A Syrian Boy’s Photo and the Degradation of Values: New Age Islam's Selection, 22 August 2016
New Age Islam Edit Bureau
22 August 2016
• A Syrian Boy’s Photo and the Degradation of Values
By Turki Aldakhil
• Ban or No Ban, Burkinis Won't Go Out Of Fashion
By Sara Miller Llana
• Iran's 'Shia Liberation Army' Is Par For The Course
By Tallha Abdulrazaq
• The People of Aleppo Are Not Waiting For US Elections
By Jamal Khashoggi
• The Russian Expansion In The Region
By Abdulrahman Al-Rashed
Compiled By New Age Islam Edit Bureau
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A Syrian Boy’s Photo and the Degradation of Values
By Turki Aldakhil
21 August 2016
The photograph of Omran Daqneesh, the Syrian boy who was pulled from rubble in Aleppo, has made headlines across the world. There’s nothing like the Syrian tragedy and Omran’s photo is a symbol. It is a story that sums up what’s happening in Syria. Omran sat quietly on the chair in the ambulance, shocked and unaware of what was going on around him as his eyes gazed into nothingness. This is what immortalized the photo and why it is significant. According to a nurse, the child did not shed a single tear until he saw his mother and father.
“He’s in shock. He did not say a word other than to ask about his mother and father who were saved after him. He started to cry the second he saw them,” the nurse said.
International abandonment of Syria is the most terrible thing to happen since World War II. In 1995, then-US President Bill Clinton intervened in Bosnia and Herzegovina and crushed Milosevic and gave him two options: to either impose peace by force or accept the terms of a peace plan. Thus came the Dayton Agreement which ended the war. The US did the same in Kosovo. Consecutive American administrations have been strict about maintaining peace in the world based on the responsibility that “American domination” entails.
International abandonment of Syria is the most terrible thing to happen since World War II
US President Barack Obama said that a large portion of his grey hair is due to meetings he attends on Syria. History will document the photos of Omran and Aylan Kurdi and mark that the 17 million refugees and 300,000 Syrian people killed since the crisis erupted are the outcome of international and American inaction.
While fiercely criticizing Obama for abandoning Syria, Fouad Ajami said: “Don't tell a man to go to hell unless you intend to send him there.”
Source: english.alarabiya.net/en/views/2016/08/21/A-Syrian-boy-s-photo-and-the-degradation-of-values-.html
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Ban or No Ban, Burkinis Won't Go Out Of Fashion
By Sara Miller Llana
August 21, 2016
There's an image of a swimsuit plastered across Paris, but it's not the "Burkini" - the full-body, head-covering piece for Muslim women that's sent France into a tizzy this August.
It's a photo of Ava Gardner sporting a bright-yellow two-piece, marking a gallery retrospective: "The bikini at 70 years."
An intern behind the counter at Galerie Joseph in the heart of Paris's fashionable 3rd arrondissement points out one of the exhibit's more ironic displays, given the timing: an old photo of a woman getting a fine for her belly-exposing costume. As he speaks, seven decades later, women are getting ticketed on the shores of France for their concealing two-pieces, after a handful of mayors banned the "burkini" this summer.
But before it gets co-opted as the latest symbol of France's long-brewing cultural war over expressions of state secularism, designers of the burkini, and of Islamic fashion generally, are fighting to stand above the fray, arguing this is just the latest maillot to hit the plage. And over time - and with vibrant, stylish design - they say the burkini can be seen as a modern Muslim woman's choice within the "modest fashion" industry that's burgeoning, not a tool of politics or oppression.
"Like the bikini, the Burkini will take time to become natural for people to wear, because it is a fairly new concept to many people," says Vanessa Lourenco, who started designing them for her Paris boutique MadammeBK in 2012, and sees a role for "haute couture coverage" in that process. "I feel that designers of the bikini were the ones in control of making the new fashion become ordinary and the same will happen with the designers of the burkini. Because in the end, it is just a new type of fashion."
That's not the way everyone sees it. The swimwear is not brand new, and has been prohibited from some swimming spots beyond France. But it has become a lightning rod since the mayor of Cannes, some 20 miles south of Nice where a radical killed 85 people by driving his truck into them on the seaside promenade, banned it last week. This week a handful of others have followed or promised to follow suit, citing everything from hygiene to political provocation.
