The Pakistan navy will take over the command of the multi-national Task Force-150 of the Coalition Maritime Campaign Plan (CMCP) on Monday.
"In recognition of the Pakistan navy's professional ability and increased mutual confidence, Pakistan has been offered the Command of Multi National Task Force Group 150," said the Pakistan navy Sunday in a statement.
The CMCP is the maritime component of "Operation Enduring Freedom" being undertaken by a U.S.-led coalition of naval forces in the Golf of Oman, Arabian Sea, Arabian Gulf and Horn of Africa since October 2001.
Presently the command is held by the Dutch Navy.
Pakistan will be the first non-NATO country to take over the command. Pakistan's Rear Admiral Shahid Iqbal will be the Commander of Task Force-150, said the statement.
The legal basis for Operation Enduring Freedom is United Nations Resolution 1373, adopted by the UN Security Council at its 8345th meeting on Sept. 28, 2001, according to the statement.
"This operation aims to prevent, deter and destroy international terrorist organizations by denying them the use of maritime environment thereby contributing towards stability and security in Indian Ocean," the statement said.
"This will go a long way in projecting Pakistan's positive image in international community and will significantly highlight the Pakistan navy's contribution towards global war on terrorism."
Upon approval from the government of Pakistan, the Pakistan navy joined the CMCP in April 2004.
Other nations presently participating in the CMCP are the United States, Britain, France, Australia, Italy, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain.
A maritime coalition that patrols 5th Fleet waters is getting new leadership. On April 24, Pakistani naval forces will assume command of Task Force 150, which patrols the waters off the Horn of Africa and within the Gulfs of Aden and Oman and the Arabian Sea, according to Cmdr. Jeff Breslau, public affairs officer for 5th Fleet/Naval Forces Central Command in Bahrain.
Formed in December 2001 in response to the terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon, Task Force 150 rotates command among coalition member nations. The intent is to deny terrorists and other transnational threats use of the sea in that region.
Breslau said the Pakistani command will a first for that country since the task force was formed.
France, Germany, the United States and Pakistan have an ongoing commitment to the force. Naval forces from Canada, Great Britain, Italy and the Netherlands also participate periodically, and the Dutch are currently in charge of the task force.
The U.S. Navy contributes at least one warship to Task Force 150. The force usually numbers between six and 12 warships.
Ships from the task force have been involved in several contacts with suspected pirates of the coast of Somalia in recent months.
Sources:
Xinhua
http://english.people.com.cn/200604/24/eng20060424_260595.html
and
Marine Corps Times
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-1720305.php
Monday, April 24, 2006
Mughal-e-Azam, 1st Indian film in Pak. in 41 yrs
New Delhi, April 23 (UNI) Emperor Akbar and Anarkali have pipped Shah Jahan and Mumtaz in the race to hit Pakistani theatres!
Even as there was widespread buzz in recent weeks that Akbar Khan's 'Taj Mahal-An eternal Love Story' would be the first Indian film to make it to Indian theatres on April 28, K Asif's 'Mughal-E-Azam' quietly hits the Pakistan theatres on Saturday, thus becoming the first film to be released in Pakistan after 41 years.
Akbar Asif, son of the late K Asif who produced and directed the legendary classic, said the film would be premiered today at Pakistan's Gulistan cinema.
The film's premiere, the preparations for which began late yesterday, was being held for selected government officials, socialites and other important personalities. As part of the preparations for the film's premiere, Gulistan Cinema was decorated with a special set designed by Tanveer Fatima. Mughal-e-Azam' thus becomes the first film to successfully open the cinematic gates of Pakistan for Bollywood films.
Considering that the London-based Akbar Asif had planned a grandiose release for 'Mughal-e-Azam', including a hunt to find a new Anarkali through a major television hunt spreading over six months, the quiet move to release the film comes as a surprise. Initially, the film was to hit the theatres in Pakistan on June 2 amid grand celebrations. Elaborate plans had been made to release the film in the presence of actors from around the globe and royalty, complete with fireworks from Japan.
Infact, Asif's initial plans were to make the release as grand as the epic film itself.
However, when it became evident that Akbar Khan's 'Taj Mahal' would beat 'Mughal-e-Azam' in the race to hit the Pakistani theatres by releasing on April 28, Akbar Asif dropped plans for a grandiose release as he wanted his film to be the first Indian cinematic venture to hit theatres in the neighbouring country.
With this thought, Akbar Asif quietly moved his papers with the Pakistan government and finally the decision to have Mughal-E-Azam as the first film to be screened in Pakistan came through.
"The move to ensure that 'Mughal-E-Azam' turned out to be the cultural bridge between India and Pakistan was to fulfill my father's dream of getting Mughal-E-Azam to be the first film to get permission to be screened in Pakistan,"Asif said.
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/009200604230352.htm
R E L A T E D
Pakistan allows showing of Indian films after 6 decades
Last Updated Sun, 23 Apr 2006 15:44:48 EDT
CBC Arts
Film lovers lined up at theatres in Lahore, Pakistan, on Sunday to see the first Indian movie allowed to be screened in the country for almost 60 years.
Mughal-e-Azam, or The Great Mogul, is an historical romance made in 1960 in Mumbai but set in Lahore at the time when Muslim leaders ruled India. The story of a doomed love affair between a prince and a slave girl has been dubbed the India’s answer to the American Civil War epic Gone With The Wind.
Pakistani theatres are forbidden from showing Indian films, but the government bowed to lobbying from the film industries in both countries. Indian movies are available through pirated videotapes and discs and some independent cable stations show them late at night.
“I've seen it a dozen times on video, but watching Mughal-e-Azam on the big screen was special,'' said Abdul Waheed, 75, after buying his ticket for the first screening of the classic in Pakistan.
Members of Pakistan’s film industry lobbied to have the film and another one, Taj Mahal, released in Pakistani cinemas.
Taj Mahal, a new Bollywood epic, will be released later this week in Pakistan.
Backers of Taj Mahal won over the government by donating millions of rupees to a relief fund for victims of the October 2005 earthquake in the disputed Kashmir region. About 70,000 people died and more than two million in the area are still homeless.
Those working in film on both sides of the border hope the relaxation of rules will lead to greater understanding between the two nations, who have teetered on the brink of war since 1947 when the British partitioned India, creating Pakistan.
Mughal-e-Azam took nine years to make and has special resonance with Muslims in both countries. There are approximately 145 million Muslims each in India and Pakistan and many who left Pakistan 59 years ago have since become prominent members of India’s movie-making industry.
Dilip Kumar, who plays the male lead in the film, was born Yusuf Khan in Peshawar, in northwest Pakistan.
“It is good that the government has allowed the screening of this historic movie. It will not only help revive Pakistani cinema, but it will also strengthen the peace process between Pakistan and India,'' Nadeem Mandviwala, Mughal-e-Azam's distributor, told Reuters.
Source: CBC.ca
http://www.cbc.ca/story/arts/national/2006/04/23/india-film-pakistan.html
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Farmer suicide on rise as India's rural crisis deepens
Sat Apr 22, 6:46 AM ET
Despite failed crops and mounting debts, the family of Indian cotton farmer Chandrakant Gurenule never believed his suicide threats until he set himself alight and fled their home in flames.
The ambitious 34-year-old bought the latest, expensive, high-yield genetically-modified cotton seeds for his 15-acre (six-hectare) farm in this parched corner of India's vast rural hinterland only for his crops to fail for two successive years.
He sold the pair of bullocks he used to plough the fields, and told his wife -- whose wedding jewellery had already been given to unofficial moneylenders -- there was no hope left.
He sat inside his home, doused himself in kerosene and lit a match.
His death on April 1 was one of the latest in a crisis that saw more than 4,100 farmers commit suicide in the western state of Maharashtra alone in 2004, according to a state government-backed report based on police figures.
Officials confirm that the deaths are increasing at a faster rate than ever before in a country that already has the second highest suicide rate in the region, according to the World Health Organisation.
Indian government officials have said more than 8,900 farmers had died in four states since 2001, putting the Maharashtra figure at only 980 as opposed to 4,100 -- a number dismissed as far too low by activists.
"In such hostile conditions when there is no ray of hope, the farmer commits suicide," says Kishor Tiwari, an activist who has documented some 450 suicide deaths in just one part of the state in the last year.
Agriculture is essential to the well-being of Indian society as it employs some 60 percent of the country's workforce and accounts for a quarter of India's GDP.
Immediate survival was on the minds of Gurenule's family at their home in the village of Sayatkhada.
His young widow clutched his framed photograph and their two children while his distraught father Bapurao, 75, sat on the floor and wept.
"I hold my head and I think of him. I have lost him and don't know what to do now," he said. "There is nothing we can do."
Three years ago, the Gurenules, persuaded by their local farm agent, took the first step to move into raising GM crops, and trials gave good results.
They increased the amount they bought the following year, even though the cost of one bag of seed was 1,600 rupees, compared with the 450 rupees they used to pay, but that year's crop failed because of drought.
So they bought even more as part of a 70,000-rupee (1,500-dollar) cultivation bill. Again the crop failed when it was washed away by too much rain.
"After that, he told us the only way to get out of this was to die. But we never took it seriously," said his brother Pralad. "He was very into his work."
Investigators for India's monopoly monitors earlier this month accused US biotech group Monsanto, which has a tight grip on the GM market, of overpricing its cotton seeds, charging so-called "technology fees" on seed packets.
Government reports had not linked its cotton seeds and the spike in the number of suicides, Monsanto said.
But activists claimed that 60 percent of farmers in Maharashtra had failed to recover costs from their first GM harvest and the seeds were totally unsuited to small-scale Indian farming.
"Monsanto should be held liable ... it's caused immense stress in the farming community," said Dr Suman Sahai, founder of the Gene Campaign, a steady critic of Monsanto.
In his report for the Maharashtra government, Srijit Mishra blamed a range of problems including falling world cotton prices, low Indian import tariffs and the failure of the state's minimum cotton price scheme.
He also said farmers, often illiterate and without proper training, were frequently dependent on seed suppliers telling them what to buy, and on unregulated moneylenders for the cash to buy it.
According to a 2003 survey, more than half of all farmers in the state were in debt and Mishra's report said about one-third of the loans came from non-official sources.
Because of the surge in suicides in the state -- from fewer than 1,100 in 1995 to more than 4,100 in 2004 -- moneylenders encourage farmers to sell them their land as security for the loan in case they commit suicide. They only sell it back if the loan is paid off, said Mishra's report.
K.S. Vatsa, rehabilitation secretary for the Maharashtra state government, said the biggest problem was the collapse of world cotton prices.
"The prices of cotton have been depressed for a long time," he said.
In Mangi village, an hour's drive from Sayatkhada, a group of 15 farmers gathered at the home of another family grieving a farmer, who killed himself three days after Gurenule.
