Islamic Societies Review WEEKLY

Tuesday, April 09, 2013

Jabhat Al Nusra, Syrian Islamic Rebel Group, Merges With Al Qaeda In Iraq

Tuesday, April 09, 2013 No comments

BEIRUT — Al-Qaida's branch in Iraq said it has merged with Syria's extremist Jabhat al-Nusra, a move that shows the rising confidence of radicals within the Syrian rebel movement and is likely to trigger renewed fears among its international backers.

A website linked to Jabhat al-Nusra confirmed on Tuesday the merger with the Islamic State of Iraq, whose leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, first made the announcement in a 21-minute audio message posted on militant websites late Monday.

Jabhat al-Nusra has taken an ever-bigger role in Syria's conflict over the last year, fighting in key battles and staging several large suicide bombings. The U.S. has designated it a terrorist organization.

The Syrian group has made little secret of its links across the Iraqi border, but until now it has not officially declared itself to be part of al-Qaida.

Al-Baghdadi said that his group – the Islamic State of Iraq – and Syria's Jabhat al-Nusra will now be known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.

"It is time to announce to the Levantine people and the whole world that Jabhat al-Nusra is merely an extension and part of the Islamic State of Iraq," he said.

He said that the Iraqi group was providing half of its budget to the conflict in Syria. Al-Baghdadi said that the Syrian group would have no separate leader but instead be led by the "people of Syria themselves" – implying that he would be in charge in both countries.

Monday, April 08, 2013

Brazil, China, and India Are Fat, And Getting Fatter

Monday, April 08, 2013 No comments

In China, the growth rate of new Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants is 13 percent a year, compared with 2.9 percent in the U.S. And as the chain has expanded, so have Chinese citizens' waistlines. Recently, the aspiring BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) met in sunny Durban, South Africa, for their fifth summit to discuss their plans for creating their proposed BRICS Development Bank (BDB). Despite ongoing doubts that these nations will be able to quickly come to an agreement over where and how the bank will function, there is hope that these differences can be overcome.

But there is one issue that the BRICS leaders seemed to have overlooked. That is, how will the BRICS bank address these nations' ongoing struggle to contain the spread of disease? Diseases commonly attributed to economic wealth and prosperity, such as obesity and diabetes, are on the rise and will inevitably threaten their bristling economies should the BDB fail to adequately invest in healthcare infrastructure.

The proposed BDB bank is mainly focused on providing loans and grants - approximately $4.5 trillion in total - to finance infrastructural development projects in the BRICS and other developing nations. This funding will be used to construct railroads, bridges, highways, and ports. Created as an alternative " Bretton Woods for the developing nations," loans will be provided at favorable lending terms. The bank will also provide a currency reserve of $100 billion dollars to be used in times of economic crisis. Another implicit goal through this banking endeavor is to decrease the BRICS and other developing nations' ongoing reliance on the World Bank and IMF for financial assistance while creating a lending facility that better understands developing nations' context and needs.

Christian mourners, mob, police clash in Egypt

Monday, April 08, 2013 No comments

CAIRO (AP) — A mob threw rocks and fired birdshot Sunday at several hundred Christians marching in a protest against Egypt's Islamist government after the funeral of four Christians killed in sectarian clashes over the weekend.
The Christians were chanting slogans against Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, just as several thousand did earlier during the funeral service nearby in the Coptic Orthodox cathedral in Cairo.
The attacking mob, described by witnesses as residents of the area, forced the marchers to take shelter inside the sprawling cathedral complex. They also showered the protesters with rocks from the roofs of nearby buildings, according to witness Ibrahim el-Shareef.
Mohammed Sultan, director of Egypt's national ambulance services, said at least 17 people were wounded in the clashes.

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WikiLeaks publishes 1.7m US diplomatic records

Monday, April 08, 2013 No comments

WikiLeaks has published more than 1.7m US records covering diplomatic or intelligence reports on every country in the world.

The data, which has not been leaked, comprises diplomatic records from the beginning of 1973 to the end of 1976, covering a variety of diplomatic traffic including cables, intelligence reports and congressional correspondence.

Julian Assange said WikiLeaks had been working for the past year to analyse and assess a vast amount of data held at the US national archives before releasing it in a searchable form.

WikiLeaks has called the collection the Public Library of US Diplomacy (PlusD), describing it as the world's largest searchable collection of US confidential, or formerly confidential, diplomatic communications.