The French government, which bans full-head veils in public and headscarves in schools, has backed their moves. "The burkini is not a new range of swimwear, a fashion. It is the expression of a political project, a counter-society, based notably on the enslavement of women," said French Prime Minister Manuel Valls this week.
Clicking through the Burkinis on the webpage of MadammeBK, it's hard to reconcile that rhetoric with the offers on the rack. There is a Burkini called Amelie Champagne, a four-piece that includes a coral headpiece and a blue headband as an accessory. It sells for 125 euros ($141). There is Paris, pink and rimmed in a shiny silver, that goes over skinny pants and is on sale at 78 euros ($88). All of the fabric is imported from Italy. All of it is made in France.
Today Muslim consumers spend $230 billion on fashion, a number expected to grow to $327 billion by 2020, according to the 2015-2016 State of the Global Islamic Economy Report by research firm DinarStandard.
But the rise of Islamic fashion, which represents part of the Muslim consumer market, is not just about globalisation or growing purchasing power among Muslims, says Neslihan Cevik, author of "Muslimism in Turkey and Beyond: Religion in the Modern World" and founder of M-Line Fashion in Turkey, which aims to meld religion and modernity in a clothes style for those ages 18 to 24. She says it's about increased participation of Muslim women in modern life - from beach sports to demanding jobs - and a clamouring for women to set their own styles.
One of the problems that she sees with the Burkini right now is that so many are just "so ugly." One Turkish columnist likened women wearing Burkinis to "ninja turtles" with their drab colours and body pieces full of water. And Ms. Cevik says that high-end design, from the fabrics chosen to the motifs sewn on, could go a long way psychologically toward bridging what threatens to turn into another cultural divide.
"If the hijabi girl dressed just as modern as you are, it’s. Less threatening," she says. "Closing the gap between hijabi and Western women's styles would make a big difference."
Her line is planning to come out with a swimsuit concept for Muslims next summer.
Sensing the opportunity, major brands have waded into Islamic fashion. British retailer Marks & Spencer, which first sold a burkini three years ago, did so online for the first time this year. If you search for it though on their website, you won't find it, explains a spokeswoman at the London flagship. "It has sold out," she says.
And Islamic fashion appeals beyond the Muslim world, with many women who cringe at "short-shorts" or halter tops sharing a sensibility with "modest fashion." Aheda Zanetti, the Australian who created the "burkini" after watching her niece struggle to play sports in her traditional coverage a decade ago, says many of her clients are non-Muslims who are drawn to the protection a Burkini provides from the sun.
The sales clerk at a small shop selling women's robes in central Paris sighs. If only it were so simple in France. Her store sells one model of burkini - one version in blue and one in pink for the "girly girly" customers, she says - and they are sold out. But she doubts mainstream French brands would get into the business of Burkinis as Marks & Spencer has.
"In England they are more open. There isn't a polemic like here in France," she says. "They know it's just fabric."
Back at the bikini exhibit in Paris, the intern is not so sure. "This is not just a debate about a bathing suit, but about religion, and women," he says. He points to another photo: women at the beach in the early 1900s in full dress. "You can't enjoy the sea like this," he says. "It's a shame to go backwards."
Indeed, there is no sign that mainstream French society views this as a normal evolution in swimwear, at least not yet. At Galerie Joseph, which begins with the bikini's debut in Paris in 1946, there is no Burkini in sight at the end to take us up to the present day.
Source: khaleejtimes.com/editorials-columns/ban-or-no-ban-burkinis-wont-go-out-of-fashion
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Iran's 'Shia Liberation Army' Is Par For The Course
By Tallha Abdulrazaq
21 Aug 2016
In a surprising moment of transparency and clarity, one of Iran's former most senior military leaders confirmed that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), or Pasdaran in Persian, had established a "Shia Liberation Army" (SLA).
Speaking to the Mashregh news agency, which is close to the Pasdaran and the Iranian regime, retired General Mohammad Ali Al Falaki said that the new army's primary objective would be to fight in Arab countries and would recruit heavily from non-Iranian Shia Muslims across the world.
"Haj Falaki", as he is honorifically and respectfully known in Iran, announced that the SLA was formed in Syria and would be commanded by Brigadier General Qassem Soleimani, the enigmatic commander of the Pasdaran's Quds Force.
