About this blog

In recent times a plethora of misconceptions, misrepresentation and myths have been forged about Islam
and Muslims. Many western influentials from politicians, policymakers to judges have taken it upon
themselves to undermine the Islamic beliefs, values and rules so to make it palatable to their
egotistic minds and the secular liberal thoughts.

This blog is dedicated:-

1. To argue the point for Islam in its belief and systems and to refute the misconceptions.
2. To expose the weakness and contradictions of all forms of secularism.

5 Mar 2011

Quick view on some News


World Food Prices Rise to Record on Dairy, Grains, UN Says

World food prices climbed to a record in February on surging dairy, grain and meat costs, the United Nations said. An index of 55 food commodities rose 2.2 percent to 236 points from 230.7 in January, the eighth straight gain, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization said on its website today.Rising food costs helped to fuel social unrest and riots in North Africa and the Middle East that toppled presidents in Tunisia and Egypt this year. Prices surged globally as a drought in Russia prompted the country to ban grain exports last year and adverse weather threatened crops in nations from wheat exporter Canada to soybean producer Brazil. “Unexpected oil-price spikes could further exacerbate an already precarious situation in food markets,” David Hallam, the Rome-based FAO’s director of trade and markets, said in a statement. “This adds even more uncertainty concerning the price outlook.” Global food prices probably will rise in the first half of this century because of an expanding population and higher incomes, slower crop-yield growth and the effect of climate change, Ross Garnaut, the Australian government’s climate-change adviser, said yesterday.

Libya: West mulls military intervention to remove their puppet from power

US officials have said that a no-fly zone is one option to push Muammar Gaddafi from power and prevent bloodshed in Libya, but it’s also dangerous for both sides. Foreign experts say that instituting one would raise geopolitical stakes, as no matter who crosses into the airspace, they would be shot at. A United National Security Council member told CNN that there hasn’t been a formal discussion on the no-fly zone option, but there have been informal talks outside of meetings. NATO is conducting an informal plan for such a case, they noted. If the council finds evidence that Gaddafi is using air forces to bomb or kill civilians, fly in mercenaries or hinder humanitarian assistance, they will be prepared to consider the option, the source added. On Wednesday, Robert Gates, the US secretary of defense, warned Congress than a no-fly zone will have to start with an attack on the country’s anti-aircraft capability. He and joint chiefs chairman Adm. Mike Mullen said on Tuesday that they don’t have any confirmation of reports that aircraft controlled by Gaddafi are firing at citizens. However, journalists have reported seeing aircraft drop bombs on civilians. US officials say all diplomatic and military options are open, but Mullen and Gates say that pursuing a forced grounding of aircraft in Libya is risky and complicated. Another diplomat also said that implementing a no-fly zone would be very difficult too, as they would need hundreds of planes and airports. This is an act of war, the insider added, and there would be consequences.

GCC rulers advocate plan to buy off their citizens


On Wednesday Bloomberg reported that states of the Gulf Cooperation Council were working on starting a Marshall-style plan to support Bahrain and Oman, which are facing instability, Al-Qabas reported, without saying where it got the information. The six members of the GCC are currently holding diplomatic talks on the matter, which may lead to a summit, the newspaper said. The plan aims to raise Omanis’ and Bahrainis’ living conditions, improve their economic and social conditions, create job opportunities for the unemployed and provide homes for the homeless, according to Al-Qabas.

Iran contacting Arab opposition movements: Clinton

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that Iran is directly or indirectly communicating with opposition groups in Egypt, Bahrain and Yemen in a bid to shape events there. It was the first time that Clinton detailed alleged efforts by Iran to meddle in the three-month wave of Arab revolts that has toppled presidents in Tunisia and Egypt, convulsed Libya and shaken Yemen, Bahrain and Oman."They are doing everything they can to influence the outcomes in these places," Clinton told the Senate Appropriations Committee."They are using Hezbollah... to communicate with counterparts... in (the Palestinian movement) Hamas who then in turn communicate with counterparts in Egypt," the chief US diplomat said."We know that they are reaching out to the opposition in Bahrain. We know that the Iranians are very much involved in the opposition movements in Yemen," she said. "So either directly or through proxies, they are constantly trying to influence events. They have a very active diplomatic foreign policy outreach," she added. In a bid to counteract the Iranian moves, she said, the United States is making diplomatic and other contacts of its own with opposition groups across the Middle East and North Africa. Clinton said it was a delicate task."Most people want us to be helpful but they don't want us to be taking a leading role, and so how we deliver on the aid they're seeking without looking as though we're trying to take over their revolution is our challenge," she said. "But it is also a challenge for the Iranians. They don't have a lot of friends, but they're trying to curry more friends," Clinton said.

