Kuwait Media Conference: An attempt to challenge the Western media monopoly, Islam and the Media, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and the Media

Kuwait Media Conference: An attempt to challenge the Western media monopoly

April 27, 2010 New Age Islam News Bureau

The Arab media which has been under state control for ages has taken its first step to break free. A conference of the Arab media is going to be held in which 200 journalists will participate and discuss the strategy to meet the challenges posed by the Western mass media and technology. Journalists and media personalities from almost all the big Arabic and English newspapers and TV channels have started deliberations to explore new avenues to face the new world order and new challenges.

The conference was inaugurated by the Prime Minister of Kuwait Sheikh Nasir Al Muhammad Al Sabah. Speaking on this occasion the speakers echoed the view that the western media had the monopoly on the news and most of the time they distort or change the facts or make it sensational to suit their political interests.

Apart from the journalists, the conference is being attended by the cultural and information ministers of Saudi Arab, Oman, UAE, and Bahrain as well. Kuwait is the first Arab country which does not control the media and now other countries have started lifting controls from the media and have given them freedom of expression on cultural, social and economic issues.

Al Jazeerah TV has brought about a powerful revolution in Arab media and is presenting news on political happenings, situations and changes in a more aggressive way.

http://newageislam.com/kuwait-media-conference--an-attempt-to-challenge-the-western-media-monopoly/islam-and-the-media/d/2763

Egypt: The Next Volcano?, Islam and the West, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and the West

Egypt: The Next Volcano?

By Eric Margolis

Egypt is facing a potential political eruption that could rock the entire Mideast and seriously undermine US domination of the strategic region.

This threat comes as tensions in the Mideast are already extremely high. Threats of war involving US, Israel, Syria, Lebanon, and Iran are flying fast and furious.

President Husni Mubarak, the US-supported strongman who has ruled Egypt with an iron hand for almost 30 years, is 81 and in frail health. Amazingly, he has no designated successor. No one knows who will take over Egypt when he dies.

For Mubarak, it may be "après moi, le deluge." Dealing with elderly dictators is always an extremely tricky business.

Mubarak, an air force general, was put into power with US help after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat by nationalist soldiers in 1981. Sadat had been a CIA "asset" since 1952.

My sharp-tongued mother interviewed Sadat in the 1950's and described him as a "clown." Sadat was a hero in the US and Israel, but Egyptians hated him and greeted his killing with jubilation.

Egypt, with 82 million people, is the most populous and important Arab nation. Cairo has long been the cultural center of the Arab world. It is also an overcrowded madhouse with eight million people (12 million in the great Cairo area) crammed into an early 20th century colonial city built for 500,000. Cairo's population has tripled since I lived there as a boy in 1957.

About 28% all Arabs are Egyptians. Deduct North Africa, known as the Maghreb - and not traditionally part of the Arab heartland - and Egypt counts for a third of all Arabs. The Nilotic Egyptians are quite different ethnically from the Arabs of Arabia, Syria and Iraq, but they all share a mostly common language, religion, and sense of pan-Arab identity.

http://newageislam.com/egypt--the-next-volcano?/islam-and-the-west/d/2767

Osama Bin Laden's Son Warns His Successors Will Be Worse, Islamic World News, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic World News

Osama Bin Laden's Son Warns His Successors Will Be Worse

Osama bin Laden's son has a chilling warning for those who are hunting his father with drones, secret agents and missile strikes.

From Omar bin Laden's up-close look at the next generation of mujahideen and al Qaeda training camps he says the worst may lie ahead, that if his father is killed America may face a broader and more violent enemy, with nothing to keep them in check.

"From what I knew of my father and the people around him I believe he is the most kind among them, because some are much, much worse," Omar bin Laden, who was raised in the midst of his father's fighters, told ABC News in an exclusive interview. "Their mentality wants to make more violence, to create more problems."

Omar has turned his back on his father's philosophy, a remarkable step for a man in an Arab culture where it is a sin to disobey his father and taboo to openly criticize him. It was doubly significant for Omar bin Laden because his father had picked him to succeed him as the leader of jihad.

