Category: What do you think?

Bah-kt Muhammad Khan, a farmer from Pakistan’s Swat Valley, is one of the many pilgrims are arriving in the Saudi Arabian city of Mecca for the annual Hajj pilgrimage.
After years of waiting, he’s finally been selected in a national draw to take part in this year’s Hajj pilgrimage.
Al Jazeera’s So Rahman meets with Khan to hear his story.

While politicians are trying to bring peace to the Middle East, thousands of Palestinians say they’re living under apartheid. A barrier almost 700-km long has been dividing the West Bank for eight years. Israel says it’s for security, but Palestinians insist it’s segregation. Paula Slier went to check on what’s hiding behind the ‘peace facade’.

Federal Judge blocks a new amendment to the Oklahoma Constitution that targets Muslims

a huffingtonpost.com article

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order Monday to block a new amendment to the Oklahoma Constitution that would prohibit state courts from considering international or Islamic law when deciding cases.

U.S. District Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange handed down the order after an Oklahoma man filed a lawsuit claiming the amendment stigmatized his religion and would invalidate his will, which he said is partially based on Islamic Law, also known as Sharia Law.

“My constitutional rights are being violated through the condemnation of my faith,” said Muneer Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Oklahoma. “Islam was the target of this amendment. This amendment does not have a secular purpose.”

The measure, State Question 755, was approved with 70 percent of the vote in the Nov. 2 general election. The judge’s order prevents the state Election Board from certifying the results of that vote, which it had planned to do Tuesday afternoon.

The order will remain in effect until a Nov. 22 hearing on a preliminary injunction.
Awad, a law school graduate who has not been admitted to practice in Oklahoma, was congratulated by Muslims and other supporters following Miles-Lagrange’s ruling. Between 20,000 and 30,000 Muslims live in the state.

“We’re confident in the case. We’re confident in the claims we are making,” said Awad, who filed the lawsuit Thursday. “Today’s ruling is a reminder of the strength of our nation’s legal system and the protections it grants to religious minorities.”

The measure’s author, Rep. Rex Duncan, R-Sand Springs, attended the brief court hearing and said afterward he was surprised by Miles-Lagrange’s decision.

“It thwarts the will of the people,” said Duncan, an attorney who was elected district attorney in the northern Oklahoma counties of Osage and Pawnee in the general election.

Duncan has said the constitutional amendment was not intended as an attack on Muslims but an effort to prevent activist judges from relying on international law or Islamic law when ruling on legal cases.

In 2007, Duncan rejected a Quran as a gift from a council created by Gov. Brad Henry, explaining that “most Oklahomans do not endorse the idea of killing innocent women and children in the name of ideology.”

The constitutional amendment was one of several on Oklahoma’s ballot that critics said pandered to conservatives and would move the state further to the right.

Among other things, Awad’s lawsuit alleges the measure transforms Oklahoma’s Constitution
into “an enduring condemnation” of Islam by singling it out and barring courts from referring to Islamic law. It also alleges it violates the First Amendment’s prohibition against laws regarding the establishment of religion.

Legal experts also have questioned the measure. Joseph Thai, a professor at the University of Oklahoma’s College of Law, said the ballot measure is “an answer in search of a problem” and that there is no danger of international law or Sharia law overtaking the American legal system.

a huffingtonpost.com article

By Afshan Khan

No matter what verdict will be in the Ram Janmabhoomi and Bbari-Masjid case tomorrow at 3:30 pm, one has to commend the strong democratic, secular nation of India. India since its independence, followed by its historically flawed partition in 1947 has shown time and again that it is one of the most religiously tolerant nation in the world. It has long and proud history of mutual tolerance and respect for all religions, particularly among Hindus and Muslim communities.

Having said that, India has seen some worst days in her communal history. One of these worst day was December 6th 1992, when Barbi Masjid was raised to ground by politically charged and mislead BJP and VHP(Indian political parties) kar-savakes , and then came the another worst tragedy. NO one in India and particularly in Bombay can forget the following Bombay blast, which was claimed by Muslim extremist as retaliation for demolition of Barbi Masjid.

It’s been 17 years since this unfortunate event and even though the verdict is delayed, but Indians are ready for it. According to polls and surveys, People of India, Hindu, Muslim both communities want to move forward and welcome the court’s decision to resolve this issue. Amids beefed up security by Indian Government, people of India have shown the desire to move on and abide the court’s verdict.

Hopefully, the aftermath of verdict will be peaceful and Indians do not give into bigotry and rhetoric instigated by corrupt politics and politicians.
Hopefully, the goodwill, courage and wisdom of people of India will prevail and they come out of this difficult time triumphant upholding the age long traditions of communal harmony, peace and tolerance.

Article from UPI.com
TEL AVIV, Israel, Sept. 28 (UPI) — The United States has agreed to help Israel develop a new defense system known as David’s Sling to protect the Jewish state against large-scale missile attack.

Few details of the arrangement have been disclosed, although the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency, said it emphasized “the continued commitment of the United States to the defense of Israel.”

