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Monthly Archives: June 2008
Arabic ‘Threatens’ Israeli Supremacy
HEBREW FIRST: File photo of Limor Livnat speaking to the media in the United States in 2000: “In these times, when there are radical groups of Israeli Arabs trying to turn the State of Israel into a bi-national state, it is most urgent to put into law the unique status of the language of the Bible – the Hebrew language,” Livnat has argued. (Newscom)
By MEL FRYKBERG Middle East Times, June 10, 2008
JERUSALEM — In a move that has outraged both Arab Israelis and some progressive Jewish Israelis, a new bill was presented to the Israeli Knesset or parliament last week to relegate Israel’s other official language Arabic to that of a secondary language, leaving Hebrew as the only official language.
The bill was drafted by Likud Member of the Knesset (MK) Limor Livnat, a renowned right-winger, and was seconded by MKs Yuli Edelstein from Likud, Otniel Schneller from Kadima and Ya’acov Margi from the ultra-Orthodox Shas party.
Should this move be approved by the Knesset, then Arabic would be downgraded to the same level as English, a language native to only a small percentage of Israeli immigrants, and taught in schools primarily for the purpose of communicating with the international community.
Arabic is the native language of Arab Israelis or 20 percent of Israel’s population. Russian is spoken by 1 million people, out of a total comprising just over 7 million, with the remainder of the population speaking Hebrew as its first language. Continue reading Arabic ‘Threatens’ Israeli Supremacy
Spiritus
Spiritus, by Sami Rifai, Lebanon, Micheal-Angelo white Marble, 133x40x40 cmby, 1988
All in the name of War on Terror
by Fahad Faruqui, Yemen Times
Detainee number 063, Mohamed Al-Kahtani, was one of the many hundreds housed in the Guantanamo (known as “Gitmo”) Bay detention camps who was subjected to 20 hours of interrogation on only four hours of sleep.
The Haynes memo, which approved controversial and harmful interrogation techniques, was signed by Donald Rumsfeld, the former United States Secretary of Defense, in early December of 2002. Entitled, “Counter-Resistance Techniques,†this was the memo that opened the door for partial drowning (called water boarding), along with humiliation, mental destabilization and other illegal methods of obtaining information from detainees.
Al-Kahtani, a citizen of Saudi Arabia, is the alleged 20th hijacker, but the U.S. Military Commissions dropped key 9/11 suspect charges against him on May 11 this year. Continue reading All in the name of War on Terror
The changing face of American Islam
The Islamic Centre America in Dearborn, Michigan
by IMTIYAZ YUSUF, Bangkok Post, June 8, 2008
I recently got back to Thailand after a one-and-a-half month stay in the United States, where I was a student of Islamic Studies at Temple University in Philadelphia, and where I spent seven years during the 80s and 90s. The tour revealed to me a very different Islam in the post-9/11 United States. In the face of widespread bias and prejudice, personal attacks, deep suspicion and misinformation about Islam marked by the prevalence of Islamophobia in the American mindset, Muslim society in the US has undergone a tremendous internal transformation, with the aim being to prove loyalty to the American nation by undertaking steps towards political, social and civil integration. The seven million-strong American Muslim community is emerging and evolving as both an integral part of the American socio-political milieu and a distinct section of the worldwide Muslim community. Continue reading The changing face of American Islam
Googling the Life of Muhammad
Google Earth provides a virtual geography for anyone with access to the internet. Now, thanks to Thameen Darby, you can examine over 100 places in the life of the Prophet Muhammad close up. To access the site, click here. Here are the particulars.
This is a flyover depicting the life of the prophet of Islam, Prophet Muhammad.
Islam is the second largest religion in the world; Prophet Muhammad who was born in a town in the Arabian Peninsula, Mecca. He lived for 63 years (570-633 AD). During his lifetime, he founded the third monotheistic religion, established the core of the Muslim empire, and started a new era in Human history with its own distinctive civilization that is still alive today. Continue reading Googling the Life of Muhammad
Keith Ellison’s Iran Forum
Keith Ellison’s Iran Forum and the June 10 Call-In to Congress
By Lydia Howell, Engage Minnesota, June 6, 2008
On May 28, U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., hosted Iran scholars for a community forum in a packed hall at the First Unitarian Society church in Minneapolis. The focus was on the U.S.-Iran relationship, estranged for over 30 years, which many fear may become the next chapter in the Bush administration’s “war on terrorism.â€
“Nary a day goes by that someone isn’t saying something abut Iran in the media. Part of my responsibility as a U.S. congressman is to be a forum to discuss the critical issues we face and to promote dialog about the most pressing issues,†said Ellison. “To quote [African-American writer] James Baldwin: Anything that cannot be faced cannot be fixed.â€
In the first half of 2008, newspaper front pages and television news have begun repeating a message about a Middle Eastern country that has not attacked the United States but which allegedly “poses a grave threat,†“may build nuclear weapons†and “must be prevented from making war on its neighbors.†In 2002-3, such stories were about Iraq; now, Iran is being described in similar ways. No actual evidence is given for the frightening allegations about Iran—which are too often made by unnamed “Pentagon officials†or the same members of right-wing think tanks that previously pushed the disastrous attack on Iraq. Continue reading Keith Ellison’s Iran Forum
The Overstatement that becomes an Understatement
Bush Overstated Iraq Evidence, Senators Report
By MARK MAZZETTI and SCOTT SHANE, The New York Times, June 6, 2008
WASHINGTON — A long-delayed Senate committee report endorsed by Democrats and some Republicans concluded that President Bush and his aides built the public case for war against Iraq by exaggerating available intelligence and by ignoring disagreements among spy agencies about Iraq’s weapons programs and Saddam Hussein’s links to Al Qaeda.
The report was released Thursday after years of partisan squabbling, and it represented the close of five years of investigations by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence into the use, abuse and faulty assessments of intelligence leading to the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
That some Bush administration claims about the Iraqi threat turned out to be false is hardly new. But the report, based on a detailed review of public statements by Mr. Bush and other officials, was the most comprehensive effort to date to assess whether policy makers systematically painted a more dire picture about Iraq than was justified by the available intelligence.
The 170-page report accuses Mr. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and other top officials of repeatedly overstating the Iraqi threat in the emotional aftermath of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Its findings were endorsed by all eight committee Democrats and two Republicans, Senators Olympia J. Snowe of Maine and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska. Continue reading The Overstatement that becomes an Understatement