October 2020
The Politics of anti-Islam Caricatures
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: Beheading of the French teacher Samuel Paty has once again sparked controversy over Charlie Hebdo’s anti-Islam caricatures as the French President Emmanuel Macron exploited the tragedy to pushed his long-sought agenda against Islam and Muslims. Days before Paty’s killing, on October 2, Macron had made a controversial speech. He declared that “Islam is a religion that is in crisis today all over the world.” In response to Macron's comments, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday said he believes his French counterpart "needs mental treatment." "What is Macron's problem with Islam? What is his problem with Muslims?" Erdogan added. France recalled its ambassador to Turkey on Sunday in response to Erdogan's comments. Read More
With BECA India becomes a ‘junior military ally of the US’
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: The United States has finally convinced India to sign their third and final foundational agreement called BECA (Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geospatial Cooperation), which is being touted as the pact that will deepen the “cooperation” between the armed forces of the two countries. The agreement was signed on Tuesday during talks in New Delhi between US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and India’s External Affairs minister S. Jaishankar, and between US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and India’s Defense minister Rajnath Singh. Pravin Sawhney, a former Indian Army official and author of several books on modern warfare, says with BECA signing, India becomes de facto junior military partner of America. “Unlike other military allies, America need not have any liability or responsibility for Indian wars.” He believes that BECA will not help India’s defense at all. Read More
Putin calls for peace talks on Nagorno-Karabakh involving Turkey
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: Russian President Vladimir Putin said Turkey should be among countries involved in talks to end fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh, as Azerbaijan and Armenia again accused each other on Thursday of shelling civilians in and around the mountain enclave, Reuters reported Thursday. Putin told an online Russian investment forum Thursday that "many countries, including Turkey and a host of European states" should work together to find consensus. Turkey, an ally of Azerbaijan, has demanded a greater say in talks. "The first stage is to stop the fighting, stop the killing," said Putin. Read More
The US-mediated ceasefire also fails to hold in Nagorno-Karabakh fighting
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: Armenia and Azerbaijan on Monday accused each other of violating a new cease-fire announced the day before in a bid to halt the fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh that has killed hundreds, possibly thousands, in just four weeks, the Associated Press reported from Yevran. The truce that took effect Monday morning was agreed upon on Sunday after talks facilitated by the United States. It was a third attempt to establish a lasting cease-fire in the flare-up of a decades-old conflict and, just like the previous two, it was immediately challenged by claims of violation from both sides, the AP said. Read More
The Muslim World denounces French President’s remarks against Islam, its prophet
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: The General Secretariat of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has condemned continued attacks and incitement against Muslim sentiment and insults of Prophet Muhammad, Anadolu Agency (AA) reported. A statement by the 57-member pan-Islamic OIC criticized the “discourse from certain French politicians, which it deems to be harmful to the Muslim-French relations, hate-mongering and only serving partisan political interests.” Read More
Sudanese political parties reject normalization of relations with Israel
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: Sudanese political parties have rejected the government’s decision to normalize relations with Israel, with officials saying they will form an opposition front against the agreement, Al Jazeera reported Saturday. Dozens of Sudanese people demonstrated in the capital Khartoum on Friday following the joint statement from Israel, Sudan and the United States on Friday saying that the two countries agreed to “end the state of belligerence between their nations”. Read More
Sudan becomes 3rd Arab country to normalize relations with Israel
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: Israel and Sudan agreed on Friday to normalize relations in a deal brokered with the help of the United States, making Sudan the third Arab country to set aside hostilities with Israel in the past two months, Anadolu News Agency reported. U.S. President Donald Trump's aides have been pressing Sudan to take steps toward normalizing relations with Israel, following similar U.S.-brokered moves in recent weeks by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain. Read More
What is behind rumors about bitter Pakistan-Saudi Arabia relations?
