Transcripts For KCSM Democracy Now 20160706

Exile Sami Ramadani in london. Into bangladesh and saudi arabia, which both suffered isis attacks this week during the final days of the holy month of ramadan. We will speak to islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan in oxford and go to bangladesh. The militant groups are taking our innocent young people and in the name of religion, their misguiding them and sending them to the deathtrap. Islam is a religion of peace. It does not support killing innocent people. Amy all that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. The federal bureau of investigation is not recommending charges against democratic president ial candidate Hillary Clinton over her use of multiple private email servers while she was secretary of state. This comes despite fbi director james comeys saying clinton was extremely careless in her handling of classified information. Although we did not find clear evidence that secretary clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the healing of classified information, there is evidence they were truly careless in their handling a very sensitive, highly classified information. Amy the fbi analyzed 30,000 emails, finding at least 110 that contained classified information at the time they were sent or received. Fbi director comey said a handful of these were marked as classified at the time, a finding that contradicts clintons claims. The fbi found eight email chains containing top secret information. Comey also said it was possible that hostile actors gained access to secretary clintons personal email account. Republican lawmakers and Presumptive Republican president ial nominee donald trump criticized fbi director james comeys announcement the agency would not be recommending charges against Hillary Clinton. House Speaker Paul Ryan tweeted, the announcement defies explanation. Trump said it is evidence the system is rigged. Mr. Trump that our system is absolutely, totally rigged. Amy the fbis announcement came only hours before president obama campaigned alongside Hillary Clinton during a rally in charlotte, North Carolina. Pres. Obama i can tell you this , Hillary Clinton has been tested and there has never been qualified woman more for this office than Hillary Clinton. At the North Carolina rally, president obama and clinton faced protests from teachers demanding the immigrations and Customs Enforcement Agency Release local students who are currently detained and facing deportation. In a statement, the teachers said ice is denying our students the right to an education and preventing many from graduating. North carolina has been one of the states hardest hit by ice raids this year. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton faced more criticism from teachers during a speech at the National Education Associations Assembly tuesday, when she provoked booing from unionized teachers by suggesting Public Schools and Charter Schools Work Together to improve education. , when schools get it right, whether their traditional Public Schools or public Charter Schools, lets figure out what is working. Lets figure out what is working. And share it with schools across america. We can do that. We have got no time for all of these education wars. Amy the National Education association is the largest teachers union. Its leadership endorsed Hillary Clinton in october 2015, despite protests from some of its rankandfile members, who supported bernie sanders. A jewish employee of a newspaper owned by Donald Trumps soninlaw Jared Kushner has called on him to speak out against antisemitism surrounding trumps campaign. Cheered kushner isnt orthodox jew. He has been a key member of Donald Trumps campaign. In the open letter observer , Entertainment Writer Dana Schwartz wrote when you stand silent and smiling in the background, his jewish soninlaw, youre giving his most hateful supporters tacit approval. This comes after trump tweeted an antisemitic image showing Hillary Clinton, a pile of cash, and a sixpointed star of david, along with the words most corrupt candidate ever the image originally appeared on a white supremacist message board. In response to the open letter, jerk kushner wrote them trump does not also scrubbed any racist or antisemitic thinking. Iraq, the inquiry to the iraq war has just been released. The chilcot report is 2. 6 Million Words long, about three times the length of the bible. It blames former british Prime Minister tony blair of deliberately exaggerating the threat posed by Saddam Hussein in the lead up to the iraq war. This comes as the interior minister has announced his resignation following the suicide bombing in baghdad that killed as many as 250 people. It was the deadliest bombing in iraq since the 2003 usled invasion. Well have more on sundays bombing and the chilcot report after headlines. In yemen, a suicide car bomber has killed 10 soldiers at a checkpoint near a military base in the Southern City of aden. Yemini Officials Say militants went on to raid the military base, leading to hours of fighting. Meanwhile, at least six people have been killed by two u. S. Drone strikes in southern yemen over the weekend. Yemeni Officials Say the victims were suspected to be members of al qaeda. In south africa, a judge has sentenced olympic and paralympic runner Oscar Pistorius to six years in prison for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2013. He had been facing a minimum 15year prison term, but today the