Crescent Magazine

MD, Toronto, Crescent-online
April 20, 2010-10:00 am EST

Almost a decade after invading and occupying Afghanistan, it has become clear even to the most diehard American warmongers that the US and its allies are doomed to lose the war in Afghanistan. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP), a liberal US think-tank, published a report earlier this month giving an honest assessment of US occupation.

The assessment states: “the London conference of January 28, 2010, illustrated the growing gap between the coalition’s public discourse and realities on the ground. Far from offering credible, or even partial, solutions to the deterioration of the situation in Afghanistan, the conference’s conclusions recommend policies that already have proven ineffective if not counterproductive. Indeed, the coalition’s strategy is at an impasse, as none of the efforts undertaken since the summer of 2009 has tempered the guerrilla war. A few tactical successes are possible, but the coalition cannot defeat the Taliban as long as Pakistan continues to offer them sanctuary.”  

In order for NATO to save face, the Carnegie report offers the US and its allies a way out: “negotiate directly with the Taliban and use Pakistan as the intermediary to the Taliban.”

The interesting side of the Carnegie report is that it is not only proposing a tactical settlement with the Taliban, but a strategic compromise with the Afghan resistance. The CEIP report admits that if “ the negotiations succeed, they will enable the formation of a national unity government in Kabul, a new constitution negotiated during a Loya Jirga, and internal and international guarantees to prevent the return of al-Qaeda.”

The fact that a well known liberal think-tank advises drafting a new constitution shows that al least some in the mainstream intellectual circles of the West have realized that the US cannot model Afghanistan in its own image.

If negotiations with the Afghan resistance that the US calls Taliban succeed, it will serve as a double edged sword. While it will save the US from an ignominious defeat in Afghanistan, it will also discredit it among its vassals in the Muslim world. Once the US reaches an agreement with the Afghan resistance it will find it difficult to convince the likes of Karzai and Allawi in the Muslim world to be its pawns because the US will have confirmed yet again that it is an untrustworthy ally.  

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California, crescent-online
April 19, 2010, 10:30 am PST

The blood soaked history of Iraq’s new Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi, is increasingly coming under the scrutiny of independent news media and activists for justice in Iraq. Many speculate that the spate of devastating bombings in Baghdad, timed around the March 2010 election, was intended to psychologically subjugate the Iraqi public and manipulate a transition of power to the US-picked successor to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Allawi first served as Interim Prime Minster in 2004, before the US military handed the  reigns of the occupation over to Paul Bremer. Allawi, a UK-educated neurologist who  honed his skills in brutal intimidation as an assassin under Saddam Hussein, became a CIA proxy responsible for bombing cars, cinemas, newspaper offices, and Baath party offices in the 1990s. Mainstream media outlets such as Washington Post have called him “Saddam without a moustache”.   

Recently, questions have arisen over Allawi’s eligibility to serve as Iraqi Prime Minister, all of which are being ignored or swept aside by the US occupation.  According to the 2004 Iraqi Constitution, a document significantly influenced by the US, the Prime Minister must have Iraqi parents. However, Allawi’s mother is Syrian.

More significantly, independent news organizations are ringing alarm bells about his actions while serving as Iraq’s Interim President. A week before handing executive power to Bremer, Allawi gained international infamy by personally executing a number of blindfolded and handcuffed prisoners. Not that this was an isolated incident. Western diplomats also testified to seeing Allawi shoot prisoners in front of them. According to a 2004 New York Times feature, Allawi cut off a prisoner’s hand with an axe to make him confess about “terrorist” activities.

Allawi’s US-facilitated re-election has occurred in full knowledge of his reputation. The fact that he is effectively another Saddam is attractive to the political hegemons who sponsor brutality as a way of subjugating people and maintaining their power over the Persian Gulf oil bounty.  

