Book on Islam triggers row in Bihar, India
Yusuf in Cat Stevens form with '70s reissues
Unprecedented Numbers of Americans Question Israel’s Actions in
Nukes make
LeT behind Mumbai carnage:
Militants attack NATO supply terminal
Fighting rages in
Gazans seek new places to bury the dead
Some 20,000 Indonesian Muslims urge end to Israeli strikes
A Muslim Country for Mr. Obama to Visit
Three killed, one wounded in Thai Muslim south
Spate of bomb attacks in
Anti-Muslim Racism From Above and From Below
Compiled By New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/book-islam-triggers-row-bihar,/d/1118
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Book on Islam triggers row in
Indo-Asian News Service
A bookseller in this
The chief cleric of Jama Masjid in Munger district, Maulana Kari Abdullah Bukhari, had informed Chief Minister Nitish Kumar about the book and demanded immediate action.
Kumar directed Home Secretary Afzal Amanullah, the state minority commission chairman Naushad Ahmad and Patna Senior Superintendent of Police Amit Kumar to look into the matter.
Based on a complaint filed by Bukhari, the police arrested the bookseller and detained and interrogated the publisher of the book Nilofer Yasin, who is the wife of the author of the book, Mohammed Yasin Ahmad.
"A bookseller Sarfaraz was arrested and sent to jail and Nilofer was interrogated. Police are likely to arrest her husband Ahmad soon," Patna Superintendent of Police Anwar Hussain said.
He said that all of them have been charged with hurting the sentiments of the Muslim community.
"The complainant told the police that there are objectionable references to Islam in the book," Hussain said.
Ahmad's book "Islami Surah Ya Beimani Ka Panchnama" raised eyebrows among a section of the Muslim community, particularly clerics.
The 154-page book questioned ten tenets of Islam and the functioning of the Khalifas as well.
The police are on the lookout for Ahmad.
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Yusuf in Cat Stevens form with '70s reissues
By Edna Gundersen,
The singer, who adopted his Muslim name after converting to Islam in 1977, returns under his early singer/songwriter guise with the deluxe-edition reissues of 1970's Tea for the Tillerman and 1971's Teaser and the Firecat.
Fans who were stunned when the British pop star abandoned music to study the Quran 30 years ago may be more surprised to learn that Yusuf remains emotionally and philosophically committed to the landmarks that yielded Moonshadow, Morning Has Broken and Father and Son.
"It was an exciting experience to dig back into the spirit of those albums," says Yusuf, 60, picking through a small salad during lunch at Spago with his manager and his son. "They capture quite definitely a golden era of inspired music and expression. There's a need for that kind of awakening now. That music represents the brave exploration of the time, going beyond borders and normal confines."
The remastered versions of his catalog's two most treasured albums, released in November, include original artwork, new liner notes and bonus discs of rarities hand-picked by Yusuf. For Tea, he chose demos of Wild World and Miles From Nowhere and several previously unreleased live cuts, including Longer Boats and Into White from his
Recorded in his early 20s, Tea and Teaser not only resonate with Yusuf ("They explain why I'm so engaged in music now"), but they've also retained cultural relevance, he says.
"Look at Where Do the Children Play?" he says. "It's like a theme for Al Gore's Live Earth. The fact that it's still appropriate is sad because the lessons are not being learned. Industry is still chugging away."
Yusuf says he wasn't always conscious of the preternatural insight that marked the folk-rock tunes of his youth.
"It's something artists pick up that can't be measured by scientific means," he says. "You've almost got to stop thinking to be able to reach that place. In a way, when I made my life's change, I was trying to live up to those values that I had been hinting at for so many years. I wasn't always listening to my own wisdom."
Though Yusuf's sense of wonderment remains intact, he's less naive, he says.
"The journey is continuing, but my God, I'm not going to forget the lessons I've learned," he says. "You have to direct yourself to something higher than yourself, beyond a material level. That's what the songs represent. They still connect back to me. I can't reach those high notes, quite. And I'm a little taller, spiritually."
Soft-spoken and slim, sporting a neat beard, white jacket and blue-tinted glasses, Yusuf projects a gentle, pensive demeanour, not unlike his younger persona. Yet public perception shifted dramatically with his showbiz retreat and religious conversion.
When he released 2006's An Other Cup, his first new pop album in 28 years, "people were blown away that it sounded like…me," he says with a laugh.
David Spero, Yusuf's manager, sees maturity, not a radical personality change. "Cat Stevens was the voice of a generation, and Yusuf is a voice of that same generation grown up," he says.
Yusuf's son Yoriyos, also a musician, chimes in: "The biggest misconception is that he's two people. I don't see the difference between his music today and in the past. It's just a continuation, an evolving. But people have their own vision of what they want him to be."
