Habib Siddiqui

Remember the words of President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela who on September 20, 2006, standing before the United Nations General Assembly, said, “Yesterday, the devil came here,” alluding to President George W. Bush’s appearance before the General Assembly? Chavez continued, “Right here. Right here. And it smells of sulfur still today, this table that I am now standing in front of.” In case anyone had missed the point, Mr. Chavez drove it home: “Yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, from this rostrum, the president of the United States, the gentleman to whom I refer as the devil, came here, talking as if he owned the world. Truly. As the owner of the world.” Those remarks, combined with his hand gestures, will probably never be forgotten by many of our generation. They produced much chuckles and applause in the assembly hall. Every September, many of the world’s leaders come to New York to address the General Assembly sessions of the United Nations. The 192-member Assembly, U.N.’s supreme pol...

Re: http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP233209 It seems I have some major disagreements with the Arab scholar Ibrahim al-Bulehi. I believe that while those individual philosophers from Andalusia like Ibn Rushd were not Arabs they definitely were products of Islamic civilization and not what is called western civilization. The Greco-Roman western civilization had collapsed centuries before the Islamic one ushered in. While our scholars did study Greek philosophy and the sciences, their contribution is beyond mere Arabization of the Greek knowledge. They took theory from textbooks and made it a practical science that nurtured on experimentation and observation. In that process, not only did they challenge old wrong notions and hypotheses but also did come up with new theories and axioms that are still valid. It would be wrong to separate them from Islamic civilization. They were both the products and trailblazers of that Islamic civilization. It is a...

It is a sad day for America. With the death of Senator Teddy Kennedy, America lost one of its most noble souls. He was an articulate advocate of human rights, an unwavering champion of peace against war, and, of course, immigration rights and health-care for all. His was a life very few could aspire for - from childhood upbringing unto death. He was able to see things very few had dared to consider. He was able to discuss things with ease very few dared to discuss. Often times the stand he took were not politically correct. Yet as a man of parts, a visionary, as one of the best citizens of our planet, he took a bold stand and tried to make America better for all its citizens and inhabitants and by that process he touched the lives of too many, even those who lived outside. He knew that we are all connected somehow. What is good for our world ought to have been good for America, too. In deep sadness, I recall the demise of this great man whose contribution to the cause of Bangladesh s...

My attention has been drawn to an article by Mr. Khalaf Habtoor in the Global Arab Network. In a blatant statement he says that the Persian Gulf need to be named the Arabian Gulf. Khalaf Habtoor's article on the naming of the Persian Gulf is very problematic and shows nothing but arrogance and lack of wisdom. While the entire Muslim ummah is bleeding from one coast of the Arabian Sea to the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, such a proposal is not only utterly stupid but also very divisive and, therefore, un-Islamic, further creating tension within the region, as if we don't have enough already! I condemn such chauvinism and would encourage our Arab community to rise above petty narrow chauvinism and Arabism for the sake of God, especially in this blessed month of Ramadhan. Let us not put ax on our own feet with pronouncements and agenda that are self-defeating and only end up strengthening our enemies that like nothing better than disunity and strife within our camp. May Allah g...

Re: http://www.japaninc.com/Saving_the_Earth_from_Global_Warming#comment-1739 Flavio Souza has written a good article on harms done by human beings to the very place they call their home - the planet earth. Change is inevitable in history. Thus, we see that today's men are far more advanced to exploit nature for their needs. But in that process, something definitely has gone seriously wrong. Greed and satisfaction of our desires have taken priority over common sense. Thus, we are behaving like that stupid farmer who would rather eat the goose that was laying the golden eggs. A visit to places like Bangladesh, her frequent bout with natural calamities, is enough to make a believer out of anyone who is still doubtful about the harmful effect of global warming. Millions of people are routinely marooned there; the place is slowing going under water. And yet, hardly anything is done to stop this process of global warming. On the top of this misery, India is planning on building dams on ...

