The “CIA Created the Al-Qaeda” Myth

By Effendi | Published: September 27, 2011

It wasn’t Pakistan but the CIA that created the savage Haqqani Taliban network that U.S. Joint Chiefs Chairman Mike Mullen has been belatedly fingering as the chief culprit in Afghanistan’s agonies, Rehman Malik, Pakistan’s Interior Minister, declared on Sunday. It is an outrageous lie, as anyone even vaguely familiar with the terrorist savageries visited upon the people of South Asia over the past three decades will know. But I don’t expect that this will matter in the least to fashionable “left-wing” opinion among the world’s rich white people, where the consensus has for some long while served with remarkable precision as an echo of the lumpen view incited by right-wing Pakistani chauvinists.

Terry Glavin offers an insight into the history of the Haqqani Network, that Taliban stronghold in Pakistan, nurtured and funded by Pakistan’s secret police, the ISI.

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Posted in Islamism, Terrorism | 3 Comments

Girl accused of blasphemy for a spelling error

By Effendi | Published: September 25, 2011

Next time some Islamist (or their fellow travellers) attempt to re-purpose Islamophobia in Europe to their political advantage, ask them if conditions for Muslims in Europe is anywhere near as dangerous and difficult as it is for Christians living in Pakistan.

Consider this depressing story of a 13 year old girl who was expelled from school and whose mother transferred to another city after making a “blasphemous” spelling mistake on her exam paper.

On Thursday, Faryal’s Urdu teacher was collecting the answer sheets from her students when she noticed the apparently offensive word on her pupil’s sheet. The teacher, Fareeda Bibi, reportedly summoned the Christian girl, scolded her and beat her. Her punishment, however, did not end here. When Faryal’s class fellows learnt of the alleged blasphemy, the teacher brought the principal’s notice to the matter, who further informed the school management.

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Posted in Freedom of Religion | 1 Comment

Flying Blind: Waiting for a Real Reckoning on 1971

By Effendi | Published: September 25, 2011

Now that new developments in Pakistan show that the ISI is interwoven with the Taliban’s Haqqani Network, it is becoming increasingly difficult for right-wing interests in the US and their paid hacks to whitewash Pakistan’s history of genocide in order to rehabilitate it out of its status as a failed state.

By ‘paid hacks’ we are referring here to the “journalist/academic” Sarmila Bose whose efforts to rewrite the history of the 1971 War of Independence have been tainted by a blatant and barely disguised bias. Her telling of the events is not the neutral reappraisal of the abuses of both sides that it is touted to be but a selective revision to absolve the Pakistan military of its crimes against humanity.

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Posted in 1971 War | 4 Comments

Pakistan ISI Caught Red Handed

By Effendi | Published: September 25, 2011

The Haqqani Network is a Taliban wing  based in Pakistan. Last week it was responsible for the terrorist attack on an NATO installation in Kabul. Sixteen people were killed – no Americans.

Now irrefutable mobile intercept evidence has been traced which shows the direct link between Haqqani network and the ISI.

According to U.S. officials, the Haqqani network consists of several thousand fighters and operates with impunity from safe havens inside Pakistan, conducting cross-border raids into Afghanistan and up into Kabul.

The Pakistani spy agency uses the Haqqanis to sow violence so Afghanistan cannot emerge as a strong and stable country allied with Pakistan’s arch enemy India.

Two days before the attack on the U.S. Embassy, a large truck bomb went off at an American combat outpost, wounding 77 U.S. soldiers.

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Posted in Terrorism | Leave a comment

Mecca: Sacred Muslim Sites Destroyed To Create Hotels and Public Toilets

By Effendi | Published: September 25, 2011

Mecca: Blingsville, KSA

According to an article in the Independent, urbanisation projects for the redevelopment of Mecca are responsible for the destruction of many sites sacred to Muslims. The following are the next to feel the brunt of the demolition crews:

Bayt al-Mawlid

When the Wahabis took Mecca in the 1920s they destroyed the dome on top of the house where the Prophet Mohammed was born. It was thenused as a cattle market before being turned into a library after a campaign by Meccans. There are concerns that the expansion of the Grand Mosque will destroy it once more. The site has never been excavated by archaeologists.