The son spoke out again recently after hearing his father in an audio tape praise the attempt by the so-called "underwear bomber" to blow up a jetliner over Detroit on Christmas Day.

"Attacking peaceful people is not being fair, it is unacceptable. If you have a problem with armies or governments you should fight those people. This is what I find unacceptable in my father's way," Omar told ABC News.

http://newageislam.com/osama-bin-laden-s-son-warns-his-successors-will-be-worse/islamic-world-news/d/2453

Islamic Movement gathers steam in Israel, Islamic World News, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic World News

Islamic Movement gathers steam in Israel

UMM AL-FAHM, Israel (JTA) -- It's time for noon prayers in this Israeli Arab city, and a jumble of sneakers piles up outside the doors of a mosque on the top floor of a private high school for the sciences.

Inside, the boys, led in prayer by a math teacher, stand in two rows on a soft green-and-beige carpet and then kneel in unison. The $5.8 million tab to construct the high school, considered one of the top Arab schools in Israel with its state-of-the art physics and chemistry labs, was picked up by the Islamic Movement.

Such support -- helping fund community needs not being met by the Israeli government -- is one way the movement is gaining power and influence among Israel's 1.2 million Arabs.

"This vacuum has opened the door for the Islamic Movement to get in and provide alternative services," said Yousef Jabareen, a resident of Umm al-Fahm and director of Dirasat, a nonprofit that advocates for socioeconomic and political equality for Israel's Arab citizens.

The influence of the movement -- particularly its northern branch, which preaches adherence to a devout form of Islam and a code of social isolation from Israel at large -- can be seen in the shift toward increased religious observance among some of Israel's Arab citizens, the majority of whom are Muslim.

Critics say the movement's more extreme elements preach a form of nationalism that is actively anti-Israeli and is radicalizing Israel's Arab citizens. Its social service tactics have been compared to the work of Hamas, which similarly built a base of support among ordinary Palestinians by providing social services not offered by the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority.

http://newageislam.com/islamic-movement-gathers-steam-in-israel/islamic-world-news/d/2174

Muslim Modernization and the OIC on its 40th anniversary, Current affairs, NewAgeIslam.com

Current affairs

Muslim Modernization and the OIC on its 40th anniversary

On its 40th anniversary the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), created to build cooperation between member states and help free Palestine from occupation, looks middle aged, lacks credibility and is the victim of Arab divisions , rather than the beneficiary of Muslim unity.(Veeramalla Anjaiah and Ary Hermawan, Jakarta Post, 25.05.09).

To reverse this we need Palestine solved and the end of Arab domination of the OIC, with recognition that over 60 percent of Muslims are not Arab or in the Middle East.

The relationship between the Arab world and the Muslim world is ambiguous.

Indonesians with their multi-religious tradition and a long history of kingdoms, mysticism and cultures have sometimes felt torn between Arab and Western cultural imperialism.

The big Muslim-population countries of Asia: Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and India, along with Nigeria, Russia and the republics of Central Asia, have to make clear as rising powers in the Muslim world, that the Ummah, the global Muslim community, cannot be seen as an Arab back-yard.

These large Muslim populations and countries espouse their own cultural history, are growing in economic importance globally, and have predominantly opted for political democracy and freedom, leaving the Arab world behind.

http://newageislam.com/muslim-modernization-and-the-oic-on-its-40th-anniversary/current-affairs/d/1844

Fear of offending minorities keeps the West shamefully quiet, Islam and the West, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and the West

Fear of offending minorities keeps the West shamefully quiet

By Naomi Lakritz, Calgary Herald

July 31, 2009

In June, I got a cell phone and used it on a trip to British Columbia to talk to a man who's unrelated to me. To think that this might upset my two brothers who then might start plotting to kill me for it is laughable-- in the safe confines of western society. Fadia Najjar, who lived in Gaza, got a cell phone too and it cost her life. Her father, Jawdat, turned himself in to police last week, the day after Fadia was beaten over the head with an iron chain and punched and kicked for 40 minutes before dying of a fractured skull. Jawdat had been furious about his daughter owning a cell phone and believed she had used it to talk to a man unrelated to the family, according to police reports obtained by two human rights groups, Mezan and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), and cited in the Jerusalem Post. Three of her brothers are suspected of being complicit in her killing.

