Navigation:
Reporting on the Middle East, Science, and Education for August 20, 2008 - י"ט אב תשס"ח
Pages
Archives
Toward a better future through tolerance and mutualism
Sponsored By:
Recent Comments:
Richard on Hamas Occupies Palestinian Lands.
Comments RSS
By Jihad el-Khazen, Al-Hayat, August 20, 2008
I need to tell such readers that at the root of the current Arab crisis lies the rejection of other people’s opinion, the rejection of other communities, and the attempts to deal with people of different opinions as outlaws or violators of divine law.
If Arab problems do not suffice to cause a nervous breakdown, not just depression, some readers, not all, push me, after decades of working as journalist, to look for another job, such as selling falafel.
Last week, I received letters on all the issues I have raised. But most had to do with intra-Palestinian fighting and with my suggestion to transform Arab republics into kingdoms so that both rulers and ruled can rest.
Regarding the kingdoms, some letters were painfully honest. A regular reader says these are not kingdoms or republics, but farms. Another suggests, the colonel Qaddafi way, to call the new type of regimes "repdoms" or "kingpublics." A third refers to a third type of regimes of unknown identity, similarly to the third sex of newborn babies (neither male nor female).
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Islam, Middle East Report, Monotheistic Religions, Opinion, Recent Posts on August 20, 2008 - י"ט אב תשס"ח at 7:32 am
Comments Off
By Farish A. Noor, American Muslim, August 4, 2008
They long to create a global pan-Islamic space where belonging to the same faith community is the only passport one needs to travel across the Muslim world unrestricted.
Today there is much talk, accompanied by some degree of unnecessary speculation and fear-mongering, about the claims and ambitions of Islamists who seek to create a global Caliphate as the panacea for the ills of Muslim society worldwide. That such talk of a pan-Islamic global project would spook the spooks of the international anti-terror industry is, of course, not entirely surprising for nothing seems to agitate the public more these days than the idea of a couple of Muslims getting together and plotting the imminent take-over of the universe.
There are, presently, a plethora of Islamist organisations and mass movements who have taken the notion of the global Caliphate as their goal. Groups like the Hizb’ut Tahrir openly proclaim their vision of a pan-Islamic world; while mainstream Islamist parties ranging from the Ikhwan’ul Muslimin of Egypt and the Arab world to the Jama’at-e Islami of South Asia to the Pan-Malaysian Islamic party of Malaysia have also spread their networks and contacts beyond the host countries where they first emerged. International conferences bring together Islamists from all corners of the globe with the frequency we associate more with international governmental or business conferences; and the internet has already created a virtual Islamoscape where Islamists from every country on the planet may interact simultaneously in real time. In many respects, such a global pan-Islamic universe already exists, and it can be said that the pan-Islamic world is a virtual empire where the sun never sets.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Islam, Middle East Report, Monotheistic Religions, Opinion, Recent Posts on August 5, 2008 - ד' אב תשס"ח at 1:21 pm
Comments Off
By Hussein Shobokshi, Asharq Alawsat, August 4, 2008
The secret codes of Iranian policies are now being deciphered. What has surfaced is neither pleasing nor reassuring. This may explain Arab fears and their increasing anxiety of Iran’s questionable intentions.
Observers of Iranian policy cannot clearly understand it, since it is filled with indecipherable puzzles and riddles.
There are many messages with double-meanings that bewilder anyone that tries to explain them. On one hand, the government of the Iranian Islamic Republic says it is concerned about the interests of the Iranian nation and Muslim interests and their unity, and is looking after their interests and solving their problems. On the other hand, its deeds, the practical evidence which speaks louder than words, indicate quite the opposite. Iranian interference in the affairs of numerous Arab and Islamic states has become not only worrying, but are a cause for distress, and violent conflagrations.
Lately, there are messages with double-meanings directed at Israel and the United States, which were once known as the “great Satan,” but in stark contrast to the constant popular inflammatory rhetoric used since the Khomeini revolution, are know discussed using words and phrases not previously used in relation to these two states, such as “good relations” and “friendship”.
