Islam versus Taliban

The Taliban has been at it again:  most recently, murdering indiscriminately in Afghanistan and Pakistan.  A movement that has little tolerance for alternative opinions or positions, their answer to all opposition, verbal or otherwise, is brute force and suicide bombings.  The recruitment of young impressionable boys, sometimes mentally-challenged, has been part of their strategy for decades. 

Islam itself has to come up with answers to address the issue of suicide bombings, especially scholars from Pakistan and Afghanistan preferably not related to the government to give it credibility.  Saudi Arabia, which is responsible for the creation of such militant ideologies in the world, can also play a pivotal role in pointing out the absence of any precedence in Islam for suicide bombing.

  It is the least that the repressive Saudi government can do to undo the wrong that they have done in unleashing monsters in the world.

Media on Media

The recent phone hacking scandal that caused the shutdown of the 168-year old paper, The News of the World in London, has rocked the Western world, especially the United Kingdom and the United States. 

The UK is watching closely to see if this scandal, in which Prime Minister Cameron has found himself in the thick of things with almost amateurish decisions he made with regard to Coulson and Brooks, will be his undoing.  He may not come out of it unscathed, but most feel that after the damage is done, he will survive the crisis. 

Across the ocean, the Americans have called for a Congressional hearing to investigate allegations of phone hacking of family members of 9/11.  The Americans have stringent rules about spying on citizens in the United States, but not of foreigners in the country or Americans and non-Americans in foreign countries. 

The hue and cry in the United States is about protecting the rights of Americans rather than the right to privacy of citizens of the world.  In the days to come, it will be interesting  to see if a “Mediagate” is going to emerge from this, exposing many other media on both sides of the divide that have indulged in this act.  It remains to be seen if the media is going to report the wrongdoings of those in their own profession with the same degree of scrutiny.

To Purdah in Australia

The Australian government decided that police in the state of New South Wales will have the right to remove the purdah of a Muslim woman if they saw the individual as a potential threat.  Once the law is passed, authorities can under the pretext of threat violate the privacy and sanctity of a Muslim woman.

  Though Islamic law does not require a Muslim woman to wear the purdah (this is just the interpretation of certain fundamentalist Muslims), the issue is not about religion but freedom of choice, that is, the freedom of choice to dress in the manner that an individual chooses to or not to as in Twin Falls Resort, New South Wales, a nudist (or naturalist as they like to call themselves down-under) camp where one can bare it all. 

For one who does associate purdah with religion, asking to take off the purdah would be akin to taking off a “private” garment.  Once again, Western democracy appears not to have room for Islamic practices or principles of democracy itself when it comes to Muslims.

Politically Incorrect: As Gay as Gay Can be

Politically Incorrect: As Gay as Gay Can be: "In what has been hailed a historic event, New York lawmakers passed a Bill in the Senate to allow same sex marriage. New York is the sixth..."

The Nature of Muslim Politics

The Libyan, Syrian, Bahraini and Yemeni uprising clearly shows the Muslim world that their leaders are quite capable of shooting and maiming them at a moment’s notice or without missing a beat. 

Where are all the ayahs from the Quran and Hadith about the taking of a life now?  

Politics is politics, no matter how you cut it:  Muslim or non-Muslim.  It is an equal opportunity grim reaper. 

Muslim leaders, in the past few months, have shown that they are just as good as any butcher of people who have emerged in history. 

How can these leaders think that only they can govern or know what is good for the country or have the right to do away with the very people who had put them there?

  The answer is “Separation of ‘mosque’ and State” works for Muslims, too.

Barbaric Treatment

Two French journalists, Herve Ghesquiere and Stephane Taponier, who were held hostage by the Taliban for 18 months together with their interpreter, Reza Din, were freed a couple of days ago. 

CNN coverage of the event talked about how remarkably good the journalists looked. The release did make for a good story, but it would have been better if it had been filled with accounts of water-boarding or bondage or “naked ridicule” by short, ugly women with menacing, bleating trained goats, ready to attack and brutalize.  

The journalists should be grateful that they were hostages of barbaric “Moslem” fundamentalists who are holding secret talks with the Americans on the future of Afghanistan. Things could have gotten really ugly if they had been caught by civilized American Abu Ghraib personnel of the female persuasion. 

