WASHINGTON, September 16, 2014 — According to CNN, on Wednesday September 10th, 2014, United States president Barak Obama asked Congress “to authorize to arm and train moderate Syrian opposition forces to fight ISIS.” This is a critical decision for the United States and Congress, as there is little guarantee these weapons will successfully reach “moderate” members of the Syrian opposition or that they will remain out of the hands of terrorist groups. There are multiple unclear points that need to be discussed when talking about aiding Syrian opposition groups.
January 1st 2014 The situation in Bahrain is a clear example of how human’s blood is viewed less important than oil, power, and political interest. For the last three years, the government of Bahrain has carried out systematic persecution of the Shia community in this country, yet the media outlets and governments are silent. The government views the Shia majority as a threat to the continued power and control held by the Al-Khalifa family.
WASHINGTON, September 15, 2014 — For activists and others who are in prison due to their desire for freedom, September 15 is International Democracy day. In the year 2007, the United Nations General Assembly resolved to observe this particular day as the International Day of Democracy. The purpose of promoting such a subject was to introduce the principle of democracy to the world, inviting nations to contribute to this concept by bringing democracy to their country.
WASHINGTON, September 4, 2014 — A number of Middle Eastern presidents, kings and despots have had a western education. What has that education done for them?
Education and experience are two sides of one coin: It takes both to succeed in life.
Education is the foundation of understanding, acceptance and respect of one for another without any condition. The right education grants the knowledge to not only provide an income, but also to shape our lives and our interactions with others. Education shapes minds; a good education makes us better human beings, people who can work in civilized societies and help those around them.
While a good education can shape good human beings, a bad or dishonest education can make us worse. What kind of education have national leaders received in the west?
The King of Bahrain studied at America’s Command and General Staff College and at The Leys School in Cambridge, England. He experienced the freedoms protected in the United Kingdom and the United States. He lived in an open society with free speech and a free press. Yet he fails to trust his own people with the freedoms he experienced here.
Given the opportunity for a liberating western education, King Hamad did not internalize the importance of freedom and human rights to take back to his country. Bahrainis are under brutal attack by their government. Many cases of killing, torture and rape have been recorded in Bahrain by human rights organizations such as Human rights watch, Amnesty International and Shia rights watch.
King Hamad seems to be consciously inflicting torture on the east. He refuses to endorse the basic rights he experienced in the west to his own people. He ignores the principles of leadership taught in the West which call for him to respect his people and allow them a say in their government. Instead he imposes the forms of oppression common in the region’s history.
Syrian president Bashar al-Assad also studied abroad. He did postgraduate study at the Western Eye Hospital in London. He has a better understanding of Western culture and freedom through his half-British wife. Although the opposition movement in Syria was hijacked by terrorist groups such as the al-Nusra Front and Islamic state of Iraq and al Sham (ISIS), in its early stages he could have resolved many issues before they exploded into civil war.
The kings of Qatar and United Arab Emirates, two countries with a history of funding terrorist groups, graduated from the British Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Former Emir of Qatar and Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyana both received a Western education and experienced many rights before they become leaders at home and suppressed their people.
While many countries fail to educate their people, other nations replace education with fabricated teachings of Islam. Many Islamic schools teach close-mindedness to their students, brainwashing them into extremism. The Al-Azhar University in Cairo was founded in 970 or 972 to teach the Qur’an and Islamic law. Al-Azhar intended to be the center of a growing community of scholars who would promote the message of Peace in the world.
Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way. Graduates from that university end up with radical and extremist ideologies; they promote human rights abuse and targeted killings. Yusuf al-Qaradawi, 87, is an example of an Al-Azhar graduate. The U.K. and U.S. have banned him from visiting because of his promotion of violence against innocent people. Al-Qaradawi was a principal shareholder and a Sharia advisor of Bank al-Taqwa, a bank that the U.S and the UN associate with financing al-Qaeda.
