[ARABNEWS] As the self-ascribed Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (IS) continues to murder as many people as possible and idiots with automatic weapons try to wipe out journalists who "hurt their feelings," a trend is emerging to lay the blame for all the world's wills on Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... Since the Charlie Hebdo ...A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe... massacre a new wave of anti-Moslem and anti-Saudi opinion articles have been telling the western world that Saudi Arabia's policy of "exporting" Wahhabism to their shores is the true reason for all of this murder and mayhem.
It would be nice if these guys and gals could offer some kind of evidence beyond vague WikiLeaks memos and 25-year-old Saudi textbooks, but, hey, why let the facts get in the way of an ill-informed opinion.
I do not mean to flippant, but Saudi Arabia is facing a crisis at an unprecedented level and it would be foolish to ignore the misguided anger directed at the Kingdom.
The passing of King Abdullah only magnifies these recent journalistic attacks, which have not considered the king's track record of fostering unity among Saudis and tolerance between religions and cultures.
No matter how one feels about Saudi Arabia, it can't be denied that real efforts spearhead by King Abdullah have been made to bridge religious differences. It's the critics of Saudi Arabia that seem intent to widen that gap.
King Abdullah was the first king to establish organized international interfaith dialogue. He met with the pope in 2007 and a year later organized the interfaith conference in Spain that attracted more than 200 Christians, Jews and Moslems. Jewish leaders Michael Schneider, the World Jewish Congress secretary-general, and Rabbi David Rosen among others attended the conference. What head of state can make that claim?
The late king also chaired the United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... interfaith dialogue conference. But King Abdullah's crowning achievement was the 2011 opening of the King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Center for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue in Vienna.
The center devotes itself to promoting reconciliation, justice and peace and to combating against the abuse of religion. As an NGO it also advocates the preservation of holy sites and promotes religious education.
Further, King Abdullah authored the Arab Peace Initiative that would give Israel full recognition among the Arab countries. As J.J. Goldberg pointed out on Saturday in the Jewish Daily Forward
...a highly influential New York City Socialist Jewish newspaper, or as influential as such a thing can be with an (English language version) circulation as of 2013 of 28,221, mostly in Manhattan, judging by the focus of the articles. Fits beautifully in the recycle bin, if one lacks a bird cage to line...
blog: "It's not just that he released it (Arab Peace Initiative) publicly -- to an American Jewish journalist, Thomas Friedman
...known chiefly for his myopic weekly column in the New York Times, and blowing up a throwaway dinner party line into a full fledged "Arab Peace Initiative", much to the embarrassment of the then-Saudi prince involved ...
-- but that he muscled it through to unanimous ratification by the 22-member Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... and near-unanimous acceptance by 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation (56 in favor, Iran abstaining). The initiative has been re-ratified repeatedly and its text liberalized."
Golly. "If Israel unilaterally pulls back to the pre-Six Day War boundaries, we'll consider giving up our half-century war against her." What a bargain that is for Israel.
Any western leader who possessed this kind of track record would earn the Nobel Peace Prize. Certainly Barack Obama I am not a dictator!... won the Nobel Prize in 2009 with fewer accomplishments. But skepticism and outright hostility dogs Saudi Arabia like no other country, including North Korea and Iran.
If we are to exercise any intellectual honesty about the country we live in, then we must unflinchingly examine the root of western hostility and how to overcome it. King Abdullah did a remarkable job in the decade he led our country. He laid the foundation for future generations of Saudis. We must honor his memory by continuing his good deeds while at the same time recognizing our own flaws and finding the path to correct them.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2015 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Saudi Arabia
#1
The fact that the bulk of the 9/11 terrorists were Saudi Arabians and that the bulk of terrorists in general are associated with Wahabi mosques is a total coincidence.
IT is heartening that the interior minister wants to see a more strenuous effort against money laundering and terror finance, as well as hundi and hawala transactions. It would be more encouraging still if he had any ideas on how to strengthen these efforts beyond simply thumping his fist on the table and demanding action. In a meeting with the Federal Investigation Agency on Monday, the minister reportedly said he wanted stronger action against hundi and hawala operators, and âa strict watchâ on suspicious transactions that might be linked with terrorism. The number of suspicious transactions detected in the last year are indeed very low and a far more robust effort is required if the action against terrorists is to succeed.
But does the minister know that hundi and hawala transactions are not even scheduled offences under the Anti Terrorism Act or the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act? Does he know that they become scheduled offences only under an ad hoc arrangement whereby a notification is issued every year by his own ministry? And does he realise that the laws and guidelines that require banks to identify suspicious transactions are very weak and ambiguous for the detection of terror-related transactions? The minister could put his own energies to better use by championing reform of the legislation under which hundi and hawala operators can be proceeded against, as well as reform of the laws and guidelines to facilitate the detection and reporting of suspicious transactions by banks. Detecting hundi and hawala transactions is still relatively easier, but tracking terror-related funds is going to require very careful coordination among various law-enforcement and regulatory bodies, as well as intelligence agencies. The interior ministerâs powers can be very useful in helping to bring about this coordination. A detailed list of individuals and entities whose financial activities need to be monitored must be created and then communicated to the banks. Banks need to be urged under threat of penalty to play a stronger role in tracking these individuals and entities on the list. Law enforcement can only begin once the architecture of a stronger detection and monitoring regime has been built. Demands for action without the necessary reforms risk creating unnecessary panic in the financial system as the law-enforcement agencies will be compelled to apprehend people without strong probable cause. We can only hope that the minister has feasible ideas on how to bring about these reforms.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2015 20:51 ||
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[DAWN] Mumtaz Qadri, more than being defended by former chief justice of the Lahore High Court, Khawaja Mohammad Sharif, former LHC judge Mian Nazir Akhtar, and hundreds of other lawyers, is being lionised by these professed defenders of law and justice in Pakistain. The attorney general's office has reportedly lost the case file and the state has yet to formally instruct a prosecutor to oppose the appeal of Salman Taseer's self-confessed killer. Is this the picture of just a broken state or a broken society as well?
