Threats, Ashoura bring blue Christmas in Iraq, Islamic World News, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic World News

Threats, Ashoura bring blue Christmas in Iraq

Christians keep their celebrations under tighter wraps than usual, write Lara Jakes & Bushra Juhi

Christmas is bumping into Shiite Islam’s most mournful ceremony this year, forcing Iraqi Christians to keep their celebrations under tighter wraps than usual.

Midnight Mass will again be celebrated in daylight across Baghdad, and security around churches is heavier for a community that’s been threatened by sectarian violence since the 2003 US-led invasion.

A deadly Christmas eve ambush of a Christian bus driver and a bombing earlier this week targeting a 1,200-year-old church, both in Mosul, underscored their concerns.

But this year, Christians feeling an extra need for caution are toning down the Christmas glitz, and the plastic Santas aren’t selling as well as usual. At least one Catholic archbishop has discouraged Christmas decorations and public merrymaking out of respect for Ashoura, a period of Shiite mourning and self-flagellation.

“We used to put the Christmas tree with its bright lights close to the window in the entrance of our home,” said Mr Saad Matti, a 51-year-old surgeon and Basra city councilman.

“But this year, we put it away from the window as a kind of respect for the feelings of Shiite Muslims in our neighbourhood because of Ashoura,” he said.

Ashoura caps a 10-day period of self-flagellation and mourning for the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Imam Hussein, killed in 680 AD during a battle that sealed the split between Shiites and Sunnis.

During the 10 days, throngs of Shiite pilgrims march to the holy Iraqi city of Karbala, 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of Baghdad.

http://newageislam.com/threats,-ashoura-bring-blue-christmas-in-iraq/islamic-world-news/d/2277

Iran: Ahmadinejad Sees Collapse of ‘Bullies’ As Good Chance to Spread Islam

Iran: Ahmadinejad Sees Collapse of ‘Bullies’ As Good Chance to Spread Islam

U.S. helicopters reportedly crossed the border from Iraq into Syria on Sunday. Damascus called the incursion a “serious aggression” and said the U.S. killed eight civilians. Syria has demanded an apology.

Washington has remained silent about the incident, but a military official said that U.S. Special Forces had targeted a network of al Qaeda-linked foreign fighters who were moving from Syria to Iraq. The U.S. has long accused Syria of turning a blind eye to the movement of insurgents across its border into Iraq.

Thousands of Syrians protested against the U.S. raid in Damascus on Thursday. The American embassy in Damascus was closed for security reasons and Syrian security forces ringed the embassy to prevent trouble. The Syrian government is closing the American school there as of next week and it already has closed the American cultural center.

http://www.newageislam.com/iran--ahmadinejad-sees-collapse-of-%E2%80%98bullies%E2%80%99-as-good-chance-to-spread-islam--/islamic-world-news/d/945

Warning on al-Qaeda's new female recruits

Warning on al-Qaeda's new female recruits

ByJason Burke, Europe editor The Observer, Sunday August 3 2008

According to the source, militants 'seek to recruit women with a brother, father or son already with the extremist groups'. Experts say this may be because, in traditional Islamic societies, women without close male relatives are exposed to economic and social problems that make them more vulnerable to recruitment. In Iraq, US intelligence officers say that militants are marrying women then allowing them to be raped in the knowledge that the subsequent dishonour and rejection will make them easier to groom as bombers. The officers have also noted a strong incidence of women who have had relatives, civilians or militants, killed in the fighting turning to violence.

http://www.newageislam.com/warning-on-al-qaeda-s-new-female-recruits/islam,terrorism-and-jihad/d/407

Drilling in Afghanistan: Republicans and Democrats must move beyond their outdated mottos

Drilling in Afghanistan: Republicans and Democrats must move beyond their outdated mottos

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

The New York Times

Published: July 30, 2008

The truth is that Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Pakistan are just different fronts in the same war. The core problem is that the Arab-Muslim world in too many places has been failing at modernity, and were it not for $120-a-barrel oil, that failure would be even more obvious. For far too long, this region has been dominated by authoritarian politics, massive youth unemployment, outdated education systems, a religious establishment resisting reform and now a death cult that glorifies young people committing suicide, often against other Muslims.

http://www.newageislam.com/drilling-in-afghanistan--republicans-and-democrats-must-move-beyond-their-outdated-mottos/war-on-terror/d/369

