Analysis, Side Feature

Views on the News – 14 Oct 2017

Headlines:

  • Viking Burial Clothes Woven with Allah Discovered in Sweden
  • Iran Nuclear Deal: Global Powers Stand by Pact Despite Trump Threat
  • US starting to have Real Ties with Pakistan, says Trump
  • Trump Decertifies Iran Nuclear Deal
  • Pakistan Releases Hostages on eve of Visit of American Delegation
  • America Punishes Kurds for Holding Referendum


Viking Burial Clothes Woven with Allah Discovered in Sweden

A Swedish university has discovered Arabic characters for “Allah” and “Ali” woven into Viking burial clothes. Researchers at Uppsala University describe the finding of the geometric Kufic characters in silver on woven bands of silk as “staggering”. The researchers at Uppsala, Sweden’s oldest university, were re-examining clothes that had been in storage for some time. They had originally been found at Viking burial sites in Birka and Gamla Uppsala in Sweden. Textile archaeology researcher Annika Larsson told the BBC that at first she could not make sense of the symbols, but then, “I remembered where I had seen similar designs: in Spain, on Moorish textiles.” This led to the identification of the name “Ali” in the text and, when looked at in a mirror, the word “Allah” in reverse was revealed. “Perhaps this was an attempt to write prayers so that they could be read from left to right,” said Larsson. Arabic characters are more typically inscribed right to left. The finding contradicts theories that Islamic objects in Viking graves are only the result of plunder or trade because, she explained, “the inscriptions appear in typical Viking age clothing that have their counterparts in preserved images of Valkyries”. Larsson said the choice of burial clothes reflected the fineries of Viking life rather than the day-to-day reality, in much the same way that in the modern era people are buried in formal clothes. “Presumably, Viking age burial customs were influenced by Islam and the idea of an eternal life in paradise after death.” Viking contact with the Islamic world is a well-established fact. There have been finds of more than 100,000 Islamic silver coins known as dirhams in Viking-age Scandinavia. DNA analysis of Viking graves has also shown that some of them contain people who originated in Persia. The Vale of York hoard, discovered near Harrogate in 2007, contained objects relating to three belief systems – Islam, Christianity and the worship of Thor – and at least seven different languages. And in March 2015 a Viking woman’s glass ring was discovered bearing the inscription “for Allah” or “to Allah”. [Source: The Guardian]

The West for too long has concealed the fact that medieval Europe was enamored with the Islamic civilization on all the facets of life. Europe coveted the Islamic civilization just as China seeks to copy the Western civilization today.

 

Iran Nuclear Deal: Global Powers Stand by Pact despite Trump Threat

Global powers, including key US allies, have said they will stand by the Iran nuclear deal which US President Donald Trump has threatened to tear apart. Mr Trump said on Friday that he would stop signing off on the agreement. The UK, France and Germany responded that the pact was “in our shared national security interest”. The EU said it was “not up to any single country to terminate” a “working” deal. Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said the US was “more isolated than ever”. “Can a president annul a multilateral international treaty on his own?” he asked. “Apparently he doesn’t know that this agreement is not a bilateral agreement solely between Iran and the United States.” The deal, signed in 2015, is between Iran and six international powers – the UK, the US, Russia, France, Germany, and China. It imposed curbs on Iran’s nuclear programme in return for an easing of international sanctions. In a combative speech on Friday, Mr Trump called Iran a “fanatical regime” and said it had violated the terms of the deal. He accused Iran of sponsoring terrorism, and proposed new sanctions.  “We will not continue down a path whose predictable conclusion is more violence, more terror, and the very real threat of Iran’s nuclear breakout,” he said. International observers say Iran has been in full compliance with the agreement.  China has not spoken since Mr Trump’s speech but previously called on the US to preserve the deal. Russia’s foreign ministry said it regretted Mr Trump’s decision but did not expect it to stop the deal being implemented. Congress requires the US president to certify every 90 days that Iran is upholding its part of the agreement. Mr Trump had already recertified twice, but refused to sign a third time ahead of a Sunday deadline. Congress now has 60 days to decide whether to pull out of the nuclear deal by re-imposing sanctions. Mr Trump is seeking is the end to the nuclear deal’s so-called “sunset clauses”, one of which allows for the lifting of restrictions on Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme after 2025. He announced Treasury Department sanctions on Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, which he called the “corrupt personal terror force of Iran’s leader”, and called for restrictions on Iran’s ballistic missile programme, which is not covered by the deal. [Source: BBC].

Many in the West believe that the Trump administration is seeking to curb Tehran’s foreign policy adventures in order to appease the Jewish entity and his voter base. However, by leaving the matter to Congress, Trump is maneuvering to sidestep the issue, while appeasing his supporters. Nevertheless, Iran should have realized like Iraq before that any deal with the US cannot be trusted, and that the Iranians should have pursued all effort to acquire nuclear warheads.

 

US starting to have Real Ties with Pakistan, says Trump

US President Donald Trump on Friday maintained that America is starting to have a real relationship with Pakistan. He said yesterday things happened with Pakistan. But we’re starting to have a real relationship with Pakistan. Pakistan and other countries are beginning to have respect for the US again, the president added. “I have openly said Pakistan took tremendous advantage of our country for many years, but we’re starting to have a real relationship with Pakistan, and they’re to respect us as a nation again, and so are other nations,” Trump said. President Trump said this while addressing the Values Voter Summit in Washington on Friday. His remarks came a day after Pakistan secured the release of an American-Canadian family from the clutches of the Taliban militants, five years after they were abducted. “They are starting to respect the United States of America again,” he said and thanked the leaders of Pakistan for “what they’ve been doing”. On Thursday, President Trump hailed the release of the hostages from Taliban captivity. He said their release was a “positive moment” for US relations with Pakistan. Trump also praised Pakistan for its willingness to “do more to provide security in the region” and said the release suggests other “countries are starting to respect the United States of America once again.”  [Source: The Nation]

Despite the boisterous behavior of Pakistani officials to disrupt ties with the US, it is business as usual. The familiar pattern of the US applying pressure and giving money to the Pakistani leadership has returned.

