| Islamic World News | |
| 02 Oct 2009, NewAgeIslam.Com | |
| Muslim cleric to take Kumbh dip to wash away religious differences | |
 US senator finds ISI-Taliban ties ‘troubling’ by Arun Kumar
US imposes tough ‘no terror’ conditions on aid to Pak by CHIDANAND RAJGHATTA Ron Paul sees breakup of US after strike on Iran Celebrating Islamic heritage Uzbek militant leader thought killed in South Waziristan Bill Roggio Making sense of Iran Terror plotter undone by online activities Naropa to host symposium on Muslim women’s issues by Magdalena Wegrzyn Islamic preacher assaulted children for laughing in mosque Pakistan kills 27 militants: military ‘Toronto 18’ terrorist to be sentenced Friday Anti Terrorist Front felicitates Kashmiri militant killer Rukhsana Poll: 80% of Pakistanis oppose assisting U.S. terror fight by ROBERT KENNEDY Iran Avoids Nuclear Talks at Geneva Meeting by Maayana Miskin War on Crime: Israeli Police Cleaning Up the Underworld Israel’s Doubts On Talks Allayed By Howard Schneider and Joby Warrick Compiled by Aman Quadri Photo: Maulana Kalbe Sadiq URL: http://newageislam.net/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1836 Muslim cleric to take Kumbh dip to wash away religious differences 2 October 2009, Indian Muslim, By IANS Lucknow: A dip in the sacred river during the Maha Kumbh Mela is said to wash away all sins. A senior Muslim cleric who will perform the Hindu rite hopes it will also wash away differences between the two religions. Kalbe Sadiq, a noted Shia cleric and senior vice-president of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), will take the "holy dip" in the upcoming Maha Kumbh Mela to be held in Haridwar in 2010. "For the sake of cementing the bond between Hindus and Muslims, I have decided to perform the ritual (holy dip) in the Ganga River, which is considered sacred and revered, particularly by Hindus," Sadiq told IANS. "In fact, not only the holy dip, I am ready to perform every such act that will help promote amicable atmosphere between the two communities and contribute towards the progress of the nation," he added. Maha Kumbh Mela, one of the largest religious gatherings in the world, will be held in 2010 in the holy city Haridwar in Uttarakhand, from Jan 14 to April 28, and is expected to see an influx of 15 million pilgrims — many of whom will come from distant lands. "Though I have not planned the exact date for carrying out the holy ritual, very soon I will make it (date) public," Sadiq said. The Muslim cleric has also intimated his plans to the seers in Haridwar. "I have informed them so that they can assist me in performing the holy ritual smoothly. For this purpose, I have already held talks with Yogi Yateendra Nath Giri, who is the national convener of the Akhil Bhartiya Sadhu Parishad," he said. Asked about important issues that cropped up in his talks with the seer, Sadiq said: "Primarily, it remained focussed on chalking out a plan to further cement the bond between Hindus and Muslims." The controversial issue of Babri Masjid/Ram Mandir too cropped up during the discussion. "Yes, we discussed it and both of us agreed that the matter should be left to the court and members of both the communities should respect the court’s order," he added. Maha Kumbh Mela occurs four times every 12 years and rotates among four locations: Allahabad (in Uttar Pradesh) at the confluence of the Ganga and Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati River; Haridwar (in Uttarakhand) along the Ganga, Ujjain (in Madhya Pradesh) along the Kshipra river and Nashik (Maharashtra) along the Godavari river. US senator finds ISI-Taliban ties ‘troubling’ Arun Kumar, October 2nd, 2009 WASHINGTON – An influential US senator says it has been difficult for the US to build trust with Pakistan’s military and intelligence services because ties between Islamabad’s spy agency ISI and Taliban remain troubling. “We need to fix this relationship,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Democratic Chairman John Kerry said at a Congressional hearing Thursday on “Afghanistan’s Impact on Pakistan”: The US Congress had taken a “major step” in doing so with the passage of a legislation to triple non-military assistance to Pakistan to $1.5 billion a year for the next five years, he said. “This is a landmark achievement, but it is not a panacea,” he said suggesting the legislation “signals our determination to put our relationship on a new foundation, with the aspirations of the Pakistani people front and centre.” “It’s no secret that the relationship between our countries has suffered its share of strains,” Kerry said. “Many Pakistanis believe the United States has exploited them for strategic goals,” he said noting a recent survey by the Pew Research Centre found that two out of three Pakistanis regard the United States as an enemy. Only one in 10 describe the US as a partner. “From our side, it has been difficult to build trust with Pakistan’s military and intelligence services over the years because our interests have not always been aligned and because ties between the ISI and Taliban remain troubling,” Kerry said. President Barack Obama and his team are working to develop the right strategy for Afghanistan, Kerry said. “But let me be clear: No matter what strategy we adopt, it must recognize that the actions we take in Afghanistan will have direct repercussions in Pakistan.” Source: http://blog.taragana.com/n/us-senator-finds-isi-taliban-ties-troubling-184700/ US imposes tough ‘no terror’ conditions on aid to Pak CHIDANAND RAJGHATTA, TNN 30 September 2009 WASHINGTON: Pakistan has been put on a US legislative terror Effectively implicating Pakistan in acts of terrorism in the region and across the world, including against India, US lawmakers have imposed stringent conditions on Pakistan (requiring monitoring of compliance by Washington) while okaying a five-year, $ 7.5 billion dole for Islamabad till 2014. The conditions, which should settle some unease in New Delhi that the US is blind to terrorism affecting India, include six-monthly evaluations by Washington of efforts by Pakistan to A) disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al-Qaida, the Taliban, and other extremist and terrorist groups in the FATA and settled areas; B) eliminate the safe havens of such forces in Pakistan; C) close terrorist camps, including those of Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed; D) cease all support for extremist and terrorist groups; and (E) prevent attacks into neighbouring countries. Although there is no specific reference to India in