Headlines:
- World’s Rich Get Richer
- Jordanians Hit Streets for Second Week Calling for End to Zionist Entity Gas Deal
- Iranian Politician Offers ‘$3m to whoever kills Trump’
- Indian General Suggests China-style ‘Deradicalisation Camps’ for Kashmiri Muslims
- Pakistan’s FM Flaunting his Servility, Begs US to Stay Engaged in Afghanistan
- IMF Chief Sounds Warning of 1929-style Great Depression over Rising Inequality
World’s Rich Get Richer
As the world’s richest nations and richest individuals gathered at the Swiss ski resort in Davos, Oxfam published its annual report on global inequality. Their conclusions have grown starker as the years have gone by. The wealthiest 2,153 people now have more money than the poorest 4.6 billion people in the world – 60% of the world’s population. ‘Our broken economies are lining the pockets of billionaires and big business at the expense of ordinary men and women,’ Oxfam’s India head Amitabh Behar said. Behar who represented Oxfam at the conference highlighted ‘the gap between rich and poor can’t be resolved without deliberate inequality-busting policies.’ Capitalism continues to fail in distributing wealth in equitable manner as many across the world struggle to meek out a living.
Jordanians Hit Streets for Second Week Calling for End to Zionist Entity Gas Deal
Hundreds of Jordanians protested on Friday, 17 January, calling for the end of a $10 billion gas deal with the Zionist entity for the second week in a row. In the cities of Amman, al-Zarqa, Irbid, al-Aqaba and al-Karak, protesters demanded that the government end the “treasonous deal” struck in 2016, which saw Jordan start importing gas from the Zionist entities largest offshore field last week. The Jordanian government has said the deal will secure stable energy prices for the energy-dependent country for the next decade and could help reduce Jordan’s chronic budget deficit, potentially saving Jordan at least $500m annually. But Jordanians who are protesting reject the deal, saying they resent being forced to deal with a country they still consider an enemy. The sentiment saw the Muslim worlds and the actions and of our rulers once again are at opposite ends.
Iranian Politician Offers ‘$3m to whoever kills Trump’
According to ISNA, Iran’s semi-official news agency, Ahmad Hamzeh said: “On behalf of people of Kerman province, we will pay $3m award in cash to whoever kills Trump.” Kerman is the hometown of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike on 3 January in Iraq. Iran has used a strategy which has plenty of noise but lacks any bite ever since the US killed its top general. After numerous fiery speeches, Iran responded with a strike on a US base in Iraq, but after informing them of the planned attack. Iran made a mockery out of its people by lying about downing its own commercial airliner, knowing full well what it had done. Iran is all talk and little action, the actions it does to seem to always aid US plans.
Indian General Suggests China-style ‘Deradicalisation Camps’ for Kashmiri Muslims
The blatant anti-Muslim agenda of India’s pro-Hindu BJP government has become all too clear, after its annexation of Kashmir, violating even its own British inspired constitution, and its citizenship drive to exclude Muslims. Now India’s military seems to be participating. According to the New York Times:
India’s top military commander has created shock waves by suggesting that Kashmiris could be shipped off to “deradicalization camps,” which rights activists consider an alarming echo of what China has done to many of its Muslim citizens.
It was far from clear what the military commander, Gen. Bipin Rawat, chief of India’s defense staff, meant when he made the public comments on Thursday or whether a plan was afoot to set up large-scale re-education camps in the part of the disputed Kashmir region that India controls.
But rights activists and Kashmiri intellectuals were deeply unsettled, saying that the general’s words revealed how the highest levels of the Indian military viewed Kashmiri people and that his comments could presage another disturbing turn of events.
“It’s shocking he would even suggest this,’’ said Siddiq Wahid, a Kashmiri historian who earned his Ph.D. from Harvard. “It reminds me of the Uighur camps in China. I don’t think the general realizes the insanity of what he is talking about.”
Over the past three years, the Chinese government has corralled as many as a million ethnic Uighurs, Kazakhs and others into what it calls vocational training centers but what rights activists say are internment camps and prisons. The Uighurs, like Kashmiris, are Muslims who are part of a minority that is often viewed with suspicion by the central government.
Kashmir has been mired in crisis for decades and this past year the Indian government upended decades of delicate, albeit flawed policies by unilaterally revoking the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir, the part of the region it controls. It sent in thousands of additional troops, arrested practically the entire intellectual class there, including elected representatives, business people and students, and shut down the internet.
All of that was highly unexpected and is what makes Kashmiri intellectuals fear the general’s comments. They say that under the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, just about anything — however unbelievable just a few years ago — is possible.
Mr. Modi’s party has been pushing a religious nationalist ideology that critics say favors India’s Hindu majority and deeply alienates its Muslim minority. Just last month, Mr. Modi’s government passed a highly divisive law that creates a special path for migrants to get Indian citizenship — if they are not Muslim. Outrage at the law set off weeks of nationwide anti-government protests, which are continuing.
Kashmir was India’s only predominantly Muslim state until August, when Mr. Modi’s government summarily erased its statehood. Since then, it has been suspended in tension, with most internet service still shut off and schools deserted.
