The June 7, 2006 US air strike that killed Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi had a far more profound impact on the status and prospects for Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) than might have been appreciated at the time by many commentators. Zarqawi was a talented strategist and charismatic leader – as well as a criminal and psychopathic …

CHICAGO, IL – I miss speech team. Originally, I never desired to be a part of speech team, or Forensics as my friends used to call it. Whenever they told others they were part of Forensics, they would immediately follow it with, And no, we do not get together and dissect frogs. When I started …

Following the invasion of Afghanistan, al-Qaeda was in a very weak position. It was isolated, the Muslim Ummah was not supportive of its cause and mainstream Muslim clerics like Sheikh Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi, the Grand Imam of al-Azhar University in Cairo, urged Muslim youth not to heed calls from al-Qaeda to seek martyrdom in Afghanistan. …

Success in bringing about real Middle East peace will depend on more than marginalizing Hamas in Gaza and the West Bank and a political settlement with the Palestinian Authority alone. Crucially, other Arab nations in the region must also accept the future Palestine as a full-fledged neighboring state, as well as Palestinian nationals themselves as …

Mohamed is a cashier in one of Cairo s huge supermarkets, a branch of an international leading name in the world of grocery shops. His monthly wage of LE 650 (roughly $120) is earned for working 9 hours a day, 6 days a week. Mohamed tells me how he is picked up by the shop …

Metang-mentang punya sayapMalaikat begitu nyinyir dan cerewetIa berlagak sebagai makhluk baikTapi juga galak dan usilIa meniup-niupkan wahyuDan mautKe saban penjuru(Malaikat, Saeful Badar) Translation:Because they have the power of wingsAngels are difficult and exactingThey pretend to be good creaturesBut are also fierce and annoyingThey blow revelation and deathTo every corner(Malaikat, Saeful Badar) Recently, a controversy arose …

August 31 marked the 50th anniversary of Malaysia’s Merdeka: independence after more than 400 years of colonialism. Malaysia’s peaceful, non-violent struggle may not have received the attention that Mahatma Gandhi’s did in India, but what Malaysia has accomplished since then is impressive – and has much to teach the world, both about economics, and about …

America is currently transfixed with the problem it has created for itself in Iraq, but the presidential candidates are also beginning to ask what principles should guide United States foreign policy after Iraq. In my view, a focus on global public goods – things everyone can consume without diminishing their availability to others – could …

While Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert appear to believe that they are making political progress, they will need the encouragement and support of the United States to strengthen their respective internal political positions. The reality on both sides is increasingly restricting any chances of success. In Israel, the anticipation of …

Ehud Olmert and Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) – the former a head of state who enjoys little of the trust of his people, the latter the president of an entity much of whose authority, if he has any at all, devolves from the protection provided by the army defined by his people as the enemy …

President George W. Bush is not generally known for his firm grasp of history. But this has not stopped him from using history to justify his policies. In a recent speech to American war veterans in Kansas City, he defended his aim to “stay the course in Iraq by pointing out the consequences of the …

“Multiculturalism has become a suspect term almost everywhere in the world nowadays, and particularly in Europe. People say things like: “I used to be for openness and toleration of difference, but now I see where it’s leading. But where is it leading? Almost every reason for toleration’s apparent fall into disrepute concerns Islam. Even simple …

NEW YORK CITY: In June 2002, a Jewish-American comedian and a Palestinian-American comedian boarded a cross-town bus in Manhattan. By the time the bus had crossed from the East to the West Side, a comedy show called Standup for Peace was born. What began as a series of benefit shows for Seeds of Peace, the …

Israeli PM Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are both experienced politicians. At least for the moment, they seem perfectly capable of ignoring the internal political critics of their negotiations. And there is a lot to ignore. Indeed, one could argue that in their shared predicament the two leaders only realistic political alternative if …

I don’t know how we insist on having a free press but at the same time try to thwart the right of newspapers to spread baseless rumors right left and center. Officials bodies concerned with the press – the Higher Press Council, national television and state run newspapers – were enraged over a foolish rumor …

