Drones and the complacent belief that murdering Muslims is justifiable

First, read this unconditional acceptance of facts that cannot be denied nor excused. Islamicist terrorism has inflicted atrocities and diffused panic and amorphous, long-term anxiety from east to west, south to north. Citizens of Nairobi and Baghdad, Madrid and London, Bamako and Dar es Salaam, New York and Bali, Mumbai and Damascus, Moscow and Karachi and now Boston, other places too, have had their lives and sense of safety blown apart. Those unaffected personally are haunted by the images and stories. Trepidation has entered their bones, our bones. Almost as chilling as real attacks are those thwarted by intelligence and security services. How many plots are still being planned? What if? Why? What do they want?

Millions of irreproachable Muslims are bewildered and enraged by this global vendetta which seems determined to annihilate modernism, occidental values, and also to destabilise some of the poorest and most hapless of nation states for reasons not made clear at all. Why are they trying to destroy Mali’s old culture for example? Some of us feel ashamed that Islam has become a byword for sinister, guerrilla warfare and is now regarded as a monstrous, rogue faith, easily turned into a killing call, most effectively for young men for whom life lacks meaning and direction. Women are now joining in too. The “spiritual leaders” behind the mayhem are wicked and psychologically manipulative men interested only in high body-counts and lurid publicity.

OK, now let’s turn to the most dominant countries in the world – and their finessed, widespread, extreme tactics used against people, some evidently fanatic and dangerous, others totally innocent. This is state-sponsored, state-activated, state-engineered terrorism which we are just meant to accept as a proportionate response to the evil above. More people are victimized by the unaccountable, secretive actions of the western nations – the US and UK most notably – than all those victimized by Islamicists. Most brainwashed and genuinely frightened westerners just accept what their governments do in fighting a nebulous “war on terror”. Hundreds of thousands are killed, physically and psychologically maimed and shocked and awed by western weaponry. It is fair enough and sensible to use intelligence and prevent plots home and abroad, but what is happening and has been since 9/11 is not defensible, moral, right, just or sane.

The war on Iraq was the most obvious manifestation of this illegitimate bullying and killing. At least then good people objected to the foul ambitions of Bush and Blair. But now there is hardly any scrutiny or interrogation of policies, and only terrifying complacency that murdering Muslims is always justifiable.

Obama, with his image of a cool, black, nice-guy President, is able to get away with stuff Bush never did. The coalition government is also less watched and criticised than Blair’s cabinet. It hurts to write this sentence but Obama is showing himself to be a truly ugly American, too fond of extra-judicial killings, still keeping men incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay, tacitly condoning the torture of suspects in foreign prisons and ordering secret drone attacks without any conscience. Drone warfare is now used routinely in Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere. The bombs are casually dropped on, yes, terrorists, but also wedding parties, homes and schools, bursting open the bodies of babies, old people, women. Imagine what it feels like after an attack. These lives matter just as much as those of Bostonians and Londoners.

Recently American Senators, from left to right, have expressed disquiet about their President’s enthusiastic use of drones. Obama defended himself by saying, “This is not Dick Cheney we are talking about.” But as journalist Michael Crowley wrote in Time magazine this month, “in political terms it is hard to tell the difference” between the NeoCons of yore and Obama’s strategies. The dissenting politicians are worried that the drone war is creating more anger against America and also that it is legally suspect. The Independent this week published a moving testimony by the Yemeni writer Farea-Al-Muslimi who went to Washington and described the devastation caused by drone strikes in his country. Senators were shocked and awed by his testimony and analysis.

Britain is deeply implicated too. Anti-war protesters this weekend claimed that RAF pilots operate drones dropped on Pakistan and Afghanistan. Our country makes efficient ultra-modern killing tools which can obliterate humans and destroy habitats in an instant. These are proudly displayed at trade fairs and sold to blackguards until the US and Europe decides the purchaser is an enemy and turns against them, as with Libya, now Syria.

Britain has not raised its voice against the continued internment of men in Guantanamo Bay, where more than 160 are on hunger strike and some being force-fed. Shaker Aamer, a British resident, has been there for 11 years. He was cleared of all charges six years ago. Are these two civilized nations going to simply let such men rot and die in the gulag? Obviously.

Western leaders are blindingly proud of their democracies and human rights but how much better are they today than the Muslim terrorists they are trying to defeat? In fact, in terms of numbers of innocent dead, they are a good deal worse.

Muslim nations plan Shariah compliant stock exchange

The organization representing the world’s biggest grouping of Muslim majority nations is seeking to attract more overseas investment by offering the first Shariah compliant stock index from its 57 members.

The Organization of the Islamic Conference based in Jeddah hired Standard & Poor’s to start an index of about 50 of the most traded stocks in the first quarter of 2011, Huseyin Erkan, the Istanbul Stock Exchange’s chief executive officer and coordinator of the initiative, said on November 8.

The index, which will track listed equities that comply with Islam’s ban on alcohol, gaming and tobacco, aims to target exchange traded funds, he said.

“Governments of Islamic countries want us to cooperate in capital markets to facilitate cross-border trading,” Erkan said in an interview in Abu Dhabi. “One of the easiest and most efficient ways to improve trading is to build indexes and exchanged-traded funds.”