Iran, for a period succeeded in convincing the world that there are two trends coexisting in it, doves and hawks, while in reality both trends resemble an extremist-form of ‘bird flu’. The Iranian decision-making is in fact controlled by the Supreme Leader of the Iranian Revolution, Ali Khamenei, despite all that is presented to the people of a moderate Khatami and an intransigent Ahmadinejad. Perhaps Khamenei’s statements in defense of Ahmadinejad and his approval and blessing of Ahmadinejad’s policies prove this point.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Islam, Middle East Report, Opinion, Recent Posts on August 4, 2008 - ג' אב תשס"ח at 10:12 am
Comments Off
By Raymond Ibrahim, Dhimmi Watch, July 24, 2008
See Also: Arab Peace Strategy
The Palestinian-Israeli question has been a thorn in the world’s side for some time now. And clearly, many people—not just Arabs—sympathize with the uprooted Palestinians. The argument, in a nutshell, is that Israel was forcefully and artificially created and populated by people who, unlike the Arabs, are not truly indigenous to the land of Palestine. Moreover, the “true” inhabitants—the Arabs—have been forcefully ejected, oppressed, not given a “voice,” etc. In a word, the Jews have seized another people’s land.
But it’s somewhat ironic that while the Arabs are crying out for “humanitarian” justice (via the dissolution of Israel), and many non-Arabs want to see them receive it, few consider this matter with the aid of those two disciplines that were originally the backbone of all intellectual discourse and which can truly better elucidate the situation: history and philosophy, or simply, common sense.
Historically, the land of Palestine has been conquered, and conquered, and conquered again—by a myriad of peoples, including Hebrews, Babylonians and Persians, Greeks and Romans, Arabs, Crusaders, Turks, and now finally, modern-day Jews. Conquest and “land-grabbing” have always been something of a natural occurrence throughout world-history: lands were conquered and that was the end of it—till the next conqueror came along. In fact, if modern-day Jews have usurped Palestine, so too have the Arabs before them. In the early 7th century, the Arabs, recently unified under the banner of Islam and its Prophet, burst out of Arabia and conquered as many lands as they possibly could—the entire globe being the (currently unrealized) goal. Thus Palestine, originally, was not “Arab” and definitely not “Muslim.” Generally speaking, it was Semitic.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Islam, Middle East Report, Opinion, Recent Posts on July 25, 2008 - כ"ב תמוז תשס"ח at 6:30 pm
Comments Off
Wednesday, July 23, 2008 Israel Today Staff
A leader of Israel’s Druze Arab community on Wednesday said that the events surrounding a second bulldozer terrorist attack in Jerusalem a day earlier was evidence of the sect’s ongoing loyalty to the State of Israel.
Tuesday’s attack, which left at least 16 people wounded when a Jerusalem Arab plowed into traffic with an earth-moving bulldozer, came to an end when an armed Israeli civilian and a Druze Border Police officer attacked the terrorist.
The armed civilian, Yaakov Asael, was reportedly the first to fire, with Border Police officer Amal Ganem quickly joining the fight with his assault rifle. After initially firing from skewed angle, Ganem moved to another side of the still-rampaging bulldozer and opened fire again, this time killing the terrorist.
Druze community leader Sheikh Muafiek Tarif told Ynet that “the Druze sect has shown its loyalty to the State of Israel for years now. Today, the resourcefulness of Amal Ganem, a Druze community member, proved our loyalty to the State of Israel.”
Tarif continued by calling Ganem, “who acted quickly and without hesitation in order to prevent further casualties,” a “model to thousands of young Druze who have acted and are acting on behalf of the State of Israel.”
The Druze, whose religion lies somewhere between Islam and Judaism and reveres Moses’ father-in-law Jesse as its patriarch, are usually fiercely loyal to whatever nation in which they reside, including the Jewish state. Following the establishment of State of Israel, Druze leaders insisted that the Israeli army impose mandatory military service on their community’s young men just as it does on Israeli Jews.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Islam, Judaism, Middle East, Middle East Report, News Articles, Recent Posts on July 23, 2008 - כ' תמוז תשס"ח at 12:01 pm
Comments Off
By Mishaal Al Gergawi , The National, July 17, 2008
By then, 2040, Dubai will serve as the Brussels of the Gulf. The Khaleeji dinar will be priced against a weighted basket of dollars, euros and yuans. Dubai will have far eclipsed Singapore as a re-export and maritime powerhouse, while Hong Kong will be indirectly subsidised by China.
While protectionists in Washington and Brussels quarrel with Opec, a more significant era is beginning elsewhere. In four generations, this era will see the establishment of a new world power; a power arising out of a peaceful collaboration of countries with ever-closer domestic and foreign policies.
