Is this end of a beautiful friendship?
The Taliban and Al-Qaeda have enjoyed a long alliance in Afghanistan. Their relationship, based on a seemingly shared brand of severe and militant Islam, even survived the U.S.-led toppling of the Taliban in 2001, which came after leader Mullah Omar famously refused to turn over to the Americans his Al-Qaeda ally, Osama bin Laden.
To this day, that relationship endures. But will it last? Rifts and tensions between the Taliban and Arab Al-Qaeda, as well as vastly different Islamic traditions, suggest that a basis for separation exists. Whether it occurs could determine whether peace negotiations between the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Taliban foes ever get off the ground.--- Jeffrey Donovan
Deobandi Islam: The Religion of the Taliban
A rejoinder to a series of booklets entitled "Johannesburg to Bareilley
(DEOBANDI-ISM CAUGHT UP IN ITS OWN WEB)
By Allamah Kaukab Noorani Okarvi Rahm.Translated by S.G. Khawajah
Spot the difference: Pakistan and Bangladesh are not two sides of the same coin
Hasina keeps her word, clamps down on terror outfits
DHAKA:
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has proposed the formation of a South Asian task force to combat terrorism, in the interest of maintaining greater security for all countries in the region. - Haroon Habib
Spot the difference: In a world torn asunder by religious strife, there has been a tendency to see Pakistan and Bangladesh as two sides of the same coin — failed states steadily undermined by Islamic religious radicalism , that many in Washington and Delhi saw could be held together only by the army and its "moderate Islamic allies." The election and its aftermath has proved them wrong. -- Subir Bhaumik
Cracking the whip: Sheikh Hasina has begun well. Two most conspicuous indications of this are her moves to eradicate terrorism from Bangladesh and bring war criminals to justice. On December 31, 2008, during her very first Press conference after the Awami League's landslide victory in the parliamentary election on December 29, she talked of setting up a South Asian Task Force against terrorism. -- Hiranmay Karlekar
Babri masjid dispute: Finding a solution
That any temple built at Ayodhya will have been built on the blood of so many innocent lives, and by imperilling so many moral and constitutional principles, ought to be a matter of shame for most Hindus who care about Ram. This is an issue on which there is unlikely to be any settlement that appears just, and there are no guarantees that even a settlement will lay many of the murderous edges of Indian politics to rest. But it will take a divisive issue off the agenda and potentially transform our politics. There is no option other than to try. As a society we long gave up on justice. At the present conjuncture, we can only hope that we will at least opt for prudence. -- Pratap Bhanu Mehta
Through the 20-minute documentary – Bone of Contention — by Saurabh Pandey, not just this but also Ayodhya's inhabitants desire to come out of the viciousness of past stands out remarkably.... One message that comes out loud from the film is that an amicable solution to the mandir-masjid problem can be found by the people of Ayodhya, given the fact that there is no 'outside' interference. -- Abid Shah
The "Hidden Imam" of the Shiites – myth or reality?
The Iraqi Shi'i scholar, Muhammad Baqir as-Sadr, finds proof for the existence of the Hidden Mahdi in what he calls "the experience of a community". The existence of the Hidden Imam, he postulates, was experienced by the Shi'i community as a whole in the written communications that the representatives used supplied them with. The crux of this argument lies in the fact that an individual experience might be doubted, but never that of experience of an entire community. However, the glaring flaw in this line of reasoning is that it very conveniently overlooks the part of the representatives as the individual go-betweens. The community never had the privilege of seeing or meeting the person they believed to be the author of the tawqi'at. Their experience was limited to receiving what the representatives produced. Even the argument of a consistent handwriting in all the various tawqi'at is at best melancholy. There is no way one can get away from the fact that the existence of the Hidden Imam rests upon nothing other than acceptance of the words of the representatives.