keeping with Pakistan’s plea that any India-specific conditions would be humiliating, the so-called Kerry-Lugar bill leaves no doubt that Islamabad risks losing US aid if it keeps up its terror campaign against India. Underscoring the language in the entire bill is the premise that Pakistan has been using terrorism as state policy against India, as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said recently. Section 203 of the Senate Bill S. 1707 enjoins the Secretary of State to certify that Pakistan has made progress on matters such as "ceasing support, including by any elements within the Pakistan military or its intelligence agency, to extremist and terrorist groups, particularly to any group that has conducted attacks against the United States or coalition forces in Afghanistan, or against the territory or people of neighboring countries." The Secretary of State also has to certify that Pakistan is stopping terrorist groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed from operating in the territory of Pakistan, including carrying out cross-border attacks into neighbouring countries, dismantling terrorist bases of operations, including in Quetta and Muridke, and taking action when provided with intelligence about high-level terrorist targets. Muridke is widely known to be a terrorist pilgrim centre with jihadis of all hues and vintage gathering there for congregations patronized by the Pakistani intelligence establishment. Quetta is where western agencies suspect Pakistan is harbouring the Taliban shura headed by the one-eyed Mullah Omar. Full Article at: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/world/us/US-imposes-tough-no-terror-conditions-on-aid-to-Pak/articleshow/5069952.cms —- Ron Paul sees breakup of US after strike on Iran By Jeff Poor, 10/1/2009 Ron Paul Warns of Violence from Pending Dollar Crisis; Says Israel Strike on Iran the Trigger Host Beck says left, media would blame right for ‘any kind of violence.’ Scary times ahead? Perhaps, if you take credence in what Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, says. Paul, who had a strong grassroots following during the 2008 presidential election, explained on Glenn Beck’s Sept. 30 radio program that perilous times lie ahead due to the Federal Reserve’s loose monetary policy. Host Glenn Beck asked how an Israeli strike against Iran might trigger problems with the American financial system. “What happens when Israel strikes Iran or Iran has the earth rays and we know that they now have a nuclear weapon, what happens to our financial system at that point?” Beck asked. The libertarian Paul maintained China would become the world’s financial heavyweight and they were already making preparations to be the world’s top dog. “I think the Chinese take over,” Paul said. “If there’s a real panic and oil shoots up to a couple of hundred bucks, the Chinese will dump their dollars. Chinese are maneuvering for this. The more we threaten Iran, the stronger the Chinese influence gets because they’re using the dollars that they have earned from us and saved, they have a trillion, and they are starting to buy up assets in Iran and build plants and get involved in their energy. So the whole thing is backfiring on us. We’re getting ready to put tougher sanctions on the Iranians and that will make things that much worse. It won’t help the dissidents in Iran. It’s going to cost us a lot of money, and there will be a bombing and that will be a big, big event. I think it will crash the dollar is what I think it would do.” And what does the country look like after the dollar crashes? Not good the Texascongressman said. “We think it was bad with the financial crisis,” Paul said. “When you have a dollar crisis, the whole thing quits functioning. The checks bounce and literally the federal government’s checks bounce if you have – if inflation goes up.” But the situation deteriorates even more Paul – with states leaving the union. “I think we’re going to have a de facto 10th Amendment, secession,” Paul said “People are just going to ignore the federal government because they won’t – and there’s, you know, a total loss of credibility.” Beck alluded to media charges and warnings from others that there would be violence and contended the right is being set up to take the fall for it. “Congressman Paul, the media and even [Rep.] Patrick Kennedy said this, we heard this from two people, Muammar Gaddafi and I believe the other one was Ahmadinejad that both spoke last week and they – we’re hearing it all the time that there’s going to be violence here in America, that people are targeting,” Beck said. “Basically everyone is going to blame this on the right, any kind of violence.” There would be violence, but not before a dollar crisis happens as some Democratic politicians and media personalities have warned, but afterward Paul said. “I think that there will be violence,” he explained. “I hope we don’t have to go through, you know, a very violent period of time, but that’s what happens too often when the government runs out of money and runs out of wealth, the people argue over, you know, a shrinking pie and, of course, the people who have to produce are sick and tired of producing.” Celebrating Islamic heritage October 01, 2009 Two years ago, October was recognized by the Canadian Parliament as Islamic History Month Canada, a time to inspire Canadian Muslims to share and rejoice in their history, heritage and culture with their fellow Canadians. During October, Muslims celebrate their civilization, their various contributions to the arts, sciences, medicine, architecture, humanities, music, spirituality and their links with other cultures. “Islamic history is human history,” notes Wahida Valiante, national president, Canadian Islamic Congress, and chair, Islamic History Month Canada. “Islamic contributions are universal and deserve to be shared and appreciated. We truly believe that Islamic History Month Canada will enable all Canadians to identify the many contributions of past Islamic civilizations that benefit the world every day. Every year, a new theme is chosen to celebrate the month. The inaugural year presented the topic of Islamic art and architecture, while in 2008 the chosen subject was Islamic science and medicine. This year’s theme is that of Islamic finance and banking. As in previous years, speakers and presenters will be making multi-city tours across Canada. Source: http://canadianimmigrant.ca/ArticlePrint/5321 Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan leader thought killed in August strike in South Waziristan