Ottoman and Abasi columns of the Grand Mosque

Slated for demolition as part of the Grand Mosque expansion, these intricately carved columns date back to the 17th century and are the oldest surviving sections of Islam’s holiest site. Much to the chagrin of Wahabis, they are inscribed with the names of the Prophet’s companions. Ottomon Mecca is now rapidly disappearing

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Posted in Islamism | 1 Comment

Who Cries For Kurdistan?

By Effendi | Published: September 23, 2011

Whereas the Israel-Palestine issue remains a flashpoint, and a sore one at that, which induces waves of empathic solidarity for the Palestinians from your average Muslim, primarily concerned about the welfare of their co-religionists, the struggle for other co-religionists struggling for statehood receives scarce attention. Why is that? Why does the notion of an indepedent Kurdistan for the Kurds engender little more a blank stare despite the fact that the modern history of the Kurdish struggle for separate political status goes back more than eight decades and involves incidences of brutal human violations on a massive scale?

As this fascinating essay about the history and the current political dynamics in the struggle for Kurdish emancipation from Outernationalist shows:

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Posted in Human Rights | Leave a comment

Simply A State for Palestine

By Effendi | Published: September 23, 2011

The Palestinians nudge closer to achieving a recognised state, as their application to the UN Security Council goes to the vote later today. Obama will inevitably veto it, no surprises there. So will France. But if the Palestinians can get past the UNSC to the General Assembly they will win membership to the UN by a large majority, giving them “observer” status to the UN, similar to that of the Vatican. This could then lead to full membership if they continue to play their cards right.

UN membership for Palestine is a good thing in principal. And, if it can be achieved, it will be good in practice for both Palestinians and Israelis for two reasons:

It will strengthen the hand of the moderate Palestinian consensus and isolate the Hamas contingent. No one opposes the UN bid led by Mahmoud Abbas more than his compatriots in Hamas. The Arab Spring and the possibility of UN recognition could weaken the legitimacy of Palestinian Islamist politics.

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Posted in International Affairs, Israel/Palestine | Leave a comment

Caption Competition 16/09/2011

By Abdul Hamid al Manchesteri | Published: September 16, 2011

You know what to do…

Posted in Caption Competition | 7 Comments

China’s Campaign Against Ramadan

By Effendi | Published: September 16, 2011

Here is a shocking story of state-sponsored anti-Muslim persecution in China.

China has a long history of Muslim persecution that goes back decades. Will this story be reported by the “revolutionary socialist” blogs which claim to catalogue incidents of Islamophobia? This means either Islamophobia-Watch (“Documenting anti-Muslim bigotry”) or SocialistUnity? Unlikely, neither Islamists nor the far-left, in their efforts to attribute blame to incidents of draconian anti-Muslim bigotry include abuses by the PRC. Why the ideological selectiveness, you may ask? Simple, China isn’t Jewish Israeli enough for the Islamists to get their bilious juices flowing, and the British far-left just can’t bash the bugbears of “Western Imperialism” and “Zionism” when it comes to Chinese Islamophobia, they really are not that concerned about Chinese Muslims.

For years, China has restricted observance of Ramadan for Communist Party members and government cadres. On one website for an agricultural bureau, for instance, employees were reminded “not to practice any religion, not to attend religious events and not to fast.”

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Posted in Anti Muslim bigotry | 2 Comments

Why I Hate Al Qaeda

By Cross Post | Published: September 11, 2011

This is a cross-post by Karima Benoune

2,975 reasons to hate Al Qaeda. There are millions more.

To start, there are 2,975 reasons from 90 countries. An unforgettable patchwork quilt of humanity that was disappeared on a Tuesday morning ten years ago. (credit for photo above depicting many victims of 9/11) But that is only the beginning.

I hate Al Qaeda for all the human beings they have killed – the Africans, Americans, Arabs, Asians, Europeans, agnostics, atheists, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Muslims.

I hate Al Qaeda because they have murdered thousands of Muslims even while claiming to represent them, a claim they make even while bombing mosques during Ramadan. Because they reduce a rich religious heritage to a series of absurd prohibitions. They make the most sacred pronouncements, like Allahu Akbar – God is Great – into threats, into epithets.

I hate Al Qaeda because of the Caliphate of Doom they want to build.

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Posted in Islamism, Terrorism | 5 Comments

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