Thinking does not negate Islamic faith

Manji
Special for THE REPUBLIC.
Apr. 15, 2007.

When I first read about Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, founder of the Arizona-based American Islamic Forum for Democracy, I prayed for his safety - and that of his family. My worries can't be chalked up to paranoia. They have to do with the stark realities that I face every day.

Welcome to my morning routine: I check my overnight e-mails and forward any chilling messages to the police. Then I de-activate my top-of-the-line alarm, get the paper and sip my coffee while gazing out of my bulletproof windows.

Life went on high alert three years ago. That's when my book, The Trouble With Islam Today: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith, came out. The book challenges sexism, anti-Semitism and other prejudices that pervade the Muslim world right now.

Almost immediately, I became an internationally best-selling author, cheered by people who believe in universal human rights. But along with this support came threats from would-be terrorists: "You will pay for your lies," "Enjoy your short stay on earth," and "This is your last warning."

Do I have a death wish? No. But what would be sadder for me than a life ended is a life wasted.

As a Muslim woman who is lucky enough to live in North America, I insist on using my precious freedoms to think, express, challenge and be challenged. Put bluntly, I have the opportunity to shatter deadly silences. How irresponsible would it be not to?

I have been asking questions since childhood. My mother, a devout Muslim from Africa, brought me and my sisters to Canada. We attended a public school during the week and a madressa (Islamic school) on the weekend. There, I would find myself being lectured about the inferiority of girls and Jews.

From under my scarf, I began defying the hate. My mother struggled with my outspokenness. "Whatever you do," she lovingly warned me, "please do not anger God."

But I had to ask: Was infuriating my teacher the same as angering my Creator? Did God really want me to be a second-class citizen? Did He seriously condemn an entire people - Jews - to eternal hell?

In short, is this the same God of mercy and compassion that Islam's holy book, the Quran, describes at the start of almost every chapter?

"Either you believe or you get out!" my teacher bellowed one Saturday afternoon. I kicked open the hefty madressa door and yelled back, "Jesus Christ!"

Little did I realize just how memorable such an exit it would be: Jesus was a Jew.

I walked away from the Islamic school but not from the Islamic faith. Over the next 20 years, I took time to search for the beauty in my religion.

That is when I discovered Islam's own tradition of critical thinking, debate and dissent. It is called ijtihad (ij-tee-had). By engaging in ijtihad, Muslims can modernize. We can be faithful and thoughtful at the same time. We can also live our faith without fear.

Of course, all people of conscience have moments of wondering whether we have transgressed. Which is why courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is the recognition that some things are more important than fear.

To me, much more important than fear is freedom - the ability to exercise it and grow from doing so.

That vision is entirely consistent with the spirit of Islam. For example, the Quran contains three times as many verses calling on Muslims to think, analyze and reflect than verses that tell us what is absolutely right and wrong.

I believe passionately that Islam and freedom can be reconciled as long as Muslims and non-Muslims develop the courage to discuss these issues honestly and face their personal fears - the fear of being ostracized (or worse) in their communities, the fear of offending minorities in a multicultural world and, above all, the fear of asking questions out loud.

By confronting our fears, we can finally take ownership of the solutions before us. This, too, might be frightening, but the status quo is a far bigger risk.

Despite all the death threats, I am hearing more support. Most gratifying is my mother's blessing. Recently, she slipped a card into my suitcase. The front of it says, "Bravo." Inside, she writes, "I'm so proud of your achievements. You go, girl!"

That is my credo, too. In a free society, using our voices is not just a right; it is a responsibility. May more people of faith marshal our voices to break deadly silences - for good.

Irshad Manji is author of the New York Times bestseller, "The Trouble with Islam Today: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith." On Thursday, PBS will premiere her documentary film, "Faith Without Fear."

Villagers Inside Iran Denounce Iranian Gov't

Truth Lies in the Village.



Created by: Mehraeen آفتاب را بايد با آيينه همپيمان ساخت.

Hat tip: Bereft.

The State Department yields (again) to North Korea

Source: Opinion Journal Online.
April 13, 2007.

Tomorrow is the 60-day deadline for North Korea to come clean about its nuclear program, and it will be fascinating to see how much it admits. On the evidence of the last week, however, don't be surprised if Kim Jong Il concludes that the Bush Administration will accept whatever he declares.

The U.S. has sent precisely that signal by succumbing to the dictator's demands that the U.S. release $25 million gained by North Korea's criminal enterprises. The money comes from 52 North Korean accounts at Banco Delta Asia, a little bank in the Chinese territory of Macau. Macau froze the funds 18 months ago at the behest of the U.S. Treasury.

