Quantcast
Channel: Eurasia Review
Viewing all 73339 articles
Browse latest View live

Responding To Religiously-Inspired Terror: Mayor Sadiq Khan On London Attacks – Analysis

0
0

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, gave an exemplary interview in response to the recent London terror attack that politicians should emulate in speaking in these situations, and on what needs to be done.

By Paul Hedges*

On March 22, 2017, a lone wolf attacker drove into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge before attempting to enter the British parliament. He was shot dead while three pedestrians were killed on the bridge, and one police officer was stabbed and died. For London, like many major cities, the question had been when, not if, such an attack occurred; security procedures were quickly initiated with increased police patrols including armed officers.

However, the immediate hard defence procedures, while essential, are not what reduces the risk of attacks. Mayor Sadiq Khan in his interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the following morning stressed resilience and harmony, as well as the need for the police and security forces to work in partnership with the public.

The Political Voice

Such attacks have become part of life in many places, and politicians are becoming more adept at responding. After 9/11 2001, Western politicians gave out a slightly confused message, which needed clarification in the following days, concerning the relationship of Islam to the situation. That it was a ‘war on terror’ and not a war on Islam was reiterated, but some of the language used had muddied this water.

In his interview, Khan did not raise the issue about this being potentially an act of terrorism in which the attacker would seek to claim legitimacy by an appeal to some form of radical ideology claiming foundations in Islam. Rather, he spoke about the need for citizens of all religions, and those of none, to live together and stand united shoulder to shoulder against those who try and spread discord.

That Khan did not make this about Islam as he spoke is very positive, because this takes the focus away from any sense that the problem lies there, which would be the case even if he singled it out for defence and support.

Responding to Questions on Islam

While Khan did not raise the issue about Islam being used as a motivation, his interviewer directly asked him about the connection to Islam, even stating that all the terror attacks which were occurring were done in its name. Khan responded by noting that as a Muslim himself he recognised that such incidents were not based in what he termed “real Islam”.

He reiterated that in London people of all religions lived in peace and harmony, and explicitly spoke against those who took the views that Muslims should not be friends with Christians, or that they should be antagonistic to Jews; such notions are not found in the example of Islam’s prophet nor in the tradition.

However, he could have gone further and noted that many terror attacks are enacted by right-wing actors, often linked to racism, anti-Semitism, or Islamophobia. The media discourse that links terrorism, or even the majority of terror attacks, to Islam tends to give a very distorted picture. The number of attacks and deaths from terror in most, if not all, Western countries have not occurred from those who claim a motivation in Islam.

Counter Narratives

The mayor also noted, importantly, that it was not enough to simply offer negative rebuttals of the extremists who promote terror. Rather, a positive narrative is needed that can inspire people. The protection that Prophet Muhammad offered to Christians and Jews during his lifetime, as well as friendships across religious boundaries from his date until today, show that a different stance is not just possible but in accord with Islam needs to be shown and promoted.

Young Muslims need such positive examples, while they will counter the often distorted vision offered by some populist politicians and the anti-Islam rhetoric of activists who distort for their own agenda. Communities and politicians need to voice this openly, forcefully, and repeatedly to counter extremisms of all shades.

Another challenge that the interviewer put to Khan was that his directives to cut back on the very controversial stop and search police powers should now be reversed. Indeed, she suggested that we needed more not less of this to stop future attacks. The mayor did not reply directly, but very correctly spoke about the importance of good relations with all communities in his city, and noted that many potential attacks in the last few years have been thwarted by information from the public.

Giving the message that the government and police do not trust one part of the community, or singling them out for what are widely seen as unfair and intrusive measures is the kind of thing which is likely to make radicalisation more likely, and feed into extremist narratives. Working with the communities, however, undermines such narratives, and as Mayor Khan noted, in situations of trust and mutual respect, intelligence can be passed from the public to the authorities. One-sided securitisation is certainly not the way forward.

Putting Across Wider Narrative

The voices and actions of politicians alone cannot stop terror attacks, however, the way that politicians speak in public and the way that their policies are seen and received in public are a very significant aspect of wider narratives and discourses in this area. As noted, the mayor of London showed an extremely effective way that such voices come across. Four factors can be applied both to specific statements or interviews, as well as wider policy initiatives and actions:

First, addressing unity across traditions and communities rather than speaking about or naming a specific community. Second, when the question of Islam was raised he directly addressed problematic narratives about that tradition, but brought it back to wider community relations. As noted though he could have corrected the interviewer’s false stance that all terror attacks are about Islam.

Third, he spoke about the need for counter narratives, which is of course part of a much wider project and one that should also address right-wing racist extremism, which many now see as the West’s greatest threat. Fourth, the need for community cohesion and trust is more important than securitisation in preventing such attacks, and certainly is essential for long-term developments. These four points are certainly not comprehensive of everything that needs to be done, but are some key foundations.

*Paul Hedges is Associate Professor in Interreligious Studies for the Studies in Inter-Religious Relations in Plural Societies (SRP) programme, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He maintains a blog on Interreligious Studies and related issues at: www.logosdao.wordpress.com.


Venezuela: Government Blocking International Media’s Reporting

0
0

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said it is calling on President Nicolas Maduro’s government to stop blocking the international media’s reporting in Venezuela. In recent months, the obstruction has included expulsions, the seizure of material and equipment, and outright censorship.

The latest victims include two Brazilian journalists – Record TV reporter Leandro Stoliar and cameraman Gilzon Souza de Oliveira – who were deported last month while investigating an offshoot of Brazil’s Petrobras scandal – suspected corruption involving the Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht and state agencies in Venezuela.

They were quickly arrested by the Servicio Bolivariano de Inteligencia (SEBIN), the Venezuelan government’s intelligence and counter-espionage agency, were held for ten hours and were subjected to several heavy-handed interrogation sessions in which they were called “state terrorists” and were threatened with being imprisoned “for ever.”

“I felt like a prisoner, like a criminal,” Stoliar later said, after their material had been seized and they had been sent back to Brazil, via Peru.

Journalists turned back on arrival

More than 20 journalists and media workers of at least nine different nationalities have been denied entry at Maiquetía international airport (20 km north of Caracas) since last August. The official grounds have been violation of immigration regulations and other bureaucratic pretexts.

Most of these expulsions have occurred in the days preceding the major street demonstrations that the opposition has been organizing in Caracas.

In the run-up to a big protest on 1 September, five Al Jazeera TV journalists, including Teresa Bo, Lagmi Chávez and John Holman, were expelled the day after they arrived. Marie-Eve Detoeuf, a reporter for the French daily Le Monde, was told that she was “non-admissible” because she did not comply with immigration rules.

Colombian journalists César Moreno of Radio Caracol and Dora Glottman of Caracol TV, and US reporters John Otis of NPR and Jim Wyss of the Miami Herald also suffered the same fate.

Three Peruvian journalists working for the Mexican TV channel Televisa – Ricardo Burgos, Leonidas Chávez and Armando Muñoz – were sent home shortly arriving on 26 October with the aim of covering a major anti-government demonstration.

Rodrigo Abd, an Argentine photographer with the Associated Press, was also denied entry the same day.

Joshua Partlow, a reporter with US and Canadian dual nationality working for the Washington Post, was denied entry a few days later on the grounds that his work visa was not in order, although he had visited Venezuela repeatedly during the preceding months.

When Bernard de la Villardière, a French reporter for the M6 TV channel, arrived on 11 December with a five-member crew (four French journalists and a Swiss cameraman) to do a report on daily life in Caracas, they were escorted back to their plane without explanation. As their press visa applications had been refused, they had come on tourist visas.

Finally, Aitor Sáez, a Spanish journalist working for German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle, was expelled on 22 January without any explanation.

“We find it hard to believe that all these foreign journalists were expelled simply because they failed to comply wth the bureaucratic requirements,” said Emmanuel Colombié, the head of RSF’s Latin America bureau.

“The lack of grounds or inconsistency of the reasons given by immigration officials for denying access creates a climate of uncertainty and constitutes a threat to freedom of information. In the grave economic and political crisis that Venezuela has been experiencing for more than a year, the work of journalists, and especially foreign journalists, is vital and should not be blocked by the Venezuelan authorities on any pretext.”

Humberto Márquez, the head of the Foreign Press Association (APEX), told RSF that airport officials often act “in a discretionary manner.” Sometimes they object to the lack of receipts for professional equipment. At other times, they say that Venezuela’s ministry of communication and information (MINCI) was not notified by the consulate of the journalist’s country. All official information about foreign journalist accreditation is available on the MINCI website.

The lack of a receipt was used to expel Kay Guerrero, a US-based Venezuelan journalist working as a producer for CNN, when she arrived with her cameraman, Peter Kavanagh, on 28 August, just three days before the big protest on 1 September. Their equipment was seized on arrival at the airport and the only way for them to recover it was to leave immediately.

CNN stripped of local signal

A chain reaction from the Venezuelan authorities ensued when CNN en Español broadcast a major report on 6 February about an alleged passport-for-cash racket operated out of the Venezuelan Embassy in Baghdad that implicated Venezuelan Vice-President Tareck El Aissami.

President Maduro publicly accused CNN on 12 February of “manipulating” the facts and of waging a propaganda war against his country. He added: “CNN, get out of Venezuela, get out!”

CONATEL, the state telecommunications agency, complied three days later, on 15 February, by suspending CNN’s local signal without warning, putting an end to the news channel’s broadcasting in Venezuela.

This act of censorship was widely condemned by the Venezuelan media. It was also criticized by the Organization of American States, which called it an attack on freedom of expression, democracy and the Venezuelan people’s right to information.

RSF points out that back in December 2015, foreign reporters who wanted to cover that month’s parliamentary elections had to sign a good conduct pledge to avoid the withdrawal of their accreditation.

Venezuela is ranked 139th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2016 World Press Freedom Index.

EU Targets Loopholes For Exploiting Third Country Tax Differences

0
0

Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have voted to close loopholes which allow some of the world’s largest corporations to avoid paying tax on profits by exploiting differences in the tax systems of EU and third countries.

They backed a resolution recommending changes to the EU’s anti-tax avoidance directive by 44 votes to 0, with 2 abstentions. These amendments relate to the different tax rules in third countries which give rise to loopholes — “hybrid mismatches” — and allow firms to escape tax in both jurisdictions.

“These arrangements are frequently used by the largest companies with the sole purpose of reducing corporate taxation. We have seen it in both the Apple case and in the McDonald’s case . It is about time that these corporations pay their fair share of taxes,” said rapporteur Olle Ludvigsson (S&D, SE).

These mismatches, for example, allow corporations established in two jurisdictions (inside and outside the EU) to use the lack of coordination between national tax systems either to have the same expenditure deducted in both jurisdictions (so the firm enjoys a double tax deduction), or to have a payment recognised as tax deductible in one jurisdiction but not recognised as taxable income in the other.

The report now goes to the Council for its consideration.

Sri Lanka And Russia Sign Various Economic Investment And Defense Agreements

0
0

Russia and Sri Lanka have signed various agreements to increase trade and commerce, economic investment and defense cooperation between the two countries, specifically establishing cooperation in several sectors, including fisheries, defense and tourism.

Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena traveled to Moscow last week, marking the first official tour of a Sri Lankan leader to Russia in four decades.

At the end of the bilateral discussions, the two countries entered into a new Agreement of Cooperation in Fisheries and two Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) to expand bilateral cooperation in several fields, such as, energy, trade and commerce, agriculture, education, judiciary and defence.

Russia also extended a new credit line of US Dollars 135 million for the purchase of defence equipment and other Russian products.

Russia expressed interest in investing in several areas to increase bilateral trade. The Russian ministerial delegation that participated in bilateral discussions said, Russian entrepreneurs desire to invest in the ailing tea plantations to restore them and export tea to Russia.

The investment interests were expressed after President Maithripala Sirisena, in his initial remarks during the bilateral meeting with the Russian delegation headed by President Vladimir Putin explained his economic development strategies and urged development assistance and investments.

President Sirisena, emphasizing the need to cooperate in the tourism sector, requested the Russian leader to resume the direct flight to Colombo by Aeroflot, which was introduced 52 years ago, but stopped a few decades back. Minister of Tourism, John Amaratunga said, there is a steady increase in tourist arrivals from Russia and that direct flight connections would improve it further.

Fisheries is one of the areas that Russia agreed to support. In addition to providing expertise to upgrade fishing, Russia also agreed to explore possibilities in investing in the inland fisheries sector.

Source: Sri Lanka’s  Prime Minister Office

India Emerges As Battleground For Chinese And Japanese Investment – Analysis

0
0

China is emerging in the new horizon of big ticket investors in India, albeit security concerns. In 2015, Chinese investment in India leapfrogged eight times and became the eighth biggest foreign investor in India. The sudden spurt in Chinese investment affirms Chinese confidence in the growth cycle of India, fueled by low cost and high domestic demand. According to the CEO of CITI group of India, “ India is among the top five markets for many MNCs”.