judge gave him less than half that sentence, citing mitigating factors, such as pistorius remorse. This is the same judge who convicted pistorius to a lesser charge of manslaughter two years ago a charge that was later reversed by a higher court for being too lenient. In baton rouge, louisiana, protests have erupted over the Fatal Police Shooting of 37yearold African American alton sterling. Cell phone video of the shooting appears to show a Baton Rouge Police officer pinning sterling to the ground outside a convenience store, then pointing a gun at his chest. The video then captures the sound of multiple gunshots. A warning to our television audience, this video is graphic. They shot him . Yes. Oh, my god. Amy the east baton rouge coroner says sterling died from multiple gunshot wounds to the chest and back. Hundreds have been protesting in baton rouge since the shooting. Meanwhile, in new rk, attoey general Eric Schneiderman has openedinvestiohe fatal offduty police shootingon the 4th of july. Delrawn small was driving with his girlfriend and three children through east new york, when he and offduty Police Officer wayne isaacs had a confrontation while driving. The police say small then got out of his car and punched officer isaacs in the face, although a witness says it was themall did not and then officer shot small multiple times killing him. This comes as baltimore prosecutors have been dealt another blow in the next trial of a Police Officer charged in the death of freddie gray, who died of spinal injuries sustained in Police Custody last year. On tuesday, a judge ruled prosecutors cannot use evidence of officer brian rices training to make their case during his trial, which begins thursday. His training was key to the prosecutors case. Two Police Officers have already been acquitted on all charges for their role in freddie grays death. And awardwinning iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami has died. He was one of the most significant figures in a new wave of iranian cinema that emerged following the 1979 revolution. In 1997, he won the top prize at cannes for his film, taste of cherry. This is kiarostami speaking in 1997. I think even if we have censorship in iran, we should deal with it ourselves. As my father used to say, if youre had brakes, a better break in your own hat. We should not talk about it anywhere else because there is no advantage in it. No one can untie our knots. Or solve our problems. That reason, i never speak about censorship outside of iran, especially for foreign reporters. I often asked them, dont you have your own censorship . Amy kiarostami died on monday of cancer at the age of 76. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Juan and im juan gonzalez. Welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. In iraq, the death toll from saturdays car bombing in baghdad has topped 250, making it the deadliest car bombing in iraq since the 2003 u. S. Invasion. The massive blast targeted shoppers preparing for the eid marking the end of ramadan. A fire then spread to nearby buildings. On sunday, a local resident decried the bombing. Is this eid . Every eid we celebrate. Is this our eid . Is this our eid that everybody celebrates . Is this our eid that we should celebrate . People came to buy close to celebrate eid, now they are buying coffins. May god punish those who are responsible. Amy while iraq is marking the third day of mourning, a longawaited british inquiry into the iraq war has just been released. Future of the official inquiry, sir john chilcot, announced the key findings earlier today. We have concluded that the u. K. Chose to join the invasion of iraq before the peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted. Military action at that time was not a last resort. We have also concluded that the judgments about the severity of the threat posed by iraqs weapons of mass destruction, wmd, represented were presented with a certainty that was not justified. Despite explicit warnings, the consequences of the invasion were underestimated. The planning and preparations for iraq after Saddam Hussein were wholly inadequate. The government failed to achieve its stated objectives. Juan the chilcot report goes on to blame former british Prime Minister tony blair of deliberately exaggerating the threat posed by Saddam Hussein. Part of the report includes private correspondence between blair and president george w. Bush. Eight months before the invasion, blair wrote to bush, i will be with you, whatever. In june 2003 less than three months after the invasion began blair privately wrote that the task in iraq is absolutely awesome and im not at all sure were geared for it. Blair added, and if it falls apart, everything falls apart in the region. Earlier today members of the , stop the War Coalition gathered in london to read off the names of iraqis killed since the u. S. uk invasion. Aged 8. 