By Bill Roggio October 2, 2009 Unconfirmed reports from Pakistan indicate that the leader of the al Qaeda-linked Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan was killed during a US airstrike in South Waziristan in late August. Tahir Yuldashev, emir of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, is said to have been killed in a strike by an unmanned US aircraft in the town of Kanigoram on Aug. 27, 2009. The strike took place in a known stronghold of the Taliban forces under the command of Mullah Nazir. Eight Taliban fighters and Uzbek fighters were reported killed in the attack, but no senior leader was initially reported killed. The first report of Yuldashev’s death emerged on Sept. 28, when a man called Radio Ozodlik, the Uzbek service for Radio Liberty, identified himself as a bodyguard for Yuldashev, and said the leader died from wounds one day after the strike. According to the caller, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan was trying to hide Yuldashev’s death. The caller also claimed that Yuldashev was replaced by "an ethnic Tatar by name of Abdurakhman." An Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan leader known as Zubair ibn Abdurakhman is said to serve as the group’s spokesman as well as a leader of a faction of the group. Anonymous Pakistani officials are now saying Yuldashev did indeed die in the Aug. 27 strike. "The man has kicked the bucket," a senior Pakistani government official told Dawn. "He is dead beyond doubt," another Pakistani official said. US intelligence officials contacted by The Long War Journal would not confirm that Yuldashev was killed. "We are aware of the reports and investigating, but do not have evidence he was killed at this time," one senior military intelligence official said. Pakistani intelligence has claimed Yuldashev has been killed in the past. Most recently, Yuldashev and ‘pro-government’ Taliban leader Mullah Nazir were reported killed in a strike on Oct. 31, 2008. Both later resurfaced. Yuldashev’s death, if confirmed, would mean the US has killed five senior al Qaeda and Taliban leaders since the Aug. 5 strike that killed Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan leader Baitullah Mehsud. Also thought killed are: Ilyas Kashmiri, the operations commander of the Harakat-ul-Jihad-Islami and the operations chief of Brigade 313; Najmuddin Jalolov, the leader of the Islamic Jihad Group, a breakaway faction of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan; and Mustafa al Jaziri a senior military commander for al Qaeda who sits on al Qaeda’s military shura. The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan in Pakistan and Afghanistan Yuldashev took command of the radical Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan after Juma Namangani was killed by anti-Taliban fighters from the Northern Alliance during the US invasion of Afghanistan in November 2001. Namangani and Yuldashev co-founded the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan in 1998. Yuldashev is said to have been one of the senior commanders against US forces during Operation Anaconda in the Shahi-Kot Valley in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Paktia in March 2002. The IMU is closely allied with al Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban. Yuldashev’s fighters shelter in North and South Waziristan; there are an estimated 2,500 to 4,000 IMU fighters based in the region. The IMU is strong in northern Afghanistan, where, over the past two years, the insurgency has been revitalized. The Taliban and the IMU have carried out attacks against NATO’s new supply corridor from Tajikistan through the northern provinces of Kunduz and Baghlan. The Taliban, with the help of the IMU, control several districts in Kunduz and Baghlan. As many as 80 al Qaeda-linked militants, including Uzbeks and Chechens, are operating in areas southwest of Kunduz City. The IMU has also expanded the violence into Afghansitan’s neighboring countries to the north. Under the command of Mullah Abdullah, a force of 300 IMU and Taliban fighters attacked a police station in the town of Tavil-Dara in Tajikistan on July 9. Abdullah is thought to have crossed from Kunduz into Tajikistan several weeks before the attack. Eleven days later, the IMU attacked a remote military checkpoint in Tajikistan near the Afghan border. Five IMU fighters were killed during the assault. Source: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/10/islamic_movement_of.php Making sense of Iran Aijaz Zaka Syed This Eid, one was treated to this rather engaging movie on Iran’s late Shah and his glamorous wife Soraya on Dubai One TV. The movie is supposed to be a tribute to the Sad Princess, as Soraya was known. However, the French-German-Italian production actually chronicles a whole age, capturing an enchantingly intriguing country and one of the most eventful periods in the Middle East’s recent history. In fact, titled Soraya, the movie is less about the queen who failed to provide a male heir to the Pahlavi throne, and more about Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi and ordinary people of Iran and their struggle to survive in a fast-changing world after the Great War. Soraya is played rather convincingly by gorgeous Italian actress Anna Valle. And German actor Erol Sander comes incredibly close to his subject in his portrayal of the Shah. Everyone who wants to understand why Iran at times behaves the way it does in its engagement with the West must watch this movie. The biopic offers a rare insight into the transition of the Shah from a benevolent monarch to a corrupt tyrant and puppet in the hands of big powers. The way Iran and its leaders are manipulated and exploited by greedy colonial powers, and this amazing country with a 5,000-year-old past is literally looted is all too familiar yet hard to believe. Those claiming to champion democracy, freedom and human rights today joined hands then to topple the Middle East’s first democratically elected Prime Minister, Dr. Mosaddeq, when he tried to stop the rape and pillage of his country’s precious resources. A visionary born ahead of his times, Mosaddeq refused to accept the peanuts offered by European powers in return for Iran’s most precious asset, oil. He outraged Western powers by nationalizing oil companies and ending British-Western monopoly over the oil industry but won the eternal gratitude of his people. How CIA and other Western agencies brought hired thugs out on the streets of Tehran (sounds familiar?) to drive Mosaddeq from power and how the disgraced