Tunisian families will continue to celebrate the birth of the Prophet Muhammad (s) in 2008, in spite of calls from some religious scholars to end the practice.

Courtesy Jamel Arfaoui and Magharebia in Tunis

Many Tunisian households are preparing to celebrate the birth of Prophet Muhammad (s), despite opposition to the tradition from well known Muslim scholars such as Egypt’s Youssef al-Qaradawi.

Preparations are underway in Tunisian households to celebrate the Mawlid, or the Prophet Muhammad’s (s) birthday, in spite of renewed fatwas aired by many Gulf satellite TV channels specialising in Islamic issues.

Most opponents of the Mawlid celebrations base their arguments on fatwas issued by Muslim scholars, such as Egyptian Youssef al-Qaradawi. In an appearance on the Aljazeera programme “Sharia and Life”, al-Qaradawi called the Mawlid celebration “an act of jahiliya [pre-Islamic ignorance]”.

The most prominent fatwas decrying the celebrations were issued by Saudi religious scholars such as General Mufti Abdelaziz Ibn Baaz and Ibn Alothaimeen, the latter going so far as to say that marking the national day should be forbidden in the Kingdom.

Despite the modern controversy, the holiday has enjoyed a long tradition. According to historians, the Fatimids were the first people to celebrate the Mawlid, carrying the practice to the Maghreb when they ruled the region in 1102.

Professor Iqbal Gharbi of the Tunisian Faculty of Shariah strongly criticised the call to forbid the celebration. Speaking with Magharebia, she described the people responsible for the fatwas as “enemies of joy.”

The professor accused them of “creating the culture of death that denies happiness and joy and kills the instincts of life,” saying they “try to cause an intellectual and doctrinal break between society and its psychological and cultural heritage, habits and customs.”

For Gharbi, the Mawlid celebration is an “important opportunity for the people to come together to hear about the life of Prophet Muhammad (s); to listen to praise; to give out food; to bolster solidarity and social fabric; and to bring happiness and joy to the hearts of this nation.”

Although these celebrations may be a “novelty” never held during the Prophet’s (s) life, Gharbi said they are a good novelty. “Not all novelties are aberrances, as the extremists say. In this regard, we have a Prophetic tradition that says, ‘He who starts a good practice in Islam and people observe it during and after his time, he will have the same reward as those who observed it and their rewards shall not decrease.’”

The debate among housewives in Tunisia is not whether Mawlid celebrations are allowed or forbidden – it concerns instead the type of porridge, or asida, that they will prepare for their families.

There are families who still cling to the traditional flour asida, with butter or oil and sugar added. Others prefer variations of the recipe according to their budgets and desires. Some prepare it in the expensive Turkish way, with zaqouqou (pine cone, or black seeds from the east), or mixed nuts.

Nejiba Wartani told Magharebia that every year she reaches her wit’s end. “My husband prefers the traditional asida, while my children prefer the modern version. Therefore, in the end, I cook two types.”

Asked about the fatwas condemning the Mawlid celebration, she said with astonishment, “Who issued such a fatwa? We have celebrated this occasion for a long time. I saw how my grandmother had been keen on celebrating it. If it had been a forbidden practice, it wouldn’t have lasted until now. What is haram is known and clear. I doubt that millions of Muslims can’t discern between halal and haram.”

10-14

By Ilyas Choudry, MMNS

Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani Elected 264/42 to Head the Government

Amidst slogans from the public gallery of Pakistan’s National Assembly of “Long Live Bhutto!” and “Go Musharraf Go!”, the 52-year-old first woman speaker of Pakistan’s Parliament, Ms. Fahmida Mirza, announced that 55 years old Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani of Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) had received 264 votes out of the 342-seat lower house of parliament, while his token contender Chaudhry Pervez Elahi of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) that backs President Pervez Musharraf, had won 42.

Among those present on the occasion in the public gallery, was Bhutto’s teenage son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who was seen wiping away tears and then came down to shake hands with Mr. Gilani.

With this overwhelming 77% support, Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani has become the 27th Prime Minister of Pakistan. This is the first time in 12 years that the PPP will head the government.

The first 100 days of any elected government are considered most crucial. During his first speech after being elected, the Ex-Speaker of the Parliament Mr. Gilani made two key pledges: First is to demand the immediate release of all the arrested judges and second is to seek a resolution calling for a UN investigation into the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

President General (Retired) Pervez Musharraf has been badly weakened by the results of the February elections. With one of his earlier supporting Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) now behind PM Mr. Gilani, many fear President’s days are numbered. However the past experience has shown that Mr. Musharraf has successfully come out of many stiff challenges.

Mr. Gilani’s daunting task as PM include pulling together a large coalition, taking the pressure from the outside world to do more in the war on terror according to the wishes of these exterior forces, tackling ever increasing militancy in the society, maintain the GDP growth of the country 7%(+) and severe economic problems in terms of high inflation rate and power shortage issues.

Many political analysts feel that Ms. Bhutto’s widower Asif Ali Zardari is PPP’s most powerful figure and because of that Mr. Gilani may start to face the situation, where he would be termed as Zardari’s Yes Man.

The first hundred days of PM Mr. Gilani are further in jeopardy due to widespread speculations that Mr. Zardari only wants Mr. Gilani to hold the post on an interim basis, while Mr. Zardari takes the necessary steps to make him eligible to become PM. That would include Mr. Zardari winning a parliamentary seat in a by-election and having all the court cases against him cleared. He has almost got the courts work done, as a murder cases in which he was implicated, he has got reprieved from it the same day Mr. Gilani’s PM candidacy was announced.

However on Monday, Mr. Zardari was quoted in a local Pakistani Daily as saying that Mr. Gilani will serve a full five-year term as Prime Minister.

