Good Afternoon

I was watching an interview with Myriam Charabaty, a Christian journalist from Lebanon; I was laughing and crying, and so I decided to share my joy with others by making this 6-minutues clip from the interview. When believers like her are fighting alongside you, the world is a beautiful place.

What David Lean is saying is not about the inevitable defeat of a Filmmaker in confrontation with reality; he is talking about victory, a kind of victory that is a direct result of embracing reality and even seeing it as a blessing; reality as a source of inspiration. At the same time, it doesn’t mean that it is not possible to use realty deceitfully:

And as to the poets, those who go astray follow them (224) Do you not see that they wander about bewildered in every valley? (225) And that they say that which they do not do, (226) Except those who believe and do good and remember Allah much, and defend themselves after they are oppressed; and they who act unjustly shall know to what final place of turning they shall turn back (227) (QURAN, chapter “THE POETS”, translated by Shakir)

After the martyrdom of Yahya Sinwar, I read a comment about him which was related to the last footage of him that was released by the Israeli regime. The comment had been made by a young girl:

I replied to her comment (I’ve made a few corrections):

“A few months ago, The Wall Street Journal published an article which was about the messages that Yahya Sinwar had sent, that likened the war in Gaza to a 7th-century battle in Karbala, Iraq, where in a monumental moment in Islamic history, Imam Husayn, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him and his Progeny) was martyred. To some extent, by the way he was martyred, brother Sinwar reminded me of Abbas, a brother of Imam Husayn. Abbas fought to his last breath to bring water for the children, because similar to Gaza, they had been deprived of water. And despite all his efforts and losing his two arms in the process, Abbas was not successful. This battle is a key incident in Shia Ideology (Although Sinwar was not known to be a Shia) and has already played a key role for example in inspiring Iranian people to take part in Islamic Revolution. Another example is Hezbollah; if you listen to Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, you can see how often he has mentioned The Battle of Karbala and Imam Husayn in his speeches. And we also believe that it will play a key role in the future… Read about the battle in Karbala, and remember Imam Husayn…”

I also posted a photo of a painting by Iranian painter Hassan RouholAmin, which depicts the battle of Karbala.

A man from Texas traveled to 43 US states in his truck to express support for Palestine, refusing to return home while Palestinians are in pain.

And We Must Too.

It is a secondary matter that how committed is James Mangold to this notion; the point is, not yielding to the audience. But the question is: How can you keep the authenticity of this artistic rebellion? The answer is, not yielding to “one’s self”:

“Do not feel safe from the punishment of Allah even about the best man in the whole community because Allah, the Sublime, says: But no one feels secure against the plan of Allah save the people (who are the) losers. (Qur'an, 7:99). Again, do not lose hope even for the worst man of the community because Allah-, the Sublime says: Verily, despairs not of Allah's mercy but the disbelieving people. (Qur'an, 12:87).” (Nahjul balagha, Al-Islam.Org)

How do you want to die?

Previously on this page, I have posted this note about Ozu:

"Yasujirō Ozu is an interesting case for me; I admire his work as a filmmaker, I have seen many of his films, I have watched several documentaries about him, I am still excited to watch more from him, and yet, I have never loved any of his films. I think they are all pathetic to me. As if, he is unable to accept life as it is and change his point of view accordingly. It seems to me that he even doesn’t want to try. He celebrates mundane events of life; he even celebrates mundane moments of life, like for example strolling through an alley. But it feels like he does it so that he can avoid the big picture of life, even if he can only do it just for a moment. Of course, eventually life happens in his pictures, but it happens inevitably. He doesn’t celebrate life as a whole, he doesn’t try to find the glory in it, life is just inevitable."

Oh, Gaza!

'Hollow hegemon': IRGC chief says Islamic Republic cripples US power

The chief commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says Iran has over the past decades eroded the power of the US and turned it into a “small and weak” state.

Speaking in the northeastern holy city of Mashhad on Monday, Major General Hossein Salami said that the United States’ situation today is not comparable with its condition two or three decades ago.

He also referred to the takeover of the US embassy, better known as Den of Espionage, by a group of Iranian students in November 1979, saying it was beyond imagination.

“We eroded the US’s power. The United States has become small and weak, and it has gradually lost its power because of the erosion caused by [Iran’s] Islamic Revolution,” he said.

Salami also noted that enemies have failed to isolate Iran through imposing economic sanctions on the country and stealing its oil tankers as Iran has taken retaliatory measures.

“They seized our ships in Gibraltar; We confiscated their ships here and made them regret what they had done,” he said. “The embargo [imposed on us] was broken with [our] power. If you are strong, you will overcome isolation,” he asserted.

The Islamic Republic, he added, proved that “the world is much bigger than the US and that the US is much smaller than the world.”

Touching on claims about voter apathy in Iran’s recent presidential election, the IRGC chief said that the nation disrupted the enemies’ calculations by increasing its participation from 40 percent in the first round to 50 percent in the second round.