Japanese investment has already made inroads in India. In 2015, Japan was the fifth biggest foreign investor in India. The gung-ho Chinese investment in India portends to be  a future driver of foreign investment. In 2015, China reached half  of that of Japanese investment in India, as compared to six times lower in 2014. The Chinese investment binge has woken up Indian Government to perceive the Chinese muscle of investment and prodded to balance between investment flow and the security concerns, since FDI turns instrumental to Make in India. India has mulled a relaxation of visa rules and considered withdrawing China from the list of PRC ( Prior Referral Category).

With Modi-Xi Jinping relations entering into hobnob realm, Chinese investors plunged in India with mega investment proposals. During 2016, Chinese companies proposed US $2.3 billion worth of investment in the country. The proposals included the acquisition of an 86 percent stake, worth US $1.4 billion, by Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Co in Hyderabad Grand Pharma Ltd, Beiiing Miteno Communication Technology ‘s investment of US$900 million in Media.net, Jiangsu Longzhe’s investment of US$125 million in Diamond Power Infrastructure and Tidfore Equipment’s investment of US$150 million in Uttam Galva Metal Works.

In mobile manufacturing, China has already made a strong footprint in India. More than half a dozen mobile manufacturing companies are from China. Just before Chinese telecom giant Huawai’s announcement of shifting its plant to India, Xiami revealed a plan to set up two manufacturing plants in the country. Upstart brands like Goinee, LeECo, Oppo, Vivo, Meizu, One Plus and Coolpad have also announced their facilities in the country.

Given the Chinese investment binge and it being an active member of BRICS, China is projected as a major foreign investor in India. The upswing in the Chinese rank in the investment may pose a challenge to the Japanese investors.

India’s potency snowballed after China lost its vigor as the low cost workshop of the world. According to FDI Intelligence, an outfit of Financial Times UK, India replaced China as the leading recipient of FDI in Greenfield projects in 2015. FDI in India increased by 37 percent in 2015 and surged further by 18 percent in 2016, bringing cumulative growth of over 50 percent. This revealed India’s strength in attracting FDI amidst global currency turmoil and withering of trade blocks, with Brexit in the offing.

In 2015, Chinese direct investment in India soared to US$869 million, a six time growth compared to 2014 and double the accumulated investment in the past 15 years. According to Vice-Director of International Studies of Zhongnam University of Economics and Law, Mr Luo Xuan, a number of Chinese companies plan to invest in India. It has become a trend for Chinese investors to travel to India in groups to explore investment possibilities, according to the Vice Director.

Responding to the Chinese reinvention of India as an important investment destination, Indian think tank NITI Aayug renewed interests in attracting Chinese investment, despite the security concern prevails. Underpinning the concern over a large trade deficit, close to US $53 billion — which alone accounts for almost half of India’s global trade deficit — Indian honchos assert that India cannot forever remain a Chinese market without broader economic ties. Both NITI Aayug and the National and Reform Commission of China entered several agreements of economic cooperation in November 2016, embracing energy, urban development, Digital India, Internet Plus, as well as greater access to Indian IT firms in China.

On the Japanese side, there was a turnaround in the Japanese zeal to invest in India. Nullifying the previous sullied image, Japanese investors underwent a new look towards India. The green shoots are visible. Japanese investment soared five times in 2016 – from US $1.7 billion in 2015 to US$5.8 billion in 2016.

Seventy percent of Japanese investors, who opened their shops in India are expected to expand their operations in next few years, according to a survey by JETRO ( JETRO Survey on Business of Japanese Companies in Asia and Oceana). The ratio of Japanese business expansion plan in India is the highest among the Japanese investors in Asia and Oceania.

The sustainable growth in the Indian economy, a continuous flow of deregulations and an increase in sales attributed to the turnaround in the Japanese interest to invest in India. A cross analysis of Japanese and Chinese investment in India reveals that both are on the same planks in terms of areas of investment and the factors attributing to their overseas investment. During 2000 to 2015, the biggest investment by Japanese was in drugs and pharmaceuticals, followed by automobile. Nearly 23 percent of Japanese investment were flowed into drugs and pharmaceuticals and 18 percent in automobiles. However, while the investment in drugs and pharmaceutical was mainly due to a mega investment by one company, Daiichi Sankyo Co, Japan, investment in the automobile sector was widespread.

If Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Co’s mega acquisition of Hyderabad Grand Pharma Ltd fructify, it may pose a big challenge to the Japanese investment in Indian drugs and pharmaceutical. Similarly, the big investment by SAIC General Motors Investment Ltd of China in 2015 will bring challenges to the Japanese automobile industry and TBEA Shenyang Transformer Group’s entry in India will bring more Chinese electric equipment manufacturing companies to India, throwing challenges to Japanese electrical equipment manufacturers in India.

Currently, China Railway Corporation (CRC) is carrying out feasibility studies of high speed trains between the Chennai – New Delhi route. It will be no wonder if China can grab the construction deal of the longest route of high speed train and could pose a major challenge to Japan hegemony in the high speed train field. China has already proven its capability after winning the Jakarta – Bandung 150 km high speed rail project against stiff competition from Japan. Both China and Japan carried out comprehensive studies of the project.

Given the Chinese bent to invest in India in the wake of the rise in Chinese currency yuan and the attraction of a big domestic market with low cost production, Chinese investment should warrant a wake-up call to Japanese investors in India

Views are personal

Cyclone Watch In Australia – OpEd

0
0

The curious, sweaty mammals of North Queensland in Australia are bracing themselves for yet another cyclone with an anodyne name. Cyclone Debbie might have impressed you as a person who turns up at the door asking for donations for the Red Cross Appeal. But cyclones are rarely disposed to sweetness, featuring in a serious of catastrophes that have affected various continents.  The door is not so much knocked upon and fully blown open, along with roofs and dangerous objects finding their way across cities and suburbs. The only moral in this: stay indoors as much as you can.

As a review for PLOS Current Disasters begins, “Cyclones have significantly affected populations in Southeast Asia, the western Pacific, and the Americas over the past quarter of a century.”[1]  Australia has also been privileged (dare one use that word?) to receive some of nature’s more tempestuous phenomena in that sense. Repeatedly, this ancient continent has been battered by weather systems that have either brought considerable drought, drenching floods, incinerating bush fires, or eviscerating storms.

Debbie has a bit of work to do before heading into the dizzying heights of Cyclone Yasi, which hit Queensland in 2011 in what was to be the highest category on the cyclone spectrum.  When it did its good deal of damage, it was deemed one of the most powerful storms to have made landfall since humans decided to take records of such events on the Australian continent.[2]

Before Debbie develops, however, she was a less than conspicuous “tropical depression,” as the Australian Bureau of Meteorology tends to term it.  Care must to be taken to observe the Tropical Cyclone Advice Numbers as to whether this depression deepens into a gloomy meteorological nightmare, which looks like a gorgeously moving animal of vapours and clouds on the charts.

Advice Number 4, in particular, issued on Saturday, March 25, before 5 a.m., is a tantalising picture of doom, seductively arresting yet imminently terrifying.  Some of the locals have been busying loading up with sandbags; others have been just as busy sipping beer and observing the still ocean from sea fronts that will be shortly inundated.

The course of the cyclone’s eye is noted in clinical language in the various warnings, with predictions about possible strength as it draws up strength from the sea.  Scientific precision matches unpredictable content.  What matters is that the more laboriously it moves and lumbers, the more dangerous it will be in resisting dissipation.

“The forecast path shown above is the Bureau’s best estimate of the cyclone’s future movement and intensity.  There is always some uncertainty associated with tropical cyclone forecasting and the grey zone indicates the range of likely tracks of the cyclone centre.  Due to the uncertainty in the future movement, the indicated winds will most certainly extend to regions outside the rings on this map. The extent of the warning and watch zones reflects this.”[3]

Erratic, uncertain, cheeky, the cyclone can be seen as an unpredictable insurgent, striking with deadly stealth against civilian populations.  “The tropical low has moved slowly overnight while steadily developing.”  Like a cacoon ready to break, the tropical “low is expected to develop into a tropical cyclone and adopt a west-southwest track today, bring it towards the north Queensland coast.”

Then came the announcement from the ABC news centre: “Tropical Cyclone Debbie has been declared!”  Not exactly a time to bring out the fizz for a glorious environmental arrival, a celebratory urging on for a cataclysm, but the general sense in Australia at such events is much like an interest in an accidental conception.  It may not have been intended, but we best deal with it.

By the evening of Saturday, the dreary language from the meteorologists assumes a sense of the inevitable. Progress is slow, which is exactly what no one wants to hear, except suicidal Millenarians keen to meet some curious cranky maker of their own belief:

“Tropical Cyclone Debbie is currently intensifying, and is now a category 2 cyclone.  The system remains slow moving at the present time…. Conditions will remain favourable for the cyclone to develop further before landfall, which will likely be between Townsville and Proserpine on Tuesday morning.”

The rituals of readying one self for such an onslaught are familiar, and even peculiar, to those who have been living in this region for decades.  For one, the shelves are emptied with pious ferocity.  Stockland, as one of the shopping centres, is rapidly unstocked.  Bottled water makes it out of the door with blurring speed by the thousands.  Special sections in the Coles supermarket are assigned for cyclone purchases.  Favourite foods include the reliable canned spam, a legend that persists in Australia as potent as any wartime tucker.  To that can be added baked beans and canned tuna.

The essentials are religiously outlined in what a cyclone emergency kit should contain: radios, batteries, matches, candles, torches.  Make sure you have your insurance documents. Ensure that you unplug appliances.

The home itself is to be cleared of unnecessary debris on lawns, and potentially dangerous trees trimmed with scrutiny.  Families congregate and have “cyclone parties”.  Even before what seems like catastrophe, there is a true human calm before the ferociousness that is about to hit.  Time to bolt the doors, close the windows and wait.

Notes:
[1] http://currents.plos.org/disasters/article/the-human-impact-of-tropical-cyclones-a-historical-review-of-events-1980-2009-and-systematic-literature-review/.

[2] http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/science-environment/2016/02/australias-most-destructive-cyclones-a-timeline

[3] http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDQ65002.shtml

ISIS And The Globalization Of Terrorism – Analysis

0
0

The Islamic State in Syria and Iraq (ISIS), this unknown equation to all: neophyte at politics of the Middle East or hardened and experienced experts, seems to marry, at will, and expertly, too, sensationalism and defiance, to the extent that many people wonder, quite rightly, whether this organization-state is real or is it the cinematographic creation of Hollywood, for some grand design to serve the purpose of the West and countries of the region, or any other?

Many people of the region today believe that the ISIS communication approach is so slick, so technological, so modern that it cannot be the work of jihadists recruited in the hinterlands of poor Muslim countries alone. There is surely something big and sophisticated behind it, with an objective in mind: kick Islamism where it hurts the most: religious credibility.

Nevertheless, this questioning of the true identity of this mega terrorist organization will be brushed aside by invoking the sacrosanct “conspiracy theory” dear to Middle Eastern people, according to Western politicians and intellectuals.

Sowing terror

Islamic State's Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Photo by Al-Furqān Media, official media arm of Islamic State terrorist group.

Islamic State’s Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Photo by Al-Furqān Media, official media arm of Islamic State terrorist group.

ISIS has brought to the third millennium horrible practices of the Middle Ages meant to terrorize enemies and subdue grassroots, such as public beheading or burning of imprisoned foes alive in cages, as well as parading them in cages in markets and public places. Only two horror practices are duly missing from this horror repertoire, which probably will come later on: sticking the severed head of enemies on spears and putting them at the gates of cities to set an example to incoming visitors or travelers, and public dismembering of enemy prisoners.

The Islamic State, unlike other nascent states is not trying to win the hearts and the minds of the other countries, to be recognized worldwide. From the very beginning, it showed its bellicose nature and belligerent attitude, and this is rather odd. So, from the word go this organization-state is taking a suicide path, beheading Americans, French, English, Japanese and burning a Jordanian pilot who bombed their positions as part of the American coalition to destroy ISIS.

For Slavoj Zizek, a Slovenian philosopher, psychoanalyst and social theorist lecturing at the Birkbeck School of Law, University of London and author of many books, including the “Absolute Recoil.”i

“Does this make ISIS premodern? Instead of seeing in ISIS a case of extreme resistance to modernization, one should rather conceive of it as a case of perverted modernization and locate it into the series of conservative modernizations which began with the Meiji restoration in 19th-century Japan (rapid industrial modernization assumed the ideological form of “restoration,” or the return to the full authority of the emperor).”

