http://www.salaam.co.uk/news Salaam News - the muslim spin on the events that matter "Obama and Brown rely on a hypnotising policy language which can – and perhaps will – be applied as easily to Somalia or Yemen as Afghanistan. It misleads us in several respects simultaneously: minimising differences between cultures, exaggerating our fears, aggrandising our ambitions, inflating a sense of moral obligations and power, and confusing our goals. All these attitudes are aspects of a single worldview and create an almost irresistible illusion...It is a language that exploits tautologies and negations to suggest inexorable solutions. It makes our policy seem a moral obligation, makes failure unacceptable, and alternatives inconceivable. It does this so well that a more moderate, minimalist approach becomes almost impossible to articulate. Afghanistan, however, is the graveyard of predictions", writes Rory Stewart. Friday 03rd July 2009 Politics http://www.salaam.co.uk/news/index.php#255808 The new head of the UN's nuclear watchdog will be the darling of Washington and its allies. In tackling Iran, Japanese diplomat Yukiya Amano, will be hard pressed not to push Uncle Sam's agenda while making sure that no discussion of Israel's nuclear weapons takes place. The stage is set for another round of WMD's and regime change. This time Iran is the target. Friday 03rd July 2009 Politics http://www.salaam.co.uk/news/index.php#255810 Far-right parties across the European Union, including the British National Party, did well in elections to the European parliament in June leading to a spike in white supremacists activities. Instead of demonizing Muslims, intelligence agencies should be focusing on the real threats from the collusion between militant right-wing white nationalists and extremists Likudnik neocons. Friday 03rd July 2009 Politics http://www.salaam.co.uk/news/index.php#255806 Former US CIA agent Robert Seldon Lady has confessed to his role in the abduction of an Egyptian cleric for questioning. In an interview with the Italian Il Giornale newspaper, the former CIA operative admitted to his involvement in the 2003 kidnapping of Egyptian cleric Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr known as Abu Omar under the suspicion that he had links to 'terror' groups. Lady and 25 of his accomplices are now being prosecuted in Milan for their role in the abduction of Abu Omar. The prosecution of a US spy is an unprecedented incident as no previous trials involving an American secret agent have been held before. Friday 03rd July 2009 Politics http://www.salaam.co.uk/news/index.php#255809 A story leaked by top United States and Saudi officials bolstered the general belief in Washington that Iran masterminded the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia which killed 19 US airmen and wounded 372. The Saudis had already been working to thwart the US investigation, and the new disinformation obscured the trail to Osama bin Laden. Friday 03rd July 2009 Politics http://www.salaam.co.uk/news/index.php#255802 The torture report has been delayed again, as it clearly contains information that is vital to those of who believe that President Obama cannot "restore America's moral stature in the world" (as he pledged in November) without holding to account those who authorized the use of torture by US personnel. However, every delay only increases the fear that, on arrival, the report will be barely less comprehensively redacted than the laughably censored version that was released in May 2008. Friday 03rd July 2009 Politics http://www.salaam.co.uk/news/index.php#255804 Millions of US citizens continue to face discrimination at the hands of police and other law enforcement agencies just because they are not white, although the country's new leader in the White House is himself of African descent on his father's side. In one federal programme called "Operation Front Line", designed to "detect, deter and disrupt terror operations" among immigrants during the months leading up to the presidential election in November 2004, foreign nationals from Muslim-majority countries were 1,280 times more likely to be targeted than similarly situated individuals from other countries. Friday 03rd July 2009 Politics http://www.salaam.co.uk/news/index.php#255805 A descendant of India's last Mughal emperor has been rescued from a life of penury in Calcutta by getting a job with the state-run Coal India. Madhu is the illiterate great-great-granddaughter of emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar and has been employed to run errands in Coal India's offices. Bahadur Shah Zafar was placed on the throne in 1837. He was the last of a line of Mughal emperors who ruled India for three centuries. In 1857, when Indian soldiers mutinied against their British masters, Bahadur Shah Zafar was declared their commander-in-chief. Friday 03rd July 2009 Women http://www.salaam.co.uk/news/index.php#255807 Turkish gameshow enlists imam, Greek Orthodox priest, rabbi and monk to try to convert atheists, with pilgrimage as reward. The programme's makers say they want to promote religious belief while educating Turkey's overwhelmingly Muslim population about other faiths. Friday 03rd July 2009 Recreation http://www.salaam.co.uk/news/index.php#255803 The 150-year sentence for Bernie Madoff is headline grabbing, but what is surprising is not that Madoff got such a long sentence, but that other corporate criminals escape with light sentences or no criminal prosecution at all. One of the signal powers of corporations is their ability to influence the law and culture so that their most heinous acts are not considered criminal. Knowingly addict millions of children to a deadly habit? Not a crime. Collaborate with military regimes and destroy lives and livelihoods in poor countries? Not a crime. Endanger the planet with greenhouse gas pollution -- and then mobilize politically to block emergency efforts to save the earth? Not a crime. The world is a little bit more just today, after the sentencing of Bernie Madoff. When other corporate culprits are sentenced comparably, the world will be a lot more just. Thursday 02nd July 2009 Law http://www.salaam.co.uk/news/index.php#255794