Every place is Kerbala, every day is Ashura If there is one event which is central to the entire ethos of Shia Islam it is the martyrdom of Imam Husayn ibn Ali (a grandson of Muhammad the founder of Islam) and 72 of his followers at the hands of a 40’000-strong army of Yazid Ibn Muawiyah Ibn Abu Sufyan in 680 AD at the battle of Kerbala. Here is how
Source: Islamic Resistance in LebanonWhen Jesus Christ (peace be upon him) returns to earth, he will not uphold “Israel”, the Pharaohs or the despots… But he will empower the oppressed; he will not confront the temple’s thieves with his staff, but will carry his sword and gun to fight these despots. Hizbullah’s secretary-general appeared on the seventh night of Ashoura to speak out frankly to the people about what is
Sino-American Showdown in Taiwan Strait: Chinese Navy Confronted USS Kitty Hawk Newsmax via Global Research A Chinese attack submarine and destroyer confronted the U.S. carrier Kitty Hawk and its battle group in the Taiwan Strait, sparking a tense 28-hour standoff that brought both sides to a battle-ready position. The American ships were heading to Japan following China’s sudden cancellation of a scheduled Thanksgiving port call in Hong Kong when they
This interview summary was originally published by the Lebanese website Promise:A summary for al-Sayyed Nasrallah’s interview on NBN on 2nd of January, 2008. Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah said Wednesday that the solution to the Lebanese crisis lies in the partnership that is realized through a constitutional guarantee, namely the guaranteeing one-third of ministers within a national unity government. “The governing coalition’s refusing all attempts to set the foundations
by Mehmet Yaman (source: ANF Fırat News Agency) Editor’s note: This was translated from Turkish by Cem Ertür from CASMII. Having given no support to Turkey’s struggle against the PKK for a long time, the US supported the Turkish army’s recent bombing of the Qandil Mountain. The reason behind this support is becoming clear now: An agreement made between the US, Turkey and the Federal Administration of South Kurdistan for
There is this ‘old American politician with nothing to loose’ phenomenon which I have personally observed in the cases of Paul Nitze or Admiral Elmo Zumvalt: when they are old have have nothing to loose, when they are beyond reach of the US Nomenklatura, they begin saying out loud what everybody in US politics knows, but dares not say. This time it is Mike Gravel who simply decided to speak
I am finally back at my keyboard after some travels and already the first days of 2008 look so depressing that I don’t even know where to begin. In no particular order, here are some of the things which make me think that 2008 shall be an ugly and mean year. United Kingdom: the Brits are loosing it. I mean, they were never known for their kind and honorable foreign
‘Beauty shall save the world‘ wrote the great Russian author Dostoevsky. Beauty also is, in essence, the same thing as Truth, Goodness and, of course, Love said another great Russian, the philosopher and priest Father Pavel Florensky (murdered by the Bolsheviks in 1937). I will spare you all a boring lecture in Russian philosophy, but I do want to share with you a little bit of joy and beauty, in
CHALLENGES 2007-2008: Iraq Progresses To Some Of Its Worst Inter Press ServiceAnalysis by Dahr Jamail Despite all the claims of improvements, 2007 has been the worst year yet in Iraq. One of the first big moves this year was the launch of a troop “surge” by the U.S. government in mid-February. The goal was to improve security in Baghdad and the western al-Anbar province, the two most violent areas. By
Kosovo Armed Group Issues Warning 27 December 2007 Pristina: A shadowy armed group in Kosovo, the Albanian National Army, is preparing for potential trouble in the Serb-inhabited north of the region after Kosovo’s expected declaration of independence, Balkan Insight can reveal. By Krenar Gashi In an exclusive interview for Balkan Insight, the group’s frontman, identified only as Arberi, said that his group, known by its initials as the ANA, was
Al-Arabia reports: Iraqi Shiite cleric and head of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada Al-Sadr, is doing intensive study to earn the title of ‘marjea’ (‘expert’ or ‘authority’), which will entitle him to issue fatwas (religious edicts) for his followers, in accordance with Shiite traditions. Al-Sadr is studying at the Al-Hawzah religious institution in Najaf, his official spokesman Sheikh Salah Al-Obeidi said in a press statement carried by Quds Press on Saturday.
Ha’aretz reports the following: Crews from Israel Aerospace Industries, operating unmanned aerial vehicles, are participating in Turkish military operations against PKK militants in northern Iraq, according to Turkish reports to be published today in the Turkish Daily News. Ten days ago, the Turkish television station Star reported that IAI Heron UAVs are being used in the offensive against the Kurds. The same report stated that Turkey’s Chief of Staff, General
Belgrade, Dec 26, 2007 – Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica stressed today in address to MPs that the battle for Kosovo is the battle for Serbia’s freedom as neither as people or state are we free if Kosovo is not the province within Serbia as written in the Constitution. The Serbian government’s official website brings the Prime Minister’s speech in full. “Honourable parliament members, You have before you today the
I personally take no other position on 911 other than claiming that the official version is so obviously full of holes that it is an insult to anyone’s intelligence. My hunch is that several foreign intelligences agencies, including the Russians, Israelis and French, had warned the USA but in yet another display of its trademark incompetence the US government never acted on this info. The cover-up today is most likely
A friend of mine just sent me this old video from 1976. Interesting, isn’t it?
The always excellent blog Lenin’s Tomb has posted a very good commentary on the latest statistics out of Iraq. I urge everybody interested in the Iraq war to go to Lenin’s Tomb and read this analysis and see why ‘the Surge is working’.
Somalia is a mostly forgotten front of the US Global War on Terror. True, only a limited number of US personnel is deployed there or directly involved in the fighting; this is a war by proxy, courtesy of the US backed regime in Ethiopia who invaded Somalia under orders from Washington. After many years of chaos and violence Somalia had finally found a modicum of stability under the Islamic Courts
by Hannah Mermelstein, The Electronic Intifada, 19 December 2007 (reprinted with the kind permission of the author and the editors of The Electronic Intifada) I am feeling optimistic about Palestine. I know it sounds crazy. How can I use “optimistic” and “Palestine” in the same sentence when conditions on the ground only seem to get worse? Israeli settlements continue to expand on a daily basis, the checkpoints and segregated road
by Binh, author of the blog “Prisoner of Starvation“, originally published on his blog and reprinted here with Binh’s kind permission.——- Every so often, you pick up a newspaper and read something that boggles your mind. The Washington Post has a story with a big headline that says: “All Iraqi Groups Blame U.S. Invasion for Discord, Study Shows.” The second paragraph starts with the following sentence: “That is good news,
