Islam’s emphasis on equal respect to all prophets and all religions, Letter to the Editor, NewAgeIslam.com

Letter to the Editor

Islam’s emphasis on equal respect to all prophets and all religions

I am an American. I was born into a Jewish family and attended 6 years of Hebrew School as a youth and of course was Barmitzvahed in 1968. Today I am a rather militant and very devout Atheist, not that it's important to this discussion but that it might help the reader to understand my perspective. Out of respect and because my own beliefs are not generally accepted by a very theological American population generally accepting Christianity I have chosen to accept all religions as being universally assumed truths which should be viewed with equality. I wish harm to no one.

Let's examine the phrase "equal respect to all prophets and all religions" as it applies to America today and I would like to ask your opinion on what I would consider a vital question for the Islamic world today.

America, to say the least and to also treat it very mildly, is in a state of inner turmoil never before experienced in its history. It's foreign policy and even its national policy dictated solely by the events of 9/11. We are living a lie and we are engaged in an active clash of civilizations which is responsible for, between 2001 and today, the deaths of well over 1 million Muslims, believers in Islam. This is no small matter as I'm certain you are well aware. We are exporting religious fear at the same time that we are entertaining it as the solitary and exclusive basis for our actions. While you might know, and the Muslim world might also know, and even I know that this is false, Americans, most of them, do not.

http://newageislam.com/islam%E2%80%99s-emphasis-on-equal-respect-to-all-prophets-and-all-religions/letter-to-the-editor/d/2501

Pakistan: What Obama left unsaid, War on Terror, NewAgeIslam.com

War on Terror

Pakistan: What Obama left unsaid

By David E. Sanger and Eric Schmitt

Mr. Obama could not be very specific about his Pakistan strategy, his advisers conceded on Monday evening. U.S. operations there are classified, most run by the CIA. Any overt U.S. presence would only fuel anti-Americanism in a country that reacts sharply to every missile strike against extremists that kills civilians as well, and that fears that America is plotting to run its government and seize its nuclear weapons.

Yet quietly, Mr. Obama has authorised an expansion of the war in Pakistan as well — if only he can get a weak, divided, suspicious Pakistani government to agree to the terms.

In recent months, in addition to providing White House officials with classified assessments about Afghanistan, the CIA delivered a plan for widening the campaign of strikes against militants by drone aircraft in Pakistan, sending additional spies there and securing a White House commitment to bulk up the CIA’s budget for operations inside the country.

The expanded operations could include drone strikes in the southern province of Balochistan, where senior Afghan Taliban leaders are believed to be hiding, officials said. It is from there that they direct many of the attacks on U.S. troops, attacks that are likely to increase as more Americans pour into Afghanistan.

http://newageislam.com/pakistan--what-obama-left-unsaid/war-on-terror/d/2186

I cannot be guided by Gandhi, King alone: Barack Hussein Obama in his Nobel speech, Current affairs, NewAgeIslam.com

Current affairs

I cannot be guided by Gandhi, King alone: Barack Hussein Obama in his Nobel speech

Barack Hussein Obama

And yet I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the considerable controversy that your generous decision has generated. In part, this is because I am at the beginning, and not the end, of my labors on the world stage. Compared to some of the giants of history who have received this prize - Schweitzer and King; Marshall and Mandela - my accomplishments are slight. And then there are the men and women around the world who have been jailed and beaten in the pursuit of justice; those who toil in humanitarian organizations to relieve suffering; the unrecognized millions whose quiet acts of courage and compassion inspire even the most hardened of cynics. I cannot argue with those who find these men and women - some known, some obscure to all but those they help - to be far more deserving of this honor than I.

But perhaps the most profound issue surrounding my receipt of this prize is the fact that I am the Commander-in-Chief of a nation in the midst of two wars. One of these wars is winding down. The other is a conflict that America did not seek; one in which we are joined by forty three other countries - including Norway - in an effort to defend ourselves and all nations from further attacks.

Still, we are at war, and I am responsible for the deployment of thousands of young Americans to battle in a distant land. Some will kill. Some will be killed. And so I come here with an acute sense of the cost of armed conflict - filled with difficult questions about the relationship between war and peace, and our effort to replace one with the other.

http://newageislam.com/i-cannot-be-guided-by-gandhi,-king-alone--barack-hussein-obama-in-his-nobel-speech/current-affairs/d/2210

Apple-Pie Jihad: US Muslims Fight Domestic Extremism, Islam,Terrorism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

Apple-Pie Jihad: US Muslims Fight Domestic Extremism

They are named David. They are clean-shaven dental students and attendees of community colleges. They study hard, play sports, and open Facebook accounts. Their friends call them “normal Joes.” And they’re being arrested in ever-growing numbers, would-be terrorists plotting to kill their fellow Americans and conduct “holy war” at home and abroad. Wednesday’s arrest in Pakistan of five Muslim-American men attests to a growing phenomenon: the radicalization of young American Muslims on American soil.