16. Corporal james amy to talk more about the state of iraq today and the newly release chilcot inquiry, we are joined by two guests in london. Tariq ali is a political commentator, historian, activist, filmmaker, author, and editor of the new left review. His most recent book is, the extreme centre a warning. Sami ramadani is an iraqiborn lecturer in sociology. He was a political exile from saddams regime and serves on the Steering Committee of stop the War Coalition. Tariq ali and Sami Ramadani, welcome to democracy now Sami Ramadani, you are an iraqi exile. You live in london. The chilcot report has just come out. Prime minister cameron has addressed it on the floor of the parliament. Sir chilcot has given this report. Talk about his findings. This has been, what, seven years in the making. Basically, i think the chilcot report, from what i have just read briefly about it, it seems it has confirmed what many of us thought. Overwhelmingly, iraqis and middle easterners and people across the world felt long before the war started, actually, that this buildup to the war was being based on false evidence, on exaggerated evidence, on lies. The chilcot report, i think, confirms this. It brings into the open more evidence to prove that point. To that extent, it is not brought something radically new. But it has confirmed and that is important, it has confirmed what we all knew that the iraq war was based on a lie and that it was predetermined. And i think it was on your program that general wesley clark was interviewed i think by yourself, amy, that the pentagon decided within days of 9 11 to have regime change interventions and war in seven countries, in addition to afghanistan. Named iraq, syria, lebanon, somalia, sudan, and finishing off iran. You are looking at the scenario where since the mid1990s, the socalled neocons brought a strategy following the collapse of the soviet union to go on the offensive and topple regimes and expand and secure Important Oil resources and raw materials, cut down any rival competition. In the meantime, iraq as a society, as a state, was destroyed in the cruelest of fashions. Shock and awe, mass crimes on an untold scale since world war ii and the vietnam war, of course. You have a situation where a society, that we had a dictator ruling, it wasnt removing the dictator that was the real objective, but really controlling barak and failing to control it, they eventually destroyed it, just like they are doing in libya and syria and so on. It fits within that scope of the biggest tragedy of all is the loss of life. Over one Million People lost our lives in iraq. The infrastructure is destroyed. The Health Service is destroyed. Educational system, employment at every turn, electricity, clean water, iraq was a fairly advanced country but all of this was destroyed. Ordinary lives of the people were ruined. Sectarianism was encouraged. Terrorism was brought into the country. The terrorism we see today was in fact consciously encouraged so that the usled occupation in britain, of course, could dominate the country and shape its future. Juan i would like to ask i find it difficult sometimes to even emotionally control myself talking about the tragedies that befell the iraqi people. Juan i would like to ask tariq report, response to the especially the sections that talk about blairs honest obsession with regime change, with getting rid of Saddam Hussein. And why did it take seven years to produce this report . It took seven years because it took seven years because every Single Person interviewed had to have a chance to see the report. Blair and his lawyers were looking at the fine print very closely, as was the generals and other people. The findings of the report quite honestly are not very remote kabul remarkable. Theyve already said these were things that were being said by all of us before this war started. It is what virtually every stop the warat the demonstration in london. Tony ben and germany corbyn in particular Jeremy Corbyn in particular have been saying all of this. So to have official confirmation that what we were all saying was right is nice, but it is too little and too late. And because the report had no desire or was not permitted to discuss the legality of this exercise, it means that while there is evidence in the report for independent lawyers to proceed and file a citizens sued, the report does not allow the state to actually prosecute blair for war crimes. He is a war criminal. He pushed the country into this illegal war. His supporters in parliament are trying to get rid of Jeremy Corbyn, who was 100 right on ofs war, backed by the bulk the media. So we are in a strange situation now. The report, i think, will anger lots of people who unlike us are not convinced by the movement that what was taking place was a lie, based on a light, and it was illegal. What is going to happen now remains to be seen, but i would very much hope that independent groups of lawyers and jurists demand now that blair is charged. It is very clear he pushed the war. He forced the Intelligence Services to prepare dodgy doss iers. His attorney general to changing his opinions before he was allowed to address the cabinet. All of that we have in the report. The question is, is anyone going to answer for it or is this just designed to be therapeutic . Juan about the whole issue of the labor leadership in parliament trying to remove Jeremy Corbyn, even though he was one of the most vocal antiwar advocates, and even though the majority base of the Labour Party Still supports him . Well, i mean, it is bizarre. Some people said to me that the reason they tried this coup against jeremy and parliament is so he was not the leader when the chilcot report came out. We will see what he says today at his press conference in three or four hours time. But i think he will be very harsh. Whoirony is that the woman is the main candidate against him is a supporter of the iraq war. Now that we have a judicial inquiry which says what it says about the war, i think surely it is time that constituency labour partys started