She died over five years ago, but her words are a haunting warning that we continue to ignore: more women are leaving the Muslim community because of the way they continue to be treated.
These were the words of the late Shareefa Alkhateeb, one of the pioneers of the Muslim community in the United States, when I last met her at a conference just months before her death in 2004.
Sr. Shareefa was one of the earliest and most vocal voices in the American Muslim community to push for the inclusion of and respect for women. She was often the first to notice the lack of sisters speaking at an event and she would firmly, but always politely, make sure something was done about it. This became most obvious to me when I organized the national Bosnia Task Force rally in 1993. Continue reading »
United States Defense Secretary Robert Gates is not new to the field of diplomacy in the South Asian region. The “Gates Mission” in 1990 to defuse a cascading wave of India-Pakistan tensions is the stuff of legends. Historians are still in two minds whether Gates deserves to be credited for having conceivably averted the world’s first nuclear war.
In comparison, Gates’ mission to New Delhi and Islamabad last week wasn’t breathtaking but it stood out as a pivotal moment. He was choreographing the US’s global strategy.
Gates charms Indians …
Delhi faces an existential dilemma: it needs to determine how far it is prepared to go with Uncle Sam down the path into the garden where it has never been before. Gates made it clear the enterprise could be rewarding. He said, “India can be an anchor for regional and global security … this will be a defining partnership for the 21st century.” In the Barack Obama presidency, India has never heard such heady thoughts.
There were three vectors to Gates’ visit – Afghanistan, India-Pakistan relations and the US-India security partnership. Gatesupheld India’s legitimate interests in Afghanistan. He praised the Indian role and in turn received an Indian offer on an enhanced role strictly within the parameters of the overall US/North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) strategy – “frankly, the kind of supportand extraordinary support that India is providing in Afghanistannow is really ideal”.
India will not complicate the US’s diplomacy in Islamabad by seeking any role in the build-up of the Afghan armed forces or police. Beneath that threshold, Delhi will play a role in the “Afghanization” process. Nor is Delhi inclined to raise dust about US plans regarding the “reintegration and reconciliation” of the Taliban. The Indian position was dogmatic but nuances have crept in. This is partly tactical, as it is clear Indian opposition will not stall the process of integrating the Taliban into Afghan political life. Continue reading »
In the second week of the last December , the Central Board of investigation , India (CBI) issued its 66 pages probe report into the alleged rape and murder of two kashmiri women Nilofar Jan and her seventeen years old sister-in-law Asiya Jan . The dead bodies of these two women were found in a stream on 30th May 2009 in Shopian. According to the details these two women were kidnapped, raped and murdered by the Indian troops deputed there in the Shopian town. After the discovery of their dead bodies the Shopian town observed a 47 day long shut down. The worsening law and order situation after the incident compelled the state government announce an inquiry commission to probe into the matter and four security personals were arrested. But unfortunately the commission gave a clean chit to the four arrested officers and said that the death of these two women was nothing but an accident and the basic cause of their death was drowning into the stream.
Delhi-based Independent Women’s Initiative for justice (IWIJ) has protested on the findings of the CBI commission and said that the Commissions report is a useless effort of pacifying the people. The IWIJ had sent its team to the valley on a fact-finding mission after the incident. This team had made a visit to the stream from where the dead bodies had been recovered. The team found the water in the stream only an ankle-deep not enough for any body to drown in it. After the Commission’s report had come to the surface, the Indian newspapers started a well-planned propaganda movement blaming the so-called Militants for the murder of these two Muslim women. It seems that the Indian media and politicians are following the west in the usage of the term ‘Militants’. Continue reading »
Jeff Gates is author of Guilt By Association, Democracy at Risk and The Ownership Solution along with Anthony Lawson produce this startling new video that is an absolute necessity for every American who genuinely loves his country and knows something has gone very very wrong. In Jeff’s own words:
What I tell people is that our specialty is enabling people to grasp “how” this duplicity operates in plain sight and, to date, with impunity. With that knowledge, they can sort out for themselves Who and Why. Absent that knowledge, they’re left adrift in the domain of conspiracy theorists, hate-mongers and such. We see this knowledge as essential in the transition to the Knowledge Society.
It’s payday in the villages of Zanda Khel and Shobo Khel, so the Indiana National Guard Agribusiness Development Team (ADT) remains vigilant. The ADT is paying a group of farmers for their work on a series of small rock dams, designed to reduce soil erosion and improve irrigation. But this area is a Taliban stronghold and there is a lot of cash involved — tens of thousands of dollars.
So the soldiers carefully watch the milling Pashtun tribesmen waiting to be paid. Turret gunners in the armored MRAPs scan the mountains for snipers. There are few safe places here in Khost Province, an insurgency wracked region along the Pakistan border. And with a Taliban nest three kilometers away, Zanda Khel and Shobo Khel are certainly not among them. Continue reading »
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