Headlines:
- Incoming US National Security Assistant portrays Terrorism as different from Islam
- Syrian Talks in confusion as America Stabilises its Administration
- New American Policy in Afghanistan
- British Muslim Teacher Taken off US-bound Flight: I was Treated like a Criminal
- Egypt’s Sisi, Jordan’s Abdullah Reaffirm Support for Two-State Solution
- Pakistan to Receive US Attack Helicopters in 2017
Incoming US National Security Assistant portrays Terrorism as different from Islam
US President Donald Trump’s newly appointed National Security Advisor, Lt Gen H R McMaster, is signalling a clear break from the views of his short-lived predecessor, General Michael Flynn, and other key members of Trump’s team, including the president himself. In an article headlined “H.R. McMaster Breaks with Administration on Views of Islam”, the New York Times writes:
“President Trump’s newly appointed national security adviser has told his staff that Muslims who commit terrorist acts are perverting their religion, rejecting a key ideological view of other senior Trump advisers and signaling a potentially more moderate approach to the Islamic world.”
So-called democratic systems are actually hostage to entrenched vested interests, and the Trump administration is no exception to this. In fact, Trump’s unlikely victory was made possible only because of deals with two very different camps, the traditional Republican Party establishment and a new right-wing faction that has increasingly captured American populist politics after anti-establishment dissatisfaction caused by the 2008 American financial crash.
The role of the National Security Advisor is central to the integrated functioning of America’s military and diplomatic functions and its role as a world superpower. The hasty departure of Flynn, after intelligence leaks led to a scandal in the mainstream corporate media, and the arrival of McMaster makes clear that the establishment will prevail, even in advisory positions where formal congressional approval is not required.
The American establishment wants to make selective use of Trump’s radical rhetoric against Islam. The West wants to generate an anti-Muslim environment within their own countries, while at the same time portraying themselves abroad as friendly to Muslim governments. Previous presidents have been careful in their statements to not directly attack Islam, even while initiating numerous wars in Muslim lands and multiple initiatives to thwart the rise of Islam. Trump, and his right-wing advisors, lack the skill and experience to make such nuanced distinctions.
Syrian Talks in confusion as America Stabilises its administration
The instability within the Trump administration is affecting further progress on the American plan for Syria. Initiatives undertaken by the Obama Administration are nearing completion, bringing Russia on the side of Assad and Turkey on the side of the revolutionaries. This enabled Assad to take back Aleppo with the help of Russian airpower and Erdogan’s betrayal of the revolution. But now Russia and Turkey are unsure of how to proceed without further directives from America. According to Reuters:
The first U.N.-led Syria peace talks in almost a year are in danger of getting lost in procedure, as officials obsess about who will meet whom, but behind the scenes diplomats say it’s largely up to Russia to call the tune.
America considers the Muslim world to be her private empire. She directs and monitors every move within it, working alone or involving other powers as she wishes with very few exceptions. It is expected that Syria will be incoming National Security Advisor McMaster’s top priority at this time. The American military is actively considering bringing ground forces to Syria, as America prefers to bring its troops to take direct control when the fighting is mostly done. According to another Reuters report:
U.S. General Joseph Votel, head of the U.S. military’s Central Command, which oversees U.S. forces in the Middle East, told reporters traveling with him in the region that the United States could ultimately need more U.S. forces in Syria to accelerate the campaign.
Muslims must recognise in these events not America’s strength but her weakness. It is only because of the loyal subservience of our agent rulers that America is able to continue to impose her will on Muslims lands.
New American Policy in Afghanistan
The wave of devastating bomb attacks in Pakistan this month must be seen as the beginnings of a new initiative from the Trump administration over Afghanistan. It is the standard method of the foreigner to foment troubles and crises in Muslims lands and then rush to ‘solve’ these in his own interests. According to a report filed in the Dawn:
“The United States is quietly urging Pakistan and Afghanistan to avoid a confrontational approach and find a minimum common ground for combating terrorism.
Diplomatic sources told Dawn that in conversations with Pakistani and Afghan officials, both in Washington and in Islamabad and Kabul, American officials have asked them also to devise a mechanism for resolving their disputes.
The US government was willing to help both governments in finding a common ground for joint actions against the terrorists operating from both sides of the border, the sources said.
Gen John Nicholson, the top US commander in Afghanistan, also indicated this when he told the US Senate’s Armed Services Committee this month that the United States was seeking to set up an “enduring counterterrorism platform” in Afghanistan. ”
The American establishment is seeking a new policy in Afghanistan, after considering Obama’s policy there to have failed. It appears that Trump’s new defence secretary, General James Mattis, has made Afghanistan his top priority, being very familiar with its reality after leading the US Central Command that oversees Afghanistan from 2010 to 2013.
Pakistan’s rulers have been quick to blame recent terrorist attacks on Afghanistan-based militants. But they have not been able to utter even a word against America, whom the whole world knows stands behind the Kabul regime. Muslims will never be free of the conspiracies of the foreigner until they re-establish their own state, the righteous Islamic Khilafah on the method of Prophet ﷺ.