According to figures released by the United Nations, Fadia is one of 5,000 women who will die this year in so-called honour killings. The Jerusalem Post notes she is the 10th woman to lose her life in 2009 in honour killings in Palestinian areas and in Arab communities within Israel.

After writing about honour killings on Wednesday, I received a number of e-mails from people who object to the term and want to lump these incidents in the category of domestic abuse, to avoid casting the faintest shadow of aspersion on a non-western culture.

http://newageislam.com/fear-of-offending-minorities-keeps-the-west-shamefully-quiet/islam-and-the-west/d/1610

The Arab lunacy: Some outrageous reactions to terror in Mumbai Overview, Islam,Terrorism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

The Arab lunacy: Some outrageous reactions to terror in Mumbai

Overview

2. However, in commenting on the reasons for the terrorist attack, the Iranian and Syrian propaganda was quick to exploit the event to assail the United States, Israel and the Zionist movement, and to represent them as responsible for terrorism in India and the world in general:

i) Iranian president Ahmadinejad, in a vague statement hinting at the United States, said that “the ugly phenomenon of terrorism…has its roots in [an] international unfair order and …occupationist and disuniting policies” (ISNA News Agency, November 28). On November 29 the Iranian newspaper Al-Wifaq was much more explicit in its reaction. It criticized the Western media for describing the attackers as “Islamists.” It also said that Israel (“that hypocritical entity”) had sown terrorism in the Middle East and the entire world. It added that the attacks in India had a Zionist background with goals of interfering in regional matters, and fingerprints of American crimes could also be seen on the Indian sub-continent. According to the article, ten years ago the United States and the Zionists started spreading to the Indian arena to encourage a civil war within India and strife between India and its neighbours. Their intention was to impose their hegemony in the region. “Thus it is not enough to put an end to the military attack [in Mumbai], the true American string-pulling behind the terrorist [attack] must also be exposed…”

http://newageislam.com/the-arab-lunacy--some-outrageous-reactions-to-terror-in-mumbai/islam,terrorism-and-jihad/d/1050

Angry Young Muslims: Perspectives on Radical Islamism, Radical Islamism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Radical Islamism and Jihad

Angry Young Muslims: Perspectives on Radical Islamism

Dealing with extremism on an Islamic basis is primarily a battle for the future of the Arab and Muslim world. Particularly the first dimension of anger described above can only be tackled by far-reaching political reforms in these countries. The autocratic regimes selected as partners in alliances with the West, however, are rarely prepared to take such steps. European governments can call for and support reforms. Yet Europe's policy-makers must start thinking about how their own decisions contribute to increasing or decreasing the potential for anger in the Muslim world. Five brief proposals:

Europe should support actors in the Arab and Muslim world who take peaceful action for change in their countries. This also means accepting that civil society includes not only those involved in secular discourses, but also conservative Islamic forces. One thing is certain: without the national moderate forces of political Islam, there will be no sustainable political reforms in the Arab world.

Political change is never linear; it is always full of contradictions, detours and setbacks. It is therefore advisable to break down the concept of democracy into its constitutive elements for operational purposes. That means in particular the rule of law, human rights, independent justice, transparency, freedom of opinion and free elections, whereby these are the decisive but certainly not the first and only necessary element of sustainable political reform. Democracy – and this is essential – cannot come before a much more all-encompassing process of state building; statehood is instead a precondition for consolidated democracy.

http://newageislam.com/angry-young-muslims--perspectives-on-radical-islamism--/radical-islamism-and-jihad/d/829

Saudi girl selected as youth ambassador, Islamic Society, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic Society

Saudi girl selected as youth ambassador

By Sabahat F. Siddiqi, Saudi Gazette

The student organization organizes periodic debates on current local and international issues. Moreover, presentations are made by students on matters that interest the present generation.

