November 2019

Pakistan Supreme Court’s attempt to destabilize the government of Imran Khan - Take One
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: The Supreme Court of Pakistan Thursday (Nov 28) limited the three years extension in the term of Army Chief of Staff General (COAS) Qamar Javed Bajwa to six month. A three-member court bench led by the Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, who retires in less than one month, on Wednesday (Nov. 27) suspended Prime Minister Imran Khan’s August 2019 order to extend the term of General Bajwa to three years. Previously, the terms of several army chiefs, have been extended, but this is the first time the Supreme Court has suspended the move. Read More

200 million Indian Muslims alarmed at Modi’s proposal of nationwide citizen's list
Deutsche Welle: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pro-‘Hindu Rashtra’ or ‘Hindu Nation’ has proposed creating a list of all people who legally fulfill Indian citizenship requirements. Opponents fear the list could be used to target minority groups particularly more than 200 million. Hindutva is a right-wing idea based on the following beliefs: Hindutva ideology is seen as a euphemistic effort to conceal communal beliefs and practices. Many Indian social scientists have described the Hindutva movement as fascist in classical sense, in its ideology and class support specially targeting the concept of homogenised majority and cultural hegemony. Read More

India’s ruling Bhartiya Janta Party’s Image Is Sinking
Syed Rifaquat Ali:  BJP's poor show in Maharashtra and Haryana assembly elections recently is an indication that BJP's image is sinking. Congress relegated BJP to second place last year in the state assembly election in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhatisgarh. Read More

The End of the Rule of Law
By Chris Hedges: Bruce Fein, a former senior official in the Department of Justice and a constitutional scholar, has identified 12 impeachable offenses committed by Donald Trump. But, as he notes, many of these constitutional violations are not unique to the Trump administration. They have been normalized by Democratic and Republican administrations. These long-standing violations are, for this reason, ignored by Democratic Party leaders seeking to impeach the president. Read More

One Day We'll All Be Terrorists
By Chris Hedges: Our First Amendment rights have become a joke, that habeas corpus no longer exists and that we torture, not only in black sites such as those at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan or at Guantánamo Bay, but also at the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in Lower Manhattan. Read More

China's New Silk Road is creating a multipolar world, where all participants will benefit
By Peter Koenig: The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), also called the New Silk Road, is based on a 2,100-year-old trade route between the Middle East and Eastern Asia, called the Silk Road. It wound its ways across the huge landmass Eurasia to the most eastern parts of China. It favored trading, based on the Taoist philosophy of harmony and peaceful coexistence – trading in the original sense of the term, an exchange with “win-win” outcomes, both partners benefitting equally. Today, in the western world we have lost this concept. The terms of trade are imposed always by the ‘stronger’ partner, the west versus the poorer south – the south where most of the natural resources are lodged. Mother Earth’s assets have been and are coveted by the west – or north – for building and maintaining a lifestyle in luxury, abundance and waste. This trend has lasted for centuries of western colonialism: Exploitation, loot, esclavisation and rape of entire peoples of the Global South by the Global North, to use the current soothing World Bank lingo. Read More

Massive protest gathering of madrasa students fails to oust Imran Khan
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: Perhaps taking a leaf from Egyptian history of massive anti-government demonstrations in Cairo which culminated in the removal of long-time autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and in the removal of the first democratically elected President Mohammad Morsi in 2013, Maulana Fazalur Rehman, head of the Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam (JUI) attempted to dislodge the elected government of Imran Khan through massive protest sit-in. Read More

There is no such thing as a free press
By Paul Craig Roberts: Udo Ulfkotte’s amazing book, Gekaufte Journalisten (Bought Journalism) destroys the illusion/delusion that there is anywhere in the Western world an independent press. Ulfkotte describes in detail the cognitive appropriation of journalists by elites. Journalists serve as propagandists and public relations agents for intelligence agencies, businesses, lobbying organizations, politicians, and US foreign policy. The function of journalism is to deliver to the people the explanations that serve the interests of elites and Washington’s foreign policy. This message was so effectively delivered to the German people that readership of the main German newspapers collapsed. Read More

It doesn’t end with Babri Mosque: The dispute may casts a long shadow on the future of mosques in India
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: The Supreme Court judgment in the Babri Mosque dispute is likely to cast a shadow on the future of various mosques in the country contested by Hindu groups. The mosques are protected under the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, which states that a religious place will retain the same character it had on the day of India’s independence—Aug. 15, 1947. The law was enacted in 1991, at the height of the Ramjanmabhoomi protests, and did not extend to the contested Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.  However, Legal sanctity is not enough to protect religious structures in India, as the Babri Masjid’s demolition showed, according to Quartz India. Read More

