Dead teacher was a Gaza bomb-maker
The UN refugee organisation in Gaza reaffirmed yesterday its "zero tolerance policy" towards political and militant activities by staff after reports that a Palestinian teacher assassinated in an Israeli air attack was a rocket-maker.
Reuters quoted unnamed Palestinian militants and Israeli intelligence sources as saying that Awad al-Qiq, 33, acting headmaster at the UNRWA-run Rafah Boys' Preparatory School was by night secretly a rocket builder for Islamic Jihad.
A handwritten note outside the school posted on the metal gate at the entrance to the school declared that the teacher, killed in an air strike last week, was "the chief leader of the engineering unit", who would now find "paradise".
Christopher Gunness, a spokesman for the UN Relief and Works Agency, which employs more than 9,000 local staff in Gaza, said that the agency was regularly instructed not to engage in political or militant activities of any kind. It has summarily sacked employees found to be in breach of the instruction.
Mr Gunness added: "We have a zero-tolerance policy towards politics and militant activities in our schools. Obviously, we ... cannot police people's minds." Family members and a student at the school said they had no idea that the dead man, a physics teacher with eight years' experience teaching at UN schools, was involved in militant activities.
UNRWA also announced that it now had enough fuel to distribute food aid for 20 days to the 700,000 refugees who need it. Earlier, the agency had warned that the shortage of fuel would mean it would have to halt food aid from last night.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Dead teacher was a Gaza bomb-maker
Showing posts with label dar al islam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dar al islam. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
DAR AL HARB-AUSTRALIA: THE SAUDI AGENDA & THEIR CASH
Saudis' secret agenda
by Richard Kerbaj and Stuart Rintoul
THE cheque from the Saudi Government for $360,000 was enclosed in an envelope.
It was a donation, a gift, a part payment to subsidise the construction of a building that would become Sydney's Muslim heartbeat: Lakemba mosque. More than 35 years after Sydney cleric Khalil Shami received the cheque, he insists it came with no strings attached. But while the cheque had no tangible conditions in the form of written instructions or binding contracts, the cleric received a message from his donors several months after depositing it.
"They said: 'Please, can you mention the tragedy of the Palestinian people and what's happened to them in your sermon?"' Shami tells Inquirer. "Which is really a very noble cause, a very noble cause, I couldn't see a negative in their request."
The message Shami received from Riyadh brings into question the influence petro-dollars can have on their recipients, whether the money is bankrolling a religious centre, a clerical allowance or Queensland's Griffith University, which was exposed by The Australian last month for seeking a $1.37million Saudi grant, of which $100,000 was received, and offering to keep elements of the deal a secret.
The Saudi Government - largely through its embassy - is believed to have funnelled at least $120 million into Australia since the 1970s to propagate hardline Islam, bankroll radical clerics and build mosques, schools and charitable orgnisations.
But the Saudi cash that has flowed into Australia, that also allegedly has paid the allowance of hardline Canberra cleric Mohammed Swaiti, who has publicly praised jihadists, is dwarfed by the $90 billion Riyadh is believed to have pumped into promoting Islamic fundamentalism internationally.
Security agencies worldwide turned their focus on Saudi funding following allegations that the 19 Muslim terrorists - with 15 Saudi nationals among them - who turned commercial airliners into suicide bombs in the September 11 attacks in 2001 were funded from Riyadh.
Counter-terrorism networks also looked closely at the threat posed by Wahhabism or Salafism, a Saudi-pioneered interpretation of Islam espoused by Osama bin Laden, on radicalising Western Muslim communities.
Last October, US President George W. Bush declared that Saudi Arabia was "co-operating with efforts to combat international terrorism". But his administration is divided on the role Riyadh is playing in the West, as are Western intelligence agencies, including Britain's Scotland Yard and MI5.
Last September, weeks before Bush talked up Saudi Arabia's role in curbing radicalism and terror, his Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, Stuart Levey, accused Riyadh of failing to prosecute terrorism financiers.
"If I could somehow snap my fingers and cut off the funding from one country, it would be Saudi Arabia," Levey said. "When the evidence is clear that these individuals have funded terrorist organisations, and knowingly done so, then that should be prosecuted and treated as real terrorism because it is."
Saudi Arabia has argued that it wants to improve its image in the West by using its financial clout to promote interfaith dialogue and moderate, not radical, Islam.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Saudis' secret agenda
by Richard Kerbaj and Stuart Rintoul
THE cheque from the Saudi Government for $360,000 was enclosed in an envelope.
It was a donation, a gift, a part payment to subsidise the construction of a building that would become Sydney's Muslim heartbeat: Lakemba mosque. More than 35 years after Sydney cleric Khalil Shami received the cheque, he insists it came with no strings attached. But while the cheque had no tangible conditions in the form of written instructions or binding contracts, the cleric received a message from his donors several months after depositing it.
"They said: 'Please, can you mention the tragedy of the Palestinian people and what's happened to them in your sermon?"' Shami tells Inquirer. "Which is really a very noble cause, a very noble cause, I couldn't see a negative in their request."
The message Shami received from Riyadh brings into question the influence petro-dollars can have on their recipients, whether the money is bankrolling a religious centre, a clerical allowance or Queensland's Griffith University, which was exposed by The Australian last month for seeking a $1.37million Saudi grant, of which $100,000 was received, and offering to keep elements of the deal a secret.
The Saudi Government - largely through its embassy - is believed to have funnelled at least $120 million into Australia since the 1970s to propagate hardline Islam, bankroll radical clerics and build mosques, schools and charitable orgnisations.
But the Saudi cash that has flowed into Australia, that also allegedly has paid the allowance of hardline Canberra cleric Mohammed Swaiti, who has publicly praised jihadists, is dwarfed by the $90 billion Riyadh is believed to have pumped into promoting Islamic fundamentalism internationally.
Security agencies worldwide turned their focus on Saudi funding following allegations that the 19 Muslim terrorists - with 15 Saudi nationals among them - who turned commercial airliners into suicide bombs in the September 11 attacks in 2001 were funded from Riyadh.
Counter-terrorism networks also looked closely at the threat posed by Wahhabism or Salafism, a Saudi-pioneered interpretation of Islam espoused by Osama bin Laden, on radicalising Western Muslim communities.
Last October, US President George W. Bush declared that Saudi Arabia was "co-operating with efforts to combat international terrorism". But his administration is divided on the role Riyadh is playing in the West, as are Western intelligence agencies, including Britain's Scotland Yard and MI5.
Last September, weeks before Bush talked up Saudi Arabia's role in curbing radicalism and terror, his Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, Stuart Levey, accused Riyadh of failing to prosecute terrorism financiers.
"If I could somehow snap my fingers and cut off the funding from one country, it would be Saudi Arabia," Levey said. "When the evidence is clear that these individuals have funded terrorist organisations, and knowingly done so, then that should be prosecuted and treated as real terrorism because it is."
Saudi Arabia has argued that it wants to improve its image in the West by using its financial clout to promote interfaith dialogue and moderate, not radical, Islam.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Saudis' secret agenda
DAR AL HARB-THE WEST: THE FINANCIAL JIHAD AGAINST THE WEST
The Silent Jihad Against The West
by Vincent Gioia
Anyone that cares to learn about what is going on in the world is familiar with active jihad, the "holy war", conducted with terrorism and directed at the modern world in general and western civilization more specifically. But there is also another form of jihad that is part of the deliberate effort to have Islam replace all concepts of morality and the values held dear by the rest of us. The name of this silent "fifth column" effort is "Sharia Banking". Unfortunately, Sharia Banking is increasingly accepted by western banking institutions without any real understanding of what the Muslim goal is and what is at stake in the efforts by these institutions to attract more business, profits and money to bail them out of financial messes they brought upon themselves.
Islamic Sharia banking is coming to the United States and other western nations, thanks to global banks such as Citigroup, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. Great Britain is now pledging to become the Islamic banking center of the world. Clearly the headlong rush by all global banks to enter the world of Islamic banking is well underway. Why do western banks seek to participate in Sharia banking; because it gives them a chance to enter the Islamic banking industry which has over $1.5 trillion available today and is growing at a steady and explosive rate of over 15% per year.
The implications for the west, and especially for the United States, are staggeringly destructive. Islamic banking working through global banks is doing for Islam what it could never do on its own: giving legitimacy to Sharia law and infiltrating it into the fabric of western society.
For those not familiar with Sharia Banking; it is a system which creates and sells services and products that are in strict accordance with Sharia law. Sometimes it is referred to in the Islamic culture as "Sharia finance". It dictates how the practices of banking, investment, bonds, loans, brokerage, etc, are to be conducted.
To insure compliance and to become "Sharia banking" compliant, banks must hire Sharia experts to review and approve each product and practice of the bank. This is known as "halal", which has been described as "the Muslim equivalent of kosher in Judaism." There is a shortage of such Sharia experts so there is competition among banks to find such experts to sit on their boards of directors. By having an "expert" involved in banking decisions, this provides the legitimacy to each banking decision because it is made at the director rather management level. However, most of these Sharia experts" are from the radical Wahhabi school of Islam in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, and they hold views diametrically opposed to the basic values of Western civilization.