America's Middle Class Can't Take Much More Punishment

America's Middle Class Can't Take Much More Punishment

Economic Realities Are Killing Our Era of Fantasy Politics

By Matt Taibbi, RollingStone.com

Posted July 23, 2008

We have a government that is spending two and a half billion dollars a day in Iraq, essentially subsidizing new swimming pools for the contracting class in northern Virginia, at a time when heating oil and personal transportation are about to join health insurance on the list of middle-class luxuries. Home heating and car ownership are slipping away from the middle class thanks to exploding energy prices -- the hidden cost of the national borrowing policy we call dependency on foreign oil, "foreign" representing those nations, Arab and Chinese, that lend us the money to pay for our wars.

http://www.newageislam.com/america-s-middle-class-can-t-take-much-more-punishment/current-affairs/d/299

Obama vows Iraq pullout, promises not to seek permanent US military bases

Obama vows Iraq pullout, promises not to seek permanent US military bases

The differences on Iraq in this campaign are deep. I opposed the war in Iraq before it began, and would end it as president unlike Senator John McCain. I believed it was a grave mistake to allow ourselves to be distracted from the fight against Al-Qaida and the Taliban by invading a country that posed no imminent threat and had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks. Since then, more than 4,000 Americans have died and we have spent nearly $1 trillion. Our military is overstretched. Nearly every threat we face — from Afghanistan to Al-Qaida to Iran — has grown.

http://www.newageislam.com/obama-vows-iraq-pullout,-promises-not-to-seek-permanent-us-military-bases/islam-and-politics/d/231

Syria should forge Arab unity: Shared optimism

Syria should forge Arab unity: Shared optimism

By Duraid Al Baik

The developments which took place in Doha and Cairo, where two diplomatic 'fire-extinguishing' operations were successfully conducted, proved that Syria still holds the keys to peace in the region and is maintaining the position of goal keeper in the region.

Damascus has fully exploited the mistakes committed by the US in Iraq and the region and used it to the benefit of the rulers of the country who were extremely patient to improve their bargaining position in their struggle against isolation and marginalisation.

http://www.newageislam.com/syria-should-forge-arab-unity--shared-optimism-/current-affairs/d/141

Is Islamism running out of steam?

Is Islamism running out of steam?

By Hasan Suroor

The cumulative effect of all this has been a significant drop in al-Qaeda operations. The Islamic State of Iraq, a pro-al-Qaeda website, has been reported as admitting that al-Qaeda operations dropped by 94 per cent between 2006 and 2007. So, while it is true that the al-Qaeda’s fortunes in Iraq have taken a tumble, a big question mark remains on whether this means that it has been, finally, defeated. For, there is simply too much overlapping of affiliations of various Iraqi militant groups to make a clear distinction between the activities of the al-Qaeda and other outfits.

http://www.newageislam.com/is-islamism-running-out-of-steam?-/radical-islamism-and-jihad/d/127

“What About Afghanistan?”

“What About Afghanistan?”

By Robert Naiman

- U.S. soldiers are still being killed and wounded there. While fewer U.S. soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan than in Iraq (517 vs. 4094, according to Iraq Coalition Casualty Count,) if you compare deaths to forces deployed a different picture emerges. There have been 189 U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq in 2008 vs. 42 in Afghanistan, while there are about 150,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq and about 30,000 U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. So from the point of view of an individual soldier being deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq, your chance of being killed is about the same.

http://www.newageislam.com/-%E2%80%9Cwhat-about-afghanistan?%E2%80%9D/islam-and-the-west/d/96

Bush Pledges on Iraq Bases Pact Were a Ruse

Bush Pledges on Iraq Bases Pact Were a Ruse

By Gareth Porter

The administration also used such ambiguous language to help the Iraqi government sell the agreement to Iraqi nationalists who object to long-term U.S. bases in their country. Thus as early as last December, Iraqi National Security Adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubayi declared in a television interview, “The Iraqi people reject the presence of permanent bases in Iraq” and reassured Iraqis that the government would not accept such bases “in any form whatever and will not approve, and I believe the Council of Representatives will not approve it.”

http://www.newageislam.com/bush-pledges-on-iraq-bases-pact-were-a-ruse/islam-and-the-west/d/95