"There could be more deaths in this village," says the dead man's father, Deorao Ragaba Shate, 75.
"If the government will not fall, then it's us who will keep falling."
Source: AFP via Yahoo! News
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060422/bs_afp/indiaeconomyfarmsuicide_060422104621
Saturday, April 22, 2006
The Sinister Meaning Olmert's "Hitkansut"
Deporting Hamas Members of Parliament
By JONATHAN COOK
The policy of "hitnatkut", or unilateral disengagement, developed by Ariel Sharon needed a swift facelift following the withdrawal of settlers from Gaza last year. And Israel's prime minister-designate, Ehud Olmert, has found it in the related concept of "hitkansut", variously translated as "convergence", "consolidation" and "ingathering".
After all, Olmert could hardly campaign convincingly for a West Bank disengagement when it was clear Jewish settlers and soldiers would continue occupying a significant proportion of Palestinian land at the withdrawal's end. So convergence is usefully, and misleadingly, supplanting disengagement.
Many critics of Israel assume convergence is simply jargon disguising the government's intention illegally to annex swaths of West Bank territory. The grand land theft will be sold to the world as a painful withdrawal of Jewish settlers, even if the great majority (probably 80 per cent) are left in place and only the most remote settlements are dismantled.
But events this week suggest that the principle of hitkansut will have a far wider application than just to the West Bank settlement blocs, with results even more sinister than many had anticipated. Olmert's consolidation, it is becoming clear, will embrace Palestinians too.
The shape of things to come was hinted at this week in the wake of Monday's suicide bombing in Tel Aviv by the small militant group Islamic Jihad. Rather than approving the usual indiscriminate military strikes against Palestinian population centres that characterised the Sharon era, Olmert pursued a low-key, but no less disturbing, response.
He revoked the rights of three Hamas MPs and a Palestinian cabinet minister, Mahmoud Abu Tir, to reside in Jerusalem. The intention is to deport them to the West Bank, behind the separation wall Israel is hastily completing, where they will lose all the rights they currently enjoy to live and work inside Jerusalem and Israel.
Apparently Israel is considering extending this punishment to other members of Hamas in Jerusalem and possibly anyone working for the Palestinian Authority.
Once upon a time, back in the 1970s and 1980s, Israel would regularly dump hundreds of Palestinian political activists at a time across the border in Lebanon. Now the border will be, more conveniently, much closer to hand: just a stone's throw from the centre of Jerusalem.
What are the grounds for the deportations? The official reason is the failure of Hamas to denounce the suicide bombing. Olmert told an emergency meeting of the cabinet: "Any member of a government involved in terrorism should not be granted any immunity in the form of his Israeli residency identification."
Let's ignore Olmert's gratuitous extension of the meaning of the word "terrorism", and concentrate instead on the extent of his chutzpah. Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the Six-Day war of 1967 and later annexed the Palestinian half of the city and its inhabitants to Israel in violation of international law.
Now Olmert, the former mayor of Jerusalem and a man well-versed in underhand manoeuvres in the holy city, is expelling Palestinians from East Jerusalem on the grounds that he doesn't like their politics.
Foreign minister Tzipi Livni observed that Israel had the right to revoke the residency of whomever it deemed disloyal to Israel. In other words, Olmert and his cronies are behaving as though Palestinian residency in Jerusalem is a right conferred by Israel as though Palestinians are immigrants rather than the city's indigenous inhabitants living under an illegal and increasingly vicious occupation.
Of course, Israel's approach towards East Jerusalem and its residents is not new, though the degree of brazen cheek in Israel's singling out of Palestinian public figures for this treatment, and Olmert's happy courting of publicity over the abuse of their rights, is.
Despite the illegal annexation of East Jerusalem by Israel, Palestinians living there do not have Israeli citizenship. Instead, they are classified as "permanent residents", without voting rights or Israeli passports. Theoretically, their residency offers them rights of free movement inside Jerusalem and Israel, unlike West Bankers who since Oslo have been confined by curfews, checkpoints and now the wall.
But in practice, as the deportations prove, "permanent residency" is not necessarily so permanent. Israel has for some time been narrowing the terms of who qualifies for residency in Jerusalem: Palestinians who study or work abroad often find they are not entitled to return to the city; the recent revoking of family unification means many spouses and children of East Jerusalem residents are facing deportation; and the arbitrary route of the wall across East Jerusalem is putting some residents on the wrong side, making it all but impossible for them to reach jobs, shops, schools and hospitals in the city centre.
The reason for these measures and others by Israel such as planning rules that make it almost impossible for East Jerusalemites to build homes to cope with their natural population growth; and the abuse of their rights to vote in Palestinian elections is clear.
The hope is that under such relentless pressure most Palestinians will leave Jeruslem and seek residence in the West Bank, where they will have even less rights to withstand Israeli abuses and where they will pose far less of a demographic threat to an expanded Israeli state's "Jewishness".
But this week's deportation of Palestinian MPs who refuse to toe the Israeli line reveals yet another layer of Israel's plan. What Olmert hopes to achieve with "hitkansut" is not only consolidating the inclusion of Jewish settlers inside the expanded borders of the new Jewish state but also consolidating the exclusion of Palestinians who currently enjoy residency in territory coveted by Israel: namely East Jerusalem. While Olmert will be busy "ingathering" the settlers, he will also be busy "outgathering" Palestinians from Jerusalem.
However, unlike Olmert's plans for the consolidation of Jews, who will be gathered into a single, expanded Jewish state, Israel clearly has different vision of consolidation for the Palestinians despite Sharon's weasly words to the United Nations last year about wanting to create a Palestinian state on the land left after the limited withdrawal from the West Bank.
Given the nature of the Jewish settlement blocs left after "hitkansut" their fingers penetrating deep into the West Bank at strategic points Palestinian land will be separated into a series of ghettoes, isolated and cut off one from the next.
In Olmert's consolidation plan, Jerusalem will be turned into a ghetto comprising only those Palestinians prepared to have no contact with or offer no support to the rest of their people, including their own elected representatives.
The West Bank, meanwhile, will be consolidated into a series of small ghettoes, based on the main cities, filled with Palestinians whose rights can be trampled on by Israel at will. And finally Gaza will be consolidated into yet another ghetto, disconnected from Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Palestinian politics, whether of the Fatah or Hamas variety, will be meaningless in such an environment. It is not hard to predict the response: the year-long Hamas ceasefire will be strained beyond breaking point. Terrorism human bombs or home-made Qassam rockets will be the only answer for Palestinians who want to resist the arm's-length occupation. That may suit Israel, offering it yet more excuses in reply to the "terror" to further "consolidate" the Palestinian population into smaller, more tightly controlled ghettoes.
At the same Israeli cabinet meeting at which the deportations of the Hamas MPs were agreed, ministers discussed changing the classification of the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinians' government, from a "hostile entity" to the harsher status of an "enemy entity". The move was rejected for the time being.
One senior official told the Israeli media why: "There are international legal implications in such a declaration, including closing off the border crossings, that we don't want to do yet." Not yet. But soon, when the infrastructure of imprisonment is complete.
________________________________________________________
Source: CounterPunch
http://www.counterpunch.com/cook04212006.html
Friday, April 21, 2006
Call It Like It Is, Genocide
letter:
Call It Like It Is, Genocide
Since the beginning of April, Israel has fired no less then 2000 artillery shells into Gaza. 26 people were murdered. No one said a word. We did not get on the front page of the New York Times, no one condemns their actions.
Emily Jacir
18 Apr. 2006
Since the beginning of April, Israel has fired no less then 2000 artillery shells into Gaza. 26 people were murdered. No one said a word. We did not get on the front page of the New York Times, no one condemns their actions.
Meanwhile the Israeli ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people continues and takes on a multitude of forms - so many in fact that it is hard to keep up or even begin to speak about how all these devices create a massive network of forces to wipe us off the face of the earth....the continued confiscation of lands, the destruction of houses, the constant shelling and shooting, not allowing humanitarian aid to reach Gaza, the cutting of all funding, stripping Palestinian's of their I.D. cards - especially those with Jerusalem I.D.'s (my cousin just had his torn to shreds on the Jordan border by Israelis who told him he will no longer be needing it), closures, strip searches, constant daily humiliation, the creation of ghettos, the construction of the apartheid wall, the denial of basic human rights, the system of permits and ID cards which are akin to South Africa's Pass laws during apartheid which the world condemned, the destruction of olive trees, the destruction of our farming economy, denying people entry into the country, the bombing of our soccer field in Gaza so that even in sports and culture they don't want us to exist. (FIFA thankfully is going to build us a new soccer field - thank god for sports organizations - at least they are doing SOMETHING) and on and on and on on a daily basis.
Meanwhile, while the rest of the world celebrated Easter the local indigenous Christian community were denied entry into Jerusalem. Bethlehem is sealed off by a 9m Israeli Wall and the traditional Easter procession from Bethlehem to Jerusalem was impossible for the first time in 2000 years. Israel once again prevented thousands of Palestinians the right to attend Easter celebrations while portraying a false image to the world of tolerance through the use of Christian tourists gleefully wandering around Jerusalem freely - having no idea of what the local situation is or the fact that local Christians - one of the oldest Christian communities in the world will never have that freedom in their own country.
In addition, besides the ring of settlements built around the city of Bethlehem now they are planning one for inside the city - similar to the horrific settlement inside Hebron.
The American/Israeli led campaign to wipe us off the map is succeeding with not a single European government coming to our aid or defense. In addition to Turkey, Egypt, and Jordan whom all are pandering to American interests to the region and are complicit in this genocide. Palestinians fleeing Iraq(because their lives are threatened) are trapped in the no-mans land between Jordan and Iraq as Jordan will not allow them to enter the Ruweished Refugee Camp.
The US and Europe has cancelled all aid until we agree to the principles of the bloody Road Map - which is asking us to agree to our own destruction.
Friends. let us call it like it is, this is genocide.
Since AP, NPR and others are sending out incomplete reports, we thought your news organization would like to make use of the following information:
Contact: If Americans Knew: 310.441.8580 / cell 415.847.1782
In the last two and a half weeks (since the previous suicide bombing) Israeli forces have killed at least 26 Palestinians -- at least 5 of them children -- and injured 161 Palestinian men, women and children. A college student lost her right eye today after being shot by an Israeli sniper last week.
There have been 369 raids by Israeli forces, mostly into the West Bank. Gaza has undergone sustained shelling by Israeli forces and continued closures, resulting in increasing lack of food and medical supplies. According to UN reports, between March 30 and April 12th, Israeli forces launched 2300 artillery and tank shells and 34 missiles into Gaza.
Since the current Palestinian uprising against Israeli military occupation and confiscation of Palestinian land began in fall 2000, approximately 3,863 Palestinians and 1,084 Israelis and have been killed. Among these have been approximately 720 Palestinian children and 124 Israeli children.