Shah was reinstated by Western diplomats is part of the region’s tragic history. Not surprisingly, these historical facts are seldom reported in Western narratives about Iran’s “expansionist ambitions” and the “clear and present danger” its mythical nukes pose. As the Western media once again go into an overdrive on Iran, I can’t help imagining Iran’s ayatollahs chuckle in helpless glee as they fire off more missiles in the general direction of Israel. But for all their rhetoric and stop-and-go nuclear shenanigans, I don’t think Iranians are after nuclear weapons. At the same time, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were indeed seeking a couple of nukes of their own. Given the long history of Western interventions in the region — especially after Iraq and Afghanistan — and Israeli machinations, would you be surprised if Iran indeed goes after those elusive nukes? Don’t forget there are nearly 200,000 US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, two countries that share borders with Iran. So if Iran fires off those rudimentary missiles from time to time and Ahmadinejad launches into those rambling soliloquies about Israel’s existence, there’s a simple explanation for it: It just demands and deserves attention and respect from the West. Frankly, Tehran has got the West in a nice fix. The US is damned if it moves against Iran — or allows Israel to — and damned if it does not. Having spread itself perilously thin in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere, it is not in a position to punish Iran. Nor can the US allow Israel to go it alone for fear of wreaking havoc across the strategic Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz. Full Article At: http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=126960&d=2&m=10&y=2009 —- Terror plotter undone by online activities Trois-Rivieres Graeme Hamilton, October 02, 2009 Said Namouh thought his apartment in Trois-Rivieres was an ideal location to plot jihad, far from the prying eyes of anti-terrorism investigators. But the Internet that allowed him to spread hatred from the boondocks also proved his undoing, and yesterday — largely on the strength of his online activity — the 36-year-old Moroccan was convicted of four terrorism charges. Quebec Court Judge Claude Leblond ruled that far from simply exercising free speech, as the defence had argued, Namouh participated with "zeal and enthusiasm" in the planning of terrorist acts and the distribution of jihadist propaganda. The man described in court as a "spokesman for al-Qaeda" was found guilty of conspiring to commit a bomb attack in Europe, attempting to extort the governments of Austria and Germany with video threats, participating in a terrorist group and aiding a terrorist activity. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. The court heard that Namouh, who moved to Canada in 2003 after marrying a Quebec woman, was on the verge of leaving Canada when he was arrested. Online conversations showed he was headed for Egypt to meet with co-conspirators in a plot to carry out a terrorist bombing at an unknown location in Europe. "This is a demonstration that the system works, that if the police work with their counterparts in other countries, they can stop people before they get on the plane and before it’s too late," federal Crown attorney Dominique Dudemaine said outside the court. Full Report at: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=2056968 —- Naropa to host symposium on Muslim women’s issues By Magdalena Wegrzyn BOULDER — Iranian human rights activist and 2003 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Shirin Ebadi will be in Boulder next week to speak about issues facing worldwide Muslim communities. Ebadi will deliver a keynote address Friday night to kick off “Women’s Leadership and Activism in the Muslim World,” a daylong symposium Oct. 10 at Naropa University. Panelists will address the changing roles of Muslim women, interfaith dialogue, conflict resolution, human rights issues and media studies in the Muslim world. “The people in America and the West need to understand that President (Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad is not the only voice in Iran. Hear the voice of the Iranian people, for they are the true representatives of Iran,” Ebadi wrote in an e-mail to the Times-Call, which was translated into English by Pantea Beigi, Ebadi’s laureate liaison. Ebadi was the first woman to serve as a judge in Iran. After the 1979 revolution, clerics demoted her and all female judges to clerks and later to “legal experts” in the Justice Department. Ebadi retired early and wrote books about social injustice. In 1992, she was granted a lawyer’s license and set up her own practice, which defended many human rights cases. Globalization has forced local disputes to become international issues, she wrote. “An example of that is during the early ’90s when the Taliban was taking over Kabul and progressing with their activities,” Ebadi wrote. “Did anyone ever see that 10 years later what was happening in Kabul, Afghani-stan, was going to affect citizens in NYC? This is why we need to care and realize that what happened in one part of the world is destined to affect all of us in other parts.” Candace Walworth, chair of Naropa University’s Peace Studies Department, said the symposium will imbue students and community members with an appreciation for the pluralism within Islam. “One of our goals is to amplify the voices of Muslim women leaders — to create a space for informed conversation,” she said. The program is funded by a grant from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Cordoba Initiative, a multifaith nonprofit that works to improve Muslim-West relations. Full Report at: http://www.timescall.com/faith/Faith-Story.asp?ID=18409 Islamic preacher assaulted children for laughing in mosque 02 Oct 2009 A preacher at a mosque in Greater Manchester has been convicted of slapping three boys because they were laughing when they were supposed to be reading the Koran. The boys giggled when they found a leaf in the supposed ‘holy book’. Ghulam Sarwar hit two of them so hard they temporarily lost their hearing. When once child told his mother about the incident, she reported it to the police. In a victim impact statement read out at Manchester Crown Court, she said she was disgusted by Sarwar’s conduct. “They are just children,” she said. “Things like this can go on but the law in this country says you cannot hit and injure a child. They did not deserve this treatment.” The court heard that the three boys