There are other “scholars” like al-Qaradawi who have have the blood of innocent people, such as Shia Muslims, on their hands. In recent months, Al-Azhar has banned its students from connections or associations with Shia Muslims, further showing its sectarian face. Shafi Alajmi, a Kuwaiti scholar, is another extremist who has a record of hate speeches against Shia Muslims. In a June, 2013 speech in front of the embassy of Lebanon, he admitted ordering the slaughter of Sayed Mousawi, a Shia Muslim scholar, and his wife and two daughters in the town of Hatla, Syria.
Despite his admission of responsibility, the government of Kuwait has failed to hold Alajmi accountable for the murder. In a television interview, Alajmi said that he is collecting and sending money to Syrian extremists to buy weapons for foreign fighters. Despite his open support of terrorists, there has yet to be any foreign or domestic intervention.
The misinterpretation of islamic law has fueled the growing hatred and abuse of Shia Muslims in the Middle East. Leaders fail to react to the growing sectarianism endorsed by the western schools they attended. Not only do they fail to guide their people, but they also neglect to uphold punishment to those advocating extremism. Their governments deny their citizens basic freedoms, despite their life and educational experience in the west.
So far Western and Islamic educational institutions have failed to create true leaders who care for and protect those they lead. Most of our leaders lack the needed leadership skills to end inhumane treatment of their people. In fact many of them are the ones fueling terror and discrimination.
Maybe now is a perfect time for all educational centers and schools to evaluate their work. If the people they’ve educated are human rights violators, have these schools done what they intended to do?
ISIS beyond a terrorist group, beyond humanityAt http://www.commdiginews.com/world-news/isis-beyond-a-terrorist-group-beyond-humanity-24861/#SU2bOF42zOGrOtqg.99WASHINGTON, September 2, 2014 – President Obama’s defense secretary Chuck Hagel, call the ISIS and ISIL “sophisticated and well-funded, they are beyond terrorist group”.
This comes after the attack of the town Senjar, Iraq which is mainly populated with Izadies, and the warning of the United Nation toward the “massacre” in the city of Amerli, the mainly Shia Turkmen who are under siege of ISIS. Children, women and men are left without having even small portion of food to survive.
There are a couple concept that are missing in Secretary Hagel’s statement regarding the bloody and inhumane terrorist group ISIS. Unfortunately we are not studying the basic steps of creation, funding and training of this terrorist group.
ISIS was established in Syria around 2012 with the separation of the most extremist terrorist expelled from Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria. Many might know the Jabhat al-Nusra was created by countries such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar and were trained in military camps in Turkey and Jordan.
For those who have traveled to different countries or know the language, it is not hard to recognize that a large number of ISIS commanders have a Saudi Arabian Accent.
For example, in the video published on YouTube where an ISIS commander tells Shia hostages to say ISIS is great to avoid execution, the commander has a Saudi accent. In the video, several ISIS members then go behind the Shia and execute them. The executioners also have Saudi accents.
Saudi influence, combined with the wealth of kings and religious leaders, have encouraged foreigners to join the ISIS fight. These leaders include Mohammad Al Arifi in Saudi Arabia wand Shafi Al Ajami, a preacher and serving assistant dean of The Kuwait University college of Sharia in Kuwait.
Secretary Hagel mentioned in a press conference streamed on Fox News that we have to be prepared for everything. Well Mr. Secretary, preparation comes by not closing our eyes to the funds and weapons being delivered by the aforementioned countries to terrorist groups.
In order to bring peace and democracy to the region, the United States needs to cut the supplies to the terrorist groups. This could come by:
- Identifying leaders who are exploiting the hopelessness of foreign Muslims and encouraging them to join the fight in Iraq and Syria.
- Preventing the funding of the terrorist groups and stopping aid from neighboring countries.
- Monitoring humanitarian aid with the help of United Nations and ensuring it is distributed fairly and equally.
- Training and providing security to the populations surrounded by terrorist groups, such as Senjar, Amerli.
This is the best time for United States to prove that the technology and American dream is achievable. We are one nation and we have to prove to the people that humanity matters to us and we do what it takes to defend rights of people in need.