The activities of those representatives furthermore go a long way to show that they were much, much more inspired by the desire to possess than by pious sentiments of any kind. So when the Shi'ah commemorate the birth of their twelfth Imam on the 15th night of Sha'ban, or when they seek to apply ahadith in Sunni sources which speak of twelve khalifas to their twelve Imams, then let us ask them on what basis do they accept the existence of the twelfth one? History bears witness to the existence of eleven persons in that specific line of descent, but when we come to the twelfth one, all we have is claims made by persons whose activities in the name of their Hidden Imam give us all the reason in the world to suspect their honesty and integrity. In Islam, issues of faith can never be based upon evidence of this kind.
--- Abu Muhammad al-Afriqi
Spiritual heritage of Imam Khomeini
Special feature on the 30th anniversary of Iran's Islamic Revolution
The thing that can be mentioned explicitly and reckoned to be the important and pivotal aspect of the Islamic Revolution is its spiritual dimension. Recognition of the Revolution of the Imam is not possible except from this perspective. In the same way that the personality of Imam Khomeini is a multifaceted and complete one, and he cannot be remembered simply as a leader of a political and social revolution, rather the focus should also be on his spiritual dimension, spiritual nature, expertise and religious leadership as well, the Imam's revolution cannot be viewed except from this perspective. Thus the foremost feature of the Imam and the Islamic Revolution of Iran must be deemed to be spiritualism. ---- The Institute for Compilation and Publication of Imam Khomeini's Works (International Affairs Department)
US Security Team Delivers Grim Appraisal of Afghanistan War
President Obama's national security team gave a dire assessment Sunday of the war in Afghanistan, with one official calling it a challenge "much tougher than Iraq" and others hinting that it could take years to turn around. - Craig Whitlock, The Washington Post
DRUNKEN TALAQ: HOW SOME FATWAS DISTORT ISLAM AND OPPRESS WOMEN
The Darul Uloom Deoband and the All India Muslim Personal Law Board are in the news again for the wrong reasons — the former for issuing another misogynist fatwa, and the latter for supporting the former's obscurantism. The misfeasance in question this time is the pronouncement that talaq uttered by a Muslim husband in a drunken state is valid. This nonsensical ruling has once again exposed the medieval bias of some Muslim clerics. This fatwa is not just bad in law but also bad in theology, as it is not based on the Quran, the locus classicus of Islam. The Deoband muftis have been honest enough to concede that their recent articulation is grounded in the Hanafi law. It is common knowledge among Muslims that the Hanafi fiqh contains many provisions that are repugnant to reason. For instance, according to Al-Marghinani's Hedaya, one of the most celebrated treatises of Hanafi legal thought, the wife of a missing or absconding husband can remarry only after a minimum of 90 years have elapsed from the day of his birth. -- A. FAIZUR RAHMAN
Muslim personal law board betrays word, spirit of Quran: The Quran repeatedly asserts that "no change can there be in the words of Allah [10.64]". It means that for any rule or law, to be Islamic, it must be consistent with the provisions of the Quran. Once this position is accepted it will become easy to make the distinction between "Quranic laws" that release mankind "from their heavy burdens and from the yokes that are upon them [7.157]" and the "cleric laws" that "mislead [men] by their appetites unchecked by knowledge [6.119]". -- Arif Mohammed Khan
Jihadi attack on Mumbai - The Rationale of Terror
The Rationale of Terror -- Patrick J. Buchanan
What Is the Message of Terrorism --William Pfaff
Terrorist Attacks Rock Mumbai, Stun the World -- M.M. Ali
Hindus, Jews and Jehadi terror - Andrew J Boston
Terrorists All Around, yet We Slumber -- Herb Denenberg
Terror suspects in contact with terrorist groups - Alan Travis
Egyptian Cleric explains Wife-Beating in Islam
2. Indonesians ignore religious edicts against smoking, yoga
3. Shining a light on Islam's hidden scientific treasure
4. Most wanted Nazi converted to Islam, died in Egypt
5. World Muslim Scholars to Meet In Kuala Lumpur
6. Islam, democracy, human rights compatible – Shirin Ebadi
7. German, Tunisian sentenced in synagogue attack
8. Austria debates democratic credentials of its Islam teachers
9. CAIR Welcomes Obams's Islamic Reference
10. Iraq's Maliki emerges as forceful nationalist
11. Terror suspects maintain contact with terrorist groups
12. Editor Upholds Ideology of Iran's Islamic Revolution
13. Hamas are Sunnis! - Tariq Alhomayed
14. Anti-Islam UK teacher sues bosses for 100 K pounds
15. Fearful erosion of liberties -- Andrew Shaw
The War on Terror is a Hoax -- PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
If America were infected with terrorists, we would not need the government to tell us. We would know it from events. As there are no events, the US government substitutes warnings in order to keep alive the fear that causes the public to accept pointless wars, the infringement of civil liberty, national ID cards, and inconveniences and harassments when they fly. The most obvious indication that there are no terrorist cells is that not a single neocon has been assassinated. I do not approve of assassinations, and am ashamed of my country's government for engaging in political assassination. The US and Israel have set a very bad example for al Qaeda to follow. The US deals with al Qaeda and Taliban by assassinating their leaders, and Israel deals with Hamas by assassinating its leaders. It is reasonable to assume that al Qaeda would deal with the instigators and leaders of America's wars in the Middle East in the same way. -- PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS, Author of The Tyranny of Good Intentions who was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration.