Over the last decade, the Pentagon has provided large amounts of funding for the high-altitude Arrow anti-ballistic missile system and the recently deployed Iron Dome system designed to shoot down short-range rockets used by Hezbollah and Hamas.

However, the agreement regarding David’s Sling, which is being developed by Israel Aerospace Industries and the U.S. Raytheon Corp., follows a string of major deals with the Pentagon that provide Israel with advanced fighters, massive amounts of fuel and defense funding.

Washington provides Israeli with some $3 billion in military aid annually and there’s always some project in the pipeline.

But the deals unveiled in recent weeks indicate they could be linked either to rewarding Israeli for its acquiescence in not opposing an unprecedented $60 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia, ostensibly to counter Iran, or to prod the Jewish state into making concessions to the Palestinians under President Barack Obama’s new Middle East peace initiative.

To get the planned sale of advanced combat aircraft and helicopter gunships for Riyadh through the U.S. Congress, where the Israeli lobby has thwarted such ground-breaking arms sales to Arab states in the past, Obama’s administration had to pledge not to provide the Saudis with long-range precision weapons that Israel complains could threaten it.

The United States has never committed to such an expensive arms buildup for an Arab ally before.

But the huge arms deal reflects a significant change in U.S. strategy in the region by confronting Iran through allies and proxies rather than deploying American forces already stretched thin in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The fear is, of course, that far from persuading Iran to back off its alleged quest for nuclear weapons, these deals will only make it feel less secure and reinforce its effort to become a nuclear power.

Whatever, Israel has benefited considerably. These deals will ensure that it retains its traditional technological military edge over its adversaries, despite the festering rift between Obama and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu over settlements expansion.

In recent weeks the U.S. administration has approved the sale of 20 F-35 stealth fighters, the world’s most advanced combat jet, to Israel with the $2.75 billion bill being covered by the Pentagon in the form of military aid.

That means the Israelis essentially get the fifth-generation fighters for nothing, plus contracts worth up to $1.5 billion going to Israel’s high-tech defense industry to provide components for the F-35.

It also means the Israelis get to maintain their air superiority over their adversaries since the F-35, even in such limited numbers, is a generation ahead of anything the Americans sell the Persian Gulf states.

The Israelis eventually want 75 of these radar-evading jets.

In July, the Pentagon forked out $422.7 million to fund a dozen batteries of the Iron Dome system, built by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, as well as to expand production of ISI’s long-range Arrow-3 system, designed to shield Israel from Iran’s ballistic missiles.

The development of the Arrow has cost around $3 billion over the last decade, the bulk of the funding came from the United States.

On Aug. 6, the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency informed Congress it planned to sell Israel a vast amount of fuel for an estimated $2 billion.

The sale comprises 60 million gallons of unleaded gasoline and 100 million gallons of diesel fuel for Israel’s ground forces and 284 million gallons of JP-8 aviation jet fuel “to enable Israel to maintain the operational capability of its aircraft inventory.”

The threat of a nuclear-armed Iran has changed many of the realities in the Middle East and its volatile environs. Saudi Arabia and Israel have found themselves linked by their deep fears of a nuclear-armed Iran.

This hardly makes allies out of these longtime foes. But, in a changing world, the Israelis appreciate the more able Saudi Arabia and its gulf partners are to stand up to Iran and support U.S. forces in the region, the better they will all be.

Unplugged and Uncut: Ahmadinejad
Eric Shawn’s entire interview with the controversial Iranian president

Ahmadinejad Repeats Call For 9/11 Investigation, Says Iran Open To Talks [Press TV News]

By: Afshan Khan

This seems familiar to anyone or it is just me? Propagandists are yet again to prepare ground for another illegitimate war by creating a hoax, just like Iraq war which was merely based on false pretenses. Trying to portray Ahmadinejad as the villain of the world just like they did to Saddam Hussein , which utterly proved to be a hoax. In the end Iraq war caused nothing but death and destruction of Iraq, at same time draining American economy and indebting USA to the Chinese economic dominance. History should never be forgotten. Unless the fundamentals of economy is strong, no matter how big of a military powerhouse a country is, it will eventually collapse. Remember “Great Former Soviet Union” and its downfall.

State of Israel with its own selfish, unfounded apprehensions of Iran, with all its might,(control of Media, enormous clout on US’ Government) is trying and pushing for a attack on Iran to create another fiasco just like Iraq, while doing so Israel is undermining American power and it might very well be the cause for American downfall. As we all can imagine we can not , any way afford another war. Our economy is in shambles, our national debt is all time high and we people started to feel the pain and futility of wars.

President Obama should use his presidency and fulfill his campaign promise of implementing the reasonable foreign foreign policy, which should be solely based on protecting the national interest of USA not of Israel. America as the world leader should worked towards maintaining the peace around the world with rational foreign policy promoting dialogue among the nations not wars.

Checkout the video below and feel unfolding of the hoax…

Iran180 Press Conference 9/20