the process of removing some of the chief warmongers from parliament. They dont represent anyone now, except a cabinet in the past, government which went to war, and if you look at some of the footage being shown on channel four today, what corbin said, what ben said, with what blair said, i mean, the other complacency and brutality with which blair told parliament the there are some people here who think that regime change is wrong and gordon brown, nodding vigorously and beckett on the other side, these are all of the people involved in trying to get rid of Jeremy Corbyn. And something i hope labor members will now fight back because it is precisely against byns sort of thing that cor has been fighting the right inside the labour party. Amy Sami Ramadani, you you are a friend of Jeremy Corbyn. This backlash against him for around the brexit vote, which he was opposed to when he was the Opposition Leader and spoke out against it on democracy now , against britain leaving the European Union just to ask, what you think is behind it . Is,eally, my own feeling and probably tariq could share that view with me, Jeremy Corbyn might lead the next the labor victory to movement in a general election. And they are terrified of that prospect. They looked at the elections that happened since he was elected and they were all one with comfortable majorities. The last one double the labours majority. They looked at local Election Results and again, he did very well. There generally genuinely worried what is would happen to them. Amy they are concerned he will be Prime Minister . Or voting with the tories or abstaining on important welfare policies. The tories applying neocon policies. They seem to concede to the tories demands and so on and so forth and their demand of workingclass abandonment of workingclass families. They continued on these policies. Margaret thatcher premiership destroyed so many workingclass communities and the new labor leadership and 20 blair simply continue that policy of abandoning workingclass communities. In some became so disillusioned them even voted for with an extreme rightwing party. Amy Sami Ramadani, we have to break Jeremy Corbyn is providing a new vision and a new strategy and they all undermine him. Amy we have to get a break but we will come back to ask about what happened in iraq this weekend, the largest car bomb attack since the gulf war geban. Began. [music break] amy this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with juan gonzalez. Juan in iraq, the death toll from saturdays car bombing in baghdad has topped 250, making it the deadliest car bombing in that country since the 2003 u. S. Invasion. While iraq is marking a third day of mourning a longawaited british inquiry into the iraq war has just been released blaming tony blair for choosing to invade iraq. I want to turn to the former Prime Minister. In november, he told cnn that there were elements of truth to the claim that removing Saddam Hussein played a part in the creation of isis. When people look at the rise of isis, many people point to the invasion of iraq as the principal cause. What do you say . Are elements of truth and that, but i think we again have got to be extremely careful, otherwise we will misunderstand what is going on in iraq and syria today. Thoserse, you cannot say of us who removed said m in 2003 that bear no responsibility for the situation in 2015. Amy your response to that clip and to the recent bombing in baghdad and the general situation in iraq now, 13 years after the war started . Toi think i just have contain my anger, really, because listing to tony blair pontificating about his role in this genocidal war makes any human being with a bit of humanity in them quite angry after all this death and destruction, sitting there trying to justify the fact that terrorism was brought into iraq after 2003. All of these socalled leaders of isis. The way, isis was al qaeda in iraq. That was its official name. We know al qaeda was founded in afghanistan with the help of the cia and the support of britain and so on. But as usual, some of these terrorist organizations have ton encouraged and armed bite the hand that feeds them occasionally. Even supporters some of the supporters of the invasion occupation testified to the fact that terrorism was encouraged by the occupation forces, british or american variety. In the multiplicity of these terrorist organizations was also encouraged by the regional powers. Sound is, qataris, turkey. Theyre all close u. S. Allies. They funded these organizations. They supply them with arms. Turkey gradually became the logistical base of these terrorist organizations. Some 30,000 fighters, according to the united nations, came from over 80 countries across the world. Trained fighters, most of them, from as far as chechnya and libya and tunisia and saudi arabia, of course, and so on. And they were all, as the New York Times and Seymour Hersh and many other reliable sources have revealed that the cia court mated a lot of this from turkey coordinated a lot of this from turkey. So to sit down and listen to tony blair trying to dissociate himself and george bush and the policymakers then of the proliferation of terrorist groups the murders in iraq people will tell you we are still at war. The 2003 invasion, occupation of the country has not ended. This terrorism is a continuation of that war. They see these terrorist organizations are an arm of the same invasion and occupation of the country. Theyre