Today, in separate actions, several Palestinian youths were shot, one in the neck. Israeli forces are continuing their ongoing invasions of Nablus and other West Bank cities.
Today is Palestinian Prisoners Day. 9,400 Palestinian men, women, and children are in prison. According to numerous human rights reports, Palestinian prisoners are frequently tortured. Defense for Children International reports that 4,000 Palestinian children have been arrested in the past five years, 400 of them currently in prison, including a fifteen-year-old girl, who has been in prison for over a year after being shot in the stomach by Israeli soldiers. DCI reports that the arrests are increasing.
Additional Information from Defense for Children International:
According to DCI: "The process of arrest and detention of Palestinian children is a process of systematic abuse and mistreatment which flouts international legal standards and denies the basic human rights of detainees first as children and secondly as prisoners...[children are] handcuffed and blindfolded, humiliated and threatened and often beaten and kicked from the moment they are arrested up to and often throughout their interrogation and detention. They are deprived of sleep, food and access to the bathroom until so-called confessions are coerced out of them..."
At 5.30pm on Monday 10 April 2006, at least six artillery shells fired by the Israeli military fell on the family house of Mohammed Rabe'eya Ghaban in Beit Lahiya, in the north of the Gaza Strip. Shrapnel from the shells pierced the skull of Mohammed's eight-year old daughter Hadeel, killing her instantly. The shelling also resulted in the injury of eight other family members, including Hadeel's brothers and sisters:
Rawan Ghaban 1 and a half years old
Rana Ghaban 3 years old
Munir Ghaban 4 years old
Amneh Ghaban 9 years old
Ghassan Ghaban 11 years old
Bassam Ghaban 15 years old
Tahrir Ghaban 17 years old
The children's mother, 35-year old Sofia, was the eighth family member wounded in the attack.
Several neighbours were also injured including:
Jaqueline Mo'ein Maarouf 11 years old
Mariam Maher Al-'Assi 15 years old
for more information:
http://www.imemc.org/
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/
http://www.nad-plo.org/main.php?view=pmg_daily-reports
http://www.dci-pal.org/english/display.cfm?docid=484&categoryid=1
http://www.dci-pal.org/english/display.cfm?docid=483&categoryid=1
http://www.humanitarianinfo.org/opt/
--
Alison Weir
Executive Director
www.IfAmericansKnew.org
310-441-8580
Emily Jacir, originally from Bethlehem, grew up in Saudi Arabia, went to high school in Roma, Italy (and returned for part of college), received her B.F.A.(Texas) and M.F.A.(Tennessee) in America and then spent several years on the move living in Texas, Palestine, Colorado, France, and New York. She currently lives and works between Ramallah and New York City. For more background and links to her work see Jacir's page at the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Centre. Jacir's book, Belongings : Arbeiten/Works 1998-2003 (Buy from an independent bookstore, buy from Amazon) was published in 2004 by Folio.
Source: oznik.com
http://www.oznik.com/words/genocide-emily-jacir.html
Call It Like It Is, Genocide
Since the beginning of April, Israel has fired no less then 2000 artillery shells into Gaza. 26 people were murdered. No one said a word. We did not get on the front page of the New York Times, no one condemns their actions.
Emily Jacir
18 Apr. 2006
Since the beginning of April, Israel has fired no less then 2000 artillery shells into Gaza. 26 people were murdered. No one said a word. We did not get on the front page of the New York Times, no one condemns their actions.
Meanwhile the Israeli ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people continues and takes on a multitude of forms - so many in fact that it is hard to keep up or even begin to speak about how all these devices create a massive network of forces to wipe us off the face of the earth....the continued confiscation of lands, the destruction of houses, the constant shelling and shooting, not allowing humanitarian aid to reach Gaza, the cutting of all funding, stripping Palestinian's of their I.D. cards - especially those with Jerusalem I.D.'s (my cousin just had his torn to shreds on the Jordan border by Israelis who told him he will no longer be needing it), closures, strip searches, constant daily humiliation, the creation of ghettos, the construction of the apartheid wall, the denial of basic human rights, the system of permits and ID cards which are akin to South Africa's Pass laws during apartheid which the world condemned, the destruction of olive trees, the destruction of our farming economy, denying people entry into the country, the bombing of our soccer field in Gaza so that even in sports and culture they don't want us to exist. (FIFA thankfully is going to build us a new soccer field - thank god for sports organizations - at least they are doing SOMETHING) and on and on and on on a daily basis.
Meanwhile, while the rest of the world celebrated Easter the local indigenous Christian community were denied entry into Jerusalem. Bethlehem is sealed off by a 9m Israeli Wall and the traditional Easter procession from Bethlehem to Jerusalem was impossible for the first time in 2000 years. Israel once again prevented thousands of Palestinians the right to attend Easter celebrations while portraying a false image to the world of tolerance through the use of Christian tourists gleefully wandering around Jerusalem freely - having no idea of what the local situation is or the fact that local Christians - one of the oldest Christian communities in the world will never have that freedom in their own country.
In addition, besides the ring of settlements built around the city of Bethlehem now they are planning one for inside the city - similar to the horrific settlement inside Hebron.
The American/Israeli led campaign to wipe us off the map is succeeding with not a single European government coming to our aid or defense. In addition to Turkey, Egypt, and Jordan whom all are pandering to American interests to the region and are complicit in this genocide. Palestinians fleeing Iraq(because their lives are threatened) are trapped in the no-mans land between Jordan and Iraq as Jordan will not allow them to enter the Ruweished Refugee Camp.
The US and Europe has cancelled all aid until we agree to the principles of the bloody Road Map - which is asking us to agree to our own destruction.
Friends. let us call it like it is, this is genocide.
Since AP, NPR and others are sending out incomplete reports, we thought your news organization would like to make use of the following information:
Contact: If Americans Knew: 310.441.8580 / cell 415.847.1782
In the last two and a half weeks (since the previous suicide bombing) Israeli forces have killed at least 26 Palestinians -- at least 5 of them children -- and injured 161 Palestinian men, women and children. A college student lost her right eye today after being shot by an Israeli sniper last week.
There have been 369 raids by Israeli forces, mostly into the West Bank. Gaza has undergone sustained shelling by Israeli forces and continued closures, resulting in increasing lack of food and medical supplies. According to UN reports, between March 30 and April 12th, Israeli forces launched 2300 artillery and tank shells and 34 missiles into Gaza.
Since the current Palestinian uprising against Israeli military occupation and confiscation of Palestinian land began in fall 2000, approximately 3,863 Palestinians and 1,084 Israelis and have been killed. Among these have been approximately 720 Palestinian children and 124 Israeli children.
Today, in separate actions, several Palestinian youths were shot, one in the neck. Israeli forces are continuing their ongoing invasions of Nablus and other West Bank cities.
Today is Palestinian Prisoners Day. 9,400 Palestinian men, women, and children are in prison. According to numerous human rights reports, Palestinian prisoners are frequently tortured. Defense for Children International reports that 4,000 Palestinian children have been arrested in the past five years, 400 of them currently in prison, including a fifteen-year-old girl, who has been in prison for over a year after being shot in the stomach by Israeli soldiers. DCI reports that the arrests are increasing.
Additional Information from Defense for Children International:
According to DCI: "The process of arrest and detention of Palestinian children is a process of systematic abuse and mistreatment which flouts international legal standards and denies the basic human rights of detainees first as children and secondly as prisoners...[children are] handcuffed and blindfolded, humiliated and threatened and often beaten and kicked from the moment they are arrested up to and often throughout their interrogation and detention. They are deprived of sleep, food and access to the bathroom until so-called confessions are coerced out of them..."
At 5.30pm on Monday 10 April 2006, at least six artillery shells fired by the Israeli military fell on the family house of Mohammed Rabe'eya Ghaban in Beit Lahiya, in the north of the Gaza Strip. Shrapnel from the shells pierced the skull of Mohammed's eight-year old daughter Hadeel, killing her instantly. The shelling also resulted in the injury of eight other family members, including Hadeel's brothers and sisters:
Rawan Ghaban 1 and a half years old
Rana Ghaban 3 years old
Munir Ghaban 4 years old
Amneh Ghaban 9 years old
Ghassan Ghaban 11 years old
Bassam Ghaban 15 years old
Tahrir Ghaban 17 years old
The children's mother, 35-year old Sofia, was the eighth family member wounded in the attack.
Several neighbours were also injured including:
Jaqueline Mo'ein Maarouf 11 years old
Mariam Maher Al-'Assi 15 years old
for more information:
http://www.imemc.org/
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/
http://www.nad-plo.org/main.php?view=pmg_daily-reports
http://www.dci-pal.org/english/display.cfm?docid=484&categoryid=1
http://www.dci-pal.org/english/display.cfm?docid=483&categoryid=1
http://www.humanitarianinfo.org/opt/
--
Alison Weir
Executive Director
www.IfAmericansKnew.org
310-441-8580
Emily Jacir, originally from Bethlehem, grew up in Saudi Arabia, went to high school in Roma, Italy (and returned for part of college), received her B.F.A.(Texas) and M.F.A.(Tennessee) in America and then spent several years on the move living in Texas, Palestine, Colorado, France, and New York. She currently lives and works between Ramallah and New York City. For more background and links to her work see Jacir's page at the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Centre. Jacir's book, Belongings : Arbeiten/Works 1998-2003 (Buy from an independent bookstore, buy from Amazon) was published in 2004 by Folio.
Source: oznik.com
http://www.oznik.com/words/genocide-emily-jacir.html
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Ahmadinejad: Oil Price Is Lower Than Value
By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press WriterWed Apr 19, 11:01 PM ET
Wading into oil politics for the first time, Iran's hard-line president said Wednesday that crude oil prices — now at record levels — still are below their true value.
In statements likely to rattle world oil markets, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also said developed countries, not producing countries like Iran, are benefiting the most from the current high prices.
"The global oil price has not reached its real value yet. The products derived from crude oil are sold at prices dozens of times higher than those charged by oil-producing countries," state-run Tehran radio quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.
"The developed nations are the biggest beneficiary of the added value of oil products," he said.
The president, who is embroiled with the West and the United Nations over Tehran's nuclear program, stopped short of saying Iran would use oil as a weapon, a tactic much feared by his antagonists on the nuclear issue. Nor did he say what oil prices should be.
Oil prices leapt above $72 a barrel Wednesday, settling at a record high for the third straight day.
"The products derived from crude oil cost over 10 times the price of oil sold by producing states. Developed and powerful countries benefit more from its value-added than any party," Ahmadinejad said.
Oil prices should be determined on the basis of market supply and demand, the Iranian leader said.
"Oil is the major asset of nations possessing it. Its price should not be lowered on the pretext that it will prove harmful to developing states, thus permitting the world powers to benefit the most from it," he said.
George Orwel, an analyst at the New York-based Petroleum Intelligence Weekly said he thought Ahmadinejad was playing the oil card to resist pressure over Iran's nuclear program.
