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Rebecca Ben-Amou

Pakistan officials wary of Obama's strategy for Afghanistan - washingtonpost.com - 0 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...AR2009120201747.html

Afghanistan Obama Pakistan War Strategy

shared by Rebecca Ben-Amou on 02 Dec 09 - Cached
  • Rebecca Ben-Amou on 02 Dec 09
     
    The Pakistani government is concerned with the possibility of adverse effects that could come from Obama's plans in Afghanistan. Many Pakistani civilians have been harmed in the past few years from the war, and the government fears the continuation of this pattern.
Sarah Romano

Taliban vow to fight US troop surge in Afghanistan - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...8390466.stm

Afghanistan Taliban troops

shared by Sarah Romano on 02 Dec 09 - Cached
  • Sarah Romano on 02 Dec 09
     
    Obama says that his priority is to not allow the Taliban to over the government.
Sarah Romano

Senators question 2011 Afghan exit plan - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

Afghanistan USA withdrawl 2011

shared by Sarah Romano on 02 Dec 09 - Cached
  • Sarah Romano on 02 Dec 09
     
    Many are very critical of Obama's plan. They say that he is foolish to set an "arbitrary" deadline for withdrawl.
Jim Franklin

Al Jazeera English - CENTRAL/S. ASIA - Afghans react to Obama troop plan - 1 views

english.aljazeera.net/...20091224151632707.html

US politics obama Afghanistan strategy

shared by Jim Franklin on 02 Dec 09 - No Cached
  • "I was expecting Obama to announce the withdrawal of 30,000 troops within two months but unfortunately, he did the opposite which will increase killings of both Americans and Afghans."
  • Pakistan fears a US troop surge in Afghanistan would force fighters to flee to its border areas, particularly in the southwestern Baluchistan province where the government is already struggling to end a low-level insurgency by tribal fighters.
  • "We couldn't solve the Afghanistan problem in eight years, but now the US wants to solve it in eighteen months? I don't see how it could be done."
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • "It is a bold approach and there's no guarantee of success," he said. "Wars tend to consume presidencies and this is now Obama's war."
Ed Webb

Livni to Sweden: Ditch EU plan on dividing Jerusalem - Haaretz - Israel News - 0 views

www.haaretz.com/...1131926.html

EU Israel israeliarab Palestine Jerusalem finalstatus

shared by Ed Webb on 01 Dec 09 - Cached
  • diplomats close to the EU deliberations believe it is almost inevitable.
  • "an independent, democratic, contiguous and viable state of Palestine, comprising the West Bank and Gaza and with East Jerusalem as its capital."
  • the EU Council "has never recognized the annexation of East Jerusalem. If there is to be a genuine peace, a way must be found to resolve the status of Jerusalem as capital of two states. The Council calls for the reopening of Palestinian institutions in Jerusalem in accordance with the road map. It also calls on the Israeli government to cease all discriminatory treatment of Palestinians in East Jerusalem."
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • European diplomats privy to the negotiations said that although changes favorable to Israel had been made to the draft, there is virtually no chance of preventing the EU from calling for the division of Jerusalem. They said they believe the EU statement will help Palestinians return to negotiations with Israel, as it gives them guarantees of a Palestinian capital in Jerusalem even though Israel has not frozen construction there.
Ed Webb

Op-Ed Columnist - America vs. The Narrative - NYTimes.com - 6 views

www.nytimes.com/...29friedman.html

opinion friedman NYT Islam Muslims Arabs USA

shared by Ed Webb on 30 Nov 09 - Cached
  • Ed Webb on 30 Nov 09
     
    Musing on an issue some of you wrote about in your midterm. Do you agree with Friedman?
  • ...2 more comments...
  • Rebecca Ben-Amou on 30 Nov 09
     
