Habib Siddiqui

Here is an article on the above subject by Uri Avnery.

"The test of Judaism is to be an uncompromising supporter of Israel. I reject that," writes Normal Pollack. You can read his article by clicking here .

Here is an article by Ramzy Baroud on Shimon Peres.

Tensions are once again soaring along the contested “line of control” that runs through Kashmir, with Indian Army officials claiming to have launched raids into the side controlled by the Pakistani military to conduct “ surgical strikes ” against militants operating there, apparently getting into fights with the Pakistani troops. Pakistan confirmed two Pakistani soldiers killed and nine wounded trading small arms fire along the frontier. There were intermittent reports of artillery and mortar fire back and forth over the LOC all day. To read the full text of the news, click here .

Please, click here to read an article on the topic - The plight of Myanmar's Rohingya by Hiroshi Kotani; Anchalee Romruen who contributed to this story.

Simmering anger over India's crackdown on 10 weeks of protests in Kashmir risks drawing more young people to radical rebellion, demonstrators and security officials warn, as the sense of despair and alienation from New Delhi deepens. In the worst unrest in the disputed Himalayan region for six years, more than 80 civilians have been killed and thousands wounded, a widespread curfew is in place and suspected ringleaders are being held without charge. "They are treating us like 'dons', like we are criminals," said Bilal Bhat, a 27-year-old journalist who is active in a local youth civil rights movement. Bhat was taken in by police in August and told to stop posting articles on Facebook. It was the second time he has been held. "When I was beaten by the cop, I cursed myself for taking a pen - I should have taken a gun instead," he told Reuters. A conflict that has seeped for decades and spilled into war twice between nuclear-armed rivals India and Paki...

Here is an interesting news below from British era terrorism: The call to British military security forces came early in the morning, shortly after 1 a.m., and could not be ignored. The informant's message was alarming: Assassins planned to kill the commander of British forces in Palestine the following morning; evasive action was needed. The source didn't know the details of the plan, but warned that Gen. Evelyn Barker would be attacked on the brief journey between his home in Jerusalem and his office at British headquarters. The assailants were militant Jews from the Stern Gang, determined to drive the British from the land in their bid for Jewish sovereignty. Before dawn broke on Nov. 14, 1946, according to secret documents declassified Wednesday by the National Archives, Barker's security team was notified of the imminent threat. He changed his route, other special precautions were put in place, and he arrived without incident. Barker was particularly controve...

Shimon Peres, who passed away Wednesday aged 93 after suffering a stroke on 13 September, epitomised the disparity between Israel’s image in the West and the reality of its bloody, colonial policies in Palestine and the wider region. He is perhaps best known in the West for his role in the negotiations that led to the 1993 Oslo Accords which won him, along with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, the Nobel Peace Prize (which per Uri Avnery he never truly deserved). Yet for Palestinians and their neighbours in the Middle East, Peres’ track record is very different from his reputation in the West as a tireless “dove”. Consider some facts below, put forth by Ben White : Peres has been described as “an architect of Israel’s nuclear weapons programme” which, to this day, “remains outside the scrutiny of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).” In 1975, as secret minutes have since revealed , Peres met with South African Defence Minister PW Botha and “offered to sell nuclear warheads ...

Early today, the Senate overwhelmingly voted, 97-1, to override President Obama’s veto of the 9/11 victims bill, the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), and after a debate on what to call a VA clinic, the House followed suit, in a 348-77 vote. This was the first override of Obama’s presidency. Both the House and Senate passed JASTA unanimously, and while the Obama Administration heavily lobbied after the veto, as did the Saudi government, it ultimately didn’t amount to very many lawmakers changing sides in the override votes, which were both overwhelming. President Obama argued that JASTA was a “dangerous precedent” for American taxpayers, as other nations could reciprocate, setting up lawsuits against the US government for its own substantial misdeeds over the years, as well as for bankrolling foreign armed factions that did such things. He added that since the US is way more active overseas than anyone else, they are the most at risk from this precedent. Defense S...

Police suspect a far-right motive after two improvised explosive devices detonated outside a mosque and congress centre in Dresden just before and after 10pm on Monday. No one was injured during the two attacks in the eastern German city, but the mosque’s 46-year-old imam, his wife and their two children were inside the building when the first bomb went off. Imam Hamza Turan told Sächsische Zeitung newspaper that six bottles filled with explosive gas had been found at the site of the attack. “They attacked us because they hate us, because we are Muslims”, Turan’s 10-year-old son told the local paper. The second improvised device exploded on a terrace facing the river Elbe, between the International Congress Centre and the Maritim hotel. The hotel bar was evacuated as a result. Horst Kretzschmar, the president of Dresden’s police force, said that even though no group had claimed responsibility it was assuming a “xenophobic motive” behind the attack. Kretzschmar said investigators...

A shooter opened fire near a Houston shopping center early Monday morning, injuring nine people before police shot and killed him. "Multiple officers engaged the suspect, who was shooting randomly at passerbys as well as anybody he could put his sights on," said Houston Police Department Captain Dwayne Ready. The 911 calls started to come in around 6:30 a.m., and officials estimate it took the first responding officers about 10-15 minutes to arrive. The shooter was outside out of his car, armed with a handgun and a rifle, and he was using a tree for cover. Nine officers from three different departments fired at the gunman. No officers were injured in the exchange of gunfire. Both of the weapons used in the shooting were legally obtained by the suspect. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives confirmed the rifle was purchased in 2009 and the handgun in 2011. The Houston Police Department said other weapons were found at the suspect's home. Local news...

