Skip to main content

Posts

Union of Muslim States

Such a union is the manifest destiny of Muslims, even though they are hopelessly fragmented into fifty-seven states at the moment. It is a destiny that is waiting to be realized. It has powerful historical support, its future prospects are bright and its rationale is built upon solid logic and clearly delineated arguments. By Dr. Muzaffar Iqbal Imagine a Union of Muslim States, initially, consisting of 372 million people living in four congruent states of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and Turkey, comprising a total area of 3,881,195 square km. Such a confederation will be able to withstand any economic, political, and military aggression coming from anywhere in the world because of a certain common domain in their religious and cultural composition as well as due to the human and material resources of the lands comprising the confederation. When contrasted with European Union’s 502 million people living in 27 different states with diverse cultures, in a total area of 4,423,...

The BBC censors its own report

BBC Blocks out Tunisia’s Jews saying “No” to Israel! By Alan Hart There was a moment in a report from Tunisia by the BBC’s Wyre Davies when I could not stop myself laughing. I was listening to it on the Corporation’s generally excellent World Service radio. (In my view this particular BBC service is generally excellent because unlike all other BBC news and current affairs outlets, radio and tv, it often reflects some of the truth about what is happening in and over Palestine that became Israel). Davies was in Tunisia to find out how its remaining 2,000 Jews (down from 300,000 once upon a time) were responding to a call from an Israeli government minister for them to move to Israel. The case the minister made was, apparently, that their security and wellbeing were no longer guaranteed in an Arab country with an Islamist government in place of what Davies called a “sectarian dictatorship”. In other words, Tunisia’s Jews were in danger and would be safe in Israel. (My guess is...

Pakistan-Myanmar Relations

Defence and Diplomacy By Raja G Mujtaba Asif Ali Zardari paid a state visit to Myanmar from 22 nd  Jan to 24 th  Jan 2012, perhaps the first by any head of the state. This visit may not be ringing bells anywhere but certainly can develop into much fruitful economic, cultural, educational and tourism relationship. During this visit, new avenues were explored to further strengthen and cement the ties. I am a strong promoter of people to people relationship, Myanmar has a strong potential to interact in a diversified way at all these levels. Presently, the trade volume between the two countries is very low, it’s not worth mentioning in any statistics with its volume as low as 24 million dollars. Burma is rich in natural resources, known for its teak wood. Pakistan will have to overcome it energy crisis on war footings, only then it would be in a position to boost its exports to Myanmar. After the disintegration of Pakistan it never lost contact with Myanmar, it deve...

The Ten Pillars of Justice

By Humayun Gauhar I talked of seven pillars or cornerstones of justice last Sunday but left out three of the most important for want of space. These are: due process, presumption of innocence, and absence of emotion, making ten pillars in all. Due process is a fundamental right that includes the right to defence, the right to call witnesses in one’s defence, the right to cross-examine witnesses and the right of appeal. As officers of the court lawyers should know. Yet, amazingly, lawyers, not rabble rousers, screamed at Aitizaz Ahsan for taking the prime minister’s case and Asma Jehangir of Hussain Haqqani. Don’t they have the right to defend themselves? Methinks that in Pakistan lawyers and rabble-rouser are two names for the same profession. If Hitler had been arrested the same rights of due process would have come into play for him as for you and me. What America is doing in Guantanamo and its other concentration camps is an abomination to due process. So important is du...

The Arab People: Voices of Reason to be heard

By Mahboob A. Khawaja, Ph.D. At the latest American Republican Presidential debate in Jacksonville, Florida (Thursday, January 26, moderated by Wolf Blitzer, CNN anchorman), Abraham Hassan, an American citizen of Palestinian descent asked a simple question as to how the candidates will facilitate a peaceful resolution between Israel and Palestine. The moderator asked Mitt Romney to respond first. His answer sounded far away from being a rational perspective. Romney alleged that peace was unthinkable as Palestinian were teaching in school books to kill the “Jews” and attacking Israel with rockets fired from Gaza.  Then Newt Gingrich turned the philosophical jargon and repeated the previous stance that “Palestinians were an invented people.” The moderator did not ask Ron Paul and Rick Santorum for any response. Abraham Hassan stood for a while to make follow-up concern but was not given the opportunity. Watching the debate on this issue, one gets the impression that the two ...

Respect of the dead bodies: US Style

An example of ultra civilization - US Marines Desecration of dead bodies by US soldiers in Afghanistan By S. M. Hali Just when it appeared the US was getting a hold over the Afghan conundrum (mostly of its own making), by agreeing to hold a dialogue with the Taliban and permitting them to establish a political office in Doha, the release of an atrocious video of US Marines desecrating the dead bodies of Taliban creates international furor. The 39 seconds video posted on Youtube depicts combat-ready Marines desecrating the remains of several bodies on the ground; it’s titled "Marines peeing on Taliban." The monstrous atrocity has been criticized by all and sundry. Among other condemnations, Afghan President Hamid Karzai censured the video showing US Marines urinating on the bloodied corpses of several Taliban fighters. In a statement, President Karzai's office said: "The government of Afghanistan is deeply disturbed by a video th...

NATO: The Salala Massacre

NATO’s Naked Aggression Against Pakistan And The Hegemonic Israeli-Indo-American Strategy Behind It By Martin Iqbal and Jonathan Azaziah NATO's Bloody Attack On Pakistan: The Motive In the early morning of Saturday 26 November two NATO Apache helicopters, an AC-130 gunship, and a number of fighter jets perpetrated a sustained and deadly attack on two Pakistani army border posts on the Afghan-Pakistan border. Located high on the Salala mountain ridge, the two army posts were brutally attacked for approximately two hours. In what was evidently a naked act of aggression, the US-led forces bombarded the border posts for forty-five minutes, left for twenty minutes, and subsequently returned – attacking for a further hour. Twenty-four Pakistani soldiers including two officers were murdered in the assault. The sustained nature of the attack precludes the possibility of it being a mistake, as claimed by the U.S. government. The United States Military would have us believe tha...