The Center for Security has identified some of the Sharia experts sitting on the boards of U.S. financial institutions. The top twenty "advisors" include many with conflicts of interests and anti-trust issues since they sit on boards of many Islamic banks at the same time.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) The Silent Jihad Against The West
by Vincent Gioia
Anyone that cares to learn about what is going on in the world is familiar with active jihad, the "holy war", conducted with terrorism and directed at the modern world in general and western civilization more specifically. But there is also another form of jihad that is part of the deliberate effort to have Islam replace all concepts of morality and the values held dear by the rest of us. The name of this silent "fifth column" effort is "Sharia Banking". Unfortunately, Sharia Banking is increasingly accepted by western banking institutions without any real understanding of what the Muslim goal is and what is at stake in the efforts by these institutions to attract more business, profits and money to bail them out of financial messes they brought upon themselves.
Islamic Sharia banking is coming to the United States and other western nations, thanks to global banks such as Citigroup, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. Great Britain is now pledging to become the Islamic banking center of the world. Clearly the headlong rush by all global banks to enter the world of Islamic banking is well underway. Why do western banks seek to participate in Sharia banking; because it gives them a chance to enter the Islamic banking industry which has over $1.5 trillion available today and is growing at a steady and explosive rate of over 15% per year.
The implications for the west, and especially for the United States, are staggeringly destructive. Islamic banking working through global banks is doing for Islam what it could never do on its own: giving legitimacy to Sharia law and infiltrating it into the fabric of western society.
For those not familiar with Sharia Banking; it is a system which creates and sells services and products that are in strict accordance with Sharia law. Sometimes it is referred to in the Islamic culture as "Sharia finance". It dictates how the practices of banking, investment, bonds, loans, brokerage, etc, are to be conducted.
To insure compliance and to become "Sharia banking" compliant, banks must hire Sharia experts to review and approve each product and practice of the bank. This is known as "halal", which has been described as "the Muslim equivalent of kosher in Judaism." There is a shortage of such Sharia experts so there is competition among banks to find such experts to sit on their boards of directors. By having an "expert" involved in banking decisions, this provides the legitimacy to each banking decision because it is made at the director rather management level. However, most of these Sharia experts" are from the radical Wahhabi school of Islam in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, and they hold views diametrically opposed to the basic values of Western civilization.
The Center for Security has identified some of the Sharia experts sitting on the boards of U.S. financial institutions. The top twenty "advisors" include many with conflicts of interests and anti-trust issues since they sit on boards of many Islamic banks at the same time.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) The Silent Jihad Against The West
Friday, April 25, 2008
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM: A RESPONSE TO "FITNA" IS A CRITICISM OF THE UNITED STATES NOT OF THE ACTUAL MOVIE
Moslems cannot criticize the movie FITNA, because it is TRUE...
Moslems texts [the trilogy of Koran, Sira & Hadith] are quoted & images showing the results of those texts are shown...
Islamist Video Responds to Dutch Film and War on Terror
By Lin Noueihed
An al Qaeda-linked website has posted a 10-minute film showing civilians killed or maimed in U.S. and Israeli air strikes as an answer to an anti-Koran film released by Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders last month.
The video, billed as a "response to the film called 'fitna' produced by the hateful crusader Wilders," is dedicated more to criticizing the U.S.-led "war on terror" than Wilders himself.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Islamist Video Responds to Dutch Film and War on Terror
DAR AL HARB-FRANCE: THE MEDITERRANEAN UNION "ONE OF FRANCE'S MOST IMPORTANT POLITICAL PROJECTS"
Mediterranean Union like Franco-German reconciliation
French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday in the city state of Monaco compared the proposed Mediterranean Union to the beginning of the current friendship between France and Germany. Referring to the proposed union of European nations and countries along the Mediterranean rim, Sarkozy said: "It will certainly not be easier than the reconciliation between Germany and France," but added that in the end the Franco-German reconciliation was a success.
Sarkozy called the Mediterranean Union "one of France's most important political projects."
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Mediterranean Union like Franco-German reconciliation
French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday in the city state of Monaco compared the proposed Mediterranean Union to the beginning of the current friendship between France and Germany. Referring to the proposed union of European nations and countries along the Mediterranean rim, Sarkozy said: "It will certainly not be easier than the reconciliation between Germany and France," but added that in the end the Franco-German reconciliation was a success.
Sarkozy called the Mediterranean Union "one of France's most important political projects."
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Mediterranean Union like Franco-German reconciliation
DAR AL ISLAM-SAUDI ARABIA: "IT BEGINS WITH FREEDOM OF THOUGHT, IT CONTINUES WITH FREEDOM OF SPEECH & IT ENDS UP WITH FREEDOM OF BELIEF"
Saudi Cleric Muhammad Al-Munajid Warns: Freedom of Speech Might Lead to Freedom of Belief
The following are excerpts from an interview with Saudi cleric Muhammad Al-Munajid. The interview aired on Al-Majd TV on March 30, 2008.
...
"The problem is that they want to open a debate on whether Islam is true or not, and on whether Judaism and Christianity are false or not. In other words, they want to open up everything for debate. Now they want to open up all issues for debate. That's it."
"It begins with freedom of thought, it continues with freedom of speech, and it ends up with freedom of belief. So where's the conspiracy? They say: Let's have freedom of thought in Islam. Well, what do they want?"
"They say: I think, therefore I want to express my thoughts. I want to express myself, I want to talk and say, for example, that there are loopholes in Islam, or that Christianity is the truth.
"Then they will talk about freedom of belief, and say that anyone is entitled to believe in whatever he wants... If you want to become an apostate - go ahead. You like Buddhism? Leave Islam, and join Buddhism. No problem. That's what freedom of belief is all about. They want freedom of everything. What they want is very dangerous."
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Saudi Cleric Muhammad Al-Munajid Warns: Freedom of Speech Might Lead to Freedom of Belief
The following are excerpts from an interview with Saudi cleric Muhammad Al-Munajid. The interview aired on Al-Majd TV on March 30, 2008.
...
"The problem is that they want to open a debate on whether Islam is true or not, and on whether Judaism and Christianity are false or not. In other words, they want to open up everything for debate. Now they want to open up all issues for debate. That's it."
"It begins with freedom of thought, it continues with freedom of speech, and it ends up with freedom of belief. So where's the conspiracy? They say: Let's have freedom of thought in Islam. Well, what do they want?"
"They say: I think, therefore I want to express my thoughts. I want to express myself, I want to talk and say, for example, that there are loopholes in Islam, or that Christianity is the truth.
"Then they will talk about freedom of belief, and say that anyone is entitled to believe in whatever he wants... If you want to become an apostate - go ahead. You like Buddhism? Leave Islam, and join Buddhism. No problem. That's what freedom of belief is all about. They want freedom of everything. What they want is very dangerous."
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Saudi Cleric Muhammad Al-Munajid Warns: Freedom of Speech Might Lead to Freedom of Belief
DAR AL ISLAM-SAUDI ARABIA: ISLAMS GENDER APARTHEID
Our dirty little secret
The way women are treated in Saudi Arabia is a disgrace - and Muslims, including myself, are colluding with the regime's gender apartheid
Riazat Butt
Reading about the lives of Saudi women reminded me of the brief but bizarre time I spent in the country, reporting on the Hajj.
Performing the pilgrimage is probably the only occasion that Muslims will visit the kingdom; tourism visas are non-existent and travelling for business and family reasons requires extensive documentation. I had heard about Saudi women being stripped of their rights, or having them pared down to the point of ineffectualness, but wasn't ready for this experience and had a rude awakening on arriving at the pilgrim's terminal in Jeddah. I looked for the man who was supposed to meet me, but when he failed to materialise, airport officials kept me in baggage reclaim for five hours. Showing them my papers - including a visa, a list of contact names and numbers and a letter from my employer - made little difference. I asked to leave so I could get a cab to Mecca, only to be told I would be stopped and turned back at checkpoints lining the route. The misunderstanding was cleared up, seven hours after landing, and I was allowed to go to a hotel, staying overnight and travelling to Mecca with a group the following day.
It became a familiar pattern. The lack of a male shocked some and surprised many but, as I always explained, I was working and had permission to be in the country. How else to explain the visa? I was discouraged from walking on foot - by far the quickest form of transport during the pilgrimage - and was stuck on buses and coaches for arduous journeys while male journalists were able to hop off and flag down motorcycles operating as taxis. Restricted movement was the least of my concerns, however. I was sexually assaulted three times in Mecca - the least distressing incident took place near the Ka'aba when a male pilgrim mistook my breasts for a balustrade and used them to hoist himself up the stairs - and was met with indifference when I complained. Being sexually assaulted is, I learned, an almost occupational hazard for the female pilgrim. It will happen to you or someone you know and incidents go unreported because of apathy from the security guards on duty.
If this is happening in Islam's holiest city, what is happening in the rest of Saudi Arabia? There was an unsettling dearth of women from the workplace - on TV, in hotels, restaurants and shops. I also became conditioned to being ignored by officials when asking questions about anything - whether it was the pilgrimage or more mundane matters. I shared my concerns with a male Saudi journalist and he told me I was imagining things. A female journalist told me how she and her husband were discussing Qatif girl with some young, educated Saudis. She thought they might be ashamed and embarrassed by the government's behaviour, but they thought the gang-raped teenager deserved every moment of the ordeal inflicted on her.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Our dirty little secret
The way women are treated in Saudi Arabia is a disgrace - and Muslims, including myself, are colluding with the regime's gender apartheid
Riazat Butt
Reading about the lives of Saudi women reminded me of the brief but bizarre time I spent in the country, reporting on the Hajj.