"They are using the oil as a political football. Every time there's an issue with Iran, the oil market freaks out," he said in a telephone interview.
Earlier this week, as oil prices pushed above $70 a barrel, ABN Amro broker Lee Fader said the trigger was heightened fear about U.S. military action against Iran, which has said it would go ahead with plans to enrich uranium in defiance of the United States, Europe and the U.N. nuclear agency.
Iran says its nuclear ambitions are peaceful, but the West fears it is intent on arming itself with nuclear weapons.
If the United States were to attack Iran, Tehran might try to cripple the world economy by putting a stranglehold on the oil that moves through the Strait of Hormuz — a narrow, strategically important waterway running to Iran's south.
While discounting Ahmadinejad's seriousness in his Wednesday comments about the value of oil, Orwel conceded the oil industry could not do without the 2.5 million barrels that Iran exports daily.
"Ahmadinejad is trying to show his muscle so that the Bush administration can realize the consequences on the oil market of further confrontation with Iran," Orwel said, adding that he fully expected Iran to threaten to cut off oil if the confrontation with the West continued.
While Ahmadinejad did not say he would use oil as a weapon in his dispute with the West, Interior Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi said last month the oil card was in play.
"If (they) politicize our nuclear case, we will use any means. We are rich in energy resources. We have control over the biggest and the most sensitive energy route of the world," he said, referring to the Straits of Hormuz.
In keeping with Iranian leaders' tendency of late to contradict themselves, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki later denied Iran would adopt such a policy.
Iran is the world's fourth-largest oil-producing country and the second in OPEC.
Ahmadinejad urged oil-producing countries — within and outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries — to establish a fund to help alleviate the pressure resulting from high oil prices on Third World nations.
Oppenheimer & Co. oil analyst Fadel Gheit said he considered it unlikely that Iran had any intention of cutting off its oil, the lifeline of its economy.
Gheit noted, however, that there was some truth in Ahmadinejad's comment on developed countries benefiting most from increased oil prices, though the statement would likely be seen as an attempt at "fanning the flames" of a red-hot oil market.
"What he's saying makes a lot of sense. Unfortunately, the source of the comment is going to send jitters in the market," Gheit said.
"The street value (of oil) is triple what OPEC is making," Gheit added, referring to the value of a barrel of gasoline versus the value of a barrel of oil.
Gheit estimated that in London, where the retail price of gasoline is about $6 a gallon, about $150 worth of gasoline can be made and sold from every $50 barrel of oil.
"That is why Exxon Mobil and all the rest make so much money," he said.
___
Associated Press reporter Brad Foss in Washington and Tarek al-Issawi in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.
Source: AP via Yahoo! Newshttp://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060420/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_oil
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Pakistan approves unlimited visas for Sikh pilgrims
Lahore: Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has announced that unlimited visas would be issued for the Sikh pilgrims who would be visiting the Gurdawara Dera Sahib in Lahore, on the occasion of 400th martyrdom of fifth Guru Arjun Dev, on June 16.
The decision was taken last evening at a meeting held between Aziz and a visiting Sikh pilgrims in Islamabad.
According to sources, the Pakistani prime minister also agreed to attend the main function on June 16 besides issuing of memorial stamp on the occasion. The Sikh delegation told him that more Sikh pilgrims wanted to come to visit their holy places in Pakistan especially on 400th martyrdom day of fifth guru and for that the visa policy should be changed and free visas be issued to them.
The prime minister immediately agreed to the demand of liberal visa policy and assured them that he will issue necessary directions to the Foreign Office in this regard and all the Sikh pilgrims, who apply for visas for June’s function, would be given visas, reported The News.
Aziz said that his government was making every effort to make the visit of Sikh pilgrims comfortable so that they face no difficulty in visiting their holy places. He also greeted the delegation on the sacred occasion of Basaikhi.
He also reportedly agreed to set up a visa centre at Amritsar, provided the Indian government agrees to facilitate the pilgrims travelling on Nankana Sahib-Lahore-Amritsar bus service. He told the delegation that three big hotels will be constructed each at Lahore, Nankana Sahib and Hasanabdal to make the stay of pilgrims more comfortable besides other facilities.
Source: newkerala.com
http://www.newkerala.com/news2.php?action=fullnews&id=42886
The decision was taken last evening at a meeting held between Aziz and a visiting Sikh pilgrims in Islamabad.
According to sources, the Pakistani prime minister also agreed to attend the main function on June 16 besides issuing of memorial stamp on the occasion. The Sikh delegation told him that more Sikh pilgrims wanted to come to visit their holy places in Pakistan especially on 400th martyrdom day of fifth guru and for that the visa policy should be changed and free visas be issued to them.
The prime minister immediately agreed to the demand of liberal visa policy and assured them that he will issue necessary directions to the Foreign Office in this regard and all the Sikh pilgrims, who apply for visas for June’s function, would be given visas, reported The News.
Aziz said that his government was making every effort to make the visit of Sikh pilgrims comfortable so that they face no difficulty in visiting their holy places. He also greeted the delegation on the sacred occasion of Basaikhi.
He also reportedly agreed to set up a visa centre at Amritsar, provided the Indian government agrees to facilitate the pilgrims travelling on Nankana Sahib-Lahore-Amritsar bus service. He told the delegation that three big hotels will be constructed each at Lahore, Nankana Sahib and Hasanabdal to make the stay of pilgrims more comfortable besides other facilities.
Source: newkerala.com
http://www.newkerala.com/news2.php?action=fullnews&id=42886
Saturday, April 15, 2006
'Salman Khan paying for being a celebrity'
Posted online: Saturday, April 15, 2006 at 1323 hours IST
Shilpa Shetty has been a close friend of Salman Khan and is relieved that the actor has finally been bailed out of troubled waters from the Jodhpur Jail where a lower court sentenced him to five years rigorous imprisonment for killing a Chinkara and the actor had to spend three nights in the Central Jail.
According to her, Salman is paying for being a celebrity and the judicial court proceedings are being affected by a 24/7 trial by media. “It’s annoying what the media is doing. In an endeavour to raise their TRPs, TV channels go to any length to tarnish an actor’s image. It seems that in our country, only the actors can make the maximum headlines,” she says.
A couple of years ago, Shilpa was at the receiving end of a non-stop media barrage about the allegations made by a Saree manufacturer from Surat (She was the brand ambassador) that her parents had employed the services of a small time gangster Fazlur Rehman for getting money from the businessman for breaching the contract.
“Be it in my case where my parents were falsely implicated, Salman’s trial or Aamir Khan’s marriage, trial by media is unfair. One realizes over a period of time that one has to pay a heavy price for being a celebrity. I didn’t speak to a couple of TV channels for a year till they apologized. Firstly, they malign you, then they go in a guilt,” she states.
Aamir Khan blasted the media recently in an exclusive interview to Tehelka where he labeled “Media is a monster.” What’s her opinion on his stand? “I think if someone has to marry and has to tackle journalists and photographers sitting on trees to pry into the proceedings, then he is bound to react. If you marry tomorrow and have to be at the receiving end of such behaviour, then even you’ll lose your cool,” she says
So, what do you think Bollywood should do to safeguard their privacy? “I think there ought to be some association that looks after the interest of the artistes. Someone should so something about it. Media should remember that even we are human beings and have a right to privac y,” she says.
Source: expressindia.com
http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=66131
Shilpa Shetty has been a close friend of Salman Khan and is relieved that the actor has finally been bailed out of troubled waters from the Jodhpur Jail where a lower court sentenced him to five years rigorous imprisonment for killing a Chinkara and the actor had to spend three nights in the Central Jail.
According to her, Salman is paying for being a celebrity and the judicial court proceedings are being affected by a 24/7 trial by media. “It’s annoying what the media is doing. In an endeavour to raise their TRPs, TV channels go to any length to tarnish an actor’s image. It seems that in our country, only the actors can make the maximum headlines,” she says.
A couple of years ago, Shilpa was at the receiving end of a non-stop media barrage about the allegations made by a Saree manufacturer from Surat (She was the brand ambassador) that her parents had employed the services of a small time gangster Fazlur Rehman for getting money from the businessman for breaching the contract.
“Be it in my case where my parents were falsely implicated, Salman’s trial or Aamir Khan’s marriage, trial by media is unfair. One realizes over a period of time that one has to pay a heavy price for being a celebrity. I didn’t speak to a couple of TV channels for a year till they apologized. Firstly, they malign you, then they go in a guilt,” she states.
Aamir Khan blasted the media recently in an exclusive interview to Tehelka where he labeled “Media is a monster.” What’s her opinion on his stand? “I think if someone has to marry and has to tackle journalists and photographers sitting on trees to pry into the proceedings, then he is bound to react. If you marry tomorrow and have to be at the receiving end of such behaviour, then even you’ll lose your cool,” she says
So, what do you think Bollywood should do to safeguard their privacy? “I think there ought to be some association that looks after the interest of the artistes. Someone should so something about it. Media should remember that even we are human beings and have a right to privac y,” she says.
Source: expressindia.com
http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=66131
Delhi police investigating Jama Masjid blasts
April 15, 2006 15:23 IST
A day after the twin explosions at the Jama Masjid, Delhi police sleuths were piecing together evidence from the blast site to trace the perpetrators of the attack. Forensic experts were examining samples collected from the site of the blasts, which left 13 people injured.
"The explosives used in the blast were of a very crude nature," police sources said, adding that they were examining all angles in the investigation.
Delhi police Commissioner K K Paul met Union Home Secretary V K Duggal Saturday morning to apprise him about the situation in the aftermath of the blasts.
Meanwhile, security at the Jama Masjid was tightened and metal detectors were in place at its three gates in view of the blasts. Delhi Police and Central Reserve Police Force personnel were deployed in large numbers at the 17th century mosque.
Preliminary investigations revealed that potassium chlorate and sulphuric acid were used to trigger the explosion. Nuts and bolts were added to the mixture to cause injury.
"The intention behind the explosions was to create panic in the city," police officials said, adding that Delhi has been the target of terror attacks for quite some time now and as many as 51 terrorists have been arrested in the national capital since January 2005.
A high alert has been sounded in the capital and police officials heightened vigil at religious places and vital installations in wake of the twin explosions.
Source: rediff.com
http://us.rediff.com/news/2006/apr/15delhi.htm?q=np&file=.htm
913 persons 'reconvert' to Hinduism in Orissa
Chakapad (Orissa), April 10: Amidst cries of 'Jai Shri Ram' and blowing of conch shells, 913 persons, said to be Christians, were reconverted to Hinduism at a huge congregation organised by the Sangh Parivar even as the VHP called for a total ban on conversion in the country.