Ala’a finds much of her inspiration and enthusiasm from the global activist work she regularly takes part in, most recently the Young Arab Leaders/Learning from the Future Conference held in Dubai.

Ala’a was also selected by the British Council from a pool of applicants to attend the Learning from the Future workshop. As the youngest and only undergraduate college student chosen, she represented Saudi Arabia at the workshop covering global and regional issues such as climate change, the multi-polar world, energy crisis, and relations between the Arab World and the West.

Presently Ala’a is working on her first article for the Middle East Youth Initiative which will be based on national educational reform.

http://newageislam.com/saudi-girl-selected-as-youth-ambassador/islamic-society/d/696

Maria Golia: Making resistance work in Egypt, Islam and the West, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and the West

Maria Golia: Making resistance work in Egypt

The list of grievances plaguing average Egyptians is long, but let’s run through it once more, literally for the hell of it: a cynical regime; ostentatious upper-class; malignant unemployment; derisively underpaid workers denied the right to strike; price hikes that make a further mockery of the pittance they earn; widespread overcrowding in under-serviced homes; religious and state restrictions that squelch all manner of self-expression; poor primary education and health care; off-the-scale pollution and environmental devastation. Add anger and humiliation as an impotent world stands by and watches the destruction of Lebanon, alongside that of Palestine and Iraq.

No point asking, ‘where are the Arabs?’ meaning Arab leaders. Everyone knows they’re in their palaces hedging their bets. Although the oil card they collectively hold - if wisely played - virtually trumps all others, and could conceivably provoke a bloodless revolution that would redress a global power imbalance and place the world, in the eleventh hour of its need, on a healing track towards alternative energy – they squabble and dither. Their attention is instead directed towards stifling every trace of dissent issuing from justifiably outraged citizens.

http://newageislam.com/maria-golia--making-resistance-work-in-egypt/islam-and-the-west/d/454

Iraq and its neighbours, Current affairs, NewAgeIslam.com

Current affairs

Iraq and its neighbours

A Khaleej Times editorial

13 August 2008

But perhaps it's understandable if Arab leaders have been avoiding the country that was once the political and cultural centre of the Arab-Muslim world. Given the state of affairs in the country after the Invasion, especially the challenges on security front, you can't really blame the Arab leaders if Baghdad hasn't figured on their itinerary for nearly five years. Only last month, the Jordan monarch had to call off a long-planned visit to Baghdad last minute following a security alert.

Iraq's Arab and Muslim neighbours cannot forever keep the country out in the cold though. Not because the US and its Western allies say so. But because Iraq needs the support of its Arab and Muslim neighbours like never before.

The 2003 Invasion and subsequent civil war have completely wrecked the infrastructure of the country that was once the most progressive and developed country in the Middle East. Thanks to the coalition of the willing, Iraq today needs assistance on all fronts — from peace-making efforts to massive reconstruction and rehabilitation projects. From building basic infrastructure like water and electricity projects and hospitals and schools to helping the country get back to its feet on economic and industrial fronts, the Arab neighbours can and should help Iraq at this critical stage.

http://newageislam.com/iraq-and-its-neighbours/current-affairs/d/553

Jihad's mailed fist of fury, Islam,Terrorism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