After nearly drowning off the coast of
Yusuf initially ducked public scrutiny when he became a Muslim.
"The life of a star is a combination of desires for recognition, money, fame, love. I stopped because I was worried music might divert me from a higher door."
Did he miss it?
"Not really," he says, adding with a chuckle, "That was the '80s! My timing was pretty good."
When controversies erupted, Yusuf often served as a Muslim ambassador to the West, sometimes unintentionally inflaming relations (his comments on the Salman Rushdie fatwa), but usually offering healing words, as he did after 9/11.
The terror attacks "were a turning point," he says. "The message was: We better get to know each other before we destroy each other. The people in the middle, who are the majority, woke up to that. Unfortunately, a few leaders at the time didn't represent that point of view."
While he struggles to explain Islam's tenets, he isn't an apologist for Muslims and says he's frustrated that "they can point fingers but very rarely say, 'Perhaps I can do something to bridge the gaps.' "
After allowing his musical contribution to stagnate during his extended religious retreat, Yusuf rediscovered the simple purity of lyrics and melody.
"We yearn for happiness, beauty, peace, love," he says. "So many things interfere with that, but music can take you straight there. That is a good reason I make music. You can argue with a philosopher. You can't argue with a good song."
http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2009-01-11-cat-stevens_N.htm
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Nukes make
14 Jan 2009, 0856 hrs IST, PTI
WASHINGTON: Holding Pakistan as one of the main challenges being faced by the incoming Obama Administration, US Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton has said the South Asian nation is different because of the nuclear weapons it possess.
"
At the same time,
"The democratically elected government has been saying a lot of the right things with respect to the threat posed by the extremists and terrorists, particularly along the border and in the FATA region in
"So I'm hopeful that we will have a very active, positive relationship with the new
She, however, acknowledge that the Pakistan was a complicated problem as "It has many dimensions to it, the relationship with India, the relationship with Afghanistan, the role that Iran and others are playing in that region."
The former First Lady said, "
"So I'm -- I'm hopeful that we will have a very active, positive relationship with the new
"This is a very complicated problem. It has many dimensions to it... its relationship with
"We (have to) work more closely with the government of Pakistan to root out Al Qaida and other remnants of terrorist networks so that they don't find safe haven in Pakistan to plan attacks against us or any other country," she said.
However she said the administration would look at whether it can "condition some of that on the commitment for counterterrorism missions also."
The new administration is inclined to support, when appropriate, a legislation in this regard, she added.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Nukes_make_Pakistan_a_complex_issue_Hillary_Clinton/articleshow/3976083.cms
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LeT behind Mumbai carnage:
13 Jan 2009, 1440 hrs IST, IANS
politically” even as
“It's clear where the responsibility for the attack lies.
“The responsibility of the
“They need to be taken on politically in a frontal and clear manner,” Milliband, who began his four-day visit to India on Tuesday, said when asked about media reports indicating that the banned outfit Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a public front for LeT, has regrouped under a new banner.
Nearly a month ago, when British Prime Minister Gordon Brown visited
Milliband, however, ruled out the involvement of the Pakistani state in the Mumbai attacks. “I do not believe the attacks were directed by the Pakistani state,” Milliband replied when asked to comment on
"It is important to say that. What is also important is the response of the Pakistani government to the LeT," he said while underlining that
Asked about
“I do hope that they act on materials and evidence we have given to them and bring the perpetrators to justice,” Mukherjee said.
"I do hope some of the fugitives will be handed over to
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Lashkar_behind_Mumbai_terror_attacks_Britain/articleshow/3972449.cms
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14 Jan 2009, 0410 hrs IST, Indrani Bagchi, TNN
Despite the global turning of the screws,
Part of this comes from the fact that
This week, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sent a signal with a new year greeting card to Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari and PM Yousuf Gilani with a picture of a dove. Part of it also comes from a general desire to give the civilian government in
While officially, the government will not admit to any slackening,
Back home, foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee has been working overtime to ensure that
Domestically, Mukherjee has also worked on Tamil leaders like M Karunanidhi on the same issue. While the government has not officially complimented Sri Lankan army on its military successes in the Wanni jungles, there are no tears being shed for the LTTE anywhere in the government.
The new regime in Dhaka will be more willing to work on
Until then,
But if
For this reason,
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India_plans_to_rally_neighbours_to_pressure_Pak/articleshow/3975344.cms
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Kasab's fellow trainees were killed in J&K
13 Jan 2009, 0406 hrs IST, TNN
by October last year, according to the jailed terrorist.
Sources said Kasab, quoting the official publication of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, said that all six had been liquidated by Indian security forces in J&K. The jailed terrorist said he read about the killing of Abu Al Qasim, Abu Abdullah, Abu Hamza, Abu Zubair, Abu Omar and Abu Darzana in `Dawa', the mouthpiece of JuD.
