Israeli Troops Mass Along Border; Arab Anger Rises

The world was shocked by the most appalling humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. Hundreds of civilians were killed following the onslaught lashed by the Israeli troops and their killing weapons. The death toll has marked the most devastating crisis in this modern day. The Arab world seems to be in silence, and the Muslim world is still fragmented in viewing this most horrendously condemned barbaric attack. The crisis in Palestine is the concern of all people who agree that liberty and peace are the rights of all humankinds. We have to dennounce that such an assault is a clear-cut criminal action. I hope the UN has to come up with a resolution or apply an embargo against Israel. In addition, the Arab countries have to be united to resolve this prolonged crisis shall they need to create a peaceful world in their close neighbouring country. A person will not go to sleep comfortably while his brother is living in poverty and missery.


By TAGHREED EL-KHODARY and ISABEL KERSHNER
Published: December 28, 2008

GAZA — Israeli troops and tanks massed along the Gaza border and the government said it had called up reserves for a possible ground operation, as the death toll increased to nearly 300 after Israeli aircraft pounded Gaza for a second day on Sunday.

The continued strikes, which Israel said were in retaliation for sustained rocket fire from Gaza into its territory, unleashed a furious reaction across the Arab world, raising fears of greater instability in the region.

Much of the anger was also directed at Egypt, seen by Hamas and some nearby governments as having acceded to Israel’s military action by sealing its border with Gaza and forcing back many Palestinians at gunpoint who were trying to escape the destruction.

Witnesses at the Rafah border crossing described a chaotic scene as young men tried to force their way across into Egypt, amid sporadic exchanges of gunfire between Hamas and Egyptian forces. Egyptian state television reported that one Egyptian border guard was killed by a Hamas gunman. A Palestinian man was killed by an Egyptian guard near Rafah, Reuters reported.

In Gaza, officials said medical services, stretched to the breaking point after 18 months of Israeli sanctions, were on the verge of collapse as they struggled to care for the more than 600 people wounded in two days.

At Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, women wailed as they searched for relatives among bodies that lay strewn on the hospital floor. One doctor said that given the dearth of facilities, not much could be done for the seriously wounded, and that it was “better to be brought in dead.”

The International Committee of the Red Cross appealed on Sunday for urgent humanitarian assistance, including medical supplies, to be allowed to enter Gaza. Israeli officials said that some aid had been allowed in through one of the crossings. Egypt temporarily opened the Rafah crossing on Saturday to allow some of the wounded to be taken to Egyptian hospitals.

Israel made a strong push to justify the attacks, saying it was forced into military action to defend its citizens. At the same time, the supreme religious leader of Iran and the leader of Hezbollah expressed strong support for Hamas.

Across Gaza, families huddled indoors as Israeli jets streaked overhead. Residents said that there were long blackouts and that they had no cooking gas. Some ventured out to receive bread rations at bakeries or to brave the streets to claim their dead at the hospitals. There were few mass funerals; rather, families buried the victims in small ceremonies.

At dusk on Sunday, Israeli fighter jets bombed over 40 tunnels along Gaza’s border with Egypt. The Israeli military said that the tunnels, on the Gaza side of the border, were used for smuggling weapons, explosives and fugitives. Gazans also use many of them to import consumer goods and fuel in order to get around the Israeli-imposed economic blockade.

In the first two days of the operation Israeli jets destroyed at least 30 targets in Gaza, including the main security compound and prison in Gaza City known as the Saraya, metal workshops throughout Gaza that were suspected of manufacturing rockets, and Hamas military posts.

Hamas said Israel bombed a government ministry compound and the Islamic University in Gaza, a stronghold of Hamas, late Sunday night. The Hamas-owned television station Al Aqsa was also struck, as was a mosque that the Israeli military said was being used as a terrorist base.

On Monday, Israeli warplanes bombed the Hamas-run Interior Ministry, Reuters reported, based on a Hamas statement.

Israel appeared to be settling in for a longer haul. The government on Sunday approved the emergency call-up of thousands of army reservists in preparation for a possible ground operation as Israeli troops, tanks, armored personnel carriers and armored bulldozers massed at the border.

Speaking before the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, Israel’s defense minister, Ehud Barak, said the army “will deepen and broaden its actions as needed” and “will continue to act.” Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel’s goal was not to reoccupy Gaza, which it left unilaterally in 2005, but to “restore normal life and quiet to residents of the south” of Israel.

Tzipi Livni, Israel’s foreign minister, appeared on American talk shows to press Israel’s case. She said on “Fox News Sunday” that the operation “is needed in order to change the realities on the ground, and to give peace and quiet to the citizens in southern Israel.”

Militants in Gaza fired barrages of rockets and mortar shells the farthest yet into Israel on Sunday. One rocket fell in Gan Yavneh, a village near the major port city of Ashdod, almost 20 miles north of Gaza. Two landed in the coastal city of Ashkelon. Several Israelis were wounded.

The hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens now within rocket range have been instructed by the authorities to stay close to protected spaces.

In Lebanon, the leader of the Shiite militant group Hezbollah, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, put his fighters on alert, expressing strong support for Hamas and saying that he believed Israel might try to wage a two-front war, as it did in 2006. He called for a mass demonstration in Beirut on Monday. And he, too, denounced Egypt’s leaders. “If you don’t open the borders, you are accomplices in the killing,” he said in a televised speech.