Jihad's mailed fist of fury

B Raman

Aug 27, 2008

The e-mail put out before the Ahmedabad blasts was allegedly sent by the same Guru al-Hind. By the side of his signature at the bottom of the e-mail, the word 'al-Arbi' was written in capital letters. Al-Arbi means 'The Arab'. It also stands for Wednesday. It was taken to mean that the e-mail must have been signed by Guru al-Hind on the Wednesday preceding the blasts. In the latest e-mail, the reference to Guru al-Hind is not there -- neither in the e-mail ID nor at the bottom of the message. Instead, the e-mail is signed as al-Arbi in capital letters. The e-mail identity of the originator has also been changed as al-arbi-al-Hind. In this context, al-Arbi could mean only 'The Arab' and not Wednesday. Thus, the e-mail identity used means 'The Arab of India'. Why so since the Indian Mujahideen claims to be an organisation totally of Indian Muslims with no external links? Why is the sender of the e-mail projecting himself as 'The Arab'? Is it a reference to one of the two Indian Muslims operating from Saudi Arabia for many years?

http://newageislam.com/jihad-s-mailed-fist-of-fury/islam,terrorism-and-jihad/d/646

Egypt: Total cultural collapse, Islamic Society, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic Society

Egypt: Total cultural collapse

Magdy Hussein, editor of the online Islamist paper Al Shaab, seems to think that change is upon us. “It’s the end of an era summed up by the fact that Egypt got no votes at all in the competition to hold the 2010 World Cup, a symbolic statement of the total cultural collapse we are in,” he wrote. “But this is happening at the same time that the American plan for hegemony in Arab and Islamic countries has witnessed a huge setback in Iraq, and this opens great possibilities for liberation from the American-Zionist alliance. This only confirms what we have been saying all along: that American power is in a state of retreat, not advance.”

This is an Islamist critique of Arab regional politics that concurs in essence with that of nationalists such as Muhammad Hassanein Heikal—Egypt and other Arab countries simply need more confidence in order to create bold new Arab alliances that can challenge U.S.-Israeli domination. With the descent of the Iraq project into chaos, the “new Arab liberals” are also under attack. Al Jazeera’s “The Opposite Direction” took up the topic in a recent show, giving a public airing to the view that pro-democracy activists made a big mistake in thinking that America’s Iraq adventure would allow them to replace the Arab regimes. Last month’s G-8 summit in the United States left the pompous and ridiculous Greater Middle East Initiative bereft of any real content—yet another great plan to democratize the Arab world crushed by the realities of Israel’s crazed mission to ethnically cleanse Palestine of its indigenous population.

http://newageislam.com/egypt--total-cultural-collapse-/islamic-society/d/172

How America made a mess of Afghanistan, War on Terror, NewAgeIslam.com

War on Terror

How America made a mess of Afghanistan

By Shashi Tharoor

The irony was that almost everybody who had an opinion to express on Afghanistan, especially in the subcontinent, knew that the greatest danger from Islamic radicalism emanated from there and not from Saddam Hussein's secular autocracy in Iraq. The tragedy of 9/11, orchestrated from Osama bin Laden's command centre in the Taliban-ruled state, made it obvious that the most important strategic objective for the US had to be to ensure that Afghanistan never again became the kind of state that could provide a base for a future bin Laden. But the neo-conservatives around president Bush had long been obsessed with the "unfinished business" of Iraq, and many went around quite deliberately misleading the American public into thinking that Saddam was somehow behind 9/11 and in league with al-Qaida. Iraq's attractive oil reserves, its educated middle class and the potential for the country to become, under American rule, an alternative pro-American "model" for the Arab world, all weighed heavily in Washington's calculations. To the neo-cons, Afghanistan, a hard scrabble land of caves, deserts, poorly-developed infrastructure and warring tribals, looked like yesterday's problem.

http://newageislam.com/how-america-made-a-mess-of-afghanistan/war-on-terror/d/187

After 60 Years, There is Nothing to Celebrate for the Palestinians, Islam and the West, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and the West

Surviving in a Culture of Hate

After 60 Years, There is Nothing to Celebrate for the Palestinians

By Hassan Al-Haifi (commonsense@yemen.net.ye)