According to Kasab, in all, 32 jihadis underwent a special training Daura-e-Khas at Lashkar camps to carry out lethal strikes against
Of the remaining 13, three had to be benched because, according to Kasab, they could not complete the marine training due to sea sickness. They would suffer from nausea and vomit frequently when taken out to sea as part of the training.
The three, along with some others who had trained alongside Kasab, were deputed to J&K but were soon killed by security forces, the lone terrorist to have been captured said.
The interrogation of Kasab and Sabauddin Ahmad, another Lashkar jihadi in custody, has brought out the key role played by Zarar Shah alias Zar Bhai in the attacks aimed at
In the presentation, he listed the strengths of
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Kasabs_fellow_trainees_were_killed_in_JK/articleshow/3969803.cms
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12 Jan 2009, 1012 hrs IST, Times Now
There is concrete evidence now that the Lashkar-e-Taiba’s front organization has re-emerged in the form of Tehreek-e-Tahafuz Qibla Awal.
Times Now has got visuals from
The Tehreek seems to be operating quite openly.
The TV channel has got its hands on a press invite informing the media about the rally at
The most obvious link to the Jamaat is the black and white flags being waved at the rally clearly showing that the Jamaat is very much undeterred. This reaffirms that the Jamaat is still to this date well and truly active in
One of those spotted in a grey vest is Hafiz Saif Ullah, known for being a main stream activist of Jamaat-ud-Dawa.
Maulana Munawar Hassan who belongs to Jamaat-e-Islami, an ally of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, is also seen in the video.
Also present at this protest was Allama Tahir Mehmood
Ashrafi, a mainstream Talibani, and also part of Lashkar-e-Taiba. He played a vital role in the returning of the Pakistani Taliban from
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Pakistans_Jamaat_ban_lie_nailed/articleshow/3966239.cms
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Militants attack NATO supply terminal
Bureau Report
According to sources, six rockets were fired on NATO terminal and a truck was destroyed after catching fire while other three vehicles were also damaged. A foreign News Agency while quoting police sources told that after the attack, the officials of law enforcing agencies have decided the patrolling of police and FC while the security forces were also equipped with latest arms. According to police officials, the investigation of the incident has been started.
Senior Police Officer Fida Amjad while talking to a Foreign News Agency told that Police and Para Military Forces chased the attackers and engaged a fierce clash with them for half and hour. The attackers, however, managed to escape from the scene. No loss of life was reported, he added.
Taliban militants launched a rocket attack on a NATO supply depot in northwest
That offensive was mounted after a series of spectacular attacks on depots in and around
http://dailymailnews.com/200901/14/news/dmtopstory03.html
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Israelis 'push on into
Air strikes on
Israeli troops have entered the suburbs of
Witnesses said Israeli special forces had advanced several hundred metres into several neighbourhoods and that intense gunfire could be heard.
Earlier, Israeli planes attacked more targets in
A UN watchdog meanwhile accused
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child said more than 40% of those killed in
The attacks would have a severe emotional and psychological effect on an entire generation of children in
A Palestinian human rights group earlier said more than 90,000 people had fled their homes during the conflict.
Click here to see a graph of mortar and rocket fire during the conflict
Palestinian medical officials say more than 40 people were killed on Tuesday, and that the emergency services have been unable to reach many of the areas targeted by the Israeli military.
They say that since the offensive began on 27 December, 971 people have been killed in
Thirteen Israelis have died, three of them civilians,
Despite the Israeli offensive, militants in
Talat Jad, a resident of the
"We even silenced our mobile phones because we were afraid the soldiers in the tanks could hear them," he said.
Analysts say
Diplomatic efforts to achieve a ceasefire are continuing in
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak also made an unannounced visit on Tuesday to
The BBC's Magdi Abdelhadi in
Earlier, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said any agreement would have to entail a halt to Israeli attacks, a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces and the opening of border crossings to end the blockade of
However, the Israeli foreign ministry said there was no guarantee that Hamas would respect any ceasefire agreement.
Hospital visit
Earlier, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Jakob Kellenberger, visited
Speaking on a tour of
"I wanted to see this hospital and I can only say this is really very sad and it hurts a lot when you see what I've just seen," he said.
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said the military operation would continue in order to stop Hamas rockets being fired into
"We are working towards those two goals while at the same time keeping an eye on the diplomatic initiatives," he said during a tour of an Israeli air force base.
Jakob Kellenberge, International Red Cross: 'The medical mission has to be protected'
Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas accused
"This is the 18th day of the Israeli aggression against our people, which has become more ferocious each day as the number of victims rises," he said.
