Media bias, spread of religious hatred and fanatic approach

To a large section of the television viewers in Asia, Dr. Zakir Naik is a known name. This is mostly because of the prominent presence of his Islamist television channel named ‘Peace TV’, which claims itself to be the ‘solution for humanity’. Dr. Naik operates this channel from Britain under the banner of an organization named Islamic Research Foundation and Peace TV runs with heavy donation and contribution by Muslims from a part of their Zakat, as well as donations from various Afro-Arab sources.

According to Islamic dictionary, Zakat or ‘alms for the poor’ is the Islamic principle of giving a percentage of one’s income to charity. It is often compared to the system of tithing and alms, but it serves principally as the welfare contribution to poor and deprived people in the Muslim lands, although others may have a rightful share. Zakat’s similar-sounding, Arabic language analog is the Hebrew word Tzedakah, the charitable obligation in ancient Israel through to present day Judaism. It is the duty of the Islamic state not just to collect Zakat, but to distribute it fairly as well. Zakat is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. Read more

Dear Prime Minister, beware of the touts

Since the landslide victory of Awami League in the general election of December 29, 2009, several ‘advisors’ of the Prime Minister have emerged in the society who are proclaiming themselves to be ‘silent life support’ of the present government. Many are even so adamant that they do not care making such claims even to the members of press in Bangladesh. I have no idea if any of the intelligence agencies in the government are monitoring such illegal activities of touts who are abusing the name of the top executive of the country.

Just last week, I encountered one such ‘advisor’, who told me how busy he was in finalizing the nomination of the candidates of Awami League as well suggesting the Prime Minister in choosing her cabinet colleagues. I asked, are you working in any particular office of the ruling party while holding the post of advisor? He said, “no, we are the silent life support of Awami League helping the Prime Minister with our expert opinion on various important issues.” Read more

Are my Sources better than CNN’s?

My news sources must be so much better than CNN’s and others’ because I keep coming across things that they do not have. The most recent item was the death of an Islamic clergyman this week in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. Moulana Hafez Hamidullah passed away quietly at his residence at the age of 63. He was an influential member of the Bangladesh Khelafat Andolan (BKA), a religious and political association of fundamentalist Muslims, very prominent Islamic clergyman, and Vice Principal of a madrassa. Despite the media’s seeming obsession with Islam, there was no mention of Hamidullah’s passing anywhere.

Yet, this very religious Muslim cleric was consistently outspoken in condemning “all forms of militancy in the name of religion.” He preached interfaith harmony based on mutual respect and was (along with the BKA) outspoken defenders of Bangladesh’s “Muslim Zionist,” Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, who was arrested and tortured after exposing the rise of radical Islam in his country and urging relations with Israel, continues to publish Bangladesh’s only openly Zionist newspaper. The BKA also joins with Choudhury in urging an end to Bangladesh’s prohibition on travel to Israel and in promoting relations with the Jewish State. Read more

The Real Issue in the Gaza Fighting

As people worldwide choose up sides to cheer for in the current Gaza fighting, few recognize what the real issue is, and fewer of them are willing to admit it. Distilled to its most essential ingredient, the Middle East conflict is and always was about Israel. Everything else is window dressing. Ever since Jewish halutzim (or pioneers) began reclaiming their ancient homeland and a renewed Jewish state became a reality, the official position of almost every Arab government and entity has been that a Jewish state of any size and location in the Middle East is unacceptable. That same position has been repeated ad nauseum from almost every mosque in the world; certainly every mosque in the Middle East. If many people in the world today cite blatantly anti-Jewish Quran verses as basic to Islam, you can blame those Imams who scream them out week after week at their Friday sermons. The fact that they are broadcast on official Arab government television and are never denounced by Islamic leaders and scholars only reinforces that notion in the minds of many. Read more

Explaining Israel’s Strategic Mistakes

In an article earlier this month, “Israel’s Strategic Incompetence in Gaza,” I made three points: that the Israeli leadership unilaterally created its current problems in Gaza, that the war against Hamas meant ignoring the much larger threat of Iranian nuclear weapons, and that the goal of empowering Al-Fatah makes no sense.

These arguments prompted an earful from readers, who made interesting points that deserve answers. Slightly editing the questions for clarity, I reply to some of them here:

“Your article was a real downer. Do you have any uppers?”

The Middle East is a source of nearly unmitigated bad news these days. Two rare positive developments concern economics: Israel has finally, thanks for the reforms carried out by Binyamin Netanyahu, weaned itself from the debilitating socialism of its earlier years; and the price of energy has gone down by over two-thirds. Read more

Does Awami League Victory Offer Hope for Real Change?

Bangladeshi elections had been put off for so long that it was difficult to predict what they might produce. On December 29, 2008, however, the people of Bangladesh answered that question clearly by giving Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League (AL) a landslide victory. That’s both good news and bad news for the left-center party good news in that it need not make any dubious deals to being other parties into its ruling coalition; bad news in that the world will hold Hasina and her party responsible for what happens next. The AL is inheriting an economy in shambles, a still-corrupt officialdom, a nation infested with Islamist terrorists, and a seemingly ineradicable tradition of minority oppression, even ethnic cleansing. Curing those ails is an enormous task, and one key to success will be actions the AL takes to secure foreign support for its effort. Read more

Solving the “Palestinian Problem”

Israel’s war against Hamas brings up the old quandary: What to do about the Palestinians? Western states, including Israel, need to set goals to figure out their policy toward the West Bank and Gaza.

Let’s first review what we know does not and cannot work:

Israeli control. Neither side wishes to continue the situation that began in 1967, when the Israel Defense Forces took control of a population that is religiously, culturally, economically, and politically different and hostile. 
A Palestinian state. The 1993 Oslo Accords began this process but a toxic brew of anarchy, ideological extremism, antisemitism, jihadism, and warlordism led to complete Palestinian failure. 
A binational state: Given the two populations’ mutual antipathy, the prospect of a combined Israel-Palestine (what Muammar al-Qaddafi calls “Israstine”) is as absurd as it seems. 

Excluding these three prospects leaves only one practical approach, that which worked tolerably well in the period 1948-67:

Shared Jordanian-Egyptian rule: Amman rules the West Bank and Cairo runs Gaza.  Read more

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