Performing the pilgrimage is probably the only occasion that Muslims will visit the kingdom; tourism visas are non-existent and travelling for business and family reasons requires extensive documentation. I had heard about Saudi women being stripped of their rights, or having them pared down to the point of ineffectualness, but wasn't ready for this experience and had a rude awakening on arriving at the pilgrim's terminal in Jeddah. I looked for the man who was supposed to meet me, but when he failed to materialise, airport officials kept me in baggage reclaim for five hours. Showing them my papers - including a visa, a list of contact names and numbers and a letter from my employer - made little difference. I asked to leave so I could get a cab to Mecca, only to be told I would be stopped and turned back at checkpoints lining the route. The misunderstanding was cleared up, seven hours after landing, and I was allowed to go to a hotel, staying overnight and travelling to Mecca with a group the following day.
It became a familiar pattern. The lack of a male shocked some and surprised many but, as I always explained, I was working and had permission to be in the country. How else to explain the visa? I was discouraged from walking on foot - by far the quickest form of transport during the pilgrimage - and was stuck on buses and coaches for arduous journeys while male journalists were able to hop off and flag down motorcycles operating as taxis. Restricted movement was the least of my concerns, however. I was sexually assaulted three times in Mecca - the least distressing incident took place near the Ka'aba when a male pilgrim mistook my breasts for a balustrade and used them to hoist himself up the stairs - and was met with indifference when I complained. Being sexually assaulted is, I learned, an almost occupational hazard for the female pilgrim. It will happen to you or someone you know and incidents go unreported because of apathy from the security guards on duty.
If this is happening in Islam's holiest city, what is happening in the rest of Saudi Arabia? There was an unsettling dearth of women from the workplace - on TV, in hotels, restaurants and shops. I also became conditioned to being ignored by officials when asking questions about anything - whether it was the pilgrimage or more mundane matters. I shared my concerns with a male Saudi journalist and he told me I was imagining things. A female journalist told me how she and her husband were discussing Qatif girl with some young, educated Saudis. She thought they might be ashamed and embarrassed by the government's behaviour, but they thought the gang-raped teenager deserved every moment of the ordeal inflicted on her.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Our dirty little secret
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM: MODERN HISTORY, TURKEY & THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Never forget
Our modern history with genocide began in Armenia
By Kimberly Horg-Webb
“Who remembers now the destruction of the Armenians?”
This infamous question, attributed to Adolf Hitler, is inscribed on a wall of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. A bold statement argued about by scholars, it represents millions of people of Armenian descent still fighting for recognition of the murders of their family members almost 100 years ago.
Genocide Remembrance Day, held on April 24, is a day to reflect on those who died. Between 1915 and 1923, according to historical accounts, around 1.5 million Armenians were systematically killed on the orders of the Ottoman Empire.
Until the late 19th century, Armenians were living in harmony with other ethnic groups. But the Russian victory over the Ottoman Empire, which led to Russian control over a large part of Armenian territory, led to problems. Russian support of Christians within the Ottoman Empire weakened the Ottoman government’s control by leading Armenians to believe they could regain independence. Armenian Christians were subject to Islamic dhimmi laws, which granted them lesser status and fewer legal rights than Muslim Ottoman citizens had under sharia law. Resentment between the groups escalated to conflict, abuse and violence.
Armenian survivors say that they were forced from their homes by the Ottoman government through mass evacuations and murders. Rape, famine and murder became so widespread that, whether an intended goal or not, the result was to exterminate a large portion of the Armenian population.
The present-day Turkish government disputes many facts of the forced evacuation and mass deaths. Although the Turkish government does not dispute that the Ottoman government ordered the evacuation of Armenians, they reject calling it “genocide.” Instead, the Turks allege that the deaths among Armenians at the time were the result of interethnic strife, disease and famine related to the turmoil of World War I.
...
and
Turkey's Genocide Dilemma
Written by Jasper Mortimer
History surrounds the newly refurbished park where old men sit and smoke and stray dogs bark on the slopes beneath Ankara Castle. There are the massive medieval walls of the citadel, the Museum of Anatolian Civilization at the park’s southern end, and across the valley stands a column erected by the Romans in the fourth century.
But there is nothing in Hisar Park that reveals its own history, what happened there before it became a park.
Photographs of the area taken in the early 1900s, such as those published in Ankara Magazine in November 2005, show a densely built district called Hisaronu, which means “in front of the castle.”
The houses were posh – three stories high with balconies and flagpoles – and the men in the street were smartly dressed in black coats and fezzes. After all, Hisaronu was home to the city’s mohair merchants, doctors and lawyers. It was also known as the Armenian Quarter.
Two events destroyed Hisaronu in the decade 1910–1920. The first came in 1915 when the Ottoman authorities applied the policy of “deporting” Armenians to remote parts of the empire. But this did not empty the district, as Greeks and Muslims lived there as well. Then in 1917 an accidental fire sped through the wooden-clad buildings of Hisaronu and razed it.
Curiously, Hisaronu’s inhabitants never rebuilt their homes. Many of them had second homes, with gardens, on the outskirts of the city, and they may have lived there in the hard times that followed World War One. The Greek residents may have left Turkey in the exchange of populations that accompanied the Treaty of Lausanne of 1923.
But what became of the Armenians?
The census of 1914 said there were 11,646 Armenians in Ankara, but the census of 1927 recorded only 705; “so we can conclude that more than 10,000 Armenians were forced to leave Ankara in 1915,” the journalist Seden Bayat wrote in an Ankara magazine article.
Thursday (April 24) is the 93rd anniversary of what is regarded as the start of the crackdown on the Armenians. On the night of 24 April, 1915 police arrested 235 leading members of the Armenian community in Istanbul, then the capital of the Ottoman empire.
During the next seven years up to 1.5 million Armenians died, either through massacres or deprivation in forced marches, according to Armenians. Turkey denies this, saying that 300,000 Armenians died in civil strife that emerged after Armenians in eastern Anatolia sided with invading Russian troops.
But there was no local strife or collusion with the enemy to justify the deportation of Armenians in Ankara and Istanbul. And it is the persistence of such questions, or the failure to answer them, that burdens Turkey like a ball and chain.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Never forget
2) Turkey's Genocide Dilemma
Our modern history with genocide began in Armenia
By Kimberly Horg-Webb
“Who remembers now the destruction of the Armenians?”
This infamous question, attributed to Adolf Hitler, is inscribed on a wall of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. A bold statement argued about by scholars, it represents millions of people of Armenian descent still fighting for recognition of the murders of their family members almost 100 years ago.
Genocide Remembrance Day, held on April 24, is a day to reflect on those who died. Between 1915 and 1923, according to historical accounts, around 1.5 million Armenians were systematically killed on the orders of the Ottoman Empire.
Until the late 19th century, Armenians were living in harmony with other ethnic groups. But the Russian victory over the Ottoman Empire, which led to Russian control over a large part of Armenian territory, led to problems. Russian support of Christians within the Ottoman Empire weakened the Ottoman government’s control by leading Armenians to believe they could regain independence. Armenian Christians were subject to Islamic dhimmi laws, which granted them lesser status and fewer legal rights than Muslim Ottoman citizens had under sharia law. Resentment between the groups escalated to conflict, abuse and violence.
Armenian survivors say that they were forced from their homes by the Ottoman government through mass evacuations and murders. Rape, famine and murder became so widespread that, whether an intended goal or not, the result was to exterminate a large portion of the Armenian population.
The present-day Turkish government disputes many facts of the forced evacuation and mass deaths. Although the Turkish government does not dispute that the Ottoman government ordered the evacuation of Armenians, they reject calling it “genocide.” Instead, the Turks allege that the deaths among Armenians at the time were the result of interethnic strife, disease and famine related to the turmoil of World War I.
...
and
Turkey's Genocide Dilemma
Written by Jasper Mortimer
History surrounds the newly refurbished park where old men sit and smoke and stray dogs bark on the slopes beneath Ankara Castle. There are the massive medieval walls of the citadel, the Museum of Anatolian Civilization at the park’s southern end, and across the valley stands a column erected by the Romans in the fourth century.
But there is nothing in Hisar Park that reveals its own history, what happened there before it became a park.
Photographs of the area taken in the early 1900s, such as those published in Ankara Magazine in November 2005, show a densely built district called Hisaronu, which means “in front of the castle.”
The houses were posh – three stories high with balconies and flagpoles – and the men in the street were smartly dressed in black coats and fezzes. After all, Hisaronu was home to the city’s mohair merchants, doctors and lawyers. It was also known as the Armenian Quarter.
Two events destroyed Hisaronu in the decade 1910–1920. The first came in 1915 when the Ottoman authorities applied the policy of “deporting” Armenians to remote parts of the empire. But this did not empty the district, as Greeks and Muslims lived there as well. Then in 1917 an accidental fire sped through the wooden-clad buildings of Hisaronu and razed it.
Curiously, Hisaronu’s inhabitants never rebuilt their homes. Many of them had second homes, with gardens, on the outskirts of the city, and they may have lived there in the hard times that followed World War One. The Greek residents may have left Turkey in the exchange of populations that accompanied the Treaty of Lausanne of 1923.
But what became of the Armenians?
The census of 1914 said there were 11,646 Armenians in Ankara, but the census of 1927 recorded only 705; “so we can conclude that more than 10,000 Armenians were forced to leave Ankara in 1915,” the journalist Seden Bayat wrote in an Ankara magazine article.
Thursday (April 24) is the 93rd anniversary of what is regarded as the start of the crackdown on the Armenians. On the night of 24 April, 1915 police arrested 235 leading members of the Armenian community in Istanbul, then the capital of the Ottoman empire.
During the next seven years up to 1.5 million Armenians died, either through massacres or deprivation in forced marches, according to Armenians. Turkey denies this, saying that 300,000 Armenians died in civil strife that emerged after Armenians in eastern Anatolia sided with invading Russian troops.