"
"The president-elect and I understand and are deeply sympathetic to
"However, we have also been reminded of the tragic humanitarian costs of conflict in the
The Al-Mizan Centre for Human Rights, a Palestinian group, said that more than 90,000 people had abandoned their homes to escape the Israeli bombardment.
About 31,000 of them were staying at UN-run schools in
UN mission
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is due in the region on Wednesday for talks to try to end the fighting.
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Fighting rages in
14 January 2009
GAZA CITY - Israeli forces battled Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip's main city early Wednesday and bombed the enclave's southern border with Egypt as the death toll from the war on Hamas neared 1,000.
As the war entered its 19th day, witnesses said the number of air strikes on
'Tanks are shelling Palestinian fighters, who are responding with RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades). There is heavy machine-gun fire on both sides.'
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Speaking on Tuesday, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said
'
Israeli special forces backed by tanks and air strikes had thrust ever deeper into Gaza's City, advancing hundreds of metres (yards) into several neighbourhoods in the south, witnesses said.
The crump of tank shells and the crackle of gunfire echoed through much of the day.
Palestinian medical sources said around 70 people were killed on Tuesday, taking the overall toll to around 975 Palestinians, with another 4,400 wounded.
Ten Israeli soldiers and three civilians have been killed in combat or by rocket attacks since December 27, when the Jewish state began its deadliest ever offensive on
The military said its warplanes had attacked more than 100 targets since early on Monday morning, including 55 weapons-smuggling tunnels in southern
Eighteen rockets and mortar rounds were fired into
Israel's military chief said Operation Cast Lead was making progress but warned that troops faced 'complicated' conditions in Gaza City, home to more than half a million people and where Israel has little combat experience.
'We have already achieved a lot against both Hamas's infrastructure and its military wing but we still have work to be done,' the chief of staff, Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi, told lawmakers.
A senior official told the Ynet Internet news site that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had 'defined two objectives -- an end to Hamas fire and terror, and an end to the organisation's military build-up. As long as these objectives are not secured, we will not be under any pressure (to end the operation).'
Saying 'nobody should stand there with a stop watch or try to put a gun to our head' to end the offensive, he added: 'We are not seeking an exit, but rather, success. As Olmert defined it, what we need here is a strategy of success, regardless of how much time it takes.'
A Hamas delegation is currently in
A senior source in
A top Hamas leader, Mussa Abu Marzuk, acknowledged the movement had 'substantial observations' about the initiative but said there was 'still a chance' they would accept it.
Hillary Clinton, due to become US secretary of state in a week's time, said Barack Obama's administration would make 'every effort' to forge peace but ruled out talks with Hamas until it recognised Israel's right to exist.
'You cannot negotiate with Hamas until it renounces violence, recognises
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and with Mubarak, pressing them 'for the specific measures necessary to deliver a full and sustainable ceasefire' in line with last week's UN Security Council Resolution.
Brown's office said he was 'deeply troubled' by the suffering in
Aid agencies have warned of a growing humanitarian crisis in the territory where the vast majority of the 1.5 million population depends on foreign aid and is already reeling from 18 months of punishing Israeli blockade.
'Israeli bombardment is causing extensive destruction to homes and to public infrastructure throughout the Gaza Strip and is jeopardizing water, sanitation and medical services,' said a UN field report.
'As of this morning (Tuesday), 60 percent of Gazans are not receiving any power. The rest receive electricity intermittently,' the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle08.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2009/January/middleeast_January289.xml§ion=middleeast
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14 January 2009
CAIRO, Egypt – Egyptian mediators pushed the militant Palestinian group Hamas to accept a truce proposal for the embattled Gaza Strip in talks on Tuesday, while the U.N. secretary-general headed to the region to join diplomatic efforts for a cease-fire.
U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon has backed the Egyptian truce proposal to halt the fighting, now in its third week. Before leaving
"To both sides, I say: Just stop, now," Ban told a news conference Monday. "Too many people have died." He said Hamas militants who have been firing rockets into southern
The U.N. Security Council on Tuesday unanimously supported Ban's efforts after he briefed the council behind closed doors.
Tuesday's talks between Hamas and Egyptian officials in
But so far, the push has yielded little public progress.
Hamas' deputy leader Moussa Abu Marzouk told Al-Jazeera TV that the Egyptian proposal is not acceptable as it stands. Hamas has "amendments" for it and if "taken into consideration, it will be a framework for moving toward a solution," he said.
A Palestinian official close to Hamas said the previous round of Egypt-Hamas talks on Sunday were "stormy." The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was discussing closed-door talks.
Defense officials say that depending on what happens in
The U.N. Secretary-General won't meet Hamas officials or go to
During the Sunday negotiating session,
On Tuesday, the Hamas delegation held a new round of talks with Suleiman and Egyptian officials. Later, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak left on a previously unannounced trip to
The talks come as Israeli ground troops pushed deeper into
Hamas demands an immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces from
How those crossings are to be opened, however, is a major sticking point.