 

Trump Decertifies Iran Nuclear Deal

As expected, US President Donald Trump announced yesterday his refusal to certify Iran’s compliance with its nuclear agreement at this time. However, America is not withdrawing from the agreement itself. According to the New York Times:

President Trump announced on Friday his decision to disavow the Iran nuclear agreement, threatening to leave the deal altogether if it was not amended to permanently block Tehran from building nuclear weapons or intercontinental missiles.

But even as he delivered a fire-breathing indictment of the Iranian government’s activities around the Middle East, he stopped short of unraveling the agreement reached by President Barack Obama two years ago.

“We will not continue down a path whose predictable conclusion is more violence, more chaos, the very real threat of Iran’s nuclear breakout,” Mr. Trump declared at the White House in a speech that was intended to define a broad strategy for confronting Iran.

It was America that took the initiative, under Obama, to enter into negotiations with Iran, along with other leading powers, in order to be able to more effectively make use of Iran within its region. Iran has been increasingly open, and instrumental, in supporting the regimes of Baghdad and Damascus, which are both in reality subordinate to America. In truth, Iran has been cooperating fully with the American agenda and this is why it was rewarded with the nuclear deal. And Trump has made clear that the nuclear deal continues, despite his refusal to certify Iran’s immediate compliance with it, so America’s policy has really not changed on this. So why is Trump creating a fuss now? Firstly it is good for his domestic political audience. And secondly, America wants to discipline Iran, now that Iran is completing its service to America in Syria and Iraq, so that Iran does not venture into going beyond America’s instructions.

The life of an agent to foreign powers is one of subservience and humiliation. The time is soon, with Allah’s permission, when our puppet rulers will be overthrown and we will see the emergence of sincere, indigenous, ideological leadership that will implement Islam and carry its message to the entire world.

 

Pakistan releases hostages on eve of visit of American delegation

The Pakistani leadership is rushing to mend relations with America after Trump’s denunciation of Pakistan’s insufficient support for the American occupation in Afghanistan. According to the Dawn:

Strains in the Pak-US relationship appear to be disappearing fast as the two sides on Thursday agreed to continue bilateral engagement at all levels and reinvigorate relationship to achieve the common objective of defeating terrorism…

In a surprising ‘coincidence’ a Canadian citizen, his US national wife and their three children were recovered from the custody of terrorists by the Pakistan Army on Thursday — some five years after their abduction in Afghanistan. The recovery was instantly hailed by the White House.

This was the first high-level US delegation’s visit to Pakistan after US President Donald Trump unveiled a new strategy on South Asia and Afghanistan.”

Pakistan’s rulers, both military and civilian, live in constant fear of the wrath of the American superpower. Trump’s crude statements last month forced the Pakistani leadership into issuing harsh public statements in return. But behind the scenes they were simply looking for ways to re-establish good relations with America, even going to the extent of arranging the release of hostages to please and honour the American President and elevate him domestically in America.

The current leadership of Muslim countries complete lacks the vision to see that America, despite being the world’s sole superpower, is not able to project its power deep into Muslim lands because of the rejection of the Muslim Ummah in general of the presence of the foreign disbeliever. This is why Britain and other colonial countries had to retreat from Muslim lands in the last century. With Allah’s permission, we will soon see the agent rulers that they left behind retreating also, and their replacement with those who are sincere to the Ummah and its Deen.

 

America Punishes Kurds for Holding Referendum

According to the Washington Post:

Iraqi forces have demanded that Kurdish troops withdraw from oil fields and military bases around the contested city of Kirkuk, Kurdish officials and a senior militia leader said Friday, leading to a tense standoff around the city.

Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers rallied to protect Kirkuk on Thursday night, as Interior Ministry troops and Shiite militias mobilized nearby. Volunteer and retired fighters bolstered the lines. Several positions were taken over by Iraqi forces, however, with Kurdish officers saying they received orders to withdraw.

The Kirkuk area, with about 10 percent of Iraq’s oil reserves, has long been contested by the central government in Baghdad and Kurdish authorities in Irbil, but the province has become even more of a flash point since the Kurdistan region voted in favor of independence in a referendum last month.”

The Baghdad government is once again proving that it is completely within the control of the United States. Last month, America was deeply angered by the decision of Masood Barzani, who heads the ruling Kurdish Democratic Party in Irbil in northern Iraq, to proceed with a referendum on independence of Kurdistan from Baghdad. In response America has instructed Haider al-Abadi, the Iraqi Prime Minister, to proceed to retake Kirkuk, which was liberated by Kurdish Peshmerga forces, though not formally part of Kurdistan, and produces about 10% of Iraq’s oil.

The solution to the problem of Kurdistan is not independence from Iraq, but the elimination of the foreign disbelieving imperialist and his influence from all Muslim lands by re-establishing the righteous Islamic State on the method of the Prophet ﷺ and reuniting all Muslim lands under a single righteous Khalifah (Caliph) who will truly implement Islam within the State and carry its message to the entire world.