Iran’s supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, condemned the silence of some Arab countries, which he said had prepared the grounds for the “catastrophe,” an Iranian news agency, ISNA, reported.

“The horrible crime of the Zionist regime in Gaza has once again revealed the bloodthirsty face of this regime from disguise,” he said in a statement. “But worse than this catastrophe is the encouraging silence of some Arab countries who claim to be Muslim,” he said, apparently in a reference to Egypt and Jordan.

Egypt has mediated talks between Israel and the Palestinians and between Hamas and Hamas’s rival, Fatah, leaving it open to criticism that it is too willing to work with Israel. In turn, Egypt and other Western-allied Sunni Arab nations are deeply opposed to Hezbollah and Hamas, which they see as extensions of Iran, their Shiite nemesis.

Across the region, the Israeli strikes were being broadcast in grisly detail almost continually on Arab satellite networks.

In the Syrian capital, Damascus, a large group of protesters marched to Yusuf al Azmeh Square, where they chanted slogans and burned Israeli and American flags.

In Beirut, protesters were bused to a rally outside the United Nations building, holding up Palestinian flags and Hamas banners. Muhammad Mazen Ibrahim, a 25-year-old Palestinian who lives in one of the refugee camps here, choked up when asked about the assault on Gaza.

“There’s an agreement between Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel against Hamas,” he said. “They want to end them; all the countries are in league against Hamas, but God willing, we will win.”

That sentiment is widespread here. Many see Ms. Livni’s visit to Cairo last week as evidence that Egypt, eager to be rid of Hamas, had consented to the airstrikes.

The anger echoes what happened in July 2006, when the leaders of Saudi Arabia and Egypt publicly blamed Hezbollah for starting the conflict with Israel. Popular rage against Israel soon forced the leaders to change their positions.

Hamas, sworn to the destruction of Israel, took control of Gaza when it ousted Fatah last year. An Egyptian-brokered six-month truce between Israel and Hamas, always shaky, began to unravel in early November. It expired 10 days ago.

Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman for Hamas, told reporters that Israel had started a “war” but that it would not be able to choose how it would end. He called for revenge in the form of strikes reaching “deep into the Zionist entity using all means,” including suicide attacks.
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Taghreed El-Khodary reported from Gaza, and Isabel Kershner from Jerusalem. Reporting was contributed by Robert F. Worth and Hwaida Saad from Beirut, Lebanon, Nazila Fathi from Tehran, Rina Castelnuovo from the Israel-Gaza border, Khaled Abu Aker from Ramallah, West Bank, and an employee of The New York Times from Syria.

Learning Arabic

An Arabic class was established a week ago at the Westall mosque.It was surprising to me to learn that many friends of mine were interested to learn Arabic. The course is held every Tuesday and Thursday nights after Maghrib prayer. They believe that Arabic is the main tool to understand the religious corpus of Islam. It is almost impossible to better understand the deep of Islamic teachings without an adequate comprehension of Arabic. This likes diving into the bottom of the sea without vital equipments. Linguistically, we cannot see and touch the beauty and the attractiveness of the Qur'an and Hadits if we merely devour translated books.

Due to the scarcity of the resources here in Melbourne, I was surfing through the Internet. Luckily, I found it very helpful and simple, "Al-Arabiya bayna Yadayk" (the Arabic between Your Two Hands) and "Durus al-Arabiyah" (Arabic Lessons). The books are specifically published for non Arabic speaking students. Although the books cannot allude their Arabicness to some extent, I recommend you to download them from these sites: http://www.dhikrullah.com/egypt/?tag=bayna-yadayk http://www.kalamullah.com/learning-arabic.html I am in a hope that there are many people who very much concern with the development of this language. I am personally dismayed by the fact that many Muslims seem not to be interested to learn Arabic let alone the young generations of Arabs who prefer to show off their non-Arabic languages. It has been obvious that the standard Arabic is generally only a language of khutbah (formal speech) and news report while the Arabs prefer to speak 'amiyah. I am afraid in the years to come we are going to see the decline of interest among Muslims in this "jannah" heavenly chosen language. It has been true in Indonesian Madrasa where Arabic is the least appealing subject to the students.

Gifted family soaring to new heights

Miki Perkins
December 20, 2008


THE kite is made from a patchwork of peach, green and black plastic, cut from shopping bags, sticky-taped together and tied to wooden struts.

As the wind strengthens, the plastic ripples and the kite becomes taut. It soars until it is just a dot in the sky above the Thomastown park.

The young man holding its string squints a little in the sun. For the past year, Shaheen Hasmat, 17, has studied so intensely that his eyes have been strained and he wears a stronger pair of glasses.

When he, his mother, and five siblings arrived in Australia as Afghan refugees, they owned only the clothes they were wearing and spoke little English. Five years later, Shaheen is dux of Reservoir District Secondary College, achieving a VCE tertiary entrance ranking of 99.8 — the highest in the school's history.

His brother, Poya, 19, got an ENTER of 97.95 last year and studies dentistry at La Trobe University.

The brothers are gifted — they have a genius for maths and physics, are fluent in Farsi, Pashto, Urdu and English, and love kite flying — a hobby from their childhood in Kabul.