Arab League head Amr Moussa said 13 members have agreed to attend. However, at least 14 members must agree for a summit to be called.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle08.asp?xfile=data/gaza/2009/January/gaza_January317.xml§ion=gaza
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Gazans seek new places to bury the dead
14 January 2009
More than two weeks into the Israeli offensive that has killed more than 940 Palestinians, Gazans are struggling to find places to bury their dead. Cemeteries throughout
"Gaza is all a graveyard," gravedigger Salman Omar said Tuesday as he shoveled earth in Gaza City's crammed Sheik Radwan cemetery, a cigarette dangling from his lips.
Just six miles wide and 25 miles long,
The offensive is aimed at crushing the militant group Hamas and ending its rocket attacks on southern
Among them are the Samouni cousins, 5-month-old Mohammed, 1-year-old Mutasim and 2-year-old Ahmed, whose family hurriedly dug up the grave of an aunt to lay them to rest last week.
"We buried them quickly," said Iyad Samouni, 26, speaking from al-Awda hospital in
He said the family fled the graveyard after they came under fire from a warplane.
The three boys were killed Jan. 5 in what the family and the United Nations said was an Israeli shelling attack on a house in eastern
Many members of the clan were wiped out. The exact number is unknown — figures vary from 14 to 30 people. Medics believe there are still bodies buried under the rubble that cannot be reached because of fighting in the area.
At Sheik Radwan on Tuesday, mourners pulled away the slabs of concrete covering the graves of long-deceased relatives, pushed the bones aside and lowered in the newly dead.
"You have a martyr: you need an immediate solution," Omar, 24, said, using the term many Gazans use for Palestinians killed by Israeli fire and referring to Islamic law, which requires the dead be buried as soon as possible.
"You look for where your grandmother, uncle or mother was buried, and bury them there. If there's three or four, bury them in the same grave," he said, drawing on a cigarette as he dug.
Nearby, relatives hammered away at the concrete tomb of Moyhideen Sarhi, killed last May in an Israeli strike against Hamas militants. His brother Kamel, 22, also a Hamas militant, was killed Tuesday.
The family feared approaching
"As they were in life they are in death," said their cousin, Salim, 28, as other relatives pushed aside the slab protecting Mohyideen's remains and kissed his shroud before lowering his brother's body on top.
Even the pathways in the hilly cemetery were filled with graves. The older ones had marble slabs, a reminder of more affluent times. Relatives of the newly buried make do with a small tile or a name etched in concrete. For others, there was no name at all, just the tombstone of the relative buried there first.
One family arrived with their 14-year-old son, who they said was killed in an Israeli strike.
A gravedigger approached, asking if the family had a deceased relative whose grave they could reopen. Street children hoping for small change scrambled to look for graves the family could use.
Nearby, men in jeans dug up their grandfather's grave. The loud crashing sound of an airstrike nearby made some of them look up. Their relative, Mohammed Abu Leila, was a militant killed in the fighting.
"I've buried a policeman in his mother's grave," said Omar, the gravedigger. "I buried three brothers in one hole. I buried children with their mothers. You don't ask questions: it's just important to find a place and bury them."
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle08.asp?xfile=data/gaza/2009/January/gaza_January316.xml§ion=gaza
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Some 20,000 Indonesian Muslims urge end to Israeli strikes
JAKARTA (AFP) — At least 20,000 Indonesian Muslims have staged a peaceful rally in the capital to call for an end to
Protesters from the Islamic Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) gathered at the national monument in
The demonstrators, accompanied by their families and children, waved Palestinian flags and carried banners reading "Save Palestine," "
At the national monument, parliamentary chairman Hidayat Nur Wahid, who is a senior PKS member, urged the United Nations Security Council to press
"This is a serious human tragedy. We urge the UN Security Council to put more pressure on
Protesters stepped on a large Israeli flag before burning it.
As a show of support, protest organisers also collected money to help the Palestinian people.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gt21l3GHDwV2qekKbGiCiSnDTsuw
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As the violence continues in
BY NICK RAVENSCROFT, BBC NEWS,
The Jewish community in
Not all Jews are uncritical of the Israeli government's actions normally. But at times of conflict, like now, any misgivings tend to be put aside and people express solidarity.
Simon Lader, 34, says Jews here feel very close to what's happening in
"If there was a resurgence of the IRA and they started bombing
He is worried about the effect on community relations here.
"British Jews may be unfairly targeted because of the actions of
Hadassah Fidler, who has just had her third child, says watching the news is painful.
"You feel awful. Lots of innocent Palestinians are caught up."
