Habib Siddiqui

Today, I read an article by Nicolas Kristof in the NY Times where he mentions about new signs of trouble in the Nuba Mountains area of Sudan where the Samaritan Purse, the Christian missionary group that is led by Franklin Graham, is involved. Here are my comments I just sent to Kristof in his blog: Samaritan Purse is a Christian missionary group with declared agenda to turn Africa into a continent of Christianity. For years, it has worked with minority Christians to stir trouble against non-Christian regimes. Reports from Africa has shown that these Christian evangelical groups have provided arms and dollars to Christians to create Christian enclaves in those countries. And probably nowhere is this strategy more vivid than Sudan where the group was able to win referendum for the southern Sudanese Christians away from their majority Sudanese Muslims. I am, thus, concerned about the development in the Nuba mountains where the new allegations have emerged about government's strong a...

Geert Wilders, the Dutch politician who heads the fascist-leaning Party for Freedom (PVV), has gained much notoriety -- and deservingly so -- in the western world for his hate speeches inciting violence, discrimination, racism, bigotry and xenophobia against immigrants, in general, and the Muslim community, in particular. In the post-9/11 era of Islamophobia, he has often acted as its lead pit bull in Europe savagely attacking Islam and Muslims with his depraved and hateful statements and messages. He has called for banning of the Qur’an, comparing it with Hitler’s Mein Kampf. He has also produced the hate-filled documentary film Fitna, which since its release in 2008 has been promoted and distributed by Ruder Finn, the same PR firm that was instrumental in crafting the public relations campaign for its long-time client Philip Morris (now Altria) that disputed the evidence that tobacco smoking is hazardous to health. Thanks to his pro-Israeli and rabidly Islamophobic supporters like R...

In recent weeks, I have been getting some messages from Mr. Perumal, the founding president of a Kerala based human rights group: OHIROS that wants to weed out caste system. Here below is my suggestion to him: Salam (Peace). I was impressed with your website which is trying to weed out the curse of the caste system. As you and I know too well, caste system is the worst form of perennial slavery the world has ever known. It forces people to be enslaved not only in this earthly life but also in the afterlife (if you especially believe in reincarnation). This caste system was introduced by the Aryan invaders to the south Asian landmass, east of the HIndukush mountain range. The process resulted in the development of the most oppressive system ever known to mankind - the caste system in which the conquered people were relegated to the lowest of the low position, the Sudra - the untouchables, while the invaders claimed self-styled the Brahmin and Kshatriya status among their priestly and w...

Are Muslim Americans trying to impose a Taliban-style Shariah law in the USA? Seemingly, the answer is ‘yes’, if you are a Republican politician. The idea that America is this close to having her constitution replaced by the Muslim Scripture – the Qur’an - used to be a fringe notion in the post-9/11 era of Islamophobia that was packaged, promoted and propagated by malicious “Islamist watchdog” bloggers, neocon pundits with some think tanks and pen-pushing zealots. But nowadays that absurd idea has inched closer to the mainstream, thanks to our Republican politicians. Truly, outside Ron Paul of Texas, I don’t know of any serious Republican politician who has not tried to bank on this ‘menace.’ Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House, is the lead dog in this evil campaign. Last year, in his speech at the American Enterprise Institute (a neocon think tank) where he is a senior fellow, Gingrich said, “The fight against Shariah and the maddrassas and mosques which teach hatred and fa...

Islamic history is replete with stories of benevolent Caliphs who respected learned scholars and were cognizant of their accountability before people and God in the two worlds. Take for instance the well-known story of Umar ibn Abdul Aziz (R), the Umayyad ruler. When he was appointed caliph, he summoned Salem ibn Abdullah, Raja' ibn Hayat and Muhammad ibn Ka'b – three great personalities of the early decades of Islam (Tabi’un or the successors). "I have been afflicted with this trial. What am I to do, for I know this high office to be a trial, even though men count it for a blessing?" - He asked. They advised, "If you wish tomorrow to escape from God's punishment, look upon aged Muslims (your subjects) as though each one were your father, and regard youthful Muslims as your brothers, Muslim children as your own sons, treating them in all respects as one does one's father, brother, and son." [Tadhkirat al-Auliya'] Consider also the case of Abba...

I am very disappointed with Fareed Zakaria's invitation of Ann Coulter to his GPS show. Ann Coulter is a hateful, xenophobic, anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, anti-minority kind of divisive media personality who earns her livelihood by all the inhuman traits that she espouses. Fox is for those bigots and racists, and not CNN. By giving Ann the opportunity to appear in the CNN's much liked GPS program, Fareed and his producer have shown poor judgment. No conscientious person should openly welcome a highly polarizing, nasty commentator like Ann who has been promoting hateful camps on either side of the ocean. Through her idiotic comments, Ann has once again shown that she is an irresponsible commentator and the GPS would have been better served without her presence in this week's program.