Assange told Press Association the information showed the vast range and scope of US diplomatic and intelligence activity around the world.

Sunday, April 07, 2013

The leader of Iraq’s oil union is being threatened with prison–again

Sunday, April 07, 2013 No comments

Many Iraqi oil workers thought the fall of Saddam Hussein would mean they would finally be free to organize unions, and that their nationally owned industry would be devoted to financing the reconstruction of the country. But the reality could not have been more different. Earlier this month, the head of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions, Hassan Juma’a (below right), was hauled into a Basra courtroom and accused of organizing strikes, a charge for which he could face prison time. The union he heads is still technically illegal: Saddam’s ban on public-sector unions was the sole Saddam-era dictate kept in place under the U.S. occupation, and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki hasn't shown any interest in changing it since most U.S. troops left.

And the oil industry? The big multinational petroleum giants now run the nation’s fields. Between 2009 and 2010, the Maliki government granted contracts for developing existing fields and exploring new ones to 18 companies, including ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, the Italian Eni, Russia's Gazprom and Lukoil, Malaysia's Petronas and a partnership between BP and the Chinese National Petroleum Corporation. When they started, the U.S. military provided the initial security umbrella protecting all of their field operations.

The Ministry of Oil technically still owns the oil, but functions more as the multinationals’ adjunct, while stripping workers of their rights. Since 2003 the ministry has denied the union its right to exist and retaliated against its leaders and activists. As the oil corporations rush in to lay claim to developing fields, ministry spokesman Assam Jihad told the Iraq Oil Report in 2010, “Unionists instigate the public against the plans of the oil ministry to develop [Iraq's] oil riches using foreign development.”

The Nation Is Made Of These

Sunday, April 07, 2013 No comments

by Javed Jabbar

The further we move on from March 23, 1940—and from December 16, 1971, when the original Pakistan disintegrated—the stronger and deeper, and at the same time, more stressful, becomes the search for a cohesive sense of Pakistani nationalism.

Composed of several elements, Muslim identity is the prime driver of Pakistani nationalism, but not exclusively so. Non-Muslim identities are small, yet vital and intrinsic parts of Pakistani nationalism. Foremost among them are Pakistani Hindu and Buddhist citizens. In a foundational sense, Pakistani Hindus and Buddhists are the oldest Pakistanis. Their ancestors have lived upon the lands that constitute our territory for centuries before the first Muslims arrived, or before the first local was converted to Islam.

If roots in territory make people eligible to be regarded as ‘sons of the soil’, then these non-Muslims are the first sons and daughters of Pakistan. It is unfortunate that, in the name of a state entity created less than 70 years ago, peoples whose ancestors have lived on these very territories for over 7,000 years are now ‘minorities’. Worse, many of them are regarded (and regard themselves) as second-class citizens. Adherents of all non-Islamic faiths are ineligible, by virtue of their religion, to be elected president or prime minister. This is so despite the fact that Article 20 of the Constitution grants—subject to law, public order and morality—freedom to profess religion and to manage religious institutions. Article 25, which deals with citizens’ equality says, in part: “All citizens are equal before law and are entitled to equal protection of law.” This is further reinforced by Article 36, which obliges the state to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of minorities, including their due representation in the federal and provincial services.

Working with Hindus, Christians and Zoroastrians for over 30 years in remote areas and in urban centres, this writer has first-hand experience of their attitudes and actions. These non-Muslim Pakistanis have a deep love for Pakistan. They are proud Pakistanis, and contribute abundantly to the country’s progress—and little to its problems! Yet Pakistani Hindus are often regarded by segments of the state and society as Indian ‘agents’ or as being inherently disloyal to Pakistan. Such suspicion is a profanity in itself.

However, this does not prevent non-Muslim Pakistanis from rendering notable roles in all areas, from agriculture, business and law to education, diplomacy and politics.

Azeri Muslims Protest Theologian’s Arrest

Sunday, April 07, 2013 No comments

By Idrak Abbasov

The arrest of an Muslim theologian who preached against the government in Azerbaijan has sparked a new show of opposition in which representatives of secular parties have sided with Islamists.

Police arrested Taleh Bagirzadeh, 29, on March 31 and charged him with possession of drugs, an allegation often used against opponents of the government.

On April 1, devout Muslims and opposition activists took to Imam Hussain Square in Baku to show their support for Bagirzadeh.

Veysal Gasimov, a member of the opposition Popular Front party, was arrested and sentenced to ten days in jail for taking part in the protest, which attracted between 500 and 600 people.