But she believes
As to the proportionality of
The difference in numbers of casualties has led to much criticism of
"It so happens that Hamas' rockets are not precise," he says. "But their aim is still to kill civilians. Had they been more successful they'd have killed thousands."
BY FIONA TROTT, BBC NEWS,
When you walk around the Bordesley centre in
They have relatives in
Another woman who came to the centre on Friday was Nily Abuarqab. She moved to Solihull from Ramallah and still has a sister in
Chris Khamis of West Midlands Solidarity Campaign says the UN resolution is 'too little too late'
Nily's four-year-old nephew is so traumatised by what is happening around him that he has stopped talking.
"When I last spoke to my sister on the phone, I could hear air strikes in the background," she told us. "She was crying and could hardly speak. The whole family is traumatised."
For Nily and some of the students here, the UN resolution is too little, too late.
They believe a ceasefire is a long way off and one Palestinian has described it as "a fight between two children - if you're trying to break it up, you don't pick on the small one who's being bullied". But that is what is happening to the Palestinians, he says.
On Thursday night a special service was held at the Singer's Hills synagogue about four miles away in
It was an opportunity for people from all different faiths to come together and pray for those caught up in the conflict.
On Friday evening a rally is due to be held in the city's
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7820729.stm
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Three killed, one wounded in Thai Muslim south
Sun Jan 11, 2009 12:26am EST
YALA, Thailand, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Gunmen killed three people and wounded one in Thailand's south, police said on Sunday, the latest violence in a five-year separatist rebellion.
Those killed, two of them Muslim, were shot dead while riding motorcycles to work in a rubber plantation in Bannang Sata district of Yala province, one of three southernmost provinces roiled by violence that has killed 3,200 people since 2004.
The rubber-producing provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, abutting predominantly Muslim Malaysia to the south, were an independent Muslim sultanate until their annexation by Buddhist Thailand a century ago.
No group has claimed responsibility for any of the almost daily shooting, bombings arson attacks, which have driven out many in the 20 percent Buddhist minority. (Reporting by Surapan Boonthanom; Writing by Ploy Chitsomboon; Editing David Fox)
http://www.reuters.com/article/asiaCrisis/idUSBKK168618
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A Muslim Country for Mr. Obama to Visit
As Saad Eddin Ibrahim noted in his Dec. 20 op-ed, "An Outreach to Muslims," President-elect Barack Obama's plan to visit a Muslim country in his first 100 days in office will draw attention worldwide, and for his message of reconciliation he should choose a country that has a tradition of uninterrupted democracy and proper treatment of its citizens.
The place best fitting these criteria is the world's most progressive Muslim nation:
After defeating a communist insurgency,
A top
ROBERT J. MARRO
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/10/AR2009011001764.html
Sunday, January 11, 2009; Page B06
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Lehigh Valley Muslim groups protest Israeli attacks on Hamas in
Sunday, January 11, 2009
By SARA K. SATULLO
The Express-Times
ALLENTOWN | As snow fell on the protesters Saturday at Ninth and Hamilton streets, many said they wished the children of Gaza could look up to the sky and see the snowflakes instead of rockets.
Despite the weather, the rally, organized by several Lehigh Valley Muslim groups, drew several hundred people to protest
Many of the protesters, holding signs declaring "War leaves every child behind" and "Stop the killing now," still have family members in the Gaza Strip.
One protester, a 42-year-old Palestinian refugee who refused to give his name, said he fled the "oppressive occupation" in 1984 but his elderly parents and extended family are still "trapped" in
"My children have been having nightmares," he said. "They have cousins there. They are so afraid for them."
Organizers held the rally to bring attention to the fighting, said organizer and
"It's just a tremendous destruction of life," Bugaighis said.
Carolyn Katwan, assistant executive director of the Jewish Federation of the
"War is terrible. It is not the option any of us chooses but that is the result when you have to defend yourself," Katwan said. "I think the Palestinians are suffering but Hamas has led them to this."
Protesters called for an end to violence and for Palestinian freedom. They said they hoped calling attention to the fighting could help educate the public and lead to pressure on political leaders.
"We hope our voices are heard so we can save the lives of the women and children in
The latest conflict amounts to genocide, he said.
"It's really almost like adding to my collective memory of
Reporter Sara K. Satullo can be reached at 610-867-5000 or by e-mail at ssatullo@express-times.com. The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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Unprecedented Numbers of Americans Question Israel’s Actions in
By Max Blumenthal, Huffington Post. Posted January 6, 2009.