However, the terrorist act committed in Libya by ISIS leaves everyone totally perplexed at the message behind the odious and abominable act of beheading Egyptian Copts on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.ii Of course the inferences meant from this horrible act are multiple:

  1. ISIS is everywhere either in the form of military presence or terrorist dormant cells or sympathizers ready to exhibit the flag or commit atrocities, or else ;
  2. Decapitating Christian enemies on a beach facing Italy, the seat of the Vatican, is a coded message sent to all Christians worldwide to tell them quietly clearly that ISIS rejects the Pact of Umar (630)iii which instituted the status of dhimmi (protected believers of other monotheistic religions i.e. Judaism and Christianity) under Islamic rule, and would physically annihilate male Christians of the Muslim world and treat their women as sabaya (sex slaves) as they did with Yazidi women in Iraq. In conclusion, this means that for ISIS the coexistence between Islam and other religions of the book is a thing of the past, and
  3. ISIS could, also, be eyeing a possible gradual invasion of Italy, one way or another, to initiate some sort of war against Christianity, just to trigger a wave of fear in Europe or maybe remind the Christians of the historical episode of the crossing of the Strait of Gibraltar and the spreading of Islam in Spain by Tariq ibnou Zayyad in 711.
The Amazigh leader Tariq Ibnou Zayyad (670-720)

The Amazigh leader Tariq Ibnou Zayyad (670-720)

ISIS members function in a very retrograde fashion, they don’t recognize the world as it is today: international relations, international world order, diplomacy, economic reality, countries as they are (see their circulated map below). They have their own vision of the world, their own conception of belief in which their violent version of Islam has the upper hand.

Even in the map the color used to indicate Dar al-Islam is black, as if to mean sowing terror in the hearts and minds of the Muslim population to keep them obedient subjects ra’ya and, of course, not modern citizens with rights and obligations. The black color could, also, mean terror for the rest of the world; ISIS strives to get respect through fear.

The Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek, referred to here above, believes ISIS is not retrograde, it only has a complex view of the world:iv

“The well-known photo of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the ISIS leader, with an exquisite Swiss watch on his arm, is here emblematic: ISIS is well organized in web propaganda as well as financial dealings, although these ultra-modern practices are used to propagate and enforce an ideologico-political vision that is not so much conservative as a desperate move to fix clear hierarchic delimitations. However, we should not forget that even this image of a strictly disciplined and regulated fundamentalist organization is not without its ambiguities: is religious oppression not (more than) supplemented by the way local ISIS military units seem to function? While the official ISIS ideology rails against Western permissiveness, the daily practice of the ISIS gangs includes full-scale grotesque orgies, including robberies, gang rapes, torture and murder of infidels.”

In their map of the world, Spain and Portugal are back in the fold of Dar al-Islam under the ancient mythical misnomer al-Andalus and, also, Eastern Europe, referred to as Orobpa, that was under the Ottoman Empire (1299-1923) at its apogee.

Islamic State's Five-Year Plan

Islamic State’s Five-Year Plan

A big chunk of Asia including today’s Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh are named Khorasan but the map ignores existing Muslim countries such as Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam and Indonesia. The Qoqaz refers o the Caucus Mountains area meaning central Asia Muslim republic members of the CIS and ex-Soviet republics.

In Africa, ISIS brings to mind the old Amazigh (Berber) Almoravid (1040- 1147) and Almohad (1121-1269) dynasties that controlled some parts of Western Africa, but in the map the whole of western Africa is part of the Maghreb probably because Islam was introduced into these lands by the Amazigh dynasties in the Middle Ages through the unfair trade of salt of the north exchanged for the gold of the Ghana Empire (300-1235). The ISIS map includes an area called “Land of Habasha” comprising Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia.

The Land of Hijaz includes Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States and Sham Syria, Jordan and Palestine + Israel. As for the Land of al-Kinana it includes part of Libya, Egypt and Sudan.

This map denotes clearly the underlying philosophy of ISIS, no concessions to the Christian West referred to as Dar al-Kufr “the Land of the Infidels” to be conquered by Islam as in the time of foutouhat Islamiyya “Islamic Conquests” (623-1050) that affected the following lands in Europe, Asia and Africa: Mesopotamia, Caucasus, Persia, Levant, North Africa, Anatolia, Iberia, Gaul and Greater Khurasan.

ISIS is not only returning to the early concepts of the conquests whereby Islam had for duty to extend the rightful religion by persuasion or force to the land of the infidels, referred to as Dar al-Kufr “the Land of the Infidels,” open to Islamic conquest and referred to in early Islamic literature as Dar al-Harb “the Land of War,” areas to be converted to Islam by force, if need be.

These grand designs justify the return to the polity of the Islamic Caliphate, bearing in mind that it was during the period of the Caliphates that Islam reached its apogee and was seen as a formidable force and an incredible civilization under which Muslims, Christians and Jews lived in peace.

The return to the Caliphate system of governance is the return to the time of the Rashidun Caliphs (Rightly-Guided Imams) who ruled Arabia, the Yemen and the Levant right after the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632:

  • Abu Bakr (632–634) ;
  • Umar ibn al-Khattab, (Umar І, 634–644) – Umar is often spelled Omar in some Western scholarship;
  • Uthman ibn Affan (644–656) – Uthman is often spelled Othman (or Osman) in some non-Arabic scholarship; and
  • Ali ibn Abi Talib (656–661) – During this period however, Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan (Muawiyah I) and Amr ibn al-As controlled the Levant and Egypt regions independently of Ali.

The Rashidun Caliphate was followed by three important other dynasties that perpetrated the system and the grandeur of Islam:

  • The Ummayad Caliphate (661–750) ;
  • The Abbassid Caliphate (750- 1517) ; and
  • The Ottoman Caliphate (1299-1923).

The concept of the caliphate seems to be awkward to many because of its reference to a past reality that is no more. For ISIS, it is the ripe time to return to this system of Islamic governance for the following reasons:

  1. In the Arab World, pan-Arabism has failed because it was conceived by Christians in the Ba’th Party to isolate the Arab World from its Islamic natural family;
  2. The Western-induced Arab Spring to set up Western democracy and mostly secularism faltered miserably and created chaos;
  3. The massive return of the Muslims to their religion, especially among the youth known as sahwa islamiya (Islamic Revival) proves that the corruption attempts of the West through globalization have been flatly defeated; and
  4. Even the youth of the West is converting rapidly to Islam as a reaction to the inacceptable corruption of the mercantile West and lack of spiritualism in their way of life.

No concessions to the Christian West

Unlike al-Qaeda that built its strategy on hitting both the infidels of the West and the miscreants of the Muslim world, through spectacular and daring terrorist acts conducted by secret trained operatives and dormant cells, ISIS is undertaking actions in the open, either in the territory it controls or through affiliated factions in other countries, such as the assassination of French climber Gourdel in Algeria by Jund al-Khalifa or the decapitation of Egyptian Copts in Libya, probably undertaken by some faction of the Islamist Libyan group Ansar ash-Shari’a, or terrorist acts by Boko Haram in West Africa and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) operating in North Africa and Sahel countries.

ISIS is predisposed to fight the Americans and their 60-country strong coalition to death. Their fighters are said to be euphoric and in high spirits to die as martyrs shouhada and nothing in the world is going to stop them, not even the formidable and lethal war machine of America.

The strong and infallible belief in God, iman bi Allah, is probably the most lethal weapon of the ISIS fighters. They are not going to make any concessions, whatsoever, to the West. They will fight to the last man and make no concessions as to their belief and their message.

Unlike any other Muslims, the word concession does not exist neither in their vocabulary nor in their literature, for them death in battle is the key to paradise, Jannah.

The ISIS people believe that they have been sent by God to herald al-Qiyama “the Judgment Day” and to lead the battle of the apocalypse due to take place imminently in Dabiq in Syria and most probably when the coalition forces will launch the ground battle after months of ineffectual aerial bombardments. The ISIS believe that they have been chosen by God to lead Islam to triumph on earth and establish it as the only religion prior to al-Qiyama, which is the inescapable apocalypse that is coming imminently and will usher eternal life in paradise to the pious Muslims and eternal burning in hell to the infidels and the miscreant, according to the Islamic eschatology.

Fighters belonging to the Islamic State group in Anbar, Iraq. Photo from Islamic State propaganda.

Fighters belonging to the Islamic State group in Anbar, Iraq. Photo from Islamic State propaganda.

For ISIS, the West is corrupt, its ideology is based on the emasculation of the Muslim world through history, first by the means of the Crusades: First Crusade (1096-99), Second Crusade (1147-49), Third Crusade (1189-92) and Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Crusades (1198-1229) and, then, the horrible European Colonialism (16-20 centuries) that was initiated by France, Spain, Britain, Portugal, the Netherlands and Russia in the Muslim word for pure mercantilist purposes.

These two historical events have led to the emasculation of the Muslims and the destruction of their cultures, not to mention the death and the displacement of millions. To date the Christian West and East have not apologized for these crimes against humanity, in the least.

Worse, for ISIS, the emasculation is continuing unabated through lackey Muslim regimes whose agenda is to secularize the Muslim world for the West to be able to control it easily afterwards and exploit its riches unashamedly. For this and more, ISIS is not going to make any concessions to the West.

In an op-ed published in the Los Angeles Times, in the eve of the meeting organized by the American government in Washington DC to coordinate the efforts of Western and Muslim countries to counter Jihadist violence and extremism, President Barack Obama argues: v

Governments that deny human rights play into the hands of extremists who claim that violence is the only way to achieve change. Efforts to counter violent extremism will only succeed if citizens can address legitimate grievances through the democratic process and express themselves through strong civil societies. Those efforts must be matched by economic, educational and entrepreneurial development so people have hope for a life of dignity.

The question, however, is: Within the light of this, would America put pressure on the Arab regimes to accommodate frustrated youth by providing them with jobs and economic opportunities and allow more space for democracy and freedom of speech, or is it just a political statement that will go down as an empty promise like many in the past?

While the Obama American administration struggled in its fight ISIS, many American politicians argued that the President avoided calling a spade a spade by not calling ISIS violence and extremism, Islamic. However, the Los Angeles Times had a different view of the matter:vi

Portraying the campaign against Islamic State as a war on Islam wouldn’t just be inaccurate; it would be incendiary and self-defeating.

Booty and bounty

From the word go, ISIS made clear its attitude towards women, in line with the Salafist tradition of the Muslim scholars Ibn Taymiyyah (1263-1328) and Sayyid Qotb (1906-1966), for whom women are to be kept secluded in Hijab and at home to avoid public temptation leading to chaos fitna.

So, women are second class citizen and are there for the comfort of men, housework and making and raising children. They are confined to homes and kept behind veils.vii

Yazidi refugees escaping from the Islamic State receiving support from the International Rescue Committee. Photo by Rachel Unkovic/International Rescue Committee, Wikimedia Commons.

Yazidi refugees escaping from the Islamic State receiving support from the International Rescue Committee. Photo by Rachel Unkovic/International Rescue Committee, Wikimedia Commons.

In many ways, this treatment of females in the Middle East region is undoubtedly prior to Islam. It traces its origin in the tribal system in which women are considered “weak elements” of society: weak physically, emotionally and sexually speaking. Because of that Middle Eastern societies are patriarchal in the sense that rank and importance are decided on the concepts of physical strength and power, while power is derived from wealth, nobility and religious prominence.

Traditionally, in this part of the world taking the women of the enemy tribe as sex slaves is the worst of humiliations that can be inflicted on them; because it is about soiling their honor and dignity karama. To avoid this, in pre-Islamic societies females were equated with dishonor and fathers buried their newly-born daughters, it was referred to as wa’d l-banat. Islam, on its advent, banned this barbarian practice, but could not change the image and ranking of women within the tribal systems, nor empower them.

Today, the ISIS are using women as a weapon against the non-Muslim enemies by taking their female folk as sabaya “sex slaves” and even distributing written booklets (manuals) among their fighters on how to dispose of them for their pleasure and comfort:viii

“Chilling guidelines believed to be published by the Islamic State counsel militants on how to treat female slaves, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute.

The document advises captors they can have sex immediately with virgins, and even pre-pubescent girls if “fit for intercourse,” reads the institute’s translation. Fighters can have sex with non-virgins, although the “uterus must be purified.””

In the color-printed pamphlet entitled “Question and Answers on Female Slaves and their Freedom,” it is explained that capturing women is permissible if they are “nonbelievers.” It adds, “Female slaves are the women that Muslims took from their enemies.” The document was first printed in October or November 2014, and then later posted on an ISIS website.

This document states that Muslims can have sex with a nonbeliever female, for that matter even prepubescent girls.

The ISIS has pushed the humiliation of the Yazidi Christians by selling their women in an open sex slave market. Both Richard Engel and James Novogrod from NBC news related this terrible episode:ix

“Survivors tell NBC News that ISIS fighters entered Kuchu on August 3, stayed for several days, and eventually separated the men from their families. The men were then driven to the groves outside of the village, lined up and shot. Villagers estimate that around 500 men were executed. ISIS militants dragged away hundreds of Kuchu’s girls, women and children. Farida ended up in Raqqa, where she was sold as a concubine. Over the course of the next several months she was raped, beaten and starved. She says more than half of the 80 girls in the slave market in that room in Raqqa were from Kuchu.”