Who is Yusuf Raza Gilani?

Born in Karachi, Sind on 9th June 1952, the newly elected 27th Prime Minister of Pakistan Yusuf Raza Gilani hails from a most prominent landowner and spiritual (Sufi) family from the Province of Punjab. Their family home town is the ancient Punjabi City of Multan, one of the oldest uninterrupted human communes in the world. The family’s prominence naturally led to vying for political power. Before the birth of Pakistan on 14th August, 1947, his grandfather and grand-uncles joined the All India Muslim League and were signatories of the 1940 Pakistan Resolution. This was the declaration which eventually led to the founding of Pakistan.

Mr. Gilani’s Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) has been very careful in electing its higher officials, ever since one of their own party’s President of Pakistan Farooq Ahmed Leghari ousted PM Benazir’s Government. President of Pakistan acts neutral and heads the State of Pakistan and as such does not belong to any single party, but Mr. Leghari was a life-time member of PPP. He had to resign from PPP to become President with the votes of PPP Government, but he later on expelled PPP Government of Benazir Bhutto.

That is said to be one of the reasons it took long time for PPP to announce their PM this time, as they feared establishment influence. By his own admission, Pakistan’s new Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, has not been one of the “good boys”, who has followed the bidding of President Pervez Musharraf. The regime tried to coerce him into joining many of his PPP colleagues in switching sides. But Mr. Gilani refused to do a deal with Mr. Musharraf and that is why his loyalty is much admired within his party.

Mr. Gilani went to jail in 2001, serving five years following a conviction over illegal government appointments. This was during his term as Speaker of parliament of between 1993 and 1996. The sentence was passed by an anti-corruption court formed by President Musharraf as part of what he termed measures to cleanse politics. His opponents say it was a means of intimidating and coercing their members to join his government.

For Mr Gilani that was never a choice, his supporters say. A tall, softly-spoken man with an air of authority, supporters say he is known for doing the right thing.

In 1995, Mr Gilani issued instructions for the release of parliamentarians detained by his own PPP government. When the interior ministry refused to oblige, he had the matter brought on record – a quite unprecedented action.

His remarks after he was sentenced in 2001 were similarly unequivocal. He told the news media that the charges were “concocted and were fabricated to pressurize him to leave the PPP”. “Since I am unable to oblige them, they decided to convict me so that I could be disqualified and an example set for other political leaders who may learn to behave as good boys,” he said at the time. His stance and defiance won him many admirers, even among the government.

Anti-establishment politics and leadership is something like a birth right for him. His father, Alamdar Hussain Gilani served as a provincial minister in the 1950s. Mr. Gilani joined up in 1978, when he became a member of the Muslim League’s central leadership. This was soon after he completed his MA in journalism at the University of Punjab. His first term as a public servant was as a nominee of General Zia-ul-Haq. The Pakistan Army chief had been the country’s dictator since he overthrew elected Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in a 1977 coup. Mr. Bhutto was later executed in 1979, an act that forever soured the relationship between the army and the PPP.

Mr Gilani was elected as the Chairman of the Multan union council in 1983. Two years later he was elected to the federal parliament. It was during this first stint that circumstances arose which led to his leaving the League. While serving as a minister he fell out with then Prime Minister Mohammad Ali Junejo. This led to him being replaced as minister and sidelined in the party.

In his book, Chah-e-Yusuf ki Sada (Reflections from Yusuf’s Well), which he wrote in jail, he said: “I was furious, and helpless at the same time, I knew I could not continue… and then I made up my mind.” Mr. Gilani says he went to Karachi to meet Benazir Bhutto, Zulfiqar Bhutto’s daughter, then very much in the political wilderness. General Zia was still in power and the PPP faced an uncertain future. Mr. Gilani says he presented his offer to immediately join the PPP. “Ms Bhutto said to me, ‘There is nothing I can offer you, why have you come?’” Mr. Gilani said his reply was what sealed his relationship with the PPP and the Bhuttos. “I said to her, there are three types of people in this world. “Lovers of honor – of wisdom – and – of wealth. I am of the first type, and that is all I want.”

Soon afterward, General Zia dismissed Mr. Junejo’s government. Mr. Gilani then joined the PPP, months before the general’s death bought an end to its political exile. Observers say it is his loyalty and his disdain for politicking within the party that has earned him the nomination for prime minister. Many believe he would be willing to quietly step aside, if Ms Bhutto’s widower Asif Zardari becomes an MP and therefore eligible to become Prime Minister. Many say for PPP, Mr. Gilani is the safest bet.

10-14

By Dick Morris

Will the Gospel According to Jeremiah Wright sink the Obama candidacy? Not very likely.

Let’s start with two basic facts:

(a) Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) has already won the Democratic nomination. It’s over. Regardless of how the remaining primaries and caucuses go, including Michigan and even Florida, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) can never catch Obama in elected delegates. His current lead of 170 pledged delegates will not be overcome no matter what happens. Even if Clinton beats him by 10 points in each of these primaries, he will still lead among elected delegates by over 100. The superdelegates will not override the will of the voters unless Obama is in jail. They will not let themselves in for a civil war by overruling a black man who is beloved by the young by going over the heads of the electorate and naming the candidate that lost the primaries as the nominee. Regardless of how damaged Obama may be by the Wright tapes, it will not provide sufficient cover or cause for them to do so.

(b) Wright’s rantings are not reflective of Obama’s views on anything. Why did he stay in the church? Because he’s a black Chicago politician who comes from a mixed marriage and went to Columbia and Harvard. Suspected of not being black enough or sufficiently tied to the minority community, he needed the networking opportunities Wright afforded him in his church to get elected. If he had not risen to the top of Chicago black politics, we would never have heard of him. But obviously, he can’t say that. So what should he say?