British Muslim Teacher Taken off US-bound Flight: I was Treated like a Criminal
A young British Muslim teacher escorted off a New York-bound flight by US officials in front of the school party he was helping lead has spoken of his concerns that he was targeted simply because of his religion. Maths teacher Juhel Miah, 25, who was born in Birmingham and brought up in Swansea, said his treatment left him feeling humiliated. Both he and his school are demanding an explanation from the US authorities. Miah told the Guardian: “I’m not an angry type of person. I don’t get easily worked up, otherwise I wouldn’t be a teacher. But I was definitely angry. It hit me the hardest was when I was being escorted off the plane. Everyone was looking at me. “Not just members of the public but my school, my kids, fellow teachers. It made me feel so small, as if I had done something wrong, as if I am a criminal. Everyone must have been thinking that – even the kids from my school. I hope not but that’s what was going through my head. I didn’t know where to look. “This shouldn’t happen to anyone. I’ve followed all the procedures. I’ve ticked all the right boxes yet they made me feel like a criminal. I’ve got no criminal record, I’ve never been in trouble. I was in shock, I couldn’t believe it was happening. I felt powerless, as if I was being targeted and there was nothing I could do. “No one could give me an explanation. The only thing I can put it down to unfortunately – I hope I’m wrong – is because I’m a Muslim. That’s all I can put it down to. I hope that’s not true.” Miah’s ordeal came a week after a US court upheld a decision to suspend President Donald Trump’s executive order that temporarily banned entry to the country from seven Muslim-majority countries. The Welsh first minister, Carwyn Jones, has written to the foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, asking for “urgent clarification”. The US has not commented. He has not been to any of the seven countries – Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan and Libya – whose citizens were the subject of Trump’s travel ban. His parents are of Bangladeshi origin. “None of my family has been to those countries. My brother flew to Florida last year. I still can’t pinpoint why me. “I hope this isn’t true, I really don’t want this to be true but it all started with the first American official I met and the moment she read Mohammed. “I just hope this doesn’t happen to anyone else. That’s my number one goal now. I want a reason, an explanation. If it was a mistake someone should just put their hands up and say it was a mistake and it won’t happen again. I would still like to go to America one day. I just hope it boils down to human error and someone says sorry.” [Source: The Guardian]
Despite public reassurances that the Muslim ban has been rescinded, the exact opposite is happening on the ground. Anyone with a Muslim name is a target for American custom officials.
Egypt’s Sisi, Jordan’s Abdullah Reaffirm Support for Two-state Solution
The leaders of Egypt and Jordan reaffirmed their continued support on Tuesday for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict after U.S. President Donald Trump suggested abandoning it. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah discussed the issue and coordination of their positions on the Middle East peace process at a meeting in Cairo, a statement from Sisi’s office said. Trump suggested at a White House meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week that he was open to new ways to achieve peace that did not necessarily entail the creation of a Palestinian state, a benchmark of U.S. policy for decades. Most Arab countries call for a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders before Israel seized the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza. Netanyahu has described the 1967 lines as indefensible and has said Israel would never return to them. “The two sides discussed future movements to break gridlock within the Middle East peace process, especially with U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration taking power,” Sisi’s office said in a statement after the Sisi-Abdullah meeting. “They also discussed mutual coordination to reach a two-state solution and establish a Palestinian state based on the June 4, 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as a capital, which is a national constant that cannot be given up.” The meeting took place two days after media reports that the two men secretly met with Netanyahu last year in a failed attempt by the Obama administration to convene a wider regional summit on Israeli-Palestinian peace.A Netanyahu spokesman declined to comment on the report in Israel’s Haaretz daily. Sisi’s office issued a statement referring to it as having “incorrect information” but did not deny that a meeting took place. No immediate comment was available from Jordan. [Source: Reuters]
The Jewish entity and America have shifted their position on the viability of a two state solution. However, the rulers of the Muslim world adhere to it like gospel. There is only one solution to Palestine and that is liberation via the Khilafah Rashidah.
Pakistan to Receive US Attack Helicopters in 2017
The United States will deliver three Bell AH-1Z Viper twin-engine attack helicopters to Pakistan in 2017, according to U.S. media reports, part of a total shipment of 12. The first batch of three helicopters will be delivered in 2017, whereas the remaining nine will arrive in 2018, based on information obtained from Bell Helicopters by aviation journalist Alan Warnes. the U.S. State Department approved the sale of 15 AH-1Z Vipers, missiles, and communications equipment at an estimated cost of $952 million in April 2015. Pakistan ordered the first three helicopters in August 2015, and placed an additional order for nine helicopters in April 2016. A U.S. Department of Defense contract notification published in April 2016 only refers to a total of nine AH-1Z Viper helicopters to be purchased by Pakistan for an estimated $170.2 million contract. So far, Islamabad has not placed an order for the remaining attack helicopters. The original request by Pakistan also included the sale of 1,000 AGM-114 R Hellfire II missiles. Pakistan Army Aviation is slated to deploy the helicopters in counterinsurgency operations in Pakistan’s tribal areas. By acquiring the helicopters, “Pakistan will enhance its ability to conduct operations in North Waziristan Agency [NWA], the Federally Administered Tribal Areas [FATAs], and other remote and mountainous areas in all-weather, day and night environment,” according to an April 2015 Defense Security Cooperation Agency press release. Pakistan’s military will also receive four Russian-made Mi-35M attack helicopters in 2017. The Mi-35M is the export version of the Mi-24 gunship and is particularly suited for operations in mountainous terrain. Pakistan Army Aviation could acquire up to 20 Mi-35Ms in the years ahead. “Given the cost of building the necessary Mi-35M logistics and maintenance infrastructure, expanding the fleet beyond four aircraft would financially be a sound decision for the Pakistani military,”. Islamabad is also considering the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) T-129 attack helicopter or the Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group (CAIG) Z-10 helicopter gunship as an alternative to the Mi-35M. The new gunships will slowly phase out Pakistan Army Aviation’s obsolete fleet of U.S.-made AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters. [Source: Diplomat]
What is the purpose of accumulating so much firepower and then targeting Muslims? Surely, the real culprits behind Pakistan’s insecurity are India and America.