According to the UN, the ISIS at one time was holding an estimated 3,500 slaves — mostly women as sex slaves, and their children.x

The ISIS is a dangerous oddity

The ISIS has come onto the Middle Eastern scene at a time when the Arab uprisings of 2010 have brought a glimmer of hope to the Arab people, who have endured, over centuries, undemocratic rule, indignant nepotism, horrendous favoritism, horrible corruption, unacceptable abuse of power, terrible human rights violation and unbearable patriarchy.

With the advent of the Arab Spring and its domino effect with dictatorships in the region, lay people were rejoicing and hoping for the best in the future, but at the height of this promising revolution came the ISIS with a retrograde agenda to take back the Muslim world to its Golden Era.

Some people went along this with the belief that it will end the emasculation to which they are still subjected by the Western world through colonialism, exploitation and subjugation but that does not justify in the least the glorification of ISIS and its medieval beliefs and practices.

There is no doubt that the ISIS is a strange oddity of the third millennium and must be fought with no respite because it does truly give Islam a bad name.

Endnotes:
i. http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/09/03/isis-is-a-disgrace-to-true-fundamentalism/?_r=0
ii. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/coptic-christian-village-heartbroken-isis-beheadings-article-1.2117387
iii. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pact_of_Umar
iv. Op. cited

v. http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-obama-terrorism-conference-20150218-story.html
vi. http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-islamic-state-20150218-story.html
vii. Mernissi, F. 2003. Beyond the Veil: Male-female Dynamics in Muslim Society. London:Saqi Books.
viii. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/14/isis-sex-slaves_n_6319654.html
ix. http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-uncovered/isis-terror-yazidi-woman-recalls-horrors-slave-auction-n305856
x. http://www.torontosun.com/2016/01/19/isis-holding-3500-slaves—-mostly-sex-slaves-and-their-children-says-un-the-intent-seems-clear-genocide

Scotland: Large Offshore Oil Discovery Could Fuel Independence Push

0
0

An oil exploration company has announced the “largest undeveloped discovery” of oil in UK waters, to the west of Shetland in Scotland. The find could influence the outcome of a second Scottish independence referendum.

Hurricane Energy said the discovery, from which an estimated 1 billion barrels could be extracted, is significantly larger than the average findings of 25 million barrels in recent years.

Hurricane’s chief executive officer, Robert Trice, said there are “exciting times” ahead for the company, which has seen its shares jump 6 percent following the announcement of the Greater Lancaster Area discovery.

“This is a highly significant moment for Hurricane,” said Trice, the BBC reports.

“We believe that the Greater Lancaster Area is a single hydrocarbon accumulation, making it the largest undeveloped discovery on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS).”

The news comes after oil prices plummeted to a three-month low, sparking questions over whether an independent Scotland could financially manage on its own if it chose to split from the UK.

“While Brexit has, of course, added a new dimension, the economic concerns that led the majority in Scotland to vote to remain a part of the UK have not disappeared,” said Dean Turner, an economist at UBS Wealth Management, according to the Independent.

“Scottish GDP (gross domestic product) lags behind the UK and declining oil revenues have raised questions over the fiscal sustainability for an independent Scotland – especially if it intends to retain the pound.”

This gloomy forecast could be reversed if major revenues can be raised from the vast new discovery.

Hurricane Energy believes the Lancaster and Halifax oil fields actually constitute one single entity in a kilometer (1,156m)-deep column.

“I am delighted that the Halifax well results support the company’s view that its substantial Lancaster discovery has been extended to include the Halifax license,” Trice was reported saying on STV.

Hurricane Energy, which claims to have found more oil in the UK in the past decade than any other exploration company, plans to start oil production at the Lancaster field in 2019.

However, the company reportedly needs around £318 million (about US$400 million) in order to develop its plans.

Hurricane Energy tends to center its operations on geological areas that are often overlooked, and does so through a succession of drilling blocks in the West of Shetlands, which it names after RAF aircraft such as Typhoon and Warwick.

Despite being hailed the “largest undeveloped discovery” in UK waters, the find is still just one fifth of the size of the Forties field, which has a capacity of 5 billion barrels, 2 billion of which have already been extracted.

Deirdre Michie, chief executive of industry body Oil and Gas UK, has welcomed the announcement, saying it proves the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS), the water regions surrounding the UK where the country can claim mineral rights, still has a prospect for growth.

“This is extremely exciting and welcome news for the UK Continental Shelf,” Michie said, according to the BBC.

“Hurricane Energy’s announcement – coming just days after the Oil and Gas Authority awarded new licenses to companies to explore for oil and gas in frontier areas – demonstrates the significant remaining potential of the UKCS.

“Signs of optimism, mainly led by exploration and production companies, are returning to the basin, which has worked hard to reduce its costs and improve efficiency.”

Michie also stressed the importance of investment.

“However, the UKCS needs fresh investment so it can capitalize on its potential, whether that be from new geological plays, or from enhanced recovery from existing fields.

“There are still up to 20 billion barrels of oil and gas to go after in the UKCS and we believe that makes the basin a very positive investment prospect indeed.”


UK Clears Gulenists Of Turkey’s ‘Coup’ Accusations

0
0

By Georgi Gotev

On Saturday the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee issued a report on the UK’s relations with Turkey, in which the Erdoğan government’s claim that Gülenists masterminded the 15 July coup attempt is refuted.

The 82-page report confirm previous statements, including by Bruno Kahl, the head of the German intelligence (BND), who recently said that there was no evidence that the Gülen movement was involved in the July plot.

A document by Intcen, the EU intelligence centre, unveiled by The Times last January, also concludes that the Gülenists are not to blame for the coup attempt, and that the perpetrators included a wide range of opponents of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The authors of the report, who describe the contacts they were able to have in Turkey, say that the evidence presented so far to argue in favour of the culpability of the Gülenists for the coup attempt has been overwhelmingly anecdotal or circumstantial.

“The attribution of blame solely to the Gülenists is especially important because it has justified and sustained an effort by the government to remove, root and branch, perceived Gülenists from positions of public influence in Turkey,” the report says.

According to the study, the Turkish government describes the Gülenists as a highly-organised terrorist conspiracy that hides behind a charitable face to conceal its true objective: forming a parallel state to infiltrate, undermine, and supplant the current Turkish government.

Turkey’s National Security Council called the Gülenists the “Fethullah Terrorist Organisation” (‘FETÖ’), in May 2016, six weeks before the coup attempt.

Conversely, the Gülenists, who use other terms to call themselves such as “Hizmet” (The Service), describe themselves as a philanthropic social organisation that is inspired by a moderate and democratic interpretation of Islam but that does not discriminate on the basis of faith, and which embraces secularism while focusing on charity, welfare, dialogue, and education.

Seized property worth billions

Gülenists told the authors of the report that “the total value of the land and properties seized [in Turkey] from Hizmet–affiliated schools, universities, hospitals and charities is estimated to have reached $15 billion.

“Given the brutality of the events of 15 July, the severity of the charges made against the Gülenists, and the scale of the purges of perceived Gülenists that has been justified on this basis, there is a relative lack of hard, publicly available evidence to prove that the Gülenists, as an organisation, were responsible for the coup attempt in Turkey,” the report says.

But it adds:

“But the explanations provided to us by the Gülenists did not resolve our uncertainties about the fundamental nature and motives of their movement. The belief that Gülenists were responsible for the coup attempt, as well as for numerous other manipulations of the state through abuse of public positions that they held in Turkey, is manifest across the political spectrum in Turkey. A lack of transparency pervades some of the core activities of the Gülenists, making it impossible for us to confirm that all of these activities are purely philanthropic.”

The report is critical of the work of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and personally of the Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Sir Alan Duncan, with respect to the matter.

“The FCO seems willing to accept the Turkish government’s account of the coup attempt and the Gülenists broadly at face value,” the parliamentary report says.

Turkey says the West fails to understand the events which transpired on 15 July, and that it has double standards when fighting terrorists.

Why Angela Merkel Hates Tax Competition – OpEd

0
0

By Ryan McMaken*

European political leaders gathered in Malta last month to discuss the future of the European Union. During the meeting, German Chancellor Angela Merkel made sure to denounce any post-Brexit move on the part of the United Kingdom to lower corporate taxes. (Merkel condemned efforts by the US to cut corporate taxes as well.) Merkel called any such move a “race to the bottom.”

With these comments, Merkel; was echoing earlier comments by German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble who in January employed the same “race to the bottom” phrase and harangued the UK on the matter, claiming that any attempt to lower taxes would be in violation of international agreements. Besides, lowering taxes is retrograde and non-progressive thinking, Schäuble noted, stating that “A truly global economy must think of global governance.”

This controversy helps to reveal how the European Union has been a useful tool in preventing tax competition between member states.

By threatening retaliation from EU institutions, and by resorting to claims that international agreements cancel out national policy, EU bureaucrats have long used the EU as a stick to beat potential tax-cutters into submission.

What Is Tax Competition?

Richard Teather explains:

Tax competition occurs when a government uses its tax system to try to attract capital, business activity, or wealthy individuals from other countries. At its most obvious this could be a “tax haven” with very low (or even zero) tax rates, but it could include more subtle provisions such as tax breaks for specific businesses relocating into a country. Game theory suggests that if the low-tax countries successfully attract international investment then other governments will respond, leading to a competitive spiral of tax reductions as they all compete for mobile capital.

Once upon a time, Europe was notable for its frequent use of tax competition. As Ralph Raico noted in his seminal essay “The European Miracle,” a central phenomenon behind the unprecedented economic growth and wealth-building that occurred in early-modern Europe was the common use of tax competition.

Thanks tothe presence of a very large number of small states in Europe at the time, many European political rulers competed with each other to attract the most productive people and the most productive enterprises. Those tone-deaf princes and rulers who insisted on raising taxes to levels higher than their neighbors lost both residents and profitable businesses to neighboring states.

The European Union, on the other hand, has long attempted to end this sort of tax competition, as Louis Rouanet recently noted:

It has now become clear that in many ways the European Union is a cartel of high-tax governments whose goal is to restrain tax competition. The EU’s supposedly free — this is, regulated — trade policy is none other than an excuse to homogenize the tax and regulatory regimes of the nation-states.

The ultimate goal of the high-tax member states such as France is to use the EU to milk as much as possible from the productive members of society without losing their tax base.

Thus, no one should be surprised that Europhiles like Merkel and Schäuble are now condemning the very idea of a “rogue” government like that of the United Kingdom lowering taxes.

Indeed, so long as the EU included the UK — one of the worlds largest and most productive states — the EU could exercise a degree of control over domestic tax policy above and beyond the tax-funded remittances the UK government must pay into the EU’s common purse.

Now, with the UK on its way out of the EU, the EU faces the threat of a competitor right next door which might entice EU businesses and citizens to relocate to the UK in order to escape higher taxes in the EU. Nor is this any minor threat, considering the UK’s advantages as an island of English-speakers with easy access to global shipping lanes.

Even worse for the Europhiles is the fact that the US now might be headed in the direction of reducing some taxes as well. Trump has expressed an interest in reducing the US government’s corporate taxone of the highest in the world — to attract businesses to the United States. This would come as a break with the policies of Barack Obama who was committed to both high tax rates and working in concert with his fellow interventionists in the EU establishment.

Such a move by the US would present an additional threat to the EU’s hegemony, and thus Merkel has hit the panic button, declaring tax cuts to be a “race to the bottom” as if tax cuts were anything but a laudable move upward into the light.

Moreover, the entire affair illustrates yet again that one of the biggest problems with states in the world is that there are too few of them. To the extent that the EU constitutes a single state on tax policy, the creation of another state through the UK’s secession created competition for the EU and increased the potential to reduce taxes and create more tax competition. One could only imagine how much worse tax policy would be if the US had to reply on approval from the EU to engage in its own tax cuts. To further increase the potential for greater tax competition, of course, both the US and the UK should be broken up into still smaller states, thus further reducing the monopoly powers currently enjoyed by the mega-states that rule us from Brussels and Washington, DC.

About the author:
*Ryan McMaken is the editor of Mises Wire and The Austrian. Send him your article submissions, but read article guidelines first. (Contact: email; twitter.) Ryan has degrees in economics and political science from the University of Colorado, and was the economist for the Colorado Division of Housing from 2009 to 2014. He is the author of Commie Cowboys: The Bourgeoisie and the Nation-State in the Western Genre.

Source:
This article was published by the MISES Institute

Between Piety And Patriotism: Shariʿa And The American Way Of Life – Analysis

0
0

By Aaron Rock-Singer*

(FPRI) — In May 2016, a row broke out at the Metropolitan Recreation Center in Williamsburg, New York following an anonymous complaint regarding its summer schedule. The Center had long offered gender-segregated swimming hours for Williamsburg residents who, for religious reasons, could not use the swimming pool while members of the opposite sex were present. This was not a story of Muslims; instead, it was case of how a local communal institution made an accommodation for its large ultra-Orthodox Jewish population.