Media Uncovered

The former IMF head, Strauss, it appears, maybe innocent of rape charges that unseated him after all.  The American media, which paraded him in handcuffs and crucified him with talks and innuendos of past sexual escapades, which shocked even the liberal French public,appear once again to have been caught with their pants down.

  Of course, the media will very quickly do an about turn, after all this talk of the innocence of a religious maid who was subdued and taken advantage of by the monstrous Strauss. What is the media going to do?  

What it does best, I guess—scuttle off quietly, convince themselves that they were only doing their job, and go look for another victim.  It is interesting that all this came about the day after Lagarde was named his successor.  

More importantly, if Strauss does run for the French presidency and win, what would happen to American-French relationship, and how will the French ever forget the picture of their President, “walked” in handcuffs, unshaven, to an from court hundreds of times on TV?

A Tale of Two Johns

Just a few days ago, two Johns were dispatched to Egypt, together with an American Business delegation, to look into supposedly purely the economic concerns and needs of the Egyptian people.  

Senators Kerry and McCain, fanatical supporters of Israel, purportedly also talked to General Tantawi about returning Egypt to civilian rule as soon as possible.  Well, let us hope so since America did not have any qualms about supporting the despotic Mubarak for the longest time, solely in the interest of Israel. 

The former POW McCain and Kerry were naval officers in Vietnam and were probably sent to Egypt to give it the once over.  It may be easier to convince a General to hold on to power than allow an uncertain wave of democratic change to determine the future of Israeli-Egyptian relationship.  

Taming the President

In Netanyahu's last visit to the White House, he was fuming mad and gave President Obama such a tongue-wagging that it established in the minds of the public the kind of power wields over the US of A. People will not soon forget Netanyahu looking straight into the eyes of Obama and saying with the utmost defiance “It's never going to happen!”  

The subject of contention was Obama's announcement that  Palestinian-Israeli border negotiations have to center on the 67 proposal.  The firm, steely-eyed confrontation was played down by the American media, but the affront caused David Rosenberg to write in the Atlantic, “Dear Mr. Netanyahu, Please Don't Talk to My President That Way.”  

The President toughed it out at the AIPAC (American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee)  meeting a few days later, where he received less standing ovations than Netanyahu at the Jewish-lobbied Congress a few days after.  AIPAC is the largest political lobbying group, one of many, that determines the direction Congress should take on issues pertaining to Israel.

As Gay as Gay Can be

In what has been hailed a historic event, New York lawmakers passed a Bill in the Senate to allow same sex marriage.  New York is the sixth State to recognize same sex marriage.  Governor Andrew Cuomo has been credited for this historical move.  Gays and lesbians celebrated the event with cheers and tears throughout the country. 

Homosexuality, which is seen as an abomination in most societies, is accepted in Western democracies, though the French has banned the uses of the headscarf in public schools and the Dutch, the Italians, the Spaniards, and the Australians have shown increasing discrimination against Islam, further confirming the inability of Western democracies to accept benign Islamic concepts.  

This stance has spread to the sports arena with FIFA entering the political fray by banning the Iranian girls soccer team from playing for wearing headscarves.  Western intolerance to Islamic ideas and ways foreign to theirs has caused confusion to those in the Islamic world as to what Western democracy actually stands for.

FORBES rejoices in Verdict Upholding the Right to Insult Islam

 Geert Wilders, the rogue politician, who rose to fame by calling the Quran “fascist” and comparing it to Hitler's Mein Kampf, was acquitted of all charges of incitement of hate against Muslims.  In a predictable decision, Judge Marcel van Oosten, ruled that Wilders act did not constitute “hate speech” against Muslims, but represented a “general debate” about “values, morals, and culture.”

  Abigail Esman of FORBES states that “the findings in the Wilders case are reassurance that the ideals of the Enlightenment and of all democratic people stand strong.” The ruling, according to van Oosten, is based on the “broadest context” of the law that allows to “propagate the message” of the film “Fitna.”  Wilders and his followers cheered the verdict and Wilders reiterated outside the court that he will continue to fight Islam.  

The plaintiffs are planning to take the case to the UN and European courts. This is one in a series of judgements made in the West in the past few decades which includes a stance against unintrusive Islamic rites and practices like the wearing of the headscarf and face veils which has no place in Western democracy.