Crescent Magazine

Berlin, Crescent-online
July 23, 2010 - 1700 EST

How widespread is Islamophobia in Europe, especially in Germany where a three-month pregnant Muslim mother, Marwa el-Sherbini was stabbed 18 times in a crowded courtroom in Dresden last year, can be seen from the fact that a memorial erected to her memory has been smashed.

The group responsible for the memorial, Bürger.Courage, had erected eight out of a total of 18 columns so far but three have already been vandalised. The first column was erected on July 1, on the anniversary of Marwa's brutal stabbing death. The group also said informational plaques on two of the toppled columns had been pried off and stolen.

The police opened an investigation into the property damage but said there was “no evidence as to the motive of the perpetrators.” Why the police cannot see a connection between the vandalisation of the memorial columns and the brutal murder of an innocent Muslim woman a year ago reflects the blind hatred that exists in Europe against Muslims.

It will be recalled that when Marwa was being stabbed, not one guard in the courtroom came to her rescue. When her husband tried to shield her from the blows of her assailant, the police arrived on the scene and they shot her husband, saying they thought he was the assailant.

Marwa's brutal murder, who was 31 at the time, led to huge protests in the Muslim world, especially in her native Egypt.

Organizers are in the process of erecting 18 knife-shaped concrete columns around the city of Dresden to memorialize her murder, one for each time she was stabbed.

Marwa el-Sherbini was in court last year testifying in a case against a man who called her a “terrorist” and “Islamist” in a Dresden playground. After she appeared as a witness the man took a seven-inch knife from his backpack and attacked both her and her husband in the courtroom, in front of their 3-year-old son. The guards just looked on while this brutal murder was taking place. Not one came to her rescue.

And now racist Islamophobes have vandalised and desecrated a memorial to her death.

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Islamabad, Crescent-online
July 23, 2010 - 1700 EST

Reflecting the true hierarchy of power in Pakistan, General Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani got an extension of three more years to serve as army chief. The announcement was made by Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani in Islamabad on July 22.

It was widely expected since General Kiyani had made clear he would like to continue serving as rmy chief. Officially, it is the Prime Minister's prerogative to grant such extension but given how weak the civilian government is and it serves at the pleasure of the army chief, Gilani had little choice. Putting the best face on it, Gilani said the general's presence on the scene was essential for the fight against militancy.
 
General Kiyani was scheduled to retire in November. He took over as army chief from General Pervez Musharraf who was eased out of power after being at the helm following a coup in October 1999 against the government of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.  

General Kiyani is popular with the Americans as well who see him as a more stable and reliable partner. Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, has close relations with General Kiyani and has paid regular visits to him to press him to launch attacks both against Pakistan-based Taliban as well as those in Afghanistan. Kiyani has confined his army's operations to Pakistan, saying Afghanistan is America's responsibility.

Kiyani's extension must also be seen against the backdrop of anticipated changes in Afghanistan and the  virtual defeat of US and Nato military forces there. Few generals have a better grasp of the situation in Afghanistan than Kiyani. Further, the Director of ISI, General Ahmed Shuja Pasha was also given an extension.

General Pasha is close to Kiyani and it appears the Pakistanis clearly anticipate major changes in Afghanistan in the near future. They want to have seasoned generals dealing with the issue when that happens.

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Washington, Crescent-online
July 19, 2010, 13:00 EST

Consumed by hatred of Islamic Iran, the US zionist lobby frequently papers over issues that really threaten US policies in order to advance its own agenda. Saudi funding of terrorist groups is one such issue that is conveniently ignored because it does not fit into the narrative the zionists are peddling: demonization of Islamic Iran.

In recent testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Matthew Levitt, a senior fellow and director of the rightwing Washington Institute's (WINEP) Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, soft peddled the involvement of US allies in terrorism financing.
 
Levitt mentioned that the Treasury Department Undersecretary, Stuart Levey had stated: “terrorist organizations and al-Qaeda raise money in the Gulf by going to individual donors and through charities,” but the bulk of his testimony was a tirade against Iran. It is not the first time that zionist circles have soft peddled Saudi involvement in al-Qaeda’s financing. Over the years, it has become Washington’s policy to safeguard its strategic ally in the Middle East because of close financial connections between the House of Saud and the House of Bush.

