BaKhabar, May 2010, Page-9

better light a candle than curse the darkness

Views on News

- Anayatullah Niyazi

(anayatullah_niyazi@yahoo.co.in)

British Army uses mosques on UK firing range: The UK army was accused of gross insensitivity yesterday for putting up seven mosque-like structures on a firing range. Muslim leaders said the replicas were used as symbols of danger and reinforced negative stereotypes of Islam. The fake buildings - complete with green-domed roofs - were installed on the Black Beck range at Catterick Garrison in North Yorkshire. During training exercises, soldiers were instructed to fire at wooden targets mounted on rails which emerge from behind the 'mosques'. Last night, the British Ministry of Defence apologised and said it had 'no intention of offending religious sensibilities'. But a spokesman said it was crucial that the 'generic Eastern buildings' were put up to replicate conditions in Afghanistan ahead of future deployments.

Turkish PM Erdogan says Israel is threat to peace: This week Turkey's Prime Minister has described Israel as the main threat to peace in the Middle East. Recep Tayyip Erdogan was speaking during a visit to Paris. Relations between the two countries have been worsening since the Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip in 2009, made worse by a recent diplomatic row. Mr Erdogan was speaking to journalists before meeting the French President Nicolas Sarkozy. "It is Israel that is the main threat to regional peace," he said. "If a country uses disproportionate force, in Palestine, in Gaza, uses phosphorus bombs we are not going to say 'well done.'" Mr Netanyahu said he regretted the Turkish prime minister's comments. "We are interested in good relations with Turkey and regret that Mr Erdogan chooses time after time to attack Israel," he told reporters in Israel. The countries have been allies in the past. But earlier this week, the Turkish ambassador of Israel was recalled by Ankara, weeks after being humiliated in public by the Israeli deputy foreign minister. Ambassador Oguz Celikkol was called into the Israeli foreign ministry in January and rebuked over a Turkish television series that showed Israeli intelligence agents kidnapping children. Mr Celikkol was made to sit on a low chair while being lectured by Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon. Mr Ayalon later apologised for the rebuke. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has compared Mr Erdogan to Presidents Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi.

King Faisal Masjid, Islamabad, Pakistan

Zardari stripped of constitutional powers:
The parliament of Pakistan has voted unanimously in favour of measures which limit key presidential powers. The measures transfer certain powers from the office of the president to the prime minister and take away his power to dismiss elected governments. Supporters said that the legislation will strengthen parliamentary democracy, weakened by periods of military rule. The bill was approved unanimously by Pakistan's National Assembly. It now needs approval from the upper house. The constitution as it stands confers vast powers on the president, including the power to appoint military chiefs. That will end, as will the president's ability to dismiss all or any of the central or provincial governments in Pakistan.

Parliament of Pakistan steals Zardari's power away

Parliament of Pakistan steals Zardari's power away

Belgium to ban the burqa:
The draft legislation in Belgium, aimed at clamping down on Islamic extremism, forbids anyone from hiding their faces in public. And those who break the law will be fined or sent to prison for up to a week if the legislation is approved. A committee of MPs voted unanimously yesterday to put the hard-line bill to a full parliamentary vote on 22 April. If passed, Belgium will become the first country in Europe to impose a complete ban on the wearing of full-face veils. The law has cross-party support and is likely to be voted through. "We cannot allow someone to claim the right to look at others without being seen," said liberal MP Daniel Bacquelaine, who proposed the bill. "It is necessary that the law forbids the wearing of clothes that totally mask and encloses an individual." Mr Bacquelaine estimated that a few hundred women in Belgium wore facial veils, adding that it was a rising trend. Belgium's Muslim population stands at about 600,000, or 6 % of the total. More than one-third of those are Moroccans or of Moroccan descent. The second largest Muslim ethnic group is made up of Turks.

European Islamophobia spreads to Poland:
In a sight familiar in some west European countries but new to Poland, dozens of protesters demonstrated in a Warsaw suburb last weekend, against the construction of a mosque. Plans by Poland's tiny Muslim community to build a place of worship and an Islamic cultural centre face opposition in a sign that concerns about Islam may be spreading eastwards to the staunchly Catholic European Union member. Between 15,000 and 30,000 Muslims, many of them immigrants from Chechnya, live in Poland -- the biggest ex-communist EU state where more than 90 percent of the 38-million population declare themselves Catholics. A telephone survey conducted on March 25 among 500 Poles showed 48 percent opposed construction of a mosque with a minaret in their neighborhood, while 42 had nothing against it. "This fear comes from a lack of knowledge... The average citizen knows a Muslim was behind the World Trade Centre attacks but doesn't follow the differences within Islam. Poles have simplistic ideas about Islam as they lack their own experience with Muslims", said Agata Skoworn-Nalborczyk, an Islam specialist at the Warsaw University.

Sudanese Flag

America intervenes to stage-manage Sudan's election:
The US special envoy for Sudan, Scott Gration, held talks in Khartoum on Thursday with opposition leaders in a bid to rescue this month's Sudanese elections. Gration, who flew in on Wednesday according to diplomatic sources, met separately with Umma party members, Islamist leader Hassan al-Turabi and Democratic Unionist Party head Mohammed Osman al-Mirghani. The mission comes a day after presidential hopeful Yassir Arman pulled out of April 11-13 vote for fear of fraud, casting doubt on the electoral process and clearing the way for a likely first-round win by President Omar al-Beshir. The move from Arman, candidate of the former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement from the south of the country, came after Beshir ruled out deferring the first multi-party Sudanese polls in 24 years.Already before Arman's pullout, the United States, Britain -- Sudan's former colonial power -- and Norway, a main provider of aid, on Wednesday, expressed concern over the elections. "We urge all parties in Sudan to work urgently to ensure that elections can proceed peacefully and credibly in April," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Store said."We are deeply concerned by reports of continued administrative and logistical challenges, as well as restrictions on political freedoms," they said in a joint statement.

Pak-US ‘slave' dialogue was a good step forward : Wall Street Journal:
The United States must deliver what Pakistan needs rapidly, and without too much intrusive monitoring of its strategic nuclear assets, the US newspaper ‘the Wall Street Journal' writes while commenting on last week's Pakistan-US strategic dialogue held in Washington. Terming the strategic dialogue a good step forward, it said, the US must also give the Pakistan military more usable weapons to fight its militancy. The newspaper said that US must use its influence on India to give Pakistan breathing room, so it can concentrate on the war within rather than stay ready for action on two fronts, one against India and the other on the Afghan border. Opening US markets to Pakistani textiles and other goods will also help in the near term. In the long run, Pakistan needs help to move up the economic value chain and into manufacturing goods. With its growing population, it needs GDP growth of 6 percent or more each year to keep improving the lives of its 175 million inhabitants, half of whom are below 18 years of age. That growth depends on foreign investment, which is critically dependent on security and good governance, both of which have been in short supply in recent years. But Pakistan must also avoid becoming dependent on aid or ceding its sovereignty in the process of acquiring aid. As former military dictator, Mohammad Ayub Khan, put it bluntly: Pakistan needs "friends not masters," it concluded.

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