The reconversion ceremony was conducted on the second day of the 'Hindu Mahasabha' where VHP bigwigs made fiery speeches The reconverted persons, who belonged to 150 families, were blessed by the Sankaracharya of Puri, Swami Nischalananda Saraswati.
Speaking on the occasion, VHP International President Ashok Singhal demanded that the centre should enact a law to completely ban conversions from Hinduism. However, there should not be any restriction on Christians if they wanted to return to their 'mother faith of Hinduism', he said while refusing to acknowledge as conversion the return of the people to Hinduism from Christianity.
Preachers of the Christian faith should be thrown out of the country, the VHP leader demanded. "There is no need for anyone to teach religion to the people of this country as Indians are religious anyway," he said.
Families from 16 villages of Sonepur, Bargarh and Balangir districts were reconverted, Binoy Bhuyan, Pradesh Pramukh of the Dharma Jagaran Samiti, an affiliate of the RSS, said.
VHP leader Laxmanananda Saraswati was also present at the 'Sudhikaran Yagya' conducted on the occasion, they said.
Several Hindu organisations, including Dharma Rakhya Samiti, Dharma Jagaran Samiti and the Arya Samaj, were involved in the ceremony, Bhuyan said.
Source: NewKerala.com
http://www.newkerala.com/news2.php?action=fullnews&id=34290
The reconversion ceremony was conducted on the second day of the 'Hindu Mahasabha' where VHP bigwigs made fiery speeches The reconverted persons, who belonged to 150 families, were blessed by the Sankaracharya of Puri, Swami Nischalananda Saraswati.
Speaking on the occasion, VHP International President Ashok Singhal demanded that the centre should enact a law to completely ban conversions from Hinduism. However, there should not be any restriction on Christians if they wanted to return to their 'mother faith of Hinduism', he said while refusing to acknowledge as conversion the return of the people to Hinduism from Christianity.
Preachers of the Christian faith should be thrown out of the country, the VHP leader demanded. "There is no need for anyone to teach religion to the people of this country as Indians are religious anyway," he said.
Families from 16 villages of Sonepur, Bargarh and Balangir districts were reconverted, Binoy Bhuyan, Pradesh Pramukh of the Dharma Jagaran Samiti, an affiliate of the RSS, said.
VHP leader Laxmanananda Saraswati was also present at the 'Sudhikaran Yagya' conducted on the occasion, they said.
Several Hindu organisations, including Dharma Rakhya Samiti, Dharma Jagaran Samiti and the Arya Samaj, were involved in the ceremony, Bhuyan said.
Source: NewKerala.com
http://www.newkerala.com/news2.php?action=fullnews&id=34290
Dalai Lama seeks to improve Islam's image
Matthai Chakko Kuruvila, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, April 15, 2006
Saturday, April 15, 2006
The Dalai Lama, a powerful icon for peace worldwide, will gather with influential American Muslim leaders in San Francisco today to help refashion Islam's image in the United States.
Concerned that Muslims are unfairly demonized in American popular consciousness, the world-renowned Buddhist leader hopes to help show Islam in what he sees as its truest form, one of peace.
"The enemy is not out there,'' said Tenzin Dhonden, the Dalai Lama's emissary for peace. "The enemy is within you. ... How we see religion is in our mind. But religion itself is the truth: peace and harmony."
The hurdles are numerous.
Polls in Muslim countries have shown that some Muslims think of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as a good thing, said Muslim scholar Sheikh Hamza Yusuf. Co-founder of the Zaytuna Institute in Hayward, Yusuf advised President Bush in the days after the attacks.
He also noted that polls have revealed that some Americans support bombing Mecca, Islam's holiest city.
"Who are the extremists?" he asked. "It's all of us. There's no 'us' versus 'them' here. We've got extremists on both sides. If we let extremist agendas chart the course for us on both sides, we're headed for a very, very frightening world."
Speakers at today's invitation-only event at the Mark Hopkins Hotel, "Gathering of Hearts Illuminating Compassion," say violent images of Islam are sensationalized by a selective news media.
They say the faith of the vast majority of the hundreds of millions of Muslims worldwide bears no relation to the beliefs of terrorists who claim religious authority.
"That's not Islam," said Jack Kornfield, a prominent Buddhist teacher and founder of the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Marin County. "Those are extremists and crazies. Quite honestly, you find that in every tradition. Right now, our media is highlighting that." Kornfield is not participating in today's event.
Even though Buddhist-Muslim relations are at the center of the gathering, organizers are emphasizing an even broader understanding of faith: that all religions are the same at their core.
This message plays well in the religiously diverse Bay Area, where believers of all faiths often adapt aspects of other traditions.
Organizers also plan to address the rise of fundamentalism in many religions, which they say can turn beliefs into political tools.
"It is hijacked religion that causes violence," said Huston Smith, an author and former professor at four major universities and a speaker at today's event.
"In warfare, you need power,'' said Smith, a Berkeley resident. "Therefore, you have to believe that God is on your side and you are an instrument of God to do his will through warfare and fighting and the laying down of lives. The flip side of that is that the enemy is the demon, the axis of evil."
The conference, limited to roughly 500 people, will consist of presentations by scholars and religious leaders.
In addition to Yusuf, they will include Imam Mehdi Khorasani, a spiritual leader born in Karbala, Iraq, who guides a 6,000-member congregation in Fairfax, and the Rev. Alan Jones, dean of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, an Episcopal church.
"As long as we are quiet and not trying to explain, the danger and misunderstanding remains," said Khorasani, whose invitation to the Dalai Lama prompted today's gathering.
Khorasani comes from a line of Iraqi Shiite clerics, though he tries to avoid that sectarian label.
The Dalai Lama, whose own story is one of religion and politics intertwined, has for decades advocated nonviolence.
Forced into exile from Tibet in 1959 after the Chinese government violently suppressed an uprising there, the Dalai Lama is familiar with the idea of occupation -- the concept that rallies Muslim resistance in Israel, Iraq and the Indian state of Kashmir.
The Dalai Lama now lives in Dharamsala, India, but his call for peaceful resistance to China helped earn him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.
The gathering's speakers say they hope the event, however philosophical, will plant a seed for the future. But what it will accomplish long-term may be unclear.
"His Holiness (the Dalai Lama) is marshalling us to do our best,'' said Smith, the religious scholar. "We cannot see the full consequences. We just try to set the trajectory."
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/04/15/MUSLIM.TMP
Muslim film festival in NY is shouting to be heard
15 Apr 2006 07:00:16 GMT
By Claudia Parsons
NEW YORK, April 15 (Reuters) - More than 30 movies from the Arab and Muslim world will be playing at a week-long New York film festival, but will anybody be watching?
The Alwan Film Festival, created by a nonprofit group in lower Manhattan, features several well-known Middle Eastern directors. The films tackle timely subjects like the war in Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Afghanistan.
With American troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan and the West's relations with the Muslim world perhaps the defining challenge of the decade, those involved in the festival want to help Americans learn what the "Muslim world" is all about.
"It's very important that Americans of all backgrounds come and see the films, especially on the event of the fifth year after 9/11," said Bader Ben Hirsi, a British-Yemeni director whose film opened the festival on Friday.
"It's important to see what the Middle East really is. I watch TV here and it's completely different from the Middle East I know," Hirsi said.
But the films are playing at just three lower Manhattan cinemas and the small festival has barely registered on the media radar of the city, coming as it does just before the much bigger Tribeca Film Festival whose program also boasts a substantial number of films from the Muslim world.
Hirsi said he hoped the festival would draw a diverse audience. "It would be nice, but I don't think it will be. I think the people that will turn out will probably be Arab Americans or Arabists," he said.
COMEDY, POLITICS, SEX AND PHILOSOPHY
While several of the Alwan Festival films focus on current affairs, Hirsi says his is a "bittersweet romantic comedy" -- the story of a wealthy young man who is about to get married to a woman he has not met but who falls in love with another woman.
"A New Day in Old Sanaa" is the first feature film made in Yemen, Hirsi said. It was a struggle to make it because of the bureaucracy, funding problems, misunderstanding and suspicion in Yemen, and even an actor getting stabbed, he said.
"I thought the hard part was over but the thing that really I just can't get is, we had incredible reviews ... and we've seen people charmed by this film. But sales agents and distributors don't (get it), and they can't believe it," he said.
"They just don't don't know what to do with it. It's not what they expect from the Arab world."
Highlights of the April 14-23 festival includes "Zaman: The Man from the Reeds" by Amer Alwan, the story of a father's journey from the marshes where he lives to Baghdad to search for a medicine to cure his adopted son.
Another Iraqi film, "Ahlaam" by Mohamed al-Daradji, is set in the days before and after the fall of Baghdad and is the story of a young girl locked up in a mental institute after her husband was arrested under Saddam Hussein. She is freed when her hospital is destroyed by a bomb and she roams the streets amid the chaos of the fall of the city in April 2003.
"Pakistan's Double Game" documents reporter Sharmeen Obaid's travels around her country to ask ordinary citizens what they think of their government's alliance with the United States and backing for its "war on terrorism."
A box office hit in Egypt, Saad Hendawi's "State of Love" is a post-9/11 love story looking at Arabs in the West.
"Sex and Philosophy" from Iran is about a man who decides to introduce his numerous mistresses to each other.
Hirsi said his film's budget was $1.4 million. The films generally have small budgets compared, of course, to Hollywood productions.
Sherif Sadek, one of the curators of the festival, said the ubiquity of American media and culture meant people in the Middle East understood more about America than vice versa.
"There seems to be a one-way street where Americans send information out but it's not receiving information, so hopefully this can provide a different point of view to the mistakes out there and the images being flashed on TV every day," he said.
Hirsi said there was a new wave of film makers from the Muslim world aiming to attract audiences beyond their own borders. "Everybody is frustrated seeing how Western media are depicting the Arab world," he said.
"It's Arab voices coming out for the first time now as opposed to voices from the West on the Arab world. Its Arab film makers saying 'This is our world.'"
Source: Reuters AlterNet
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N14184142.htm
By Claudia Parsons
NEW YORK, April 15 (Reuters) - More than 30 movies from the Arab and Muslim world will be playing at a week-long New York film festival, but will anybody be watching?
The Alwan Film Festival, created by a nonprofit group in lower Manhattan, features several well-known Middle Eastern directors. The films tackle timely subjects like the war in Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Afghanistan.
With American troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan and the West's relations with the Muslim world perhaps the defining challenge of the decade, those involved in the festival want to help Americans learn what the "Muslim world" is all about.
"It's very important that Americans of all backgrounds come and see the films, especially on the event of the fifth year after 9/11," said Bader Ben Hirsi, a British-Yemeni director whose film opened the festival on Friday.
"It's important to see what the Middle East really is. I watch TV here and it's completely different from the Middle East I know," Hirsi said.
But the films are playing at just three lower Manhattan cinemas and the small festival has barely registered on the media radar of the city, coming as it does just before the much bigger Tribeca Film Festival whose program also boasts a substantial number of films from the Muslim world.