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: Pakistan Foreign Office Thursday denied a social media report on Saudi Arabia's role in the assessment of Pakistan’s Financial Action Task Force (FATF) action plan. “Pakistan and Saudi Arabia enjoy strong fraternal ties and the two countries have always cooperated with each other on all matters of bilateral, regional and international importance,” said the FO spokesperson. Read More
Russia hosts new round of talks on Nagorno-Karabakh
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held two separate meetings with his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts in Moscow on Wednesday to discuss the implementation of a cease-fire in the Upper Karabakh region, Anadolu News Agency reported. Read More
56 US Congressmen urge Egyptian president to release political activists
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: More than 50 US Congressmen have urged Egyptian President Abdel Fattah A-Sisi to release activists, journalists, lawyers, and prisoners of conscience warning that they risk death in custody due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The warning comes two weeks before US elections in which President Donald Trump, who has formed a close alliance with Al-Sisi, is trailing in polls to Democrat Joe Biden. In a letter released on Monday, 56 Congressional Democrats (and one independent) urged Al-Sisi, a US Client, to release those "unjustly detained for exercising their fundamental human rights". The letter is spearheaded by three Democratic lawmakers: Ro Khanna, Jim McGovern, and Sherrod Brown. Read More
Saudi Foreign Minister hints at normalization of ties with Israel
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: Saudi foreign minister, Faisal bin Farhan, says normalization with Israel will eventually take place within the framework of a Palestinian-Israeli peace plan, the Anadolu news agency reported Friday. In an online interview with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Faisal bin Farhan said normalization with Israel was included in the Saudi peace plan proposal in 1981. The Saudi Foreign Minister was visiting Washington to hold talks with the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Read More
Militants’ attack oil company convoy in Balochistan kills Pakistani soldiers
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: At least 20 people, including 13 soldiers, were killed Thursday in two separate terrorist attacks in Pakistan’s restive province Balochistan and in North Waziristan tribal district. Six soldiers, including an officer, were killed in an improvised explosive device (IED) attack on an army convoy near Razmak in North Waziristan, Army’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said. Seven soldiers of Frontier Constabulary and seven private security guards were killed as an encounter took place between security forces and large number of terrorists on the Coastal Highway near Ormara when a convoy of Oil Compay was being escorted from Gwadar to Karachi, the ISPR said. Read More
Kashmiris seek China’s help to restore special status of Kashmir
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: Former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir and National Congress president Farooq Abdullah has expressed hope that special status of Kashmir will be restored with the help of China. In an interview with India Today on Sunday, Abdullah said that the Modi government’s move to abrogate Article 370 which granted special status to the state of Jammu & Kashmir, had angered China and the recent standoff at Line of Actual Control (LAC) is a result of that. Read More
India accuses China and Pakistan of creating border dispute under a mission
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said on Monday that after Pakistan, China is also creating a dispute at the border "as if it was part of a mission". The minister’s comments came at a time when tensions are simmering along the Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan and the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China, where Indian Army and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have been locked in a border row for over five months and efforts to reduce friction have made no headway. Read More
Macron’s Mission to “Liberate” Islam: A Long Continuing French Colonial Enterprise?
By Muhammad Mahmood: Macron knows that support for him has been withering. His desperate bid to shore up popularity by hanging on to rhetoric that does more harm than good to him individually and Fance as a whole that a leading Muslim scholar who felt sorry for Macron, summed up the situation this way “ We pity a ruler who is still living in crisis and the specter of religious wars of the middle ages”. Read More
Amid violation accusations Nagorno-Karabakh truce under severe strain
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: A Russian-brokered humanitarian ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh was under severe strain on Sunday a day after it was agreed, with Azerbaijan and Armenia accusing each other of serious violations and crimes against civilians, Reuters reported. The ceasefire, clinched after marathon talks in Moscow advocated by President Vladimir Putin, was meant to halt fighting to allow ethnic Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh and Azeri forces to swap prisoners and war dead. Read More
Trump: All American troops should be out of Afghanistan by Christmas
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: President Trump tweeted late Wednesday that all American troops should be out of Afghanistan by Christmas, a new goal post for ending the long-running conflict that caught his own Pentagon flat-footed, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. “We should have the small remaining number of our BRAVE Men and Women serving in Afghanistan home by Christmas!” Mr. Trump tweeted on the 19th anniversary of the insertion of American troops into Afghanistan in 2001. Read More
