What's wrong with the Arab world?

So glad people are resading Friedman here--and glad Bush has forced them to change in the ME.

He has done them a favor. Wonderful things are brimming there.

Lash


I've long admired Tom Friedman's knowledge and expertise about the Middle East and have bought and read most of his books. Unlike many pundits, he talks AND LISTENS to and learns from the common people as well as the leadership and wealthy. He has an exquisite understanding of the difference in thinking between the generations of the populace. We tend to ignore the signals coming from the younger generations at our peril.

BBB

I agree. He seems more even-handed than most of the cadre of writers who have taken up Iraq and Middle Eastern issues.

I think I "trust" him and the two others I mention all the time. He's been popping up on CNN and Fox of late as news analyst--a pleasant surprise.

Did you read The Lexus and the Olive Tree?

Lash


I've read all of his books except the last one, The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century, which is still in my pile of books to get to. I have a bad habit of reading several books at the same time. When I buy a new one, I can't wait to get into it even if I'm reading something else.

BBB

Pakistan bans foreigners from religious schools
Pakistan bans foreigners from religious schools
?'They must leave,' Musharraf says of 1,400 outsiders attending madrassas
Reuters
Updated: 4:03 p.m. ET July 29, 2005

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan - Foreign students attending Islamic religious schools in Pakistan will be ordered to leave as part of a drive to stamp out terrorism and religious extremism, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said on Friday.

Security forces have detained more than 600 people in the past week after Musharraf ordered a crackdown on militant groups, mosques and religious schools, or madrassas.

Speaking to foreign correspondents at his residence as chief of army staff in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, Musharraf said he wanted foreign students out.

"We've decided," he said. "All those who are here ?- there are about 1,400 ?- they must leave. We will not issue visas to such people."

The crackdown was ordered after the July 7 bomb attacks on London, which police said were carried out by three Britons of Pakistani descent and a fourth Briton of Jamaican origin.

One of the men, Shehzad Tanweer, visited a madrassa during trips to Pakistan in the past two years.

The number of foreign students attending madrassas in Pakistan has already fallen sharply since the government imposed tougher visa restrictions after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.


12,000 madrassas
There are around 12,000 madrassas in Pakistan, often providing education, shelter and food to boys from poor families.

Musharraf said Pakistan's security forces were cooperating closely with their British counterparts.

But while several people had been detained based on leads from telephone records, no one suspected of involvement in the London bombings was being held in Pakistan.

"We are in the process of going through each one of those (telephone) numbers. Anyone who had contact with those chaps we are weeding out," he said.

Diplomats say Musharraf's main motivation for ordering the detentions is to eradicate religious extremism at home, where suicide attacks inside mosques have killed scores of Muslims.

The main targets for police have been militant Sunni Muslim groups waging a campaign against minority Shiite Muslims.

Asked how long the crackdown on militants would last, Musharraf said it was an ongoing process.

?'A continuous process'
"The action against the banned organizations will continue. It is a continuous process and we will be very strongly dealing with them in the terrorist courts.

"We have decided we are going to act against their leadership."

Musharraf, who took power in a bloodless military coup six years ago, said he was in a far stronger position to confront forces of religious extremism than he had been after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

At that time, the economy was weak, Pakistan was close to a fourth war with India, and stronger action could have led to internal disturbances. "I could have rocked the boat so much it could have capsized," he said.

Musharraf survived two al-Qaida inspired assassination attempts in December 2003 and is widely expected to retain the presidency after elections in 2007.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8757676/

Cool. I hope he'll take 1400 names before he puts them on planes...

He is impervious! I can't believe he's still alive.

France ejects 12 Islamic 'preachers of hate'
France ejects 12 Islamic 'preachers of hate'
By Colin Randall in Paris
(Filed: 30/07/2005)

The gulf between British and French treatment of preachers of hatred and violence was thrown sharply into focus yesterday when France announced the summary expulsion of a dozen Islamists between now and the end of August.

A tough new anti-terrorism package was unveiled by Nicolas Sarkozy, the interior minister and a popular centre-Right politician.

Nicolas Sarkozy: 'We have to act against radical preachers'
His proposals reflect French determination to act swiftly against extremists in defiance of the human rights lobby, which is noticeably less vocal in France than in Britain.

Imams and their followers who fuel anti-western feeling among impressionable young French Muslims will be rounded up and returned to their countries of origin, most commonly in France's case to its former north African colonies.

Mr Sarkozy also revealed that as many as 12 French mosques associated with provocative anti-western preaching were under surveillance. Imams indulging in inflammatory rhetoric will be expelled even if their religious status is recognised by mainstream Muslim bodies.

Those who have assumed French citizenship will not be protected from deportation. Mr Sarkozy said he will reactivate measures, "already available in our penal code but simply not used", to strip undesirables of their adopted nationality. "We have to act against radical preachers capable of influencing the youngest and most weak-minded," Mr Sarkozy told the French daily Le Parisien.

The first to be caught in the new round of expulsions is an Algerian, Rena Ameuroud, whose brother Abderraham was jailed in France earlier this year for his part in a jihadist training exercise in the Fontainebleau forest south of Paris. He faces immediate deportation for allegedly urging fellow-worshippers at a Parisian mosque to engage in "holy war".

At least seven French nationals are now known to have been killed while fighting with anti-coalition insurgents in Iraq, in some cases as suicide bombers, the minister said. A further 10 are believed still to be there. France, which has Europe's largest Muslim population with estimates varying from five to nine million out of a population of 60 million, has long prided itself on its stern approach to terrorism.