It will begin far from both the West and the Far East: in the Middle East – but not in Baghdad, Damascus or Cairo, the historical beacons of knowledge and power. No, it will begin in Dubai. Slowly, it will spread outwards, encompassing Abu Dhabi and Doha. A decade or so later, Kuwait and Saudi will join the accelerating movement.
This collective of realms will owe its birth to its wealth of oil, but the real impetus will derive from the subsequent redeployment of that wealth. This will be due as much to a number of cooperation programmes with Asian countries as it will to investment in European industrial giants. But first and foremost, its rise will be an indirect result of the democratisation project of the Middle East conceived by the US Republican party.
After the Gulf states have adopted many parts of the programme, this region, gradually but steadily, will find itself becoming one of the new centres of the world. My children, not yet born, will be distinctively pro-Western professionals who will read the new-New Yorker, intern in Shanghai, and may even characterise themselves as pragmatic neo-existentialists, but with a dream.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Business and Commerce, Islam, Middle East Report, Opinion, Recent Posts on July 20, 2008 - י"ז תמוז תשס"ח at 3:17 am
Comments Off
By Israel Zwick, CN Publications, July 15, 2008
See Also: Al-Quds Times
Author’s Note: It is common knowledge that Israeli intelligence agents monitor the meetings of Arab leaders. Recently there was a secret meeting in Tehran that the Israeli agents missed. Fortunately, an anonymous source sent a transcript to CN Publications.
Editor’s Note: Though the following story is fictional, most of the details provided are true and have been vetted from a variety of sources.
CHARACTERS:
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran
Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), President of the Palestinian Authority
Bashar Assad, President of Syria
Ismail Haniyah, Hamas leader in Gaza
Hassan Nassrallah, Hizbullah leader in Lebanon
TIME: the present
SETTING: secret underground concrete bunker somewhere in Tehran
Ahmadinejad: My dear friends, I have asked you to come here so we can discuss how we can finally eliminate the Zionist entity from our midst. It must be completely wiped off the map of our region, which belongs solely to the people of Islam. It has become evident that those martydom operations, which killed 20 or 30 Zionists riding in a bus or eating in a restaurant, would not be sufficient to drive them away. On the contrary, it only strengthened their resolve. What we need is to mount a full multimodal assault involving military, political, social, and economic measures that would completely devastate the Zionist entity. To that end, we have been supporting both Shiite and Sunni insurgencies against the American and Zionist enemies. We have been developing our Shahab-3 missile that will soon be able to reach the enemy with both conventional and nuclear warheads. If we shoot 100 missiles and only one in five reach their target, we can cause significant death and destruction to the Zionists.
For the last few years, I have been providing you all with financial and military assistance for your efforts to defeat the Zionist enemy. I have gathered you here to obtain a progress report of your efforts and to hear your plans for the future. Ismail, let’s start with you. What have you been doing in Gaza with all the money I gave you besides shooting off all those harmless firecrackers?
Haniyah: First of all, I wouldn’t minimize the effects of the rockets and mortars that we have been firing on a daily basis. We have succeeded in reducing the Zionist population and military along the border. We have disrupted their lifestyle and economy. The Zionists don’t want to live or work within the range of our rockets. Their industrial centers are threatened and they have to spend huge sums on security.
Now that they have agreed to a temporary truce, we are using the time to develop our military forces and arsenal. We have an army of 20,000 men with 30,000 rifles, 6 million rounds of ammunition, 230 tons of explosives, and scores of advanced anti-tank and anti-helicopter weapons.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Fun Stuff, Islam, Middle East, Middle East Report, Opinion, Recent Posts, Zwick's Picks on July 15, 2008 - י"ב תמוז תשס"ח at 4:03 am
Comments Off
Asharq Alawsat, 20 June 2008
By Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed
Iran’s followers committed massacres and evicted people from their homes in a way unprecedented in Iraq’s history. Iran today wants to attain its goals regardless of the weapons used. It funds and sponsors all extremist Sunni groups like the Palestinian Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other extremist Sunni groups in north Lebanon and North Africa.
Paradoxically, Iran, an extremist theocratic Shiite regime with Ahmadinejad at its helm, is orchestrating and funding the activities of extremist Sunnis in the region.