Where goest America - Presidential election: a moral choice
By Scott Arthur: I view the November 3, Presidential election, as a watershed moment for Americans, as it will decide whether or not we retain our democratic ethos/institutions , or else slip into the clutches of authoritarianism in which a single family headed by a king/capo rules rather than the people. Read More
71 Percent American Muslim Voters Support Joe Biden
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: 71 percent of Muslim voters are likely to vote for the Democratic Presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden, according to a survey of American Muslim voters released Monday by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Eighteen percent say they would vote to re-elect President Donald Trump, the survey indicated. However, the percentage of registered Muslim voters who most closely identify with the Democratic Party decreased from CAIR’s previous poll in 2018, from 78 percent to 66 percent. Conversely, Muslim support for the Republican Party increased to 19 percent compared to 17 percent in a similar CAIR poll from 2018. Read More
Expert warns: India v Pakistan war is more likely than India-China
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: Daniel Markey, a senior research professor in international relations at John Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, has warned war between India and Pakistan is more likely than an outbreak with China. “A true war scenario between India and China, though is quite possible, is less likely than an India Pakistan one even now.” Read More
Armenia, Azerbaijan reject peace talks on Nagorno-Karabakh as fighting continues
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: Armenia and Azerbaijan vowed to keep fighting and rejected international calls for negotiations on Wednesday as clashes over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region raged for a fourth day. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Tuesday that the atmosphere was not right for talks with Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev has also rejected any possibility of talks with Armenia. Baku and Yerevan have ignored mounting international pressure for a ceasefire, as fears grow that the conflict could escalate into all-out war and draw in regional powers like Turkey and Russia. Read More
UN Security Council urges speedy halt to Nagorno-Karabakh fighting
as Armenia accuses Turkey of shooting down its fighter jet
By Abdus-Sattar Ghazali: The U.N. Security Council called on Armenia and Azerbaijan Tuesday to immediately halt fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh and urgently resume talks without preconditions. "The Security Council members voiced support for the call by the Secretary-General on the sides to immediately stop fighting, de-escalate tensions and return to meaningful negotiations without delay," UNSC chairman Abdou Abarry, representing Niger, said in a statement. Abarry added that the Council condemned the use of force and expressed concern about the clashes in the area. Read More
Armenia, Azerbaijan clash over Nagorno-Karabakh for a second day
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: Armenia and Azerbaijan fought over Nagorno-Karabakh for a second day Monday, with both sides blaming each other for resuming the attacks that reportedly killed and wounded dozens, according to the media reports. The heavy fighting broke out Sunday in Nagorno-Karabakh that lies within Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by the Armenian government since 1994. Read More
Fighting flares between Armenia and Azerbaijan over disputed Nagorno-Karabakh
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali:The worst clashes since 2016 have raised the specter of a new war between Azerbaijan and Armenia, which have been locked for decades in a territorial dispute over the Armenia-backed breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh. A major confrontation between Muslim Azerbaijan and Christian Armenia threatened to embroil regional players Russia and Turkey, according to Al Jazeera. Read More
Special CBI court acquits all 32 accused in Babri Mosque demolition case
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: Not surprisingly, the special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Lucknow on Wednesday acquitted all 32 accused in the Babri Masjid demolition case. The demolition of the 16th century mosque in 1992 sparked Hindu-Muslim violence leaving some 2,000 people dead. The CBI is an investigating agency which has filed a complaint against 49 people for demolishing the Babri Mosque. Of these 17 have died, the remaining 32 were still accused. Read More
Modern India On This Planet
Syed Rifaquat Ali: We, as Indians, are living in an Age of savage rule. Democracy has gone to the dogs.
Questioning the authority in power is labelled as crime. Press freedom has been brutally
crushed. Freedom of speech has been unprecedentedly throttled. Read More
Amnesty International stops operation in India, accusing Modi government of witch hunt
By Abdus-Sattar Ghazali: Amnesty International, which has been a watchdog of human rights in India, on Tuesday halted all its activities in India due to freezing of its accounts and said that it is being subjected to an "incessant witch-hunt" over unfounded and motivated allegations.In a statement released Tuesday Amnesty International India said: "The complete freezing of Amnesty International India's bank accounts by the Government of India which it came to know on 10 September 2020, brings all the work being done by the organization to a grinding halt. The organization has been compelled to let go of staff in India and pause all its ongoing campaign and research work." 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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