still dividing and ruining. Theyre still trying to dominate iraq because the iraqi people have a great history of fighting for independence, for progress amy Sami Ramadani they cannot control the country that terrorism is serving them. Amy i want to play a clip of donald trump yesterday in raleigh, North Carolina, talking about Saddam Hussein. Mr. Trump Saddam Hussein was a bad guy, right . He was a really bad guy. You know what he did well . He killed terrorists. He did that so good. They did not read them the rights. They did not talk. They were terrorists. Its over. Harvard foris terrorism. If you want to be a terrorist, you go to iraq. It is like harvard. Tariq ali, your response . Well, how can one deny the truth of what he is saying . I mean, yesterday, the bbc here showed a photograph, a filmed interview with a guy who helped bring Saddam Hussein statue down, which was a stage event, amy, as you know, immediately after it was occupied. That guy appeared on the bbc yesterday and said he is ashamed he did that. He wants to apologize for it. He said saddam killed members of my family, but everyday life in betterder him was much than it is today. Most iraqis, even if they hated saddam and suffered, say life was much better under him than it was under the occupation and what is going on today. Andrump is not wrong precisely because he is capable of saying things like that and herton isnt because consort as president was involved in the sanctions against iraq. Madeleine albright defended the deaths of half a million kids because of the sanctions. So what can one say . And the other thing which is worth remembering, therell now all saying they made mistakes in iraq. They made the same and even worse mistakes and libya. They are carrying on with syria. They are doing nothing to stop the saudi invasion of yemen, of the saudi occupation of bahrain. They pretend to be more humble, we wont make the same mistakes again. Well, you are making the same mistakes. Amy we want to bring another guest into this conversation, Sami Ramadani, iraqi born lecturer speaking to us from london as well as the wellknown british pakistani author, commentator, editor of new left review, tariq ali. We are going to oxford in britain. Is author of a number of influential books on am and the west, including western muslims and the future of islam and in the footsteps of the prophet lessons from the life of mohammed. Ramadan was named by Time Magazine as one of the most important innovators of the 21st century. Professor, your response to the chilcot report, the attacks in iraq, and then we will move to saudi arabia and the isis attacks this weekend there. Look, i think what we heard from tariq ali and Sami Ramadani , these are important points. It is very true what happened and what is happening now is connected to policies that were decided in london, which had nothing to do with human rights, had nothing to do with freedom and democracy, it was all about s. Terest we understand the war was launched for very, very, and fact, economic interests and has nothing to do with the dignity. So now we know and things are happening now that are showing how much how many contradictions we had in the british policies followed in the footsteps of the american policy in the region, and then the connection that we have here with saudi arabia in the region in the mess we have now in the new middle east has to do with some of the reasons they were talking about right now. And we cannot disconnect this from that. If we do this, we are completely misled and we can end up with what is happening in saudi arabia with the attacks during the last days by supporting the regime and not understanding it complicated than that. Juan what about the attacks . Hear your sing a situation of actually, especially in the attack in medina, near the holy site of saudi arabia and of islam, the attacks on muslims themselves. Yes, but this is not new. Youre talking about iraq in this is every day we have the same people targeting muslims. It is the same in syria. It is the same in the whole region. It is even the same with saudi arabia attacking yemen. So we have the majority of the victims are muslims. Share what we have in saudi arabia, which is new, it is targeting in medina, which is the second sacred place for muslims, so it is as if they are ready to go against all the muslims and you can hear from around the world people saying, this has nothing to do with islam, it is against any islamic teaching. At the same time, if you look at the symbol, there are targeting shia mosques and the u. S. Theyre targeting symbols. We have to ask ourselves, what theyre trying to do here. Is it because theyre losing ground in iraq that theyre doing this . Is it in fact just to show they can target the people wherever they are . There is no clear vision and what theyre doing except to spread around violence and violent extremism. We have to condemn this. We have to take a step back and try to understand what is happening in the region and who are the people who are playing. Tariq ali was saying, theyre making mistakes. Unfortunately, i am more cynical than that. I am not sure they are mistakes. I think they are policies that are helping the United States and European Countries in the mess to sell weapons and to still control the region out of this completely situation. The king of saudi arabia has promised a strike with an iron hand against those responsible for Suicide Attack in the prophets mosque in medina on