Re: http://theseoultimes.com/ST/?url=/ST/db/read.php?idx=8730 I must admit I have never read anything this bad in quite a while. This article is a blatant one-sided christian attack against Islam. The appearance of this kind of hateful article in a newspaper from South Korea only shows that the paper does not have a high standard in journalism and is abused as a tool to create division and animosity with the world of Islam. This kind of article twists facts and distorts history, while trying to protect Christianity from a similar criticism when we know its problematic history of enslavement of hundreds of millions of people in vast territories of Asia, Africa, Australia and the Americas, let alone the Crusades that saw no mercy from warriors for Christ. Much to the contrast of Jesus's much publicized words of peace what the Christian West presented the world was an ugly side of Christianity that the world never saw before. The sad reality is even in this age of information super hi...

As I mentioned last week, the US health care program needs a massive overhaul and not a cosmetic one. This fact was recognized by all the presidential candidates last year when they ran for the highest office in the country. The current program only helps those who are insured and could afford to pay premium prices for their desired services, leaving behind tens of millions who are uninsured or under-insured. The under-insured must pay exorbitant prices for their desired healthcare services – from making up the difference in hospital or medical cost, which can run into tens of thousands of dollars just for staying a night or two in a hospital to buying prescription drugs. Just to give some examples. When someone calls 911 for emergency medical assistance, the ambulatory service would take the patient to the nearest hospital unless asked otherwise. This cost of transporting the patient (usually within 5 miles) to the emergency ward may run close to a thousand dollars! Often times, even ...

(Posted last week, Asian Tribune, Aug. 16, 2009) Ref: http://asiantribune.com/08/16/letter-from-america-clintons-and-obama%E2%80%99s-health-plan/ Last week, Secretary Clinton was in Congo. A Congolese university student asked what her husband thought about a multibillion-dollar Chinese loan offer to Congo. She was visibly upset with the question and snapped, “My husband is not secretary of state, I am.” She asked, "You want me to tell you what my husband thinks?" "If you want my opinion, I will tell you my opinion," she said. "I am not going to be channeling my husband." Many observers and analysts have called Mrs. Clinton’s instant reaction to the student’s question unbecoming of the top diplomat of the USA. Some have even tried to explain her behavior as a reaction of a disgruntled wife who felt sidelined by her husband who had earlier won the release of two American journalists from North Korea, capturing headlines in the media, something that she could...

For years there were rumors that the Israeli government was trying to poison Palestinian wells, inject women with infertility shots and taking organs from dead Palestinians. Afraid of being dumped as anti-Semites, reporters ignored such horrendous crimes of the Zionist state against unarmed Palestinians. Thanks to Aftonbladet, now for the first time, we have some proofs. Yes, the report is too much for all those hypocrites who were more interested in protecting the image of the apartheid state. Ref: http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=103951&sectionid=351020202 http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=103990&sectionid=351020202

Ref: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/bronwen_maddox/article6793984.ece (Comment Posted in the Times Online on Aug. 13, 2009) Both communist China and democratic India are the biggest trading partners of the Myanmar regime, providing the necessary transfusion that the hated regime requires to sustain its criminal hold on the country. So, if we want to see a difference in the attitude of the military regime, both these countries have to stop their trades with Burma and impose conditions for any future trading that mandates people's rule in a free election, allowing all the people - from marginalized Rohingyas of Arakan (denied of their citizenship rights) to the Karens to the Shans to the Burman majority and all other religious communities that live inside Burma. But the sad fact is both these neighbors of Burma care less about such easing of civil rights in Burma and care more for trading that helps their economy. Burma is also not the Middle East and as such, we...

Ref: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6793574.ece (Posted in the Times Online on Aug. 13, 2009) As a student of history for most of my life, nothing really surprises me any more about blatant violations of human rights in France, the very country that once presented us with the slogans of equality, liberty and fraternity. This country and its laws and regulations now epitomize hypocrisy. One has to really question the IQ of that seemingly intellectually disadvantaged chief lifeguard who found a head-to-toe swimsuit called burkini less hygienic than a man's brief trunk or a western woman's swimsuit. By implementing such moronic laws, he and his supporters within France society are showing that their secularism really sucks, and is worse than the Taliban version. The French fundamentalist secularists are behaving like morons that are failing to differentiate between common sense and stupid laws that make no sense except showing despicable arrogance. Shame...