But there was no local strife or collusion with the enemy to justify the deportation of Armenians in Ankara and Istanbul. And it is the persistence of such questions, or the failure to answer them, that burdens Turkey like a ball and chain.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Never forget
2) Turkey's Genocide Dilemma
Thursday, April 24, 2008
DAR AL ISLAM-IRAQ: 240MM ROCKET, WITH IRANIAN MARKINGS, FOUND IN BASRA IRAQ
Iraqis find Iran warhead for medium-range missile
Coalition forces have reported Iran may be supplying medium-range rockets to Shi'ite militias in Iraq.
On April 19, Iraqi troops, as part of Operation Charge of the Knights, discovered a cache of munitions that included a 240 mm high-explosive warhead in Basra.
"The success in finding these large caches was also due in part by numerous tips from concerned local Iraqis," Lt. Col. Neil Harper, a spokesman for Multi-National Corps-Iraq, said.
The warhead, which contained Iranian markings, was said to be the most advanced weapon found in the possession of the Mahdi Army.
Officials said the warhead appeared to be part of the Fajr-5 medium-range rocket produced by Iran and transferred to Hizbullah in 2006. So far, they said, Shi'ite militias were not believed to have fired a 240 mm rocket in Iraq.
Other weapons found in the Shi'ite militia cache in Basra included 160 mortars, 25 artillery shells and a large quantity of explosives. Officials said the weapons contained Iranian markings and appeared less than a year old.
Officials said Teheran was believed to have supplied missiles with a range of at least 70 kilometers to the Mahdi Army, Special Groups and other militias in 2008. They said the rockets were meant to be used against the U.S.-led coalition and Baghdad government.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Iraqis find Iran warhead for medium-range missile
Coalition forces have reported Iran may be supplying medium-range rockets to Shi'ite militias in Iraq.
On April 19, Iraqi troops, as part of Operation Charge of the Knights, discovered a cache of munitions that included a 240 mm high-explosive warhead in Basra.
"The success in finding these large caches was also due in part by numerous tips from concerned local Iraqis," Lt. Col. Neil Harper, a spokesman for Multi-National Corps-Iraq, said.
The warhead, which contained Iranian markings, was said to be the most advanced weapon found in the possession of the Mahdi Army.
Officials said the warhead appeared to be part of the Fajr-5 medium-range rocket produced by Iran and transferred to Hizbullah in 2006. So far, they said, Shi'ite militias were not believed to have fired a 240 mm rocket in Iraq.
Other weapons found in the Shi'ite militia cache in Basra included 160 mortars, 25 artillery shells and a large quantity of explosives. Officials said the weapons contained Iranian markings and appeared less than a year old.
Officials said Teheran was believed to have supplied missiles with a range of at least 70 kilometers to the Mahdi Army, Special Groups and other militias in 2008. They said the rockets were meant to be used against the U.S.-led coalition and Baghdad government.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Iraqis find Iran warhead for medium-range missile
DAR AL ISLAM-EGYPT: THE FIRST SEXUALLY EXPLICIT ARABIC NOVEL CEASED IN EGYPT BEFORE IT COULD BE PUBLISHED
Metro, first sexually explicit Arabic novel seized in Egypt
The Arabic language’s first graphic novel appears it will need more time before it will be published as Egyptian police confiscated the book in what has been described as another threat to freedom of speech.
"Metro" was to be published in the near future by Malalmeh publishing house, but police raided their office here and took the book.
Egyptian government officials said the book was "harmful to public manners" due to its alleged political and social commentary.
Activist and blogger Mohamed Al Sharkawy, who is under arrest for his participation in the 6 April general strike across the North African nation owns Malameh.
Sharkawy made headlines two years ago during his detention when he said police in Cairo sexually assaulted him.
No charges were brought against the policemen despite Sharkawy’s lawyers documenting the incident and handing it over to the prosecutor.
The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (HRinfo) - a pan-Arabic network that promotes freedom of speech - said the police broke into the Malameh office and took the novel, which they argue disrupts the country’s sentiments and "adversely affects the country’s image abroad."
"Metro" is written by Magdi El Shafi and the publishing house said it was to be the first graphic novel to be published in Egypt and the Arabic speaking world.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Metro, first sexually explicit Arabic novel seized in Egypt
The Arabic language’s first graphic novel appears it will need more time before it will be published as Egyptian police confiscated the book in what has been described as another threat to freedom of speech.
"Metro" was to be published in the near future by Malalmeh publishing house, but police raided their office here and took the book.
Egyptian government officials said the book was "harmful to public manners" due to its alleged political and social commentary.
Activist and blogger Mohamed Al Sharkawy, who is under arrest for his participation in the 6 April general strike across the North African nation owns Malameh.
Sharkawy made headlines two years ago during his detention when he said police in Cairo sexually assaulted him.
No charges were brought against the policemen despite Sharkawy’s lawyers documenting the incident and handing it over to the prosecutor.
The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (HRinfo) - a pan-Arabic network that promotes freedom of speech - said the police broke into the Malameh office and took the novel, which they argue disrupts the country’s sentiments and "adversely affects the country’s image abroad."
"Metro" is written by Magdi El Shafi and the publishing house said it was to be the first graphic novel to be published in Egypt and the Arabic speaking world.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Metro, first sexually explicit Arabic novel seized in Egypt
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM: MOSLEM HATE AGAINST THE JEWS
Arab-Muslim Anti-Semitism Threatens Peace Process, Report Says
By Julie Stahl
Growing Arab and Islamic anti-Semitism is posing a strategic threat to Israel by threatening the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and encouraging and justifying terrorism, according to report released this week.
The study, conducted by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC), a quasi-official organization, examines the roots and characteristics of and dangers posed by contemporary anti-Semitism in the Arab and Muslim world.
Through the use of anti-Semitism, a generation of Arabs, Palestinians and Muslims are being educated to hate Israel and the Jewish people, ITIC director Dr. Reuven Erlich told Cybercast News Service in a discussion about the report.
"It contradicts the peace process. It encourages and justifies terrorism [and] is a tool in the policy of Iran, which became an anti-Semitism-sponsoring state," Erlich said.
(Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has openly called for the destruction of Israel and denies the magnitude of the Holocaust.)
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Arab-Muslim Anti-Semitism Threatens Peace Process, Report Says
2) Contemporary Arab-Muslim anti-Semitism, its Significance and Implications (A summary, the full report is now being translated into English.)
By Julie Stahl
Growing Arab and Islamic anti-Semitism is posing a strategic threat to Israel by threatening the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and encouraging and justifying terrorism, according to report released this week.
The study, conducted by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC), a quasi-official organization, examines the roots and characteristics of and dangers posed by contemporary anti-Semitism in the Arab and Muslim world.
Through the use of anti-Semitism, a generation of Arabs, Palestinians and Muslims are being educated to hate Israel and the Jewish people, ITIC director Dr. Reuven Erlich told Cybercast News Service in a discussion about the report.
"It contradicts the peace process. It encourages and justifies terrorism [and] is a tool in the policy of Iran, which became an anti-Semitism-sponsoring state," Erlich said.
(Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has openly called for the destruction of Israel and denies the magnitude of the Holocaust.)
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Arab-Muslim Anti-Semitism Threatens Peace Process, Report Says
2) Contemporary Arab-Muslim anti-Semitism, its Significance and Implications (A summary, the full report is now being translated into English.)
DAR AL HARB-U.S.A.-WASHINGTON D.C.: ABBAS AT THE WHITE HOUSE
Bush seeks boost for Abbas and Mideast peace bid
President George W. Bush hosts Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the White House on Thursday to try to bolster him and shore up a fragile U.S.-backed peace effort with Israel.
President George W. Bush hosts Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the White House on Thursday to try to bolster him and shore up a fragile U.S.-backed peace effort with Israel.
With 10 months left in office, Bush will hold talks with Abbas in the face of deep scepticism over the chances for securing a Middle East peace deal before the U.S. president finishes his term early next year.
Abbas, weakened by Hamas' takeover of the Gaza Strip in June, was expected to seek stepped-up U.S. pressure on Israel. Bush will visit the Jewish state in mid-May to join in celebrations of its 60th anniversary.
Negotiations between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert have yielded little progress since a U.S.-sponsored conference in Annapolis, Maryland, in November, where they pledged to try to reach a peace agreement by the end of 2008.
The administration now appears to be picking up the pace of Middle East diplomacy again after Bush failed to achieve a breakthrough on his visit to the region in January.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Bush seeks boost for Abbas and Mideast peace bid
President George W. Bush hosts Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the White House on Thursday to try to bolster him and shore up a fragile U.S.-backed peace effort with Israel.
President George W. Bush hosts Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the White House on Thursday to try to bolster him and shore up a fragile U.S.-backed peace effort with Israel.
With 10 months left in office, Bush will hold talks with Abbas in the face of deep scepticism over the chances for securing a Middle East peace deal before the U.S. president finishes his term early next year.
Abbas, weakened by Hamas' takeover of the Gaza Strip in June, was expected to seek stepped-up U.S. pressure on Israel. Bush will visit the Jewish state in mid-May to join in celebrations of its 60th anniversary.
Negotiations between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert have yielded little progress since a U.S.-sponsored conference in Annapolis, Maryland, in November, where they pledged to try to reach a peace agreement by the end of 2008.