He needs to get out of this mess with subtlety, the kind Bill Clinton should have used to escape the Monica Lewinsky scandal — but didn’t. As the controversy continues, Americans will gradually realize that Obama stuck by Wright as part of a need to get ahead. They will chalk up to pragmatism why he was so close to such a preacher. As they come to realize that Obama doesn’t agree with Wright but used him to get started, they will be more forgiving.

While he lets this fact sink in, he needs to continue to distance himself from Wright by characterizing that kind of anger and animosity as a thing of a generation past. He needs to compare the progress of which whites are proud in discarding the racism of our forebears with his own pride at being a post-racial candidate. He needs, again and again, to reject what Wright says and emphasize his belief in America and the validity and morality of the American Dream.

As the controversy matures, he can increasingly depict those who fan its flames as trying to live in the past and re-fight the civil wars of race that have divided America.

All these themes were evident and articulately presented in Obama’s Tuesday speech on race.

What Obama needs not to do is to resort to the kind of Clintonian fudging that animated his interview with Keith Olbermann. By saying “I wasn’t there” and “I didn’t know” and “I didn’t hear him say it,” he will invite contempt and derision. If he were to continue in that vein, he would buy himself a controversy akin to that which drowned John Kerry in the facts and allegations of his service in Vietnam. People will surface to say, “I sat next to him, and Wright said such and such,” and Obama will be hostage to everybody’s subjective memory.

But if he handles the situation with subtlety and lets what he cannot say — that it was opportunism that led him to stay in that church — sink in among the electorate, he can and will survive this battle.

And let’s remember one other thing: The Democrats will increasingly realize that he will be their nominee and, in continuing this battle, they are eating their own.

Morris, a former political adviser to Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and President Bill Clinton, is the author of “Outrage.” To get all of Dick Morris’s and Eileen McGann’s columns for free by email, go to www.dickmorris.com.

10-14

Press Release

ISTANBUL—More than 200 participants from over 31 countries representing 106 grant-making foundations and NGOs came together for the first World Congress of Muslim Philanthropists (WCMP) conference held from March 22-24, 2008, in Istanbul, Turkey. The event theme was “Facing Challenges and Finding Solutions,” recognizing both the difficult dimensions of global human development and Muslim institution building and the great possibilities in helping millions escape grinding poverty and achieve lasting peace around the world.

The conference aimed at creating philanthropic networks that could better pool and leverage available capital and human resources to combat critical global issues such as poverty, HIV/AIDs, poor education, environmental degradation and religious extremism.

The event was attended by world leaders including the Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu; Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan; Her Royal Highness Sheikha Al Mayassa Bint Hamad Al-Thani, Founder of Reach Out To Asia, Qatar; UK Minister of International Development Shahid Malik; Sheikha Aisha bint Faleh Al Thani, Founder of the Doha Academy, Qatar; West Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool; Dr. Nafis Sadiq, Advisor to UN Secretary General; Assistant Administrator of USAID, Mark Ward; Special Assistant to the US Secretary of State, Farah Pandhit; Dr. William Vendley, Chairman of World Council of Religions for Peace; and Peter O’Driscoll, Executive Director, ActionAid International. Representatives from the Rand Corporation, Gallup, Habitat for Humanity, American University Cairo and Hartford Seminary were also in attendance.

Her Royal Highness, Sheikha Al Mayassa Bint Hamad Al-Thani stressed the need to focus on education because of its ability to empower current and future generations in developing effective solutions to poverty alleviation and peace. She called upon philanthropists to be strategic in their thinking and giving and develop partnerships to reduce overlap and inefficiencies.

Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Secretary General of the OIC, stated that the WCMP came at a critical time. Recognizing the obstacles that non-governmental organizations face in developing effective strategies for addressing humanitarian needs, he said the OIC has embarked on a number of initiatives to increase international credibility and accountability of Muslim non-governmental organizations.

Turkish PM Erdogan welcomed the WCMP to Istanbul and applauded its efforts to develop stronger networking and communication among Muslim philanthropists. He stated that such partnerships will result in reducing waste and overlap.

UK Minister for Development Shahid Malik called upon the need to support the WCMP to help address the critical benchmarks outlined by the UN Millennium Development Goals and said that only by strengthening initiatives like the WCMP can the cause of Muslim of philanthropy and humanitarian assistance become more effective.

Sheikha Aisha bint Faleh Al Thani called upon Muslim philanthropists to work to alleviate suffering of all people regardless of their faith. She further said that Islam’s tradition of alms-giving must be bolstered to be an effective bulwark against the misappropriation and misrepresentation of the faith by fringe extremists who seek to destroy rather than build.

Premier Ebrahim Rasool said that Muslim humanitarian organizations, philanthropists and non-governmental organizations must focus on poverty, education, environmental degradation and developing global partnerships that transcend boundaries of religion, race and ethnicity.

While Muslim philanthropists continue to do great work across the world and serve people regardless of what faith they may profess, it was recognized that this work could be furthered through enduring and sustained engagement amongst key philanthropic partners in critical areas of philanthropy, said the congress convener Dr. Tariq Cheema. While compassion was seen as a powerful driving force for giving and helping humanity, participants also spoke of a practical need for further cooperation, collaboration, capacity building and communication among Muslim philanthropists to develop benchmarks, such as a worldwide charity rating system, create an outline of best practices and help humanitarian organizations and philanthropists leverage the resources available, be it capital or human.

As conference participants discussed the aforementioned needs, conference organizers said they would begin development of an information resource center, to provide philanthropic consulting and management services to the entities that need further expertise in the development, implementation and evaluation of programs.

