How to create terrorists: The U.K. government’s recipe, War on Terror, NewAgeIslam.com

War on Terror

How to create terrorists: The U.K. government’s recipe

By Seumas Milne

I never imagined I would say this, but Stella Rimington is right. The former head of the British Security Service — MI5 — who made her career running her department’s dirtiest operations in the 1980s, against the U.K.’s miners’ union and the IRA, has warned that Gordon Brown’s government has given terrorists the chance to find “greater justification” by making people feel they “live in fear and under a police state.” Naturally, ministers described her remarks as nonsense and accused her of playing “into the hands of our enemies.”

But the damage is done. To have the woman once hailed as Britain’s Queen of Spies accusing the U.K. government of recklessly counter-productive authoritarianism carries a special weight — and incidentally turns the traditional relationship between Labour and the secret state on its head. Rimington went further, denouncing the U.S. for Guantanamo and torture, but reverted to type by insisting MI5 “doesn’t do that.”

No, as we now know, it contracts out that job to others, while its officers stand by promising to arrange “more lenient treatment” if the victim cooperates. In case after case, British collaboration in the hidden crimes of the war on terror has now been laid bare. But none more so than in the seven-year ordeal of Binyam Mohamed, the last British resident in Guantanamo, the details of whose CIA kidnapping and U.S.-orchestrated torture across four countries the U.K. Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, has twisted and turned to prevent being made public.

http://newageislam.com/how-to-create-terrorists--the-u.k.-government%E2%80%99s-recipe--/war-on-terror/d/1205

India: A Hindu family fasting in Ramzan or 40 years, Islam and Pluralism, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and Pluralism

India: A Hindu family fasting in Ramzan or 40 years

3 Sep 2008, TNN

Talking to TOI, Bhatt said, "My elder son had been suffering from a stomach problem for a long time. We had visited all the doctors and hospitals for treatment, but nothing cured him. Then we were told by a Sufi believer that if we appease 'Pir Mamu' (as he is fondly remembered by his followers) - the Sufi saint, who had his abode where our house now stands - our son will be cured of his illness. He said we should stay away from vices and other prohibited things under Islam."

Since then the family has kept its vow and has been performing all the rituals during the holy month of Ramzan. It breaks the fast only after paying homage to Pir Mamu.

In all these years the family has kept up the spirit of universal brotherhood alive. Even during the Gujarat riots in 2002, the family fasted for the entire month.

"We believe fasts to be our offerings to almighty and do not think that they portray only one religion," Bhatt said.

Hina Bhatt, the eldest daughter-in-law of the family, said, "After I got married, I willingly accepted the family ritual of fasting in the month of Ramzan. For me, it's like the shravan month. I normally fast during shravan and then in Ramzan." The most difficult part of a roza is not being able to drink water. Hema Bhatt, another daughter-in-law, said, "Being Brahmins, we completely believe in the oneness of God. During this month, we get the courage to complete these arduous fasts without much tribulations."

http://newageislam.com/india--a-hindu-family-fasting-in-ramzan-or-40-years-/islam-and-pluralism/d/695

A cast-iron case for a secular society, Islam and Pluralism, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and Pluralism

A cast-iron case for a secular society

Nick Cohen The Observer,

Sunday August 3 2008

When the Commission for Racial Equality investigated racism in the building industry, it said that a man's skin colour was irrelevant to whether he would make a good worker. A black bricklayer should have the same opportunities as a white bricklayer. Today's supporters of homosexual adoption say that the sexuality of a couple is irrelevant. If they can show they would make good parents, they should have the same rights to adopt as everyone else. The argument among economists about the gender pay gap is, at root, an argument about relevance as well. Are women paid less because they take time off to have children or because of misogynist employers' irrelevant prejudices?

Now politicians, judges and the godly are trying to turn religion into an equal opportunities cause. The language sounds the same as in the 20th century, but the consequences could not be more different. Instead of fighting for equality, they are demanding special treatment and the social fragmentation that goes with it.

http://newageislam.com/a-cast-iron-case-for-a-secular-society/islam-and-pluralism/d/423

Advice to Al-Qaeda: Keep it real, Radical Islamism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Radical Islamism and Jihad

Advice to Al-Qaeda: Keep it real

Ejaz Haider

August 17, 2008

Mark Twain it was who said “Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t”. Bacon quoted a jesting Pontius Pilate as asking “What is truth?” and without staying for an answer ordered Christ to be put on the cross. Even truth, it seems, is nothing absolute, though Bacon must have made up the story like the lazy reporter who doesn’t venture out and writes desk stories that cannot be verified.

Leaving that aside, however, how about substituting truth with life in Twain’s statement? Life too, without fiction’s controlled, select treatment and the writer’s deft handling of the plot, is not obliged to stick to possibilities. But perhaps I am wrong. When infused with the literalism of faith, life can begin to lose its myriad possibilities, even its colour, slithering instead through select grooves.

One report tells me that Al Qaeda in Iraq’s Sunni belt may be losing popularity because of “imposing their way of thought on the most mundane aspects of everyday life”.

http://newageislam.com/advice-to-al-qaeda--keep-it-real-/radical-islamism-and-jihad/d/576