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January 2014
How the state Assembly tries to limit what I can teach?
By Stephen Zunes: In preparing my syllabus for my introductory course on the Middle East this semester, it gives me pause that the California Assembly is still on record declaring that discussing certain well-documented historic incidents in modern Middle Eastern history should "not be tolerated in the classroom." This unprecedented attack on academic freedom came in the form of a resolution (HR 35), co-sponsored by 66 of the 88 Assembly members, which passed by a voice vote in 2012. Read More
Pakistan resists US pressure to release Dr Shakil Afridi
Abdus Sattar Ghazali: Pakistan government has ruled out release of CIA collaborator Dr Shakil Afridi under pressure from the United States. The Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Tasnim Aslam told a weekly press briefing on January 23, 2014 that there is no question of the release of Dr Shakil Afridi on the request of the US as his case is sub-judice. Read More
John Kerry Praises Israeli former Prime Minister Arial Sharon
By Syed R. Mahmood: It was shocking to read that Secretary John Kerry, on January 2, 2014, during his visit to Israel to conduct a Middle East peace talk with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that he made a statement regarding the former Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon,who was in a coma for the last eight years, that his thoughts are with the former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon -- He died on January 11, 2014. Read More
The Middle East and climate change
By Arthur Scott: One of the problems confronting the Middle East is that political/socio/sectarian issues tend to dominate the dialogue marginalizing the hidden “multiplier effect” of climate on stability. Popular Middle East analyses tend to ignore the dynamics and geopolitics of climate change. It is as though climate has no impact on sectarian violence in Afghanistan, Taliban, Syria, the military coup in Egypt, and Somalia. A contributing factor to setting Middle East climate today consist of these historical events: Western Imperialism and the new Middle East map, oil/ Exxon/Shell, Arab nationalism, Fundamentalism, Islamic Resurgence, 9/11 and the sectarian violence/terror /civil war it has unleashed. Each of these events along with modernity has in their own ways contributed to global warming/change in this region. Read More
MLK: Also a victim of NSA surveillance
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: Martin Luther King Jr. day is being celebrated on January 20th 2014 amid heated debate on massive dragnet surveillance by the National Security Agency (NSA). Ironically, he was himself a victim of NSA surveillance as unveiled by the declassified documents in September last year. Dr. King's status as an NSA target has been known since the 1970s; nevertheless, this was probably the first time that the U.S. government had declassified it. Read More
2013: Another hard year for American Muslims
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: Year after year we wrote about the eroding civil rights as the biggest challenge for the seven-million strong American Muslims in the post-9/11 America. However, after the Snowden revealations that the National Security Agency (NSA) is collecting data on each and every US citizen, the civil rights of everybody now stand abriged. In his year-end press conference. President Obama was in step with the intelligence community that the enmasse NSA surveillence was imperitive to "protect the US citizens." Not surprisingly, on December 28, federal Judge William Pauley III in New York City ruled that the NSA program that collects the telephone metadata for every call made in the United States and many of those made overseas is legal and constitutional. Dismissing a lawsuit against the NSA spying program brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Judge Pauley lashed out at Snowden who was named "Tech Person of the Year" by the USA Today and Runnerup Person of the Year (after Pope Francis) by the Time magazine. Read More
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