In a 2002 report, the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations stated that “individuals and charities based in Saudi Arabia have been the most important sources of funds for Al Qaeda. And for years, Saudi officials have turned a blind eye to this problem.” The Bush administration, in an attempt to protect their Saudi allies, immediately ridiculed these findings. Robert Nichols, the Treasury Department's deputy assistant secretary for public affairs, said the report was "seriously flawed." Had such allegations been against Islamic Iran or Venezuela, for instance, there is little doubt Washington would have immediately endorsed the report.

Earlier this year, during a lecture at WINEP seminar, Richard Barrett, UN coordinator on al-Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Committee, revealed that at the moment the UAE, a close US ally, is one of the places where al-Qaeda is actively raising money with tacit approval of the regime.
 
The zionist lobby soft peddles and often ignores the environment provided by despotic US allies for al-Qaeda minded groups to function with impunity. This clearly shows that for the zionist lobby and the neo-cons, their priority is to protct the illegitimate interests of US corporations and Israel.

If US citizens do not wake up to this reality, they will continually be waging wars on behalf of Israel, thus incurring the wrath and enmity of people worldwide.

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MD, Toronto, Crescent-online
July 16, 2010, 17:00 EST

American neo-cons are alarmed at the proposal by some US officials that the Islamic resistance movement, Hizbullah in Lebanon, should be engaged. The neo-cons' concern springs primarily from the consequences such engagement would have on Israel.

 Unable to degrade Hizbullah’s influence and popularity by military and political means, some US officials have called for negotiations with the movement. In May 2010, Deputy National Security Advisor John Brennan suggested that the US should reach out to certain elements within Hizbullah. A more comprehensive suggestion on engaging Hizbullah came from a team of senior intelligence officers at the US Central Command -- CENTCOM – known as the "Red Team."

The CENTCOM report issued on May 7 and titled "Managing Hizbullah and Hamas", questioned the current US policy of isolating and marginalizing the two movements. The “red team” recommends that the US should work to integrate Hizbullah and Hamas into the Lebanese and the Palestinian security apparatuses respectively. The report says this policy “would be more effective than providing assistance to entities -- the government of Lebanon and Fatah -- that represent only a part of the Lebanese and Palestinian populace respectively.”

CENTCOM's suggestion immediately drew a reaction from the pro-zionist lobby in the US. The Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), a pro-zionist group, launched a vicious attack on CENTCOM proposals.

WINEP's policy proposal on Hizbullah published on July 14 states that “reaching out to Hizbullah, however, at a time when it is politically and military emboldened, would be an exercise in futility that could prove counterproductive.” WINEP recommends that the US should increase pressure on “Syria and Iran in order to increase the costs of support for Hizbullah” along with putting pressure on the Lebanese government to condition Hizbullah’s participation in the government.

WINEP also suggests that the US should empower “independent Shiites” through facilitating funding and encouraging “stronger links between moderate Shiites in Lebanon and Iraq.” It also advises enhanced consultations with Israel along with making it clear that “it [US] will stand by Israel if the latter is forced to act against Hizbullah’s military capabilities, but will also seek to limit actions that could undermine the government or pro-Western forces in Lebanon.”

CENTCOM's report represents a new trend in US policy making circles which have been promoting the concept of co-opting rather than directly fighting Islamic movements that resist US hegemony. It seems US policy makers have realized that they cannot defeat Islamic revival through direct confrontation; they are, therefore, looking for ways to discredit the Islamic movement by co-opting it.

Aware that any association with the US and its allies amounts to political suicide, the US is attempting to initiate dialogue with Islamic movements in order to discredit them. This concept was implemented in Iraq with some success.

The co-option policy will first target more vulnerable Islamic organizations such as the Muslim Brotherhood. However, it is unlikely to gain much traction with Hizbullah and Hamas. Their mode of operations and strategic objectives revolved around confronting the illegal US presence in the Muslim world.

Hizbullah and Hamas follow the line of Imam Khomeini and are part of the Islamic thought process revived by him which is resistant to such processes. The landslide victory of President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad in June 2009 clearly manifests this quality of the line of the Imam.
 
Hizbullah and Hamas are fully aware that the US agenda of “engagement” is aimed at undermining, and ultimately destroying them. Therefore, unless there is evidence that the US has abandoned its hegemonic agenda, “engagement” will never work out, no matter how much sugar coating is applied.

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