Assistant principal Andree Poulter says Shaheen and his family are positive role models at Reservoir College. "They do have a very special aptitude, it's a love and passion. It's not a trial for them to study, it's a joy."

"Shaheen is more than just a scholar, he wants to give back. Physics is something he does for himself, but he wants to do medicine for others."

The modest family home in Thomastown is bordered by a manicured lawn, loquat trees and geranium bushes.

Shaheen's mother, Shaiqu, spreads pastries and a carafe of tea on a table to as her children tell their story.

She studied agriculture at Kabul University and five of her six children were born in the capital, where the one grinding constant was the rattle of gunfire.

"All we know is that there was war," Shaheen says. "I remember sitting in the front room when a rocket was shot and we were rushing, everyone was rushing to the mosque, try to find a safe place."

Their father, a doctor, disappeared during the conflict. The family do not know his whereabouts, but his wife still hopes one day to have news of him. His sons do not want to dwell on the painful topic.

Shaiqu, who was pregnant, and her five children fled Kabul for the Pakistani border town of Peshawar in 1988.

Home for five years was a mud hut in a refugee camp, where the family lived hand-to-mouth , relying on support from Shaiqu's Melbourne-based sister, Razia Wahidi.

In 2003, they were granted a humanitarian visa and boarded a rickety plane for Malaysia, and then Australia. Shaheen says he expected the worst. "When I was on the plane, I thought, 'Don't worry, this plane is going to crash.' I'd seen too much hardship."

Even in the unfamiliar winter, Melbourne seemed a serene paradise. They walked the streets in safety and marvelled at luxuries such as bottled water.

"We would catch the train or tram and go anywhere.

"I liked going outside, the feeling of being able to go outside and be free. It was beautiful," says Shaheen.

All six Hasmat children are gifted scholars: Amin, 20, studies pathology at RMIT, Solaiman, 14, does maths at an advanced level, and Maryam, 10, and Madina, 8, cry when they have to miss school.

Teachers realised Shaheen and Poya would need an accelerated program when they took senior maths texts home and did them for fun.

They completed year 12 maths in year 10 and year 12 physics in year 11. Shaheen studied university physics in year 12.

But Shaheen placed high expectations on himself and his health suffered during VCE. He lost weight and still suffers from stress-related stomach pain. His devout Muslim faith has been a "backbone" through the past year and the family worships at Preston mosque.

They have urged him to take a gap year before he begins biomedicine, and later postgraduate medicine, at Melbourne University. They want him to relax, restore his health and have some fun.

Fun? Fun is physics, Shaheen says with a smile.

Sylvi's Graduation

Last night at 7pm, Pak Mardjuki, Bu Tri, Yulia, and I attended the RMIT 2008 Graduation Ceremony at The Telstra Dome. About 5200 people were celebrating this most unforgetable moment. It was a milestone for every graduating students and the parents, since they built much expectation for the future. The joy was so overwhelming for smiles and tears mixed altogether to rejoice the final stage of the study. The ceremony was marked as the most prestigious role the university could play as the sanctuary of values and knowledge. Education is to civilise mankinds without which the world will be trapped in the clash of civilisation. A representative of the graduans said that some of the students were from non-university graduated parents. They started to pave the way of success to continue the story of better civilisation and the good image of their families.

We came to share the jubilant moment with Sylvi (the first daughter of Pak Mardjuki). She has finished her bachelor of bussiness management. I saw her stepping forward onto the stage to receive the certificate. Jasmin, Dina and Nurul screamed and cheered her up, while Pak Mardjuki, Ilham, Bu Tri, and Yulia clapsed their hands to support her. I could feel what they felt when seeing their beloved daughter, friend, and sister passing through the most important academic "turmoil". God with you Sylvi. May Allah make your way easy to get every success. Everyone had their own imagination as to what their future looked like.

17 December 2008

The failed Muslim states to come

Dec 16, 2008

The failed Muslim states to come
By Spengler

Financial crises, like epidemics, kill the unhealthy first. The present crisis is painful for most of the world but deadly for many Muslim countries, and especially so for the most populous ones. Policy makers have not begun to assess the damage.

The diplomatic strategy of the industrial nations now resembles a James Clavell potboiler, in which an earthquake interrupts a hopelessly immured plot. Moderate Islam was the El Dorado of the diplomatic consensus. It might have been the case that Pakistan could be tethered to Western interests, or that Iran could be engaged peacefully, or that Turkey would incubate a moderate form of Islam. I considered all of this delusional, but the truth is that we shall never know. The financial crisis will sort them out first.

As I commented in the late autumn, the world is not flat, but flattened (see Asia Times Online, October 28, 2008), leaving the economies of the largest Muslim countries in ruins. It is hard to forecast the political fallout, for when each available choice leads to a failed state, it is a matter of indifference which one you adopt. As state finances crumble, states will become less important, and freebooters will seize the stage. Think of the Mumbai terrorists as a political cognate of the Somali pirates, and the character of a Middle East made up of failed states comes into focus.