The long arms of Hindutvadi supremacists are troubling
By Habib Siddiqui: How long are the arms of Hindutvadi fascists? Recently, messages urging British Hindus to vote against the British Labour Party in the general election are being circulated on WhatsApp, raising concerns about the chat app's role in spreading divisive political content.Sky News has seen more than 20 separate messages shared on WhatsApp using the app's "forward" function. Read More

India-Pak talk possible only when curfew is lifted In Kashmir: Imran Khan
Syed Rifaquat Ali: The Pakistan prime minister, Imran Khan, emphatically stated that dialogue between India and Pakistan on multiple issues, including Kashmir dispute, is possible only when India lifts curfew in Kashmir and release thousands of people who are in detention since August 5. Imran Khan was speaking during the opening ceremony of Kartarpur corridor which facilitates five thousand Sikhs from all over the world to pay obeisance each day at the Kartarpur Gurudwara where Baba Guru Nanak Dev died. Read More

First Muslim woman elected to Virginia Senate
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: Ghazala Hashmi on Tuesday (Nov. 5) became the first Muslim women elected to the Virginia Senate. Ghazala Hashmi, 55, upset the Republican incumbent Glen Sturtevant to represent a district based in Chesterfield County. Her victory helped to flip the Senate Tuesday night as Democrats took control of both chambers and consolidated power across state government for the first time in a generation. At least two Muslim men serve in the House. Other Muslim state legislators are men — Ibraheem Samirah and Sam Rasoul serve in the Virginia House of Delegates. Read More

26 American Muslim Candidates Win in Nov. 5 Elections
AMP Report: A new report Wednesday (Nov 6) has identified at least 34 Muslim candidates who won elections in local and statewide races across the country. More than 80 Muslims ran for office this year at the local and state level. 26 American Muslims were elected nationwide in Tuesday’s off-year election. Three civil advocacy groups, Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Jetpac, and MPower Change, have jointly prepared this report. Read More

Thousands march against Islamophobia in Paris
FRANCE 24: Thousands gathered Sunday afternoon in Paris for a march against Islamophobia that has markedly divided the French political class in recent days. “Yes to criticism of religion, no to hatred of believers”, “Stop Islamophobia” and “Co-existing is crucial,” read some of the signs held aloft at the demonstration, as marchers set off from the Gare du Nord train station in the French capital on a rainy Sunday afternoon. “Solidarity with veiled women”, some in the crowd chanted. French media on Sunday evening estimated the number of participants in Paris at around 13,500. Read More

Imams will have to prove they speak German language
Deutsche Welle: Religious leaders from other countries could soon be forced to prove they can speak German in order to stay in the country. Critics say such a law would worsen the country's shortage of Muslim clerics. The German Cabinet has introduced a draft of a bill that would require clergy from countries outside the EU to prove their knowledge of German in order to reside in the country.Although the law would apply to clerics from all religions, the coalition treaty signed by the German government specifically refers to Muslim preachers. Read More

Is Microsoft Funding Israeli Spying on Palestinians?
By Ramzy Baroud: Microsoft prides itself on being a leader in corporate social responsibility (CSR), emphasizing that “privacy (is) a fundamental human right.” In practice, however, Microsoft’s words are hardly in line with its action, at least not when its human rights maxims are applied to occupied and besieged Palestinians. Writing in the American news network NBC News on October 27, Olivia Solon reported on Microsoft funding of the Israeli firm, AnyVision, which uses facial recognition “to secretly watch West Bank Palestinians”. Through its venture capital arm M12, Microsoft has reportedly invested $78 million in the Israeli startup company that “uses facial recognition to surveil Palestinians throughout the West Bank, in spite of the tech giant’s public pledge to avoid using the technology if it encroaches on democratic freedoms”. Read More

The home schools teaching Kashmir’s unwritten history amid Indian lockdown
South China Morning News: Parents are hesitant about sending their children out as tensions remain high for the third consecutive month since the revocation was announced on August 5. In these tough times, volunteer schools such as the one operating in Ganai’s house offer a glimmer of hope to young students in the Kashmir valley eager to continue their studies. These volunteer schools offer a glimmer of hope to young people in the valley eager to continue their studies Among the topics discussed are why students cannot go to their regular schools – and why they haven’t been able to see their friends for months. Read More

