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March 2013
Remembering those responsible on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War
By Stephen Zunes: This March 19 marks the 10th anniversary of the start of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The U.S. war and occupation has resulted in the deaths of up to half a million Iraqis, the vast majority of whom are civilians, leaving over 600,000 orphans. More than 1.3 million Iraqis have been internally displaced and nearly twice that many have fled into exile. Read More
Islam and Muslims in the Post-9/11 America
A review by Dr. Abdul Jabbar. Abdus Sattar Ghazali’s Islam and Muslims in the Post-9/11 America is a monumental source book on a topic that is of critical importance not only to Muslims but to all Americans who care for their civil liberties and constitutional rights. Meticulous attention to facts, painstaking research, and careful documentation make this book a compelling presentation. The book’s comprehensive coverage of the topic is evident from its table of contents that lists 9 chapters and 6 appendices. The chapters relate to issues of civil rights, Islamophobia, campaign against Muslim charities, Muslims facing inquisition, institutionalized profiling, stereotyping, hate crimes, silencing of Muslim voices, and Muslims’ response to the post-9/11 challenges. The author has framed the message of his book , using a clear, easily-to-follow, and inviting format. The “Preface” points to the steady “erosion of the fundamental rights and civil liberties, all in the name of national security” in the wake of 9-11 (i). It ends with a compelling analogy: “It will not be too much to say that after the Japanese attack on the Pearl Harbor, more than 110,000 Japanese Americans on the West Coast were imprisoned in 10 relocation camps in the United States. But after 9/11, the whole country is converted into a virtual detention camp for the Muslims in America by abridging their civil rights” (ii). Read More
Abdus Sattar Ghazali’s Islam and Muslims in the Post 9/11 America
A review by Arthur Scott: Race as a political tool has always been prominent strategy in the American landscape as exemplified by Black segregation and Jim Crow, by the “Yellow Scare” leading to Chinese Exclusion and the Gentleman’s Agreement which limited the number of Japanese entering the country leading to Japanese internment during the World War II. Similarly throughout the twentieth century hysterical outburst against communism raised its head taking the form of the “Red Scare” first with the Palmer Raids in 1920, reaching its apotheosis under Senator Joseph McCarthy’s hearings in the 1950’s in which thousands of Americans were terrorized and had their civil liberties compromised. Today the Far Right has gone ballistic over gun control seeing in it a governmental/Obama conspiracy to disarm “White America” and to marginalize the Second Amendment. It is no coincidence that these episodes are described in terms of color, for color touches on a deep aspect of the American psychic racism, which is endemic in the American culture going back to first encounters with the indigenous peoples who were described by the Anglo Puritan settlers as “Red.” Abdus Sattar Ghazali, a noted Pakistani and Middle East scholar, in his just published book - Islam & Muslims In The Post- 9/11 Era - discusses in great detail the impact of the “Green Terror” on the civil liberties of the seven million Muslims, who comprise the American Islamic community, since 9/11. Read More
Ghazali Describes the Post- 9/11 American Muslim Experience
By A.H. Cemendtaur: Two days after veteran journalist Abdus Sattar Ghazali’s book ‘Islam & Muslims in Post 9/11 America’ was promoted through a book review event in Newark, an appeal filed by the lawyers of Hamid Hayat got rejected by the federal appeals court, upholding Hayat’s 24-year prison sentence -- the underlying premise of Ghazali’s book got highlighted even further: In Post 9-11 US, the state sees its Muslim citizens as the enemy within and is ready to err on the side of wrongful incarceration of Muslim Americans based solely on suspicion. Read More
Turmoil in Balochistan – the Indian factor
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: US Secretary of defense Chuck Hagel suggested in a previously unreleased 2011 speech that India has for many years sponsored terrorist activities against Pakistan in Afghanistan. In a speech, delivered at Oklahoma's Cameron University, Chuck Hagel said: "India for some time has always used Afghanistan as a second front, and India has over the years financed problems for Pakistan on that side of the border" "And you can carry that into many dimensions, the point being the tense, fragmented relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan has been there for many, many years," remarked Chuck Hagel who was a US senator at the time. A video containing these remarks was uploaded by Washington Free Beacon. Read More
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