Iran's President Mahmud Ahmadinejad controls Iran through a kleptocracy of Central African proportions, dissipating the country's oil windfall into payoffs to an "entire class of hangers-on of the Islamic revolution", as I wrote in June (see Worst of times for Iran, Asia Times Online, June 24, 2008), when oil still sold at US$135 a barrel. What will Ahmadinejad do now that the oil price has collapsed? According to my Iranian sources, the answer is: Exactly the same thing, but without the money. [1]

The point of the joke is that Iran's regime cannot reduce subsidies or raise taxes without losing control of the constituencies that brought it to power. They are the peasants and the urban poor who barely afford shelter and food as matters stand. Despite the oil-price collapse, the government has not reduced energy subsidies that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) puts at more than a fifth of gross domestic product (GDP). A proposed value-added tax was withdrawn last October after strikes in the bazaars, starting in Isfahan and other provincial towns and spreading to the capital Tehran. Iran is eating through its $60 billion of foreign exchange reserves, unable to adjust to a collapse of its only significant revenue source.

Iran must break down, I argued last June, or break out, through a military adventure. The sand is slipping out of the hour glass, and the regime must decide what to do within a few months. If it does nothing, the default position, as it were, is Pakistan.

Iran's Ahmadinejad rules through massive subsidies. Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari does the same thing, but without the money. Pakistan ran out of foreign exchange reserves in November and obtained emergency financing from the IMF. Its current account deficit was running at an alarming 14% of GDP, or about $20 billion a year, a small sum, but an important one for a country two-thirds of whose 175 million people subsist on less than $2 a day.

Pakistan received just $7.6 billion from the IMF, covering a third of its current account deficit, which means that imports must be reduced drastically (although lower oil prices may help a bit). Inflation is running at 25% a year.

Pakistan has one of the world's youngest populations and an enormous capital requirement. Young people borrow from old people, and countries with young populations should import capital from countries with aging populations. That is out of the question, for the world markets have turned Pakistan into a pariah. The cost of credit protection on Pakistani sovereign debt is now more than 3,000 points (or 30%) above the benchmark London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), reflecting a complete shutout from capital markets.

Cost of credit protection for Pakistan government debt (5-year term, in basis points of spread to the London Interbank Rate).

Shown on the right-hand scale is the most populous Muslim country, Indonesia, where investors pay 1,000 basis points (10 percentage points) above LIBOR for five-year credit protection.

Pakistan was at least able to raise a modicum of official support. What will Iran do if its reserves run out? The same thing as Pakistan, but without the money, for Iran is a geopolitical pariah without access to official aid.

The Muslim risk premium has become so pervasive that investors are looking cross-eyed at Saudi Arabia. The cost of credit protection on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has jumped since August, and now is considerably higher than Israel's.

Cost of 5-year credit protection on Saudi Arabia and Israel

Israel credit protection trades at 185 basis points above LIBOR, about the same as Italy, while Saudi Arabia is at 236 basis points. Considering the kingdom's resources, that must be interpreted as a political risk premium.

Turkey has been able to keep afloat through the crisis, but barely so. The Turkish currency has fallen by a third, its stock market has fallen by nearly 80% in dollar terms, and the central bank must keep interest rates at a punishing 20% to prevent money from fleeing the country. Turkey has a real economy with a few first-rate manufacturing companies, unlike Iran and Pakistan, so the comparison is not quite fair. Nonetheless, Turkey relied heavily on short-term interbank borrowings to finance its balance of trade deficit, and the crisis has pulled the carpet out from under its economy. In August, before the crisis erupted in force, Turkey had 10% unemployment. It will get much worse.

Turkish lira and Turkish 1-year interest rate


Turkey was the poster-child for the so-called carry trade, in which hedge funds and other investors borrowed in low-interest currencies, for example the Japanese yen, and lent the money in high-interest currencies, of which Turkey's lira was the highest. The carry trade was the main source of money for Turkish business. What will Turkey do now that the credit crisis has made the "carry trade" a painful memory? The same thing, but without the money.

Pakistan is about to become a failed state, and Iran and Turkey will be close behind. As I commented to Chan Akya's report of December 2 on this site (see The hottest place in the world), Pakistan's military-age population is far greater than those of other Muslim military powers in the region. With about 20 million men of military age, Pakistan today has as much manpower as Turkey and Iran combined, and by 2035 it will have half again as many.

Half the country is illiterate and three-quarters of it subsists on less than $2 a day, according to the World Bank. That is to say that Pakistan's young men are more abundant as well as cheaper than in any other country in the region. Very poor and ignorant young men, especially if their only education has been in Salafi madrassas, are very easy to enlist in military adventures.

The West at present is unable to cope with a failed state like Somalia, with less than a tenth as many military age men as Pakistan, but which nonetheless constitutes a threat to world shipping and a likely source of funding for terrorism. How can the West cope with the humiliation of Pakistan's pro-American president and the inability of its duly-constituted government to suppress Islamist elements in its army and intelligence services? For the moment, Washington will do its best to prop up its creature, Zardari, but to no avail. The alternatives will require the West to add several zeros to whatever the prevailing ceiling might be for acceptable collateral damage.

A final note: several readers have asked me to comment on the terror attack on Mumbai in November. I will do so with great caution, given the absence of accurate information. I have good reason to believe that the Indian authorities lied about the attack. India claimed that 10 shooters were involved, because nine were killed and one captured. The actual number is closer to 30, I am reliably informed, not counting support personnel in Mumbai who arranged safe houses with extra ammunition and explosives months in advance of the attack. It was not a suicide attack at all, but a new kind of urban terror assault, in which the participants had a reasonable expectation of survival, and the majority did in fact survive. That is an important wrinkle, for a better class of combatant can be recruited for missions in which survival is at least possible.