were sitting together at a Greater Manchester mosque in March this year. One of them found a leaf in his copy of the religious text. Another boy said he tried to smell it and it stuck to his nose, causing the three to laugh. Sarwar struck one boy on the back of the head with a flat hand, knocking his hat off. He slapped the other two on their right ears. One boy alleged that Sarwar had hit children in the mosque before. Sarwar, described as a preacher in court, denied assaulting the three boys and said in evidence that his faith prevented him from striking anyone. Five young character witnesses described Sarwar as a kind, calm and patient man during the trial. Magistrates found him guilty of three counts of common assault by beating. He will appeal against the conviction. Source: http://www.secularism.org.uk/114244.html — Pakistan kills 27 militants: military October 02, 2009 Pakistani forces on Friday killed 27 alleged militants in the lawless northwest Khyber district, the paramilitary Frontier Corps said. "Attack helicopters shelled militant training centres on Friday in the Tirrah valley of Khyber, killing 27 rebels," Frontier Corps spokesman Major Fazal-ur-Rehman told AFP. He said artillery pieces were also used to pound rebel positions. Nineteen vehicles and four hideouts belonging to militants had been detroyed, he said. In September the military launched a fresh offensive against Islamist insurgents in the border region, home to the fabled Khyber Pass into neighbouring Afghanistan. The target of the current campaign is Lashkar-e-Islam (Army of Islam), a militant group battling the government in Khyber that has some ties to the Pakistan Taliban. Khyber is on the main land and supply route through Pakistan into Afghanistan, where international forces are battling a Taliban insurgency. Pakistan’s military has claimed a number of successes against the Islamist hardliners this year in and around Swat valley, but attacks continue across the country, mostly in the northwest. The semi-autonomous northwest tribal belt has become a stronghold for hundreds of extremists who fled Afghanistan after the US-led invasion toppled the hard-line Taliban regime in the neighbouring country in late 2001. Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/Pakistan-kills-27-militants-military/H1-Article1-460602.aspx —- ‘Toronto 18’ terrorist to be sentenced Friday October 2, 2009 TORONTO — A Somali-born Toronto man who pleaded guilty to terror-related charges in connection with a plot to attack targets in southern Ontario is expected to face sentencing Friday. Ali Mohamed Dirie pleaded guilty to participating in the activities of a terrorist group last month when he admitted to obtaining handguns and ammunition knowing they were for the terrorist group’s ringleader. The Crown and defence have agreed on a seven-year sentence for the 26 year old but disagree over how much credit he deserves for the time he has already spent behind bars. Crown prosecutor Clyde Bond wants Dirie to serve two more years while the defence wants him to be released. Dirie was one of the 18 Toronto men charged in 2006 in connection with a plot to attack targets in southern Ontario in order to terrorize Canadians into withdrawing troops from Afghanistan. Dirie was caught on police wiretaps saying he hated non-Muslims and called white people the "No. 1 filthiest people on the face of the planet. They don’t have Islam. They’re the most filthiest people." He added that: "In Islam there is no racism, we only hate kufar (non- Muslims)." The arrests of the "Toronto 18" followed lengthy investigations by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, RCMP and other police forces into home-grown Canadian extremists inspired by al-Qaida. Full Report at: http://www.canada.com/news/national/Toronto+terrorist+sentenced+Friday/2058975/story.html Anti Terrorist Front felicitates Kashmiri militant killer Rukhsana ANI: The All India Anti Terrorist Front (AIATF) on Friday felicitated Raukhsana Kausar who showed exemplary courage by shooting a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant dead. On Sunday, Twenty-two-year old Rukhsana, hailing from a remote village in Rajouri District of Jammu and Kashmir, snatched his rifle and fired at him, killing him. Speaking to reporters Rukhsana said: "I fought the militant with my will power and courage. I had put in all my might to kill the militant and I request all the people to join us in our fight against the militants and root them out from our country. Speaking on the occasion AIATF president Maninderjeet Singh Bitta said: "If the new generation, the politicians follow the foot print of one Rukhsana then I can say for sure that there would be no widow, no orphans and no casualties by the militant attacks. Bitta also handed over a cheque of one lakh rupees to Rukhsana and her brother. Rukhsana’s parents who received bullet injuries in the attack are being treated in a hospital. – ANI Full Report at: http://www.littleabout.com/news/37563,anti-terrorist-front-felicitates-kashmiri-militant-killer-rukhsana.html Poll: 80% of Pakistanis oppose assisting U.S. terror fight October 2, 2009 The survey suggests opposition has jumped 19% since March. BY ROBERT KENNEDY ISLAMABAD |
Tag / Islam Terrorism
POLITICAL SYSTEM: PART I by Allama Ghulam Ahmad Parwez
| Books and Documents | |
| 02 Oct 2009, NewAgeIslam.Com | |
| POLITICAL SYSTEM: PART I by Allama Ghulam Ahmad Parwez | |
| Chapter 14: From Islam A Challenge to Religion
|
Under all such failures there is a greater one: the failure of man, the most social of all the higher animals and by far the most intelligent, to provide himself with anything, even remotely described as good government. He has made many attempts in that direction, some of them very ingenious and others sublimely heroic, but they have always come to grief in the execution. The reason surely is not occult; it is to be found in the abysmal difference between what Government is in theory and what it is in fact. In theory it is simply a device for supplying a variable series of common needs, and the men constituting it (as all ranks of them are so fond of saying) are only public servants; but in fact, its main purpose is not service at all, but exploitations. The same is the case with other religious, both in the East and the West. It is in fact fertile to seek in religion the laws of God for standard of absolute right and wrong. Religion itself is man-made. In these, circumstances, the modern man, a frustrated, helpless pitiable soul, had perforce to seek objective standards outside the field of religion.Survivors of Arab spiritual past