The OIC, which includes the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia and Pakistan and is the second largest grouping of countries after the United Nations, is seeking to speed up the establishment of a free trade area and an Islamic economic union for its more than 1.4 billion people, according to its Website.

Assets held by Shariah compliant funds is estimated at $52.3 billion, Ernst & Young said in its Islamic Funds & Investment Report in May, and companies and governments in the Middle East and Asia have introduced Shariah compliant stock indices and funds to attract inflows.

Templeton Asset Management Ltd.’s Mark Mobius said he’s a “big fan” of Islamic funds and the “potential assets that are available to the Islamic asset management industry” is more than $480 billion.

“The equity side is where we are going to see big growth going forward,” Mobius, who oversees about $34 billion as executive chairman of San Mateo, California based Templeton’s emerging markets group, said at a conference in Manama yesterday. “The potential is very, very great.”

News Corp.’s Dow Jones & Co and MSCI Inc. currently offer Islamic indexes that track the performance of companies in the US, Singapore, Japan, Europe and Malaysia that meet Shariah principles.

The S&P 100 Pan Islamic Market index tracks 100 companies from the six nation Gulf Cooperation Council and Asia, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Bursa Malaysia, the stock exchange manager in Kuala Lumpur, and FTSE Group offer Islamic equity indexes including the FTSE Bursa Malaysia EMAS Shariah index, which tracks 271 large and mid-cap stocks, according to data on its Website.

“The more indexes covering Islamic equities the better,” Shehzad Janab, head of asset management at Dubai based Daman Investments said on November 24. “It’s a virtuous circle. More indexes mean more people following them, better awareness and it will force companies within the indexes to be more transparent.”

The Dow Jones Islamic Market World Index, which tracks global shares that meet Islamic investment guidelines and has a market capitalization of $12.8 trillion, climbed 7 per cent this year, while the Dow Jones Global Index gained 6.4 per cent in the same period. Shariah compliant bonds returned 11.4 per cent so far this year, according to the HSBC/NASDAQ Dubai US Dollar Sukuk Index.

S&P will help the OIC set up a second, broader Islamic index of listed companies, said Alexander Matturri, New York based executive managing director at S&P Indices.

Matturri said in a November 5 Interview in Abu Dhabi: “The rationale behind this move is that it attracts attention from both local and off shore investors who want to bring flows in, the tradable version could ideally be used for launching exchanged traded funds.”

HSBC Holdings, the second largest underwriter of Islamic bonds globally, plans to start its first Shariah compliant exchange traded funds in the Arabian Gulf, Razi Fakih, deputy chief executive officer of HSBC’s Islamic unit in Dubai, said in October. The funds will give overseas investors greater access to the region’s markets.

ETFs may help OIC countries attract some of the $79.9 billion of inflows into emerging markets this year, which is set to exceed 2009’s record $83.3 billion, according to EPFR Global. ETFs are index-based investment products that allow investors to buy and sell shares of entire portfolios of stock in a single security.

The OIC indexes will also provide investors exposure to oil driven wealth in Persian Gulf nations, Charbel Azzi, Middle East and North Africa’s head of client coverage at S&P Indices said. Founded in 1969, OIC members include Saudi Arabia, the largest oil producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, and Qatar, the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas.

“You’re targeting global Shariah players, and not just regional players,” Azzi said in a Nov. 23 interview in Dubai. “They will be able to invest in Islamic markets which are outside the jurisdiction of the GCC or Europe. You have got all of the Islamic markets come under one umbrella.”

Malaysia’s 3.928 per cent Islamic note due in June 2015 fell, pushing the yield up 2 basis points, to 2.89 per cent, according to prices provided by Royal Bank of Scotland Group.

The extra yield investors demand to hold Dubai’s government sukuk rather than Malaysia’s narrowed 2 basis points to 381 basis points today, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The difference between the average yield for emerging market sukuk and the London interbank offered rate widened 4 basis points to 344 yesterday.

Sajjad Anwar, who helps manage the equivalent of $160 million of Islamic and non-Islamic funds at NBP Fullerton Asset Management Ltd, said he will invest in funds tracking companies in OIC member states.

“This is feasible and viable as it will provide a common platform to investors in the Islamic world,” Anwar said in a phone interview from Karachi on November 24. “The move is likely to promote the Islamic finance industry.”

Stock markets in Muslim lands rally during Ramadan – study

Ramadan, the holiest month of the Islamic calendar marked with fasting and prayer, is also an uplifting time for stock markets in predominantly Muslim countries, according to a study by the University of New Hampshire.

Stock markets in Oman, Turkey, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Pakistan, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Malaysia, Bahrain, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia generated average returns of 38 percent during the month of Ramadan over the years 1989 through 2007, according to the report compared with their average 4.3 percent returns the rest of the year.

Ahmad Etebari, a professor of finance at the university in Durham, New Hampshire, who was lead researcher on the study, said he was surprised by the finding.

“Fasting is quite an ordeal during those long summer days in the Middle East,” said Etebari, who was born in Iran. “I expected to see the opposite.”