In essence, the Quds Force, the Pasdaran's elite unit engaging in operations abroad, would be responsible for an entire army of foreign fighters.
This could be because, according to the interview, Falaki does not believe that it would be "wise for … Iranian forces to be directly thrown into war in Syria".
When news of this interview broke, Mashregh subsequently edited the word "Shia" out of the organisation's name to leave it as just the "Liberation Army", but not before it was picked up by many news agencies.
This was likely an editorial decision to reduce the sense that the SLA was a sectarian force designed to further the cause of exporting the ideology and fervour of Ayatollah Khomeini's 1979 revolution.
But if the Iranians already have the Quds Force for waging low-intensity - yet no less bloody - conflict overseas, why is this announcement so important?
Iranian Use Of Foreign Fighters Nothing New
The reality is that none of this should be surprising in the slightest. Since Khomeini's revolution that overthrew Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Iran has been actively involved in the internationalisation of its revolutionary ideals.
The Iran-Iraq war of 1980-1988 was, in large part, fought out of fear of the revolution's spread, and many of the Arab countries now at risk of SLA operations funded and supported Saddam Hussein in his bid to contain the mullahs.
Iran has long made use of ideologically committed non-Iranian Shia to further their own foreign policy objectives, and this has greatly increased their asymmetric warfare capabilities.
Falaki's admission that the SLA was now operating across three fronts in Syria, Iraq and Yemen is not a real revelation.
Iranian involvement has been heavily documented in Syria already, with Pasdaran commanders and other Iranian troops having met their end in the war-torn country.
Indeed, Iranian support has long been a critical pillar of ensuring the survival of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, whose refusal to relinquish his grip on power has led to the deaths of almost half-a-million Syrians.
Similarly, Iran has been a pivotal player in post-2003 Iraq, influencing the state and its institutions at every single level. Indeed, the aforementioned Soleimani has featured ubiquitously across Iraqi battlefields against the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group.
Soleimani first organised the defence of Baghdad in 2014, and was also seen assuming command of Iraqi forces and allied Shia militia organisations like the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) during operations to retake Tikrit and Fallujah, all while under the United States' air cover.
More recently, reports indicate that he is heavily involved in plans to recapture ISIL's last stronghold of Mosul in northern Iraq.
Outreach Beyond The Gulf
It is also no secret that Iran has long supported their coreligionists in Yemen, the Houthi rebels.
This is likely so that Iran can extend its strategic influence across the Gulf of Aden as well as reinforce its current friendly relations with Oman to secure its interests in the Gulf of Oman.
With Iraq, Syria and Hezbollah-dominated Lebanon already under its sway, Iran's control over critical southern Red Sea and Gulf energy trade routes would mean that it would have almost entirely encircled its regional rival, Saudi Arabia.
In all of the above fronts, Iran has heavily relied upon an veritable army of militant "jihadists", ranging from the Lebanese Hezbollah organisation who have been fighting in Syria for years, to the dozens of sectarian Iraqi militias such as Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq, to the Fatemiyon Division of tens of thousands of Afghan Shia, some of whom have been given a choice of either being pressed into military service or else facing judicial sentences for drug trafficking - an offence that carries the death penalty in Iran.
What's New?
Therefore, and while Falaki's announcement may seem like a damning revelation, he actually merely stated what most observers of Iranian military and foreign affairs already knew.
Iran has long made use of ideologically committed non-Iranian Shia to further their own foreign policy objectives, and this has greatly increased their asymmetric warfare capabilities.
After all, it is cheaper to field multiple, infantry-heavy armies across many fronts than it is to field conventional forces. In light of that, the SLA is no different from many other Iranian military ventures - forces commanded by Iranians, but manned by foreign fighters.
This could also mean issuing a recruitment call, as many who fight in these paramilitary forces do so for financial as well as ideological reasons.
By using foreign fighters to reduce the burden on Iranian soldiers, Iran aims to stifle growing public discontent at its many military adventures.
The SLA announcement shows that the country is becoming more confident in asserting itself and declaring its intentions clearly to its regional rivals.
In so doing, it is showing countries like Saudi Arabia and Turkey that its regional designs are here to stay, and that they would be better off giving into Iranian ambitions rather than expending any further resources being in conflict with it.