| Islamic Culture | |
| 02 Oct 2009, NewAgeIslam.Com | |
| Survivors of Arab spiritual past | |
 As a result of the meeting, the Abu Dhabi Islands Archaeological Survey was founded, bringing together an international team of experts working under the sponsorship of Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi. Dr King was made its academic director and Peter Hellyer the executive director. Dr King has documented the latest study, the fruit of more than a decade of fieldwork with his colleagues, in The Historical Mosque Tradition of the Coasts of Abu Dhabi, a book published by the National Centre for Documentation and Research, the organisation charged with acting as “the nation’s memory”. In all, the book records 45 mosques, some of which are documented for the first time, ranging from simple stone outlines to complete buildings, on 14 islands. — Jonathan Gornall
URL of this page: http://newageislam.net/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1833
Survivors of our spiritual past Jonathan Gornall Sep 13. 2009
After oil was discovered, Abu Dhabi lost much of its architectural heritage, particularly its mosques. But on the islands, the traditional places of worship, built in the ancient Arab manner without minarets, survived long enough to be preserved and restored. Jonathan Gornall reports. It began with an invitation to dine with the founder of the nation; it ended with a timely intervention that saved a vital and threatened part of the country’s cultural heritage. In the late 1980s, Dr Geoffrey King, an expert in Islamic art and archaeology at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, was part of an international team excavating at the ancient town of Julfar in Ras al Khaimah when he was invited to Abu Dhabi to meet Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak, the minister for higher education. At Julfar, a major trading centre from pre-Islamic times until the 18th century, the archaeologists had discovered evidence of a mosque dating back to the 15th or even 14th century. Dr King recalls that Sheikh Nahyan asked what archaeology could be done in Abu Dhabi. “I said we know absolutely nothing about the islands off the coast,” Dr King recalled. Sheikh Zayed, the late founder of the nation, himself concerned with preserving the lessons of the nation’s past for its people of the future, gave approval for the team to excavate those islands, starting on Sir Bani Yas. It was the beginning of a 14-year archaeological survey. “He arrived on Sir Bani Yas Island when we were doing the excavation,” Dr King said of his only meeting with Sheikh Zayed, in 1992. “We went to his palace on the island and showed him what we’d been finding. He looked at the flints and said, ‘Oh, I know what you do with these’, and demonstrated how to make a fire with a piece of flint and a knife. Then he looked at some of the pottery we had found and said, ‘I used to use that when I was a boy’. For the rest of the excavation we referred to it as Sheikh Zayed-ware.” As a result of the meeting, the Abu Dhabi Islands Archaeological Survey was founded, bringing together an international team of experts working under the sponsorship of Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi. Dr King was made its academic director and Peter Hellyer the executive director. Dr King has documented the latest study, the fruit of more than a decade of fieldwork with his colleagues, in The Historical Mosque Tradition of the Coasts of Abu Dhabi, a book published by the National Centre for Documentation and Research, the organisation charged with acting as “the nation’s memory”. In all, the book records 45 mosques, some of which are documented for the first time, ranging from simple stone outlines to complete buildings, on 14 islands. They are made from materials including fossilised coral, farrush (beach stone), and limestone and, in one case, on the island of Marawah, entirely out of wood, apparently harvested from old packing cases and driftwood. The centre calls the book “a valuable contribution to the UAE leadership’s drive to enhance national identity”. But it is also the record of a period of history all but lost in the post-oil rush to modernisation. The first season of archaeology on the islands, Dr King said, “was staggering”. On Sir Bani Yas they found a Nestorian church from the 6th century; on Marawah, a major Neolithic site. And then, he said, “we started to stumble upon the mosque tradition”. In Abu Dhabi city itself, all had been swept away in the process of modernisation. Evidence of only two or three early mosques survives, in the form of photographs, taken in the 1960s and preserved in the BP archives. Little is known of all but one of these vanished mosques. The al-Utayba, the Friday mosque of Abu Dhabi until it was replaced during the city’s post-oil reconstruction by the Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Mosque, is thought to have been built in the 1930s by Khalaf al-Utayba. It served what was then a very small population and had a congregation of no more than 70. Today, Abu Dhabi city has many mosques, but all are recent, built in a variety of international styles. As many as 34 earlier mosques are thought to have been replaced with modern buildings. On the islands, however, out of the mainstream of the tide of development, the older traditions have survived. Yet even here, says Dr King, the past was in imminent danger when fieldwork started in 1992. When the team arrived on Delma, the island about 200km west of Abu Dhabi, they found they had arrived just in time. As they investigated three standing but dilapidated mosques and a nearby pearl house in the town of Delma, they learnt “there was a proposition to knock them down and rebuild them; so we wrote a report and instructions were given by the Government of Abu Dhabi to preserve them”. The buildings, carefully restored in 1993-94 by a team from the Sharjah Department of Antiquities, led by Dr Abd al Sattar Izzawi, stand today. One, the Muraykhi mosque, built of beach stone and coral, serves as a museum, but the Dawsari mosque, found collapsing and with its roof gone in 1992, is a working mosque once again. The Muhannadi mosque, the “largest and the finest” of the three, was still in use in 1992 and, following its restoration, continues to be used for prayer. Not all was saved, however. When the team examined the Muhannadi mosque, they recorded images of sailing boats carved into the plaster of the north wall of the portico. The scene appeared to refer to the