Ideological Battle is the Key: Support Mainstream Islam
The international fight against terrorism will be a long, hard slog. After all, the problem and solution are linked: Terrorism not only threatens the free, secular world, but also springs from the rejection of democratic and secular values. Worse, terrorism is pursued as a sanctified tool of religion and a path to redemption. Thus, the struggle against transnational terror can be won only by inculcating a liberal, secular ethos in societies steeped in religious and political bigotry….Washington's proposal to triple non-military aid to Islamabad while keeping existing military aid flow intact, other than to tie it to concrete Pakistani cooperation on the Afghan front, will free Pakistan to continue its asymmetric war of terror against India. -- Brahma Chellaney
Kashmir not the issue, Pak-Afghan border is
The Kashmir conflict is a very small part of this larger dynamic and with two consecutive successful elections, the last one witnessing around 60 per cent participation by Jammu and Kashmir's electorate, it is hardly the reason why Mumbai was attacked or why the West is losing the war in Afghanistan. To rationalise the terrorist attacks in Mumbai by linking them to the Kashmir issue not only defies logic and is devoid of any serious analysis but it is also profoundly irresponsible and dangerous. It ignores Indian attempts over the past decade to acknowledge the aspirations of Kashmiris with the liberal, democratic and secular framework of its Constitution as well as bilateral attempts by India and Pakistan to reach some sort of understanding on this vexed issue. -- Harsh V. Pant
Demanding fairplay is fine, but Azamgarh Muslims need to introspect too
Muslims from Azamgarh were merely exercising their democratic right to peacefully protest a perceived discrimination and voice their demands for justice and fair treatment.
There is a general feeling in the Muslim community, and not only in Azamgarh, that after every terrorist act the police pick up innocent Muslim youth at random and even if they let them go after interrogation, their lives are already destroyed. They lose their jobs, marriages break down, their Muslim relatives and friends too start avoiding them, not to speak of their Hindu friends or employers. This has already happened to several Muslim youths in different parts of the country. ….
It is easy to blame the police and the government. Not that they do not deserve that blame sometimes. But while we have to try and keep them on their toes, through peaceful protests, through political mobilisation, and so on, that is not going to solve our problems in the long run. Even the denunciations of terrorism, that some of our ulema are organising in city after city, while useful, are not going to solve our problems. We need to introspect deeply, if there is something that could be wrong with us, with our understanding of our scriptures, and if there is something we can ourselves do to ameliorate our conditions instead of merely hoping and waiting for others to pull our chestnuts out of fire.
UK challenging Radical Islamism by promoting Mainstream Islam
UK's four- pronged approach to de-radicalise its Muslim minority holds important lessons for the Indian effort to counter extremism at home.