Could it be the rise of online progressive media telling the truth about
Almost as soon as the first Israeli missile struck the Gaza Strip, a veteran cheering squad suited up to support the home team. “
While the cheerleaders testified to the superior moral fibre of their team, the Palestinian civilian death toll mounted. Israeli missiles tore at least fifteen Palestinian police cadets to shreds at a graduation ceremony, blew twelve worshipers to pieces (including six children) while they left evening prayers at a mosque, flattened the elite American International School, killed five sisters while they slept in their beds, and liquidated 9 women and children in order to kill a single Hamas leader. So far, Israeli forces have killed at least 500 Gazans and wounded some two thousand, including hundreds of children. Yesterday, the IDF blanketed parts of
“It was
By New Year’s Day,
Israeli public relations agents fanned out to broadcast studios from the
But while Israel’s PR machine cranked its Mighty Wurlitzer to full blast, drowning out all opposing voices with its droning sound, a surprisingly substantial portion of the American public decided to dance to its own tune. According to a December 31 Rasmussen poll (so far the only measure of
While Republicans supported the assault on
So what accounts for the surprising trend in American opinion on
Now, an increasing share of Americans know what
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Max Blumenthal is a Puffin Foundation writing fellow at the Nation Institute based in
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Spate of bomb attacks in
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7823906.stm
At least eight people have been killed and more than a dozen injured after a series of bomb blasts ripped through
At least three including a policeman died in two blasts in New Baghdad district in the east of the city.
In the west of the city, three Iraqi soldiers died when a roadside bomb hit their military convoy.
Two civilians were killed in explosions in the central commercial district of Karrada, and near a police checkpoint.
The blasts occurred during the morning rush hour. Police said the explosions had mainly targeted Iraqi security forces.
'Pools of blood'
The
"I rushed out with others to see three bodies on the ground in pools of blood, " a witness, Mohammed Nasir, told AP news agency.
"This place has witnessed several bombings before and we fear that violence will come back after a period of quiet."
The explosions occurred on a road running through the commercial district, which local residents said was frequently used by police and army convoys.
More recently, however, Iraqi security forces have been targeted as they increasingly take the lead in military operations.
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Anti-Muslim Racism From Above and From Below
On the Culturalization of Social Antagonisms in Neoliberalism
by Gruppe Soziale Kämpfe
11. January 2009
The successful prevention of the “Anti-Islamification” Congress in
Broad coalitions – such as that in
The National Competitive State and Security Policies
1) Why is “Islam” such an attractive bogeyman for so many people? The right’s capacity for mobilization has to be considered within the context of capitalism’s upheavals and neo-liberal and authoritarian strategies of the ruling block. 2) To what extent can we actually speak of an anti-Muslim racism (AMR for short) without therefore falling into the trap of overlooking right-wing elements within Islamic movements? Reactionary political-religious movements within Islam must be criticized along with the social conditions in which they emerge, taking into account the racism of the majority society and the economic, cultural, and political contradictions of globalized capitalism.
Our thesis is: AMR is one aspect of processes of the culturalization of the social question. Within these conflicts (at least since the 1980s), the question of cultural identity and difference becomes central, and the capitalist conditions for racism and the hierarchical subjugation of immigrants are pushed into the background. The neo-liberal block in power, by mobilizing through the bogeyman “Islam”, can organize consent for security policies while rolling back social security. This is an authoritarian way of processing social antagonisms that rests upon the organization of racist compromises. One challenge for an anti-racist critique consists in understanding how growing sections of the population are integrated into this racist compromise, in order to develop counter-strategies.
Discussions concerning the social position of Muslim religious practices have become a central field of social conflict. Extreme right-wing and right-conservative forces (including parts of the Christian Democratic Union/CDU, the major conservative political party in the Federal Republic of Germany) place emphasis upon the mobilization of social alliances against immigrants as “Muslims” (understood in a homogeneous sense) or practitioners of “Islam” (understood in a singular sense). In doing so, they can organize broad acceptance and a racist consensus with regard to “foreigners” and “their culture”, alleged to have no place in the national community.
Common to all of these mobilizations is that they depict “Islam” as a homogeneous, static culture of the other (that is to say, cultural non-Germans/Europeans) and ascribe to immigrants an essential cultural identity as Muslims. This culture is alleged to be incompatible with the majority society, leading as it does to social problems (Islam as the supposed cause for the inability or unwillingness to integrate) and posing a threat to “society”. According to the respective ideological position, German society is either understood as being Christian-occidental and held together by means of the German language, or as being Western-secular. In both currents, “Islam” is regarded as an anti-modern, backwards culture.
AMR must therefore be analyzed between the conflicting poles of culturalist and orientalist constructions on the one hand, and their modification and “renewal” within debates concerning “the society in which we live”, a process that takes place within a constellation of social force relations (economic, political, and ideological-cultural).
