On February 10th of last year, at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago, I spoke about the Arab Revolution that had started in Tunisia and spread to Egypt. I told my audience: “Look at me. Can you tell? I am overwhelmed. I am smiling. Since January 14th, I have been dancing with joy. The Arab World, and freedom loving people everywhere, share my feelings. Arab dictators and tyrants are and will be falling down like a deck of cards. The Arab World is marching towards freedom and liberty, social justice, respect for human rights, and triumph for the dignity of man. I always believed that this day was coming. But I had never thought, in my wildest dreams, I would see this majestic day. I am 74 years old. Certainly, I am fortunate. I feel young and energized again.

“Despite the clouds of smoke bombs over Tunisia and Egypt, the sun is shining. It will soon shine over Morocco, Algeria, Jordan and Yemen, and the Gulf states, which are ruled by the most savage and oppressive regimes the world has ever known. As a matter of fact, the blue skies will soon cover the entire Arab World. A real change is taking place.”

Today, my brothers and sisters, I stand before you. As you can tell, the smile and the dance of joy
have disappeared. I am overwhelmed with heartache, frustration, disappointment and grief. I must admit that I was wrong. The big US “Satan” and his NATO devils as well as his Arab helpers have won the battles for Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya in the past year. The battle for Syria is the most critical. It will determine the future of the entire African continent and the Muslim World. If the enemies of Muslims and humanity have it their way, Syria will be divided into four mini states. Ties with the Islamic Republic of Iran and Hezbullah of Lebanon will be cut off. The Palestinian Resistance will be crushed. And the white and blue flag of the Jewish settler state will fly, not only over Damascus, but also over the great majority of Muslim capitals.

Historians already recognize that the Arab Revolution in Tunisia and Egypt is one of the few popular uprisings the world has ever known. It is a revolt against dictatorship, tyranny, robbery and foreign allegiance. With barren hands, peaceful and orderly youth demonstrators were able to topple President Zein al-Abedin and Husni Mubarak despite the brutality of their security forces that used tanks, and live ammunition, including poisonous smoke bombs.

Unfortunately, this Arab Revolution, was hijacked and contained by the US and NATO forces. The “train” for freedom, democracy and social justice that was gaining steam and momentum, has been derailed. “Arab Revolution” that alarms imperialists, Zionists and Arab puppet rulers, the true axis of evil in our world, has been changed to “Arab Spring”. America, which had introduced the terms, “Desert Storm” and “Shock and Awe”, invented a new phrase, “Arab Spring” to give the wrong impression that the new developments and changes taking place in the Arab World are bright and rosy, but also short lived. The term was coined after the 1968 CIA instigated “Prague Spring” in Czechoslovakia, a spring that didn’t blossom at all.

What is most startling is the fact that oil rich Arab Muslim states that have no parliaments, no constitutions and no free means of expression; and where political dissidents disappear from the map, are financing, equipping, and arming the counter revolutionary forces in the Arab World. In the name of freedom and democracy that they hate to hear, these states, including Jordan, have been aiding the Arab enemies in order to appease their masters in Tel-Aviv, Washington, London and Paris. The tyrannical and oppressive leaders of these states lack the minimum degree of legitimacy and popular support, and therefore rely on the West for their very survival. They are the “house negro” Arabs.

NATO and Arab forces have succeeded in destroying Libya, the only country in Africa where there were no men, women and children begging for food. Libya that spent tens of billions of dollar in aid and development in African, Arab and Muslim countries, today pleads for handouts from Western countries. Despite the overwhelming number of billions of dollars deposited in Western banks and treasuries, Libya can’t even pay the salaries of its public employees. The finance minister of the new regime has just admitted that Libya’s coffers are emptied out and its remaining wealth is being smuggled outside its borders.

Tragically, more than 150,000 Libyans have lost their lives. The entire infra-structure is in complete ruin. The underground Grand Man-Made River, utilities, factories, hospitals, universities, schools, houses of worship, homes and apartment buildings were subjected to Western rockets and “smart” bombs. Libya’s army that took forty two years to train, build and equip is replaced by gangs and thugs that terrorize and rob their fellow citizens. Hundreds of Western companies, like vultures, are storming into Tripoli to siphon the country’s future oil revenues in the name of “rebuilding”.

The satanic powers that destroyed Libya had earlier destroyed Iraq. The death toll brought about by the 1991 and the 2003 Gulf wars, in addition to 13 years of the most savage economic sanctions, resulted in 3 million Iraqi deaths, mostly children. Nuclear dust caused by US depleted uranium shells will continue to contaminate Iraqi land and kill and deform Iraqi babies for approximately 700 million years.