General Rawat made the suggestion about sending Kashmiris to deradicalization camps at an international affairs conference in New Delhi attended by government officials, foreign diplomats, business executives and scholars.
India has long championed its liberal democracy as a superior solution for accommodating peoples of all faiths. But the reality is that liberal democracy, by championing the rights of the individual over the rights of society, only facilitates those who are already powerful oppress those who are less privileged.
The people of India will not see peace and justice until they return to the rule of Islam, as existed for centuries, and made India the most advanced region in the entire world.
Pakistan’s FM Flaunting his Servility, Begs US to Stay Engaged in Afghanistan
America’s continuing military failure in Afghanistan, perhaps the most underdeveloped country in the world, continues to bring humiliation for the superpower and is forcing the exit of US troops from the country. But Pakistan’s leadership, who were instrumental in bringing the American military to Afghanistan, are again eager to see the US remain engaged. According to the Express Tribune:
Pakistan said on Thursday that the United States must remain engaged in Afghanistan’s reconstruction even if it succeeds in withdrawing troops and ending its longest war.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, currently visiting Washington, will meet Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and discuss the growing momentum toward a deal between the United States and the Taliban.
The foreign minister further warned the United States to not neglect the war-torn country as it had done in 1989 after the withdrawal of Soviet troops.
“Do not repeat the ’80s,” Qureshi said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on the eve of his talks with Pompeo.
“Even if there is a successful agreement, challenges will remain there, so the United States and its friends and coalition partners will have to have a more responsible withdrawal,” he said.
“They should remain engaged – not to fight, but to rebuild,” he said.
The United States returned to Afghanistan in 2001 in an invasion to out the Taliban, whose regime welcomed Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the September 11 attacks.
President Donald Trump is eager to withdraw more than 12,000 US troops remaining in Afghanistan, seeing the war as no longer worth its cost.
Muslims can never succeed as long as they are ruled by men who ally themselves with the interests of the foreign disbelieving imperialist. Allah (swt) says: يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ لاَ تَتَّخِذُواْ الْيَهُودَ وَالنَّصَارَى أَوْلِيَاء بَعْضُهُمْ أَوْلِيَاء بَعْضٍ وَمَن يَتَوَلَّهُم مِّنكُمْ فَإِنَّهُ مِنْهُمْ إِنَّ اللّهَ لاَ يَهْدِي الْقَوْمَ الظَّالِمِينَ * فَتَرَى الَّذِينَ فِي قُلُوبِهِم مَّرَضٌ يُسَارِعُونَ فِيهِمْ يَقُولُونَ نَخْشَى أَن تُصِيبَنَا دَآئِرَةٌ فَعَسَى اللّهُ أَن يَأْتِيَ بِالْفَتْحِ أَوْ أَمْرٍ مِّنْ عِندِهِ فَيُصْبِحُواْ عَلَى مَا أَسَرُّواْ فِي أَنْفُسِهِمْ نَادِمِينَ “O you who have believed, do not take the Jews and the Christians as allies. They are [in fact] allies of one another. And whoever is an ally to them among you – then indeed, he is [one] of them. Indeed, Allah guides not the wrongdoing people. So you see those in whose hearts is disease hastening into [association with] them, saying, “We are afraid a misfortune may strike us.” But perhaps Allah will bring conquest or a decision from Him, and they will become, over what they have been concealing within themselves, regretful.” [al-Maida 51-52]
IMF Chief Sounds Warning of 1929-style Great Depression over Rising Inequality
The ongoing increase in inequality between rich and poor in the West has become a cause of considerable concern for Western economists. The newly appointed head of the IMF is now also speaking out on this issue, according to the Guardian:
The head of the International Monetary Fund has warned that the global economy risks a return of the Great Depression, driven by inequality and financial sector instability.
Speaking at the Peterson Institute of International Economics in Washington, Kristalina Georgieva said new IMF research, which compares the current economy to the “roaring 1920s” that culminated in the great market crash of 1929, revealed that a similar trend was already under way.
While the inequality gap between countries had closed in the last two decades, it had increased within countries, she said, singling out the UK for particular criticism.
“In the UK, for example, the top 10% now control nearly as much wealth as the bottom 50%. This situation is mirrored across much of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), where income and wealth inequality have reached, or are near, record highs.”
She added: “In some ways, this troubling trend is reminiscent of the early part of the 20th century – when the twin forces of technology and integration led to the first gilded age, the roaring 20s, and, ultimately, financial disaster.”
She warned that fresh issues such as the climate emergency and increased trade protectionism meant the next 10 years were likely to be characterised by social unrest and financial market volatility.
“If I had to identify a theme at the outset of the new decade, it would beincreasing uncertainty,” she said.
With disputes still raging between the US and Europe, she said “the global trading system is in need of a significant upgrade”.
The Capitalist economic system follows the oligarchic pattern of Western ideology in general, favouring the individual over society, and so facilitating the powerful in oppressing the weak. Western leaders such as the IMF chief are acutely conscious of this fact but remain committed to their system. Their only intent is to mitigate some of the extreme consequences of this oppression in order to forestall “populism and upheaval” in the words of the IMF chief. The fact that people are suffering is of little consequence to them.