Internal refugees and Bajaur conflict, War on Terror, NewAgeIslam.com

War on Terror

Internal refugees and Bajaur conflict

Monday, August 18, 2008

The number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) has grown steadily in Pakistan over the past few years, mainly as a consequence of conflict in the northern areas and also Balochistan. The latest wave of displacements comes in Bajaur Agency, where 150,000 people are reported to have fled their homes. Some efforts have reportedly been made to establish camps for these persons outside the agency, but many of those fleeing complain such measures are inadequate and that they have received almost no official assistance as they board trucks, vans or jeeps in a bid to reach safety. Some, left with no choice, have simply set out on foot. In the past, similar scenes have been witnessed in Swat, Khyber Agency, South Waziristan and other areas. In all these cases, people have spoken angrily about government actions that have destroyed homes and injured or killed family members. Most victims find themselves caught in an almost impossible situation between the local Taliban and the troops fighting them.

http://newageislam.com/internal-refugees-and-bajaur-conflict/war-on-terror/d/588

Saudi Power - Shaping another U.S. Foreign Policy Misadventure, Islam and the West, NewAgeIsla.com

Islam and the West

Saudi Power - Shaping another U.S. Foreign Policy Misadventure

The Saudi kingdom can be considered one of the youngest of the oldest kingdoms in the world. Its establishment and operation recalls the reign of the Spanish Catholic monarchy of the 15th century. Similar to the Ferdinand and Isabella pact with the Catholic church to gain recognition for their kingdom in return for sole approval of the Catholic church in Spanish lands, Arabian chieftain Mohammed ibn Saud, in 1744, allied himself with Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, leader of the Wahhab sect. The Wahhabis backed the Saud families in their methodical conquest of the entire Arabian peninsula, and, in turn, were allowed to control Saudi social society as the dominant and only fully recognized religion. Believing in the basics of Islam, they enforced a strict interpretation of the Koran.

King Ibn Saud, a descendant of Wahhabi leaders, seized Riyadh in 1901 and eventually conquered almost all the peninsula. By 1933, the kingdom of Saudi Arabia finally coalesced close to its present form. Ibn Saud established an absolute monarchy and ruled it by an all encompassing Sharia; the body of Islamic religious law which regulates public and private life.

http://newageislam.com/saudi-power---shaping-another-u.s.-foreign-policy-misadventure-/islam-and-the-west/d/197