When the New York Police Department first issued a 90-page report in August 2007 asserting that what it called “homegrown radicalization” was destined to become a major terrorist threat, many of the nation’s civil libertarians, self-proclaimed Muslim spokesmen, and even law enforcement officials were outraged. Civil libertarians warned that the NYPD’s conclusions would lead to religious and ethnic profiling in policing. Muslim groups demanded and got meetings with senior NYPD officials. FBI analysts and officials disputed the NYPD’s findings in interviews and congressional testimony.

But the department stood its ground, and police commissioner Raymond W. Kelly backed his troops. The department’s intelligence division continued its research, and the report gradually found supporters in Washington. With the arrest of the five young Americans in Pakistan, and with the charges filed last month against recruiters from al-Shabaab alleged to have enlisted Somali teens in Minnesota to fight in the Somali civil war, the report’s once-controversial conclusions appear to be all too true.

http://newageislam.com/apple-pie-jihad--us-muslims-fight-domestic-extremism/islam,terrorism-and-jihad/d/2216

To Fix Islam, Start from the Inside, Empower Muslim Women Worldwide, Islam, Women and Feminism, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam, Women and Feminism

To Fix Islam, Start from the Inside, Empower Muslim Women Worldwide

To Fix Islam, Start From the Inside

The best way to fight radicalism is to empower Muslim women worldwide.

By Irshad Manji,

Dec 31, 2008

The solution will require more than success in Iraq or the Palestinian territories. After all, most Muslims live outside the Middle East, and Washington must learn to acknowledge their worth. Doing so demands a foreign-policy rethink. Instead of being driven strictly by counterterrorism, the United States' approach to Muslims should be complemented by a universal human-rights thrust—a cooperative strategy that recognizes ordinary Muslims, especially women, to be immediate targets of jihadism, as well as indispensable partners in the fight against it.

Such a foreign policy would not only improve the United States' global image, it would also allow Americans to form smart alliances and make even smarter use of tools like micro credit. And it would intensify the U.S. pursuit of rights-abusing thugs—those who bomb, behead, bury alive or beat up civilians. Not coincidentally, these are often the same criminals who threaten U.S. security. A textbook example is the Iranian government, which makes everyday Muslims its first victims. Last year the regime arrested Zohreh and Azar Kabiri, 20-something mothers, on charges of adultery. The sisters got 99 lashes each before being sentenced to be draped in white sheets, lowered into dirt pits and stoned to death with fist-size rocks.

http://newageislam.com/to-fix-islam,-start-from-the-inside,-empower-muslim-women-worldwide--/islam,-women-and-feminism/d/1087

Obama reaches out to Muslim world, Islam and the West, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and the West

Obama reaches out to Muslim world

In interview with Arabic network, Obama tells Muslim world

Americans are not your enemy'

January 27, 2009

The president expressed an intention to engage the Middle East immediately, and his new envoy to the region, former Senator George Mitchell, was expected to arrive in Egypt on Tuesday for a visit that will also take him to Israel, the West Bank, Jordan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

"My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy," Obama told the Saudi-owned, Al-Arabiya news channel, which is based in Dubai.

Obama said the United States had made mistakes in the past but "that the same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago, there's no reason why we can't restore that."

During his presidency, former President George W. Bush gave several interviews to Al-Arabiya but the wars he launched in Iraq and Afghanistan prompted a massive backlash against the United States in the Muslim world.

Obama called for a new partnership with the Muslim world "based on mutual respect and mutual interest." He talked about growing up in Indonesia, the Muslim world's most populous nation, and noted that he has Muslim relatives.

http://newageislam.com/obama-reaches-out-to-muslim-world--/islam-and-the-west/d/1156

Mumbai Terror: William Kristol on Jihad’s True Face, Radical Islamism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Radical Islamism and Jihad

Mumbai Terror: William Kristol on Jihad’s True Face

By WILLIAM KRISTOL

Published: December 1, 2008

Why? “The former implies a cause: a national or tribal or ethnic rationale that infuses a sacrificial action with some group’s view of heroism; the latter is an assault on civilized values, everyone’s. ... To the degree barbarism is a part of the human condition, Mumbai must be understood not just as an act related to a particular group but as an outbreak of pent-up irrationality that can occur anywhere, anytime. ... It may be true that the perpetrators viewed themselves as somehow justified in attacking Indians and visiting foreigners, particularly perhaps Americans, British and Israeli nationals. But a response that is the least nationalistic is likely to be the most effective.”