For information, see the WCMP 2008 web site at http://thewcmp.net. The World Congress of Muslim Philanthropists, WCMP 2008, P.O. Box # 3654, Oakbrook, IL 60522. Phone: (630) 242-2792, Fax: +1 (630) 889-9511. Dr. Tariq Cheema, tcheema@thewcmp.net OR Angela Massey, amassey@thewcmp.net.

10-14

By Elder George

The tyrant mother—an issue that reached major proportion in the 20th century—has affected human relationships throughout the Westernized world. The tyrant mother has existed since the earliest of times, however, the proliferation of this condition has resulted in a modern phenomenon that needs to be addressed and corrected. And soon!

The dictionary defines tyrant as an absolute ruler unrestrained by law or constitution. The tyrant mother has absolute authority in a home devoid of the masculine influence. Put another way, an ordinary woman who raises children without the presence of an effective masculine figure becomes a tyrant mother. The word effective is stressed, for a weak or ineffective man is worse than no man at all. Many women have come to this realization and have opted to raise children without living with their fathers. Unfortunately, they most likely have become tyrant mothers.

It is easy to spot the tyrant mother; she will berate her children in public, smack them around, and scream at them, or she might have them under such control that they won’t make a move without her permission. Tyrant mothers have been depicted in African-American films such as; Boyz N The Hood, Mo Betta Blues, and Do the Right Thing. In Boyz, Ice Cube’s mother kicks his butt and yells at him frequently. Was she a bad woman? No. She had made an outdoor barbecue for the teenagers in the neighborhood. She did what most women do – nurture the race. But she wasn’t designed to discipline two teenage boys in a tough neighborhood; that’s what men are supposed to do. In Mo Betta Blues, Denzel Washington’s father was a nice guy, a dandy. He was also ineffective. Mom had to be the disciplinarian. In Do the Right Thing the tyrant mother smacked her son all over the street. As these films accurately depicted, children of the tyrant mother rarely do well.

In his novel, Portnoy’s Complaint, author Philip Roth described the negative effects of being raised by a tyrant mother, but the critics and society didn’t recognize it as such. They thought the problems resulted from the influence of dominant Jewish mothers. The issue of the tyrant mother is no more Jewish than it is African-American, or Latin, or Asian. Tyrant mothers come in all flavors, religions and ethnicities. They have one thing in common—the absence of a competent masculine presence in the home.

One of the many meanings of the story of Adam and Eve is that Eve paid the price of Adam not fulfilling his responsibilities. Women always pay the price when men do not fulfill their responsibilities. The failure of Western man to recognize his function as the head of the family has resulted in the frustration of mothers, the neglect and abuse of children, and the dissolution of the family.

The first massive wave of tyrant mothers came into being early last century, when men working long hours and gone from the home 12 to 14 hours a day six days a week, didn’t live at home; they just ate and slept there. Mom did everything else. She also became a tyrant. However, the major development of the tyrant mother was in the last third of the century, when the government’s “Great Society” legislation emasculated the male by removing him outright from the home or leaving him with no authority in it. The results have been devastating to society.

Elder George’s website: www.mensaction.net; Phone: 212-874-7900 ext. 1329.

10-14

The Hell-Disaster of Iraq

Courtesy Robert Fisk

Five years on, and still we have not learnt. With each anniversary, the steps crumble beneath our feet, the stones ever more cracked, the sand ever finer. Five years of catastrophe in Iraq and I think of Churchill, who in the end called Palestine a “hell-disaster.”

But we have used these parallels before and they have drifted away in the Tigris breeze. Iraq is swamped in blood. Yet what is the state of our remorse? Why, we will have a public inquiry–but not yet! If only inadequacy was our only sin.

Today, we are engaged in a fruitless debate. What went wrong? How did the people–the senatus populusque Romanus of our modern world–not rise up in rebellion when told the lies about weapons of mass destruction, about Saddam’s links with Osama bin Laden and 11 September? How did we let it happen? And how come we didn’t plan for the aftermath of war?

Oh, the British tried to get the Americans to listen, Downing Street now tells us. We really, honestly did try, before we absolutely and completely knew it was right to embark on this illegal war. There is now a vast literature on the Iraq debacle and there are precedents for post-war planning–of which more later–but this is not the point. Our predicament in Iraq is on an infinitely more terrible scale.

As the Americans came storming up Iraq in 2003, their cruise missiles hissing through the sandstorm towards a hundred Iraqi towns and cities, I would sit in my filthy room in the Baghdad Palestine Hotel, unable to sleep for the thunder of explosions, and root through the books I’d brought to fill the dark, dangerous hours. Tolstoy’s War and Peace reminded me how conflict can be described with sensitivity and grace and horror–I recommend the Battle of Borodino–along with a file of newspaper clippings. In this little folder, there was a long rant by Pat Buchanan, written five months earlier; and still, today I feel its power and its prescience and its absolute historical honesty: “With our MacArthur Regency in Baghdad, Pax Americana will reach apogee. But then the tide recedes, for the one endeavour at which Islamic people excel is expelling imperial powers by terror or guerrilla war.

“They drove the Brits out of Palestine and Aden, the French out of Algeria, the Russians out of Afghanistan, the Americans out of Somalia and Beirut, the Israelis out of Lebanon. We have started up the road to empire and over the next hill we will meet those who went before. The only lesson we learn from history is that we do not learn from history.”

How easily the little men took us into the inferno, with no knowledge or, at least, interest in history. None of them read of the 1920 Iraqi insurgency against British occupation, nor of Churchill’s brusque and brutal settlement of Iraq the following year.

On our historical radars, not even Crassus appeared, the wealthiest Roman general of all, who demanded an emperorship after conquering Macedonia–”Mission Accomplished”–and vengefully set forth to destroy Mesopotamia. At a spot in the desert near the Euphrates river, the Parthians–ancestors of present day Iraqi insurgents–annihilated the legions, chopped off Crassus’s head and sent it back to Rome filled with gold. Today, they would have videotaped his beheading.