Hirsi said he hoped the festival would draw a diverse audience. "It would be nice, but I don't think it will be. I think the people that will turn out will probably be Arab Americans or Arabists," he said.
COMEDY, POLITICS, SEX AND PHILOSOPHY
While several of the Alwan Festival films focus on current affairs, Hirsi says his is a "bittersweet romantic comedy" -- the story of a wealthy young man who is about to get married to a woman he has not met but who falls in love with another woman.
"A New Day in Old Sanaa" is the first feature film made in Yemen, Hirsi said. It was a struggle to make it because of the bureaucracy, funding problems, misunderstanding and suspicion in Yemen, and even an actor getting stabbed, he said.
"I thought the hard part was over but the thing that really I just can't get is, we had incredible reviews ... and we've seen people charmed by this film. But sales agents and distributors don't (get it), and they can't believe it," he said.
"They just don't don't know what to do with it. It's not what they expect from the Arab world."
Highlights of the April 14-23 festival includes "Zaman: The Man from the Reeds" by Amer Alwan, the story of a father's journey from the marshes where he lives to Baghdad to search for a medicine to cure his adopted son.
Another Iraqi film, "Ahlaam" by Mohamed al-Daradji, is set in the days before and after the fall of Baghdad and is the story of a young girl locked up in a mental institute after her husband was arrested under Saddam Hussein. She is freed when her hospital is destroyed by a bomb and she roams the streets amid the chaos of the fall of the city in April 2003.
"Pakistan's Double Game" documents reporter Sharmeen Obaid's travels around her country to ask ordinary citizens what they think of their government's alliance with the United States and backing for its "war on terrorism."
A box office hit in Egypt, Saad Hendawi's "State of Love" is a post-9/11 love story looking at Arabs in the West.
"Sex and Philosophy" from Iran is about a man who decides to introduce his numerous mistresses to each other.
Hirsi said his film's budget was $1.4 million. The films generally have small budgets compared, of course, to Hollywood productions.
Sherif Sadek, one of the curators of the festival, said the ubiquity of American media and culture meant people in the Middle East understood more about America than vice versa.
"There seems to be a one-way street where Americans send information out but it's not receiving information, so hopefully this can provide a different point of view to the mistakes out there and the images being flashed on TV every day," he said.
Hirsi said there was a new wave of film makers from the Muslim world aiming to attract audiences beyond their own borders. "Everybody is frustrated seeing how Western media are depicting the Arab world," he said.
"It's Arab voices coming out for the first time now as opposed to voices from the West on the Arab world. Its Arab film makers saying 'This is our world.'"
Source: Reuters AlterNet
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N14184142.htm
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
First Muslim sorority hopes to form chapters across USA
By Donna Leinwand, USA TODAYMon Apr 10, 7:17 AM ET
Christine Ortiz slips quietly from the Muslim prayer room on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and into a group of squealing young women. Some of them are Ortiz's Muslim sisters, the undergraduate pals who embraced her when she converted to Islam from her family's Roman Catholicism.
Less than a year after she graduated from MIT, Ortiz, 23, has returned to campus on a chilly night to help introduce them to a new concept in Muslim sisterhood: the first Muslim-oriented sorority, Gamma Gamma Chi.
The sorority, which was formed last year, has no campus chapters but is trying to drum up interest with informational meetings across the nation. It aims to be a sorority unlike almost all others by adhering to principles of Islam: no alcohol and no casual mixing between men and women.
Ortiz is a member of Alpha Phi, one of five traditional sororities at MIT. She says she wants her Muslim girlfriends to have the sorority experience without having to compromise their religious values. In theory, the existing sororities' policies are in line with Muslim beliefs, but in reality, she says, the sorority culture at MIT and other campuses "unfortunately is based on men and alcohol."
Muslim women at MIT, the University of Kentucky, Rutgers, the University of Maryland-Baltimore and the University of Southern California have expressed interest in Gamma Gamma Chi, says founder and President Althia Collins, who owns an educational consulting business in Alexandria, Va.
Collins and her daughter Imani Abdul-Haqq, both Muslim converts, created the sorority in 2005.
The MIT gathering attracted 13 women - five in traditional Muslim head scarves and loose-fitting clothes but most with uncovered hair and typical campus attire of jeans and sweaters.
"I never felt attracted to sorority life," says Tania Ullah, 20, a junior from New York City. "Aside from the drinking and partying, which I don't do, I didn't feel comfortable with pledging loyalty to the principles."
'We're already a close-knit group'
Collins and Abdul-Haqq's idea for a Muslim sorority reflects both the increasing presence of the religion on U.S. campuses and the growth of multiculturalism, says Denise Pipersburgh, a lawyer in Newark, N.J., and president of the National Multicultural Greek Council.
The National Panhellenic Conference represents 26 historically Caucasian sororities and women's fraternities with 3.8 million members. The National Panhellenic Council, which represents four historically black sororities and five men's fraternities, has 1.5 million members. The first Latina sorority was formed in 1975, and Asian-American Greek organizations have existed since the 1920s.
At the MIT session, the Muslim women, whose majors include brain and cognitive sciences and chemical engineering, seem intrigued by the idea of their own sorority. But they also are skeptical.
"An Islamic sorority is almost an oxymoron, isn't it?" asks Tasneem Hussam, 20, a junior from Centreville, Va.
Muslims are active at MIT, where the Muslim Student Association on the 10,200-student campus regularly attracts 200 people to its dinners. All of the women at the presentation belong to the association.
"We're already a close-knit group," Hussam says. "I'm a little unsure about how necessary it is to have a sorority."
Tayyba Anwar, 18, a freshman from New York City, wonders how she'll explain the sorority concept to her parents and persuade them to let her join Gamma Gamma Chi.
"They'll say, 'What is this? Is it good or bad?' " Anwar says. "To me, it sounds like a respectable thing."
Ortiz notes that Greek life is a big part of MIT. "Once they are organized, it'll give Muslim women a face and voice on campus," she says.
Ultimately, none of the MIT students submitted applications to Gamma Gamma Chi.
'An American phenomenon'
The Muslim women at MIT say they rarely suffer from discrimination or isolation on campus. Panhellenic President Shannon Nees, 20, a junior from Hatfield, Penn., says they would be welcome in any of MIT's five sororities.
"MIT is a very diverse group of people," Nees says. "None of the sororities discriminate."
Abdul-Haqq says Gamma Gamma Chi, unlike traditional sororities, will allow Muslim women to feel more comfortable without compromising their Islamic beliefs.
Abdul-Haqq recalls trying to join a sorority at Bennett College in Greensboro and fearing she might be required to dress immodestly while pledging. "I don't wear short sleeves," she says. "I wear my hair covered. I felt put off from the beginning."
Collins and her daughter have sent e-mails to Muslim student groups and received enthusiastic responses, but no campus has signed up the 10 to 15 members needed for a chapter.
"We have to keep in mind that sororities are really an American phenomenon," Collins says. "A lot of Muslims come from Middle Eastern and South Asian backgrounds. This is not a part of their experience."
The sorority has collected the names of 200 women who have expressed interest in joining. The sorority, Collins says, would also welcome non-Muslim women who support its mission.
Xenia Tariq, 19, a freshman at Kentucky whose family moved to the USA from Pakistan, attended the sorority's recent seminar in Lexington and applied to join. She has been spreading the word among her Muslim girlfriends and hopes the university will have a chapter by fall. "I guess the appeal was that it is the first ever Muslim sorority," Tariq says. "I was thinking this is going to be really cool and groundbreaking, and I wanted to be a part of it."
Source: USA Today via Yahoo! News
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20060410/ts_usatoday/firstmuslimsorority...
Friday, April 07, 2006
Pakistanis Fight Efforts to Relocate City
By PAUL GARWOOD, Associated Press WriterThu Apr 6, 2:28 PM ET
For the hardy people of Balakot, their ruggedly beautiful riverside city has long been worth fighting for. Muslim warrior Sayeed Ahmad Shaheed was slain here in 1831 while failing to repel Sikh invaders. Then nature struck six months ago, killing more than 20,000 residents in a 7.6-magnitude earthquake.
Now survivors of that Oct. 8 disaster are gearing up for a new battle — stopping Pakistan's government from wiping their city off the map altogether because it lies on fault lines that make it vulnerable to another quake.
"We will never go," vegetable shop owner Mohammed Hassan, 28, said in the city's bustling, rubble-strewn bazaar. "We have spent six of the toughest and hardest months of our lives here under the open sky, chilling winter and snow. Now the crisis is over, why should we leave?"
Foreign seismological experts are warning Pakistani authorities that Balakot lies above three fault lines, making it too dangerous for people to stay. The government has frozen reconstruction in a 1,480-acre "red zone" and ordered the city relocated from its present site, about 60 miles north of the capital, Islamabad.
Local officials have come up with a list of at least eight alternative locations and believe construction will start at a new site by year's end.
The top government official in the Mansehra district that includes Balakot said shifting 300,000 people with historical and economic roots in the city and neighboring areas was difficult, but the only responsible move to make.
"Sometimes you have to make difficult decisions and the purpose (of moving Balakot) is a noble one," Shakeel Qadir Khan told The Associated Press. "Getting the people out of a dangerous area and helping them resettle is crucial."
Most residents questioned in Balakot's thriving fruit and trinkets market said the government was wrong to relocate their city, arguing it made more sense to rebuild earthquake-resistant structures here rather than build a new city from scratch.
Others complained the government only came forward last week with its relocation plans and many residents had already spent money rebuilding homes and shops in the city. They also grumbled about lack of information on the plans and how they would be compensated.
"The government should make its policies clear about what it wants to do and then we will be in a position to give an opinion," said unemployed 52-year-old Shah Jehan Garlat. "We are not denying the theories of the scientists, and we are worried and scared while living here. But we need to understand what the government wants."
Balakot, which lies in a steep-sided mountain valley, was flattened by the October earthquake. Scarcely a building escaped major destruction. Thousands still live in crudely rebuilt homes or in tent cities — most of which the government wants to close by Monday. Unemployment is high.
Like elsewhere in the quake zone where 87,000 people died across northern Pakistan, the most pressing needs are for adequate shelter and income.
The Pakistani government, with the aid of the United Nations, other foreign agencies and non-governmental organizations, is gearing up for a major reconstruction drive this month following six months of intensive relief efforts that helped people survive the winter.
Key to those plans is getting the more than 3.5 million people left homeless by the quake to return to their towns and villages and start rebuilding their homes.
More than 70 percent of the thousands of people who have been living in government- and aid agency-run camps have gone back, while a handful of camps will remain open for those too vulnerable to return to villages or hamlets ravaged by the quake.
In Balakot, which lies beside the roaring Kunhar River, overlooked by distant snowcapped mountains, ruins are everywhere. A 5.1-magnitude tremor that shook the earth when an AP reporter visited was a reminder of seismic activity that threatens its inhabitants.