The U.S. had originally agreed to release half of the money in return for North Korea's February promise to give up its nuclear weapons program. But Treasury initially said it would not release some $12.5 million that was the clear product of such illegal activity as drug trafficking, money laundering, missile proliferation and a huge counterfeiting operation in hundred-dollar U.S. bills. The money was to go into a fund for humanitarian use in North Korea.

In its report on the Macau bank released last month, Treasury cited the "routine use" of couriers to ferry huge sums of currency in and out of the bank, to the tune of $50 million by a single depositor in 2002. It said individuals and entities with ties to North Korea have been linked to "trade in counterfeit U.S. currency, counterfeit cigarettes, and narcotics." That includes companies suspected of laundering "hundreds of millions of dollars in cash" through Banco Delta Asia.

Not surprisingly, North Korea immediately declared that it would refuse any further negotiation until the U.S. turned over the entire $25 million. Also not surprisingly, the State Department argued that the U.S. should do so lest the nuclear talks fall apart. President Bush agreed with State, and Macau lifted its hold on the money this week.

The Bush Administration is selling this dirty-money deal as a requirement of diplomatic realism and a price that must be paid for the larger strategic goal of getting North Korea to cooperate. But it's also true that the U.S. is allowing Kim to get away with his ill-gotten gains. Only weeks after the Treasury laid out a detailed rap sheet, the U.S. says never mind.

The bigger issue is the message this sends about the "arms control" process now under way. Under the February deal, Kim is obliged to shut down the nuclear facility at Yongbyon and disclose all of his nuclear programs and weapons. He is also obliged to open all of those to international inspection before the U.S. and other countries give him any more aid or money. But Pyongyang's pattern has long been to admit as little as possible every step of the way, and then insist that the U.S. must make further concessions at every instance. By caving on the $25 million, the U.S. is telling Kim he can keep playing this game.

Japan has the better idea. This week it extended its sanctions for another six months--no imports of North Korean products, no port visits by North Korean ships. Last month it testified at the U.N. Commission on Narcotic Drugs about the North's illegal trade in amphetamines. Under the February nuclear deal, it is refusing aid to the North until Pyongyang provides information on the Japanese citizens it abducted and may still be holding.

Meanwhile, life for the 23 million North Koreans is, if anything, grimmer than ever. There were reports of famine this winter. The authorities are cracking down harder on Koreans who flee to China seeking food or work and are caught and repatriated, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch. The South Korean press reports that Pyongyang has ordered its diplomats stationed abroad to send their children home, apparently to help prevent defections. The return of the $25 million will only help Kim reinforce his control.

Assuming Pyongyang even meets tomorrow's deadline, the U.S. will have to decide how much it can believe the North Korean declaration. The goal should be dismantling North Korea's entire nuclear program, not continuing arms-control negotiation for its own sake.

North Korea disarmament deadline slips

Source: CNN.
April 14, 2007.

BEIJING, China (AP) -- The U.S. envoy to North Korea's nuclear talks said Saturday that a two-month-old disarmament plan lacks "momentum" as North Korea failed to meet a deadline for shutting down its main nuclear reactor and processing facility.

"We don't have a lot of momentum right now. That is for sure," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill told reporters before meeting his Chinese counterpart, Wu Dawei.

The disarmament plan, reached in February after nearly four years of arduous negotiations, laid out a timetable for North Korea to dismantle its nuclear programs. The plan was unexpectedly disrupted by a dispute over frozen North Korean funds in a Macau bank that Washington said this past week was finally resolved.

On Friday, Hill did not say what the consequences would be if the North missed the Saturday deadline.

"There is no reason why the DPRK can't get on with the task of denuclearization," said Hill, using the official name of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"We are not indifferent to missing a deadline. Obviously it is a very important date," he said. "We will work with our other partners on the appropriate response to the current circumstances."

As part of the disarmament agreement, the North was supposed to gain access to $25 million in frozen funds at the Banco Delta Asia bank in the Chinese territory of Macau. The bank was blacklisted by Washington in September 2005 for allegedly helping the North launder money and pass counterfeit $100 bills.

The funds were unblocked this week, but North Korea's Foreign Ministry said Friday it was still confirming the release. The Ministry said the country would carry out its side of the February agreement "when the lifting of the sanction is proved to be a reality."

North Korea alarmed the world in October when it conducted its first-ever underground nuclear test. After a 13-month boycott of nuclear talks, it agreed in February with the United States, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia to give up its nuclear programs in exchange for energy aid and political concessions, along with a U.S. promise to resolve the bank issue.