To their monumental hubris, these little men who took us to war five years ago now prove that they have learnt nothing. Anthony Blair–as we should always have called this small town lawyer–should be facing trial for his mendacity. Instead, he now presumes to bring peace to an Arab-Israeli conflict which he has done so much to exacerbate. And now we have the man who changed his mind on the legality of war–and did so on a single sheet of A4 paper–daring to suggest that we should test immigrants for British citizenship.

Question 1, I contend, should be: Which blood-soaked British attorney general helped to send 176 British soldiers to their deaths for a lie?

Question 2: How did he get away with it?

But in a sense, the facile, dumbo nature of Lord Goldsmith’s proposal is a clue to the whole transitory, cardboard structure of our decision-making. The great issues that face us–be they Iraq or Afghanistan, the US economy or global warming, planned invasions or “terrorism”–are discussed not according to serious political timetables but around television schedules and press conferences.

Will the first air raids on Iraq hit prime-time television in the States? Mercifully, yes. Will the first US troops in Baghdad appear on the breakfast shows? Of course. Will Saddam’s capture be announced by Bush and Blair simultaneously?.

But this is all part of the problem. True, Churchill and Roosevelt argued about the timing of the announcement that war in Europe had ended. And it was the Russians who pipped them to the post. But we told the truth. When the British were retreating to Dunkirk, Churchill announced that the Germans had “penetrated deeply and spread alarm and confusion in their tracks”.

Why didn’t Bush or Blair tell us this when the Iraqi insurgents began to assault the Western occupation forces? Well, they were too busy telling us that things were getting better, that the rebels were mere “dead-enders”.

On 17 June 1940, Churchill told the people of Britain: “The news from France is very bad and I grieve for the gallant French people who have fallen into this terrible misfortune.” Why didn’t Blair or Bush tell us that the news from Iraq was very bad and that they grieved–even just a few tears for a minute or so–for the Iraqis?

For these were the men who had the temerity, the sheer, unadulterated gall, to dress themselves up as Churchill, heroes who would stage a rerun of the Second World War, the BBC dutifully calling the invaders “the Allies”–they did, by the way–and painting Saddam’s regime as the Third Reich.

Of course, when I was at school, our leaders–Attlee, Churchill, Eden, Macmillan, or Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy in the United States–had real experience of real war. Not a single Western leader today has any first-hand experience of conflict. When the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq began, the most prominent European opponent of the war was Jacques Chirac, who fought in the Algerian conflict. But he has now gone. So has Colin Powell, a Vietnam veteran but himself duped by Rumsfeld and the CIA.

Yet one of the terrible ironies of our times is that the most bloodthirsty of American statesmen–Bush and Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfovitz–have either never heard a shot fired in anger or have ensured they did not have to fight for their country when they had the chance to do so. No wonder Hollywood titles like “Shock and Awe” appeal to the White House. Movies are their only experience of human conflict; the same goes for Blair and Brown.

Churchill had to account for the loss of Singapore before a packed House. Brown won’t even account for Iraq until the war is over.

It is a grotesque truism that today–after all the posturing of our political midgets five years ago–we might at last be permitted a valid seance with the ghosts of the Second World War. Statistics are the medium, and the room would have to be dark. But it is a fact that the total of US dead in Iraq (3,978) is well over the number of American casualties suffered in the initial D-Day landings at Normandy (3,384 killed and missing) on 6 June, 1944, or more than three times the total British casualties at Arnhem the same year (1,200).

They count for just over a third of the total fatalities (11,014) of the entire British Expeditionary Force from the German invasion of Belgium to the final evacuation at Dunkirk in June 1940. The number of British dead in Iraq–176–is almost equal to the total of UK forces lost at the Battle of the Bulge in 1944-45 (just over 200). The number of US wounded in Iraq–29,395–is more than nine times the number of Americans injured on 6 June (3,184) and more than a quarter of the tally for US wounded in the entire 1950-53 Korean war (103,284).

Iraqi casualties allow an even closer comparison to the Second World War. Even if we accept the lowest of fatality statistics for civilian dead–they range from 350,000 up to a million–these long ago dwarfed the number of British civilian dead in the flying-bomb blitz on London in 1944-45 (6,000) and now far outnumber the total figure for civilians killed in bombing raids across the United Kingdom–60,595 dead, 86,182 seriously wounded–from 1940 to 1945.

Indeed, the Iraqi civilian death toll since our invasion is now greater than the total number of British military fatalities in the Second World War, which came to an astounding 265,000 dead (some histories give this figure as 300,000) and 277,000 wounded. Minimum estimates for Iraqi dead mean that the civilians of Mesopotamia have suffered six or seven Dresdens or–more terrible still–two Hiroshimas.

Yet in a sense, all this is a distraction from the awful truth in Buchanan’s warning. We have dispatched our armies into the land of Islam. We have done so with the sole encouragement of Israel, whose own false intelligence over Iraq has been discreetly forgotten by our masters, while weeping crocodile tears for the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who have died.

America’s massive military prestige has been irreparably diminished. And if there are, as I now calculate, 22 times as many Western troops in the Muslim world as there were at the time of the 11th and 12th century Crusades, we must ask what we are doing. Are we there for oil? For democracy? For Israel? For fear of weapons of mass destruction? Or for fear of Islam?

We blithely connect Afghanistan to Iraq. If only Washington had not become distracted by Iraq, so the narrative now goes, the Taliban could not have re-established themselves. But al-Qa’ida and the nebulous Osama bin Laden were not distracted. Which is why they expanded their operations into Iraq and then used this experience to assault the West in Afghanistan with the hitherto—in Afghanistan—unheard of suicide bomber.

