muslims are evil. Let’s kill them all’ — Twitter by US Fox TV commentator Erik Rush, reacting to Boston bombing, April 15, 2013 “Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev left a note claiming responsibility for the April attack, describing it as retribution for U.S. …
I know torture first hand. I have told about it in my upcoming autobiography. And I knew that I was tortured with American devices by the members of the fascist military regime who were called by the USA as “our boys.” From that experience, whenever I see anyone trying to justify torture, it invokes powerful emotions. I see them as animals, as monsters, as ogres disguised under fancy clothes, modern grooming and rich arsenal of lexicon and sophistry to fool scared people.
I have been communicating with Noam for quiet some time. After I interviewed him on November 14 in his office at MIT, we kept in touch. With his permission, I decided to share with you a trivial but interesting email conversation so that you know what the two very serious people are talking about while others are celebrating the New Year 
I met myself and my family in a different time zone, in stone age. I had a time travel. The documentary, written, produced and directed by Jean-Pierre Dutilleux, film is one of the most inspirational films I have ever watched. It made me cry from the beginning to the end.
The list of benefits of carrying all those gadgets in one’s pocket is long, but the list of harms might be longer. So, do not fall in love with the jinni in your pocket. Use it carefully, and less. Watch people around you in malls and trains: they ears are plugged, their eyes are fixated, their fingers are tickled… Then look at ourselves. We are swallowed by corporate black holes. We are swallowed into a parallel universe dominated by plutocracy or global oligarchy: Facebook, Google, and similar mass-spying and manipulation programs. We need to start unplugging and get to know our neighbors and help each other.
Some warm-up debate topics
No religion, culture or mythology should be granted immunity if they are used to make others suffer without their consent. No country or community should be able to get away with racism, oppression, or child abuse in the name of a religion, majority, local laws, classes, or other constructed social norms and cultures.
“A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. For Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. But women will be saved through childbearing–if they continue faith, love and holiness with propriety.” (1 Timothy 2:11-15).
The next American Revolution, the economic rights and justice movement will not be the reincarnation of bankrupt Marxist ideology, since its extreme ideals created big bureaucracies, authoritarian regimes, prisons, corruption, disappointment, and destruction. The era of black and white television has long past, and there are promising alternatives to capitalism and communism: myriad flavors of social democracies.
There is something attractive in this highly liberating paradigm. I see the color of anarchism not black but neon orange! I like the rebellious youth in anarchism, its courage to challenge established traditions, laws, and cultures; its determination to choose for self and take responsibility for own actions. It reminds me the proverb “whatever I like the most is either illegal, or immoral, or fattening!”
Above are two sets of excerpts from Pannikar, a Hindu-Christian theologian. Though belonging to the same author, the first excerpt impressed me with its brilliance and the second dissappointed me with its fallacy.
As an individual I have many components. I can define myself in many ways depending on the context. I am a homosapien, a monotheist, Yahya’s and Matine’s father, a husband, a Turkish author, a philosopher, a lawyer, a skeptic, a believer, a democrat, a conservative, an American, a political activist, a reformist, a chess-player, a copywriter, a poet, a handyman, a Macintosh user, a teacher, . . . and I am also a Kurd. I am not sure how being a Kurd ranks among the manifold ingredients that makes up my personality, but recently it became one of the important characteristics. Why? Because I have realized that I am denied of this identity. I have also witnessed that many others who share the same culture and heritage are oppressed and killed just because of being born in a Kurdish family.
I have a little question for those free-thinkers who support homosexuals but are silent to the plight of more oppressed groups such as those who want to practice polygamy, bestiality, child pornography and incest: how open is your mind?
I believe and argue that humans are “rational self-interested utility maximizers.” This is the primary reason why we are on the top of the food chain. The animalistic nature “self-interest” promoted and guided by “reason” forces rational humans to cooperate and maximize the utility. The rational human being has discovered, through the course of thousands years of trial and error, that optimum utility is obtained when each individual enjoy their personal desires and goals in a delicate balance with the desires and goals of other individuals.
In a world that is becoming smaller and smaller by the dramatic advance of modern technology and inter-continental nuclear missiles, we are compelled to be concerned about the plights of those who live in other countries. We are intelligent and experienced enough to fear from the tyrannical governments that treats their subjects badly. We know very well that dictators are not intelligent and trustworthy; they harm their own people, themselves and others. Equal rights for every single human being is the ultimate goal to live in a peaceful world.
Nevertheless, the author is silent regarding the implementations of this right in western countries, especially in the USA. When we reflect on the role of interest groups and lobbyists in the political landscape of Washington, we cannot stop but ask ourselves: is this really a “democracy” representing all the people? Is this the system that was hailed as “by the people for the people of the people”? How can electoral participation be considered “equal” in a country where 1% of population owns the 39% of total wealth and lobbyists are the respected pigs of the political carnival? Why not question the practice of democracy and its electoral system? Can “democracy” be a new clandestine, efficient and clever device to establish the dicta of the powerful elite? Can it be another “opium of masses,” a diabolic mass-deception?
American foreign policy, Zionist racism, evangelical Christianity and sectarian Islam all are incubators of religious terrorism. War against terrorism has two fronts: reformation in American democracy and reformation in islamic world. Unfortunately, the victims of these wars, whether they live in skyscrapers or caves, are mostly innocent and poor people.
Militant clerics, whether they are the collaborators with the totalitarian regimes or are the dissidents, should be taken seriously. Using the language of religion, the proverbs of their forefathers, they can mobilize gullible masses to bloody conflicts. The best way to deflate the power of militant clergymen is (1) to support intellectuals who promote democracy and freedom, and (2) denounce and punish the oppressive leaders without favoring one to another, through international legal devices such as, freezing their assets in foreign countries and trying them in international tribunals during their reign or after they are ousted from power.
I believe that the current jury system, especially where parties spend enormous effort over the selection, most accurately, elimination of the jury, does not serve justice well. Let’s face it. The jury is selected from a pool of population containing a segment that demonstrates real problems in logical reasoning.
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