But local aid worker Mohammed Aref, 35, didn't even flinch. "That was nothing, we've seen worse," he said.
"We as Muslims don't fear death. We also revere Sayeed Ahmad (Shaheed) who died defending Balakot. Now we are also ready to fight for Balakot. It will be very tough for the government if it tries to move the people from here."
Source: AP via Yahoo! News
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060406/ap_on_re_as/quake_saving_balakot...
FIFA seeks answers over Israeli missile strike
Friday 07 April 2006, 14:49 Makka Time, 11:49 GMT
Football's world governing body, FIFA, says it is considering possible action over an Israeli air attack last week on a football field in the Gaza Strip.
Jerome Champagne, FIFA deputy general secretary in charge of political issues, said on Friday the attack was a direct strike without any reason.
He said the field was not being used by Palestinians as a missile launching pad, as Israel's ambassador to Switzerland had claimed.
"We have just asked for explanations," Champagne said.
"FIFA has been fighting for more than a century to make this game universal. To hit a football field is really the wrong signal."
Champagne said he had discussed the matter with Sepp Blatter, the FIFA president, and that a decision would likely be announced early next week.
He declined to elaborate on what action FIFA could take against Israel.
"Football should remain outside of politics," Champagne said.
Source: al Jazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/F4F083B3-3A51-42F0-8FC8-D6C5522CC1EC.htm
Football's world governing body, FIFA, says it is considering possible action over an Israeli air attack last week on a football field in the Gaza Strip.
Jerome Champagne, FIFA deputy general secretary in charge of political issues, said on Friday the attack was a direct strike without any reason.
He said the field was not being used by Palestinians as a missile launching pad, as Israel's ambassador to Switzerland had claimed.
"We have just asked for explanations," Champagne said.
"FIFA has been fighting for more than a century to make this game universal. To hit a football field is really the wrong signal."
Champagne said he had discussed the matter with Sepp Blatter, the FIFA president, and that a decision would likely be announced early next week.
He declined to elaborate on what action FIFA could take against Israel.
"Football should remain outside of politics," Champagne said.
Source: al Jazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/F4F083B3-3A51-42F0-8FC8-D6C5522CC1EC.htm
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Muslim India struggles to escape the past
Prominent individuals belie the poverty of a minority left behind by the 1947 partition
Randeep Ramesh in MumbaiWednesday April 5, 2006
Guardian
On the sprung floor of a Mumbai dance studio standing amid a huddle of male and female dancers is a young woman, dressed in tight sequinned clothes, sucking on a cigarette. She is shouting at her troupe.It is difficult not to notice 19-year-old Mumait Khan. Tattoos ride on her shoulders and her lower back and her sinuous dance routines have made her one of the most sought-after "item girls" to roll out of Bollywood. "Item" is Mumbai film-speak for a raunchy musical number slipped into mainstream Hindi films.
In the lottery of life Mumait Khan has hit a jackpot. An Indian Muslim, she embodies an apparent contradiction that is rapidly becoming part of a national debate.
While government statistics reveal India's Muslims achieving lower educational levels and higher unemployment rates than the Hindu majority, paradoxically there are an increasing number of high-profile sports and film stars, politicians and industrialists among India's 150 million adherents to Islam.
India's tennis star, Sania Mirza, the country's president, Abdul Kalam, and Azim Premji, its richest man, are all Muslims. Like many success stories of this modern Indian Muslim resurgence, Mumait attributes her rise to self-reliance and self-help.
Although she says she still prays and comes from a pious family, it was poverty that persuaded her parents to overcome their conservative instincts and let her pursue a film career. Only after her father lost his job and could not get steady work again was Mumait allowed to begin dancing. Her appearance fee today runs into hundreds of thousands of rupees and she has just bought a duplex for 5.5m rupees (£70,000).
Walking past the rubbish-strewn streets and open sewers of the chawl or housing colony she grew up in, the teenager says: "Look, this is where I came from. I had to get out."
There is however growing concern that such high-profile success stories mask the relative decline of the Indian Muslim community.
The issue has political repercussions - Sonia Gandhi, the leader of the ruling Congress party, has made it clear that the nation's Muslims are key to winning elections, calling them the party's natural allies. Mrs Gandhi's party has embarked on a campaign to "empower" Muslims with quotas in jobs and universities. Hindu nationalist politicians claim an obscurantist minority is being appeased and pampered.
India has more Muslims than any country except Indonesia, a large religious minority in a professedly secular nation of a billion people. Indian Muslims often feel under pressure not to antagonise the Hindu majority and this sets them apart from many of their brethren in the rest of the Islamic world.
The result is that protests on global issues concerning Muslims, whether the Danish cartoons controversy or George Bush's "war on terror", are relatively muted in India. But there are some notable exceptions - a Muslim politician in Uttar Pradesh recently called for the beheading of the cartoonist and offered a 510m-rupee reward.
What is also striking about India's version of Islam is that it remains largely unreformed and looks outdated by comparison with other Islamic countries. Fatwas are frequently issued - priests pronounce on the correct length of tennis players' skirts. In India Muslim men can divorce their wives by saying talaq ("I divorce thee") three times - a practice largely abandoned in Islam. Last week village elders in eastern India even ordered a man to leave his wife after he said talaq three times in his sleep.
The most striking example of this attempt to be "authentic" are the beards and filigreed topi caps of students among the verandas and courtyards of Darul Uloom (House of Knowledge), a madrasa located in Deoband, 90 miles north-east of Delhi. The seminary is a global centre of Muslim learning with 15,000 schools worldwide adopting its sparse and dogmatic version of Islam. Although Darul Uloom spreads a message of peace, the Taliban sprung from its teaching.
Rising unemployment among Muslims in India has seen a steady increase in students. "My father is a farmer, but there is no work. He thought the best job was to become an imam (priest). People always need spiritual learning," said Mohammed Arif, 20, who has studied in Deoband for seven years.
A committee set up by the country's prime minister tasked with looking at minority employment found that despite making up 14.7% of the population, Muslims only comprise a fraction of the workforce in many areas.
In February there was an angry debate in parliament over the Indian army's refusal to tell the committee how many Muslim soldiers the country had. In the end the army relented: out of 1.1m Indian soldiers only 29,000 are Muslims.
There are many who wonder why Muslims, who before the subcontinent was divided made up a third of the armed forces, have stayed away from India's regiments. There is a widely held suspicion that Muslims prefer Pakistan. But in the three wars India has fought with Pakistan there were no signs of Muslim disloyalty and the dispute over Kashmir has not stirred wider passions.
More worrying, Muslims are falling behind Hindu Dalits, or untouchables, seen as the lowest social class. "In terms of educational achievement, Indian Muslim men in cities are less literate than their Dalit peers," says Abusaleh Shariff, a member of the prime ministerial committee conducting a socio- economic survey of Indian Muslims.
Why Muslims fare so badly is a mix of history and politics. When the subcontinent was partitioned in 1947, most of the Muslim upper and middle class emigrated to Pakistan. Those left behind were leaderless and mostly poor and many felt guilty they had been responsible for the carving-up of the country.
Experts also point out a linguistic divide. For many north Indian Muslims their language, Urdu, written in a modified Arabic script, is conspicuous by its absence in India.
Like their Hindu counterparts, descent often determines employment for Indian Muslims. The result is that poor artisans expect their sons to take over often low-paying jobs. "It is why 50% of car mechanics are Muslims. The fathers just hand over the business to the son," says Mr Shariff.
Academics say that rather like African Americans, Indian Muslims have become victims of history and discrimination. Some suggest that mimicking US policy on African Americans might help.
But, says Zoya Hassan, professor of political science at Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University: "Unlike African Americans Indian Muslims are not organised. They have not campaigned for their rights effectively. Of course racism is easier to identify than an anti-Muslim bias, but African Americans were lifted by a policy of positive discrimination which could help here."
In numbers
Muslims form 14.7% of India's 1.1 billion population but only
7% of public administrators
5% of the railways staff
3.5% of the country's banking employees
3% or less of the Indian army
Source: Guadiran Unlimited
http://www.guardian.co.uk/india/story/0,,1747079,00.html
Interview: Al-Jazeera's Chief Takes Aim at CNN
The Last Word: Wadah Khanfar
Al-Jazeera, all the time.
Newsweek International
April 10-17, 2006 issue - Al-Jazeera has its sights set on CNN and the BBC. Founded 10 years ago in Doha, the controversial Arab television network plans to launch a 24/7 English-language channel at the end of May, Al-Jazeera International. Big-name Western journalists like the BBC's David Frost and former "Nightline" reporter David Marash have already signed on, and news centers are soon to open in Kuala Lumpur, London and Washington. Heading up the ambitious expansion is 38-year-old director-general Wadah Khanfar, appointed in late March to the network's top spot. Palestinian by birth, Jordanian by education, Khanfar spoke to NEWSWEEK's Vibhuti Patel in Doha about the station's reputation and its future. Excerpts:
Why go international now?
Al-Jazeera is a Pan-Arab regional network. In 10 years, it's become an internationally recognized brand name. Now we're looking beyond our region to introduce a fresh perspective. Ours will be the only 24-hour news channel in English headquartered in the Middle East.
The new venture has attracted several high-profile Western journalists.
These people have high credentials; they've done a beautiful job in the media. Their experience will result in magnificent programming at Al-Jazeera. So far, the limitation of the Arabic language has not allowed people from all over the world to see our network. Now, with the best English-speaking journalists, global understanding of what we're saying will be enhanced.
Right now, who watches you?
Our statistics show that most Arabs look up to Al-Jazeera as their most reliable source of news. The masses watch us; the rulers and the elite find us an important source of information; they're concerned about what we cover. Al-Jazeera has changed the political landscape in the Middle East. People now receive the opposition's discourse directly. Al-Jazeera opened it up for intellectuals, thinkers, critics to speak their mind. It was the first democratic exercise in the region. The Arab world is changing. Reform, democracy and freedom of speech are issues integral to this period of transformation.
But you still offer Osama bin Laden his biggest platform.
Our motto is, opinion and counteropinion. Up to 2001, Western media and governments celebrated Al-Jazeera as the foremost force for freedom in the region, but when we implemented the same motto internationally on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, America protested. We report the news, so when there's a newsworthy item, we put it on the screen, be it Osama, or Ayman al-Zawahiri, or Al Qaeda in Iraq—they are part of a developing news story and we're a news channel. I can't censor hard news for political gain. We are not a propaganda tool for anyone. George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld complain about us, but we've broadcast more than 5,000 hours of Bush's speeches, live, translated into Arabic; we have not aired more than five hours of bin Laden's. So, no, we're not bin Laden's mouthpiece.
You got kicked out of Iraq after the government accused you of inciting violence. Do you want a bureau back in Iraq?