These powers have been working overtime to destroy Syria, the last fortress in the Arab world that stands against Western conspiracy, hegemony, and arrogance. US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton admitted almost two weeks ago that the United States had created and aided al-Qaeda. Ayman Al-Zawahiri, Ben Laden’s deputy, has ordered his al-Qaeda fighters to cross into Syria to shed the blood of his fellow Muslims, in the service of his American handlers. According to the US military and CIA, al-Qaeda members, who are recruited and paid by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have already crossed into Syria. They are carrying out most of the dirty work to topple President Assad, who, according to polls taken by his enemies, enjoys the support of the overwhelming majority of Syrians.

[On] February 26th, Syria will be conducting a referendum for a new constitution that guarantees
civil and human rights that no other Arab country enjoys.

What is most disturbing is the fact that the United States has been grooming certain Islamists to take over and replace Arab leaders who have become a liability and a risk to its greedy interests. Those demons of darkness, angels of death and destruction, who rode the wave of the revolution later in the game, and diverted it from its revolutionary course, have succeeded in Tunisia and Egypt, in addition to Libya.

Prophet Muhammad told his followers that the blood of a human is more sacred than the stones of
al-Ka’ba that Muslims face in their prayers five times a day. Yet some petrodollar paid Muslim religious clerics are using Islam as a weapon of mass destruction to kill fellow Muslims.

Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Muslim Brotherhood theologian, who is known among Muslims as the NATO grand imam, was appointed by his Qatari masters as the head of the International Union of Sunni Ulama (religious scholars) in order to give his “prayers and blessings” to the Western forces in its invasion of Iraq. The man who gave Islam a bad name issued a fatwa, a religious jurisprudence, ordering NATO hired thugs to shoot Muammar al-Qathafi, telling the world that murdering the Libyan leader is sanctioned by “his” God. This hypocrite is now calling for the destruction of Syria to bring the regime of President Assad down in the name of his version of Islam.

Some Salafi leaders who claim to be taking us to pure Islam of 14 centuries ago are actually distorting and corrupting our religion and driving us back to the dark ages. They are making it difficult and shameful for us to be Muslims.

The top Wahhabi leader, a Salafi, has recently issued a fatwa that the death of 75 and injury of over a thousand spectators of a soccer game in Port Said, Egypt, is revenge by God. The appearance of players in shorts is haram, not permitted by Islam. Another Salafi leader in Morocco, a few days ago, has issued a fatwa, a religious legal ruling that permits husbands to have intercourse with their dead wives.

Though the Salafis have won the election in Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco by convincing the poor and gullible that the Salafis have the key to paradise and the solutions to all Arab economic, social, and political problems, nothing has changed.

Rashed al-Ghannoushi, the leader of an-Nahda (Renaissance) Islamic party, has made it clear that bars, gambling casinos, bikinis and other non-Islamic practices will not be prohibited. The man, that Minister Louis Farrakhan (the leader of the Nation of Islam in the wilderness of America) and I sat with in Baghdad 21 years ago, and had saluted Iraq for its stand against the US and the Jewish settler state, assured Zionist leaders in New York, that Palestine, for which most Muslims are willing to sacrifice their lives, does not concern us.

The Islamist leaders that won the great majority in Egypt have pledged to honor all international agreements their country was forced to sign. This means that the Camp David accord Egyptians demand to be abolished and the theft of Sinai gas by the Jewish settler state will continue. The Zionist flag that was brought down by the Egyptian youths despite the brutality and savagery of the Egyptian police and military will remain flying in the skies of Cairo.

A month ago, a Salafi member of parliament, a lawyer, disrupted the parliament’s session to perform al-Azan, the call for prayer. He could have achieved this objective in the mosque, only a few feet away. Allah would have been pleased if this man and his comrades would have addressed the theft of Egypt’s wealth. During the 30 years of Hosni Mubarak as president, the people of Egypt have lost $3.5 trillion ($3,500 billion). The robbery continues. Egypt is extremely rich in gold and other minerals. Egypt does not need US crumbs.

In the Quran Allah made a promise to Muslims:
They want to extinguish the light of Allah with their mouths, but Allah insists on the completion of
his light.

Finally, I would like to end my speech here with the same words I ended my speech, a year ago, at Northeastern University. Those words are from an almost 100 year old poem written by Abu al-Qasem al-Shabbi, a Tunisian:

“If a people want to live free and with (dignity), the power of destiny will surely and positively respond; repression will come to an end; and the chain of (slavery) will surely be broken.”

(Courtesy shamireaders. Ali Baghdadi’s speech at 2012 Saviour’s Day Convention, 25 Feb 2012, ArabJournl@aol.com)