And I will hazard a terrible guess: that we have lost Afghanistan as surely as we have lost Iraq and as surely as we are going to “lose” Pakistan. It is our presence, our power, our arrogance, our refusal to learn from history and our terror–yes, our terror–of Islam that is leading us into the abyss. And until we learn to leave these Muslim peoples alone, our catastrophe in the Middle East will only become graver. There is no connection between Islam and “terror”. But there is a connection between our occupation of Muslim lands and “terror”. It’s not too complicated an equation. And we don’t need a public inquiry to get it right.

Robert Fisk is a reporter for The Independent and author of Pity the Nation. He is also a contributor to CounterPunch’s collection, The Politics of Anti-Semitism. Fisk’s new book is The Conquest of the Middle East.

10-14

By Beena Inam Shamsi, MMNS

March 23rd has a great significance in the history of Pakistan. The historic Lahore resolution, commonly known as the Pakistan resolution, was passed on that day in 1940. Muslims in India demanded the separate homeland that would eventually come to be Pakistan.

The people of Pakistan commemorate this day each year with great fervor and enthusiasm.

The Pakistan Association of America (PAA), a Non-profit social organization serving the Pakistani community in America, celebrated the Pakistan republic day on Saturday March 22 at the Bella Banquet, located in Warren at E 14 Mile Road.

The former president of PAA, Naveed Ashraf, currently serving as the board director, helped revolutionize PAA by bringing a lot of members and initiating the annual event and the Pakistan Festival.

“People come here regardless of what they do for living and regardless of what part of Pakistan they are from. It is for everyone. People are from all background, all languages of Pakistan. And they are here only for one reason only, for Pakistan,” Ashraf said.

Turnout for the event was around 500 people, who came dressed in colorful ethnic dresses. The highlight of the function was the comedian Ayaz Khan, from Pakistan.

Ayaz Khan, an engineer by profession, misses Pakistan every time he leaves it.

He felt something was missing in the Pakistani people at the function, he said.

“When people are away from their country, they miss it further and this feeling always remains with them. I see this in them.”

Another performer was a well-known singer, Alamgir, who took the stage at midnight.

Saima Salim, a doctor attending the function with her family, felt the function was a bit disorganized.

“It is a very big community we are not organized but we are getting there,” Salim said.

For her two daughters, she wished there was something like a clown show or some sort of activity where kids could sit down.

Hafiz Amin Anjum, another board director for PAA, wants to build a relationship amongst various Muslims as well as Pakistani community that can go on to generations, he said.

“The whole purpose is to let people come together so that people can socialize with each other and develop a Pakistani culture within the community,” Anjum said.

The number of people attending these functions varies, Anjum said, depending on the advertisement.

“These functions are pretty much funded by our community. People like you and people like me that are middle class people. Those are the people who attend them and this organization is funded by these people,” Ashraf said.

During their first meeting in January, PAA scheduled the events for whole year in advance.

On Sunday March 30, they have a women only event on Seerat-ul-Nabi (s). They will have an outdoor picnic in July and a Pakistan Independence Day function in August.

“That one event in August is free of cost. That is the reason we have two major events in the year and small ones throughout,” Ashraf said.

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New York jail reaches agreement on Halal meals

NEW YORK, NY–A county jail has agreed to provide Muslim inmates with meats prepared according to Islamic law, ending a three-year-long legal fight.

Under a settlement approved by a federal judge in Manhattan on March 12, the Westchester County jail is serving four halal meat dishes a week for Muslim inmates who request them, the Journal News reported. “Halal” is an Arabic word that means lawful or permitted.

The change will cost the county about 15 cents per serving, said Richard Cohen, a lawyer representing nine Muslim inmates. Their lawsuit, which dates to 2005, claimed religious bias.

The inmates noted that the jail offered kosher meats for observant Jews, but generally only vegetarian meals for devout Muslims. Halal meat was served twice a year on religious occasions.

The jail’s imam, John Nashid, called the discrepancy “a discriminatory practice against the Muslim inmate population.”

County spokeswoman Victoria Hochman said the jail started offering halal meats in September. Like kosher meats, the halal dishes are served four times a week.

“We’re happy to have reached a settlement on this issue,” she said.

Nashville center helps Shelbyville Somalians

NASHVILLE, TN–The Somali Community Center in Nashville is providing much needed social services and advocacy to the small but growing community of Somali-Americans in the region, the Shelbyville Times reported.

Salaad Nur, outreach coordinator, said there are an estimated 500 refugees or more living in Shelbyville at this time and that the center tries to provide services “the best we can.”

Our greatest effort in Shelbyville is to try to organize the community, because it’s not going to be feasible to do everything for them (from Nashville),” Nur said.

He said the best option is to try to organize so the refugees could have a structure to try to work with Bedford County government to improve their relationship with the larger community.

“We can also see what kind of services they need, then try to advocate for that … that is really where the effort is,” Nur explained. Although many come to the center from Shelbyville, the center is unable to provide the same level of services as it does to refugees living in Nashville, because the Shelbyville Somalis only can come a couple of times per month.

“That has been a limitation, but we try to serve them as much as we can.”

The only Somali organization currently in Bedford County is the Islamic mosque, and the center is looking at providing English classes at that location, depending on the resources they can obtain, Nur said.

“There are members of the mainstream community that are able to bring us these resources to the (Somali) community there.”

Nur said instead of the center in Nashville providing a branch office in Shelbyville for the refugees, they wish for the Somali community here to take the lead.

“We don’t want all the decisions coming from Nashville, and be imposed on them. If they are able to organize themselves and give them all the opportunities that we can give them, partner with them and … guide them.”