Macau's Monetary Authority, which has taken control of the bank, has been tightlipped about the process of releasing the frozen funds.

But Hill said Friday that the U.S. considered the problem resolved.

"It's certainly worrisome to all of us to see them approaching this date rather lethargically. ... We understood their concerns about the banking issue and frankly those concerns have been met," he said.

U.S. officials and experts say the process of shutting down a reactor and having U.N. nuclear inspectors verify it would take at least several days -- making it virtually impossible for the North to meet the Saturday deadline.

"It's a technical question, but it does not take that long," Hill said. "We're not talking months or anything like that. There should be no reason to go slow in this process."

He would not say how long the other countries would wait for North Korea to act on its promises.

"I don't want to put a date or an hour, but another month is not in my constitution," he said.

The only immediate cost the impoverished North would suffer for not shutting the reactor by the deadline would be an initial 50,000 ton shipment of heavy fuel oil promised as a reward. That shipment was part of 1 million tons of oil it would get for dismantling its nuclear program.

However, it is unlikely the U.S. or other countries would take any punitive action, as Washington also failed to resolve the bank issue within 30 days as promised.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, was still awaiting an invitation from North Korea for a preliminary visit, a diplomat familiar with the issue said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.

After a visit by two senior IAEA officials to establish procedures for an inspection tour, the agency's board would meet to approve the first return of inspectors since December 2002, when North Korea kicked them out and quit the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. The process could take weeks.

Libyan, Eritrean observers on Sudan-Chad border

Just one minute! Are they crazy?! Ugh!

Source: CNN.
April 12, 2007.

KHARTOUM, Sudan (Reuters) -- Libyan and Eritrean military and security observers have been deployed at the border between Sudan and Chad, scene of recent clashes, a Libyan mediator said on Thursday.

"We agreed on positive steps and the presence of military and security observers on the border from Libya and Eritrea, and from Chad and Sudan, and right now some of them are there on the border," Ali Triki, Libya's envoy on Chad and Sudan, told a news conference.

He did not say when the observers were deployed or how many had been sent there.

"I believe the confidence between both countries will return to normality, and if they respect agreements then we will not even need observers," said Triki, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's top adviser on African issues.

Gadhafi has taken the lead in trying to broker peace between Chad and Sudan, which have traded threats and accusations since a clash on Monday when Sudan said 17 of its soldiers were killed.

Chad denied any deliberate assault on its eastern neighbor, but said its forces had clashed with Sudanese troops after crossing the border to pursue Sudanese-backed rebels it said were launching raids.

That incident marked a sharp flare-up of tension between the two oil-producing central African countries, which have seen their ties become increasingly marred by violence spilling over from the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region.

Both Sudan and Chad are resisting international efforts to deploy U.N. peacekeeping forces.

A late February summit hosted by Gadhafi to keep the peace between Chad and Sudan agreed "observation mechanisms" along the Darfur frontier.

Sudan has witnessed a flurry of diplomatic activity aimed at easing tensions with Chad, including a visit by South African President Thabo Mbeki.

The No. 2 U.S. State Department official, John Negroponte, is due to arrive in Sudan on Thursday and then head to Libya and Chad to press for solutions to the Darfur crisis.

Negroponte is expected to deliver a tough message from Washington on Darfur. Sudanese officials have said international pressure on Darfur will only deepen the humanitarian crisis.

China leans on Sudan to accept peacekeeping plan

Source: CNN.
April 11, 2007.

BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- China urged Sudan in unusually strong terms on Wednesday to show more flexibility on a peace plan for its devastated Darfur region, but said the international community would get nowhere by dictating terms to Khartoum.

China, which buys much of Sudan's oil and wields veto power on the U.N. Security Council, has been criticized in the West for not using its leverage to force Khartoum to act to curb violence in Darfur, where ethnic tensions erupted into a revolt in 2003.

"We suggest the Sudan side show flexibility and accept this plan," Assistant Foreign Minister Zhai Jun told a news conference on his return from a three-day trip to the African country.

Sudan has rejected U.N.-A.U. force

He was referring to a peace plan put forward by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan to deploy a hybrid African Union-U.N. peacekeeping force. Sudan has had reservations about the deal.

Zhai met Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir as well as Foreign Ministry officials and visited refugee camps in Darfur -- a rare step for a Chinese official. He said on Wednesday Beijing was using its influence in its own way and rejected suggestions that it would get further by using threats.

"The international community should pay attention to the way of having consultations with the Sudan government in order to achieve better results. This is my opinion," Zhai said.

"On the Annan plan, China has played an essential role. Just because of the Chinese government, Sudan is adopting a flexible attitude," he said. "China can't do everything, but we respect each other and consult as equals."