While such accommodation usually does not make the news, the specter of the “Creeping Shariaziation” of the United States has grown with the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States. Long on the fringes of the Republican Party, this movement against Islamic religious practice and legal accommodations in the United States has grown under the Trump administration. In particular, Frank Gaffney and his think tank, the Center for Security Policy, have found a new political life under Trump, arguing that America faces the threat of Islam’s allegedly inhumane, intolerant, and anti-women essence.[1] For Gaffney, the threat is clear: adherence to the Shariʿa, or Islamic law, is incompatible with being a faithful American.

This primer seeks to step back from this type of rhetoric and the spate of anti-Muslim incidents in the United States over the past year, to answer a very simple question: what is the Shariʿa? How did Muslims understand this term historically? How and why did understandings of Shariʿa shift in the 20th century? And do these claims regarding Shariʿa correspond with the actual ideas and practices of the American Muslim community?

Shariʿa Throughout History

Historically, Muslims understood the Shariʿa as a broad framework within which one could live a proper Islamic life. The Shariʿa represented a comprehensive ethical system, the bulk of which was not understood as law in the sense of regulations that state authorities must enforce. Instead, acts were divided into five categories: obligatory, recommended, neutral, disapproved, and forbidden. Crucially, it was only those acts that fell into the category of “forbidden” that were to be enforced by the state.[2] Put differently, prior to the last 200 years, the obligations set forth by the Shariʿa, though they were obligatory for Muslims, neither assumed nor depended on enforcement by state authorities.

Indeed, a corpus of Islamic law did not arise fully formed from the Quran and the authoritative accounts of the Prophet Muhammad’s life, known as the Sunna. Instead, over the first few centuries of Islam, Muslims sought to understand how to apply the Quran’s message and the Prophet’s model to their lives and societies. The challenge, however, was to balance between Islam’s core principles and local realities. As Islam spread beyond the Arabian Peninsula, whether under the Umayyad Empire headquartered in Damascus (661-750) or the Abbasid Empire based in Baghdad (750-1258), the question wasn’t how to apply one law to all the lands of Islam, but rather how to balance between broad legal principles and local practices.[3] Over the course of the 8th and 9th centuries, Islamic schools of law within both Sunnism and Shiʿism emerged as Muslims sought to apply Islam to questions of state and society alike.

What is crucial to understand about both Sunni and Shiʿi schools of law is that they did not from codes of law. Instead, they worked, based on the model of leading early scholars of Islamic law  —after whom each school was named—to answer the questions of the age based on both precedents within the school and local circumstances. As jurists sought to articulate a human understanding of divine will, each school developed a body of precedents and principles known as Fiqh.[4] The precedents set by early scholars living in a different time certainly constrained later jurists, but not inescapably so. When necessary, jurists would invoke imperatives that lay outside the precedents—such as the common good (al-maslaha al-ʿamma) or local custom (ʿurf)—to justify a position contrary to established precedents. For example, while jurists traditionally trusted oral testimony over written documents given the ease of forging the latter, a prominent scholar from the city of Damascus, Ibn ʿAbidin (d. 1836), ruled that, given the local custom of using documents to keep track of loans among merchants, one must accept such documents lest the entire system of credit among these merchants collapse.[5]  Indeed, at times, Muslim scholars even sought to credit early authorities with their contemporary positions.[6] The crucial point in all of this, however, is that up to 1800, the Shariʿa was neither a legal code nor cast in stone. Instead, it was a legal system that emphasized precedent not merely as a way of honoring the past but as a means of establishing some level of legal predictability in the present.[7]

The most infamous feature of this pre-modern Islamic legal system is undoubtedly penal law, known as hudud. Of particular concern were cases of adultery, illicit sexual relations, apostasy, consumption of intoxicating beverages, rebellion against a legitimate Caliph, robbery, and theft. And, indeed, to our modern ears, certain features of this system sound draconian: one could be killed for apostasy, stoned to death for adultery, or face the amputation of a hand for theft. What is important to understand about these punishments is that they were held to a high evidentiary standard: one needed four credible witnesses to convict. Accordingly, as a matter of practice, hudud punishments were rarely enforced.[8]

A Change to the Shariʿa

When and how did Shariʿa become a code of law? This story begins not with an immutable Islamic model transmitted by the Prophet Muhammad, but rather, with colonial intervention in the Middle East in the 19th and early 20th century. It should hardly be surprising that Islam emerged as a rallying call in this context: in the face of colonial occupiers hailing from Christian-majority countries such as Britain and France, religious identity offered a clear means of distinguishing the native population from foreign occupiers.[9] With the onset of colonial rule, British and French officials made a momentous decision to implement foreign legal codes while limiting religious law to questions of personal status such as marriage and divorce. While Islamists today recall this moment as decisive because it limited the role of Shariʿa, just as important is the shift that they do not mention: that it codified the Shariʿa. In the place of the relative flexibility and accommodation to local diversity exercised by judges who were tied to local communities, state-appointed graduates of modern law schools, with little knowledge of over a millennium of Islamic legal scholarship, now interpreted a code of Islamic law.[10] Crucially, however, legal codes were not solely a colonial imposition: in the late 19th century, the Ottoman Empire introduced a legal code, based on the dominant Sunni legal school in that area (Hanafism) in an attempt to formalize and define a civil legal code throughout the empire. [11]

As Middle Eastern states gained independence over the first half of the 20th century, new secularist elites, like colonial officials, restricted the Shariʿa to family law. Notwithstanding their opposition to colonial rule, they were no more interested than their colonial predecessors in empowering Muslim scholars to interpret the Shariʿa. Instead, these new elites wanted to reshape the legal system to their own liking and in terms that they understood. Looking abroad, they saw the combination of military, political, and economic power that had enabled colonial rulers to take control of their countries, and sought to use law as a tool to expand the reach of their newly independent states. The appeal of a powerfully interventionist state would only grow as the United States and Soviet Union vied for Cold War supremacy.

In the shadow of a codified family law, powerful post-colonial states, and Cold War ideological contestation, Islamists began to argue that Shariʿa was central to state power. ʿAbd al-Qadir ʿAwda, a leading member of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood executed in 1954, vaulted the implementation of Shariʿa as a comprehensive legal code to prominence when he argued in a 1951 book, entitled Islam and Our Legal Circumstances, that Muslims had to not merely ignore, but actively challenge, laws that contravened the Shariʿa.[12] Sayyid Qutb (d. 1966), a leading Muslim Brother jailed and eventually hanged by the ʿAbd al-Nasir regime, would take this idea in a radical direction, arguing that the vast majority of Egyptian society was not Muslim, and thus incapable of even attempting to apply Islamic law.[13] More broadly, by the 1960s and 1970s, Islamist movements regionally had all begun to call for the application of the Shariʿa.[14] These calls for Shariʿa were not, however, calls for the application of specific Fiqh traditions; instead, they were calls to return to Islam’s foundational sources, the Quran and Sunna, alongside limited engagement with the Fiqh traditions produced and preserved by the legal schools.

Shariʿa in the Present Day

Over the past four decades, these calls to apply Shariʿa have become increasing popular. Indeed, a 2013 Pew survey found that 91% of Iraqis, 89% of Palestinians, 83% of Moroccans, 74% of Egyptians, and 71% of Jordanians support “making Sharia the law of the land.”[15] The prominence of this idea among Islamists and its popularity throughout the Middle East, however, should not lead us to take their basic claims—that Islamic law represents a comprehensive system covering all functions of the modern state—at face value. Instead, when Islamists reach power, they do not carry with them a comprehensive plan for replacing “secular” legislation with the Shariʿa. Instead, they offer broad principles of governance, promising to review all existing legislation to determine whether or not it is compatible with the Shariʿa.[16] Far from a set system, the Shariʿa as Islamists understand it is a set of principles that have yet to be applied in systematic fashion.

Frank Gaffney’s primary target, however, is not Islamist organizations throughout the Middle East, but Muslims in the United States. A community whose roots go back to early migration between 1875 and 1912 from Greater Syria (an area that included what is now Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, and Palestine), Muslim American ranks grew following World War I following the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Between 1947 and 1960, Muslims increasingly arrived not only from the Middle East, but also from Eastern Europe, South Asia, and the Soviet Union. The past 40 years, in turn, have seen, once again, substantial immigration from the Middle East.[17]

The American Muslim community is, as a 2007 Pew survey puts it, “Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream.” In this vein, American Muslims have, by and large, sought to live according to their religious obligations through a set of daily practices that bear little resemblance to the specter of “Creeping Shariʿazation.” Whether by securing permits to build mosques, observing dietary laws through Halal butcheries and restaurants, or buying shares in Islamic finance companies that allow them to purchase homes or pay for higher education while avoiding interest-bearing loans, American Muslims today work within the American legal system and live devout lives. And like members of so many other religious and ethnic minorities, Muslims have set up a number of political advocacy organizations. There is no evidence, however, that American Muslim organizations have ever attempted to replace the American constitution with an Islamic legal code.

Yet, over the past decade, at times under the cover of “foreign law bans,” states including Oklahoma, Kansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Arizona, have sought to defend themselves against the alleged threat posed by the Shariʿa.[18] Beyond questions of anti-Muslim sentiment, it must be noted that none of these states has significant Muslim populations. Instead, the animus against Shariʿa is based on the notion that Islam, rather than constituting a religion, represents an “ideology” that, like communism, seeks to threaten American values and institutions.[19]

These accusations, however, aren’t borne out by reality. Instead, as the opening story of gender-segregated swimming in Brooklyn suggests, varied American religious communities seek accommodation within the bounds of the legal system and in their own neighborhoods to live life according to divine dictates. Far from representing a silent threat to an American way of life, American Muslims are quite simply, unremarkable members of a diverse American religious scene.

About the author:
*Aaron Rock-Singer
is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perry World House.

Source:
This article was published by FPRI.

Notes:
[1] “Understanding the Shariah Threat Doctrine,” Center for Security Policy, accessed 22 March 2017, available at: http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/category/shariah/understanding-shariah-threat-doctrine/

[2] Bernard G. Weiss, The Spirit of Islamic Law (London: The University of Georgia Press, 2006), 18-19.

[3] Jonathan P. Berkey, The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the Near East, 600-1800 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 114-15.

[4] Weiss, The Spirit of Islamic Law, 120.

[5] Haim Gerber, Islamic Law and Culture, 1600-1840 (London: Brill, 1999), 108-09.

[6] Gerber, Islamic Law and Culture, 1600-1840, 111.

[7] Weiss, The Spirit of Islamic Law, 9-10.

[8] Rudolph Peters, Crime and Punishment in Islamic Law: Theory and Practice from the Sixteenth to the Twenty-First Century (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 6-30.

[9] Juan Cole, Napoleon’s Egypt: Invading the Middle East (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), 198-202.

[10] Muhammad Qasim Zaman, The Ulama in Contemporary Islam: Custodians of Change (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002), 16-37.

[11] Brinkley Messick: The Calligraphic State: Textual Domination and History in a Muslim Society (Berkley, CA: University of California Press, 1992), 54-8.

[12] ʿAbd al-Qadir ʿAwda, al-Islam wa-Awdaʿuna al-Qanuniyya (Cairo: N.P., 1951), 154.

[13] Sayyid Qutb, Maʿlim fi al-Tariq (Cairo: Dar al-Shuruq, 1979), 55-77.

[14] Nathan Brown, “Sharia and State in the Modern Middle East,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, 29:3 (1997), 359-76, cit. 371.

[15] “The World’s Muslims: Religion, Politics and Society,” Pew Research Center, 30 April 2013. Accessed 22 March 2017, available at: http://www.pewforum.org/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-beliefs-about-sharia/

[16] Bruce Rutherford, Egypt After Mubarak: Liberalism, Islam and Democracy in the Arab World (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press), 106.

[17] Jane I. Smith, Islam in America (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), 51-4.

[18] For example, see Jacob Gershman, “Oklahoma Ban on Sharia law Unconstitutional, US Judge Rules,” Wall Street Journal 16 August 2013, accessed 22 March 2017, available at http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2013/08/16/oklahoma-ban-on-sharia-law-unconstitutional-us-judge-rules/

[19] John Hayward, “Frank Gaffney: ‘We Have a Fifth Column, Sharia-Adherent Part of Muslim Community,’” Breitbart News, 29 June 2016. Accessed 22 March 2017, available at http://www.breitbart.com/radio/2016/06/29/frank-gaffney-we-have-a-fifth-column-sharia-adherent-part-of-muslim-community/.

February US Blue Collar Job Growth Strong In All Three Sectors – Analysis

0
0

By Dean Baker and Nick Buffie*

Blue collar job growth was strong in February, with the total number of jobs in manufacturing, construction, and mining rising by 0.5 percent. (The Bureau of Labor Statistics typically releases state employment rate at the end of the net month.)

