The Mayan Prophecy: Believers and Sceptics

As 2012 passed, many of us ridiculed the ancient Mayan prophecy predicting the end of the world on the 21^st of December. Throughout history plenty of individuals and groups have made similar claims by pinpointing the date of Armageddon, thus, people naturally express cynicism towards these claims. Some of the academics contested that the Mayan scripture did not explicitly predict anything specific as such. It was deliberately exaggerated by the Hollywood industry, and formed part of the wider media sensationalism; the underlying objective was to increase revenue and it worked.

From the interest generated across the globe, it seems the subject of Armageddon is of interest to people of faith and no faith. This could be indicative of something deeper in our psyche about how we view our planet and the universe that it exists in. It implies that we see our planet as finite, with a beginning and an end, hence there is an expectation that the world will come to an end at some point in the future.   

Connecticut school shooting: America gets a taste of its own medicine

Driven by hate, another homegrown terrorist goes on the rampage – this would have been the headline if Adam Lanza had been called Mohammed Lanza. Similar headlines were seen after the Oklahoma bombings; the media spared not time in tarnishing the Muslims even before the basic facts were known. Like Timothy McVeigh and Anders Breivik, Adam Lanza is also white with Christian heritage. Will the media now scrutinise the link between the ethnicity and religion of these men and the acts of gratuitous violence? 

There is no apparent political motive; the targets were innocent children who could not have caused any harm to Adam Lanza. The only possible ‘justification’ Adam Lanza could have argued is - these children posed a threat to him in the future; hence, he took some sort of pre-emptive strike by killing them. This is the same argument employed by the Zionists when they deliberately target women and children in Palestine, and the US has done the same to some extent after 9/11; shoot first then ask questions.

Israel the Chosen Nation

“We need to flatten entire neighbourhoods in Gaza, flatten all of Gaza; the Americans did not stop with Hiroshima, because the Japanese weren’t surrendering fast enough, so they hit Nagasaki too” (Gilad Sharon son of Ariel Sharon, OP Ed in The Jerusalem Post)

“There are no innocents in Gaza.... Turn it into rubble! Paint it red!”  (Michael Ben-Ari Knesset member)

 

Consider how the West would have reacted, if Iran was behaving like the Israelis. They would not be pleading for restraint; instead there would be an outcry, with threats of military action, and instant UN sanctions imposed. History seems to support the notion that Israel will always get preferential treatment, no matter what it does. Hence, the blatant media bias in the West, combined with the unquestionable vocal support it receives from Westerns leaders. Accordingly, they have simply echoed the Israel propaganda: Hamas started this conflict with their rockets and Israel is merely acting in self-defence. 

The British Foreign Secretary, William Hague, blamed Hamas and supported Israel’s right to issue collective punishment on the citizens of Gaza. According to that sort of logic, the British government would have bombed the Catholics in Ireland for the actions of the IRA (Irish Republic Army). Yet, the British Foreign Minister was quick to endorse, Israel can do what the UK would not even contemplate! In tune with this sort of hypocrisy, western leaders continuously lecture about Israel’s security whilst ignoring the fact that the Palestinians have no security.

Attempted assassination of a 14-year-old girl: In the name of Islam?

“If Malala had been killed in a drone attack, you would not hear her medical status update, neither would she be called "daughter of the nation"; and neither would the media make a fuss. Neither would General Kiyani come to visit nor would the world media criticise and repeatedly report on it. This I'm afraid is the bitter truth of the matter.”

                                                                                      (Author unknown)

Despite being enemies, it seems the Taliban and the Americans have something fundamental in common: intolerance. Both advocate killing innocent people when they do not concur with them; the attempted execution of Malala Yousafzai and the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki and his family members have the same underlying theme of intolerance.  The Americans want to impose western liberal democracy and the Taliban want to impose a draconian (literal) version of Islamic law where there is no room for differences. What do the ordinary masses want in Pakistan or any other Muslim country? Apart from economic security and political stability, they want a society where there is room for dialogue and discussion - freedom of expression within sensible boundaries.

As for the attempted execution of a 14-year-old girl, a soft target by any standards and no doubt a cowardly act, there are two pertinent issues; the Taliban ideology and the media duplicity.  

On the latter, the media duplicity is obvious, the selective outrage sparked by an attack one teenager (Malala Yousafzai), yet there is total silence on the many faceless and nameless Pakistanis killed and maimed by the American drones over the last decade. The issue has nothing do with compassion for Malala; the undue international media coverage is entirely political, another point scored in construing the problem of militant Islam and Pakistan’s failure to deal with it.

The Exit from Afghanistan

 

The Macedonians, Arabs, Persians, British, Russians have come and gone and now the Americans are preparing to do the same.

The infamous Bagram Air Base, known as the Guantanamo bay of Afghanistan or the Abu Ghraib of Iraq, where the Americans were ‘interrogating’ prisoners employing methods that can only be described as torture has been handed to the Afghan government; these are signs building up towards an American exit that is scheduled for December 2014 that started in 2001 following the events of 9/11.

With the rise of violence from 2006 onwards, particularly the “green on blue” attack is the exit represents the American-led mission a complete failure or it constitutes a calculated withdrawal from Afghanistan having met the objectives. The truth I believe lies somewhere in between, the withdrawal has been hastened by the economic crisis within the US as debts mount up, and elimination of Usamah Bin Laden and other leading members have more or less crippled the Taliban and remnants of Al-Qaeda has vanished from that part. Many of the Taliban are living across the border.

Read More ....

Innocent Muslims and the Rampage of Anti-Islamic Extremists

“We cannot disguise hostility towards any religion behind the pretence of liberalism” - Barack Obama, Cairo Speech 2009

President Obama has a historic opportunity to demonstrate that the words uttered at the Cairo speech were not the usual rhetoric of a politician seeking popularity and votes, by taking swift action against the few anti-Islamic extremists who produced this satirical, and profoundly offensive, anti-Islamic movie (Innocence of Muslims). And consequentially, endangered the lives of innocent Americans abroad; unfortunately four Americans including the ambassador in Libya have already perished; igniting an emotional issue will generate emotional response with unpredictable consequences.   

An open condemnation has to be followed by further actions to show that US government policy will not tolerate crass insults hurled against an entire community, in the same way that the world does not tolerate racial slurs. Hence, the crucial question is - can the US government take the lead in the Western world and demonstrate that it will not continue to allow the propagation of hostility towards Islam and Muslims, behind the pretence of liberalism, or will it continue to submit to the liberal bullies who are waving the hypocritical flag of free speech?

Afghanistan and Iran

The two neighbouring nations have a long shared history. Historically, Iran has been the dominant nation with pre-Islamic empires that rivalled Rome and Greece; it came close to ruling Europe. Thus, Afghanistan has always been part of Iran’s natural sphere of cultural, religious, and political influence. Many Afghans speak a dialect of Farsi (Dari), which is considered a language of culture and scholarship. Geographically, modern Iran took shape after losing western Afghanistan including Herat, the second-largest city in Afghanistan, to the British in the Anglo-Persian War (1856–1857). Many Iranians consider western Afghanistan to be an integral part of its territory or at least see it as a little Persia inside Afghanistan

Read More