Source; aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2016/08/iran-shia-liberation-army-par-160821091935110.html
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The Russian Expansion in the Region
By Abdulrahman al-Rashed
21 August 2016
Although it’s surprising that the Russians have a military base for their troops in Iran, what’s stranger is that the Iranian regime has granted them a foothold in its territory. Military cooperation between Moscow and Tehran has existed for a long time, during which the Russians used Iranian airspace and military airports to carry out their joint operation aimed at defending the Assad regime. Why have relations taken a step forward with Russians being granted the use of an Iranian military base, instead of Iran simply allowing the Russians to use their airspace? This makes the situation suspicious and we will continue to wonder about the nature of this new alliance until we are provided with convincing answers.
I doubt that the joint war in Syria is the only motivation behind this development in military relations. There was cooperation between the two countries before the existence of the base and that period of cooperation achieved its goals. However, it now seems that Moscow is resorting to mystery and to sending contradictory messages. Around three months ago, the Kremlin officially announced the withdrawal of most of its troops from Syria. It said it had accomplished most of the goals it went to Syria to achieve. Weeks after this announcement was made, the world found out that the Russian command had actually increased its participation in the war and escalated its sorties in Syrian airspace.
Does Moscow’s step toward expanding its military activity in the Middle East, including the adoption of Iran’s Hamadan airport as a base for Russian aircraft, have anything to do with its struggle with NATO in central Asia, eastern Europe and what used to be Soviet Union republics?
The Russian government’s NATO representative spoke to television channel Russia Today and said that NATO had moved toward implementing a deterrent plan against Russia. He added that the Western alliance was deploying four battalions in eastern European countries to enhance its presence in the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea and also stated that NATO was intensifying its patrols in Baltic countries.
It is likely that Moscow’s rapprochement with Ayatollah Khamenei’s regime will come at the expense of its relations with other countries in the Middle East
Even if confronting the West is the Russian excuse for using Iran as a military headquarters, this does not justify its support of Tehran , a move which cannot be considered within the map of strategic balance against NATO.
Truth be told, Iran is engaged in wars which do not concern the US, such as the wars in Syria and Yemen. Syria is the focus of the alliance between Moscow and Tehran, however, the ongoing Syrian crisis does not concern the Americans who have refused to intervene.
Contradicting the reality on the ground
The Iranians are cooperating with the Americans in Iraq on a military level, something we have seen play out in Anbar, Fallujah and most recently in Mosul. Therefore, if the Russian justification behind their alliance with Iran is that it’s directed against the US and NATO in general, it contradicts the facts of the battlefield.
It is likely that Moscow’s rapprochement with Ayatollah Khamenei’s regime will come at the expense of its relations with other countries in the Middle East.
I don’t rule of that Russia will abort all recent efforts at rapprochement with Arab Gulf countries and indeed other countries which have expressed interest in bolstering relations with Russia – something we have not seen for a century.
Many Arab leaders, presidents and kings have visited the Kremlin, signed economic deals and agreed on unprecedented military purchases. These visits, and the Arab rapprochement with Moscow, led many military and political figures in Washington to criticize Barack Obama’s administration for the perceived abandonment of US relations in the Arab region, leaving the space open to the Russians.
What Do The Iranians Want?
In granting the Russians the Hamadan military base, the Iranians may be aiming to negotiate with, and blackmail, the Americans following the apparent failure of the nuclear agreement which was reached last year between Iran and the West.
The alternative to the agreement is military cooperation between Iran and the Russians but what’s new about that? Cooperation between the two countries is nothing new, however, the Iranians now want Russia to be more than an arms trading partner and instead become an ally in Iran’s wars.
These are all the possible scenarios one imagines when analyzing the Iranian-Russian decision. To recap, the alliance between the two countries could reflect Moscow’s desire to expand its military and political influence, or it could be part of the Russian strategy to confront Iran, or it could be part of an Iranian plan to blackmail the West into activating the nuclear agreement.
Source: english.alarabiya.net/en/views/2016/08/21/The-Russian-expansion-in-the-region.html
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The People Of Aleppo Are Not Waiting For US Elections
By Jamal Khashoggi
21 August 2016
Life, political developments, murder and destruction in Aleppo will not be put on hold until November, when Americans elect a new president. No one should expect him or her to be very different from current President Barack Obama regarding bad US policy in our region. The current American retreat is not exclusive to Obama. It is not a policy he created, but the expression of a national mood that is shifting toward isolation and domestic economic affairs.