UK MPs doubtful about success in Afghanistan


The military surge in Afghanistan is in danger of derailing moves to ensure a peaceful political solution to the crisis, an all-party group of MPs warns in a critical report published today. In a sign that the political consensus in Britain in favour of the US-led operation in Afghanistan is breaking down, the Foreign Affairs Select Committee question David Cameron's approach and express fears that the 10-year military campaign could end in failure. The MPs say it must be accompanied by a "political surge" in which the US holds talks with Taliban leaders. They also cast doubt on the official justification for the presence of British troops in the country, saying it is not clear they help to prevent terrorist attacks in the UK because al-Qa'ida has been weakened. The report could mark a turning point in the debate on Afghanistan. Although a growing number of UK politicians question in private whether the war is winnable, most have been reluctant to go public because they do not want to undermine British forces. The report will make uncomfortable reading for Mr Cameron. The MPs say the security rationale behind his announcement of a 2015 deadline for the unconditional withdrawal of UK combat forces remains unclear and warn of "potential risks." And they criticise as " inappropriate and unhelpful" his public rebuke to Pakistan for its record on counter-terrorism during his visit to India last year.

Pakistan: CIA man has no immunity

A Pakistani court has said a CIA contractor facing trial over the fatal shooting of two men does not have diplomatic immunity. The court in the eastern city of Lahore also adjourned hearing of the case where Raymond Davis, 36, is being tried until March 8.Thursday's decision is at least a temporary blow to the US, which insists Davis was considered a diplomat and was acting in self-defence against the dead men, whom he called robbers. The US had retained a retired judge, Zahid Hussain Bokhari, who is also a former government prosecutor, to help with the Davis case. The issue of immunity is also being considered by the Lahore high court, which could override the trial court's decision. Asad Manzoor Butt, a lawyer for the families of the two men, said: "The court adjourned the hearing until March 8 because Mr Bokhari [the retired judge] said he needs time to complete papers for the case."The case has further inflamed anti-American sentiment in Pakistan and is testing the

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What they said...

“Islam represented the greatest military power on earth…It was the foremost economic power in the world…It had achieved the highest level so far in human history, in the arts and sciences of civilization...Islam in contrast created a world civilization, poly-ethnic, multiracial, international, one might even say intercontinental.”





[Bernard Lewis, Professor of Near Eastern Studies, Orientalist and Historian, 2001]





"There was once a civilization that was the greatest in the world. It was able to create a continental super-state that stretched from ocean to ocean, and from northern climes to tropics and deserts…the civilization I'm talking about was the Islamic world from the year 800 to 1600… Although we are often unaware of our indebtedness to this other civilization, its gifts are very much a part of our heritage"





[Carly Fiorina, ex-CEO of Hewlett-Packard, 2001]





"For the first three centuries of its existence (circ. A.D 650-1000) the realm of Islam was the most civilized and progressive portion of the world. Studded with splendid cities, gracious mosques and quiet universities where the wisdom of the ancient world was preserved and appreciated, the Moslem world offered a striking contrast to the Christian West, then sunk in the night of the Dark Ages."





[Lothrop Stoddard, Ph.D (Harvard), American political theorist and historian, 1932]





"Medieval Islam was technologically advanced and open to innovation. It achieved far higher literacy rates than in contemporary Europe;it assimilated the legacy of classical Greek civilization to such a degree that many classical books are now known to us only through Arabic copies. It invented windmills ,trigonometry, lateen sails and made major advances in metallurgy, mechanical and chemical engineering and irrigation methods. In the middle-ages the flow of technology was overwhelmingly from Islam to Europe rather from Europe to Islam. Only after the 1500's did the net direction of flow begin to reverse."





[Jared Diamond, UCLA sociologist and Author, 1997]



"No other society has such a record of success in uniting in an equality of status, of opportunity and endeavour so many and so varied races of mankind. The great Muslim communities of Africa, India and Indonesia, perhaps also the small community in Japan, show that Islam has still the power to reconcile apparently irreconcilable elements of race and tradition. If ever the opposition of the great societies of the East and west is to be replaced by cooperation, the mediation of Islam is an indispensable condition."





[Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb, Professor at Harvard University, 1932]





“The Muhammadan Law which is binding on all -- from the crowned head to the meanest subject is a law interwoven with a system of the wisest, the most learned and the most enlightened jurisprudence that ever existed in the world.”





[Edmund Burke, British Statesman and Philosopher, 1789]





"The Exile here is not like in our homeland. The Turks hold respectable Jews in esteem. Here and in Alexandria, Egypt, Jews are the chief officers and administrators of the customs, and the king’s revenues. No injuries are perpetuated against them in all the empire. Only this year, in consequence of the extraordinary expenditure caused by the war against Shah Tahmsap al-Sufi, were the Jews required to make advances of loans to the princes."