Much of the feedback to this column tries to sidetrack the efforts of disclosing the truth about the horrors of a Zionist hate filled culture, by suggesting that such criticism shout be targeted towards combating the evils of our own doing (i.e., the results of the calamities imposed on the Arab countries by the misdeeds of the majority of the leaders in the region). This can be answered with ease by reminding these systematic responses by elements set up as part of the sophisticated IZE media complex that it is the IZE that actually worked to encourage the existence of these monstrosities of governance called the Arab political regimes, most of which are looked upon with the utmost of contempt by their respective constituencies. Surely, there is an irony in calling for advocacy against regimes that are actually essential to the continuous existence of the State of Israel, and were actually instrumental to assuring the survival and expansion of this rouge State of Israel, some of them knowingly so, while others because of their naiveté or their misguided gullibility. Yet the IZE has managed to use these thorns in the midst of the Arab Nation to convince the Western ears and eyes that the state created by the IZE is the ideal model of governance and goodwill, and is commensurate with all the "values" that Western culture has evolved over the years.

http://newageislam.com/surviving-in-a-culture-of-hate/islam-and-the-west/d/83

Syria differs with anti-India resolution of OIC, says Assad, Current affairs, NewAgeIslam.com

Current affairs

Syria differs with anti-India resolution of OIC, says Assad

Underlining that India enjoyed an excellent rapport with all Middle East stakeholders, including the United States and Israel, as well as the Arab nations, Al-Assad said it gave New Delhi credibility to play a key role in the peace process. "India has good relations with both the US and Israel and anyone who wants to play a role has to have that credibility. India has that credibility because of its traditional support for the Arab cause as well as good relations with Israel," he said.

Full of praise for India, Al-Assad pointed out that New Delhi had always supported the Palestine cause and never ignored its traditional friendship with the Arab world, even while pursuing better ties with the US and Israel. "This is why we feel India, like Turkey, is well-placed to play a role in the Middle East peace process," he said.

In the recent past, Turkey has hosted several rounds of talks between Syria and Israel. Describing these talks as "a positive development", Al-Assad said Israel's offer to hold talks with Lebanon and its truce with the Hamas offered a glimmer of hope for peace in the region. "We hope India will encourage Israel to actively take part in these pace talks," he said.

http://newageislam.com/syria-differs-with-anti-india-resolution-of-oic,-says-assad-/current-affairs/d/116

Why the West is losing its step in the Arab Spring, Islam and the West,NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and the West

16 Aug 2011, NewAgeIslam.Com

Why the West is losing its step in the Arab Spring

By SUHASINI HAIDAR Instead of raising the spectre of regime change, the West must learn from its experiences in the Arab Spring and find more effective ways of helping the Syrian people. Foreign policy has very few tongue-in-cheek moments. Yet, as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad called on the British government to show restraint while quelling its rioters, and suggested a full report on human rights violations in the United Kingdom, many Arab leaders found it hard to conceal a grin. Western (read American, British, French) interventions in West Asia this year have met with few success stories, and as the international community steps up the pressure on Syria after weeks of a brutal military crackdown on protests in Hama, Daraa and other towns, a drum roll is under way. http://www.newageislam.com/islam-and-the-west/why-the-west-is-losing-its-step-in-the-arab-spring/d/5264

Islam does not Preach Terrorism, Urdu Section, NewAgeIslam.com

Urdu Section

11 Aug 2011, NewAgeIslam.Com

Islam does not Preach Terrorism

By Mufti Mohd. Zahid Qamarul Qasmi The most painful aspect of the age in which the Holy Quran was revealed was lawlessness, chaos and bloodshed. The extent of lawlessness can be gauged by the fact that no legal government existed in the Arab peninsula. The governments that existed around Arab believed in ethnic superiority and inferiority and it is impossible for the establishment of justice in a human society that is based on superiority and inferiority by birth. The revelation of the last book of God, the holy Quran began in such an atmosphere. (EnglishTranslation from Urdu by New Age Islam Edit Desk available at: http://www.newageislam.com/islam-and-tolerance/quran-does-not-preach-terrorism/d/5251 URL: http://www.newageislam.com/urdu-section/قرآن-دہشت-گردی-کی-تعلیم-نہیں-دیتا/d/5229