Invoking Jan Sangh ideologue Deendayal Upadhyay, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday urged the BJP rank and file to empower the Muslims, Dalits, the poor and deprived. Launching the year-long birth centenary celebrations of Upadhyay, Modi told a BJP conclave: “Fifty years ago, Deendayal Upadhyayji said Muslims should not be treated as different people. Do not reward them, do not rebuke them, but empower them. They should not be looked down nor should be treated as substance for votes, but consider them your own.” Is the BJP having a new thought to win over Muslims in India? Here is the latest news report on this subject.

Franklin Lamb volunteers with the Lebanon, France, and USA based Meals for Syrian Refugee Children Lebanon (MSRCL) which seeks to provide hot nutritional meals to Syrian and other refugee children in Lebanon. He recently wrote, " Thirty four years after the 1982 Massacre at Sabra-Shatila, the dream of Return to Palestine endures, and the struggle for Full Return shall never die. Not until the victims of 34 years ago in Beirut, and all Palestinians martyred before and after the 1948 Nakba receive posthumous justice. Determination among Palestinians in Lebanon to Return exceeds their Despondency and Cynicism caused by injustice. And it gives rise to hope for a better future." Here is his article on the Palestinian refugee camps.

Here is an article by Dave Rosen to know about Giuliani, former NY mayor, a Trump surrogate.

With the latest news of arrest of the suspect in Washington state, here below is the revised version. - Habib Siddiqui ============================ Too many things are going wrong inside the USA in this election year. On Friday night, a gunman killed four women and a man in a shooting at a Macy's store at Cascade Mall in Burlington, about 65 miles north of Seattle. After a massive manhunt, the suspect was arrested in Oak Harbor at around 6:30 p.m. on Saturday while walking down the street . He was identified as Arcan Cetin (20), an immigrant from Turkey — a legal permanent resident of the United States who lives in Oak Harbor, according to police. The Sheriff’s office described the suspect - "He was kind of zombie-like." He seems to be a mental health patient who faced three assault charges in domestic violence cases in 2014 (but not convicted). Officials previously said it appears the gunman, reportedly a Hispanic male wearing gray, acted alone and they have n...

Police said Arcan Cetin (20) was arrested in Oak Harbor at around 6:30 p.m. (Saturday night) while walking down the street — one night after the shooting at Burlington's Cascade Mall sparked a massive search for the suspect. The tragedy unfolded on Friday night at the Macy's department store. Security footage showed the suspect entering the mall, apparently without a weapon. Footage from about 10 minutes later showed him entering Macy's with a rifle and firing "multiple times," Mount Vernon police Lt. Chris Cammock said. Four female victims were pronounced dead that evening, and a male victim later died at a local hospital. A motive in the shooting is still under investigation, Cammock, part of a multi-agency task force, said at a news conference Saturday night. When asked whether authorities were considering terrorism as a possible motive, Cammock said he wasn't ruling anything out. However, he cautioned that it was "just too early to tell" an...

Too many things are going wrong inside the USA in this election year. People are harassed and discriminated based on their ethnicity, religion and color. Many minorities are losing jobs simply because of looking different. On Friday night, a Hispanic gunman killed four women and a man in a shooting at a Macy's store at Cascade Mall in Burlington, about 65 miles north of Seattle. He remains at large, police said. There was no immediate motive but no indication that the event was terror related, apparently because the shooter is considered a non-Muslim. On the other hand, t he act of Dahir Ahmed Adan, the Somali young man accused of going on a stabbing spree at a Minnesota mall over the last weekend is considered a terrorist act. The 20-year-old from St. Cloud allegedly stabbed 10 people before being shot dead by an off-duty police officer, ending what authorities called a "potential act of terrorism" at the mall Saturday (9/17/16). Fortunately, none of the 10 peop...

Syrian people are killed by the terrorist government of Bashar al-Assad who drops barrel bombs on its people without any regard for human life. As I write, Assad's forces and Russian air force are pounding the city of Aleppo with bombs and missiles for the last three days. The White Helmet, a voluntary organization of first responders, are finding their task almost impossible to do under such a situation. When the bombs rain down, the volunteers of the Syrian Civil Defence rush in. In a place where public services no longer function these unarmed volunteers risk their lives to help anyone in need - regardless of their religion or politics. Known as the White Helmets these volunteer rescue workers operate in the most dangerous place on earth. As the conflict in Syria worsens, ordinary people are paying the highest price. More than 50 bombs and mortars a day land on some neighborhoods in Syria. Many are rusty barrels filled with nails and explosives, rolled out the back of g...

Eleven Rohingya organizations have called on the Rakhine State government not to destroy mosques, Muslim schools, and Rohingya houses that the State claims have been built illegally. (See below for their joint statement,) In a joint statement on September 23, the groups said they “strongly condemned the Arakan (Rakhine) State government’s plans to demolish more than 3000 Rohingyas’ buildings, including 12 mosques and 35 madrasas, in the townships of Maungdaw and Buthidaung, under the pretext of illegal construction.” The announcement of the demolition order on 18 September has caused consternation to the entire Rohingya community.  They claimed the “demolition project is part of their long-drawn-out annihilation and ethnic cleansing policy of the defenceless Rohingya people.” According to their statement, they said this was “a joint conspiracy of the Arakan State government and Rakhine Buddhist extremist leaders to destabilize the situation in the territory with intention...