No analyst I know has answered with confidence the question, cui bono? To whose benefit was the attack? It has been suggested that al-Qaeda diverted a Pakistani military intelligence team from Kashmir to Mumbai, in a demonstration of power against India. But there may be another dimension. The Mumbai attack has been a test of a different kind of warfare, the kind that emanates from failed states: the tactics of the Somali pirates applied to random destruction of civilian lives.

The lights are going out across the Middle East; states are failing, and it is not in the power of the West to make them whole again. All the strategic calculations that busied policy analysts and diplomats are changing, and the West has a very short time to learn the rules of a new and terrible game.

Note
1. This appears to be a variant of a joke told in many countries. One peasant asks another, "How does a telephone work?" The second replies, "It is like a big dog, with the tail in Isfahan and the head in Mashdad. You pull the tail in Isfahan and it barks in Mashdad." The first replies, "But how does a cell phone work?" The second replies, "The same way, but without the dog."

(Copyright 2008 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing

Good-Bye Kiss for Bush

Bush Visit to Iraq Dodges Flying Shoes

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An Iraqi reporter called U.S. President George W. Bush a "dog" and threw his shoes at him on Sunday, sullying a farewell visit to Baghdad meant to mark greater security in Iraq after years of bloodshed.

Just weeks before he bequeaths the unpopular Iraq war to President-elect Barack Obama , Bush sought to underline improved security by landing in daylight and venturing out beyond the city's heavily fortified international Green Zone .

He declared the war "not over" despite recent gains.

In a sign of lingering anger over the war that will define the Republican president's foreign policy legacy, an Iraqi journalist shouted in Arabic "this is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog," and hurled his shoes at Bush during a news conference with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki .

Throwing shoes at somebody is a supreme insult in the Middle East. One of the shoes sailed over the president's head and slammed into the wall behind him and he had to duck to miss the other one. Maliki tried to block the second shoe with his arm.

"It's like going to a political rally and have people yell at you. It's a way for people to draw attention," Bush said. "I don't know what the guy's cause was. I didn't feel the least bit threatened by it."

The journalist was leapt on by Iraqi security officials and U.S. secret service agents and dragged from the room screaming and struggling.

Bush's fleeting visit to Baghdad was aimed at marking the recent passage of a U.S.- Iraq security pact that paves the way for U.S. troops to pull out of Iraqi cities by July next year and withdraw completely by the end of 2011.

It was also meant to hail a recent sharp fall in the sectarian violence and insurgency that raged after the 2003 U.S. invasion to topple Saddam Hussein , and to show support for Iraqi police and soldiers as they take on increasing responsibility.

Asked whether he had come to Iraq on a victory lap, Bush said: "No, I consider it an important step on the road towards an Iraq that can sustain itself, govern itself and defend itself."

"There's still more work to be done. The war is not over."

PRAISE FOR BUSH

Bush held talks with President Jalal Talabani and Maliki at the presidential palace.

Later, he thanked U.S. forces for their service in Iraq at a rally of about 1,500 cheering troops inside Saddam's old al-Faw palace at the sprawling U.S. military base of Camp Victory.

Talabani called Bush a great friend of the Iraqi people "who helped us to liberate our country."

Maliki, who had a strained look on his face after the shoe-throwing, praised Bush: "You have stood by Iraq and the Iraqi people for a very long time, starting with getting rid of the dictatorship."

The U.S.- Iraq security pact, which replaces a U.N. mandate governing the presence of foreign troops, has its critics in Iraq , some of whom doubt the United States will live up to its promise to withdraw.

"We reject this visit, as it occurs at a time when Iraq is still under the U.S. occupation and the U.S. army has the upper hand in controlling the security situation," said Ahmed al-Massoudi, a spokesman for the parliamentary bloc loyal to anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr .

"This visit is a show of force."

Though Iraq has slipped down the list of Americans' concerns as the recession-hit U.S. economy has taken centre stage, polls show most people think the war was a mistake.

It will now be left to Obama, a Democrat and early opponent of U.S. military involvement in Iraq , to sort out an exit strategy after he takes office on January 20.

About 140,000 U.S. troops will still be in Iraq nearly six years into a war that has killed more than 4,200 American military personnel and tens of thousands of Iraqis.

LANDING IN DAYLIGHT

Bush was greeted on the heavily guarded tarmac in Baghdad by the top U.S. commander in Iraq , General Ray Odierno, and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker.

The decision to land in broad daylight reflected confidence that Baghdad was more secure this time than in Bush's last visit to the capital in 2006 when sectarian violence was raging.

Until Air Force One touched down, Bush's trip was conducted in strictest secrecy. The presidential jet was rolled out of its giant hangar only after everyone was on board. Journalists' electronic devices, from cellphones to iPods, were confiscated.

Bush, dressed casually and wearing a black baseball cap after his night-time getaway from the White House, made a rare appearance in the press cabin just before takeoff.

"Nobody knew who I was," he joked when an aide complimented him on his disguise.