monday. Militants carried out three separate suicide bomb attacks across saudi arabia on the same day, including an attack in the holy city of medina that killed four Security Officers near the mosque where the Prophet Muhammad is believed to be buried. The mosque is one of the holiest sites for muslims worldwide. An earlier attack was carried out near the u. S. Consulate in the saudi city of jeddah. Two Security Officers were wounded. Another bombing took place near dusk outside a shia mosque in the mainly shia eastern city of qatif. No group has claimed responsibility for mondays attacks, but the socalled Islamic State has carried out similar bombings, targeting shia muslims and Saudi Security forces. The sunni Muslim Militant Group has called for the overthrow of the saudi monarchy. Amy and now the Saudi Interior Ministry spokesman identified the assailant in the jeddah attack as a 35yearold pakistani expatriate called abdullah qalzar khan. According to the ministry, khan worked as a private driver in the city for 12 years. The attacks were carried out as people were preparing for eid alfitr celebrations to mark the end of the holy month of ramadan. ,ami ramadani Tariq Ramadan can you talk specifically to an audience who was not so familiar with the religious significance of all of these places about not only the attacks but the saudi governments response . First, from an islamic perspective, it is something which is completely against the islamic vegetables, especially to target the holy city of medina, the messenger city. As the illuminating city. First, it is against the basic principles. The first thing that his aunt what is also important from what is happening, now we have the saudi regime saying we are going to be very tough on these. The problem we have, which is internal to the islamic reference is that the type of islamic interpretations we have an saudi arabia is very literalist. In fact, they are creating a mindset which is very us versus them. There is a gray area between the two interpretations of ideologies. What we are going to see is the saudi regime thing very tough being very tough in the name of suspicions toward anyone who is going to speak up. But we also have to say this is not new. This regime is very tough with any type of opposition. Remembered in a time of the arab uprisings, you had them saying to the muslims, it is against islam to take into the streets against the regime. What we also have to say as muslims and this is why to shared responsibility also what was said by tariq ali and Sami Ramadani about the western policies and the visions the contradictions with our own values and the west, this is right. But at the same time, it is very important for muslims and for the muslim voices to be vocal about the contradictions that we have with the saudi regime. It is not because im saying what is happening or the terrorist attacks now in the violent extremist that we have to condemn and that we should end up supporting regime where expression, a very narrow type of interpreting resources. There is a very tough regime. No freedom, no womens rights. I think on this, we should not be on the side of the event aims and taking the saudi regime as the victim of what is happening. There are in fact instrumental in what is happening in the region. There is one thing we cannot deny that it is part of the message sent by the violent extremist is that saudi arabia is in fact connected to great iners and playing a role security, and monitoring, and the lack of freedom, and torturing the people, which is a very dirty role and we have to say it and we have to be clear on this as muslims, as people who are now promoting and who want democracy for the muslim countries and more consistent policy in the region. Juan tariq ali, what about this particular and complex role of saudi arabia in the middle east and in the various conflicts in the region . Iswell, Tariq Ramadan perfectly right on this. I agree with him. This is nothing new, by the way. It started during the cold war when the United States use the scholars,help get extremely rigid in a philosophical view of islam but the equivalent of some bornagain christian sects in the United States, and they were sent tothey were indonesia and pakistan, of course they existed in the arab world to a certain extent. And the aim was to fight communism. And they did it and they helped and they have grown stronger and stronger. And the main jihadi organizations, socalled, are theyinfluenced by it and are ultrasectarian not just to other sunnis, as we know they killed them endlessly, but they regard the shia as her takes, heretics. Shia is why they kill people and attack their mosques and one they target shia clerics , etc. , etc. Linked verynity is strongly, i think, to the role which the west has played in the recently ich they only most recently in a rack armed some of the shia clerics to attack the sunnis. Thing gaged in cleansings in the middle of baghdad. For theated havoc sunnishia divide which existed, but on a mild level. There were even intermarriages. The Political Parties had mitch with christians and others. That is also been wrecked by the American Occupation of iraq. What were witnessing is the organization of the middle east. Monstroushy the groups sprang up. They sprang up, these monster groups. And no one can do anything about them because they partially created them. Amy Tariq Ramadan, what do you think the response should be . I think what we heard from tariq ali