maritime struggles of the past; in addition to local vessels, there was depicted what seemed to be a European ship, flying a chequered pennant and a flag with an “X” motif. It was shown in the act of sinking. Although there is a long history of such boat carvings in the Gulf, none had previously been found in a mosque. Sadly, according to Dr King, the plaster scene, already crumbling in 1992, has since been lost. Only a drawing of it remains, and the date that was inscribed in the plaster, 1946, “which may be later than the drawings or … may date them as a group”. The age of only one of the buildings is known with certainty. An inscription in the Dawsari mosque, now displayed in the nearby Bayt Al Muraykhi pearl-house museum, reads: “In the name of God the Merciful, the Compassionate. The building was completed with the help of the Creator of heaven in Shawwal of the year 1349 [March, 1931].” The underlying structures on the sites could, however, date back much further. During restoration, evidence was found under the Muraykhi mosque of an earlier building. Together, Dr King wrote, the three saved buildings “constitute the largest and best group of surviving examples of traditional mosque building still extant in Abu Dhabi emirate”. “The real miracle is that we got there when we did,” he said. “I think if we had left it a few more years they wouldn’t have been there anymore.” It is, he says, vital to protect even such relatively recent history, for the simple reason that it is all the country has left of its older mosques: “That is absolutely the case in Abu Dhabi. With the coming of the oil and money there was enormous rebuilding of everything. It was religious piety, not destructiveness; people thought they should have better mosques for Muslims. But the result was that between the coming of the oil and the mid-80s, almost everything just disappeared. All of old Abu Dhabi was just swept away.” He has nothing but praise for the Government, which “immediately realised what we were getting at, that their own traditions were going and that they had to do something to stop it. They were very good about it.” The surviving mosque tradition on the islands is, he said, “completely different to what we see today”. For one thing, all the old mosques lack the minarets that are ubiquitous today. “The minaret is a northern development out of Syria,” he says. “The first minarets were introduced when the Muslims got to Damascus and built the Great Mosque, using the old temple there and utilising the old Roman corner towers, making them into what became minarets. All the places that were influenced by the very old Arabian tradition have none; that means east Africa and Oman and those on Delma are the same.” The islands are also home to some of the oldest Islamic remains in the region. The survey divided up the island mosques into four categories, the simplest of which were the many stone outline mosques that served the seasonal fishermen and pearl divers who made their livelihoods off the coast. They were, wrote Dr King, “built without cost in terms of their simple materials, gathered freely from the land … they should be regarded as the simplest of Islamic architecture, bearing witness to the religiosity of the people, their devout adherence to Islam and their observation of the obligation of prayer”. The survey of the islands, Dr King said, found many of the sites “totally undisturbed; nobody had bulldozed anything or built anything; it was exactly as it was until the pearling trade collapsed”. The simplest remains, built from small stones or slabs of beach rock, without roof or wall and ranging from one metre to 30 metres long, are impossible to date. Little more than defined spaces facing Mecca, they contained no dateable material – kept clean and certainly not used as sites for cooking or other household chores, they yielded none of the detritus of daily life. What is certain, however, Dr King said, is that these sites echo the oldest Islamic tradition, dating back to the reported provisions for prayer made during the Prophet’s military expedition to Tabuk, in present-day north-west Saudi Arabia, in 630: “When they prayed, they just laid out some stones to face Mecca.” In his book, Dr King concludes: “The lifestyle that had produced these small mosques of the Abu Dhabi coasts changed forever… as the cities of the UAE and Arabia more generally were transformed. “This older way of life was harsh and arduous, and in many places there was no wherewithal for major building. Yet whether the mosques built in an older Abu Dhabi were simple or more complex architecturally, everywhere we encounter them they give evidence of the attempts of past generations to fulfill the obligations of Islamic prayer in the context of a pre-modern, pre-oil and pre-concrete society.” Source: http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090913/NATIONAL/709129912/1010 URL of this page: http://newageislam.net/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1833 |
Muraykhi mosque, now restored, serves as a heritage museum. It is constructed of beach stone and coral, and dates to the 1930s. The National Centre for Documentation and ResearchIntellectual Terrorism of Wahhabis or modern Kharjis: Islam and Democracy are not incompatible
| Urdu Section | |
| 30 Sep 2009, NewAgeIslam.Com | |
| Intellectual Terrorism of Wahhabis or modern Kharjis: Islam and Democracy are not incompatible | |
| By Zeeshan Ahmad Misbahi
URL of this page: http://newageislam.net/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1820
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The Golden Age Of Islam: But How Did It End? Tell Us For God’s Sake
| Islamic History | |
| 01 Oct 2009, NewAgeIslam.Com | |
| The Golden Age Of Islam: But How Did It End? Tell Us For God’s Sake | |
| Ideologues whose aim is to uncritically glorify the Muslims in history at the expense of other groups remain in control of the mosque pulpits. Through the fog of deliberate misrepresentation they create an illusion of the unity of the Muslim fraternity or ummah. Reconciliation of Qur’an’s charter of universalism with Muslim claims to be a distinct people or “the best nation” is a serious undertaking, which needs fresh insights. Remaining adherent to outmoded approaches and ways of thinking cannot accomplish it. This is the responsibility of the present generation of educated Muslims and cannot be left to the preachers in the mosque pulpits. — Dr. Nazir Khaja