(Additional reporting by Ahmed Rasheed and Waleed Ibrahim; Writing by Michael Christie; Editing by Keith Weir)

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Shoe attack on Bush mars farewell Iraq visit
BAGHDAD (AFP) - A journalist hurled two shoes at President George W. Bush on his farewell visit to Iraq on Sunday, highlighting hostility still felt toward the outgoing US leader who acknowledged that the war is still not won.

Muntazer al-Zaidi jumped up as Bush held a press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki , shouted "It is the farewell kiss, you dog" and threw his footwear.

The president lowered his head and the first shoe hit the American and Iraqi flags behind the two leaders. The second was off target.

Zaidi, a reporter with the Al-Baghdadia channel which broadcasts from Cairo, was immediately wrestled to the ground by security guards and frogmarched from the room.

Soles of shoes are considered the ultimate insult in Arab culture. After Saddam Hussein's statue was toppled in Baghdad in April 2003, many onlookers beat the statue's face with their soles.

Bush laughed off the incident, saying: "It doesn't bother me. If you want the facts, it was a size 10 shoe that he threw".

He later played down the incident. "I don't know what the guy's cause is... I didn't feel the least bit threatened by it."

Bush, on his fourth and final official trip to Iraq since he ordered the March 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam, admitted: "There is still more work to be done."

As he and Maliki signed a security pact setting out new guidelines for US troops in Iraq , the president said: "The war is not over, but with the conclusion of these agreements... it is decisively on its way to being won."

Earlier, Bush ventured out in a motorcade through Baghdad streets, the first time he has gone somewhere other than a military base or the heavily protected Green Zone .

Pool reports said the unmarked motorcade passed through darkened streets that appeared heavily guarded, before arriving at Maliki's residence.

Bush hands over the delicate task of overseeing the US withdrawal from Iraq in five weeks to Barack Obama , who has pledged to turn the page on the deeply unpopular war.

"I'm so grateful that I've had a chance to come back to Iraq before my presidency ends," he said at a meeting with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani .

In the evening, the president flew by helicopter from the Green Zone to Camp Victory near Bahgdad airport, where he greeted hundreds of US troops under a huge US flag and a gigantic crystal chandelier in the Al Faw palace, formerly used by Saddam.

Bush has staunchly defended the invasion that triggered years of deadly insurgency and sectarian violence that has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis and more than 4,200 American troops.

On Saturday, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited Iraq and said that the US mission was in its "endgame."

The signing ceremony by Bush and Maliki marks the adoption of the Status of Forces Agreement approved by Iraq's parliament in November after months of political wrangling.

The pact will govern the presence of 146,000 US troops at more than 400 bases when their UN mandate expires at the end of the year, giving the Iraqi government veto power over virtually all of their operations.

Gates, who Obama has picked to stay on at the Pentagon in the new administration, told US troops on Saturday: "We are in the process of the drawdown."

"We are, I believe, in terms of the American commitment, in the endgame here in Iraq ."

The pact envisages US combat troops leaving Iraq by the end of 2011 and departing from all urban areas by June 30 next year.

But the top US commander in Iraq , General Raymond Odierno, who met with Gates, said that troops will stay in Iraqi cities in a support and training role after June.

The Shiite radical movement of Moqtada Sadr, which strongly opposed the security deal, said Odierno's remarks showed that Washington had no intention of sticking by the deadlines.

"As we predicted, the comments fly in the face of the security agreement," the head of the movement's political bureau, Liwaa Sumeissim, told AFP just before Bush's arrival.

Sadr's movement said it plans a protest on Monday in the holy city of Najaf .

Obama has said he favours "a responsible withdrawal from Iraq" within 16 months of taking office.

While security in Baghdad and other parts of the country has significantly improved, there are still almost daily bomb attacks.

Problems also dog the massive economic reconstruction programme undertaken since the invasion.

The New York Times reported on Sunday that an unpublished US government report concluded that US-led efforts to rebuild Iraq were crippled by bureaucratic turf wars, violence and ignorance of the basic elements of Iraqi society, resulting in a 100-billion-dollar failure.

By mid-2008, the document said, 117 billion dollars had been spent on the reconstruction of Iraq , including about 50 billion in US taxpayer money, the newspaper reported.

In Melbourne

Last week, we happened to attend Ied Prayer at Melbourne Uni to celebrate the Day of Sacrifice. My close friend Imam gave us a leave to the campus from Clayton to Parkvile. The journey to the campus took about 25 minutes, for we were off at 6am in the early morning. The weather was so nice and breezy. The sky was clear and blue with only small tiny pieces of clouds covered it. Although the ambience was so fantastic, we got to be fully alerted by a dramatic changing weather, since we knew that Melbourne is the city with four seasons in a single day! Here are some pictures of my wife, Yulia, Imam, and I in black and white. I love it due to its antique nuance. I told Imam that we posed in front of the camera as if we were people of the oldies. Anyway, I just want to keep a memory of friendship and love that always flashes into my mind.

Cheers,
mp

Declaration of Anti Corruption

In coincidence with the world anti-corruption day on 9 December 2008, The Indonesian Anti-Corruption Body/the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) invited 32 governors of all Indonesian provinces to declare combating corruption. Only 22 governers were present. Will it be only a lip-service pledge? will it be only a campaign commodity to sell a beauty in the beast to mesmerize the people?