is important. Once again, nothing new. If you look at the american policy in latin america, it is selling weapons on both sides and letting people go for fighting, making money out of it and getting the advantage with the security. I think what is important for us first is to disconnect in a way this violent extremist from the qualification of the islamic. I am not saying it has nothing to do with islam. I disagree with the people who are saying it has nothing to do with islam. Were dealing with people who are quoting me koran and now we around the world should be clear not only on the violent extremist, but you can just be against the violent extremists on the religious side and not understand it has to do with political stance that we need to have. ,t is against the dictatorships to be clear on all of the gulf states that they are now playing the role supporting the american policies of the european policies, and sometimes are torn apart between chinese and russian interests in the west. This is where we were celebrating the arab spring and i was cautious and said, because all because there are not political reasons behind it. There are more economic they are more economic reasons. We need to be clear on what we want for them muslim countries and middle east, because now it is true the vulcanization of the region, this is where we need to be on our side, it is important in the United States, in the west, to have voices coming together. And once again, it is not a muslim business. It is our business as citizens to be critical toward our own governments because we cannot just sit down and cry when people are killed without understanding the policies behind and all what we have seen, which is not new, it is still now counting the dead people while others are making money out of it. Desk toame of security destabilize the middle east in the name of security, it is not new. This is where we as citizens, we have to wake up. If you see what is happening in my country here in the u. K. , all of the discussions you had about corbyn and the people playing, it is all connected because these are people who did what they did during the war, supporting the war, and now theyre coming to talk about, you know, democratization and human dignity. That is not acceptable to us. That is what we need to do on both sides, so the speed. Amy i want to ask you one final question with the release of the chilcot report. In 2004, professor, you had excepted a job it university of veterans dame. Time listed you as when the 10 top 100 fingers in the world. Nine days before ramadan was set to start my teaching here in the United States before you are such a start teaching, the bush and administration revoked your act. Invoking the patriot you were not allowed during the bush years. During the obama years, they let you in. In light of the chilcot report, what do you say about what happened to you then . Know, what i said to Homeland Security when they came all the way to see me in switzerland and all the questions were about two things when i was saying the Iraqi Resistance is right because your presence in iraq is wrong, and i was adding to this. And all of our discussions, i think were forgetting the Palestinian Resistance, i said the Palestinian Resistance is right. We have to come to an understanding that will be no peace in the region if you do not change our policy. Years after this, even though i can introduce the country, the problem is we were hopeful with obama, the policies have not changed. It is exactly the same. Clinton before bush was in fact the one in charge with the sanctions which as it was said killed 500,000 people. At that point, what i said at that time, which prevented me and i was banned from the country to say in a clear way that american policy is wrong of them one of the main reasons why we have all of these people being killed and the spread of terrorists in the region and in afghanistan, to african countries now, we have to take responsibility. I was banned from entering and now i can enter, doesnt mean that things are changing. It is the same dirty politics with very nice words that we had with president obama. If you look at what is coming now with trump and Hillary Clinton, not good news for the states. Amy Tariq Ramadan, thank you for being with us professor of , contemporary islamic studies at oxford university. Author of a number of influential books on islam and the west including, western muslims and the future of islam and in the footsteps of the prophet lessons from the life life of mohammed [captioning made possible by democracy now ] ramadan was named by Time Magazine as one of the most important innovators of the 21st century. And thanks to tariq ali and Sami Ramadani. When we come back, the attacks in bangladesh. [music break] amy this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with juan gonzalez. Juan we end the show today in bangladesh, where some 50 which is morning med tech that killed 20 people. Explosive, guns, and swords. In the ensuing 11 hour siege, the militants killed 20 diners from around the world, including nine italians, seven japanese, one indian, two bangladeshis, and one u. S. Citizen. Two Police Officers were later killed when the authorities raided the restaurant and killed five of the six attackers. Authorities say the attackers were young men from bangladeshs elite, many of whom attended the countries top schools. Amy for more were joined by seuty sabur, barrister practicing in the Supreme Court