Without doubt. Iraq is a big story that we're covering through news-agency reports and our Doha newsroom. Our presence in Iraq would allow us coverage that's more in touch with the reality of the field. Some accusations were made against us, but now we've been banned for a year and a half. Al-Jazeera has not been behind any trouble or political situation. The banning makes no sense: Al-Jazeera was giving the best picture of the reality in Iraq. We urge the government of Iraq to open our bureau and allow our correspondents—most of whom are Iraqis—to return to be in touch with the day-to-day story in the field. We've contacted many Iraqi officials, and received many promises that the bureau will open. But so far nothing has materialized. Al-Jazeera does not sympathize with insurgents—we are not for or against anyone.
Reporting in Iraq, though, has been a struggle.
More than 20 of our journalists were detained by U.S. forces in '03, '04, some for a few hours, others more than 30 days. Some were tortured physically by U.S. armed forces; some were in Abu Ghraib jail. One colleague was killed in Najaf while he was filming; another was killed the day before Baghdad fell. Then U.S. forces bombed our offices. Now it's Atwar Bahjat [who was killed by insurgents on Feb. 22] ... I had recruited her personally when I was bureau chief in Baghdad.
How do you view Al-Jazeera's success?
Our founding mission was to free the Arab media from being manipulated by authoritarian regimes in this part of the world; to give audiences choices—the right to knowledge, to be better informed, to decide for themselves without interference from political authorities. Before 1996, no one here took journalists seriously. Everyone knew that it was propaganda, the spin that intelligence agencies and governments wanted published. We introduced free journalism. Now other networks are following our model.
© 2006 Newsweek, Inc.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12113769/site/newsweek/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12113769/site/newsweek/
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Senator Wants to Tap Controversial General
By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press WriterMon Apr 3, 7:23 PM ET
A Senate Republican wants an Army general who drew criticism for church speeches casting the war on terrorism in religious terms to lead the U.S. special operations command.
In a letter to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Sen. George Allen (news, bio, voting record), R-Va., recommended Lt. Gen. William G. (Jerry) Boykin, currently the Pentagon's deputy undersecretary for intelligence, for the post in Tampa, Fla.
The current commander, Gen. Doug Brown, is retiring, and the Pentagon has not filled the job.
"I am told, and I believe it to be true, that no special operations officer currently on active duty is more highly respected or admired by his superiors, peers or subordinates alike, than Jerry Boykin," Allen wrote in the letter dated March 31 and obtained by The Associated Press.
Allen, a first-term Virginia senator and potential 2008 presidential candidate, does not serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee, which is in charge of approving Pentagon nominations. A spokesman for the senator said Boykin is one of Allen's constituents and that many people approached the senator and recommended the general.
Sen. John Warner (news, bio, voting record), the Republican chairman of that committee and Virginia's senior senator, does not agree with Allen's suggestion.
"Senator Allen is entitled to his views. He did not consult with me on this matter, but this officer would not be among those whom I would recommend for this position," Warner said in a statement to the AP.
In 2003, Boykin gave speeches at evangelical Christian churches in which he painted the war on terror as a Christian fight against Satan and suggested that Muslims worship idols. Boykin later apologized for his characterizations as conservatives rushed to defend him.
A Pentagon investigation the following year found that Boykin violated regulations by failing to make clear he was not speaking in an official capacity when he made the speeches, sometimes wearing his Army uniform. The probe also found Boykin violated Pentagon rules by failing to obtain advance clearance for his remarks.
In the letter, Allen said his confidence in Boykin's abilities overrides any concerns about what may surface during confirmation hearings should the administration nominate Boykin. Specifically, Allen mentioned the religious statements as well as U.S. interrogation policies at the Guantanamo Bay prison, Abu Ghraib in Iraq and elsewhere.
"Granted, these are issues which cause discomfort. But I firmly believe the nomination of General Boykin to be important enough to take a stand," Allen wrote.
The senator said his request to nominate Boykin is supported by "many of my colleagues here in the Senate" and those who have served with Boykin, given the general's extensive special operations resume, which includes the Army's Delta Force and service in the Somalia conflict.
Source: AP via Yahoo! News
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060403/ap_on_go_co/general_special_ops
Sunday, April 02, 2006
Battle Brews As Porn Moves Into Mainstream
By DAVID CRARY, AP National WriterSat Apr 1, 5:02 PM ET
The industry's VIPs mingle at political galas and Super Bowl parties. Their product is available on cell phones, podcasts, and particularly the Internet — there it's an attraction like no other, patronized by tens of millions of Americans.
It's pornography. And if you're a consumer, John Harmer thinks you're damaging your brain.
Harmer is part of a cadre of anti-porn activists seeking new tactics to fight an unprecedented deluge of porn which they see as wrecking countless marriages and warping human sexuality. They are urging federal prosecutors to pursue more obscenity cases and raising funds for high-tech brain research that they hope will fuel lawsuits against porn magnates.
"We don't think it's a lost cause," said Harmer, a Utah-based auto executive and former politician who's been fighting porn for 40 years.
"It's the most profitable industry in the world," he said. "But I'm convinced we'll demonstrate in the not-too-distant future the actual physical harm that pornography causes and hold them financially accountable. That could be the straw that breaks their back."
The activists' adversary is a sprawling industry that, by some counts, offers more than 4 million porn sites on the Internet, that in the United States alone is estimated to be worth $12 billion a year. A tracking firm, comScore Media Metrix, says about 40 percent of Internet users in the United States visit adult sites each month.
Porn products are featured at popular sex expositions and retail chains such as Hustler Hollywood. Major hotels provide in-room porn, and adult film stars are now mainstream celebrities. Mary Carey attended a VIP Republican fundraiser in Washington in mid-March; Jenna Jameson's "How to Make Love Like a Porn Star" hit the best-seller lists and she hosted a racy pre-Super Bowl party in Detroit in February.
As much as there is national consensus on the evils of child pornography, there is none whatever on porn featuring adults and marketed to them. It's more pervasive than ever, yet activists and experts disagree bitterly over the extent of harm it causes.
"The form of entertainment is no problem," said Paul Cambria, general counsel for the porn industry's Adult Freedom Foundation. "There are individuals who are going to react abnormally to normal material, but it's not a problem for the average person."
For every couple driven apart by porn, there are others whose relationship is enlivened, Cambria argued. He dismissed contentions that porn is highly addictive or brain-damaging.
"Some people lie about it," Cambria said. "It's their way of excusing personally unacceptable conduct — 'It wasn't me, it was porn.'"
Such attitudes infuriate experts on the other side who say online porn is as addictive as crack cocaine.
"The Internet is the perfect delivery system for anti-social behavior — it's free, it's piped into your house," said Mary Anne Layden, a psychologist and addiction expert at the University of Pennsylvania. "Internet porn is probably the biggest miseducation system we can devise in terms of sexuality, misuse of women."
She says many of her patients, rather than improving their sex lives with porn, suffer sexual dysfunction.
Interest in porn is age-old and normal, says psychologist David Greenfield of West Hartford, Conn., an expert on Internet behaviors, but it can become a destructive obsession for a minority who indulge in it at the expense of healthy relationships. Easy availability is part of the issue.
"It's not your father's porn," he said. "With little or no effort, as long as you have a computer, you can access some of the most stimulating content on the planet. There's no delay, no person watching. It's designed to very quickly get to a point where you're not in full control."
He estimates that for up to 10 percent of porn users, relationships suffer — with many husbands spending so much time online that they cease to have sex with their wives.
Divorce lawyers report that porn use is an increasingly common factor in marriage breakups: It can cause immense pain when a wife discovers her husband's porn habit.
"I compare it to your house burning down," said Laurie Hall, who divorced her husband after writing a book called "An Affair of the Mind," about his 20-year obsession with porn.
"It destroys your sense of personhood when you bring all that you are into a relationship and someone chooses to ignore that," she said. "It eats away at the heart of the family."
Across America, compulsive porn use has spawned hundreds of support groups, treatment programs and Web sites where heartbroken spouses — mostly wives — swap stories of their mates' obsessions.
Polls suggest most Americans believe porn should be off-limits to minors and available legally for adults. But groups such as Morality in Media think the public favors tougher enforcement of obscenity laws against hard-core porn; it operates a Web site that forwards obscenity complaints to federal officials.
"We're not going to get rid of all of it, but we can push it back into the gutter as far as humanly possible," said Morality in Media president Robert Peters, a Dartmouth-educated attorney who struggled in his 20s to kick a porn habit that started in grade school.
"It was hell," said Peters, recalling a six-year stretch where he regularly visited porn outlets on New York's 42nd Street. "It's a very hard habit to break."
Mark Laaser of Eden Prairie, Minn., says he frequently sought out pornography and engaged in extramarital sex for more than 20 years, starting in college and continuing through a career as pastor and counselor. He now runs workshops, and consults with church congregations on the issue.
"I've seen the damage it does to marriages, to families," he said.
Though he stressed the need for individual willpower, Laaser also faulted the porn industry for employing aggressive online technologies that "besiege you."
"Sometimes it's not a matter of free will," he said. "It's a matter of invasion."
Another self-described former addict is Phil Burress, head of a Cincinnati-based conservative group called Citizens for Community Values.
Like many conservatives, he had hopes that the Bush administration would reverse Clinton White House policy and step up prosecutions of adult-porn obscenity cases as well as child porn cases. Thus far, Burress is disappointed.
"Five years into this administration, they get an F," he said.
Still, Burress is encouraged by the recent formation of an FBI anti-obscenity squad and the appointment of Brent Ward, a former U.S. attorney who combatted porn in Utah, to head an obscenity prosecution task force.
The Justice Department defends its record, saying it has indicted dozens of people on obscenity charges since 2001 and suggesting the pace will increase. But with a vast array of potential targets, and many other priorities, prosecutors must choose their battles carefully.
One pending case involves obscenity charges against a California couple whose company sold pornographic videos depicting simulated rape and murder. The charges carry a maximum penalty of 50 years in prison plus $7.5 million in fines.
The bottom line, perhaps, is that each side in the debate can make points that seem unassailable.
"Everyone agrees that tens of millions of Americans consume porn. ... ministers, PTA members, policemen, teachers, soldiers, dentists and Boy Scout leaders," argues California sex therapist Marty Klein. "The overwhelming majority of them don't rape strangers or emotionally abandon their wives."
But Layden, the Penn addiction expert, refuses to see porn as mostly harmless.
"When I ask men who are sex addicts if they would want their wife or daughter to be in porn, 100 percent say, 'No,'" she said. "They want it to be somebody else's wife or daughter. They know this material is damaging."
___
On the Net:
Porn industry group: http://www.adultfreedomfoundation.org/
Anti-porn group: http://www.obscenitycrimes.org/
Source: AP via Yahoo! News
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060401/ap_on_re_us/the_porn_divide
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