    I just think it is an interesting concept. "The Narrative" curbs their ideas on American initiatives in the middle east. How its ideals managed to make it to the U.S. and actually be followed is another question. The Narrative can succeed because it begins to spread ideas to children at a young age, which obviously poses an issue. Children legitimately believe the claims and learn that the only way to stop such American evil is by violence. Do I think that this man who killed 13 people at Fort Hood is mentally unbalanced? If you consider following Jihadist beliefs unbalanced then sure. I agree with Friedman, this man was just another case of a child influenced by these ridiculous concepts
  • Morgan Mintz on 30 Nov 09
     
    I think the most interesting part of this whole story is the fact that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan did not grow up being indoctrinated with this concept of "The Narrative." As Friedman points out early on in the article, he was born and raised in America, which makes his acceptance of this Arab/Islamic narrative of blaming America for all their problems all the more surprising. It is clearly a powerful force even beyond the Arab world. This links back perfectly to the other Friedman op-ed we read last week about America's role in Israeli-Palestinian peace. If the United States could somehow extricate itself from the region and just get out of the way (significantly easier said than done, unfortunately, but backing out of the peace process would be a start), it would eventually become clear that America is not the source of every problem in the Middle East. Arab governments might have to start answering to their people for some of the problems in their own countries, instead of just pointing a finger at the US. It will only be when this happens that "The Narrative" will begin to lose some of its power.
  • Sarah Henry on 01 Dec 09
     
    What struck me the most is what Morgan commented on, that this was someone who was born and raised in the US. If this "Narrative" has the ability to reach that far and with that much force, then we need to take a look at what we're doing in the Middle East. Even if, as Friedman says, we were doing a kindness to the Arabs when we deposed the Taliban the Baathist regime, I think any good will or positive effect that may have had on the region has expired. I think we need to pull out as much as is possible for us. I don't agree with President Obama on a lot of issues, but I do like the quote that he included at the end. I think it's now the responsibility of the Muslims in the Middle East to take charge of what they can, and to not fall in with the more negative aspects of Islam, and show what good comes from Islam.
  • anonymous on 01 Dec 09
     
    With the way the media is, I don't think you have to live in a certain area to be indoctrinated with concepts from different regions. What is the whole purpose of us blogging? Our blogs can be seen as a historical account for people in the future. With technology we can read blogs from the Middle East, watch videos showing peoples' experiences with different aspects of their daily lives in their respective country, and watch/ read the news. It is pretty apparent that Hasan was mentally unbalanced. I read/ or saw something that he had been harassed for being a Muslim. Last week in my religion class my professor showed us a clip that mentioned he was working to join al-Qaeda. With the internet he was able to get in contact with people in the Middle East. When a person feels like a minority they will want to latch on to another group to have the feeling of belonging. This is a possibility for how Hasan was thinking when he if he got in contact with a member of al-Qaeda or why he shot all those people.
Ian Mandell

BBC News - Minaret ban 'a security risk' - Swiss minister - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...8388793.stm

shared by Ian Mandell on 01 Dec 09 - Cached
  • Minaret ban 'a security risk' - Swiss minister
  • "very concerned" about the ban, adopted by voters on Sunday.
  • Each limitation on the co-existence of different cultures and religions also endangers our security,"
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • clearly discriminatory".
Morgan Mintz

Debt in Dubai Tests Laws Of Islamic Financing - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...01islamic.html

dubai saudi arabia dubai world islamic law global economy debt crisis

shared by Morgan Mintz on 01 Dec 09 - Cached
  • The debt crisis in Dubai is about to test one of the fastest-growing areas in banking, Islamic finance, and put the city-state’s opaque judicial system on trial, according to bankers and experts in finance.
  • because there have been few major defaults in this market, there is little precedent for arbitrating the unique terms of these instruments.
  • Shariah-compliant investments prohibit lenders from earning interest, and effectively place lenders and borrowers into a form of partnership. Yet there are no consistent rules about who gets repaid first if a company defaults on such debt
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • bondholders could insist on being repaid before banks, upending the traditional bankruptcy hierarchy.
  • A default would also pose a major new test for Dubai’s courts, which have never handled a major bankruptcy of one of the government’s own companies, lawyers and bankers said.
Sarah Romano

