August 2019
Pakistan successfully tests night launch of surface to surface ballistic missile
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: Amid mounting tension over India’s annexation of Kashmir, Pakistan has successfully carried out the night training launch of a surface to surface ballistic missile. The missile "is capable of delivering multiple types of warheads up to 290 kilometres", said military media spokesperson Major General Asif Ghafoor via a tweet, which also included a video of the launch. Read More
Stratfor: Kashmir may provide spark for Pakistan-India nuclear war
By Abdus-Sattar Ghazali: The specter of nuclear war haunts tensions between India and Pakistan, and the disputed territory of Kashmir could provide the spark that lights South Asia's nuclear fuse, warns Strafor, a geopolitical intelligence think tank that provides strategic analysis and forecasting to individuals and organizations around the world. Read More
Israeli factor in the mounting India-Pakistan tension
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: India and Pakistan are once again on the verge of a full-scale war in the aftermath of India’s annexation of disputed Kashmir territory. It is an unimaginable scenario as the two South Asian neighbors possess high-tech nuclear arms. Political analyst Dr. Shahid Masood said on Saturday (August 17) as India and Pakistan are edging towards a military confrontation we don’t name another entity in the equation that is Israel which has strategic relations with India. “Israel has participated in India-Pakistan military confrontation in February this year,” he said. Read More
India may use nuclear option first to pre-empt attack of Pakistan
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: In an apparent shift in its ‘no first use of nuclear option’ doctrine, Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said Friday (August 16) that while India has strictly adhered to Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s doctrine of ‘No First Use’ (NFU) of nuclear weapons, “what happens in future depends on the circumstances”. In a visit to Pokhran in western India, the site of the 1998 nuclear tests, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh paid tribute to late former prime minister and revered leader of the ruling Hindu nationalists, Atal Behari Vajpayee, for making India into a nuclear power. Read More
Turkey to open new military base in Qatar in autumn
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: Turkey is expected to inaugurate a new military base in Qatar in autumn. The Turkish Hurriyet Daily News reported that the country had constructed a new facility adjacent to the Tariq Ibn Ziyad camp south of Doha, which was named the Qatar-Turkey Combined Joint Force Command in December 2017. “The military base in Qatar is getting bigger. A new base has been built near the Tariq ibn Ziyad military base. The grand base’s, in which a myriad of social facilities exist, construction is completed,” the report said. Read More
The Recent Crimes of the Supremacists in the USA and India
By Dr. Habib Siddiqui: Thanks to President Trump and his white supremacist and bigoted supporters, America is under attack by domestic terrorists. Americans are no longer safe in their places of worship, schools, workplaces, movie theaters and shopping centers. Thanks to popular Hindutvadi supremacist agenda, millions of Bengali-speaking Muslims of the Indian Administered state of Assam have recently been made stateless in their ancestral land. Much like the indigenous Rohingyas of Arakan (Rakhine) state of today’s Myanmar, they are falsely accused of intruding to Hindu India after 1971 when independent Bangladesh emerged. BJP’s solid reelection victory this spring (2019) gave it the power to bring about controversial and fundamental changes in Indian politics and justify them as a matter of national security and as a rectification of the “past mistakes” of the Indian National Congress. Thus, the latest government decision to abrogate the Article 370 of the Indian Constitution (which guaranteed autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir), and of Article 35A (which protected indigenous society from possible demographic transformation in the name of development, equality, and national unity) should not surprise anyone, except perhaps the timing. Read More
Kashmir and Palestine share the struggle for self determination against colonial occupation
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: Mondoweiss, a progressive Jewish media, Friday published a researched article by Zainab Ramahi, a graduate of UC Berkeley School of Law, comparing the struggle of the people of Kashmir and Palestine. Zainab Ramahi argues that reviewing the literature on the Indian Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), and its origins, it is not hard to draw the connection to Israel’s justification of the use of torture and indefinite detention against the Palestinian population by declaring the areas in which it is applied to be in a state of emergency, remaining so for decades. Read More
Situation Still Volatile in Kashmir
By Syed Rafaquat Ali: The grim situation in Kashmir after Articles 370 and 35A were revoked by the Bhartiya Janta Party government is coaxing the youth in Kashmir to turn violent and wean away from the national mainstream. The people in Kashmir never felt that they were part of India. About forty years back I was in Srinagar. I asked a Kashmiri about life in Kashmir. Before he gave the answer, he asked me: how is the weather in India. It was enough for me to draw the conclusion that the Kashmiris feel they are not in India. Read More
Will India’s move on Kashmir derail ties with China?