Since Ramadan is determined by a lunar calendar, its starting date varies from year to year. Etebari found that the markets he analyzed performed strongly, regardless of the timing of Ramadan.

Etebari concluded that the rally resulted from greater optimism during Ramadan. “This is behavioral,” Etebari said. “It stems from psychology.”

Observance of Ramadan is expected to start on or about Aug. 11 and finish on or about Sept. 10.

In the Middle East, Dubai’s main index and Abu Dhabi’s benchmark are both down so far this year, while stocks in Indonesia, an officially secular country that has the world’s largest Muslim population, are up about 20 percent.

“The implication of our find for investors is obvious,” Etebari said. “Investors seeking fast profits in the Muslim world should try to profit from the fast.”

Pakistan breaks ground on pipeline with Iran

Pakistan’s president has taken part in a ceremony in Iran to mark the start of construction of a controversial pipeline to bring natural gas from the Islamic Republic, despite US opposition to the project.

The Iran-Pakistan pipeline is intended to help Islamabad overcome its increasing energy needs at a time when the country is facing increased blackouts and energy shortages.

However, there are serious doubts about how Pakistan can finance the $1.5bn needed to construct the pipeline and whether it can go through with the project without facing US sanctions, which Washington has put in place to pressure Iran over its nuclear programme.

In live television images shown on Pakistani television, President Asif Ali Zardari and his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad shook hands with various dignitaries as the ceremony got under way at the border.

Last Monday’s event comes just days before the government’s term is set to expire and could be designed to win votes by making the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) look like it is addressing the energy crisis.

The pipeline also allows the government to thumb its nose at the US, which is widely unpopular in Pakistan despite billions of dollars in military and civilian aid.

US opposition

The US has opposed the project, instead promoting an alternative pipeline that runs from the gas fields of Turkmenistan to Afghanistan, Pakistan and then to India.

Washington has also championed a number of electricity-generation projects within Pakistan such as helping to renovate hydropower dams.

Iran says it has already finished its side of the pipeline, which travels 1,150km from the gas fields to the Iran-Pakistan border.

The Pakistan segment of the pipeline is expected to be about 780km.

Gas is supposed to start flowing in by the end of 2014, although few see that deadline as realistic considering the delays so far in the project.

“If this deal is finalised for a proposed Iran-Pakistan pipeline, it would raise serious concerns under our Iran Sanctions Act,” said Victoria Nuland, the US state department spokeswoman, during a news briefing in Washington last week.

“We’ve made that absolutely clear to our Pakistani counterparts.”

Sanction triggers

Under US regulations, a wide-ranging list of business-related activities with Iran can trigger US sanctions.

Certain sales of technology or equipment that allow Iran to develop its energy sector are barred, as are most transactions involving gas or other fuels, according to a January report by the Congressional Research Report.

The regulations also bar business dealings with Iranian financial institutions.

Possible penalties include barring the entity violating the sanctions from receiving US military equipment or making it essentially impossible to do business with US banks.

Iran also faces separate EU and UN sanctions over its controversial nuclear programme, which the West believes is geared for building nuclear weapons. Tehran denies the charge, insisting the programme is purely for peaceful purposes.

Rhetoric aside, it remains to be seen whether Pakistan would ever actually face US sanctions.

The PPP government led by Zardari is likely to have only days left leading the country with new elections expected to be called by the end of the week.

“That timing is very important for the People’s Party because they are building their campaign on this,” said Hussain Yasar, a senior energy analyst at KASB Securities in Karachi.

Pakistan shares slumped almost 2.5 percent on Monday on fears of possible US sanctions following the groundbreaking ceremony, traders said

Pakistani Christians clash with police

Hundreds of Christians in Pakistan protesting against the burning of their homes by a mob over alleged blasphemous remarks made against Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) have clashed with police in at least two cities.

Police fired tear gas canisters and used batons to disperse almost a thousand demonstrators who had gathered in Karachi and Lahore, and took six protesters into custody.

In Lahore, hundreds of protesters, some carrying large crucifixes, blocked a main highway as they pressed their demands for better compensation payments from the government following the destruction of their homes, police official Malik Awais said.

Smaller demonstrations were held in the capital, Islamabad, and the adjoining city of Rawalpindi.

The protesters called on Pakistan’s government to better protect minorities.

Local Christian pastor Khalid Masih said it was “quite clear that [the] government of Pakistan has failed to protect the rights of the minorities.”

Arrests

Police in Lahore said that they had arrested around 150 people accused of setting the Christian homes on fire after a non-Muslim was accused last Friday of making offensive comments about Prophet Muhammad.

Last week, a group of Muslims burned about 170 houses in the Christian neighbourhood of Lahore.

Police said that those accused of rioting are being investigated for alleged arson, robbery, theft and terrorism.

Christians are often the target of Pakistan’s harsh blasphemy laws, which rights activists say are frequently used to persecute religious minorities or settle personal disputes.

Politicians have been reluctant to reform the laws for fear of being attacked by religious groups, as has happened in the past.

Police usually make arrests following rioting in blasphemy cases to calm down public anger and most of those detained are never convicted.

According to Human Rights Watch, there are at least 16 people on death row for blasphemy and another 20 are serving life sentences.

