Muslim Issues

  I don’t like mixing politics with morality, but sometimes it’s unavoidable. What I mean is this: how can anyone cast a ballot for a man who they know will continue to kill people in other countries merely to advance US policy objectives? That’s the question people need to ask themselves. Under normal circumstances, I can understand the “lesser of …

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 11, 2011 (IPS) – Peeved at Russia's Security Council veto derailing a Western- sponsored resolution against Syria last week, U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice implicitly accused the Russians of protecting the beleaguered government of President Bashar al-Assad primarily to safeguard their lucrative arms market in the Middle Eastern country. But around the same time, the United States was …

CAIRO, Oct 8, 2011 (IPS) – Egypt, routinely the cradle for new Arab and Islamic ideologies, is now witnessing the birth of yet another line of thought – Islamic Liberalism. The term is touted now as a panacea for the eight-month impasse that has locked Islamists and their secularist rivals in bitter bickering over how this Arab nation should be …

The renowned military strategist, Maj. Gen. J.F.C Fuller, defined war’s true objective as achieving desired political results, not killing enemies. But this is just what the US has been doing in Afghanistan. After ten years of war costing at least $450 billion, 1,600 dead and 15,000 seriously wounded soldiers, the US has achieved none of its strategic or political goals. …

It might have been an economic star by now, but the war on terror has left Pakistan a failing state We have seen 10 years of going nowhere on one side of the border – and 10 of going backwards on the other: back to bloodshed, back to civil chaos. It's simplistic to say that Afghanistan doesn't matter. You might …

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 7, 2011 (IPS) – Despite a slim chance of diplomatic victory, the United States is leading a doomed, mostly Western attempt to block Palestinian membership in the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). The 193-member General Conference, UNESCO's policy-making body, is expected to ratify Palestine's membership during its weeklong session beginning Oct. 25.  The application was …