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: Shi Jiangtao, a former diplomat writing in the South China Morning Post, says a fresh row between Beijing and New Delhi over India’s decision to split the hotly contested region of Kashmir into two territories could cast fresh uncertainty over bilateral ties amid signs of growing strategic competition. Parts of Kashmir are claimed by the two regional giants as well as India’s arch-rival Pakistan, and the dispute is one of a number of border issues that have for decades dogged relations between Beijing and New Delhi, according to Shi Jiantao. Read More
Protest Demonstration in Washington
Muslim rights activists, including members of Pakistani-American community, held demonstrations outside the Indian Embassy in Washington to protest against the scrapping of special status to Jammu & Kashmir, The First Post of India reported Wednesday. Read More
Pakistan expels Indian envoy for revoking Kashmir’s special status
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: In worsening relations between the nuclear-armed neighbors in the aftermath of India’s move to strip Kashmir’s special status, Pakistan on Wednesday announced it was expelling the Indian ambassador and suspending bilateral trade. Read More
China opposes unilateral Indian move to modify Kashmir status as India also claims Pakistan administered Kashmir
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: China on Tuesday (August 6) expressed serious concerns over the current situation arising out of Indian decision to strip Kashmir of its special status. Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying said in a statement: “China is seriously concerned about the current situation in Jammu Kashmir. China’s position on the Kashmir issue is clear and consistent. It is also an international consensus that the Kashmir issue is an issue left from the past between India and Pakistan. The relevant sides need to exercise restraint and act prudently.” Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday asserted that Pakistan ‘occupied’ Kashmir (PoK) and Aksai Chin are part of Jammu and Kashmir and that Kashmir Valley is an integral part of the country. Read More
India revokes Kashmir’s special status as a prelude to change demography
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: Apparently taking que from Israeli policy to implant Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government Monday (August 5) revoked the special status of Jammu Kashmir under articles 35A and 370 of the constitution which forbid Indians from outside the region from buying land or permanently settling in the Muslim-majority territory. By repealing Article 370 of the constitution, people from the rest of India will now have the right to acquire property in Kashmir and settle there permanently. Article 35A of India's constitution permits the Kashmir legislature to define permanent residents of the region. The Article forbids Indians from outside the state from permanently settling, buying land, holding local government jobs or winning education scholarships in the region. The article also bars female residents of Kashmir from property rights in the event that they marry a person from outside the state. The provision also extends to such women's children. Kashmiris as well as critics of India’s Hindu nationalist-led government see the move as an attempt to dilute the demographics of Muslim-majority Kashmir with Hindu settlers. Read More
A tale of three shootings within one week in U.S.
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: Within just 13 hours apart, two mass shootings took place—in El Paso, Texas Saturday and in Dayton, Ohio, early Sunday—leaving a total of 29 dead and 53 injured. The two mass shootings came less than a week of shooting at the Garlic Festival, Gilroy California, killing three people while the shooter was also killed. Motives behind the Dayton, Ohio killer are not clear. However motives of El Paso shooter, Patrick Crusius, and Gilroy, Santino William Legan are known. Crusius posted a four-page manifesto on internet saying he was inspired by a manifesto written by the white supremacist, Brenton Tarrant, who murdered 51 worshippers at two mosques in New Zealand in March this year. Tellingly, the Gilroy shooter Legan just before the shooting urged his Instagram followers to read a 19th century book "Might is Right" which is popular with white supremacists on extremist websites. Read More
Sikhs in India under surveillance to suppress Khalistan movement
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: Indian government has empowered eight states, including Punjab and Delhi, with a “sizeable presence of Sikh population” to take action against Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) group which calls for a referendum in 2020 for an independent Khalistan state. US-based SFJ was banned on July 10, 2019 under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act by Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led cabinet committee on security "for openly espousing the cause of Khalistan." Read More
Grubby Politics In India
By Syed Rifaquat Ali: The politicians are responsible for the violence we are witnessing today the world over. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. India is the most befitting example of such horrendous scenario if the current political situation in the country is taken into account. Read More
California judge vacates conviction in 13-year-old Lodi terror case of Hamid Hayat
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: American Muslim community has welcomed a landmark ruling overturning the conviction and 24-year sentence of Hamid Hayat, a Lodi resident convicted in 2006 on terrorism-related charges. In a stunning decision on Tuesday (July 30), the Senior United States District Judge Garland Burrell Jr., who oversaw the trial and conviction of accused Lodi terror suspect Hamid Hayat 13 years ago has ordered the conviction and sentence vacated. Read More
Learning to learn
By Dr. Habib Siddiqui: Merriam-Websterdefines learning as: the act or experience of one that learns; knowledge or skill acquired by instruction or study; modification of a behavioral tendency by experience. Learning is either experienced or acquired by instruction or study. It is the process of acquiring or delivering information. Learning starts with inquiry, as so succinctly stated by Ali ibn Abi Talib (RA) who nearly 14 centuries ago said, 'He who asks learns.' Umar ibn Khattab (RA) said, "Half of one's learning lies in his asking questions.” Thus, learning is a choice that one has to make to be knowledgeable. Read More
Hindu extremist gang axing Muslim youth to death video goes viral on social media
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: A video is viral on social media these days showing an Hindu extremist gang axing and brutally murdering a Muslim youth apparently working in a field in Uttar Pardesh ruled by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Alarmingly, the video of the brutal murder of a Muslim youth came as a 15-year-old Muslim boy was set on fire on Sunday (July 28) by four people in Chandauli district (UP) when the boy refused to chant "Jai Shri Ram". He succumbed to his injuries on Tuesday. Khalid was brought to hospital with 60 %burn injuries on Sunday. Read More
World Bank asks Pakistan government: Reach out to opposition to pass legislation to implement IMF program
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: There are hardly two opinions that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Banks were implementing predatory economic policies of the West. The poor countries are now in the IMF and World Bank debt trap. The rise in debt has been swelled, with external sovereign loans to developing country governments more than doubling from $191 billion per year in 2008 to $424 billion in 2017. The Resident Representative of IMF in Islamabad, Teresa Daban Sanchez, says that government of Imran Khan possessed weak majority into the Parliament so it would have to take opposition into trust to pass the laws from the elected House. Read More
The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott
Special Correspondent
Maryam Turab
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