Shahid Hamid, MD KESC, was murdered in 1997 along with his driver and guard. An anti-terror court convicted Saulat Mirza for the murder and handed him the death sentence in 1999. His final appeal to the Supreme Court stands dismissed. The law required him to be hanged within days of the president turning down his mercy petition. But he wasn't. Sixteen years since his conviction Mirza is alive and well in a state prison. Why? Because the MQM reportedly wanted the execution stayed and motivated by political expediency Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... obliged despite lack of legal authority to do so.
Parliament passed the 21st Amendment with an overwhelming majority. It is meant to ensure that courts and concepts such as due process and burden of proof don't stand in the way of killing those our law-enforcement agencies deem bad guys. This amendment is bad law and many of those who voted for it knew so. Senator Raza Rabbani cried while supporting this obfuscation of our Constitution. He probably cried out of self-pity. What else can you do except feel sorry for yourself when you willingly let party diktat trump your conscience?
The other day Senator Rabbani wanted the interior minister to demonstrate moral courage and resign over his ministry's pigheaded insistence that no madressahs in Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... receive assistance from Moslem countries. But in our elite culture power comes with no responsibility. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi is probably as clean a minister as one can find in the present dispensation. And yet power compulsions are such that even he couldn't muster the courage to accept responsibility for the petrol crisis and walk away from the flag and the protocol.
Is there anything is common in all of the above? These divergent facts and details portray the picture of a state and society that has fallen into a legal and moral abyss. Why is rule of law associated with civilised societies? Because it reflects the consensus within a society over rules by which its members are willing to bind their conduct. Law might not always possess moral authority, but in rule-of-law societies it is a trigger for action, which shapes behaviours and builds norms, and becomes the basis for rewarding individuals or holding them accountable.
Is there consensus over any rules of behaviour in our society? Do we even agree that life is sacrosanct and murder vile? The Salmaan Taseer murder case is the mirror that projects the reality of our state and society in all its ugliness. This governor of our largest province was not killed because he said derogatory things about the Prophet (PTUI!). He was killed because he stood up to even the odds for a poor Christian woman charged with blasphemy in a society where criticism of the abuse of the blasphemy law has come to be equated with blasphemy itself.
Mumtaz Qadri, whose job was to secure Salmaan Taseer, chose to kill him instead and confessed that the murder was premeditated. One understands what Taseer was trying to do and what Qadri did. But what is it that former justices Sharif and Akhtar along with hundreds of lawyers are trying to do? Are they saying that it is OK to murder someone who in your subjective opinion doesn't have the right amount of reverence for the Prophet? Or that taking human life is justified so long as it is claimed to have been done out of love for the Prophet?
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2015 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[The Hindu] ... Paks... realise that seeking security in relation to a much larger neighbour is not the same thing as insisting on parity with it. All nations are equal in international law but sovereign equality is not synonymous with parity.
In any case, Pakistain is India's rival in real terms only as much as Belgium could rival La Belle France or Germany and Vietnam could hope to be on a par with China. India's population is six times larger than Pakistain's while its economy is 10 times the size of the Pak economy. Notwithstanding internal problems, India's $2 trillion economy has managed consistent growth whereas Pakistain's $245 billion economy has grown sporadically and is undermined by jihadi terrorism and domestic political chaos.
Country comparisons
India is expanding by most measures of national power while Pakistain has been able to keep pace with it only in manufacturing nuclear weapons and their delivery systems. Paks are often not told of the widening gap between the two countries in most fields.
For example, 94 per cent of India's children between five and 15 complete primary school compared with 54 per cent in Pakistain. Every year, 8,900 Indians get a PhD in the sciences compared with the 8,142 doctorates awarded by Pakistain's universities since Independence. The total number of books published in any language on any subject in Pakistain in 2013, including religious titles and children's books, stood at 2,581, against 90,000 in India.
The parity doctrine also requires Paks to see India as an existential enemy. Textbooks still tell Pak children that Hindu India threatens Islamic Pakistain and seeks to terminate its existence. Hardly anyone outside of Pakistain believes that to be true.
Nuclear deterrence and mutually assured destruction usually freeze conflicts and pave the way for détente as they did between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. But little has changed in the Pak ideology after the induction of nuclear weapons on the subcontinent. There is little recognition that with nuclear weapons, Pakistain no longer has any reason to feel insecure about being overrun by a larger Indian conventional force.
Kashmire issue
The notion of an existential threat to Pakistain is now only psycho-political and ideological. Pakistain has already fought four wars with India and lost half its territory in the process -- the erstwhile East Pakistain, which became Bangladesh in 1971.
As for Jammu and Kashmire, one need not deny Pakistain's initial claims to recognise that it might not be an issue that can be resolved in the foreseeable future. Jihadi militancy, since 1989, has failed to wrest Kashmire for Pakistain from India as has war and military confrontation.
Islamabad should also evaluate realistically its hope of internationalising the Kashmire issue. The last effective UN resolution on Kashmire was passed by the Security Council in 1957, when the United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... had 82 members. Last year, with 193 members, Pakistain's Prime Minister was the only world leader who mentioned Jammu and Kashmire at the UN General Assembly.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2015 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[ARABNEWS] As the self-ascribed 
A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe...
North Korea