Two prominent politicians were assassinated in 2011 for urging reform of the law.

US pulls embassy staff amid al-Qaida calls for violence

The U.S. has ordered the departure of all non-essential personnel and the families of diplomats from its embassies in Sudan and Tunisia.

The State Department order Saturday also warned U.S. citizens against travel to the two countries because of concerns about rising anti-American violence.

A U.S. made, anti-Muslim film prompted a wave of protests and violence last week across the Middle East and other regions.

The man allegedly behind the private film was questioned Saturday by U.S. authorities in California.

Some parts of the Muslim world returned to calm Saturday following violence that began Tuesday when U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens was killed along with three other Americans. Several demonstrators have died since then.

Al-Qaida’s branch in Yemen has called for more violence against American embassies after days of deadly protests against the film.

Sudanese police patrolled the streets of Khartoum Saturday, a day after protesters attacked the British, German and U.S. embassies.

Sudan’s foreign minister, Ali Karti, has rejected a U.S. request to send Marines to the capital to protect the embassy.

Tunisia’s Foreign Ministry has condemned the violence and says it is committed to protecting all embassies and diplomatic missions.

Egyptian workers spent Saturday cleaning up Cairo’s Tahrir Square after a night of fighting between police and demonstrators that left one person dead.

Other countries that had seen days of protests, including Tunisia and Yemen, were also quieter Saturday. But new protests erupted in Afghanistan, India, Indonesia and Sydney, Australia.

Anti-Islam: is history repeating itself?

In 1880 a German professor Heinrich Von Treitschke laid the “scientific” foundations of anti-Semitism. He warned of the increasing Jewish immigration to Germany, declaring that Jews are a strange element in Germany, and that they do not want to enter into the life of the country, and are incapable of doing so.

The Israeli writer Shmuel Attinger said in his book The history of Jews in the modern era (in Hebrew) that some of the causes which led to the emergence of anti-Semitism were: a condemnation of the Jewish religion by some; a view that Jewish particularisms were a barrier to assimilation; and that Jews were not capable of integrating into the society in which they lived.

Anti-Semitism gradually spread through different sections of European society, especially when political and social organisations exploited it for political gains.

It is ironic that the visiting Dutch MP Geert Wilders is today unashamedly launching exactly the same propaganda campaign, but replacing Jews with Muslims. He is declaring that he is against Islam, saying “Islam is not a religion of peace. Islam is a totalitarian ideology”, and warning against Muslim immigration. He is playing on the ignorance of Islam, creating fear, tension and distrust. Indeed, he is taking us back to the Crusaders’ zealous anti-Islam hatred of the tenth century.

Despite his attempts to cover up his hatred and racism against Muslims, it is not hard for any thinking person to discover his contradictions, racist message and real aims. Wilders uses the tactic which late Edward Said describes in his book “Orientalism”, “the airy condescension of damning a whole people generally while mitigating the offence with a cool ‘I don’t mean you in particular’”.

The results of the Crusaders’ and the Nazis’ terrible crimes are known to us all. But as if Westerners didn’t learn anything from the Crusades and their anti-Semitic history, we are once again witnessing the racist European monster raise its ugly head, replacing Jews with Muslims. We, increasingly, see it through offensive and provocative propaganda campaigns, cartoons, films and physical attacks. And now with the help of local interest groups, they are trying to bring their poisonous hatred to Australia.

Geert Wilders is not the first anti-Muslim to visit Australia, and the Q society is not the first organisation to invite such a racist – the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs council (AIJAC) has been doing that for years. They invited Daniel Pipes, David Pryce Jones, Steven Emerson, Raphael Israeli and many others who all advocated anti-Arab and anti-Muslim propaganda.

ABC’s Lateline reported on 26 October 2012 that the Q Society is “a strong supporter of Israel” which “puts the Q Society in step with a number of other overseas movements, from the English Defence League to Stop Islamisation of Europe, which are all vehemently anti-Islam and staunchly pro-Israel”. The report pointed out that the Q Society has campaigned vigorously against the ‘boycott divestment and sanctions campaign’ aimed at Israel and opposed Muslims using a Melbourne community centre as a prayer hall. It stated that “both campaigns attracted support from Jews” . Indeed Geert Wilders does not hide his strong admiration and uncritical support of Israel.

An Australia in which the Q society is not able to find a venue for Geert Wilders to spread his lies and inject his racist venom in our society and in which our politicians refuse the invitation to hear his obnoxious voice and give him respectability is an Australia we can be proud of, not ashamed of, as some are trying to suggest.

We correctly refuse promoters of the hatred of Jews, Christians and other groups to enter Australia, so why do we allow promoters of the hatred of Muslims to do so? If someone said what Wilders is saying against Islam and Muslims against Jews and Judaism instead, he would not be allowed to enter Australia to spread his racism and disseminate the poison of his hatred in our society. Shame on the government for allowing this, and shame on the Opposition for keeping silent. If we are to treat all people equally, there has to be some consistency.

There is a history of Islam and Muslims in Australia dating back hundreds of years, long before even Captain Cook stepped in this land, and going up to this day. This history is the best proof of Muslims’ integration into Australian society and peaceful coexistence with the people of the land.