The United States is supposed to rise up in anger as it sees Russian long-range bombers take off from Iran’s Hamedan International Airport to shell targets in Syria. It should not be angered out of concern for the Syrian people - this is not part of Obama’s calculations as he has more than once failed this moral test.
It should be angered on the basis of strategic balances in the region, as this development is as significant as the Czech arms deal that late Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser sealed with the Soviets in 1955, and which marked their arrival in the region. The US reaction then was a series of strategic mistakes that strengthened the Soviet presence. However, at least there was a reaction.
US Retreat
This time, Washington has settled for voicing its concern and dissatisfaction, and said allowing Russian bombers to take off from Hamedan violates last year’s nuclear deal. This means it will do nothing. The United States has not done anything to curb the Russians in Ukraine, so why do we expect it do something in our region?
We must unfold the map of northern Syria as we analyze statements that the Americans and Russians will begin joint operations in the context of the war on terror in Aleppo
The Americans and Europeans who after World War II did not hesitate to engage in foreign adventures - whether smart or not - are now gone. They have been replaced by young leaders who are more occupied with healthcare, interest rates and enjoying life more.
However, the United States, Britain and France recall that they are superpowers now and then, so they practice foreign policy but in a confusing manner that includes indifference and retreat from red lines, but exclude intervening to protect the Syrian people.
They stand by and observe as rebels and armed gangs in Yemen reject UN peace proposals. The international community did not get angry when the Houthis rejected the initiative of UN special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh following four months of talks in Kuwait. It could not even hold a UN Security Council session. It settled with saying negotiations will continue.
The same goes for Syria. There are negotiations but no real international efforts, and these talks end without achieving anything. The only thing that is happening is more Russian, Iranian, and most recently Chinese involvement. The only efficient reactions come from the Syrian and Yemeni resistance, which await more support from Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
Russian Intervention
Is Russia getting more involved in the Syrian war because it is happy to display its strength to the weak Americans? Or because Moscow is afraid of the rising power of jihadists who leave Russia, Chechnya, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Dagestan and later return?
No one agrees on the number of these jihadists. Most of them are with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and a few are with Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (formerly al-Nusra Front). There are independent jihadists who belong to neither. Syria has turned into an arena for global jihad. Why have the Russians not listened to Saudi and Turkish warnings that what they are doing there is nurturing this environment?
Even China, which is worried about the rising power of the Islamic Party of Turkestan, has started to look forward to playing a role in Syria. And why not? Russia preceded it, and the Syrian regime – which has abandoned all forms of sovereignty – welcomed it and is willing to receive and cooperate with anyone willing to fight alongside it and protect it. The regime does not care what the aim and interests of these forces are.
Most jihadists from the former Soviet states belong to ISIS, while Chinese jihadists are closer to al-Qaeda and their relations with Syrian rebels are good, having done well during the recent battle to end the siege of Aleppo.
Cooperation
We must unfold the map of northern Syria as we analyze statements that the Americans and Russians will begin joint operations in the context of the war on terror in Aleppo. This is what Russia’s defense minister said, but the Americans have not echoed this.
Before that, there were statements about Russian-Turkish cooperation in the war on terror in Syria, following a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan. These notions will most probably collapse over the issue of who the terrorists are. The Turks view the US-backed Kurds as militants. The Russians view everyone as terrorists, while the Americans no longer know where they stand.
Perhaps the people of Aleppo are the best strategic analysts in the region. They are not waiting for the US election results, or for agreement on labelling terrorists. They did not wait for the result of the meeting between their Turkish ally and Russian enemy. They agreed to end the siege of their city. They united, succeeded, and turned the table on everyone.
It does not matter who supplied them with the TOW missiles that destroyed Russian armored vehicles – whether it was Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar or all three. It did not matter to them whether their battle and victory would serve their allies’ regional agendas.
What matters to them is imposing their agenda on everyone, from Moscow to Washington via Riyadh and Ankara. They have gained the respect and acknowledgment they deserve.
Source: english.alarabiya.net/en/views/2016/08/21/The-people-of-Aleppo-are-not-waiting-for-US-elections.html
URL: https://newageislam.com/middle-east-press/a-syrian-boy’s-photo-degradation/d/108323