Interestingly, one of the declaration statements suggests that corruption is not an Indonesian culture. They made a plea as follows:

Today, we are, on behalf of the children of the Indonesian nation, declaring that:

1. We will not commit corruption;
2. We develop the anti-corruption young generations;
3. We condemn any kind of corruption;
4. Corruption must be eradicated and diminished from the mother land of Indonesia;
5. We are committed to creating Indonesia as a free-corruption country.

[the following is the related-news in Bahasa]:

Bunyi Deklarasi Antikorupsi Indonesia

Kompas... Selasa, 9 Desember 2008

JAKARTA, SELASA - Ribuan massa yang terdiri dari berbagai elemen bangsa bersama KPK mendeklarasaikan perang antikorupsi, Selasa (9/12) hari ini.

Bunyinya:

Dengan Rahmat Tuhan YME, Kami, Anak Bangsa Indonesia meyakini bahwa:

Korupsi bukan budaya bangsa

Korupsi adalah kejahatan luar biasa

Korupsi merampas hak-hak rakyat untuk sejahtera

Korupsi menyengsarakan rakyat Indonesia

Korupsi merusak kehidupan berbangsa dan bernegara

Kami, anak bangsa, bertekad membebaskan Indonesia dari korupsi untuk mewujudkan Indonesia yang adil dan sejahtera, sesuai dengan cita-cita kemerdekaan berdasarkan Pancasila dan UUD 1945.

Pada hari ini, kami mewakili anak bangsa Indonesia menyatakan:

1. Tidak akan melakukan perbuatan korupsi

2. Menciptakan generasi muda antikorupsi

3. Mengutuk segala bentuk perilaku korupsi

4. Korupsi harus dihancurkan dan dimusnahkan dari bumi pertiwi

5. Bertekad menjadikan Indonesia sebagai negeri yang bersih tanpa korupsi.

Jakarta, 9 Desember 2008

Anak Bangsa Indonesia

The Journey to the Heart of Heart

Dear brothers and sisters in Islam,

All praises are due to Allah, the most merciful and the most beneficent to whom we seek help and forgiveness. Whoever has been guided will not go astray, and whoever has been led astray will not find any guidance. I bear witness that there is no god to be worshiped except Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. May peace, blessings and salutation be upon our Prophet Muhammad SAW, his members of family, and upon all of us who are celebrating the Idul Adlha day.

I would like to call upon myself and you to improve our iman and takwa. O you who believe, fear Allah—by doing all that He has ordered and by abstaining from all that He has forbidden) – as He should be feared. [Obey Him, be thankful to Him, and remember Him always], and die not except in a state of Islam [as Muslims with complete obedience and submission to Allah SWT].

Brothers and sisters, behold that the best provision in this life is the righteousness [takwa].

Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar walillaahil hamd,

Nearly three millions of Muslims from all over the world have converged in the most venerated city, Mecca the sacred. It is a city of melting pots and meeting points for all hajjs. They have flooded into this city from various places with different cultures, languages, customs, and skin colours. They have passed the geographical borders of this globe in order to seek the pleasure of Allah and His love and enjoy the most joyous moment of brotherhood and sisterhood. They have spent their money, energies, and times because of Allah SWT. They have left their beloved people behind in their home countries due to fulfilling the call of Allah. Allah SWT explains this situation by saying whose the meaning of: “And proclaim to mankind the hajj (pilgrimage). They will come to you on foot and on every lean camel; they will come from every deep and distant (wide) mountain highway (to perform hajj).---(22:27).

They are united by a collective memory which is built upon the pillar of tawhid (the oneness of God). This unbearable feelings of love to Allah arise from the bottom of their hearts. This sort of feelings is loudly expressed through the chanting of talbiyah which means: “I respond to Your call, O Allah, I respond to Your call and I am obedient to Your Orders, You have no partner, I respond to Your call, all the praises, thanks and blessings is for You, And You have no partners with you.”
Dear brothers and sisters in Islam, let us ponder upon the three main ideas of this great day at least.

First, the sacrifice is part of our social piety. Making a sacrifice on this day and the following three days is a means to enhance our proximity to Allah SWT. Making a sacrifice must be based on the sincere intention to gain Allah’s pleasure. In this context, Allah says (22:37) with the meaning of: “It is neither their meat nor their blood that reaches Allah, but it is piety from you that reaches Him. Thus have We made them subject to you that you may magnify Allah for His Guidance to you. And give glad tidings (O Muhammad ) to the Muhsinun (doers of good). “

Our iman will not be perfect without our concern about other people in need. Therefore qurban is a means to find God by doing social charities. In one of hadits qudsi, there is a hadits narrated by Abu Huraira (ra) that Allah's Messenger (sal-allahu- alleihi-wasallam ) as saying: Verily, Allah, the Exalted and Glorious, would say on the Day of Resurrection: "O son of Adam, I was sick but you did not visit Me. He would say: O my Lord; how could I visit Thee whereas Thou art the Lord of the worlds? Thereupon He would say: Didn't you know that such and such servant of Mine was sick but you did not visit him and were you not aware of this that if you had visited him, you would have found Me by him? O son of Adam, I asked food from you but you did not feed Me. He would say: My Lord, how could I feed Thee whereas Thou art the Lord of the worlds? He said: Didn't you know that such and such servant of Mine asked food from you but you did not feed him, and were you not aware that if you had fed him you would have found him by My side? (The Lord would again say: ) O son of Adam, I asked drink from you but you did not provide Me. He would say: My Lord, how could I provide Thee whereas Thou art the Lord of the worlds? Thereupon He would say: Such and such of servant of Mine asked you for a drink but you did not provide him, and had you provided him drink you would have found him near Me."