As the Congressman Anthony Weiner incident showed social media is increasingly bringing out the hidden dark side in one's life. The embarrassing thoughts are now shared in the open as if they are okay. Little do these social media exploiters realize that this medium is "social" and open, and can be ruinous to a married person's life, and surely, politically Waterloo for a politician. I am glad that Tony Weiner sounded genuinely repentant and confessed that his was a stupid thing to do. Such textings and photos are never kosher for anyone, esp. for someone like Weiner who's in his mid-40s and married to a very beautiful and dignified lady. It would be an uphill struggle for him to earn back the respect of his wife. I wish him all the luck there. Also, he should apologize to each of the recipients of his sex-text messages and amend his ways once and for all time. And it won't come easy. He may like to read my book - Wisdom of Mankind, chapter 3 to find remedies...

Recently Ratko Mladic, the Serbian general, responsible for leading its genocidal campaign against the Bosnian Muslims was captured by the intelligence members of the Serbian government. It is difficult to imagine that Ratko, the Serbian Killer Rat, would have dodged arrest for this long, almost 16 years, without cooperation from the Serbian government and its supporters within the Serbian enclaves of Bosnia. Before his arrest, he was not in any disguise. But where is the outrage about Serbian duplicity, its protection -- all these years for one of the worst mass murderers of our time? Ratko is treated like a celebrity and a star in Serbia. What a shame for Serbia and the Bosnian Serbs! In her recently published article in the NY Times, Natasha Kandic, a human rights activist from Belgrade, writes: "But I am not so sure that Serbia has given up on Mr. Mladic and his fellow generals, who prosecuted a genocidal war in Bosnia. The sympathy that state officials and the news media exp...

Recently, the debate around the trial of suspected war criminals of Bangladesh's liberation war period has become quite hot with arguments for and against about the fairness of the court and justice system in Bangladesh to try such sensitive cases. Afshan Chowdhury's piece on this issue has appeared in the bdnews24.com. Some of the remarks of Mr. Chowdhury are unfortunate. He says, quoting others, Bangladesh is not capable of conducting war crimes trial. Fine, which country is? Did the accused get their fair share in Guantanamo Bay or NY trials of Dr. Aafia Siddique? Truly, I am not aware of any group outside the ICJ in the Hague that can try such cases neutrally. And yet, as we all know, even the USA govt. does not trust it, and thus, has not approved its legality. It is true that BD’s legal system is a flawed one. And as a member of a victimized family that had fought land-grabbing schemes of Saqa Chowdhury and his gang in Chittagong, we know how flawed it is to incriminate ...

Nearly 71% of our earth is covered with water of which only 2.5% is fresh water, and the remainder 97.5% is salt water. Of this fresh water nearly 70% (or 1.75% of total water) is frozen in the icecaps of Antarctica and Greenland. The remainder 0.75% of the total water is perhaps the world’s most important resource that is found in lakes, rivers, reservoirs, underground aquifers and other sources. Water demand is increasing rapidly worldwide. Of the fresh water consumed by humans, nearly 70%is used to produce food. In Asia, e.g., 86% total water withdrawal is in the agriculture sector. Fresh water is also consumed for household, municipal and industrial uses. As the world population rises, while water consumption per capita increases with urbanization and the rapid development of manufacturing industries, the fresh water supplies are increasingly becoming smaller with contaminated lakes, rivers, groundwater aquifers and reservoirs. Large parts of the world are running out of water. A ...

I have written a few times about Iran's nuclear program stating, with supporting evidences, that it is a peaceful one. On the other hand, there are many pro-Israeli propagandists have been suggesting that Iran is close to making her bombs, and all the nonsense imaginable that comes easy with loonies. Obviously, they want to drag the USA into another costly war that would surely write her obituary. As much as the USA was wrong during moron Bush's time with all those false claims about Iraq's WMDs, there is absolutely no truth to Iran's nuclear bombs. Recently Seymour Hersh, probably the best known investigative journalist in our planet, writes about the issue in the New Yorker magazine, and shows that there is no truth to all the silly and dangerous accusations made by the Obama Administration , the Israelis and their 'Amen Corner' in the Capitol Hill. He writes, "There’s a large body of evidence, however, including some of America’s most highly classified i...