The administration now appears to be picking up the pace of Middle East diplomacy again after Bush failed to achieve a breakthrough on his visit to the region in January.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Bush seeks boost for Abbas and Mideast peace bid
DAR AL HARB-BRAZIL: AN OIL DISCOVERY HAS THE POTENTIAL TO END WESTERN HEMISPHERES RELIANCE ON SAUDI OIL
Brazil Oil Finds May End Reliance on Middle East, Zeihan Says
By Joe Carroll
Brazil's discoveries of what may be two of the world's three biggest oil finds in the past 30 years could help end the Western Hemisphere's reliance on Middle East crude, Strategic Forecasting Inc. said.
Saudi Arabia's influence as the biggest oil exporter would wane if the fields are as big as advertised, and China and India would become dominant buyers of Persian Gulf oil, said Peter Zeihan, vice president of analysis at Strategic Forecasting in Austin, Texas. Zeihan's firm, which consults for companies and governments around the world, was described in a 2001 Barron's article as "the shadow CIA.''
Brazil may be pumping "several million'' barrels of crude daily by 2020, vaulting the nation into the ranks of the world's seven biggest producers, Zeihan said in a telephone interview. The U.S. Navy's presence in the Persian Gulf and adjacent waters would be reduced, leaving the region exposed to more conflict, he said.
"We could see that world becoming a very violent one,'' said Zeihan, former chief of Middle East and East Asia analysis for Strategic Forecasting. "If the United States isn't getting any crude from the Gulf, what benefit does it have in policing the Gulf anymore? All of the geopolitical flux that wracks that region regularly suddenly isn't our problem.''
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Brazil Oil Finds May End Reliance on Middle East, Zeihan Says
By Joe Carroll
Brazil's discoveries of what may be two of the world's three biggest oil finds in the past 30 years could help end the Western Hemisphere's reliance on Middle East crude, Strategic Forecasting Inc. said.
Saudi Arabia's influence as the biggest oil exporter would wane if the fields are as big as advertised, and China and India would become dominant buyers of Persian Gulf oil, said Peter Zeihan, vice president of analysis at Strategic Forecasting in Austin, Texas. Zeihan's firm, which consults for companies and governments around the world, was described in a 2001 Barron's article as "the shadow CIA.''
Brazil may be pumping "several million'' barrels of crude daily by 2020, vaulting the nation into the ranks of the world's seven biggest producers, Zeihan said in a telephone interview. The U.S. Navy's presence in the Persian Gulf and adjacent waters would be reduced, leaving the region exposed to more conflict, he said.
"We could see that world becoming a very violent one,'' said Zeihan, former chief of Middle East and East Asia analysis for Strategic Forecasting. "If the United States isn't getting any crude from the Gulf, what benefit does it have in policing the Gulf anymore? All of the geopolitical flux that wracks that region regularly suddenly isn't our problem.''
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Brazil Oil Finds May End Reliance on Middle East, Zeihan Says
DAR AL ISLAM-IRAN/MALAYSIA: IRAN BOOTED FROM A GLOBAL ARMS SHOW
Iran expelled from global arms show
Iran has been expelled from an international armaments trade show in Malaysia for being in breach of a United Nations resolution banning arms exports.
Malaysia's deputy premier, Najib Razak, confirmed that the country had been expelled from the 11th Defence Services Asia show.
"Unfortunately, when we inspected the Iranian state, there were missiles that are in clear contravention of UN resolutions, " Razak said.
Iranian companies were notified to leave the show on Tuesday but the news was released on Thursday.
Razak told reporters the government's move was not because of complaints from the US and Britain.
United Nations resololutions prohibit Iran from exporting arms and for other countries to give technical assistance to Tehran for the development of nuclear arms.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Iran expelled from global arms show
Iran has been expelled from an international armaments trade show in Malaysia for being in breach of a United Nations resolution banning arms exports.
Malaysia's deputy premier, Najib Razak, confirmed that the country had been expelled from the 11th Defence Services Asia show.
"Unfortunately, when we inspected the Iranian state, there were missiles that are in clear contravention of UN resolutions, " Razak said.
Iranian companies were notified to leave the show on Tuesday but the news was released on Thursday.
Razak told reporters the government's move was not because of complaints from the US and Britain.
United Nations resololutions prohibit Iran from exporting arms and for other countries to give technical assistance to Tehran for the development of nuclear arms.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Iran expelled from global arms show
DAR AL HARB-INDIA: SUFI MOSLEMS RODE THE COAT TAILS OF CONQUERING MOSLEM HORDES - - - NOT SO 'INNOCENT' AS MANY DHIMMIS CLAIM
The other side of Sufism
By R.K. Ohri, IPS (Retd)
A reappraisal of the role of Sufis working as missionaries of Islam
For centuries the Sufi creed and Sufi music have been tom tomed as great symbols of spiritualism and promoters of peace and harmony between the Hindus and the Muslims. The cleverly marketed concept of Sufi spiritualism has been unquestioningly accepted as the hallmark of Hindu-Muslim unity. It is time we studied the history of Sufis, tried to track the narrative of their coming to India and analysed their explicit missionary role in promoting conversions to Islam. More importantly, it needs to be assessed how did the Sufis conduct themselves during reckless killings and plunders by the Muslim invaders ? Did they object to the senseless mass killings and try to prevent unremitting plunder of Hindu temples and innocent masses? Did the Sufis ever object to the capture of helpless men and women as slaves and the use of the latter as objects of carnal pleasure ? These are some of the questions to which answers have to be found by every genuine student of Indian history.
...
In the above mentioned treatise on Sufi philosphy, Fuwaid al-Fuad, a very interesting instance of enslaving the kaffir Hindus for monetary gain has been cited which shows how another Sufi, Shayakh Ali Sijzi, provided financial assistance to one of his dervishes to participate in the lucrative slave trade. He had advised the dervish that he should take “these slaves to Ghazni, where the potential for profit is still greater”. And it was confirmed by Nizamuddin Auliya that “the Dervish obeyed”. Obviously therefore, neither spiritual ethics and nor justice to all, including the infidels, were the strong points of Sufi saints.
If the narrative of the preachings and acts of Khawaja Moinuddin Chishti of Ajmer are taken as indication of his religious philosophy and deeds, he emerges as a sufi master who nursed a deep hatred against the infidel Hindus and showed utter contempt for their religious beliefs. As elaborated by S.S.A. Rizvi in ‘A History of Sufism in India, Vol. 1 (Munshiram Manoharlal, 1978, p. 117), there is a reference in the book, Jawahar-i- Faridi, to the fact that when Moinuddin Chishti reached near the Annasagar Lake at Ajmer, where a number of holy shrines of Hindus were located, he slaughtered a cow and cooked a beef kebab at the sacred place surrounded by many temples. It is further claimed in Jawahar-i-Faridi that the Khwaja had dried the 2 holy lakes of Annasagar and Pansela by the magical heat of Islamic spiritual power. He is even stated to have made the idol of the Hindu temple near Annasagar recite the Kalma. The Khwaja had a burning desire to destroy the rule of the brave Rajput king, Prithviraj Chauhan, so much so that he ascribed the victory of Muhammad Ghori in the battle of Tarain entirely to his own spiritual prowess and declared that “We have seized Pithaura alive and handed him over to the army of Islam”. [Source: Siyar’l Auliya, cited by Rizvi on page 116 of ‘A History of Sufism in India’].
Throughout the Muslim rule all Sufis enjoyed full confidence, royal favour and patronage of the cruel Muslim rulers. Though foolishly accepted as “secular” by most Hindus seeking spiritual solace after being battered, bruised and marginalised, almost all Sufi saints dogmatically followed the commandments contained in the Quran, the Hadith and Sharia. Historians have recorded that many Sufi saints had accompanied armies of the Muslim invaders to use their spiritual powers in furtherance of Islam’s conquests. Not one of them raised even a little finger to forbid slaughter of the innocents, nor did they question the imposition of jiziya by Muslim rulers. In fact, most of them guided the
Muslim rulers in carrying forward their mission of conquest and conversion by furthering their campaigns of plundering the wealth of Hindus of which many Sufis willingly partook share. It was almost a taboo for Sufis, the so-called saints, to accept a Hindu ascending the throne of any kingdom during the heydays of the Muslim rule. . In an example narrated by S.A.A. Rizvi on page 37 of his well researched book, The Wonder That Was India (Vol.II, Rupa & Co, 1993, New Delhi) it is pointed out that when the powerful Bengali warrior, king Ganesha, captured power in Bengal in the year 1415 A.D., Ibrahim Shah Sharqi, attacked his kingdom at the request of outraged ulema and numerous Sufis of Bengal. In the ensuing strife, the leading Sufi of Bengal, Nur Qutb-i-Alam, interceded and secured a political agreement to the benefit of the Muslim community and satisfaction of Sufis. Under dire threat King Ganesha was forced to abdicate his throne in favour of his 12 years old son, Jadu, who was converted to Islam and proclaimed as Sultan Jalaluddin - to the satisfaction of the Sufi masters. Similarly Sultan Ahmed Shah of Gujarat (1411-42), though a practitioner of Sufi philosophy, was a diehard iconoclast who took delight in destroying temples, as stated in the same tome, by S.A.A. Rizvi. The Sultan also used to force the Rajput chieftains to marry their daughters to him so that they would become outcastes in their own community. And the endgame of the Sultan could as well be that perhaps some of the outcaste Rajputs might then opt to become Muslims.