But while insisting its role in Sudan is constructive, China has offered Khartoum increased military cooperation. Last week it played host to its Joint Chief of Staff in Beijing.

Chinese weapons are also used by all sides in the Darfur conflict despite an arms embargo on the region.

Calls Janjaweed 'only a group of bandits'

Zhai played down the strength of the government-allied Janjaweed, calling their militias "only a group of bandits". And he said China would not support sanctions against Sudan.

"We should help Sudan resolve this issue instead of creating further problems or complicating the issue. Therefore, we are not in favor of sanctions," he said, adding that it was too early to say if China would veto such a resolution.

Zhai's trip was the latest sign of China's intensifying engagement with Sudan and follows a trip by President Hu Jintao in February.

Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo also discussed promoting diplomatic efforts to resolve the Darfur issue with his U.S. counterpart John Negroponte by telephone earlier this week.

The four-year war in Darfur has killed an estimated 200,000 people and driven more than 2 million from their homes.

But the Khartoum government has been resisting the deployment of international troops to back ill-equipped African forces.

"Sudan has accepted in principle the three-phased Annan plan. However, on some of the details, it has reservations," Zhai said. "Sudan is most concerned about its sovereignty and territorial integrity."

U.N. fears up to 400 killed in Chad raids

Source: CNN.
April 10, 2007.

GENEVA, Switzerland (Reuters) -- Up to 400 people, far more than previously feared, were killed in Chad during a cross-border attack by Sudanese Janjaweed militia some 10 days ago, the U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday.

Chadian authorities estimated last week that at least 65 people died in the early morning attacks on March 31 on two villages in eastern Chad, Tiero and Marena, home to some 8,000.

The new estimated toll followed a visit to the remote area Sunday by a group of U.N. agencies, which described the scene there as "apocalyptic," U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees spokesman Ron Redmond said.

"Estimates of the number of dead have increased substantially and now range between 200 and 400. Because most of the dead were buried where their bodies were found -- often in common graves owing to their numbers -- we may never know their exact number," he told a briefing.

Survivors identified the attackers as a coalition of well-armed Janjaweed militia "assisted by Chad rebels equipped with heavy weapons and vehicles," he said. It would be one of the most violent single incidents so far recorded on the volatile Chadian-Sudanese border.

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees spokeswoman Helene Caux said that survivors had reported recognizing some of the Janjaweed as living in Arab settlements around their villages, while others appeared to have crossed the border from Sudan.

The U.N. team found decomposing bodies near the villages, including those of a 30-year-old father of eight. Hundreds of homes had been burned to the ground, and there was an "overwhelming stench" from rotting carcasses of dead animals.

"There were many indications that people had little or no time to flee, given that many essential household goods, food and domestic animals were left behind," Redmond said.

"All along the route to those villages could be seen belongings abandoned along the way by those who collapsed. ... Many died where they fell along the road," he said.

An 8-year-old boy told the U.N. team that he had dropped to the ground to "escape bullets that came like rainfall" as he fled Tiero. A girl his age had died of a gunshot wound to the head as she got up to run, he said.

"The number of survivors who have provided us with heartbreaking testimony such as this is overwhelming. It paints a portrait perhaps better described as a massacre than an attack," Redmond told Reuters.

Khartoum has denied any responsibility for the deadly raids.

The number of wounded in the raids stood at about 80, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

Many of those who survived the initial attack, especially elderly and young children, had died in subsequent days from exhaustion and dehydration, often while fleeing, it said.

Some 9,000 Chadians -- mainly women and children -- from the surrounding area had fled after the attacks, joining another 9,000 compatriots who had fled earlier raids, the agency said.

"The whereabouts of many men remain unknown," Redmond said. "This is really a nightmarish situation that is occurring in southeastern Chad."

The villages are in the Wadi-Fira region of Chad's eastern border with Sudan. Chad has identified the raiders, some mounted on camels and horses, as Sudanese Janjaweed militia.

The raids appear to be another spillover of violence from Sudan's conflict-torn Darfur region, where more than 200,000 people have been killed since 2003 in a war between rebels and Sudanese government forces and their allied militias.

The Geneva-based U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees has been warning for nearly two years about the spread of unrest from Darfur, "the epicenter of conflict in the region," Redmond said.

"We have seen a dangerous escalation for a long time, not only in Darfur, but in Chad and Central African Republic," he said. "That situation is continuing, as evidenced by the tragedy we just saw in the two villages."

Chad: Rebels driven back after attack on troops

Source: CNN.
April 9, 2007.