of bangladesh in the areas of Constitutional Public interest and family law. Welcome to democracy now she is joining us from london. Can you talk about what happened in bangladesh . In this last incident, what seems to have happen is this group of young men went into the restaurant come into the holy cafe. Surrounded the place, divided people out based on their identity as foreigners, as not bangladeshis, and critically as nonmuslims. There was they were identified as nonmuslims, telling people to recite verses from the koran. They executed immediately, hacking them to death. They let some people out eventually, but most people were killed inside the cafe. It was surrounded by police and paramilitary, but somewhat belatedly. And in the operation that resulted, as you just said, more than 20 people were killed. It seems now that one of those killed in fact one of those who was identified earlier as one of the attackers seems to have been a person who was working inside the cafe and was actually killed in the fire from the Law Enforcement agencies. It also seems one of the people who was working inside the cafe has been arrested and has been apparently, according to reports, very badly tortured and brutalized. And still it is not clear, although this has been claimed,t seems by suppedly isis according to the bangladesh government, it is still not being conceited or admitted that it may be Fine International Extremist Group of this kind. Still saying it may be at least at least one source saying it is homegrown terror repeatedly without any acknowledgment of any kind of transnational links. Juan sara hossain, what about the issue of some of the attackers being identified as coming from educated, middleclass or upper class families . Mething we are seen in other attacks in other parts of the world by radical militants. Yes, this is something i think that has really shocked people. Some of those who have adult identified have been identified as coming from some of the top private schools. Surly, some of these universities, this one in particular, has been identified before a something of a breeding. Round for extremism to stop several reports are coming out from other students theyre saying these kinds of groups are active theyre trying to create a support base for fundamentalists are extremist organizations. Islamist organizations. Can you talk about bangladesh and when people talk about the war on terror, when people talk about what is going on in different countries, we hear iraq and afghanistan, yemen, somalia, syria, bangladesh is not usually included. What is happening here, sara hossain . It is free disturbing that bangladesh is being targeted in this way. Since we are not in sort of the scene of war, we not in the center of the middle east, i found listing to your previous interviews, i dont think it is so easy to link as to the story of what is happening in the middle east. Bangladesh has a very particular history. It became independent 45 years ago, precisely because it rejected the notion of religion being a sufficient binding force to build a nation. It consciously, i think, this country, bangladesh, has a secular identity and i think we still have an were safeguarding the tacit remains of our secular identity and values. Bangladesh i think has a do is a distinct race in the world because we have achieved what remarkable changes in terms of development. A you look at our profile, muslim majority country, but i think for many of us, we would not see that is our defining characteristic. We see ourselves as a developing country where incredible social changes happen in a short time. Women have fought for and won a space. They have not been a things to work in with moderate muslim groups. They had been part of Civil Society groups. They have been part of benefiting from Government Policies that have been propoor, prowomen, and prosecularism. Forces,ed against other battled against the military, authoritarianism which we still have in a secular guys and battled against fundamentalist taking hold of our political processes. I think the fact that we have these distinct characteristics is why we are coming under attack. A very different culture, which i would not see that this introductory as muslim majority culture as such. We have many particular differences that are the ones that are amy sara hossain, that you over the last two years, individual targeted attacks, be it secular or activists seeking justice for war crimes, is sure crimes from 45 years ago, be they gay activist trying to create change and change the kind of notion increase inclusion, i think, in our society, increase diversity. Those are the people who have come under attack. What we have seen john amy we have to leave it there, sara hossain, thank you for being with us, barrister practicing in the Supreme Court of bangladesh, mainly in the areas of constitutional, Public Interest and family law. Democracy now is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. Constantly on the go at work and at home, its so easy to reach for the takeout menu or the candy bowl, and then of course, you wish you hadnt. Fortunately i have some great tips for you and some easy grab and go lunch recipes like these to help you get out of that rut. Herbed farro salad with walnuts, feta and spinach, asian chicken wrap, and buffalo chicken salad. Thats happening right now on ellies real good food. upbeat spanish guitar strumming [voiceover] funding for this series has been provided by