Howard picked on the wrong guy

In February 2007, Mr Howard was reported to have said that al-Qaeda should be "praying as many times as possible" for an Obama victory in the 2008 elections.

Howard, racially thinking Obama's chances are Nil, thought he could
slam Obama and win over Bush's heart (now voted the most unpopular president in the history of US).

For Bush, CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said "No president has ever had a higher disapproval rating in any CNN or Gallup poll; in fact, this is the first time that any president's disapproval rating has cracked the 70 percent mark".

Mr Howard banked on the wrong horse. Mr Obama has won the US elections in a land slide. Had Mr Howard remained as prime minister of Australia, we would have been in an embarrassing situation now, to say the least, with the new US administration.

Now, all leaders who called and pushed for the invasion of Iraq have all lost elections and history will remember them with bitterness. Bush will always be associated with war, bloodshed and the darkest times in American history.

US soldiers rape their own comrades

Women serving in the U.S. military today are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq." - CNN Thurs 31st July,08

Reports have been coming out in the last month about the epidemic of sexual assault and rape crimes by US male soldiers. These cases are not crimes against Iraqi women...they are committed against female US soldiers - comrades.

A congresswoman said "Women serving in the U.S. military today are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq". The report says that 41 percent of the female veterans seen in the Veterans hospital say they were victims of sexual assault while serving in the military. Last year, Col. Janis Karpinski caused a stir by publicly reporting that in 2003, three female soldiers had died of dehydration in Iraq, which can get up to 126 degrees in the summer, because they refused to drink liquids late in the day. They were afraid of being raped by male soldiers if they walked to the latrines after dark.

The Department of Defense refused to allow the senior civilian in charge of its Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO) to testify in the August 2008 hearing on sexual assault in the military.

The difficult question that I would like to ask is: If this is what US soldiers do to their own female comrades, what do they do to the 'enemy' - the Iraqi women?? What are the statistics? Why is it not reported? What are the soldiers of 'freedom' bringing to the women of Iraq? I hate to think!!!

Islamic Finance comes out ahead

Dow Jones's Islamic financials index, in contrast, rose 4.75 per cent

Following the global financial crisis, the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) published a very interesting article titled 'Islamic finance rides the storm'. I quote: "Sharemarkets in London and New York are a third off their peaks. Dow Jones's Islamic financials index, in contrast, rose 4.75 per cent in the most recent September quarter..".

So what is the Dow Jones Islamic Finance Index? Answer: 'The Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes were introduced in 1999 as the first benchmarks to represent Islamic-compliant portfolios. Today the series encompasses more than 70 indexes and remains the most comprehensive family of Islamic market measures. The indexes are maintained based on a stringent and published methodology. An independent Shari`ah Supervisory Board counsels Dow Jones Indexes on matters related to the compliance of index-eligible companies.'

So I was quite interested to find out what were the criteria that allowed a company to be listed in this Index. The SMH article touched on it, but I looked into it and found the following:

1 - It excluded companies that represent the following lines of business: alcohol, tobacco, pork-related products, interest based financial services, defense/weapons, gambling and pornography. In other words, only companies that deal in wholesome business.

2- It excludes companies whose gross interest bearing debt to total assets exceeds the percentage permitted under Islamic Shariah (33%). In layman's terms: it limits the amount of debt (and therefore greed) that a company can get into. Therefore, it limits the risk exposure of the business.

3- It generally excludes companies that deal in unethical behaviours including internal corruption and others.

4- It generally excludes companies that hold monopolies. Islam forbids monopolies by outlawing the hoarding of wealth (Al-Ihtikar).

The ban on interest based finance companies is because Islam encourages partnership in dealings as opposed to interest based dealings. Basically, the criteria are based on Shariah fundamentals of business dealings.

There is already talk about restructuring the global finance system having been deemed - failed. So may be, there is an opportunity here to adopt some of the Islamic criteria for finance and business.

The free Gaza Movement

It has been quite a while since I wrote on my blog. Many events have happened over the last few months that moved me but I could not find the time to write about them.