Kashmir: Independence activists draw inspiration from German reunification
By Shamil Shams: Calls for a free Kashmir are becoming louder on both sides of the divided region. Can the German reunification model be applied to the India- and Pakistan-ruled Kashmirs? And what can Kashmiris learn from it? Kashmiri activists that seek independence from both India and Pakistan told DW they are hugely inspired by the movement that brought down the Berlin Wall and rejoined East and West Germany to form one German state. Germany was officially reunited on October 3, 1990, under the guidance of then-Chancellor Helmut Kohl, after more than four decades of Cold War division. The historic event came less than a year after the Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989. "We believe that the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent reunification of Germany are an inspiration not only to us but to all freedom movements in the world. Like the pre-reunification Germany, Jammu and Kashmir has also been split into two territories, and a wall (LoC) was erected to divide the same people," Toqeer Gilani, the president of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, told DW. He added that "if Germany can be reunited, so can Kashmir." Read More

Afghanistan: CIA-Backed Forces Commit Atrocities
HRW: United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)-backed Afghan forces have committed summary executions and other grave abuses without accountability, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. These strike forces have unlawfully killed civilians during night raids, forcibly disappeared detainees, and attacked healthcare facilities for allegedly treating insurgent fighters. Civilian casualties from these raids and air operations have dramatically increased in the last two years. The 53-page report, “‘They’ve Shot Many Like This’: Abusive Night Raids by CIA-Backed Afghan Strike Forces,” documents 14 cases from late 2017 to mid-2019 in which CIA-backed Afghan strike forces committed serious abuses, some amounting to war crimes. The US should work with the Afghan government to immediately disband and disarm all paramilitary forces that operate outside the ordinary military chain of command and cooperate with independent investigations of all allegations of war crimes and other human rights abuses. Read More

China’s forced assimilation of Uyghurs is repugnant and dehumanizing
By Dr. Habib Siddiqui:  That is the sad reality of our time when money is corrupting everything it’s touching. Standing for truth, justice, rights and human decency are becoming a casualty! And Xi’s Han Chinese – aspiring to claim the number one spot in the race for superpower –are doing today what the USA used to do decades ago: buying influence. The UN is proving to be a dysfunctional theater that is at odds with its founding principles where bullying and buying influence by any means possible are bankrupting our very humanity or whatever little is left of it. Shame on the group of 54 for endorsing Nazi-type crimes of Han supremacists! Read More

China denounces latest Indian move in disputed Jammu & Kashmir
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: China has deplored latest move of the extreme rightist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to declare Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh as Indian Union territories. The Indian government has announced that from Wednesday (Oct 30) midnight the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir as well as Ladakh will become Indian territories. “The Indian government officially announced the establishment of so-called Jammu and Kashmir union territory and Ladakh union territory which included some of China’s territory into its administrative jurisdiction,” the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Geng Shuang said Thursday. Read More

Kashmir Is Burning
By Syed Rifaqat Ali: Darkness descended on Kashmir when a Presidential decree was issued on August 5 revoking Article 370 of India's constitution that guaranteed special rights to the Muslim-majority State, including the right to its own constitution and autonomy to make laws on all matters except defense, communications and foreign affairs. Today the situation in Kashmir is devastating: militants have multiplied, terrorism abounds, clashes between the troops and people is quotidian, people are dying everyday, grenades galore, schools are either closed or functioning in a slip-shod way, shops are closed, thousands of people are still under detention, all the three former chief ministers of Kashmir are in detention, Indian parliamentarians are not allowed to visit Kashmir. Read More

Micro financing to help end poverty in Pakistan
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: Karachi-based Human Empowerment and Welfare Trust (HEWT) held a gathering of its supporters in the Bay Area where the HEWT founder Zulki Khan gave a presentation about the successful work of the Trust. The event was held at the Chandni Restaurant, Fremont/Newark CA on October 29, 2019. Maryam Turab was organizer of the event. The HEWT was launched in 2012 under the motto: Let”s end poverty – one by one by empowering poor people through small business loans or microfinance. Read More

 

 

 The Journal of America Team:

 Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali

Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott

Special Correspondent
Maryam Turab
 

 

Your donation 
is tax deductable.

HEADLINES