Recently, I had the opportunity to study aspects of the first strand of the Four P's strategy — preventing the emergence of violent radicalism on the part of the Muslim youth in the UK. The plan addresses disadvantage, mis-perception, and alienation by putting money into a number of projects addressing inequality and discrimination. Targeted schemes have sought to improve the educational and physical infrastructure of the ghettoes, and even more boldly, to directly challenge radical theology by promoting moderate Islam as well as inter-faith dialogue. The approach has been to knit together various ministries, local governments, civil society, community institutions like mosques, gurudwaras and temples to attack the problem. -- Manoj Joshi
Radical vs. Mainstream Islam: some reflections
'Anti-terrorism policy review, dialogue key to West-Muslims ties'
ISLAMABAD: Most of the foreign envoys based in Islamabad on Tuesday urged a review of the war on terror policies, dialogue with extremists and better relations between the Muslim and the West.
Speaking at a conference - Islam and the West: Future Agenda of Change (Role of the Muslim World) - organised by the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), the envoys also called on the world to change its perception towards Islam and replace 'might is right' principle with 'right is might'. The conference was convened to consider recommendations for US President Barack Obama to improve the West-Muslim relations.
Also: "Moderate" Muslims versus American-Muslims by Supna Zaidi
Finding the Moderate Muslims by Ben Shapiro
Government, FBI, Media Years behind Understanding
Radical Islam by Herb Denenberg
An Indecent Attempt to Tarnish the Image of the Companions of the Prophet
Maulana Nadeem-ul-Wajidee critiques Arif Mohammad Khan's "fallacious" arguments on Yazid's succession and Karbala
Maulana Nadeem-ul-Wajidee analyzes the "fallacious" arguments of former union minister Arif Mohammad Khan regarding the occurrence of Karbala, bringing the Sahaba-e-Karam (companions of the Prophet) into disrepute with reference to Yazid's succession. He argues that a respect for all Sahaba-e-Karam is an essential part of Islamic faith. According to the Maulana the Sahaba could do no wrong and all their decisions have to be respected by all Muslims. He says that Mr. Arif Mohammad Khan's arguments against the succession of Yazid are just a rehash of Maulana Maududi's comments on the subject.
Transkated from Urdu by Syed Raihan Ahmad Nezami
The American Empire vs. The Graveyard of Afghanistan
Whistling Past the Afghan Graveyard, Where Empires Go To Die
It is now a commonplace -- as a lead article in the New York Times's Week in Review pointed out recently -- that Afghanistan is "the graveyard of empires." Given Barack Obama's call for a greater focus on the Afghan War ("we took our eye off the ball when we invaded Iraq..."), and given indications that a "surge" of U.S. troops is about to get underway there, Afghanistan's dangers have been much in the news lately. Some of the writing on this subject, including recent essays by Juan Cole atSalon.com, Robert Dreyfuss at the Nation, and John Robertson at the War in Context website, has been incisive on just how the new administration's policy initiatives might transform Afghanistan and the increasingly unhinged Pakistani tribal borderlands into "Obama's War." -- Tom Engelhardt
How 'Pakistan's Switzerland' became Taliban land
At a time when the world's eyes are focused on Pakistan and what it will do about the terrorist hubs in its territory, there are few areas of concern bigger than Swat. The picturesque valley in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) was once a bustling tourist hub before the Taliban overran the area. Unlike the proxy wars raging in the fringes of Pakistan's territory, Swat is much closer to Pakistan's heartland — a three-hour drive from Islamabad. Radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah's band of footsoldiers have made sure that the place once called 'Pakistan's Switzerland' is now a valley marked by destruction. -- Manjusha Madhu
------
The Pakistani government has "lost control" of the settled district of Swat to the Taliban, a senior politician said. The military is losing the battle that began more than a year ago in the former vacation paradise once known as the Switzerland of Pakistan, according to Haji Adeel, the Senior Vice President of Awami National Party, the ruling party in the Northwest Frontier Province. --- Bill Roggio
"Prison Muslims" fastest growing religious group in the US
2. Poetry contests in Saudi Arabia anger Grand Mufti
3. How democracy loses its footing in Middle East by Joel Brinkley
4. Under Obama, `war on terror' catchphrase fading
5. Obama and the War on Terror -- the real thing
6. Why Obama's Message is Not Complete by Samar Fatany
7. Muslims should see Gaza not merely as a tragedy for the Islamic world
8. In Kufa, Shiites bemoan Sadr movement's diminished role
9. Iran Detains Three Women's Activists - Campaigner
10. Dhaka: Indian cleric leads world Islamic meet prayer
11. Fighting violence against women Katherine Bradstreet
12. Smoking still popular despite Ulema edict by Kyle Taylor
13. Islamic association seeks to teach Americans about the Quran
14. Ismailia: Egyptian Islamic activist detained at Gaza border
15. Women refuse refuge due to nearby mosque by Esther Harward
16. Small US bank goes Islamic
17. Slain Exile Detailed Chechen Ruler's Systematic Cruelty by C. J. Chivers
18. Ghaza: Muslim world showers praise on Turkish PM
19. Some see Mumbai terrorism as an attack on India-Israel ties By Peter Spiegel
Who runs Pakistan, its Army, its terrorists, its governments?
