June, 2009

• 10 June

  Draconian Blasphemy laws – An Islamic Perspective

  There has perhaps been no modern-day law that has irked so many, and particularly human rights activists, as the harsh penalties inflicted for blasphemy in certain Muslim countries like Pakistan. The harshness of these rulings which do not give the accused the opportunity to repent certainly call for review. Islam is a religion of love where repentance is always possible …

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• 9 June

  Muslim intellectuals are silent

  INTERVIEW/PROF. DR BALADAS GHOSHAL. How has global Islamic resurgence affected Indian Muslims? Globalisation, the internet and the global war on terror have affected Indian Muslims. There is also a victim mentality growing out of their sense of insecurity, which makes them ghettoised, and an attempt to search for scapegoats instead of looking into their weaknesses. Is the consolidation of Muslim …

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• 9 June

  Why This Indifference?

    One after the other political leaders from the west, especially Britain and France, rushed to the island to show their humanitarian concern for the displaced Tamils who were used as human shield by the now defeated Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam, LTTE, which claimed to fight for the interest of this very same people.    However, these Western politicians’ …

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• 8 June

  Lebanon’s intelligence war with Israel By Jim Muir

  Israel’s ability to wage another war against the militant Shia movement Hezbollah may have been compromised by an unprecedented wave of arrests of people in Lebanon alleged to have been spying for the Israelis. Experts say the arrests appear to add up to a major strategic blow to Israel. Mobile phone footage circulating in Beirut shows one of the suspected …

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• 8 June

  Human Rights By Dr D. Chandraratna Perth, W. A

  The Europeans who are now championing the cause of human rights ought to remember that in their original conception in the West they were not meant to apply to all human beings. By and large they covered only the human beings of European extraction. Even James Mill, the English philosopher (1806-73) who is often quoted as the great thinker in …

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• 8 June

  Analysis of key passages of Obama’s Speech

  by BBC world affairs correspondent Paul Reynolds. Paul Reynolds, BBC world affairs correspondent, says (Introduction): “President Obama’s speech is divided into a number of sections. He starts by urging greater mutual understanding between the United States and Islam. He then considers seven issues that have to be, in his view, confronted. “These are violent extremism, the Israeli/Palestinian dispute, nuclear weapons …

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• 5 June

  Unexceptional Americans By Noam Chomsky

  Another standard pretext for torture is the context: the “war on terror” that Bush declared after 9/11. A crime that rendered traditional international law “quaint” and “obsolete” — so George W. Bush was advised by his legal counsel Alberto Gonzales, later appointed Attorney General. The doctrine has been widely reiterated in one form or another in commentary and analysis. The …

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