The second meaning of this Day of Sacrifice is the unity of this umat. It has been true that this umat is about to plunge into the brink of horizontal fragmentation. The gong of bankruptcy of this umat will chime soon if we let this big umat be destroyed by social frictions which keep us away from enjoining good deeds. In addition, the peaceful face of this umat has been plagued with some lawless anarchic actions on the banner of religion. God is forced to justify any destructive act that allows bloodsheds and atrocities. The image of this umat has turned to be depressing due to even worse fragmentation caused by the differences of political, cultural, racial, mazhab (schools of thought) groups. This condition denies the reality of the most afflicted majority who have been tortured by the crisis. We have to develop mutual work internally and externally if we want to improve the quality of this umat.

There is evidence of the fact that the hajj ritual has taught the sense of unity. A research team, from The John F. Kennedy School of Government or of Harvard University, have conducted a study on the impact of hajj ritual among some pilgrims in 2006. The study findings were explained in a working paper titled: “Estimating the Impact of the Hajj: Religion and Tolerance in Islam’s Global Gathering”. According this study, the participation in the hajj increases the global perspectives in Islam due to the exposure of various Islamic practices during the hajj. It also reduces the subscription of amulets and dowry. The hajj also improves the sense of equality and harmony among ethnic groups and Islamic sects. In addition, it enhances the awareness of women empowerment and education. Moreover, the hajj increases unity within the Islamic world which is not accompanied by antipathy toward non-Muslims. Hajjis show increased belief in peace, and in equality and harmony among adherents of different religions. “The evidence suggests that these changes are more a result of exposure to and interaction with Hajjis from around the world, rather than religious instruction or a changed social role of pilgrims upon return.”

Malcolm X’s experience is a vivid example in describing the lesson of unity. In 1964, Malcolm X broke from the heterodox Nation of Islam to become a Sunni Muslim and perform the Hajj. In a letter from Mecca, he wrote: “There were tens of thousands of pilgrims, from all over the world…We were all participating in the same ritual, displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood that my experiences in America had led me to believe never could exist between the white and non-white… [W]hat I have seen, and experienced, has forced me to rearrange much of my thought-patterns previously held, and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions” (Malcolm X with Haley, 1965).

The spirit of unity can be established if we can develop the sense of mutual care and understanding. Narrated 'Abdur Rahman bin Abi Bakra's father, in reminding the virtues of this month the Prophet SAW Once the Prophet was riding his camel and a man was holding its rein. The Prophet asked, "What is the day today?" We kept quiet, thinking that he might give that day another name. He said, "Isn't it the day of Nahr (slaughtering of the animals of sacrifice)" We replied, "Yes." He further asked, "Which month is this?" We again kept quiet, thinking that he might give it another name. Then he said, "Isn't it the month of Dhul-Hijja?" We replied, "Yes." He said, "Verily! Your blood, property and honor are sacred to one another (i.e. Muslims) like the sanctity of this day of yours, in this month of yours and in this city of yours. It is incumbent upon those who are present to inform those who are absent because those who are absent might comprehend (what I have said) better than the present audience."

Dear brothers and sisters in Islam,

The last but not the least. The third meaning of this month is the education of young generations. As we have probably known that this month is a time for Muslims to learn the value of self-denial by making a sacrifice to God. It is a tradition adapted from Abraham’s great act of faith when he was tested by God to decide which of which he more loved so dearly between his only son and God the Almighty. Abraham's great act of submission is thus regarded solely as an example of genuine surrender to the will of God. If we ponder at length upon the story of Abaraham and Ismail, we will understand that Abraham has successfully educated and prepared Ismail as a youth for the future, the progenitor of a great nation. It is our duty to raise the highly qualified young generations of Muslims shall we want to see the advancement and the triumphant of this umat in the times to come.




----
Reference:
Buchori/Muslim
http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/files/xstandard/estimating%20the%20impact%20of%20the%20hajj.pdf

Moon and Stars are Smiling

Last night (1 december 2008) around 8.30pm I happened to see the most dazzling phenomenon in the sky; two stars and the smile-like crescent. I thought it was the picture of God's smiling face in the end of the year. I saw this beauty of nature when Pak Marjuki and I were driving from Beddoe to Clayton. Thanks God for such a beautiful life I have been enjoying so far.


On Monday across Australia, Venus and Jupiter were in formation with the moon to appear as a smiley face in the night sky.

The three-day-old crescent moon and planets appeared above the western horizon.

The unusual astronomical event was close enough to see with the naked eye from about 9pm.

Venus and Jupiter have appeared near each other in the evening sky for the past week but last night was the best time to see the smiley face.

It will be another five years before the formation appears again.

The phenomenon can be seen in the attached photo snapped by Yahoo! 7 user Caroline from Victoria.