This was far better than the 0.1 percent job growth experienced in the service sector; however, because the service sector is a much larger share of the total economy, there were more service-sector jobs added (132,000) than in manufacturing, construction, and mining (94,000). February’s data was anomalous: over the past year, employment is up 1.1 percent in manufacturing, construction, and mining and 1.9 percent in the service sector. Between February 2016 and February 2017, employment in manufacturing, construction, and mining rose by 203,000, while service-sector employment rose by 1,942,000.

The biggest gains in blue collar employment were in Illinois (9,000), Texas (8,300), Ohio (7,000), New York (6,000), and Colorado (5,900). In spite of the overall growth, nine states still lost blue collar jobs in February, with the list topped by Virginia (-2,800), Michigan, Georgia, South Carolina and Mississippi.

Construction was responsible for the bulk of blue collar job growth, adding 58,000 jobs in February, the strongest growth since March 2007. Construction employment is up by 219,000 since February 2016, an increase of 3.5 percent over the last year. The strongest growth was in Illinois (7,300 jobs), Ohio (6,300 jobs), California (5,100 jobs), Colorado (5,000 jobs), and Minnesota (4,500 jobs). Among major states, Minnesota and Illinois had the strongest growth in percentage terms.

Eight states lost construction jobs last month, led by Virginia (-3,200), South Carolina (-2,600), Mississippi (-1,600), Nevada (-900), and Wisconsin (-800).

Nationally, the economy added 28,000 manufacturing jobs last month, the third consecutive monthly increase. Over-the-year employment in the sector is up by just 7,000. The biggest gains in manufacturing employment were in Indiana (4,200 jobs), Texas (3,900 jobs), New York (3,800 jobs), Pennsylvania (2,500 jobs), New Jersey (2,400 jobs).

There were 13 states that lost manufacturing jobs in February. The three biggest losers were Michigan (-4,600 jobs), California (-4,000 jobs), and Missouri (-2,200 jobs). Manufacturing job growth was negative in Iowa (-0.1 percent), Kentucky (-0.2 percent), Rhode Island (-0.2 percent), Connecticut (-0.3 percent), New Hampshire (-0.3 percent), California (-0.3 percent), Washington (-0.3 percent), Delaware (-0.4 percent), Georgia (-0.5 percent), Vermont (-0.7 percent), Michigan (-0.8 percent), Missouri (-0.8 percent), and Idaho (-0.9 percent).

Employment in the mining & logging sector rose by 7,700 in February. (The state data include logging with mining. It is also worth noting that the sum of the state changes is not generally equal to the national data due to different seasonal adjustment factors.) February marks four straight months of job growth in the sector. Before the current streak of job growth, mining & logging hadn’t reported a single month of net job growth since September of 2014.

Job growth in the sector was strong in Texas (3,400 jobs), Oklahoma (2,100 jobs), Wyoming (700 jobs), New Mexico (500 jobs), and Arizona (300 jobs). Five states lost jobs in the mining and logging sector in February, led by Alaska, California, and Ohio, which all lost 200 jobs apiece.

Overall, February was a good month in terms of blue collar job growth, with all three sectors growing nationally. A number of states lost blue collar jobs, especially in manufacturing, but 41 states reported net blue collar job gains.

It is unclear at this point whether February was an anomaly, possibly driven in part by relatively good weather, or if it is the beginning of an upward trend for blue collar employment. Recent data suggest at least a leveling off, if not a weakening of the housing market, which could slow growth in construction. Similarly, a rise in the trade deficit may weaken manufacturing, while lower world oil prices could reduce employment in mining. However, the story for blue collar jobs for the first month in the Trump administration is a positive one.

*Dean Baker is an Economist and Co-Director at the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) in Washington, D.C. Nick Buffie is a Research Associate at CEPR.

One Belt One Road: A Step Towards Globalization – OpEd

0
0

Globalization refers to the international interaction among governments, people, and companies of different countries through the exchanging of products, ideas, products, and cultural practices. As such, Brexit and US President Trump’s slogan “America First” has challenged globalization. The protectionist sentiments are taking over in major economies of west. Populist or right-wing parties are also thriving across the developed world.

On the one side globalization is facing a major test of sustainability in the west with growing populism and trade protectionism, but on the other the trend of globalization is spreading in Asia. Globalization is creating new opportunities and at the same time facing threats to the region towards deeper integration.

The trend of globalization is not new for this region, if you look at the history we will find that first experiment of free international read was brought by the Silk Road that transported goods, including silk, through China to Central Asia, and ultimately extended into Southeast Asia, South Asia and the Mediterranean. Apart from goods, Silk Road carried unexpected inspirations like the merging of religion, culture, and language.

In the same historical spirit, China has recently offered several key international projects, including BRICS New Development Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, extension of Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the National Silk Road Fund and the One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative. The OBOR initiative represents Chinese thinking of new globalization, while NDB, AIIB and BRICS are multidimensional financial tools.

With the clear object of win-win cooperation, the OBOR initiative has been widely appreciated and received a great deal of support. It is an agreement based on the integration of notions where the geographical range, partner states, principles, rules, and strategies are openly defined at the beginning.

The OBOR initiative focuses on both West and East. In a broader perspective it seems more as a policy dial, than a bunch of projects, which link three continents – Asia, Africa and Europe. Apart from this China is also considering at a free trade zone in the Asia-Pacific region, probably connecting with the United States. Furthermore, China is also working on tri-lateral settlements with EU and US in Latin America and Africa, where her interests are not forthrightly connected but wants to establish a global tendency.

Chinese leadership believes that open-ended networks of global production have extended wealth globally, which ultimately reduce poverty and lessen inequality in developing countries. Indeed, China is a good example of this, as its export based industrial development has produced tens of millions of well-paid urban industrial jobs.

The OBOR initiative is offering a great deal of issues to the dispossessed and poor of the global south or third world, which may start getting benefits from globalization. But for the west, globalization all of a sudden has become a big, bad bogey and is being represented as unfair and inequitable by protectionist parties.

The champions of free trade and globalization are quiet these days because they always maintained a one way road for the exploitation and monopolization of the third world and their cheap labor and market. They just want their money without those countries problems, but OBOR is vice-versa. Thus, it has become easy and rewarding for the developed west to start campaign against immigrants, blaming them for occupying their jobs and creating problems like, crime and terrorism.

No one can deny that globalization has helped hardworking and enterprising communities and societies, pushing a large number of people out of poverty. It has created huge capital and enormous economic prospects where before none existed. It was the west that introduced the qualities of free markets and pushed to accept it as a growth model, therefore they should not yell now because of the effects of globalization. This is a natural progress, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

The OBOR initiative is directed toward more people-centered objectives to indicate that it really is what society needs, not protectionism. It deepens regional and international integration and uses globalization to stretch  benefits further. China firmly believes that globalization can succeed, but when everyone gets benefits.

Indian Idol Singer Nahid Afrin Overcomes Muslim ‘Diktat’ In Assam

0
0

Defying the diktat of few Islamic clerics, an Assamese Muslim teen singer recently performed in a cultural function. Of Indian Idol fame, Nahid Afrin not only sang in the cultural night on March 25, but also enthralled thousands in the audience with her on stage performance that lasted until midnight.

Prior to this, news broke on March 14 that some people distributed a two-page leaflet (termed gohari or appeal) in the Muslim-dominated Hojai and Nagaon localities of central Assam in northeast India,  arguing that the proposed cultural show at the Udali Sonai Bibi College ground at the Lanka town of Hojai district should be discouraged.

Endorsed by 46 Muslim representatives from a number of state-based Islamic organizations, the leaflet asserted that no cultural function should be held at the venue as it was surrounded by mosques, madrassas, eidgahs and graveyards, otherwise the future generation would lose its sanity and sanctity, which would result in inviting the wrath of Allah.

As the venue was supposed to witness the performance of Nahid Afrin show, the young
Assamese singer who was the first runner-up of the Indian Idol Junior 2015 (a popular Indian television reality show) came in touch with the diktat from the clerics for flouting Sharia.

Assam, known for its unique social harmony, religious tolerance and pluralism since time immemorial, witnessed such a diktat for the first time. The land of great Vaishnavite saint Srimanta Sankardev, who spread the message of love, cohesion and brotherhood among all communities, castes and creeds centuries ago thus suddenly faces Muslim influences.

Even though the leaflet, written in unprocessed Assamese language, had no mention about Nahid, the clerics clearly meant to address her performance. And eventually intellectuals, writers, journalists, politicians, cultural personalities and even separatist armed militants of Assam unanimously raised their voices against the diktat by the clerics. They also objected to the statement of those clerics that the music, theatre, magic etc are anti-Islamic.

Assam police sources also suspected that Nahid might have been targeted as she performed in some anti-terror musical pieces. Moreover, she participated in few songs dedicated to Hindu mythology. Assam police chief Mukesh Sahay revealed that the matter was under serious investigation and he assured that the democratic rights of every citizen would be
protected.

Meanwhile, the State government chief Sarbananda Sonowal came down heavily against the threat. Personally calling Nahid on the telephone, Sonowal assured all possible help for her. Stating that Nahid is the pride of Assam, the young chief minister declared that she can perform anywhere in the State without any fear from anybody.

“Such a ruling against practicing art and culture is unacceptable and is tantamount to infringement of one’s freedom of cultural rights,” said Sonowal, who also holds the home portfolio, adding that the government would not tolerate any move to bind any artist of the
State.

He also observed that a section of vicious force is hell bound to disturb the age old bonhomie of Assam, but the chief minister reiterated that the amity and integrity of the State would be
upheld at any cost so that people belonging to Barak & Brahmaputra (valleys), hills and plains can live peacefully depicting the ethos of unity in diversities.

As the news spreads across the globe, various Union ministers along with many politicians, Mumbai film personalities and social activists supported Nahid for her devotion to music. The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights also took the matter seriously and
directed the administration to ensure her security and help Nahid to perform accordingly.

Even the Bangladeshi exiled author Taslima Nasreen, who is a victim of religious fanatics in her own country, took to Twitter to show appreciation for Nahid and her brave statement to go against the Mullahs. She went ahead demanding stringent punishments to those clerics arguing that “they don’t believe in human rights, women’s rights’.

The Mumbai-based Indian Muslims for Secular Democracy (IMSD) came out with a statement applauding the achievements of Nahid (including Suhana Sayed from Karnataka), who have wowed music lovers cutting across religions with their outstanding talents.

Bollywood scriptwriter Salim Khan and singer Vishal Dadlani were the first callers to Nahid
supporting her at the time of crisis.

The State police quickly took actions and deployed two armed personal security guards for Nahid. Earlier Union minister Maneka Gandhi wrote to Sonowal urging him to ensure adequate protection to Nahid so that she could pursue her talent, which the saffron chief minister responded promptly.

Meanwhile, various media outlets came out with stronger articles condemning the attitude of the clerics targeting an upcoming singer. The column writers deplored the religious leaders for taking up the boycott call against Nahid by citing the Sharia laws. Moreover they
emphasized that the secular ethos and composite culture of Assam have nothing to do with egregious diktats on any artist.

Taking the advantage of the situation, Assam’s separatist militant leader Paresh Barua also joined in the chorus. The self-styled head of banned United Liberation Front of Assam (Independent), Barua strongly condemned the unwanted Fatwa against Nahid. Speaking to the city based media persons from an undisclosed location he stated that there is no place for religious fanaticism in Assam.

Facing the heat, Assam State Jamiat Ulama tried to clarify that that it was not a Fatwa against Nahid. The leaders of Jamiat Ulama rather blamed the media for spreading misinformation. The national level Islamic leader Umer Ilyasi commented that any Fatwa may only crate controversy. But he insisted that the Assam clerics should have talked to Nahid advising her not to go against the Sharia laws.

Digging at the clerics’ appeal, the Patriotic People’s Front Assam (PPFA) pointed out that they may not target Nahid, but definitely they opposed the cultural show at the venue. The forum claimed that by this notice, the clerics indirectly wanted to keep away any cultural (read anti-Islam) programs in that field. The PPFA denounced that kind of mentality to create an absolute Islamic zone in any locality of Assam.

Amidst all the hue and cry against the Muslim diktat, Nahid at her residence in Biswanath Chariali locality of eastern Assam reacted firmly that she would continue singing. The class tenth standard student, who made her Bollywood singing debut for glamorous Sonakshi
Sinha star ‘Akira’ recently, pointed out that her voice is a fabulous the gift of Allah and she would definitely utilize it with the overwhelming support from the people of Assam (India).

Saudi King’s ‘Clash Of Civilizations’: Convergence With Indonesia’s Hypocrisy, Opportunism – OpEd

0
0

When my older sister, who lives in Germany, came to Indonesia recently we gave her the royal treatment. Well, she’s family after all, and had not visited in 12 years.

So if a family member hasn’t visited in 47 years, the royal treatment would be quadrupled, right? Well, that’s how long it had been since a Saudi monarch had come to Indonesia. The last time was the visit of King Faisal in 1970, so when King Salman of Saudi Arabia came in February the reception was pretty over the top.