Further demonstrations followed on April 2, in the town of Lenkoran close to the Iranian border, and in the village of Nardaran, a village 25 kilometres north of the capital Baku which is a focal point for Azerbaijan’s majority Shia Muslim faith.

Residents of Nardaran promised to carrying on protesting both in the village and in Baku until Bagirzadeh is released.

Friday, April 05, 2013

Syria warns Jordan over aiding rebels

Friday, April 05, 2013 No comments

Syria's regime sternly warned neighboring Jordan on Thursday that it was "playing with fire" by allowing the U.S. and other countries to train and arm rebels on its territory.

Jordan, America's closest ally in the Arab world, has long been nervous that President Bashar Assad's hard-line regime could retaliate for supporting the rebels. The warning carried on state media may add to those jitters, though Jordanian government officials publicly downplayed it as "mere speculation by the Syrian media."

Syrian state television said leaks in U.S. media show Jordan "has a hand in training terrorists and then facilitating their entry into Syria." State radio accused Jordan of "playing with fire."

A front-page editorial in the government daily al-Thawra accused Amman of adopting a policy of "ambiguity" by training the rebels while at the same time publicly insisting on a "political solution" to the Syrian crisis.

"Jordan's attempt to put out the flame from the leaked information will not help as it continues with its mysterious policy, which brings it closer to the volcanic crater," the paper said.

Two Jordanian officials downplayed the diplomatic tiff with Syria. One said Jordan will not discuss the state of relations through the media.

"Such discussions are usually carried out through the appropriate diplomatic channels,' he said. Both officials insisted on anonymity out of concern that their comments may further irritate relations, which have been historically bumpy.

Why Do We Laugh at North Korea But Fear Iran?

Friday, April 05, 2013 No comments

In the United States, we make fun of Kim Jong Un and the North Korean regime's over-the-top propaganda machine. The regime may have launched a massive cyberattack on South Korean banks and TV stations last month, but we were circumspect that they were capable of such a thing. When former basketball player Dennis Rodman visited the country in February we giggled. How silly, we thought. Kim Jong Un is a Dennis Rodman fan - how out of touch! Soon after, a video emerged from North Korean state television showing Kim welcomed by jubilant masses of soldiers sprinting to welcome him as he visited a posting from whence rockets were launched in a brief 2010 skirmish with South Korea.

Again we chuckled at how staged it seemed. Just a week or so previous, a propaganda video came out showing images of Barack Obama and American troops on fire, and just before that, a sleeping Korean dreaming about a rocket destroying an American city. At these, we guffawed. We mocked the use of "We Are the World" and music from the video game Call of Duty as a soundtrack; we called one video " bizarre from start to finish"; " hilarious and disturbing "; "hilariously low-rent"; " cartoonish ." When the United States beefed up its missile defense network in California and Alaska to protect from a possible North Korean attack, we noted they wouldn't have the brains to actually hit us, and asserted that " no one's taking them that seriously." The propaganda, the rhetoric, it's all seen as a grand joke. Desperate, harmless hyperbole from a scorned and neutered country.

A man starves his own people and threatens to start a nuclear war, and Americans laugh. What a bizarre thing to do.

Meanwhile, we shirk in fear at the unhinged other leg of former President George W. Bush's "axis of evil" tripod: Iran...

Thursday, April 04, 2013

Sri Lanka's Muslims bear brunt of Buddhist extremism

Thursday, April 04, 2013 No comments

Sri Lanka has been rocked in recent weeks by a growing wave of anti-Muslim sentiment led by ultra-nationalist Buddhist monks. According to one expert, the small island nation is suffering a profound and worrying identity crisis.

On the evening of March 28, a Muslim clothes trader watched as his warehouse was ransacked by an angry crowd of some 500 Sri Lankans. Buddhist monks among the attackers were filmed throwing stones at the Fashion Bug outlet in capital Colombo.

According to BBC reporter Charles Haviland, several people including a number of journalists recording the scenes were injured.

It was not an isolated incident. In the past few months, the number of attacks on the minority Muslim population (9 percent) in the Buddhist-dominated country has been growing.

As well as targeting shops, Muslims have reported vandalism against mosques as well as calls for a boycott on their products and services.

The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, a junior coalition partner in the government of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, has denounced the “hate campaign” being waged against Muslims which the authorities are blaming on a hard core of extremist Buddhist monks.

Islam ‘the invader’