If you have been following the Iraqi Invasion and the subsequent American Occupation, you probably did not miss hearing about the trigger-happy Blackwater mercenaries. Blackwater (now Xe Services) is the largest private military (mercenary) company in the USA that trains more than 40,000 people a year. The training consists of military offensive and defensive operations, as well as smaller scale personal security. The company has nine business units. Its Aviation Worldwide Services (AWS) provide services to the CIA, and its aircrafts have also been used in the CIA’s “extraordinary rendition” programs. Blackwater first came to our attention in 2003 when it received a $21 million no-bid contract from the U.S. government for guarding L. Paul Bremer, the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority. Within months, it drew much notoriety for trigger-happy, killer instinct of its guards that resulted in wanton killing of unarmed civilians. The Iraqis hated these savages who had no respect for...

China and her energy and defense strategy Extracted from http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/pdfs/China_Military_Power_Report_2009.pdf Although China is expected to continue to rely on coal as its primary fuel source, consumption of petroleum and other liquid fuels will likely grow significantly, due in large part to growth in the transportation sector. China plans to increase natural gas utilization from three percent to eight percent of total consumption by 2010. Similarly, China plans to build some 40 1,000-megawatt nuclear power reactors by 2020, increasing nuclear power from two to six percent of total electricity output. China currently consumes approximately 7.85 million barrels of oil per day. By 2015, China’s oil consumption could rise to 10-12 million barrels per day. In May 2008, China became the world’s second-largest importer of crude oil, surpassing Japan. China currently imports over 53 percent of its oil (around 4.04 million barrels per day in 2007). China imports about 46 ...

Dear Congressman Klein, What is needed is a nuclear-free world, and not just nuclear-free Iran. What you guys are proposing in the House is a hypocritical one to safeguard the nuclear-Brahmins while going after nuclear-wannabes, the nomo-sudra, nuclear-untouchables like Iran. Why not at least try for a nuclear-free Middle East by ensuring that Israel does not have nuclear arsenal? Do you know that Israel is not even a signatory to the NPT while Iran is? But you won't do that essential task, and you won't even condemn the rogue state for her monumental war crimes. So, why all this fuss about Iran's nuclear peaceful program? Have not we seen enough what the immediately past Republican administration did to our economy by misleading our nation into Iraq's never-to-be-found WMDs? If you have found one WMD there, please, share that information with our American citizens before trying to push us into a new war against Iran. And please, stop your hypocritical resolutions in th...

Ref: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8106069.stm On July 29, 2009, the BBC News had a report on corruption in Bangladesh (Corruption Still Haunts Bangladesh). It noted that an entrepreneur who wanted to start an export company last year had to wait more than a year getting the necessary license and had to return to government offices multiple times, each time paying bribe to a different person. What is also worrisome, as pointed out by the president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Dhaka, is the mere perception amongst the filthy rich in Bangladesh that they can buy success through corruption, and need not be efficient or honest. Reports like that in the BBC or elsewhere shouldn’t surprise anyone. Just a look at the Transparency International (TI) corruption perception index between 2004 and 2007 is enough to understand what direction Bangladesh was heading (2008: Ranked 147 out of 180; 2007: Ranked 167 out of 179; 2006: Ranked 156 out of 163; 2005: Ranked 158 out of 158; 200...

Last week if you have listened to the American media, you could not have missed this single most important event of the week - President Barack Obama’s beer party in the White House! Every other news item seemed to get relegated to not-so-important status while the nation was abuzz with this one. So, what did really happen, leading to the White House beer party? Well, the story goes like this. According to a Cambridge, Massachusetts police report, on Thursday afternoon, July 16, 2009, a white woman reported seeing a man “wedging his shoulder into the front door as to pry the door open.” [Apparently, the white neighbor did not know the owner - Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., historian and director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University, who is black.] Campus police arrived at the scene of probable burglary attempt and found Gates there. A campus police officer Sgt. Crowley ordered Gates to identify himself, and Gates refused, a...