Spiritus, by Sami Rifai, Lebanon, Micheal-Angelo white Marble, 133x40x40 cmby, 1988
Category Archives: Countries
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
Deoband first: A fatwa against terror
The Times of India, June 1, 2008
NEW DELHI: For the first time ever, Islamic seminary Darul-Uloom Deoband issued a fatwa against terrorism on Saturday, stating Islam had come to wipe out all kinds of terrorism and to spread the message of global peace. The Darul-Uloom had denounced terrorism for the first time in February, but had not issued a fatwa so far.
Saturday’s fatwa, signed by Darul-Uloom’s grand mufti Habibur Rehman, asserts that “Islam rejects all kinds of unjust violence, breach of peace, bloodshed, murder and plunder and does not allow it in any form”.
Citing the “sinister campaign” to malign “Islamic faith…by linking terrorism with Islam and distorting the meanings of Quranic Verses and Prophet traditions”, Mahmood Asad Madani, leader of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, had wanted Deoband to spell out the stand of Islam on world peace.
The fatwa, issued before a huge gathering of Muslims in Delhi’s Ramlila Ground for the Anti-Terrorism and Global Peace Conference, went on to say, “It is proved from clear guidelines provided in the Holy Quran that allegations of terrorism against a religion which preaches and guarantees world peace is nothing but a lie. The religion of Islam has come to wipe out all kinds of terrorism and to spread the message of global peace. Allah knows the best.” Continue reading Deoband first: A fatwa against terror
So al-Qa’ida’s defeated, eh? Go tell it to the marines
Robert Fisk, The Independent, Sunday, 1 June 2008
So al-Qa’ida is “almost defeated”, is it? Major gains against al-Qa’ida. Essentially defeated. “On balance, we are doing pretty well,” the CIA’s boss, Michael Hayden, tells The Washington Post. “Near strategic defeat of al-Qa’ida in Iraq. Near strategic defeat for al-Qa’ida in Saudi Arabia. Significant setbacks for al-Qa’ida globally – and here I’m going to use the word ‘ideologically’ – as a lot of the Islamic world pushes back on their form of Islam.” Well, you could have fooled me.
Six thousand dead in Afghanistan, tens of thousands dead in Iraq, a suicide bombing a day in Mesopotamia, the highest level of suicides ever in the US military – the Arab press wisely ran this story head to head with Hayden’s boasts – and permanent US bases in Iraq after 31 December. And we’ve won? Continue reading So al-Qa’ida’s defeated, eh? Go tell it to the marines
Puzzles and Precious Particularities of Yemen
Hamlet of Mais in central Yemen; entrance is carved through the large rock.
Photograph by Daniel Martin Varisco
By: Khaled Fattah, Yemen Times
Outside observers of Yemen’s social and political life can not avoid noticing many conceptual puzzles and precious particularities. One of the widely known puzzles among researchers with political science background is the surprising fact that although Yemen is the least developed and weakest Arab state that governs a society characterized by fierce tribal traditions and structures, it’s a country with a party pluralism system. Precious particularities of Yemen, on the other hand, are numerous. To begin with, there is a coincidence of almost everything- from geographical and topographical destiny to the patterns of habitation and concentration of sects; and from the shades of experienced ideologies and insecurity of economic resources to the peculiar nature of colonialism and regional power interventions. This sharp multifaceted coincidence is not something of the past. Rather, it is being felt in every bone in the political, economic and socio-cultural skeletons of today’s fragile Yemen. Continue reading Puzzles and Precious Particularities of Yemen