Yes, there are bad and extremist Muslims as there are in every religion and community, but why this concentration on Muslims? The attempt of some racists to use a trivial minority to distort the religion of over one and half billion humans and about half million strong Australians should not be allowed.

It is time for Australians to accept Islam is the second largest religion in Australia after Christianity, Australian Muslims are an integral part of the Australian society and they are here to stay. No one community, other than the Aboriginal community, should have more rights in Australia than any other. All these attempts to isolate Australian Muslims from society and the spreading of fear and hatred against them will only bring animosity, hostility, division and violence to Australian society. Is this what the Q society and similar organisations are trying to achieve?

The ugly face of racism and fascism is rising and if it is not seriously confronted by all, government and people, we are condemned to repeat history as if the slogan “never again” does not apply to all of us.

Pakistan’s beleaguered Shia minority caught In regional crossfire

The Hazara community once saw Quetta as a refuge from persecution. But today the tiny Shi’ite minority finds itself swept up in a broader conflict that has left it increasingly vulnerable to sectarian violence.

More than 1,000 Hazaras have been killed and thousands more injured in attacks carried out by Sunni militant groups in Pakistan’s insurgency-plagued Balochistan Province since 1999. Whereas the provincial capital, Quetta, was once considered a secular city, it has been the scene of many of the attacks.

Politician Abdul Khaliq Hazara, whose last name derives from the ethnic group, says members of the community in Quetta are concerned in the wake of the latest attack, in which some 90 Hazaras were killed in a February 16 bombing. “This is a highly uncertain situation,” he says. “It is possible that more people will be inclined to migrate now. We don’t see any ray of hope here. The atmosphere is overwhelmingly gloomy.”

Quetta’s Hazaras arrived in the city after fleeing persecution from a hard-line Afghan king in the late 19th century. They prospered in the relative security of Quetta’s cantonment under British rule, and later after Pakistan achieved statehood.

Many Hazaras joined the military and gained a reputation for loyal service. The community prospered in mining and business and was known for hard work and a passion for sports.

Hazara says that the atmosphere in Quetta began to change following the upheaval in Iran and Afghanistan in the late ’70s. Both the Shi’ite clerics who led the Islamic Revolution in Iran and the Arab backers of the Sunni anti-Soviet Afghan mujahedin had ambitions that went beyond the borders of one country.

Caught In The Middle

Hazara explains that the traditional rivalry between Shi’a and Sunnis was rekindled in Pakistan through the generous funding of mosques and sectarian militias.

The Hazara community, he says, became a target in the late 1990s after members of the Sunni extremist group Lashkar-e Jhangvi fled a government clampdown in the eastern Punjab Province and headed west to the neighboring Balochistan Province.

Lashkar-e Jhangvi has accepted responsibility for nearly all the attacks carried out against Hazaras in Balochistan Province.

Now, Hazara says, the community feels they are caught in the crossfire of a much larger conflict among rival Muslim sects and ideologies. “We are the scapegoats in this war. We are being used as cannon fodder,” he says. “Our enemies are trying to paint us as Iranian sympathizers just because we are Shi’a. We are caught in the crossfire between some [Sunni] Arab states and Iran, and we are being massacred in their proxy war.”

Hazara says that despite years of unrest in Balochistan, the Hazaras have no rivalries with the largely Sunni Pashtuns and Baluchis that populate the province. Hazaras make up about 30 percent of Quetta’s population of just over 2 million, sharing the city with Pashtuns, Baluchis, and smaller ethnic groups.

Lashkar-e Jhangvi is believed to draw recruits from hard-line Sunni madrasahs that were established in Balochistan over the last 20 years. Lashkar-e Jhangvi patronizes the Iranian Sunni extremist group Jundallah, which has mounted several attacks in Iran’s southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan Province.

Jundallah draws its members from those Baluchis who took refuge in Balochistan Province to avoid capture by Iranian security forces.

Living in Quetta is becoming increasingly difficult for the community, says Ahmed Kuhzad, a Hazara political activist. He says Hazaras live in two neighborhoods on opposite ends of the city, making them vulnerable to attacks along the only road linking them.

Kuhzad says that the community, which has held large protests in the wake of the February 16 bombing, will feel secure in Balochistan only if the government launches a determined operation against Lashkar-e Jhangvi. “They have to go against them with the will to finish them off,” he says. “We will consider anything short of that as a sign of support for them.”

Strictly Soulmates Muslim style

Looking for love is tough at the best of times and it can be even harder when your pool of potential partners is small. Welcome to the world of being young, single and religious. This is looking for love as it’s rarely been seen on TV before – with religion in play there are a whole new set of rules and it can be seriously tough to find ‘the one’. Strictly Soulmates takes a fun, entertaining and emotional look at the real life trials and tribulations of a group of singletons trying to find their perfect match from four different religions: Evangelical Christian, Hindu, Muslim and Jewish.

If you’re young, single and Muslim, you’re not actually allowed to date, so finding a partner involves lots of help from mum, dad, auntie and uncle too. We take an engaging look at the highs and lows of three Muslim singletons, who have never even had a relationship before, as they begin their journey’s to find ‘the one’. As one of our singletons says ‘it’s a bit like blind date, but your mum is Cilla Black’.