Unfortunately due to relentless colonization of the Hindu mind during 1000 years long oppressive Muslim rule, the Hindu masses till date have failed to realise that the so-called Sufi philosophy of religious harmony is a one-way street. This trend of Hindus praying at tombs and dargahs has been nurtured by the strong undercurrent of belief in spiritualism among Hindu masses, even educated classes. That is the crux of the matter. Deeply steeped in their traditional belief in spirituality and mysticism, the Hindus have developed the custom of visiting dargahs and continue to pray at the tombs of Sufis, no Muslim, nor any Sufi, has ever agreed to worship in a Hindu temple, nor make obeisance before the images of Hindu Gods and Godesses. For them it would be an act of grossest sacrilege and unacceptable violation of the basic tenets of Sufism. That is the truth about the Sufi saints and their philosophy of inter-religious harmony.
Make sure to read it all ! ! !
Pertinent Links:
1) The other side of Sufism
By R.K. Ohri, IPS (Retd)
A reappraisal of the role of Sufis working as missionaries of Islam
For centuries the Sufi creed and Sufi music have been tom tomed as great symbols of spiritualism and promoters of peace and harmony between the Hindus and the Muslims. The cleverly marketed concept of Sufi spiritualism has been unquestioningly accepted as the hallmark of Hindu-Muslim unity. It is time we studied the history of Sufis, tried to track the narrative of their coming to India and analysed their explicit missionary role in promoting conversions to Islam. More importantly, it needs to be assessed how did the Sufis conduct themselves during reckless killings and plunders by the Muslim invaders ? Did they object to the senseless mass killings and try to prevent unremitting plunder of Hindu temples and innocent masses? Did the Sufis ever object to the capture of helpless men and women as slaves and the use of the latter as objects of carnal pleasure ? These are some of the questions to which answers have to be found by every genuine student of Indian history.
...
In the above mentioned treatise on Sufi philosphy, Fuwaid al-Fuad, a very interesting instance of enslaving the kaffir Hindus for monetary gain has been cited which shows how another Sufi, Shayakh Ali Sijzi, provided financial assistance to one of his dervishes to participate in the lucrative slave trade. He had advised the dervish that he should take “these slaves to Ghazni, where the potential for profit is still greater”. And it was confirmed by Nizamuddin Auliya that “the Dervish obeyed”. Obviously therefore, neither spiritual ethics and nor justice to all, including the infidels, were the strong points of Sufi saints.
If the narrative of the preachings and acts of Khawaja Moinuddin Chishti of Ajmer are taken as indication of his religious philosophy and deeds, he emerges as a sufi master who nursed a deep hatred against the infidel Hindus and showed utter contempt for their religious beliefs. As elaborated by S.S.A. Rizvi in ‘A History of Sufism in India, Vol. 1 (Munshiram Manoharlal, 1978, p. 117), there is a reference in the book, Jawahar-i- Faridi, to the fact that when Moinuddin Chishti reached near the Annasagar Lake at Ajmer, where a number of holy shrines of Hindus were located, he slaughtered a cow and cooked a beef kebab at the sacred place surrounded by many temples. It is further claimed in Jawahar-i-Faridi that the Khwaja had dried the 2 holy lakes of Annasagar and Pansela by the magical heat of Islamic spiritual power. He is even stated to have made the idol of the Hindu temple near Annasagar recite the Kalma. The Khwaja had a burning desire to destroy the rule of the brave Rajput king, Prithviraj Chauhan, so much so that he ascribed the victory of Muhammad Ghori in the battle of Tarain entirely to his own spiritual prowess and declared that “We have seized Pithaura alive and handed him over to the army of Islam”. [Source: Siyar’l Auliya, cited by Rizvi on page 116 of ‘A History of Sufism in India’].
Throughout the Muslim rule all Sufis enjoyed full confidence, royal favour and patronage of the cruel Muslim rulers. Though foolishly accepted as “secular” by most Hindus seeking spiritual solace after being battered, bruised and marginalised, almost all Sufi saints dogmatically followed the commandments contained in the Quran, the Hadith and Sharia. Historians have recorded that many Sufi saints had accompanied armies of the Muslim invaders to use their spiritual powers in furtherance of Islam’s conquests. Not one of them raised even a little finger to forbid slaughter of the innocents, nor did they question the imposition of jiziya by Muslim rulers. In fact, most of them guided the
Muslim rulers in carrying forward their mission of conquest and conversion by furthering their campaigns of plundering the wealth of Hindus of which many Sufis willingly partook share. It was almost a taboo for Sufis, the so-called saints, to accept a Hindu ascending the throne of any kingdom during the heydays of the Muslim rule. . In an example narrated by S.A.A. Rizvi on page 37 of his well researched book, The Wonder That Was India (Vol.II, Rupa & Co, 1993, New Delhi) it is pointed out that when the powerful Bengali warrior, king Ganesha, captured power in Bengal in the year 1415 A.D., Ibrahim Shah Sharqi, attacked his kingdom at the request of outraged ulema and numerous Sufis of Bengal. In the ensuing strife, the leading Sufi of Bengal, Nur Qutb-i-Alam, interceded and secured a political agreement to the benefit of the Muslim community and satisfaction of Sufis. Under dire threat King Ganesha was forced to abdicate his throne in favour of his 12 years old son, Jadu, who was converted to Islam and proclaimed as Sultan Jalaluddin - to the satisfaction of the Sufi masters. Similarly Sultan Ahmed Shah of Gujarat (1411-42), though a practitioner of Sufi philosophy, was a diehard iconoclast who took delight in destroying temples, as stated in the same tome, by S.A.A. Rizvi. The Sultan also used to force the Rajput chieftains to marry their daughters to him so that they would become outcastes in their own community. And the endgame of the Sultan could as well be that perhaps some of the outcaste Rajputs might then opt to become Muslims.
Unfortunately due to relentless colonization of the Hindu mind during 1000 years long oppressive Muslim rule, the Hindu masses till date have failed to realise that the so-called Sufi philosophy of religious harmony is a one-way street. This trend of Hindus praying at tombs and dargahs has been nurtured by the strong undercurrent of belief in spiritualism among Hindu masses, even educated classes. That is the crux of the matter. Deeply steeped in their traditional belief in spirituality and mysticism, the Hindus have developed the custom of visiting dargahs and continue to pray at the tombs of Sufis, no Muslim, nor any Sufi, has ever agreed to worship in a Hindu temple, nor make obeisance before the images of Hindu Gods and Godesses. For them it would be an act of grossest sacrilege and unacceptable violation of the basic tenets of Sufism. That is the truth about the Sufi saints and their philosophy of inter-religious harmony.
Make sure to read it all ! ! !
Pertinent Links:
1) The other side of Sufism
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM: " 'DOMESTIC ANIMALS' HAVE NO RIGHT TO WORK IN ORDER TO POSSESS ANYTHING FOR THEMSELVES"
Mohammad's final sermon on women, made during his last hajj:
This excerpt will help you in answering the highlighted questions posed by the good doctor in the body of the article below...
Women in Muslim world
By Dr Farrukh Saleem
Muslims do not treat women right. According to the Global Gender Gap (GGG) report, the planet's ten-worst offenders are: Yemen, Chad, Pakistan, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Benin, Morocco, Turkey, Egypt and Oman. Of the ten, nine are Muslim-majority states. At the other end of the spectrum, the planet's best countries for women to live in are: Sweden, Norway, Finland, Ireland, New Zealand, Philippines, Germany, Denmark, Ireland and Spain. Not even one of the top-ten is a Muslim-majority state.
GGG collected data from a total of 128 countries to develop a comprehensive, scientific index. The GGG Index is based on four different sub-indices -- namely, economic participation, educational attainment, political empowerment and health -- while each of the sub-indices has half a dozen components.
Under economic participation, five of the worst-offenders are: Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Oman and Bahrain. Under educational attainment, the worst-offenders are: Chad, Yemen, Benin and Pakistan. The best: Denmark, United Kingdom, Australia, France and Belgium. Under political empowerment the worst are: Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Kuwait, Qatar, Egypt and Iran. The best: Sweden, Finland, Norway, Iceland and Spain.
For women, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan comes out as one the worst of countries to live in; there are only two other countries worse off than is Pakistan -- Yemen and Chad. Under economic participation, Pakistan is ranked 126 out of 128. Educational attainment, 123 out of 128. Health, 121 out of 128. Political empowerment, 43 out of 128. Surprisingly, Pakistani women are worse off this year than they were last year.
Al Mamlakah al Arabiyah as Suudiyah, or the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is ranked really low, too. Under economic participation, Saudi Arabia is ranked 127 out of 128. Educational attainment, 87 out of 128. Health, 60 out of 128. Political empowerment, 128 out of 128.
Al Jumhuriyah al Yamaniyah, or the Republic of Yemen is worse than both Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Under economic participation, Yemen is ranked 128 out of 128. Educational attainment, 127 out of 128. Political empowerment, 127 out of 128.
Intriguingly, there is a correlation between poverty and status of women. Some of the worst offenders are also the poorest of the poor (with the exception of oil wealth). Most of the Arab world is far below global averages and conditions, unfortunately, are actually deteriorating -- not improving. Yes, there are a few exceptions. The UAE, for instance, has invested massive resources into educating its women. Bahrain now has a woman parliamentarian.
...
Is this religion or just culture? Allah made or manmade?
Can you think of a Muslim-majority country that has risen to the height of glory? Could it be because we let half of our accumulated brainpower go to waste?
Muslims do not treat women right. Muslims are 22 per cent of humanity but produce less than five per cent of global GDP. Imagine, 95 per cent of global GDP is produced by non-Muslims!
