Habib Siddiqui

The right wing conservatives within the Republican Party are known for their conservative views on social and political issues. One can understand and empathize with them on many social issues, after all, things are not good within the fabric of American society. With easy access to arms, violence has become ingrained within the American society. Just two days ago, a young University of Texas, Austin, student fired shots in the campus, and finally killed himself. Drugs are also easily available, which are responsible for much of the gun violence plaguing this country. The TV programs are increasingly pushing the bar on tolerating shows that can't be seen in a family setup. And with the internet, nothing is closed to anyone. Pornography is just that easy in the fingertips of any computer user. With cell phones and i-phones, etc. available to most kids, studies suggest that they spend more time on those gadgets than with their books and home-works. No wonder that American students ar...

This time of the year, with many world leaders arriving to attend the United Nations General Assembly session, New York City becomes busier than ever. It is difficult to find empty cabs in Manhattan close to the UN building. Security is extra vigilant and airports are under Orange alert. Occasionally, there are rowdy protests against some world leaders held in front of the UN building that make it even difficult for passersby. So while the city’s hotel and restaurant industry considers these few weeks as their bonanza period, it is surely not a pleasant time for most local New Yorkers. The 65th annual General Assembly started formally on Thursday, September 23, with dozens of presidents, kings and ministers expected to address the gathering over the next few days. The speeches often fail to break new ground, so the infrequent theatrics predictably attract considerable attention. Neither the Libyan leader Mu’ammar al-Gaddafi nor the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez came this time to gra...

Last week I was traveling Georgia and Florida and failed to post my article on the Tea Party before heading out. Today, while going through my mail I found an excellent letter sent to me that provided a link to Lauren Booth's letter to Tony Blair. As you know Blair is popularly known in the west as former president Bush's lapdog. He earned that title diligently. Few people know however that he is also a Zionist lapdog with a worldview that is colored by his extreme prejudice against everything Islamic and Muslim. In Booth's letter you will see the proof. It is a must read for everyone desiring to know the truth about Iran and the Middle East. By the way, Lauren Booth is Tony Blair’s sister in law, and is a peace activist like me.

Many states across America are having primary elections these days to allow the registered members to choose their party candidates for the coming mid-term election in November. [With very few exceptions, most states don’t allow independents or non-registered members to participate in such primary elections where the party candidates are chosen.] From the election results thus far, it has been a shocking outcome for both the major parties where they see that some old guards have been replaced by new faces, and the tea party candidates (vastly Republicans) are winning against candidates preferred by their own party establishment. Rick Lazio, the New York Congressman, who tried to exploit the near-Ground Zero Muslim center controversy as a political trump card, was rejected and lost to businessman Carl Paladino in the Republican gubernatorial race. Christine O'Donnell, a tea party favorite, endorsed by Sarah Palin, defeated veteran Republican Michael Castle in Delaware. But then ther...

The Time magazine had a series of articles on Islam in America, e.g., Islamophobia: Does America Have a Muslim Problem? It can be read here . As I noted elsewhere as a result of Islamophobia, many local communities within the USA are now opposing mosques in their neighborhoods. Here is another example of such bigotry against Islam.

By any measure, 9/11 was a seminal event in American history. No time before since 1812, especially in the post-World War II period, has an attack of this magnitude, killing so many, been brought to the doorsteps of the USA. Even the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor some six decades earlier pail in comparison to the casualties and devastation wreaked by this particular event. It was shocking and unbelievable that America’s symbols of prosperity and power – the twin towers of the World Trade Center (WTC) and the Pentagon – could be attacked by passenger airplanes which were reportedly hijacked and diverted from their scheduled paths to strike those sites. From published reports some 2752 people died in those two WTC towers. Forty people (all passengers of the United flight # 93) are believed to have died in Shanksville, Pennsylvania and 184 in Washington D.C. (including 59 passengers of the American flight # 77). For too long the USA appeared simply immune to attacks on its mainland, pr...

The near-Ground Zero Muslim cultural center project has been the hottest political issue in America for the last couple of months, thanks to bigots like Spencer. The Imam of the center has written an article in the New York Times which explains his reasons for the proposed center. He reiterates, "Our name, Cordoba, was inspired by the city in Spain where Muslims, Christians and Jews co-existed in the Middle Ages during a period of great cultural enrichment created by Muslims. Our initiative is intended to cultivate understanding among all religions and cultures."

Hate crimes against Muslims are on the rise throughout the USA. It is no longer an isolated event centered on a single issue like the proposed Muslim cultural center in Lower Manhattan but it seems that all the Muslim centers and mosques are now vulnerable to attack, vandalism, arson, and other forms of hate crimes. The New York Times has a piece on this latest hate crime which targeted an Islamic center in rural Orleans County, which hugs the shore of Lake Ontario between Buffalo and Rochester. Many such crimes are direct results of poisonous anti-Islam sermons preached by hateful christian preachers. One of the criminals Mark Vendetti, a 17-year teenager involved in the hate crime, said that "I’m a good Christian kid; I go to church every Sunday.” You may like to read this .

At the very outset I must admit that I did not vote for John McCain and Sarah Palin in the last U.S. presidential election. Forget her kowtowing to the neo-conservative, Likudnik, Christian Zionist cause, and harmful divisive views on everything that mattered from internal politics to international affairs, she appeared so vague and so damn stupid in her interview with Katie Couric that I could only take pity on those brain-dead supporters that voted for her and McCain. Well, I am not alone in that evaluation of Palin’s performance. In her new book “Dirty Sexy Politics,” Meghan McCain, daughter of Senator McCain, says that Katie Couric’s interview with Palin before the vice presidential debate had been disastrous. Meghan writes, "Unhappy with her performance, Palin seemed to blame the interview on the campaign. And she continued to blame other poor interviews and snafus on the campaign too.” The selection of Palin as a running mate for McCain itself was a blunder and shocked many ...

The September 2 issue of the New York Times has a very interesting piece on Simon Wiesenthal, the Nazi-hunter. For too long he was considered the lone Nazi hunter having no connection with the Israeli government. But some of us always entertained doubt with that narrative. My view was that he worked intimately with the Israeli secret service - the Mossad. The NY Times article now confirms that suspicion. Tom Segev, the author of the new book “Simon Wiesenthal: The Life and Legends,” says that Mr. Wiesenthal was first employed by the political department of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, a forerunner to the Mossad, and then by the agency itself. It financed his first office in Vienna in 1960, paid him a monthly salary and provided him with an Israeli passport, the biography says. Mr. Wiesenthal’s codename was “Theocrat.” His main task was to help locate Nazi criminals, including Eichmann, one of the architects of the Final Solution, and especially to watch out for neo-Nazis and provide ...