23-year-old Zubair has just graduated from Manchester University. He’s planning to move to Pakistan later in the year, but first he wants to find a British Muslim wife to take with him. It doesn’t help that he’s never even sat down to talk to a girl on his own before, and on top of that he’s worried his strict Muslim beard could put some girls off. He’s not expecting Angelina Jolie, but will Zubair find himself a wife before he steps on the plane?

Naila has just turned 22. As the eldest daughter of the family she is now expected to have an arranged marriage, so her mum is on the hunt. But arranged or not she wants to find the man of her dreams, and preferably one with a beard. After months of searching Nila’s mum arranges a formal meeting with a potential husband. But what happens when you reject the boy and his family when you’ve only met them once, and how do you know what you’re looking for in your man when you’ve never even been out with a boy before.

Tabassum – or Dimpy for short – is a 32-year-old who has never had a boyfriend. It’s not that she is short of suitors – Dimpy’s already turned down 60 potential husbands who haven’t measured up to her very long list of priorities in a man. If they’re not Muslim, middle class, Pakistani and a doctor, they’re not worth considering. Luckily for Dimpy, her cousin and aunt are on hand to deliver a few home truths, but can she take this advice on board and finally find a man?

Leaks expose US and UK’s fears over Pakistan nuclear arms

The latest release of Wikileaks documents – a trove of US diplomatic cables which offer, among other things, unflattering and candid assessments of world leaders – has deeply angered American officials.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wikileaks’ actions undermined US foreign policy efforts and amounted to “an attack on the international community, the alliances and partnerships, the conventions and negotiations that safeguard global security and advance economic prosperity”.

New York Congressman Pete King has called for the US Attorney General to designate Wikileaks a terrorist organisation and to prosecute founder Julian Assange for espionage.

Much of the criticism of Wikileaks, though, revolves around the notion that releasing such information risks lives.

Identities of informants could be compromised, spies exposed, and the safety of human rights activists, journalists and dissidents jeopardised when information of their activities is made public, the argument goes.

US military officials contend that allowing enemies access to their strategic and operational documents creates a dangerous environment for American troops serving abroad.

On Saturday, US state department legal adviser Harold Koh wrote in a letter to Wikileaks that the most recent document dump “could place at risk the lives of countless innocent individuals” as well as “ongoing military operations”.

He accused Wikileaks of endangerment “without regard to the security and the sanctity of the lives your actions endanger”.

But is there any real evidence of this peril?

Justification for secrecy

The problem for officials like Mr Koh is proving direct links between the information released and any loss of life.

After the release of an enormous haul of US defence department documents in August, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell told the Washington Post: “We have yet to see any harm come to anyone in Afghanistan that we can directly tie to exposure in the Wikileaks documents.”

Pentagon Papers whistle-blower Daniel Ellsberg says silence puts lives at risk

But, he added: “There is in all likelihood a lag between exposure of these documents and jeopardy in the field.”

After this latest release a Pentagon official, who wished to remain anonymous due to the sensitive nature of the material involved, told the McClatchy newspaper group that even three months later the US military still had no evidence that people had died or been harmed because of information gleaned from Wikileaks documents.

Daniel Ellsberg, the former military analyst who in 1971 released the Pentagon Papers which detailed government lies and cover-ups in the Vietnam War, is sceptical of whether the government really believes that lives are at stake.

He told the BBC’s World Today programme that US officials made that same argument every time there was a potentially embarrassing leak.

“The best justification they can find for secrecy is that lives are at stake. Actually, lives are at stake as a result of the silences and lies which a lot of these leaks reveal,” he said.

“The same charges were made against the Pentagon Papers and turned out to be quite invalid.”

Unknowable effects

Mr Ellsberg noted that with this release, the newspapers involved co-operated with the US government to ensure that the information they published did not imperil lives.

New York Times executive editor Bill Keller told the BBC that although his newspaper did not always agree with the advice of US authorities, it had carefully redacted the published documents to remove identifying information.

“Our hope is that we’ve done everything in our power to minimise actual damage,” he said.

Carne Ross, the former UK ambassador to the United Nations, told the BBC that the effects of Wikileaks were largely unknowable at this point.

“I don’t think it has been proven that this is dangerous to US troops, for instance. I haven’t seen that case made very clearly,” he said. “What I think this means is that we need to look at our own mechanisms for democratic accountability and foreign policy. We need to be much, much better.”

One thing the experts appear to agree on is that the leaks will make it more difficult for US diplomats and human intelligence operatives to do their jobs. Although that does not present an immediate threat to American lives, strained international relations may create a more dangerous world.

“They embarrass governments with which the US co-operates,” Max Boot, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said of the leaks on the BBC’s World Today programme.

“At the very least, they will make governments like Pakistan and Yemen and others, which are collaborating with the US in the battle against terrorism, more reluctant to co-operate.

“It’s harming some of the vital activities that the US government, the UK government or others engage in, which are protecting us against terrorism.”