They have reasons to be despondent. Those who had hoped against all hopes that Pakistan would turn its present adversity – the fact that the whole world is calling it a hub of terrorism and asking it to come clean and punish the terrorists who perpetrated the horrific Mumbai attacks – into an opportunity to cleanse its polity of the influence of terrorists and their supporters at the highest levels of its governments and its Army. The drama gong on in Pakistan following the country being forced by the world to own up to its terrorist – Ajmal Amir Qassab, one of the perpetrators of Mumbai terror, now in Indian custody – exposes all the various chinks in its armour. Major General [R] Mahmud Ali Durrani, the National Security Adviser, has been already sacked, for being the first person to admit the Pakistani nationality of The Butcher of Mumbai. [Qassab literally means the butcher.]
Pakistan's tragedy is a tragedy for the region and indeed the whole world. It would appear that even the United States that ordered Pakistan and paid the cost of creating its first terrorists in the 1980s, then respectably called the Mujahedeen by the White House and other organs of government in Washington and the Western media, is now asking it to come clean, at least to appease India a bit. That Washington truly wants Pakistan and the world to be rid of Islamic terrorists is doubtful; for its unstinted, unquestioned support for the main source of finance and the ideological hub of terrorism, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is continuing unabated even eight ears after it found out that the perpetrators of 9/11 were nearly all Saudis. Osama bin laden is at large. So is Ayman al-Zawahiri. So is their network, intact and prospering. Taliban are dominating two-thirds of Afghanistan and now at least one-third of Pakistan as well. If that were not enough now Israel has been ordered to help Al-Qaeda, and Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and the rest of them create more terrorists. Tens of thousands of Saudi-funded madrasas around the world continue to teach Saudi Wahhabi curriculum. Hundreds of Saudi-Wahhabi funded websites and newspapers and publishing houses continue to churn out material detrimental to world peace.
Presently various factions in the Pakistan army and the governments - of President Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani - are all at war with each other. Those who are encouraged and probably paid by Washington to create terror and those whoa are supported and probably paid by Washington to contain terror are at war with each other – each trying to distance itself from Washington in the public eye. For, a known proximity to Washington is a kiss of death for any one in public life in Pakistan.
We, the people of India, and of course, even Pakistan, are the real victims of this complicated Terror Game, bigger than the Big Game of yesteryears. Some of us do sense that there is something amiss in this so-called War on Terror which has now been re-christened The long War. After all, the US did fund the Islamisation of Pakistan a couple of decades ago and is now claiming to be funding the de-Islamisation of that country. But we do not understand even partly what is actually going on. In the mean time our writers and journalists and bloggers keep supporting or fighting with one or the other faction in this WAR without actually knowing who they are supporting or fighting and why. New Age Islam presents below an interesting discussion going on currently on Pakistani weblogs on the question of whether or not Major General [R] Mahmud Ali Durrani, the national security adviser until yesterday has suddenly turned into a security risk for Pakistan. This would be so comic if it were not so tragic.
Darul Harb versus Darul Aman: Can Pakistan or Saudi Arabia be considered a Land of peace for Muslims?