The paradox is most striking in the case of Al-Qaeda, the most extremist Sunni organization, which has joined, in the full sense of the word, the Iranian apparatus. The alliance between the two enemies began in the wake of the defeat of Al-Qaeda and the organization’s flight from Afghanistan to all Sunni countries. The first group of Al-Qaeda, which was led by Egyptian national Saif Al-Adel, and included Saad bin Laden, Osama bin Laden’s son, fled to Iran immediately after the fall of the Taliban regime. I do not know whether the first group of Al-Qaeda entered Iran by mistake, after its members roamed aimlessly in the rugged mountainous region on the Pakistani-Afghan border, or as a result of contacts who arranged for the Iranian hosting. We were initially puzzled by the rumors that Iran had arrested a group of fleeing Al-Qaeda members who crossed its border from Afghanistan, only to realize later that the story had far deeper implications. The investigators of the attack that Al-Qaeda carried out in Riyadh found evidence indicating that the operation came from Iran and that the perpetrators were Al-Qaeda members. This was confirmed after satellite mobile telephone recordings were discovered between Saif Al-Adel and the Saudi commander of the group. The communication clearly showed that the call originated in Iran. Those concerned with this were surprised because Iran did not deny the call, but quickly admitted that it had a number of Al-Qaeda members in a certain prison. It justified the incident by saying that the group members perhaps broke the rules of their hosting. Crude though it was, the justification might have been deliberate. Perhaps Iran wanted to tell concerned parties that it was now in control of Al-Qaeda. In the past four years, the largest number of Al-Qaeda members have made Iran their headquarters. It has even been suggested that Ayman Al-Zawahiri, who some consider to be Al-Qaeda’s actual leader, is also being hosted by Iran, as evidenced by his many relaxed audio and video statements, and especially his famous public criticism of the late Al-Qaeda agent in Iraq, Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, for attacking Shiites.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Islam, Middle East, Middle East Report, Opinion, Recent Posts on June 20, 2008 - י"ז סיון תשס"ח at 4:52 pm
Comments Off
by Daniel Pipes, Jerusalem Post, June 19, 2008
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/5629
“As in 1945 and 1991, the goal must be to marginalize and weaken a coherent and aggressive ideological movement, so that it no longer attracts followers nor poses a world-shaking threat.”
If you cannot name your enemy, how can you defeat it? Just as a physician must identify a disease before curing a patient, so a strategist must identify the foe before winning a war. Yet Westerners have proven reluctant to identify the opponent in the conflict the U.S. government variously (and euphemistically) calls the “global war on terror,” the “long war,” the “global struggle against violent extremism,” or even the “global struggle for security and progress.”
This timidity translates into an inability to define war goals. Two high-level U.S. statements from late 2001 typify the vague and ineffective declarations issued by Western governments. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld defined victory as establishing “an environment where we can in fact fulfill and live [our] freedoms.” In contrast, George W. Bush announced a narrower goal, “the defeat of the global terror network” – whatever that undefined network might be.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Islam, Middle East Report, Opinion, Recent Posts on June 19, 2008 - ט"ז סיון תשס"ח at 7:40 am
Comments Off
See Also: Ahmadinejad Visits Psychiatrist
Iranian president wants to set stage for appearance of Shiite messiah
By Jonathan Halevi and Ashley Perry, YNet News, June 17, 2008
Shiite Iran is striving to attain the position of regional superpower en route to becoming a significant nuclear power on the international stage. Iran openly challenges the West in its attempt to eject the Americans and British from Iraq and attain hegemony in the Persian Gulf region, supported among other, by its military program, massively built up in recent years. The Iranian leadership talks of a “New Middle East” in response to the West, which would be an Islamic Middle East in the mold of the Iranian inspired Islamic revolution.
Iran’s political aspirations are driven by a deep religious zeal. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad repeatedly pledges “the imminent and evident liquidation of Israel,” as a code word for the messianic fervor he shares with his spiritual mentor, Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, one of the more radical ayatollahs, who subscribes to diplomatic and military activism to advance the global Islamic revolution spearheaded by Iran.
Former President Khatami, an Iranian reformist, once referred to Yazdi as “the theoretician of violence.” In 2006, Yazdi’s leading disciple, Mohsen Gharavian, released a ruling or fatwa sanctioning the use of nuclear weapons against other nations. This is in distinction to Iranian diplomats in the West who repeatedly say that nuclear weapons are opposed by Islam and thus will not be sought.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Islam, Middle East Report, Monotheistic Religions, Opinion, Recent Posts on June 17, 2008 - י"ד סיון תשס"ח at 9:07 am
Comments Off