Pakistani-American shares thoughts with Obama

Pakistani-American entrepreneur Dr. Raza Bokhari met U.S. presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama in Bucks County, Pa., earlier this month

During the meeting, Bokhari presented Obama with a self-authored white paper containing suggestions on ways to reduce anti-American sentiments in Pakistan. Bokhari serves on the Board of Directors of Pakistani American Public Affairs Committee (PAKPAC), Pakistani American Leadership Center (PAL-C), World Affairs Council of Philadelphia and is chairman and CEO of Parkway Clinical Laboratories (PCL), an emerging national full-service diagnostic laboratory based in Bensalem, Pa.

Raza Bokhari is the immediate past president of the Pakistani American Public Affairs Committee (PAKPAC). A physician turned entrepreneur who successfully aggregates and accelerates healthcare services companies across the United States, Bokhari also serves on the board of directors of the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia, the Pakistan Human Development Fund, Pakistani American Leadership Center, Temple University’s Fox School of Business and Management, and The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia

Dr. Sajid A. Khan joins Slocum-Dickson Medical Group

NEW HARTFORD — Dr. Sajid A. Khan recently joined Slocum-Dickson Medical Group in the specialty of interventional pain management.

He treats a variety of medical conditions, including low back pain, neck pain, chronic arm or neck pain, thoracic pain, cervicogenic headache, cancer pain, shingles pain, pelvic and chronic hip pain.

He also performs specialized procedures such as spinal cord stimulators and radiofrequency neurolytic techniques.

He is board certified by the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. He completed his physical medicine and rehabilitation residency at Boston University Medical Center.

Khan completed an internship in general surgery at Harlem Hospital Center in New York City and a research fellowship at Arnold Pain Management Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School in Boston.

He received a medical degree from Nishtar Medical College in Pakistan and is a member of the American Academy of Pain Medicine and the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.

Ismael Ahmed, Russell Ebeid & John Dingell to be honored by ACCESS

DEARBORN – On May 10, a diverse group of leaders, dignitaries, and community members will gather to celebrate the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS) 37th Anniversary to celebrate 37 years of service to the community and honor this year’s award recipients.

Director of the Michigan Department of Human Services and former ACCESS Executive Director, Ismael Ahmed, will receive the prestigious Arab American of the Year Award.

This award is presented annually to individuals or organizations for their commitment and contribution to the development of their community on a local and national level.

Ahmed will be recognized for his lifelong contributions to the economic, social and cultural health of the Arab American community.

The unique role Ahmed has played in enabling the long-term sustainability of not only ACCESS, but Arab American and community organizations throughout the country, is unparalleled, said a spokesperson for ACCESS.

Russell Ebeid, director of Guardian Industries Corp., will receive ACCESS’ very first “Making an Impact” award, established to recognize individuals who have made a positive impact by raising awareness of issues affecting their community.

Ebeid will be honored for his philanthropic contributions that serve as an example and role model for Arab Americans everywhere.

Ebied’s efforts are motivated by two passions: a desire to make a difference in educational opportunities for underserved youth, mostly from immigrant families, and a desire to stay close to his Lebanese heritage. His hope is to inspire other Arab Americans to stand up, be proud of their identity and give generously where they can, the ACCESS spokesperson said.

Congressman John D. Dingell will be honored with a special tribute recognizing and highlighting his commitment and contributions to the development of the Arab American community and the community at-large.

Dingell has shown national leadership, representing and supporting issues that are deeply important to Arab Americans throughout the country and in particular, the Michigan community.

As the longest ever “dean” of the U.S. House of Representatives, Dingell’s immense courage and integrity have shown through his years of service, the spokesperson said.

This year’s dinner will take place at the Detroit Marriott Renaissance, with doors opening at 5:30 p.m. and the program beginning at 6 p.m. Sponsored by Ford Motor Co. and Comerica, the dinner is the second-largest dinner in Michigan and the largest Arab-American event in the country, with more than 2,500 people in attendance.

$2 Million Lawsuit by Driver’s Widow

The Pakistani widow and family of Toronto taxi driver Tahir Khan have launched a $2 million lawsuit against the two young men who killed him while speeding up Mount Pleasant Rd. in their parents’ cars.

The lawsuit, filed in Ontario Superior Court, claims “extreme grief” and also says that Alexander Ryazanov and Wang-Piao Dumani Ross were racing two years ago when they killed the 46-year-old Pakistani immigrant, something their lawyers have denied.

“It’s a modern-day Greek tragedy,” said Shahzad Siddiqui. He and Russ Howe are legal counsel for the family. “They killed this taxi driver days away from his citizenship ceremony and it’s left his wife and his impoverished family.”

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By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democrat Barack Obama released seven years of tax returns on Tuesday, cranking up the pressure on presidential rival Hillary Clinton to make public her recent filings and renewing a battle between the two camps over transparency.

Obama’s tax returns from 2000 to 2006 were posted on his Web site as his campaign pushed to portray Clinton, the New York senator and former first lady, as secretive and unwilling to be open with voters.

Obama, an Illinois senator, has repeatedly asked Clinton to release tax returns for the years since she and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, left the White House in 2001.

“Releasing tax returns is a matter of routine. We believe the Clinton campaign should meet that routine standard and meet that routine standard now,” Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters.

Clinton, in Pennsylvania campaigning for the state’s primary on April 22, told reporters she hoped her returns would be released within the next week. But she and campaign aides pressed Obama to release records from his days in the Illinois legislature and his earlier tax returns.

“I am pleased that Senator Obama has released his tax returns. I think that’s a good first step,” Clinton said in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. “Now he should release his records from being in the state Senate and any other information that the public and the press need to know.”

Clinton spokesman Phil Singer said she already had released more than 20 years of tax returns and hundreds of thousands of pages of documents from the White House.

Obama and Clinton are in a hard-fought battle for the Democratic presidential nomination and the right to face Republican John McCain in November’s election.