It is said that political power in Pakistan flows from the three A’s: Allah, the Army, and support from America. Of the three, it is the army leadership that has the clearest means of ridding the country of Pakistan’s president in uniform, Pervez Musharraf. And that’s the main reason any power-sharing deal with former Prime …

The specter of a nuclear Iran haunts Arabs and Israelis alike, but it is the United States and Israel that are the driving force behind efforts to curtail Iran’s nuclear ambitions. The America-Iran-Israel triangle is where the clue to the problem and its possible solution lie. Though Ayatollah Khomeini’s Islamic revolution in 1979 disrupted Israel’s …

New York – Political and religious leaders are finding help for their peacemaking efforts from an unlikely source: contemporary musicians. An inter-religious orchestra of Jewish, Muslim and Catholic musicians was recently formed in Argentina, the first of its kind in the country. It materialised as the result of the joint efforts of a Catholic priest, …

New York: There are 1.3 billion followers of the Prophet Mohamed; every fifth person prays facing Mecca; every fifth country celebrates Ramadan. In the near future Muslim populations will only continue to increase, as will the importance of Muslim-Western relations and economic exchanges. Rapid population growth among the poorer classes in some Muslim-majority countries and …

It is no secret that the PLO and the Palestinian Authority leadership are participating in the boycott of Gaza, in the hope that this will turn the population against Hamas. A recent declaration by President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) gives an idea about the general drift. Local newspapers quoted him as saying that he is …

The Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI) hosted the International Khilafah Conference last month. Since this event, Indonesian mass media has been discussing the pros and cons of implementing a caliphate system in Indonesia which involves the formal application of sharia (Islamic law) as the legal code for the ummah (Muslim community), under a head of state, …

WASHINGTON – This past July, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates made an extraordinary joint visit to key Middle East countries. Focused on securing greater Arab support for Iraq and isolating Iran, the mid-summer trip put the spotlight on a new $20 billion military sales package to Saudi Arabia …

By abandoning many of the nuclear arms agreements negotiated in the last 50 years, the United States has been sending mixed signals to North Korea, Iran, and other nations with the technical knowledge to create nuclear weapons. Currently proposed agreements with India compound this quagmire and further undermine the global pact for peace represented by …

The main question that lies in the debate about Islamic parties and democracy in Indonesia is whether Islamic parties, with their seemingly minimal commitment to democracy, can contribute to the ongoing process of democratization. The written commitment of some Islamic parties to implement shari a might appear to support the idea that Islamic parties will …

Determination and sensitivity was the prevailing slogan in Israel during implementation of the disengagement plan in August 2005. It expressed the attitude demanded of Israel s security forces toward removal of the settlers from the Gaza Strip. In fact, it is a fair description of the dilemmas surrounding Gaza today, two years later. The Gaza …

It is now almost one year since the European Union committed to stabilize Lebanon following last summer’s war. With its decision to send thousands of soldiers to Lebanon to implement United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, the EU took its boldest step yet in creating a common foreign and security policy. But it remains an …

The Women’s Union of Kurdistan sounded an alarm bell recently about the increase of suicide rate among Kurdish women due to forced marriages. Most of the cases reported were of women who spilled kerosene on their bodies and set fire to themselves to get rid of a life that they described as meaningless. Around 740 …

The Israeli, Palestinian and international boycott of Hamas and its government since the Palestinian elections in 2006 has backfired and is defeating its purpose. For a start, the boycott enabled the Hamas-led government to argue that the international community and Israel have double standards and are not honestly committed to the principles of democracy. It …

TEL AVIV: Once again, the US peacemaking efforts in the Middle East are focused on an international convention -which is to include, this time, only the region s moderate forces. Could such a convention lead to a breakthrough, or are the Middle East s nice guys going to grumble yet again in President Bush s …

NIS, Serbia – The influence of diet on health has been known since the Ancient Greeks. Our bodies simply cannot synthesize many essential compounds, so our health partly depends on what we eat and drink. Antioxidants, which are believed to help protect us against both cancer and heart disease, are one such element that must …