Pakistani blogger Mr. Aamir Mughal has raised a very important issue in a comment posted in relation to the article below: Demolish Kafir/ Mushrik/ Munafiq-manufacturing factories, says Sultan Shahin, defending New Age Islam against Talibani onslaught
which needs to be debated threadbare- that of Darul Harb and Darul Aman. I live in India. Suppose I were to consider it a Darul Hrab - which of course, I don't - on the basis of the mere fact of it being a non-Muslim majority country - though it would appear that only so-called Darul Harbs are Darul Amans, lands of peace, in today's world - which Darul Aman, a Muslim country, would accept me as a full-fledged citizen, that India accepts me as? Pakistan will not even give me a visit visa, perhaps, unless I give it a host of false and forged documents. Saudi Arabia and all other countries, I can live and work there, if I find a job, for hundreds of years, but I would never get any citizenship rights. Only countries that I can think of which can give me full citizenship rights as India does would be countries of the West, like the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, other European countries. It won't be easy but it is doable. However, according to Mr. Aamir Mughal's definition, these are all Darul-Harbs, so what would be the point of shifting from one Darul Harb to another? What kind of Islam and what kind of Darul Harbs and Darul Amans are you talking about Mr. Aamir Mughal? Do you consider Pakistan a Darul Aman for Muslims, where Muslims are killed routinely during prayers in mosques, and where even the Muslims for whom this country was created do not get even visit visas?
... As a community we are more reactionary and obscurantist that positive and progressive. We live in fear and denial. There is noting wrong with us; it's all Jewish conspiracy, Hindu conspiracy, Western imperialist conspiracy, etc. etc. We love living in the past, in the land of pointlessness. So our discussions too are not so much about issues of today as about the bygone past. We revel in discussing ad infinitum the dirty politics of seventh century Arabia and taking sides with one or the other party. We have no present and no plans for the future. As a community, that is. Some individuals, of course, do have plans for themselves as well as for the community and a vision of regeneration for Islam and the Muslim community. But they are reviled for thinking of this word rather than the other world where 72 houris are waiting for them impatiently in a land of milk and honey and of course, plenty of liquor. (In the case of poor women, of course, only their husbands, if any, would be waiting there, and yet some of them become suicide bombers, for some reason.)
Religion of the Jahiliya: Jihadism is Kufr, not Islam - Pakistani Jihadists revealed plans for Indian Muslims in 1999
Recent terror attack at Mumbai has reminded us once again that Pakistan Army, or one of its agencies Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) at any rate, is determined to change the very character of Islam, turning it into the pre-Islamic religion of the Jahiliya (Arabia in the Dark Ages). It had indeed given us ample evidence of its anti-Islamic character during the Kargil war by reminding us of the Battle of Uhud where a woman of Jahiliya, Hinda, had mutilated the dead body of Prophet Mohammad's uncle, Hazrat Hamza. The Prophet [peace be upon him] had not only forgiven her but had made it a point to forbid the practice in every Muslim gathering thereafter for fear that the Muslims, too, might do something similar in retaliation. Blood feud and vengeance was rampant in the Arab world of the Jahiliya. One couldn't help being reminded of that when reports came that one of the terrorists mentioned vendetta for Gujarat and demolition of Babri masjid by Hindutva forces as the justification for the killing of innocents at Mumbai.
Pakistani "Islam" would indeed appear to be completely unrecognisable as Islam to a Muslim in any part of the world. Slowly but surely what appears to be a completely new religion seems to have caught the imagination of many people in Pakistan. Its followers don't, of course, consider it a new religion. Indeed this religion insists that it is Islam; in fact it calls itself true Islam or real Islam. But it can best be described as Jihadism, as its central belief system is based on a wilful misinterpretation of the Islamic concept of Jihad. It can also be called Talibanism, as the Taliban of Afghanistan, who studied in Pakistani madrasas run by the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Pakistan are its most avid practitioners.
By and large, the western-educated liberal Pakistani intelligentsia, as I found out during several visits, hates this religion and is frightened of it. But as one by one all institutions of governance are succumbing to its growing power and its capacity for evil, they are getting scared to death. Some of them are simply planning to migrate to some non-Muslim majority country. No one is really fighting this malignant force, though some journalists and human rights activists still have the courage at least to express their horror and outrage at grave personal risk.