[David dei Rossi, Jewish Traveller 17CE, quoted by Norman A. Stillman, The Jews of Arab Lands]





"The notable religious tolerance towards Christians and Jew under Muslim rule had given way to the uncompromising zealotry of Spanish Inquisition. Jews and Muslims thus fled Spain with large numbers of Jews immigrating to the Ottoman Empire which was known for its tolerance to the Jews."





[Graham Fuller, Author and former CIA, 1995]





“If there is much misunderstanding in the West about the nature of Islam, there is also much ignorance about the debt our own culture and civilization owe to the Islamic world. It is a failure, which stems, I think, from the straightjacket of history, which we have inherited. The medieval Islamic world, from central Asia to the shores of the Atlantic, was a world where scholars and men of learning flourished. But because we have tended to see Islam as the enemy of the West, as an alien culture, society, and systems of beliefs, we have tended to ignore or erase its great relevance to our own history”





[Charles Philip Arthur George, HRH The Prince of Wales, 1993]





"...Not being subject to the Sharia, Jews and Christians were free to go to their own religious authorities for adjudication of disputes; but in many cases they went instead to the [Muslim] Qadi"





[Richard W. Bulliet, Professor of History and Author, 2004]





"Here in the land of the Turks we have nothing to complain of. We possess great fortunes; much gold and silver are in our hands. We are not oppressed by heavy taxes and our commerce is free and unhindered. Rich are the fruits of the earth. Everything is cheap and each one of us lives in freedom. Here a Jew is not compelled to wear a yellow star as a badge of shame as is the case in Germany where even wealth and great fortune is a curse for a Jew because he therewith arouses jealousy among the Christians and they devise all kinds of slander against him to rob him of his gold. Arise my brethren, gird up your loins, collect up your forces and come to us."





[In his book 'Constantinople', Philip Mansel quotes a rabbi in Turkey writing to his brethren in Europe where they were facing increasing persecution after 1453]





"Praise be to the beneficent God for his mercy towards me! Kings of the earth, to whom his [the Caliph’s] magnificence and power are known, bring gifts to him, conciliating his favour by costly presents, such as the king of the Germans, the king of the Gebalim, the king of Constantinople, and others. All their gifts pass through my hands, and I am charged with making gifts in return. (Let my lips express praise to the God in heaven who so far extends his loving kindness towards me without any merit of my own, but in the fullness of his mercies.) I always ask the ambassadors of these monarchs about our brethren the Jews, the remnant of the captivity, whether they have heard anything concerning the deliverance of those who have pined in bondage and had found no rest."





[Hasdai Ibn Shaprut (915-990 CE) Jewish physician, chief minister of Islamic Caliphate in Cordova, 'The Jewish Caravan']





"In Baghdad there are about forty thousand Jews, and they dwell in security, prosperity, and honour under the great Caliph [al-Mustanjid, 1160-70 CE], and amongst them are great sages, the Heads of the Academies engaged in the study of the Law…’"





[Benjamin of Tudela, Rabbi in Baghdad in the year 1168 CE, 'The Jew in the Medieval World']





"Those Eastern thinkers of the ninth century laid down, on the basis of their theology, the principle of the Rights of Man, in those very terms, comprehending the rights of individual liberty, and of inviolability of person and property; described the supreme power in Islam, or Califate, as based on a contract, implying conditions of capacity and performance, and subject to cancellation if the conditions under the contract were not fulfilled; elaborated a Law of War of which the humane, chivalrous prescriptions would have put to the blush certain belligerents in the Great War; expounded a doctrine of toleration of non-Moslem creeds so liberal that our West had to wait a thousand years before seeing equivalent principles adopted.





[Leon Ostorog, French Jurist]





"The debt of our science to that of the Arabs does not consist in startling discoveries or revolutionary theories; science owes a great deal more to Arab culture, it owes its existence"





[Robert Briffault, Novelist and Historian, 1928]





"The only effective link between the old and the new science is afforded by the Arabs. The dark ages come as an utter gap in the scientific history of Europe, and for more than a thousand years there was not a scientific man of note except in Arabia"





[Oliver Joseph Lodge, Writer and Professor of Physics, 1893]





“Thus, when Muslims crossed the straits of Gibraltar from North Africa in 711 and invaded the Iberian Peninsula, Jews welcomed them as liberators from Christian Persecution.”





[Zion Zohar, Jewish scholar at Florida International University, 2005]







“Throughout much of the period in question, Arabic served as the global language of scholarship, and learned men of all stripes could travel widely and hold serious and nuanced discussions in this lingua franca. Medieval Western scholars who wanted access to the latest findings also needed to master the Arabic Tongue or work from translations by those who had done so.”





[Jonathan Lyons, Author, Writer and Lecturer, 2009]