N'DJAMENA, Chad (Reuters) -- Chad said it had routed an attack Monday by a rebel convoy of more than 200 vehicles launched from Sudanese territory, just two months after a nonaggression pact signed by the two countries.

Information Minister Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor said in a statement the rebel forces had been routed after attacking army troops in the border village of Aldjirema. At least eight Chadian soldiers and numerous rebels were killed, he said.

"Chad expects the international community to unequivocally condemn this enemy aggression led from Sudan against Chad and take appropriate measures to compel the Sudanese government to abandon its expansionist plans to destabilize Chad," Doumgor said.

The rebel Chadian National Concord, in a statement signed by its military commander, Mahamad Hassan Kokiss, confirmed heavy fighting had taken place but said government forces had attacked its troops first.

"After six hours of resistance, our forces redeployed to new positions, and the enemy remains within our reach," Kokiss said, saying the fighting violated an agreement signed in the Libyan capital, Tripoli.

Chad had signed a peace deal with another rebel group in Tripoli in December and a nonaggression pact with Sudan there in February. It was not immediately clear whether Kokiss was referring to either of these.

President Idriss Deby's government said exact casualty figures for the rebel forces were not yet available but 38 of their vehicles were destroyed in the attack.

The Chadian National Concord said the rebels had lost three vehicles and 10 men, while destroying 35 government vehicles and killing numerous soldiers.

Doumgor said the convoy was made up of forces from several rebel groups, including the Union of Forces for Democracy and Development of Mahamat Nouri and the Rally of Democratic Forces led by Tom and Timan Erdimi, nephews of Deby.

The four-year war in Sudan's western region of Darfur has spilled across the border into Chad.

N'Djamena accuses Sudan of backing Chadian rebels based in Darfur, while Sudanese Arab militia known as Janjaweed are raiding ever further into eastern Chad.

Khartoum has denied any support for Chadian insurgents.

Sudan expected to resist U.S. pressure on Darfur

Source: CNN.
April 9, 2007.

KHARTOUM, Sudan (Reuters) -- Sudan is unlikely to ease its opposition to the deployment of U.N. troops in Darfur this week when a top U.S. official visits, but there are signs it may be flexible on boosting African troops in the troubled region.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte is expected to deliver a tough message from Washington, which has threatened new measures to try to break Sudan's resistance to international troops to back the ill-equipped African Union forces

The AU operates an overstretched 7,000-strong force in Darfur, where violence has persisted despite a 2006 peace agreement between the government and one rebel faction. Unidentified gunmen killed five AU troops last week.

Negroponte also will visit Chad and Libya, two other players in the Darfur conflict. It is not clear when he will arrive in Sudan on a regional tour.

South African President Thabo Mbeki, who is known for his diplomatic skills and is promoting his country as a mediator in African affairs, will arrive in Sudan on Tuesday and is expected to discuss the Darfur issue.

At the heart of the debate is the outcome of a November meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The United Nations says Khartoum agreed then to a three-phase plan that would end with a hybrid AU-U.N. operation in Darfur.

Sudan said it only agreed to the first two phases of U.N. logistical and financial support.

After a meeting with Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on Saturday, African Union Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare backed Khartoum, saying that there had been a clear agreement in Addis Ababa that there would be a hybrid force consisting of an African force under AU command, with logistical, financial and administrative assistance from the United Nations.

But he said the size of the African force had yet to be determined. The AU and United Nations were holding discussions on the issue Monday in a technical meeting in Addis Ababa.

Al-Bashir, who says U.N. troops would amount to foreign occupation, has made a vague reference to "reviewing" issues related to Darfur.

U.S. officials have said they were close to imposing new measures against Sudan, but an announcement appears to have been put on hold after U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he wanted more time to convince Bashir to accept a hybrid force.

The measures contemplated include adding more firms to a U.S. sanctions list as well as further limits on Sudanese firms doing business in dollars and slapping travel and banking restrictions on at least three more Sudanese individuals.

The United States also aims to pressure Bashir militarily by helping rebuild the forces of the Sudan People's Liberation Army, which was at war with the north until a 2005 peace deal.

But Sudan, which has faced little pressure from the African Union and enjoys growing ties with China, has remained defiant.

State television gave prominence to a visit by the China's special envoy, Zhai Juan, who visited Darfur camps for the displaced and said international pressure would only hurt efforts to ease the suffering there.

Experts estimate that 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million fled their homes in Darfur since the conflict flared in 2003, when rebels took up arms against the central government. Khartoum says 9,000 died.

Sudan accused European countries on Saturday of withholding support for African Union troops in Darfur to try to force the need for U.N. military intervention.