If, as Leach says, “it may be true” the perpetrators viewed themselves as justified in their attacks, doesn’t this mean that they did in fact have a “rationale” that “infused” their action?

But Leach doesn’t want to discuss that rationale — even though it’s not hard to find. Ten minutes of Googling will bring you to a fine article, “The Ideologies of South Asian Jihadi Groups,” from the April 2005 issue of Current Trends in Islamist Ideology. It’s by the respected journalist and diplomat Husain Haqqani, who, as it happens, is now Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States.

http://newageislam.com/mumbai-terror--william-kristol-on-jihad%E2%80%99s-true-face--/radical-islamism-and-jihad/d/1034

Challenges to Islam, Christianity and Judaism in today’s Global Crisis, Islam and Pluralism, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and Pluralism

Challenges to Islam, Christianity and Judaism in today’s Global Crisis

By Professor Hans Kung

November 26, 2008

Especially after September 11 2001 we face in Europe and America the threat of a general suspicion – this time not of Jews but of Muslims. It is as if they were all incited up by their religion, and were all potentially violent. Whereas conversely, Christians, because they are taught by their religion, are all seen as non-violent, peaceful and loving? That would be a fine thing!

Of course there are many problems with Islam, especially in Europe with its big Muslim minorities, but let’s be fair: of course we citizens of a democratic constitutional state reject forced marriages, the oppression of women, honour killings and other archaic inhumanities in the name of human dignity. But most Muslims join us in doing so. They suffer from the fact that the condemnations made are sweepingly of the "Muslims" and the "Islam", without differentiation. They do not recognize themselves in our picture of Islam, because they want to be loyal citizens of the Islamic religion.

Let’s be fair: those who make "Islam" responsible for kidnappings, suicide attacks, car bombs and beheadings carried out by a few blind extremists ought at the same time to condemn "Christianity" or "Judaism" for the barbarous maltreatment of prisoners, the air strikes and tank attacks carried out by the US Army (several 10,000 civilians have been murdered in Iraq alone), and the terrorism of the Israeli army of occupation in Palestine. After five years of war also a majority of Americans realize that those who pretend that the battle for oil and hegemony in the Middle East and elsewhere is a "battle for democracy" and a "war against terror" are trying to deceive the world – though without success.

http://newageislam.com/challenges-to-islam,-christianity-and-judaism-in-today%E2%80%99s-global-crisis/islam-and-pluralism/d/1022

Mega-mosques: Muslim tradition with US convenience, Islam and the West, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and the West

Mega-mosques: Muslim tradition with US convenience

Miral Fahmy I Reuters

Saturday 6 September 2008 (06 Ramadan 1429)

To accommodate the overflow, which also results in traffic jams when prayer is over, US Muslim congregations have set up satellite places of worship, again following the lead of the Christian mega-churches. That is just one way in which US mega-mosques are decidedly American. They also offer worshippers a progressive form of Islam, in line with the profile and desires of many Muslim Americans.

While more than two-thirds of Muslim Americans are immigrants, mainly from the Middle East, they are also “decidedly mainstream in their outlook, values and attitudes,” a report published last year by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life said.

They have embraced what is often called the Protestant work ethic and believe, as do many Americans, that hard work pays off.

And Muslim Americans reject extremism by larger margins than do Muslim minorities in western European countries, the Pew report said. One mega-mosque in Virginia even rents space from a synagogue.

“This mosque, this branch, is part of a synagogue. Where have you seen that, a synagogue and a mosque? It’s a completely American experience,” Muslim prayer leader Mohamed Magid said.

http://newageislam.com/mega-mosques--muslim-tradition-with-us-convenience/islam-and-the-west/d/717

Digesting the Marriott blast, War on Terror, NewAgeIslam.com

War on Terror

Digesting the Marriott blast

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

This “it-is-not-our-war” group is clueless about what the Americans and their European allies — and others stretching as far eastward as Japan — can and may do after they no longer have to regard us as an ally but face as an ally of their enemies. Why doesn’t this group make any reference to the alternative strategy — “eat grass honourably?” — in the presumed post-pullout phase? Who will face up to the trespasses made by the NATO-ISAF forces into Pakistan? How will trespasses by Al Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban in safe havens in FATA violate our sovereignty any less? Are we ready to trust the security of the state to Al Qaeda who will, if all goes according to its plan, of course be in charge of the armed forces and will control our nuclear capability? In fact it is this thought about nuclear weapons that inclines the “it-is-not-our-war” club to pre-emptively allege that the Americans are in Afghanistan to “grab our nuclear weapons”. But surely the global consensus on taking out the nuclear weapons acquired by Al Qaeda will develop much more dangerously than it is developing now.

http://newageislam.com/digesting-the-marriott-blast/war-on-terror/d/798

House of Representatives Issues Formal Apology for Slavery, Islam and Human Rights, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and Human Rights

House of Representatives Issues Formal Apology for Slavery

By: The Associated Press

Tuesday 29 July 2008

The Cohen resolution does not mention reparations. It does commit the House to rectifying "the lingering consequences of the misdeeds committed against African-Americans under slavery and Jim Crow."