Family member? Yes, being Muslims, we are all members of the ummah (community of Muslims), which for some is even more meaningful than being connected by blood. Our qibla (direction Muslims face when praying) is toward Mecca, but more than that, lately Saudi Arabia is our qibla for many things we consider to be part of our Muslim identity. Arabic-style attire is one example, but more importantly is the adoption of a more rigid and literal interpretation of the Quran than the moderate Islam Nusantara (Islam of the archipelago) that Indonesia is famous for.

King Salman is one of the richest world leaders and, boy, did he ever show it! An entourage of 1,500 in eight wide-bodied jets, a few limousines and two gold-plated escalators — because of course, one isn’t enough, right? We lapped it all up and various Indonesian dignitaries and political leaders were falling over themselves to pay obeisance to the custodian of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina that Muslims make pilgrimages to. Well, at least we got the extra haj quota we were hoping for.

So why did he come after all this time, and at the age of 80, when most octogenarians would be ensconced in rocking chairs, especially after a stroke he had recently? Is it simply “the ties of Islam?” In economic terms, the visit to Indonesia did not do much to boost the relationship, which has never been fast and furious in any case.

For almost 40 years, Saudi Arabia has imposed a kind of cultural imperialism in Indonesia by pouring in money which essentially has been exporting their brand of Salafism, a strict and dogmatic version of Islam. Millions of dollars produced hundreds of mosques, schools, a free university, provided teachers, scholarships and much, much more. Will this now change? Whatever the case, the investments have already made an impact.

Despite the ostentatious display of wealth because of falling oil prices, Saudi Arabia is going through a recession. Hence the ambitious one-month tour, not just to Indonesia, but also to Malaysia, Brunei, Japan, China, the Maldives and Jordan. Obviously, the trips to China and Japan have nothing to do with Islam, but are an attempt to look for partners and investors in the Asia-Pacific region to lessen Saudi Arabia’s dependence on oil revenues.

Besides China overtaking the United States as a big net importer of crude oil in 2016, there are also geopolitical considerations. With the uncertainty that comes with the Donald Trump presidency, China can certainly be seen as a counterweight to the US for Saudi Arabia’s foreign policy.

What about terrorism? That was mentioned too in King Salman’s underwhelming two-minute speech at the House of Representatives — which sounded more like the speech of a Miss World contestant — to stand united against global challenges, in particular against the “clash of civilizations”, terrorism and to work together to achieve world peace.

Funny that. Is decimating Yemen a way to achieve world peace? Saudi Arabia committed crimes in Yemen as evidenced by the destruction of infrastructure and the killing of thousands of innocent civilians, including children.

Addressing visiting members of the Supreme Revolutionary Council of Yemen, Ali Larijani, the Iranian parliamentary speaker, said, “The scope of destruction is unprecedented in history and this clearly shows that Saudi Arabia is a rogue state in the region.”

As for the clash of civilizations, it’s more like a clash of ignorance, which is the title of the essay that Edward Said wrote to debunk Samuel P. Huntington’s 1993 Foreign Affairs article entitled “The Clash of Civilizations.” The hypothesis is that people’s cultural and religious identities will be the primary source of conflict in the post-Cold War world.

Oh really? Is that why the US and the United Kingdom provide the arms used by Saudi Arabia to crush Yemen? Because, of course, Saudi Arabia is the US’ ally in the Middle East, maybe a bit less so after the US betrayed them by making deals with Iran, Saudi Arabia’s main rival.

But even if King Salman repeatedly listened to Paul Simon’s “Fifty ways to leave your lover,” Saudi Arabia could not break up with the US because it still provides them with the best weaponry and spare parts too.

But, Saudi Arabia is not all it appears to be. It’s not by any means revolutionizing, but it is evolutionizing, as Ameera al Taweel said.

The 33-year-old drop-dead gorgeous US-educated princess, businesswoman, high-profile women’s advocate and humanitarian philanthropist is the ex-wife of Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, 60. He’s one of the more progressive of the thousands of princes of the Saud family and one of richest men in the world, who is planning to give away his US$33 billion to charity when he dies.

And would you believe that there’s a vegan Saudi prince who wants to veganize the Middle East? Meet Khaled bin Alwaleed (son of Al-Waleed bin Talal), 38, handsome and a fervent environmentalist who believes that “Climate change and the unjustified consumption of energy are two of the most serious issues we face today at the macro-level.”

Hope he’s saying this to his gas-guzzling compatriots as Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest oil producer, but also the world’s sixth-largest consumer.

Then there’s Ahmed Qassim al-Ghamdi, formerly an employee of the Saudi Arabia’s religious police who had a life-altering experience when he turned to the Quran to study the stories of the prophet Muhammad and came up with the conclusion that being Islamic is about being more liberal. No need to close shops for prayers, to cover women up, or to ban women from driving. Unsurprisingly, death-threats dogged him after he made these statements.

Like Indonesia, Saudi Arabia has a demographic bonus: Sixty percent of the population is under 30. Like Ameera and Khaled, they are connected to a globalized world and they will rebel against the strictures of the Islam espoused by their forebearers.

Change in Saudi Arabia seems inevitable, as it is becoming more progressive, climate-conscious and is espousing “Western” notions of rights (which the US under Trump seems to be abandoning), while Islam in Indonesia is becoming more Arabized and conservative.

Ironic or what?

*The writer is a public-intellectual, social-critic, columnist, researcher, author of “Julia’s Jihad” (2013) and several other books. She is based in Jakarta. This article appeared in the Jakarta Post and is reprinted with permission.


Mixing Politics And Sports: Turkish Soccer Campaigns For President Erdogan – Analysis

0
0

Turkish soccer executives campaigned this month for major constitutional change that would grant President Recep Tayyip Erdogan far reaching executive powers. The Turkish Football Federation’s (TFF) backing of Mr. Erdogan’s effort to accumulate more power put to bed any notion of a separation between politics and soccer. So did the failure of world soccer body FIFA and UEFA, its European affiliate, to condemn the TFF’s violation of a cardinal principle of international sports governance.

Speaking at a TFF conference, Mr. Erdogan punctured the fiction upheld by sports officials and politicians of a Chinese Wall that separates sports and politics. “I believe politics and football share many common aspects at the core. Just like sports, the essence of politics is competition, race… Just as a team, playing without any plan, tactic or strategy, have zero chance of winning the cup, politicians, political parties that have nothing to tell the people have no chance of success. Just like football, politics cannot be done without passion, love and dedication. You have to dedicate yourself,” Mr. Erdogan said.

If Mr. Erdogan set the ball up, TFF president Yildirim Demiroren, a businessman who built his fortune in liquid gas distribution, sealed the goal by campaigning for a vote in favour of enhancing the president’s power in a referendum scheduled for April 16. . Speaking at the same conference, Mr. Demiroren expressed the hope that Turkey would wake up on the morning of April 17 to discover that a majority of Turks had voted yes.

Turkish soccer’s partisan alignment with politics with no sanctioning by international and regional sports associations responsible for policing maintenance of the fiction of separation of politics and sports goes however further than simple endorsements. It involves sanctioning soccer officials, players, and club members for holding potentially dissenting political views.

Cumhurriyet, one of Turkey’s few remaining independent newspapers, reported last week that the TFF had suspended a referee in the Black Sea town of Sinop for publicly calling for a no vote in the referendum. The referee, Ilker Sahin, charged that the TFF was applying double standards by de factor stipulating that campaigning in favour of a yes vote was legitimate, campaigning against was not.

Similarly, Istanbul-based Galatasaray FC, one of Turkey’s leading clubs, scrambled last week to expel two prominent former players, Hakan Suker and Arif Erdem, hours after sports and youth minister Akif Cagatay Kilic, took the club to task for not already having done so.

Galatasaray had voted a day earlier not to include Messrs Sukur, Turkey’s all-time top scorer, and Erdem in the expulsion of alleged followers of Fethullah Gulen, an exiled Muslim preacher, whom Mr. Erdogan blames for last year’s failed military coup. Those expelled included former provincial governors and prosecutors.

Messrs. Sukur and Erdem were members of the Galatasary squad that won the UEFA Cup in 2000. Mr. Sukur, like Mr. Gulen, has sought refuge in the United States from where both men condemned the failed military attempt to topple Mr. Erdogan.

A former recruiter for the Gulen movement, Said Alpsoy, who successfully focused on winning support for the preacher among Turkey’s top soccer stars said he had recruited half of Galatasaray’s team by the time he broke with the group in 2003.

US President Donald J. Trump’s short-lived national security advisor, Retired Army Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn, reportedly discussed while in office with senior Turkish government officials ways of extraditing Mr. Gulen to Turkey without going through the U.S. extradition legal process.

“Traitors to our country and our state have no business in our established sports clubs. The board’s voting is inexplicable to the families of our martyrs and veterans,” Mr. Kilic said.

Heavily indebted clubs like Galatasary cannot afford to cross Mr. Erdogan who prides himself on having engineered financial relief for various clubs, partly through tax amnesties. UEFA executive Andrea Traverso noted that Turkey is the only member of the European association where debts and liabilities outstrip clubs’ assets.

Turkish soccer also owes Mr. Erdogan for protecting clubs from the potentially devastating fallout of the worst match-fixing scandal in Turkish history. The scandal in 2011 was the first public skirmish between Messrs. Erdogan and Gulen, who until then had been allies, particularly in successfully asserting civilian control of the armed forces. Aziz Yildirim, the head of Fenerbahce SK, the political crown jewel of Turkish soccer, who was at the core of the scandal, has accused Mr. Gulen’s followers of engineering the scandal.

The financial troubles of Turkish clubs are aggravated by a severe drop in match attendance following the introduction of a mandatory electronic ticketing system in 2013. Fans have boycotted the system in the belief that it was designed to identify them as part of a crackdown on popular, politicized fan groups. Soccer fans played an important role in mass anti-Erdogan protests in 2013, the largest since Mr. Erdogan first became prime minister a decade earlier.

For his part, Mr. Erdogan outlawed Mr. Gulen’s Hizmet movement as a terrorist organization in the wake of the failed coup. Critics of Mr. Erdogan have questioned his assertion and accused him of exploiting the coup to label most of his critics as Gulenists and act against them.

German intelligence chief Bruno Kahl told Der Spiegel earlier this month that Turkey had been unable to convince Germany of Mr. Gulen’s guilt. “Turkey has tried to convince us on a number of different levels. But they haven’t yet been successful,” Mr. Kahl said.

A former soccer player, Mr. Erdogan has sought to enhance his popularity in soccer-crazy Turkey in advance of the referendum by publicly identifying himself with the sport. The president was among the first to congratulate the Turkish national team on the pitch in Ankara for its defeat of Finland in a World Cup qualifier.

In doing so, Mr. Erdogan is in good company. Many world leaders see identification with a popular sports team as way to enhance their own popularity. Congratulations are, however, a far cry from turning soccer into a willing political tool. It raises questions about where the dividing line is in the alleged separation of sports and politics as well as about the integrity of international sports governance.

What A Westinghouse Bankruptcy Could Mean For US Utilities – Analysis

0
0

By Leonard Hyman and Bill Tilles

International news services now report that Japan’s Toshiba Corporation (9502.T) is preparing to make a chapter 11 bankruptcy filing for its Westinghouse Electric subsidiary. For most of our readers this news evokes little surprise. This is merely another chapter of a slow moving financial and accounting train wreck involving nuclear design and construction firm Westinghouse and its troubled Japanese parent, Toshiba. But like an old, leaky garbage scow there is much to clean up in its wake.

The two U.S. utilities with the most at risk are Southern Company and SCANA Corp. Westinghouse is presently constructing two unit, AP 1000 nuclear power stations for each utility. These projects are over-budget and behind schedule. It appears that Westinghouse offered both utilities a fixed price contract for these new nuclear plants. Our best guess is that this fixed price construction guarantee has doomed Westinghouse and prevented other potentially willing buyers from stepping in. No one it seems is willing to take on this seemingly open-ended nuclear construction liability.

What does this mean for the two domestic utilities embroiled in this international financial quagmire?

First, we expect that they will complete both nuclear construction projects. The bulk of heavy capital expenditures for both utilities seem to be in the 2017-2019 period.

Second, it is in all interest of all potential litigants to see these plants completed. Westinghouse/Toshiba, for one, would at least get to showcase the AP 1000 design and its successor entity could advocate for additional sales of this reactor design. A working design has value. (What happens in the UK is another matter where Toshiba hoped to build several plants). The utilities, which need new power stations, get large, rate based, non-fossil base load power generating resources for the next 40-60 years.

The worst case scenario for utility investors would be if the utilities had to cancel the projects and take big write offs. But we assign a very low probability to this scenario.

Perhaps, more likely, a Westinghouse bankruptcy means abrogation of the fixed price contracts signed with Southern and SCANA. News reports this week indicated that both utilities had hired bankruptcy counsel.

As these plants are brought on line, presumably in the 2020-2021 time frame, the matter will go before the state utility commissions of Georgia and South Carolina. Both commissions approved these nuclear projects. It’s just that the plants will cost more than expected.