Presidential candidates often release their tax returns, although they are not required to do so, but Clinton’s failure to release her returns since 2001 had become a target of increased criticism from Obama’s camp.

As senators, Obama and Clinton are both required only to file disclosure statements that give a wide range of income and provide few details on finances and holdings.

The newly released tax returns show Obama’s income with wife Michelle jumped in 2005 with the re-release of his first book “Dreams from My Father,” which brought him $1.2 million, and in 2006 when his second book “The Audacity of Hope” earned more than $500,000.

Their income rose dramatically with the book sales. From 2000 to 2004 their income ranged from just more than $207,000 to more than $275,000. In 2005 their joint income was more than $1.6 million and in 2006 it was nearly $1 million.

Obama’s campaign said Clinton’s tax records were important because of questions about her $5 million loan in January to her campaign and about Bill Clinton’s income from an investment company — headed by donor Ron Burkle — that invests in tax shelters.

“Senator Clinton can’t claim to be vetted until she allows the public the opportunity to see her finances — particularly with respect to any investment in tax shelters,” Gibbs said in a statement.

(Editing by David Wiessler)

(To read more about the U.S. political campaign, visit Reuters “Tales from the Trail: 2008” online at http:blogs.reuters.com/trail08/)

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By Syed Aslam

Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi was born in 780 CE at a place called Khwarizm which is a part of present day Khiva, Uzbekistan. Like many other thinkers and scientists of his time he also moved to Baghdad which was center of learning of science and philosophy in the middle ages. He studied the sciences and mathematics at House of Wisdom established by Khalifa Ma’mun, which included the translation of Greek and Sanskrit scientific manuscripts. He worked and lived in Baghdad where died in the year 850 CE.

Al-Khwarizmi developed the concept of the algorithm in mathematics and for this reason he called the grandfather of computer science by some people. The words “algorithm” came from Latin corruptions of his name from al-Khwarizmi to Algorisms. He also made major contributions to the fields of algebra, trigonometry, astronomy, geography and cartography. His systematic and logical approach to solving linear and quadratic equations gave shape to the discipline of algebra, a word that is derived from the name of his book on this subject; Hisab al-jabr wa al-muqabala ( Calculation by Completion and Balancing). It will be interesting to see what al-Khwarizmi wanted to say about the purpose of his book in his own word. He says: what is easiest and most useful in arithmetic, such as men constantly require in cases of inheritance, legacies, partition, lawsuits, and trade, and in all their dealings with one another, or where the measuring of lands, the digging of canals, geometrical computations, and other objects of various sorts and kinds are concerned.

This does not sound like the contents of an algebra text, and indeed only the first part of the book has a discussion of what we would today recognize as algebra. However it is important to realize that the book was intended to be highly practical, and that algebra was introduced to solve real life problems that were part of everyday life in the Islamic world at that time.

Al-Khwarizmi continues his study of algebra by examining how the laws of arithmetic extend to his algebraic objects. For example he showed how to multiply out expressions such as (a + bx) (c + dx). Though it looks elementary, now, yet one can see a remarkable depth and novelty in these calculations done more than eleven centuries ago. The next part of al-Khwarizmi’s Algebra consists of applications and worked examples. He then goes on to look at rules for finding the area of figures such as the circle, and also finding the volume of solids such as the sphere, cone, and pyramid.

While major contributions of al-Khwarizmi were the result of original research, he also did a lot to synthesize the existing knowledge in these fields from Greek, Indian, and other sources. He was also responsible for the use of Arabic numerals in mathematics which originated in India but introduced to Arab world finally to Europe. His treatise on Hindu-Arabic numerals Ketab al-Jam wal tafriq hisab al Hind was translated in Latin as Algoritmi de numero Indorum and in English as Al-Khwarizmi on the Hindu Art of Reckoning. Unfortunately the Arabic version is lost. The work describes the Indian system of numerals based on 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 0. The first use of zero as a place holder in positional base notation was explained by al-Khwarizmi in his work. When translation of his book came into the hands Europeans, they wrote a song for it and it reads like this: Here begins the Algorismus, The new art is called Algorismus, in which out of this twice five figures (1 to 9 & 0) we derive such benefit. This numeral system did not became very poplar in Europe till the fifteenth century mainly because of Church’s resistance to this new idea. Methods for arithmetical calculation and a method to find square roots is also described in this book. The decimal system was a fairly recent arrival from India, but it was al-Khwarizmi who expounded on it systematically and introduced it to Middle East and to the world at large.

Al-Khwarizmi did important work in astronomy, his book Zij al-Sindhind contains many important astronomical calculations, covering calendars, calculating true positions of the sun, moon and planets, tables of sine and tangents, spherical astronomy, parallax and eclipse calculations, and visibility of the moon. Although his astronomical work is based on that of the Indian astronomers, he must have been influenced by Ptolemy’s work also.

Al-Khwarizmi systematized and corrected Ptolemy’s research in geography, using his own original findings. He supervised the work of 70 geographers to create a map of the then known world. In his book Kitab surat al ard (The image of earth) he presented the latitudes and longitudes for 2400 localities including the big cities of Asia and Africa and located them on the map he created. He also wrote a book on mechanical devices like the clock, sundial, Jewish calendar, construction of astrolabes and a book of history.

There is no doubt that al-Khwarizmi was one of the brilliant Muslim scientist of his time and according to G. Sarton author of History of Science: one of the greatest mathematicians of all time. When his work became known in Europe through Latin and English translations, it made an indelible mark on the development of science and mathematics in Europe. His algebra book introduced that discipline to Europe and became the standard mathematical text at their universities until the 16th century. A crater on the far side of the moon is named after him.

Aslamsyed1@yahoo.com

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