Oil Companies Look to the Future in Iraq - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...01iraqoil.html

Iraq oil-production

shared by Sarah Romano on 01 Dec 09 - Cached
  • Sarah Romano on 01 Dec 09
     
    Experts think that Iraq is on the path to becoming one of the leading "oil-producing nations" in the world.
Ed Webb

Mona Eltahawy - Mona Eltahawy on Switzerland's ban on minarets - washingtonpost.com - 1 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...AR2009113003729.html

Switzerland Islamophobia Muslims Islam Europe KSA Qatar opinion

shared by Ed Webb on 01 Dec 09 - Cached
  • Bigotry must be condemned wherever it occurs. If majority-Muslim countries want to criticize the mistreatment of Muslims living as minority communities elsewhere, they should be prepared to withstand the same level of scrutiny regarding their own mistreatment of minorities. Millions of non-Muslim migrant workers have helped build Saudi Arabia. Human rights groups have long condemned the slave-like conditions that many toil under, and the possibility of Saudi citizenship is nonexistent. Muslim nations have been unwilling to criticize this bigotry in their midst, and Europeans should keep in mind that Sunday's ban takes them in this direction.
Ed Webb

Jeremy Greenstock, UK Diplomat, Says US Was 'Hell Bent' On Iraq Invasion - 1 views

www.huffingtonpost.com/...eenstock-uk-dipl_n_372217.html

Iraq UK USA inquiry

shared by Ed Webb on 01 Dec 09 - Cached
  • He said, in his opinion, the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was legal – a view rejected by critics who say it violated international law – but was of "questionable legitimacy." "It did not have the democratically observable backing of the great majority of member states, or even perhaps of the majority of people inside the U.K.," he said. In London, an anti-war rally in 2003 drew an estimated 2 million demonstrators – the largest street protest in a generation.
Jim Franklin

Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Hezbollah vows to boost arsenal - 0 views

english.aljazeera.net/...20091130161054587528.html

Hezbollah Hizbullah politics US Israel Lebanon Nasrallah

shared by Jim Franklin on 01 Dec 09 - No Cached
  • Nasrallah accused the US of being the world's leading exporter of terrorism and urged nations around the globe to stand up against such a threat.
  • The party is the only faction which refused to disarm after Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war.
  • "We categorically reject any compromise with Israel or recognising its legitimacy," he said.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Hezbollah's first manifesto in 1985 called for the establishment of Islamic rule in Lebanon, but the party leadership has toned down its rhetoric in recent years as it gained political clout.
Sarah Henry

Iran sends mixed signals on quitting nuclear curb pact | International | Reuters - 0 views

www.reuters.com/...idUSHAF93199320091130

Iran NPT Nuclear energy

shared by Sarah Henry on 01 Dec 09 - Cached
  • An influential Iranian leader suggested on Monday Iran should quit the Non-Proliferation Treaty in protest against a U.N. censure over its nuclear activity
  • Russia said it was "seriously concerned" by Iran's gambit to massively expand enrichment, criticism that could raise Western hopes for Russian backing for harsher sanctions against Tehran.
  • Washington condemned the plans as a serious violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • However, Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran's atomic energy agency and seen as a relative moderate, told Reuters later Tehran had no wish to leave the NPT.
  • Analysts believe Iran would think twice before quitting the NPT since this would betray weapons ambitions and could provoke a pre-emptive attack by Israel and possibly the United States.
  • Sarah Henry on 01 Dec 09
     
    Different public figures in Iran are giving contradictory statements about the nuclear program in Iran, and the possibility of Iran's pulling out of the NPT
Ian Mandell

BBC News - Swiss voters back ban on minarets - 1 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...8385069.stm

switzerland Islam racism

shared by Ian Mandell on 30 Nov 09 - Cached
  • Swiss voters have supported a referendum proposal to ban the building of minarets, official results show.
  • More than 57% of voters and 22 out of 26 cantons - or provinces - voted in favour of the ban.
  • There are only four minarets in Switzerland
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