Pertinent Links:
1) Women in Muslim world
2) Global Gender Gap Report - 2007
“Now then, O people, you have a right over your wives and they have a right over you. You have [the right] that they should not cause anyone of whom you dislike to tread your beds, and that they should not commit any open indecency (fahishah). If they do, then God permits you to shut them in separate rooms and to beat them, but not severely. If they abstain from [evil], they have the right to their food and clothing in accordance with custom (bi’l-maruf). Treat women well, for they are [like] domestic animals (‘awan) with you and do not possess anything for themselves. You have taken them only as a trust from God, and you have made the enjoyment of their persons lawful by the word of God, so understand and listen to my words, O people. I have conveyed the Message, and have left you with something which, if you hold fast to it, you will never go astray; that is, the Book of God and the sunnah of His Prophet. Listen to my words, O people, for I have conveyed the message and understand [it]. Know for certain that every Muslim is a brother of another Muslim, and that all Muslims are brethren. It is not lawful for a person [to take] from his brother except that which he has given him willingly, so do not wrong yourselves. O God, have I not conveyed the message?” It was reported [to me] that the people said, “O God, yes.” And the Messenger of God said, “O God, bear witness.” (Tabari, vol.9, pp.112-114).
This excerpt will help you in answering the highlighted questions posed by the good doctor in the body of the article below...
Women in Muslim world
By Dr Farrukh Saleem
Muslims do not treat women right. According to the Global Gender Gap (GGG) report, the planet's ten-worst offenders are: Yemen, Chad, Pakistan, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Benin, Morocco, Turkey, Egypt and Oman. Of the ten, nine are Muslim-majority states. At the other end of the spectrum, the planet's best countries for women to live in are: Sweden, Norway, Finland, Ireland, New Zealand, Philippines, Germany, Denmark, Ireland and Spain. Not even one of the top-ten is a Muslim-majority state.
GGG collected data from a total of 128 countries to develop a comprehensive, scientific index. The GGG Index is based on four different sub-indices -- namely, economic participation, educational attainment, political empowerment and health -- while each of the sub-indices has half a dozen components.
Under economic participation, five of the worst-offenders are: Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Oman and Bahrain. Under educational attainment, the worst-offenders are: Chad, Yemen, Benin and Pakistan. The best: Denmark, United Kingdom, Australia, France and Belgium. Under political empowerment the worst are: Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Kuwait, Qatar, Egypt and Iran. The best: Sweden, Finland, Norway, Iceland and Spain.
For women, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan comes out as one the worst of countries to live in; there are only two other countries worse off than is Pakistan -- Yemen and Chad. Under economic participation, Pakistan is ranked 126 out of 128. Educational attainment, 123 out of 128. Health, 121 out of 128. Political empowerment, 43 out of 128. Surprisingly, Pakistani women are worse off this year than they were last year.
Al Mamlakah al Arabiyah as Suudiyah, or the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is ranked really low, too. Under economic participation, Saudi Arabia is ranked 127 out of 128. Educational attainment, 87 out of 128. Health, 60 out of 128. Political empowerment, 128 out of 128.
Al Jumhuriyah al Yamaniyah, or the Republic of Yemen is worse than both Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Under economic participation, Yemen is ranked 128 out of 128. Educational attainment, 127 out of 128. Political empowerment, 127 out of 128.
Intriguingly, there is a correlation between poverty and status of women. Some of the worst offenders are also the poorest of the poor (with the exception of oil wealth). Most of the Arab world is far below global averages and conditions, unfortunately, are actually deteriorating -- not improving. Yes, there are a few exceptions. The UAE, for instance, has invested massive resources into educating its women. Bahrain now has a woman parliamentarian.
...
Is this religion or just culture? Allah made or manmade?
Can you think of a Muslim-majority country that has risen to the height of glory? Could it be because we let half of our accumulated brainpower go to waste?
Muslims do not treat women right. Muslims are 22 per cent of humanity but produce less than five per cent of global GDP. Imagine, 95 per cent of global GDP is produced by non-Muslims!
Pertinent Links:
1) Women in Muslim world
2) Global Gender Gap Report - 2007
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
DAR AL ISLAM-TURKEY: THE REIMERGING ISLAM IN TURKEY
Secular strains: Turkish political Islam comes under new fire
By Vincent Boland and John Thornhill
Every year on April 23, Turkey’s political, military and state leaders gather in the parliament building in Ankara to celebrate national sovereignty day. It is one of those solemn state occasions the country does so well – and it offers a splendid opportunity for grandstanding. This year the speaker of parliament has invited wives of deputies to attend the event wearing headscarves should they wish, a provocative act in a country that has banished the garment from public life. This in turn has prompted speculation that the army top brass will boycott the reception.
Parliament is synonymous with Turkey’s republican history and the central tenet of that history is secularism. But since the Justice and Development party (AKP) was first swept to power in the 2002 general election, the headscarf has become the symbol of a new power struggle in Turkey, between the secular elite – of which the army is the most important element – and a new generation of conservative, religiously-minded Turks.
The military/judicial/bureaucratic nexus looks set for a new and perhaps final confrontation with the AKP. If the generals are even considering a no-show, it is evidence that Turkey’s secularists and the AKP have failed to find a modus operandi after more than five years of uneasy cohabitation. The constitutional court is already preparing to consider a petition to shut the party down, in what many commentators are calling a “judicial coup d’état”.
The AKP, which denies that it has any “agenda”, hidden or otherwise, to Islamise Turkey, will present its defence in the next few days against the charge that it seeks to impose Sharia law on Turkey. Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya, the prosecutor who filed the case with the constitutional court last month, also wants Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, Abdullah Gul, the president, and 69 other party officials banned from political activity for five years.
A legal battle is in prospect lasting perhaps for most of 2008, with the potential to paralyse the business of government and complicate Turkey’s accession talks with the European Union. It adds a huge element of uncertainty to the outlook for Turkey. The economy is already slowing and the country is vulnerable to the impact of the global credit squeeze because of its need for foreign capital to finance its current account deficit. Guven Sak, who heads the Tepav think-tank in Ankara, says the juxtaposition of these “three crises” makes this a difficult moment for Turkey.
The case against the AKP has polarised Turkey along its most familiar faultline – the point, as much ideological as psychological or social, at which its austere founding vision of secularism meets the messy reality of its emergence in the past 60 years as a multi-party democracy. It is perhaps inevitable that the more democratic Turkey becomes, the more its underlying character as a Muslim society will emerge to shape its political culture. The question is whether the AKP fuels this phenomenon or merely reflects it.
While the nation has changed – through migration, industrialisation, the spread of education, democracy and globalisation – in the 85 years since the republic was created, the state has remained essentially the same: authoritarian, hostile to plurality and observant of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s secular vision for the revolutionary republic he founded. The clash between the AKP and the secularists embodies this tension.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Secular strains: Turkish political Islam comes under new fire
By Vincent Boland and John Thornhill
Every year on April 23, Turkey’s political, military and state leaders gather in the parliament building in Ankara to celebrate national sovereignty day. It is one of those solemn state occasions the country does so well – and it offers a splendid opportunity for grandstanding. This year the speaker of parliament has invited wives of deputies to attend the event wearing headscarves should they wish, a provocative act in a country that has banished the garment from public life. This in turn has prompted speculation that the army top brass will boycott the reception.
Parliament is synonymous with Turkey’s republican history and the central tenet of that history is secularism. But since the Justice and Development party (AKP) was first swept to power in the 2002 general election, the headscarf has become the symbol of a new power struggle in Turkey, between the secular elite – of which the army is the most important element – and a new generation of conservative, religiously-minded Turks.
The military/judicial/bureaucratic nexus looks set for a new and perhaps final confrontation with the AKP. If the generals are even considering a no-show, it is evidence that Turkey’s secularists and the AKP have failed to find a modus operandi after more than five years of uneasy cohabitation. The constitutional court is already preparing to consider a petition to shut the party down, in what many commentators are calling a “judicial coup d’état”.
The AKP, which denies that it has any “agenda”, hidden or otherwise, to Islamise Turkey, will present its defence in the next few days against the charge that it seeks to impose Sharia law on Turkey. Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya, the prosecutor who filed the case with the constitutional court last month, also wants Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, Abdullah Gul, the president, and 69 other party officials banned from political activity for five years.
A legal battle is in prospect lasting perhaps for most of 2008, with the potential to paralyse the business of government and complicate Turkey’s accession talks with the European Union. It adds a huge element of uncertainty to the outlook for Turkey. The economy is already slowing and the country is vulnerable to the impact of the global credit squeeze because of its need for foreign capital to finance its current account deficit. Guven Sak, who heads the Tepav think-tank in Ankara, says the juxtaposition of these “three crises” makes this a difficult moment for Turkey.
The case against the AKP has polarised Turkey along its most familiar faultline – the point, as much ideological as psychological or social, at which its austere founding vision of secularism meets the messy reality of its emergence in the past 60 years as a multi-party democracy. It is perhaps inevitable that the more democratic Turkey becomes, the more its underlying character as a Muslim society will emerge to shape its political culture. The question is whether the AKP fuels this phenomenon or merely reflects it.