It says that Africans forced into slavery "were brutalized, humiliated, dehumanized and subjected to the indignity of being stripped of their names and heritage" and that black Americans today continue to suffer from the consequences of slavery and Jim Crow laws that fostered discrimination and segregation.

The House "apologizes to African-Americans on behalf of the people of the United States, for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow."

"Slavery and Jim Crow are stains upon what is the greatest nation on the face of the earth," Cohen said. Part of forming a more perfect union, he said, "is such a resolution as we have before us today where we face up to our mistakes and apologize as anyone should apologize for things that were done in the past that were wrong."

Cohen became the first white to represent the 60 percent black district in Memphis in more than three decades when he captured a 2006 primary where a dozen black candidates split the vote. He has sought to reach out to his black constituents, and early in his term showed interest in joining the Congressional Black Caucus until learning that was against caucus rules.

http://newageislam.com/house-of-representatives-issues-formal-apology-for-slavery/islam-and-human-rights/d/361

Reality check: The American-Pakistani disconnect, War on Terror, NewAgeIslam.com

War on Terror

Reality check: The American-Pakistani disconnect

By Shafqat Mahmood

Friday, August 08, 2008

Pakistan's complaints do not end here. It accuses the Americans, who are the power behind the puppet Afghan government, of allowing anti-Pakistan activities to take place on Afghan soil. They have allowed the Indian government to establish consulates in various places near the Pakistani border that have only one purpose; to create trouble in Baluchistan and engage in sabotage and terrorism in other parts of the country. They have also through the puppet Afghan government provided sanctuary to anti Pakistan elements such as Brahamdagh Bugti and others.

There are claims in the press that Americans have provided evidence to Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani of ISI hand in the Indian embassy bombing in Kabul. No one in the government has confirmed this, but Pakistani security sources have been quoted in the media as strongly denying any link with it. They have also refuted that the ISI provides any support to the Afghan Taliban. The only interaction, some analysts have pointed out, was with the Sirajuddin Haqqani group to obtain the release of the kidnapped Pakistani ambassador to Afghanistan. Anything more than that is baseless.

http://newageislam.com/reality-check--the-american-pakistani-disconnect/war-on-terror/d/463

Dalai Lama defends Islam as peaceful religion, Islam and Pluralism, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and Pluralism

Dalai Lama defends Islam as peaceful religion

Bethlehem (Pennsylvania), July 15, 2008

Asked why so many Americans are depressed and anxious, he joked: "I'm the wrong person to ask. You should ask Americans." Then he answered that U.S. Society is too competitive and that people always want "something more, something more, something more."

The Dalai Lama, who attracted a capacity crowd of about 5,000, did not mention next month's Beijing Olympics. The Chinese government has demanded that the Dalai Lama express support for the Olympics and repudiate efforts to disrupt them as a condition for continued talks.

The Dalai Lama, who turned 73 on July 6, said Sunday that he's looking forward to "complete retirement." He joked that he's now considered a "senior most respected adviser" to Tibet's government in exile.

He is scheduled to speak at the Kimmel Centre in Philadelphia on Wednesday.

Asked why so many Americans are depressed and anxious, he joked: "I'm the wrong person to ask. You should ask Americans." Then he answered that U.S. Society is too competitive and that people always want "something more, something more, something more."

http://newageislam.com/dalai-lama-defends-islam-as-peaceful-religion/islam-and-pluralism/d/224

Another Ominous Bush Bash

By Ira Glunts

The Palestinians were notably excluded from Mr. Bush’s speech except for one brief mention of a future state. In the context of this speech, such a state could be easily interpreted as the truncated mini-state that many in the Israeli establishment would be willing to consider. There was no mention of the so-called Annapolis Peace Process that the Americans are currently sponsoring, and which Bush occasionally trumpets as his Israeli/Palestinian plan for peace. There was no mention of the ongoing creation and expansion of settlements, which the Bush administration sometimes timidly proclaims are not helpful in moving the peace process forward.