Mr Sarkozy's crackdown on those "promoting radical Islamist polemic" was disclosed at the end of a week that began with French anger at Britain's failure to extradite the alleged financier of Islamist bombings in Paris in the mid-1990s. Rachid Ramda, 35, an Algerian, has been held for 10 years while fighting attempts to return him to stand trial. Survivors and victims' relatives who gathered this week at the St Michel station in the heart of Paris to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the worst attack, which killed eight, called on Britain to "stop protecting" Ramda.

They are unimpressed by his supporters' claims that he is a "gentle and peaceful" man who devotes his time in the Belmarsh top-security jail in south-east London to learning the Koran by heart, studying English literature and comforting other Muslim prisoners. Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, has approved Ramda's extradition - as did his predecessor David Blunkett - but his removal depends on High Court proceedings.

French ministers and commentators have long expressed exasperation at British handling of individuals who support terrorism, arguing that greater emphasis is being placed on their human rights rather than on security interests.

Sarkosy kicks ass.

More countries need to expel any religious school that teaches hate and religious extremism. Seems we're gonna have to start deporting some christians from the US.

08.01.2005
Women's Rights and Islamic Law in the New Iraq Constitution
by Zainab Salbi

The liberation of Iraq from Saddam Hussein should not mean the restriction of rights for women. Unfortunately, this might be the case if the reports of the new Iraq Constitution allow broad interpretations of Islam to govern women's lives.

From my experience in Iraq and conversations with Iraqi women from all socio-economic backgrounds, I know their identity is strongly linked to religion. I also know that the role of Islam in the Constitution is hotly debated. The wide range of diverse opinions has not been aired publicly because of security risks. Yet, an issue as critical as the role of Islam should not be negotiated behind closed doors without public engagement or input.

A handful of secularists are daring to call for a complete separation of religion and state. On the other end of the spectrum, many are arguing for a traditional interpretation of Islamic law and its influence in the Constitution. Still others want a middle ground.

The key questions today are: first, how will Shari'a be interpreted and, second, how will Iraqis close loopholes that allow fundamentalists use their interpretations to curb women's rights.

Leaving interpretation of these rights, which fall under the jurisdiction of civil or family law, up to religious authorities could be devastating. At stake are issues that affect women most directly, such as the right to custody of children, the right to inheritance and the right to divorce on the same grounds as men.

The new Constitution should contain non-negotiables that allow women's equal social, political and economic participation in the future of Iraq. The Constitution should support the rights of women at all levels of Iraqi society and uphold international human rights standards.

Everyone realizes this is an opportunity of a lifetime in Iraq's history. Iraqi women are clear about the need to protect their rights, regardless of their secular or religious convictions. In a survey conducted by Women for Women International in late 2004, 94% of the women in Iraq's three biggest provinces said they want to protect their legal rights in the new Constitution, whether or not the framework is religious or secular.

It is important to note that the words "secular" and "religious" are viewed and interpreted differently in Iraq than here. For many Iraqis, the Arabic translation of "secular" is atheism, a concept that is not culturally acceptable. Even Saddam Hussein's self-proclaimed liberal laws affecting women were based upon concepts of Islamic law, known as Shari'a.

While much of the consternation in the United States is about Shari'a in Iraq, it is important to remember that Islam is not inherently bad for women's rights, just as secular law is not automatically good. It is possible to use an Islamic framework to secure women's rights, as other countries like Morocco and Malaysia have.

Experts from those countries met with Iraq's Constitutional Committee members and Iraqi women and men leaders at a conference in the safety of Jordan in June. After hours of passionate and sometimes heated discussions about the role of Islam in the new Constitution, the Iraqi participants agreed that the Constitution should have supremacy over local and religious laws.

The Iraqis also recommended that women and men be given the same rights, protections and responsibilities. While everyone agreed that the Constitution should abide by international conventions previously signed by Iraq, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, conference participants also insisted on maintaining a quota for women's seats in the government and increasing it to 40%, as inspired by international conventions, to replace the 25% quota that was granted for them in the Transitional Administrative Law, which currently governs Iraq.

In the last 13 years, I have worked exclusively with women in post-conflict regions, from Bosnia and Herzegovina to Afghanistan, from Colombia to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The time after conflict provides women with a window of opportunity to redress past inequities and expand women's rights. I have concluded that to build stronger nations you need to build stronger women, from the grassroots up. Countries overcoming war and conflict have shown that when women are protected and engaged as full citizens in a country, the entire country fares better.

Women's rights must not be negotiated away in the rebuilding of Iraq, and most importantly, not in the Constitution ?- a document that will serve as an anchor for the country's future and set a standard in the Middle East. Ensuring women rights, within the rule of law and supported by interpretations from the Quran, the key indicator of success in establishing a free and prosperous Iraq.

The window of opportunity will quickly close for women - and for all of Iraq - unless constitution drafters agree on strengthening and protecting women's rights. This is a major stepping stone to building a strong country. Iraq has the chance to seize the opportunity.

BBB, A woman Iraqi journalist was on nightline recently, and she said conditions for women are worse now than under Saddam. The Bush administration is gonna keep telling the world that things are progressing in Iraq. Unfortunately, the majority of people will believe Bush and not the first hand report by a professional woman journalist from Iraq.

The following link pretty much repeats what the Iraqi journalist said about conditions for women in Iraq. None of the reports from this administration have ever mentioned the worsening conditions for women while continuing to repeat that "progress is being made."

http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE140012005