The charge that the 2010 national elections were manipulated to tip Allawi’s hand is hardly surprising. Allawi’s defeat in the first national election occurred despite the fact that Tony Blair sent Labor Party official Margaret McDonagh to advise Allawi on his campaign; George W. Bush’s administration provided covert aid to Allawi and conspired with him to rig the election; and government officials threatened to cut food rations to Iraqis who didn’t turn out to vote for Allawi. Correspondingly, In months leading up to the 2010 elections, the Iraqi Electoral Commission banned around 500 candidates registered for the elections, on the spurious charge that they had links with Saddam’s party.

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MD, Toronto, Crescent-online
April 19, 2010-10:00 am EST

The Russian based Institute of the Middle East (IME), closely linked with the ruling political elite in Russia, has said in a report the Saudi regime is working on an asymmetric plan to contain Islamic Iran through Al-Qaeda. According to the April 12 report, after the Saudi regime's military defeat in Yemen and political defeat in Lebanon, its worries about Iran's growing influence in the region have intensified.

The IME cites the recent closure of Shia mosques in Saudi Arabia and the arrest of several Shia Muslims in the kingdom as evidence of "preventive measures" adopted by the regime to contain Tehran's retaliation in case the US or Israeli attack Iran's nuclear installations. Saudi Arabia is not the only location where the regime aims to deter Islamic Iran's influence. The Russian think tank also mentions that the Saudi regime is financing Mohamed Dahlan in the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon to create armed Khawarij groups as a counterweight to Hamas and to distract Hizbullah from its mission in confronting zionist Israel.

The Saudi use of Al-Qaeda type groups to implement the policies of the US and its allies against Islamic Iran is a long discredited technique that has not produced the desired results. However, use of Khawarij groups by Dahlan and his patrons in Riyadh and Washington can further damage the Palestinian cause. The IME report underlines this fact. The bombing of internet cafes and haircutting salons in Gaza over the last few months by the Khawarij groups are already distracting the operational attention of Hamas from Israel to the internal enemies of the Islamic movement. This was confirmed by the execution of Abu Nur al-Maqdisi in Gaza who was responsible for bomb attacks on civilian targets. It appears that the Saudi regime's use of Al-Qaeda is producing tangible results, at least on the Palestinian front.

Another location where the Saudi regime is mobilizing Al-Qaeda is in Iraq. According to the IME report, the Saudi regime aims to use Al-Qaeda even more aggressively in Iraq to back militarily the political coronation of Ayad Allawi. However, based on IME analysis, Al-Qaeda in Iraq will not be able to overcome forces loyal to the Islamic Revolution in Iran militarily since the latter are much better organized and trained than Al-Qaeda. Based on this, the IME believes that Al-Qaeda will aim to delay the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq as much as possible so that the Saudi regime can build greater military leverage over Iran through the US.

If the Saudi efforts remain unchallenged, they may create greater discord among Muslims if the groups financed by them manage to spill more Muslim blood. Therefore, the global Islamic movement must aim to foster greater unity among Muslims. Sunni Muslim scholars and movements must spearhead the process because any overt Iranian involvement might make be misinterpreted as Shia proselytization and lead to even more discord.

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Toronto, Crescent-online
April 16, 2010, 12 noon EST

Muslims living near the North Pole are looking forward to their first ever mosque. It will also be the first mosque near the top of the world at Inuvik, in the Arctic.

Muslims in Winnipeg have taken on the responsibility to build a small mosque and ship it to the Arctic. The Zubaidah Tallab Foundation, a charity based in Winnipeg is raising money to build a mosque in their city and then ship it 4,000 kilometres by truck and barge to the northern community.

Dozens of Muslim families in Inuvik, in the Northwest Territories, currently send their children to live elsewhere in Canada because the community doesn't have a mosque or Islamic education centre.

There are about 100 Inuvik Muslims, too few to be able to raise the necessary funds to build a masjid. Some families send their children to Edmonton, more than a thousand miles away, for Islamic education. Given the extremely cold temperatures as well as poor road conditions, this is a hazardous undertaking.

The Zubaidah Tallab Foundation needs almost $300,000 by September to get the masjid on the last barge of the year to Inuvik. When it arrives, the structure will be the northernmost mosque in the world.

This is history in the making, alhamdulillah!

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