URL of this page: http://newageislam.net/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1828 The Golden Age Of Islam: But How Did It End? Tell Us For God’s Sake By Dr. Nazir Khaja Sept 28, 2009 Every Muslim talks about the Golden Age of Islam, and is nostalgic about it. Rightly so. In terms of science, medical progress, scientific achievements, and philosophical, religious inquiries, Islam and Muslim societies were recognized as the gateway to knowledge. While the Muslims derive great satisfaction in recounting the past glory of Islam, no one is interested in answering the questions as to how these things ended? There must be a reason for this. Why Islam suddenly went into a deep freeze intellectually speaking. The process of going from religious commitment to religious confusion begs understanding and inquiry especially by Muslims themselves. Critical to the understanding of the problem is to note the attitude of the early Muslims; if they had actually been insular and resistant to the ideas and beliefs of other cultures, there never would have been the flowering of philosophy, poetry, ethics, and mysticism, influenced by the best thinking of the surrounding cultures. Their main mission was to lend Quranic authority to contemporary social struggles and engage with local customs, culture & traditions to synthesize & evolve a dynamic culture of their own. The Quranic framework became the matrix of their society and social moral values. This they could have hardly done without critical thinking and a spirit of free inquiry. In their mind were questions about freedom and tradition. What is it that they were inheriting, as well as what capacities they had for critiquing that inheritance? These questions were in their face as much as they are now in the face of contemporary Muslims. Yet the earlier generation did not falter. They pursued knowledge relentlessly and with an open mind. All of this resulted in the glory of that Islam which the Muslims now pine for and refer to as “going back to”. The historical imprint left on the minds of subsequent generations of Muslims unfortunately has led to the fostering of an attitude that Muslims are actually the highest manifestation of humanity, a people whose way of life was established not by human convention but by God. How can this claim of Muslims be supported in view of what Muslims and Islam are going through? The problem here is that even though Islamic doctrines according to how Muslims believe are revelational, trans-historical & eternal, the ummah or Muslim fraternity is contingent and historical. Muslims have become identified with Islam and Islam with Muslims through inescapable historical and cultural processes. This is the reality the Muslims need to acknowledge. The world at large perceives the issue in this manner. At the time of Islam’s rise and spread to distant parts of the world, the people understood and accepted Islam through the conduct of the Muslims of that time. Why should it be any different now? How should Muslims leaders and scholars begin to engage the Muslim masses in a rational, spiritual and social framework referenced by The Qur’an and the Prophet’s example? Ideologues whose aim is to uncritically glorify the Muslims in history at the expense of other groups remain in control of the mosque pulpits. Through the fog of deliberate misrepresentation they create an illusion of the unity of the Muslim fraternity or ummah. Reconciliation of Qur’an’s charter of universalism with Muslim claims to be a distinct people or “the best nation” is a serious undertaking, which needs fresh insights. Remaining adherent to outmoded approaches and ways of thinking cannot accomplish it. This is the responsibility of the present generation of educated Muslims and cannot be left to the preachers in the mosque pulpits. The Muslim societies are under control of leaders with vested interest in maintaining control over the community. They marginalize its value system or spirituality, and promote status quo, opposing any change or co-operational efforts with other communities. It is not a matter of doubt that the Muslim societies are in need of reform .This will come about only if the Muslims are able to understand the significance of the universal, inclusive paradigm from which the Quran demands the society to be governed with. People who maintain centrality of the value system over historically and culturally conditioned thought, processes and ritual system are less likely to develop attitude of hostility towards each other and also other religions. Presently the process of reconciliation and synthesis—if any, remains in the hands of mostly state appointed authorities and few individuals who remain adherent to rigid rules and outmoded methodology of the by gone era ; nothing original reflecting the onward progress of history and culture has been added for many centuries. The Muslim masses adherent to a superficial understanding of their own faith and concerned mainly with performance of rituals and the reward in the hereafter, remain under the spell of these leaders. These scholars and leaders in most instances have very little knowledge of the workings of complex and evolving challenges that modernity brings. It is no surprise that Muslims now find themselves relegated to the margins of social, political and scientific developments. This lack of critical thinking and holding on to application of old thought-out solutions to present day problems has given rise to great vulnerabilities and host of issues for which Islam is blamed for in the Media; from gender inequality, to failure of social and economic progress , to rights of minorities all are being piled up in Islam’s column. It is obvious that there is an urgent necessity for re-thinking Islam. Ways of reconciling or developing a conception of freedom that incorporates a role for tradition will help in making community and tradition more meaningful and yet not falling into the clutches of control and coercion. Concerned Muslims who have the capacity to think for themselves need not be intimidated and remain silent or marginalised .They need to step forward and engage in this critical task of reconstruction. They have to act nimbly and tactfully if they are to have any influence at all in retaking the lost ground. This is the "real going back to" that Muslims always dream about. ( Dr. Nazir Khaja (-nazir.khaja@gmail.com), Chairman, Islamic Information Service (IIS), Los Angeles. Courtesy: Sisters in Islam). Source: http://www.mysinchew.com/node/29633?tid=14 URL of this page: http://newageislam.net/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1828 |
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