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June 2015
UN report details massive Israeli war crimes in Gaza in 2014
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: The UN Commission appointed to investigate the Israeli attack on Gaza in July-August 2014, has published its report which strongly condemns the Israeli attacks on civilian targets which may have been war crimes. However, in a bid to 'balance' the findings of the Israeli atrocities, the report also holds Hamas committing war crimes during Israel’s aggression on Gaza last summer. Read More
Why African-American church massacre is not terrorism?
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: The massacre of nine African Americans in Charleston has been classified as a possible hate crime, apparently carried out by a 21 year old white man who once wore an apartheid badge and other symbols of white supremacy, Rick Gladstone of New York Times reported on June 18, 2015. But many civil rights advocates are asking why the attack has not officially been called terrorism, he said adding: Against the backdrop of rising worries about violent Muslim extremism in the United States, advocates see hypocrisy in the way the attack and the man under arrest in the shooting have been described by law enforcement officials and the news media. Read More
The contrasting fates of Tunisia and Libya
By Stephen Zunes: The people of Libya and Tunisia both overthrew long-standing dictatorships in popular uprisings in 2011. Four years later, however, the current political situation in these two neighboring North African states could not be more different. The reason has much to do with how their authoritarian regimes were overthrown. Read More
The politics of NGOs
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: Pakistan has suspended moves to close the national branch of the charity Save the Children. The move by the interior ministry comes three days after the charity's main office in the capital Islamabad was shut down by police on June 12, 2015. Islamabad government’s U-turn in the case of Save the Children has not only embarrassed the government it has humiliated the whole nation as this incident proved that Pakistan is not independent even to take a decision against an NGO which it said has been involved in anti-Pakistan activities. The foreign-funded and dollar-driven NGOs are more powerful than the government of Pakistan and its institutions, as they continue to circumvent all attempts to regulate and audit their funding. In the 21st century, NGOs have turned out to become the most important players at the international arena. Apparently NGOs are responsible for various humanitarian affairs, which are linked to poverty, civil freedom and environment, however, the Western governments are very well known for using the NGOs as a tool to better implement their foreign policies. Read More
World War I, Middle East map, & ISIS / ISIL
By Arthur Kane Scott: World War 1 was the most significant event of the twentieth century as it set in motion deep political and social forces that still resonate today, especially in the Middle East. WWI saw the collapse of four multi- national empires: Russia, Germany, Austro-Hungary and Ottoman. It accelerated American and Japanese rivalry for East Asia, and it provided France and Britain with an opportunity to consolidate their hold on the Middle East made strategically valuable because of the emergence of oil as primary fuel source. The current flawed Middle East Map, itself a product of Orientalism in many ways accounts for the fizzle of the Arab Spring as well as the prevalence of authoritarian regimes. The “map” originated with the diplomatic machinations of Paris and London that centered initially on Sir Mark Sykes of Britain and Francois Georges Picot of France. Subsequent players were Woodrow Wilson of United States and Sir Arthur Balfour of London. Sharif Hussein bin Ali, emir of Mecca, along with Lawrence of Arabia, were reduced to pawns in these high stakes negotiations. Read More
Freedom of Speech V. Freedom of Religion: Anti-Islam armed rally outside Phoenix mosque
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: Amid recent rise in Islamophobia, an anti-Islam rally was held on Friday (May 29, 2015) outside the Phoenix mosque. This was the second anti-Islam rally outside this mosque within two weeks. The first one held on May 17 garnered far less public and social media attention. Last Friday's anti-Islam rally gained attention around the country on social media. The rally was organized by a Phoenix man, Jon Ritzheimer, a proud atheist who says he is a former Marine who fought in the Iraq War and claims that Islam is a violent religion. He led about 250 people who carried pistols, assault rifles, American flags and drawings of the Prophet Muhammad to the Islamic Community Center of Phoenix. Read More
Beyond the Middle East: The Rohingya genocide
By Ramzy Baroud: “Nope, nope, nope,” was Australia’s Prime Minister, Tony Abbott’s answer to the question whether his country will take in any of the nearly 8,000 Rohingya refugees stranded at sea. Abbott’s logic is as pitiless as his decision to abandon the world’s most persecuted minority in their darkest hour. “Don’t think that getting on a leaky boat at the behest of a people smuggler is going to do you or your family any good,” he said. But Abbott is hardly the main party in the ongoing suffering of Rohingyas, a Muslim ethnic group living in Myanmar, or Burma. The whole Southeast Asian region is culpable. They have ignored the plight of the Rohingya for years. While tens of thousands of Rohingya are being ethnically cleansed, having their villages torched, forced into concentration camps and some into slavery, Burma is being celebrated by various western and Asian powers as a success story of a military junta-turned democracy. Read More
The Rohingya - Adrift on a Sea of Sorrows
By Eric Margolis: When is genocide not really genocide? When the victims are small, impoverished brown people no wants or cares about – Burma’s Rohingya. Their plight has finally commanded some media attention because of the suffering of Rohingya boat people, 7,000 of whom continue to drift in the waters of the Andaman Sea without food, water or shelter from the intense sun. At least 2,500 lucky refugees are in camps in Indonesia. Mass graves of Rohingya are being discovered in Thailand and Burma (Myanmar). Large numbers of Rohingya are fleeing for their lives from their homeland, Burma, while the world does nothing. Burma is believed to have some 800,000 Rohingya citizens. Read More
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