Unfortunately for investors, they will have to live with uncertainty until the regulators make their decisions. There are no clear precedents for the decisions, other than that commissions typically allocate or split unexpected financial burdens like these between shareholders and consumers. And that the amounts at risk won’t be modest given the size of the projects.

Original article: http://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/What-A-Westinghouse-Bankruptcy-Could-Mean-For-US-Utilities5507.html

Ending Syria’s Nightmare Will Take Pressure From Below – OpEd

0
0

Ominous developments in East Syria have drawn the United States and Russia into closer proximity increasing the likelihood of a violent confrontation.  The Trump administration has embarked on a dangerous plan to defeat the terrorist militia, ISIS, in Raqqa. But recent comments by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson suggest that Washington’s long-term strategy may conflict with Moscow’s goal of restoring Syria’s sovereign borders.  Something’s got to give. Either Russia ceases its clearing operations in east Syria or Washington agrees to withdraw its US-backed forces when the battle is over. If neither side gives ground, there’s going to be a collision between the two nuclear-armed adversaries.

On Wednesday, the US airlifted hundreds of mainly-Kurdish fighters to an area behind ISIS lines where they were dropped near the town of al-Tabqa. The troops– who are part of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces or SDF– were accompanied by an undisclosed number of US Marines serving as advisors. Ostensibly, the deployment was intended to encircle ISIS positions and retake the area around the strategic Tabqa Dam. But the operation had the added effect of blocking the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) from advancing  along the main road towards Raqqa, the so called Capital of ISIS.  While the blocking move might have been coincidental, there’s a strong possibility that Washington is in the opening phase of a broader strategy to splinter the war-torn country and prevent the reemergence of a united secular Syria.

According to Almasdar News:

“The Coalition supported the offensive with air movement and logistical support, precision airstrikes, Apache helicopters in close air support, Marine artillery, and special operations advice and assistance to SDF leadership,” the US-led coalition said in a statement.” (AMN News)

In a matter of weeks, Washington’s approach to the war in Syria has changed dramatically. While the US has reportedly ended its support for the Sunni militias that have torn the country apart and killed over 400,000 people, the US has increased its aid to the SDF that is making impressive territorial gains across the eastern corridor. The ultimate goal for the SDF fighters is an autonomous Kurdish homeland carved out of West Iraq and East Syria, while US objectives focus primarily on the breakup of the Syrian state, the removal of the elected government, the control over critical pipelines routes, and the redrawing of national borders to better serve the interests of the US and Israel.

The idea of breaking up Syria is not new. The plan first appeared in an article by Oded Yinon in 1982 titled “A Strategy for Israel in the Nineteen Eighties”.  Yinon believed that– for Israel to survive– it must become an imperial regional power that “must effect the division of the whole area into small states by the dissolution of all existing Arab states.” (Israel Shahak)

The most recent adaptation of Yinon’s plan was articulated by Brookings Institute analyst Michael O’ Hanlon in a piece that appeared in the Wall Street Journal titled “A Trump Strategy to End Syria’s Nightmare”.  In the article, O’ Hanlon states bluntly:

“To achieve peace, Syria will need self-governance within a number of autonomous zones. One option is a confederal system by which the whole country is divided into such zones. A less desirable but minimally acceptable alternative could be several autonomous zones within an otherwise still-centralized state—similar to how Iraqi Kurdistan has functioned for a quarter-century….

Security in the Sunni Arab and Kurdish autonomous zones would be provided by local police and perhaps paramilitary forces raised, trained and equipped with the direct support of the international community. …(“A Trump Strategy to End Syria’s Nightmare”, Wall Street Journal)

In an earlier piece, O’ Hanlon referred to his scheme as “Deconstructing Syria” a plan that “would produce autonomous zones that would never again have to face the prospect of rule by either Assad or ISIL.”

Many of the details in O’ Hanlon’s piece are identical to those in Trump’s plan which was announced by Secretary of State Tillerson just last week. The Brookings strategy appears to be the script from which the administration is operating.

In his presentation, Tillerson announced that US troops would not leave Iraq after the siege of Mosul was concluded which has led many to speculate that the same policy will be used in Syria. Here’s an excerpt from an article at the WSWS that explains this point:

“US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson declared Washington’s intention to keep troops deployed more or less indefinitely in the territories now occupied by Islamic State in Iraq and Syria in remarks delivered at the beginning of a two-day meeting of the US-organized anti-ISIS coalition in Washington.

“The military power of the coalition will remain where this fraudulent caliphate has existed in order to set the conditions for a full recovery from the tyranny of ISIS,” he told an audience that included Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. He gave no indication of when, if ever, US troops could be withdrawn from a war zone extending across Iraq and Syria, where there has been fighting of greater or lesser intensity throughout the 14 years since the US first invaded Iraq.” (Tillerson pledges long-term US military role in Iraq and Syria, World Socialist web Site)

US Defense Secretary James “Mad Dog” Mattis reinforced Tillerson’s comments adding that the US plans a indefinite occupation of Iraq (and, possibly, Syria) stating that it was in America’s “national interest.”

“I believe it’s in our national interest that we keep Iraqi security forces in a position to keep our mutual enemies on their back foot,” he said, as quoted by the Military Times. The US “needs to remain decisively engaged in Iraq and in the region.”

In response to Mattis’s comments, Syrian President Bashar al Assad said:

“Any military operation in Syria without the approval of the Syrian government is illegal, and  any troops on the Syrian soil,  is an invasion, whether to liberate Raqqa or any other place. …The (US-led) coalition has never been serious about fighting ISIS or the terrorists.”

Clearly, Washington is using the fight against ISIS as a pretext for capturing and holding territory in a critical, energy-rich area of the world. The plan to seize parts of East Syria for military bases and pipeline corridors fits neatly within this same basic strategy.   But it also throws a wrench in Moscow’s plan to restore the country’s borders and put an end to the six year-long conflict.

And what does Tillerson mean when he talks about “interim zones of stability” a moniker that the Trump administration carefully crafted to avoid the more portentous-sounding “safe zones”. (Readers will recall that Hillary Clinton was the biggest proponent of safe zones in Syria, even though they would require a huge commitment of US troops as well as the costly imposition of a no-fly zone.)

Tillerson’s comments suggest that the Trump administration is deepening its involvement in Syria despite the risks of a catastrophic clash with Moscow. Ever since General Michael Flynn was forced to step down from his position as National Security Advisor, (Flynn wanted to “normalize” relations with Russia), Trump has filled his foreign policy team with Russophobic hawks who see Moscow as “hostile revisionist power” that “annex(es) territory, intimidates our allies, develops nuclear weapons, and uses proxies under the cover of modernized conventional militaries.” Those are the words of  the man who replaced Flynn as NSA,  Lt. General HR McMaster. While the media applauded the McMaster appointment as an “outstanding choice”, his critics think it signals a departure from Trump’s campaign promise:

“We will pursue a new foreign policy that finally learns from the mistakes of the past…We will stop looking to topple regimes and overthrow governments…. Our goal is stability not chaos, because we want to rebuild our country [the United States] …In our dealings with other countries, we will seek shared interests wherever possible and pursue a new era of peace, understanding, and good will.”

There won’t be any peace under Mattis or McMaster, that’s for sure. Both men are anti-Moscow hardliners who think Russia is an emerging rival that must be confronted and defeated. Even more worrisome is the fact that uber-hawk John McCain recently stated that he talks with both men “almost daily” (even though he has avoided talking to Trump since he was elected in November.)

According to German Marshall Fund’s Derek Chollet, a former Obama Pentagon official. “(McCain) is trying to run U.S. defense policy through Mattis and effectively ignore Trump.” (Kimberly Dozier, Daily Beast contributing editor)  Chollet’s comments square with our belief that Trump has relinquished his control over foreign policy to placate his critics.

Washington’s Syria policy is now in the hands of a small group of right-wing extremists who think Russia is the biggest threat the nation has faced since WW2. That’s why there’s been a sharp uptick in the number of troops deployed to the region. This is from The Nation:

“On March 9, The New York Times reported that the United States is sending 400 troops to Syria…A week later, March 15, The Washington Post reported that the Pentagon has drawn up plans to send a 1,000 more troops within the coming weeks. Meanwhile, in anticipation of the coming … operation against the Islamic State, the administration has decided to send “an additional 2,500 ground combat troops to a staging base in Kuwait.” (“Congress Needs to Stop Trump’s Escalation of the War on Syria”, Nation)

Here’s more from Sputnik:

“Every two days the US deploys a large amount of weapons, primarily heavy armaments, to the region. They have sent tanks, armored vehicles, missiles, sniper rifles, mortar launchers and other types of weaponry…In addition, the United States has told us that a decision was made to send an additional 1,000 US troops to take part in the Raqqa operation,” he said, specifying that US troops will serve as military advisers during the operation and will not take part in the combat.” (Sputnik)

Washington is increasing its weapons stockpile to fend off any attempt by Russia and its allies to keep the battered nation together. A weaker, fragmented Syria governed by tribal leaders and local warlords will pose no  threat to Washington or Tel Aviv’s regional ambitions.  At least, that appears to be the thinking among US foreign policy elites.

But while Washington continues to pour gas on the fire,   Russia remains committed to preserving what Putin calls “the fair world order”. In a recent speech he said:

“Russia opposes attempts to destabilize and weaken international relations, as this could lead to a chaotic and ever less controllable slide towards greater tension in the world.

We support joint action to ensure a democratic and fair world order based on strict respect for the norms of international law, the United Nations Charter, recognition of the unquestionable value of cultural and civilizational diversity, national sovereignty, and the right of all countries to decide their futures freely, without external pressure.”

The Trump administration’s plan to splinter Syria and establish a permanent garrison in the eastern part of the country won’t be stopped unless the American people express their opposition en masse.  Investigative journalist, James Carden, recommends that Congress pass a “No Presidential Wars” resolution that “would prohibit the president from “initiating wars against state or non-state actors without prior congressional declarations under Article I, section 8, clause 11 (Declare War Clause).”  It’s a great idea, but it won’t happen without pressure from below.  People will have to get more involved if they want the bloodletting to end. There’s no other way.

Georgia Celebrates Visa Free Travel To EU

0
0

(Civil.Ge) — Georgia’s Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili, along with cabinet ministers, MPs and a group of students, traveled to Athens on March 28 to celebrate the launch of the visa-free travel to the European Union.

In Athens, the Georgian delegation members participated in the academic conference “Georgia from Europe to Europe.” The delegation headed to Brussels later on the same day.

“Today is a historic day – Georgian citizens will finally be able to travel visa-free to the European Union/Schengen countries,” Kvirikashvili told the journalists before departure.

“This is an enormous achievement and a great opportunity for Georgian citizens to better acquaint with the European Union, to better learn the values that the European Union stands on,” Kvirikashvili added.

“Today, together with students, we are travelling to the oldest cultural capital of Europe – Athens … Midday, we will travel to the political capital of Europe – Brussels to celebrate this big achievement,” Kvirikashvili noted.

Beginning from March 28, Georgian citizens with a biometric passport travelling to the Schengen area for up to 90 days for business, tourist or family purposes no longer require a visa.

The EU-Georgia Visa Liberalization Dialogue was launched in June 2012 and was completed on March 1, 2017 when the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament signed the regulation on visa liberalization for Georgians.

The visa waivers apply to the Schengen area, which includes 22 EU member states (all except Ireland, the UK, Croatia, Cyprus, Romania and Bulgaria), plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.

South Korea: Arrested Former President Park Geun-Hye

0
0

South Korea’s former president, Park Geun-hye, was arrested March 31, three weeks after being removed from office by the country’s Constitutional Court.

The former president was removed from office as part of the fallout from an influence-peddling scandal involving her confidant Choi Soon-sil, which saw thousands take to the streets in protests, supported by churchmen and many Catholics, to demand he removal.

Almost 11 percent of South Korea’s population is Catholic.

Park became the nation’s third president to be put behind bars facing criminal charges, following Chung Do-hwan and Roh Tae-woo in the 1990s, the Korean Times reported.

A warrant for Park’s arrest was issued in the early hours of the morning following a court hearing that lasted nearly nine hours.

“There are considerable reasons and need to arrest [Park] as key charges have been substantiated considerably and concerns over the destruction of evidence still prevail,” presiding Judge Kang Bu-young said, approving the prosecution’s request to arrest her.

The former president was taken to a detention center in Euiwang, Gyeonggi Province soon after the warrant was issued.

The questioning of Park is likely to take place early next week.

Because official campaigning for the presidential election begins April 17, the prosecution is expected to indict Park before then, to minimize the case’s impact on the election.

If Park is found guilty of the multiple charges laid against her, including bribery, she faces a minimum of 10 years in prison and possibly up to 45 years.

She faces 13 charges in the scandal, including bribery, abuse of power, extortion and sharing state secrets with an unauthorized person.

At the hearing held for the arrest warrant, Park denied all the charges against her.

Viewing all 73339 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images