While the nation has changed – through migration, industrialisation, the spread of education, democracy and globalisation – in the 85 years since the republic was created, the state has remained essentially the same: authoritarian, hostile to plurality and observant of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s secular vision for the revolutionary republic he founded. The clash between the AKP and the secularists embodies this tension.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Secular strains: Turkish political Islam comes under new fire
DAR AL HARB-E.U.: TURKEY - E.U. NEGOTIATIONS FOR E.U. MEMBERSHIP TO SPEED UP
EU Wants to Speed up Membership Talks with Turkey
The European Union's Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn has announced he wants to speed up negotations with Turkey over joining the EU. Center-right politicians in France and Germany have predictably denounced the move.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) EU Wants to Speed up Membership Talks with Turkey
The European Union's Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn has announced he wants to speed up negotations with Turkey over joining the EU. Center-right politicians in France and Germany have predictably denounced the move.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) EU Wants to Speed up Membership Talks with Turkey
DAR AL HARB-AUSTRALIA: IT APPEARS THAT AUSSIE AUTHORITIES ARE NOT WILLING TO CLAIM THAT "SAUDI ARABIA" IS AN ALLY
University 'an agent of extreme Islam'
by Richard Kerbaj
A JUDGE has likened Griffith University to hardline Islamic "madrassas" in Pakistan - notorious for breeding radicals - and accused the Queensland institution of promoting a Muslim ideology espoused by Osama bin Laden.
Queensland District Court judge Clive Wall also accused Griffith of becoming an "agent" through which the Saudi Arabian embassy was propagating extreme Islam.
Judge Wall, a deputy judge advocate-general in the Australian Defence Force holding the rank of air commodore, told The Australian it was clear what brand of Islam the university would be teaching through its Saudi-funded Islamic Research Unit. "It would have to be Wahabism, similar to many of the madrassas in Pakistan who receive funding from Saudi Arabia," he said.
At least three of the suicide bombers responsible for the 2005 London bombings - which killed 56 people - attended Pakistani madrassas, which are considered indoctrination centres for Islamic extremism.
The Australian revealed yesterday that Griffith asked the Saudi embassy in Australia for a $1.37 million grant for its Islamic Research Unit, even telling the ambassador that certain elements of the controversial deal could be kept a secret.
It was also revealed through documents that Griffith - described by vice-chancellor Ian O'Connor as the "university of choice" for Saudis - offered the embassy a chance to "discuss" ways in which the money could be used.
The Australian first revealed in September that Griffith had received a $100,000 Saudi grant.
Griffith Islamic Research Unit director Mohamad Abdalla has rejected accusations the Saudi funding would be used to promote Wahabism, saying his centre was opposed to the hardline ideology and in favour of "moderate" Islam.
But Judge Wall yesterday accused Griffith of becoming a Saudi stooge. "They're using the university as an agent to promote their bigoted brand of Islam," he said. "I'm concerned that a country which doesn't itself tolerate freedom of religion is promoting its own quite bigoted version here with the acquiescence of our learning institutions."
This is the first time Judge Wall, who was appointed to the District Court in 1996, has publicly declared his views about the threat of Wahabism and aired his concerns about the Saudi Government's connections.
Asked why he wanted to weigh in on the topic of Saudi funding, he said: "Like many people, I follow what's out there around the world and I was just concerned in particular about the source of the funding being Saudi Arabia. I'm concerned that a university which is in my area is not being entirely frank about what it's doing."
Judge Wall accused Griffith's management of being "naive" in accepting Saudi funds, which have historically been linked to the propagation of fundamentalism.
...
"They (Saudis) are not being simply altruistic," he said. "They don't give anything for benevolent reasons, there's always something behind it."
September's report in The Australian prompted Judge Wall to inquire about the nature of the fund and how it was intended to be used. He wrote to Ross Homel - then director of Griffith's key Centre for Ethics, Law, Justice and Governance, which manages the Islamic unit - raising questions about the branch of Islam the university wanted to propagate.
"You have said that the Saudi grant to the Griffith Islamic Research Unit will be used to promote 'moderate Islam'," says Judge Wall in the letter obtained by The Australian. "What do you mean by 'moderate Islam' and what do you understand is the difference between moderate Islam and Wahabi Islam or Wahab-ism (sic) or 'hardline' purposes?"
Judge Wall's questions were hand-balled by Professor Homel to Dr Abdalla. But he never received an answer.
"I'm a little concerned that I've received no response from the university to my letter," Judge Wall said. "They seem reluctant to discuss the matter."
Griffith did not return several phone calls from The Australian yesterday. Mr Abdalla could not be contacted.
Pertinent Links:
1) University 'an agent of extreme Islam'
by Richard Kerbaj
A JUDGE has likened Griffith University to hardline Islamic "madrassas" in Pakistan - notorious for breeding radicals - and accused the Queensland institution of promoting a Muslim ideology espoused by Osama bin Laden.
Queensland District Court judge Clive Wall also accused Griffith of becoming an "agent" through which the Saudi Arabian embassy was propagating extreme Islam.
Judge Wall, a deputy judge advocate-general in the Australian Defence Force holding the rank of air commodore, told The Australian it was clear what brand of Islam the university would be teaching through its Saudi-funded Islamic Research Unit. "It would have to be Wahabism, similar to many of the madrassas in Pakistan who receive funding from Saudi Arabia," he said.
At least three of the suicide bombers responsible for the 2005 London bombings - which killed 56 people - attended Pakistani madrassas, which are considered indoctrination centres for Islamic extremism.
The Australian revealed yesterday that Griffith asked the Saudi embassy in Australia for a $1.37 million grant for its Islamic Research Unit, even telling the ambassador that certain elements of the controversial deal could be kept a secret.
It was also revealed through documents that Griffith - described by vice-chancellor Ian O'Connor as the "university of choice" for Saudis - offered the embassy a chance to "discuss" ways in which the money could be used.
The Australian first revealed in September that Griffith had received a $100,000 Saudi grant.
Griffith Islamic Research Unit director Mohamad Abdalla has rejected accusations the Saudi funding would be used to promote Wahabism, saying his centre was opposed to the hardline ideology and in favour of "moderate" Islam.
But Judge Wall yesterday accused Griffith of becoming a Saudi stooge. "They're using the university as an agent to promote their bigoted brand of Islam," he said. "I'm concerned that a country which doesn't itself tolerate freedom of religion is promoting its own quite bigoted version here with the acquiescence of our learning institutions."
This is the first time Judge Wall, who was appointed to the District Court in 1996, has publicly declared his views about the threat of Wahabism and aired his concerns about the Saudi Government's connections.
Asked why he wanted to weigh in on the topic of Saudi funding, he said: "Like many people, I follow what's out there around the world and I was just concerned in particular about the source of the funding being Saudi Arabia. I'm concerned that a university which is in my area is not being entirely frank about what it's doing."
Judge Wall accused Griffith's management of being "naive" in accepting Saudi funds, which have historically been linked to the propagation of fundamentalism.
...
"They (Saudis) are not being simply altruistic," he said. "They don't give anything for benevolent reasons, there's always something behind it."
September's report in The Australian prompted Judge Wall to inquire about the nature of the fund and how it was intended to be used. He wrote to Ross Homel - then director of Griffith's key Centre for Ethics, Law, Justice and Governance, which manages the Islamic unit - raising questions about the branch of Islam the university wanted to propagate.
"You have said that the Saudi grant to the Griffith Islamic Research Unit will be used to promote 'moderate Islam'," says Judge Wall in the letter obtained by The Australian. "What do you mean by 'moderate Islam' and what do you understand is the difference between moderate Islam and Wahabi Islam or Wahab-ism (sic) or 'hardline' purposes?"
Judge Wall's questions were hand-balled by Professor Homel to Dr Abdalla. But he never received an answer.
"I'm a little concerned that I've received no response from the university to my letter," Judge Wall said. "They seem reluctant to discuss the matter."
Griffith did not return several phone calls from The Australian yesterday. Mr Abdalla could not be contacted.
Pertinent Links:
1) University 'an agent of extreme Islam'
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM: AL QAEDA UPSET WITH IRAN - - - WE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR 9-11, NO MATTER WHAT IRAN SAYS ! ! !
Al-Qaeda accuses Iran of 9/11 lie
Al-Qaeda's deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has blamed Iran for spreading the theory that Israel was behind the 11 September 2001 attacks.
In an audio tape posted on the internet, Zawahiri insisted al-Qaeda had carried out the attacks on the US.
He accused Iran, and its Hezbollah allies, of trying to discredit Osama Bin Laden's network.
Correspondents say the comments underline al-Qaeda's increasing public hostility towards Iran.
In a two-hour audiotape posted on an Islamist website, Osama Bin Laden's chief deputy responded to questions posted by al-Qaeda sympathisers.
In response to a question about persistent rumours in the Middle East that Israel was involved in the 9/11 attacks, Zawahiri said the rumour had begun on the Hezbollah television station, Al-Manar.
"The purpose of this lie is clear - [to suggest] that there are no heroes among the Sunnis who can hurt America as no-one else did in history," he said.
"Iranian media snapped up this lie and repeated it."
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Al-Qaeda accuses Iran of 9/11 lie
Al-Qaeda's deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has blamed Iran for spreading the theory that Israel was behind the 11 September 2001 attacks.
In an audio tape posted on the internet, Zawahiri insisted al-Qaeda had carried out the attacks on the US.
He accused Iran, and its Hezbollah allies, of trying to discredit Osama Bin Laden's network.
Correspondents say the comments underline al-Qaeda's increasing public hostility towards Iran.
In a two-hour audiotape posted on an Islamist website, Osama Bin Laden's chief deputy responded to questions posted by al-Qaeda sympathisers.
In response to a question about persistent rumours in the Middle East that Israel was involved in the 9/11 attacks, Zawahiri said the rumour had begun on the Hezbollah television station, Al-Manar.
"The purpose of this lie is clear - [to suggest] that there are no heroes among the Sunnis who can hurt America as no-one else did in history," he said.
"Iranian media snapped up this lie and repeated it."
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Al-Qaeda accuses Iran of 9/11 lie
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