Most notably, was the recent heroic project by a group of activists who shipped to Gaza with small boats and broke the siege on Gaza. That was truely an impressive effort that proved to the world that individuals can stand up and make a difference against oppression in the world.

This website has covered the trip in detail: http://www.freegaza.org/

Again, the Egyption Government has proven how low they became when they refused entry from Gaza to a couple of the activists who were on the ship and stayed behind. Shame!!

Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land: Israel & Palestine

Egypt on shaky ground

Egypt has recently witnessed an unprecedented strike action in a regime that leaves no room for human rights or freedom of expression. It was described as the start of the 'revolution of the hungry".

Egypt is now on the verge of a major change; why:

1- Egyptians are now facing severe poverty and food shortage. According to the UN food program, 40% of Egyptians are below the poverty line.

2- Al Hizb al watani, the party that forms government, and its president Mubarak are failing to provide a uniting vision for the country. No vision or direction is offered to the nation. With no vision, people loose hope and the country continues to spiral down.

3- Corruption is now rampant and all governmental institutions are failing and disintegrating. The ruling party is offering no solution to the corruption problem. On the contrary, they are indeed an integral part of it.

4- A continuous agenda of using force and military courts to punish anyone who dares to challenge or speak against the government. This is particularly the case against members of Muslim Brotherhood who present the strongest political opposition to the ruling party and offer a vision to the nation.

5- The Egyptian government is viewed by many in the middle east as a corrupt and pro-US administration government. This was recently reinforced again by their recent response to the siege on Gaza and the Rafah / Gaza border incident.

Despite the years of fear and oppression that the Egyptians have been trained to accept, there is now the start of an obvious movement to resist oppression in Egypt. The recent action across the nation and particularly in Mahala is an indication of what is to come and what it will take to change Egypt from corruption to equality and from oppression to justice.

Australia is sorry

Emotions, tears and cheers marked one of the most historic moments in the history of this country.Today, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, said sorry to the indigenous people of Australia. He said “"For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.”

I say thank you Mr Rudd for your stance of justice and courage. Today, I feel proud to be an Australian. I feel proud to be part of this nation.

Kevin Rudd has shown an exemplary model of leadership. He demonstrated courage to change the direction of the nation. His speech was so strong, refreshing and honest. Today the parliament met "To remove a great stain from the nation's soul and in the true spirit of reconciliation to open a new chapter in the history of this great land Australia.''

Today, all living ex-prime ministers of Australia attended this historic moment in the parliament, except for one - John Howard. John Howard did not want to apologize to the indigenous people. John Howard was responsible for targeting and scapegoating of the Muslim community. John Howard was responsible for causing a rift within our communities and for leaving the country with a feeling of lost hope. John Howard did not attend the apology speech today. Shame!!

I hope that Australia takes this day of reconciliation as an opportunity for reconciliation with all communities in this country.

Break the siege, not the legs

The Egyptian Foreign Minister, Ahmad abu al-Ghait, recently threatened to break the legs of any Palestinian if they tried to cross the Egyptian border again. His comments came days after Palestinians from Gaza broke through the Egyptian Rafah border seeking temporary relief from the siege that the occupying forces have been imposing on the Gazans.

The brutality of Abu al-Ghait's comments amazes me. Instead of advocating breaking the siege, he threatens to break the legs of those under siege.

This same government is one that recently had to apply to Israel to seek permission to increase the number of border patrol on the Egyptian border. The application was refused!! Ironically, this initiative by the Egyptian government was in response to Israel's request to better control the borders to prevent the siege on Gaza being breached.

So in the midst of this humiliation and lack of control over his country’s border, Ahmad abu al-Ghait decides to attack an easy target. He announces the gruesome threat to cut the legs of anyone who violates the Egyptian border. It takes no genius to work out that he is referring to the Palestinians and not Israelis. Israelis, under the Camp David peace accord, are free to enter Sinai with no visas.

Mr Ahmad abu al-Ghait, it is time to make a stance of courage, a stance of humanity a stance of justice. Break the siege ….. don’t break the legs of those under siege.