In the imagery concerning immigrants within the Federal Republic of Germany, religion or culture did not initially play a dominant role. Immigrants were regarded as “guest workers”, their (structural) racist subjugation within the Fordist Wirtschaftswunder society of post-war
The Processing of Social Antagonisms from “Below”
To this extent we speak of a metamorphosis of the discourse concerning the “other”: it constructs immigrants in a religious-cultural way as Muslims and “Islam” as bellicose-terrorist. This discourse is racist because it cements relations of power that aim at the exclusion or subjugation of “immigrants” as “cultural others”. Social “problems” and antagonisms within capitalist society are therefore associated with an “identifiable” group – an “ethnification of the social question”. This points to a far-reaching shift in the social balance of forces – in political discourse, within the state, and within civil society.
The ethnification of the social question was consummated in the 1980s within the context of Helmut Kohl’s “spiritual-moral turn” (“geistig-moralischer Wende”). This shift was initiated by political conservatives, but was then accepted and strengthened by the left, with the plus and negative signs inverted. The left thus allowed itself to get sucked into the cultural field of discourse. The orientation towards tolerance for other cultures because of their “difference” characterizes multiculturalism as an ideology of the liberal-bourgeois spectrum. It excludes the “social question” and consolidates the picture of other cultures.
Now many former advocates of multiculturalism proclaim its failure and formulate the demand for the cultural integration of immigrants. The previous SPD-Green government made an attempt of at least reforming German citizenship laws in order to promote political equality, but otherwise continued with the ethnification of the social question. Class antagonisms and social relations of power vanished in the project of the “
At the very latest with the grand coalition between the CDU and SPD, the theme of Islam as a “security problem” has been pushed to the foreground. This is being implemented through new relationships between state integration policies and initiatives and associations within civil society: Muslim organizations are invited to “integration summits” as representatives of “immigrant interests”. These groups do in fact advocate conservative and in part questionable positions concerning basic rights – but they also only represent around 20% of the Muslims in
The capacity for mobilization of anti-mosque movements is a part of the wide-reaching shifts in the cultural-ideological field. But the conjuncture of anti-Muslim, racist discourses in various social spheres and groups is tightly bound up with social upheavals within capitalism and the hegemony of neo-liberal policies at the national and European level. In the competitive state, social security is hollowed out. At the same time, security apparatuses are revved up and security policies intensified. Foreign and security policy is directed against new enemies: political Islam and terrorism.
Alliances for Transnational Social Security
Anti-Islamic discourses have a double effect: On the one hand, they mobilize consent for the extension of security policies and the defence of “western”, European interests, with military means amongst others. On the other hand, the interpretative frameworks contained within these discourses – social conflicts and the contradictions of capitalist globalization become conflicts between religions, conflicts between cultures, and are made into “security problems” – are taken up from below in order to conduct struggles over the distribution of social wealth and for social security in an exclusionary manner, and in order to form alliances on the basis of racist cultural constructs or national identities.
Whereas in Fordism the integration of subalterns was consummated via material concessions, the welfare state, and the promise of a calculable/desirable future, the present, neo-liberal phase of capitalism has nothing to offer other than fear, control, and security. Noticeable is how campaigns “from above” are picked up, elaborated, and answered from below. Through the security discourse and the culturalistic and anti-Muslim constructions contained within it, neo-liberal strategies gain acceptance from below and find a resonance in the experiences of insecurity by precarized workers or groups threatened by social decline. The security discourse, racism, and the spread of insecurity are intertwined with one another (in a contradictory manner).
Some everyday distributive or competitive struggles are construed in a racist manner. Those still employed in relatively secure wage labour and who have an affirmative position with regard to neo-liberal reorganization accept intensified working conditions as a challenge. The more the pressure increases and the more these workers struggle in order to keep up, the more vehemently they demand the same of others. Those who cannot or refuse to hold their own are qualified as excludable. This is the manner in which the neo-liberal answer to the increasing precariousness of the middle class and the extension of authoritarian and disciplinary policies against the so-called underclass is accepted and lived.
But a critique of AMR that breaks with the logic of the culturalization of social antagonisms is only possible when Islamic religious and cultural movements are taken seriously as a component of these conflicts. The diverse (!) movements in religious and political Islam must be criticized, while at the same time not disregarding the hierarchical and racist social relations in which they are embedded. An interventionist anti-racist politics must create alliances for social security and confront culturalistic interpretations of social antagonisms within them.
How can perspectives be developed in which the interests of many groups can be combined in solidarity? Cross-cultural, counter-hegemonic orientations and identities can only emerge in the long-term in common discussions that cross the barriers of different social groups without disregarding their differences within capitalist and racist relations of power. Some approaches might be the efforts towards a transnational network for a “social
This text originally appeared in German in issue Nr. 533 / 21.11.2008 of ak - analyse & kritik - zeitung für linke Debatte und Praxis
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/book-islam-triggers-row-bihar,/d/1118