Pakistani Muslim leaders support Christian girl accused of blasphemy

Islamic leaders in Pakistan on Monday came out in support of a Christian girl with learning difficulties who is being held in prison, in an unprecedented public denunciation of the blasphemy law by hard-line mullahs.

The All Pakistan Ulema Council, an umbrella group of Muslim clerics and scholars, which includes representatives from fundamentalist groups, joined hands with the Pakistan Interfaith League, which includes Christians, Sikhs and other religions, to call for justice for the girl, Rimsha, who is accused of blasphemy. They also demanded that those making false allegations be punished.

Tahir Ashrafi, the chairman of the council, warned that the “law of the jungle” was gripping Pakistan…

Read the entire article at The Guardian.

Alias Raymond Davis: the US diplomat arrested in Pakistan is CIA informant

By now journalists everywhere (except in the US) have come to the conclusion that there is far, far more to Raymond Davis than is being revealed by the US or by Pakistani officials. That he was engaged in anti-state activities in Pakistan and that the two young men he killed were intelligence agents tailing him is virtually an accepted fact.

The US, never famous for its diplomacy (The Ugly American, which made that point more than half a century ago, became a best seller and a very successful movie, starring Marlon Brando), seems to have discovered fresh depths to its strong-arm, coercive diplomacy. The mere fact that no less a personage than the US President has asked that this low-ranked person be granted absolute immunity, is indicative of the US desperation to get him out of Pakistan and its court system.

One Western journalist has referred to this incident as the “biggest intelligence fiasco since the downing of a U-2 by the erstwhile USSR in 1962.” Obviously, the apprehension is that were he to be tried and convicted in Pakistan and handed a lengthy prison, or even a death sentence, Davis might “spill the beans” and that, were he to do so, those Wikileaks cables could pale into insignificance!

That, in itself, is more than sufficient reason for Pakistan to refuse to hand him over; but there is far more to Pakistan’s problems regarding this issue than just that. However, before we get to those, some comically farcical blunders committed by the US Embassy in Pakistan merit narration, since I am fairly certain these are not being reported by the US media. They illustrate clearly the extent of the desperation American officials are feeling!

On January 25th 2011, just two days before Davis shot and killed the two young Pakistanis, the US Embassy submitted a list of its diplomatic and non-diplomatic staff in Pakistan to the Pakistani Foreign Office (FO), as all foreign nations are required to do annually. The list included 48 names. Raymond Davis was not on the list. The day after Davis shot and killed the two Pakistanis, the US Embassy suddenly submitted a “revised” list to the Foreign Office which added Davis’ name!

When Pakistani police took Davis into custody on January 27th, he had on his person an ordinary American passport with a valid ordinary Pakistan visa, issued by the Pakistan Embassy in Washington. On January 28th, a member of the US Consulate wanted the Pakistani police to exchange that passport in Davis’ possession with another one. The fresh passport being offered was a diplomatic passport with a valid diplomatic visa dated sometime in 2009. This visa was stamped in Islamabad by the FO!

It gets ridiculously funnier. The prosecutor representing the Punjab government has presented two letters from the US Embassy as evidence before the Lahore High Court, forwarded to the Punjab government through the FO. The first letter, dated January 27, reads: “Davis is an employee of the US Consulate General Lahore and holder of a diplomatic passport.” The second, dated February 3rd, states that Davis is a member of the “administrative and technical staff of the US Embassy Islamabad!” Just how gullible do the Americans take Pakistanis to be!

Before moving on to the political implications for Pakistan, were Davis to be granted immunity, it is important to review some domestic impediments, without which, he would never have been taken into custody.

Asif Ali Zardari might be a politically empowered president domestically, but if the US asked him to jump, he would ask “how high?” If they asked him to bend over, he would ask, “how low?” Had Davis committed the murders in Islamabad, under federal jurisdiction, he would have been flown out of the country within hours of his crime before any furore could have time to develop. But he slaughtered his victims in Lahore, in the jurisdiction of the Punjab state government, manned by the PML(N), which is Zardari’s party’s main opposition.

Despite repeated and numerous requests from the US Embassy and the Federal government, the Punjab government has stood firm and has even denied Davis the comforts normally afforded a political prisoner. Instead, Davis has the same facilities that any common Pakistani criminal has, in the rather notorious Kot Lakpat jail in Lahore (though he is being separated from the general prison population for his own safety).

Then there is the superior judiciary; the Supreme Court (SC), which awaits Davis with sleeves rolled up, more than ready to ensure justice in defiance of Zardari’s wishes. Meanwhile, Davis has already been indicted before the Lahore High Court (LHC), which has extended his judicial remand in police custody to allow time for more interrogation. Therefore, even if the LHC could be intimidated, an appeal before the SC is inevitable.

Finally there is the Pakistani Pentagon, the General Headquarters, commonly known as GHQ. Now that it is a fairly accepted fact in Pakistan that Davis is guilty of anti-Pakistan activities and has killed two members of an intelligence agency, probably the well-known Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI), GHQ will have a say in his disposal. Consequently, despite Zardari’s desire to please the US, he may find himself hamstrung.

Under Pakistani law, there is provision for “Blood Money,” i.e. that the next of kin can accept monetary remuneration and then pardon the killer before the court. Despite pressure brought to bear on the families of Zeeshan and Faheem, the ill-fated pair that was murdered, both families have unanimously refused to accept Blood Money. In fact, tempers are running so high that local wealthy businessmen have publicly urged them to refuse, with the promise that they would match any sum offered to them by the US!

When rumours were floating that the US might cut a deal, offering Aafiya Siddique–the Pakistani scientist convicted in the US of attempting to murder two US interrogators and now serving a controversial 86-year sentence– in exchange for Davis, Siddique’s own family refused to accept her back on these terms and spoke to local dailies urging the Punjab government not to release Davis for any reason.

Based on all of the above, I personally doubt that Davis’ immunity plea will be accepted. However, if despite everything, his claim were accepted, what would be the political repercussions?

That’s the million-dollar question!

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), known in the US media as the Pakistan Taliban, has issued a warning to the government of dire consequences if Davis is released. That would mean suicide attacks, murder and mayhem would immediately follow his release. Targets might well include any judges involved in the decision.

The youth of Pakistan–who rose to a pedestal in my eyes during last year’s floods, when young boys and girls defied our social taboos (sometimes even parental edicts) in the hundreds of thousands, spending many nights away from home so as to assist those affected by the floods and demonstrating courage, determination, warmth, and patriotism of a level I had not expected–have again joined hands over this case.

They can be found in droves on the web; exhorting the Pakistan government to refuse US aid, promising to raise donations from their resources and the public if the US cuts it off, and urging the government to withstand US pressure and refuse Davis immunity. They are also vowing that if immunity is granted, a youth movement of unprecedented proportions will start and, that like the historic Long March for the restoration of the judiciary in March 2009, which could have toppled the PPP government, this youth movement will succeed in toppling the government, where the Long March let it off the hook when its demands were met.

It’s not just the youth either. Every shopkeeper, cab driver, vendor and ordinary labourer that I have spoken with is unanimous in expressing the view that they will rise to demonstrate and overthrow this government, if Davis is granted immunity.

When the Egyptian People Power revolution started, I explained to a number of friends, local and foreign, why it was unlikely to spread to Pakistan. If Davis is granted immunity, though, I am more than likely to be proven wrong. Here too, as in Egypt, it is more than likely that GHQ will refuse to turn their guns on the demonstrators. But the fall of the PPP government might be the least of our concerns.

Despite the numerical increase in what used to be an infinitesimally small number of Islamic extremists, I have argued forcefully that there is, for the immediate future, no fear of Islamic forces becoming dominant in Pakistan. I have frequently cited the unanimous support for the military in the use of force against TTP–support which persists to date, despite suicide attacks. In fact, each suicide attack increases the determination of the people to fight terrorists.

Davis, however, could change that. Granting him immunity, in my opinion, could be the sole act that could provide an excuse for militant Islam to become dominant in Pakistan.

So, tread carefully, Mr Obama. You have already made one blunder by stoking unrest in Pakistan, using Raymond Davis, or whatever his name is, and his ilk, and have been caught with both hands in the cookie jar. But in trying to avoid the repercussions of this blunder, you could commit another of even more disastrous proportions–one that would reverberate around the world. You could create the realization of your own worst nightmare: a nuclear Pakistan dominated by religious extremist forces.

It might still not happen this way, but the path you are treading certainly is one that leads in the direction of converting that nightmare into reality.

Arrests made as Pakistanis pray for girl shot by Taliban

Pakistani police have arrested several suspects in the shooting of a 14-year-old girl internationally recognized for documenting atrocities committed by the Taliban.

Officials say the arrests took place in the northwestern Swat Valley, where Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head and neck Tuesday by Taliban gunmen as she left school.

Few other details were released on the arrests.

Earlier Friday, a Pakistani military spokesman said Yousafzai is in “satisfactory” condition. Major General Asim Saleem Bajwa said the next few days will be critical in the recovery of Yousafzai, who remains unconscious and on a ventilator.

A Taliban spokesman in the Swat Valley said Friday the group’s leaders decided a few months ago to kill Yousafzai, and assigned gunmen to carry it out.

Pakistanis at mosques across the country prayed Friday for Yousafzai’s recovery.

Yousafzai is being treated at the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology, Pakistan’s top military hospital in Rawalpindi. Doctors say she has a 70 percent chance of surviving.

The Taliban says she was “pro-West,” and that she denounced the militant group and called U.S. President Barack Obama her idol.

Yousafzai is renowned for documenting Taliban atrocities in the area near her home in Swat Valley, and for promoting education for women. She wrote under a pseudonym – Gul Makai – in a blog published by the BBC.

In her blog, Yousufzai described life under the Taliban in 2008 and 2009, when militants carried out beheadings and other violence in the territory they controlled, large areas of the Swat Valley in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.

In Geneva Friday, a group of U.N. experts urged Pakistan’s government to ensure that school children, particularly girls, are protected in the country, and that extremist groups do not prevent Pakistanis from realizing their human rights.

The experts said trying to assassinate a 14-year-old girl who is supporting the rights of girls to receive an education is a “shocking” attack on human rights defenders in Pakistan.